Americanswers… on 5 Live! Is Donald Trump serious about running for a third term?

0:00I had dinner with the president this weekend. on Friday night, I sat down with about 700 other people, admittedly, at the White House Correspondents Dinner Take Two, because back in April, the original event was shut down by an assassination attempt. And Donald Trump was very eager that the dinner happened again, just to show that we will not be derailed by political violence. But nonetheless, he took various swipes and made several personal attacks on journalists who were in the room, and then told us that we were getting a scoop, an exclusive, when he said that he's planning to run for president again for a third time.

0:36Why is he saying that now? What does he get out of it? And why is he also picking a fight with the Smithsonian Institute, telling them that some of their exhibitions contain inaccurate information and they need to let the public know that? So combative mood Donald Trump is in this week. Good time for the whole AmeriCast team to get back together to answer your questions on 5 Live with Matt Charlie. Welcome to AmeriCanswers. AmeriCast. AmeriCast from BBC News. You hear that sound? Oh, I think when I hear that sound, it reminds me of money. We didn't start this war, but under President Trump, we are finishing it.

1:15This is a big cover-up, and this administration is engaged in it. This guy has Trump derangement syndrome. I have four words for you. turn the volume up

1:30we have got an awful lot to get through so let's get started with a voice note from tony there seemed to be a show of solidarity when the press moved out of the pentagon when restrictions were imposed i'm just wondering where the solidarity is for the white house correspondence when well in particular one of them is singled out for attack and a woman even when they're hosting, as at the dinner last week. Is news from the White House just too high a risk to lose out on? So he did his best to cross quite a lot of lines, Donald Trump, at Friday's White House Correspondents Dinner, where the President gave a speech where he, among other things, took quite a lot of swipes at the press.

2:07But I am delighted to be here at the White House Correspondents Dinner. Amazing people. A lot of people that I like. Some I don't like at all. But I respect most of them. I must say that you do a great job, amazing job, and it's an honor. As I said three months ago, the show must go on. But I want to personally congratulate CNN's Caitlin Collins on receiving her award. It was all about me. It's a fake. She shouldn't get the award. It was a fake. But I didn't mind. I said, Caitlin, congratulations. I said, Caitlin, do you have a smile? smile. You have a nice position. You're at CNN fake news. You should be a happy person.

2:53But you people have no idea how lucky you are when I'm gone. You're all going to be broke. Your business model is going to be finished. No, it's true. When I'm not around, you're going to be broke. There's not going to be anybody to report on. Nobody gives a damn about anybody else. Sarah, take us through this event. Right, so I was there. I had the pleasure of sitting through that speech that lasted for more than an hour. And it was full of swipes like that at the media. Now, the reason he was complaining about the handling of prizes, he said, being handed to people who'd made up fake stories, was because just before he took to his feet, a number of awards were handed out to journalists who had written stories he really, really didn't like.

3:35For instance, the story that The Wall Street Journal had about the birthday card he sent to Jeffrey Epstein, that he at one point was suing the Wall Street Journal for$10 billion for. Well, the reporter who wrote that got given an award. And it clearly really, really got on his go as he stood up to make this speech criticizing the press. But it was bizarre as well, I have to say, Matt. It's normal for the president to have lots and lots of jokes written for them that they will turn up at the White House Correspondents' Dinner and perform. I think usually they've read the script once or twice before and worked out where the punchlines are.

4:08It was unbelievably obvious that Donald Trump was seeing these lines for the first time as they were going past on the autocue. So it was a series of not terribly well-written jokes that maybe would have got a laugh, except they were so badly delivered. It was practically unconscionable. And a long lecture about how the ballroom that we were in wasn't quite as good as the one he's building at the White House, but almost as good because we were in a hotel that he used to own. So, yeah, it was a bizarre evening, I have to say. Anthony, on Tony's question, what would it take for the White House cause to want us to take a stand against the Trump administration?

4:42Well, they've written some very strongly worded letters when some press people have been denied access to the Oval Office. For instance, the Associated Press, when they were denied access to the Oval Office and Air Force One because they would not refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America. But the challenge is that the White House Press Corps is not some sort of cohesive unit. It is a bunch of outlets and reporters who are all scrambling to try to make news to get the scoop and to get them to all work on the same page. When if they sit out and someone else gets that scoop, it's going to cost them as far as viewers, as far as prestige.

