Monday on the RealClearPolitics radio show — weeknights at 6:00 p.m. on SiriusXM’s POTUS Channel 124 and then on Apple, Spotify, and here on our website — Andrew Walworth, Tom Bevan, and Phil Wegmann discuss what President Trump is up to in Scotland, Democrat Roy Cooper announcing he’s running for Senate in North Carolina, and a Boston judge who is challenging the funding decisions in the “Big, Beautiful Bill.” And then, Phil Wegmann interviews Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis at the “Alligator Alcatraz” migrant detention camp, and RCP contributor Charlie Stone interviews Google chief strategist Neil Hoyne about the future of artificial intelligence. *** First, President Trump is making waves across the world during a trip to Scotland, signing a new trade deal with the EU and talking about the wars in Ukraine and Gaza. “Clearly, the biggest takeaway from this trip is this deal with the EU,” Tom Bevan explained. “The French prime minister said this was a ‘dark day for Europe,’ which to me means it was a good deal for the United States!” “A number of economists earlier this year predicted a recession this summer. That’s clearly not the case,” Wegmann added. “The Overton window has changed now that the American public has seen that tariffs didn’t destroy their life. Now the question is: How does a Democratic administration come in and remove tariffs on China or the EU?” *** Next, around minute 8:30, former North Carolina Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper announced this morning that he’s running for the open Senate seat that Republican Sen. Thom Tillis is leaving. Is this a guaranteed pickup for Democrats in 2026? “If you concocted someone in a test tube to run in North Carolina, it would be him,” Andrew Walworth joked about Roy Cooper. “Looking at the map, this is big for Democrats,” Tom Bevan explained. “I don’t know if they’re going to get to a majority, but this definitely expands the map in their favor.” *** In the next segment, starting at minute 13, a Boston judge has halted the part of the “Big, Beautiful Bill” that cuts federal funding to Planned Parenthood. “Indira Talwani, District Court of Massachusetts. She’s a Barack Obama appointee,” Bevan explained. “This is a novel argument. She says patients are likely to suffer adverse health consequences.” “The House has the power of the purse. This is something Trump signed into law. This seems like the judiciary is usurping power and thwarting Trump’s agenda, on steroids, unless I’m missing something,” he said. “I assume this is going to, you know, go to the Supreme Court.” *** After that, at minute 17, RCP White House reporter Phil Wegmann talks about his trip to see Alligator Alcatraz, where he interviewed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. “I didn’t see any alligators, but I did see mosquitoes as large as hummingbirds,” he joked. “We were not able to go into the Alligator Alcatraz facility itself. We were there on the runway where detainees are going to be flown out of Florida.” “One thing we pressed DeSantis on was: the state of Florida says that they meet and exceed all standards for prisons. So why weren’t we allowed into the facility to see it ourselves?” “When they say desolate, they are absolutely right,” he said about the locale. “The Everglades are beautiful, but there was miles and miles of nothing in all directions. It’s about an hour and a half from Miami. We pulled up into a parking lot, and then we were escorted into these vans, driven to a canvas airplane hangar.” “DeSantis knows there is a microscope on this facility; he knows if anything goes wrong, he’s going to be blamed. So he has a vested interest in trying to keep conditions there livable, so he doesn’t have that scandal,” Wegmann added. *** And then, staring at minute 24, Phil Wegmann’s interview with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis outside the “Alligator Alcatraz” migrant detention center. You can read more about the interview here. *** Finally, at minute 35, RCP contributor Charlie Stone talks to Google Chief Strategist Neil Hoyne on the future of artificial intelligence, how it should be regulated, and what it will mean for young job seekers in the future. You can read more about the conversation here. “Google CEO Sundar Pichai was on 60 Minutes saying that this may be as important and impactful as fire,” Hoyne said. “When fire came out, I imagine thousands of years ago in a cave, it’s likely that somebody burned their food. It’s likely that somebody died of carbon monoxide poisoning or burned all their possessions.” “And then they learned the rules. And they said, Okay, we have to contain this. This is how we treat it. These are the unintended consequences of working with this,” he said. “And fast forward to the modern day, we have flammability standards for buildings. We have emergency exit procedures. We have sprinklers. That says, we can use this technology in a responsible way.” *** Don’t miss a single episode of the RealClearPolitics weeknight radio show – subscribe at Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
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