The Coffee Klatch with Robert Reich

Friends, Today, Heather, Michael, and I do a deep dive into the cruel incompetence of the Trump regime — how Trump is hurting millions of people for no reason, whether he’s doing it because of cruelty or incompetence, and what all of us can do about it between now and the 2026 midterm elections (including not calling him “President,” because he considers himself president of only the people who voted for him). Please pull up a chair, grab a cuppa, take our poll, and join in the discussion. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit robertreich.substack.com/subscribe [https://robertreich.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]

Friends, Happy Fourth of July weekend. Today Heather and I examine Trump’s newly enacted Big Ugly Bill — its record-breaking redistribution of income upward, its budget-busting deficits, and its creation of an anti-immigrant police state. And we explore whether there’s anything positive that could possibly come of this. Please pull up a chair, grab a cuppa, take our poll, and join the conversation. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit robertreich.substack.com/subscribe [https://robertreich.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]

Friends, Today, Heather and I come to you from Central Park in New York City, where we assess the remarkable upset victory of 33-year-old Zohran Mamdani, a self-described democratic socialist, over former New York governor Andrew Cuomo, in the race for New York City mayor [https://apnews.com/article/andrew-cuomo-zohran-mamdani-new-york-mayor-0d39764944e7e55a7e26a988d4136a86]. We also take a look at the bind Trump and his lackeys have gotten themselves into — with an attack on Iran that the Defense Intelligence Agency says sets back Iran’s nuclear program by only three months and that didn’t touch Iran’s stockpile of uranium, with a mammoth (“big beautiful”) budget bill that the Senate parliamentarian has shredded, and tariffs that are already hiking prices for American consumers. Wasn’t Trump elected to keep America out of foreign entanglements and to keep prices down? Please grab a cuppa, pull up a chair, take our poll, and join the discussion. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit robertreich.substack.com/subscribe [https://robertreich.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]

Friends, Today Heather and I look at the war in Iran through the lens of Donald Trump’s insatiable need to expand and display his power. How can he even consider getting America into this war without consulting Congress? Doesn’t doing so also violate his promise to the American people in the 2024 election that he would avoid foreign entanglements? And who is advising him, now that half of the professionals on the National Security Council have been fired and neither Tulsi Gabbard (who’s supposed to be the intelligence czar) nor Pete Hegseth (at least formally the secretary of defense) is involved in Trump’s decision-making? We’ll get to these and other questions. Please pull up a chair, grab a cuppa, take our poll, and join the discussion. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit robertreich.substack.com/subscribe [https://robertreich.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]

Friends, That any of us have to care about the messy breakup of these two malignant narcissists — and that they both individually wield such massive power — is an indictment of our political system and further proves the poisonous influence of Big Money on our democracy. That’s today’s Coffee Klatch theme. Please pull up a chair, grab a cuppa, take our survey, and join the conversation. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit robertreich.substack.com/subscribe [https://robertreich.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]