Are Democrats Really Powerless?
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It's Wednesday, February 26th. I'm Jane Koston, and this is Water Day, the show that found out that the Supreme Court, yes, the Supreme Court, made a good decision in throwing out the murder conviction and death sentence of an Oklahoma man because prosecutors permitted witness testimony they knew was false. A good decision. I knew they could do it.

On today's show, Ukraine's president is expected to visit the White House this week to sign a deal. And federal judges put a stop to some of President Donald Trump's executive orders. But let's start out with the Democrats. You know, the people who don't want to hand over the federal government to an unelected billionaire who appears to exist largely to tweet racism?

Right now, it feels like President Donald Trump and presidential best friend Elon Musk are holding all the cards. While you're trying to figure out if your local library will still carry books about the civil rights movement, Elon Musk is busy trying to fire every government employee he can find. And on Tuesday, Donald Trump suggested a golden pathway to citizenship for the low, low cost of just $5 million. Our new best friends might even get to benefit. What?

Would a Russian oligarch be eligible for a gold card? Yeah, possibly. Hey, I know some Russian oligarchs that are very nice people. It's possible. Imagine the EB-5 visa. But, you know, stupid. Democrats, understandably, aren't happy about this.

any of this. Musk, Trump, the Department of Government Efficiency, Project 2025, the whole thing. Here's Texas Democratic Representative Jasmine Crockett putting her feelings more succinctly on Tuesday. If you could speak directly to Elon Musk, what would you say? Fuck off. Yes, but then what?

Now, you might be aware that the Democrats do not hold the White House, the Senate, or the House of Representatives. Basically, at the federal level, the Democratic Party doesn't hold power. To be clear, the Republicans have a tiny majority in both the House and Senate. So yes, the Democrats can just refuse to support any Republican bill and force Republicans to keep all of their members in line on every single vote. But that's about it.

And you might also be aware that the Democratic Party has a bit of a popularity problem. According to a recent poll from Quinnipiac, just 21% of voters approve of what congressional Democrats are doing. 49% of Democratic voters disapprove of congressional Democrats. Like I said, part of the issue here is that Democrats in Congress can't actually do very much to stop Republicans due to the whole losing the 2024 elections thing.

So there's a lot Democrats can't do. But Democrats can figure out what they want to be. Especially at a time in which, it turns out, voters aren't all especially jazzed about what Republicans are doing or being, as Republican members of Congress are quickly learning. Here's Wisconsin Republican Representative Glenn Grothman at a town hall last week finding out how some voters feel about Trump. Across the board, he's done some very good things. I think he's done...

Yes. Boo. So what should Democrats be? Should they move further to the left? Should they moderate? How should they talk about Trump, especially for those of us who cover him? And how can we talk about what we want and what we don't want as a party in a way that brings voters in and doesn't push voters away? To find out, I called up Matt Iglesias. He's a journalist who writes a Substack newsletter, Slow Boring, about a pragmatic approach on politics and policy.

Matt, welcome back to What Today. It's good to be here. So you wrote in your newsletter this week that Trump's win has exacerbated a tendency on the part of the media to cover Trump as sort of a metaphor rather than a politician. Can you give an example of what you mean by that? Yeah, you know, we have elections. There's a big difference between narrowly winning and narrowly losing in terms of who becomes president. There's a lot of consequences of that. But

But, you know, a lot of the discourse since Trump has won has been about, like, vibes and how vibes have shifted. And, you know, I mean, it's true. Like, public opinion changes. The public mood changes. There has been a certain amount of backlash, I think, to, you know, certain kinds of progressive ideas. But that would have been true if Kamala Harris had gotten 0.5 percentage points more rather than less.

you know, like young men or right wing has been discussed a lot. And that gets an important observation about the world. I mean, as things happen, we are starting to get more coverage of like events and tactile consequences. But, you know, it's it's tough. Like Trump was a is a media impresario before he was a politician and I think tends to sort of

be covered that way, right? As if, like, a cool stunt for his television show is that he became president.

