Americast

What has Donald Trump started in the Middle East after US strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities over the weekend? He also seemingly changed his position on regime change in the country, posting on Truth Social that it may be needed to ‘MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN’. The Americast team - along with Matt Chorley from 5 Live - discuss the potential fallout of the the strikes within America, whether Congress...

​​Today we look at the US bombing of Iranian nuclear sites. ​​ ​​Donald Trump told Tehran to "make peace" or face "far greater" attacks in future. Iran has warned of “everlasting consequences”. ​​ ​​Security analyst Gordon Corera goes through what we know about the strikes and what could happen next. Gary O’Donoghue, chief North America correspondent, explains Trump’s thinking and the reaction in...

As the world waits for Donald Trump’s decison on whether to join Israel in striking Iran’s nuclear sites, he is quickly losing support from his own party. Donald Trump has generally enjoyed party unity since returning to office in January but now faces an open revolt over the possibility of US strikes against Iran. Some of Trump’s biggest supporters, including the Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Gre...

Donald Trump is considering how far the United States should go in joining Israel’s attacks on Iran. Sarah and Anthony - who were both at the G7 summit in Canada on Monday, with Anthony travelling on Air Force One with Trump - discuss whether the U.S. is on the brink of another Middle East war. The president held an emergency Situation Room meeting at the White House in which his national security...

“I’m not going to start a war, I’m going to stop all wars.” Donald Trump’s campaign promise from 2024, which he has repeated many times. But following Israel’s attack on Iran there is debate over how involved Donald Trump has been in green lighting Israel’s attack, and how far US support will go. Sarah and Justin - along with Matt Chorley from 5 Live - also discuss the relationship between Trump a...

By popular demand the Americast team turn their focus on stories that have flown under the radar during the blanket coverage of the disorder in LA this week. Why has the US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Junior sacked all the members of a committee which makes recommendations on immunisations, and why is there some concern over his new picks? What does the election of two Democratic nominees f...

Sarah and Anthony are joined by Miles Taylor to discuss events in LA and to ask whether the President is deliberately stoking protest for political ends. Miles was the Chief of Staff at the Department of Homeland Security during Donald Trump’s first term but has since become a vocal critic. He talks about President Trump’s ambition to enact similar policies during his first stint in the White Hous...

Donald Trump has defended his decision to deploy the National Guard to Los Angeles despite criticism from Democrats and California officials. The US president says LA would have been "completely obliterated" otherwise and hits out at Democrat California Governor Gavin Newsom, who says he's suing the Trump administration. Trump deployed 2,000 National Guard troops to the city to stop protests again...

How did one of the most powerful alliances in American politics blow up? The falling out between Donald Trump and Elon Musk has been playing out very publicly on social media, with back and forth insults and threats. Sarah Smith, Marianna Spring, Justin Webb and Anthony Zurcher unpack how the row intensified with Trump threatening to revoke Musk’s government contracts and Musk claiming without evi...

The US president Donald Trump has imposed a full travel ban on 12 countries mainly in Africa and the Middle East, following through on a promise made in 2024 on the campaign trail. But why has the president chosen to implement the ban now, and how likely is it to survive a legal challenge? The ban includes Afghanistan, Iran, Somalia and Libya. But there’s also confusion as to why Egypt remains off...

Donald Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill is causing a rift with Elon Musk after the Tesla founder labelled it a "disgusting abomination". If passed, it would add trillions of dollars onto America’s deficit over the next decade. After the bill narrowly passed the House of Representatives it now faces an even tougher passage in the Senate after senior figures like Rand Paul and Ron Johnson called for s...

Donald Trump founded Truth Social in 2022 after he was banned from major social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. But is the president the sole user of his account, and are there any “tells” for when someone else has posted on his account? We also answer your questions about whether funding cuts in the latest instalment of Donald Trump’s war with Harvard could lead to a brain drain in the...

It’s been a chaotic day in the United States. This morning, we heard the news that a court in the US has blocked Donald Trump’s tariffs. Later this evening, we found out that Trump's tariff plan was temporarily reinstated while a court considers a White House appeal. In between that, we recorded an episode, exploring what all this could mean for the global trade war, Trump’s relationship with the...

