Morning Joe - Trump: ‘I Don’t Think About Americans’ Financial Situation’

Episode Date: May 13, 2026

Trump: ‘I Don’t Think About Americans’ Financial Situation’ To listen to this show and other MS podcasts without ads, sign up for MS NOW Premium on Apple Podcasts. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Is you going to go speeding with Iran, Mr. President? To what extent are American's financial situations motivating you to make it feel? Not even a little bit. The only thing that matters when I'm talking about Iran, they can't have a nuclear weapon. I don't think about American's financial situation. I don't think about anybody. I think about one thing. We cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon.

That's all. That's the only thing that's motivated. I don't think about Americans' financial situation. President Trump with that admission to a reporter yesterday. The comment came as he was leaving the White House, headed for his big summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing. I mean, really, Willie, come on. Like, Democrats are now going, wait, is he a...

Is he saying that opening? This is the nightmare of the American First. It just said, oh, we don't want to get involved in over. You know, worry about us here at home. and all of the people, Tulsi Gabbard, that said, he will never get you into wars, he will worry about you, he will never do this, he will worry about you. J.D. Vance, the same.

You can go down the list of everybody. You can go down the list of all of the talkers that said the same thing. And he literally is saying, I'm not worried about you. I don't even think about you. I'm worried about an endless war. Which, by the way, the New York Times and others followed, we haven't, as the CIA analyst told me weeks ago, we're just, we're just, like, the numbers we're making up are just, they mean nothing. Iran is locked and loaded still. Yeah, and it has missiles that can reach the Strait of Hormuz if it wants, so we're going to get into that reporting as well.

But that clip we just played, that's clip and save for Democrats throughout this campaign season. He's been showing that he doesn't care about Americans' financial situations since the beginning of this war, as gas. prices and food prices have risen. Now he's just saying it out loud. I actually don't care. And I was thinking back, Joe, to like all those times where you had to interpret or spin a president being out of touch, George H.W. Bush, misreading the grocery scanner or whatever. And now you have a president just saying, I don't care about your financial situation. And the financial situation getting so bad. We're going to show the clip later on. Leave Larry Cudlow. When you've lost Larry Cudlow, baby. And he's like, these are just horrible numbers, inflation.

going up, jobless concerns are going up, gas prices are going up, health care is skyrocketing, rent is skyrocketing, people's ability to afford their first home, getting further out of recent ever before. It's just the reality. It's just, this is how Americans live. And over, what are we going to show polls. Like, man, this isn't Democrats saying it. It's not independent, it's everybody saying it, man. Like, 70% of Americans, 75% of, percent of, of Americans say, everything costs too much. This is, we're in a terrible situation. And the president picks that day to go out there while he's worried about golden arches and

he's worried about golden ballrooms and we find out about this Trump gold phone scam, you know, and he's worried about crypto and he's worried about their family making billions and billions of dollars. He goes and says, yeah, well, you know, we're doing great, but we don't really care about how you and your family are doing. I've never run for office. But if I were to and the standard bear for my opponent party's opponent, opponent's party, were to say that, it would feature prominently in every campaign ad.

And it's certainly, that was an in-kind contribution to Democrats there from President Trump. And you're right, we're going to go through it. The poll numbers are catastrophic for Trump and Republicans, particularly on his handling of the economy, which was supposed to be a strength. Well, you add on top of that, the fact that he constantly mocks affordability. He calls it, quote, bullshit that the Democrats, that's made up. Americans feel it every day. I had people sending me like the cost of of butter and milk and saying, thanks Biden during the bucket administration. What a lot of Americans

would do right now to go back and have costs what they were when Joe Biden left office. Americans felt better about the economy under Joe Biden than they do. By the way, we have numbers that show. Overwhelmingly, overwhelmingly Americans feel better about the economy under Joe Biden than they do, Donald. Trump, let me say that again. Overwhelmingly, I know for people in their little bubbles, they don't want to hear this, but overwhelmingly, Americans felt better about life under Biden than Trump. And Trump seems out of touch in three distinct ways. Number one, that, the cost of everyday items for ordinary Americans, the affordability issue. Secondly, yes, foreign policy,

which is important, but yesterday I mean, I don't think it's a surprise that he said this yesterday he's off to China. He's been consumed with the Chinese summit for quite some time, and of course the war in Iran, which is not going according to plan. And then lastly, his own sort of personal mark he's trying to leave on the nation and the nation's capital, including

