Americanswers! Was the 2026 World Cup a success for Donald Trump?

**Justin Webb** (0:00)
It's a big day in UK politics today. There is a new Prime Minister. I know, I know we have had this in the past, in the recent past, but Matt Chorley at least is excited. So is otherwise engaged. But America Answers continues at the worldwide headquarters, and we're answering your questions as ever today. And there is a wide range of questions as ever as well. So for instance, is the situation in Iran starting to look like a forever war? You remember those are the wars that Donald Trump promised not to have. And indeed, whether the US is running out of options to end the war, plus of course, the World Cup finishing on Sunday. In the buildup, we asked if it was the most controversial in history. What is the verdict now that it has all finished? We will be talking through those and plenty of other questions as well. Welcome to Americanswers.

**SPEAKER_6** (0:48)
Americast.

**SPEAKER_4** (0:49)
Americast from BBC News.

**Donald Trump** (0:51)
You hear that sound? Oh, I think when I hear that sound it reminds me of money.

**SPEAKER_6** (0:56)
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.

**Justin Webb** (1:04)
This guy has Trump Derangement Syndrome.

**Donald Trump** (1:06)
I have four words for you.

**SPEAKER_6** (1:09)
Turn the volume up.

**Sarah Smith** (1:15)
Hello, it's Sarah here in the BBC's Washington Bureau.

**Justin Webb** (1:18)
And it's Justin in the worldwide headquarters of Americast in London, England.

**Marianna Spring** (1:23)
And it is Marianna sitting next to Justin in the worldwide headquarters.

**Justin Webb** (1:26)
And let us get straight to questions. And the first one comes from Michael in Hampshire, who asks us via email, How are Trumpians and other Americans seeing the war with Iran? Surely it now qualifies as a never ending war. Sarah, that is true, actually, isn't it? Or at least there isn't currently on the stocks an obvious way of them ending it.

**Sarah Smith** (1:49)
Yeah, exactly. These are the wars that Donald Trump railed against when he was campaigning for the presidency, saying that he wouldn't get embroiled in any more forever wars or never ending wars. And although what's happening around has been going on for about five months now, which isn't the five years that a lot of these other conflicts have gone on for, it does have the feeling that it's getting entrenched and there is no obvious end in sight. And so this is the point at which you would assume even some of Donald Trump's most loyal supporters would be revolting about this. And certainly in the kind of influencer sphere and commentators are very angry and upset with the president about it. But not all of the base, I would say. I had a fascinating trip just a couple of weeks ago to South Dakota. And we went to Mount Rushmore because Donald Trump was visiting there. But mostly I was just trying to speak to Americans who'd come from all over the country to visit Mount Rushmore.
And I met a lot of Republicans who were in full support of what Donald Trump was doing in Iran. Firstly, they said he wouldn't be doing it if it wasn't necessary. So their belief in him was such that if he thinks it's the right thing to do, he can contradict any campaign promises that he made because they believe in him more than they believe in the substance of what he said. And then they started parroting back phrases you hear from the president all the time, that yes, of course, prices have gone up in America, but that's nothing like what the cost would be if Iran were to develop a nuclear weapon.
And that you can't put a price on safety and security, and that they were more than happy to be paying more for petrol or gas, as they obviously call it, if that's what the president thought was needed to be done. And people I spoke to, plenty of them who I spoke to, who were against the war in Iran, weren't really Donald Trump supporters in the first place. And so it was really eye opening to me, the number of people I met who were very happy to say that they back the president pretty much whatever he does.

**Justin Webb** (3:41)
Which has been a feature, hasn't it, of Donald Trump's presence in American politics for the last decade, longer than a decade now. I mean, he has, I remember back in 2016, there were sort of scholarly articles where they would ask Trumpians, as Michael from Hampshire calls them, Trumpians whether they supported X or supported Y. And then when told that the president now supports Y, they would change their support from X to Y and do it quite naturally and say, no, if he believes it, then we believe it too. And it is exactly as he says, Sarah. It's a really big reminder, isn't it? That there is a quite large group of people, we refer to them airily as the base, but a large group of people in various walks of life around the United States, who are followers of Donald Trump.