← Americast
Americast
Americanswers…on 5 Live! Is Trump standing up to Putin?
00:36:28
The presidents are speaking on the phone.
Loading summary
Transcript153 lines
- [00:00]
Matt
This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the uk.
- [00:06]
Justin Webb
The US Electric grid is approaching a breaking point as demand soars from data centers and home energy use. Our aging infrastructure can't keep up. And the Department of Energy warns that without action, blackouts could surge 100 fold by 2030. The good news? One solution is already here. Propane. It's American made, stored on site and always ready. Powering homes and businesses with cleaner, reliable energy. That's that doesn't depend on the grid or the weather. Learn more@probane.com this message comes from Greenlight.
- [00:38]
Mariana Spring
Ready to start talking to your kids about financial literacy? Meet Greenlight, the debit card and money app that teaches kids and teens how to earn, save, spend wisely and invest with your guardrails in place. With Greenlight, you can send money to kids quickly, set up chores automate allowance and keep an eye on what your kids are spending with real time notifications. Join millions of parents and kids building healthy financial habits together on Greenlight. Get started risk free@greenlight.com iheart BBC Sounds.
- [01:11]
Sarah Smith
Music radio Podcasts hello Marianna, Anthony and all of our Ameracasters. We have just been chatting to Matt Charlie on Five Live in our regular Monday Amerancer slot when we answer questions that have been sent in by listeners this this week we were talking about what might happen when Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin speak on the phone about Ukraine, scheduled for tomorrow Tuesday.
- [01:36]
Anthony Zurcher
We also spoke about the Trump administration's apparent defiance of a court order that was trying to prevent them from shipping about 200 Venezuelans off to a prison in El Salvador.
- [01:48]
Mariana Spring
And there was a lot of chat about eggs, very specifically eggflation, but also how we like our eggs.
- [01:55]
Sarah Smith
At the end, you'll hear the four of us chatting a little bit more and unpacking the issues a little bit further. Welcome to americancers.
- [02:04]
Mariana Spring
Americast americast from BBC News.
- [02:07]
Anthony Zurcher
You're gambling with the lives of millions of people. You're gambling with World War three. President Trump's message is very simple. We are done being taken advantage of.
- [02:16]
Mariana Spring
Mr. President. In the name of our God, have mercy upon the people.
- [02:21]
Sarah Smith
We're scared now. Are you supportive of these onesies?
- [02:24]
Anthony Zurcher
I'm supportive of vaccines. What is happening?
- [02:26]
Mariana Spring
Like, this is not America. This is a terrible nightmare.
- [02:30]
Anthony Zurcher
This is what victory feels like.
- [02:33]
Sarah Smith
Yeah.
- [02:39]
Matt
Oh, new titles.
- [02:41]
Mariana Spring
Very new.
- [02:42]
Matt
What do we think of that?
- [02:44]
Justin Webb
I love them.
- [02:45]
Mariana Spring
They're very good.
- [02:49]
Sarah Smith
No, I think it's great. And it's such a treat when they do them. We don't actually get very much say in what goes in them. So it's as much of a surprise to us as it is to everybody else when we hear them and I think they've knocked it out of the park this time. That's great.
- [03:01]
Matt
I mean that is all. I think it feels like all of that happened on one day, Anthony.
- [03:06]
Anthony Zurcher
Yeah, it does. I mean things are moving so quickly these days. I think we have to come up with titles every week just to summarize what the latest news is.
- [03:15]
Matt
I have to say I still think the, the original and best version of the Americast theme is this one.
- [03:22]
Mariana Spring
Should we act it out? Elan I'm dark gothic, mega. The little doo doo doo, great big.
- [03:29]
Anthony Zurcher
Growl, couple of hairs, supporter.
- [03:32]
Matt
Yeah, see that's definitely the best one when we couldn't find them one week.
- [03:35]
Mariana Spring
I don't think my impersonations of the new ones would be quite so good as that.
- [03:38]
Matt
Well, I think, but I think you need to, you need to, we need to listen to them for a few.
- [03:41]
Justin Webb
Weeks and then yeah, they have to marinade.
- [03:43]
Matt
Yeah, that's true.
- [03:44]
Justin Webb
Like fine wine. And then eventually I still Rather Ms. The Gu said we need to be able to chew and walk gum at the same time.
- [03:53]
Matt
Where is he now?
- [03:54]
Justin Webb
Where is he now? Well, the answer is not in a good place, I think.
- [03:57]
Matt
Right, let's get on with some questions then and we've got Alison on the line. Hello Alison.
- [04:03]
Mariana Spring
Hi Matt.
