Is Trumpism what you think it is?

On Point with Meghna Chakrabarti

WBUR

Talk Show, Daily News, News, Npr, On Point, Daily

4.2 • 3.5K Ratings

🗓️ 5 November 2025

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

President Trump's supporters say he’s a heaven-sent savior, cracking down on bloated government and unauthorized immigrants. Critics call him authoritarian – targeting political opponents and using the presidency for personal enrichment.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Support for this podcast comes from Is Business Broken, a podcast from the Mayrotra Institute at BU Questrum School of Business. What really drives accountability in the business world? Stick around until the end of this podcast to preview a recent episode. WBUR Podcasts, Boston.
0:28.0	Last night, Democrats were celebrating.
0:33.3	In the New Jersey governor's race, NBC News projects that the Democratic candidate,
0:40.3	Congresswoman Mikey Sherrill, has prevailed over Republican candidate Jack Chittarelli. It's a celebratory move here in Brooklyn and the watch party for Zeran Mamdani.
0:44.3	If I told you five months ago, he was going to be the next mayor of New York,
0:49.3	what many consider to be the second most powerful executive office in the land after the presidency.
0:59.8	You might have said I was crazy, but after what has been an eye-opening run, he is now going to be New York City's next mayor.
1:02.1	Virginia now has its first female governor-elect. Former U.S. Representative Abigail Spanberger
1:08.4	has won the race defeating the Republican, the incumbent
1:11.7	lieutenant governor, wins some Earl Sears.
1:14.5	So yes, yesterday's election brought wins for Democrats in three key East Coast races, New York
1:21.1	mayor, and the governor's races in Virginia and New Jersey, as you just heard.
1:26.1	Now, Zeran Mamdani, Abigail Spanberger, and Mikey Cheryl represent very different wings of the Democratic Party.
1:34.8	Now, a lot of Democratic analysts say this signifies a new emergence of a coalition of Democrats that perhaps did not exist before.
1:43.8	Now, meanwhile, in Maine, voters there soundly rejected
1:47.9	a sweeping proposal that would have added photo ID requirements to voting, limited the use
1:53.3	of ballot drop boxes, and made changes to the state's absentee voting system. In California,
1:59.3	Golden State voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition 50. That measure
2:04.3	would redistrict California's congressional map and possibly provide five more seats to Democrats.
2:10.9	Prop 50 supporters, including Governor Gavin Newsom, launched the effort in response to Republican
2:15.5	redistricting moves in states such as Texas.
2:18.8	And Prop 50 passed in California with 65% of the vote, including eight California counties that went for Trump in 2024.
	...

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