The Edition: Rowan Williams on America's 'demonic' political climate
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The Spectator
4.3 • 826 Ratings
🗓️ 17 April 2026
⏱️ 50 minutes
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Summary
The Pope is 'WEAK on crime and terrible on foreign policy' – this was the verdict of the President of the United States this week, as he appeared to deepen his row with the leader of the Catholic Church. In the magazine this week, Damian Thompson reports on why the President appears to have engaged in his own Holy War with the leader of 1.3 billion Catholics around the world.
For this week's Edition, host William Moore is joined by deputy editor Freddy Gray, commissioning editor Lara Brown – and the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams.
Baron Williams, now retired from the Lords, fears there is something 'demonic' in the political culture of the United States right now, as people appear to twist Christian teaching to justify their own causes. He does admit he feels 'slightly sorry' for the US Vice President – and recent Catholic convert – J.D. Vance saying he appears to be 'floundering', following Vance's recent comments that the Pope should 'stick to morality'. Why is the President fighting with the Pope? And what reflections does Rowan have on how involved religious leaders should be in politics?
Also on the episode, they discuss: the American right's obsession with the Antichrist; Rowan's new book Solidarity; the Spectator's cover story – by John Power – on the property crash of the London flat market; how the future might be vegetarian; and finally, whether foreign visitors should pay to enter British museums. Plus, what are the panel's favourite cultural attractions in London?
Produced by Patrick Gibbons.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | How do you make sense of this turbulent world? How do you stay informed, amused and entertained at a time of turbulence? |
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| 0:31.2 | Hello and welcome to the edition from The Spectator. I'm William Moore, the Spectator's Features Editor, and the latest issue of the magazine has just gone to print. |
| 0:40.4 | To talk about what's inside it, I'm delighted to be joined by our deputy editor and the editor of our US edition, Freddie Gray, |
| 0:48.2 | our commissioning editor, Laura Brown, and the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams. |
| 1:03.3 | So our first topic we're going to talk about this week concerns Donald Trump. |
| 1:09.4 | And Damien Thompson writes about the bust up between the American president and the American Pope. So, Freddie, I wondered, could you start by |
| 1:12.4 | perhaps setting the scene a bit for our viewers and our listeners about where this fight has come |
| 1:17.7 | from? Well, yeah, I probably don't need to set the scene too much because I think everybody |
| 1:21.6 | would have seen it by now because in classic Donald Trump style, he doubled down and then double down and then double down again. |
| 1:30.4 | So he, I think he was watching CBS 60 Minutes. There was a Sunday night show, which featured an |
| 1:37.3 | interview with three fairly left of centre Catholic cardinals, American Cardinals. And he broke this thunderous attack on Pope Leo, |
| 1:48.4 | calling him a weak man. And the style in which he did it was very much the way in which he might |
| 1:53.0 | attack somebody who was standing for governor, a democratic politician who was standing for governor |
| 1:57.1 | in New Jersey or something like that. So he's weak on crime, you know, the main |
| 2:03.0 | problem. You know, major resume in the first. Yeah, we're going to talk about you being weak |
| 2:07.6 | on crime. After straight Alzes, when you're Archbishop Canterbury. It's a very odd thing to say |
| 2:12.0 | about a Christian leader, obviously. Not only, he then doubled down by posting this picture of himself, which is clearly |
| 2:20.1 | himself as Jesus Christ. But he says now, he thought it was a hospital worker. A doctor. A doctor. |
| 2:26.5 | Yeah. Which is, you know, obviously just ridiculous. There's no way you can, even the most |
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