Return to Transcripts main page

Smerconish

NYC Mayor Mamdani Wealth Tax Video Backlash; Trump Says Ceasefire Still In Effect After U.S., Iran Trade Fire. The Life And Legacy Of Ted Turner; Seventy Years Of Queen Elizabeth II And U.S. Presidents. Aired 9-10a ET

Aired May 09, 2026 - 09:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:00:34]

MICHAEL SMERCONISH, CNN ANCHOR: Is Mayor Mamdani showing no class with regard to the wealthy? I'm Michael Smerconish in the Philly burbs. The dictionary says a slur is language used to demean or degrade a group, an insinuation designed to harm through contempt rather than argument. We know it when we see it in a racial or ethnic context. But what about comments based on class?

Do they count as a slur? That question got a whole lot more interesting this week. By now, you've probably seen what New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani did on tax day.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ZOHRAN MAMDANI, (D) MAYOR, NEW YORK CITY: When I ran for mayor, I said I was going to tax the rich. Well, today we're taxing the rich. I'm thrilled to announce we've secured a pied a terre tax, the first in New York's history. This is an annual fee on luxury properties worth more than $5 million whose owners do not live full time in the city. Like for this penthouse, which hedge fund CEO Ken Griffin bought for $238 million.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SMERCONISH: Griffin wasn't amused. He called it a personal attack at a profound lack of judgment. And then he did something about it. More jobs going to Miami. A planned $6 billion Park Avenue development with thousands of jobs attached, now in doubt.

And then another big name weighed in. Vornado Realty Chair Steve Roth said the phrase tax the rich, when spit out with anger and contempt by politicians, is just as hateful as certain racial slurs. He even put it on the same level as the pro-Palestinian phrase from the river to the sea. Strong words. Probably too strong of an equivalence, but I'm not sure that he's entirely wrong.

Look, tax the rich is probably more policy position than slur. When Mamdani says the city's $5 billion budget gap means wealthy New Yorkers need to pay more, that's a debate worth having. Fine. But filming yourself outside one specific man's home to use his address as a campaign prop, that's not policy. That's max more of a shakedown.

And Griffin himself seems to think it's something worse, stating the video put me in harm's way, noting that CEO Brian Thompson, allegedly shot by Luigi Mangione, was killed only blocks away from Griffin's New York address.

But Mamdani is hardly the only modern politician who makes it personal. List we forget. A few years back, AOC showed up at the Met gala in address that also said tax the rich. Sometime before then, she helped force Amazon and 25,000 jobs out of New York City. There's a pattern here.

My bottom line, shaming a group for what they have is still shaming. That's prejudice. And it's one that a lot of politicians are afraid to push back on. But Margaret Thatcher wasn't. The Iron Lady explained her position pretty well 50 years ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARGARET THATCHER, U.K. FORMER PRIME MINISTER: Socialist governments traditionally do make a financial mess. They always run out of other people's money.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SMERCONISH: Mayor Mamdani may be proving her right. Except it won't just be other people's money that runs out, it will be New York's.

I want to know what you think. Go to my website at smercondish.com. Answer today's poll question, is the Mamdani tax the rich theme an asset or liability for Democrats nationally?

Joining me now to talk about all of it is Republican New York City Councilmember Frank Morano. He represents New York City's 51st Council District, encompassing Staten Island's South Shore communities.

Councilman, this is not a policy debate on luxury second homes. That would be a legitimate debate. You agree?

FRANK MORANO, (R) NEW YORK CITY COUNCIL MEMBER, STATEN ISLAND: Completely. Michael, thanks for having me on. You know what a fan I am of you and your show. I think what the mayor did here, not only is it poor policy because it's going to drive a lot of taxpayers out of New York for the reasons that the Iron Lady alluded to there, but it's really the worst type of tone.

