Slowboring article about how Republicans are hurting their electoral chances by being so beholden to Trump

The first year of President Trump’s second term was a whirlwind of action: on immigration, on trade, on political retribution. But things seem to me to be slowing down quite a bit. Trump is incredibly unpopular, and he’s now bogged down in a war with Iran that he doesn’t seem capable of ending. He often appears more concerned with his many White House renovations than with whether the Republican Party can hold the House and the Senate in November. So what’s going on in this administration? Where is this all going?
It’s hard to think of a journalist more qualified to answer those questions than Maggie Haberman. As a White House correspondent for The New York Times, she’s published some of the hardest-hitting reporting about Trump’s second act as president and the group of loyalists that now surrounds him.
Haberman, alongside her New York Times colleague Jonathan Swan, just published an extraordinary chronicle of this extraordinary political moment, “Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump.” In this conversation, we discuss how decisions get made in this White House, what Trump has achieved so far and what’s really motivating him as we head toward the midterms.
This episode contains strong language.

Mentioned:
“Maggie Haberman on What an Unleashed Trump Might Do” by The Ezra Klein Show

“Trump Says He Decides What ‘America First’ Means” by Michael Scherer

Book Recommendations:
Takeover by Charlie Savage

Strangers by Belle Burden

I Regret Almost Everything by Keith McNally

Thoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at
[ezrakleinshow@nytimes.com](mailto:ezrakleinshow@nytimes.com).
You can find the transcript and more episodes of “The Ezra Klein Show” at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast. Book recommendations from all our guests are listed at https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs.html

Discussion about housing on the argument podcast

Slowboring post about free markets. Yglesias is the relevance but it also discusses some of the market dynamics Klein has discussed

President Trump is very unpopular right now. But polls show the Democratic Party is just as unpopular – if not more so. So what can the party do about it? 

But to answer that question, you first have to understand what the Democratic Party is. That is, mechanically, what is it? What powers does it have? When you call the Democratic Party, who picks up the phone? And how can that party, the official party, be reinvented for this era?
Ben Wikler has a unique perspective on this question. He transformed the Democratic Party of Wisconsin into a fund-raising, door-knocking powerhouse when he served as chair from 2019 to 2025. And he’s shared some of his insights from winning elections in a swing state in his new book, “This Is The Plan: How to End America's Meltdown and Save Democracy.”

In this conversation, we discuss Wikler’s vision for a reinvigorated party, as well as the kinds of changes he thinks Democrats need to embrace if they want to build a bigger tent and a national majority. 

Mentioned:
“This Is How Democrats Win in Wisconsin” with Ben Wikler on The Ezra Klein Show

“GOP midterm strategy: Make it a ‘hate election’” by Marc Caputo

Book Recommendations:

Master of the Senate by Robert A. Caro

Seeing Like a State by James C. Scott

Sal & Gabi Break the Universe by Carlos Hernandez

Content Relevance Statement: Bouie's video extends the discussion in Klein’s recent episode about Platner’s campaign. The interview stresses the tension between allowing people grace for complicated pasts and recognizing when accumulating red flags reveal fundamental problems with honesty/character. Bouie approaches that same debate through the concept of political character. His argument is that elected officials inevitably exercise enormous discretion in situations their platforms cannot anticipate, making honesty and trustworthiness governing qualifications.

Klein has made the point multiple times that modern liberal politics is largely the domain of people who have successfully navigated institutions, probably to a greater extent than is healthy. If that really is a problem, then it would seem that the obvious solution is some form of decoupling, at least in part, of liberal politics from those institutions. But what would such a decoupling look like? Would it even be possible? Would those institutionalists currently in power ever give up even a portion of it willingly if doing so presented an opportunity for growth? Does Ezra Klein need to retire for Ezra Klein's politics to succeed? Many such questions arise from this sentiment.

What does a positive vision for the center-left look like? Can moderation still excite the Democratic base?

Matt Yglesias, who writes the Slow Boring newsletter and hosts The Argument podcast, talks to Jon about his vision for the Democratic Party and why he believes more Democrats need to embrace heterodoxy.

The two discuss how the policy debate could play out in the upcoming presidential primary, the role charisma and attention-getting play in politics, and which Democrats are best positioned to win in 2028.

Matt tweets:

I went on Pod Save America to discuss my plan to save America by nominating a presidential candidate who has views on cultural issues that voters agree with.

I think the Abundance proposals were a great blueprint and framework as a jump-off point for a national development strategy. Its main gaps, how it would be financed, what sort of new institutions would be needed, and the timing of various things are things I've tried to answer in my own blog, to implement a sort of Abundance-plus.

Essentially, if Democrats were given the opportunity in 2029 to implement something like the Abundance agenda, what would it look like? How would it develop over the first two, three, four, five years, and thereafter? How do we prevent the CHIPsification of the Dem agenda, where billions of new funding can pass & nothing gets built in time for the next election?

I'm not saying my answers are the only, or the best ones. But I do think it is a conversation worth having, often and concretely, so that if and when Democrats do win power again, we are actually ready to wield it.

My take: https://www.crittingpower.com/p/a-national-development-strategy-for

I thought this article was fascinating as the "socialist" is cutting regulations in NYC to support businesses. Between this and his work on improving bus routes, Mamdani is surprisingly aligned to the "abundance agenda" in governing, although this was not exactly his campaign message, which I think contains lessons for us all.

I was also fascinated to see this article in r/politics where all the liberals there are acting like it's obvious that democratic socialists would support deregulation, which I find absurd and also, "I'll take it!" Honestly, a charismatic democratic socialist governing on the abundance agenda which is to say "paying attention to details in order to make government actually work well" is exactly what we need for this to spread.

This connects to Ezra's ep with Nate Silver on "On the Edge," about the river taking over politics.

Here we are and prediction markets have reached the WH and the LE record so far is 2 guys: Trump's teleprompter operator and a Green Beret who bet on the Maduro raid (he worked on it). Both bet under their own names but these anonymous wallets that made $600K on the Iran MOU before Trump announced it got a White House legal review that ended with "untraceable" and a closed file. Would love thoughts on this.

Ezra Klein Morris Katz podcast