There’s a lot going on in The America. You may have noticed. So as the summer series grinds on — way behind schedule — we’re joined by Associate Professor David Smith from the United States Study Centre.
In this episode we talk, obviously, about the powers of POTUS and his Yalta 2.0 imperialist desires to annex Canada. And Greenland. And Mexico. We discuss how the new Trumpian America might affect Australia’s favourite government program, AUKUS. And inevitably, we talk about Trump’s weird relationship with Elon Musk.
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David Smith is jointly appointed between the US Studies Centre and the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Sydney. His research examines political relations between states and minorities, with a focus on religion in the US. His book Religious Persecution and Political Order in the United States was published by Cambridge University Press in 2015.
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[25 March 2025] The White House has confirmed that a journalist was inadvertently added to an insecure group chat in which leading US national security officials and the Vice-President JD Vance debated and planned a military strike in Yemen. The Atlantic magazine's Jeffrey Goldberg was included on a Signal message group with Vice-President JD Vance and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth among its members.
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[24 March 2025] U.S. national-security leaders included me in a group chat about upcoming military strikes in Yemen. I didn’t think it could be real. Then the bombs started falling.
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[24 March 2025] U.S. national-security leaders included me in a group chat about upcoming military strikes in Yemen. I didn’t think it could be real. Then the bombs started falling.
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[24 March 2025] The White House confirmed an extraordinary breach of security involving top government officials — including Vice President JD Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth — who discussed plans for military strikes on Houthi rebels in Yemen in a group chat on a commercial messaging app that inadvertently included the top editor of The Atlantic. President Trump denied knowing about it.
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Shock and awe (technically known as rapid dominance) is a military strategy based on the use of overwhelming power and spectacular displays of force to paralyze the enemy's perception of the battlefield and destroy their will to fight.
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Blitzkrieg[ is a word used to describe a combined arms surprise attack, using a rapid, overwhelming force concentration that may consist of armored and motorized or mechanized infantry formations, together with artillery, air assault, and close air support. The intent is to break through an opponent's lines of defense, dislocate the defenders, confuse the enemy by making it difficult to respond to the continuously changing front, and defeat them in a decisive Vernichtungsschlacht: a battle of annihilation.
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[8 January 2025] He used the constitution to shatter the constitution.
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[8 January2025] He used the constitution to shatter the constitution.
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[22 March 2025] Trump Canada Annexation—US President Donald Trump has doubled down on his claim that the US should annex Canada, citing a $200 billion annual subsidy to its northern neighbor. Canadian PM Mark Carney has strongly rejected the idea, vowing to defend Canada’s sovereignty and fight Trump’s escalating trade war. Ottawa has imposed 25% tariffs on $30 billion in US imports, retaliating against Trump’s own 25% tariffs. The US president argues that Canada relies on American subsidies and that its exports, including cars, lumber, and energy, are unnecessary. The dispute continues to intensify
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[20 March 2025] Americans can dismiss Trump’s talk of annexing Canada as a joke, but Canadians can’t. Regardless of whether Trump would ever follow through with attempting an annexation, his language is an attack on Canadian sovereignty. No one with any sense of national pride would tolerate it.
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The Yalta Conference (Russian: ????????? ???????????, romanized: Yaltinskaya konferentsiya), held 4–11 February 1945, was the World War II meeting of the heads of government of the United States, the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union to discuss the postwar reorganization of Germany and Europe.
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[15 March 2025] So what’s the deal with Putin and Trump - is what we’re witnessing now just the beginning of their grand plans for a new world order? And what hints can we get on how things might unfold from a conference that happened 80 years ago between US president Franklin Roosevelt, UK prime minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin in a little town called Yalta?
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Looking beyond Putin to understand how today's Russia actually works
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[24 March 2025] Labor Economist Kathryn Anne Edwards joins Morning Joe to discuss her new Bloomberg column 'DOGE Just Might Usher in New Era of Big Government'.
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[8 February 2025] Shrink government, control data and -- according to one official closely watching the billionaire’s DOGE -- replace “the human workforce with machines.”
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[8 February 2025] Shrink government, control data and -- according to one official closely watching the billionaire’s DOGE -- replace “the human workforce with machines.”
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The Enola Gay (/??no?l?/) is a Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber, named after Enola Gay Tibbets, the mother of the pilot, Colonel Paul Tibbets. On 6 August 1945, during the final stages of World War II, it became the first aircraft to drop an atomic bomb in warfare.
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[20 March 2025] After Donald Trump's Department of Defense removed content related to the historic plane the Enola Gay just for having "gay" in its name, everyone is wondering what could be next.
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[Sky News Australia, 23 March 2025]
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Peter Kent Navarro (born July 15, 1949) is an American economist and author who is currently the senior counselor for trade and manufacturing for U.S. president Donald Trump... Navarro was the second ex-Trump aide to be convicted of contempt of Congress; Bannon had been convicted of the same offense the preceding year... On September 7, 2023, Navarro was convicted on both counts, and on January 25, 2024, he was sentenced to four months in jail and fined $9,500.
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[5 March 2025] Peter Navarro claims aluminium makers in Australia are undermining the US. Are they really?
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[9 February 2025] Last weekend Donald Trump announced 25 per cent tariffs on most imports from Canada and Mexico, and an additional 10 per cent levy on imports from China. Canadian oil was hit at a lower rate of 10 per cent. The duties will take effect from Tuesday. Just days later these tariffs were suspended. Trump said the actions were in response to the “major threat” posed by the flow of migrants and drugs into the US across its borders with Canada and Mexico.
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[28 February 2025] The US president, Donald Trump, needed to be reminded what the Aukus deal was when asked a question about it during a meeting with the British prime minister in the Oval Office.
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The National Anthem Of Canada. Music By: Free Beta Records. Link: https://goo.gl/peHHCX
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Series Credits
- The 9pm Edict theme by mansardian via The Freesound Project.
- Edict fanfare by neonaeon, via The Freesound Project.
- Elephant Stamp theme by Joshua Mehlman.
- O Canada, the national anthem of Canada, by Free Beta Records.