Flooding the zone | After America x Follow the Money

featuring Emma Shortis and Ebony Bennett
Former President of the United States Donald Trump speaking with attendees at The People's Convention at Huntington Place in Detroit, Michigan.
Gage Skidmore/Flickr

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President Donald Trump has been issuing Executive Orders and dominating the media cycle, trying to radically reshape America and the world in the process.

On this special crossover episode of After America and Follow the Money, Dr Emma Shortis and Ebony Bennett discuss the role of Elon Musk, Trump’s pause on all US foreign aid, his ability to ‘flood the zone’, and just how much better he is at it this time around.

This discussion was recorded on Tuesday 28 January 2025 and things may have changed since recording.

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Host: Emma Shortis, Director, International & Security Affairs, the Australia Institute // @EmmaShortis

Host: Ebony Bennett, Deputy Director, the Australia Institute // @ebony_bennett

Show notes: 

‘Think the past will protect Australia from Trump’s future? Think again’ by Emma Shortis, The Sydney Morning Herald (January 2025)

The Pacific Islands: Background and Issues for Congress, Congressional Research Service (November 2024)

Image: Gage Skidmore/Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Theme music: Blue Dot Sessions

We’d love to hear your feedback on this series, so send in your questions, comments or suggestions for future episodes to podcasts@australiainstitute.org.au

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If you select “virtually any date in US history, it would be possible to find the same poisonous ingredients [… that] percolated violently to the surface on January 6th, 2021,” writes journalist and historian Nick Bryant in his new book, The Forever War: America’s Unending Conflict with Itself. Over two centuries ago, in 1787, Thomas Jefferson,