Up next in 10
Simon Marks was alarmed this morning to receive an email from Donald Trump himself - warning that he might only have four weeks left in the Oval Office. To his relief, it was just a fundraising email...
But it points to a ramping up of electoral messaging ahead of the mid-terms, with the Republicans desperate to hold onto both the House and the Senate, which polls suggest are slipping from their grasp.
00:00 Simon Marks joins James O'Brien's show.
02:42 Donald Trump tells Ohio voters worried about price increases to 'suck it up'.
04:41 The President explains how much aspirin he takes.
06:14 An expletive-laden get-out-to-vote plea.
08:41 Mail-in voting is now good, apparently.
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0:00
I was slightly alarmed to get an email from President Trump this morning when I woke up
0:06
a fundraising email, and its subject line reads, this could be my final four weeks as president
0:14
I don't know if we're breaking some news here, but this could be my final four weeks as president
0:21
Then you click on the link to read his critical reflection, which is something that's obviously been written for him
0:28
about him saying a prayer in the Rose Garden the other night for the future of the country
0:35
But, I mean, the fact that he is suggesting to supporters that he could be going into his final month as president
0:41
raises a number of questions. First, I mean, if we take that on its face, is he seriously considering the possibility after a loss in the midterms
0:51
of perhaps handing over to J.D. Vance and saying, right, you take it home for the last two years
0:56
I think that's unlikely. I think the more likely explanation for this email is that they are so concerned about activating grassroots Republicans to show up at the polls in November that he's almost conflating the midterm elections when his name is not on the ballot with a presidential election in 2028
1:18
but suggesting to them, this could be my final four weeks as president
1:22
you've got to bring us over the line. But it was quite something to see that in the email today
1:28
It speaks, doesn't it, to the disconnect now at the very top of the Republican Party
1:32
where most of these candidates in places like Texas and Alaska and Iowa
1:36
would probably like to keep them at arm's length. But he still thinks that he's the magic source, the special source
1:43
So that is a very dissonant scenario where he's going, right, all we've got left is me
1:50
Break glass, release me. Absolutely. And the candidates will probably be going, oh, Lord, things are tough enough already
1:57
Well, so he unleashed himself over the weekend, dating back to Thursday. He's been making a series of campaign trail appearances, finally, as we head into the final month of this midterm election campaign
2:06
and there will be Republican candidates that undoubtedly will have preferred him to stay at home
2:14
Let's take a listen, first of all, to what President Trump said in Ohio, one of those seats that the Democrats are hoping to pick up
2:21
He had already said that affordability the number one issue in this midterm election campaign the economic crisis sparked by his war on Iran is a made up word by the Democrats But then when it comes to the concerns that Ohio voters
2:38
and presumably voters all over the country, have about rising oil prices
2:42
his message to them was, you've got to suck it up. But remember about the oil, you're paying a price
2:49
but boy, is that a small price than what it would be
2:53
if these lunatics were allowed to have a nuclear weapon and used it on Mobile, Alabama
3:00
OK, not going to happen. Well, it's definitely not going to happen
3:04
because US intelligence, before his war began, had concluded that Iran had not reconstituted its nuclear programme
3:10
and certainly did not have a nuclear weapon capable of reaching Mobile, Alabama
3:15
But the message there is it's a price worth paying. There's no polling that suggests a single voter is buying that
3:23
And, of course, even if it had had some sort of nuclear capability, He's claimed on several occasions since launching that war that it has been completely eradicated by Donald J. Trump
3:31
Yes. The defense of it now by some of his key conciliary is beyond comical
3:39
I mean, sitting there saying you can't believe the figures, everything is going well, the economy is going well
3:47
That gulf between observable reality and the political rhetoric is the biggest it's ever been
3:53
Well, substantial, because every single American this weekend filling their car or their truck up with petrol or diesel
4:01
every single American standing in a supermarket checkout line over the weekend is aware that when he says prices are coming down
4:10
and this is all the fault of Joe Biden and the Democrats, he inherited, he said this weekend, a dark age from the Democrats
4:17
He's introduced a golden age for America. That is simply not showing up
4:22
It's a splatter gun, isn't it? He's just going like this and just desperately hoping something will stick
4:27
It's like nuclear bombs, Joe Biden, things are going well, Ukraine, Volodymyr, nothing's sticking
4:34
And often trying to make points that don't land. Take a listen to this next clip
4:39
Again, this is Trump in Ohio. And see if you can guess what this riff is actually all about
