Oct 22, 2026 · 47 min · 13 segments
Mary joins **Rory Stewart** and **Alastair Campbell** on ***The Rest Is Politics: Leading*** for a revealing conversation about the cruelty behind Donald’s rise to power, his betrayal of Ukraine, his…
Mary TrumpGuest
Alastair CampbellHost
Rory StewartHostIf you sort of step aside, because I try to do this, because I can't stand the guy, and I think he's a terrible influence on the world, but if you try and step aside and try to work out, well, why has he been seemingly so successful in his own terms.
Why has he been able to build the profile to win an election, then to lose but pretend he hasn't, and then to win again? I mean, it is an extraordinary story.
How in the world did this man, who was objectively weak, insecure, unaccomplished, unintelligent, and failed, allowed to accrue the kind of power, influence, and money, fortune that he has accrued? How do we make sense of that? And I think It's sort of a perfect storm of things, and obviously this is just the beginning of trying to answer that question.
It's certainly not a comprehensive solution, but it's the decline of independent, objective media.
Social media, which I think has eroded people's capacity for critical thinking, the decline in our system of education, the cultural shift driven by the right in our country away from enlightenment principles and the lack of belief, if you will, in science, a turning away from science, a turning away from investment in the things that matter most, science, the arts, the humanities, and a focus on greed, the accumulation of wealth, and the ability of people on the right to convince people that things like the social safety net are bad and that the commons don't exist anymore and that If you believe that we should believe in a common good, then there's something wrong.
We interviewed Gavin Newsom a while back, and he said, without Rupert Murdoch, there is no Donald Trump.
If you sort of step aside, because I try to do this, because I can't stand the guy, and I think he's a terrible influence on the world, but if you try and step aside and try to work out, well, why has he been seemingly so successful in his own terms.
Why has he been able to build the profile to win an election, then to lose but pretend he hasn't, and then to win again? I mean, it is an extraordinary story.
How in the world did this man, who was objectively weak, insecure, unaccomplished, unintelligent, and failed, allowed to accrue the kind of power, influence, and money, fortune that he has accrued? How do we make sense of that? And I think It's sort of a perfect storm of things, and obviously this is just the beginning of trying to answer that question.
It's certainly not a comprehensive solution, but it's the decline of independent, objective media.
Social media, which I think has eroded people's capacity for critical thinking, the decline in our system of education, the cultural shift driven by the right in our country away from enlightenment principles and the lack of belief, if you will, in science, a turning away from science, a turning away from investment in the things that matter most, science, the arts, the humanities, and a focus on greed, the accumulation of wealth, and the ability of people on the right to convince people that things like the social safety net are bad and that the commons don't exist anymore and that If you believe that we should believe in a common good, then there's something wrong.
We interviewed Gavin Newsom a while back, and he said, without Rupert Murdoch, there is no Donald Trump.
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