In a wide-ranging Punchbowl News “Flyout Day” interview with Jake Sherman, President Donald Trump made a string of striking statements about the 2026 midterms: he said he’d support terminating the Senate filibuster, predicted every Democrat would vote against the SAVE America Act voter-ID bill, admitted a handful of Republicans might defect on it too, and warned that if the Senate doesn’t “get smart,” he “may be the last Republican president.” He distanced himself from Senate Majority Leader John Thune on strategy while insisting they have “no disconnect,” said he could “do business” with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, declined to defend Attorney General nominee Todd Blanche‘s wavering Republican votes beyond calling him a “great gentleman,” and claimed his MAGA Inc. super PAC has $800 million to spend on the midterms — a figure well above the roughly $300 million the PAC has publicly reported. He also weighed in on AI data centers, crypto regulation, Fed Chair Kevin Warsh and interest rates, and gas prices, while acknowledging that presidents from both parties “always” lose seats in midterm elections. Assistance from Claude AI.
Participants
| Name | Title / Role |
|---|---|
| Donald Trump | President of the United States |
| Jake Sherman | Co-Founder, Punchbowl News; interviewer |
| Anna Palmer | Co-Founder, Punchbowl News; co-host, “Flyout Day” |
| John Bresnahan | Co-Founder, Punchbowl News; post-interview panelist |
Note: A fourth panelist is addressed as “Brad” at the top of the post-interview segment, but no last name or title is given in the source video; this appears to be a brief on-air slip, since the panel that follows consists of Palmer, Sherman, and Bresnahan. We’ve flagged this transcript inconsistency rather than guessing at an identity.
About This Interview
The interview aired August 7, 2026, as the season finale of Punchbowl News’s “Flyout Day,” a weekly video series in which co-founders Anna Palmer and Jake Sherman interview major political figures about the workings of Capitol Hill. This episode was taped at the White House, just 89 days before the November 2026 midterm elections, with the Senate racing to wrap up business before its August recess. ✅ Accurate: Punchbowl News is a real, Washington-based political news outlet founded in 2021 by Sherman, Palmer, and Bresnahan, and this interview was published under the headline “President Donald Trump: The 2026 midterms interview” (Sherman & Palmer, 2026).
The SAVE America Act and the Fight Over Voter ID
Sherman opened by pressing Trump on an apparent rift with Senate Majority Leader John Thune over the SAVE America Act, a bill that would require proof-of-citizenship documentation and photo identification to vote in federal elections. Thune has said publicly the bill doesn’t have the votes to clear the Senate’s 60-vote threshold. Trump insisted there’s “no disconnect” between them, framing the bill as common sense: “we want to see your citizenship, we want to make sure that you’re a citizen to vote.”
Trump predicted that “every Democrat” would vote against the bill, while acknowledging Republicans would fall a vote or two short of full unity — without naming which members he expects to defect. ℹ️ Unverifiable: Trump did not name the Republicans he says are wavering, so this specific whip count can’t be independently checked; it should be read as the president’s private assessment, not a confirmed vote tally.
He also cited a recent Los Angeles municipal runoff involving reality-TV personality Spencer Pratt as evidence that elections are “rigged,” alleging a little-known third-place candidate “surged” suspiciously after Election Day. ℹ️ Unverifiable: the transcript does not name the specific race, date, or candidates in enough detail to independently verify the claim about vote “surging,” and no established fact-checking organization appears to have examined this specific assertion. General claims of systemic voter fraud in recent U.S. elections have been extensively examined by state election officials, courts, and nonpartisan researchers and have not been substantiated at a scale that would change outcomes.
Government Funding, the Filibuster, and “The Last Republican President”
With a government funding deadline looming on September 30, Trump said “whatever happens, happens,” blaming Democrats in advance for any shutdown. He then went further than most Republican leaders are willing to go publicly: he said he’d like to see the Senate filibuster — the 60-vote threshold that requires bipartisan buy-in on most legislation — eliminated entirely.
