Latest / The Kinzinger Report / Rescue Mission | Trump Spends Final Month Defending Red States As Approval Hits 30 Percent — October 1, 2026

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Rescue Mission | Trump Spends Final Month Defending Red States As Approval Hits 30 Percent — October 1, 2026 · The Kinzinger Report

• 0:05
  [SPEAKER_02]: I'm Adam Kinzinger, and you're listening to the Kinzinger Report, where I bring you top stories and analysis on current events and the growing threats to our democracy.
• 0:15
  [SPEAKER_02]: After serving over a decade in Congress, I hope you know what's true and what really matters so that we can all work to save this country that we love so much.
• 0:29
  [SPEAKER_02]: Everybody, thanks for being here.
• 0:30
  [SPEAKER_02]: I'm in Blooming to Illinois for today, and possibly tomorrow.
• 0:34
  [SPEAKER_02]: Uh, so a little bit of a different setup, and we thank for paying attention.
• 0:40
  [SPEAKER_02]: Uh, if you're in the area tonight, we're doing a screening of the last Republican at the Braden auditorium, uh, Illinois State University, so we'd love to see him hosted by WGLT.
• 0:50
  [SPEAKER_02]: Okay, top story today, Trump is on the road for what the White House is calling a 32 day campaign blitz.
• 0:56
  [SPEAKER_02]: He's in Texas in Oklahoma today.
• 0:59
  [SPEAKER_02]: J.D.
• 0:59
  [SPEAKER_02]: Vance is in Florida.
• 1:00
  [SPEAKER_02]: These are not swing states, everybody.
• 1:02
  [SPEAKER_02]: These are some of the redest states in the country, but he's spending the final month there because that's where his party is in trouble.
• 1:09
  [SPEAKER_02]: In this morning, a new A.P.
• 1:11
  [SPEAKER_02]: poll poll, that's the word, explains why.
• 1:15
  [SPEAKER_02]: Two-thirds of the country blames Trump's policies for higher prices.
• 1:19
  [SPEAKER_02]: his approval on the economy just hit a new low.
• 1:22
  [SPEAKER_02]: So it's isn't a campaigning anymore.
• 1:24
  [SPEAKER_02]: It's a rescue mission.
• 1:25
  [SPEAKER_02]: And the guy who is trying to save it is the one who caused the damage in the first place.
• 1:31
  [SPEAKER_02]: We're also going to get into Trump's plan to let the AI industry police itself, the government.
• 1:36
  [SPEAKER_02]: checks that come with a fan letter from the president, by the way, Elon Musk getting a new job at the Pentagon, awesome, and the any corruption panel that the United States decided just doesn't need any more, because we don't have no corruption.
• 1:48
  [SPEAKER_02]: So do me a favor, like this video, share it with someone who needs to see it, subscribe, because you, never want to miss an episode, it makes you really smart, but you already know that by now.
• 1:57
  [SPEAKER_02]: So let's get right to it, so we're going to start on the campaign trail.
• 2:00
  [SPEAKER_02]: were Trump's stuck-defending red states.
• 2:03
  [SPEAKER_02]: So last Friday, we told you that Trump was adding rallies in Oklahoma and Alabama.
• 2:07
  [SPEAKER_02]: Now it's a full blitz, Texas and Oklahoma today.
• 2:10
  [SPEAKER_02]: Iowa earlier this week, a president five weeks out from a mid-term is supposed to be in Pennsylvania and Arizona.
• 2:17
  [SPEAKER_02]: And Staddy's trying to hold places that he won by double digits.
• 2:21
  [SPEAKER_02]: a new A people out this morning puts Trump's approval at 30 percent on the economy 26 percent.
• 2:28
  [SPEAKER_02]: That is a new low on the cost of living, 17, 65 percent of Americans say that as policies of the reasons prices are higher, more than half of Republicans say that the cost of living is worse than they expected.
