Let me move to another mess.

This Max Miller mess, congressman.

I mean, everybody's familiar with this sad drama that's going on.

Very sad for an ex-wife, very sad for a child, obviously.

Um, the story won't go away, Carl, in part because he won't go away.

And what I'm trying to understand is when does the speaker of the house say, you know what, this is not we're we're in enough trouble already leading up to the midterms.

We don't need this kind of doesn't it doesn't seem like Speaker Johnson is going to do that as a very very small majority and doesn't want to give away any seats.

Uh I have said that past speakers would have uh Republican speakers would have totally eased him out by now.

I mean it is sort of ugly and sad.

Uh but he seems to want to stick it out.

And I will tell you another midterm issue.

This sticks to Republicans.

These kind of things.

There was another uh sexual related scandal involving another congressman from North Carolina who's decided not to run.

I mean, this is just part of the image that they're going into the midterms with.

It's like who's who's in control of the place and what's going on with these people?

I mean, it's a bipartisan issue.

You had Suwell obviously forced out of the governor's race.

You had the Platner forced out of the Yeah, but but you just you just used forced out.

Yeah.

And and now we've had we have three Republicans that we know of uh facing allegations like this.

One has dropped out.

Two Yeah.

I I'm not arguing that Democrats have better sexual morals in Congress than Republicans.

I don't even want to get into I don't even want to think those words anymore.

Actually, I want to move on.

Uh I I'm just saying that that there's a there's a pattern of the Democrats pushing the people out and the Republicans not pushing.

It kind of goes to the Trumpian uh never seed ground.

Yeah.

There's a playbook here that's been established in this Trump era, right?

And that's to never seed ground to keep fighting.

I mean, I think it's interesting that when the president did have a call with Max Miller this past week, he did not call he did not demand or ask him to step out of the race.

The reporting shows and Max Miller says that he in response to the president who did say you're going to this is going to be challenging.

You're facing a tough race.

Max Miller responded by saying, "I'm I'm I'm almost motivated by how you responded to the Access Hollywood scandal."

Right.

There is a playbook here that has been established, and Max Miller seems to be following it.

Could Max Miller plausibly win his seat in real He's got a tough uh opponent.

I think it a strongly Republican seat when he could lose.

I think, you know, if the if the president's popularity uh stays down where it is right now, uh and these allegations are horrific.

I mean, and and look, he denies them all.

It's the 2-year-old daughter, two two-y old daughter.

There's also a pattern of other women, including Stephanie Gisham, a former Trump administration official, saying, I mean, going back to when he was in high school and he allegedly threw a woman down a stairwell.

Again, denied it all.

Uh but but this a long series of allegations going back many years with the guy and his own former father-in-law basically says, you know, he's a psycho and Republican senator and Republican senator.

You know, I think that the regardless of what happens with Max Miller, the the sad thing is that this is going to deepen the perception that many Americans have of politicians as deeply corrupt, as immoral, and here we are right before the midterms.

What impact will this have on people?

You know, will they go out and vote?

Washington doesn't generally look great these days.

I mean, and for the president in particular, I want to bring this up because like he's having trouble, real trouble getting his attorney general nominee through.

we might very well get him through as we're live on television right now.

Uh but he's dealing with low approval ratings, a weakening economy, the oil prices, the endless Iran sit seemingly endless Iran situation and so on.

He spends a lot a lot of time arguing about the reflecting pool and design and renovation issues around the White House and and the National Mall.

What is the strategy or let me rephrase that.

Is there a strategy in the White House to lift the Republican brand in the months preceding?

It's so interesting you say that because I remember uh I'm on my way to Davos to cover the president's trip.

Just said those words.

He's Well, well, he was getting backlash too from his American first faction.

And I remember Susie Wilds came out and said, "Don't worry.

The president's going to be traveling every week and talking about the package that he just passed and talking about policies that relate to the American people.

We have not seen the president traveling every week since then.

We have seen more often him talking about the reflecting pool and the ballroom.

Out of all of the challenges that you just listed, by the way, and the setbacks that he's facing, I would say one that probably sticks out to him is the courts also coming out against the ballroom construction today as well.

Right.

We just saw that.

and even the fact that that would command so much attention of him.

We're talking about a break between the voters that Republicans are looking to build support with and the president and his attention and his priorities.

It's so frustrating to the Republicans on Capitol Hill that they keep trying to talk about their tax package and he doesn't not only want to talk about that, but he talks about how they're not doing what he wants to do.

So, it's even creating a tougher problem.

Go ahead.

Well, he he he told uh Punch Bowl News J Jake Jake Sherman today uh that um voters are angry at Republicans.

Voters are angry at Republicans.

They're not angry at me.

They love me.

They're angry at Republicans.

Uh so, I mean, this is the world he's living in.

Look, when a court when when the DC Circuit Court of Appeals uh puts a a a stop to the ballroom construction above ground uh but they they gave a twoe uh period for him to appeal it to the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court will probably bail him out of this.

Trust me, I think at this point he cares as much about that ballroom getting constructed as just about anything else on the agenda.

Just to uh connect these points about Trump's vulnerability going back to the Iran war and the munitions.

Think one of the reasons this munitions question is so urgent is that there's a particular uh vulnerability or sensitivity around the defensive munitions and the casualties that the US military has taken in the Middle East.

20 US troops killed in action so far and the possibility for that number increasing between now and November I think is a is a real political issue that the White House has to deal with.

I mean, one could argue that with all of these challenges, the very last thing a president of United States should be worried about is interior decorating or painting the EEOB white or fixing the reflecting pool.

But your colleague Maggie Haberman said the other day that she thinks 70% of his brain space is occupied by that certainly rings true to me and I've seen it just in my own conversations with him over over the past year.

My question to you and um we're we're coming to the end of this conversation unfortunately.

My my my question to you is the next two years of Trump, is he going to become more like Trump the developer, Trump the builder, as he loses control of other aspects of policy?

And and let me slightly tweak the question.

If Democrats take control of the Congress, what does Trump's behavior look like in those final two years?

And there are I have talked to two people close to the president who think that on some level he actually doesn't care and actually prefers the Democrats to win control of the house because what does that become?

That becomes Trump is the center of every story.

It's Trump versus the Democrats.

They're coming after him every possible way.

The drama between his first meetings with Schumer and Hakee Jeff and all.

And whereas if the Republicans hang on barely, it's like what we're talking about, who's going to be the So, so there's more opportunity for dramatic martyr dramatic and and and also just being the center of it all.

But I think that he sees legacy as hugely important at this point in his presidency.

And one of the key measures of that legacy is how he changes that building behind you and Washington DC.

So I think he's going to, as he told me once, what do you think, John?

Am I a better politician or a better builder?

I think maybe I'm a better builder.

Well, there you go.

I'm glad we can land on that very, very odd note.

I It is It is quite astonishing many aspects of this conversation.

Unfortunately, that's all the time we have for the conversation tonight.

I do want to thank our guests for joining me.

I want to thank you at home for watching us.

For more on how the munitions shortage have created a crisis for the US, please read Nancy Ysef and John Lemir's story on the atlantic.com.