Peter Zeihan

And even if he did, I'm not sure who that could be.

The only country that really has any influence – and it's very, very thin –

would be China.

And Xi is a little bit like Trump in that he's purged the system around him to such a huge degree that he's not getting good information either.

So all that leaves us with is Putin.

And we're already seeing some of the differences on the frontline in Ukraine because the Iranians were primary weapons suppliers to Russia during the Ukraine war, and that has gone to zero overnight.

So, assuming that Trump has any awareness of that, it's difficult for me to see Trump accepting Putin as a mediator either.

I just don't see who it could be.

There are plenty of countries that might offer good offices and, you know, be not the broker but just host the talks, but no one who can intervene on either side.

That was the deal we cut with all the allies during the Cold War.

We keep the oil flowing.

You're on our side.

Um, rogue nations are ones that, uh, violate the existing order.

And if there is no existing order, is anyone really a rogue nation?

Um, I've got lots of beefs, professional, strategic, and personal with the Trump administration.

I don't make a lot of, I don't put a lot of effort into hiding that, but globalization was always going to fail.

The global demographic picture was evolving in the direction where there just weren't going to be enough young people to do the consuming that would make trade possible.

And the idea that the United States would continue to hold up the ceiling in a post-Cold War world when there was no agreement as to who the bad guy was, that was always going to fail.

And between 2025 and 2035 is always the decade that I have identified my entire professional career about when it was all going to break.

Trump is speeding that process up.