2026's Biggest Questions

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Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam Zam So this is our first Sunday show of the year. You guys asked for more Pod Save America and you got it. There's gonna be a new episode in your feed every Sunday of 2026. Oh my God. How exciting is that? And this year's been 200 years long already. So there should be 200 extra episodes of Pod Save America. We're all gonna take turns hosting, including our newest host, but long time pal, Alex Wagner, right here in studio. I mean, I was like, how lucky am I? Listen, you gotta kick the year off right. When the world is melting, you get to a hot place. You get a cow with fucking fornia. And I'm so thrilled to be here. I come more often. The snack selection's gotten a lot better since I was last year, I gotta say. I don't know whether that's related to my contract or what. We tried to ask for some healthier snacks. Oh, well, I don't know that I'd say that. That's what happened. There's just more of them. Well, we tried to get, we didn't wanna take away the unhealthy snacks. We just wanted a little bit more of a balance. Yeah, I knew this was more handy, but anyway, I guess we're all blind to, I mean, I'm blind to the healthy snacks. They just seemed to bounty and I was grateful. I'm biased, of course, but I'm a huge fan of your new show, Runaway Country, the newest addition to the cricket network. Oh, it is such a good- How's it been going? Well, it's great because you're on it this week. That's why you might be biased. It's like, it was so good this week. That's why it was so good. Particularly excellent episode, I fight to say so myself. Well, yeah, I gotta say, Flu-Ridden Ben Rhodes is the best Ben Rhodes. Yeah. Hot, hot on the mic this week. Everyone was hot. I mean, we came back to a motherfucker of a year. Really, I mean, what a series of events to bear witness to and Runaway Country this week focused on Venezuela. We talked to some Venezuelans about their opinions of all of this, which is interesting and not exactly what you think. And then we got hot, spicy hot takes from John Favreau and Ben Rhodes. It's always great being a guest on a show like that because I'm more measured as a host. You let it rip. As I'm moderating. Yeah, you let it rip. And that, I didn't have any, you know. You saw that train with no brakes. Did not give. You throttled it up. No fucks. As you mentioned, you know, the first week of 2026 felt like several lifetimes. None of which I would enjoy living again. But somehow we have a huge year ahead of us. It's America's 250th birthday. That's what I've been thinking. That's what I thought New Year's Day, man. I thought America, you look great for 250. 250, the country is being run by an aging autocrat who is engaged in mind-boggling corruption and hemispheric domination. He's got an army of masked agents on the streets. One just killed an unarmed American citizen. But in November, this November, he will face for one of the very last times in his life. An electorate. Make it so. An electorate that has never been this angry with him over how he's handling the economy. And their votes will decide just how much of a lame duck Trump is and what the race will look like to finally replace him. So, chill year ahead. Chill. What could go wrong? And as everyone knows here at Pods A of America, we're still not in the prediction business. That seems like literally become quite a business now. The prediction business. People want any kind of map. Now we're just betting. Now we're making bets. Yeah, we're polymarket. But I thought what could be useful is, we're not gonna do predictions, but we could talk about the biggest political questions on our minds for the year ahead. What we think will be the most consequential, what we'll be paying closest attention to, what we think will tell us the most about where we're headed, that kind of thing. So, we're each gonna do six questions for 2026. Maybe six and a half. Unless we have more. Right. And aren't too tied for the six to 26 bit. Oh good. Then it's just chaos. That's right. We can do what we want. We'll call it six for 26. We'll call it eight for 26. Dude, it's the era of Trump. I really can do whatever we want. We can do whatever we want. Exactly. But I thought it'd be fun to do some questions. So, why don't we, you can start us off. Oh my God, okay. What's the first question you have for 2026? Well, I do think the Dems are gonna take back the house, right? So, my first question involves the interregnum period in around lame ducks. Oh gosh, we're already there. We're already at the end of the year. We're gonna rewind to other parts of there. But I think in terms of like sort of pressing issues, when the Democrats take back the house, I'm interested to know which White House official becomes the subject of the first house investigation. And I specifically am interested in whether it's Pete Hegzeff for the boat murders, Kash Patel for the FBI purges and what he's done to the department, or maybe Pam Bondi for Epstein. I mean, there's a lot to choose from. There is. And I do think that there's gonna be an enormous amount of interest in terms of how to house Democrats organize themselves. And I'd like to know how they sort of process the year and think about which villain to sort of investigate and haul before Congress first. That's such a good question. And it raises a number of other questions in my mind, which is, do the officials comply? Do they decide that it's Congress and- Fought Congress? Yep. You can send your subpoenas and we can ignore them. And then what are you gonna do? Get the Justice Department? And what do Democrats do if that happens? And what do Democrats do? Cause isn't there some kind of a congressional sergeant? Someone can do something there? Yes, I think, well, they can be held in contempt of Congress, right? And we know there's Steve Bannon. I mean, there's- At some point though, it probably does have to go to the Justice Department, which is Donald Trump's Justice Department. Yes, it's true, which is ironic, cause we might be investigating Department of Justice officials and potentially the head of the Justice Department. I did look into like the strength of a preemptive presidential pardon as it intersects with a congressional investigation. It doesn't matter. They're separate branches of the government. You know, I think the question of accountability is gonna be a big one. If we lose any of Trump's murderers row of idiots, that's such a weird combination of metaphors. Like if Pete Hegseth leaves or is fired, if Caspital leaves or is fired, if Pambani leaves or is fired, do they get pardons on their way out the door? I would assume so. Like if they're departures this year, I think it'll be interesting to see what Trump's strategy is for, this administration has absolutely committed crimes, and this could be a good testier to see what the end of the Trump administration might look like in terms of that. So the other option aside from them just saying, we're gonna defy the subpoenas, is what they have been doing this year when they were before Congress, which is they just go and they treat it as a way to perform for Donald Trump and the Fox audience and right wing audience beyond that and just say whatever they wanna say. The value to me in the subpoena power is less about who you get and then the documents you get. The documents. And that I wonder about because there's a lot of documents that you can get from the administration. That is the substance, that is the meat as it were, John, and that stuff really matters and that's not something they can prevent from