Trump Plows $900M Into White House Construction

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0:56Ask a rheumatologist about Crocantix. Hey, I'm running out to drop off a stack of letters and packages. Need anything shipped while I'm gone? Save the gas. Stamps.com lets you print postage and schedule pickups right from your desk. Sync your contacts into the address book, get detailed accounting insights, and get notified the moment your certified mail is delivered. All from my desk? All from your desk. Join the four million businesses using Stamps.com right now with code podcast and get your free welcome gift. Stamps.com code podcast. Taxes and fees apply. Welcome to the beat, everyone. We're sifting the results on these primary elections across six states.

1:33Democrats argue they got momentum and they're unifying around these nominees. Now let's take a look at the top of the show at how it unfolded in real time across the primary election night. It is election night in America once again. The Associated Press has just projected that Amy Klobuchar will be the Democratic candidate for governor. Darlene Graham will advance to a runoff. This is a very emotional night. Wisconsin, we have built something that will change politics forever. And we're not going to give up this race until the votes are counted. That's nonsense. This campaign was about the many versus the money.

2:18Tom Tiffany stood with those who tried to overturn a free and fair presidential election instead of defending our democracy. Well, guess what? The many just won.

2:36There you go. You kind of get a little excited, feel like people are really voting, things are happening. I can tell you a lot of Democrats were studying the Wisconsin governor's primary where voters made David Crowley the Democratic nominee. Now, he's a 40 year old city official, a member of the ACLU and NAACP, who in most years might seem like a pretty standard Democratic option. But as these years primaries have featured energized and often victorious Democratic socialists, Crowley's new win after trailing in the polls is being covered by some as a kind of rebuttal to the left. a stunning loss for his more liberal opponent, as the Times put it today.

3:13Now that is ideology. On electability, nonpartisan experts view Crowley as the stronger choice for the Democrats to win, one forecaster shifting that race to the Democrats now that Crowley is the nominee. He had trailed by many points in some polls, and some in the political media are rushing to argue this must be a wider trend. Axios interprets the race as a sign that socialist fever is breaking, that the center-left wing of the party could make a comeback now. Well, many of those reactions are basically narratives hunting for data. You know I keep it real with you here on the beat. At least I try to.

3:53And the fact is, we won't know much about what all national voters want in the midterms until the midterms are held this November. What we know about Democratic primaries is there is at least now room and certainly a receptive sort of public mindset within Democratic voters for economic populists and for actual Democratic socialists. Voters just show that in Michigan, which is not exactly left of Vermont or California generally. And if you just broaden out, even beyond our certain kind of MAGA-infested era, 20 years ago, New York was run by a centrist billionaire, known above all else for his business career.

4:34Today, it's run by a democratic socialist. Just as New York's district crossing the Bronx and Queens, which is kind of a working-class democratic enclave, was then, 20 years ago, led by the establishment Democrat Joe Crowley. Now it's repped by the most prominent democratic socialist in Congress, AOC. And so positions that were once almost disqualifying among Democrats in most part of the country are certainly now allowed. They're on the table. Sometimes they are rewarded. Now, even as Wisconsin Democrats swung back to this traditional option last night, their nominee will face Tom Tiffany, a MAGA Republican who voted in Congress against certifying Joe Biden's win the same day that MAGA fans infamously stormed the Capitol in their crime spree.

5:16And I mention that because that mainlining of the anti-democracy movement from legal steps, in other words, members of Congress can vote to overturn an election and vote not to certify what their own constituents did. That is a legal option, albeit anti-democratic. There are also, of course, the related MAGA criminal plots to pursue that same effort overthrowing elections by force. Now that was on display last night and today because the fringe Trump ally Mike Lindell, who runs the company MyPillow, lost in Minnesota but won't concede. He's complaining about vague irregularities, but he's stoking division among Republicans because this was his primary loss.

