Breaking News from Pod Save America - Seriously, What The HELL Is Donald Trump Doing?

Episode Date: August 26, 2026

Jon and Tommy react to Trump picking a fight with Canada and claiming that Dolly Parton "really liked" him. They also share their favorite clips of exploding robots from China's "Robot Olympics." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Standard message and data rates may apply. Trump joined right-wing conspiracy nut Glenn Beck today to talk about America's ongoing war with our mortal enemy. Let's watch. They are one of the worst countries in the world to deal with the administration, too, is terrible. Yes, yes, yes, yes. But they have taken advantage of the United States for many decades, actually. They charge tariffs that are unbelievable, like on milk, 400 percent. And on like, and I just said, we're taking them on. And I took it. And I took them on at the beginning, but we had so many other things to do because the country is a mess. But I said, we're going to take them on, we're going to stop it.

And you saw the Lake Ontario. You know, people thought I was kidding. Maybe I wasn't. Because the last one you saw was the Gulf of Mexico, the Gulf of America. I know. But now we have a Gulf and we have a lake, okay? You know, it's very simple. For listeners, Trump was talking about Canada.

Canada, not Iran, not North Korea. North Korea, pumping out nukes. missiles. The Russians are slaughtering people in Ukraine, but Canada is one of the worst countries to deal with. And he really got him with that Lake Ontario to Lake America bit. Dude, the chortling there, it's so embarrassing. Like, the Gulf of America stuff, like, I feel like it made news. People talked about it. Like some of like the fratty megatotypes were the whole whole Gulf of Ontario. It's not whatever, Lake America, it's not working. Did you see that, that New York Times story about how the trade talks fell apart and their turn as out it was.

was Howard Nutlick. Yeah, everyone hates Howard Loving. They did it. Yeah, he said. He intervened last minute and the whole thing fell apart. Yeah, unfortunately, because the Commerce Department has jurisdiction over a lot of the tariffs on, like, steel and aluminum and autos and stuff. So he came in late and decided to upend everything. By the way, there's a poll out.

76% of Canadian voters support Prime Minister Carney's decision to walk away from the trade talk. So the politics for him are pretty clear. Politics for Trump are not great if it hurts the economy going into the midterms. Yeah, I haven't seen a poll yet, but I think when you combine renaming a Great Lake, remember people didn't really like the Gulf of America thing, that wasn't very popular, when you combine that with a trade war, which is also unpopular, Donald Trump's tariffs are the most unpopular economic policy has, with war with our neighbor to the north. I would bet that's highly unpopular. We are quite lucky here in America to have two peaceful land borders. There's a lot of

countries that don't have that. He gets to deal with, you know, people invading you or firing missiles at you and stuff. You know, Trump just went into these negotiations and wanted to kill off auto manufacturing in Canada. Howard Lutnik was on the record saying he wanted to move the auto manufacturing business from Canada down to the U.S. So I can imagine they didn't seem as an even an honest broker here. They screwed around with some of these French language requirements in Canada. That really is like kind of a third rail political thing for them. The Trump administration wanted Canada to get rid of by Canadian programs that were put in place in response to U.S. tariffs without getting rid of the tariffs. Imagine if we were negotiating with someone and they're like, here's the thing you can't say buy America.

No more by America. No more by America. We don't want that. You know, why? Because it hurts Mr. Trump's feelings. Is that why? And essentially, the U.S. wanted Canada to abide by certain U.S. trade policy is when they negotiated their own bilateral deals, especially with respect to steel. There's just this, like, clear sovereignty question for Carney that I think really made it easy for him to walk away.

I also think what made it easy for him to walk away is, like, Trump is weak because Trump has now bluffed and then walked back, hence tacoed after his bluff in like, you know, 10 different times, 100 different times with like five different countries, whether it's Iran, whether it's other trade deals, whether it's Greenland, whether it's whatever else. And so I'm sure Carney's thinking like, yeah, well, I want to. not stand up to Trump because he's probably going to back down anyway when the pain hits? Yeah, long term, this could be very bad for Canada. It's going to hurt them no matter what because a bunch of businesses will see these tariffs come into place and the uncertainty alone will lead to less investment, less growth, all the bad things you don't want when you're leading an economy. It will also hurt us.

