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NBC news is reporting that some House Republicans privately admit that Donald Trump and Maga are now a serious liability in the midterms. They're in a trap. Republicans can't decide whether to rely on Trump to turn out his supporters, voters that Republicans very much need,
because that risks tying them too closely to the alien unpopular president. All this comes as new polling shows that Trump is literally the most unpopular US president ever when it comes to gas prices. It also comes amid new signs that Trump's corruption is becoming a more central issue by the day. That GOP trap, whether or not to run with Trump,
perfectly captures how the GOP's on critical embrace of the president is backfiring and just about
every way. So we're talking about it all with Mona Sharon, a writer for the bull work, who has a good piece arguing that gas prices and corruption are combining to hurt Republicans in hidden ways. Mona, thanks for coming on. "My pleasure always nice to be with you, Greg." So let's start with this analysis from CNN's Harry Anton.
Here he's talking about disapproval of presidents on gas prices. Listen. Often times when gas prices go up, the president pays a price. But never this much, because we're talking about a record here. Take a look at this, highest disapproval on gas prices. Look at this. President Trump, 79%, 79% of Americans disapprove of him on gas prices.
Look, the rest of them you see across the board also reach the 70s, but never this high.
This is a record high in terms of looking back at every single president this century." So to quickly recap, Trump's disapproval on gas prices is 79%, higher than any other president. And later in the analysis, Harry Anton notes that 85% of independence and even 52% of Republicans
“disapprove of visible numbers, Mona, your reaction to those?”
Yeah, it's really interesting, and though I'm not usually one to say that the voters are wise and smart, you know, because it's a we've had reason in the recent past to doubt that. But in this case, I think it's pretty clear that voters have this very negative view of Trump's responsibility for gas prices, because it could not be clearer. Why gas prices are so high? That it was this unprovoked war that he chose to engage in,
that has caused the spike in gas prices. It isn't some exogenous event. You know, they gave him a break. They didn't hold him responsible for the COVID virus. And they did, you know, there are many things that they thought were out of his control. And therefore, they didn't hold him accountable. But this is so clear and not only did he launch this war, but he did so without ever making a case for it to the American people without getting
any congressional buy-in, far less declaration of war. And so, yeah, if it's, if it's causing pain, people know exactly who to blame. There's a remarkable clarity to this one, because in most cases, presidents aren't really to blame for economic conditions. And yet in this case, it couldn't be clearer. And as you, I just want to bear down a little more on it, the closure of the
straightive horror moves, which is where all the, you know, 20 percent of the world's oil
traffics through, is very clearly the reason for the price spikes all around the world. And everybody can see it with total clarity. And you just don't often get something so clearly cut where a president is so clearly on the hook for what's happening to voters directly do you?
“No, it's such a good point, because, look, life is complicated and certainly economies usually”
have many things going on at once. And so you could say, well, you know, what's causing this
Slow down, you know, and it could be many things.
you know, trade? Is it, you know, COVID? Is it many, many things? But in this case, it could not be
“clearer. And beyond that, it is a violation of Trump's key promise that he made during the”
2020-24 campaign, that he was going to tackle inflation. Now, of course, his promises were ridiculous. But he did make that claim when he was running that he would bring down prices across the board. And he's, that's clearly not only not delivered on that, he's counter-delivered. Prices are up, not down. Well, this all helps explain why House Republicans are growing really panicked. NBC News reports that a House Republican confided to the NBC reporters that Republicans
are dubious about the party strategy and its slogan, which is, quote, unquote, magmajarity.
Now, that's supposed to mean the House majority, magmajarity. But some vulnerable Republicans don't like it, according to NBC, because magma is toxic, and because the terminology centralizes
“Trump too much. Monitor, they finally figured out that Trump is toxic. What do you make of that?”
Well, it couldn't happen to a nicer group. No, look, they brought this on themselves. They made their beds. Pick your cliche. This party is Trump's party. If Trump is popular, they win. If Trump is unpopular, they lose. They have no place to hide. They simply don't. They have given everything over to him. And so they are completely vulnerable. Now, I should just add a caveat, though, Greg. I mean, let's face the fact that the Republicans are attempting to cheat their way out
of this. And they are having quite a bit of success. The combination of the willingness of the legislatures in Texas and other states to Jerry Mander, the fact that Virginia's counter Jerry Mander has now been, has now been ruled unconstitutional by the state court of Virginia, and just FYI, I would just add, though, people are saying they want to take this to the United States Supreme Court. I am very dubious that that would go anywhere because state Supreme
courts are almost always held to be the experts on their own state constitutions. The Republicans
are now in a position where even though they are desperately unpopular, even though Magga is toxic, as you say, you know, is it still possible that they could hold on? It absolutely is. As of now, they're probably going to net at the end of the day around six extra seats due to their redistricting. The analyses that I trust right now by people like G. Eliot Morris and Nate Cohen are saying that Democrats have to win the national popular vote by around three points, maybe four at the very outside.
