Trump Takes On The World

As President Trump leaves the White House after four years in what is one of the most controversial presidencies in history, BBC Two delves into the key moments of his time in the Oval Office. Featuring candid interviews with Trump’s top advisers and the foreign leaders who encountered him, this eye-opening series lifts the lid on the discussions and decisions that shaped the critical moments of his leadership.

This three-part series, from Brook Lapping and Bafta Award-winning series producer Norma Percy, profiles President Trump’s foreign policy and examines how Trump’s ‘America First’ agenda and aggressive negotiating approach affected his relationship with foreign leaders - from traditional allies in the West to the leaders of rival powers like China’s Xi Jinping, Russia’s Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s Kim Jong-Un.

Episode one

After winning the 2016 US Presidential Election, Donald Trump spent the first year and a half of his presidency pursuing his “America first” policy. For the first time, those closest to President Trump tell the inside story of what actually happened when he met with world leaders on the biggest diplomatic stages.

Some of Trump’s own team, known in Washington as the ‘Adults in the Room’, including former Secretary of Defence James ‘Mad-dog’ Mattis and national security advisers H.R. McMaster and John Bolton, speak for the first time about their experience advising the President on foreign policy and the value of alliances.

From withdrawing from the Paris Climate Accord to pursuing a closer relationship with Vladimir Putin, Trump shattered the status quo, even threatening the most critical of all American alliances. As former UK Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt says: "NATO was probably in the greatest peril it’s ever been in its history."

Foreign leaders and those close to them share details of the first conversations and meetings they had with President Trump, including French President Francois Hollande and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.

And as Trump plays hardball with the United States’ traditional allies, he pursues a greater friendship with Russian President Vladimir Putin. After meeting with Putin in Helsinki, Trump gives an extraordinary press conference, suggesting that he believes the Russian President instead of his own intelligence services on Russian interference in the presidential election.

Publicity contact: MA