Will the Democrats’ shutdown gamble pay off?

Americast

BBC

Politics, Government, News

4.2 • 2.8K Ratings

🗓️ 2 October 2025

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The US federal government has shut down for the first time since 2018, and with it the suspension of all non-essential services and the threat of mass firings among federal workers.

The shutdown comes after Congress failed to reach an agreement on future spending plans, leading to an angry blame game in the media over who is really responsible. For Democrats, the shutdown presents an opportunity to fight back against Donald Trump’s agenda, in particular on healthcare and cutbacks in spending.

But has the party picked the right moment to challenge the president - and will Democrats be able to land their message with the American public? Justin and Anthony unpack what the Democrats are trying to achieve and where they go from here.

And, Donald Trump has reached a deal that would transfer ownership of TikTok away from the Chinese company ByteDance and allow operations to continue in the U.S. The deal itself involves investors with close links to the president, but what does it mean for TikTok’s users, and who will have ownership of the app’s powerful algorithms?

HOSTS: • Justin Webb, Radio 4 presenter • Anthony Zurcher, North America Correspondent

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This episode was made by Purvee Pattni, Alix Pickles and Grace Reeve. The technical producer was Mike Regaard. The series producer is Purvee Pattni. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts.
0:07.2	We get it. Life is busy. You want to keep up with the news, but there's just too much going on.
0:13.0	Which is where newscast comes in. We do the work, and when you're ready to dig deeper into the day's news, you just pop us into your ears.
0:23.1	It does mean we have to put in the hard work, though.
0:26.1	Listen to newscast every day on BBC Sounds.
0:32.5	The Democrats are back. They have forced the shutdown of the federal government in the United States.
0:39.4	It is a very big move, a big move politically. It puts them in the spotlight once again. Are they going to gain from it politically or not? Welcome to AmeriCast. Americaast. America from BBC News.
0:48.9	When Donald Trump calls, they say, yes, sir. Right away, sir. Happy to lick your boot, sir.
0:56.4	We are the sickest country in the world.
0:57.3	Oh, dear.
1:00.0	Are you worried that billionaires are going to go hungry?
1:02.2	Of course the president supports peaceful protest.
1:03.1	What a stupid question.
1:05.5	Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein? Hello, it's Justin in the worldwide headquarters of Americaast in London, England.
1:17.0	And it's Anthony in the shutdown headquarters of America, Washington, D.C.
1:21.4	Okay, two subjects today. We will get to TikTok because it is hugely important, it seems to me,
1:25.6	who owns TikTok and how the algorithm
1:27.6	works. It's important anyway, because loads and loads of people in the United States use it.
1:31.6	But it's important politically because there are those who think it will have an outsized
1:36.8	influence on the next election and on the way that people get information for the next election
1:42.1	because they don't all listen to podcasts,
1:44.9	although, of course, lots do that as well. So we will get to TikTok, but first, let's start
	...

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