There will be, again, boycotts of U.S. products in Canada that's hurt, you know, booze manufacturers and stuff. Kentucky bourbon, for example. there's a lot less travel from Canada to the U.S. A lot less tourism. That's hurting states like Maine, another swing state. But yeah, I think you're right. I mean, Carney knows that Trump has the midterms coming up.

He's likely to lose. He's likely to be weakened. Maybe he'll just want this over with. Or he'll get bored and move on. You never know. People are just over it all over the world. They're like, this guy, you know, I know everyone capitulated at the beginning. The Times had a good piece on this too.

Whether it's universities, media companies, other countries, now allies, they're all kind of looking at Trump lately, and they're like, I'm not going to worry about this. Throw a punch, guys. By the way, John, Glenn Beck has 1.8 million YouTube subscribers. We have fewer. If you want to help us beat Glenn Beck, please subscribe to Pod Save America here on YouTube. We're trying to get people good factual information about politics from a progressive perspective

while Glenn Beck is having conversations with AI founding fathers. I didn't even know Glenn Beck was still around. Yeah. I don't even know he had, was still around, let alone having 1.8 million. and subscribers. What are we, what are you all doing, people? Remember when Glenn Beck kind of like tried to break good and did a big piece about how he regretted being a total limitic and now he's back on his bullshit? I said a couple seconds. Anyway, subscribe to POTSafe America here on YouTube. It's, it helps a lot,

helps us get people good information and also it is free. Uh, Trump also had this to say to back about the death of country singing legend, Dolly Parton. We, we all knew her so well. I knew a little bit. She wasn't a very political person. She really liked me. I will tell you. But she also wanted to stay very, you know, she was up in the opinion, you know, the 50% who needs to lose? I don't think it's 50. I think it's probably 20% of the fans, okay, not 50. But she was a great person and she was just a nice person.

You know, I like her a lot. And I thought it was a natural thing to lower the flags. So Trump says Dolly Parton liked him. Glenn Beck thought it was a joke. But then Trump proceeded like it wasn't a joke. Yeah, like even Glenn Beck couldn't keep a straight face. Right. Realizing that no matter who you talk about, no matter who has died, no matter what happens in the world, the President of the United States, his brain tries to find the fastest route to make it about him.

Yeah. Everything. No matter, it's just like a fun game. It's about me. Oh, yeah, Dali Parton died. Well, let me try to see. Let me try to summon some empathy here or think about someone. No, it's just about me.

Nah. Just about me. That's it. Like, God, no, I hit on her at 54 one time in 1986. Fuck. Nine to five was out. He is the opposite of Dolly Parton. Yeah, he really is the opposite of Dolly Parton.

I don't know. A lot of people have very strong takes about Dolly Parton. We all grew up with her very much as a part of the cultural zeitgeist. I can't say I listened to a ton of her music. I wouldn't pretend otherwise. My parents loved that Christmas album, the Dolly Parton Christmas album. We listened to it every Christmas. There you go.

That was our Dolly Part memory. I feel like for me it was more seeing her on film and TV and thinking she was funny. I mean, she was a big cultural figure when we were growing up. We were growing up. She was like a big deal. She was one of like, you know, a couple dozen people that were like really, really famous. I think part of it was like she had a tough upbringing. She grew up in a one bedroom house with 12 kids.

That's pretty remarkable. But she was also just, I mean, she was something you don't hear a lot now, which is like funny and self-deprecating. A couple of famous lines. It costs a lot of money to look this cheap. That's great. I'm not offended by all the dumb blonde jokes because I know I'm not dumb. I also know I'm not a blonde. That's a great line.

I think she said she tried to emulate the one. from her hometown that was dismissed and described as cheap and then just owned it. And that was like kind of where her look came from. She was also like an unbelievably talented singer and songwriter and then later helped us create the COVID vaccine. So a lot of reasons like her. Did you see what M&M posted? No.

Marshall Mathers? Of course not. I know. I know. He posts this letter that Dolly Parton sent him that, you know, he had never revealed before when he was inducted into the Hall of Fame. and she was like, hey, I really wanted to see you at the show. Couldn't see you.