Sherman pushed back, noting Senate Republicans don’t currently have the votes to do that. Trump predicted that if Democrats retake the Senate majority, they would eliminate the filibuster “in the first hour, day” — and argued Republicans should do it first, warning that a Democratic Senate would then move to admit Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico as states and expand the Supreme Court. ⚠️ Misleading: while some Democrats have floated D.C. and Puerto Rico statehood and Supreme Court expansion in past years, these are not official, unified Democratic Party positions, and there is no evidence Senate Democratic leadership currently plans to eliminate the filibuster and pursue this specific package if they win back the majority. The claim characterizes fringe or individual proposals as an imminent, coordinated plan.
Most notably, Trump said that if the Senate doesn’t “get smart” about ending the filibuster, “I may be the last Republican president.” ✅ Accurate (as a direct quote): this reflects what Trump said on camera, though it is a subjective, speculative prediction rather than a factual claim that can be verified or falsified.
Pentagon Funding and the Budget Resolution
Sherman raised the roughly $60 billion in Pentagon funding tied up in the pending budget resolution, asking what happens if it doesn’t pass. Trump called the holdup “not good” and — notably — blamed a handful of Republicans, not just Democrats, for slow-walking it: “The Democrats are kamikaze pilots, but this is Republicans too right now, to be clear, on the budget resolution.”
Todd Blanche’s Attorney General Nomination
Asked whether Attorney General nominee Todd Blanche would be confirmed given wavering support from Republican Senators Bill Cassidy and Lisa Murkowski, Trump praised Blanche as “a great gentleman” and “fair guy,” but stopped short of predicting confirmation, saying Blanche would simply remain in his acting capacity if the vote fails.
✅ Accurate, with important context: Blanche has served as acting attorney general since April 2026 after Trump fired Pam Bondi, and was also serving as acting deputy attorney general and acting Librarian of Congress. His nomination narrowly cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee on a party-line 12–10 vote in early August 2026. By the time this interview aired, Republican Sen. Susan Collins had already announced she would vote no, and — separately from this interview — Sen. Lisa Murkowski announced her own opposition the same morning the interview published, citing concerns about a Justice Department “anti-weaponization fund” and Blanche’s independence from Trump given his prior role as Trump’s personal defense attorney (Klar, 2026; Sneed, 2026). That leaves Blanche’s confirmation resting on Sen. Bill Cassidy, who has not stated a position.
Sherman also pressed Trump on whether he regretted campaigning against senators like Murkowski, Cassidy, and John Cornyn, given that their votes are now pivotal. Trump said flatly, “I don’t regret it,” framing his opposition to Murkowski in particular around her 2021 vote to impeach him: “My beautiful MAGA base… they would not be happy” if he supported someone who voted to impeach him.
Congressional Leadership: Thune, Johnson, and Jeffries
Trump was notably cooler toward Thune than toward House Speaker Mike Johnson, whom he called “a fantastic person” doing “a great job” despite governing with a razor-thin majority. Asked directly whether he wants Thune to serve another term as Senate GOP leader, Trump declined to commit: “I don’t want to get into that this early… it’s unfortunate that he doesn’t have the votes.”
On the Democratic side, Trump offered surprisingly warm words for House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, calling him “a nice guy” and saying, “I think I’d probably get along with him very well” if Democrats retake the House majority and Jeffries becomes speaker.
Midterm Strategy, MAGA Inc., and Turnout
Pushing back on the idea that he’s indifferent to Republicans losing their congressional majorities, Trump pointed to recent campaign travel to California and Nevada and a planned “mini-convention” in Dallas, and said he’d personally raised — and would personally spend — money to help Republican candidates. He confirmed he controls the pro-Trump super PAC MAGA Inc., which he said has $800 million available to spend in the midterms.
⚠️ Misleading: MAGA Inc.’s most recent public campaign finance disclosure, filed with the Federal Election Commission in early January 2026, reported roughly $294–304 million in cash on hand heading into the 2026 election cycle (Singh, 2026; Nava, 2026) — well under a third of the $800 million figure Trump cited in the interview. It’s possible the PAC has raised substantially more since that filing, but no public disclosure supports the $800 million figure as of this interview.