5:19That just doesn't make them want to try to have some sort of cohesive action. So maybe there's a line that the Pentagon was a little easier because they were getting kicked out if they didn't sign a paper. and all of them, none of the outlets were going to sign this paper abiding by restrictions on what they could report and who they could talk to. Maybe if the White House did something like that, you'd see an equal response. But at least as of now, it's kind of hard to get them to take some sort of a stand. I'd say a lot of Trump supporters, though, would say they took a stand a few years ago when they campaigned almost to a man and woman for Biden to win the election before he dropped out.

6:00In other words, I think a lot of Trump people would say they have been in the tank for the opposition for an awful long time. And that's the real scandal. And actually, the coziness, if you focus on this event, the coziness back in the day. I know, Sarah, you were there back in the day when I was during the Obama time. But going back to George W. Bush, a Republican, about whom there were legitimate questions, to put it mildly, about why he went into Iraq, etc., etc. The coziness then was off the scale compared with now. So there are one or two. I think I'm right in saying there's one or two organisations who don't go anymore.

6:38I think maybe the New York Times doesn't go, hasn't for a bit. My colleagues in America will correct me if I'm wrong. But generally speaking, it is a weirdly cozy event. But the cozy relationship has been between the press and the Democrats, not the press and this White House. marianna when he when he talks about um how uh lucky they've all been their business models have been built around donald trump i mean he's not entirely wrong though is he no no and i think that's probably why that elicited a bit of a chuckle from from the audience like sarah said some of the jokes didn't seem to fall quite so well um but because ultimately donald trump has worked out how to perfectly game the rage bait machine and and actually that rage bait machine really is about the algorithms, the recommendation systems that govern what gets recommended and pushed on the social media sites and companies.

7:27But to some extent, the media, whether that's broadcast media, print media, whatever it is, have had to start playing or some sections of the media have started playing that algorithmic game. And therefore, yes, if you post or reshare something rage-baity that Donald Trump has done, you probably are more likely to get more clicks. But what I would argue is actually, and what I think is kind of interesting is him saying, once I'm gone, no one gives a damn about anyone else. There are a lot of people who are getting wise to that rage bait model of Donald Trump. So I would not worry that I think the bigger issue is that the algorithmic systems totally eclipse entirely the media.

7:59And so stuff is favoured according to what emotion it provokes rather than to what is actually true or useful. Well, he's been doing his own bit of possible rage baiting. We did this in the speech and again over the weekend on Truth Social. Here's a clip of him talking about his intention of running for the fourth time in the next presidential election. We are all doing good together. That's why tonight to show just how much I care about the press. And I want to save your ratings. I'm pleased to announce my intention to, and this is somewhat of a scoop, my intention to run for a fourth term as President of the United States.

8:41Notable lack of chuckling there. Is this a joke? Anthony, could you remind us again exactly where we stand on the question of Donald Trump running again? Anthony. Stunned Anthony into silence. He's not going to run again, is he, Anthony? No. No, they've done. It really has done for Anthony. They've completely packed up and gone home. Right, let's move on. We have got a voice note from Mark. Given the Supreme Court ruled tariffs to be unlawful and the US government is having to pay companies back, why is Trump and his administration still threatening tariffs? Surely they'll just have to pay them all back.

9:19I'll give my answer and then Anthony can correct me because that's usually the way it works when he's got the grasp of the detail. But basically what happened was the Trump administration applied these global tariffs under one law that the Supreme Court found couldn't be applied to tariffs. So basically they were doing it unlawfully because they were using a piece of legislation that wasn't designed for that purpose. So they found different laws to do it under. So then for 90 days, I think it was, they were applying tariffs under one kind of emergency piece of legislation. but that was very, very time limited.

9:49So it was just last Friday that they changed the rules again. And now they're saying that they're applying tariffs to countries that don't crack down hard enough on goods produced using forced labour. And they're looking at what laws the UK, the EU, countries all over the world have about forced labour and applying tariff rates of 10%, 12.5%, sometimes higher. We'll see how long that can last for. There's bound to be a legal challenge. But if they lose on that, then they'll just find another reason why they're going to tariff these goods, because they've not got the right environmental standards or something.

