Breaking News from Pod Save America - Trump, Vance and Jeffries Engage In Deeply Weird Shutdown Meme War

Episode Date: October 2, 2025

As the government shutdown drags on, Donald Trump and JD Vance continue push out bizarre AI videos. Plus, the latest developments in the Epstein story. Tommy Vietor and Dan Pfeiffer react. Get 50% off your new system. Visit https://simplisafe.com/crooked. There’s no safe like SimpliSafe® Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Tens of thousands of federal workers are being furloughed. Important government functions have ground to a halt. And here is the messaging about it all coming out of the White House. Nobody likes Democrats anymore. We have no voters left because of all of our woke trans bullshit. Not even black people want to vote for us anymore. Even Latinos hate us. Okay, that was obviously AI generated.

Some Lincoln-Douglas debate-level stuff. The next vote to reopen the government will be on Friday, October 3rd. Then the Senate is off for the weekend and back on Monday. In the interim, Russ Vote, the OMB director announced, quote, the cancellation of almost $8 billion in green energy funding to 14 Democratic run and two Republican-run states and the freezing of two massive infrastructure projects in New York City worth $18 billion combined. Russ vote may also reportedly begin mass firings of government workers in a day or two.

Dan, how do you think the shutdown is going politically for Democrats at this moment in any sign of an endgame? There's no sign of an end game. I mean, there is some reporting that there are some, Democrats, we're talking to some Republicans briefly on the Senate floor, but about possibly maybe an extension, like a clean CR, like a clean extension of funding for like seven to 10 days, while there's some negotiations on health care. That doesn't seem to be going anywhere. It's not with the White House wants.

It doesn't seem to what the Democratic leadership wants. And so we are where we are right now. I think it is, I think the Republicans think it's going very well for them. And I'm not entirely sure they're right at this point at least. You know, you have a new poll out today from the Washington Post, which shows. by a pretty large margin, voters think that Trump and the congressional Republicans are responsible for the shutdown. And they actually, it's interesting how the Post does these polls because it's a fully text poll. And they will include sometimes what people respond with from like the verbiage.

And a lot of the people who think that Republicans are responsible is pretty simple. It's because they control all of government. Right. And so I think Democrats' hands a little bit stronger than I think a lot of people, including the Democrats, think it is. Well, let's debate. Yeah, the poll found that 47 percent of voters think Trump and Republicans in Congress. are mainly responsible for the government shutdown. 30% blame the Democrats, 23% have no idea.

There's this video of Senator Bernie Sanders and AOC, like kind of walking through D.C. where they're talking about the shutdown vote. It's gotten a lot of traction on social media. And it's a great explanation of the health care fight that is ostensibly the reason for this whole thing. The gist is that starting in October, tens of millions of Americans are going to get notices

that their health insurance premiums are going to go up. some by as much as 75% or even double. That is because a bunch of tax credits passed in 2021 during the Biden administration that increased health care subsidies and expanded the number of people who can get them are about to expire. So Democrats are demanding that any government funding bill extend those subsidies and they're also demanding that Trump roll back all the cuts to Medicare that were in the big, beautiful bill that passed earlier this year,

which, let's be honest, that last part is just not going to happen. But kind of complicating this messaging for Democrats, Dan, is that there's a lot of Democrats who are arguing, like, we shouldn't fund the Trump government for any reason, given the ice raids, given the lawlessness. In other words, you know, like there's a lot of messaging about how this is bigger than just health care. And then, of course, Republicans are lying. They're saying Democrats are fighting to give health care to undocumented people. That leads to this, like, racist video that we just saw with Hakeem Jeffries in a sombrero or with a mustache or whatever. And that's drawing Democrats into this dumber fight about Trump's tweets and whether they're racist.

whether they're inappropriate, which is not the ground we want to be fighting on. We want to be fighting about health care, but it's easier for the press to cover dumb tweets than it is like complicated tax credit. So to me, it's a bit of a muddled mess. Yeah, I mean, it's a mess. These things are always a mess, right? I live through one. You were, you were in the White House when we had several near shutdowns. We saw this. We were podcasting together, as we have been for nearly a decade when Trump shut his own government down for more than a month. They're always messy. And I think that there is a lot to nitpick Democratic messaging around it. And so here are the things I would say the Democrats should be doing that aren't necessarily

happening. One, don't follow Trump down every rabbit hole. Like we do not have to have a big giant fight about AI videos. Two, stop worrying about the blame game. Right. There is so much of our messaging firepower right now was sensing. So Trump shut down. It's the, so we didn't shut it down.

