Americanswers...on 5 Live! Will Trump's new challenge to birthright citizenship work?

Americast

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Monday, 10 August 2026 - 41 minutes

Donald Trump isn’t giving up on his plans to limit birthright citizenship in the US, despite the Supreme Court striking down his previous attempt. He says his administration is making ‘adjustments’, and has issues two new executive orders to combat so-called ‘birth tourism’ and limit the criteria for becoming an American citizen. But what exactly is his new strategy?

And a federal appeals court has ordered Trump to stop construction on his $400m White House ballroom, saying he can’t proceed without approval from Congress. Is this the end of the project? The team also unpack the BBC’s interview with Hunter Biden and his comments about his father, former President Joe Biden. Does he think he made a mistake in pardoning him? And what’s the current state of his health?

Sarah, Justin and Marianna join Matt Chorley on 5 Live to answer your questions. HOSTS:
• Sarah Smith, North America Editor
• Justin Webb, Radio 4 presenter
• Marianna Spring, Social Media Investigations Correspondent GET IN TOUCH:
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• Or use #AmericastThis episode was made by Jack Maclaren, Alix Pickles and Grace Reeve. The technical producer was Mike Regaard. 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-68093155Americast is part of the BBC News Podcasts family of podcasts. The team that makes Americast also makes lots of other podcasts, including Newscast. 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
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