Today, Explained - Trump enters his flop era

Episode Date: June 3, 2026

The Trump administration will no longer create a $1.776 billion "anti-weaponization" fund, the latest in a series of losses for the President and his agenda. This episode was produced by Kelli Wessinger and Dustin DeSoto, edited by Amina Al-Sadi, fact-checked by Gabriel Dunatov, engineered by David Tatasciore and Patrick Boyd, and hosted by Sean Rameswaram. President Donald Trump dancing on stage after delivering remarks. Photo by Roberto Schmidt/Getty Images. Listen to Today, Explained ad-free by becoming a Vox Member: vox.com/members. New Vox members get $20 off their membership right now. Transcript at ⁠vox.com/today-explained-podcast.⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The NBA finals tip off tonight. The New York Knickerbockers have a shot at winning their first championship since 1973 if they can defeat the seven and a half foot Frenchman Victor Wembegama and his San Antonio Spurs. Nowhere to be seen, though, last year's champs, the Oklahoma City Thunder, undeniably elite, but also hated on in just about any city outside Oklahoma because of flops. He went up. For those of you who aren't familiar, flopping in the NBA is basically taking a dive.

You put up a shot and then on your way back down, you fall to the ground in hopes that the ref calls a foul and gives you the opportunity to score a few extra points. And in this particular regard, the Oklahoma City Thunder have a lot in common with the President of the United States at the moment. Not only had they both taken some huge Ls in recent weeks, but on today explained from Vox,

Donald Trump has officially entered his flop era. Support for this show comes from Norwegian Cruise Line. A cruise with Norwegian is a vacation you'll never forget, with an onboard experience that makes it easy for the whole family to settle into their own version of vacation. Because on a cruise with Norwegian, choice comes naturally for the whole family, and destinations feel just as effortless. Wander beautiful cities and take in stunning natural scenery.

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You should have ordered from Wayfair. With Wayfair, there's no what if. Just style you love and quality you can trust. Visit Wayfair.ca. Wayfair, every style, every home. We hold the world ransom for $1.776 billion dollars. Today explained here with Shelby Talcott, who's the White House correspondent for Semaphore. Shelby, this whole $1.8 or $1.776 billion slush fund fiasco, easy to forget.

It kind of started in a legitimate place. Can you remind us where that was? Yeah, so this all started back in January when the president filed a lawsuit against the IRS. He was seeking, I think it was $10 billion in damages. over the disclosure of his tax returns. He had also filed a few other claims. And so this was essentially the culmination of that because the Justice Department decided,

well, we don't really want to defend the government. So instead, we're going to work with the president's personal lawyers to sort of come to an agreement. And this slush fund, if you will, was the culmination of those lawsuits and what came from those conversations. Someone leaked the president's tax returns to the New York Times. They sure not pay a lot of tax.

So the president had a legitimate grievance. Then, of course, he immediately transmutes this legitimate grievance into something that feels a little lopsidded. A $10 billion lawsuit against the government that he runs, in which he pits his personal lawyers against Todd Blanche eventually, who is also his former personal lawyer. What pushes the president to settle this lawsuit with himself? Well, I think that he decided that this deal where, you know, you have a huge amount of money that is going to go to people who argue that they've been, you know, politically persecuted by the government is a good deal because remember, that is exactly what he believes as well. This is a persecution of a political opponent. this was never supposed to happen in America. The whole thing is a witch hunt.

It's a disgrace. After he lost the 2020 election, he had a number of lawsuits. He has not stopped talking since then, that those were persecutions by the prior administration. So for him, this sort of agreement is personal in a way, I think. By the way, that election was totally rigged. Tell us how this anti-weaponization slush fund was meant to, work in theory? It was essentially taxpayer-funded fund, and it was supposed to come from this account that was going to be overseen by a board of five people. This board of five people

were going to decide who had been politically persecuted by the government, and then there would be payouts. Pretty incredible setup for January 6th, other perhaps, defenders, allies of the president. Do we have any idea how long this fund was in the works or where it came from, how it originated? Was it the president's idea? Yeah, so I think it was the idea of his legal team of everybody involved. The president obviously signed off on it. But it was a really unusual situation because, as you said, there were not really many guardrails about who could theoretically benefit from this fund. Simple question. Will individuals who assaulted Capitol Hill police officers be eligible for this fund? And they wouldn't necessarily rule that out. As was made plain yesterday, anybody in this country is eligible to apply if they believe they were a victim weaponization. When we were talking to administration officials, they said, well, there's going to be this board,

and the board is going to decide who qualifies for this fund. And so this really raised concern. among even Republican members of Congress, too, for a variety of reasons. One being, you know, the January 6th riot is still a very contentious issue within the Republican Party. You know, the president has, I think, embraced the rioters, as you saw in his first day of office, when he issued all of those pardons. So this is January 6th. These are the hostages. Approximately 1,500 for a pardon.

