Liz Landers: Speaking of the midterms, I want to talk about this ad that we saw, a pretty remarkable ad from a Republican lawmaker earlier this week from Republican Congresswoman Maria Salazar.

We have a bit of a clip of that.

Rep.

Maria Elvira Salazar (R-Fl): Mr.

President, some of your immigration enforcement efforts have gone too far.

Be careful what your advisers are telling you about immigration policies.

You can be for immigration what Lincoln was for slavery and Reagan was for communism.

Liz Landers: She represents a district in Miami that Trump won by 15 points in 2024.

She also voted to fund ICE.

Leigh Ann, why is she making this pivot?

Leigh Ann Caldwell, Chief Washington Correspondent, Puck News: She's terrified.

This is a Hail Mary seven weeks before her re-election or her campaign.

You know, I was talking to a member of Congress, the former mayor of Miami, who has a neighboring district to Congresswoman Salazar.

This was just two weeks ago.

And he was telling me that how the administration's over -- what they did with ICE, how it went too far, was really detrimental for them politically.

He personally felt confident, but he said that he and Congresswoman Salazar have had many conversations with the administration telling them how bad this is for them politically.

They have very Hispanic districts.

James Blair the president's, you know, political adviser, was on the Hill a couple weeks ago.

They both gave him the same exact message then.

And so since the president and the administration does not seem to be listening to them, she obviously felt that it was necessary to try to get that message out.

We'll see if it works.

We're seeing the polling where Hispanic voters are breaking from the president in tremendous amount compared to how they were in 2024.

And so this is a very difficult political moment for some of these Republican lawmakers.

Asma Khalid, Co-Host of The Global Story, BBC News: She's also facing -- she herself is Cuban American, and her opponent this cycle is a fellow Cuban American.

They're both former T.V.

broadcasters.

So, I know, I just think it's related too.

Eamon Javers, Senior Washington Correspondent, CNBC: That's terrible if true.

Asma Khalid: But I was talking to someone who was actually consulting her opponent earlier today, and one of the things they mentioned is that immigration is huge.

Miami-Dade, that area, is, I believe, the largest immigrant county in the nation, or one of the largest, if not.

And, secondly, it's affordability which I hadn't totally computed, but the cost of living and affordability with housing in Miami has really skyrocketed.

It's always been high.

But I think those dual pressures are really putting her under pressure.

I believe she won her district last time by 20 points.

And so, to me, it suggests a real sense that she is scared about what the polling is showing.

Liz Landers: Yes, I'm sure.

Eamon, I want to ask you about the Federal Reserve announcement from this week.

So, we saw Kevin Warsh, the Fed chairman, raised interest rates.

This is the first time this has happened since 2023.

Leading up to this announcement, the president was making threats on Truth Social to end trade with countries that the United States has a trade deficit with if the Fed raised these rates, which is what Warsh ended up doing.

But so far, we've not seen him, the president, carry out this threat.

Why not?

What is his relationship like with Warsh right now?

Eamon Javers: It's a fascinating dynamic, right?

Because this was a big test for Warsh to say that he is his own man, he is independent.

The Fed has this tradition of being independent from American politics, which the Fed values very intensely and the president does not believe is a thing.

He doesn't want the Fed to be independent.

He wants the Fed to do what he wants, and this president wants lower interest rates.

He comes from a career as a builder, where you borrow a lot of money in order to do a project, and the lower the interest rate is, the more you can build, the more money you can make, and the better the economy is.

That's just how he sees the economy.

And he doesn't really agree with the argument that you have to raise interest rates from time to time to slow down the economy to stop inflation.

He doesn't process that argument at all.

That's the argument that the Fed is making right now, and that's the argument they're being pushed to make by markets.

And so Warsh had to do this incredible dance this week where he had to do the thing that he knew the president didn't want him to do.

And he had to do it in a way without getting the mean tweets from the president.

And he seems to have really finessed it with some behind-the-scenes maneuvering.

We're hearing reporting of a phone call between Trump and Warsh before the decision.

And Trump seems to be saying that, well, there's a board, and Warsh doesn't have total control here, which is true.

And so I'm going to let Warsh do this.

But you get the sense that in Trump's mind, anyway, there's a limited amount of runway for Warsh here.

And so the October decision will be really fascinating to watch just before the midterms.

Does he hike again?

Market expectations are that he will have to hike again.

Will the president tolerate that one?

This is the first out of the gate.

He's getting a little running room.

Liz Landers: Is this kind of a honeymoon period for Warsh?

Eamon Javers: Yes.

