Tom Luongo on Leaving Libertarianism, Iran, the City of London and Trump

Independent analyst and Gold, Goats, and Guns host Tom Luongo joins the show to explain why he's left orthodox libertarianism behind and adopted a framework built around the City of London, the Federal Reserve, and Donald Trump's geopolitical strategy. The conversation ranges from Jerome Powell's rate hikes to Iran's nuclear ambitions, the Strait of Hormuz, Bitcoin's murky origins, and why Tom thinks most libertarian commentary misses the real centers of power entirely.

Tom traces his intellectual break from the Ron Paul/Mises Institute wing of libertarianism back to the post-COVID Fed tightening cycle, arguing that the "coup" against Trump and Powell in 2020–21 mirrors a much older pattern of financial power rooted in London rather than Washington. He recounts a heated confrontation at the Mises Institute where he was cut off mid-speech for suggesting the movement update its models, and uses that story to argue libertarians are prone to the same "purity spiraling" as Bitcoin maximalists or gold bugs. From there, the discussion turns to Trump's Iran policy — framing it as less about Israel and more about dismantling chokepoints, energy dominance, and the offshore dollar system tied to the British Empire's financial remnants. Tom also lays out a theory connecting Bitcoin's DARPA origins to a broader strategy of building a new economic order outside the old London-centered system, and closes by tying Trump's moves in Venezuela and the Middle East to a long-term plan to leave the world harder to drag back into the old status quo.

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Chapters

0:00 – Intro & episode setup

1:47 – Introducing Tom Luongo

3:10 – John's evolution away from libertarian orthodoxy

5:13 – Tom's break: Powell, the Fed, and the 2021 "coup"

10:27 – Naming the enemy: the British Empire, Davos, and the "High Table"

15:16 – The blind spot: why libertarians never blame London

16:36 – Confrontation at the Mises Institute

19:36 – The Last Jedi test: challenging orthodoxy