coming out. And then there's the question that they're gonna have to wrestle with, you're gonna start hearing, because Democrats will run on affordability and let's say we win. Right. Then it's gonna be like, well, did you win the house and now all you're gonna do is just investigations and then there's the whole impeachment question. Well, right, that was like a secondary concern because that's obviously front of mind with regards to Trump. He's already talked about it in front of the House, Republicans who gathered at the Trump Kennedy Center earlier this year. He's terrified of being impeached for a third time and it's gonna be, I mean, I do think that there is, it is without question a better thing for the health of our democracy to have an opposition party in charge of one branch of government and specifically the Democrats. And if they control at least the lower chamber, there's gonna be, I think it'll be a shot in the arm for democratic organization. And I think the movement right now has proven really robust at the grassroots level, right? The citizen engagement in our politics is undeniable but you do need a tip of the spear that has investigatory power, subpoena power and just is in government. So it will be helpful to have Democrats up there in control of the lower chamber but there are gonna be a lot of questions about how aggressively the party looks backward to this year and to the year before and in terms of what Trump has done and manages that question of accountability and whether that's something they wanna tackle which increasingly seems like an academic exercise even though I don't think it is. I think it is essential to the work of democracy to hold people accountable who occupy positions of power if not for this generation then for the next. Especially after this last year that we've had and especially what we learned from the administration between the two Trump administrations as Merrick Arlen and the Justice Department. Well, right, I mean, we learned nothing. Right. All right, here's my first question. Yeah, yeah, man. How do most midterm voters feel about the economy this summer? Because to me, there's a lot of political science research around this that impressions harden about two to three months before the election, maybe a little before that. There's always exceptions of course but that's usually when it happens and I do think how voters feel about the economy is highly, highly correlated with how they feel about Donald Trump and will be highly correlated to how they vote, whether they vote for Republicans or Democrats in the midterm and particularly the voters who have not made up their minds. Who are those voters, my God, but anyway, yes. And they could make up their, not just should I vote for a Republican or should I vote for Democrat, but should I vote at all? Should I even come out to vote? And those people will make up their minds most likely on economic issues. Well, we're gonna be a wash in Venezuelan oil this summer. So, travel is gonna be super cheap and I bully for Trump. I think, it'll be interesting. I kind of wonder whether that old thinking holds true for a year like this, just because we've been, the American public has been so both naturally interested in affordability because they're broke and there's a sort of the economic pain has been so ongoing, right? Like January is the month of insurance premium hikes and that's an affordability issue as it is a question about health insurance and ethics. And I feel like there's gonna be a collective burden in terms of the economy that is with the American public in a way that maybe in other more economically healthy years there necessarily hasn't been. So, you know what I mean? Like I think the summer is gonna matter as it always does. We have the, what is it? A tension span of a net? Net. But I do think it's like, you know, it's the question of economic health and the sense that Americans can not afford to live the lives they led even two years ago, I think is pronounced and is emotionally resonant through the other months of the year in a way that it isn't necessarily in other years. So, I'm not trying to refute your question. But I wonder how meaningful that traditional period of decision-making is given how bad things are gonna be for the rest of the year. Wow, that was a really fucking long way. No, no, I've been thinking about this because here's the challenge is that like, I don't know, for 80, 90% of the midterm electorate, elections probably already baked. Yeah, totally. Right, it's already decided. So, the people we're talking about, and for Democrats to win the house, it's not gonna take many seats obviously, but to get the number of seats that would feel like blue wave territory, which is obviously gonna be smaller than it would be even in 18, just because there are fewer competitive seats because of gerrymandering. But that means that Democrats are gonna have to win districts that Trump won, where a Republican is sitting in the house district right now and Democrats needs to win Donald Trump won in 2024 and beat Kamala Harris by five, six points, right? Not just like one or two. So then you have to find people who voted for Donald Trump in 2024 who were like, fuck this, this is not what I voted for. And again, we're like, what did you think you were voting for? But maybe they were like, I thought he was crazy. Yeah, but I thought he was gonna get it off. I think he's an asshole, but I thought he was gonna manage the economy. So you need those people. And the question is, how many of those people do you get? And I think another answer to that question depends on a couple things. The Supreme Court is gonna decide. That's my two, no question number two. I know, and also we're recording this, everyone. I know, it's gonna be tomorrow. It's gonna be tomorrow. We're recording this Thursday afternoon, everyone. So if you hear something, no, that's fine. We can just, people know what we're doing here. They know that we're not living for podcasting. You might be listening to this and then maybe after this conversation, maybe there's some kind of an extra interview. Bonus. I'm gonna let you behind the curtain. If we get a tariff decision tomorrow, we might do something extra on this. I mean, that was my second question, which folds directly into yours, which is what happens with the Supreme Court and Trump's tariffs. Because by every indication, first of all, Trump's already giving the money away. He's already saying, we're gonna cut checks to the American public from all this, how much did he say we have? $600 billion, he said. Yeah, we have taken in and will soon be receiving more than $600 billion in tariffs. That's what he said this week. Just a word to the wise, I think I believe the official number is 1,000 companies have already preemptively sued the federal government to get their money back once the Supreme Court rules that the tariffs are not constitutional. That includes companies like Costco, Reebok, Dole, Xerox, Revlon, and Goodyear. You may have heard of them. They're not upstarts. Unfortunately, they're not in our ad role this season. These are massive companies that have had to fork over lots of money if they haven't passed it onto the consumer and are like, give us our fucking money back. This was illegal. It's one thing for Trump to be promising the money. First of all, it's one thing for Trump to think the tariffs are gonna stay in place. It's another thing for him to be promising the money and it's a third for him to actually give it away. Question is, if he does give it away, if he does cut checks, or if he does ear market, what happens if it needs to be returned? Does