1 00:00:00,640 --> 00:00:04,160 Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Molly John Fast and this is Fast Politics 2 00:00:04,360 --> 00:00:07,120 Speaker 1: where we discussed the top political headlines with some of 3 00:00:07,160 --> 00:00:11,320 Speaker 1: today's best minds. And Trump has frozen one billion dollars 4 00:00:11,360 --> 00:00:14,400 Speaker 1: in food aid given to local schools and food banks 5 00:00:14,440 --> 00:00:17,000 Speaker 1: to help low income families. We have such a great 6 00:00:17,000 --> 00:00:20,079 Speaker 1: show for you today. On the tapes, Dan Nathan stops 7 00:00:20,120 --> 00:00:22,560 Speaker 1: by to talk to us about the stock markets very 8 00:00:22,640 --> 00:00:26,240 Speaker 1: very very bad reaction to Donald Trump's policies. 9 00:00:26,680 --> 00:00:29,240 Speaker 2: Oh, Molly, we also have an extra special bonus from 10 00:00:29,280 --> 00:00:32,040 Speaker 2: our YouTube channel where we talk to Harvard professor Lawrence 11 00:00:32,159 --> 00:00:35,080 Speaker 2: Lessig about his thoughts on how the Democrats can make 12 00:00:35,120 --> 00:00:38,360 Speaker 2: a doge that actually works well in the future. Then 13 00:00:38,360 --> 00:00:41,400 Speaker 2: we'll talk to the New York Times David Enrich about 14 00:00:41,440 --> 00:00:43,800 Speaker 2: his new book, The Murder of Truth, Fear the First 15 00:00:43,840 --> 00:00:46,120 Speaker 2: Amendment in a secret campaign to protect the powerful. 16 00:00:46,280 --> 00:00:47,280 Speaker 3: But first the news. 17 00:00:47,840 --> 00:00:52,480 Speaker 2: So, Molly, Elon Musk has officially become part of Maggo 18 00:00:52,560 --> 00:00:55,400 Speaker 2: because he's always saying the quiet part out loud, and 19 00:00:55,480 --> 00:00:58,080 Speaker 2: he has done just that about social security. Let's listen 20 00:00:58,120 --> 00:01:00,800 Speaker 2: to him say the truth about how it feels about it. 21 00:01:01,920 --> 00:01:08,320 Speaker 4: So, I mean the Waste report in entitlement spending, which 22 00:01:08,360 --> 00:01:11,600 Speaker 4: is all of the most of the federal spendings entitlements. 23 00:01:12,720 --> 00:01:17,080 Speaker 4: So that's that's like the big one to eliminate is 24 00:01:17,120 --> 00:01:19,959 Speaker 4: that's the sort of half trillion, maybe six seven hundred 25 00:01:19,959 --> 00:01:20,880 Speaker 4: billion a year. 26 00:01:22,720 --> 00:01:27,080 Speaker 1: Waste fraud and abuse. But it's not actually waste, fraud 27 00:01:27,120 --> 00:01:30,720 Speaker 1: and abuse. It's just things Elon doesn't like. So here's 28 00:01:30,760 --> 00:01:33,560 Speaker 1: the thing I want to talk about when it comes 29 00:01:33,600 --> 00:01:39,480 Speaker 1: to what Elon is doing. We saw this Republican House 30 00:01:39,880 --> 00:01:43,720 Speaker 1: pass a reconciliation bill which had an eight hundred and 31 00:01:43,760 --> 00:01:47,920 Speaker 1: eighty billion dollar cut to medicaid over ten years. We 32 00:01:48,000 --> 00:01:50,880 Speaker 1: don't need to hear Elon say it. The Congress has 33 00:01:50,920 --> 00:01:56,320 Speaker 1: said it. They are going after Medicaid and Medicare, and 34 00:01:56,880 --> 00:01:59,440 Speaker 1: just because they know it's unpopular and they don't want 35 00:01:59,480 --> 00:02:02,560 Speaker 1: to say it out loud. One of the very few 36 00:02:02,640 --> 00:02:06,800 Speaker 1: good things to come from Elon Musk's stint in the 37 00:02:07,040 --> 00:02:11,480 Speaker 1: ruling us like a god king has been that he 38 00:02:11,840 --> 00:02:14,679 Speaker 1: doesn't have the energy to lie, so he just I mean, 39 00:02:14,720 --> 00:02:18,480 Speaker 1: he still lies, but he is slightly addicted to telling 40 00:02:18,560 --> 00:02:21,160 Speaker 1: us what he's what he's actually going to do, and 41 00:02:21,240 --> 00:02:23,440 Speaker 1: in this case, he's actually going to try They're going 42 00:02:23,480 --> 00:02:26,240 Speaker 1: to try to cut medicaid and we saw this coming. 43 00:02:26,320 --> 00:02:30,760 Speaker 1: I mean, they're cutting the Oceanic, the national They're doing 44 00:02:30,960 --> 00:02:32,959 Speaker 1: everything they said they were going to do in Project 45 00:02:33,000 --> 00:02:35,679 Speaker 1: twenty twenty five. And you're going to be shocked to 46 00:02:35,720 --> 00:02:37,480 Speaker 1: hear that even though Trump said he wasn't going to 47 00:02:37,480 --> 00:02:41,280 Speaker 1: do it, He's actually going to do it. It's shocking. 48 00:02:41,720 --> 00:02:44,680 Speaker 1: And Musk has got a lot of lies going. You know, 49 00:02:44,760 --> 00:02:47,440 Speaker 1: why are there twenty million people who are definitely dead 50 00:02:47,600 --> 00:02:50,400 Speaker 1: marked as alive in the Social Security database? This has 51 00:02:50,440 --> 00:02:52,639 Speaker 1: been debunked a bunch of times. The way the code 52 00:02:52,680 --> 00:02:56,079 Speaker 1: is written, it makes people seem older than they are 53 00:02:56,280 --> 00:02:59,600 Speaker 1: because of the way of the old fashioned code which adds, 54 00:03:00,120 --> 00:03:01,120 Speaker 1: you know whatever. 55 00:03:00,800 --> 00:03:03,119 Speaker 3: Forty years or fifty years to your birthday. 56 00:03:03,600 --> 00:03:07,359 Speaker 1: So it's actually people over eighty seven or ninety seven 57 00:03:07,560 --> 00:03:10,400 Speaker 1: or one hundred and seven, but not over two hundred, 58 00:03:10,520 --> 00:03:12,200 Speaker 1: you know, over one hundred and forty. 59 00:03:12,680 --> 00:03:14,680 Speaker 3: So the numbers actually. 60 00:03:14,280 --> 00:03:17,679 Speaker 1: This is just a continued debunk lie, just like when 61 00:03:17,720 --> 00:03:22,000 Speaker 1: we interview David Fahrenhold and he talks about how DOGE 62 00:03:22,080 --> 00:03:25,880 Speaker 1: is using a lot of debunked lies to make what 63 00:03:26,000 --> 00:03:27,760 Speaker 1: they're doing seem more legitimate. 64 00:03:27,840 --> 00:03:32,000 Speaker 2: Weight. You can watch on our YouTube on Wednesday afternoon. 65 00:03:31,720 --> 00:03:36,360 Speaker 1: Yes, fast Politics. Go into YouTube search fast Politics with 66 00:03:36,480 --> 00:03:39,840 Speaker 1: Molly John Fast. You won't regret it, or maybe you will, 67 00:03:40,000 --> 00:03:41,560 Speaker 1: but it will be too late. 68 00:03:43,440 --> 00:03:47,720 Speaker 2: So when Elon Musk is an erasing the government buying 69 00:03:47,760 --> 00:03:51,640 Speaker 2: Tesla's from and all his bs, Elon is losing lots 70 00:03:51,640 --> 00:03:54,200 Speaker 2: of money in the stock market, and Trump is now 71 00:03:54,240 --> 00:03:55,360 Speaker 2: crying tears for him. 72 00:03:55,760 --> 00:03:59,280 Speaker 1: So it turns out that one of the reasons why 73 00:03:59,280 --> 00:04:04,040 Speaker 1: I see don't go into the federal government and cut 74 00:04:04,160 --> 00:04:07,480 Speaker 1: things when they're not elected is because it makes. 75 00:04:07,240 --> 00:04:09,000 Speaker 3: People not want to buy their products. 76 00:04:09,080 --> 00:04:14,560 Speaker 1: Right, Elon has espoused all these very very very right wing, 77 00:04:14,920 --> 00:04:19,279 Speaker 1: very very very controversial views on Twitter. He has sort 78 00:04:19,320 --> 00:04:24,159 Speaker 1: of gone to war with diversity, equity and inclusion. He 79 00:04:24,279 --> 00:04:27,880 Speaker 1: has done a lot of very controversial things, and perhaps 80 00:04:28,400 --> 00:04:30,520 Speaker 1: he should not be surprised. 81 00:04:30,000 --> 00:04:31,760 Speaker 3: That now people don't want to buy his cars. 82 00:04:32,000 --> 00:04:35,680 Speaker 1: Look, capitalism is about a free market, and this happened 83 00:04:35,680 --> 00:04:37,640 Speaker 1: in Donald Trump one point zero two, where he would 84 00:04:37,640 --> 00:04:40,600 Speaker 1: get really mad if people wouldn't buy things that were 85 00:04:40,680 --> 00:04:41,200 Speaker 1: right wing. 86 00:04:41,320 --> 00:04:41,560 Speaker 3: Right. 87 00:04:41,680 --> 00:04:45,280 Speaker 1: So remember when he had those goiabans that he had, 88 00:04:45,480 --> 00:04:50,160 Speaker 1: they were he was celebrating goiabins because they were Trump donors, 89 00:04:50,279 --> 00:04:52,599 Speaker 1: or they were they supported. 90 00:04:52,120 --> 00:04:53,720 Speaker 3: Some aspect of trump Ism. 91 00:04:54,160 --> 00:04:58,400 Speaker 1: You know, Trump gets very mad about protests, and he 92 00:04:58,440 --> 00:05:01,960 Speaker 1: gets very mad about boys. But the thing is, like 93 00:05:02,360 --> 00:05:05,479 Speaker 1: capitalism is based on the idea that you is a 94 00:05:05,520 --> 00:05:08,080 Speaker 1: free market, so you can buy what you want to buy. 95 00:05:08,320 --> 00:05:10,800 Speaker 3: Now, Donald Trump considers himself to be a king. 96 00:05:10,880 --> 00:05:14,279 Speaker 1: So this is very problematic for him, right because he 97 00:05:14,320 --> 00:05:18,120 Speaker 1: doesn't totally understand it. So as the Tesla stock falls, 98 00:05:18,240 --> 00:05:23,080 Speaker 1: Donald Trump realizes that the biggest donor to Donald Trump's 99 00:05:23,720 --> 00:05:28,120 Speaker 1: re election campaign ended up being Elon mush so he 100 00:05:28,240 --> 00:05:32,680 Speaker 1: really needs that Tesla stock to stay up there, and 101 00:05:33,040 --> 00:05:36,279 Speaker 1: it's lost quite a lot of value. Remember when Trump 102 00:05:36,320 --> 00:05:39,400 Speaker 1: got into office, Elon stock went up by a huge 103 00:05:39,440 --> 00:05:42,640 Speaker 1: magnitude on the thinking that Elon would be able to 104 00:05:42,760 --> 00:05:46,920 Speaker 1: practice prony capitalism, which Donald Trump also hoped. But Elon 105 00:05:47,000 --> 00:05:52,039 Speaker 1: has just been so incredibly strident and loud about his 106 00:05:52,160 --> 00:05:56,640 Speaker 1: views he has alienated potential buyers. And remember, Tesla's are 107 00:05:56,760 --> 00:05:59,520 Speaker 1: electric cars, so the people who tend to buy electric 108 00:05:59,560 --> 00:06:01,640 Speaker 1: cars are people who believe in climate change, and the 109 00:06:01,640 --> 00:06:05,279 Speaker 1: people who believe in climate change tend to not want 110 00:06:05,440 --> 00:06:10,120 Speaker 1: to support someone who espouses far right wing views and 111 00:06:10,160 --> 00:06:13,520 Speaker 1: does things like these straight arms salute you will remember. 112 00:06:13,640 --> 00:06:18,320 Speaker 1: This has gotten Trump very upset. He truthed on truth 113 00:06:18,440 --> 00:06:23,520 Speaker 1: social we're using truth with scare quotes that radical left lunatics, 114 00:06:23,560 --> 00:06:27,239 Speaker 1: as they often do, are trying to illegally and collusively 115 00:06:27,880 --> 00:06:32,039 Speaker 1: boycott Tesla, one of the world's great automakers and Elon's baby, 116 00:06:32,200 --> 00:06:35,840 Speaker 1: in order to By the way, not buying things is 117 00:06:35,880 --> 00:06:37,960 Speaker 1: not illegal, at least not yet. 118 00:06:38,720 --> 00:06:41,400 Speaker 2: I don't know he wants to make not advertising on 119 00:06:41,480 --> 00:06:42,320 Speaker 2: Twitter illegal. 120 00:06:42,400 --> 00:06:45,480 Speaker 1: So yeah, I'm going to buy a brand new Tesla 121 00:06:45,520 --> 00:06:48,520 Speaker 1: tomorrow morning as a show of confidence and support for 122 00:06:48,600 --> 00:06:53,280 Speaker 1: Elon Musk, a truly great American President, Trump said, why 123 00:06:53,320 --> 00:06:56,800 Speaker 1: should he be punished for putting his tremendous skills in 124 00:06:56,960 --> 00:06:59,719 Speaker 1: order to help make America great again? 125 00:07:00,080 --> 00:07:00,279 Speaker 5: Why? 126 00:07:00,360 --> 00:07:03,800 Speaker 1: Indeed, Trump and must have taken the unprecedented control of 127 00:07:03,839 --> 00:07:05,960 Speaker 1: the federal government's tripping Congress. 128 00:07:05,520 --> 00:07:07,040 Speaker 3: Of almost all of its power. 129 00:07:07,360 --> 00:07:10,200 Speaker 1: But you know it's all our fault for not buying 130 00:07:10,400 --> 00:07:14,280 Speaker 1: Tesla's The power couple has tried to support their actions 131 00:07:14,320 --> 00:07:17,440 Speaker 1: by pushing a steady stream of misinformation about waste and fraud. 132 00:07:17,760 --> 00:07:20,960 Speaker 1: We now know that fraud is anything Elon doesn't like, 133 00:07:21,160 --> 00:07:24,840 Speaker 1: and waste is anything that doesn't go to him. There is, 134 00:07:24,880 --> 00:07:28,880 Speaker 1: of course no evidence that liberal agitators have anything to 135 00:07:28,920 --> 00:07:33,320 Speaker 1: do with Tesla's punging share price. It is, of course 136 00:07:33,720 --> 00:07:37,720 Speaker 1: a consumer based business. I don't think it's illegal to 137 00:07:37,840 --> 00:07:38,560 Speaker 1: boycott that. 138 00:07:39,320 --> 00:07:42,880 Speaker 2: So another bad news for you. On A US judge 139 00:07:42,880 --> 00:07:47,600 Speaker 2: says his doge must release records on operations run in secrecy. 