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Speaker 1: Hello everybody, and Happy Valentine's Day. We just couldn't stay away.

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Speaker 1: There was far too much to discuss to wait for Monday.

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Speaker 1: Ryan and Emily Grade see you guys. Happy Valentine's Day.

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Speaker 2: Yes, guy, we're both wearing red and panktiful.

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Speaker 1: I mean, I gotta be. I gotta be on the theme.

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Speaker 1: It's also it's actually my daughter Ida's birthday. Happy birthday

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Speaker 1: to her. She's turning, so I got to be in

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Speaker 1: full Valentine's Day spirit in honor of her as well.

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Speaker 1: So that's how we.

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Speaker 3: Roll over here.

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Speaker 2: And I love that we can we get the ambient

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Speaker 2: noise of Ryan's children too.

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Speaker 4: Yes, indeed, is that Valentine's Day. So they're going to

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Speaker 4: keep the kids home for no reason.

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Speaker 1: See, my kids are also home and have been home

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Speaker 1: all but like one day this week because of snow,

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Speaker 1: and they're off of Monday for I guess the President's Day.

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Speaker 1: And I'm like, and we're supposed to get snow next week.

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Speaker 1: I'm just like, I just homeschool them. At this point,

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Speaker 1: this is getting utterly prebosterous. Kyle homeschool them, now that

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Speaker 1: that'd be a reality show right there.

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Speaker 3: American History.

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Speaker 1: It'd be good. They learned some things. Let me tell you.

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Speaker 1: Let me tell you, Okay, So we had three different

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Speaker 1: big topics that we wanted to jump into today. So

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Speaker 1: first of all, there's a lot of news with regard

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Speaker 1: to Eric Adams. They dropped the charges against in the

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Speaker 1: Trump administration push for that, and then there was a

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Speaker 1: series of mass resignation sort of in protest of the

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Speaker 1: way all of that went down, So that's a big deal.

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Speaker 1: We've also got a lot of comments coming out about

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Speaker 1: Ukraine and potential negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, and some

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Speaker 1: conflicting comments from Hegseth and Trump and J. D. Vance,

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Speaker 1: So break all of that down for and also some

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Speaker 1: very interesting comments from Trump about wanting to denuclearize and

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Speaker 1: also about wanting to cut the military budget by fifty percent.

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Speaker 1: So we'll give some initial reactions that I said to

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Speaker 1: you guys, Sagur and I probably also cover that on Monday,

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Speaker 1: so we'll save some of the analysis on that one

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Speaker 1: for them as well. And then of course I want

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Speaker 1: to give you all the updates that we have with

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Speaker 1: regard to DOJ. One of the biggest ones is they

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Speaker 1: have sent out a memo now to fire all probationary

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Speaker 1: employees throughout the federal government. That's people who have been

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Speaker 1: there less than one or two years, depend agency depending,

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Speaker 1: it's about two hundred thousand people. You add that to

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Speaker 1: the people who took the deferred resignation offer, you're talking

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Speaker 1: about ten percent of a federal workforce roughly that is

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Speaker 1: going to be gone. So obviously that's going to have

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Speaker 1: some major impacts. Go ahead, Ry.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, And there's one actually detail I can add to that.

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Speaker 4: I was talking to a federal worker at one of

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Speaker 4: these departments, and he said that people were refusing promotions

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Speaker 4: because it's not just new people who get on probation.

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Speaker 4: If you go from this career level and you've done

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Speaker 4: a really good job, you get promoted to a new

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Speaker 4: job with more responsibilities and more of a pay raise,

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Speaker 4: you're actually in a brief probationary window, even if you've

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Speaker 4: been a federal worker for twelve years. And so what

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Speaker 4: a lot of people who were seeing the writing on

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Speaker 4: the wall were doing was like, I'll take the responsibility

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Speaker 4: and I'll take the new title, but I don't want

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Speaker 4: any more money because if I take the raise, that's

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Speaker 4: what triggers the probationary peace in the system. So it's

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Speaker 4: not just new people like this could also be hitting

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Speaker 4: people who've been working there for twelve years and just

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Speaker 4: by coincidence, got a promotion in November.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I mean, and that goes to the point

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Speaker 1: I've been making is this is actually kind of the

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Speaker 1: polar opposite of the merit based or meritocracy thinking that

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Speaker 1: they claim to support. Because the people who are more

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Speaker 1: likely to take the buyouts, I think there's two types.

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Speaker 1: There's people who are close to retirement, and then there's

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Speaker 1: people who have a lot of other options. So that's

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Speaker 1: going to be like kind of your best and the

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Speaker 1: brightest who can go to the private sector command a

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Speaker 1: higher salary. You're not getting those people back. And so

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Speaker 1: when you add to that that, you know, some chunk

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Speaker 1: of the probationary employees also are people who were up

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Speaker 1: for promotions, which seems to indicate that they were probably

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Speaker 1: doing a good job. That also, you know, cuts into

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Speaker 1: the bone of some of the most important individuals who

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Speaker 1: would be within the federal government. But we'll get to

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Speaker 1: all of that. I do want to start with this

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Speaker 1: story coming out of New York. I'm curious for both

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Speaker 1: of you guys thoughts on this. So you guys may

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Speaker 1: know that Eric Adams, who's under fire for corruption in

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Speaker 1: in New York, his whole administration has been like gutted

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Speaker 1: by corruption charges, et cetera. There was a lot of

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Speaker 1: he started cozying up to Trump and making a lot

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Speaker 1: of noises basically sounding like he is effectively maga and

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Speaker 1: lo and behold, the order comes down to drop the

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Speaker 1: Adams case. Now significantly, he wasn't pardoned, meaning they can

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Speaker 1: still bring back the charges if he doesn't do the

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Speaker 1: things that the Trump administration wants him to do. In

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Speaker 1: protest of this, you have had a sort of mass

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Speaker 1: resignation among you know, you have a US attorney who resigned,

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Speaker 1: a bunch of other folks who were involved with this.

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Speaker 1: Let me just read you a little bit of this

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Speaker 1: New York Times piece. They say order to drop Adams

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Speaker 1: case prompts resignations in New York and Washington. Manhattan's US

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Speaker 1: attorney on Thursday resigned rather than obey and order from

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Speaker 1: a top Justice Department official to drop that corruption case

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Speaker 1: against New York City's mayor Eric Adams. Then, when Justice

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Speaker 1: Department officials transferred the case to the Public Integrity Section Washington,

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Speaker 1: which oversees corruption prosecutions. The two men who led that

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Speaker 1: unit also resigned. That's according to five people with knowledge.

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Speaker 1: Several hours later, three other lawyers in the unit also resigned.

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Speaker 1: The serial resignations and I think this is correct to

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Speaker 1: represent the most high profile public opposition so far to

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Speaker 1: President Trump's tightening control over the Justice Department, stunning repudiation

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Speaker 1: of the administration's attempt to force the dismissal of the

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Speaker 1: charges against mister Adams. And let me just pull up

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Speaker 1: one of the things that was alleged here is that

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Speaker 1: Adams pretty explicitly offered a quid pro quo in exactly

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Speaker 1: the way that you would expect. So this is the

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Speaker 1: letter from the US attorney who resigned, who said in

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Speaker 1: that scathing letter explaining the rationale for resigning over this

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Speaker 1: push to drop Adam's charges. I tended a meeting on

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Speaker 1: January thirty first with mister bo of adams Council and

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Speaker 1: members of my office. Adam's attorneys were repeatedly urged what

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Speaker 1: amounted to a quid pro quote, indicating that Adams would

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Speaker 1: be in a position to assist with the department's enforcement

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Speaker 1: priorities with regards to immigration and other things, only if

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Speaker 1: the indictment were dismissed. Mister Bow admonished a member of

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Speaker 1: my team who took notes during that meeting and directed

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Speaker 1: the collection of those notes at the meeting's conclusion. So,

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Speaker 1: you know, pretty significant development and some of the first

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Speaker 1: really significant coordinated public pushback Ryan about some of the

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Speaker 1: things that the Trump administration has been up to.

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Speaker 4: It reminds me of that iconic scene from the Wire

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Speaker 4: where Stringer Bell says, are you taking notes on a

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Speaker 4: criminal conspiracy? Rips the notes up and throws them away.

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Speaker 4: It's like, who's over here taking notes on this cover

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Speaker 4: up of a corruption scheme. Of course, the whole thing

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Speaker 4: is funny because Adams has already shown him self to be,

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Speaker 4: based on the indictment, you know, thoroughly willing to do

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Speaker 4: quit broke quote, like what do I need to do

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Speaker 4: for me? What do I need to do for the grade,

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Speaker 4: for the money, for whatever, I'll do that thing. So

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Speaker 4: they come in and they're like, all right, we will

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Speaker 4: drop these corruption charges if you will corruptly agree to

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Speaker 4: do our thing in exchange for this personal benefit that

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Speaker 4: we're going to give you. I'm sure you saw that.

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Speaker 4: You know, Holman and Adams were on one of these

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Speaker 4: morning shows.

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Speaker 1: Was that The Friends?

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Speaker 4: Yeah, I think so, where Holman says to him, like,

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Speaker 4: if he doesn't abide by our agreement, I'm going to

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Speaker 4: be up his butt in his office reminding him that

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Speaker 4: we have this deal graphic Wow, okay, all right, well.

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Speaker 2: You know what. He said it in front of him

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Speaker 2: on live TV, like he was sitting right on live TV.

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Speaker 4: And Adams kind of laughed and said, look, I'm just

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Speaker 4: doing what's best for the city of New York and

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Speaker 4: to make these make these streets as safe as they

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Speaker 4: can possibly be. In some ways they are. This era

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Speaker 4: is making us useless because the media's purpose often is

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Speaker 4: to decode the code that politicians are speaking in and

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Speaker 4: explain it in a way that people can understand. They

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Speaker 4: don't speak in code anymore, like they just tell you

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Speaker 4: exactly what's going on. So here we are just repeating

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Speaker 4: what they're saying. You don't need us to.

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Speaker 1: Do that, really, yeah, no, And Emily apparently, you know,

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Speaker 1: they're already changing policy after this deal was struck. So

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Speaker 1: Adams has now opened Rikers Island to ice agents. You know,

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Speaker 1: this would be a seeming violation of the city sanctuary policies.

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Speaker 1: Eric Adams, as mayor of the city, is not in

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Speaker 1: a position to unilaterally roll back the sanctuary city legislation policy.

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Speaker 1: He has to go through the city Council in order

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Speaker 1: to do that. So instead he found some sort of

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Speaker 1: a loophole where he could justify this change in collaboration

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Speaker 1: with ICE. And you know, however you feel about the

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Speaker 1: ICE enforcement and how this should all be handled, et cetera,

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Speaker 1: et cetera. I think, you know, the people of New

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Speaker 1: York elected a politician to represent them, not to be

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Speaker 1: subject to coercion and the priorities of the Trump administration.

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Speaker 2: It's so by the way, I think we touched on this,

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Speaker 2: But the one of the Justice Department employees who resigned, well,

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Speaker 2: first of all, one of them was just appointed several

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Speaker 2: weeks ago by Donald Trump. So not like not like

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Speaker 2: when we were talking about federal workers earlier. This isn't

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Speaker 2: like a purge of the self deportation, as Romney would say,

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Speaker 2: if people who are disloyal to Donald Trump. This is

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Speaker 2: somebody who like actually accepted Trump's appointment.

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Speaker 1: And an antonin Scalia Kirk Clerk.

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Speaker 2: So this yet so Danielle Sassoon clerked for Scalia. She's

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Speaker 2: a member of the Federal Society. And it's just like,

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Speaker 2: it's not a self deportation of disloyal people. It's genuinely

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Speaker 2: like a principle. It's not what was her name, Sally Yeates, right,

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Speaker 2: I remember the first the first trumpman stration, Sally must

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Speaker 2: resigned and became a resistance hero.

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Speaker 3: This is not that.

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Speaker 2: It's not that at all, and so it's it's yeah,

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Speaker 2: I mean, this is as this is what Trump in

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Speaker 2: one way ran against, and then in the other way

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Speaker 2: when he's saying things like I alone can fix it

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Speaker 2: because I know the system and I have been part

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Speaker 2: of the system. He was also that was in twenty sixteen,

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Speaker 2: although he's never like walked that back. Of course, it's

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Speaker 2: always been part of his pitch. On the one hand,

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Speaker 2: people are like, yeah, this guy knows how to get

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Speaker 2: shit done because he can wheel and deal.

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Speaker 3: On the other hand.

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Speaker 2: You end up with situations like this where you have

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Speaker 2: just naked, naked corruption by a Democrat who is just

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Speaker 2: proving Trump to.

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Speaker 3: Be the cheapest date. I mean the cheapest date.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, that's right.

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Speaker 3: They control the government.

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Speaker 2: They have the power to like actually start dealing with

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Speaker 2: this issue, you know, and they are on a policy level,

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Speaker 2: they don't need Eric Adams.

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Speaker 3: They really don't.

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Speaker 1: Well, and Eric Adams probably not to be around all

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Speaker 1: that much longer. But to your point, Emily about him

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Speaker 1: being a cheap date, you guys, remember Rod Blogoyevitch from

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Speaker 1: the Illinois Levinor was like, what he was selling a

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Speaker 1: Senate seat, wasn't it something almost Obama senac That's right.

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Speaker 1: And what Trump commuted his sentence or pardoned him or

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Speaker 1: something of this of the same regard. All it takes

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Speaker 1: is you saying nice things about Trump, like that's literally

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Speaker 1: all it takes.

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Speaker 3: And Eric filling on democrats esau.

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Speaker 2: That's what Blagoya that started doing. And now Eric Adams

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Speaker 2: is doing the same thing with Democrats.

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Speaker 3: They're all corrupt. It's a racket. You are the rackets.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, that's exactly right, go ahead, Ryan, No.

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Speaker 3: And also just to.

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Speaker 4: Stand up for Blagoyevitch, he went down because again he

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Speaker 4: said on audio, I'm not giving this away. I'm not

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Speaker 4: giving this thing away for free, right, And he pissed

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Speaker 4: off Democrats in the way that he went about in

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Speaker 4: a fairly selfish way rather than a partisan way, he

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Speaker 4: didn't actually take any money for it though, like what

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Speaker 4: he what he meant is he wanted some political gain

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Speaker 4: for himself, which is what the game is, honestly what

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Speaker 4: they do. Who in politics gives anything away for free?

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Speaker 3: Nobody.

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Speaker 4: So the Justice Department has continued to chip away at

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Speaker 4: its own authority by going after stupid cases at the

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Speaker 4: same time as their power is being chipped away at

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Speaker 4: by you know this, like I don't know if it's

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Speaker 4: a federal cider who's pushing it this like drive to

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Speaker 4: basically make it so it's impossible to prosecute corruption.

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Speaker 1: No, that's exactly right. I mean at the Supreme Court

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Speaker 1: has taken a number of decisions that have made it

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Speaker 1: so that it has to be as brazen as Bob

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Speaker 1: Menendez being like, I will do X for you in

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Speaker 1: exchange for this gold bar, and you have to.

