Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar - 6/29/26: US & Iran Trade Strikes, Trump 250th Fair Flops, Zohran Freezes Rent In NYC

Episode Date: June 29, 2026

Krystal and Emily discuss US & Iran trade strikes, Trump 250th State Fair flops, Zohran freezes rent in NYC. Julie Gonzales: https://www.julieforcolorado.com/ Melat Kiros: https://www.kirosforco.com/    To become a Breaking Points Premium Member and watch/listen to the show AD FREE, uncut and 1 hour early visit: www.breakingpoints.com    Merch Store: https://shop.breakingpoints.com/   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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version of the newsletter, which has a lot of the good stuff as well. For premium subscribers, this will come along with your show links. So you will get everything in one. It's not going to clutter your inbox. It's just going to be additional information in the normal email that you get. So let us know what you guys think. You know, we're really excited about this. This is something we've been working on, figuring out the workflow, how it's going to look, what kind of information we're going to include for quite a while now. This is something we've been thinking about. So we hope that you enjoy it. We're really proud of what the product is looking like right now.

Yeah, it's really exciting. And everyone's been working very hard on it. One of the very cool things about it, Crystal, is that I think when you listen to a podcast, sometimes there are all these big articles that are mentioned. We'll cover some of these, like, massive pieces that dive deep into different stories and kind of dissect the reporting. But now you get all the links, like, in one place every single day. So if you want to kind of review what we were talking about, read it yourself, look at the

primary sources. It's a one-stop shop, basically. Exactly. So breaking points.com to get the free version or sign up to become a premium member so you get the whole thing and the show uncut in your inbox every day. There is a lot of show to get to you today, a lot of stuff going on with regard to Iran, including yet another market-timed cessation of violence, which is the period we're in right now. But we will tell you the whole story of what happened unfolded over the weekend. Needless to say, the deal here very much on thin ice, we have some really quite noteworthy scenes from the Great American Fair that we've can review with you as well as a very lengthy Donald Trump's greed about all of his various beautification projects as this is increasingly Emily what he's like focused on apparently. Like this is how he spends his days on these D.C. renovation projects. Yeah, he's paying very close attention to the news coverage clearly. And we have, we put one of his true socials into a word count calculator. That's the kind of thing that we can do

here. That's right. So deep analysis. Just wait. Just wait. We got to update you on what's going on in New York City. Zora and Mom Donnie with a huge win. Freezing the rent also had a pretty noteworthy interview yesterday on the Sunday shows. We wanted to show you some of the highlights of. We have two candidates joining us this morning. Both are in Colorado. Both are challenging Democratic incumbents from the left, one for the House, one for the Senate, both of them in range of victory. We've actually spoken with both of them before. We're going to have them on together to talk about how they see their races and the impact of what is going on there. We also want to take a look at the extreme weather.

is gripping the globe in particular in Europe, their worst heat wave in history. And we are barely into summer. It is not even July yet, people. So very dire situation unfolding for the globe. And I have a monologue today. It's been a while, but I was moved to do a little debunking, little analysis of Gavin Newsom, who is at the same time, Emily, that he is opposing a well-tax in his own state, something that actually has a chance of passing. He is posturing like he support some sort of a billionaire tax, notably not a wealth tax, but at the federal level. So a lot of very interesting dynamics to dig into there, both political and in terms of the policy. Yes, if Saga were here, he would say greasy Gavin. That's maybe his favorite Trump nickname.

I think Kyle came up with that, to be fair. And he got to Trump somehow? Hasn't Trump used it? I don't know, has he? Oh, interesting. All right. Well, fact check those. It may be one of those. It's such a good on the nose nickname that it just emerged from the ether from a variety of places. It does feel like one of those. It occurred in nature. And everyone just sort of discovered it. Like any type of fruit or plant. Yeah. It was not invented. It was just discovered. It came upon. We came upon it as a society. Like Crystal just ran down. This is a big show. So let's get started. All right. Let's get to it. We've got some wild scenes that were unfolding this weekend in a variety of places. Let's put these images up on the screen. This was actually a rock near the American image.

in the green zone, you see this military operation going on. There were tanks in the streets. It's still kind of unclear what exactly was going on here. The best that I've seen is that some sort of pro-Iran, probably more Shia-aligned Iranian officials, were arrested, were accused of corruption, but I think it is indicative of the sort of chaos and tumult that has unfolded in the region. As I mentioned before, we had renewed hot hostilities between Iran and the U.S. Let's go ahead and put a four up on the screen. This is the newest news. As I mentioned before, U.S. and Iran agree to halt strikes and meet this week. So this just happened, Emily. Last night, just before the markets opened, I mean, how many times have we done this dance

where over the weekend when the markets are closed, you had first, it started with there was a dispute over what's going on with the Strait of Hormuz. There were U.S. strikes. Iran hit a couple of ships that were transiting in a route that they did not approve of. Then the U.S. retaliated, quite significantly, put a five up on the screen here. Some of the details here. U.S. launches fresh strikes in retaliation for Iranian attack on a tanker ship. We had some classic Trump threats. We can put a six up on the screen. He says, United States aircraft just struck Iranian missile and drone storage locations and coastal radar sites for violating the ceasefire agreement. Again, very possible they will never learn.

There may come a point when we are no longer able to be reasonable and will be forced to militarily complete the job that we very successfully started. If that happens, the Islamic Republic of Iran will no longer exist. Chris, can we pause on that point? Just first. Go ahead. Because he says something important here, which is that we will complete the job we very successfully started. He is now

selling all of these deals as very much a completed job, but implying in that post, he would need to do all kinds of strikes to complete job. To actually finish the job. Yes. And so the implication is that the job has not been finished. That is true. That is a good reading

of that. And of course, even just the threats that are in that, you know, Iran will cease to exist or whatever he says, that is in direct contradiction to the memo of understanding that they signed, which is supposed to include the fact, okay, we're not going to go around threatening each other. And he did not abide by that for even literally one day after the memo of understanding was signed. In terms of Iran,

we can put the next element up on the screen. This is another Trump post. He says that they shot at least four one-way attack drones at ships transversing the street of Hormuz. One of the drones solidly hit the upper deck of a large and very expensive cargo carrying ship. Damage was done. The ship was able to proceed on its way. We knocked down three other drones. Obviously, this is a foolish violation of our ceasefire agreement. Iran retaliated A-9, put this up on the screen with strikes in both Kuwait and Bahrain, hitting some of the bases there that have already been hit. No loss of life.

Some damage did occur. Apparently, you know, we have very little visibility into how much damage and how damage these bases are to begin with. More and more information has come out that some were quite heavily damaged, even potentially obliterated. Our troops had to be moved away from them. during the peak of hostilities. In fact, I suspect that they have not really returned, which is probably why there was no loss of life.

