On Election Day 2025, Jenny Beth Martin is joined by John McLaughlin, CEO of McLaughlin & Associates and longtime pollster for President Trump. They break down the latest polling trends, key races in New York, New Jersey, Virginia, and California, and what the results could mean for America’s economic future and constitutional freedoms. From inflation and interest rates to media bias and government overreach, this episode dives into the issues driving voters across the nation and what to expect as the next election cycle begins.
It’s Election Day 2025, and the stakes couldn’t be higher. Jenny Beth Martin is joined by John McLaughlin, CEO of McLaughlin & Associates and longtime pollster for President Donald J. Trump, to unpack the latest data, key races, and voter sentiment shaping the future of America.
Together, they discuss:
National polling trends and how media “fake polls” distort reality
Why inflation, spending, and interest rates remain top voter concerns
The impact of Jerome Powell and the Federal Reserve on everyday Americans
Key races in New York, New Jersey, Virginia, and California’s Prop 50
The growing backlash against socialism and the fight for economic freedom
How election integrity and government accountability must remain top priorities
John also shares new insights from his firm’s October poll and explains why most Americans still prefer free-market capitalism over big-government socialism.
Jenny Beth and John close with a call to action for voters to stand for liberty, constitutional government, and fiscal responsibility — and to hold those who abused power in the Arctic Frost scandal accountable.
Guest:
John McLaughlin — CEO, McLaughlin & Associates; Pollster for President Trump
McLaughlinOnline.com
X/Twitter: @jmclghln
Host:
Jenny Beth Martin — Co-Founder, Tea Party Patriots Action
X/Twitter: @jennybethm
Brought to you by:
Tea Party Patriots Action — Because freedom requires vigilance in every generation and every election.
TeaPartyPatriots.org
Jenny Beth Martin (00:00:14):
Welcome to the Jenny Beth Show. It's election day 2025. I'm Jenny Beth Martin, and this is the Jenny Beth Show. Across America. Voters are deciding between freedom and control from New York to New Jersey, from Virginia to California, where voters choose economic freedom and constitutional sanity or double down on the leftist agenda of government expansion and lawfare, joining me today is one of the sharpest minds in conservative politics, a pollster who really knows what the American people think. John McLaughlin, CEO of McLaughlin Associates and longtime Trump pollster is here with us today. John, thanks so much for having me and happy Election Day.
John McLaughlin (00:00:57):
Happy election day. But in the meantime, Jenny Beth, it's a privilege and honor to be here.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:01:02):
Well, thank you so much. Before we get into the elections as a pollster, tell me what are you seeing about trends across the entire country right now?
John McLaughlin (00:01:12):
Well, the thing that concerns me is that we know that President Trump won the last election with 50% of the vote, and he created a pond of 77, 70 8 million voters out of the 156 million that cast their ballots last year that need to be motivated to come back out again this year. And there's a lot of bad polls that the media's back to the same old tricks, manufacturing fake polls, trying to say that the president's not that popular when he is. Our last national poll, we put out last week of a thousand likely voters who would vote next year's midterm elections. He's got a 51 job approval, 46 disapproved, the Republicans are up too for Congress. And our polling was extremely accurate for the president in 2023 and 2024 as we went into the primaries in the general election. And in the meantime, it was a year ago, it was a year ago this weekend where the Des Moines Register put out there infamous fake poll that said we were going to lose Iowa by three points and we won by 13.
(00:02:16):
And now you're seeing polls like for example, the Washington Post put out a poll that they said the president had this low job approval rating, but it was skewed because you have in their poll, they had over 2000 adults, not registered voters, not likely voters, but they had only 34% Trump voters, which they waited down to 30%. We got 50% of the popular vote. That's a 20 point skew in their poll. And they're trying to say the president's being held responsible to shut down, his policies aren't working, and it's just an absolute fraud on the American people. And NBC did a similar poll of registered voters had only 41% Trump voters, not 50% like we got. International polls don't have 50% for Trump, but they have, it's in the high forties and there's a point more than Harris voters. And you get these polls like the economists, you go put out a poll saying there's more liberals than conservatives in the country, is absolutely wrong and false. And they're saying there's more Democrats than Republicans in the turnout. And again, it's like they only have like 35% Trump voters. So they're doing it on purpose and trying to stay in Vegas so that our voters who are complacent or comfortable that trump's the president stay home and they're trying to fire up the Democrats to come out. So it's kind of a fake election interference again.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:03:45):
Well, it isn't something that should surprise us coming from the media. They are in the tank for the Democrats and they'll do anything that they can to reach out through their airwaves and harm President Trump and his agenda. What are you seeing that are the, let me go back to something you just said a second ago. Did you say, did I hear this correctly, that Republicans in Congress are up to points over Democrats
John McLaughlin (00:04:14):
In our national poll among likely voters? They're up two points, 46, 44. It's posted on our website, McLaughlin online.com, and it's closed a little bit. But the Democrats, the other thing is the Democrats brand is in the tank. And we've done surveys for other clients where they hold in battleground congressional districts. They hold the Democrats responsible for the shutdown, 39 36. And ironically, the top issue in the country right now is inflation, right? Cost of living prices. Anybody who goes to the supermarket knows that it's a hangover from Joe Biden and Kamala Harris with their government spending. And the ironic part is Schumer is keeping the government shut because Trump's policies on the economy are working, his tax costs are going to work, but Schumer's going to the mats for more inflation for higher prices when he wants more government spending, when he wants to spend billions more on illegal immigrants for free healthcare when he wants to spend more for, they don't want to have work fair rules in the beginning of 26 because of the Trump big beautiful bill.