140 00:07:47,960 --> 00:07:51,200 Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, we are fifty one days into the 141 00:07:51,240 --> 00:07:54,320 Speaker 1: Trump presidency. So when you listen to this, god willing 142 00:07:54,360 --> 00:07:57,200 Speaker 1: will be fifty two days into the Trump presidency. We 143 00:07:57,280 --> 00:08:00,520 Speaker 1: still don't know what Elon is doing in Doge besides 144 00:08:00,640 --> 00:08:05,320 Speaker 1: having fun and wandering around with his kids. So a 145 00:08:05,320 --> 00:08:08,960 Speaker 1: federal judge on Monday ordered the government downsizing team, created 146 00:08:09,120 --> 00:08:11,880 Speaker 1: by Donald Trump and spearheaded by the richest man in 147 00:08:11,880 --> 00:08:16,520 Speaker 1: the world, to make public records concerning its operations. Because technically, 148 00:08:17,480 --> 00:08:21,280 Speaker 1: when you work for the government, you're supposed to be transparent. Now, 149 00:08:21,360 --> 00:08:26,200 Speaker 1: when you're running transparency and efficiency, Andre Elin Musk, you 150 00:08:26,280 --> 00:08:31,040 Speaker 1: do everything in secret because of transparency Ergo Maga. US 151 00:08:31,160 --> 00:08:34,520 Speaker 1: District Judge Christopher Cooper and Washington sided with the government 152 00:08:34,559 --> 00:08:38,880 Speaker 1: watchshop groups Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and 153 00:08:38,960 --> 00:08:42,960 Speaker 1: finding that the Department of Government Efficiency was likely an 154 00:08:43,040 --> 00:08:48,280 Speaker 1: agency subject to the Freedom of Information Act. For this ruling, 155 00:08:48,320 --> 00:08:50,720 Speaker 1: the first of a kind, marks an early victory for 156 00:08:50,800 --> 00:08:56,360 Speaker 1: advocates seeking to have some accountability for the fucking government. Look, 157 00:08:56,800 --> 00:09:00,240 Speaker 1: this is how government works in this country. We are 158 00:09:00,280 --> 00:09:03,880 Speaker 1: not a Banana republic. We should have accountability. 159 00:09:04,040 --> 00:09:06,320 Speaker 3: Look. I don't know what happens. I don't know, you know, 160 00:09:06,400 --> 00:09:07,240 Speaker 3: if Elon. 161 00:09:07,040 --> 00:09:10,920 Speaker 1: Declares whatever, But what he's doing right now is legal. 162 00:09:11,280 --> 00:09:11,439 Speaker 3: Right. 163 00:09:11,559 --> 00:09:15,520 Speaker 1: He is not a cabinet appointee. He is not cleared 164 00:09:15,679 --> 00:09:18,200 Speaker 1: to cut things in the federal government. You know, it 165 00:09:18,200 --> 00:09:23,480 Speaker 1: would be like if Biden brought in George Soros to 166 00:09:23,600 --> 00:09:26,200 Speaker 1: run his government. It's the same thing, right, Like, this 167 00:09:26,360 --> 00:09:27,840 Speaker 1: is not how any of this works. 168 00:09:27,920 --> 00:09:31,640 Speaker 2: So, speaking of notn how any of this works, Trump 169 00:09:31,720 --> 00:09:35,200 Speaker 2: is trying to see how hard he can push his deportations. 170 00:09:35,640 --> 00:09:39,840 Speaker 2: With the deportation of an activist named Mahmood Khalil. That 171 00:09:39,920 --> 00:09:43,160 Speaker 2: seems pretty unlawful. And I know this is a hotbed 172 00:09:43,160 --> 00:09:45,880 Speaker 2: subject because some people don't like what he was a 173 00:09:45,920 --> 00:09:48,560 Speaker 2: part of. But the rule of law is the rule 174 00:09:48,559 --> 00:09:51,320 Speaker 2: of law, Am I right, Molly or yeah? 175 00:09:51,360 --> 00:09:54,360 Speaker 1: Look, a lot of us didn't like the protests, even 176 00:09:54,440 --> 00:09:57,040 Speaker 1: though we protect your right to protest. 177 00:09:57,400 --> 00:09:57,559 Speaker 3: Right. 178 00:09:57,800 --> 00:10:01,760 Speaker 1: This is the fundamental rule of American democracy, right, the 179 00:10:01,840 --> 00:10:05,000 Speaker 1: First Amendment. We may not agree with them, but you 180 00:10:05,120 --> 00:10:07,880 Speaker 1: have the right to protest. Here is a man who, 181 00:10:07,960 --> 00:10:11,360 Speaker 1: first of all, is in the country legally, is married 182 00:10:11,360 --> 00:10:13,760 Speaker 1: to an American citizen who is eight and a half 183 00:10:13,840 --> 00:10:18,960 Speaker 1: months pregnant. He had a green card. He was the 184 00:10:19,080 --> 00:10:23,760 Speaker 1: negotiator for the students who are protesting with the faculty. 185 00:10:24,160 --> 00:10:28,960 Speaker 1: The faculty, that was how the Trump administration knew about him. 186 00:10:29,320 --> 00:10:31,880 Speaker 1: He is now he has been sent to a jail 187 00:10:32,080 --> 00:10:38,000 Speaker 1: in Louisiana because the Trump administration thinks that this Louisiana 188 00:10:38,160 --> 00:10:41,480 Speaker 1: jail will be more favorable to whatever they want to 189 00:10:41,520 --> 00:10:44,520 Speaker 1: do to this person. This is the opening of the 190 00:10:44,600 --> 00:10:47,240 Speaker 1: door of something real bad. Okay, you don't have to 191 00:10:47,400 --> 00:10:51,680 Speaker 1: like these protests, you don't have to like Palestinian activists, 192 00:10:51,760 --> 00:10:54,880 Speaker 1: you don't even have to like anything. But you have 193 00:10:55,000 --> 00:10:59,440 Speaker 1: to know that when the government starts deporting people who 194 00:10:59,520 --> 00:11:03,600 Speaker 1: are in this country legally because they don't like what 195 00:11:03,720 --> 00:11:08,319 Speaker 1: they're saying, this is the beginning of a real bad stuff. 196 00:11:08,360 --> 00:11:11,520 Speaker 1: And you know, I had this grandfather, Howard Fast. I've 197 00:11:11,559 --> 00:11:15,439 Speaker 1: talked about him at nauseum. Right, he was jailed by 198 00:11:15,840 --> 00:11:20,160 Speaker 1: the House of an American Activities for his refusal to 199 00:11:20,280 --> 00:11:24,199 Speaker 1: name names in the Communist Party, which he was a member. 200 00:11:24,559 --> 00:11:27,959 Speaker 3: He went to jail. He would then was denied a passport. 201 00:11:28,280 --> 00:11:29,400 Speaker 3: This is that, right. 202 00:11:29,480 --> 00:11:32,679 Speaker 1: This is the idea that you can target people for 203 00:11:32,720 --> 00:11:35,680 Speaker 1: their beliefs, that you can if you don't like what 204 00:11:35,800 --> 00:11:39,640 Speaker 1: someone believes, if you don't like their ideology, you can 205 00:11:40,120 --> 00:11:42,160 Speaker 1: kick them out of the country. This is not how 206 00:11:42,200 --> 00:11:44,600 Speaker 1: any of this works. And you are opening the door 207 00:11:44,640 --> 00:11:48,600 Speaker 1: here we are fifty two days into Donald Trump's presidency. 208 00:11:49,000 --> 00:11:53,040 Speaker 1: You start opening the door to deporting people because you 209 00:11:53,200 --> 00:11:56,760 Speaker 1: don't like their views. This is going to be very, very, 210 00:11:57,160 --> 00:12:00,680 Speaker 1: very problematic four years and hopefully I mean and this 211 00:12:00,800 --> 00:12:04,400 Speaker 1: is just AOC is completely right, tyrannical and on American. 212 00:12:04,760 --> 00:12:07,760 Speaker 1: This is if you look in the dictionary, this is 213 00:12:07,880 --> 00:12:12,640 Speaker 1: the definition of un American. You cannot depour people because 214 00:12:12,640 --> 00:12:13,400 Speaker 1: you don't. 215 00:12:13,200 --> 00:12:14,080 Speaker 3: Like what they believe. 216 00:12:18,760 --> 00:12:21,120 Speaker 1: Dan Nathan is the host of the On the Tape 217 00:12:21,120 --> 00:12:24,120 Speaker 1: podcast and as c NBC Fast Money contributor. 218 00:12:24,800 --> 00:12:26,680 Speaker 3: Welcome, Hello, Dan Nathan. 219 00:12:26,559 --> 00:12:28,439 Speaker 5: Hey Molly, how are you great to be back on 220 00:12:28,520 --> 00:12:29,600 Speaker 5: Fast at Politics. 221 00:12:30,000 --> 00:12:32,680 Speaker 3: I am delighted to have you. And what a moment, 222 00:12:33,080 --> 00:12:34,360 Speaker 3: what a moment. 223 00:12:34,760 --> 00:12:38,040 Speaker 5: Yeah, well, politics has moved its way into the economy, 224 00:12:38,240 --> 00:12:40,839 Speaker 5: into the markets, and in a very quick way. When 225 00:12:40,880 --> 00:12:43,080 Speaker 5: you think about one of the reasons why, you know, 226 00:12:43,120 --> 00:12:45,600 Speaker 5: Donald Trump was elected a second time, it was about 227 00:12:45,840 --> 00:12:49,000 Speaker 5: his acumen as it relates to economic sort of issues. 228 00:12:49,040 --> 00:12:51,400 Speaker 5: He was going to bring inflation down, he was going 229 00:12:51,440 --> 00:12:53,360 Speaker 5: to bring a pro growth agenda. 230 00:12:53,600 --> 00:12:53,800 Speaker 2: You know. 231 00:12:53,880 --> 00:12:55,560 Speaker 5: Back to America, nine. 232 00:12:55,400 --> 00:12:58,280 Speaker 1: Out of ten voters said they were voting for Donald 233 00:12:58,320 --> 00:12:59,679 Speaker 1: Trump on the economy. 234 00:13:00,120 --> 00:13:00,360 Speaker 2: Yeah. 235 00:13:00,400 --> 00:13:02,680 Speaker 5: Well, here, here's one thing that I've been talking about 236 00:13:02,679 --> 00:13:04,839 Speaker 5: this a little bit on CNBC. They did this kind 237 00:13:04,840 --> 00:13:07,000 Speaker 5: of ass backwards if you go back to Trump one 238 00:13:07,040 --> 00:13:09,079 Speaker 5: dot oh, you know, Gary Cohene went in there. They 239 00:13:09,160 --> 00:13:11,720 Speaker 5: really wanted to get these tax cuts down. What did 240 00:13:11,720 --> 00:13:13,400 Speaker 5: they want to do. They wanted to get corporate tax 241 00:13:13,440 --> 00:13:15,840 Speaker 5: down and then for very wealthy sort of folks, and 242 00:13:15,840 --> 00:13:17,439 Speaker 5: they went after it and they got it. They got 243 00:13:17,480 --> 00:13:20,600 Speaker 5: one and a half trillion dollars of tax cuts, which 244 00:13:20,679 --> 00:13:23,319 Speaker 5: juiced the economy, it juiced the stock market. And then 245 00:13:23,360 --> 00:13:26,679 Speaker 5: in twenty and eighteen, then they went after trade and 246 00:13:27,080 --> 00:13:29,200 Speaker 5: tariffs and the like here and so they had a 247 00:13:29,240 --> 00:13:31,760 Speaker 5: bit of a buffer. So now they come in and 248 00:13:31,960 --> 00:13:34,439 Speaker 5: rather than focusing on the sorts of things that you 249 00:13:34,440 --> 00:13:37,760 Speaker 5: would think would help bring down prices to bring down inflation, 250 00:13:37,920 --> 00:13:42,079 Speaker 5: which is the promises made, supposedly promises kept, they actually 251 00:13:42,080 --> 00:13:44,680 Speaker 5: did it the other way around. And so now you know, 252 00:13:44,720 --> 00:13:47,600 Speaker 5: you have a market that is reacting to the potential 253 00:13:47,920 --> 00:13:50,560 Speaker 5: of a recession that was not really priced in if 254 00:13:50,600 --> 00:13:52,800 Speaker 5: you think about it three to six months ago. And 255 00:13:52,880 --> 00:13:55,320 Speaker 5: so that's one of the reasons why we've just basically 256 00:13:55,400 --> 00:13:58,240 Speaker 5: had this downward volatility in the markets. And you know, 257 00:13:58,280 --> 00:14:01,360 Speaker 5: when you have markets heading lower, that actually weighs on 258 00:14:01,440 --> 00:14:05,120 Speaker 5: consumer confidence, right, and so consumer confidence if it starts 259 00:14:05,120 --> 00:14:08,880 Speaker 5: to get worse, then consumers start pulling back from making purchases. 260 00:14:08,960 --> 00:14:10,680 Speaker 5: And though that's one of the things that I think 261 00:14:10,720 --> 00:14:11,720 Speaker 5: is happening right now. 262 00:14:11,920 --> 00:14:14,880 Speaker 1: Yeah, but I want to pause, because the reason that 263 00:14:15,000 --> 00:14:18,880 Speaker 1: this downturn was not priced in was because this downturn 264 00:14:18,960 --> 00:14:22,840 Speaker 1: did not need to happen, right. This downturn is a 265 00:14:22,960 --> 00:14:26,880 Speaker 1: direct result of trade wars being good and easy to win. 266 00:14:27,320 --> 00:14:30,000 Speaker 3: But they're actually not good and easy to win, are they. 267 00:14:30,240 --> 00:14:32,160 Speaker 5: Well. I think part of it is is that you know, 268 00:14:32,200 --> 00:14:34,760 Speaker 5: you go back to the playbook from the first administration, right, 269 00:14:34,800 --> 00:14:37,240 Speaker 5: and we saw how he kept on going back and forth, 270 00:14:37,320 --> 00:14:38,000 Speaker 5: back and forth. 271 00:14:38,320 --> 00:14:40,280 Speaker 1: So what I think about when I think about these 272 00:14:40,320 --> 00:14:43,560 Speaker 1: trade wars was the last time he did tariffs, it 273 00:14:43,720 --> 00:14:47,280 Speaker 1: actually worked out. And a lot of those tariffs not 274 00:14:47,320 --> 00:14:48,920 Speaker 1: a lot of them, but some of them were kept 275 00:14:48,960 --> 00:14:51,560 Speaker 1: on by Biden, Right, like the China tariffs. 276 00:14:51,880 --> 00:14:54,360 Speaker 3: Certain parts of the tariffs were smart. 277 00:14:54,560 --> 00:14:56,960 Speaker 1: The sense I'm getting now from what I read and 278 00:14:57,000 --> 00:15:00,000 Speaker 1: what I understand in Trump world is that Trump things 279 00:15:00,160 --> 00:15:04,520 Speaker 1: he can use tariffs the way that Biden world used 280 00:15:04,600 --> 00:15:09,080 Speaker 1: chips right to boost the manufacturing sector. But I'm not 281 00:15:09,320 --> 00:15:12,120 Speaker 1: convinced that you'll get there if you're going to kick 282 00:15:12,160 --> 00:15:15,400 Speaker 1: the American economy into a recession before you even. 283 00:15:15,200 --> 00:15:16,000 Speaker 6: Get there, right. 