- [04:04]
Matt
Where in the world are you Alison?
- [04:06]
Mariana Spring
Oh, well, I'm here in Wiltshire.
- [04:08]
Matt
Very good, very nice. What is your question for the ameracasters?
- [04:12]
Mariana Spring
Okay, well, hi Americastas, My question is this, what could the consequence be if Putin doesn't accept or adhere to any ceasefire? And how could Trump, who is the arch dealmaker, react if he fails? And how could this escalate tensions still further?
- [04:33]
Matt
All good questions, let's start with you Sarah. What will happen if the deal doesn't go through?
- [04:41]
Sarah Smith
Fascinating question. This is what we're all wondering and of course Donald Trump has said, he told us last night that he's planning to speak to Vladimir Putin tomorrow on Tuesday and that they already discussed a fair amount of what land could go to whom, what power plants will be divvied up in different parts of territory. So it's obvious that there have been a lot of discussions behind the scenes about what a peace deal could look like even before we've gotten to the point where Vladimir Putin has signed up to a 30 day ceasefire. So all of this is very much, much in progress. But Alison's questions are absolutely on the money in terms of what happens if Putin doesn't play along? Well, there are some options that Donald Trump could take. He's hinted about increased sanctions on Russia if they won't sign up to a ceasefire. Beyond that, he's so unlikely to take any kind of military action because he's pretty allergic to using American forces to do something like that overseas. It's hard to know actually what his ultimate sanction would be. He would be very, very annoyed about it. And every time Vladimir Putin pisses him off, if indeed he does, he prejudices the chance that a US Brokered deal might be more favorable to Ukraine. But if Russia wants to absolutely dig its heels in and say, we're not talking about any kind of peace deal, so it doesn't matter how favorable you want to be to President Zelenskyy and to Ukraine, then I guess, ultimately, without getting militarily involved, it's hard to know what America could ultimate to try and force Russia into a peace deal.
- [06:15]
Matt
So what then do you think we should expect from these talks? The fact that talk is happening between Trump and Putin and Anthony, does that point to progress or just they haven't yet spoken about what? Can we read into even the existence of these talks?
- [06:32]
Anthony Zurcher
I think it's a necessary step because the US And Ukraine had those meetings in Saudi Arabia last week. We got comments from Vladimir Putin accepting the idea of a ceasefire, but putting a lot of conditions on it. So this hopefully will allow Donald Trump and his administration to push Putin and get him down, nail him down on some of the details to see if they can get him to where he would accept a ceasefire. You know, if he comes out and says no or finds other reasons to object. One of the things Donald Trump has time and time and again done is seem to give Vladimir Putin the benefit of the doubt. We saw that just a couple days ago where there were reports that Steve Witkoff, who was the special representative for Trump, going to Moscow to meet with Putin. There were reports that he got, he had to sit around for hours before he met with Putin and that he was being disrespected there. And Trump himself came out on his social media site said, no, no, no, he's been treated very well. And Vladimir Putin was doing other things, but they were having meetings. I mean, he was making excuses, excuses essentially for Vladimir Putin. And we've heard Donald Trump touting the line that Vladimir Putin has put forward on the Ukraine war again and again. So even if Vladimir Putin does something to delay a ceasefire or throw up more objections, I don't see open anger or defiance coming from Trump in response.
- [07:56]
Justin Webb
I think the other thing is that long term, who knows what will happen and what games Putin will play and how Trump will respond. And, you know, the whole business say there is a ceasefire, how on earth it's policed and whether a America is involved and what happens when they break it, as the Russians, almost certainly most military experts think eventually will to sort of test what's going on. But in the short term, I do think we shouldn't lose sight of the fact that Putin is not in a desperately good position. I know they've been making some military progress in Ukraine, but it's at enormous cost, an enormous cost within Russia. And there is this carrot as well as the potential sticks from Trump, there is this carrot Russia basically being reinvolved in the international commercial world. There's a piece, I think it's in the FT today about how investors, savvy investors are already working out how you might be able to make a bit of money out of Russia being re involved in the outside world. So there are pluses for Putin as well in at least pretending to behave short term. So I'm not necessarily. I think we should be slightly cautious about thinking it's all got to be stick or else nothing happens. I think the carrot is there at the mom.
- [09:07]
Matt
A question actually from Keith, who says if the Trump Peace Treaty gives so much to Putin, could Ukraine and Europe reject it? And what would Trump do then, as he's desperate for a Nobel Peace Prize. Is he desperate for Nobel Peace Prize? I suppose everybody's really. We all are in a way.
