Top Trump Diplomat Tells All: fmr Deputy Secretary of State Inside the Room Where it Happens

Uncomfortable Conversations with Josh Szeps

Josh Szeps

Education, Comedy, Comedy Interviews, Self-improvement, Society & Culture

4.5 • 905 Ratings

🗓️ 24 March 2026

⏱️ 66 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

What is going on with Trump’s foreign policy? Attacking Iran, decapitating Venezuela, threatening Cuba. Is America flexing its greatness, or flailing? Is there a method to the madness? What is really going on inside the room where it happens? Stephen Biegun was the United States Deputy Secretary of State in the first Trump Administration. He was also the special representative for North Korea, charged with overseeing America’s North Korea policy and running the first ever in-person negotiations between the two country’s leaders. While Trump was tweeting about “Rocket Man”, Biegun was trying to make history. What was it like to work with Trump on complex foreign policy negotiations? What happened on last-minute sorties across the DMZ with the leader of the free world? And what has Stephen’s experience in seeing Trump’s worldview, first hand, taught him about strategy, Putin, Ukraine, and Iran? Biegun worked in the George W. Bush administration as a member of the National Security Council under Condoleezza Rice and was a senior executive at the Ford Motor Compnay. He joined Josh on a visit to Sydney to deliver a major lecture at the Lowy Institute, which kindly facilitated this conversation about American power, diplomacy, war, and the Trump you don’t see behind the scenes.

Transcript

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0:00.0	attacking Iran, decapitating Venezuela, threatening Cuba, what is really going on, inside the room where it happens.
0:08.7	Donald Trump's Deputy Secretary of State, in his first administration, and the chief negotiated with North Korea, Stephen Began, was in the room where it happens.
0:17.5	Stephen takes us inside the president's inner circle and the Trump you don't see behind
0:22.2	the scenes. What are the vulnerabilities and liabilities that you would have known in advance
0:27.1	could emerge from having President Trump in power surrounded by people who were there because
0:33.1	of loyalty tests instead of competence? You can work in that world.
0:40.8	You can bring a discipline, a patriotism.
0:43.1	Of course you can, but the current people aren't.
0:44.3	And so I'm just interested.
0:44.8	Some people are.
0:45.7	Some people are.
0:49.7	Gatay, humans.
0:52.7	Welcome to the safe space for dangerous ideas.
0:54.4	Here's a dangerous question.
1:00.8	We are all asking ourselves, what the hell is going on with Donald Trump's foreign policy?
1:07.2	Is this America flexing its muscles or flailing around on the world stage? Is there a method to the madness?
1:09.6	What is really going on inside the room where it happens?
1:13.6	Today's guest knows he has been there. Stephen Began was the Deputy Secretary of State in Donald
1:19.6	Trump's first term, and he was in charge of North Korea policy specifically. He was brought into
1:24.4	the room by the Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to try to pull off a
1:29.4	really world-first historical event, an actual in-person meeting between the President of the United
1:35.2	States and the Supreme Leader of North Korea. The pair had just met for the first time,
	...

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