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Chris Cuomo
no podcast can lay out for you what Chris Cuomo, as me, as this podcast can.
Ronald Reagan (archival audio)
Today, the price of even a small home could be 200,000. And what about their parents trying to make ends meet? Right now, to stop inflation, we've got to put a ceiling on federal spending. We've got to crack down on waste, and we must lower our tax rates to encourage individual productivity. In California, where I was governor for eight years, we went from near bankruptcy to financial help. We gave the taxpayers billions of dollars in tax relief, and we met the needs of our people. If we're going to stop inflation, we must do it now. Not with bigger government. It takes better government. That's what we owe ourselves and our children. That's why I'm running for president. Only one man has the proven experience we need. Ronald Reagan for president. Let's make America great again.
Chris Cuomo
We have been here before, my brothers and sisters. Wow, does that sound eerily familiar? Because it is. A lot of our problems in politics aren't new, but that doesn't mean that they don't have new twists and new challenges. Now listen to this. For those who've abandoned hope, we'll restore
Ronald Reagan (archival audio)
hope and we'll welcome them into a great national crusade to make America great again.
Chris Cuomo
Oh, eerily familiar. You didn't know that Reagan had said it. You thought this was original from Trump. I'll tell you how wrong you are. But just a reminder, and we will make America great again. Here's what you need to understand. Trump is not original. I told you this all along with maga. MAGA is not original, okay? But that doesn't mean it didn't have purchase with people for the same reasons it always has. Look, the top gets too much, okay? It's the choices we make in our system. But this isn't a lecture, okay? This is an alarm. This is a clarion call that the same way that Reagan got taken down by better ideas, so will Trump in these midterms if, if, if they approach it the same way. And my concern is they're not. And I'll explain why. O. I'm Chris Cuomo. Welcome to the Chris Cuomo Project. So here's what you need to know and this is a really interesting analogy and it's why I have this book on. Okay. You may ask yourself, you know, my God, what have I done? How did I get here? This is not my beautiful wife. All these existential concerns that the talking heads made in such a fabulous song. Before Reagan. But just as apropos in that phase, David Byrne. Why was this so pressy? And why has this stood the test of time? Because these questions about who we are and how we are haunt us. And it's not really new. It was true during Reagan with its shining city on the hill. Ronald Reagan, shining city on the Hill. He is Superman. Donald Trump is Bizarro. What does that mean? Google it. The Superman had in the comics a mirror image antihero named Bizarro. And there's all this lore and stuff that goes away around go along with it that don't matter to us. It's that Bizarro was this perverse, dark version of Superman, just like Trump is to Reagan. Reagan was our better angels and Christianism and subtle, in my opinion, white nationalism. America's the greatest. We're the greatest. Everything's great. Trump is the dark version of that, the mirror image of that. Everything's terrible. It used to be great, but now it's horrible. The institutions are horrible. And Reagan did the same thing. Government has let you down. Government has let you down, but we will rebuild it. Trump is government let you down. The trombas swamp. But he's making it all worse. So how are they the same? It was the same pitch, but it's being sold differently. Okay. Make America great again. I would argue Reagan's had an optimism to it that Trump's never has. Right, Never. He's always been dark, he's always been negative. He's always been about tearing it down and playing to your anger. And Reagan was about playing to your better angels and all that. But it doesn't matter. They were both the same thing. Supply side reward the rich, give them tax cuts and lie to you about what's going on and lard on the debt. Okay? That is the mythology of conservatism. Oh, the Democrats are tax and spend. Really? Who has put the most debt on America? Reagan exploded it. Why? Trickle down economics is bullshit, okay? It doesn't work. It's never worked. Who's second? Well, really, Trump is first. Why? Because of the pandemic. But also his own spending that he didn't pay for and justifying it with this bullshit notion of trickle down economics, which doesn't work. So two Republicans and Not a coincidence, which two they are. And, yes, I forgive part of the problem, because Trump had the pandemic, which I believe was unavoidable, even though I believe he also exacerbated the problems early on by calling it the common cold and saying it would just disappear and not managing it well. But you can't blame him for it entirely. But here's why I'm telling you this today. These questions, these haunting questions are here once again. They were here before, and there