- [09:24]
Justin Webb
Well, he didn't like it that Obama got it, did he?
- [09:25]
Matt
Yeah, of course. For what did he get it for?
- [09:28]
Justin Webb
Well, his people used to say he ought to get it for chemistry.
- [09:32]
Anthony Zurcher
Chemistry?
- [09:34]
Matt
Oh, it was before he became president.
- [09:37]
Justin Webb
Told it straight it was for nothing.
- [09:39]
Matt
Yeah. Is there any prospect, though, of Europe rejecting it?
- [09:43]
Justin Webb
Oh, gosh, no.
- [09:44]
Matt
And Ukraine?
- [09:45]
Anthony Zurcher
No.
- [09:45]
Justin Webb
I mean, what a rift that would be. What a rift. I could see Ukraine rejecting it. I could see them fighting on. That's another thing we maybe don't talk about enough with supplies of weapons and with the weapons they make themselves and they make some pretty good ones, particularly drones now, and they might say to themselves, look, it's going to be a nightmare, but we'll carry on for a bit. And that has to be at least a possibility that you. We can't rule out.
- [10:10]
Matt
And Mariana, what's your reading of where. Because although from a British perspective, people sort of look across to The US and think, why aren't they supporting Ukraine and Zelensky, but domestically, the Trump supporters like what he's doing.
- [10:27]
Mariana Spring
Yeah, it's interesting. I was actually thinking while everyone was chatting there all about that meeting that we discussed very extensively between President Zelensky and Donald Trump and J.D. vance and how it kind of makes like a bit more sense whether you hated it or didn't. Now that you look at the kind of complexity of the negotiations that appear to be going on with Vladimir Putin and that even that wasn't enough perhaps to convince him of Donald Trump's desire to come up with a peace deal that somehow would accommodate sort of everyone involved. When you look at my undercover voters, my hidden, what do you call them? My secret voters, My secret voters, my hidden voters, I never talk about them, ever. These fictional characters with social media profiles across all the main sites. And in terms of how all of this is playing out, I mean it's very much been a stick to beat Trump with from the anti Trump people on social media. So if you look at some of my most left leaning undercover voter, her feed is really going quite hard on this. Like, you know, Donald Trump is best friends with Vladimir Putin and this is what he wants and so on and so forth. Although this kind of friction that perhaps exists, or at least Moscow is implying exists right now kind of undermines that argument a little bit. So it isn't flying in the same way as before. In terms of Donald Trump's supporters and particularly the sort of Britney, for example, who is my most avid Trump supporter, her feed is just very much still backing him, behind him sort of pro peace and just continues to focus on the same argument that Donald Trump made in that meeting with Zelenskyy about money basically and saying we kind of don't want to spend this money on this stuff anymore. And so there's a sort of hope that there will be a peace deal and that remains. But as we know, social media is kind of allergic to nuance and so a lot of what we're discussing doesn't get anywhere near their feeds.
- [12:18]
Matt
Well, thank you for that, Alison. That was a great question and clearly quite a lot to play out maybe after these talks have happened between Putin and Chauncy right now. But Alison, good to speak to you.
- [12:28]
Sarah Smith
Bye bye.
- [12:29]
Matt
Thanks very much. We've had an email from Stephen in Berkshire and obviously this comes again. He's talking about Canada, comes against the background of Mark Carney's in London today on Monday meeting Kiss Keir Starmer, obviously having been to The White House to try and placate Donald Trump. And that's a slightly tricky thing to navigate. Listeners to my five Life show will be will know that we've launched our own rival Canadacast feature which has proven incredibly popular. It's proven incredibly popular, actually.
- [12:56]
Justin Webb
It won't be consumed by AmericasT.
- [12:59]
Matt
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. It will just become a short item at the end of.
- [13:02]
Mariana Spring
If it becomes consumed by americast. Justin. I think that might oppose all sorts of diplomatic problems.
- [13:07]
Matt
We did also do Mexicanada cast last week, so you know, we're very international. Anyway, Stephen, in Bartch's email, why is Trump so obsessed with making Canada the 51st state? Surely in the unlikely event that he succeeds, 40 million Canadians will vote Democrat at the midterm elections or the 2028 presidential election. It's a good question from Stephen. Anthony, is the mistake that Stephen's applying there logic?
