Dents in the Armor

Talking Feds

Harry Litman

News, Government, Politics

4.8 • 4.5K Ratings

🗓️ 15 December 2025

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Harry talks to Alisyn Camerota, David French, and Jonathan Lemire about whether President Donald Trump is finally losing his grip on the Republican Party. Why couldn’t Trump convince Indiana Republicans to back his gerrymander scheme for the state? Have his famed rallies have lost their political magic? And can the president overcome deepening scrutiny of his aggressive military moves in the Caribbean and far-fetched legal maneuvers in the courts? Mentioned in this episode: Alisyn's Substack: https://alisyncamerota.substack.com/ David's columns: https://www.nytimes.com/by/david-french Jonathan's reporting: https://www.theatlantic.com/author/jonathan-lemire/ Harry's interview with Senator Mark Kelly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kV3PdqjknhM Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This episode is brought to you by Vanta.
0:03.0	Security and compliance done wrong is a headache.
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0:20.0	From startups like Cursor to enterprises like Snowflake,
0:23.3	top companies choose Vantor. Do security and compliance right. Get started today at vanta.com.
0:32.9	Welcome to TalkingFeds, a roundtable that brings together prominent former federal officials and special guests for dynamic discussion of the most important political and legal topics of the day.
0:48.9	I'm Harry Littman.
0:50.6	It was a week full of indications that Donald Trump's iron grip on the Republican Party may be loosening.
0:58.7	The president's all-out offensive to get Indiana Republicans to re-jerrymander their congressional map
1:05.0	backfired badly. State senators there hung tough, handing a key loss to Trump in a ruby red state.
1:13.6	Another sign that Trump may be losing his political mojo.
1:17.6	His big rally to address growing concerns about the economy was a flop.
1:22.6	His performance was roundly panned even by fellow Republicans, and recent polling shows that
1:29.3	two-thirds of Americans disapprove of his handling of the economy.
1:34.5	The administration also drew unaccustomed flack from both houses of Congress, where lawmakers
1:40.4	seemed determined to forge ahead with an investigation of U.S. strikes in the Caribbean.
1:46.2	For his part, Trump continued to provoke Venezuela with military force, though his end goal is far from clear.
	...

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