Trump Collapses in Georgia as Election Slips Away

Summary

The MeidasTouch Podcast

Episode: Trump Collapses in Georgia as Election Slips Away

Date: June 1, 2026
Hosts: Ben, Brett, and Jordy Meiselas
Special Guest: Keisha Lance Bottoms (Democratic candidate for Georgia Governor)

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Episode Overview

This episode centers on the shifting political landscape in Georgia, emphasizing Donald Trump's dramatic drop in support, historic levels of Democratic enthusiasm, and the state's pivotal role in the upcoming 2026 elections. The hosts dissect recent polling showing Trump at record-low approval, highlight Democratic primary successes, and interview Georgia gubernatorial frontrunner Keisha Lance Bottoms about Georgia’s present mood, Republican infighting, issues affecting voters, and what’s at stake for democracy—in true MeidasTouch fashion, blending brotherly banter, sharp political insight, and unapologetic pro-democracy commentary.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Trump’s Rapid Decline in Georgia

• Enthusiasm Shift: The episode opens with commentary on the “absolute exuberance and enthusiasm for Democrats in Georgia while Donald Trump is collapsing in Georgia.”
  • Quote (Political Commentator):

    "Donald Trump's latest approval in Georgia from the Economist IS NET negative 27. May I repeat that? Donald Trump's approval in Georgia right now, net negative 27." (02:47)

• Democratic Surge: At a recent rally for Democratic candidates Keisha Lance Bottoms and Senator John Ossoff, the turnout is compared to a “presidential rally.”
• Republican Spending vs. Results: Despite “all of the MAGA billionaires throwing their money into Georgia,” Democrats outperformed Republicans in both early and day-of primary voting.

2. Trump’s Erratic Rhetoric and Republican Infighting

• Trump's Public Comments:
  • Quote (Donald Trump, clip):

    "Tariffs. Tariffs. Can you believe it? Said tariffs? And I gotta be before a court. Can you believe it? This is like men playing in women's sports. Transgender for everybody. I have a new one to add voter id. The Democrats don't want to give us voter ID because they want to cheat." (03:58)

• GOP Senate & Governor Races: The GOP contests are framed as “wild,” riddled with talk of reimbursing Trump, fundraising for January 6th defendants, and relentless competition for Trump’s favor.
• Two Extremist GOP Choices:

  • Rick Jackson: Billionaire healthcare exec, poured $80 million into the race, running to the far right ("you'll either be deported or departed").

  • Bert Jones: Incumbent Lieutenant Governor, noted as a “fake elector” from 2020, running with Trump’s endorsement.

  • Quote (CNN Reporter):

    "Jackson is a billionaire flooding the state with ads… Bert Jones was a fake elector back in 2020 and is running with President Trump's endorsement." (05:21)

3. Democratic Strength & Unity

• Voter Turnout: Keisha Lance Bottoms explains Democrats “outvoted Republicans in Georgia by nearly 150,000 votes” in the primary despite being vastly outspent.
  • Quote (Keisha Lance Bottoms):

    "We were outspent by tens of millions of dollars on the Republican side. They are completely saturating the airwaves. And we still outvoted Republicans in Georgia by nearly 150,000 votes." (07:09)

• Consolidated Campaign: Democrats united early—Bottoms won 57% of the vote, taking 158 out of 159 counties in the Democratic primary. She describes the internal mood as “quiet determination to march to the polls.”

4. Issues Dominating the Campaign

• Economic Pain Points: Voters are focusing on grocery costs, housing, surging healthcare costs, and rising gas prices (expected to jump $0.30/gal due to the end of the tax suspension).
• War and National Politics: The ongoing conflict with Iran and policy failures linked to Trump are top-of-mind for voters. The hosts and Bottoms repeatedly connect Trump’s distractions and corruption to tangible suffering in Georgia.
• Republican Messaging: Both Jackson and Jones amplify extreme, MAGA-centric messaging, desperately competing for Trump’s approval rather than addressing state issues.
  • Quote (Keisha Lance Bottoms):

    "They don't have any concern for the people of this state." (13:20)

5. Keystone Quotes & Memorable Moments

On Democratic Resilience and Voter Enthusiasm:

• Keisha Lance Bottoms (07:09):

  "What our team is calling it internally is just this quiet determination to march to the polls and make sure that voices are heard."

