Trump: “Maybe a Few Changes” with Cabinet After Midterm Losses

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0:33With the size of his party's midterm thumping still being counted, the president starts remaking his cabinet and doubles down on the most extreme member of his White House staff. His chief of staff, Susie Wiles, is out. She resigned and is being replaced by Stephen Miller. That is the president speaking briefly tonight at the Kennedy Space Center. Stephen Miller is, of course, the chief architect of some of the policies that voters just overwhelmingly rejected. Just before airtime, the president spoke about Miller with reporters on the tarmac. Mr. President, there's people describing Stephen Miller as your wartime consigliere.

1:08Do you agree with that characterization? Well, he's a great fighter. He's been with me right from the beginning, 2015. He was with me from before 2016, 2015. And he's very loyal, smart, does a great job. He's been an MVP every year. He's been just great. So we're very happy with him. My president, Mr. President. And he's gotten great reviews. Gotten great reviews. Well, the president was also asked whether to expect more cabinet changes to come. He did not rule it out, saying, quote, very little. He also hinted at it when he sat down with CBS's Ross Douthat. This morning, the clip aired tonight on the CBS Evening News.

1:47In a previous lifetime, you were rather famous for saying you're fired quite often. After a big midterm defeat like this, do you expect to fire anyone? from your team? You do? A little bit. A little bit? I love my cabinet. I think they're good, but I'll be doing maybe a few changes. I don't want to mention who. And that was recorded this morning and aired tonight. Earlier today, he called Miller, very good politically and a very good man. It would be hard to find a Democrat who agrees with that, certainly, or some Republicans. Late today, outgoing Republican Senator Tom Tillis told CNN's Jake Tapper that Miller was, as he put it, the worst of all possible choices.

2:24How do we think somebody as divisive of a background as Stephen Miller is going to be the olive branch we need to the new Democratic majorities in Congress to get things done? The president made this decision and the president needs to rethink it. It is a colossal mistake. And the last thing we need, 72 hours after the ass whooping we got on Tuesday. Stephen Miller has been the driving force behind the president's immigration policies, He's repeatedly defended the tactics used by ICE. At the start of the current term, the country was almost evenly split on the president's handling of immigration.

3:00In the final CNN poll before the midterms, it enjoyed only 38 percent approval. The election saw a massive wave of Latino voters turn out for Democrats, fueling the blue wave. Even the first lady has at some point taken issue with Miller and the president's crackdown. Quote in The Wall Street Journal, quote, Trump vacillated on immigration throughout the year, sometimes telling aides he wanted a bigger crackdown. After First Lady Melania Trump complained about people she knew getting deported, the president would tell aides that the architect of his aggressive immigration campaign, Stephen Miller, had gone too far, which is part of what made Miller's elevation a surprise to many.

3:35Another factor, as Senator Tillis pointed out, is the new political landscape. The president will have to work with a Democratic House and Senate if he wants to pass legislation. Yesterday, he seemed to acknowledge that, calling likely Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, quote, not a bad guy and saying he thinks he can get along with Democrats. Stephen Miller, on the other hand, once famously called Democrats a, quote, domestic extremist operation. He labeled Alex Preddy, who was shot and killed by federal immigration enforcement officers, a, quote, assassin. He suggested that Renee Good, who was killed by ICE, was a terrorist posting a video of the incident with a one word comment, terrorism.

4:10Miller was not referring to the ICE agents. And dating back months before both killings, Stephen Miller made it clear that federal agents had free reign on the job. To all ICE officers, you have federal immunity in the conduct of your duties. And anybody who lays a hand on you or tries to stop you or tries to obstruct you is committing a felony. You have immunity to perform your duties. Either we all side and get behind President Trump to remove these terrorists from our communities, or we let a rogue radical left judiciary shut down the machinery of our national security apparatus. That's the new White House chief of staff.

4:50Joining us now with more CNN chief White House correspondent and anchor of the source, Caitlin Collins. So what in the election results do you think the president saw that made him make this choice? He was kind of in denial about initially Anderson, and that's why he was sounding, you know, so sanguine about working with Chuck Schumer and having this relationship with Democrats and potentially making deals with them. But what we're told is that as the coverage has gone on and as the president has been watching it this week he's gotten angrier about the results and just how historic the Republican losses were and he's directed a lot of that anger at Susie Wiles not just Susie Wiles to be clear but a lot of it at her there was that pretty tense and awkward watch party that they had at the White House on Tuesday it was not a fun watch party according to several people that I spoke to who kind of felt like they were trapped inside the East Room watching this with the president who stayed there for quite some time.

