Gary O'Donoghue
Appearances
Global News Podcast
Trump and intelligence chiefs play down Signal app group chat leak
Er sagt in einem Video-Statement, dass er seine Frau nicht all die Spaß haben wird und er will die Sicherheitssituation dort beobachten. Er geht also zu dieser militärischen Base, die Amerika's most northern base ist, im Nordwesten der Insel, wo sie Missilesurveillance und Spacesurveillance machen.
Global News Podcast
Trump and intelligence chiefs play down Signal app group chat leak
I think it's slightly out of the blue in the sense that, you know, this was just a video statement that dropped today. I don't know whether it has anything to do with the current news cycle that the administration is in, which is not a good one for them with the security problems over this signal group with the details that were shared with the journalist.
Global News Podcast
Trump and intelligence chiefs play down Signal app group chat leak
The thing it definitely does is it really raises the temperature, the diplomatic temperature, because he's now the most senior person, senior administration person to make the trip to Greenland. And given Donald Trump's rhetoric about buying it from Denmark or taking it over, this really does up the ante.
Global News Podcast
Trump and intelligence chiefs play down Signal app group chat leak
When the original trip was announced, Usha Vance was going to go to this dog sled race, which she's not going to, and Mike Waltz, the national security advisor, along with another cabinet member, were also going to go. Und Greenland's Prime Minister at the time said this was an aggressive move. And Greenland has just had some elections. They're in the midst of forming a new government.
Global News Podcast
Trump and intelligence chiefs play down Signal app group chat leak
And, you know, they are clearly feeling the pressure. So if they think the Second Lady and a couple of cabinet members are an aggressive move, then adding the VP to that mix doesn't really diminish that.
Global News Podcast
Trump and intelligence chiefs play down Signal app group chat leak
Not as far as we know. And in many senses, I don't know the details of the agreement that the US has over that particular base, but it's not unusual for members of the administration to visit bases. But the wider context of this is clear, and it's that the US would like... for two reasons, more access to Greenland.
Global News Podcast
Trump and intelligence chiefs play down Signal app group chat leak
One is its natural resources, but also Greenland has been and is hugely strategic in its position. It's in the mid-Atlantic, it's on the edge of the Arctic Circle. We know that the Arctic is increasingly a place of great power politics for various reasons. So there are all sorts of reasons why geopolitically Greenland is of interest to all sorts of people.
Global News Podcast
Trump and intelligence chiefs play down Signal app group chat leak
And that's why you're seeing all this attention paid to it at the moment.
Global News Podcast
Putin agrees to pause Ukraine energy attacks during Trump call
In a social media post, Donald Trump called Judge Boasberg a radical left lunatic, a troublemaker and an agitator, adding that he should be impeached, in other words, removed from office.
Global News Podcast
Putin agrees to pause Ukraine energy attacks during Trump call
While not addressing the president directly, the statement from the Chief Justice, John Roberts, represents an unequivocal admonishment of the president's words and a significant intervention in what is shaping up to be a potential constitutional crisis. America's political system is based on three branches of government, the executive, congress and the judiciary.
Global News Podcast
Putin agrees to pause Ukraine energy attacks during Trump call
And this separation of powers is designed to create a system of checks and balances so that no one branch can dominate the others. But in recent days, a number of senior administration officials have suggested the White House could simply ignore judicial decisions it doesn't like. with the border czar, Tom Homan, saying, We're not stopping. I don't care what the judges think.
Global News Podcast
Putin agrees to pause Ukraine energy attacks during Trump call
What concerns many is that it's far from clear what could prevent the White House from ignoring the courts if it chose to do so. After all, judges have no means of enforcing their decisions, no army at their beck and call. Congress could impeach a president who took such a course, but the bar for doing so is high, and Mr Trump has already survived two such attempts before.
Global News Podcast
President Trump: Your questions answered
Stephen Miller, who is one of the most influential people in the White House, this is one of his big areas, immigration, refugee status, asylum. This is something he's been working on for the last four years while they've been out of power. So I'm afraid I do think, you know, there's going to be consequences for people that do this all around the country looking after refugees.