(00:05:23):
If you're an able-bodied adult and you're getting free healthcare or food stamps or whatever, you're going to have to go back to work. You can't just sit home and get federal benefits. And so the Schumer and the Democrats, they're literally going to the mats for increased spending, increased deficits, increased debt, national debt. That's what they're fighting about. And that'll just trigger more inflation just like they did over the last four years, just at a time where Donald Trump's getting control of this. They want to undermine him. And that's what's at stake. You don't see that in the mainstream media.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:05:58):
No, absolutely not. And then speaking of inflation, that's the number one issue people are concerned about. You had an op-ed, I think it was published today or recently about Jerome Powell. What are people thinking about him?
John McLaughlin (00:06:13):
Well, he's putting sand in our engine. You got to realize the elites in the country who don't like Donald Trump, and you get this internationally too, you get like Brussels in Europe. They're all hoping that the Democrats take control of the midterms. You saw recently an article stories about there was ads by being done by Ontario where they were, province of Ontario and Canada, trying to quote Ronald Reagan out of context to hurt Donald Trump and hurt the Republicans. In this poll that we just released, we asked about the popularity of Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell, and he is a 33 favorable, but he's 27 unfavorable. He's not getting the job done. And then when we asked about would they be in favor of President Trump replacing Jerome Powell with someone who favors lowering interest rates, so you have cheaper mortgages and cheaper credit card interest bills, et cetera, they favor it 59 to 24.
(00:07:16):
So six out of 10 Americans want Jerome Powell gone because they want interest rates down because Trump is cutting their taxes and the economy's starting to percolate again. It's starting to grow at 3%, not the Federal Reserve, 2% target, and we want it to go higher. And Jerome Powell, by keeping interest rates artificially high, he wasn't giving us any rate cuts. And then all of a sudden he's giving us a quarter point when he should give us a half a point. He's really trying to put Sandy in the engine into the American economy to help the Democrats for the midterms. But the voters see through that, and Powell's term is up in May, and the voters, they would replace 'em now if they could, 59, 24, that's a big number. And you get solid support from the Republicans and the Trump voters, but you also get plurality support from Democrats and Independents too.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:08:10):
Isn't it interesting how Democrats are willing to sacrifice the very people they claim they want to help? They're sacrificing the people who work for the government right now, they're not. They're either working and not getting paid or they're furloughed and they're not getting paid. They're willing to sacrifice some military, they're willing to sacrifice air traffic controllers and TSA agents, they are willing to keep Powell in there, not call for him to step down and resign, not be supportive of any effort to replace him. Also, that they keep the interest rates too high rather than lowering them, which would help their constituents. It'd make it easier to buy a home. It'd make it easier to sell a home. It'd make it easier. You want to move to go seek a better job opportunity somewhere else in the country right now, a lot of people feel locked into their home and they can't move because of what's happening with interest rates. And the Democrats are just okay sacrificing all of that for pure political power.
John McLaughlin (00:09:10):
Yep, you're exactly right. It's all about power. I mean, we ask in these national polls, we'll ask, do they favor big government socialism or free market capitalism? And virtually every poll, it's like 60 to 15, they favor free market capitalism over big government socialism. But inside the Potomac, the Democrats are going to the mats for control for politics. They're desperate to win the midterm elections. And when you harken back to 2002, at this point in time, 2001, we didn't win the governor's race for Virginia, but Jim Gilmore won his governor. We picked up 12 House of Delegate seats over were from 52 to 64 out of the hundred by targeting Bush voters who had voted in 2000 and brought them out in the odd year. And that became a model for Cole Roe and the Bush Republicans when we were up in the midterms. And people forget, president Bush had a tax cut that went into effect in 2002.
(00:10:11):
He also instilled a sense of patriotism like President Trump's trying to do. And we picked up two Senate seats. He had eight house seats. So we didn't have the midterm jinx, the Democrats and all the elites that don't like Donald Trump are counting on a midterm jinx because they would love to start the impeachment hearings. Again, nothing over fake issues. Now, it's been proven that the impeachment of Donald Trump was a hoax that the Russian collusion, the Hunter Biden laptop was real Miranda Divine who wrote about it in the New York Post. She's been vindicated. But the New York Times that got Pulitzer Prizes for reporting on it against Donald Trump hasn't turned in the Pulitzer Prizes. They still, they're doubling down on their prosecution of Republicans and they want to go back to that. So we've got a lot to fight for. And if we're complacent, it would be terrible news next year because we need everybody.
(00:11:11):
Out of that 78 million people that voted for Donald Trump midterm elections in 2018, you had 18 million people come out and vote. So it's lower than the presidential election in 2022. You had 112 million people come out and vote again, that's less than the 156 million that voted last year. So you're going to have fewer people vote, but if more of the Harris voters come out than the Trump voters, we'll lose. And right now, we've got to make sure our people get fired up, that they understand that there's a real contrast here that the Democrats are shutting down the government because they want to hire taxes. They want to repeal the Trump tax cuts. They want to go back to taxing overtime, taxing tips, taxing senior citizens for social security. They want to go back to all the high taxes, all the high spending, all the inflation, all the debt and debts and the debt.
(00:12:05):
By the way, the deficit's coming down now, president Trump's tariffs are getting getting results where you're getting better deals from these other countries and you're getting investment in the United States. And the most important thing is you're starting to see growth percolate amongst small businesses that you're getting a better economy and they want to stifle it. That's what this is all about. And that's what the most important issue to the average American is the fact that they want the economy to grow again, and they want prices and inflation to remain stable. And when you were talking about housing and mortgage rates and interest rates, I mean in President Trump's first term, when you had a lower federal reserve rate, interest rate, you had lower mortgages where the payments were half of what they are now, because most of those housing payments are the interest on the mortgage.
