Trump Celebrates High Gas Prices

17:35Dan Pfeiffer:Now, um, the White House has since said that this was like unverified intelligence. And of course we can believe everything the White House says. And, and, and Gavin Newsom said that he had heard about it and everyone's on high alert. Um, it seems like this was intelligence from, uh, February that the Iranians aspire to do this. I do think that would, you know, requires somehow getting a ship out to the West coast of California and then the drones and who knows. But, um, I do think that one got a lot of Americans attention. I think that that might've broken through.

18:06Jon Favreau:It broke through to the, uh, the, the, uh, the, the school mom group chat in my house. Yes. I had some questions for Tommy and Ben from a lot of people. They needed good responses. And then, and then Hallie didn't trust me to do it. So she wanted me to screenshot their text and send it to them just like as proof that things were okay.

18:25Dan Pfeiffer:I mean, I also saw in that what's resonating newsletter that posts about and stories about that FBI warning were like one of the most shared stories yesterday by far, because I just think that, you know, we Americans right now don't like the idea of this war. They don't like the idea of spending a lot of money on this war. They don't like the idea of high oil prices. They certainly don't like the idea of like American troops risking their lives and potentially dying in this war. Some already have. But if there start being credible threats to the homeland and, you know, terror attacks, God forbid, like that's when things are shit's really going to hit the fan.

19:05Dan Pfeiffer:And, you know, the fact that Trump was talking about sleeper cells and terror sleeper cells and all we've got an eye on most of them, I think, is fucking terrifying. We're sitting here and just today there was a shooter at Old Dominion University in Virginia, and they believe that was someone who was ISIS inspired and had been in jail already for some ISIS inspired activities back, I think, as far as 2017, got out of jail in 2024. There was also just an attack on a synagogue in Michigan. And early reports say it is a naturalized Lebanese American who was, I guess, just last night posting pictures of relatives who died in the Israeli attacks on Lebanon, which is just fucking horrific that now we are seeing potentially attacks or attempted attacks play out across the United States.

19:58Dan Pfeiffer:and I don't know. I just have a real fear that this is just the beginning of that.

20:04Jon Favreau:Yeah, I mean, that is the, it's not just that the war is happening. It's the way in which, Tommy, I talked about this on YouTube yesterday, but it's also the way they're messaging the war, right? It's like seemed almost designed, it's the video game footage, the triumphalism, the snuff porn videos of things blowing up that they keep tweeting out as if it's like a joke. and like that is seems designed to radicalize people against the united states whether they're

20:31Dan Pfeiffer:in iran or elsewhere yes it does that that is certainly the the scariest effect i also think i've been thinking about this a lot because it's really bothered me the video game shit and and they keep doing it and some of them are um some of them are like sports related and so they'll show like nfl clips and they'll like uh cut it with like every touchdown they'll cut it with like a missile that hit, like actual footage of a missile that hit. They did it with baseball too, like baseball highlights. And they just keep doing this shit. I kind of think it's meant to numb us to the real consequences and risks of war.

21:10Dan Pfeiffer:And this idea that like, oh, it's all fun. It's no big deal. You're scrolling through your feed. You're seeing a million different things anyway. And when you see stuff about war, it's just one more thing and it's a game and we're winning it and everything's awesome and America's fucking great. and let's keep going. And I realized that like every government uses propaganda to sell war, but this is like, it feels like it's propaganda for the sake of propaganda, just to like not even sell a war, but just to convey a message that everyone should go about their business and not think this is a big deal and not worry about all the scary headlines that you're reading or all the people who are upset about this.

21:45Dan Pfeiffer:Just like, we're great. We're fucking awesome. Good luck.

21:49Jon Favreau:I think you are correct. that that's the net effect of what they're doing. I think that gives them way too much credit for a strategy here. I think it's just a bunch of fucking incel gripers who got social media jobs at the White House just doing shit to get kudos in their local discords. I get you, like, it's so stupid. It serves no actual purpose. And I think even the, I mean, because of the way the media works now and because of the fact that it's happening in a random place where there is essentially almost no Western media at all, and they can shut the internet down in a second. Like this already could just be happening without us ever seeing anything, right?

22:27Jon Favreau:It's just, you know, but they put out the, I think they put out these videos because they're unserious, terrible people. Like that's what it, like they don't, there's just no.

22:34Dan Pfeiffer:But it has been, it has, I mean, it has been their digital strategy since their campaign in 2024 that they have carried into the White House and they've done it around deportations. And yeah, it is a bunch of incel gripers. Like those are the people who are now staffing the government at some of the highest levels, but their view on like communication, if you want to call it a few, like, it doesn't have to be like a strategy that was on a whiteboard anywhere, but the way they do this is just pump out shit, troll people, everything's fucking, LOL, nothing matters. That is their strategy, per se, and it's just it's nihilism, and it's really scary.

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26:12Dan Pfeiffer:Despite all these efforts, the war still isn't popular with most Americans, including some prominent podcasters whose support for Trump in 2024 probably helped him make inroads with younger Gen Z men. The most prominent, of course, is Joe Rogan, who has been on something of a tear about Iran. Let's listen.

