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As the USA celebrates its 250 birthday, Lewis Goodall reflects on how the politics of the country has changed and asks if it's still a force for good. Listen to the full show on the all-new LBC App: https://app.af.lbc.co.uk/btnc/thenewlbcapp #lewisgoodall #trump #donaldtrump #uspolitics #usa #whitehouse #LBC LBC is the home of live debate around news and current affairs in the UK. Join in the conversation and listen at https://www.lbc.co.uk/ Sign up to LBC’s weekly newsletter here: https://l-bc.co/signup
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Tomorrow, the 4th of July, 2026, the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence
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or the signing, I should say, of the Declaration of Independence, the day when the United States, in effect, was founded
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and the United Kingdom, or Great Britain as it then was, and what became the United States, the 13 original colonies
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were torn asunder, never to be brought back together again, over things that in British history seem esoteric and opaque now
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of things like the stamp tax and things like the Boston Tea Party and Tea Duty
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and loads and loads of things that are important things in America
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and which to us, for us largely, have been lost to time. But obviously it is a big moment for the United States
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still such a young country in so many ways, in that 250 years transforming from just 13 colonies dependent on Great Britain
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to the largest, most powerful, most politically and culturally potent superpower the world has ever known
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And I should say, I'll start off by saying, I am, and this is controversial for some people
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I know it will be controversial for some of you, and it's certainly increasingly controversial on the left
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which is broadly where I would anchor my politics, but I am a huge Atlantifier
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an Atlanticist. I love the United States, I love going to the United States, I love US politics
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I'm obsessed with US politics. Yes, like the rest of you, it can make me shudder and despair
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but I've always loved it. I've always, I'm an absolute sucker for the United States
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for the culture, for the food, for the country, for the people. I love working from there
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I love reporting from there. The whole thing appeals to me in so many ways
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The sort of glitz, the glam, the size of it all, the culture of it all, the get up and go, all of it
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I love it. Obsessed with the history, obsessed with the politics. No country, in a sense, does politics in terms of reporting on better
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I think doing politics, obviously. there are problems with. But nonetheless, I think, generally speaking
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particularly since the end of the Second World War, America has been that thing, obviously with enormous problems and caveats
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but it's largely been a source of inspiration, a shining city on a hill
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the home and exemplar of democracy, liberal democracy for the rest of the world
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And yet here we are in 2026. And even though I think all of those things
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and I admire the country, and I admire the people, and I admire so much of what it's given to the world
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and how much I do think we have to be grateful to it. We wouldn't be the country we are now in a situation we are now
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were it not for hundreds of thousands of extraordinary, brave American servicemen and women
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the might of the American industrial machine the Second World War Soviets as well of course but nonetheless were it not for that coming together of the new world and the old world we would not be in the situation we are now
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We have much to be grateful to the United States for. And yet here we are in 2026 and we have, let's be honest, a madman as the president of the United States
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This is President Trump visiting the Teddy Roosevelt Presidential Library in Medora, North Dakota, yesterday
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where he delivered a speech and made a joke about his sons. Now, as I see my two beautiful sons sitting there, I think I'm going to give one to myself, one to them
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and we'll have a threesome, OK? I'll pick out one of the two
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I'll give them the Congressional Medal of Honor for something, for their genius at hunting
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and I'll get one for taking on Russia, Russia, Russia or something
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Keith Asu would be in the middle. He's got a filthy mind. Donald Trump, honestly, talking there about his sons
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and having a threesome with and giving them the Presidential Medal of Honor
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maybe giving one to himself for some reason or other. This is the President of the United States
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He's just entered his 80th year. There is no doubt now that the President's mind is deeply addled
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But it's not just a question of having a mad king. They left a mad king 250 years ago. Mad kings come and mad kings go. It's the impression they leave behind on the politics that's the problem
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And the question that Atlantis is like me, people who have long admired the United States, who have thought that the UK-American alliance is a great thing, who feel that we have much to be grateful to the United States for
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The question that I have to ask myself, and I think we have to ask ourselves, is whether that America is permanently dead
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Is whether America has now become so sick, so unwell, that American democracy is so full and so ridden with malaise and illness
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and has become so mutated by comparison to what it used to be, that it's not a shining city on a hill anymore
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It's a burning city on a hill and it's burnt and it's gone and all that's left are embers
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And that exemplar of democracy that we thought we had is not coming back because Trump will come
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Well, he has come and he will go. He's got roughly half, just over half of his second term to go