were answers to them. Ronald Reagan was very strongly and powerfully countered. And you know how I know this? Because I grew up in the House that did it. Mario Cuomo was the immigrant underclass answer to Ronald Reagan. Ronald Reagan was, we are a shining city on the Hill. Mario Cuomo was, yes, but there is a part of the world that you do not see from your shining city up in your portico of the White House. This is a tale of two cities, the haves and the have nots. And my father was very eloquent, and he broke through. In 1982, two speeches that he gave a few months apart would define his political career. One was the 1984 keynote address where he countered Reagan. Now, Reagan would wind up wiping the floor with Mondale, no question about it. But we knew the weakness, because in 82, Democrats had made gains because of the misgivings about Reagan. They won 25, 26 seats. Literally. They gained that many. I think they only gained, like, one in the Senate. And they did well on the state level. Also. They won some state houses. Very important, because as governors go, state legislatures go. And as state legislatures go, so go your gerrymandered districts. Okay? Now, in 1986, right? Second midterm, that's where we are with Trump right? Now. After Mario Cuomo kind of awakened and galvanized the Democrats, okay? The Democrats had an even more important breakthrough. Not so much in the house. They gained five more seats. So they gained 30 plus seats under Reagan. Think about that in today's math, how close everything is. Why? Because we have been playing at the same kind of reductive politics for decades now. And that's why it's been shrinking and shrinking the margin between the two sides, because they've become more and more alike. They're just, this one's worse, this one's worse, this one's worse, this one's worse, right? And there was an inflection point of, no, no, no, I want better. And the Democrats hit that twice during Reagan. Now, it wouldn't result in them winning. He wiped the floor with Mondale and he wiped the floor with Dukakis. Okay, that being George W. Bush, right? His vice president. And he kept it, and then it switched, right, with Clinton. But let me just show you the lesson that Democrats can use to their advantage in such a big way. Because we've been here before, and this time you're not up against this incredibly charming, amazing messenger that makes people wanna believe and brings all of these Reagan Democrats in there. Now they're calling themselves Reagan Republicans. Why? Because they wanna reject Trump's image. This ugly, obnoxious, toxic, literally. Just the color of him is offensive to so many people. It's like he's a corroded version of Reagan. Reagan's beautiful hair, right? Reduced to this kind of weird amalgam of patchwork. And this is just physical surfacial bullshit. Except politics is very visual and visceral. Right? Reagan, Trump. Trump is an ugly version of Reagan, literally and figuratively. And that's why you see the right rejecting him now more and more, because they know he's done. Now, I'm not saying he's impotent. Look at what he did in the primaries. Look, if you're doing the angry part of your party, Trump is your guy. He's the mascot for it. That's what MAGA is. But that's all it is, Trump. And that's why it's committing suicide, because it's just getting absorbed and eaten alive by its own outrage. Now the left has something to worry about there, too, but one step at a time. 1986. So Reagan, 1980. 1982. Midterms, 26 seats to the Democrats. Huge. Huge by historical standards. Take a look. Mario Cuomo galvanizes the party. Now comes 1986. Huge breakthrough in the Senate. Huge. They win. How many did they win? Eight Senate seats. Took control of the Senate and five House seats. So they had unified control of Congress. Now, would that be enough to win the White House? No. They didn't play to advantage. They didn't have a good primary process. They put up a weak guy who was. Ironically, you know, some people blame my father for 1988 because he didn't run and they ran. Really? A what? Some people. Look, I like the guy, and he's an honorable man and an honorable public servant. But Michael Dukakis is in some ways a lighter version of Mario Cuomo, physically smaller and ethnic, a smart guy who made it from immigrant parents. But he did not have the eloquence or the outrage that my father had. And he got crushed. And Then you had a couple of weird things. They played the black white game on him with crime. He did that stupid thing where he put the helmet on and looked weak and small compared to George W. Bush, H.W. bush. But the point is this. The politics of Reagan, the politics of Trump, are bad for the many. Economically, they are bad for the many. And we're seeing that now. Once again, we're running up debt under Donald Trump. Support for the Chris Cuomo project comes from Noble. Here's a little story for you. I always hated the people that had the suitcases that they dragged behind them. I felt that they were always holding up traffic in the airport. That there was an indulgence and an arrogance that they get to take up space