Brooks and Capehart on Trump’s record-low economic approval rating

To further discuss the preliminary deal with Iran, President Trump's record low approval rating on the economy and more, we turn now to Brooks and Capehart.That's The Atlantic's David Brooks and Jonathan Capehart of MSNOW.Great to see you both.Let's start off with this memorandum of understanding between the U .S.and Iran that was signed this week.

You've both seen a lot of criticism for how much Iran gets versus the U .S.out of this deal.You also may have heard a guest at the top of the show say, look, the war had to come to an end.So that makes it a good deal.We'll see what happens next.

David, is the U .S.better off today than it was before the war?

No, it's significantly worse off.I'm glad the war's over.I mean, it's good for all of our economy and people stopped dying.But listen, in 60 days, Iran may have control of the Straits of Hormuz.In 60 days, they may be able to restart their nuclear program.I'm highly dubious they're going to give that up.

And so, and plus, they've shown they can stand up to the world's greatest military, survive it, and sort of outsmart it.And I'm really struck by, Napoleon has this famous phrase that, when it comes to war, the moral is to the material as three to one, meaning the moral is three times more important than the material.And how did the United States, our military, our economy, our alleged power, lose a war to Iran with their military and their alleged power?And it's because they wanted it more.And they had leadership that was willing to do whatever it took to win the war.And we didn't.

We had a president who wanted to win the war.I don't want to say chicken out, but he wasn't tough enough to fight this war.And you shouldn't start a war you're not tough enough to fight, especially when their response, closing the strait, is the most obvious thing that we were allegedly seemingly unprepared for.And so it's a debacle for America.

Jonathan, the other point here is, though, what other option does President Trump have?Keep fighting the war, let the straits stay closed?He's under domestic pressure, economic pressure.Was at least ending the war a good first step to move forward?

OK, well, first, I mean, is the war truly over?I mean, at least right now, it is, as we'retalking.But we don't know.Look, the president needed an off -ramp.People have been saying that to him and about him for at least a few weeks now.

So finally, he's taken the off -ramp.But I hesitate to call this a deal.You used the right phrasing, memorandum of understanding.The hard part comes now in these 60 days, these technical negotiations that the Obama administration spent two solid painstaking years.Wendy Sherman, I think she was Assistant Secretary of State, basically moved to Switzerland to help negotiate this.The Secretary of Energy was involved.

Five other countries were involved in the negotiation of the JCPOA, the Iran nuclear deal.And President Trump ripped it up.Does anyone believe he is going to be able to come up with a suitable alternative from their perspective in 60 days.I just do not see it happening.

back in 2019.The poll also found 78 percent of Americans say high gas prices have affected their household budget.David, Mr. Trump is not on the ballot this November, but this is certainly not the message that Republicans wanted to be running on.How do you look at this?

Yeah, I was sort of struck.One of the things in the NPR -PBS poll was 45 percent of Americans say they are not going to take a summer vacation, in part because of costs.And so that really affects people.And I mean, the American people arereally good at understanding when their real wages are going down.They may see their pay going up, but if it's going up slower than inflation, they know right away.

And they punished Joe Biden for it.I imagine they're going to punish the Republicans for it.And this was obviously completely avoidable.We didn't need to go to this war.We didn't achieve much at the war.And we boosted inflation.

And that's not going to come down anytime soon.And gas prices are going to come down, but not anytime soon.And the normal rule in politics is...How the economy is six months before Election Day determines how people are thinking about it.I can't do the math, because that's too hard for me, 11 minus six, but that's somewhere around six, five months.

We're within that margin of error.So somewhere around now, where people are reflecting on their...

I was told there would be no math at this job, but please, go ahead.But from a Republican's perspective, how do they manage this?What is the message now going forward?

Well, it's super hard to distance yourself from Trump.You can't really run away.You know, you can talk about tax cuts and things like that.It's hard to have an economic message when you don't have an agenda anymore.And they don't have much of an agenda right now.And they can try to play the social issues, but just don't think that's going to fly.

Jonathan, Democrats now find themselves in the position they don't often, which is the more trusted party when it comes to the issue of the economy.Are they making the most of this moment, in your view?

