0:00

The Majority Report

0:02

with Sam Cedar.

0:04

Where every day

0:06

is casual Friday.

0:09

That means Monday

0:11

is casual Monday.

0:13

Tuesday, casual Tuesday,

0:15

Wednesday, casual hump

0:17

day. Thursday, casual

0:19

hump day. Thursday,

0:21

casual Thursday, casual

0:23

Thursday. That's what

0:25

we call it.

0:27

And Friday, casual

0:29

Shabbat. It

0:35

is Friday. It's Friday.

0:37

April 25th 2025. My

0:40

name is Sam Cedar.

0:42

This is the five-time

0:44

award-winning majority report. We

0:46

are broadcasting live steps

0:48

from the industrially ravaged

0:51

Gowanus Canal. The heartland

0:53

of America downtown Brooklyn

0:55

USA on the program

0:57

today, Crystal Ball, co-host

0:59

of Breaking Point and

1:02

Crystal Kyle in France.

1:04

Also on the program

1:06

today, Trump Patel

1:09

FBI arrests a

1:11

Wisconsin county judge

1:13

for a supposedly

1:15

obstructing immigration grab

1:17

and snatches. Also

1:19

on the program today,

1:22

China, bringing Trump to

1:24

his knees on tariffs.

1:27

Pete Hexith caught using

1:29

unsecured internet line in

1:32

his Pentagon office. to

1:35

avoid government record-keeping

1:37

laws. And while

1:39

Trump regime about

1:42

face and has

1:44

decided to refund

1:46

women's help, so

1:48

women's health can

1:50

be studied. Well,

1:53

there's still mostly

1:55

six is so.

1:57

Trump approval ratings

1:59

sink. Cross the board.

2:01

And one brief defining

2:03

moment. Trump's footsie with

2:06

millionaire tax shows there

2:08

is no such thing

2:10

as a magga populist

2:12

movement. Trump's biggest corrupt

2:14

pay-to-play hundreds of millions

2:17

of dollars worth of

2:19

Trump coin for a

2:21

dinner. I submit to

2:23

arrested Kale without a

2:25

warrant. Rubio eliminates the

2:28

office that oversees climate

2:30

talks. Coincidentally, new report

2:32

coral reefs suffer an

2:34

80% bleaching incident. National

2:36

Science Foundation director quits

2:39

in wake of a

2:41

55% cut to the

2:43

agency. And the Department

2:45

of Transportation sidelines its

2:47

own lawyers. who question

2:50

their own case on

2:52

the New York City

2:54

congestion pricing attack. All

2:56

this and more on

2:58

today's majority report. Welcome

3:00

ladies and gentlemen. It

3:03

is casual Friday. Casual

3:05

Friday. Big God. I'm

3:07

really. I've already forgotten.

3:09

You need some help

3:11

this morning. You need

3:14

some help this morning.

3:16

Uh-huh. You definitely do.

3:18

Grandpa. Shambles Friday. Exactly.

3:20

It's been quite the

3:22

week, ladies and gentlemen,

3:25

quite the week. So

3:27

let's get into it.

3:29

The... I can't even

3:31

find my sound sheet

3:33

now. Oh, this isn't...

3:36

Donald Trump announced a

3:38

couple of days ago.

3:40

Let's be clear. He

3:42

spent like something like

3:44

25% of his time

3:47

golfing. Are we

3:49

up to a hundred million

3:51

dollars worth of golfing trips

3:53

already in the first hundred

3:55

days? That's impressive. I mean

3:58

I live through the George

4:00

W. Bush era and we

4:02

that was impressive this is

4:04

really impressive yeah i mean

4:06

his athletic performance that's got

4:08

to be studied how uh...

4:10

he's just trying to keep

4:13

his body in fine tune

4:15

by you know rigging uh...

4:17

tournaments on his own golf

4:19

course really important to stay

4:21

in shape so that you

4:23

can do this that's what's

4:25

really important and They reinstated

4:28

the 10 million dollars that

4:30

are required for the first

4:32

and biggest NIH study of

4:34

women in this country. And

4:36

I don't want this to

4:38

be lost on anybody. The

4:40

idea that the first major

4:42

study of women's health in

4:45

this country by our government

4:47

started in the early 1990s.

4:49

should make everyone like it

4:51

should be a reminder as

4:53

to just how far out

4:55

or not so far out

4:57

we are from women being

5:00

second-class citizens in this country

5:02

especially given the posture of

5:04

this current administration towards women's

5:06

rights and as they begin

5:08

to adopt policies like you

5:10

know a floating victor or

5:12

bond style kind of subsidization

5:15

that keep women in the

5:17

home that seems to be

5:19

where one orientation of the

5:21

administration. But I can't believe,

5:23

I mean, they reinstated it

5:25

because it was couch cushion

5:27

money and the blowback was

5:30

enormous. It's one golf outing.

5:32

You care about menopause? I

5:34

never heard of it. Right.

5:36

Right. And so that's where

5:38

we are today. The pro-publica

5:40

has called this next story

5:42

about Donald Trump offering private

5:45

dinner for people who buy

5:47

the most amount of his

5:49

shit coin? Mean coin have

5:51

some. Oh, I'm sorry. Meme

5:53

coin. We had Jacob Silverman

5:55

on yesterday to talk about

5:57

it. I mean, the level

6:00

of just obvious corruption here.

6:02

It's like, I don't know

6:04

how else we can say

6:06

it a different way. It's

6:08

all you're selling. Yeah, he's

6:10

selling access just right in

6:12

front of our faces. Well,

6:15

but I'm selling, I'm selling

6:17

a commemorative coin. So it's

6:19

not corruption. What's interesting is

6:21

to watch, like, and let's

6:23

be clear, I don't think

6:25

that anybody's going to vote

6:27

against Donald Trump at the

6:30

end of the day because

6:32

of his corruption, because if

6:34

that was the case, he

6:36

would not have been the

6:38

candidate in 2024. They probably

6:40

wouldn't have voted for him

6:42

the first time around. It

6:45

is always fun, though, watching

6:47

sort of like... the next

6:49

round of johnny come lately

6:51

these two like i can't

6:53

believe this is going on

6:55

and uh... the sort of

6:57

the corruption but uh... galloway

7:00

is not uh... uh... particularly

7:02

like a worse case uh...

7:04

version of these folks it

7:06

is relevant in so far

7:08

as it creates a sense

7:10

that dot Trump has some

7:12

vulnerability and it ties into

7:15

the obvious corruption that was

7:17

all centered around Doge and

7:19

centered around the crypto people

7:21

like anything in my mind

7:23

that makes people understand that

7:25

the entire crypto world is

7:27

about enriching a small amount

7:30

of people at the expense

7:32

of everything else and everything

7:34

else is frankly just BS.

7:36

Here is a galley on

7:38

with... Anderson Cooper. We've seen

7:40

anything like this offer of

7:42

a private dinner with the

7:45

president. United States for investors,

7:47

the top investors in a

7:49

meme coin. Essentially, if you

7:51

buy enough meme coins, you

7:53

get accents. I mean, is

7:55

this not pay-to-play? Oh, we

7:57

see it everywhere. We see

8:00

it if you want to

8:02

go to Glass and Barry

8:04

or Coachella and buy a

8:06

high-end ticket. You can pay

8:08

enough. You can get a...

8:10

You know, a mean greet

8:12

with Taylor Swift, what we've

8:15

never seen is that he's

8:17

a person. Like, to even

8:19

compare those two things to

8:21

me is bizarre. Right. Because

8:23

the mean for the White

8:25

House is so much better,

8:27

right? I don't, I mean,

8:30

like, yes, I think that

8:32

the VIP, VIP access at

8:34

some of these shows is

8:36

not my favorite dynamic. But

8:38

it's not equivalent. Because you

8:40

pay a ticket to go

8:42

see the show. The president

8:44

is not a performer. It's

8:47

like it's a fundamentally different

8:49

species. Don't you? He's the

8:51

host of the apprentice. It's

8:53

a meeting greet for the

8:55

host of the apprentice, which

8:57

is his most... Come behind

8:59

the scenes and see how

9:02

we... shoot the the the

9:04

room of the conference room

9:06

scenes right go it's public

9:08

service but it's just so

9:10

like it's supposed to be

9:12

public service not if you

9:14

want to create an analogy

9:17

the analogy is some other

9:19

bribery scam yeah they turned

9:21

the White House into a

9:23

Tesla dealership like three weeks

9:25

exactly we would Taylor Swift

9:27

what we've never seen is

9:29

that you can buy access

9:32

like this to the president

9:34

on this kind of scale

9:36

where essentially he's open to

9:38

Swiss banking account and whoever's

9:40

putting the most money into

9:42

that Swiss banking account gets

9:44

invited to a dinner in

9:47

one of his country clubs.