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Speaker 4: Get the gold bars before you take the action. Like

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Speaker 4: if you do the thing and then you get the

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Speaker 4: gold bars after, they're like, well, that's not corruption, right

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Speaker 4: with the Virginia governor.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, but you also also, this was the best part

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Speaker 2: of the Menendez self defense was when he said this

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Speaker 2: is actually just anti Cuban bigotry. I'm being targeted because

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Speaker 2: I am a proud Cuban man.

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Speaker 1: Yes, taken a play play Andrew Cuomo's playbook there with.

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Speaker 4: His astro community is just so oppressed here in American politics,

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Speaker 4: that's right, Well, no voice for them.

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Speaker 1: One thing Ryan, I wanted to get your reaction to,

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Speaker 1: in particular on this is Governor Kathy Hochel. There is

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Speaker 1: a provision in New York law that enables her to

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Speaker 1: be able to remove Eric Adams, and she's obviously under

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Speaker 1: pressure now from liberals to do that. Here is she

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Speaker 1: was on Rachel Maddow's show and Rachel pressed her on

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Speaker 1: exactly this. Let's take a listen to that.

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Speaker 5: What we've just seen with the resignation of the U

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Speaker 5: S Attorney, the Trump appointed acting US Attorney, the removal

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Speaker 5: of line propcutors on that case, the demand from Main

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Speaker 5: Justice to drop that case, the refusal from SDNY to

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Speaker 5: do it, then the resignation of Main Justice officials who.

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Speaker 4: Had the case dumped on.

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Speaker 5: Them and they wouldn't take it either. This is just

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Speaker 5: an incredible drama terms of federal lawenforcement right now. But

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Speaker 5: you are in a very unusual position, a singular position,

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Speaker 5: and with regard to the case, which is that, thanks

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Speaker 5: to the New York State Constitution, in New York City law,

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Speaker 5: you are the only person who has the power to

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Speaker 5: effectively fire Mayor Eric Adams and remove him from this position,

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Speaker 5: which might conceivably moot this whole fight.

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Speaker 4: How are you.

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Speaker 1: Thinking about that now?

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Speaker 5: You could have done it at any point until now,

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Speaker 5: But now, given this crisis that's emergant federal enforcement around

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Speaker 5: this case, are you feeling differently about that responsibility?

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Speaker 6: Let me tell you from a couple of angles here.

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Speaker 6: One is that this is unbelievably unprecedent for the Department

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Speaker 6: of Justice in Washington to interfere in this way. My

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Speaker 6: husband was a thirty year federal product secutor. Barack Obama

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Speaker 6: made him his United States Attorney.

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Speaker 5: You look at what happened here.

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Speaker 6: This is not supposed to happen in our system of justice.

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Speaker 6: The bondage administration in that Department of Justice is already

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Speaker 6: showing their corrupt Now set that aside.

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Speaker 5: I did see the letter that was.

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Speaker 6: Issued by the Acting United States Attorney the allegation. They're

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Speaker 6: extremely concerning and serious. Yes, but I cannot, as the

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Speaker 6: governor of this state, have a knee jerk politically motivated reaction,

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Speaker 6: like a lot of other people are saying, right now,

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Speaker 6: I have to do it smart, what's right, And I'm

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Speaker 6: consulting with other leaders in golvement.

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Speaker 1: So what do you make of that, Ryan, I mean,

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Speaker 1: just I'll get your reaction. Then I've got a few

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Speaker 1: thoughts about this too.

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Speaker 4: She is she doesn't have much political capital to pull

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Speaker 4: a move like this off, which is a product of

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Speaker 4: the way that the kind of New York State Democratic

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Speaker 4: Party has lost so much of its own legitimacy. And

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Speaker 4: you know, she was kind of you know, she became

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Speaker 4: governor after they pushed Cuomo out and then she basically

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Speaker 4: didn't have a serious primary and then barely beats was

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Speaker 4: Lee Zelden in that twenty twenty two election. And so

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Speaker 4: it has been wildly kind of pretty unpopular. And so

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Speaker 4: in a normal situation, a move like this would be

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Speaker 4: a no brainer, Like the guy is flagrantly corrupt and

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Speaker 4: got out of his corruption charges by being even more

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Speaker 4: brazenly corrupt. And like Emily said, or you may was

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Speaker 4: usual like agree or disagree on any of the policy,

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Speaker 4: like the voters would prefer to have somebody that's acting

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Speaker 4: on behalf of New York City residents rather than is

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Speaker 4: taking all of his actions because he's being blackmailed over

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Speaker 4: a prosecution like that. That's just on a clear kind

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Speaker 4: of process fairness level. Yet, because Hokel has so little capital,

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Speaker 4: who knows if she'll even be willing to do this.

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Speaker 1: See that's funny that you look at it that way,

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Speaker 1: And you may be entirely right, but I sort of

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Speaker 1: look at it the other way of like, how does

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Speaker 1: she have the political capital to refuse to do this

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Speaker 1: when you know, I mean, this is a clearly corrupt,

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Speaker 1: clownish too figure and the as you said before, Ryan,

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Speaker 1: like they're not even pretending like there's some legitimate reason

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Speaker 1: why they drop the charges. In fact, when they did

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Speaker 1: drop the charges, one of the things that Danielle Sassuan

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Speaker 1: said is she was like, we actually were just about

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Speaker 1: to file a superseding indictment with even more charges, Like

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Speaker 1: that's how dead to rights we've got this guy is.

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Speaker 1: We've got him on the meat of it, and we

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Speaker 1: also were about to file this indictment. The cover up too.

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Speaker 1: If you look at a flow chart or an org

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Speaker 1: chart of his administration, like the number of people who've

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Speaker 1: been charged and had to resign under duress, et cetera,

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Speaker 1: et cetera, because they were also brazenly corrupt. It's I

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Speaker 1: can't even keep track of it, so you know, to me,

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Speaker 1: it's I felt the other way of like, how could

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Speaker 1: she not at this point remove this guy? And also,

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Speaker 1: you know, I was thinking about I don't know, Emily,

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Speaker 1: did you see this clip of Hakeem Jefferies, who's just

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Speaker 1: like the biggest loser on the face of the planet,

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Speaker 1: apparently getting asked about Eric Adams and he just says

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Speaker 1: this very mealy melded like, well, the people in New

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Speaker 1: York got her decide or something like. Republicans have no

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Speaker 1: problem going after Democrats, going after each other, certainly going

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Speaker 1: after another Republican who betrayed the party, which is what

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Speaker 1: Eric Adams also is. Now that he's like in good

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Speaker 1: with Tom Holman and the Trump administration, et cetera.

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Speaker 3: Box and friends with Tom Holman.

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Speaker 1: There would be no reluctance to throw this person under

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Speaker 1: the bus, as they honestly really should be, because this

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Speaker 1: is weile putting partisanship aside, like brazenly corrupt, quid pro

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Speaker 1: quote admitted already changing the policy and at the behest

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Speaker 1: of the Trump administration, like Jesus Christ, have some self respect.

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Speaker 2: It's actually a pretty good fodder for an argument against

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Speaker 2: trump Ism, right like Democrats right now are flailing for

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Speaker 2: a way to talk about first of all, like waste,

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Speaker 2: fraud and abuse. The Justice Department spent tons of resources

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Speaker 2: prosecuting Eric Adams, and it's just literally being lit on

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Speaker 2: fire because.

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Speaker 4: They're getting an ally of the Trump administration out of it.

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Speaker 4: So from their perspective, money well spent, Yeah, so.

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Speaker 1: Much for their claims to care about corruption though, well

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Speaker 1: this is but.

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Speaker 2: This is like that is such for Hakim Jeffreys. This

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Speaker 2: is just like a flashing obvious opportunity to seize and

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Speaker 2: say this is naked corruption coming from Donald Trump. I

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Speaker 2: think part of the problem is that, like Kathy Hope

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Speaker 2: lacking political capital, Eric Adams lacking political capital. A lot

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Speaker 2: of it comes because they actually did a terrible job,

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Speaker 2: I would argue, managing the migrant surge in a way

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Speaker 2: that voters were pissed about. And so now it's like

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Speaker 2: you have all of these terrible options. You know, they

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Speaker 2: have Democrats in New York people I know who are like,

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Speaker 2: this is insane. What have you guys been doing? And

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Speaker 2: it's like that's how Eric Adams thinks, Well, the only

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Speaker 2: thing I can do is just like jump off the

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Speaker 2: boat and become a Republican.

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Speaker 3: I mean, it's just like so many bad options.

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Speaker 2: And so if you're Hakim Jeffreys, you should be looking

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Speaker 2: at this and saying this was a failure, like a

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Speaker 2: glaring failure of democratic leadership.

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Speaker 3: Own it so that you look better, Like you can

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Speaker 3: look better. You don't have to accept this.

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Speaker 2: I mean, it's just insane. I don't understand the Democratic

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Speaker 2: Party at all.

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Speaker 4: And for a mag of viewers, maybe the way to

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Speaker 4: think about it would be imagine that the California Attorney

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Speaker 4: General had found, you know, three or four Republicans on

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Speaker 4: the take from various foreign governments and was prosecuting you know,

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Speaker 4: it was prosecuting them, or they found some fuilty of

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Speaker 4: some California state crime and it's prosecuting them, and then

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Speaker 4: goes to them and says, actually, we will drop these

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Speaker 4: charges if you'll vote with Democrats in the House. And

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Speaker 4: now all of a sudden the House is controlled by Democrats,

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Speaker 4: like they probably wouldn't like that, That wouldn't that wouldn't

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Speaker 4: seem probably wouldn't seem and you'd probably say those Republicans

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Speaker 4: should be removed from office and replaced by good, actual

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Speaker 4: loyal Republicans yea, and the voters rather than just trying

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Speaker 4: to get themselves out of jail.

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Speaker 1: And then can you imagine if Mike Johnson or Trump

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Speaker 1: got asked about that dynamic and they're like, well, let's

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Speaker 1: see what the voter.

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Speaker 3: No, they would never have that way.

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Speaker 4: You know, it's he's very telling that, Like, you know,

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Speaker 4: I do a lot of coverage of other countries, and

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Speaker 4: like this feels very like South of Central American or

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Speaker 4: Eastern European or like, like there's like all sorts of

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Speaker 4: I can think of all sorts of different political structures

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Speaker 4: around the world where prosecution and jail are just other

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Speaker 4: carrots and sticks that are part of the political economy

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Speaker 4: and part of the political process. And that has not

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Speaker 4: been the case for us before, but it seems like

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Speaker 4: now it's going to increasingly be a thing that like

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Speaker 4: where we use like jail terms and jail sentences as

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Speaker 4: as part of our politics.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, that's that's pretty clear at this point.

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Speaker 1: Go ahead, Emily, and then we can transition to some

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Speaker 1: of these things about Ukraine, which are awls are really interesting.

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Speaker 2: Super quick point just that Mago world, and like they're like,

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Speaker 2: let's just say that there are good faith people in

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Speaker 2: intellectual circles on the right who have seen Donald Trump

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Speaker 2: as a figure who can peel back all the layers

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Speaker 2: of the corrupt onion at places like the FBI and

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Speaker 2: the Department of Justice, and they've said that in order

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Speaker 2: to do that, you have to like go out after

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Speaker 2: legitimate targets, and you cannot go after legitimate targets and

437
00:22:04,720 --> 00:22:07,120
Speaker 2: actually get us out of this Banana Republic death spiral

438
00:22:07,440 --> 00:22:08,560
Speaker 2: while also doing this.

439
00:22:08,920 --> 00:22:10,720
Speaker 3: So I bet those people on.

440
00:22:10,800 --> 00:22:12,760
Speaker 2: The right, they may not be saying it aloud, but

441
00:22:12,840 --> 00:22:14,639
Speaker 2: sort of like the good faith intellectual people who have

442
00:22:14,680 --> 00:22:16,160
Speaker 2: looked at this. There are a lot of bad faith people,

443
00:22:16,200 --> 00:22:18,359
Speaker 2: but there's some people who have really thought seriously about

444
00:22:18,400 --> 00:22:22,200
Speaker 2: corruption at DJ are looking at this and thinking, my god,

445
00:22:22,680 --> 00:22:24,199
Speaker 2: this is not going to happen like this.

446
00:22:24,400 --> 00:22:25,600
Speaker 4: Is And one of them resigned.

447
00:22:25,760 --> 00:22:30,040
Speaker 1: Yeah, isn't business Yeah true. Isn't Pambani the one who

448
00:22:30,240 --> 00:22:35,440
Speaker 1: like dropped some investigation into Trump University, Yeah yeah for

449
00:22:35,640 --> 00:22:40,240
Speaker 1: a campaign contribution And that happens, So not exactly sending

450
00:22:40,359 --> 00:22:43,920
Speaker 1: the cleanest of officials into that agency, and then over

451
00:22:44,040 --> 00:22:46,359
Speaker 1: at the FBI you get Cash Betel who's already got

452
00:22:46,400 --> 00:22:49,359
Speaker 1: his you know, enemies list drawn up of who they

453
00:22:49,400 --> 00:22:51,800
Speaker 1: want to talk before Cash. Let's go target and go

454
00:22:52,000 --> 00:22:55,040
Speaker 1: after all right, let's go ahead and transition to Ukraine.

455
00:22:55,440 --> 00:22:57,119
Speaker 1: I'm really curious what you guys make of some of

456
00:22:57,160 --> 00:22:59,880
Speaker 1: these different developments. So this is kind of the most

457
00:23:00,160 --> 00:23:02,720
Speaker 1: recent thing. Is JD. Vance, in an interview with The

458
00:23:02,760 --> 00:23:06,520
Speaker 1: Wall Street Journal, said that the US has both economic

459
00:23:06,600 --> 00:23:10,560
Speaker 1: and military tools of leverage if Russia doesn't push for

460
00:23:10,720 --> 00:23:13,360
Speaker 1: peace with Ukraine. Let's just read this to you. Vice

461
00:23:13,359 --> 00:23:16,280
Speaker 1: President Vance warned on Thursday, the US could hit Russia

462
00:23:16,320 --> 00:23:19,520
Speaker 1: with economic and military tools of leverage if Putin doesn't

463
00:23:19,560 --> 00:23:21,680
Speaker 1: negotiate a peace deal with Ukraine and good faith. Speaking

464
00:23:21,680 --> 00:23:23,680
Speaker 1: to the Wall Street Journal, he said the option of

465
00:23:23,760 --> 00:23:26,879
Speaker 1: sending US troops to Ukraine was quote on the table,

466
00:23:27,359 --> 00:23:31,480
Speaker 1: as well as economic punishment if a peace deal doesn't

467
00:23:31,520 --> 00:23:36,760
Speaker 1: guarantee Key's long term independence. So obviously, the Vice President

468
00:23:36,760 --> 00:23:41,320
Speaker 1: of the United States, Emily putting floating US boots on

469
00:23:41,359 --> 00:23:44,200
Speaker 1: the ground in Ukraine is quite an extraordinary comment.

