The MeidasTouch Podcast - Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries Responds to Trump 100 Days of Chaos

Episode Date: April 30, 2025

MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas interviews Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries on his reaction to Donald Trump’s first one hundred days and Leader Jeffries does not hold back. Visit https://meidasplus.com for more! Remember to subscribe to ALL the MeidasTouch Network Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/meidastouch-podcast Legal AF: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/legal-af MissTrial: https://meidasnews.com/tag/miss-trial The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-politicsgirl-podcast The Influence Continuum: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-influence-continuum-with-dr-steven-hassan Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/mea-culpa-with-michael-cohen The Weekend Show: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-weekend-show Burn the Boats: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/burn-the-boats Majority 54: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/majority-54 Political Beatdown: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/political-beatdown On Democracy with FP Wellman: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellman Uncovered: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/maga-uncovered Coalition of the Sane: https://meidasnews.com/tag/coalition-of-the-sane Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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please contact Connex Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. I'm joined by Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries. Leader Jeffries, I got to ask you, now that we're 100 days into this Trump presidency, how do you grade it? The only question to be asked is whether Donald Trump should be given a D for disaster or an F for failure. I'm going to give him an F for complete and total failure. Or I'm going to give him an F for complete and total fraud. I mean, do you believe that he's perpetrating a fraud right now on the American people when he says, look, just give me a little more time. Tariffs are working so good. I'm going to eliminate all of your taxes because we're getting so rich. And by the way, Trump gold cards, everybody. I mean, when he keeps doing that,

doesn't that look like how he ran his businesses into the ground in the 90s? That's correct. We know that he bankrupted at least three different businesses, including bankrupting a casino, which is like impossible to do. The House always wins unless the House, in terms of the casino, is being run by Donald Trump. Now he's actually trying to bankrupt the United States of America, crashing the economy and driving us toward a recession. And you are absolutely correct that the whole thing is fraudulent. Donald Trump and House Republicans spent all of last year on the campaign trail promising to lower costs on day one, to bring down inflation and to make life more affordable. That was their central promise to the American

people. They lied. There was never any intention to do it. And we now see that costs aren't going down. They're going up. Tariffs are actually adding thousands of dollars of additional costs to hardworking American taxpayers. They think that Social Security is a Ponzi scheme. Actually, Social Security is not a Ponzi scheme. The Trump administration has turned into a Ponzi scheme. They promise one thing and they deliver a disaster. And you see Donald Trump's approval is plummeting across all polls, whether it's Pew, whether it's Ipsos and whether it's Fox. Donald Trump now attacking the pollsters also saying, you know saying they're enemies of the state. Also, consumer confidence is at its lowest since COVID. Even if you go back from that, a lot of these things are the lowest since

these polls have been taken. So it seems to be registering now, though, amongst the American people. Do you think that's what's happening? Absolutely correct. In fact, Donald Trump is now the most unpopular president in terms of his public approval in the first 100 days in modern American history. He broke his own record. And we now have seen polling that has him in the high 30s. At best, he's in the low 40s. That's abysmally low. But it's because the American people have seen the assault on the economy, the assault on Social Security, the assault on Medicaid and health care, the assault on veterans and the assault on the rule of law, the American way of life, and democracy itself, and the American people aren't feeling it, which is why his poll numbers are plummeting. And so the only question then

is when will House Republicans stop being a rubber stamp for his extreme agenda? We only need four Republicans in the House or four Republicans in the Senate to partner with us as House Democrats or Senate Democrats. And we can stop these bad things from happening legislatively. We can stop their efforts to try to jam their extreme budget down the throats of the American people because House Democrats are going to stay locked in in opposition to the extreme things that they are trying to do, like take away the health care from the American people. Leader Jeffries, you know, I'm not trying to mock Donald Trump when I say what I'm about to say, but I think it's a valid question that just needs to be asked right now

after the first 100 days. And do you think more needs to be discussed about his cognitive abilities? And I mean this sincerely. I mean, he's saying that he did 200 deals. There's not 200 countries. He's saying he's having conversations with world leaders and these conversations are not happening. He's putting tariffs on penguins. And when you see him, like you see him in Rome, whether he's sleeping at the ceremony and just not following the dress code. There seems to be issues when I watch it, just as somebody, known people in their life, whether it's, and I won't even go there, but there's concern there, and I just don't think it's being discussed.

