Transcript: Trump Threat to Unleash Troops Darkens as Brutal Poll Hits
The following is a lightly edited transcript of the June 23 episode of the Daily Blast podcast. Listen to it here.
Greg Sargent: This is The Daily Blast from The New Republic, produced and presented by the DSR network. I’m your host, Greg Sargent.
President Donald Trump thinks he’s winning the political battle over his hypermilitarized response to the protests in Los Angeles. Emboldened by a court ruling partly in his favor, he’s now threatening to expand his use of the National Guard and the military to other cities. And yet, by most available metrics, Trump is actually losing that fight in the battle for the hearts and minds of the public, which has put us in an unsettling situation. Though Trump has lost a lot in the courts, to some degree at least, they’re giving Trump the impression that he’s got free rein on the domestic deployment of troops. Yet at the same time, he refuses to acknowledge any constraint on him imposed by public opinion turning against his deployment. That seems like a combustible combination. And to sort it out, today we’re talking with Brian Beutler, who just argued on his Substack Off Message that moments like these call for liberals and Democrats to fight a better information war than they currently seem capable of fighting. Brian, always good to see you, man.
Brian Beutler: It’s good to be with you.
Sargent: So an appeals court just ruled that Trump can continue to commandeer the National Guard in Los Angeles in response to immigration protests there. It was a partial win in that this will still be subject to judicial review. We don’t know where this is going to go from here, but Trump can do this for now. In response, Trump tweeted that this was a “BIG WIN” and added that “all over the United States, if our Cities, and our people, need protection, we are the ones to give it to them.” That means more troops in more blue areas. Your response, Brian?
Beutler: I think Stephen Miller is certainly happy with the ruling. I think Trump’s views on immigration enforcement will probably follow public opinion a little bit more closely, and he’ll figure out a way to back away from his most extreme policies if the slide in public opinion continues. But he’ll do it in a way where he characterizes it as some sort of victory—that his heavy-handed policies won the immigration wars—until the next time he needs to do it again. He’s much more a finger in the wind than the strictest ideologues who work underneath him.
Sargent: CNN data analyst Harry Enten looked at some Reuters/Ipsos polling on Trump’s handling of the Los Angeles protests in particular and found Trump badly underwater. This is Harry Enten. Listen to this.
Harry Enten (audio voiceover): Where are we? Well, I think we can say that Donald Trump has lost a political battle when it comes to what has happened out in Los Angeles. Donald Trump’s net approval rating on the Los Angeles process—look at this—overall way way way underwater at minus 15 points. How about among independents or those who don’t identify with either major party? Way, even lower—look at that—minus 24 points on the net approval rating. And of course, this is happening on what should be one of Donald Trump’s … in fact, the best issue for Donald Trump: immigration. And yet when it comes to these Los Angeles protests, 15 points underwater overall and 24 points underwater among independents. No good.