And in an era where we need more civility and we need to lower the temperature, this pours an accelerant over the class warfare embers that are already burning. In the light of the murder of Brian Thompson, the United CEO, to go outside someone's house and say to his millions of supporters, hey, this guy is the villain. It's totally irresponsible. And the mayor could have delivered the same message so much more effectively by, I don't know, showing somebody that's a working class family that would have been helped by the pied a terre attacks. Instead, he said, that guy there, he's the reason you have a problem. And at a time when that guy's bringing jobs, investment, a whole lot of philanthropy into New York and a lot of development. It was the wrong message and it sent the wrong tone.

[09:05:02]

SMERCONISH: But it probably works for Mayor Mamdani and his constituency, does it not? I mean, President Obama this week with Colbert was saluting the skill set that he has as a communicator. So you're offended by it and probably folks on Staten Island that you represent are offended by it. But by the same token, for Mamdani's constituency, it sells.

MORANO First of all, I represent a lot of middle class folks, a lot of cops, a lot of firefighters, a lot of working class folks, a lot of teachers, a lot of sanitation workers. And the folks that Mamdani hangs around with are much closer to being billionaires than the ones that I hang around with.

For starters, President Obama is exactly right. Mamdani is a brilliant communicator. You saw how effectively he used short form social media during the campaign. And that's what makes his decision to do this so dangerous. Donald Trump used social media effectively during his campaign.

And a lot of your listeners, rightly so, called him out when he celebrated Robert Mueller's passing when he said that Rob Reiner was killed due to Trump derangement.

What Mamdani did here is equally as reprehensible and equally as responsible. You're a historian, Michael. You know, only Nixon could go to China because he was so anti-communist. If Mamdani were to still pursue the same policy agenda, but just couch it in a manner of, hey, we need the billionaires so I can freeze the rent, so I could provide affordability, so I could provide free buses, it would set a much better tone. Instead, this just chases people away.

Mike Bloomberg, another wealthy mayor as Mamdani is, by the way, he raised taxes more than any mayor in history. But at the same time, he went to business leaders and billionaires and said, we want you to stay in New York. We have to raise taxes, but we need you to stay. Mamdani is sending the message to billionaires and people that want to create jobs, hey, New York is closed for you, look elsewhere.

And you know what that's going to lead to. It's going to lead to --

SMERCONISH: OK.

MORANO: -- an exodus of jobs and taxes.

SMERCONISH: OK. Final thought, as only the New York Post can do, we are zo out of here. Ken Griffith has something that your constituents who are cops and firefighters don't, mobility. The wealthy can move easily and they really can move those jobs with them. What do you think the net impact is really going to be of this? MORANO: I think it's going to be substantial. As you point out, middle class and working class families, they don't have the same ability to move to a state that doesn't have an income tax. A lot of them are stuck. A lot of them want to be here because their families are here and they grew up here.

And unfortunately, the mayor, by chasing out a big portion of our tax base, he's making it more difficult for those folks to afford to stay here because that means we're going to have to pay more in property taxes. It's terribly irresponsible as a policy. It's even more irresponsible as a tone.

SMERCONISH: Councilman Frank Morano, thank you so much for being here. We appreciate it.

What are your thoughts at home? Please hit me up on social media. I'll read some throughout the course of the program.

This is what they voted for, a socialist agenda, says Ralph on X, with a side of Marxism. Yes, we have socialist aspects in America, but that shouldn't be the overriding philosophy.

Well, Ralph, my question today -- you're right, this is what a significant portion voted for. Can you sell it nationally? Because what I really want to get to today is the poll question of whether Mamdani represents the future. President Obama didn't exactly say that. You know, he praised his skill set as a communicator, which any objective observer would have to do.

This guy is really good on his feet, Mamdani. But is this the prescription nationally? Go to smerconish.com and answer today's poll question, which asks exactly that, is the Mamdani tax the rich theme an asset or liability for Democrats nationally?

Up ahead, how long can Iran actually outlast a U.S. Naval blockade? The White House says they're strangled, but a report from the Washington Post reveals that Tehran may have enough stockpile to last several more months. What these new numbers could signal for both countries is next.

