Anne Applebaum

What's disturbing about this episode is that it shows something very ugly about this administration, namely,

And it raises a question.

In whose name are they conducting American foreign policy?

Is this for the security and prosperity of America and our allies?

Or is this something that's happening on behalf of companies, maybe even some involving the family of Trump or of Witkoff?

who are hoping to make money out of this negotiation.

That's where we are right now.

And I think it's... I've talked to a lot of people.

I can't find an exact precedent in American history before where something this high stakes and at this high level and involving the security of so many millions of people and so many other countries was being conducted by essentially business people whose main interest was business deals.

Isn't this...

Yes.

I mean, I suppose the shock for the outside world, and as you know, I live part of the time in Europe.

I have a Polish husband who's involved in all this stuff as well.

He's the Polish foreign minister.

And I'm continually hearing from...

not just polls, but from British friends, from German friends, I'm continually hearing this kind of shock and surprise that even this, I mean, I guess everybody got used to the idea that American politics are corrupt or there are elements of corruption in our system, but that even at this level, that it would be that corrupt remains surprising to other people.

Maybe it's not really surprising to us anymore.

But yeah, I think you're, you know, it is an extension of other decisions.

I mean, we're talking in a week when, at the same time, speaking of foreign policy, Trump is also working himself up, or maybe members of his administration are working themselves up to have some kind of conflict with Venezuela on the grounds that it's a narco-terrorist state.

And at the meantime, exactly in the same week, they've pardoned a former president of Honduras who was in jail on cocaine charges, apparently because maybe he has business dealings with some people who are around Trump or close to Trump.