Trump's Tantrums

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This week on Pardon the Politics: Michigan's Democratic Senate primary came down to a coin flip. Abdul El-Sayed, a 41-year-old physician who lost a 2018 governor's race, barely beat Rep. Haley Stevens despite Stevens carrying endorsements from Gov. Whitmer, outgoing Sen. Gary Peters, and Schumer himself, and despite more than $60 million in outside spending working against him. More than 1.5 million votes were cast. Jeezy, Manny, and Chuck break down what a margin that thin actually proves, and Manny lays out a “duck-based messaging” theory of why Democrats keep misjudging their own base. Same night, in Michigan's 13th District, Donavan McKinney unseated incumbent Rep. Shri Thanedar.

Then: Trump's Tantrums. Three separate fights, one pattern a narrower birthright-citizenship executive order weeks after the Supreme Court struck the first one down; a revived push to fire Fed Governor Lisa Cook over the same allegations the Court already sent back; and a federal court blocking further construction on his $400 million White House ballroom, which Trump claims is a national-security necessity because part of it is a “fortified drone port.”

PICKLE OF THE WEEK: Five months into the Iran war, the Pentagon is publicly asking weapons manufacturers to speed up production because the U.S. is running low on munitions. Jeezy's verdict: turning the world's largest military budget into the geopolitical equivalent of realizing you're out of toilet paper after you've already sat down.

SPOTLIGHTS: Manny breaks down Flock Safety's license-plate cameras and North Carolina's new statewide ALPR law. Chuck goes deep on Iranian cyberattacks hitting U.S. water systems in half a dozen states and the CISA staffing cuts that left them exposed. Jeezy closes on Netanyahu rejecting Trump's own Gaza peace plan, plus a personal note: a beloved Houston spot from the crew's last guys' trip has closed for good.

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