Yes, I think they are.And I think they'll make even more of it if the situation doesn't change by certainly through the summer, but definitely by the fall.I think the problem that Republicans have.This is more of a Republican problem, because they are saddled with an unpopular president who has no message discipline.So, Susie Wiles, the chief of staff, in some story that I read a couple of weeks ago, where she said in a meeting, let Trump be Trump and everyone else in the administrationhammer away at costs and affordability and things like that.

That is impossible, absolutely impossible in an administration where the president of the United States, particularly this one, commands the attention of the American people at all times.And what have we seen over all these weeks?The event might be about affordability, but he will venture off into talking about the ballroom and other things that the American people don't care about.They want to know, how are you going to bring prices down?And so as long as the president is doing that and Democrats keep hammering away at affordability, which I think is a part two of what they were doing Last year, when it came to talking about health care and the danger that was coming to health care, Democrats have been on a pretty good run of showing the American people that things economically just aren't where they should be.

One quick thing that could help Republicans is, it used to be you'd have swings of like 60 seats, 40 seats, 26 seats.those days are long gone because of redistricting.And so now a swing of seven seats to the Democrats would give them the majority, but that would be a big deal.And we're just not in a world where you have these, a lot of swing districts.

Yeah, we are in a world where there's another problem the Republicans are dealing with.I want to ask you about, and stay with me as I lay this out, because we've seen tension between President Trump and his party before, but not like this week.We saw GOP senators now openly slammed the Iran deal.But, earlier, the president essentially blindsided Senate Republicans when he basically said that his pick for to be director of national intelligence, a man named Jay Clayton, wouldn't show up to his confirmation hearing.hours before it was scheduled to start.And then President Trump demanded that the Republicans attach a stalled election restriction legislation, which doesn't have the votes to pass, to a powerful surveillance bill that needs to be reauthorized that Democrats said they would vote for.

Clayton was confirmed.David, if you are Senate Majority Leader John Thune, what do you do right now?

I'm trying to think of the last time a president put the kibosh or the slowdown on one of his own nominees.Usually, it's the other party that tries to slow down nominees.If you're John Thune, you wake up, you thought you had something going, you got rid of this guy Bill Pulte, you got a responsible adult in there.

Bill Pulte is the acting DNI.

The acting DNI.And you got Jake Clayton, you got a responsible kind of good nominee.And then you, I'm sure he's on social media, media, I'm sure he's on Truth Social when he gets up in the morning and poor John Thune, he's going, oh no.And I think what Senator Kennedy said, who doesn't like John Thune?It's like not liking a golden retriever.He's the nicest guy and a very good leader.

And he's doing the best he can in hard circumstances without blowing up at Trump, without totally kowtowing to Trump.And Trump is just making his life miserable.And I think everybody, Republican in the Senate, sympathizes with Thune right now.

Can I just say, making this happen would require that they scrap the filibuster, which Thune has said he would preserve.Do you see him changing his mind?

I know.But even if he individually changes his mind, there are a bunch of Republicans who want to keep the filibuster, because they value the Senate.They don't think it should be like the House and the filibuster.keeps the Senate a separate body, a little more bipartisan.

Jonathan, how do you look at this?

Which part of it?I mean, in the case that you laid out in listening to David that I scribbled down, can't trust the president.The president we have long known, he values loyalty.But for President Trump, loyalty is a one -way street, which means that if he tells you one day, this is what I want to do, you have to be prepared for the rug to be pulled out from under you.And John Thune has had the rug pulled out from under him so many times this year that I am looking forward to the moment when Majority LeaderThune just blows his top and stands up for his caucus, for the chamber, and also for the Article 1 branch of the government.

They have long been, now, I keep saying this, the staffing arm of the executive.At some point, someone in that Republican majority is going to have to say, enough of this, and maybe that will come.Once all the Republican primaries are over and everyone knows where the ground is, and then maybe they will show some independence, but by then it might be too late.

We will see.Jonathan Capehart, David Brooks, always great to see you both.Thank you so much.Thanks so much.

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