Trump's Canada Trade War Is Destroying Republicans in the Exact States They Need to Win

Jessica Tarlov is joined by Katie Phang, lawyer, legal analyst, and host of the MeidasTouch podcast Sidebar with Katie Phang. They open discussing Trump’s trade war with Canada, which is now landing squarely on the swing-state Republicans who were hoping tariffs had faded from the headlines. Border state lawmakers in Maine and Michigan are feeling the blowback, as are agricultural strongholds like Iowa and North Carolina. Trump's move to temporarily ease tariffs on imported beef has rural GOP lawmakers worried, especially after the FDA issued multiple meat recalls including one this month on ground beef imported from Argentina. Is this Trump simply not caring about down-ballot Republicans? Jess and Katie check in on the current civil war in the Democratic party. Will the establishment wing move left, after a number of DSA primary wins across the country? Have the Democratic purity tests gone too far? The Trump administration has paused immigrant visa interviews at U.S. embassies and consulates worldwide, just days after a federal judge ruled that an earlier blanket visa freeze on 75 countries was unlawful. Simultaneously, the administration is preparing to revoke up to 200,000 business and tourism visas from foreigners who applied for asylum — potentially the single largest mass visa revocation in U.S. history. Katie breaks down the political calculus behind continuing these moves. Two days after the Supreme Court handed the Trump administration a procedural win on their efforts to restrict mail-in voting, Democratic-led states are back in court, challenging the finalized USPS rule that would restrict who gets mailed a ballot. Katie assesses the true implications of the SCOTUS ruling, in light of the ongoing nationwide injunction that still blocks the rule for November, and whether the real strategy here is simply to sow enough confusion to suppress turnout. Meta has agreed to settle claims from a bipartisan coalition of state attorneys general that it knowingly designed Instagram and Facebook to be addictive to children — agreeing to pay up to $17.1 billion and committing to new usage restrictions for under-18 users. Is this a genuine reckoning for social media — or a settlement that lets the industry off the hook? In South Carolina, Darline Graham — sister of the late Senator Lindsey Graham — has won her GOP runoff and will face Democratic nominee Dr. Annie Andrews in November. Kalshi has Graham winning the seat at 86%. Katie weighs in on whether a Democrat could ever realistically compete in this race. And finally, remembering Dolly Parton. Dolly, you will be missed.