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TRANSCRIPT
Jane Coaston: It’s Friday, March 13th, oooo, I’m Jane Coaston and this is What a Day, the show that doesn’t like where President Donald Trump speaking at a Women’s History Month event at the White House is going with this.
[clip of President Donald Trump] I want to thank everyone for being here today. It’s very exciting. It’s always exciting to be with you. We love women. Women are the whole deal.
Jane Coaston: Ugh. What whole deal? Whose deal? Trump’s deal? I don’t like his deal. [music break] On today’s show, the Senate passes a housing bill with overwhelming bipartisan support, but good luck getting the House GOP on board. And as Trump’s costly war of choice with Iran drags on, the White House is keeping busy posting tasteless memes. But let’s start with America first. Remember America first? That swath of the MAGA movement that purportedly wanted to stay out of foreign entanglements and wars to focus on problems that Americans were facing right here at home? Sure, that didn’t exactly work out during President Trump’s first term in office. Like when he bombed Syria in 2017 and assassinated an Iranian general in 2020. But in 2024, then vice presidential candidate JD Vance argued that Trump 2.0 would be different. Here he is at a campaign event in Michigan that August.
[clip of Vice President J.D. Vance] Donald Trump and I believe that America ought to be tough and America ought to have a strong foreign policy. But when people like Kamala Harris send our sons and daughters, our young people to fight in stupid wars, it is the young generation that carries the burden of that. We’re going to stop sending our young people to far away lands. We are not the policemen of the world. We need to use our young people here at home.
Jane Coaston: Aw, memories. The Trump Vance campaign continually emphasized that it was the pro-peace ticket, fundamentally different from Vice President Kamala Harris, who would apparently lead us into endless wars. As Trump’s current Homeland Security Adviser, Stephen Miller, tweeted in November 2024, quote, “to anyone still gullible enough to fall for scummy media hoaxes, Trump said war-mongering neocons love sending your kids to die for wars they would never fight themselves. Liz Cheney is Kamala’s top advisor. Liz wants to invade the whole Middle East. Kamala equals World War III, Trump equals peace.” It’s just one of many things about Stephen Miller that hasn’t aged well. Well, it’s 2026 and we’re currently at war with Iran alongside Israel. The war is probably unpopular with most Americans. But the same GOP that called Kamala Harris a warmonger is giving the conflict two thumbs up. And while some notable anti-war figures on the right have been speaking out against the conflict, Trump and the Republican party are full speed ahead doing whatever it is we’re doing in Iran. So for more on the America first presidency that absolutely isn’t, I spoke with Tommy Vietor, cohost of Crooked Media’s Pod Save the World. He worked for the national security council and the Obama administration. Tommy, welcome back to What a Day.
Tommy Vietor: Hello my friend, good to see ya.
Jane Coaston: Good to see you as well. We’ve been talking a lot about how President Trump ran his campaign partially on America First and no new foreign wars and they were the pro-peace ticket.
Tommy Vietor: Yeah.
Jane Coaston: But just over a quarter into his term he has captured the leader of Venezuela in the middle of the night and dragged the U.S. into a war with Iran with no end date or um clear objectives. What’s happening? What’s going on?
Tommy Vietor: Look, I genuinely thought Trump would be opposed to a regime change war in Iran because he would think it would be bad politics. I kind of think what happened is that the Midnight Hammer operation, the bombing of Iran last June went fine. The Venezuela operation went really well as well in terms of like the near term kind of elite opinion in DC. And now he’s got people like Lindsey Graham in his ear and Bibi Netanyahu saying, if you take out the Ayatollahs and then you take out the Cuban government. You will be the world’s greatest president, as Lindsey Graham says, you’ll be Reagan, plus plus plus, plus plus. And it’s all about his ego and–
Jane Coaston: Yeah.
Tommy Vietor: –wanting to you know do stuff.
Jane Coaston: Just for the audience, Midnight Hammer was the so-called 12-Day War, the bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities that I seem to recall obliterated those facilities, but now we need to re-obliterate them.
