Uh, speaking of the midterms, I want to talk about this ad that we saw, pretty remarkable ad from a Republican lawmaker earlier this week, uh, from Republican Congresswoman Maria Salazar.

We have a bit of a clip of that.

Mr.

President, some of your immigration enforcement efforts have gone too far.

Be careful what your advisers are telling you about immigration policies.

You can be for immigration what Lincoln was for slavery and Reagan was for communism.

She represents a district in Miami that Trump won by 15 points in 2024.

She also voted to fund ICE.

Leanne, why is she making this pivot?

She's terrified.

This is a this is a Hail Mary 7 weeks before her re her reelection or her campaign.

Um, you know, I was talking to uh a member of Congress um the former mayor of Miami who has a neighboring district to Congresswoman Salazar.

This was just two weeks ago.

And he was telling me that um how the administration's uh over um what they did with ICE, how it went too far was really detrimental for for them politically.

Um he personally felt confident, but he said that he and Congresswoman Salazar have had many conversations with the administration telling them how bad this is for them politically.

They have very Hispanic districts.

Um uh James Blair uh the president's you know political adviser was on the hill a couple weeks ago.

They both mis gave him the same exact message then.

Um and so since the president and the administration does not seem to be listening to them.

She obviously felt that it was necessary to try to get that message out.

Uh we'll see if it works.

We're seeing the polling where Hispanic voters are breaking from the president in an tremendous amount um compared to how they were in 2024.

Uh and so this is a very difficult political moment for some of these Republican lawmakers.

She's also facing uh she herself is CubanAmerican and her opponent this cycle is a fellow Cuban American.

They're both former TV broadcasters.

So I know I just think it's really interesting.

But u that's terrible.

Um but I was talking to someone who was actually consulting her opponent earlier today and um one of the things they mentioned is that immigration is huge.

Miami day that area is I believe the largest immigrant county in the nation or one of the largest if not and secondly it's affordability uh which I hadn't totally computed but the cost of living and affordability with housing in Miami has really skyrocketed.

It's always been high but I I think those dual pressures are really putting uh putting her under pressure.

I believe she won her district black time by 20 points.

And so to me it suggests uh a real sense that she is scared about what the polling is showing.

Yeah, I'm sure.

Um Aean, I want to ask you about the Federal Reserve announcement from this week.

So we saw Kevin Worsh, the Fed chairman, raise interest rates.

This is the first time this has happened since 2023.

Leading up to this announcement, the president was making threats on Truth Social to end trade with countries that the United States has a trade deficit with.

if the Fed uh raised these rates, which is what Worsh ended up doing.

But so far, we've not seen him, the president, carry out this threat, why not?

What is his relationship like with Worsh right now?

It's a fascinating dynamic, right?

Because this was a big test for Worsh to see to say that he is his own man.

He is independent.

The Fed has this tradition of being independent from American politics, which the Fed values very intensely.

And the president does not believe is a thing.

And he doesn't want the Fed to be independent.

He wants the Fed to do what he wants.

And this president wants lower interest rates.

He He comes from a career as a builder where you borrow a lot of money in order to do a project.

And the lower the interest rate is, the more you can build, the more money you can make, the better the economy is.

That's just how he sees the economy.

And he doesn't really agree with the argument that you have to raise interest rates from time to time to slow down the economy, to stop inflation.

He doesn't process that argument at all.

That's the argument that the Fed is making right now and that's the argument they're being pushed to make by markets.

And so Walsh had to do this incredible dance this week where he had to do the thing that he knew the president didn't want him to do and he had to do it in a way without getting the mean tweets from the president.

And he seems to have really finessed it with some behind-the-scenes maneuvering.

We're hear we're hearing reporting of a phone call between Trump and Walsh before the decision.

And Trump seems to be saying that, well, there there's a board and WH doesn't have total control here, which is true.

And so I'm gonna let WH do this, but you get the sense that in Trump's mind anyway, there is a limited amount of runway for Walsh here.

And so the October decision will be really fascinating to watch just before the midterms.

Does he hike again?

Market expectations are that he will have to hike again.

Uh will the president tolerate that one?

This is the first out of the gate.

He's getting a little running room.

Is this kind of a honeymoon period for Wars?