- [13:32]
Anthony Zurcher
Yeah. You know, if you start thinking about what it would mean that that is one of the first things that comes to mind. I mean, Canadians have socialized medicine, they're very left leaning. Why wouldn't that be a big boon to the Democratic Party to have all voters there, not just two senators in the US Senate, but countless members of the House of Representatives and electoral votes if they do become a full fledged state? I don't, I don't think Donald Trump has ever thought that far ahead or at least talked about it that far ahead. Initially we thought it was all just kind of a joke, a way of needling Justin Trudeau and kind of getting under his skin. But the way he keeps talking about it, I think he looks at Canada and sees a lot of commonalities between the United States and Canada. Why should there be a border? He says it's artificial. And I think he looks at Canadian natural resources, the oil and the timber and the water, and he sees all of those things that be much more useful if they were incorporated into the United States. But it still seems from a practical standpoint, absurd. And of course there's the, the fact that the Canadians, including Carney, are wholeheartedly against any kind of annexation.
- [14:42]
Matt
Yeah, we should say Mark Carney because he's been in France before coming to the UK where he said, I want to ensure that France and all of Europe work enthusiastically with Canada, the most European of non European countries, sparking speculation amongst some that in fact Canada could join the eu, which I'm not sure necessarily, Sarah, that Donald Trump would be fully on board with.
- [15:04]
Sarah Smith
No, because one of the things that seems to really irk Donald Trump about Canada is the fact that there's a balance of trade deficit, that Canada exports more into America than America exports to Canada. And it really, really seems to get under Donald Trump's skin when that happens. And it's the same with the eu. And that's why, of course, he's talking about imposing tariffs on imports from the eu. And if you'll excuse my language, he says all the time that the EU was set up deliberately just to screw America. He thinks that's the entire purpose of the European Union. So, yeah, if Canada were to join them, that would probably redouble his efforts to try and do something or other with Canada. It is, as Anthony says, impossible to imagine how you could force Canada to join the US when its people don't want to, without getting into scenarios that just seem absolutely fanciful. But, yeah, I think it is. It's natural resources and an idea. I think that Donald Trump wants to, wants to dominate this hemisphere from Canada, United States of America, Mexico, dominate that space and probably withdraw from the rest of the world. Not caring about whether he's got soft power, influence in Europe or Southeast Asia or things like that, sort of pull himself in, but control all of the surrounding territories and somehow that, that would be a more cost efficient and an effective way of deterring others from messing with America.
- [16:25]
Matt
We'll see how that plays out. And how Keir Starmer gets on with Mark Carney. Let's move on. We've got loads of questions to try and get through. Michelle in Galway is back. Hello, Michelle.
- [16:33]
Mariana Spring
Hi, everyone.
- [16:34]
Sarah Smith
I'm, I'm here for an update on.
- [16:36]
Mariana Spring
The egg price situation. So, yeah, Michelle was boasting about the price coming down there on, on the Internet, on Truth Social.
- [16:46]
Matt
Yeah. So let's have a. No. So he's, he was talking in a very, very, very long winded address at the, just the Justice Department. Out of nowhere, he started saying this.
- [16:57]
Anthony Zurcher
Inflation. Look at what inflation's done to people. Been so devastating. And now you see that. By the way, price of eggs is down 35% in the last week and a half. Inflation's down, interest rates are down, gasoline has come down, down to a level that we haven't seen in a long time. All things that we wanted to do because then everything else is going to be coming down. We want it to come down, we want bacon to come down and groceries.
- [17:22]
Matt
Is that, is this right? The eggs have come down in 35 in the last week and a half. Is that right, Sarah?
- [17:28]
Sarah Smith
They have in their wholesale prices and I don't Know why everybody else is laughing so much? The price of egg is a serious business.
- [17:34]
Matt
I'm not laughing. I'm obsessed with eggs.
- [17:36]
Mariana Spring
I'm just remembering all the egg puns.
- [17:38]
Matt
We are not. Oh, yeah, that's right. That's what I was laughing, Mariana.
- [17:40]
Sarah Smith
Yes, yes. So he doesn't care about the price of them. I eat a lot of eggs every day and so I come. I get stung also by the fact that you're not allowed to buy more than a dozen in any shop at the moment in Washington because of the egg shortage. It is true that the price of wholesale eggs has come down by about 35%. That's not fully been passed on to consumers like me yet. But Donald Trump is absolutely correct when he thinks that the prices are moving in the right direction for him. Now, the other story I've come across, though, that I love. I live a little bit too far away from the southern border for this, but apparently the smuggling of eggs from Mexico into America has gone through the effectively tackled on the border, illegal immigration. And they claim that fewer drugs are getting across, but more eggs than ever before are being smuggled into America because they're cheaper in Mexico.
- [18:31]
Matt
Have you ever smuggled an egg, Justin?
