Meet the Press NOW — June 4

You have a reason to care. You know someone. You've lost someone. You've lived it.

The darkest times are no match for what we can do together. Join us for the CAMH Sunrise Challenge. From May 25th to 29th, Canadians are waking up with the sun to raise funds for a future where everyone can access the mental health care they need the moment they need it. Get up with the sun.

Show up for CAMH and rise up for mental health. Register today at sunrisachallenge.ca. That's sunrisachallenge.ca. Drive off in a new Hyundai Elantra today with $0 down during the Hyundai Advantage Sales Event.

Take advantage of the $1,000 Spring Drive Bonus and lease the 2026 Elantra Essentials for just $73 weekly at 4.99% for 60 months. And you're covered by Elantra's best-in-class 5-year new car warranty. Now that's the Hyundai Advantage. Conditions apply.

Offer includes 1% loyalty rate reduction for qualifying customers. Visit HyundaiCanada.com or your local dealer for details. If it's Wednesday, Elon Musk further escalating his fight with the White House, now calling on Congress to, quote, kill the bill as President Trump is set to meet with key Republican senators in his latest push to get his signature bill across the finish line. Plus, hefty new tariffs on steel and aluminum imports are now in effect with more potentially on the way as President Trump lashes out at the Federal Reserve chair after some weaker-than-expected jobs data amid growing economic headwinds.

And President Trump says he spoke to Russia's President Putin for more than an hour today and that Russia will retaliate against Ukraine for its devastating and surprise drone attacks in the latest sign that this war is far from over. Welcome to Meet the Press. Now I'm Kristen Welker in New York and we are tracking a flurry of activity on Capitol Hill and at the White House as President Trump and Republican leadership try to keep their conference in line. After Elon Musk, one of the President's closest and most influential allies, called the President's signature bill a, quote, disgusting abomination that would balloon the deficit and called for the bill's supporters to be voted out of office.

Mr. Musk going even further this afternoon, posting, call your senator, call your congressman. Bankrupting America is not okay. Kill the bill.

We are expecting that this hour the President will meet with a key group of Senate Republicans at the White House about the way forward. And it comes after the entire Senate Republican conference huddled together this afternoon. Those meetings taking place on the heels of a new analysis by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office that backed up Musk's concerns, forecasting that the President's bill, which narrowly passed the House last week, would add $2.4 trillion to the national debt over the next decade. This morning, House Speaker Mike Johnson said he was caught off guard by Musk's criticisms, adding that that hasn't been able to get Musk on the phone to talk about it.

We left on a great note. We were texting one another, you know, happy texts, you know, Monday. And then yesterday, you know, 24 hours later, he does a 180 and he comes out and opposed the bill. I think he's flat wrong.

I think he's way off on this. And I told him as much and I've said it publicly and privately. I'm very consistent in that. I'd love to talk to him this week and hope he calls me back today.

I've talked to President Trump, you know, all the time, multiple times a day. Obviously, we've talked about this. As you know, he's not delighted that Elon did a 180 on that. Musk's comments left some right wing members of the House Republican conference in a really tough place with some members who voted yes on the package saying they agree with Musk's critiques.

Congressman, what do you make of Elon Musk criticizing the one big bill? Well, you know, I have to agree with him. Unfortunately, in the one big beautiful bill, we had to spend some money to right the ship and pass President Trump's campaign promises, which is border security. I'll write those checks all day long to Tom Homan.

So do I like the price tag of the bill? No, but I want to get off of the Biden and Democrat CR that this government is currently funding on. Now sources close to President Trump telling NBC News that he is not happy with Musk's posts. A source with knowledge of the Trump Musk relationship tells NBC News that the Tesla CEO may have taken issue with cuts to electric vehicle credits in the bill, while also potentially feeling upset with some recent White House personnel moves.

Let's go to Washington now with the very latest. NBC News senior White House correspondent Gabe Gutierrez is outside the White House and NBC News Capitol Hill correspondent Melanie Zanona is on Capitol Hill. So, Gabe, take me inside your conversations. I'm hearing that the president is beyond not happy, that he is furious, in fact, in part because Musk is basically threatening to primary people who support this bill.

