Trump Manifests Greenland, Canada, and the Gulf With Matthew Bartlett
35:00 Share

A restaurant's best dishes tell stories. Their flavors embed themselves in our memory like song lyrics or lines from a movie. So much so that a little slice of a restaurant's story can become part of our own. I'm Danny Chow, and this is Shift Meal, a new video podcast from The Ringer where we're sharing a bite and chopping it up with chefs and restaurant people during their off hours. All episodes of Shift Meal are out now on Ringer Food.

This episode is brought to you by Viore. I love sports. I know you do too. I also know that lots of you exercise, but if you're like me and my wife, the beloved sports gal, you're sick and tired of ugly, uncomfortable workout gear, especially, you know, I do a lot of walking. I walk around LA. I make calls. I listen to podcasts. Here are two words that will change everything. Viore clothing, a line of active wear that is unbelievable.

The best thing about Viore is you can lounge around in it. You can work out in it. You can go outside. You can go shopping down in your local wherever, and you never feel like you're either underdressed or overdressed. You're just comfortable. You can wear it when you're training, traveling, lounging around the house. Go get yourself some of the most comfortable and versatile clothing on the planet.

Here's the deal. Our listeners get 20% off their first purchase at Viori.com slash Simmons. Once again, V-U-O-R-I dot com slash Simmons. The NFL playoffs are better with FanDuel because right now new customers can bet $5 and get $200 in bonus bets. Guaranteed. That's $200 in bonus bets. Win or lose.

♪♪♪

Hi, I'm Tara Palmieri. I'm Puck's senior political correspondent, and this is Somebody's Gotta Win. I am reporting from Venice Beach in California. I'm literally watching billows and billows of smoke coming near the apartment that I'm in. I gotta say, it was one of my first California wildfires, and it was pretty terrifying.

I am impressed with how everyone around me has stayed so calm. I didn't know last night whether I should go to sleep or not, or if I was going to be evacuated in the middle of the night and be asleep. So I had a few new friends and old friends on emergency. So in case I had to get my bag and leave, I would know. But yeah, as of Wednesday, the 100 mile per hour winds are still coming. I felt the room shake, the radiators, everything. It was really something. And like the sky was just

orange all night. It was really, really crazy. So today I've got Matthew Bartlett on the line. He is in a snow globe in Washington, D.C., where it is freezing. I'll be there soon for the inauguration. But yeah, it's been really, really intense out here. How are you doing, Matthew? Yeah, you got the fire and we got the ice. Like, I don't know, day three of it. We got a couple of inches on Sunday and you would have thought we were back in lockdown or something. You

but it's beginning to thaw or maybe get back to it. It's still bitter, bitter, bitter cold, but whatever. We'll keep spinning. Glad you're safe. Thanks. Yeah, I can't help but look out the window. So if you lose me for a second, that's why I'm just trying to see how close those spills of smoke are getting. So as you know, Matthew's been on the show many times before. He's our New Hampshire expert. He really got us through the Republican primaries, helping us kind of navigate all of that. He is a Republican political consultant and he's

He worked in Trump's first administration in the State Department. So he's been through it all. And it's just the, you know, the sequel now. We'll have to really unpack all of that. But yeah, the press conference on Tuesday, Donald Trump's press conference yesterday.

all about that manifest destiny, right? Bring back when America was great again. It wasn't just great again in like the 1950s or 1960s when he grew up. Now it was great again when we were just pushing West and stealing land from our neighbors or the indigenous people and renaming everything. Now it's the Gulf of America. You know, I sort of looked into that this morning. Can he even do that? And apparently the interior

department decides whether that can happen. And it's the U.S. Board of Graphic Names. It's a federal interagency organization that's responsible for maintaining uniform geographic name usage within the federal government. And like, sure, we can call it the Gulf of America, which does not sound quite as sexy as the Gulf of Mexico. I don't think I want to go swimming in the Gulf of America. It feels like brown and like a little dirty, like maybe like a lake or something. That's... I don't know. Feels like the Gulf of Mexico that hits Texas. But yeah, now he can...

