Some shows are about breaking news. Others are about stepping back and asking how the hell we got here. This one was firmly in the second category.
We started, as we so often do lately, with Donald Trump saying or doing something that would’ve been disqualifying in any other era. In this case, floating the absurd idea of renaming The Kennedy Center after himself. As someone who’s spent much of his life reading about and admiring the Kennedy legacy, this hit a f*king nerve.
Not just because it was offensive—oh it is—but because it captured something bigger: the way this dilapidated, purple-blotched nitwit treats history, culture, and institutions all as props for his own deeply-damaged ego.
We pivoted into Trump’s latest “speech”—more a chaotic, breathe-hole barfing than coherent address, It was a stream of disconnected talking points, grievances, and numerical nonsense. Applying the word “thought” to that drivel would itself be a thought crime.
Drug prices reduced by “600 percent.” Trillions in investment that don’t exist. Shouting as if the mere decibel-level of his voice lent it authority. It’s not just dishonesty anymore; it’s deterioration. What’s most alarming isn’t that Trump says these things—it’s that so few people around him are either willing or able to stop him from embarrassing the office, the country, pretty much our entire way of life.
Greg Olear thankfully joined us, as I’m always grateful to have his perspective. Greg’s one of those rare scribes who writes like a poet but analyzes like a management consultant. He helped frame the really bad reboot of It we all witnessed as something deeper than a daily scandal.
We talked about how narcissism, impulsivity, and sociopathy don’t mellow with age—they intensify. Add power, media enablers, a cult audience, and the elephantiasis of his dementia, and you get the House of Cards insanity we see play out daily.
A big part of the discussion centered on the Epstein files and the slow, drip-by-drip release of material tied to some powerful people. We weren’t speculating—we were asking basic questions. Why release some photos? Why redact others? Who benefits from delay, confusion, or selective disclosure?
And perhaps most importantly: if the full truth doesn’t come out officially, how likely is it that whistleblowers eventually force it into the open?
That led us straight into a media reckoning. We talked about the difference between reporters who clearly see the problem, and those who feel compelled to normalize it. When the job becomes translating incoherent jabroni-blabber into “serious political analysis,” democracy’s in serious sh*t.
This isn’t just about Fox News—it’s about an oligarch-owned, monopoly-media ecosystem that sanitizes extremism and extreme-dumb because conflict drives clicks and accountability threatens access.
We’ve seen it in the way Fox and other right-wing sources put the spin on the recent MAGA rebellion in the House on healthcare, something I got to talk about on The Daily Whatever Show on Friday as we joked about how bad the news had been last week.
We also spent time on something that doesn’t get enough attention: culture. Greg made a sharp point about the decline of the humanities and how imagination, critical thinking, and storytelling matter more than ever. You can’t recognize authoritarian nonsense if you’ve never trained your brain to question narrative propaganda.
Which brought us, fittingly, to Rob Reiner and the enduring relevance of films like A Few Good Men and The American President. Those monologues weren’t just great writing—they were warnings. So I’m proud of this article I wrote about just that topic.
We closed by looking into the future. Not one where we don’t need roads—sadly that one seems further off than predicted. But the 2026 elections. Democratic leadership that can feel tired and reactive. And the growing hunger—especially among younger voters—for politicians who sound like they believe what they’re saying.
Whether that energy translates into real change remains an open question. But it certainly can if we make enough noise, make our demands clear, and we do some heavy lifting on the messaging—it is the digital age, we can reach as far as our ideas will take us.
Pretending this moment is normal, though, is the one thing we absolutely cannot afford to do. So let’s not do it. Let’s change it.
