How Gov. Wes Moore is challenging Trump’s 250th anniversary narrative

Today on the Playbook Podcast, Mr. Fix-It is working his magic with President Trump. I'm talking about House Speaker Mike Johnson, of course. Meanwhile, panic in the Democratic Party establishment as a new guard rises. And a sneak peek at how Governor Westmore is challenging Trump's 250th anniversary narrative. Hello, I'm Sophia Kai. And I'm Will Staken. It's Friday, June 26. Will is our new politics reporter here at Politico. I just met Will in the office this week. And he's great. He'll be a force for us this year covering the midterm elections and the 2028 cycle. Will, it's so great to have you on the podcast. It's great to be here. As they say, long-time listener, first-time caller. So happy to be here. So, Will, I want to start off by talking about House Speaker Mike Johnson. Judging off of Wednesday, it looked like he was going to have a terrible week. Everyone went to bed on Tuesday thinking the housing bill was going to be signed by President Trump. And the next morning, Speaker Johnson was effing surprised. That's what one of my sources told me. Now, the Speaker doesn't curse, of course, but he was angry when he found out that Trump was pulling the bill. Will, what do you make of that episode this week? Well, I'm sure, like I did, I was getting, you know, when that first happened, I was getting calls and texts from all kinds of Republicans, just exasperated that this was, you know, happening and that they couldn't get, you know, what seemed to be an easy win, a desperate win that maybe Republicans needed. But I also think maybe Mike Johnson is probably used to this kind of situation with the president. Another aspect I think we're going to have to be paying attention to is Florida Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna, who seems to have been setting up like a blockade over, you know, pushing the SAVE Act, as our colleagues have been reporting out. And I think that's another aspect that we're going to have to see how that plays out. Yeah, and Speaker Johnson saw all of that go down, and he figured he better go to the White House to meet with President Trump. You know, we got a bit of a readout of how that meeting went. The Speaker was able to get the housing bill unlocked. I was told that that bill is now in transit to the White House, and that means the Speaker has confidence that Trump will ultimately sign it. And he also got a truth social post from Trump asking Republicans to stop blocking the floor. We know that this relationship between Trump and Speaker Johnson was built over the course of the campaign, with Speaker Johnson now making almost daily contact with President Trump to keep him in the loop and to hear some of his frustrations. Is there anything that you're looking forward to in this relationship between Speaker Johnson and the president? Speaker Johnson seems to have been doing a pretty good job not crossing the president or having any kind of mix-up since he's taken the speakership. And I think that's largely because he's been so deferential to the president. And like your, you know, your reporting played out, I think patching things up behind the scenes this time around seems to have been able to do. You know, I've been hearing that I'm sure the president was making calls to folks like Ana Paulina Luna and other people to have them back down and, you know, try to get this housing thing over the line. And I know that is at least one thing that, at least heading into the midterms, Republicans are hoping that they can tout, which is this housing bill, at least some kind of legislative win, when so much of what the president has done has been just working around Congress, working around the speaker. So I think we'll have to see how that continues. Clearly, Mike Johnson, I don't think is going to change tactics because it's been working so far. We'll have to see how that's able to play out heading into the midterms. Yeah, he seems to be the person who can patch things up. Let's turn to the other side of the aisle. This is something we've talked about quite a bit on this podcast. But, Will, I know you've been reporting on this a lot. It seems like the future of the Democratic Party is up for grabs with this new tide of DSA candidates. Will, I know you've got eyes on a primary in Colorado happening next week. What are you hearing right now? I think what we're seeing, at least from the conversations I've been having the past few days, is I think the establishment Dems are just bracing for impact here, especially as we're heading into Colorado next Tuesday, which is the next kind of big test for these insurgent DSA candidates, especially Colorado 1, where we have this insurgent candidate, Melad Quiroz, who's going up against 30-year incumbent Diana DeGatte. And what I'm hearing, talking to folks around the DeGatte campaign, is they're panicking. I think, internally, their polling, from what I've heard, has shown the race tightening. I think we're seeing that play out. Money is pouring in, finally, at least to try to raise awareness about that race and going after Quiroz. And they're worried that I think the momentum from the DSA and other insurgent candidates might actually play out in somewhere like Denver. And the Democratic Socialists of America are looking to capitalize on that. I talked to them also earlier today, and they're going