Hey, everybody. It's Monday, May 18th, 2026. I'm Alison Gill, and this is Bean's Talk.

Hey, everybody, Dana's out. She will be back tomorrow. I do promise that. So thank you for hanging in with me solo. All right, Trump and Republicans are sliding in the poll.

They're tanking in the polls again to new all-time lows.

Now, before he left for China, as we know, a visit which resulted in zero political concessions from China, by the way,

and probably us handing Taiwan over to Xi Jinping. But before he left,

Trump said he doesn't care about American struggles with affordability. He doesn't care about

costs. He only cares about his war. And when given a chance to walk that back after he came back,

he doubled down on it. Watch this. You can imagine Democrats and political pundits.

The people get it.

Jumped all over this statement that you made the other day.

You were asked when you were leaving.

What extent are American financial determinations motivating you to make a deal?

Not even a little bit.

The only thing that matters is that I'm talking about Iran, they can't have a nuclear weapon.

I don't think about American financial situation.

I don't think about anybody. I think about one thing.

You could not let Iran have a nuclear weapon. That's all.

That's right. That's a perfect same way.

So make it again.

You can imagine how many people stop the soundbite at.

I don't think about America's financial situation.

So what's your response to that framework? It's very simple.

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