• Dozens of Democratic governors across the country are facing a nearly impossible task: Manage the day-to-day operations of their state while also playing wack-a-mole with the waves of awful federal policies coming out of Washington right now. From tariffs to mass government layoffs to threats to shutter the Department of Education, it’s a lot! New York Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul talks about how she’s navigating Trump 2.0 and the ways she’s taking ‘the gloves off’ with the administration.
• And in headlines: Trump considers revoking deportation protections from nearly a quarter million Ukrainians, the president puts a pin in tariffs on a wide range of products from Mexico and Canada, and California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom says it’s ‘unfair’ to let trans athletes play women’s sports.

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Jane Coaston: It’s Friday, March 7th. I’m Jane Coaston, and this is What a Day. The show that does not really know what to say about this comment from President Donald Trump, in reference to two American astronauts stuck in space for nearly nine months. 

[clip of President Donald Trump] They’ve been maybe they’ll love each other. I don’t know. But they’ve been left up there. Think of it. And I see the woman with the wild hair, good solid head of hair she’s got. There’s no kidding. There’s no games with her hair. 

Jane Coaston: I am so sorry record breaking astronaut and icon Suni Williams. [music break] On today’s show, President Trump continues to toy with tariffs and Governor Gavin Newsom launches his new podcast and some unpopular opinions. But let’s start with the states. You know where you might live, or maybe not. If you’re an international listener. In which case, thanks for listening. And also we’re working on it anyway. There are 23 states with Democratic governors, and under the Trump administration, they have been tasked with what feels like an almost impossible challenge. Manage the day to day operations of a state that might contain millions of people, while recognizing that currently the federal government is run by this. 

[clip of President Donald Trump] They’ll always be a little short term interruption. I don’t think it’s going to be big, but the countries and companies that have been ripping us aren’t particularly happy with what I’m doing. But the United States will be very happy. And, you know, our farmers are going to be very happy. And again, there will be disruption. 

Jane Coaston: That’s President Trump discussing tariffs against Mexico and Canada. Tariffs, which he simultaneously believes are wonderful and perfect. And also a terrible thing he can use as a weapon to get Mexico and Canada to do things. On Thursday, he issued exemptions to tariffs he announced two days before. We’ll get into that later in the show. And this administration thinks this whole thing is fun. As one senior official told Politico anonymously on Wednesday, quote, “it’s the greatest show on Earth. We’ll put tariffs on tonight. But tomorrow we’ll tell you we may negotiate and take them off. But stay tuned because you never know what tomorrow is going to bring.” Thanks. I hate it. This whipsaw back and forth stemming from Donald Trump and the Trump administration isn’t just on tariffs. It’s on everything. It’s firing thousands of federal employees and then trying to hire some of them back. It’s making policy through daily press conferences, not through Congress. Remember Congress? And it’s enough to make any governor pretty exhausted. So to find out how the governor of one of our most populous states, and one Trump has a very keen interest in, is handling our batshit era. I spoke with New York Governor Kathy Hochul. Governor Hochul, welcome to What a Day. 

Kathy Hochul: Thank you. Great to be here today. 

Jane Coaston: So we’re just a little more than a month into Trump’s second term. After Trump won in November, you said you were ready to work with the president where possible. How have your feelings changed since inauguration? 

Kathy Hochul: Well, I said I’d work together where possible. Meaning if you want to help us with infrastructure projects, let’s do Penn Station, let’s build more subways. Let’s invest in infrastructure projects that are all over the state. I’ll work with you on that. But I also said very clearly, and I also told the president this personally. But if you challenge any of our policies or our values in the State of New York, I’m going to have to stand up and fight you. So we’re in that place. I had hoped the honeymoon would go a little bit longer, which is working together, and clearly it didn’t. So this is where we are. And I have a responsibility as the leader of this state to fight back when I feel we’re under attack and we are under attack. 

