Trump vs the GOP. NYC Latest Example of America’s Primary Problem.

Summary

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Independent Americans with Paul Rieckhoff

Episode: Trump vs the GOP. NYC Latest Example of America’s Primary Problem.

Date: June 25, 2026
Host: Paul Rieckhoff

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Episode Overview

This special episode of Independent Americans is a rapid-fire breakdown of political issues at the national and local level, drawing from host Paul Rieckhoff’s recent appearances on CNN’s Erin Burnett. The focus is on the continuing rift between Donald Trump and the GOP, the fragility of trust in institutions, and how New York City’s primary voting system is emblematic of a larger “primary problem” in American democracy. The episode addresses generational shifts, the ongoing war in Iran, the lack of legislative action in Congress, and the enduring influence (and resentment) Trump expresses toward Barack Obama. The tone is frank, urgent, and unflinching.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Trump’s Grip on Power and the GOP’s Dilemma

• Trump’s Focus on Elections, Not Policy

  • Trump prioritizes election outcomes over substantive policy, using his influence to protect his own power base.
  • "He's always focusing on the elections because he has to protect his power. And he knows that free and fair elections this fall will mean accountability. It could mean impeachment. It could mean prison. He knows that that is America's circuit breaker.” (Political Analyst, 00:24 & 12:26)

• GOP Cowed, Lacking Cohesion

  • Republican leaders struggle to assert independence from Trump, with the party lacking robust debate or open dissent.

  • “The politicians are catching up to where the country is… you can’t trust anything Trump says and you can’t trust anything the Iranian regime says, and that’s what makes this so dangerous.” (Political Analyst, 02:35)

  • On Majority Leader Thune:

    • "He has told his members, why don't y'all speak up?... That does not show a sort of robust cohesion in the Republican conference, in my view." (Political Strategist, 04:31)

• Climate of Fear Around Trump

  • Anecdotes underline Trump demands uncritical loyalty and surrounds himself with “sycophants,” compounding risk to decision-making.
  • “He’s surrounding himself with people who adore him. There are no conflicting ideas. There’s no one challenging him… very, very dangerous.” (Political Analyst, 07:14)

2. Erosion of Trust—Media, Government, and Propaganda

• Dangerous Ambiguity in Public Discourse
  • Both domestic government and foreign adversaries (e.g., Iran) are viewed as untrustworthy, leaving the American public adrift for reliable information.
  • “We should be able to trust what we are saying, and we don't. I don't know many people who trust the information that we're putting out. That leaves the American people in a really precarious position in an election year. Who do we believe? We can't believe our government. We don't believe the bad actors because we never have. There's no one with sort of the adult voice in the room.” (Media Analyst, 03:36)

3. American Primaries: The “Primary Problem” and NYC as Ground Zero

• Impact of Closed Primaries and Low Turnout

  • New York City’s restrictive primary system disenfranchises independents, enabling well-organized factions to dominate outcomes disproportionate to their numbers.

  • “This country has a primary problem, and New York City is ground zero… less than half a million people as of 6:00 who voted in this primary to determine what's going to be the fate for 5 million voters in New York City… Moderates aren't gonna vote. Independents like me, a million of us can't vote at all in this primary. No, this is the most closed primary in the country. And what happens is the far left is gonna run it because they can do turnout.” (Political Analyst, 08:28)

  • The infrastructure of groups like DSA and Working Families Party is highlighted as essential to driving turnout and shaping outcomes.

• Generational Shifts & Political Infrastructure

  • New leaders are riding youth turnout, but the phenomenon doesn’t map cleanly across every race.