26:30Jon Favreau:It's terrifying. And it's exactly the opposite of what we were told leading into this administration, that it's going to be America first. Right. No more unnecessary foreign wars. It's gonna be bad. I mean if oil prices spike we're fucked. Yeah, you know and The Republicans are really fucked. Yeah, he's 80 He doesn't have much to lose right last time. That's the scary thing about old leaders You know you're making decisions for babies and children and the future of the world and you've only got ten Maybe ten years left on on earth I mean the last part is quite like telling of our times in a pretty powerful way it is

27:12Dan Pfeiffer:it also just made me think you know you know who wasn't 80 who's still not 80 Kamala Harris she was she was a candidate in the last election she has hopefully many many years to live and make decisions on behalf of you know the family in her life and everyone else and other children

27:31Jon Favreau:and I can pretty much you guarantee with all with every ounce fiber of my body that we would not be at war with a run if

27:39Dan Pfeiffer:she was president of the united states yeah i as you know don't like to like scream at people who um scream like i told you so at people who voted for trump i think it's a shitty way to like win people over and so you know welcome joe rogan right to uh to seeing the light on this one I just hope that going to be another presidential election in 2028. And I hope that Joe Rogan and a lot of these other podcasters, you know, just thinks about what lessons can be learned from 2024 and the lies that were told in 2024 and the people who told them. And it wasn't just Donald Trump. It was, you know, his vice president who is probably going to be the front runner for the Republican nomination.

28:23Dan Pfeiffer:many of the other people around him in the White House, many of the other Republicans who are running for Congress and running for president. So, you know, I do think that all the people who are disappointed in Trump, who supported Trump, think next time around the next election that what they're hearing from Republicans, from MAGA Republicans like Donald Trump might not be on the level.

28:44Jon Favreau:And that every Republican has stood by Trump as he's done this. You know, with the exception of Rand Paul and Thomas Massey, every single one of them is totally fine with this war.

28:52Dan Pfeiffer:So our pal Peter Hamby at Puck has a new piece with reactions from young men, including Trump voters who participated in one of John DeLaVolpe's focus groups on the war. Talked to John a couple of times in the show. Spoiler alert, these young men, not fans, not fans of the war. What do you make of these groups? And how big of a problem do you think this is for Republicans as we look ahead to the midterms?

29:15Jon Favreau:You know, as we've looked at the polling over the last year, the group that has abandoned Trump the fastest are young men. And I think it's primarily been driven by affordability and the fact that Trump ran on lowering prices and then has just found truly diabolical ways to keep raising them. Like if you thought the tariffs were bad, wait till you go to the gas pump this week. But I think there is this level of consistency. If you listen to the focus groups in 2024, there was this very real concern. Obviously, it was based on bad information, but this very real concern that Kamala Harris would get us into wars and Donald Trump would keep us out of wars.

29:51Jon Favreau:Donald Trump said he was against forever wars all the time. The U.S. You know, this was people's views on this were complicated by U.S. support for Ukraine. And I think this fear also unfounded and based on bad information that somehow we were going to get involved in Ukraine because of our support for Ukraine. There was U.S. support for Israel and what was happening in Gaza all was pushing to this. And Donald Trump was saying, no forever wars, no forever wars, no forever wars. Now, he was also saying he was going to blow the shit out of bad guys all the time. But and so you're even, you know, when Peter talks about this piece is that he would like go to colleges and talk to young men.

30:23Jon Favreau:They would be worried in 2024 about being drafted. Like, I mean, that was the thing that got brought up during the campaign, that Kamala Harris would bring the draft back and draft you. And you're hearing that again. Like there is this like it is a consistent viewpoint. And Donald Trump has broken a core promise. I mean, there are three reasons why people voted for Donald Trump who were like were actually legitimately on the fence. Prices, immigration. and by immigration, I mean the border and war. And he's raised prices. He has run a immigration strategy that went so far beyond anything he promised and is not what people want.

30:59Jon Favreau:And now he has gone and started multiple wars and now has us embroiled in the greatest conflict we've been in, in a decade. Yeah.

31:07Dan Pfeiffer:And I do think it speaks to the need for, and I know, you know, Ben and Tommy talked about this this week on Pod Save the World and have been talking about it for a while. But like the need for Democrats clearly to become an anti-war party or at least back to a war as a last resort, military force as a last resort party. because it is clear that the impression that a lot of these young men and other voters had about Kamala Harris and the potential that she might get us into war or start a draft is based on, you know, a lot of lies and misinformation pushed by Trump and his supporters, for sure.

31:46Dan Pfeiffer:It's also true that if you inspected all of Kamala Harris's positions closely, you would probably come to the conclusion that, yeah, she's not going to start World War III, nor is she going to bring back the draft, right? That's pretty obvious. But in the years that Joe Biden was president and Kamala Harris was vice president and even in her campaign, did it seem like there was an emphasis on keeping America out of wars or in keeping America out of foreign wars? I would say probably not, particularly with the way that, like you said, Biden behaved in Gaza and also the, I would argue, necessary support for Ukraine against Putin's invasion.

32:29Dan Pfeiffer:But also it was something that was it wasn't just happening that like, oh, well, you know, we're going to help defend Europe and we're going to do this. It was like touted all the time talked about because it was, you know, we connected this fight against Russia and Ukraine's fight against Russia to sort of like the global fight against authoritarianism. authoritarianism. And again, lots of good reasons to make that connection and to offer that support. But I do think as Democrats run again in 2026, especially 2028, you got to be pretty clear about our stance on war and the use of force and not do the thing that every fucking Democratic nominee does, particularly Democratic nominees who don't have military background, who don't have foreign policy experience, and just say a lot of words to show how tough they are, Because we know that strength is important and the only way to – and we somehow equate strength with talking tough about war.

