Has Trump just written the campaign ad for every Democrat?

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0:57out when the girl isn't nice to them because he so craves the affirmation, right? Trumpism is Trump winning. I'm not negotiating with Iran, Mr.

1:07Jon Sopel:President. To what extent are American financial situations motivating you to make a deal? Not even a little bit. The only thing that matters when I'm talking about Iran, they can't have a nuclear weapon. I don't think about American financial situation. I don't think about anybody. I think about one thing. We cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon. That's all. I don't think about Americans' financial situations at all. He's just made life really easy for the opposition because that's all they need to keep reminding Americans. Trump literally doesn't care how they're doing. But he does care about one particular family in America and how they're doing financially.

1:53Jon Sopel:And that's the Trump family. Eric Trump is on the trip to China and we've seen launched Trump Mobile, a$500 phone apparently made in America, but probably in China. Welcome to the News Agents USA. The News Agents USA with Emily Maitlis and John Sopel. It's John. It's Maitlis. And the headline, the pomp, the ceremony of this week all takes place in Beijing, where Trump has been admiring the artillery, the military hardware of Xi Jinping's China. And he has been welcomed and feted as if China weren't actually America's numero uno enemy. And if you look just to the left of Trump, metaphorically, you will find his son, Eric.

2:46Jon Sopel:Now, Eric Trump is not part of the Trump administration. He is not in government. He does not have a job. He co-leads family business and the Trump organisation. And people are starting to say, sorry, is this a bring your kid to work trip? Or is there something going on with one of the most lucrative economies in the world and your own family interests? Oh, and it's been happening in all sorts of other countries, too, where, you know, there are trade talks going on with Vietnam and Eric Trump turns up in Hanoi to get a sweetheart deal for a golf course development, which was approved by the Vietnamese authorities in the hope that they would get a better trade deal.

3:28Jon Sopel:So the Trump organisation, the Trump family, is undoubtedly enriching itself massively off this presidency. But we need to, I think, just talk a bit about what Trump said as he was about to board Marine One, the chopper that was going to take him from the White House to Andrews Air Force Base before flying on to Beijing, when he just said, you know, I don't think about Americans' financial situation. I mean, that quote is going to be hung around his neck every day between now and the midterm elections. I am sure that the campaign ads from the Democratic Party are being made up now with just that quote again and again.

4:16Jon Sopel:And it comes at a really critical time for Donald Trump because there has been some polling this week from CNN, which said that 70 % of Americans think that Donald Trump is mishandling the economy and doing very badly with the economy. And that 77 % of Americans think that the reason that inflation is going up is down to Trump's policies. That combined with the war in Iran, which is still unresolved, in case you've missed that, there has been no peace deal. The Strait of Hormuz is still shut. Oil is not flowing freely around the world. There is an economic shock coming. And Donald Trump is saying, yeah, I don't give a damn.

5:00Jon Sopel:It was such a bad look that immediately his minions in the form of J.D. Vance and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson started scurrying around saying, oh, I think, favourite line, you've taken it out of context. I don't think he really meant that. I'm sure that wasn't actually what he was trying to say. And they said it so forcibly that journalists then went back to Trump to check if he still believed what he had said. And he doubled down. Just listen to some of those exchanges. Do you agree with the president's position that Americans' financial situations should not be a consideration in that decision making process?

5:36Well, I don't think the president said that. I think that's a misrepresentation of what the president said. I don't know the context in which he made that comment, but I can tell you the president thinks about Americans' financial situations. I talk to him on average twice a day, sometimes three or four times a day. And we talk about it constantly. He's laser focused on trying to resolve the conflict in Iran, because if we get the Strait of Hormuz, when we get the Strait of Hormuz reopen, that will alleviate a lot of pressure with gas prices and other things in the economy.

