the political fourcast

Donald Trump has spent the week turning the world upside down again – launching a trade war with China and claiming America will take over the Gaza Strip – and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is scrambling to work out how best to respond to the American president.

Donald Trump, with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his side, has said the US should take over Gaza, own it, and turn it into the ‘Riviera of the Middle East,’ but within hours of these comments Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Palestinians have rejected the suggestion outright.

Donald Trump’s long promised trade war has begun, sort of – the US president threatened to slap tariffs on America’s biggest trading partners, before backtracking and striking a deal with Mexico and Canada.

In a major speech on growing the UK economy, Chancellor Rachel Reeves says she will make Cambridge and Oxford the “Silicon Valley of Europe” and build a third runway at Heathrow Airport – which is now backed by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer even though he opposed it in the past.

In Donald Trump’s speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos he said, again, that he wants a peace deal with Vladimir Putin over the war in Ukraine, again suggested Canada could become part of America and again raised the spectre of tariffs that economists say could devastate the global economy, so what is the new American president’s vision of the world order and how will he deal with China and Xi Jinping’s claims over Taiwan?

Hours after Donald Trump was sworn in as the 47th president of the United States of America, he signed executive orders to take the US out of the World Health Organisation and the Paris Climate Accords – then around 1,500 January 6 rioters were freed; a national emergency at the US-Mexico border was declared, he made the designation of two genders an official government policy and the TikTok ban was paused – and that’s before he made off-hand comments on whether the fragile ceasefire in Gaza will last.

Donald Trump is set to be sworn in as President of the United States of America for the second time – but, from TikTok and the southern border, to Ukraine and the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza – he faces even bigger challenges than he did eight years ago.

In this episode of the America Fourcast, Matt Frei is joined by Albert Eisenberg, a political strategist who runs the messaging firm BlueStateRed, and Joan Donovan, assistant professor of journalism at Boston University to discuss if Elon Musk is good for democracy and whether Donald Trump can rein him in. 

It’s a matter of days since Bashar Al-Assad’s regime in Syria was toppled by a lightning-quick offensive led by the rebel group Hayʼat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) – and Syrians are still in a state of euphoria at their newfound freedoms, but also horror as evidence of Assad’s torture chambres are revealed. 

Bashar al-Assad has fled Damascus to Russia where Vladimir Putin is reportedly sheltering the former Syrian dictator – for those Syrians who have defied Assad’s brutal regime for years this is a moment of celebration and hope, but also fear.

Syrian rebels launched the biggest attack in years against President Bashar al-Assad’s government forces, reigniting a bloody civil war – but with Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and the Israel Gaza conflict just next door, the world appears to be on the brink.

Krishnan Guru-Murthy and guests talk about how the Ukraine-Russia war is escalating, in this episode of The Political Fourcast.

A close ally of Boris Johnson and open critic of Rishi Sunak and Kemi Badenoch, Nadine Dorries examines the current state of the Conservative Party in this week’s episode of the Political Fourcast – and she also criticises the Church of England in the wake of the John Smyth scandal.

Will Labour’s first budget in 14 years deliver growth and fix public services, or just hit businesses with a £40bn tax raid? Krishnan Guru-Murthy crunches the numbers with economists and politicians.

With MPs about the vote on a controversial bill to legalise assisted dying, Krishnan Guru-Murthy debates the issue with politicians on either side of the debate: Danny Kruger and Christine Jardine.