[09:09:13]

And don't forget, sign up for the newsletter while you're casting your ballot because you're going to get the daily poll question. You're also going to get the work of illustrators like Eric Allie. Love that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SMERCONISH: U.S. and Iranian forces have been embroiled in what's being described as a limited exchange of fire in the Strait of Hormuz. President Trump has described the U.S. naval blockade as a wall of steel. He told reporters that the Iranian military is, quote, "decimated," adding that their ability to strike back has been all but wiped out. But an exclusive new report from the Washington Post paints a much more bleak picture for the U.S. According to confidential CIA assessments delivered to the White House, the president's optimism may be clashing with the reality on the ground.

They note, quote, "Iran retains about 75 percent of its prewar inventories of mobile launchers and about 70 percent of its prewar stockpiles of missiles. That's according to a U.S. official who said that there's evidence that the regime has been able to recover and reopen almost all of its underground storage facilities, repair some damaged missiles, and even assemble some new missiles that were nearly complete when the war began."

So let's again compare that to the president's own remarks in the Oval Office on Wednesday. He claimed that Iran has only, quote, "18 or 19 percent of its missiles left." That's a staggering disconnect. And the CIA isn't just worried about Iran's stockpile because while the president calls this a wall of steel, the reality is that our military stockpile, our stockpile may be running lower than most realize. According to an analysis released by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, which provided the first comprehensive, non- classified look at the burn rate of Operation Epic Fury, American's munitions clock is ticking. It says 45 percent of U.S. precision strike missile have been expended.

[09:15:12]

Fifty percent of Patriot and terminal high altitude area defense interceptors have been used. It also reports that 1,100 JASSM-ER stealth missiles have been fired in February alone. And the estimated replenishment time for all of this ranges from three to five years. So if the CIA is right and Iran retains 70 percent of its missiles, we aren't looking at a decimated enemy, we're looking at two powers sitting on depleted arsenals each waiting for the other to blink.

Joining me now, someone who knows a great deal about it, CNN Senior Military Analyst, former NATO Supreme Allied Commander and author of the fantastic new book "2084, A Novel of Future War." This, this is Admiral James Stavridis.

Admiral, respond please to those munitions report. Proportionately, proportionately, are we in a worse position than the Iranians?

ADM. JAMES STAVRIDIS (RET.), CNN SENIOR MILITARY ANALYST: Let's start with that CIA report. If accurate, I'll make a top line observation. Good on the CIA for delivering clearly unwelcome news into the White House. That's what you want your intelligence agency to do, bring you the bad news. So if the report is accurate, they're doing their job.

Now as to your question, yes, it's worrisome. Note that our stockpiles that you showed being depleted air defense systems and highly exquisite precision guided, yes, we ought to worry about that. But we do have lots and lots of bombs of GPS driven level accuracy still in the inventory. We can continue to do a ton of damage.

So as I sort of step back and look at this, I think President Trump has three options, Michael. He can kind of wash his hands of it and walk away. That would be a mistake. I don't think he's going to do that. I hope not. Option two, he can go back to a massive campaign of bombing. He's alluded to that several times. If it'll be perhaps less shock and awe than the first wave but still do damage. And I think he's going to land on option three, which is continue the blockade, go after Iran, perhaps the leadership, perhaps some other limited targets, but keep the economic pressure on.

In any event, we're in a waiting game at the moment for that response to the U.S. one page memoir. Let's see what Iran has to say.

SMERCONISH: The president is speaking of Operation Freedom Plus. How might that work in the strait?

STAVRIDIS: Well I'm reminded when I go through McDonald's of do you want to supersize that order? And I think in seriousness, what he's talking about is the basic escort service, which is very resource intensive. But the plus is could be one of two things. The plus could be adding some level of limited bombing, perhaps going after leadership targets. Let's face it, the intransigence coming from Iran is centered in the Revolutionary Guards.

Perhaps you go after some of those leadership targets. That could be the plus. Or second, the plus could be the basic escort service, but bringing in allies partners to participate in it and perhaps doing strikes in the vicinity of the Strait itself. So two ways to think about it. Both are interesting ideas that I think could have some real impact in this impasse.

