End of America’s empire?
Americano
The Spectator
4.0 • 762 Ratings
🗓️ 31 March 2026
⏱️ 22 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Freddy Gray is joined by Jacob Heilbrunn, Americano regular and National Interest. They discuss the Strait of Hormuz, rising energy prices and whether the US can extricate itself from a conflict it may not be able to win – and whether we're watching the end of Trumpism.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The British right is up for grabs. As May's local elections approach, the Conservatives face strong competition from Reform UK. |
| 0:07.9 | Join the Spectator's assistant editor, Isabel Hardman, for the spectator debate, the fight for the right, on Wednesday, the 29th of April in London. |
| 0:15.5 | We will pit the Conservatives represented by Matthew Saeed and Dominic Johnson against Reform UK, represented by |
| 0:21.5 | Matt Goodwin and Danny Kruger. To see which party truly represents the future of the right, |
| 0:27.2 | book your tickets at spectator.com forward slash fight. |
| 0:41.0 | Hello and welcome back to the Americano show. |
| 0:42.2 | My name is Freddie Gray. |
| 0:45.9 | I am the deputy editor of the spectator and the US editor. |
| 0:51.4 | And I'm pleased to tell you that this is the 10th year of the Americano podcast. |
| 0:56.7 | And I think it's fair to say it's been a fairly fascinating time in American politics, life and culture. And that's what we talk about every episode on this podcast. |
| 1:04.1 | So please keep listening and provide as much feedback as you like. Today I am delighted to be |
| 1:09.7 | joined by the great Jacob Heilbrun, the editor |
| 1:13.1 | of the national interest, an columnist for the spectator. And we're going to be talking about |
| 1:18.9 | what else the Iran war, which is still dominating news. And Jacob, I thought I might start |
| 1:25.8 | by reading out Trump's truth social from this morning, |
| 1:30.4 | which was addressed to the United Kingdom directly. And he said, all of those countries that |
| 1:36.5 | can't get jet fuel because of the Strait of Hormuz, like the United Kingdom, which refused to get |
| 1:42.0 | involved in the decapitation of Iran. |
| 1:50.0 | I have a suggestion for you. Number one, buy from the US. We have plenty. And number two, |
| 1:56.0 | build up some delayed courage, go to the straight and just take it, take it in capital letters. |
| 2:06.3 | You'll have to start learning how to fight for yourself. The USA won't be there to help you anymore, just like you weren't there for us. Iran has been essentially decimated. The hard part is done. Go get your own oil. President DJT. Well, let's have your response to that, |
| 2:12.1 | first of all, Jacob. Well, delivered with Trump's typical pithiness and flare. |
... |
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