November 1, 2025 • 12 mins
Since Trump's entry into politics, the Republican party has been taken down in favor of MAGA values. Steve Schmidt sits down with Adam Kinzinger to discuss Trump's dealings with China and the future of the Republican party.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You were telling me about our great victory over the Chinese,
why don't you summarize it to the to the people
joining the great leader. Yeah, that brought us the fruits
of prosperity with an art of the deal of veritable Picasso,
a Rembrandt, a du Vinci, all put together like a
(00:22):
super piece of art.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Yeah, this is where we've got to get better at
putting this in simple terms for people that still believe
this guy is good at anything like listen, So China,
you know, we have this trade war. China says we're
not going to buy any soybeans, so it creates all
this pain in the farmer's brilliant move on China's part.
So now they go to negotiate, and what does Trump
(00:48):
get in his deal? Trump gets China to buy the
soybeans they were buying before the trade war. And on
top of that, the sweeten the deal, Donald Trump offers
them advanced A chips, which is the thing we were
holding from China so that they could not compete with
us on AI. Now Navidia gets to export their high
(01:09):
quality AI chips to China, so China can compete with AI.
So we end up actually China has agreed to buy
a little less soybeans than they were buying. So China
ultimately is buying a little less soybeans, getting AI chips,
and agreeing not to hold rare earth minerals for one year.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
And that's it.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
And keep in mind the US, we have tons of
rare earth minerals, and I think people need to think
this thing through. The problem is we have mining regulations
that don't allow us to get them. So I think
that is a longer term conversation. But yeah, the art
of the deal was the art of the complete collapse
and capitulation that he will sell us a win and
his thirty five percent of people will.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
Gobble it up.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
And it sounds like another incredible victory for the leader.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
That's right, That's right.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
You know. Look, I mean, if all you have to
do is capitulate in a new deal, you can be
the greatest deal maker ever if like, you know, look,
if you and I wanted to make a deal and
I said, hey, i'll tell you what, Steve, I'll pay
you five hundred dollars to enter a deal with me,
and that's it. You don't have to do anything. You'll
be like, yeah, I'll take that deal. That's basically what
(02:17):
we're doing here. That doesn't make me a great deal maker,
but I could go out and say I made a
deal with Steve Schmidt.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
A lot to talk about and want to get into
the last Republican.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
I'm thrilled that you're here, Adam, the.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
Very very rare opportunity to get to get to talk
to a really small group of people that I feel
membership with and a lot of affinity with. And that
group I was describing that group to a larger audience
the other night, and I said, the important thing to
(02:52):
remember is that the moment that Trump came down the escalator,
every every single Republican defined as member of the House,
member of the Senate, former member of the president's Cabinet,
member of Republican administrations, the top level consultants in the party,
(03:17):
every single person, no defections unless they were at Trump Tower.
They were all against Trump. They all thought he was venal,
he was vile. It was ludicrous, and yet ten years
(03:37):
later we stand on a line. You look left and
you look right from one hundred percent, It's not that
you're in a group of ten percent. It's not that
you're in a group of five percent. We're talking about
a number of people that I think you can count
(03:59):
on two hands.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
I mean, look, Donald Trump, is it over the last
ten years? I mean I even think back to my
time under the first Trump administration, and I would pine
for those days. Now, that's what's crazy. I mean, there
was a modicum of opposition, you know, against him. People
had an opinion, and that party's gone. And after ten years,
(04:24):
people have been weeded out of the party, people have
decided not to run again. And then you know, Trump,
through his cult making mechanism, makes an example of everybody
that's pushed out. It's why you know, Liz and I
are kind of like the top of his hate list,
because he wants to make an example of us. He
wants other people to say that will happen to you
(04:44):
if you do the same. So for me, I think,
you know, right now, do I still hold the title
of Republican for now? I haven't voted Republican in four years.
But I think the important reason in doing that is
to remind people that it's not that I've changed, It's
not that I decided to go become woke. It's that
the party completely collapsed and became something different. And this
(05:06):
is the problem, Steve, is we still let them get
away with calling themselves conservative and in reality, and this
is probably gonna take off a lot of people watching.
In reality, the Democratic Party is more conservative now than
the Republican Party is. They're also more liberal, so they
can hold on to that as well. But the Republican
Party has become illiberal. There's nothing conservative about them. They
(05:30):
want to destroy the institutions of the United States. And
so yeah, like I look at that and go People
need to recognize this party is just gone. And everybody
that thinks there's gonna be some miraculous candidate to come
along and change it after Donald Trump is out of
the equation, it's good. That's gonna be a generational fight.