I guess, change the name to the Gulf of America, whether the rest of the world wants to comply, whether, you know, the airlines decide that when we're flying over the Gulf of Mexico, they want to change the name to Gulf of America, the maps update. That's up to, I think the rest of the world too. I mean, there was a lot of debate over whether they call the Persian Gulf, the Persian Gulf or the Arabian Gulf. And like, there are a bunch of Arabian countries that still use Arabian Gulf and diplomatic communique. So, yeah,

I don't know. Apparently, President Obama, too, changed Mount McKinley in 2015, our highest mountain, to Mount Denali back to its native name. So it's not unprecedented, but it is kind of hilarious that these are the things that are on Trump's mind right now. Yeah, I mean, listen, you were out there on the campaign trail. I would say top three priorities of the base and maybe the defining issues are

of this election were renaming the Gulf, taking over Greenland and reclaiming the Panama Canal. Said no one, right? He's out there, he's rambling. But I don't know, there might be some legitimate issues relating to the Panama Canal. There's always something that may be legitimate there.

And then, you know, is it a negotiation tactic? Is he starting the conversation? Or is this just, you know, projection, right? Yeah. Taiwan, Russia, Ukraine. Guess what? We're America. We're not going to be on our back foot. I don't know. Everybody's on notice here. Yeah, I guess so. Yeah, it's American greatness, American exceptionalism, as we like to say, right? But...

Yeah, sure. It's exciting. It is maybe for the base to think, oh, we could take Canada over. It's just our 51st state, although it was pointed out in Playbook this morning that it could be larger than California and have more electoral college votes. So they might not want that big slap of land in Canada. Greenland, maybe. Apparently, Trump's been obsessed with Greenland for a while. I know he talked about it during his first term because of how big it looks on the map. But actually, that's just because of the way that maps are made. I think it's called mercurial and that

that they make Greenland look bigger than it is just because of the way maps are on a global sphere. So, you know, he might be kind of lusting after a piece of land that's a bit smaller than it is. But I really think it comes back to this whole idea of like,

how his mind thinks as a real estate mogul. You know, he's like about acquiring land, franchising, slapping the America brand on everything, like the Trump brand that he slapped on buildings. And even when he was talking about North Korea, he's like, we could make beautiful resorts on the beaches of North Korea. It's like, have you been there? I've been there. They're

really beautiful beaches, by the way. But it's interesting because you're really getting an idea. And like for him, just like gobbling up land, that's like a sign of power, whether there's anything on it that's useful to us or not. Although Greenland does have an American base on it, it could be argued that it's, you know, strategically valuable. Yeah. I was at the State Department. There are questions around, you know, minerals for the future, as well as Russia countering China in the Arctic. You know, this is the way nations look at look at this.

But again, I'm not sure. Canada's going to be our 51st state, right? Nobody is thinking that. There's probably something to sort out in global competition and maybe some legitimate issues with the Panama Canal. But again, right now, this town is abuzz about that, but nobody is saying that the table...

and the agenda is being set with how we're going to conquer the globe. I don't know. When the future president of the United States starts his press conference with that and says he might even use military force, how can we not take him seriously? You know, I think he wants the conversation to be this. The question was, you know, would you rule out military force? Donald Trump is not someone who's going to say, of course, I rule out military force. He's going to be like, I don't know. Maybe I should. Maybe I shouldn't. You tell me.