Tommy Vietor: Yes, um apparently we totally obliterated Iran’s nuclear program, except that we didn’t and now we’re bombing them again. And I think the thing folks listening should realize is, I think that we will almost certainly end up seeing either a US or Israeli commando operation on the ground in Iran to capture those materials because as long as that enriched uranium is there, the nuclear threat that stems from it also exists.
Jane Coaston: Right. Now we know where Lindsey Graham stands. He’s the happiest man in Washington right now. This has been the greatest two weeks of his entire life.
Tommy Vietor: Did you watch Megyn Kelly go after him for 20 minutes on her show [?]?
Jane Coaston: I did and we’re gonna talk about like the MAGA media–
Tommy Vietor: Great, great.
Jane Coaston: –split on this because that’s been personally entertaining to me but–
Tommy Vietor: I know you love it. I love it too.
Jane Coaston: It’s it’s so good, but here’s my question. There is an argument to be made that this is just neoconservatism 2.0. This is George W. Bush, do you think that this is actually where the Republican establishment feels most comfortable?
Tommy Vietor: Yeah.
Jane Coaston: That this actually brings them back even more on board with Trump than they were before.
Tommy Vietor: Yeah, it’s funny. It’s like neocon foreign policy without all the fluffy talk about human rights and freedom and democracy. It’s just like old school resource grabs, hawkish militarism. And the saddest part of all is that John Bolton, Trump’s former national security advisor, got to work for him in the first term and then they had a little falling out. They had a bit of a breakup. Now Trump is prosecuting him and Bolton is living out his foreign policy fantasies by just invading everywhere. So I agree with you. Like I do think the kind of like establishment neocon wing in Washington is absolutely thrilled at where things have ended up.
Jane Coaston: Yeah. And it’s always been interesting to me that people position Trump as being an anti-war president and I’m like, no, no, no. He likes wars that we win.
Tommy Vietor: Yeah.
Jane Coaston: He hates losing wars. The problem with the Iraq war was not that hundreds of thousands of people died and we gained nothing and basically destroyed a country and also destroyed Afghanistan for no reason. The problem is that we did not quote unquote “win.” That was the issue with Vietnam. That’s the issue I think Trump has with a lot of conflicts the United States has been involved in since, you know, the early 1960s. It’s not that it was bad that we did it, it’s that he thinks we just should have won.
Tommy Vietor: Yeah, and it kind of makes sense when you know Trump like he’s an optics guy.
Jane Coaston: Yeah.
Tommy Vietor: He doesn’t like a bad look. He doesn’t like us looking bad or looking weak. So yes and the neocons like they think that international institutions are bad and lame and that we should ignore them. They think we always need a bigger military. We should use it more often and that we have every right to shape events no matter where they are. It could be, you know, CIA fomenting coups in Latin America. It could be invading iraq whatever it is, therefore.
Jane Coaston: So neoconservatives are happy, which.
Tommy Vietor: Great.
Jane Coaston: Fantastic.
Tommy Vietor: Finally, they get a win.
Jane Coaston: Fantastic. It’s it’s 2003 all over again. I’m in high school. Life is terrible. But MAGA is Trump’s base and and I think it’s interesting because there’s been a lot of reporting I’m sure people have seen about like, you know MAGA is going to be disappointed or MAGA is split I don’t think so because I think Trump understands that MAGA is him. They like what he likes. This is essentially it’s like a fan relationship or stan relationship almost but that is not the entirety of the people who voted for him in 2024.
Tommy Vietor: Right.
Jane Coaston: Or that the GOP is relying on votes in 2026 and 2028. What or who is Trump risking with the war in Iran?
Tommy Vietor: First of all, I fundamentally agree with like the the overarching premise, which is like MAGA is for what Trump is for–
Jane Coaston: Yeah.
Tommy Vietor: By and large.
Jane Coaston: Yeah.
Tommy Vietor: And a lot of voters, frankly, like don’t think that deeply about these issues because they don’t have time to, they’re doing other stuff.
Jane Coaston: Right.
