Tom Nichols

And, you know, there's Putin's family, and there's Don Xi Jinping, and there's, you know, the unruly neighborhoods to the south.

And I think he thinks of himself as the head of the commission, that he's the senior boss of the five families.

So, you know, this upstart in Iran, you know, he needs to make his bones here.

Not only to show who's boss, but again, because I do think there's an issue of glory involved here.

I mean, he...

I know that this sounds like kind of dime store psychology, but you're talking about a man who keeps plastering his name on things in Washington and has started a diplomatic crisis with our own allies because they didn't give him a peace prize.

I most worry about people like Trump and Putin, among others.

walking into situations that they don't know how to get out of later.

You know, Trump is not a man, whoever admits a mistake, he backs down while declaring victory.

And, you know, backing down sometimes is his only option.

But I worry that he is so invested in his own image and his own ego and his own, you know, again, his sense of, you know, glory that,

that he will start the ball rolling on something that starts to turn into a larger conflict and that his answer, and the only way he thinks he can get out of it is just keep getting bigger hammers every time.

My pleasure.

Thanks, Tamara.

Well, I see that we're back to the old immigration trope that Italians aren't white.

Right.

Okay.

Okay.

right uh you know coming coming of uh from uh olive skin greek immigrants i'm all worried about that but okay um i think one thing you know and rick was kind of getting at this i think part of what this outburst is about is that and you saw this in 2016 and you're seeing it again now the mega movement trump all the people around trump they thought that winning power

and getting rich can command respect and can allow them to dominate the culture, that we will have political power and a lot of money, and then the culture will be our culture, and you'll like it, and we'll be in the cool kids club.