What are you hearing? Certainly, Kristen. Look, according to senior White House official I just spoke with, the president was caught off guard by Elon Musk's social media post, but not entirely surprised, according to this official, because the president knew that Musk had opposed the bill. They had some disagreements about it.

So that was entirely surprising. And this official told me that the president on Friday during that soaring sendoff that the president gave Elon Musk on Friday. It was, this official said, because Trump was trying to be a nice guy. Now, it might be perhaps that he was trying to blunt some of that criticism.

And perhaps he knew some of it was coming. But it has been significant over the last several days, Kristen, as you have been reporting. What will be very interesting to see right now is how the president reacts to that latest post on social media, which you reference in your introduction, where Musk is specifically asking Americans to call their members of Congress and kill the bill. We have yet to hear from the president at this point, Kristen.

And by the way, that in and of itself is interesting. The president has not engaged on camera with reporters since Friday evening. This is the fifth day that he has not spoken on camera. As you know, Kristen, that is highly unusual.

It sure is. We will wait and watch to see if we hear any front thing from him today or if there are any more posts. Now, let me head over to you on Capitol Hill. What's the impact been of really this flurry of tweets on lawmakers, on senators who are trying to figure out if they're going to support this legislation?

Yeah, well, so far, Republicans publicly are downplaying the potential impact here from Elon Musk. Remember, a lot of the reason why Musk had such influence in the past with lawmakers is because they really viewed him as an extension of President Donald Trump. And in this case, they don't view him as an extension of Trump. They view him on opposite sides of the debate.

So when forced to choose between Donald Trump and Elon Musk, they're going to side with Donald Trump every single time. And even some Republicans who said they share some of Musk's concerns and complaints about the fiscal deficit adding, they said they don't think that Musk himself is going to be able to kill this bill. At the same time, though, Kristen, it has been very notable that Republicans have been super careful to not publicly criticize Musk, who still has this very powerful platform and megaphone and who also has a very hefty war chest. Just take a listen to some Republicans.

You want to talk about specific provisions in the bill and solutions for it? I mean, this is somebody who has got a lot of insight into the U.S. government over the last six months. Give us some productive feedback that we can operate on.

I can't operate on platitudes. He believes, in my judgment correctly, that we're quickly becoming debt slaves, that Congress needs to rearm the magical healing power of no. And I agree with him. Having said that, I'm not ready to throw in the towel on this bill.

And meanwhile, there does appear to be at least some level of concern or desire amongst the leadership to try to tamp down some of this public criticism. Earlier today, in a closed door meeting, Speaker Mike Johnson defended this bill against some of Musk's criticisms. And then he also said he's been trying to get a hold of Musk through calls and text messages over the past few days. But so far, at least last we heard from Johnson, the two have not connected, Kristen.

Well, Mel, you know, the Senate Republican conference, of course, happened today. What do you think, if anything, came out of that meeting? Well, the goal of this meeting was to try to get everyone on the same page and try to put some meat on the bones about what this Senate package is going to look like. And I'm told from sources in the room that some of the committees with the least controversial pieces of this package started presenting what their draft legislative language is going to look like.

But the committee that has the most controversial piece of the bill is the Senate Finance Committee because that has jurisdiction over not only taxes, but also over Medicaid. And it's that committee that is actually I'm currently told on boarding buses outside Capitol Hill and on their way to the White House to have a meeting there because this committee is going to be key to the Republican efforts to getting this through the Senate. And on that committee, there's actually a really wide range of views from moderates who are concerned about Medicaid cuts to some more fiscal hawks who want to see even deeper spending cuts. So they need to resolve those issues there within that committee before they can really move forward.

Well, Mel, you set me up beautifully for my next question to Gabe. Gabe, give us a little preview of what you anticipate the president's messaging is going Overwhelmingly, they support President Trump. President Trump had a great majority of people in my district support and vote for him. This is his big, beautiful bill.

This is the Trump agenda. It's the America First agenda and it's the agenda that I'm supporting. So I think people back home understand how important this is and I'm hopeful that Elon and whoever else may doubt this will watch this play out and know that this is just the beginning. Well, and again, as you know, the crux of his criticism is about the national debt, that it doesn't do enough to cut the deficit.