not just for where they are, but with this thing behind them. Never liked it. And every once in a while you'd see their janky ass pulling it all and it would be balancing back and forth and teetering. And then I realized why they do it. And it turns out that you only got two hands. And usually you got six things. You got the phone, there's one hand. Okay, You've got your coffee, you got a laptop, you've got all these different things you're trying to do. And I realized that our luggage needed to change. Hello, Noble. First of all, they built a flip out cup holder right into the luggage that you can carry it. And the coffee doesn't spill. Genius. Okay, you got a built in charging port. All right? Think about how useful that is, right? You're looking for those outlets and. Oh, excuse me, can I put this next to you for a second? And then you gotta leave it there. And you're keeping an eye on your phone. Cause you think that, you know, the sus person that you put it next to is gonna take it, right? So this is right in your luggage. There's a front laptop pocket. So it's right there and makes TSA a breeze. The 360 wheels, no more teetering. Noble has figured it out. Okay? And every suitcase comes with a 100 day money back guarantee and free 3 day express shipping. How do you lose? If you have 3 months to figure out whether or not you even like the thing, how can it not be worth a try? Upgrade to luggage that looks better, lasts longer, travels Smarter. Head to nobletravel.com that's n o b l travel.com. you can get up to 46% off your entire order. Up to 46% off. After you purchase, they're going to ask you a really important question. Where'd you hear about us? Please show me some love so the advertisers know you advertise with me, you sell. Tell them Cuomo sent you. Look, they can play numbers, whatever they want. Here's the one I want. Everything that matters to you in terms of your monthly carry is going the wrong way. This is the first time that the debt that we owe exceeds our gdp, our gross domestic product. The first time under Trump. Why? Because he's not a real conservative. Neither was Reagan. They're just culturally conservative. And I believe Trump is bullshit about that, but he's just doing it because it works. But trickle down economics don't work. The Trump tax cuts aren't gonna work. Not for the many. No way. And there's opportunity in that. And the left has to do the same thing now that it did back then, when it was just the Democratic Party. They have to have a robust process of understanding that they cannot be their fringe. You will not beat Trump by matching maga's outrage and anger. You won't. You can't be that alone. You can be outraged. You can be angry. I don't know how. You can't be, especially with what's going on right now. This slush fund is the most grotesque, corrupt thing I've ever seen in my life. By its design and by its exercise. You want to reward those scumbags from January 6th? I don't think they're insurrectionists because I don't believe. I know I called them that early on because that's what it looked like. But once the prosecutors started processing it and I started looking at their cases, I agreed with their analysis. It's not an insurrection because they didn't think they were going to take it over. Take over the government. That's an insurrection. Do I think they thought that they might stop a congressional process? Yeah. Is that an insurrection? Not really. But it doesn't have to be to be a really ugly, violent, disgusting show that was absolutely motivated by Donald Trump. But the idea that those people should get some kind of payback for how they were treated. Fuck you and fuck that. There's plenty of room for outrage, plenty of room for anger, but that's just not all you can be, because there's such opportunity here with this coming chip economy and how little has been done by Trump to even discuss it, let alone to act on it. Just the other day, he's starting to get wind of this. So he was like, 40% of all chips will be made in America under my watch. That's like me saying, 80% of all statistics are made up on the spot. Another bullshit line. Because that's a bullshit line. If you have no plan on how to make that happen, you. You haven't brought back any manufacturing. We're still sweating manufacturing jobs, and those are the old ones that would have been easier to bring back here. There's opportunity in that. There's opportunity. And sure, you should be outraged and disgusted by this guy. He's so corrupt. MAGA doesn't know what to do. They can't reject him. But they don't want to own this either. So they're stuck. They're stuck. They're imploding on themselves. And there's amazing opportunity for the left in that, just like there was in 82 and 86. Now, there's also a cautionary tale in that one. You gotta be about better. You gotta be about better. Just like the democrats were in 82 and 86. Of course they were saying, reagan's got problems. Mario Cuomo said that. Go back and listen to my father's keynote address and you will realize you would vote for that shit today. So would I, by the way. So would I. Now, billionaire