6:00And the GOP again is finding that Trump's playbook may begin by targeting certain liberal opponents, but it is soon deployed against fellow Republicans. It is one of the obvious and yet slowly learned lessons of this MAGA era. Just as Trump's DOJ abuse, which we're documenting here, also includes targeting Republicans on the Fed, all the way out to his own former cabinet officials. As for the politics, Lindell's loss is the third for Trump endorsees in just the last two weeks alone. So that's a lot to chew on. But we have some politically hungry guests here at the table. Molly John Fast, could be writer with The New York Times, MS Now analyst, host of the Fast Politics podcast.

6:47And Sam Seder, political commentator who hosts the very popular majority report on YouTube. It's netted over a billion views and he's interviewed major people like the congresswoman I just mentioned, AOC, Senator Bernie Sanders, who he had on within the last day. You see him right there. Sam is actually interesting as someone that a lot of our viewers know from being around what we might call the liberal media, if you will. But you're also now a digital innovator at a time where some are waking up to the power of that. So I want to get into that with you. But, Molly, let's start with what we did learn last night.

7:22Maybe not as much as the headlines say, but a time of democratic unity, according to at least their their spokespeople. I really like that package you played at the beginning, because I think that this is a narrative that is looking for facts, a framing that doesn't necessarily fit. And if you look at these candidates, what you see is voters really voted for candidate quality. They voted for candidates they thought could win. It wasn't straight down ideological. Certainly they wanted candidates who were offering them something, who came out as fighters, but they weren't. I just think it's too simple.

7:55And in fact, the other thing that, you know, that I think is really important when you look at the top lines of this primary is that in the Wisconsin primary, I happen to have these numbers here very nerdily, 791K approximately Democratic voters versus 490K Republican voters. So there was a big Democratic way, you know, many more Democratic primary voters in Wisconsin and in the minute in the Minnesota Senate primary, which is another one where, you know, you didn't you had multiple candidates on the ballot. But still Democrats, six hundred ninety seven versus GOP, four hundred and six. Yeah. Sam, I turn to you to transcend the narrative.

8:38Sure. Rather than succumb to it. I actually think this narrative is pretty low bar to transcend. Those numbers, I would add that Francesca Hong got the second largest amount of votes in a Democratic primary in the 20th century. The first, of course, being Crowley last night. So, I mean, the turnout was incredible. And I think the idea that this is somehow a resurgence of moderates. Look, this is a very contested state. The past three or four elections short of Obama were decided by 30 ,000 votes in Biden's favor one time and Trump's a couple of times. And so I think the electorate is very sensitive to the idea of who can win.

9:35And I think that narrative took hold where voters became more pundits than they did voting for what they necessarily wanted. And is it and in agreement or in addition to that, is it also possible that having two strong viewed candidates brought out more people? Oh, without a doubt. And I mean, I think I think that's what happened. And I think, you know, there could have been some Republican crossover. It's an open primary. But and I don't think, you know, Hong is a necessarily a top tier performer on television as some of, you know, someone like Abdul El-Sayed is. But she's an amazing organizer.

10:17And what's built in that state now is an incredible infrastructure. Which she referred to last night. Which I think. Say a little more about that because not everyone's in the weeds on Wisconsin. You know, the difference between when you talk about the so-called moderates and folks like DSA or more economic populace, they're winning with less money. I mean, race after race, they're winning or coming very, very close with less money. And that's because the nature of their politics is such that organizing and getting people involved is consistent with their ideology in a way that moderate politicians don't necessarily subscribe to.

10:57They get funding from outside sources. They get a lot more PAC money. They'll go up on TV more. But when you get politicians who are more oriented towards an economic populism, you see organizing on the ground. And that organizing doesn't go away. That continues. So we're going to see down ballot victories in a state like Wisconsin two years from now, four years from now. We're going to see more and more, I think, whether it's DSA, whether it's, you know, progressives. I think we're going to see a lot more of this. These organizations don't go away. Well, yeah, and you're making a fair point. Also, they say, oh, necessity is the mother of invention, right?