284 00:15:16,360 --> 00:15:18,320 Speaker 5: And again, so I think your point is a great 285 00:15:18,320 --> 00:15:21,880 Speaker 5: one about the Chinese tariffs going back to twenty and eighteen, right, 286 00:15:22,120 --> 00:15:24,440 Speaker 5: and so we had a lot of reasons why those 287 00:15:24,520 --> 00:15:26,800 Speaker 5: made a lot of sense. And you just mentioned what 288 00:15:26,840 --> 00:15:29,560 Speaker 5: Biden did with chips. Okay, so this is really an 289 00:15:29,640 --> 00:15:32,680 Speaker 5: export band to China, so they don't have access to 290 00:15:32,800 --> 00:15:37,200 Speaker 5: our best technology. Okay. Taking another step here in twenty 291 00:15:37,480 --> 00:15:41,040 Speaker 5: and twenty twenty five, rather than starting with China, they 292 00:15:41,080 --> 00:15:44,280 Speaker 5: went after our biggest trading partners, which is the EU, 293 00:15:44,680 --> 00:15:47,760 Speaker 5: it's Mexico and it's Canada, and so not only are 294 00:15:47,800 --> 00:15:50,560 Speaker 5: their biggest trading partners, there are also three of our 295 00:15:50,600 --> 00:15:53,040 Speaker 5: best allies if you're thinking of the EU as a 296 00:15:53,080 --> 00:15:56,720 Speaker 5: block here. So there's another issue of just going asked 297 00:15:56,760 --> 00:16:01,000 Speaker 5: backwards about this rather than focusing on China. And really, 298 00:16:01,040 --> 00:16:03,320 Speaker 5: you know, again, from a technology standpoint, this has been 299 00:16:03,360 --> 00:16:05,720 Speaker 5: going on for you know, decades. Actually, this kind of 300 00:16:05,800 --> 00:16:08,760 Speaker 5: forced technology transfer that the Chinese were doing on US 301 00:16:08,800 --> 00:16:11,120 Speaker 5: companies who wanted access to it, But to kind of 302 00:16:11,120 --> 00:16:13,880 Speaker 5: pick fights with our biggest trading partners who are also 303 00:16:14,040 --> 00:16:16,520 Speaker 5: our allies, doesn't make a lot of sense. The other 304 00:16:16,560 --> 00:16:19,480 Speaker 5: thing I'll just say is they're becoming more emboldened. And 305 00:16:19,520 --> 00:16:22,120 Speaker 5: it's not just from an economic standpoint. If you think 306 00:16:22,160 --> 00:16:25,160 Speaker 5: about just kind of some of the threats about annexing 307 00:16:25,560 --> 00:16:28,480 Speaker 5: Canada and you know, the stuff about Mexico, and then 308 00:16:28,560 --> 00:16:31,560 Speaker 5: the EU just kind of not kind of leaning into 309 00:16:31,600 --> 00:16:35,240 Speaker 5: the responsibilities that we have relating to NATO and kind 310 00:16:35,280 --> 00:16:38,240 Speaker 5: of pulling back from Ukraine and the like. So if 311 00:16:38,280 --> 00:16:40,640 Speaker 5: the our allies are starting to see US as a 312 00:16:40,720 --> 00:16:44,600 Speaker 5: less reliable partner on multiple facets, then they have to 313 00:16:44,640 --> 00:16:46,680 Speaker 5: get emboldened and they have to figure out how to 314 00:16:46,680 --> 00:16:48,480 Speaker 5: do some of this alone. And when you think about 315 00:16:48,600 --> 00:16:51,960 Speaker 5: the Canadian elections, you know, the new prime minister is 316 00:16:52,000 --> 00:16:54,760 Speaker 5: a former central banker, you know. So if there's anyone 317 00:16:55,000 --> 00:16:56,960 Speaker 5: you know, really set up to kind of deal with 318 00:16:57,040 --> 00:17:00,280 Speaker 5: this sort of trade war with a partner like the UA, yes, 319 00:17:00,320 --> 00:17:02,280 Speaker 5: I think it's there. So again, I think you're going 320 00:17:02,320 --> 00:17:05,520 Speaker 5: to continue to see if you know, our allies in Bolden, 321 00:17:05,600 --> 00:17:07,880 Speaker 5: I think they also have a playbook from the first time. 322 00:17:08,080 --> 00:17:11,280 Speaker 5: They also know that if the markets keep going lower, 323 00:17:11,520 --> 00:17:13,840 Speaker 5: then Trump's going to have to pivot a bit on this, 324 00:17:13,960 --> 00:17:16,280 Speaker 5: and then it just gives less teeth to the threats 325 00:17:16,320 --> 00:17:17,000 Speaker 5: of tariffs. 326 00:17:17,119 --> 00:17:20,320 Speaker 1: But I would also add, like the whole point of tariffs, 327 00:17:20,720 --> 00:17:23,840 Speaker 1: I'm not sure Trump totally understands the whole point of tariffs, 328 00:17:23,920 --> 00:17:27,800 Speaker 1: but the whole point of tariffs are to either punish right, 329 00:17:27,920 --> 00:17:32,600 Speaker 1: to punish China, or to create a world where American 330 00:17:32,640 --> 00:17:35,840 Speaker 1: goods are cheaper, which means raising the price of Chinese 331 00:17:35,920 --> 00:17:38,800 Speaker 1: goods with tariffs. It makes a lot of sense, right, 332 00:17:38,880 --> 00:17:41,959 Speaker 1: China is really as close as America has to an 333 00:17:41,960 --> 00:17:44,800 Speaker 1: adversary at this moment. Right, they have not respected a 334 00:17:44,840 --> 00:17:49,480 Speaker 1: lot of the patent stuff they have our country completely hooked. 335 00:17:49,520 --> 00:17:50,280 Speaker 3: On to talk. 336 00:17:50,960 --> 00:17:53,520 Speaker 1: You know, there is quite a reason if you were 337 00:17:53,520 --> 00:17:56,879 Speaker 1: going to go and teariff them, it makes sense Canada 338 00:17:57,240 --> 00:18:00,600 Speaker 1: and Mexico do not have that, right. This is mostly 339 00:18:00,880 --> 00:18:05,120 Speaker 1: Trump's own anxieties about Canada and Mexico and his own 340 00:18:05,160 --> 00:18:06,800 Speaker 1: obsession with the border, right, I. 341 00:18:06,720 --> 00:18:08,080 Speaker 3: Mean the fentanyl. 342 00:18:08,240 --> 00:18:11,480 Speaker 1: You know, you had Kevin Hassett saying that Canadians were 343 00:18:11,560 --> 00:18:14,880 Speaker 1: sneaking Fenton. You know, the fentanyl largely is coming from 344 00:18:14,960 --> 00:18:18,760 Speaker 1: China more than it is from our two biggest allies 345 00:18:18,800 --> 00:18:19,639 Speaker 1: in North America. 346 00:18:19,720 --> 00:18:22,120 Speaker 5: Yeah, and it's interesting someone mentioned to me the other 347 00:18:22,200 --> 00:18:24,760 Speaker 5: night on Fox News. I certainly don't watch it that. 348 00:18:25,119 --> 00:18:28,560 Speaker 5: You know, they're they're calling this a drug war, not 349 00:18:28,640 --> 00:18:31,440 Speaker 5: a trade war. Right, So they're kind of squarely focused 350 00:18:31,480 --> 00:18:34,280 Speaker 5: on fentanyl. And to your point, most of it does 351 00:18:34,359 --> 00:18:36,399 Speaker 5: come from China, but we hear more about it on 352 00:18:36,440 --> 00:18:38,280 Speaker 5: our borders. You know. The other thing I think is 353 00:18:38,359 --> 00:18:40,240 Speaker 5: kind of interesting. I heard this. You know, they're saying 354 00:18:40,280 --> 00:18:42,919 Speaker 5: that like terrafs are interesting to a guy like Trump 355 00:18:42,960 --> 00:18:45,600 Speaker 5: because he operates like a mob boss. Right, And if 356 00:18:45,640 --> 00:18:48,600 Speaker 5: you think about how you know, all of these companies 357 00:18:48,880 --> 00:18:50,960 Speaker 5: or these industries are going to come to him and 358 00:18:50,960 --> 00:18:54,120 Speaker 5: they're going to grovel for some sort of carve out 359 00:18:54,160 --> 00:18:56,359 Speaker 5: of their products. And he really likes that, right, So 360 00:18:56,400 --> 00:18:58,800 Speaker 5: he loves to be able to say, Okay, Tim Cook 361 00:18:58,880 --> 00:19:01,879 Speaker 5: came to me and they want exclusion of iPhones you know, 362 00:19:01,960 --> 00:19:04,240 Speaker 5: coming into the US, that sort of thing, and. 363 00:19:04,200 --> 00:19:06,800 Speaker 3: So which happened at one point, Oh. 364 00:19:06,520 --> 00:19:08,600 Speaker 5: And it did, right. And so when you think about it, 365 00:19:08,640 --> 00:19:10,119 Speaker 5: and this goes back to and I don't think you 366 00:19:10,119 --> 00:19:12,400 Speaker 5: and I have talked about this at least on a podcast, 367 00:19:12,680 --> 00:19:14,800 Speaker 5: is that when you think about how all of these 368 00:19:14,920 --> 00:19:18,680 Speaker 5: major tech CEOs gave to the inauguration, they were all 369 00:19:18,720 --> 00:19:21,320 Speaker 5: there on the dais at the inauguration, right, and all 370 00:19:21,400 --> 00:19:25,360 Speaker 5: these folks are just jockeying for access to his ear. 371 00:19:25,480 --> 00:19:26,760 Speaker 5: A lot of it I think has to do with 372 00:19:26,800 --> 00:19:30,280 Speaker 5: trepidation about how close Elon Musk is to the president. 373 00:19:30,320 --> 00:19:33,280 Speaker 5: But they are thinking about their own prospects. They're thinking 374 00:19:33,280 --> 00:19:36,320 Speaker 5: about their own products and their own services and how 375 00:19:36,440 --> 00:19:38,600 Speaker 5: you know, essentially what's the sort of leeway they're going 376 00:19:38,640 --> 00:19:41,080 Speaker 5: to have. But to be very frank, most of those 377 00:19:41,119 --> 00:19:43,920 Speaker 5: companies don't do business in China. If you think about it, 378 00:19:44,040 --> 00:19:46,600 Speaker 5: our digital companies, right, they're not going to be doing 379 00:19:46,680 --> 00:19:49,440 Speaker 5: business in China, and the one that actually has most 380 00:19:49,440 --> 00:19:53,040 Speaker 5: at stake is actually Elon Musk with Tesla. Right, So, 381 00:19:53,520 --> 00:19:56,920 Speaker 5: China remains like a huge issue for us because obviously 382 00:19:56,960 --> 00:19:59,320 Speaker 5: our digital companies are not there for the most part. 383 00:19:59,480 --> 00:20:01,840 Speaker 5: Are hardware companies are there, and a lot of the 384 00:20:01,880 --> 00:20:05,600 Speaker 5: manufacturing goes on there, which actually creates lots of conflict 385 00:20:05,640 --> 00:20:07,000 Speaker 5: of interest. And I know you've spent a lot of 386 00:20:07,000 --> 00:20:09,120 Speaker 5: time talking about that as relates to Elon Musk. 387 00:20:09,400 --> 00:20:12,240 Speaker 1: I would love you to explain to us what's happening 388 00:20:12,320 --> 00:20:16,240 Speaker 1: right now with the Tesla stock because obviously the market 389 00:20:16,440 --> 00:20:20,080 Speaker 1: is very validile there's a lot of losses, especially in tech. 390 00:20:20,359 --> 00:20:23,000 Speaker 1: But just sort of talk us through what's happening there. 391 00:20:23,280 --> 00:20:26,080 Speaker 5: Yeah, So, you know, Tesla for the last few years, 392 00:20:26,119 --> 00:20:28,520 Speaker 5: going back to twenty twenty two, has been in a 393 00:20:28,600 --> 00:20:32,080 Speaker 5: price war with basically Detroit, which you know, GM and 394 00:20:32,160 --> 00:20:34,760 Speaker 5: Ford we're moving into evs for instance. They were losing 395 00:20:34,800 --> 00:20:36,600 Speaker 5: a lot of money on it, but like that was 396 00:20:36,640 --> 00:20:40,320 Speaker 5: putting pressure to some degree on Tesla and their margins. 397 00:20:40,320 --> 00:20:43,040 Speaker 5: But Tesla also you know, makes about half of their 398 00:20:43,119 --> 00:20:46,359 Speaker 5: cars in Shanghai. The cars that they don't sell in China, 399 00:20:46,720 --> 00:20:49,800 Speaker 5: they go to the EU. Well, the EU has had 400 00:20:49,880 --> 00:20:52,760 Speaker 5: big tariffs on Chinese ev So if you are a 401 00:20:52,880 --> 00:20:56,879 Speaker 5: US auto manufacturer and you are making the cars in 402 00:20:56,960 --> 00:20:58,840 Speaker 5: China but selling them to the U, you're going to 403 00:20:58,840 --> 00:21:02,040 Speaker 5: be subject to those tariffs. So they've been in a 404 00:21:02,200 --> 00:21:05,159 Speaker 5: price war. The stock had been going down since the 405 00:21:05,280 --> 00:21:08,439 Speaker 5: highs in two thouy and twenty one to the lows. 406 00:21:08,680 --> 00:21:12,280 Speaker 5: Just last year it was down nearly forty some percent. Now, 407 00:21:12,320 --> 00:21:15,640 Speaker 5: after the election, because of Musk helping the president get 408 00:21:15,680 --> 00:21:19,239 Speaker 5: electioned his proximity to the president, the stock doubled. It 409 00:21:19,359 --> 00:21:21,800 Speaker 5: literally went from three quarters of a trillion dollars in 410 00:21:21,880 --> 00:21:25,160 Speaker 5: market capitalization to one and a half trillion. But since 411 00:21:25,280 --> 00:21:28,359 Speaker 5: late December the stock has given all of that back. 412 00:21:28,400 --> 00:21:30,800 Speaker 5: As you and I are talking right now, the stock 413 00:21:30,880 --> 00:21:33,119 Speaker 5: is trading at two hundred and twenty six dollars. It 414 00:21:33,200 --> 00:21:35,840 Speaker 5: was trading as high as four hundred and ninety dollars 415 00:21:35,880 --> 00:21:38,560 Speaker 5: a month and a half ago. So what's going on there? Well, 416 00:21:38,800 --> 00:21:41,600 Speaker 5: the fundamentals of this company are total crap. So the 417 00:21:41,640 --> 00:21:44,959 Speaker 5: competition that they have in China is really bad. The 418 00:21:45,000 --> 00:21:47,080 Speaker 5: price war that they have here in the US, they 419 00:21:47,119 --> 00:21:49,560 Speaker 5: just keep going lower and lower. You obviously have the 420 00:21:49,600 --> 00:21:52,600 Speaker 5: pushback of a lot of consumers here in the US, 421 00:21:52,680 --> 00:21:58,600 Speaker 5: but also nationalistic tendencies in China, nationalistic tendencies in the EU, 422 00:21:58,800 --> 00:22:01,080 Speaker 5: in France and Germany. The our sales last month were 423 00:22:01,080 --> 00:22:03,960 Speaker 5: down fifty percent. Just think of that, right, And here's 424 00:22:03,960 --> 00:22:05,560 Speaker 5: the other point here in the US. I think this 425 00:22:05,680 --> 00:22:09,640 Speaker 5: is almost a hilarious headline that Donald Trump said when 426 00:22:09,640 --> 00:22:12,560 Speaker 5: he's out of office, he's going to buy a Tesla 427 00:22:12,680 --> 00:22:15,440 Speaker 5: to support Elon Musk. Let me tell you another thing 428 00:22:15,520 --> 00:22:19,160 Speaker 5: about MAGA voters. They don't believe in climate change. They're 429 00:22:19,240 --> 00:22:22,640 Speaker 5: less inclined to buy electric vehicles. And I think all 430 00:22:22,680 --> 00:22:25,679 Speaker 5: of this is kind of weighing on the brand of 431 00:22:25,720 --> 00:22:29,800 Speaker 5: Elon Musk, the brand of Tesla, and basically the fundamentals 432 00:22:29,840 --> 00:22:31,040 Speaker 5: the company are really shit. 433 00:22:31,160 --> 00:22:33,360 Speaker 1: Right now, you know, he would have been better off 434 00:22:33,760 --> 00:22:39,080 Speaker 1: going with Harris because those voters believe in climate change. 