Mike and Jay open with a look at the latest in the “Will he or won’t he?” saga of President Trump’s tariffs, They agree that this sort of uncertainty is bad for markets, and Mike points out that tariffs are not just a tax, but a regressive tax. Jay observes that the US used to derive nearly all of its income through tariffs, but that was a very different time. They also look at the legal justification for the tariffs, which they both agree is at least somewhat shaky.

Next is a discussion of the big Trump rally that was his address to a joint session of Congress. There wasn’t much substance, but plenty of lies and people behaving badly.

They close by considering a UK listener's view that under President Trump, the United States is no longer either strong or right, but that American under Trump is weak and venal.

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Trey talks with Katherine Stewart author of the new book: Money, Lies and God. Katherine is a journalist and author whose work focuses on intersection of religion, politics and policy, and the threat the intersection of religion and politics has on democratic institutions.

Topics Trey and Katherine discuss include:

- the origins of Christian Nationalism

- why abortion became a rightwing position

- the various groups that have become the Christian right

- why school issues have become a key cultural issue in the U.S.

Katherine Stewart on X

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In this U.S. Constitution episode, Trey and Ken look at the ties between prohibition and women's suffrage, the unique policy nature of the 18th Amendment, and the unusual path to ratification in Ohio.

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Trey and Ken open the episode with the breaking chaos between President Zelenskyy, President Trump, and Vice-President Vance. Trey opened the segment by stating that his assumption of a foreign policy difference between Putin and President Trump was flawed. The hosts agreed that the moment was a turning point in the break between the U.S. and Europe. 

Next, they moved to the House's budget bill. Ken was surprised that only Representative Massie defected. Trey believes Democrats will end up taking the blame if they shut the government down. Ken agrees historically but believes some specifics make Democrats' strategy different in this budget cycle. 

They close with a look at DOGE and Musk's demand that all federal employees report the five things they did in the last week. Ken takes a deep legal look at worker protection, and Trey argues that it gives true efforts to reign in government a bad name.

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Mike and Jay open with a discussion of the Trump administration’s attempt to fire Special Counsel Hampton Dellinger. So far, the courts have sided with Dellinger against the administration, but Jay thinks there’s a reasonable chance that the Supreme Court might end up giving the administration what it wants, and further advancing the “Unitary Executive” view of the presidency. Mike agrees that Jay may be right as a matter of law, but feels that the Trump administration continues to push executive power to dangerous levels.

Next they take a look at DOGE. While it sure seems like Elon Musk is in charge of it, the White House says Musk isn’t even a DOGE employee. What’s going on here, and can Musk legally do what he’s doing without Senate confirmation? Mike thinks not, while Jay believes that Musk is simply a presidential advisor, not someone in a top policy position who would require Senate confirmation.

They close with a look back at the first 10 years of The Politics Guys.

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Mike and Jay open this 10th Anniversary episode of The Politics Guys with a discussion of the Trump administration’s seeming turn toward Russia and away from Ukraine. They discuss Trump’s many lies about the war, including that Ukraine started it (which Trump later walked back), that Zelensky is a dictator with a four percent approval rating, the amount of money the US has given to Ukraine, and more. They also consider the larger foreign policy and global order implications of the deals Trump is hoping to make with Ukraine and with Russia. In the end, both Mike and Jay are horribly disappointed by this turn of events.

Then they turn to the domestic scene – a Trump executive order intended to give the president more control over so-called independent agencies. Mike is no fan, but Jay argues that as the president, Donald Trump has the right to do more or less what he wants with executive branch agencies, including firing “independent” agency heads because they disagree with him on policy.

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Mike welcomes back George Mason University economist Bryan Caplan to talk about his latest collection, Self Help is Like a Vaccine: Essays on Living Better.

Topics Mike & Bryan discuss include:

- obese people and anti-vaxxers

- Bryan’s life of appeasement

- the value of betting on politics

- poverty and substance abuse

- reasons to spend more time in a bubble

- quality vs quantity in converts

Bryan’s Substack: Bet on It

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Listener support helps make The Politics Guys possible. You can support us or change your level of support at patreon.com/politicsguys or politicsguys.com/support. On Venmo we’re @PoliticsGuys.

The Politics Guys is part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what's broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.

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