9:49

What's interesting here is not

9:51

the 220 people that are

9:53

going to show up at

9:55

this, but the people who

9:57

don't because I think the

9:59

potential here for grift is

10:02

just un- posited we've never

10:04

seen anything like this and

10:06

potential for grift deposit this

10:08

is so blinkered this is

10:10

grift this is not a

10:12

potential for grift this is

10:14

bribery it is bribery like

10:17

i'm old enough to remember

10:19

the scandal of the Lincoln

10:21

bedroom where uh... the clins

10:23

uh... bill clinton would have

10:25

top donors to his campaigns

10:28

Stay at the White House.

10:30

This is putting money directly

10:32

into Trump's pocket. Yep. This is

10:35

not, this isn't potential for

10:37

grift. This is bribery. Even

10:39

if he gets nothing in

10:41

return, it is, it is

10:43

grift. Because the crypto is such

10:45

a thinly veiled, like, even

10:47

token or item that's in

10:49

between the money and Trump.

10:51

In Trump 1.0, he had

10:53

his hotel rooms that were getting

10:56

rented by the Saudis and

10:58

by other people that wanted

11:00

to curry favor with him.

11:02

But now, like, okay, at

11:04

least there's a hotel physical room

11:06

here. The World Financial, what's

11:08

the name of the crypto

11:10

exchange that, here I have

11:12

it written down, World Liberty

11:14

Financial. This is a crypto company

11:17

that was started by Don

11:19

Jr. Eric and the son

11:21

of one of those, one

11:23

of his donors, I'm forgetting

11:25

who it is. Oh no, Wytkov,

11:27

the envoy, and they don't

11:29

even have a platform. They

11:31

started it in August 2024,

11:33

and Trump was publicly saying,

11:35

oh, I'm not a part of

11:37

this, and now he's just

11:39

openly a part of it.

11:41

So it was obvious what

11:43

they were doing, but anyway.

11:45

This meme coin has a market

11:48

cap of now $2.5 billion.

11:50

He owns 80% of it.

11:52

So in the three months

11:54

since the inauguration, the president

11:56

has increased his wealth approximately $175

11:58

million a week, I believe.

12:00

700 million a month. We've

12:02

never seen anything like this.

12:04

Okay, there's potential for drift.

12:06

This potential for grift. I get

12:09

it. I know what it

12:11

looks like, but I worked

12:13

hard for that $170 million

12:15

per year. Trust me. Trust

12:17

me. It looks like grift. This

12:19

potential. I'll concede that. Why

12:21

don't you make your meme

12:23

coin, Scott? I think the

12:25

problem is the optics. Right.

12:27

Doesn't look good. Haters.

12:30

I know, I guess we

12:32

don't respect the grind. Some

12:34

breaking news. Former Congressman George

12:36

Santos will be canceling his

12:38

podcast going forward as he

12:40

has sentenced the seven years

12:42

for fraud in a New

12:45

York courtroom. So if you

12:47

were a fan of... his

12:49

podcast. I'm afraid that's probably

12:51

going to be on hiatus.

12:53

This is clearly censorship, and

12:55

I'll just say... It's like,

12:57

legalized comedy! Council culture is

12:59

out of control. That's a

13:02

whole in my week, not

13:04

being able to listen to

13:06

George Santos' podcast. I don't

13:08

know who Matt Gates is

13:10

going to have on a

13:12

show anymore, but there it

13:14

is. Santos may die of

13:17

a broken heart in prison

13:19

seeing Trump's grift like this.

13:21

This is just the, that's

13:23

the pinnacle of what he

13:25

wanted to achieve. He walks

13:27

of Trump could run. Yeah.

13:30

In a moment, we'll be talking

13:32

to Crystal Ball, co-host, the Breaking

13:34

Points, as well as Crystal, Kyle,

13:37

and Friends. We will put all

13:39

those links and codes in the

13:41

podcast and YouTube descriptions at the

13:43

blog and in the podcast and

13:46

YouTube. And now, Quick Break, we'll

13:48

come back Crystal Ball, co-host of

13:50

Breaking Points. music

14:11

music music

14:24

music music

14:52

music music

15:02

music We

15:16

are back. Sam Cedar, Emma Wiglin,

15:18

Majority Report. Pleasure to

15:20

welcome back to the program

15:22

welcome back of program well as

15:24

co-host Breaking Points, as well as welcome

15:26

back. Kyle a pleasure guys.

15:29

Thanks for having me. Great

15:31

to see back. Always a just,

15:33

guys. story just broke this

15:35

morning me. Great a it's just,

15:37

judge in Wisconsin broke this arrested

15:39

by the FBI was

15:42

allegedly FBI for

15:44

allegedly, protecting an

15:47

immigrant in

15:49

her courthouse. very

15:52

it has been

15:55

very controversial you least

15:57

it you know,

15:59

it certainly was uh...

16:01

eight years ago.

16:03

The idea of of

16:05

not a immigrants or anybody else

16:08

for that matter. In like courthouses

16:10

there's been a couple places because

16:12

you want people to be able

16:14

to go to courthouses. There is

16:16

a societal interest. I mean this

16:18

is why we have, you know,

16:21

why we give undocumented in some

16:23

states licenses. This is why we

16:25

don't allow local police. in many

16:27

places to engage in immigration sweeps

16:29

because if you have a portion

16:32

of your population that is not

16:34

participating in things like reporting a

16:36

fire or reporting a crime or

16:38

or going in adjudicating something your

16:40

society is starting to break down

16:42

a little bit but arresting a

16:45

judge seems Maybe like an important

16:47

moment. Yeah, it's a significant escalation.

