Trump calls Democrats ‘godless communists’ as part of latest midterm messaging

[0:00] Welcome to Meet the Press Now. I'm Garrett Haake in New York as President Trump tries to turn his [0:04] focus to November's elections, even as tensions he's created with his own party and the increasingly [0:09] tenuous agreement with Iran threaten to stymie his midterm message. Today, President Trump [0:15] delivering the keynote address at the Faith and Freedom Coalition Conference as he looks to rally [0:20] his base. The president focusing much of his midterm messaging today on Tuesday's victories [0:25] by Democratic Socialist candidates here in New York, calling them communists and a threat to the [0:29] country. And as you saw with the communists elected in New York City recently, they're communists, [0:35] they're not social democrats. They want to completely destroy the traditional American [0:40] way of life. It's becoming a communist party. These are not social democrats. These are hardcore, [0:47] godless communists. They're godless communists. All communists are godless. They don't believe in [0:53] God. This is the most serious threat to our country since its existence, in my opinion, 250 years ago. [1:01] But this is a major threat to our country. And it comes as the president is stepping on his own [1:07] agenda, complicating Republican lawmakers' efforts to highlight their work to lower the costs for [1:11] voters. Earlier this week, Mr. Trump abruptly announced, to the shock and dismay of many in [1:16] his party, that he was canceling an event to sign the bipartisan housing bill that passed with [1:21] overwhelming support, demanding Republicans pass his overhauling voting access bill first. After a [1:27] multi-hour meeting at the White House yesterday, Speaker Johnson sounded optimistic. [1:34] We're on exactly the same page. He wants to ensure that we stop any blockade in the House. [1:41] Congress has work to do, and that's what we're going to do. The majority party should never be voting [1:45] down rules. We've got to be able to move forward on legislation and continue the America version [1:49] agenda. And so we're happy to do that. It's another day at the office. You know, this is the process [1:55] in an era with small margins, but we'll get the job done. But today, President Trump again expressing [2:00] his frustration with Republicans standing in the way of the Save America Act. All voters must show [2:08] photo ID. Not so bad. All voters must provide proof of citizenship. Is that so hard? And you're fighting [2:19] the Democrats and a few Republicans who are doing a tremendous disservice to this country. [2:26] Meanwhile, tensions with Iran are once again escalating, which could further complicate the [2:30] president's midterm message on the economy. The president confirming today that Iran fired four drones [2:36] at a cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz, saying the U.S. knocked down three of them and calling the attack [2:41] a foolish violation of the ceasefire. Since striking the deal with Iran, President Trump has been [2:46] touting the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, claiming it will bring down gas prices. And oil [2:51] prices are almost back down to pre-war levels, coming down below $70 a barrel for the first time since [2:56] the war began almost four months ago. But any disruption in the Strait or further violations of [3:02] the ceasefire could threaten that progress. And moments ago in the Oval Office, President Trump [3:07] reacting to Iran's attack on that cargo ship in the Strait yesterday. [3:11] You said that Iran violated the ceasefire. Will they face any consequences? [3:17] You'll find out. [3:18] Do you consider the ceasefire to still be in place? [3:21] I don't like the fact that they took a shot yesterday, actually four. We knocked down three [3:26] at a ship, not an allied ship, but a ship, a very expensive ship. And it was fine, [3:35] but it took a little beating. They shouldn't be doing that. So you'll find out. [3:40] Joining me to break it all down now is NBC News Senior White House Correspondent Gabe Gutierrez, [3:46] NBC News Senior National Security Correspondent Courtney Kuby, and NBC News Business and Economy [3:51] Reporter Ali Canal. So, Gabe, what did you make of the President's message today? How much of what [3:56] we heard today do you think will be a consistent part of the midterm message? [4:00] Well, Garrett, certainly what you just described, the President referring to Democrats as communists, [4:04] that's something we expect to hear quite a bit of over the next couple of months because we have [4:08] been hearing it now for the last couple of days ever since those primary victories by [4:12] those Democratic candidates in New York that were backed by the New York mayors, [4:16] Aron Mondani. Now, President Trump over the last several days has been escalating that message [4:20] during his speech at the Faith and Freedom Coalition today. As you stated, that was a large part of [4:26] his message, but also what we just heard in the Oval Office, this Religious Freedom Commission, [4:30] this draft report that is now being put forward