Trump

Tuesday

Freddy Gray

Is Trump an energy humanist?

27 min listen

Freddy speaks to Robert Bryce – author of an authoritative susbstack on energy – about Trump’s energy plans for his second term. The President elect’s Cabinet picks have been raising eyebrows, including the appointment of Chris Wright as Secretary of Energy. He is an ‘unapologetic energy humanist’ according to Robert and this is a statement of intent when it comes to energy production and driving energy costs down. But what exactly is an energy humanist? And will Chris Wright be able to ‘drill baby drill’? Freddy and Robert discuss. 

Wednesday

Freddy Gray

Do the Democrats hate Kamala Harris?

26 min listen

Freddy Gray is joined by Ben Domenech, editor-at-large of Spectator World to discuss a strange video of Kamala Harris released by the official Democratic party account, Trump’s counter-signalling appointments and the realignment of the Republican party.

Wednesday

Julie Burchill

I listened to a solid week of Woman’s Hour…

I was a weird kid, and though I harboured the usual innocent girlish ambitions of being a drug fiend and having sex with pop stars, I also nursed a desire to appear on Woman’s Hour. As a shy, provincial virgin, the programme opened up a world of women’s troubles from anorexia to zuigerphobia – and I was keen to have A Complicated Life. Here was the wet hand of today’s lily-livered sensibilities I had anticipated From my twenties to my fifties I appeared on it several times; my last outing was in 2016, as – like most other institutions – it was captured by the trans cult, leading to the

Monday

Oscar Edmondson

Will Trump push the UK closer to the EU?

11 min listen

Keir Starmer is in France today to hold talks with Emmanuel Macron where they will discuss the impact of a Trump second term, and what it will mean for Ukraine. The Prime Minister marked Armistice Day at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier under the Arc de Triomphe – the first time since 1944 that a British Prime Minister has been in France for the ceremony. What will come from this bilateral meeting? How does a Trump victory bring the UK and the EU closer? Elsewhere, a minor row broke out over the weekend around the UK’s Remembrance Day commemorations, with Reform UK leader Nigel Farage not being allowed to

Wednesday

Kate Andrews

Why Donald Trump won and the real reason Kamala Harris lost

33 min listen

Donald Trump has won the election and will be 47th President of the United States after winning the key battleground states of Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Georgia. ‘America has given us an unprecedented and powerful mandate,’ the Republican candidate told supporters. ‘This is a magnificent victory for the American people, that will allow us to make America great again,’ he said at the rally in Florida. It has been total victory, with the Republicans also winning Senate and the popular vote. Kate Andrews is joined by Sarah Elliott and Rick MacArthur to unpack a historic election night. 

Kate Andrews Kate Andrews

Election night: early signs suggest it’s Trump’s to lose

21 min listen

Results are coming in across the United States, and the early signs (though it is still very early) look good for Donald Trump. At the time of recording, the betting markets are with him and the famous New York Times ‘Needle’ has swung to a ‘likely’ Trump victory. It is still much too early to call in an election that could drag on for days to come. No media outlet has called it for either candidate yet. To give you the latest updates from the States, Kate Andrews is joined by The Spectator’s team on the ground: Amber Duke is in battleground state Michigan; Matt McDonald joins from Washington DC,

Tuesday

Kate Andrews

Donald Trump’s ‘counter-cultural’ gamble

23 min listen

Last night, Donald Trump appeared for what will be his last-ever presidential campaign rally, for a crowd of about 12,000 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He stuck with tradition and ran through many of his greatest hits – dishing out insults, talking about his scrape with death, and dancing to ‘YMCA’. But he did also hammer home his pitch as ‘Trump the fixer’, and the one who can undo four years of Biden–Harris. In the crowd was Spectator World’s Washington editor, Amber Duke, who joins Kate Andrews from Michigan to discuss what she’s seeing on the ground as Americans go to the polls in this key swing state. Which issue will be

Monday

Freddy Gray

Can Trump ‘Get Out the Vote’?

35 min listen

Freddy keeps up Americano tradition by speaking to Daniel McCarthy ahead of the election. On the podcast they discuss how Trump’s get-out-the-vote project is working and the impact low-propensity voters could have on the result, whether this election will be plagued by inefficiencies in the American electoral system and if J.D. Vance is actually the heir apparent to the MAGA title.

Saturday

Christopher Caldwell

Christopher Caldwell, Gus Carter, Ruaridh Nicoll, Tanya Gold, and Books of the Year I

34 min listen

On this week’s Spectator Out Loud: Christopher Caldwell asks what a Trump victory could mean for Ukraine (1:07); Gus Carter argues that leaving the ECHR won’t fix Britain’s immigration system (8:29); Ruaridh Nicoll reads his letter from Havana (18:04); Tanya Gold provides her notes on toffee apples (23:51); and a selection of our books of the year from Jonathan Sumption, Hadley Freeman, Mark Mason, Christopher Howse, Sam Leith and Frances Wilson (27:08).  Produced and presented by Patrick Gibbons.

Wednesday

Freddy Gray

Could the Catholic vote decide the election?

27 min listen

Trump won the Catholic vote in 2016 and Biden won it in 2020. Polling suggests that Trump is on course to win it back this year. With issues such as immigration and abortion high on the agenda for voters, where will the Catholic vote land?  Ryan Girdursky, the Catholic founder of the 1776 Project PAC and the National Populist substack joins Freddy Gray to discuss. Produced by Patrick Gibbons.