yesterday we get reporting that the cost of his reflecting pool renovation between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington monument has exploded 10 times. By the way, do you notice how he lies about all of those things, really? He lies because, oh, I know this guy they did pools and it's going to only cost this a million, and then it's going cost is this. And then it keeps

exploding and then, you know, MAGA responds, oh, what are you, idiot, of course it's going to go. No, he always starts with it. He did it with a ballroom. It's going to be $100, $200 million. And it's perfect. You're not going to cost taxpayers off. Then $200 becomes $4 million. Comes a billion that taxpayers

who were struggling with all of those costs, let's show them again, all of those costs that they felt like were a lot easier to afford under Joe Biden than under Donald Trump. These Americans now are going to be paying for a billion dollar Marie Antoinette-style ballroom for an arch for all of the nonsense that he is obsessed about right now? The promise of the ballroom was $200 million paid for with private funds by donors to Donald Trump.

Now we've come to a place where it's going to be, as you say, a billion dollars paid for by taxpayers using part in what happened at the White House Correspondence Center. As for the reflecting pool, Donald Trump, no-bid contract the government gave to affirm that he said, Did some swimming pools at his clubs. And now that the cost has skyrocketed, there are questions about the quality of the work. They're having to redo it a bunch of times. He posted, he said, I had nothing to do with that. He had everything to do it.

That was the Department of the Interior. I don't know what they're talking about. Does anybody really think, Caddy Kay, that Americans want to go to the reflecting pool that played such a prominent role in Martin Luther King's, I have a dream speech and have a garish aqua blue, like Disneyland's themed, like reflecting pool

in Washington, D.C. It is, in the words of people in the redneck Riviera, simply garish. I mean, I guess it's not gold, which, let's face it, could have been the older. Pretty good. You know, maybe we should be happy with that. There was a beautiful quality

about that whole stretch from the Washington monument to the Lincoln Memorial. It was very harmonious. Yes, you walked past the pool, and it didn't stand. I mean, the whole point of that pool is that it reflects the other buildings. It's not there to stand out

in and of itself. It gives a seamless quality to that walk all the way from the capital down to the Lincoln Moria. I've done it many times with many of friends who are visiting town. It's going to be weird, I have to say, to do that walk with this sudden, like, you know, bright blue Miami swimming pool is what we're going to get instead, let alone all of the questions. And of course, the costs have gone over.

And of course, now he's denying that he had anything to do with the contractors. I mean, what's remarkable about all of this, guys, is that he, Donald Trump does this, and we shrug because he does it so often. He did it over the ballroom. It's one cost, and then it's one cost times 10. And I think we're just inured to it at this point. And I don't know what that says about us, but it's not great.

I mean, you go through everything. Just look at yesterday, him praising the fuggish dictator of Belarus, him continuing to do everything he can to help Vladimir Putin. I mean, it's obvious. Willie, it's just crazy. He goes out and he praises Xi as if he's Thomas Jefferson, while a prominent political prisoner, he attacks for causing chaos in China. It's just, it's insanity.

He continues to side with dictators. He continues to side with autocrats. And he's just open about it, the sort of thing that American presidents have always done. Go to China. They'll try to make a deal, but they'll talk about the human rights of people that are being, that are being imprisoned in this police state. But Donald Trump sides with the police state. Does it time and again.

I remember the first time he met Xi in Moralago, basically signing off on the concentration camps for Ouija's. Yeah, that sounds pretty good. It's just, it is sickening, and it continues. and the pace is quickening as his approval ratings go down. Trump was asked about that political prisoner in China, the American political prisoner who said, well, he caused a lot of bedlam. So like he's not even going to try to get him released.

And he's lavishing praise on Xi ahead of this meeting, which is a strange thing for the art of the deal guy to give all this, you know, this fluffing, if you will, of President Xi. To the guy who's helping the Iranians. To the guy, exactly. That's where I was going. Just like Putin. The guy is helping.

the Iranians kill Americans, and he's praising the people, that guy to the left, the president of the United States, Willie, he keeps praising thugs, dictators, autocrats who are actively helping the Iranians target Americans and kill them. That's what the guy on the left is doing. We're in the middle of a war, Jonathan Lemire, with Iran. The guy in the right in that picture is on the side of Iran buys most of Iran's oil and is helping Iran prosecute the way. war against the United States. Nothing but praise from the president, but more than that, real concerns in some foreign policy circles that Trump so desperate to improve things in Iran is going to ask Xi for help because Xi Jinping, China, does wield some influence over Iran. And if she agrees, the question is, what does he ask for in return?

