About this episode

The episode discusses Trump's attempts to escape accountability and his foreign policy challenges, particularly regarding Iran and the Middle East.

In our latest Contrarian episode, Norm Eisen, Norm Ornstein, and Jen Rubin join Harry to assess new flashpoints in Trump's nonstop quest to escape accountability and his hasty efforts to claw free of his war in the Middle East. The group takes stock of Trump's stumbling attempts to find a deal with Iran, which seem likely to leave the U.S. weakened and isolated. The panel also weighs the bombshell state charges against an ICE agent and the odds that Trump could name two new Supreme Court justices before year's end. Mentioned in this episode: The Contrarian: https://contrarian.substack.com/ Norm Ornstein's podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dsrs-words-matter/id1420216970 The Robert Kagan article about America's changing place in the world: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/2026/03/trump-national-security-greenland-spheres-of-interest/685673/ The profile of Justice Alito: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/04/samuel-alito-supreme-court-conservative/686756/ Norm Ornstein's kakistocracy article: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/10/american-kakistocracy/542391/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

People in this episode

Host: Harry Litman

Guests: Norm Eisen, Norm Ornstein, Jen Rubin

Topics covered

• Trump accountability
• Middle East conflict
• Supreme Court justices
• U.S. foreign policy
• state charges against ICE agent

Keywords

• Trump
• Iran
• Supreme Court
• ICE
• foreign policy
• accountability
• Norm Ornstein
• Jen Rubin
• Norm Eisen

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: ICE, The Contrarian, The Atlantic

Books & works: The Robert Kagan article about America's changing place in the world, The profile of Justice Alito, Norm Ornstein's kakistocracy article

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