They control government. You know, it's just that is an argument. you should just call up Jake Sherman to punchball, a couple people from Politico, and just have it with them specifically, as opposed to, it's not your message for the American people. It's a dumb message. Like from a purely strategic point of view, we're in the shutdown right now. We can debate as you have on the Tuesday pod, as John and I have on the Friday pod, as we've done in the various videos, whether health care was the right thing to have the shutdown over. But we're past that now. That's where we are.

We're shut down. And so now that we're in the shutdown, what the whole goal here is, from a legislative perspective, is to try to get these tax credits extended. From a political perspective, it is to use this moment where people are paying attention to show them that we are fighting to make their health care more affordable. They have not seen us fight for anything, let alone fight to lower their costs since this election. And so this is our chance to do it. So every time we're talking about anything else, whose fault the shutdown is,

who's negotiating, who's not negotiating, why videos are racist? You're missing your one best, perhaps last opportunity before the midterms, when people are paying attention to deliver a real message. Yeah, and I think my fear on the messaging is that Trump, because he has the bully pulpit and all these, you know, messengers out and he's got the conservative media ecosystem that he's just, he's running circles around Democrats right now when it comes to messaging. That's in part because, you know, he's frankly just very good at this.

He's very good at commanding attention. He's very good at doing two or three events in the Oval Office a day that turn into these like kind of unruly press conferences with friendly reporters and just dominate everything. It's also just a fact that the Democratic leadership does not have great messengers like Chuck Schumer is not great. Hakeem Jeffries has been, frankly, just not great in a lot of the interviews I've seen. They're trying, right? Like they're trying to fight digital fire with digital fire.

Actually, let's just watch the ways that Democrats are kind of getting into the meme game here. Here's a video from Hakeem Jeffries. The president's been posting some images of leader Jeffries and Sanders Schumer. I saw. You've said that you're interested in good faith negotiations with these leaders, But, you know, what message does that send? Is it helpful to post pictures of leader Jeffries and a sombrero if you're trying to have good faith talks with him? Oh, I think it's funny.

The president's joking and we're having a good time. You can negotiate in good faith while also poking a little bit of fun at some of the absurdities of the Democrats' positions and even, you know, poking some fun at the absurdity of the Democrats themselves. I mean, I'll tell Hakeem Jeffries right now, I make this solemn promise to you that if you help us reopen the government, the sombrero memes will stop. So look, like, I guess that's fine, but it's kind of just making J.D. Vance's point that, like, it is actually okay to kind of poke fun at the absurdities and, like, release. I mean, like, I guess my fear here, Dan, is that the only way voters are really going to turn on Trump is if they feel economic pain as a result of his policies. And the problem is we are the responsible party. Like, we actually don't want health care premiums to go up for people. And so we are fighting to bail Republicans out on an issue when no Republicans voted for these tax credits in the first place. And so there's some reports that, like, a bipartisan group, as you said, might be getting together to talk about an ACA fix. I doubt it'll be as part of the shutdown because they're all dug in now and they don't want to give

Democrats a policy win. But it's, you know, it's just a challenging setup. Can I listen to this conversation on the Tuesday pod? And I have a lot of thoughts here. Please. I 100% agree with you that in some sense, Republicans are about to do something really, really stupid and really political pain, politically painful. And we are trying to stop them from doing it.