Right. And this kind of coverage isn't new. And it's not every news organization. But why do you think it persists? And why is it so hard to cover Trump like a politician in a way that makes people grasp the consequences of having him in office? And is it just like he's a storm or he's a phenomenon and not just like a Republican president who's actually kind of giving me some Paul Ryan vibes right now?

Well, I mean, one thing about it is just it's easier, you know what I mean, to really sort of delve into details. You know, so Republicans, House Republicans voted on their budget framework. It includes about $880 billion worth of cuts to Medicaid. But when you challenge Mike Johnson on that, he says, no, no, no, like we're not cutting the services. We're just doing program integrity.

And so then to look into that and explain what that means and what the budget resolution actually means and what the consequences are, it's a lot of legwork relative to Trump signifies a kind of aggressive, caustic masculinity that is appealing to some people who feel that the culture... And I think that's a lot of it. A lot of media is

It's a business, you know, so it's what can you get people to watch or listen to or to click on and what can you execute? So as journalists, how should we be thinking about different ways to cover this administration that isn't just jumping on the outrage bandwagon or every single tweet or every single we'll see about that for the next four years?

I mean, something I really like and respect about the crooked media empire and try to emulate it in my own practice is that, you know, you can try to help people understand what can you do, right? Like, if you have been agitated about Donald Trump consistently for the past eight years, just, like, reading new evidence,

that he is a kind of like mentally unbalanced and has, you know, a tendency to tweet authoritarian things. Just like get more freaked out doesn't, it doesn't like accomplish anything versus, you know, you can attend town hall.

And it turns out that like going even in deep red districts and telling your member of Congress what they think about things is fairly impactful. There's a state Supreme Court race in Wisconsin that, yeah, Elon is putting a million dollars into that signifies a lot. And, you know, you can you can support the candidate on the other side of that race. You can try to

talk to less political people about things like health care and Medicaid that are real points of weakness for Republicans. So, you know, I want to try to help people understand, you know, people who are highly engaged in politics. Like, what can you do instead of just how should you feel? Let's talk about Congress. Yes. Congressional Democrats have come under a lot of criticism from Democratic voters who think they're not doing enough to counter Trump. Mm-hmm.

I think that countering Trump is hard when you are not in power. So are there things they could be doing and what could they be doing less of, in your view?

You know, it's tough, right? I mean, they lost the election. Republicans, you know, have a lot of ability to pass things. Democrats in Congress are trying to draw attention to Medicaid cuts. I think that's good. That's a good thing for them to be doing. And they are trying to bargain to say that if Republicans pass

need Democratic votes to avoid a government shutdown, they're going to insist that the executive branch actually follow the law. Whether that strategy will work or not, you know, it's hard to tell. It in part depends on whether Republicans can get their shit together and pass a bill without Democratic votes.

You know, so to me, I get why people are frustrated with this. They wish that Chuck Schumer could be reborn as a, like, totally fresh face dynamo of charisma who delivers a rousing speech that turns all the people against Trump. But Republicans have a four seat majority, so they're going to do what they're going to do.

And I think what frustrated progressives need to think about is like how bad the Senate map is for Democrats and like what could the party do to reconfigure itself in such a way that more of these members felt objective pressure on them. But, you know, beyond that, it's like Schumer and Jeffries have a tough job. Like people want them to, quote unquote, do something, but they're in the minority.

Right. No, I've been struck by this idea that Democrats are not in power and yet they should still act like they are in power. But you've written a lot about common sense strategies Democrats should employ to win back power. But will policy really help Democrats win? Because the last time we had you on, we talked about how deliverism, the concept of a president delivering to his voters and the voters delivering votes, it didn't work the way we thought it did or it didn't work for Biden.