Global News Podcast
President Trump: Your questions answered
I'm tempted to say any country that does what they're told. But maybe that's a bit cheeky. But yeah, this is – I mean the word transactional is used a lot and that is definitely what Donald Trump is doing. He's not the first foreign leader or president or leader in any country to take a transactional approach. But he is the most powerful leader in the world at the moment.
Global News Podcast
President Trump: Your questions answered
And therefore it means something. And so you're getting into an era where rules-based international relations, norms, things like that were carried sway.
Global News Podcast
President Trump: Your questions answered
Now you're getting into an era where, you know, this is about deals and about the national, purely the national interest, about perhaps pulling up the drawbridge a bit, unless people, you know, want to do something that's strictly beneficial to the US. And that is what America First is all about.
Global News Podcast
President Trump: Your questions answered
Well, I think he's probably obliged to defend Greenland whether or not he owns it or not because it's, you know, part of Denmark, which is a NATO member. So, yeah, I don't really know. I mean, don't forget Donald Trump has already raised the prospect of not coming to European countries' aid if they were attacked by Russia. He's already dangled that idea of…
Global News Podcast
President Trump: Your questions answered
of reneging on Article 5 obligations, as they're called, under the NATO treaty. So he seems prepared to disrupt in that way in a fairly radical sense. And the irony, of course, is the only time Article 5 has ever been invoked was after September 11th.
Global News Podcast
President Trump: Your questions answered
So an executive order covers a whole range of things from proclamations, just things the president thinks is true, right through to directions of the federal government to do certain things, right through to things that have constitutional implications. So all these ones he's issued right across that gamut. You said dozens, and then you're right.
Global News Podcast
President Trump: Your questions answered
It would be probably pretty rapid. There's only 57,000 people. I shouldn't laugh at Greenland. And it's – although I did read something that said, you know, you can – that New York restaurateurs would be very happy because the sort of deep water fish that could be caught and flown to New York restaurants in four hours would please their diners a lot.
Global News Podcast
President Trump: Your questions answered
The problem with this, of course, is that the cartels don't just do drugs. They're involved in all parts of the Mexican economy. The connections between the U.S. economy and Mexican economy are huge. The trading goods across the border is massive. And so this could have a real chilling effect on U.S. businesses who think it's just too risky.
Global News Podcast
President Trump: Your questions answered
We have no idea of finding out whether this group or this company or this factory has any connection to Ocarto. So we better not do it. And then also there's this question of Mexican migrant workers who come into Texas and other places like that seasonally and send money back home. That's billions of dollars a year, apparently billions and billions of dollars a year in remittances.
Global News Podcast
President Trump: Your questions answered
And it compares to his first term when I think there was just four in the first five days.
Global News Podcast
President Trump: Your questions answered
Now, the companies that organize those remittances, the PayPal's or the Western Union's, Do they know where that money is being wired back to? Do they know that that person is being wired back to doesn't have some connection with a cartel? So all these things could really sort of clog up. the free flow of money and trade and business across the border, which is advantageous to both countries.
Global News Podcast
President Trump: Your questions answered
So the implications are huge on this one. Other administrations have thought about it before and thought too complicated. And, of course, there are existing laws, which means if you start doing business with these cartels, then your assets can be seized. It's not that there's nothing on the statute book for this, but this is much, much broader.
Global News Podcast
President Trump: Your questions answered
I mean, he promised to end the war in Ukraine on day one. That hasn't happened, obviously. He believes there has to be a negotiated settlement, as I think most people do. What that looks like and how it's brought about, we're not yet clear on. And he's not yet made it clear how he plans to do that. His oil obsession is interesting, I think, because
Global News Podcast
President Trump: Your questions answered
Wanting to bring the price of oil down and putting pressure on OPEC, it's difficult to see how that would influence the outcome in Ukraine. But what it would definitely do is make drilling in the U.S. in certain places less viable. He wants people to drill, baby, drill.
Global News Podcast
President Trump: Your questions answered
Well, if the oil price is cheaper, then it becomes less economic to do it in difficult places in West Texas or Alaska or wherever. So I'm not quite sure whether he's thought that one absolutely through. But the question of ending the war in Ukraine is we still just don't know what his plan is on that.
