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The Playbook Podcast

Trump's headline headaches

The Playbook Podcast

POLITICO

News, Daily News, Politics, Government

3.9699 Ratings

🗓️ 26 March 2026

⏱️ 14 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

President Donald Trump is convening the first Cabinet meeting since Markwayne Mullin was confirmed as DHS secretary. But it's also the first confab since Trump launched a military operation against Iran — a topic that is sure to dominate much of the conversation. And the headlines swirling around aren't friendly for Trump: gas prices are still surging and polling shows sinking public support. Playbook's Jack Blanchard and White House reporter Megan Messerly discuss the stakes surrounding the Iran operation.

Transcript

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0:00.0

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0:03.0

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0:26.6

Today on the Playbook podcast, Donald Trump hosts his first wartime meeting of the cabinet with his poll ratings through the floor.

0:35.8

The president wants a rapid end to the conflict as it approaches

0:38.4

the one month mark, but there's not much sign of that. And while we talk about this military

0:43.1

operation, as the president's now renamed it, don't forget the last one. Nicholas Maddo is in

0:48.8

court today. Hello, I'm Jack Blanchard. And I'm Megan Messerly. It's Thursday, March 26th. Megan, so good to have you with us. How you doing? I'm doing well, Jennifer. How are you? I am doing all right, although I am slightly dreading the fact that I'm going to have to sit through a televised cabinet meeting this morning because these things can drag on a little bit. Just got to have your snacks. You got to have your tea ready. You know, you've got to be prepared.

1:15.3

Trump's hosting one of those cabinet meetings at 10 a.m. today. Now, I think probably part of the

1:20.1

reason for this is he wants to sort of introduce Mark Wayne Mullin as the new DHS secretary.

1:24.7

It obviously confirmed this week. But the truth is that the war in Iran,

1:29.8

of course, is going to blot out everything. I'm sure we'll hear from Trump and probably from

1:33.8

Defense Secretary Pete Hager as well, just how fantastic and well everything is going. But it doesn't

1:42.0

seem like everyone's really on board with that.

1:45.0

And Megan, you've got some new reporting about another potential problem that the war in the

1:50.1

Middle East is potentially going to cause for the United States.

1:53.9

Just talk us through your latest reporting.

1:56.4

So this is something that I had been hearing about for the last couple weeks, rumblings of,

2:02.0

but the story I have out this morning with my colleague Sam Sutton and Dasha Burns, who you all know and love,

2:09.0

in this story, we look at this growing concern within the Trump administration that these investment pledges that have been made by Gulf Arab leaders

2:21.0

over the last year, these are investments that the president frequently touts as the driver

2:26.8

of his economic engine. But the concern is now that these Gulf leaders may not be able to

2:33.5

fulfill their promises to heavily invest in

...

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