Deadline: White House 6/4/26 [5PM] | MSNBC Breaking News Today June 4, 2026

Ajouté : 2026-06-05

[00:00:02]That's your size compared. So, those are compared to Those are among the tallest buildings in the world, including the Empire State Building, World Trade Center, Sears Tower, Chicago.

[00:00:18]So, if you lay it on its side, you take two or three of them to fill it in cuz the width is very almost 200 ft wide.

[00:00:27]And uh actually much more than 2,000 closer, including everything it's about 2,500 ft in length to the end.

[00:00:37]And it's going to be beautiful.

[00:00:41]>> We have entered the my pond is bigger than your house part of the Trump presidency. I don't even [music] know why those things are on the same piece of paper. Someone should have told him one was a body of water, the other three are buildings. All the same, he's obsessed with the size of things shaped like that. Hi again, everybody. It's now 5:00 in New York. That was real. It was another in a growing chronicle of things I asked my team to vet to make sure it wasn't AI. That that was actually the president, not some stunt guy. That that was actually from the Oval Office, not a Jimmy Kimmel you know, skit. That that was the president. That that was actually what he was holding. That it wasn't actually a map of something. And that he actually had a board with a body of water next to three buildings and was bragging that the body of water was bigger than the buildings. That happened today.

[00:01:32]It's part of his obsession with uh home decorating and renovations of Washington, D.C. This is the reflecting pool. He's for some reason measuring it against the length of the pool against the height of skyscrapers. Makes no sense at all. I'm embarrassed even reading this to you.

[00:01:49]Um especially at a moment when Americans are screaming from the rooftops about the price of gas, cost of child care, cost of health care, and the economy uh as well as unhappy about the war with Iran. But Trump is obsessed with this stuff. He's done a redo of the South Lawn. That is a live picture of what he's done to what was the once beautiful beautiful grounds of the White House. This is his cage match thing. It looks like something at a musi- at a I don't know, amusement park or something. It's a place where they're going to have a fight. He's demolished large swaths of the people's house to build a ballroom. He's paved the Rose Garden. He put his name on the Kennedy Center, which the Washington Post today reports will have to take it down. They have to remove it by Friday.

[00:02:38]He's done all of these things not on a wave of the public loving his agenda, but he's done them instead of helping even his own voters with the cost of living and the things they're stressed about.

[00:02:53]As for the war that he began, that war is deeply unpopular, but it's also causing gas prices to surge. On that, he says he's quote bored.

[00:03:03]When it comes to the deeply unpopular quite possibly illegal $1.8 billion slush fund to aid his allies, it's a slush fund that even members of his own party object to. He's now contradicted his own acting attorney general and will not assert whether or not it is alive or dead. He calls it quote beautiful.

[00:03:26]The fund's future is so unclear that Congress is now trying to formally kill it.

[00:03:31]The Senate today voted on a motion that would permanently ban the fund's existence. Republicans killed that legislation not because they want to save the fund, but because of other procedural things. Meanwhile, Trump's approval rating has reached a new low amid all this. The latest YouGov Economist poll finds Trump's approval rating at 35%. His disapproval is at a whopping 61%.

[00:03:55]This is the lowest approval rating of any president since the survey existed started to exist in 2009.

[00:04:03]Trump focusing more on himself than the American people is where we begin the hour with Democratic Senator Elissa Slotkin of Michigan. She's a member of both the Homeland Security and Armed Services Committees. Senator, I'm I'm embarrassed that that was the news that we had to contend with today, but we don't make up the news.

[00:04:20]Uh what do you make of where we are?

[00:04:24]>> I mean, yeah, that was quite an intro. I mean, I I I think Um look, I mean, I I think what's been interesting is to watch my Republican colleagues I think start to get the message a little bit that aligning yourself every moment of every day with Donald Trump is not a path to victory for you, for your legacy, for the country.

[00:04:48]And um I I think this weaponization fund vote you alluded to it, you know, where the president was trying to put $1.8 billion of taxpayer dollars in a special fund that he controlled um to decide who should listen to the courts, who should who has been aggrieved um I I think the it hit this wall with the Republicans that I think is important.