470
00:23:45,400 --> 00:23:48,440
Speaker 2: Did you guys see the controversy over what Hegsath said

471
00:23:48,440 --> 00:23:54,280
Speaker 2: about Ukraine joining NATO. So Roger Wicker, very powerful in

472
00:23:54,520 --> 00:23:57,440
Speaker 2: the Senate Foreign Relations world, came out and said that

473
00:23:58,160 --> 00:24:01,600
Speaker 2: Hegsath was making a rookie mistake and that he was

474
00:24:01,640 --> 00:24:04,040
Speaker 2: like glad heg Seth had walked it back. Meanwhile, the

475
00:24:04,160 --> 00:24:07,440
Speaker 2: President of the United States was saying the exact same thing.

476
00:24:08,080 --> 00:24:12,440
Speaker 2: And it's like in Vance's whole speech, Glenn Greenwald was

477
00:24:12,480 --> 00:24:14,800
Speaker 2: posting clips from being like I never thought I would

478
00:24:14,880 --> 00:24:17,560
Speaker 2: see someone talk like id never thought I would see

479
00:24:17,560 --> 00:24:21,600
Speaker 2: like an American official talk like this, like about what

480
00:24:21,840 --> 00:24:23,879
Speaker 2: the country, how it operates on.

481
00:24:23,920 --> 00:24:24,760
Speaker 3: A global scale.

482
00:24:25,680 --> 00:24:29,679
Speaker 2: And so it's like you see Republicans trying to deal

483
00:24:29,720 --> 00:24:34,040
Speaker 2: with this question of negotiation with Ukraine after spending i

484
00:24:34,040 --> 00:24:37,000
Speaker 2: don't know, a couple of years now saying that the

485
00:24:37,080 --> 00:24:42,080
Speaker 2: Biden administration was being way too flippant about the leverage.

486
00:24:42,440 --> 00:24:46,080
Speaker 2: And so it's like, do you actually do you negotiate

487
00:24:46,200 --> 00:24:49,560
Speaker 2: honestly from a position of like what hegsth said, we're

488
00:24:49,680 --> 00:24:54,040
Speaker 2: taking NATO off of the table, or do you now

489
00:24:54,160 --> 00:24:56,720
Speaker 2: try to pretend that you've changed your mind on some

490
00:24:56,880 --> 00:24:59,000
Speaker 2: of this stuff, Like I don't know, I like, it's

491
00:24:59,400 --> 00:25:02,480
Speaker 2: just it's actually after you spent the last three whatever

492
00:25:02,600 --> 00:25:05,320
Speaker 2: years on the podcast circuit or as a cable TV host.

493
00:25:05,359 --> 00:25:06,760
Speaker 3: It's a weird position to be in.

494
00:25:07,160 --> 00:25:09,560
Speaker 1: Yeah, well here's what you're referring to. I think Emily

495
00:25:09,640 --> 00:25:12,000
Speaker 1: and then Ryan get your reaction to it. So originally

496
00:25:12,040 --> 00:25:14,240
Speaker 1: Hag scept that said very clear, and Sager and I

497
00:25:14,280 --> 00:25:16,760
Speaker 1: think you guys covered it too, was like, no, NATO,

498
00:25:16,920 --> 00:25:19,000
Speaker 1: they're going to have to give up territory. That's how

499
00:25:19,040 --> 00:25:22,040
Speaker 1: it is. And then he appeared to walk back his statement.

500
00:25:22,080 --> 00:25:24,639
Speaker 1: He said, these negotiations are led by Trump. Everything's on

501
00:25:24,720 --> 00:25:27,359
Speaker 1: the table in his conversations with Putin and Zelenski. What

502
00:25:27,520 --> 00:25:29,320
Speaker 1: he decides to allow or not allow is that the

503
00:25:29,359 --> 00:25:31,520
Speaker 1: purfew of the leader of the free world, President Trump.

504
00:25:31,520 --> 00:25:33,080
Speaker 1: So I'm not going to stay at this podium declare

505
00:25:33,200 --> 00:25:35,040
Speaker 1: what he will or won't do, what will be in

506
00:25:35,359 --> 00:25:38,000
Speaker 1: or won't or what will be out, what concessions will

507
00:25:38,040 --> 00:25:41,280
Speaker 1: be made or what concessions are not made. But then

508
00:25:41,359 --> 00:25:43,840
Speaker 1: after he made those comments, Trump got asked in particular

509
00:25:43,880 --> 00:25:45,960
Speaker 1: about the NATO part and was like, yeah, no, he's

510
00:25:46,080 --> 00:25:46,960
Speaker 1: like he's right about that.

511
00:25:47,320 --> 00:25:50,720
Speaker 2: So yeah, yeah, it's just like Roger Wicker's babysitter and

512
00:25:50,920 --> 00:25:52,280
Speaker 2: tried to it's just ridiculous.

513
00:25:52,720 --> 00:25:57,560
Speaker 4: And Roger Wicker to underline his role here is he's

514
00:25:57,600 --> 00:26:01,280
Speaker 4: from Mississippi, which has, you know, much of its economy

515
00:26:01,560 --> 00:26:07,760
Speaker 4: organized around the weapons industry. Because some of these Southern Democrats,

516
00:26:08,160 --> 00:26:10,280
Speaker 4: and Wicker would be a Southern Democrat if he were

517
00:26:10,920 --> 00:26:14,320
Speaker 4: you know, seventy years older, because they lasted for so long,

518
00:26:14,440 --> 00:26:16,439
Speaker 4: they would they had the most amount of seniority, they

519
00:26:16,480 --> 00:26:19,919
Speaker 4: would become the chair of these key committees and subcommittees,

520
00:26:19,920 --> 00:26:23,320
Speaker 4: and they would steer all of the defense contracts down

521
00:26:23,400 --> 00:26:28,480
Speaker 4: to Mississippi and Alabama. So as a result, they're organized

522
00:26:28,520 --> 00:26:31,639
Speaker 4: around the military industrial complex. And Wicker is the chairman

523
00:26:31,680 --> 00:26:34,440
Speaker 4: of the Armed Services Committee, so he is the like

524
00:26:34,840 --> 00:26:39,040
Speaker 4: number one representative in Washington for weapons makers. And so

525
00:26:39,840 --> 00:26:43,359
Speaker 4: when you're hearing him speak like you're hearing the voice

526
00:26:43,400 --> 00:26:46,520
Speaker 4: of the military industrial complex, and so you know he is,

527
00:26:47,520 --> 00:26:49,920
Speaker 4: he's on his heels right now. They're the ones that

528
00:26:50,040 --> 00:26:52,719
Speaker 4: are taking this Ukraine news the hardest.

529
00:26:53,359 --> 00:26:54,800
Speaker 1: And Ryan, what do you make of some of these

530
00:26:54,840 --> 00:26:58,800
Speaker 1: different pieces? So we know Chargery Secretary Scodbaston has been

531
00:26:58,920 --> 00:27:01,840
Speaker 1: very involved here striking some sort of like you know,

532
00:27:02,520 --> 00:27:05,600
Speaker 1: rare yeah, I mean, and this goes back to your

533
00:27:05,640 --> 00:27:08,320
Speaker 1: point about it used to be we'd have to explain

534
00:27:08,400 --> 00:27:11,560
Speaker 1: to people like what they're really after is, but they're like,

535
00:27:11,720 --> 00:27:13,920
Speaker 1: we're after the rare earth minerals. That's what we want

536
00:27:13,960 --> 00:27:15,719
Speaker 1: to have this deal. We want our companies to come

537
00:27:15,760 --> 00:27:18,960
Speaker 1: in exploit your natural resources, so we basically own you forever,

538
00:27:19,320 --> 00:27:22,600
Speaker 1: and in exchange, we might continue to support you. So

539
00:27:22,720 --> 00:27:25,840
Speaker 1: you've got that which does not seem actually consistent with

540
00:27:26,200 --> 00:27:30,080
Speaker 1: us being disentangled from Ukraine. That seems like US being

541
00:27:30,480 --> 00:27:31,959
Speaker 1: more entangled with Ukraine.

542
00:27:32,960 --> 00:27:34,359
Speaker 3: Then you have, you know, a lot.

543
00:27:34,400 --> 00:27:36,639
Speaker 1: I think the expectation from the right coming into these

544
00:27:36,720 --> 00:27:38,680
Speaker 1: negotiations is that a lot of the pressure we put

545
00:27:38,720 --> 00:27:42,760
Speaker 1: on Ukraine, on Zelensky basically telling things like what's Hegseth

546
00:27:42,840 --> 00:27:44,119
Speaker 1: was saying, you're not going to be in NATO, you

547
00:27:44,240 --> 00:27:46,119
Speaker 1: are going to have to give up territory, et cetera.

548
00:27:46,560 --> 00:27:49,240
Speaker 1: But then you have jd Vance threatening Putin and you've

549
00:27:49,240 --> 00:27:51,080
Speaker 1: heard Trump use some of this language in the past

550
00:27:51,119 --> 00:27:53,360
Speaker 1: as well, saying like listen, we'll put on even more

551
00:27:53,800 --> 00:27:56,560
Speaker 1: economic sanctions, we will even consider boots on the ground,

552
00:27:56,600 --> 00:27:59,760
Speaker 1: We'll consider getting our military directly involved if you don't

553
00:27:59,760 --> 00:28:02,880
Speaker 1: come to the negotiating table. So how are you sort

554
00:28:02,880 --> 00:28:05,840
Speaker 1: of making sense of these different pieces Ryan, Yeah.

555
00:28:05,800 --> 00:28:07,760
Speaker 4: And you're right that again, like what is the point

556
00:28:07,800 --> 00:28:11,359
Speaker 4: of investigative journalism if we can't unearth this like secret

557
00:28:11,640 --> 00:28:16,440
Speaker 4: arrangement where the US is you know, providing X and

558
00:28:16,680 --> 00:28:19,919
Speaker 4: in return they're getting these rare earth minerals while actually

559
00:28:20,000 --> 00:28:22,440
Speaker 4: claiming that it's all about the pursuit of democracy and

560
00:28:22,760 --> 00:28:24,280
Speaker 4: you know, the sovereign you just don't even have.

561
00:28:24,320 --> 00:28:26,680
Speaker 3: To do the have you heard of Halliburton thing?

562
00:28:27,119 --> 00:28:30,399
Speaker 4: Yes, it's outrageous. They're really trying to put us out

563
00:28:30,440 --> 00:28:35,159
Speaker 4: of work here. So so yeah, everything they say is

564
00:28:35,560 --> 00:28:39,920
Speaker 4: what's going on here, except the things that Trump says

565
00:28:40,280 --> 00:28:44,120
Speaker 4: that where he's very explicitly and purposely trying to kind

566
00:28:44,160 --> 00:28:47,000
Speaker 4: of create positioning. And he you know, he's been very

567
00:28:47,040 --> 00:28:50,440
Speaker 4: open that No, this is a very standard negotiating tactic.

568
00:28:50,520 --> 00:28:52,760
Speaker 4: It's not like Trump is unique in doing this. He

569
00:28:53,280 --> 00:28:56,760
Speaker 4: is just more flamboyant in how he does it, Like

570
00:28:57,920 --> 00:29:01,200
Speaker 4: you know, it's rat rattling the nuclear saber at North

571
00:29:01,280 --> 00:29:05,760
Speaker 4: Korea or or you know, saying that Gaza is going

572
00:29:05,800 --> 00:29:08,120
Speaker 4: to be completely depopulated and Palestinians aren't going to be

573
00:29:08,160 --> 00:29:12,440
Speaker 4: able to come back when it's when it's a total fantasy,

574
00:29:12,480 --> 00:29:14,560
Speaker 4: and there's a real or you know, we're going to

575
00:29:14,600 --> 00:29:19,680
Speaker 4: fund Ukraine, the Ukraine war forever. There's a real tendency

576
00:29:19,800 --> 00:29:22,680
Speaker 4: to kind of think that Trump's being an idiot when

577
00:29:22,720 --> 00:29:25,560
Speaker 4: he says things like this. You're like, doesn't Trump know that,

578
00:29:25,880 --> 00:29:30,959
Speaker 4: Like you can't actually transfer the entire population of Gaza

579
00:29:31,040 --> 00:29:34,360
Speaker 4: out of Gaza, Like that's like just physically, like that's

580
00:29:34,440 --> 00:29:37,240
Speaker 4: not an achievable thing. What a moron he is. And

581
00:29:37,320 --> 00:29:40,640
Speaker 4: you're always there's always a risk when you are you know,

582
00:29:40,800 --> 00:29:44,680
Speaker 4: under you know you are chalking up your opponent's strategy

583
00:29:44,800 --> 00:29:48,080
Speaker 4: to idiocy, that you're missing what you know, what he

584
00:29:48,160 --> 00:29:50,000
Speaker 4: might be trying to do. And and in a lot

585
00:29:50,080 --> 00:29:52,600
Speaker 4: of these cases, he's creating a lot of bluster and

586
00:29:52,680 --> 00:29:55,920
Speaker 4: smoke to then and to end up where he wants

587
00:29:56,000 --> 00:29:58,240
Speaker 4: to end up. And with Gaz it would be with

588
00:29:58,480 --> 00:30:00,719
Speaker 4: the you know, a ceasefire that allows him to get

589
00:30:00,760 --> 00:30:04,680
Speaker 4: a normalization deal with Saudi Arabia and Israel, and in Ukraine,

590
00:30:04,680 --> 00:30:06,000
Speaker 4: it would be creating a whole lot of smoke, We're

591
00:30:06,040 --> 00:30:07,840
Speaker 4: going to do this war forever to just get the

592
00:30:07,920 --> 00:30:11,040
Speaker 4: thing that he has been very transparent that he wants,

593
00:30:11,120 --> 00:30:14,520
Speaker 4: which is giving up a decent chunk of Ukrainian land

594
00:30:15,680 --> 00:30:19,400
Speaker 4: in exchange for a much weakened Ukraine, reaching a peace

595
00:30:19,480 --> 00:30:23,400
Speaker 4: deal with Russia and becoming like a very weak vassal

596
00:30:23,680 --> 00:30:25,880
Speaker 4: of the United States where we can just you know,

597
00:30:26,040 --> 00:30:27,240
Speaker 4: strip out his resources.

598
00:30:27,560 --> 00:30:29,840
Speaker 2: Yeah, I just don't know how believable it is from

599
00:30:30,000 --> 00:30:32,920
Speaker 2: like vance and heikeseth, who have you been on again?

600
00:30:33,000 --> 00:30:35,840
Speaker 4: Like a podcast circuit, or because they've been too transparent

601
00:30:35,880 --> 00:30:38,560
Speaker 4: that they don't want to do that. Yeah, but that

602
00:30:38,720 --> 00:30:40,560
Speaker 4: means they have to rattle even harder in some.

603
00:30:40,880 --> 00:30:42,520
Speaker 1: You know, true, Yeah, that's true.

604
00:30:42,680 --> 00:30:43,280
Speaker 3: That's a good point.