And I want to play what you told Yahoo Finance last month and I'll get your reaction on the other side. I'll tell you what, we're $36 trillion in debt on our way to $37 trillion in debt. And this is a national security issue. So we do have to cut spending.

I think as a Republican conference, we have been talking about this for the last five years. So what do we need to do? How are we going to get there? Look, you called the national debt a national security issue.

But again, you voted for this package. And just to reiterate, the CBO is saying it will grow the debt by more than $2 trillion. So how do you square that, Congressman? How do you square supporting that legislation?

Exactly what I've been saying. Unleashing America's economy, growth, growth, growth, plus spending cuts. You've got to have both. And I know what wouldn't grow the economy is allowing taxes to go up 25% on Americans, on Nebraskans, on people living from coast to coast in Hawaii and Alaska.

That would be a job killer. That would be a dream killer. That would be terrible. So we saw it in 2017 and the economy was booming.

COVID hit. Obviously, a major disruptor. It took us a while to get there. And then the Biden administration comes in and spends literally billions of dollars on the IRA.

So we're putting all that back together. We are going a good direction. And when you look at our discretionary spending cuts that are going to get teed up, you look at our $1.6 trillion mandatory spending cuts, I haven't seen a Congress, I don't know if you have or anybody has in a generation that's done anything like this. $1.6 trillion in spending cuts.

That's real. And that is also impactful. We've also, there are some estimates that the actual spending cuts would be a fraction of that. But let me ask you about something that you said at a town hall in May.

You actually said that you hadn't read the full bill when someone was asking you why you voted in favor of a provision that would basically make it harder for judges to enforce orders holding parties before them in contempt for defying court orders. If you had known that provision was in the bill, would you have voted no, Congressman? Well, listen, I'm going to support the one big beautiful bill because it's good for America. I do not agree with that provision.

And yes, I did read the bill. I read summaries of a lot of the different committees that I'm not on on the bill. And I'll tell you, I support our court system. I want a federal district court to issue an injunction that has teeth.

I support that process. I support the rule of law. And I'm going to steadfastly advocate that we protect the three co-equal branches of government. And I will tell you, I'm the only Republican that has flagged it.

And I know that my counterparts in the Senate are taking it very seriously. I doubt it survives the bird review that happens over in the Senate. And I'm certainly advocating that I do not think that should be in the final bill. You know, I've been a legislator for 13 years.

I see bills go through the process all the time. And this is what you do. You move a piece on first round. It gets dealt with on the second round.

It comes back to the House. This is something I feel strongly about. And I have communicated that to the people in my conference. I also know that we have to pass the one big beautiful bill.

We have to deliver tax cuts. We have to cut spending. I think we will get all of this done. And I'm confident that that provision will hopefully not be in that bill.

Congressman, just to be very clear, should you have read the bill more closely? You're saying you did read it. And if you had, would you have said, look, I'm a no on this first version? We have to make some changes here before you get to yes.

Well, that's here's what I did do on the bill. With things that I saw that were in the bill, I went to the committee chairman of the committee of jurisdiction. And I said, hey, I have an issue with this. Or this is how this would affect Nebraska hospitals.

I would have done that with the chairman of the Judiciary Committee. I would have done that at the whip meeting. I would have done that at any chance I had the opportunity. Because ultimately, we want something that we can all agree on.

I am very hopeful that this gets addressed in the Senate. And if it remains in the bill, it comes over here. I'll deal with it at that time. And might I add, I didn't see any mainstream media or not one judge or anybody identifying this before this provision was ever passed by the House.

And that happens from time to time. And you deal with it. That's why we have a process. We don't do things overnight.

This isn't a drive thru. You don't drive around and get your value meal and go and go eat it. You actually send it to the Senate. They deal with it.

They send it back. I mean, I'm confident we'll deal with this. And I want to stress to you that I am a Republican that believes in the rule of law. I believe that it is important that federal district court decisions have the ability to have teeth because we relied on that during the Biden administration to stop a lot of really bad things that he was trying to do to America.

