Three Opinion Writers on Trump’s Latest Faceplant

19:11David French:All right, so David, why does Trump's refusal to sign the housing bill and hold it hostage, put his congressional team in such a tough spot at this moment?

19:23Michelle Cottle:Well, the congressional team, they're all, one-third of the Senate and the whole House is facing an election, an election in which affordability, especially housing affordability, we talk a lot about groceries and gas prices, but housing is huge. It's huge. And so this is something, it was passed on a bipartisan basis that would allow Republicans and Democrats to go back to their districts and say, we hear you, we've done this thing. It's going to do these specific things for you. And so it was something very important for incumbents who are trying to defend their seats. Trump doesn't care about them at all.

20:06Michelle Cottle:So this is one of those points where Republicans for the umpteenth time, remember, he's in it for himself. So this just, as every point that goes down in his aggregate poll average, there's like a one percentage point increased chance that somebody somewhere in the Republican caucus will, you know, say enough. And we're starting to see that on the edges with these war powers resolution votes. He's triggering intense Sanger on Capitol Hill with this latest stunt. He is very slowly, but very surely eroding his goodwill, even with some of his core on Capitol Hill.

20:50David French:Yeah, I want to say that his trip to the Hill and the yelling with the senators was in part he was really attacking the Republican senators who voted for this Iran resolution thing. I mean, he's just but I do. I do like your math, The one point drop, the one point improvement and chances. I just want to one more thing on that, which is to zoom out and say this is not just about the SAVE Act. To Jamal's point, he is really obsessed with it. It's like Jamal is so right on with that. But even more than that, what he is hoping to do is cause such chaos in the Senate that the leadership there has no choice but to do all of these kind of broader base things he wants.

21:32David French:Kill the filibuster or, you know, fire the parliamentarian so they can ram through more things along party line boats. He is just blowing the place up. And I do think that because of his lame duck status and his toilet level popularity numbers, I just like I think that we are finally seeing a few of the Republicans go, no, no, no, no, no, no. Had enough. Maybe I'm just an optimist.

22:05Jamelle Bouie:I think you're right, Michelle. I think also politically for them, it's just a bit too late, right? That they've already spent all of 2025 tying themselves incredibly tightly to the administration under, as I read it, this was like irrational exuberance, this idea that kind of caught hold, I think, throughout a large part of American politics that Trump's win represented. We've talked about this. Trump's, for one, represented some sort of MAGA sea change in American life. And as that, I think, and I believe I wrote multiple times, like in December 2024, that this wasn't the case and that what you would see pretty quickly was kind of reversion to the mean.

22:45Jamelle Bouie:The mean being people actually don't like this guy very much when he's president. And now we're at this point where, yeah, Trump's approval ratings are, you know, they are the political equivalent of green algae in the reflecting pool. And Republicans, I think, are beginning to distance themselves from him, but I think it's a bit too late because they've already – there was no separation prior. And so I think for voters, it's like, well, of course, yeah, of course you want to get away from him now. Look how unpopular he is. Like the double-edged sort of Trump for Republicans has always been that, yes, in presidential elections, he can turn out a bunch of low-propensity voters, a bunch of non-voters who then vote for Trump.

23:26Jamelle Bouie:They don't vote down ballot. They don't show up in midterms, right? It's like a sugar rush, and it's not sustainable. And Trump does not identify himself with the Republican Party. He identifies himself with his own political standing. So if he feels he needs to do something to protect his standing that harms Republicans, he'll do it without even thinking. And that's, I think, Senate Republicans in particular, who did not expect to be fighting for their majority this fall are somehow only now coming to understand that, yes, if you are in his way, he is going to make life difficult for you, even if that costs you a Senate majority.

24:13Jamelle Bouie:And there's like a 50-50 chance, 60-40 chance that, yeah, it costs the Republicans their Senate majority.

24:20Michelle Cottle:And the element of that, that, you know, the one area in which you can sort of get Trump to care about these races is if you can convince him that if the Republicans lose, that it's a repudiation of him. And sometimes you'll see this, sometimes you'll see this awareness dawn on him. But then here's what I think the failure of the SAVE Act does for him. Internally in his mind, it creates the alternative explanation, which is, well, they didn't pass the save act and the Democrats stole the election. That's not a, that's not a reflection on me. It's just more fraud like 2020. And so you can already see this process starting to lock in because the rhetoric, you know, in that Twitter podcast, right, is this is, this is the fate of the Republic.

25:10Michelle Cottle:Everything depends on it because it is so locked in to the minds of lots of people on the right that they cannot legitimately lose. All elections are stolen from them. That is the excuse that Trump is already building in into that mental architecture so that he is not repudiated this November. But that's the only way. If you're a Republican member of the House or Senate, the only way to get him to care about the midterms or your seat at all is to tie it to him personally.