(00:13:01):
And instead of paying three, 4%, 6%, and that's really hard for young people to buy a home. And that's really hard for consumers who are trying to buy a car. It's really hard when they have higher I rates and credit card rates where most people, they don't operate by paychecks. They operate by paying things with their cell phone, their Apple pay their credit cards, and they pay things as they go along during the month and end at the end of the month, they find out that whether it's food or groceries, whether it's utility bills, et cetera, they find out that their credit card bill where they have double digit interest rates on is double what it was under President Trump. So while some prices are coming down like gas and the price of gas as well as other commodities, I mean the Democrats are basically saying, let's go back to high inflation, more government spending and higher taxes.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:13:55):
And that message just doesn't seem like it resonates well with middle class Americans with really the majority of Americans, people don't want high inflation. They want to be able to afford the cost of living. They want to be able to have a little bit of money left over at the end of the month to save or to put away for a vacation or to pay for Christmas gifts with. And right now they're still a little bit worried, which is part of the reason why you had that op-ed about Powell. We need him to quit throwing that sand in the gears, as she said.
John McLaughlin (00:14:29):
Right? And that's on that blog that we wrote for Newsmax is on our website, McLaughlin online.com, and anybody can see the we're fully transparent. You can see the results of that poll and we've got it there where you can see what all the voter groups and the American people are great in their wisdom. I mean, as you go outside beltway, they know what they want and Donald Trump's been giving them that. He's their blue collar billionaire who's fighting for what everybody forgets too. Congress is getting paid during the shutdown, but Donald Trump doesn't take a salary as president. He never took a salary as president. So he's not getting paid. He's doing this because he believes in America and he's very patriotic and he wants our country to be the best in the world, and he's working to end all these wars. I mean, it's unbelievable the amount of work he's done in less than a year, what he's doing as president where he is trying to bring peace to the Middle East. He's trying to, he's taking care of Iran because Iran was building those nuclear weapons. He's trying to bring peace to Russia and Ukraine.
(00:15:34):
So he's done a lot there. Plus he's secured the border. So the border and immigration as a top issue has gone down because 75% of all Americans support his policies to deport criminal legal immigrants. I mean, he's got the will of the people behind him and he's doing exactly what he said he's going to do. He said he is going to secure the border. He said he is going to try to end these conflicts. And he said he is going to pass his tax cuts to get the economy growing again. So he's a businessman, he's not a politician. And people respect him for the reality of President Trump. I mean, you've know him, you've been there. We waited online at Madison Square Garden together to get into his rally,
(00:16:19):
And we got into the rally and granted, they had seats first and everything up front, but they finally had to send people to come get us. There were so many people there because the average working person knows that Donald Trump's fighting for them, and he's their only hope right now. And we got to make sure that these voters come back out in the midterms because we'll see what happens today in New Jersey and Virginia and New York City. But I'm looking at, I've done a lot of polling in suburban New York and Nassau County. I've got Bruce Blake from the county executive and Dony, the district attorney, they should win in eight point Democrat County and they've done a great job. They're fighting crime and cashless bail, they're hiring more police, they've lowered taxes. I got people like Ed Day, the county executive in Rockland County that's north of New York City and also Orange County, Steve Newhouse, they're up for election.
(00:17:17):
And this, you'll love this in Nassau County, we polled Zora Mond. Mond has a 69% unfavorable rating in Nassau County. That's an eight point Democrat talent. They know people in California, Texas, they're just finding out about this guy. But New Yorkers who've been paying attention, they're like, he's going to ruin the city and jobs will leave the city. And granted it's a 70% Democrat city. The best we did with President Trump, there was 30% at 30% in the city because roughly 73% or so, 4% Democrat to only 11% Republican. They're driving Republicans out. But this is bad when you get somebody who is pro Hamas is definitely sympathizes with terrorists and you're in New York City 24 years after nine 11 that he could even be considered for mayor, let alone be the front runner. I mean, it's just a shame. But the suburban voters in New York, I also believe it's having an effect on northern Jersey where Terelli is running in a dead heat with Jack Ellis running a dead heat with Democrat.
(00:18:29):
Mikey Cheryl, I think some of that's a backlash against what's happening in New York City. So today's going to be an important day because the Democrats usually have currently in the years, recent years past, they've wondered Jersey won Virginia. They certainly had, I mean, de Blassio was bad for New York City. Eric Adams may have been a nice guy, but he didn't get it done. And now you've got to see those three places get worse. I mean, if the Democrats win, I mean, I think Terelli is in the dead heat, and if he gets the right turnout today, he wins. Virginia looks tougher. But Virginia has been tougher hopefully when he Sears wins and hopefully the Attorney General Urs wins too, because he's been a very good attorney general. So we will see, the voters will tell us today because the polls don't matter once the people start voting.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:19:23):
Well, that's very true. And we're going to see in just a few short hours, and if you're watching this and you're in any of these states that have elections and you have not voted yet, stop watching and go vote, come back and watch it later. Share it with your friends, go vote and then come back and watch it. We need you to vote to be able to stop these Marxists from taking over our government in New York in New Jersey. The proposition in California is going to do, California is doing all that it can to set up a win for the Democrats when it comes to the midterm elections. And we need to do everything we can to support President Trump's agenda because if we don't do that, including voting against this proposition in California and we don't hold the House and the Senate in the midterms, we will have, president Trump will be impeached for a third and maybe even a fourth time with these crazy radical Democrats in control. Absolutely. John, you are on the ground in New York. You live in New York, you're around people from New York and New Jersey all the time. What are you seeing on the ground and how does it jive with what the mainstream media is seeing with the polling versus what you're seeing when it comes especially to the mayor's race in New York and then the governor's race in New Jersey?
