Greg Sargent: This is The Daily Blast from The New Republic, produced and presented by the DSR network. I’m your host, Greg Sargent.
Danielle Deiseroth: Thanks so much for having me back, Greg.
Mike Johnson (audio voiceover): I talk to President Trump all the time, multiple times a day. Obviously, we’ve talked about this. As you know, he’s not delighted that Elon did a 180 on that. Look, I don’t know what happened in 24 hours. Everybody can draw their own conclusions about that, OK? But I look forward to talking to my friend about it again. And I’m not upset about it.
Deiseroth: Well, I think that Musk is acting like a toddler who is clearly not getting what he wants. And we know that Musk was in trouble with the Tesla board for Tesla’s stock share plummeting over the past few months as he’s taken such a prominent place in the Trump White House. So look, I think that this is a split that was more predictable than the finale of The Bachelor and that marriage not working out so well. I think that this will definitely help draw some more attention to what’s going on in Congress right now. This will definitely prompt people to ask and say, OK, well, what actually is Musk mad about right now? If they haven’t been paying attention so far, his temper tantrum is certainly going to raise awareness amongst the general public. And it’s clear why Mike Johnson and Trump himself are probably very displeased: They know that Musk is going to be bringing the awareness of this bill up to more of the American public.
Deiseroth: I think so. I think that for everyday Americans, the costs are still sky-high. The quality of life in America is not improving in the way that they thought it would among those independents who maybe gave Trump a chance and voted for him in November because they were so concerned about the economy and America’s economic outlook. So certainly anything that Musk is saying—a bill that’s bloated and full of pork and is going to blow up America’s economic outlook—is probably going to perk up the ears of some of those independents who aren’t liking what they’re seeing from the Trump White House.
Deiseroth: Only if they flat out lie, which we see that they’re already doing about certain government reports. This is where it starts to get incredibly scary in terms of what the Trump White House is doing. If they’re straight-up lying to the American people about what this bill will do—which again, they already are in terms of how Karoline Leavitt has been describing the different Medicaid cuts.... They’re going to keep parroting their lies. And it’s really up to the Democrats to uplift this nonpartisan analysis from the CBO to remind Americans of what the objective truth is. And who knows, maybe we’ll see more fiscal conservatives finally step up and put their foot down. I’m not really holding my breath for that to happen because we saw how quickly House Republicans fell in line with the vote. But now that it’s going through the more serious chamber of the Senate, maybe we’ll see some more deficit hawks really being vocal. Although that could just mean more cuts and more bad things that they want to see.
Deiseroth: I think that they might. And look, this is not the Republican Party that my dad and my grandparents grew up with where the Republican Party was associated, at least nominally, with fiscal restraint and fiscal responsibility. If Republicans are fighting amongst themselves with some saying that this is an irresponsible use of America’s taxpayer funding—when there’s infighting amongst the party, I know sometimes it can be perceived as Beltway chatter, but any fights are what the media is going to gravitate toward, right? And that’s what’s going to, I think, be shown on people’s nightly news or what they’re hearing, seeing, and reading. And again, the conflict is what I think really helps put a spotlight on these things. When it’s just business as usual in Washington, of course nobody’s going to be paying attention, right?
Deiseroth: Well, I think there’s definitely a couple of reasons I’ve been thinking about this, because I was surprised, honestly, when we got the polling back. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the number one thing people had.... When we asked them, “What is the news story that you remember from the past—the biggest news story you’ve heard?” most people said tariffs. All of the news around “Liberation Day” back in April really broke through to folks more than anything we’ve seen in the Trump administration thus far. Tariffs have stuck. They have broken through. People are mad about prices. They keep hearing about Trump going back and forth. And they’re not seeing any economic relief. So I was like, OK, great. Tariffs still breaking through. But holy crap, this bill, even though it passed the House of Representatives, has not broken through the consciousness in a real way.
Sargent: Well, your poll actually found some striking things on that front. One of them was that 56 percent are aware of the Medicaid cuts in the bill. So those do seem to be breaking through. The other thing that I thought was very interesting that you found is that when you tell voters about the Medicaid cuts, about the bill’s tax cuts for the rich—which are a big part of the bill even if Musk doesn’t talk about that part—and about how the bill explodes the deficit, nearly three-fourths oppose the bill. What should we conclude from all that?
Sargent: I’m so glad you brought up the part of the bill that goes after tax credits for clean energy because generally speaking, it’s a topic that Democrats shy away from a little bit during the 2024 campaign. I thought Kamala Harris and Democrats could have leaned harder into the immense spending that had been unleashed, the immense investments that had been unleashed by Biden’s policies when it comes to clean energy investments. They just didn’t want to do that. But if you look at the things that House Republicans who are vulnerable in the 2026 elections are worried about, it seems like a good guide, right? A number of those House Republicans didn’t want the Medicaid cuts, and a number of them didn’t want the rollback of the clean energy tax credits. So I think that’s a pretty clear clue what Democrats could be talking more about. And I just don’t get why Democrats won’t lean into the clean energy stuff more. What do you think there?
And we know that voters react to loss aversion; they don’t like things that are taken away from them, right? They’re not going to like Medicaid getting taken away from them. They did not want the Affordable Care Act taken away from them. So I think for a lot of these Republicans.... Even just today, Senator John Curtis from Utah was in The Wall Street Journal talking about having some common sense around the IRA tax credits because Utah is one of those states that has really benefited from the tax credits of the IRA. I think we’ll start to see, Hey, we really can’t take these away. We’re creating jobs. Some of those material benefits are starting to actually impact people’s lives. And we’ll see if Democrats are able to, again, capitalize on this and paint a better picture for voters about not only the jobs but also how electricity costs are going to be impacted. Trump says he wants American energy dominance, but he’s doing the exact opposite with trying to get rid of these tax credits.
Deiseroth: I think this is why so many Democrats are banging their head against the wall, that how could a billionaire who had the front row of his inauguration full of tech CEOs be perceived as the man who is the working-class savior in America? That’s the failure of the Democratic Party in a nutshell right now. But I think, again, that picture from the inauguration is the ad: Trump and Republicans are going to kick millions of Americans off of their health care so that wealthy donors can benefit. That is the message, and that’s what Democrats should be repeating now until 2028. They are setting themselves up, I think, for that contrast because voters will have proof that for all of Trump’s talk, this is what he’s choosing to do.
Deiseroth: I’m just sad. I’m scared. So many people’s lives are going to be impacted in such a negative way because of this bill. And I think we’re going to see a lot of anger. I think we’re going to see so much anger and frustration from the public. Again, so many voters wanted to see change from the Biden administration, whether they voted for Kamala Harris or not, and the change that Trump is bringing is going to materially impact the lives of millions of Americans in addition to all the people that he and his administration have impacted already.
Sargent: It sure looks that way. And it sure looks like this is an issue that Democrats can capitalize on. It’s definitely one that they’re comfortable with, maybe not other ones, unfortunately. Danielle Deiseroth, so good to talk to you. Thanks for coming on.
Deiseroth: Thanks so much again for having me.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Transcript: Trump Turns Hard on Musk as GOP Bill Hit by Harsh New Data )
Also on site :
- Beloved '90s Hitmaker, 61, Commands the Red Carpet in a Striking Look During Rare Red Carpet Appearance
- Shoppers must take action after ‘life-threatening’ issue found in 1.7m air con products sold at stores including Costco
- Academy-Award Winning Actress, 87, Absolutely Shimmers in Satin on N.Y.C. Red Carpet