• Keisha Lance Bottoms (09:29):

  "People are fed up... In this election season, people are reminded that the power still remains in their vote... the more this Trump administration and Donald Trump continue to try and tamper with that right to vote, I think the more determined you will see people be..."

On GOP’s Focus on Trump Over Georgians:

• Interviewer/Host (13:47):

  "Because, Trump, you came in and you made a lot of promises that you were going to make things more affordable on day one... And now we see it’s the exact opposite. And frankly, Donald, you look like a loser..."

On November’s Stakes for Democracy:

• Keisha Lance Bottoms (14:50):

  "We won a big battle when we secured the nomination May 19, but the war will be held in November. And we cannot afford to have Donald Trump leading the state of Georgia..."

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• [02:38] — Opening commentary on Democratic enthusiasm and Trump’s steep decline in Georgia
• [03:58] — Trump’s latest public comments ridiculed by hosts
• [05:21] — CNN segment breaking down the high-stakes, contentious Georgia Republican Governor’s primary
• [07:09] — Keisha Lance Bottoms on Democratic turnout, gas prices, and special session uncertainties
• [09:29] — Voters’ willingness to mobilize and "quiet determination"; discussion of economic hardships
• [11:24] — The consolidated Democratic campaign vs. GOP infighting
• [13:20] — GOP candidate extremism, “you’ll either be deported or departed” ad, and their obsession with Trump
• [14:50] — Why Trump remains the focus and what volunteers can do to help
• [16:24] — Closing remarks and campaign call to action

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Conclusion & Call to Action

The episode underscores Georgia’s potential as a bellwether for the nation’s political future. The brothers and Keisha Lance Bottoms stress the power of grassroots mobilization, the dangers of Trump-fueled extremism, and the critical stakes of the 2026 election for democracy. Bottoms urges listeners to get involved via her website—Kesha4Governor.com—not only with donations, but volunteer outreach and spreading the word.

• Final quote (Keisha Lance Bottoms, 14:50):

  "So goes Georgia, so goes the rest of the country."

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For more updates:

• Subscribe to MeidasTouch’s YouTube & Substack (MidasPlus.com) for ad-free episodes and recaps.
• Support democracy, stay informed, and help keep Georgia on the front line in the fight for the nation’s future.

Transcript

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[Political Commentator]

Absolute exuberance and enthusiasm for Democrats in

[Interviewer / Host]

Georgia while Donald Trump is collapsing in Georgia.

[Political Commentator]

Donald Trump's latest approval in Georgia from the Economist IS NET negative 27. May I repeat that? Donald Trump's approval in Georgia right now, net negative 27, according to a reliable pollster, the Economist. The first video I just shared with you, though, was the enthusiasm and exuberance there at a rally that took place this weekend for the Democratic governor candidate Keisha Lance Bottoms, and the Democratic Senate candidate, John Ossoff. This looked like a presidential rally to me, folks. And this follows the primaries where Keisha Lance Bottoms won the Georgia governor Democratic primary. Democrats got more votes than Republicans did overall in the primaries, despite all of the MAGA billionaires throwing their money into Georgia. Democrats won both the early vote amount as well as the day of vote amount. Pretty, pretty impressive stuff. And you see Donald Trump there just absolutely flailing in Georgia. Remember Donald Trump's most recent appearance in Georgia where he said the following.

[Interviewer / Host]

Play this clip.

[Donald Trump (clip)]

Tariffs. Tariffs. Can you believe it? Said tariffs? And I gotta be before a court. Can you believe it? This is like men playing in women's sports. Transgender for everybody. I have a new one to add voter id. The Democrats don't want to give us voter ID because they want to cheat.

[Political Commentator]

Because then you have all of these MAGA candidates in Georgia in both the Senate runoff and in the governor runoff, which is taking place on June 16th. They're out there saying, donald, we need your ballroom. Donald, we want to help you with your J6 weaponization fund for the January 6th insurrectionist. Donald, what can we do to help you? Stock trade more. You want to do 4,000 stock trades. You want to do 5,000. You did 3,800 in the first quarter, one every nine minutes. How can we help you, Dear Leader? Watch what they were saying at some

[Interviewer / Host]

of these Republican Senate debates in Georgia. It's wild. Here, play this clip.

[Donald Trump (clip)]

I think just from a fairness standpoint, if you're unfairly targeted, we should look into being able to reimburse you. And as on the ballroom issue, Jeff, that, you know the ballroom is going to get paid out of private money.