John McLaughlin (00:20:44):
Okay, before I get there, I was in California last week and you could see the Democrats, Gavin Newsom. Your point about going out and voting now on Prop 50 is really important because I used to work for Arnold Schwarzenegger and Arnold Schwarzenegger, he's the one who got the nonpartisan commission in there to draw the lines. And there were seven Democrats who were up for reelection in Congress that are going to benefit from the passage of that. So they're basically, and by the way, in New York last year, Kathy Holle, she redistricted, we had 11 seats out of 26 were Republicans, and she cost us Brandon Williams seats in CD 22 up in Syracuse and certainly hurt us in CD four in Long Island with Congressman Josito. And she basically, she cut the lines in 24. So what the Democrats are complaining about what Trump's doing right now, she did it last year to hears and Hakeem Jeffries, the speakers from Brooklyn, he was in charge of it, and so he was with it.
(00:21:51):
Now, California Newsom is using it to launch his presidential campaign. So if he redistricts California, he gets scores points for them. But on the ground in New York, in the suburbs, it's like you're in the Alamo, you're fighting and they're rigging the rules against you because like I said, we win in a lot of the suburban areas and we've made inroads in New York City where they have some council members, and the city council in New York City is absolute socialist. It's absolutely bizarre. But they have these pockets of Republicanism and you've got the Al Telcos in Staten Island and Congress, and we have a good chance to win back congressional districts three and four in Long Island next year. But the voters are motivated this year, and the Republicans usually usually do well in odd years. But this goes to the point about what the Democrats do is they change the state law so that the odd year elections being held this year in New York are going to be moved to an even year when there's a higher turnout for governor or for president, and it's just a matter of less democracy and making it more confusing and less accountability on the local level.
(00:23:13):
Because instead of voting in your local area, you'll have 10 or 15 candidates, you'll now be part of a bigger ballot that there'll be more candidates and less kind of like California. And in 21, we passed a no excuse absentees that they banned that same day of registration. We banned that, and this was a popular vote in New York state statewide ballots. And we banned don't count illegals in redistricting, and she went and just overrode the state constitution and did it. And they believe in one party government, but the people, they go and they vote and they know, I think there's a good turnout of Republicans in the New York City suburbs. So the candidates I work for should be doing well. And the problem is going to be in New York City when Mond gets elected, if he gets elected, I mean, there's always a possibility appears that most of the media polls, I haven't done any recent polls in New York City, but most of the media polls have Andrew Cuomo running second, and it's a fight, it's like a new primary among Democrats with some Republicans or vote for Curtis Lewa.
(00:24:22):
So if Mond gets elected, we've got a big problem because his policies, he wants to legalize drugs. Nobody really exposed this. This was a big mistake that nobody set up, independent expenditure, the kind of voter education that Tea Party Patriots may do or other organizations may do. But this guy, he wants to legalize prostitution, which will increase human trafficking. He wants to legalize drugs including deadly drugs. He wants to have injection sites around the city. He wants to reduce the number of police close the jails in New York City, just totally close 'em. So criminals, they'll have major sanctuary in New York City, and plus he's a sanctuary city, open borders guy, and he wants to raise taxes, which he can't do without the legislature, but chances are he'll have a lot of say about Governor Holle who's endorsed him in the Democrats, but it creates an opportunity where we've got to fight back and he can raise property taxes in New York City.
(00:25:25):
So he'll do that on people he thinks are wealthy, which will be the middle class. So it'll make it less likely that you'll be able to buy a home in New York City, whether it's in Queens or Brooklyn, Bronx, wherever. So he's a very dangerous, radical Democrat. And it's all in reaction to Donald Trump because Trump's been so successful. The Democrats in their brand than in their policies is getting more, they're getting far more deranged because they're going doubling down on socialism, which the vast majority of Americans don't support. They're doubling down on big government policies, which the vast majority of Americans don't support. It might be kind of like when Nixon was facing the midterm in 70, where how left the Democrat party went at the time they gave him George McGovern. So it was easier for Richard Nixon to get elected. So if the Democrats go this radically left and you've got a Gavin Newsom trying to keep up, you've got other potential candidates for the Democrat nomination who will go farther, left and farther out of the mainstream, it could create a good opportunity for 28, but we've got to make it an issue in 26.
(00:26:41):
We have to have a strong agenda with the Democrats in 2026.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:26:47):
Well, if Mond wins, I think there will be the opportunity to have that strong contrast agenda. He wants exactly the opposite of what President Trump is trying to do. And he has told voters, if you vote for me, I'm going to be able to help lower costs and take care of making rent more affordable and groceries more affordable, and whatever else he thinks he can control through the levers of government. But the way he wants to do it is to take over private property to reduce competition and to fix prices. And that's not actually how you lower prices. Prices become lower when the government gets out of the way and there's more competition, and he's going to do the exact opposite. So I think that voters in New York, if they actually vote for this man to become their mayor, they are going to see the exact opposite of what they want.
(00:27:41):
There will be higher prices, there will be more crime, there will be more people fleeing the city, which will reduce the amount of taxes that come into the state because the tax base will flee. And when there's more crime, tourists aren't going to want to go in there. A family isn't going to want to bring their children into New York if there is a risk that there will be harm to their own children. So I think it winds up backfiring on the city of New York and the residents of New York. John, one of the things that concerns me that I think we've heard a lot about him being a socialist and wanting to exert well just to have a tyrannical effect on private property, but one of the things you were just talking about, opening up the jails, decriminalizing prostitution, decriminalizing illegal drugs. He's for defunding the police.