(05:50):
It's not gonna happen immediately.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
The only bigger fool in the country may be the
person who believes that by defeating Trump, a Democratic candidate
winning will somehow reset the Republican Party and everything goes
back to normal. And one of the things that I
talked about before Trump was elected in twenty twenty four
(06:15):
is that if he becomes president again, that everything he
had done before will be a relatively short preface in
what he will remember be remembered for doing. And I
think that has has been born out completely.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
Yeah, it really has.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
And I mean, now this is the thing. I mean,
I think back to the days when we were outraged
over kids in caguns and I mean, now that looks
like child's play in comparison, you have a border patrol
or whatever. He is the head of ICE or CVP
starting Yeah, walking around in Chicago with a S S jacket.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
Yeah, I mean, and.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
He is wearing the Waffen SS haircut, he has the Hemmler,
and he is in a Nazi SS.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
Long long coat.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
Now I'm sure what he will say is that there
is a history of issuance of that long coat for
horse mounted border patrol long oil code going back to
the beginning of the twentieth century. Maybe, but it certainly
has no place in Chicago. And he knew exactly what
(07:35):
he was projecting when he did it. And he is
a fascist and clearly clearly so, an instrument of state
violence against the against the people when you look at
this moment. One of the things that I've said in
(07:56):
talking to elected officials and others is that I think
it's important that democrats and no Democrats in this right
now are more important than Newsom and Pritzger to grasp
this that it's not about meeting Trump tit for tat
(08:17):
necessarily as opposed to coming focused with a philosophy that
says the maximum abuses of power that are ongoing must
be met consistently by our maximum use of power. Therefore,
(08:37):
in Illinois, I'm going to call the legislature in a
special session, and I want to convene investigations committee, and
I want to know who shot the priest and on
whose orders, starting with what happened ten minutes before those
(08:58):
three guys went up on the roof, who sent them
up there? And I think this is very important. I
don't personally have any doubt that our side will prevail
and win in the end, and that the Prince Andrew
reckoning is going to come for Christy. No, I'm going
to come for Corey Lowandowski, going to come for Tom Holman,
(09:20):
going to come for each and every one of these people.
But it's going to be a long fight. When you
look at the Democratic Party right now and you think
about how they are using power to confront the abuses
of power, how are they measuring up I don't think.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
Well, I mean, let's be honest, and it's I'm not
the only one that says it, and you aren't either.
The Democrats say this like okay, yes, And this was
a frustration when I was in the minority in DC,
as people would say, well, why don't you guys do
more to stand up to At the time, it was Obama,
and it's like, well, we only have so much power, right,
And that's true. What you do have is the power
(10:00):
of the message. You have the power of future projecting.
So I don't hear from Democratic leaders what they're gonna
do when they're in charge. Every time you see a
priest shot in the face, for instance, Akeem Jeffrey should
come out and say, I'm gonna convene a committee when
we take over the majority to investigate why that priest
was shot in the face. And whether he does it
(10:21):
or not, who knows, right, but that doesn't matter. We
should convene a committee. I will convene a committee as
Speaker of the House to investigate all of these foreign
payoffs against Trump, a four hundred million dollar jet, all
of his son's dealings. You think you guys went after
Hunter Biden hard wait till we go after this legitimate
corruption by the Trump sons. You know, putting this stuff
(10:44):
out there is part of fighting back and making it
clear to the people that will be subject to that
investigation that, look, you have another year of unfettered power.
But guess what, a year has already gone by, and
it kind of feels like a quick amount of time
before you're sitting in front of a committee and having
to answer questions under oath. The other thing is just,
(11:04):
you know, look, California is doing the right thing by
fighting back in redistricting, and I'm a big fan of
fair maps, but in this case, when Texas makes the decision,
California has to fight back.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
Illinois.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
I'm the victim of redistricting there twice. By the way,
they have squeezed about as much juice out of the
turn up as they can. But I think they can
still push out Darren the Hood and get one more
district And I heard rumors this morning that they're actually
going to force that through, so that would be good.
Those are the kinds of things that people need to
do to fight back. But instead of sitting there saying
(11:39):
we simply don't have power, you've got to now project
what you would do with power, so that the people
that will vote in a year understand what they're voting for.
And I think that's where they're really missing the key,
and I think that's why Democratic voters in the Democratic.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
Base is so pissed off.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
They're not expecting Hakeem Jeffries to magically becomes speaker, but
they are expecting a plan for when he becomes Speaker
that's going to hold this abuse of power accountable.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
I'm Steve Schmidt. This is the warning.