Elon Musk says he’s 'disappointed' by Donald Trump's 'big, beautiful' tax bill, marking a break from the US president who he helped to win re-election in 2024. Today Matt Chorley is joined by the full Americast ensemble to discuss whether the Trump-Musk bromance is now over. They also explore how middle class Americans view Trump’s ongoing row with Harvard, and assess the most popular presidential...

South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa went to the White House in hope of a ‘reset’ with the USA on trade and asylum laws. What he got was a choreographed presentation from Donald Trump with allegations of a white genocide taking place in South Africa, with stark parallels to the infamous Zelensky meeting in the Oval Office. Justin, Anthony, and Sarah convene to check the fact on Trump’s asserti...

Donald Trump's ‘one big beautiful bill’ looks set to be his defining piece of legislation for his second term, if he can get it through Congress. It’s an enormous bill which covers everything from the future of Medicaid, the taxes Americans pay, to border spending and national defence. But not all Republicans are on board and the president may face a fight to pass the bill by his Memorial Day dead...

Anthony, Marianna and Justin discuss Joe Biden’s announcement that he has been diagnosed with prostate cancer. They also talk about the political reaction, including US Vice President JD Vance who says Biden and his staff should have been more transparent about the former president’s health whilst in office. They also analyse some MAGA rumours over whether Joe Biden hid his cancer diagnosis, and w...

The fallout from Joe Biden’s failed presidential campaign continues with a new book that accuses senior White House figures of covering up the former president’s “physical deterioration”. The author, Jake Tapper - who co-authors the book with Alex Thompson of Axios - claims Biden did not recognise George Clooney at a fundraiser last June hosted by the Hollywood star and that at one stage of the ca...

Testifying in front of Congress is often a bruising process for lawmakers, and Wednesday’s hearing was no exception for Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr, who faced questions on cuts to his department, his stance on vaccines and a measles outbreak in the United States. But with Donald Trump’s second term in full swing, just how far has the former presidential candidate got in his quest to ‘Mak...

It’s Donald Trump’s first major trip in his second term as president and he’s chosen to visit the Gulf in a four-day whirlwind tour. He began in Saudi Arabia for a friendly meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Among other issues he agreed to lift sanctions on Syria and struck a number of trade deals, marking a big shift in relations between the two nations since Joe Biden’s preside...

On the first day of Diddy’s trial, jurors have watched a video showing him assaulting his former long-time partner, the singer Cassie. The prosecution’s first witness, a former hotel security guard, says he was called on the night the CCTV video was filmed to help a "woman in distress", where he found Cassie sitting in the corner covering her face. Both the prosecution and defence gave their openi...

Donald Trump says the US has achieved a “total reset” in relations with China after both countries agreed to reduce tariffs on each other's goods for 90 days. Today Matt Chorley is joined by the full Americast ensemble to discuss whether this really marks the end of the trade war between the two nations. The team also assess the world’s reaction to the newly elected ‘woke’ pope across social media...

As more details of the trade deal between the UK and United States emerge, we get a view from the Novel prize winning economist and author, Professor Joseph Stiglitz. He explains to Justin why the deal is a mistake for the UK, why China has a better strategy against President Trump’s tariffs, and how the UK’s deal adversely affects the rest of the world. Professor Stiglitz is a former Chief Econom...

At a press conference inside the Oval Office on Thursday, Donald Trump - with the British PM Keir Starmer on the phone - announced changes to tariffs which included steel, aluminium and car exports. In return, the UK government made concessions on imports of ethanol and American beef, with Keir Starmer calling it a ‘fantastic, historic day’. Justin and Anthony unpack the politics behind the deal,...

In his first interview since leaving the White House, Joe Biden accused the Trump administration of "modern-day appeasement" in pressuring Ukraine to give up territory to Russia. He also spoke about his ill-fated presidential campaign last year that saw him eventually drop out the race against Donald Trump, saying it "wouldn't have mattered" if he had dropped out of the race earlier. The White Hou...