Podcast Summary

The Chris Cuomo Project

Episode: Trump’s One-Year Report Card: The Real Score
Date: February 3, 2026
Host: Chris Cuomo
Guests: Greg Kelly, Amrish

Episode Overview

Chris Cuomo, joined by recurring guests Greg Kelly and Amrish, undertakes a collaborative, roundtable-style “report card” for Donald Trump’s second-term administration at the one-year mark. Instead of simply sharing their own opinions, the trio draws from their personal and professional circles to assess Trump’s first-year performance across key categories: civil rights/democracy, immigration, crime and justice, foreign policy, the economy, and the environment. The conversation is candid and unsparing, touching on American polarization, radicalization, power, the influence of media and social platforms, and the national mood.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Setting the Categories & Tone

• Cuomo pitches the discussion as a consensus report card, not just individual takes, jokingly calling the trio “the threesome.”
  • “This is about how the consensus is, how the public feels. So it can't just be about me. So I had to bring in the we here.” — Cuomo [00:44]
• Categories mirror those from Trump’s six-month mark: Civil Rights/Democracy, Immigration, Crime & Justice, Foreign Policy, Economy, Environment/Climate.

2. Civil Rights/Democracy: The State of Freedom and Enforcement

• Greg Kelly & Cuomo both give an “F”:
  • The Trump administration gets a failing grade for its handling of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and the general state of rights and civility.
  • Kelly is particularly scathing: "Just what's happening with ICE alone gives them the flag. And if he doesn't like it, he should change how he's using ICE." [03:42]
  • Amrish expresses deep unease with ICE actions and the loss of civil collectivism:
    "It's just a bunch of untrained dudes… no one likes to see people getting ripped off the streets.” [05:32]
  • General sense that law enforcement (“making policy for reality TV”) has become spectacle, fueling cruelty and fear.
• Cuomo expands: Intimidation tactics following high-profile killings (e.g., Renee Good) are cited as egregious:
  "After Renee Good was killed ... [agents saying] 'You want that to happen to you? ... She was executed through the window of her car for trying to back out.'" — Cuomo [14:16]
• Memorable Moment:
  • "You had the Secretary of Homeland Security put on a podium. One of ours. All of yours. I have never heard the American government cast their own people as the enemy before. Until then." — Greg Kelly [25:55]

3. Culture of Violence, Polarization, and Radicalization

• The “Troll Talk” Escalation
  • Society has shifted from online trolling to violent, action-oriented language:
    • "People are thinking about fucking people up and being violent. And I've never heard it with this kind of ease and familiarity ... it's very directive of action." — Greg Kelly [10:30]
  • Social media polarizes, algorithmically amplifying anger.
• Political and Cultural Radicalization
  • "The president encouraged it. He is reflective of it. And the word is radicalization. And that's what we're seeing." — Greg Kelly [41:44]
  • Both left and right painted as radicalizing, and this “binary battle at the bottom is killing us.”
• Notable Quote:
  • "He is at the fucking football games. He's making some announcement ... It's not that I'm sick of Trump. It's that he is unavoidable ... it seeps into the fiber of everybody's clothes." — Chris Cuomo [54:55]

4. Immigration & Law Enforcement

• Border Policy: Mixed Grades, Same Outcome
  • Kelly admits Trump scored a political win by closing the border, but “snatched defeat out of the jaws of victory” with heavy-handed, inhumane methods. [06:17–06:46]
  • Amrish points out how supporters justify cruel policies so long as they feel personally safe — disconnecting from national empathy. [05:32]
  • Enforcement leading to community distrust and more violence.
• Social Media & Media Amplification
  • The group agrees that the performative nature of media and incentives for outrage ("rage bait") are making everything worse.
  • Algorithms “commercialize hate” and are called out as fundamentally changing human social interaction, turning every political disagreement into warfare.
    "No one other than Nazis have ever intentionally commercialized hate. That's what they do. That's what the algorithms are designed to do." — Greg Kelly [32:07]

5. Crime & Justice

• Persistently Low Grades
  • Kelly and Cuomo maintain “F” grades.
  • Debate centers around due process, increased state/citizen tension, intimidation, and the performative “law and order” showmanship.
  • All agree animosity and reactions have risen across the board.

