April 27, 2026 - King and Queen arrive in US today as Trump asserts "I'm not a rapist"

Leading Britain's Conversation, LBC with James O'Brien.

1149 is the time. You know what a miserable get I can be sometimes. I like to think I'm

a more mellow character than I was when we first met, but I do occasionally have little

bug bears. And this was one of them until suddenly it wasn't. When we started doing the catch-up

service, when was that key? Roughly. When did we start doing the listen back and you could

listen to the show and rewind live radio and all of that sort of melaki. And I started getting

messages from people who were listening an hour ago. And they'd say, oh, I'm listening

on catch-up but. And I'm like, why do you think I want to know what your reaction was to something

that happened an hour ago that I'm not talking about anymore? I think what's wrong with you,

but then oddly, as time has passed, I've come to quite enjoy these messages from the past.

And Tom has just sent me one. He says, I'm listening on behind on today's show now, James.

So you're sort of in automatically thinking, why are you getting in touch with me to contribute

to a conversation that's ended? But then I realize it's about connection and community,

kindness and family. Tom wants me to know what he thinks. He says, I think Starmer wants the

king to be insulted. This will force the media and his opposition in the UK to rally around him

and label Trump as an enemy. This will help Starmer move towards the EU and away from the USA,

and it will force Faraj, et cetera, to break away from Trump or to be seen as not patriotic.

So they will lose some of their cards. I think in a sane universe, I'd agree with that.

But it's not a sane universe. And of course, things got even more troubling over the course of

this weekend with events in Washington at the press gala, which is one of the reasons why Simon

Marx joins us. I mean, I think we've used the word extraordinary 670,000 times when discussing

events in the United States of America in the last 18 months. But this is one of those occasions

when there is no other word, really. Extraordinary and rather horrible, Simon.

Yes, and I think perhaps in a bizarre way, James inevitable. I mean, given what we now know about

the extraordinarily lax security that was in place around that Hilton hotel on Saturday night,

I mean, and in a way also lucky that something far worse did not occur. Because you have to

remember that at that event on Saturday night, you basically had the entire line of succession

and the president all in a basement ballroom of a massive concrete structure above them.

And it is already apparent that the suspect in this case who's going to be making his first

court appearance here a little bit later today had absolutely no difficulty whatsoever

bringing his weapons into that hotel a little bit earlier in the week, booking a room in the hotel

after traveling from California to Washington, DC via Chicago. And in the words of the Wall Street

Journal, which has done an extraordinary job overnight of really probing what was taking place

security wise at that hotel, it was easier to get into the dinner than many big sports events

and concert venues. They also quote Jason Packer, former FBI official who says that the suspect

didn't beat the security plan the night of the dinner. He beat it the day he made the hotel

reservation, which is just an absolutely staggering revelation. Now the suspect, clearly from everything

that we have read about him and everything that we are learning hour after hour, his own writings

that were apparently sent to family members, to his employers left in the hotel room. Some of them

clearly indicate a deeply troubled individual who was critical of the Trump administration who made

claims against the Trump administration accusing some of its senior figures of sexual crimes.

But and then of course made that extraordinary effort to charge through the metal detectors that

were the only metal detectors in place and were only being used to screen people who were trying

to get to the dinner in the basement that at the time was already underway with 2,000 people there.

He never stood a chance of getting off the ground floor of the hotel. He never stood a chance of

getting to the ballroom. But it is also apparent from the lack security that existed that a much

more coordinated planned and well-aust-orchestrated effort to attack that hotel. At a time when

America has no shortage of enemies on the world stage and is at war, could have potentially wiped

out the President, the Vice President, the Speaker of the House of Representatives and two of the

next people out of the first six people in that line of succession. So there are major questions

here and you know this idea that security was reviewed for the royal visit. Well of course it was

and President Trump is saying well but it's all going to be okay because they're coming to the

White House and that's the most secure facility in the city and oh and by the way this underscores

the need for us to build the ballroom. Doesn't of course underscore the need for us as a country

to engage in any serious commentary or discussion about gun control. We immediately go to we need

to build the ballroom because it's going to be more secure than the Hilton Hotel up the road.

I mean that only goes so far given the public engagements outside the White House that the

King and Queen will be engaging in here in Washington DC, in New York, in Virginia and then back

in Washington between now and Thursday. So massive questions arising out of what took place on Saturday

night. Are there any answers? I mean I've been struck you may have been across this already but

as always reading into the events of Saturday night and of course links present themselves to other

reports and I hadn't realised how widespread and how deep the conviction was that the last

assassination attempt on Donald Trump was some sort of false flag or some sort of conspiracy theory.

