America

Thursday

Brendan O’Neill Brendan O’Neill

Donald Trump is liberating the US from the transgender madness

I thought Donald Trump was a woman-hater? The Guardian told us he’s a ‘far-right misogynist’ whose return to the White House would strike ‘visceral horror’ into the hearts of women everywhere. He’s the ‘misogynist in chief’, said CNN. Perhaps someone could explain, then, why he just signed an executive order in favour of women’s rights while surrounded by a joyous throng of beaming girls? The order is searingly feminist. It’s a manifesto against misogyny The scenes in the White House yesterday were extraordinary. Trump signed an order titled ‘Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports’. It commands every educational institution and athletic association that receives federal funding to keep blokes, however

Martin Vander Weyer Martin Vander Weyer

Britain’s Trumpists should be careful what they wish for

When I visited Toronto with a UK delegation last winter, conversation focused on the issues of immigration, housing and inflation that were contributing to the unpopularity of Justin Trudeau, who finally announced his resignation as prime minister last month. The prospect of Donald Trump’s return to the White House was the slumbering python in the chandelier above the conference table: I sensed our hosts preferred not to think about how bad it might turn out to be. Well, now they know. In response to Trump’s declaration of 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian goods, plus 10 per cent on imported energy, Trudeau retorted with tariffs on many billions worth of

Kara Kennedy

MAGA Kids: How America’s youth went right

Washington, D.C. ‘What made you open a restaurant?’ I ask Bart Hutchins, the owner of Butterworth’s, a French-style bistro turned Republican hangout, frequented by the youthful wings of the Grand Old Party. It’s home to figures from the intellectual right such as Curtis Yarvin and darlings of New Right media including Natalie Winters, the increasingly slim White House correspondent for Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast. ‘Have you read Death in the Afternoon?’ Bart says. ‘No,’ I say. ‘It’s by Hemingway.’ ‘I know.’ Bart pulls his phone out and starts to recite a few lines: ‘In cafés where the boys are never wrong; in cafés where they are all brave; in

Oren Cass

What economists don’t get about Trump’s tariffs

We already knew that most economists are quite bad at economic policy. Unfortunately, foreign policy appears not to be much of a strength either. Indeed, it appears most financial experts may not even know the difference, based on their criticism of Donald Trump’s recent tariff threats against Mexico, Canada and China. Of course, a nation can introduce tariffs to generate revenue, promote domestic production, shift international supply chains and ‘decouple’ itself from an undesirable trading partner. But a nation can also use tariffs as powerful leverage to make other states change their behaviour. That is a negotiating tariff, not an economic one, and it is designed not to minimise potential

Wednesday

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

Will Trump make Gaza great again?

20 min listen

When Netanyahu visited the White House, Donald Trump said in a press conference that the US could take over the Gaza Strip and suggested the permanent resettlement of its 1.8 million residents to neighbouring Arab countries. It has sparked global condemnation raising questions about where the Gaza citizens could be resettled to, and how this could impact the hostage negotiations. To discuss this and the conflict more widely, Freddy Gray is joined by former Israel spokesperson Eylon Levy.

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

Is Jared Kushner behind Trump’s ‘Riviera of the Middle East’ plan?

Who knew that America First had such global ambitions? Who knew that, when Donald Trump promised ‘mass deportations’, he also might have been thinking about using America’s might to extract Palestinian people out of Gaza to give them a ‘lasting home’ in Jordan or Egypt? Donald Trump promised ‘peace through strength’ on the campaign trail. The president never quite said that could mean deploying US funds and troops to remake Gaza into, as he now puts, a ‘Riviera of the Middle East’. ‘Gaza’s waterfront property could be very valuable,’ Jared Kushner has said Standing with Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington yesterday, Trump said: ‘The US will take over