5:39And he has just been furious with many people and the results, but chiefly Susie Wiles this week. I mean, she wasn't the one out there telling people prices are coming down, gas, you know, is not that high. Or who started the war. Obviously, that's the president, the commander in chief's decision also to keep it going. And he's been defending the war. And he has not really directly said the war was what's to blame. He has said high gas prices, but obviously they're a result of that. And so the president is changing his staff here, but he's clearly not changing his approach by picking Stephen Miller.

6:09And Stephen Miller is certainly one of the president's closest, most loyal aides. No one is surprised that his name was on the shortlist to be the next chief of staff. But I've been talking to a lot of people today who can't believe that he actually got the job and were surprised by that. And what they've described, though, is as the president's anger has grown this week, there has been a really bad mood inside the West Wing. It's very factionalized. Knives are out. It's Trump one era vibes, according to three people I was just talking with in the last two hours about what this vibe has been like inside there.

6:41And so they're not entirely surprised by this. But I do think it's a real question of what this means for how the president is going to govern for his final two years in office. It's going to be a combative approach, to say the least. Susie Wiles was someone who tried to, you know, not moderate the president, but certainly take some of his worst instincts and say, this is why this is not a good idea. She was also incredibly loyal from going way back. Yeah, and she still is loyal. And people are insisting that this is amicable, that it's not this angry split between the two of them. Just the president blamed her and she said, well, let me save you from firing me and I'll offer you my resignation.

7:16But it is going to be a very different West Wing with Stephen Miller running it instead of Susie Wiles. Caitlin, thanks very much. Appreciate it. Join Caitlin at the top of the next hour for The Source, where her guests are going to be New York Times White House correspondent Maggie Haberman. I want to bring in the panel, CNN Chief Political Analyst David Axelrod, co-author of Politico's playbook Dasha Burns, and CNN Senior Political Commentator Scott Jennings. Dasha, I understand you have new reporting. What have you learned? Yeah, so we have a little bit of behind the scenes from Politico about how Stephen Miller's wife, Katie Miller, who of course worked in the first Trump administration and in the second Trump administration, she worked with Elon Musk on the Doge effort.

7:56She now has a podcast where she hosts high-ranking officials from the administration. And she really helped lobby for her husband, Stephen Miller, to get this job. She, over the last couple of days, has been making phone calls to at least half a dozen people close to the president, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessett, some folks in Vice President Vance's inner circle. And even as far back as mid-October, when the rumors were first started to swirl about a potential Susie ouster, she was fielding calls back then when different names were being floated, names like Bill Pulte, like Steve Wyckoff and others saying, listen, if you think Stephen Miller is potentially better than some of the alternatives, you should make that known to the president.

8:46And of course, Anderson, we reported in Playbook back in mid-October that the president had started to make phone calls to his allies asking questions about Susie Wiles, floating names of possible replacements. At the time, the White House pushed back pretty hard on those allegations. But clearly, this was the time the fever pitch had really come in the wake of the midterm election results. Yeah. David, I mean, Susie Wiles seemed to bring some order to the chief of staff's jobs. How do you think the West Wing will work under Stephen Miller? Well, look, it feels like he's there to affirm the president's worst instincts.

9:28You know, sometimes in these situations, and we saw it a little bit in the Biden White House, presidents shrink their circle to those who will affirm their feelings rather than trying to dissuade them from their worst instincts. But Anderson, this whole thing is so odd, because when your house is on fire, you usually reach for a hose, right? You try and douse the flame. Not a can of kerosene. Stephen Miller is a can of kerosene. He's the most divisive, polarizing figure in the whole White House. And to put him in this role is such a misreading of what happened. And he is an author or a co-author of what happened after the war, after inflation.

10:15You'd have to say that the way the immigration policy has been implemented was very instrumental in what happened on Tuesday. We saw a huge shift among Hispanic voters who had been part of Trump's coalition in 2024, they almost broke even, which was unprecedented, did better than any Republican has. And now they went back to two to one in favor of Democrats. Why? Some of it had to do with the economy. A lot of it had to do with the implementation of this immigration policy of Stephen Miller's. So, you know, this is a it's a it's a very self-destructive decision, it seems to me, on the part of the president.

