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TRANSCRIPT

Jane Coaston: It’s Friday, March 27th, I’m Jane Coaston, and this is What a Day. The show that finds it inspiring that President Donald Trump will be the first president to put his signature on U.S. currency in more than 160 years. We’ve had some self-absorbed presidents since 1861. I’m looking at you, Warren Harding. But Trump, as usual, is reaching new heights. [music break] On today’s show, Trump reveals Iran’s so-called gift to the U.S. He also said he got $5 under his pillow from the tooth fairy. And if Trump has you feeling some type of way, now’s the chance to have your voice heard at a No Kings event tomorrow. But let’s start with young people, a category of Americans which, sadly, no longer includes me. Young voters are one of many groups that pushed Trump back into the White House in 2024. Some researchers saw this as a potentially massive realignment with game-changing implications for our politics. Were young people, traditionally a liberal cohort, moving to the right for real? A year and change later, I think we can safely say, nah. Trump’s polls are in the basement with pretty much everyone. But with young voters, Trump is 34 points underwater according to the Cook Political Report’s poll aggregator. And those polls were taken before Trump launched a war with Iran, a war most young people oppose. It’s no wonder that one fresh-faced attendee of the Conservative Political Action Conference, also known as CPAC, wasn’t feeling so great about the GOP’s chances in November. He spoke to CNN on Thursday. 

[clip of unnamed young voter] I think they would get destroyed in the midterms. I just I get the vibe, a lot of people I knew who just voted for Trump because they thought it was cool in like high school are just now just being like, I can’t stand the guy. 

Jane Coaston: Now here’s my question, and yours too, probably. Why did young voters trust Trump in the first place? Well, if you were 18 in 2024, voting in your first presidential election, Donald Trump had been a part of your political life since you were nine years old. And when Trump promised to bring down the cost of living, remember all the talk about groceries? A lot of young Americans believed him, but now they’re pretty pissed off. So what should Democrats do to reach young voters where they’re at? To find out, I spoke to Florida Democratic Representative, Maxwell Frost. He’s the first member of Gen Z to be elected to Congress. Representative Frost, welcome back to What a Day. 

Maxwell Frost: Thank you, thanks for having me on. 

Jane Coaston: Something I’ve been thinking about and noticing, obviously, is that young people, a swath of young people independent young people helped to elect President Trump in 2024. But now young people are some of the loudest voices expressing their distaste for the president’s actions. You are the only Gen Z representative in Congress. What are you hearing from your friends, people around you, young people about their concerns right now? 

Maxwell Frost: You know, the interesting thing is I think a lot of times, you know, in politics, people think young folks have like a different set of issues that they care about. 

Jane Coaston: Right. 

Maxwell Frost: But what I’ve found is young people don’t have a different set of issues they care about. They care about the same things everyone you know cares about, but they see it through a different lens and the way it impacts them might feel and seem a little different. And I’ll give an example. I started a satellite office on a college campus, University of Central Florida in my district. And, you know, I think, okay, we’re going to have a lot of young people asking about social issues and you know canceling student debt or like getting through student debt, stuff like that. Um. And we do have a lot of that. But actually, you want to know the top two issues? The top two issues on our college office are people who come and say, I’m hungry and I don’t have money for food. It’s like food insecurity. I couldn’t afford my meal plan this year, I don’t have any money to eat, are there any resources for me? And then number two, housing insecurity, people who are either homeless or they had to move out of their apartment or they were priced out. Sounds pretty familiar, right? Like this is what everybody’s going through in the entire country, it’s just young people are disproportionately impacted by a lot of this because we don’t haven’t accumulated a bunch of wealth that we have to help get us through these hard times. Um. And a lot of young people don’t have full time jobs with benefits. And so there’s a lot of issues that compound that create this environment where you feel like you’ve been lied to, like we were told our whole lives go to school, get good grades, go to college. You can go into debt because when you get out of college, you’ll have a good enough job to pay off all the debt and then you’ll be able to buy a house and it’s all BS. It’s like we were completely lied to and people are frustrated. And I think that’s one of the reasons why Donald Trump got 46% of the youth vote, right? Which is the most we’ve seen a Republican get in modern history. But the thing about it is, I don’t think the majority of those young people are people that would say they are conservatives or even Republicans. I think those are people who are frustrated with this system. And Donald Trump was the person running against it. He was the counterculture. And so he was able to garner a lot of the young people. And so the good news in that is that we can still win them back if we meet the moment with the policies that we’re putting forward. 

Jane Coaston: It’s so interesting to hear you talk about that because I graduated from college during the Great Recession, um and I remember those being like the primary issues we were facing, like all these companies were failing, everybody was losing their jobs. And it’s, it’s really tough for me to see that one of the major challenges, again, young people are facing is a stagnant job market. What can the government realistically do to support young Americans as they navigate such an uncertain economy? 

