
Background Briefing with Ian Masters
555 episodes — Page 8 of 12
March 2, 2025 - Angela Stent | Stephen Crowley | Natalie Melnyczuk
Zelensky, Who Wants to Make Peace, Gets Steamrolled By Trump Who Wants to Make a Deal | Will Trump's Capitulation to Putin Improve Ties or Give Putin a Second Wind to Cause More Mayhem? | Can Ukraine's NATO Allies Fill the Gap as Trump Abandons Ukraine to Putin? backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

February 27, 2025 - Alexander Motyl | Victor Pickard | Brooke Harrington
Is Putin Trump's Case Officer? | Will Trump be Able to Turn the Press Into His Propaganda and PR Arm as Putin and Orban Have Done? | Since Musk's Assault on the Federal Workforce is Only Saving a Pittance, the Real Intention Then Must Be To Cripple the US Government
February 26, 2025 - Paul Farhi | Mike Lofgren | Dr. Guy Ziv
Press Freedom in America Under Attack by Trump and Plutocratic Press Owners Cowering Before the Dear Leader | Republicans Vote Against Their Constituent's Interests to Cut Taxes For Plutocrats | Why Did Israel Vote With Russia and Iran Against Ukraine and Its Jewish Leader? backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
February 25, 2025 - Rachel VanLandingham | Bill Scher | Mike German
Trump's Politicization of the Military and the Firing Its Top Lawyers So That His Unlawful Orders Won't be Blocked | The Historical Plunge of Trump's Poll Numbers in Just One Month | Having Patel and Bongino Head the FBI Means Trump Will Go after His Enemies While He Can Break the Law With Impunity backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
February 24, 2025 - Laura Thornton | Alfred McCoy
Trump's Shameful Vote at the UN on the Third Anniversary of Russia's Invasion of Ukraine and the Results of the German Elections | The Rise and Fall of the French, Soviet and American Empires With the New Chinese Empire Already on Shaky Ground backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
February 23, 2025 - Nathan Tankus | Bandy Lee | Peter Montgomery
As Assessment of the Damage Already Done by Musk and His Teenage Techies | The Need For Our Politicians, Business Leaders and Citizens to Recognize Trump's Sickness and Intervene Before He Does Any More Damage to the Country and the World | Trump's Lies-Laden Keynote Speech to CPAC Host: Ian Masters Producer: Graham FitzGibbon Assistant Producer: Asher Price

In Crushing the Federal WorkForce, Trump Will Not Find the Trillions to Make His Tax Cuts Permanent
In Crushing the Federal WorkForce, Trump Will Not Find the Trillions to Make His Tax Cuts Permanent by Ian Masters
February 20, 2025 - Ryan Cooper | Eric Blanc | Erik Baker
The Confirmation of Kash Patel as Trump's Dumbest Self-inflicted Wound to Weaken America and Accelerate Its Collapse as a World Power | In Crushing of the Federal WorkForce, Musk and Trump Will Not Find the Trillions to Make Trump's Tax Cuts to the Super-Wealthy Permanent | The Fraud of the Can-Do Power of Positive Thinking as We Head Into An Era of Techno-Serfdom backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
February 19, 2025 - Simon Shuster | Emma Ashford | Katherine Stewart
After Throwing Ukraine Under the Bus, Trump is Now Trashing Zelensky | What Can Ukraine Do to Defend Itself and Rebuild After Trump Sells the Country out to Putin? | How Trump Rode Into the White House Again on a Wave of Reactionary Nihilism backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
February 18, 2025 - Sasha Abramsky | John Ganz | Jacob Heilbrunn
From a Mad English King 249 Years Later to a Mad American King | The Wannabe Mob Boss Trump's Early Years With Made Men His Father Dealt With | Trump's Mafia-Style Foreign Policy as the Mob Boss Putin Meets With The Wannabe Mob Boss in Saudi Arabia backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
February 17, 2025 - Daniel Treisman | David Andelman | James Risen
While Trump Brings Putin Out From the Cold of International Isolation, He Hangs Ukraine Out to Dry | An Assessment of What the Europeans Can Do to Help Ukraine As Trump Sells Out European Security | Will the Press Make a Stand as Trump Tries to Bring the AP to Heel? backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
February 15, 2025 - Charles Kupchan | Kim Lane Scheppele | James Zirin
Vance Tells Allies Russia is Not the Enemy, Europe's Enemy is Within, and It's... Wokeness! | A Global Alliance of Autocrats and Kleptocrats Emerges as Trump Follows Orban's Playbook | Our Top Law Enforcer Pam Bondi Embraces Lawlessness and Corruption backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
February 13, 2025 - Allison McManus | Michael Hiltzik | Timothy Shenk
Trump is Selling Out Ukraine to Putin Who He Is Going to Bat For to Have the Pariah Readmitted to the G7 | Republican Senators Confirm an Anti-Vaxxer and Conspiracy Monger to Head HHS | How the Left Lost Its Political Footing and How to Get it Back backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