Tommy Vietor: Um. That said, there is a vocal slice of the Republican Party and of MAGA that believed Trump when he said he would never do a regime change wars in the Middle East. People like Tucker Carlson, people like Nick Fuentes. JD Vance used to be in this camp.
Jane Coaston: Right.
Tommy Vietor: I wonder what happened to him. Um. So there’s like the far right kind of isolationist wing of the Republican party of the MAGA world. There’s also the newer voters that came in through, let’s say Joe Rogan’s podcast. Uh. There are veterans shows like the Shawn Ryan show. Shawn Ryan was in the special forces, like has seen personally–
Jane Coaston: Yeah.
Tommy Vietor: –the cost of war. That’s why he poses this sort of–
Jane Coaston: Yeah.
Tommy Vietor: –interventionism. But there are other voters who are just young and feel like the economy is not working for them. The government doesn’t do the stuff they want. And all of a sudden we’re paying tens of millions of dollars to drop bombs on Iran again, instead of spending it on healthcare, like they don’t get that. That pisses them off. That is not America first, as Trump would say.
Jane Coaston: Right. I have seen numerous people who said like, this isn’t what we voted for. Uh. Saagar Enjeti, a conservative commentator and co-host of the podcast, Breaking Points tweeted on February 28th that the war was quote, “the most profound campaign betrayal in modern US history.” Now I think that there’s been this story that’s not necessarily true, but there’s kind of a story that like, it doesn’t really matter what Trump does because nothing bad ever happens to him. He’s the cat that always lands on his feet. Everything always works out. But you know actions do have consequences. So what happens now that there are a swath of people who were sold a bill of goods in 2024 and have seen that Trump doesn’t care about them at all? What happens now?
Tommy Vietor: I mean, I think in the near term, what happens is um gas prices are gonna go up and they’re gonna stay up for a really long time. And that is another like enormous betrayal of what Donald Trump ran on. Like his number one thing was like, Joe Biden is bad at handling inflation, your costs are up, the price of eggs are up. I’m gonna make them go down. And now the price of everything for everyone is gonna go up and the price of fertilizer is gonna go up. Like one third of the fertilizer in the world goes through the Straight of Hormuz. That means everything we buy is going to be more expensive. And I think Trump thinks he can bend the world and bend reality to his will. He thinks if he says it enough, it becomes so. But when every day you see that gas is at 3.48 a gallon instead of 2.48, you can’t spin that. They’re gonna be pissed. And I think they’re gonna slowly slip away from him.
Jane Coaston: To that point, the Trump administration is now choosing to just rebrand whatever America First means. Last week, Deputy White House Chief of Staff and Homeland Security Advisor Stephen Miller, that’s too many titles for him, he told Fox News’ Sean Hannity, quote, “America First means America will be the greatest, most unquestioned, unmatched power in the world.”.
Tommy Vietor: What?
Jane Coaston: Yeah. No.
Tommy Vietor: When I was preparing for Pod Save the World this week, I was going back and watching some old interviews and I found one where Trump, in 2018, was saying that people are sick and tired of America being the world’s policeman. And then you look at all the things we’re doing right now. Like, we just started launching military operations in Ecuador, along with Ecuadorian special forces to go after drug cartels. We are bombing boats in the Caribbean. We did a regime change overnight in Venezuela. Now we’re at war in Iran, like it’s the opposite of what Trump ran on, like that is not what America first was. America first was focusing on things at home, making people’s lives better at home. Not bombing everyone around the world.
Jane Coaston: I think that Trump really likes bombing people around the world.
Tommy Vietor: I do too, I do too.
Jane Coaston: And does not care about any of this. To me, this is an administration that thinks they will simply be obeyed by their voters. They will say what America first means.
Tommy Vietor: Totally.
Jane Coaston: And their voters will say great.
Tommy Vietor: Cool.
Jane Coaston: Are they right?