the Supreme Court let the tariffs that were already in place stand? I mean, there's so many questions. And also, what we hear from inside the White House is they're gonna figure an end run around these tariffs no matter fucking what. Which is like, how do you do that? And so, let's go to this decision, whatever it may be, big deal for sure. But some of the tariffs aren't subject to that decision. Number one, number two, he was just saying to The New York Times in that interview that he wants to try licensing fees. And if- It's like Trump stakes. Yeah, if that doesn't work. And of course, some of the tariffs have already been lifted, he's already backed off some of the tariffs. So it's muddled there. I do think, and you alluded to this, he also told The New York Times that he does wanna send $2,000 tariff checks. And he thinks he can do it without Congress. And for timing, he said towards the end of the year. So you could- I wonder when. I know, I know. So I am wondering if they're gonna, in October, just decide we're gonna send out fucking checks, go ahead, Sue us, and see if you be the people that say, we're gonna take back $2,000 checks for the public. So I do, I have a little concern about that. I'm just trying to think of what could change about the economy, because I think right now, if the election was held right now, we would see some of the results we saw in 2025. Absolutely. And I keep wondering, like, how could the, what levers does the administration have to change the economy, and what exigent circumstances are out there that could change the economy? Jerome Powell. At least change how people, yes. So he's gonna appoint a new Fed chair. So you could get a new Fed chair that, I don't know, feels pressured to lower rates, obviously, if it's top's Fed chair. I think you don't even need to say, I don't know. I think expressly will be forced, like literally they'll have to wear a T-shirt to the interview that says, I will lower interest rates. Please give me the job. And then the question is, there's another Supreme Court decision on whether the president can just fire Fed chairs for no reason, or Fed, just federal reserve members for no reason. And if Trump just gets the Fed chair, which he already is gonna have, then the rest of the Fed can say, well, I don't care, Trump's crazy new Fed chair, I'm just, I'm gonna vote how I wanna vote. But if he's now able to fire people, and he puts a whole new Fed in, then we're in fucking uncharted territory. I don't know if that's actually gonna improve the economy or destroy the economy, but that's a big one out there. Well, I mean, what it does to independent agencies and the balance of power is fucking shocking. We actually, this was a subject of runaway country before we went left for break. We talked to the plaintiff. She is one of the lead plaintiffs in the case is going to the Supreme Court that will determine whether or not Trump can just fire independent heads of these agencies. And it has repercussions, of course, for the Fed and for the American economy, but it's for a fucking any agency that serves in an oversight capacity to make sure that the American public is not getting fucked over by the federal government and political appointees. And if the Supreme Court says, yeah, go for it, I mean, that basically guts any real oversight of this particular administration and any fucking administration. It's really, really, really bad. I mean, at the risk of becoming a watered down, very, very poor imitation of strict scrutiny, what is happening at the Supreme Court in the course of the next six months is gonna be hugely determinative, not just for this year, but for the immediate future of our democracy. Yeah, I think that the ideal political scenario for the Trump White House, and this is not all necessarily things that they want, they just don't know what's good for them. But the ideal political scenario economically for the Trump White House is the Supreme Court strikes down the tariffs, the ACA subsidies deal goes through, they get some kind of compromise. The tax cuts, even though they are somewhat meager for lower and middle income people, are felt in the spring. And then maybe the job market, it's sort of- Hums up. Hums up, even if it doesn't get worse, right? Like maybe it just sort of putzes along. Sure. And then the AI boom, the AI bubble doesn't pop, doesn't crash. It doesn't seem that far from that. That's what I'm saying. And then if people feel even a little bit better than they do now, then I would have some concern heading into the fall. Yeah, but don't forget Trump's ability to royally fuck them. I mean, he's on a streak right now, and we say this in the week of Venezuela, and the ice shooting of an unarmed American citizen in Her Honda, where he doesn't give a shit actually. I mean, he cares about not getting impeached, right? That's his main interest in the midterms. But he's in the sort of late stage autocrat, he's running the late stage autocrat ego playbook, where it's just about like big guns, being cruel, owning the libs, politics be damned. So even if, I mean, I don't know, you'd think that we've been here before and people voted him back into office, even if the economy is like eh, okay, the fact that there could be national guard troops, their fact in a city near you, the fact that American citizens are getting assassinated by ICE agents in masks, the fact that there are immigration dragnets that are fucking up just communities and labor forces, you know, all of this contribute, and the fact that we may be invading Greenland, all of this contributes to a feel of chaos, lawlessness, and insanity, that I don't know, it'll be interesting to see how American, I mean, that stuff is, I think, tangible in a way that talking about fascism as a sort of academic thesis, as it was perhaps in the 2024 election, I think that stuff, because it's unfolding on videos, on streets, and in cities all over the country, it resonates in a way, and it's therefore maybe more meaningful than, you know, the discussion about Trump's autocratic tendencies was in the Biden years. 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Do you think I will be a resident of the United States of America by the end of the year? I mean, I certainly don't look the way he thinks Americans should look. Did you catch the Atlantic profile on Stephen Miller? I taught it on, I caught the first two paragraphs of it, John. Brutal. I've been on calls in this prime minister, which I think is the prime minister of the government, which I think is apt. There was an anecdote from 2024 debate prep. I've heard the Trump side of this before. I hadn't heard the Miller side of this one before. I don't know if it's new or not, but Miller was going back and forth with someone who was a little more moderate on immigration with him during debate prep. Trump was frustrated and interrupted the two men and said, Stephen, if you had it your way, everyone would look exactly like you, someone familiar with the exchange told the Atlantic. Then Miller responded, that's correct before turning back to continue sparring. I do wonder, again, we have seen this week the chaos of Miller's vision becoming realized of a mass deportation force rounding people up. I wonder what the country looks like if they've come very close to defying the courts. In fact, you could say they have defied the courts here and there, but outright defiance of a Supreme Court, you've made your decision, John Roberts now enforces it kind of thing. We haven't seen that yet, will we? Birthright citizenship, speaking of Supreme Court decisions is out there. Trump said to the New York Times this week that