The DSR Network

On the DSR Daily for Wednesday, we cover the surprise resignation of Kimberly Guilfoyle, the disastrous first press briefing by Katie Zacharia, skyrocketing consumer costs, and more. 
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In a remarkable piece, The Atlantic reports that Donald Trump is privately furious over his inability to force Iran to stop the war. As one adviser notes, he is “used to snapping his fingers” to control Republicans and the media, so he is now “losing his mind that Iran won’t listen” to him. This comes as his new press secretary, Katie Zacharia, turned in a debut performance that’s drawing serious fire from the right. White House officials are sharply criticizing it as “brutal.” One right-wing media personality harshly mocked her as not “serious,” claiming that “she’s auditioning for a job on Fox News.” These stories are connected: They both reveal Trump as an emperor-has-no-clothes figure who can’t fathom why his control over events is deserting him. We talked to Mark Jacob, who skillfully dissects White House follies in his Stop the Presses newsletter. He explains why having someone like Zacharia as White House press secretary is a deadly serious matter for the country, how institutional cowardice persuaded Trump of his omnipotence, how that’s now cracking up under him, and why all this will make him even more dangerous.

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On the DSR Daily for Tuesday, we discuss the raid of Ilhan Omar’s home by federal officers, Trump’s contentious diesel deal with Russia, the White House’s insane new Press Secretary, and more. 
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Sarah Longwell of The Bulwark recently held a focus group with people who voted for Donald Trump in 2024 that took an extraordinary turn. After being shown Trump’s vile taxpayer-funded ad, in which he rages about expelling “globalists” and “Marxists” and the “fake news media,” they were revolted. They called Trump “despicable” and “power hungry” and a “narcissist” who spews  “nothing but lies.” We think this suggests Trump may be alienating right-leaning voters not just over costs, but with his totalitarian-dictator rule as well. So we talked to political theorist Paul Crider about the possibilities this focus group raises. We discuss his new piece arguing for the creation of a broad anti-corruption, anti-authoritarian coalition, dissect new GOP panic about losses in deep red areas, ask whether Trump’s dictator-megalomania is turning even those places against Trump, and examine how Democrats are creating a new politics in response to it all. 

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There is a lot to question when it comes to the future of AI. But what does the AI boom mean for the future of our democracy? David Rothkopf and political scientist Dave Karp of George Washington University examine how AI, billionaire media ownership, and campaign finance are concentrating power and weakening democracy. They explore the collapse of shared information, the influence of algorithms and personalized news, why political messaging increasingly fails to reach the public, and what some possible solutions might be to all of this. 

This material is distributed by TRG Advisory Services, LLC on behalf of the Embassy of the United Arab Emirates in the U.S.. Additional information is available at the Department of Justice, Washington, DC.
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On the DSR Daily Live for Friday, we’re joined by special guest Wajahat Ali to break down the midterm debates, the protests in France, the blatant racism of the current administration, and more.
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We are living through one of the most irrational chapters of US foreign policy in the Middle East. The recent uptick in the conflict between the United States and Iran is only abetted by the fast-approaching midterm elections next month. How did we get here in the first place? And what is the potential for future conflict between the US, Israel, Iran and its proxies? Middle East expert Kim Ghattas joins David Rothkopf, Rosa Brooks, and Ed Luce to discuss the current geopolitical state of the region, as well as her new book The Best Kind of American: A True Story of Murder, War, and America’s Undoing in the Middle East. 

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Donald Trump rages regularly at Fox News. But Axios now reports that there’s more behind this than meets the eye: White House and GOP operatives have privately pressured Fox for months to change how it’s covering Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed. The problem? By giving El-Sayed airtime and covering him in a somewhat factual way, it’s made it harder for Trump and the GOP to smear him as a crazy radical jihadist. Translation: Don’t let voters learn the truth about this guy; it’ll make it harder for us to beat him! That is so deeply humiliating. But it also gets at a bigger story about how the manly men of MAGA get so whiny when the electoral going gets tough. We talked to Jennifer Rubin, editor-in-chief of The Contrarian. We discuss her new piece on the flimsiness of MAGA machismo, probe the deeper reasons Trump can’t allow the truth about El-Sayed to be told, and dissect a new Pew poll showing Trump’s approval down to an abysmal 30 percent. 

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Republican crooks across the administration are now trying to distance themselves from Donald Trump ahead of November’s elections. Yet these Republicans like Mike Rogers and Thom Tillis are corrupt to the core themselves, leading to the question: how far will these politicians go to save their reputations despite their own histories of corruption? Norm Ornstein and David Rothkopf ponder the gathering storm ahead and whether or not the stains left by this administration may ever truly wash away.