SMERCONISH: Admiral, I'm curious as to what this war is teaching us. You are also a novelist. Now publishing the final installment of this trilogy, looking forward you initially wrote about war with China in 2034, and then where neither nation succeeded, it was 2054 and it was civil conflict in the U.S. demographic, time bombs going off in China. Now it's 2084 and we're in the midst of a climate calamity whet our appetite.

STAVRIDIS: First and foremost, something we're seeing today is how fragile alliances are. As you mentioned at the start of this trilogy, 2034, just a few years from now, U.S. and China are in a war. But by 2084, they might well be allies.

Number two, and we see it not only in the Middle East, but in Ukraine, the rise of unmanned. But it's really the driving force of artificial intelligence behind those unmanned capabilities that is so striking. Now we see drones that are hunters who they themselves control drone killers, hunter killer groups quite extraordinary. By 2084, put AI together with that lethal.

[09:20:02]

And then third and finally, Michael, it's cyber and cybersecurity. All of that with a backdrop of a deteriorating climate, high seas, super storms. There's a lot to be concerned about in 2084, but we can see the edges of it today in 2026.

SMERCONISH: Suffice it to say, Florida has changed by the time we get to 2084. I'm loving -- I'm loving the book, appreciate it and wish you good things. It drops Tuesday formally, am I right?

STAVRIDIS: Absolutely. And my beloved home state of Florida, some will like this is now the Free Republic of Florida. That's the good news. But a lot of it is underwater. Wait and see.

SMERCONISH: Well, and there's -- and there's an area called Camp DeSantis. Let us not give anything else away. Good luck, Admiral.

Still to come, your social media reaction to today's program. And don't forget to vote on today's poll question at Smerconish.com, is the Mamdani tax the rich theme an asset or liability for Democrats nationally? Should they roll that out?

Next, we all know that Ted Turner was the visionary behind this very network. But as the obituaries poured in, I found one critical chapter of his life almost entirely missing. The Ted Turner story that you haven't heard is just ahead.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TED TURNER, CNN FOUNDER: Life is like a grade B movie. You don't want to get up and walk out in the middle of it, but you wouldn't want to sit through it again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:26:04]

SMERCONISH: As you know, Ted Turner passed this week. I met him only once in passing. It was in a television green room. Initially, I didn't recognize the man who was seated alone on a sofa. The tell was his tie, which featured bison.

I won't overstate the chance encounter. It was brief and he was friendly. But cable titan John Malone knew Turner for 50 years and I interviewed Malone this week about the loss of his close friend.

In Malone's memoir, "Born to Be Wired," he wrote extensively about Ted Turner, describing him as being totally transparent, never one to hold back a thought or emotion with the passion of a revivalist preacher. Malone credits Turner with teaching him the power of wealth to do good in society and the absolute necessity to save the planet, especially preserving open spaces. Malone's a libertarian. Turner grew increasingly progressive over the course of his life, especially after his relationship with Jane Fonda.

And there's a lesson for all of us. Malone and Turner didn't let their political differences interrupt their friendship, which was built around the cable industry, fly fishing, hunting and simply walking one of their expansive properties. They had ample room to do the latter. Turner was the third largest individual landowner in America, while Malone was number two.

Ted Turner's death was appropriately treated as big news, but I found many of the obituaries lacking and an important detail and discussion. Yes, he founded CNN, the world's first 24 hour cable news network. He built TBS into a cable superstation, created TNT, Turner Classic Movies, the Cartoon Network and bought the MGM Film Library, think "Gone with the Wind," "Casablanca" and "The Wizard of Oz" for 1.5 billion. He owned the Atlanta Braves. He won America's Cup.

He pledged a billion dollars and created the United Nations Foundation. And help bring the American bison back from the brink of extinction. All of those accomplishments were duly noted. By way of example, the New York Times ran one of its signature long form tributes, thousands of words. The kind of obituary the paper reserves for figures who genuinely altered the course of history.