And what is the president Trump willing to give up to China in order to get that? Everybody's afraid me, it's going to be a suckers deal. Again, where we started, I don't think about Americans' financial situation. President Trump, again, after mentioning several times that affordability, the concept of it in America is a joke. Then after he made these comments, am I correct, he then insulted two reporters, including an MS Now reporter, a Kayla Gardner, in a way that I, you know, he always does, but it's worth noting. And whether it's trying to distract from what he realized he just said, or if it's just horrific, disgusting behavior, who knows.

Also with us, former national security advisor under President Biden, Jake Sullivan, a really important morning to have Jake on. Let's go to the new reporting this morning that shows, despite weeks of bombardment and the Trump administration publicly asserting otherwise, Iran retains substantial missile capabilities. A U.S. official with knowledge of recent intelligence assessments, MS now that Iran has regained access to 30 of 33 missile sites. It is built along the Strait of Hormuz and can use them to target U.S. warships and oil tankers crossing the strategic

waterway. The official adds that roughly 70 percent of Iran's mobile missile launchers, and about 70 percent of the country's pre-war stockpile of missiles remain operational. The classified assessments were first reported by the Washington Post and the New York The New York Times. The Times adds that Iran has regained access to roughly 90% of its underground missile storage and launch. And by the way, how are we doing in terms of... 90%? How, I mean, the Heggseth hearing yesterday. Did we get any information as to exactly how far down we've pushed our supplies? I mean, we've obliterated them. They've been telling us for years. They said we destroyed their nuclear capabilities a year ago and he called reporters stupid that questioned that. Well, apparently, um,

many of which in Iran here are assessed to be partially or fully operational, according to people with knowledge of the assessments. All of this contradicting claims from the White House and the Pentagon that the Iranian military has been decimated and rendered combat ineffective for years to come. That reporting showing that that, which apparently was the whole point of the invasion of Iran, the bombing of Iran, is not true. Yeah. So what has this been for?

You know, Willie, you look on the flight manifest of the White House has released so far, and you've got some Trump kids that are going over with him and family members that are going over with him to China. Obviously, their business deals to be had, and I'm sure that we'll see some business deals come out of this. Like, their business deals all across the planet for the Trump family, who, again, reports are they want to be the richest family in the world. by the time Donald Trump leaves office.

But, you know, there were some people noting yesterday they didn't see a single person who was a China expert released on that first list. No president would go to China without an accurate, except for Donald Trump, who gets suckered time and time and time again. He got suckered into going into this war. Time and time again, he gets suckered by Putin time and time again. But why are experts important? I know in the age of idiots that are running the MAGA movement, running the MAGA movement,

they hate experts. This is what experts can do for you. Even in 2012, an expert like Dr. Prasinski can tell Charlie Rose, never go into Iran. Charlie goes, will they beat you? No, they won't beat you. They will immediately close off the Strait of Hormuz, and you will be setting the world's economy on fire. That's what every expert has been saying. since 2012 and even before 2012. Dr. Prasinski knew something about that. He was there in 1979.

I brought up time and again, a CIA analyst who was on the Iran desk, who knew Iran better than anybody else in the agency, I was told. So I picked up the phone and I called him probably about a month ago. He said, what do you think? Are we destroying all these capabilities? He goes, Joe, reminds me an awful lot of Vietnam when we read those, had those body counts read to us every night on the evening news. He kind of figured out after a while they didn't mean anything. He said, and I know that General Kane's a good man, but when he's talking about 70% of missile capabilities being knocked out, 80% of missile capabilities knocked out, all I'm saying is body counts on Walter Cronkite 1968. They mean nothing, okay?

sounded interesting to me, but oh my God, we find out yesterday, the expert who had been on the Iran desk for decades knew what he was talking about. This is why we have experts, and this is why the Trump administration keeps falling flat on their face because he won't listen to experts. He thinks he knows better than everybody else in the room. And that is what he thinks exactly, that he is the expert on China. so why does he need an expert? He is the master of making a deal. He's going to go in face to face.

