Is Big Gretch Cooked?

Plus: My Podcast Presidency Prediction with Larry Wilmore

Is this the end of Gretchen Whitmer? Sure, she narrowly avoided being kidnapped and abused, but on Wednesday she fell victim to a ransacking by President Trump in the Oval Office. Whitmer—who is supposed to be a savvy politician, except for maybe that Doritos-communion moment—agreed to go to the White House and take a meeting with Trump amid the tariff showdown. This placed her in front of the press yesterday with Trump, who called her an “excellent governor.” The photos are incredible. Whitmer looked unbelievably small as she tried to back into the wall of the Oval Office like Homer Simpson backing into the bushes. Her spokesperson said she was “surprised” that she was pulled into the West Wing.

H/t CNN’s Kit Maher

“She was brought into the Oval Office during President Trump’s press conference without any notice of the subject matter,” a spokesperson for Whitmer said. “Her presence is not an endorsement of the actions taken or statements made at that event.”

So should I slash Whitmer from my growing list of 2028 candidates? She does look like a TV president, as Andrew Yang so aptly pointed out on his podcast that I joined last week. And President Obama was ready to back her over Kamala Harris in a mini-primary when Joe Biden dropped out of the race, according to the new book by Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes. This morning, I received a call from John McCain’s former campaign manager Steve Schmidt who said, “the 2028 Democrats have a version of The Virgin Suicides going on.” Not only is Whitmer cavorting with Trump, but Gavin Newsom decided to book Charlie Kirk and Steve Bannon on his podcast. Then Tim Walz found himself bobbing and weaving when Jake Tapper asked a simple question: should the party admit that Biden wasn’t up to running and that they made a mistake by letting him run again. Walz, of course, said it was Biden’s decision to run and pivoted. “The question wasn’t about Joe Biden,” Schmidt pointed out. “It was about whether Tim Walz would tell the truth about Joe Biden or if he’s afraid of the phantom out there.”

The Podcast President? If reality TV ushered in the age of Trump, then the podcast revolution will bring about the Influencer President. Perhaps Newsom is onto something. By following in the footsteps of Steve Bannon, Ted Cruz, Stephen A. Smith, and Joe Rogan, he can effectively start campaigning now through the microphone. This past election, Trump rode the podcast wave back into the White House through appearances on Rogan and Theo Von’s show. I made this prediction last week on Larry Wilmore’s show, my fellow Ringer host and co-creator of The Bernie Mac show, executive producer of Black-ish, and co-creator of HBO’s Insecure, and you can hold me to it. If you can build an audience, it’s valuable because the Federal Election Commission’s political broadcasting rules about equal time for candidates don’t apply to podcasts, only to broadcast airwaves, like TV. Candidates often have to quit their TV jobs to run for office, but a podcast with a large audience can arguably be more influential than a television show because the hosts are able to build a stronger connection with the listener through the intimacy of being in the ear.

Trump 1.0 v. 2.0: Wilmore was absolutely perplexed over Trump’s decision to launch America into a full on trade war. I explained to him what so many of my colleagues who cover Trump closely are seeing: he’s become more brazen this time around because