Trevor Mcdonald reveals the question to Saddam Hussein that still makes him ‘cringe’ — a broadcaster’s confession
Under the glare of palace chandeliers in Baghdad, the ITV team moved forward after being roughed up and strip-searched; in that hush, trevor mcdonald began an interview with a line he now says makes him «cringe». He remembers the uncertainty outside the room — whether cameras would be allowed, whether the next minute would bring order or danger — and the slow, unexpected changes in the man opposite him.
Why does Trevor Mcdonald say he still ‘cringe’ at his opening line?
Sir Trevor McDonald, a journalist and TV presenter, has singled out his opening question to Saddam Hussein at a Baghdad palace in 1990 as one he would rephrase today. The line — «Mr President, the invasion of a neighbouring country with such calculated force and brutality is a very un-Arab thing to do, isn’t it?» — is one he now calls a particularly biting commentary. «I still cringe when I listen to it. If I had to do this again, I’d find other words, » he said, framing the remark as both a professional regret and a moment of learning about the responsibility of phrasing in high-stakes interviews.
What did trevor mcdonald describe about the circumstances of the 1990 interview?
McDonald recalls the journey to the meeting as tense and unpredictable. He and his team were «roughed up» and strip-searched en route, and they faced uncertainty about whether they could even bring cameras. He said they «never knew from one moment to another what was going to happen» and that «unpredictability was the game. » Those details help explain why a sharp opening line might have felt both necessary and risky in the moment.
In the same conversation, McDonald described unexpected flashes in Saddam Hussein’s demeanor: «There was a flicker of an occasional smile, I never associated Saddam with smiling. He was a much smoother operator. Don’t forget, this is a man who inspired such fear in the country. » That observation complicates a simple portrait of the interview subject and emphasizes the human dimensions McDonald was confronting in real time.
What larger questions does this interview raise about Iraq and hindsight?
McDonald reflected on long-term consequences in Iraq with a tone of sadness and question. He noted that Iraq lost the Gulf War in 1991, that Hussein remained in power until a US-led invasion in 2003, and that he was executed in 2006 at age 69. Looking back, McDonald expressed sorrow about enduring divisions in Iraq today and asked whether more could have been done in the post-war years to alter the nation’s trajectory. Those reflections come from someone who was not only present for a pivotal moment but who has followed the arc of events that followed.
The interview and McDonald’s reflections appear as part of a new series called “Reporting History, ” which revisits landmark moments and the journalists who covered them. An extended audio conversation with News At Ten anchor Tom Bradby will be made available as a podcast, offering listeners a longer-form exchange about the choices and risks involved in that Baghdad encounter.
For McDonald, the regret is specific and professional: a sentence once thought to be an incisive opener now reads as an unnecessarily sharp characterization. Yet the admission itself becomes part of a larger lesson about journalism in volatile settings — how phrasing carries power, how danger reshapes decision-making, and how hindsight can alter the meaning of a single line.
Back in the palace, the memory of that flicker of a smile and the palpable unpredictability of the day remain. McDonald’s confession — that he «still cringe[s]» — does not erase the encounter, but it adds a human turn to it: a broadcaster confronting the weight of his words and the unfolding history that followed, leaving audiences to consider what might have been done differently and what lessons reporters carry forward.
