552. Trump's Red Card Saga and Germany's Far-Right Machine
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We are seeing two very different Americas right now as the USA celebrates its 250th birthday. Which is the real America and which will endure? Will it be Trump's America, a country being reshaped in his own image in pursuit of naked self-enrichment, where a man who has blatantly never actually watched a real football match in his life can abuse his presidential power to try and succeed in getting a red card suspended? Or will it be the country that the American people are showing off to fans flocking to the US from all around the world? They're welcoming, friendly, loving the internationalism and getting behind their national team. So which America will endure? To answer that question with Rory on his silent retreat this week, I am delighted to be joined by the never silent Anglo-American Mehdi Hassan.
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Welcome to The Rest Is Politics with me, Alistair Campbell. And I'm Mehdi Hassan in Washington, D.C. Mehdi, thank you so much for being there. We are going to talk about Washington, D.C., or more generally about the United States. 250th anniversary since independence and also this extraordinary round that Donald Trump has created within the World Cup. And then we're going to talk a little bit in the second half about something you and I talk about a lot. which is the relationship between media and politics. And we'll be looking at that in relation in particular to a lot of the stuff that's happening in Germany. But first of all, let's kick off with football, no pun intended. And it is such a pleasure to be able legitimately to start on football, because this is a subject that my regular podcast partner freely admits he has very low down his list of priorities.
Now, last week, I said I was genuinely surprised that Donald Trump had engaged in So little, barely at all, with this World Cup since it started. Well, I spoke far too soon. Their star player, Valerian Baligan, gets a red card. Trump cannot resist getting involved. More typically, cannot resist telling everybody that he's involved. And he's asked his FIFA pet and his Peace Prize creator, Gianno Infantino, to take another look. Cue the whole world enraged. Cue Belgium destroying the USA 4-1. And even my partner Fiona, who rivals Rory in her lack of interest in football, came up with a belter this morning when she said Trump has made Belgium great again. Yes. So, Mehdi, what do you make of it? And is Trump actually getting any of the blame for the defeat, as I believe he should?
No, Alistair. The Trump faction will never blame him for anything. They didn't even understand why the world was upset. For the last 48 hours, most American pundits on the right, commentators, trolls, etc., were doing the nonsense about, well, you know what? We're the most powerful nation. We managed to make it happen. Who cares what Belgium thinks? Not understanding or not caring that the rest of the world were outraged by this ridiculous intervention from Donald Trump. And I think, you know, I had liberals defending the Trump intervention, because when it comes to stuff like this, the patriotism takes over.
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