But I just wanted you to know that, like, I love everything that you do and I feel some connection to you. And you should be really proud of everything you've done. And hopefully someday we'll meet. But it's just like what you do for people is really wonderful. And like, imagine just sitting down and just writing a letter to someone that you haven't even known in your dolly part. And just to, like, reach out and say you like their stuff. That song where you talk about killing and disqualing. member and Kim, your partner spoke to me.

I wanted to kill Jolene. Now, I mean, they both had like hard scrabble lives and grew up poor. And I think I imagine they connected on that level. And again, just wild. She did help fund the COVID vaccine, which is how Bill Gates got all those chips into us. And for that, we're all grateful. Pod Save America Breaking News is brought to you by ZipRecruiter. With everyday interactions becoming increasingly impersonal.

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That's zip recruiter. com slash crooked. ZipRecruiter, meet your match on ZipRecruiter. Switching gears, our friend and Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Said went on Fox News earlier this week and he sparred with host Jesse Waters. If you don't know who Jesse Waters is, imagine you find a rolled-up $100 bill at a frat party and it becomes a human and gets a show. right here's a jesse head to say about abdul after the interview that's good stuff uh in this case i

thought the interview was fine the he was thought it was compelling he's a confident guy kind of a guy's guy's guy but i don't trust him you know i like him i don't want to like him i like him for some stupid reason get a room you too huh yeah i want to fuck them it's the tight shirts it's the tight black shirts, the v-neck. Jesse's, like, been kind of more honest about his political views lately in ways that probably don't make, like, the Fox News brass to help, like, happy. And just, like, I think right before that, he, uh, referring to the interview with Abdul, Waters said, I guess everyone now knows I'm circumcised.

Usually when you look at the headlines and if the headline is all about your penis, you've done something very wrong. I guess it's like legitimately funny from Jesse Waters. I think Jesse's whole thing is he is, um, He's in on the game, right? Like, he knows that what his act is an act. And so every once in a while, he breaks the fourth wall. And that doesn't make him, like, a great person because obviously he's, you know, kind of putting on a show for everyone.

But it's like it brings you some humor. Yeah. Also, I think Abdul went on the show. I think Jesse probably appreciates that. He took a risk and came on as a candidate. They sparred for, like, 25 minutes. It was good TV. Yeah.

Fox News. We have Fox News on our office. They played clips from it. all day long the next couple of days. So, you know, it worked for Jesse too. Yeah, it's like, look, is an interview where two people are yelling at each other on cable for a remote interview?

Is that, like, it's good TV? Is it, like, the best possible delivery device for your message? No. No, but I think what Abdul did for at least some of Fox's viewers, is probably what he did for Jesse, which is like, yeah, maybe I still don't like the guy. I don't agree with him, but, like, it's kind of cool.

Seems like a guy's guy's seems good. Like the image that people probably have, a lot of people on the right have of Abdul right now is like scary Muslim terrorist was going to instill shirah. And he just didn't come off like that. No, he's like kind of a, it's a pugilistic bro. Yeah. And if you ask, if you asked Abdul's campaign, like what do you think of the interview? They're like, look, Democrats want a fighter. And what happens when you do an interview like this is it gets clipped and shared on social media and a bunch of Democrats who otherwise don't know who you are, see clips of you fighting.

And that's what they want in the Trump era. All right, let's talk about Donald Trump in this upcoming midterm convention because I think it's safe to assume that Donald Trump hates us, John, but we also know that he hates his own voters and supporters more. Far more. Which is why Republicans are hosting a midterm convention September 9th through 10th in Dallas. It's so good. Who doesn't want to sweat through your Brooks Brothers suit just before commemorating 9-11? Here's R&C chairman Joe Gruters, who is a real. person who I'd never heard of before in my life and had to Google. Couldn't name the IRNC chair

if my life depended on it. Remember what was like Reince, prebus and people we'd heard? And it was Michael Wattley who's now losing to Roy Cooper. Oh yeah, good call. So this is a Gruters. And then a clip from Fox News is Peter Ducey talking about what to expect from this event. Listen, it's going to be a Trumpo Paloza. It's going to be spectacular star-studded event. Obviously, headlined by the best showman that's ever lived in Donald J. Trump. An R&C official tells us a primetime showcase for President Trump's success, candidates, and causes that have propelled the 2026 midterms to unprecedented focus. There is also going to be a commemoration of the 25th anniversary of 9-11 and a section about Charlie Kirk's legacy mobilizing young voters for Republicans. Night one, 53 items or speakers, night two, 56 items or speakers, 109 pieces to this puzzle.