He wants to be provocative like that. No one thinks we're preparing a land invasion a la 2002 with Iraq.

or a long, you know, endless wars like in Afghanistan. Some of this is a little tongue-in-cheek, maybe. Some of this is, hey, Justin Trudeau, I'm ringing your doorbell. I'm giving you the finger, letting you know I'm back. And now, you know, Trudeau's heading for the exits. So he's just acting like a madman. But how at the State Department do you translate that? I mean, you've been through this, I'm sure, many times before. Yeah, you know, what did I say? Like, you know, crazy work just fine the first time, right? There are countries and organizations...

that absolutely do not respect the United States of America. But then, you know, if the world's going to go crazy, let me tell you, we're America. We do crazy better than anybody. And we'll full send on Donald Trump. And leaders or groups don't know what to make of him. And they are perplexed. And in some ways, they're on their back foot. And that's a good thing. So whether you're China, you're Russia, or a terrorist organization, the notion of a wild man American president

okay, that could work to our benefit. There's upside to that. Yeah. I'm sure it's hard as a diplomat to try to keep up with his every proclamation. You know, it's funny. I was actually watching the show, The Diplomat with Keri Russell and the character is very Trumpian and she's trying to like hang on his every word, trying to slow the fire, offering negotiations, like I'll keep him quiet for a day. And this is a huge get. It's kind of funny just to even watch a Hollywood version. It feels very real, but I don't

know. I mean, I used to cover the EU for Politico Europe, and I remember talking to some of my old sources out there, and they were sort of intrigued by all of it. I do think it keeps people on their toes and maybe willing to make concessions early on out of fear that something bigger is coming. So it's

It could be a tactic. I mean, if there's one criticism about the Biden presidency is that he didn't really use American muscle enough and that he was very indecisive. So Trump's taunts or threats might be seen as at least some sort of action, whereas America, I think there was a demand for more leadership on the global stage, even if it was kind of erratic. Yeah. You know, it's a brutal, brutal world out there. And strength speaks volumes.

much stronger than weakness and instability. And I think the president, former president, incoming president knows that. All right. Well, you know, Marjorie Taylor Greene says she wants to push this through Congress. I doubt it will get the votes. What do you think? Do you think Democrats will go along with this? They seem pretty...

be compliant to Trump right now. Like they're like down to work with him. Even AOC said that it was shocking. She said that she would look for places that she could work with him. The Lake and Riley bill just went forward and about 48 Democrats agreed to vote for it. And some of

them come from pretty safe districts. Brendan Boyle, who I've had on the show many times from the Philadelphia region, he decided that he was against it. And now he's for the Lake and Riley Act, which allows ICE authority to detain criminally accused undocumented immigrants for kind of lower level crimes. But yeah, Brendan is now for it. Yeah. Maggie Goodlander comes from New Hampshire. It's a Democratic state. She just won election there. Oh, by the way, she's the wife

of Jake Sullivan, President Biden's National Security Advisor. She voted for that. So, yeah, you know, I think this is a notion of Democrats kind of waking up. And for many, many years, if you remember back in 2020, the presidential candidates stood on stage and said, raise your hand if you think decriminalizing, you know, border crossings is a good idea. They all raised their hands.

And now we've seen four years of a broken border. Democrats are kind of waking up and saying, hey, you know, the American public believes that immigration is a crisis. You've had cities in New York, Boston, that went from compaction to capacity. And the notion of detaining immigrants

illegal immigrants who are doing criminal acts, most Americans say that's pretty logical and reasonable. So yes, you saw bipartisan support for that. Right. So they're taking the message on immigration and they no longer want to be a part of the resistance. The resistance feels pretty dead. Is there anyone who's really waving that banner? I mean, even AOC was like, the squad's kind of over now. What kind of power does that give her when she's sort of on Trump's side? I don't think she's on Trump's side.

She's not a thorn in his side as much anymore. We'll see. Let's remember, the president's not even sworn in yet. The notion of like, are there certain benefits to a tax bill? Are there certain benefits to a strong border that Democrats can wake up to and say, hey, we are a reasonable governing party because after the past four years, it does not seem as if a majority of Americans are viewing them as such. They have lost so many friends from kitchen table issues

to big tech, to small business, Main Street, you know, it's like, who's still left? So at this point, you know, they kind of got to wake up and say, yeah, we'll play ball for the American people. And I'm sure there'll be plenty of inflection points in the next four years where there will be, you know, a thorn in the side, as you said. It's a recognition that the Republican politics are just easier to sell, or at least the fact that

the Republicans have sort of owned the issues that Americans want right now and they need to somehow co-opt those issues and own them themselves without giving Trump a bunch of wins. I think so. Right now, right, the Dems are in soul searching. 2028 has started, you know, it probably started before this last election. And it'll be interesting to see who makes moves.

