Episode 47- Trump’s Political Losing Streak

“Embattled” isn’t a word you hear often in American politics anymore, but we think it fits the current moment and we explain why. We walk through a string of setbacks around Trump, from congressional pushback to stalled vanity projects and the growing sense that the usual intimidation tactics aren’t landing the way they used to. If you care about US democracy, political accountability, and how power actually gets constrained, this conversation connects the daily headlines to the underlying machinery.

We also zoom out to the geopolitical landscape and the reputational cost of domestic dysfunction. Europe’s mood, immigration politics, and the way right wing messaging spreads across borders all show up here, alongside the uncomfortable reality that allies and rivals increasingly treat US leadership as a punchline. That matters for everything from diplomacy to security, because credibility is a form of leverage and it disappears fast when chaos becomes the brand.

Then we bring it back to the 2026 midterm elections and the strategy taking hold among center left candidates: make corruption and competence the ballot question. We discuss why “everyone does it” is losing its power as a defense, how new voices in media are changing the pushback, and what polling signals suggest about the public’s appetite for more self dealing and spectacle. Subscribe for more clear eyed geopolitical analysis, share this with a friend who argues politics with you, and leave a review with your take: is corruption the issue that finally breaks through?

Transcript

Welcome And What’s Ahead

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Welcome to the Greenfield Report with Henry R. Greenfield, your gateway to understanding today's geopolitical landscape. With 50 years of experience across 10 countries, Henry shares expert insights on world affairs, offering practical solutions and engaging guest perspectives. Dive into the Greenfield Report for lively discussions on the issues that matter.

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This is Henry R.

Trump Branded As Embattled

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Greenfield reporting from the United States of America, where there is a new word to describe Donald J. Trump, which has not been used in a long time. And that word is embattled. It means he is under siege from the Republican Congress, which voted against him on the War Powers Act, symbolic, but done overriding Speaker Johnson's threats on the renegades who joined with the Democrats. This is only one of the many losses for Trump in the past two weeks. His Trump Kennedy Center name is now gone, his name taken down. The United States' $250 bill, with his face on it, has been deemed a joke and is now dead in the water. Speaking of water, his mall project is now stalled, his ballroom is blocked by not one but two judges as well as Congress. Congress again has joined in with its lack of support. While Trump has gained solace, however, from getting a three-year deal to fund Homeland Security, he had to drop the retribution fund of $1.776 billion. Yes, of course, we get the symbolism. Of course, he also kept his immunity deal, which he negotiated with himself through his personal lawyer, who is now the acting attorney general of the United States, Todd Blanche, who seems to be hated by everyone, including the outgoing Attorney General, Pam Bondi, who claims she knows nothing about the Trump Epstein files. Yes, we know that that's been trademarked by Jimmy Kimmel Live.

Global Mockery And Europe’s Drift

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Wherever you look, domestic or international, Trump is losing. Iran openly mocks him. Xi Jinping of China lectured him to his face on the Thucydides trap of a declining power who threatens a new and rising power. Trump has always tried to blame it on Joe Biden, whose wife, by the way, made a fool of herself by stating in her memoir and in a recent interview she thought that Joe Biden was having a stroke. He was so bad in the ill-fated, disastrous debate, which effectively brought the United States and the world four more years of Trump. Trump himself is now regularly reviled and attacked around the world, with the Europeans openly mocking him, and no one pays a bit of attention any more to him than they absolutely have to. Or his minions like Pete Hegzeth, who was booed, yes, they actually booed the United States Defense Secretary by local people in France when he showed up for the D-Day eighty-two, the eighty-second year anniversary, where he tried to link everything bad happening in Europe to a Muslim invasion. Meanwhile, the right wing think tanks and institutes on the continent have switched from the now finished corrupt Viktor Orban in Hungary to blaming everything on the Muslim jihad in Europe. Yes, there are actually seminars out that say exactly that. And as some continue to echo Trump. No one, by the way, is happy with immigration in Europe, and to be fair to Trump or Heggseth, Europe has solved nothing over the past few years. The mood in Europe while moving into the wonderful holiday summer months after already a holiday month in France for May with four. That's right, count them four bank holidays and enough ponds and viaducts to basically take off the entire month.

