Does Trump have a plan to reform healthcare in America?

9 snips

Dec 10, 2025

Donald Trump criticizes European leaders and their immigration policies, raising concerns about America's ties with traditional allies. He proposes a controversial healthcare reform that shifts subsidies directly to individuals. As Congress debates rising premiums, he points fingers at Democrats for the impasse. Additionally, the Supreme Court prepares to hear a pivotal case on birthright citizenship, stemming from Trump's executive order aimed at changing immigration law. The hosts dissect the potential political ramifications of these bold moves.

Ask episode

AI Snips

Chapters

Transcript

Episode notes

INSIGHT

Trump Sees Europe As Fragile

Donald Trump tells Politico Europe is "weak" and at risk due to immigration and political correctness.
Anthony Zurcher says the White House document signals a US push to reshape or distance from Europe.

INSIGHT

US May Pry Off Friendly European States

The national security paper suggests the US may court friendly European states or 'go without Europe'.
Anthony warns the administration might back parties resisting Europe's current trajectory.

INSIGHT

Trump Signals Pragmatism Toward Russia

Trump sounded sympathetic to Russia and suggested Ukraine may have to accept concessions.
Anthony says Trump increasingly blames Zelensky and sees Russia as having the upper hand.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Get the app

Donald Trump has lambasted European countries as “decaying” and “weak”, singling out the UK, France and Germany for their immigration policies, whilst praising the Hungarian leader Viktor Orban for allowing “nobody in his country”. In an interview for Politico, Trump expanded on his administration’s new U.S. security strategy, which warned that Europe faces “civilisational erasure” unless it changes its migration policies.

In today’s episode, Sarah and Anthony unpack Trump’s views, and analyse how far the president is willing to interfere with America’s traditional allies.

The U.S. president also used the interview to expand on his vision behind healthcare reform, after being criticised for having no plan. As Congress races to beat a fast-approaching deadline that would see premiums rise sharply for millions of Americans, the president blames Democrats for the stalemate in Congress while promising to end subsidies for insurance companies. Does Trump have a plan to reform healthcare that will make it cheaper for Americans?

And, the Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case on the future of birthright citizenship, following an executive order signed by Donald Trump in January. The president wants to end birthright citizenship for those born to parents who are in the country illegally. Hear why he thinks the law needs to be changed, and what it should mean to be an American citizen.

HOSTS: • Sarah Smith, North America Editor • Anthony Zurcher, North America Correspondent

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 George Dabby with Grace Reeve. The technical producer was Philip Bull. 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 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.

Newscast: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/series/p05299nl Ukrainecast: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/p0bqztzm Radical: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/p0gg4k6r The Global Story: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/w13xtvsd