Up next in 10
LBC's Washington Correspondent Simon Marks joins James O'Brien to discuss the latest from the United States. It comes as Donald Trump's doctor says the president is in "excellent health" following his annual medical exam. Trump visited the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Tuesday for the exam, writing on his Truth Social platform afterwards that "everything checked out perfectly". It is his third known check-up since returning to the White House last year. Listen to the full show on the all-new LBC App: https://app.af.lbc.co.uk/btnc/thenewlbcapp #jamesobrien #simonmarks #LBC #trump #donaldtrump #usnews #debate #politics 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
Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:00
Donald Trump's health reports are in and it turns out he's practically an avenger
0:05
He's a lion of a man, James. I know that's going to be a surprise to everybody
0:09
An absolute lion of a man. I mean, that is the view of none other than the White House physician
0:17
And President Trump has spent now, what are we, four days consistently celebrating it
0:22
I see late last night before he went to bed at 11 o'clock in the evening
0:26
He retweeted on his social media platform an article from a very pro-Trump website, Just the News, headlined
0:36
Trump scores 30 out of 30 on cognitive assessment, looks 14 years younger than he is
0:44
according to the outcome of that physical examination that was conducted last week at Walter Reed Military Medical Center just outside Washington
0:53
And the president over the weekend in what was, even by local standards, a what they refer to here as a high volume posting weekend on the president's social media account was obsessed with it
1:08
I mean, at one point he took to his social media platform to say, unlike other US presidents, none of whom have ever taken an approved high difficulty cognitive test
1:17
I scored a perfect 30 out of 30 considered extreme intelligence. And just in case everybody had missed the point, he also went on to observe
1:28
This is my fourth such test. All perfect. 120 correct answers out of 120 questions asked
1:37
It is rare that anyone gets a perfect score, especially when achieved four times in a row
1:44
So he was once again claiming, as he said before, that he is an incredibly stable genius
1:50
Unfortunately, everything else that was this sort of stream of detritus on his social media feed
1:57
raised questions about his mental stability in the minds of many people that were looking at it But on that cognitive score 30 out of 30 Well congratulations Mr President So some of the things that have exercised him to the point where as you say questions about his mental stability persist include the Kennedy Centre
2:15
named, of course, for Kennedy, not by Kennedy, which is, I think, a crucial distinction when it comes to honouring people
2:22
and the rally that was scheduled to mark the 250th anniversary, and the fund of money for all of the people that sort of committed crimes in his name
2:34
on the day of the January the 6th insurrection. They've all got him exercised
2:38
Tell us why, but make sure you leave enough time to tell us also about this phone call
2:42
with Benjamin Netanyahu. Well, let me deal with the Kennedy Centre and the Anti-Weaponisation Fund together
2:48
because they're kind of linked in the sense that the American media's framing of what's taking place
2:54
is not entirely consistent with what is actually taking place. You're going to see headlines out there about Donald Trump
3:00
is thinking of walking back his idea of setting up this $1.776 billion weaponisation fund
3:08
to pay off his mates who ransacked Congress on January 6, 2021
3:13
that Donald Trump is handing control of the Kennedy Centre back to Congress
3:18
I mean, neither of that is exactly what's taking place. On the anti-weaponisation fund
3:23
the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, went to him and said, Mr. President, this idea is dead on arrival. Forget it
3:30
There's no support in the country among Republicans for this. We're not backing it
3:35
So he was basically blocked from pursuing this. The idea that he is being the big man and stepping back from this is sort of ludicrous
3:43
And similarly on the Kennedy Center, I mean, Trump is framing the story that
3:47
in his fury with the judge who has said he can't name the center after himself
3:51
even though he's already done it and it's got his name outside it
3:55
He's walking away. He's handing control of the Kennedy Center back to Congress
4:00
Well, as the judge observed, control of the Kennedy Center had never been taken away from Congress
4:07
It not as though Donald Trump legally has control of the Kennedy Center So those are huge reverses for him And this America 250 this Freedom 250 set of concerts that due to be taking place here on the National Mall
4:22
later this month, part of America's 250th birthday commemorations, falling apart because you've got top musical acts
4:30
including Bret Michaels, the frontman of Poison, Martina McBride, the Commodores, various others
4:37
top acts that they had booked, all saying, we thought we were coming to take part in a national celebration
4:43
We now discover it's going to be highly politicised by the White House. We're dropping out
4:47
And that raises a bigger question here about the July 4th celebrations
4:52
of America's 250th birthday that are on the horizon. Can the country come together in any kind of united way
5:02
when the President of the United States is now determined to turn those celebrations into a politically infused celebration of his own administration
5:14
I think we're beginning to see a lot of public disquiet and uncertainty
5:19
about the extent to which people want to participate in these events
5:23
And that seven-hour rampage of social media postings, more than 50 in total
5:28
also saw him compare himself to George Washington, publish an image depicting his own fizzle chiseled into Mount Rushmore
5:35
and more threats to seize Greenland, as well as promoting an hour-long interview
5:39
conducted for Fox News by his own daughter-in-law, which presumably makes G. Beebe's attempts to interview
5:46
look like Watergate or Frost Nixon, actually. It would have been a better joke if I thought of it quickly enough
5:52
And so to this phone call, this extraordinary phone call between Donald Trump and the man who reportedly persuaded him
5:58
to go to war against Iran. Yeah, I mean, I do want to make the point, James
6:03
as you and I have made before, that the first reports of this were funneled by the White House
6:09
to one particular reporter at the website Axios, who is continually on the receiving end of reports
6:16
from the White House that don always turn out to be accurate and invariably turn out not to be an yeah precisely however there are multiple media outlets saying that this call yesterday with benjamin netanyahu
6:30
was definitely very testy in the telling of the original report to the website axios at one point
6:37
president trump uh said to benjamin netanyahu words to this effect you're blank crazy you'd be
6:46
in prison if it weren't for me. I'm saving your ass. Everybody hates you now. Everybody hates
6:52
Israel because of this. I mean, what this underscores is two things. First of all
6:57
that Benjamin Netanyahu, you know, whatever the actual words President Trump used
7:03
Benjamin Netanyahu is acting independently of the United States. And that's partly the United
7:09
States fault. I mean, they supercharged his capacity to take the lead in Iran by agreeing
7:15
to launch assaults on Iran on Benjamin Netanyahu's timetable on February the 28th
7:22
But it also underscores that President Trump is under fire from the right of his own right wing
7:28
I mean, he's under fire from leading prominent figures within his own Make America Great Again
7:34
grouping, Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, Candace Owens, a growing number of them
7:41
for always backing Israel. And this is coming at a time when, for the first time in the modern era
7:48
for the first time, you know, since polling on this issue began
7:53
public support for Israel is now in the minority in the United States
7:58
no longer in the majority. That's a problem for Trump. It's also a massive problem for Democrats
8:05
especially as wealthy pro-Israel lobby groups like AIPAC continue to pollute American politics, and they're one of many groups polluting American politics
8:16
with insane amounts of money. This is going to be a huge issue in the midterms and in the
8:22
2028 presidential election, as politicians of both parties have to deal with shifting
8:28
public opinions here about Israel
#news