Trump’s War With Iran and a New Danger at Home

The David Frum Show

The Atlantic

Politics, News, News Commentary

4.6 • 2.4K Ratings

🗓️ 4 March 2026

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On this week’s episode of “The David Frum Show,” The Atlantic’s David Frum discusses the recent shooting in Austin. David warns that the shooting is an example of how Trump could use the threat of terror from Iran to crack down on American freedoms. Then David is joined by The Atlantic’s Tom Nichols to discuss the outbreak of war between the United States and Iran. David and Tom discuss Trump’s motives for launching another regime-change war and assess the competence of the administration to achieve its goals. They discuss the mistakes that were made in Iraq by the Bush administration and how, 23 years later, none of those lessons seems to have been learned. David and Tom wonder if the Trump administration has any plan for an end game in Iran, and discuss how not having one could lead to suffering among the Iranian people and turmoil in the region. Frum and Nichols observe that the United States has embarked on a costly state-building project— but the question of whether the Trump administration realizes that is a different matter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	My name is Sherlock Holmes.
0:01.5	It's an unusual name.
0:03.0	Introducing Young Sherlock, a new Guy Ritchie series.
0:07.0	What game are we playing today?
0:09.0	Discover the origins.
0:10.0	It's cleaving. Those days are truly behind me.
0:12.0	Of crime's most iconic mind.
0:14.0	There has been a break-in.
0:17.0	Astoned. You should be a detective.
0:19.0	Starring Hero finds Tiffin, Donald Finn and Colin Firth.
0:22.5	If you start wearing a hat like that, I will no longer be friends with you.
0:25.9	Young Sherlock, new original series.
0:28.0	Watch now only on Prime Video. Hello and welcome to the David Frum show.
0:44.4	I'm David Frum, a staff writer at The Atlantic.
0:47.4	I'm recording the show at a grave moment in American history.
0:51.4	My guest this week will be Tom Nichols, my colleague at the Atlantic, former
0:55.2	professor at the Naval War College, and we'll be discussing our anxieties about the way the war
1:00.7	with Iran has been managed, our fears about the uses to which the war will be put by the Trump
1:05.4	administration, and our hopes for a better future for the people of Iran, but a future that
1:10.3	cannot be separated from the dangers this war poses to the people of Iran, but a future that cannot be separated
1:11.3	from the dangers this war poses to the people of the United States. There will be no book talk
1:16.4	this week. Our conversation will be too substantial for that. So I will just preface now with
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Atlantic, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The Atlantic and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.