I'm Ed Vasey. We're going to be unpacking the politics of the day from self-proclaimed King of the North Andy Burnham's potential path to challenge Kirstama to the uproar caused by Donald Trump's comments about NATO troops in Afghanistan. We'll also be asking why there's a trend for hotel rooms, not to have proper

bathroom doors. Outrageous. And for all that, I'm joined by Michael Binion from the Times. Welcome to the show,

Michael. Thank you, Ed. And Alice Demby, opinion and features editor at City AM. Hello. I've

thought you were the editor. No, I'm the opinion and features editor. It's about time you became the editor. Thank you, Ed. Tell my boss that. I will. Let's talk about this appalling. I mean, I don't think there's going to be any debate here, so we're just going to vent. Just when it looked as though Trump had made up with European leaders after the Greenland fiasco. This is what he had to say on Fox News.

We have never really asked anything of them. You know, they'll say they send some troops to Afghanistan

or this or that. And they did. They stayed a little back, little off the front lines.

Yeah, right, Donald. Hundreds of British troops died in that conflict, as did many Danish troops and others

from European and NATO nations. There's no debate here, Michael. None at all. It's an insult

pure and simple and it needs rebutting and it needs putting down and it also needs people to say,

is this the kind of talk you expect from a statesman or indeed a president?

And a draft, did you? Well, indeed, yes. I mean, it's just extraordinary. I'm afraid it's all of a peace. It's this contempt for Europe and the idea that America triumphs in everything it does and that Trump himself is the peacemaker, whereas all the others are just hangers-on, which is, it's all part of the same spiel that he puts out every time.

And one wonders, you know, could anything be more selfish or narcissistic?

And it's amazing he gets away with it, Alice.

I mean, I remember when he took down John McCain as a loser, because John McCain, a brave Navy pilot had been captured by the Vietnamese,

and yet he has no war record at all. I'm not sure he does get away with it. I mean, in this Times write-up, they have a quote from a US army official saying that, you know, he served alongside British troops, and he found these comments insulting. You know, words do have consequences. Trump may have a kind of ironic detachment. He may be a kind of showman and he thinks it's kind of funny. But these words, I mean, they do have consequences. And I just think his whole approach to diplomacy and foreign affairs is appalling. This kind of alternative UN he's setting up, which is just purely a pay to play, a kind of club for dictators. Yes. It's desp's despicable. I mean, look, I believe in capitalism

and free markets, but those have to exist within an ethical moral framework. Trump doesn't

believe in anything except money and power. The question, of course, is how Kirste Starma deals with it,

because for the last 18 months, it's been, let's see how much we can accommodate President Trump in order to mitigate the damage he does but I've always thought about that

Hugh Grant film where he stands up to the American president how good it makes British

cinema goes feel and I think the Greenland debacle has shown I think European statesman that

there is some mileage now to kind of drawing a line in

the sand with Donald Trump and standing up to him, Michael. I think there is indeed, and I think

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