Pod Save America

Right-wing influencers and conspiracy theorists lose it over a Justice Department memo that says there’s no evidence Jeffrey Epstein had a “client list” or blackmailed his associates. Criticism of DOGE’s cuts to the National Weather Service resurface after catastrophic floods hit central Texas. In a Fourth of July ceremony, President Trump signs his disastrous economic plan into law. Jon and Tommy...

House Republicans deliver on Trump's Independence Day deadline, passing the Senate's version of the so-called Big Beautiful Bill, which will cut taxes for the rich, gut Medicaid for the poor, and explode the deficit beyond all recognition. Jen Psaki, host of The Briefing with Jen Psaki on MSNBC, joins Dan to discuss how Mike Johnson and Trump won over the bill's GOP holdouts, what happens now that...

Senate Republicans jam through a final vote on the so-called "Big, Beautiful Bill." Senator Chris Murphy steps away from the Senate floor to join Tommy and Lovett to talk about Republican Senator Tom Thillis's unexpected opposition to the bill, the Medicaid cuts that sparked it, and what the bill's passage would mean for Americans' wallets (you guessed it: more money for the rich, less for the poo...

Health Secretary RFK Jr. has gutted the CDC's vaccine advisory committee, replacing its members with a mix of anti-vaxxers, COVID contrarians, and medical non-professionals. What do these sweeping changes to our vaccine infrastructure—and the rise of the ironically named MAHA movement, short for Make America Healthy Again—mean for the health and well-being of everyday Americans? Dan sits down with...

As New York City celebrates Zohran Mamdani's primary win, MAGA, Wall Street, and a handful of Democrats succumb to socialist paranoia. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth lashes out at the press after CNN reports that last weekend's airstrikes barely set back Iran's nuclear program. President Trump pressures Congress to pass his Big Bullshit Bill by July 4th, despite a new ruling from the Senate Parlia...

Donald Trump, without consulting Congress or United States allies, orders the military to bomb Iran, and then claims that Iran and Israel have reached a ceasefire. Military and intelligence services push back on Trump's claims that Iran's three nuclear sites have been "completely and totally obliterated." MAGA isolationists change their tone to avoid Trump's ire. Jon, Lovett, Tommy, and Dan react...

Trump says he'll deTrump says he'll decide whether to strike Iran sometime in the next two weeks; while some of the biggest names in MAGA, like Tucker Carlson and Ted Cruz try to sway his choice. Pete Hegseth and Tulsi Gabbard are reportedly on the outs at the White House, Trump flip-flops on immigration enforcement at farms, federal agents handcuff more Democrats, and the Senate version of the Bi...

Trump's long-planned birthday parade gets overshadowed by massive "No Kings" protests around the country and the cold-blooded murder of a prominent Minnesota lawmaker and her husband. Meanwhile, Israel launches a preemptive war against Iran—a war that Trump hasn't quite ruled out joining. Jon, Lovett, and Tommy discuss the weekend's competing optics, the deeply troubling rise of political violence...

How much of America would we need to mobilize to stop Trump's power grab? According to political scientist Erica Chenoweth, it takes 3.5 percent—the threshold after which every protest movement, across the world, has been successful. Against the backdrop of the anti-ICE and No Kings protests, the national guard deployment, and Donald Trump's birthday pageant, Chenoweth joins the show to break down...

Federal agents tackle and handcuff Senator Alex Padilla after he shouts a question at Kristi Noem at a public press conference. Trump continues to politicize the military, attacking his political enemies in a speech to troops at Fort Bragg and preparing for his North Korea-style birthday party. New polling shows that Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill" is wildly unpopular—and increasingly vulnerable to D...

Trump stokes chaos and incites violence in Los Angeles, deploying the Marines and the National Guard, against the request of the governor and mayor, to quell protests opposing ICE deportation raids in downtown LA and nearby Paramount. Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man wrongly deported to an El Salvadoran megaprison, returns to the United States to face charges his lawyers claim are made up. A...

Lovett joins forces with The Bulwark's Tim Miller and Sarah Longwell for a big, beautiful, gay-as-hell fundraiser at World Pride to support Andry José Hérnandez Romero and other individuals wrongfully deported to El Salvador without due process. Jon, Tim and Sarah open the floor to two people doing the hard, important work for justice: Andry José Hérnandez Romero's lawyer and President of the Immi...