Tuesday

Matthew Lynn

What Trump’s tariff ‘opening salvo’ will teach him

Mexico and Canada have been given a last-minute reprieve from Donald Trump’s tariffs. China has offered only the most half-hearted response to them. At this rate, even the European Union may be off the hook. Equity markets have rallied strongly as the trade war which seems about to crash the global economy appears to have been averted. But has it really? Investors are kidding themselves if they think the crisis is over.  Trump is clearly a leader who likes to get his own way In the end, it turned out not to be a re-run of the Great Depression, at least not for now. After President Trump slapped punishing 25

Ian Williams Ian Williams

Trump’s tariff war with China is just getting started

Over the weekend, Donald Trump described his sweeping 10 per cent tariffs against Chinese goods as an ‘opening salvo’. Within minutes of them taking effect at midnight last night, Beijing retaliated with targeted tariffs of its own against US coal, liquified natural gas (LNG), farm equipment and cars. It also announced export controls on a string of critical minerals to ‘safeguard national security’, and what it described as an ‘anti-trust’ investigation into Google. Like most Western internet and social media firms, Google is already banned from China, but earns money from Chinese businesses advertising abroad. The US President has described tariffs as ‘the most beautiful word’ In spite of the

Julie Burchill Julie Burchill

Rory Stewart is no match for JD Vance

I was highly amused to see that JD Vance has administered a right old ‘fagging’ – or whatever public school boys call it – to the ghastly Rory Stewart. Better known in some quarters as ‘Florence of Belgravia’, Stewart has developed a habit of dashing about in a dish-dash in search of broadcasting dosh, pouting all the while like an ambitious member of an all-boy fifth-form drama club determined to play Portia. Thanks to his inability to avoid spouting off, Stewart has embroiled himself in a spat on X with the new vice president of the US, JD Vance. In an interview with Fox News last week, Vance said: It’s so

Monday

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

Are Trump’s tariffs really that bad?

34 min listen

The Spectator’s economics editor Kate Andrews and Social Democratic Party leader William Clouston join Freddy Gray to try and make sense of Donald Trump’s decision to impose tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China. He has since threatened the European Union, and has warned the UK. Is this a negotiation tactic or something more? What political philosophy underpins the decision? And what will the impact be? Produced by Patrick Gibbons and Megan McElroy.

Joseph Dinnage

Starmer has much to gain from cosying up to Donald Trump

Donald Trump loves giving two fingers to the world’s great political brains. Before the US election, for example, Rory Stewart predicted that Kamala Harris would strut to victory. The sage of the centrist dads had egg on his face when the Donald won with 77 million votes. But now he’s in power, there’s a less likely – and considerably more impressive – commentator Trump is posthumously contradicting: Immanuel Kant. In his 1795 essay ‘Perpetual Peace’ (which any undergraduate student of politics will be painfully familiar with), Kant posited that a world made up of constitutional republics is the only possible precondition for a lasting global peace. It is this principle that

Sunday

Kate Andrews Kate Andrews

Donald Trump kicks off the tariff wars

He did it, Joe! Following on from the $79 billion worth of tariffs he implemented in his first term – which went largely untouched by Joe Biden’s Administration –  last night Donald Trump made good on his election promise to opt for another round of tariffs: this time, a 25 per cent tax on imports from Canada and Mexico, with China facing an additional 10 per cent levy on its goods. Despite whispers that the President might water down his plans in the last hours, he carved out very few exceptions for his new tax orders, which include Canadian oil and energy supply. It is now expected that America will

Friday

Kate Andrews Kate Andrews

Will Trump follow through on his tariff threat on Canada and Mexico?

No one can really act surprised if Donald Trump pushes ahead with substantial tariffs on Canada and Mexico tomorrow. ‘Tariff’ is the President’s favourite word, as he said many times on the campaign trail in the lead up to last November’s US election. The only words that could compete for the top slot were ‘love’ and ‘religion’. So, the countdown to 1 February – when a staggering 25 per cent border tax is slapped on the countries north and south of America’s border – isn’t, in theory, some dreaded doomsday for Trump. If anything, it’s more like the countdown to Christmas. Is this really the end game for the President? But

Steerpike Steerpike

Trump: Diversity hires to blame for Washington crash

While the investigation into the Washington air crash has only just started, already President Trump has hinted at what he considers is to blame. His conclusion? Diversity hires. The horrific crash took place on Wednesday evening when an American Airlines flight carrying 64 people collided with a Black Hawk helicopter over the Potomac river, a short distance from Ronald Reagan national airport. There were no survivors – and both aircraft remain in the river as the recovery operation continues. Speaking to reporters in the White House press room, Trump insisted: ‘We do not know what led to this crash, but we have some very strong opinions and ideas.’ Not skipping

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

Are the Democrats paralysed?