He doesn't need to know the history or even the current state of China. He'll be the guy. And that lack of expertise we see up and down the government, by the way. Jake Sullivan, among the goals set out when this war was begun a couple of months back were regime change. That's gone by the wayside to end the nuclear program, which we were told had already been ended and to wipe out the imminent military threat that Iran posed. So we thought there was some thinking that at least number three had been achieved partially.

We hear from once a week from Secretary Hegesith that the Navy, the Iranian Navy is at the bottom of the sea, that their military has been decimated, obliterated, that it's no longer a threat that they've been rendered combat ineffective for years to come. Is that just not true? Well, it certainly is not true. And the reports that you guys were just discussing put a very fine point on it. Their ability to retain 70% of both their missiles and their missile launch capability, 90% of access to their underground facilities, and 30 out of 33 of their missile sites along the Strait of Hormuz are now operational once again. And there's always been this big gap between the administration asserting that Iran's military has been rendered combat ineffective

and the reality that Iran continues to keep the Strait of Hormuz closed. The ships, are voting with their feet to mix metaphors. They're not going through because they know Iran hasn't been rendered combat ineffective. They can continue to threaten with missiles and drones, this vital waterway that has 20 percent of the world's oil going through it. And when you take a step back and look at this, we got into this war on completely faulty assumptions, and now we're fighting it on faulty assertions, the assertion that we have somehow decimated Iran when in fact the opposite is the case. And this is put Trump in a very difficult position right as he walks into this high stakes meeting in China. So, Katie Kay, the concept of Iran's military capability being decimated sounds a little bit like

hegg-suffing, which is something we heard more of on Capitol Hill yesterday, which is a complete exaggeration of reality. Yeah, and I think we've been hearing that, I mean, from the Secretary of Defense right from the beginning of the war. And as journalists, I think, and observes of this, like Joe says, we've all gone. got to the stage now where we pretty much discount the number of missiles that have been shot by Americans because actually what we want to know is the reality of the damage on the ground. Jake, we were talking yesterday on the show a lot about Bob Kagan's piece in the Atlantic

where he's famous Iran Hawke, but basically saying it's time to cut and run. This is going to get worse before it gets better. What's the downside, apart from an element of humiliation for the president, perhaps, and I'm sure he would never phrase it like this, but what's the downside of just saying this didn't work out, we're going to pull out, get the straits back open, and accept that we didn't achieve our objectives. Well, beyond the cost in American lives to the American at the gas pump that has already been paid, doing that at this point is basically saying Iran will retain meaningful control over the Strait of Hormuz indefinitely for the future. And that any time they want to

flip the switch and close it, they have proven they can do so. And this, I think, is costly to the United States. It's costulated the global economy, and it's a huge boon to Iran. Now, President Trump may have no other choice because of the way he's fought this war. And to have someone like Bob Kagan, who, as you say, is the ultimate Iran hawk making this case in this way. It shows you just how badly this has gone for President Trump. Okay, we're going to have more with former national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, in just a moment, also still ahead on morning, Joe. One of our next guest says Democrats flipping the Senate is a real possibility. but it won't be easy.

Bloomberg columnist, David Drucker, joins us straight ahead with that. And as we go to break, a quick look at the travelers' forecast this morning from Ackyweather's Bernie Raynow. Bernie, how's it looking? Miko, we're tracking some rain and thunderstorms pushing across the northeast and mid-Atlantic today. Those thunderstorms, gusty winds hail, Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, toward Washington, D.C., rain and thunderstorms, doesn't arrive in Philly, New York City, and Boston until tonight.

Cooler in Chicago and Indiana. today. No cooling in Texas. It's hot. A couple of spotty thunderstorms across the Florida Peninsula. If you're doing any traveling today, gusty winds can cause some delays this afternoon in New York City and Philadelphia. Watch for some storms in Miami. They help you make the best decisions and be more in the know. Download the Acky Weather app today. Time now for a look of some of many other stories making headlines this morning. President Trump's controversial plan to build a triumphal arch in the nation's capital. That would ask for, by the way. Well, I think he wants it.

Nobody wants it but him. Okay, workers have begun preliminary surveys and testing of the proposed sites between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery. The 250-foot-tall proposed arch is just one of several projects that Trump is pursuing to leave his lasting mark on Washington. Opponents have filed a federal lawsuit challenging the structure. We don't think that's going to make it. right? Before the midterms? I mean, the courts are going to start it down. I mean, that's just outrageous. You've got to get Congress to approve something that garish. And yet the Congress went on going along with the ballroom. It's twice the size of the Arctic triumph in Paris.

