Americano: what is Trump doing in the Middle East?

Best of the Spectator

The Spectator

News Commentary, News, Daily News, Society & Culture

4.4 • 785 Ratings

🗓️ 16 May 2025

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

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 tour of the Middle East, he signed an enormous arms deal with Saudi Arabia and announced all US sanctions on Syria would be lifted. Historian and former diplomat Charlie Gammell joins Freddy Gray to discuss what Trump really wants in the Middle East.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	The Spectator magazine is home to wonderful writing, insightful analysis, and unrival books and arts reviews.
0:06.1	Subscribe today for just £12 and receive a 12-week subscription in print and online.
0:11.2	Alongside that, you get a 20-pound John Lewis or Waitrose voucher.
0:14.7	Go to spectator.com.uk forward slash voucher.
0:23.7	Hello and welcome to the Americano podcast, a series of discussions about American politics,
0:30.7	power and prejudices. It is 2025 and Donald Trump is president once again of the United States.
0:39.8	We will, of course, be following the moves of the Donald's and his second administration very closely.
0:46.4	However, it won't just be politics for us this year.
0:49.2	We'll also talk a lot and cover American culture, life and the arts.
0:54.8	I should also remind you, because my producer Natasha will not let me hear the end of it,
0:59.7	that we are on Spectator TV.
1:02.5	So head to our YouTube channel to watch that.
1:09.8	I am delighted to be joined today by Charlie Gammel, who is a Middle East commentator.
1:15.9	We've had on Americano a few times and a contributor to the spectator and also a novelist.
1:20.8	His latest novel, Cabell Returns, is a very amusing and entertaining work.
1:26.6	It's a combination of Flashburn meets with Nail and I, if there is such a thing.
1:33.0	But we're going to be talking about Trump's Middle Eastern policy,
1:37.4	because there's a lot going on with Donald Trump in the Middle East.
1:40.9	Yesterday he gave a pretty extraordinary speech in Riyadh in front of the
1:45.4	Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman, in which he effectively said, we're not
1:50.7	interested in changing your politics, we're interested in commerce, and you are, speaking to
1:58.7	the Arab countries, assembled, you are changing yourselves through business and so on.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Spectator, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The Spectator and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.