# Trump Goes to Beijing. Neocon Push for Iran Ground Invasion Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-duran-on-odysee-5399169/trump-goes-to-beijing-neocon-push-for-iran-ground-invasion Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-duran-on-odysee-5399169/trump-goes-to-beijing-neocon-push-for-iran-ground-invasion.md Podcast: [The Duran on Odysee](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-duran-on-odysee-5399169) Published: 2026-05-13T08:21:46+00:00 Episode link: https://odysee.com/trump-goes-to-beijing.-neocon-push-for:5104ac21c04928d415234dd3873b00ae9baa6927 Audio file: https://player.odycdn.com/api/v3/streams/free/trump-goes-to-beijing.-neocon-push-for/5104ac21c04928d415234dd3873b00ae9baa6927/d0e15e.mp4 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-duran-on-odysee-5399169/episodes/trump-goes-to-beijing-neocon-push-for-iran-ground-invasion Duration seconds: 1170 ## Resource The Duran: Episode 2518 Donald Trump is heading to Beijing for a two-day summit with Xi Jinping, but according to Alexander Mercouris and Alex Christoforou on The Duran, he's arriving in a far weaker position than he ever anticipated. China has effectively won the trade wars, the US tariff strategy has been repeatedly struck down by the courts, and Iran which Trump hoped to use as leverage over Beijing has proven far more resilient than expected. With China holding the cards on rare earths, energy, and Iran diplomacy, Beijing has little incentive to offer concessions, leaving Trump to negotiate from a position of dependency rather than strength. Meanwhile, neocon architect Robert Kagan has published a chilling Atlantic article that, when read carefully, is quietly making the case for a full-scale US ground invasion of Iran a warning The Duran unpacks in detail. Is Washington's neocon establishment pushing America toward its most dangerous escalation yet, and does Trump have any way out? 00:00:00 Introduction: Trump-Xi Beijing summit overview 00:00:31 Agenda: Iran, Taiwan, trade, and rare earths 00:00:55 Context: A difficult year in US-China relations 00:01:24 Trump's tariff problems and Supreme Court losses 00:02:10 How China won the trade wars 00:03:18 Iran factor: Trump's failed strategy for leverage 00:04:25 Trump goes to Beijing with a weak hand 00:05:24 Is Trump looking for a way out of the Iran conflict? 00:07:20 China's oil reserves and energy resilience 00:09:52 China's strategy: wait it out, like the Vietnam era 00:10:56 Chinese diplomatic style vs. the Russian approach 00:11:28 What does Trump actually want from China? 00:13:44 Kagan and Nuland: the Atlantic article decoded 00:15:32 Nuland, Ukraine 2014, and the neocon memory hol… ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-duran-on-odysee-5399169/episodes/trump-goes-to-beijing-neocon-push-for-iran-ground-invasion/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-duran-on-odysee-5399169/trump-goes-to-beijing-neocon-push-for-iran-ground-invasion.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.