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On the DSR Daily for Thursday, we break down Trump’s pathetic Texas rally, Trump’s $273 million worth of securities transactions, the EPA’s plans to relax methane regulations, and more. 
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In today’s episode, nonpartisan political forecaster Kyle Kondik makes some critical points about Donald Trump’s approval rating. First, it may be so low that he’s even underwater in House districts that he carried by double digits. Second, unlike in 2018, his approval is underwater in red states with big Senate races. Indeed, the latest polling averages have him sinking below 35 percent, a key threshold. And Times polling finds him upside down in five Senate-race states he carried by double digits. Taken together, it’s clear his public standing is unraveling. Meanwhile, GOP leaks are growing deafening. One GOP operative said: “If the bottom continues falling out like it has been, this will be worse than 2006.” Worse than the GOP’s epic 2006 losses under George W. Bush! For the straight story on the state of the House map, we talked to Kondik, managing director at Sabato’s Crystal Ball. He explains how Trump’s low approval is expanding the map for Democrats in surprising ways, interprets the latest GOP spending in deep red areas, and why he thinks Democrats might end up with 230 House seats.

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On the DSR Daily for October 7th, we cover Republican nervousness ahead of the midterms, Trump officials ramping up scrutiny of voter registration groups, the Justice Department moving to strip citizenship of 40 naturalized citizens, and more. 
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Donald Trump unleashed a long, crazed tirade this week about Dr. Annie Andrews, the Democratic Senate candidate in South Carolina. He attacked her with the vicious slur “tranny” not once but twice. He smeared her with numerous lies about her positions, insisting she is for “Defunding the Police” and “Transgender for Everyone.” The source of Trump’s rage is obvious: He fears the race is unexpectedly competitive. Indeed, two GOP-aligned pollsters—Trafalgar and Inside Advantage—recently found the race to be within one point. This is very bad news for Trump, and worse, Republicans plainly have their own polling showing something similar: A major GOP Super PAC just poured $5 million into the contest. The odds here are very, very long, especially once GOP money starts flowing. But since Trump clearly fears the race, we got a download on it from Jalisa Washington-Price, a veteran South Carolina Democratic operative who runs the pro-Andrews PAC Fresh Start. She explains the demographics of the state, why national Democrats should invest here, why the road ahead is very difficult—but not impossible!—and where this race fits into the recent history of the South.

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On the DSR Daily for Tuesday, we discuss Trump’s insane comments at a Nebraska rally, Trump conceding that his super PAC will now start paying for controversial ads, Disney taking the FCC to court, and more. 
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Donald Trump has been holding rallies in red states, and in a pair of articles, The New York Times reported that his crowd sizes have been diminishing. This triggered an epic tirade from Trump: He raged that his rallies are “PACKED” and claimed they are “HOTTER” than ever. He even accused the media of dishonestly ignoring their “thunderous applause” from “thousands and thousands of people.” This comes as Republicans themselves admit that the rallies actually reveal the weakness of the Trump-GOP position, which is requiring Trump to desperately energize his most loyal supporters to salvage races in deep-red areas. As one Republican told CNN: “This is a five-alarm fire.” We talked to Salon’s Amanda Marcotte, who’s been writing well about Trump’s struggles with his unpopularity. We dig into the latest polling showing red-state Senate races trending Democratic, discuss whether GOP-leaning voters will really be able to support Democrats, and look at how MAGA may be getting deenergized by Trump’s failure to vanquish liberals in the culture wars. 

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On the DSR Daily for Monday, we break down another aircraft carrier being sent to the Middle East, a critical Supreme Court case on state climate change lawsuits, Trump’s brand new “Super Intelligence Force”, and more. 
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A new Fox poll showing James Talarico ahead in the Texas Senate race unnerved Fox figures. One MAGA guest on Fox exclaimed: “Texans have to wake up!” The poll also has truly terrible news for Trump: His approval is upside down in this reliably red state, he’s cratering with Latinos, and he’s losing the working class, which is his base. He’s even underwater with non-MAGA Republicans, a key demographic that Talarico has worked to win. This comes as Republicans are leaking word that they’re shifting spending out of the North Carolina Senate race, which appears gone. They’re putting more into shoring up the MAGA-GOP candidate in Iowa and even Kansas Senator Roger Marshall, showing serious worry deep in MAGA country. We talked to political theorist Alan Elrod. We discuss how the Texas GOP’s white male supremacy and violent ethnonationalism perfectly represent today’s Republican Party, and how it’s deeply alienating mainstream America. We also dig into how it’s all creating space for a new moral language to emerge among Democrats. 

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On the DSR Daily Live for October 2nd, Norm Ornstein joins us to discuss Pete Hegseth’s Pentagon Office of Religious Affairs, the fallout of Jack Smith’s Senate hearing, a bipartisan effort to block the demolition of the Kennedy Center, and more. 
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In case you haven’t noticed, it’s bad out there. Pete Hegseth’s efforts to conform the military to his shallow definition of masculinity are troubling enough, Trump seems to have his sights set on a more deadly nuclear arsenal at his disposal. Jon Wolfsthal and Joe Cirincione join David Rothkopf to dive into the shocking shortcomings of our defense leadership under the Trump regime and why you might not be worried enough.
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As AI systems become more autonomous and are delegated more and more power across industries, we have to ask ourselves: are we walking the dog, or is the dog walking us? Is voluntary self-regulation really enough, or is it high time for legislators to get serious about reigning things in before the problem becomes too big to solve? CEO of CAS Strategies Camille Stewart Gloster joins us to discuss her new book The Insider You Built and explore why sensible regulation is sorely needed and more. 

