Chapter 1: How is the Trump administration controlling the media narrative?
Are they controlling the message, though?
So far, they have been.
They've used the bully pulpit of the White House, the president himself. I was told by White House advisors yesterday that a clue as to how they're feeling about things, they feel like they're winning the messaging argument, is the fact that J.D.
Vance showed up in the White House briefing room yesterday, the first time he's done that, sort of a swaggering appearance suggesting Democrats, Democrats, Democrats are the ones to blame. He didn't stick to the facts all the time in that appearance, but that's the messaging. And Democrats are still trying to they're on their back heels.
The White House feels Donald Trump is governing like the dictator of America. Right. He promised to be a dictator on day one.
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Chapter 2: What implications does Trump's governance style have for democracy?
His words, he's compared himself to America's king, even to the pope. The goal of the second term, quite clearly, is not hiding. This is to assert complete control over every aspect of the federal government. He wants to directly control who gets fired and hired across the entire government and even civil society from Fed directors to talk show hosts.
He wants to directly control who gets indicted, most recently with the ridiculous prosecution of James Comey. He says right now the position of the Trump administration and Donald Trump is that he by himself unilaterally can raise taxes on the American people by a trillion dollars.
entirely by executive fiat just by being like yeah yeah taxes up he says he can rescind or reallocate any congressionally appropriate funds basically at any time entirely by executive fiat oh there's a bill to spend stuff there no we're not going to do it okay but think about that but now it's the democrats who are in the driver's seat when it comes to shutting down the government that is a pretty tough sell
especially considering Trump is using the shutdown to, drumroll, govern like a king. In the first Trump term, you know, I think Donald Trump's been unstable and, Maya's right, unhinged for a long time. But in the first Trump term, there were people who, and we heard reports of this, people who kind of made a pact to say, look, none of us are going to let this guy go unsupervised.
Chapter 3: How are Democrats responding to Trump's messaging strategies?
It's a dangerous world. We can't, you know, afford... The kind of thing that could happen if he flies off the handle and there's nobody there to stop him. The people around him now don't care. They're either true believers who think that Donald Trump is, you know, on some kind of mission to save America from its own citizens or they're opportunists.
You know, just soulless opportunists who just don't care. And that is really the scariest part of all of it, because, you know, the two things when I as I watch that meeting, I had to think that there were people sitting there saying at this moment.
And by the way, right now, at this moment, Nicole, as we speak, if the president is doing what he's supposed to be doing, he's carrying a little card about the size of a playing card. that carries the codes to 1600 strategic nuclear weapons. The president in the next 20 minutes could kill hundreds of millions of people if he if nobody could stop him.
Chapter 4: What are the risks of Trump's control over federal appointments?
And we never had to worry much about that until, you know, he started talking about the N-word and moving submarines around and things that I don't think he really understands. But the other is that when he says to these generals and admirals, the enemy from within
He may think that's a great rally speech at some MAGA gathering, but to those generals and admirals, what he's saying is your fellow citizens, the people you are sworn to defend and protect. And I think he just doesn't understand that. We're also seeing here
Russ Vogt and others in the West Wing potentially seizing this opportunity to finish the mission that Doge began to really clear out what they perceive to be these Democrat deep state loyalists. This is the moment to gut the government and to keep putting their people in there. Right. And I think that there's no question that health care is a powerful Democratic argument.
It was going to be a powerful Democratic argument regardless of whether the shutdown took place.
Chapter 5: Why are health care issues central to the current political landscape?
There were the cuts that had taken place to Medicaid, the cuts that the Trump budget put into place. We're going to happen regardless. The shutdown is the Democrats are trying to tie the shutdown to their demands on health care. That may be a good strategy in the long run. It is certainly the case that health care is a good issue at the moment, though.
Right now, what it looks like in these messaging wars is you just heard Hakeem Jeffries right there. He's talking about green energy. He was talking about the Trump administration being bad for health. He was talking about Trump administration being job killing. All of those things I think are true.
Chapter 6: How do budgetary decisions impact the government shutdown debate?
But when you see that bite, it's not the kind of clarity and the kind of focus that you might want in a situation like this, which is really what Republicans do have right now, which is clarity and focus. Democrats did this and we now have to clear out the dead wood. I don't think that firing people is going to be super popular. But right now, it's not obvious that Democrats have.
But I heard Jake Alkincloss just now on, who I admire and think is really great. But he was on way too early this morning talking about corruption. Another good Democratic message, but not a message around this shutdown that necessarily has the kind of connection to it, the clarity and focus that you might want from Democrats.
And how does firing people or mass firings help get essential services to the people? I mean, the math doesn't I don't understand that. It's a it's a very good question.
Chapter 7: What role does the youth movement play in shaping conservative ideals?
And frankly, to me, the one thing that I know you were talking about this on the show yesterday, a fair amount. The Republicans were not in Washington yesterday to vote. Right. Well, how is that not the central one of the central messaging points of Democrats just to basically say, where are the Republicans?
How can we be responsible for this government shutdown when there are no Republicans in town to vote on this question? I would have thought you would have heard that all day long yesterday. And I know it was pointed out by some Democrats here and there. But again, focus and clarity are key if you're going to win this battle. It isn't a small thing.
Just to be clear, who has the appropriating power?
Chapter 8: How can American policy adapt to the challenges posed by China?
The power to tax and to spend isn't some like weird academic quibbling point. It might be the electorate, but like it's sincerely foundational to the constitutional structure of the country. And I guess my feeling is if the shutdown isn't the place to resolve it, I guess we're not resolving it. I guess we have a new form of government, which does seem not great to me.
I think that they could include language in a bipartisan way, and I've called for them to do this, that clarifies that you cannot do what's called a pocket rescission, which is basically just run out the clock on spending at the end of the fiscal year and say, sorry, we can't spend this money. I think you could get that through in a bipartisan way.
Some of these other things, I do think they have actual... Legal authority. He has legal authority to fire lots of people right now. That's not violating the law. He can do those things, whether you think it's good or bad. I just don't think I've never seen a government shutdown achieve a policy outcome. And I certainly don't think it's going to change Donald Trump's behavior either.
This is the primal scream of a dying regime. Pray for our enemies because we're going medieval on these people. You're not going to get a free shot on all these networks lying about the people. The people have had a belly full of it. I know you don't like hearing that. I know you've tried to do everything in the world to stop that, but you're not going to stop it. It's going to happen.
And where do people like that go to share the big lie? Mega media. I wish in my soul, I wish that any of these people had a conscience.
Ask yourself, what is my task and what is my purpose? If that answer is to save my country, this country will be saved.
War Room. Here's your host, Stephen K. Band.
Thursday, 2 October, in the year of our Lord, 2025. It is one year ago. I guess it's tomorrow technically, but I think this is the 365th day of Tina Peters as a political prisoner out in Colorado. And for everything else we're doing, it's still unacceptable. We have a Gold Star mother that is being held by Jared Polis, the buddy of Cox, the disgraceful governor of Utah.
We'll get more of that later. A brother, Andy Biggs, is going to be with us, Congressman Biggs. They continued the tour, the Charlie Kirk tour in Utah. And Andy Biggs is going to give us an update on that later in the show. Right there. And the president just put out, by the way, spectacular cold open. Curated from a total meltdown yesterday, as we told you. Clarity and focus.
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