  • "There is a feeling that people are too old and that they want new solutions, people that represent them… Mamdani got voted in on the youth vote." (Political Strategist, 11:03)

  • But, "That doesn’t always apply... Lander is likely going to take out Danny Goldman… Goldman's not backed by the Mandani AOC DSA machine." (Political Analyst, 11:24)

4. Presidential Psychology and Staff Loyalty

• Trump’s Demand for Blind Loyalty
  • Natalie Harp’s story illustrates sycophancy taken to extremes—praised rather than critiqued by Trump.
  • “President Trump requires and admires that kind of complete blindness.” (Political Strategist, 06:17)
  • “It’s a disadvantage to the American people because it is important for the president to hear both sides, the good stuff and the bad stuff… it is insane…” (Former Administration Official, 07:58)

5. Obama’s Perspective and Influence

• Obama Responds to Trump’s Obsession

  • On All the Smoke podcast, Obama comments on Trump’s fixation:
  • “I obviously have a room in his head rent free… Constantly worrying about that is a strange thing to me. It shows me somebody who's not focused on the American people and the job they're supposed to do.” (Barack Obama, 13:37)

• Obama’s Enduring Appeal and Democratic Strategy

  • Obama “gets under Trump’s skin” due to being both loved and respected globally—a contrast that the analyst says Democrats have failed to leverage.
  • "He is one of their most effective weapons… can bring independents back to the Democratic Party." (Political Analyst, 14:27)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Trump’s Focus on Elections:

  • “It’s not random.” (Paul Rieckhoff, 00:37 & 13:04).
  • “It is strategic. He doesn't care about housing… He cares about power.” (Political Analyst, 13:05)

• On the Dangerous Lack of Adult Voices:

  • “There's no one with sort of the adult voice in the room... No one's saying that.” (Media Analyst, 03:36)

• On Trump’s Environment:

  • “Everyone is in this circle of sycophants, which is very, very dangerous.” (Political Analyst, 07:14)

• On NYC Primaries:

  • “Independents like me, a million of us can't vote at all in this primary. This is the most closed primary in the country.” (Political Analyst, 08:28)

• On Obama’s Enduring Strength:

  • “He is one of their most effective weapons… he can actually provide a counter narrative to Trump… the most masterful communicator of our time.” (Political Analyst, 14:27)

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Timestamps of Important Segments

• 00:24–01:02: Trump’s focus on elections, power dynamics in the GOP, implications of the fall elections
• 02:14–04:04: Senate votes, lack of trust in Iran and the U.S. government, implications for the American public
• 04:31–05:07: Republican reluctance to confront Trump; GOP conference split
• 06:17–07:14: Trump's demand for fealty, the risks of having only loyalists around him
• 08:28–09:19: NYC primary structure, disenfranchisement of independents, far-left turnout
• 11:03–11:24: Generational political shifts in New York primaries
• 12:26–13:05: Trump’s legislative weaknesses; his singular focus on self-preservation
• 13:37–14:17: Obama’s reflections on Trump’s obsession, critique of priorities
• 14:27–15:16: Power of Obama’s messaging and Democrats’ strategic choices

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Conclusion

This episode delivers a fast-paced, incisive critique of today’s American political landscape. Through analysis and first-hand commentary, Rieckhoff and his panelists expose the weaknesses of closed primaries, the hazards of Trumpian loyalty, and the perils of decaying public trust. Overlaying it all is a call for more independent, courageous leadership and for mainstream parties to heed the pulse of real America—not just its narrowest factions.

Stay vigilant.

Transcript

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[Political Analyst]

He's always focusing on the elections because he has to protect his power. And he knows that free and fair elections this fall will mean accountability. It could mean impeachment. It could mean prison. He knows that that is America's circuit breaker. That's why he continues to prioritize it.

[Podcast Host]

It's not random.

[Political Analyst]

It is strategic. He doesn't care about housing. He said that before, even though most of America does. It is a win for the Republican Party if they can get it. He cares about power.

[Podcast Host]

Welcome to a special episode of Independent Americans. It's been a wild week of news and politics, from the primaries to Iran to the seismic political shakeup here in New York City. I'm coming to you from Times Square at a subway station where people are still riding high about the Knicks, excited about the World cup, ready for July 4th, but always a little concerned about the future. So here's a special episode from two recent hits I did on CNN with Erin Burnett. She continues to put me in an independent position opposite Republicans and Democrats, which is really important. We cover a whole variety of issues over the last couple days that you need to track on. It's a quick fire episode. Please check the links in my bio, follow us on YouTube and Spotify everywhere else. Watch out for people when you walk in in the subway. And a reminder that New Yorkers are pretty nice and so are Americans. I think our foreign visitors to the World cup are finding that out, especially this week. But here it is. Special episode of Independent Americans coming your way. I'm getting out of the subway. Check it out and stay vigilant.

