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Trump Declares "We're Winning So Much" But Voters Skeptical; Poll: Most Think Economy Is Bad, Disapprove Of Trump's Handling; Trump's Pick For Surgeon General Appears Before Senate Committee; The General At The Center Of Trump's Potential Iran War Plans. Aired 12- 12:30p ET

Aired February 25, 2026 - 12:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[12:00:00]

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR, THE SITUATION ROOM: He added that the U.S. women's hockey team, who also won gold, will soon be coming to the White House.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN CO-ANCHOR, THE SITUATION ROOM: The women's hockey team was not there last night, but the men's hockey team received standing ovations as they should have. All of their stories are so compelling, they are certainly deserving of the national attention that they received.

And to our viewers here in the United States and around the world, thanks very much for joining us this morning.

BROWN: Inside Politics with our friend and our colleague, Dana Bash, starts right now.

DANA BASH, CNN HOST, INSIDE POLITICS: President Trump says the U.S. is winning like never before, but many Americans don't see it that way when paying their bills.

I'm Dana Bash. Let's go behind the headlines at Inside Politics.

Today, team Trump is trying to push the president's State of the Union message beyond the beltway. On Friday, the president heads to Corpus Christi, Texas, just days before that state's heated primary. And tomorrow, Vice President Vance will visit a machining facility in Plover, Wisconsin. He previewed the pitch he's going to make there earlier on Fox.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

J.D. VANCE, VICE PRESIDENT: I think that we've got a lot of momentum here, but the president said this last night, we inherited a mess. Our ask to the American people is, let us continue to fix this mess, make your life better. That's what the president is prioritizing, and that's what we're going to keep doing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: The White House is pushing an air of bullishness after the president's record long address where he tried to pick up on an old 2016 refrain about winning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Our country is winning again. In fact, we're winning so much that we really don't know what to do about it. People are asking me, please, please, please, Mr. President, we're winning too much. We can't take it anymore. We're not used to winning in our country, until you came along with just always losing, but now we're winning too much.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: But as we've seen in a slew of polls, pretty much all the polls, Americans don't feel like they're winning right now. I'm joined by a terrific group of reporters here at the table. Are you exhausted from winning, John?

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I will say this in -- you travel the country, the presidents might go to Corpus Christi, Texas. I was just there. That's a district the Republicans redrew to make it a Trump plus 10. It was one of that, we can't lose districts in the Texas redistricting plan that President Trump demanded. It's a tossup.

I talked to a bunch of Trump voters there. They're tired of being tired. They're tired of having anxiety about the economy. They're tired of being told, first by President Biden, now by President Trump, that they're doing great. When their energy bills are up, some things are better.

So, it will be interesting to see the president on the road and see whether his tone is the same. The map is not what the Republicans expected it to be right now. And the president's message, I'm certain he helped himself last night. One of his problems was his Republican support has dropped. I'm certain he helped himself with that last night.

The question is, how long is the shelf life? History has told us that even if you get a modest bounce out of the State of the Union, it doesn't tend to last all those feelgood patriotic moments. They were great to watch. He's a great showman. Do people remember those in October, or they remember their last energy bill or grocery bill?

BASH: And Seung Min, you covered the White House. I know that sure, you are getting in your inbox, reminders of some of the proposals that the president put forward on affordability, and he did several of them. Well, from his perspective, he thinks that's tariffs. That is definitely debatable, but he talked about that.

AI data centers saying that the tech companies have agreed to pay for their own power needs. That's huge. If that actually bears out. Providing matching retirement plans for workers. This is not about the economy, but it's something that is on their agenda. Passing the Save Act, that's about voting. And then stopping insider trading, that is about, you know, alleged corruption.

SEUNG MIN KIM, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, AP: Right, right. And if you look at that list, the only really new policy that you see there is the AI centers policy, which, as you point out, it can be a really big deal with these new senators, using up the energy that they do. But a lot of Republican lawmakers, and other Republicans I've talked to about kind of their strategy going forward after the State of Union, they really are focusing on just selling what they've already done, which is a lot of the president's pitch.

Last night, he talked about all that the Republican Party and he had gotten done over the last 12 months, and how he -- and in his view, it had been such a turnaround from the past four years of President Biden, you know, for example, talking to Eric Schmidt, one of his closest allies in the Senate. He was telling me how this is the core of the Republican message this fall.

And they are, you know, it's kind of the same trap that President Biden fell into about trying to tell voters about all the good things that they've done. But right now, a lot of Republicans think that could work, once voters really start paying attention.