11:38Well, being an independent progressive who's critical of capitalism, whether that's DSA or a little less, is the mother of having to build a grassroots organization because there's no out-of-state banks coming to help you. Right, exactly. I mean, it's both necessity, but it's also like it is almost an essential to the ideology of their politics. So it's not just. Molly has a but. I would just add that Ben Wickler, like the the state chair of Wisconsin, was very, very good. So it wasn't like they were starting from nothing. There was some infrastructure there that he had done. I mean, I agree. And what Hong has done is amazing.

12:17She did these huge town halls and she had, you know, a huge army of door knockers. which she has said she is now going to bring with her, which is the dream, which is the best any Democratic candidate can do for another. But I just think Ben did have, was it true? I want to jump in and show what Bernie was talking to you about because you had a newsworthy interview, okay? And as I mentioned, you got a lot of folks watching you online. You know, Democrats, some are late to this. They're trying to figure this out. You've been doing this. And Bernie was also talking about the anger, which isn't just at Trump.

12:47It is also at the whole broken system. Let's take a look at what you guys talked about. My thought, Sam, is that all over this country, and we're seeing this in New York City, New Jersey, Arizona, Colorado, Pennsylvania, Montana, etc., etc., there is profound anger and disgust with status quo politics and status quo politicians. People want change. oh well first off i want to say you see i wore a sport coat uh for for you uh tonight i don't you dressed up i dressed up for the beat we love it no i think listen this has been the case for i think a long time and and and the anger i think is bubbling over particularly in trump too and there is a frustration with the democratic establishment that they're not doing enough both, I think, both in fighting Trump, but I think more in the sense that you need to do something when you get in office that is going to have a lasting impact and is going to carry through.

13:55One of the things that Bernie and I talked about during that interview was, you know, we cut child poverty in half from the years 21 to 22. We cut it in half, 45 percent, because of the child tax credit. And then it just sort of, it melted away. And there was not enough, I think, outrage, both by the Democrats, frankly, by the media. I mean, that's ostensibly what we, you know, when you're talking about child poverty, that seems like something that everybody should agree on. And the idea that we were able to have it in just a year is extraordinary, but it was never trumpeted. It was never, you know, the outrage from it reversing was never expressed.

14:45And I think the idea is that Democrats, if they get the opportunity to lead again, they need to do lasting material benefits for people going forward. And frankly, that's what these Democratic socialists are proposing. You know, really nothing more radical than we saw from Democrats during the New Deal through the following 30 years when Democrats controlled Congress. Well, and isn't it funny because if you say I'm an FDR Democrat or a New Deal Democrat, right, it hits a little different. Depending on where you are in the country, some of these terms scare people more or less. But when you talk about, yes, having an FDR posture towards regulating the banks before they invest in an AI boom that bankrupts everybody or actually fighting corruption or actually getting a square meal and a square deal and, you know, all the rest.

15:36I think it's a fair point. We appreciate, by the way, you put on your jacket. Thank you. You are. I know I've known you. Have I known you a while? It's been over 20 years. You are more liberal than you look. Well, you could be a St. Louis accountant, consultant, a dad, soccer coach, you're more liberal than you look. Maybe in a parallel universe, I am. Yeah? Yeah. You're a country club Republican in a different timeline? Yeah. Well, I mean, I dress a little bit conservatively growing up, I guess, in Worcester, Mass. But no, I mean, I think like I would consider myself, you know, of the left and, you know, looking towards policies that are going to have meaningful impact.

16:20That help people's lives. I get it. And you can do that. I'm out of time. But you can do that in a Brooks Brother take as much as anyone else. We salute it. J. Crew. J. J. Crew. There we go. I'm out of time, Molly. We're going to continue this colloquy. My thanks to both of our special guests. We have more of the details that are leaking out about the decoy flight and this. With everything going on in the world, Trump is like, just leave me in here. Okay, just leave me in. Let me know when the war is over. Trump's vanity project building is costing more than he said it would. Surprise, we have a breakdown with an economist and looking at why people are still paying these high prices.

17:02Alex Wagner is here as well. We're back in 90 seconds.

