The DSR Network

David Dayen explains how California’s unique "top-two" primary nearly locked Democrats out of the governor’s mansion—until a strategic endorsement from Donald Trump reshuffled the deck.

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Officials have leaked word to The Washington Post that they believe Iran can survive Donald Trump’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz for three to four months without experiencing severe economic pain. Also, Iran has kept far more of its missiles and drones than previously known. Those are surely his worst screw-ups yet, given that he’s repeatedly insisted both that the regime is in terminal collapse and that Iran's military has been obliterated. This comes as The Wall Street Journal reports that his advisers are increasingly unnerved by the political price Republicans will pay over the closed strait. Those are related: The new revelations suggest the war could go on longer than expected, which is exactly what his advisers fear will worsen the GOP’s political mess. We talked to New Republic staff writer Tim Noah, who’s been writing well about Trump’s failures. We discuss why the war’s political fallout could last many months, how Trump voters are facing a perfect storm of disastrous policies, and what to expect in the midterms. 

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The Justice Department is unrecognizable. It continuously violates and obstructs true justice. Instead, it effectively serves as Donald Trump’s own private law firm. The blatant corruption and cronyism is sickening across all of DC’s institutions under the Trump administration. Where is Donald Trump and the Supreme Court leading our country? Tune in for this week’s therapy session with Norm Ornstein and David Rothkopf.

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The midterms are getting close, and Democrats are poised for a huge victory over an incredibly unpopular Republican Party. And yet, nothing is guaranteed in our turbulent political climate. NY Times opinion writer and Georgetown professor E.J. Dionne joins David Rothkopf to share what Democrats need to do to guarantee a massive victory in November and why massive change may be in the future for American politics.

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On the DSR Daily for Thursday, we break down Iran’s review of the latest US peace proposal, Tom Homan and Todd Blanche promising more deportations to come, the release of an alleged suicide note from Jeffrey Epstein, and more. 

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Donald Trump has been raging at Pope Leo’s criticism of the Iran war for weeks, and he just unleashed his most vile attack yet. Trump accused the Pope of “endangering a lot of Catholics” by advocating for peace. Yet a new Washington Post poll finds that Trump is losing this battle very badly. Large majorities react negatively to Trump’s claims about the Pope, and even more strikingly, big majorities approve of the Pope’s message of peace, even though Trump is bombarding America with relentless lies and propaganda about both the Pope and the war. We talked to scholar-of-religion Sarah Posner, who writes for Talking Points Memo and hosts the Reign of Error podcast. We discuss why this polling is encouraging in non-obvious ways, why there’s a schism between white Evangelicals and Catholics over Trump, how MAGA encourages Trump to imagine himself fighting a spiritual war against the Pope, and why that’s a political disaster for him.

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Trump may not be making America great again, but his is making Iran strong again. This fiasco of a war has revealed major American diplomatic and military weaknesses while Iran has flexed its control over the Strait of Hormuz. A major global realignment is coming. Steve Cook, Rosa Brooks, and Ed Luce join David Rothkopf to break down why we might be witnessing the beginning of a post-American global order. 

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On the DSR Daily for Wednesday, we cover reports that Iran and the US may be close to a memo to end the war, the key takeaways of yesterdays primaries, Howard Lutnick’s upcoming congressional testimony, and more. 

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Donald Trump hasn’t thought this one through. Politico reports that Republicans are grappling with rising “anxiety” about the midterms. A key reason: Trump’s obsession with his ballroom and other pet projects is muddying the GOP economic message. That’s bad enough. Worse, Republicans just agreed to seek $1 billion in taxpayer money for the ballroom. Though this is allegedly for security, vulnerable Republicans will hate having to defend this. It’s not just that they themselves are lamenting that the project is distracting from their message. It’s also that the ballroom is already deeply unpopular and they’re now tied more tightly to it. We talked to political scientist Tom Schaller, author of a good piece on Trump’s “vanity presidency.” He explains why the ballroom is so deadly for the GOP, how Trump is creating a uniquely “personalist” form of presidential rule, and why Trump’s megalomania actually matters to the voters who will help decide midterms.

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The tech bros could be in for a rude awakening come November. We’ve seen the big names in AI increasingly cozy up with Republicans, but they may have forgotten that there is another party is poised to get back into power. How is Silicon Valley going to respond to a future Democratic administration? Are tech bros hoping to tip the scales to the point where it doesn’t matter who wins? GWU Professor and Tech Policy Press contributor Dave Karpf joins David Rothkopf to consider all this and more. 