435 00:22:39,119 --> 00:22:41,399 Speaker 5: But you know what, though, this is an own goal. 436 00:22:41,560 --> 00:22:44,480 Speaker 3: I mean, obviously Harris would never have gone along with this. 437 00:22:44,720 --> 00:22:46,960 Speaker 5: Yeah, but this is an own goal. Going back to 438 00:22:47,200 --> 00:22:50,080 Speaker 5: early in the Biden administration, remember they held this kind 439 00:22:50,119 --> 00:22:54,000 Speaker 5: of ev confab at the White House, and GM was there, 440 00:22:54,160 --> 00:22:56,720 Speaker 5: Ford was there. There's a couple others there, Tesla was 441 00:22:56,720 --> 00:23:00,840 Speaker 5: not invited. This is kind of ground zero for Elon Musk, 442 00:23:00,920 --> 00:23:02,840 Speaker 5: kind of being red pilled. Throw in a bunch of 443 00:23:02,840 --> 00:23:06,560 Speaker 5: the stuff from the pandemic, throw in the woke mind 444 00:23:06,640 --> 00:23:09,040 Speaker 5: virus that he can't stand and everything like that. And 445 00:23:09,320 --> 00:23:11,280 Speaker 5: you can see the through line to this and it 446 00:23:11,320 --> 00:23:13,960 Speaker 5: really did start there. And you know, we think about 447 00:23:13,960 --> 00:23:16,399 Speaker 5: this sort of stuff all the time. I mean, like, 448 00:23:16,640 --> 00:23:19,359 Speaker 5: how do we be inclusive in an economy like this? 449 00:23:19,440 --> 00:23:21,720 Speaker 5: How do we take a guy who's obviously a very 450 00:23:22,119 --> 00:23:25,640 Speaker 5: excellent entrepreneur and make him feel welcome and bring him 451 00:23:25,680 --> 00:23:28,119 Speaker 5: into the fold because he's always been treated like an 452 00:23:28,160 --> 00:23:31,120 Speaker 5: outsider and now he's kind of flexing a little bit. 453 00:23:31,200 --> 00:23:34,639 Speaker 5: Now your question about Tesla. Here's a guy who is 454 00:23:34,680 --> 00:23:38,400 Speaker 5: not particularly liquid. He has a big steak in SpaceX 455 00:23:38,440 --> 00:23:40,719 Speaker 5: that is a private company. He has a big steak 456 00:23:41,080 --> 00:23:45,720 Speaker 5: in x Twitter and XAI. It's not particularly liquid, right, 457 00:23:45,960 --> 00:23:49,280 Speaker 5: So the more that Tesla goes lower the potential that 458 00:23:49,400 --> 00:23:52,760 Speaker 5: he has to actually have to sell stock. Because he 459 00:23:53,000 --> 00:23:56,240 Speaker 5: lends the stock out to banks like Goldman Sachs and 460 00:23:56,280 --> 00:24:00,280 Speaker 5: Morgan Stanley as collateral for capital that they give him. 461 00:24:00,359 --> 00:24:02,760 Speaker 5: Right so, at some point if the stock continues to 462 00:24:02,760 --> 00:24:05,399 Speaker 5: go lower, he will have margin calls and the banks 463 00:24:05,400 --> 00:24:08,120 Speaker 5: will have to sell his stock. So again, who knows 464 00:24:08,119 --> 00:24:10,000 Speaker 5: if we're close to that, But at the end of 465 00:24:10,080 --> 00:24:12,920 Speaker 5: the day, he's going to have a fallout sooner or later. 466 00:24:13,280 --> 00:24:16,480 Speaker 5: With Trump. Trump wants to kill EV tax credits. The 467 00:24:16,520 --> 00:24:20,480 Speaker 5: most profitable business that Elon Musk has at Tesla is 468 00:24:20,560 --> 00:24:25,640 Speaker 5: selling tax credits to his competitors, right, and that's pure margin, right, 469 00:24:25,680 --> 00:24:27,760 Speaker 5: So if you get rid of the EV tax credits, 470 00:24:28,000 --> 00:24:30,440 Speaker 5: that's a huge problem for him. And there's a whole 471 00:24:30,480 --> 00:24:33,080 Speaker 5: host of other things that like basically the government wants 472 00:24:33,119 --> 00:24:35,199 Speaker 5: to do. They want to kill these charging stations. That 473 00:24:35,240 --> 00:24:37,800 Speaker 5: would be very bad. If you're a new buyer, one 474 00:24:37,840 --> 00:24:40,399 Speaker 5: of the issues that you have is charging anxiety. You 475 00:24:40,520 --> 00:24:42,959 Speaker 5: have to figure out how to kind of go and 476 00:24:43,200 --> 00:24:47,280 Speaker 5: just adopt this new behavior with an EV after you know, decades, 477 00:24:47,320 --> 00:24:49,760 Speaker 5: if you're someone like me of using a car that 478 00:24:49,800 --> 00:24:51,600 Speaker 5: you fill up with gas. So there's a whole host 479 00:24:51,600 --> 00:24:54,440 Speaker 5: of issues that are really massive headwinds to his business. 480 00:24:54,480 --> 00:24:57,760 Speaker 3: Right now, would it ultimately be a short squeeze. 481 00:24:57,359 --> 00:24:59,920 Speaker 5: Then well, it actually could be the other way around 482 00:25:00,080 --> 00:25:02,000 Speaker 5: rather than a short squeeze. So if he has to 483 00:25:02,200 --> 00:25:04,720 Speaker 5: basically put up more collateral with the stock, and the 484 00:25:04,760 --> 00:25:07,560 Speaker 5: stock continues to go down based on fundamentals, based on 485 00:25:07,600 --> 00:25:09,920 Speaker 5: his political activities. I mean, they could be a self 486 00:25:09,920 --> 00:25:13,200 Speaker 5: fulfilling prophecy, right, And so who are the net buyers 487 00:25:13,240 --> 00:25:15,520 Speaker 5: of the stock? If you think about all the bros 488 00:25:15,560 --> 00:25:18,080 Speaker 5: that bought the stock, you know, starting the day after 489 00:25:18,119 --> 00:25:21,200 Speaker 5: the election, you know, somewhere around two hundred and fifty dollars, 490 00:25:21,240 --> 00:25:22,840 Speaker 5: and they were buying it all the way up to 491 00:25:22,920 --> 00:25:25,720 Speaker 5: basically four hundred and ninety dollars. With the stock down 492 00:25:25,720 --> 00:25:29,480 Speaker 5: here at two twenty seven, every single person who has 493 00:25:29,560 --> 00:25:32,960 Speaker 5: bought this stock since the election has lost money. And 494 00:25:33,000 --> 00:25:35,399 Speaker 5: the same goes for all the grift that went on 495 00:25:35,520 --> 00:25:37,919 Speaker 5: with the Trump coins and all that sort of stuff. 496 00:25:37,920 --> 00:25:39,639 Speaker 3: Then would trump coin well, I. 497 00:25:39,640 --> 00:25:42,560 Speaker 5: Mean they basically were the same sort of trade in 498 00:25:42,600 --> 00:25:45,320 Speaker 5: a way, like you were basically buying into something that 499 00:25:45,359 --> 00:25:49,600 Speaker 5: you thought had proximity to, you know, the administration that 500 00:25:49,640 --> 00:25:52,280 Speaker 5: would be as far as the crypto is concerned, and 501 00:25:52,320 --> 00:25:54,879 Speaker 5: the ones that were specifically kind of tied to the 502 00:25:54,920 --> 00:25:57,199 Speaker 5: Trump family. I mean, the idea was that you were 503 00:25:57,200 --> 00:25:59,800 Speaker 5: going to have the benefit of these things being attached 504 00:25:59,800 --> 00:26:02,400 Speaker 5: to the folks Ultimately, when it comes to money, when 505 00:26:02,400 --> 00:26:05,760 Speaker 5: it comes to investing, you know, gravity wins out. It's 506 00:26:05,800 --> 00:26:09,119 Speaker 5: just that simple. If you can't demonstrate the utility or 507 00:26:09,119 --> 00:26:12,000 Speaker 5: the value for an asset, it could be a stock, 508 00:26:12,080 --> 00:26:14,360 Speaker 5: it could be a crypto currency or something like that, 509 00:26:14,600 --> 00:26:16,840 Speaker 5: ultimately it will fail. And all you have to do 510 00:26:16,920 --> 00:26:19,880 Speaker 5: is look at the DJT. They're losing tens of millions 511 00:26:19,880 --> 00:26:22,760 Speaker 5: of dollars on a few million dollars in revenue, and 512 00:26:22,800 --> 00:26:24,560 Speaker 5: there's no reason for that thing to go up. It 513 00:26:24,640 --> 00:26:26,640 Speaker 5: is not a going concern as a business. 514 00:26:26,880 --> 00:26:31,400 Speaker 1: But crypto itself is down since Trump took office, even 515 00:26:31,440 --> 00:26:33,480 Speaker 1: though he was meant to be the crypto president. 516 00:26:33,640 --> 00:26:34,359 Speaker 3: Explain that. 517 00:26:34,680 --> 00:26:37,480 Speaker 5: Yeah, so all of these sorts of trades, like bitcoin, 518 00:26:37,680 --> 00:26:40,080 Speaker 5: they were called the Trump trades, right. The US dollar 519 00:26:40,240 --> 00:26:43,520 Speaker 5: rallied a lot after the election. Banks, you know, the 520 00:26:43,560 --> 00:26:46,879 Speaker 5: idea that you would get deregulation after four years, you 521 00:26:46,920 --> 00:26:48,960 Speaker 5: know what I mean, even like the big tech stocks 522 00:26:49,080 --> 00:26:51,920 Speaker 5: which have been investigated by the DOJ and the FTC 523 00:26:52,400 --> 00:26:54,960 Speaker 5: you know for years now under the Bide administration, all 524 00:26:55,000 --> 00:26:58,639 Speaker 5: of these things rallied a great deal. So Bitcoin in particular, 525 00:26:58,720 --> 00:27:00,840 Speaker 5: the whole idea that the un and this is what 526 00:27:01,000 --> 00:27:04,000 Speaker 5: was floated was going to set up a strategic reserve 527 00:27:04,280 --> 00:27:06,199 Speaker 5: to buy bitcoin and hold it, and a lot of 528 00:27:06,200 --> 00:27:09,520 Speaker 5: folks thought that would be very good for the price. Ultimately, 529 00:27:09,600 --> 00:27:13,119 Speaker 5: because there is a finite amount of bitcoin, Well, basically 530 00:27:13,400 --> 00:27:15,040 Speaker 5: they're not going to do that, all right, and then 531 00:27:15,200 --> 00:27:17,800 Speaker 5: regulation is going to continue to be a bit opaque. 532 00:27:17,840 --> 00:27:20,680 Speaker 5: So investors are folks that bought it because of all 533 00:27:20,720 --> 00:27:23,359 Speaker 5: that have been selling out. So essentially you've seen a 534 00:27:23,440 --> 00:27:25,680 Speaker 5: round trip of a lot of these trades that were 535 00:27:25,720 --> 00:27:29,400 Speaker 5: meant to be pro growth because of this administration, or 536 00:27:29,480 --> 00:27:31,600 Speaker 5: it was going to be pro regulation where there was 537 00:27:31,640 --> 00:27:34,000 Speaker 5: going to be better to find regulation and these risk 538 00:27:34,040 --> 00:27:36,160 Speaker 5: assets should go higher. So a lot of those things 539 00:27:36,200 --> 00:27:38,159 Speaker 5: have come unwound over the last month or two. 540 00:27:38,440 --> 00:27:39,960 Speaker 3: So my last question for you is this. 541 00:27:40,600 --> 00:27:44,720 Speaker 1: It seems like the markets were very excited about Trump, 542 00:27:45,080 --> 00:27:49,000 Speaker 1: but ultimately it feels like, and I say this because 543 00:27:49,000 --> 00:27:53,080 Speaker 1: the market's lost two percent this week and five percent total, 544 00:27:53,640 --> 00:27:56,439 Speaker 1: it seems like the markets are very disappointed with Trump. 545 00:27:56,640 --> 00:27:59,639 Speaker 5: So why Yeah, So it goes back to a trade war. 546 00:27:59,760 --> 00:27:59,879 Speaker 1: Right. 547 00:28:00,080 --> 00:28:02,760 Speaker 5: So, if you are a company, if you are a CEO, 548 00:28:03,040 --> 00:28:05,600 Speaker 5: and part of your business or part of your agenda 549 00:28:05,720 --> 00:28:08,360 Speaker 5: is to grow your business right is to find new markets. 550 00:28:08,400 --> 00:28:10,960 Speaker 5: Has come up with that our products and services. To 551 00:28:11,040 --> 00:28:12,960 Speaker 5: do that, you need to invest in the company, You 552 00:28:13,000 --> 00:28:15,480 Speaker 5: need to hire, You need to spend on capital expenditures. 553 00:28:15,480 --> 00:28:17,800 Speaker 5: You need to spend on R and D. So if 554 00:28:17,840 --> 00:28:20,119 Speaker 5: you are a company that is going to face headwinds 555 00:28:20,160 --> 00:28:23,959 Speaker 5: from a trade war, right, increase input prices, whether you're 556 00:28:24,000 --> 00:28:26,879 Speaker 5: a manufacturer, a whole host of different things, then you 557 00:28:27,160 --> 00:28:29,480 Speaker 5: all of a sudden now have to take a step back, right, 558 00:28:29,680 --> 00:28:31,720 Speaker 5: You have to kind of weigh what's going to happen 559 00:28:31,760 --> 00:28:34,879 Speaker 5: to the economy. Just this week, we have seen Delta 560 00:28:35,000 --> 00:28:39,520 Speaker 5: and American Airlines cut their earnings forecasts dramatically. We've seen 561 00:28:39,560 --> 00:28:43,880 Speaker 5: this by a bunch of retailers over the last couple weeks, Walmart, costc. 