33:25Jon Favreau:That is the most important point, which is in the post-Vietnam era, in sort of really exemplified in Carter's presidency around Iran, ironically enough, in the effort and the seizing of the embassy and then the failed missions to try to rescue the people, the Americans held hostage in the embassy. Democrats became seen as weak. and we have tried to solve that problem by being pro-war, by being bellicose. That is how we stumbled into the Iraq war. It's why so many Democrats thought that they should vote for it. I mean, the problem was worsened in the 90s when early 90s, when a bunch of Democrats voted against the first Gulf War and it ended like in 30 days and George W.

34:10Jon Favreau:Bush, H.W. Bush went to a 90 % approval rating. And so then we're like, we're not going to make that mistake again. when what takes actual strength is to oppose war, right? That was ultimately why Obama succeeded in 2008 because he was the candidate who was seen as strong enough, who had the courage to stand up against war. And if you think that we are in these messes as a party because we have conflated being tough with being pro-war, and that is not how the American people see it. They want someone who is strong enough and smart enough to get us out of wars, to keep us from getting in these sort of fights.

34:46Dan Pfeiffer:And the media and punditry contributes to this.

34:50Jon Favreau:Oh, they're so fucking pro-war.

34:52Dan Pfeiffer:Because inevitably, every campaign, there's like a million stories at some point in the campaign about how this Democratic candidate must pass the commander-in-chief test. And then, you know, dutifully, the Democratic presidential candidate will say things like, I'm ready to be commander-in-chief on day one. And I will use the most lethal military force and all the fucking shit that the blob who's advising the DC blob who's advising that candidate tells them to put in their speeches. And no more. No more. Like, and I get why some candidates feel the need to do it because they don't have the background.

35:27Dan Pfeiffer:They don't have the experience. They don't have the military experience. A lot of this is gendered as well, which is why Kamala Harris and Hillary Clinton helped to deal with it too. But like you just it is an artificial sort of facade of like bellicose militarism that no one's buying, first of all, and only makes you look more hawkish. When people don't want that. So that was what the young men thought in that focus group. Marjorie Taylor Greene also tweeted on Thursday. We've been talking about people like Tucker Carlson and Megyn Kelly who were against this war. marjorie taylor green certainly um one of these maga folks uh she tweeted on thursday that she's been talking to other quote america first conservatives she's not mag anymore she's america first there's a there's a split tomato tomato uh yeah and they all agree that the party has been hijacked by um neocons and boomers and that quote an entire generation of elected leaders their donors and controlling interests on both sides have to be quote removed by outside pressure

36:30Jon Favreau:what's what's marge got going on there just as a point of fact i'm pretty sure trump's a member

36:34Dan Pfeiffer:of the silent generation yeah that's true he's older than the problem is that the boomers is

36:40Jon Favreau:he not a boomer i think he's silent i think he and biden were both silent generation wow yeah those are the people really like we don't even think about the silent generation but they're the ones pulling the strings in washington these days on the day that jim clibber announced he's

36:54Dan Pfeiffer:running for reelection at age 86 yeah it's just a spring chicken spring chicken no it's just as uh i can't i don't even get into that it's bad how about that that's my take it's bad yeah it's a

37:09Jon Favreau:good take here's the thing that i think this war is showing us more anything else is that maga doesn't really exist as a lot of people think about it i think we've talked about how you know trump is the symptom of a larger problem in american politics and that is true and we've talked about this idea of Trumpism as a sort of a movement or a philosophy that it would extend past Trump and then you know all these discussions Trump's going to ask people who thinks a better leader for MAGA J.D. Vance or Marco Rubio MAGA is fake it's a call to personality if you look at it in this like there are definitely elite leaders mostly in the podcast space who are like true believers of some of the shit like the people Marjorie Taylor Greene's talking about But in the polling, when they look at MAGA or self-identified MAGA Republicans and non-MAGA Republicans, the ones who are more pro-war are the MAGA Republicans because they're more pro-Trump.

38:00Jon Favreau:And so whatever Trump is for, they're for. So what is going to happen when Trump fades into the background and there is this, you know, a 20-28 Republican nomination is not a battle for who's going to lead Trump's movement. Trump's movement dies with him. It's what the rest of the Republican looks like, party looks like after Trump. Right. I'm not saying it's going to look good because of the decade of radicalization of people into this sort of depraved, nihilistic, neglomaniacal politics. But it's not America first. It's not nationalism. It's like race-based grievance politics. Then take it where you want from there.

38:37Yeah.

38:38Dan Pfeiffer:I mean, I think you could see an America first movement that is very nationalistic, xenophobic, populist. Again, it doesn't look great. but you could see it stand in contrast with the hawks that are left in the party, the deficit hawks that are left in the party. There's not a lot of them, right? There's going to be some segments of the party that really are driven by more racial grievance and immigration. There's going to be others that are maybe driven by more economic concerns, even though they're not going to end up embracing any decent economic policies. But I do think the point is it's going to be a war for the soul of the party.