And let's remember what a sacred spot it will be in between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery, obscuring views of both. At a cost at a time when people are hurting more than ever. Major highway stretching nearly 1,800 miles from Texas to Montana could soon be rene. named in honor of President Trump. Way to go there, John. Republican Senator John Cornyn of Texas has introduced legislation to redesignate U.S. Highway 287 as Interstate 47, calling it Trump Interstate. Are they going to be like golden statues, like golden caps along the way, John? Cornon's push just happens to come amid his hard-fought primary against Attorney General Ken Paxton in a race where President Trump has withheld.

held an endorsement. Their runoff primary election is less than two weeks away. It's always embarrassing. Do you sense? Do you guys do things like this, Nika, and then they don't get the endorsement. I know. You give away all your dignity. And you get nothing. This happened to Little Bush. Remember? This happened years ago. And he did it. And then Paxson ended up. I think Trump ended up endorsing Paxon. And Trump has stayed out of this. Never worked. Because I'm told these advisors aren't sure who's going to win. And he doesn't want to be seen as betting as the wrong horse. It's also so patronizing to the president saying, if I name a thing after you, I can get your endorsement. Right?

I don't think that. But it works. Yes, it works. All right. Some of President Trump's mobile phones should be shipped out this week. That's according to new reporting from USA Today. After speaking with Trump Mobile CEO, Pat O'Brien, it comes after some backlash from Trump supporters who paid a $100 deposit last summer for the phone. Last summer?

The device was supposed to be sent out in August, but then was pushed back to November and then to December. And as of today, there's still no official release date on the company's website. Here how the president's sons, Don Jr. and Eric, hyped up Trump Mobile last year. Today we're here to introduce Trump Mobile. Making phones in America. It's about time we bring products back to our great country. We're going to be having call centers. for Trump Mobile in St. Louis, so we're keeping our data onshore. We plan to build phones in America. All of our customers support is in America. A lot of people are getting ripped off

to say the least because they don't pay attention to our cell phone plans. So I think we can do it better. Meanwhile, fortune has been reporting on the company behind Trump Mobile, quietly updating hits its pre-ordered terms and conditions last month to clarify that it is, quote, does not guarantee that a device will be produced or made available. We may not actually make this device. You just might not make it. Wow. Okay, so Willie.

These people. There are lines. Fortune also notes to the company's website states that the phone, which was originally advertised to be made in America, will now be designed with American values in mind. So made in China. Indonesia. So made in China. And you don't get what you pay for.

But the Trumps make money. And lines. and lines. The American way. The people. Waiting. What's happening? Big healthy long lines.

Yeah. I mean, the contempt that the Trump family and the president continue to show for their own supporters with things like this, give us $100. We're never giving you a phone. You're not getting your money back. Remember back around the 2020 election

the fraud fund, they got $250 million from their own supporters that wasn't a election defense fund. Right. It's really bad. took it. Bulk and dupe their own supporters and have such contempt for the people who vote for them and support them.

And they go along with it. They go along with. Now they're trying to get, Trump's trying to get his own DOJ to settle a case with IRS. And it just, it's insanity. Jake Sullivan, if anybody gets Trump Golden Fund, I'm sure you will be first in. I signed up already. Long, long line. So many lines.

But I want to ask you, going back to where we are right now with Iran, what, what, What would your advice be to any sitting president that found themselves in this position right now? I mean, we are not, I guess, in a quagmire yet. It hasn't gone on that long. But the president, certainly if you look at Robert Kagan, again, as you said, a war hawk, look at his column a couple of days ago. It is jarring. There aren't a lot of good options. And the consequences of defeat, catastrophic. Well, first, guys, I still am stuck on this Trump phone story. I was not following that. That is really quite unbublished. especially that fine print that says you may not even get the phone when you pay for it. It's crazy.