tax, additional tax. I don't think it's the right way to go. Why? Because if they just paid their fair share, what's in the code now, without the loopholes, you would get a huge boost in revenue, more than the 2%. So why not just be about what's in the book and get rid of the loopholes? And then you don't need to fight the political battle of more taxes, additional taxes, targeting the rich. All of these things that I think kind of break not as cleanly as just saying, we're going to get rid of their advantages. They don't deserve them. They don't deserve these. And on the corporate level, it's even easier to make. I believe you should shift the benefits that go to C Corps to small businesses. Not only do you have almost 100 times as many small businesses as big businesses, but they deserve it more. The big businesses got these breaks. Why do we have the C Corp. Tax code and all that stuff and their own special taxes and their own special ways to be regulated less and to manage their books differently because they were taking care of workers. But they're not taking care of workers anymore. They're taking care of investors and their C suites and their stock price instead of the people who give them their productivity. Who are the workers now that the stock market has become a casino and they're just gambling on their expectations? Of what these think these companies will do instead of their book value, their actual P and L, their actual assets versus their liabilities. Why do you think? Why do you think? Because they shifted their game. It's just a casino now. So they're rewarding the investors because they want to juice their stock price and they're paying their C suite execs because those are the people that matter to the investors. But why are we benefiting them as a society? How can it be that Amazon and Walmart have a ridiculous number, hundreds of thousands of their employees as the two biggest employers in this country? And they're on Medicaid. And so many of them need SNAP benefits, need food stamps. And we're giving you a benefit. We're giving you a break tax wise, when you can't even pay your people enough to keep them off food stamps. Fuck you. There's opportunity in that. Be angry about it, but be better than it. And the key to it is this, what Ro Khanna is calling this new patriotism, this new patriot economic whatever, I don't know what the label's gonna be, it doesn't matter. But that we're gonna put the money that he wants to put into the Defense Department into augmenting the budgets to have these plants built here and these workers trained here. Oh, that's socialism. No, it isn't. Tell intel that. Intel asked us to take a 10% stake in them and we did. Why? Well, it's a national security issue. These chips aren't just another widget. This is the key to the integrity of our governance, of our infrastructure, of our national security, of our targeting for our weapons systems. You can't have this all in Taiwan and Southeast Asia. That's fucking crazy. That has to end yesterday. It is embarrassing that it's taken this long. But we are here and people know that this is a real problem now. And there's opportunity in that. Support for the Chris Cuomo project comes from Oneskin. Listen, you want to look better, you want to put stuff on yourself, you better go with the science, okay? That's what I like about One skin. They have a proprietary peptide that they did the research on that they own. So to me, I go with the science because a lot of this stuff is just fragrance and it's hype and it's advertising and it's marketing. Oneskin is the first company to have a patent on something like a peptide. When it comes to senescent cells in your skin, what are those? The senescent cells are the ones that give you the wrinkles give you, the crinkles give you all that proprietary OS01 peptide extensively studied for its role in skin longevity. That's what I go with. Okay. Their results, their product is and are backed by four peer reviewed clinical right over 10,000 five star reviews. They're clearly doing something right at one skin. 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Chris Cuomo
Donald Trump is not Reagan, but he's selling the same shit that if you take care of the top, they'll take care of everybody else. God will be good to those who God has already been good. No, no, that's not loving mercy. That's not wwjd. That's not Jesus word. And by the way, it doesn't matter because we're not a Christian nation. And if you needed any more proof of that, look at Mike Johnson. We have to show sympathy for lawmakers so they can trade stocks because 174,000 is just not enough. Wow, talk about leading through the good book. Should fucking read it. And by the way, while you read it, while you're read it, read a little bit of like a census report on the United States of America. What a clueless fool clinging to some perverse notion of his own religiosity when he doesn't even come close to practicing it. What a joke. He can't even talk the talk, let alone walk the walk. There's opportunity in that. But it can't just be Trump sucks. Can't just be they suck and MAGA