Greg Sargent: This is The Daily Blast from The New Republic, produced and presented by the DSR Network. I’m your host, Greg Sargent.
So we’re talking to David Corn, who has a good piece for The New Republic exploring how Trumpian disinformation really functions. He’s author of How Russia Won, a book about Trump, Russia, and America. David, good to have you on.
Sargent: Let’s start with the polling. Quinnipiac has a new survey finding that Trump’s approval is down at 34 percent, and he’s down to 31 percent on the economy, which is an all-time low for both terms in Quinnipiac polling. Democrats are leading in the generic House ballot matchup by 51 to 39. That’s 12 points.
Corn: Well, I mean, he’s at lower numbers than Jimmy Carter, right? And they keep dropping. Yeah, it’s showing us kind of where his floor or basement is. And I always thought it was around 30 points. One or two outlying polls have him down as low as 29, but the average is still low-to-mid thirties.
In my book, and in the piece I have in The New Republic, I write about how he won the messaging war on Russia by saying over and over again it was a hoax, it was a witch hunt, it was a deep state conspiracy, Russia, Russia, Russia—and the Democrats, a lot of the media, gave up. That’s a big part of my book.
Sargent: It really is. And Trump is now using taxpayer money to fund the propaganda. He’s now run three ads that claim to be funded by the U.S. government, in the ads themselves. One shows Trump saying he’s waging a final battle against the Marxists and the globalists. A second shows something similar, with Trump vowing that America will never go communist. A third shows Trump’s July 4 speech at Mount Rushmore.
Corn: Well, they’re running a lot on football games. You know, they’re trying to reach football watchers, which tells you that they think they’re losing middle America. I have a friend who works for us at Mother Jones, a colleague, who was rained in this last weekend and watched, like, 12 hours of football. And he said the ads were up again and again. College games, pro games, different channels. They’re just pouring millions of dollars.
But to use taxpayer money to finance an ad like this is blatantly illegal and criminal. You can put up public service ads. Kids, stay away from drugs. Don’t drive after drinking. We’ve seen this all the time, U.S. government agencies putting up public service announcements. And that’s what they’re calling these ads.
Sargent: It’s worth pointing out as well that the ads, though they don’t mention the midterms, they actually do amplify the Trump and GOP message, which is that if you elect Democrats, the country will slide into leftist pandemonium. I mean, that is their message in essence, and that is what Trump is saying.
Corn: Yeah, I mean, they basically are part of the cult of personality. They’re very Stalinistic. If you—I’m not advising you to watch these ads, but if you see them, they show Trump grimacing, in black and white, looking, you know, trying to look fierce and strong. But it’s all about him.
Almost any other president in the midterms tries to find a way to help the party. Now, sometimes that means not campaigning with certain candidates in certain states and certain districts, but it’s also like, what bill can I sign? What executive order can I put out? Where can I campaign? How can I give you money so you can use it the best way possible for your campaign? Trump is doing none of that.
David, I don’t think we should gloss over what that really means. This official is admitting straight out that the corruption is part of the point here, right? CNN does a segment on these ads because they’re so corrupt. And they like that, because it gets them free airtime for the ads. The level of contempt they have for, I guess you and me, like, we the people, is just incredible, isn’t it?
The thing that’s kind of bizarre here is that I think they’re in a drink-the-Kool-Aid mode—I’m talking about Trump and his inner circle. As his numbers are falling, as we just talked about, you don’t want to make him center stage.
This is not a new piece of the playbook. Campaigns for decades have done what they consider to be outrageous ads, because they’re going to get what they call free media, media they don’t have to pay for. People amplify it, we’ll talk about it and play the ad, show the ad.
Sargent: In fact, David, it’s even worse with independents. The Quinnipiac poll has Donald Trump at 25 percent approval with independents and 69 percent disapprove. And get this: on the economy, independents, 23 percent approve. I want to go back to something you said in this context, about the RNC chair who said we’re going to put Trump front and center, et cetera, et cetera.
Corn: They’re damned if they do and damned if they don’t. And you know, you know this, Greg: getting turnout in midterm elections is always hard.
Corn: For the president’s party, yeah. But even sometimes for the opposing party. But people just are less engaged. But the side that is more upset or engaged tends to do better, and that’s usually, in a midterm election, the opposition party. So this would be the Democrats. Democrats are highly, highly, highly motivated. They are not disappointed by Trump—they come into this being opposed to Trump. Independents a lot of who voted for him have flipped, and getting them out for the Democrats is the key to victory as well.
Sargent: Well, I want to go back to the Quinnipiac poll for one second. On international conflicts, Democrats are trusted by 48 percent versus 40 percent for the Republican Party. On the economy, it’s 48 percent for Democrats, 42 percent for the Republican Party. On immigration, it’s 47 percent for the Democratic Party, 44 percent for Republicans.
Corn: Nothing that he is selling are American voters buying, except his own base. I mean, because you just went down—what are the big things he’s done? Mass deportation crusades, tariffs, you know, and starting a war in Iran, and the illegal actions in the Caribbean, attacking and killing people, and the Venezuela mini war, whatever you want to call it. Everything that is his signature accomplishment that he praises, they are not accepting.
But I think all that stuff is baked in, which is why I fear—I’m not obsessive or paranoid about it—that as we get closer, he’s going to try some more extreme measures to fuck with the election in some ways. He’s an odd, psychotic person. And at some times he looks resigned, right?
Sargent: There certainly is a lot to fear there. Democrats, as far as I can tell, know this and are going to be super vigilant about it. Let’s just close on some audio of Donald Trump. Here he’s talking about the midterm elections. Listen to this.
Sargent: So there you have Donald Trump acknowledging the way midterm dynamics work—they usually do favor the out party—but he’s simply incapable of ascribing any blame of any kind to himself for any of it.
Corn: Yeah. Well, it’s quite clear that this is how he sees the world. If I win, it’s me. If I lose, it’s you. So here he is already trying to blame other forces. And he’s right, you’re right, this is the dynamic. It’s always an uphill climb for the president in a midterm election against the out party.
So he’s not a consistent, steady person. So he’s throwing a lot of different things out. Poor guy. He probably can’t process all this rationally and clearly. So whatever is in his head at a given moment is what he spurts out. But that’s what’s always made him dangerous. And that’s what makes the coming elections—this period and the post period—a time of potential crisis.
Corn: Yeah, I mean, I agree. I think he’s tried a lot of ways to mess with the election. You know, the courts have basically said no on the mail-in ballot stuff, which is the most consequential. I mean, he did what he could with gerrymandering, and the courts got rid of the Voting Rights Act so they could do racist gerrymandering.
But 2020 showed us how fragile our democracy could be. He came very close to overturning that election and, you know, staying in power even though he lost. So that’s why vigilance, keep the head in the game, as you suggest, is important here. Because with Donald Trump, it’s not about democracy, it’s about him. And he’s a dangerous man.
Corn: Thank you, Greg.
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