A new CNN poll finds Donald Trump’s approval at an abysmal 36 percent. And a Washington Post survey finds him absolutely tanking on just about all major issues. But to Trump, this cannot be real: He just issued an angry, rambling tirade about how such polls are "fake." He even declared that his support is “silent,” while insisting he got many millions more votes in 2024 than he actually got. Amusingly, this came even as Fox News aired a striking graphic showing Trump’s approval on tariffs at an abysmal 34-64. This isn’t the first time Fox has admitted how badly things are going: The network’s own recent poll found him deeply underwater on the economy, tariffs, and even immigration. We talked to Marquette University political scientist Julia Azari, author of a good new piece explaining how Trump operates outside the Constitution. We discuss how this extra-Constitutional governing is itself rendering him deeply unpopular, why Trump’s poll denial reflects a refusal to acknowledge legitimate opposition, and what it all tells us about the current state of the American experiment. 

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After the Supreme Court struck down Donald Trump’s tariffs, he detonated. He targeted justices Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett, fuming that the ruling was an “embarrassment to their families.” He doubled down on the idea that he has unilateral tariff power. He tacitly threatened to investigate the high court for foreign influences. He called the ruling a “disgrace to our nation.” Yet this is backfiring: It prompted GOP Representative Don Bacon to declare that this might prompt more GOP votes to constrain him, remarking that Trump “didn’t do himself any favors.” Indeed, after we recorded this episode, Senator Mitch McConnell pointedly noted that Congress is “not an inconvenience to avoid,” suggesting more Congressional action ahead, and other Republicans celebrated the ruling.  We talked to legal scholar Matthew Seligman, a lawyer for some of the businesses looking for tariff refunds. He explains why the ruling was such a major rebuke, why Trump's efforts to revive the tariffs might encounter turbulence, and how his impotent fury—and the GOP response to it—undermine his political mystique in a deeper sense. 

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After British police arrested the former Prince Andrew in connection with revelations involving Jeffrey Epstein, a reporter asked Donald Trump directly if anyone will face accountability in the United States. Trump rambled and rambled, insisting he had been “totally exonerated.” That’s not true, but regardless, Trump could not explain why accountability is happening in other countries, but not in ours. He also had nothing whatsoever to say about whether his Justice Department will ever seek accountability for any elites implicated in the scandal. Meanwhile, MAGA figures are raging over the latest Epstein-file revelations and demanding exactly the accountability that is not forthcoming from DOJ. We talked to Nicole Hemmer, author of good books about the conservative movement and about the right wing media. She explains why Trump has not been exonerated, how the latest in this scandal is causing MAGA to crack up, what all this reveals about supposed Trump-MAGA hatred of “elites,” and what the prospects are for genuine accountability. 

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Donald Trump has the midterms on his mind. A few days ago he erupted in a wild tirade on Truth Social, raging about voter fraud and voter ID while urging Republicans to make them central in the elections. He’s now pinned this rant to the top of his feed. Over the last 24 hours, he’s been on a tear, elevating half a dozen other tweets on these topics. By “warning” that Republicans must centralize voter fraud, he’s actually telling them to engage in mass voter suppression or perish. He has good reason to panic: One new poll has his approval at 38 percent. Another survey puts Democrats ahead in the House ballot matchup by six points. And polling averages find Trump’s approval on immigration, his “good” issue, at abysmal lows. We talked to Lakshya Jain, head of political data for The Argument. He explains why the numbers are even worse for Trump if you dig into the details, particularly on the economy; why it’s so unusual that Trump is tanking on two GOP issues, the economy and immigration; and why that is creating unexpected opportunities for Democrats. 

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In today’s episode, we talk to Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey about the latest developments in his city. Donald Trump and border czar Tom Homan have said they’re winding down ICE’s occupation, and Frey tells us there are some positive signs in this regard. But Frey also discusses how ICE violence has been directed from the very top, shares new details about the enormous and lasting damage it did to the city, and explains how the extraordinary solidarity between ordinary people there is enabling Minneapolis to emerge from this dark period unbroken and unbowed. “The people here are tough as hell,” Frey tells us, adding that the city feels “pride” at “what we are overcoming.” 