- [18:32]
Justin Webb
No, but I wonder how they smuggle them, too. You can't put them individually.
- [18:36]
Mariana Spring
They're quite delicate.
- [18:37]
Matt
You can't throw them over a wall unless you've got someone.
- [18:40]
Justin Webb
I suppose you can if you're making an oven.
- [18:41]
Matt
The other side.
- [18:42]
Justin Webb
Yeah, well, Sarah's a great brunch person, so I had some very nice brunches with Sarah down the years. I think that's led to an egg.
- [18:50]
Mariana Spring
Egg aficionado.
- [18:53]
Justin Webb
Yeah, egg aficionado that the rest of us maybe don't share.
- [18:57]
Mariana Spring
Oh, I was just gonna say, Matt, I just think the thing that's so interesting about the eggs and kind of to this point, about the post on Truth Social and how it almost shows you how Donald Trump is so aware that something very specific like that is just such a. An effective way of people saying, hang on a second, this thing you said would be better. Is it better yet? And there have been quite a few people on TikTok and other places posting about their eggs, a bit like Sarah either finding them hard to find or saying, hang on a second, they still don't feel less expensive, even if he's saying they are.
- [19:26]
Matt
How do you like your eggs in the morning, Sarah?
- [19:30]
Sarah Smith
Well, for ease on a weekday morning, soft boil. But when I've got a bit more time at the weekend, poached Usually you.
- [19:37]
Mariana Spring
Matt, what eggs do you like?
- [19:38]
Matt
I think poaching is easier than in soft boiling. I find the whole boiling an egg is much more stressful in terms of timing.
- [19:46]
Sarah Smith
I've got a little gadget. I'll sort you out with a gadget.
- [19:50]
Justin Webb
That.
- [19:53]
Sarah Smith
You can get anything in it.
- [19:54]
Justin Webb
That's all you get.
- [19:56]
Matt
So Paul left it behind. Anthony, what's going on with bacon? Why is he now talking about is there a problem with bacon?
- [20:05]
Anthony Zurcher
Not that I've seen. I think bacon prices, eggs have been the ones that have spiked the most. Pork bellies is actually what bacon is measured on in the commodities market. And it had been caught up in all of the increases in inflation. And he has promised to bring down the price of groceries across the board. Obviously eggs were the biggest thing that people were talking about right now. They had a spike in 2023 and now they spiked again. But I think until Americans start feeling it in the grocery store and see prices come down across the board, they're still going to be uneasy. And so that's why Donald Trump isn't just focused on eggs. He's focused on all the different kind of commodities that, that people buy every day, I suppose.
- [20:50]
Matt
Michelle, before we let you go, we should ask what's the egg situation in Ireland like?
- [20:55]
Mariana Spring
Well, we're starting to get more concentrated on Easter eggs now, especially my house because I have a five year old.
- [21:00]
Justin Webb
And a seven year old.
- [21:01]
Mariana Spring
So regular eggs are dead to them. And it's the only thing with chocolate.
- [21:06]
Matt
Yeah, you don't want to try poaching those though. You'll get in the right mess. Michelle, thank you for coming back and asking us about eggs. So, Michelle, there in Galway, we've got so many messages. We'll try to get through as many as we can. Derek has sent a question about the REM of numerous Venezuelans in direct breach of a court order. Before we get to the question, could you explain what's occurred there?
- [21:28]
Justin Webb
Yeah, well, what's occurred is there's a group of, I think several hundred Venezuelans. They stuck them on planes to take them to. Not to Venezuela, to El Salvador, I think to prison to get them out. They alleged that they were gang members without obvious evidence that anyone has seen. But they were rounded up and sent. A court said, don't do it, we need to see the evidence. We need to have a couple of weeks to think about this. They did it anyway. Now what they say is that the court didn't have the right to countermand what the President wanted to do. They Also said that the plane was already in international water, so couldn't turn back. And our emailer is quite right to bring this up as a potential for this kind of clash, this constitutional clash that people have talked about. We haven't really seen so far where the courts, right the way up to the Supreme Court say to the Trump administration, you must do X or Y, and they just don't.
- [22:26]
Matt
So, in fact, so Sarah Derek's email says, are there any immediate legal consequences of ignoring the court order? To what extent do the Supreme Court rulings give president giving presidential immunity play a part here? What happens if they just ignore it?
