Pod Save America - Blue Wave Building in the Strait of Hormuz

Episode Date: March 27, 2026

Donald Trump's approval rating hits historic lows as voters react to soaring gas prices caused by his war of choice with Iran. Dan and Jon discuss what those new figures mean for the upcoming midterms and react to Florida Democrats flipping the state legislative seat that includes the president's home at Mar-a-Lago. Plus: the new report that Trump is tiring of the war even as he plans a ground invastion, his likely illegal attempt to pay TSA workers by executive order, and the election crisis facing Democrats in California.

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happening alongside politicians and thinkers like Corey Booker, Nancy Pelosi, Liz Cheney, Tim Walts, Katanji Brown Jackson, Newt Gingrich, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Charlemagne the God. And so many more. That's all in the New Yorker Radio Hour, wherever you listen to podcasts. Welcome to Pod Save America. I'm John Faber. I'm Dan Pfeiffer. On today's show, we're going to talk about reports that Trump is getting bored with the war,

even as the military is preparing for a possible ground invasion of Iran. More Republicans in Congress are speaking out against the war. Gas prices keep going up, and the polls are looking bleak for the president and his party. We'll get into all of that as well, plus the latest with the DHS shutdown that's causing huge lines at American airports. Finally, we'll talk about the shit show of a governor's race here in California, where Democrats may be screwing ourselves into electing a Republican. Also, beyond this show, we continue to cover all the developments around the war in Iran, Donald Trump's presidency, and everything else. So please consider subscribing if you haven't already, so you don't miss out on anything. Friend of the pod subscribers get our new extra episode of Pod Save America called Pod Save America Only Friends.

Love it and I did it this week, so there's one in the feed right now if you subscribe. Other subscriber-only shows like Polar Coaster with Dan Pfeiffer, the guy that's right here with me. That's me. Virtually. But you didn't do one this week because you- No, we do it every other way. Yeah, so we're doing one next week. Well, boy, we're going to do some polar coasting in this episode, but to hear more, you've got to subscribe and listen to you can get Polar Coaster with Dan.

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Could happen. It could be right now. Who knows? All right. But you know what? Will there be a ding when it hits there? Yeah, we haven't figured out what we're going to do once we hit 50,000. Like, we were going to promise that someone does something.

Tommy said that maybe he would put a picture of his feet online on. It did subscribe for numbers go down after that? Yeah, I was going to say, someone suggested that like maybe, maybe if we get hit to 50,000, Elijah will stay on parental leave, which I feel like it's not really fair to Elijah. I will unsubscribe myself to keep that from that. We need that man back. I know. I agree. He subscribed 12 times to try to get you there. Probably. Anyway, there'll be some kind of a prize. So, you know, it could be for you. Be the 50,000 subscriber. Who knows? All right. Let's get to the news. The president has now deployed nearly 7,000 American

troops to the Middle East, some of whom may or may not be fighting on the ground in Iran by the time you hear this. We are recording on Thursday afternoon. But even as Axios reports that Pete Higseth is developing options for a, quote, final blow that could involve a new massive bombing campaign and ground invasion, Trump just said that he's pausing, quote, energy plant destruction for another 10 days per Iranian government request because he says talks are ongoing and going well.

He then called into the five on Fox and Friends, which is something that happens. So waiting for him to call in here, but you know, but when he called into the five, he said, you know, they asked me for seven and I said, I'll give you ten. I feel like the entire thing thing could be made up, but we can get into that.

Either way, the Wall Street Journal reports that Trump is, he's ready for this thing to be over and he's apparently been telling people that, quote, the war was distracting from his other priorities and that, quote, he's ready to shift to his next big challenge, though Trump didn't say what that might be. Fortunately, we did get a sense of what those other priorities and challenges might be during a cabinet meeting on Thursday, where he talked about Iran and so much else. Let's listen. I read a story today that I'm desperate to make a deal. I'm not, I don't, I'm the opposite of desperate.

I don't care. We don't need the hormone straight. We don't need it. We don't need it at all. We don't, we have so much oil. Our country is not affected by this. Frankly, I thought the oil prices would go up more, and I thought the stock market would go down more.

It hasn't been nearly as severe as I thought. This ballroom is going to be something that's so beautiful for the city. It's no secret. The military wanted it more than anybody. We were building an architecture. Triumphal Arc, which would be incredible for the city. We're fixing up the, what was the Kennedy Center. I was honored when the board changed the name a little bit. I'm a gold person. It's all real stuff. You can't imitate it. They've, someday they'll discover a paint that will look like gold,

and the guy's going to be the richest man in the world. See this pen right here. This pen is an interesting example. It's the same thing. So this pen is very inexpensive, but it writes well. I like it. They can't have the pen the way it was. You know what it is. I don't want to give too much publicity, but they do treat me a well Sharpie. I don't want a stupid person being present. Here, here, sir. I mean, that went on for hours this morning.

It's a cabinet meeting in the middle of a war. Marines, other troops headed to the Middle East. Could be a ground invasion any moment now. Oil's prices off the charts. Stock market had its worst day. since the Iran war began today. And we got that this morning. It does seem like he's a little bored, Dan,

with this massive war that he continues to claim. He's already won. What do you think's going on behind the scenes? And what do you think of that journal story? What's going on behind the scenes? You know, everyone's on the Simpsons. They go to the inside of Homer's brain, and it's just like tumbleweeds or like a hamster on a wheel.

I kind of feel like that's what is going on behind the scenes. And so he's just, like, that story in the Wall Street Journal is so disturbing because it's just, like, the takeaway is that Trump just simply doesn't have the attention span for the war he started. And when you read the story, he's like a passive observer of the war. It's like, he's told AIDS. He wants it to end soon. Well, it's, it's another episode of the Trump show. And he feels like the episode has run its course and it's time for a new episode because otherwise he's going to lose the audience. But he's the commander in chief.

He started the war. Like, what's his plan to end it? What's he doing? Like, what is that actually happening? There's just, he really just, like, gave an order a war started. And he's kind of like just kind of weighing in periodically from the sidelines is like the peanut gallery. And it's like, it's embarrassing. Yeah, I've been trying to piece together, as I'm sure you have and everyone else over the last 48, 72 hours.

Like, what actually is happening? because you can't really trust Donald Trump to tell the truth. You can't really trust the Iranians to tell the truth. It seems as though that there are some countries that want to act as mediators, and they've been trading messages between lower-level U.S. officials and Iranian officials, and they want to put together actual negotiations in person, but no one has decided that they want to do that yet. the Iranians, they are very cautious about trusting Donald Trump.

