:00:20. > :00:23.This week: Donald Trump's travels abroad and trouble at home.
:00:24. > :00:28.And now Britain's political parties have published their manifestos,
:00:29. > :00:30.their contract with the people, if we vote for one of them,
:00:31. > :00:38.With me: Annalisa Piras the Italian writer and film-maker.
:00:39. > :00:40.Nabila Ramdani the Algerian journalist.
:00:41. > :00:46.Stryker McGuire, London Editor for Bloomberg Markets.
:00:47. > :00:52.Donald Trump may have been onboard Air Force One Friday night,
:00:53. > :01:01.en route to Saudi Arabia, but his team was still trying
:01:02. > :01:04.to fire fight the latest twist in the sacking of the FBI Director
:01:05. > :01:06.and the Russia Connection- if there is one.
:01:07. > :01:09."I just fired the head of the FBI He was crazy,
:01:10. > :01:12.a real nut job," the New York Times claims he told the Russian Foreign
:01:13. > :01:14.Minister, "I faced great pressure because of Russia.
:01:15. > :01:18.Well, if he did say it, that last part looks premature.
:01:19. > :01:20.John McCain, the veteran Republican Senator, is among many
:01:21. > :01:22.to observe that this all feels horribly familiar.
:01:23. > :01:23.Stryker McGuire, They're all thinking of Watergate.
:01:24. > :01:25.You were in Washington in the early 1970s.
:01:26. > :01:43.I was a mere child. Journalists started at a young age back then. Is
:01:44. > :01:51.it like Watergate? No and yes. One thing is that Watergate began with
:01:52. > :02:02.the two break-ins. May and June 19 72. It built rather slowly to break
:02:03. > :02:11.in was a cover-up. Nixon resigns. In this case, it starts out much
:02:12. > :02:16.bigger. The germ of all of this is the possibility of Russian
:02:17. > :02:24.interference in the US electoral process. That is where you begin.
:02:25. > :02:30.You begin at a highly, serious level where you are protecting your
:02:31. > :02:34.national electoral integrity. Then you have all of these revelations
:02:35. > :02:42.while Tromp is in the White House. The quote that you just gave, that
:02:43. > :02:45.is in a White House document. The White House has said it is
:02:46. > :02:54.authentic. There was no question about what he said. What is
:02:55. > :03:03.interesting here is the sourcing of all of this stuff. It is coming from
:03:04. > :03:08.officials in and out of government. Most of them still serving officials
:03:09. > :03:13.and that, I think, is super important because it tells you there
:03:14. > :03:18.are people who are really worried about the conduct of the presidency
:03:19. > :03:25.and the way, not just what he does, but why he does it and how he does
:03:26. > :03:31.it. He seems totally unable to separate anything that happens from
:03:32. > :03:37.himself. It's all about him. In the bids -- middle of these revelations,
:03:38. > :03:43.we have Tromp going to give a commencement address at a university
:03:44. > :03:46.where we all know what happens at commencement addresses. You talk to
:03:47. > :03:52.the young people, you talk about their lives ahead. No, he talks
:03:53. > :03:58.about himself and talks about how he is the most vilified hounded
:03:59. > :04:04.President in the history of the United States. Politician in the
:04:05. > :04:13.history of the world. No one has been treated more unfairly. There is
:04:14. > :04:16.this poisonous drip of stories coming within government. In a
:04:17. > :04:22.sense, some of these officials are behaving worse than the President,
:04:23. > :04:28.aren't they? No, of course they are not. Do they not have an allegiance?
:04:29. > :04:33.You presume they have some obligation to the people of the
:04:34. > :04:39.United States. We have difficulty. The fact that you use the term,
:04:40. > :04:45.alleged, it is not alleged, it is true. We all know it. You have a man
:04:46. > :04:56.that is not fit to be President of the US war President of democracy.