recommending basically replacing the idea of the [4:36] separation of church and state. The President certainly playing to his base right here and [4:41] trying to polarize the electorate. You have him trying to play to his base while also denigrating [4:49] Democrats and referring to them as godless communists, something that we heard several times during [4:54] his speech today over at the Washington Hill, Garrett. [4:58] How much is he complicating the midterm play here with these constant infighting with the [5:02] Republican Party? Do they need to put this sort of behind him, whether it's on Iran or on the [5:06] SAVE Act, if he actually wants to focus on affordability? [5:10] Well, look, Garrett, you know as well as I do, he doesn't seem to care much about what [5:13] congressional Republicans think. However, you're right. I mean, he lashed out at what he called [5:19] grandstanders in the Republican Party overnight after meeting with House Speaker Mike Johnson [5:24] yesterday, but at the same time he canceled that signing ceremony yesterday, something that so [5:30] many congressional Republicans have been looking forward to and looking to make it a part of their [5:34] midterm message. And now the question is, you know, what happens next in that, in this rift between [5:42] the Republican Party? It still remains unclear whether the President will go along with some of [5:47] these congressional Republicans, as their agenda at the moment seems to be stalled in Congress with [5:54] representatives like Anna Polina Luna, some hardliners, wanting to bring all of this to a halt. [6:00] And yet the President says that they're now grandstanding. This is still being ironed out on the [6:05] Hill, obviously. On the subject of grandstanding, do we have any update on when or even if the [6:10] President will sign that housing bill? You know, the White House has not said whether he does indeed plan [6:14] to sign it, of course. Now that it's supposedly been transmitted to the White House, it will become [6:19] law in 10 days. We haven't gotten any indication that he plans to veto it at this point. So it could [6:25] be that he just does nothing and it becomes law automatically within 10 days. But again, it took [6:30] away that nice, big, shiny press conference and signing ceremony that many congressional Republicans [6:34] have been wanting to have been wanting ahead of this midterm campaign here. All right, [6:39] Gabe Gutierrez on the North Lawn. Gabe, thank you. So, Courtney, I'll turn to you now. What more do we [6:43] know about the situation in the strait? Has the President described it accurately-ish? [6:49] We don't really know, actually. We do know. I mean, the facts that we know to be true are that [6:53] at least one Iranian drone, we believe fired by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the IRGC, [6:59] one drone did hit a commercial ship. The U.S. military shot down at least one other drone. That's [7:04] really all that we know about the situation beyond what President Trump has now been saying several [7:08] times today and posting on social media. Now, at this point, we're not aware of any further firing [7:13] beyond this one yesterday, yesterday by the IRGC. But President Trump sort of upping the ante on it [7:19] today when he posted that it was this violation of the ceasefire, as you just read on social media. [7:24] So now the big question is, will there be any kind of a U.S. response to the violation of the [7:31] ceasefire? Since the Memorandum of Understanding was signed on June 17th, we have not seen the back [7:38] and forth in the Strait of Hormuz that we were seeing every single day there for weeks and weeks. [7:43] So it's again, we're really in sort of a wait and see mode to see whether this these threats by the IRGC [7:49] that they carried out, at least on this one occasion, whether they continue and whether it really does [7:54] have an impact on the ceasefire going forward. And Vice President Vance said that the U.S. and Iran [7:59] had established some kind of communications line to avoid a potential military confrontation. [8:03] Do you know anything about that? Was it made use of here? We have no idea about it. We haven't gotten [8:09] any information from the administration that it number one, that it's actually that any kind of [8:13] a framework even exists for what this this is, or that it actually has been implemented in any way. [8:20] Now, the military does have a history of something like this. And you'll recall something called the [8:24] deconfliction line with Russia that existed for years over Syria. I mean, that worked. You had a U.S. [8:29] colonel generally with a Russian colonel on the other end of a phone. It was literally a red phone [8:34] and they would pick it up if, in fact, one of them was going to be flying in an airspace that was [8:38] breaching or near the other where the other military was operating. And it worked for [8:43] for years where they were able to deconflict the airspace there. It's not clear if that's going to [8:48] sort of be the maritime version of that. But we are asking those questions. [8:51] And let me ask you about the war within this