he confirmed that they're taking steps to strip Americans of citizenship. Denaturalization, he said Somali of Somali descent, but he said others if they deserve it. Yeah, well, if you get it on his wrong side, fuck you, you have to get out of here. Now, denaturalization is a difficult standard to meet legally. You have to basically have lied or committed fraud on your citizenship application process. Talk to Tish James about how much fraud you actually need to commit to be found in the crosshairs of Trump. I heard Tom Emmer over a couple of weeks ago be like, oh, all these Somali Americans who committed, who were caught in the fraud ring, they should be denaturalized. That's not what the law says that if you are a naturalized citizen and you commit a crime, then you can be denaturalized. That's not what it... But details. But if you lied somehow. But they asked for, I believe Stephen Miller and DHS have asked for a certain minimum number of denaturalization cases every month. That should send a chill down everybody's spine. And actually, my question five was how many migrants have been, well, killed and how many American citizens deported by the end of the year because that's the collateral damage of all of this. You, everybody, the problem with the Trump administration, it is the frog boiling slowly. Remember when he was just going to get the criminals out? And now it's everybody's accepted that if you came here without papers, you're a criminal and therefore subject to deportation. That was not the litmus test. Even like, I'm old enough to remember last year, I should say like in 2024, when that wasn't going to be the criteria by which these dragnets were going to operate, you were going to have to be a violent criminal, not supposed to be here, and then they were going to take you out. Not that I agreed with that. But all of a sudden the standard is just if you came here and you didn't have your papers, and we're going to tear you from your family, even if you are in court to try and follow the process, we are going to find you. We may take family members who are here legally and also deport them. And so when the Trump administration or when the law says you have to have committed some crime or fraud, like everything is fungible. Everything is movable. The goalposts are not stationary on any of this. And so while denaturalization may be legally complicated, it's a fool's errand to believe in the adverb legally with this administration. They change the game all the time. And if they decide they want to take naturalized citizens and rip their fucking passports and their papers away from them, then they will. And like the courts be damned. I will also say this court has been a gross enabler of the worst, most racist impulses of this court. The cabana stops. You can now just stop someone on the street because they're brown. That's the world in which we live. It is very difficult for me to imagine at the end of 2026, I almost forgot what year it is, that this is not a wider country than it is as we sit here today in early January. A wider country and I worry just more state-sponsored violence. Totally. And chaos on the streets. Because I do think there is a... And this is the issue that I fear the most is what keeps me up at night. But there is a temptation, I felt the temptation over the last couple of months before this week where it's like, okay, the Chicago, the Midway Blitz wound down, the ice raids here in Los Angeles sort of... It went like city by city for a while. And then we saw that they lost on the National Guard in court. And so they announced they were taking the National Guard out of a lot of these cities. But they're still like, you know, then they sent them to Minneapolis and now we're dealing with us in Minneapolis. Now they're going to go to other cities. And what they want is a reaction. Yep. They absolutely want a reaction. They want a provoke reaction. You hear J.D. Vance in an interview this week saying like, oh, well, we got a... J.D. Vance and Stephen Miller think they have done poorly on deportations. They think that they are getting heat. They're not listening to the people who are upset about this on the left or the center. No, they're listening to people on the right. They're listening to the far, far right who's like, you have not deported enough people, you have not rounded up enough people. And there are too many people who still have citizenship who shouldn't have citizenship here. And J.D. Vance is like, well, once now we get the system in place and the money's coming from all the... From the funding and the big, beautiful bill for ICE. Now we're going to start going door to door, he said on Fox. And I think... I worry a lot about this for this year because I... There's no reason for the administration to stop doing it because they don't give a shit what the courts say. They don't give a shit about public opinion on it. Public opinion has turned hard against them on deportations. Yeah. They enjoy the violence and the cruelty. Yes. Right? That's why you see when they kill an American citizen on videotape, the reaction is not even let's let the investigation play out. The reaction is let's smear her memory, let's degrade her humanity, and let's suggest that her death was warranted. I mean, whoa. Yeah. Right? Like that's where we're at. We're at the top of the list of the numbers according to the DHS in December of last year. In President Trump's first year back in office, more than 2.5 million illegal aliens, their term not mine, have left the US, including an estimated 1.9 million self deportations and 622,000 deportations. I would love to... Hard to trust those numbers. Very hard to trust those numbers, but also that's not... Especially in the self deportations. Exactly. Is that people that went to go see family and then just couldn't get back in the country? It's hard to know what that actually means. Also 622,000 deportations is a fuck ton of deportations. How many of them were actually people who had papers to be here? But also that's not the number that they wanted. So like that should send a... They are very interested in meeting their targeted numbers and they will stop at nothing to reach them. So the fact that 622,000 isn't even close to what they wanted should scare us all. And the other shoe that hasn't really dropped yet is if you remember after Charlie Kirk's assassination, there was the like, we're going to go after Antifa and all the left wing groups and really crack down on opposition. And it was a lot of like sound and furor and not much came of it. And now this week we've seen, it's like kicking back up again because after they have decided to kill an unarmed American citizen, JD Vance at the White House briefing today was like, we're going to find the people who fund this. I still don't know how much of it is bullshit to scare people or how much of it is like suddenly subpoenas are going out and people are getting sued and dragged to court and that worries me too. Well yeah, and I didn't put this in as a question, but they are all doing everything in their power to consolidate the media landscape and the information landscape to suit their own ends, right? Whether it's going after... That was my next question. Okay, you go, you go. Take it away, boss. I didn't put it on. Our sideways are so natural now, so we don't even have to go like next question. It's like we work at the same office. It was like what kind of impact will the Trump-Maga war on independent objective media have? And that there's a couple of dimensions to that, right? That now again to the boiling frog thing, like after a year they... So TikTok is back, right? The