Tuesday on the RealClearPolitics radio show, Andrew Walworth, Tom Bevan, and Phil Wegmann discuss the fallout from President Trump’s meeting with Ukrainian President Zelensky and other European leaders, Trump saying he wants to end mail-in voting, MSNBC rebranding itself as the channel spins off from NBC, and California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s new social media strategy of parodying Trump’s signature style. Later, RCP senior elections analyst Sean Trende talks about new polls examining the shifting landscape of western Pennsylvania politics, and Donor’s Trust VP Peter Lipsett talks about the divide in the conservative movement between “Natcons” and “Freecons.” 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. *** The show opened with an analysis of how the world is reacting to President Trump’s meeting yesterday with Ukrainian President Zelensky and other European leaders. Trump seems optimistic, but are they really any closer to ending the war in Ukraine? “Zelensky said it was a good meeting,” Tom Bevan said. “Trump said he felt like Putin wanted a deal… But it’s hard to say what Putin’s game is and whether any of this will bring him to the table.” “It’s hard to sort out what is flattery from these other world leaders and what is actual progress, but I think there is now momentum,” RCP White House reporter Phil Wegmann commented. “There’s recognition inside the administration that you go into a peace process with the war criminal you have, not the war criminal you want.” *** And then, at minute 10, a conversation about Trump’s comment about wanting to “eliminate” mail-in voting. Would that sabotage Republicans, who massively expanded their vote-by-mail campaign last year? “Republicans didn’t like mail-in voting, then they did, and now apparently Trump doesn’t like it again,” Andrew Walworth commented. “About 30% of the vote in 2024 came through mail-in ballots — and we should add that the president does not have the authority by executive order or any other way to change how people vote. That’s up to the states and Congress.” “Trump has never gotten over the fact that he believes the 2020 election was stolen. And part of the way he thinks it was stolen was Democratic states going to universal mail ballots,” Bevan said. “Absentee ballot rejection rates had traditionally been about 2%. This time, in some states, they were under 1%. Trump firmly believes that’s why he lost. He’ll never believe otherwise.” *** Next, starting at minute 16, MSNBC announced this week they’re rebranding as MS-NOW — an acronym for “My Source [for] News, Opinion, World” — as the network is spun off of NBC/Comcast. Is this good news for the news? “They’re now untethered from a real news organization, NBC, now they can do whatever they want. They’re super independent! Give me a break,” Bevan said. “People in the NBC newsroom are probably thrilled.” “No one in their right mind would want to get rid of the NBC part of the name if they didn’t have to. When they announced this split originally, MSNBC was supposed to keep the name. CNBC is keeping it,” Walworth added. *** After that, at minute 22, California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s new social media strategy is a parody of Trump’s signature style. Is he damaging Trump, just getting laughs, or actually communicating more effectively? “It seems to energize people who already like Newsom: Democrats tired of Trump,” Wegmann said. “It’s a good one-off gimmick, but what is the point?” “The guy actually doing this is reportedly some 22-year-old staffer in glasses and a bow tie,” Bevan said. “There’s a full-time staff of like three people doing this, which is kind of comical.” *** And then, staring at minute 25, RCP senior elections analyst Sean Trende talks about his new piece, the first in a series based on a new large-sample poll of residents of southwestern Pennsylvania from RealClear Opinion Research and Emerson Polling: “Restoring Trust in the Heart of PA’s Political Realignment” “Part of the reason we chose this region is it has the city of Pittsburgh. It’s got typical big city problems, it’s trying to reclaim a tax base that’s moved out to the suburbs, it’s trying to reinvent itself as a tech marketplace as the steel industry is gone, and you’ve also got this rural area in Appalachia,” he explained. “Michael Dukakis carried all these counties in Pennsylvania, but today they’re overwhelmingly Republican. So not only do we get a nice diversity in this region that we can kind of break down into subgroups and cross tabs, but we’re in an area that is ground zero for one of the most remarkable transformations in America.” “We’re going to be looking at big picture things. Who are the people that trust the government, who are the people that don’t?” he explained. “What makes this really unique for a regional study is we have a sample size of around 1,500 respondents, which means we can really get a granular look.” *** Finally, at minute 34, Peter Lipsett, the vice president of Donor’s Trust, talks to Andrew Walworth about his new series on the Giving Ventures podcast about different factions of the conservative movement: What is the Right.” “The schism you discuss is between what is called the new right/national conservatism, or NatCon for short-one way to look at it is as sort of an explanation for Trumpism-and the reaction, which is called freedom conservatism, or FreeCon, which is sort of a throwback to sort of the Buckley–Reagan type of conservatism we remember from the 1980s,” Andrew Walworth explained. “How serious is this split? Or is this just sort of letterhead, sort of arguing over angels on a pin?” “All of this boils down to: when you have power, which the right, broadly speaking, certainly does right now, how do you use it?” Lipsett said. “The Trump administration leans a little bit more towards the new right and getting those ideas done quickly.” “I think a lot of people look to this battle between Marco Rubio and JD Vance as the potential dividing line. And I think those are not bad characters to put this on,” he said. “JD Vance certainly is of the new right… Marco Rubio is much more ideologically aligned with the freedom conservative side, but also wants to get things done.” “Frankly there isn’t a really great political avatar of a freedom conservative person out there right now,” Lipsett noted. “Maybe DeSantis, but he can go both ways. It’s going to be interesting, because one of the big questions is how Trumpism carries on once the man is no longer attached to it.” *** 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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