[Political Commentator]

So do you think they're going to say anything tomorrow? And also, just to be clear here, the spine is often coming from people who have been spurned. You know it's true.

[Political Analyst]

Yeah. Or shamed into it by the voters. I mean, about damn time. Better late than never. But it also comes with an Because two Republicans didn't vote today. McConnell and I think McCormick weren't there. So it was a 5048 vote.

[Political Strategist]

And Peterman voted on the other side

[Political Analyst]

right as he consistently does. But the important part is the sea change that's happening. The politicians are catching up to where the country is, and it's an overwhelmingly unpopular war. And I think they also recognize this has been the worst ceasefire ever and this is potentially the worst deal ever. And this is a really stinky mess that everybody wants to get away from almost more than the Reflecting Pool. But we've got a bigger situation, which is you can't trust anything Trump says and you can't trust anything the Iranian regime says, and that's what makes this so dangerous and I think underscores it. No matter what Trump says, no matter what Congress does. This is very far from over, by the way.

[Political Commentator]

What you just said there, I think is really profound. It is true that we know the Iranian government has always put out propaganda.

[Political Strategist]

Yes.

[Media Analyst]

Yeah.

[Political Commentator]

You used to know that there was a spin coming from a White House, but you could trust certain facts or certain things that they said.

[Media Analyst]

Yes.

[Political Commentator]

And now that is not true.

[Media Analyst]

It's such a deleterious position to be in. We've never trusted Iran. We shouldn't trust Iran. And what they're saying has their particular audience right.

[Political Commentator]

Yep.

[Media Analyst]

We should be able to trust what we are saying, and we don't. I don't know many people who trust the information that we're putting out. That leaves the American people in a really precarious position in an election year. Who do we believe? We can't believe our government. We don't believe the bad actors because we never have. There's no one with sort of the adult voice in the room to say, here's what's real, here's what we know, and we're not gonna get ahead of what we know. Here's where we are. No one's saying that.

[Political Strategist]

You know what? Mike can.

[Political Analyst]

Yeah, Congress can pull the plug on the funding. They're not entirely lame ducks. They will have a defense budget to authorize at the end of the year, which includes a $500 billion plus up. And now we find out $80 billion.

[Political Commentator]

$80 billion exactly.

[Political Strategist]

For the war.

[Political Analyst]

They also can't trust them on the money. They said 29 billion. Now it's $80 billion. But Congress can pull the plug in the funding. They can ask harder questions. They can demand, hear Pete Hegseth in the hot seat every single day until our troops come home. There's a lot more they can do. They just haven't done it.

[Political Strategist]

Yeah, I mean, that's what I was about to say. There has always been a lot more that they can do. And they have consistently shown that they are not willing to do that. And I think the most interesting thing that you can see now is Majority Leader Thune ahead of this meeting that they're supposed to have tomorrow with Donald Trump on policy issues. He has told his members, why don't y' all speak up? Y' all should just talk to. Talk to Trump and tell him face to face what you think. I mean, that does not show a sort of robust cohesion in the Republican conference, in my view.

[Political Commentator]

Like when your boss says, you know, go into the CEO and tell him what you really think. Go ahead, you do it. Please be afraid to say it.

[Former Administration Official]

I mean, look, it's a political grenade for them.

[Political Analyst]

Trump also doesn't Republicans. He's going to keep going. He's all gas, no brakes, unless he's forced to stop. And nothing has forced him to stop.

[Political Commentator]

Well, also, okay. And I'm curious to people the way they get when they're in a room with him. And in that, you know, we kept getting more and more information from Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan book, which is really incredible. I mean, do they just have people wearing wires and cameras in the drawers? I mean, there's just incredible stuff.

