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Jon Sopel: Watching the White House

American politics - and the way it is reported - has changed hugely now Donald Trump is president. Keren David talked to the BBC's North America Editor about his new book

May 31, 2018 10:28
Jon Sopel, the BBC's eye on the White House
5 min read

Perhaps it was inevitable that Donald Trump disrupted my interview with Jon Sopel. I call the BBC’s North America Editor at the appointed hour, but alas, it coincides with a breaking news story. Trump has called off his Singapore summit with Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader he dubbed “little rocket man”.

Sopel’s morning is therefore hijacked by this presidential bombshell — not an uncommon occurrence, with Trump in the White House. And rather fitting, as we’re discussing Sopel’s book If Only They Didn’t Speak English, Notes from Trump’s America, published in paperback this week with a brand new final chapter. Luckily for me, a huge breaking sory doesn’t put Sopel off his stride. After taking five minutes to organise himself, we talk as he drives to work.

I’ve been reading his book and enjoying his crisp analysis of American politics in the Trump era. He explains the title in his preface: “If only they didn’t speak English in America then we’d treat it as a foreign country — and possibly understand it a lot better.”

It is, therefore, a book about America but aimed at the British, an expansion of the work he does every day on television and radio.

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