Backfire: Trump writes his OWN attack ad

0:01Brian Tyler Cohen:Trump writes his own attack ad for Democrats to use against the Republicans this November. And I've got two interviews. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani joins to discuss the Iran war and his first 100 days in office. And law professor Leah Litman joins to discuss the Supreme Court's birthright citizenship hearing. I'm Brian Tyler Cohen and you're listening to No Lie. So there was a clip on the White House's social media accounts that was abruptly taken down. But you know what they say about the Internet. And so without further ado, I present to you the contents of a clip that I presume will be quite present over the next few months as we head toward midterms.

0:35Don't send any money for daycare because the United States can't take care of daycare. That has to be up to a state. We can't take care of daycare. We're a big country. We have 50 states. We have all these other people. We're fighting wars. We can't take care of daycare. You got to let a state take care of daycare and they should pay for it too. They should pay. They have to raise their taxes. But they should pay for it. And we could lower our taxes a little bit to them to make up. But it's not possible for us to take care of daycare. Medicaid, Medicare, all these individual things, they can do it on a state basis.

1:12You can't do it on a federal. We have to take care of one thing, military protection. We have to guard the country. But all these little things, all these little scams that have taken place, So you have to you have to let states take care of them, Russell, and you have to do it.

1:28Brian Tyler Cohen:I mean, my God, just get this guy on the campaign trail. Like talk about a winning message. No daycare, no health care, just wars. That is the only priority of the federal government. We have to spend less money on things that impact regular Americans so that we can dump every single fucking dollar into war. Brought to you, of course, by the no new wars president. But the most egregious part is that, of all people, Trump knows better. Because as grocery prices rise and utility bills rise and gas costs rise, Trump exploited that very phenomenon to win the election and even outright admitted it.

2:03Brian Tyler Cohen:This was him just after November 2024. Likewise, an old-fashioned term that we use groceries. I used it on the campaign. It's such an old-fashioned term, but a beautiful term, groceries. It sort of says a bag with different things in it. groceries went through the roof. And I campaigned on that. I talked about the word groceries for a lot. In other words, he was well aware. And yet, since he's actually taken power, think about what he and his party have actually done to solve those very issues that they ran on. The Republicans gutted Medicaid for 17 million Americans. They gutted ACA subsidies for 24 million Americans, gutted food assistance for millions of Americans.

2:39Brian Tyler Cohen:They've enabled a trade war that spiked the cost of everything. They've greenlit a war that sent the cost of oil surging. And now they're seeking approval for another$200 billion to fund a war that, by the way, Trump swore up and down he would never let happen. I'm not going to start a war. I'm going to stop wars. No more wars, no more disruptions. We will have prosperity and we will have peace. Under Trump, we will have no more wars, no more disruptions, and we will have prosperity and peace for all. I am the candidate So not only did he break that promise with no rationale ever given, but he's broken literally every promise that went along with it.

3:19Brian Tyler Cohen:Like he swore he'd be an America first president. And all that's happened since he's taken over is that Americans' lives have become more expensive and the programs that Americans rely on have become more out of reach. And yet, all the while, this guy stands up there and lectures all of us for deigning to have believed that the government could actually help regular Americans. He stands there and says, you know, now that he's already gotten your vote, that the only priority of the federal government is war, not Medicare, not Medicaid, not daycare, not issues that you contend with on a daily basis, issues that actually impact your life, but war.

3:53Brian Tyler Cohen:That's it. We work every fucking day so that we can be little cogs in Trump's war machine. So my message to everyone in this country, left, right and center, is that we don't have to stand for this. We have elected Democrats across the country who are actually walking the walk. when it comes to focusing on regular Americans. You're about to hear my interview with Zoran Mamdani. He talks about making fast and free buses a reality in New York. In Virginia, Abigail Spanberger and the Democratic legislature just passed a spate of bills focused on prescription drugs, preventative health care, affordable housing, free tax filing.

4:26Brian Tyler Cohen:And those are just two examples in two different jurisdictions. Trump may have said all of the right things on the campaign trail, but Democrats are showing that they are willing to deliver. That's the difference. One party did PR, all to consolidate power for themselves. The other party is actually showing up. Something to keep in mind with midterms right around the corner. And again, don't take my word for it. Take Trump's, because I'm sure you'll be hearing his own words in ads across the country, followed by the phrase, I'm insert Democrat, and I approve this message. Next up are my interviews with Zoran Mamdani and Leah Lippman.