sucks. It's gotta be about better. How do we know two reasons. One, the fastest growing part of the electorate is independence. Now, most of those people who are independent, some of them are like me, they're just independent. They've always rejected the partisan designations because they've always been suspicious of the binary battle to the bottom. But most of them are disgruntled Republicans and now Democrats. So they're not real ones. Not to disparage, but they're not real ones in terms of they're going to be independent no matter what. But that's indication number one that you can't just be. They suck because you have too many people who want something more than that. Reductive battle. Okay, now what is the second indication of that? Despite the relentingly negative news in this administration, the economic data, the foreign incursions, the nonsense, the corruption in your face corruption. The trades minutes before his announcements, his own trades, more trades than all other presidents combined in the modern era. His son's just throwing it in your face. This fund for the scumbags of January 6th. And yet what does the polling show? Democrats plus three. That's it. Why? Because all of that sucking isn't enough for them to switch to you. But couple that with and we have better ideas. Cuz Trump can't match that one. He can't match that, period. He's not good at that. He doesn't know how to do it. He knows how to tell you what sucks and to play off your anger and to make you think he's a great agent for your animus. Because he's from the rich, he's from the powerful. He knows how to run the game. No, he doesn't. He knows how to play it to his advantage, not yours. And you know that now. You see that now. Oh, but Harris would have been worse. Not how elections work. You don't get to justify sucking after you've been in for over a year because the person you were running against was bad. You already beat her with a record number of votes and you have failed to deliver. You have failed mightily bigly, as Trump would say. And there's opportunity in that. He's done nothing about healthcare. What he did with Mark Cuban and the drugs is great, is great. But it's too little, too late for the midterms. And by the way, he's still not doing what Mark Cuban does on his own platform. Too many of the drug price reductions still go away after a couple of months. What's that about? And why don't they tell you that this is government. This isn't some bullshit infomercial pitch. So is it good that he did it? Yeah. Is it good enough? No, I don't think so. I think you can do way better. You got to go after the big shots and the profit motives and all the vertical integration that's been done within health care and break it down. You guys are upset about media mergers. Fuck that. Media is about the algorithm. Until you regulate the algorithm on social media, it doesn't matter who owns what. In media, the algorithm is everything. We've never had anything as diabolical as the design mechanism of social media, especially in our politics. Look, I know for hobbyists, it's great. I know for firefighting, I put in a couple of things. I get great, great accounts all the time. Great. Different pieces of video and information and tutorials. It's awesome. Awesome. The algorithm is excellent for me on social media when it comes to my firefighting. In politics, it's a repository of toxicity. Not just mine, anybody's. Why? Because that's what works within politics. But politics isn't like a hobby. And it can't just be about what gets you the most clicks. There has to be a responsibility. And by the way, this isn't a new idea. Right? That's why you have the fcc. That's why radio, cable, Right? That's why there's a responsibility. Right? That's why there's an ethos, a different vibe than there is to selling porn. When you're dealing with media, when you're dealing with political media, news media, right? There always has been. Not on social media. Why? Why are they allowed to feed you our worst selves when no other media can? Now you may say, well, other media sucks, too. Not by design. Not by design. Only social media. So that's why in the age of Trump, Trump has used what's there. Okay? Reagan went with positivity. Why? Because that was still what sold best in politics. Now, negativity sells, extremism sells, and the left is battling with that also. But there's opportunity for better here. See the dogs fighting now they're fighting, but not as a battle to the bottom of which one is worse. They're just playing because it's fun for them. But this should not be our politics. Right? And it really is. And by. I tell you what, in this fight, you actually want to be that little dog. It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the side of the fight. And the dog and that little one will fight to the death. In fact, if they keep doing this right here, you will see that at some point the yellow one will do something a little heavy handed and the yellow one and the brown one will come after him with everything she has and the yellow guy will back down. How do I know? Because I've seen it a million times.