Journalists Stop Backing Down

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Meanwhile, in the United States, Trump is being openly pushed back by journalists like Kristen Wexler, who pushed back on all of the conspiracy nonsense he was shouting about in her recent interview. Where when he said California's election was corrupt and he sent in the Department of Justice, she noticed the process of California is to count the votes and there was no voter fraud. In fact, California has up to 90% of mail in ballots. When he countered and it went back and forth, he did the usual of attacking her and finally walking out. Wexler was just one of many who no longer accept being bullied by Trump. Their backs stealed by the recent firing of Scott Pelley, the renowned journalist of 60 Minutes, by Barry Weiss and her team for having the guts to not give in to politically motivated firing of reporters. The Ellisons, of course, who own not just CBS, but are about to close on the Warner Brothers CNN deal, which will, in just a short time, make the Ellison family the most powerful media family in the world, far more powerful than Rupert Murdoch, for instance. Remember David Ellison, who heads up this empire, was a failed producer and even more a failed actor in Hollywood, which of course means he can now run what, news network organizations and just keep on firing them until he actually ruins the networks. There are many people who feel that is the goal, which is to gut CBS so badly that it will be nothing like it was before. For instance, it mattered not to him or to Trump that Stephen Colbert and the Late Show had its highest rating ever on a baseline of 7.5 million viewers and millions more online on his last show on May 21st. Trump celebrated the end of that, while the replacement is some sort of game show mess that has drawn about zero viewers. But when you are printing money like the Ellisons with their Oracle contracts from the federal government, which means that you, dear taxpayer, you are paying for the Ellison's to lose money and destroy networks. But hey, if you're a MAGA person, you are thrilled, right? The First Amendment means nothing to them, but it is clear that none of the journalists are going to go down anymore without a fight.

New Democratic Candidates Take Shape

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There are new ones on the horizon, like the very bright young Adam Meckler and others who put out instant videos on anything they can pin on Trump. CNN and other organizations are bringing these millennials and Gen Z and soon to be Gen Alphas to their program as they enliven the debate and they easily crush the usual suspects like Scott Jennings or any of the others who all but refuse to go toe-to-toe with Macklar. Down in Texas, James Tallerico is building a coalition of Christians and liberals with an agenda that is almost impossible to attack by the criminally convicted and impeached Ken Paxton. In Iowa, the Paralympian Josh Turek literally crawled door to door, dragging his wheelchair up the stairs to win the Democratic nomination for senator to replace the retiring Joni Ernst. All along the way, the winners on the Democrat side are plain talking moderate center left, while the Republicans are almost exclusively far-right Trumpsters, as Trump wiped out the traditional Republicans just about everywhere. From Indiana state senators who refused to gerrymander in already gerrymandered districts in that state, to Cornyn in Texas, who was wiped out by Paxton, to Steve Hilton, a Brit no less, who came in second in California against a divided Democratic field. Trump generally has put his people in who he wanted to run against the Democrats in November. We could go on, but the mood

The Corruption Argument Gets Specific

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in the U.S. is decisively moving against the Republicans and Trump. When the biggest pushback that I received when I listened to people saying they can't take any more corruption by Trump, the biggest pushback was their only response by trumpeters were, well, everyone does it. Then the independents and Democrats would jump on, and here's the problem for Trump, which has become the campaign of John Ossoff in Georgia, where he's trying to retain his shaky Democratic seat. The corruption is so large, so vast, that Osath literally chooses just the newest and most outrageous that day and blows away the growing crowds. As the New York Times pointed out, Ossof even brought up a deal in Kazakhstan of all places, which I'm pretty confident that 99% of the Americans of any party would lose a bet if they had to try to find it on a map. But Ossoff had the numbers, which was $1.6 billion for Trump's family to take a big piece of a tungsten mine used in the production of semiconductors and other high-tech equipment in Kazakhstan. And guess what? It was paid for and guaranteed by the US federal government. And they talked about Hunter Biden take money. These guys are just taking billions. In the end, when Orban was ousted, it was not just corruption, but the scale of the corruption. Having been in many countries where I watched dictators get tossed out from Marcos in the Philippines to Malaysia and finally in Hungary, it is unmistakable that vast corruption was what finally got them kicked out. I interviewed dozens after Orbon was crushed by a two-thirds majority by Peter Magyar, the center-right person who's now replaced him as Prime Minister. And the number one issue for the average person was the blatant, obvious, and ongoing corruption. I was quite surprised, to be honest, that people focused on this area. Especially seen as egregious was family corruption, which of course Trump makes no attempt to hide and what he actually openly specializes in. And Trump's ranging from petty and the ridiculous watches, which at six billion dollars on a hundred thousand watches that he never delivered, to his crypto exchange, to what it is, what is it now? A reported 5,000 stock market trades that he has done since he took office, making him untold and now unauditable billions. Think about that. No one will ever know how much money Trump is stealing as he dropped the anti-weaponization retribution fund for his supporters, threw them under the bus when the heat got to be too much, but he kept the no audit for him, his family, and his company forever. That's right, forever.