[12:05:00]

BASH: And let's just table set what the president was facing going into last night's speech with regard to the economy. This is an AP poll, asking about just how is the U.S. economy? Good 34 percent, poor 66 percent, that is huge. That's almost two thirds of the country. How is the president handling the economy? Approve 39, disapprove 59 percent.

And before I bring you in, I do want to go to a voter in Michigan. Our colleagues Van Jones and Scott Jennings were talking to swing voters in Michigan last night. This is William Giorgis, who did vote Democratic last time, but is listening for the candidates now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAM GIORGIS, MICHIGAN DEMOCRATIC VOTER: The thing that I missed the most was a focus on the economy and looking forward, and Supreme Court struck the tariffs down, and he's going for another round of tariffs. And I also think that's the wrong direction. Tariffs cost our company a lot of money. Our costs are up and we need to control our costs.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: He's a registered Democrat. We're not sure how he voted last time.

TAMARA KEITH, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, NPR: But I've been talking to swing voters too, people who voted for President Biden in 2020 and President Trump in 2024, and they're all talking about the economy. They're all saying that they feel like things are expensive. They know that the president is trying, but they're not sure that it's working for them.

And I'll just note a rhetorical difference here between what J.D. Vance said on Fox and what President Trump said last night. J.D. Vance was saying there's more work to do. He's getting closer to the, I feel your pain. Yes, we're working hard, but there's more work to do. Meanwhile, President Trump is saying, mission accomplished. Essentially, this is the greatest transformation in the history of transformations.

There's a difference there and that I feel your pain. Thing can be a superpower for some politicians and helps people feel like, oh, right, they're working for me. They understand me. That is not typically the way President Trump approaches things and it's not the way he approached the State of the Union last night.

HANS NICHOLS, POLITICAL REPORTER, AXIOS: Yeah. Trump wants a thank you, right? And J.D. Vance still wants to sort of make more of a pitch, more of the sale. I agree. I think this predicaments to Biden and Trump are oddly, ironically similar. There's a big difference, and that is that Trump might be, and this may be, out of it, might be a slightly better sales person than Joe Biden was. And I think Trump, and you kind of saw that last night, where Trump really enjoys this.

Now, will he be hitting the road? I don't know, right? How many silly stories have I written where it says, you know, the cabinet is fanning out to emphasize the president?

BASH: Yeah. We've all written those stories.

NICHOLS: Yeah. It doesn't really matter. I mean, maybe Pete Buttigieg had a huge effect in 2022. I don't know if he hit the road or not. But look --

KEITH: He did.

NICHOLS: Yeah, right. For example, for future. I think Michigan is really interesting, in part because Michigan is one part of the country where the tariffs, especially with the auto industry, are a little slightly more popular. That gentleman there was anti tariffs. I don't know what a small business is, but Michigan is when you kind of localize into the auto industry, that's the one state where you think potentially, the president might have a bit of advantage by promoting it, but again, there's a lot -- I don't know how many sports metaphors I'm allowed, but there's a lot of game left to play.

BASH: I do want to quickly play a clip from Abigail Spanberger, the new governor of Virginia, who gave the Democratic response.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. ABIGAIL SPANBERGER (D-VA): Is the president working to make life more affordable for you and your family. We all know the answer is no. Is the president working to keep Americans safe, both at home and abroad? We all know the answer is no. Is the president working for you? We all know the answer is no.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: That is what she won on just a few months ago. She's helping remind the Democrats on the ballot. Now that's a road map. KING: She's trying to remind the voters to the point, Hans just made. Democrats know Trump's a good showman. They know he's a good salesman. She's trying to say, don't believe him. Do not trust him. Look at your bills. Look at your family. Sit around the table, look at your credit card debt that has been rising in recent years, and now it's going to take you years to pay up. So, when he impresses you, OK, be impressed with the showmanship, then check your math. That's what she's saying.

BASH: Right. We're going to take a quick break. Up next, a MAHA influencer is making her case to senators. As we speak, she wants to be and she was nominated to be America's surgeon general. Plus, we're talking to one of the rising stars in the Democratic Party who wants to serve the state of Michigan in the U.S. Senate.

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[12:10:00]

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BASH: A wellness influencer is on the verge of becoming America's top doctor. You're looking at live pictures of Dr. Casey Means, trying to convince senators that she's up for the job of surgeon general. Means is a key figure in the Make America Healthy Again movement, MAHA. She earned a medical degree at Stanford University, but she said she dropped out of her residency program because she was frustrated with the healthcare system, especially after her mother passed away.

