Political Gabfest | Is Trump’s Reckless Bill Unpopular?

Slate News

Slate Podcasts

News, News Commentary, Politics

4.6 • 6K Ratings

🗓️ 3 July 2025

⏱️ 73 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week, David Plotz and guest hosts Will Saletan and Catherine Rampell discuss what the Senate’s regressive budget bill will do to the health of America, whether there is space left for non-Trump conservatives in American politics, and how Paramount’s settlement of Trump’s meritless lawsuit signifies the fall of another guardrail against an authoritarian president. Here are this week’s chatters: Will: Amy MacKinnon and John Sakellariadis for Politico: CIA review of 2016 Russia election probe finds no major flaws; Jonathan Landay for Reuters: CIA review finds flaws but does not dispute finding Putin sought to sway 2016 vote to Trump. Catherine: Elizabeth Crisp for The Hill: Trump unveils $249 ‘Trump Fragrances’; Alisha Haridasani Gupta for The New York Times: What Does President Trump’s New Perfume Smell Like?; Nick Turse for The Intercept: The Whiff of Corruption: Trump’s New Perfume Has Strong Notes of Graft. David: Itchy Feet Tours & Safaris in South Africa; Geoff Beattie for The Conversation: Psychology of trophy hunting: why some people kill animals for sport; Hugh Webster for Conservation Frontlines: Trophy Hunting – A Complex Picture. Listener chatter from Teri Weaver in Syracuse, New York: Michelle Breidenbach for Syracuse.com: Cheap milk and immigration: A blunt farmer’s uncomfortable truth about NY’s dairy industry For this week’s Slate Plus bonus episode, David and guest hosts Will Saletan and Catherine Rampell discuss recent data showing declines in American pride largely along partisan and generational lines, and what it means to be a proud American. In the latest Gabfest Reads, David talks with author Alison Bechdel about her new book, Spent. Email your chatters, questions, and comments to [email protected]. (Messages may be referenced by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.) Podcast production by Kevin Bendis Research by Emily Ditto Want more Political Gabfest? Join Slate Plus to unlock weekly bonus episodes. Plus, you’ll access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. You can subscribe directly from the Political Gabfest show page on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Or visit slate.com/gabfestplus to get access wherever you listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to this late political GabFest.
0:07.0	What do I tell 663,000 people in two years or three years,
0:14.0	when President Trump breaks this promise by pushing them off of Medicaid because the funding's not there anymore, God.
0:28.2	July 3rd, 2025, the is Trump's reckless bill unpopular edition. I'm David Flats of Citicast. I'm
0:36.4	here in Washington, D.C., back from a revivifying vacation.
0:40.8	John and Emily are now on their revivifying vacations, which means the opportunity to have great guest hosts.
0:47.6	So making her GabFest debut, one of my dream co-hosts, Catherine Rampel, the brilliant Washington Post opinion columnist
0:56.5	and anchor at MSNBC.
0:58.2	Hello, Catherine.
0:59.2	Great to join you.
1:00.0	Thanks for having me.
1:01.3	And back for more, our former Slate colleague, who is now bringing his laser-like precision
1:07.5	and sweet good nature to the bulwark, Will Salatan will. So good to see you.
1:12.5	You too, man. You're both in D.C. too, right? I'm based in New York, although I'm out of town today.
1:18.5	Oh, I always thought you were a D.C. person. Well, you're at the Post. Everybody assumes I'm in
1:23.2	D.C. because of the Post affiliation, but yes. And the extremely excellent analysis of economic
1:29.0	goings on here in Washington. This week on the Gab Fest, Congress, as we tape, is passing Trump's
1:35.9	big bill. I can't just bring myself to say whatever its name is. I also can never remember. Big
1:41.0	and beautiful. I know those words are in it. Perhaps the most fiscally irresponsible and aggressive piece of legislation of our lifetimes, maybe ever.
1:49.5	We'll talk about that.
1:50.4	Then, two mildly critical of Trump members of Congress announced that they won't run for re-election, even as Elon Musk is dangling the idea of starting a new political party,
2:02.1	is there any space for non-Trump being conservatives left in American politics?
	...

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