But only toward the end, almost as a parenthetical in a paragraph about his temperament mellowing in the early 1990s, did the Times note that Turner had, quote, "begun taking lithium, a drug often prescribed to counter manic depressive behavior." And that was it. Half a sentence. No diagnosis name, no context offered, no acknowledgement of what that actually meant. With regard to Turner's health, many obituaries mentioned his Lewy body dementia diagnosis and then moved on.

And here's what they missed. Ted Turner seemed to have had serious mental struggles. For part of his life he was diagnosed with bipolar illness. It wasn't a footnote in his story. It was simply intertwined with everything he built and lost.

He experienced episodes of extreme manic highs and crushing depressive lows throughout his life. And it wasn't just a personal battle, it was a family legacy. His father, Ed, had suffered from bipolar disorder, and when Ted was in his early 20s, his father took his own life.

Think about that. The man who built one of the great communications empires in American history did so with that weight on his back, the loss of his father to suicide and the knowledge that the same condition might live inside him. For many years, Turner was haunted by the fear that he would not outlive his father, who killed himself at age 53. He talked of suicide rather often and drove himself mercilessly in joyless pursuits. Even after winning America's Cup, he told a friend that he never actually enjoyed sailing, that he got cold and he got wet.

His eye was always on some finish line that, when crossed, didn't feel like anything. It wasn't until 1985 that he saw it help. His psychiatrist put him on lithium, though he later switched doctors and stopped taking the medication. Still, it was after getting the treatment, not before, that he gave away a billion dollars for the U.N., helped save the Bison, and became one of the most ambitious philanthropists the country has ever produced.

In his 2008 memoir, "Call Me Ted," Turner candidly discusses his personal struggles, his setbacks, his mood swings, his impulsive decisions, his bouts with anxiety. In general, his highs and lows. The book became a bestseller, resonating with readers who recognized something in his vulnerability alongside his resilience. It's a shame his struggles didn't get more notice with his passing. It's true that he later denied having these mood episodes, but that's not uncommon. About one half of people with mania deny having it. And his later dementia would not explain his extreme moods in his youth and middle age. Many might have taken comfort in knowing they're not alone.

In 2024, more than 60 million American adults, nearly one in four, experienced some form of mental illness. And for tens of millions of them, the greatest single barrier to getting help is not cost or access. It remains shame. It's the still durable belief in this culture that needing help means something is fundamentally broken about you.

Consider that when something terrible happens and the perpetrator turns out to be bipolar, the diagnosis always makes the story. But when Ted Turner died, his eulogies barely mentioned his mental state. That's the asymmetry we never talk about. Mental issues and disorders are news when connected to tragedy, and often invisible when connected to greatness. Which brings me back to my conversation with Turner's friend John Malone. I raised the subject of mental health.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SMERCONISH: Something else, something personal. You wrote in "Born to Be Wired" that you're autistic. Ted Turner --

JOHN MALONE, CABLE TV PIONEER AND AUTHOR: Correct.

SMERCONISH: -- suffered from bipolar disorder. In fact, and you talk about this as well, there was a time when the "New York Post" ran a headline that said, is Ted Turner nuts? You can decide.

Were the struggles that each of you had with mental health a bonding experience?

MALONE: I think it made us interesting to each other. We were definitely the odd couple because I'm about as opposite from Ted in personality as I could possibly be.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SMERCONISH: Guess what? They're not alone in being afflicted with such challenges, nor in overcoming them and making enormous contributions to society. In his 2011 book a "First-Rate Madness," Harvard's Dr. Nassir Ghaemi profiled eight political, military, and business leaders afflicted with mental health disorders who nevertheless were able to thrive in times of crisis, William Tecumseh Sherman, Winston Churchill, Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Franklin Delano Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, and Ted Turner.