(00:28:37):
He's been an advocate of that. I wonder, and I would like for you to elaborate on this, is New York going to wind up going back to what it was like in terms of crime before Giuliani became president? I mean became mayor. The crime rate or the murder rate in New York City was the highest back in around 1990. Giuliani came in, he cleaned things up, the murder rate went down, the people wanted to go back to New York, they felt safe. And I think with Mond, it is going to turn into a lawless hellhole that tourists avoid and residents want to flee.
John McLaughlin (00:29:14):
Well, I hope it's not true, but it seems that it would be based on if you actually look at his policies. For those of us, when I was young, I lived in the Bronx, I went to college in the Bronx, we moved to the suburbs when I was high school age, whatever. But back then you had to be careful. In New York City, they were making crazy movies like the Warriors where gangs were running the city and people, it wasn't that farfetched. I mean, it wasn't safe. You knew your path, and Ed Tch kind of made it a little better. And then you had certainly, you had David Dinkins for four years, you got the Crown Heights riots. Then Rudy won after losing 89. He won in 93 and 93 was a good bounce back year for the Republicans. I got to work for George Allen in Virginia, and that was a big upset when he won and he won decisively.
(00:30:10):
And then you had Chrissy Todd Whitman win in New Jersey, and you had Rudy Giuliani in the city and Giuliani, they had a totally different view of crime where it was the broken windows theory, the least little crime they would enforce so that they could ultimately come down on the career criminals and get their career criminals out of the city or into jail. And they would put people in jail. And George Allen won in Virginia on abolishing parole because the average murderer in Virginia was getting out like the months served instead of years. But the mood of the country's changed. And now you've got this cashless bail idea that Soros people fund, and they think the Soros nonprofits think this is a great thing, that if you commit a violent crime, you get out and they release you. They don't hold you in jail. And we have an ad running for the district attorney in Nassau County where this gentleman lost his son because of a drunk driver, and he was released three times before that because of this cashless bail that they have in New York state that Cuomo brought it in and then Hoel kept it.
(00:31:26):
And it's just this is what MB believes in. He thinks they closes the jails and they ought to let the criminals out. So it'll be really bad news. So you're saying like 1990, it could get worse than that. So these policies don't work. And that's the key thing. And the other part is President Trump, he's a New Yorker, but he also, he wants, he was elected to keep America safe from prosperous. The safe part for him is think of what could have happened to LA if he didn't send troops into LA when they had the riots. Think about what's going on in cities around the country, clean up Washington. I mean Washington just having the National Guard helped the police. There was a big difference. And for those of us who regularly train into Union Station or in Washington, it's definitely cleaner and safer. And his heart's in New York too, because that's where he succeeded. That's where he lived his life before he moved to Florida. But he still has one of his homes in Trump Tower, and he doesn't want to see New York City go back to those days. That's that he's going to do. He feels responsible that he is got to keep Americans safe. So we'll see what happens when and if Mond gets elected. If he wins today, we should be prepared for the worst, but hopefully he doesn't do that. But based on his outspokenness and his past, what he said, he believes in what he said, he stands his past positions we're going to have a big problem in New York City.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:33:11):
And you mentioned that President Trump wants to keep America safe and prosperous. Does the polling that you've been doing still show that people want America to be safe? And do they support President Trump's efforts to keep America safe?
John McLaughlin (00:33:28):
Yes, they do. He wins on the issues. I mean, when we ask that job approval, we ask people if they approve of President Trump's personality and his policies. This is what we did in the campaign. This is the way we asked in the campaign. We knew that he would do a better job than Biden and Harris. So we ran a contrast campaign and you've got 38% support both his personalities as policies, but another 13% right now support his policies and only 46% oppose both. Now that 46% is a scary part of the American public, but it's been higher. I mean, president Trump, I saw him on nine 11 at the Yankee game, and he said to me, derived my best numbers ever. I said, no, your best numbers were on election day last year because we had a campaign behind him and we were running a contrast campaign against Biden and Harris.
(00:34:22):
And when you look at the job, a job he did as president his first term and the job they did, most Americans supported President Trump and one him to return to office. It was as high as 57% for his job approval. And he was a net positive in his popularity. We were raising his favorables, and he was so comfortable and confident at the time he could do things like he would go to they call when Biden called his supporters garbage. He was out there with a garbage truck. And when Harris said she'd worked at McDonald's and never had, he was working at McDonald's, he was doing those rallies. I mean the unbelievable energy and strength he had where he could speak for an hour or two different rallies. We could do multiple rallies in a day, but he was out there and that's when he had his highest job approval and his highest favorables because of that strength of that campaign around the inaugural, he had similar numbers, but now you've, he doesn't have somebody to contrast with.
(00:35:20):
Although Chuck Schumer's giving us an opportunity, he has Schumer, by the way, most Americans, he has a 30% favorable rate, 44 unfavorable. That was as of last week. So the shutdown is doing him no good, and it's not doing the Democrats any good, but going back to President Trump, he's got to get focused in, and we've got players like Jerome Powell who's trying to stop us, who wants us to lose the midterms. You got people like Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries who are totally focused on just basically derailing whatever recovery's going on with the economy, derailing whatever success President Trump has just for the sake of control of the government. I mean, the American people I think, see through that, but we have to have strong contrast against the Democrats and these people that are opposed, president Trump, we need a very strong contrast next year so that Republican members can win the battleground congressional districts and we can keep the Senate.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:36:25):
Yeah, I think that that makes a lot of sense, John, when you are doing the best that you can and people forget what it could be if you weren't doing the best you can, it's difficult for your numbers to stay high. They just out of sight, out of mind, and they kind of forget about the other things that could be even worse. So that makes sense. When you just mentioned Senator Schumer, what do Americans think about the shutdown? And from your polling, not from what the mainstream media is doing, but from your polling, that is an adequate representation of the likely voters. What do they think of the shutdown? Who are they blaming and how is it affecting Americans across the country?