Trump also acknowledged uncertainty about whether his own supporters will turn out for other Republicans without him on the ballot, pointing to Michigan Republican Senate nominee Mike Rogers, who lost a 2024 Senate race even with Trump’s endorsement and on the same ballot as Trump. Trump said he believes that race was “rigged,” an assertion he did not support with evidence.
He also referenced Michigan’s new Democratic Senate nominee, physician and former Michigan gubernatorial candidate Abdul El-Sayed, warning that “guys like that get in, they’ll destroy this country.” ✅ Accurate, with context: El-Sayed won Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary in a very close, expensive race against Rep. Haley Stevens on August 4, 2026 — a race that drew tens of millions of dollars in outside spending, much of it from pro-Israel groups opposing El-Sayed (Al Jazeera, 2026; NBC News, 2026). He’ll face Rogers, the Republican nominee, in November in what’s expected to be one of the most competitive Senate races in the country.
Why Presidents’ Parties Lose Midterms
Sherman asked Trump why Republicans are trailing on the generic congressional ballot despite what Trump characterizes as a historically successful first year and a half back in office. Trump’s answer leaned on a real, well-documented pattern in American politics: the president’s party almost always loses ground in midterm elections, “over the last hundred years.” ✅ Accurate: this is a well-established pattern in U.S. political science; the president’s party has lost House seats in nearly every midterm election over roughly the past century, with only a small handful of exceptions (1934, 1998, and 2002). Trump did not, however, offer the standard political-science explanations for this pattern — lower midterm turnout among the president’s supporters and midterms functioning as a referendum on the incumbent — instead calling it an unexplainable “psychology.”
Gas Prices and Iran
Asked about comments he’d made a day earlier in Nevada suggesting gas prices could rise again, Trump tied the possibility explicitly to potential future military action: prices would “only go up if we have to do another hit,” an apparent reference to strikes on Iran. He said Iran “want[s] to make a deal” to avoid further strikes. Punchbowl’s post-interview panel noted this line is politically risky for Republicans, since rising gas prices are a top concern among the GOP base heading into the midterms.
The Federal Reserve, Interest Rates, and Kevin Warsh
Trump was asked whether Fed Chair Kevin Warsh should avoid raising interest rates before the midterms. Trump said the decision isn’t entirely up to Warsh — “he’s got a board that’s very political” — but reiterated his long-standing view that the U.S. should have the world’s lowest interest rates. He argued that other countries, including Switzerland, only enjoy low rates because the U.S. effectively subsidizes them through trade deficits, floating a $39–41 billion trade deficit with Switzerland as a figure he could “wipe out” with tariffs.
✅ Accurate on the underlying fact: Kevin Warsh was confirmed by the Senate in a 54–45 vote on May 13, 2026, and sworn in as Federal Reserve Chair on May 22, succeeding Jerome Powell (Federal Reserve, 2026; NPR, 2026). ℹ️ Unverifiable/needs context: Trump’s $39–41 billion Switzerland deficit figure and his claim that eliminating it would push Switzerland out of “elite” status are his own framing and were not independently verified for this article; official U.S. trade statistics on Swiss goods trade fluctuate year to year and are best checked directly against U.S. Census Bureau/Bureau of Economic Analysis data before being treated as precise.
AI, Data Centers, and Competition With China
Asked about Congress’s general inaction on artificial intelligence policy, Trump argued that “whoever wins AI just wins,” and criticized Texas lawmakers who have pushed back against new AI data centers in their communities, calling that stance “a mistake.” He touted a policy allowing data center developers to build their own power generation on-site rather than drawing entirely from the existing electric grid, arguing this avoids straining an “old grid that’s tired” while still letting excess power flow back to local utilities.
He connected the AI competition directly to China, saying “we can’t let China beat us at this,” and noted that Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to visit the U.S. “in a couple of weeks,” where AI competition will be a topic of discussion. ℹ️ Unverifiable: the specific timing of a Xi visit was not independently confirmed for this article and should be treated as Trump’s characterization at the time of the interview rather than a confirmed diplomatic event.
