Trump’s Escape, 5 Years of Taliban Rule, AI Mania

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
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**SPEAKER_2** (1:00)
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**Fareed Zakaria** (1:31)
This is GPS, the Global Public Square. Welcome to all of you in the United States and around the world. I'm Fareed Zakaria coming to you from New York. Today on the program, we'll look at Trump's Turkey Air Force One switcheroo and the very serious claims behind that highly unusual move.
I'll talk to the New York Times' David Sanger.
Ben, it's been five years since Kabul fell, and the Taliban is firmly in control. So what's become of the Afghans who worked alongside American troops against the Taliban during that war?
I speak with an American veteran of the war in Afghanistan.
Also, is AI coming for your job?
We will look at where job losses are likely, and what can be done about them.
But first, here's my take. Last week, a minor geopolitical earthquake shook the Middle East. Saudi Arabia and Turkey, two nations that have been openly hostile toward each other He. has been a veteran of the war in Afghanistan for much of the last decade, pledged to go to war in each other's defense. Along with Pakistan, they signed the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement, declaring NATO style that an attack on one would be treated as an attack on all. Now, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have long had close security ties, but Saudi Arabia and Turkey have been bitter regional rivals, clashing over Qatar, Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood, and most explosively, the murder of Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul, which Turkish leader Erdogan appeared to blame directly on the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. So what brought them together?
Donald Trump, or rather the two countries diminishing faith in him and his word. The Iran war has been a master class in how to squander credibility. Recall that Saudi Arabia and Qatar both received security guarantees from Donald Trump only last year. But Trump's word is as solid with his counterparts abroad as it was with his bankers in New York. He has repeatedly declared that a deal with Iran was just days away. By mid-June, one tally counted at least 38 pronouncements that a deal was near or Iran desperately wanted one. Yet this week, an Iranian source told Reuters that negotiations had made absolutely no progress. The world has learned to treat his truth social announcements as a kind of mix of fact and fiction, like some of the AI generated videos he posts. The same pattern is visible in Europe. In May, Trump announced that 5000 American troops would leave Germany and suggested more cuts were coming. The Pentagon then scrapped a plan deployment of roughly 4000 troops to Poland. Days later, Trump announced that an additional 5000 troops would go to Poland. Sometimes he threatens not to defend Europe against Russia. Other times, he says he will. Imagine being a European defense minister trying to construct a 10-year military plan around this.
Trump declared this week that the United States had total control of the Strait of Hormuz, yet ship-tracking data recorded just 14 vessels transiting in one day recently compared with more than 130 a day before the war. This is not simply a matter of presidential style or rhetoric. It goes to the heart of American power. For eight decades, the United States built up something as powerful as aircraft carriers and squadrons of F-35s, credibility. Allies believed American commitments would endure from one administration to the next. Adversaries understood that American threats, while sometimes exaggerated, carried real weight. The system was not perfect. Washington did break promises and make mistakes. But there was a broad presumption that the United States was a predictable actor and the president's words meant something.