Maxwell Frost: There’s a lot of different things we can do. I mean, I think number one is we have to do a lot more work in supporting uh different paths for young people as they graduate high school. College is important. It can be a path for a lot of people, but how are we helping to get people into apprenticeships with unions, right? And getting people the skills they need to go into the trades or other jobs like that. I mean, the fact of the matter is there were a lot of young people that just 10 years ago were told, go learn how to code and go become like a software engineer and you’ll have a job forever. And now because of new technological advances and AI and stuff, those jobs are being completely decimated. Um. And so the question is, what are we doing? What resources are we putting in to help with job skills training, helping people who spent all this money getting a degree and getting an education that might not be as useful right now and helping to move them to other work as well. But you know I think the bigger part of this is I think we really need to be talking about what a federal jobs guarantee looks like um for all people in this country, especially as technology continues to advance. And especially as we don’t know the answers to everything. You know, they talk about AI, for instance. We don’t what kind of jobs will be impacted the most in two years and three years and four years. We just don’t know. And so what we have to do as legislators is figure out how do we prepare for that not knowing exactly what it is. There’s a lot of work that needs to be done in this country, right? In terms of energy, in terms of infrastructure, et cetera. Let’s put people to work. Um. And I think that’s a popular thing that we can do and it would be helpful. 

Jane Coaston: Yeah, and you mentioned AI, and one of the threats or potential threats to new job seekers is AI. On Wednesday, Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez introduced a bill to put a moratorium on new AI data centers until, quote, “strong national safeguards are put in place.” You’ve expressed your support for the idea. What AI safeguards would you like to see? 

Maxwell Frost: The moratorium, I think, is an interesting idea. I did express support for it. However, I will say the more I’ve looked into it, it seems to be that you know if we were to do a moratorium for a year, it would really only halt things for like a month if that, just because of the speed at which AI is being, number one, funded, um and the speed at which these companies are going. And so the whole point of it is to try to halt things as Congress legislates, but it’s like, do we think Congress will come up with AI regulation in a year? I don’t know. I don’t feel too good about that. 

Jane Coaston: I also don’t feel very good about that. 

Maxwell Frost: Yeah. 

Jane Coaston: Representative. 

Maxwell Frost: Yeah, yeah so so I’m not saying no to the idea now, I’m just saying it’ like things we have to think about that you know that might be good, but like what else? And I think on the data center part of things, obviously the top concerns are impacts to the environment, um obviously kind of the macro environment, like our humanity and our species and global warming, et cetera, but also just the environment of communities that they exist in. And then also energy costs going up for those same communities. And we’ve actually seen a lot of state legislatures across the country try to move forward um legislation to ensure that any additional burden isn’t felt by the actual rate payers and by people in those communities, but those companies have to pay um for any hikes that go up as well. I think that’s like something we need to do um to make sure people aren’t paying more for these data centers and also that we do more to mitigate the fact that they’re bad for the environment. I think those two things are really important, but I think like the issue is even, it’s just a lot bigger than that as well um because I’m very concerned about the fact that we don’t know what’s coming. We need to set up our government to ensure that the basic things that we believe should be a right of all Americans are provided, right? Like. Medicare for all is one of the most important things we can do with the ambiguity of the future in the job market. Why? Because your healthcare should not be connected to your job, it should be connected to the fact that you’re a human that’s alive in this country right now, right? That’s one thing. The federal jobs guarantee is another one of them. So we do need to have common sense guardrails on AI and we need to get them passed. I’m just concerned about Congress’s ability to actually do it and have it not written by some company. 

Jane Coaston: And just to go back to a point you made earlier to clarify, how would a year long moratorium only slow things down for a month? 

Maxwell Frost: Part of the argument on that is that a lot of these data centers already exist and a lot of these companies would try to build them outside of the jurisdiction of the United States to continue what they’re doing. Um. And so it might not have the full impact that we’re that we’re thinking it might have. I’m not saying that’s a good reason not to do it or you know what I mean? 

Jane Coaston: Right. 

Maxwell Frost: I’m just saying there might be some other places we need to look at in terms of keeping things at bay as we figure out, you know, what kind of legislation we’re putting forward. And I haven’t read the bill that they put forward, but it shouldn’t be placed on a timetable like one year, two years, three years, but would have to be connected to our product, like us legislating on it. That way it puts pressure on us to actually get something out the door. Because I just feel like if you put a year, or two years or three years on it, nothing will get done. 

Jane Coaston: Right. 

Maxwell Frost: So you know if the whole point of it is to add pressure on Congress to legislate on it, I think the best way to do it is conneced to us actually passing some sort of legislation. 

Jane Coaston: Representative Frost, as always, thank you so much for joining me. 

Maxwell Frost: Thanks for having me. Appreciate it. 