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He won't run for a third term. That's just fanciful nonsense. American democracy in some form will survive, but it won't be the same
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It's been twisted and bent and mutated out of shape. it was basically a cast of plaster and now Donald Trump face has been firmly impressed upon it and it won bend back It won bend back easily Look at even look at even those that we might admire on the left of politics
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whether it's AOC on the Democratic side or Mamdani or the rest of them
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They are doing politics differently to him, but in some senses they are in his slipstream
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They are politicians who Trump has influenced and made and has taught
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and it does not feel to me that America will necessarily slip back to be the liberal democracy that we have known
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In the past 12 months alone, America has threatened to invade Greenland NATO sovereign territory
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He said, Trump, that British troops didn't do much in Afghanistan and Iraq
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He has introduced disorder around the world. He's invaded Iran to no import or to no effect
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He's kidnapped the Venezuelan president again to not much import or effect
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And America started to just act like any other superpower, any other bully on the block
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Now, you might say that's always been the case. And I would accept, of course, to some extent, it's always been the case
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America, to some extent, has always done what it wanted. America, to some extent, has always projected its own hard power when it suited them
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But they still, at least sometimes, tried to obey certain rules and to uphold a certain form of order around the world
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They were better than China. They were better than Russia. That no longer feels like it is quite the case
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So the question that I want to talk to you about on this 250th anniversary weekend
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is if you, like me, are an Atlanticist, an admirer of the United States
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an admirer of its politics, an admirer of its culture, does that admiration still hold or has it gone
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And can America return to being a force for good in the world
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Is it still, in your view, a force for good in the world
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Or maybe you've never been an admirer and you think all of that was just nonsense to begin with
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Is America, in its 250th year, still a force for good in the world and something to be admired
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Yesterday, Donald Trump shared an AI-generated video of himself on social media as a doctor as part of the celebrations
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treating celebrity patients, including Robert De Niro, Julia Roberts, Whoopi Goldberg, and Edward Norton, treating them for Trump derangement syndrome
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Have you or someone you know been diagnosed with TDS? The symptoms can be relentless
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Fortunately, I'm Dr. Trump, and I have a treatment plan. Let's hear what some of my patients have to say
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I have been suffering for over a decade, and after listening to Dr. Trump, I can see some results
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Man I been suffering for years I really didn believe that was help out there That was when I came across this video on TV
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I really thought I was a lost cause. This was going to affect me for the rest of my life
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But after using the treatment plan, I can see a difference. I really wasn't sure I could help some of these people
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They were so far gone, I wasn't really sure. I had no idea how much this was affecting my life
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My work is slowed down. I'm hardly recognizable anymore. I just needed help
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I couldn't eat. I couldn't sleep. Constantly angry. I made everyone miserable around me
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I feel like I've aged 20 years in the last two years
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I've been so concerned I was really starting to worry about my future
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The treatment is simple Turn off Fake news Say your prayers and if you ever feel anxious
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Just have a Diet Coke like me And you're going to see a remarkable difference in your life
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Oh man he is funny He is funny You can't take that away from me
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There's never going to be anyone as funny in every sense as president There shouldn't be anyone that funny as president
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It doesn't make any sense I can't believe that it's still funny after 10 years
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Obviously it's really not funny and I know a lot of you are going to say you shouldn't be saying it's funny Lewis but come on, I mean that is just quite funny
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It just objectively is quite funny. And if you've seen the video it's even funnier when you can see the visuals for it
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and you sort of hate yourself for laughing but you can't help but do so
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Nonetheless, the oppression that he has left on American politics is not funny
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and I don't think we'll bounce back. So this is the question I want to hear from you on this 250th anniversary weekend
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Is America ever going to be a force for good as we've known it before in the world
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Can America bounce back after Trump? Or has Trump changed America indelibly
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The old America will not be coming back. How has Trump changed the United States
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And can, can it change back to something else? Could someone, a John Ossoff or a Tallarico or even Kamala Harris or whoever it happens to be
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come back, Andy Beshear, come back and resurrect, change America's soul in a way that Joe Biden tried to do
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but failed to do. Has Trump changed America permanently? 0345 6060973. 0345 6060973
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You're listening to Lewis Goodall sitting in full. James O'Brien. Jimmy O'Brien
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This 250th anniversary weekend. The time, 11.16
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