[00:05:16]And I I I I think but it fits into a bigger narrative of the president just feeling like um he doesn't have to follow the rules, his people don't have to follow the rules, he can do whatever he wants regardless of our tradition in our democracy and I think, you know, you get absurd introductions, no offense, like that um when when you hit kind of a new low with this with this level um of of activity coming from from White House.

[00:05:46]>> I mean, no offense taken, but I do feel like I participated in the same washing, right? I said grab 'em in the bleep for years. If we'd said what he really said, I don't know that as many women would have voted for him in '16, and I'll never know.

[00:05:59]Um I was one of the first people to stop platforming his live events. I still have a very hard time taking his um live events because he lies the whole time. I mean, where where do you stand in terms of how much you think people need to know about let's just take the corruption. I mean, it it started with the Qatari jet. It it sort of was ushered in formally with the crypto grift. There is now, as you just articulated, a plan to take 1.8 billion taxpayer dollars and give them to people up to and including violent insurrectionists.

[00:06:31]>> Yeah, I mean, I think look, we've seen around the world um that, you know, corruption eventually, when it seeps down into the meat and people feel it in their own lives, they respond. That was the narrative on what happened in Hungary, where they over, you know, they they got rid of their of their um president who had been corrupt for 12 years. You know, and and I I was interesting. Hungary is an interesting example for us to to look at because, you know, the the deal that Viktor Orbán offered the Hungarian people was, look, leave alone my corruption at the high levels. Leave alone my threats to democracy. If I fire a a university leader here or curb the the media there, leave it alone because I'm going to make your economy better.

[00:07:13]I'm going to put more money in your pocket. That was the trade. And it worked for a while. Um and then it didn't. And it didn't because the corruption seeped so deep that you couldn't build a bridge in rural Hungary without paying someone off. Um it it didn't work when um the, you know, the best friends, the eccentric billionaire best friends of the president of Hungary um uh started um doing whatever they wanted and treating uh Hungary as like the cow that they could milk. Um and and it didn't and it didn't work when when he precipitated false threats and tried to bring in the security forces at the very end to prevent him from losing. I think that's a very interesting example.

[00:07:51]Um, and you see, um, certainly whispers of that same thing going on here in the United States.

[00:07:57]>> Yeah, I mean that same poll that has his approval rating at a at a record low has his approval on the economy even lower.

[00:08:04]Americans' views on the economy, 76% say it's poor or fair, just 20% say it's good or excellent. What are you hearing from your constituents in terms of their economic concerns?

[00:08:15]>> Yeah, I mean, look, a year ago, um, you know, the president said, "I'm going to come in. I'm going to change your life."

[00:08:22]And he ran on that. And look, I'll give it to him. He shellacked Democrats in 2024 with the very simple message that his priority was putting more money in your pocket. Um, whether he was ever truthful about that or not, that's what he ran on. And Democrats had too many priorities. We had every priority. And so no one knew what we'd really go to the mats on. And so Trump won my state and he won of you know, won the country.

[00:08:44]Um, uh, fast forward, um, a year later. And frankly, before the war, I would say the only cost in a family's life that had gone down under President Trump had been gas, price of gas, right? Not housing, not health care, not groceries, not trips, um, uh, services. And um, now every single American is paying the price of this war, of his war, and in particularly, um, uh, feeling that, you know, they see the price of gas 20 times when they drive to work. So, it could not be more clear that people are suffering. Um, especially in my state, and they're feeling like that being in the middle class is like a dream that their parents got to accomplish, but not them.

[00:09:24]So, um, I think that that, um, even if people are sometimes reluctant to say that they regret their vote or they're switching sides or the whatever, that they in their hearts they can't say with a straight face that they're better off under Donald Trump.

[00:09:38]>> I have to ask you because of your years of service, your reaction to Bill Pulte being given a third job in the Trump administration. He will, I think at the end of this month, become the acting director of national intelligence.

