Politics Weekly America

Polling out this week suggests the Democrats could do something no one thought possible even a few months ago: take back the US Senate. Despite this, Donald Trump is telling crowds at rallies across the country that the Republicans will ‘win big’. This week, Jonathan Freedland speaks to David Nir of the Downballot about why Democrats are feeling so hopeful in deep red states

Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico is surprising everyone, as polls have him leading his Republican opponent, Ken Paxton, in the Republican-led state of Texas. Jonathan Freedland speaks to James Henson, founder and executive director of the Texas Politics Project, about why a blue wave in the Lone Star State would be seismic

This week, the US press corps stood up to Donald Trump after he banned three organisations he doesn’t like from the White House. But when it came to the leader of one of America’s oldest adversaries – China – well, Trump literally rolled out a very long red carpet. Jonathan Freedland speaks to the Guardian’s Shrai Popat about why Trump seems weaker these days, and why it might be dangerous to underestimate him

Tech bosses have called for a slowdown in artificial intelligence and the creation of formal guardrails from the US government. But why is President Trump unmoved by the doomsday predictions, dismissing them as a ‘hoax’? What lies behind his embrace of the AI industry? Jonathan Freedland speaks to the Guardian US tech editor, Blake Montgomery

Donald Trump has thrown a convention to amp up the Republican base ahead of the midterm elections, but not everyone is thrilled about it. Dozens of officials running for re-election have stayed away, choosing instead to campaign locally. Are they worried about Trump’s current unpopularity weighing down their ticket?

This week Jenna Amatulli is in for Jonathan Freedland and speaks to Guardian US politics correspondent Rachel Leingang

From the Guardian Investigates team: Across the world, hundreds of people have come to believe they have made extraordinary scientific discoveries with AI chatbots such as ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini. Others say their AI has ‘awakened’, or is leading them to a higher spiritual realm. The Guardian journalist Michael Safi begins investigating a phenomenon labelled ‘AI psychosis’, travelling to the US to meet two people who have been on weird journeys with their chatbots

In August, the Democratic senator from Georgia, Jon Ossoff, implied Donald Trump was not interested in being president because he just wanted to ‘build his ballroom and travel with Natalie’. The implication Trump was having an affair with his aide (which he denied) rattled Republicans and excited Democrats. This week, Jonathan Freedland speaks to David A Graham of the Atlantic about why Ossoff is now a potential candidate for 2028

In the past couple of weeks, the Trump administration has reignited its trade war with Canada, threatened an ‘economic D-day’ against Iran and watched the US national debt surpass $40tn. Meanwhile, Donald Trump has personally made billions of dollars since returning to office. Jonathan Freedland speaks to Dan Alexander of Forbes about how Trump has amassed his fortune – and what his economic record could mean for voters in the midterms

With less than three months to go until the midterms, voters are thinking about grocery prices, the Iran war – and datacentres. This week, Jonathan Freedland speaks to the historian Jill Lepore about how this latest AI backlash could influence those all-important elections in November. Are we seeing the beginning of the end of the ‘artificial state’?

When Air Force One took off from Turkey after July’s Nato summit, almost everyone believed Donald Trump was on board … but he wasn’t. Jonathan Freedland talks with Tara Setmayer of the Seneca Project about why the White House felt the need to come up with such an elaborate lie to protect the president