Mehdi Hasan on America's 'Neo-Fascism'
The News Agents
Global
4.1 • 5.4K Ratings
🗓️ 9 January 2026
⏱️ 45 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
We are barely a week into 2026, and already Donald Trump has toppled the president of Venezuela, threatened a NATO ally, labelled a protestor killed by ICE as a "professional agitator", and insisted his own morality is the only check on his otherwise total power.
It appears that America's president is entering the second year of his term more aggressively, more defiantly, and more viciously. What does that mean for the US, and the wider world? And when Trump dismisses legal constraints, threatens to tear up the constitution, and brands entire ethnic groups as suspicious and "garbage", at what point does his administration become fascistic?
That question has been on the mind of Mehdi Hasan longer than most. The British former MSNBC host has launched his own media company, Zeteo, and from Washington has become a leading voice on the Left of American politics.
He speaks to Lewis about why he started using the F word last year, about the dark path down which America is heading, and what happens after Trump.
He speaks to Lewis about why he started using the F word last year, about the dark path down which America is heading, and what happens after Trump.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Newsagents podcast is brought to you by HSBC UK, opening up a world of opportunity. |
| 0:08.2 | This is a global player original podcast. |
| 0:12.5 | He said we're going to have a short-term suspension on people coming in from the same countries that Obama had done this to. |
| 0:20.3 | No, he didn't. |
| 0:20.8 | He's in every Muslim. Until we figure out done this to. No, he didn't. |
| 0:21.6 | He's in every Muslim. |
| 0:22.6 | Until we figure out what's going on. |
| 0:24.6 | Not true, Piz. People can Google it right now. You're wrong and I'm right as ever. |
| 0:28.6 | You're an obnoxious. |
| 0:30.6 | You don't care about your feelings. |
| 0:32.6 | Biden didn't swart. |
| 0:34.6 | You're a racist. |
| 0:35.6 | We want to play that game? I do not think January 6 was an insurrection. I thought that it was all kinds of crimes. You said it at the time, Chris. You called it an insurrection at the time. You did. No, I never thought. Do you have policies on fighting racism? Yes, we do. What are they? We're completely intolerant of intolerance. You said you have policy. Well, that is the policy. That's not a policy, that's just another phrase. But you don't condemn Nazi persecution of the Jews? I think that there was a little bit of persecution. We may have to rename the show because you're a little bit more than a far-right Republican. Hey, what can I say? |
| 1:12.5 | I think you say I'm a fascist. |
| 1:15.4 | You're not just here to defend the indefensible or justify the unjustifiable. |
| 1:19.2 | I'm sorry, you're a sociopath. |
| 1:21.2 | And I will say to you... |
| 1:22.4 | That is not only the unmistakable voice, |
| 1:26.8 | but the unmistakable rhetorical style of Medi Hassan, |
| 1:31.0 | who has an unlikely story starting his journalism career in the lobby in Britain, |
| 1:36.3 | and yet has become one of the strongest and fiercest voices on and of the American left. |
| 1:42.4 | He is an American citizen now and finds himself frequently the |
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