605
00:30:43,680 --> 00:30:46,440
Speaker 1: You know, Zelenski is a pretty savvy operator. There was

606
00:30:46,480 --> 00:30:48,800
Speaker 1: a New York Times piece about how, you know, how

607
00:30:48,840 --> 00:30:52,280
Speaker 1: he immediately shifted the way he was pitching the Ukrainian

608
00:30:52,360 --> 00:30:55,320
Speaker 1: project to Biden versus how you know, with Trump. He's like,

609
00:30:55,360 --> 00:30:57,160
Speaker 1: this is a transactional guy. I'm going to be like,

610
00:30:57,280 --> 00:31:00,360
Speaker 1: you can have our rare earth minerals. And he's obviously,

611
00:31:00,480 --> 00:31:02,600
Speaker 1: I mean, he's an ideological actor. He's also a self

612
00:31:02,640 --> 00:31:07,479
Speaker 1: interested actor because once the war is over, then at

613
00:31:07,520 --> 00:31:09,360
Speaker 1: some point there's going to have to be elections, and

614
00:31:09,480 --> 00:31:11,400
Speaker 1: he's gonna, you know, have to face voters again, I

615
00:31:11,480 --> 00:31:13,640
Speaker 1: think that's something he could be concerned about. But apparently,

616
00:31:13,680 --> 00:31:17,320
Speaker 1: according to Axios, he is telling Trump that Russia that

617
00:31:17,480 --> 00:31:19,880
Speaker 1: Putin is just pretending to want to negotiate a peace

618
00:31:19,920 --> 00:31:22,600
Speaker 1: deal because he's quote afraid of you. So that's been

619
00:31:22,640 --> 00:31:25,000
Speaker 1: the messaging coming from him, is basically like you're getting

620
00:31:25,000 --> 00:31:28,040
Speaker 1: played by Putin, which is another attempt to sort of,

621
00:31:28,120 --> 00:31:30,800
Speaker 1: you know, play into Trump's ego and put him on

622
00:31:30,920 --> 00:31:34,280
Speaker 1: the alert that he not get one upped by this

623
00:31:34,400 --> 00:31:36,720
Speaker 1: guy that he's sitting at the negotiating.

624
00:31:36,240 --> 00:31:39,080
Speaker 4: Table with, right, and maybe that maybe that's true, But

625
00:31:39,160 --> 00:31:43,360
Speaker 4: what does that really even mean? Like if Putin, you know,

626
00:31:43,480 --> 00:31:47,480
Speaker 4: reaches reaches a peace deal in a cynical way because

627
00:31:47,520 --> 00:31:50,920
Speaker 4: he's afraid of Trump, how is that different from reaching

628
00:31:51,040 --> 00:31:55,280
Speaker 4: an authentic piece deal because he loves Trump? Like, what's

629
00:31:55,320 --> 00:31:57,280
Speaker 4: the difference of a deal? Is a deal and people

630
00:31:57,280 --> 00:31:59,720
Speaker 4: will say, well, he's not going to honor it, it's

631
00:31:59,720 --> 00:32:02,480
Speaker 4: going to again in the future. Well there's you know,

632
00:32:02,560 --> 00:32:06,120
Speaker 4: there's never been any peace deal ever that lasted forever

633
00:32:06,360 --> 00:32:08,720
Speaker 4: that you know that I can I mean, or where.

634
00:32:08,600 --> 00:32:12,480
Speaker 1: That danger wasn't and yet where that danger wasn't present right.

635
00:32:12,400 --> 00:32:14,120
Speaker 4: Time, March is on and so then you you have

636
00:32:14,280 --> 00:32:18,440
Speaker 4: to Then you're the task becomes to keep the peace

637
00:32:18,880 --> 00:32:21,000
Speaker 4: you know in place. You know you first you win

638
00:32:21,080 --> 00:32:22,640
Speaker 4: the peace, and then you hold it, you don't win it,

639
00:32:23,160 --> 00:32:24,560
Speaker 4: and then just put it in the bank and it's

640
00:32:24,640 --> 00:32:25,120
Speaker 4: years forever.

641
00:32:27,640 --> 00:32:31,640
Speaker 1: This was really interesting. Some additional comments that Trump made

642
00:32:31,800 --> 00:32:38,040
Speaker 1: about foreign policy where he floated, uh, quite unusual idea

643
00:32:38,160 --> 00:32:43,000
Speaker 1: from an American president of striking some trilateral agreement with

644
00:32:43,240 --> 00:32:47,160
Speaker 1: Russia and China for all three nations to reduce their

645
00:32:47,240 --> 00:32:50,360
Speaker 1: military spending by fifty percent. And we've certainly never heard

646
00:32:50,440 --> 00:32:52,960
Speaker 1: Donald Trump talk like that before. You know, he's always

647
00:32:52,960 --> 00:32:55,520
Speaker 1: obviously increased the defense budget every year he was president.

648
00:32:55,840 --> 00:32:57,760
Speaker 1: Even just recently, he was floating like, we need to

649
00:32:57,800 --> 00:33:00,360
Speaker 1: spend even more on the military, if anything what soever.

650
00:33:00,880 --> 00:33:04,920
Speaker 1: So this was, you know, quite unusual, quite striking comments

651
00:33:05,040 --> 00:33:08,600
Speaker 1: from an American president. Ken Clippenstein clipped it out as

652
00:33:08,680 --> 00:33:10,560
Speaker 1: he does. Let's take a listen to what he has

653
00:33:10,680 --> 00:33:10,960
Speaker 1: to say.

654
00:33:11,440 --> 00:33:12,960
Speaker 7: One of the first meetings I want to have is

655
00:33:13,040 --> 00:33:16,160
Speaker 7: with President Chief of China, President Putin of Russia, and

656
00:33:16,280 --> 00:33:18,440
Speaker 7: I want to say, let's cut our military budget in half.

657
00:33:19,400 --> 00:33:21,560
Speaker 7: And we can do that, I think, and I think

658
00:33:21,600 --> 00:33:22,240
Speaker 7: we'll be able to do.

659
00:33:23,800 --> 00:33:26,120
Speaker 1: So, Emily, what did you think when you when you

660
00:33:26,200 --> 00:33:26,840
Speaker 1: heard those words.

661
00:33:27,280 --> 00:33:30,280
Speaker 2: Well, so, one of the interesting things that has come

662
00:33:30,360 --> 00:33:33,360
Speaker 2: out of the new rights plans for the Pentagon is

663
00:33:33,520 --> 00:33:37,040
Speaker 2: that you may need more like Reagan era levels of

664
00:33:37,120 --> 00:33:40,840
Speaker 2: defense spending if it can be offset by like actually

665
00:33:40,840 --> 00:33:43,440
Speaker 2: getting the Pentagon to pass an audit and stripping out

666
00:33:43,640 --> 00:33:46,320
Speaker 2: unnecessary parts of the Pentagon like all of that.

667
00:33:46,640 --> 00:33:50,280
Speaker 3: So to me, I don't know what to make of

668
00:33:50,360 --> 00:33:50,960
Speaker 3: Donald Trump say.

669
00:33:51,000 --> 00:33:54,680
Speaker 2: I think like there's a the American public would love

670
00:33:54,760 --> 00:33:57,320
Speaker 2: to hear of a trilateral agreement, so long as it

671
00:33:57,360 --> 00:34:00,600
Speaker 2: doesn't mean, like, you know, completely bending the knee. Like

672
00:34:00,720 --> 00:34:02,800
Speaker 2: people in this country are in favor of peace. We've

673
00:34:02,840 --> 00:34:06,520
Speaker 2: seen decades of kids go to the Middle East.

674
00:34:06,320 --> 00:34:08,600
Speaker 3: And you know, die in these wars.

675
00:34:08,800 --> 00:34:12,480
Speaker 2: People die in Syria because we had to contain Putin.

676
00:34:12,640 --> 00:34:16,080
Speaker 2: I mean it just like that people are not going

677
00:34:16,120 --> 00:34:17,640
Speaker 2: to that's not going to be dead on arrival with

678
00:34:17,719 --> 00:34:21,200
Speaker 2: the American public. But the cut in military spending is

679
00:34:21,360 --> 00:34:24,680
Speaker 2: just I don't even know that it's feasible from like

680
00:34:24,800 --> 00:34:28,880
Speaker 2: a perspective of American the safety.

681
00:34:29,040 --> 00:34:30,560
Speaker 3: I don't know how. I just don't know how it's

682
00:34:30,880 --> 00:34:32,719
Speaker 3: you can accomplish that, well, I.

683
00:34:32,719 --> 00:34:34,480
Speaker 4: Think we're pretty I think we're pretty safe over here.

684
00:34:34,520 --> 00:34:38,480
Speaker 4: We got these oceans and we're in Canada. Yeah, we're

685
00:34:38,520 --> 00:34:42,160
Speaker 4: on a we're on a trajectory where China looks like

686
00:34:42,920 --> 00:34:45,320
Speaker 4: you know, in some depending on the type of conflict,

687
00:34:45,440 --> 00:34:50,200
Speaker 4: we because we've invested so heavily in like thirty five

688
00:34:50,280 --> 00:34:53,000
Speaker 4: million dollar planes and like two billion dollar ships that like,

689
00:34:53,680 --> 00:34:56,680
Speaker 4: you know, in a war of attrition, you lose pretty

690
00:34:56,760 --> 00:34:59,600
Speaker 4: quickly if you can't like quickly you know, re up

691
00:34:59,680 --> 00:35:02,320
Speaker 4: and make make new cheaper stuff like like China is

692
00:35:02,360 --> 00:35:06,080
Speaker 4: able to. But one way, the first thing I thought

693
00:35:06,120 --> 00:35:09,640
Speaker 4: of was that you remember the the Princeton astrophysicists that

694
00:35:09,719 --> 00:35:14,680
Speaker 4: we interviewed, Robert Goldston, who said that, uh, there's he said,

695
00:35:14,719 --> 00:35:17,359
Speaker 4: it's crazy as it sounds. There are three Nobel Peace

696
00:35:17,400 --> 00:35:20,480
Speaker 4: Prizes laid out in front of Trump if he wants to,

697
00:35:21,440 --> 00:35:23,520
Speaker 4: if he wants to go out and grab them, and

698
00:35:23,880 --> 00:35:28,080
Speaker 4: you know, one of them was Ukraine Russia, another one

699
00:35:29,160 --> 00:35:32,360
Speaker 4: was Middle East piece a Ron nuclear deal Saudi Arabia,

700
00:35:32,400 --> 00:35:36,120
Speaker 4: Israel ending the war and Gaza. And the other was

701
00:35:36,320 --> 00:35:38,759
Speaker 4: a three that he laid out was a three part

702
00:35:38,920 --> 00:35:43,240
Speaker 4: nuclear non proliferation and nuclear reduction agreement with with Russia

703
00:35:43,480 --> 00:35:47,160
Speaker 4: and China, which Trump also said, and he said, I

704
00:35:47,320 --> 00:35:50,040
Speaker 4: want to call I want to call him, and he

705
00:35:50,080 --> 00:35:52,640
Speaker 4: said that he wants to talk to Putin or he

706
00:35:52,640 --> 00:35:54,960
Speaker 4: already said to Putin, like why do we need new

707
00:35:55,080 --> 00:35:58,840
Speaker 4: nuclear weapons? You know, the the US is on the

708
00:35:58,960 --> 00:36:04,040
Speaker 4: brink of a trillion dollar plus spend on modern quote

709
00:36:04,120 --> 00:36:10,320
Speaker 4: unquote modernizing our nuclear capacity trillion, more than a trillion

710
00:36:10,440 --> 00:36:14,160
Speaker 4: dollars to take our old nuclear weapons and turn them

711
00:36:14,200 --> 00:36:18,919
Speaker 4: into make new nuclear weapons. And I remember somebody saying,

712
00:36:20,080 --> 00:36:24,160
Speaker 4: if Trump ever gets briefed on this, he's gonna pop

713
00:36:24,200 --> 00:36:28,719
Speaker 4: a gasket. It's like, what a trillion dollars to take

714
00:36:28,800 --> 00:36:32,400
Speaker 4: our nukes to different nukes? That's it. That's an insane

715
00:36:32,440 --> 00:36:36,759
Speaker 4: amount of money to spend on on that type of move.

716
00:36:37,480 --> 00:36:39,759
Speaker 4: And so Trump must have been briefed on this, and

717
00:36:39,840 --> 00:36:41,920
Speaker 4: he's like, wait a minute, I have a better idea,

718
00:36:42,360 --> 00:36:45,000
Speaker 4: Like how about we don't do that? Like, oh well,

719
00:36:45,040 --> 00:36:48,040
Speaker 4: then we're gonna get nuked by Russia and China. Are

720
00:36:48,120 --> 00:36:49,960
Speaker 4: we really gonna get nuked b Russian China? Let's talk

721
00:36:49,960 --> 00:36:52,960
Speaker 4: to Russia and China and say let's let's have a

722
00:36:53,440 --> 00:36:56,480
Speaker 4: And as Goldston, you know, nuclear weapons is his was

723
00:36:56,760 --> 00:36:59,880
Speaker 4: is his specialty. He was saying, there there are ways

724
00:37:00,080 --> 00:37:05,399
Speaker 4: of measuring and authenticating and verifying that we are all

725
00:37:06,000 --> 00:37:08,840
Speaker 4: abiding by terms that we agree to that do not

726
00:37:08,960 --> 00:37:11,480
Speaker 4: also give away our nuclear secrets. So if you actually

727
00:37:11,520 --> 00:37:14,919
Speaker 4: want to strike a deal between those three countries that say, look,

728
00:37:15,000 --> 00:37:19,360
Speaker 4: we're gonna we're going to reduce our nuclear arsenal merely

729
00:37:19,719 --> 00:37:22,040
Speaker 4: to enough weapons for us each to destroy the world

730
00:37:22,120 --> 00:37:25,960
Speaker 4: three times, you know, rather than seventy eight times, because

731
00:37:26,120 --> 00:37:29,560
Speaker 4: at some point it is pointless to destroy the world

732
00:37:29,600 --> 00:37:32,040
Speaker 4: the second third, or maybe it's maybe it's maybe it's

733
00:37:32,080 --> 00:37:34,080
Speaker 4: fine to destroy the world six times, but like the

734
00:37:34,239 --> 00:37:37,040
Speaker 4: seventh and eighth are a little bit superfluous.

735
00:37:37,160 --> 00:37:39,560
Speaker 1: Well, and by that time AI will have you know,

736
00:37:39,880 --> 00:37:41,399
Speaker 1: used us all the AI.

737
00:37:42,040 --> 00:37:44,080
Speaker 2: I'm actually curious, well, I'm curious what you guys think

738
00:37:44,120 --> 00:37:46,880
Speaker 2: of this, because it does mean it's possible that Trump

739
00:37:47,160 --> 00:37:49,600
Speaker 2: is saying we can do a lot of this for

740
00:37:49,760 --> 00:37:53,040
Speaker 2: less money now because it is going towards AI, and

741
00:37:53,160 --> 00:37:57,480
Speaker 2: it's going towards like digital warfare, so you can afford

742
00:37:57,640 --> 00:38:01,960
Speaker 2: a significant cut because you're not just tanks and all

743
00:38:02,040 --> 00:38:05,080
Speaker 2: of these different like munitions. It's just a totally different

744
00:38:05,160 --> 00:38:07,960
Speaker 2: form and ships whatever, it's a different form of warfare.