Jane Coaston: Yeah. And I think one of the examples I keep thinking about is his efforts to block congestion pricing in Manhattan during peak traffic hours. You’ve since spoken with Trump about it, but it speaks to a bigger issue to me with Trump, which is that he will insert himself anywhere where he sees a political opportunity, even when it’s like, this isn’t your job. So how do you work with an administration like that as a governor? 

Kathy Hochul: I’m trying, But here’s where we are. Something like congestion pricing. I think about the fact that, you know, the Trump administration believes it should be up to the states to determine whether women can control their own bodies, right, when it comes to reproductive rights. But they’re telling me as a state that I can’t control my own damn traffic? So they are so wildly inconsistent. I feel like this is a whiplash administration, you know, call the medics. We’re all getting whiplash because we’re going back and forth. There’s tariffs on, there’s tariff’s off. There are firings on there are firings off. It’s almost incomprehensible. But I think that’s part of the strategy. So we cannot be sucked into this moment by moment reaction, because the more and I think we’ll lose our credibility with the voters that we’re just reacting all the time, we have to have a consistent message and pick our fights. This is important. So my fights have been defined. You’re coming after congestion pricing. You’ve got a fight. You’re coming after Medicaid. I’ll take that for that. And tariffs. My God, I just had a roundtable with farmers from all over New York and they cannot believe what is happening to them. And now Education Department, it’s unrelenting. So I’m not going to hit on every single thing. But my God there’s a lot to deal with it. 

Jane Coaston: Right. And you know, Trump campaigned on some of the very issues you’re talking about tariffs, ending the Education department. And people voted for that. Even if I don’t know if they really thought it would actually happen, I still think people think that Trump is always in negotiation mode. But does there come a point where you say the gloves are off, there is no real upside to working with this administration? Where do you draw the line? 

Kathy Hochul: I will still hold out hope that there’s some areas there can be common ground. Again, infrastructure is really important to us. I need to protect the chips and science safe, because I have a whole semiconductor manufacturing industry in New York, an innovation that I want to continue to harness and and create the thousands of jobs that are coming. So those are areas where I have to be persuasive and say, can we just leave this alone? Because these are your voters? I mean you kill offshore wind? Guess what? That’s thousands of jobs on Long Island. And they voted for you. These farmers were your voters. So it’s my job to remind everybody, like, maybe you didn’t think it’d be this bad. But it really is. And how we deal with this? Go to your Republican members of Congress’ offices. Flood the zone yourself. Bring parents and kids and teachers on something like the education cuts. This is how we start really letting people know how disappointed we are. Those who may have voted for him. But also, we saw this coming. And I have to let the consequences be felt, or else people won’t be changing their behavior in ’26 and again in ’28. 

Jane Coaston: I think we’ve been talking about that flooding the zone concept a little bit. And Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy posted a video on Twitter last week that featured five men bashing congestion pricing. And I know lots of New Yorkers, including a lot of New Yorkers I know support congestion pricing. My question for you is the Trump administration is very skillful at using the media and social media to project the narrative they want on issues like this, and it feels like Democrats don’t really have a way to meaningfully counter it. Besides, like fact checking. Is that a problem that you see? And what do you think Democrats can do better to counter the way the administration floods the information space? 

Kathy Hochul: No. You just have to take the gloves off and jump in the arena. If you look at a press conference we did, as soon as Donald Trump literally tweeted that I’ve just killed congestion pricing. Long live the King. I went into the subway. Put on my subway jacket and I said, we have not labored under a King in this country in 250 years, and we’re not about to start. And I referenced something that you may or may not be familiar with the old Rambo movies. You talk about First Blood. I wasn’t fighting until you drew First Blood. And now I have to give a response back. And it’s going to be tough. We’re not going to sit on the sidelines. We cannot. We must engage in this fight. And the voters need to see that we’re standing up. Issue by issue, where it affects us directly. And you talk about things like affordability. My God, he promised that the prices would go down on Inauguration Day. I have an apartment in New York City. I go to the store. Toothpaste is $12 for a little tube. The eggs are now $11 in New York City. They didn’t go down. They went up 20% since Inauguration Day. So I’m working on affordability. I have found a path to put up to $5,000 back in New Yorkers pockets in my budget. A thousand dollar tax credit for little kids, a middle class tax cut, making sure we can give an inflation rebate because we collected a lot of money because of in sales tax. I’m giving it back to New Yorkers. This is the message that Democrats have to use all across this country. We have to use our personal stories. Connect with people, and then have the policies that’ll show the contrast between what we’re doing in our states versus the catastrophic damage that they’re wreaking on the American people out of Washington. 

