Reprinted from John’s Substack:
On 26 May 2026, I was on “Judging Freedom” talking with the Judge about Trump’s constantly changing rhetoric about whether he is going to re-start the bombing campaign against Iran or is about to sign a peace agreement with Tehran. We also talked about the downside of Trump conducting diplomacy in public, on the fly, and apparently pretty much by himself. In addition, we talked about Putin’s decision to significantly ratchet up the bombing campaign against Kyiv. It seems clear that Russia believes that both Ukraine and its European allies think they are free to attack the Russian homeland without prompting serious Russian retaliation. Moscow apparently has decided to show them they are wrong and hopefully establish a meaningful deterrent against attacks directed at mother Russia. Finally, the Judge and I discussed at length my debate with Steve Walt against Victoria Newland and Mike Pompeo in Toronto last week.