Coming up, we're following multiple major developments impacting the economy with new tariffs now in effect on steel and aluminum imports. And President Trump airing his frustrations with China and its leaders over the state of trade talks. Plus, President Trump speaks to Russian President Putin on the phone for more than an hour. What Putin said about that devastating Ukrainian attack on Russian aircraft and more takeaways from the rare wide ranging conversation.

That's when we come back. You're watching The Press Now. It's here. The Ford is a big deal.

Not yet. The Ford is a big deal. Oh, guys, just wait. The Ford is a big deal event is on.

Really? Now. Hurry until these 2026 Maverick XLT hybrid all wheel drive for $197 biweekly at 5.29% APR for 60 months with $2,995 down. That's like $99 a week.

The Ford is a big deal event. Visit your Ontario Ford store or Ford.ca. Welcome back. In what appears to be another setback for any hopes of a ceasefire in the war in Ukraine, today, President Trump used his social media account to share that he had spoken to Russian President Putin for more than an hour, describing the conversation as, quote, good, but not a conversation that will lead to immediate peace.

According to Mr. Trump, Putin said that Russia will have to respond to Ukraine's recent drone strikes on Russian airfields. Today's conversation comes after President Trump lashed out at President Putin multiple times in recent days, including saying that Putin has, quote, gone absolutely crazy for launching multiple deadly drone and missile attacks on Ukraine. NBC News White House correspondent Yamiche Alcindor joins me now.

So Yamiche, break this down. What, if any reaction or readout are we expecting from President Trump's call from Putin? Well, Kristen, it's become an interesting thing where President Trump is essentially writing his own readouts online. Before we used to get these official readouts from the White House, but really we know most of what the president is saying to world leaders because of what he posts online.

So what we know is he said that this is a good conversation, that Russia is also at some point going to strike back, he said, against Ukraine because of his latest attacks on Russia. But he also said that this isn't going to lead to immediate peace, this conversation that he had with President Putin. And I think it's important to continually remind people that President Trump said he could end this war on day one. He's since then said that he was joking and that this is going to take longer and it's harder to deal with.

But what's interesting here is that the president is essentially saying there is some progress being made. That being said, it's unclear to me and to most people that are talking about this and experts on this war now whether or not this continued conversation is actually going to lead to peace in Ukraine, Kristen. Well, and just following up on that point, that had been a key campaign promise for Mr. Trump that he could effectively end the war in Ukraine in 24 hours.

And that has proven more difficult than he anticipated. What are your sources saying within the White House about the state of mind of the president and where he sees things going from here? What's really interesting when I talk to White House officials, they essentially are saying that he's really trying to understand the frame of mind of President Putin. Just last week, he was calling President Putin, quote, absolutely crazy, saying that he was going after people and needlessly killing Ukrainians up, that he needed to change and he didn't really understand what was going on with Putin.

Now, of course, today we have a complete change of tone where he's saying they have a good conversation. Then you have the Kremlin. Last week, they were saying that President Trump was suffering from what they called, quote, emotional My NBC News colleagues are reporting on a sweeping new ICE operation that is so large that it's reshaping federal law enforcement. Three sources familiar with the immigration crackdown tell NBC News that the effort dubbed Operation at Large includes more than 5,000 personnel from multiple federal law enforcement agencies, including DHS, the FBI, the U.S.

Marshals Service, the DEA, and even the IRS. That's in addition to Customs and Border Protection. The Department of Homeland Security has also requested the use of 21,000 National Guard members, but that has yet to be approved. NBC News senior Homeland Security correspondent Julia Ainsley helped to break that story.

Now she joins me. Julia, congratulations on the great report. Thank you for being here. So let's delve into this.

What is Operation at Large and how did it really come about here? Kristen, I can even update us even further based on information we've seen today, just since our report published. But what we initially found out was that there were 5,000 people taken from DOJ, that includes the FBI, ATF, and DEA, as well as the IRS, CBP, and you mentioned the National Guard that that has yet to be approved, to try to create the largest force ever created to go out and help ICE make mass arrests. This follows those tense meetings from Stephen Miller and ICE leadership where he threatened to start firing people if they didn't start arresting 3,000 immigrants per day.