Speaker 4 (12:10):
I invite you to join this community where I promise
to be honest, blunt and direct about what is happening
in this country. America is in crisis. Follow and subscribe
to this channel and on substack.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
Thank you,
You were telling me about our great victory over the Chinese,
why don't you summarize it to the to the people
joining the great leader. Yeah, that brought us the fruits
of prosperity with an art of the deal of veritable Picasso,
a Rembrandt, a du Vinci, all put together like a
(00:22):
super piece of art.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Yeah, this is where we've got to get better at
putting this in simple terms for people that still believe
this guy is good at anything like listen, So China,
you know, we have this trade war. China says we're
not going to buy any soybeans, so it creates all
this pain in the farmer's brilliant move on China's part.
So now they go to negotiate, and what does Trump
(00:48):
get in his deal? Trump gets China to buy the
soybeans they were buying before the trade war. And on
top of that, the sweeten the deal, Donald Trump offers
them advanced A chips, which is the thing we were
holding from China so that they could not compete with
us on AI. Now Navidia gets to export their high
(01:09):
quality AI chips to China, so China can compete with AI.
So we end up actually China has agreed to buy
a little less soybeans than they were buying. So China
ultimately is buying a little less soybeans, getting AI chips,
and agreeing not to hold rare earth minerals for one year.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
And that's it.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
And keep in mind the US, we have tons of
rare earth minerals, and I think people need to think
this thing through. The problem is we have mining regulations
that don't allow us to get them. So I think
that is a longer term conversation. But yeah, the art
of the deal was the art of the complete collapse
and capitulation that he will sell us a win and
his thirty five percent of people will.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
Gobble it up.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
And it sounds like another incredible victory for the leader.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
That's right, That's right.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
You know. Look, I mean, if all you have to
do is capitulate in a new deal, you can be
the greatest deal maker ever if like, you know, look,
if you and I wanted to make a deal and
I said, hey, i'll tell you what, Steve, I'll pay
you five hundred dollars to enter a deal with me,
and that's it. You don't have to do anything. You'll
be like, yeah, I'll take that deal. That's basically what
(02:17):
we're doing here. That doesn't make me a great deal maker,
but I could go out and say I made a
deal with Steve Schmidt.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
A lot to talk about and want to get into
the last Republican.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
I'm thrilled that you're here, Adam, the.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
Very very rare opportunity to get to get to talk
to a really small group of people that I feel
membership with and a lot of affinity with. And that
group I was describing that group to a larger audience
the other night, and I said, the important thing to
(02:52):
remember is that the moment that Trump came down the escalator,
every every single Republican defined as member of the House,
member of the Senate, former member of the president's Cabinet,
member of Republican administrations, the top level consultants in the party,
(03:17):
every single person, no defections unless they were at Trump Tower.
They were all against Trump. They all thought he was venal,
he was vile. It was ludicrous, and yet ten years
(03:37):
later we stand on a line. You look left and
you look right from one hundred percent, It's not that
you're in a group of ten percent. It's not that
you're in a group of five percent. We're talking about
a number of people that I think you can count
(03:59):
on two hands.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
I mean, look, Donald Trump, is it over the last
ten years? I mean I even think back to my
time under the first Trump administration, and I would pine
for those days. Now, that's what's crazy. I mean, there
was a modicum of opposition, you know, against him. People
had an opinion, and that party's gone. And after ten years,
(04:24):
people have been weeded out of the party, people have
decided not to run again. And then you know, Trump,
through his cult making mechanism, makes an example of everybody
that's pushed out. It's why you know, Liz and I
are kind of like the top of his hate list,
because he wants to make an example of us. He
wants other people to say that will happen to you
(04:44):
if you do the same. So for me, I think,
you know, right now, do I still hold the title
of Republican for now? I haven't voted Republican in four years.
But I think the important reason in doing that is
to remind people that it's not that I've changed, It's
not that I decided to go become woke. It's that
the party completely collapsed and became something different. And this
(05:06):
is the problem, Steve, is we still let them get
away with calling themselves conservative and in reality, and this
is probably gonna take off a lot of people watching.
In reality, the Democratic Party is more conservative now than
the Republican Party is. They're also more liberal, so they
can hold on to that as well. But the Republican
Party has become illiberal. There's nothing conservative about them. They
(05:30):
want to destroy the institutions of the United States. And
so yeah, like I look at that and go People
need to recognize this party is just gone. And everybody
that thinks there's gonna be some miraculous candidate to come
along and change it after Donald Trump is out of
the equation, it's good. That's gonna be a generational fight.