25:42David French:So I want to look at where we are as a nation. Right now, we're looking at a 250th birthday celebration, but it's been, with this administration and this president, a sort of weird, unsettling time to think about breaking out your party hats for democracy here. How are you both feeling about kind of this upcoming anniversary and where we are with all of our divisions and chaos. So one thing I think it's worth thinking about is that these anniversaries,

26:22Jamelle Bouie:these 50-year, every 50-year marking the Declaration of Independence have often fallen at times of heightened political division. It's actually sort of striking to look at. So 1826, it's just in the wake of the Missouri crisis for the country, the first major sectional crisis over slavery that is so fresh in the mind of everyone there. And it's just two years after an extremely bitter presidential election in which, you know, famously Andrew Jackson loses after the election goes to the House. And it's a real time of heightened political division in the country. 1876, you know, that That should be a year that is familiar to people.

27:08Jamelle Bouie:1876 is the year where we tend to mark the end of Reconstruction. And the prior two years sees really horrific political violence throughout the South. Again, a time of heightened division in the country. Even 1926, this is at a high watermark for American nativism. And there's quite a bit of division in the country. Even 1926, this is at a high watermark for American nativism. And there's quite a bit of division in the country. And 76, obviously, in the wake of Watergate, in the wake of the Vietnam War, a time of malaise, you might say. So there's this funny way in which this 2026 celebration, which is in the midst of a period of heightened division.

28:04Jamelle Bouie:and anxiety about the future is very in keeping with what happens during these celebrations, very in keeping with how these things have played out. So you're saying we're right on track. This is where we always are. I'll say this. I think, you know, from the White House, as we've discussed, there's really no interest in putting forth a more, like a celebration or a commemoration, Have you aimed at at least trying to pretend like the divisions aren't there? At least trying to aim for the notion that this is, you know, we are, we have a common heritage here. We have common ideals. But I do think that there are plenty of opportunities for just like individual communities, for states to play that role.

28:53Jamelle Bouie:I might myself, I'll say, you know, go up to Monticello in Charlottesville where I live and attend the naturalization ceremony that happens every July 4th, where they do a public reading of the Declaration of Independence. Oh, that's fantastic. I find it very moving. And I think just because our politics are heavily divided does not mean that we can't, in our own collective ways, try to think about the high ideals of the country, the aspirations. we've had the the extent to which we need to to still try to reach them um and and and mark the period that way like this is i don't want to go too long i'll say i will say this i'll say this the declaration of independence obviously written in philadelphia you know post up in philadelphia but like it was printed and it was printed and distributed throughout the country and it was read publicly throughout the country it was in a lot of ways a public and democratic document with different communities of Americans across the colonies, reading it for themselves, understanding it for themselves, some people who weren't included in it, hearing it, and taking ownership of it for themselves.

30:10Jamelle Bouie:And that spirit of taking ownership for yourself, of your community taking ownership, I think is like the right spirit for this particular moment. David?

30:20Michelle Cottle:You know, when I think about, and I love Jamel's rundown through American history, which actually shows this very messy moment therein is also a very American moment that we sometimes suffer from this halo effect about American history that sort of, you know, looks at it with these sort of gauzy, filtered eyes. When the reality is this thing, this American nation has always been a tenuous project to live up to the noble ideas of its founding. And it, When I think about it, you have this beautiful idea. We're endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights. Among them are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

31:01Michelle Cottle:This beautiful idea. And advanced by some deeply flawed people. I can't think of a better illustration for this American experiment. It's a beautiful idea that is always laying on top of a deeply flawed people. And some years, some generations, we have picked up the torch and we've carried it and we've advanced and we've moved closer to that beautiful idea. And some generations and times we've sort of like taken steps back away from that beautiful idea. But for 250, the way I'm putting it and thinking about it, it doesn't take much to convince me to celebrate the American idea. I can celebrate it on July 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th.

31:44Michelle Cottle:that. You know, whenever you want me to celebrate it, I can celebrate that. And I think we should celebrate it. But against the celebration and the backdrop of the celebration is an indictment. The indictment is, what are you moving towards that beautiful idea or away from it? And right now I feel like we're in a period of national backsliding. And so in that sense, I think 250 can be a tonic and a corrective because it can remind us of who we are supposed to be. It can remind us of the vision upon which we were founded. And it's a great opportunity to hold that vision up and look at it and compare where we are.