Yes. Full part. But a lot of Republican lawmakers are still very uncomfortable with that reality. And so you saw kind of that tension within the Republican Party start to really explode. Look, under what circumstances would it ever make sense to provide restitution for people who were either pled guilty or were found guilty in a court of law? This is just stupid on stilts. And it really, it was blowing everything up on Capitol Hill. there were, they couldn't get anything passed essentially because Republicans were so perturbed by this agreement. But it was also over the fact that, you know, we're really close to the midterms,

quite frankly, and this is a tough road for Republicans. And so there were lawmakers who were just simply concerned because this is a nearly $1.8 billion fund that is taxpayer funded. And it comes at a time when the economy is at the top of mind for voters. And so there was an argument to be made from lawmakers of, is this really the right time to be pushing something like this when voters are asking, well, why is my gas so high? Why are my grocery bills like this? So what actually derails this fund ultimately? Is it that Republican opposition or is it the legality, constitutionality of the fund itself? A little bit of both. So there were lawsuits. This was going through the courts. Last Friday, a judge ruled essentially paused the fund and said, you know,

you can't move forward right now with distributing the money from this fund. And I think lawmakers initially thought, well, this is great. This is going to kind of solve our problem. But they were still pushing. And really, you know, the president and his advisors met and realized that this was extremely contentious that lawmakers were not letting go of this. This was also going to go through the courts. And there were people inside Trump's orbit, I think, who just thought it wasn't worth it effectively. And so the president had a conversation earlier this week with some of his team and ultimately decided that they were not going to pursue this fund. Is it really, really dead? Or is it just dead for the moment because it's so incredibly

unpopular? Do we know? That's the big question. So initially, the DOJ had issued a statement saying that they were going to comply with this court order that had come down on Friday. But the court order lasts essentially until, I think, mid-June. And so the question was still, okay, well, does complying with the court order mean it's dead? A lot of people said it doesn't. I think I agree with that. But then acting attorney general Todd Blanche on the hill yesterday was specifically asked, are you going to pursue this?

Like, is this over? And he said, We are not moving forward with a fun, period. But he also said, I mean, I think there'll be a transcript to what I say here. So that will be right. So the question I have is, you know, there's still that court situation going on.

So are we going to see the DOJ formally file something to the courts saying it's dead? And I think that is when people who are still concerned about this will say, okay, finally, we can put this to rest. I mean, one sign that this might not be completely dead is that one part of it, a part of it that we haven't really discussed thus far, is very much still alive, which is this idea that Trump and his family and his businesses are immune. from IRS inquiry? Yes. And actually Todd Blanche was asked about that specifically. And he said that the only part of this settlement that the Justice Department was not planning to enforce was going to be this nearly $1.8 billion fund.

So that indicates that every other part of the settlement that the Justice Department came with, decided on with the president's personal lawyers, including that, that provision that will bar the IRS from auditing the president, his family, his business, that stands. Which I guess it remains to be seen if that in and of itself is legal or not. Correct. And I also think when I think about this in terms of, okay, will this satisfy Republicans? It's not going to satisfy Democrats, but will it satisfy Republicans?

I think yes, because I think their main concern was this nearly $1.8 billion slush fund, they don't particularly mind the rest of it. So they're going to take the win and probably give the president something back in return, get something passed, and move on. Okay, that was the one big, beautiful flop of the week, but there's a bunch of other ones

that we're going to get into when today explained returns. Support for the show today comes from Select Quote. It's never a bad time to start taking your financial future. more seriously. And one thing that often gets overlooked in the mix is term life insurance. You know what I mean? But figuring out coverage can feel complicated. How much do you need? What does it cost? And where do you even start? But select quote wants to make things easier and more affordable for over 40 years. For over 40 years, select quote, has helped more than 2 million Americans secure over $700 billion in coverage. I haven't done that, but I've been around for more than 40 years. As of late, actually. Sounds like I should get some life insurance. Their goal is simple. Help you find a term life insurance policy that fits your needs and budget. They do the shopping for you so you can save time and money. And in many cases, select quote can give you same day coverage up to $2 million dollars. No doctor's visit required. You can get the right life insurance for you for less and save more than 50% at selectquote.com. You can save more than 50% on term life insurance at selectcquote.com slash explained today to get started.