10:22So it's a bit of jiggery-pokery with the legal system, but they might get away with it. Yeah, and in theory, as you said, there could be a lawsuit, and they could lose that lawsuit like they did last time, and they could have to pay back those tariffs like they are doing now. Now, of course, it took a year for that lawsuit to get all the way through. And as you say, Sarah, they're just going to keep trying to throw things against the wall to see what sticks. Now, they could easily or one solution where they don't have to worry about any kind of lawsuits is that they just go to Congress and have them pass a law with terrorists, because the Supreme Court has clearly said that Congress has the power.

10:56It's in the Constitution, have the power to impose new tariffs. The problem is that there is not any kind of support, even among many Republicans in Congress, for what Donald Trump is trying to do with tariffs. But to answer the question here from Mark, why is the Trump administration doing this? The answer is because Donald Trump loves tariffs. He always has. It's one of the things that he has talked about for 40 years. And he is not going to give that up just because there is some sort of a Supreme Court decision that goes against him. He is going to keep pushing this as long as I think he is in the White House.

11:29Or any pesky reason like 15 months on, it's not doing the economy any good. It hasn't brought back any manufacturing jobs and all it's doing is putting prices up. He's not going to let that put them off. Or the unpopularity of it. If you look at polls, the American public, by pretty significant margins, does not want more tariffs. They view it as a tax. They view it as raising prices. But again, this is something near and dear to Donald Trump. He's going to keep pushing it until his last day in office. Fabulous. A great question from Mark. let's move on because we've got lots we want to get through uh this is a question on ukraine mariana you've had an interesting question sent you on instagram danny says hey mariana have you seen that at least two previously extremely pro-russian maga personalities namely tin pool and laura loomer have started openly supporting ukraine loomer has even interviewed zelensky i'll be extremely interested to see you discuss this in the near future many thanks keep up the good work and in fact we've got a clip here the first few minutes of the interview laura loomer addressing her past comments about Ukraine and Zelensky.

12:30My hope is that coming here to Ukraine will open people's eyes that, you know, oh, well, maybe, you know, maybe they're they aren't a country full of Nazis. Maybe our national security is going to improve if we have a strategic drone partnership with Ukraine. Well, maybe the Russians are paying off influencers who are pushing communism and anti-American sentiment. So Laura Luma is like the one of the megastars of the MAGA influencer her movement. She is someone who has been quite widely criticised over allegations of spreading unfounded or offensive conspiracy theories. She's someone who has for quite a long time now, certainly since Russia invaded Ukraine, frequently posted in support of Russia or posted talking points about Ukraine, which are the same ones that Russia, particularly, you know, people who are supportive of Putin, would say about Ukraine.

13:19So this is like a real switch up in terms of what she's expressing about Ukraine, even sitting down with Zelensky, the kind of positive reviews she had about their interaction and everything else. And I think for me, it's really interesting because Laura Loomit is seen as someone who is very aligned with Donald Trump. At one point, people were almost seeing her like a kind of de facto, like national security advisor or something. Like it seemed like she really had the president's ear. It's a little bit unclear how much she has his ear right now. And I think there are two main things we can take away from this pivot.

13:49One is that Donald Trump does seem to have softened when it comes to Ukraine in so much as he's been more favourable to Zelensky than he certainly was that time when Zelensky got that dressing down when he was sitting in the White House with J.D. Vance and Donald Trump and what have you. And so in some ways, Laura Luma could just be reflecting the direction of travel that Donald Trump is headed in. But I think it also shows how the MAGA movement is really taking on a bit of a life of its own, especially when it comes to foreign policy. And there's been a lot of disagreement from other MAGA influencers about Donald Trump and the government's approach to Israel and to the war in Gaza and everything else and with Iran as well.

14:28And I think that actually this pivot perhaps marks is just further evidence of the way that some of these MAGA influencers are becoming sort of political commentators in and of themselves and look to actually not always agree with Donald Trump necessarily and take their own distinct viewpoint, one that they think will get traction and possibly is backing a winner if it looks like Ukraine are doing better in that war than they were before. The timing is fascinating, Matt, because it's coming just at a point, obviously, when it's looking as though Ukraine is doing a little bit better in the war.

