Future Risks and Legislative Outlook

Trump has a handful 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 Wdayay, the show saluting the University of Kansas Marching Band. becausecause Lawrence Kansas, home of the University of Kansas, is the World Cup base for the Algerian soccer team So the entire city and the 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 Bullworks, 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 twelfth. And let me tell you, if people had told me this was the Gonna to happen I was like, Man, you must be smoking some really good crack because I think this company's gonna to fail One of the world's most insufferable men just became even more insufferable shares with 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 NSDAQ 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 So he is exhibit nine hundred, that money doesn't make you happy. or cool or interesting Pakistan's prrime 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 M minister wrote on Twitter, quote, Peace has 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 NorC polling analysis that found there was a drop in approval with people who don't have a college degree But Republican National commommittee chair Joke Ruters didn't seem too phazed from talking to Newsmacks 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 twenty twenty four and april twenty twenty six, 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 when the longest government shutdown ever happened, orr 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 one point seven seven six billion dollars 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 Tod 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 funds 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 fire to new and very bad inflation numbers that Buffs. Our dear president has been taking some els 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 thirty eight times, according to CNN. And yet No deal has materialized. But Trump doesn't seem to care. 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 It's checked out So to talk more about Donald Trump's apparent case of s neuritis I called Tim Miller, host of the Bllwark podcast. Welcome back to W Day Good to be with you. What a day Things have not gone as planned for President Trump this week in pretty much any way, shape or form The controversial Sction seven hundred and two 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 noticed this. It doesn't seem like Trump cares about any of this. Is he just like checked out? Is this like elderly senoritus? Is he Is this just it? Yeah, 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 att the White House U 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 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 Um, is moving a pace I do think he's annoyed with the Iran warar. 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? Like don 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, don't you know, does he care about the rest of that stuff? I don't think so, really I remember back in like twenty sixteen, twenty seventeen, 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 Weedies's box. Yeah, like you get a Weedies's 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 him. Do doesnn't Give a fuck is actually kind of remarkable Like he is checked out in a way that you would see not even like a lame duck president. He's checked out in the way you would be in like the last two weeks after next presidential election whereere it's like your staffers are cleaning up their offices level. But it's like, you've got two more years. We're gonna be doing this for a while way too long. We're be doing it for way too long. I know. you 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. seems like he doesn't care about cares very deeply about. Yeah about the reflecting pool looking nice. And and and I think that You the people around him all have their own objectives that are, you know, varying degrees of malitious that they would like to you know, make sure get taken care of over the course of the next few years. I don't know, I was thinking I had Jason Calcis from the All in podcast. that's a kind of pro Trumpy tech podcast on the pod this week. And I was like asking him if the tech CEO's 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 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. 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Now, back to my conversation with Tim Miller 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 thirty eighth or thirty ninth 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 like 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're like, we want stuff. You said, you give us stuff How is it landing with those people I think that Basically what you're seeing right now is the last people in the boat are the first ones off You know, And u I think that you see a lot of folks that like thought that there was, as you mentioned more of a transactional relationship with this, right? whichich is like I want cheaper stuff for me O I want the better job opportunities for me. or I don't want u us to get into stupid wars because that is something that I believe or because I'm a young man, I'm worried I'm going to get drafted into a stupid war. right these folks who had a transactional relationship A lot of them are like not happy with what is happening. And I think that the Iran warar in particular is one area where Not not the whole partject, but A lot of people had a transaction relationship One way on both sides of it, right? Like the pro Israel folks, Mirramadlsons 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, Meghan Kelly types like we are you 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. 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 transactal relationship with him actually wanted a real result And that's different from the way that he can be us 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 Sction seven hundred two 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 intntelligence. I mean, Bill Polte, as far as I know, is best known for bringing poster boards to Mar a Lago, to explain why there should be fifty year mortgages which is not. Not what you need in a DNI. I'm just gonna say that. N not what I would go for. He also was really into meme stunks. Like really into meme stalks, like really into To a degree I find concerning, and I think meme stocks are concerning. So like you know, you 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 neoonservative folks who are like, what are we even doing here? Like what 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 was he So nobody's happy Again, we'd still have to deal with this for like two odd years If it's June of twenty twenty six and Trump is deep in like have a great summer S you next fall level senioritis? What does this mean for the next two odd years? especially if Congress changes hands Well, I think John Cornin told him that the next two years are going to be pretty miserable for him. the way John Corn frameed that is 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,'ll be hearings,'ll be blocking him from doing things he wants to do, preventing him from getting peopleople appointed to positions that require confirmation. takes you back to the senior Iitis. I just don't 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 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 Joh Corn's frame. I will say, you know, the scary part of this is 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, through the tariffs and this war, his own corruption. there has not been like a COVID really. You know, we have maybe this will'll keep an eye on Ebola, keep eye, keep an ey 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 Like what if there's an Iranian? based attack on the homeland It's hard to even contemplate what how Trump would handle something like that? And I think that's the It's 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 patl to go to hockey games and MA fights and not do his job because what he actually wants to do is terrible. R. 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 Like and they have no policies. They just did reconciliation this week and that obviously now a peoplee's eyes glaze over, but like it's the one bill where they only need fifty votes in the Senate because of stupid Senate rules. Like that's all people need to know. And what do they decide to put in it? It's just funding for Iice and border patrol ike That's all 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 all they did was fund immigration And they wanted to fund the ballroom too, but the handful oflic Republican senators are like, I don't, I dont 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 Minneapolises, more mass deportations, more mask guys in the streets, money for all thatbt more private prisons And then more goodies for his instructionist friends and new fancy things to build in DC. are thoseose are his ideas. That's what he's got left So like If it's between Masked arm agents in American cities. and letting him turn the reflecting pool blue, I, you know sure Blew yourself, as toobias Funk would say. Blew yourself, Trump Ugh Great show. Tim As always, thank you for joining me. Thank you, Jane. I'll see you soon That was my conversation with Tim Miller. He's the host of the Bllwork 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 coloray alongside the ever reliable Joiner die tee. Whether you're celebrating with your community, showing up to protest, or guilting your straight friends into buying you crooked merch in the name of gay rights There's something here to match your Pride month style And let's be honest, Fride doesn't end. You'll be wearing these long after June. He to croicut. com slash store to shop That's all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe Lave a review. Enjoy not watching a UFC fight at the White House andnt tell your friends to listen. And if you're under reading, and 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 available on a streaming service most people don't have. Like me Water dayay is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at crricut dot com slash subscribe I'm Jane Kosten, and UFC President Danel White said that he predicts super bowl level viewership numbers for the fite card whichich just proves once again that someone here is out of touch with everyday Americans and how many people actually subscribe to Paramount Plus. Whatateroday is a production of coed media.ur show is produc by Kaiten Plummer, Emily F four, Erica Morris, and Adrian Hill. Our team includes Hay Jones, Greg Walter, Matturg, Joseph Dutrich, Joanah Cay, and Desmond Tayl. O music is by Kyle Murdock, and Jordan Canter. We'd helped today from the Associated Press. Our production staff proudly unionized with the Witerers Guild of America East