I wonder why. Exactly. Because they think he's just talking about negotiations so he can pull off another sneak attack on Iran, as he has done now many times before and the Israelis have also done. So Iran is preparing for some kind of an invasion. It does seem like we could get, you know, the Marines and the other troops they sent over to the Middle East. could arrive any minute now. The original deadline for Trump deciding to do a war crime

and blow up all their power plants was Friday night. And so there is some thought that maybe Friday or Saturday, there's some kind of invasion or attack. Axios, as they reported on the final blow, there's four options. Three of them involve invading Karg Island and other islands in order to secure the Strait of Hormuz. One option is just seizing ships.

with Iranian oil stopping them. So it is, Trump's out there saying that there are negotiations. It's happening. I don't, it doesn't seem like that's true. It seems like the Iranians are open to negotiations, but again, can't trust Trump so they don't know what to do. But who in Iran, right? They've been.

That's that too, yeah. Well, like Trump for a while was the leader of parliament. He was willing to talk to, but it's unclear if that person has any power. And as soon as Trump called that person, you know, what did you call them hot or a really hot option? Hot option. Hot option. That probably wasn't good for that person standing in the country and with the Republican Guard, the IRGC, who actually runs the country. And it's just there really is something,

like the president is just lying all the time. He lied about why we went to war repeatedly. He is lying about how the war is going. It appears he's making up negotiations of some kind, or at least is dramatically overstating what's happening in order to manipulate the market. Yeah. That's the most generous interpretation is that. Yeah. I mean, like, is it possible that there are people in the country of Iran who are talking to people in other countries and then those people are talking to people in our country?

That is probably happening in some way should perform. Whether any of those people have the authority to actually cut a deal or there is actual progress, like we have seen publicly traded, publicly talked about conditions. The Iranians had some, the United States, the 15 point point, whatever else. But president's making it seem like there is a group of Iranians and a group of Americans in some sort of mythical Yalta having a conversation about the future of this war. And that's clearly not happening. And like the Iranians don't trust them. We don't trust them.

We know not to trust the Iranians. It's all that's very. And you're doing this in a country of which there are no American reporters on the ground of consequence. Maybe there's a handful and there's no domestic reporting in that country to tell us what's happening. And so we really just have no idea what's happening. Meanwhile, four million people in Iran and Lebanon have been displaced so far. Tens of thousands have already left those countries as refugees, some to Turkey, some to other countries. Thousands are dead, including American soldiers.

And basically, oil prices continue to rise. and the Strait of Hormuz has not opened up anymore. Trump talked about getting eight ships through that Iran gave as a gift. No one really knows what the fuck he's talking about there. That's another example. It's like what is how he said he made it seem like it's a grand diplomatic gesture to show that they were serious. People can't really tell what he's talking about.

There's evidence of two ships going through, but that seems to be the sorts of ships that Iran was letting through already. So it's just... And again, the worst of the oil crisis hasn't hit yet because, there are still tankers that took off before the war began. And so we're still, you know, relying on some supplies that were already out there. And once those are gone, then it starts getting really bad. And again, it's also not just oil, but it's fertilizer and its other critical supplies that don't just matter to us in the United States, but to countries all over the world.

They're declaring like an emergency in the Philippines because they don't have energy. India is running into all kinds of problems. And like the idea that this isn't going to come back and bite us in the ass is fanciful because it is a global economy. And what happens to other big countries with economies is going to matter to us as well. And meanwhile, Trump's out there saying, we don't need the straight. We don't need the straight. Why are you sending like a couple thousand troops over there to potentially invade various islands to open up the straight? Like we don't need the straight.

What are you talking about? And if the straight does being closed doesn't affect us, why are our gas prices up more than a dollar? Why are they about to get four, an average of $4 nationally any day now? Why are diesel prices near their highest level in recent memory? And the diesel prices thing is very important because how do you think things get delivered in this country on trucks that run diesel? Why is jet fuel gotten so expensive that United Airlines is cutting 5% of its flights, right? And the airline prices are up for anyone who would like to fly right now during a time of travel chaos. And so it absolutely affects us. And he's just lying about it. And the lies about

what's happening at home are annoying, but we all can see the reality of it. Like, he's not tricking, if someone wants to believe that things are fine because they love Trump so much, that's fine. That's their choice. But he's not tricking anyone that the trade informers not affect us. The lies that really matter of the lies about what it's going to actually happen in this war where we can't see the real truth. Yeah. And the lies that like other countries have to parse, right? because they have to make decisions, too, that are life and death decisions that could impact the global economy and millions of people everywhere. So my guess on this pushing back the deadline thing is the deadline's just going to keep getting pushed back. He's not going to destroy all of Varan's power plants because, as they said, they would then destroy an energy infrastructure across the Middle East.

And that would send prices soaring everywhere and cause even more destruction and more instability and more chaos and more violence. So I think he's just not doing that. He's just going to keep kicking the can down the road on that. There's also like, this is the kind of shit he does. Negotiations are going, as the Iranians guess, this is the kind of shit he does. You know, the negotiations are going well, and I'm going to give you another 10 days just because I'm nice. And then he goes and does a massive invasion or a bombing campaign or whatever he might do. So I do think we could be on the cusp of that as well because you never know.

One other line in the Wall Street Journal story that actually made me laugh out loud when I read it, even though it's not that funny, is, quote, some allies are hopeful Trump can pivot to ousting the communist regime in Cuba. Great pivot. Great pivot. Let's pivot to regime change in a country closer to home. Maybe that would be. That's a good thing to do.

While close advisors want him to focus on the most pressing issue facing voters, concerns about the cost of living, which have been exacerbated by the war. Yeah, no shit. I saw someone point out on Twitter. I think you shared this. that Trump found the one thing you could possibly do to braise both gas prices and mortgage rates at the same time. Incredible. Incredible. I just love them all weighing the option. Like, what should we do next? Should we focus on costs, affordability, the reason we won the election? Let's go invade Cuba.

Look, if you're struggling in a war, you've got to get off the met and fight another war. Yeah, Cuba. Yeah. Back on the war, back on the war horse, Donald Trump. He's going to do Cuba to distract from a round to distract from the Epstein files. No, no, no. Venezuela. You're distracting from Venezuela. which is also then distracting from the Epstein files. Which is distracting from the P-Tape. Which Trump now says all of it is distracting from his other priorities, which are pens, ballrooms, arcs, what else?