4:47
I take an aspirin a day. I don't know if it works, but psychologically I need it
4:53
It thins the hell out of your blood, I guess. I don't know if it works or not
4:58
but I been doing it for a long time And I take the big one You know they want me to go down to the 80 I take the 386 I don know what the hell it is It a monster They said sir you don need that I said do me a favor I been doing OK for 35 years Leave me alone
5:14
Donald Trump talking about his habit of taking doses of aspirin every single day that his doctors have warned him he should not be taking
5:22
What do you think that's all about? It's actually about the fact that Bayer, the company that manufactures much of the aspirin sold in the United States
5:31
had invested $2.2 billion in a new manufacturing plant in Ohio, in Columbus, Ohio
5:40
But that news was completely buried after we had the shaggy dog story from him in Ohio about his love of taking far too large doses of aspirin
5:51
Completely buried. And then there was Donald Trump in Ohio engaging, I think, ostensibly, in a get out the vote operation
6:03
This is Donald Trump. And we have cleaned this language up because we have to
6:07
This is Donald Trump urging people in Ohio and across the country to show up at the polls
6:13
Just get out and vote. If you do that, we're going to win and we're going to win big. And we're going to shove it up their ass, OK
6:21
I'd like that they continue to fight because as long as they do, they can't win elections
6:25
They're a bunch of dumb son of a**hole. So that's Donald Trump saying to voters, please show up at the polls and back Republican candidates
6:35
that in very large measure at these campaign rallies, he either has briefly mentioned
6:40
or in some cases mentioned them in ways that have damaged them
6:45
In Texas, he described Ken Paxton, who's battling to win that all-important Senate seat in Texas
6:51
as also being a pain in the rear. And if you take a look at Politico this morning
6:58
they are reporting that Ken Paxton, whose seat the Republicans desperately need to hold in the Senate
7:04
if they're to stand a chance of retaining their majority there. Ken Paxton has been caught on tape saying
7:10
I've never been in a race where I felt less control over the campaign
7:13
and what issues are going to matter because it's all coming, you know, from D.C
7:20
He sounds a bit like the missing Bouvier sister, doesn't he now? Everything is sounding..
7:25
It's Patty and Selma, Marge's sisters in The Simpsons. He's beginning to sound like the missing Bouvier sister
7:32
And as you say making no sense making everything worse for his candidates And 61 chance of Democrat control in the Senate
7:44
And 95% in the House. So he loses everything if that happens. We're confident that when he talks about the last four weeks
7:50
potentially, of his presidency, he's not alluding to impeachment or anything like that
7:54
I mean, he could be. That's not what he says in the reflection that you read
7:59
when you then click on it. I mean, I think that that subject line is frankly clickbait in these fundraising emails, but we've never seen him say anything like that before
8:09
And he rejects, I think, the idea that if Democrats win the House and the Senate, his presidency will be at an end
8:16
Because as we were talking about last week, he's barely used Congress for anything since he got back into power in January last year, apart from his big, beautiful spending bill
8:27
Well, that's the only time he really needed Congress to do anything. He got that done and then everything else has just been this tsunami of executive orders
8:35
which is clearly the way that he intends to carry on governing whoever is in control of both the House and the Senate
8:40
But he's also now urging people to vote by mail. Yes. Well, he himself has voted by mail
8:47
Vote early, vote by mail. Vote early, vote by mail. I mean, there is certainly quite a contradiction in that claim
8:55
given that he has previously argued that postal ballots are the biggest problem besetting America's electoral system
9:02
Mail-in ballots are corrupt. Mail-in ballots, you can never have a real democracy with mail-in ballots
9:09
They're corrupt and you know that we're the only country in the world, I believe, I may be wrong
9:16
but just about the only country in the world that uses it. That is completely untrue. Vladimir Putin himself told him you've got to get rid of postal voting
9:24
which is odd because they use it in Russia, and Vladimir Putin takes tremendous advantage of it
9:30
in order to secure the massive majorities that he ratchets up there
9:34
Republicans were very worried about this campaign against postal voting because, you know, it matters
9:42
You want to get as much of your vote mobilised as possible. And Democrats, as of last time I looked
9:47
over 700,000 people had already voted by post early, and they were breaking in most surveys for the Democrats
9:56
And so that may be one reason why he changed his mind over the weekend. People are voting all together, of course
10:01
Yeah, not just voting by mail, because if you don't vote by mail, you don't vote at all. They're staying at home out of loyalty to Donald
10:06
or rather they're not mailing their ballots out of loyalty to Donald Trump
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