Monday on the RealClearPolitics radio show, Andrew Walworth, Tom Bevan, and Carl Cannon break down Democratic legislators walking out of the state of Texas to stall a new congressional map that could benefit the Republicans. Also, two big names entered the 2026 midterm race, asking for Trump’s endorsement. Plus, the president fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics after a worse-than-expected jobs report, and the Wall Street Journal reports China is restricting exports of vital minerals in response to tariffs. Later, Finseca CEO Mark Cadin evaluates President Trump’s plan to give every newborn a tax-free savings account, and Andrew Walworth hosts Thom Shanker, James Glassman, and Jeffrey Gedmin for a discussion about the future of U.S. public diplomacy. You can listen to the show weeknights at 6:00 p.m. on SiriusXM’s POTUS Channel 124 and then on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and here on our website. *** First, about 50 Democratic legislators left the state of Texas to delay a vote on a new congressional district map that would benefit Republicans ahead of the 2026 midterms. “The irony is Democrats fleeing Texas over redistricting and coming to Illinois, which has been gerrymandered into oblivion,” Tom Bevan commented. “They get to make a dramatic statement, and they’re fighting against the evil Republicans, but at the end of the day, I’m not sure there’s much they can do.” “This doesn’t always work out the way the party wants,” Carl Cannon warned. “They’re looking at the temporary gain, but in the first Texas gerrymander, you lost people like Charlie Stenholm-reasonable centrist Democrats, half a dozen of them-and replaced them with people like Jasmine Crockett.” *** Next, around minute 5:30, Rep. Nancy Mace announced she’s running for governor in South Carolina, while former University of Tennessee football coach Derek Dooley entered the primary to challenge Georgia Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff. Both of them want President Trump’s endorsement. Are these the kinds of allies Trump needs heading into 2026? “She’s certainly got high name ID,” Cannon said about Nancy Mace. “My guess is people in South Carolina sort of love her or hate her. She generates strong emotions, pro and con… She’s very salty.” “Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville is sort of the example of the coach-turned-politician,” Bevan said about Derek Dooley’s chances. “In his launch video today, he absolutely wraps himself in a bear hug with Donald Trump… He’s gonna get some serious scrutiny, but on a scale of one to 10, I’d say he’s better than a five.” *** In the next segment, starting at minute 11:30, President Trump fired the commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics this weekend after a terrible jobs report that not only showed sluggish growth but included notably high downward revisions to figures from the past few months. “If they can’t measure these numbers, why try?” Cannon wondered. “These constant revisions, it’d be maddening if you’re in the West Wing. I get that.” “I don’t know if that justifies firing the person, but I do think there needs to be some sort of accountability or explanation as to why this keeps happening,” Tom Bevan added. “Can we fix it? If the answer is no… then maybe we need to do away with it. It has a highly political element, and the markets respond to this stuff. We can’t have markets reacting to what turns out to be false information.” “I actually did a three-part documentary series called ‘The First Measured Century’ for public television back in the day, which looked at all these government measures,” Andrew Walworth added. “And if you really look at them, they’re all kind of subjectively drawn. There’s a story behind each one of them where someone decided this is the poverty line, this is how we calculate inflation. It’s garbage in, garbage out.” *** After that, at minute 17, the gang discusses a new report from the Wall Street Journal on how China is restricting exports of rare earth minerals to Western defense companies as part of the escalating trade war between Beijing and Washington: “China Is Choking Supply of Critical Minerals to Western Defense Companies” “It makes you realize that when push comes to shove, you can’t be that dependent on anyone for something essential,” Walworth said. “It’s like being dependent on Taiwan for microchips. Who would let that happen?” “Isn’t that what we learned during COVID? On pharmaceuticals and all kinds of other things, we’ve just absolutely abdicated our responsibility for producing these things and outsourced it all, with no thought to the consequences. And now some of that is coming home to roost,” Bevan said. *** And then, staring at minute 21, Tom Bevan talks to Finseca CEO Mark Cadin about Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent describing the president’s new Trump savings accounts for newborns as “a backdoor for privatizing Social Security.” The White House urgently walked that back, but is there something to it? “The notion that a child born in 2026 will, 65 or 70 years later, use the Trump Account to eliminate Social Security… I just don’t think that passes the laugh test,” Cadin said. “Trump has said he doesn’t want to touch Social Security, and his actions back that up. He’s actually gone the other way, with the One Big Beautiful Bill expanding the standard deduction for seniors.” “But the treasury secretary is a really smart guy, he’s made his living in the markets, and I think what he knows intuitively is that Social Security is going broke,” he said. “If nothing is done between now and 2033, Social Security becomes insolvent, and there’s going to be a 25% cut for retirees. That’s a 0% probability event. Congress will not let that happen.” *** Finally, at minute 31, former NYT Pentagon correspondent Thom Shanker, former Undersecretary for Public Diplomacy James Glassman, and Middle East Broadcast Networks CEO Jeffrey Gedmin joined Andrew Walworth at an event hosted by the Project for Media and National Security at George Washington University. RCP presents some highlights from their discussion about the future of American public diplomacy and overseas broadcasting as the Trump administration defunds organizations like the U.S. Agency for Global Media. Walworth wrote earlier this year: “Telling the American Story: Public Diplomacy in the Trump Era” “On March 14, as many of you know, Congress approved our funding. On March 15, the oversight agency USAGM, headed by Kari Lake, ended that funding-unlawfully,” Gedmin said. “Courts have sided with us in verifying it was unlawful. But the larger truth is this: until we get some cohesion across Congress and with the administration about America’s voice, America’s role, and what it is we want to project, I fear we’re going to roll from crisis to crisis this calendar year and next.” “What the administration has done is an abomination. What they should have done was take a close look-maybe appoint a commission,” Glassman said. “The Chinese are spending $ 6 billion on this. That tells you something. Another piece of evidence: they try to block our broadcasts. If they weren’t doing anything, nobody would bother to block them.” “I don’t believe we’ll go another six months without some sort of plan on public diplomacy. We saw this during the bombing in Iran-they brought back the Farsi service. I think it was about 75 people, parachuted in. I think they’re gone already, which is a hell of a way to do public diplomacy-but it makes the point. We’re going to do this one way or the other,” Walworth added. *** 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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