Meacham Admits: Almost Everything We Predicted About Trump Since 2015 Was Wrong!

Morning Joe 8-27-26

We've been documenting the liberal media's penchant for man-in-the-street interviews that conveniently support the networks' political leanings [as here and here.] 

Morning Joe took that to an absurd extreme today, offering up exactly one MITS interview to support its notion that Trump supporters have tired of him. The man, described as a three-time Trump voter, says that he is now "very disappointed; I'm over the Trump thing." 

Margin of error on a one-man poll? 

But Morning Joe historian Jon Meacham then supplied a surprising dose of reality: 

"I think one caveat we should state up front is almost everything we predicted about Donald Trump since 2015 has proven to be wrong. There are a lot of folks who, at various points, have declared the phenomenon to be running out of gas. It's over. He's gone too far."

Willie Geist tried to have it both ways. On the one hand, he said, "I totally agree with Jon Meacham. There have been so many times along this road over the last decade where people say, this is the moment everything changes, right? The Republicans are turning on them, they're sick of them, they're fed up." 

But Willie went on to say that "the soundbite from the one man is true: people are annoyed by the chaos and all the nonsense . . . People are deeply unhappy with the economy. They're sick with what they see in the Iran war . . And Republicans will tell you this, not Democrats — that they'd be just as happy if Donald Trump stayed away from any of these races." 

He doesn't seem to consider that Trump voters might be unhappy about the economy or the war or the chaos, and still go out and vote Republican, because the Democrats are considered far worse. 

 

MS NOW White House correspondent Vaughan Hillyard saw it only one way.  Embracing the MITS picture of Trump losing Republican support, Hillyard accused Trump of misguided "hubris" for ordering a series of ads touting his achievements as a means of supporting GOP candidates.

The segment was Morning Joe in a nutshell. Cherry-picking one man in the street to depict Trump as losing Republican support. A poll read as confirmation. And despite the show's historian reminding them they have been wrongly declaring Trump over since 2015, they ran the package anyway. 

Note: For those wondering what was "poet laureate George W. Bush's assessment" of Trump's first inaugural address that Willie mentioned, it was "That was some weird s—." As for the t-shirt worn by the MITS, it read in full, "Suck Squeeze Bang Blow"—the four-stroke engine cycle. Gearheads, mechanics, and motorcycle/car people have worn versions of it for years—with the attendant double-entendre.

Here's the transcript. 

MS NOW 
Morning Joe 
8/27/26 
6:20 am EDT 

ALEX TABET: President Trump promised to bring down prices. You voted for him three times. Are you disappointed? 

SHANE FOOT: Very disappointed. Very disappointed. 

TABET: Why? 

FOOT: 'Cause the prices haven't gone down. I don't know. I don't know. I just, I'm over it, I think. Over the Trump thing. The Trump wagon, whatever you wanna call it. 

TABET: You could talk directly to the president about the war, about the prices, about the economy. What would you tell him? 

FOOT: Stop the bull----. Make America great, like you said. That's what I'd say [laughs.] 

MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Well, that was one Trump voter in Iowa, speaking with MS NOW's Alex Tabet. 

To that point, a new poll by Strength In Numbers and Verasight shows President Trump is underwater on every major issue heading into the midterms, even on border security. That was one of his strongest issues in the past. The poll finds Trump's net approval now at minus five. 

And yet, President Trump has come up with a simple plan to win the midterm elections. More Trump. That's according to new reporting from The Atlantic. The outlet reports the president gathered top political advisors in the Oval Office this month to discuss how to spend his super PAC's four hundred million dollars ahead of the midterms, before landing on the strategy of focusing on himself, ordering a series of television advertisements about his own record that will serve as a backdrop to the hundreds of individual House and Senate contests. 

Vaughn, I'll just start with your reporting, as you follow this, out in the field. The president seems to think that he can focus on himself. Let's not underestimate that, because they've got a lot of money to spend. 

VAUGHN HILLYARD: And the hubris of the President of the United States leads one to believe that he may actually believe that to be true, saying that if Republicans lose Senate and House races in November, it's not because of him, but it's because the country doesn't like the Republicans in Congress. 

This is the part of sort of the isolation of the president inside of the White House right now, and the extent to which he is hearing voices like that directly from Alex Tabet. 

. . . 

JON MEACHAM: I think one, one caveat we should state upfront is almost everything we've predicted about Donald Trump since 2015 has proven to be wrong. There are a lot of folks who at various points have declared the phenomenon to be running out of gas. It's over. He's gone too far. 

And here he is, as he himself said in the most honest thing from the inaugural address in the rotunda on that cold January day, "Can you believe this?" You know, which is sort of not a bad way to capture the era. 

We are a, such a closely divided country. These are de minimis margins that shift these elections, that we are once again going to be, I think, in more of a turnout battle. I would argue, and again, take it for what it's worth, this notion of this vast Democratic landslide coming feels to me to be premature, to say the least, if only because we don't live in an era of landslides when you step back from the country itself. 

These are incredibly close races in districts that are in fact competitive. A state like Texas is going to be, you know, for a Democrat to win there would be a remarkable thing. 

And President Trump, let's just be honest, has a remarkable capacity for political resurrection. Now, can he transfer that? That's the question you're asking. Don't know. But if you're Donald Trump, and you've gotten this far by being about Donald Trump, what in your life experience would suggest to you that you do something else? 

WILLIE GEIST: You also, Jon, could go back to the first inaugural, quoting the poet laureate George W. Bush's assessment of the first inaugural address from Donald Trump back in 2017. 

So, Mike Barnicle, I totally agree with Jon Meacham. There have been so many times along this road over the last decade where people say, "This is the moment everything changes, right? The Republicans are turning on them, they're sick of them, they're fed up." 

We hear the soundbite from the one man, which is true, people are annoyed by the chaos and all the nonsense, and they just wanted to get back to work and make prices lower. 

But people are deeply unhappy with the economy. He's way underwater among independents. We're now talking about statewide races, not primaries, for the Republican Party. They're sick with what they see in the Iran war. Why are we there? Why are these guys on these ships without food, military men and women? 

All of those things do add up to — and Republicans will tell you this, not Democrats — that they'd be just as happy if Donald Trump stayed away from any of these races.