Hello, my name's David Rundsenman and this is Talking Politics. We are barely 48 hours since Donald Trump left this side of the Atlantic. I think it's fair to say that the dust has still not settled. It was quite a trip. We're going to be talking about that, but we're also going to be talking about what's going on in politics in the United States.

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I'm joined by Helen Thompson and also by Gary Girstle, Mellon Professor of American History

here in Cambridge, author of many books. Most recently, a history of the

American state called Liberty and Coercion. Great title. It's been quite a week. In the history of

liberty and coercion, we're going to get on to Helsinki, Brexit, all of that stuff in a minute.

But actually, I wanted to start with the other side of this because I think it's also been a week

where the stark contrast between the two sides of the Trump presidency have never been

more clear because there is the show, the spectacle, that's what we've had in Europe this week,

the tweeting, the press conferences, the craziness, saying things, saying contradictory things

40 minutes later, everything on the surface. And then there is what you might call the deal,

the bargain that I think many people in the United States who voted for Trump made with

themselves, their consciences, maybe with their God, which was that the reason Hillary Clinton

must not win and the Republican candidate must win is that in this presidential term it was

possible that two and maybe even three Supreme Court vacancies would come up. And there have now

been two. And Trump has nominated his candidate for the second of these vacancies,

Brett Kavanaugh. And that is not the show. That is in many ways a conventional choice. I think

...