745
00:38:08,440 --> 00:38:12,439
Speaker 1: Yeah, So that's actually one of the directions my mind

746
00:38:12,520 --> 00:38:14,440
Speaker 1: went in because this is one of the things like

747
00:38:14,880 --> 00:38:18,879
Speaker 1: Elon and Peter Teel have talked about. Teal obviously has

748
00:38:19,040 --> 00:38:22,680
Speaker 1: direct interest with Palenteer, which is these you know, AI

749
00:38:22,920 --> 00:38:26,919
Speaker 1: driven death machines could be contracts with Israel, et cetera,

750
00:38:27,000 --> 00:38:30,080
Speaker 1: et cetera. And Elon has talked about like in the

751
00:38:30,160 --> 00:38:33,360
Speaker 1: future war is going to be drones fighting drones. And

752
00:38:33,440 --> 00:38:35,960
Speaker 1: actually my picture is here that is already starting to

753
00:38:36,080 --> 00:38:40,560
Speaker 1: happen in Ukraine in particular. And so if that's the

754
00:38:40,640 --> 00:38:44,440
Speaker 1: direction you're going in, you know, it is true that

755
00:38:44,640 --> 00:38:50,120
Speaker 1: you can strip back some of that traditional hardware and

756
00:38:50,239 --> 00:38:52,520
Speaker 1: some of those you know contracts. I mean, this is

757
00:38:52,600 --> 00:38:57,320
Speaker 1: part of why Palenteers stock price has just skyrocketed, because

758
00:38:57,760 --> 00:39:02,600
Speaker 1: that'sufvision Elon has. Elon has obviously just like taken over

759
00:39:02,640 --> 00:39:05,080
Speaker 1: the gutrimentious something we're going to talk about shortly. So

760
00:39:05,200 --> 00:39:07,080
Speaker 1: that was one thing that I was thinking about, I mean,

761
00:39:07,080 --> 00:39:09,279
Speaker 1: because that's the only way to make sense really of

762
00:39:09,360 --> 00:39:12,319
Speaker 1: what Trump is saying, given the fact in his first

763
00:39:12,360 --> 00:39:17,840
Speaker 1: administration he oversaw the largest expansion of the nuclear arsenal

764
00:39:18,000 --> 00:39:21,200
Speaker 1: since the Cold War ended. So it's not like he's

765
00:39:21,560 --> 00:39:25,160
Speaker 1: you know, some anti nukes kind of a guy or

766
00:39:25,200 --> 00:39:28,600
Speaker 1: anti military kind of a guy. In fact, the main

767
00:39:28,760 --> 00:39:31,520
Speaker 1: thrust of his foreign policy he talks all the time

768
00:39:31,560 --> 00:39:34,400
Speaker 1: about William McKinley. Well, McKinley is really the launch of

769
00:39:34,400 --> 00:39:37,520
Speaker 1: the American Empire. And again to the theme of like

770
00:39:37,680 --> 00:39:40,319
Speaker 1: he just says the things out loud that we used

771
00:39:40,360 --> 00:39:42,880
Speaker 1: to have to explain to people what was happening behind

772
00:39:42,920 --> 00:39:44,839
Speaker 1: the scenes. He's like, we want Greenland, so we're going

773
00:39:44,920 --> 00:39:46,560
Speaker 1: to take it. We want Panama, so we're going to

774
00:39:46,640 --> 00:39:48,759
Speaker 1: take it. We want your rare earths in Ukraine, so

775
00:39:48,800 --> 00:39:50,799
Speaker 1: we're going to take it. Canada, we think you should

776
00:39:50,800 --> 00:39:52,480
Speaker 1: be the fifty first state. We're going to go to

777
00:39:52,560 --> 00:39:55,080
Speaker 1: war against the Mexican cartels. You know, we're going to

778
00:39:55,200 --> 00:39:58,200
Speaker 1: take over Gaza and own it for our own benefit,

779
00:39:58,280 --> 00:40:03,360
Speaker 1: et cetera. And so if you're talking about that return

780
00:40:04,080 --> 00:40:09,280
Speaker 1: to that kind of just forthright imperial We've got the guns,

781
00:40:09,880 --> 00:40:12,920
Speaker 1: so we're going to take it type of mentality. It's

782
00:40:13,000 --> 00:40:17,200
Speaker 1: not really consistent with like a you know, a massive

783
00:40:17,239 --> 00:40:21,239
Speaker 1: cut in the military budget, especially given what we've seen

784
00:40:21,280 --> 00:40:24,600
Speaker 1: from previous wars of you know, how much trouble we

785
00:40:24,680 --> 00:40:28,000
Speaker 1: had just handling Afghanistan with the current level of insanely

786
00:40:28,080 --> 00:40:31,560
Speaker 1: high military spend as we have now, So a lot

787
00:40:31,640 --> 00:40:33,960
Speaker 1: of these you know, those comments to me are very

788
00:40:34,040 --> 00:40:37,080
Speaker 1: dissonant with what the thrust of most of how Trump

789
00:40:37,160 --> 00:40:39,560
Speaker 1: has portrayed his foreign policy vision for this term.

790
00:40:40,200 --> 00:40:44,480
Speaker 2: Also just think it's so uncomfortable, Like as a it's

791
00:40:44,560 --> 00:40:47,560
Speaker 2: just crazy to watch Elon Musk meet with Mody. It's

792
00:40:47,640 --> 00:40:50,799
Speaker 2: crazy to watch Elon Musk have so much influence over

793
00:40:50,880 --> 00:40:53,359
Speaker 2: Trump in general. It's crazy to look at the meme

794
00:40:53,440 --> 00:40:56,799
Speaker 2: coin Crystal you you floated this on TikTok held Trump

795
00:40:56,800 --> 00:41:00,320
Speaker 2: and Millennia's mean coins. Meme coins are held predominantly a

796
00:41:00,400 --> 00:41:04,120
Speaker 2: few whales, and Elon Musk has so much business in China.

797
00:41:04,440 --> 00:41:06,200
Speaker 2: And in some ways that can be a good thing,

798
00:41:06,360 --> 00:41:09,400
Speaker 2: Like there's a potential aspect of that where it's like

799
00:41:09,760 --> 00:41:12,840
Speaker 2: they're so close to China that they would just end up,

800
00:41:13,080 --> 00:41:15,759
Speaker 2: you know, stumbling into a great peace deal because they

801
00:41:15,840 --> 00:41:18,080
Speaker 2: want to make China happy and they stop listening to

802
00:41:18,120 --> 00:41:20,640
Speaker 2: the neo cons Like there's an argument for that. On

803
00:41:20,680 --> 00:41:24,880
Speaker 2: the other hand, it is really uncomfortable to or unsettling

804
00:41:25,040 --> 00:41:26,920
Speaker 2: is a beout a word to just have all of

805
00:41:27,000 --> 00:41:32,640
Speaker 2: these externalities like floating above any negotiations that Trump and

806
00:41:32,760 --> 00:41:34,919
Speaker 2: Musk have. And we've been talking about this and making

807
00:41:34,960 --> 00:41:37,879
Speaker 2: this point over and over again previously, it wasn't as

808
00:41:38,080 --> 00:41:40,800
Speaker 2: sort of naked. There has never been anybody as powerful

809
00:41:40,840 --> 00:41:43,840
Speaker 2: in the world history as Elon Musk, so he's exceptional.

810
00:41:43,960 --> 00:41:46,799
Speaker 2: But like all of this was always a problem lurking

811
00:41:46,880 --> 00:41:49,560
Speaker 2: in the background, like people's big business interests, and they're

812
00:41:49,680 --> 00:41:51,560
Speaker 2: you know, politicians, big business interests in the way that

813
00:41:51,600 --> 00:41:54,400
Speaker 2: it's affecting their foreign policies. Now it's just some of

814
00:41:54,440 --> 00:41:57,480
Speaker 2: it is so out in the open, but troubling nonetheless.

815
00:41:57,760 --> 00:42:00,040
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, and as speaking out in the open, I

816
00:42:00,120 --> 00:42:04,520
Speaker 1: mean this image was extraordinary, Elon sitting there like he's

817
00:42:04,560 --> 00:42:08,520
Speaker 1: the head of state, meeting with Mody and putting out photos,

818
00:42:08,760 --> 00:42:13,280
Speaker 1: you know, very important. Elon and Trump are both branding experts.

819
00:42:13,560 --> 00:42:16,239
Speaker 1: That is what both of their greatest like strength and

820
00:42:16,320 --> 00:42:20,800
Speaker 1: superpower is So just as intentional as Trump is about

821
00:42:20,880 --> 00:42:23,600
Speaker 1: his branding and his slogans, the way he portrays himself

822
00:42:23,680 --> 00:42:26,120
Speaker 1: and all of those things, Elon is a different flavor

823
00:42:26,200 --> 00:42:29,480
Speaker 1: of that. But he also that is really where his

824
00:42:29,600 --> 00:42:32,719
Speaker 1: focus is. So you know, it's no accident for him

825
00:42:32,760 --> 00:42:36,640
Speaker 1: to put out these kind of images, and Trump got

826
00:42:36,680 --> 00:42:38,560
Speaker 1: asked about it. I'll give me a second to pull

827
00:42:38,640 --> 00:42:40,640
Speaker 1: that up. But while I do, Ryan, what was you know,

828
00:42:40,800 --> 00:42:43,520
Speaker 1: what was your reaction when you saw these with I

829
00:42:43,600 --> 00:42:45,319
Speaker 1: think you're the one that pointed out like it's also

830
00:42:45,400 --> 00:42:47,480
Speaker 1: kind of funny because Mody's got all his like you know,

831
00:42:47,760 --> 00:42:50,600
Speaker 1: foreign policy, like his advisors and aids and whatever, and

832
00:42:50,719 --> 00:42:53,479
Speaker 1: Elon's got a bunch of children sitting on his side,

833
00:42:53,760 --> 00:42:56,799
Speaker 1: which has also been part of his branding strategy right

834
00:42:56,920 --> 00:43:00,920
Speaker 1: is to bring his in particular his son acts around

835
00:43:01,080 --> 00:43:02,680
Speaker 1: with him wherever he goes.

836
00:43:03,760 --> 00:43:10,040
Speaker 4: Yeah, and Mody himself posted this photo so you know,

837
00:43:10,480 --> 00:43:13,480
Speaker 4: Musk get yeah. I mean it's incredible. The imagery is incredible,

838
00:43:13,560 --> 00:43:18,959
Speaker 4: like Musk under the American flag representing the United States

839
00:43:19,000 --> 00:43:19,719
Speaker 4: of America. There.

840
00:43:20,360 --> 00:43:20,480
Speaker 3: Uh.

841
00:43:21,200 --> 00:43:23,880
Speaker 4: You You probably remember we reported a while ago that

842
00:43:24,080 --> 00:43:27,960
Speaker 4: when the BBC did this documentary very critical of of

843
00:43:28,200 --> 00:43:31,680
Speaker 4: Mody's role in a in a massacre of Muslims in India,

844
00:43:33,239 --> 00:43:37,400
Speaker 4: that he that he India asked Elon Musk to make

845
00:43:37,440 --> 00:43:42,279
Speaker 4: sure that it couldn't be broadcast on X and and

846
00:43:42,960 --> 00:43:46,480
Speaker 4: Musk obliged, and also you know, suspended a bunch of

847
00:43:47,040 --> 00:43:48,440
Speaker 4: accounts that were trying to share it.

848
00:43:49,560 --> 00:43:52,400
Speaker 3: He which he's currently going after us a.

849
00:43:52,440 --> 00:43:55,400
Speaker 4: I D for doing here right, Yes, And outside of that,

850
00:43:56,040 --> 00:44:00,200
Speaker 4: Musk was you know, suspending the accounts of members of

851
00:44:00,400 --> 00:44:03,320
Speaker 4: like the congrate members of the legislature there in India

852
00:44:03,800 --> 00:44:07,480
Speaker 4: who were critical of Mody, Like just incredible, like draconian

853
00:44:07,600 --> 00:44:12,239
Speaker 4: crackdown on speech. You threw X at the request of

854
00:44:12,400 --> 00:44:16,520
Speaker 4: Modi Mody. Also, let's see, I have it right here.

855
00:44:17,640 --> 00:44:19,319
Speaker 4: He had a very good discussion and a very good

856
00:44:19,360 --> 00:44:22,200
Speaker 4: meeting with Elon Musk and watching DC. We discussed various issues,

857
00:44:22,239 --> 00:44:26,440
Speaker 4: including those he is passionate about, such as space, mobility, technology,

858
00:44:26,560 --> 00:44:30,560
Speaker 4: and innovation. Mobility of course as euphemism for immigration in

859
00:44:30,760 --> 00:44:35,040
Speaker 4: H one B visas, I talked about India's efforts towards

860
00:44:35,080 --> 00:44:39,320
Speaker 4: reform and furthering minimum government, maximum government, so maximum governance.

861
00:44:39,360 --> 00:44:43,680
Speaker 4: So he talked to him about space, technology, innovation and

862
00:44:44,440 --> 00:44:47,560
Speaker 4: labor like all of these things that are central to

863
00:44:48,160 --> 00:44:50,640
Speaker 4: Musk's business empire. And he did it in a government

864
00:44:50,680 --> 00:44:55,319
Speaker 4: building as a government employee with government power. I mean,

865
00:44:56,160 --> 00:44:59,440
Speaker 4: congratulations to Elon Musk and congratulates us if this is

866
00:44:59,480 --> 00:45:03,360
Speaker 4: the kind of S system we want, but it's not

867
00:45:03,480 --> 00:45:05,840
Speaker 4: certainly the kind that we intended to design.

868
00:45:06,239 --> 00:45:09,719
Speaker 1: Yeah, I just asked a chat GPT about Elon musk

869
00:45:09,800 --> 00:45:13,560
Speaker 1: business interest in India. So if these are hallucinations, apologies

870
00:45:13,600 --> 00:45:15,560
Speaker 1: in advance because I didn't take the time to double

871
00:45:15,640 --> 00:45:18,280
Speaker 1: check them. But apparently he's very interested in bringing Tesla

872
00:45:18,480 --> 00:45:22,320
Speaker 1: to India, very interested to bring in bringing Starlink to India.

873
00:45:22,360 --> 00:45:24,280
Speaker 1: And you can see how that would. I mean, India's

874
00:45:24,840 --> 00:45:27,560
Speaker 1: largest population wise country on the planet, so it's an

875
00:45:27,560 --> 00:45:29,759
Speaker 1: almost endless market in terms.

