Friday on the RealClearPolitics podcast, Tom Bevan, Carl Cannon, and Andrew Walworth discussed the politics surrounding the U.S. hosting next year’s FIFA World Cup, the newly renamed Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace, and whether Washington think tanks still matter. After that, RCP reporter Phil Wegmann joins the show to discuss his new piece on the arrest of alleged Jan. 6 pipe bomber Brian Cole after five years, and what the latest inflation numbers could mean for voters in 2026. Finally, the team reacts to the Supreme Court’s decision allowing Texas to use its new GOP-drawn map for 2026, and gives their picks for the weekly “You Cannot Be Serious?!” roundup of entertaining headlines. You can listen to the show live each day at 11:00 a.m. on SiriusXM’s Megyn Kelly Channel 111 and then on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and here on our website. *** The show opens with President Trump receiving the inaugural FIFA Peace Prize as they draw the brackets for next year’s World Cup. Are the Village People and Andrea Bocelli enough to counteract FIFA’s reputation for corruption? “It is absolutely genius of FIFA to create this Peace Prize and give it to Trump. Everyone knows Trump responds to flattery,” Bevan joked. “Through a political lens, these games take place next summer, right before the 2026 midterms. Trump will attend these games. It’s another shiny object that could distract him, or even make him look out of touch with cost-of-living issues. If I were advising him, I’d say: For every event like this, do five events on economics and affordability … MAAA: Make America Affordable Again.” *** After that, around minute 10, the panel discusses President Trump hosting a Congo-Rwanda peace accord signing yesterday at the U.S. Institute of Peace (now rebranded as the “Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace”). Three cheers for peace or another useless think tank? “Just to remind people, the Peace Institute was an early victim of DOGE. It’s been called a ‘$ 50 million-per-year waste of taxpayer funds’ by the White House, but now it is apparently back,” Andrew Walworth explained. “Congress was going to start this thing in the mid-’80s, and Ronald Reagan decided to name to the Peace Institute as many neoconservatives as he possibly could. It was a hotbed for the most pro-interventionist, pro-war crowd … When DOGE came along, I hadn’t heard about the Peace Institute for years. They were just, honestly, quietly spending.” *** Next, 18 minutes into the show, RCP reporter Phil Wegmann joins the show to discuss his new piece with Susan Crabtree on the arrest of alleged Jan. 6 pipe bomber Brian Cole, including why it took five years to find this guy, and what we know about his politics, mental health, and background. “They stressed again and again that there was no new evidence. Instead, they were sifting through a lot of the data collected in the days after the foiled attack,” Wegmann reported. “This is the biggest feather in the cap of FBI Director Kash Patel, and it comes right as he needed it. There had been rumors and reports that he was on the hot seat.” “But if you’re going to plant bombs at the DNC and the RNC, what’s the motive? An attack on the two-party system?” he wondered. “Look at the timeline. For four years, the Biden administration, when the FBI was led by Christopher Wray, did not crack this case. Then, in the course of 11 months, the Trump administration under Kash Patel shows up and doesn’t get any new evidence. They just sift through what was already recorded-and it seems they solved the case,” Wegmann said. “It raises questions about what Christopher Wray was doing at the FBI and whether this was actually a priority.” *** After that, at minute 31, the conversation shifts to fresh inflation numbers, as the administration cites the latest Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) price index to demand rate cuts and claim victory over Biden-era inflation. “The White House sees this as vindication of Donald Trump’s ongoing crusade against Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, saying: Look, inflation is not as bad as it used to be, so drop the rates,” Wegmann said. “Inflation’s the whole ballgame for Republicans and for Trump heading into 2026-and his numbers on inflation are not good,” added Tom Bevan. “But inflation is cumulative. It’s not just that the rate has come down from 9 to 2%; prices are still rising, just more slowly.” *** Finally, around minute 39 the team reacts to a Supreme Court decision allowing Texas to use a mid-decade GOP-drawn map for 2026. Does explicitly allowing partisan gerrymandering (as long as you can prove it isn’t primarily racially motivated) open the floodgates for state parties around the country to redraw their maps? “Once upon a time, we thought if Republicans decided to go ‘balls to the walls’ on this stuff, they’d gain 15 seats. But since places like Indiana have decided not to move forward with redistricting, that number is probably lower, maybe even down into the single digits,” Bevan commented. “With their margins so slim, I’m not sure that would inoculate them from a blue wave in 2026. If the economy isn’t great, that won’t do the trick. I think this means we’re going to get more of this, not less.” *** Plus, at minute 44, the group gives their picks for the weekly “You Cannot Be Serious?!” roundup of entertaining headlines. *** 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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