562 00:28:44,040 --> 00:28:46,120 Speaker 5: These are companies that are supposed to do well in 563 00:28:46,240 --> 00:28:50,240 Speaker 5: high inflationary periods because you have consumers trading down to 564 00:28:50,360 --> 00:28:54,040 Speaker 5: the lowest priced Retailers are not doing nearly as well 565 00:28:54,080 --> 00:28:56,640 Speaker 5: as they were a year ago. So we're starting to 566 00:28:56,640 --> 00:29:00,120 Speaker 5: see some pressure waning on consumers. So again, if if 567 00:29:00,120 --> 00:29:02,680 Speaker 5: you were a company and you are not spending right 568 00:29:02,840 --> 00:29:05,760 Speaker 5: to grow your business, then ultimately that is going to 569 00:29:05,760 --> 00:29:09,160 Speaker 5: put downward pressure on the economy. The stock market is 570 00:29:09,240 --> 00:29:11,960 Speaker 5: meant to sniff that out ahead of time, right, It's 571 00:29:12,000 --> 00:29:14,480 Speaker 5: meant to take all the available data that we have, 572 00:29:14,880 --> 00:29:18,080 Speaker 5: whether it be economic data, whether it be messaging from companies' 573 00:29:18,120 --> 00:29:20,640 Speaker 5: earnings and the like here, and it's basically meant to 574 00:29:20,680 --> 00:29:23,240 Speaker 5: process that, right and so right now, I guess the 575 00:29:23,320 --> 00:29:26,560 Speaker 5: takeaway is that the uncertainty caused by a trade war 576 00:29:26,880 --> 00:29:28,960 Speaker 5: is likely to weigh on the US economy. And the 577 00:29:29,000 --> 00:29:30,880 Speaker 5: last thing I'll just say about this is that you know, 578 00:29:30,920 --> 00:29:34,200 Speaker 5: the Trump administration, by doing things asked backwards relative to 579 00:29:34,240 --> 00:29:36,400 Speaker 5: the way they did it in seventeen and eighteen, they're 580 00:29:36,440 --> 00:29:40,040 Speaker 5: really playing chicken with the US economy and then ultimately 581 00:29:40,120 --> 00:29:42,960 Speaker 5: the global economy. And oftentimes when you see this sort 582 00:29:42,960 --> 00:29:45,960 Speaker 5: of behavior when it relates to a massive economy like this, 583 00:29:46,280 --> 00:29:49,160 Speaker 5: that is literally the tail wagging the dog. In one way, 584 00:29:49,280 --> 00:29:52,000 Speaker 5: shape or form, is that you can't change things on 585 00:29:52,040 --> 00:29:55,440 Speaker 5: a dime. If companies start to slow down spending, if 586 00:29:55,520 --> 00:29:58,640 Speaker 5: countries stop trading with each other because of these sorts 587 00:29:58,640 --> 00:30:01,760 Speaker 5: of impediments, to turn that back on is really hard, 588 00:30:01,840 --> 00:30:04,840 Speaker 5: So you could face the potential of a recession. And 589 00:30:04,920 --> 00:30:10,040 Speaker 5: what happens during recession, people get fired. People stop buying things, right, 590 00:30:10,240 --> 00:30:13,080 Speaker 5: They stop investing in the stock market, they're not buying 591 00:30:13,120 --> 00:30:16,200 Speaker 5: new homes, they're not actually upgrading, you know, like making 592 00:30:16,360 --> 00:30:18,360 Speaker 5: additions to their home and that sort of thing, and 593 00:30:18,480 --> 00:30:21,440 Speaker 5: all of this activity slows down. And then you have 594 00:30:21,480 --> 00:30:26,240 Speaker 5: a situation where what does the government do to restimulate demand. 595 00:30:26,640 --> 00:30:28,840 Speaker 5: They have the lower interest rates, they have to do 596 00:30:28,920 --> 00:30:31,720 Speaker 5: more fiscal spending. And that's the very stuff over the 597 00:30:31,800 --> 00:30:34,760 Speaker 5: last few years that caused inflation. So one of the 598 00:30:34,800 --> 00:30:37,560 Speaker 5: issues right now is that you have slower growth, but 599 00:30:37,640 --> 00:30:40,600 Speaker 5: you have inflation that sticks around, and that's something they 600 00:30:40,600 --> 00:30:43,360 Speaker 5: call stagflation. You and I have talked about that before. 601 00:30:43,640 --> 00:30:47,080 Speaker 5: And in that environment, prices of risk assets and homes 602 00:30:47,160 --> 00:30:50,280 Speaker 5: will not do particularly well. Hiring will not do particularly 603 00:30:50,280 --> 00:30:50,720 Speaker 5: well either. 604 00:30:50,840 --> 00:30:54,680 Speaker 1: Yes, stagulation is the night Meer scenario. Thank you, Thank you, 605 00:30:54,840 --> 00:30:55,960 Speaker 1: Dan Nathan. 606 00:30:56,200 --> 00:30:57,640 Speaker 5: Thanks Molli. Thanks for having me. 607 00:30:59,400 --> 00:31:02,640 Speaker 2: David is an investigative reporter at The New York Times 608 00:31:02,720 --> 00:31:05,320 Speaker 2: and the author of Murder the Truth Fear, the first 609 00:31:05,320 --> 00:31:07,720 Speaker 2: of it, an s secret campaign to protect the powerful. 610 00:31:07,960 --> 00:31:11,480 Speaker 1: Welcome back to Fast Politics, David. 611 00:31:11,480 --> 00:31:12,239 Speaker 7: Thanks for having me. 612 00:31:12,520 --> 00:31:13,680 Speaker 3: I'm excited to have you. 613 00:31:14,040 --> 00:31:15,880 Speaker 1: I think We've had you on for every book you've 614 00:31:15,880 --> 00:31:18,840 Speaker 1: done because we did the Deutsche Bank too, or every 615 00:31:18,840 --> 00:31:22,920 Speaker 1: book you've done since we've existed, But this book murdered 616 00:31:22,960 --> 00:31:23,520 Speaker 1: the truth. 617 00:31:24,240 --> 00:31:26,040 Speaker 3: Tell us how did you get to this book? 618 00:31:26,160 --> 00:31:28,880 Speaker 7: I managed a small team of investigative reporters at The 619 00:31:28,880 --> 00:31:30,920 Speaker 7: New York Times and is it back in maybe twenty 620 00:31:30,960 --> 00:31:33,440 Speaker 7: twenty two. I got the feeling that every time we 621 00:31:33,440 --> 00:31:36,719 Speaker 7: were writing a piece or investigating a piece about a 622 00:31:36,760 --> 00:31:40,880 Speaker 7: powerful person or a rich person, we were getting inundated 623 00:31:41,000 --> 00:31:46,120 Speaker 7: with threatening letters from lawyers and odd curious Not a 624 00:31:46,120 --> 00:31:48,840 Speaker 7: great feeling, but you know, The Times has, for all 625 00:31:48,920 --> 00:31:52,360 Speaker 7: its flaws, which they're plenty, one of the many amazing 626 00:31:52,400 --> 00:31:54,200 Speaker 7: things here is that we have a great team of 627 00:31:54,240 --> 00:31:57,680 Speaker 7: in house lawyers. We're really experienced dealing with these things 628 00:31:57,680 --> 00:31:59,520 Speaker 7: and it's okay, we deal with it. It got me 629 00:31:59,560 --> 00:32:02,080 Speaker 7: thinking that what this would be like to be on 630 00:32:02,080 --> 00:32:04,160 Speaker 7: the receiving end of letters like this and trits like 631 00:32:04,200 --> 00:32:08,080 Speaker 7: this if I worked at a smaller news outlet, or 632 00:32:08,120 --> 00:32:09,520 Speaker 7: if I was an independent publisher. 633 00:32:09,720 --> 00:32:11,840 Speaker 3: Let me rephrase it anywhere else? 634 00:32:12,320 --> 00:32:14,720 Speaker 7: Yeah, truly, I mean there's a small handful of places 635 00:32:14,760 --> 00:32:16,240 Speaker 7: that I think are pretty well equipped to deal all 636 00:32:16,240 --> 00:32:18,120 Speaker 7: this kind of stuff, but it's a very small handful. 637 00:32:18,280 --> 00:32:20,080 Speaker 3: It's two or maybe three. 638 00:32:20,320 --> 00:32:22,440 Speaker 7: Yeah, I mean, I don't know how you're quite kind 639 00:32:22,480 --> 00:32:25,440 Speaker 7: of it, but in any case, it's a very very small, select, 640 00:32:25,560 --> 00:32:27,960 Speaker 7: kind of privileged group. So I sort of fanning out 641 00:32:28,240 --> 00:32:32,120 Speaker 7: to just journalists all over the country at anything from 642 00:32:32,120 --> 00:32:36,400 Speaker 7: like community newspapers or local newspapers, to independent bloggers or 643 00:32:36,440 --> 00:32:40,360 Speaker 7: people with a substack, or podcast hosts and things like that, 644 00:32:40,480 --> 00:32:44,000 Speaker 7: and I just started hearing these horror stories about how 645 00:32:44,400 --> 00:32:47,480 Speaker 7: and it ranged from people who were writing pieces about 646 00:32:47,560 --> 00:32:51,680 Speaker 7: Russian oligarchs and trying to expose their secrets to much 647 00:32:51,840 --> 00:32:54,320 Speaker 7: kind of more prosaic things like writing a piece about 648 00:32:54,320 --> 00:32:57,680 Speaker 7: a local real estate developer who is doing something kind 649 00:32:57,720 --> 00:33:00,560 Speaker 7: of sketchy, or even like a local politician or a 650 00:33:00,600 --> 00:33:03,560 Speaker 7: local business owner. And the threats sometimes we're just letters, 651 00:33:03,600 --> 00:33:06,560 Speaker 7: other times they were actually litigation. In some cases people 652 00:33:06,840 --> 00:33:10,880 Speaker 7: were encountered physical threats, and the situation really it became 653 00:33:10,960 --> 00:33:13,000 Speaker 7: really clear to me that this was casting a pall 654 00:33:13,240 --> 00:33:17,760 Speaker 7: over the entire journalism industry in the US in ways 655 00:33:17,760 --> 00:33:22,160 Speaker 7: that was leading many many journalists to either censor themselves 656 00:33:22,400 --> 00:33:25,560 Speaker 7: and avoid kind of sensitive controversial topics or writing about 657 00:33:25,600 --> 00:33:29,680 Speaker 7: religious people, or they were not censoring themselves and were 658 00:33:30,000 --> 00:33:34,640 Speaker 7: with some frequency encountering ruinous litigation and really serious threats 659 00:33:34,640 --> 00:33:38,440 Speaker 7: that were taking a severe business toll or psychological toll. 660 00:33:38,560 --> 00:33:40,080 Speaker 7: And I also realized that some of the same people 661 00:33:40,080 --> 00:33:42,120 Speaker 7: who were making these threats and filing these lawsuits, the 662 00:33:42,200 --> 00:33:44,640 Speaker 7: lawyers behind this, were some of the same lawyers who 663 00:33:44,680 --> 00:33:48,560 Speaker 7: on a national level were becoming increasingly outspoken advocating to 664 00:33:48,640 --> 00:33:53,320 Speaker 7: overturn decades of Supreme Court president that basically protected journalists 665 00:33:53,400 --> 00:33:58,520 Speaker 7: and others from this type of weaponized lawsuit. And that's Soliman, Yeah, 666 00:33:58,520 --> 00:34:00,680 Speaker 7: that's New York Times versus Sullivan. One of the things 667 00:34:00,720 --> 00:34:02,760 Speaker 7: that I found really interesting in reporting this book, by 668 00:34:02,800 --> 00:34:04,920 Speaker 7: the way, is that like New York Times versus Sullivan 669 00:34:05,080 --> 00:34:09,360 Speaker 7: in I guess maybe constitutional law, NERD Circles is like 670 00:34:09,480 --> 00:34:12,920 Speaker 7: really famous, but virtually no one else knows about it. 671 00:34:12,920 --> 00:34:14,640 Speaker 7: It's not like one of those decisions like Roe v. 672 00:34:14,760 --> 00:34:18,440 Speaker 7: Wade or something browny Board that is famous. So the 673 00:34:18,480 --> 00:34:21,920 Speaker 7: short version of this is that in nineteen sixty supporters 674 00:34:21,920 --> 00:34:23,840 Speaker 7: of Martin Luther King ran a full page ad in 675 00:34:23,880 --> 00:34:26,160 Speaker 7: the New York Times. The ad list it kind of 676 00:34:26,280 --> 00:34:29,960 Speaker 7: rattled off a whole list of nasty things that Southern 677 00:34:30,000 --> 00:34:34,000 Speaker 7: officials were doing to preserve white supremacy, and there were 678 00:34:34,040 --> 00:34:35,960 Speaker 7: a couple of facts frown. The gist was completely right, 679 00:34:36,040 --> 00:34:37,960 Speaker 7: but some of the facts were they're wrong or exaggerated. 680 00:34:38,320 --> 00:34:40,960 Speaker 7: And the guy who was in charge of the Montgomery, 681 00:34:41,000 --> 00:34:44,520 Speaker 7: Alabama Police Department sued The New York Times for defamation, 682 00:34:44,560 --> 00:34:46,360 Speaker 7: even though he wasn't even named in the ad, the 683 00:34:46,440 --> 00:34:48,919 Speaker 7: ad did say some things about the Montgomery police force. 684 00:34:49,239 --> 00:34:52,280 Speaker 7: He won his lawsuit. It was tried in a courtroom 685 00:34:52,360 --> 00:34:54,600 Speaker 7: by another white supremacist, a judge who happened to be 686 00:34:54,640 --> 00:34:57,400 Speaker 7: a pedophile. The Times appealed. They lost their appeal to 687 00:34:57,440 --> 00:34:59,719 Speaker 7: state Supreme Court, and so their final effort was to 688 00:34:59,719 --> 00:35:02,759 Speaker 7: appear to the US Supreme Court, and the Supreme Court 689 00:35:02,760 --> 00:35:06,080 Speaker 7: in nineteen sixty four heard the case, and their decision 690 00:35:06,320 --> 00:35:09,480 Speaker 7: became really important because what they ruled was that the 691 00:35:09,520 --> 00:35:13,359 Speaker 7: way Alabama's court system had interpreted the First Amendment as 692 00:35:13,400 --> 00:35:16,360 Speaker 7: allowing libel lawsits like this to go forward was it 693 00:35:16,400 --> 00:35:18,840 Speaker 7: basically meant that news outlets were not going to be 694 00:35:18,840 --> 00:35:21,040 Speaker 7: able to cover the civil rights movement, which by the way, 695 00:35:21,320 --> 00:35:23,760 Speaker 7: was by design. That was the entire purpose of this lawsuit, 696 00:35:23,880 --> 00:35:26,400 Speaker 7: the Supreme Court established a standard that's become known as 697 00:35:26,440 --> 00:35:28,719 Speaker 7: the actual Male standard, but said that if you're a 698 00:35:28,760 --> 00:35:31,040 Speaker 7: journalist or a member of the public writing about a 699 00:35:31,040 --> 00:35:33,600 Speaker 7: public official or a public figure and you get a 700 00:35:33,640 --> 00:35:37,200 Speaker 7: fact wrong, as long as you aren't lying, like deliberately 701 00:35:37,200 --> 00:35:39,680 Speaker 7: gaining the fact wrong, or as long as you are 702 00:35:39,719 --> 00:35:42,720 Speaker 7: not acting with reckless disregard for the accuracy of the statement, 703 00:35:42,960 --> 00:35:46,440 Speaker 7: you cannot be successfully sued for damages. And so the 704 00:35:46,480 --> 00:35:49,520 Speaker 7: idea was basically that journalists and others need breathing room 705 00:35:49,680 --> 00:35:52,400 Speaker 7: to be able to kind of have Vetero's discourse about 706 00:35:52,440 --> 00:35:54,719 Speaker 7: people that wield a lot of power in society. And 707 00:35:54,760 --> 00:35:58,040 Speaker 7: if there's ruinous litigation hanging over your head every time 708 00:35:58,120 --> 00:36:00,480 Speaker 7: you do that, you're going to self sense. And so 709 00:36:00,760 --> 00:36:03,120 Speaker 7: the standard that is created basically ushered in a golden 710 00:36:03,120 --> 00:36:04,160 Speaker 7: era of journalism. 