• 2:44
  [SPEAKER_02]: When the AP spoke with these Republicans, they said some version of the same thing, I thought this would be better, these are his voters, by the way, they're not turning on Trump fully yet, but they're not excited either, and in a midterm, that's all that matters.
• 2:58
  [SPEAKER_02]: It's about turnout.
• 3:00
  [SPEAKER_02]: Trump's answer is the same speech that he's been given for 10 years.
• 3:03
  [SPEAKER_02]: Everything's great.
• 3:04
  [SPEAKER_02]: America's red hot, but the problems that do exist well, you can blame sleepy Joe for those problems, you know, and the Democrats, after almost two years with the trifecta, though, that way doesn't really quite hit anymore.
• 3:17
  [SPEAKER_02]: Even Trump seems to know it, so he told reporters this week that the problem is that Republicans aren't getting the word out.
• 3:24
  [SPEAKER_02]: Mr. President, let me just say this humbly.
• 3:27
  [SPEAKER_02]: I know you watch.
• 3:28
  [SPEAKER_02]: The words out.
• 3:29
  [SPEAKER_02]: Americans hear it every time they pay for something, and that's the problem for you.
• 3:34
  [SPEAKER_02]: Next, Trump just revealed his master plan for AI.
• 3:38
  [SPEAKER_02]: Concerns about AI have been mounting over the past few months.
• 3:41
  [SPEAKER_02]: Tech CEOs have been sounding the alarm about rogue AI agents and the inability of regulators to keep up.
• 3:48
  [SPEAKER_02]: Understandably, Americans are looking to the government for a plan.
• 3:52
  [SPEAKER_02]: Trump offered his and the Oval Office yesterday.
• 3:54
  [SPEAKER_02]: I want you to have a listen.
• 3:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: They're wishing stuff.
• 3:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: This is bigger than the Industrial Revolution.
• 4:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: And largely for the negative police,
• 4:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: And they're going to self-police, they're going to police themselves, it's going to work out very well.
• 4:09
  [SPEAKER_02]: That's it.
• 4:10
  [SPEAKER_02]: They're going to police themselves.
• 4:11
  [SPEAKER_02]: What could go wrong?
• 4:12
  [SPEAKER_02]: The stroke of genius, that that is, that came after Trump met with AI executives in the White House, Musk Zuckerberg, and the heads of all the major AI labs were an attendance.
• 4:24
  [SPEAKER_02]: They formalized a new policy by signing a one-page document, which later turned out to have a grieges typos.
• 4:32
  [SPEAKER_02]: Trump called the document morally binding.
• 4:34
  [SPEAKER_02]: In other words, not legally binding.
• 4:36
  [SPEAKER_02]: No enforcement, no penalties, just morally.
• 4:39
  [SPEAKER_02]: It's a very moral white house, so you can see why that would matter.
• 4:42
  [SPEAKER_02]: In some ways, it's not a big change.
• 4:44
  [SPEAKER_02]: The Biden administration took AI regulation a lot more seriously, but in the end, most of these deals that were struck with tech companies were also non-binding.
• 4:53
  [SPEAKER_02]: Trump tore those deals up on day one with the rest of Biden's policies
• 5:01
  [SPEAKER_02]: still its apples to oranges were not in 2023.
• 5:05
  [SPEAKER_02]: When Biden struck those deals it was still very early for AI today those systems can do a lot more and the danger is much greater.
• 5:13
  [SPEAKER_02]: Even some AI executives are spooked.
• 5:16
  [SPEAKER_02]: That's why they went to the UN and asked for global safety standards.
• 5:20
  [SPEAKER_02]: These are the people who profit from no regulation and they're asking for rules.
• 5:26
  [SPEAKER_02]: 63% of Americans think that
• 5:30
  [SPEAKER_02]: nearly half-want development pause.
• 5:33
  [SPEAKER_02]: Trump's answer is to let for-profit tech companies police themselves, and I'm sure that's going to go very well.