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On the DSR Daily for Tuesday, we break down the administration trying to convince everyone the war is over, important primaries in Indiana and Ohio, Trump lashing out at the Pope yet again, and more. 

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Last week, the Supreme Court gutted protections against racial gerrymandering, and Donald Trump is already urging Republicans to capitalize on it. We recently wrote that Trump has no idea what this will unleash, and that’s the topic of today’s episode. Indeed, Trump unleashed a Truth Social rant on Monday urging GOP state legislatures to maximize the gerrymandering, insisting this would net an additional 20 congressional seats in the midterms. In short, Trump didn’t bother concealing that this corrupt scheme is only about holding power amid cratering public support—which absolutely requires Democrats to respond. We talked to Max Flugrath of the voting rights group Fair Fight Action. We discuss how Democrats can undertake retaliatory redistrictings of their own, what the roadmap ahead for this looks like, and why it’s absolutely possible for Democrats to neutralize the GOP advantage.

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Civil rights advocate Kimberlé Crenshaw warns of the "green light" for states to suppress Black representation.

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On the DSR Daily for Monday, we discuss rising oil prices after Iran claims to strike a US Navy ship, the ongoing spat between Friedrich Merz and Trump, Alabama and Tennessee moving to redraw congressional maps, and more. 

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Donald Trump has declared the war “terminated,” but he’s still rejecting Iran’s peace proposals while again threatening it with massive war crimes. And in an interview, Trump declared that he would never have approved an offer that was made to Iran by his negotiator, Steve Witkoff. This is a damning admission: He seemed to blurt out that he has no idea what his own representatives are offering—showing deep disengagement from the details of the talks—while demonstrating that anything his negotiators offer should not be believed. Meanwhile, Republicans are beginning to break with Trump: Politico reports that he “could soon face far more resistance.” We talked to MS NOW’s Steve Benen. He explains why Trump’s admission was so self-incriminating, why it reveals something much bigger about our crisis, why we may see more GOP defections soon, and what to look for next.

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On the DSR Weekly Wrap-up for May 1st, we discuss Pete Hegseth’s strange argument for a bypassing the War Powers Act, the end to a record-setting DHS shutdown, another roadblock for the Onion’s take over of Infowars, and more. 

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The Supreme Court is taking away your rights. The ruling gutting the Voting Rights Act isn’t based on sound legal decision-making - it represents strategic moves to reshape the future of our country. How did we let partisan politics overrule constitutional integrity? David Rothkopf and Norm Ornstein delve into the ramifications of these rulings, the never-ending destruction of our democracy from the Trump administration, and the potential paths forward.

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Public polls are showing that Democrats now have the advantage over Republicans on the economy, a milestone. Strikingly, Politico reports that a newly-leaked memo from a GOP-aligned group actually confirms the same thing. The memo warns that the group’s internal polling and research “show that for the first time, Democrats are more trusted on the economy and inflation.” It also warns that Republicans are in serious danger of losing the Senate, and strongly urges Republicans to overhaul their economic messaging in a big way. That is an absolute fiasco for Trump: It’s his economy that is putting the GOP in such grave danger. Indeed, this comes as inflation just spiked again. We talked to New Republic staff writer Monica Potts, who’s been doing good reporting on how ordinary Americans are experiencing the economy. We discuss why the GOP midterm panic is such a damning indictment of Trump, why Democrats leading on the issue is a sea change, and how they can seize control over our economic debates in a more ambitious way.

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Perry Bacon speaks with former NBC News correspondent and editor for the Midcoast Villager in Maine, Alex Seitz-Wald. Right Now with Perry Bacon: a twice-weekly show diving into U.S. politics, democracy, and the authoritarian threats facing America. Each episode, Perry strives to go beyond daily headlines and actually connect the dots to what’s happening in America.

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On the DSR Daily for Thursday, we break down the Supreme Court’s disastrous ruling wearing the Voting Rights Act, the ballooning costs of the Iran war, skyrocketing oil prices, and more. 

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Donald Trump’s use of state power to persecute his enemies is escalating. The Justice Department indicted James Comey for allegedly threatening Trump with a social media post of seashells spelling “86 47.” Officials are also threatening to punish more media companies for angering the despot. The Comey case is already backfiring: Now that the details have been released, legal experts have mercilessly picked it apart from numerous angles. Even Fox News is quoting experts dismantling it. And Trump himself made it look even more absurd by claiming he knows “86” means “kill” because he saw it...in a gangster movie. When these efforts fizzle, the MAGA base will see the mighty Trump failing once again. We talked to former Federal prosecutor Barbara McQuade, author of The Fix: Saving America from the Corruption of a Mob-Style Government. She explains the deep flaws in the Comey indictment, how Trump’s prosecutors are committing flagrant violations themselves, and what accountability for Trump’s accomplices could look like later.