10:57But it doesn't bode well. A few days ago, and Scott may address this, he was talking about, well, the president may want to make deals with Democrats. This is not the chief of staff who's going to broker that kind of a White House. Yeah, Scott, I think, you know, you'd been talking about kind of, you know, maybe a lot of times presidents, as lame ducks, are thinking about their legacy, what they can get done. What do you think this choice means? well i think that they view steven as somebody who covers a bunch of different vectors he knows the hill he knows the legal piece he certainly knows how to deal with the media and he's obviously been the president's most influential policy advisor so as they deal with all these vectors they view him as somebody who can be part of all of that you know ax was talking about steven miller's immigration policy i'll just offer a slight correction it's the president's immigration policy.

11:48He's an immigration hog. And Stephen Miller or Susie Wiles or anybody else is there to implement the president's wishes on that or any other policy. I also think that they believe Stephen Miller has been effective in other areas. They view him as sort of the chief protector of the law and order agenda. They like what he's done with the fraud task force. They like what he's done on the deregulatory agenda. They like what he did to work with, frankly, Democratic officials in D.C. and in Memphis, where the Trump administration sent federal resources to try to help work with the locals to clean up crime.

12:19They think he was a big part of that. So Trump views him as a good manager. Trump says, I believe, thinks he's had really good in certain areas. And of course, above all, he views him as a loyal person who's been there from the beginning, who knows his policy wishes better than just about anybody. And of course, we know him as a fighter. And there's no doubt they're going to be in some fights with Democrats and everybody else for the next two years. David, I want to play you something that the Attorney General Todd Blanche said in short time ago on Fox, he was responding to incoming House Oversight Chair Robert Garcia's comment today that Stephen Miller should lawyer up.

12:55You have Garcia saying minutes after Stephen Miller was promoted to be the chief of staff to the president of the United States of America, telling him to lawyer up. Well, I'll tell you what, Stephen Miller has a lawyer. It's me. Is the Attorney General, I mean, he's not the chief of staff's lawyer, he's supposed to be the chief law enforcement officer of the United States, traditionally independent of the West Wing. I'm wondering what you make of that. Well, you said traditionally independent of the West Wing, but that is all gone now. I mean, the Department of Justice is an organ of the president's of the White House, but also it seems the president's political operations.

13:35So I wasn't surprised by that. Listen, you know, just on the point that Scott made, yes, it's the president's immigration policy, but Stephen Miller's the architect of it. He was the guy who reportedly told the folks over at DHS that he wanted a 3 ,000-a-day arrest quota, very angrily demanding it. And I think that's one of the things that led to the intensification of their dragnets that took in not just the worst of the worst, but often American citizens and often innocent people. This is what enraged folks. So, you know, there are probably questions that the Congress would like to ask him. I don't know if he'll ever sit in front of them.

14:19I think he has some immunity as a chief of staff, but we'll see. Dasha, if Miller or any other administration officials want to defy congressional subpoenas, all lawmakers can really do is make a contempt of Congress referral to the DOJ, which is run by Todd Blanche. What does oversight actually look like over the next two years? I mean, that is why there's this debate within the Democratic Party right now and these incoming new lawmakers about how much time to spend on this sort of thing versus the focus and the mandate that voters sent Democrats to Congress with, which is to focus and prioritize issues of affordability and cost of living.

14:58Of course, the question of corruption was also an important one for the campaign trail. But, yeah, it's going to be really tough to nail down somebody like Stephen Miller. And look, to the point that Scott and Axe were making, Stephen Miller is a security blanket for the president. This is somebody that has been by his side from the beginning. He's intensely loyal. And for those in the White House, there was concern that it could be somebody like Bill Pulte in that position, who has been sort of the devil on Trump's shoulder, whispering all kinds of policy ideas and potential kind of stoking the flame of Trump's it in a way that, wow, Stephen Miller can do that, too.

15:40He's a known quantity for a lot of the people in Trump's orbit. Again, he's been with him for such a long time. and he is a policy mind. Now, whether people agree with that policy or not, Stephen Miller is the main policy architect, not just of immigration, but a whole swath of issues that are important to President Trump. And so whether he decides he wants to work with Democrats or not, Stephen Miller is the executor and the implementer of a lot of what the president wants. Scott, we mentioned the president told CBS that he expects to make a few changes to his cabinet. Do you still think Pete Hegseth may be one of those?