And how? Let's remember, you know, after post Reagan, post George W. Bush, an unknown candidate out of Arkansas, Bill Clinton, came forth. Everyone thought he was going to be a sacrificial lamb in 1992. And he started talking about, you know, being a moderate candidate.

balanced budgets, welfare reform, a lot of things that used to be Republican ideas. He made that core central to the Democratic Party. And what happened? They won. He won. So we'll see what happens as things develop on the Hill and across the nation. Okay, we'll see if they're able to steal the Republican policies from them and do it better. It's all about marketing. So there's one thing we've learned from Trump.

Hey, I'm Ryan Reynolds. Recently, I asked Mint Mobile's legal team if big wireless companies are allowed to raise prices due to inflation. They said yes. And then when I asked if raising prices technically violates those onerous two-year contracts, they said, what the f*** are you talking about, you insane Hollywood a**hole?

So to recap, we're cutting the price of Mint Unlimited from $30 a month to just $15 a month. Give it a try at mintmobile.com slash switch. $45 upfront payment equivalent to $15 per month. New customers on first three month plan only. Taxes and fees extra. Speeds lower above 40 gigabytes. See details. You were there in 2016. You were a young staffer. You were there.

working in the State Department, ready to kick off the Trump agenda. He had just been inaugurated, although a lot of people were like, what the hell with the American carnage? People didn't know what to make of this orange character. I'd showed up from New York City, acted different, just...

shot from the hip. People thought he didn't really have a mandate. He didn't win the popular vote. Did the Russians help him? It was a weird time, right? It was like even working for the Trump administration, I didn't get the feeling that people were kind of walking around with their White House badges quite as proud as you may have seen from those Obama staffers who are frankly a little too cocky, in my opinion. But what was it like then? And how does it feel different to now? I feel like everyone's walking in with a lot of swagger right now.

Boy, you're dead on there. Yeah, flashback. Trump wins a surprise election, a shock election. And then this town, being a Republican, being a Trump appointee, it was the worst thing in the world you could ever be, right? Let's remember, this is a town that in this last election, something like 9%.

96% of DC voted for Kamala Harris. Okay. She had 70,000 people out in the ellipse, uh, you know, right before the election, very liberal town. If you worship government, you make your way to DC. So being a Trump appointee back then I was at the state department.

You know, there are plenty of wonderful... You guys just live in Virginia. That's how you handle it, right? Republicans all live in Virginia. Yeah. You're in D.C. I know that. I don't want to give up your location, your undisclosed location. Yeah. But yes, Lane. Protect the guilty.

Um, but yeah, you know, there was, there, there was some open hostilities, um, you know, private people trying to sabotage you, your agenda, not being friendly on a personal level and sometimes not being professional. Um, uh, a notion of they continue to know better. Um, and that's detrimental to, to the country, no matter who is president. Um, so yeah, there were lots of fights, um, on policy on petty stuff too, um, that you went through for four years.

Flash forward, right? Today, completely different. This town, the last one to get the message is kind of getting it, is kind of saying, hold on here. Trump is absolutely coming back and he's not always right, but he's not always wrong. And again, foreign policy-wise,

When I left, it was like throwing eggs and tomatoes. Don't darken the door again. And then we had four years of the adults where war broke out everywhere, where it was just... Sloppy withdrawal from Afghanistan, right. The earth spun off its axle. So now there's a notion of maybe being a little more open to the opposing side here. So yes, there is swagger in this town. There's excitement on the Hill legislatively, corporate interest,

You know, the hopes and dreams of Main Street, the public, a lot of expectations, a lot of excitement going on in D.C. right now. But what about the tech bros? They were not there. Why? In fact,

In 2016. No. They were vilified. They were the villains in Washington. You had Mark Zuckerberg having to face congressional hearings over potential meddling in the election and the use of disinformation on Facebook. Everybody hated Silicon Valley. And now they're coming in, too, with some swagger being like, look, we just elected Trump. And they're also even saying like, and the things that you guys were trying to kind of mad us for. Ha ha ha. We're not even going to try to police that anymore to get on your good side. Right. It's such a switch.