876
00:45:29,600 --> 00:45:33,120
Speaker 4: Of right and right now, Indian tariffs are making it

877
00:45:33,160 --> 00:45:35,399
Speaker 4: difficult for Tesla to break into the market, and he's

878
00:45:35,560 --> 00:45:39,239
Speaker 4: and he has been pushing Mody very hard to h

879
00:45:39,480 --> 00:45:40,400
Speaker 4: and to let him in, to.

880
00:45:40,480 --> 00:45:43,160
Speaker 1: Lower those tariffs and let him in. And then Ryan

881
00:45:43,200 --> 00:45:46,800
Speaker 1: also raises the you know, the H one B piece,

882
00:45:47,040 --> 00:45:49,080
Speaker 1: which has been very important to Elon and which was

883
00:45:49,120 --> 00:45:53,120
Speaker 1: another thing that he got from Trump, who totally you know,

884
00:45:53,280 --> 00:45:56,319
Speaker 1: change his position on H one B and was like, yes,

885
00:45:56,560 --> 00:46:00,160
Speaker 1: I am in favor of this impact. I use I

886
00:46:00,200 --> 00:46:02,000
Speaker 1: think he was confused about H one B and H

887
00:46:02,120 --> 00:46:03,719
Speaker 1: two B, but you know, we need those what do

888
00:46:03,800 --> 00:46:07,600
Speaker 1: you say high skilled? Is we need Hi skilled waiters

889
00:46:07,880 --> 00:46:10,560
Speaker 1: to come to the country. But Trump gets asked about, Hey,

890
00:46:10,640 --> 00:46:12,279
Speaker 1: what do you think about this whole Elon meeting with

891
00:46:12,400 --> 00:46:14,920
Speaker 1: Mody thing? What was that all about? And here's what

892
00:46:15,040 --> 00:46:15,400
Speaker 1: he had to.

893
00:46:15,400 --> 00:46:18,080
Speaker 4: Say, I'm met with Prime Minister Mody earlier today. Did

894
00:46:18,120 --> 00:46:19,880
Speaker 4: he do so as an American CEO or did he

895
00:46:19,960 --> 00:46:21,640
Speaker 4: do so as a representative of the US company?

896
00:46:22,680 --> 00:46:23,719
Speaker 7: H are you talking about me?

897
00:46:24,920 --> 00:46:25,200
Speaker 6: Leli?

898
00:46:25,320 --> 00:46:27,759
Speaker 7: I don't know they met, and I assume he wants

899
00:46:27,840 --> 00:46:30,160
Speaker 7: to do business in India, but India is a very

900
00:46:30,200 --> 00:46:32,320
Speaker 7: hard place to do business, and because of the tariffs,

901
00:46:32,360 --> 00:46:34,960
Speaker 7: so they have the highest tariffs just about in the world,

902
00:46:35,040 --> 00:46:36,880
Speaker 7: and it's a hard place to do business. No, I

903
00:46:36,920 --> 00:46:39,959
Speaker 7: would imagine he met possibly because you know, he's running

904
00:46:40,000 --> 00:46:43,840
Speaker 7: the company. He's he's doing this as as something that

905
00:46:43,920 --> 00:46:45,080
Speaker 7: he felt strongly about.

906
00:46:44,840 --> 00:46:45,439
Speaker 6: For a long time.

907
00:46:45,760 --> 00:46:48,440
Speaker 1: So Trump gets asked like, so was he a representative

908
00:46:48,440 --> 00:46:51,920
Speaker 1: the government? Was he representative of business? He's like, oh, I.

909
00:46:51,960 --> 00:46:55,600
Speaker 2: Guess I mean I read that as yes, he's he's met.

910
00:46:55,680 --> 00:46:58,720
Speaker 2: He used his government position to talk about his business interests.

911
00:46:58,880 --> 00:47:01,640
Speaker 2: And Trump is going to argue that Elon Musk's business

912
00:47:01,719 --> 00:47:04,160
Speaker 2: interests are good for America. Elon made that argument in

913
00:47:04,160 --> 00:47:05,839
Speaker 2: front of him in the Oval office this week when

914
00:47:05,880 --> 00:47:08,560
Speaker 2: he said, if SpaceX is getting contracts, it's because it's

915
00:47:08,600 --> 00:47:12,600
Speaker 2: the best, it's because that it earned and deserved those contracts.

916
00:47:12,920 --> 00:47:17,480
Speaker 2: The way companies like SpaceX stop deserving those those contracts

917
00:47:17,520 --> 00:47:20,440
Speaker 2: and stop becoming competitive is when you just give them

918
00:47:20,840 --> 00:47:22,840
Speaker 2: contracts and you let the head of it be a

919
00:47:23,000 --> 00:47:25,800
Speaker 2: special government employee meeting with Mody because they don't have

920
00:47:26,040 --> 00:47:27,400
Speaker 2: to bust their ass anymore.

921
00:47:27,920 --> 00:47:29,560
Speaker 3: I'm not saying that's going to happen, but that's the

922
00:47:29,640 --> 00:47:30,360
Speaker 3: principle that.

923
00:47:30,440 --> 00:47:35,320
Speaker 2: Everyone should be deeply opposed to or deeply like suspicious

924
00:47:35,360 --> 00:47:37,080
Speaker 2: of what's happening based on that principle.

925
00:47:37,520 --> 00:47:37,719
Speaker 3: Yeah.

926
00:47:37,880 --> 00:47:40,839
Speaker 1: I mean, this is the part that I did call

927
00:47:40,960 --> 00:47:43,879
Speaker 1: early on when there was all the speculat, oh, Trump

928
00:47:43,880 --> 00:47:45,319
Speaker 1: and Elan are going to fall out and it's going

929
00:47:45,360 --> 00:47:48,040
Speaker 1: to happen anytime, like he can't handle another alpha. I

930
00:47:48,239 --> 00:47:50,640
Speaker 1: was like, I don't know, this seems pretty this seems

931
00:47:50,719 --> 00:47:52,600
Speaker 1: durable because they both get a lot out of it.

932
00:47:53,160 --> 00:47:56,160
Speaker 1: But the more that I've watched to your point, Emily,

933
00:47:56,480 --> 00:47:59,480
Speaker 1: the stranger it's become. I mean, just this week you

934
00:47:59,640 --> 00:48:04,600
Speaker 1: had the specter of that incredible Oval Office press conference

935
00:48:05,080 --> 00:48:07,840
Speaker 1: where Trump is seated. You know, again visually, these are

936
00:48:07,920 --> 00:48:11,240
Speaker 1: guys who think about the visuals, think about the branding.

937
00:48:11,680 --> 00:48:14,800
Speaker 1: Trump is seated looking up at Elon. Elon is in

938
00:48:15,000 --> 00:48:19,120
Speaker 1: a T shirt and a ball cap, right totally against

939
00:48:19,400 --> 00:48:23,520
Speaker 1: the typical Trumpian obsession with dress code. He's letting his

940
00:48:23,680 --> 00:48:26,080
Speaker 1: kid like talk all kinds of shit to Trump he's

941
00:48:26,160 --> 00:48:28,759
Speaker 1: there in the room, including saying like go away, you're

942
00:48:28,800 --> 00:48:31,759
Speaker 1: not the real president, Like, oh, where, I wonder where

943
00:48:31,840 --> 00:48:33,960
Speaker 1: you heard that from? Because Brian, you and I both

944
00:48:34,040 --> 00:48:36,319
Speaker 1: know kids repeat a lot of the things that we say,

945
00:48:36,400 --> 00:48:39,719
Speaker 1: whether we want them to or not. So that was

946
00:48:39,800 --> 00:48:42,920
Speaker 1: kind of extraordinary. And then we know like Trump has

947
00:48:42,960 --> 00:48:45,080
Speaker 1: flipped his positions on Crypto, he flipp him on H

948
00:48:45,160 --> 00:48:49,800
Speaker 1: one B. He's not that this is ideologic TikTok, not

949
00:48:49,920 --> 00:48:52,560
Speaker 1: that this is an ideological problem from Trump, but he

950
00:48:52,800 --> 00:48:57,359
Speaker 1: wasn't fixated on white South Africans in his first administration.

951
00:48:57,480 --> 00:48:59,920
Speaker 1: Now we get an executive order about the plight of

952
00:49:00,120 --> 00:49:03,279
Speaker 1: the bores in South Africa and like, oh, well, we

953
00:49:03,320 --> 00:49:06,439
Speaker 1: don't want any other refugees but white South Africans because

954
00:49:06,520 --> 00:49:10,000
Speaker 1: Elon wants that you can definitely come over here, no problem.

955
00:49:10,680 --> 00:49:13,080
Speaker 1: It really is quite extraordinary. And then you know this

956
00:49:13,200 --> 00:49:15,640
Speaker 1: situation too where he gets asked like Elon is there

957
00:49:15,800 --> 00:49:18,240
Speaker 1: as if he's the head of state meeting with Mody,

958
00:49:18,600 --> 00:49:20,839
Speaker 1: and it's like, what the hell is going on here?

959
00:49:20,880 --> 00:49:24,200
Speaker 1: Not to mention this is a whole longer conversation, but

960
00:49:25,520 --> 00:49:31,360
Speaker 1: Trump's priorities, predominantly tariffs in mass deportation, are not actually

961
00:49:31,400 --> 00:49:33,480
Speaker 1: I mean the tariff piece he's been floating and then

962
00:49:33,560 --> 00:49:36,040
Speaker 1: going back on. Some tariffs are going to effect whatever

963
00:49:37,280 --> 00:49:40,799
Speaker 1: the mass deportations. He's been doing a lot of things

964
00:49:40,840 --> 00:49:43,320
Speaker 1: that I think are pretty clearly illegal, the use of

965
00:49:43,440 --> 00:49:46,880
Speaker 1: Guantanamo Bay for to hold migrants who have been deported

966
00:49:46,920 --> 00:49:49,560
Speaker 1: from the United States, you know, increasing sort of the

967
00:49:49,719 --> 00:49:53,200
Speaker 1: level of fear and cruelty and potential cruelty. By removing

968
00:49:53,239 --> 00:49:56,680
Speaker 1: restrictions on deportations from schools and from churches, et cetera.

969
00:49:57,040 --> 00:49:59,640
Speaker 1: The numbers are actually lower in terms of just total

970
00:49:59,719 --> 00:50:02,759
Speaker 1: number of immigrants being removed than they were under the

971
00:50:02,760 --> 00:50:06,359
Speaker 1: Biden administration. So the Trump priorities are have not been

972
00:50:06,480 --> 00:50:10,279
Speaker 1: front and center. The elon anarcho capitalist priorities, on the

973
00:50:10,320 --> 00:50:14,080
Speaker 1: other hand, they're off to the races. So to me,

974
00:50:14,719 --> 00:50:17,480
Speaker 1: that has been one of the wildest dynamics to watch

975
00:50:18,280 --> 00:50:22,560
Speaker 1: is just how subservient Trump truly has made himself to Elon.

976
00:50:22,360 --> 00:50:28,040
Speaker 4: Ryan, Yeah, and I've heard from plenty of viewers who

977
00:50:28,080 --> 00:50:31,240
Speaker 4: are like, look, all the all the Musk arrangement syndrome

978
00:50:31,680 --> 00:50:33,719
Speaker 4: was killing me. And I was like, okay, man, but look,

979
00:50:35,040 --> 00:50:40,160
Speaker 4: you guys elected Trump, and Trump and Musk have some overlap,

980
00:50:42,040 --> 00:50:45,080
Speaker 4: but they're often in conflict. As Sabamani said in our

981
00:50:45,360 --> 00:50:49,719
Speaker 4: show on Wednesday, like, you are really risking undermining this,

982
00:50:50,280 --> 00:50:53,440
Speaker 4: this thing that y'all fought for, yes, for eight years,

983
00:50:54,280 --> 00:50:58,680
Speaker 4: you finally got in power, and instead of trying to

984
00:50:58,800 --> 00:51:03,600
Speaker 4: pursue the aims of that movement, this guy who came

985
00:51:03,680 --> 00:51:08,840
Speaker 4: in in the fall is now dictating with the things

986
00:51:08,880 --> 00:51:14,719
Speaker 4: that are the priorities to the exclusion of wages, inflation

987
00:51:15,640 --> 00:51:17,719
Speaker 4: America first, the stuff that you said.

988
00:51:17,920 --> 00:51:22,480
Speaker 1: Corporate power, you were into going in the opposite direction there.

989
00:51:22,640 --> 00:51:26,959
Speaker 4: I mean, you shouldn't be the only ones with must

990
00:51:27,040 --> 00:51:29,120
Speaker 4: arrangement syndrome. There should be a lot more mega people

991
00:51:29,160 --> 00:51:31,480
Speaker 4: who are like, wait a minute, what on earth is it?

992
00:51:31,680 --> 00:51:31,719
Speaker 7: Like?

993
00:51:33,480 --> 00:51:37,479
Speaker 1: Exactly Bannon with another you know quote that I would

994
00:51:37,520 --> 00:51:40,840
Speaker 1: co sign talking about Republicans are floating big cuts to Medicaid,

995
00:51:40,960 --> 00:51:43,200
Speaker 1: and Elon of course has been floating big cuts to

996
00:51:43,280 --> 00:51:46,160
Speaker 1: everything just based on the numbers of what he claims

997
00:51:46,200 --> 00:51:48,000
Speaker 1: he wants to shirt from the government and his just

998
00:51:48,160 --> 00:51:52,280
Speaker 1: like ideological opposition to any sort of social safety net program.

999
00:51:52,800 --> 00:51:54,759
Speaker 1: And Bannon comes out and is like, you know, a

1000
00:51:54,840 --> 00:51:58,640
Speaker 1: lot of maga they're on medicaid, so you cannot take

1001
00:51:58,760 --> 00:52:01,040
Speaker 1: a hatchet to this thing, or you are going to

1002
00:52:01,160 --> 00:52:04,520
Speaker 1: draw a lot of blood. Just a couple more things

1003
00:52:04,560 --> 00:52:06,440
Speaker 1: to get to here, to get you guys quick reaction

1004
00:52:06,560 --> 00:52:08,680
Speaker 1: to this is what I mentioned at the top. So

1005
00:52:09,200 --> 00:52:11,960
Speaker 1: we now have the Trump administrations directed agency heads to

1006
00:52:12,080 --> 00:52:15,760
Speaker 1: fire most probationary staff. These are people it says terminations

1007
00:52:15,760 --> 00:52:18,840
Speaker 1: should happen within two days, So something like two hundred

1008
00:52:18,920 --> 00:52:23,360
Speaker 1: thousand federal government workers. This comes on top of the

1009
00:52:23,920 --> 00:52:28,040
Speaker 1: somewhere around seventy five thousand who took the deferred resignation offer.