[Political Strategist]

He talks willingly to them?

[Political Commentator]

No.

[Former Administration Official]

He. He talks.

[Political Commentator]

No.

But some of these things that they have are just details coming from all sorts of people. I mean, it's incredible. But this, this one, Trump's executive assistant, Natalie Harp, who began working for Trump at Mar a Lago in the first months after he left the White House, a book writes about her. Okay. It says Harp wrote Trump adoring letters that she left in his personal spaces, including one that read, quote, you are all that matters to me. Okay. What do you make of this, Lulu, in the context of all the things where I'm not asking away.

[Former Administration Official]

Take this first.

[Political Commentator]

Take this first. But I guess what we're asking here, okay. Is the way that Trump can exert control over people around him. That continues to surprise people.

[Political Strategist]

So I don't want to talk too much about this young woman, because I think there's a real power differential there. And I don't know what that relationship actually looks like. What I can say that this anecdote does show is that President Trump requires and admires that kind of complete blindness,

[Political Commentator]

complete fealty, fealty and completion.

[Political Strategist]

That's what I mean. It's like, I think most people, if you were, if you had an employee, because that's what she is leaving you letters in your personal space telling you that you are the most important thing in your life. You would say, you know what, hon? I think you need to take a vacation. But he instead finds this to be incredibly affirming. And that says more about him than it does about her.

[Media Analyst]

Right, Right.

[Political Commentator]

I think that's an interesting point about it, though.

[Podcast Host]

It's on.

[Political Commentator]

That he would expect this and demand this.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah, it's on Brand.

[Political Analyst]

And I think it's even more troubling because it shows that he's surrounding himself with people who adore him. There are no conflicting ideas. There's no one challenging him. So if he wants to do something like bomb Iran, or he wants to do something like use a nuke, or he wants to do something like take out Venezuela, there's not a single voice around him that can offer any kind of contrast or challenge, all the way down to his assistant. Everyone is in this circle of sycophants, which is very, very dangerous.

[Former Administration Official]

And it's. You see that more in this administration, this second administration, that he's in, than the first. Right. The loyalty is just insane. Look, I have been part of two administrations. I have never seen a role like this. It is unusual to have someone basically be a human printer and only put in front of you stories that you like, make sure you keep all the bad stuff away from him.

[Political Commentator]

It is.

[Former Administration Official]

So it's a disadvantage to the American people because it is important for the president to hear both sides, the good stuff and the bad stuff. It is. It is insane. And I have never seen anything like this. But again, it plays to what Trump likes. Pure, complete loyalty. And you see that more around him this time around, certainly, than you did in the first time.

[Political Commentator]

All right, all of you staying with me next.

[Former Administration Official]

And it didn't play out in 2025.

[Political Strategist]

And now this conversation. Well, now this conversation is playing out at the ballot.

[Podcast Host]

But something.

[Political Analyst]

Something different. Something different here also. Like, this country has a primary problem, and New York City is ground zero for our primary problem. You're going to have less than half a million people as of 6:00 who voted in this primary to determine what's going to be the fate for 5 million voters in New York City. What's actually happened here is a great battle plan. Mandani's already run one because he's mayor. Right. The question is, can he run the table? And it looks like he can, because what he's been doing is riding on the infrastructure that's been built for years in New York by the dsa, by the Working Families Party, to run the primaries and drive turnout. And they'll do that tonight. They will drive turnout. Moderates aren't gonna vote. Independents like me, a million of us can't vote at all in this primary. No, this is the most closed primary in the country. And what happens is the far left is gonna run it because they can do turnout, they can mobilize people. They've got charismatic leaders like Mamdani and afc, but this is New York and

[Former Administration Official]

they're relying on people power. Right?

[Political Strategist]

That's.

[Political Analyst]

They're also relying on infrastructure. And there's been a lot of effort put into building for this moment.

[Former Administration Official]

But I would also say he's not on the ballot. So it'll be interesting how they. If that infrastructure is able to do.

