Friday Focus: Trump defies all norms and a civil war on the right takes centre stage

Rudyard and Janice begin today’s show unpacking Trump’s increasingly erratic behaviour. A Truth Social post attacking Rob Reiner was followed by the Trump appointed board voting to add his name to the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Topping this off was a video of a new hallway of portraits in the White House featuring past U.S. presidents and plaques with Trump’s personal commentary of these leaders. As we piece all these events together, is it fair to assume we are witnessing a certain type of senility and mental decline in the 47th U.S. President? And what does the Vanity Fair interview with his Chief of Staff Susan Wiles reveal about how he conducts himself behind closed doors? In the second half of the show Rudyard and Janice turn to the growing civil war in the GOP, specifically an edgier version of MAGA that embraces conspiracies and populist nationalism led by the likes of Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson. There is a power struggle over which ideology should reign supreme in the party and another conservative commentator, Ben Shapiro, has stepped forward to denounce this growing white nationalist faction. Who wins and who loses in this scenario? How does JD Vance’s political ambitions fit into this changing political landscape? And why has anti-semitism become the breaking point between these two factions?