From the ridiculous to the sublime or maybe to the other ridiculous what's going on in the Persian Gulf, what I would tell the president is that there was a deal on the table before he launched this misbegotten war to put Iran's nuclear program in a box. it would require some compromise on the part of the United States, but we would be able to ensure that Iran didn't get a nuclear weapon. He did not take that deal. We can still get that deal in my view, though it's been made harder. So I would actually get real negotiators who are real experts on the Iran nuclear program, have them go sit down with the Iranians, maybe with third-party mediators as well,

and get that done so that we can get the straight back open, get energy flowing once again and get gas prices down. And I would put real effort into making that happen rather than continue to flail around thinking that if I just bomb them once more or I just continue the blockade one more day, all of a sudden Iran's going to blink. That assumption has not borne out. It will not bear out. And, Joe, to your point, every expert on Iran has been saying that from the start. So President Trump, while he's unlikely to, should probably start listening to them. So, Jake, it was the war in Iran that delayed originally this trip to Beijing.

the president could be landing shortly in China. Iran now at the center of that conversation. As we said earlier, China supports Iran in the war, buys most of its oil, all the things we know about that country and its relationship with Iran. But also, there's the question of Taiwan. There's a question of trade, of course. If you were going into this trip, if you were traveling with the president on Air Force One right now, where would your focus be from the American perspective? Well, I was struck. You guys were talking early in the program about his statement that he doesn't care about the financial situation of Americans. If you look at the truth social post he put out on the plane flying there, he talked about all the CEOs he was bringing. And he said in it, he's bringing

them there basically to bring China to a different level, not to help America, but to help China. I think this is exactly the wrong way to go into this meeting. I think that President Trump should go in thinking about how he defends the American worker and American businesses against Chinese practices that are undercutting our companies and making it harder for them to compete. And I also think he has to be very careful not to make a significant concession to President Xi on Taiwan. This will be President Xi's top ask of him, that he do something to draw back on Taiwan arms sales or he change our policy towards that island. And I think we should all be on guard that President Trump falls for that and hope that he does not.

Former National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, thank you very much. And you can listen to Jake on his Vox Media podcast, The Long Game. Thank you, Jake, for being on this morning. And still ahead on Morning Joe, we're going to dive into the midterm elections and the prospects that Democrats could win control of the Senate. But in a new Bloomberg opinion piece, columnist David Drucker warns, while possible, it will not be easy. He joins us next on Morning Joe. So, Kevin, certainly on the surface, you got to admit, today's CPI was a lousy number, 6 tenths of a percent.

Core, ex-food, and energy, still up four-tenths of a percent. So the 12-month change is 3.8 percent, and the core change is 2.8 percent. What does an NEC director say on a day like today when the CPI is coming out so poorly? Yeah, that's a good question. Fox business host Larry Kudlow. With that question yesterday for White House economic advisor, Kevin Hassett. It came after new inflation data released showed energy prices jumped by 3.8 percent. And the overall, and overall, the consumer price index also rose by 3.8 percent annually in April. The highest it's been since May of 2023. Let's bring in M.S. as now contributor, Mike Barnacle, and senior writer at the dispatch and a columnist for Bloomberg, David Drucker. David, you and I've seen cycles like this,

and you always have to say, well, the election's very long, you know, far away, and da-da-da-da-da. But usually you can start seeing in April and May things start to develop and you understand how it's going to go. You look at generic ballots. You look at right track, wrong track. Most importantly, you look at a president's approval rating.

You see what happened yesterday. You see the president's quotes yesterday, the corruption, the stories every day that are out there. You write in your piece, yes, it looks like a good Democratic year, and yes, the Democrat should take the House, and yes, they may take the Senate. But not so fast. There still are some fairly large caveats. Tell us about it. Yeah, well, let me, Joe, flip that around a little. I love my headline writers in Bloomberg opinion. But the reason I wrote the piece was because the atmosphere has changed such. that the Senate is actually on the table, where three months ago it wasn't. On the eve of the Iran War, it really wasn't because the Republicans have such a favorable map.

