Federal judges are starting to do something most elected Republicans won't: say no to Donald Trump and Elon Musk. The question now is, will Trump obey their orders? Jon, Lovett, and Tommy break down all the latest, including new onslaughts against the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the National Institutes of Health, and new allegations of Trump family grift. Then, Jon sits down with Strict Scrutiny's Leah Litman to unpack how Trump is testing the limits of presidential power and pushing constitutional guardrails to the brink. 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: How are federal judges challenging Trump and Musk?
It seems like these are not just a negotiating tactic and it's real since they have now been levied, just like the China one.
Hard for the world to call a meeting, you know?
Let's all get together. Let's get on a Zoom. Yeah, it's a negotiating position, but it is real. You know, I think it's just both. Like, Trump has just shown us that he wants to tariff first, ask questions later. I mean, interestingly... That's good, Tommy. The U.S. stock market was up on Monday, so Wall Street is kind of brushing it off. They were, like, European steel producers that took a hit.
But, like, I don't know. It's just weird how the economic system is just kind of, like, taking this in.
I have the same reaction to it. Because the economic... It's like... If you're probably it's going to be felt by like people who are in these industries and then consumers will have will pay higher prices for things that we buy that are made from steel and aluminum that are not made in the United States.
But even domestic steel producers, they didn't really increase their output that much the first time around in the first administration after the tariffs were put in place on imports. So it's not benefiting anybody.
Right. And there was some of them were interviewed and they were like, I like I liked his protectionist instincts. But the first time around, it just ended up making everything more expensive. Yeah. Yeah, no kidding. Pots of America is brought to you by Haya.
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Chapter 2: What impact is Elon Musk having on federal agencies?
It doesn't wear that well in this poll. In this poll, there's a lot of people who are looking at this and saying, I would like less or none of him. Thank you very much. A billionaire interceding and having so much sway over the government, which I also took as a good sign. Yeah, like I think like we have a lot of ideological criticisms, obviously, with what Trump is doing.
We don't like the way that he's doing it. But if you're not like kind of Thinking about like the value of forbearance and the ways in which it has been done in the past and why a government that moved more slowly and deliberately is ultimately more valuable because over time we all benefit from that, the safety and security of that kind of a system. Trump is like he is moving so fast.
They are doing a lot. It doesn't it's not just the perception of it. They hit the ground running in a in a serious way. It's like genuinely impressive, impressive in a dark and sinister way, but it's nonetheless impressive.
And if you're turning on the news every day and hearing about all these different things Trump is doing and all the different criticisms coming out of it, you may not like all of it. But like in comparison to how people felt about Joe Biden earlier. Being basically absent.
I imagine for a lot of people, it's a welcome change, even though you're like, I didn't want like I was I wanted the border under control. I wasn't in this for some kind of for cuts that I don't totally understand.
I was in this to get the economy in better shape and prices under control and to feel like I understood what my president was doing so that I think it kind of reflects what we've been talking about.
I think the normies just aren't paying attention and the normies are most of the country. And we just had an election where we learned this, where despite billions of dollars being spent to get people to pay attention to the 2024 presidential race, there was still a good chunk of Americans that barely paid attention. They tended to vote for Donald Trump.
The Americans who did pay close attention to the news tended to vote for Kamala Harris in these polls, even like, you know, His approval rating among Democrats isn't like especially high, right? Like Democrats are still outraged by Donald Trump. And I think to your point, the energy and he's signing things and he's effect all that.
I think that is playing extraordinarily well with the people who voted for him. right? With most people who voted for him. I think they're excited. I think most people in the country still aren't paying attention. And I do think I buy the approval rating at 53% for sure. Or at least in that neighborhood, right? Like I think these polls are all legitimate.
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Chapter 3: How is the Trump family accused of financial misconduct?
Until they feel effects. This is what you were saying.
This is why I think it's about what happens when people start feeling effects. But I do think we should assume that the way people are consuming Donald Trump right now is not going to change that much until a few months before the midterms, right? Or, I mean, think back to the first term.
His lowest approval is January 6th. Everyone's like, obviously, of course. And tied, maybe even lower in one of them, is ACA and tax cuts. Because in ACA, the country was like, oh, we don't like paying attention to the news, but you know what? We might lose our health care.
And all the other shit that we obsessed about and we talked about on this podcast and everyone else in the media talked about didn't really make that much of a difference in his approval rating. But those things that were going to affect people actually did.
So we're waiting for acute moments of focus around big signal political events, either crises or legislative moments. Fine. But my point is only that day to day in between those, this is the kind of Trump we're going to get. A Trump that's kind of everywhere, swamping the news. And we need to be able to figure out how to make an argument during those times.
Because if we're just waiting for things to either get bad or for them to actually try to pass something terrible, we're kind of just... yoked to his news cycle.
And even the people not paying attention, I agree, that's the majority. What they're seeing is Trump at the Super Bowl, Trump doing stuff. And they're like, oh, that's cool. That looks fun.
Or, I mean, this is, again, the Gulf of America thing just keeps popping up in my head. That would be stupid. Right? Like that's something that breaks through because it's so weird and different and like a cultural thing. And people are like, I don't know, that's stupid. Yeah.
And it's like, is it salient? Like, that's always the question.
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Chapter 4: What are the implications of Trump's Super Bowl appearance?
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Don't forget to mention that we sent you to show your support for the show. Terms and conditions apply. Well, the Washington Post had a pretty eye-opening piece about Elon's big picture plans. They quote an anonymous U.S. official as saying, quote, the end goal is replacing the human workforce with machines. Everything that can be machine automated will be. Yeah, it seems like that.
Doge is also trying to shut down the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, or CFPB. Newly confirmed OMB director Russ Vogt installed himself as head of the agency and immediately shut down the building, told staff to stop pretty much all of their work and suspended its funding.
Meanwhile, the National Institutes of Health or NIH announced on Friday that it would be making huge cuts to the grants they provide scientists, researchers and universities to come up with all kinds of scientific and medical breakthroughs. The spokesperson for Doge called this, quote, doing away with liberal DEI Dean's slush fund.
The former dean of Harvard Medical School, who was not a squishy liberal, said the move would cause, quote, harm and chaos and that, quote, a sane government would never do this. That's correct. That is very true.
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