Podcast
THE DAILY BLAST with Greg Sargent
Hosted by Greg Sargent · EN
Every weekday, The New Republic’s Greg Sargent brings you a fresh way of thinking about the biggest political stories of the moment, offered up in an entertaining, information-packed conversation with a leading lawmaker, journalist, or newsmaker. We go deep into the stories behind the headlines leading TNR and other news outlets—while making it fun and fast.
82episodes
Episodes
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Trump Rages over Reflecting Pool Fiasco as Arrests over it Grow Darker
5d ago00:25:11Tap to summarizeDonald Trump’s renovation of the Reflecting Pool is a major fiasco, and it’s getting him angrier. In Truth Social posts, he raged at a journalist for covering the story. He fulminated that vandals had cut at 250-foot gash in the facade (which is entirely unverified). He hailed multiple arrests at the scene. He even angrily threatened 10 years in jail. Yet these arrests are only growing more questionable. One man detained is a 67-year-old former Olympian who said he just wanted to examine the peeling coating. Another person detained said she was merely pulling a piece of paint out of the water. These explanations, plus the tenuousness of Trump’s claims of vandalism, suggest a darker turn in the story. We talked to New Republic editor Michael Tomasky about his good piece on this whole mess. We discuss why Trump doesn’t deserve the benefit of the doubt on the arrests, why this story has deeper resonance for many ordinary people, and what it captures about Trump’s effort to destroy republican governance and turn Washington into an imperial capital, with himself in the role of “czar.” Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Transcribe →Krugman: Trump’s Unnerving Mental Breakdown Signals Nation in Decline
6d ago00:29:29Tap to summarizeDonald Trump’s war with Iran is making it clear this presidency could have much worse long-term consequences than we expected. Yet Trump is spending his nights indulging his crazed obsessions. In one early-morning tirade, he raged about “fools” who criticize his Iran fiasco, calling them “bad people” and “stupid.” In another, he fulminated at length about his ballroom. He’s posting updates on the gilding of statues and images of himself on international magazine covers. The gap between the gravity of the moment on one side and his trivial megalomania on the other is jarring. We talked to economist Paul Krugman, who has been writing really well on his Substack about both sides of this divide. He goes big-picture, detailing the signs that we’re a country in decline, why other countries are looking toward a post-American world, and why it’s shocking that we put up with his worsening megalomania and nonstop desecration of our republic. Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Transcribe →Angry and Rattled, Trump’s Fox Allies Blurt It Out on Live TV: He Lost
1w ago00:23:47Tap to summarizeDonald Trump’s ceasefire deal with Iran has now been released, and it confirms what we all expected: He got nothing of any significance. A surprising number of his allies agree. Fox News figures, visibly angry and rattled, are saying the deal “doesn’t feel like a victory,” that “we lost the most,” and that Iran is “better off” than before. Others are already throwing JD Vance under the bus, with one even suggesting the deal is so bad that it let Trump down. We think the story right now is that if anything, the next stage of the negotiations with Iran will be even worse for Trump. We talked to Sina Toossi, an Iran expert at the Center for International Policy. He walks us through the details of the deal, why it falls short of what Barack Obama got, why the criticism from allies creates a tough situation for Trump, and how his failures have created a new geopolitical reality—one that’s worse for America than before. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Transcribe →Trumpworld Quietly Shivs JD Vance as Damning Leaks Discredit Iran Deal
2w ago00:24:56Tap to summarizeSources tell Axios that U.S. intelligence agencies seriously doubt that Iran will make the concessions on its nuclear program that Donald Trump expects it to once talks on it progress in earnest. The leaks are striking: They reflect badly on Trump’s ceasefire with Iran and his claims that he prevailed on Iran to drop its nuclear ambitions. Tellingly, the sources also report that JD Vance was a vocal proponent of the deal during internal discussions. This strongly suggests Vance is getting shivved: He’s getting set up to bear the blame if the deal goes south. There’s lots of other evidence of this, too: Senator Lindsey Graham, a Trump ally, is vocally describing Vance as the deal’s “architect.” Graham, an Iran hawk, expects Iran to not comply on nukes and clearly wants Vance to get blamed for it. We talked to New Republic contributing editor Virginia Heffernan, a sharp observer of MAGA turmoil. We discuss why Vance is so vulnerable to being shivved on Iran, why this is likely to tarnish his presidential ambitions, and how MAGA will reckon with all this as Trump’s influence wanes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Transcribe →Trump’s Dimwitted Tirade on Iran Deal Accidentally Reveals It’s a Sham
2w ago00:22:00Tap to summarizeNow that Donald Trump has reached a ceasefire with Iran, the scrutiny of it has been brutal, making it obvious that he got nothing of significance. In a rambling monologue to reporters, Trump excoriated Barack Obama’s Iran deal for making billions in funding available to the Iranians. But this is actually a self-own: Trump’s own arrangement uses a very similar mechanism, opening up funds as an incentive to get Iran to agree to constraints on its nuclear program later. As Tom Nichols, a staff writer at The Atlantic, says on today’s episode, Trump is “doing it exactly the way Obama did it.” And that’s after Trump also waged a needless war that cost us tens of billions of dollars, depleted our stockpiles, killed some Americans and many Iranians, strained our alliances, and wrecked the global economy. Nichols discusses his new piece arguing that the U.S. capitulated to Iran, explains how Trump left us worse off than before, and walks us through what will happen next, with Trump in a weakened state. Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Transcribe →Trump Rages at Jamie Raskin—and Accidentally Hands Dems Midterm Weapon
