'Gramps is asleep every time he’s out in public’: Nicolle on Trump TANKING in public appearances

[0:00] Donald Trump, you may have heard this already, waded into Madison Square Garden last night [0:05] and he did so amid plunging tall numbers, rising prices for just about everything [0:11] and an increasingly angry and agitated political coalition. [0:16] Appearing to expect the kind of reception that he gets from his cabinet members who [0:21] fawn all over him, thinking that that would somehow extend to 20,000 New York Knicks fans. [0:26] Here's how that went down. [0:27] It wasn't just that they were booing inside Madison Square Garden. [0:45] Here's how the broader city of New York received Donald Trump. [1:11] I've never heard so much beeping as I did watching local news and the game last night. [1:16] But Donald Trump is never one to let that reality get in the way of his own egos or delusions. [1:23] And so this was his readout of how he was received at the garden last night. [1:28] I did it great. [1:29] I mean, I thought it was amazing, actually. [1:31] You mean when they had the camera on me? [1:34] I thought it was very good, yeah. [1:36] It was certainly amazing. [1:37] It was, I think, mostly cheers. [1:41] It was loud and it was very enthusiastic. [1:45] Because, of course, last night was all about him and mostly cheers. [1:51] That's not what anybody else heard. [1:54] Let's let you hear it for yourself. [1:56] This is that so-called mostly cheers, maybe from a different angle. [2:10] I think Rachel called them salty, salty reception. [2:13] Now, there's another explanation, though. [2:17] It is possible that he didn't know how badly he was received. [2:21] He appeared to take a little snoozeroo during the game. [2:25] I think he might be the only person who was sleeping during last night's game. [2:31] Trump's seven hours in New York City is as good of a way into talking about where his entire presidency stands. [2:38] He appears to many Americans to be asleep at the wheel 17 months into his second term as president. [2:44] His approval rating remains at near record lows. [2:47] It's 35 percent in the newest poll at Reuters survey released yesterday. [2:51] Americans say they are growing frustrated with Trump's economy. [2:54] And despite Trump's best efforts to gaslight the American people about how he would like things to be, [3:00] saying the same gaggle where he said it was amazing, his reception, not the game, or Jalen Brunson or Josh Hart or anybody else, [3:09] just the cheers for him. [3:11] That's what he was talking about. [3:13] He also said that gas prices are, quote, not that high, relatively speaking. [3:17] But at this point, voters aren't buying it. [3:19] In that same Reuters poll, 70 percent of Americans disapprove of Donald Trump's handling of the cost of living. [3:25] 59 percent of Americans say they expect gas prices specifically to get higher in the coming year. [3:31] One MSNOW analyst, a former staffer from Donald Trump's first term, puts it like this, quote, [3:37] The president has lost all credibility on the economy, the number one priority of the American people. [3:43] He has lost control over the ending of the war. [3:46] The administration is rudderless. [3:48] Trump is enamored with being president, yet wants nothing to do with the job. [3:54] After giving up on governing with no vision, the president has turned to what's simply in his line of sight. [3:59] Event after unrelated event, speech after rambling speech. [4:03] He is obsessed with what he perceives as the beautification of his D.C. bubble. [4:09] He talks about fountains, his arch, his ballroom, a repainted reflecting pool, a UFC fight at the White House, [4:16] and a partisan rally for himself after the failure of a planned concert on the National Mall. [4:21] His appointees propose plastering his face on passports and on $250 bills. [4:27] Banners with Trump's looming image adorn government buildings in Washington, [4:31] while Trump rants about not being able to put his name on the Kennedy Center. [4:35] The second Trump administration is already a lost cause, at home and abroad. [4:40] He has made himself a lame duck president and is getting lamer by the day. [4:44] Donald Trump dragging down America as his political impotence reveals itself in bouts of authoritarian fits and spurts. [4:53] This is where we begin today with some of our favorite reporters and friends. [4:57] Staff writer for The Atlantic, political analyst Ashley Parker is back with us. [5:01] It's so nice to see you, my friend. [5:03] Also joining us, former senior advisor to President Biden and Vice President Harris, [5:07] the former mayor of New Orleans, Mitch Landers here. [5:09] It's very nice to see you too, my friend. [5:11] He's now the co-chair of American Bridge 21st Century. [5:15] With me at the table for the very first time, former New York State Senator Daniel Squadron. [5:19] He's the author of a must-read new book called The Fourth Branch, How State Government Can Save Our Union. [5:26] We'll talk about that in a minute. [5:28] I'll start with you. [5:29] You're at the game. [5:30] I was. [5:31] Did they boo? [5:32] No. [5:33] Look, it was never going to... [5:34] Can we talk about the game for a second? [5:35] Like, it doesn't have to happen in four. [5:37] We're going to win. [5:38] We can't get greedy. [5:39] You know, 53 years, let's let's let it come. [5:43] It's coming. [5:43] You know, it's coming. [5:45] I will never say Knicks and whatever, just Knicks. [5:47] Yeah. [5:49] So I was at the game. [5:50] Yeah, did they boo? [5:51] Well, you need to be fair to the president. [5:52] Yeah, no, some people