So in any case, ship struck hot disagreements over the Strait of Hormuz. Obviously, Emily, that is going to continue to be a key sticking point. There was a question whether negotiations were going to proceed this week or not. J.D. Vance, you said this morning, is headed to Qatar. They have moved the negotiations out of Switzerland after all of this unfolded. And now they have changed the topic that they're going to focus on to start with. They're going to start, instead of beginning with the nuclear file, they're going to start with what's going on with the Strait of Hormuz, because this is obviously an area that continues

to lead to hot conflict. Yeah, and to your point, the agreement came down yesterday. No surprise there. Once again, another market time reaction. Features are up right now as we are taping this. Also, no big surprise on that front. But the Times is confirming that Vance plans to head to Qatar and then on top of the... that the Iranians are not confirming they will be in Qatar, which is another pattern that we have

seen played out so far many, many times. So we'll see what comes of it tomorrow. But obviously, them agreeing on Sunday to stop firing the straight tells you pretty much exactly why that was timed as it was. Yeah, it's interesting, too, that Iran goes along with these market manipulations. Or are they? I mean, it seems like they somewhat are, at least. We don't have them coming out and saying, you know, we don't agree to this. You know, they've kept their rhetoric. to a minimum and seem to accept that, okay, we had our tit for tat, now we're going to go back to the negotiating table appears to be what's happening. So I don't know. Yeah, no, in some sense, if they don't show up tomorrow, I mean, I guess to your point,

if they're agreeing to something that allows Trump to open the markets and say he's, you know, achieved another breakthrough in the negotiations and talk tough. Like, he clearly wants to, I mean, we have some video, actually, that we're going to play. But like, for a Mark Levin, And this was wonderful news. And Trump is now back on his side. And you get to see Trump being, like, playing the tough guy that they want him to play. And then he gets that. Like, he gets the flex.

And so for the Iranians, it's like, well, if he needs to do that in order for us to keep something on the table, then maybe logically, that's how it all plays out. But I don't know. It is odd. You can see things in two ways. Number one, the fact that they, both parties, seemed interested in limiting the, you know, hostilities here and both were interested in, okay, at the end of the day, let's get back to the negotiating table and fine, we'll let you do your typical market manipulation. It's an indication that both sides really do want to come up with some deal that's going to be workable, you know, for a run. It would be great for them to get sanctions relief, to be able to charge their fee for the straight-of-form moves, to have some, to be. treated more like a sort of normal nation in the world. And the possibility of that being held down

is a very powerful motivation, even though Jeremy and Dropside have reported that there are schisms in the country over whether or not this is the right direction. So you always have to remember, they have their own domestic political situation that they also have to manage. And they have different ideological views within their government as well as we do. Now, on our side, you know, Trump is ultimately the decider. And so even if you do have, different ideological points of view, what he says is going to go. But even contained within Trump are multitudes, you know, depending on the day. Depending on the day. So that hardly creates a stable situation. So on the other hand, so those are the forces that are sort of driving towards,

okay, we'll have some sort of a resolution. Trump very clearly is terrified of going back to full war and hostilities. He said as much, he told us that there was going to be bedlam if the war continued for several more weeks. He said that he was terrified of being like Herbert Hoover, causing some great economic crisis. That is clearly hanging over his head, and he's deeply worried about that, midterms coming up, et cetera, et cetera. On the other hand, this continued fighting over the Strait of Hormuz is not nothing. And this is before we even get into the Israel-Lebanon piece, which is another completely separate and very significant, perhaps the most significant issue that will tackle in just a second. But if we just focus,

on the Strait of Formuz, you know, with continued targeting of ships there, how many ships are going to feel comfortable passing? There's clearly a difference of viewpoint in terms of what channels they're supposed to use to navigate and who's supposed to coordinate. These are very dicey and sticky issues that they're going to attempt to tackle now, and that's without mentioning the nuclear issue, and that's without mentioning, as I said before, Israel and Lebanon. So there are some very, very challenging issues here that remain to be worked out. Yeah, I mean, I think honestly, the best prediction to the extent that you can have a prediction is that this is going to look very similar to what happened in Gaza, that you get it on the back burner, which is exactly

Trump's plan, is to put it from a kind of publicity PR perspective towards the, like, page two of the papers as the negotiations are worked out. And then it just kind of disappears and he's able to say, but like even if we're looking here, the New York Times system incomplete, but data nonetheless on the ships that are coming through the Strait of Hormuz, yesterday it was less then it looks like it was between 20 and 30. It has gotten June 24th was the high over 70 ships. Even that is significantly below the estimated pre-war average. Like it's not even coming anywhere close right now.

So he has a long way to go. But the conversation that we were having about the Strait of Hormuz, Jeremy's reporting on that, it's at the center of the domestic political question in Iran as how they are leveraging the Strait of Hormuz in the negotiation deals. Pride is like love. You feel it in your heart. IR. Radio, Canada's number one streaming app for radio and podcasts, including IHart Pride Canada,

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As part of my Cultura Podcast Network On the Iheart Radio app Apple Podcasts Or wherever you get your podcasts Ben Shapiro reacting to the bombing over the weekend. He had a great weekend, Emily. Well, this is A-8.

Let's roll Ben Shapiro's reaction to Trump bombing Iran. This is part of a shift that is happening away from the interpretation of this not very good MOU in sort of J.D. Vans' fashion and toward a much more Marco Rubio-like foreign policy. The idea is that we're not going to keep overlooking Iranian violence, particularly in the Strait of Hormuz. That's great. It's excellent. And the reason is excellent is because you need the credible threat of use of force in order to get the Iranians to even abide by basic terms of agreements. And when you add what just happened in the Strait of Hormuz, two, the move that was made by Secretary of State Rubio at the behest of President Trump. In this deal between Israel and Lebanon, you're starting to see the beginning of a good foreign policy emerged once again in the Middle East.

A, says Secretary of Rubio, the governments of Israel and Lebanon made a bold decision to agree to a framework that builds a realistic path out of endless conflict. This agreement establishes a clear and structured process to restore Lebanon's sovereignty, disarm Chisbalah, and dismantle its terrorist infrastructure and enable Israel to return to its borders once that threat to its citizens is removed. Now, again, this is great, because what this means is two solid moves in favor of a Middle East that is not built around Iranian power. It is built around limiting and destroying Iran's forward terrorist capacity. So a couple of things there, Crystal, first.

You have Shapiro doing the move where he's completely. pairing the Vance and Rubio foreign policy, you all interviewed Maggie Haberman and John Swan on Friday show. Worth remembering, of course, they reported in that big New York Times piece around the beginning of the war that both Vance and Rubio were against it, that Rubio privately was saying it was his preference not to go to war at that moment. So it's always interesting to hear that continue to be invoked. But also, I think what you just heard is that Shapiro wants a very different version of the MOU, right? He said very bad MOU. And that's kind of exactly along the lines of what I think ultimately happens is that it falls apart, but it does so in much less high profile fashion. And that's the, if you're Mark Levin, if you're Ben Shapiro, if you're firmly in the like pro-Israel camp of this, that's kind of what you want to see.

Yeah. The contours that originally came out be gradually changed. Right. Yeah, exactly. Well, first we just have to pause and note how, I mean, the genuine happiness coming off of that man over a return to bombing. is worth taking note of. Quote, Trump is back. Trump is back.