Polls, Naming Schemes, And Backlash

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In the end, what is going on in the heads of Americans is how are they dealing with inflation, with high gas prices, and the increasing mocking and hatred of the rest of the world. All the while Trump is making money and telling them he literally does not take into consideration what Americans think or if they are hurting. He only cares about what he wants to do and his ideas, including starting a war that every single analyst outside of his cabal has said over and over was totally unnecessary and now has easily slid past a hundred days and counting. It is officially a quagmire, folks, with no end in sight. The question on everyone's mind from Harry Enton of CNN, who pounds it every day with poll after poll, one today showing America's disgust with Trump. Today Trump got a 9% approval rating on naming government buildings after him. 9%. That means 91%, as Harry Enton would say. Holy cow, are you kidding me? Including Republicans, now against Trump, putting his name on anything, which of course Trump is obsessed with. Not to mention vast majorities against the $1 billion ballroom, and of course, his triumphal arch, which apparently no one wants to see hovering over Arlington National Cemetery, which of course, where the arch Trump was going to name after himself. The Republican Congress is now dialing it back. It demands to have Trump's name on Dulles Airport in DC, to have that changed to his name, have all but been dropped. There are even pods out there detailing efforts on erasing Trump's name from every book, everything that he has attempted to put his name on the day after he is gone. But will this really matter?

Anti Trump Momentum Before Midterms

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I don't know. But unless you have been in the US lately, you would not believe how hard, how tough everyone is finally pushing back on Trump. Words like the worst, the most corrupt, incompetent are thrown out literally thousands of times a day and quite often to his face. Campaigns for office, based on trashing Trump and yes, also offering solutions, but it is so easy just to blast away a Trump and his far-right supporters who he has gotten through the primary season that the Democrats have dozens of easy targets to pick on. Races where the Democrats would normally not have a chance are now rated leaning Democrats. In the end, we do not know how this will end. But you can no longer say the Democrats, the journalists, the protesters are not fighting back. These are not No Kings demonstrations where Democrats politely attended at the senior levels. These are now in your face. We are taking down Trump. But will they be able to do it? I don't know. I actually don't. But there is no doubt the momentum is so much on the side of the Democrats, and their candidates' messages are becoming so hard-hitting and refined, they may just pull it off. It is still only mid-June. The debacle of the 250th anniversary of the independence of the United States and the Declaration of Independence is coming up, which everyone seems to be boycotting in Washington, D.C., to the point where Trump canceled the entertainment part in favor of what else? He's making a speech. DC is being ignored. I even heard some of the UFC fighters where Trump has created a true Roman Empire gladiator spectacle on the White House lawn are dropping out. Hey Maximus, you want to get in the ring with Trump? That's how bad it's getting. Trump, of course, could still pull it out. He is, after all, the great Houdini of U.S. politics, and counting him out has proven to be fool's gold time after time. But this time, the Democrats actually seem to be focused, and I mean the middle of the road Democrats, the center left, and not just the progressives, who are always arguing about transgender rights and frankly a lot of things that people are not interested in. It isn't a class war, it is an anti-Trump war. Less than five months to go to see what, if anything, the Democrats can do to take down the calligula of American politics. If Orbod's corruption, which paled in comparison to Trump, is any indication in what the Hungarian voters did to toss him out, Trump may be facing an historic midterm defeat. Yes, he will still be there, but if he loses both the House, the Senate, and many state and local races along the way, the long-sought comeback by the Democrats will be primarily based on Trump and his absolute commitment to a level of corruption unheard of in U.S.

Europe Watch And Sign Off

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history. This is Henry R. Greenfield signing off and on my way back to Europe to gauge the summer mood and the growing confidence of Ukraine and Zelensky, who just this week bombed the Davos-like economic forum that Putin had in St. Petersburg. No, this will not be a summer of love, but it will be one of intensity that could alter the future for the Western world.

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Thank you for joining us on the Greenfield Report with Henry A. Greenfield. We hope today's insights into the ever-shifting geopolitical landscape have sparked your curiosity and broadened your perspective. Stay connected with us for more in depth discussions and expert solutions. Until next time, keep exploring the world beyond the headlines.