:04:57. > :05:05.He shows he is temperamental. To call the previous director of the
:05:06. > :05:11.FBI a nut job and to do that to the Russian intelligence agent, you
:05:12. > :05:17.don't actually have the words to describe it. For a while been White
:05:18. > :05:20.House officials sucked it up and gave him a couple of months to see
:05:21. > :05:26.what he would do and how he would react. We have created this
:05:27. > :05:31.narrative that he might be all right, he might be captured by the
:05:32. > :05:36.system, he might be modified by it it will close in around him, there
:05:37. > :05:46.will good things. It is nonsense because the man is ignorant, he's
:05:47. > :05:56.not... He's incurious. It is observations. When he said, lay off
:05:57. > :06:01.old Flynn, would you? It wasn't just wrong to do it, it was profoundly
:06:02. > :06:04.ignorant because he had no idea how the FBI worked and he hadn't been
:06:05. > :06:11.interested enough to find out. The thing with Donald Trump is there is
:06:12. > :06:16.no way you can get in. He is fall inside his skin. He is so full
:06:17. > :06:23.within Donald Trump that there is no room for anything from the outside
:06:24. > :06:28.to get in. The only thing about people on the outside is loyalty.
:06:29. > :06:33.Mike Flynn, after he fired him, he continued in private to defend him.
:06:34. > :06:40.That is because he had this feeling that Mike Flynn was on his side. I
:06:41. > :06:43.think you were asking about similarities with the Watergate.
:06:44. > :06:47.There are echoes of Watergate in a sense that we were talking about
:06:48. > :06:51.allegations of immense corruption at the heart of the American
:06:52. > :06:54.government. I suppose it is worth remembering that Nixon resigned by
:06:55. > :07:01.his own accord and was not impeached and that will give confident that
:07:02. > :07:05.confidence to Donald Trump. There has been so much hyperbole about the
:07:06. > :07:09.Donald Trump 's surgery -- story that he has been one of those
:07:10. > :07:17.stories that people expect will end in a cataclysmic way almost all the
:07:18. > :07:21.time. He seems to be able to ride the most scandalous of allegations
:07:22. > :07:29.and accusations and he keeps on going. It has to be said that the
:07:30. > :07:35.witchhunt Tom analogy that he uses reflects his own typical language.
:07:36. > :07:39.The question is whether his opponents and those investigating
:07:40. > :07:45.him will be able to sustain the assault on him to get him out. I
:07:46. > :07:52.would contend that he will be difficult indeed and in the end, a
:07:53. > :07:58.populist politician like him thrives on scandal. He has spent the last
:07:59. > :08:01.couple of years through his campaign through becoming President, turning
:08:02. > :08:09.a lot of the negatives into positives. Do you think he can carry
:08:10. > :08:13.on doing that? I don't think so. I think it is a matter of time because
:08:14. > :08:18.at the end of the day, what is at stake here is the imbalances of the
:08:19. > :08:23.American system. All the evidence points to the fact that it needs to
:08:24. > :08:35.take a certain course and the only obstacle to it is the electoral
:08:36. > :08:38.power of a deterrent for the Republicans and Congress. It is
:08:39. > :08:42.worth noting that investigations into highly classified subjects take
:08:43. > :08:48.a lot of time and they are unlikely to be resolved not in the short
:08:49. > :08:52.term. Also bearing in mind that Donald Trump has the look of a one
:08:53. > :08:57.term President is written all over him, I don't think he will be caring
:08:58. > :09:01.too much. That is a problem for the Republican agenda. This is
:09:02. > :09:05.overshadowing everything. There could come a time when what he
:09:06. > :09:12.thinks doesn't matter, that the party will go to him and say, "This
:09:13. > :09:17.has to stop." There is not only the special counsel investigation but
:09:18. > :09:20.there is the Senate intelligence committee and the House Intelligence
:09:21. > :09:27.Committee. You have three investigations that are about to
:09:28. > :09:32.begin. It hasn't even begun yet. There are mid-term elections and
:09:33. > :09:39.they are not that far away. That is very serious for the party. If the
:09:40. > :09:45.economy starts taking a real knock... The American economy did
:09:46. > :09:51.rather well after Barack Obama. There was a difficult period. There
:09:52. > :09:56.was this weird economic equivalent of a fake war period where there was
:09:57. > :10:00.a so-called Donald Trump trade and markets were going up. This is
:10:01. > :10:06.largely because people thought they weren't going to be taxed any more
