Michael Scherer

They think he's spending too much time on foreign policy.

They're not thrilled with the ballroom.

They don't love a lot of the things he likes to focus on.

And so they're trying to get him out and do speeches and things like that.

He's been resisting that because he's simply more interested in other things.

And so that conversation has been one in which people around the president have been trying to implore him to recognize what is just a fact.

You know, the midterms will be worse if Republicans don't figure out how to get on the right side of affordability and some of this economic messaging.

And right now we're on the wrong side.

Your approval rating is bad.

That's just a fact.

And the president is kind of negotiating with that.

Now, that doesn't mean when the president speaks publicly, he's going to say anything negative about the way the economy is going now.

He's going to say it's the best economy we've ever had.

He's going to say any poll that shows Republicans doing bad is obviously false and a lie.

So he'll say lots of false things publicly.

But that doesn't mean there's not that private conversation going on and that private argument going on, you know, behind the scenes.

I think for domestic policy, yes.

Stephen Miller, for foreign policy, you may go to Marco.

What is his role?

So, formally, he's the deputy chief of staff.