The ‘I’ve Had It’ podcast is popular with disaffected Democrats : NPR

For people who don't like the Trump administration's policies or the Democratic Party's response, there's a good chance I had it I came across their social media feeds.

It only takes a few seconds of listening to understand who hosts Jennifer Welch and Angie “Pumps” Sullivan consider their target audience—and the target of their ire.

“Patriots, gateriots, onitriots, black triots, brown triots and all those rude motherfuckers that don't support them, you can fuck off,” one recent episode began.

Welch is an interior designer. Sullivan, lawyer. They are two middle-aged suburban women from Oklahoma, former Bravo reality TV stars whose show has come to represent an active coalition of the liberal base that, well, had it with the Democrats.

“It’s very much like the Conservation Party, which wants to maintain the status quo,” Welch said in an interview. “It’s almost conservative in the sense that they don’t evolve or move.”

Speaking to NPR in late October, Welch and Sullivan talked about the show's growing popularity and the Democratic Party's unpopularity among voters, who say its leaders aren't fighting enough against President Trump.

“Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer are writing scathing letters, and it's like this guy is destroying democracy,” Sullivan said of Democratic leaders in the House and Senate. “We need more action than harsh letters.”

The two hosts come from different backgrounds: Welch is a liberal atheist who has always been outspoken and has just moved to New York City for a while, while Sullivan grew up as a conservative evangelical Christian who gradually became more comfortable sharing her political views.

Both say key Democratic Party leaders are not doing enough to protect marginalized groups, support young and progressive candidates like Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani in New York, or oppose Trump's policies.

One such recent moment was with New Jersey Senator Cory Booker, who was asked about Israel's war in the Gaza Strip. In particular, he was asked whether he considered Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a “war criminal.” Netanyahu has denied the accusations.

“A lot of people see these issues as important litmus tests that are tense and hot,” Booker said, visibly emotional. “I urgently need to become an effective leader to end this crisis. And I get these questions all the time that I think undermine my sense of urgency.”

The same senator who spoke for 25 hours in April to protest the Trump administration, Welch said, violated what should have been a simple yes-or-no question.

“The thing is with Cory Booker, I can disagree with him if he’s being damn honest,” Welch said of the interaction. “But to give us a damn cowardly answer to the question: 'Is Benjamin Netanyahu a war criminal?' The answer to this question is objectively yes.”

Her response illustrates another reason some people can't get enough of “I've Had It”: its raw, unvarnished and often impolite depictions of contemporary American politics.

In an episode titled “American Dictator Idiot,” which premiered on Election Day last week, Sullivan deplored what she called the “MAGA propaganda machine” surrounding the suggestion that Trump might illegally seek a third term.

“I feel like we've moved on from the point where you're either on the side of the rule of law, the Constitution and democracy, or you're a real fascist and don't care,” she said.

Welch says the podcast's tone matches the way people talk: “a little gossip, a little politics, a little goodbye… it's more digestible, it's more interesting.”

She also points to Trump's new media strides and how he is making politics more conversational.

“I don't agree with everything he says, I think he's a habitual liar and so on… but the way we talk is actually the way Trump has been doing it for the last ten years on podcasts,” Welch said.

Sullivan adds that the duo's self-deprecating humor is key.

“I think because we don't take ourselves as seriously — like a lot of politicians — it makes us more like just friends you hang out with,” she said.

Online, clips of the show have gone viral for their salty language and derogatory descriptions of Trump, Vice President Vance, House Speaker Mike Johnson and other Republicans.

But it was their sharp rebukes of Democratic Party leaders—sometimes to their faces—that also helped the duo gain millions of followers on Instagram, YouTube, TikTok and elsewhere.

“The Hakeem and the Chuckles—that's what we call Chuck Schumer—and the Cory Bookers of the Democratic Party, if they don't get their act together, a crook who looks a lot like Donald Trump will come along and fill that void,” Welch said.

I've Had It, which airs twice a week, and its shorter news counterpart, IHIP News, which airs twice a day, are at the top of the podcast charts alongside shows like The Rachel Maddow Show and The Charlie Kirk Show, racking up hundreds of thousands of views and plays per week across multiple media.

“We have all age groups, red states, blue states, rural areas, big cities,” Welch added when asked about who is consuming their content. “What's so interesting about us is that we're middle-aged women from a red state, and it's like, 'Oh my God, white people care!' Also, the fact that we are new is, I think, a little sad.”

At a time when the political podcast space is dominated by the manosphere and the quest for a “leftist Joe Rogan” to win voters back to the Democratic Party, the hosts of “I've Had It” say their show is trying to push elected officials back to the voters.

“I'm careful to embrace the mentality of a lot of people on the left: 'Let's just burn it all down, that's the only way to get better,'” Welch said. “I say: let's resist and push the politicians we have as much as we can. And if that makes them both vulnerable to primaries, then they're not the right leader for us anyway.”