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- [00:01]
A
Hi, I'm Frances Collier. And I'm Angela V. Shelton. And we're Frangela. You know what you mean in your life. The Final Word podcast. Yes, you do. That's right. It is the final word on all things political and pop cultural, where we make real news, real funny, where we inspire you so you can resist. Subscribe and get a new episode of the Final Word podcast each week. It's the news we think you need to hear. That's right. We think you need to hear it. Okay.
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B
Yeah.
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A
It's what we say.
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B
So.
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A
That's right. And because all we do is give. Every Thursday, you can listen to our hysterical podcast, Idiot of the Week. We round up the stupid. Because you know what? Somebody has to.
- [00:40]
B
Okay? All we do is give. Hey, Everybody. It's Monday, May 18, 2026. I'm Allison Gill and this is Beans Talk.
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C
Hey, everybody.
- [00:57]
B
Dana's out. She will be tomorrow. I do promise that. So thank you for hanging in with me solo.
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D
All right.
- [01:04]
B
Trump and Republicans are sliding in the poll. They're tanking in the polls again to new all time lows. Now, before he left for China, as we know, a visit which resulted in zero political concessions from China, by the way, and probably us handing Taiwan over to Xi Jinping. But before he left, Trump said he doesn't care about American struggles with affordability, doesn't care about costs. He only cares about his war. And when given a chance to walk that back, after he came back, he doubled down on it. Watch this.
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E
You can imagine Democrats and political pundits, the people get it. Jumped all over this. People get it. That you made the other day. You were asked on the, when you were leaving, to what extent are American
- [01:51]
A
financial situations motivating you to make a deal?
- [01:54]
E
Not even a little bit. The only thing that matters, but I'm talking about Iran. They can't have a nuclear weapon. I don't think about American financial situation. I don't think about anybody. I think about one thing. You cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon. That's all. That's right. That's a perfect segment. Make it again. You can imagine how many people stop the sound button at I don't think about America. They play the situation. So what's your response to that framework? Very simple. When people hear me say it, everybody agrees. Short term pain. It's going to be short term pain, but the pain is much less than people thought.
- [02:32]
B
It was perfect. The perfect comment. I would make it again. Well, that kind of thing is resulting in record low poll numbers as we know. And there's a new CBS poll out now, taken before he doubled down on that statement, right around the time that he made it. That puts the economy at a 29% approval rating. Look at that. And then take a look at this. Over two thirds of Americans are frustrated or angry about the economy. But I think most surprising for me in this poll was how non college educated whites are feeling these days. Look at this. Back in the day, February 2025, he was at plus 36 with this demographic. Now he's at negative 8. That is a 44% swing. Negative 8. Underwater with non college whites underwater with his most solid voting block. That means the MAGA base is being chipped away at right. We know independents are way over, you know, away. We know Democrats are way away. A lot of Republicans are. But this core Republican base is being eroded because of what's going on with the economy. And Jim Jordan, Republican from Ohio, is also telling voters tough shit on high prices. It is so bad he can't even land on a decent talking point. How long have they had? How long has the economy been shitty and they can't get their shit together. Watch him stumble through this. Question from Kaitlan Collins.
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C
What about his promise in 2024 that if he was reelected gas would be under $2 a gallon because of his policies?
- [04:24]
D
Well, gas prices were coming down until we had to deal with this situation. But, you know, that's life. That's dealing with world and the world we live in. I think the country gets the fundamental fact, and I know, I understand this. President Trump makes decisions that are in the best interest of our nation. 250 years, greatest country in history. He makes decisions that are going to help our country and the long term security and safety of the people. He has the. And I think you want a commander in chief like that. You want a commander in chief who's willing to do tough things that he knows are good for us, all of us, all of your viewers, everyone in this country, and frankly, everyone around the world. It is good if Iran doesn't get a nuclear weapon.
- [05:09]
C
But if someone's listening to you and they were paying $2.98 a gallon a gas before the war started and now they're paying $4.53. I mean, saying that's life might not, you know, make them feel better.
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D
Those are your words, not mine. I'm saying no, you said that's life. This is the situation that was.
- [05:29]
B
Those were your words. No, they are literally your words. You just said them a second ago. That that was worse than when the time he was asked whether he spoke to Trump by phone on January 6th. I don't know. Yikes. It is so bad out there for Republicans that there's now an entire website dedicated to people abandoning maga, leaving the Trump wing of the Republican Party, which, let's be honest, is the entire Republican Party right now. The website, I think, is leaving maga.org and watch this. Actually, somebody called into C Span to talk about that website, a Trump voter. Watch this brief interaction with C Span.
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F
Let's go to Thomas now calling all the way in from Honolulu, Hawaii on the Republican line. Good morning, Thomas, you're on with us.
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G
Yes, sir. Good morning. Yeah, national thought and then a local one. It's hard for me to say this, but I think if I can open up about it in public, that it might help others. I wanted to believe Trump was the real deal for a long time, even though I had doubts because I knew enough about his business history to think otherwise. But now I regret my support for him and I should have known better. He's making it plain as day, he's a con man, a liar, doesn't keep his promises, he's in office all for himself, and he doesn't even try to hide his corruption anymore. So unless you get all your information from what I call the right wing propaganda for profit, disinformation, media, industrial complex, you know, he's the worst president we've ever had and he's the most corrupt president we've ever had. I know it's hard. It took me a while to be able to say that. Very difficult when you commit yourself to believing in somebody.
- [07:29]
F
Thomas, if you don't mind me interjecting, did you vote for Trump all three times in 2016? 2020, 2024.
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G
I'm sorry, I missed that. Say that again, please.
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F
Did you vote for President Trump all three times that he's running?