war. We had Secretary Rubio today announcing a framework [8:55] of an agreement between Israel and Lebanon. But if Hezbollah isn't part of that framework, [9:01] what's it worth? Yeah. And this has been the issue with these talks the entire time now, [9:08] every round of these talks is without Hezbollah involved in it, if there is some sort of an [9:13] agreement for a ceasefire, whatever it is, it's generally not been implemented, at least not [9:17] fully implemented on the ground in Lebanon. Now, this could be if, in fact, Israel has agreed to [9:23] something that includes them pulling their forces back closer to the border. Is it possible [9:28] that Hezbollah will look at that and will make some sort of an advancement towards some sort of a [9:33] peace deal? It's possible. But so far, these talks have not really yielded a whole lot on the ground. [9:38] The one thing that is potentially possible is that this could be a step in the right direction [9:43] if, in fact, we see some sort of a change to not only the Israeli forces where they are inside [9:48] Lebanon, but to how they are operating there. I mean, Garrett, it's not getting a lot of attention, [9:54] but, you know, more than 4,000 people have died in Lebanon since March. It's a huge number, [10:01] about 40 Israeli soldiers as well, service members as well. So the fighting there has continued, [10:06] despite the fact that we've all been very focused on Iran. [10:08] Right. I mean, it's a major theater within this war. Courtney Kuby, thank you for that reporting. [10:12] I want to turn now to Ali Canal here with me. And so, Ali, what are we seeing from oil markets? [10:17] Are they concerned? Are we seeing any kind of like wobble in the pricing based on what we've [10:20] seen in the straight? Well, it seems like markets are betting that the worst case scenario has been [10:24] avoided at this point. We saw U.S. crude oil fall below $70 for the first time since the war began. [10:30] And remember, pre-war, crude was trading near 67 bucks a barrel. So this is a pretty significant [10:35] move here. And it comes as more ships are moving through the straight of Hormuz, those fears that we [10:40] could be facing a major supply crunch that's starting to ease. But analysts say that there are still risks [10:46] ahead. There could be more attacks on some of these ships. There could be mines in the straight. [10:51] Obviously, as you know, the messaging has been really back and forth here. So investors are still [10:56] watching this area and the developments in the in the straight very closely. [11:00] And we've heard the president complaining about the lag between oil prices really plummeting and gas [11:05] prices coming down much more slowly. What is that attributable to? And do you think we'll see gas [11:09] prices continue to fall? Yeah, I mean, gas prices have already fallen pretty significantly at this [11:14] point. The national average is right now at around $3.90 a gallon, down more than 60 cents [11:19] from its most recent peak. But gas prices do not fall as quickly as oil prices. And that's because [11:24] refineries, distributors, those retail locations, so the actual gas stations, they're dealing with [11:31] oil that was purchased at those higher levels. So this is likely going to take some weeks to go [11:36] until consumers see a significant pullback. And that's, of course, assuming that oil prices stay [11:41] at along these levels. And also, it's important to remember that we're in the summer months, [11:45] demand is usually higher this time of year. So that tends to cause grass prices to drift up just [11:51] a little bit. And while I have you, the president has also threatened a 100% tariff on countries that [11:56] implement a digital services tax on the U.S. Can you just explain to folks what this even is and [12:00] how it would work? Yeah, remember tariffs? We haven't talked about tariffs in a little bit. [12:04] Still last year. Yeah, right? This is really about U.S. and E.U. trade relations. So several [12:09] European countries, they've considered or adopted these digital services taxes. So it's basically a [12:15] tax on the revenue that large tech companies earn on the users in those specific countries. So this [12:20] really affects those big companies like Google, Meta, Apple, Amazon. Now, for now, this is just a threat. [12:26] But of course, if that goes through, then a lot of those imports from those countries, so those goods that [12:32] we get from Europe, they could become more expensive for U.S. businesses and therefore [12:36] consumers. But we'll see. I mean, this could just be a negotiating tool. But again, it's a good [12:40] reminder that tariffs are still an impact here. We talk a lot about oil prices, even the AI buildout, [12:46] how that's been impacting inflation. But tariffs, you know, they're still working in the background [12:50] here. All right, Ali, also still working here in the background. [12:52] Yes. [12:53] Friday afternoon. Thank you for being with us. [12:55] We thank you for watching. And remember, stay updated on breaking news and top stories on the NBC News app [13:01] or watch live on our YouTube channel.