And, you know, over the last 10 years, politics has become really balkanized and polarized. In 2018, if you'll recall, Democrats win a 40 seat sweep in the House. They actually pick up some swing seats in the Senate, but Republicans majority grew by two seats because they were able to pick up some seats in red states. though the president wasn't doing well in red states, he was doing just fine. And that's how this election was unfolding. Democrats looking very good in the House still do. Republicans looking very good in the Senate except for a couple of places. And what we are beginning to detect in my conversations with Republicans, which, who would, you know, to be clear, prefer this

doesn't happen, is that the playing field on the Senate map is becoming perilous for Republicans. Now, the reason why Democrats shouldn't jump for joy is because if they're going to have a good election, on the Senate side, it's going to be in defined red territory. Once you get outside of Maine in North Carolina, they're going to have to make gains in places like Iowa and Ohio and places like that. And that's where Republicans continue to do pretty well. So, David, let me interrupt you there. Let's also talk about Alaska for a second because there's a very important. compelling candidate out there. And again, Alaska usually doesn't go blue, but you have a compelling candidate out there that has Democrats believing. And then, of course, Calarico, if he gets Ken

Paxton, Democrats think that, though many of us still consider Texas fools, gold, at least for another four to eight years, there are many people who believe those states may also be in play. So I think Texas will be contested, but you're just going to have to get me to be wrong. one cycle for Democrats to win that place. I'm just going to be wrong. It's just going to happen. And even if Ken Paxton beats John Cornyn, which I would say at this point is more likely than not, I still think Talarico falls short there. But again, you're just going to have to get me to be wrong. Alaska is super interesting. I've been talking to Republicans. You know Alaska well for the past few months. They've been concerned about Alaska going back to last year.

And Mary Peltola, former former congresswoman in Alaska. And of course, it's a statewide position because they haven't had large Congressional seat there. And people are extremely worried about Senator Sullivan. His voting record on the floor of the Senate started to reflect that he knows he has a real dogfight. But again, it's one of those places where Democrats are playing in red territory. But let's get back to the whole premise of my piece. You know, is Mitch McConnell, the former Republican Majority Leader, outgoing senator from Kentucky, told me in 2018, the map doesn't win elections,

the atmosphere is not irrelevant. One other thing McConnell used to tell me, forget Labor Day. Voters' opinions in these midterm contests tend to harden around June. When he was chairman of the NRC, when he was leading his conference, he didn't target Labor Day as that's how much time

he has to change the narrative. He looked at June. Once he got past June, it was what it was. So we'll all be looking at June. And one of the other things, of course, that we have to look at is the redistricting. And I've been wondering whether, in fact,

is there a world in which, because the House has been redistricted in many states, and you've got Democrats who are feeling pissed off about that, could that actually drive up energy in the Senate races? I mean, could you paradoxically have Democrats saying, okay, listen, voters, you've had the playing field kind of twisted on you in the House races, but put your energy into the Senate races.

Could it help them flip the Senate? I'm playing kind of, you know, psychological. Yeah, I mean, look, here's the only reason I'm skeptical is I don't know if Democrats could want to vote anymore. Like, if there is still another level at which Democrats could feel motivated to vote that could bring more voters out that are going to pull the lever for Democrats as long as they vote, then that'll be, you should bottle that thing. Because, I mean, what we've seen with enthusiasm numbers, numbers where voters rate, how important is this midterm election? versus previous midterm elections. I mean, the numbers for Democrats are about as high as I've ever seen them, particularly compared to where Republicans are.

So maybe we look at states like Texas, for instance, which started this cycle's mid-decade redistricting war. Let's see if that alters the voting behavior of Texans who often maybe votes for Democrats or swing either way, and which way do they swing this time. But Democrats are so ready to go vote that I just, just don't think it you could actually get beyond the level they're at. Mike, let's talk about how old we both are. I remember in the 1970s, I think mid-70s, maybe 76, 77 gas was around 33 cents a gallon.

And by the end of the 70s, because the oil embargo, because of Iran, it was like over a dollar, well over a dollar. I heard about that at dinner from my mom and dad. Like their friends talked about it. Bill Clinton always was the most worried about those signs, those gas station signs, because you said that that was the advertisement. When you look at the price of gas, that was an advertisement about whether things were harder or easier for working Americans. Those numbers are up averaging $450 in some spots over $6. Diesel in some spots. over $7. And it's going to continue going up. You know, as long as we're talking about the wayback machine, which is what you are,

and what I remember, those pictures of long gas lines, people waiting to get gas, lining up around the block or down the block. I have not recalled or witnessed a time in this country since the spring of 1968, where there seems to be a blanket of uncertainty and unease enveloping the entire country about where we are now and where we're going in the near future. I just have not seen it. And David, I don't know what you hear when you go out in the country reporting on these trips and the polls are one thing, but that feeling that most Americans that you hear with your ear,

