UnPresidented Politics, Pandemics and the Race That Trumped All Others

Fear and loathing on the 2020 campaign trail...


'26 February, White House Briefing Room
The coronavirus feels like it is changing everything. Suddenly it's not just a public health emergency; it has the potential to upend this whole election...'

In UnPresidented: Politics, pandemics and the race that Trumped all others, BBC North America Editor Jon Sopel presents a diary of an election like we've never quite seen before.

Experience life as a reporter on the campaign trail, as the election heats up and a global pandemic slowly sweeps in. As American lives are lost at a devastating rate, the presidential race becomes a battle for the very soul of the nation - challenging not just the Trump presidency, but the very institutions of American democracy itself.
In this highly personal account of reporting on America in 2020, Jon Sopel takes you behind the scenes of a White House in crisis and an election in turmoil, expertly laying bare the real story of the presidential campaign in a panoramic account of an election and a year like no other.

Jon Sopel has been the BBC's North America Editor since 2014. He has covered the 2016 and 2020 elections and Trump's White House at first hand, reporting for the BBC across TV, radio and online. He also presents the highly successful Americast podcast with Emily Maitlis and Anthony Zurcher. As a member of the White House Press Corps, he has accompanied both President Obama and President Trump on Air Force One and interviewed President Obama at the White House. He has travelled extensively across the US and recently rode a Harley Davidson down the West Coast (that wasn't for work though).


He lives in Washington and London. He is the author of If Only They Didn't Speak English: Notes from Trump's America and A Year at the Circus: Inside Trump's White House.