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CNN NewsNight with Abby Phillip
White House Aide's Letters To Guardian Trump Raise Questions; Sen. Darline Graham (R-SC) On Gaffe, I'm Not A Politician, Guilty as Charged; Trump To Allow Tariff-Free Beef Imports, MAGA Angers The President's Move; J.D. Vance Slams Politicians Getting Rich While In Office. Aired 10-11p ET
Aired August 21, 2026 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[22:00:00]
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ABBY PHILLIP, CNN ANCHOR (voice over): Tonight, with all her heart, bizarre letters to Donald Trump are revealed from one of his closest aides.
MAGGIE HABERMAN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: The Secret Service had gotten alarmed by some of them.
PHILLIP: Plus, after a debate gaffe --
SEN. DARLINE GRAHAM (R-SC): National security is not my thing.
PHILLIP: -- Trump stomps for Lindsey Graham's sister, despite questions about her qualifications.
DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: Elect Senator Darline Graham to fight, fight, fight.
PHILLIP: Also, as MAGA goes off on socialism and communism, the president announces price controls in America.
And, as Trump grows richer from his presidency, his veep must have missed that headline.
J.D. VANCE, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: What did all of you get? What did we get?
PHILLIP: Live at the Food Network, Adam Mockler, Amy Robbins, Yemisi Egbewole, and Pete Seat.
Americans with different perspectives aren't talking to each other, but here, they do.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIP (on camera): Good evening. I'm Abby Phillip with a field trip edition of NewsNight. As you know, we spend our Fridays here at our sister network, the Food Network's Test Kitchen, here in New York. We have a fabulous chef serving the friends of our show who are here in the audience, and she's got a special treat for us at the end of the night.
But first, tonight, for the first time, some of the deeply personal and, frankly, bizarre letters from Donald Trump's close aide, Natalie Harp, have been published in full. The Daily Beast obtained two letters written by Harp in 2023, said to have been discovered by White House staff in piles of printouts which Harp customarily delivers to Trump, quote, I never want to bring you anything but joy. I'm sorry I lost my focus. You are all that matters to me. I don't want to let you -- to ever let you down, one of the letters reads. Thank you for being my guardian and protector in this life, it continues.
In another letter, Harp reminisced about her relationship with Trump from earlier in her career. I miss the days when you used to call during my talk show days. We'd talk about everything and nothing, Harp wrote. I want to get back to that synergy. We shouldn't have to talk about work all the time. Harp added, and please when I fail, will you tell me? You have the absolute right to cuss me out, if need be, when I deserve it, because no one knows or cares about me more.
CNN has not independently confirmed that Natalie Harp wrote or sent these letters to the president. This afternoon, Harp was seen alongside her other -- the president's other aides boarding Marine One en route to South Carolina with President Trump.
Now, before we open it up to the table here, we want to invite you at home to join our debate. Go to cnn.com/abby, weigh in there. We'll get to some of your comments throughout the show.
And, Yemisi, you've been a White House staffer.
YEMISI EGBEWOLE, FORMER CHIEF OF STAFF AND ADVISER, BIDEN WHITE HOUSE PRESS OFFIC: Yes.
PHILLIP: How odd is it what is allegedly written in these letters?
EGBEWOLE: It's beyond odd, and it's actually quite uncomfortable to watch a young woman that has such a, a pivotal job to the president and enormous access reduce herself in these letters to these kinds of statements of, I want you, I need you I want to look pretty for you.
I think it's a bad reflection of women everywhere working in politics, and I also think it's quite concerning that this behavior was growing. She wrote it down. It was maybe given to the president. We know that it was given in his book, and that people in the White House were aware of it. Having worked in a West Wing, I have never heard of this kind of behavior, and I don't know how you reason with it if you're the president.
PHILLIP: Yes. I mean, I think putting aside whatever Jon Ossoff said, that in and of itself is strange. And then when you add to it, let me just play what Maggie Haberman, who, as you know, just wrote an incredibly detailed and well-reported book about President Trump's second term, this is what she says the Secret Service had to say about these letters.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) HABERMAN: This is coming in part because of people around the president have been concerned, including the Secret Service during those four years out of office. But she does fill a role that he wants. She handles a lot of his social media. She is a channel by which outsiders can bypass existing systems to get to him and vice versa, where he can reach out to other people.
[22:05:06]
That does include, in some cases, foreign leaders.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: So, it's something that's alarmed not just other people around the president, but also the Secret Service.
AMY ROBBINS, CEO, ALEXO ATHLETICA: Look, I'm sorry, but this is a complete double standard when it comes to media coverage on something like this. Joe Biden had a very devoted inner circle as well, where Joe Biden even called her staffers and her aides love and a work marriage, and yet that was never brought up as a national security issue.
EGBEWOLE: I can say for a fact none of those staffers ever sent him any letters like that.
ROBBIN: I agree. I agree. He did not.
EGBEWOLE: I can call them up right now and ask.
ROBBINS: They didn't, but I'm talking about the close inner circle --
ADAM MOCKLER, HOST, "THE ADAM MOCKLER SHOW": So, it's not a double standard.
