President TACO Zig-Zags on Tariffs, as the Senate Takes Up His “Big, Beautiful Bill,” Which Some Republicans Want to Cut More and Others Cut Less
We begin with the latest zig-zagging on tariffs by President TACO (Trump Always Chickens Out) and look into what will happen with Trump’s big, beautiful bill in the U.S. Senate this week, where deficit hawks want more cuts and more moderate Republicans less cuts. Joining us is Robert Kuttner, the co-founder and co-editor of The American Prospect and the Ida and Meyer Kirstein Chair at Brandeis University. He was formerly an assistant to the legendary I.F. Stone, a chief investigator for the Senate Banking Committee and for 20 years wrote a column at Business Week. His books include Can Democracy Survive Global Capitalism? and Going Big: FDR’s Legacy, Biden’s New Deal, and the Struggle to Save Democracy. We discuss his article at The American Prospect, “Ten Sneaky Sleeper Provisions in Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill.”
Trump Calls Leonard Leo a “Sleazebag” and Regrets Following the Advice of the Federalist Society
Then, following Trump’s Thursday rant on Truth Social — after the U.S. Court of International Trade had blocked his tariffs — when Trump went after the prince of dark money who has stacked the Federal judiciary and the Supreme Court, calling Leonard Leo a “sleazebag” and regretting he ever listened to the Federalist Society. We speak with Lisa Graves, the founder of the corporate watchdog group True North Research and the Managing Director of Court Accountability. She has served as a senior advisor in all three branches of the federal government: as Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Justice Department, as Chief Counsel for Nominations on the Senate Judiciary Committee, and as a Deputy Chief of the article 3 judges division for the U.S. Courts.
The Growing Possibility Our Next President Will Be J.D. Vance Before Trump’s Term is Up
Then finally, with the growing possibility that our next president will be J.D. Vance, perhaps before Trump’s second term is up, we speak with George Packer, an award-winning author and staff writer at The Atlantic. His books include The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America; The Assassins’ Gate: America in Iraq; Our Man: Richard Holbrooke and the End of the American Century; and Last Best Hope: America in Crisis and Renewal. He is also the author of two novels and a play and the editor of a two-volume edition of the essays of George Orwell. His forthcoming novel is The Emergency. We discuss his latest article at The Atlantic, “The Talented Mr. Vance.”