35 min listen

The first phase of Trump’s presidency has been a whirlwind of news. The President signed a succession of executive orders, which overwhelmed and confused the Democratic Party with the amount of ‘energy in the executive’. But there are signs of life, particularly in opposition to Trump’s attempts to freeze federal grants and loans. What’s going on? Are the Democrats finding their feet? To discuss, Freddy is joined by Damon Linker, senior lecturer in political science at the University of Pennsylvania and the author of the Notes from the Middle Ground substack.

Thursday

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

The many questions of the Washington plane crash

‘What a terrible night this has been,’ writes President Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform. ‘God bless you all!’ Trump also expressed his bafflement as to how a Black Hawk military helicopter, operating out of Fort Belvoir in Virginia, managed to collide with American Eagle Flight 5342, a commercial passenger plane carrying 64 passengers, directly over the Potomac river as the aircraft came into land at Reagan National Airport in Washington, DC.  The airplane was on a perfect and routine line of approach to the airport. The helicopter was going straight at the airplane for an extended period of time. It is a CLEAR NIGHT, the lights on the plane were

Wednesday

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

Is AI the new arms race?

22 min listen

This week, a Chinese-made AI model called DeepSeek shot to the top of the Apple Store downloads – it stunned investors and sunk some tech stock. DeepSeek claims it was built at a fraction of the cost of American leading models. Chip-making giant Nvidia shed almost £482bn of its market value as a result.  What is DeepSeek, and what does it have to do with US-China relations? Freddy Gray is joined by Joe Weisenthal to explain exactly what’s happened with the AI platform DeepSeek, why it has sparked chaos in the US markets, and how it raises questions about the future of AI globally.

Jonathan Spyer

Trump has exposed the hypocrisy of Gaza’s allies

US President Donald Trump has reiterated his call for Egypt and Jordan to accept residents of Gaza into their territory, as part of arrangements to end the current war with Israel. Further explaining his idea on Monday, the President said that he would ‘like to get [Gazans] living in an area where they can live without disruption and revolution and violence so much’.  It’s difficult to see anything coming of this idea. Both Egypt and Jordan have already, predictably, rejected it absolutely. Hamas, which is currently re-establishing itself as the de facto ruler of the Gaza Strip, would obviously act to prevent any attempt to implement it.   The politics of

James Hanson

Hollywood luvvies have become Donald Trump’s useful idiots

In events that were foreseeable to anyone outside America’s cultural elite, the actress and popstar Selena Gomez is facing an online backlash to her now-deleted Instagram post decrying Donald Trump’s immigration policy. The offending video featured a sobbing Selena, who has Mexican heritage, wailing into her phone camera that ‘all my people are being attacked’ and that ‘I wish I could do something but I can’t’. It was a performance of such histrionic hamminess it’s little wonder Miss Gomez missed out on an Oscar nod for Emilia Perez. The reaction has been swift and unforgiving. Many were quick to point out that, contrary to Gomez’s assumptions, Trump’s plan to deport unlawful

Monday

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

How is round one of Trump’s deportations plan going?

33 min listen

Colombia has agreed to accept military aircraft carrying deported migrants from the US – avoiding a trade war between the two countries. Donald Trump had threatened sanctions on Colombia to punish it for initially refusing military flights following a rapid immigration crackdown. What are the challenges of deportation flights, and what’s Trump’s vision for Latin America? Freddy Gray is joined by Todd Bensman, Fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, and author of ‘Overrun’.