The Rubin Report: The Invisible War Behind Media, Power, and Trump

SPEAKER_1 (0:01)

Power, information, and political control collide in this episode of The Rubin Report. Dave Rubin sits down with Barbara Boyd and Susan Kokinda, leaders of Prometheian Action, for a sweeping conversation about empire, economics, media, and Donald Trump. And their central argument is fascinating: the real war is often invisible, and it's fought inside people's minds. So where do Boyd and Kokinda come from politically? They trace their roots back to the student movement of the nineteen sixties and, before that, to the old Kennedy and Roosevelt traditions. What really drew them in was Lyndon LaRouche's ideas about economics, supply chains, and the physical economy.

Not economics as mere money, but something more tangible.

Boyd explains that their work led them toward the American System, the economic tradition associated with Lincoln and growth through production. But that challenge didn't come without consequences, right? Exactly. She says that once they challenged the prevailing order, "the establishment came after us lock, stock, and barrel." She also reveals they were eventually prosecuted by Robert Mueller. That's quite a history. Now, a major theme in this conversation is how power operates today. What's their take on that?

They argue that power now works through narrative management rather than open force. The conversation returns again and again to Walter Lippmann's idea that "They form their opinions by pictures in their heads," and to his view that intelligence bureaus should direct the media.

Which leads them to what they call the British financial empire. They argue that the old empire never vanished, but shifted into modern institutions, consensus networks, and elite forums like Davos and the World Economic Forum. As Boyd puts it, "It is a myth that the British Empire no longer exists." They connect that system to Operation Mockingbird, to intelligence coordination, and to what they see as elite control over foreign policy and psychology. Kokinda says the goal is to keep people "stupid, controlled, pacified, angry, and at each other's throats." So where does Trump fit into all this? In their telling, Trump became a historic disruption because he refused to play by those rules. Kokinda says he was unique because he "didn't care what the consequences were," and Boyd describes him as someone who knows the battle is larger than short-term politics. The conversation also explores Brexit, the collapse of Western confidence, and the role of Brussels and Switzerland as possible centers for a reshaped elite order. They even bring in Bernie Sanders as a foil, suggesting that rhetoric about oligarchs can coexist with policies that strengthen the very structures being criticized.

Right, and they attack the Democratic Socialists of America as part of a longer institutional pattern. But they end on a note of endurance. They frame AI as a chance for growth, not fear, and insist that even when battles are lost, the war continues, and "the arc of the universe tends toward goodness and justice."