6:02Jon Sopel:Yeah. So we misrepresented it. And he thinks about it all the time, even though, quote, I don't think about Americans financial situation, unquote. Yeah. I mean, what I think he was trying to say, what he thought the takeaway would be was I don't want Iran to get a nuclear weapon. Although, ironically, Obama, I think, has also given an interview in the last 24 hours in which he said, we managed to get more of the enriched uranium out of Iran with my deal, the JCPOA, through a negotiation, you know, 10 years ago than Trump has managed to do by bombing the hell out of them. And this intervention from Obama is just being sort of waved in Trump's face as another example of how little, genuinely little, he has achieved with that military intervention.

6:56Yes, but I think this just does underline the exquisitely painful position that Donald Trump finds himself in, because what he was trying to say to the Iranians, the messaging there was to Iran.

7:09Jon Sopel:Don't worry, I'm prepared to take any amount of economic pain that you're prepared to inflict on us because I'm not going to get you get a nuclear weapon. So bring it on. I don't give a damn about American suffering. we're prepared to tough this one out as if somehow it is the siege of Stalingrad that Donald Trump is preparing the American people for. But of course that then plays so badly in America and this is the rock and the hard place that he sits between right now. That if he goes in and tries to finish the job then things are going to get an awful lot worse in the Strait of Hormuz and if he doesn't do anything then he's not going to be able to claim a victory.

7:50Jon Sopel:Meantime Americans are suffering. and are complaining about the cost of living. But he can't look like he's weak on that, because that signals to Iran that just if we hang tough, then America will fold. And he has got no way out that is easy or elegant right now. And this is a crisis of his own making. As you say, Emily, it was a war of choice that Donald Trump started without considering fully what the consequences would be for the Strait of Hormuz. He is in China now. Who knows what happens when he returns from China with some symbolic trade deals and, you know, the Chinese will buy more more soya beans from American farmers or something like that.

8:32Jon Sopel:But then he's got the decision to make of what on earth is he going to do about Iran? Because the status quo, as it currently stands, isn't working for Americans in any way, shape or form. I think we should also discuss his really odd approach to the midterms, which, you know, are actually creeping up pretty quickly now. And I think there has been all this speculation about whether he was going to gerrymander. I mean, obviously, we know he's trying to gerrymander the states to sort of create more opportunities for Republicans. But then there was all this stuff about, you know, is he going to intimidate voters at the ballot?

9:10Jon Sopel:Is he going to intimidate? Is he going to send forces and troops onto the streets? Is he going to, you know, make it so that it's much harder to vote, make it much harder for ethnic minorities or poorer people to vote? You know, the whole kind of question over the Voting Rights Act. And in the last few weeks, he's come off with these sort of really odd comments about the midterms, one of which was like, oh, I think we should cancel them altogether. One was, oh, I think we should nationalize them. The Republicans should nationalize them. The other was like, oh, I don't care about them. Let's move on.

9:42Jon Sopel:And so we're trying to, as ever, trying to work out his mindset in terms of what he actually cares about here. And back to the whole question of, you know, his family's remuneration, his family's finances, his family's very corrupt practices throughout various wings of his sons and son-in-law. I guess one of the questions is, does he not actually care, really, about the political legacy at all anymore? Has he just written that off and said, no, my legacy is, you know, the ballroom, the ballroom and the billions? Well, I think there's I think there's something there. I think it's slightly more complicated than that in the sense that I think that Donald Trump loves the idea.

10:29Jon Sopel:And go bear with me on this. He loves the idea that when his name is not on the ballot paper, as it won't be in the midterms, they tank. They tank. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. When my name is on the ballot paper, we do really well. I win presidential elections. You Republicans lose midterm elections because my name isn't there. And I think there is almost a joy in that for him. Now, look, undoubtedly, Mike Johnson in the House, John Thune in the Senate are saying to Trump, we need you. We need you to be out there campaigning for us because you can help us mobilise the votes. And he's sort of Alex Ferguson handing over to David Moyes.

