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Hello and welcome to Spectator Out Loud. Each week we choose some of our favourite pieces from the magazine and ask their writers to read them aloud. I'm Patrick Gibbons and on this week's podcast. Kate Andrews looks at Trump's cabinet appointments and asks, will nominee for Treasury Secretary Scott Besant rock the boat? Mark Galliotti looks at the sabotage campaign that Moscow is ramping up against the West

and wonders how Europe will respond.

Following the surprise first round win of Kalin Georgescu in the presidential election in Romania,

Adrian Pascoutalburi looks at the extraordinary rise of Romania's disruptor.

Michael Han reviews two Irish bands that have been playing in London this week, the rap band

kneecap from Northern Ireland, and Fontaine's DC from the Republic.

And finally, following the news that Smithfield Market may close, Olivia Potts provides her notes

on the market that has been the staple of London's meat industry for more than 800 years.

Up first, Kate Andrews.

How rare it is to be given a second chance.

This is what the American people have handed Donald Trump.

His second shot at the presidency means avoiding past mistakes,

which in Trump world means finally harnessing the full power of the state.

Even in the last year of his first term,

Trump was struggling to fill all the political appointment vacancies he had at his disposal.

This was the consequence of never developing a real plan for governing that went

beyond chanting, drained the swamp. This time round, things are going to be different. Trump is

announcing new departments and staffing them before he even re-enters the Oval Office. We are about to

see a methodical revolution in Washington, D.C., which will involve taking an ax to state spending,

as well as announcing a sweeping set of tax hikes in the form of tariffs months ahead of implementation.

...