The Rest Is Politics: US

Podbit · The Rest Is Politics: US

196. Trump’s Iran Deal: One Big American Failure?

Explore episode Jun 15, 2026

Where this was said

Democrats, Midterms, and the Road Back

At 39:45 · chapter starts 36:00

The final chapter turns from diagnosis to prescription. Scaramucci implores Democrats not to write off the 80 million Americans who voted for Trump — many of whose parents and grandparents voted Democratic — by dismissing everything the UFC represents. The key question for 2026, he argues, is whether the midterms are fought on culture or corruption. Katty Kay is clear: forget impeachment, go after the corruption. The UFC event delivered an almost absurdly legible example — Trump publicly trading stock in a company he's promoting from the South Lawn of the White House. That's the message, she argues, that cuts across tribal lines. Scaramucci closes with the line that perhaps best captures the Trump era's paradox: he cannot understand how a thrice-married man with documented ties to Jeffrey Epstein became the anointed champion of the religious right — but he gives Trump credit for pulling it off, calling it 'the con of the con on top of the con.' The show ends with a teaser for the bonus episode on Anthropic and the Trump administration's relationship with AI.

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