39:19Jon Favreau:Yes. Not a war to lead the Trump movement, because that's not a real thing.

39:25Dan Pfeiffer:Right. And I don't think it's going to be a battle between the never Trumpers and the rest of the party. I think that they're out for good. I think it's going to be the different warring factions of MAGA that we're seeing right now.

39:36Jon Favreau:It doesn't stand for anything. If Trump came out tomorrow for Obamacare, they'd all be pro-Obamacare. That's the thing that is here. And so it doesn't really mean anything. Like it is just a, the voters serve, the Republican base voters serve Trump, whatever Trump wants. They don't serve a bunch of ideas that Trump then because come to represent for them. Like you see this with abortion, right? Like this is, was the, you know, obviously Dobbs happened, but Trump, you know, has not said anything about abortion for years now, right? Since the election and no one, and you don't hear anything from the evangelicals about it because that's not what Trump wants.

40:15Jon Favreau:But if Trump were to pick it as his top issue tomorrow, that would be the top issue again. I just think it's important to understand the difference between an America First movement that Trump's the head of and a movement that is about Donald Trump that is sometimes called America First and may have some America Firsters in it.

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42:45Dan Pfeiffer:Well, Donald Trump's still here and Republicans are about to face their last midterm with Donald Trump as president. And they are clearly aware that their prospects aren't looking so hot, which is why this week's House Republican retreat in Florida gave us headlines like this one from Axios. Quote, White House tells House Republicans to stop talking about mass deportations. What? Here's House Speaker Mike Johnson valiantly trying out the new line on Tuesday. We got a little hiccup with some of the Hispanic and Latino voters for certain because some of the immigration enforcement was viewed to be overzealous and, you know, everybody can describe it differently.

43:20Dan Pfeiffer:But here's the good news. We're in a course correction mode right now. We're going to have a new Secretary of Homeland Security. Mark Wayne Mullen is going to do a great job in that role. I'm sure that he'll... Just a hiccup. Just a flesh wound. You know, and it could be some people have described it as overzealous and it could be described different ways.

43:41Jon Favreau:You pick your adjective. I'm not saying it's overzealous in case Donald Trump is watching this right now. I'm not saying that. Some may have said that. Also, just like what an annoying doofus he is. it's just like he is just it's so the way like this he's describing mass deportation and the massive political problem the republicans have because of it in this like weird sing-songy ned flanders voice like it's just it's so bad just a hiccup just a hiccup with some latino voters

44:15Dan Pfeiffer:just over the fact that we have a paramilitary force hunting them down in their neighborhoods regardless of whether they're citizens or not. So James Blair, who is the, this is the White House's top political guy. He's the deputy chief of staff. They always trot him out to try to say what the message should be. And then everyone else in the White House just ignores the advice. Says do Republicans. Remember he did that around affordability. He's like Donald Trump, after the off year elections, he's like Donald Trump's now going to focus on affordability. We know that we get the, it's really important that the next day Donald Trump's like affordability is a hoax.

44:50Dan Pfeiffer:So he also told House Republicans, he was the one who said, stop talking about mass deportations. He told them to turn the midterms into a choice election by reminding voters about Democrats, Biden era positions on crime, cashless bail and open borders. That was the quote. Would that be your advice, too?

45:09Jon Favreau:I wouldn't give them advice, John, but I would point out that the strategy is doomed to fail for one very, very bitter pill for Donald Trump and James Blair to swallow, which is Joe Biden isn't president. Well, not only is Joe Biden not president, 60 % of voters in a recent NPR Marist poll believe that things were better when Joe Biden was president. That includes 68 % of independents. And so your message cannot be watch out for Biden's old policies. Even if they didn't like Biden's old policies, they think your policies suck more. Majorities think that their life is worse off because of Donald Trump's policies.

45:48Jon Favreau:And so and at a time of war with$100 a barrel oil, do you think cashless bail is going to tip the elections for you? Like truly, these guys are so far up their own asses that it's like hard to see straight.

46:04Dan Pfeiffer:Someone from Fox called up the White House after that Axios story and asked about the mass deportations policy. And the White House said there's no change whatsoever in the White House's deportation or immigration policies. So they're still pursuing mass deportation, but they just can't talk about it. Can't talk about mass deportation. The war that you're seeing is actually over. It's going great. It's going great. The tariffs you're paying that the Supreme Court said are illegal, you're not getting a refund. The higher gas prices you're paying are actually great because, you know, we're all making money.

46:40Dan Pfeiffer:Oil companies are making money and everything's great. And I don't know. What else is there? That's that's basically everything's wonderful. Everything's wonderful. Check out this ballroom. Look at that. It's great.

46:50Jon Favreau:Yes. And don't worry. The president is spending at least three to four times as much time as he is on the war in the economy on decorating the ballroom he's building because his true passion is interior design.

