Is the special relationship over?
Coffee House Shots
The Spectator
4.4 • 2.2K Ratings
🗓️ 10 March 2026
⏱️ 9 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has said today will be the most intense day yet of American strikes on Iran. Over the weekend, Donald Trump claimed the war could soon be over – and suggested the US has already effectively won. He also took aim at Keir Starmer, accusing Britain of joining wars America has ‘already won’. Deputy and US editor Freddy Gray joins the podcast to explain what’s really happening in Washington and why he believes the ‘special relationship’ may be over – and not coming back.
Economics editor Michael Simmons also joins to discuss the fallout. As oil prices surge and markets react, Reform UK is seizing on renewed pressure over the cost of living. What does the crisis mean for Rachel Reeves – and how serious could the economic consequences become? They both join Megan McElroy to discuss.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to Coffee House Shots, The Spectator's Daily Politics Podcast. I'm |
| 0:09.2 | Megan McElroy and I'm joined today by Freddie Gray, our deputy and US editor and Michael Simmons, |
| 0:14.1 | the Spectator's economics editor. The US Defence Secretary Pete Higgsath has just held a press |
| 0:18.8 | conference and he said that today is going to be the most intense day of US strikes in Iran. Over the weekend, Donald Trump said that the war will be |
| 0:25.9 | over soon and it's pretty much complete. Freddie, what's your take on things as they stand? |
| 0:31.4 | Well, I think over the weekend, there was sort of growing panic in the kind of upper echelons of the |
| 0:37.1 | Republican Party as to what |
| 0:38.5 | was going on with the war. There was these Israeli strikes on Iranian oil fields that caused |
| 0:45.6 | a lot of aggravation between kind of the top tier of the Pentagon and the Israeli military |
| 0:52.6 | as to what the objectives were. |
| 0:55.2 | This obviously put an upward pressure on the oil price, |
| 0:58.7 | and I think that is obviously something that Trump is very concerned about, |
| 1:03.0 | and while you're hearing a lot of very victory-oriented rhetoric, let's call it, |
| 1:08.8 | from Pete Hegseth and Donald Trump, there is a kind of |
| 1:12.7 | sote-voche concession, I wouldn't even call it a concession, but a kind of a tacit admission |
| 1:19.0 | that this war can be got out of quite quickly because a lot of people are thinking it has to be |
| 1:24.9 | got out of quite quickly because the Republican Party |
| 1:27.8 | are thinking about the midterms in November. They are seeing the polling, which is showing that |
| 1:33.8 | the vast majority of Americans are uncomfortable with this war, and they are feeling the heat. |
| 1:40.5 | Michael, Freddie, mentions the oil price. Can you give us a bit more detail on that? |
| 1:44.3 | Sure. |
| 1:44.6 | So what we've seen kind of over the last 48 hours is what people are, I guess, disparagingly calling the taco trade. |
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