Next Up with Mark Halperin
What Gets Ignored By the Partisans, Plus Sen. Ted Cruz on Two Different Tariff Paths Ahead for Trump
29 Apr 2025
On the debut of “Next Up with Mark Halperin,” Mark starts with the first 100 days of the Trump Administration, the reality of the polls, what gets ignored by the partisans, how Biden's mental acuity decline cover-up destroyed the press’ credibility, the latest on Pete Hegseth and what could happen to him, and more. Plus, Sen. Ted Cruz joins to discuss the historic opportunity the Trump administration has to change the country, the two different paths for Trump’s tariff plan, what DOGE can do with the budget, 2028 Democratic contenders and more. Then Emma-Jo Morris and Marc Caputo join to discuss how the Trump administration is handling immigration and the economy after the first 100 days, the successes and failures on the border and trade, the top 5 Trump administration officials who have more power since the start of the term, and more.
Full Episode
Welcome to my debut episode. Thank you for joining. It's also the hundredth day of the Trump administration and the first day of the rest of our lives together. Grateful to you for being part of NextUp. The show will come out now on Tuesdays and Thursdays. You can watch it on YouTube or listen to it on any podcast platform you prefer.
This will be a program that will bring you my best reporting and analysis. Also great guests today. We have Texas Senator Ted Cruz, a round table conversation that I hope you'll find to be a little bit different than what you see on cable and elsewhere. I'm booking some of the smartest people I know today, Emma Jo Morris and Mark Caputo.
And as always, super interested in trying to tell you what's really going on, as I said, through my reporting and my analysis and the folks we bring to you. So grateful to you for being a part of this first episode and hope you'll join us every Tuesday and Thursday right here. 100th day is, as people like to point out, an artificial construct. But there's lots going on in this administration.
It has been historic. And of course, it started well before the president took office from Election Day through the transition. And people generally see a tipping point from a period where he was active and and was dominating the conversation and getting a lot done. People now, I think, are seeing something different. The terrorists are part of it. Signalgate's part of it.
People I talk to every day can look at this administration as has been true of almost anything connected to Donald Trump in different ways.
And I'm lucky, fortunate, I get to talk every day, literally every day, including on the weekends, with smart people who think the Trump administration, flaws and all, is off to a fast start and is revolutionizing America and the world in really important and positive ways. And I talk to really smart people who think this is a disaster.
And that the first hundred days have illustrated not just the limits of Donald Trump and the MAGA movement, but their doom. Um, and it's a disconcerting thing for me because my role is not to pick between those two sides, but to try to understand it and to explain it and hopefully to bridge between the two sides as best I can.
And it's particularly confusing because as I said, I'm talking about, and two smart people, not dumb people, but smart people. And. What I generally find is that we're having what the country western star called trouble with the truth. That's to me a big part of the polarization, a big part of the failure to have any consensus. President's poll numbers are down, but they're not through the floor.
And he continues to dominate not just the Republican Party, but Washington and the national and international conversation. Doesn't seem particularly hampered by his declined poll numbers, although Democrats say that foreshadows doom in the midterms next year.
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