Right. Like, they want to fuck over their own voters. And we're like, no, do not do. that. And they're like, stop trying to unfuck over our own voters. But a couple things. One, we are not, let's say we solve this problem. We help 15 million people, including people whose health insurance premiums could go up by $20,000 a year. Let's say we help those people. We will just have done a good thing. That, like, that's great. Like, we have, like, that we are in this to help people. And if we can do that, we should. Two, we're not going to have any shortage of

things to go after Donald Trump or Republicans on for having raised costs. Right. Costs are, people are pissed about it. No one is missing this. Right. And so that like, unless Trump is going to undo all the tariffs and somehow magically fix the inflation he's created with the tariffs by November, people are going to feel economic pain. More importantly, in long term, we have a huge stake, not just as former Obama people,

but as progressives in the Affordable Care Act working. And these tax subsidies went a long way to bring more people into the process, to make it more affordable people, to make it more sustainable over the long term. And so if we have a chance to fix that, we absolutely should. And I don't think it comes at a great political cost because I think they can pay a huge price for all the other things they did come election. Like they did not repeal the Affordable Care Act in 2018, but they still paid a giant price for it. The same thing can happen here. Yeah, look, I agree with you on all the policy merits here.

I just, I'm still sort of struggling. I feel like you're down, Tommy. I don't think we have a great hand. I don't think the messaging is clear. I don't think we have nimble messengers, you know, like Hakeemke and Jeffrey's office is doing. in live streams that are getting like 50 viewer like they're trying you know it's like the messaging piece of this has always been my biggest concern um and we have some great messengers like aOC is great brian shots chris murphy john osso frankly was was really great when we had him in here the

other day um and i want democrats to keep swinging i'm just like i'm a little worried we're getting we're getting worked right now and democrats and republicates are successfully lying and saying this is about democrats giving health care to undocumented people and that's that is bullshit but it's breaking through. I mean, this could end poorly. I'm going to stipulate. It absolutely can end poorly. It can end in a world where Democrats just concede five days from now without getting anything other than some fig leaf of a potential negotiation one day. That absolutely could happen. I think that the messaging feels worse to those of us who are in the bubble and seeing every day. Like, we're the ones who know that Trump is trolling us by playing the sombrero video on the White House briefing room TV is 24-7. Like, we know that. We are seeing

all the clips go around. And in some cases, because we're on Twitter and you guys bizarrely mainstream Fox all day along the office, you're seeing sort of the worst of the Democrats. I mean, you love the five. For most people out in the world, they're catching very little of this. Almost nothing. But the thing that I would just say is, if you look at Trump's numbers, he is a very, very bad messenger for the rest of the country, other than people who were already

on board with him. Like the people that he gained in, if you look at this from the New York Times, CNN poll, I read about this message box the other day. If you look at it, where Trump is bleeding support is with all the people he gained ground with in 2024. He is right now. LATO LATO voters.

Young voters. Like all the people who were like kind of Trump skeptic were like, yeah, maybe this guy could actually lower my cost and make my life a little bit better. But they were pissed and by them. Because he hasn't done it. And like we are treating this, I think, in our head. I think a lot of Democrats are, is if we are fighting right now the Trump who won the

2024 election, that's not the Trump we're fighting right now. Right now we are fighting the Trump who lost the 2018 midterms. His approval rating right now is the same number it was in polling, Gallup pulling the week before the midterms in 2018 when they lost 41 seats. Yeah. Your lips to God's ears, my friends. And of course. I'm just trying, like, you feel down.

It's an uncomfortable position for me to be the glass high person in any conversation. You hate this. I mean, and also we're over a year until the midterm elections. So there's just God. is what will happen in between now and then. This video is brought to you by Simply Safe home security. John, do you think SimplySafe's proactive protection is good enough that it could have stopped Joe Biden from stealing the 2020 election?

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Safe.com slash crooked. That's simplysafe.com slash crooked for 50% off. There's no safe like SimplySafe. Also, Dan, there was some other big news this week because for some reason, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnik decided to sound off on his theories about disgraced pedophile and close friend to Donald Trump, Jeffrey Epstein. Let's watch a clip of that. I mean, that's an incredible story that you could pick up that he was a pervert.

It's gross. That guy's gross. Right with my wife. The guy's gross. This was not, oh, the deep nuance of Howard Lutnik. This guy is gross. Right. So how come Bill Gates and all these other people could hang around him and not see what you saw?