That's selectcquote.com slash explained. Mr. President, do you have any reaction to today? It's playing being named the best news show. Wow. I didn't know that. I just, you're telling me now for the first time. My name is Megan Messerly, and I am a White House reporter at Politico. And you recently wrote for Politico about how the president and his administration's kind of in a funk,

and not just the slush fund fiasco we just talked about. So remind us how else we're seeing this funk for those who have disliked. associated. We are now three months, more than three months into the Iran war, and this is just not going anywhere anytime soon. We have seen the president over the last week, week and a half now say that, you know, he's close on a deal to extend this ceasefire with Iran that still has not come through. We're getting what we want slowly. Very tough negotiators. It takes a long time. I'm in no hurry. We're negotiating. whether we make a deal or not, makes no difference to me.

There was this two-hour situation room meeting on Friday. Nothing came out of that after two hours. And so the White House really can't figure out its path forward here, right? Talking to folks in and around the White House, they just want to find a sort of face-saving way out of this war, right? But they have been unable to do that. They've been unable to get, you know, Iran to agree to something that would open the the Strait of Hormuz and get us out.

And in the meantime, everyone's just very over it. And according to my reporting, that's including staff inside the White House, who one of my sources described to me and said, you know, pretty much everyone is in a funk. Use that word funk, which was always fun. And described it as sort of the White House being sort of stuck in this quicksand of Iran. Is there like a legislative funk, too, with this administration? Because it doesn't feel like we're getting anything done. Yeah, and that was one of the big things that I was talking to folks about for this story is this idea that, you know, Iran has really taken up so much of the president's time that it is in some ways distracting from some of these other priorities. And that includes the president's legislative agenda. Of course, some allies I spoke with also blamed that squarely on Senate Majority Leader John Thune and said, you know, Thune is being too much of an institutionalist protecting the filibuster. You know, the president has called for firing the Senate parliamentarian. Truth Social. Shockingly, Republicans have kept the very important position of, quote, parliamentarian in the hands of a woman, Elizabeth McDonough,

who was appointed long ago by Barack Hussein Obama and a vicious lunatic known as Senator Harry Reid, who ran the Senate for the Democrats with a, quote, iron fist. Over the years, she has been. brutal to Republicans, but not so to Democrats. So why has she not been replaced? That has not happened yet either. And so you have a very frustrated Trump, but a frustrated Trump who has, you know,

rhetorically turned the screws a bit on Thune, but really hasn't, you know, put the full force of pressure on Thune to get his legislative agenda through. And we should say that includes things like the president has talked a lot about this Safe America Act, right? an elections-focused piece of legislation. That's one of his top legislative priorities. It's called the Save America Act. We've changed your name.

It's the Save America Act, and the Democrats are against it. I heard one of them saying, we will stop the Save America Act. No, we're trying to save America. There's this housing bill that includes this institutional investor ban that he wants to see across the finish line. And then, of course, he wants to see security funding for his ballroom slash bunker. This will be the entrance into the borougham.

The borough will be right here. This is a glass, beautiful glass tunnel, beautiful tunnel that goes right into the borough of boroughs right there. Pretty good, right? I mean, with the Iran war in this sort of quagmire, especially coming from a president who rallied against the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, with gas prices where they are, with the president constantly trying to gaslight the American people into believing that somehow, the Iran war is good for them and that high gas prices even are good for them. It feels like he doesn't care about the midterms, but then there's all the gerrymandering that he's pushing, I mean, which implies that he very much cares about the midterms and his

endorsement of candidates. What's your read on what's going on with the president when it comes to the midterms? Yes. It definitely feels like those two things are at odds with one another. I think the way that White House allies view it is, you know, he needs to, the president needs to be able to say, I don't care about the midterms, I don't care about high gas prices, because that language is for Iran, right? He's saying, like, I'm willing to take this gamble because he needs Iran to believe that he will take the maximalist position, that, you know, he will let gas prices rise however high they need to rise in order to notch a deal. with that, right? So White House allies would say that that's a negotiating tactic. On the flip side, those are now soundbites that Democrats can run in every single ad across the country. I don't think about American financial situation. I don't think about anybody.

We're fighting wars. We can't take care of daycare. Medicaid, Medicare, all these individual things. So, you know, what might be helpful rhetorically with Iran is not helpful rhetorically with Republicans as, you know, they're fighting it out in these really key midterm races. Tough spot he's in. And it feels like it's such a tough spot that even the things that should be easy wins, like a sesquicentennial concert on the National Mall or whatever, are like big L's right now. You can't even, like, land a milly-vanilly booking.