(05:50):
It's not gonna happen immediately.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
The only bigger fool in the country may be the
person who believes that by defeating Trump, a Democratic candidate
winning will somehow reset the Republican Party and everything goes
back to normal. And one of the things that I
talked about before Trump was elected in twenty twenty four
(06:15):
is that if he becomes president again, that everything he
had done before will be a relatively short preface in
what he will remember be remembered for doing. And I
think that has has been born out completely.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
Yeah, it really has.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
And I mean, now this is the thing. I mean,
I think back to the days when we were outraged
over kids in caguns and I mean, now that looks
like child's play in comparison, you have a border patrol
or whatever. He is the head of ICE or CVP
starting Yeah, walking around in Chicago with a S S jacket.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
Yeah, I mean, and.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
He is wearing the Waffen SS haircut, he has the Hemmler,
and he is in a Nazi SS.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
Long long coat.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
Now I'm sure what he will say is that there
is a history of issuance of that long coat for
horse mounted border patrol long oil code going back to
the beginning of the twentieth century. Maybe, but it certainly
has no place in Chicago. And he knew exactly what
(07:35):
he was projecting when he did it. And he is
a fascist and clearly clearly so, an instrument of state
violence against the against the people when you look at
this moment. One of the things that I've said in
(07:56):
talking to elected officials and others is that I think
it's important that democrats and no Democrats in this right
now are more important than Newsom and Pritzger to grasp
this that it's not about meeting Trump tit for tat
(08:17):
necessarily as opposed to coming focused with a philosophy that
says the maximum abuses of power that are ongoing must
be met consistently by our maximum use of power. Therefore,
(08:37):
in Illinois, I'm going to call the legislature in a
special session, and I want to convene investigations committee, and
I want to know who shot the priest and on
whose orders, starting with what happened ten minutes before those
(08:58):
three guys went up on the roof, who sent them
up there? And I think this is very important. I
don't personally have any doubt that our side will prevail
and win in the end, and that the Prince Andrew
reckoning is going to come for Christy. No, I'm going
to come for Corey Lowandowski, going to come for Tom Holman,
(09:20):
going to come for each and every one of these people.
But it's going to be a long fight. When you
look at the Democratic Party right now and you think
about how they are using power to confront the abuses
of power, how are they measuring up I don't think.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
Well, I mean, let's be honest, and it's I'm not
the only one that says it, and you aren't either.
The Democrats say this like okay, yes, And this was
a frustration when I was in the minority in DC,
as people would say, well, why don't you guys do
more to stand up to At the time, it was Obama,
and it's like, well, we only have so much power, right,
And that's true. What you do have is the power
(10:00):
of the message. You have the power of future projecting.
So I don't hear from Democratic leaders what they're gonna
do when they're in charge. Every time you see a
priest shot in the face, for instance, Akeem Jeffrey should
come out and say, I'm gonna convene a committee when
we take over the majority to investigate why that priest
was shot in the face. And whether he does it
(10:21):
or not, who knows, right, but that doesn't matter. We
should convene a committee. I will convene a committee as
Speaker of the House to investigate all of these foreign
payoffs against Trump, a four hundred million dollar jet, all
of his son's dealings. You think you guys went after
Hunter Biden hard wait till we go after this legitimate
corruption by the Trump sons. You know, putting this stuff
(10:44):
out there is part of fighting back and making it
clear to the people that will be subject to that
investigation that, look, you have another year of unfettered power.
But guess what, a year has already gone by, and
it kind of feels like a quick amount of time
before you're sitting in front of a committee and having
to answer questions under oath. The other thing is just,
(11:04):
you know, look, California is doing the right thing by
fighting back in redistricting, and I'm a big fan of
fair maps, but in this case, when Texas makes the decision,
California has to fight back.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
Illinois.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
I'm the victim of redistricting there twice. By the way,
they have squeezed about as much juice out of the
turn up as they can. But I think they can
still push out Darren the Hood and get one more
district And I heard rumors this morning that they're actually
going to force that through, so that would be good.
Those are the kinds of things that people need to
do to fight back. But instead of sitting there saying
(11:39):
we simply don't have power, you've got to now project
what you would do with power, so that the people
that will vote in a year understand what they're voting for.
And I think that's where they're really missing the key,
and I think that's why Democratic voters in the Democratic.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
Base is so pissed off.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
They're not expecting Hakeem Jeffries to magically becomes speaker, but
they are expecting a plan for when he becomes Speaker
that's going to hold this abuse of power accountable.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
I'm Steve Schmidt. This is the warning.
Speaker 4 (12:10):
I invite you to join this community where I promise
to be honest, blunt and direct about what is happening
in this country. America is in crisis. Follow and subscribe
to this channel and on substack.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
Thank you,
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