[00:09:50]>> Yeah, I have I pretty fundamental problems with Bill Pulte becoming the director of national intelligence or acting director of national intelligence. Um, as someone who helped start that office, I was one of the first um 10 employees uh when frankly under the Bush administration it was set up. Um and um number one, he has no national security experience. We can't even figure out if he's ever handled classified information, if he has a security clearance whatsoever. So, he's never dealt with sensitive issues of national security.

[00:10:19]Um but number two, much more importantly, is that he has shown in his current job that he has zero qualms taking an order from Trump to go into the personal records of American citizens and dig up false claims, let's say in this case on mortgage fraud. He's done it against Adam Schiff, Tish James, Lisa Cook. So, he has shown not only an interest but a willingness to actually use his job to manipulate information to do the bidding of Donald Trump, to weaponize the government against people.

[00:10:49]So, if you take that example, proven, and you overlay that, you take that to the DNI's office with all of the access to classified information, our most sensitive tools, um it should send a shiver down the spine of anyone who gives a crap about national security and about the the personal privacy of American citizens. And as someone who, you know, the president tried to criminally indict over a 90-second video, you know, I've had the government weaponized against me. Um the idea of someone like that in charge of all of our, you know, 17 different intelligence agencies is just disturbing. I heard the president backtracking on this cuz even my Republican colleagues are are not on board.

[00:11:30]>> Well, he said he might just be there for a short period, but he said quote he might I think he said something like he might discover some things about rigged elections. I mean, he's clearly being sent there with with a mission. And and let me just follow up because I was going to ask you about that. I mean, you are one of I'd say it's more than a handful now, you and five of your colleagues as well as Jim Comey, Tish James, Lisa Cook. I mean, there are people who are perceived political enemies. I don't even know if you view yourself in that way, who he has sought to weaponize the federal government against because he doesn't like what you've said and how people have responded to it. Imagine all of the intelligence agents. I mean, the thing about the DNI is it isn't just the CIA. It's It's the NSA. It's It's signal intelligence. It's the entire It's the whole soup to nuts under the purview of Bill Pulte. I mean, what What do people need to understand about even a short stint for Mr. Pulte?

[00:12:26]>> Well, yeah. I mean, certainly the president, you're right, said it out of his mouth today that, you know, maybe we won't keep him there a long time, but I want him to, quote, look into the 2020 elections. That's what he's there for.

[00:12:37]Tulsi Gabbard was doing that for a while. Maybe she didn't do it well enough and she's out. And now he's found the next person who will do his bidding.

[00:12:45]And I think the the the thing that people don't understand is that since Watergate, right, where the intelligence community screwed up, there has been just a hard and fast clear understanding from anyone. I was a trained as a young CIA officer. You do not collect intelligence on American citizens. We focus on foreign threats abroad that are trying to threaten the homeland.

[00:13:08]The idea that someone who believes in kind of just saluting the president, no rules, no understanding of the intelligence community, that they could ever potentially use those tools to focus on domestic missions, domestic issues, actual Americans, private information. Again, it's it is a real threat and the president said it aloud.

[00:13:30]That guy is over there to look into the elections, not to protect us from a terrorist attack or a nation-state.

[00:13:36]>> It's I mean, it is sort of the hallmark of this presidency that it's all out loud. We don't have to go digging. Um, some digging has happened since I've been on the air about um, a Democratic candidate in Maine, Grant Platter. I wonder if you have any thoughts just given the stakes of the midterm elections.

[00:13:54]>> Yeah, as I was walking over here someone flagged it. I have not read the whole thing. I look forward to the day where I am not answering every single week a question about bad behavior by another dude. I I just I'm looking forward to that day.

[00:14:09]>> You won't >> on camera, live.

[00:14:12]Um, I look forward to that and I haven't read like the piece, but what my team told me like, look, um, uh, first of all, I think about the women who are coming forward.

[00:14:23]Second of all, I think if if there are allegations of violence, I got a real problem with that.

[00:14:29]And um, it doesn't matter if you're a Democrat or Republican.

[00:14:33]Um, if there's violence, um, that's not okay.