Global News Podcast
President Trump: Your questions answered
The one thing about the EU is also worth bearing in mind is the EU is a market of 450 million people. It's a big old market. It's not going to be as easy as he would like to push Europe around as it was to push Colombia around. And so I'm sure they will come to some accommodation because American companies do want access to 450 million people with pretty high average incomes.
Global News Podcast
President Trump: Your questions answered
Well, he could end up being someone living in the 51st state, couldn't he, of America if he moves to Canada, according to Donald Trump anyway.
Global News Podcast
President Trump: Your questions answered
Well, Panama is the other option, of course.
Global News Podcast
President Trump: Your questions answered
I mean, I don't think there's much evidence that there was a lot of switches in this election. I mean, it's one of these bizarre things about American elections that the sort of voting demographics, you have to wait for ages to see the real detail, the real analysis done of those. We'll get a much more clearer idea of that in sort of April and May of this year.
Global News Podcast
President Trump: Your questions answered
But no, I think, you know, it wasn't the turnout of 2020, but it was still a very high turnout. So I think he was turning out people that probably didn't vote. It turned out more younger people who started to vote for him more, although not his majority, as we've mentioned already. So I don't think a lot of Democrats deserted, you know, went over in that sense.
Global News Podcast
President Trump: Your questions answered
Yeah, he could fall foul of something called the Impoundment Control Act, which is effectively Congress spends money in the US Constitution. He has the power of the purse, as they say. Presidents can hold up money being directed, but they can't really stop it as they can't really raise it without agreement of Congress. And that's one of those things that's going to be challenged in court.
Global News Podcast
President Trump: Your questions answered
I mean there is evidence that people like strong leadership and that even they – some surveys have shown quite a strong support in various places for things that verge on the autocratic because they think stuff gets done. The problem with it, of course, is that people love autocracy until it knocks on their front door.
Global News Podcast
President Trump: Your questions answered
And they like to see it being done to other people, particularly people they think have been overly favored previously. But it doesn't generally stop there. So not for me to say what kind of – I think your question was from South Africa. Yeah, fine. I wouldn't presume to say what kind of government they should have or any other country should have.
Global News Podcast
President Trump: Your questions answered
But I think the idea that strongman government is the future – I mean Africa suffered from the big man leader type post-independence in all sorts of places and stuff ended up being very corrupt and people got a lot poorer. infrastructure wasn't built. So strongman leadership doesn't always work.
Global News Podcast
President Trump: Your questions answered
Certainly that 370 million odd that he's stopped from the infrastructure spending, that's going to be challenged.
Global News Podcast
President Trump: Your questions answered
Your question also mentioned populism and I suppose one's got to be careful because you might say what's wrong with populism? Isn't that the way it should be? But I think what the accusation is against Donald Trump and other populists is that
Global News Podcast
President Trump: Your questions answered
There isn't an empathy with the grievances that propel them to power but there's an exploitation of those grievances that they are used as a means to pursue the leader's agenda. So I think that's something that we'll have to watch. You know, certainly the president is trying to reshape not just the federal government. He's trying to reshape society.
Global News Podcast
President Trump: Your questions answered
He's trying to make huge changes in American life. And he seems to have four years to do that. He did raise the possibility at the weekend that he might have longer. But constitutionally, he has four years to do that. That's not very long. But it is a huge ambition. He doesn't necessarily have to worry about the voters now. He did.
Global News Podcast
President Trump: Your questions answered
He's got a Congress that's on his side, just about, by a very narrow margin in the House, certainly, for the next two years. And so he has, in many ways, all the tools at his disposal with the experience of his first term and a lot of people who have learned a lot from that first term to get things done in a much more efficient way than the chaos we saw in his first term.
Global News Podcast
President Trump: Your questions answered
So on the censorship thing, that's quite interesting because Silicon Valley has already started to do some of that work for him. So conservatives would complain that their views were being marginalized on social media and things like that. Well, Elon Musk controls X, so that's okay for conservatives now. Facebook has stopped fact-checking, so that's much more of a
Global News Podcast
President Trump: Your questions answered
what they would describe as a free speech environment, First Amendment environment. So some of this stuff that was censorship-based is already being done. And on the common worker, well, one of the things that won Donald Trump the election was his talk about inflation, and that was what damaged Joe Biden right back in 2022 when it went through the roof.