Marble Armrest at the Trump Kennedy Center. Marble Arm Center. Yeah, he's also, see he's going to be putting his name on the dollar bill now? Yes, yes. The Treasury's going to start putting his signature on the dollar bill. That's the new one. Great. Just amazing.

Amazing stuff we got here in America. One reason Trump may genuinely believe he's already won this war is because the blow-dry dip shit he put in charge of fighting it Said shit like this is like at the cabinet meeting today. It's the same old tired playbook TDS in your DNA you wouldn't know it if you listen to the dishonest hate Trump media my message to the media is get it right This actually isn't something new to me Maybe a young guy mr president but I'm not a rookie in this realm in 2007 in 2007 I helped lead the surge, the public fight for the Iraq surge,

stood and watched people stand in the Senate and declared the war is lost before it even started. Who was that? It was Harry Reid. That was the Democrats and the media, working hand in glove. Back then it was three years into a war. Now we're three weeks into an operation. But see, unlike Iraq, this isn't a tie.

This is not parody. This is not chaos. This is success. Pure American success. The Iraq War, famously a tie. This is a dated reference. Everyone went home with a little something. I really feel like whoever used to write the No Fear T-shirts back in the day writes Pete Hexas speeches.

Pure uncut American success. We negotiate with bombs. TDS and your DNA with some STDs and so. Like, what is he? He keeps using that line. He sucks. Jesus Christ. I'm shocked the weekend anchor at Fox in Church of the Pentagon thing

as it worked out swimmingly. It's just like, I'm no rookie. Remember Iraq? Yeah, I was the guy that sold the surge. Took three years to have that war be a fucking disaster. This one, just three weeks. Did you see, I think Zeta reported this that around the Pentagon, they're calling him dumb McNamara?

I thought it was the Iranians calling him that. Oh, that was the Pentagon. Maybe. Who knows? Who knows? It could be both. It's a good name. I think we could workshop it.

As Lovett pointed out, Don Dumsfeld was sitting right there for the taking. Don Dumsfeld. All right. Well, there's a title for this episode. Did you see the NBC news story that Hegseth's folks have been putting together a daily morning highlight reel for Trump of, quote, stuff blowing up in Iran? I don't know. It seems like maybe the president's not getting a full picture of what's happening if he's just getting the highlight reel. It's like he's just like watching NFL Red Zone for the for the Iran War. Except the Red Zone actually would include the bad stuff. It's even worse than that.

I mean, it like it's a, he's just getting, he gets his Diet Coke and a snuff film to start the day. And the story's amazing because he's like, why is the media reporting what I see? I just see the bombs just blowing things up. Everything's going great. It does, there's something like bigger here, which is the reason they do this is because it makes him happy. And if they tell him bad news, he yells at them and they don't want to get yelled at. So we're making decisions around war and military, quote unquote, excursions the same way parents treat a hangary toddler, right? They're so afraid he's going to lose his shit and have a meltdown that they just tell them what he wants here, which is a very bad way to raise a child and it's a worse way to run a government. It is. Yeah. I try not to give them their way too much.

I mean, it's hard not to sometimes. It's hard not to. But you know what? If they had their finger on the button and could launch a nuclear war or send thousands of troops to them, but at least then maybe I would be a little tougher on them, you know? Yeah. But apparently no one can do that with Donald Trump. I don't even know. Like, does Pete Hegseth even know things are going bad as well? Like what is happening? I mean, I guess he gets briefed. He must. I don't. I mean, here's the thing from his perspective. We're blowing up all the things we're supposed to be blowing up. And that's the only language he understands anyway. Because we negotiate with bombs.

Because we negotiate with bombs. And we've got our hand on the throttle, as he was saying the other day in the Oval Office. Yeah. So I guess they really are judging success in this war by the amount of destruction we cause. Which is a strategy that worked great in Vietnam. Potsave America is brought you by Nutrafol. Real change comes from the small things you do every day that quietly add up to big improvements. That's the idea behind Nutrafol.

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A bunch of them just got classified briefings from the Pentagon about the war, and some of them do not seem happy. Mike Rogers, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said senior officials failed to provide basic details about the scope and direction of the military campaign. That's according to the New York Times. Roger Wicker, chair of the armed services over in the Senate, said he could see why Rogers would say that. He wouldn't go quite beyond that.

Let me just say I could see why he said that. And here's a surprising MAGA voice of reason who was in those briefings. Nancy Mace. What was it about today's briefing that you found so concerned in terms of the idea of the United States possibly putting troops on the ground in Iran? I got to be careful about what I say because it was in a skiff and it was a classified setting. But there was frustration that reverberated throughout based on the information. that we were receiving. And I'm Maga Mace.

I am a conservative foreign Republican, and I support President Trump. I think he said an excellent job. But when we're talking about troops on the ground, that is a different stage in an operation or in a war that has a significantly greater gravity than any other thing that we've talked about. I mean, reading between the lines with what Mace said

and what some of these other Republicans are telling reporters about these briefings, it sure seems like they were brief that they're going to be some kind of ground troops on the ground in a round soon, whether it's on Karg Island or wherever the fuck it is, and didn't have a lot of details beyond that because they all seem pretty freaked out. Yeah, it seems quite bad. It makes sense because I'm sure they got to for the first time ask questions about like, what's the plan? What are we doing? What do we know? How do we get out of this? And there are no good answers to those questions. So Nancy Mace is running for governor of South Carolina, which I forgot until that interview in a crowded primary. Obviously, she's Nancy Mace and usually unwell. But what does her answer tell you about the politics there in some of these races? You know, it's interesting because if you look at the polling, which we're going to dig into in a minute, but there is among Republican base voters, MAGA voters, there is a high level of support for what President Trump is doing in Iraq.

Will there be a high level of support for $200 billion? for that, that's an open question. But so she's not actually doing, she's not capturing something that you feel right now. But South Carolina is a state with a very high military and veterans population. It is, she's maybe thinking ahead about where things might be a week from now, two weeks from now, three weeks or a few months from now, about where people are going to be. But like, I think I'm not going to give Nancy Mays credit for being like sincere here, but it does seem like she went to the briefing wanting to support Trump.

and came out believing maybe not that Trump is wrong here, but that he's being poorly served by the people who are running this war. Yeah, I mean, none of them can do the most obvious thing, which is to criticize Donald Trump because he is the big boy at 80 years old who has decided to fight this war and is the decision maker, but they are too afraid so they can't do that. So they all try to blame someone else or talk around it. But you can tell the people who are in, you know, who have to run for office or who are in tough

races, or even the people who have just, like, been there a while and think this is, and have been through other wars are starting to think this is a little bit crazy because it is. You can't think it's not crazy. If you have any amount of sanity in your life, you can't think it's not crazy because it's fucking bananas. It makes no sense what we're doing. No one can answer a question about it. There is no explanation.