Ben Shapir is very happy. I'm sure this morning he's less happy now that there's, you know, back to talks and potential ceasefire negotiations. But the joy that people like him and Mark Levin get from an American bombing campaign is something I really cannot relate to. He talks about there, though,

this piece with Israel and Lebanon, which is extremely, extremely significant. and of all the potential stumbling blocks, and I think this is part of why he's so happy, of all the potential stumbling blocks that could cause this whole thing to fall apart, this new, there was this new supposed agreement between the U.S. and Lebanon's prime minister

and Israel that did not include the significant political player in Lebanon, Hezbollah, which people have to remember is not only a fighting force, they have representatives in government. In fact, the Speaker of the Lebanese Parliament was very upset by this deal being struck. It has all kinds of provisions in it that really undermine Lebanese sovereignty. So, for example, they're not allowed to pursue any sort of legal action against Israelis for war crimes that they have been committing. And as a result of this deal, there were actually put A-11 up on the screen.

there were actually protests that broke out in Beirut with some, you know, significant scenes. There were all these motorcycle groups that occupied the roads. There were some fires that were set. There was some, you know, some genuine upset and protest over this deal that was struck. We can put a 10 up on the screen. This is the Barack Ravid version of what happened here. The U.S. asked Israel for two changes in order to secure the deal, including Israeli, withdrawal from a village in southern Lebanon currently under Israeli occupation. Clear statement that

this would mark the beginning of a broader process of redeployment out of Lebanon. But notably, just to be clear, we asked for them to leave this one particular village, but put a 13 up on the screen. There was a long list of villages that Lebanese citizens still cannot return to and have been, you know, expelled from. And yes, there's some language in here about, oh, Israel should start to withdraw in general, but nothing to fully compel them to do that. Netanyahu 813 is very happy with how all of this went down. He said that Iran and Hezbollah have no role in Lebanon under the deal and Israel can maintain their security zone. That is diplomatic speak here for occupation. So his view and what he's selling to the public in Israel in a press conference is that this

framework accord with Lebanon, allows them to stay in Lebanon, occupying southern Lebanon indefinitely. So in any case, this is, you know, this is obviously going to be a major problem for Iran. They've been quite consistent, Emily, from the beginning, that there is no peace deal without including Lebanon. There is upset for the public. There is a possibility, certainly, of even a potential civil war. This, again, is something that the Ben Shapirs of the world would have no problem with. And I think part of his delight is not just the return to bombing over the weekend, but the seeds of the destruction of this entire deal being planted through this mechanism.

Yeah, I think that's right. And he basically said that in the clip that we rolled. He started with the bombing and pivoted directly to Lebanon immediately afterwards. So I think that's absolutely correct. And I think it's probably another sign. Again, we saw this over and over again with the Gaza deal. This is playing out so similarly to how that paid out. But what's interesting about that is it really did fade to the background of the media cycle. And I think that's what Trump knows. Well, here's the problem, though, is that the global economy does not depend on Gaza. Right. Yeah. No, absolutely. And so Iran, I think you're right that that may be what he's hoping for. It's probably why he's now moving towards separating to the extent that he possibly can, Lebanon and the Iran deal, which the Iranians know they don't want. But that's, I mean, that would make sense from his perspective how he thinks this could play out. But as long as ships and their insurers do not feel that things are all good to go in the Strait of Hormuz, the economic clock is going to continue to tick. So all of those

calamitous outcomes that Trump was so concerned about that brought him to what is by, you know, any reasonable measure of a very humiliating a memo of understanding and state of affairs where basically the U.S. has to acknowledge the world that we lost this war. It was the economic calamity that brought us to that point. All of those pieces continue maybe at a slightly slower pace, but continue to ramp up the pressure. You know, where strategic petroleum reserve is reaching bottom of the barrel, there's only so much that China is going to be able to save us. You know, they really curtailed their imports of oil and gas. That's part of how we were able to get to this point. And so if you continue to have a situation where it's unstable and you do not have the Strait of Hormuz

open in the way that it was before, then it's going to be very hard to keep Iran on the back burner forever. It's different from Gaza in that regard. I mean, that's why you can unfortunately kick Gaza off the front pages and get people to pay attention to other things. But Iran has demonstrated they have this powerful economic weapon and that's something that's hard to push in the background. Totally. It's sort of in the same way I think he saw Venezuela and got this hubris about Iran based on that. It's not that it's necessarily an accurate reading of the situation, but I think it fueled his sense of kind of arrogance about what would be able to be accomplished. And if it's not clear from everything we've just run down,

nobody is out of the woods on this. This is not really a ceasefire, obviously. We've seen that pretty clearly over the last couple of weeks. But even the MOU itself is on enormously shaky ground. Whether anything, I mean, yes, they signed the points and all of that, but whether the 60-day nuclear conversation is even able to happen in this context, they can keep having the meetings. They can keep going to Qatar.

They can keep going to Switzerland if they end up back. there, but it doesn't really mean much unless ships are able to keep going through the straight of Hormuz. And so far, we haven't seen that. That is exactly right. But to your point, I think Trump, he doesn't really want to have to deal with this anymore. He has other things on his mind, Emily. Well, and he doesn't want to keep hearing the candidates that are actually campaigning and

trying to keep their seats chirping at him about gas prices. So he wants to get that out of the way. And to your point, Crystal, focus on the beautiful celebration of America's 200. 50th birthday. Boy, do we have some clips for you. Listen. And you're there. For heart-wrenching

knockouts. The world's biggest stage. And breathtaking triumph. 2026 FIFA World Cup. The knockout stage. Every match. Every moment. Listen on TSN Radio. Join the globe. On the road to the July 19th final. 2026 FIFA World Cup. Stream it online.

on TSN Radio, available on I Heart Radio. Hey, I'm Hoda Kotby, host of the podcast, Joy 101 with Hoda Kotby. Okay, if you know me, you know this. I'm always searching for inspiration, for support, and useful tools to help maximize joy. So this podcast lets us uncover all of that together. We're going to have these meaningful conversations with the world's most fascinating people, Like when actress Olivia Munn shared how she overcame fierce health challenges that she never saw coming. I've gone through breast cancer and then helped my mother through breast cancer, and that was more difficult.

There's a lot of people who understand postpartner depression. I was not prepared for postpartum anxiety. Olympic champ Sean Johnson revealed why she had no choice but to be a gymnast. There was something about gymnastics that was intoxicating to me. It's given me a belief that we all have one of those treasures inside of us. We just have to find it. Listen to Joy 101 with Hoda Kotby on the IHeart Radio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. My first guest is Paris Hilton, Shakira, Luke and Yerrin, Samira and Gracie. I'm so excited for it. On the bouncy bed. You have surprises? Many surprises.

Welcome to Sweet 305, where the group chat comes to life. What a f***. It's like a form of saying like, Oh, my God, oh my best Amiga, oh, my brother. What a... Look, never I've ever been

with nobody. Except with my my children, my children, my husband. Uff! Uff! That's incredible!

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Listen to Sweet 305 with Lele Pons as part of my culture podcast network on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Fourth of July is right around the corner, and celebrations here in Washington, D.C. are off. Donald Trump's Great American Fair, Great American State Fair, I should say, is now officially open. And the early scenes could be better from his perspective. Let's roll some of the clips from the National Mall. Remember the military parade that was like really pathetic?

It's very much that coded. Yeah, so you see here a smattering of people. This is actually interesting. So this has been going pretty viral. I'll talk about it in just one moment, but if you saw the Israeli flag, we'll finish that. In just a second, just download that into your mind. Yep, we'll be there in just a second. But here's what it's looked like.

This is pretty consistent across the last weekend, obviously the last weekend before July 4th weekend. And there have been all kinds, I think at one point the power went out and all the ice cream melted. So, yeah, there have been all kinds of problems. and not huge crowds that may change over the course of the week, but so far just really a smattering of people. That image from inside the tent has been going mega-viral of the Israeli flag and the American flag together under this big tent on the National Mall. You saw the big baptism pool there.