in all. As the courts sort out whether or not the Trump administration is going to, in fact, limit some mail-in ballots, something they argue will cut down on voter fraud. As blue states argue, only states can do that. President Trump and Vice President Vanceau, we are told we'll be there both nights. Can you have the goddamn leaf blower during the live? I was going to say, is that a vacuum in the back, right? The construction site? Yeah, probably it. The White House is a construction site. Do you see that they said they're working on the ballroom 20 hours a day, seven days a week? Can you Imagine how annoying that is?

I know I'm overly focused on this part of it, but like, if I was working in that building, I would be fucking, like, it's stressful enough. Yeah. Maybe not for them. Who knows what they're on. Yeah. Well, they're on, they got to, you know, get their bets in on Kalshi. That's true. On who we'll do Maduro.

So, ninth and 10th in Dallas, each of those nights, first night, Seahawks, Pats, NFL kickoff game. Come on. Yeah. Prime time. And then on the 10th. On the 10th, the Rams and the 49ers are going to play their game in Melbourne, Australia. Oh, that's right. That's right, because the opening day for the Patriots is a Wednesday.

Yeah, so they are counter-programming the NFL not just one night but two nights. Dude, also, it's like the Trump appears both nights, but he's keynotes the second one. And then J.D. Vance keynotes the first night, which obviously we know will suck. And Trump is just going to like keynote maug him anyway by showing up at both. 109 total items or appearances. I don't know what an item is. I assume like a taped package. Just a lot of propaganda.

But like there's this lengthy breakdown of all the like boring topics they want to hit. They're really just the Trump vanity project. This is a gift to the Democratic Party. If I like it's it's an in kind contribution. It really is. And so Puck did a story on this. And one Republican campaign strategist said that this whole thing has turned into a shit show that few lawmakers want to go. And apparently the National Republican Campaign Committee is asking House members to cough up

$25,000. That's it. For themselves and a guest to attend the convention. And that's just the cheap rate. The higher tier is $100,000 from lawmakers. What do you think you get for $100,000, like a nicer lanyard? You get like extra time with J.D. Vans. Access to Trump. The campaign strategy just said, nobody understands why we're doing a midterm convention. It's just another show that Trump's going to put on to remind the voters that he's sitting there. And maybe, Maybe they don't want to be reminded of that. That's so good. Yikes.

I mean, just so folks know, like, the, yes, the normal conventions once every four years are just like big four or five day propaganda PR events, but also party business gets on. Like, you formally nominate the president, like, you do a bunch of things that matter. There's no party business at this. Zero. It is just a show. Also, dovetails with this story in the Atlantic where, you know, we've all been wondering what Trump is going to do with the $400 million he has in his super PAC.

Apparently, he told his team during a recent meeting to create a series of ads focused on him, Donald Trump, and his record. So that's the last thing you want to hear if you're in a swing district and a Republican. I just love that his advisors tell him in this Oval Office meeting that the Atlantic writes about that the poor polling that he's seeing. It reflects the fact that voters just don't know about his accomplishments. Where have I heard that before? Where have I heard that before? And how did that go? We've lived that.

We saw that with the Biden administration. And so all they need to do is just run a few ads talking about Donald Trump's accomplishments starring Donald Trump. And things are just going to turn around. It's amazing. I can't. Another in-kind contribution. What voters want to hear is that their frustration and concerns about high gas prices and inflation are not real. And really, they feel great.

That's what they want to hear. I just want some advertising to tell me how happy I am with the economy. Trump is also going. a step further. Remember one of his many gaffes about the midterms, he was like, oh, people aren't mad at me. They're mad at Republicans. Yes, yes, yes. So, Matt Van Swoll, who's just some

Twitter guy. Dude, that guy's yelled at me a few times. Me too. Just a weirdo. Yeah, he like pretends he used to be a, like, a Democrat to listen to Pod Save America. I feel like he's in like Sweden or something, too. That could be. Anyway, so he posted this. I don't think the, the GOP fully grasp how badly they are fucking up

right now. Fact. No true accountability. No true mass deportations. No meaningful decrease in the deficit. Lots of very long vacations and no work. I'm very worried the GOP is sleepwalking toward a midterm reckoning. They don't see coming. People are pissed off that they voted Trump into office. And then the GOP continues to slow walk every reform people want.