We're a month into it. There is no strategy. There is no objective. there is no end game. The gas prices are going up. Like if you spent your entire life fantasizing and possibly purient ways about a war with Iran, like Lindsay Graham, like this is very exciting.

If you're just someone who hasn't thought about this for two seconds is just getting your news from the Fox News propaganda channel on the war, then maybe you think things are going fine. But if you actually think about it for a second, it's insane. It was also telling how, like, marker, how Marco Rubio and J.D. Vance spoke about it at the cabinet meeting. We could have played clips forever, but we didn't really have the time. But like, Rubio, all he could say, continue to say is like, the people running Iran are religious lunatics. They're religious lunatics. Like, that's all he can say

because he's like, okay, here's something that's true. So I can keep saying that. J.D. Vance went on something about, like, you know, some of these guys, they walk in to a store with a, with a, with a vest on with bombs in the vest and they blow it up and imagine if it was nuclear or imagine if the bombs were bigger like it made no fucking sense he's talking about like random suicide bombers was he talking about them here in the middle east where he doesn't even know like he's way that guy is like does not want to be any part of this although apparently he might be leading negotiations it is interesting to watch both of those two who may have political futures beyond this uh try as hard as they can to avoid talking about this war.

Yeah, Rubio's was, which I saw, I only saw clips of JD Vance, but Rubio, he basically has tried to define success as what's already happened. So matter what happens next, no matter who's in charge, no matter what deal is struck, no matter when the straight opens or not,

Iran was dangerous. There are dangerous people in charge. Those people are now dead. We are safer because of it. Like that is his, he's trying to, like that's not how the world works. That's not what's actually happening, but that's the case he's trying to make.

And I think in his mind, anything that happens after that is Pete Hicks' fault. Yeah, that is true. It feels like Trump's getting ready to do that too since he basically has said a couple times this week. Pete wanted the war. Pete doesn't want the war to end. It was Pete's idea to do the war,

and now he's really sad that we're going to have to end it. So yeah, they are preparing to, Pete's going to be doing his next briefing from under the bus. So all these Republicans are clearly seeing the same polls the rest of us are. People are pissed at this point, mostly because of the war's economic impact. Mortgage rates increased for the third straight week are now at a five-month high.

Gas is now at an average of $3.98 a gallon, expected to keep climbing. A new forecast on Thursday said inflation is headed back up this year. And all of this is why Trump's approval rating is already hitting record lows for his second term. Now under 40 percent, according to three new polls out this week from Quinnipiac, AP, and Reuters. A new Fox poll has his disapproval at 59 percent, the highest. in either of his terms, with half of those strongly disapproving, polls even worse on his handling of Iran where he's underwater 36 to 64. What a week not to have an episode of Polarcoaster.

But for those of you who don't yet get the message box, which you should be subscribers, which crooked.com slash yes, we Dan, go subscribe to the message box. But here you're just going to give us all a free preview, maybe, of what you said in the message box today. I will. So Trump's position is even worse than people think it is. Like, as you point out, his approval rating is lower than it has ever been.

He is under 40 in three polls this week. As Lakshijan in the argument points out, Trump is not just unpopular. He's more unpopular than any modern president at this point in the presidency, including Donald Trump in his first term. It's tough. He is underwater on every single issue. His entire political strength, the reason he's able to survive every other problem, you know, period of political turmoil in his career has been because of people trusted him on the economy.

That is over. He has 20 points underwater on the economy, 30 points underwater on inflation. In a couple of these polls, Trump's economic per rating is now lower than Joe Biden's was at any point in Joe Biden's presidency. Wow. And then there's another point here, which I think does not get enough attention. I hit on this in the message box is it had always been true since Trump came down the escalator that yes, Trump drove intense opposition among Democrats.

He also drove intense support among Republicans. And so Trump being on the ballot or Trump being out there campaigning, yes, it would drive up Democrats, but it helped Republicans because it would drive up Republican turnout too. That is not true anymore. In Nates and it was polling model, the number of Americans who strongly disapprove of Trump is two times the number of Americans who strongly approve of Trump. Republicans like Trump, they don't love them anymore. And you can see that in the generic ballot, right?

In a CNN poll last month, I think you guys might have mentioned this on Tuesday, but the number of Democrats who are highly interested in the election or motivated to vote is much higher than the number of Republicans. And when you just ask among those who are highly interested in the election, how they're going to vote in 2026, the generic ballot expands from five points to 16 points. I mean, this is the makings of an absolute 1994, 2018, 2006. style political disaster. And I left 2010 out for a reason. I can explain if you're interested. But it is like the conditions are there for just an absolute disaster for Trump and the Republicans

this fall. Why'd you leave 2010 out? Because 2010, I think, is different because Obama was much, much more popular than either any of these other presidents were at that point. And you had 10% unemployment, but the thing that really hurt Democrats was that we had had two consecutive wave elections. And so there was a large, this huge number of seats that were in enemy territory that the wave receded in 2010 and they all got left behind. But yes, if you're, but like, if you want to compare to 2010, Trump's numbers are abysmal compared to Obama's at that point. I keep seeing these polls and it's, look, it's lovely. It's the best part of my day to see polls where Trump's under 40. you know, the election is with other Republicans on the ballot. It's the midterm election coming in

November. And, you know, the generic ballot, like you said, it's been, so the average, the Democratic lead on the generic ballot right now is five and a half points in Nate Silver's average. That said, this week, the individual polls have sort of been all over the map. There's been a big range. Just this week, it was Democrats plus 11, plus 10, plus 8, plus 8. There's in Quinnipiac polls. Global Strategy Group, Emerson. And then you had like Reuters where Trump's approval is very, very low, UGov morning consult that only has Democrats up like between two and four points in those polls. So it could be much bigger than five and a half at this point.

