特朗普提5000美元分红应对通胀，共和党面临中期选举压力

I'm tempted to ask how much the papers in London this morning are dealing with what president Trump said yesterday in Ireland about the prospects of Irish unification. But let me take a broader vantage on sort of this trip. You have president Trump going to Dallas. All of this... All of these festivities that took place there, thinking that that might mount to some momentum here going to the midterms, and then, he hops on a plane, goes to Ireland to play some golf, and meet with the leaders of of that country.

What what do you make of that, and what does it say about the purpose of this convention that just wrapped up to you? Ann Ann suggested reunification of Ireland while he was here, which has been a, needless to say, a decades long hot button issue that he just stepped into the middle, without, I think, a lot of thought. Let's talk about the... You know, him... You know, his appearance at the at the convention. I I don't think, actually, most Republicans wanted him there because he's polling so low.

The issues that they're gonna have to campaign against are issues that he set in motion through a series of cell phones, David. First, the tariffs, and now, obviously, the war in Iran have all been inflationary actions that were within his powers to avoid. And average Americans are now struggling with escalating electricity bills, escalating food prices, gas prices, and an uncertainty about the job outlook. And, inflation doesn't appear to be abating.

In fact, it appears to be worsening. All of these things are not great campaign issues, and I think he made the convention about himself. And I also don't think that's what the party was looking for. And I think it's a, you know, it's a barometer of the extent to which I think Trump continues to be in this for himself rather than for the party or rather than for constructive solutions to the problems the country and average voters are facing.

You know, I actually think the convention was a successful coming out party for JD Vance. Uh-huh. But Trump eclipsed even that to a certain measure. Julie, I wanna ask you about some of those problems that I know some of the staff behind the scenes would really like the president to focus on. We have an affordability crisis in this country. It's something voters say over and over again they're thinking about as they go to vote in these midterms.

And I know one of the things driving up costs, of course, are some Tim just mentioned, energy prices. And you spoke to former Texas attorney general now turned candidate Ken Paxton about data centers. We're gonna place some of that sound. So I think it's a good idea to to slow this down so that we we can listen to our to our constituents. I mean, obviously, we have to compete against China. If we don't have data centers, we're in trouble.

We're gonna we're gonna be in trouble with with China. So there's no doubt we have to figure out how to do it, but we have to listen to our constituents and figure out where do we do these and how do we protect the people in that area from any negative consequences. So AI and data centers in particular have really become a political issue over... Even just, like, the last couple weeks. What do people in Texas tell you about this issue, and then what did you hear about this at the convention throughout the week?

Well, first of all, it's very interesting, Ken Paxton, coming out and saying, hey. We gotta tap the brakes on this. This is what this is what we're hearing from governor Abbott as well. Governor Abbott, who was all about the data centers bringing them in. But now he too is saying that there needs to be certain parameters when data centers come somewhere, when it comes to water, and when it comes to power. There's definitely a not in my backyard issue here because we have so many data centers in the state of Texas.

But at the end of the day, what these voters are going to have to figure out is, is this their top issue? Is their top issue what they view as lower taxes? Is their top issue what they view as health? So it'll be interesting to see how big of a data center issue this becomes when people actually walk in to vote. Tim O'Brien, in the American Airlines Center, have president Trump on stage, and almost off the cuff floats this idea of a Trump dividend, not the first time he's he's suggested he might send a check to to all Americans.

I was struck in the wake of that, how members of his administration not only defended that as a real policy proposal, but kind of contorted themselves to explain how it might happen. Had Howard Lettin saying this wouldn't be paid for by taxpayers. You had Kevin Hasset come on Bloomberg TV and talk about the mechanics of offering this $5,000 check to to American adult citizens. What does that tell you about the the the way that the president is looking at this affordability crisis?

Well, I I I think it suggests that members of his administration are simply worried about losing their jobs, David, and so they don't dare deviate from something that he put out so publicly and prominently. I don't think any of them believes in their hearts it's going to work. It won't get past the congress. It would cost more than about $1,300,000,000,000 to carry out. There's far better uses of that money than simply giving every American a $5,000 check.

And I also don't think that most Americans would feel like a $5,000 freebie, welcome as it might be, is going to set them up for a more prosperous or affordable future in which they feel authentically independent financially and in control of their family's futures financially. So it's a stunt. I think he's been involved in a lot of stunts lately of various proportions, that are sort of hail Mary passes meant to deal with the affordability issue.

The idea of, you know, flipping a light switch in Venezuela, and suddenly the oil fields there will begin producing more more oil, and that will somehow ameliorate, the oil production problem caused by the Strait Of Hormuz being closed, is all of a fit with this. He's not a... He he is... The president has repeatedly said Americans should just get over their affordability concerns, but it's now costing him at the polls, so he's trying to do something at the last minute.

Julie, I mean, it's tried at this point, but James Carville, it's the economy, stupid. When you look at what people say is the most important problem, 22% say the most important issue facing The US is the economy, followed by democracy, followed by corruption, violence, and war is down at 5%. We talked so much about the unpopularity of this war in Iran. A lot of us were wondering how the president was going to spin that, couch it at this, forum, Trumpapalooza, during the week.

Did they focus on that at all? What were the big top lines, and what do you think landed best, if anything, with voters or people who were in the room? I will say that the war was talked about, but not much. It was not a huge topic, just that it was the right thing to do and that it's eventually going to end. I I think the one that landed the most in the room was the $5,000. Because at that moment, people aren't thinking, how will this affect the deficit?

How are we going to pay for it? And there's no discussion there on, oh, but we'll have to get this through congress first. So I think in terms of the room, that's what landed. But you have to remember, this is a room of ardent supporters. This isn't a room of people that are undecided voters in many senses. So most of this landed in the room just fine. It's a question of what landed later. But when you talk about what landed in the room, it's in the room.

This is on a night where you've got NFL football. You've got a lot of other things going on. So a lot of people like you and I both know, look to this and they'll see this in the social media. They'll see this in the clips later. But in the room, it basically landed as the, oh, we're getting $5,000 back. Tim, I wanna pla