John McLaughlin (00:37:12):
I think for most people it hasn't affected them because they go about their daily lives. And if anything, it's strengthening President Trump and his base because they don't want to go back to higher taxes. They don't want to see the increased spending on waste. They know that Democrats made a big mistake with, they came out of the gate and they said they basically, they were putting out documents that they want to have free healthcare for illegal immigrants. People don't want that. I mean, when we poll that, you had 65% of the voters against it. I'm surprised it was that low, but it was when we asked it, but it was 60, but that's two thirds. And the other part too is when we ask people whether you agree with President Trump or not, should we put America first? As you write about putting America first, you have two thirds of all voters saying they agree with that. So in our poll, there's these America first voters that we could still go get, but we need a fair shake because roughly four out of 10 voters listen to conservative type of media where it's your podcast.
(00:38:21):
It would be a newsmax, it would be Fox News, conservative Talk Radio, and roughly four out of 10 are on the left of Center Echo Chamber where they're C-N-N-M-S-N-B-C, Bloomberg, others, other left of center media outlets. And then there's the people in the middle who don't pay attention to either, but pay attention to their daily lives. And they're not really focused on this shutdown the way that, for example, people in Northern Virginia or suburban Maryland, they're focused on it because they're being furloughed and the people outside the beltway, they're just trying to get through every day. And a lot of people, food and groceries is their top concern. Healthcare is up there, and also utilities and housing their rent and mortgage. So they're thinking day to day on these economic issues. And when they're told about what's going on with interest rates, with the Fed, with Jerome Powell, how they're keeping 'em high, they want to change, that's when you all of a sudden, six out of 10 voters almost agree with us that they want to get rid of Jerome Powell. And that needs to be a big focus of the Republicans and President Trump, that they do make changes at the Fed. Because if you've got inflation running at 3%, why are they keeping interest rates higher than that?
(00:39:55):
And if anything, they want it to go down. So the average person, I mean Washington, focus on who's getting blamed for it. I mean, some of our people are happy, we're getting blamed for it because they want it to happen. But in the meantime, what they don't like is when you don't pay the military and you're paying yourself in Congress. When think Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer when they take paychecks for themselves, but they don't want to pay a military family who's living from paycheck to paycheck sacrificing for our country when they don't want to pay the border control agents and the air traffic controllers, they got enough stress in their life. We got an antiquated system that needs to be replaced that President Trump is working on. You're playing with fire when you're not paying those people. I mean, you've got, there's thousands, tens of thousands of people every day.
(00:40:47):
Their lives are in the hands of those air traffic controllers and you don't want to pay them. And now all they got to do is just do a continuing resolution. And the president has said time and time again with them, open the government. I'll negotiate whatever you want. I'll negotiate. They don't want to negotiate to them free healthcare for illegal immigrants and open borders is a unnegotiable issue, which is just so out of touch and so bad. So that's why the Democrat brand is going down. I mean, fortunately for us as Republicans, we got them as opponents,
Jenny Beth Martin (00:41:24):
And they don't want the reforms made to Medicaid to ensure that there's not waste, fraud and abuse, which there clearly was in the system. So they're fighting for the things that are against what the American people want. As I've been around the country talking to people, I ask, Hey, what do you think about the shutdown? And sometimes I'm talking to people who know what I do, and other times it might just be an Uber driver or someone at a hotel. Most of the time people are just like, yeah, it isn't affecting me. They're not affected by it. They still have to work. They still have to do their job, and it doesn't have a big impact on their life. It seems like the people where it has the most impact or those TSA agents, the military people whose family members work for the government, and especially those who are still having to go to work every day right now and they're not getting a paycheck. Those are the ones I think, who are feeling the brunt of it. And I think the Democrats are making a very bad strategic move right now. I know they think that they are in the right and they're appealing to their base, but their base is not giving them a safe landing pad. They've not given them any place where they can land this helicopter and live to fight another day. They're determined to keep going and keep going, and there's no end in sight. And that is a real problem.
John McLaughlin (00:42:54):
Absolutely. Absolutely. And you're right, you do travel the country. You live where real voters live, and not these Washington people, but there's elections that matter today. I mean, there's elections in 31 states, 20,000 elected officials, and a lot of those elected officials have more impact on your life than somebody in Washington. So we've got to make sure that our voters go out today and they vote and they vote for the conservatives that will defend working middle class voters. That's what this is about. And then next year, we've really got to work hard because if Trump voters stay home, we'll lose control of the house and they'll just be back at the same old higher spending increase taxes, and the government will be interfering everybody's lives and they'll be telling us what to do and what our kids need to do. And you'll have more of these transgender men playing girls sports and bizarre stuff like that. So I think the worst thing that could happen now is Trump voters to be complacent. Our work has only started again, so it's not anywhere near finish.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:44:08):
That is absolutely right. We cannot expect President Trump to be able to carry the entire load of the whole country and think that there's not responsibility for each and every voter to help ensure that we protect liberty and pass it on to the next generation. Right now, today, it's going to vote in these off-year elections. Tomorrow it will be getting ready and being involved in campaigns across the entire country as we head into the 2020. Well, it's hard to believe it's almost 2026, but the 2026 midterms and continuing to do all that we can to get the government back reopened. And one of the things we're working on at Tea Pretty Pet Treats action now is to impeach Boberg who needs to be held accountable for the Arctic for his part in Arctic Frost. And there are going to be a lot of people who need to be held accountable with that.