- [22:43]
Sarah Smith
So the Supreme Court ruling said that anything the president does in an official capacity is not a criminal offense. So I guess that means that if it were ever, ever to come to it, you couldn't prosecute Donald Trump personally for this. But this is about the executive branch being in opposition to the judicial branch, basically, and who's going to win that fight. So this hasn't gone all the way to the Supreme Court yet. It was a federal judge who said, you may not deport these people and you should turn the plane around if it's on its way to El Salvador. And people are trying to work out now exactly what time the plane landed and whether it had landed before this order had been issued online. Because if they did carry on despite having been told to stop by a judge, that would be the first time that the administration has just completely breached a court order. We've been talking about, are we in a constitutional crisis for weeks. And I think we're pretty much all decided. It's only at the point at which the White House is ignoring court rulings that you could even claim it was a constitutional crisis. And then it does test exactly what it is that the courts can do to try and stop the president. Anthony has a very clever phrase about this, and I'd love to nick it from him and use it right now, but I can't remember it precisely enough. What does it say, Anthony?
- [23:59]
Anthony Zurcher
I don't know. Which one are you referring to?
- [24:02]
Sarah Smith
Some president said about the Supreme Court, you know, coming. Come and enforce it.
- [24:08]
Anthony Zurcher
Oh, right. It's the Andrew Jackson rule. You know, the chief justice has made his decision, now let's see him enforce it. Essentially, it might be apocryphal, but he said something like that. There's Andrew Jackson, a president in the 19th century that Donald Trump definitely respects and praises. So, yeah, the Supreme Court could conceivably, or any of these courts, including this district court, could, could issue a ruling finding the Trump administration in contempt of court. That's something that they, they can do. And there are a couple of ways they could take it, go from there. They could find them in civil contempt and fine either the Trump administration officials who carried out or defy this order or even the agencies that did it. They could also cite criminal contempt, and that could, if they could make the case, include imprisoning officials who, who still went forward without heeding this court decision. Of course, Donald Trump could pardon anyone in his administration who was found in criminal contempt of court. So there is that potential, as Sarah mentioned, there is the potential that Trump's immunity from the Supreme Court from last year would also protect him from criminal contempt of court. But it seems like the next step if this judge decides that, yes, the, the Trump officials openly divide him and they are, they are not offering any kind of excuses or trying to fight it legally, he could find them in contempt of court. And that would be a drastic escalation in these brewing battles that have been between Donald Trump and the court system.
- [25:43]
Mariana Spring
We should say, Matt, as well, that I'm not sure if you've seen on I'm not sure whether our emailer has seen on X anyAmericasters listening. But this is now also starting to play out this kind of deportation row in almost like a sort of Twitter feud, a Twitter spat, which perhaps comes as no surprise given that Elon Musk, X's owner, has favored this sort of form of diplomacy quite a lot recently. But there was this tweet that was basically shared by the president of El Salvador, who is right wing, called hopefully I'm not pronouncing this right, Nayib Bukele. And he had basically shared it's a screen grab of a New York Post article that says the federal judge orders deportation flights carrying these alleged Venezuelan immigrants to return to the U.S. blah, blah, blah. Block Trump from invoking Alien enemies Act. And he's replied saying, oopsie, too late. And then one of the members of the White House communications team, the White House communications director Stephen Chung, has kind of quote, tweeted it with a, with a funny emoji like gif, agreeing with it, which just kind of tells you about like how this, you can't imagine any of the, any of the people involved in the, the judge decisions and legal system would be posting about this in quite the same way.
- [26:57]
Matt
Really, really interesting. Well, let's try, we've got a few more minutes. Let's try and get through as many things as we can. Simon says I read an article recently regarding the lack of criticism from past presidents regarding Trump's handling of Ukraine and his blunderbuss style of government. And the elephant in the room, Elon Musk. My question to the collective brains of americast is, how do they read this situation as it has been observed, How Trump and his supporters go on the attack and most past presidents feel they don't need the aggro stating their opinion. Justin?
- [27:25]
Justin Webb
Yeah, I mean, they've given up, really, haven't they? Because Trump is just something that is impossible to oppose in conventional politics. And they have, all of them. You know, George W. Bush, they tried desperately to get him to get involved before the election, and he never did. And he's obviously not going to now. Clinton, Bill Clinton. I saw him just before the election and he's quite a reduced force now, but he did his best. Barack Obama seems quite huffy. Seemed quite huffy during the election, now has gone silent again. There is this kind of sense that he's just so extraordinary and so outside anything that any of these politicians on either side of the aisle have ever come across before. They have.
- [28:08]
Matt
Yeah.
- [28:08]
Justin Webb
I think. I think he's right. They've kind of given up.
- [28:11]
Matt
Fascinating. We've had so many messages while we've been talking. Ian in Altrincham says, I'm gonna miss Mariana doing her Elon Musk impression.
