The Good Fight Club: Trump’s New Ballroom, a Looming Attack on Venezuela, and Why Social Media Explains the Rise of Populism

The Good Fight

Yascha Mounk

News

4.6 • 907 Ratings

🗓️ 25 October 2025

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Francis Fukuyama, Mona Charen, and Yascha Mounk dissect this week’s news. In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk, Francis Fukuyama and Mona Charen discuss Trump’s latest actions, from demolishing the East Wing of the White House to demanding compensation from the Justice Department; whether the Trump administration’s bombing boats in Venezuela might lead to further military action; and the link between social media and populism. Francis Fukuyama is the Olivier Nomellini Senior Fellow at Stanford University. His latest book is Liberalism and Its Discontents. He is also the author of the “Frankly Fukuyama” column, carried forward from American Purpose, at Persuasion. Mona Charen, syndicated columnist and author, is Policy Editor of The Bulwark and host of two weekly podcasts: The Mona Charen Show and Just Between Us. If you have not yet signed up for our podcast, please do so now by following ⁠this link on your phone⁠. Email: [email protected] Podcast production by Mickey Freeland and Leonora Barclay. Connect with us! ⁠Spotify⁠ | ⁠Apple⁠ | ⁠Google⁠ X: ⁠@Yascha_Mounk⁠ & ⁠@JoinPersuasion⁠ YouTube: ⁠Yascha Mounk⁠, ⁠Persuasion⁠ LinkedIn: ⁠Persuasion Community Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:31.1	The metaphor is just screaming at all of us, right? That this is the physical representation of what Trump is doing
0:42.0	to the presidency and to the country. He is demolishing our history, demolishing our traditions,
0:51.3	and in the name of erecting monuments to himself.
0:57.2	And now the Good Fight with Yasha Monk.
1:04.7	Welcome to the ninth installment of the Good Fight Club.
1:15.6	Today I am joined by Mona Charon, as well as our regular co-host and panelist Francis Fukuyama. Welcome Mona and Frank. Thank you. Yeah. Good to see you,
1:23.9	Yasha. So, you know, we thought that we would talk about this thing with Trump is done
1:28.6	and that thing with Trump is done and the third thing with Trump is done and then we thought
1:31.4	we just consolidated into a general Trump loser. You know, we've seen the demolition of parts of
1:38.1	the east wing of the White House to make way for his ballroom. We have seen Trump demand hundreds of millions of
1:46.5	dollars from the Department of Justice payment in compensation for the prosecution of Trump
1:54.1	by the Justice Department that may be greenlit by his own political appointees. Of course,
1:59.8	we're now into a number of Trump opponents being indicted
2:02.5	in a row. Has the government been fully personalized and submitted to the will and the whim of Donald
	...

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