11:09Jon Sopel:It would be terribly sad if you lost. Yeah, I'm really sorry, David. You've done it. I mean, for our American listeners and the Alex Ferguson handing over to David Moyes metaphor might be slightly lost. But I think that that, yeah, you know, Donald Trump loves it that they win with him. But it's such a shame. You can't do it without me, can you? And I think there is an element of that in the way he's approaching the midterms. That said, you know, there was there was a feeling or there was a kind of, you know, people were looking at the way the maps of these different states were being redrawn or redistricted, to use the technical term.

11:43Jon Sopel:And there was a feeling that maybe this was backfiring on the Republicans. There was a really important judgment handed down by the Virginia Supreme Court last week, which struck down a Democrat attempt to redistrict. And that has worked really very much in favour of the Republicans. And the Indiana that we were talking about last week. Exactly. Where Trump did put his finger on the scales and it did make a difference. Right. He basically got his guys into the primaries and the people who'd stood against the gerrymandering of Indiana were nowhere to be seen. Yeah. And so it's perfectly possible that the Republicans will do better, not because the American people have gone out and voted for Republicans again with or without Donald Trump's name on the ballot.

12:30Jon Sopel:they will republicans might hold the house just down to the fact that they have redistricted the hell out of all these different electoral districts and it's very much in their favor now and makes it much easier to hold on to the house of representatives uh which you know i suppose the other thing about if trump loses and this will weigh on trump it will make life much more difficult for him and can you imagine the investigations that would start if it's a democrat-controlled house into the trump family its finances eric trump on the trip to china all the other things where they have cashed in on the trump name and that brings us to trump mobile the latest venture from the trump organization where you can buy this sort of apparently gold Android mobile phone for$499, which is a fraction of the price that you would pay for an Apple phone.

13:26Jon Sopel:And we're sort of being told the initial advertising said made in America that has now disappeared. And all the tech experts are saying, no way, there is no way in the world that American manufacturers would be able to afford to create, produce a phone in America for that price point. So it looks like it is a Chinese Android phone that has been rebadged on the surprisingly Trump organization. No one available for comment. Yeah. Funny that. It is funny, this whole China America thing at the moment, isn't it? Because, I mean, I can't think of an example where a foreign war or foreign policy has so directly impacted Americans at home.

14:13Jon Sopel:Right. I mean, they were upset by the Ukraine war because they didn't want to see American tax dollars going to support Ukrainians. There was that whole question over how much they want to spend on helping a foreign war. OK, this one is literally stopping anything from getting through that will actually make their lives more affordable. And it is ironic that as Trump was sort of meeting with Xi Jinping, the Chinese just let it be known that one of their ships had managed to get through the Hormuz Straits the Iranian way. It had been allowed access by Iran and the American blockade, whatever that currently looks like, whatever that.

14:56Jon Sopel:Project Freedom, was it? I can't remember what it's called. Well, I think Project maybe is on pause or maybe not anyway. The Americans didn't stop it. The Iranians did help it. And that is basically a bit of a flag wave by China saying, we're not having any problems here. You're coming to us for help now. You're coming to us because you want us to play a card for you with the Iran, the Iranian regime, the Iran government. And Trump is actually in their hands. Well, look, I think that, you know, you go back a decade and Trump's last visit. and there was a feeling then that america was so much more in a powerful position that america could throw its weight around it had the threat of tariffs china has seen what tariffs have done they found alternative markets for their goods they haven't been that impact impacted that directly they are being impacted undoubtedly a bit by the iran war because the the flow of oil that 30 of their oil comes from iran and it's not flowing that freely they're still getting some anchored through but there are problems but it's america that now looks like the weak country that is the supplicant going to beijing and you know donald trump wants to project this idea that america has never been more respected america has never been more powerful and it's got itself tangled into this war with iran and in some ways it's never looked weaker more end of empire than And it is right now where it can't just get the job done of getting the Strait of Hormuz reopened.