The provocative thesis of Ghaemi's book is that in times of crisis, we are better off being led by mentally ill leaders than by mentally normal ones. Dr. Ghaemi argues that the very traits associated with depression and mania, realism, empathy, creativity, and resilience are precisely the qualities that crisis leadership demands. Mentally healthy leaders, by contrast, tend to be overly optimistic, insensitive to suffering, and ill equipped to adapt to novelty.

Ted Turner, like General Sherman, exhibited symptoms of bipolarity, extreme shifts in a person's mood, energy, and activity. That same condition can enhance creativity, which it clearly did in Turner's case. Turner warranted an entire chapter in Dr. Ghaemi's book. And last month, Ghaemi released a new book, "Soul on Fire," solely focusing on Martin Luther King Jr. The thesis that MLK Jr. had manic depressive illness, which helped him lead. It enabled his politics of radical empathy. Leaders thriving despite or even because of mental illness, that shouldn't have been a footnote. It should have been the headline.

All right. Here's some of what you're thinking on this program thus far. From Nolan, asset billionaires, Trump has already hooked them up enough, people out here struggling every day. And I'm supposed to give a rip about the people who have $1 billion in their account. Keep those tears coming.

Nolan, I think you're dismissing the economic engine that those billionaires who are so easily condemned in the Mamdani view of the world provide. I mean, if they really do pull up stakes and leave New York City, you don't think that's going to be of consequence to a city that right now already has an enormous budget deficit? I do.

And there's just no -- you can have a legitimate debate about a pied- a-terre tax. But the way in which he's going about it, and I do think there's a safety aspect to it, I'm mindful of what happened to that health care executive. I remember walking on that block within two days of it happening and seeing signs that had been posted.

[09:35:06]

Time out. I want to just say this. This is important. Within two days of that murder, that execution, because I stay in close proximity, same hotel where the executive had stayed the night before he was assassinated. Two days later, I find myself walking down that sidewalk. There were no flowers. There were no flowers.

You know how often somebody dies on a highway people leave flowers? There's nothing. The only -- the only evidence there was of the health care executive having been murdered were wanted posters for other business titans on poles in the surrounding blocks. It's disgusting. And that's the first reaction that I had.

Mamdani, great on camera, skilled communicator, but standing outside somebody's residence? No. No, way below the belt and potentially dangerous. OK, sorry. Next. What do we have? More social media reaction? Follow me on X.

The irony of anyone, particularly the mayor, not realizing the mobility of money and demonizing someone who has paid over $1 billion of taxes and countless philanthropic deeds as somehow the problem of not paying their fair share.

Yes, it's bananas. I agree with you. And, you know, the point that Councilman Morano was making representing Staten Island, where there are working class people and cops and firefighters and EMTs and so forth, they don't have the ability to move. But you think that the titans of Wall Street that Mamdani is going after -- after all, it's by definition, it's a pied-a-terre tax. It's their second home. They don't need to be in New York City. They can rent a hotel room. And then you're not going to be able to tax their real estate.

The fundamental problem, when you really delve into this is the tax structure and the way that properties -- I think that $238 million property on the tax rolls is evaluated or appraised at 9.5 million. There's a fundamental flaw in the way New York City goes about this. Time for one more. Can I? One more, please. Follow me on X. Subscribe to the YouTube channel.

Iran can go months with Trump's war. America cannot. Economy will not permit Americans to continue with high prices.

Well, actually we can. If we were -- you know, we could endure. But we don't have patience. We don't have patience. And they know it. That's really the shame of all of this. And one last thought, if I may, Iran can win by just not losing, by just not losing. They get to -- they get to hang on and proclaim victory.

John Bolton said something interesting this week. Ambassador Bolton said, enough of the negotiations. Go back to the bombing.

I just appreciate the fact that the president seems focused now on the enriched uranium, which is the most important reason that we're there. Don't shut it down without taking control of that enriched uranium. That would be a tangible benefit to make this worthwhile in my view.

OK. Vote on today's poll question at Smerconish.com. Ready? Is the Mamdani tax the rich theme an asset or liability for Democrats nationally?

