Zolan Kanno-Youngs
speaker
266 appearances
9 recordings
2 series
first heard Jan 2025
last heard 5d ago
Zolan Kanno-Youngs’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 3 in all, peaking in Sep 2026 with 1.
Appearances
I think you also have to look at it in tandem with the outright skepticism that has come from Trump and his team about U.S. aid to Ukraine as well. And as you continue to put out these false statements that cast blame on Ukraine, turn it from victim to villain, does that now lay the groundwork to pull back U.S. aid on a long term basis to Ukraine as well?
There's been multiple indicators that we could be getting to that point. You saw in recent days the president say that for previous aid to Ukraine that's already gone through that he wanted an exchange, critical earth minerals from Ukraine.
So you're already seeing now a shift from a Biden administration whose position was we're going to send aid and arms to Ukraine to give them the best leverage in potential negotiations to a Trump administration that's saying, essentially, what are we getting back for this U.S. aid? So the skepticism has been building here.
And now you have these false statements that are casting blame on Ukraine in an attempt to potentially shape public perception over the war as well. potentially laying the groundwork for a major change in not just USA to Ukraine, but also kind of U.S. foreign policy and how the United States deals with allies overseas.
Michael, you also mentioned the public polling, too, and some of the skepticism from the country. That is something that gets brought up when you press Trump administration officials and some foreign policy experts, too, about this, that there was some frustration building, including in Ukraine, of what's the strategy for a diplomatic off-ramp here? What's the endgame?
Is this just going to continue? The status quo essentially wasn't working for the American people anymore. So at least this is an effort to force talks. The only issue is are you now forcing talks and pretty much giving up the leverage that you might have had? How much are you actually going to force Ukraine to cede?
Correct. I mean, I think there's also a question of just what does the federal government look like when you have a – clear disregard of the checks and balances that are set up within the federal bureaucracy at this point. He has shown that he's willing to go and effectively shrink an agency.
He's also indicated that he wants Elon Musk's team to next go into the Department of Education, to also go into the Pentagon. You have a president and an administration here that has been pretty honest about wanting to completely reshape the federal bureaucracy in a way where it's set up in his image, where you have loyalists throughout.
And when you're disregarding the checks and balances that have been set up in order to do that, I mean, that indicates that there's not going to be much hesitancy on the part of this administration to pursue these goals and upending the federal bureaucracy.
There's so few guardrails at this point for this administration. When you're essentially ignoring Congress's role, when you're installing loyalists at the Department of Justice, when you're ousting inspectors general as well, I think there is a real question of, at that point, what is the system of accountability that's in place for the executive branch?
That's a good question. I know in your story, you indicated that we might have some more country music, you know, at the Kennedy Center. Knowing Trump, probably what he envisions to be patriotic or more America first. I think there's something broader here. Which is what?
I think this has to do with Trump's clear intent to put sort of his MAGA stamp on all areas of society, not just the executive branch. I think you have to look at this also in tandem with DEI executive orders that have tried to dictate how private companies shape their hiring practices, directing different federal agencies and federal employees to remove companies
their preferred pronouns from signatures, you know, removing gender-neutral bathrooms, trying to also dictate how schools will handle LGBTQ issues as well. You know, I think this is part of trying to please a base that sees diversity and diversity in art as being a partisan issue, as being, you know, quote-unquote woke in a way.
I think that's right. And, you know, an effort to shape perception, too. When you're flooding the zone with false statements in the case of Ukraine, it also allows you to then shape the perception for your base for actions to come as well.
Thank you. Thanks so much.
The Daily · Trump 2.0: Musk in the Oval, a Gift to Mayor Adams and a Win for Putin · 14 Feb 2025
podcast
I mean I cover the White House now, but I used to cover a cabinet agency during Trump round one. And I remember covering that cabinet agency. Officials used to talk about all the time how if they were going to do an announcement, going to have a policy change, Trump needed the spotlight. Like they were very conscious about that. So to see this scene of –
The richest man in the world standing in front of cameras articulating this real attempt to reshape the federal bureaucracy into something that's in Trump's image. It was something that I didn't think I would see covering Trump round one.
The question also asked, why can't they just say this is about cutting government? I mean, we know from reporting this is not just about cutting the fat off of government, that this is not just about limiting federal spending, that this is also about getting people in office that will implement your agenda without asking questions, without putting up a bureaucratic hurdle.
So it's not just about cutting spending. For him right now, it seems like The definition of corruption is also changing. Corruption, as you were just saying, can be a policy difference. That's right.
I thought this was really a takeaway that there actually wasn't an assessment in this memo on the evidence of this case. But the takeaway was rather an assessment, a political assessment, really, of how Eric Adams would be able to implement Trump's immigration crackdown. That was explicitly said here.
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