Chinese gave us TikTok and now there's some consortium, right? So there's some Trump allies there and there. Elon's still got X. And Grock. Right, and Grock. And the AI overlords have kissed Donald Trump's ass. So... You know what happens when you kiss ass, John? You just get ass. You guys have to listen to... Who don't know that reference? You have to listen to Runaway Country. It's a deep cut. Yeah, it's a deep cut. So they are... He's got them on the team. He's got the Ellicens who now have CBS and are looking to also take Warner Brothers and CNN. And CNN. Or maybe just CNN, who knows. And right-wing propaganda network, that's bigger than ever. And I guess my question is, like it's happening, how much of an impact does it have this year? And that... Like when does it start? Just... And maybe we'll never know. But when do you start seeing it having an influence on public opinion? Yeah. I mean, I think the CBS stuff is a great test case for that, right? Because that's the most insidious, right? There you have Legacy Brand. You have someone installed, Barry Weiss, who is clearly doing the handy work of the Trump administration. And in the most... I suppose we can call it skillful because Barry Weiss is smart. She's very articulate. She ran a very successful independent news organization, not as successful as the money they paid her for it. But she's not... She ain't Sean Spicer, right? And so in that way, it's much more malignant, I think. And Tony DeCopal is not a malignant actor necessarily, but the language he's using, the stories he's covering, the favor he's carrying with the administration is incredibly detrimental. Marco Rubio, we salute you. I know. I mean, right. I mean, I actually... I have to say... Yeah. You can call me naive. It wasn't necessarily naive, but I'm just like, Barry Weiss, whatever. First of all, is it really going to be that blatant? What's going to happen? The Tony DeCopal stuff in this last week is like, are you fucking kidding me? I know. It's... The Marco Rubio stuff is so... I mean, it's just... I don't think that's effective, first of all, but I also think it's just so embarrassing. It's so embarrassing. I think the great hope is that... And I say this as someone who worked at CBS and took pride in working at CBS for a while. The evening news has become so utterly irrelevant that they can't actually change. It's more of kind of watching the car slowly crash. Lack of intense concern was coming from. Not that I didn't think they would try, but I was like, who's really watching the evening news? Well, I know people. I don't think it's bad that it gets poisoned on the way down, though. Do you know? Yeah. I don't think it's bad to have news gathering organizations, and the poisoning of it, the irrelevance of it. It's just all fucking bad for information health in our democracy, and that part is really distressing to me. Destroying CBS, even if it doesn't have an immediate and practical impact on the sort of citizenry, it's just not a good thing for democracy. And to get away with it is... That's just another way of destroying the Fourth Estate is to just make it so fucking unwatchable and so gross that it doesn't matter anymore. And that's a model for linear cable, which is increasingly irrelevant. Just map that on to CNN, right? And then destroy that shit, and you're done. It's what happened in Hungary. They chose to close these newsrooms, which is more aggressive than what the Trump administration is doing, but by installing talentless hacks that nobody believes in, and in medium that's increasingly irrelevant. Well, then you get rid of institutional media in a pretty adept way. Yeah. I mean, there's the question of the sort of right-wing media conglomerate propaganda network out there versus opinion that is more left-leaning, analysis that's more left-leaning, and we obviously think about that a lot here. But my big question is, how many people are out there paying for news gathering? Totally. How much news gathering is going on, and how much of it will be able to continue that is not tainted by fear of Trump, or just opinionated to sort of match MAGA preferences? Totally. And we're sitting here in the week that I think the Pittsburgh Post is closing down. Shuttering, because two psychopaths who own it are trying to own the libs that work for the paper, basically. And I do wonder, just from a news gathering perspective, if we're going to be all takes and opinion, and then AI slop, and creators who, God bless them, but are people getting, I worry about actual news gathering. Where does that leave us? Where does that leave us? And who's going to pay? It's just me interviewing some people on Runaway Country. That's not new to the guy. That's just me interviewing people. I'm interviewing people. Let's face it, after a night with drinks, I do not bounce back the next day like I used to. I have to make a choice. I can either have a great night, or a great next day. 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Z-biotics is a life changer for me in those circumstances. Here's the thing. I know you might be skeptical. Try it once. What do you have to lose? Get one pack, just try it one time if you don't like it, whatever. But you're going to love it. Ready to try it? Go to zbiotics.com. Go now. You'll get 15% off your first order when you use crooked to check out. Plus, it's backed by 100% money-back guarantee, so there's no risk. Subscriptions are also available for maximum consistency. Remember to head to zbiotics.com. And use the code CROCKET at checkout for 15% off. All right, Ken, well, I mean, speaking of the health of our democracy, I do wonder if we still have our representative democracy by the end of this year. I hate to go back to the Supreme Court, but I do think Louisiana versus Calais, where they're looking at Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which is like probably the end of the Voting Rights Act as we know it, something that Chief Justice John Roberts has wanted to make real since he was a staffer in Ed Meese's Department of Justice under Ronald Reagan. The conservatives have hated the Voting Rights Act for a long time. And now you have a bunch of white people basically suing and saying it's reverse racism to have districts that prioritize minority voices and voters and give them representation in Congress. That's where we're at. And I just think you do away with that. And well, first of all, the South is gone. And one of the most important sort of reparative mechanisms for our long and checkered institutional racism disappears. And at this moment, when we no longer have affirmative action, we have like an administration that says that any kind of civil rights gains are wokeism that need to be reversed, whether they happened in World War II or yesterday. It's a dangerous time. It's a dangerous time for people of color. It's a dangerous time for people who believe in a more inclusive society. And I think the Supreme Court decision could have like profoundly traumatic after effects on American society. Yes. And I don't think it will go well. And I mean, from oral arguments at least. And I do think the only optimistic part is that I think it's going to be tough for whatever decision they make to be implemented before these midterms. But that's cold comfort for generations to come. I also think, and we've seen that this year with redistricting, that what's going to happen then is sort of a gerrymandering race to the bottom, where if we lose another 10, 15, whatever seats in the South because of this decision, then the blue states again are going to go back and be like, all right, we're going to just wipe out all the