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Transcript
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SPEAKER 4
Hey, guys, Tim Miller from The Bulwark. I just jumped off with Nicole Wallace and changed shirts before I remembered to talk to the YouTube people. And we were chatting about the kind of underlying economic issues, the consumer sentiment numbers, which are in the toilet, and how even though these top numbers, GDP, unemployment, the stock market have stabilized,
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there's still a lot of unhappiness out there over the tariffs and over the persistently high interest rates. And so we talked about what that means for Trump, what that means for Democrats and how Democrats could leverage that. And we got into some other fun stuff. So check it out. Subscribe to our feed here at The Bulwark.
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And we'll be back sometime this weekend as news develops. We'll see you all soon. Peace.

The MAGA Freak Show Is Big Mad Again

21

Tim Miller joins Nicolle Wallace on MSNBC’s Deadline: White House to discuss Trump's reckless tariffs and high interest rates driving economic anxiety among everyday Americans, Republicans doing nothing, and why even MAGA loyalists are now turning on Trump over his controversial acceptance of a luxury jet from Qatar.

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Discussion about this video

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Michael Devitt's avatar

Bessent’s comments about the Saudis and Qataris putting money into our economy, despite our worsened credit rating is like a couple running up debt and then saying it is Ok, because their rich uncles keep giving them money….

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Marie Tidball's avatar

Scott Jennings on CNN is a travesty. He is so far up Trump‘s ass because he needs Trump‘s support when he initiates his bid for Mitch McConnell seat. Get him off there.

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Diane Battista's avatar

There are some bad Maga responses I believe associated with this thread. Very harassing and very unnecessary.

Very offensive .

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gerri caldarola's avatar

A very small point for us seniors, our RMDs if we are lucky enough to have an IRA -- will that be calculated on the 12/31/24 balance? That's going to have a significant affect on folks whose balances have gone down due to this regime. Think about it...

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kerreee's avatar

I'm pretty sure the welfare of seniors doesn't get a second thought. That any of the bobbleheads would even consider killing medicare or social security tells me they don't give a rat's ass. Or now doing the cat v. mouse routine in order to keep us scared. We're expendable.

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Diane Battista's avatar

I would think every speech that he made on his Middle East “tour of corruption” ( as someone put it ) could be used against him in an impeachment trial to remove him from office for violation of his oath, violation of the amendments and all its clauses of the constitution that he was supposed to faithfully uphold, defend and protect against foreign enemies.

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Maribeth's avatar

Higher tariffs won’t raise any money for the government to pay down debt. Tariffs will only decrease spending for most families—either that or even more families will go deeper into debt and eventual bankruptcy. Tariffs are not paid by the country sending the products that we need they are paid by the importer and passed on to the consumer.

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Kentuckistan's avatar

Quick data point. There are 500,000 Manufacturing job posting unfilled right now. I see this all around the Cincinnati area. Industrial parks where almost every building has "we're hiring" signs out front. Sure, a lot of those are second or third shift and other issues but my point is we don't need to beat ourselves with tariffs for 5 years to get some factories built and some manufacturing going on. None of this is connected to reality

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Nevin Oliphant's avatar

It's true, voters are concerned about different issues, but when the economy is this bad, every voter in the lower 70% of the income bracket is concerned about feeding their family. This was the base of Trump's popularity, not anymore.

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Kentuckistan's avatar

That was an issue for Biden. Unemployment only effects some people and their immediate family, though high unemployment makes people scared...but Inflation or Tariffs are something that hit everybody. The guy driving the airport shuttle and the guy flying first class can both find common ground and get mad about it.

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Brad W's avatar

Yes, Trump's idiotic tariffs are causing inflation, and he should be ripped for it.

However, federal deficit spending is completely out-of-control and will likely cause massive inflation at some point. Yet the amount of coverage MSNBC and The Bulwark give to this problem doesn't amount to squat.

I wish Tim would do a few shows on this subject.