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King Charles III delivered a welcoming yet pointed speech during his visit to the US on Monday. Donald Trump was too distracted by his gifts from the king to grasp his harsh criticisms. What does King Charles’ visit mean for our foreign policy? Where are we with the war in Iran? And what does the coming US-China summit mean for our geopolitical future? Tune in as David Rothkopf, Ed Luce, and Rosa Brooks discuss all of this and more.

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On the DSR Daily for Wednesday, we cover King Charles’s speech to Congress, Oil prices skyrocketing yet again, the Senate blocking measures to prevent war with Cuba, and more. 

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In today’s episode, economist Paul Krugman lays out an expansive case that Donald Trump holds a losing hand in the war with Iran. Krugman argues that Trump can’t seem to admit that the Strait of Hormuz problem has cornered him. Krugman also details why the situation could get worse, if Iran continues holding out and constraints on oil supply drive the global economy into recession. As Krugman puts it, this will keep getting uglier for Trump until he “swallows his pride” and accepts that he doesn’t hold the cards. This builds on the piece Krugman posted on his Substack arguing that time is on Iran’s side. Gas prices just hit a new high, and Republicans quietly fear their midterm prospects are darkening due to what Trump has unleashed. Krugman takes us through these dynamics, notes that Trump is obsessing over his ballroom in search of a win, and explains why this all could tailspin further for the GOP.

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Sam Altman and Elon Musk are facing off in court, but beyond the high-profile legal drama, a wave of industry-shifting stories is unfolding. Mat Honan, Editor-in-Chief of MIT Technology Review, joins David Rothkopf to explore the week's key headlines—including the era of AI malaise, China’s strategic pivot toward open-source models, and more.

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The International Energy Agency just released a new report on energy and AI, updating its landmark report on that topic last year. The new report – called Key Questions on Energy and AI -- provides authoritative information on a wide range of topics including the growth in power demand for AI; the role of natural gas, nuclear power and batteries at AI data centers; the impacts of AI clusters on electric grids; and the future of physical AI such as robots and autonomous vehicles. Join host David Sandalow as he talks with the two lead authors of the report – Thomas Spencer and Siddharth Singh.

Show notes: IEA, Key Questions on Energy and AI (April 2026) --https://www.iea.org/reports/key-questions-on-energy-and-ai

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On the DSR Daily for Tuesday, we discuss the charges against the suspected Correspondents’ Dinner attacker, Trump’s displeasure with the latest Iranian peace proposal, a new redistricting fight in Florida, and more. 

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Republicans are blaming Democratic rhetoric for inciting the alleged assassination attempt at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. To that end, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt unleashed tirades at journalists that were soaked in MAGA derangement. One cultishly lionized Trump as a “fearless president” for standing up to “bullets” while absurdly accusing the media and Democrats of “11 years” of “hateful” and “violent” speech about Trump. The other tore into Democrats and the media for daring to point out that Trump poses an “existential threat to democracy,” as if that’s not rooted in his actual conduct, which it is. Yet if anything, the media has not sufficiently conveyed the threat Trump poses. We talked about this disconnect with Matt Gertz of Media Matters, who’s been writing well about the absurdity of inviting Trump to the press dinner.  We discuss the danger Trump poses for press freedom, why the media struggles to report on the threat despite being a target, why time is running out to get this right, and how Democrats should proceed now.

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On the DSR Daily for Monday, we break down the fallout from the White House Correspondents Dinner shooting, King Charles’ upcoming visit to the US, Bernie Sanders’ efforts to limit Super PAC money in the Democratic party, and more. 

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Donald Trump has been losing like crazy. The Strait of Hormuz remains closed. The Supreme Court struck down his tariffs and his birthright citizenship arguments tanked. He's losing the redistricting wars. And the Justice Department dropped its prosecution of Fed chair (and Trump nemesis) Jerome Powell amid cringeworthy circumstances. The latter is humiliating: DOJ insiders are now leaking that they’re really ramping up the prosecution of his enemies now, by golly! But those prosecutions will likely keep failing—as they already have—and all this reveals is desperation to show MAGA that this appalling corruption will ultimately bear fruit. White House spin on this is embarrassingly geared towards lifting the ailing despot’s spirits. We talked to Zeteo reporter Asawin Suebsaeng. We discuss why MAGA-world can’t permit any acknowledgement of Trumpian fallibility, why Trump’s authoritarianism and incompetence go hand in hand, and why Republicans will pay an electoral price for helping sustain the cult of Trump.