[00:14:38]So, I haven't gone into the details. I'm sure I'll have to get the just like every week the same briefing from my team on what happened and what you know, and but um, uh, frankly, I'm sick of it. Um, we got a lot of bigger issues to, you know, fry here um, and um, so that's a a dream I have for someday.

[00:14:59]>> Yeah, I it it it broke since I've been on the air and I'm in the same boat.

[00:15:03]I've been reading it in the breaks. Um, but it it is a lot of questions that I pose um, as a host to a lot of people about bad behavior alleged on the part of men. Um, Senator Elissa Slotkin, thank you very much for joining us. I I I want to apologize for the intro, but that that I can defend it. I mean, that was the news. That was Donald Trump in his own words. That was his chart.

[00:15:24]That's what's happening. Um thank you for for uh for always showing up for it.

[00:15:29]We really appreciate you.

[00:15:31]When we come back, we will get through that breaking news we just asked the senator [music] about breaking in the New York Times about Glenn Platner. He is the Democratic frontrunner in a must-win Senate race um in the state of Maine.

[00:15:43]We'll bring in our friends Tim Miller and Molly Jong-Fast next. [music] Also ahead, massive protests in the streets of the capital city of Albania. People there are demonstrating against a mega resort project being developed by Jared Kushner [music] and Ivanka Trump. Ivanka Trump was talking about it about walking barefoot to the top of the mountain to [music] swim and look around.

[00:16:07]We'll tell you about the reporting and the growing questions about whether this project is being fast-tracked as a way to curry favor with [music] Donald Trump. We'll have the reporting on that story later in the hour. Donald and the White House continues after a quick break, so don't [music] go anywhere.

[00:16:23]As we just uh asked Senator Elissa Slotkin, uh there is brand new reporting. It has broken since I've been uh on the air. It's in the New York Times and it is about Maine's Democratic Senate candidate Glenn Platner. He's currently the frontrunner to become the Democratic challenger to Republican Senator Susan Collins in that pivotal midterm race in Maine. After news reports surfaced that he had sent explicit messages to women while he was married, several women came forward to the New York Times about their experiences with Platner. From that new New York Times reporting, quote, "In interviews with the New York Times on Wednesday, several women described Mr. Platner as a fun and caring partner and said they felt safe with him. Some remained friends with him to this day, years after their relationships ended.

[00:17:10]But in extensive conversations over the past 2 months, three other women who had been romantically involved with Mr. Platner offered a far more complicated assessment describing volatile and toxic relationships that were unsettling and at times emotionally wrenching. Mr. Platner could be charming and charismatic, they recalled in interviews, but also demeaning to women and in at least one case even physically threatening. He drank heavily and was regularly unfaithful. End quote. It's important to tell you our viewers that one of the three is a conservative activist who has worked on Republican campaigns, but she says that she would have spoken out even if Graham Platner was a Republican candidate. She disputes Platner's claim that he did not know that the tattoo on his chest was a Nazi symbol. From that part of this new reporting, quote, Mr. Platner, she said, knew when they were dating years ago that the tattoo was a Nazi symbol and that he called it my Totenkopf.

[00:18:11]The Platner campaign, quote, strongly disputes that claim that he knew about the tattoo and that he told her about it. Graham Platner will be Chris Hayes's guest in his first national interview since his story broke this afternoon.

[00:18:25]That happens tonight at 8:00 on All In.

[00:18:28]For our coverage, I want to bring in political analyst and host of The Bulwark podcast Tim Miller with me at the table. As I've been going through this this story and this reporting, um is my friend and colleague, our political analyst Molly Jong-Fast. She's the host of Fast Politics and a New York Times contributing opinion writer. Um Tim Miller, I'll start with you.

[00:18:49]>> Hillary Clinton, this is a complicated one. I mean, it's ongoing and so there's some elements to it. So, I'm just going to walk through what I think are the key parts. You know, number one, I think as Senator Slatkin said, look, any accusations of any type of inappropriate behavior around women should be taken seriously and the Democrats have shown that they've taken it seriously in the past, whether that be Andrew Cuomo or Al Franken. And I think that the Democrats have credibility on this issue for a reason.