14:58President Zelensky is in the UK today. He's coming here to Washington tomorrow because he's going to be attending the late Senator Lindsey Graham's funeral. And he's going to have a White House meeting with Donald Trump as well, as is Benjamin Netanyahu also coming for that funeral. And when Lindsey Graham died, we lost somebody who was in Donald Trump's ear, pushing his support for Ukraine all the time. He was absolutely rock solid on that and probably can be credited with keeping up the supply of arms to Ukraine and keeping economic sanctions on Russia when Donald Trump maybe would have wavered.

15:31And so to have Laura Loomer now coming in and supporting Ukraine and Donald Trump did like one of her posts like this. He put a thumbs up on one of these posts. So I wonder if we're also starting to see that shift in the White House as well. We'll maybe get a glimpse of that when we have the meeting between Trump and Zelensky tomorrow. Finally, let's take a look at what's happening at the Smithsonian. Carl in Aberdeen has been in touch. He says, what does the Trump administration see as inaccurate about the history presented at the Smithsonian, and is anyone else buying it? Is this just Trump being Trump or something darker?

16:03Justin. What's really upset them, and in fairness to the Smithsonian, it's way back in, I think, 2020, when everyone, to an extent, sort of lost their minds around the time of the killing of George Floyd, the murder of George Floyd. They brought out this series of documents and they put them online in which they talked about whiteness, aspects and assumptions of whiteness. And among the things from memory is politeness is apparently a sign of whiteness. Good timekeeping is a sign of whiteness. Various other things, you know, competitive behavior, a sign of whiteness. And so I think to a lot of Americans, not just the Trump administration, a lot of Americans, it was a bit of nonsense.

16:44really. And the boss of the Smithsonian was recently in Congress and a very aggressive congressman really kind of went for her. It's not for me to determine what's problematic, it's determined to me what's accurate. Is that right? Is it important to be polite? Excuse me, sir? Is it important to be polite? Yes, sir. It's also interesting because the same mass action toolkit that your organization has been promoting references politeness as a defining characteristic of white supremacy culture. Ma 'am, are you a white supremacist? No, sir. You're not. Can you help me square why your organization says that being polite is part of being a white supremacist?

17:34I'm not exactly familiar with that passage of the mass action toolkit, which is not. I can show you the passages right here. I don't... Pardon me? I said I just read you the passage from it. That is the thing that's really got them a lot of poor publicity recently. And he wants to put a sign outside the museum saying that these people are un-American. I don't know if that'll actually happen, but that's what they're planning. Anthony, explain just how big a deal the Smithsonian is. Yeah, at the Smithsonian, it is a major tourist draw here in Washington, D.C. All of the museums line the National Mall from the Capitol to the Washington Monument.

18:16There's the American History Museum, which is the one that has been the focus of this in particular. But there's a natural history museum. There's art galleries. There's Air and Space Museum that has all the various different rocket ships and lunar modules and things from the NASA space missions. There's a museum of American Indians. There's a Museum of Black History. And all of this stuff is free because it's taxpayer funded. You can just go and walk in and mostly non-controversial. Although I think some of the things that the Trump administration and Trump himself are taking issue with is the portrayal of American history and the American History Museum.

18:53But if you go in there, I would say most of it is, you know, this was Abraham Lincoln's hat or this is Dorothy's ruby red slippers from The Wizard of Oz. It seems I've been in that one. It's extraordinary. It is. It's a great museum. So but it also has a high profile and and it has been the focus of this kind of attention because the portrayal of American history and portrayal of anything that is maybe not complementary or nuanced or complicated about it. that could generate controversy, particularly with the emphasis from Trump and his administration on celebrating American history, America's founding, and the founding fathers.

19:33It's all around the 250th anniversary of the 1776 Declaration of Independence. Yeah, the Trump administration didn't like references to slavery, references to what happened with Native American land being taken, anything that was critical of the story of how America put itself together and that wasn't totally celebrating it as a 100 % positive journey was what they didn't want. And so things saying, you know, the idea that, you know, slavery maybe wasn't a brilliant idea, they wanted totally eradicated from the museum. And that's what the controversy has been about, rather than just some of the more politically correct things that Justin was talking about.