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Chris Cuomo
It's like what we're seeing in our politics right now. My father was the antidote to Reagan. And you can be upset that he didn't run for president. So was I. But I understood his reasons. And I understood that what made my father not run for president is what made him such a beautiful man. His sense of modesty, his sense of who he was and how he valued the presidency and who he thought should be a president. And Reagan is a lesson as Superman, right? That's what he was to so many people. Wow. The way he looks, the way he sounds, he. His celebrity, right? Another star, just like Trump. But Trump is the bizarro version of Superman. And when you look that up, you'll be like, holy shit, he really is. Look, it's just a metaphor, but it's so instructive. And what Reagan was selling then, Trump is selling now. And it's failing the same way. But he can't fall back, Mr. Trump, on what Reagan did, which was his charm. He doesn't have that. Okay? And look, Reagan had other problems, right? In his second term. His true incompetence, which was hidden from us, started taking over. And really was Alexander Haig running our government for most of the time in that second term, Ironically, the same thing they accused of Biden, right? Where do you think they learned that playbook? From the lords of folderol, who were there under Reagan and then Bush, the bullshit artists, also known as. And Trump has his own. But there's opportunity in this, just like the Democrats had under Reagan. They have again now. And they're gonna have it even more squarely because Trump can't run again. And his ugly version of make America great again is not gonna be what the Republican Party comes to. Now. My suggestion is they're gonna run back to Christian conservatism. They couldn't do it under Trump. They tried that bullshit. He's got a new relationship with God. He is the most godless president we've had, okay? And I'm not judging the man. That's not my place. I'm so fucked up and flawed, I could never be a leader. But I am in a position to analyze them. And that party is going to run back to what it thinks its roots are. Oh, I'm a Christian first before I'm anything else. Oh, bullshit. Then you would have never been with Trump. Oh, but we're all sinners. I admit my mistakes because the Lord is my cry. My Savior. My Lord and Savior Jesus. My Lord. Bullshit. You are what you live and right now you're living advantage just like anybody else. You're no better than anybody else. I don't care what icons you put next to your name, okay? I don't care what you say about yourself. You can wear your little crucifix and be a piece of shit. And we see that again and again. But that's where they're gonna go. You know what their play is gonna be? What will be the play on the left? I believe it's gotta be about better. I believe it's gotta be about actually showing that you love mercy and that you are, as my father said, tough enough to fight but sweet enough to love. That's the opportunity. That's the sweet spot. We've been here before, we've asked these existential questions about how we deal with the shit show that is our state of play in politics before. And the answer is gonna be the same. That they suck is not enough. That they suck and we can do better will be. And the opportunity is there. It explains why we see that the needle's not moving that much. Why it's not because the Democrats suck too. It's that they have to be in the business of offering better, not just pointing out what everybody already understands, which is that Trump is not getting it done and that he is corrupt in the main. Look, all the hypocrisy, all the stuff you need to beat down the other side is there. The missing piece is what will make it better. And I think playing with the term socialism is unnecessary. Just play with the policies, talk about the policies, talk about the ideas, talk about the chip economy, talk about the worker training programs, talk about the trade schools. And let me tell you something, the Trump Department of Education just did a great thing with putting in money where Pell grant money, where people who aren't going to college but are going to Other kinds of training can use it for that. That's a great idea. Democrats should blow it open, do it large scale, because that is our future. We need that more than we need more marketing majors. There's opportunity in this. If you learn the lessons of the past. As George Santayana, the great political philosopher, taught us, those who fail to learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them. But there's a flip to that. If you remember the lesson of history, of