Richard Arnold: US Correspondent on Trump's first week, and Conference Championship day in the NFL

California's secretary of state has approved an effort to gather signatures for a vote in 2028 on whether the state should leave the US and become an independent country. 

It comes as Donald Trump is not slowing down on his presidential orders and proposals. 

The NFL's final playoffs are underway in preparation for the Superbowl next week. Who is the team to watch? 

US Correspondent Richard Arnold talks to Ryan Bridge about the major US news, including the fallout of Trump's first week in office, and his claims around the conflict in Gaza. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Richard Arnold in the US with US this morning. Richard,
good morning, Good morning. Run Trump's first week down, California
may become independent. This is a proposal. What has been
a furious start to Trump two point zero, with no
end to the presidential orders and presidential proposals, anything that
comes out of the man's mind, I guess, and that

(00:21):
is leading to much the same political divisions that feature
during the election. California Secretary of State has just approved yes,
an effort to gather signatures for a vote in twenty
twenty eight on whether the state should leave the US
and become an independent country. So what is it? Greenland,
inn California out Both Extremely unlikely, I would have to say,
but it shows the ongoing divisions. There was just a

(00:42):
poll done in swing states and one Republican voter in
Ohio says, quote Trump is being bold and thinking big,
while a Democratic Wisconsin says quote the man is unhinged.
Some of the initial Trump moves have even his own
party reps squirming a little bit. Leading among them are
those those pardons for the fifteen hundred from the January
of the six riots, including some of those who beat

(01:04):
the police. One of those riot planners. The boss of
the Oathkeepers group, Stuart Rhodes, was in prison for eighteen
years for seditious conspiracy when he was freed by Trump.
With all the others. He says he was convicted only
on a show trial. He's still barred by the courts
from going anywhere near the US capital, but he turned
up last night in Las Vegas at a Trump rally,
leading Republican Senator Lindsay Graham to say this, I don't

(01:28):
think there's a restriction on him being there. I don't
like this. He says. He thinks Trump pardoning violent January
the sixth defendants was a mistake. Another small presidential order
that has drawn I guess little attention in the rush
of things, is that Trump ordered to remove a diversity
program in the military here where recruits would be shown
videos of military history, including female pilots and African American

(01:51):
pilots in the Air Force. So no videos to be
shown of the Tuskegee mm And now these were the
famed Black aviators four hundred and fifty African American pilots
who fought in World War Two in segregated units and
their combat successes. At the time led Truman back in
nineteen forty eight. We're talking to serve equally in the
American military. Now that story is not to be told.
No videos in basic training now of black military history.

(02:13):
I mean, seriously, folks. President Trump now says he wants
to quote clean out Gaza as well, that is, remove
Palestinians from the area, and I guess seed the territory
to Israel with Jordan and Egypt taking the Palestinians. There
is no indication zip that Egypt and Jordan would ever
endorse such a thing. In fact, history suggests the exact opposite.

(02:33):
Senator Graham says he doesn't know what Trump is talking
about with that. Meantime, Trump has ended the Biden ban
on two thousand pound US bunker busting bombs to Israel.
Most of the weapons Israel has used in that catastrophic
fighting were American made, but Biden drew a line on
those most powerful bombs, and that President Trump is allowing
them in again. The confirmation hearings for the Trump Cabinet

(02:56):
will continue this week after Peter Hegss Pete Hegss's raped
in as Defense Secretary, despite having no experience of leading
any large organization and having his history, as we know,
alleged sexual and alcohol abuse, including stories about him having
on one occasion three Gin and Tonics for breakfast. But
there you go. Chelsea Gabbart has her nomination hearing coming

(03:16):
up soon. She met with Syria's assade before Syrian people
finally dumped the dictator, and she's voiced pro Russian sentiments
on foreign policy, which I've raised doubts about her being
chosen as National Intelligence Director. So we'll see on that.
President Trump is returning from his California trip, where he
said there would be federal support for fire recovery with

(03:36):
the natural disasters that the state has seen, but he
said this would all be contingent on California putting in
a voter id system. Now that's been pressed by some
Republican politicos who think it would increase the Republican Party vote.
So that's the backdrop to the California independence idea, with
some Dems saying if the federal government wants to tie
political strings to disaster aid, maybe California could go it alone.

(03:59):
Since Californi you provide so much of the tax money
that the federal government deals with goodness in massive day
for NFL Conference Championship day to day. Yeah, it's going
to be huge in football. The final playoffs before the
Super Bowl in a couple of weeks. The Kansas City
Chiefs are looking for a three peter third successive Super Bowl.
They're matched against the Buffalo Bills, Go Bills, while the

(04:20):
Washington Commanders with They're amazing rookie quarterback Jaden Daniels are
hoping to create some history with him being becoming the
first rookie QB to make the Super Bowl. Some of
the Commanders have taken over a Philly Hard Rock Cafes,
Philadelphia where the game's being played today, as the Eagles
have been chanting for their team. Yeah, well, at least

(04:44):
they did better than their own city's mayor, Cherrell Parker,
who tried to do this chat for supporters the other day.
He owe, let's go bird. You get that E L.
Gk Es. I don't know what kind of bird she

(05:06):
was thinking of. Brilliant Richard, Thank you for that. Richard
Arnold our US correspondent with us this Morning. For more
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