5:01Brian Tyler Cohen:No Lie is brought to you by Huel. So are you someone who has 30 minutes to cook or 30 seconds? Because I 100 % fall into the latter category. If it's not literally ready for me to eat, I usually just skip the entire meal. Not super healthy, but then again I work in politics so the whole healthy lifestyle ship has probably sailed. But my loss is Huell's gain because without it I probably would be in a calorie deficit. Right now I'm drinking Huell's ready-to-drink vanilla flavor. My favorite is strawberry banana but I finished those five minutes after I got them. but vanilla is awesome. There's also chocolate, chocolate peanut butter, cookies and cream, all excellent flavors.

5:39Brian Tyler Cohen:And these things have everything I need. First off, again, they taste great. So that's a huge plus. But beyond that, we're talking 35 grams of protein, 27 essential vitamins and minerals, no artificial sweeteners, colors or flavors, and it's gluten-free. Meaning for under$5, you've got a complete meal that you can literally grab and go. Personally, I add creatine to mine, which blends perfectly with just a quick shake so I get everything I need after the gym. And best of all, it legit fills me up so I'm not immediately searching for snacks and junk food right afterwards. For a limited time, get Huel today with an exclusive offer of 15 % off with the code BTC at Huel.com slash BTC.

6:17Brian Tyler Cohen:That's H-U-E-L dot com slash BTC, code BTC at checkout. New customers only. I'm joined now by the mayor of New York City, Zoran Mamdani. Thanks so much for joining me. It's a pleasure to be back. So I want to get your reaction first and foremost to some breaking news right now, and that is that the Republican Party is now weighing health care cuts to pay for this increasingly expensive war or incursion or excursion or military operation, whatever they're calling it today in Iran. We know that they're trying to push through$200 billion for a war that Donald Trump campaigned on never getting into.

6:54Brian Tyler Cohen:Can I have your reaction to the massive amount of money and the massive amount of sacrifice that it would take to actually get this funding passed? I think we're seeing the fact that in the face of Americans facing a historic affordability crisis, that we have the pursuit of something that has already cost twenty three billion dollars thus far. The kind of money that could transform working class Americans live, whether through investments in Medicare or teachers or even elimination of student debt for tens of thousands of Americans and all of that being thrown aside for the pursuit of yet another regime change war.

7:30And it's a war that should be opposed on every single ground, not just procedural, but also moral, but also political. And also a war that should be opposed on the grounds of the fact that it is being financed by the very money that could make it easier to keep calling this city, this country home. And yet there is a blindness to that fact, all while we're being told that this is this is not what we're seeing with our own eyes.

7:55Brian Tyler Cohen:Why do you presume that foreign administration and a political party that spent so much of their political capital campaigning on this idea that they would not do this, that they kind of jumped headfirst into doing exactly the behavior that they condemned? You know, I can't speak to what would make someone to get to that decision. I can just tell you that it's one that when I speak to New Yorkers across the city, no matter political party, that people oppose. I may be a young mayor, but I'm old enough to have remembered the disastrous consequences of regime change wars. And that's exactly what we're seeing in this.

8:29And the pursuit of this war is one that is not just using money that could be used elsewhere. it's also driving up prices across the city and across this country. And that's making it harder for working class Americans to live their day-to-day lives and meet their day-to-day needs.

8:44Brian Tyler Cohen:So I want to talk about New York specifically now. On the campaign trail, you had a lot of promises that campaign promises that you were especially focused on. Free buses, freezing the rent, universal childcare. Can you give a little update? And I know that we're, you know, I know that you've just passed your 100 day mark in office. Can you give an update as to where some of those campaign promises stand? Absolutely. So first and foremost of those three, the most expansive and expensive was that of universal child care. And on day eight of our administration, we joined hands with Governor Hochul to announce that we were putting our city on the roadmap to achieving exactly that.

9:21$1.2 billion in state funding and support so that we could start to deliver free child care for two-year-olds across the city starting this fall. So this fall, we're delivering that free childcare for two-year-olds to 2 ,000 kids. Next year, 12 ,000 kids. By the end of four years, by the end of the first term, we will be delivering universal childcare for every two-year-old in New York City. And we're doing this while also fixing the previous system for three-year-olds, which hadn't been able to keep up meeting demand for New Yorkers across the five boroughs. And so we're creating about a thousand more seats in that program as well.

9:55And all of this is tackling what after housing is the number one crisis that New Yorkers are facing in trying to stay in the city because the cost of childcare is at least$20 ,000 a year. And that's frankly insurmountable, whether you're making 50K a year, 100K a year, even 200K a year, you're going to feel that kind of cost. Then when it comes to making buses fast and free, it continues to be our focus. We have just recently made policy decisions that will speed up the bus routes that over 130 ,000 New Yorkers use on a daily basis. And that's our North Star is how to take what at times are buses that are crawling slower than New Yorker walks when they're late to making them the envy of the country, working with the state to make them free.