16:49

I don't think there's any doubt

16:51

about it. And I don't know

16:53

if you guys probably saw this

16:55

footage that came out of a

16:58

courtroom in Charlottesville, Virginia, where an

17:00

immigrant had just actually had his

17:02

charges dropped, and then agents of

17:04

the state who would not identify

17:06

themselves, would not show a warrant,

17:08

one of whom was fully masked,

17:11

you know, apprehended him. and pulled

17:13

him out even as his lawyers

17:15

and other bystanders are trying to

17:17

protect him trying to say who

17:19

are you with what's your name

17:22

what's your badge number and so

17:24

those sorts of things have been

17:26

playing out around the country and

17:28

we don't know all the details

17:30

here yet but I mean one

17:32

thing that was interesting to note

17:35

is that the FBI director Cash

17:37

Patel he's the one who originally

17:39

posted this tweet saying that they

17:41

had arrested this judge he then

17:43

deleted the tweet So not sure

17:45

what is going on there, but

17:48

you know, zooming out, I've been

17:50

saying, and this won't be any

17:52

surprise to you guys, as Trump

17:54

becomes less popular. we're going to

17:56

enter an even more dangerous phase

17:59

of this presidency because rather than

18:01

you know being able to to

18:03

try to garner any sort of

18:05

public political support he's going to

18:07

have to engage in increasingly ever

18:09

more authoritarian and fascistic tactics and

18:12

I think this could be seen

18:14

as part of that ramping up

18:16

and it's not an accident that

18:18

it comes as his poll numbers

18:20

across the board including on things

18:22

like immigration really fall. Yeah, and

18:25

also I think it's a way

18:27

to send a message to immigration

18:29

judges too, where, or not immigration

18:31

judges, but judges across the country

18:33

I should say, and it doesn't

18:35

have to just be limited to

18:38

immigration, but this is how the

18:40

mafia operates, right, where they're intimidating

18:42

this woman, this judge in Wisconsin,

18:44

and they're trying to make an

18:46

example out of her so that

18:49

other judges across the country are

18:51

maybe a little bit more favorable

18:53

to the administration, because that's basically

18:55

where the only thing that's has,

18:57

the breaks on this administration so

18:59

far, has been the court system

19:02

and the judiciary. Yeah, and you

19:04

know there was one piece of

19:06

good news. I don't know if

19:08

you guys saw this but the

19:10

Trump administration has just been mass

19:12

canceling the immigration status of foreign

19:15

students and They were facing an

19:17

overwhelming onset some 50 plus lawsuits

19:19

across the country that they were

19:21

just losing one after another after

19:23

and they actually backed down on

19:25

that and are reinstating the status

19:28

of these foreign students. So you're

19:30

absolutely right that even though they've

19:32

been willing to you know outright

19:34

defy the courts to you know

19:36

misinterpret what the Supreme Court is

19:39

saying what district court judges are

19:41

saying etc it still is the

19:43

only place where you've had a

19:45

sort of meaningful organized resistance and

19:47

it was interesting you may not

19:49

know if you guys have had

19:52

a chance to read the time

19:54

magazine interview with Trump which was

19:56

all over the map but they

19:58

asked him about the Supreme Court

20:00

unanimous decision with regard to, hey,

20:02

you got to facilitate the return

20:05

of Kilmar Abrego Garcia. And Trump,

20:07

first of all, claimed that his

20:09

people didn't tell him that that

20:11

ruling went against him, but he

20:13

wanted to make it clear that

20:16

he did not want to defy

20:18

the Supreme Court. Now, in reality,

20:20

they are defying the Supreme Court,

20:22

but it's at least interesting to

20:24

me that he doesn't want to

20:26

be seen as brazenly, like directly,

20:29

flourish on the direction they're

20:31

going in. I mean, I believe

20:33

him that they didn't tell. We

20:35

saw, there was footage that came

20:37

out with Stephen Miller, who's like

20:40

one and hands down. And

20:42

I'm not convinced that that wasn't

20:44

the first time that he heard

20:46

that. But I think like what is

20:48

really clear that, and I think

20:50

the poll numbers are part of

20:52

this, we should say that I think

20:55

it's the first time that he is

20:57

net negative. Every other issue. By

20:59

dozens of points on just about

21:01

every other issue. I mean well

21:03

into the teens and a lot

21:05

of this and sometimes even

21:08

further a negative. But I think

21:10

what we're going to start to

21:12

see is the pace and the

21:15

ambition of different parts of What

21:17

was the overall agenda move at a

21:19

different pace and start and there's gonna

21:21

be it's unclear to me like it's

21:23

quite obvious that Stephen Miller and I

21:25

think you can see that in the

21:28

context of the hexes signal chat Or

21:30

maybe the first one with the first

21:32

Atlantic where it's like Miller comes in

21:34

and he's the guy who has the

21:36

last word voice the president on

21:39

attacking On attacking Yemen. Yeah.

21:41

Like that's sort of outside of

21:43

his portfolio. I mean, granted, they're

21:46

not, you know, white people that

21:48

were attacking. So maybe that's why

21:50

he has a say in that.

21:52

Yeah. This portfolio is just evil

21:54

doing. Evil doing against the non-white

21:57

people. Exactly. Exactly. But

21:59

this. I mean, I can't help but think

22:01

like, we're going to start to see

22:03

different agendas in and how they're represented

22:06

by different people within the Trump administration,

22:08

because Trump is quite clearly just like,

22:10

he's just, he's so far removed from

22:12

all of this, it seems to me,

22:14

at this point. I think the only

22:16

area that I would say he's not

22:18

far removed from is the tariffs. That

22:20

seems to be like the part that

22:22

he's, yeah, that's what he is, he's

22:24

into. He's making these insane decisions. He's

22:26

inventing calls that he didn't even have

22:28

with his Chinese leadership. Like, I think

22:31

that's all him. But I think you're

22:33

right. There's 200 deals on the table.

22:35

Well, could you tell us about any

22:37

of them? No. No. I can't reveal.

22:39

I can't reveal that. I should also

22:41

announce that I personally have made 300

22:43

of deals. Wow. Congratulations, ma'am. Well, I

22:45

just got off the phone with Presidentji.

22:47

He's doing great, you know, and we

22:49

also made roughly 3,000 deals together. So

22:51

we're doing great. Well, it's a mistake

22:53

to say who the deals are. Yeah,

22:56

you revealed too much. You're learning. But

22:58

I do think that like we're going

23:00

to start to see that because, you

23:02

know, the dough stuff has now, it

23:04

seems to me. fallen away and they've

23:06

fallen back to their sort of like

23:08

alamo position which is the the russled

23:10

vote mechanism of destroying the administrative state

23:12

it's all you know we had someone

23:14

on the other day who was former

23:16

doge and just because she was with

23:18

the US digital services and She said

23:21

this this this next wave is all

23:23

RIF stuff reduction in force, which actually

23:25

is a mechanism rather than the doge

23:27

which would just go in and fire

23:29

people. Yeah, and hack into systems and

23:31

exactly. Yeah, and and which is not

23:33

the. that it's as if Peter Navarro

23:35

didn't know what he was talking about.

23:37

They've mapped this out of how they're

23:39

going to do it from a legal

23:41

standpoint. But it feels like the tariff

23:43

stuff, like you say, is Trump's baby,

23:46

but it's falling apart for him now.

23:48

Like it's as if Peter Navarro didn't

23:50

know what he was talking about. He's

23:52

getting warnings now. Like I have a,

23:54

you know, there's a half a dozen

23:56

stories that are out there today of

23:58

like, like, like, He was surprised that

24:00

all these shipping containers from China basically

24:02

They're not sending stuff like they decided

24:04

it's just not worth it. Right. Well,

24:06

did you did you see the impression

24:08

he was just gonna make a lot

24:11

of money as they come in? Did

24:13

you see that Jeff Stein report that

24:15

now they're meeting about these rare earth

24:17

metals? Yes. Like oh shit like China

24:19

cut those off that was the most

24:21

obvious The most obvious tactic China would

24:23

take. It's like, you didn't think about

24:25

this? This didn't occur to you before

24:27

now? I mean, not that that surprises

24:29

me because all of this attempt to

24:31

sane wash him or, oh, actually, you

24:34

don't understand the grand plan and the

24:36

40 chess and the treasury bonds and

24:38

the de-dollarization, we're going to use the

24:40

staple coin to, you know, be able

24:42

to prop up the dollar, whatever. That

24:44

was not going on. Trump likes tariffs

24:46

because he likes power. He likes to

24:48

be put in the position of having

24:50

these people come to him and have

24:52

to ask for what they want and

24:54

him being able to bully him. He

24:56

likes that. And so that's what he

24:59

likes about tariffs. Now I think other

25:01

people in the administration had different ideas

25:03

of what this was going to be

25:05

about, whether it's, oh, we're going to

25:07

bring the manufacturing jobs back, whether it's,

25:09

oh, we're going to try to get

25:11

the Treasury yields down, which that completely

25:13

and utterly failed. There were some chamber

25:15

of commerce types that were like, we're

25:17

going to use the threat of tariffs

25:19

to actually get to zero percent tariffs,

25:21

which, you know, was, it's like, okay,

25:24

well, then you could have just stayed

25:26

in TPP in TPP in TPP. I

25:28

think it really comes down to vibes

25:30

and control and power. And I also

25:32

think that truly the connective tissue, and

25:34

this gets to some of the comments

25:36

in the Democratic Party about oligarchy, et

25:38

cetera, truly the connective tissue between all

25:40

of these things is just an all-out

25:42

assault on the working class. You know,

25:44

they, terrorists are deeply regressive. They've been

25:46

feeding insider info to close, you know,

25:49

Wall Street executives, etc. who can benefit

25:51

from these massive market movements. They're going

25:53

to give a huge tax cut to

25:55

the rich. Doge is all about destroying

25:57

the government's ability to regulate so that

25:59

business can treat workers however the hell

26:01

they want and so that you have

26:03

no access to social safety net. benefit

26:05

programs even if you technically are entitled

26:07

to them. So you know that to

26:09

me is the most cohesive way of

26:11

understanding an actual project here. And the

26:14

tariffs also I think you're right that

26:16

it's about him consolidating power and also

26:18

wanting people to come to him so

26:20

he can be the deal maker. But

26:22

there's also the insane almost conservative ideological

26:24

thing that might be behind it where

26:26

he may be getting some backing from

26:28

looney tune like gold standard conservatives like

26:30

who think this is a way to

26:32

basically eliminate the income tax right on

26:34

that's a way that he talks about

26:36

right he talks about McKinley and this

26:39

era as a time waxing poetically about

26:41

how there was no income tax at

26:43

this time and how tariffs could be

26:45

replacing that I mean that's not going

26:47

to happen right obviously but I do

26:49

think he thinks that way yeah well

26:51

and Not only was there no income

26:53

tax at that time, there was next

26:55

to no like labor regulation at that

26:57

time, people who want to champion this

26:59

policy like the Batias of the world,

27:01

want to evoke images of the 1953,

27:04

like the peak of post-war manufacturing in

27:06

America when these were good regulated.