17:09Of all of Trump's broken promises, one that has angered people the most this summer is the failure to stem high prices. You can see right here how many essentials people are struggling to pay for, even as the rate of inflation is technically slowing. This war has spiked gas prices higher than ever at this point in the year. And another indicator of the pain is the hard data on how people just can't afford things anymore, literally. Meaning separate from polling, we see when you measure credit card debt, it's near record highs at over a trillion. And Trump, meanwhile, is spending a billion dollars on his construction projects, taxpayers covering that despite his prior claims.

17:50It's a controversial set of economic priorities that doesn't sit well with the public. The economy is robbing me blind every step of the way. The cost of living is absolutely insane. Feeding your kids should not feel this expensive. Gas went up one, a whole dollar. Gas prices finna go up, so y 'all need to work on your astral projections so you could just tell your boss, yo, I'm here at work, but in spirit. America is struggling because of two words. Donald Trump. That's what some people think. If you broaden out beyond what people are posting online, the data shows most disapprove of Trump's job performance.

18:31A new jobs report, meanwhile, shows the economy losing over 20 ,000 jobs. over half of Americans feel that they're in an economy that is just getting worse. That percentage shows you that would include people who have voted for Trump before. So here we are. Back to the fundamentals. It's the economy, stupid. That's the James Carble maxim that politicians forget at their peril. It haunted Biden and Harris in the inflation election of 2024, and it is haunting Republicans now. And if this sounds a little repetitive, Well, as the rapper Lecrae put it, the reason why I sound the same is because the truth don't change.

19:12We're going to get into important truths with Alex Wagner, who knows all about it. You know that bar, right, Alex? Of course. Of course. Next. Still waiting in line? Again? That's time you'll never get back. Save time and money with stamps.com. Over 4 million businesses have skipped the line with stamps.com. Join them to save up to 90 % off carrier rates from your computer or phone right now. Print postage for certified mail, registered mail, and packages in seconds. Then schedule a pickup right from your home or office. For a limited time, go to stamps.com and use code podcast for a free welcome gift.

19:54Taxes and fees apply. You know that feeling. Too many updates. Too many meetings. Too many things falling through the cracks. Monday.com was built for that gap. The AI work platform designed from the ground up for people and agents to work side by side and deliver more together. Drafting the brief, flagging risks, running a competitive scan, your agent can do it all. And the best part, anyone can build one. Even you. Try it. Create your first Monday agent today at Monday.com. There's a lot of news to cover. Money. The economic fallout from the war. Is it temporary? Power. Is this White House for sale?

20:33Politics. What is your message to the country right now? Money Power Politics with Stephanie Ruhl. Weekdays at 9 a.m. Eastern on MSNOW. We're back with MSNOW business analyst Ron Insana, publisher of The Message of the Markets on Substack, and Alex Wagner, of course, political analyst with us, host of Runaway Country on Crooked Media. Everybody's busy. Alex, I said it's the economy stupid, and the reason why we sound the same as the truth don't change because we're back to not only an economy election possibly, but a price election. Yeah, we, I mean, specifically we have like a two-tier economy, one for the rich and one for low-income service workers increasingly.

21:14There are, I think, two million American workers that have left the labor force since last November because people are essentially giving up on it. Wage growth is not keeping pace with inflation. There's a housing market crisis. health care costs are skyrocketing upwards. And you have an administration that's not only not does not have its eyes on the ball, but is doing everything it can to exacerbate an already bleak scenario for the average American voter. I mean, Donald Trump is imposing 50 percent tariffs on Canada that go into effect next week, which is going to disproportionately affect Canada's number one trading partner, the state of Michigan, which, as you recall, is a crucial swing state.

21:53I mean, you'd think that this administration would at least be on the lookout for the voters they need to keep on their side of the ledger come November. But no, I mean, Donald Trump was telling the truth when he said he doesn't think about Americans' financial situations at all. Ron? Yeah, no, listen, exactly what Alex said. And, you know, on top of that, you have the war in Iran that is keeping oil prices, gasoline prices higher than they would otherwise be, still hovering around$4 a gallon. We're still in the middle of the summer driving season, and you have grocery prices that have yet to come down.

