Freddy Gray is deputy editor of The Spectator
Donald Trump’s presidency is often compared to a reality TV show. Yet that conceit barely captures the radical strangeness of his leadership. Trump is a hypnotist, a master of persuasion who tries to shape world events through CONFUSION, BIG BOMBS and CAPITAL LETTERS. ‘THE CEASEFIRE IS NOW IN EFFECT. PLEASE DO NOT VIOLATE IT!’ he
Over the weekend, the US conducted strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities. Iran is weighing a response, and Trump has raised the possibility of a change in leadership in Iran. To discuss what comes next and why this move seems to counter everything we know about ‘America First’, Freddy Gray is joined by editor of the
Freddy Gray speaks to Kelley Vlahos DC-based writer, editor and senior advisor at the Quincy Institute about the developing situation between Israel, Iran and America. The President has warned that despite winning the electorate over on an ‘America First’ mandate, the US armed force may intervene on Iran. Freddy and Kelley discuss who Trump is
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Starmer’s war zone: the Prime Minister’s perilous position This week, our new political editor Tim Shipman takes the helm and, in his cover piece, examines how Keir Starmer can no longer find political refuge in foreign affairs. After a period of globe-trotting in which the Prime Minister was dubbed ‘never-here Keir’, Starmer’s handling of international
‘This never would have happened if I had been president,’ says Donald Trump, whenever the international news goes from bad to worse. It’s a line he uses a lot in relation to the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, both of which began in the interregnum between his first administration and his second. Yet the latest
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Freddy Gray and Dan McCarthy discuss the LA riots, why they are different to the protests on Capitol Hill and how Trump will respond.
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Relations between Iran and Israel are deteriorating rapidly, with comparisons being drawn to Israel’s 1981 strike on Iraq’s Osirak nuclear reactor. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appears to be advocating for regime change in Tehran, reportedly encouraging the United States to take military action. Donald Trump, who previously came close to authorising a strike, is
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In the new edition of Spectator World, author and anthropologist Max Horder argues the US is experiencing a change in its psyche, and left-wing violence is being normalised. He joins Freddy Gray on the Americano podcast to discuss the various examples attached to this, and what the dereliction of democratic disagreement means for us all.
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Billionaire Elon Musk and US President Donald Trump have had a very public falling out. Musk, whose time running the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) came to an end last month, publicly criticised Trump’s spending bill (the ‘One Big Beautiful Bill Act’). The row then erupted onto social media with Trump expressing his disappointment with
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From the decline of meritocracy to the rise of anti-Western ideology, author Heather Mac Donald joins Freddy Gray to discuss race, merit, and victim hierarchy. Why is the West so desperate to self-cancel? And is now a moment of reckoning considering we’re five years on from the BLM protests?
Elon Musk understands astrophysics, yet he seems unable to grasp the strange laws of gravity which govern Washington politics. Last night, the world’s richest man confirmed what everybody in Washington already knew: his time as a ‘special employee’ in the White House is over and he’s leaving his formal role as head of the Department
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Freddy Gray speaks to writer and author Karen Hao, whose new book Empire of AI looks at a new, ominous age of empire with OpenAI. On the podcast they discuss the impacts of artificial intelligence on society and democracy and how Open AI founder Sam Altman has become a controversial figure.
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Donald Trump exposed South Africa’s leader Cyril Ramaphosa in the White House yesterday over what he refered to as white racism against the farmers in South Africa. Freddy Gray speaks to Errol Musk — father of Elon Musk — from Cape Town about Trump’s confrontation. Errol shares personal experiences of being attacked on a farm,
The suspect, identified as 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez, was seen pacing around Washington DC’s Jewish Museum in the minutes before last night’s attack. According to Pamela Smith, DC’s chief of police, he then shouted ‘Free Palestine’ before shooting and killing two Israeli embassy staffers – a couple, named as Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky, who reportedly were
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Polish émigré Zbigniew Brzezinski – known as ‘Zbig’ – rose to prominence in America during the Cold War as a key intellectual architect of US foreign policy. He was National Security Advisor to President Carter and was a trusted advisor to many US presidents from John F Kennedy onwards. Yet, despite helping to shape American
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President Trump is an America Firster, but he has an undeniable affinity for the Arab world. He would have made a good sheik: he doesn’t drink, he loves developing flashy properties to show off his power and wealth, and he’s brutally realistic about the role of oil (and other commodities) in world politics. On his
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Freddy Gray speaks to Chris Whipple, whose latest book Lesson Learned from Uncharted: How Trump Beat Biden, Harris, and the Odds in the Wildest Campaign in History gives an insiders’ analysis having spoken to the people closest to both campaigns.
It feels a bit facile and tasteless to say that the first American Pope, Leo XIV, has been elected to counter the influence of Trumpism. Popes often change in the role and, since Catholicism is a religion and not an electoral party, the servants of the servants of God tend to defy political caricature. Consider
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Trump has announced a beautiful new deal with the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister and President shared a phone call to congratulate one another. It is the first trade deal agreed after Mr Trump began his second presidential term in January, and after he imposed strict tariffs on countries around the world in April. Freddy
It’s musical deals in world politics at the moment. Last week, Donald Trump and his senior officials intimated that a big new trade accord with India was imminent. Yet on Tuesday, Keir Starmer announced that he had reached a major agreement with Delhi. Then, late last night, the New York Times reported that Trump will