[00:19:16]Uh the the in this story, it is only the one woman that was the Republican activist that makes any accusations of of him putting his hands on her. Um the other women don't say that. It's more just about kind of drinking and volatile behavior.

[00:19:31]And so, you know, I I think that the question is like what else could possibly come up? And I think that takes us to the political part of this. Like just to do rank politics here. Like this is an extremely important Senate race for our democracy.

[00:19:46]The Democrats need to pick up four Senate seats to take over the Senate and to control Supreme Court nominations to be able to control the floor for any nominations that Donald Trump wants to put forward for Attorney General or DNI or any important roles in his administration. Like they have to, you know, those cabinet officials ostensibly will have to be confirmed by the Senate.

[00:20:05]So, taking over the Senate is very important and winning the Senate, it's pretty hard to do without Maine. And you just look at the map and then North Carolina, Roy Cooper looks very good.

[00:20:13]Good poll in Ohio for Sherrod Brown.

[00:20:15]That's two. Then you get into some pretty big red states. Iowa, the Democrats have a good candidate. Texas, Tel Rico. Alaska, they have a good candidate. But those are all states Democrats have won in a long time.

[00:20:25]Democrats have won Maine the last three cycles. And all Democrats need to do to win Maine is nominate somebody that gets all of the Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris voters. And so, it seems like kind of a silly place to take a big risk. And I think that is the strongest case against Plathner. Whether you're a huge Plathner fan or a Plathner opponent, like I think there's a prudential question of like is this Senate race the place to take this type of risk?

[00:20:49]I do think the last thing I'd say is I I get a little bit frustrated with this and I'm sure some Plathner fans do as well with like all of the focus on this these things that he's done in the past as compared to what Susan Collins has done as an actual senator. And the tattoo thing in particular, Um, I just feel it's incumbent to mention that um, regardless what you think about his tattoo which he covered up, he's not proposing any Nazi-like policies. Um, and Susan Collins was the chair of the Appropriations Committee when we sent people to a foreign gulag based on their race and based on the tattoos they have.

[00:21:26]So, I'm not here to say that that was a Nazi policy, but it's certainly a heck of a lot closer than anything that Graham Platner is proposing. And so, I I I just do think that is also important to have in the discussion here. Like Susan Collins controlled the power of the purse allegedly in the Senate. If she was such a moderate, she could have stopped that. She could have said, "We're not going to fund this administration as long as they're sending innocent people to a foreign torture prison based on their tattoo."

[00:21:50]She didn't do that. And so, I I do get a little bit frustrated when these conversations kind of frame her up as some moderate when she's been totally complicit in some very fascistic behavior, tattoo-related behavior by this administration.

[00:22:05]>> I I just I want to thank you for your clarity and your courage and sort of seeing this and being able to shove it through a sieve of the substance of what is accused and the stakes of the election. I mean, I I think that's the whole thing. And and I guess all I would I would add is we are not the arbiters of anything, right? It is our job to bring forth the reporting.

[00:22:28]Maine Democrats will decide, I think on Tuesday night, who they want to represent them. And then the broader population in the Maine will decide who they want to represent them in Congress, but I think Tim just framed up the choices on both those fronts pretty well.

[00:22:40]>> Yeah, I mean, I think it's really important to talk about this is about what the person will do in the Senate. I did think what Slapkin said was was also really important. You know, violence is a no-go. And remember, this is a person who will, you know, ultimately be in the Senate making judgment calls. And And it's a person who drinks heavily and has personality changes, you know, I'm sober 28 and a half years and I I think that this if there's a substance issue here, that's a big deal. And you know, we have seen Democrats um you know, I just think releasing the moral high ground and again, obviously this is up to the voters of Maine and this election is so important and this but I do think also what has been good about Democrats is that they've had, you know, they haven't said well like this guy's really popular so we're going to let, you know, like what what Republicans did with Trump.

[00:23:37]And so I do think it's, you know, it's such a it's a tough moment and um but I do agree like the Cinema map is critical and Donald Trump is a president who's totally out of control and Republicans have shown they have no interest in checking his power.

