I'm Patrick McGuire and we're going to be unpacking the politics of the day

and talking about the power of being really miserable and misanthropic about everything,

which is my attitude to life. And joining me to do that are two of our very favourite pessimists

from the Times comment desk. You know what, that doesn't

narrow it down. But today they are Libby Purvis. Hi, Libby. Hello. Hello. Love you to hear from you.

And James Marriott joins me in the studio. Hello, James. Good to see you. We'll start with a piece by our colleague

George Grylls from Washington. And he writes, President Zelensky has an unlikely ally in the White House, not the US president who signed off the delivery of the Patriot Air Defense missiles last week, but his wife, Melania.

Let's have a listen to Donald Trump speaking in the White House last night.

My conversations with him are always very pleasant. I say, isn't that a very lovely conversation?

And then the missiles go off that night. I go home, I tell the first lady. And I spoke with Vladimir today. We had a wonderful conversation. She said, oh, really? Another city was just hit.

It's a remarkable. The thing that stands out for me there, Libby, is not so much the substance, but Donald

Trump and Melania having a conversation full stop.

But do you think this is plausible?

Melania changing Donald Trump's mind?

Yeah, she's a human being.

She grew up behind the old iron curtain.

She knows what it is to be rightly scared of the

ruthlessness of Russia and its Soviet ambitions. And she's married to an old man who has more

power to make an impact on the Russian dictator than anyone in the world. So yes, I hope she

keeps on saying it to him.

How did you feel when you heard that, James?

The idea that, you know, matters of geopolitics can be decided by, you know, sweet nothing's whispered by the larnia to Donald.

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