Impolitic with John Heilemann

John welcomes back Atlantic staff writer Michael Scherer to discuss Donald Trump’s reaction to the midterm election results—in particular his naming of Stephen Miller as White House chief of staff. Scherer, who has reported extensively on the arc of Miller’s influence during his boss's second term, argues that his elevation reflects Trump’s desire for a “wartime consigliere” at his side for the last two years of his tenure; that Susie Wiles’s removal signals her status as Trump’s designated scapegoat for the drubbing he and his party suffered on November 3; and that despite Trump’s relatively conciliatory tone during his 60 Minutes interview, all signs point to his determination to stay the course and refusal to be reined in.

John welcomes legendary Washington Post political scribe Dan Balz to discuss the results of the midterm elections and their implications for the incoming Congress and the GOP heading into 2028. Armed with the results of a sweeping survey of 90,000 voters by the research firm NORC in partnership with the Post in the week before Election Day, Balz parses the key factors behind the collapse of Donald Trump’s coalition and the Republican Party more broadly; the challenges ahead for presumptive Senate Majority leader Chuck Schumer and House speaker Hakeem Jeffries; and the daunting new reality faced by JD Vance in the suddenly wide-open race for his party’s presidential nomination.

John welcomes back David Axelrod — chief strategist to Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012, founder of the University of Chicago Institute of Politics, chief political analyst for CNN, host of The Axe Files, cohost of Hacks on Tap, and best-selling author of "Believer: My 40 Years in Politics" — to discuss the results of the midterm elections and their implications for Democrats heading into 2028. Axelrod explains the lessons his party should take from Election Night's blue bloodbath; how the transformation of the electoral map, together with the new Democratic nominating calendar, will impact the coming presidential race; and why November 3 was, “for romantics about politics, a truly great day.”

John welcomes back Nicolle Wallace, host of Deadline: White House on MS NOW and The Best People podcast, for their traditional Election Day hang. After seeing Donald Trump’s homestretch performance on the campaign trail, Nicolle argues that Trump no longer cares about politics or the fate of his party (with the exception of Jon Husted’s rock-hard heine); advises Democrats to resist their usual handwringing and overthinking; weighs in on Haley Stevens’s mental/emotional stability; tosses flowers to Jon Osoff and James Talarico; trashes the “whiny wimps” of MAGA and the manosphere; and predicts that Trump’s inevitable efforts to overturn the results of the midterms will wind up in the Supreme Court.

John welcomes back Tim Miller, host of The Bulwark Daily Podcast, for our penultimate pre-midterms episode. In a discussion broken into four parts – what he’s psyched about, worried about, pissed off about, and what’s cracking him up – Tim waxes rhapsodic about Adam Hamilton; frets that the polls are all wrong; heaps scorn on Mike Rogers, Vivek Ramaswamy, and J.D. Vance; and cackles over Clay Travis’s Cheesecake Factory fabulism and Iowa GOP House candidate Joe Mitchell’s risible effort to ego-fluff Donald Trump (and subsequent leaked-video humiliation). John and Tim also compare notes on a Republican gubernatorial candidate’s investment in a manufacturer of “high-tech penis rings”—only to discover that one of them has come armed with receipts.