Talking Politics Podcast: Can Trump Be Domesticated?

The famous political podcast Talking Politics focuses its latest episode on Trump and the most recent scandals of his administration: the New York Times anonymous Op-Ed (yes, that Op-Ed everybody is talking about) and the new Bob Woodward's book on the US President.

As every week, David Runciman is accompanied by experts on the matter. The central question of the chat is whether or not Trump can be domesticated by White House officials working as a so-called resistance, trying to "thwart parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations".

The good thing about the podcasts is that – since it isn't an American production – it has more distance, geographically and politically, from this very divisive figure, and therefore it can bring better analysis and more depth to the table, away from all the noise in America.

For example, it was very refreshing to hear someone actually criticising the fact of having some shady people working to boycott the agenda of a democratically elected President.

Like it or not, that's what Trump is. Plus, as it's also argued in the podcast, having this sort of rebellion inside Washington can backfire and boost him and the Republicans in the upcoming mid-term elections.

Another interesting angle taken during the conversation: the problem isn't just Trump, it is the defeat of parliamentary politics. It's easy to see the trend of growing populist movements all over the Western world, but most of the times it's less discussed how that phenomenon is taking place. And the first step is always a very divided and, therefore, not fully functional legislative power.

It happened in the US before Trump, it happened in the UK before Brexit and now it's happening all around Europe. In Spain the ruling party has only 84 MPs out of 350, in Germany Angela Merkel's coalition government is stuck in its second major crisis only seven months after taking office.