47:00Dan Pfeiffer:I don't know what I would tell them the messages like I mean, I guess. And then the other thing, you know, they're like, oh, you got to talk about the prescription drug thing, which like he didn't do anything on prescription drugs. That's like anything of significance at all. but he did some like fake website and a couple things here and there that might help some people who don't have insurance if they go on the website and get some discounts on prescription drugs it's very it's i looked into it it's it's very very little but this this is their big thing they think oh if the republicans are out there and they've done the polling on this and they're telling all the candidates go out there and talk about what trump has done on prescription drugs like that

47:34Jon Favreau:is the key okay no you know who that's almost exactly like it is eerie how similar it is to some of the things we read about Biden's plans. And honestly, I don't know what I would tell them either other than to go fuck themselves. But the that'd be my advice, James Blair. But they they're going to do anything to be helpful is they would kind of do what Biden actually did, which was just be quiet for the last six months. Like Biden was not there campaigning for anyone. He wasn't trying to make the election about him up until he gave that democracy speech at the very end. It was he just kind of let that show it's wrong.

48:08Dan Pfeiffer:He showed a lot of discipline, even though he was unhappy.

48:11Jon Favreau:Yeah. I don't think Trump will be showing that discipline. That's what I was saying.

48:17Dan Pfeiffer:I also think if you told Mike Johnson to go fuck himself, it would fly in the face of his Covenant Eyes app. That he shows his son. So I think that's going to be...

48:25Jon Favreau:Somewhere his son is just getting an alert on his phone.

48:28Dan Pfeiffer:Something I thought about that message wouldn't be received as well. So the president basically had one piece of advice for Republicans in Congress. It's become more of an all-consuming demand, which is to pass the Save America Act. A bill that would require, as we've talked about, every American to present their passport or birth certificate in person at a local elections office in order to register to vote. Trump is also demanding that the bill include a nationwide ban on most mail-in voting and a ban on trans participation in sports and gender affirming care for minors. Because why not? He said that he won't sign any legislation until the bill is passed.

49:07Dan Pfeiffer:And yet the votes still aren't there in the Senate without nuking the filibuster, which Republicans also don't have the votes for, as John Thune continues telling everyone who will listen. They did just get one convert, however. Texas's John Cornyn, who's locked in a primary runoff with Ken Paxton, who said he'd only consider dropping out of the race if the Save Act passes. So because of that, Cornyn wrote an op-ed in the New York Post this week explaining that he now does support ending the filibuster to pass the Save America Act. Again, they still don't have the votes. But Cornyn is having a hard time answering questions about his change of heart after many, many years in politics defending the filibuster.

49:49Dan Pfeiffer:Let's take a listen. You previously said that nuking the filibuster would be taking a wrecking ball to Senate rules. Is that no longer true? um i said i'd be open to reforms what would you say to those who say you just changed your mind

50:03Jon Favreau:to win the president's endorsement i'd say uh that's not true you also said that it's i think i think we're through go ahead go away yeah i think we're i think we're through still seems

50:17Dan Pfeiffer:like there's absolutely no way this thing is getting passed but am i missing something there's some secret trick they got up their sleeve i don't you're not missing anything

50:25Jon Favreau:You should be clear. Trump's made this so much harder. It was almost impossible anyway if they could just pass the House's past version of the original SAVE Act. Instead, Trump has decided to add all these provisions, including, as you said, these completely extraneous things around trans sports participation and gender affirming care, but also mail balloting. Like Susan Collins, who insanely supports the SAVE Act, has said that she is very concerned about a bill telling states how to handle their absentee ballot programs, which the Constitution may also have a thing or two to say about that. Yep.

50:58Jon Favreau:So it seems hard for them to pass the old version. The new version seems like an impossibility. i've been trying to think like just to like take a like a dive on the dark side like how could they actually do it because they can lose three republicans right so you assume even if she supports the bill is susan collins really going to nuke the filibuster to pass the save act no losing murkowski no mitch mcconnell's still kicking around that's three right there

51:31Dan Pfeiffer:and and tillis has said he's not going to do it until us so it's seen that scene and then you

51:34Jon Favreau:You also, Kennedy has said that. So it seems hard. They just don't have the votes. Yeah, it doesn't seem like it is possible for them to do it, even if Trump has pulled off with at least House Republicans in the past, like what seemed to be impossible votes. But usually that's getting conservatives to vote for something more moderate, like more moderate. I'm saying with all kinds of air quotes because not particularly moderate. but it's getting there are no moderates here but getting the less Trumpy Republicans to come over to the Trumpy side is something he's had less success with it seems very very hard as we sit here today so I'd say that

52:08Dan Pfeiffer:it seems like where this is headed is it fails they have the vote they try they speak and yell and scream and all the right wing influencers freak out and all that shit it doesn't go anywhere dies and then Trump announces he's doing an executive order that is the Save America Act. And he's just going to, you know, claim by fiat that it is passed or just, you know, EO the provisions into being and then into law. And then it'll be challenged in court and thrown out. And that'll be that.

52:42Jon Favreau:Yeah, that seems right.

52:43Dan Pfeiffer:And maybe it'll be a pretext for when they lose the midterms for them to all scream about how Democrats cheated. And if we had passed the Save America Act and if the courts hadn't, you know, the Supreme Court hadn't betrayed Donald Trump, then Republicans would have won the midterms. And so now we're going to see some voting machines. I don't know. But like, you can you can see where this is headed.

53:03Jon Favreau:Yeah, that's fair. I think that's a good that that's a good articulation of what's likely to happen.

