Quote · The Rest Is Politics
544. How Trump Is Weaponising AI and Martial Arts at the White House
Where this was said
The Banalisation of Trump and Media Failure
At 38:46 · chapter starts 38:20
Alastair Campbell shifts to a structural media argument, drawing on a German interlocutor's use of the term 'banalisation' to describe how the Springer newspaper group had normalised the AfD — and arguing Trump has been through that process already. He recounts an off-stage encounter with Jacob Rees-Mogg discussing Nigel Farage's Trump-like capacity to survive scandal, noting that you only survive scandal if politics and media let you. Campbell welcomes Mehdi Hasan's return to British political journalism, expressing concern that UK and US media are too soft. Rory pushes back on Democratic advice to stop raging about the UFC event — he had spoken to a senior US foreign policy figure who was cautiously optimistic that Trump had actually strengthened Europe by forcing it to stand on its own feet. Stewart rejected that analysis entirely: anyone who thinks we come out of the Trump era with stronger alliances simply doesn't understand what has changed.
Alastair Campbell invoked the German concept of 'banalisation' — the process by which the AfD became normalised in German media — and argued Trump has already been fully banalised in the US and UK press. A Democrat friend told him to stop getting angry about the UFC event because that's exactly what Trump wants. Campbell rejected the advice.
Fujimori vs Sánchez in Peru: 9,036,046 votes to 9,034,743. A margin of 0.008%. The votes are now in the courts, Sánchez is demanding a recount, and no one knows who will be president. Alastair Campbell says he's never followed a foreign election this closely — and may never see a closer one.