I will say, that is a tent that is always on the National Mall. They have some type of permanent permit. It's called David's tent. And I actually don't know much about it. How do you get a permanent permit? I don't know. It's actually really odd. Like, it's always been there.

for the last. Always sent for when are we talking? Probably the last like five to ten years. It's been pretty consistently there. So people have said, oh, it must be part of the state fair because the Great American State Fair because it's like an official tent. It's always there.

The Grand Platner administration is going to clean this up. Yeah, I don't think Plattenor would stand for that permanent permit on the national mall. But yes, if you've seen the pictures going viral. Now, that doesn't preclude Israeli flags being in other parts of the Great American State Fair. I haven't seen it yet. Not impossible. Wouldn't rule it out. Yeah, for sure. I bet if you walk around and see enough of the attendees, you got to have somebody there. You know how they have those shirts that have like the American flag and the Israeli flag put together? I bet you could find one of those. I'm sure you could. It seems like it should be there. Yeah. I mean, it, like I said, it reminds very much of the military parade, which I was all like, oh my God, this is going to be some powerful fascist display. And then it was the most embarrassing thing you've ever seen. by Coinbase. Oh, my God. And then the squeaky, like, old tanks rolling down the street and then just

like someone walking holding this tiny drone, it was really pathetic. And this very much has that energy to it. And here's the thing is, look, I mean, I'm not the biggest, like, rah, ra, America kind of a gal. But there are some things that are special about America that, you know, at our best and the ideals that I really do value and treasure. And the idea of being. a country where we could all come together and celebrate the 250th anniversary, we just feel so far from that. Trump, of course, had to make it all about himself and personalize it the way he does everything, makes it political.

You had certain states that didn't even send any official sort of information or set up their booths officially. Even Josh Shapiro in Pennsylvania. Yes, that's right. And North Carolina, which Josh Stein is the Democrat as the government, of North Carolina, they didn't send an official, like, thing for their little state area. And so some private organizations took control of it, and they put up a freaking Confederate flag. We have this. This is B3. Let's rule this in the background.

Let's just pause for a second that at this nation's 250th anniversary are going to put up the flag of a bunch of traders who tried to break up the country, a bunch of immoral slaveholding traitors who tried to destroy the country. And so this became a whole thing. The Washington Post wrote a piece about it. They ultimately were forced to take it down. The fact that this was put up at all is just so embarrassing and egregious. But yeah, it's a sign, I would say, of where we are right now as a nation.

It's a sign putting Trump aside. And yes, of course, he makes it political and makes it about himself and also executes everything incredibly incompetently and just see the reflecting pool for another trivial exam. of this, but this is an empire that's in decline, that people do not feel like things are great and I'm ready to go out and cheer for America. And this is part of, frankly, what Trump ran on. I mean, when he ran on American carnage, that was an acknowledgement of how people were starting to feel about this country. And now we have this defeat in a war against Iran. It is becoming abundantly clear that our position in the world is not what it used to be. So it's sort of appropriate

that this is what this lackluster, pathetic, incompetent, cheap, slap-together display is what we are using to celebrate the 250th anniversary. We have some numbers, actually, that we'll get to in just one moment on, just to put a finer point on the mood of the country that Crystal was laying out. But, yeah, I actually don't dislike the concept of, like, a great American state fair. I feel like you could actually do that in a way. I've been to many wonderful state fairs. I'm a fan of a state fair.

Yes, yes. And like to have, you know, if we were in a different places, as a country to have every state represented would be actually I think you could do that in a way that's pretty cool we'll see if the crowds pick up of the course of the week I doubt it it's gonna be so hot we crystal's doing a full meteorology breakdown

later in the show so stay tuned for that but yeah it's let's let's look at how Fox News handled it so they've set up a studio on the national mall this is something they've been doing more and more recently probably trying to like invigorate the image of cable news as podcasting kind of eats away at the audience a bit.

But this is B2. This is how Fox News handled it on a broadcast over the weekend. Happy early birthday, America. We're celebrating already at the great American State Fair. Man, we've got thousands of people celebrating this birthday with us, Tommy.

You and I had a chance to go out. We got to see some of the exhibits. I'm sure you got what I got, which was a lot of people going, hey, love to watch you on Fox. I hope a lot of them left them all, went home and turned on their TV. And they're watching this right now.

Thousands. Okay. It didn't really. It looked more like, hundreds in that video. Always hard to count these things. Let's put up the next element here before President Trump's highly-touted Great American State Fair got off to Ruff Start Wednesday night with NBC News, estimating only slightly over 1,000 attendees showed up for the opening rally on the National Mall. And, Crystal, as you were talking about the mood of the country,

it was making me think actually of Ronald Reagan, because Trump took the Reagan slogan about make America great again, repurposed it in 2016, and thought that he could have that influence on the mood of the country. Even though he was always very polarizing, the idea was that he spoke for some type of, to borrow Nixon imagery, silent majority that would be invigorated by his platform and that would unify. Everyone could sort of see finally the unheard people feeling more heard again, and this would have a rally around the flag effect.

And during the Reagan administration, I mean, by 1984, President Reagan ran, like, won in a landslide. And that actually did kind of happen. Like, whether you like or dislike Reagan, the mood of the country over the course of the 80s, whether we, like debating the policy is a different thing. But in that moment, that did happen. There was like a confidence that came back. Yes.

Morning in America, successful Reagan ad campaign. That is not happening for Donald Trump at all. At all. It's not happening for Donald Trump in one, like, it's actually going the opposite direction. So this is where you can see his frustration. building, building, building. He put out a true social post over the weekend. This is B5. It is a gargantuan post. This is the one we popped into a word count calculator. 600 words. I wonder if he's ever written anything longer than this. If you're not watching this,

you can barely see the text on the screen because it has to be so small. It begins, I just returned from a tour of various statues, monuments, fountains, and most importantly, an old and rundown golf course located through Washington, D.C., our nation's capital, almost all the statues, monuments, and fountains have been completely renovated and restored and are in after suffering years of graffiti abuse and vandalism, perfect shape. He goes on to say, I mean, everything is in here, golf courses, the course architect. He says it will be built through the Department of the Interior and designed to the highest standards of golf, but also in such a way that the general public will love it.

Thank you for your attention to this matter. Chris, I think, yeah, he's talking about East Potomac golf course, which if you haven't been to D.C., It's like a cheap, fun, local course. Like, it's actually, it has its own little charm to it. People are very worried that he's going to totally, like, upend that. It is a beautiful piece of land. I don't even know why I'm getting stuck in this conversation about the golf course. I was going to say, like, I could see it being, if you do it right,

like, I could see it being pretty cool because you have a view of the national mall. It's actually already kind of cool, though. I get why people are, again, I don't know why I'm talking about this. Yeah, well, I have never played golf there because I just took up golf relatively recently, But that area too is very popular with cyclists. Because there's like sort of like a loop you can do that's relatively long that doesn't have much traffic. And so in any case, he wants to change all of that.

But more to the point, how are you feel about the golf course and cyclists? This is what he spends his time on, like genuinely. And this was something else we got from Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, which is abundantly clear. Washington posted an analysis of what he talks about the most. And it's the ballroom. Like the ballroom, the Arc de Trump, now the golf courses, the reflecting pool. These are the things that he is fixated on and genuinely spends his, he, this is the most powerful man on the planet.