53:07Dan Pfeiffer:Yeah, it'll be a real fucking shit show. One other story to file under Republicans acting fucking nuts. On Monday, Tennessee Congressman Andy Ogles tweeted, quote, Muslims don't belong in American society. Pluralism is a lie. This came after Florida Congressman Randy Fine tweeted in February, quote, If they force us to choose, the choice between dogs and Muslims is not a difficult one. Then just on Thursday, after a popular right-wing troll account posted a tweet juxtaposing a picture of the Twin Towers exploding with Zoran Mamdani hosting an Iftar celebration, Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville retweeted it with the comment, quote, quote, the enemy is inside the gates, referring to Mamdani.

53:55Dan Pfeiffer:Maybe even more disturbing than those three, when reporters asked a bunch of Republicans in Congress this week for their reaction to Ogle's tweet about how Muslims don't belong in American society, a lot of them just refused to condemn it. The number three ranked Republican in the House, Tom Emmer, was asked six times by a reporter whether he thinks Muslims belong in American society. Six times in a row. Each time he refused to say yes. just would not say yes i don't know i'm like i'm at a complete loss for this one like it's disgusting it is if if anyone said that about any other religion judaism christianity it would be a fucking national uproar um this has nothing to do with uh you know uh sort of islamic inspired terrorists or any kind of extreme it's nothing to do with any of that even though some of them in their backtracking try to make it is just people who are Muslim in this country, they do not want here.

54:53Dan Pfeiffer:And you have elected Republicans saying they do not want Muslims in the society. You have elected Republicans saying that Zoran Mamdani, the mayor of New York City, should be denaturalized and deported. You have other ones just calling for just people who practice Islam in this country to be deported. It's fucking it's it's disgusting. And I like what I don't even know what like what should Democrats say about it? I feel like I've seen a lot of tweets from a lot of Democrats saying that it's disgusting. I really don't know what else there is to do, but it's it's something people should realize is happening out there.

55:30Jon Favreau:Yeah, I mean, I had the exact same reaction, which is it's so horrifying. It is an effort to make anti-Muslim bigotry socially acceptable, certainly within the Republican Party, if not in America. You know, as you said, if you were to substitute any other religion there, there would be a fierce uproar. And I think Democrats who have called it out are good to do. But I always wrestle with this, which is these people are disgusting trolls and they want our outrage. And are we giving them what they want by addressing it? You know, I just like I really like it should be called out. Like it absolutely should be called out.

56:05Jon Favreau:And no one should be afraid to call it out. This is not a situation where like, oh, you know, this might be politically precarious. No, you should call. I think this is terrible, but it's not just disgusting morally. It's I think it's also terrible politics. I think people look at that and think that most Americans think that's disgusting. Like, why would you even say that? Like, why? Like, why would you be so divisive? Like, what? Why would you be so hateful? Like, I don't think that I don't think it's good politics. That's why I think it's the right thing to call it out. I think what to do here is.

56:31Jon Favreau:Like, you're never going to get Andy Ogles, Tommy Tuberville, Randy Fine to be less horrible. They're not going to have an epiphany one day and not be these disgusting people they show themselves to be. The thing to do is to deliver fierce, powerful political punishment on the people who are enabling this in the Republican Party. Tom Emmer, the number three Republican. I mean, Mike Johnson lets us go every single day, right? They could call this out. They could speak up for their constituents. There are Muslims who live in every district, almost every district and certainly every state in this country.

57:06Jon Favreau:none of them call out, is the way to do is to make them pay a huge political price for this, to channel our anger and our outrage, not certainly into protecting and thinking about and caring for the Muslims who are being targeted here, but into efforts to just beat the living shit out of these Republicans in the election.

57:29Dan Pfeiffer:I think Mamdani had maybe the best response. He He quote tweeted Tuberville and said, let there be as much outrage from politicians in Washington when kids go hungry as there is when I break bread with New Yorkers. Yeah. Which is just bringing the whole thing back onto his terms, right? And not having to deal with that. But it is, it's fucked, man.

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59:31Dan Pfeiffer:All right, a couple things before we go. Elon Musk's Doge is back in the headlines thanks to a lawsuit filed last year to reverse cuts to the National Endowment for the Humanities. Apparently, Elon's Doge Bros fed every NEH grant into ChatGPT and asked it, Does the following relate at all to DEI? Respond factually in less than 120 characters. Begin with yes or no. That was the prompt. The result was the cancellation of$100 million in already appropriated funding. Congress already appropriated it. And the firing of 65 % of the staff at the National Endowment for the Humanities, which some of the Doge Bros are having to answer for under oath as part of the lawsuit.

1:00:15Dan Pfeiffer:Here's part of a video that 404 Media put together with some of the highlights from former Doge staffer Justin Fox.

1:00:22Jon Favreau:How do you interpret DEI?

1:00:32Jon Favreau:There was the EO explicitly laid out. The details, I don't remember it off the top of my head. I'm asking for your understanding of it. Yeah, my understanding was exactly what was written in the EO. I don't remember what was in the EO. So right now, do you have an understanding of what DEI is? Yeah. Okay, so what's your understanding as you sit here today in this deposition? Well, it was exactly what was written in the EO. Why is a documentary about Holocaust survivors?

1:00:57Dan Pfeiffer:D-E-I. Fraction.

1:01:01Jon Favreau:It's the gender-based story that's inherently discriminatory to focus on this specific group. It's inherently discriminatory to focus on what specific group? The gender-based, so females.

1:01:22Jon Favreau:During the Holocaust. And you believe that's inherently discriminatory?