16:17well the president was pretty firm in his uh defense of pete hegseth today but of course they're going to have to deal with some political problems in the house next week when this uh impeachment vote comes up and i don't know if he's gonna survive that vote uh not that that is a means he'll be out of office it will of course have to go over to the senate which i think it will fail over there but still it is a political headache next week but the president told cbs he expects to make some changes whether it's hegseth or anybody else that's not terribly surprising One of my observations of working or being around the White House when I wrote this book about Trump's first 100 days last year is the intensity of it.

16:51You know, working for him is an around the clock thing. And and, you know, he is firmly in control of his own government. It's kind of a hub and spoke. The Oval Office is the hub and all these cabinet secretaries and everybody else who works there are essentially on the clock 24-7. So the intensity of it combined with the perhaps the president has some different people he'd like to bring in. And it wouldn't shock me at all if he decided to put fresh eyes on the War Department or anything else, although I do think it should be noted he gave Hagseth a pretty big vote of confidence today. Scott Jennings, David Axelrod, Dr.

17:22Burns, thanks so much. Coming up next, the long and fascinating road to how Stephen Miller became such a polarizing figure and later how a seismic shift among young men from Republican to Democrats fed into what would become a blue tsunami. Professor Scott Galloway joins us ahead.

17:43We're talking tonight about Stephen Miller, the president's new chief of staff. He's also the longtime face and driving force behind some of the Trump administration's most divisive policies, both in this term and the first. On top of that, Miller has also been the wordsmith for some of the president's biggest speeches. As we reported, and as the panel is pointing out, Stephen Miller will never be described as a unifying figure. See you as Tom Foreman on how he got that way. We're a superpower and under President Trump we are going to conduct ourselves as a superpower. Stephen Miller is a flamethrower.

18:15If you import the third world you become the third world. Always ready to attack those who might challenge the president. They lied again and again and again. In any way on any day. That is one of the most outrageous, insulting, ignorant and foolish things you've ever said. Born in California to a Jewish family, by high school, Miller was leaning right and raging against political correctness. At Duke University, he mocked multiculturalism, feminism, and talked up the threat of, quote, Islamofascism. Are you prepared to fight? Are you prepared to give it all? Are you prepared to leave it all on the battlefield?

18:53Contact with right-wing firebrand Steve Bannon and then-Republican Senator Jeff Sessions brought Miller to Donald Trump in his first presidential campaign, where some of Trump's toughest talk on crime, drugs and immigration came from the young man's pen. This American carnage stops right here and stops right now. If this country doesn't one way or another end birthright citizenship, this country doesn't have a future. Once they had the White House, fierce deportation goals, the travel ban on Muslims, and dust-ups with journalists all fell into Miller's portfolio. You know, Jake, you can be, no, no, you can be condescending.

19:36I'm not being condescending. I'm trying to get to the point. When critics, judges, and especially influential Democrats challenge the president's power, Miller is quick to counterattack. Well, I mean, he's a fool and he's a moron, but also, most importantly, Sean, he hates America. Others on Team Trump may occasionally waffle, but Miller never seems to. The powers of the president to protect our country are very substantial and will not be questioned. And in the most uncompromising language, like what he used at the memorial for conservative activist Charlie Kirk, Miller forever pledges he will fight for Trump and the MAGA movement come what may.

20:16You have no idea the dragon you have awakened. You have no idea how determined we will be to save this civilization. Tom Foreman, CNN, Washington. Joining us now is Democratic Congressman Adam Smith. He's the ranking member on the House Armed Services Committee. He was just reelected to a 16th term in Washington's 9th congressional district. Congressman Smith, thanks for being here. What does it signal to you, to the American people, that the president looked at the election results and thought, you know what, Stephen Miller's the right person now? Well, it's actually not that surprising. I mean, it has been obvious for months that Trump's policies are unpopular in this country.

20:59His radical immigration crackdown, terrorizing communities, terrorizing immigrants, his tariffs, the war in Iran, his, gosh, the building of the new East Wing, the arch, all of that, the politicization of the Justice Department. All of these things have been largely unpopular for a long time. The election only confirmed that. And as we move through all of that, Trump didn't care. He didn't care. He didn't react at all. He didn't make any effort. I mean, pick one of his quotes from any one of his long, rambling two-hour speeches in the last several weeks. I remember when he said, sure, gas prices are up, but it doesn't matter because we're making lots of money.