That is really unfortunate and it's absurdly unfair and disgusting and all the rest of it, but it is doable. Most midterms that in memory that have taken place with an unpopular president have delivered a larger win than that. So I really do think it's possible. Yes, I agree. It is possible. It would also be great if Democrats could field candidates who know how to appeal to independence because for Democrats to win, they have to win 60% of the
independent vote because there are fewer liberals than there are conservatives in this country. And so it's just a fact of life that Democrats want to win, they have to be able to win over
“independence and they're just aren't enough Democrats. So I personally believe that the best way to”
do that and I think it's been demonstrated around the country is you tailor your candidate to the district and make sure that you have people who are acceptable. You don't have to give up all your principles, you don't have to remake yourself into maga, but you have to be somebody who doesn't send independence running for the hills. There are so many polls, Greg, that show the independence think the Democrats are more radical than the Republicans. I know that's crazy and I know it's
inexplicable to some people, especially Democrats, but if Democrats want to win elections and I think we all agree that they really need to, if this republic is going to be anything like what we hope for, they have to figure out how to do that. To stay up to date on all the news that you need to know,
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access to our discord community, exclusive content, early episode access, and more. Use code DSR 26 for 25% off discount on sign up at the DSR network.com. That's code in DSR 26 at the DSR network.com/buy. Thank you and enjoy the show. There's been a crush of new reporting about Trump's corruption of late. I just want to point out independence hate corruption. We just learned some truly shocking news. The New York Times reports
that the White House is in talks with the Justice Department in which DOJ would agree to settle
a lawsuit that Trump brought against the IRS previously for billions of dollars over his late tax returns. Mona, this is an unbelievable story. A judge is expected to throw out this lawsuit soon, but the White House is actively trying to get DOJ to settle it in Trump's favor before the judge acts before the judge throws us up. How is that different from Donald Trump's simply ordering
“an agency to hand him billions of dollars in tax payer money? That's what we're talking about.”
I mean, it is gobsmacking. They want us to be lulled into a kind of hopelessness about all of this,
and it's easy to see how that can happen, but we have to fight it. This is an outrageous theft. He is attempting to raid the OS Treasury for billions. Now, I can't imagine that even his own IRS and his own Justice Department will go for billions, but we'll see. As I said in my piece, you can't get away with a fair amount of corruption. If the economy is really strong and people's pocketbooks are flush, but when the economy is not strong and people perceive that you don't care
about them, you're not interested in what's happening to their bank account, and meanwhile, you are stuffing your pockets with gold bars and garrish ballrooms and billions from the IRS. People are then going to be very angry. We saw this recently in Hungary, where Victor Orban, the poster child of the post-liberal movement on the right. Everybody's certainly Trump's favorite
“dictator. He was quite a dictator because he was a member of the EU and gets kind of, you have to add”
that. He wasn't actually putting his opponents in jail, but he did engage in flagrant corruption. He did make his allies and his family members and himself wealthy, and he did corrupt the society in many other ways, and people put up with it until the economy started to go south. And then the anger about the corruption really erupted, and Petar Majar was able to make that a very strong campaign issue. And we've seen this in a number of countries, we've seen it in our own country. I mean,
arguably Bill Clinton engaged in really reprehensible conduct as president with women and people were willing to shrug it off because the economy was roaring. So, you know, and this now, you know, Trump people knew in 2024 when they voted for them that Trump was corrupt. I don't think they, you know, except for the MAGA, you know, crazies. Those independence, those sort of normie Republicans, who pulled the lever for Trump, they knew he was corrupt, but they figured, okay, it's a bargain,
you know, we'll get some corruption, but my bank account will be better. The prices will come down, we'll get the economy of 2018 back. And he has failed to deliver on his end to the bargain,
“and he doesn't even seem to care. And that is, I think it's going to really kill him. I think this”
is a, this is a huge iceberg that he is, that he is sailing right into this corruption issue. And not only that, the corruption news is multiplying on other fronts as well. We're hearing
That the ballroom is now going to cost a billion dollars.
probably illegally bulldozed the White House East Wing to build this thing. There are also dubious
things going on with the contracting on the reflecting pool project. And then there's the corrupt
“lawsuit. I want to get it your point. Wait, can we just say one real quick about the ballroom?”