He is the commander in chief. We are continuing like in this sort of like maybe we're in a war situation. There are a lot of big problems going on in the world. And he is fixated on the color of the reflecting pool. and the, you know, further gilding the White House and the ballroom and picking out the tile for the walkway, this is what he spends his time on. And it does make a sort of sense with him, given both that his background is developing, and he obviously has an interest in the fixtures of his buildings or whatever. Yeah. But also because he wants to leave this indelible mark on the world and specifically right now,

on D.C. so that when he is gone, people will have to remember that he was there. So so much of this term has been spent on these physical, you know, manifestations of his power. That's what he is trying to impress upon this city and upon the world. And to tie it in with the Iran war, which obviously vastly more consequential here, that is how he was persuaded to get us into this disastrous mess to start with because he wants to be. this world historic figure. This is what, again, Maggie Haberman, Jonathan Swan talked about.

He wants to shape the world in a way that is undeniable, that makes him consequential. I mean, he's already done that. He has done it. He has absolutely done it. And he would, I probably prefer, that at the end of all of that,

people go, and it was good that he did that. But if they go, and that was horrific, but he genuinely did change the world, he would rather have that than have just been a sort of unremarkable blip. And I think it's also part of it is he sees it as easier. Like it's easier for him

to come in and do landscaping in Washington, D.C., some of which is genuinely like the Fountain at Union Station looks beautiful. Just drove past this morning. Wonderful. Thank you. Mr. President. You voted for this. Yeah. No.

But anyway, it is like it looks good. But that allows him then, I think he sees this, is that allowing him to say, well, how could you possibly have a problem? with this beautiful restored fountain in Washington, D.C. How could you possibly have a problem with the beautification of Washington, D.C.?

And he thinks then it makes it look like he is doing work for the people and everyone opposed to that, can't even say a nice thing about a fountain. And so it's kind of like this, he's historically been good at kind of setting traps for his opponents in the battle of public opinion.

Yeah. And I think he thought he set up something that was really good here, but when you combine it with all of the stuff, self-dealing enrichment, like the Albanians out in the street in the thousands protesting the Ivanka and Jared investment project. That's in another country, obviously, but I think especially after the midterms, if Democrats retake the House, maybe even the Senate, but if they have like subpoena powers, the news cycle

is going to be focused every single day on these self-corruption stories or these self-dealing corruption stories. And when you couple the literal gilding with, and at a certain point, it does start to obviously almost like he's, not almost, but it does start to look very egotistical and narcissistic. It is for us. Like, obviously, we get that. But if you're a casual observer of the news, you start to see a lot of it happening. And then you couple that with gas prices being extremely high.

This war looking like a mess. Being at war period, that is not going to work in the way that Trump thinks it was going to work. Let me strike a contrast that will help to set us up for the next block, which is Zoron has spent a lot of time in New York City. thinking about beautification. Yeah, absolutely. And New York Post is very upset about him for jumping in the pool

to mark the beginning of the pool season in New York City. But his beautification is very much centered around. I want to make the city wonderful for you to enjoy, for the residents of the city to enjoy, for the visitors who come to the city to enjoy. Put together, you know, this whole online schedule of here's various free events throughout the city

that will help you enjoy it throughout the summer. So it's about here's what we're doing to make the city wonderful because we care about you versus Trump. This is all about him, right? Sure, it's nice to see the Union Station fountain made beautiful again, which I haven't seen. So I haven't checked it out. I can't render a decision here myself. But it is very clear that in all of these monuments he's building to himself in a literal ballroom that he can't stop talking about, these are things that he wants for his ego.

It is not making the life of Americans better. It's not even making life of people in the city better. In fact, it's causing them certain problems. So that is really the distinction in the way that they're operating. Union Station is a really interesting example. Again, I don't know why we keep taking this bait, but I will take it because I'm a petty bitch. The weekend that they reopened the fountain, which does really look good. And it's something that should have been done a long time ago.

It was, I think, really pathetic that the way we let the gateway for so many people to the capital of the United States become totally. It looked really, really bad. And the fountain looks excellent. Just within like 48 hours of them having this big ribbon-cutting ceremony, I went down there and was taking, like, it's still, there's a little shit on the ground in front of the door to Union Station. So like, you can focus on the fountain all you want, but there are not a lot of structural changes happening.

And that's actually, I think, a decent metaphor for what he's doing. Like, liberal gilding all over the White House. He was talking about why he went to Versailles, because that's real gold last week. Remember, like he was literally saying they have real gold at Versailles. That's not gilded. That's real gold. Saugers been making the Versailles comparison for quite a while at this point.

And here's the other thing. You talked about how you think he felt that he was setting up like a trap for his opponents of like they can't even give me credit for the fountain. The fountain is beautiful. They hate me so much. I also think that these are things that he can control. Yes, yes. Which is also part of why, and Trump is not unique in this as presidents, now that he has lost, he doesn't have much ability. to control, well, I mean, Congress will pretty much do what he wants, but you've got a filibuster

there. He's preferred to take just executive action. There is some limit to what you can do through executive action. He's very unpopular. You know, his immigration agenda even has been subject to a massive backlash and he had to pull back on some of the more maximalist aims of that. In any case, the things that he can control are foreign policy has tons of power and these, like, local beautification projects because of the nature of D.C. and the way that the city is structured. So I think that's what he's sort of collapsed to. Yeah. No, that's a great point because actually Mike Johnson today is going to send this bipartisan Tim Scott Elizabeth Warren housing bill to Trump's desk. Trump has said he's not going to sign it unless it's coupled with Congress passing the

Save Act. Yes. The housing bill is, I mean, that it's actually politically a very good piece of legislation. And if he is right now so frustrated that he's holding that bill hostage to the SAVE Act, I think it speaks to this much deeper frustration with Congress's willingness to actually, like, get on board with what he wants to see them do. And obviously, to Crystal's point, there is a filibuster. But we have a couple more headlines to get to, too. Let's put B6, for better or worse, up on the screen. Headline in the Daily Mail, MAGA fan accused of masturbating it.

Donald Trump's great American state fair. And this isn't setback for the battle event. That is a setback, isn't it? A little bit. Yeah, and this is not just any MAGA fan. He apparently is an influencer. He was live streaming around the time of this incident. There were several women reportedly.

Some of them were performing. And they were like dancers and they were performing. And they saw him apparently pleasuring himself and told the cops and the cops, and the cops got involved. And then he started this whole like free manny campaign. And his followers were like, oh, he was wrongly accused. He just loves America. He's being persecuted for his political views.

I'm like, this is trust. D.C., what are we talking about here? But anyway, so. He lusts for America. He lusts for America. Unlike you, Crystal. Yes, unlike me, definitely unlike me. All right.

B7, let's roll through some of these numbers as promised. A little palette cleanser here. A little more innocent. You want to feel better about the country. CBS News has new polling out. What's best about the American way of life? 44% of people say people in America. 20% land, resources and climate.

17% economic system, trade and business. 10% system of government. 10%? Not a resounding yes for the American system of government. Sure isn't. We can keep moving here. We've got all kinds of different slides. What is America's greatest invention?

Democracy slash freedom. Running two points ahead of the light bulb. Which makes sense since we didn't actually invent democracy or freedom. But, you know, I like the energy. I like the spirit of that. There you go. 10% is the internet. Okay.