PHILLIP: So -- yes, so it's not the same thing at all.
ROBBINS: What we're talking about here that you can have close inner circles, and also when did being a loyal, devoted person be an indictment on your character. And I was really hoping that we didn't have to talk about this story again tonight.
MOCKLER: I'm sure you were.
ROBBINS: Because CNN has already talked about Natalie Harp this week alone 132 times, and I want to talk about stories that affect women. I do.
PETE SEAT, FORMER WHITE HOUSE SPOKESMAN, PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: It's not -- and I'm sorry. It's not being loyal, it's worship. And it's not dedication to the job, it's devotion to a single person.
ROBBINS: Okay.
SEAT: I also worked in a White House. I delivered clips to President George W. Bush when we would travel internationally. Never once did the thought cross my mind that I should slip in a love letter to the president. It is cringe, as the kids say.
Now, I would also add, you know, when you work in the White House, you know this, when you work on Capitol Hill, you have to believe in the person, you have to believe in the policies, you have to believe in the agenda. But she is taking a leap to say the kind of things that she says to the president.
On top of that, to refuse to undergo a background check for a year, that is a red flag that should have been cause for removal immediately. It's shocking that she was allowed to stay there.
PHILLIP: I just want to note that we haven't -- CNN has not independently confirmed that, but it is out there about Natalie Harp.
Let me just say one more thing. I just want to play a little bit more from Maggie because, to your point about the hero worship piece of this, this may be the key to exactly why she's in this role, according to Maggie.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HABERMAN: Trump, as I think we've all watched over a long period of time, likes to have sycophants around. It doesn't mean exclusively, but that has gotten more pronounced and, you know, devotion is the coin of the realm in his world and in his larger orbit. She is the most pronounced example of it that I can see in recent years.
And I think the other piece, too, Wolf, is she doesn't have, that we know of and according to people we've spoken to in the president's world over several years now, she doesn't really do much outside of work. She works constantly for him. That is something that he has a huge amount of value in. I described her the other day as, you know, a binky, for lack of a better way of putting it. It's like a comfort blanket.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBBINS: Everything that she just mentioned, you guys, is she -- Natalie Harp should be the poster child for modern-day feminists. She's a hard worker. She is resourceful. She --
MOCKLER: She literally devotes all of her time and energy towards one single man.
(CROSSTALKS)
ROBBINS: And she climbed the corporate ladder. She sacrificed herself.
MOCKLER: I just want to back up very, very quickly.
ROBBINS: She didn't even sleep. She didn't even eat. And she got to one of the highest positions in the country.
PHILLIP: I'm sorry, not -- hold on. Not sleeping and not eating, writing unhealthy sounding notes to your boss, never doing anything outside of work -- ROBBINS: She prioritized -- she's prioritizing her career.
PHILLIP: It sounds like honestly something, somebody that needs an intervention. People love her and care about her probably should ask her how she's doing.
MOCKLER: This is not a double standard. This is not a case of a close inner circle like you implied. This is definitely not a case of feminism. It's kind of sad. It made me sad reading these letters. And she seems to have a unique attachment to Donald Trump.
Feminism is not giving away your entire life to write sappy messages saying that you're sorry 100 times or acting like you have Stockholm syndrome for some reason. Feminism is fighting for your own equality or pushing for, I don't know, women to have equal rights. This feels like a really weird situation.
Can you at least admit that, it's a weird situation?
ROBBINS: I will admit that this is odd. It is odd behavior.
MOCKLER: Okay. So, it's not a double standard at all.
ROBBINS: No. But what we're talking about was the inner circle double standard.
PHILLIP: Can you acknowledge that it's an odd -- that it's odd behavior?
Let me just read another excerpt that also speaks to what Adam is talking about. She wrote allegedly in this letter in 2023, I had no idea how rapidly I was approaching burnout and starting to envy those whose only job seems to be to talk to you and look pretty. I want that job. So many times I'm trying just to stay afloat with all that's coming in for you. I look like a hunchback who didn't have time to freshen up. At least you know what I should look like.
MOCKLER: Which Biden aide did that?
ROBBINS: I didn't say that they wrote the exact same letters.
[22:10:00]
That wasn't the point.
MOCKLER: You said it was a double standard.
ROBBINS: No, I'm talking about the double standard of having people in your inner circle. Nothing happened between them. There is no inappropriate behavior that has been confirmed. All of that is unsubstantiated.
MOCKLER: That feels inappropriate.
EGBEWOLE: It's an anomaly in this situation, though.
ROBBINS: It is innuendo. And so therefore, there's really nothing that -- like what are we talking about here?
EGBEWOLE: why do we have the letters? I actually want to ask that. Why do we have the letters? We have these private letters, and we have anecdotes about the way that she behaved when they were traveling with the president, and I guarantee you we have those from other staffers. I guarantee you that information came from her colleagues.
PHILLIP: And also to your point, it had to have come from inside The White House.
EGBEWOLE: It's not Democrats putting this message out. I quite frankly think, yes.