22:22And so really across the board, and I've been describing it this way for quite some time, we have a mini stagflationary environment. You've got inflation, generally speaking, even though today's numbers are relatively benign with respect to the rate of inflation slowing a little bit, prices are still well above where they were a year ago, about three and a half percent on average. And then you've also gotten, as you mentioned earlier, the job market starting to weaken. We saw a negative print last month. It's possible we could see that again and we could see further downward revisions in prior months.

22:52Well, you know, and I want to, Alex, Ron says we saw a negative print last month and I thought, what's that mean? I'm sorry. We lost jobs in the month of July, 23 ,000 of them. And so we could see that happen again. And if indeed the labor market deteriorates further while inflation, it continues to stay above the Fed's 2 % target, you've got this kind of stagflationary environment. It's not the 70s where unemployment's 11 percent, inflation's 13 percent, rates are 20 percent. But it's still uncomfortable for everybody, particularly, as Alex pointed out, those at the lower end of the income distribution who are struggling to pay their bills and making choices.

23:29And people feel it. And Alex, I only partly joke because Ron is like the Kornacki of the Labor Department statistics. We're happy to have somebody around. Yeah, somebody who knows what they're talking about. Who knows about negative print? Yeah, knows about negative print. It's like, sure. And yet you don't need to know the terms to be a voter who's facing this. And I'm curious, Alex, as a student of politics, we all kind of look at some of the same signals about whether this sort of prototypical distraction, promotion and sometimes outright divisive hate playbook of the GOP can really distract people away from what we just saw is happening this this summer, what they're living through.

24:12Yeah, there's a very specific reason Republican candidates and Republican electeds don't want to talk about the Trump economy. It's bad. So they've defaulted to race baiting xenophobia and Islamophobia in some specific cases. But, you know, I mean, people vote on their lived experience for better or for worse, I would say. I mean, I think it would be good for us as a society if we cared more about people who weren't like us. But nonetheless, the reality of American politics is, as James Carville said, it is the economy stupid because that's people's lived experience. And, you know, as much as we talk about corruption and Trump and the White House ballroom costing$900 million or$600,$900 million footed by the American taxpayer, the reason that level of self-serving malignant narcissism and corruption resonates is precisely because everyday Americans can't afford hamburger meat.

25:03And the mad king in the White House is obsessed with gilding horse statues outside of the Lincoln Memorial in an extra coat of 14 karat gold. I mean, it's just completely detached from reality. And in that is an inherent cruelty that I think the essential question of fairness really resonates emotionally in a way that it hasn't even in previous election cycles. And you said we should care about people who are not like us. Were you going for a subtle Kendrick reference there or not? I wasn't sure. They are not like us. But I also, you know, I think I would argue to you, Ari, that the numbers, I mean, Trump's approval rating, which is in the basement, should be even lower given what he's doing on immigration, which is so appalling and so un-American.

25:50But really, the thing that is sinking him are the economic numbers. Now, that's understandable. But at the same time, all of it collectively should be having an even, I think, more dire impact on his approval ratings. Well, so let me take that to Ron, because there's places where Trump isn't doing anything. He's not using the power of the presidency to directly go after high prices and inflation or gas prices. That's sort of clear. He is doing a lot on immigration in a way that he promised would have an immediate effect of helping the American labor market. And so even apart from what Alex called the cruelty, what we've seen might be illegal stops, that's not working either the way they said it would.

26:29No. In fact, with his tariffs, he promised the creation of manufacturing jobs. We lost 100 ,000 manufacturing jobs since Liberation Day last year. With respect to the outflow of immigrants, some 3 million have left the country either involuntarily or voluntarily. So it's the first time since 1935 we've had a net outflow of population in the United States, which is shrinking the size of the labor force, reducing what we call the labor force participation rate, the number of people who are in the workforce and actually working. And so you cannot have economic growth if your labor force is shrinking.