Jane Coaston: Yeah. And it’s been interesting because I think Trump believes that there will be no consequences. And you see this on tariffs, where he thinks going back and forth and back and forth and back and forth is just fun entertainment. But what does it mean for a state like New York, for New York farmers to have the White House going back and forth on huge trade issues like this? 

Kathy Hochul: It’s maddening, not just for the farmers. I did a roundtable in Buffalo, my home town, right on the border with Ontario, and there’s so much commerce across our borders in the north country of New York. There’s a French Canadian company that manufactures our subway cars. They’re going to be using steel and aluminum. The energy costs, the cost of that are going to go up. And also I got a letter from the Ontario Premier said, sorry, but our energy costs are going to go up 25%. We get electricity from Canada. Our cost just went up 25%. Or they say they may end it all together. So the scale of the pain we’re going to feel because of these policies from the Trump administration are hopefully going to get people to start changing how they behave, how they act, who they vote for. But again, this ping ponging back and forth and the whiplash we’re getting it is damaging to our economy. I don’t know who benefits from this. I still don’t know. 

Jane Coaston: I also don’t know, but you mentioned a couple of times that people need to understand the consequences of what they voted for. But also like for many people, especially people who didn’t vote for this, this is their livelihoods. This could be the difference for getting food on the table for some people. So what can the State of New York do to provide some sort of stability? 

Kathy Hochul: Now that’s exactly what I’m doing. That’s why I invested $7 billion in child care and these additional tax credits for families with little kids. I’m trying to find ways to put money from the state back in their pocket so they can pay that utility bill without stressing out, or their student loan payment, or their rent or mortgage payment. I’m laser focused on this, and I didn’t need an election in November to tell me that people are feeling a lot of pain, but it is heartbreaking to see that what despite what we’re doing, so much is going to be counteracted by the Trump administration. That’s the message we have to get out loud and clear. Don’t blame the Democratic governors. We’re in the fight. We need Washington, though. I get $96 billion from the federal government every year through many, many programs. I cannot make that up. I cannot compensate for that loss. We need a federal government that stops hurting its people, starts realizing you have responsibly to help people. 

Jane Coaston: I want to ask a little bit about what Democrats can do about it, because it feels like Democrats’ current reliance on the federal court system to try and limit Trump’s agenda is risky. I know there aren’t a ton of options, but the fact of the matter is that the big cases will make their way to a Supreme Court with a conservative supermajority that seems ready to grant Trump extraordinary power. So how else can Democrats at the state level push back on Trump outside of the courts? 

Kathy Hochul: Prove that Democrats know how to govern at every level of government, have people start to rely on us, look to us for leadership and we can show an incredible contrast. Yes, we’ll use the courts. We’re using the courts already. That is one option, but I don’t know if I can always count on that. Again, focus on elections as well to convince people that we’re the ones that help you. 

Jane Coaston: But I think we’ve seen a bunch of polls recently that people have a dim view of democratic governance right now. They’re not feeling great about the Democratic Party. How do you counter that?

