Trump's ex-adviser weighs in on midterms

Just hours now to go before the midterms play out. Just explain for a British audience the significance of what Americans are doing. I think it's the report card for President Trump. I think when people vote tomorrow, they're going to be saying, hey, you've had the stewardship of the economy of this country for the last two years. We're going to give you our opinion on how you think. And there's clearly some challenges there. I mean, he's dealing with inflation at 3.7. And what we know in the U.S. as we know in the rest of the world. That inflation is, you know, a leadership killer. And that's the headwinds he's going up against. And I think the report card is probably about a C plus at best right now. The Trump we see towards the end of 2026, is he the man you worked with through 2024? Yeah, very much so. Nothing has changed with that respect. I mean, he's energetic. He knows when to focus. He knows how to be strategic. All those things are the same, I think. And he's now getting into the final two years of his administration. And he's going to quickly learn that American voters, they turn the page very fast. And I think that will probably be the challenge for him going forward is how to still be involved in that narrative while the voters are looking to turn the page. If he had his time over, what should he do differently? You know, I mean... Wow, that was an intake of breath. It's like you don't know where to start with that. Well, there's just a lot of things, right? I mean, I think he probably could have had a better relationship with the Democrats. I think this country very much was eager for unity at that moment after eight years of Obama. So we missed that window, right? There's pieces of legislation that he was successful past, but he wasn't able to get everything. I think, you know, the implementation of a lot of the. Trump, too, policies are less than desired. It's not that we disagree with the policies. It's that we disagree with Americans being killed on the streets as those policies are being implemented, right? I think there's many things. I think every administration has it. I think I remember, you know, I had this conversation with a friend of mine who worked in the Obama administration. And he said the biggest thing they could have done better was the rollout of Obamacare because that grave in the question of the exact strength of governance and that hindered them going forward. So, yeah. I mean, I would, you know, there's still two years left, but I think the implementation of some of these policies didn't have to be as intense as they needed, as they were. Brian, here's the thing. The job he did with the presidential campaign, he won the popular vote the first time a Republican since George W. Bush. All those years ago, he took some states that have been blue for decades. He's not delivered, has he? I think it takes time. I think it's important to have perspective that presidents lose midterms elections. It is rare among rare for a president who was elected two years before to hold on to midterms. And the reasons are very simple, right? You spend the first year passing the legislation and the first two years deregulating everything that the opposition had done. It takes time. We learned that in Trump 1. He lost the midterms there. The economic condition hadn't sort of hit the fifth year that it hit by year three. So we know by year three, when people get their tax returns back, we know by the continued acceleration of deregulation, that year three is the real test to see what his administration has done and hasn't done. Because if you compare it to year, to Trump one, year three is when the economy really accelerated. And folks will tell you, at least economists will tell you, that was a direct result of deregulation. And that was the biggest factor. But looking into the U.S. from outside, looking here from the U.K., we see a president who picked a fight with President Zelensky. He wants Greenland, and then he doesn't. His ICE agents operate in ways that are deemed wholly illegal in a country such as the United Kingdom. What sort of picture is he painting of the U.S. globally? I mean, there's many things he's painting in the pictures. I mean, those are the one particular things, you know, you should be creating for your folks. I could list if I wanted to, but I wanted to give you the chance to reply. Yeah. No, listen, I think when you look at those things, I think the first message you have to get to the world with respect to illegal immigration was that it's not welcome anymore. And so, you know, where voters can point and where he can point to success is we had open borders two years ago, and now we have next to zero illegal immigration. That's unprecedented. You'd have politicians who'd been saying that in the United States, that was impossible. Trump did it in two years, right? You know, sure. But in a brutal fashion, Brian, in a brutal fashion, Brian, people have lost their lives. In a brutal fashion, Brian, people have lost their lives and dads have been picked up off the street and they don't get to see their kids. Well, if they're illegal aliens, yes, they will be picked up at streets, at their homes, at their work sites, and they may never see their kids again. But that's a conscious decision they made by breaking the law. You know, the president's conscious decision is to enforce the law that the American people put into the books prior to him being there. All he's doing is enforcing the law. And yes, there are tragedies along the way. The deaths of those two Americans were severe tragedies, and one of them was a bigger tragedy than the other. We're sort of looking at the evidence clearly. But at the end of the day, to say that what message that the international community see with respect to President Trump on immigration, the borders are closed for illegal aliens. That's the message they should walk away with. Don't send us your problems anymore. You know, there's a huge open-door welcome policy. But we want the best of the best. You know, President Trump's saying, you know, we don't want people coming here without jobs, coming here with large families. We want people here who want to come and contribute the right way. And there's a huge door that welcomes them. And so I think that's a very good thing. With respect to Zelensky. Let's be abundantly clear, we are at war here with, or Ukraine is at war with Russia, most likely because of a viewed weakness of an American president, Joe Biden. I think Putin and his team have already said they probably wouldn't have gone into Ukraine at President Trump and president. So yes, we are clashing with Zelensky. There are different priorities. President Trump wants the fighting to stop. Zelensky, by his political pressure, He needs to say he's going to claim all the land back that they've lost. That's a huge standstill. Now, where is Zelensky today? Oh, no, let me finish. Where is Zelensky today as opposed to when President Trump first started? When Trump started in his second term, Zelensky said, we're holding on to Crimea. We're not giving up any ground. We want everything back. Just last week, Zelensky said he'd freeze the lines. So the progress is being made, negotiations are tough, the Ukrainians have to move forward with their negotiations, the Russians have to move forward, but we've always known the goal of this American president, it's for the fighting to stop. But how will doing a deal and buying Russian oil help the fighting stop? Haven't you, not you personally, haven't the president just poured money into the war coppers? I think it's crazy. Crazy for Europeans, European leaders and European media to criticize the American president for doing this diesel deal when the only ones left funding the Russian war machines are the Europeans through their purchase of energy. Well, the UK doesn't. I have to correct you, Brian. That's one. That's one of a larger European Union. That does do those things. So the criticism just falls on deaf ears here when we hear Europeans say, yes, here's a diesel deal. Oh, my God, shame on you. As they're the ones feeding the Russian war machine that's killing Ukrainians. What would success look like for President Trump with the midterms? To be able to hold on to the Senate. To be able to hold on to the Senate would be very successful for him, yes. And is that a realistic ambition, would you say? I think it's a jump ball, right? I think it probably leans a little bit more Democrat today than it did, you know, a couple months ago. But you see the president going out into red territories, ginning up the, trying to draw enthusiasm out of Republicans. Thank It's, I give it the slightly advantage of Democrats, but anything can happen. you very much.