cheered. [5:53] I hear... [5:54] There were three less popular people in that arena. [5:56] Okay. [5:57] The refs. [5:58] Yeah, I know. [5:59] Yeah. [5:59] They got booed more. [6:00] But beyond that, you know, I'd have to say the next loudest set of boos I heard was right [6:06] there during the national anthem when the president's face came on the screen. [6:09] And I mean, the thing about his face on the screen, and actually, this to me, as sort [6:14] of an ex-staffer, I always think about the staff's decisions. [6:18] If you never put his face on the screen, you could have said all the boos were for the [6:23] refs. [6:23] And you're right, there were enough. [6:26] It's almost like the vanity is the thing that lets everyone else see how unpopular he [6:31] is. [6:31] But he's so... [6:32] He's in this narcissistic hamster wheel where he couldn't resist having his face up there. [6:37] So, of course, everybody booed. [6:38] Well, of course. [6:39] And, you know, maybe New York City is obviously not a Trump town. [6:43] Maybe they were thinking lots of people are coming in from parts of Jersey and Long Island, [6:47] you know, where he did a lot better. [6:48] Those secondary market tickets are really expensive. [6:51] There's industries where he did a lot better. [6:53] But even when you would expect more popularity in that arena last night because of who was able [6:59] to be there, the boos were still that loud, I think it's a real sign that his base is collapsing. [7:04] Yeah. [7:04] I mean, Ashley, you don't need one of your epic 36-door stories to know that, like, [7:11] the pressure cooker is about to burst. [7:13] I mean, this is... [7:15] And I wondered this out loud around the State of the Union about his information loop, [7:22] the caliber and the quality of information he's getting. [7:25] To me, he seems on top of everything else in an information bubble. [7:31] Like, he's just not hearing the truth about anything. [7:34] Well, I'd say it's two things, right? [7:38] He does have people around him, not everyone, but a lot of people who tell him what he wants [7:44] to hear, who are sort of like little puppies depositing at his feet, you know, polls that [7:49] wouldn't really pass muster on your network or my magazine that, you know, show him doing [7:53] well. [7:54] So there is some of that. [7:55] But I actually think one thing that is so striking is what you actually played of him [8:01] getting booed and then his response about the great reaction and how it was mainly cheers. [8:07] And he has always had that ability to sort of will himself and often other people in the [8:13] country, others around him, into that level of self-delusion and will his own reality. [8:19] And it has served him well. [8:21] And at the end of the day, it's kind of benign. [8:24] If he wants to claim that all those boos were cheers for him, fine. [8:28] But one thing that has been so striking about the recent months in his presidency is he has [8:32] run up against the one reality he cannot will, which is voters know what gas prices are. [8:40] Voters know how much it costs to go to the grocery store. [8:43] Voters know if they are now going to two grocery stores to use all of their coupons or to get the [8:48] best deals at each one. [8:49] And they know how much money they have in their checking accounts or how much they don't at [8:54] the end of the month. [8:55] And this is the one thing, despite this long history and lifetime of willing reality, [9:00] that he cannot will. [9:01] And that is why he is paying a political price in his approval numbers. [9:05] I mean, Mitch, I think it's that plus the wars. [9:09] I was around someone who's been enamored with Donald Trump for a decade. [9:14] And she still likes him a lot, but she hates the war. [9:17] And so it's this triple betrayal. [9:20] I think one is the economy. [9:23] Two is the war. [9:25] And three is the vibes are embarrassing. [9:28] I mean, Gramps is asleep literally every time he's out in public. [9:31] So God only knows what he's doing in private. [9:33] Well, I think that if you if you ask people what they think, which is always a wise thing to do, [9:39] they will tell you that the reason I voted for Donald Trump is because he said he was going to [9:42] get out of forever wars because our investments in wars were hurting our pocketbooks. [9:47] And he's actually tried to figure out a way to do the exact opposite of what he said he was going [9:51] to do. And people feel betrayed, number one, because he lied to them again. [9:56] But more importantly, the war is causing actually the cost to go up. [9:59] And so these people are saying, wait a minute, I'm really confused about what you're doing. [10:03] And you're focused on bombs and ballrooms, but you're not focused on my pocketbook. [10:07] And I may care about democracy. [10:09] I may care about a bunch of other stuff. [10:10] But what I really care about is supporting myself, making my rent, making my car payment, [10:15] putting food on the table for my kids. [10:16] And they can't do that right now. [10:18] And no matter how many times he says they're OK, they're telling him, no, you know, I'm not. [10:23] And now I'm pissed. [10:23] And so that is that is why we spent this much time talking to working class people, [10:28] which actually swung the election in his favor and are really up for grabs. [10:31] And we're going to go get them. [10:33] And I think those people have been very clear about what they want, what they care about [10:36] and why the president is not delivering for them. [10:38] And they want to make a different choice now. [10:40] And they want to make a different choice now.