THE DAILY BLAST with Greg Sargent

President Trump just unleashed a wild rant on Truth Social, accusing media figures of deliberately ignoring good news about his worsening tariff disaster because they “hate and disrespect our country.” He added that the tariffs have made us “FAR STRONGER AND MORE RESPECTED THAN EVER BEFORE.” What caught our eye is how this shows Trump running everything, no matter how trivial, through a “strong” versus “weak” frame. He’s vowing to seize Venezuela’s oil after his invasion; he’s threatening many other countries with military action; and he’s even menacing Greenland, a NATO ally. Yet a new poll finds surprisingly low support for his action against Venezuela on multiple fronts. We talked to international relations expert Nicholas Grossman, who argues that Trump has it all backwards: All these blustering fits and threats are a sign of Trump’s personal and political weakness and also are weakening our country’s international standing. We discuss whether that bad poll suggests an opening for Democrats to seize the strong/weak frame from him.  Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After American forces captured Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro and brought him to the United States, almost no Republicans spoke out in dissent. But Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene did speak out. In an extended rant, she accused Trump of breaking his promise to avoid military adventurism. She sharply questioned Trump’s commitment to fighting “narco-terrorists.” And she even said straight out that this is a naked bid to take Venezuela’s oil. With other MAGA figures questioning Trump’s interventionism, all this wrecks any sense that Trump’s version of MAGA stands for anything. We talked to Norm Eisen, the publisher of The Contrarian and co-founder of the Democracy Defenders Fund, who has been talking about the invasion as an example of international corruption, just as Greene has. He explains how Greene laid bare MAGA’s corrupt core, why Trump’s illegal invasion is so damaging to international law, and what can be done to try to bring some accountability.  Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On Thursday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told the world that the Kennedy Center has now been renamed after President Donald Trump. Her announcement of this great honor was bizarrely obsequious, mimicking phrases Trump himself uses and slathering him with great flattery. We think it’s no accident that this comes as Trump’s decline is worsening both physically and politically: On Friday, he seemed to nod off amid his escalating physical deterioration. And a brutal Fox News poll finds his approval on the economy cratering, huge majorities saying economic conditions are bad, and even majority opposition to his mighty boat bombings. We talked to Moira Donegan, a columnist for The Guardian, who has a great new piece on Trump’s decline. We discuss how Trump’s minions are compensating for his deterioration with increasing cult worship, why his physical and political decline are connected, and what it means that the world is now looking beyond Trump.  Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In a blow to House Speaker Mike Johnson, four House Republicans joined Democrats to force a vote next year on an extension of Affordable Care Act subsidies. Anger is spiking in both directions: Representative Mike Lawler, one of those four, ripped Johnson’s effort to block that vote as “absolute bullshit!” But more MAGA-fied allies of President Trump like Representative Eric Burlison excoriated those rebels for “stabbing the rest of the party in the back.” This is the worst of both worlds for Republicans: They are mired in infighting, yet despite this push by centrists, the subsidies will still expire, bringing political trouble next year. Indeed, Johnson seemed unnerved as he gamely insisted he has “not lost control.” We talked to Grace Segers, who writes well about Congress and policy as a staff writer for The New Republic. We discuss the deeper roots of intra-GOP tensions, how this all might play in the midterms, and the deeper human toll that the expiring subsidies will unleash.  Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

White House chief of staff Susie Wiles gave numerous interviews to Vanity Fair that were way too candid about, well, everything. That prompted press secretary Karoline Leavitt to offer some rancid spin: She went full cult in praise of Trump. She dissembled lamely about “fake news.” And she raged at the publication for not including enough of Trump advisers’ praise for him—as if it’s obliged to do that! We think Wiles’ most interesting revelation was her open admission that Trump’s prosecutions are indeed about “retribution.” Zeteo reporter Asawin Suebsaeng has a piece out today reporting on a new turn in this saga: That confession will complicate Trump’s prosecution of enemies, because it gives them ammo to show that his targeting of them is vindictive. We talked to Suebsaeng about the damage this will do to Trump’s corrupt prosecutions, why Leavitt and others praise Trump so obsequiously at difficult moments, and what all this says about our slide into authoritarianism.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices