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I am grateful for my friendship with Melik Kaylan, a Conservative journalist and New York bon vivant with a long, fascinating career. He currently writes regularly for Forbes (archive of his contributions here) and The Wall Street Journal. I remember him, decades ago, as a writer on antiquities for Connoisseur Magazine, where I worked for a time, and as a commentator on New York society for Spy.
The jumping off point for today’s conversation is Melik’s latest, quite depressing piece in Forbes: “All Eyes On What Happens To Ukraine And Iran In The New Trump Era”. Melik and I agree (as I recently discussed with Ukraine War correspondent Simon Ostrovsky), that the U.S. should remain committed to supporting Ukraine against Putin’s despotic imperialism. It seems unlikely that Trump will continue support of Ukraine. Instead, he will seek to cut a deal with Putin. Kaylan thinks there might be an agreement where Putin allows Israel (and the U.S.) a free hand against Iran, in exchange for a ceasefire in Ukraine that will give Putin time to rebuild his army and attack again.
Part of what we discuss today is the global movement toward authoritarian populism, which Trump represents in America.
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