1:01:28Dan Pfeiffer:i'm just saying that's what it's focused on sure but this is related to the ei

1:01:32Jon Favreau:oh my god i hadn't seen that clip no this first time first time what well uh the holocaust is a

1:01:43Dan Pfeiffer:these people are fucking stupid elon musk is fucking stupid the fucking people he hired are stupid and everyone during the whole doge thing that was like these kids are brilliant and they blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and just give them a chance. No, they're all fucking stupid. They should have been anywhere near the government and fuck them.

1:02:01Jon Favreau:Just some of the worst, dumbest people were given the most important jobs and with incredible consequences.

1:02:08Dan Pfeiffer:Oh, because you can code? Oh, good for fucking you. Where's that code getting you now? Replace you with fucking Claude.

1:02:18Jon Favreau:Exactly. Yeah, chat GBT my ass right there. it's just like in there like we are laughing this and we should because we these clowns should be ridiculed out of polite society but usaid programs gutted children died people got sick people lost their jobs i know because of a bunch of fucking goobers who had no idea what they're doing who worked for the world's biggest goober who had no idea what he was doing got in there back back to the back to the griper incels yes exactly put in a bunch of poorly worded prompts into a old version of chat gpt and fired a bunch of people and cut off a bunch of programs i just fucking

1:02:57Dan Pfeiffer:you cannot run against silicon valley hard enough in the next race yeah there's a story today about

1:03:05Jon Favreau:a bunch of tech venture capitalists who want to raise a half a billion dollars to shape california

1:03:09Dan Pfeiffer:politics saw that saw that yeah i was just arguing with chamath on twitter although you were say i didn't here's the thing dan he tweeted about the washington the new washington state and millionaires tax the income tax they're all been bitching about the wealth tax i mean this is just just an income tax that hits millionaires that's it and um i just quote tweeted it and and said this this billionaire um you know this billionaire has a problem with uh with millionaires paying a little bit more it's something very like anodyne and he just like responded with this long fucking thing. And it was just a complete asshole.

1:03:44Dan Pfeiffer:And you know what I did? I didn't respond.

1:03:47Jon Favreau:You know what, John? I feel like it was two weeks ago we had what some of our listeners thought was a mild intervention on my part. I think it was more of an inquisition about your mental health. But you've grown in those two weeks.

1:03:58Dan Pfeiffer:If it's not a senior administration official, I'm going to let it go, which is I did.

1:04:01Jon Favreau:Does he not have enough followers for you to get your jollies out of it? Is there a level which is no longer thrilling?

1:04:08Dan Pfeiffer:yeah like who cares what your mouth does but anyway i do think that like people like him and the david saxes and all the ai fucking you know overlords now like this is the politics there are so bad for them and i do think that like people in this country are so angry and have fucking had it with like elon musk and the tech bros and all these fucking assholes that like you know i like i said i do not think you can run hard enough against that um that whole crew if you're a Democrat or a Republican, for that matter, running in 2028.

1:04:40Jon Favreau:And you're going to get a chance to because between the crypto industry and the industry, there's going to be hundreds of millions of dollars spent in super PAC funding. And even in Democratic primaries, we're seeing the crypto PACs have come in against Julianna Stratton, who's lieutenant governor running in Illinois. As soon as she got near the top of the polls, they dropped, I think,$5 million in ads on her. So there's a real, like, this is the real thing. And also, this is a different topic, but these people are also so fucking bad at politics. because like all these AI people who are in there being like arrogant assholes who are, uh, insert themselves in politics, they do not seem to recognize because even though they're making a ton of money, you know, it's like Sam Altman sweeping in with the chat GPT contract, uh, with the Pentagon is that they have to get their data centers built in local communities.

1:05:28Jon Favreau:And if your brand is in the shit, because you're being run by an arrogant asshole who is caping up to the least popular president in recent memory, then it's going to be really hard to get local communities to approve your data centers. It's like these people are really, they are, they're bad at politics. They're being advised by greedy people who are bad at politics. Like it's just, they're all fucking clowns.

1:05:56Dan Pfeiffer:Yeah, agree. That's not the only doge story we have. The Washington Post also just reported that a whistleblower has come forward alleging that a different Doge staffer at the Social Security Administration copied two highly sensitive databases so he could use them at his new job with a private employer. The guy in question apparently asked the whistleblower for help in transferring one of the databases off of a thumb drive to his personal computer so that he could, quote, sanitize the data and said that he expected to receive a presidential pardon, of course, if his work was found to be illegal.

1:06:27Dan Pfeiffer:One of the databases was called the Master Death File, included records for more than 500 million living and dead Americans, including social security numbers, places and dates of birth, citizenship, race and ethnicity, and parents' names. Doesn't that give you a warm and fuzzy feeling inside?

1:06:46Jon Favreau:Should be one of the biggest stories in America because it would be one of the biggest data breaches in the history of the federal government.

1:06:53Dan Pfeiffer:Yeah, and at the end of the story, they're like, and no one knows, was there one copy made of it? No copies, a dozen copies, a hundred copies, no one can say. I'm sure DOJ is looking into it, right? I guess right now they're all over it. There's an inspector general internal investigation at the Social Security Administration. That's how we found out about this story in the Washington Post because they had to notify Congress that they were doing this inspector general investigation. But like, I don't know, it seems a little crimey to me. It seems like there could be some crimes here.

