Trump's Red Card Saga and Germany's Far-Right Machine

**Alastair Campbell** (0:01)
We are seeing two very different Americas right now, as the USA celebrates its 250th birthday. Which is the real America and which will endure? Will it be Trump's America, a country being reshaped in its own image, in pursuit of naked self-enrichment, where a man who has blatantly never actually watched a real football match in his life, can abuse his presidential power to try and succeed in getting a red card suspended? Or will it be the country that the American people are showing off to fans, flocking to the US from all around the world? They're welcoming, friendly, sharing the joy of the underdog, loving the internationalism and getting behind their national team, made up in part of people that Trump's brand of Americanism would have on the first plane out, including the star player at the center of the red card row. So which America will endure? To answer that question with Rory on his silent retreat this week, I am delighted to be joined by the never silent Anglo-American Medi Hassan.
Welcome to The Rest Is Politics with me, Alastair Campbell.

**Mehdi Hassan** (1:17)
And I'm Mehdi Hussain in Washington DC.

**Alastair Campbell** (1:19)
Mehdi, thank you so much for being there. We are going to talk about Washington DC, or more generally about the United States, 250th anniversary since independence, and also this extraordinary round that Donald Trump has created within the World Cup. And then we're gonna talk a little bit in the second half about something you and I talk about a lot, which is the relationship between media and politics. And we'll be looking at that in relation in particular to a lot of the stuff that's happening in Germany. But first of all, let's kick off with football, no pun intended. And it is such a pleasure to be able legitimately to start on football, because this is a subject that my regular podcast partner freely admits. He has very low down his list of priorities. Last week, I said I was genuinely surprised that Donald Trump had engaged so little, barely at all, with this World Cup since it started. Well, I spoke far too soon. Their star player, Valarion Balagan, gets a red card. Trump cannot resist getting involved, more typically cannot resist telling everybody that he's involved, and he's asked his FIFA pet and his Peace Prize creator, Gianno Infantino, to take another look. Cue the whole world enraged, cue Belgium destroying the USA 4-1, and even my partner Fiona, who rivals Rory in her lack of interest in football, came up with a belter this morning when she said, Trump has made Belgium great again. Yes. So, Mehdi, what do you make of it, and is Trump actually getting any of the blame for the defeat, as I believe he should?

**Mehdi Hassan** (2:53)
No, Alastair, the Trump faction will never blame him for anything. They didn't even understand why the world was upset for the last 48 hours. Most American pundits on the right, commentators, trolls, et cetera, were doing the nonsense about, well, you know what? We're the most powerful nation. We managed to make it happen. Who cares what Belgium thinks? Not understanding or not caring that the rest of the world were outraged by this ridiculous intervention from Donald Trump. And I think, you know, I had liberals defending the Trump intervention because when it comes to stuff like this, the patriotism takes over. And I am an American, as you introduced about, Anglo-American. I'm a British-American. I'm supporting the England football team, as I have done for 40 years.
But I'm also obviously, I also sat down to support the US men's national team last night, on Monday night. And it was bad. It was not just bad on the pitch. And there's a whole debate to be had about whether Trump got inside these players' heads. It was their worst performance of the tournament by a country mile. But also the mockery, Alastair. I mean, Trump, as ever, makes a mockery of the United States. You see the Belgian team's Twitter account putting out a picture saying, overturn this, the Belgian team dancing to the ridiculous Trump dance. And as Fiona says, make Belgium great again.
Donald Trump, he forced the world to support Belgium. Who the hell ever voluntarily supports Belgium? But in this case, people did because they were annoyed about the clear corrupt intervention from Trump.

**Alastair Campbell** (4:17)
Yeah.

**Mehdi Hassan** (4:17)
Rick Wilson, Alastair, the former Republican strategist, never Trump-er now. He wrote a book a few years ago. And the title of that book, I believe, sums up the Trump phenomenon more than anything else. The book is called Everything Trump Touches Dies. And I think that is the phenomenon. Anything he gets involved in, anything he touches, anything he's around gets ruined. He ruins it for everyone.