Crypto Regulation and the Trump Family Businesses
On a pending congressional crypto bill that would reportedly impose ethics restrictions specifically targeting Trump family crypto ventures, Trump argued the U.S. needs to lead in cryptocurrency to keep the industry — and the political and economic leverage that comes with it — out of Chinese hands. He said he wouldn’t necessarily oppose putting his crypto holdings in a blind trust, while maintaining he doesn’t personally direct his family’s business dealings: “I let my kids run it… I don’t talk to them about government.”
Possible Impeachment and Investigations if Democrats Retake the House
Asked directly whether he expects to be impeached again if Democrats win back the House majority, Trump didn’t rule it out — “it’s hard to believe they could, but they’ll be all over you, subpoenaing” — while pivoting to his own record on manufacturing investment and tariffs. ℹ️ Context: Punchbowl News separately reported that a majority of K Street lobbyists and government-relations professionals surveyed — 71% — believe Trump is likely to face impeachment proceedings if Democrats retake the House majority in November (Punchbowl News, 2026), underscoring that this is a live expectation in Washington beyond just this interview.
Post-Interview Analysis: What Punchbowl’s Team Made of It
In the panel discussion that followed, Punchbowl co-founder John Bresnahan said he was struck by how substantively Trump engaged with inside-Capitol Hill dynamics — something he said Trump doesn’t always do. Anna Palmer noted that Trump’s relationship with Thune reads as respectful but genuinely strained, since Thune “holds the keys” to major Trump priorities but doesn’t have the votes to deliver the SAVE America Act as quickly as Trump wants.
Bresnahan also flagged a dynamic worth watching if Republicans lose the House: Trump’s suggestion that Johnson should stay atop House Republicans “either way” — including if the GOP loses its majority and Johnson becomes minority leader — could preempt an internal succession fight involving Republicans like Jim Jordan, Steve Scalise, and Tom Emmer.
MLA Citation
Sherman, Jake, and Anna Palmer, hosts. “President Donald Trump: The 2026 Midterms Interview.” Fly Out Day, Punchbowl News, 7 Aug. 2026, punchbowl.news/article/fly-out-day/trump-interview-fly-out-day/.
References
Al Jazeera. (2026, August 5). Abdul El-Sayed wins Michigan Democratic primary for Senate in blow to AIPAC. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/8/5/abdul-el-sayed-wins-michigan-democratic-primary-for-senate-in-blow-to-aipac
Federal Reserve Board. (2026, May 22). Kevin Warsh takes oath of office as chairman and a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/pressreleases/other20260522a.htm
Klar, R. (2026, August 7). Murkowski to oppose Todd Blanche nomination, narrowing his path to confirmation. CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2026/08/07/politics/murkowski-blanche-nomination-vote-against
NBC News. (2026, August 5). Abdul El-Sayed wins Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary, notching a Midwest victory for the left. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2026-election/abdul-el-sayed-wins-michigans-democratic-senate-primary-notching-midwe-rcna589750
NPR. (2026, May 13). Senate confirms Kevin Warsh as next chair of the Federal Reserve. https://www.npr.org/2026/05/13/nx-s1-5816235/kevin-warsh-federal-reserve-chair-jerome-powell
Nava, V. (2026, January). Trump’s super PAC enters 2026 with a massive $300 million war chest. New York Post (via AOL). https://www.aol.com/articles/trump-super-pac-enters-2026-013137659.html
Punchbowl News. (2026, August). K Street: Trump in impeachment peril under Dems. https://punchbowl.news/article/polling/k-street-trump-impeachment-peril/
Sneed, T. (2026, August 5). Blanche meets with 2 key Republican senators ahead of confirmation vote. ABC News. https://abcnews.com/Politics/blanche-meets-2-key-republican-senators-ahead-confirmation/story?id=135406207
Sherman, J., & Palmer, A. (2026, August 7). President Donald Trump: The 2026 midterms interview [Video interview transcript]. Punchbowl News. https://punchbowl.news/article/fly-out-day/trump-interview-fly-out-day/
Singh, K. (2026, January 2). Trump-aligned MAGA Inc super PAC enters 2026 with $300 million stockpile. Reuters. https://www.aol.com/articles/trump-aligned-maga-inc-super-031233625.html