Global News Podcast
President Trump: Your questions answered
And ironically, that's one of the things Donald Trump has done least about in his first week. There's been one kind of directive that says to federal departments, try and do what you can to get prices down. Well, yeah, sure. So let's see how that translates into the price of eggs in the shops, which I know is something you care about, Oliver.
Global News Podcast
President Trump: Your questions answered
All of it. I mean, eggs, bread, milk. I mean, the real sort of basics. And while the increases are slower than they were, prices haven't come down.
Global News Podcast
President Trump: Your questions answered
There's no chance of Donald Trump abolishing the federal death penalty. He doesn't have control over individual states and their decisions. But a lot of states don't have the death penalty, bear in mind. But the federal death penalty for federal capital crimes, he has decided to end. There was a moratorium on executions on that that was instituted by the Biden administration.
Global News Podcast
President Trump: Your questions answered
Donald Trump did execute, I think, around a dozen or 13 people on death row during his first administration. That was the most any president done for absolutely years. However, Joe Biden did commute most of those death sentences of federal capital crimes, the people that were on death row in December, 37 out of the 40 people who were on death row. He left three behind.
Global News Podcast
President Trump: Your questions answered
One is Zanaev, who's the Boston bomber, the Boston Marathon bomber. He's still on death row. The other one is Dylan Roof, who murdered a group of black worshippers in a church in South Carolina 10 years ago after having sat through the prayer service with them. And the third one is Robert Bowers, who was the man who murdered the worshippers in the synagogue in Pittsburgh back in 2018, I think.
Global News Podcast
President Trump: Your questions answered
It's also worth saying I think that Barry Mundy has also signed a more general executive order saying all federal agencies will only recognize that there are two genders, men and women, and that's it. And the DEI thing, it's having a sort of broader impact in the private sector as well.
Global News Podcast
President Trump: Your questions answered
So you're starting to see some big, big companies like the Walmarts and the Targets and other people starting to wrap up their DEI programs there. So it's not just going to be restricted to the federal government. The knock on effect is going to be much, much wider.
Global News Podcast
President Trump: Your questions answered
I think this is really interesting because there's a feeling in the US and there was a feeling in Britain as well. For example, when gay marriage was legalized, there was a feeling that the clock cannot be turned back from big social changes like that. You know, that it's then ingrained, no one revisits it.
Global News Podcast
President Trump: Your questions answered
And I wonder if there's a sense in which we might have been wrong about that, that these sorts of things could be turned back. I don't know. Katrina, what do you think?
Global News Podcast
President Trump: Your questions answered
I'm Gary O'Donoghue, the senior North America correspondent.
Global News Podcast
President Trump: Your questions answered
Well, that's two questions. So the US was the first country really to pass civil rights legislation for disabled people back in 1990, signed into law, of course, by a Republican president. What's Donald Trump's attitude? I have no idea whatsoever. I mean, the only instance I can ever remember him sort of alluding to disability was when he imitated the sort of slightly
Global News Podcast
President Trump: Your questions answered
difficult walk of a New York Times reporter who has a disability. So I have no idea. And I don't suppose they've thought about it very hard. However, it's true that disabled people will be swept up into the consequences of all these changes to DEI programs, because they're not just about race and gender, they're about disability as well. So
Global News Podcast
President Trump: Your questions answered
That unemployment rate among disabled, certainly among blind people, which is seven out of 10 across the Western world, unemployed of working age, which has been a hard nut to crack for governments of all flavors in all countries. That's probably not going to get any better under Donald Trump.
Global News Podcast
President Trump: Your questions answered
Well, there was a story about when Trump Tower was built. And I think it was an architect who wrote a book about the process. I think this was right at the time. And when they were designing the lifts, apparently she said to Donald Trump, well, the law says you've got to have Braille numbers by the buttons. And he said, no blind people are going to live in Trump Tower. Don't worry about that.
Global News Podcast
President Trump: Your questions answered
There is a ban on refugees coming into the country now, an indefinite ban. And there's also a separate ban on grants, federal grants, a complete freezing of grants and loans, which will affect those organizations that do resettlement. There's a sort of 90-day thing they do with refugees who come into the country. So I think the listener is right to be concerned about that.