711 00:36:04,320 --> 00:36:08,000 Speaker 1: So the difference between say, tweeting that someone is a 712 00:36:08,000 --> 00:36:13,000 Speaker 1: pedophile and making a mistake in an article so like 713 00:36:13,239 --> 00:36:17,319 Speaker 1: it gives you a little room for a mistake versus maligning. 714 00:36:17,840 --> 00:36:19,840 Speaker 7: Yeah, And with the pedophile thing, I mean, it depends 715 00:36:19,840 --> 00:36:21,880 Speaker 7: if the person is a pedophile or not. If the 716 00:36:21,920 --> 00:36:24,360 Speaker 7: person is a pedophile, that's fine. If you have reason 717 00:36:24,400 --> 00:36:27,200 Speaker 7: to believe the person is a pedophile, that's fine, but 718 00:36:27,320 --> 00:36:29,360 Speaker 7: it's really I mean, the way that this has become 719 00:36:29,520 --> 00:36:32,799 Speaker 7: i think essential to modern day journalism and modern day 720 00:36:32,960 --> 00:36:35,239 Speaker 7: just public advocacy in public speaking is that if you 721 00:36:35,360 --> 00:36:37,560 Speaker 7: have reason to believe something, and you've done a little 722 00:36:37,560 --> 00:36:40,120 Speaker 7: bit of due diligence and you believe that what you're 723 00:36:40,120 --> 00:36:43,080 Speaker 7: writing is okay, and this is a public figure or 724 00:36:43,120 --> 00:36:45,480 Speaker 7: a public official that you're writing about, you cannot be 725 00:36:45,560 --> 00:36:48,560 Speaker 7: sued for defamation. And this is a standard that it 726 00:36:48,600 --> 00:36:52,800 Speaker 7: protects people across the political spectrum and has four decades 727 00:36:52,880 --> 00:36:56,680 Speaker 7: and until really quite recently, there's a very broad bipartisan 728 00:36:56,719 --> 00:37:00,400 Speaker 7: consensus that these were important safeguards the protected free speech 729 00:37:00,440 --> 00:37:01,520 Speaker 7: and the freedom of the press. 730 00:37:01,920 --> 00:37:02,120 Speaker 6: Right. 731 00:37:02,440 --> 00:37:04,440 Speaker 3: So what happened Trump. 732 00:37:06,360 --> 00:37:11,080 Speaker 7: Is so explained in twenty sixteen, Trump, when as his 733 00:37:11,360 --> 00:37:15,360 Speaker 7: candidacy was gaining momentum, obviously kind of the parts of 734 00:37:15,400 --> 00:37:20,959 Speaker 7: his platform was bashing the media in really incendiary, ambitious 735 00:37:21,000 --> 00:37:24,080 Speaker 7: personal terms. And one of the things he started talking 736 00:37:24,120 --> 00:37:27,400 Speaker 7: about was opening up the libel laws. And that was 737 00:37:27,480 --> 00:37:29,759 Speaker 7: kind of nonsense. It was pretty easy to dismiss because 738 00:37:29,760 --> 00:37:31,840 Speaker 7: it's not up to a president or even Congress to 739 00:37:32,120 --> 00:37:34,720 Speaker 7: open up the libel laws a question of the Supreme 740 00:37:34,719 --> 00:37:38,080 Speaker 7: Court's interpretation of the First Amendment. But he kept going 741 00:37:38,120 --> 00:37:40,720 Speaker 7: on and on and on about this, and it really 742 00:37:40,760 --> 00:37:43,759 Speaker 7: took hold, and I think it inspired a lot of 743 00:37:43,840 --> 00:37:46,719 Speaker 7: right wing activists and lawyers and judges to take it 744 00:37:46,840 --> 00:37:50,680 Speaker 7: kind of a closer look at the ways that Sullivan 745 00:37:50,800 --> 00:37:54,400 Speaker 7: and some subsequent cases were allowing the modern day media 746 00:37:54,600 --> 00:37:59,120 Speaker 7: to vigorously report about him. And his rhetoric also kind 747 00:37:59,160 --> 00:38:02,200 Speaker 7: of inspired legions of copycats all over the country who 748 00:38:02,239 --> 00:38:06,160 Speaker 7: were filing lawsuits or threatening to file lawsuits against media 749 00:38:06,280 --> 00:38:09,120 Speaker 7: outlets and journalists large and small. And that, by the way, 750 00:38:09,160 --> 00:38:11,040 Speaker 7: is the trend that I was picking up on several 751 00:38:11,120 --> 00:38:14,279 Speaker 7: years later when I started working on this book. And 752 00:38:14,719 --> 00:38:19,319 Speaker 7: Trump's rhetoric and his allies rhetoric coincided with a couple 753 00:38:19,360 --> 00:38:22,720 Speaker 7: of very successful lawsuits against major media outlets, most notably 754 00:38:22,760 --> 00:38:25,200 Speaker 7: the one against Gawker. It was financed by Peter Teel 755 00:38:25,400 --> 00:38:29,080 Speaker 7: that literally destroyed Gawker. And so that the accommindation of 756 00:38:29,160 --> 00:38:32,600 Speaker 7: a lawsuit that took down a media outlet, plus Trump 757 00:38:32,760 --> 00:38:35,880 Speaker 7: on the campaign trail kind of successfully bashing the media 758 00:38:36,160 --> 00:38:38,920 Speaker 7: and arguing that the media was so reckless and so 759 00:38:38,960 --> 00:38:40,920 Speaker 7: irresponsible that we need to be able to sue them 760 00:38:40,920 --> 00:38:44,200 Speaker 7: more easily. That it really created a movement in essence, 761 00:38:44,320 --> 00:38:48,040 Speaker 7: and all of a sudden you had some very prominent lawyers, activists, 762 00:38:48,040 --> 00:38:52,040 Speaker 7: and judges leaping on this Trump bandwagon with the very 763 00:38:52,160 --> 00:38:54,280 Speaker 7: clear stated goal that they want to make it easier 764 00:38:54,280 --> 00:38:56,080 Speaker 7: to sue the media because they view the media as 765 00:38:56,080 --> 00:38:59,560 Speaker 7: biased against Republicans and conservatives, and therefore the solution to 766 00:38:59,600 --> 00:39:03,120 Speaker 7: that is to subject them to waves of litigation that 767 00:39:03,200 --> 00:39:06,960 Speaker 7: will either make them no longer exist or it'll make 768 00:39:06,960 --> 00:39:11,680 Speaker 7: them think twice before deeply investigating or criticizing powerful people. 769 00:39:11,840 --> 00:39:14,920 Speaker 1: I see this as something that we see a lot 770 00:39:15,400 --> 00:39:18,480 Speaker 1: in Trump world, where Trump cooks up an idea and 771 00:39:18,520 --> 00:39:22,040 Speaker 1: it sort of keeps going, Like we've seen him sort 772 00:39:22,040 --> 00:39:26,200 Speaker 1: of shop stuff like this before and then create cottage industries. 773 00:39:26,600 --> 00:39:29,839 Speaker 1: He doesn't create the cottage industries. The cottage industries sort 774 00:39:29,840 --> 00:39:32,239 Speaker 1: of rise up around him. Can you think of other 775 00:39:32,880 --> 00:39:36,560 Speaker 1: situations where he's sort of floated an idea and the 776 00:39:36,719 --> 00:39:38,880 Speaker 1: kind of brain trust has continued. 777 00:39:38,560 --> 00:39:39,000 Speaker 2: On with it. 778 00:39:39,239 --> 00:39:41,440 Speaker 7: Yeah, Well, I mean this is just a classic example 779 00:39:41,480 --> 00:39:43,360 Speaker 7: of that, right, because he says something on the campaign 780 00:39:43,400 --> 00:39:46,400 Speaker 7: drill that just doesn't make sense and it's not logical. 781 00:39:46,840 --> 00:39:49,080 Speaker 7: It's not up to the president to make the decision 782 00:39:49,080 --> 00:39:51,080 Speaker 7: to open up the libel laws. But then a bunch 783 00:39:51,120 --> 00:39:55,320 Speaker 7: of people who are very smart and savvy and importantly 784 00:39:55,360 --> 00:39:57,320 Speaker 7: have a lot of money behind them kind of I 785 00:39:57,360 --> 00:40:00,960 Speaker 7: guess like professionalize that idea essentially and turn it into 786 00:40:00,960 --> 00:40:04,360 Speaker 7: something that, while you might disagree with it strongly, is 787 00:40:04,400 --> 00:40:07,800 Speaker 7: not insane and has a plausible kind of path to 788 00:40:07,920 --> 00:40:10,319 Speaker 7: being realized. So in this case, that took a few 789 00:40:10,320 --> 00:40:13,719 Speaker 7: different forms, and this coincided with the rise of this 790 00:40:13,760 --> 00:40:17,520 Speaker 7: cottage industry of small law firms, small but well financed 791 00:40:17,600 --> 00:40:21,560 Speaker 7: law firms that whose entire business revolved around suing media 792 00:40:21,600 --> 00:40:25,439 Speaker 7: companies and threatening media companies and journalists. And a couple 793 00:40:25,520 --> 00:40:28,239 Speaker 7: of those lawyers, as they were successful in a small 794 00:40:28,320 --> 00:40:31,520 Speaker 7: number of these cases, developed a national profile. I mean 795 00:40:31,560 --> 00:40:34,160 Speaker 7: that the most obvious one to me is a lawyer 796 00:40:34,320 --> 00:40:37,759 Speaker 7: named Libby Locke. What a great name, and she became 797 00:40:37,800 --> 00:40:40,719 Speaker 7: a favorite of Tucker Carlson and Fox News. And so 798 00:40:41,000 --> 00:40:44,360 Speaker 7: basically every time the media was accused of doing something 799 00:40:44,360 --> 00:40:47,279 Speaker 7: wrong that's a slight excentation. Often when the media did 800 00:40:47,280 --> 00:40:49,719 Speaker 7: something wrong, she was called on to Tucker Carlson, and 801 00:40:49,719 --> 00:40:53,759 Speaker 7: she would use that platform to advocate for not just 802 00:40:53,880 --> 00:40:57,239 Speaker 7: the media behaving better or being held accountable, but for 803 00:40:57,680 --> 00:41:01,319 Speaker 7: basically loosing, well not loose. Every time she was on TV, 804 00:41:01,440 --> 00:41:03,640 Speaker 7: she would say things like we need to overturn new 805 00:41:03,800 --> 00:41:06,080 Speaker 7: conference Slivan and that sort of kept to God. And 806 00:41:07,040 --> 00:41:08,800 Speaker 7: the more she said that, and the more other people 807 00:41:08,920 --> 00:41:12,040 Speaker 7: like her said that, activists at groups like the Heritage 808 00:41:12,040 --> 00:41:15,880 Speaker 7: Foundation and the Claremont Institute and the Federalist Society started 809 00:41:15,960 --> 00:41:19,080 Speaker 7: organizing conferences around this idea, and so they kind of 810 00:41:19,080 --> 00:41:23,400 Speaker 7: got the bringing juices of the conservative legal movement flowing. 811 00:41:23,680 --> 00:41:27,040 Speaker 7: And by twenty nineteen, Clarence Thomas had jumped on this 812 00:41:27,120 --> 00:41:30,640 Speaker 7: bandwagon in an opinion where he called for overturning Sullivan, 813 00:41:30,840 --> 00:41:33,000 Speaker 7: and that in some way was kind of the most 814 00:41:33,000 --> 00:41:33,680 Speaker 7: important moment. 815 00:41:33,800 --> 00:41:35,919 Speaker 3: And you knew they had the vote, or at least 816 00:41:35,960 --> 00:41:37,200 Speaker 3: some of the votes. 817 00:41:37,000 --> 00:41:40,040 Speaker 7: Right, well, they had one vote, right, but having Thomas, 818 00:41:40,160 --> 00:41:43,719 Speaker 7: who is in conservative legal circles, one of the if 819 00:41:43,760 --> 00:41:47,200 Speaker 7: not the most influential thinker, and he's a folk hero 820 00:41:47,520 --> 00:41:50,799 Speaker 7: on the right, so a having him kind of take 821 00:41:50,880 --> 00:41:53,880 Speaker 7: up this mantle was a huge breakthrough, and it immediately 822 00:41:53,920 --> 00:41:57,799 Speaker 7: inspired other federal judges to take up this mantle and 823 00:41:57,840 --> 00:42:00,800 Speaker 7: take up this argument. And one of Thomas his closest 824 00:42:00,800 --> 00:42:04,600 Speaker 7: friends and longest allies, was a federal judge on the 825 00:42:04,920 --> 00:42:07,640 Speaker 7: DC Appeals Court, which is kind of the second most 826 00:42:07,680 --> 00:42:09,920 Speaker 7: powerful court in the country. And this is a guy 827 00:42:09,920 --> 00:42:12,640 Speaker 7: who had known Thomas, had been friends with Thomas back 828 00:42:12,800 --> 00:42:14,560 Speaker 7: dating back to before he was a judge, back when 829 00:42:14,600 --> 00:42:18,000 Speaker 7: he was at the EEOC in Washington. And his name 830 00:42:18,080 --> 00:42:21,480 Speaker 7: is Larry Silverman, and he issued a year after Thomas 831 00:42:21,520 --> 00:42:24,360 Speaker 7: initially made this argument, he issued a scathing opinion that 832 00:42:24,360 --> 00:42:26,640 Speaker 7: said Sullivan should be overturned. And the entirety of his 833 00:42:26,719 --> 00:42:30,320 Speaker 7: argument was that it should be overturned because the media 834 00:42:30,760 --> 00:42:34,920 Speaker 7: is supposedly liberal and therefore should be punished. It was 835 00:42:34,960 --> 00:42:38,279 Speaker 7: really an extraordinary argument. It was. Look, obviously, that is 836 00:42:38,400 --> 00:42:40,560 Speaker 7: a large part of what the First Amendment is meant 837 00:42:40,560 --> 00:42:44,879 Speaker 7: to protect, not having judges or other government officials discriminating 838 00:42:44,880 --> 00:42:48,239 Speaker 7: against people's ability to speak based on their viewpoints. But 839 00:42:48,400 --> 00:42:50,840 Speaker 7: really that was the moment that it has really started 840 00:42:50,880 --> 00:42:55,080 Speaker 7: getting tremendous momentum, and it has not stopped since then. 841 00:42:55,360 --> 00:42:58,040 Speaker 1: Is there sort of a historical precedent for a member 842 00:42:58,040 --> 00:43:02,839 Speaker 1: of the Supreme Court being involved in an idea that 843 00:43:02,920 --> 00:43:04,960 Speaker 1: then goes to the Supreme Court. 