Party of the People?

Party of the People?

From Central Air by Josh Barro, Megan McArdle & Ben Dreyfuss

April 15, 2026 · 1h 18m

About this episode

The episode discusses Trump's multiracial populist coalition, Republican strategies for the midterms, insider gossip, and a potential airline merger.

On this week's show: Republican pollster Patrick Ruffini joins to discuss the strength of Trump's multiracial populist coalition amid the Iran war. He offers his take on how the Republican party can avoid a cataclysm in this year’s midterm — it has, in part, to do with the semiquincentennial — and we discuss whether every election is going to be a “change” election from now onward. Also this week, Ben, Megan and Josh discuss what “everybody knew” about Eric Swalwell, and whether we’d be better off with more insider gossip thrown out into the open. And we look at the prospect of a United Airlines-American Airlines merger, which United CEO Scott Kirby reportedly floated to the president himself . Sign up for updates from Central Air at www.centralairpodcast.com . This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.centralairpodcast.com/subscribe

People in this episode

Hosts: Josh Barro, Megan McArdle, Ben Dreyfuss

Guest: Patrick Ruffini

Topics covered

  • Trump's populist coalition
  • Republican party strategy
  • midterm elections
  • insider gossip
  • airline mergers

Keywords

  • Trump
  • Republican party
  • midterm elections
  • Eric Swalwell
  • United Airlines
  • American Airlines
  • populism
  • politics
  • gossip

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: United Airlines, American Airlines, Central Air

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