PHILLIP: Which Maggie has reported, I mean, that there are concerns among Trump's other aides about the role that she plays. And if we zoom out a little bit about what this says about the president, I mean, the binky comment from Maggie, I think, says a lot about what the president wants in people around him.
And the two of you have worked in the White House before. The president needs people who are loyal, who are dedicated hard workers. They need all that. But they also need people who are going to give it to them straight. And he clearly prefers the Natalie Harp version of his closest aides.
SEAT: Yes. The presidency can be a very isolating job. So, obviously, you want people around you that make you comfortable, people that you can trust. But to me, the measure of loyalty is being honest with the president, and being able to tell -- and not just the president, but when I was working for governors -- to tell them when you think they're wrong, to tell them how they can improve, how they can do a better job for themselves, for the American people, and for their constituents.
And this entire scenario, yes, there are similarities. Obviously, other presidents have had personal aides that are very devoted to their job and dedicated to what they're doing. I'm sorry, but reading these letters crosses a dangerous line --
PHILLIP: What do you think the danger is, Pete?
SEAT: That she -- if she's cut out of the circle -- act out. I don't know. That she's possibly gatekeeping information and not getting it to the president.
I mean, remember back in the first term, the Oval Office was essentially Grand Central Station. People were coming and going. There was really nobody that was policing it, because that's the way Donald Trump likes to operate. But now it sounds like this individual, Natalie Harp, is the one that's deciding oftentimes who gets in and who gets to speak to him, and that could be problematic if he's not getting the information that he needs to hear.
MOCKLER: It also kind of worries me that the reporting is foreign diplomats are using her as a back channel to get messages to the president, and it just seems weird. Like someone that's in a vulnerable position that is uniquely attached to the president is then the back channel for foreign diplomats to -- do you find that weird at least? Is that dangerous?
ROBBINS: I mean, I think that they're coming up with these ideas that this is a national security threat. Again, we have been talking about this now over several days.
MOCKLER: It's a little bit odd though, right?
ROBBINS: But she has been mentioned 132 times by --
PHILLIP: Don't you think that's partly because the White House, in reaction to her name being mentioned exactly one time by Senator Jon Ossoff, went completely nuclear?
MOCKLER: Stephen Cheung called him like a --
PHILLIP: They -- the White House, they were the ones who exploded this situation with their out of control reaction to it. I mean, that seems to have been -- if they did not want this to be a conversation, that seems to have been a major tactical mistake.
SEAT: I disagree with that a little bit though, Abby. I think it was Rich Lowry had a great point. He's like, the White House reacted the way they did, and that led a lot of people to believe that there was some kind of relationship between these two.
PHILLIP: Yes, that's what I'm saying. Yes.
SEAT: But he also said, if they didn't react, it would've confirmed to people that there was some kind of relationship, and that's why they did the insane thing.
PHILLIP: I totally disagree with that.
SEAT: Either way, they're --
PHILLIP: Because -- I totally disagree with that because Jon Ossoff is a United States senator who was giving a campaign rally in Georgia. That easily could've come and gone had the White House not amplified it.
SEAT: I knew what he was doing in that moment. He could've said Stephen Miller, Stephen Cheung, he chose Natalie.
EGBEWOLE: -- parents, and I asked them about Natalie Harp the night that it happened, and they said, I don't know who that is. Now they know who Natalie Harp is.
PHILLIP: Now they know who -- yes. I mean --
MOCKLER: Stephen Cheung had an expletive filled tweet calling -- I don't even know if I can say this. He called Jon Ossoff a cuck, and he said he's like the most spineless person in politics. I mean, Stephen Cheung is the White House comms director. He totally blew this up more. And the Republicans were all clutching their pearls trying to blind themselves to what Trump has said in the past. It felt like a double standard. If anything was a double standard, it was the way Republicans reacted to this innocuous comment from Jon Ossoff.
ROBBINS: Well, one point that I do want to bring up because you brought up a really good point that everybody knows Natalie Harp's name now because we have been talking about this woman so long. But how many women, or how many people know who Carmen Puch is? No one at this table hasn't been mentioned one time on this network. This is the 42-year-old woman, Fairfax County resident, mother of three, that was stabbed and doused in gasoline this week and murdered by an illegal immigrant from El Salvador.
PHILLIP: You know what?
ROBBINS: That seems to me like we should be talking about that woman way more than Natalie Harp.
[22:15:02]
PHILLIP: I would agree. But you might want to talk to the White House about that, because they decided that they were going to put -- they were going to drain all the energy, the White House communications director, the press secretary, the Twitter account, on a defense of the president's personal aide. They were the ones who decided that.
ROBBINS: Well, they did talk about it.
PHILLIP: So, I agree. I think that you -- if you think that there are other priorities, I would completely agree with that. But, again, the White House made this a huge story that could have just lived online for 24 hours, and they made it a national story.
ROBBINS: But then the media could also choose and decide which stories that they want to focus on.
PHILLIP: We'll leave it --
ROBBINS: And they could be focusing on women like that.
PHILLIP: We'll leave it there.
