Trump's Wars Are Bankrupting America

**Jon Favreau** (0:20)
Welcome to Pod Save America, I'm Jon Favreau.

**Dan Pfeiffer** (0:22)
I'm Dan Pfeiffer.

**Jon Favreau** (0:23)
On today's show, we got some fresh new polling that shows Trump's forever wars dragging down his party and boosting Democrats. We'll also talk about the president's spirited defensive data centers and launching Saudi Arabia's nuclear program. Congratulations, as well as all the drama over which states will go first in the 2028 presidential primary calendar, which the DNC is debating as we speak. Then Dan talks to our pal and former Obama colleague, Jennifer Palmieri, who's out with a new series co-produced by your friends here at Crooked, about the politics of the South.
All right, with just about 100 days left until the midterms, Trump is ramping up the two forever wars he started that are now bankrupting the country, his war with Iran and his trade war with everyone. He told Axios this morning, I am considering a massive attack on Iran bigger than ever before, because Iran hasn't received enough pain yet. This despite a US intelligence report that more bombing won't change Iran's negotiating position.
Nothing is getting through the straits right now. Oil is now back over $100 a barrel. Gas is back over $4 a gallon. And Trump had to go to Dover Air Force Base on Wednesday to witness the dignified transfer of four more Americans who lost their lives in this war. Here's what the Commander in Chief had to say about all of this at an event in Georgia later in the day.

**SPEAKER_3** (1:48)
This is with this skirmish we have with the Islamic Republic of Iran.
And I call it that because, let me tell you, they're getting hit so hard. When I go to Dover, I read charts on all of the young people. And some are unbelievable. Some were a little bit, you know, they got a little bit of a little couple of little bad things put in. This is a son who was like a flawless, perfect person. He's looking down right here. He's so proud right now.
So together we're making our country safer and stronger and far more successful than it's ever been before. And that's happening before. Your very eyes. I fought ourself before, as you know, and we won. We had a great success against this guy. He reminds me of Pinky Herman. Do you ever see Pinky Herman?

**Jon Favreau** (2:37)
You ever see Pinky Herman, Dan?

**Dan Pfeiffer** (2:39)
No, no, I haven't seen Pinky Herman.

**Jon Favreau** (2:41)
You miss Pinky Herman? A few things about that.
Now we're talking about all the bad things about the soldiers who died, whose bodies he greets for a dignified transfer at Dover. Luckily for the soldier who died that he talked about in that rally, there were only good things, but sometimes there are bad things, apparently. So that was normal. On the charts, bad things on the charts. I don't know if you also saw at the beginning there, do you see the guy in the suit behind Trump, who was doing an impression of Trump, I think?

**Dan Pfeiffer** (3:14)
Yeah, was that flattery, mockery?

**Jon Favreau** (3:16)
I assume flattery? I don't know. Who can say? Who can say?
Pinky Herman. He really can't land the Ossoff name. It was, remember, on Truth Social, he had Jon Os-Jerk-Off, and he had Jerk in parentheses.

**Dan Pfeiffer** (3:36)
That was better than Pinky Herman.

**Jon Favreau** (3:38)
I mean, it reads better. It doesn't sound, you can't really say it.
You can read it and you get the Jerk-Off thing.

**Dan Pfeiffer** (3:44)
Yeah, it's hard to do error parentheses at a rally.

**Jon Favreau** (3:48)
Better than Pinky Herman, though. All right, Dan.

**Dan Pfeiffer** (3:51)
Is there a Pinky?

**Jon Favreau** (3:52)
There's no, no, there's nothing.

**SPEAKER_3** (3:53)
I know he meant Pee-wee Herman.

**Dan Pfeiffer** (3:54)
There's no Pinky, and he didn't conflate two 1920s characters or something, right?

**Jon Favreau** (4:00)
I don't believe so, because later he did say Pee-wee Herman. I think he read it wrong.

**Dan Pfeiffer** (4:05)
Okay.

**Jon Favreau** (4:05)
But he's a creature, he's also a creature of the 80s. So you think he would know Pee-wee Herman?
Not know him personally, but like would have been familiar.

**Dan Pfeiffer** (4:13)
I mean, it's just a very good chance he would know him personally.

**Jon Favreau** (4:16)
Maybe.

**Dan Pfeiffer** (4:17)
Who knows where they used to hang out.

**Jon Favreau** (4:18)
Oh, yeah, right. All kinds of theaters. All right.
I was going to have a question about all this. Oh, yeah, right. So in the May Politico poll, half of MAGA voters said that the Iran war was worth the economic costs. In this week's poll, only one-third of MAGA voters think that. These aren't just Republican voters, these are MAGA voters. These are Trump supporters. One person close to The White House told Politico, the president is now fully aware that the only way to the victory he wants is completely politically impossible.