Carusone: The Bigger Issue Is That Even if Trump’s Popular Support Starts to Fade, ‘It Isn’t in a Vacuum’

RUSH TRANSCRIPT:
Wallace: “You know, Angela, we talk a lot. You introduced this term and I love it. I use it every day. I always credit you, but I do use it every day. Narrative dominance. And I know, I know you’re not very bullish on Trump losing his narrative dominance anytime soon. But I want to ask you, if you view these two numbers as any sort of canary in the coal mine, 33 and 36, those are the numbers of Americans that approve of Donald Trump’s policies on inflation is 33 and tariffs is 36 now 36 approve of his policy on tariffs. And we’re in a 90 day pause. So they haven’t hit yet. He just announced new tariffs against the EU our second largest trading partner. So the actual impact of the tariffs hasn’t even hit. And only 36% of Americans support those policies. Do you think that the bottom falling out of his support on what used to be his strongest attribute, which is that he was this TV character business person, do you think that has any ability to rein in the attacks on the rule of law, or do you think they accelerate the attacks on the rule of law?”

CARUSONE: “I think. That’s. The right question. And, you know, it’s funny, you know, especially when. We talk about tariffs, you know, I always remind myself that as these things do matter, I mean, America. Is revolutionary. Spirit was literally born. A revolution. Born out of a tariff. I mean, it’s like we don’t like them. And that is always a little bit of a spark that maybe that will rally people. But I think the bigger issue, though, is that even if that popular support starts to fade, it isn’t in a vacuum. It is taking place in this larger story that his supporters are hearing and live in, and the story that they’re hearing right now, you know, independent of how they even talk about the tariffs. But it still hasn’t broken through yet. There’s a lot is a fairly large amount of latitude there. But when it comes to this discussion around the judiciary and around the rule of law, it’s already demonstrated that it’s accelerating. And mark said something before about J.D. Vance. You know, being that this is the world that he lives in. And it’s true, you know, a big part of his job, right? It seems to be to exist online and to engage with those spaces. And if you look at what’s taking place in these online spaces, in these big programs and the right-wing media, the predominant story outside of some of these few other breakthroughs is one of the big things percolating for the past few weeks has been this very issue. And what they are describing this as is post-election interference. Judicial coup is one of the most commonly used terms all across the board there. They describe it this as the most significant act of article three subversion since the civil since the civil war. And the other big thing that I keep hearing, and this is the alarm bell, a big one. There’s plenty, but this one really does resonate, which is that one of the things that a Matt Gaetz said on on war room, which is Bannon’s show, is that the most consequential test for members of the Trump Administration, will be are they willing to defy unlawful court orders? And a big part of that story, that narrative is gearing up for ultimately, a showdown. And that’s that’s the point of the power of the judiciary is that a lot of their stuff, their power really comes from their their credibility with the space. Are people willing to tolerate that? And right now, they seem to be potentially losing that narrative war, because what we’re seeing is the right build up, a cause of action, a legitimate cause of action from their perspective to start broad scale, defying the rule of law and neutralizing the power of the courts. And that that’s that’s what project 2025 said. They didn’t have any specific plans for the courts. The only thing project 2025 really ever said about the courts was that all the other things that we will do and execute will have the net effect of neutralizing the court’s power to fundamentally check the unitary executive. And I think, you know, jd Vance basically summed it up in two sentences.”