[00:23:55]>> Tim, what do you um say to people who look at all of the attention we have justifiably and perhaps belatedly given to the Epstein accusers um and want to understand how this story fits into that frame?

[00:24:14]>> Well, I don't look and obviously there's a material difference which is the Epstein accusers were children. Um and and I guess in every single case he also abused adult women um but I I you know, that uh you know, I I think adds a level of gravity to it. But I I think that one part of one way to contextualize that that I do think is relevant is look you know, as a former Republican am I the best person to say this but I think a lot of Democrats would say this particularly Democratic women like you look back at maybe the Bill Clinton era um uh the presidency. Look back at how Democrats dealt with Epstein prior to you know, the kind of the latest revelations when Trump came in. I think some of them look back and say hey, maybe we should have taken these accusations more seriously than we did.

[00:24:57]So that's not to lump Platner in with any of those. Like I said, I think that these this New York Times article I you know, that there are some serious accusations from one person and then the rest I you know, depending on kind of your definition of serious, but nothing related to violence or nothing related to sexual assault or anything like that.

[00:25:15]And so, you know, I think that Grant Platner obviously tonight will have a chance to you know, kind of explain himself to Chris Hayes and I think people should hear him out. This is not to say he should be thrown out, but I I do think in the context of the Epstein story I you know, a lot of Democrats can maybe learn some lessons and say we should take the accusations seriously. We should look at them. We should consider them and do what's right by people that are victims and we should also, you know, not throw the baby out with the bathwater because there are bad faith attacks against people. Like that's a challenging tightrope to walk and and I think that's kind of the tightrope that Grant Platner's on right now about which which can side of that he falls on.

[00:25:49]>> Um I want to read a little bit from this New York Times story. Um which I I've read carefully through twice and this feels like it gets at both the allegations and um and his sort of political position.

[00:26:06]New York Times reports this quote, "Grant Platner, 41, a combat veteran has spoken openly about grappling with his post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and drinking that he said resulted from his time in the military.

[00:26:18]As revelations about him have surfaced, including his dismissive remarks online about rape and derogatory comments about women, as well as a tattoo he had that is widely recognized as a Nazi symbol.

[00:26:29]He has said his past behavior does not reflect who he is today. Mainers, he has urged, should not judge him for quote, 'the worst thing I said on the internet on my worst day 14 years ago.' Um obviously some of these allegations are more recent than 14 years if I'm doing my um bad on live TV math. Um but some of this will be how voters um and people who cover him largely in Maine um assess the credibility of his response to this crisis.

[00:27:00]>> For sure. And you know, I got sober when I was 19, and there were things I did as a teenager that were not good. And that you know, that is why I got sober. So, I do think people can absolutely change and you know, he was in a very traumatic experience. And what's so complicated about this moment in American life is we have come so far in as feminists in this country, and then we've had a lot of backlashes, including the second election of someone who has all these allegations of of all sorts.

[00:27:36]>> Just trying to criminally investigate E.

[00:27:37]Jean Carroll.

[00:27:38]>> Right, exactly. And so and and you know, we've seen like Roe v. Wade, which was the law of the land for 50 years, was overturned. So, it's a very confusing moment to be a feminist, and it's a very complicated moment with how we as a culture grapple with this kind of thing. And so, we've you know, we've both gotten it right sometimes, and we've gotten it wrong other times. And so, it's very it's hard, but the good news is that it's really not for any of us to decide, it's for the people of Maine.

[00:28:07]>> And for Democratic leaders like Alyssa Slotkin are going to have to decide what to say and what to do. Um both of you stick around, and and again, I guess importantly, um we'll share the reporting, but you will all decide for yourselves. And to help you do that, Grant Plotkin will appear [music] on this network with my friend and colleague Chris Hayes at 8:00 p.m.

[00:28:25]on All In. When we come back, we'll turn to huge protests in Albania. I think that's [music] the first time I've ever said that. They are protesting Ivanka over a mega resort [music] being developed by them. Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and his wife Ivanka. There are even bigger questions though about [music] the deal and whether the government of Albania is using it to curry favor with Donald Trump. It's our next story. [music] Don't go anywhere.