Still to come, Queen Elizabeth II met 13 of the last 14 American presidents. Who was her actual favorite? Who was her favorite? Sign up for my newsletter when you're voting at Smercoish.com. You'll get the work of our prized illustrators like Steve Breen.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:42:46]

SMERCONISH: During her 70-year reign, Queen Elizabeth II met 13 of the last 14 U.S. presidents. We tend to think of these encounters in terms of formal toasts and stiff diplomacy. But beyond the pomp lies a wealth of untold stories, sometimes warm, sometimes clashing, often surprisingly revealing. Those stories are now the subject of a new book by Susan Page, the Washington Bureau Chief for "USA Today." It's titled "The Queen and Her Presidents, The Hidden Hand That Shaped History." And what makes this particular account so impressive is who actually agreed to go On the Record with Susan Page.

She sat down with the figures who were in the room interviewing presidents Trump, Biden, Obama, and Clinton, and spoke with first ladies Jill Biden, Michelle Obama, and Hillary Clinton, and even cross-referenced the British perspective by speaking prime ministers Boris Johnson, Liz Truss, and David Cameron.

Susan Page discussed her new book, "The Queen and Her Presidents, The Hidden Hand That Shaped History this week on my SiriusXM radio program.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SMERCONISH: I got to tell you, I did the Washington read. I went right to the index, and I wanted to find out about Trump because I was just dying to know what you could reveal about the way in which he was perceived from the other side of the pond. What's the CliffsNotes version of that?

SUSAN PAGE, USA TODAY, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF: So, President Trump, who adored the royal family, and Elizabeth in particular, was very curious about just that question. And when he had his state dinner with Queen Elizabeth in 2019, he peppered her with questions about which president she liked best.

You know, there may have been other presidents who wondered about that. I bet none of the other dared ask her, and she wouldn't answer. He was, in fact, amazed at how deftly she dodged his question. But he did tell me that after the dinner he was led to believe by others close to the queen that she did have a favorite president, and it was him.

SMERCONISH: Of course. No surprise. From your book, I said, so could I ask you who was your favorite president? The queen replied, why? They were all so good. I know, but did you like Ronald Reagan the best, Trump asked. Oh yes, I liked him very much, but they were all good.

[09:45:02]

Oh, well, what about Nixon? He was excellent. And so on and so forth. By the way, I'm sure they all wanted to know, what does she think of me? I'd want to know, what does the queen think of me if I had had the privilege of meeting her?

PAGE: Yes. Let's hope that when her diaries are released, which God knows when that will happen, that she'll have things like, oh, and this president was my favorite president. Or, I really didn't like this president. Maybe she didn't do that in her diaries but we can we can hope. But, you know, Michael, we can judge what she thought by what she did. And if you judge her by what she did, you'd say her favorite president was Ronald Reagan, with whom she had this huge connection over, yes, horses.

SMERCONISH: Horses, right, right.

PAGE: Horses. And if you wanted to say who was her least favorite president, judging by what she did, that would have to be Jimmy Carter.

SMERCONISH: And why Jimmy Carter and what did she do?

PAGE: So, Jimmy Carter on his first -- Jimmy Carter, who did many wonderful things for the world during his long life, Jimmy Carter on his first trip abroad as president, went to London, sat next to the queen at one of those incredibly fancy dinners at Buckingham Palace, was saying goodbye to the royal family. And you know, Michael, I know that you constantly encounter royalty. So, you know, there is a protocol rule against touching the royals, right? You do not touch the royals.

So, Jimmy Carter ignored that rule, leaned in to kiss the queen mother on her cheek. That would be forbidden. What's worse, she turned her head and he kissed her on the lips. This is something that she never forgot. She complained about privately, and Jimmy Carter was never invited back to the palace.

SMERCONISH: OK, in contrast to the breach of protocol -- and I love the rules. And in Susan's book, she details who ran afoul of them and different things that that happened. For example, reviewing the troops with President Trump and then getting out of the alignment that they were supposed to be in. But the story that comes to mind from your book is the Range Rover and the Obamas and the seating arrangement. Will you tell that story?

