Chuck Todd argues we've entered end-stage Trump — the most dangerous phase — as the president lashes out at a reality that keeps refusing to cooperate: raiding the Pentagon to fund his vanity arch, banning news outlets from the White House over coverage he dislikes. The new NBC poll gives him nothing to work with. Trump's approval sits at a second-term low of 41%, 55% say his policies have hurt the economy, and 43% say their congressional vote is meant to signal opposition to him — the highest such share NBC has recorded in three decades of pre-midterm polling. The war is a millstone (62% say it wasn't worth it), data centers are the worst-performing issue of the cycle, and the most popular positions in the survey are taxing billionaires and Medicare for All. Chuck’s read: the midterms are now entirely a referendum on Trump and the wave is showing up in Republican behavior as much as the polling.

Finally, Chuck hops into the ToddCast Time Machine to revisit the story of Soviet soldier Stanislav Petrov correctly identifying a false alarm and preventing a potential nuclear war & the importance of human decision making in an automated system. He also answers listeners’ questions in the “Ask Chuck” segment and recaps the week in college football.

Timeline:

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00:00 Chuck Todd’s introduction

06:15 Vanity projects, Pentagon money, and a president lashing out

11:00 Banning the press and the danger of end-stage Trump

15:45 Inside the new NBC poll: a second-term low

18:45 Immigration, healthcare, and where the public actually is

24:00 The Iran war and data centers as the cycle's worst issues

29:30 The wave showing up in GOP behavior — and why Kansas may beat Iowa

35:00 Religious tests, the Hungary parallel, and the limits of the system

39:30 Codifying norms and repairing the damage 

48:00 Chris Simms had excellent rant on the Protect College Sports Act

49:15 The conferences & networks don’t want a fair market for college sports

50:45 ToddCast Time Machine - September 26th, 1983

51:30 Soviet soldier, Petrov,  was trying to determine if the US had launched a nuke

55:15 Petrov concluded the warning was a false alarm, the machine was wrong

57:45 We were fortunate a human was involved in the chain of events

1:01:00 Spoke with Ashley Judd about AI on Noosphere

1:04:30 Humans can’t just be a rubber stamp in the machine’s chain

1:06:45 As we race into AI era, we need to make sure humans are still in the chain

1:07:30 Ask Chuck

1:07:45 Is there a method to John Fetterman’s madness, or is it just madness?

1:14:30 Why can’t Trump’s opponents also “flood the zone”?

1:18:30 Could the speaker refuse to swear in Democrats?

1:21:00 Would incorporating visuals in debate moderation be helpful for context?

1:22:45 Thoughts on Nate Silver joining Crooked Media?

1:31:30 Thoughts on the personal feud between Trump & Mark Carney?

1:35:00 College football recap