10:37We're in the process of this budget negotiation right now. We saw in both the Assembly and the Senate, the New York State Legislature, a vision come forward where they want to start to make routes free, which we're incredibly heartened by. We're hopeful that by the end of this budget process, we'll see the first results of that with a pilot program across the city. And then with the rent freeze, I continue to believe that New Yorkers do deserve a rent freeze at a time when we're seeing profits increase for landlords. We're seeing the fact that the median household income for tenants last year was just$60 ,000 in these rent-stabilized units.

11:09It's ultimately the final decision is with the Rent Guidelines Board. They are considering all of the evidence. They're going to make their final determination this summer. And I've been encouraging New Yorkers to be a part of that consideration. Go out to the hearings they'll have in June. They can find more info for that at nyc.gov forward slash RGB in the weeks to come.

11:27Brian Tyler Cohen:Now, in order to pay for some of these priorities, you on the campaign trail proposed a 2 % citywide income tax on those individuals who are earning over a million dollars. Is that still in play? And can you talk about the broader aim alongside Senator Bernie Sanders to move forward with a wealth tax for those who are making over a certain threshold of money? You know, we're talking about a city that is at one level the wealthiest city in the wealthiest country in the history of the world. And at another level is a place where one in four New Yorkers are living in poverty. And this income inequality that has become endemic to life in our city is not fixed.

12:08It's not natural. It's a result in many ways of political choices at the city, state, and national levels. And I continue to believe that taxing the wealthiest New Yorkers, the most profitable corporations, that little bit more to ensure that working class New Yorkers can afford to live in this city is something that is necessary. And it continues to be part of our advocacy with the state. And we've also said that we are open to a number of different ways that we could tax wealth in this city and in this state because we want to ensure that a financial crisis that working class people had nothing to do with is not one that they're then asked to bear the burden of responding to.

12:46Brian Tyler Cohen:In terms of some type of wealth tax, the critics will come forward and say and threaten really capital flight, that they're going to leave New York and go somewhere else. What is the response to that? And I say that not just as as the mayor of or I ask that not just as the to not just the mayor of New York, but frankly, other high income blue cities and states that are trying to contend or reconcile with, OK, how do we both raise revenue so that we can implement policies that garner the support of the vast, vast, vast majority of constituents? while also taking into account the fact that there are these threats that are leveled by high earners who threaten to go to red states, for example, that offer them havens where they're not going to get taxed?

13:34I think the first thing is to come back to the facts. When I was in the state assembly, we were advocating to raise personal income taxes and corporate taxes at the time to meet the needs of working class New Yorkers. We were told that millionaires were going to flee. That was in 2021. one. We raised about$4 billion in additional revenue that year. And what we found is that now we have more millionaires than we did back at that point. And these are the kinds of facts that too often are missing from the conversation. I'm sure you remember when I was running for mayor, many people said that they would be leaving on day one, if not even day zero.

14:07And what we have seen instead is that that kind of a proposed flight has not actually taken place. It's not to say we shouldn't take it seriously, but it's to say that when these kinds of threats are being put forward, we have to ask, what is the evidence that's actually standing up behind them? Or is this just the kind of fear mongering that often meets any kind of ambitious vision for working class people? And that's where I think it has to get back to because we're talking about a city where it costs three bucks to get on the bus or ride the train. And that's out of reach for one in five New Yorkers.

14:36It's the same city where some people are buying condos for$260 million. So clearly what our current approach is, is not working. We have to make this a place where we're making it easier to stay as opposed to easier to leave.

14:50Brian Tyler Cohen:And it turns out those those those cushy Park Avenue apartments overlooking overlooking Central Park are probably not too easy to replicate if they want to go down down south or to the Midwest or wherever. You know, while you're making so much progress on implementing these campaign promises, what would be the ultimate goal? Like these are all put goals that you put forward for yourself and in large part are accomplishing them right now. But I presume that you look at this as the on-ramp, not the final destination. And so, you know, once you've built up this political capital and trust with voters because you're keeping true to your promises, what would a bigger vision for New York beyond free buses, freezing the rent and universal child care, which is not to put any of those things down because those are massive impacts.

15:37Brian Tyler Cohen:But what is that? What is the next iteration of your leadership look like? I think it's that working class people can feel our policies in their lives, right? That they can feel the benefit of this political agenda in the lives and the struggles that they're living on a day-to-day basis. And what I mean by that is that too often, you know, it feels as if you're trying to translate something into someone's life to make it clear how this, why this matters or what this means to them. When we're talking to New Yorkers about, you know, the cost of getting on the bus or childcare or the rent, people understand that intuitively because those are the very costs that are giving them anxiety about whether they can make it to the next month or the month after that.