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On the DSR Weekly Wrap-up for April 24, we discuss reports of planned retaliation against NATO allies, a renewed ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon, Trump’s harebrained scheme to take over Spirit Airlines, and more. 

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The series of follies in Iran continue. The usual suspects are gearing up for another round of peace talks in Pakistan, yet a true long term solution for the conflict still seems far out of reach. Is a real long term solution even possible, or is this a quagmire that America can’t escape from? Daniel Benaim, Kenneth Pollack, and Dan Shapiro join David Rothkopf to assess the intractable problems at the center of this conflict and why this administration is out of its depth. 

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A new Fox News poll contains crushing findings for Donald Trump. His approval on the economy is at 34 percent with 66 percent disapproving. On inflation, those numbers are even worse, at 28-72. Importantly, the poll also finds Democrats with the advantage on the economy for the first time in years—a milestone. Meanwhile, Trump advisers are feverishly trying to hatch a new midterm strategy. And top GOP senators tell Politico that Trumpworld is bracing for more purges of senior officials, with one senator confiding about Trump: “He’s in a bad mood, so he’s letting a lot of them go.” We talked to G. Elliott Morris, author of the great Strength in Numbers Substack, who just released his own poll. He explains what all the numbers are really telling us, why Trump has long been weaker than the punditry allows, and what must happen now for Democrats to win the House and Senate. 

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Congress is broken. Justice is gone. Corruption runs rampant in our government, and our most vile politicians get off scot-free. Meanwhile, many still view the Democrats negatively, and this perception is going to present significant hurdles for the midterms this year and beyond. What is missing within the Democratic party? What is the most effective strategy here to save our democracy? Tune in as David Rothkopf and Norm Ornstein discuss why we need scorched earth Democrats and where we go from here.

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On the DSR Daily for Thursday, we break down the US capturing a second sanctioned tanker, the firing of the Navy Secretary, the Senate passing a budget plan for ICE and DHS, and more. 

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After Democrats narrowly passed a mid-decade redistricting in Virginia, Donald Trump erupted in fury on Truth Social. He slammed the result as rigged (of course), lied about the voting in it, and most important, openly called on the courts to step nullify it. But some Republicans are admitting the truth: This debacle is Trump’s fault. He initiated a redistricting arms race that now backfired spectacularly. Yet there’s a lesson in this madness: Trump-GOP cheating becomes a lot harder when Democrats fight it with scorched earth politics. We talked to Brian Beutler, who has argued well on his Off Message Substack that Democrats must get better at hard-edged politics in coming years. We discuss the deeper reasons that Democrats made a stand this time, how Trump revealed vulnerability to counter-hardball politics, and how this should shape future Democratic efforts at post-Trump accountability and fascism-proofing the system. 

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Donald Trump is having a hard time in the Middle East. The US administration might think that they have control over the war in Iran, but it is clear that our president cannot find an off-ramp. And the longer this conflict continues, the more the rest of the world grows sympathetic towards Iran and disdainful of the US. What comes next? Steven A. Cook and Elisa Ewers of the Council on Foreign Relations join David Rothkopf and Ed Luce to discuss the situation in the Middle East and Donald Trump’s failures in Iran.

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On the DSR Daily for Wednesday, we cover Trump’s ceasefire extension and the Iranian capture of three boats, Virginia passing a redistricting measure in a win for Democrats, the administration going after the Southern Poverty Law Center, and more.

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President Trump keeps boasting that a deal with Iran is at hand. But now officials leaked word to CNN that Trump’s public posturing has hurt the negotiations. One noted that by “negotiating through social media,” Trump implied Iran had agreed to things “they hadn’t yet agreed to,” complicating the talks. That’s humiliating, given Trump’s bragging of success. Meanwhile, in two cult-like tirades, Karoline Leavitt attacked the media for being insufficiently worshipful of Trump, and gushed over his greatness with extraordinary sycophancy. Can any good outcome be envisioned here? We talked to former National Security Council veteran Emily Horne. She explains why Leavitt's spin is so absurd, why this fiasco is so hard for Trump to extricate himself from, why there may be no good options ahead, and what it means that Trump has indefinitely extended the ceasefire, which he announced while we were recording. 

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