with a really big microphone on this very small table. do you have a nice coffee, at least? i do. sumi, you'rejoining us from germany today — and we'll dig deep into that in the episode. but, bernd, you're kind of the man of the hour, really. you've spent most of the last week with president trump around tell us what you were doing. i was there for five days down in florida, mostly in mar—a—lago, as he golfed — he spent quite a bit of time golfing. and we did a flyby in air force one — and all the tvs in air force one are set to fox, perhaps unsurprisingly — and we were there

watching fox covering air force one, flying by the nascar race. we were flying really low — it was quite a surreal experience. moments injournalism. a really big entrance, and it was kind of interesting but can't you get them to turn one of those tvs to bbc? they put on a basketball game. or non—american audience — that nascar, that daytona

oh, it's huge. there's 110,000 seats at that race. and so, when we get in and, you know, you hear the roar of a crowd, i mean, it was a bigger crowd than i'd ever seen at a european football game, for example. and trump comes out and he does a little wave. supportive crowd for him. i mean, he knew his audience. into the more serious policy stuff in a moment — i mean, you know, way before he was a president,

how to work a crowd — especially at a crowd, supportive, you know, of him. it was, you know, a home game for him, so from his perspective, it was a really good pr opportunity. and he said, "look at donald trump. he's at every sporting event. the democrats need somebody who can go to these sporting events and be authentic, not like they're showing up to try where he actually seems like he fits in that scene." the super bowl or this race, you notice that he is met with applause and cheers. yeah, or even ufc fights.

one of his closest allies. i mean, we heard a number of really important policy discussions, as well, particularly on ukraine. particularly on the administration's position on ukraine to ask him a question, i asked him, "sir, what do you say to the ukrainians who feel betrayed or disappointed they're not at these i think the answer took a lot of people by surprise. do you have any message for ukrainians who,

well, i think i'm really— disappointed in what's happened. the second world war. and i'm very disappointed. it was really quite a hostile response, i thought, and i think probably raised a lot of alarm bells in kyiv and other european capitals, because it was far beyond what he had said before. out of being invaded in the first place is a completely different it's interesting, as well, i think, the focus that we've seen

and trying to blame ukraine — but it's this deal on the rare—earth late morning eastern us time. but, you know, there was this deal he wanted, and now he wants something back from it, in the form of these and the day previously, he accused kyiv, and zelensky so, i mean, i think that's one of the major reasons he seems so aggrieved these last couple of days, and his tone about zelensky has hardened a lot in the last 72 hours. and this issue, as well,

of the treasury secretary and at the end of it, president zelensky wouldn't sign this deal to give over some of the rare earth minerals." and i think he's viewing that as a slight on the treasury president trump, as well. and if you read the art of the deal, it's the same type of language definitely with biden, we heard the national biden's major argument was that an investment in ukraine was that administration's argument. i mean, this is a very transactional

sort of conversation he seems to be expansion into ukraine, or the defence of nato's eastern flank, or anything like that. as a way to try to build a relationship with president trump, reporting, the actual agreement that donald trump and his administration and its future that they didn't feel that they could sign it. you know, i think what'll be really interesting to watch is how various

particularly calling volodymyr zelensky a "dictator", "volodymyr zelensky is not a dictator" — but we have sort of peace agreement". yeah, i mean, we've seen today the chair of the ukrainian caucus from pennsylvania — issued this extremely and president putin need to be stopped, that they need to be

punished for their invasion of your country, for everything they've done to your people." of the majority of people here." from within the republican party. because there's been other issues in the past where other republicans policy than the president. so, i think it'll be really eye—opening to see position is very clear.

to ask him a question — i asked him, "do you trust the russians in these negotiations?" would you say you trust the russians to negotiate in good i do, i think the russians want to see the war end. j and...| do, i really do. they've taken a lot of territory. for whatever deal eventually comes down the road. you know, to your point, bernie, that his view eventually sometimes becomes the view of the whole party — but even perhaps broader that he's kind of laying the groundwork for what might be

of misinformation" — i don't remember the exact quote, zelensky's misinformation comment. and there's probably something to that he doesn't respond well to that. i think there'sjd vance comments

are something that eu leaders they should react to this, how they back zelensky, but not alienate president trump either. i can't tell you how shocked and confused the vast majority in terms of the rhetoric on the war on ukraine, particularly donald trump referring to zelensky as a "dictator". from the far—right here. of the far—right, held this long kind of virtual talk with elon musk — and you're seeing a bit more of that connection, in fact, you know, some of the members of the md, the far—right, went over for the inauguration convention, as well.