Alayna Treene, White House Correspondent, CNN: The thing that Warsh is doing so well, I think, and it's something Powell I think did way back, you know, during the first term when the president actually picked him, but what Warsh is doing is managing the president, and he's doing it in a way where the president still believes in him.

I do think it's a honeymoon phase.

I think you're totally right.

Eamon Javers: It only works so long.

Alayna Treene: I mean, we'll see.

Maybe he gets another month, you know, who know, or then at the next meeting.

But he is managing him well.

We know that they have spoken in the past.

We know that the president and him, they have a relationship.

Warsh is very close with a lot of the president's closest allies as well, and he does see it.

I think you're totally right.

He's been blaming -- he did have angry tweets.

They were just not angry tweets directed at Warsh.

They were angry tweets directed at everyone else.

He's like he's different from them.

The board's holding Warsh back.

But I think Warsh is being very smart in how he's handling the president here.

Eamon Javers: And the reality is Warsh has the upper hand, right?

He is the Fed chair.

The Fed is independent despite what the president would like to think.

Liz Landers: Yes, and we've seen a Supreme Court ruling in that.

Eamon Javers: Absolutely.

And so he can hike rates and just tell the president to lump it, but he's being very diplomatic about it.

He doesn't want to have that confrontation, or at least not until it's absolutely inevitable.

Liz Landers: Let's talk about the Kennedy Center, because this is the performing arts center for the country, and the, it's a monument to a slain president here.

And President Trump has become really obsessed with this topic of putting his name on the Kennedy Center.

They did that a few months ago, and they were told by a court to take his name off of it.

Alayna, do you think that people should brush off these threats from the president that he's making as just bluster that he wants to demolish the center now, or do you think that that could actually happen?

Alayna Treene: It's so hard to engage in that hypothetical.

I mean, I guess not hypothetical.

He was holding a poster on Air Force One the other night that said, Kennedy Center Demolished.

I'm not sure.

I don't think he wants it to be demolished.

I think a lot of that is provocative language to try and get people to do what he wants.

Liz Landers: Yes.

Alayna Treene: He wants the Kennedy Center to thrive.

He's obsessed with it.

He sees it as another -- it's similar to his fixation with all the other projects he's working on around D.C., with the ballroom to the Lincoln Memorial to the arch that he's trying to build.

He sees the Kennedy Center similarly, and he does want credit for it.

He was asked about it today.

Actually, I think it was an NBC reporter said, why are you so obsessed with putting your name on a building that was, you know, to honor a slain president?

And he went back to this idea, if he believes if they're going to put in time and effort to renovate it, that he should get credit for it.

The thing that's just so striking to me is we know there's a ton of old buildings around Washington.

They are renovated all the time and stay open.

Even, or if they -- most of the time, I think they stay open, or they close a bit.

No one's like, I'm not sure the Kennedy -- I was there a couple months ago.

I don't know if it really needs to be demolished, you know?

So, this is -- and I do think before people, he even gets there, there would be legal battles that prevent that from happening.

Liz Landers: And, Leigh Ann -- Eamon Javers: But this is a president who took a wrecking ball to the East Wing, right?

Liz Landers: Right, ees.

Eamon Javers: And so he is capable of moving overnight to do this kind of thing.

Liz Landers: Yes, such a good point.

Eamon Javers: And he's the type of person who certainly would if he felt thwarted.

Liz Landers: And, Leigh Ann, the Hill could have oversight on this project, on the arch, on some of the other things we were talking about.

What are Democrats saying that would happen if they retake power after the midterms?

Leigh Ann Caldwell: So, I talked to Congressman Jared Huffman, who is the ranking member of the Natural Resources Committee in the House, just this week about all of this.

If Democrats take control, he will be the chair.

He oversees the Parks Service budget, which oversees all of these renovations that are happening.

First, I asked him, where is the president getting this money to do all of this, because Congress hasn't appropriated it, and he said he's not sure.

All he knows is they are moving money around illegally to do what the president wants around D.C.

Secondly, he already has a very long list of investigations that he wants to pursue.

He obviously doesn't have subpoena power now but this is going to be a top priority for him.

And one thing I will say is I'm assuming, you guys would know better, that the president's advisers are hoping and praying that he does not demolish the Kennedy Center.

Because when you look at the president's polling, when he demolished the East Wing, that is when his numbers really started to drop.

And this is something that is absolutely not -- that was not popular with the public.

And so I think that it could be even worse for the president in the midterms.

Liz Landers: Yes.

And I think this is a visual thing that people see and they understand, you know, the importance of these buildings around Washington, D.C.

So, we're going to have to leave it there, but thank you to our guests for joining me, and thank you at home for watching us.

I'm Liz Landers.

Good night from Washington.