27:08

Union jobs by and

27:10

large Trump's not

27:12

saying that Trump's saying

27:14

hey Let's go

27:16

back to the turn

27:18

of the century

27:20

and when we didn't

27:22

have child labor

27:24

laws to deal with

27:26

when you know

27:29

People it was much

27:31

more of a

27:33

Dickensian type atmosphere. You're

27:35

talking up in

27:37

Sinclair the jungle You're

27:39

talking triangle shirt

27:41

waste fire. You're talking

27:43

extremely low wages

27:45

Extremely dangerous extremely dirty.

27:47

These were not

27:49

good jobs Trump wants

27:51

to put American

27:54

workers back in this,

27:56

you know Sweatshop

27:58

era race to the

28:00

bottom He's not

28:02

looking to clearly to

28:04

rebuild some sort

28:06

of working -class power

28:08

quite the opposite And

28:10

in that way

28:12

his interests with the

28:14

tariffs are quite

28:16

aligned with the interests

28:19

of whether it's

28:21

Elon Musk or any

28:23

of the other

28:25

You know favored oligarchs

28:27

It really also

28:29

does feel like They

28:31

did not understand

28:33

the dynamic between China

28:35

and us I

28:37

mean, it's as if

28:39

like it never

28:41

occurred to them say

28:44

like what percentage

28:46

of their exports are

28:48

coming here and

28:50

That they didn't occur

28:52

to them like

28:54

they might be able

28:56

to make up

28:58

that 12 % other

29:00

places like they can

29:02

play hardball with

29:04

us I mean on

29:06

some level it

29:09

feels like Iraq

29:11

in many ways the

29:13

Iraq invasion and occupation

29:17

The US invasion and occupation of

29:19

Iraq Revealed the

29:21

United States in many respects

29:23

as a paper tiger and

29:25

it feels like this moment

29:27

With the tariffs regardless of

29:29

if we go back to

29:31

What the status quo was

29:34

six months ago is Also

29:36

now revealed the sort of

29:38

like that there's a bit

29:40

of it from an economic

29:42

standpoint We're a bit of

29:44

a paper tiger because you

29:46

know the idea of apparently

29:49

like Bloomberg reported that American

29:51

meat exports there was 12

29:53

,000 metric tons of US

29:55

pork Was

29:58

ordered uh... by

30:00

chinese they canceled

30:02

you know it with our system

30:05

is just not

30:07

prepared to absorb like

30:10

their who do we sell

30:12

to And I think like

30:14

Australia doesn't want our meat.

30:16

That's the thing that they were

30:18

upset about and it's because no,

30:21

they have plenty of cattle and

30:23

beef and also it's more regulated.

30:25

So it's safer. So they don't

30:27

want our dirty, our turning meat.

30:29

Well, I would say too that,

30:31

you know, a preview of this

30:33

was when we through the entire

30:35

economic sanctions playbook at Russia. thinking

30:38

that that would cause you

30:40

know severe economic contraction and

30:42

potentially regime collapse within Russia

30:45

and you know not not going to

30:47

say that it was nothing for them

30:49

but they were able to sustain

30:51

that to withstand that far better

30:53

than most economists but then any

30:56

economist I saw expected and you

30:58

know part of that is that

31:00

Russia and China and the Brooks

31:03

coalition in general but specifically those

31:05

two nations they have recognized that

31:07

their dependence on the U.S. and

31:10

on our financial and banking system

31:12

and these sorts of things that

31:14

this was a vulnerability for them.

31:16

So they've been preparing and so

31:18

you know China also had a

31:21

little bit I think we threw

31:23

all of that at Russia in this incredible

31:25

thanks for you that also

31:27

helped them to game out

31:29

what this could potentially look like

31:31

for them. and apparently according

31:33

to financial times Beijing

31:36

basically said you got

31:38

to cancel all your

31:41

unilateral tariff measures before

31:43

you can engage in trade

31:45

talks like I mean

31:47

they're they're basically saying

31:49

we're not sitting down with you

31:51

unless you go back to zero

31:53

and you know it is it's going

31:55

to be interesting to see

31:58

like you know if Trump I

32:00

think there's probably like a three

32:02

week window that we're already going

32:04

to see some type of, we're

32:06

going to see the implications of

32:08

this within two or three weeks,

32:10

right? Like the, the, the, however

32:12

the long the supply line sort

32:14

of cycle was, however much slack

32:17

there was in there, that's going

32:19

to run out. And I think

32:21

that's like basically the timeline. If

32:23

he doesn't do reverse by then,

32:25

it's just going to get worse

32:27

and worse and worse for him.

32:29

and for frankly farmers and other

32:31

manufacturers and it's all it's going

32:33

to be a mess. And manufacturing

32:35

jobs we just saw Intel and

32:37

I know that they've had problems

32:40

for a while but they're laying

32:42

off 20% of their workforce and

32:44

you're seeing like I think it

32:46

was the the Richmond Fed of

32:48

the 12 Fed districts was projecting.

32:50

incredible losses of manufacturing jobs in

32:52

particular. So, like, this is going

32:54

to have an effect and people

32:56

are going to feel that in

32:58

real life, as Trump says, this

33:00

is about bringing manufacturing back, and

33:02

I wonder what the political implications

33:05

are of that, just because Trump

33:07

has a very, he has a

33:09

high floor. Like, I don't know

33:11

if he gets down to 17%

33:13

disapproval ever or something like that,

33:15

because he has this cult following.

33:17

But maybe that's what does it.

33:19

right? When we start to lose

33:21

jobs and if the economy really

33:23

gets into a deeper session, I

33:25

don't know what you think about

33:28

that crystal. I really don't know.

33:30

To me, it's still an open

33:32

question because I think you're right

33:34

to say we can't project what

33:36

we've seen in the past about

33:38

how high his floor is into

33:40

this administration because this administration is

33:42

qualitatively different than what we saw

33:44

in Trump 1.0. And also, you

33:46

know, typically... when leaders face some

33:48

sort of a crisis and they

33:50

have to manage it and it

33:53

goes well or it goes poorly,

33:55

usually there was some sort of

33:57

an external factor that at least

33:59

contributed to that crisis. The fact

34:01

that this is wholly 100% self-generated

34:03

is really an extraordinary thing. And

34:05

Sam is exactly right. You have

34:07

been digging into this like transport

34:09

and logistics Twitter like these guys

34:11

that follow the trucking industry or

34:13

that manage the ports and these

34:16

sorts of things. And apparently, it

34:18

takes about 30 days to get

34:20

cargo from China to LA. That'll

34:22

be the port where you first

34:24

start to really see things hit.

34:26

And then it's about 45 days

34:28

to Houston and then other places,

34:30

the timing is a little bit

34:32

different. But we're coming up on

34:34

that. Now one thing I'll say

34:36

is that some of these businesses

34:38

anticipated, they knew some sort of

34:41

tariff regime was coming, they increased

34:43

their inventory in anticipation of that.

34:45

But even if he completely walks

34:47

back now, which is not happening

34:49

yet, even if he completely walks

34:51

away now, I think there's gonna

34:53

be a tremendous impact. And we

34:55

all saw the way in COVID,

34:57

you can't just snap your fingers

34:59

and have these things go back

35:01

to normal. There's going to be

35:04

a massive impact from this. You

35:06

had Walmart and Home Depot, the

35:08

CEOs of these companies go to

35:10

Trump and say, hey, we're a

35:12

couple weeks from having empty parts,

35:14

you know, shelves, like this is

35:16

getting very real. You just, you

35:18

don't have this, a cushion. You

35:20

don't have a cushion. And maybe

35:22

you thought, okay, maybe he's serious

35:24

about 10 or 20% tariffs. Here's

35:26

how I can plan. Here's how

35:29

I can deal with that. When

35:31

you get to 145%, like it's

35:33

over, it's done. There's nothing you

35:35

can do. There is no way

35:37

you can withstand that. And so.