I don't know what you think about that. Donald Trump spent the last year and a half questioning the cognitive ability of President Joe Biden, notwithstanding many of the legislative accomplishments that Donald Trump could only wish he got over the finish line. And so I think it's fair that a lot of Americans across the country that I run into are questioning whether Donald Trump is actually fit at this point to be able to carry out the duties of the United States of America in terms of being the president and the commander in chief. Then again, we know that this is someone who has spent a lifetime lying in every aspect of his life, and he lies seamlessly. And so you just wonder whether the other explanation is that some of this is just his willingness to try to consistently lie to the American people in the same way that he lied about Project 2025 on the campaign trail, all of the parade of horribles, this whole flood the zone strategy, which we are consistently pushing back against in Congress, in courts and in communities across the country.

But it's all centered around Project 2025, which he said to the American people he was unaware of and acted like it didn't exist. And that, of course, fundamentally, like the willingness to continue to lie to the American people is quite unfortunate. But the American people aren't buying it, which is why you are seeing his public approval crash. And in poll after poll after poll, the generic ballot, who would the American people rather have in charge? Republicans in Congress who are a rubber stamp or Democrats who will be a check and balance on an out of control executive branch. Poll after poll after poll have said, we want to put Democrats in charge so you can actually do the bidding of the American people, not simply bending the knee to Donald Trump,

which is what the Republicans in the Congress are doing right now. Let's talk about what Democrats are doing. I think the public's responding now positively to seeing Democrats out there fighting. I saw the sitting that you did with Senator Booker over the weekend, 12 hours on the Capitol Hill steps. That was great. Of course, Senator Booker setting the record for the longest speech on the floor in the Senate. I've seen Democrats being supportive of the peaceful protests taking place. And of course, seeing Democrats go into town halls in red states. This was a strategy that you outlined when I spoke to you a few months ago, and you said, this is what we're going to be doing. We're seeing it be executed, the plan now. Can you speak to that more? Yeah. Thank you for that question. We laid out the plan and over the last 100 days,

we've been systematically executing it. And it's all anchored in the theory that more is more, that we have to continue to respond by doing more, stacking one thing on top of the other. So the rallies, the peaceful protests, the days of action. Last two weeks, we had a Medicaid Matters Day of Action, a Social Security Day of Action, and a Cost of Living Week of Action, and we'll continue to do that. We're doing hearings in the Capitol. We're taking those hearings on the road. We're doing town hall meetings in Democratic districts and town hall meetings in Republican districts since they're running away from interacting with their constituents. So we're going into those districts and speaking the truth to the American people. Press conferences, sit-ins,

speeches on the Senate floor, like Cory Booker was able to do in historic fashion, speeches on the House floor, and continuing to be present to push back against all the things. More is more. And as we transition from the first 100 days into the second 100 days, we'll continue to elevate that type of principled opposition, which is needed, while also articulating our blueprint for a better America, the things that we as Democrats will do to make life better for the American people. And I'll leave this interview on this note and let you kind of speak to the American people on your message right now to the American people. It's been a difficult 100 days, whether it's Trump violating Supreme Court orders, Elon Musk and Trump's doge hostile takeover, destroying things that people really rely on, the attack on Medicaid, disastrous trade wars, people seeing their 401ks and pensions be lost. As Donald Trump and his crew, they celebrated in the Willard Hotel the announcement of a club they're calling the executive branch for rich people. They pay $500,000

and you become a member of the executive. It's a lot for people to process. But as we are here, you and I on the 100 days, what's your message to the American people right now? Senator Booker and I decided to sit down, just the two of us, on Sunday around 6.15 a.m. on the Capitol steps to have a conversation with each other and then hopefully have a conversation with the American people. Hundreds of people showed up throughout the day to sit with us. And in fact, millions upon millions upon millions of people were able to engage with us through the live stream that took place in solidarity with the effort. We were inspired to do it based on our perspective of constantly asking the question,

what would John Lewis do? And in this particular instance, we knew the answer. When it came to trying to save healthcare in 2017, he sat down on the Capitol steps and spoke to the American people about why it was important to forcefully push back in defense of what matters. And so that is something that we must continue to do. John Lewis would say to us often, when you see wrongdoing taking place, never give up, never give in.

And that is what we are going to continue to do. That's what the American people have shown over the last 100 days. We're going to continue to show up and stand up and speak up. We will not stop fighting until we continue America's march toward a more perfect union, until we end this national nightmare, until we make sure that this is a nation truly with liberty and justice for all. There you have it. Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, 100-day message to the American people here on the Midas Touch Network. Leader Jeffries, thank you for joining us. Thank you, Ben. Everybody hit subscribe and let's get to 5 million subscribers.

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