The Rest Is Politics US review — the stale art of Trump-hating

Times

17-07-2025

Like an enormous water buffalo sustaining a flock of flea-eating river birds with a lifetime of free dinners, the Trump administration supports a throng of parasitic podcasters. Conservatives gawk and cheer. Liberals gawk and scoff. The world can't look away and the dollars roll in. Very firmly in the gawk and scoff camp are Anthony Scaramucci and Katty Kay of The Rest Is Politics US. Kay is a British journalist. Scaramucci, you probably recall, is famous for his ill-fated 11-day stint as Trump's communications director.
Though not quite culture-bestriding political commentary superstars on the level of Alastair Campbell and Rory Stewart (hosts of the namesake show The Rest Is Politics), Kay and Scaramucci command a loyal audience of Trump-transfixed British liberals. That audience — world-weary, trainer-wearing centrists — was out in force last night for The Rest Is Politics US Live. Kay and Scaramucci appeared at Indigo at the O2 in London, a smaller side theatre in the famous dome where Billie Eilish was playing the main stage. But even Eilish's tweenage obsessives would struggle to equal the levels of fan devotion from the Rest Is Politics US crowd. 'Scaramucci 2028' caps were on sale at the merch stand and the hosts were whooped and cheered on to the stage.
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I confess to a certain bewilderment. I've never quite got the appeal of The Rest Is Politics US. Scaramucci, though clearly genial, strikes me as a bit of a blowhard. I've never felt Kay has much of shattering insight to say on US politics. Still, the fun of Trump-hating will never die. You may have thought the vein of political comedy based on remarking repeatedly on what a ludicrous man the president is with his orange hair and silly tan was exhausted half a decade ago. Not here. The audience chortled away happily as we trotted through his disgraceful antics … the tariffs! The Musk bust-up! The hair! The hair looks like a racoon, Scaramucci observed to merry guffaws. My lips nearly twitched moderately upwards at his description of the president as 'an orange Moses descending from Mount Evil'. But an excess of self-respect prevented even a half-smile from forming. I read a thousand versions of that joke on Twitter in 2016. This stuff is really pretty tired.
• Why are podcasters so fixated by Donald Trump?
As for the commentary … well, we learnt that 'Trump has got Europeans to take defence spending seriously', that hosting Trump for a state visit may make him feel warmly towards Britain and that by cutting USAID Elon Musk's Doge unit has damaged American soft power. Why anyone would fight their way to the O2 through hordes of marauding Eilish fans on a sticky July evening to hear such lukewarm insights is beyond me. Such are the mysteries of podcasts.
Rather more tenuously Scaramucci thinks Trump's havering on Ukraine can be explained by the fact Putin has kompromat of a sexual nature on the American president. To me this is sheer conspiracism but at the O2 I'm in a minority. 'Raise your hands if you think Putin's got something on Trump,' Scaramucci says and a forest of eager arms appears. 'It's not a pee-pee tape,' Scaramucci opines confidently. 'Trump could survive a pee-pee tape.'
At one point Scaramucci says of Trump, 'He's a really bad guy, ladies and gentlemen.' This stunningly original observation is greeted with cheers and applause. It's just so easy. As long as Trump remains in the White House, the podcasters are safe.
★★☆☆☆