Tommy Vietor: With a big chunk of those voters, they might be right, but like elections in America are won and lost by five point swings. You know it’s like if you lose 20% of Joe Rogan’s audience, that’s a big chunk of people and that will really hurt you in the midterms and that we’ll hurt JD Vance if he runs in 2028. And also I think this could open up like a actually isolationist MAGA lane in the 2028 Republican primary because all of a sudden JD Vance has reportedly not only told Trump that he’s for the Iran operation, but to go bigger.
Jane Coaston: Yeah. People who are not super online might not know this, but JD Vance hasn’t like tweeted or anything since this began.
Tommy Vietor: He hasn’t said a word.
Jane Coaston: Which normally he’s like tweeting at complete randos because he’s bored because being vice president is boring, but he’s been real quiet.
Tommy Vietor: This man will write like an op-ed-length tweet attacking the intern at the Center for American Progress and he hasn’t said a goddamn word about the regime change war in Iran that he helped start.
Jane Coaston: Tommy, thank you for joining me as always.
Tommy Vietor: Thank you for having me.
Jane Coaston: That was my conversation with Tommy Vietor, co-host of Crooked Media’s Pod Save the World. It’s Friday and you’re still listening to a podcast about news. You’re probably the coolest person in your friend group. Don’t worry. There’s more news incoming. But if you like the show, even on a Friday, please subscribe, leave a five star review on Spotify and Apple podcasts, watch us on YouTube and share with your friends. We’ll be back after some ads. [music break]
[AD BREAK]
Jane Coaston: Here’s what else we’re following today.
[sung] Headlines.
[clip of Senator Elizabeth Warren] House Republicans should immediately take up this bill and pass it. If they do not, they will have to explain to families across this country in November why they refuse to lower the cost of housing.
Jane Coaston: Massachusetts Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren spoke on the Senate floor Thursday after pulling off a rare feat, passing bipartisan legislation. There was so much going on in DC this week. And thankfully, What a Day’s Matt Berg is in DC reporting on the biggest stories in politics. Hey Matt!
Matt Berg: Hey Jane.
Jane Coaston: What’s up?
Matt Berg: Just hanging out in the midst of the chaos.
Jane Coaston: So, Matt, a bipartisan housing bill passed the Senate on Thursday. The votes were 89 to 10. It was co-sponsored by Senator Warren and South Carolina Republican Senator Tim Scott. It’s it’s funny because I don’t know about you, Matt. But like the idea of bipartisan legislation has gotten to the point of like, they can do that? That’s legal?
Matt Berg: I mean, I don’t think that I can remember a time during this administration that we’ve seen such bipartisanship, but I think that it goes to speak to how big of an issue housing is in the United States. I mean the goal of this bill is to boost housing supply, cut regulations, and expand how federal aid can be used to build affordable homes and rentals. But as we’ve seen over and over again in the past two years, this is going to the House and there’s going to be problems. GOP lawmakers are annoyed that they were not involved in some of these discussions and they want to add a bunch of small things that could take up a lot of time to get this bill through.
Jane Coaston: Speaking of the Senate though, Senate Democrats blocked a bill passed by House Republicans that would fund the Department of Homeland Security. Pennsylvania Democratic Senator John Fetterman voted with Republicans on this, which checks out.
Matt Berg: Yeah, Democrats tried over and over in the past few weeks to get Republicans to fund, you know, TSA, FEMA, Coast Guard, and other things that are under DHS via narrower bills. But the GOP is not cool with that. They just want the full budget passed, law lawmakers have just said Democrats need to fund ICE if they want to get the rest of those bills passed. And so far, no one is budging and there’s been no progress. I think it’s the fourth time in four weeks that the full DHS budget has been voted down, which just goes to show how stalled negotiations were. Washington State Democratic Senator Patty Murray told the AP this week, quote, “I’m willing to talk to people, but I’m not willing to sit in a room, have coffee, give away a few things and have Stephen Miller override whatever we all agree to.”
Jane Coaston: I mean, I also wouldn’t want Stephen Miller to override anything I agreed to, or I don’t want him to do anything at all. I’ve really been very strong on that anti-Stephen Miller stance.