• 5:40
  [SPEAKER_02]: Next, another desperate attempt to buy the midterms.
• 5:43
  [SPEAKER_02]: Yesterday, the administration started mailing $500 checks to nearly a million Americans who bought insurance on healthcare.gov.
• 5:51
  [SPEAKER_02]: It's about half a billion dollars going out five weeks before the election.
• 5:55
  [SPEAKER_02]: Each envelope has a letter from Trump that slams the Biden administration for overcharging to run the website and frames the money as compensation.
• 6:04
  [SPEAKER_02]: The rest of the letter just brags about Trump's health care record.
• 6:07
  [SPEAKER_02]: So let's break it down.
• 6:07
  [SPEAKER_02]: First, the overcharging an MIT economist who helped design the original law, called it mislead inclaim, to score political points.
• 6:15
  [SPEAKER_02]: The money comes from fees and sure is pay to use the federal marketplace.
• 6:20
  [SPEAKER_02]: No American was nailed a bill that they shouldn't have paid.
• 6:23
  [SPEAKER_02]: Second, the people getting compensated.
• 6:26
  [SPEAKER_02]: The letters only went out to people who buy coverage with no subsidies, that is 5% of the people who use the exchange.
• 6:32
  [SPEAKER_02]: It's nowhere close to the number that had their premiums go up when the GOP failed to renew some subsidies at the end of last year.
• 6:40
  [SPEAKER_02]: Those are the families that are actually suffering from higher health care costs, but they don't get the checks.
• 6:46
  [SPEAKER_02]: and third the timing.
• 6:47
  [SPEAKER_02]: Obviously this has nothing to do with health policy or overbilling and everything to do with the midterms.
• 6:53
  [SPEAKER_02]: The worst the map gets from the GOP, the more the administration tries to use the power of the federal government to intervene.
• 7:00
  [SPEAKER_02]: First it was using tax dollars for a partisan ad blast.
• 7:03
  [SPEAKER_02]: We've talked about that.
• 7:04
  [SPEAKER_02]: Now it's slapping Trump's name on government checks.
• 7:08
  [SPEAKER_02]: gas prices are not coming down.
• 7:10
  [SPEAKER_02]: Insurance premiums are staying up.
• 7:12
  [SPEAKER_02]: Trump is out of ideas so he's going to the basics.
• 7:15
  [SPEAKER_02]: 500 bucks in a note that says, please just one more chance.
• 7:19
  [SPEAKER_02]: Too little and it's far too late.
• 7:21
  [SPEAKER_02]: Next, Elon Musk is back in government this time at the Pentagon.
• 7:25
  [SPEAKER_02]: Yesterday, Secretary Hexeth announced Project Meridian, a 120-day study examining the future of U.S. military technology and warfare.
• 7:34
  [SPEAKER_02]: It's leadership as an nightmare.
• 7:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: Project Meridian will be co-led by three of our nation's best minds.
• 7:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: Elon Musk, Palmer Lucky, and Newt Gingrich.
• 7:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: all of whom are up in the audience with us today.
• 7:50
  [SPEAKER_02]: Who are the nation's best minds?
• 7:52
  [SPEAKER_02]: New Gingrich, the only house speaker ever reparada by his own chamber for ethics violations.
• 7:57
  [SPEAKER_02]: Palmer Lockie, a defense contractor who leverages friendship with Trump to expand his federal contracts.
• 8:03
  [SPEAKER_02]: And of course, everybody's favorite.
• 8:05
  [SPEAKER_02]: Chain saw wielding maniac Elon Musk.
• 8:07
  [SPEAKER_02]: What a mess.
• 8:09
  [SPEAKER_02]: In fact, let's think back to the last time that Musk held a government job.
• 8:12
  [SPEAKER_02]: Doge promised $2 trillion in savings by the time it shut down that a apartment savings tracker claimed to tenth of the promise, and that's a lofty estimate given that federal auditors couldn't verify most of it, and actually said it's cost more.
