Americanswers… Has Trump triggered all out war in the Middle East?

Americast

BBC

Politics, Government, News

4.2 • 2.8K Ratings

🗓️ 23 June 2025

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

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 has any say in what Donald Trump does next, and what happened after the president told his own Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, that she was wrong about Iran’s nuclear capabilities?

HOSTS: • Matt Chorley, 5 Live Presenter • Justin Webb, Radio 4 presenter • Sarah Smith, North America editor • Anthony Zurcher, North America Correspondent • Marianna Spring, Social Media Investigations Correspondent

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This episode was made by Rufus Gray with Alix Pickles. The technical producer was Ben Andrews. The series producer is Purvee Pattni. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts.
0:05.0	Hi, it's Justin, and it's Monday early evening.
0:08.9	And the big question is this.
0:10.4	What exactly has Donald Trump started in the Middle East after ordering those US airstrikes on Iran?
0:16.0	Iran said there'd be retaliation.
0:18.3	Tonight, we are seeing the start of that, at least.
0:21.3	Missiles launched at US air bases in Qatar and Iraq, the Iranian state media announcing
0:27.7	what they call a mighty and victorious response. It could amount to nothing much. It could
0:34.1	amount to a lot. The reports about it are still coming in. In the meantime, there are still
0:39.5	some more fundamental questions about what all of this does, particularly to American politics.
0:45.2	And the episode we recorded earlier contains, well, some stab at the answers to those questions.
0:53.2	Questions from you about what happens next,
0:55.7	about the role of Congress, about Tulsi Gabbard, the Director of National Intelligence,
1:00.3	who seems to change her mind on some of these big things, and just in general terms,
1:04.8	how big a moment it is for the Trump presidency and for America.
1:08.0	We start our chat with Matt Chorley live on Five Live, along with Anthony,
1:13.6	Marianna and Sarah, but then we carry on without him. So, welcome to America Answers.
1:21.8	Ameriast. Ameriast from BBC News. You're gambling with the lives of millions of people.
1:27.8	You're gambling with World War III.
1:30.0	President Trump's message is very simple.
1:32.1	We are done being taken advantage of.
1:33.9	Mr. President, in the name of our God,
	...

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