6. Foreign Policy

• Grade Drop: Former “B” Now a “D” to “F” Range
  • The panel is sharply critical: While hostages in Israel were secured (a “huge” move), most actions were negative or embarrassing (Venezuela, Greenland, China tariffs, antagonistic stance globally).
  • U.S. is now viewed as closed, inward, and hostile.
    “The world does not see us as being an open place ... tourism is plummeting ... We're just slowly going to be that isolated state. And I don't think that's good for anyone.” — Chris Cuomo [40:08]
  • Amrish: European friends “just laugh” about the American situation.
  • Kelly warns about American “radicalization ... like Iran,” with the two-party system becoming “internally toxified.” [41:44–43:37]

7. Environment & Climate

• Incomplete Grade
  • On environment, Kelly notes “we haven’t been in a frenzy about it” during Trump Year 1.
  • Removal of electric vehicle subsidies, slow-walking alternatives, infrastructure unpreparedness, and “drill baby drill” rhetoric weighed.
  • Kelly: “It’s an economic move, not an environmental thing ... The science isn’t really there where it needs to be.” [49:50]
  • General sense: Environmental priorities sidelined.

8. Economy

• D Grade, Continued Frustration
  • No meaningful progress on cost of living.
  • Tariffs are increasing strain, especially on smaller businesses.
  • Kelly: “I can't give him a passing grade on any of this in this first year ... the majority of American people are not happy with this first year.” [53:06]
  • Cuomo: “The Trump tax is ... he is unavoidable. It’s a mental tax.” [54:55]

9. The “Mental Tax” of the Trump Era

• Panel highlights a pervasive, inescapable awareness of Trump and his daily presence—beyond policy.
  • "It's not a form of exhaustion. It's not that I'm sick of Trump. It's that he is unavoidable ... I don't think it's just for, like, you know, a junkie like me who works on a show like this. I think it just. It seeps into the fiber of everybody's clothes." — Chris Cuomo [54:55]

Notable Quotes & Timestamps

• "Just what's happening with ICE alone gives them the flag." — Greg Kelly [03:42]
• "They're making policy for reality TV. They want the pageantry, I believe they want the violence." — Greg Kelly [05:12]
• "People have been marketed to so well ... rage bait, it just functions as a medium to bring a message across in not the greatest way." — Amrish [09:23]
• "People are thinking about fucking people up and being violent. And I've never heard it with this kind of ease and familiarity..." — Greg Kelly [10:30]
• "I got to tell you, the Wachowski brothers had something man in the Matrix ... you're a virus. Because you don't work in concert with your own environment. You devour it and you move on to the next..." — Greg Kelly [20:43]
• "No one other than Nazis have ever intentionally commercialized hate. That's what the algorithms are designed to do." — Greg Kelly [32:07]
• "He is at the fucking football games ... It's that he is unavoidable ... it seeps into the fiber of everybody's clothes." — Chris Cuomo [54:55]
• "I'm desperate for this administration to do better ... I am holding out hope that you can focus on the interests of the many..." — Greg Kelly [56:44]

Grades by Category

| Category | Chris Cuomo | Greg Kelly | Amrish | |-------------------|----------------|-----------------|------------------| | Civil Rights/Democracy | F | F | F | | Immigration | F | D | F | | Crime & Justice | F | F | F | | Foreign Policy | F | D | D | | Economy | D | D | D | | Environment/Climate | Incomplete | Incomplete | Incomplete | | Overall | F (“mental tax”) | Incomplete (failing so far, but holding out hope) | D (“not an F because I’m still here”)|

Closing Thoughts

• The team is united in concern about the state of the nation, describing the Trump administration’s first year as one of division, performative cruelty, international isolation, and a cost of living crisis.
• Social media and political algorithms are seen as driving polarization and radicalization.
• “Desperate for better”—the panel expresses hope, however faint, that Trump’s team or America can still course-correct.
• The exercise is not about left vs. right, but about American health, culture, and future orientation.
• Listener Prompt: “What do you think about grades in different categories and overall and what we should be seeing it as and doing it? Let us know. We’re all about the feedback here.” — Greg Kelly [60:25]

For those who haven’t listened:
This episode is an unsparing, wide-ranging evaluation of Trump’s first year back in office—both specific to policy and broad in surveying American mood and morale. The discussion is honest, sometimes grim, and darkly humorous—a group reckoning with a divided nation and searching for hope amid fatigue and polarization.