Tara Palmeri sits down with producer Chris Fenton — dubbed "Hollywood's MAGA whisperer" — to unpack how an entire industry is learning to speak Donald Trump's language. With LA hemorrhaging jobs (50,000 lost in recent years) and production fleeing to the UK, Canada, and 80-plus countries offering national tax incentives, Hollywood is pushing for a federal film incentive to bring shoots back to America. The catch: getting it passed runs through a president who rewards allies and punishes critics. Fenton lays out the economics — state-by-state rebates, why Marvel left Georgia for Britain, and why the real beneficiaries are middle-class "below the line" crews in red states, not the Hollywood elite the public loves to hate. But Tara presses on the harder question lurking underneath the talking points: where does lobbying end and self-censorship begin? She and Fenton spar over whether studios are quietly shelving politically risky projects to avoid angering Trump, the payouts ABC and CBS have made, the firing of late-night hosts, and the broadcast networks afraid of losing their licenses. Fenton concedes the biggest tell of all: a film about Jeffrey Epstein that actually examined Donald Trump's role would "never get a full release" from a major studio. Tara argues it's the biggest corruption story of our time and 80% of the country would watch it — yet Hollywood won't touch it. Along the way: the China problem (why James Bond never has a Chinese villain), Steve Bannon's surprising openness to the idea, Fenton's own story of being shut out of left-leaning platforms, and his new faith-tinged comedy "Bad Counselors."

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tara Palmeri is joined by attorney Michael Popok of Legal AF to break down the explosive new reporting from Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan — an excerpt from their book "Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump" that pulls back the curtain on the White House's "summer of Epstein." While the administration publicly dismissed the Epstein story as a hoax and a "Democratic witch hunt," Haberman and Swan reveal that Trump's top officials were repeatedly huddling in the Situation Room — the SCIF normally reserved for national security crises — trying to contain the fallout. Tara and Michael walk through who was in the room (Todd Blanche, Susie Wiles, Kash Patel, JD Vance) and who wasn't (Trump himself, left outside the door; Bondi and Patel phoning in), and unpack the verbatim quotes that suggest someone was taking meticulous notes or recording — and the mole hunt that will follow. They get into Blanche's stunning plan to interview a convicted child sex trafficker, Ghislaine Maxwell, and dangle a pardon; Pam Bondi's chaotic binder rollout; the sworn FBI 302 alleging abuse by Trump; the redacted emails connecting Trump and Epstein through their lawyers; and why JD Vance, eyeing 2028, was the lone voice for transparency. Michael lays out the realistic odds of impeachment for Todd Blanche and others, while Tara connects the dots to the polling collapse, the "wag the dog" timing of the Iran escalation, and Michael Wolff's tapes and the missing contents of Epstein's safe. As Haberman and Swan write: Trump could break institutions and bend the world's richest men to his will — "but he could not, it turned out, make Jeffrey Epstein disappear."

Thanks to Ground News for sponsoring the show! Only by using my link, you can get 40% off the unlimited access Vantage plan! Go to groundnews.com/tara!

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tara Palmeri joins Ari Melber on MSNBC to break down the House Oversight Committee's interview with Lesley Groff — Jeffrey Epstein's longtime assistant of 18 years, who booked girls, arranged their hotels, paid them over $1,000 for so-called "massages," and told them the "protocol" of being around Epstein. Now Groff claims she had no idea what was going on. Tara isn't buying it. Named as one of four unindicted co-conspirators in Epstein's 2008 non-prosecution agreement, Groff kept working for him even after his conviction for soliciting a minor, and was named again as a potential co-conspirator in 2019. Yet she was allowed to testify before Congress behind closed doors and not under oath — free to deny everything without repercussion. Alongside civil rights attorney Nancy Erika Smith, Tara argues that the wrong people are being dragged to the Hill: it's the women who facilitated the abuse being called, while the powerful men accused of it — Leon Black, Jes Staley, Prince Andrew, Harvey Weinstein, all named in U.S. Attorney Jeff Berman's barely-covered 86-page 2019 prosecution memo — walk free. The conversation digs into why none of Epstein's enablers were ever held accountable, the role pardon politics may be playing, and why the biggest scandal of our time is still unfolding behind closed doors.

0:00 – Tara on Ari Melber: who is Lesley Groff, Epstein's assistant of 18 years

1:41 – The 86-page 2019 indictment memo from U.S. Attorney Jeff Berman that's gone uncovered

3:02 – A non-prosecution agreement built on the claim she "didn't know anything"

5:09 – Tara on Jeff Berman's 2019 prosecution memo and the named co-conspirators

7:04 – Prosecutors focused on the women, not the men the victims accused

9:45 – Pizzagate, the believers, and the victims of the lie

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tara Palmeri is one of the most feared and fearless reporters covering power and politics. She has 15 years of experience covering national politics and foreign affairs. She was formerly a White House Correspondent for ABC News where she covered the first Trump administration. She was the chief National Correspondent for POLITICO during the Biden administration. She has been a political analyst for CNBC, CBS and CNN. She started her career as a columnist for the Washington Examiner and then went on to report for the New York Post. She was a foreign correspondent for POLITICO Europe, where she covered international affairs, including Brexit. She hosted the Ringer's political podcast "Somebody's Gotta Win" and wrote a column for Puck. Tara also hosted two acclaimed podcasts on Jeffrey Epstein, "Broken: Jeffrey Epstein" and "Power: The Maxwells." Tara currently hosts the Tara Palmeri Show.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Democrats say corruption will be a central issue in the midterms.
Congressman Jason Crow joins me to discuss his new End Corruption Caucus and the party’s plan to target Trump’s ethics controversies.
The bigger question: Why should voters believe Democrats this time? Will the party confront corruption only on the other side—or look in the mirror as well?

