Trump’s Impulsive Foreign Policy Is Tearing Apart the Global Order

More To The Story : When President Donald Trump returned to office last year, he promised to largely steer America clear of foreign entanglements. But over the last year, his administration has captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, threatened to take over Greenland, openly talked about making Canada the 51st state, and most recently attacked Iran. In some ways, it might appear that Trump is trying to revive the American empire. Not so, says Daniel Immerwahr, a Northwestern University history professor and author of How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States . What Trump is really doing, he says, is undermining the international system itself. On this week’s More To The Story , Immerwahr sits down with host Al Letson to examine Trump’s attack on Iran, why Trump is ripping apart the post-World War II international order, and the long-term consequences of the president’s impulsive foreign policy. Producer: Josh Sanburn | Editor: Kara McGuirk-Allison | Theme music: Fernando Arruda and Jim Briggs | Copy editor: Nikki Frick | Digital producer: Artis Curiskis | Deputy executive producer: Taki Telonidis | Executive producer: Brett Myers | Executive editor: James West | Host: Al Letson Listen: Al Gore: Trump Administration Is the Most Corrupt in History ( More To The Story ) Read: Trump’s New Nuclear Nightmare in Iran ( Mother Jones ) Read: How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States (Picador) Donate today at Revealnews.org/more

You can listen to Trump’s Impulsive Foreign Policy Is Tearing Apart the Global Order online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Trump’s Impulsive Foreign Policy Is Tearing Apart the Global Order is an episode from Reveal by The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX.

This episode is 31:48 long.

This episode was published on Apr 29, 2026.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from Reveal when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.