1010
00:52:28,120 --> 00:52:30,759
Speaker 1: There maybe some overlap two between the two hundred k

1011
00:52:30,960 --> 00:52:33,560
Speaker 1: and the seventy five k, but when you put those

1012
00:52:33,600 --> 00:52:37,120
Speaker 1: two numbers together, we're talking about around ten percent of

1013
00:52:37,200 --> 00:52:40,320
Speaker 1: the federal government workforce. And it's also not evenly spread,

1014
00:52:40,960 --> 00:52:44,080
Speaker 1: so certain agencies will be harder hit than others. And

1015
00:52:44,160 --> 00:52:45,960
Speaker 1: it's also not done in any sort of way where

1016
00:52:46,000 --> 00:52:48,479
Speaker 1: you're trying to evaluate like, Okay, let's separate the wheat

1017
00:52:48,520 --> 00:52:51,400
Speaker 1: from the chaff. It's just like, if you're in these categories,

1018
00:52:51,800 --> 00:52:54,560
Speaker 1: you're round. And I was saying earlier, actually, the way

1019
00:52:54,640 --> 00:52:58,359
Speaker 1: these are designed, it is more likely that you're going

1020
00:52:58,440 --> 00:53:01,600
Speaker 1: to be culling the best, the bride is the most effective,

1021
00:53:02,239 --> 00:53:05,400
Speaker 1: you know, and highest value government employees, just from the

1022
00:53:05,600 --> 00:53:07,840
Speaker 1: design of these of these programs only.

1023
00:53:09,000 --> 00:53:11,600
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, so they definitely don't care like it's

1024
00:53:12,000 --> 00:53:15,080
Speaker 2: you know, they they just want everyone gone. And it

1025
00:53:15,280 --> 00:53:18,200
Speaker 2: kind of reminds me of the logic of the mass deportations,

1026
00:53:18,360 --> 00:53:20,960
Speaker 2: is that in order to do it efficient efficiently at

1027
00:53:21,000 --> 00:53:23,400
Speaker 2: the level that they've promised, which is basically just like

1028
00:53:23,840 --> 00:53:28,440
Speaker 2: getting rid ultimately of some departments, you just have to slash.

1029
00:53:29,120 --> 00:53:32,319
Speaker 2: And that's why we haven't seen the level of quote

1030
00:53:32,360 --> 00:53:35,959
Speaker 2: mass deportations that some people expected, because they actually don't

1031
00:53:36,000 --> 00:53:39,440
Speaker 2: want the optics of like rounding up you know, pregnant

1032
00:53:39,480 --> 00:53:43,600
Speaker 2: women or whatever else. So there's there's that, and it's

1033
00:53:43,800 --> 00:53:46,399
Speaker 2: in this case, I think they just on the other hand,

1034
00:53:46,520 --> 00:53:50,000
Speaker 2: don't really like they're not trying to salvage most of

1035
00:53:50,080 --> 00:53:51,000
Speaker 2: these departments.

1036
00:53:51,239 --> 00:53:53,279
Speaker 3: And one thing that.

1037
00:53:54,800 --> 00:53:56,400
Speaker 2: Could get tricky for them, like we saw this with

1038
00:53:56,560 --> 00:53:59,520
Speaker 2: Katie Britt earlier in the week and a couple of

1039
00:53:59,560 --> 00:54:01,840
Speaker 2: other Republicans who've sort of been dipping their toes in

1040
00:54:01,880 --> 00:54:03,880
Speaker 2: this water, is that if you don't do this with

1041
00:54:04,120 --> 00:54:07,200
Speaker 2: off ramps, like they're between a rock and a hard place.

1042
00:54:07,239 --> 00:54:09,960
Speaker 2: On the one hand, the only way to efficiently slash

1043
00:54:10,120 --> 00:54:14,279
Speaker 2: the government is to do it with deep cuts that

1044
00:54:14,480 --> 00:54:18,960
Speaker 2: aren't exactly like calculated and strategic. I mean, there's some

1045
00:54:19,040 --> 00:54:22,480
Speaker 2: strategy involved, but they aren't super careful. On the other hand,

1046
00:54:22,600 --> 00:54:26,000
Speaker 2: if you don't do that with careful off ramps, which

1047
00:54:26,040 --> 00:54:27,440
Speaker 2: is one of the things we talked to the Project

1048
00:54:27,480 --> 00:54:30,319
Speaker 2: twenty twenty five author about the Education Department about this week,

1049
00:54:30,360 --> 00:54:33,040
Speaker 2: if you don't do it that way, then you get

1050
00:54:33,080 --> 00:54:37,160
Speaker 2: this fanned out around the country, and Republicans in places

1051
00:54:37,239 --> 00:54:39,160
Speaker 2: that are affected, you know, like a Katie Britt in

1052
00:54:39,200 --> 00:54:43,239
Speaker 2: Alabama by particular cuts end up having the answer for them,

1053
00:54:43,360 --> 00:54:45,560
Speaker 2: and that complicates the politics of it.

1054
00:54:45,760 --> 00:54:48,120
Speaker 3: So I mean, good luck to them on that.

1055
00:54:49,560 --> 00:54:52,240
Speaker 4: Yeah, it seems like they're trying to destroy the government

1056
00:54:52,800 --> 00:54:53,080
Speaker 4: they are.

1057
00:54:53,440 --> 00:54:54,880
Speaker 1: I mean, that's the thing.

1058
00:54:55,000 --> 00:54:58,160
Speaker 4: Destroy its ability to function, and then just step back

1059
00:54:58,200 --> 00:55:01,360
Speaker 4: and say, look at this terrible government camp function. We

1060
00:55:01,480 --> 00:55:07,640
Speaker 4: need to further outsource our governing to these private institutions.

1061
00:55:08,680 --> 00:55:13,320
Speaker 4: And it's just just such a shame. But this is

1062
00:55:13,800 --> 00:55:14,800
Speaker 4: such a broken government.

1063
00:55:15,239 --> 00:55:17,200
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I mean that's been a trend that's been

1064
00:55:17,239 --> 00:55:20,319
Speaker 1: going on under neoliberalism for years. Bill Clinton was big

1065
00:55:20,440 --> 00:55:24,040
Speaker 1: on privatizing parts of government. And actually, if you look

1066
00:55:24,080 --> 00:55:26,680
Speaker 1: at the headcount as a percent of the population, we're

1067
00:55:26,760 --> 00:55:30,200
Speaker 1: near historic lows. Parts of these agencies really need to

1068
00:55:30,239 --> 00:55:33,360
Speaker 1: be funded, need more people, you know, on food safety,

1069
00:55:33,480 --> 00:55:36,560
Speaker 1: apparently air traffic controllers were in desperate need of across

1070
00:55:36,600 --> 00:55:40,600
Speaker 1: the country. And I think, Ryan, you're exactly right, like

1071
00:55:41,000 --> 00:55:43,879
Speaker 1: this certainly isn't about merit. That much is really clear

1072
00:55:44,200 --> 00:55:47,359
Speaker 1: from the direction they've gone in here. But Elon has

1073
00:55:47,440 --> 00:55:51,359
Speaker 1: both an ideological and personal self interest call here, which

1074
00:55:51,400 --> 00:55:56,440
Speaker 1: is he doesn't want to compete for power with a

1075
00:55:56,520 --> 00:55:59,759
Speaker 1: federal government. You know, these agencies you look at the

1076
00:55:59,800 --> 00:56:01,440
Speaker 1: com in flicks of interest, the number of them that

1077
00:56:01,520 --> 00:56:03,759
Speaker 1: were investigating him, the number of them that he gets

1078
00:56:03,800 --> 00:56:08,319
Speaker 1: contracts from. You know, the Department of Labor was investigating

1079
00:56:08,480 --> 00:56:12,960
Speaker 1: him for harassment claims at TESLA National Labor Relations Board.

1080
00:56:13,000 --> 00:56:15,920
Speaker 1: He's had run ins with numerous times, the Securities Exchange Commission,

1081
00:56:15,960 --> 00:56:17,439
Speaker 1: like you go down the list, and then of course

1082
00:56:17,480 --> 00:56:20,640
Speaker 1: the CFPB was about to start regulating him over at

1083
00:56:20,640 --> 00:56:23,600
Speaker 1: Twitter because he just signed this deal with Visa, so

1084
00:56:23,880 --> 00:56:28,520
Speaker 1: he doesn't want any sort of competition for his power

1085
00:56:28,760 --> 00:56:30,680
Speaker 1: he wants, and the US federal government is one of

1086
00:56:30,719 --> 00:56:34,040
Speaker 1: the only entities powerful enough on the planet to check

1087
00:56:34,120 --> 00:56:37,200
Speaker 1: his full ambitions. And then the ideological goal is just

1088
00:56:37,239 --> 00:56:39,600
Speaker 1: what Ryan said, which has been a long time conservative goal,

1089
00:56:39,640 --> 00:56:42,400
Speaker 1: which is basically like make the government fail, so we

1090
00:56:42,480 --> 00:56:45,200
Speaker 1: can say the government is failing, so we need to

1091
00:56:45,239 --> 00:56:48,960
Speaker 1: cut the government even further. And it's you know, it's worked,

1092
00:56:49,120 --> 00:56:52,760
Speaker 1: It's worked very successfully. The last piece that I wanted

1093
00:56:52,840 --> 00:56:56,040
Speaker 1: to share with you guys is, you know, the latest

1094
00:56:56,160 --> 00:57:01,760
Speaker 1: agency that the doge as Ryan likes to say, doggy

1095
00:57:02,120 --> 00:57:05,239
Speaker 1: dog you like doggy, have infiltrated here. But these you know,

1096
00:57:05,440 --> 00:57:10,279
Speaker 1: these basically Musk hacker apparatics are now in the I

1097
00:57:10,480 --> 00:57:13,839
Speaker 1: R S. It says, the latest agency under review by

1098
00:57:13,920 --> 00:57:18,000
Speaker 1: Elon Musk's cost cutting group. So that's you know, I mean,

1099
00:57:18,120 --> 00:57:21,160
Speaker 1: obviously I RS literally.

1100
00:57:20,920 --> 00:57:21,360
Speaker 3: All of us.

1101
00:57:21,840 --> 00:57:24,800
Speaker 4: First of all, somebody told me that Heathercox Richardson has

1102
00:57:24,880 --> 00:57:26,480
Speaker 4: stolen Doggie Committee from me.

1103
00:57:27,080 --> 00:57:29,840
Speaker 1: Really whatever I mean imitation.

1104
00:57:31,440 --> 00:57:33,800
Speaker 4: True, Like let's let it, let a thousand doggies bloom.

1105
00:57:35,200 --> 00:57:38,400
Speaker 4: But this right now, going into the I R S

1106
00:57:38,520 --> 00:57:41,520
Speaker 4: and trying, you know, taking taking a hatchet to it

1107
00:57:42,240 --> 00:57:44,840
Speaker 4: really gives away the game that the the goal here

1108
00:57:45,080 --> 00:57:49,280
Speaker 4: is not to reduce deficits or reduce the amount of debt,

1109
00:57:50,000 --> 00:57:53,200
Speaker 4: because the I R S is one of the key

1110
00:57:53,360 --> 00:57:58,720
Speaker 4: places where if somebody with musks, technological aptitude and the

1111
00:57:58,760 --> 00:58:01,160
Speaker 4: budget that has has been allocated for the I R

1112
00:58:01,280 --> 00:58:05,520
Speaker 4: S decided we're going to do this more efficiently. It

1113
00:58:05,720 --> 00:58:09,320
Speaker 4: is a place where generative AI can really do an

1114
00:58:09,480 --> 00:58:13,680
Speaker 4: enormous amount of the work that you know, humans have

1115
00:58:13,960 --> 00:58:15,440
Speaker 4: had to do with the I r since the beginning

1116
00:58:15,440 --> 00:58:17,840
Speaker 4: of the I R S. Like, uh, you know a

1117
00:58:18,000 --> 00:58:22,200
Speaker 4: tax return comes in. You know, the AI that we

1118
00:58:22,440 --> 00:58:25,560
Speaker 4: have now and that we're developing could easily like look

1119
00:58:25,600 --> 00:58:28,840
Speaker 4: at that return, look at the data that that the

1120
00:58:28,920 --> 00:58:32,160
Speaker 4: government has, because it's the government, check to see if

1121
00:58:32,200 --> 00:58:34,600
Speaker 4: there are any anomalies in it. If there are, you

1122
00:58:34,680 --> 00:58:37,040
Speaker 4: go flag it for a closer look. If not move

1123
00:58:37,120 --> 00:58:38,640
Speaker 4: it through and send out the refund.

1124
00:58:39,440 --> 00:58:39,560
Speaker 2: Uh.

1125
00:58:40,160 --> 00:58:42,720
Speaker 4: And and you you you really could, if you were

1126
00:58:42,800 --> 00:58:45,720
Speaker 4: serious about tax collection, make it much harder than it's

1127
00:58:45,720 --> 00:58:48,760
Speaker 4: ever been to cheat because you're you know that you're

1128
00:58:48,840 --> 00:58:51,560
Speaker 4: putting these numbers into this system. That's like that knows,

1129
00:58:52,160 --> 00:58:54,040
Speaker 4: you know, because your employer has been putting things in

1130
00:58:54,440 --> 00:58:57,200
Speaker 4: or because your bank has been putting in transactions to

1131
00:58:57,320 --> 00:58:59,320
Speaker 4: go in there, and to just you know, to start

1132
00:58:59,360 --> 00:59:04,360
Speaker 4: hacking away at it reveals like the politics at work here,

1133
00:59:04,480 --> 00:59:07,200
Speaker 4: Like the goal here is to make it harder for

1134
00:59:07,320 --> 00:59:10,360
Speaker 4: the IRS to collect taxes from the wealthy. Yeah, and

1135
00:59:10,560 --> 00:59:16,640
Speaker 4: so then the crying about spending it really falls on

1136
00:59:16,720 --> 00:59:18,520
Speaker 4: deaf ears if this is the agenda.

1137
00:59:18,680 --> 00:59:19,280
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, not to.

1138
00:59:19,360 --> 00:59:22,280
Speaker 1: Mention the four trillion dollar tax cut they have planned for,

1139
00:59:22,840 --> 00:59:25,640
Speaker 1: you know, upcoming shortly that would benefit people like Elon Musk.

1140
00:59:26,240 --> 00:59:28,040
Speaker 2: To the point that you're making crystal it's like, if

1141
00:59:28,080 --> 00:59:31,280
Speaker 2: you can't beat them, join them mentality for Musk. And

1142
00:59:31,600 --> 00:59:33,840
Speaker 2: this is what's so frustrating is that, like I definitely

1143
00:59:33,960 --> 00:59:35,720
Speaker 2: disagree with you guys about how much of the federal

1144
00:59:35,800 --> 00:59:37,120
Speaker 2: government should be cut.

1145
00:59:37,320 --> 00:59:39,880
Speaker 3: Like I think a lot of this is like very reasonable.

1146
00:59:39,960 --> 00:59:42,040
Speaker 2: The project of doge if it weren't led by an

1147
00:59:42,080 --> 00:59:44,880
Speaker 2: actual oligarch, would be something that would probably be.

1148
00:59:45,000 --> 00:59:46,760
Speaker 3: Arguing for in particular cases.