844 00:43:05,280 --> 00:43:07,000 Speaker 7: Yeah, that's a good question. I'm not sure I know 845 00:43:07,040 --> 00:43:09,680 Speaker 7: the answer to that. That's very much what happened here. 846 00:43:10,000 --> 00:43:12,600 Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean that seems kind of shocking to me. 847 00:43:12,719 --> 00:43:16,040 Speaker 1: I mean, obviously Thomas is so in it that it's 848 00:43:16,120 --> 00:43:19,080 Speaker 1: not surprising, but it is a little bit shocking, isn't it. 849 00:43:19,480 --> 00:43:21,920 Speaker 7: Yeah, well it is. And one of the things that 850 00:43:21,960 --> 00:43:24,000 Speaker 7: I really enjoyed doing in this book was kind of 851 00:43:24,000 --> 00:43:26,879 Speaker 7: tracing the evolution of Thomas's thinking on this and trying 852 00:43:26,920 --> 00:43:29,680 Speaker 7: to understand the reasons. And he's back in nineteen ninety 853 00:43:29,719 --> 00:43:32,160 Speaker 7: one during his confirmation hearings. You know, most of his 854 00:43:32,200 --> 00:43:35,640 Speaker 7: confirmation hearings were spent with him doing what most judicial 855 00:43:35,680 --> 00:43:37,840 Speaker 7: nominees do, which is basically doing the best not to 856 00:43:37,880 --> 00:43:42,480 Speaker 7: answer clearly senator's questions about what they think about particular cases. 857 00:43:42,800 --> 00:43:45,239 Speaker 7: And on the fifth and final day, Thomas was asked 858 00:43:45,239 --> 00:43:47,720 Speaker 7: about the Sullivan decision and actually gave what was probably 859 00:43:47,760 --> 00:43:50,160 Speaker 7: the most direct answer he'd given during the entirety of 860 00:43:50,200 --> 00:43:52,319 Speaker 7: its hearings, and he was very supportive of Sulivan and 861 00:43:52,400 --> 00:43:55,400 Speaker 7: he said that even though it's uncomfortable for public officials 862 00:43:55,480 --> 00:43:57,799 Speaker 7: like him to be in the media spotlight. It's really 863 00:43:57,840 --> 00:44:01,160 Speaker 7: important that we have those rates, and it's important for 864 00:44:01,200 --> 00:44:05,920 Speaker 7: democracy and it's important for accountability. And that was the 865 00:44:06,080 --> 00:44:09,800 Speaker 7: day before the Anita Hill allegations surface, where Thomas was 866 00:44:09,840 --> 00:44:14,279 Speaker 7: obviously and rightfully dragged through this uncomfortable spotlight, and his 867 00:44:14,400 --> 00:44:17,960 Speaker 7: views on the media at that point really started to 868 00:44:18,000 --> 00:44:20,960 Speaker 7: shift radically. I narrated this in the book, but he 869 00:44:21,000 --> 00:44:24,640 Speaker 7: basically had complete mental health breakdown at that time and 870 00:44:24,920 --> 00:44:27,680 Speaker 7: was really incapacitated for a while because he was so 871 00:44:27,760 --> 00:44:29,319 Speaker 7: upset about this, and I think he came to view 872 00:44:29,360 --> 00:44:32,400 Speaker 7: the media as the cause of his suffering, not his 873 00:44:32,440 --> 00:44:35,359 Speaker 7: own actions. That began this period where over the next 874 00:44:35,360 --> 00:44:38,880 Speaker 7: twenty or thirty years where Thomas clearly stopped thinking about 875 00:44:39,120 --> 00:44:42,319 Speaker 7: First amend of Protections for Journalists being important to democracy 876 00:44:42,480 --> 00:44:45,200 Speaker 7: and started feeling that First Ament of Protections for journalists 877 00:44:45,719 --> 00:44:49,960 Speaker 7: were basically enabling the media fair to him, right, yeah, 878 00:44:50,080 --> 00:44:52,439 Speaker 7: unfair to him and to like pursue of INNDBTA against him. 879 00:44:52,520 --> 00:44:55,520 Speaker 7: You can kind of understand that, right for someone like him, 880 00:44:55,760 --> 00:44:59,239 Speaker 7: And certainly by the time twenty nineteen rolls around and 881 00:44:59,239 --> 00:45:02,680 Speaker 7: Trump is in the office, his hatred towards the media 882 00:45:03,280 --> 00:45:06,359 Speaker 7: was really it was kind of overflowing, and he has 883 00:45:06,520 --> 00:45:10,040 Speaker 7: had some allies not just activists and politicians, but judges 884 00:45:10,120 --> 00:45:12,799 Speaker 7: as well who were It was like this has been 885 00:45:12,880 --> 00:45:15,360 Speaker 7: kind of festering for a long time and finally. 886 00:45:15,200 --> 00:45:18,840 Speaker 3: Exploded, I mean completely insane. 887 00:45:19,480 --> 00:45:22,800 Speaker 1: Talk me through where we are now with this, because 888 00:45:22,840 --> 00:45:24,040 Speaker 1: this will go to the core. 889 00:45:24,640 --> 00:45:27,000 Speaker 7: Well, we'll see there are at least two justices who 890 00:45:27,000 --> 00:45:29,960 Speaker 7: have signaled their willingness to overturn self and Thomas and 891 00:45:30,200 --> 00:45:30,840 Speaker 7: Justice Gorsic. 892 00:45:31,320 --> 00:45:34,520 Speaker 1: Yeah, it's always the two you most expect, though I 893 00:45:34,560 --> 00:45:36,600 Speaker 1: actually would have thought Alito would be. 894 00:45:36,880 --> 00:45:39,120 Speaker 7: Alita is interesting on this, and I don't quite know 895 00:45:39,160 --> 00:45:41,520 Speaker 7: where he stands. I mean, he actually historically had been 896 00:45:41,600 --> 00:45:45,000 Speaker 7: pretty good on First Amendment. It is he also obviously 897 00:45:45,120 --> 00:45:47,959 Speaker 7: has like a real issue with the media right now 898 00:45:48,400 --> 00:45:51,800 Speaker 7: and has shown a willingness to really seemingly happily align 899 00:45:51,920 --> 00:45:55,719 Speaker 7: himself with people like Thomas and Trump part warming. Yeah, 900 00:45:55,760 --> 00:45:57,319 Speaker 7: so I heave a bit of a wild card to me, 901 00:45:57,400 --> 00:45:59,520 Speaker 7: But it's unclear to me whether there are enough votes 902 00:45:59,560 --> 00:46:02,359 Speaker 7: on the super Court to outright overturned Sullivan. I think 903 00:46:02,400 --> 00:46:05,240 Speaker 7: what's probably more likely to happen, and I Shad caveat 904 00:46:05,239 --> 00:46:07,520 Speaker 7: this by saying, I have a terrible track record making right. 905 00:46:07,840 --> 00:46:09,520 Speaker 3: No, I thought Aris would win. 906 00:46:10,040 --> 00:46:12,600 Speaker 7: Well, my track record of bad predictions goes back way 907 00:46:12,640 --> 00:46:15,359 Speaker 7: further than that. So at the risk of like making 908 00:46:15,360 --> 00:46:17,440 Speaker 7: a fool of myself, I mean, I think what is 909 00:46:17,600 --> 00:46:20,360 Speaker 7: more likely than Sullivan being overturned out rays there are 910 00:46:20,360 --> 00:46:23,759 Speaker 7: a bunch of kind of subsequent cases that basically prevented 911 00:46:24,120 --> 00:46:27,400 Speaker 7: lower rungs of public figures from suing the media, So 912 00:46:27,560 --> 00:46:29,960 Speaker 7: like you're like run of the mill billionaire, for example, 913 00:46:30,480 --> 00:46:33,160 Speaker 7: And I think it's more likely that the Supreme Court 914 00:46:33,239 --> 00:46:35,440 Speaker 7: would kind of ship away or maybe reverse some of 915 00:46:35,480 --> 00:46:37,640 Speaker 7: those subsequent precedents, which, by the way, would have a 916 00:46:37,719 --> 00:46:41,040 Speaker 7: huge impact, and it would mean that it was all 917 00:46:41,120 --> 00:46:43,840 Speaker 7: of a sudden, like a real risk to write critical 918 00:46:43,880 --> 00:46:46,600 Speaker 7: things or investigate like the richest person in your town 919 00:46:46,680 --> 00:46:49,600 Speaker 7: or your city, or someone like Elon Musk potentially before 920 00:46:49,640 --> 00:46:50,440 Speaker 7: he was in the government. 921 00:46:50,600 --> 00:46:52,799 Speaker 1: Though is he in the government? We're not sure, right, 922 00:46:52,880 --> 00:46:54,000 Speaker 1: he might he might not be. 923 00:46:54,600 --> 00:46:58,120 Speaker 7: Well, I've seen he has a government email address. Yes, yes, 924 00:46:58,200 --> 00:47:01,319 Speaker 7: but he is maybe not even they will be he is, 925 00:47:01,360 --> 00:47:03,399 Speaker 7: So I mean, he's the richest person in the world. 926 00:47:03,480 --> 00:47:05,840 Speaker 7: He obviously is playing a very influential role in the 927 00:47:05,880 --> 00:47:09,000 Speaker 7: White Ash. But there are thousands and thousands of people 928 00:47:09,000 --> 00:47:10,839 Speaker 7: in the US and all over the world who are 929 00:47:10,840 --> 00:47:13,040 Speaker 7: not nearly as rich or powerful Asim, but are still 930 00:47:13,080 --> 00:47:17,680 Speaker 7: really rich and powerful. And the means to pursue basically 931 00:47:17,719 --> 00:47:21,520 Speaker 7: infinite means for all intents and purposes to litigate against 932 00:47:21,560 --> 00:47:23,560 Speaker 7: the media and threaten the media. And by the way, 933 00:47:23,600 --> 00:47:25,680 Speaker 7: if not just the mainstream media, or this is something 934 00:47:25,760 --> 00:47:28,839 Speaker 7: that's already happening even with Sullivan still in place. It's 935 00:47:28,880 --> 00:47:33,160 Speaker 7: having across the country and creating hazardous conditions for anyone, 936 00:47:33,520 --> 00:47:36,080 Speaker 7: whether it is someone with a subsec newsletter or someone 937 00:47:36,120 --> 00:47:39,480 Speaker 7: who wants to leave a nasty restaurant review online or 938 00:47:39,680 --> 00:47:43,200 Speaker 7: start a petition about something in their community. All of 939 00:47:43,239 --> 00:47:45,880 Speaker 7: that type of activity is protected by SELIV and these 940 00:47:45,880 --> 00:47:49,040 Speaker 7: subsequent decisions and all of those things are already those 941 00:47:49,040 --> 00:47:52,800 Speaker 7: types of actions can face and do face litigation and 942 00:47:52,880 --> 00:47:56,360 Speaker 7: legal threats that are deliberately designed to get people to 943 00:47:56,480 --> 00:47:59,560 Speaker 7: shut up. And I think, obviously, if these Supreme Court 944 00:47:59,600 --> 00:48:01,480 Speaker 7: presidents that we can, we're going to see a whole 945 00:48:01,520 --> 00:48:02,080 Speaker 7: lot more of that. 946 00:48:02,480 --> 00:48:06,799 Speaker 1: Jesus Christ, Thank you, David, thank you, thank you, thank you. 947 00:48:06,960 --> 00:48:10,080 Speaker 3: I was much are present enough, so this is perfect. 948 00:48:10,480 --> 00:48:11,280 Speaker 5: Well, you're welcome. 949 00:48:13,239 --> 00:48:16,960 Speaker 2: Lawrence Lussig is a Harvard professor and a former presidential candidate. 950 00:48:17,560 --> 00:48:20,799 Speaker 6: Welcome Lawrence him Molly, great to see you. 951 00:48:20,960 --> 00:48:24,560 Speaker 1: Great to see you. I was so so you have 952 00:48:24,600 --> 00:48:28,319 Speaker 1: a really interesting piece that you wrote a medium that 953 00:48:28,360 --> 00:48:30,200 Speaker 1: I want to talk about. But first I want to 954 00:48:30,239 --> 00:48:33,640 Speaker 1: start by talking about how because I think it's important 955 00:48:33,760 --> 00:48:37,640 Speaker 1: that this is couched in all the work you've done 956 00:48:38,520 --> 00:48:43,200 Speaker 1: in the legal world, in the academic world about regulation, 957 00:48:43,920 --> 00:48:46,320 Speaker 1: your legal scholar. 958 00:48:46,680 --> 00:48:48,560 Speaker 3: Very brilliant future Princeton. 959 00:48:48,719 --> 00:48:52,399 Speaker 1: You've done lots of models for what the future should 960 00:48:52,440 --> 00:48:54,799 Speaker 1: look like with some regulation. 961 00:48:55,160 --> 00:48:55,680 Speaker 3: Is that fair? 962 00:48:56,000 --> 00:48:58,200 Speaker 6: Everything except the Princeton part. I wish I had t I. 963 00:48:58,200 --> 00:49:01,640 Speaker 1: Mean Harvard, Sorry, Harvard at Harvard, Princeton's on my brain, 964 00:49:01,880 --> 00:49:04,960 Speaker 1: but anyway, but yes, Harvard. But you've spent a lot 965 00:49:05,000 --> 00:49:08,799 Speaker 1: of time thinking about what regulation could look like in 966 00:49:08,880 --> 00:49:11,640 Speaker 1: this sort of ideal world where we have capitalism, but 967 00:49:11,719 --> 00:49:16,560 Speaker 1: we have a kind of capitalism that has some constraints. 968 00:49:16,880 --> 00:49:17,120 Speaker 6: Right. 969 00:49:17,360 --> 00:49:17,880 Speaker 7: Is that fair? 970 00:49:18,480 --> 00:49:20,800 Speaker 6: That's totally fair? Right? And that's what we should be 971 00:49:20,840 --> 00:49:24,600 Speaker 6: thinking about. How to build a capitalism that's regulated in 972 00:49:24,640 --> 00:49:29,320 Speaker 6: a way that makes it so the capitalism doesn't control regulation. 973 00:49:29,760 --> 00:49:31,840 Speaker 6: This is the like. On the right, they call this 974 00:49:31,920 --> 00:49:33,960 Speaker 6: crony capitalism. On the left, I think we just call 975 00:49:34,000 --> 00:49:37,760 Speaker 6: this corruption. But the most striking feature of the world 976 00:49:37,800 --> 00:49:41,440 Speaker 6: we've found ourselves in right now is that it's an 977 00:49:41,520 --> 00:49:45,799 Speaker 6: overwhelmingly corrupt system of government. And it's kind of astonishing. 978 00:49:45,880 --> 00:49:47,640 Speaker 6: We got here, but we've got to find a way out. 979 00:49:47,880 --> 00:49:50,200 Speaker 3: Yes, now we got here. 980 00:49:50,440 --> 00:49:52,680 Speaker 1: What I think is so interesting about your writing it, 981 00:49:52,719 --> 00:49:55,120 Speaker 1: and I think it's correct, and I think that on 982 00:49:55,160 --> 00:49:59,160 Speaker 1: the liberal side we're not attuned enough to this. The 983 00:49:59,200 --> 00:50:02,319 Speaker 1: reason why Trump was able to successfully and I might 984 00:50:02,360 --> 00:50:08,400 Speaker 1: add bafflingly running for president and win twice, was populism. 