Next for us, just days after Darline Graham's gaffe on the debate stage, Trump hits the campaign trail for her, delivering a new defense.
Plus, as MAGA rails against socialism and communism, the president has announced price controls for beef today, which his allies in the industry are calling a betrayal.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[22:20:00]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are Taiwan and the South China Sea national security issues for the United States? And if so, why or how?
GRAHAM: I'm just going to be honest here. I'm not on national security that -- I'm not that informed on national security, so --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: Days after Darline Graham's gaffe, Donald Trump is campaigning for her in Myrtle Beach tonight. She's, of course, the sister of the late Senator Lindsey Graham, and she's running for a full term in the Senate. On Tuesday, she'll face off against longtime South Carolina Republican Ralph Norman in a primary runoff.
Here's how Graham responded to questions about her qualifications.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GRAHAM: Critics say I shouldn't run for the Senate. They say I'm not a politician. You know what I say? Guilty as charged.
And, by the way, President Trump had never served in an elected office before, and I think he's done a damn good job.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: Now, what's interesting about that is that Alexandria Ocasio- Cortez once received criticism for how she answered a question about Taiwan, and here's how Trump responded to that one and how he is responding to Graham now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Her performance was horrible. I was surprised actually. I didn't know she was stupid.
She had no idea. I don't think she knew what Taiwan was. That was the problem.
All she was is being honest. She's very smart.
She's totally for the military. I mean, she's going to do what the military wants, and really what the president wants.
She is a terrific woman who answered -- I watched that. I thought it was a very honest answer, actually.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: So much for meritocracy.
Also I feel like I've seen this movie before. It feels like a Sarah Palin moment actually, her comments on the stage tonight, which, Adam, I'm not sure that you were --
MOCKLER: No, I know. I get it. I get it. PHILLIP: -- around for that one. But, yes, I mean, this is actually -- it's such a stunning moment because it's almost like copy/paste exactly what happened to AOC, but the reaction is very different.
MOCKLER: I overall don't think Americans like the idea of people inheriting their family members' seats. We're a democracy. We're not a feudal monarchy, where you just take over your family member's seat right away. When Lindsey Graham passed, it was tragic, but the entire Republican Party then united around Darline Graham, and it's very clear she's a bit green, like she's a bit early on.
And if you're not able to answer these fundamental questions, then the question is why are they endorsing her? They just want a rubber stamp on all of their policies, and it's just -- it's MAGA in a nutshell because she's uniquely loyal, she seems rather incompetent, doesn't have -- but she did invoke trans issues on Fox News after to try to pivot the attention away. So, it's no substance, all culture war issues. I don't want someone like that in the Senate.
SEAT: It pains me incredibly to agree with anything that Adam Mockler said.
MOCKLER: Oh, come on.
SEAT: I'll get there in a second. I think it's different than AOC because AOC has been in the House of Representatives since 2019. Her moment on Taiwan, I think it was the Munich Security Conference, was this year. So, she's been there for a long time.
PHILLIP: But I would also add that she actually --
SEAT: Darline Graham has been there for literal days --
PHILLIP: I would also add that AOC actually, after stumbling for a couple of seconds, she actually answered the question, and she answered it correctly. It's just that it took her a while to get there. And so -- but, yes, I mean, she's a sitting U.S. congresswoman. But it's not that she didn't say anything at all, which is what happened with Darline Graham. She was just like, I don't know anything about this, so I'm not going to answer the question.
SEAT: Yes. So, here's the part where I will agree with Adam is on the inheritance. And in this seat, for this seat in particular, in South Carolina, it has been held by two people over the course of 70 years. You had Strom Thurmond, who was in it for 47 years, Lindsey Graham, who was in it for 23 years.
In my home state of Indiana, both of our U.S. Senate seats have been occupied by six different people over that course of time. So, here you have effectively just handing it to the same person for what could end up being 80, 85 years, who knows how long.
In her defense, though, it was an honest moment. Her first time on the political campaign trail was August 1st. Her first in-state interview was August 4th. The first round of this election was August 11th, and the runoff is going to be November 19th. I don't think she's going to be successful.
EGBEWOLE: She's had so many firsts. She's a new woman.
[22:25:00]
Okay. It's 100 people --
SEAT: No, but I don't think she's going to be successful. And I don't think she should be, and this exposed why she shouldn't be because she's in over her skis.
EGBEWOLE: I know. Any other job you wouldn't get to do this. It's -- there's 100 people in this entire nation that get to be United States senator. I mean, there's 5.5 million people in South Carolina. The barometer for this cannot be who knew Lindsey Graham best. That's not the -- my brother's an OB-GYN. If he died and would they let me be the OB-GYN? Would I get to birth Abby's babies? Like that's not the way that this works.
SEAT: But that's also entirely up to voters. If they make that choice, if it's enough that she is the sister of the late senator and has the endorsement of the president. But, look, I think that there's a decent chance that Donald Trump, come Monday night, is going to double endorse like he did in the governor's race and give his stamp to Ralph Norman if it looks like an obvious win for her.