Kathy Hochul: With success, with accomplishments and better messaging. No doubt about it. Stop explaining everything. Stop talking down to people. And I come from Buffalo, a blue collar town, my parents used to live in a trailer park. I can communicate with people. I’m happiest in a diner any day of the week. We have to get off this pedestal, that we think we’re better than everybody else and start connecting and looking human. No, throw on a denim jacket and walk around in a pair of sneakers. Be real. Be human. And don’t be so detached from everybody. I think we can make that connection. I really do. I’m not giving up on the Democrats, and I’m not giving up on the people of this country. I will always have faith in them. 

Jane Coaston: Governor Hochul, thank you so much for joining me. 

Kathy Hochul: Thank you. 

Jane Coaston: That was my conversation with New York Governor Kathy Hochul. We’ll get to more of the news in a moment. But if you like the show, make sure to subscribe. Leave a five star review on Apple Podcasts, watch us on YouTube and share with your friends. More to come after some ads. [music break]

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Jane Coaston: Here’s what else we’re following today. 

[sung] Headlines. 

[clip of President Donald Trump] We want them to keep the good people. And so we’re going to be watching them. And Elon and the group are going to be watching them. And if they can cut it’s better. And if they don’t cut then Elon will do the cutting. 

Jane Coaston: President Trump is putting Elon Musk in his place. Well, maybe sort of. Politico reported that Trump held a cabinet meeting Thursday to tell members of his administration Musk can make recommendations to the departments, but not issue unilateral decisions on staffing and policy. That’s according to two administration officials. Musk was reportedly in the room when Trump clarified the Department of Government Efficiency leader/non leaders role. Trump followed it up by posting on Truth Social quote, “I have instructed the secretaries and leadership to work with DOGE on cost cutting measures and staffing,” as the secretaries learn about and understand the people working for the various departments, they can be very precise as to who will remain and who will go. Musk didn’t seem opposed. He posted on Twitter, quote, “very productive meeting,” Remember, according to the Department of Justice, he doesn’t even run DOGE. Trump is walking back his beautiful 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada again. You know, the tariffs that were supposed to go into effect last month but were delayed until this past Tuesday, when they actually did go into effect for two whole days. The president signed an executive order Thursday to exempt goods that fall under the USMCA, the big free trade agreement Trump negotiated with Mexico and Canada during his first term. That accounts for about half of all Mexican imports and around 40% of Canadian imports. The order follows the White House’s decision Wednesday to also exempt auto imports from Mexico and Canada from tariffs. However, Trump has kept in place an additional 10% tariff on Chinese goods that also went into effect Tuesday. This chaotic week for U.S. trade policy has driven major swings in the stock markets. Trump claimed that the drop in stock prices has nothing to do with his back peddling, even though the stock market seems to be the one thing Trump actually cares about. He told reporters in the Oval Office that people are just jealous of the US. 

[clip of President Donald Trump] I think it’s globalists that see how rich our country’s going to be and they don’t like it. You know, the big market out there. 

Jane Coaston: Right? It couldn’t possibly be that nearly every economist told you tariffs are a bad idea. Definitely not that. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Thursday that the new tariff pause will last until April 2nd, the same day Trump plans to impose reciprocal tariffs on countries that tax imported goods from the U.S.. Trump says he may end immigration protections for hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians who fled the war in their home country, because it isn’t bad enough that Trump has put a pause on all military aid to Ukraine. It’s not enough that Trump ridicules Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky when he came to the White House and pleaded for support amid Russia’s violent three year long invasion of his country. No, Trump has to punish people who fled the war torn country too. Trump told reporters he’s weighing his options during an Oval Office gaggle Thursday. 

[clip of President Donald Trump] Well, we’re not looking to hurt anybody and we’re certainly not looking to hurt them. And I’m looking at that. And there were some people that think that’s appropriate and some people don’t. And I’ll be making a decision pretty soon. 

Jane Coaston: There are around a quarter million Ukrainians living in the US with what’s called temporary protected status or TPS. Revoking that status would put some of them at risk for deportation. Trump didn’t seem to know what TPS was though, when reporters asked him about it. 

