Trump is Panicking as Californians Vote to Shut Him Down

Summary

IHIP News Podcast – Episode Summary

Podcast: IHIP News
Episode Title: Trump is Panicking as Californians Vote to Shut Him Down
Date: November 1, 2025
Hosts: Jennifer Welch & Angie “Pumps” Sullivan
Guest: California Assemblywoman Tina McKenna

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Episode Overview

In this lively, sharply opinionated episode, hosts Jennifer Welch and Angie “Pumps” Sullivan bring on California Assemblywoman Tina McKenna to delve into the urgent fight against Donald Trump’s influence, specifically through California’s Prop 50. The conversation is a mix of political analysis, personal anecdotes, and strategic action, all peppered with humor and unfiltered commentary. The main focus: what Californians (and their allies) can do to uphold democracy and counter ongoing right-wing maneuvers.

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Key Discussion Points

1. Setting the Stage – Fighting Trump in California

• Assemblywoman McKenna (00:38): Asserts early on that California is actively mobilizing to “bring the fight to Trump,” setting a tone of direct action.
• Hosts’ Tone: Combative, energized, and intentionally irreverent—emphasizing urgency and grassroots resistance.

2. The Double Standard & Lack of Accountability

• Angie “Pumps” Sullivan (01:07): Critiques what she sees as blatant double standards in how Trump is treated by the media and public:

  “Why does this man get away with so much shit? Assembly woman. It makes me insane that there is never any accountability with this man.”

• Assemblywoman McKenna (01:56):

  “He’s brought decorum for elected officials down ... He just does whatever he wants. He’s full of theatrics ... embarrassing.”

3. Prop 50: The Legislative Counterattack

• Purpose: Prop 50 is framed as a legislative weapon to rebalance congressional representation and introduce accountability.
• McKenna’s Riff on Tactics (03:18):

  “You go low, I go lower. ... With our help, we’re going to kick his ass from California.”

4. The Stakes for Democracy and Multiculturalism

• Jennifer Welch (04:31):

  “Multiculturalism is a worthy fight ... and it is the most patriotic and American fight in which you can engage.”

• Assemblywoman McKenna (05:58): Discusses California’s status as a donor state and how the state’s approach to redistricting is distinctively democratic, calling out the contrast with red states’ approaches.

5. Redistricting and Fairness

• Redistricting Efforts: California moving to let voters approve new map-drawing power until 2030—framed as a democratic alternative to gerrymandering (06:14–07:33).
• Strategic Goal: McKenna stresses that passage of Prop 50 will directly reduce the number of Republican seats, with hopes of even unseating figures like Kevin McCarthy (07:41):

  “We’re going to try. ... We would love to get rid of him ... And so we’re going to fucking try.”

6. The National Impact & Trumpism’s Weakness

• Welch (08:02): Connects Trump’s actions—from seeking “11,000 votes” to low inauguration turnout—to a broader pattern of ego-driven, anti-democratic behavior.
• McKenna (10:06): Outlines the potential domino effect of Prop 50, linking it to the fight for civil rights, Medicare, LGBTQ+ rights, and reproductive freedom.

  “This helps the rest of the country, because once goes California, goes the rest of the country. ... Go to stopriggedelection.com and donate and help California help you.”

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Manifesting Ambition (01:03–01:07):

  • Welch: “Did you see... President Trump... being escorted around by the Japanese Prime Minister on the global stage and getting lost?... Every single thing you do is going to be critiqued. ... Why does this man get away with so much shit?”

• McKenna’s Philosophy of Political Combat (03:18):

  “Michelle Obama said, if you go low, I go high. Not me. You go low, I go lower.”

• On Red City Economics (05:58):

  • Welch: “I can’t think of one big red city that pays a lot of taxes ... and I can’t think of one.”
  • McKenna: “No, I can’t either. ... Wouldn’t that be something? Because we are a donor state. We give way more money than like Texas.”

