We're hosting our first Coffee House Shots live event of 2025 on the 26th of February at the

Emmanuelle Centre in Westminster. Join Michael Gove, Katie Bulls, Kate Andrews and very special guests,

Jonathan Ashworth and Robert Jenrick for a look to the year ahead. They'll be tackling such questions

as, can the Chancellor reframe the budget in her first spring statement? What will Trump's first

100 days look like? And will reform cause and upset at the local elections?

For tickets, go to spectator.co.com.uk forward slash coffeehouse live.

Hello and welcome to Coffee House Shots, the Spectator's Daily Politics podcast. I'm Cindy U, and I'm joined by Katie Bors and James Hill. Katie, welcome back from holiday.

Thank you so much. Now, Katie, another day, another set of controversial comments from the new president of the US. This time he has called Putin. Well, there's the Freudian slip, isn't it? Because who he's called a dictator is actually Zelensky in a slightly twisted world view there.

And it has prompted Kirstama to give Zelensky a call of support.

So where is the UK at at the moment in terms of this balancing act between Ukraine and the US?

Well, of course, we're in parliamentary recess at the moment, which I think does mean foreign

affairs is dominating, but I suspect given the topic, given the strength of Donald Trump's

comments, is to be dominating the news even if Parliament was sitting.

In terms of where we sit, we obviously have a

situation where Vair Starma is going to Washington next week. And Kirisdama is trying to portray

himself to Europe as the bridge to the US. And in his favour, he has the fact that he is visiting

the US president before many of his contemporaries on the

continent are. But I think there's a question as to whether Kirstama is a person uniting

Europe at the moment. And it feels as though whatever you think about Kirstama's suggestion

of troops going and helping police a settlement between Ukraine and Russia.

It's quite clear it has divided Europe. And you had Schultz coming out very quickly,

criticizing the move. I think it was always the case that Germany would be in a difficult

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