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White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt went full North Korea cult propagandist on Fox News, gushing that the ICE crackdown in Minneapolis has been a “resounding success.” Never mind that two Americans were murdered, violent civil conflict has reigned, and Trump’s approval has cratered. Leavitt also undercut her own spin by describing all arrested by ICE as “criminals” and insisting the operation is “targeted”—revealing she can’t tell the truth about its targeting of noncriminals because it’s so widely hated. She was further undermined by the shocking news that two ICE agents lied about an incident leading to the shooting of an immigrant, a reminder that this entire fiasco has been perpetually awash in lawless horror. We talked to Democratic messaging strategist Anat Shenker-Osorio, who explains how that shooting wrecks White House spin, why Trump’s propaganda narratives are collapsing at a deep level, why he’s in an unusually weak position, and what Democrats can do with their own narratives to seize the moment. 

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Donald Trump’s losses are mounting. His border czar just announced a large drawdown of federal agents in Minnesota after protests turned public opinion. Job creation during Trump’s first year was worse than previously known. The country is losing manufacturing jobs. Trump is a weak and failing president—and there are now signs that Democrats are acting like it. But couldn’t they do more to seize the moment? Yes! The New Republic has a special issue online right now that’s full of pieces laying out the way forward. Today’s guest is TNR editor Michael Tomasky, author of the lead piece explaining how Democrats can become more aggressive and effective. We discuss the true nature of Trump’s weakness, why Democrats face a crossroads rivaling the New Deal and Civil Rights eras, and how that offers them uncommon challenges and opportunities. We also discuss Emily Cooke’s writeup of our poll of rank-and-file Democrats, as well as pieces by Alex Shephard, Perry Bacon, and your faithful podcast host.

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President Trump is tacitly threatening to interfere in the 2026 elections. He’s urged Republicans to “nationalize” them and recently said he regrets not seizing voting machines in 2020. Last month the FBI seized ballot boxes in Fulton County, Georgia as part of some sort of criminal investigation that remains murky. Now it’s being reported that this FBI move originated with claims from a well-known election denier that have been widely debunked. This raises serious worries that Trump could direct the FBI to seize 2026 midterm ballot boxes based on a similarly spurious rationale. We talked to Lauren Groh-Wargo, head of the voting rights group Fair Fight Action. She explains who this election denier is, decodes the latest revelations about the FBI’s action in Georgia, walks through how Trump could attempt to disrupt the 2026 midterm vote count, and lays out ways that local officials—and the rest of us—can start preparing to fight back. 

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Donald Trump’s top trade adviser, Peter Navarro, just offered an extraordinary statement on Fox News. He admitted that we should lower our expectations for job creation because of Trump’s success in removing immigrants from the country. In essence, Navarro suggested it was a good thing to have lower jobs numbers provided the (supposed) cause is higher deportations, and confirmed that removing immigrants isn’t creating jobs for Americans. We think this provides an opening to explore what MAGA economics is really trying to accomplish. So we talked to economist Paul Krugman, author of an illuminating piece on his excellent Substack that takes apart Trump’s immigration agenda. He explains how Navarro wrecked a core scam that Trump has long peddled about immigrants, how this undermines the most basic story MAGA tells about the economy, and how Democrats can seize on the failure of that story to tell a better one of their own. 

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Donald Trump was initially angry over the decision to feature Bad Bunny in the Super Bowl halftime show. But then, as he performed, Trump’s rage worsened: In a furious rant, he claimed the show was a “slap in the face” to our country, that Bad Bunny’s use of Spanish means “nobody understands a word this guy is saying,” and that the show was “absolutely terrible.” Other MAGA figures fumed that the show was a betrayal of America. Meanwhile, CNN polling guru Harry Enten details in a new analysis that Trump is hemorrhaging support from his working class base. What if those two developments—Trump-MAGA fury at the show and Trump bleeding his base—are related? We talked to Adrian Carrasquillo, author of The Bulwark’s excellent newsletter “Huddled Masses.” We discuss how Trump-MAGA are in a bubble about Bad Bunny’s show, how most Americans likely viewed it, why Trump’s ICE raids and hostility to immigrants are costing him working class support, and how that wrecks various myths about 2024. 

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