It’s Happening Here

Molly Jong-Fast joins Tom Joscelyn days before the midterms to discuss why corruption has become a top issue for voters, and how gas prices, tariffs, and the war with Iran have made Trump’s pay-to-play presidency impossible to ignore.

If Democrats win, where should oversight start? Jong-Fast argues the answer is the people around Trump: Kristi Noem and Corey Lewandowski, Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, and the corporations that cut deals with the administration, from the Paramount-Skydance merger on down.

They also discuss reining in Big Tech, repealing Section 230, overturning Citizens United, and why Democrats need to abandon “Team Normal” for real reform.

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Historian Timothy Snyder joins Bill Kristol and Tom Joscelyn to explain why Russia is losing on the battlefield in Ukraine, and why that makes Donald Trump Vladimir Putin’s best hope.

Fresh back from Ukraine, Snyder describes how stalled interceptors, intelligence gaps, and Pete Hegseth’s delays on Patriot missiles are leaving Ukrainian civilians exposed. They also discuss Trump’s lie that Ukraine has done nothing for America, and why this moment offers a once-in-a-lifetime chance to take on the issue of runaway public corruption here in the US.

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Donald Trump promised no new wars and claimed he could end Russia’s war against Ukraine in 24 hours. Instead, his war with Iran has sent energy costs climbing while his attempt to blame Ukraine offers Vladimir Putin a political and financial lifeline.

Tom Joscelyn and Bill Kristol examine all of this, plus the Republican Party’s growing extremism problem, Pete Hegseth’s failed push for a public execution, and why the midterms may be a defining test for American democracy.

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Tom Joscelyn and Bill Kristol examine how Stephen Miller became one of the most powerful figures in Trump’s White House—and how his influence reaches across the FBI, Department of Homeland Security, State Department, and Pentagon. They discuss reporting on investigations of Miller’s critics, harsh ICE detention policies, the removal of migrant children, the administration’s “remigration” agenda, and military strikes against suspected drug traffickers at sea. They also explain how Congress could expose Miller’s role, demand accountability, and push back against an agenda they argue is reshaping American government.

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David Pakman joins Bill Kristol and Tom Joscelyn to discuss Elon Musk’s influence on X, why lies and outrage go viral, and how Democrats can fight back.

Drawing on his new book, Pay Attention: How the Algorithms and Media Wars Are Suppressing Truth and Rewiring Your Brain, Pakman explains how algorithms shape our politics—and what it takes to break through.

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Tom Joscelyn and Bill Kristol examine President Trump’s dismissal of warnings about artificial intelligence and his rejection of global safeguards.

They discuss Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei’s call to “pace the frontier,” the dangers posed by AI-enabled cyberattacks and bioweapons, and why experts inside the industry are increasingly alarmed.

They also explain why Trump’s prepared remarks at the United Nations suggest that treating AI risk as a hoax is now the official position of the U.S. government.

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Tom Joscelyn and Bill Kristol discuss the launch of the Civil Defense Institute, a nonpartisan investigative research organization that hones in on people, organizations, and networks whose conduct undermines civil society and the freedom of Americans to participate in public life.They examine how the Heritage Foundation has promoted Christian nationalist ideology, trace the origins of today’s extremism, and explore why major conservative organizations now openly embrace ideas they would have rejected a decade ago.

Check out the Civil Defense Institute here: http://civildefenseinstitute.org

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Twenty-five years after 9/11, Tom Joscelyn and Bill Kristol reflect on the attacks, the aftermath, and the consequences still shaping America.

They discuss what U.S. leaders misunderstood about al-Qaeda, the political backlash that helped fuel Trump’s rise, and why defending democracy requires more than a return to the old normal.Subscribe for more episodes of It’s Happening Here, a Home of the Brave podcast.

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On this week’s episode of It’s Happening Here, hosts Tom Joscelyn and Bill Kristol discuss the tragedy of Pierre Damas Bel, a 20-year-old Haitian immigrant who was legally in the U.S. under Temporary Protected Status, subjected to humiliating ICE enforcement, and died in an apparent suicide. They examine how the Trump administration’s mass deportation policy is fundamentally rooted in dehumanization and white nationalist ideology—not in addressing actual crime or immigration concerns.

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On this week’s episode of the It’s Happening Here podcast, hosts Tom Joscelyn and Bill Kristol examine the Trump administration’s threats to manufacture a national emergency around the 2026 election.

They discuss Steve Bannon’s call to deploy ICE at polling places, Trump’s history of invoking emergency powers under false pretenses, and why an administration filled with loyalists poses a greater danger than it did before January 6.

