As Donald Trump’s list of appointments becomes longer and more controversial, there’s one area that seems set for drastic change: defence. The announcements come alongside Joe Biden’s decision to supply Ukraine with long-range missiles to fire into Russia, just months before Trump becomes commander in chief. We speak to Robert Wilkie, the man in charge of preparing Trump’s defence policy. He tells us what’s happening behind the scenes, how Trump could negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine, and why he’s picked a Fox New presenter as his defence secretary. HOSTS: • Justin Webb, Radio 4 presenter • Marianna Spring, Social Media Investigations Correspondent GUEST - Robert Wilkie, director of defence transition GET IN TOUCH: • Join our online community: https://discord.gg/qSrxqNcmRB • Send us a message or voice note via WhatsApp to +44 330 123 9480 • Email Americast@bbc.co.uk • Or use #Americast This episode was made by Chris Flynn, Rufus Gray, Catherine Fusillo and Claire Betzer. The series producer is Purvee Pattni. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham. If you want to be notified every time we publish a new episode, please subscribe to us on BBC Sounds by hitting the subscribe button on the app. You can now listen to Americast on a smart speaker. If you want to listen, just say "Ask BBC Sounds to play Americast”. It works on most smart speakers. US Election Unspun: Sign up for Anthony’s BBC newsletter: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-68093155 Americast is part of the BBC News Podcasts family of podcasts. The team that makes Americast also makes lots of other podcasts, including The Global Story, The Today Podcast, and of course Newscast and Ukrainecast. If you enjoy Americast (and if you're reading this then you hopefully do), then we think that you will enjoy some of our other pods too. See links below. The Global Story: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/w13xtvsd The Today Podcast: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/p0gg4k6r Newscast: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/series/p05299nl Ukrainecast: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/p0bqztzm
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Hello to all the new Americasters who've joined us in the last few months.
More of us now we're here than ever before, partly because there is so much going on.
So between now and Donald Trump's inauguration in January, we're going to be looking at who is picking for his team, what that could mean for the next four years and how the Democrats begin to regroup.
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We're recording this Wednesday afternoon in Britain and we're doing it at a very important, a serious time in world affairs because it's a time where the United States has allowed for the first time missiles, its missiles, long range missiles, to be fired into Russian territory.
The same thing is happening with British missiles.
And there is a huge incoming problem for the Trump administration to deal with.
So it's not just the diplomacy how do they end the war, it's also what do they do about Vladimir Putin and what do they do about the situation that they are going to inherit.
So we have exactly the right person to talk to about this.
We have the man who is in charge of getting Donald Trump's defense policy set up.
And we're going to hear from him not only about what is happening this week, but also about what the plans are for the Trump administration.
Welcome to AmericasT.
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God spared my life for a reason.