- [28:19]
Mariana Spring
Oh, thank you. You're probably the only person in the world who said, were you doing an.
- [28:22]
Matt
Impression of Elon Musk or was it.
- [28:24]
Mariana Spring
Is it not Donald Trump's dark Gothic maggot?
- [28:26]
Matt
Oh, dark Gothic maga. Do you want to do it again for us?
- [28:28]
Mariana Spring
Oh, okay. Just for Ian. I can't remember the quote now. He says, I am dark Gothic maga.
- [28:36]
Anthony Zurcher
Not just maga. I'm dark.
- [28:38]
Mariana Spring
I'm Gothic Maga. See, look. Even. And his absence. Better.
- [28:40]
Matt
That brings us on to John's been in touch, saying, is that Anthony Zurcher, the Martin Lewis of the American politics world? What doesn't this bloke know?
- [28:49]
Mariana Spring
Very true.
- [28:50]
Sarah Smith
Oh, that's very good.
- [28:55]
Justin Webb
That makes it even richer.
- [28:56]
Matt
It's the one thing he doesn't know is who Martin Lewis is.
- [29:00]
Justin Webb
Come on, Anthony, do better.
- [29:01]
Matt
We've had several messages about smuggling of eggs. Alan says because the wall is a fence, you can simply pass the eggs through it. Clive says you ask how you smuggle eggs. The answer is you let them hatch and they'll fly over. Thank you for that. And then we've got a final message. Ann in Northampton sent in a question for Sarah on email, which our producer Becky has voiced a stop.
- [29:23]
Mariana Spring
I've been traveling around New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia over the last week. I loved my stay in Washington, in the Capital Hill area. How do you like it, Sarah? Is it such a far cry from Glasgow?
- [29:35]
Matt
So we're only interested in Sarah here?
- [29:38]
Sarah Smith
Well, I love it, living here and I loved living in Glasgow. I'm trying to think, though, if there are any genuine similarities. So, yeah, as I mentioned at the beginning, there's a bright blue sky, the sun is shining today, so that. That's not entirely normal. It has actually it rained very slightly the weekend, but that was the first time in about a fortnight. So that bears no similarities to Glasgow whatsoever.
- [29:58]
Matt
Did you have an egg boiling?
- [30:01]
Sarah Smith
Well, it's that I got out of an Uber this morning to come to work and the driver told me to have a blessed day, which. And people in Glasgow are very nice, but they rarely say that to you. The one thing I have to say, though, is as much as I love living here and all the Americans that I work with and socialise with, they're not as funny as Ouija's. I mean, there is just essentially, you know, a sense of humor that is very, very special and cracks me up and they just don't quite get it here in America.
- [30:30]
Matt
An excellent way to round things off. Thanks for that. That was our Ameracaster, Sarah Smith, Anthony Zurcher, Justin Webb and Mariana Spring. If you've got questions at any point, you can email americastbc.co.uk, or you can go on the discord and put your questions on there, or you can text us 8,000, 505. We've got absolutely loads. If we can, we'll try and come back to some more of them next week.
- [30:59]
Sarah Smith
We promised we would answer at least one more question. And as it is St Patrick's Day today in Ireland, the UK and in America. Here's one from Rosie who asks, up until now, the US has given prominence to its historic political and economic links with Ireland, both the country itself and the American Irish community. What influence, if any, will Ireland now have with Donald Trump? That's a good one, Anthony, what do you think?
- [31:24]
Anthony Zurcher
Well, it's kind of interesting. The mixed martial arts fighter Conor McGregor was in the White House this morning here in D.C. and he was talking to reporters. He's meeting with Donald Trump, said he warned that Ireland was losing its Irishness because of immigration and that Americans need to know about the. The dire situation in Ireland right now and the failure of leadership. So Yes. I think Donald Trump may have an affinity for Ireland, but the people he's going to be talking to might be pushing him to bring a little bit of MAGA back to Ireland. So that is something to be watching in the days ahead.
- [31:58]
Mariana Spring
Yeah. So Conor McGregor is an MMA fighter, so mixed martial arts, and he's someone who's built a huge social media following, not least for pushing ideas about immigration and in opposition to immigration, and ideas that often can feel very aligned with people like Elon Musk, for example, who we know is very much close to Donald Trump right now. The reason that he's become so controversial, especially recently, isn't just because some people don't agree with his views on immigration, but because he lost a civil case against a woman who accused him of rape. She won her claim against him for damages. He's appealing that judgment, but it kind of explains why people were like, hold on a second, why is this guy being talked about in this way? And also some people saying, well, hang on a second, why is he in the White House?