Republicans in our district. And then you're going to just have this country that is completely split. Yeah. Bad. What could go wrong? Yeah. All right. I have, will a challenger emerge who seriously threatens J.D. Vance's chance at the Republican nomination in 2028? Oh, I love this question. It's so cheesy. Isn't it? Isn't it Viceroy Rubio that's going to be the challenger? Or is he the running mate? I think he's the running mate. I think he's the running mate. Wait, say more. Okay, who else do you think could be that person? So I think one of the reasons that J.D. Vance is just the biggest asshole you've ever seen in public. That's saying something. Right, like just really, is I think his running theory is no enemies to your right because that's where the challenge would come from. Right, got it. And he is not as charismatic as his boss, Donald Trump. He is not as charismatic as many of the figures on the right. He's can order donuts, John. He's like the least charismatic human being in America. But like he needs to, you know, Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, right? Like all of the, and I'm not even saying who knows maybe, but like, though he needs those people to like him, to not just like him, but to love him. Or the very least, not to challenge him or not to find challengers for him. And so you have a J.D. Vance who is in some ways his political fortunes are tethered to Donald Trump as their Marco Rubio's. And so if, you know, Trump's popular or middling, then like maybe they're fine. But if Trump gets even worse, it gets even less popular, then J.D. Vance's ambitions are fucked and he can't break from Donald Trump. And so he has to be as extreme as possible. And I think he happens to believe most of it too. But even if he didn't, he would have to be. If he wants to be president. And I think that someone on the right could say, if the Trump administration, if Donald Trump's sitting at like in the thirties by the end of the year, by the end of next year, there's going to be people on the right who are like, that's J.D. Vance that has settled with that. Yeah. And I'm not me. And he's a fucking pud who is can't can't excite a crowd. Awkward. He is no. I mean, here, say this about Trump. Many things can be said. He is incredibly authentic and J.D. Vance does not have an authentic bone in his body. The other thing we're discounting is the sickness of Trump. He is going to enjoy the sort of hunger games of the inheritance, like much like he does with his children, very succession vibes. He will love playing Rubio and Vance off of each other. And I would guess if there is a challenger from the right, he will entertain that person at Mar-a-Lago just to make J.D. Vance and Marco Rubio beg and scrape that much harder. I mean, they will be sick and twisted. Delicious. Love it. And I did John Highland's podcast right before. I was going to say you did a show with him or two right before the break. And he, he was down on Vance's and nominee, but was like, what about, he thinks like Don Jr. What do you think about Don Jr.? I may. Maybe. I think they kind of, it's interesting. I think that's tough too. I think they like making money. I mean, like I really think they like being rich, right? I really think they like being rich. Although he seems a little drunk on power. I would not be surprised. It will be Sophie's choice for Donald Trump because I don't think he actually likes his children. And I think that's a hard, I think it's a hard, I think the Vance, Don Jr. thing is hard to like tease out because I don't think Trump Jr. goes after Vance and I don't think Trump sort of allows that kind of thing. I really do think it, if there's a challenger to Vance, which I think is very possible, it is an outsider. It is a Tucker. It is a T.C. Megan. No. Let me tell you, no way. She likes that podcasting studio. They all like it, but wouldn't she like a, you know, she likes, she likes being Charlie of Charlie's Angels. She likes being the voice in the box. I can't see that. T.C. T.C. from the barn to the barn storm. I can see it. I can see that. Austin just held up a picture of Marjorie Taylor-Green. I'm T.G. Mm, flash in the pan. I feel like she's gonna come back to me at the end of the year when she's a fucking nominee. I just feel like she, she can't get, like, she's done the thing. She's come out too early against Trump. I just think that that's just a very hard road to hoe. And I saw her yesterday on TV, not in real life. And I mean, I was just talking to her yesterday. She's like, eh, I'm not into it. Nicola Vultra's the local bar. And she just, she's already, I feel like a discomfort there that is going to get even more pronounced, the more real her bid becomes. But you know what? I should shut the fuck up because I also didn't think Donald Trump was necessarily going to win in 2015. What do you got? I got one that is just a complete fucking downer, but it's real relevant. Will medication abortion still be legal by the end of the year? Sorry, I know. We were talking MTG, but this is fucking so real because this is a week in which psychopath, bear killer, like creatine monster, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has changed the sort of vaccine recommendations for children and getting rid of. What did he get rid of? Flu, RSV, rotavirus, hepatitis A and meningitis. Who needs to be vaccinated against those things? He's, he has done everything he said he wouldn't do in his Senate confirmation. And he never said he wouldn't get rid of, uh, Mipha Pristone. And he, under the head of the FDA, Marty McCarrie, they have, you know, they pledged to conduct a full review of Mipha Pristone safety. This is a gimme to the hard right. Kennedy has proven himself absolutely fucking shameless when pandering to the political right and has totally politicized the FDA and HHS and the CDC. And I could absolutely see a world in which they get rid of Mipha Pristone, which is the drug used in most medication abortions, which account for, as of 2023, 63% of all abortions. We don't talk about abortion. And I think there are a lot of reasons for that, not least among them, because it didn't win Democrats 2024, but that doesn't mean the issue isn't insanely urgent and it is a matter of like national health concern. And it is just as urgent as vaccine schedules and mRNA research and everything else he's doing to fuck with American bodies over at his cabinet agency. So I'm curious to know whether that's something that, you know, people can choose by the end of the year. You know, as you started that answer, I thought, okay, I could see it happening. If I were to bet, I would bet against it only because Donald Trump has seemed skittish in going too hard right on that issue for purely political reasons. And a bunch of Republicans in more competitive areas feel the same way for either real reasons or political reasons. But to our, whatever question we asked a couple before this on the gerrymandering race to the bottom, as the country gets more polarized and there are, and it's like, oh, are there a bunch of Republicans in blue states that we're worried about now? Less, certainly less. And you start to worry that like, wouldn't the, wouldn't the right who's now outlawed abortion in most red states love to stick it to the blue state. You can't get pregnant and have a miscarriage in a red state. Right. Right. Like that's where we're at. So the idea that they would make it, if not, it would be very difficult to access medication abortion seems very possible. It would be a stupid fucking thing to do in a midterm year. I will say. But could happen in, you know, December. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Or in early January. Yeah. I, I, I, if I was, I bet Susie Wiles and, and Trump himself are like, Hey, we want to win the midterms. Let's cool it. Simmer down. Let's just make sure kids can die of polio and. Right. Yeah. That, that we're okay with. Yeah. Cool. But who knows? Who knows? Pod save America has brought to you by strawberry.me. You know that feeling when a new year starts and you tell yourself, okay, this is the year work is going to be great. And then two weeks later, you're already burned out again. Yeah. We've been there. Are you there, Tommy? I've been there. Been there. I hope not right now. No, no, I'm good right now. If work left you drain last year, today's sponsor, strawberry.me can help you change that strawberry is career coaching that gets to the real source of your burnout, whether it's too much on your plate, no boundaries, a tough manager, or just feeling totally disconnected from the work you do. Or maybe I'm just a manager with high standards. A coach helps you figure out what's draining you, build habits that protect your energy, redesign your day to day. So it feels sustainable and create a plan. So burnout doesn't come back by March. It's not therapy, but honestly, it's like therapy for your career. And here's the good part. You can get matched with a coach who fits your personality and goals in just a few minutes, sessions are flexible, private and made for real people with real jobs, not the fantasy version of you that always has it together. If you're listening and thinking, yep, I'm burned out, then this may be your new year reset, go to strawberry.me slash crooked and try your first coaching session for 50% off that strawberry.me slash crooked. Is Gavin Newsom still the front runner at this time next year? Good question. How was his podcast? You were just up there. I was just up there. He told me about this. How was it? Full tour of the governor's mansion. For people who are art, people who like street art, there is a rotating series of art exhibits in the governor's mansion, including a collection of Barry McGee surfboards. If you know who Barry McGee, aka Twist is, a former graffiti writer who now is part of the collection at LACMA. He's amazing. And I walked in and I was like, this is fucking awesome. And he was like, you know who Barry McGee is. And I was like, you know who Barry McGee is. And then I was like, you are never going to get elected president. Like you cannot know who Barry McGee is and get elected president. That's two fucking streets, Mark. Gavin Newsom is a delightful interviewer. I will say we had a great time. It's really good at it. He is very good, surprisingly good because most people who are politicians are completely self-involved. And he, I think surprisingly, like deeply curious. Um, and he's a chatter, you know, I think he has a lot of passion for the job. I think there's going to be just a massive question about the California of it all. Right. I mean, it's the biggest one for me. It's the biggest one. I have long thought that you need someone that isn't as memeable as, or can, can drive the meme machine the way that Trump does. And it has the zero Fox, you give 70 Sam style arsenal. And he's that dude. He's establishing himself early as the, by far the most joyful warrior in the pack. I just wonder if it is off putting to the very earnest democratic party that looks at the stakes. And it's just like, it's, it's hard to know. I mean, it's very hard for me to understand how he plays, um, to a party that right now is largely oriented against Trump and has definitely not declared what it is for and how it wants to be for those things. Do you know? So I'm not answering your question. No, but I mean, but I mean, I've been thinking about this for all because I, again, the more I watch Gavin Newsom, get to know Gavin Newsom, like talk to, you know, interview him, the interviewer, the more I like him. Yeah. And I really appreciate like what he has been doing to fight not just in California, but nationally for the party. As we get closer to an actual democratic primary, I do, there's part of me that always thinks like, oh, this is like a California governor. Yeah. This California is like California. And it's not about him necessarily. It's just about like, Although I did think like, should I say just he wears hair differently? Like if he wants a better shot. That's something that is something. Cut it shorter. But like, did you read the Atlantic profile on? I started to, but I was literally going to meet the man and I just had like a heavy dose of Gavin Newsom that day. And I much respect governor. I just was a lot of you. It's just, there's a couple of things. And they talked about the California of it all. And they were like, you know, another reason for hesitation might be that California has other laws that must have the makers of Republican attack ads salivating with anticipation. In 2020, the state passed SB 132, allowing male criminals to self identify in women's prisons into women's prisons. One of those transferred to remain Carol is awaiting trial on charges of raping two female inmates. It's like, okay. There you go. Again, this is just like, this is Kamala Harris. I know. And again, when I first heard that story, I was like, well, that seems, and you like look it up and you're like, okay, well, there's a law and you get it. And you're like, okay, well, if you're going to provide everyone medical care, and then you're going to say that transition care is medical care, you know, like one thing leads to another and it makes sense in context. But then when you see it, you're like, oh, okay, that's going to be a challenge. Yeah. And he's just very, like he's, he's very California. Yeah. Like he fits the bill of a cal, you know, it was like, they talked about his wedding to, to his, his, his current life. And it was like, you know, the ceremony was conducted by Carol Samo and a modern day mystic whose website describes her as a medium and a straw. Just like, he's the most California shit ever. And like we elected a serial philanderer and like he has been married to Trillion times and had affairs with porn stars. And yet we're like, don't you get dare get married by a mystic? Donald Trump is a, is a good code switcher. And that like he is, you know, Manhattan, he's not Manhattan. He's out of Rural and he's rich, but he's sort of like, uh, he's got a chip on his shoulder about being rich. So he's sort of, you know, so there's, he's got that Barack Obama had his feet in 10 different worlds, like Bill Clinton, Oxford, Arkansas, right? Like the P Joe Biden, right? Like the people who succeed in politics nationally can identify with the other part of the country, if not by resume and identity, then by just some experience in their life, some feel. Yeah. And maybe he has that. Maybe, maybe. Well, you know, we haven't seen, I mean, we haven't seen this sort of talking tour yet. He is going to have a memoir come out in February. He will be on tour for that and it will be an interesting case study in, uh, his, his, his, what is it? Press the flesh skills. Yeah. But who else, who else do you think for, for? Listen, I had, we've had a conversation with, uh, you know, Big Dem over the break and she was saying JB Pritzker is who she liked. Okay. Okay. She thought she had been taking regular doses of Mount Jaro in preparation for that. Oof. Her words, not mine. Okay. I think they're going to see, you see some governors, uh, Josh Pirro is going to be up in the mix. Maybe Gretchen Whitmore raises her hand. I think Wes Moore is absolutely going to be on people's, uh, dance cards. Yep. I mean, it's a, I think it's