The thing that Worsh is doing so well, I think, and it's something Powell, I think, did way back, you know, during the first term when the president actually picked him.

But, um, but what Worsh is doing is managing the president and he's doing it in a way where, uh, the president still believes in him.

I do think it's a honeymoon phase.

I think you're totally right.

I mean, we'll see.

Maybe he gets another month, you know, who know, or at the next meeting.

Um, but he is managing him well.

We know that they have spoken in the past.

We know that the president and him, they have a relationship.

Worsh is very close with a lot of the president's closest allies as well.

Um, and he does see it.

I think you're totally right.

He's been blaming.

He did have angry tweets.

They were just not angry tweets directed at Worsh.

They were angry tweets directed at everyone else.

He's like, he's he's different from them.

The board's holding Worsh back.

But I think Worsh is being very smart in how he's handling the president here.

And and the reality is Worsh has the upper hand, right?

He is the Fed chair.

The Fed is independent despite what the president would like to think.

Yeah.

And we've seen a Supreme Court ruling in that.

Absolutely.

And so he can hike rates and just tell the president to lump it.

But he's being very diplomatic about it.

He doesn't want to have that confrontation or at least not until it's absolutely inevitable.

Let's talk about the Kennedy Center because this is the performing arts center for the country and the it's a monument to a slain president here and President Trump has become really obsessed with this topic of putting his name on the Kennedy Center.

They did that a few months ago and they were told by a court to take his name off of it.

Elena, do you think that people should brush off these threats from the president that he's making as just bluster that he wants to demolish the center now, or do you think that that could actually happen?

It's so hard to engage in that hypothetical.

I mean, I guess not hypothetical.

He was holding a poster on Air Force One the other night that said Kennedy Center demolished.

Um, I'm not sure.

I don't think he wants it to be demolished.

I think a lot of that is provocative language to try and get people to do what he wants.

Um he wants the Kennedy Center to thrive.

He's obsessed with it.

He sees it as another uh it's it's similar to his fixation with all the other projects he's working on around DC with the ballroom to the Lincoln Memorial to the arch that he's trying to build.

He sees the Kennedy Center similarly and he does want credit for it.

He was asked about it today actually.

I think it was an NBC reporter said, "Why are you so obsessed with putting your name on a building to that was, you know, to honor a lane president?"

and he went back to this idea of he believes if they're going to put in uh time and effort to renovate it that he uh should get credit for it.

Um the thing that's just so striking to me is we know there's a ton of old buildings around Washington.

They renovated all the time and stay open even or if they most of the time I think they stay open or they close a bit.

No one's like I'm not sure the Kenny I was there a couple months ago.

I don't know if it really needs to be demolished, you know.

So, uh, this is and I do think before people he even gets there, there would be legal battles that prevent that from but this is a president who took a wrecking ball to the east wing.

Right.

Yes.

And so he he's capable of moving overnight to do this kind of thing.

And I think he's he's a type of person who certainly would if he felt thwarted.

And Leanne, the Hill could have oversight on this project, on the arch, on some of the other things we were talking about.

What are Democrats saying that would happen if they retake power after the midterms?

So, I I talked to Congress Congressman Jared Huffman, who is the ranking member of the Natural Resources Committee in the House just this week about all of this.

Um, if Democrats take control, he will be the chair.

Uh, he oversees the park service budget, which oversees all of these renovations that are happening.

First, I asked him, "Where is the president getting this money to do all of this because Congress hasn't appropriated it?"

and he said he's not sure.

All he knows is they are moving money around illegally um to do what the president wants around DC.

Secondly, he already has a very long list of investigations that he wants to pursue.

He obviously doesn't have subpoena power now.

Um but this is going to be a top priority for him.

And one thing I will say is I'm assuming and you guys would know better that the president's adviserss um are hoping and praying that he does not demolish the Kennedy Center because when you look at the president's polling when he demolished the East Wing that is when his numbers really started to drop and this is something that is absolutely not that was not popular with the public and so I think that it could be even worse for the president in the midterms.

Yeah.

And I think this is a visual thing that people see and they understand um you know the importance of these buildings around Washington DC.

So we're going to have to leave it there, but thank you to our guests for joining me and thank you at home for watching us.

I'm Liz Landers.

Good night from Washington.