What happened when Trump removed the experts?

Beyond Today

BBC

News

4.6 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 24 January 2020

⏱️ 21 minutes

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Summary

“We must reject the perennial prophets of doom”. These were Donald Trump’s words at Davos earlier in the week, dismissing those who warn of the dangers of climate change. We know climate change is real, but Trump doesn’t seem to be listening to the experts who tell him this. It’s a tendency the author Michael Lewis noticed in Trump the day after he was elected. Lewis wrote the Big Short, a book that was turned into an Oscar-winning film about the financial crisis, and now he’s written about how Trump operates. He came into the Beyond Today studio to talk about how Trump is changing the way government works in the US, what that’s doing to America and what parallels we’re seeing here. Presenter: Matthew Price Producers: Harriet Noble and Alicia Burrell Mixed by Emma Crowe Editor: Philly Beaumont

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts.
0:06.3	Hello, I'm Matthew Price.
0:08.0	This is Beyond Today from BBC Radio 4,
0:10.8	where we ask one big question about one big story.
0:14.0	Today, what happened when Trump removed the experts.
0:27.0	This is not a time for pessimism. This is a time for optimism.
0:40.0	President Trump spoke earlier this week at Davos, which is the summit that they hold each year in a Swiss ski resort.
0:46.9	It's attended by global leaders and top business people.
0:49.9	Because this is a time for tremendous hope and joy and optimism and action.
0:55.0	But to embrace the possibilities of tomorrow we must reject the perennial profits of doom
1:01.0	and their predictions of the apocalypse.
1:05.0	And in the audience as well was perhaps the world's most famous 17 year old.
1:10.0	Our house is still on fire. Your inaction is fueling the flames by the hour and we are
1:18.4	telling you to act as if you loved your children above all else.
1:24.0	But Trump just dismissed Greta Tumburg and the other activists who care about addressing the climate emergency.
1:31.0	He called them Prof prophets of doom.
1:33.8	Profits of doom?
1:35.8	Just like that.
1:37.8	We know climate change is real,
1:41.2	but Trump doesn't seem to be listening to the people who know, the scientists, the
1:46.4	academics, the business leaders, the experts. And this isn't something that's only happened recently.
1:53.7	You got to tell me how long I can go on for.
	...

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