And based on what my producer, Dee Dee Martinez, is now seeing in downtown Manhattan today, she's been able to watch as many, and she says over a dozen immigrants have reported for ICE check-ins and have been arrested by people who don't appear to necessarily be ICE agents. They're not wearing uniforms. And when they get into these cars, it simply says federal law enforcement. That could be Operation at Large now in play.

Based on what we understand, this started to get going last Monday on May 26th. They've been ramping up. And now it's a big part of why we're seeing immigration arrests balloon just this week. And we're hearing that from immigration attorneys nationwide as well.

And that what they're seeing is that they aren't just going after criminals, the worst of the worst, as Tom Homan often talks about, that really we're seeing a lot more arrests of non-criminal immigrants, some people who even have pending asylum applications. And again, it's not always clear who's doing the arrest. Okay, given all of those questions that you just outlined, Julia, talk about the legal challenges that the administration is raising here. Well, there could be a number of legal challenges.

Of course, you could say that some of these people should have pending immigration cases and they should be released and that they shouldn't be detained. You can see some habeas petitions in those cases or some petitions if they are about to be deported. But in terms of using federal law enforcement to make those arrests, in many cases, they're allowed to do that. If they have the authority under the U.S.

criminal code to make arrests, they're allowed to do that. All right, Julia Ainsley, thank you so very much and congrats again on the great report. Really appreciate it. After the break, Democrats in Congress looks to counter President Trump's so-called big beautiful bill in response to Elon Musk's criticism.

My one-on-one interview with a top Senate Democrat is next. You're watching Meet the Press Now. How does Musk's opposition change your approach to fighting this? Well, Musk's opposition shows how bad, if even Elon Musk, who's been part of the whole process and is Trump's buddy, says the bill is bad, you can imagine how bad this bill is.

Welcome back. That was Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer saying he agrees with Elon Musk and his opposition to President Trump's, quote, big beautiful bill. Schumer is one of the many Democrats who are seizing on Musk's comments, calling the bill a, quote, disgusting abomination. Joining me now is Democratic Senator from Oregon, Jeff Merkley.

Senator Merkley, thanks so much for joining me. Really appreciate it. You're welcome. Good to be with you.

Well, it's great to have you here on what I know is going to be a very busy week for all of you. You posted on X that you agree with Elon Musk. So, Senator, what's the strategy now beyond agreeing with Elon Musk? What are your next steps here?

Well, it is an abomination. Well, not for all the reasons that I would share with Musk, but one of the concerns is certainly debt. And it's debt being run up to fund tax breaks for the very richest Americans. And so that part we can agree on.

That's a huge mistake. But it also cuts some now with the new estimates, some 16 million Americans will lose health care to fund tax breaks for billionaires. Four million children will go hungry to fund tax breaks for billionaires. I mean, that's incredible.

This is families lose and billionaires win. Why would anyone want to vote for that bill? Well, so Musk, it's based on all of my reporting. One of the things that he's most opposed to is the fact that there is no EV mandate.

And obviously, that would help his company of Tesla. Given the fact that his opposition, at least in part, is due to his personal business, does that align with your opposition? And does it complicate your opposition, Senator? Well, you know, I've heard him talk about the debt.

I hadn't heard him talk about the EV mandate. But I must say in a broader sense, what is being eliminated from in this bill are the tax credits that support renewable energy. And so we have actually, even without the tax credits, renewable energy is less expensive and obviously cleaner than fossils. But what this bill does is says, let's get rid of the clean, cheaper energy and replace it with dirty, more expensive energy.

And to the sense that that lines up with support for electric vehicles, I think we're in agreement. Well, let me ask you about something else that Elon Musk posted on X. This was last night. He wrote in November next year, we fire all politicians who betrayed the American people.

I can tell you, I've been talking to sources close to the White House. They are concerned that that's a betrayal. They believe that means that he could potentially be considering supporting Democratic candidates over Republicans who vote for this bill. Should Democrats take Elon Musk's money?

Well, you know, I'm not I don't take any corporate money. And I'm certainly not going to take Elon Musk's. He's been so closely associated with such devastation. Just the fact that he illegally and unconstitutionally dismantled agencies and impounded funds and is a level alone enough reason to to say no.