[clip of President Donald Trump] Oh, what are what are you saying? I don’t know. 

[clip of unknown speaker] Yeah, the Ukrainians that are here in the US. 

[clip of President Donald Trump] Yeah, yeah. 

[clip of unknown speaker] They’re under a TPS, temporary protected status. 

[clip of President Donald Trump] Oh GPS? 

[clip of unknown speaker] TPS. Temporary protected status. 

[clip of President Donald Trump] Oh, I thought you said GPS. 

[clip of unknown speaker] TPS. 

[clip of President Donald Trump] Yeah. 

Jane Coaston: Why would we be talking about GPS? Trump’s comments undermined his own administration’s claims earlier in the day. Reuters was the first to break the story Thursday, citing a senior White House official and three other anonymous sources. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt had earlier tweeted that senior officials who spoke to Reuters, quote, “have no idea what they’re talking about.” California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom used the debut episode of his podcast, this is Gavin Newsom, to speak with right wing influencer Charlie Kirk. An interesting use of time. Kirk is a conservative political activist and founder of Turning Point USA, a pro-Trump organization active on college campuses. He’s been a vocal opponent of transgender athletes in women’s sports, and Newsom said he feels similarly. 

[clip of Charlie Kirk] Would you say no men in female sports? 

[clip of Gavin Newsom] Well it’s, I think it’s an issue of fairness. I completely agree with you on that. 

Jane Coaston: Choice words coming from someone who has backed LGBTQ causes for decades. It was also a major policy break from his fellow Democrats, and a noteworthy one because Newsom is widely rumored to be eyeing a White House run in 2028. In the interview with Kirk, Newsom tried to temper his criticisms. 

[clip of Gavin Newsom] There’s also a humility and a grace thing that these poor people are more likely to commit suicide and have anxiety and depression. And the way that people talk down to vulnerable communities is an issue that I have a hard time with. 

Jane Coaston: Speaking of talking down to vulnerable communities. Newsom’s remarks were met with backlash from some LGBTQ advocates. California Assemblyman Chris Ward and State Senator Caroline Menjivar who lead the state’s LGBTQ caucus, said, quote, “we woke up profoundly sickened and frustrated by these remarks.” It’s the latest slight in an otherwise very difficult month for trans Americans. Since taking office, President Trump has issued directives targeting trans people who serve in the military, play school sports and, among other things, are just trying to live their lives. And that’s the news. [music break] One more thing. Former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is running to be mayor of New York City. On Saturday, he made the announcement in a 17 minute video, which is about 16 minutes too long for an election announcement video. 

[clip of Andrew Cuomo] I believe I can help. And that is why I announced my candidacy today for mayor of New York City. I am a lifelong New Yorker and I love New York. 

Jane Coaston: He’s running against a host of Democrats, including the current mayor of New York City, Eric Adams. But due to a host of tiny little controversies, you might remember something about the DOJ dropping charges to maybe pressure him on immigration. Eric Adams currently has the popularity of stomach flu, and a majority of New Yorkers want him to resign. In February, Governor Kathy Hochul put limits on his power as mayor. We spoke to her earlier in the show, and right now Cuomo is leading the pack. According to a Quinnipiac poll released on Wednesday, 31% of voters support his candidacy, the most of any of the candidates listed. But for the life of me, I cannot understand why. Okay, like I do get it. Andrew Cuomo is a known quantity in New York and nationally. Remember those daily Covid press conferences? 

[clip of Andrew Cuomo] Well, I like to start with just the facts. Just give me the facts. And that’s what we do in this presentation. Here are the facts. No opinion. 

Jane Coaston: He was governor of New York for a decade. His dad was governor of New York for more than a decade. And in comparison with Eric Adams, Cuomo might seem almost normal. But let’s talk about why Andrew Cuomo should absolutely not be the next mayor of New York City. First, let’s remember why he stopped being governor, because he was credibly accused of sexual harassment in a massive investigation launched by New York Attorney General Letitia James. 

