The moment that confirmed Trump had betrayed Maga

Donald Trump won the US presidency, twice, by promising to put “America First”. This was more than just a slogan. Trump had a very particular version of what that meant, and he shared it often with the US public.

The rest of the world was laughing at America, he claimed, and had been ripping it off for too long. America was being taken advantage of through dodgy trade deals and it was working class Americans who were suffering as a result – as factories shut down and jobs were cut, because US industry couldn’t keep up with international competition from the likes of China.

When Trump returned to the White House last year, his promise was to introduce sweeping tariffs on imported goods – which he wrongly seems to believe are paid for by foreign countries, rather than by American consumers – and to bring manufacturing back to the US.

Shorts – Quick stories

politics

Four key takeaways from the King’s Speech

The monarch has outlined changes to health, education and the justice system on behalf of an embattled Sir Keir Starmer looking to prove he can enact the speed of change being demanded by his MPs.

In his speech at the State Opening of Parliament, King Charles unveiled a legislative programme including the introduction of digital ID, limits on trial by jury, measures curbing settled status for migrants and an overhaul of special educational needs teaching.

Four big Labour changes

• 1Digital ID will be introduced as a way of checking immigration status when people start a job, but will not be mandatory. 
• 2Special educational needs teaching will be overhauled to give schools more responsibility for deciding how pupils are taught.
• 3A courts modernisation bill will restrict trial by jury to the most serious cases.
• 4Gaining settled status in the UK will be made harder for migrants under plans which could provoke a backlash from Labour MPs.

Few surprises as PM battles to stay

The King’s Speech is the set piece opportunity for the government of the day to lay out its legislative programme. But the ceremonial pomp was at risk of being overshadowed by the battle within the Labour Party over whether Starmer should remain in Number 10.

While the bills outlined were largely expected, allies of Starmer said the programme would allow Labour to say it had fixed Britain’s emaciated public services. But rumours abound that Health Secretary Wes Streeting will launch a leadership challenge as early as Thursday.

world ANALYSIS

Trump’s fatal flaw is about to be exposed on the world stage

James Rogers

Co-founder Council on Geostrategy

When the US President arrives in Beijing this week, he will be visiting a China which has spent years making itself more resilient to American influence and pressure.

Consequently, Donald Trump will be attempting to secure a series of rapid but transactional victories with a weakened hand.

Critical question for the US: who is hurting more?

The White House faces a situation of diminishing economic leverage. Trump’s tariff barrage on Beijing was supposed to force co-operation. But China has shown willingness to deploy its own economic arsenal. While Beijing is feeling the effects of US microchip curbs, Washington is being hit by China’s squeeze on critical minerals.

Analysis

4 min read

Beijing patient as Iran strife drags on

The most visible challenge constraining the White House is its ongoing conflict with Iran. While Trump struggles with rising fuel prices and a dropping approval rating, Xi Jinping is advancing Beijing’s interests in the Indo-Pacific region.

Trump’s controversial moves, including the snatching of Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro and threats to annex Greenland, have created a space for China to make overtures to European leaders. Consequently, American structural power is diminished.

health

Are lifts still safe? Warning over UK’s obesity rates

The obesity epidemic means that many lifts are no longer big enough to transport people between floors, according to British researchers.

A study found that the maximum capacity of lifts in the UK and elsewhere in Europe has failed to keep pace with the increase in weight of the average person, raising concerns about safety and discrimination.

What you need to know

Lifts stuck in the past

The UK-based study found that despite weight growth and the obesity epidemic, the limit for elevators has not increased since about 2004.

Weighty concerns

In the 1970s, the average British man and woman weighed 75kg and 65kg, respectively. These figures now stand at 86kg and 73kg.

Capacity problems

Because lifts assume an average weight of 75kg, this means the amount of room is becoming limited and loads are getting heavier.

Super-sized society

Researchers said their findings suggested lift designs are now based on “flawed calculations” and could lead to issues like elevators cutting out if passengers exceed total weight limits. People with obesity may also feel stigmatised when entering lifts.

Lead researcher Professor Nick Finer warned of a need to “super-size” many aspects of daily life, including lifts, to make the workplace and other environments safe and suitable for people living with obesity. By 2040, as many as seven in 10 Britons are projected to be overweight or obese.

politics

Which members of Government have gone so far?

Sir Keir Starmer has briefly met with presumed leadership rival Wes Streeting in No 10 as the Prime Minister continues to resist calls from within Labour for him to stand down.

The crisis at the top of Government has so far seen the resignations of 10 MPs from their frontline roles, including four junior ministers. Among the most prominent has been the departure of Home Office minister Jess Phillips.