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I do think, you know, policy is going to matter. I mean, Trump's numbers have come down quite a bit over the past month as he is doing things and as he's facing criticism and as journalism is happening. You know, people are getting a little disgruntled. They're getting a little disillusioned. But one difference between now, I mean, I twice in my adult life, we've seen Republican presidents take over in 2001, in 2017.

Both of those times, though, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama both left office is very popular. So whatever happened in the 2000 and 2016 elections, you know, I think Democrats could still hold their heads high and say the departed administration we're really proud of. You know, we think things were good. Now the new guy's screwing things up. You know, Joe Biden was not a popular president. So Democrats can criticize Trump and they're making headway with that.

But if they want to regain power, you know, they're facing a certain amount of sort of default skepticism. If you tell people, well, we're going to just sort of run back the Biden playbook, I think most people don't want that. You have to go back to the 80s to find a time when, you know, the Carter administration was discredited in the eyes of the voters and Democrats had to present some kind of, here's a new thing. And it took them a while to come up with it. I think something I've been thinking about is that

Trump is basically all emotional appeals and vague promises to fix things. And that worked. You know, you had Kamala Harris who came in with, you know, not quite Elizabeth Warren levels, but came in with like plans and ideas. And Trump had

We're going to fix grocery prices on day one and end wars before I even get into office. And all of that was obviously bullshit, but very effective bullshit. So how do you think Democrats can emotionally appeal to voters and win people over or win them back while also centering policy?

Yeah, I mean, some of that is, you know, you got to see what develops. I mean, Trump had emotions, but he also had the reality that people were very upset about inflation and they were upset about the situation at the border. And he, you know, positioned himself as the person who was going to vindicate those kind of things.

But then you've got to govern, right? I mean, this is the problem with Trump. You know, you can win an election without policy ideas that make sense. But it is true that the voters sort of do expect you to deliver. You know, like the fact that Trump doesn't really have like an agenda to address the cost of living crisis is a problem for him. And Democrats should think about their own solutions. Matt, as always, thank you so much for joining me. Thank you.

That was my conversation with Matt Iglesias. He's a journalist and writes a Substack newsletter, Slow Boring. We'll get to more of the news in a moment, but if you like the show, make sure to subscribe, leave a five-star review on Apple Podcasts, watch us on YouTube, and share with your friends. More to come after some ads.

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Here's what else we're following today. I hear that he's coming on Friday. Certainly it's okay with me if he'd like to, and he would like to sign it together with me, and I understand that's a big deal. President Volodymyr Zelensky plans to travel to the White House on Friday to sign a deal that would give the U.S. access to Ukraine's rare earth minerals in exchange for continued military support. Ukrainian and U.S. officials agreed on the deal Tuesday. The

The idea to trade Ukraine's natural resources for U.S. military aid was first floated by Zelensky late last year when he met with then-presidential candidate Trump. The idea came back up earlier this month when Trump said that Ukraine should pay the U.S. back for its support amid Russia's invasion. The exact details of the agreement announced Tuesday aren't clear. Negotiations between U.S. and Ukrainian officials were tense. According to the New York Times, a draft of the agreement did not include any security guarantees for Ukraine.

Trump was asked what Ukraine gets out of the deal on Tuesday while signing executive orders in the Oval Office, to which he said, $350 billion and lots of equipment and military equipment and the right to fight on. I think they had the right to fight the whole time. Anyway, the president said he's also interested in Russia's natural resources, too. So there's that. I'd like to buy minerals on Russian land, too.

if we can. The rare earth, they have very good rare earth also. They both do, I would say that, and oil and gas. Look, it's a great thing if we sell this. It's great for Russia too. Zelensky's cabinet is expected to approve the deal today ahead of his trip to D.C.,

The Trump administration had a bad day in court on Tuesday. A federal judge based in D.C. gave the administration less than two days to release hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. foreign aid. This is the second time he's ordered the White House to pay up, and he wants it done fast, by midnight tonight.

