521. Trump’s Naval Blockade: Is America Becoming a Rogue State?

This episode of The Rest Is Politics examines President Trump's unilateral naval blockade of the Straits of Hormuz, framing it as a dangerous escalation that undermines global norms and destabilizes the world economy. Alistair Campbell and Rory Stewart critique Trump's erratic decision-making, highlighting his refusal to engage in sustained diplomacy—contrasting it with historical peace processes like Oslo and Good Friday—while emphasizing the psychological unpredictability of his nighttime social media activity. They argue that the U.S. is increasingly behaving like a 'rogue state,' abandoning the rules-based international order it helped create, with profound consequences for Europe, the Gulf, and global markets. The hosts also discuss the implications of this foreign policy chaos for Ukraine, drawing on an exclusive interview with President Zelensky, who warns against premature ceasefires and advocates for a restructured European security alliance including the UK, Norway, Turkey, and Ukraine to counterbalance U.S. retreat. The episode concludes with a sobering assessment of the long-term economic and humanitarian damage caused by war, and the growing global perception that China, not the U.S., is now the more reliable global actor.