Jane Coaston: That was my conversation with Florida Democratic Representative Maxwell Frost. Look, I don’t have a fun Gen Z thing to say here because I am a millennial. But if you’re young and cool, or just cool in general, make sure to subscribe, leave a five-star review on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, watch us on YouTube, and share with your friends. We’ll be back after some ads. [music break]

[AD BREAK]

Jane Coaston: Here’s what else we’re following today. 

[sung] Headlines. 

Jane Coaston: Joining me is Crooked’s Washington correspondent, Matt Berg, to talk about the big stories. Hey Matt. 

Matt Berg: Hey Jane. 

Jane Coaston: Remember how Trump said that Iran gave him, quote, “a very big present worth a tremendous amount of money”? Now, I assumed it was a large wooden horse that the administration was going to helpfully wheel into the White House, but it turns out I was wrong. 

[clip of President Donald Trump] Steve, can I reveal the present? 

[clip of Steve Witkoff] You can do anything you want to, sir. [laughter] 

[clip of President Donald Trump] He said, to show you the fact that we’re real and solid and we’re there, we’re going to let you have eight boats of oil, eight boats, eight big boats of oil, this was two days ago, and they’ll sail up tomorrow, that was three days ago. 

Jane Coaston: That was Trump and special envoy Steve Witkoff during a cabinet meeting Thursday. Trump went on to say that it ended up being 10 boats in the end. Allegedly. Maybe.

Matt Berg: Here’s the thing about that. It’s not totally clear whether Trump is actually telling the truth here. Bloomberg tracks tankers that go through the Strait of Hormuz, and there weren’t clear signs of the big boats of oil that Trump mentioned, according to the outlet. 

Jane Coaston: There is a possible explanation besides Trump made this up. The tankers could have turned off their transponders for security reasons. But boats that have recently passed through the strait have had reliable signals. Bloomberg wrote, adding, quote, “If this was some great present, you’d think both sides would want it known for their own reasons.” Again, who knows if Trump is telling the truth. Meanwhile, while Trump is making a mess in the Middle East, he’s making another mess in Cuba. Cuba hasn’t received oil shipments since early January amid a US pressure campaign. And at the end of January, Trump signed an executive order threatening tariffs on countries that send Cuba oil. The ongoing blockade is reportedly part of the Trump administration’s strategy for, [sigh] you guessed it, regime change. Matt, you were at the Cuban embassy this week. What did you learn? 

Matt Berg: That’s right, I’ve gone there twice in the past month with our news editor Greg Walters. Officials have told us that daily life in Cuba has become a huge struggle because the country relies so heavily on oil imports. There have been nationwide blackouts which have especially hit the healthcare system hard according to officials. Here’s some of my conversation with the Cuban MC’s Deputy Chief of Mission, [?].

[clip of Cuban MC’s Deputy Chief of Mission] We have more than 96,000 people waiting for surgeries in Cuba. It’s a serious thing, because for surgeries we need energy. 11,000 of them are children. How you can explain a mother that you cannot make the surgery for their children because you don’t have energy, because you do not have oil?

Jane Coaston: It sounds brutal, over there. When will this end? 

Matt Berg: No one really knows. But what I’ve heard from Cuban officials boils down to this. Cuba is open to negotiating business deals or pretty much anything else that Trump wants, but the country’s sovereignty is not up for debate. You know, speaking of Trump, or at least resisting Trump, tomorrow, Saturday, March 28th, marks the third No Kings protest with over 3,000 events planned across the country. The first No Kings protests happened last June and that drew more than five million people, according to the ACLU. The second no-kings protest from last fall drew more than seven million, and organizers expect this year to be even bigger. 

Jane Coaston: Yeah, I mean, since last fall, we’ve seen the invasion of Minneapolis by federal immigration enforcement and the killings of two American citizens by federal immigration enforcement, not to mention the war in Iran, which most Americans oppose. And to top it all off, Trump is less popular than ever before in either of his two terms in office. Suffice it to say, there’s a lot to protest. But Matt, I would never protest getting to hang out with you to talk about the news. Thanks for hanging out. 

Matt Berg: Thanks for having me. 

Jane Coaston: And that’s the news. [music break] 

[AD BREAK]

That’s all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, YMCA is not the gay national anthem, and tell your friends to listen. And if you’re into reading, and not just about how Donald Trump was wrong as usual when calling into the Five on Fox News on Thursday. 

[clip of President Donald Trump] Now I think when, you know, I did very well with the gay vote, okay? I even had I even played the gay national anthem as my walk-off, okay, [?]. 

Jane Coaston: Like me, What a Day is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at crooked.com/subscribe. I’m Jane Coaston, and YMCA by the Village People is Trump’s walk-off song. YMCA came out in 1978. I’m aware that Donald Trump exists in a world in which it is always the 1980s, but we’ve all moved on. The gay national anthem is Dancing On My Own by Robyn, and Kamala Harris won the LGBT vote 86% to 12% in 2024. Thank you for your attention to this matter. J.C. [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 with the Writers Guild of America East. [music break]