Background Briefing: May 13, 2025
Trump Signs a $142 Billion Weapons Deal In Saudi Arabia, Not the Peace Deal With Putin He Expected To Sign, But He Still Hopes to Sign a Deal With Iran
We begin with Trump’s first overseas trip prioritizing Saudi Arabia at the top of his foreign policy agenda as he visited Riyadh today to sign a $142 billion weapons deal instead of a peace deal with Putin to end the Ukraine war he expected to sign which has yet to happen while hoping to sign a peace deal with Iran that might happen. Joining us is Sarah Leah Whitson, the executive director of Democracy for the Arab World Now DAWN who was formerly the executive director of Human Rights Watch’s Middle East and North Africa Division, where she oversaw 19 countries, with staff located in 10 countries.
As Trump Throws His Lot in With Rich Arabs, How Much is Netanyahu Out in the Cold?
Then we look into the extent to which Trump is throwing his lot in with rich Arab potentates who give him and his family money and $440 million jumbo jets while keeping America’s traditional ally Israel at bay as Netanyahu pounds Gaza and is restrained from attacking Iran because Trump hopes to make a deal with the Ayatollahs. Joining us is Jon Hoffman, a policy analyst in defense and foreign policy at the Cato Institute and a professor at George Mason University specializing in Middle East geopolitics and political Islam. He was recently awarded the “40 under 40” award from the Middle East Policy Council for his work on U.S. foreign policy in the region, and his work has been featured in Middle East Policy, Open Democracy, The Cipher Brief and Foreign Policy Magazine where he has a recent article we discuss, “Israel Is a Strategic Liability for the United States.”
The Good “Christians” Speaker Johnson and the OMB’s Vought Are Working Tirelessly to Hurt the Poor and Reward the Rich
Then finally we assess the chances of Trump and Speaker Johnson’s “big, beautiful bill” making its way out of Congress as the good “Christians” Johnson and Russ Vought at OMB work tirelessly to hurt the poor and reward the super rich by cutting $880 billion out of Medicaid to offset making Trump’s tax cuts for his billionaire buddies permanent. Joining us for an update on what is happening on the Hill today is Alex Lawson, the Executive Director of Social Security Works where his work focuses on protecting and expanding Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid and lowering prescription drug prices. We discuss his article at Common Dreams, “Republicans Plan to Rip Medicaid Away from Millions of Seniors — All to Give Tax Cuts to Billionaires.”