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The Dangers of Trump’s Cynical Anti-War Message

On this episode of The Time of Monsters, Matt Duss on how Democrats have ceded peace to the GOP.

Jeet Heer

November 3, 2024

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The Dangers of Trump’s Cynical Anti-War Message w/ Matt Duss | The Time of Monsters with Jeet Heer
byThe Nation Magazine

On this episode of The Time of Monsters, Jeet Heer is joined by Matt Duss to discuss Trump's anti-war pitch.

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Donald Trump and JD Vance have a surprising closing message in the 2024 election: They are the anti-war candidates. About the rising conflict in the Middle East, Trump has said, “I wanna see it all stop. I wanna see the Middle East get back to peace.” On a podcast, Vance criticized the Biden administration. “Even though they say they want to minimize Palestinian civilian casualties, they pursued the pathway that maximizes those casualties. They say that they’re pro-Israel. They’ve pursued the pathway that has prolonged the war as long as possible, which is bad for Israel.”

This message is, of course, deeply cynical, since Trump is planning on staffing his administration with hawks, as he did in his first term. But it might have appeal to undecided voters, who polls show to be strongly anti-war. To discuss why Democrats have ceded the peace vote to the GOP, I talked to Matt Duss, vice president of the Center for International Policy and a frequent guest of the show.

The Nation Podcasts

Here's where to find podcasts from The Nation. Political talk without the boring parts, featuring the writers, activists and artists who shape the news, from a progressive perspective.

Matthew Yglesias and the Problems of Popularism | The Time of Monsters with Jeet Heer
byThe Nation Magazine

Matthew Yglesias, a very influential journalist and proprietor of the Slow Boring substack, has emerged as a divisive figure within the Democratic party. To admirers, he’s a compelling advocate of popularism, the view the Democratic party needing to moderate its message to win over undecided voters. To critics, he’s a glib attention seeker who has achieved prominence by coming up with clever ways to justify the status quo. 

For this episode of the podcast, I talked to David Klion, frequent guest of the show and Nation contributor, about Yglesias, the centrist view of the 2024 election, the role of progressives and leftists in the Democratic party coalition, and the class formation of technocratic pundits, among other connected matters. 

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Jeet HeerTwitterJeet Heer is a national affairs correspondent for The Nation and host of the weekly Nation podcast, The Time of Monsters. He also pens the monthly column “Morbid Symptoms.” The author of In Love with Art: Francoise Mouly’s Adventures in Comics with Art Spiegelman (2013) and Sweet Lechery: Reviews, Essays and Profiles (2014), Heer has written for numerous publications, including The New Yorker, The Paris Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, The American Prospect, The GuardianThe New Republic, and The Boston Globe.


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