No, thank you, Elon. Why don't you donate that those funds to charity and do some good things in the world with your with your money? So, Senator, just to be very clear, is that your message to your fellow Democratic senators that they should say no? Thank you.

If Elon Musk were to offer the money. I'll let them reach their own decisions on that. But my message is that dark money and this is what the Citizens United court decision has done is completely corrupting our political system. When the crypto world can put $40 million into a Senate race, as they did in Ohio, or $20 million into some other races.

And the ordinary citizen, one, has to act publicly and has limits. What we're seeing is big business is basically buying government by and for big business. I believe in government by and for the people. So we need some fundamental reforms when it comes to money and politics.

Let me ask you about crypto, the genius act that would basically regulate crypto, specifically your amendment that would basically prohibit the president and other officials from profiting off of stable coins. What do you say to people who think you only introduced this legislation now because there's a Republican in the White House? I would say take a look at the fact that I've introduced a stock trading bill going back now 12 years that we shouldn't be engaged in owning assets that are defined with very large political or legislative issues. Own a diversified stock fund.

But in this case, there's even more involved here. And that is the fact that if any elected officials is offering a, say, a meme coin for sale, a meme coin is like a digital baseball card. They're basically saying, look, you give me your money and I will give you an email with a picture of a coin on it. It's just an open invitation to give me money openly, but be quiet because you want access and influence.

It's government for sale. It's the same situation with the Trump family. It's a different type of crypto coins. One used in international transactions.

It's called a stable coin. But the Trump family gets to keep all of the profits from investing that money, including all the profits from investing the $2 billion from the company associated with the United Arab Emirates. It's absolute corruption. UAE wanted something.

They wanted AI chips. Essentially, when Trump went to the Middle East, he said, we'll give you AI chips. And so this is open corruption. It has to end.

Let me ask you broadly speaking about the Democratic Party. I want to put up something that Senator Bernie Sanders said in an interview with The Guardian. He said, quote, their weaknesses. I think that their credibility is now quite low and they don't have much of a message for working people other than to say Trump is dangerous.

I think that's just not enough. Of course, that's from Senator Sanders, who's an independent who caucuses with the Democrats. Do you agree with Senator Bernie Sanders? I do agree with Bernie Sanders.

For example, the dream of homeownership is dying. We need to be saying, no, we're going to restore it. And here's how we're going to restore it. We're going to get the hedge funds out of this business.

And here's another factor. We pay more for drugs than any people in I'm not going to vote for it now, but where does that leave me? Where does that leave me? Where does that leave Democrats, Basil?

Here's a little bit of what we're hearing from Democrats speaking of up being down. Take a listen. I hear something happened while we were at lunch, which led me to make some news here today and say something I didn't think was imaginable. I agree with Elon Musk.

Breaking news, Elon Musk and I agree with each other. Basil, well, at least they're on the same page in their messaging. Well, the other point is this is stranger things upside down world. Can't make sense of it.

And to the extent that Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries agree with Elon Musk in that statement, it should stop there. We joke about this, but we have to remember all the damage that he did. And going into a conference, what was it, CPAC, with a buzzsaw, a chainsaw, making light of the jobs that he cut. This is something that Democrats should be running on.

They should not take his money, and they should press ahead and say that, you know, and continue to tie Elon Musk to Donald Trump and his policies. Don't let up off the gas. Senator Jeff Merkley, you just heard, said his message to his Democratic colleagues is absolutely don't take the money. Do you think that if that were to come to pass, a number of Democrats would actually adhere to that?

If you wonder why some people don't like the Democratic Party and have issues with them, it's because you can't be on one side today and the other side tomorrow. And if you're trying to mobilize voters against Donald Trump and Elon Musk and the things that they've done, stand up for veterans, stand up for all these folks who were laid off, stand up for the people who do research that had their money pulled. You can't then go back and say, hey, we love this guy. That's why voters don't like it.

It's the hypocrisy. So yeah, I would stay away from it. Well, Ali, just, you know, Capitol Hill. You've covered Capitol Hill.