Uh, yes. 2016, you know, I remember Democrats saying Facebook is the scene of the crime, right? I think there were a couple of, you know, yes. A notion of Russian influence, misinformation. And then 2020, you had every from Silicon Valley out, you know, speaking out and dissent and, and, and, and speaking, not just Trump, but a larger swath of society. Um, and I don't know, maybe for four years.

Democrats weren't too smart in terms of engaging Silicon Valley and listening and what they want. You know, they ended up vilifying their own allies. Their biggest donors to a lot of them. They decided to punish them. To what advantage? So, yeah, you know, I would argue they really drove a lot of Silicon Valley to the Republican Party. But the Silicon Valley crowd, they kind of act like a bunch of oligarchs, frankly. Yes and no. I mean, listen, I hear you.

Is there influence? Are they going to come into Washington and buy like massive penthouses and parade around in the steakhouses or, you know, open restaurants and turn this into their town? Are they just going to fly from San Francisco or Cupertino or wherever they are now, Austin to D.C. back and forth? What do you think? I think that's been going on for a long, long time.

This is nothing new here. Really? When have you seen Mark Zuckerberg hanging out in D.C.? You know, Bill Gates used to be used to pop up quite often the Obama years. You know, you had a lot of tech in the intersection. And it seems as if, you know, in the early days, these tech people were closely aligned with Obama. And whatever Obama said, they absolutely followed. But again, who won this election? Wasn't money.

Wasn't tech bros. Wasn't Silicon Valley pouring in. Last time I checked, Kamala Harris had, you know, billions more than Trump. It was the heart of the country. Did she really have billions? I think she had a billion and he had 700 million or something like that. I think she had well over a billion if you count outside spending, maybe even closer to two, maybe 1.52. Right, you're right, you're right. But again, this isn't a notion of like the world's richest people bought this election. I don't know. Some could argue that Elon Musk helped Trump.

Trump with the ground game, although I think the ground game was so sloppy. I don't even know if you really need it with cell phones anymore. It's hard to really say. But she had outside help from Future Forward that, well, although a lot of people are saying that that super PAC sort of didn't do much at all and just collected, made some big media buys and collected some checks. I mean, the current president

quit after losing the horrific debate. The new one didn't do interview. The new candidate, appointed candidate, didn't do interviews. They gave her billions and billions of dollars, had every celebrity. I mean, listen, this was not

She just doesn't have enough money. Okay, let's move on from that. Trump seems to want to move very quickly at warp speed. And I get that. A lot of presidents, they come in, they want to notch up some wins, some legislative wins. He's got some big things on his agenda. Border bill...

energy. And then there's tax reform. He wants to extend his tax cuts. And so there's a big debate on the Hill over whether they should push this through. It has to be debt neutral through reconciliation. Essentially, that's a really complicated process that I don't think anyone really understands except like five people. And there's a debate, the House, where there's a one seat majority right now, one vote majority at this point, Mike Johnson, fiscal hawk ish,

We used to be at least in a former life, or at least he wouldn't let Trump get rid of the debt ceiling. So that shows, I guess, a little temerity, or maybe that was just something that the House Freedom Caucus wouldn't let him do. He wants to pass it all in one bill. The Senate is saying, the Senate leader, John Thune, is saying, we got to do this in two bills.