[Monday.com User]

Wow.

[Political Commentator]

And then you have, just so you

[Interviewer / Host]

can see the two candidates, these MAGAs who are running for governor. I'll show you how CNN describes them. Let's play this clip.

[CNN Reporter]

The governor's race here in the Republican side in Georgia is expected to head to a runoff between Rick Jackson and Bert Jones, the state's lieutenant governor, extending this contest for another four weeks. Now, Rick Jackson is a health care executive, a billionaire who has poured $80 million into this race, flooding the state with TV ads throughout this contest. But then you also have Lieutenant Governor Burt Jones, who was a fake elector back in 2020 and was running with President Trump's endorsement. Now, one person to fall in this governor's race is the Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger. He is one of those people who had stood up to President Donald Trump when he had urged him to try to find more votes here in the state.

[Interviewer / Host]

Now, I want to bring in the

[Political Commentator]

Democratic candidate for the governorship of the

[Interviewer / Host]

great state of Georgia, Keisha Lands Bottoms. And, Keisha, that speech yesterday in Atlanta with you and Senator Ossoff, I mean, that had vibes off the chart. So, of course I want to talk about that. But, you know, lots of people are focusing in on Georgia right now. They saw in the primaries the enthusiasm amongst Democratic voters there, both in terms of early vote and day of vote. Donald Trump's approval, according to the latest Economist poll in Georgia, is like net negative 27 in the latest Economist poll. And you have a governor there who's not providing relief, really, to the people when it comes to the gas prices, which are caused by Donald Trump's catastrophic war. Let's talk macro first. The environment that you're seeing in Georgia, you've been, you've been in Georgia politics for a while. Does it feel different right now with people finally moving away from Trump, MAGA and this whole, you know, just, just dangerous movement that's caused such harm?

[Keisha Lance Bottoms]

Yeah, it feels very differently as we are coming out of the primary. Our primary was May 19. What struck me was that we were outspent by tens of millions of dollars on the Republican side. They are completely saturating the airwaves. And we still outvoted Republicans in Georgia by nearly 150,000 votes. So what our team is calling it internally is just this quiet determination to march to the polls and make sure that voices are heard. And the interesting thing, we still don't know what else is to come. Governor Kemp has said that he will not extend the gas tax suspension. So gas prices will go up over 30 cents a gallon in the state. You've got the legislature going back into a special session the day after the Republican runoff, which will also be interesting because we don't know what's going to happen with these maps in the state. And then, of course, there's Donald Trump. Just the gift that keeps on giving. So I think the enthusiasm that we saw from voters in the primary will certainly extend into November. We've just got to stay the course.

[Interviewer / Host]

You know, it's so interesting, you use the term quiet determination there, and I've often referred to that, or the silent majority, if you will. But it's fascinating when you pull back a little bit, because the people are really livid in a very public way, and they're really enthusiastic in trying to restore normalcy, democratic norms, care, compassion, enthusiasm, love, what our country should really be about. But the, the loudness of that, I think, gets drowned out by a lot of the media narratives that get pushed, which is all of Donald Trump's distractions every day, which sometimes mask what's truly going on amongst the people, which we see, whether it's with no kings or just every day, a rally like the one that you held with Senator Ossoff, that looked like an Election day presidential kind of campaign, a la Obama. Like, that's what that rally looked like to me.

[Keisha Lance Bottoms]

Yeah. And that's what it felt like. It felt. It felt. The. The magnitude of it was felt. The energy in the room was incredible. And again, you know, people are fed up. They were already complaining as we moved around the state about grocery costs, about housing costs. And then you add on top of that, in January, health care costs went up significantly, especially for small business owners in our state. And then you add on top of that, the war in Iran. So what we saw at the rally really is indicative of the energy I believe, again, we're going to see going into November. And it's the energy we are feeling across the state. People are asking, what can I do? People are saying, I feel helpless. I don't know how to fight back. And in this election season, people are reminded that the power still remains in their vote. And the more this Trump administration and Donald Trump continue to try and tamper with that right to vote, I think the more determined you will see people be and making sure that they are exercising that and their voices are heard.