21:39I mean, he made it very clear he was the president. He didn't care. He was going to do what he wanted. And I think what this points out is that hasn't changed. And that is what we are going to have to fight. Now, the interesting piece of this, also House Republicans and Senate Republicans prior to the election, they just stood up and saluted. Whatever he asked them to do, whatever ridiculous quote he made, they defended it. Will Will they continue to do that? Or will they stand up and try to separate themselves from Trump, join some of us Democrats to change some of those policies and move us in a different direction?

22:16But Trump himself, it seems highly unlikely that he's suddenly going to wake up to the fact that he's destroying this country and frankly, endangering the world in many ways. Do you expect any Republicans in Congress to kind of come in or some of the new Republicans in Congress to come in with a different kind of message or attitude toward Trump? I think expect is a strong word, but I do have some hope. I mean, it's been, the election made it so clear. I mean, I don't want to criticize my own party, but it's been well documented that it's not like the Democratic Party is overwhelmingly popular.

22:56All right. It's not like people went to the polls and said, we have to have Democrats. They went to the polls and said, anyone who wants to try to stop Trump, I'm in. Now, we got work to do to make sure that we deliver. But this was a repudiation of Donald Trump, first and foremost, a repudiation that he does not seem to have registered. And so what's going to happen? What's going to happen with the war in Iran? What's going to happen with all of the tariffs, the immigration crackdown, his continued politicization of the entire government? I don't know, but this is a signal that Trump is going to dig in and fight, and we're going to have to fight back hard.

23:35Yeah, I mean, essentially Maggie Haberman at The New York Times reported that Miller, according to people who heard his pitch for the chief of staff's jobs, favors winding down the war with Iran. Yeah, now we'll see if that actually happens. I mean, if Stephen Miller is in favor of that and actually does that, that would be one and only one good thing that would come out of this appointment. But I will believe it when I see it. Yeah. Do you think, you know, outgoing GOP Congressman Thomas Massey said he's going to force a vote on the resolution to impeach Secretary Pete Hegseth next week. Do you think it would pass even though there's a Republican majority in, you know, in a lame duck session?

24:15yes i mean keep in mind i mean representative massey is a republican um we only need two more because i guarantee you every single democrat is going to vote for it um pete hagseth has been you know just not a good secretary of defense he's been arrogant dismissive of congress you know has not been transparent on the war in iran personally i think his decision to attempt to prosecute six members of congress four house members and two senators for merely saying that troops should obey the law, I think that alone is an impeachable offense. Hegseth has politicized our military and the Pentagon to a degree that is undermining its capability.

24:55And I also know that a lot of Republicans share that view and are deeply frustrated with Hegseth's leadership of the Pentagon. So yes, I expect that that will pass. I don't know for sure, but it sure seems like it will. Do you think the president would try to force Hegseth out before then in order to avoid impeachment spectacle or, you know, I mean, if he does, he could try to get the lame duck Senate, which is still controlled by Republicans, to confirm a replacement. Yeah, I don't think the president thinks in that sophisticated a way. I think, and trying to figure out how to put this on a, Pete Hegseth is very aggressive.

25:33I'll just say it. Pete Hegseth is an asshole. And Trump likes that. He likes the fact that Hegseth goes out there. When he came before our committee, you know, he addressed very few of the questions that we asked him. He said, if anyone challenged him, he simply insulted them. Trump likes that. That's what Trump does. Okay. The fact that the Iran war has been a disaster, the fact that the Pentagon's in the shape that it is and all of that, does Trump care about that? Or does he care more that, you know, to go back a little bit here, Hegseth is owning the liberals, you know, belittling us and insulting us.

26:08My guess is that Trump cares more about the latter than the former, and he's just going to leave him there. I had heard some rumors a couple of days ago that he was going to pull him, but that seems to have been dialed back just in the last 24 hours, and I think it's because of what I just said. Yeah. Congressman Smith, I appreciate your time as always. Thank you. Thanks, Anderson. Up next, there's breaking news in the key House race and New details on the two Senate races that are still up for grabs. Harry Enten is back with all the latest numbers on the race. Also, how Republicans lost a pillar of their support, namely young men.

26:42We'll get perspective from Scott Galloway. He's written a bestseller about boys and men in crisis as he sees it today.