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Tom Joscelyn and Bill Kristol examine how Christian nationalism at the highest levels of the Pentagon is undermining military readiness. They discuss how Pete Hegseth’s ideological commitments have made him fundamentally unqualified to run the Defense Department. Plus: the persistence of National Guard deployments in D.C., the purge of transgender service members, and how the military’s moral and professional decline is signaling weakness to U.S. adversaries. Finally, why rebuilding these institutions is far harder than destroying them—and why the stakes have never been higher.

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Tom Joscelyn and Bill Kristol examine the cultural conflicts at the heart of the American experiment. They discuss why the right’s cultural dominance is weaker than it appears, relying increasingly on political power to achieve cultural ends. Plus: Trump’s failed attempt to rebrand the 250th anniversary of American independence, white nationalism’s pervasive influence on the right, and why Christian nationalism and authoritarianism are fundamentally dependent on cultural homogeneity. Finally, what the multicultural vision must do to resist—and why it’s already winning in the places that matter most.

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Tom Joscelyn speaks with Bill Kristol about the Trump administration’s campaign to rebrand its opposition as communists. Plus: how Marco Rubio ended up co-hosting a conference on political violence with Stephen Miller, and what that says about the Secretary of State’s drift from operator to true believer. Finally, Trump’s militarization of ICE and DHS at home.

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Tom Joscelyn talks with Bill Kristol about the unwinnable, unending war with Iran. Plus: how the roughly $50 million in Saudi business ties documented in Trump’s own financial disclosures has become inseparable from US foreign policy. And what it would take to rebuild American power and state capacity after Trump.

It’s Happening Here is a Home of the Brave podcast.

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Tom Joscelyn talks with co-host Bill Kristol about the latest ICE killing in Maine and the deportation regime’s campaign of fear; Todd Blanche’s confirmation hearing and the suspicious Ghislaine Maxwell transfer; National Guard troops being normalized on DC streets; and why Trump’s primetime “election interference” speech is really about 2026 and 2028.

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Donald Trump made mass deportation a defining promise of his political movement. But the fatal ICE shooting of Lorenzo Araujo, a hardworking father who had lived in America for 35 years, is revealing what happens when that promise becomes policy.

In this episode of It’s Happening Here, Tom Joscelyn and Bill Kristol examine the conflicting witness accounts, unanswered questions, mounting court rebukes, and erosion of constitutional rights—and explain why Trump’s crackdown may finally be backfiring.

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In this episode of It’s Happening Here, Tom Joscelyn and Bill Kristol examine the Court’s ruling, the history of the 14th Amendment, and why a decision that changed virtually nothing has sparked such an intense political and cultural backlash.

They also discuss how rhetoric around immigration, citizenship, and American identity has shifted in recent years—and what that says about the current state of American conservatism.

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On this episode of It’s Happening Here, Tom and Bill break down one of the most alarming developments in Trump’s second term: the installation of Bill Pulte as acting Director of National Intelligence.

The DNI was created after 9/11 to help protect America from foreign threats. But Trump has made clear that he wants Pulte focused on something else entirely: his false claims about “rigged elections.” Tom and Bill explain why that matters, how Trump is filling key national security roles with loyalists, and why the real danger may be what comes next in 2026 and 2028.

This is not just another bad personnel move. It is part of a broader effort to turn the power of the federal government into a political weapon—against Trump’s enemies, against the truth, and potentially against free and fair elections.

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Welcome to Home of the Brave’s newest weekly podcast series: It’s Happening Here. Hosted by Bill Kristol and Tom Joscelyn, this show will go deep on the erosion of American democracy today—and what to do about it.

Like, rate, review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Going forward, we’ll be dropping episodes every Saturday at 11 am ET.

In his dystopian 1935 political novel It Can’t Happen Here, Sinclair Lewis imagined what could transpire when Americans elected a dictator. Less than a century later, Bill and Tom are here to break down the threats to American democracy, and lay out a playbook for how citizens can respond.

Our first episode covers why Trump’s attorney general nominee, Todd Blanche, should be made to answer for Ghislaine Maxwell, the Epstein files, and the corruption of the Justice Department. You won’t want to miss it.

Bill is an advisory board member of Home of the Brave and leading voice in defense of American democracy. Tom served as a senior professional staff member on the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the US Capitol, where he was principal author of the Committee’s final report.

Home of the Brave exists to show Americans the real-world consequences of this administration’s policies, and to highlight what bravery looks like in defense of American democracy.

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