Is the American empire in decline? The Trump administration's recent military actions have had certain observers asking... are we going full empire? But <a href="https://history.northwestern.edu/people/faculty/core-faculty/daniel-immerwahr.html"target="_blank" >Daniel Immerwahr</a>, a historian and the author of How to Hide an Empire, argues that the U.S. has engaged in empire building for hundreds of years — we've just been sneakier about it than other countries. In this episode from our friends at Code Switch, host Gene Demby is joined by Daniel to break down why we don’t really think of ourselves as a colonial power – and how President Trump's international escapades are scrambling the global order. For more episodes about the US empire, check out:<a href="https://www.npr.org/2026/05/11/nx-s1-5816338/the-human-labor-that-makes-ai-work"target="_blank" >The human labor that makes AI work</a><a href="https://www.npr.org/2025/06/02/1263527125/its-been-a-minute-canada-us-relationship-politics"target="_blank" >Canada hates us, but it's not all Trump's fault.</a> Support Public Media.<a href="https://plus.npr.org/"target="_blank" > Join NPR Plus.</a> Follow Brittany on Instagram:<a href="https://www.instagram.com/bmluse/?hl=en"target="_blank" > @bmluse</a> For handpicked podcast recommendations every week, subscribe to NPR’s Pod Club newsletter at<a href="http://npr.org/podclub"target="_blank" > npr.org/podclub</a>. See <a href="https://pcm.adswizz.com">pcm.adswizz.com</a> for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. <a href="https://www.npr.org/about-npr/179878450/privacy-policy">NPR Privacy Policy</a>

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