Facebook pixel Listen: Dean Peterson Week in Politics 9/18 | KPCC AirTalk | Newsroom | School of Public Policy Newsroom Skip to main content
Pepperdine | School of Public Policy

Listen: Dean Peterson Week in Politics 9/18 | KPCC AirTalk


Week in politics: Analyzing Trump’s first UN appearance, plus what new poll shows about Americans' trust in Trump to handle North Korea

September 18, 2017 | AirTalk

Listen to the full episode here.

President Trump spoke before the United Nations General Assembly’s opening session in New York City Monday morning and called for across-the-board reform and a departure from “business as usual.”

He called for the organization to cut red tape and get its spending under control, saying that the U.S. funds 22 percent of the U.N. budget. Some had been concerned about how the ‘America First’ agenda that President Trump is expected to bring to the table will sit with the rest of the member nations, which face other pressing international issues like fighting ISIS and getting a handle on recent North Korean aggressions, one of the issues the president is expected to raise when he speaks to the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the U.S. ratcheted up its own rhetoric regarding North Korea over the weekend. It follows a North Korean missile launch over Japan last week. Is the Trump administration looking to take real action as the reclusive country’s regime advances its ballistic missile program?

Plus, President Trump surprised a lot of people when he announced he’d come to a deal with Democratic leaders on protections for undocumented immigrants who were protected under DACA until the administration said last week it would roll back President Obama’s executive order. How are the GOP and his base reacting?

We’ll also talk about the politicization of award shows after last night’s 69th Emmys and how the Trump administration is responding to California’s new ‘sanctuary state’ law.

Guests:

Caroline Heldman, associate professor of politics at Occidental College and author of the forthcoming book, “Protest Politics in the Marketplace: Consumer Activism in the Corporate Age” (Cornell University Press, 2017); she tweets @carolineheldman

Pete Peterson, dean of the School of Public Policy and senior fellow at The Davenport Institute at Pepperdine University; he tweets @Pete4CA