Nick Cohen @NickCohen4 dials up Washington to speak to namesake & fellow commentator Ben Cohen, editor of The Daily Banter website @thedailybanter about the coming Trumpian Terror, that starts in earnest following this week's presidential inauguration. The world is likely to witness the emergence of the U.S. as the world's biggest banana republic, headed by a billionaire oligarchy out-going President Joe Biden warned us all about.

Ben expects a revanchist reign of Terror from Donald Trump, with a purge of his enemies in the judicial system, the media, government and possibly even the military. '"There was a hit list ... that was just being shared in right wing circles," says Ben Cohen ." We know that the federal government is going to be raised from top to bottom of anybody they perceived as being loyal to Biden or the Democrats."

Ben says it's likely that politicians, military and government employees will be forced to an oath of loyalty to Trump, just as nobles and peasants were forced to sign oaths to medieval monarchs. Ben thinks this will also involve signing up to the biggest, baddest lie of all - that the 2020 presidential election was "stolen" by the Democrats. Ben adds, "I do know that a lot of people I know in government are busy, wiping their online profiles...because they're very worried about what the incoming administration is going to be doing."

The new Trumpian dystopia will descend very rapidly, says Ben. We can expect mass deportations of immigrants, attempts by Elon Musk to slash government spending by a staggering 80 per cent and a series of trade wars sparked by Trumpian tariffs. "It's going to be worse than you think it could possibly be," is Ben's grim prediction. He adds, "we are in uncharted territory and we are in with a government that is more radical than any government that I've seen in my lifetime, at least in America. I can't think of...and that's including the first Trump administration And that was generally a failure - the first Trump administration -because they weren't organised. But this is different."

Read Ben's The Banter Substacks here and listen to his podcasts here.

Nick Cohen's @NickCohen4 latest Substack column Writing from London on politics and culture from the UK and beyond.

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This week Nick Cohen @NickCohen4 talks with Steve Richards @steverichards14, political commentator, author, broadcaster & historian about the threat posed to the Labour government by in-coming U.S. president Donald Trump & the menagerie of far-right weirdos like Elon Musk who has been launching a barrage of inflammatory tweets at the government since last Summer.

Steve and Nick explore the post-war history of the U.S. - UK relationship which hit a severe low during the 1956 Suez crisis. But Steve says the threat posed by Trump & his gang was "much more dangerous." Eisenhower's administration was recognisably stolid & solid; Trump's government of MAGA nutjobs & fanatics looks set to be even worse than his first administration. The inauguration is only days away and already Trump has threatened to annex Canada, Greenland and the Panama canal! Brexit and Trump have made UK isolated from Europe & the U.S. "The British electorate has changed dramatically," says Steve. So, Starmer must be bold in dealing with the UK's isolation and continue rebuilding the country's relationship with Europe. Starmer's caution "isn't working", says Steve, adding, "it's risky being cautious, but they haven't realised that."

Steve says it's clear the Tories, particularly Kemi Badenoch & Robert Jenrick, have decided to throw their lot in with Trump/Musk & help them attack the government. "They have made a decision & they are going to ride these bonkers wild waves as much as possible," says Steve in relation to the the latest Musk X assaults including his deranged libels against Starmer over grooming gangs. Steve says of today's Tories: "they're a revolutionary party now...they're not the party of one nation kind of moderates."

Steve is an accomplished political commentator, author & podcaster. His latest book Turning Points: Crisis and Change in Modern Britain, from 1945 to Truss is published by Macmillan & his regular podcast Rock and Roll Politics is a must listen.

Read Nick Cohen's regular and compelling Substack column Writing from London

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Nick Cohen talks to investigative reporter & author Peter Geoghegan, the UK's leading journalist exposing the dark money and cash from right wing extremist billionaires that's been driving UK politics since the ill-fated 2016 Brexit referendum.

Peter @PeterKGeoghegan explains how Donald Trump's election victories, Brexit and the failed Liz Truss experiment have helped fuel a crackpot anglocentric extremist right wing movement that has taken root either side of the Atlantic. In London, Tufton Street so-called "think tanks" a-wash with dark money mainly from U.S. billionaires and corporations have been influencing UK politics - helping to drive a number of right wing culture wars from climate denial & Europe to Ukraine and the NHS.

This UK-U.S. phenomena was recently best exposed by the "National Conservatism Conference" in London in May 2023 which heard from a number of extreme right voices from either side of the Pond. Peter tells Nick: "You have a growing link between that sort of Trumpist right, the MAGA right, and ... the Right to the Conservative Party, Robert Jenrick, Liz Truss, people like that, all have strong links."

Peter says even if Trump stooge Elon Musk does not or cannot make good on his promise to bung Nigel Farage & his Reform gang a reported £100 million, the story has already boosted the radical right in the UK.

But Peter is despondent about the prospects of stopping foreign cash fuelling extremist politics in the UK. The Tories castrated the Electoral Commission, & Sir Keir Starmer shows no appetite to tackle the issue. Peter says Labour will reportedly not change electoral law because it "could stoke populism" if the government is seen to react to the threat posed by Trump, Musk & Farage. Peter adds, "I think is a completely crazy position to take, to say that we're not going to do something that we are actually philosophically in favour of ...because it, it might create a couple of bad headlines.

Peter Geoghegan's must read Substack is Democracy for Sale & his best selling book Democracy for Sale: Dark Money and Dirty Politics is published by W.F.Howes Ltd.

Nick Cohen's @NickCohen4 latest Substack column Writing from London on politics and culture from the UK and beyond.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.