35:39

You'll see a number of small

35:41

business bankruptcies, you'll see them getting

35:43

wiped out, you're going to see

35:45

prices going up, Amazon sellers are

35:47

already hiking their prices now. That's

35:49

what's really wild is we're in

35:52

this sort of in-between period where

35:54

we all know it's going to

35:56

hit and it has not hit

35:58

yet and nobody knows exactly how

36:00

severe that's going to be. There's

36:02

that like, you can see the

36:04

tide going out and that's like,

36:06

this is like with tsunami time,

36:08

but we just don't know how.

36:10

much you have to run up

36:12

the beach at this point to

36:15

get to high ground and I

36:17

mean I don't know in any

36:19

other context I would ever even

36:21

have this thought but he's so

36:23

I he's he's so I think

36:25

like mentally unpredictable one wonders if

36:27

as he's getting hundreds of millions

36:29

of dollars coming in with this

36:31

meme coin thing if he's going

36:33

to fully sort of be able

36:35

to wrap his head around or

36:37

care about the implications of the

36:40

of the terrorists I mean if

36:42

Miller has been effective in shielding

36:44

him from the idea that he's

36:46

been basically telling the his administration

36:48

has been telling the Supreme Court

36:50

we're just not going to pay

36:52

attention you know building whatever sort

36:54

of like I think the Supreme

36:56

Court at the end of the

36:58

day wants to do what is

37:00

consistent with you know Republican and

37:03

conservative ideology but there's still some

37:05

of that like wait we're judges

37:07

type of mentality I wonder if

37:09

he's not shielded from that. Like,

37:11

we feel like I feel like

37:13

we're one good critique of Bissant

37:15

away where if like Navarro gets

37:17

a line in like, did you

37:19

see the shirt he was wearing

37:21

today? Bissant goes and then Navarro's

37:23

back into the oval office. Totally.

37:25

And you know, because Moscow's gone.

37:28

I really do think this is

37:30

sort of like. Oh, so Stephen

37:32

Miller, he's, Stephen Miller seems like

37:34

the shadow president, but then Navarro

37:36

is all over the tariff stuff,

37:38

but like, to that point in

37:40

that time interview, his quote was,

37:42

I love the concept of a

37:44

millionaire tax hike, but it quote,

37:46

may not be except. to the

37:48

public. So like that the point

37:51

is that that's how detached from

37:53

reality he is. He's how he

37:55

used to be able to be

37:57

a very effective crowd surfer but

37:59

since he lost the election he

38:01

has had no tether to any

38:03

sane society to any sense of

38:05

like liberal New York even like

38:07

elites right and he's been hold

38:09

up in Maralago. in OANNville, he

38:11

doesn't even understand that like you,

38:13

the, I know they're not going

38:16

to do this millionaire tax hike,

38:18

but you should know that that's

38:20

a good thing for you politically

38:22

if that's what you care about.

38:24

His view of the public is

38:26

like the billionaires in his cabinet.

38:28

Exactly. Like that's where he's getting

38:30

his reading from. He's like, well,

38:32

they probably won't like it, so

38:34

we're going to avoid it. I

38:36

mean, yeah, the, you know, one

38:39

of the things that I've been

38:41

thinking that I've been thinking that

38:43

I've been thinking that I've been

38:45

thinking that I've been thinking All

38:47

of these people are so brain

38:49

poisoned, they're so like online brain

38:51

poisoned. And I think one of

38:53

the qualities of having that particular

38:55

illness is that everything becomes sort

38:57

of unreal to you. You know,

38:59

so like the massive carnage that

39:01

you are perpetrating on the global

39:04

economy and small businesses and on

39:06

workers and what it's going to

39:08

do to prices. Like it feels

39:10

like nothing is really real, like,

39:12

nothing matters. You know, that's always

39:14

what people, oh, nothing really matters.

39:16

Nihilistic presidency. Yeah. And so I

39:18

think, I think it's that. I

39:20

think also, you know, in Trump's

39:22

first term, he did some tariffs,

39:24

much, much, much, much more limited

39:27

than what we're talking about here.

39:29

But there was an economic, like,

39:31

like, economists, were really concerned about

39:33

what those tariffs were going to

39:35

do and the price acts, and

39:37

what would it mean for farmers?

39:39

But I think in his mind,

39:41

he's like, well, it didn't come

39:43

to this catastrophic end that everyone

39:45

predicted. And so I think he

39:47

just doesn't, you know, he just

39:49

thinks he can do anything. and

39:52

that it will never have the

39:54

consequences that the experts are really

39:56

predicting. And you know, this plays

39:58

into his view of the polls

40:00

being wrong and those sorts of

40:02

things. So I do think that

40:04

there, plus he's a psychopath, so

40:06

that doesn't help things. And I

40:08

think there is just a total

40:10

disconnect from the actual impacts of

40:12

his policy. He definitely doesn't care

40:15

whether or not Republicans win the

40:17

midterms. of the House, have control

40:19

of the Senate. And as I

40:21

said before, you know, I think

40:23

you're going to see increasingly authoritarian

40:25

tactics and police state taxes. I'm

40:27

already seeing plenty of that, but

40:29

I think that's going to continue

40:31

to get ramped up as his

40:33

popularity slips, and there's more and

40:35

more need for him to crush

40:38

dissent and assert total control and

40:40

dominance. I mean, I think just

40:42

to expand on what you're saying,

40:44

like I think, you know, I

40:46

wonder part of what drives him

40:48

on the tariff front is that

40:50

Biden maintained those tariffs and in

40:52

some places you know whether it

40:54

was through like the chips act

40:56

or the IRA he expanded on

40:58

them and he needs to sort

41:00

of like I'm gonna be more

41:03

than Biden and and then on

41:05

the flip side in terms of

41:07

what we're gonna see in terms

41:09

of authoritarianism like in in Trump

41:11

1.0 it felt like whenever there

41:13

was any type of Scandal and

41:15

there was a ton of scandals

41:17

in that first time I wonder

41:19

people remember how many people had

41:21

to resign by even by this

41:23

point I think there was like

41:26

three or four five resignations this

41:28

like barely lasted a month or

41:30

two and but like the guy

41:32

from Oklahoma was at the EPA

41:34

was already talking about using like

41:36

his and yeah I mean there

41:38

was multiple of people who had

41:40

to be jettisoned they're not going

41:42

to jettison anybody they're basically in

41:44

for I think you know hexif

41:46

could literally be projecting war plans

41:48

you know on a on a

41:51

screen uh... on the Pentagon and

41:53

i think you would fine. But

41:55

in that iteration of the Trump

41:57

administration, they immediately went to attacking

41:59

a black person. Like it was

42:01

like, I mean, I can't remember,

42:03

like all the different, there was

42:05

like a half a dozen, whether

42:07

it was, you know, the squad

42:09

members, whether it was Capernic, I

42:11

mean, there was so many. And

42:14

I think they're going to use

42:16

immigrants in that same way this

42:18

time. And I think they're hoping

42:20

with that, that's going to be

42:22

their elixir, I guess, to get

42:24

out of, I don't know, a

42:26

bad news cycle. At least that's

42:28

Miller's perspective. He thinks his biggest

42:30

mistake in the first term was

42:32

like ever listening to anyone about

42:34

anything. Yeah, I mean that's what

42:36

in the the off-season while they

42:39

were out of office the whole

42:41

plan was okay whatever guardrails were

42:43

in place last time we may

42:45

need to make damn sure none

42:47

of those exist this time around

42:49

and this is actually a core

42:51

sort of magga movement belief is

42:53

that the problem with Trump 1.0

42:55

was that you had you know

42:57

John McCain there to give the

42:59

thumbs down on the health care

43:02

you had people like Jared Kushner

43:04

or Mark Millie or the deep

43:06

state or Esper to rein him

43:08

in when he says, hey, let's

43:10

shoot protesters in the knees. Like,

43:12

that is their assessment of what

43:14

went wrong in Trump point point,

43:16

one point out. So they took

43:18

a very intentional, that's part of

43:20

what Project 2025 was, very intentional

43:22

effort to make sure that whether

43:24

it's Republicans in Congress, whether it's

43:27

law firms, whether it's media, whether

43:29

it's universities, whether it's the courts,

43:31

these things are not going to

43:33

stand in their way this time.

