{"podcast":{"title":"The Ezra Klein Show","slug":"the-ezra-klein-show-1371595","podcast_index_feed_id":1371595,"rss_url":"https://feeds.simplecast.com/82FI35Px","website_url":"https://www.nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast","image_url":"https://image.simplecastcdn.com/images/47913775-afcf-4643-935f-31f1dcc86cfb/6a0e5e15-04a3-47c8-9c50-2f2fe8e84437/3000x3000/teks-album-20art-3000px.jpg?aid=rss_feed","author":"New York Times Opinion","episode_count":512,"summary":"Ezra Klein invites you into a conversation on something that matters. How do we address climate change if the political system fails to act? Has the logic of markets infiltrated too many aspects of our lives? What is the future of the Republican Party? What do psychedelics teach us about consciousness? What does sci-fi understand about our present that we miss? Can our food system be just to humans and animals alike? Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher.","last_synced_at":"2026-06-19T18:20:25.714319+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-ezra-klein-show-1371595"},"episode":{"title":"Does Trump Want to Lose the Midterms?","slug":"does-trump-want-to-lose-the-midterms","published_at":"2026-05-29T09:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-ezra-klein-show-1371595/does-trump-want-to-lose-the-midterms","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-ezra-klein-show-1371595","url":"https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/29/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-liam-donovan.html","audio_url":"https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/pdst.fm/e/pfx.vpixl.com/6qj4J/pscrb.fm/rss/p/nyt.simplecastaudio.com/3026b665-46df-4d18-98e9-d1ce16bbb1df/episodes/618e0c71-c0cb-4b91-9a4c-76ee0984cc68/audio/128/default.mp3?aid=rss_feed&awCollectionId=3026b665-46df-4d18-98e9-d1ce16bbb1df&awEpisodeId=618e0c71-c0cb-4b91-9a4c-76ee0984cc68&feed=82FI35Px","summary":"President Trump doesn’t seem to care that much about winning the midterms. He’s more unpopular at this point in his second term than basically any of his modern predecessors. Democrats seem poised to retake the House and have a real chance of retaking the Senate. You might expect a president in that position to pivot to the center, to focus on voters’ top concerns and try to boost the strongest Republicans in key races. Trump isn’t doing any of that. Instead, he announced a $1.8 billion slush fund to pay out “victims of lawfare,” he threatened to re-escalate the Iran war, and he intervened in Republican primaries in ways that are gifts to Democrats, like endorsing the scandal-plagued Ken Paxton over the incumbent, John Cornyn, in Texas’ Senate race. Why doesn’t Trump seem to care more about winning? Liam Donovan is a Republican strategist and a president at Targeted Victory, a Washington public affairs and digital marketing firm. He has worked on the National Republican Senatorial Committee and for Cornyn. In this conversation, we discuss the moves Trump is making, the rough political environment for Republicans and what the paths to Democratic victories look like. Mentioned: “Graham Platner Thinks a Political Revolution Is Coming” by The Interview Thomas Massie interview in The Washington Examiner Book Recommendations: The Right by Matthew Continetti Apple in China by Patrick McGee The Frackers by Gregory Zuckerman Thoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at ezrakleinshow@nytimes.com. You can find transcripts (posted midday) and more episodes of “The Ezra Klein Show” at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast, and you can find Ezra on Twitter @ezraklein. Book recommendations from all our guests are listed at https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs. This episode…","meta_description":"President Trump doesn’t seem to care that much about winning the midterms. He’s more unpopular at this point in his second term than basically any of his…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":4495,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-ezra-klein-show-1371595/episodes/does-trump-want-to-lose-the-midterms/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-ezra-klein-show-1371595/does-trump-want-to-lose-the-midterms.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}