1149
00:59:46,840 --> 00:59:50,480
Speaker 2: But you cannot come in with the oligarch and then

1150
00:59:50,560 --> 00:59:53,440
Speaker 2: expect the public to trust. Like I don't think that

1151
00:59:53,560 --> 00:59:57,160
Speaker 2: the conservative movement needed to ruin the government in order

1152
00:59:57,240 --> 00:59:59,320
Speaker 2: for people to support cutting it. Like if you look

1153
00:59:59,320 --> 01:00:01,320
Speaker 2: at the polling, I was just going through it this morning.

1154
01:00:01,360 --> 01:00:03,520
Speaker 2: Like Gallup has done summaries of polling. They did another

1155
01:00:03,560 --> 01:00:05,640
Speaker 2: one in November about how much of the public thinks

1156
01:00:05,680 --> 01:00:07,800
Speaker 2: that there's way too much waste and fraud and the

1157
01:00:07,840 --> 01:00:10,040
Speaker 2: government and there is like we kind of all know that,

1158
01:00:11,120 --> 01:00:14,120
Speaker 2: but you can't like there's no Elon Musk doesn't have

1159
01:00:14,200 --> 01:00:16,439
Speaker 2: the moral high ground here. He doesn't have the moral

1160
01:00:16,520 --> 01:00:19,919
Speaker 2: high ground, and that, you know, makes it so as

1161
01:00:20,160 --> 01:00:25,440
Speaker 2: his team is executing these cuts, what is the justice

1162
01:00:25,640 --> 01:00:30,000
Speaker 2: if it's to benefit him and it's not ultimately done

1163
01:00:30,080 --> 01:00:32,400
Speaker 2: in the interest of the public. And it's really really

1164
01:00:32,440 --> 01:00:34,440
Speaker 2: hard to trust that, even though you know, I can

1165
01:00:34,560 --> 01:00:38,080
Speaker 2: take there's there's great Catharsis and watching USA I D

1166
01:00:38,240 --> 01:00:41,160
Speaker 2: with the exception of like Pep far you know, go

1167
01:00:41,440 --> 01:00:42,280
Speaker 2: by the wayside.

1168
01:00:42,520 --> 01:00:46,160
Speaker 3: It's like it's Elon Musk, like, look at.

1169
01:00:46,040 --> 01:00:48,520
Speaker 2: All of the contracts he has, the investigations he has,

1170
01:00:48,960 --> 01:00:50,240
Speaker 2: so anyway, there's.

1171
01:00:50,200 --> 01:00:54,520
Speaker 1: A it's what he's doing too. I mean, I'm watching

1172
01:00:54,600 --> 01:00:57,360
Speaker 1: Republicans drop their like budget proposal. I'm like, why are

1173
01:00:57,400 --> 01:00:59,920
Speaker 1: you bothering like you don't matter anymore, you know if

1174
01:01:00,120 --> 01:01:02,760
Speaker 1: and it's their position that they it's the Republicans in

1175
01:01:02,800 --> 01:01:06,080
Speaker 1: Congress position that they are irrelevant and don't matter anymore

1176
01:01:06,200 --> 01:01:08,280
Speaker 1: and that it should just all be up to Elon

1177
01:01:08,400 --> 01:01:10,920
Speaker 1: Musk basically with you know, Trump sort of there on

1178
01:01:11,040 --> 01:01:15,680
Speaker 1: the sidelines. So yeah, right for now, and we'll see

1179
01:01:15,720 --> 01:01:18,000
Speaker 1: how that develops. But like I said, I've been I

1180
01:01:18,160 --> 01:01:22,880
Speaker 1: have been quite interested to watch the level of deference

1181
01:01:23,480 --> 01:01:27,280
Speaker 1: that Trump has shown to Elon and you know, I mean,

1182
01:01:27,320 --> 01:01:29,680
Speaker 1: I think it's very possible that even without you know,

1183
01:01:29,800 --> 01:01:31,640
Speaker 1: my theory is that some of these people may have

1184
01:01:31,760 --> 01:01:35,360
Speaker 1: been involved in the launch of the memekin propping at

1185
01:01:35,400 --> 01:01:38,680
Speaker 1: the price, and basically the exchange was Trump will get

1186
01:01:38,720 --> 01:01:40,960
Speaker 1: you elected, We'll put tons of money into your campaign.

1187
01:01:41,920 --> 01:01:44,240
Speaker 1: We're going to make you wealthy, you know, wealthier than

1188
01:01:44,280 --> 01:01:46,360
Speaker 1: you've ever been and could ever have dreamed of being.

1189
01:01:46,480 --> 01:01:47,960
Speaker 1: And you're gonna let us do whatever the hell we

1190
01:01:48,000 --> 01:01:50,760
Speaker 1: want to do. But even if it is an explicit

1191
01:01:50,840 --> 01:01:53,200
Speaker 1: deal like that, you know, that is sort of the

1192
01:01:53,520 --> 01:01:56,440
Speaker 1: operating deal here. And Trump is not playing golf all

1193
01:01:56,480 --> 01:02:00,560
Speaker 1: the time, like he's not in prison. It's to go

1194
01:02:00,760 --> 01:02:03,280
Speaker 1: and play president and do his tariffing or whatever things

1195
01:02:03,320 --> 01:02:06,000
Speaker 1: he's actually interested in. And he's just not like that

1196
01:02:06,160 --> 01:02:09,360
Speaker 1: particularly interested in the rest of it and seems to

1197
01:02:09,440 --> 01:02:12,440
Speaker 1: be happy to hand off the reins of his movement

1198
01:02:12,560 --> 01:02:17,120
Speaker 1: and his project to Elon. I not noted disagur and

1199
01:02:17,320 --> 01:02:21,360
Speaker 1: us my final point, but it occurred to me again

1200
01:02:21,440 --> 01:02:24,800
Speaker 1: going back to the branding piece. Like the Maga original

1201
01:02:24,880 --> 01:02:28,080
Speaker 1: Maga hat is the iconic red and white make America

1202
01:02:28,160 --> 01:02:31,919
Speaker 1: great Again, Elon now has designed his own hat that's

1203
01:02:32,000 --> 01:02:34,520
Speaker 1: the dark Maga, the black and white, which is his

1204
01:02:35,320 --> 01:02:36,560
Speaker 1: branding colors.

1205
01:02:36,320 --> 01:02:38,200
Speaker 3: Lots of those at the inauguration, by that, and that's

1206
01:02:38,240 --> 01:02:38,720
Speaker 3: what he.

1207
01:02:39,240 --> 01:02:42,120
Speaker 1: Was wearing in the Oval office as he's you know,

1208
01:02:42,280 --> 01:02:46,080
Speaker 1: standing over Trump, and you know, the signal of that

1209
01:02:46,360 --> 01:02:49,880
Speaker 1: is quite clear of like, well, this is my movement.

1210
01:02:50,080 --> 01:02:52,720
Speaker 1: I now own this, this part of it, this branding

1211
01:02:52,760 --> 01:02:55,600
Speaker 1: of it, and this is really the story of Trump

1212
01:02:55,640 --> 01:02:58,600
Speaker 1: administration two point zero, which is you know, I've been

1213
01:02:58,640 --> 01:03:01,480
Speaker 1: warning about Elon's in fluence and how story this is

1214
01:03:01,520 --> 01:03:03,600
Speaker 1: and the conflicts of interesting whatever long before Trump was

1215
01:03:03,640 --> 01:03:07,400
Speaker 1: re elected. I never could have seen foreseeing the level

1216
01:03:08,080 --> 01:03:10,520
Speaker 1: of what's going on here and the extent to which

1217
01:03:10,600 --> 01:03:13,760
Speaker 1: she's just completely taken over the whole government, like he's

1218
01:03:13,800 --> 01:03:16,200
Speaker 1: the sort of CEO dictator, which is I think exactly

1219
01:03:16,240 --> 01:03:16,560
Speaker 1: the plan.

1220
01:03:17,480 --> 01:03:18,480
Speaker 3: This is my last point.

1221
01:03:18,560 --> 01:03:21,880
Speaker 2: I think Tyler Austin Harper put it really well in

1222
01:03:22,000 --> 01:03:24,800
Speaker 2: this post on x where Patrick Graffini, the poster said,

1223
01:03:24,800 --> 01:03:26,919
Speaker 2: with the exception of those employed in private enterprise, Trump

1224
01:03:26,960 --> 01:03:29,400
Speaker 2: is hitting the professional managerial class and hitting them hard.

1225
01:03:29,480 --> 01:03:31,880
Speaker 2: But Tyler Austin Harper writes for The Atlantic, He's professor

1226
01:03:31,920 --> 01:03:33,880
Speaker 2: at Bates said, I think more accurately, what's going on

1227
01:03:34,080 --> 01:03:36,880
Speaker 2: is clearly not a populist insurgency against professional elites, but

1228
01:03:36,960 --> 01:03:40,160
Speaker 2: a civil war between the left and the academia, media,

1229
01:03:40,320 --> 01:03:43,000
Speaker 2: NGO left and the right tech right flanks of the

1230
01:03:43,040 --> 01:03:47,520
Speaker 2: professional class. And that is really interesting because to me,

1231
01:03:47,640 --> 01:03:51,960
Speaker 2: that's like you see the oligarchs the tech right using

1232
01:03:52,040 --> 01:03:55,480
Speaker 2: populism as a cover and giving the right a lot

1233
01:03:55,520 --> 01:03:57,880
Speaker 2: of what it's demanded for decades, which is this like

1234
01:03:58,040 --> 01:04:01,560
Speaker 2: incredible slashing of the federal gun. And then at the

1235
01:04:01,680 --> 01:04:04,760
Speaker 2: end of the day, it's like you're like, they're the

1236
01:04:04,840 --> 01:04:07,280
Speaker 2: ones picking up the pieces, They're the ones who.

1237
01:04:07,320 --> 01:04:08,240
Speaker 3: Are in charge.

1238
01:04:08,840 --> 01:04:12,160
Speaker 2: So it's just it's not this like perfect class war.

1239
01:04:12,760 --> 01:04:14,320
Speaker 2: And the reason I brought that up. Just one final

1240
01:04:14,360 --> 01:04:16,880
Speaker 2: point is that when you do privatize, you hend stuff

1241
01:04:16,920 --> 01:04:19,720
Speaker 2: to contractors, which is something we've seen Doge talk about,

1242
01:04:20,040 --> 01:04:22,480
Speaker 2: fantasize about, well, what do you want it to go to?

1243
01:04:22,560 --> 01:04:26,280
Speaker 2: Deloyte McKenzie, the enemies of the populist right. I mean,

1244
01:04:26,320 --> 01:04:29,560
Speaker 2: it's like this plan doesn't doesn't make sense. This, this

1245
01:04:29,760 --> 01:04:33,600
Speaker 2: iteration of like limited government conservatism is not what the

1246
01:04:33,800 --> 01:04:37,480
Speaker 2: conservative movement fought for for decades. Even though it feels

1247
01:04:37,560 --> 01:04:42,000
Speaker 2: like there's win after win after win, ultimately that question remains.

1248
01:04:41,960 --> 01:04:44,920
Speaker 1: InTru That's a very interesting perspective. Ryan, any final thoughts

1249
01:04:44,960 --> 01:04:48,880
Speaker 1: before we let all you guys go, uh, it looks.

1250
01:04:48,800 --> 01:04:53,360
Speaker 4: Like the hostage release is going to go off. You know,

1251
01:04:53,480 --> 01:04:58,479
Speaker 4: despite all of the bluster that was, you know, coming

1252
01:04:58,520 --> 01:05:01,320
Speaker 4: out of Trump and Nenyahu this week where they were

1253
01:05:02,160 --> 01:05:05,320
Speaker 4: saying that all hostages at some point they were saying

1254
01:05:05,360 --> 01:05:09,080
Speaker 4: that every single hostage needed to be released by noon

1255
01:05:09,240 --> 01:05:14,320
Speaker 4: on Saturday, which you know, so we're coming into the

1256
01:05:14,560 --> 01:05:20,360
Speaker 4: evening of Friday in Israel Palestine now, But it the

1257
01:05:20,400 --> 01:05:23,920
Speaker 4: Hamas put out a list of three hostages that they

1258
01:05:23,960 --> 01:05:27,040
Speaker 4: intend to release on Saturday, which they say are from

1259
01:05:27,080 --> 01:05:29,720
Speaker 4: the list of sick and wounded. So I think that

1260
01:05:29,760 --> 01:05:33,600
Speaker 4: they're preparing the public for some difficult images that the

1261
01:05:33,920 --> 01:05:37,760
Speaker 4: hostages will be in difficult shape. There's three men that

1262
01:05:37,880 --> 01:05:41,640
Speaker 4: they that they put on the list. Netnah, who responded

1263
01:05:41,680 --> 01:05:45,800
Speaker 4: by saying that they accepted the list. He then put

1264
01:05:45,840 --> 01:05:50,320
Speaker 4: out a new statement saying that accepted was a typo

1265
01:05:51,200 --> 01:05:56,400
Speaker 4: and that they received the list. Accepted and received have

1266
01:05:56,560 --> 01:06:00,760
Speaker 4: the same route in Hebrew. So now they're at a

1267
01:06:00,800 --> 01:06:04,440
Speaker 4: place where we'll have has Israel accepted this list as

1268
01:06:05,120 --> 01:06:09,400
Speaker 4: sufficient and and and within the confines of the ceasefire

1269
01:06:09,400 --> 01:06:11,439
Speaker 4: agreement or have they simply received it in their play.

1270
01:06:11,600 --> 01:06:13,280
Speaker 4: So I think that Na was trying to figure out

1271
01:06:13,320 --> 01:06:16,040
Speaker 4: whether or not he can reject this list and and

1272
01:06:16,160 --> 01:06:19,400
Speaker 4: restart the war. It feels like he doesn't. He's not

1273
01:06:19,560 --> 01:06:22,600
Speaker 4: going to that that the ceasefire is going to live

1274
01:06:22,680 --> 01:06:30,400
Speaker 4: to fight another day too, So that's that's hopeful and

1275
01:06:30,520 --> 01:06:32,160
Speaker 4: goes back to what we're saying that you you have

1276
01:06:32,320 --> 01:06:35,400
Speaker 4: to really follow not just what Trump says.

1277
01:06:35,280 --> 01:06:38,040
Speaker 1: But what what else, what he does, and what actually

1278
01:06:38,240 --> 01:06:41,320
Speaker 1: what actually transpires and what unfolding. Yes, well, I appreciate

1279
01:06:41,360 --> 01:06:43,480
Speaker 1: you guys taking the time out on this Valentine's Day

1280
01:06:43,520 --> 01:06:46,000
Speaker 1: to hang out with me. It's always such a privilege

1281
01:06:46,040 --> 01:06:47,440
Speaker 1: to get to hear both you guys thoughts and the

1282
01:06:47,480 --> 01:06:49,840
Speaker 1: way you process all of these events. So you guys,

1283
01:06:49,960 --> 01:06:52,440
Speaker 1: enjoy your weekend. All of you out there, enjoy your weekend.

1284
01:06:52,480 --> 01:06:56,040
Speaker 1: Happy Valentine's again, and we will see you on Monday.