Who is saying that? Stop. No, that's not, that is like our worst invention. 6% automobile, 5% telephone, 4% airplane. Interesting. Saga would be absolutely all over this if he were here. He would be in a debate that would be an epic, historic world. historic breaking points debate.

Yeah. I'm trying to think. I don't know what I would even say for this. What are we best at? Light bulb is not a bad answer, actually. It's a pretty good one. 58% say we're best at movies and television. Social security.

That's our best invention. Oh, there you go. 56% say technology and innovation. 41% say music. 38% sports. 31% food. Do we have another one, guys? Yeah, we got a few more of these.

Which food best represents America? 33% hamburgers, 25% barbecue, 19% apple pie, 40% hot dogs, 6% pizza. I think barbecue is the appropriate answer, right? I think hamburgers, just when you think of like how dominant McDonald's is both here and globally, it's like one of our chief exports is our horrendous diet. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, probably hamburgers.

Yeah, yeah. But barbecue is like the best of the American. Yes, it's more, yeah, sort of aspirational. Uniquely American, really, really good. Yes. That's okay. We were agreed on that. Are you excited about the upcoming America 250 celebrations? 23% say very excited.

29% say somewhat excited. 47% say not too excited or not at all excited. I think we'll one more here. Will you fly the U.S. flag at home on the 4th of July? 48% say yes. 52% say no. And crystal. I think this is actually an interesting question,

particularly because people our age don't have houses to fly a flag outside of. Speaking of the housing, isn't it? if you're living in an apartment, uh, you don't have a flagpole. And a lot of people, especially like Gen Z and younger millennials, want to have houses,

but don't have houses. And so they're not even going to have the option to fly a flag unless it means like sticking one to your apartment window. Yeah, but it is a sign of the times and the, um, declining vibe in the country that a majority are like, even on the 4th of July,

they're like, no, not flying the flag. Yeah. That's, that's, I, None of us were live, you know, hosts on this show for the 200 year, the bicentennial. But from the historical reviews that I've seen, people in the country were genuinely excited.

There were not just events here, but there were events in towns across the country. It was a whole thing. And we're just, you know, we're just not there mentally anymore. You know, I haven't in my normal life, I haven't talked to anyone about the, oh, my God, the 250th celebration. What are you going to do to celebrate it? It's just not really something that is, you know, center of mind for people or something that they're super enthusiastic about. Yeah, and people will probably increasingly as this discourse escalates over the course of the week, blame podcasters and populists for this. And I just want to say if that's your instinct, you're missing the mood of the country enormously.

Like this is totally a bottom up, not top down phenomena. And I think one of the reasons that actually when you and soccer started hosting the show, a long time ago that you guys tapped into something is because you were picking up on a sentiment that a lot of the rest of the elite media was not. And it was, again, that's just an example of how it's bottom up and not top down. So you can blame people all you want in the media

or in populist spaces, but it's completely, I mean, Bernie Sanders almost beat Hillary Clinton in 2016. Donald Trump did beat Hillary Clinton in 2016 by talking about American carnage. So yes, people are not, the sentiment, It's actually kind of self-defeating. If you think about Donald Trump being the man who actually pointed out American carnage and then turning around and looking at why people aren't happy about America's 250th birthday,

there's a contradiction and retention in that, actually. Yeah. Well, he sees it as a verdict on him, which in a way it is, because you did promise that you would make America great again and restore that vibe and that confidence. And that obviously hasn't happened. And it's not unique to America. I think the entire sort of Western world is,

you have this yo-yo effect of people who are very unhappy. They're looking for change. You know, they're ping-ponging between different candidates looking for something to be different and have yet to find an answer to the frustrations that they have with the current system. And great segue to the next segment, Crystal, on Zoraamdani's Sunday show appearance this weekend.

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Ilsonique, in Montreal, every day you enter is another chance to win. Hey, I'm Hoda Kotby, host of the podcast, Joy 101 with Hoda Kotby. Okay, if you know me, you know this. I'm always searching for inspiration, for support, and useful tools to help maximize joy. So this podcast lets us uncover all of that together. We're going to have these meaningful conversations with the world's most fascinating people. Like when actress Olivia Munn shared how she overcame fierce health challenges that she never saw coming. I've gone through breast cancer and then helped my mother through breast cancer.

And that was more difficult. There's a lot of people who understand postpartner retargette. I was not prepared for postpartum anxiety. Olympic champ Sean Johnson revealed why she had no choice but to be a gymnast. There was something about gymnastics that was intoxicating to me. It's given me a belief that we all have one of those treasures inside of us. We just have to find it. Listen to Joy 101 with Hoda Kotby on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

My first guest is Paris Tolkien. Shakira, Luke and Yerin, Samira, and Gracie. I'm so excited on the bouncy bed. You have surprises? Many surprises. Welcome to Sweet 305, where the group chat comes to life. What a f***. It's like a way to say like,

Ohla, my friend, oh, my friend, hello, oh, my brother. Look, I never have to be able to be nobody, except with my kids, my children, my son, I'mmaunct. Uff. Uf, that's incredible, yeah, the telenovel. You're the only person I know that loves a yellow starburst.

It's lemonade. I know. I'm not going to say, I'd like to collaborate with this person. This is Sweet 305. Listen to Sweet 305 with Lele Pons as part of my Culture Podcast Network on the IHard Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. Fresh off some highly significant political victories last week and also off of a highly

significant policy victories. Zoran Mamdani, mayor of New York City, sat down with Jonathan Carl for what was a very interesting interview. Let's take a listen to some of those highlights. Republicans are going to make you the poster child for the Democratic Party. Let them. We don't have to ask ourselves what life looks like if a socialist wins. I won last November, and over the course of these last six months, what we've delivered for working people are the very things we were told were impossible. We've delivered free child care for two-year-olds for the first time in New York City history. We've delivered tens of millions of dollars

back to tenants who were taken advantage of by bad landlords. We've delivered 165,000 potholes being paved. And we've done all of these things while also delivering the lowest recorded crime in our city's history. That's what it looks like to have democratic socialism. And what you're seeing is that New Yorkers experienced this for six months

and made the decision that they wanted to see more of it on the national stage as well. And you're hearing some not just dismissive, though, there's resentment. And this is from fellow Democrats who think that this could jeopardize Democratic chances in the fall. I mean, you've got Josh Gottheimer, a Democratic member of Congress. It says many of us believe, as do I. If you're a socialist, you are not a Democrat.

