Best of the Daily Blast: Trump Arrest of Immigrant Triggers Shock and Regret in Small MAGA Town
Original air date: June 2, 2025
Ming Li Hui, who goes by the name of “Carol,” has lived for 20 years in the town of Kennett, Missouri, after coming here from Hong Kong. She has been raising a family there and works as a waitress—and as The New York Times reports in a piece featuring quotes from Carol and many locals, she’s well-liked in the community. But Carol was recently arrested and now faces potential deportation. This has shocked and dismayed many of the town’s residents, even though the area went overwhelmingly for Trump. Carol talked to us on the podcast straight from jail, where she is awaiting her fate. At times the conversation was difficult: She broke down in tears about her ordeal, was emotionally overwhelmed at the support she’s received from the Trump-backing town, and offers wrenching thoughts about Trump’s effort to deport countless others just like her.
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On Thursday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt delivered one of her most obsequious, fawning tirades about President Trump yet. She credited him with single-handedly resolving a half dozen major geopolitical conflicts around the world, and angrily asserted that it’s high time Trump is granted the Nobel Peace Prize. It’s no accident that this came amid new polling evidence that Trump’s coalition is falling apart in a freshly dangerous way for him, as documented in a great new piece by New Republic senior editor Alex Shephard. In today’s episode, Shephard explains how the numbers show key constituencies getting away from him. We discuss all the ways Leavitt’s North Korea-style propaganda actually works against Trump by reinforcing the emperor-has-no-clothes vibe around him, why the press is reluctant to tell the truth about his unpopularity, how Democrats need to stop treating him as if he’s invincible, and what that should look like.
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Trump Hit by Harsh Blow from Fed Chair as Polls Reveal Fresh Weakness
President Donald Trump has been raging at Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell for weeks, demanding that he cut interest rates. But on Wednesday, the Fed declined—and worse for Trump, Powell delivered a blunt assessment of his tariffs, claiming they are “pushing up prices,” and that “near-term measures of inflation expectations have moved up.” Given that this comes right when more of Trump’s tariffs are set to take effect on August 1, and given that Powell is directly defying Trump’s fury, that amounts to a harsh blow for the president. Indeed, Trump is also venting his fury at various GOP senators for not doing his bidding. On top of all that, two new polls show his approval rating down to an abysmal 40 percent, with one finding his approval on the economy even lower. We talked to MSNBC.com columnist James Downie, author of a new piece on Democrats and the midterm elections. We discuss why Trump is weaker politically than he looks, why various dynamics look poised to make that worse, and why it’s high time for Democrats to start acting like it.
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Paul Krugman Brutally Wrecks Trump’s Europe Deal: “Scam on His Voters”
You’ve probably heard that President Trump and the European Union have reached a big trade deal. This is being widely portrayed as a “win” for Trump and a big humiliation for the EU. But it’s not at all clear what we gain as a country from this deal. Surely the phrase “Trump won” has to mean more than, “Trump gets to claim a personal victory and the media is required to play along,” right? We talked to economist Paul Krugman, who has a great new piece on his Substack casting a lot of much-needed skepticism on the deal. Krugman explains in extensive detail what a sham it is: He argues that Europe’s concessions are fake, that the deal won’t spur a lot more manufacturing in the U.S., and that its burden will fall heavily on MAGA, making it a “scam on his voters.” Krugman also discusses why the media seems incapable of reporting clearly and accurately on the magnitude of Trump’s incompetence and delusions.
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Trump Accidentally Wrecks His Own Epstein Lie as Musk Goes for Jugular
President Trump just offered some bizarre new ramblings about the Jeffrey Epstein scandal. But he undermined himself: He claimed to know about elite Democrats and liberals who had visited Epstein. But that just raises the question that won’t go away: If this is what the Epstein files would reveal, then why isn’t Trump ordering their release? Every time Trump says such things, he wrecks his own Big Lie: That the Epstein scandal is a Democratic hoax that actually implicates Democrats even as he won’t release the files. Meanwhile, Elon Musk just endorsed the idea that Trump might try to pardon Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell in exchange for exoneration. Musk knows Trump’s machinations here are a major point of weakness. We talked to Jennifer Rubin, editor-in-chief of The Contrarian, who has a good new piece laying out why Trump should be panicking over this scandal. We discuss the absurdity of Trump’s biggest Epstein deceptions, why they’re unsustainable for Trump, and why it all underscores the urgency of a Democratic victory in 2026.
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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.
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