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 for the first time in a while

by Jacob Harbin, who is editor of the national interest

and a columnist for Spectator USA. And we're going to be talking about Trump's nationalism.

So Jacob, the big news of the week, really, as far as Trump is concerned, is that he set fire

to the global conversation again on Twitter by attacking what he calls, what people are calling the squad, which is for democratic congresswoman, four quite radical democratic congresswoman, and encouraging them because of their immigrant backgrounds, to go back home if they don't like America.

And he has done it on Twitter and also at a press conference.

And then again on Twitter, he hasn't sort of let it go.

He's doubling down, as they say.

There's a theory among Republicans that what Trump's doing is quite clever in a way,

in that for all the people calling him racist,

he's deliberately highlighting this sort of quite radical fringe of the Democratic Party

and putting it front and center of the news agenda.

Do you think he's being

clever or is he just gabbing off madly on Twitter? I think it's a bit of a bit of both.

He initially responded with his gut, but he also has a feral instinct for power. And his mission

is to tar the Democratic Party with the positions that Alexander

Ocasio-Cortez and other members of her so-called squad exemplify. And he is arguing that far from

being a racist himself, it is they who are racists and socialists and that they should,

they are the true face of the Democratic Party in 2020 and that this will allow him to ride to victory

by rousing his base. He wants to be the Paul Revere sounding the alarm about what has occurred to

the Democratic Party in the past four years. Isn't there a danger, though, that this could backfire

...