• 8:26
  [SPEAKER_02]: Musk's true legacy, government agencies got it of experience civil servants.
• 8:32
  [SPEAKER_02]: and a remarkable multi-round feud with the president during which Musk said that Trump was in the obscene files and that his signature bill would bankrupt the company, but somehow they've made him in, as they always do.
• 8:43
  [SPEAKER_02]: But there's an even bigger concern here that the reunion of a destructive bromance can have.
• 8:48
  [SPEAKER_02]: Meridian's job isn't producing policy papers.
• 8:52
  [SPEAKER_02]: It's deciding whether weapons are military buys next are right, what are those weapons?
• 8:57
  [SPEAKER_02]: In Higgseth puts two men who sell the Pentagon, it's toys and charge of telling the Pentagon what toys it needs.
• 9:03
  [SPEAKER_02]: Do you see a problem there?
• 9:05
  [SPEAKER_02]: There's real work to do on drones on space on autonomy, but you don't hand that work to the vendors.
• 9:11
  [SPEAKER_02]: And that's just what this administration does.
• 9:13
  [SPEAKER_02]: Every project, every task force, every department ends up being run by a donor, and they certainly get their monies worth.
• 9:22
  [SPEAKER_02]: Finally, the United States quit an international anti-corruption watchdog because, of course, we did.
• 9:28
  [SPEAKER_02]: The State Department announced that the U.S. is withdrawn from the group of states against corruption.
• 9:33
  [SPEAKER_02]: The panel was founded in 1999 and, independently, check each member's safeguards against corruption.
• 9:38
  [SPEAKER_02]: And we joined because we used to believe in combating corruption, not enabling it.
• 9:43
  [SPEAKER_02]: Now the State Department claims that that membership doesn't provide tangible benefits to national security.
• 9:49
  [SPEAKER_02]: But here's the writing on the wall.
• 9:51
  [SPEAKER_02]: The US isn't leaving the panel because it does nothing.
• 9:54
  [SPEAKER_02]: We're leaving because of what it might find.
• 9:57
  [SPEAKER_02]: It's no secret that Trump has blatantly abused his power to enable corruption, both domestically and abroad.
• 10:03
  [SPEAKER_02]: He fired the inspector's general a weekend to his presidency.
• 10:06
  [SPEAKER_02]: He suspended enforcement of the law against bribeing foreign officials and he shut down the Justice Department's klepto kleptocracy unit, which tracked down assets tied to international corruption.
• 10:19
  [SPEAKER_02]: The president might claim to be a peacemaker, but his only achievement is making the world safer for grifters like himself.
• 10:26
  [SPEAKER_02]: So what's the broader pattern here?
• 10:28
  [SPEAKER_02]: Think about the list of international institutions that the Trump administration is withdrawn from.
• 10:33
  [SPEAKER_02]: That includes the World Health Organization, the UN Human Rights Council, a Council of Europe, the Council of Europe, Body on Constitutional Law, and now anti-corruption, an anti-corruption panel.
• 10:44
  [SPEAKER_02]: The Trump administration will say that the U.S. no longer needs these institutions so that they serve no purpose, but the truth is, the decision administration wants to leave because they provide accountability to the president's destructive agenda, whether on global health, human rights, constitutional order, you name it.
• 11:02
  [SPEAKER_02]: And the latest casualty, international accountability for Trump's corruption.
• 11:07
  [SPEAKER_02]: That's it.
• 11:08
  [SPEAKER_02]: That's the show for October 1st.
• 11:09
  [SPEAKER_02]: This was worth your time.
• 11:12
  [SPEAKER_02]: It was.
• 11:13
  [SPEAKER_02]: Like it.
• 11:13
  [SPEAKER_02]: Share it with someone who needs to see it and subscribe so that you never miss an episode.
• 11:17
  [SPEAKER_02]: And we will see you back here tomorrow.
• 11:19
  [SPEAKER_02]: Take care.