And in fact, they put out a manifesto today. Have you seen this thing? Sounds pretty socialist to me. It's not a communist manifesto. It's a moderate manifesto. Saying, we are capitalist and not socialist. We believe in a growing, fair, and competitive economy. entrepreneurship, ownership. I mean, this is a direct response, they've made it clear to what you

did here on Tuesday. Well, I mean, you know, that's great, but what's a party, if not it's voters? And I'm proud to sit in front of you as the mayor of our city having received more than a million votes, a little over, little less than a year ago. And when we're talking about these incredible congressional candidates, they won their races and they won their races with the vision of what politics should be and one that actually speaks to working people. And for a lot of of people who ask themselves, what does democratic socialism mean? And you can tell them the answer at a theoretical level. It's the choice to extend democracy from the ballot box the rest of their lives. But in terms of what it means over these last seven months, we've seen a city

with democratic socialist principles at the heart of it within our administration. And what we've delivered has been record lows when it comes to murders and shootings. So is it pragmatic democratic socialism? I think democratic socialism at the heart is pragmatic. And I actually think that is a good characterization of how he has governed pragmatic democratic socialism. And what he says there is actually really important. He's basically like, show don't tell, right? I delivered free 2K preschool. I delivered all these potholes filled, all these millions back from bad landlords. Now he's got his rent freeze. You have all of these beautification projects going on in New York City that make the public see what his governance has meant. He has an extraordinary communication

style, so they're very much aware of what he is doing with regard to them. He comes up with these things, you know, that he'll do that you're just like, why didn't no one ever think of that? You know, in his first, I think, week of governance, he pressure-washed the entire subway system, just to make it a little bit nicer for New Yorkers and people who are visiting. I mentioned before they put together a whole calendar of, okay, here's all the free events in the city. I mean, that does, takes very little, especially with AI, to be able to pull together. But just thinking about how are people going to experience the city and what is it going to be like? And so now, rather than having this sort of theoretical ideological debate about what it would mean to have

this type of governance, he can say, just look here. This is what it means. And you can bet if it had been a mess and a failure, all the Josh Gotheimer's and everybody else of the world would be saying, see, this is what it means when you have socialist governance. So, but on the contrary, he is able to offer this up as a model of, hey, this is not that scary. Like, people were freaking out about me being mayor. And guess what? The longer I'm in office, the high. higher my approval rating goes, the more people like what is on offer here. And this is what Democratic socialism actually means in practice. Yeah, let's put C-6. Let's jump ahead here up on the screen. There's a new poll, actually, that found Mom Donnie's favorability rating is jumping.

So this is from USA Today. It's a Sienna University poll. They report, it showed that Mom Donnie's favorability edged up from earlier this year. And the Sienna poll, which was conducted the 17th to 23rd of this month, among 1,100 New York State. state registered voters looked at the favorability of Hockel, the legislature, assembly. It's found that since April, Mamdani's favorability has gone up. His favorability is at 45 to 34%. That's an increase from April, where it was at 43 to 40%. In New York City, his favorability is actually 58% to 26%, which is up from 56 to 34%.

So actually, just even looking at that change from 34% unfavorable to 26% unfavorable, unfavorable. That's even more significant from the two-point jump of people who find him favorable. That's true. Yeah. So big, I mean, that's a, to your point, he's what, like six months in, so there's a long time to go in his term. But for six months, it looks like people are responding favorably in New York City to the experiment. Yeah. No, that's absolutely right. And I just, I think it's so funny for him to be making fun of the centrist manifesto, too. Because it is so socialist coded to be, oh, we have our manifesto of our 12 principles or whatever. And he's like, I don't really have time to read your manifesto, but I delivered low crime rates and your potholes are filled and your kids can go to preschool when they're two years old and you can, you know, it's free.

You can afford to live here again. I'm working in that direction. You know, we froze the rent. And that was one of the, this was a major, major win for him because I don't know if you guys remember, but right after he got elected, there was some member of the housing board that was adversarial to him. And it looked like an Eric Adams was trying to screw him over in terms of being able to get his rent free. while Zoran was able to work politically behind the scenes to make sure that he got what he wanted from the housing board and was able just to announce that for two years, for two million apartments in New York City, rent stabilized apartments in New York City, the rent will in fact be frozen.

This is C2. Let's take a look. New York, the Independent Rent Guidelines Board just froze the rent. That means if you're one of the more than two million New Yorkers who lives in a rent-stabilized apartment, your rent's going to be frozen next year. So for all the people who were like, oh, he's not going to be able to deliver all of this hope and you guys are going to be disappointed, I don't think the people that voted for him are too disappointed right now. Not to say that he's not a magician, you know, the housing prices are not going to come down in New York City overnight. But you can see on his key promises, which he was very clear about what they are, he is notching win after win. Yeah, and that's an example of something where, like, you and I would probably disagree on how it plays out over time. And I could see it hurting him ultimately in the next couple of years. but it will take a long time. And also, by the way, just people have to remember it that if the alternative looks like it's worse

than what happens under Mom Donnie with a rent freeze, I'm really skeptical of rent freezes, especially for people who live in lower income housing that end up because the landlords already suck in so many cases having even less nice accommodations, like having even more things that go unrepared, all that is to say. If the alternative, though, feels like even less hopeful,

then he will still have success with the rent freeze, the politics of it, because people at least say he's doing something. And historically, that's where, I mean, the entire philosophy of communism and socialism emerged during an incredibly bleak period, literally Dickensian period of rapid industrialization that was leading a lot of people out. While a lot of people were thriving,

if you go back and you look at, I shouldn't say a lot of people, a few people were thriving. And if you go back and look at the way that Gilded Age, like, quote, robber barons, were coping. at that time, they were starting to realize, like, decades into that experiment, holy smokes, we are our biggest enemies because we have turned, like, some of the sharper ones were noticing that. We have turned people into enemies of the system that we're thriving off of.

And some of them tried to, like, atone for that and do different things, whether they were sincere as a different question. But they realized that oftentimes the capitalists were the biggest enemies of capitalism. It wasn't the communist and socialists. was the capitalists who were creating the communists and the socialists by benefiting off of the system and perpetuating the system. And so if the alternative still looks worse,

people will be like still clinging to socialism, maybe even communism, because it feels like a better option. Well, and because there was such a freak out over Zoro, and continues to be, by the way, I'm about to play you some Josh Shapiro comments. You know, it was like, oh, my God, there's going to be Sharia law

and there's going to be breadlines. And there's going to be breadlines. They literally said that that would be the case. And instead it's like, no, he seems like a charming guy who's just like doing his best in the city. And people seem pretty happy in the next one. And, you know, like the vibe is very positive. It does. It kind of all goes together.

Like everyone is looking at New York City. I mean, I can tell you me personally, I'm like, oh my God, I wish I still live there. It looks so much fun. Everybody's happy. It's going really well. So all of the doom and gloom that was supposed to befall and everybody is going to leave the city and it's going to be chaos, et cetera. that obviously has not come to pass. Yes, but Ken Griffin is very uneasy because now people know where his penthouses.

My heart breaks for him. My heart breaks for Ken Griffin and all of the landlords of New York City. I'm so sad for the people who, you know, bought property in the 1970s when it cost three pennies and now are multi-millionaires. And like a strawberry. Yeah, right. Exactly. I'm really, I'm really my heartbreaks for you guys. Let's take a listen to Josh Shapiro is obviously fellow Democrat, governor of the state of Pennsylvania,

and how he characterizes Zoran's approach here. Democratic voters in New York chose three candidates backed by Zoramam Dani, far left and Democratic socialist candidates. What message do you take from that about where your party is? Well, you know, those were races in individual districts in a whole other state.

I think you're seeing very different-looking congressional races and certainly different Democratic candidates here in Pennsylvania. I think what is important are the people who are making a lot of noise who are engaging in these performative policies have to now figure out how to deliver results. It's one thing to speak in platitudes during a campaign. It's a whole other thing to actually deliver for people who are genuinely hurting, who genuinely need to see cost of living go down, meaning their ability to make ends meet, you know, go

up, fixing a broken health care system, reining in. excess is being able to, you know, give people the promise of liberty that we've talked about. I think we as a party need to find our way to a candidates who actually can deliver for people and make their lives better. Performative politics, we've got to find a way to actually deliver. I mean, that's what Zoran is showing like, okay, well, I delivered my rent freeze. I delivered my free 2K. You know, they're moving forward with the grocery stores that were promised, this pilot program.

