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Hello and welcome to political thinking.

Is he the peacemaker or the man prepared to use America's military might

in the way that none of his predecessors dared?

The closest of Israel's allies?

Or the man ready to tell her prime minister?

He doesn't know what the effie's doing.

What Donald Trump says and does demands our attention once again and leaves friends and

foe asking, what does the president really think? My guest on political thinking this week

is one of President Trump's key friends in Congress. Congressman Scott Perry of

Pennsylvania is a prominent member, a former chair of the Freedom Caucus, the most conservative

faction in the House of Representatives, which argues that the way to make America great again

is to have a much smaller government and return to more traditional values.

A former brigadier general, a pilot who flew 44 combat missions in Iraq,

he sits on the House Foreign Relations Committee,

and he backed the president's decision to bomb Iran,

despite being, like Donald Trump, a critic of what some call forever wars.

Now, my aim on this program on political thinking is to have a conversation which gives an insight into why people believe what they do rather than yet another

newsy interrogation. Congressman Perry, welcome to political thinking from Washington, D.C. How nice to

see you? Very nice to see you. Thanks so much for the opportunity. I'm looking forward to a conversation that

maybe isn't so newsy. We'll do our best. Now, look, you're a veteran, as I said, of the armed

forces. You served in the Iraq war. I wonder if now you're minded to pay attention to the words, maybe the wisdom of

...