Answering your questions

On Trump/Musk, Labour's woes, Gaza, Kursk....and a lot more

Thanks to subscribers, as ever, for an excellent and wide-ranging batch of questions. We couldn’t get through all of them, so apologies if yours isn’t in there (but we’ll look out for you next time).

We did get through a lot though….

Sam answered on subjects including:

• Possible ways to push back on Trump/Musk

• Whether what’s happening in the US could happen here

• Why Labour seem so unprepared / unable to find a narrative

• Where things *are* going well

• How much of a threat Labour faces from parties to the left of them

• Whether our Parliament can work with multiple parties of the same size

• Getting the Treasury to agree to spending proposals

• Policy on falling fertility rates

• The rise of homeschooling

• And a whole load of other things from PR to the EU to grooming gangs

Lawrence answered on subjects including:

• Trump’s ideas on Gaza

• Building alliances against Trump’s colonisation plans

• How China will react to Trump

• Climate change and international cooperation

• Ukraine’s incursions into Kursk

• The UK’s military capacity

• Whether Russia will test the US’s willingess to back NATO allies

• And many other topics including Chagos, Trident, and the Congo.

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Questions to Sam

Jason Van Driesche: Is there any organized pushback to Trump? Are any of the still-sane Republican allying with Democrats and standing up against illegal firings, impoundments of money, etc.? What is being done to take the keys away from Musk?

Will David: Do you think the need for Republicans to get re-elected in the next mid-terms will act as a restraint on Trump as they fear the effects of his more extreme policies?

One big difference between the US and European political systems is that, outside of presidential elections, oppositions are decentralised. There’s no single acknowledged leader which makes it hard to respond quickly and in a co-ordinated fashion. Meanwhile, Republicans, even if they might disapprove of what Trump/Musk are doing are under enormous pressure to keep quiet if they want to avoid primary challenges and an online hate campaign.

What the US does have is the opportunity to throw up more procedural barriers, through Congress and the courts. As the GOP hold the House and Senate at the moment there is a limit to what the Democrats can do without peeling off Republican votes. They almost managed to block Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s nomination but the one extra Republican senator they needed backed off at the last minute.

They can, though, gum up the works by forcing the Republicans to waste all their floor time going through nominations one by one and delaying things. Moreover, Trump’s legislative agenda remains a complete mess and there should be plenty of opportunities there to cause difficulties.

As for the courts we’ve already seen judges block Trumps’ executive order ending birthright citizenship and attempts to freeze federal funding (though it’s not clear which departments are complying with this order). A raft of cases have been launched to block Musk’s hijacking of computer systems – several have already led to temporary injunctions - and against unfair dismissal of FBI agents. There’s a helpful tracker of all the different legal cases that have been launched - at the last count there are 41. The problem here is that it can be a slow process, with a lot of damage done before a judgment is passed down. And if the administration starts routinely ignoring judicial orders then things get very murky and dangerous.

To Will’s question – elected Republicans in swing seats are in something of a bind because they don’t want to risk being primaried by someone more pro-Trump but equally they will be nervous about more unpopular decisions, particularly around spending cuts. So far Trump’s approval ratings haven’t changed since inauguration, if they do start going south (and there’s always a lag time on these things) then we may start to see more public pushback. But I wouldn’t be relying on it.

Charles Williams: It's surprised me that neither Democrats nor administration officials seem to have war-gamed Trump and Musk's likely actions. Do you think the civil service/Labour are wargaming what might happen in the attempt of a similar attempt to gut the state over here? And if they aren't, should they?

Dan Grenfell: What protections do we have or should we implement in the UK to prevent a future PM from grabbing executive control in a similar manner?