[Interviewer / Host]

Talk about your opponents, the potential opponent in this race. There was a runoff on the Republican side. June 16th is when that runoff will take place. As I understand it, there's a MAGA billionaire and then there's a fake elector who go inside going against each other there in that primary. Regardless, I think both of them would focus on giving money to January 6th insurrectionists, Golden Ballrooms, and focus on, you know, Donald Trump's. Whatever Donald Trump wants versus the people of Georgia. That's what they've made very clear, regardless. So talk to us about the contours of this race.

[Keisha Lance Bottoms]

Yeah.

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So.

[Keisha Lance Bottoms]

Well, one, I just want to just compliment Democrats across the state because we did consolidate early. There were seven of us on the Democratic side vying for the nomination. We were able to secure the nomination with 57% winning 158 out of 159 counties. So people on our side have consolidated in a major way very early, which is a tremendous gift for us, because on the Republican side, there's still a very negative fight that still, still playing out between them. You've got Bert Jones, the sitting lieutenant governor, who's made millions of dollars through his connections through the state, who is a fake elector, who has been advertising with Donald Trump, sitting in the Oval Office giving his support to Bert Jones. Then on the other side, you've got this billionaire, Rick Jackson, who has made billions of dollars through state contracts, who is vying for the attention of Donald Trump. And I didn't think that it would be possible to even be more extreme than Bert Jones. But Rick Jackson is really trying to run even further right than Bert Jones. He has one commercial where he has said, you'll either be deported or departed. So the, the messaging and what they are projecting should be concerning to any voter, no matter the party affiliation. But they are equally terrible just in terms of their MAGA policies and their desire just to please Donald Trump. They don't have any concern for the people of this state.

[Interviewer / Host]

Donald Trump's past was turning beauty pageants into very creepy things. He's making this Republican primary into yet another Trump creepy beauty pageant. It seems over who can win Donald Trump's attention the most. And I just think the people of Georgia care about who's going to win for me. I mean, let's. Yes. This political party, that political party. Got it. Who?

[Political Commentator]

What are you doing for me?

[Interviewer / Host]

Because, Trump, you came in and you made a lot of promises that you were going to make things more affordable on day one, that electricity and gas prices would be cut in half, that everything was going to be great. And now we see it's the exact opposite. And frankly, Donald, you look like a loser because you've been telling us you were going to get a deal done with Iran now since March, and you're out there just lying about deals with Iran, like who? Like who even does that while we're out here suffering? And so I want to give you the kind of final word generally. But what I loved about your speech and Senator Ossoff's speech is that you connected the corruption by Trump with the suffering of the people in Georgia.

[Political Commentator]

And made it clear that we can't

[Interviewer / Host]

just be chasing all of his distractions. We need to focus on it because that's one of the main sources of, of the suffering of the people, because those distractions are being used to enrich themselves at the expense of people in Georgia and the rest of the world. Final word from you and where can we learn more about the campaign?

[Keisha Lance Bottoms]

So I wish it weren't so. I wish we didn't have to focus on Donald Trump. But we are where we are and our campaign needs support. We have been outspent by Republicans already, tens of millions of dollars even as they fight it out in their primary. They're already running negative ads and sending mailers against me. Our grassroots dollars have made a tremendous difference. So if people want to Support our campaign. Kesha4Governor.com you can also sign up to volunteer no matter where you are in the country. We can send you some phone numbers to call people in the state. Of course, you can support with your resources and just encouraging people to vote to stay involved. We won a big battle when we secured the nomination May 19, but the war will be held in November. And we cannot afford to have Donald Trump leading the state of Georgia in the same way that he is leading in Washington, D.C. senator Ossoff is the number one target for Republicans. They have already spent money through a super PAC to try and unseat him. So this election should matter to all of us. So thank you for being concerned. Thank you for paying attention to Georgia because I truly believe so goes Georgia, so goes the rest of the country.

[Interviewer / Host]

Keisha, Lance Bottoms, thanks for joining us and we hope you come back again. Keep us updated throughout the campaign.

[Keisha Lance Bottoms]

I will indeed. Thank you everybody.

[Interviewer / Host]

Hit subscribe. Let's get to 7 million subscribers. And I'm just going to say this on my own. She also wrote a great book as well that I read. Thanks, everybody. Hit subscribe. Let's get to 7 million. Want to stay plugged in? Become a subscriber to our [e-mail] you'll get daily recaps from Ron Filipkowski, ad free episodes of our podcast, and more exclusive content only [e-mail].