Mary Harrington, James Orr, Peter Hitchens & Aaron Bastani

Debate: This house welcomes the new Trump era


January 21, 2025
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On inauguration day, UnHerd gathers outspoken critics and cheerleaders of the new US President to debate the promise and peril of Donald Trump 2.0. Will the 47th leader of the free world really make America great again? Join writer Mary Harrington, academic James Orr and journalists Aaron Bastani and Peter Hitchens for a live debate at the UnHerd Club.


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Katharine Eyre
Katharine Eyre
21 days ago

Hitchens is a patronising so and so. I thought Mary did marvellously well to maintain her composure in the 1st part of that J6 debate, I would have clapped back.
As it happens, I also think there is room for debate over whether J6 was an “insurrection” or not. And wasn’t that the opinion of the Supreme Court in the recent decision on the 3rd paragraph of the 14th amendment? That it was for Congress to decide whether it was an insurrection or not? If nothing else, that decision tells us this issue, this definition isn’t cut and dried.

Citizen Diversity
Citizen Diversity
20 days ago
Reply to  Katharine Eyre

Mr H has squandered the ‘small amount of popularity’.
In a recent column for the Mail on Sunday, Mr H reported on democracy being ended in Romania after a free and fair vote was annulled by the judiciary.
Add to this other examples. The attempt to stymie and reverse the Brexit referendum. The demonstrations against Trump’s first election as president, achieved fairly.
In the light of these, Trump’s second election as president, despite the insurrection at the capitol, is one of the symptoms of the diminution of the belief in loser’s consent. After the insurrection, what does Trump’s second election indicate about the very large numbers of people who voted for him?

Prashant Kotak
Prashant Kotak
21 days ago

It was interesting, but not illuminating.

JOHN CROOKS
JOHN CROOKS
21 days ago

Well done. Excellent commentary. And despite the fact Hitchens made some good points, he proves himself as an arrogant and condescending piece of ____ (fill in the blank).

Charles Fleeman
Charles Fleeman
20 days ago

Contrary to Aaron’s assertion, Clinton was the last president in office to claim there was a balanced budget, but Congress is in charge of the budget and was more responsible for such a budget. That balance was also an accounting fiction, or only on paper, as they say. The National Debt of the US, according to official Treasury records (https://fiscaldata.treasury.gov/datasets/historical-debt-outstanding/historical-debt-outstanding), increased during each of Clinton’s Fiscal Years. The lowest increase was $18 Billion from 1999 to 2000. When the National Debt increases, it means the government did not have revenues that were sufficient to cover expenses… a budget deficit, in other words.

Pete Pritchard
Pete Pritchard
19 days ago

Fact is. Its here and racing ahead.