Donald Trump and Elon Musk's romance comes to a fiery end as the two erupt into an explosive feud, attacking each other across social media. Jon and Dan comb through the insults, including Elon calling for Trump's impeachment, Trump threatening to end all of Elon's government contracts, and, our personal favorite, Elon tweeting that Donald Trump is in the Epstein files. Fun day! The guys also disc...

The health care of 10 million Americans is at risk as President Trump's massive tax cut legislation makes its way to the Senate. Will Majority Leader John Thune be able to cobble together a bill that the "Medicaid moderates," budget hawks, and hardliners can all agree on? Meanwhile, Stephen Miller freaks out at ICE leadership for failing to detain and deport enough immigrants, corporate America be...

Elon Musk is back in the news, with a New York Times investigation detailing his rampant drug use right as he high tails it out of Washington. Lovett and Dan compare notes on their own White House drug tests, then dig into Trump’s most recent comments on his Big Beautiful Bill, the legislation’s fate in the Senate, and Sen. Joni Ernst’s psychopathic consolation for people being kicked off Medicaid...

Donald Trump loses his cool when a reporter asks him about a newly popular Wall Street phrase: TACO, aka Trump Always Chickens Out. A federal court unanimously rules that the majority of Trump’s tariffs are illegal — before an appeals court allows them to remain in place (for now). And after 128 days of destruction, Elon Musk's time as a Special Government Employee officially comes to a close. Jon...

Jon, Lovett, Tommy, and Dan talk about the administration's attempt to bar Harvard from enrolling international students and other new Trump threats, including possible sweeping tariffs on the EU and Apple products. The guys answer your questions on everything from the future of Democratic leadership and why some Senate Democrats keep voting with Trump, to whether a future Democratic president sho...

In the middle of the night, the House narrowly passes Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill," a witch's brew of tax cuts for the wealthiest and benefit cuts for the neediest, sending it on to the Senate. Jon and Dan talk about what Democrats can do to stop the bill—and the upside of Republicans passing something so massively unpopular, Trump's "white genocide" show-and-tell for South African President Cyril...

President Biden has been diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer—news that lands in the middle of a media cycle already consumed with questions about Biden's decline thanks to a buzzy new book and the release and of the audio from Biden's special counsel interview. Jon, Lovett, and Tommy unpack the fallout: the questions, conspiracies, criticisms, and some truly disgusting reactions....

Are you tired of incessant, unhinged Democratic fundraising texts and emails? Well, so are we. Tommy sits down with three experts in the party's digital fundraising space to talk about how this model became the norm, why it may be hurting Democrats more than it helps, and how that campaign — you know the one — got your cell phone number. Blue State Digital founder Joe Rospars joins to diagnose the...

On his tour of the Middle East, Trump lavishes praise on dictators—as they deposit bribes in his pocket. Republicans, in between defending Trump's jet grift, finalize more details of their "big beautiful bill," which, in addition to gutting Medicaid, now aims to cut food assistance, funding for Planned Parenthood, and Biden's clean energy tax credits. The Supreme Court hears arguments on two impor...

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a bribe! President Trump, just before setting off on a tour of the Gulf states, announces that he plans to accept a $400 million luxury jet from the Qatari royal family — one of the largest and most brazenly corrupt gifts ever received by an American president. House Republicans finally release details of their proposed cuts to Medicaid, but will their plan to cut t...

White smoke! Cardinal Robert Prevost, an American-born prelate with a surprisingly political Twitter history, dons the papal vestments as Pope Leo XIV. Trump announces a trade deal with the United Kingdom and swaps out two key nominees for MAGA (and MAHA) favorites: tree-loving influencer Casey Means for Surgeon General, and Fox News’s Jeanine Pirro for US Attorney for DC. Senate Democrats clash w...

Donald Trump turns his attention westward, announcing new tariffs on any and all movies "produced in foreign lands" and pledging to reopen Alcatraz. In a long Meet the Press interview, the president admits that a recession would be "okay," defers to his lawyers when asked about his duty to uphold the Constitution, and doubles down on his message that American children have been spoiled with too ma...

Chuck Todd, former moderator of Meet the Press and host of The Chuck ToddCast, joins Dan to assess how the news media has responded to Trump 2.0. His read? Not great. He and Dan lament cable news' tired playbook, discuss Craigslist's indirect role in electing Donald Trump, and question whether broadcast news may be in the early stages of a kleptocracy. Then, turning to the Democratic Party, Chuck...