It is notable, of course, that in all these polls, the approval rating of the Democratic Party is still in the shitter. Now, the Republicans aren't more popular either, but like maybe like a point or two more popular than Democrats in these polls. but Democrats and the Republicans are sitting at like 30, 35 percent favorability in a lot of these polls. Now, among independents, Democrats are slightly more popular than Republicans, which, you know, is probably good for the midterms. And of course, some of that Democratic weakness is just Democratic voters being pissed at the party, but still going to vote Democrat. But I do wonder, as you look towards the midterms, like, did Democrats need to start making

more a case against the Republican Party in general and not just. Donald Trump? Or do you think that they're just so tied to Donald Trump that it's easy to, if Trump's approval is way down, then people are just not going to vote for Republicans? History would say that in the midterms, making it about Trump is sufficient. Is enough. There is, like, the way I would think about this is a two-step process. Voters leave one side and you have to persuade them to come over to your side. Step one has happened. Step two has not yet happened. There are opportunities for that to happen. There are things we're going to have to do. The Democratic approval rating, as you point out,

is abysmal. Also, if you compare Republican versus Democrat trust on the issues, yes, Trump is 30 points underwater, but we're on inflation, but we're essentially tied with a generic Democrats tied with a generic Republican on inflation. And in some of these house races are sort of a generic Democrat versus a generic Republican, we're going to have to continue to make that case. That individual Democrat is going to have to show why they are better than a generic Democrat on inflation or cost of living and a whole host of other issues. And so there's a lot of work to do. The way I would put it is this is a historic opportunity for the party. Like the political storm clouds have aligned as such that we have a shot to have a very,

very big election. We have work to do to get there. That includes improving the party brand. It includes our candidates running good races. It includes having enough money to be able to compete in some of these Trump plus 10, Trump plus 12, Trump plus 13 seats that are on the cusp of possibly tipping if we do everything right. It means being able to compete aggressively in all these expansion Senate states like Ohio, Texas, Iowa, Alaska, maybe even Florida. And so like there, I just, there are a lot of ways that

we can stumble on the way of the altar here, but the opportunity is there as we sit here today. And if this work continues, if oil prices and gas prices continue to go up, the opportunity is going to get even bigger. And again, this is not just about 2026, but it is about setting the table for 2028 because for every extra house seat and especially Senate seat, Democrats win this time around. It's going to help our chances of having a majority if we get a Republican president in 28 and then can actually pass shit. And that means, and I think the Senate map is, it's instructive here, right? Which is like, it used to be that we're like, oh, maybe we're close in Texas or wouldn't it be cool if we want Alaska? But it's like, no, no, no. Now, Texas,

Alaska, Ohio, Iowa. We need two of those four and North Carolina and Maine and to hold Michigan and New Hampshire in order to win and and Asoff in Georgia, sorry, to have a Senate majority to take the Senate back. And then the map doesn't get a whole lot easier in 2028. There's not a lot of pick up opportunities in 28 for Democrats either. So then you'd have to like hold more seats in tough states and maybe I guess, wait, Ron Johnson's up. in Wisconsin then in 28? And McCormick is up.

And McCormick in Pennsylvania, yeah. No, no, that's not true. Sorry, Federman's up. Federman's up. Federman's up. But like this is a little bit of bad luck is you would have almost wanted, yes, we have all that, like maybe this year we have a shot at some of these Senate seats we would not have in a different year.

Also, we have a bunch of Democrats in tough seats who we like to have up in a great year like this. You know, it was like Joe Manchin was able to cruise to re-election in 2018. It would have been great if we could have re-elect. you know, Ruben Gallego or Mark Kelly or, uh, Ralphio Warnock or Tammy Baldwin, you know, just, it's not the best year to have this happen, but the opportunity is there. And your point is, if you, if we do not pick up a significant number of sentences, even if we don't get to 51, we're not, we're not, our, the next Democratic president in 20, 29 is not going to have a

governing majority to start with. And again, just like, want to get, get this in people's minds, too. You may think, okay, well, Trump's out, Democratic president. Democratic president without a congressional majority, passing a bunch of executive actions, not going to fly. Yeah. Because we have this Supreme Court. We've seen what happens. And everyone's just going to get incredibly cranky with good, for good reason, at that Democratic president.

And then we're going to lose the majority. Then we're probably going to lose, you know what I'm saying? So it's just like, you really, it really is important, you know, go to vote save America. Because we're, we're focused on giving you stuff to do to help take back the house. But there's also Senate races. There's plenty for everyone to do. but you're right. It could be a historic opportunity because of the political environment in 26, and we need to put the fucking foot on the gas to pick up every single seat possible.

And that's going to require not just Trump fucking things up, but Democrats getting their shit together. Hotsave America is brought you by stamps.com. It's staggering that to this very day, many small business owners are still making post office runs or are stuck with expensive postage meter leases. We're staggered. We're staggered by this. It's falling over. Staggering. It's 2026. Enough.

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It's on Tuesday, a state Senate seat in Tampa, and a House district that Trump won by 11 in 2024 that just happens to include the president's home in Mar-a-Lago, where Trump himself voted on Tuesday, along with Melania and Barron. Now, you might be wondering how they voted, since this is what Trump said earlier this week. I hate mail-in ballots because basically it's a way of cheating. Hates them. Hates them. Let's hear how he answered a question about this at the cabinet meeting. You may not use the mail-in ballot. You probably said, yeah, I did. You know what? Because I'm president of the United States.

I felt I should be here instead of being in the beautiful sunshine taking... But you were on Tall Beach, sir, the last few weekends. That's right. And I decided that I was going to vote by mail-in ballot because I couldn't be there because I had a lot of different things. But, you know, we have exceptions for mail-in ballots. You do know that. Okay.

So you had a lot of different things, so you used mail-in voting because it was more convenient. Is that what you're saying? Okay, cool. it's unique to a president to have to work on election day and maybe not be able to go to, to get off work to go to the polls. And so those people who can't get off work to go to the polls should be able to mail in their ballot. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. I mean, he's a great case.

He makes a great case for mail-in balloting right there. He also said he's like, and we have exceptions. We have exceptions. If you're sick, if you're on a business trip. And I'm like, oh, really? How are you going to implement those exceptions? You're going to require a doctor's note from people and employers note that they were on a business. trip to get their mail-in balloting done?

What the fuck is he talking about? It's so crazy. It's so stupid. It's so worth remembering. His campaign aggressively encouraged male balloting in 2024. Yes. Of course. Because Republicans know that they need mail-in-balloting as well.

You know what state has led the nation in mail-in-balloting for a very long time? Florida. And you know who it usually benefited for a very long time before COVID? Republicans. Anyway, let's talk about that. Let's talk about that race that Trump. voted in and obviously he also endorsed the Republican candidate. That didn't that didn't help. What do you think of those Florida wins? Is the is the blue wave going to bury Mar-a-Lago?