ROBBINS: No way. I don't think that's going to happen at all. You're talking about someone of the Freedom Caucus that they are known obstructionists. That is not really going to be aligned with the MAGA agenda. I don't think that's going to happen. But I do think that, you know, her appeal to people is the fact that she is not a professional politician. She is not polished. I blame this gaffe. Don't forget, Joe Biden was the king of gaffes, and he was still the president. So, I don't believe being too honest --
PHILLIP: Can you believe we couldn't get through the segment without --
(CROSSTALKS)
SEAT: Joe Biden would be taking a shot right now.
ROBBINS: But here's the thing, being too --
PHILLIP: How did Joe Biden get in this?
MOCKLER: Yes, I don't even know.
ROBBINS: Being too honest does not disqualify you. There are so many other behaviors that disqualify people from these roles. Just look at Jay Jones. He had talked about killing Republicans. That should have disqualified him from running.
MOCKLER: Can the Republicans here just admit that it should be disqualifying if you don't know the bare minimum about Taiwan and China? Like that should be disqualifying for a senator position. ROBBINS: No, because look, you go to -- no, that --
MOCKLER: You don't think that's disqualifying, to not know anything about foreign policy?
ROBBINS: She has areas of expertise in other things. She was just saying in that specific area, but everyone knows you have staffers.
SEAT: And what are those?
ROBBINS: Everyone knows that you have -- that you get on committees. I don't think she's going to be on the foreign policy committee.
MOCKLER: So, Donald Trump is going to pick the staffers that are surrounding her so that she can rubber stamp any war that he wants to get into, like the Iran war. I mean, we need a Congress that can actually check the president when he's getting into these wars, and Darline Graham's not going to do that.
PHILLIP: Okay. Yemisi made this point, United States Senate, okay? There are only 100 of those people. This is an administration who has, for the last 18 months, railed against people that they claim are not qualified, against DEI, against black people and women in the military and other parts of the government. It just a taste of what they've been saying.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: The United States has now become, again, a meritocracy. Isn't that a beautiful word, a meritocracy?
VANCE: In the United States, we believe in hard work and merit.
MARCO RUBIO, SECRETARY OF STATE: We want to hire the best people for the job, but not because of the diversity, but because of their skill, their merit, and their abilities.
PETE HEGSETH, DEFENSE SECRETARY: When you rip out DEI, when you rip out social engineering and social justice, and you put in merit --
TRUMP: Merit, everything now in our country is based on merit.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBBINS: Obama was a community organizer before he was a senator.
PHILLIP: All of that is a joke. I mean --
ROBBINS: Really? Mamdani --
PHILLIP: -- if you claim that you want merit, how do you then rubber stamp someone who can't answer a question about U.S. foreign policy when it comes to Taiwan, which is a major issue? It's an issue that if you're in the United States Senate, you're going to have to vote on.
MOCKLER: Well, I'm going to bring up Biden again. ROBBINS: There are books. She can read. She can get up to speed on this. We know that.
SEAT: And that could have been her answer, though. All she had to say is these are not the types of issues that I've been interested in, unlike my brother.
ROBBINS: She has not learned the skill of block and pivot yet and the media, and that is --
SEAT: It's called debate prep. I've done it for candidates. Why didn't she do it?
ROBBINS: And I agree she did -- I agree that her team did not prep her very well for that.
But, look, what qualifications does Mamdani have to run the largest city in the United States?
MOCKLER: We bring up Biden again. We bring up Biden, too.
EGBEWOLE: It's not a city council.
ROBBINS: Yes.
EGBEWOLE: You know, I mean, he had like city -- I mean, he had local experience already. I am okay with plucking a farmer that represents a district and putting him in Congress. I'm okay with regular people. But the work actually has to be there. And for Darline Graham, it just feels like she was appointed and she thinks that she can just ride this.
I mean, for the primary, two-thirds of Republicans didn't choose her. You've got Ralph Norman -- I can't believe I'm doing this for Republicans, but you've got Ralph Norman. He's been serving in the House since 2017. If I was a Republican, and I had been in the House and been waiting for one of these two seats in the upper chamber to come -- to become available, and then all of a sudden you just appoint the sister, I'd be a little annoyed. And I can see why there are fractures in the South Carolinian Republican Party about this, whether they get to go vote.
PHILLIP: There were some campaign signs of hers that basically just said, endorsed by Trump, like that's the whole ballgame --
SEAT: Sometimes that's enough
PHILLIP: -- of this campaign, is that she's been endorsed by Trump, that Trump wants her in there. And you heard him say tonight she's going to do what the military wants. She's going to do what I want.
MOCKLER: Yes. I mean, really quickly, to point out -- bring it back to the double standard point, I think the -- is really good.
[22:30:04]
What Trump said about AOC, calling her stupid, is worse than whatever Jon Ossoff said about Natalie, number one.
Number two, this undying loyalty that Donald Trump requires when he's vetting candidates is exactly why we're in this situation with Iran, with the tariffs, with no checks. And again, Darlene Graham would just be a rubber stamp for all of his worst impulses, and that's why he's consolidating around her.