Global News Podcast
Trump officials accuse journalist of lying after Signal app leak published in full
Es gab einen riesigen Rücktritt von der Pressekretärin Caroline Leavitt in der Briefung. Sie ging wirklich nach dem Journalisten, der im Zentrum war, Jeffrey Goldberg. Sie sprach über ihn als Trump-Hater, als Sensationalist, als Demokrat. Sie versuchte wirklich, so viel wie möglich, ihn zu schmieren. Und das kam auch von einigen anderen, die in diesem Bereich involviert waren.
Global News Podcast
Trump officials accuse journalist of lying after Signal app leak published in full
Einige von denen in der Intelligenz-Community waren in diesem Chat. J.D.
Global News Podcast
Trump officials accuse journalist of lying after Signal app leak published in full
Vance, der Vizepräsident, hat das gesagt, wie auch Pete Hexeth, der Verteidigungssekretär, der auch im Zentrum ist, weil in den Botschaften, die von den Atlantikern veröffentlicht wurden, er ist derjenige, der viele Details gibt, die sie immer noch behaupten, dass sie nicht klassifiziert wurden, aber es war um die Waffen, die in den Zeiten von Schrecken genutzt wurden, um ein paar Updates zu geben und was in einer ziemlich live Situation passiert ist.
Global News Podcast
Trump officials accuse journalist of lying after Signal app leak published in full
They are fighting hard on this one and I think there is a reason for that in particular, which is that if they give some ground on one of these individuals, then the questions will keep coming on the others and they simply can't afford to lose a whole swathe of senior national security figures like this.
Global News Podcast
Trump officials accuse journalist of lying after Signal app leak published in full
Ich meine, es war ein bisschen wie gestern mit dem äquivalenten Senatsgericht. Obwohl Tulsi Gamba, die Direktorin der Nationalen Intelligenz, ihr Ansatz ein bisschen verändern musste, weil diese Botschaften klarly verschiedene Arme erwähnten. Und das ist etwas, was sie gestern ein bisschen ambiguös war, ob sie diesen Detail gesehen hätte. Wiederum, sie, wie John Ratcliffe, der CIA-Direktor,
Global News Podcast
Trump officials accuse journalist of lying after Signal app leak published in full
Das ist ein Kampf der Willen, wenn man so will. Und es wird abhängen, was die Präsidentin's View ist. Es wird immer abhängen, was die Präsidentin's View ist. Bis jetzt steht er bei diesen Menschen. But he doesn't like bad publicity. That's one more thing we know.
Global News Podcast
Trump officials accuse journalist of lying after Signal app leak published in full
And particularly when it detracts from his agenda and his feeling that these first two months have been enormously successful in terms of dominating the news cycle, flooding the zone, as they put it. This stuff does distract from that.
Global News Podcast
Trump officials accuse journalist of lying after Signal app leak published in full
Es sieht nicht gut aus. Es sieht nicht besonders kompetent aus. Es sieht ein bisschen sensationalistisch aus, wenn ich das Wort benutzen kann. Es sieht ein bisschen wie die Jungs und ihre Spiele aus, wenn man sich die Details anschaut. Es war nicht sehr sauber, war es nicht? Es gab viele Leute, die Emojis zurück und zurück sendeten. Wir sprechen hier über Bomben und Missilien fliegen.
Global News Podcast
Trump officials accuse journalist of lying after Signal app leak published in full
Der andere Risiko für sie ist, dass in Bezug auf Moral in den Armtservice, es viele Leute, viele Ex-Militärtypen in den letzten Tagen gesagt haben, wenn ich das gemacht hätte, wenn ich in der Uniform wäre, hätte ich mich verurteilt. Es ist also ein Gefahr, dass dies die Disziplin im Militär unterbreitet und manche Leute denken, wenn sie es tun können, warum kann ich es nicht?
Global News Podcast
The Happy Pod: Football while fasting -- Egypt's Ramadan pastime
You know, when I started out in this business, it was a pretty tough thing for disabled people. I was told by head of journalism, that a blind person couldn't be a reporter, simply couldn't do it. Not on. And that has been a difficult journey. And I want to say just this one last thing.