Look, with our current climate policy, eventually yes, John. Something is. Yes, yes. A wave will do it of some kind. Electorally or otherwise. Yes. Like these are big wins. They are indicative of the political environment. It's about an 11-12-point swing in the district that has Mar-Lago. a big swing in the Tampa District where that Democrat was outspent 10 to 1 in the race and still won.

Wow. And we spent a lot of time in 23 and 24 pointing out that special elections were not perfectly predictive, that it's a very different political environment. We were succeeding in them as Democrats because we had a base of high propensity voters who turn out all the time. Now, two interesting things here. One, yes, there was very good Democratic turnout in these races, but that's not why the Democrats won.

the number of votes received by both the Democrats in these districts dramatically exceeded the number of registered Democrats in the district. And so the only way they could perform that well was to do very well with independence and Republicans. Another thing that our friend Amy Walter of the Cook Political Report has pointed out in a piece today, special elections have been pretty predictive of midterms. So both in 2018, Democrats were winning special elections by about 11.5 points, and they won the national popular vote by nine points. And then in 2022, Republicans were winning special

elections by about four points. And Republicans won the popular vote by three points in that election. You know, I was going to ask you this because I was looking at the swing in that Mar-a-Lago district between the last Republican who won it because Trump wanted by 11, but the last Republican won by, I guess, 19. Yeah. And I feel like all of these, the swing from 24 in so many of these special elections ends up somewhere between like 15 and 20. Yeah. And it's just like it keeps hitting there every time. And I'm like, it's weird because, you know, we're seeing the generic ballot at, you know,

five and a half right now, some 10 or whatever. But all these swings from 2024 have been in the in the high teens. I think the average of all the special elections since 2025 has been about 12 points, I think. That's been the performance above Kamala Harris's number. Yeah. I feel like in 26. I feel like like the last couple months of them have gotten a little.

I mean, there's a small sample size, but I feel like they've gotten a little bigger. There have been a couple, there have been a couple like gigantic ones this month. It always, these things are always very, you got to look at all of them because they're very race specific.

Like you could have a very bad candidate. Like you look at this, like you, you use the Trump number, not the 20, the previous house race in that house district. It was more likely competitive because it probably was not particularly competitive because the Democrat didn't run a real race.

Right. So you just, you know, So you kind of, you throw them all in there. And it's, it is, it is like a, right now, these special elections look like 2018 in terms of margin. Wow. Well, that's exciting. Except for the generic ballot. That's, we've worked. We have worked to do. We got work to do. All right, let's talk about the airports, many of which are currently still a complete mess, just as millions of kids and families are traveling for spring break. Security lines are

hours long in some places, all because TSA agents haven't been paid in a month. Many have stopped showing up for work. Nearly 500 have quit. Problem hasn't been solved by Trump, sending in ice agents to stand around all day in the airport. That hadn't fixed it. But just now, Dan, breaking news. Oh, wow. We have breaking news. Trump has truthed.

He has, he said that he is instructing the Department of Homeland Security to pay TSA, which apparently he could have done all along. I guess. You, no, I don't think that's how that works. That's what he, so here we're going. go, I'm going to get through. I'm going to just read you the his statement. There's a lot of radical left Democrats crying Chuck Schumer. They've, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Let's see. Democrats almost destroyed our country. Asylums. Blah, blah, blah, blah. You've heard that all before.

Okay. Because the Democrats have recklessly created a true national crisis, I am using my authorities under the law to protect our great country, as I always do. Therefore, I am going to sign an order instructing the Secretary of Homeland Security, Mark Wayne Mullen. Congrats to you, Senator Mullen, to immediately pay our TSA agents in order to address this emergency situation and to quickly stop the Democrat chaos at the airports. It is not an easy thing to do, but I am going to do it. I want to thank our hardworking TSA agents, blah, blah, blah, and ICE, of course. That's it.

Thank you for attention to this matter, DJT. That seems bad. What, you think it seems bad? Yeah, I think it seems bad because that says there's no deal, which means there's no law being passed that sends money to the Department of Homeland Security that they can then take that money and give it to the workers. We have a response from Chris Murphy. He said, the national emergency is that he can't cut a deal, that he's a bad negotiator. I don't think that's grounds for a national emergency. We made progress today.

We've been actively talking all day. So the backstory here is Congress has not been able to reach a deal. It seems like one option that has been discussed is basically funding everything in the Department of Homeland Security except for ICE. But then also Democrats, even if they do that, still want. some reforms for ICE, not as much, I think they'd be willing not to do as many reforms as they originally asked for, but they want more than the White House was going to give them, which is basically nothing. And so that was the sticking point, but I'm not quite sure what the challenge was there. Like, I don't know why you can't just, because I know Democrats were trying to just fund

TSA and Republicans were blocking that. So then why not fund all of DHS and just leave ICE for another negotiation. The sticking point was, if you want to get nerdy about this, is that if you fund all of DHS except ICE, you're still funding CBP and HSI, Homeland Security Investigations, and they do immigration enforcement. And so they would be proceeding. We'd be paying them to do immigration enforcement absent reforms. And if we remember, it was CBP officers who were involved in the killing of Alex Prattie. It also seems like they were going to get a deal. As our old boss Pete Rouse from Obama World used to say, nothing motivates a senator like the smell of jet fumes. And once John Thune said, well, I guess we're not going to be able to go on recess if we don't fix this.

It was pretty sure they're headed for a deal. So Trump has fucked this up. It's not clear how they're going to pay for it. Like, are they going to take money from ice and give it to them, which seems cool, but definitely not legal. Maybe they'll get some from the big beautiful bill. But you can't do it. I mean, I'm like, yeah, like I ever say nothing matters, but that's definitely. not how the power of the purse works.

Like, Congress didn't fund them. Like, you can't... Maybe he's getting a rich person to pay them. I don't really know what's happening. No, no. He's declaring an emergency. Is the authority under the law? Under the law, of course.