Or did they see it and ignore it? No, they participated. Right. That's what his MO was. Get a massage, get a massage. And what happened in that massage room, I assume was on video. This guy was the greatest blackmailer ever. So that seems to beg the question why Trump didn't immediately.

pick up and you get the ick from Jeffrey Epstein in the way Lutnik did. And in bigger picture, I mean, these comments from Lutnik completely contradict Trump's Justice Department. They completely contradict the FBI, which in July said there was, quote, no credible evidence that Epstein blackmailed people or had a client list. Also, FBI director Cash Patel has said that there's no credible evidence that Epstein trafficked women to other people beside himself. That is contradicted by the accounts from many of Epstein's victims, but it is the official position from the Trump FBI. Dan, what the hell is Howard Lutnik doing here? Why is he sounding off on Jeffrey Epstein to a New York Post podcast?

And do you think this is enough to make MAGA voters care again? It seems they've kind of moved on. I think that there's one thing I know what Howard Lutkin, he is a man of great integrity. And I think he's whistleblowing here. He's just like he has decided he can't take any more. He must let the world know. Honestly, I have no idea. I think he is a moron.

He's probably right. I don't know if he's right about. the specific deals cut over with the videos, but he is saying what everyone has thought and what everyone in the MAGA world thought before. Is this going to make MAGA voters care again? I don't know. We're still at the moment where people may start caring again is when the House has to vote on this because eventually at some point they do have to seat the newly elected Democratic congresswoman from Arizona. And then when you do that, they will be enough votes for the discharge position and there will be a vote on this. And Speaker Johnson is just refusing to seat her

to avoid this vote, it seems. Yes. And it's honestly, we want this vote to happen after the shutdown anyway. So that's a good point. And then final thing, Dan, we just wanted to quickly explain to all our viewers today what you can get if you give Donald Trump a $400 million bribe in the form of a luxury jet. We learned this on Wednesday, the White House released an executive voter that announces a new security guarantee for Qatar, the country. It says, quote, the United States shall regard any armed attack on the territory, sovereignty, or critical infrastructure of the state of Qatar as a threat to the peace and security of the United States. And it also

says that in the event of such an attack, the United States shall take all lawful and appropriate measures, including a potential military, in quotes, response. This sounds a lot like an Article 5, the Article 5 provision in the NATO charter that says an attack upon one ally is an attack upon all. Quick reminder that last month, Israel bombed Doha, the capital of Qatar. So I guess under this plan, we'd be at war with Israel right now. Dan, does America first mean American troops dying to defend the sovereignty and critical infrastructure of Qatar? Apparently it does, and it also means a $20 billion bailout for Argentina and a bunch of sweetheart deals for Chinese companies and the Chinese,

and a bunch of really sweetheart deals with Middle East-based sovereign wealth funds and real estate funds. It's also worth noting that it's not just the jet. Like Donald Trump's not so cheap that he would use U.S. military just to pay for this jet. he also has a $5 billion deal for a golf club in Qatar that is backed by a government-backed real estate fund. So what he's doing is he's using military, U.S. military lives, U.S. treasure to protect his golf club in the event of an attack. Yes.

So you're right. I guess I undercounted the amount of the bribe. And for that, I apologize to the Qatar government. So please apologize to Trump, Kushner, and the entire family. Trump, Don Jr., everybody. Yeah, America First is now the U.S. going to war to defend Qatar. As you mentioned, the U.S. providing a $20 billion bank bailout to Argentina. I guess we're going to reinvade and reoccupy Afghanistan because Trump wants Bogum Air Base. Don't forget Venezuela. We're at a...

Marco Rubio's pushing for regime change in Venezuela. Donald Trump is going to govern the Gaza Strip for the foreseeable future under this peace plan he put forward on Monday if that goes through. So America First, baby. Just messing around everywhere. Good stuff. Okay. That is it for this Pod Save America YouTube exclusive. Thank you for watching. Please subscribe to Pod Save America here on YouTube. As you may have noticed when you search for political news and the YouTube algorithm, you get right-wing crap. And when you subscribe to Pod Save America, you help us surface good information in the algorithm. So please do. Also, it's free.