Hello and welcome to Backround Briefing, available 24-7 at Background Briefing.

I'm Ian Masters, and today we'll examine a number of stories and issues in the news.

We'll begin with mounting evidence the Maga spell has been broken,

and that the obvious damage Trump is doing to America is finally arousing a silent majority to end his destructive reign of error in competence and chaos.

Joining us is Rick Wilson, a renowned political strategist, infamous ad maker,

writer, speaker, and political commentator. A 30-year veteran of National Republican Politics,

he got his start in the 1988 presidential campaign of George Herbert Walker Bush. In December of

2019, he founded the Lincoln Project, and his books include everything Trump

touches, dies, and running against the devil, a plot to save America from Trump and Democrats

from themselves. He writes at the Rick Wilson subsdeck.com, where his latest article we will discuss

is about last night, Maga reeks of death.

Then we'll assess what Trump could do to rig the next election

and how the recent election results indicate it will be harder for Trump to overcome a blue wave

that could sweep the Democrats into control of the House and possibly the Senate next year.

Joining us is Dr. Michael McDonald, a professor of political science at the University of Florida.

He is the principal investigator of the public mapping project, a project to encourage

political participation in redistricting, and also is the director of the United States

election project. His latest book is

from pandemic to insurrection, voting in the 2020 U.S. presidential election, and he has done a voting

analysis of the 2025 election for the University of Florida election lab available at

Michael MacDonald.substack.com.

Then finally, with former Speaker Nancy Pelosi announcing she is retiring, we will speak

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