Hello and welcome to the Americano podcast, a series of discussions about American politics

and the Trump presidency for the New Spectator USA website.

I'm joined today by Paul Wood of the BBC and Jacob Halbrun, who is editor of the national

interest, and we are going to be talking about

the stunning, shocking, terrifying, say what you like about it, news that Paul Manafort has been

charged guilty on eight counts. And Michael Cohen, Trump's lawyer, has pleaded guilty to eight counts. This is not looking good

for the Trump administration at the moment, but how bad is it? So Paul and Jacob, thank you very

much for joining us. Yesterday did appear to be a catastrophic day for Donald Trump. Certainly,

most of the press seems to be saying that this was the worst day of the Trump

presidency so far. Paul, I'll start with you. Is this the beginning of the end for Donald Trump,

or is it too early to say? Well, you should never count Donald Trump out. People made the mistake

of doing that many times during the campaign. Not the end, perhaps not the beginning of the

end, but if Trump's enemies are

right, the end of the beginning. And this isn't necessarily because of Paul Manafort,

Trump's campaign manager being convicted of tax evasion. It is because of what Michael Cohen

may or may not know. And there was a quite jaw-dropping moment when Lanny Davis, who's

lawyer, went around the

American networks last night, hinting that Trump had prior knowledge of the Russian operation

to hack the American election.

He didn't come right out and say that.

And by the way, I think it was a signal from Cohen to Trump getting Davis in the first

place to represent him.

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