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Jane Coaston: It’s Wednesday, May 6th. I’m Jane Coaston, and this is What a Day, the show that is making it clear. Do not follow President Donald Trump’s fitness advice. Here he is on Tuesday speaking during a press conference celebrating the return of the presidential fitness test. 

[clip of President Donald Trump] I work out so much, like, about one minute a day max. 

Jane Coaston: Please just go for a walk. On today’s show, does Iran have kamikaze dolphins? And who’s actually paying for Trump’s ballroom? The answer will probably not surprise you. [music break] Let’s start with the buzzword of the 2026 midterms, affordability. Fighting for an affordable future for every American is a pretty solid political strategy, which may be why Trump is annoyed that Democrats are using it. Here he is at an event at a Florida retirement community last week 

[clip of President Donald Trump] I come into office and I say, wow, look at how high these prices are. And the Democrats start screaming, affordability, affordability, they’re the ones that caused the problem. I’ll tell you one thing, they got one good line of bullshit. That’s one thing I’ll say about it. 

Jane Coaston: But he’s annoyed for a good reason. Well, not good for him. See, Americans have noticed that Trump has not made good on his campaign promise to make America affordable again. A new Washington Post ABC News poll found that just 23% of Americans like how Trump is handling the cost of living, which could explain why he has a 62% disapproval rating in that same poll. Some Democrats are seeing an opportunity, not just to beat Trump, but to come up with a strategy to move forward as a party. That’s why last week, members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus announced the New Affordability Agenda, a series of bills intended to help Americans’ wallets. But can they convince the voters who believed in Trump’s economic plan back in 2024? To find out, I spoke to Texas Democratic Representative Greg Casar. He’s the chair of the congressional progressive caucus. Representative Casar, welcome to What a Day. 

Greg Casar: Thanks for having me. 

Jane Coaston: Last week, the Congressional Progressive Caucus, of which you are the chair, announced a package of bills called the New Affordability Agenda. There’s a lot going on here, a lot of pieces. So can you give me the elevator pitch? What is the new affordability agenda? 

Greg Casar: The new affordability agenda is our list of fresh, bold policies that will save the average American family money. Every single family that I know of in my district is struggling with the basics, the utility bills, the grocery bill, the increased gas prices. And this is the Progressive Caucus’ response, saying there are things we can do to save every American family a ton of money by going after the corporate interests. The super powerful, the ultra rich that are screwing you over. 

Jane Coaston: How will these bills do that? 

Greg Casar: Well, let’s just get into the specifics of, say, one of them, a bill called the Lower Utility Bills Act that I introduced chair of the Progressive Caucus alongside Josh Riley, who represents one of the most competitive and one of the more conservative districts that any Democrat in the country represents. And what we are seeing is that people’s electric bills have gone up sometimes 50 percent. Just in the last few years. And these for-profit companies are doing things like charging their new private jets to you, saying they need to raise your utility bill for that. They’re asking for crazy profits. Sometimes a fourth of your bill is just their profit, way more than a normal business. And so this bill says, screw that, that is no longer allowed. So we have bills like that. We have bills to cap childcare costs at $10 a day for most Americans. At max 7% of your income, attack the big costs hitting your life because we can’t just say the word affordability over and over again and expect that’s going to win us an election. People are looking for our real ideas. People know that we oppose Trump and we should continue to do so and hold them accountable. But then we also have to have a pitch on how we’re going to make your everyday life better. 

Jane Coaston: You’ve said in various conversations that your focus here is on American workers. You did a lot of traveling around after the 2024 election, talking to people, talking to people in red states, talking to people who voted for Trump and talking to workers. But President Biden tried focusing on workers. He was very pro-worker, very pro union. He joined an auto worker picket line. He did a lotta things that I think a lot of people who are pro-union, pro-labor would have dreamed of. And still a lot of American workers, even people who benefited from those policies, voted for Trump in 2024. Why do you think this plan will get them on board with Democrats? 