What is going on with this concert? Yeah, it's been really fascinating to actually see, even conservative commentators come out and say, like, first of all, the folks that were slated for this lineup, to your point, Millie Vanilli, and others, you know, these are not like, you know, the pop culture stars of today. These are pop culture stars of, you know, three decades ago. So there was that to begin with. Legitimately like vanilla ice. Ice, ice, baby.

Oh, my, stop. Right, exactly, exactly. And what we're seeing is even some of those folks now. pulling out and saying, hey, you know, we were interested in sort of celebrating America's 250th anniversary, but this is far too political for us. This is not, this is not what we wanted. This is not what we signed up for. This is not what I signed. You know, I'm here to, you know, to bring them together with music. I'm not into politics. I don't want to have anything to do with the circus. And to me and many of the folks that I spoke with, this is just such a deviation from where we were at the beginning of the president's term last year

when he was just really taking the culture by storm. You think about he was just steamrolling these law firms and Ivy League institutions. And you've seen other pop culture figures come on board to the president's agenda like Nikki Minaj. I am probably the president's number one fan. This is not that, right? This is a moment where the president wants to be taking a, victory lab, and yet he's, you know, stuck in this quagmire that is Iran, one that he desperately

wants to get out of. And while we're on concerts, he even lost the Kennedy Center? Yeah. I mean, this has been one that has been, you know, near and dear to the president for months now, his fight to rename at the Trump Kennedy Center and this, you know, planned, massive renovation of the center, all put on hold by a federal court last week. We saw the president take to true social to express his sincere displeasure at that decision. Unfortunately, Judge Cooper and the radical left would rather see it die than have President Trump transform it into something that everyone could be proud of.

But just another loss in this sort of string of challenging circumstances for the White House right now. Do they have any wins that they should be celebrating right now that they could be parading in front of the American people? So some White House allies I spoke to said, you know, this is the challenge is that it's not like they don't have any wins. And the White House as well, this was their pushback to me in the story was we do have things we're doing. For instance, their efforts to reduce the cost of prescription drugs through Trump RX, the coming launch of Trump accounts for millions of children. Treasury Secretary Scott Besson was on the road last week in California and elsewhere touting these investment accounts. right, that are supposed to sort of build generational wealth for the next generation. For the next four years, every child getting $1,000 put in an index fund in their Trump account.

They're going to learn about the markets. Their parents are going to learn about it. And the president has done peace deals, trade deals, and tax deals. But I think this could be his most enduring legacy. But that is all getting overshadowed right now by Iran. And so the White House blames the media for not doing more to sort of highlight these things. But ultimately, I think the challenge, and this is what I hear when I'm sort of talking to regular voters, is, okay, these Trump accounts are great, but like I'm being crunched right now by the cost of gas, by the cost of my groceries when I'm buying ground beef. And it's, you know, $9, $10 a pound. So, like, this is, these wins are great. And it's not that the American people, you know, that

polling is, you know, very high on both of these issues, drug, drug prices and, and, you know, these Trump accounts. But when the pressing concern is putting food on the table and, you know, making ends meet and paying the bills, that has been sort of cold comfort. And that sort of exposes some of the White House's efforts to message here. Do you think watching some like half-naked men brutally beat the living daylights out of each other on the South Lawn will make the president feel better? On his birthday, no less? You know, the president is a long-time fan of the UFC, and we are certainly seeing him celebrate his 80th birthday, which is the day of the UFC fight in accordance with that. You know, the president is sort of this mercurial figure, and something like that really could, you know, raise his mood and honestly produce sort of a policy breakthrough because he has been stuck for so long.

talking to allies. I think they think that if the president, you know, gets a win that could sort of put them back on this track to passing the president's agenda. And that could be a policy win or it could just be a sort of, you know, triumphant UFC fight on the White House lawn, right? Sometimes that's all it takes.

Yep. Megan, the writer, Politico, is where you can find they're pretty much in a funk. Trump's agenda hits a summer stall. Earlier in the show, you heard from Shelby Talcott, who writes about the White House for Semaphore. I'm Sean Ramos from. The show is made by Kelly Wessinger and Dustin DeSoto. Amina Al-Assadi edited.

Gabriel Dunatav was on Fax and David Tattachor and Patrick Boyd were on the mix. This is today explained. I see why am I.