:10:07. > :10:12.or regulated or anything else. The Trump trade seems to be over. The
:10:13. > :10:20.dollar has weakened. Is seems there is a lot of debate and supporters of
:10:21. > :10:25.Tromp and himself believe that Hillary Clinton got away with dodgy
:10:26. > :10:33.dealings when she was Secretary of State. Why shouldn't he. It is
:10:34. > :10:39.interesting that Lindsey Graham who is regarded as one of the more
:10:40. > :10:43.erudite senators often a critic of Donald Trump, observed that a lot of
:10:44. > :10:46.us here quite glad he is leaving for a few days. He may be leaving
:10:47. > :10:55.Washington and they may have got a breather. There was a lovely
:10:56. > :11:01.picture. It was taken on a long lens. His face is the nearest thing
:11:02. > :11:09.to a little smile that Mike pence has given. He has landed as far as
:11:10. > :11:14.Saudi Arabia has concerned and he's on the rest of the week, an
:11:15. > :11:19.eight-day tour. His first tour around the world. What is important
:11:20. > :11:27.about this tour? What should we be looking out for? He has embarked on
:11:28. > :11:31.his first international trip. He has arrived in Saudi Arabia will go to
:11:32. > :11:35.Israel and Palestine. He has made out that he can make some progress
:11:36. > :11:41.with the Israel Palestine situation and that has been his claim all
:11:42. > :11:45.along. We have to know his most memorable statement was the
:11:46. > :11:51.possibility of moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem. That would have been a
:11:52. > :11:56.disaster. He was well thought through and it is typical of the
:11:57. > :12:03.kind of headline grabbing, shocking tactics he revels in. He seems to
:12:04. > :12:08.have gone quiet with this idea. To give him some limited credit, he
:12:09. > :12:14.also, when he first met Binyamin Netanyahu, he asked him to hold onto
:12:15. > :12:18.the building of illegal colonies. A settlement bill which is illegal
:12:19. > :12:23.under international law and has been condemned under international law
:12:24. > :12:28.and is a huge sticking point. In terms of progress and peas. This
:12:29. > :12:38.trip is about armament. He will sell weapons to Saudi Arabia and Israel.
:12:39. > :12:43.DC and opportunity -- do you see an opening here because we have had
:12:44. > :12:48.words from Mahmoud Abbas, relatively positive sounds out of the Israeli
:12:49. > :13:02.Prime Minister. Is there an opening here? Without the smile, but with a
:13:03. > :13:06.kind of a quip. What is it about this American President, even his
:13:07. > :13:10.senior officials, which will give us any reason to believe that they
:13:11. > :13:15.would have the sophistication and the subtlety to succeed where their
:13:16. > :13:18.predecessors had failed? What is it about the circumstances in the
:13:19. > :13:23.Middle East that will give rise to a belief that there was a significant
:13:24. > :13:28.opportunity being created now that didn't exist in the immediate past?
:13:29. > :13:33.What he's going to talk to the Israelis about is Iran because that
:13:34. > :13:39.is the principal concern that they have. We should note that it is
:13:40. > :13:49.pretty good news that Rohani is winning the election. Possibly by
:13:50. > :13:58.not reimposing sanctions. The major game is Syria. I don't imagine that
:13:59. > :14:03.Donald Trump wants to invest. A centre-left of his energy and status
:14:04. > :14:09.in question of what happens between and the Palestinians. I think we
:14:10. > :14:16.have been talking about openings since the late 70s. They just occur
:14:17. > :14:23.and then the window closes. It just doesn't happen. As David is making
:14:24. > :14:31.is a -- as Davies making a point, this Administration is distracted.
:14:32. > :14:40.Where are these people that are going to make this happen? The first
:14:41. > :14:43.son-in-law. How can you talk about an opening the peace when this man
:14:44. > :14:50.is going to Saudi Arabia to sell weapons? Saudi Arabia is a country
:14:51. > :14:57.in the world that is spending more money in proportion of his wealth
:14:58. > :15:02.into weapons. It is antagonising Iran and Donald Trump is there to
:15:03. > :15:05.give them more weapons. I don't know how you can talk about openings. It
:15:06. > :15:11.is certainly not the piece, in my view. He would be at the nation
:15:12. > :15:16.summit in Brussels and goes to Sicily for the G7. He also meets the
:15:17. > :15:22.Pope and will have some interesting conversations not just with Pope
:15:23. > :15:27.Francis but he has a first meeting with Emmanuel Macron who is the new
:15:28. > :15:35.President of France. It is quite hard to see much meeting of minds.
