What A Day - Trump’s Senioritis

Episode Date: June 12, 2026

On today’s show, we are diving into the tough week our commander in chief just had. From MMA fights no one seems very excited about… to the potential end of warrantless surveillance because of an unpopular Trump hire, our dear president has been taking some big losses. Oh, and not to mention, the war with Iran is still going on. But Trump doesn’t seem to care about any of it! So to talk more about Donald Trump’s apparent case of senioritis, we called up Tim Miller, host of The Bulwark Podcast.And in headlines: Elon Musk becomes the world’s first trillionaire, a poll finds Trump is losing favor with Independents, and a federal judge agrees to extend a court-ordered block on Trump’s $1.8 billion slush fund.Show Notes: Call Congress – 202-224-3121 Subscribe to the What A Day Newsletter – https://tinyurl.com/y4y2e9jy What A Day – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcast Follow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/ For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/whataday

Trump has a handful of things he cares about. Besides that, you know, if you want to be corrupt, if you want to do whatever you want, you can go ahead and press forward and get as rich as you can. Do it now before the adults get back in charge, assuming they ever do. I'm Jane Koston, and this is Wadner Day, the show saluting the University of Kansas marching band. Because Lawrence, Kansas, home of the University of Kansas, is the World Cup base for the Algerian soccer team. So the entire city and the city. band has made the Algerian team feel right at home, like by learning and playing the

Algerian national anthem for the team's training session on Thursday. On today's show, the bulwarks Tim Miller answers my biggest question of the week. Is President Donald Trump just totally checked out now? Before we get into all that, here's what we're following today, Friday, June 12th. And let me tell you, if people had told me this was going to happen, I was like, man, you must be smoking some really good crack. Because I think this company's going to fail. One of the world's most insufferable men just became even more insufferable.

Shares of SpaceX soared in its Wall Street debut, making the rocket maker CEO, Elon Musk, the first ever trillionaire. Just what Musk needs. More money. Musk marked the opening of trading on NASDAQ by joining a ceremonial bell ringing from Starbase, the South Texas home of SpaceX. Musk says SpaceX is going public now because it needs money to fund its ambitions, like establishing a colony of people on Mars.

And I'm sure he doesn't mind being called a trillionaire, though he is Exhibit 900 that money doesn't make you happy. Or cool. Or interesting. Pakistan's prime minister said today the U.S. and Iran have agreed to wording of an agreement aimed at ending the war, and that mediators were working with both sides to finalize a deal. The prime minister wrote on Twitter, quote,

He says never been this close as it is now. The apparent breakthrough in negotiations comes after Iran exchanged fire with the U.S. and Israel over three days this week. At the time of our recording, there was no immediate comment from U.S. or Iranian leaders on the prime minister's statement. Independents, like most of America, have grown increasingly unhappy with Trump during his second term. That's according to a new AP Norke polling analysis that found there was a drop in approval with people who don't have a college degree. But Republican National Committee chair, Joe Gruders didn't seem too phased when talking to Newsmax on Friday. What do you make of this? And could this be trouble for November?

No, I don't necessarily believe any of those polls. I believe in election day is what really matters. The analysis aggregated polls conducted between July 24 and April 26, allowing for a deeper look at how support for Trump changed during several distinct periods. You know, like when the big, beautiful bill passed, or one the longest government shutdown ever happened. Or when Trump went to war with Iran for who knows what? reason. A federal judge agreed to extend a court-ordered block on the Trump administration's $1.776 billion slush fund. You know, the ones set up to compensate people who claim to be victims of a weaponized government. If you're listening to this, just know I'm rolling my eyes. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told Congress earlier this month that the government was scrapping plans for the fund. But not

everyone is buying his assurances that it won't move forward, including the judge, whose ruling today means the slush fund will remain blocked until further notice from the court. And that's the news. Let's talk about what a tough week our commander-in-chief just had. From planning UFC fights no one seems very excited about, to the potential end of warrantless surveillance because of an unpopular Trump hire, to new and very bad inflation numbers that Trump loves, our dear president has been taking some else,

and that doesn't even include his continued dithering on the war in Iran. In the last two months, Trump has declared that he's close to a deal more than 38 times, according to CNN. And yet, no deal has materialized. But Trump doesn't seem to care about anything, besides going to sporting events and napping, and occasionally finding ways to combine the two, like when he slept through an NBA finals game.