how you dealt with something like this in the past, you'll see that it could work again today. And there are new challenges, but there are new opportunities as well. Trump is not Reagan. He's using the same playbook, but he ain't the same player. He can say, make America great again, but there's nothing about greatness when it comes to him. He's about destruction. He's about anger and outrageous. He is not about better and is shining anything anywhere for him. It's golden idols of himself and buildings with his name on it. It's a cheap and ugly version of what Reagan was selling. But the antidote will be the same. People coming together around mutual respect and taking care of one another. What my father called the family of New York and pushing for better for the many, the needs of the many, not just the wants of the few. I'm telling you, if you see it once you see it the way I see it, it's everywhere. And it's so obvious. These midterms could be a rout the likes of which we've never seen before. But only if the Democrats realize the true opportunity and the true challenge. I'm Chris Cuomo. Thank you very much for giving me this opportunity. Hopefully we all learn the lesson, because what we should all want is to get to a better place. Many of us don't. Many of us just want to keep power, retain power. That's it. But I think those days are short. And I think that the new awakening that's going on among the many is these parties suck. And that we need to be about better, not just which side is worse. Thank you for subscribing. Thank you for picking the subscription model that works for you. We'll be having open weekly. What do you call them? Like, gatherings? Digital gatherings, Digital town hall, whatever you want to call it. Digital campfire, whatever you want to call it, like the vibe samurai says. And part of it's going to be open and then it's going to go to questions and answers only with my paying subscribers. Why? Because there's an advantage to paying. You show commitment, you get commitment. Right. Just like in everything else. So thank you for subscribing and following. Thank you for checking out the free agent gear. You should wear your independence. You should brand it the same way. The reason I'm wearing this shirt, I wish I had thought up this idea, but to show that you're a free agent, that you're an independent, that you're a critical thinker, that you're different than these mouth breathing party loyalists. Okay. And these extremists on these both fringes. Most of us are in the center. 70, 80% of us agree on what matters and agree on what we want. We are not the fringe. I know our media echoes it. Why? Because of the algorithms? Because it gets you paid. Because that's where the clickbait is. So see it for what it is. I'll see you in the morning on Sirius Radio, where you can call in because you're at the center of the conversation there. I'll see you on the podcast a couple of days a week and I'll see you at night on News Nation. All of it is designed for the same purpose, to get us to a better place, get after it.
The Chris Cuomo Project
Episode: Trump Is Reagan’s Bizarro Twin
Date: May 21, 2026
Host: Chris Cuomo
In “Trump Is Reagan’s Bizarro Twin,” Chris Cuomo draws striking parallels between Ronald Reagan's and Donald Trump's rhetoric, strategies, and impact on American politics. Using Reagan’s original “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) messaging as a springboard, Cuomo explores how Trump serves as the “bizarro”—a dark, mirror image—of Reagan’s political persona. He argues that though MAGA is not original, its appeal remains rooted in familiar social and economic anxieties, and that Democrats have a historic opportunity to counter this negativity with a compelling alternative focused on policy and unity rather than simply anti-Trump sentiment.
Chris Cuomo’s episode forcefully argues that despite Trump and Reagan sharing a brand of cultural conservatism and economic policy, Trump represents the dark inversion of Reagan’s optimistic vision. MAGA may echo Reagan, but is executed through outrage and divisiveness, not hope. Cuomo insists that history shows the antidote isn’t more outrage—it’s positive vision, practical reform, and a credible plan to improve Americans’ lives. Democrats’ greatest opportunity lies not in being the anti-Trump party, but in being the party of better ideas and real solutions. As Cuomo says:
“That they suck is not enough. That they suck and we can do better will be.” ([43:10])
For listeners and non-listeners alike, Cuomo’s call is clear: Study history, reject the binary battle of lesser evils, and demand concrete policies that address the real needs of the many.