Greg Casar: Look, there has always been a part of the party that has been pushing a more working class agenda and I support it and push for many of those great things that Joe Biden did, but there’s another part of the party, especially after this election lost to Donald Trump, that are asking for us to go the opposite way or corporate forces that are saying we should just roll over and play dead, not have an agenda this election, just point out how bad Trump is. But that would be a huge failing and a huge problem because while holding Trump accountable is very important, it can’t be all we do because so many of the voters I talked to that voted for Trump this time that maybe voted for Biden last time said that they didn’t know if we were willing to stand up to the special interests that are screwing them over, that are upset with the system. And while I agreed with so much of what Joe Biden did and said while in office, I think what he said at a big donor meeting once, that nothing will fundamentally change. Uh. I think that is a big problem. I think we need to turn the page on that and say, no, we actually do need things to fundamentally change. We need for there to be a really significant new tax on millionaires and billionaires and corporations. We need big pharma to make less money for you to have cheaper prescription drugs. We need to tax the huge windfall profits the oil companies are making right now off of this war and give the money back to you. So I think we need to double down on the pro-worker part of the Joe Biden agenda, um and make sure that we don’t just sort of fall into, let’s say we win the majority, which would be very challenging, but I think we will do it, um and then if all we do is Trump accountability, folks won’t find out what Democrats are really for. 

Jane Coaston: I think a better way for me to ask this question is what we saw in 2024 was Democrats were like, here’s a list of all the things that we have done on behalf of workers and folks who are struggling. Here are the ways in which we are trying to improve your life. And Trump offered, their for they/them, I’m for you. Are we trying to solve a cultural problem with politics and policy? 

Greg Casar: Yeah we cannot come to this knife fight with a policy book. In part, of course, these are policies and as a policy maker, we should have them on the campaign trail. We should know what we’re going to vote for in the majority. But this is also different than your typical list of policies coming from a policymaker. The policies of the new affordability agenda tell a story and they pick a fight. Donald Trump knew how to tell a story and how to pick a flight. He said, your rent is higher because of Venezuelan asylum seekers. He said, your health care is worse because of the LGBT community. But it wasn’t a Venezuelan mom who jacked up your rent. It was Wall Street hedge funds. It’s not woke politics or LGBT youth that are making your health care worse. It’s big pharma CEOs. And so we need to be willing to pick the villains in the story and make sure it’s the real villains and that we solve the real problems. Because so many of the voters we’ve lost think that we’re the party of the status quo. If you go and ask them, that’s what you hear every single day. They may not have gotten the message from Washington DC or the consultants. They just sense that the Democratic party is wishy washy or not strong or just as bought off by special interests as anybody else. We’ve got to break free of that and point out who the real villains in the story are. That way we can re-solidify our base, bring solidarity back into the story and take on the folks that are really screwing folks over rather than allowing Donald Trump to scapegoat the vulnerable. 

Jane Coaston: Now, Trump has been constantly touting his worker-friendly policies. And I’m using air quotes because a lot of the policies he’s talking about, the big, beautiful bills, no tax on tips and overtime, the small business summit he hosted this week, a lot those when you get into the nitty gritty, you’re like, hang on a second, this actually doesn’t do very much for people. But how can you talk to voters and say, you know, Democrats are for workers when what they heard during the election and what they’ve heard recently is, oh, you know, no tax on tips, here’s what Trump has done. You know, you mentioned you don’t wanna get into a knife fight with policy, but how are we able to kind of go tit for tat, how are you able to fight Trump on these issues given that he has said that he wants to lower the cost of living, he hasn’t. And you know, he’s talked about being president of the American worker, how do you contest that? 

Greg Casar: Well, look, everything’s gotten more expensive. Inflation is higher this year than it was last year and the year before that. And no matter how much propaganda Trump puts out there, uh you cannot deny the fact that people are struggling right now and their bank accounts are running out at the end of the month. And so we have to step into that and say, not only that we’re against what Trump is doing, screwing you over and having lied to you, I think we need simple proposals. That will immediately improve your life. So when I go, and as I have gone to about half a dozen Republican-held districts and talked to independent voters and voters that went the other way last election, folks say, okay, that guy, I voted for him, I voted for Trump, he lied to me, what are you going to do? And I think having something simple, not something that’s going to take years to implement, but something direct, like, okay the gas prices are up, we’re going to have a windfall profits tax on those guys in the oil industry that are making money hand over fist and send you a rebate of hundreds of dollars for the extra gas payments you’ve had to make, people get that. When Donald Trump is saying, yeah, you can write off on your taxes about this much of overtime and it winds up being not nearly as much as people thought, I think we go right at them and say our overtime plan is to make overtime pay double time. It should pay double your wage. We should update that law that hasn’t been updated in nearly 100 years so I think we need populist policies that go right to the point, rather than what the Democrats have sometimes done, which is instead of a headline policy, kind of get into the fine print and negotiate things that are gonna lower drug prices over the course of the next 10 years, because we’re gonna sort this and that out. For a lot of voters, they don’t see the change fast enough, and I think it has people lose face in democracy and in both parties. 