For millions of Americans, life feels more unaffordable than ever before, and the politician who promised to lower prices on day one, is checked out. So to talk more about Donald Trump's apparent case of senioritis, I called Tim Miller, host of the Bullwork podcast. Tim, welcome back to What a Day. Good to be with you. What a day? So, things have not gone as planned for President Trump this week in pretty much any way, shape, or form.

The controversial Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act looks certain to expire tonight, which is exciting for me, but not exciting for the White House. Inflation hit a three-year high. We're still at war with Iran. And somehow, I don't know if you've known. It doesn't seem like Trump cares about any of this. Is he just like checked out? Is this like elderly senioritis? Is he, is this just it? Yeah, I hate to be disagreeable with you on the first question, but I think one thing did work out for him this week is he still gets to have his birthday party at the White House. And he's pretending it's America's birthday party and it's going to be actually a party for him and shirtless men are going to get oiled up and fight for him.

And I think that's what he cares about right now. I just, I do. Yeah. I mean, I was joking with the team earlier that all he seems to want to do is watch sports and take naps, which same. Absolutely. Hard same, actually. But, you know, I didn't run for president of the United States. So, no, look, and he's got that ongoing, the ongoing corruption and grift of the family is moving a pace. I do think he's annoyed with the Iran War.

I think all things considered, he'd rather stop having generals, like, come into his office and give him briefings with maps and documents that he doesn't read, right? I don't think he cares about the war at all anymore, but, and yet the Iranians are not letting him out of this problem that he's created for himself as easily as he'd wish. But besides that, you know, does he care about the rest of that stuff? I don't think so, really. I remember back in, like, 2016, 2017, where it felt like Trump viewed winning the White House as like winning an Olympic gold medal where, like, you don't have to do anything after that. That's just like, you know, you get a parade and everybody's really excited for you. and you can just say like,

put you on the Wheaties box. Yeah, like, you get a Wheaties box and everybody's pumped, but, like, there's no, like, job you have to do after that. And it does seem to me that he had, you know, the, like, affordability and all of that stuff,

like, it's just the degree to which, Tim, he doesn't give a fuck, is actually kind of remarkable. Like, he is checked out in a way that you would see, like, not even, like, a lame duck president. He's checked out in the way you would be in, like,

the last two weeks after the next presidential election where it's like your staffers are cleaning up their offices level. But it's like you've got two more years. We're going to be doing this for a while. Way too long. We're going to be doing it for way too long. I know. He said inflation is a good thing. And I guess it doesn't seem like he's checked out of his, you know, construction and architecture projects. It seems like he does care about that. He cares very deeply about that. Yeah, the reflecting pool looking nice. And I think that you know, the people around him. all have their own objectives that are varying degrees of malicious that they would like to make sure get taken care of over the course of the next few years.

I was thinking I had Jason Calcanus from the All In podcast. It's a kind of pro-Trumpie tech podcast on the pod this week. And I was like asking him if the tech CEOs realize that the backlash that's coming for them. And I had this like realization, which is kind of like maybe they do realize it, but they just kind of see this next two and a half years is this is the time to get while the getting's good. And I think that's just like the reality of where we are. Like Trump has this handful of things he cares about besides that, you know, if you want to be corrupt, if you want to do whatever you want, you can go ahead and press forward and get as rich as you can.