1:07:23Jon Favreau:When you bring up a prospective presidential pardon in the discussion involving how to get something onto a jump drive you're probably committing a crime yeah and when with the stuff

1:07:32Dan Pfeiffer:on the jump drive is the private the most private information for every american i can't wait to see

1:07:39Jon Favreau:what dipshit startup this guy went to go work for it's like probably open ai like you could think it could be something that but it's probably something just so ridiculous like um yeah like i don't know like uber for bowling lanes or something So he just... Fuck.

1:07:59Dan Pfeiffer:Finally, finally, this is a light one. A story about how our wartime president has been extremely focused on footwear. And not just his, either. Earlier this week, the Wall Street Journal reported that Trump has, quote, fallen in love with shoes from a company called Florsheim, which he keeps gifting to, quote, agency heads, lawmakers, White House advisors, and VIPs. So Trump has apparently been checking out people's shoes during cabinet meetings and then guessing their shoe size in front of everyone, which hilariously led to Marco Rubio saying he's an 11 and a half, which he's not. Because shortly after the article was released, various photos of Rubio and a pair of obviously oversized dress shoes went viral.

1:08:52Dan Pfeiffer:so and jd vance has told the story as well that like trump said to marco and jd in some meeting like hey you both have shitty shoes i got these new shoes that i love what are your shoe sizes and so they give him the shoe sizes and jd vance says he's a 13 it's like fuck fucking bigfoot over there and then uh and then marco says 11 and a half after jd vance says 13 and donald trump says You know, you can tell a lot about a man from his shoe size. So Rubio inflates his shoe size. Trump gives these shoes to everyone as a gift. And then they're all stuck wearing their shoes around. In Marco's case, the don't fit him.

1:09:35Jon Favreau:It's so funny. I mean, just such small dick energy for Marco Rubio. He's like.

1:09:43Dan Pfeiffer:Little Marco. Trump nailed that nickname.

1:09:45Jon Favreau:Yes. nailed it he marco rubio measures his shoe size from the base but could you just imagine like he wore them to davos like the man is on his feet like 18 hours a day wearing shoes that do not fit because he's afraid to admit to the president united states that his shoe size is smaller than he thinks he did want to be more than a size and a half smaller than J.D. Vance.

1:10:12Dan Pfeiffer:Who was also probably lying about his feet as well. How many pairs of socks do you think he's trying to put on? I was just going to say that. Well, also, the internet sort of did its thing and sort of they did like a Zapruder-like collection of like various Marco Rubio pictures, photos. So there's one where he clearly looks ridiculous. There's some others where you can still see a little space in the shoes. And then they have pictures from before he got the shoes when he was wearing other shoes, which clearly fit him quite well. So you can just see the evolution and suddenly Rubio is just walking around, tripping over his feet with big dumb shoes that Donald Trump gave him.

1:10:50Dan Pfeiffer:Oh, also, by the way, Business Insider helpfully pointed this out that Florsheim's parent company has sued for a refund on Trump's tariffs. Fucking perfect.

1:10:58Jon Favreau:Perfect.

1:11:00Dan Pfeiffer:Well, enjoy your shoes, everyone. Why is Trump... It really does speak to something that's going on with Trump. in these, it's very like aging dictator, declining empire vibes where he's just like, it's very in line with the caring about the ballroom and the decorations and the Kennedy Center and the armrests. And it's like, you know, he's just sitting around these meetings, probably like they're talking to him about fucking missile launches.

1:11:29Jon Favreau:About the street of Hormuz.

1:11:31Dan Pfeiffer:Yeah, oil prices or, you know, any number of other important things. and he's sitting there looking under the table and he's like, what shoe size are you? I don't like those shoes. I gotta send you some Florsheim shoes for 145 bucks a pair and will it be your size? Who knows? Who knows? You better tell me a big size. You better tell me a big size or I'm gonna think you have a small dick.

1:11:53Jon Favreau:Do you think we would not be in war with the Ram right now if Marco Rubio had shoes that fit?

1:11:59Dan Pfeiffer:Unclear. Unclear. Oh boy. Well, that's our show for today, Dan. We're gonna end on that note. It's a good note to end on. Hope everyone's wearing the shoes that fit them. Lovett will be back in the feed on Sunday with a conversation with Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro. Maybe he'll find out how big his shoes are, huh?

1:12:21Jon Favreau:Bye, everyone. Bye.

1:12:25Dan Pfeiffer:If you want to listen to Pod Save America ad-free and get access to exclusive podcasts, go to crooked.com slash friends to subscribe on Supercast, Substack, YouTube, or Apple Podcasts. Also, please consider leaving us a review that helps boost this episode and everything we do here at Cricket. Pod Save America is a Kricket Media production. Our producer is Saul Rubin. Our associate producer is Farrah Safari. Austin Fisher is our senior producer. Reid Cherlin is our executive editor. Adrian Hill is our head of news and politics. The show is mixed and edited by Andrew Chadwick. Jordan Cantor is our sound engineer with audio support from Kyle Seglin and Charlotte Landis.

1:13:00Dan Pfeiffer:Matt DeGroat is our head of production. Naomi Sengel is our executive assistant. Thanks to our digital team, Elijah Cohn, Haley Jones, Ben Hefcoat, We'll see you next time.