Is Donald Trump's Golden Age Here?

February 13, 2026·1 hr 2 min·5 clips

The Trump administration tried to indict six Democratic lawmakers for a video telling the military to refuse illegal orders.

A legal failure opens the conversation. Steve Hayes frames the roundtable around the Trump administration's failed attempt to indict six Democrats connected to a video reminding service members that they do not have to follow unlawful orders. The panel is focused on institutions. The concern, at least in this excerpt, is what the move says about the Justice Department and the people running it. Praise becomes evidence. One contributor tries to picture the mindset that wants loud approval even when it is not sincere, then ties that need to fear of any visible dissent. The read is grim. If one small signal can start a snowball, then demands for near-total loyalty begin to make a kind of warped sense inside that world. The panel calls the situation shameful, pathetic, and beyond disturbing. Commerce enters through a joke about a terrific segue, then turns serious. The panel draws a line between departments where partisan reward is expected and the Justice Department, where that framing feels more dangerous. Commerce secretaries may be treated like political appointees. The attorney general getting the same loyalty treatment lands differently. Pam Bondi's House Judiciary testimony is also on the docket. So is the economy. Trump's economy one year into his second term and stronger-than-expected January jobs numbers sit alongside the legal fight, which gives the roundtable a wider political frame. Valentine's Day closes things out. The not-worth-your-time segment is teased early, then the ending returns to listeners who go over the top about the holiday. Even the housekeeping gets a little color: Hayes asks for ratings, reviews, subscriptions, and emails, then says some messages got caught in spam filters but should now be read.

As heard by us

A pointed Dispatch roundtable on Justice, Commerce, tariffs, and loyalty politics in Trump's second-term Washington.

Steve Hayes leads Jonah Goldberg, Kevin Williamson, and Megan McArdle through a roundtable centered on the Trump administration's failed attempt to indict six Democratic lawmakers who urged service members to refuse unlawful orders.

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Why you'd press play

One year into Trump's second term, and you need a center-right panel willing to argue about it.

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