Now the really tough negotiations and discussions begin. We know the Senate Finance Committee members are going to meet with President Trump at the White House. I'm told he is going to be very involved. He's already working the phones trying to get senators on his side because before Elon Musk started tweeting, you had a number of senators coming out and saying this adds to the deficit.

And oh, by the way, it's also going to cut Medicaid. And I'm not sure that Trump being apprised and involved at every stage of this is actually going to be helpful because he's been known to throw some wrenches into the process late in the game. And we are late in the game. I mean, I know we're only technically at halftime because the House has done its work and now it's the Senate's turn.

But the more changes that get made, the harder it is to kick it back to the House side and keep the margins as they were, which is to say hurting the cats in the direction towards victory. Johnson was able to do it once, but there is concern there, especially when you've got people like Marjorie Taylor Greene saying, oh, wait, I'm learning about new provisions because apparently you can't speed read a 1200 page bill. I actually tried. I'm sure you tried to read those.

But no, pick up on that point because we have seen Trump come in at the 11th hour and help Johnson get a range of different things over the finish line. Does this moment feel different to you? No, not really, unfortunately. So what do you think this gets passed ultimately?

I think it has to pass. That's the whole strategy with the big beautiful bill, as it were. It is literally too big to fail. And I don't think this president would be able to, the Republicans in general, wouldn't be able to run if the tax cuts expire and they were to come back to the constituents and say we raised taxes on everybody.

Sorry, we had one job and we failed. One thing I will say about Elon Musk, we've been dumping all over him, but he did something extraordinary. He went to Washington and said, I'm going to cut spending. And then he cut spending.

He cut spending by less than he said. By much less than he said, to a degree that I don't think you could call it very much a spending cut. But the initiative was there and it succeeded on those terms and those terms narrowly. He's right to be frustrated with this bill.

Conservatives should be frustrated with this bill. But Donald Trump has never been a tax cutter. He's never been a spending cutter. And he's going to get very nervous if people start telling him, listen, we're going to cut Medicare, which is where most of the savings come from.

People are going to lash out at Republicans in 2026 because of it. All right. Let's talk about the Democrats now, Basil. We learned today that former President Biden's former press secretary, Corrine Jean-Pierre, says she's now an independent.

It's a striking move because she was literally the spokesperson for the Democrats. What do you make of this announcement, not just in terms of what it says for Corrine, but what does it say about the state of the Democratic Party right now? Well, as I say, I've known Corrine for 20 years. You know, she probably had a really tough year.

Last year was a really hard year for us for a lot of reasons, not just the losing, but it was also that you had high level people in the party do something that I've never seen before. Find a way to unseat the sitting president of the city president of the United States who happens to be of your party. I've never seen that before. And so I do think there's a lot of introspection going on within the Democratic Party.

You know, a lot of young voters aren't registering as Democrats. They're registering as independents. So there's a branding problem. There's not just a branding problem.

There's a messaging problem. What do Democrats stand for? And by the way, where is the Democratic plan for 2028 or whatever the case is? Where is the Democratic version of Project 2025?

I think that's what folks are calling out for. And maybe it takes stepping away from it to be able to offer something like that. Ali, it's part of what independent Senator Bernie Sanders is saying when he spoke to The Guardian, which is that Democrats do not have a message or strategy. And we only have about 20 seconds left.

Well, I'm not going to solve the problems in that time. All I'll say is that I think that this is a bug, not a feature for Democrats. They've got bigger problems to solve for them, keeping the former press secretary in the party, though my text messages have been linked. We'd like to read those text messages.

Great conversation, Ali, Basil, and Noah. Thank you all. Thank you for watching. We're back tomorrow with more Meet the Press Now.

But the news continues with my friend Hallie Jackson right now. Hey everyone, I'm Dylan Dreyer, co-host of the third hour of Today and mom to three wild boys. I've learned a lot in my years as a parent, mostly that I don't have it all figured out yet. And I'm not the only one.

This is my new podcast, The Parent Chat. Each week I sit down with someone new for honest conversation and real world advice about parenting. I'm over here just like winging it. Okay, I'm trying not to screw my own kids up.

I'm not giving you advice on how not to screw yours up. Search The Parent Chat on YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts.