Can Trump really save the midterms for the Republicans?

Americast

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Friday, 30 January 2026 - 35 minutes

Can Republicans win the midterm elections and keep control of both houses of Congress? It’s the biggest political event of the year, and this week Donald Trump kicked off the Republican’s campaign in Iowa, telling voters the odds are against him, but Republicans “need to win”. The president’s chief of staff says this is just the start, and Trump will be campaigning for the midterms as if it were a presidential race because he’s good at driving voter turnout.
In this episode, Sarah and Anthony discuss why the midterm elections matter, what the stakes are, and Republican chances of winning. They’re joined by a former campaign adviser to Donald Trump, Bryan Lanza, who sets out why ICE immigration protests and worries over the economy shouldn’t stop a Republican victory.
We also hear from Mary in Kentucky as we build our own “United States of Americast”, finding Americasters in every US state. Listen out for what you might not already know about Kentucky… HOSTS:
• Sarah Smith, North America Editor
• Anthony Zurcher, North America CorrespondentGUESTS:
• Bryan Lanza, Former senior advisor to Donald TrumpGET IN TOUCH:
• Join our online community: https://discord.gg/qSrxqNcmRB
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• Or use #Americast This episode was made by Purvee Pattni, Grace Reeve and Kris Jalowiecki. The technical producer was Jack Graysmark. 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
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