• Prop 50 Call to Action (10:06–11:55):

  “If you don’t live in California, there’s a place if you go to stoptheriggedelection.com you can donate. ... We want to make sure that we continue that trend. We have to win in California. This helps the rest of the country because once goes California, goes the rest of the country.”

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Important Timestamps

• 00:20–01:18: Introductions and initial Trump discussion, setting the energetic tone.
• 01:56–03:18: Impassioned criticism of Trump and the need for aggressive response.
• 03:18–05:00: Strategy behind Prop 50 and California’s approach.
• 05:58–07:33: Redistricting and California’s potential “donor state” power; setting up the Prop 50 campaign.
• 07:41–08:02: Hope and effort to unseat figures like Kevin McCarthy.
• 08:02–10:06: Trump’s historic lack of legitimacy, the psychological tactics of his team, and the importance of combatting his influence.
• 10:06–12:24: Detailed Prop 50 pitch, explanation of national impact, and call-to-action for listeners.
• 12:24–13:12: Closing affirmations and mutual appreciation.

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Conclusion / Action Steps

• For Californians: Vote YES on Prop 50, use Dropbox not mail, mobilize your community.
• For Supporters Nationwide: Donate at stoptheriggedelection.com and help with get-out-the-vote campaigns.
• Final Thoughts: The hosts and Assemblywoman McKenna see California’s political fight not just as a state issue, but a national bulwark for democracy, rights, and diverse communities.

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True to the podcast’s spirit, this episode was equal parts politics, humor, and a call to arms—which the hosts and their guest deliver with gusto and a refusal to pull any punches.

Transcript

[A]

Most people would rather remove a nest of irate hornets than search for auto and home insurance. That's why the zebra searches for you. Comparing over 100 insurance companies to find savings no one else can Compare. [e-mail] I think I'll wait inside.

[B]

Welcome to IHIP News. As we continue to fight for democracy, I am so privileged and proud to welcome Assemblywoman Tina McKenna from California who is heading up Prop 50. Assemblywoman, how are you today?

[A]

I am fantastic. It's early in the morning here in California on the west coast and we are up early because we're ready to go fight Trump. Bring the fight to California. We'll bring it to you.

[B]

I like it. I mean, we. It is all hands on deck at all times. Yes. To fight this. This man and his insanity. And let me just ask you this, Congresswoman, let's gossip for just.

[A]

I like that you call me Congresswoman.

[B]

I'm sorry, not Assembly Woman.

[A]

You gave me a. That's okay. You gave me a promise.

[B]

We're going to manifest that, girl. We are going to manifest that. Okay, listen, let's gossip a little bit. Did you see, you know, I call President Trump Kanks, short for Kinkles McTaco Tit. Did you see Kanks being escorted around by the Japanese Prime Minister on the global stage and getting lost? And what I'm thinking when I see this is, I remember Jake Tapper writing whole book about Joe Biden and fair enough. I mean, you know, you run for president, you're on the big stage, you're going to get a lot of criticism. Every single thing you do is going to be critiqued. You want a big boy job, you have to have big boy criticism. You have to have thick skin to take it. Why does this man get away with so much shit? Assembly woman. It makes me insane that there is never any accountability with this man.

[A]

It makes me insane as well. He has lost all decorum. You know, I've been in this business for 30 years and I've never seen anybody like this guy. Like Kanks. He is. He's a mess. No, seriously, he's a mess. He gets away with everything. He says anything he wants. He's brought decorum for elected officials down. I remember when I was a kid and you looked up at your elected official. They had class and grace. Not this fool. He just does whatever he wants. He's full of theatrics. He put on a whole show as he went over there. He's just embarrassing.

[B]

He is humiliating. And I think Prop 50 could offer some accountability for kanks. I do. And I really like this idea because what I have seen the last several years has made me so mad. And I feel like we're playing two different games here. I feel like the MAGA regime is like, we're going to do what we want to do and we don't care what the rules are, we don't care where the laws are. We barely eked out a victory and we're going to cram it down everybody's throats and we're going to take away rights from people and we're going to browbeat black and brown people and we're just going to be complete assholes and you're going to have to like it. That's their rulebook. And then ours sometimes seems like we're tiptoeing and playing integrity politics. And I think we got to get up in that ass.

