This week: bulletproof Trump.

The failed assassination attempt on Donald Trump means that his supporters, more than ever, view him as America’s Chosen One. Joe Biden’s candidacy has been falling apart since his disastrous performance in the first presidential debate last month. Trump is now ahead in the polls in all the battleground states. The whispers in Washington are that the Democrats are already giving up on stopping a second Trump term – and eyeing up the presidential election of 2028 instead. Freddy Gray, deputy editor at The Spectator, and Amber Duke, Washington editor at Spectator World, join the podcast to discuss. (02:45)

Next: Meeting the mega MAGA fans. The Spectator’s political correspondent James Heale reports from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where the Republican National Convention is under way. ‘Brash, flash and full of flair,’ reports James, as he meets Donald Trump supporters who are, he says, wearing their MAGA politics with pride. Border control is a common complaint, while other Trumpists hope his near-death experience will see him embrace his faith. James has kindly shared with us a couple of the interviews that informed his piece in the magazine. (14:43)

Then: Will and Lara take us through some of their favourite pieces in the magazine this week, including Sir David Hempleman-Adams’ notebook and Gus Carter’s scoop on Reform's ‘Wimpy’ voters. 

And finally: how techno-optimism became fashionable. Max Jeffery writes in the magazine this week about the ‘New Solutions’, a trio of new ideologies that rich tech savvy ‘geeks’ – as he calls them – have adopted in order to make the world a better place. These are: techno optimism, effective altruism and effective accelerationism. He joined us on the podcast to discuss, alongside Anders Sandberg, effective altruist and senior research fellow at the University of Oxford. (24:49)

Hosted by William Moore and Lara Prendergast.

 

Produced by Oscar Edmondson and Patrick Gibbons.