A different D.C. federal judge has indefinitely blocked the White House from freezing potentially trillions of dollars in federal grants and loans, even though the White House had rescinded its original order. And finally, a federal judge in Seattle blocked the Trump administration from pausing the nation's refugee resettlement program. The president signed an executive order on his first day in office suspending the U.S. refugee admissions program, quote,

until such time as the further entry into the United States of refugees aligns with the interests of the United States. But in his order blocking Trump's actions Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Jamal Whitehead wrote, quote, The president has substantial discretion to suspend refugee admissions, but that authority is not limitless. The monthly Consumer Confidence Index was released Tuesday. It's a barometer for how consumers, such as you and me, feel about the economy. And we don't feel good.

Consumer confidence fell nearly 7% between January and February. The index hasn't seen a monthly drop that drastic since 2021, during the pandemic. The conference board, which released the data, attributed the drop in confidence to the persistently high price of eggs and other necessities.

as well as Trump's threats to impose high tariffs on Canada and Mexico. Trump said Monday that those tariffs are definitely happening, by the way. He said so at his joint press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron at the White House. The tariffs are going forward on time, on schedule. He added... It'll be very good for our country. Our country will be extremely liquid and rich again. Sure.

The board also released its Consumer Expectations Index on Tuesday, which measures how optimistic Americans are about the economy's future. It saw a decline of nearly 10 percent, down to 72.9. That's the lowest it's been since June of last year. Anything below 80 usually signals that a recession could be coming.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio directed officials around the world to not issue travel visas for trans athletes hoping to travel to the U.S. for sports competitions and to ban anyone who, quote, misrepresents their sex. That's according to an exclusive story published by The Guardian. The paper reported Tuesday that the directives were detailed in an internal State Department memo sent out Monday.

The directives are in accordance with two of President Trump's executive orders, stating the federal government will only recognize a person's assigned gender at birth on official documents, and prohibiting trans athletes from participating in women's sports. Rubio's State Department has also exercised this role when it comes to the issuing of American passports. The department has stopped processing U.S. passport applications from people seeking to change their gender marker or choose the non-binary X option.

In a TikTok video this week, Euphoria star and trans actress Hunter Schaefer said after losing her passport, she was issued a new one, and the sex was listed as male. Schaefer explained that her gender on all of her official documents has been female since she was a teenager. She says she put female on her application for her new passport, but when she picked it up, it said male. And today I fought on my new passport, male.

America, the country where it doesn't matter how wealthy or famous or white or privileged you are, you're not safe from this administration unless you happen to be best friends with Trump. The ACLU has filed at least one federal lawsuit over the passport policy. And that's the news.

Before we go, from Ukraine to Guantanamo to Brazil, the global stakes keep getting higher. This week on Pod Save the World, Tommy and Ben break down the latest on Russia's war, Trump world chaos spilling into foreign policy, and why Bolsonaro might finally face consequences. Plus, Bloomberg's Zeke Fox joins to unpack the wild crypto scam tied to Argentina's Javier Millet. Listen to Pod Save the World wherever you get your podcasts or on YouTube.

That's all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review. Remember that you could be one of those people at Republican town halls booing GOP congresspeople and tell your friends to listen.

And if you're into reading and not just about how seriously, that could be you. You could be like the Tea Party from 2010, but not, you know, advocating for the destruction of the welfare state. Like me. What Today is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out. Subscribe at Cricut.com slash subscribe. I'm Jane Koston. And what I'm saying is go to some town halls and let members of Congress know just how annoyed you are with them. It's your right.

Water Day is a production of Crooked Media. It's recorded and mixed by Desmond Taylor. Our associate producers are Raven Yamamoto and Emily Fore. Our producer is Michelle Alloy. We had production help today from Johanna Case, Joseph Dutra, Greg Walters, and Julia Clare. Our senior producer is Erica Morrison, and our executive producer is Adrienne Hill. Our theme music is by Colin Gillyard and Kashaka. Our production staff is proudly unionized with the Writers Guild of America East.