February 12, 2025 - Steven Pifer | Michael Kimmage | Daoud Kuttab
Hegseth Gives Up Ukraine's Leverage Before Russia/Ukraine Peace Talks Begin | Is the Trump Administration Already Capitulating to Putin? | An Assessment of the Awkward Meeting Between Jordan's King Abdullah and Trump backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
February 11, 2025 - Nicholas Grossman | Lucan Way
The Frightening Pace at Which the United States is Embracing Authoritarianism | Why is it Trump's Priority to Attack Allies Like Canada While Cozying up to Enemies Like Putin? backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
February 10, 2025 - Jason Stanley | Jacques Berlinerbau | Allison Pugh
Has Fascism Already Arrived in America? | The MAGA Christian Nationalists' War on the Separation of Church and State | Musk and His Techies Are Purging Workers to Replace Them With Automation and AI Which is Why He's Buying OpenAI For $97.4 Billion backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
February 9, 2025 - Kathleen Clark | Katherine Stewart | Vanda Felbab-Brown
Technocrats Are Purging Bureaucrats to Grab Data, Control Funds, Weaken Government, Cut Services and Install Loyalists to the Dear Leader | The One-Two Punch of Plutocracy and Theocracy Taking Over the Country | The Tinderbox in Eastern Congo Threatening a Regional War backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
February 6, 2025 - David Super | Lisa Graves | Michael German
Government Workers Should Not Fall For the Musk/Trump Buyout Trick | The Moral Authoritarian and Billionaire Worshipping Author of Project 2025 About to Head the OMB | Collusion Between the Far Right and American Policing is About to Get Worse Under Trump, Bondi and Kash Patel backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
February 5, 2025 - Jacob Heilbrunn | Leila Hilal | Jeet Heer
Netanyahu Meets With the Christian Zionist "Crusader" at the Pentagon Where Top Officials Want to Get Out of the Middle East Quagmire | A Palestinian Perspective on Trump's US-Owned Gaza as a "Riviera of the Middle East" | The Growing Alarm at Musk Having Every American's Social Security Number, Address, Email, Income and Personal Details backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
February 4, 2025 - Robert Kuttner | Ioan Grillo | Van Jackson
The Fatal Combination of a Mentally Ill President and a Mentally Deranged Billionaire Out to Destroy Our Government and Democracy | Stopping the Deadly Fentanyl Trade in Mexico, China and Now India | The Folly of a Trade War With China and a Saner Way To Ease Tensions backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
February 3, 2025 - Steve Radelet | Moira Donegan | Adele Stan
Musk Shuts Down USAID After Trump Illegally Freezes Foreign Aid for 90 Days | The Failure of the Democrats and the American Left In Allowing a Disastrous Misanthrope to Be Elected President Not Just Once, But Twice | Do 76 Million Americans Not Want a Functioning Government and Prefer to be Entertained by a Reality TV Star? Host: Ian Masters Producer: Graham FitzGibbon Assistant Producer: Asher Price
February 2, 2025 - William Yeomans | Karen Dolan | Michael Brenes
Trump's Lawless, Petty and Vindictive Purge of the Justice Department and FBI | Musk and Trump's Shock and Awe Campaign to Wreck and Loot the US Government | Trump Slaps Tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China in a Dangerous and Misguided Frenzy of America First Nationalism backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
January 1, 2025 - Gregory Treverton | Jeff Wise
Republican Senators Who Know Better Appear to Roll Over For Trump, Poised to Confirm the Disastrous Kash Patel and Tulsi Gabbard | Rather Than Fix the FAA, Our Reality TV President Blames DEI For the Potomac Plane Crash backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
January 29, 2025 - Dr. Amesh Adalja | Dr. Peter Katona | Mae Ngai
Will Republican Senators Watch the Video Carloline Kennedy Sent Them Describing Her Cousin RFK Jr. as a "Predator?" | RFK Jr. and the Spread of Medical Disinformation and Conspiracy Theories | Trump Has Already Violated His Oath of Office on the 14th Amendment Birthright and the Funding Freeze He Had to Rescind backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
January 28, 2025 - Michelle Garcia | Sam Quinones | Thomas Berger
Trump's Reality TV Theatre of Cruelty Underway | Trump Will Hurt the Construction Industry Now in Demand to Rebuild Houses Lost to Hurricanes and Wildfires | Can Musk Buy Elections in the UK and Germany As He Just Did Here? backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

January 27, 2025 - Dharna Noor | Dr. Herb Lin | Natalie Melnyczuk
Trump's Embrace of the Fossil Fuel Industry Which Spent $445 Million to Elect Him and the Republican Congress | China's DeepSeek AI Model Threatens US Dominance as Tech Stocks Tumble | Will Trump Fall For Putin's Flattery? backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia Music Breaks: Cate Kennan - Thielsen Black Devil Disco Club - To Ardent (Vitamin Wig C Remix)
January 26, 2025 - Michael Weinstein | Russell Muirhead | Michael Albertus
In Their Jihad Against DEI, Trump and Hegseth Are Creating Affirmative Action for White Losers, Drunks and Incompetents | Trump's Wrecking Crew and the Politics of Destruction | Trump Eyes Panama, Greenland and Canada For a Land Grab backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
January 23, 2025 - Gil Duran | George Beebe | William Hartung
A Manifesto to Stand Up in the Face Of Trump's Firehose of Reactionary Initiatives | Trump Threatens to Sanction Putin and Calls on OPEC to Lower Oil Prices to Force Russia's to End Its War On Ukraine | The Tech-Industrial Complex's Plans to Capture the Defense Budget backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
January 22, 2025 - Anthea Butler | Loch Johnson | Craig Unger
A Real Christian Confronts Trump Unlike the Christo-Fascists and Evangelical Hucksters Who Worship the False Idol | Trump's Choices to Head American Intelligence Might As Well Have Been Chosen By Putin | The Treason That Helped Elect Nixon, Reagan and Trump backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
January 21, 2025 - Michael Podhorzer | Elizabeth Goitein | Spencer Sunshine
How the Roberts Court Laid the Groundwork For a Plutocratic and Theocratic Takeover of American Democracy | Trump's Plans From 1798 to Use the US Military Against Migrants and Drug Cartels | In Releasing Jailed Militia Leaders, Is Trump Following Mussolini and Hitler's Playbook of a "Blackshirt" and "Brownshirt" Assault on Democracy? backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

January 20, 2025 - Dr. Allen Frances | Sidney Blumenthal | Molly White
Today Trump Issued a Death Sentence to Our Children and Grandchildren | The Unreality of the Reality TV Star Spewing Lies as Promises | The Crypto Grift of $Trump Even Before He Became the Grifter-in-Chief backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
January 19, 2025 - Sean Wilentz | Fred Turner | Cayce Myers
The Incoming Horror of Trump and the Outgoing Sadness of Biden | Biden's Warning of a Tech-Industrial Complex and That We Are Losing Our Democracy to Plutocracy | The Future of TikTok Which the Supreme Court Shut Down Today backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
January 16, 2025 - Steven Simon | Quinn Slobodian
An Analysis of the Israel-Hamas Ceasefire and Hostage Release Deal | Biden's Warning of a New American Oligarchy and the Danger of a Tech-Industrial Complex backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
January 15, 2025 - Charles Kupchan | Elliot Egin | Corey Brettschneider
What Latitude Will "Little Marco" Have As Secretary of State? | The Confirmation of the Pay-to-Play Pam Bondi For Attorney General | Trump's Grossly Unqualified Wrecking Crew Is Aimed at Deconstructing the American State to Serve the Plutocrats Not the People backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
January 14, 2025 - Robert Young Pelton | Rachel VanLandingham | Laurie Levenson | Annelle Sheline
Republican Senators Roll Over the Democrats Determined to Do Trump's Bidding and Confirm a Dangerously Unqualified Ideologue as Secretary of Defense | A Former Female JAG Officer on Hegseth's Disparagement of Women in the Military and Military Justice | Jack Smith's January 6 Report Says Trump Would Have Been Convicted Had the Case Gone To Trial | Unlike Biden, Trump Uses Leverage to Get a Ceasefire and Hostage Release Deal Between Israel and Hamas backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
January 13, 2025 - David Cay Johnston | Lawrence Korb | Aaron Reichlin-Melnick
Hearings Begin on Tuesday For Trump's Disastrously Unqualified Nominees | How Pete Hegseth Compares to Former Heads of the Pentagon | The Laken Riley Act Will Empower Anti-Immigrant Zealots
January 12, 2025 - LeRoy Westerling | David Smilde | James Zirin
Instead of Helping Angelenos Who Lost Their Homes, Trump Offers Insults | The Third Inauguration of Venezuela's Maduro Who Lost the Last Election in a Landslide | The Scofflaw-in-Chief is Now the Felon-in-Chief backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
January 9, 2025 - James Fallows | Glen MacDonald | Mark Whailing
Today's Moving Memorial of President Jimmy Carter at His State Funeral | How Climate Change Supercharged the Wildfires That Swept Through LA | A Former LAFD Battalion Chief on What it is Like to Confront a Wall of Flame Driven by 80 MPH Winds backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