20:15OK, we have just come off the air with Matt Charlie on Five Live and Justin and Marianna have gone, thankfully. Anthony, it's just you and I now, which means no tech problems are going to get in our way with our line to London. Sadly, you were cut off in your prime, I think, because there was such a delay on the line. As you were telling us all, why it's not constitutionally or legally possible for Donald Trump to run for a third term as president, even though he was joking about it at the correspondence dinner. Well, joking, was he joking? Let's tell us. I won't be silenced. The conspiracy may be deeper, but I'm going to answer this question.

20:49And it is that the Constitution is very clear that you cannot run for a third term. After Franklin Delano Roosevelt died in office after being elected to four presidential terms, they passed a constitutional amendment that is very clear a president can only serve two terms. So there are theories about loopholes and ways that Donald Trump could get around it by being elected vice president and then having the president resign. But all of those are too cute by half. The reality is that Trump likes sticking his thumb in the eyes of people when he talks about this because a lot of people get upset about it and the idea of another four years of Donald Trump.

21:26And so he gets a reaction, which he loves. But there's also, I think, a deeper reason behind this. And that is as soon as people wrap their heads around the fact that Donald Trump is going to be gone in just a little over two years, they start thinking about the future and Donald Trump becomes less relevant. He becomes a lame duck, which is what happens to second term presidents all the time. And what we're going to see happen after these midterm elections and going to the next year where the presidential campaign is really going to start kicking up. And Donald Trump wants to keep that from happening for as long as possible.

21:58So floating the idea of a third term or a fourth term or whatever term he wants, I think that's a way of him trying to inject some continued relevancy into his presidency. Yeah. And I have to say in the room, as he was giving that speech at the correspondence dinner, nobody thought he was being serious about it. There were no intakes of breath. I mean, but I have to say there weren't a lot of kind of belly laughs either because his jokes kept falling really flat. And they were, I mean, I know we knew he was going to be contentious. He had trailed it. He told us, you know, I'm going to really go for you guys.

22:30And it was a speech he'd wanted to give back in April when, of course, the dinner was cut short because there was an attempted shooting in that hotel. So this was a rerun of the dinner and he was redoing the speech. But it was, I mean, the jokes were, they were kind of off colour. They were ill-timed. They just, they really, really didn't land well in the room. And it was kind of deeply uncomfortable atmosphere because, as Justin was saying earlier, I mean, there used to be a bit of coziness where the president wouldn't mind, you know, having the mickey taken a bit by some comedian there. And he would make a few jokes at the press's expense.

23:05But it was all sort of, you know, we're all we're all boys in the room together kind of atmosphere around it. Whereas this was just really awkward because there's the president insulting the people who've invited him for dinner without much camaraderie about it, which kind of makes you wonder whether this event's going to carry on like that. Yeah, I don't know. There's a tradition of inviting the president and they invited Donald Trump every single year. This is the first time he's come. But that was his choice, not not one that the White House Correspondents Association decided by not inviting him.

23:37And the chumminess that you mentioned, I mean, it's not just Democrats chummy with the press, but I remember George W. Bush being very chummy in his appearances at the Correspondents Association. And very funny. And very funny. He really was extremely amusing. There was like a video of him looking around the White House for weapons of mass destruction. Yes, he got some pushback for that, but it also showed a willingness to kind of poke fun at himself. Usually it's very self-deprecating, these sorts of things. The president gets up there and takes some jabs at the press, but they take some jabs at themselves as well.

24:09Whereas Donald Trump was up there just kind of being mean and demeaning. The Caitlin Collins of CNN bit that we were talking about before, where he tells her she should smile more. She's always so serious. One, he said that in the Oval Office to her face before. But also, I mean, there are a lot of female reporters in that room, I'm sure, who have heard that time and time again from people. and it's not said in a good natured way. It's not said in a good natured way. It's said in a diminishing sort of way. And, you know, never hear them say that to men. Now, we should move on to another question that came in on WhatsApp from John in Yorkshire.