Of course. It started out. So, he bulldozes the East Wing, which, by the way, I worked there in the Reagan administration, and I was, I took it personally. It was a beautiful building, and it was graceful, and it fit in with the whole White House campus anyway. Without anybody say so without approval from the Planning Commission or anybody, okay, he bulldozes that and he says,
I'm going to build a ballroom, and it's going to be $200 million. And it's all going to be paid
for by contributions from private parties, not going to cost a taxpayers a dime. A few months later, he says, well, it's actually going to be much bigger, and it's going to be $400 million. But don't worry, it's all going to be paid for by by private contributions, which is corrupt enough by itself, right, because people can buy a favors by contributing to his ballroom. But now, the Republicans in the Congress in the Senate are saying they want the taxpayers to spend a billion dollars
on this ballroom. So, so much for the taxpayers won't be on the hook anyway. Just wanted to get that off my chest. Corruption can be a sleeper issue in U.S. politics and unexpected ways. In 2006, the corruption under George D'Aubuch and the GOP Congress helped Democrats win both chambers of
“Congress then. I think Corruption was a big reason Trump lost the Joe Biden in 2020. Now,”
it's an issue to agree. I don't think we've ever seen before, you know, it's extraordinarily vivid because the combination you brought up of the gas prices and the corruption. It's very clear right now because things are going to shit all over the place, even as Trump is obsessing over all these corrupt monuments schemes in a very public way. It's not like it's being hidden. It's right out in public and just about every conceivable way. That's new, isn't it? In some ways? Yes. And, and, you know,
so Trump has really lost his touch or he just doesn't care. But the other half of win corruption can can come back to bite you. There are two situations as I see it. One is, as I mentioned, when the economy turns south and people's own pocketbooks are suffering, they become much less tolerant of corruption. The other is that when they do not, so if people think that the stories about corruption are just partisanship. They think everybody does it, you know, and, and oh,
there go those Democrats again, you know, criticizing the president, they'll criticize him no matter
“what he does, etc. If, if you can get by on that, then you can slide. But the fact is, it isn't”
the Democrats right now who are fronting the corruption. It's Trump himself and his, and his toties. It is Trump who can't shut up about the damn ballroom. It's Trump who makes that the centerpiece after the assassination attempt at the White House car response dinner. He immediately goes to this is why we need the ballroom. It is he who keeps, you know, talking about, you know, his plans to renovate Washington, his plans for the reflecting pool, his plans for a triumphal
arch. God forbid, honestly, I don't know, Greg about you, but I want to go lie down in front of the bulldozers on that one. But, you know, he's, he is the one who's elevating this. And, you know,
it's just, I don't, I don't think the Trump of the first term was doing this kind of thing. He was
back then. It was like signing his name on the stimulus checks and making sure he could claim credit for anything that went to the taxpayer. But this time, it's all about me, baby. Right. The one thing during the first term was you had him essentially booking rooms in his hotel to corrupt cheeks and stuff like that. Oh, I'm not saying, I'm not saying there wasn't corruption. There was, but it was, it was quieter. I mean, this, what he's doing now is like he's using a bullhorn
to draw attention to it. Yeah, absolutely. It's just to close this out. Economist Douglas Holtz Eiken, who is right leaning, had a pretty interesting quote to the Washington Post. He said that people inside the White House, Republicans in and around the White House are growing anxious. He said, quote, they're very worried. And then he said this, I think there's no way to sugarcoat
That if we don't get the price of gasoline down, Republicans are toast.
Close quote. What do you think, Mona? Is that how you see this playing out? Is it basically that
“they're not going to really be able to get prices down in the general sense? And are Republicans”
likely toast? Well, I mean, barring some sort of a miracle. It doesn't seem likely. You know,
they always say that prices go up like a rocket and come down like a feather. And so it is hard
“to get prices down quickly enough for if the, so the conventional wisdom is that people make”
their voting decisions by August of an election year. And pretty much after that, it doesn't much matter. They've made up their minds. So we're in May could, could something happen to bring
“prices down by August? I'm not going to say it's impossible. I just think it's exceedingly unlikely.”
As for whether Republicans are toast, I would just say this. In all likelihood, they're going to have a bad year. Democrats should be doing everything possible to make it a terrible year. But this is going to, this is a long-term struggle that we are in against liberalism and quasi-fascism. And it's, it ain't going to be over in November. Certainly not for all kinds of reasons. The struggle is going to continue into 2028 in very big ways. Folks, if you enjoyed this, check out Monus podcast
over at the Bull Work, the Monus Sharon Show. Monus, thank you so much for coming on as always.
Great to talk to you. Likewise, great to see you, Greg.