January 8, 2025 - Harry Litman | Dr. Jon Kelley | Jamie Court
The Ghost of Roy Cohn Will Rule Over the Next 4 Years of MAGA Jurisprudence | Environmental and Ecological Factors Behind the Wildfires Raging in LA | Will Homeowners Get Their Insurance Payouts and Will Insurance Still Be Available in Fire-Prone Areas? backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
January 7, 2025 - Scott Horton | Stephen Kinzer | Alexander Cooley
The Normalization of Trump By the Press and Social Media as Its Owners Bezos and Zuckerberg Move to Flatter Rather Than Fact-Check Him | At Today's Rambling Press Conference Trump Does Not Rule Out Military Force to Take Back the Panama Canal, Grab Greenland and Make Canada the 51st State | Why is Trump Attacking Our Closest Allies While Cozying up to Our Worst Adversaries? backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

January 6, 2025 - Jacob Heilbrunn | Andrew Latham | Thanassis Cambanis
Trump's Orwellian January 6 Victory - Four Years Later Lies Have Won and Truth is Endangered | Today's Resignation of Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau After 9 Years in Office | The Need to Lift Sanctions on Syria Before Chaos Consumes a Failed State
January 5, 2025 - Karen Greenberg | Ruth Ben Ghiat | Craig Aaron
Trump's Ominous Response to the Recent Terrorist Attacks | An American Despot is About to Take Charge With So Much More Power Than Hitler Had in 1933 | A Republican Court Kills Net Neutrality to Reward Unpopular and Antiquated Cable and Telecom Giants backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
January 2, 2025 - Robert Pape | Chris McGreal | Stephen Wertheim
The Latest on the Investigations Into the New Year's Massacre in New Orleans and the Tesla Cyber Truck Explosion in Front of the Trump Hotel | Contrasting the Divisive Trump With Jimmy Carter Who Tried to Bridge Divides | Could Trump be a Peacemaker Even If He Only Wants to Win a Nobel Prize? backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
January 1, 2025 - Wendy Brown | Richard Beck | Brooke Harrington
Will the Democrats Confront the Economic Conditions That Gave Rise to Right Wing Populism? | How 9/11 Made the Trump Presidency Possible and Hollowed Out the Very Idea of Citizenship in the US | Plutocrats No Longer Shape Our Government Behind the Scenes, Musk is Now Giving House Republicans Orders backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
December 31, 2024 - Jason Stanley | Gareth Gore | Timothy Shenk
We Should Take Trump at His Word That He Wants to be a Dictator and Jail His Opponents and the Press | A Deep Investigation of the Far-Right Cult Opus Dei and Its Infiltration of American Politics at the Highest Level | With the Blame Game Underway, the Democrats Need to Focus on Accountability and a Coherent Strategy backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
December 30, 2024 - Sarah Churchwell | Samuel Moyn | Steve Benen
A View From Abroad as Biden Stands Between the Survival of Global Democracy and the Rule of Law and Dictatorship | Beyond Biden, America Has a Problem With Gerontocracy | How a Reality TV Star Living in His Own Reality Captured the GOP and up to Half of Americans Now Living in a Phony Reality backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
December 29, 2024 - Miles Taylor | Oona Hathaway | Nick Bryant
As Trump Encourages Secession and Threatens Civil War, He Is the Gift That Keeps on Giving to China and Russia | Strengthening the Laws of War as Non-combatants Die in Gaza and Ukraine | The Inevitability of Trump 250 Years in the Making With the U.S. Captive to Its Contentious Past backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
December 25, 2024 - Rev. Mitri Raheb | James Carroll
A Christmas Day Message From Bethlehem | The Outsized Influence of the Catholic Far Right on the Supreme Court and Project 2025 backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
December 24, 2024 - Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis | Diane Winston
The Contrast Between the Prophet of the Poor and Trump's Billionaires Who Own the White House and Have the Supreme Court | The Troubling Religious Beliefs of Trump's Team of "Christian" Zionists backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia facebook.com/ianmastersmedia
December 23, 2024 - Lisa Graves | John Nichols | Wendy Via
Trump's Triumph of Lawlessness and the Weaponization of Kash Patel's Federal Bureau of Retribution | Will Elon Musk's Threat to Deploy His Unlimited Amounts of Campaign Money Bring All Republicans to Heel? | With Trump Back Hate and Extremism Are on the Back Burner For Now backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia facebook.com/ianmastersmedia