to be phone banking like mad, as they did heading into New York. Hasan Piker, the very popular leftist socialist Twitch streamer, told me this earlier today, that he's looking to fly out to Colorado on primary day and whip votes as much as he can. And so I think we're going to have to see if it's going to be a similar kind of situation as WAVE was for socialist candidates in New York. But I think if someone like Quiroz is able to topple a 30-year incumbent in Colorado, even if it is Denver, which is obviously a more progressive friendly area, I think that's another huge kind of signal to what's happening for Democrats, you know, throughout the rest of the primaries. Yeah, another litmus test for the party. On the pod yesterday, we talked a little bit about what this all means for 2028 and for AOC's prospects now that she doesn't seem as far left as some of these other candidates. And just before this, when we were talking, Will, you made an observation about how there may be some parallels with 2016 and Trump. Tell me a little bit about that. Yeah, I think just like talking to some Democrats and even some, you know, Republicans, I think there's this feeling, I keep hearing people say, you know, what's happening on the left is, you know, kind of the new Tea Party. It's like the left-wing Tea Party is emerging. And I think there might be some truth to that. But some other folks have been pointing out that there's a little bit of a sense of where things stood with Republicans in 2014, 2015, right before, you know, President Trump emerged. And what that was, was a lot of kind of resentment within Republican circles, at least voters on the ground, to the establishment, to, you know, wanting someone who would come in and kind of throw a Molotov cocktail into the party. And who was that? It was Donald Trump, who, you know, was on stage during those debates, staring down a lot of establishment Republicans, and able to point out that he's not one of them. And he doesn't take money. And he's, you know, he's the one that actually will get things done. And he didn't support the Iraq War. And that obviously proved to be quite successful for him. And I'm wondering, and I think a lot of folks are wondering, on the Democrat side, is if what that is going to look like now, as we head into 2028, and folks start looking for is, you know, what is the anti-establishment candidate look like for Democrats? You know, who is the voice that's going to rise up and be able to be on stage and be able to point and say, you know, that we need to take the party in a different direction, and it's kind of all you guys' fault on here, on the stage. And, you know, I think a lot of folks are hoping it's AOC to deliver that message. We'll have to see. I also spoke with DSA, and we did a story on the site a couple of days ago where the Democratic Socialists of America are already starting to look for their own candidate. They just sent out surveys across the country to their over 200 chapters, surveying and asking, you know, who they should support. And they're going to get their results by September. It's certainly going to be fascinating to watch. Who can be the Trump of 2028 on the Democratic side. Speaking of which, there's a lot of speculation of who will toss their hat into the ring. One of those names, of course, is Governor Wes Moore, who I should say has insisted he is not running. Our colleague Adam Wren spoke with Governor Wes Moore about a speech he'll be delivering on July 4th at the state capitol in Annapolis. Moore said that Trump is, quote, going to spend the 250th anniversary of this nation's founding to talk about himself. But this is bigger than him. And this moment is bigger than him, unquote. And Moore's press secretary said that the speech will draw a contrast between patriotism and nationalism, making the case that nationalism is about allegiance to a person or a movement, while patriotism is about allegiance to the country and the people who make it worth fighting for. What do you make of all of this? Well, is Governor Moore going to be a foil to President Trump? My first thought of this great reporting by Adam Wren is, why aren't more 2028ers doing something like this? I'm surprised that this is, at least from my perspective, I don't know if anyone else is doing anything on the 4th, where the president is throwing this gigantic birthday party for the country. I find the idea of Wes Moore, who's obviously a veteran, trying to grab back the idea of patriotism and maybe even nationalism will be an interesting thing to see how that plays, especially to, I think, the part of the Democratic base that maybe doesn't feel very patriotic right now when you talk to them, especially given who's in office and what's happening with the country, at least when I talk to folks. But I think it'll be interesting to see how that works. Yeah, it's a great observation. Well, I won't be there for Governor Moore's speech. I'm going to be in Philly for July 4th. But I do plan on checking out the Great American State Fair, which will be on the National Mall here in Washington, DC. And we expect some governors to show up. That's all for today's show. As always, we have much more news and analysis in today's Playbook newsletter, which you can find at politico.com slash playbook. And don't forget to subscribe wherever you're tuning in. Have a great day and we'll be back on Monday.