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The Michael Steele Podcast

A Moment Of Clarity: "If you're not worried about democracy then you get people like Trump." - Michael Steele

The Michael Steele Podcast

The Bulwark

Politics, Government, History, News

4.83.1K Ratings

🗓️ 3 November 2025

⏱️ 2 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Are we past the point of no return? Michael Steele answers a profound question posed by Bill Maher: What could President Trump not do? Steele argues that the nation is, in many respects, "past Trump," and the real crisis lies in the decay of our shared democratic ideals. This is a powerful call to action on civic engagement, revealing how political complacency allows crucial programs to be stripped away while citizens focus on "fantasy football picks."

Catch Michael Steele on The Weeknight Mondays - Fridays at 7pm EST on MSNBC: https://www.msnbc.com/weeknight

Follow Michael on X: https://x.com/MichaelSteele

Follow Michael on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/michaelsteele.bsky.social

Follow Michael on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chairman_steele/ 

Follow Michael on Threads: https://www.threads.net/@chairman_steele

Listen to The Michael Steele Podcast: https://www.thebulwark.com/s/the-michael-steele-podcast

Watch The Michael Steele Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJNKzTkCZE9uNqPiKYw5eU5YkS_mMsr6o

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

And now for a moment of clarity.

0:06.2

My question this week is, what could President Trump not do?

0:11.9

I mean, well, it's a question for the country.

0:15.7

So in the country?

0:17.3

Well, you know, you got it.

0:18.5

No, I, look, the reality of it is, in so many respects, we are, we are past in my appreciation of this, past Trump in the sense that at some point, this idea of us as a country, as folks who kind of under this pluralistic umbrella called democracy

0:38.2

and we're kind of working our way through it

0:39.8

and we're a 249-year-old experiment

0:41.8

that seems to work every once in a while,

0:45.4

that at some point we have to put our foot down too.

0:47.8

We've checked out as a country

0:49.5

and a lot of the crap that's happening happened to us.

0:53.5

And so the question becomes,

0:55.0

if you know someone's taking away the programs that are going to feed your kids, that are

1:00.2

going to keep you healthy, and that are going to allow you to live in an environment in which you can

1:04.5

actually breathe and drink the water, all right? If they're going to take that away from you,

1:08.8

and the only thing you're worried about is your

1:10.9

fantasy football picks or whether or not you're going to go uh go hang out with your boys on on a podcast

1:16.9

then you get trump then you get you get stephen miller then you get all of that so when do we when do we the people?

1:28.3

And I've listened to you for a long time.

1:30.3

And I think people appreciate the thing about you over the years that you and I have been having this conversation,

1:36.3

where we started out going back and forth on policy, and now we're going back and forth on what the country is.

...

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