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Hello and welcome to the Americano podcast, a series of discussions about American politics,

power and prejudices. It is 2025 and Donald Trump is president once again of the United States.

We will, of course, be following the moves of the Donald and his second administration very closely.

However, it won't just be politics for us this year.

We'll also talk a lot and cover American culture, life and the arts.

I should also remind you, because my producer Natasha will not let me hear the end of it, that we are on Spectator TV. So head to our YouTube

channel to watch that. Hello and welcome to The Americano show. Today we're going to be asking

if the Democratic Party is paralyzed.

And to have this discussion, I am delighted to be joined by Damon Linker, who is a senior

lecturer in political science at the University of Pennsylvania and author of an excellent

substack called Notes from the Middle Ground.

Damon, the first phase of the Trump presidency, the first 10 days or so, are a complete whirlwind of news.

And it seems to the outsider looking in that the Democratic Party has effectively vanished,

completely bamboozled as it is by Trump's barrage of

executive orders and seemingly very dynamic action. However, today, it seems like the party is

beginning to rediscover itself a little bit with the reaction to Trump's attempts to freeze federal grants and loans, the

budget office moves in that direction. Can you explain to us what's going on? And am I right

to think that the Democrats are a bit paralyzed? Well, I think they are overwhelmed, as I think all of us sort of feel like we are.

...