The hearing started out with tough questioning from Republican Chairman Bill Cassidy, who is a medical doctor, who is also in the middle of a tough reelection battle. And he is somebody who has gotten sideways with MAHA and the Trump backed candidate.

[12:15:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BILL CASSIDY (R-LA): Would you encourage mothers to vaccinate their children with the MMR vaccine, seeing how we've had children die and this outbreak in South Carolina?

DR. CASEY MEANS, SURGEON GENERAL NOMINEE: I'm supportive of vaccination. I do believe that each patient, mother or parent needs to have a conversation with their pediatrician about any medication they're putting in their body and their children's body.

CASSIDY: You're the nation's doctor. Would you encourage her to have her child vaccinated?

MEANS: I'm not an individual's doctor, and every individual needs to talk to their doctor before putting a medication in their body. I absolutely am supportive of the measles vaccine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Dr. Means was originally scheduled to appear before this committee in October, but she went into labor with her first child hours before that hearing. My panel is back. Tamara?

KEITH: You know, what I will note is that in the State of the Union address last night, there was absolutely nothing for the MAHA.

BASH: It's such a good point.

KEITH: The president said nothing about it. And I think that despite this hearing happening and the effort to get her confirmed, there actually has been a little bit of a pivot within the Trump administration on sort of the RFK Jr. of it all. He's still out there, posting fitness videos, wearing jeans --

BASH: But he's still in charge.

KEITH: --and he's still in charge. But there have been a lot of changes that have been happening, and there -- it's gotten a little bit quieter as the story about this measles outbreak and other outbreaks has gotten louder.

BASH: Yeah. So, let's look a little bit more about who Dr. Casey Means is. I mentioned, she's a wellness influencer. She's a bestselling author. She was an early MAHA ally. She does champion healthy eating. She has limited and she also champions limited pharmaceutical use, alternative remedies. Her brother Calley Means is a top advisor to RFK Jr. at HHS.

KIM: Yeah. I mean, it also remember, she was actually not the first surgeon general -- general candidate that the president had picked, his previous pick had withdrawn -- had withdrawn for other reasons, but this is someone who really does exemplify the MAHA movement. And I think she was probably anticipating tricky questions about vaccine, which is, what the sort of the -- sort of the -- what Bill Cassidy had to go through when RFK was coming before the committee.

And he has gotten a lot of scrutiny after Kennedy's confirmation, when HHS did go ahead and make all these changes, particularly to the children's vaccine schedule. And he's kind of declined to engage because he has this really tough primary in May against the Trump back -- Trump backed challenger. So, he's balancing his background and his credentials and his expertise as a doctor, but with the politics of his party, and it's been really hard for him to reconcile.

KING: Survival over principle has become a big thing for Republicans in this thing. The MAHA thing is interesting, in the sense, if you're talking about in a midterm campaign year, we'll see, no question about qualifications, but you mentioned nothing in the speech last night. The MAHA movement is also mad at the president for this recent pesticide decision.

And so, yeah, when you're in a midterm election year and you're looking at, you know, sometimes we oversimplify. The Trump coalition is actually pretty complicated little pieces of it. And if you can't get -- if a little piece fractures away, some over the Epstein file, some over MAHA, some over tariffs, that can hurt you when you cumulatively take this little piece -- and this little piece that can get your midterm mess. BASH: Yeah. And, you know, one of the questions about Dr. Means is the same question that people were asking RFK Jr. They obviously have very different qualifications. RFK Jr. has zero medical training, or, you know, medical background. And she does. She is a -- has questioned vaccines. Senator Bernie Sanders asked Dr. Means about the conspiracies about autism.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT): The overwhelming body of scientific evidence says, vaccines do not cause autism.

MEANS: I'm not -- so just to be very clear, vaccines, vaccine advocacy has never or any anti-vaccine rhetoric has never been a part of my message. This is -- I don't mention the word vaccine in my book. This is not a part of my core message. I am not here to complicate the issue on vaccines. And also, I, as a physician, I'm very careful with my words. And I don't think it's responsible to say that we're not going to study when kids are getting many medications. I think it's important to just keep it on the table.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NICHOLS: Yeah. Who knew doctors would be more careful with their words than lawyers, right? I mean, those are pretty nuanced response where she didn't really want to give an answer. It's like, when I asked my doctor an answer, I never get a question -- I never get answer to how much Advil can I take? No one ever will give you an answer that but --

BASH: There is no limit on this --

NICHOLS: You're great. I'm going with, I'm going with. Look, I mean, the MAHA -- where MAHA fits in the MAGA movement is a fascinating question. I mean, is it kind of orbits? Sometimes it gets close, sometimes it's there. But to John's broader point, like they are going to -- the Trump administration, and more importantly, congressional Republicans in the midterm election are going to need to draw an inside straight and recreate that coalition. And MAHA absolutely has to be a part of that.