ROBBINS: But isn't that up to the people of South Carolina to decide if they want that or not? She said that they were trying to overturn democracy.
MOCKLER: But there was a special election, and the entire Republican Party pushed her as the appointed candidate, and now she's flopping. She doesn't know.
Can I just ask you one more time? Don't you think you should know a bare minimum level about Taiwan if you're going to be in the Senate? Isn't that fair to say?
ROBBINS: I mean, you should, but she can learn about it.
EGBEWOLE: But her answer could have also just been better. Fine, then you don't have to give me a whole thing on Taiwan.
MOCKLER: Mamdani would have had a better answer. Like, if you want to talk about Mamdani, he at least knows how to pivot around these types of things.
ROBBINS: Sure, he's a slight politician there, and there are definitely people that know how to navigate the media a lot better than others, and we can all agree that she did not give the best answer there.
MOCKLER: She doesn't know anything about it.
PHILLIP: Next for us, Donald Trump tonight is defending a move that resembles socialism and appears to be putting cattle farmers second to foreign ones. We'll discuss.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[22:35:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIP: For years, MAGA has slammed socialism and communism. But tonight, the face of the movement is announcing price controls. Yes, right here in America, that's in response to a crisis partly of his own making.
Today, Donald Trump announced that he's negotiated a deal to lower beef prices by temporarily allowing beef to be imported into the U.S. without triggering high tariffs. Trump says that the imported beef will come at a 25 percent discount to current market prices.
The cost of beef has skyrocketed amid a drop in the number of U.S. cattle, persistent consumer demand, and limits on cattle from Mexico, where ranchers are confronting a flesh-eating parasite.
Now, Trump's 50 percent tariff on Brazil, a major beef exporter, are also making things worse. But as the President faces criticism within his own party for undercutting domestic beef production, he won't even say where this foreign beef is coming from.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPORTER: Which countries did you make that deal with? What are the sources of the --
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Which deal?
REPORTER: The beef deal.
TRUMP: I don't want to say which countries, but there are a few countries. But they're going to be sending in the highest quality beef, and it's something that we need.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: I guess by that answer, you should probably also be asking yourself, is this deal even a real thing, if he won't tell you who's made it with him?
But, Pete, I mean, it's a double whammy. You've got the tariffs, and then you're going to import temporarily a bunch of new beef, and then discount it to American beef. That's wild, which is why the response from the cattle community has been explosive today.
SEAT: It's the right end goal, lowering prices, but at least based on what we know, it's the wrong path to get there.
The biggest question, as you just pointed out, is where is this beef coming from? Beef does not have the shelf life of Twinkies. This stuff doesn't last forever. So depending on where it's coming from, is it coming on a slow boat? Is it coming on planes? We don't know, because the administration hasn't answered these questions.
And some of it is also window dressing. I mean, 80 percent of the beef that's consumed in this country is produced here. And so now you're going to bring in beef, you're going to lower those prices.
What's that going to do? What's that impact on prices of beef that is made here? How that's going to impact the bottom line?
PHILLIP: It's putting more downward pressure on prices.
SEAT: But to your point real quick, the American Farm Bureau Federation is among those groups, and they have been staunch supporters.
Their members have been of this President. They have been with him every step of the way. And the very first words of the statement they put out was, quote, "Farmers and ranchers are extremely disappointed."
That was a strong statement for them to make in this moment.
PHILLIP: Yes, I mean, Meriwether Farm says it's a betrayal. Zippy Duvall, who is the president of the Farm Bureau, as you pointed out, said that they are disappointed in what he's doing. The National Cattlemen's Beef Association says no cow-calf producer in America is asking for increased imports.
Again, I want to know. The President does not have a strong grasp on economics. I think that is pretty clear.
But why is there nobody around the President that's telling him why this is not a great idea if he cares about American cattle producers?
EGBEWOLE: Yes, I want them to tell him just simple economics of taking off the tariff lowers the prices, then putting on tariffs actually does increase prices, as we have been saying. And it's unfortunate because this is a consumer affordability problem.
Selfishly, I need the price of beef to drop. I am a carnivore. We've got to get back to eating more beef.
But this is really unfortunate for ranchers and for farmers. We've seen some of the highest foreclosures in the past few years. We saw Republicans from Montana and from Nebraska on the Republican side release pretty significant statements about their disappointment in this.
I think it is the administration really undercutting a group of people that have been quite loyal to him from the beginning. And now I have to ask them, what did you gain from that loyalty to this President?
[22:40:05]
ROBBINS: And I'm going to have to agree with you on this point, I think the ranchers absolutely do have reason to be upset about this. But we have to remember, it's only a 90-day import valve. So I think if it goes longer than that 90 days, then they're really going to have something to complain about.
MOCKLER: I agree with what you guys said. I hate to say this, but I agree with what Pete Seat said this time.
What I find funny is that all of Trump's big magic policy announcements are just reversing prior policies that he put in place. So he put the highest tariffs on beef that we've ever seen in American history, and now he's having this sudden realization that he can artificially lower prices and import them from some unknown country.
