The Hundred Year Pivot Ep. 11 – Brian Winter

**Grant Williams** (0:10)
Before we get going, here's the bit where I remind you that nothing we discuss should be considered as investment advice. This conversation is for informational and hopefully entertainment purposes only. So, while we hope you find it both informative and entertaining, please do your own research or speak to a financial advisor before putting a dime of your money into these crazy markets. And now, on with the show. Welcome, everybody, to the first episode of The New Year for The Hundred Year Pivot. Joining me, my good friend and co-host, and the Sanchez Panza to my Don Quixote, or in fact, the other way around, Demetri Kofidis. Hey, my friend, how are you? How was your holidays? Have a good time?

**Demetri Kofidis** (0:59)
Yeah, actually, it was. It was a good time. It was one of the only times that I've had even a few days where I don't do anything that's related to work or anything productive.

**Grant Williams** (1:09)
It's hard, isn't it?

**Demetri Kofidis** (1:10)
It's hard, but we were just discussing how I'm at a stage now where that is a discipline that I need to instill in myself. When you're younger, you learn to say yes to every opportunity. And then you have to unlearn that as you get older. And it's surprisingly difficult.

**Grant Williams** (1:26)
Yeah. No, I'm reminded of the old joke about the father bull and the son bull at the top of the hill looking at all the cows. But I won't do it here. This is a family show. But it's very true. As you get older, as you get older, you have to learn to prioritize and be a lot more patient with things.

**Demetri Kofidis** (1:41)
Yeah, for sure.

**Grant Williams** (1:43)
So, I mean, we have a fantastic guest join us today that you have brilliantly lined up for us, Brian Winter. Now, I was unaware of Brian until you suggested him for this conversation. And then I started digging in to his body of work. And what a tremendous conversation this is going to be. So why don't you tell people a little bit about Brian?

**Demetri Kofidis** (2:00)
Yeah, he's the editor-in-chief of America's Quarterly and the vice president of policy for America Society and the Council of the Americas. He's an expert on Latin America. He's lived in Brazil, Argentina, and I think Mexico as a journalist for Reuters. And he just has fantastic takes on the region. He's been on my list of guests that I wanted to bring on the show for some time. And I had been intending to bring him on after he published a recent article for Foreign Affairs talking about Latin America's revolution of the right. Because I felt that this was not only interesting in the context of Latin America, but also in the context of the national security strategy and not just the concept of, you know, Trump corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, but also because of the section on Europe. And those who have read the national security strategy will know that the Trump administration spent as much time or more, if I remember correctly. Maybe the entire part of it was the European part of it was like culture war stuff. And, you know, I feel like there's something going on separate from the traditional paradigm of thinking about national security that involves an international right wing movement and a coalition of right wing parties. And Trump is sort of the de facto leader of these movements in Europe and in Latin America, with Buquenle and Millet. And so I wanted to bring Brian on to talk about this. And then, of course, Trump and, you know, we were already we're obviously seeing what was going on in Venezuela. But then in recent days, Trump extracted Maduro and his wife. And now we have this relevant news peg. And so I felt like it would be an amazing opportunity to bring him on and cover all of that, as well as the broader ideological movement in Latin America and how Trump's actions in South America fit into the broader national security strategy. And what I think is a transformation in American grand strategy. I think that Trump will be remembered as one of the most consequential presidents in American history. And it isn't a normative statement. It's a statement of fact. I mean, I think that, you know, 50 years from now, when school children are studying American history, they certainly won't remember Joe Biden. They won't even know that there was a president that existed between Trump's two terms. And I think they might even struggle to remember that there was who Barack Obama was. But Trump will be remembered because he first broke the bipartisan consensus on China that existed until he came into office in 2016, collapsed the Republican Party in so doing.