- [32:41]
Sarah Smith
Justin, you remember it wasn't just the Biden administration that was very kind of pro Ireland and talking up Irish links all the time, although Joe Biden absolutely loved to do that. It's something that you've heard from lots and lots of different administrations, always very keen to sort of play up any Irish link that they can find. But it might be different with Donald Trump.
- [33:01]
Justin Webb
Even Obama, who used to call himself O Apostle Obama of the Obamas, as he jokingly said when he came to Ireland. Yeah, I mean, it's a great. Because, I mean, let's be frank about it. Irish Americans are an important constituency or have been, and in some key places like Pennsylvania. And they've had a kind of sense of themselves as a community and still do to a large extent. And that's why St. Patrick's Day has always been a pretty big deal. And then you think back to the troubles in Northern Ireland and the help that America gave in the end in bringing those troubles to an end, which was very important, actually still important in Northern Ireland to this day. So there's a huge involvement. But I mean, to answer, certainly from my perspective, Rosie's question directly, she asked, what influence, if any, will Ireland now have with Donald Trump? I think the answer with Donald Trump is zero, actually. I think they think, for all the reasons we've just been explaining, they ally themselves with forces in Ireland that are certainly not part of the Irish government. And they don't think much of the Irish government, and they don't think much of what they see as a wokery that has taken over Ireland. And on trade, of course, Ireland is part of the European Union, and their beef is with the European Union and every country in the European Union, and Ireland's one of them.
- [34:13]
Sarah Smith
Donald Trump does have one golf course in Ireland. And as we know, he's he's keener on his golf courses than just about anything else on earth. So Ireland has that going in its favor. But of course, Scotland has two. So, you know, might always win.
- [34:24]
Mariana Spring
And just to that point, kind of that you were touching on originally, Anthony, the kind of flip side of it is like, actually, Rosie, it might be not that the impact of Ireland on the US Matters very much, but rather that the impact of what Donald Trump says and does about Ireland could have ramifications. Like the idea that, for example, someone like Conor McGregor, a hugely controversial figure, could be accepted back on the political or accepted back is probably the wrong word, but sort of enter the political scene in Ireland in quite a forceful way because it feels like he has the backing or endorsement of Donald Trump or Elon Musk. That could have quite big implications in Ireland, particularly because he is such a divisive figure. And interesting that there wasn't widespread condemnation a little bit like when Keir Starmer went to the White House. And it kind of felt like he was he was kind of agreeing a little bit or going along with certain ideas and comments Donald Trump says that he wouldn't traditionally say. It kind of felt like the same energy last week. And what does that mean in terms of decision making that actually happens in Ireland? Or is that just what people do when they visit your house, for example, the White House? And part of making sure that everything went smoothly and wasn't too frosty meant quite a lot of chat about socks. And this was what J.D. vance had to say about his pair of socks.
- [35:32]
Anthony Zurcher
Utah so, Cullen, in your honor, I've worn these shamrocks. And I would say, I will say when we meet later in the Oval Office to the Tea Shop, the president is a very big fan of conservative dress.
- [35:49]
Matt
So if he notices these socks, you have to defend me in the Oval Office and say this is an important.
- [35:55]
Anthony Zurcher
Part of cementing the Irish American relationship. That's the only reason I'm wearing these socks. We're thrilled to have you. Thank you and God bless you.
- [36:04]
Sarah Smith
And when they got into the Oval Office, it didn't take long for Donald Trump to hone in on exactly those socks and ask JD Vance why he was wearing them. And I have to say that they weren't the best socks I've ever seen. Anyway, and thank you so much for listening to our St. Patrick's Day episode of America Answers. We'll be back in another couple of days. Till then, see you later. Bye.
- [36:23]
Justin Webb
Bye, bye.
- [36:24]
Anthony Zurcher
Goodbye.
- [36:25]
Mariana Spring
Bye. Ameracast Ameracast from BBC News.
- [36:31]
Justin Webb
Well, look, thanks for listening all the way to the end of today's AmericasT. You are now officially an AmericasT. It is, of course, a ride, a wild ride, navigating the US News, particularly in the era of Trump. You have made it. If you have a comment, a question about the things we've talked about or anything at all, actually, get in touch with us. The email is americastbc.co.uk. the WhatsApp is 033-01-239480. We answer your questions every single week, actually, on the podcast, so keep them coming. You can join the online community as well on Discord. The link is in the podcast description on your app. We will be back with another podcast very soon. So then, see you later. Bye.