Joan Esposito is joined by David Atkins, Washington Monthly contributing writer. His latest piece is "The GOP’s Cruel Budget and the Authoritarianism Behind the ‘Big Beautiful Bill.'"
Atkins, who is also an elected Democratic National Committee member from California, highlighted the One Big Beautiful Bill Act's disproportionate benefits to the wealthy and its severe cuts to social services, including Medicaid. He noted a growing dissent among Trump supporters, particularly young male podcasters, over broken promises.
"What is happening," Atkins said, "is Donald Trump is removing the scales from their eyes, slowly but surely. Now, they still have a very large cult, no question, but, piece by piece, people who believed that he was just going to deport violent criminals -- no, that's not happening. He is deporting gardeners and nannies and stuff, and they can see that. People who believed he was going to deal with [Jeffrey] Epstein -- obviously, nope, not that.
"Is it possible that Congress could, as they take up the next piece of the budget say, you know what, Donald Trump doesn't have the juice that he used to; I'm going to be independent? Possibly. But the problem is, he still has enough hold on the base that right now, still, we're seeing that if Trump threatens them, they resign and say they won't run for re-elect. I am not confident, but I think you might, in fact, see a crackup of the base if this continues."
Catch "Joan Esposito: Live, Local and Progressive" weekdays from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. Central on WCPT (heartlandsignal.com/programs/live-local-progressive).
And find the Joan Esposito (Full Episodes) podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, TuneIn, iHeartRadio, YouTube, and Amazon.
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