Jane Coaston: Representative Casar, thank you so much for joining me. 

Greg Casar: Thank you very much. 

Jane Coaston: That was my conversation with Texas Democratic Representative, Greg Casar. Unlike pretty much everything else right now, the price of this podcast is still $0. So if you want to support us another way, make sure to subscribe. Leave a five-star review on Spotify and Apple podcasts. Watch us on YouTube and share with your friends. More to come after some ads. [music break]

[AD BREAK]

[sung] Headlines. 

Jane Coaston: Here’s what else we’re following today. Joining me is Crooked’s news editor, Greg Walters, to talk about the big stories. Hey Greg. 

Greg Walters: Hey Jane. 

Jane Coaston: Okay, Greg, I have big news for you. We have officially reached the kamikaze dolphin stage of the war with Iran. At least judging by a question from a reporter from the Right Wing Daily Wire to Secretary of War/Little Boy Pete Hegseth and General Dan Caine on Tuesday morning. 

[clips of unnamed news reporter] For Secretary Hegseth, are there still concerns about mines in the Strait and can you kind of clarify these reports of kamikaze dolphins that we’ve heard about? 

[clip of Dan Caine] Mm. I haven’t heard the kamikaze dolphin thing. It’s like sharks with laser beams, right? 

[clip of Pete Hegseth] And I can’t confirm or deny whether we have kamikazee dolphins, but I can confirm they don’t. 

Jane Coaston: Kamikaze dolphins, Greg? 

Greg Walters: That’s right, Jane. Uh. Never mind the Navy SEALs, which is of course a human special ops team, we’re talking about actual dolphins. Our crack news team here at Crooked Media looked into this, and it seems to have started with a single report in the Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed Iranian officials who told the reporter that Iran might unleash, quote, mine-carrying dolphins to menace U.S. warships. 

Jane Coaston: I love unnamed Iranian officials. 

Greg Walters: They give some amazing quotes, um but okay, fact check. Some countries, including the US and the Soviet Union have trained up so-called military marine mammals, including dolphins and sea lions for stuff like mine detection. But the idea that Iran has like a fleet of killer dolphins that they’re about to unleash to, if you will, change the tide of war, for now is very, very thinly sourced. And there have been questionable reports on this sort of thing in the past, including the time Hamas claimed to have captured a, quote, “Israeli spy dolphin.” 

Jane Coaston: Yes, a real sentence that really happened in 2015. But I see that none of this hesitation and questioning stopped Fox News talking head Jesse Walters from just running with it like it was reality and claiming it shows that Iran is getting desperate. 

[clip of Jesse Walters] Kamikaze dolphins. The Persians want to strap mines to dolphins to weaponize the Strait. Don’t tell PETA. These rogues are desperate. 

Jane Coaston: Yeah, forcing Tehran to call in the war dolphins for backup shows Donald Trump has the Iranians right where he wants them. 

Greg Walters: Right, and it’s worth noting that General Caine’s first reaction to this whole thing was to quote Dr. Evil from Austin Powers, specifically the time he said, I have one simple request. 

[clip of Dr. Evil from Austin Powers] And that is to have sharks with frickin’ laser beams attached to their heads! 

Greg Walters: So that’s the stage we’re at in this war, Jane. And a reminder, Dr. Evil didn’t even get his laser sharks. He got ill-tempered mutated sea bass, but I digress. I think this entire conversation reflects the fact that the Trump administration is stuck in a very bad situation and speculation about how this log jam might get broken is getting downright weird because there are no easy answers. 

Jane Coaston: Yeah, so where are we with Trump’s master plan to guide tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, AKA project freedom? 

Greg Walters: The short answer is, Jane, it’s not going so hot. In fact, it is not going at all. Trump paused Project Freedom last night, supposedly in the name of boosting peace talks. But the blockade remains in place. And it’s worth noting that there has been quite a lot of shooting lately. Here’s General Caine on Tuesday morning. 

[clip of Dan Caine] Since the ceasefire was announced, Iran has fired at commercial vessels nine times and seized two container ships, and they’ve attacked U.S. Forces more than 10 times, all below the threshold of uh of restarting major combat operations. 

Jane Coaston: Greg, I am not a big war doer, but that seems like a lot of shooting for a ceasefire. 

