An act of self-harm: Trump’s latest war might be his undoing

特朗普开战反遭反噬

The Intelligence from The Economist

2026-03-19

24 分钟
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A rash entry into a war of choice exposes President Donald Trump in a number of ways—and he may prove more dangerous as he becomes weaker. Turkey’s foreign entanglements mask the democratic backsliding at home; that is bad news for an opposition figure whose trial just began. And Americans seem to be taking their anger out on food-delivery robots. Guests and host: Robert Guest, deputy editorPiotr Zalewski, Turkey correspondentRebecca Jackson, Southern correspondentJason Palmer, co-host of “The Intelligence” Topics covered:  Donald Trump, war in IranTurkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Ekrem ImamogluAmerica, delivery robots Get a world of insights by subscribing to Economist Podcasts+. For more information about how to access Economist Podcasts+, please visit our FAQs page or watch our video explaining how to link your account. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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  • Hello and welcome to The Intelligence from The Economist.

  • I'm your host, Jason Palmer.

  • Every weekday, we provide a fresh perspective on the events shaping your world.

  • Democratic institutions have been taking a beating in Turkey.

  • At the same time, and perhaps as a distraction, Turkey has been making itself important on the world stage.

  • All that bodes ill for the opposition politician at the middle of a massive criminal trial.

  • And we do try to paint a nuanced picture for you

  • when it comes to the narrative of the bots are coming for us all.

  • But delivery bots, well, they're already here.

  • Weird thing about them, though, Americans in particular just really hate them.

  • First up, though.

  • The back and forth of the war in Iran continues.

  • Overnight, Israel hit South Pars, the world's largest natural gas field, in the middle of the Persian Gulf.

  • Iran launched its own attacks, causing serious damage to a natural gas facility in Qatar

  • that accounts for about a fifth of global gas.

  • Saudi Arabia said it intercepted missiles aimed at a gas facility there,

  • which makes Donald Trump's recent assertion that the war was, um, very complete pretty much, make even less sense.

  • He threatened to massively blow up that South Par's gas field if Iran struck Qatar again.

  • Maybe so.

  • What also seems probable is that this war will massively blow up his presidency.