John McLaughlin (00:45:02):
Yeah, no, I'm for that because somehow my brother, Jim was my partner in the firm told me, I'm listed in the Arctic first stuff that they spied on, and I guess my crime was being Donald Trump's pollster, but there were a lot of people that they were spying on elected officials, they were spying. It's just unbelievable the abuse of power. I mean for those, see, you're younger than me, but those of us who grew up when Nixon was president, this is the kind of stuff that the left accused Nixon of, and they did it. They did it. Barack Obama was president or Joe Biden was president, and they basically are spying on us. They're making up stuff. They're colluding with the CIA with John Brennan. I mean, it's just unbelievable the way they corrupted the CIA, the FBI and people in Congress. God bless Jim Jordan, looking into what he's looking into and Congressman Cole, what he's looking into.
(00:46:00):
But we've got to put in safeguards so they don't do this again. There needs to be the people that perpetrated these crimes and the fake prosecutions of Donald Trump. They need to be held accountable, which means that if they broke the law, they should be punished. And if there are laws that don't protect individuals from this kind of government spying, government persecution of innocent people, because I know people that had to shell out hundreds of thousands of dollars for lawyers they can't afford. I mean, there's a case of, I guess the one case that hasn't fallen apart is up in Wisconsin where Jim Trpa, the Attorney General, is still prosecuting him for basically looking into the 2020 elections. And that was a state where they did say there was fraud, where you had people that were saying they were permanently disabled, tens of thousands of bills they permanently disabled. Well, they weren't casting ballots. And the attorney General was the Democrat is going after the lawyer, Jim Roufus, for trying to make sure it was a safe and fair election and nobody's paying attention. But in the meantime, he's had to rack up legal bills in the millions.
(00:47:11):
So they're ruining people's lives for doing what Democrats do all along. And then you're just trying, but you're playing by the rules. You're trying to make sure elections are honest and they don't want to have any of that. Their persecution is totally one-sided, and a lot times it's absolutely fabricated and made up, and we've got to stop that. That's just two party patriots are great because you stand up for liberty and freedom and protecting the innocent, and God bless you for that. But if we don't pursue these things and hold people accountable, they'll be back at it again if they ever take control of the White House.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:47:52):
That's absolutely right. John and I don't remember everything about Watergate. You're right about that. But I do know you were not wrong when you mentioned President Obama because he also weaponized the government against Tea party groups. And while we were not spied on the IRS was asking for the content of prayers for book lists from tea party groups around the country, they wanted backdoor access to our website so they could go in and see our website and our database. They wanted lists of donors so they were not legally entitled to have, they had a chilling effect on tea party groups across the entire country. It costs those local leaders thousands of dollars in accounting fees to be able to defend themselves against the IRS. It costs my organizations so much money because of the amount of time that we had to put into it because we were supporting people from so many people from all over the country.
(00:48:53):
And now in the documents that came out last week related to Arctic Frost, now as far as I know my, our bank accounts were not subpoenaed. We may find out later that they were, but right now, as far as we can tell, our bank accounts were not subpoenaed. And I know for certain, I never had to go before the FBI to speak, but I did have to go before the J six committee. And in the documents that came out last week with the additional names in it, my name is in there as well, but my name, it's awful, and I don't like the fact that my name was in there. But when you talk about the people that you were just mentioning, or David Schafer in Georgia, or Mike Roman from Pennsylvania, or Jake Hoffman and Tyler Boyer out in Arizona and the electors around the entire country who've been swept up into criminal probes that stemmed from Arctic Frost, the president himself was swept up in this.
(00:49:47):
And the target of it, its political retribution. It is the raw, most abusive thing I've ever seen with government power. And we have to hold those people accountable. There need to be consequences. Legally, if they broke the law, there need to be consequences. They should never have a position in government again. They should lose their jobs, lose their pensions, lose their benefits, and Americans need to see, and the people who work in the government need to see, we've held them accountable because I can tell you if they don't, which they did not with the IRS, when the IRS targeted me personally, my groups and tea party groups, the entire country, when they were not held accountable, I warned then the targeting and the weaponization will only get worse, and we've seen worse. And I think if this continues, it'll be worse at the federal level and it will embolden and empower a bureaucrats at the state level to weaponize their state governments as well. So I'm with you. There has to be accountability for that.
John McLaughlin (00:50:51):
Yep.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:50:51):
John, as we're about to wrap up, let me ask you a couple of rapid fire questions. You just had a poll that came out and October is in the middle of the shutdown. Were there any things that you saw on that poll that were surprising to you? And if so, what were the most surprising things from the poll?
John McLaughlin (00:51:09):
Well, I think the surprising thing was the amount of voters who actually want to replace Jerome Powell, and they knew who he was and he's polarized. So I think when you talk with likely voters, they definitely, that was a surprising finding because there's a brilliance to the American voters that they know what they want to know and they pay attention to what they want to pay attention to. And a lot of times the people inside the beltway in Washington don't understand because they're not listening. And if you ask them questions, they'll tell you what they think. So that I think was a big surprise. But a surprise is compared to our results, like you said, where the majority of people still approve the job that the president's doing, and the Republicans have a slightly for Congress, that's a pleasant surprise because the media has gone back to the fake polls where they literally are manufacturing polls that are polluted with non-voters.
(00:52:10):
Like the Washington Post poll used an Ipsos panel, Ipsos panels, people online that they recruit that have a liberal bias that, and they put it out there with a straight face saying that Trump's disliked. And most people don't approve. And they don't approve his policies. Well, the whole poll is skewed by 20 points. So that's a surprise. But the things that concern me is when you ask about the taxes, when you ask about if the country's in recession or not in recession, then the not recession is at 53% in recession is 41. So there's still people that think we're not doing as well. Is the economy getting better or worse? For a while it was getting better and it broke 40% saying it was getting better. And then at some point in September, it started turning the other way. Well, you got 58% saying it's getting worse.
