The Mona Charen Show
After a great five year run on Beg to Differ, Mona Charen brings you a new show dedicated to deepening your understanding of complex issues and trends facing society. Each week she'll engage an expert for a probing discussion that goes past the day's headlines.
Episodes
Mona Charen talks with Adam Isacson and John Walsh of the Washington Office on Latin America about Operation Southern Spear, the Trump administration’s deadly strikes on suspected drug-smuggling boats, and the secret legal theory being used to justify them. They examine the killing of survivors in a second strike, Pete Hegseth’s purge of military lawyers, the evidence that the campaign hasn’t reduced the coc...
Mona Charen is joined by Bill Galston, Linda Chavez, and Damon Linker for a "Beg to Differ" reunion! They discuss the Trump administration’s foreign policy and corruption, America’s standing in the world, Israel and Gaza, antisemitism, the Democratic Party’s internal battles over the DSA, and the political significance of upcoming races in Pennsylvania and Michigan. Plus: recommendations for books and TV show...
Mona Charen speaks with former CIA officer Julie Curlee about her two decades in intelligence, her removal from the Trump White House, and what she describes as the dangerous erosion of expertise and nonpartisan analysis across the national security apparatus. They examine intelligence politicization, Iran and Venezuela, and why Curlee believes the loss of experienced public servants could take a generation to repair.
Mona Charen and Will Saletan discuss the fallout from Trump’s Iran war, his attacks on America’s allies, growing trouble for Republicans ahead of the midterms, and the Democratic message that could capitalize on MAGA’s failures.
Mona Charen is joined by Bill Kristol to discuss Mark Twain’s Pudd’nhead Wilson for the August edition of The Bulwark Book Club with viewers. Published in 1894, the novel tells the story of two boys—one born into slavery, the other the master’s son—who were switched in the cradle. They’ll discuss how the book relates to our world today, and whether Mark Twain is more relevant than ever.
Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling (Ret.) joins Mona Charen for a conversation about why character still matters in leadership, how America lost many of the institutions that once helped build it, and what the military can teach about integrity, responsibility, and moral courage in an era of political double standards.
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Mona Charen speaks with The Atlantic’s Idrees Kahloon about how Trump’s immigration, university, trade, fiscal, and foreign-policy agenda could weaken the foundations of long-term American prosperity and global influence. They also discuss China, alliances, executive power, political corruption, and Kahloon’s reconsideration of campaign-finance reform in an era of small-donor-driven extremism and weakened po...
Thomas Edsall tells Mona Charen Democrats can recover from Trump's bad ratings by moderating on three fronts: transgender policy (affirm two sexes, restrict sports/prisons/youth surgery), immigration (pro-legal, pro-enforcement), and crime (oppose lenient DAs and no-bail policies).
His diagnosis: the party's become too elitist and needs working-class voters back to beat MAGA.
Mona Charen and Eric Edelman examine how Trump stumbled into the Iran war without a clear plan, alienated allies, strengthened Tehran's position, and left the United States looking weaker.
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Links mentioned in this episode:
Inside Israel’s Secret Operation to Cultivate Ahmadinejad
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/13/us/politics...
Democrats swore they'd never do what Republicans did with Trump. Then came Graham Platner. Mona Charen and Will Saletan on the fake oysterman, the vetting failure, and the death of shame—plus Trump's World Cup meddling and the loss Mona says America needed.
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Mona Charen is joined by historian Lindsay Chervinsky—executive director of the George Washington Presidential Library—for the Bulwark Book Club, discussing her book Making the Presidency: John Adams and the Precedents That Forged the Republic. They cover Adams's besieged first days in office, a cabinet secretly loyal to Alexander Hamilton, the mob of 10,000 outside the president's house, the Alien and Sedition Ac...
Mona Charen and FT columnist Ed Luce dig into Giorgia Meloni's public dressing down of Trump, the UK's political chaos, and the fallout from Trump's Iran war—including the case that the U.S. is now paying Iran reparations and Israel is boxed into an impossible corner. Plus: Luce's surreal Sunday phone calls with Trump himself.
Upcoming: Mona will interview presidential historian Lindsay Chervinsky about her book, M...
Mona Charen welcomes military analyst Andrew Fox for a conversation on Trump’s Iran ceasefire, whether America squandered its leverage against Tehran, the growing influence of Qatar and Turkey, Israel’s military and political mistakes, Hamas’s strategy in Gaza, and the battle over public opinion that could shape the future of the Middle East.
show notes:
Bulwark Book Club: Mona will interview presidential hist...
On the inaugural Bulwark Book Club, Mark Hertling joins Mona Charen to discuss his new book—If I Don’t Return: A Father’s Wartime Journal—a journal he began during the Gulf War for his young sons in case he never returned home. Their conversation explores combat, leadership, moral injury, fatherhood, friendship, military culture, and what it means to live a life worthy of the sacrifices made by those w...
Mona Charon and Will Saletan on Texas's political earthquake: Paxton's shocking primary win, whether Democrat James Talarico can actually flip the state, the YOLO Republicans finally speaking up too late, and what Bill Cassidy's post-loss laugh tells you about everything.
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Jonathan Chait of The Atlantic joins Mona to discuss the incredible scope and scale of Trump’s corruption—from the $4 billion the Trump family has added to its net worth since January 2025, to the $1.776 billion “weaponization” slush fund, to the dozens of DOJ officials who quit rather than follow corrupt orders. They trace how a century of progressive-era reforms that kept American government relative...
Mona Charen is joined by her dear friend Danielle Crittenden for a powerful and honest discussion about the journey that led Danielle to write a book titled Dispatches from Grief. Danielle’s daughter died suddenly in early 2024 at the age of 32. Mona and Danielle talk about the shock of the loss, the ongoing emotional and physical pain of grief, the power of religious rituals and how eye movement desensitization and rep...
A Man for All Seasons is one of cinema's great moral arguments—six Oscars, a cast of legends, and a story about conscience under autocracy that feels more relevant than ever. Mona Charen and Sonny Bunch dig into why this 1966 film became a touchstone for conservative intellectuals, what it says about people who preach virtue and then fold when it counts, and why Robert Bolt—a leftist—wrote the right's favori...
Mona Charen spoke with Matt Bennett of Third Way for a diagnosis of where the Democratic Party actually stands: a brand stuck at 28% approval, an immigration message that still hasn't landed, the Hasan Piker debate, a Supreme Court that just made gerrymandering easier, and a tariff-driven economic crisis that Democrats inexplicably won't run on.
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Steven Pinker joins Mona Charen to discuss why the world is improving in ways most people don’t recognize—and why so many still believe everything is falling apart. They explore the case for Enlightenment values like reason, science, and liberal democracy, the growing backlash from both the left and MAGA world, and how media and human psychology fuel constant pessimism.
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