Americanswers! Is Donald Trump behaving like a 'dictator'?
Americast
BBC
4.2 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 27 August 2025
⏱️ 31 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The Jeffrey Epstein scandal continues to cause problems for the Trump administration, and in today’s listener Q&A, the team delve into whether newly released interviews between Ghislaine Maxwell and Trump’s Deputy Attorney could provide a reprieve for Donald Trump. Or will it just help her chances of receiving a pardon or commutation from the president?
Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a man who was mistakenly deported to a notorious prison in El Salvador, is now facing threats of deportation to Uganda. Is the Trump administration clamping down on legitimate crime, or using him as a political pawn?
And are there legitimate parallels between Donald Trump and history’s dictators? We look at the problems facing his critics and opponents to try and find the answer.
Sarah and Anthony dissect the week’s biggest stories, including a surprise question on this year’s biggest pop culture story - Taylor Swift’s engagement to NFL star Travis Kelce, and Donald Trump’s ensuing thoughts on their relationship.
HOSTS: * Sarah Smith, North America Editor * Anthony Zurcher, North America Correspondent
GET IN TOUCH: * Join our online community: https://discord.gg/qSrxqNcmRB * Send us a message or voice note via WhatsApp to +44 330 123 9480 * Email [email protected] * Or use #Americast
This episode was made by Rufus Gray with Grace Reeve. The technical producer was Ben Andrews. The series producer is George Dabby. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:04.9 | Hello, AmeriCasters. |
| 0:06.5 | Because of the bank holiday that there was in the UK on Monday, |
| 0:09.6 | we didn't do our normal Q&A with Matt Charlie on Five Live. |
| 0:13.7 | So we're going to be answering your questions in this episode instead. |
| 0:17.6 | There was some excitement on Five Live, though. |
| 0:19.9 | On Tuesday, Mariana happened to be Five Live, though, on Tuesday. |
| 0:21.1 | Mariana happened to be presenting live on air when this happened. |
| 0:24.8 | A little bit of news to bring you. |
| 0:26.8 | Taylor Swift has announced her engagement to the NFL star. |
| 0:30.8 | Oh, see, I do care about that. |
| 0:33.1 | Travis Kelsey on Instagram. |
| 0:35.8 | That's like an emergency. |
| 0:36.8 | If people listen to Five Live and hear us chatting about America on our mini-Americast on Matt Chorley, this is the kind of thing that we get very much into. I have been informed, though, that we are going to speak to a guest about Taylor Swift. Oh, okay, good. For seven o'clock. I imagine it's not just in Webb, fellow Americaus presenter, who really doesn't like talking to me about. |
| 0:56.7 | I have heard you sort of bringing the youth element to Americaast before. |
| 1:01.6 | And Justin doesn't always embrace it, does he? |
| 1:06.0 | Well, Justin's on holiday. |
| 1:07.4 | So that frees us up to talk about Taylor Swift as much as we like, and we'll get |
| 1:11.3 | round to, I don't know, Bruce Springsteen or Billy Joel or whoever he wants to talk about when he's |
| 1:15.5 | back again. There's plenty of other important news to get to as well, though, like Donald Trump |
| 1:20.6 | targeting his political enemies, what Galane Maxwell told the authorities when she was interviewed |
| 1:26.1 | in prison, and why a man who was mistakenly |
... |
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