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Foreign Policy Live

What’s Behind Trump’s Expansionist Instincts?

Foreign Policy Live

Foreign Policy

News Commentary, News, Politics

4.1622 Ratings

🗓️ 24 October 2025

⏱️ 39 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

How can history help make sense of U.S. President Donald Trump’s foreign policy? Pulitzer Prize-winning author and historian Greg Grandin shares how Trump’s imperialist impulses may be inspired by the country’s Founding Fathers, and that he “rummages around the trash bag of history to find what’s useful at any given moment.” Plus, Ravi’s One Thing on the recent U.S. sanctions on Russian oil companies. Keith Johnson: Will Trump’s Russia Oil Sanctions Finally Sway Putin? Greg Grandin: America, América: A New History of the New World Ravi Agrawal: Why Trump Is a ‘Scarcity President’ Syrus Solo Jin: With Territory Comes Torment Stephen M. Walt: Donald Trump Will Never Be a Restrainer Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

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0:51.5

Hi, I'm Ravi Agrual, Foreign Policy's Editor-in-Chief.

0:55.9

This is FP Live.

1:00.7

So we've all heard U.S. President Donald Trump's threats to invade Canada or Greenland

1:07.0

or even taking over the Panama Canal.

1:10.3

Analysts don't usually take him seriously, and indeed, he's talking about it less these days.

1:16.4

But I think it's important to understand where the expansionist impulse comes from.

1:22.0

This week, I have a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian who has written extensively about the long history of American conquest,

1:30.2

but who also calls Trump a scarcity president. In other words, he might find the idea of

1:37.6

limitlessness appealing, but it's not viable. That is coming up, but first, here's one thing

1:44.0

I'm keeping an eye on. I've always said that

1:46.6

when it comes to the Russia-Ukraine war and Washington's role in it, we should look not at what

1:51.4

Trump says, but what he does. On Wednesday this week, the Trump administration did something it

1:57.5

hasn't done all year. It imposed real costs on Moscow for its actions in Ukraine.

2:03.9

The U.S. Treasury Department announced sanctions against Rosneft and Luke Oil, the two biggest

2:09.9

oil companies in Russia. Here are my thoughts. First, some context. The move comes after Trump

2:16.8

spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin

...

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