43:35

And that's what Schedule F is

43:37

about as well, making sure you

43:39

only have loyalistic offense in place

43:41

so that. this time around if

43:43

Trump says hey I want to

43:45

do the insurrection act there's not

43:47

going to be anyone there to

43:50

say here's why that would be

43:52

really horrible and you shouldn't do

43:54

it and you know that's what

43:56

we've seen you couple that with

43:58

of course the fact the Supreme

44:00

Court gave him blanket immunity, more

44:02

or less, and you have someone

44:04

who is just completely unhinged, absolute

44:06

id, and going to go to

44:08

the most maximless places he has

44:10

ever imagined. You know, just one

44:12

other note on that. This is

44:15

a point that Emily Taczynski, who

44:17

I work with made that I

44:19

thought was astute. which is on

44:21

the terrorist specifically, if you actually

44:23

wanted to do a real like

44:25

industrial protectionist policy involving terrorists that

44:27

has some intelligence, some, you know,

44:29

some sort of intellect behind it,

44:31

you would have brought back Robert

44:33

Lighthouse, like whether you agree with

44:35

his ideology or not, this guy

44:38

who's thoughtful, knows what he's talking

44:40

about, could do something that was

44:42

actually coherent, but you don't go

44:44

with Lighthouse, instead you go with

44:46

Howard Lutnik and Peter Navarro, and

44:48

these types. Navarro is a complete

44:50

ideological crank who by the way

44:52

just got on a prison and

44:54

so was also in this like

44:56

yellow burn it all down mode.

44:58

Lutnik is seems to just be

45:01

a complete idiot and then you've

45:03

got Besson there to try to

45:05

like sane wash the whole enterprise.

45:07

So I thought that was an

45:09

interesting indication too of even Lighthouse

45:11

because he had some level of

45:13

intellectual independence even though he was

45:15

aligned with the stated magga protectionist

45:17

goals even he couldn't be brought

45:19

into this administration. uh... i mean

45:21

that's interesting i think again the

45:23

i think you're right the the

45:26

number one factor to get hired

45:28

was how much resistance are you

45:30

gonna put up uh... or you

45:32

know in my gonna be are

45:34

there either gonna be leaks about

45:36

the which is why we're not

45:38

seeing those same leaks this time

45:40

because they're all just loyalty was

45:42

just their number one uh... i

45:44

guess uh... credential that they needed

45:46

to get the job I want

45:49

to just turn before we go

45:51

and hold you a little longer

45:53

if you don't mind. The flip

45:55

side is how the Democrats are

45:57

responding to this. And there is

45:59

clearly a... uh... a a fight

46:01

going on the democratic party right

46:03

now it's unclear to me exactly

46:05

where everybody lines up but on

46:07

you know we're watching rama manual

46:09

you know get out there and

46:11

uh... uh... slotnik uh... complaining in

46:14

the slotkin sorry right note Slockin's,

46:16

Elissa Slockin. You're going to be

46:18

shot myself too. Whatever. She, you

46:20

know, arguing that people don't know

46:22

what the word oligarchy means and

46:24

all these, all these idiots are

46:26

showing up on this massive tour,

46:28

apparently without any idea of what

46:30

they're going to see. Yeah. And,

46:32

and then, you know, I, I

46:34

can't quite. figure out what's going

46:37

on with Martin and Hog at

46:39

the DNC. I don't know if

46:41

Hog is looking for candidates on

46:43

the same sort of criteria that

46:45

I would be. I heard him

46:47

say progressive, which was encouraging, but

46:49

I would like to know more

46:51

information about, you know, what the

46:53

credentials are for the primary challenges.

46:55

Yeah, I don't, I'm, I'm, that's

46:57

just a branding tool at this

46:59

point. Yeah. I'm David Hob curious,

47:02

let's say that. Yes, well I

47:04

like the idea of primaries and

47:06

I like the fact that like

47:08

the DNC, there is at least

47:10

someone at the DNC who realizes

47:12

we need to have a little

47:14

bit more churn than we're having,

47:16

you know, with our candidates. It's

47:18

just unclear to me what you

47:20

know, his credentials are in that

47:22

instance. What is your sense of

47:25

how this fight is breaking down?

47:27

Like, what's the next step? I

47:29

mean, it feels like there's Bernie

47:31

and AOC who are staking out

47:33

a vision for where Democrats go,

47:35

bootages is on his tour of

47:37

podcasts, which, you know, let a

47:39

thousand flowers bloom, but where is

47:41

the, you know, the person that

47:43

I want to vote for going

47:45

on those podcasts? What's your sense

47:47

of? that or is it just

47:50

too nascent? I know I think

47:52

there's some interesting dynamics developing. I

47:54

mean so first of all the

47:56

immediate instinct from most Democrats after

47:58

Trump's victory and the quote-unquote vibe

48:00

shift was to run and hide

48:02

capitulate vote for the Lake and

48:04

vote-unquote vibe shift was to run

48:06

and hide capitulate vote for the

48:08

Lake and Riley Act, Meeka and

48:10

Joe to run tomorrow lago, etc.

48:13

And so the people who really

48:15

stepped in the breach, you know

48:17

you had a few people emerge.

48:19

And Bernie and AOC have really

48:21

taken command. They provided the intellectual

48:23

framing. They've given people something to

48:25

do by showing up at these

48:27

big rallies and being in solidarity

48:29

together. And so I think they've

48:31

been really, really important. And you

48:33

also have a sense that, okay,

48:35

the way that the establishment Democrats

48:38

were fighting Trump, it didn't work,

48:40

right? It was a failure. And

48:42

meanwhile, you know, it starts to

48:44

become pretty obvious that some of

48:46

the things that Bernie was saying

48:48

were correct in had enough juice

48:50

to fight the fascist onslaught that

48:52

we're seeing now, whereas the liberal

48:54

approach, the, you know, embodied by

48:56

Biden, embodied by Kamala, did not

48:58

have enough strength to meet the

49:01

moment and did not offer enough

49:03

of a narrative. an oppositional narrative

49:05

to what Trump and the, you

49:07

know, and his fellow fascists are

49:09

ultimately pushing. So I think the

49:11

Democratic base, mostly they just want

49:13

people who are putting up a

49:15

fight because they feel themselves under

49:17

threat, but I also think they

49:19

have become ideologically more radicalized on

49:21

a... broad variety of issues. I

49:24

mean, you see this in Luigi

49:26

Posting, you see this just in

49:28

terms of, you know, the way

49:30

they're showing up these town halls

49:32

and the issues that they're talking

49:34

about, where they are in Palestine,

49:36

all of those sorts of things.

49:38

And so, you know, for, I've

49:40

been watching some MS NBC lately,

49:42

and for some of these hosts,

49:44

that is very uncomfortable. that Bernie

49:46

and AOC are really the leaders

49:49

of the Democratic Party and you

49:51

know the Rahm Emanuel wing of

49:53

the party is never going to

49:55

be okay with that. Doesn't matter

49:57

what. And so people are starting

49:59

to reveal which side of this

50:01

divide they're ultimately on. Some of

50:03

the people like I have to

50:05

give credit to like Nicole Wallace.

50:07

I think she genuinely sees Trump

50:09

as a fascist threat, genuinely sees

50:12

Bernie and AOC out there doing

50:14

something successful and is like great.

50:16

Let's go with that. And then

50:18

I think you see other people

50:20

like Alyssa Slockin who clearly sees

50:22

something that's working and wants to

50:24

try to undermine it. And you

50:26

know, it's going to be, I

50:28

think we're going to have more

50:30

people revealing themselves over the coming

50:32

months of who is going to

50:34

say, okay, this is the direction

50:37

that is working that people are

50:39

responding to, we can do something

50:41

with, and who are going to

50:43

actively try to undercut it. also

50:45

like the abundance agenda people kind

50:47

of you know fit into this

50:49

somewhere as well but um but

50:51

yeah I think I think that's

50:53

where I see things shaking out

50:55

and you know the last thing

50:57

I'll say is that I've been

51:00

thinking about recently is it goes

51:02

back to the millionaire tax thing.

51:04

Trump says you know the public

51:06

won't support a millionaire tax he

51:08

also said that it would be

51:10

very disruptive. Imagine this man saying

51:12

that this would be too disruptive

51:14

and millionaires will lose the country

51:16

leave the country etc I saw

51:18

someone saying listen if you actually

51:20

polled millionaires Would you rather get

51:22

taxed a little bit more through

51:25

a millionaires tax like something or

51:27

a wealth tax in the AOC

51:29

or Bernie would propose or would

51:31

you rather have this insane trade

51:33

war that could literally destroy the

51:35

entire global economy like there is

51:37

no doubt what they would pick

51:39

and so I think that Trumpism

51:41

right now is making a more

51:43

left-wing solution, not only more necessary

51:45

for a democratic base, but more

51:48

palatable across the board, because you

51:50

see the alternative, is not only

51:52

a loss of democracy, which business

51:54

doesn't really care about, not only

51:56

a rise of fascism, but a...