So he's saying, I am actually delivering. And just a fact check, too, on his, well, Pennsylvania is different. Pennsylvania is about to have two of the most left-wing congressional representatives in the country. Chris Rab in Philly in Philly is already there in Pittsburgh. So, you know, him attempting to help, well, Pennsylvania's day, oh, this New York City is just like a weird place. I'm going to really have to pay attention to it. New York City is also the home of Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries, the leaders of the party. It makes it very hard to dismiss as some weird one-off.

especially when you couple it with what happened in the main primary, especially when you couple with what is happening in the Michigan primary. You're going to dismiss Michigan as like, oh, this pie in the sky, like weird, you know, one-off sort of a situation. It becomes increasingly difficult for people like him to dismiss that, you know, his politics, the way that he has positioned himself, is increasingly out of step with at least where the Democratic base is, but more dramatically with where the public is at large. And look, he's very popular in Pennsylvania.

people are happy with his governance there. But I think when he goes to run for president, he's going to find that his positions are not tenable in a Democratic Party that wants to see a lot more fight, that wants to see a very different orientation vis-à-vis Israel, that wants to see the fight taken to the oligarch class as well. And he has not shown that he is that candidate. It does remind me a little bit of the Tea Party movement era

when it was like, you know, Rand Paul is winning in Kentucky, and Marco Rubio in Florida and all of these Tea Party races around the country. You had the Dave Bratwin in Virginia and you could say, oh, these are just the red states. And then honestly, what was it, 2010? Scott Walker won in a very pro-labor,

historically, a very pro-Labor state, Wisconsin. Yeah. It was not just relegated to some of the deepest red places in the country. Republican voters were able to make persuasive cases because people were furious about Obama. And that was not just,

in deep red Kentucky. That had ramifications around the country, too. And I think to some extent, what Josh Appiro is missing is that some of his kind of ideological enemies inside his own camp are better reading the moon of the country. Yeah, there's no doubt about it. Chris Rob in Philadelphia was in a very difficult primary against two candidates who had sort of more establishment backing. And he didn't just win. He won overwhelmingly. And that's another thing that I want to dig into more, I might do a monologue on this this week, I'm suddenly feeling very like monologue inspired in this moment. But, you know,

the knock, which has had legitimacy on DSA and the Bernie wing more broadly at the party, because not all these candidates we are talking about are technically DSA, but the knock on them has been that they have been unable to reach outside of this sort of white activist space. Now, it's

always been a bit of bullshit. Bernie, for example, did really well with a multiracial coalition, especially at the younger level, won Latinos overwhelmingly, but older black voters were, and I think continue to be a genuine stumbling block. And so there was a lot of attacks on, oh, you just have these like college educated, young white people, more affluent that they can afford to sort of dabble in these radical politics. Or the old white hippie boomers. Yeah, but it's like, you know, the Brooklyn

Commy Corridor, right? That was sort of the, that was the knock on DSA from a coalition, a coalitional perspective. Now you have a bunch of, you have a bunch of, right-winger like Stephen Miller and Matt Walsh and Jesse Waters who are saying, oh, no, the problem is that there's too many, like, black and brown immigrants who are voting for them. And obviously, you know, it's disgusting and it's racist. That's what goes without saying. But I think it's noteworthy that they had to shift because guess what? The coalition is growing. You know, Dari Liza's district, which is one I actually used to live in, and I'm quite familiar with, and this is very diverse district. You cannot win just with, like, Columbia students who are not even there.

At the moment to come out and vote, most of them are, you know, home and school's not in session. It is a, you know, a very split demographically district. You have to win a lot in black voters. It looks like she won a majority of black voters. And even though Espayat is the co-chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and thought he had a lock on the Dominican voters in this district, she came very close to 50-50 with him, even with Hispanic voters in the district. It was she got like 47%. So as DSA grows, as you have more figures like Zoron that make it less like a scary, weird, radical thing. It's really him.

I mean, I really think so much of this. He genuinely is a lot of it. Because now when you think of this wing of politics, that's who you think of. And you're like, you're telling me, this guy's terrifying? I don't think so. Right. And so you have a very different situation as that coalition grows and expands. and the limitations that existed previously start to fall away as you start to make inroads

with a larger demographic group. And as the housing crunch and all of the affordability crisis and the concerns over the wars and all of these things hit home with everyone, regardless of your skin color or your background, even increasingly up the income ladder, whether you're a college educator or non-college educated, you're going to have more of a cohesive base that you can draw from. Yeah, it's clear that DSA is learning a lot from, especially the Zoran exam. It's not the same DSA of, like, 2018 by any means, and I don't think the right is at all prepared for what that means. I think voters, Mom Dani, I think, played a really big role in giving voters, like, permission to feel, what's the best way to put it, like, it was mainstream to get behind some of these different candidates that are just treated as though they're not mainstream.

And in some cases, they genuinely are not mainstream, maybe in, like, Brooklyn. if we're talking about the entire country, they're closer to the mainstream on questions like healthcare than a lot of the quote-to-quote like centrist actually are. But I think it was like a cultural permission instructor. It also looks like it's fun to be involved with it. Which is so different than 2018. It looks like... So different. You know, the cool kids are here. Like it looks like it would be fun to go out in Canvas for a DSA candidate. And, you know, that's one thing that he has really brought to his approach to government. It's a very communal approach, which actually we can put up our last piece here on the screen, puts the C3 up on the screen.

So this is a tradition in New York City. The mayor always, I guess, shows up and jumps in the pool at the opening for the pool season in New York City. Zoran, I need to check with Sager how he's going to feel about this because he wore a full suit and tie. Good, check mark. But it's in violation of the dress code for the swimming pool. So we get an X on that from Sager. But in any case, you know, it's like a sort of silly way. It's very consistent with his brand.

It draws more attention to this opening. New York Post was very mad about it, which is funny, too, C4, put those up on the screen. They have found every way to try to knock this guy, and it just has become, you know, very memeable because it's increasingly pathetic. The thing they picked to try to hit him with. Oh, you took his shoes off. That's good. Oh, okay. Yeah, that is good.

So I'm on Donnie jumps into New York City pool to kick off summer tradition while violating dress code rules. Oh, my God. How dare you? But, you know, it seems like he's having fun. It seems like the city's having fun. It seems like you could be part of something that is communal. I think Zoran Mom Donnie may just be the cure for the male loneliness epidemic. Well, do you remember last summer when he had the canvassing like scavenger hunt?

Yes, yes, yes, yes. And it sounded so cringe. And then tons of people turned out for it. Yes. It was like on a Saturday and it got like hundreds of people out doing his political. No, there were thousands of people doing this political scavenger hunt. Yes. Yeah, it was crazy.

Yeah. And nobody saw it coming. But people are hung. for some sort of community. And, you know, if they feel like they can get that through Zoran and through DSA, that's going to be a very appealing selling point. Not through Josh Shapiro, you don't think? He should write more of another manifesto than I can judge.

You should do, like, live readings of his manifesto. Yeah, we've reached out to, by the way. We'll cover more of this promise to America centrist group with the manifesto, which is very interesting to me. We're trying to get somebody who actually one of the representatives on the show to be able to talk about it. So we'll see if that ends up happening. We'll skeptical they're going to join us, but we'll see. Joy is essential and it's also elusive. But now, there's a new and exciting way to start

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