That's really taken hold in MAGA circles that's not I mean one wouldn't expect it necessarily

from liberals or critics of Donald Trump but his own fan base seemed to believe increasingly

that that was some sort of fake. This is more grist to the conspiracy theory male isn't it?

Oh I think we are going to look back on this event over the weekend at the point at which

the conspiracy theory mill in this country went completely mainstream. I mean if you take a look

at the hundreds possibly by now this morning thousands of comments that have been attached to

our own YouTube channel, the LBC official YouTube channel and some of the coverage that we provided

over the weekend of the attack, the attempted attack on that Hilton hotel and therefore on the

dinner down in the basement. I mean you're hard to you'd be hard pressed to find a single person

who has added a comment to that YouTube channel that believes that this was anything other than

a hoax. Now in order to believe that it was a hoax you also have to believe that in some way

it was in President Trump's interest to throw the clean lights back on the issue of Jeffrey

Epstein because in the writings of this gunman he talks about his outrage at policies put in place

by the White House and eludes to allegations of sexual misconduct saying he is no longer willing

to allow a traitor to coat my hands with his crimes. He doesn't use Donald Trump's name

but take a listen to what happened on CBS 60 minutes last night when Donald Trump was being

interviewed by Nora O'Donnell. He also wrote this, I'm no longer willing to permit a pedophile

rapist and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes. What's your reaction to that? Well I was waiting

for you to read that because I knew you would because you're your your horrible people, horrible

people. Yeah he did write that. I'm not a rapist. I didn't rape anybody. Oh you think he was

our friends. Excuse me. I'm not a pedophile. You read that crap from some sick person.

I got associated with all stuff that has nothing to do with me. I was totally exonerated.

Your friends on the other side of the plate are the ones that were involved with let's say

Epstein or other things but I said to myself you know I'll do this interview and they'll probably

I read the manifesto. You know it's a sick person but you should be ashamed of yourself reading

that because I'm not any of those things. Mr. President he's never excuse me. You shouldn't

be reading that on 60 minutes. You're a disgrace but go ahead let's finish the interview.

Now if you believe that this whole thing was a hoax you also have to believe that on the eve

of the king and queen arriving in the UK in the United States President Trump wanted to find

himself on television denying that he is a rapist or a pedophile and that is for even for a conspiracy

theorist that's a massive stretch but you're absolutely right to talk about the revival of

conversation about what happened in Butler Pennsylvania that first assassination attempt

even Tucker Carlson and his brother in that podcast where Tucker Carlson breaks entirely with

Donald Trump found themselves discussing the Butler assassination attempt and suggesting

that it needs another look intimating that perhaps it was not what it was portrayed to be at the

time. And the irony is of course that Trump has done more than anybody to create this ecosystem

where conspiracy theories can flourish. He still lies through his teeth about the results of the

election that Joe Biden won. Those lies seem to be coming back into the light again now and he

continues to spread all sorts of nonsense and conspiracy theories about all sorts of people.

So I mean it's ironic but it's also dangerous. Yes very dangerous. I mean he is clearly

hoist on his own pertard at this point because people across the political spectrum and remember

the conspiracy theorists if you drew a venn diagram between mega supporters and conspiracy theorists

you'd find quite an intersection there but now conspiracy theories are being embraced by

Donald Trump's critics partly on the basis that well you know you put conspiracy theories

into the public domain what source for the goose is source for the gander but what this really

means ultimately is that those commentators out there who say even now we're going to view the

terms that President Trump spent in office as an aberration and that in some fashion once this

is all over America is going to snap back to some semblance of normalcy that is going to be very

difficult in a post-truth country which this already largely was where now conspiracy theories

fueled by the ability of AI to create instant images as people were doing on Saturday night

after the dinner entirely false storylines being promoted by the use of AI created videos

it takes the country down an unbelievably dangerous path. And he has shown the way I mean he has

kicked those doors down through which the entire country now passes as you point out Simon without

any guarantees of an easy return to how things work before and no doubt we'll be speaking to you

the best thing that can happen in the context of the role is it is nothing right the best thing

that can happen is that I talked to you tomorrow or on Wednesday and say any big any big events

anything notable is he done a Pearl Harbor as he has he done as a lensky and you just go no it's all

gone off quite calmly really. The only way this is a win over the next four days is if it is

ranker free and President Trump does not talk to or is not goaded into talking to some of the

propagandists here many of whom have White House press passes who will constantly be seeking to

ask him whether he'd like to take a pop at the prime minister while the king is on American soil.

All his own sons all through the next. Yeah all Harry they might because they've brought Harry

into it recently as well. Yes exactly. Wow so Simon Marks they're almost wishing that he doesn't

have anything to report on in the course of the next four days in Washington DC.