Pod Save the World

Podbit · Pod Save the World

Trump’s Top Spy Has One Job: Revenge

Explore episode Jun 3, 2026
News
Colombia Runoff: El Tigre vs. the Left, Trump Picks His Side

Trump’s Top Spy Has One Job: Revenge · Jun 3, 2026 News

Colombia heads to a June 21st runoff between left-wing Senator Iván Cepeda and Trump-backed right-winger Abelardo de la Espriella, who calls himself 'El Tigre' and wants to replicate El Salvador's mass-detention model. Ben Rhodes warns this is part of a broader US effort to build a bloc of right-wing Latin American leaders, a strategy that has historically ended badly for the region and for US interests.

3m 10s

Where this was said

Russia's Drone Barrage and American Far-Right Influencers in Moscow

At 59:50 · chapter starts 52:50

Russia's largest drone and missile barrage of the war kills 20 Ukrainians and injures 100, with a stray drone even striking a Romanian apartment building — potentially triggering Article 5 considerations. Against this backdrop, far-right American influencers Candace Owens and the Tate brothers — who face rape and human trafficking charges — arrive in Moscow for Russia's annual Saint Petersburg investment conference. Owens posts gushing content about Moscow's cleanliness and beauty; Ben responds that Pyongyang is also clean, and that autocratic regimes excel at managed goodwill tours. The White House is sending a representative (a minor cultural commission chair named Rodney Mims Cook Jr.), signaling Trump's ongoing flirtation with Russian investment. Ben connects this to growing European anxiety: the combination of Trump's thirst for Russian investment, his disregard for Ukraine, and actual Russian sabotage operations in European countries is stoking real fear in Poland, the Baltics, and Romania of military escalation — precisely as Trump threatens to pull US troops out of Europe.

News
Russia's Massive Ukraine Barrage — And the American Right Cheers Them On

Trump’s Top Spy Has One Job: Revenge · Jun 3, 2026 News

Russia launched one of the war's largest attacks — 665 drones and 73 missiles — killing 20 Ukrainians and injuring 100, while a Russian drone crossed into Romania and hit an apartment building. Simultaneously, Candace Owens and the Tate brothers were in Moscow for an investment conference posting about how clean and beautiful the city is.

5m 50s
Society & Culture
Far-Right Influencers in Moscow: Paid or Trolling?

Trump’s Top Spy Has One Job: Revenge · Jun 3, 2026 Society & Culture

Candace Owens and the indicted Tate brothers descended on Moscow for Russia's annual Saint Petersburg investment conference, with Owens posting rapturous commentary about how clean and beautiful Moscow is. Ben Rhodes points out that Pyongyang is also clean, that the architecture has existed for centuries, and that no one gets a goodwill tour of Russia without being shown exactly what they're meant to see.

2m 30s

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