S9 Ep39: Espresso Martini | Trump’s Special Economic Operation, NSA Purge, and the FBI in Turmoil

S9 Ep39: Espresso Martini | Trump’s Special Economic Operation, NSA Purge, and the FBI in Turmoil

Chris and Matt unpack the surreal ousting of top U.S. national security officials after far-right influencer Laura Loomer walked into the Oval Office with a hit list. They assess the fallout for cyber defenses, the politicization of the FBI, and the broader dismantling of U.S. institutions under Trump’s second term. Then, they turn to Trump’s sweeping trade war, its global blowback, and what Wall Street really thinks. Plus, a respected Chinese-American scientist disappears after an FBI raid, and Japan unveils a new generation of long-range missiles as it prepares for a more dangerous Pacific.

Subscribe and share to stay ahead in the world of intelligence, geopolitics, and current affairs.

Please share this episode using these linksAudio: https://pod.fo/e/2c6f9e
YouTube: https://youtu.be/s4KsMuz1lHY

Articles discussed in today’s episode"How Right Wing Influencer Laura Loomer Targeted Top Security Officials" by Dustin Volz, Vera Bergengruen & Alexander Ward | The Wall Street Journal: https://www.wsj.com/politics/national-security/how-right-wing-influencer-laura-loomer-targeted-top-security-officials-0b002715

"The Conspiracy Theorist Advising Trump" by Tom Nichols | The Atlantic: https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/archive/2025/04/the-conspiracy-theorist-advising-trump/682289/

"I was a Top Leader at the FBI. What I Saw This Year Was Deeply Worrying. It Should Concern You Too." by John Sullivan | Substack: https://substack.com/home/post/p-160799346

"Will Russia Come Out a Winner in Trump’s Trade Wars" by Moscow Times Reporter | The Moscow Times: https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2025/04/03/will-russia-come-out-a-winner-in-trumps-trade-wars-a88238

"Russia not on Trump's tariff list" by Vitaliy Shevchenko | BBC News: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cdjl3k1we8vo

"Trump has turned his back on the foundation of US economic might - the fallout will be messy" by Faisal Islam | BBC News: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cp34nkj1kv2o

"Cybersecurity Professor Faced China-Funding Inquiry Before Disappearing, Sources Say" by Zeyi Yang, Louise Matsakis & Caroline Haskins | WIRED: https://www.wired.com/story/xiaofeng-wang-indiana-university-research-probe-china/

"FBI raids home of prominent computer scientist who has gone incommunicado" by Dan Goodin | Ars Technica: https://arstechnica.com/security/2025/03/computer-scientist-goes-silent-after-fbi-raid-and-purging-from-university-website/

"Japan develops new missiles designed to repel an invasion" by Leilani Chavez | Defense News: https://www.defensenews.com/global/asia-pacific/2025/04/03/japan-develops-new-missiles-designed-to-repel-an-invasion/

Support Secrets and SpiesBecome a “Friend of the Podcast” on Patreon for £3/$4: https://www.patreon.com/SecretsAndSpies
Buy merchandise from our Redbubble shop: https://www.redbubble.com/shop/ap/60934996
Subscribe to our YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDVB23lrHr3KFeXq4VU36dg
For more information about the podcast, check out our website: https://secretsandspiespodcast.com

Connect with us on social mediaBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/secretsandspies.bsky.social
Instagram: https://instagram.com/secretsandspies
Facebook: https://facebook.com/secretsandspies
Spoutible: https://spoutible.com/SecretsAndSpies

Follow Chris and Matt on Bluesky:
https://bsky.app/profile/fultonmatt.bsky.social
https://bsky.app/profile/chriscarrfilm.bsky.social

Secrets and Spies is produced by F & P LTD.
Music by Andrew R. Bird

Secrets and Spies sits at the intersection of intelligence, covert action, real-world espionage, and broader geopolitics in a way that is digestible but serious. Hosted by filmmaker Chris Carr and writer Matt Fulton, each episode unpacks global events through the lens of intelligence and geopolitics, featuring expert insights from former spies, authors, and analysts.


Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Denne episoden er hentet fra en åpen RSS-feed og er ikke publisert av Podme. Den kan derfor inneholde annonser.

Episoder(350)

What the Next 10 Years Look Like: China, Russia, Europe and AI | Sam Lichtenstein RANE

What the Next 10 Years Look Like: China, Russia, Europe and AI | Sam Lichtenstein RANE

Sam Lichtenstein, director of analysis at the global risk intelligence firm RANE, returns to walk Chris through RANE's 2025–2035 decade forecast: a multipolar world in which no great power has the wil...

3 Okt 59min

Russia’s worldview, disinformation, and the politics of influence | Dave Troy

Russia’s worldview, disinformation, and the politics of influence | Dave Troy

Every week, the Security Council of the Russian Federation publishes a digest of world events as Moscow sees them. Investigative journalist Dave Troy has been reading them closely, and he argues they ...

26 Sep 1h 7min

The Stay Behinds: Sweden’s Cold War Guardians | Johan Wennström

The Stay Behinds: Sweden’s Cold War Guardians | Johan Wennström

Beginning in 1949, officially non-aligned Sweden did something it kept secret for half a century: in close cooperation with the CIA and MI6, it built a clandestine civilian resistance network meant to...

19 Sep 1h 9min

The Nerd Reich | Gil Durán

The Nerd Reich | Gil Durán

Journalist Gil Durán spent years in political consulting before returning to reporting, and eventually, to the beat that became the subject of his book, The Nerd Reich. He joins Chris to lay out his c...

12 Sep 59min

Ratcliffe’s Moscow Warning, Iran’s Long Reach, and an Alliance on Edge | Espresso Martini

Ratcliffe’s Moscow Warning, Iran’s Long Reach, and an Alliance on Edge | Espresso Martini

Chris and Matt open season eleven, and Secrets & Spies’ tenth anniversary, with three stories from a busy August. First, CIA Director John Ratcliffe’s trip to Moscow, a rare visit by an agency chief s...

5 Sep 1h 16min

A Rebel, a Traitor, and the Birth of the IRA | Rory Carroll

A Rebel, a Traitor, and the Birth of the IRA | Rory Carroll

Before Bletchley Park, there was Reginald "Blinker" Hall, the Admiralty’s mercurial intelligence chief whose codebreakers read Germany’s wireless traffic during World War I, giving Britain a front-row...

29 Aug 42min

Ortiz’s War: The Most Decorated Marine in the OSS | Nicholas Reynolds & Katie S. Sanders

Ortiz’s War: The Most Decorated Marine in the OSS | Nicholas Reynolds & Katie S. Sanders

Peter J. Ortiz was the most battle-decorated member of the OSS, America’s wartime forerunner to the CIA, and one of the most decorated Marines of the Second World War. In 1944, the former French Forei...

22 Aug 48min

How GPS Became a Weapon | Katherine Dunn

How GPS Became a Weapon | Katherine Dunn

GPS is the rare piece of infrastructure most of us never think about until it fails — and it is failing more often, in more places, by design. In Little Blue Dot: How GPS Shaped the Modern World, jour...

15 Aug 1h 4min

Populært innen Politikk og nyheter

giver-og-gjengen-vg
aftenpodden
forklart
aftenpodden-usa
popradet
fotballpodden-2
stopp-verden
dine-penger-pengeradet
det-store-bildet
rss-espen-lee-usensurert
rss-gukild-johaug
saken
nokon-ma-ga
hanna-de-heldige
aftenbla-bla
rss-ness
rss-penger-polser-og-politikk
e24-podden
bt-dokumentar-2
frokostshowet-pa-p5