16:30Jon Sopel:It can't get rid of the nuclear material and it and it's costing Americans at home dear. And that is a bad situation. In a moment, we'll be speaking to Jonathan Martin. He's the senior political columnist at Politico. He has Donald Trump on speed dial and we'll be asking what it's like to be inside that White House press call at a time like this.

17:02Organic Valley Protein Plus Ultra-Filtered Milk is pasture-raised from cows that might take more steps than most people. That's a plus. And it has 50 % more protein and 50 % less sugar than regular milk.

17:15Jon Sopel:That's a big plus. And the fact that it didn't make a pun about moving? Also a plus. Organic Valley Protein Plus Ultra Filtered Milk Protein Plus Pasture Raised Learn more at OrganicValley.com Hello from me, crime journalist Andy Hughes I'm one of the hosts of The Crime Agents This is true crime like you've never heard before And I'm the ex-cop Neil Basu Well, ex-cop isn't really doing it justice, isn't Neil? I mean, you did head up every major department in Europe's biggest police force, the Mighty Met. You're no slouch in the crime department yourself after 20 years as an investigative reporter and also as an undercover journalist.

17:59Jon Sopel:On this podcast, we tackle the major crime stories in the news, like the arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, as well as delving into some of the most famous cases in criminal history, like the murder of Stephen Lawrence. Check out The Crime Agents on Global Player, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.

18:26Jon Sopel:The News Agents USA. We're joined in the studio now by Jonathan Martin, a.k.a. J Mart, a senior political columnist at Politico and host of On The Road podcast and Jack Kerouac-like. He is on the road and brought to London. So welcome to London. shame you could have come at a busier time you know if only there was some politics going on here right now not much happening here just you know having some fish and chips and strolling around the city now it's quiet like you do so let's talk look we've been endlessly talking about the madness of the politics here but i want to talk about what's happening in the u.s right now speaking of madness speaking of madness and that kind of interview that donald trump did before getting on to Marine One on the north lawn of the White House saying that, you know, the consideration is not, he doesn't consider Americans kind of income when he's thinking about the Iran war.

19:25Jon Sopel:And that quote is going to be hung around his neck, isn't it? Not ideal if you're a Republican to have that quote out there in circulation. Yeah, look, he, Trump says a lot of things. Most of them fall into the, fall into the ether. This one will stick around for a while. It'll stick around for a while because, A, it's on camera so they can play it over and over again, the video clip. But, B, because it's a simple, concise way of Democrats driving what is their core message this midterm election. And the message is Donald Trump doesn't care about you or your economic plight. And this gets to the heart.

20:00He said it himself. Now, what he was talking about was he's focused on stopping the Iranians from getting nukes. And that's his long-term goal, not any short-term challenge with the American economy. But even that's not true because he's obsessed with the stock market and he's very much consumed with what this war is doing to the markets and the gas prices. He thinks about it all the time. That's why he hasn't restarted the war and we're sort of living through this cold peace of a ceasefire because he's desperately concerned about hostilities restarting and the market tanking back in the States.

20:35Jon Sopel:But this is the situation he now seems to be in where he's damned if he does and he's damned if he doesn't. If he looks weak and concerned endlessly about American consumers, then Iran's going to think, OK, we just wait him out. Wait him out. We're going to hang tough and he's going to surrender. And if he sounds like he doesn't care about the American consumer and looks tough to the Iranians, then the American public say, what the hell are you doing? Gas is, you know, five dollars a gallon or whatever it is. Yeah. And so that's the problem. wars are easy to start hard to finish and especially in the middle east and especially against the country of 80 million people with a deeply embedded regime um look he was emboldened by what happened in venezuela it was extraordinarily successful it was almost too clean of an extraction and he wanted to go bigger and he wanted to create a big legacy for himself and be a historic figure and the way you do that is you topple the regime in iran and that was the that That was the hope it didn't work out.