[12:20:00]

It's very interesting that wasn't a key part of it. I'm sure they have ways levers to pull, to try to motivate it, but this, to me, is kind of going to be a central question. Again, you guys have turned in my assignment editor here. We should all be figuring out what the Trump administration is trying to do to motivate MAHA because last night, it wasn't central.

BASH: Well, you know, there are people who are on the ballot who are still very much appealing to MAHA. Julia Letlow said on social media. I'm thrilled to have the support of the MAHA PAC in my run for U.S. Senate as we confront the chronic disease epidemic and stand with President Trump. She is the one who is challenging Senator Cassidy. So that's sort of a very telling, very interesting answer in part to your question. Up next. Brand new CNN reporting about the man President Trump trusts most. It appears, when it comes to sensitive military operations like Iran, it's not his defense secretary.

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[12:25:00]

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BASH: Right now, we're seeing the largest buildup of American forces in the Middle East since the onset of the Iraq war. What happens next, hinges on nuclear talks, and ultimately, President Trump. We have brand new CNN reporting by Natasha Bertrand, Zach Cohen and Haley Britzky, which highlights the man President Trump trusts most to guide him. His chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Caine.

Natasha is here now. And Natasha you write that President Trump trusts General Caine even more than his defense secretary, Pete Hegseth on sensitive operations. Quote, Caine has a direct line to Trump, said one of the people familiar with the dynamic. He has to respect the chain of command, but he's the president's guy. Hegseth just -- can't just shove him in a corner. So fascinating. Tell me more about how that works.

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Caine has the benefit of having been revered by Donald Trump for the better part of a decade now. They first met in Trump's first term. Caine very much impressed him with anti-ISIS operations, telling him that ISIS could be defeated at a much shorter time period than other generals had predicted to the president.

There was obviously the big Soleimani operation to kill Iran's top general at the time that Caine was supportive of. And so, Caine has always been a person that Trump views as just right out of central casting. And importantly, you know, Caine understands that Trump is very mercurial. He understands that Trump has a history of politicizing the military.

But he has viewed his position as trying to keep everything on the tracks, keeping the train on the tracks, keeping the military out of political fights, while also being really careful not to too directly confront Donald Trump on issues related to policy, right?

Something that Mark Milley, who was the chairman of the joint chiefs under Trump as well, often fell into the trap of. And he would disagree with Donald Trump repeatedly on key issues, like sending troops into the streets to confront protesters like, you know, Trump's inflammatory rhetoric around China. Milley would sometimes undermine that and reassure nervous allies.

And so, Dan Caine has viewed his position as not weighing in on that kind of policy issue, as not providing his opinions, as being very reticent and only providing the best military options that he can to a president who ultimately, Caine sees as, of course, the one in charge, and it is not his place to be giving his opinion on certain matters. So that's really how he stayed in his good graces to the point where, you know, he's at the White House so much that he actually, at one point, was considering getting an office there because he wanted to be able to brief the president more regularly in a very secure space, be able to be reached there, so very trusted by the president.

BASH: And it's one of the many examples of the contrast. You mentioned Milley saying, no, Mr. President, you can't send troops onto the streets during the George Floyd protests. But just even more generally speaking, wasn't just Milley, General Mattis, who then became a civilian and the defense secretary.

They write, they're very clear that they saw their job as to protect the country from somebody who was not, you know, ready to be president. And Trump knew that. And he obviously sees Caine as totally different. He sees that Caine is not trying to manage him overtly. And it's not just on Iran. You kind of allude to this. General Caine is really giving the president options across the board.

BERTRAND: He has a direct line to Stephen Miller. They often talk about operations, about policy, and Caine will tell him how to execute a certain initiative that the president wants to see happen. Case in point, the cartel drug boat strikes in the Caribbean, something that Caine has been very involved in.

He is deeply trusted because he is not trying to be the adult in the room. According to our sources, he is simply trying to give the best advice that he can, including on Iran. And we're told that he has told Trump that there are serious risks involved to going into a prolonged conflict with the Iranians.

BASH: Natasha, thank you. Such great reporting. I think we had the QR code on the screen but definitely check out Natasha's great reporting on cnn.com. There it is. We'll give you a second. I'm sure you got it.

Up next. I'll talk to one of the Democrats running in the Senate primary. That our friend David Axelrod calls the most fascinating and consequential primary of the year.

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