[Podcast Host]

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[Political Strategist]

I mean, what this says is that this is about not only some of the issues that we've been discussing, it's also generational. There is a feeling that people are too old and that they want new solutions, people that represent them. And you saw that when Mamdani got voted in, he got voted in on the youth vote. So you can't ignore the generational shifts that we are seeing.

[Political Analyst]

But that doesn't always apply. If you look at New York 10, where Brad Lander is likely going to take out Danny Goldman, they're both roughly the same age, same demographic.

[Political Strategist]

Also true.

[Political Analyst]

But the difference is Goldman doesn't have the Mandani AOC DSA machine behind him and Lander does. And that's what he's like.

[Former Administration Official]

We'll see what happens.

[Political Commentator]

It's going to obviously be fascinating to need a boost.

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[Political Commentator]

You see, Trump doesn't have the votes even. Even if all the Republicans were on board, right? He still doesn't get to 60. But you heard Murkowski, you hear Tillage, you hear Vance. He doesn't even have them all. But he can't let this go for the sake of anything else. Right? I mean, you can't even get the win and then deal with it later.

[Political Analyst]

It's going to be an interesting summer. The UFC has ended, but the cage fighting is just getting started. And I think it's important to remember Trump's not good at legislation. It requires negotiation, it requires compromise. It requires getting along with people from the other side. And he doesn't like doing that. He's a snowplow. He likes to go full force, you know, all gas, no brakes, without stopping for anyone. And I think it's really important that he's focusing on the SAVE act because he's focusing on the elections. He's always focusing on the elections because he has to protect his power. And he knows that free and fair elections this fall will mean accountability. It could mean impeachment, it could mean prison. He knows that that is America's circuit breaker. That's why he continues to prioritize it.

[Podcast Host]

It's not random.

[Political Analyst]

It is strategic. He doesn't care about housing. He that before, even though most of America does, it is a win for the Republican Party if they can get it. He cares about power. And the most important thing in protecting his power is to say that.

[Political Commentator]

Paul, we do.

[Podcast Host]

We do. Yeah.

[Political Commentator]

Former President Obama was on all the smoke, which is a podcast. And he was asked about what the Trump with the Trump, what the host called Trump's obsession with Barack Obama. And I'm going to play something about that in a second. But first, I wanted to play part of what Obama said today on the podcast.

[Barack Obama]

I obviously have a room in his head rent free.

[Political Analyst]

You do everything with grace.

[Barack Obama]

A sweep in his head. First of all, when I was president, the last thing I had time to do was worry about what somebody said somebody said or what my predecessor did. They're gone. I've got work to do. The idea that I'd be worrying about came before somebody who came before and me trying to measure what's he done today. Look, constantly worrying about that is a strange thing to me. It shows me somebody who's not focused on the American people and the job they're supposed to do.

[Podcast Host]

I love that in fairness, he did

[Political Analyst]

have to focus on George Bush and the two wars that he got stuck with by his predecessor.

[Podcast Host]

Right.

[Political Commentator]

From a policy perspective.

[Political Analyst]

But I think this reveals what is really, really important. He does get under Trump's skin because he's two things that Trump will never be loved and respected. And I think that all around the world, especially globally, Obama has this cool phenomenon. And Trump will never be cool. He'll never be truly respected, he'll never be truly trusted. And he knows that. But I think there's something else here, too. I don't know why the Democrats haven't been turning up Obama to 100 for the last three years. I mean, he is one of their most effective weapons. He can actually provide a counter narrative to Trump. He can bring independence back to the Democratic Party. And he's the most masterful communicator of our time. I think the Democrats have been keeping him on the sidelines for far too long on too many issues. And it's a reminder of how powerful he is.

[Political Commentator]

And it's not cool to believe in school. But if I can say one thing, I've seen the children of the revolution and the good trouble they can bring. He says the red and blue identity dependent is an attitude an island in the sea of rhetoric and I could rather go. And when you wait, it's time to

[Political Analyst]

grow power by righteous media.