Trump kicks off a new war on Christmas—this time as part of a broader assault on the U.S. economy and consumers. Meanwhile, in the first White House shakeup of his second term, Trump announces that Signal-happy National Security Adviser Mike Waltz is out, and Marco Rubio is in (at least on a temporary basis). Jon and Dan discuss why Trump made the move, his admission that his tariffs will probably lead to higher prices—and toy shortages—and that he could, in fact, get Kilmar Abrego Garcia back from El Salvador if he felt like it. Then, Jon speaks with Governor Gretchen Whitmer about why she thinks it's important to work with Trump sometimes, even if it means embarrassing photo ops—and getting flak from other Democrats. For a closed-captioned version of this episode, click here. For a transcript of this episode, please email [email protected] and include the name of the podcast.
Chapter 1: What is Trump's new war on Christmas about?
Welcome to Pod Save America. I'm Jon Favreau. I'm Dan Pfeiffer. On today's show, Trump reacts to more bad economic news by telling Americans to stop buying our kids so many toys. It's a real thing. He also admits that he's not following a Supreme Court order in part because he seems to believe that a Photoshopped picture of Kilmer Obrego Garcia's knuckles is real.
We'll talk about what's going on in our elderly president's big, beautiful brain. We'll also talk about how Democrats are responding to Trump's first hundred days, including my conversation with Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, who told me she believes we're in the middle of a constitutional crisis.
Just one day after she hugged the man responsible before an event where she thanked him for saving a Michigan Air Force base. Lots going on with Gretchen Whitmer. So tune in for that later. But let's start with the breaking news. Dan, we got a shakeup. We got our first shakeup. What's happening?
Trump announced that National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, who started the world's most famous group chat, is being nominated for U.N. ambassador and that Secretary of State Marco Rubio will also serve as interim National Security Advisor. It's been reported that Walz's deputy, Alex Wong, will also step down from his job.
The news came as a surprise to just about everyone in Washington, including Rubio's State Department spokesperson, Tammy Bruce, who found out in the middle of her briefing. Let's listen.
The president has just written on Truth Social that Mike Waltz is going to become the new U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Well, there you go. Fabulous. And in addition to that, he says that in the interim, Secretary of State Marco Rubio will serve as national security advisor while continuing his strong leadership at the State Department.
Do you know how long he's going to be serving in both roles? It is clear that I just heard this from you.
You know, I'm no expert here, but is that what usually happens in the briefings? The spokespeople learn news from the reporters?
When it does, it's very interesting. Yeah.
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Chapter 2: Who is Trump appointing as National Security Advisor?
This is a man who told Jeffrey Goldberg and Ashley Parker and Michael Scherer when they were in the Oval Office to look up at the ceiling because it's covered in 24-karat gold. Who needs the extra dolls for Christmas? This is an actual line that the man said, the President of the United States. As you might imagine, this one's breaking through.
Even the New York Post, Rupert Murdoch's New York Post, made it Thursday's cover story with the headline, Skimp on the Barbie. And that is fucking great. They know what they're doing at the New York Post.
They're very good at headlines.
Gotta hand it to them.
They're really bad at other things, but headlines they're very good at.
Skimp on the Barbie. Trump admits that tariffs will raise some prices, cause shortages. Donald Trump has obviously said a countless number of dumb and politically damaging things in the decade we've been covering him. This has to be in the top five, top 10, top 20. What do you think?
Top 10, at least. Top 10, right? It would be mentally painful for us and the audience to try to go through them one by one to figure out, to rank them.
Yeah.
That would be bad content.
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