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G
Yes. I wanted to vote. I considered a third party and I considered even a Democrat, but I did in the end vote for him. But.
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F
And what do you feel that's really interesting? What do you feel? Or what was the, the straw that broke the camel's back this time around? Was it the war?
- [08:03]
G
I don't think it's one thing. It's been a cumulative process and it's, it's gotten so blatant now. And he's just literally, the things he's, you know, he's gonna lower prices on day one. He was gonna do this on day one. Only he could fix all this. Stuff. And now I understand how somebody like Adolf Hitler was able to brainwash millions of people. I never thought I'd see that again in my lifetime. But. But it's happened. Right? I thought we got past that, but we don't learn from history. But I just hope the best. We gotta slow him down, make him accountable any way we can. Right now, the only weapon is to vote for as many Democrats, whether you like them or not. Just get some balance back into our system of checks and balances. Right. We just. The Congress is doing nothing to stop him. He has more power. He wants to be a king or letting him get away with it. We fought a revolutionary war against England because we didn't want to be ruled by an arbitrary king like Trump wants to be. So. But I'll stop there for that, leaving maga.org for anybody who's interested. It gives you a community of people who used to be supporters, but who also are having doubts now. So you and being part of this community is a big part of the appeal, I think. Right. So that's something others who might be having doubts could check into.
- [09:29]
B
So all of this, all of this, the horrible numbers backsliding, you know, Democrats standing tall and refusing to fund ice and customs border protection. Republicans going around behind their backs to fund extra fund ICE and customs border protection. And a billion dollars for the ballroom, which the parliamentarian just ruled couldn't be part of budget reconciliation. But I'm sure they're rewriting it. They're actually working. They're spending time with lawyers to make sure taxpayers pay for Trump's ballroom. All of that, all of these very unpopular ideas, the war that he promised that he would never get us into affordability. A majority of Americans now by actually in another poll, say that they feel that prices were lower under Biden. That's the first time that's happened in this administration that Trump's worse on the economy and inflation. But all of this, and it pains me that Democrats are not going to win as big as they could this midterm cycle because of the Supreme Court gutting the Voting Rights act, taking us back to Jim Crow 2.0 Republican judges on the Virginia Supreme Court overturning the will of the people. The win is not going to be as massive as it could be because of that voter suppression. But check this out. Don't forget, don't sleep on this. The national popular vote interstate compact. Mother Jones explains.
- [10:58]
H
Something big happened in Virginia last month that you probably missed. On April 13, Governor Abigail Spanberger signed a bill making Virginia, the 18th state to join the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. That's an agreement among states who elect the President by the popular vote rather than the Electoral College. The compact goes into effect when enough states sign onto it to reach 270 electoral votes, the number needed to elect the president with Virginia's support. States in the compact now have 222 electoral votes. And the results of the midterms could push the popular vote effort over the top. If Democrats take control of state governments in some combination of Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Arizona and Nevada, and legislatures in those states adopt the compact, that could push the effort over 270 electoral votes, that means there's actually a chance the President could be elected by the popular vote in 2028. Here's why that the Electoral College is fundamentally undemocratic. Why it violates basic notions of one person, one vote by allowing the loser of the popular vote to win the presidency. It disenfranchises 80% of Americans by allowing a small number of swing states to decide the presidency. It dates back to a time when slave states wanted to preserve their power over free states. And it incentivizes election rigging. Joe Biden won the popular vote by 7 million votes and in 2020. But Donald Trump lost the three closest states in the Electoral College by just 44,000 combined votes. Donald Trump never could have attempted to overturn the election, and there would have been no insurrection if the US Had a system in which every vote counted equally in presidential elections. That's why you should pay attention to the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. And it's another reason why this year's midterm elections will be so consequential. For more reporting on voting rights in the midterms, go to motherjones.com
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B
and let's look at Trump's approval rating in those battleground states, those five that they mentioned where we need to add to the interstate compact. Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Nevada and Arizona. Let's look at those. Put this up on the screen here. In this most recent poll, in Michigan, he's down 14. Wisconsin, down 15. Pennsylvania, he's down 8 points. Nevada, Arizona, he's down 9 points and 11 points, respectively. These midterms are so important. They're so important and people know it. People are protesting. Just this past Saturday, last week, we had Ezra Levin, co founder, co director of Indivisible, on to talk about the protests, massive protests that were gonna happen this past Saturday in Selma and Montgomery, Alabama, and not to mention nationwide. Here's some video of the protest at the Edmund Pettus Bridge. We're almost at the 61st anniversary. And I mean, that's in August, just a few months before the midterms, right around the time very close to when early voting starts for the midterm elections. But again, I'm just stuck thinking about how much of a lead we could have in the midterms if it weren't for suppressing the vote. But we have to keep pushing our elected leaders to stop unilaterally disarming in this fight and to do more where they can. And so, you know, we really gotta keep our eye on those battleground states and the interstate compact because, man, that would be amazing for 2028. All right, everybody. Thank you for watching Dana. As I said, we'll be back tomorrow, I promise. Thanks for hanging in with me solo. Until then, I'm Allison Gill, and you've been watching Beans Talk.
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C
History is messy. It's weird, wild, and anything but boring. Rainy Day Rabbit Holes is a history podcast about unhinged stories that make you stop and ask, wait, is this real life? From crazy disasters and tasty scandals to enlightening and surprising heartwarming tales, we explore the moments where people behave badly and sometimes beautifully. We've got naughty politicians, cultural chaos, and a deep love for the Pacific Northwest, including Bigfoot. It's thoughtful, irreverent, occasionally serious, and always entertaining. Let's fall down the Rabbit Hole.
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B
MSW.