He's constantly saying that oil prices are dropping. The Strait of Hormuz is about to open it back up. Dog, you're the one that literally effed (ph) this up in the first place.
You screwed it up, you're the one that made the Strait of Hormuz close down. So I think in the position that we're in right now, it just feels like Trump is reversing his own policies and declaring victory. It's not really good. SEAT: Well, and to answer your question real quick, you mentioned the
senator from Montana, Tim Sheehy. The American Farm Bureau Federation put it in their statement. They have been talking to the administration for over a year because the President has threatened this, I think, on three occasions, and they've said, don't do it.
So people have been telling him, I don't know about within the White House, but allies have been saying, sir, do not do this, and he did it anyway.
EGBEWOLE: Can we talk about --
PHILLIP: I mean, first, this is the point you're making in part. The tariffs are the problem, okay?
Rising prices are happening in part because he decided to arbitrarily slap tariffs on virtually the entire world and then carve out random carve-outs for different industries where they were able to get to him in the Oval Office. That is no way to conduct economic policy, and that's why we're seeing this sort of schizophrenic response in the economy.
EGBEWOLE: And it's, too, a very precarious industry because if we look at the context of what cattle farmers are dealing with, too, there's the schoolworm issue that's coming over from Mexico.
They've dealt with droughts, they've dealt with dwindling herds. I think anybody that even knows just a small fraction about what ranchers go through understands that for a lot of people, you know, it's a 90-day window, but this really might be the tipping point for some folks.
PHILLIP: So Trump was also asked today about his Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, intervening in the bond markets because the bond yields have been going up, which is, in shorthand, bad for the economy. The Treasury decided to buy these bonds back in order to lower the bond yields, but then they just went right back up. And here's what Trump said he might do about it in the future.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPORTER: Did you direct Secretary Bessent to intervene in the bond market? Was that your idea?
TRUMP: No, not at all. No, he's a very capable man. He wanted to do it.
He's very good at it. He is a good touch, very good natural touch for the bonds and interest, and he did that, yes.
REPORTER: The yields have come back up since then. Have you talked to him about another type of intervention? Is that something he will be doing?
TRUMP: We have many types of intervention. That's one. The ultimate intervention is our military, and if we have to use that, we will. (END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: Not sure what that's about.
MOCKLER: He's going to bomb his own market.
PHILLIP: He's going to sick the military on the bond market. What is he talking about?
MOCKLER: I don't know, honestly. But I think that right now, when I look at the economy and I look at what young people should be worried about, the national debt is a huge issue. Donald Trump himself is responsible for 29 percent of the national debt accumulated under his watch.
Now we pay $1 trillion per year just in the interest. That's going to continue to accumulate, and we're going to have to pay for that. My generation, you guys, it's really bad.
SEAT: But we're going to be honest about the national debt. It is a bipartisan problem that requires a bipartisan solution.
MOCKLER: But who's responsible for 29 percent of it?
SEAT: A lot of people are responsible, not just presidents. It's not just presidents because they signed the bills. Congress appropriates the money.
If you look at it, Barack Obama in his eight years added more to the debt, double more than George W. Bush did.
MOCKLER: He added 16 percent. Joe Biden, 30, 29 percent.
SEAT: Joe Biden in his only term added more than Donald Trump did in his first term. So this is a bipartisan problem. You want to pin it just on Donald Trump because that's what you do.
MOCKLER: He said he was going to end the deficit on day one.
SEAT: This is going to require real courage from both parties to tackle the problem. You can't just cut waste, fraud, and abuse. You can't just raise taxes on the rich.
EGBEWOLE: Oh, you can't just cut waste, fraud, and abuse. I thought George, 249,000 government jobs.
MOCKLER: They said they would balance the deficit.
SEAT: They said it would cut the deficit.
EGBEWOLE: He said $2 billion.
MOCKLER: He said $2 trillion.
EGBEWOLE: $2 trillion, $1 trillion, $150 billion.
SEAT: And they didn't get anywhere close to that.
MOCKLER: The facts are right now we are spending enormously on the Iran war. They're asking for $1.6 trillion for our next military budget to make up for the failed missiles. The missiles that we're using on this failing war with Iran.
It just kind of feels like this President and prior Republican presidents.
SEAT: We also have an obligation to NATO to get up to 5 percent of our GDP. And even that number would be less than 5 percent of our GDP.
[22:45:08]
You can't have everything, Adam. If you want to do that on behalf of our allies, we have to actually spend our money on defense.
PHILLIP: I guess, Pete, I think you're right, obviously. It is a bipartisan issue. But I also think that you have to acknowledge that it's going to require some sacrifices. And so far this administration has expressed zero interest in any sort of restraint in terms of spending.
They added to the deficit last year with the Big Beautiful Bill. They want to add to the deficit more with this budget request for the DOD.
They are not even thinking about where they can make significant and meaningful cuts to spending. Which is going to be necessary in order to get this under control.
I think it was Scott Bessent who said, we're going to grow our way out of this. No one thinks we're going to grow our way out of this.
MOCKLER: We can bomb our way out of this, I think.
PHILLIP: We have to grow and cut our way out of this mess. Otherwise, we'll be here for a long time.
