Impeach Pete Hegseth?

Jon Favreau (0:20)

Welcome to Pod Save America, I'm Jon Favreau, I'm Jon Lovett, Tommy Vietor. On today's show, we'll talk about Trump's last-ditch effort to convince voters Republicans to care about the cost of living, Democrats' big decision on a Republican data center bill, Pete Hegseth facing GOP critics and a possible impeachment over the Iran War, and the White House spending your tax dollars on Trump campaign ads.

All right, guys, we are five weeks out from election day, and the numbers that may end up being more predictive than any poll are these, $4.50 a gallon for gas, $6.50 for diesel, and consumer sentiment now at its second-lowest level in history, lower even than the height of the pandemic or the 2008 financial crisis. And it isn't just Democrats, Republican consumer sentiment is now down 20% since January, which does raise questions about whether this kind of messaging from Donald Trump is moving the needle.

SPEAKER_2 (1:20)

We have the best economy we've ever had. I've reduced the prices, but they like to say affordability, but they're the ones that caused the affordability problem. I don't have to know anything about you. Your 401k has doubled in a short period of time. It's doubled. You're twice as wealthy as you were a short time ago, every one of you.

And that's because of me. Have a good time, everybody.

Jon Favreau (1:44)

You're twice as wealthy, and that's because of me. Have a good time.

SPEAKER_2 (1:48)

That's it.

Jon Favreau (1:48)

That's the closing argument. So the White House is trying to limit the damage of what they've done in the last couple of years with an assortment of gimmicks now. Trump's reportedly still weighing an export ban on diesel. And in that appearance on Monday in the Oval, that was an announcement that a Minnesota company will spend $15 billion to build a new steel plant in Iowa that could create 1,700 jobs when it opens in 2030

You think that'll do it?

Jon Lovett (2:21)

We'll have the midterms in 2030 maybe.

Tommy Vietor (2:24)

I think it's a smart idea in the short term in Iowa. I mean, I was talking to a friend in Iowa today who said, the democratic reaction is, do you guys remember when Trump brought the CEO of Foxconn to the White House and announced they would open a plant to make 13,000 new jobs in Wisconsin in 2017? They're going to make LCD screens or something. Shocker, a decade later, didn't really pan out. It's more like, I think Microsoft now owns the land and it's just data centers.

So it's exactly what you'd expect. But my buddy in Iowa said that this was getting a lot of press, making headlines, like the public statements from people like Rob Sand, or like, it's a promising idea, I want more details, stuff like that. So they're welcoming it. But ultimately, I think the price of diesel is what people in Iowa are really focused on right now. It's like $6.58, it's about double what it was this time last year. We're about to go into planting season. So Iowa farmers are really, really pissed about that. I don't think an announcement of one potential factory by 2030 is going to deal with that.

Jon Lovett (3:23)

Yeah, there's a poll about how many people believed they were going to get the $5,000 check.

Jon Favreau (3:30)

Turns out not many.

Jon Lovett (3:31)

Not many, right? So you've got to assume.

Jon Favreau (3:34)

People aren't really idiots.

Jon Lovett (3:35)

Right.

Jon Favreau (3:36)

People can look and be like, hey, it's really cool that we're going to have a new steel plant in Iowa. What a great idea. But it's not till 2030 And also, why do I think that that's something I should thank Trump for?

Jon Lovett (3:46)

Right. I think people don't believe Donald Trump anymore. Even people that we would say, oh, we wish they'd been credulous for far less time. It is happening.

You can say that's the floor. How many people are going to believe his promises at this point? It's just vanishingly few. So I'm sure people would appreciate a new steel plant, but it's a believe it when I see it situation. It certainly doesn't change the fundamental economic conditions, which are not just, by the way, like, proceed this election. Like Donald Trump promised not just to kind of not have diesel prices go through the roof, but to address like, you know, decades of decline and years of rising prices. He's done the opposite.

Jon Favreau (4:27)

How excited do you think Ashley Hinson was to be standing right behind Donald Trump for when he said he gave her one of his famous out of touch sayings of the record books, Best Economy Ever, as she's running in a tight race against Josh Turk in Iowa. Now she gets a video of her in the oval behind him where he said, Best Economy Ever, you're all richer.