51:58

like potential economic devastation that is

52:00

also unacceptable. And so it reminds

52:02

me of the way that the

52:04

FDR coalition was able to come

52:06

together as like, okay, well, if

52:08

you business leaders don't get on

52:10

board with this. where you're having

52:13

to be yes tax more and

52:15

yes fund more of a social

52:17

safety net, the communists are either

52:19

going to take your shit or

52:21

you've got the fascists waiting in

52:23

the wings as well. Now some

52:25

of the business would have gone

52:27

with the fascists but enough was

52:29

able to come together that you're

52:31

able to create this durable coalition.

52:33

So I think there are some

52:36

remarkable political possibilities that exist right

52:38

now that did not exist in

52:40

the past. However I'm also acutely

52:42

aware that we have to even

52:44

get to that point and I

52:46

am worried about you know. even

52:48

being able to make it to

52:50

elections that are free and fair

52:52

enough that people genuinely have a

52:54

choice of the political direction of

52:56

the future. We're going to talk

52:58

later in the fun half about

53:01

this millionaire text because to me

53:03

what it shows is like fundamentally

53:05

There is no populist movement amongst

53:07

the Republicans. There may be a

53:09

faction, you know, Steve Bannon may

53:11

have some vision for this, but

53:13

fundamentally, there's just no way they're

53:15

going to raise taxes on wealthy

53:17

people. It is a Republican party.

53:19

He is a Republican president. He

53:21

still needs them on some level.

53:24

He dally, you know, he played

53:26

footsy with it for a day

53:28

or two. Somebody brought it up

53:30

in the White House and it

53:32

was immediately leaked in every, you

53:34

know, Republican stalwart jumped on and

53:36

including Mike Johnson. But the thing

53:38

in terms of the Democrats that

53:40

is really different now that I

53:42

think was eight years ago in

53:44

2017 at this time it was

53:47

something like 60% of Democrats if

53:49

you asked them what do you

53:51

want Democrats to do with the

53:53

Trump administration? They would have said

53:55

compromise. Come to a middle ground

53:57

on legislation, etc. etc. etc. It

53:59

is completely flipped now. and i

54:01

think that is a i think

54:03

that's like in part uh... because

54:05

of trump uh... but i think

54:07

it's also a part in terms

54:09

of like uh... generationally people understanding

54:12

where the republican party is the

54:14

only people going out there like

54:16

you say who were taking a

54:18

polarized position was a oc and

54:20

burning uh... and the you know

54:22

chuch humor goes in is like

54:24

well we gotta fund the government

54:26

because it's the only way i

54:28

get again on my anti-Semitism tour

54:30

and uh... and I think it's

54:32

very important, obviously, that and say,

54:35

okay, I'm going to make it

54:37

look like I'm having a fight

54:39

by saying the word fight and

54:41

tough in football, but you're not

54:43

really having that much of a

54:45

fight. You know, it's all got

54:47

to be on the process stuff,

54:49

which I think is very important,

54:51

obviously, and I really do think

54:53

that Trump is an authoritarian threat.

54:55

But on a policy level, What

54:58

legislation would she do that the

55:01

Republicans aren't going to do in

55:03

some fashion? She may temper the

55:05

distribution of tax cuts and whatnot,

55:07

but I'm just not, there's no

55:10

clear polarized lines. They'll say, you

55:12

know, kitchen table issues, but they

55:14

won't actually describe what that is.

55:16

It's just like... It's fascinating. What

55:19

you were talking about kitchen table

55:21

issues. What are those... Right. Well,

55:23

and this is what- And so

55:25

we should be talking about more.

55:28

This is the power of the

55:30

oligarchy frame, is that encompasses not

55:32

only the assault on democracy, but

55:34

also it's a material critique as

55:37

well. And so that's why I

55:39

think it's actually the perfect framing

55:41

because you can hang not only

55:43

the, you know, tax cuts for

55:46

the rich on it, you can

55:48

also hang the, you know, mass

55:50

deportation with no due process into

55:52

a foreign gulag and assault on

55:55

all of our rights, the insider

55:57

trading, you know, doge in the

55:59

defenestration of the regulatory state, so

56:01

the big business and the favored

56:04

Algar class. can do whatever they

56:06

want. There's all sorts of pieces

56:08

that the Trump administration is fomenting

56:10

right now that fits squarely into

56:13

that framing. And again, it's both

56:15

about your rights. and democracy, but

56:17

it also has the right sort

56:20

of divisive politics that is around

56:22

a class critique. And so I,

56:24

which is exactly why this, Alissa's

56:26

Watkins of the world say, oh,

56:29

no, not that. Let's not talk

56:31

about that, right? Because it's uncomfortable

56:33

for her and, you know, whatever

56:35

part of the Democratic Party that

56:38

she represents. And I'll be watching

56:40

Pete very closely because I do

56:42

think, I mean, Pete has rhetorical

56:44

skill, you know, I think he

56:47

came off pretty well in that

56:49

podcast, he can go into Fox

56:51

News, etc. But I'm very skeptical

56:53

of him and, you know, expect

56:56

him much more to align with

56:58

this sort of illicit slot can

57:00

winging the party. I could easily

57:02

see a sort of like AOC

57:05

versus Pete primary coming at us

57:07

in 2028. I wonder if Slotkin

57:09

would appreciate more like eat the

57:11

rich campaigns. Right? I mean, like,

57:14

well, that's so complicated. I don't

57:16

get it. Actually, the rich, it's

57:18

too complicated. Yeah. Like, I mean,

57:20

I, you know, substitute what you

57:23

want for the word oligarchy. Right.

57:25

It's, it's, it's, it's impressive that

57:27

she's trying to make that argument

57:29

in Michigan of all places. Yeah.

57:32

Right? I mean, because you got

57:34

a little bit of higher union

57:36

density there and people, that's not

57:38

a word that people is so,

57:41

I guess bizarre for people in

57:43

Michigan. I know it's we'll see

57:45

how far that goes. Crystal Ball,

57:47

thank you so much for your

57:50

time today. People will put a

57:52

link obviously to Crystal Kyle and

57:54

friends and to Breaking Points. Appreciate

57:56

your time. Doing great work over

57:59

there. Thanks to you guys too.

58:01

Always great to see you. Great

58:03

to see you. in the fun

58:05

after you want to do now.

58:08

Let's do it. No, this is

58:10

too fun. It's Friday. Come on.

58:12

Can't delay the Chuck Schumer gratification.

58:14

Yes, this is it. We're going

58:17

to be very aroused. Folks are

58:19

going to get aroused with this

58:21

clip and I'm putting you on

58:23

notice right now. One thing you

58:26

should know going into this. I

58:28

don't know if there's still roommates

58:30

in Washington DC, but Durbin and

58:33

Schumer. were roommates in DC. Yeah.

58:35

You know, maybe, maybe. They're doing

58:37

like a bunk situation. I don't

58:39

know if they had bunk beds

58:42

or, you know, it was more

58:44

like the odd couple, when they

58:46

first came to DC, they were

58:48

roommates. And there was some talk

58:51

that like they may have been

58:53

rivals to follow Harry Reed on

58:55

some level. Dick Durbin has... announced

58:58

his retirement. Now I think Durbin

59:00

is a little bit older than

59:02

Chuck Schumer. He is, yeah, but

59:05

this is a big one because

59:07

he was one of the 10

59:09

that voted for the dirty continuing

59:11

resolution, right? Durbin was one of

59:13

those 10. Can we just double

59:16

check and fact check that Russ

59:18

that voted to wish humor to

59:20

keep the government open? But and

59:22

everybody there was... not for re-election

59:25

in 2026 or retiring like Shihi

59:27

in New Hampshire and now Durbin,

59:29

a formally announced it, but it

59:31

was speculated because he's literally 80

59:34

years old. And here is Chuck

59:36

Schumer asked if, uh, dude, now

59:38

that you have no roommate, what

59:40

are you doing? And I think

59:42

it's time for me to pass

59:45

the torch on to another candidate.