Greg Walters: It does seem more than like what I would call a ceasefire, ceasefire, um you know, like you, not exactly like a war guy, but uh Trump is basically trying to tell us that this is no big deal. 

[clip of unnamed news reporter 2] Can I ask you about Iran, Mr. President? 

[clip of President Donald Trump] Yes. 

[clip of unnamed news reporter 2] Uh. They fired at U.S. ships several times in the last 24 hours. What do they need to do to violate the ceasefire? 

[clip of President Donald Trump] They fired them in little boats with pea shooters, you know what a pea shooter is? Little boat with little you know why because they don’t have any boats anymore their navy is comprised of they call them little boats. 

[clip of unnamed speaker] Fast [?] boats, or little boats. 

[clip of President Donald Trump] And they’re fast yeah they’re so fast that uh that they had eight of them and they’re all gone and they’re fast but they’re not fast like a missile, a missile is slightly faster. 

Jane Coaston: One, you’ll find out is not an answer, so he didn’t answer the question. But uh are those little boats faster than a dolphin, Greg? 

Greg Walters: I have no idea, someone should ask Pete Hegseth. Uh, but we also know that Project Freedom didn’t exactly crack open the Strait of Hormuz. We saw four ships go through the Strait on Monday, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence. Pete Hegseth said two U.S. Commercial ships went through accompanied by U.S. Destroyers. 

Jane Coaston: But before this war, the rate going through the Strait of Hormuz was something like 130 ships a day, right? 

Greg Walters: Right, so we’ve only got to go from four to 130 or just a 3,150% increase and we’re back in business. 

Jane Coaston: Speaking of business, let’s talk about the ballroom. 

[clip of unnamed news reporter 3] Back to the ballroom, I’m afraid. Um. I just wanted to ask, because in July the White House said it would cost $200 million. Yesterday the President said $300 million. Is $300 million now the operative figure, and why did it go up by so much? 

[clip of Karoline Leavitt] 300 million is the figure uh and again, it’s not going to cost the taxpayers a dime. 

Jane Coaston: That was in October of 2025. But in May 2026, you’re paying for the ballroom if the White House gets its way. 

Greg Walters: Right, I mean, I heard Mexico will pay for the wall, Jane, um but yeah, surprise, surprise Republican senators have slipped language seeking $1 billion for security aspects of the ballroom into their new immigration enforcement package, the one they’re hoping to ram through with no Democratic support. 

Jane Coaston: Now, this is the time in which I get to be very pedantic, because funnily enough, the actual text of the legislation says it can’t pay for the ballroom, just for security upgrades for the White House complex. Chuck Grassley’s spokesperson even told the Washington Post, quote, “this bill does not fund ballroom construction. But don’t tell the White House that, because the White House said in a statement Tuesday that the bill would pay for the ballroom. 

Greg Walters: Right, Jane, who are you going to believe? Chuck Grassley or your lying eyes? You know, I think that um saying that this ballroom will cost nothing except for the $1 billion security bill is a bit rich. It’s like saying that you get one free ballroom when you sign up for a ludicrously expensive monthly subscription package.  

Jane Coaston: Don’t judge what I get on cable. And somehow I feel confident that by next month we’ll have yet another explanation for how much Trump’s imperial ballroom will cost and who’s going to pay for it. But Greg, I would never let you pay for my ballroom. 

Greg Walters: The dolphins will pay for your ballroom, Jane. 

Jane Coaston: And that’s the news. 

[AD BREAK]

Jane Coaston: That’s all for today. If you like this show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, wonder at Delta’s decision to stop serving you a coke or a bag of pretzels on a short flight, and tell your friends to listen. And if you’re into reading, and not just about how, as of May 19th, Delta will no longer serve snacks or beverages on flights shorter than 350 miles, like DC to New York or LA to San Francisco. Like me, What a Day is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at Crooked.com/subscribe. I’m Jane Coaston. And where am I going to get a Biscoff cookie now? [music break] What a Day is a production of Crooked Media. It’s recorded and mixed by Desmond Taylor. Our associate producer is Emily Fohr. Our producer is Caitlin Plummer. Our video editor is Joseph Dutra. Our video producer is Johanna Case. We had production help today from Greg Walters, Matt Berg, and Ethan Oberman. Our senior producer is Erica Morrison, and our senior vice president of news and politics is Adriene Hill. Our theme music is by Kyle Murdock and Jordan Cantor. We had help today from the Associated Press. Our production staff is proudly unionized to the Writers Guild of America East. [music break]