Ballroom Busters

Ballroom Busters

From Politix by Politix

May 13, 2026 · 35 min

About this episode

Matt and Brian discuss the implications of Republican judicial activism on the midterms and Trump's peculiar focus amidst political challenges.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.politix.fm Late in the game, Trump-loyal judges at the federal and state level joined his effort to rig the midterms. Democrats will thus enter this fall’s race for House control at a systemic disadvantage. But for Trump, that’s about the only good news. He’s lost the war he launched against Iran, and keeps falling asleep on the job as an eerie hantavirus outbreak slowly spreads here and abroad. Yet as the public grows more outraged, Trump only seems truly engaged on one highly eccentric suite of issues. In this episode, Matt and Brian discuss: * What the late break of Republican judicial activism means for the midterms, GOP efforts to steal the midterms, and the post-midterm race to gerrymander even more aggressively. * Now that the gerrymandering cycle is cooked for 2026, what more could Democrats do to pad their margins, so that biased maps don’t cost them the House? * Is the hantavirus outbreak something worth treating seriously, or something worth beating Trump over the head with? Then, given the bleak political outlook for the GOP, isn’t it weird that Trump’s only able to sustain focus on building a palace…

People in this episode

Host: Matt

Guest: Brian

Topics covered

  • midterms
  • judicial activism
  • gerrymandering
  • hantavirus outbreak
  • Trump's focus
  • Republican party dynamics

Keywords

  • midterms
  • judicial activism
  • gerrymandering
  • hantavirus
  • Trump
  • Republicans
  • Democrats
  • politics

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Democrats, GOP

Books & works: Ballroom

Places: Iran

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