Trump sort of can't make up his mind and everyone's waiting on him. And he's meeting with the Senate on Wednesday today as we are recording. What do you make of all of this? Apparently, eight years ago, according to Punchbowl, the Senate had already passed a budget resolution, which is the first step in the process before Trump even took office. So they are maybe a little bit behind. Which way do you think they should go?

why do you think there's this great debate? Does it matter? Is it easier to pass one big bill? Are people just going to fight over the details in it? Breaking it up, does that mean some things are going to get lost in the sauce? I mean, obviously, the big deadline is when people start campaigning for the midterms. You just summed it all up there, right? Republicans have a majority...

House and Senate, you got to act fast. Deadlines, what did we see with Biden and Harris administration? Everything kept shifting and shifting and shifting time. And then Manchin and Sinema would hold up. Now you have a very slim majority in the House. You have the Senate, which like you said, this has to be done through reconciliation, which means 50 votes. The Senate parliamentarian has to somehow okay and bless this process. So

he or she could say, ah, you can do that with taxes, but you can't do that with the border. So there's a question there. John Thune said, we will respect what the Senate parliamentarian says. So we'll see what happens when they weigh in. But then your question is like the talk of the town right now. How will

how lame the talk of the town. Should we pass it by one bill or two? This is like what K Street craves. They need to get their little agenda items and make sure the laws are beneficial for their clients. And you kind of explained that to some of our listeners, what the...

K Street lobbyist types are thinking right now when they hear one bill versus two bill and what that means for them and their clients. Like, why are they panicky about it? Yeah, I mean, what's easier to lift one massive rock once or to lift two heavy rocks twice? And have fewer people lifting the second rock, possibly, right? That's the thing, right? You can add something, you know, salt might be able to get some New York

Democrats involved. State and local tax deductions. That's what it is. They were dropped from the last bill. Something that Trump, President Trump in his first term took away and now wants to give back. Amazing. Amazing that no one's talking about this.

The no tax on tips, a lot of promises were made around tax reform. Is there a notion of bringing in some Democrats there? Oh, but you throw in the border and something that is something of a showstopper there. Do you lose people? How do you bring on the moderates with what we just saw last week, where guess what? The Freedom Caucus and the conservatives are

You know, how do you deal with some people that may not want to make a deal? So it can be very, very interesting how this process gets made. And like you said, there are so many people in this town that are looking to see where they can insert their policy priorities into any cracks possible.

in these legislation as they get written and derived here. I'm sure lobbyists would probably want a bigger bill, right? It's kind of easier to sneak your priorities in there. Every lobbyist, every company wants their priority in now, right? Because guess what? There's probably not going to be any more legislative action in this administration, right? That's what everyone's banking on. You're going to do one thing here...

It's going to be this tax border bill. And then, you know, like you said, heading into the midterms, you probably won't control both the House and the Senate. So you'll have a standstill. You'll have, you know, a government that just will struggle to keep the lights on, as we always do at the end of the year.

pass some sort of a fiscal CR or whatever. So yeah, this is the one bite of the apple. Better make it count. Who do you think the holdouts are going to be? Is it going to be like Tom Massey again? Like this is too expensive, even though it's allegedly budget neutral. That's the whole thing with reconciliation, right? Is that a real thing when they say it's budget neutral? Who knows if they're right? Who knows what they say?

But yeah, there has to be some sort of weird blessing by the, you know, by the high priest in the House and Senate. The CFPB, is that it? That's the group that decides if something is budget neutral? CFPB? I'm not even sure. I don't even know what it stands for, but I know that it's like an outside group that they often, Republicans cite that and they say, see, the CFPB says it's a budget neutral. Yeah. So we'll see what, what, what.

what gets deemed germane. Yeah. Budget neutral today does not necessarily mean budget neutral 10 years from now. Sure. Yeah. World changes quite often in terms of technology, pandemics. Yeah. You don't know what's coming at you.

