How Trump Is Responding to His Midterm Rebuke

Steve Hayes is joined by Jonah Goldberg, Michael Warren, and John McCormack to discuss how the Trump administration is responding to the GOP’s massive defeat in the midterms and who might take up the Republican mantle after Trump. The Agenda: —Over-indexing Venezuela —Will Democrats moderate? —Stephen Miller as chief of staff —Ron DeSantis and the future of the GOP —NWYT: The death of the Cybertruck Show notes: Want to see more of The Dispatch in Google search? Add Us as a Preferred Source Steve Hayes is CEO and editor of The Dispatch, based in Annapolis, Maryland. Prior to co-founding the company in 2019, he worked at The Weekly Standard for 18 years, covering Washington, politics, and national security. Steve is the author of two New York Times bestsellers. He also worked as a contributor at CNN and Fox News, and currently serves as a political analyst at NBC News. When Steve is not focused on The Dispatch, he’s probably traveling with his family, grilling, or riding his mountain bike. Jonah Goldberg is editor-in-chief and co-founder of The Dispatch, based in Washington, D.C. Prior to that, enormous lizards roamed the Earth. More immediately prior to that, Jonah spent two decades at National Review, where he was a senior editor, among other things. He is also a bestselling author, longtime columnist for the Los Angeles Times, commentator for CNN, and a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. When he is not writing the G-File or hosting The Remnant podcast, he finds real joy in family time, attending to his dogs and cat, and blaming Steve Hayes for various things. Michael Warren is politics editor at The Dispatch and is based in Washington, D.C. A former on-air reporter at CNN and a senior writer at The Weekly Standard, he has spent more than 15 years covering lawmakers on Capitol Hill, the White House and the executive branch, the conservative movement, and political campaigns. When Mike is not reporting, writing, editing, and podcasting, he is probably spending time with his wife and three sons. John McCormack is a senior editor at The Dispatch and is based in Washington, D.C. Prior to joining the company in 2023, he was Washington correspondent at National Review and a senior writer at The Weekly Standard. When John is not reporting on politics and policy, he is probably enjoying life with his wife and daughters in northern Virginia or having fun visiting family in Wisconsin. The podcast transcription below was generated using artificial intelligence and may include occasional errors or misspellings. Steve Hayes 0:00 [upbeat music] Welcome to the Dispatch Podcast. I'm your host, Steve Hayes. On today's roundtable, we look at the seismic shift in national politics we witnessed over the past week, what we can expect from the final two years of the Trump administration, and what it means that Stephen Miller is taking over as Trump's chief of staff. And then JD Vance, Ron DeSantis, Chris Christie, and others. Who represents the future of the Republican Party, and how soon does that fight begin in earnest? And finally, for Not Worth Your Time, Jonah's very sad about this, the death of the Cybertruck. I'm joined today by Dispatch Editor-in-Chief Jonah Goldberg, Dispatch Politics Editor Mike Warren, and Dispatch Senior Editor John McCormick. Let's dive right in. [upbeat music] Well, gentlemen, it's been a week since the 2026 midterm elections, and to say that a lot has happened in the past week would be a tremendous, tremendous understatement. Jonah, if you look back on this past week, we have had some pretty remarkable developments, both here in the United States and abroad. Big electoral Steve Hayes 1:33 governmental shakeups in Israel. You've had continued rioting unrest in some Western European nations frustrated with their leadership. You've had this major story breaking here over the last couple days about Jensen Huang and NVIDIA and his surreptitious relationship, no longer surreptitious, affair with someone who's accused to have been a spy, and the fact that the US government apparently had information about this and offered some warnings to the Trump administration about this. On the domestic side, you have had finger-pointing and blowback inside the Trump coalition and beyond the Trump coalition. You have normally stalwart Trump supporters like Ron Johnson, senator from Wisconsin, who said, in effect, in an interview over the weekend, "Trump administration filled with corruption, and what really needs to happen is the Republican Party needs to return to the enduring principles of the founders and limited government." You have Marlin Stutzman from Indiana, House member from Indiana, had been fairly supportive of the Trump administration, defended it at various points, say, "This has been a problem. People need to be fired." On and on and on it goes. You had a conference over the weekend in Washington, DC, sponsored by Crooked Media, where a parade of the people who had just won election on the left came in and said some things that were not very conciliatory. Sounded like they are reading this election as a mandate for progressive leftist hardcore government. All of these things have happened, and then, of course, Steve Hayes 3:15 Donald Trump names Stephen Miller as his chief of staff late last week, the architect of the administration's immigration crackdown, somebody who's sort of the hardest of hardliners inside the Trump administration. Question to you, and this is a question for all of you, but Jonah, I'll start with you. If you look back on the past week since the election, what's the single most significant development that tells us Steve Hayes 3:45 about what we're about to see now for the next two years leading into the 2028 presidential election? Jonah Goldberg 3:55 Huh. I have to say, it's something you didn't mention. I mean, we're just gonna talk about politics, right? We can't... Like, you, you talked about NVIDIA and all of that and the Israeli elections, putting all international things aside. I did like the tweet from somebody who said, basically, "Having seen the Chinese spy involved in all this, I just want to tell the Chinese government that I actually know a great deal about AI and have lots of inside information." Anyway, I- I'm sorry. I'm stalling for time to think of the answer. Um- Interactive transcripts are available to Premium members. Join to follow along with the audio. Join Now