[clip of unnamed reporter] The damning report, 165 pages long, including the testimony of 179 witnesses documenting a pattern of behavior from 2013 until at least 2020. 

Jane Coaston: According to the report, the allegations of sexual harassment against at least 11 women included unwanted touching, groping and sexual comments. Cuomo even retaliated against one of the women he harassed, feeding damaging information about her to reporters. Cuomo maintained his innocence, but most Democrats, including President Joe Biden, said it was time for him to go. 

[clip of Joe Biden] I stand by that statement. 

[clip of unknown reporter 2] Are you now calling on him to resign? 

[clip of Joe Biden] Yes. 

[clip of unknown reporter 2] And if he doesn’t resign, do you believe he should be impeached and removed from office? 

[clip of Joe Biden] Let’s take one thing at a time here. I think he should resign. 

Jane Coaston: Cuomo resigned on August 23rd, 2021. But the story doesn’t end there. Because of a state law, the taxpayers of the state of New York have been on the hook for the cost of his efforts to defend himself to the tune of $28 million. And those efforts have been, as a U.S. District Court judge described them, scorched earth. One accuser dropped her federal lawsuit against Cuomo. Her lawyer said he, quote, “used every opportunity to harass our client with an astonishing number of invasive discovery requests and outrageous statements and pleadings to embarrass and humiliate her. Those requests even included gynecological records. But if you’re thinking, okay, so Andrew Cuomo was credibly accused of sexual harassment in a massive investigation that led to his resignation, but that should be it, right? Oh, no. Definitely not. A second investigation by Attorney General James found that Cuomo undercounted the number of Covid 19 deaths in 2020, in New York nursing homes, and try to keep that information from state lawmakers for fear that President Trump would use it as a political cudgel. His team even rewrote reports to hide the death toll. Cuomo had become known nationally for those daily press conferences during the peak of Covid. But he downplayed nursing home deaths in those press conferences throughout 2020 and 2021. So here’s where we are. We have a candidate for New York City mayor who was forced out of office because of allegations of repeated acts of sexual harassment. That same candidate also allegedly tried to hide deaths of the elderly and disabled during a pandemic. One of his accusers, Lindsey Boylan, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that her fight now was to keep him from ever becoming mayor. 

[clip of Lindsey Boylan] I wake up every day hoping that he’ll find some ethics and some moral compass and decide that this is not the right thing for him to do, but I have very little hope of that. And so what I do every day after I wake up in this nightmare is I think, how am I going to spend every moment of this day preventing this monster from becoming the mayor of my city, the city that my daughter lives in? 

Jane Coaston: She shouldn’t have to do this. There is no rule in New York state law that the weirdest and worst New Yorker gets to be mayor. New York, you are a very cool place. You contain millions of people who have not been credibly accused of sexual harassment, or covering up the deaths of some of the most vulnerable. You absolutely do not have to elect Andrew Cuomo mayor. [music break]

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Jane Coaston: That’s all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe. Leave a review. Recognize that it is okay to have zero opinions about Meghan Markle. And tell your friends to listen. And if you are into reading and not just about how really it’s fine, you can just feel totally neutral about Meghan Markle or the Oscars, or a movie or a show or a song. It’s okay. You’re allowed to be whelmed, like me. What a Day is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at Crooked.com/subscribe. I’m Jane Coaston and you are permitted to not care about things too. [music break] What a Day is a production of Crooked Media. It’s recorded and mixed by Desmond Taylor. Our associate producers are Raven Yamamoto and Emily Fohr. Our producer is Michell Eloy. We had production help today from Johanna Case, Joseph Dutra, Greg Walters and Julia Clare. Our senior producer is Erica Morrison, and our executive producer is Adriene Hill. Our theme music is by Colin Gilliard and Kashaka. Our production staff is proudly unionized with the Writers Guild of America East. 

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