Donald Trump: Dictator in Chief?

The shadow looming over the fourth Republican debate was the party’s most recent president, Donald Trump.

But while the other candidates traded blows at one another, Trump was conspicuously absent, instead taking part in a town hall event on Tuesday evening.

He raised eyebrows when saying he would only be a dictator on ‘day one’ if elected president.

The Americast team chew over Trump’s comments – and the Republican debate – before speaking to GOP candidate Asa Hutchinson, the former governor of Arkansas who’s still in the race for the White House.

And, a clip of American university leaders has gone viral after they failed to say explicitly to Congress that calling for the genocide of Jewish people violated their schools code of conduct. The team assesses how we’ve reached this point.

HOSTS: • Justin Webb, Radio 4 presenter• Marianna Spring, disinformation and social media correspondent • Anthony Zurcher, North America correspondent

GUEST: • Asa Hutchinson, Republican presidential candidate

GET IN TOUCH: • Join our online community: https://discord.gg/qSrxqNcmRB • Send us a message or voice note via WhatsApp to +44 330 123 9480 • Email [email protected] • Or use #Americast Find out more about our award-winning “undercover voters” here: bbc.in/3lFddSF.

This episode was made by George Dabby with Alix Pickles, Catherine Fusillo, Claire Betzer and Maia Davies. The technical producer was Mike Regaard. The series producer is George Dabby. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.

Americast is the authoritative US news and politics podcast from the BBC. Each week we provide audiences with the best analysis from across the BBC, with on-the-ground observations and big picture insights about the stories which are defining America right now. The podcast is hosted by trusted BBC journalists including the BBC’s North America editor, Sarah Smith, BBC Radio 4 presenter, Justin Webb, the BBC’s disinformation and social media correspondent, Marianna Spring, and BBC North America correspondent, Anthony Zurcher. As well as political analysis, we also specialise in social media. Each week Marianna Spring brings listeners the latest updates from the BBC’s Undercover Voters, our award-winning investigation into the content that is recommended to US voters on social media. The team is also joined by special guests each week, like CNN anchor, Christiane Amanpour, Emmy Award-winning TV host, Rachel Maddow, and Succession actress, J Smith-Cameron. Podcasts are published every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. As well as being a podcast, we are also available every Friday on the World Service. Oh, and by the way, you can now listen to Americast on a smart speaker. If you want to listen, just say ‘”Ask BBC Sounds to play Americast”. It works on most smart speakers. Every Monday we answer your questions on Americanswers, with some help from special guests, including Miles Taylor, who was chief of staff at the Department for Homeland Security during the Trump presidency before becoming a whistleblower. Got a question or a comment? Get in touch with us on email at [email protected] or WhatsApp on +44 330 123 9480.

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• Latest episode: 2025-05-09
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