What you need to know

• Six parliamentary private secretaries (PPS) – the eyes and ears of a minister in the House of Commons – have stepped down.
• They include Joe Morris, PPS to Streeting, and Melanie Ward, PPS to Justice Secretary David Lammy, a key ally of Starmer.
• The three ministers who have quit alongside Jess Phillips are Miatta Fahnbulleh, Alex Davies-Jones and Zubir Ahmed.
• In her resignation letter, Phillips criticised Starmer for his record on online protections.

OPINION

4 min read

Crisis in Downing Street

While the Prime Minister has suffered the loss of 10 members of his Government, to date the departures have been restricted to its junior ranks. Starmer is widely seen as having laid down the gauntlet to his Cabinet colleagues to either formally challenge him, or allow him to stay in office.

Some 11 Labour-supporting unions are expected to state publicly that Starmer will not lead the party into the next election. Ministers are being watched minute-by-minute for signs of a formal split.

HEALTH

Why weight-loss pill after jabs may help keep pounds off

People using anti-obesity jabs can maintain weight loss by moving to a daily pill at the end of their treatment, a study suggests.

Researchers found that using orforglipron – an anti-obesity pill developed by US pharmaceuticals giant Eli Lilly – could be an “effective approach” for avoiding regaining pounds after injections have stopped.

What you need to know

• While anti-obesity jabs are effective at promoting weight loss, patients have been found to regain the pounds after treatment stops.
• Researchers in the US found that switching to orforglipron allowed patients using jabs to retain about 75 to 80 per cent of their weight loss.
• Orforglipron is also a GLP-1 agonist, the same type of compound used in anti-obesity injections such as Mounjaro and Wegovy.

OPINION

3 min read

Weight-loss pill ‘cheaper’ than jabs

The US findings add to evidence that anti-obesity pills hold promise as a new method of promoting or maintaining weight loss, not least because they are significantly cheaper to manufacture than injections and easier to use.

Orforglipron, which is Eli Lilly’s hope for its next blockbuster drug, is taken as a once-a-day pill and was tested with 376 patients who had previously used jabs. The pill has been licensed in America but is still awaiting approval in the UK.

HEALTH

How children’s taste for vegetables ‘begins before birth’

Young children react more favourably to the smell of vegetables if they were regularly exposed to them while developing in the womb, researchers have found.

A study at Durham University found evidence that three-year-olds develop a memory of the flavour and odour of foods they were exposed to in late pregnancy.

Everything you need to know

Remembering tastes

The reactions of toddlers to the smell of carrots or kale was examined to see whether taste can be established in utero.

Powder capsules

Children were tested for their response to the smell of the vegetables after their mothers took capsules of carrot or kale while pregnant.

Flavour memory

Researchers found children reacted less negatively if their mothers were exposed to the vegetables while pregnant.

Mothers advised to eat varied diet

The scientists found an enduring favourable response in toddlers to the vegetable flavours they were exposed to in the later weeks of pregnancy.

The study recorded the facial expressions of 12 children when they were given wet cotton swabs dipped in the carrot or kale powder their mothers had taken.

PROPERTY AND MORTGAGES

4 min read

LIFESTYLE

4 min read

What the researchers said

• The researchers said the study suggested mothers-to-be should eat a varied diet rich in vegetables and fruits of different colours, with the added possibility it could influence the eating habits of their unborn child.

Analysis

3 min read

Is napping an
invaluable part of the day or an unproductive hour?

To find out how to feel better, brighter and bushy-tailed, we asked Russell Foster, a
professor of neuroscience at
the University of Oxford, everything you need to know about napping.

How long should we nap for?

For Professor Foster, the ideal length of a time for a nap is just 20 minutes and certainly no longer than 30. 

“You don’t want to do is fall into deeper sleep, because then recovery from that can leave you groggy,” he says.

Is there an optimum time of day to nap?

Napping too late in the day is warned against.

• An early-afternoon nap of around 20 minutes can improve your cognition during the second half of the day.
• If you have a nap later on, you can push back your sleep pressure, which means the longer you’ve been awake the greater need for sleep, at night.
• As long as you’re getting the sleep that you need to function optimally, that’s the main thing.

How much sleep does a person need?

Sleep is like a shoe: one size doesn’t fit all.

Oversleeping on days-off or sustaining your waking day with caffeine and other stimulants are signs of tiredness.

Not everybody needs eight hours of sleep; it’s variable, dynamic and individual. And will vary over a lifetime depending on the season.

Other things to know

It doesn’t matter where you physically nap as long as it feels right and you’re comfortable. You can create the right environment by making it dark, calm or using a smell like lavender.

