Raging Trump Wrecks GOP’s 2026 Message as MAGA Panic Grows: “Disaster”

THE DAILY BLAST with Greg Sargent

The New Republic

News, Politics

4.4 • 800 Ratings

🗓️ 15 December 2025

⏱️ 22 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

President Donald Trump keeps ranting furiously that “affordability” is a Democratic scam. But suddenly he’s now promoting video of himself talking about how devoted he is—really, truly—to doing something about costs (while angrily blaming Democrats for it). And that admits costs are a problem on his watch. Republicans want him to stabilize his message on affordability, but by lurching wildly back-and-forth, he’s sabotaging it. And even the very MAGA chair of the Republican National Committee is admitting the GOP faces a “looming disaster” in the midterms. Other MAGA figures are also sounding the alarm. There’s a reason Trump can’t escape this conundrum: His policies actually are making things a lot worse. We talked to economist Rob Shapiro, who has a good piece at Washington Monthly spelling this out. We discuss the true nature of the Tump-GOP conundrum, the deeper reasons Trump is so vulnerable on the economy, and why it’s all likely to get worse right through 2026. Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Ready to launch your business? Get started with the commerce platform made for entrepreneurs.
0:04.8	Shopify is specially designed to help you start, run and grow your business with easy customizable themes that let you build your brand.
0:12.4	Marketing tools that get your products out there. Integrated shipping solutions that actually save you time.
0:17.4	From startups to scaleups, online, in person, and on the go. Shopify is made for
0:22.8	entrepreneurs like you. Sign up for your $1 a month trial at Shopify.com slash setup. This is the Daily Blast from the New Republic, produced and presented by the DSR Network.
0:46.5	I'm your host, Greg Sargent.
1:02.3	President Donald Trump can't seem to decide whether affordability is a hoax or not.
1:07.1	He keeps saying concerns about prices are a con job by Democrats.
1:14.1	But now he's tweeting out video of himself talking about how important it is to do something about affordability, which seems to admit that costs are a problem, even on his watch.
1:20.0	We think this neatly captures the dilemma that Trump and Republicans find themselves in,
1:24.6	and it comes even as Republicans are starting to sound the alarm
1:28.5	about the midterms a lot louder than before. In fact, the Republican National Committee chair
1:34.1	is admitting that in the midterms, the party faces almost certain defeat. Economist Rob Shapiro
1:41.3	has a great new piece at Washington Monthly spelling out the core of the
1:45.1	problem, Trump's policies. So we're talking to him about all this. Rob, good to have you on, man.
1:52.3	It's great to be here, Greg. So again and again, Donald Trump has said in the past few months
1:58.6	that affordability is a con by Democrats, a scam, a hoax,
2:03.0	etc., etc.
2:04.2	So it was a bit surprising to see Trump post video of himself on truth social at a rally at which
2:10.6	he said this.
2:12.3	And I have no higher priority than making America affordable again.
2:16.9	That's what we're going to do. And again,
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The New Republic, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The New Republic and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.