Matt Berg: And apparently they’re having coffee with Stephen Miller too, so would’t want to be there.
Jane Coaston: Oh, oh, oh that sounds awful. In other news, the deadly war in Iran continues. It’s costing billions of dollars. 11.3 billion dollars over the first six days. But uh the White House is posting memes because they are insanely online. Matt, what have you been seeing?
Matt Berg: You’re right. There have been a lot of really just bizarre videos coming out of the White House, mostly posted to the White house Twitter page or YouTube. People who are listening might recall the White House using Call of Duty footage, combined with drone strike footage that drew significant backlash from the public. Another few over the past week have included Kylo Ren from Star Wars and even SpongeBob Square Pants calling in a drone strike. I thought that the latest video was about a bowling montage that again included drone strikes. But as I was writing for Thursday’s newsletter about this, the White House posted a video that featured uh Wii characters. You might remember the video game console from about a decade ago. These Miis, as they’re known, were playing Wii sports. They were playing tennis, playing basketball, playing golf. And anytime that they hit a ball, it triggered drone strike footage. And it’s just a bizarre thing to see come out of a White House. I asked White House press official Anna Kelly about this, and she told me, quote, “the White House will continue showcasing the many examples of Iran’s ballistic missiles, production facilities, and dreams of owning a nuclear weapon being destroyed.”
Jane Coaston: It’s funny because they aren’t showcasing any of that. You just see stuff blowing up and then you see like meme footage or in one video posted on Wednesday, the White House used NFL footage of players, including retired Baltimore Ravens defender Ray Lewis, like those kind of like, he got lit up kind of pits and then contrasted that with like war footage and that got a ton of pushback from other former NFL players, as you can imagine. Former NFL safety Ryan Clark said quote, “There are families here in our country whose loved ones have decided to give their life to fight for our rights and our freedoms. We don’t see war as a sport. War doesn’t deserve a highlight film for Tropic Thunder to be a part of it. War is not a comedy.” He referenced Tropic Thunder because that movie was spliced in too, because of course it was, I keep saying this, but it’s been interesting to me and I’m curious if you think about this, Matt, like there’s been no effort to manufacture consent for this war at all. Like there’s been no like, here’s why we need to go do this. Here’s the thing we’re gonna go do and here’s why we’re going to do it and here was why it’s worth it for people to die in this conflict. Instead we’re getting meme videos on a platform most people don’t use.
Matt Berg: Exactly, it’s one thing that when you watch those videos, you notice is that you’re not really seeing that much. You’re seeing these grainy, unclassified supposedly, videos of war, but it’s like a truck in the middle of nowhere. There’s rarely people involved. It’s just a random scene that you can’t even make out. It doesn’t look like Iran missile facilities as far as I’ve seen. It’s just totally random and seems to be like a total play at their hyper online base.
Jane Coaston: I think that this entire presidency has been a play at their hyper online base. But Matt, as always, thank you so much for hanging out.
Matt Berg: Thanks for having me.
Jane Coaston: And that’s the news. [music break] That’s all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review. Congratulate WAD listener, Winn Decker, for winning his primary in North Carolina last week and tell your friends to listen. And if you’re into reading, and not just about how Winn was inspired to run for office through Crooked and Vote Save America’s Candidate Recruitment Program, and now he has a shot to flip one of the most competitive state house seats in North Carolina, like me, What a Day is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at crooked.com/subscribe. I’m Jane Coaston, and Winn, thank you for listening. Have a great workout this morning. [music break] What a Day is a production of Crooked Media. It’s recorded and mixed by Desmond Taylor. Our associate producer is Emily Fohr. Our producer is Caitlin Plummer. Our video editor is Joseph Dutra. Our video producer is Johanna Case. We had production help today from Greg Walters, Matt Berg, Sean Allee, and Ethan Oberman. Our senior producer is Erica Morrison, and our senior vice president of news and politics is Adriene Hill. Our theme music is by Kyle Murdock and Jordan Cantor. We had help today from the Associated Press. Our production staff is proudly unionized with the Writers Guild of America East. [music break]
