Tom Nichols: L.A. Was a Dress Rehearsal

Impolitic with John Heilemann

Audacy | Puck

News, Politics

4.8 • 4.2K Ratings

🗓️ 16 June 2025

⏱️ 83 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

John welcomes U.S. Naval War College professor emeritus and Atlantic staff writer Tom Nichols back to the pod to discuss the implications of Donald Trump’s militarization of law enforcement in Los Angeles and an array of related topics. Nichols argues that Trump’s mobilization of the National Guard and the Marines to deal with protests of his deportation policies in L.A. is a dry run, on favorable political turf, to acclimate Americans to the sight of troops in their cities and gauge public blowback; that his partisan speech at Fort Bragg—and the silence of the generals in reaction to it—was an “obscenity;" and that these events, along with his military parade in Washington, demonstrate that Trump sees the U.S. Armed Forces as his personal “toy soldiers.” Nichols also weighs in on Israel-Iran, Russia-Ukraine, and how Trump has effectively turned the U.S. into a bystander in both conflicts. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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1:06.1	Aloha and namaste everyone
1:09.4	and welcome to Impolitic with John Hylman, a puck and Odyssey joint
1:12.6	featuring lively in-depth conversations with the people who roam the quarters of power in America, sculpting and shaping the evident flow of our politics and culture.
1:20.6	Last week was one of those stretches that come along every now and then that have the name Tom Nichols scrawled all over them.
1:32.7	Donald Trump federalizes the California National Guard, sending thousands of troops into Los Angeles.
1:36.8	Pete Higgseth mobilizes 700 Marines and sends them out there too.
1:42.3	Trump visits Ford Bragg, in theory, to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army,
	...

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