21:33So they've had to find alternative rationales for why we're there. They're still working through those. But in the meantime, Donald Trump has found the one thing in his life that he can't totally bullshit, which is the straits are open or they're closed, man. The boats are moving or they're not. And you can't spin that. And they're closed right now, which means that the price of gas is going up and up and up. And as long as they're closed and gas is going up, the Republican Party has a massive problem on its hands.

21:59Jon Sopel:And there was a CNN poll this week, kind of, you know, roughly three quarters of Americans think that, you know, the problems of the economy are down to Donald Trump and that he's handling it badly and inflation is because of him. So those are hardly optimal figures. You know, I mean, I know the midterms are still a few months away, but they're getting closer. The reason why Donald Trump came back to power, at least the main reason, is because he had the easiest message in the world. They claimed that they were going to improve the economy. Costs have only gotten higher. Inflation's gotten worse.

22:33Dump them, hire me, I'll make the economy roar. And he's now facing the exact same case against him that he made two years ago against Biden and Kamala Harris, which is this guy didn't fix inflation. In fact, it got worse. And what's even easier for Democrats is prosecuting that message is they can point directly to what happened And the reason why gas prices are high, which is the war in Iran, which Donald Trump chose to prosecute. So it's again, it's elementary. If Democrats screw this up, they should turn in their cards because this is the easiest damn messaging you could ever come up with.

23:07He started a war in the Middle East. He doesn't know how to finish it. And because of that, your gas prices are soaring.

23:13Jon Sopel:So I suppose, look, yeah, on the face of it, it does seem as though that would be the easiest piece of messaging possible for the Democratic Party. On the other hand, you've had this massive redistricting battle going on, playing out in various different states and the gutting of the Voting Rights Act and the like. Can we yet assess it across the piece, across the 50 states, of whether the Republicans with the redistricting and with the gutting of the Voting Rights Act will manage to create enough safe seats that they hold on to the House? It's a classic story of structural advantages versus the environment.

23:53Democrats have the environment. Republicans have the structural advantages. They have more money. They've been able in a lot of states to redraw the lines that are more favorable for them for the House. But the environment's hard to overcome. Look, there's Category 3 hurricanes and there's Category 5 hurricanes. This thing's a 4 right now and it's headed toward a 5. If gas prices don't come down by Labor Day, which for us is the first Monday in September, this is going to get locked in. And it's just difficult to overcome gas prices being that high. Every American understands the price of gas because it affects almost all of them.

24:27So it's very difficult. You add in the cost of fertilizer, diesel fuel, aviation fuel, plus all the other inflation on groceries that hadn't been tamed that was still going up. So it's a real problem. That said, because of the voting rights decision and because of the redraw in a lot of red states, Republicans do have more favorable terrain to play on in the House. And I would add one more thing. The nature of the polarization of our country just means that there's fewer competitive seats to begin with. This is not 2018. It's not 2010, where it's possible for one party to win dozens and dozens of seats.

25:04Democrats were not going to win more than 20, 25 seats in the first place. That was going to be the high end. Now it's lower, but they don't have to win that many because the current majority in the House for the Republicans is like 0.5 seats. I mean, it's that narrow. The more interesting question is the Senate, because that very much is in play now. And a year ago, nobody would have guessed that that'd be in play.

25:25Jon Sopel:So is Trump mad about this? Is he kind of jumping up and down about the way that the politics of this is playing itself out? Or is he? He's such a curious character that I've noticed that, too. Psychologically, is he thinking, well, you see, you win when I'm on the ballot paper. But when I'm not on the ballot paper, you Republicans struggle. He knows that. And I think he understands the challenge of getting out his voters when he's not on top of the ticket. Obama, by the way, same issue. Democrats had the same problem with Obama when he wasn't on the ballot in 2010, 2014. They suffered huge losses.