:15:36. > :15:42.It would be a steep learning curve, even for a man like Donald Trump. He
:15:43. > :15:48.will meet them and learn something. They will tell him that the world is
:15:49. > :15:55.not as he sees it. Especially what is relevant and important to watch
:15:56. > :15:59.is the 25th of May, Nato summit in Brussels. Donald Trump and his view
:16:00. > :16:08.of the world and Nato is going to have a very big wake-up call and the
:16:09. > :16:11.reality. We have this intriguing briefing we've had an apparently the
:16:12. > :16:14.notes for this summit are being designed in such a way that they
:16:15. > :16:18.keep mentioning the President's name to keep them interested but they are
:16:19. > :16:25.trying to keep them short because he doesn't apparently have a big
:16:26. > :16:29.attention span. What are the chances he will be back in the White House
:16:30. > :16:34.and have a delegation say he met the post and was very impressed with
:16:35. > :16:39.him? There is a big chance that is what he will do. The Pope says,
:16:40. > :16:44.actually, we want greater human rights, except, around the globe and
:16:45. > :16:48.more emphasis on property. And Donald Trump says, I have learned a
:16:49. > :16:53.big lesson here. I think I will change my outlook. Or is he going to
:16:54. > :16:57.go around saying the Pope is a nut job? Let us leave this question
:16:58. > :16:59.hanging in the air. Just under three weeks until polling
:17:00. > :17:02.day, and Britain's major political parties have
:17:03. > :17:04.published their manifestos. The policies are there,
:17:05. > :17:14.but which are the vote winners? David, when you look at these
:17:15. > :17:18.documents, do you feel, I know now where they stand? I have a clear
:17:19. > :17:25.idea when I go into the polling stations and I know what I would be
:17:26. > :17:32.voting for? It is important that we know the manifestos matter. This is
:17:33. > :17:40.the BBC. I don't know whether we are sold on the rules the BBC has by our
:17:41. > :17:45.-- abide by. We have to put in the manifestos matter. The House of
:17:46. > :17:51.Lords stands in any way of the legislation and it doesn't stand in
:17:52. > :17:53.the way of manifestos. I don't think many people vote on the basis of
:17:54. > :17:59.what they think the House of Lords is going to do in three years' time
:18:00. > :18:07.will stop you could and we saw from the National Insurance debacle, but
:18:08. > :18:14.if you have something ruled out by the manifesto, it is more difficult
:18:15. > :18:19.to enact. There are a few of those things. You have an incredible wish
:18:20. > :18:25.list of things you will spend money on which someone else is going to
:18:26. > :18:33.pay for. In the Tory manifesto, you have a man launch of people --
:18:34. > :18:37.things that are tough. You have to learn from the Brexit vote which is
:18:38. > :18:43.you are going to take up the left behind to make sure... Somebody
:18:44. > :18:46.pointed out that the word, protect, runs through this manifesto. It
:18:47. > :18:51.gives you an idea of the way in which Theresa May thinks of itself.
:18:52. > :19:01.She is the Oliver Cromwell, the Lord protector of the British people.
:19:02. > :19:10.What about the return of the state striker. -- return of the state,
:19:11. > :19:17.Stryker. There is an old-fashioned view of Labour that Jeremy Corbyn
:19:18. > :19:28.has. It is their very strongly in the Conservative manifesto also. I
:19:29. > :19:31.find it hard. Maybe like David, I don't believe that this manifesto
:19:32. > :19:35.represents the soul of the Tory party. What she seems to be doing is
:19:36. > :19:43.she's casting an incredibly wide net. She wants to get the Blair
:19:44. > :19:55.electorate of 1997 and get that same group of people. When the Tories
:19:56. > :20:00.were not wiped out but cut back. What is happening now is I almost
:20:01. > :20:06.feel she could say whatever she wants to see because there is no
:20:07. > :20:14.real opposition. The Labour Party seems to be simply designed as
:20:15. > :20:19.protest to whoever is in power. They don't seem to have aspirations of
:20:20. > :20:24.power themselves. They seem to be content with trying to do whatever
:20:25. > :20:31.they can do to change the agenda of a bet. We talked about older voters
:20:32. > :20:37.and how in the past there have been a real desire to embrace because
:20:38. > :20:44.they are the ones most certain to vote. After David Cameron, Theresa
:20:45. > :20:55.May is offering them candour, as well. These kinds of things are no
:20:56. > :21:05.longer being given to you. You have to accept things will cost money.