26:54It's breaking news tonight. In a key House race in Republican Nancy Mesa's district in South Carolina, No, I see now projects that Democrat Nancy LaCour will win it. She defeats Republican Jenna Acosta Honeycutt. Mace is retiring at the end of this term. Now, LaCour's retired three-star admiral was one of several military leaders fired by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth last year, a move that led to her congressional bid, and she's won. Over on the Senate side, vote counting continues in two races, both of which the Democrats lead, but that, of course, could change. In Alaska, Democrat Mary Paltola leads Republican Senator Dan S.

27:28Sullivan, now by just 637 votes, with 74 % of the votes counted. In Mississippi, Democrat Scott Colom leads Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith by 2 ,574 votes, with 97 % of the votes counted. CNN's Annie Gray are caught up with Colom earlier today. You said that Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith does not have a path to victory. What are you seeing in the vote totals that are coming in? Yeah, listen, what I said at the press conference on Wednesday is the vote tolls were going to move in my direction, and I've been proven correct, right? Because I understand how the votes move in Mississippi, and I knew where the ballots were left out, and they're still going to move more and more in our direction.

28:12For more on other closely watched races, I want to bring in CNS Chief Data Analyst Harry Enten. So what other races are you looking at right now? Yeah, you know, obviously you mentioned that South Carolina call earlier today, And that takes us from 253 for the Democrats upwards to 254 as they climb the stairway to electoral heaven. You know, we're speaking about South Carolina. Let's go right there. We'll go to the Charleston area, Anderson, and, you know, tight race. But you know what? Nancy LaCour wins it. Nancy LaCour wins it. This is yet another flip for the Democrats as they climb, as I said, that ladder getting closer and closer to 260.

28:47state. Now, one thing I do want to note is we focus so much on the Senate and on the House. But for me, what's so interesting is the United States governorships, the governorships which have not gotten nearly as much attention. And why do I point that out? Because right now, Democrats are leading Anderson in enough races that they could get 30 governorships by the end of this election cycle, which in fact would put them in their best position in governorships since the early 1990s. One race in which they're leading that is uncalled at this hour is in Kansas. Look at this. The Democrat ahead by a little bit less than a percentage point.

29:27And then the other one I will note is in Alaska. The last time that a Democrat was elected governor of Alaska, Anderson, was all the way back in 1998. It hasn't happened this century. That gentleman was Tony Knowles. We've been talking about the massive gains Democrats made nationally. What does it look like among young male voters that helped propel the president back to the White House? Yeah, this to me is one of the great switcheroos that we have seen, Anderson. You know, when we're talking about the Senate races, right, and we're talking about how well Democrats did, young men helped propel them in both the House and in the Senate.

30:04So what are we talking about? Well, let's take a look at the vote margin in the House. I mean, my goodness gracious, look at this shift. Look at this shift. Donald Trump carried young men, those under the age of 30, by 14 points back in 2024. Look at how much Dems won in the House vote among young men. They won by 25. They won by 25. That is a 39-point switch-a-roo. It's one of the biggest shifts that we saw in the entire electorate. It turns out that the young men said, you know what, we don't exactly like what Donald Trump is doing in office. Now, beyond that, what about specific races? Well, let's talk about Texas.

30:42Let's talk about Texas, Anders. Look at this in Texas. You want to know one of the reasons James Tallarico won is because of young men in Texas. Look at this. Donald Trump carried young men, those under the age of 30, by 24 points. James Tallarico won him by 34 points. Wow is exactly right. A 58 point shift that helped propel him to be the first Democratic senator elected from Texas since 1988, Andersen. All right, Harry, have a good weekend. Thanks very much. I want to get perspective now from NYU professor and podcast host Scott Galloway. Scott, you call the election results a political earthquake that triggered a tsunami.

31:21And you said that young men were at the earthquake's epicenter. How do you explain the massive swing among young voters away from the president after supporting him in 2024? Well, first off, let's talk about the earthquake here. the three groups that pivoted hardest from red to blue in 28 were Hispanics, 28-point swing, all young people, 30-point swing, and young men, a 38-point swing from red to blue. What the exit polls show is that this was largely a repudiation of the president, and 89 % of exit polling said that they were focused on affordability. The surprise in the exit polling, Anderson, was that just above affordability at 90 percent was corruption or concerns over corruption.