32:22Michelle Cottle:And then to say to ourselves, it's our time. It's our time, our moment to preserve this vision, to stop the backsliding, and to maybe even turn this ship around a bit, to make a move or two back towards it. And it's the battle between the incredible virtue of the ideas of the founding and the remarkable vice that we as human beings can demonstrate in selfishness and greed and all of the things that we're prone to. But one thing I love about this country is every time we march towards vice, we are indicted by the virtue of the founding.

33:00David French:So this is, I think, an important part. When I talk to people who are discouraged about what's going on or they just seem a little bit convinced that it's never going to get better, you can't see the field in terms of pride in the country. So obviously there are a lot of flaws. Obviously there are a lot of problems. Obviously it's not headed in a direction that many Americans feel good about. But, you know, this is a moment to look back and to look forward and to not kind of just shrug your shoulders or throw up your hands and say, I just I can't deal with it. You have to. Democracy has to be tended or it winds up in the hands of the kind of people who will play with it for their own devices.

33:48David French:And with that, I want to shift to recommendations. And because we are where we are, this is the last time we will get to chat, the three of us, before the big Independence Day hoo-ha. I'm wondering if maybe you all have suggestions that kind of fit into the spirit of the occasion. David, anything?

34:11Michelle Cottle:Yeah. So I'm going to make a recommendation that, you know, it would be, you know, if you're going to go and you're going to say, what, what can I watch? I'm going to, I'm going to stick to my wheelhouse, uh, Michelle, you know, it's got to be streaming. It's got to be, you know, one of these television recommendations. And there's some that immediately come to mind. Like if you're going to, you're going to talk about sort of the best of America in this moment and sort of, you know, so you could think about Band of Brothers, for example. But I'm going with something a little bit different. The John Adams miniseries from HBO.

34:45Michelle Cottle:If you've not seen this, if you've not seen this, this is several years old. I might be more than 10 years old. It's like 20 years old. Oh, Jamel, you're telling me. Oh, Jamel, why you got to do this? Why are you doing this to us?

34:57David French:Come on. Why? Why? Time is a flat circle. Move on.

35:00Jamelle Bouie:I was a teenager when it came out. Oh, stop. That's why I know. Stop.

35:03David French:Oh, David, I say we shun Shamel for the rest of the episode. Yeah, this is terrible.

35:09Michelle Cottle:I hate this. But we do it first. Okay, now that I know it's like 100 years old, I can even recommend it with double enthusiasm because I know that a lot of the listeners may not have even heard of it, but it's a John Adams miniseries. And it is this look at John Adams and the founding through his eyes. And it's really fascinating because it takes place in the United States. He's got time in France. He's got time. In the Netherlands, he's got time. In England, it's just sort of this, and it really gives this picture of the American founding of all of the various moving parts. You know, we tend to think of it signed declaration, fought battles, won independence.

35:51Michelle Cottle:But in fact, it was signed declaration, negotiate here, negotiate there, compromise with this person, compromise with that person so that, you know, you had it was a multi front battle. You had Washington in the field. You have the Continental Congress with each other. You have the American diplomats spreading out to try to bring legitimacy. It's just and it's just so well done. It is a delight. So that's my recommendation.

36:20Jamelle Bouie:Jamal, I will say we've been talk we've talked a lot about the declaration you there's a there's a very strong case to make that the declaration as we understand it is not the one that was signed in 1776 it was the one that was reinterpreted by abraham lincoln at gettysburg and so i will recommend that you read gary wills's book gettysburg which is about the writing of the gettysburg address and the meaning of the gettysburg address which you know famously begins four score and seven years ago our father's conceived, founder of a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

36:58Jamelle Bouie:Like the speech begins with this evocation of the declaration and Wills really explores both the form of the speech, but also the meaning of the speech. And the speech does seek to not just make the declaration this, you know, important document, but kind of the mission statement for the American Republican in a way that it wasn't prior to the Okay. And I will wrap this up with, every year, long-time pod listeners will know, July 4th, I reread The Great Gatsby, which for me is the great American novel.

37:32David French:whether you're talking about kind of the self-creation and self-destruction of the central character jay gatsby whether you're talking about daisy and tom the the story and the characters can be mapped onto all kinds of political eras and moments and it's just such beautiful writing which is why in my opinion it can never be made into a good movie they've Try it a couple times. Blah. But the book itself is incomparable. Just go forth, read it. That's my recommendation. That's what I will be doing as I fly on the 4th of July. Just saying. All right. And with that, I'm going to land this plane. Guys, thank you so much.

38:16David French:Enjoy the holiday. And we will do this again on the other side. Yeah.

38:21Jamelle Bouie:Thank you, Michelle. See you guys later.

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