:21:06. > :21:13.David Cameron resigned after losing the Brexit vote and his job has been
:21:14. > :21:20.taken over by a Remainer. One thing that fascinates me more generally
:21:21. > :21:26.speaking as how pragmatic and non-ideological everyone has to be.
:21:27. > :21:33.Theresa May knows the biggest challenge facing Britain by now is
:21:34. > :21:38.Brexit. She has to try to shape a Britain to cope with that. Everybody
:21:39. > :21:44.knows that she was a Remainer and that is why comparisons with the
:21:45. > :21:50.conviction politician like Margaret Thatcher are ridiculous. Theresa May
:21:51. > :21:58.is happy to U-turn and there is no jargon. The fact is so obvious and
:21:59. > :22:06.it has been forgotten in Britain. The rest of Europe looks with dismay
:22:07. > :22:10.at Theresa May because she is certain as to -- turncoat. She
:22:11. > :22:25.campaigned to remain and now presents herself as a somatic --
:22:26. > :22:28.fanatic hard Brexiteer. She is telling the British voters, though
:22:29. > :22:32.for me so you will give me a strong hand and this will be good for
:22:33. > :22:39.Britain. The rest of Europe thinks it would be a catastrophe for Europe
:22:40. > :22:43.because she has been incredibly belligerent and irritated everybody.
:22:44. > :22:51.It is the country of what she is presenting to the electorate. I
:22:52. > :23:00.think she seems to be proud not to be a radical conservative. No deal
:23:01. > :23:06.is better than a bad deal. It is mainly made up of worthy intentions
:23:07. > :23:13.and a wish list rather than definitive policy. As far as her
:23:14. > :23:29.vision for Britain is concerned, she is quite sensible to say there is no
:23:30. > :23:35.such thing as may - ism. She is not like Tony Blair at all and this is
:23:36. > :23:43.an modernising agenda. It is quite backward looking. It fixes into
:23:44. > :23:48.that. There is a little bit of that. When it comes to Brexit, one of the
:23:49. > :23:52.important things in the manifesto is the fact that we will pay up. This
:23:53. > :24:03.is a big thing in the Tory party because they don't want the pay out.
:24:04. > :24:09.She is aiming for some kind of trade involvement which as a quid pro quo
:24:10. > :24:15.is for making payments. That suggests she thinks the manifesto is
:24:16. > :24:20.aimed at being able to take on the extreme Brexiteer postelection. Sean
:24:21. > :24:28.is more of an expert on this than I am. I know you can give your opinion
:24:29. > :24:35.but you cannot. If that's how you see it? I am being Delphic. I see
:24:36. > :24:40.Theresa May clutching the manifesto and hitting Tory MPs on the head
:24:41. > :24:47.saying, you stood on this, you elected it. What about her
:24:48. > :24:51.personality? Are we warming to Theresa May now? Has this election
:24:52. > :24:58.helped people to embrace her as an individual? No, I don't. I'm not
:24:59. > :25:09.sure she wants to be embraced and loved. All of a sudden, it is like
:25:10. > :25:17.Ed Balls doing Strictly Come Dancing and people seeing a side to her that
:25:18. > :25:18.they never saw before. She was asked about her childhood and she said
:25:19. > :25:40.twice it was stable. She had horses. The risk, although there is no risk
:25:41. > :25:44.because she is going to win the election, there is a risk when you
:25:45. > :25:49.do things that seem to be hurting pensioners, that seem to be hurting
:25:50. > :25:57.schoolchildren by not feeding them... This is the end of certain
:25:58. > :26:05.school meals. You risk emphasising the part of your personality that
:26:06. > :26:09.strikes people as cold. She comes across as reasonable, sensible and
:26:10. > :26:14.careful. She knows she has an extremely difficult task ahead and
:26:15. > :26:23.very risky indeed. With no sense of triumphalism or element -- Eminem
:26:24. > :26:27.victory. Great to have you with us, do join us at the same time next
:26:28. > :26:31.week. Thank you all for watching. Goodbye.