So here's a question, Dan. So the Department of Homeland Security then is still shut down. No one else in DHS is getting paid. Trump is paying just the TSA workers with some emergency funding that we don't know where it's coming from yet. why then for the last two weeks have Republicans blocked Democrats' efforts to simply just fund TSA? Because it's very easy to, they could right now, with a very simple vote in the Senate, in the House, just say, okay, we're going to fund TSA and let's negotiate the rest later so we can fix the airports, which Democrats have been trying to do. Republicans block that, and now Trump's basically doing it anyway with some magic money.

as America's favorite soybean farmer would say, he's jiu-jitsuing you, John. We're jihitsuing the Iranians with their own oil. I honestly have no idea. Like, I don't even know what to say because it makes no sense. It seems crazy. Maybe it's so crazy it'll work. Someone pointed out Eric Watson from Bloomberg. He said Trump did the same likely illegal move to pay troops during the fall shutdown.

and it was just too politically toxic to try to stop it in court. So it's illegal, but who's going to court to say don't pay the TV? That's probably what's happening here. That is probably what's happening here. Probably fucking Amtrak sues, get people back on the trains.

Hey, you know what? It's like whether the Republicans finally said yes to the Democrats attempt to fund TSA or Trump just does it with magic money that we can't find. Who cares? I guess the airports will get fixed.

Although, I mean, I must have those 500 TSA agents that quit back, probably, huh? Yeah, seems like things are not going to be perfect anytime soon at the airports. I also don't understand how this is going to get any kind of a deal now at DHS, because what is the, what's the pressure to get a deal now that the airport chaos has going to subside? Yeah, if I was a Coast Guard or FEMA worker, I'd be pretty pissed right now. Right, because they all have to get paid. Yeah. And how much magic money is there, John?

Who knows? Who knows? We're spending how many billions have we spent in Iran already? He's just Scott Basson's going to turn on the presses and start printing those Donald Trump bucks. Get those printed for some people. Yeah, we get to fucking build the arc too. Pod Save America is brought to you by Cook Unity if you've got culinary taste. You know how expensive exploring your local food scene can be and how hard it is to find the time and energy to try somewhere new. Cook Unity is the first chef to you service delivering locally sourced meals from award-winning chefs right to your door every week. and it's cheaper than other delivery options, go to cookunity.com slash crooked or enter code cricket before checkout for 50% off your first week. We love Cook Unity. I just picked out my Cook Unity meals today. Isn't it a great feeling? It's a dream. You get a little bit excited or what

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preference is vegan, paleo, pescatarian, gluten-free, and more. Filter for soy, nut, and dairy-free options. Venues are posted two weeks in advance, so you have plenty of time to choose. Experience chef-quality meals every week, delivered right to your door. Go to cookunity.com slash crooked or enter code crooked before checkout for 50% off your first week. That's 50% off your first week by using code crooked or going to cookunity.com slash crooked. One more thing before we go on Tuesday, the California Democratic Party released the latest gubernatorial primary poll that shows two Republicans and therefore no Democrats advancing to the November election to succeed Governor Gavin Newsom. There have now been several polls that show a result like

this with Republicans in the one and two spots. If you're not familiar, California has a jungle primary system where all candidates, regardless of party, compete in the same primary with the top two vote geters advancing to the general election. Here in 2026, two Republicans are running in the primary, along with around 10,000 Democratic candidates. I think that's the number. And according to the California Democratic Party's poll, those two Republican candidates, Chad Bianco and Steve Hilton, are polling at around 15 percent, while no Democrat is polling higher than 10 percent. So this is a fucking mess. USC had to cancel a debate this week that would have featured the two Republicans and four of the leading Democratic candidates because USC's debate criteria locked out four of the lower

polling candidates who all happened to be either black, Latino, or Asian, who pushed back pretty hard until the debate was called off. What did you make of that before we get into the broader issue? The mistake here is the criteria included not just polling position, but also money. So that led them to include Matt Mayhan, the low polling, but mayor of San Jose, who also has a lot of money because people like Sergey Brin and a lot of tech people are funding his campaign. And so once you put, I think you could have made a credible argument that you were going to stop at Tom Steyer, Eric Swalwell, Katie Porter. They have been three, four, and five in the polls and bunched up together for a very long time with a decent size gap between them and everyone else. But once you included

Mayhan in there, it seemed like a very, I understand why people would be upset about that. Because you shouldn't be able to get on a debate stage just because Sergey Brin writes a massive check to your super pack. Yeah, it does seem like that the criteria was laid out before the debate when they all agreed, so it's not like they made it up as they went. Yes, yes. Point taken. But I think the larger challenge is there's a debate on April 1st, and I think there's one on April 22nd, and the Democratic candidates were not included in the USC debate.

Javier Bissera, Antonio Villargoza, Tony Thurmond, who's the superintendent, state superintendent in California, Betty Yee, who's the former state comptroller. They have all made, apparently, an informal pact that if not all of them are included in a debate, then none of them will participate in the debate, which seems like unwise to me for the next two debates. I think Pacerra and Villargosa did qualify for the next debate, but I don't know. They're going to, and I think they accepted, and now are they not going to go because Ye and Thurmond, who are pulling at 1 and 2 percent, aren't going to go? I don't know. Broader question, what happens now? Primaries June 2nd. Ballots are already printed.

They will start getting mailed out in early May. What a California Democrats need to do to fix this mess and avoid accidentally electing a Republican governor. It's a classic collective action problem, John. Everyone's incentive is to keep things exactly as the way they are up until the exact moment where we nominate two Republicans to run for governor in the most Democratic state in the country. I mean, there have been several polls now, right? I think we're at 20 polls that all show the same thing because I think that we just

one of the, maybe vote hub or someone who does a poll. average. We've just hit the criteria to actually keep an average going, and it's bad for Democrats. Well, but here's what's important about these polls. So you've got the two Republicans who are either in the one or two spot or one or three or whatever else. And then Tom Steyer, Eric Swalwell and Katie Porter are all in like double digits in most of these polls. I think a few polls maybe Katie's at eight or someone else, like they slip here and there, but most of them are in like double digits in these polls. then Bacera, Vyragosa, Thurman, Betty Yee, and Matt Mahan are all, none of them have topped five in any of these polls, 5%. Many of them are like one or two or three.

So it's like, these candidates are just, they're just going to stay in even though they think. And like, here's the thing, Matt Mahan, you're like, okay, well, he's the mayor of San Jose. And so maybe, you know, people don't really know him, although he now he does have a lot of money so we can get on air. he joined the race late, but put him aside. Bacera, his one statewide, he was the Attorney General of California, served in the Biden administration. So clearly, he's got name ID. Villargosa ran statewide. Mayor of L.A. ran against Gavin Newsom when Newsom ran.