32:13But I think that the plates colliding, what actually caused this earthquake, this offshore earthquake that created this tsunami, is one basic statistic. And we've been talking about this for the better part of the last five years. And that is for the first time in the nation's history, a 30-year-old isn't doing as well as his or her parents were. at the age of 30. And that just creates tremendous shame and rage across households, not only among young people, but among their parents. And in 24, Trump offered young men sort of a vision of masculinity and grievance, but it wasn't helping paying their rent.

32:49And they saw this vision of masculinity as coarse and cruel. And wow, did they repudiate and swing back. What do you think Democrats elected Tuesday need to do to to keep young men and young voters in general showing up for them in the future? Because it's not necessarily that they loved the you know, love the Democratic Party all of a sudden. Yeah, this was churn. This wasn't this was dumping your relationship, not because you're in love with someone, but you've just had it with the current relationship. The way I would argue is that what I would say is that young men are the swingest of swing voters.

33:27And that is you could easily lose them. And the way I've been talking to a lot of Democrats about this, just because you have a lease doesn't mean you have a mortgage. You're renting these folks right now. You don't own it. You're dating them. You don't have a marriage. And I would argue that there's a lot of rhetoric around accountability, retribution, and all the hearings that the Democrats are planning. And I understand that. But I would argue, and my advice to Democrats would be, for every ounce of that, you need a pound of specific proposals to help young people do a few things. Get a house.

34:04Get a job. Have more ability to form a family. because while the hearings and the retribution and the accountability makes for great C-SPAN and a populist tickles the censors of Democrats who feel like they've been abused for the last several years, what is going to hold on to these voters is a concrete plan, quite frankly, for economic prosperity. So minimum wage, job training, housing credits, a sense that you can form a family. Young men are not Neanderthals. They care about social issues, but that's not what animates them. I also want to get your reaction to Elon Musk pumping$500 million or so into campaign spending this cycle, particularly in Texas, where obviously he's relocated so many of his businesses and coming up basically with nothing to show for him.

34:57I know it's a tiny percentage of his wealth, but how do you think he kind of washes out in all of this? Well, you referenced the key point here, and that is, I think in the last 20 years, 40 years, we've been talking a lot about how to accumulate wealth. I think the next 10 years, we're going to have a serious conversation around the responsibilities of wealth. And when you think about$500 million, it just sounds staggering. But if you're a trillionaire, that's like being a millionaire who's decided if he gets the local assembly person elected, that his car wash will do better, get favorable treatment from a local council member.

35:30for a millionaire that would be donating$500. So the real question is, should we have trillionaires who can spend literally a negligible amount of their money to try and swing an election? The other observation is the following, and this is the good news of the bright spot. The ROI on political spending appears to be plummeting because for$500 million, he couldn't he couldn't buy a senator. I mean, that's just it's hard to believe that much money couldn't move the needle. And that's the good news. I would also argue, Anderson, and some of your viewers may not like this, I think it would be a mistake to go after Musk's companies in sort of a retribution or a vengeance.

36:07I think states led by Democrats need to show that they are focused on economic growth, that they are open for business. I'm not suggesting there should be sweetheart deals, and I'm sure there have been that need to be uncovered, NDAs around data centers. But I think the worst thing Democrats could do right now is be seen as very anti-business and start going after companies punitively. I think they need to show that they are actually pro-growth and focused on growing our economy such that we can pay for our Navy and food stamps and some of the many promises that Democrats will immediately begin making around restoring Medicaid cuts and things like that.

36:43Scott Galloway, it's great to have you on. Scott, thanks Scott. Thank you, Anderson. Coming up next, the president gets approval from the key panel to build his golden arch. Then a federal judge takes action to stop construction for now, what the White House did after that, next. Also later, the estranged father of Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, is arrested on charges of allegedly possessing child sex abuse materials. Details from his appearance in federal court in Florida this afternoon coming up.

37:16President Trump got the green light to build his 250-foot triumphal arch after the National Capital Planning Commission voted 8-4 to approve the monument last night. But within an hour of the vote, a federal judge blocked any construction-related activities near the proposed site of the arch for 14 days, citing potential economic impacts and traffic delays. Despite the legal setback, the White House launched a new video, a new website promoting what the president keeps referring to as the Ark. It features this video of what the ginormous monument will look like. And it's kind of giving off a lot of Las Vegas vibes.