This material is distributed by TRG Advisory Services, LLC on behalf of the Embassy of the United Arab Emirates in the U.S.. Additional information is available at the Department of Justice, Washington, DC.
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This week, GOP Senate candidate Ken Paxton privately admitted that Donald Trump’s midterm convention in Texas was a serious problem for the state’s Republican candidates. Asked about this, Trump unleashed a long, tortured monologue, and it was revealing. He kept returning to the number of viewers that he got at the convention, and kept repeating that he won Texas multiple times. He can only see this in terms of how he fared there, with no regard for GOP candidates. We think that Trump’s inability to clearly perceive his own standing with voters is a genuinely serious, far-reaching problem for Republicans. So we talked to Madison Andrus, an official with the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee who’s focused on the region. She shares new internal polling showing Democrats leading in key South Texas races, explains the shift away from Trump in the Rio Grande Valley and why it’s important, and discusses how broad the national map has gotten for Democrats.
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There are reasons for optimism as we head into the 2026 midterms. Polling is showing that people are fed up with Trump and his policies, courts are holding firm against the president, and some Republicans are beginning to distance themselves to a greater degree than we have previously seen. Yet winning in November will not mend the cracks in our democracy alone, and real challenges in our political system remain. Author and Historian Timothy Snyder joins David Rothkopf and Norm Ornstein to reflect on our democratic system and the need for political resilience against tyranny.

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On the DSR Daily for Thursday, we break down the White House removing CNN from the press pool, new details from the terrifying FlyDubai flight, skyrocketing bond levels, and more. 
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Donald Trump has been running propaganda ads starring, well, himself as a way to help the GOP in the midterms. The ads are government-funded, and one official even suggested that the payment scheme is partly designed to get media attention to the ads, amplifying them further. It’s appallingly corrupt and potentially illegal. But, amusingly, they’re backfiring: A new Quinnipiac poll shows that Trump is more toxic for the GOP than we thought. It finds his approval at an abysmal 34 percent, and at 31 percent on the economy, a record low for him. Worse, Democrats now lead Republicans on the economy, international conflicts and immigration, three traditional GOP strengths, underscoring just how big a drag he’s become. We talked to David Corn, author of the new book How Russia Won and a New Republic piece on Trumpian propaganda. We discuss how badly Trump is screwing the GOP, why those TV ads are destined to fail, why he’ll grow more dangerous as Election Day approaches, and how to prepare for it.

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Time is running out for Donald Trump and he, and the rest of the world, knows it. This is concerning - how much more damage will he wreak knowing the end is near? Will nations like China and Russia see these coming years as a window of opportunity, a way to take advantage of Trump’s imbecility on the global stage to further their own geopolitical agendas? Max Boot of the Council on Foreign Relations joins David Rothkopf and Rosa Brooks to take a look at foreign relations as we approach the end of Trump 2.0 and how they may ultimately be the most dangerous yet.
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On the DSR Daily for Wednesday, we cover Jack Smith’s Senate hearing, damning audio from Ken Paxton, $20 million taxpayer dollars going to Trump ads, and more.
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Donald Trump’s ban on a range of Canadian imports just went into effect, and The New York Times calls this a sign that the trade war has grown “vicious.” In a rambling tirade this week, Trump upped the ante in a dark way, calling Canada “one of the worst countries in the entire world.” Trump also said almost in passing that we get along with China better than we get along with Canada. We think it shouldn’t pass unnoticed just how casually Trump will toss aside a longtime ally. Trump also unleashed his top trade adviser to say sneeringly nasty things about Canada and Canadians, another sign that MAGA nationalism is growing more malicious. Meanwhile, Republicans tell the Los Angeles Times that the trade war is really bad news for the GOP. In one focus group, almost all swing voters in Michigan opposed it. We talked to New Republic contributing editor Virginia Heffernan, who’s been writing well about the economic roots of GOP midterm woes. She explains why it’s so dumb of Trump to order Americans to hate Canada—and why it’s all tailor made to get MAGA-adjacent “diesel class” voters to turn on Trump. 

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On the DSR Daily for Tuesday, we discuss Pete Hegseth’s orders for the military to defend the midterms, US bans on Canadian imports taking effect, Alito backing out of a blockbuster Supreme Court case, and more.
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Republicans leaking about the midterms are growing more alarmed. One GOP operative in Iowa says this: “It feels like it could be a wipeout.” In story after story, Republicans are confiding about their mounting panic. A GOP pollster who privately told donors that the Senate might hold was mocked by Republicans themselves as “delusional.” Meanwhile, over the last few days, Trump has unraveled in a series of panicky Truth Social posts. In one, he ranted at length about how great the economy is and ordered Americans to “VOTE FOR REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES.” In several other posts, he raged at the media for reporting “Fake Polls” while not reporting all the fabulous economic news. We talked to Melissa Toufanian, managing director at the progressive firm Navigator Research, which has done interesting polling on Trump supporters who now regret their vote. She explains what’s really happening with voters in red states with big races, what focus groups reveal about how Trump-backing constituencies see him now, and why politicians from both parties should listen carefully to what voters are really telling them.

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