Guess who truthed this? Guess who truthed this? Donnie Trump. Donnie Trump. He did. He pasted this tweet into a post and truthed it. And Matt got swole. Can I tell you my favorite part of this post?

Yes. when he says, why haven't we defunded the Taliban yet? What he's talking about, dude? What are he talking about? I've honestly no idea what he's talking about. I'm pretty sure we have sanctioned the hell out of the Taliban cut off. I mean, USAID no longer exists. I don't know how you defund the Taliban.

The Republican President of the United States is posting, is reposting the GOP is sleepwalking toward a midterm reckoning they don't see coming. Incredible. Absolutely. Absolutely. As he's about to hold it, and then he's about to force them to pony up for a midterm convention, and he's going to run a bunch of ads about himself. Do you think Natalie Harp had him repost this one and they didn't read it again all the way to the end? Maybe, maybe after all the Natalie stuff, she's like not.

Off her game? Yeah, maybe she's off her game. She's been jogging behind the golf card for far too long. She has not slept in weeks. I'm so sorry, sir, that I did not eat. All right. So this past week, in addition to talking about politics, we here at Cricket Media have been both terrified and delighted. by all the clips coming out of the world humanoid robot games in Beijing.

This is basically the Olympics for robots. These little fuckers have been running track. They're playing tennis. They're jumping. They're leaping around obstacles in training for the day when they'll exterminate all of us. A lot of it is unbelievably impressive. Like this humanoid robot beat Usain Bolt's record in the 100 meter dash. The whole event is to showcase for China's robotics dominance and showcase they have.

but there have also been a lot of hilarious clips coming out of it. So John and I brought some of our favorites. I'm going to start, then I'll kick it to you. This category is just basically robots trying to navigate objects. Let's watch. This is they're going to take some of the table of some. There it goes. Up, up, up, up, up.

Oh, he's not. Oh, he stayed on. That's pretty good. That's pretty good there. And it comes the back flip. Oh, no. Oh, no. Watch.

Oh, no. Face plans. That's a tough one. That's a tough one. Right. The part where the legs start going really fast to try out to fall, that's a genuinely hilarious, like, Prat Fall, not prop comedy, like physical comedy. It's amazing.

Eat your heart out, Charlie Chaplin or, like, whoever. Is, we're allowed. laughing is like China has humanoid robots that are like you know racing around and we're incredible we can't we can't we don't do shit we're like we're like all of our weapons are gone because we use them in Iran no I'm just gonna take edibles and watch stuff like this while they attack us and then this category is just robots racing okay they go they're going really fast they're moving they're moving and that one dies Fire!

Technology is awesome. It's so... I changed my mind. It's awesome. Before long, I'm going to be sitting here with a robot friend. We're going to be able to do double the content. It would probably be better than me, if we're being honest. Same.

All right, is it my turn? I'm going to do one. Please. All right, this is a problem because it's sort of a... Keep your eye on not just the race. But what's going on in the foreground? Okay. What's this guy doing?

He wants to... to see. Number five is. Not a lot. That's it. That's it. Aw. Sad little.

And then my last one isn't actually robots, but speaking of people wanting to fuck robots, I have one more clip here. Oh, no. Is this Elijah? What is this kid doing in the store? Is he dancing? Is he? Oh.

Oh, that's a dance move. You must be single, sir. I love the idea of doing that in the Best Buy. Like, what the fuck? You know, it's so funny. I'm glad you picked that because I sent one to Elijah that we didn't end up using. You know how, like, so you know when they do like kind of animated movies, they put people in those suits and they cover you with like ping pong balls? Yeah, yeah.

There was a dude. Just doing like all ping motions to prepare for the robot sex future. I assume that was staged. Yeah, probably. But we all hope it wasn't. I hope it wasn't. I hope it wasn't. I would like to know what he was watching.

And I hope that guy ran as fast as the robots to get away from the cops. Because they were coming. Well, that's all we got. That's all we got. Thank you for watching this episode of Pod Save America here on YouTube. Subscribe. Please subscribe. Please.

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