2w ago00:20:57Tap to summarizeDonald Trump erupted in fury at Representative Jamie Raskin in a long, rambling Truth Social post. Trump called him a “loser” who suffers from “Trump Derangement Syndrome.” But the tirade was unintentionally revealing. Trump raged that if Raskin and Democrats win the House, they will “impeach me” and called on Congress to “EXPEL THE BUM” before it’s too late. In so doing, Trump revealed that he absolutely does fear impeachment. This gives Democrats a good argument: The last thing Trump wants is a Democratic Congress precisely because it will hold him accountable and put a check on his lawlessness. So what would this actually look like? We talked to Andy Craig, senior editor at The Unpopulist, who thinks creatively on this topic. We discuss the deeper reasons Trump fears another impeachment, all the hidden tools that the next Congress could use to constrain him, and why aggressive congressional action against Trump would rebalance our dangerously out-of-whack system. Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Transcribe →Trump Hits Record-Breaking Low in Polls as Aides Leak: He’s “Furious”
2w ago00:21:31Tap to summarizeDonald Trump’s polling just crashed to new lows. He’s hit a net approval on inflation of negative 50 points in numerous surveys, something no other president has done—ever. Trump also is at 80 percent disapproval on gas prices. And this is the first time Democrats have led Republicans on inflation since the 1970s. It’s no accident that this comes as sources around Trump tell CNN that he’s “furious” because the media didn’t make his latest Iran bombing look strong and powerful. These stories are linked: His failure to force Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz is causing the very cost spikes that are tanking his approval and his party’s chances in the midterms. We talked to Democratic strategist Christina Reynolds, who has extensive experience in midterms. She explains how Trump’s travails are translating into new pickup opportunities in surprising places, parses a new poll showing Democrats up 10 in the generic House matchup, and explains why 2026 reminds her of Democratic routs in 2006 and 2018. Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Transcribe →Trump Iran Tirades Get So Unhinged that His Own Aide Visibly Cringes
2w ago00:23:43Tap to summarizeDonald Trump is all over the place on Iran. After insisting a deal was imminent, he’s now threatening more full-scale bombing. He just claimed that “I love the inflation” caused by the war. And in several rants, he insisted that the United States has secretly smuggled 100 million barrels of oil out of Iran and on to the world market (the whole thing appears mostly invented). In an extraordinary exchange, Representative Emilia Sykes sharply confronted Energy Secretary Chris Wright over Trump’s “love” of inflation. Wright finally blurted out: “I would prefer lower inflation.” And Wright stammered before admitting that “um, I’m unaware” of Trump’s oil smuggling scheme. We talked to former Defense Department official Ariane Tabatabai, who’s now at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. She parses through what we know now, explains why Wright’s public meltdown captures the very worst of the Trump administration, and charts what’s next. (After we recorded, Trump resumed bombing.) Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Transcribe →Fox in Meltdown over Booing of Trump as Polls Take Truly Brutal Turn
3w ago00:21:31Tap to summarizeDonald Trump faced merciless booing at the Knicks game Monday night, and Fox News figures quickly recognized how perilous this is. As Media Matters details, Fox personalities and on-air chyrons spun madly in response. They absurdly portrayed the reception as much more muddled, as inspired by something other than Trump, and even as meaningfully peppered with cheers for him. This comes as his polls just nosedived again: A new YouGov poll has Trump’s approval on the economy and inflation in the twenties. And fresh data from The Argument shows Trump deeply underwater in numerous red states with competitive Senate races. He continues to slide in the polling averages, too. We talked to Grant Wiles, a data analyst with NextGen America, which just released new research on Trump’s toxicity with young voters. We parse all the new polls, dig into why Trump propagandists fear he's in a downward spiral, and discuss how Democrats can avoid getting too complacent about the midterms. Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Transcribe →Angry Trump Storms Out of On-Air Interview For Unnervingly Dark Reason
3w ago00:21:50Tap to summarizeOver the weekend, Donald Trump exploded during an on-air interview with NBC’s Kristen Welker. He called her “crooked” and “stupid” and abruptly ended the interview in a fury. This was ostensibly because she questioned his claims that California’s ongoing vote counting is rigged against GOP candidates. But we think the real reason is darker. As the votes are being counted, those candidates—Spencer Pratt for Los Angeles Mayor and Steve Hilton for Governor—are looking weaker than advertised. In real time, Trump is witnessing the failure of MAGA’s online disinformation apparatus to invent reality whole cloth and inflate the strength of his candidates into something it isn’t. In today’s episode, tech writer Gil Duran, author of the forthcoming The Nerd Reich, a book about techno-authoritarianism, puts this in perspective. He explains the California contests, why it’s so infuriating for Trump to watch real votes coming in, why this saga represents a larger failure of Trump-MAGA online propaganda, and why that has heartening deeper implications. Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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