[A]

Well, I'm done.

[B]

Prop 50 is doing that.

[A]

If you go, you know, Michelle Obama said, if you go low, I go high. Not me. You go low, I go lower. And so. And everybody knows that about me. It's like, you know, and that's what I'm loving about our governor right now, is that he is fighting him back. At least he's standing up to him. He's not being afraid, he's not being timid. He is fighting back. And with our help, we're going to kick his ass from California. We're going to make sure that this midterm election is fair because we all know that in the midterms, Congress runs every two years. And everything he does has to come through Congress right now, this experiment that we call America is not working because this guy has the Congress, the U.S. senate, he has the presidency and he has the Supreme Court. And so it's just not working. And when it came to California and it came time to run this proposition, the legislators, we were unanimous on the Democratic side. We don't have that many Republicans in California. California's a great place to live. You might wanna come find a house here because we at least have. It's full of Democrats. And we, we decided we would fight him back with Prop 50. We'd make sure that we had an even playing field when we get to the midterms and we're going to kick his ass.

[B]

I love it. And I think your governor is doing a really good job confirming for people what you're seeing is real. This guy is serious and the people surrounding him are dangerous. And to quote your governor, he said they are not fucking around. And he is 100% correct. They are not fucking around. And historically, we know that when you see a dictator, they get into power, they do a lot of illegal shit, then they get fearful of the things they've done and then they shift to, we're going to do everything in our power to keep power at all costs. And they're at that stage right now where they are going to try to do everything they can do to keep power. But what's so interesting to me about California and other diverse big blue states is the following. Multiculturalism is a worthy fight. Fighting for your neighbor and your sisters and brothers of color is a worthy fight. And it is the most patriotic and American fight in which you can engage. And I just was thinking about this a lot, this attack on blue cities and this attack on blue states. ASSEMBLY WOMAN and I can't think of one big red city, can you? One big red city that pays a lot of taxes. That. That is a donor city. And I can't think of one. I can't think of one.

[A]

They're all, no, I can't either. You know, sometime in California we talk about what if we keep our money, you know, you keep fucking around and find out Trump you, we might keep our money. Wouldn't that be something? Because we are a donor state. We give way more money than like Texas.

[B]

Right?

[A]

The people who he called and asked for, who started this, by the way, he called Texas and said, I deserve five Republican seats. Can you go in? Can you draw the maps and cut me five Republican seats? Well, there's no other. Another place like California because soon as our governor heard that, he made sure that we put three issues before us to vote and we voted for three bills that made us go back into the redistricting. We're different than Texas. We. We're not going to just draw a map. We're going to go back to our voters and say, is it okay if the state legislator draw the maps only until 2030, when we'll bring back the Independent Redistricting Commission, which these red states don't have, that the Republicans here in California is talking about gerrymandering. They don't believe in anything that we're doing. They don't believe in fair redistricting. Of course they don't. They just want to go in and bulldozer and do what they want to do. But here in California, we're taking it to the voters on Tuesday, November 4th, and we're asking, please let us redraw these maps so that we can get five on it. We can put five on it. They get five, we get five. They only have nine Republican congresspeople in California. They fucked up and now they're only going to have four. Because we're going to pass Prop 50 on Tuesday, and we're going to kick Donald Trump's ass in the midterm.

[B]

Selfishly. I want to ask the following question. Is there any chance Kevin McCarthy would lose his seat in this deal?

[A]

We're going to try. And I mean, when we try, usually we, during the midterms and presidential elections, we go to other states because it's so Democratic here. But we've decided we're going to stay home in 2026 so we could kick these five Republicans out. We would love to get rid of him. Love to get rid of him. And so we're going to fucking try.