PAGE: So, the Obamas were the surprise friends of the queen. You know, beforehand, people, officials on both sides of Atlantic thought they might not really get along, but they did. They got along from the start. And the Obamas wanted the queen to come to Washington for a state dinner. By then, she was in her 90s. She wasn't traveling. So, they made a last visit to see her, and at Windsor castle.

And they land in the helicopter and they get out. And the plan is carefully orchestrated plan, because everything with both presidents and queens are carefully orchestrated, was for President Obama to get in the back seat of the Land Rover with the queen, and for Michelle Obama to sit in the front seat with Prince Philip, who was going to drive, to the consternation of the Secret Service.

So, Michelle Obama gets to the car and the queen indicates she should get in and sit next to her. And Michelle Obama is -- when I interviewed her, she said she was really stricken because she had been very carefully instructed to sit in the front seat, not the back seat. The queen could see her and said, why did they tell her -- did they tell you some deal that you had to sit -- you couldn't sit in the back seat? And Michelle Obama said, yes. And she said, forget that. Come and sit with me.

Because, you know, these royal rules that cause so much consternation in the British press when Americans defy them did never -- never seem to flummox the queen herself. She never -- she seemed more amused than offended when Americans went awry.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SMERCONISH: All right. I freaking love that we had the Range Rover video to accompany Susan telling that story. And you see them jockeying for position. You see President Obama, like, with a smile after he's told, I guess, you're going to end up sitting with Philip. It's fun stuff. OK. Here's today's poll question at Smerconish.com. Make sure that you're voting. Is the Mamdani tax the rich theme an asset or liability for the Democrats nationally? Please subscribe to the newsletter when you're voting. It's free. It's worthy. And you'll get exclusive editorial cartoons from the likes of Jack Ohman and Rob Rogers.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:53:39]

SMERCONISH: OK. There's the poll results so far, 25,000 and change. Is the Mamdani tax -- wow. Very close, huh? Mamdani tax the rich theme, an asset or liability for Democrats nationally? Fifty-one percent say asset, 49 percent say liability.

Forty-nine percent is the correct answer. It is a liability. You can certainly -- you can certainly gain political advantage nationally by talking about wealth disparity. We had that conversation with Dr. Robert Putnam, author of "Bowling Alone." And just in terms of what's driving our social isolation. But to make it tax the rich, great for a Democratic primary candidate, not so good in a general, at least in my opinion.

Here's more social media reaction to today's program. Follow me on X and YouTube and all the other places. John Malone's openness about autism gives autistic people like me, says Chuck Hall. And the many amazing autistic people I know, great support and encouragement.

Chuck, I feel exactly the same -- the same way. And you know, to read in Malone's book, this guy who's truly a captain of industry, for him to describe that he's autistic and that Ted Turner was diagnosed with bipolar condition. And they embrace it.

And I just, you know, I already made the point earlier in the program. Just think it was a lesson lost. And maybe will now amplify, you know, the way in which people can thrive and succeed because we know if things had gone poorly, it's always in the lead of the story.

[09:55:06]

More social media reaction. Show it to me now. Here we go. Stop carrying water.

Oh, is that what I'm doing? I'm carrying -- I'm carrying water. Hey, Chris, here's how I'm carrying water for the rich. I'm carrying water for the rich because I'm saying, you always have to keep in mind the people who are watching the program and, perhaps, what might trigger them. And it's not healthy when you stand in front of someone's home, whatever that home might be, and essentially cast aspersions on their class, that's dangerous, in my view.

OK, tomorrow, Mother's Day, happy Mother's Day to all mothers, including my own tomorrow. Where is it? I'm not -- there we go. Hey, by the way, mom would be upset if I were to tell you her age. So instead, think of it this way. I'm 64. You do the math. OK? We're talking milestone, milestone. And if you missed any of today's program, remember, you can always listen anywhere you get your podcasts. We thank you for watching and we'll see you next week.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)