Swamp Notes: Inside Trump’s new inner circle
FT News Briefing
Forhecz Topher
4.4 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 6 April 2024
⏱️ 14 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Donald Trump’s first term as president featured mainstream Republican figures — respected military officials, centre-right policymakers, and neoliberal business leaders — who promised to temper his more extreme instincts. But if Trump takes office again, his White House could feature a very different cast of characters. The FT’s Washington bureau chief, James Politi, and deputy Washington bureau chief, Lauren Fedor, join this week’s Swamp Notes to discuss what a second Trump White House would look like.
Mentioned in this podcast:
The Trump machine: the inner circle preparing for a second term
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Swamp Notes is produced by Ethan Plotkin, Sonja Hutson, Lauren Fedor and Marc Filippino. Topher Forhecz is the FT’s executive producer. The FT’s global head of audio is Cheryl Brumley. Special thanks to Pierre Nicholson.
Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The UK's energy partner. |
| 0:06.0 | Learn more at equinore. |
| 0:10.0 | As a candidate in 2016, Donald Trump promised to surround himself with only the best people if elected president. |
| 0:20.0 | But what kind of people would he pick next time around? |
| 0:24.0 | This is Swamp Notes, the weekly podcast from the F.T. |
| 0:30.0 | News Briefing, where we talk about all of the things happening in the 2024 US presidential |
| 0:35.0 | election. I'm Sonia Hudson and this week we're asking what would a second Trump |
| 0:40.8 | White House look like. |
| 0:42.8 | Here with me to discuss is James Pallidi. |
| 0:44.8 | He's the FT's DC Bureau Chief. |
| 0:46.8 | Hi James. |
| 0:47.6 | Hi, Sonia. |
| 0:48.6 | And we've also got Lauren Feeder, the FT's deputy DC D.C. Bureau Chief. Hi, |
| 0:53.4 | Thanks for having me. |
| 0:55.4 | So, James, you wrote a piece for the F.T. |
| 0:58.0 | recently where you took a look at some of the people |
| 1:00.8 | in Donald Trump's orbit who might be asked to join his next |
| 1:04.2 | administration. Who are some of the characters that stand out to you from that? |
| 1:08.0 | Well we have some new figures like the political strategist Chris Lassvita and |
| 1:12.3 | Susie Wiles. |
| 1:13.4 | And then we have some members of the old guard, |
| 1:16.0 | like Stephen Miller, the hard-lying immigration advisor, |
... |
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