Do it now before the adults get back in charge, assuming they ever do. And I just think that's kind of the phase of the presidency we're in right now. It's kind of the looting phase. We'll get back to my conversation with Tim Miller in a moment because unlike, Donald Trump, I stick to my promises. If you like the show, make sure to subscribe. Leave a five-star review on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, watch us on YouTube and share with your friends. More to come after some ads. What a day is brought to you by ORAFraM's. Oriframes keeps you and your dad connected. I don't live close to my dad. He lives thousands of miles away. But with my Oroframe, he's always nearby.

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Now, this is not new with Trump, which, because Trump believes firmly in magical realism. And he seems to be in denial about how bad things are, or that things could be bad in a way that has anything to do with him. He keeps saying we're close to a peace deal with Iran for I think the 38th or 39th time since this war began, it's pretty clear we are not. As you mentioned, when he was asked about the new inflation numbers on Thursday,

he said, quote, I love the inflation. Now, I know that whenever we talk about Trump's base, I always want to separate, like, there's the base, the people who go to rallies and are obsessed with him and will do whatever he wants. That's not how most people who vote for him think about things. They are like, we want stuff, you said, you give us stuff. how is it landing with those people?

Look, I think that basically what you're saying right now is the last people in the boat are the first ones off. And I think that you see a lot of folks thought that there was, as you mentioned, like it's more of a transactional relationship with this, right? Which is like, I want cheaper stuff for me. Or I want the better job opportunities for me. Or I don't want us to get into stupid wars because that is something that I believe or because I'm a young man. and I'm worried I'm going to get drafted into a super war. Like these folks who had a transactional relationship,

a lot of them are not happy with what is happening. And I think that the Iran war in particular is one area where not the whole party, but a lot of people had a transaction relationship one way on both sides of it, right? Like the pro-Israel folks, Miriam Adeltsons of the world, have a literal transaction relationship. I put hundreds of millions of dollars into your campaign and I expect you to be pro-Israel. And then you have the Tucker Carlson, Megan Kelly types. Like, we are, you know, have said that we're anti-war.

And part of the deal was you were going to be the president that was not a neocon that did not do the wars. And so both of those factions within his base at various times, depending on how he acts with the Iran war, get mad at him. And I think that is why he's kind of backed into a corner on this topic in particular, because he doesn't get to do the magical realism because the people that have a transaction relationship with him actually wanted a real result. and that's different from the way that he can BS and spin them on stuff where they don't care that much. As we know, Trump has made most of his problems all by himself. And I think Section 702 is a great example. The reason why that is probably going to expire is because he picked someone with no national security experience to be acting director of national intelligence.

I mean, Bill Pulte, as far as I know is best known for bringing poster boards to Mar-a-Lago to explain why there should be 50-year mortgages, which is not, Not what you need in a DNI. I'm just going to say that. Not what I would go for. He also was really into meme stocks. Like really into meme stocks. Like really into, to a degree I find concerning.

And I think meme stocks are concerning. So like, you know, you've got the war in Iran, which he's just like, we're in, we're out, we're in, we're out. And like you can kind of see, I mean, you and I probably follow a bunch of the same kind of like neo-conservative folks who are like, what are we even doing here? Like, what is this plan? Are you going to pay them now? Is this going to be as bad as that deal we hated that Obama did that we all were very mad about?

And so is he. So nobody's happy. But again, we still have to deal with this for like two odd years. If it's June of 2026 and Trump is deep in like, have a great summer, see you next fall level senioritis. What does this mean for the next two odd years, especially if Congress changes hands? Yeah. Well, I think John Cornyn told him that the next two years are. going to be pretty miserable for him. And the way John Cornyn framed that is, you know, he has

Congress brain, Senate brain. And so I think it will be a miserable two years for Trump on the hill if the Democrats take control, which I expect they will. It will be investigations, will be hearings, will be blocking him from doing things he wants to do, preventing him from getting people appointed to positions that require confirmation. But that takes you back to the senioritis. Like, does Trump care about any of that? Yeah, he just wants to get rich. At this point, I'm like, it's just money. Yeah, so it's not like he has bills he wants to pass because he doesn't care about people. And so his frame for this, I think is different than John Cornyn's frame.