Next for us, J.D. Vance goes off on politicians who get rich while in office. But the only problem is, he left out his boss's name. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[22:50:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIP: Tonight, pot calling the kettle black. At a campaign stop in battleground Ohio, J.D. Vance touted the President's economic agenda for average Americans. And he called out politicians for doing this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
J.D. VANCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Our politicians and frankly the cronies in the private sector, people who didn't want to build in America like Cleveland Cliffs, but people who were happy to build overseas, they got rich and communities like this one got poor. Politicians, think about this, who came to Washington with a few thousand dollars in their bank account, left after decades of public service with millions in stock portfolios.
And what did all of you get? What did we get?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: But Vance's boss is among those who have profited while in office, just with a lot more zeros. In fact, according to Forbes' latest tally, Trump's net worth has nearly tripled since returning to power and currently stands at $6 billion.
Now, the President, this is just like literally in the last 18 months, he has gone from making, you know, still a lot of money, a couple of billion dollars on his real estate deals, to $6.5 billion almost exclusively from things like cryptocurrency, real estate investments, including some foreign deals that have been happening while he's in office. How do you justify that?
ROBBINS: It's not a secret that President Trump came into office already a wealthy man. This is somebody who's not even taking a salary. That's not what the American people are having a problem with.
They have a problem with people like Nancy Pelosi who come in there and make $174,000 a year and then their stock portfolio goes up when they leave 16,000 percent.
PHILLIP: So the President's net worth is jumping by about $4 billion in 18 months. You think that's like a normal thing that people just expect to happen?
ROBBINS: Is it a normal thing to go from nothing to over $400 million like what happened with Nancy Pelosi?
PHILLIP: I mean, if you have a problem with Nancy Pelosi, shouldn't you have a problem with this?
ROBBINS: I'm not saying I have a problem with that.
PHILLIP: You just said you did.
ROBBINS: I'm saying most Americans, if they are going to have an issue, that's what they're going to have an issue with.
PHILLIP: Why would they have an issue with Nancy Pelosi but not with Donald Trump?
ROBBINS: Because Donald Trump didn't come in. Donald Trump came in to be a public servant, and that is what the job entails. He didn't come in, he came in as a wealthy man, and he didn't take any money.
PHILLIP: As we've discussed many times on this show, his family engaging in business dealings, and then the number of government contracts that they are associated with skyrocketing. Again, just in the last 18 months since he's been President.
EGBEWOLE: Yes, their close ties to the Department of War, I should say, is pretty well known. I mean, Donald Trump Jr. is on T.V. all the time with his business partners. He's always touting some new company, and they always say that there is separation between the family business and the President of the United States, and we're supposed to take that at face value.
It's just, I felt like I was going crazy watching J.D. Vance lecture us about corruption in Washington.
MOCKLER: Can I just say, Donald Trump is also selling unique early access to his Truth Social post for $100,000 a month, and on there he'll post the name of individual stocks like NVIDIA or Dell, and on there he'll post about the Iran war. So people can literally buy access, and I think that Donald Trump's unique selling of access to the presidency is much different than anything Nancy Pelosi has done.
I condemn all insider trading, but Trump has created a parted economy in an environment around him where it's just billions of dollars being raked in by him and his family members. It's awful.
PHILLIP; Well, we leave it there. Next for us, we're going to find out what Chef Liza has been cooking up for us over there. We will be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[22:55:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIP: Welcome back, and Food Network Supervising Culinary Producer Liza Zeneski is here with us with some spectacular plates for us. This is a super interesting dish. Tell us about it.
LIZA ZENESKI, SUPERVISING CULINARY PRODUCER, FOOD NETWORK: So this is Tteokgalbi. It's a Korean dish. So it's a beef and pork patty that's been flavored with pear, onion, ginger, garlic, all the deliciousness.
Bobby's "Triple Threat" is premiering next week, and on that show we have chefs from all over the world, all over the country, different backgrounds, different cultures competing against Bobby's titans. So I just wanted to do something that maybe you guys are not super familiar with today.
PHILLIP: Yes, something kind of global.
ZENESKI: Yes, something global.
PHILLIP: I mean, it's like a Korean barbecue.
ZENESKI: Exactly, yep. And you eat it like a lettuce wrap, so you can wrap it in lettuce.
PHILLIP: I didn't do that. ZENESKI: Maybe we want to do fork and knife.
PHILLIP: We didn't get that level. Thank you, Chef Liza.
You guys know, scan that Q.R. code at the bottom of the screen.
We have a quick question for you, Pete, from our audience at home.
[23:00:09]
How long does a Twinkie last?
SEAT: I think it's forever, right? Isn't it like a thousand years or something?
PHILLIP: Yeah, I think they can survive a nuclear blast, last I checked.
SEAT: Then I want an entire house made of Twinkies.
PHILLIP: All right, everyone, thank you very much for being here. Thanks for watching "NewsNight." You can catch our Saturday morning show, "Table for Five," tomorrow at 10 a.m. Eastern.
"Laura Coates Live" picks it up right now.