hesitation, obviously, to fully back a far—right party in germany. which has now gotten to about 20% in polls, which is a significant the fact that they had, if you will, the support — jd vance also met that that might actually hamper their chances to do even so, people are paying attention to it, particularly because they're concerned about what kind of influence that might have on the election.

and for those young men, as in the us, a figure like elon musk is one that they look up to, so they see that as kind of an affirmation of their views, if you will. questioned here in the us. that 55% of voters think elon musk has too much power in and 3% think he doesn't have enough power, but i think that whole interplay between president trump

but who is seated at the right hand of the leader. we've been talking about this since the election, haven't we, we've seen elon musk side—by—side with donald trump in the white smart and praised the work that that doge is doing, as well. ever more critical of elon musk and others, and some of the concerns and also federal workers who voted for donald trump, who have lost theirjobs — i do wonder, if you do see more to the forefront. the federal worker issue is really interesting, because, i mean, you guys would know this better than me. but when you speak to americans over

the years that i've lived here, i can buy a house, all of this." not byjust alone, those sort of redundancy package happening every single day, hundreds and hundreds of federal workers being let go. some of those good jobs — you know, i forget which news outlet it was, but there was recently a very good story about, of more concern about elon musk and doge having some

and put up a unified front. but if there's public dissatisfaction with what elon musk is doing, you know, i think it's likely would have to distance himself from him a bit. so, i think that might be one of the themes of this year, is, without my permission." i think we're starting to see more of that kind of delineation of roles richest man in the world,

scott bessent, treasury secretary, incredibly wealthy millionaire, billionaire, howard lutnick, who, you know, is in the middle of the middle east deal, is now in the middle of these russia talks, also a billionaire — and does there come a point at which the voters, the american people say, all this stuff is going on — but yet we're still not seeing anything about grocery prices, we're still not seeing anything about better affordability, cost of living coming down, the election campaign." in a certain regard. it was $9 for a carton of eggs. you know, this is still a very accessible thing that i think the democrats can point to, you know, and i think especially with these cuts — if we see, you know, for example, the american farmer in any way lose benefits,

for the democrats, one could see it as kind of a messaging gift at a time when they really need one. six months or year of this administration — unless something and don't forget that we've seen the president also endorse the house of representatives budget reconciliation bill — which appears, as we've seen it now, to have significant cuts to medicaid. medicaid cuts. so, that could get even more difficult for them — but at the same time, you've seen donald trump talk about maybe taking some of the savings from and that could very much be

the messaging that they're but we're giving the money back to you." it seems like, you know, remember when donald trump in his first term, on those checks? that could then again solidify his position, in the months ahead, as we reach the end giving back 20% of it in cheques to people. hard figures for that yet, do we? and now, this news that, as we're

talking about these firings, somewhere between 6—7,000 people from the irs, the internal revenue service — the tax guys, basically — are being fired, as well. so, i think there's a real nervousness out there — you know, it's been mentioned to me several times about, what does this mean for people's tax filings and those tax rebate cheques or are maybe, you know, waiting for offsets and the point has been made, as well, another big test, i think, you know, we all know that there is obviously big for a large defence budget

and the trump administration has said that the cuts that they'd make but i really wonder, you know, if you start to see generals fired that could have real pushback not only among voters, but among republican members of congress, as well. i know, and apologies for this noisy cafe! going to jump out into the streets and start to talk to some voters, so i'll leave you guys at this point. well, enjoy germany. and, bernie, i hope you get a bit of a break after trekking around after the president. oh, there's no break with this administration. yeah, exactly!

ok, bye, guys, talk soon. bye! just search the president's path. each episode will be published at the end of the week, hello there. that's made it the warmest day of the year so far and the warmest day since 2a november. sunday, though, we'll see more wet and windy weather sweeping

are following this weather front, which brought the rain. and that cloud and rain still hanging around come the morning. the cloud will linger for a bit longer. elsewhere, there'll be some sunny spells, a few showers grazing northern ireland, pushing into the north—west of scotland. places will be dry. that's going to bring with it that band of rain. it's going to bring with it some stronger winds as well. the winds strengthening through the day, particularly

irish sea coasts and over the highlands and islands. and whilst it may become dry later in northern ireland, and the south—east of england. and those temperatures still a reasonable ii—i2 celsius quite widely. that we had on friday. overnight and into monday. the low pressure moves through and the winds tend to drop as well. really, through next week, not particularly windy. and some showers.

to the israeli authorities, which hamas said was that of the hostage shiri bibas. hello, i'm lucy hockings. have you with us. ukrainian and russian leaders will have to "get together" to end the war in ukraine, president trump said on friday. it comes as rhetoric against russia's invasion. in negotiations about ending the war. it's his latest public comment

that has raised questions