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Trump administration's controversial $1.776 billion Anti-Weaponization Fund is officially dead—and Tara Palmeri was live as Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche faced intense questioning on Capitol Hill. After weeks of GOP backlash, Blanche confirmed the Justice Department is abandoning the program, marking a major political retreat for the administration. Tara breaks down the key moments from the hearing, what forced the reversal, and whether Blanche is becoming the fall guy for one of Trump's most controversial initiatives.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tara Palmeri sits down with Michael LaRosa, former spokesperson for First Lady Jill Biden and Biden campaign insider, for a no-holds-barred conversation about the Jill Biden memoir disaster, the Democratic Party's credibility crisis, and why no one around the Bidens will tell them the truth. LaRosa — who says he cares about "Doctor B" but paid a price for speaking out about Biden's health — breaks down why the book tour's opening salvo has been met with hostility from Democrats, how Jill's claim that she thought Biden was having a stroke during the debate contradicts everything the campaign said at the time, and why the same advisers who got the Bidens into this mess are still running the show. They dig into Jill Biden's unprecedented influence inside the White House — how her chief of staff controlled the schedule, the residence staff, the Secret Service, and access to the president — the DNC's embarrassing autopsy report that Ken Martin can't even stand behind, why Democrats still can't articulate what they're for, and the uncomfortable truth about affordability: Democrats didn't care about it under Biden but suddenly do under Trump. Plus: why only 16 House seats are actually competitive in 2026, whether Democrats can take back the House and Senate, and LaRosa's sharp distinction that "Republicans use power as a tool — Democrats use power as a reward."

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tara Palmeri gets the first account of what happened behind closed doors during Pam Bondi's transcribed interview before the House Oversight Committee from Congressman James Walkinshaw (D-VA), who was in the room. Walkinshaw reveals that Bondi repeatedly threw acting Attorney General Todd Blanche under the bus — blaming him for the botched redactions that exposed 70-plus Epstein survivors' identities, for removing the Howard Lutnick photo from the files (claiming it was AI-generated), and for decisions she said she wasn't involved in. But the biggest bombshell: when asked point-blank whether President Trump knew about Epstein's crimes before they became public, Bondi didn't say no — she said "I don't know." Walkinshaw and Palmeri dig into why Harmeet Dhillon accompanied Bondi as a DOJ minder to block embarrassing questions, Bondi's shifting explanations for her "I've got the list on my desk" claim, why the administration is using "privilege" to withhold files in apparent violation of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, the FBI whistleblower who said agents were directed to flag mentions of Trump in the files, and whether Bondi was actually fired because Trump got frustrated with the continued media attention. Plus: the Lutnick island photo cover-up, why no one has investigated Les Wexner or Leon Black, and what a future Democratic Congress plans to do about it.

0:00 – Intro: Congressman Walkinshaw was in the room for Pam Bondi's closed-door interview

4:49 – Bondi blames Todd Blanche for exposing survivors' identities and the Lutnick photo cover-up

9:06 – "Everybody knew about Epstein" — did Trump know about the crimes?

14:00 – FBI agents directed to flag mentions of Trump in the Epstein files

19:04 – The "client list" lie, privilege loophole, and what a future Congress will d

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

E. Jean Carroll accused Donald Trump of r**e, beat him in court, and won tens of millions in damages. Now Trump’s DOJ is reportedly investigating Carroll over testimony tied to Reid Hoffman-backed legal funding. I’m going LIVE with Legal AF’s Michael Popok to break down the timing, politics, and legitimacy of the probe.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tara Palmeri investigates how Grindr — the gay hookup app born in West Hollywood — has quietly become an unexpected political force in Trump's Washington. During White House Correspondents' Dinner weekend, the hottest invite in town wasn't hosted by a media company — it was hosted by Grindr. And yet almost no elected Republican politicians were willing to show their face, even as the app experienced a massive usage spike during the Republican National Convention and CPAC. Palmeri traces this story back to her own reporting 16 years ago, when she walked through the Capitol, the White House, and the Pentagon with the app open and watched users light up all around her. She reveals Grindr's growing $1.6 million lobbying operation run by Joe Hack — a longtime Republican operative — their work with the State Department to save PEPFAR funding, their bipartisan fundraising strategy targeting Susan Collins and Tammy Baldwin, and the enormous gap between public political performance and private institutional reality in Washington. Plus: why the app was forced to divest from Chinese ownership over national security concerns, why Melania Trump carries symbolic weight among gay Republicans, and how Grindr's party may have been less a publicity stunt and more a coming-out party for a new kind of influence operation.

4:28 – Grindr's $1.6M lobbying operation and its Republican operative running it

8:30 – The gap between public performance and private reality in Trump's Washington

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices