Hello and welcome to Background Briefing, a fellow 24-7 at Background Briefing.

I'm Ian Masters, and today we'll examine a number of stories and issues in the news.

We'll begin with the AI video Trump posted of him flying a fighter jet wearing a crown,

dropping poop on demonstrators at Saturdays no King's rallies, and discuss how in spite of Joe

Biden's often repeated assurance that, quote, this is not who we are, Trump's relentless trolling

and is thoroughly vulgar and outlandish demagogy has support in the Republican Party,

and the politics of cruelty, vindictiveness, and gleeful resentment have deeper roots in America.

Joining us is Van Goss, a professor of history emeritus at Franklin and

Marshall College, and the co-chair of historians for peace and democracy. We will discuss this

article at his new substack, in the red, Trumpism, it was ever thus. Then with Trump having sent

Whitkoff and Jared Kushner to Israel to plug the holes

in a shaky Israel-Hamas peace plan and Vice President Vance arriving there tomorrow for more

damage control, we will speak with Dr. Anel Shiline, a research fellow at the Quincy Institute

for Responsible Statecraft, a fellow at Rice University's Baker Institute

for Public Policy, and an expert on religious and political authority in the Middle East and North

Africa. She has worked as a journalist in Egypt and Yemen and served as a foreign affairs officer

in the Office of Near Eastern Affairs in the Department of State's Bureau of Democracy,

Human Rights and Labor, until resigning over then-President Biden's policy on the war in Gaza.

She has an article at Responsible Statecraft.

Trump offers Gaza plan that will please no one but Trump.

Then finally we'll assess the recent contentious meeting between Trump and Zelensky

at which Trump was shilling for Putin parroting the Kremlin's talking points that the conflict

...