Global News Podcast
The Happy Pod: Football while fasting -- Egypt's Ramadan pastime
All those parents out there with disabled children, all those disabled students at journalism schools up and down the country, it can be done. Even when the naysayers, and they still exist, are around, it can be done. Don't let them stand in the way. Never take no for an answer. Thank you to the judges. Thank you to the RTS. This is fantastic. Thank you very much.
Global News Podcast
The Happy Pod: Football while fasting -- Egypt's Ramadan pastime
We all know there's a bit of luck in these sorts of things and you've got to take that moment and make sure that you maximise it. My heart was absolutely thudding, I've got to tell you, all night in my chest. We were on air for five or six hours and I think that interview was shared 300 million times. And so you kind of know you're having an impact when the numbers look like that.
Global News Podcast
The Happy Pod: Football while fasting -- Egypt's Ramadan pastime
I think the other thing I was very glad about, and this was just a consequence of it, is that Getting an accurate account out of what had sort of happened, reporting those facts quickly, sounds very grand, I know, but I do think we helped the way the country processed that at the time.
Global News Podcast
The Happy Pod: Football while fasting -- Egypt's Ramadan pastime
Yeah, I think so. I mean, look, most of the time my blindness I regard as an inconvenience. Frantically trying to keep up reading stuff, you know, processing information. That all takes a little bit of extra time and a little bit of extra effort and a little bit of extra help. But there are also times, I think, when as a blind person, for whatever reasons, you're a bit less threatening.
Global News Podcast
The Happy Pod: Football while fasting -- Egypt's Ramadan pastime
It means sometimes you get more of a hearing when you're talking to quote-unquote ordinary people. Now, even in most developed countries, can I say, 70% of blind people of working age are out of work. They don't have a job. So I'm one of the very, very lucky ones, which I remind myself of each morning when I get up.
Global News Podcast
The Happy Pod: Football while fasting -- Egypt's Ramadan pastime
And if you take, you know, the global south and less developed countries, the position of blind people is incredibly difficult. You know, they are often hidden away. seen sometimes by their villages, communities, societies as a burden, as not really able to contribute. The one thing I really wish is those emails, those text messages, those comments from people all over the world.
Global News Podcast
The Happy Pod: Football while fasting -- Egypt's Ramadan pastime
who say that it matters that they can see someone in my position. And I hear that all the time. And that is what really keeps me going, that I can reflect to some degree these things are possible for the 300, 400 million blind people around this planet.
Global News Podcast
The Happy Pod: Football while fasting -- Egypt's Ramadan pastime
And I'm Gary O'Donoghue. Normally you hear me reporting from Washington. This week I'm on the Happy Pod with my own story of perseverance.
Global News Podcast
Israeli government approves Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal
It's going to be very frigid on Monday. We're expecting temperatures of minus six Celsius and with the wind chill could be even minus 12 or beyond. So that is really very cold. And of course, these things go on for a long time. There's a lot of standing around, a lot of people standing around and there could be easily some sort of medical situation. So it's not the first time it's ever happened.
Global News Podcast
Israeli government approves Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal
It did happen back in 85 in London. for Ronald Reagan's second inaugural. So it does happen occasionally and that's one of the facts of life of January in Washington.
Global News Podcast
Israeli government approves Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal
So it'll be inside the Capitol building where the swearing-in will take place. He'll also give his inaugural address at that point as well. But he is also having a sort of rally afterwards. Instead of having people on the National Mall, which would normally happen, he's invited them to an indoor arena where they normally play ice hockey. in Chinatown in DC, and that will hold 20,000.
Global News Podcast
Israeli government approves Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal
So it won't be the hundreds of thousands of people that Donald Trump told us would be showing up, but it will be something that he can go to afterwards when he's actually the president.
Global News Podcast
Israeli government approves Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal
Yeah, that's right. And she wasn't there also at Jimmy Carter's funeral last week where I was. Barack Obama will be there. The other two presidents who are living, including the other three presidents who are living, including Joe Biden, will be will be there as well. There will be some senior representation from the Chinese government.
Global News Podcast
Israeli government approves Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal
And there will also be a whole clutch of tech billionaires there. the Zuckerbergs the Elon Musks of course of this world and Jeff Bezos so there'll be a lot of well-known faces there just not Michelle Obama