Generally speaking, napping is probably a metric that you’re not getting the sleep you need at night, says Professor Foster. “But don’t beat yourself up over it. A short nap, if it improves the second half of the day, is fine”.

How would Andy Burnham become prime minister?

Andy Burnham is one of the frontrunners to replace Sir Keir Starmer if he resigns as Prime Minister. The Manchester Mayor has previously indicated he would be willing to overthrow the current Labour leader.

First step – find a vacant seat

A vacant parliamentary seat would need to be available and finding one may not be easy.

There are two by-elections coming up in Scotland, but Burnham is unlikely to stand in these.

MPs have indicated in the past they would step aside for Burnham, including Clive Lewis, but these suggestions have since been quashed.

Step two – Labour’s ruling National Executive Committee

If a seat were to become vacant, Burnham would need to win over the National Executive Committee (NEC), who is responsible for choosing Labour’s candidates. In January, the NEC blocked Burnham from running in Gorton and Denton. A 10-strong group, including the PM, voted to deny Burnham permission.

Exclusive

3 min read

Step three – a leadership ballot

If Burnham were to be elected to Parliament, only then could he make a Labour leadership bid. According to the Labour Party rule book, candidates seeking to enter the ballot must be an MP.

This is because the Labour leader is the Prime Minister, therefore they would need to be a Member of Parliament. The current rules state a candidate must receive nominations from 20 per cent of their Labour colleagues in Parliament to be in the running.

A summary of necessary steps

What is standing in Burnham’s way?

• Vacant seat
• NEC permission
• Win election, become an MP
• Meet nominations threshold
• Win leadership competition, become Labour leader and prime minister

Trump also had a clear villain in mind when he suggested who was getting the better of America under President Joe Biden and the Democrats: China. His presidency, he promised, would take on China properly, and Make America Great Again.

Yet, when Trump’s supporters see the photographs of their President getting off Air Force One as he arrives in Beijing for his summit with Xi Jinping, they could be forgiven for feeling deeply betrayed.

Trump was greeted by the kind of pomp and spectacle he so clearly admires. Thick red carpet rolled out from the steps of his plane, both sides lined by soldiers and then by rows of fresh-faced young greeters waving both US and Chinese flags.

China is superb at putting on a show for distinguished visitors, and its leader is excellent at knowing just how to get the better of those he deals with. Trump, not a man known for his poker face at the best of times, could not be more obviously charmed.

The purpose of Trump’s visit to China is to do a deal, but for a President who likes to boast about who is or isn’t “holding the cards”, he must be aware he is playing with a very weak hand indeed. Even a US Supreme Court as friendly towards him as the current one could not uphold his tariff plans, meaning Trump’s greatest weapon in his trade war with China has been taken away from him.

Meanwhile, Trump has disposed of most of the US State Department’s best professional negotiators, choosing to leave almost all global diplomacy to his billionaire pal Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner. Both have had their hands full in the Middle East, meaning there is almost no groundwork for a meaningful deal in China.

During his presidential campaigning in 2024, Trump promised to represent left-behind Americans against China, which he said had taken their manufacturing jobs, and against big tech, which was accumulating wealth and power on the East and West coasts, leaving the ‘real’ America in the middle behind.

Given this, the President’s choice of travel companions for his trip to China will surely only have alarmed his supporters – as numerous bosses of big tech and global finance companies were on board the plane.

Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, was on Air Force One, as was outgoing Apple CEO Tim Cook, as well as top executives from BlackRock, Blackstone, Citigroup, Visa, Mastercard, Goldman Sachs and Meta.

Trump’s political opponents have always tried to paint him as a bad representative for the working classes. They tried, time and again, to point out that Trump was himself ultra-rich. They noted that Trump had left thousands of people unemployed when he bankrupted his casinos, and that his tax avoidance had deprived the government of hundreds of millions of dollars.

None of this cut through – because Trump had a message tens of millions of Americans wanted to hear, and he did not seem to be part of the establishment elite. The angry reaction of many elites to him all but confirmed his outside status.

For a time, Trump’s popularity seemed to be untouchable. Even now, there is a sizeable ride-or-die Maga contingent for whom he can do no wrong. But millions of Republican voters are feeling doubt enter their souls: gas prices are rising, and he promised they would fall. America is at war, exactly what they thought Trump would stop happening. Things aren’t going to plan.

Now, in the middle of all of that, the “America First” President is getting a lavish welcome from China, having brought a plane full of CEOs along for the ride. Voters might not know exactly what that means – but at least some of them will know betrayal when they see it.