16:21And so for me, the longer term goal here is that a working person has an easier life to live in this city and that they can see clearly how city government is making an impact in it. And you know, when I ran and even when I was inaugurated, I spoke about having run as a democratic socialist and now looking to govern as a democratic socialist. And to me, democratic socialism, it is a belief in the fact that democracy has to be extended from just the ballot box into the rest of people's lives where they can feel like they are actors in what they are actually doing as opposed to things just happen to them.

16:55And that's what we're looking for is every single place that people are being pushed by a cost of living crisis, that it feels as if oxygen is being taken out of their bodies and their lives. How can we bring that back to them?

17:07Brian Tyler Cohen:Have you had interactions with other Democratic mayors? Yes, but like other Democratic politicians writ large about how to transpose some of the successes that you've had in both your your policy and your messaging to help other folks around the country? But, you know, I've been lucky enough to meet a number of mayors and other Democratic politicians when they've either come to New York City or it's been on the phone. And I've shared whatever the lessons are that from what we've learned over these last about three months, I'll be frank with you. I'm still looking to learn at this time as opposed to lecture to anyone else.

17:45And so one of the things that's been such a joy, frankly, is my political mentor is Bernie Sanders and just being able to be in regular touch with him as to what, you know, what are the ways we should be tackling this crisis. And what I've so appreciated about him is the fact that he's not just the senator or the presidential candidate that many of us think of him as. He's also a former mayor of Burlington. And so oftentimes it's some of the very, you know, emphasis that he lends to me is we have to also focus on the day to day things. So if you're asking me about universal childcare, freezing the rent, making buses fast and free, I have to do those things and fill the potholes in this city.

18:24Because every time you feel a bump, if you're riding a bike, if you're driving a car, that's a feeling that city government doesn't care about me. And so we're trying to make that clear in everything that we do on a day-to-day.

18:35Brian Tyler Cohen:You had just responded a couple of days ago with the number of potholes that you filled. Can you quickly tell me what that number is? we are getting to a place, I think at this time, because we gave a number a few days ago, that number has now gone up. So I'm going to have to get back to you. I think we're getting roughly in the ballpark of roughly in the ballpark. I mean, we're coming close to 100 ,000. OK, so how does it get to the point where in in the five minutes that you've been in office, you're able to fill a hundred thousand. Where was, where was the previous administration in doing a lot of the work that you're doing on a daily basis right now?

19:16Brian Tyler Cohen:And I don't mean this as a, I'm not, I don't mean this as a knock. I mean, how can you, or I mean, I guess it is, I guess it is kind of a knock, but like, how do you get to the point where there are, there, there is so much work left undone or, or unattended to, to the point where you can say, you know, in the first, in a hundred days in office, you've filled a hundred thousand potholes counting? You know, I can't speak to what the previous administration was up to when it came to some of these things. Sometimes they were abroad, right? Sometimes they weren't here. But I think it comes back to the fact that I view these things as evidence of the kind of work we're trying to do.

19:58Filling a pothole is not a small thing. It's not an unimportant thing. If you can't fill a pothole, how are you going to deliver universal childcare? These are two parts of the same kind of connected set of politics. You have to be able to do both of these things for someone to trust that city government can deliver for them. And the other beautiful thing here, I'll tell you, is that I am leading a city government of 300 ,000 municipal workers who work so hard every single day. And when we're talking about these potholes, we're talking about DOT workers who are out there. And they are putting everything they have into this.

20:33And frankly, for far too long, they haven't been recognized. And that's also been one of the most exciting things here is to shine a little bit of a light on what it looks like to be a part of a city workforce that is doing incredible work, keeping the city running and committed to the welfare of people who call the city home.

20:48Brian Tyler Cohen:You know, you had mentioned that your mentor is Bernie Sanders. What's the one piece of advice that Bernie had given to you that you still think about or that had the biggest impact on you? I think in many ways, Bernie is the inspiration for this slogan that we've taken up, which I've now belatedly realized has a connection to Paw Patrol, which is that there's no problem too big, no task too small. Because what Bernie has emphasized to me is this idea of sewer socialism that has sometimes it's felt as if it's been lost to time. this idea that you deliver this expansive vision of politics through fixes to the most granular problems in people's lives is one that has to be at the heart of the way in which we're approaching every single issue.

21:41And we have to remember that there's a reason why people have lost faith in government. It's because they see examples of government's failure on a regular basis. And if you want to get their faith back, you don't convince them in a debate or you give a great speech, you convince them by taking care of the thing that they would point to as a reason as to why they don't believe. And whether it's sewer socialism, or maybe we're trying to now dub it pothole praxis, we're looking to take on every single thing that we can.