going to. Maybe Gallego is out there. Maybe, maybe, maybe. I mean, I think it's going to be a pretty big field. Hopefully not like so big as to be unwieldy, but listen. No one's, no one's, no one's popping out for me ahead of the pack right now. Well, I mean, that's why it's just Gavin Newsom and his tote bags with Kid Rock in the laying of the hands. I think that that is the greatest meme I've ever fucking seen. It's really funny. If you're listening to us, Gavin Newsom's, uh, social media team, please make that into a tote bag. People will buy it. All right. I got my, is this, is this my sixth? Yeah. I, I even know which number I was on. I'm going to, this is my, well, this is my six, but I can continue to ask questions. What will the White House actually look like? Okay. So here's the news. Here's the news, John, today. Actually, this is news of the week, but there's always news about the White House. The ballroom is going to be now as tall as the main mansion itself. Oh, yes. Which means, which means we also have to add on to the West Wing. Well, exactly. So there's, uh, they're considering a one-story addition to the West Wing's colonnade in an effort to create symmetry with the two-story colonnade that would lead from the White House to the ballroom. And then there's going to be maybe an office suite for the first lady, which would be nice since they destroyed any office she once had and a reconstructed White House movie theater. Well, thank God they can screen more sliced alone films at, I guess, in full 4k HD or whatever the fuck it is. Point is, he is completely rebuilding the White House. Yeah. It is not going to resemble itself by whatever, whenever construction is complete. It's shocking. It's going to look like another Trump tower. And I would not be surprised if he just puts the fucking name Trump in gold. I made this joke to Dan on Thursdays, Fridays. Yeah, it's the, we, we did this for the 2011 correspondence dinner. We had a big slide up, big picture of, Oh God, if Donald Trump did run for president, this is what the White House would look like. And it's, we should put it up on the screen. It looks very close. Even where you were, you were in the predictions business. Yeah, right. To what it's, what it's, well, he's got to remember who lives there, right? Isn't that what they're saying is the reason that everything's labeled right now in the White House with this hideous gold lettering that really looks like the kind of lettering you'd see on a restroom door is because he's so adult and so forgetful and his brain isn't working right, that he needs reminders about like, this is the Oval Office. This is the situation room and this is the White House where Trump lives. This is where you live, sir. But the, you know, I mean, it's no surprise that architects keep resigning from this project. It's so fucking controversial. And without being like the worst downer in America, it's also symbolic of the work it's going to take to rebuild our fucking country after this person is out of office, right? Like he is fundamentally changing institutions. He's re, he's rebuilding our democracy. I won't want to say rebuilding because he's destroying the democracy, but he's rebuilding American society in a very, in his image. And it's going to take time, just like undoing his hideous renovation of the White House is going to take, I don't know, how long is that going to take? Who's going to do that? And who's going to do it with what money? You know, it's, it's a metaphor for, for everything else he's doing. So I'm curious to see what it looks like in December. Well, it made me think too, sort of my last, it's like a smaller question, but I, I started the episode by mentioning this, like the 250th birthday for America. And I do wonder how much the birthday, the anniversary is going to matter in 2026 because they are going to go all out for that. And I think that in an election year and in a year where people are starting to think about 2028, there is, and this happens in America when there are centennials, bicentennials, like there is going to be a debate over the meaning of America, the meaning of what it is to celebrate America's 250th anniversary. Donald Trump is going to be in control of that. Unfortunately, he's got the White House thing. They're going to do fire. It's very parade. This is going to be a big thing. Jingoism, run amok. It's going to be a big thing in the summer and they're going to want to bait, you know, they're going to, you know, America hating libs and they talk down the, and so we're going to have to have a good response to that about what the America that we love. Well, and also nobody owns the flag. Nobody owns the flag. Yeah. Nobody owned the White House either. But I know. You know, I wonder if there's a drug that will induce a Rip Van Winkle like state for all of us so we can just fucking wake up at the end of the year. Instead of living through all of it. Like if this is the first week, stop this train. I want to get off. I look forward to our end of the year Pods A of America episode where you're going to have to come for that. And we can talk about you and I doing these. You need to run it back and we're going to have plenty of clips. We'll be running the official nominee. We're going to have so many clips to play. If we miss any good questions also and you're listening, let us know. Please. I mean, we did. What other questions? If we, we definitely, definitely miss. There was one that I wanted to not to freak everyone out, but I mean, maybe it won't. You'll know, you'll know that the Republicans are legitimately worried about losing the Senate. Yeah. Not just the house. Yeah. If, if we start getting retirement from announcement from our friends, Samolito and or Clarence Thomas. Oh fuck. They are definitely going to do that. They are definitely going to let me just say they are. They are going to the end of this term. There will be two vacancies in the Supreme Court. No question. I think that's almost. Well, they lose this. So, but it's interesting because if they lose the Senate, well, but they can do it. But if they, if they announce their retirements in June, they can get confirmation started in September and you know, but it's, it is a, it's a gauge a little bit of how confident they are that they'll keep the Senate. I think they're, I think they could do it in the lame duck, even if they lose the Senate, but that's also imagine, imagine Samolito and or Andor Thomas announcing their retirement in like November and then they suddenly get an, I guess they could. Yeah. I know. Yeah. I think they're going to do it at the end of the term. The problem is like, will the conservatives, I go to that is going to replace them be fully hatched because they're going to nominate someone in utero. It's just going to be like an AI chat bot, like a right wing AI chat that's been like trained on fucking Alex Jones. Live forever. Live forever. That's it. Live forever. Anyway, on that note, happy 2026. Alex, this was fun. Was it? Thanks. I had a good time. I did. I did. I did. Thank you for having me, buddy. Thanks. Thanks everyone for listening. We'll be back in your feed with a new episode of Pysade America on Tuesday. If you want to listen to Pysade America ad free and get access to exclusive podcasts, go to cricket.com slash friends to subscribe on Supercast, Substack, YouTube or Apple podcast. Also, please consider leaving us a review that helps boost this episode and everything we do here at Cricket. Podsave America is a cricket media production. Our producers are David Toledo, Emma Illek Frank and Saul Rubin. 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