(00:53:03):
And the reason they think it's getting worse is mainly tied to inflation, only 36% better and the right direction. We still have 40% saying the country's going in the right direction, 55 saying wrong track. And that seems to have taken a little step backwards, but it's not where it was when Biden was president or Obama was, what is it, two thirds. And when you ask them, for example, about the Trump tax cuts, do they think, and this shows you the media bias, if they think it's more of a spending bill, 38%, if it's more of a tax cut, it's 42, it was even before, but now it's like only 42% say it's a tax cut because those are the ones that pay attention, right? Of center media, those are the ones listening to your podcast. The ones who listen to the mainstream media, it's a spending bill, and they don't never talk about the tax cuts.
(00:53:59):
And then when you ask them, do they approve or disapprove of the Trump tax cuts they approved 47 42, well, that's an improvement over the last couple of polls, but it's still not over 50%. So we've got a lot of work to do to get a message out that there is a tax cut that, because people don't get paychecks anymore. When Reagan cut taxes, you had a paycheck, you could see your net pay went up from payroll paycheck to paycheck. Now, because you're paying with credit cards and you're getting bank deposits and electronic transfers for your paycheck, you're not really seeing it and you're not seeing it until you do your taxes next year. But we've got to get the message out that the tax cuts are there, that they're working, and that's the part of the Democrats know this and they're trying to run it down.
(00:54:49):
And what we've got to do is we've got to make sure that instead of letting them run us down, we've got to tell our story that the economy is growing again, inflation is coming down, but we've got a lot of work to do because we've got a lower interest rates. We've got to keep the economy growing. We got to create more and better paying jobs so people feel like they're doing better. But that's a daily chore. That's President Trump and his administration have quite a challenge. They still have a lot of opponents that would love us to be out of power, and they would take control again. And you'd be back to the bad old days when Biden was president or even though a lot of people personally like Barack Obama, they didn't like the policies, they didn't like the direction of the country. That's how Donald Trump got elected in 2016.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:55:35):
Absolutely. And then very quickly, if you could advise the Republicans in the House and the Senate, what would your piece of advice be for them?
John McLaughlin (00:55:45):
Play offense. Follow Donald Trump's lead. Draw a sharp contrast with the Democrats, what they stand for. Hold them accountable for why they shut down the government. Why they don't want to pay the military every day. Why they don't want to pay border patrol? Why they don't want to pay law enforcement? Why don't they want to pay air traffic controllers? Why don't they even want to, don't even want to give food stamps to people anymore. They're starving people just for the sake of their own power. So the Republicans have to play offense. We have to go sharp contrast with 'em. They want to raise your taxes. We want to lower your taxes. They want more inflation, more government spending. We want lower government spending. We want to have a secure border, and we want you to be safe in your communities. They want an open border with more criminal legals, more fentanyl.
(00:56:36):
I mean, president Trump is like intercepting drug dealers who are trying to smuggle drugs into the United States, and the Democrats want to defend. It's just bizarre. And he's trying to bring peace to the world and keep America out of military conflicts. And the Democrats, they just want to go back to the failed Biden foreign policies. So we need very strong contrast with who the Democrats are and what they stand for and what Republicans represent, but it's our issues. So I could see a lot of Tea Party Patriots scorecards for congressional races and Senate races being created now that will hold up through all election year next year.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:57:20):
That's a really good idea, John. I appreciate that idea, and I appreciate your time today. And one of the things that I heard you say earlier, and I'm going to look down at my notes. I believe that you said that across America that 60% of Americans still favor free market ideas versus socialism. Is that correct?
John McLaughlin (00:57:39):
Yep. When you phrase the question free market capitalism versus big government socialism, you get that result. If you leave big government out, socialism scores higher because younger voters think about it, A lot of voters in the United States were born after 1989. If you were born before 1989, what was socialism? It was the Soviet Union. It was communist China, it was Cuba. You had Fidel Castro in Cuba, you had really bad corrupt government, big government socialists, they were communists. Now, if you're born after that, socialism is Finland, Sweden. It's not quite the same. I mean, Russia's an oligarchy, and it's not communism, but it's not a good place either. I'm sure Putin shoots his pollster, but it's like when you frame it big government socialism versus free market capitalism, and that's what capitalism is about. It's about free markets and freedom. So when you phrase it that way you get a 60 to 15 roughly on average result.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:58:53):
Alright, well I want us to remember that no matter what happens with the elections tonight, remember that the majority of Americans favor free market capitalism and oppose big government socialism. So no matter happens in New York. Hold onto that. And that is our hope and that our charge from John McLaughlin, who is one of the best pollsters in the country and has been and is President Trump's pollster, he's telling us we need to be on offense. We need to show a strong contrast between what we stand for versus what the other side stands for. And we need to get to work on the 2026 midterms right away. If you haven't voted today, please make sure you go and vote if you have voting in your state, if you're in one of the 31 seats that has elections today, go vote. Bring some friends with you. Make sure everyone is voting for conservatism and for constitutionally limited government. John, thank you so much for joining me today. I'm very glad that you were with me.
John McLaughlin (00:59:54):
Well, thank you for everything you do. Thank you for the opportunity and thank the Tea Party Patriots for what you've done over the years and keep us in the right direction and there's a lot of work still ahead that we've got to do.
Jenny Beth Martin (01:00:06):
Thank you. And to my audience, thank you so much for joining me and I'll be back tomorrow at one o'clock Eastern Time with the Jenny Beth Show. See you then. The Jenny Beth Show is hosted by Jenny Beth Martin. The Jenny Beth Show is a production of Tea Party Patriots action. For more information, visit tea party patriots.org. I.