Make the Monoculture Great Again

The Playbook Podcast

POLITICO

Politics, Government, Daily News, News

3.9 • 699 Ratings

🗓️ 6 February 2026

⏱️ 13 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Winter Olympics are set to get underway this weekend — amid the backdrop of President Donald Trump’s first year of his second term. Though he won’t be attending the event himself, Trump’s repeated forays into foreign policy have amplified tensions between the U.S. and some of the countries whom American athletes will be competing against. VP JD Vance is on the ground leading the U.S. delegation in Italy for the opening ceremonies. Then on Sunday, the Super Bowl has taken on its own political storylines. Playbook’s Adam Wren and national politics reporter Alec Hernández discuss the impact Trump has on these two monolithic events.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Health plans welcome reforms to strengthen Medicare Advantage.
0:03.5	However, a proposal for flat program funding at a time of sharply rising medical costs
0:08.4	and high utilization of care will directly impact seniors' coverage.
0:12.3	If finalized, this proposal could result in benefit reductions and higher costs for 35 million
0:17.6	seniors and people with disabilities when they renew their Medicare Advantage
0:21.3	coverage in October 26. Learn more at AHIP.org.
0:31.8	Today on the Playbook podcast, the biggest sports weekend of the year, and perhaps a four years, kicks off today with the Olympics opening ceremony in Italy as California prepares to host the Super Bowl. But there is a Trump-sized specter hanging over both events. Hello, I'm Adam Wren. And I'm Alec Hernandez. It's Friday, February 6th.
0:55.7	Alec, welcome. It's great to have you here. You're one of my colleagues on the very talented
1:01.2	politics team. You have a history of covering the GOP, including embed duty for NBC with both
1:08.5	Florida Governor Ron DeSantis when he was running for president in
1:11.9	2024 and also with Vice President J.D. Vance when he was still a candidate. So we're really
1:18.3	excited to have you on the show today. Yeah, thanks so much for having me. Well, what I want to
1:22.7	talk about and what many in Washington and across the world are chattering about today is the opening ceremony of the Olympics in Milan, Italy.
1:33.2	Alec, we're going to see fresh images starting around 2 p.m. today of J.D. Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
1:41.3	They're leading the delegation from the U.S. along with some former
1:45.8	Olympic athletes like the speed skater, Apollo Ono. I will see images of them talking it up in
1:51.5	the box, watching the opening ceremonies, and the games are going to kick off in full after
1:57.7	the opening ceremonies. But there's a bit of a political cloud hanging over both
2:02.5	the Olympics and the Super Bowl this weekend, Alec. We're not going to see President Donald Trump
2:08.7	at either of these events. And this is notable because in his first year of his second term,
2:15.9	he's been omnipresent. He's been in some ways the monoculture president. He's
2:21.0	made the monoculture grader. He went to the Super Bowl last year. He was just recently at a college
	...

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