Deborah Ross

Serious and gripping – though Trump disagrees: The Apprentice reviewed

The Apprentice is a dramatised biopic of Donald Trump, covering his early business years. He has called the film ‘FAKE and CLASSLESS’ and ‘garbage’ – but he wishes it well. I’m pulling your leg. ‘It will hopefully “bomb”,’ he has said. He hasn’t seen it, as far as anyone knows – I wish I could review films without seeing them; so time-saving – but even so, the writer, Gabriel Sherman, is ‘a lowlife and talentless hack’. If Trump had not trashed the film, you could say it had failed in what it was trying to reveal, which is: why does he behave this way? Where does his attacking mindset come

Tuesday

Freddy Gray

Should a true populist not support Trump?

49 min listen

Journalist, historian and friend of Americano Thomas Frank joins Freddy Gray to dissect the state of American politics. Author of books, including the famed What’s the matter with Kansas? How conservatives won the heart of America and, most recently, The People, No: A Brief History of Anti-Populism, Frank talks about his research into the origins of populism, the strange nature of American conventions, and the fundamental flaws he sees in the candidates ahead of the November election. Produced by Patrick Gibbons and Natasha Feroze.

Friday

Dalibor Rohac

Slating Nato won’t help Donald Trump

Reacting to Volodymyr Zelensky’s visit to Scranton, Pennsylvania, earlier this week, Donald Trump reiterated his long-standing ambition to bring Russia’s war in Ukraine to a quick negotiated settlement instead of continuing with open-ended military support to Kyiv. If he wins the election, Trump said, ‘the first thing I’m gonna do is call up Zelensky and call up President Putin and I’m gonna say, “You gotta make a deal, this is crazy”.’ Trump is often seen as mercurial and unpredictable – an impression he revels in – but his desire to solve conflicts with real estate-like deals forms a consistent pattern of his foreign policy. In the context of Ukraine, that framing

Sunday

Freddy Gray

What doesn’t kill Trump makes him stronger

As if there hadn’t been enough drama in America in 2024, Donald Trump has survived another assassination attempt. The attempted killing of the 45th president at his golf course in Palm Beach, Florida yesterday afternoon was not nearly as threatening or deadly as the shooting nine weeks ago in Butler, Pennsylvania, which so nearly ended Trump’s life, killed a spectator and injured others. The Secret Service, who have faced so much criticism for their failings in Butler, found the would-be killer’s weapon before he was able to target Trump, shots were fired, and the suspect appears to have been arrested fleeing the scene. Nobody was seriously harmed. What took place

Friday

Freddy Gray

What do the Democrats believe in?

29 min listen

Freddy Gray speaks to Aidan McLaughlin, the editor in chief of Mediaite, and Andrew Cockburn, the Washington editor of Harper’s Magazine, as the Democratic National Convention draws to a close. Kamala Harris has had a dramatic rise to the top of the democratic ticket, but what does she really believe in? And is opposition to Donald Trump the only thing that unites the party?  Produced by Natasha Feroze and Patrick Gibbons.

Saturday

Kate Andrews

Kate Andrews, Adam Frank, David Hempleman-Adams, Svitlana Morenets and Michael Beloff

40 min listen

On this week’s Spectator Out Loud: Kate Andrews argues vice-presidential nominee J.D. Vance is more MAGA than Trump (1:27); Adam Frank explains how super-earths could help us understand what life might look like on another planet (5:15); David Hempleman-Adams recounts his attempt to cross the Atlantic on a hydrogen ballon (14:31); from Ukraine, Svitlana Morenets reports on the battle to save Kharkiv (20:44); and, Michael Beloff takes us on a history of the Olympics (30:12).  Presented by Patrick Gibbons.  

Friday

Amber Duke

Donald Trump accepts Republican nomination

Last night, former president Donald Trump accepted the Republican party’s nomination for president, and started his much-anticipated speech at the Republican National Convention by retelling the events of the attempt on his life at last Saturday’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. ‘I’ll tell you what happened, and you’ll never hear it from me a second time, because it’s too painful to tell’, he said. As Trump walked through the events that day, attendees cried and laughed. He praised the crowd in Pennsylvania for their courage and calm amid the bullets, saying the lack of a stampede ‘saved many lives.’ The famous image of Trump raising his fist as blood ran down the

Thursday

William Moore

Is Donald Trump now unstoppable?

37 min listen

This week: bulletproof Trump. The failed assassination attempt on Donald Trump means that his supporters, more than ever, view him as America’s Chosen One. Joe Biden’s candidacy has been falling apart since his disastrous performance in the first presidential debate last month. Trump is now ahead in the polls in all the battleground states. The whispers in Washington are that the Democrats are already giving up on stopping a second Trump term – and eyeing up the presidential election of 2028 instead. Freddy Gray, deputy editor at The Spectator, and Amber Duke, Washington editor at Spectator World, join the podcast to discuss. (02:45) Next: meeting the mega MAGA fans. The Spectator’s political correspondent James Heale

Thursday

Freddy Gray

What will the Democrats do next?

29 min listen

As speculation over whether Biden will remain in the presidential race continues, Freddy Gray speaks to journalist and founder of News Items John Ellis about what could happen next. How did Democrats end up in this situation and who holds the most power in influencing Biden’s decision? They also look ahead to next week’s Republican National Convention and discuss who is in the running to be Trump’s VP. Produced by Natasha Feroze and Patrick Gibbons.

Saturday

Michael Evans

Is America fit to lead the West?

Foreign policy rarely plays a significant role in a US presidential election. Domestic issues, the economy, money in the pocket, jobs, immigration, these are what voters are most concerned about. But this time, it could be different. The first TV debate between President Biden and Donald Trump seemed focused on one thing: is Biden the man to trust to lead the western alliance for another four-year term? Or, as Trump insinuated, is he so weakened and fragile that none of the adversarial leaders in the world have any respect for him, let alone fear him? For America’s allies, Biden’s lacklustre performance will have caused considerable anxiety Fear, it seems, is