[B]

I love it. And you know, when you think about Kank's calling after the 2020 election when he lost from Joe Biden, and he called that in Georgia and the secretary in Georgia, and he said, please find me 11,000 votes. There's no integrity. These guys don't want to run on their policy and win because he knows he's really, really unpopular. And here's how I know about it. You remember when he won in 2016 and he had that really small showing for his inauguration, and then they did a side by side of Obama's inauguration. You couldn't see anything. You can see any bare ground, not even a piece of grass. Shoulder to shoulder, everybody's there. For Barack OB. And then his first inauguration, it was just this abysmal, impotent crowd size, right? So then, of course, you know, he lost in 2020. He tries to pick a fight. He tries to have his supporters kill Mike Pence. It was a big shit show, right? He should have been in prison, tries to cheat all this stuff, packs his toys up, leaves, is not a big boy enough to go to the peaceful transfer of power. And then he wins again. And they moved his inauguration indoors because I think that everybody governs for this man and makes decisions for this man based on his fragile ego. And this is what I like so much about California right now, because y' all are going right at the heart of this pathetic, fragile ego of this pathetic wannabe strong man. And here's what we have going for us. ASSEMBLY WOMAN the strong man is frail, and the strong man has dementia. And it isn't is as obvious as the nose on my face. And this is when these movements start to fissure. And California has the chum in the water and you guys are moving right in. And I love the fight. So tell our listeners about Prop 50, how they can support Prop 50 if they don't live in California. And to all of the Californians, how they can make a difference with Prop 50.

[A]

Well, see, voting for Prop 50 again will help us to equal the level, the equal feel. We will be able to go on and we would be able to help with the midterms. We've done this before. In his last election in 2018 from California, we were the one that elected all those Congress people that made us get Congress back. We want to do it again. We want to make sure that we level the field. If we win in 2026, it's going to do a lot for us in this country because Trump's been trying to erase our history. He wants to. All those. A lot of those federal jobs were black jobs. He's right. Those federal jobs were black jobs because, like black women in the 70s and 80s, they couldn't get big jobs after college in corporate America. So they went to the government. He laid all those people off. We look at Medi Cal and Medicaid, that's gonna be a problem. People are gonna die in pain if they don't have insurance. With this guy, food and gas is going through the roof. Mentorship, my brother's keeper. They've already gotten rid of abortion and now they're trying to defund Planned Parenthood, LGBTQ rights. Everything we've done and fight for together, brothers and sisters, this guy is trying to roll back. This is extremely important. And so what we need people to do in California is get those ballots, fill it out, vote yes on Prop 50, drop them in a Dropbox, don't put them in the mail, go in the call center or drop them in the Dropbox. At this point, we wanna make sure that we get those ballots. We don't even wanna take chances on the mail. If you don't live in California, there's a place if you go to stoptheriggedelection.com you can donate. Go and donate and help us get out the vote. We have a couple of days left and we wanna make sure people go to the ballot box. I'm running the phone back here in Westchester, California, and we have 71% yes rate. 71% of my communities are voting yes. And so we want to make sure that we continue that trend. We have to win in California. This helps the rest of the country because once goes California, goes the rest of the country. Get out. Cast your vote. Go to stopriggedelection.com and donate and help California help you.

[B]

I love it. I love your energy. I love how feisty you are. I love the fight. I am so happy to partner with you and to spread the word that this fight is right now happening in California. And we have power together and multiculturalism is our strength. And that is a hill I will die on with every fiber in my body. Assembly woman, thank you so much. Thank you for your work. Thank you for your bravery and standing up for democracy. You are a fabulous American.

[A]

Thank you. And you are too. Thank you for the work that you do every single day and for keeping it real and not giving us no fake ass news. Thank you for keeping it real. Thank you for your activism and what you do. And I look forward to working with you in the future.

[B]

Me too. All right. Thank you for tuning in, viewers.

[A]

Bye bye.

[C]

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[B]

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[C]

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[B]

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