Quote · The Rest Is Politics: US
196. Trump’s Iran Deal: One Big American Failure?
Where this was said
Liberals, Conservatives, and the Culture Divide
At 33:47 · chapter starts 32:40
The UFC conversation deepens into a broader reckoning with American cultural politics. Katty Kay is unambiguous: part of the reason Trump won was because liberals sneered at conservative America, and the UFC event was engineered to prove exactly that point [1] — Katty Kay "Part of the reason Donald Trump got elected was because liberals sneered at conservative America." 31:52 . The overt nationalism, hyper-masculinity, and deliberate torching of elite sensibilities are features, not bugs. But she complicates the liberal-versus-conservative binary: the world on display at the White House on Sunday night would be utterly alien to George Will, William F. Buckley, or Mitt Romney [2] — Katty Kay "The UFC spectacle is not just baffling to coastal liberals — it's alien to old-school Republicans like George Will, Bill Buckley, and Mitt …" 32:20 . The traditional Republican Party — Heritage Foundation black-tie dinners, country club conservatism — has been as thoroughly evicted from its home as any progressive. And Scaramucci adds his most striking observation: Trump has successfully hijacked American patriotism itself, so that wearing a flag pin now signals MAGA rather than mere love of country, in a way that Gerald Ford's bipartisan 1976 bicentennial never did.
The same Economist/YouGov poll showed Trump is 21 points underwater with men overall, a massive turnaround from 2024.
Young men aged 18–29 were a cornerstone of Trump's 2024 coalition. A June 2026 Economist/YouGov poll shows just 32% approve of his job performance, with 66% disapproving — a 34-point deficit in the very demographic he wooed with the UFC event.
An Economist/YouGov poll from early June 2026 showed Trump's job approval is 34 points underwater among men aged 18–29, with just 32% approving.
Scaramucci remembers the 1976 bicentennial as a genuinely bipartisan celebration where wearing a flag was just patriotism. Today, thanks to Trump, a flag pin reads as MAGA. He has turned the most universal American symbol into a tribal marker — and that transformation is irreversible.
Trump distributed 85,000 free tickets to the White House UFC event, including many to military personnel, giving it a populist rather than elite appearance.