So he ran a statewide campaign. And then Tony Thurman and Betty, you're at like 1% anyway. But like, what? I don't know. If you're Bessera and Vigosa, like, what are you doing? Well, I mean, here's... Or Matt Mayhan at this point. Like, what are you doing?

Yeah. I mean, it's a great question. I mean, it is the problem here is so that California is basically a 60, 40 state and the 60 is being divided up like 12 ways and the 40 is being divided up two ways. And the math is very bad for Democrats if that's the case. Now, there is a big chunk of undecided and that undecided is mostly Democratic. And so what you have to hope is that when that undecided comes home, it comes to one of the candidates who has an actual chance of winning. Right. If the undecided allocates evenly amongst all 12 candidates or whatever it is, then we see. stay in this problem. It's also there's, I wrote in the aforementioned message box a month or so ago, like now it's not time to panic. I don't think it's time to panic yet, but we're getting close to panic time. And people are going to, like, what's going to have to happen here is people are going to have to think about what's best for the party in the state and not themselves. It's going to include all these candidates who do not have a shot to win. Because if you do not have support now and you do

not have money to become known in the most expensive television state in the country, you are not going to win. There is no path to winning. It is that can't happen. So the best thing you can do is drop out and endorse someone who has a chance to win. So that's it. Failing that it is incumbent upon everyone who has a platform from Gavin Newsom, Adam Schiff, Alex Padilla, people who talk into microphones, people who post on social media, to at some

point in the near future say, these are the candidates who have a chance to win. Pick one of them. And a vote for anyone else is a vote for a Republican governor of California. We actually, this actually went down in a house race or two in like 2018. Yeah, I remember that. Because this comes up periodically when you have a lot of Democrats running and two Republicans, you're going to end up in this situation. And we've, we've successfully navigated those. That's easier to do at a house race level than a statewide level. But people are going to have to, we have to say, and it's going to be uncomfortable because the most, most, most, most likely scenario is those three candidates are going to be Eric Swalwell, Tom Steyer, Kitty Porter. Right. And you know,

I was going to say like, that's it, but it's like, you know, I guess you got, what, another week or two? Let's see another couple polls. See if anyone breaks up. It's like, nothing's happening. It's California is, it is a huge state. It's an expensive state. No one knows who anyone is other than the governor and the senators, these candidates, even though, you're right, Biserra was the attorney general in the in Biden's agency secretary any member of Congress for a long time no one knows very much about them the um you know same thing all these other people you're mentioning other than Matt Mayn are state elected officials they have run statewide and no one knows anything and if they're they don't have the money to introduce themselves like the system here sucks because of how

expensive it is to run ads and yeah the state's too big to go around and meet everyone and local media is so hollered out that you can't even like have a incredible earn media communication strategy to get well known because no one sees that shit anymore. And so like this is where it is what it is and it's going to be uncomfortable. We're going to have to make some tough decisions to ensure that California does not have a Republican governor. One thing that these Democratic candidates and every other Democratic official in California could all work together or decide together on is to elevate one of those Republican candidates

and attack that Republican candidate instead of the other one and to make them a bigger deal, Because I was thinking about this when I was reading Gavin's book and Tommy and I interviewed him. Like he talked about how in his race, it was him and Villaragosa. And he knew that if in the general, he felt good about winning, but it would be a tougher race against a fellow Democrat, Villargoza, than it would be a Republican. And so he elevated John Cox as this Trumpy Republican. It focused all of his advertising, negative advertising on Cox and nothing. And he barely mentioned Villargoza. And then, sure enough, Cox won second.

and Viragoza got third and then Gavin Cruz to victory. And obviously this is a different situation, a different composition of candidates, but I would imagine if they all decided, we're going to all go after Steve Hilton, he's the boogeyman, he loves Trump, he's on Fox all the time, and make him the big bad guy,

then maybe he gets more Republicans and then Chad Bianco falls. Well, I think so in the Cox Newsom race, I think Cox got 38, got 40%, right? And so when you add up what, like, I have, even looked at the average, but in general, it seems like Bianco plus Hilton's getting to like 32. 32, yeah. So you have, what you're probably doing is you're taking that 8% of

Republicans who don't know that the poll, that the election's happening and putting them towards one of them. It's not clear your, it's not, it's not a zero-sum game amongst your Republicans. For what Newsom was doing, if I recall correctly, is there was one Republican of consequence who had any chance of making it. And he was making sure Republicans knew that this is the person to vote for. And so I think it's a slightly different situation. If it was, because, he was just moving one Republican ahead of a Democrat, which is easy to do given the size of the Republican electorate and the fact that most Republicans don't turn out in a primary because there's generally not much of them to vote for. Here it's different because I'm not sure you're

going to lower Bianco, you might just raise Hilton. And we ask you, there's no one in charge. I was like, I wonder if like Newsome or Kamala Harris at some point. Or Kamala Harris, another person who has a platform here. That's what I'm saying. Like at some point, I wonder if one of these statewide officials who's popular, I mean, they're probably, you know, there's these campaigns are doing polls, and I'm probably sure they've tested the power of some of these endorsements and not like I think endorsements make a huge deal,

but in a situation like this where we're in the narrow range of one or two percentage points separating some of these candidates, they can probably make a difference. Yeah, for sure. I mean, Kamala Harrison... Of course, they'd all have to do the same.

Yeah, that's right. Like this fucking state, you have like, Gavin Newsom, like, endorses Eric Swalwell, and then Kamala Harris jumps in and endorses Katie Porte. Yeah, and then someone comes in and does Steyer, and then we're right back where we were again. Yeah, my fucking mess.

But anyway, yeah, I mean, right now it's one of those three, and I know, like, Matt Mahan has, like, got in the race late, but, you know, he's got a lot of money, and he's, you know, spending it on ad, so we'll see. I think maybe, like, another week or two, see where these candidates are. Maybe suddenly everyone will be like, oh, Villarosa, great, we want him back in state government or Basera.

I don't know, but, like, I really think we're, like, a week or two away from just, like, no, it's those three candidates and that's it. Yeah, we're five weeks away from ballots going out, so. All right, well, that's something to look forward to here in California. That's our show for today. Also, a reminder, no kings is tomorrow. We've got another no kings day. So make sure you make a plan to get out there.

You can go to votesaveamerica.com, and you can find out a no king's location near you. Alex Wagner will be back in the feed on Sunday with a conversation with independent journalists and Trump target, Don Lemon. Check it out. Have a good weekend. Hi, everyone. If you want to listen to Pod Save America ad,

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