LOSING: ‘Warmonger’ Trump ROCKED by gas prices & MAGA REVOLT, as approval sinks to new low

[0:00] this afternoon dozens of american veterans were arrested on capitol hill during a protest of the [0:05] war congressional staffers telling ms now that the cost of the war has now hit 50 billion dollars [0:25] the pentagon says that there have been 415 u.s service members wounded more than a dozen are [0:31] dead and from one moment to the next the administration seesaws from talk of diplomacy [0:37] to rapid escalation with u.s marines seizing an iranian cargo ship over the weekend and a [0:42] fragile ceasefire set to expire this week all the while americans are paying the price of war at the [0:49] pump trump's energy secretary offering a bleak message on when voters might see relief when [0:59] do you think it's realistic for americans to expect that gas will go back to under three dollars a [1:03] gallon uh i don't know that could happen later this year that might not happen until next year [1:08] next year so you know after the midterm elections that could be a problem especially since 65 percent [1:16] of voters blame trump for those higher gas prices and trump's overall approval rating is sinking [1:21] fast just 37 percent of americans now approve of the job he's doing as president that is a new low [1:28] for the second term and it means that even many people who voted for trump are now expressing some [1:33] buyer's remorse and while many are hurting here at home the trump administration is now reportedly [1:39] considering some sort of bailout for the uae which has also seen its economy hit hard by this war this [1:48] story in the in the wall street journal uh about the uae contacting scott besant about potentially the [1:55] united states providing some kind of uh currency swap or bailout if the strait remains closed and it [2:01] continues to to injure uh their economy what what do you make of that what do you know about that right [2:07] well well i haven't talked directly with secretary best about this but as you know the the uae has [2:12] been an incredibly valuable ally throughout this effort and i'm sure the treasury secretary will [2:18] make every effort to help them out should that be necessary add to all of this that late today we got [2:26] word of yet another shake up in the trump cabinet the secretary of labor lori chavez de remer is out [2:32] according to the white house she is the third member of the cabinet to leave in recent weeks [2:37] along with of course pam bondy and christy noem we now go live to ms now congressional correspondent [2:43] michael schnell she's there on capitol hill michael it is good to see you walk me through what's [2:48] behind this latest departure yeah well antonia this news just a few minutes fresh that former labor [2:55] secretary lori chavez de remer has resigned from her post i will note the white house confirmed she's no [3:01] longer serving but notably they did not say if she was fired or had resigned from her job as i [3:07] mentioned a source familiar with the matter telling me that she had indeed resigned the big question [3:11] what exactly led to this because chavez de remer her tenure at the labor department had been shrouded [3:17] in controversy in a number of investigations more on that in a moment but first off we're told that [3:22] chavez de remer was actually at the white house in the few minutes that led up to this news of her [3:28] resignation now we don't yet know who she met with what they discussed but she was at the white [3:32] house and another interesting tidbit that we're just learning again i'm just told from the source [3:36] familiar with the matter is that in the coming days lori chavez de remer was scheduled to sit down with [3:42] the office of inspector general at the labor department as part of their investigation into [3:47] allegations of a toxic workplace and sexual misconduct by both her and her husband dr sean de remer so [3:55] this resignation comes as she was preparing to sit down for that interview for that investigation [4:01] which has been going on for weeks and first started with a formal complaint being filed about [4:06] the secretary's conduct now again this comes after weeks of controversy and more shoes being dropped in [4:12] terms of these misconduct allegations against the former secretary there was re most recently [4:18] discrimination complaints filed by two young female staffers with the equal opportunity commission when [4:25] they had alleged that there was misconduct sexual touching by lori chavez de remer's husband they also [4:32] allege a toxic workplace and threats of retaliation for reporting the husband to various authorities again [4:39] there had also been that office of inspector general investigation there have been all these questions [4:43] and whispers about if chavez de remer would be on the chopping block next in terms of secretaries [4:49] in the president's cabinet because of all these poor headlines and these misconduct allegations against [4:54] her but today we are learning that the secretary jumped ahead and would resign on her own volition [5:00] again we're going to dig into more details on what actually led to this but notably it comes just [5:05] before she was scheduled to sit down for that high stakes office inspector general interview very [5:11] interesting timing there michael schnell thank you as always for your incredible reporting now we're [5:16] going to bring in michelle goldberg columnist for the new york times and mark liebovich staff writer [5:21] for the atlantic and ms now political contributor it's great to have all of you guys here i guess i'll [5:27] start with what you hopefully just heard me talking about with michael schnell there just another piece [5:32] in this incredibly chaotic story around the president around the war around our domestic conditions the [5:38] basic functioning of our federal government right now mark what do you make of this well i mean this [5:45] is just sort of another you know another chapter in the chaotic narrative i mean i think to some [5:49] degree i mean the cabinet chaos is something that that probably you know certainly foreshadowed in the [5:56] first term um to some degree this latest one