there are uncertainty about what we are doing here as a country and where we're going, for their children and for their immediate future. Yeah, I think it depends, Mike, where. I go. You know, I've spent some time in deep red areas over the past month and a half or so. I was in a northern Kentucky, a very conservative part of the United States, reporting on Thomas Massey's primary challenge from a Trump-indorse candidate. Previously, I was in Indiana reporting on those state Senate races that the Trump-endorsed candidates were able to knock out six of the eight incumbents. And what I found from a lot of sort of committed Republican voters,

is that they still have a lot of trust in the president. They still approve of how he's handling his job, that they understand that there are some hurdles and turbulence, but they don't see the president is failing or not delivering, that it just takes some time for things to come to fruition. And in any event, they still look at the alternative, which is a Democrat in the White House, a Democratic-run Congress, as unacceptable

and, you know, a power shift that would make things worse for them. But then you talk to swing voters. You get to softer Republicans, people that are conservative-minded but not populist, people that voted for Trump despite their misgivings because just given the alternative in 2024 on either cultural or economic issues, they were just simply too uncomfortable with Vice President Kamala Harris. And that's where, you know, you have a lot of people going, I just thought it would be like Trump 1.0 pre-COVID. And I'm really unhappy with what's going on.

and this is just not what I signed up for. So my point is here is that the country is not uniformly shifting away from Republicans or President Trump, as bad as the polling is, that you have to go to those pockets that are, what we like to say, purple and blue for sure, and lighter shades of red to see it. That's a big deal for Republicans and the power structure on Capitol Hill. It's a big deal for the president for his final couple years of his term, but it's not a wholesale 100% rejection.

And I think that's just important for us to understand. Well, it is important to understand that what is fascinating, though, Jonathan Lemire is the pocket now, just the bubble now is a 33, 34, 35% who still support Donald Trump. That's the exception. There's always a hard, we've always said. There's always a hard 33%, always for Republicans, a hard 33%. 33% usually always for Democrats. But in this case, what do Americans that aren't all in on Donald Trump?

What are they seeing? They're saying it costs going up. You look at the numbers and on just about everything, Americans say that their life was better under Joe Biden than Donald Trump. Just a year and a half later, you look at corruption. It's just at an all-time high. We could do 10 stories a day on how either the family or the people in the administration are bilking the American taxpayers and taking a lot of money from foreign governments. You look at just the chaos, just the absolute chaos.

You have once again the United States being humbled by Iran. I remember how that turned out for Jimmy Carter. you have golden statues. And if you don't believe that people haven't been following the Trump calling himself Jesus to Trump and the Nebuchadnezzar golden statue, if you don't think that there aren't people looking at that and rolling their eyes, these phones, you know, a lot of times it's the little things that it's the thing I realized in politics. It's the little things that people grab hold to that symbolize something much larger, these Trump mobile phones. the golden calf statue, you go down the list of things.

And you've just got Republicans that are facing real problems. And then add on top of that, so much is happening so quickly, we forget the savage cruelty of Americans being gunned down in the street by Trump's federal government of little. children being sent away to what they call concentration camps? Or tear gas on the face? And by the way, this is a sleeping story. This is a sleeper story that Meekha follows every day. The abject cruelty that continues every day in internment camps, they are not detention centers.

They are internment camps. Make no mistake. This is just like the Japanese internment camps. probably much, much worse as far as treatment goes. The abject cruelty that's going on right now in internment camps across the United States of America, that all adds up on Election Day. It really does. And that's not a good thing for Republicans who actually have to rely on independent voters,

on the people who decide elections. On that last point, Tom Holman at a conference, last security conference last week, said mass deportations will be ramping up again. Correct. Teasing the idea that Trump administration is going to start proceeding with what, in some form, this program. And you're right. Put that all together. You have, first of all, Republicans and Trump gave back whatever gains they made in 2024, you know, with black voters, Latino voters, young voters, Catholic voters, swing voters. That's all gone. And he is stuck now in the 30s. And it seems like a

stubborn 30s. And Democrats are feeling good. David went through the Senate map. They feel like they have a legitimate shot there. They were definitely dealt a septuble back in the last week or so with the Supreme Court redistricting, with the Virginia decision redistricting, that they feel like that's un-American, but also hurts their electoral chances November, but they feel like the blue wave that's coming is big enough to supersede that, at least in the House.

All right, David Drucker, thank you very much.