I will say, you know, the scary part of this is that this is going to feel weird probably to some listeners. But like, we've gotten kind of lucky. Like you keep saying that you rightly are pointing out that like all of Trump's problems in this term are of his own making for the most part. Like the economic problems he caused to the tariffs and this war, his own corruption. Like there has not been like a COVID really. You know, we have, maybe this will keep an eye on Ebola, keep an eye on the worm that's happening in Texas. But there's not been this big external crisis being caused by something else.

That usually happens in a presidential term. Like the world is complicated and life is hard and like things, bad things happen. Thinking about Trump managing, and you mentioned the FISA expiring, what, you know, what if there's a terrorist attack here? Like what if there's an Iranian-based attack on the homeland? It's hard to even contemplate. how Trump would handle something like that. And I think that's the kind of scary part of the two years ahead.

Yeah. I mean, that is scary. It's also funny to be thinking about how, like, I was mentioning to someone, you know, I keep joking about how I want Cash Patel to go to hockey games and MMA fights and not do his job because what he actually wants to do is terrible. Right. And with Trump, it's like, yeah, take naps, look at some architecture. Go nuts because all of your actual ideas are awful.

So it's this weird moment where I'm like, yes, it's terrible that he's checked out and putting the homeland at risk. But also, I'm kind of glad in a way. And they have no policies. They just did reconciliation this week. And obviously now people's eyes glaze over. But like, it's the one bill where they only need 50 votes in the Senate because of stupid Senate rules. Like, that's all people need to know. And what did they decide to put in it?

It's just funding for ICE and Border Patrol. like that's all they like we have all these crises happening and the only thing the one bill that they can pass because they don't need Democrats at all is that all they did was fund immigration and they wanted to fund the ballroom too but a handful of Republicans Republican senators like I don't I don't know I don't think so and they wanted to fund the slush fund like those were Trump's ideas when you say he has no ideas like if he was able to do what he could it would be more Minneapolis's more mass deportations more massed guys in the streets money for all that more private prisons and then more goodies for his constructionist friends and new fancy things to build in D.C. Like, those are, those are his ideas. That's what he's got left. Yeah.

So, like, if it's between massed arm agents in American cities and letting him turn the reflecting pool blue, I, you know,

you have a pool of. Blue yourself, as Tobias Funk would say. Blue yourself, Trump. Ah, what a great show. Tim, as always,

Thank you for joining me. Thank you, Jane. We'll see you soon. That was my conversation with Tim Miller. He's the host of the Bullwork podcast. Before we go, Pride Month is here. Time to dress like it. This season, the Crooked Store is dropping gayer than ever

in two brand new designs and bringing back an old favorite. The Gay for Democracy shirt. Plus classics like Dreamboat Willie return in a new color way alongside the ever-reliable join-or-dye-tee. Whether you're celebrating with your community, showing up to protest, or you're,

gilting your straight friends into buying you crooked merch in the name of gay rights, there's something here to match your Pride month's style. And let's be honest, pride doesn't end. You'll be wearing these long after June. Head to crooked.com slash store to shop. That's all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe. Leave a review. Enjoy not watching a UFC fight at the White House and tell your friends to listen. And if you're into reading, I'm not just about how I am not watching a UFC fight on the White House lawn that's intended to be a birthday present for Donald Trump and a available on a streaming service most people don't have. Like me, Whataday is also a nightly newsletter.

Check it out and subscribe at crooked.com slash subscribe. I'm Jane Koston, and UFC President Dana White said that he predicts Super Bowl-level viewership numbers for this fight card, which just proves once again that someone here is out of touch with everyday Americans and how many people actually subscribe to Paramount Plus. What a Day is a production of Cricket Media. Our show is produced by Caitlin Plummer, Emily 4, Erica Morrison, and Adrian Hill. includes Haley Jones, Greg Walters, Matt Berg, Joseph Dutra, Johanna Case, and Desmond Taylor.

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