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Kentuckistan's avatar

maybe because the immediate problem is the fact that Republicans want to slash taxes in an otherwise fairly good economy. We will not solve the Federal budget problem by slashing taxes on the middle and upper class. Just won't happen. We have a deficit problem because we've had three rounds of major unpaid tax cuts since the early 2000's and we refuse to engage in meaningful cuts to the drivers. Defense, Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid. I guess what I'm saying is show me the spending cuts before you show me the tax cuts. I mean Republicans are gutting the IRS and tax enforcement, estimated to soon cost the Treasury $500 billion a year in intentional cheating. What kind of priority is that?

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Brad W's avatar

Tim could do shows that discuss the immediate problems you cite and the big picture long-term problems. Both sides are completely full of crap on this subject, and I'd like to see Tim call them out.

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Shanny P's avatar

Gazuntite, Nicole!

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PapaG's avatar

Even though Trump is polling low and people are upset about tariffs, I can't help feeling that if there were a presidential election tomorrow, Trump would still win. Crazy, right?

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John Tully's avatar

Not too crazy when he’s already won 2 times out of 3!

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Tim_TEC's avatar

It depends on who the Democratic candidate is. If it's a normal guy who will take the fight to Trump like Gov Beshear, I think Trump's in trouble. I think Shapiro would do well as a candidate too.

I had a discussion with another Substacker who said Shapiro would be killed with the antiSemitism vote. But in Pennsylvania there are only 2% Jews and Shapiro won his election by 15 points where the middle of the state is basically deep Red Indiana. That shows Shapiro knows how to get votes in both Red and Blue areas. A good candidate who knows how to effectively attack Trump, engage the voters and avoid cultural issue traps has a better than even chance against Trump.

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Maria Jette's avatar

boy, sometimes it really hurts to hit that heart button when you agree, but HATE what you’re agreeing to!

You’re exactly right, though. I keep having to remind myself that a vast swathe of our fellow citizens don’t spend every spare (or non-spare) moment consuming The Bulwark, WaPo, NYT, The Contrarian, Robert Reich, The Guardian, Acosta, Ann Telnaes, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Adam Kinzinger, Andy Borowitz, Mary Trump AND SO ON, unlike me and (I assume) you, David. In fact, they get just a morsel here and there from a YouTube video or a wee FOX snack, before returning to reality TV or house renovation shows. They occupy a different (and not even parallel) universe which intersects with ours only at Trump.

Many of them will never hear about this thing with a plane from the Qatari govt., but even if they did, they wouldn’t recognize the word “Qatar.” How can you be furious about Trump glad-handing the infamous instigator of Jamal Kashoggi’s horrifying murder and dismemberment, when you’d never heard about it? And Trump points out that it would be stupid to decline a $400M plane from some foreign guys— isn’t he right? What’s wrong with it? and don’t say the weird word again about Emulsion or Monument clause or whatever— THAT sounds stupid, too!

So many people just chomping their way through the hay bales of life, not looking around, *not curious*, not thinking about stupid terms like “due process” and “habeas corpus” because they are meaningless in their simpler lives, where there are no shades of gray, just good and bad…and good is what THEY are, and their folks were, and their friends from high school are. SO clean and simple, not like us pushy liberals with our empathy and ethical questions, all nagging and tsk-tsking, and most of us not even Christians in the proper sense!

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Memo-55's avatar

Thanks for Emulsion and Monuments. I needed that! God save us from those egghead words like emoluments. This is why I hate myself for it, but I almost want Trump's tariff extortion of the American wallet to "succeed." No cave to china, etc. Because as always, it will have to be the economy, stupid. Which Carville said a long time ago, and remains as true today. Too many folks right now probably would re-elect Trump. But the pain to the pocketbook hasn't really hit, not yet. When it does, those who are 30% his hardcore sycophants will of course not agree he's hurting them. The same ones who refused Covid vaccines and died. But the more reasonable middler's may be ready to distance themselves. Starting in say in 2026. Pain, specifically economic pain, may the only awful motivator that can shock them off of their idol once and for all. I think we have to accept that, but it is terribly sad.

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May 18
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Kentuckistan's avatar

I will build a big beautiful Tariff Wall and Mexico will pay for it

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And we'll be back sometime this weekend as news develops. We'll see you all soon. Peace.