James Carville Defends Prediction Trump Would Collapse in 30 Days: ‘Economic Numbers Are Terrible!’
Veteran Democratic strategist James Carville defended his bold prediction from February that President Donald Trump’s administration would collapse in 30 days.
On Thursday’s episode of The Dan Abrams Show on SiriusXM’s POTUS Channel, host Dan Abrams played Carville a clip from their conversation at the beginning of Trump’s second term. In that interview, Carville advised the Democratic Party to “play possum” and simply allow the Republican-controlled government to collapse on its own. Carville added that he believed that the collapse would occur within 30 days.
Asked by Abrams for an update on those comments, Carville joked that his February self was a “pretty smart guy.” Then, he explained why he felt the prediction had come true. Their exchange on the topic is below:
CARVILLE: If you look at what’s happening, you look at the current stuff that’s coming in, the public has revulsions against this. The Democrats have not lost an election, alright? You know how much we’re going to win by in Virginia? Do you have any idea? You’ve got your guess?
ABRAMS: No, I don’t, I don’t. How many?
CARVILLE: It’s gonna be a lot. It’s not going to be–
ABRAMS: But you said that you thought that this administration was in the midst of a collapse.
CARVILLE: Yes, I did.
ABRAMS: And you think that you were right?
CARVILLE: Yes. I think there are — there’s somewhere about 37% or 40% approval. Their economic numbers are terrible, are just terrible. And I think we’re running away with every election we’ve had. We’re going to run away with Virginia. We’re gonna win New Jersey. We’re starting to recruit every candidate that we want. And I think the last thing that we need is people in plus-24 Democratic districts that never have a chance to be the face of the party, when we have a whole lot of people out there that are in swing districts, swing states, that can really — you know, [Abigail Spanberger] and [Mikie Sherrill] come to mind — is kind of my ideal for what a modern Democrat should be.
ABRAMS: Right, but that’s what you believe the Democratic Party needs. I mean, I pulled up the recent approval polling from The New York Times and Real Clear Politics, and the aggregation puts Trump’s approval between 44 and 45.8, with 53 and 51.4 disapproval, as of August the 6th. That’s not a collapse. That’s basically a little bit above where he was.
CARVILLE: Well, first of all, elections that are being held in no way reflect that. I don’t want to get into saying this poll, that poll, this aggregate poll; but I look at the UMass Amherst poll, I look at Gallup, I’ll look at people like that. I see something completely different. I’m very, very, very confident that this administration is going to be widely rejected in the elections coming up; and it’s gonna be particularly widely rejected in the elections in 2026.
Watch the clip above.