is overshadowed a bit by the bondi and the gnome uh resignations [6:03] firing whatever you want to call them just because they were in such high profile positions that the [6:07] president seemed to care deeply about much more than he probably does the labor department um i do [6:12] think though that the larger issue here is not so much the larger chaos but i think just the the war [6:19] the tariffs the economy there's a sense that the administration is really spinning in a direction [6:25] that is just out of control and it's obviously not popular so this is probably a piece to that but i [6:30] think it's probably derivative at some point and and i think the main thing is obviously the ongoing war [6:36] michelle how do you read the extent to which the the war is responsible for the polling numbers uh [6:44] the poor feedback this president is receiving right now because while his numbers are historically [6:48] weak it seems that his grip on the party is still incredibly firm you see some signs at times of [6:55] pushback uh but at the end of the day they are still incredibly loyal to this president even [7:00] though he is technically a lame duck president and technically not even on the ballot right now in the [7:04] midterms right well so his numbers were already pretty low before the war the war has sent them [7:11] even lower and i think really created a situation that highlights to people the limits of his ability [7:17] to create his own reality and also highlights just the kind of blatant contradiction between his [7:24] campaign rhetoric and the way he's governing um it's you know i don't think it's much of a surprise [7:29] if he followed trump that he often has very hawkish instincts but he certainly told people very [7:35] specifically that he did not plan to start new wars in the middle east and in fact said that if kamala [7:41] harris was elected that's what she would do and so you're right that the voters are loyal to him [7:47] but if there are some cracks you know when he's losing the kind of influencer class that again there's [7:55] not that many of them but they were very important i think in creating this sense of momentum and [8:00] inevitability around this campaign there was a sense at the beginning of donald trump's presidency [8:06] that he had captured you know not just the white house but like the cultural zeitgeist and that is [8:12] absolutely gone right he's kind of flailing with nothing but the hardcore dead enders still behind it [8:20] well to your point figures like alex jones even i i you know he's an interesting figure because on [8:26] the one hand when you look at someone like alex jones you kind of don't even want to listen to [8:31] anything they have to say any of their cultural analysis because he's a huckster who kind of will go [8:36] where the wind blows but that's sort of the point of what makes him interesting because then that [8:40] tells you well maybe that is where the wind is in fact blowing i want you to take a listen uh [8:45] mark to some of his recent comments about the president and we're supposed to sit here [8:52] and love this crap it's just poll numbers go straight down and all the polls show the republicans [8:56] are going to lose the midterms in seven months by a landslide a disaster a total and complete [9:02] disaster so is alex jones in your view someone we should just write off or do you think he [9:09] tells us something about where culture is heading well i guarantee you the white house is not writing [9:14] this off and and look i mean whether we like alex jones or not i mean this is a big this is a big [9:19] center of influence within the world that voted for donald trump and i think it's worth pointing [9:23] on a couple things i mean donald trump's popularity or lack of popularity the loyalty of his base and [9:30] so forth i mean what does it even mean these days i mean it's not like he's going to be on the ballot [9:34] again and i mean he's already had trouble in the past you know getting people to vote for republicans [9:39] when he's not on the ballot i think enthusiasm writ large for republicans which is you know how it's [9:45] what's going to be influential in the midterms is really really low and i do think that the way the [9:51] president has led and the way the republican party has continued to follow pretty blindly is going to [9:57] be a real real damper on the party in the midterms but yeah i mean but alex jones and tucker carlson and [10:03] megan kelly and the whole group i mean they're not going anywhere i mean donald trump is term limited so [10:08] i do think maybe they're looking at maybe taking a longer view and maybe feel a little bit um freer to [10:14] to tell a truth that they might have hesitated to do before michelle you know trump has beaten the [10:21] odds coming back from the dead before is there a risk here of us underestimating the president's [10:27] ability to snap back especially if with these peace talks that are supposed to continue uh you know [10:33] things shift in the war soon could he make a comeback depends what you mean by a comeback right [10:39] because he's not up for election again um i don't think anybody is expecting him to be removed from [10:44] office i think that there was maybe a fantasy some of us had in the first term that some of his [10:50] you know kind of corruption and misbehavior and mismanagement was so egregious that at some point [10:55] there would be political consequences for him or legal consequences i don't think anybody thinks that [11:01] that is true anymore but i don't see a possibility for him to kind of regain the american people because [11:09] he's not going to change um i suppose there could be a miraculous outcome where the iranians decide to [11:17] basically drop all of their demands and donald trump can declare victory in this war i mean obviously [11:24] anything in this universe is possible right now we're not even sure if the iranians are going to agree [11:30] to talk to the administration um although it looks like they're open to some sort of negotiations [11:36] but you know right now i think it's pretty clear that the united states or donald trump at least is [11:41] desperate to wrap this up and has no idea how to do that