The Briefing with Jen Psaki
Polls show Americans aren't buying Trump team's ignorance ploy
15 May 2025
Jen Psaki shares examples of Republicans, from Donald Trump to House Speaker Mike Johnson to members of Trump's Cabinet avoiding questions and claiming not to be familiar with major national news stories and other data directly related to their areas of responsibility. And while the ignorance tactic may help them avoid answering questions, new polls show Americans already understand what's really going on.
Full Episode
I wanted to start tonight by showing you these incredible images again of members of the disability community protesting House Republican cuts to Medicaid, with at least 26 of them getting arrested in the process. Now, we talked about this yesterday. It's important to keep talking about. But what we didn't show you is what you're seeing here.
And that's Senator Cory Booker and other Democratic lawmakers who went over to the House, joined them, and thanked those protesters. He also told them to keep fighting and to stay strong. A very important message because this is a long battle when you are trying to prevent bad policy from happening.
Now, Senator Booker is going to join me here live to talk about all of that and more in just a few minutes. Now, today, more protesters were back on Capitol Hill, this time right outside Speaker Mike Johnson's office. And they had some of the same message, no cuts to Medicaid. And we should tell you that these protests are also not limited to Washington, D.C.
There were protests all across the country. There were health care workers in Oakland, California, yesterday, rallying around that same message. You can see it there with this message on their signs, hands off Medicaid, hands off Medicaid, a lot of their signs are saying. In Bakersfield and Folsom, California, more health care workers turned out to protest these cuts.
In the small town of Dunkirk, New York, you can see them right there, health care workers at Brooks Memorial Hospital called on their Republican representative to vote no on these cuts. Again, hands off Medicaid. Handmade signs there, too.
And while ordinary people and health care workers on the front lines were out in force protesting these big cuts to life-saving care, can you guess where the President of the United States was? I bet you already know. Well, Donald Trump was back in yet another gilded palace, 7,000 miles away, accepting more lavish gifts. This time, from the Emir of Qatar.
That's right, today was the day that Trump met with the government that wants to gift him his very own Sky Palace. You can see some of the footage there of what that might look like. A luxury $400 million plane for him to use as Air Force One and then keep after leaving office, which is probably the pivotal part. There's been a lot of attention on that plane deal, for good reason.
I mean, I know my two guests tonight, Senator Booker and Senator Ossoff, are both probably going to have some thoughts, and we'll talk about it. But somehow, in the age of Trump, the plane might actually be just the second most corrupt deal he has cooking with the Gulf nations. I mean, you may remember that one of the Trump family's new money-making schemes is a Trump-branded cryptocurrency.
Earlier this month, an investment fund backed by the government of the UAE announced that it would be using the Trump family's cryptocurrency for a $2 billion investment, propping up Trump's cryptocurrency and essentially channeling millions into Trump's family business. And then today, on the current Air Force One that Trump is somehow coping with, he was asked about that scheme, understandably.
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