That's why everybody says, oh, you know, we see what's on the horizon. Good luck. But yeah, you know, again, there are plenty of people, House Republicans that we just saw do not want to ever raise the debt ceiling, do not ever want to spend any more money. And they will be adamant and firm. And when you have a one vote majority, that can be problematic. You may have some Democrats that do want to work with you, but do you lose Republicans on the other end? And then you go to the Senate. Right now, most of the town, it's not a secret,

Things that the House tends to be a little crazy at times. And then it's going to be up to Senate Republicans who have a slim majority. What did George Washington say when we started this? Congress is a teacup, right? The House is the cup that holds the very, very hot water of public sentiment. And then the Senate is the saucer that cools the hand

and allows you to kind of hold this. House is up every two years. Senate, it's statute number three. So Senate Republicans are going to be looked in the upper chamber to see what they can put together

And the notion is that will go forth. OK, so there are a bunch of special elections to replace the House seats where Trump poached members to serve in his cabinet, like Mike Waltz from Florida, Elise Stefanik. Then there was Matt Gaetz, who obviously would have been AG. They get replaced, I think, around April, I read. So really, should they wait until he has more votes in the spring? Is that realistic? No. I mean, everyone's just like, you know, this is day one. Good luck.

This is going to take a long, long, long time. And if you remember, again, Joe Biden going back and forth, dealing with, you know, a majority in both the House and Senate in the early days, still had to sell this, still had to negotiate. This went into like fall.

fall of the previous administration, I would expect it's very possible that this will go into fall of this year. This is going to take a long, long time, especially if they put everything in kind of a kitchen sink approach to it. And then there'll be horse trading and then there'll be arm twisting. There'll be negotiations. Threats of primaries from Trump. Yes. Chris LaCivita going after people. You will have tensions within the caucus, tensions within the Congress. Um,

tensions with the Senate and tensions with the White House. So all of that has to be balanced. And that's going to take a long, long time. Do you think the fact that these House Republicans folded pretty quickly when they were like pseudo holdouts for Mike Johnson for Speaker of the House voting present or voting for other people and then changing their votes, is that any indication that it'll be easy for Trump to twist their arms and get them along? I think the opposite.

This was a notion of like, you have a speaker and it was like, okay, House Republicans, do you want to execute your second speaker? I mean, the fact that that was the question is just illustrates just how difficult it will be. And the notion of like, hey, we made him speaker again on the first ballot. Look at the success. Okay. You know, congratulations.

Well done. But that's not even the difficult part, right? Like there wasn't even a legitimate challenger. And if you saw, you know, what some of these folks have been saying, you know, the debt limit in there, Thomas Massey, Chip Roy, a lot of cast of characters. I'm not sure that they are going to play nice now or put down their arms. I think, you know, the battle's just begun, much less Democrats, too. You know, Democrats kind of sat back and said, we're not going to save you. They watched.

But there's going to be political pressure coming from the other side as these deals get forged. Frontliners are going to have political pressure to join. If there's something that is advantageous, you know, that's the thing. You go to Congress and you're like, I want to do this or that. Well, the notion is you can do this, which you want, but you're also going to have to do that, which you don't. So what do you do? Do you vote the bill? Nothing is perfect. It's been called oftentimes, you know, everything in Congress from a

shit sandwich to a Satan sandwich. You know, I want to control the border. Well, I don't like this tax provision. Well, guess what, buddy? You can vote for or against it. So there's always going to be pressures. Yeah. It's all about how you sell it. Well, yeah, ultimately. Totally. All right. Well, Matthew, this was illuminating as always. It's...

Crazy here. Looking out the window. Smoke is not great. Wind's not great, but I should know by the end of the day whether I had to evacuate or not. In the meantime, I'll be thinking about icy Washington. As you said, the fire and ice. Stay safe. Be well. And then, I don't know, you're going to be coming to town or what? Yes, for the inauguration. And then I'll probably stay through February. So watch out, Washington. She's coming through. Here she comes now. Get ready.

That was another episode of Somebody's Gotta Win. I'm your host, Tara Palmieri. If you like this podcast, please subscribe, rate it, share it with your friends. If you like my reporting, please go to puck.news slash Tara Palmieri and sign up for my newsletter, the best and the brightest. You can use the discount code Tara20 for 20% off the subscription at Puck. That's uppercase T-A-R-A-20.