37:50The arch is bedazzled with gold. There's a golden winged Lady Liberty stuck on top, hoisting a golden flame torch. And the words Golden Age of America are inscribed in gold, of course, on one of the sides. Joining us now from what might be one day the drive-thru window of this Golden Arch, the CNN Sunland Serpati. What are the next steps of the legal battle look like given this 14-day pause from the federal judge? We'll likely see, Anderson, a flurry of legal activity take place over the next two weeks. First and foremost, the judge has required that the administration file a compliance status report by Monday of next week to comply with the 14-day injunction.

38:32And the judge has made it perfectly clear in her latest ruling that she essentially wants to see absolutely no action here at that site. In the ruling, she spelled it out very clearly. She said no excavation, no demolition, lamb disturbance, roadway closure, or any other construction-related activity that has to do with the arch while these lawsuits play out. And it's worth remembering that there's not one, but there's actually three lawsuits from D.C., Virginia, from preservation groups and from the high profile veterans groups that are suing over this arch and trying to prevent it from being built.

39:09the judge, notably in her ruling, her 33 page ruling that was released late last evening, she gave a nod and really leaned into the argument, I believe, that the D.C. and Virginia groups were bringing, essentially saying that it would cause immediate harm to traffic, to disaster preparedness in this area, the environment in this area, and also the local communities. Anderson? And what is on this new website that the White House rolled out? Yeah, this was really interesting. This website was done by an outside group that was promoted and elevated by the White House today. Certainly timed when it was took final passage in front of the NCPC committee last night.

39:50And it's really a very glitzy, almost like an advertisement video, nearly two minutes in long with some dramatic videos showing a lot of beauty shots of the proposed arch in this space behind me. It also at one point in the website says the arch is an American vision finally realized. It certainly notes again and again how much political capital the White House and how much personal capital the president is willing to invest in this project to see it actually constructed. Anderson. Suddenly, Mr. Vardy. Thanks so much. Coming up, Thomas Markle, the estranged father of Megan, Duchess of Sussex, is under house arrest in Florida tonight, accused of possessing child sexual abuse material.

40:32The latest on the investigation next.

40:36Thomas Markle, the father of Megan, Duchess of Sussex, is under house arrest tonight. This comes after he appeared in federal court with the Department of Justice, accusing him of possessing child sexual abuse material. The DOJ also accuses the 82-year-old of keeping sexually explicit photos of himself with young girls in two Los Angeles area storage units that he was renting. Markle has been estranged from his daughter Meghan for years and did not attend her wedding to Prince Harry in 2018. Joining us now is CNN Royal correspondent Max Foster. Max, what more do we know about the charge against Markle?

41:09so he is facing one count of possessing indecent images of children but police agents actually found around 78 items including slides film negatives and books these were in two storage units in los angeles they had been renting but even more damning anderson is that he appears in some of those images so according to the doj they allegedly included sexually explicit photographs of himself with prepubescent girls. So this is very serious. And he was arrested in Florida by agents. He appeared in court in Tampa and he has been released, but he is under house arrest. And he has denied these allegations previously when they've been made, but he didn't actually enter a plea today, Anderson.

42:00Any reaction from his daughter? No comments so far. At this time, I was told by her spokesperson, implying there may be a comment later on. You can imagine that she has heard about these allegations before. She says that's why she's never introduced her children to her father, Thomas Markle. But to see all of the detail that's come out today would have been a huge shock to her. So we wait to hear more from her. She first heard about these allegations, Anton, in 2019, when a member of the extended family, if you like, wrote a letter to her. She passed that on to the British or the British police passed on to her.

42:37And she was hoping the British police would follow up on this investigation. We've since found out that the British police did nothing about this. So that's part of the concern here as well. Where do legal proceedings in the U.S. go from here? And is Markle still under investigation in the Philippines? So we're told that his arraignment in California is yet to be scheduled. It could be weeks away. There is a separate investigation in the Philippines. Her half-brother, Thomas Markle Jr., reported her father, Thomas Markle, to the Philippine authorities, having found another stash of alleged suspicious images belonging to Thomas Markle Sr.

43:18And the Philippine authorities are investigating that. But we've since heard, Anderson, this week, a twist to this story. And that is that the Philippine Interior Minister has said that Thomas Markle Jr. is also being investigated here, may have been involved in the crime. There are some signs of that, they say. So he's become a person of interest here. Not currently a suspect, though, in the same way as his father. Max Foster, thanks very much. Appreciate it. Reminder, you can stream the show live or watch any CNN program on demand anytime on any screen or mobile device. All you need is an all access subscription.

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