Americanswers… on 5 Live! Can Trump save FIFA boss Gianni Infantino?

**Justin Webb** (0:00)
Loads of questions, and a big range of questions as well, that we are about to answer on Americanwwers. So Anthony Fauci, the guy who was very much to the fore during Covid, hugely, hugely important figure in the United States, but also in a sense around the world, up before a congressional committee, treated according to at least one of our questioners very badly. What's going on with him? We also talk about Iran and what is going on there, and what is in Donald Trump's mind when it comes to how he wants it to end and whether he has the stomach for any more of a fight. Plus, what is going on in the state of Maine and more widely with these massively important Senate races that are going to come to the fore during the course of the summer and then of course be decided in November. It looks as if the Democrats are having a little bit of another wobble in the state of Maine, although more broadly the picture for them is good. So, without further ado, welcome to Americast.
On 5 Live.

**Marianna Spring** (1:01)
Americast from BBC News.

**Donald Trump** (1:03)
You hear that sound? Oh, I think when I hear that sound, it reminds me of money.

**SPEAKER_5** (1:08)
We didn't start this war, but under President Trump, we are finishing it. This is a big cover-up and this administration is engaged in it.

**Matt Chorley** (1:16)
This guy has Trump Derangement Syndrome.

**Anthony Zurcher** (1:18)
I have four words for you.

**Matt Chorley** (1:27)
And let's kick off today with the situation in Iran after President Trump said this to reporters yesterday speaking on Air Force One.

**Donald Trump** (1:38)
We were all set to go. It's about at this time right now and it would have been a massive attack. We were all set to go. But when the allies asked to call it off, you got to sort of say, well, let's see. And the reason they asked is they think there's a deal.
There's a deal on hormones and then there will be a deal on the nuclear, or you might call it the denuclearization of Iran. I call it the denuclearization of Iran.

**Matt Chorley** (2:08)
That's what he calls it. Is it actually happening, Anthony?

**Anthony Zurcher** (2:12)
That's a really good question. If this sounds familiar, it should be because this is the same sort of process we've seen time and time again over the months here where Donald Trump warns that there are going to be massive attacks, civilization erasing attacks in one instance. And now this is the biggest attack since World War II.
And then he backs away from it because he says that Iran is interested in negotiating. They're going back to the negotiating table. The deal is very, very close. Of course, one time we did get a memorandum of understanding of ceasefire, but that has since been abandoned. So I would take everything at this point with a grain of salt. We'll see. We'll see if they do return to the negotiating table eventually. And if so, whether there's any kind of a more detailed agreement that might actually stick.

**Matt Chorley** (3:00)
So Paul in Stratford-upon-Avon has been in touch saying, Am I the only one who's thinking that all these Trump's announcements about deal and no deal are planned to be deliberately affecting global markets on an almost daily basis? Someone must be benefiting. It won't be the first time and it certainly won't be the last. A powerful nation has made fortunes from the conflict. Tomorrow, he'll be shaking the saber again, mark my words. Justin, is Paul being cynical?

**Justin Webb** (3:23)
No, I don't think he is, actually. I think it's simply a fact that people have made money out of these market movements.
It's not a conspiracy theory, or at least if it is a conspiracy theory, it's another conspiracy theory to turn out to be right. I knew you were about to say that.

**Matt Chorley** (3:40)
I knew you were about to say that.

**Justin Webb** (3:41)
I've often discussed this with Marianna, who's not generally keen on conspiracy theories, until I pipe up and say, well, hang on a second, most of them are true.
But maybe most of them aren't true. But the fact is that there is this, that it happens too often to be anything other than something that genuinely is a feature of life under Donald Trump. Exactly who's making the money in a way should eventually become obvious because the Securities and Exchange Commission, and other bodies as well, and potentially the FBI would all in normal circumstances be saying, OK, this is the deal. And we're looking into this person and that person who had access to special information they shouldn't have had access to. But actually, in the great scheme of things, number one, I doubt that should happen. And number two, weirdly, and it's a weird difference with their system to ours, that actually a lot of people in Congress make quite a lot of money out of they don't make the kind of money that Donald Trump has made, don't make the kind of money his family has made. But actually, they do make money, and they're allowed to make money. They keep on trying to stop this, but it never quite is stopped. And some people, you remember Nancy Pelosi, leader of Democrats, very big woman on the left in American politics, actually oddly wealthy, so her opponents would say, after dealing in stocks while she was in, or having stocks dealt for her while she was in Congress. And that sort of, it's not against the rules, but that sort of ability of American politicians to make money perfectly legally kind of muddies the water a bit as well, I think.