985 00:50:08,800 --> 00:50:11,920 Speaker 6: Yeah, and I think that we mistake what populism is. 986 00:50:12,320 --> 00:50:14,719 Speaker 6: People think about populism as either on the right of 987 00:50:14,800 --> 00:50:18,640 Speaker 6: the left. It's actually the inside versus the outside. And 988 00:50:18,680 --> 00:50:21,719 Speaker 6: what he could do for weird, bizarre reasons, but he 989 00:50:21,760 --> 00:50:24,759 Speaker 6: could convince people that he was on the outside ends, 990 00:50:24,880 --> 00:50:28,960 Speaker 6: that he was taking on this deeply corrupted, broken government, 991 00:50:29,000 --> 00:50:30,560 Speaker 6: he was going to shake it up and make it 992 00:50:30,600 --> 00:50:33,840 Speaker 6: work for ordinary people. And so at the surface level, 993 00:50:34,000 --> 00:50:37,759 Speaker 6: what he says is quite attractive. If you're like an 994 00:50:37,760 --> 00:50:41,080 Speaker 6: average American recognizing just how screwed you are. You know, 995 00:50:41,120 --> 00:50:46,440 Speaker 6: we've been now celebrating fifty years where the average income 996 00:50:46,719 --> 00:50:50,520 Speaker 6: for ordinary workers has not gone up at all, literally 997 00:50:50,680 --> 00:50:53,399 Speaker 6: not at all, and so you can imagine in that 998 00:50:53,480 --> 00:50:57,320 Speaker 6: world the frustration that leads people to say, just break 999 00:50:57,400 --> 00:50:59,719 Speaker 6: it down and let's start all over again. And he 1000 00:50:59,719 --> 00:51:02,760 Speaker 6: appear to that. Now, you know, the reality is it's 1001 00:51:02,800 --> 00:51:08,040 Speaker 6: just a con game and its actual strategy is to 1002 00:51:08,160 --> 00:51:11,759 Speaker 6: empower entrench the wealthiest, and that's in fact what he's 1003 00:51:11,800 --> 00:51:13,800 Speaker 6: executing on right now. And so the only question is 1004 00:51:13,840 --> 00:51:18,759 Speaker 6: whether that eventually breaks through people realize the populism that 1005 00:51:18,800 --> 00:51:22,200 Speaker 6: they are celebrating that I celebrate. I totally idea. I 1006 00:51:22,280 --> 00:51:25,319 Speaker 6: totally identify with the populist message here, but it's got 1007 00:51:25,320 --> 00:51:28,399 Speaker 6: to be a populist message. It's actually helping ordinary people 1008 00:51:28,440 --> 00:51:30,880 Speaker 6: as opposed to just more help for the billionaires. 1009 00:51:31,480 --> 00:51:34,840 Speaker 1: Right, And this is why what you wrote about Doge 1010 00:51:35,160 --> 00:51:39,960 Speaker 1: is so important. So Doge what it really is, we're 1011 00:51:40,000 --> 00:51:41,759 Speaker 1: not even going to talk about right now. But the 1012 00:51:42,080 --> 00:51:45,600 Speaker 1: idea of it was to sort of embra to give 1013 00:51:45,600 --> 00:51:48,280 Speaker 1: a sort of populist vein to government. 1014 00:51:48,520 --> 00:51:49,000 Speaker 3: Correct. 1015 00:51:49,680 --> 00:51:52,560 Speaker 6: Yes, absolutely, and it's it's a great idea Let's make 1016 00:51:52,600 --> 00:51:57,279 Speaker 6: government efficient. Let's make it deliver its services at the 1017 00:51:57,320 --> 00:51:59,799 Speaker 6: same or better services at the same or lower cost. 1018 00:51:59,840 --> 00:52:02,200 Speaker 6: That's what efficiency is, and who could be against it? 1019 00:52:02,280 --> 00:52:03,960 Speaker 6: And that should be its measure. You know, I think 1020 00:52:03,960 --> 00:52:07,320 Speaker 6: that Reagan like famously said in nineteen eighty four, not 1021 00:52:07,400 --> 00:52:09,560 Speaker 6: that you would remember, Molly, but in nineteen eighty four 1022 00:52:09,920 --> 00:52:12,960 Speaker 6: Reagan said, are you better off today? I mean nineteen 1023 00:52:12,960 --> 00:52:14,719 Speaker 6: eighties that are you better off than you were four 1024 00:52:14,840 --> 00:52:17,799 Speaker 6: years ago? I think we should start saying is your 1025 00:52:17,840 --> 00:52:21,080 Speaker 6: government working better today than it was four years ago? 1026 00:52:21,200 --> 00:52:25,759 Speaker 6: Because what's absolutely clear is that this Doge strategy of 1027 00:52:25,840 --> 00:52:29,080 Speaker 6: taking a chainsaw to everything is going to break government. 1028 00:52:29,120 --> 00:52:31,359 Speaker 6: Government is not going to be able to function. So 1029 00:52:31,440 --> 00:52:33,279 Speaker 6: the clearest thing that's going to come out of all 1030 00:52:33,280 --> 00:52:37,000 Speaker 6: of this is like, no real savings and just make 1031 00:52:37,040 --> 00:52:39,480 Speaker 6: the government so it doesn't work anymore. And like nobody 1032 00:52:39,560 --> 00:52:42,760 Speaker 6: can celebrate that. Nobody should celebrate that except the crazy 1033 00:52:42,800 --> 00:52:45,400 Speaker 6: libertarian Peter Thiel types who just want to get rid 1034 00:52:45,440 --> 00:52:48,200 Speaker 6: of government and just live in their little I rand 1035 00:52:48,280 --> 00:52:50,520 Speaker 6: island somewhere and do whatever else they do. 1036 00:52:50,800 --> 00:52:54,880 Speaker 1: During the summer, spent all all this time interviewing really 1037 00:52:54,880 --> 00:52:59,120 Speaker 1: smart academics talking about what Project twenty twenty five would 1038 00:52:59,120 --> 00:53:04,040 Speaker 1: look like, wildly unpopular. Donald Trump disavowed it, so mainstream 1039 00:53:04,080 --> 00:53:05,840 Speaker 1: media was like, well, obviously he's not going to do 1040 00:53:05,880 --> 00:53:07,319 Speaker 1: it because he said he wasn't going to do it, 1041 00:53:07,560 --> 00:53:10,000 Speaker 1: which of course obviously he was totally going to do it. 1042 00:53:10,280 --> 00:53:12,800 Speaker 1: And the ethos of it is the sort of dream 1043 00:53:12,880 --> 00:53:16,080 Speaker 1: of all Republican donors, right strip the government to the 1044 00:53:16,120 --> 00:53:20,320 Speaker 1: studs and all the FDR stuff and all the Carter 1045 00:53:20,480 --> 00:53:25,000 Speaker 1: stuff go in there and just you know, have taxes 1046 00:53:25,400 --> 00:53:27,120 Speaker 1: and that's pretty much it, you know what I mean, 1047 00:53:27,160 --> 00:53:31,920 Speaker 1: like ultimately, and so as we watch that happen, there 1048 00:53:31,960 --> 00:53:35,239 Speaker 1: are definitely a percentage of Trump's people who are just 1049 00:53:35,400 --> 00:53:38,880 Speaker 1: delighted to see the organization fail. 1050 00:53:39,239 --> 00:53:42,000 Speaker 6: Yes, they want to see government fail because it just 1051 00:53:42,200 --> 00:53:45,640 Speaker 6: doubles down their argument that we can't rely on government 1052 00:53:45,640 --> 00:53:48,120 Speaker 6: to do anything. So let's just dismantle more and more 1053 00:53:48,160 --> 00:53:50,239 Speaker 6: of it, Like why are you paying taxes to a 1054 00:53:50,320 --> 00:53:53,080 Speaker 6: system that doesn't work? The game is like just a 1055 00:53:53,160 --> 00:53:56,120 Speaker 6: numbers game here though, because yes, there's a certain number 1056 00:53:56,239 --> 00:53:59,840 Speaker 6: of Trump's supporters who are wealthy enough to live with 1057 00:54:00,080 --> 00:54:03,000 Speaker 6: out the support of the state. But the rest of us, 1058 00:54:03,160 --> 00:54:09,399 Speaker 6: you know, we depend upon like services, security, infrastructure, all 1059 00:54:09,400 --> 00:54:11,640 Speaker 6: the things that makes it possible to function. So the 1060 00:54:11,640 --> 00:54:14,720 Speaker 6: point is like to the extent those people's lives become 1061 00:54:14,880 --> 00:54:18,839 Speaker 6: worse because of this chaos, they'll begin to wake up 1062 00:54:18,840 --> 00:54:22,120 Speaker 6: to it. And I think that's the question. That's the opportunity. Well, 1063 00:54:22,160 --> 00:54:24,839 Speaker 6: I mean, that's the chat, that's the that's the opportunity 1064 00:54:24,840 --> 00:54:26,480 Speaker 6: that we've got to find a way to act on. 1065 00:54:26,600 --> 00:54:29,320 Speaker 6: We've got to find a way to channel people's attention 1066 00:54:29,480 --> 00:54:34,200 Speaker 6: to not this perpetual anti Trump rheteric, right, but the 1067 00:54:34,440 --> 00:54:38,160 Speaker 6: but the rhetoric around populism, like let's celebrate the idea 1068 00:54:38,840 --> 00:54:41,799 Speaker 6: of a government that actually is efficient and working for 1069 00:54:41,880 --> 00:54:44,719 Speaker 6: people and delivering you know, and that terrible ad that 1070 00:54:44,800 --> 00:54:48,240 Speaker 6: they did where they're trashing the trans support that Harris 1071 00:54:48,280 --> 00:54:51,520 Speaker 6: did and that ends with she's for they them, he's 1072 00:54:51,520 --> 00:54:54,239 Speaker 6: for you. Well, okay, who is who's the you in 1073 00:54:54,280 --> 00:54:57,800 Speaker 6: that statement? Like it turns out it's just the super 1074 00:54:57,840 --> 00:55:01,440 Speaker 6: wealthy and it's again any he plays this game and 1075 00:55:01,480 --> 00:55:03,400 Speaker 6: again and again it gets away with it. We finally 1076 00:55:03,440 --> 00:55:05,920 Speaker 6: got away got to get away to like focus people 1077 00:55:06,440 --> 00:55:08,880 Speaker 6: enough so that they can see it, because they're gonna 1078 00:55:08,880 --> 00:55:12,120 Speaker 6: feel I mean, unlike the first Trump administration, Like you know, 1079 00:55:12,120 --> 00:55:14,280 Speaker 6: he came in and he promised the same tax cut, 1080 00:55:15,000 --> 00:55:17,719 Speaker 6: saying like middle class task cut. And of course by 1081 00:55:17,719 --> 00:55:19,680 Speaker 6: the time the dealing was done, all the middle class 1082 00:55:19,680 --> 00:55:21,799 Speaker 6: stuff was taken out. It was only a tax cut 1083 00:55:21,840 --> 00:55:25,000 Speaker 6: for the super wealthy and corporations. The same thing's gonna 1084 00:55:25,000 --> 00:55:28,920 Speaker 6: happen this time, but that wasn't as noticeable to ordinary 1085 00:55:28,920 --> 00:55:31,880 Speaker 6: people as this breaking government will be. Like when the 1086 00:55:31,880 --> 00:55:34,920 Speaker 6: government's just broken, people are gonna be like, what shiites 1087 00:55:35,000 --> 00:55:37,200 Speaker 6: this ridiculous. I don't get my chat, my my social 1088 00:55:37,200 --> 00:55:39,640 Speaker 6: Security check or Medicare is being cut or whatever. 1089 00:55:39,719 --> 00:55:43,680 Speaker 1: You keep our social Security for your social Security number 1090 00:55:43,719 --> 00:55:47,840 Speaker 1: for your baby in mace right the right, like the root. Yeah, 1091 00:55:47,920 --> 00:55:51,360 Speaker 1: that was reporting I saw today. I mean again, maybe it's. 1092 00:55:51,640 --> 00:55:53,600 Speaker 2: To hear the rest of the interview. Head over to 1093 00:55:53,680 --> 00:55:58,000 Speaker 2: YouTube and search from Fast Politics with Molly Jung Fast. 1094 00:55:58,480 --> 00:56:03,560 Speaker 3: No Full Jesse Cannon mollye. 1095 00:56:03,560 --> 00:56:05,200 Speaker 2: So you know what I think of who I want 1096 00:56:05,200 --> 00:56:09,120 Speaker 2: in a senior advisor to the State Department nineteen years old, 1097 00:56:09,440 --> 00:56:13,279 Speaker 2: maybe a nickname like big Balls and somebody who previously 1098 00:56:13,640 --> 00:56:16,840 Speaker 2: leaked confidential information to a competitor. That sounds like a 1099 00:56:16,840 --> 00:56:17,680 Speaker 2: great resume to me. 1100 00:56:18,040 --> 00:56:18,960 Speaker 3: Yeah, Big Balls. 1101 00:56:19,120 --> 00:56:22,960 Speaker 1: You'll remember Big Balls as a guy you want as 1102 00:56:22,960 --> 00:56:26,120 Speaker 1: a senior advisor in the State Department. Again, these are 1103 00:56:26,280 --> 00:56:31,479 Speaker 1: yet another member of Elon Mush's cabinet of deplorables. They 1104 00:56:31,560 --> 00:56:36,359 Speaker 1: are young, they are intach and they are running your 1105 00:56:36,480 --> 00:56:39,840 Speaker 1: federal government right now. He is a minion. 1106 00:56:40,440 --> 00:56:45,120 Speaker 3: He has the broccoli haircut. He is in it al 1107 00:56:45,200 --> 00:56:45,680 Speaker 3: paca bro. 1108 00:56:45,840 --> 00:56:47,560 Speaker 2: That the preferred term, Molly. 1109 00:56:47,560 --> 00:56:50,759 Speaker 1: Yeah, and a paca bro. Big Ball's significant role in 1110 00:56:50,800 --> 00:56:53,440 Speaker 1: the State Department. It makes sense because he's really smart. 1111 00:56:53,600 --> 00:56:57,640 Speaker 1: He's a senior advisor in the Bureau of Diplomatic Technology. 1112 00:56:57,680 --> 00:57:02,000 Speaker 1: The Washington Reports is a data hub that serves in 1113 00:57:02,040 --> 00:57:05,120 Speaker 1: an IT. I mean, you know this guy, We're so fucked. 1114 00:57:05,200 --> 00:57:08,640 Speaker 1: I mean, this is my moment of fuckery and Jesus, 1115 00:57:08,880 --> 00:57:09,400 Speaker 1: it's bad. 1116 00:57:10,480 --> 00:57:11,399 Speaker 3: That's it for. 1117 00:57:11,400 --> 00:57:17,280 Speaker 1: This episode of Fast Politics. Tune in every Monday, Wednesday, 1118 00:57:17,520 --> 00:57:22,000 Speaker 1: Thursday and Saturday to hear the best minds and politics 1119 00:57:22,080 --> 00:57:26,320 Speaker 1: make sense of all this chaos. If you enjoy this podcast, 1120 00:57:26,720 --> 00:57:30,120 Speaker 1: please send it to a friend and keep the conversation going. 1121 00:57:30,600 --> 00:57:31,720 Speaker 3: Thanks for listening.