59:49

But have you given any thought

59:51

to a more specific timeline? When

59:53

it comes to passing the torch,

59:56

yourself, are you even giving that

59:58

some thought right now? Right now

1:00:00

I am focused on showing the

1:00:03

American people. how bad Medicaid would

1:00:05

be particularly in our rural areas.

1:00:07

That's my focus. I am totally

1:00:09

focused on that. As you said,

1:00:12

I was out on Long Island

1:00:14

today. I have visited all six.

1:00:16

The bailies. Six of the seven

1:00:19

Republican congressional districts talking about tariffs,

1:00:21

talking about the economy, talking about

1:00:23

how bad cutting Medicaid would be,

1:00:26

particularly in our rural areas. That's

1:00:28

my focus. And I think it's

1:00:30

time. Now, I have a couple

1:00:33

of issues with this. uh... not

1:00:35

surprising i think this is

1:00:37

an uncontroversial

1:00:40

statement the question

1:00:43

of anti-Semitism

1:00:46

has been the biggest

1:00:48

fig leaf and cover

1:00:51

and mechanism

1:00:53

for the most authoritarian

1:00:57

uh... to this date authoritarian

1:01:01

You have people who are

1:01:03

disappeared, you have people who

1:01:05

are arrested without warrants,

1:01:07

Mahmoud Khalil, arrested without

1:01:09

warrants, you have universities

1:01:11

defunded, you have an

1:01:14

attempt to have a

1:01:16

consent decree over Colombia,

1:01:18

all in the name of fighting

1:01:21

anti-Semitism, and Shuck Schumer's

1:01:23

biggest tour so far of

1:01:25

this year, to the extent that

1:01:28

it wasn't canceled. was on

1:01:30

his anti-Semitism book. Reinforcing the

1:01:32

framing of the fascist Trump administration

1:01:34

as it locks up student activists

1:01:37

for their speech. That is what

1:01:39

the opposition leader of the Democrats

1:01:41

was doing and he may have

1:01:43

some more liberal veneer on it and

1:01:45

he may give some lip service to the Palestinian

1:01:48

struggle or their suffering

1:01:50

currently. But fundamentally the whole

1:01:52

premise of his book reinforces...

1:01:54

the ideology that a fascist

1:01:56

administration is employing, employing, employing

1:01:58

right now. Liberals I... this

1:02:00

are fascist enablers now period I

1:02:02

will say this you know it

1:02:05

would be one thing you know

1:02:07

if Mahmoud Kaleel was scooped up

1:02:09

by ice in New York and

1:02:12

his wife wasn't a citizen you

1:02:14

know she was a citizen let's

1:02:16

say yeah living in the state

1:02:19

of New York then one would

1:02:21

expect Chuck Schumer not Ed Markey

1:02:23

for Massachusetts or other politicians going

1:02:26

and speaking out and trying to

1:02:28

visit with him and whatnot. Five,

1:02:30

oh wait, I'm sorry. It turns

1:02:33

out though, actually Kaleel was arrested

1:02:35

in New York. I mean, so

1:02:38

he's out on Long Island, explain

1:02:40

to people how the tariffs are

1:02:42

going to hurt them. Yeah, um,

1:02:45

the, which I'm sorry. The idea

1:02:47

that you... if i was not

1:02:49

going to rerun election i wouldn't

1:02:52

be able to vote let just

1:02:54

let let this is like partial

1:02:56

both well wait if you're running

1:02:59

for re election isn't that a

1:03:01

split focus on your number one

1:03:03

mission of telling how bad the

1:03:06

economy is it seems to me

1:03:08

that announces now so that it's

1:03:10

not a distraction and he can

1:03:13

do more of his work and

1:03:15

focus on his work. Like imagine

1:03:17

if Chuck Schumer did not have

1:03:20

to go hat in hand time

1:03:22

and time again to Facebook or

1:03:25

meta or to all these people

1:03:27

on Wall Street. Imagine if he

1:03:29

didn't have to do that, if

1:03:32

we could take that off his

1:03:34

place and really allow him to

1:03:36

focus. We really allowed him the

1:03:39

focus. Like how does even... A

1:03:41

reporter asking him this question, not

1:03:43

see the contradiction. Wait, running for

1:03:46

re-election is not splitting your focus

1:03:48

at all? Yeah. Like give me

1:03:50

a break. Answer the question. Just

1:03:53

say I don't want to I

1:03:55

don't want to talk about it.

1:03:57

Yeah, I would say maybe the

1:04:00

stump, like there's different things you

1:04:02

have to do, Chuck. There's the

1:04:05

stump speech in Long Island or

1:04:07

wherever, and there is the long-term

1:04:09

strategy for your party. Yeah. Those

1:04:12

are two things you should be

1:04:14

able to juggle at the same

1:04:16

time. The leader of the Democrats

1:04:19

in the Senate, I just want

1:04:21

to remind people about that. Not

1:04:23

that he's acting like a leader.

1:04:26

He's acting like a leader. Like,

1:04:28

I mean, that's how it's done.

1:04:30

And I don't know who the

1:04:33

next leader of the Democrats will

1:04:35

be in the Senate, Chuck Shumor's

1:04:37

on borrowed time, but Van Hollen

1:04:40

definitely threw his hat in the

1:04:42

ring with that. And even if

1:04:44

he doesn't end up being in

1:04:47

leadership, the point is that it,

1:04:49

like, he, Shumor got embarrassed by

1:04:52

somebody who actually decided to use

1:04:54

the bully pulpit to oppose Donald

1:04:56

Trump. and to demonstrate it and

1:04:59

do so with action and now

1:05:01

you see other democrats following. So...

1:05:03

All right folks, we're going to

1:05:06

head to the fun half. Just

1:05:08

a reminder to your support that

1:05:10

makes this show possible you can

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become a member of Join the

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Majority report.com. When you do not

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this show survive and thrive. Join

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the majority report.com. Also, the risk

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of splitting focus, just coffee. Co-op.

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issues and a lot of the

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people who work there they work

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10% off coupon code majority left

1:05:59

Wreckening. Yeah, next week on Left

1:06:01

Reckoning Tuesday, we have Vincent Bevenz

1:06:04

on, talking about his great peace

1:06:06

in the nation on Brazil's MST,

1:06:08

the Movemento Cemterra, Landless Workers' Movement.

1:06:10

We recorded that yesterday, but yesterday,

1:06:12

we recorded that yesterday, but it's,

1:06:14

we're going to put it on

1:06:17

Sunday, but it's so good, we're

1:06:19

going to release everybody on the

1:06:21

public show, but check out the

1:06:23

Sunday show, patron and David and

1:06:25

David and I are going to

1:06:27

be talking about it. 3

1:06:30

months from now, 6 months

1:06:33

from now, 9 months from

1:06:35

now, and I don't think

1:06:37

it's gonna be the same

1:06:39

as it looks like in

1:06:42

6 months from now, and

1:06:44

I don't know if it's

1:06:46

necessarily gonna be better 6

1:06:48

months from now than it

1:06:51

is 3 months from now,

1:06:53

but I think around 18

1:06:55

months out we're gonna look

1:06:57

back and go like, wow!

1:07:00

What? What is that going

1:07:02

on? It's nuts! Wait a

1:07:04

second, hold on, for, hold

1:07:06

on for a second. Emma,

1:07:09

welcome to the program. Hey!

1:07:11

Matt! What is up, everyone?

1:07:13

Fun. No, Mickey. You did

1:07:15

it! Let's go Brandon. Let's

1:07:18

go Brandon. Bradley

1:07:22

you want to say hello?

1:07:24

Sorry to disappoint everyone. I'm

1:07:26

just a random guy. It's

1:07:28

all the boys today! Fundamentally

1:07:31

false. No, I'm sorry. Stop

1:07:33

talking for a second. Where

1:07:35

is this coming from dude?

1:07:38

But dude, uh, you want

1:07:40

to smoke his, um, 78?

1:07:42

Yes. Is this me? Oh,

1:07:44

I'll just make it. Think

1:07:47

it is you? Who is

1:07:49

you? Oh, it goes out.

1:07:51

Every single freaking day. What's

1:07:54

on your mind? Sports. We

1:07:56

can discuss free markets and

1:07:58

we can discuss capitalism. I'm

1:08:01

gonna go to my life.

1:08:03

Who libertarians? They're so stupid

1:08:05

though. Common sense says, of

1:08:07

course. Gobbledygook. We fucking nailed

1:08:10

him. So what, 79 plus

1:08:12

21? Challenge met. I'm positive

1:08:14

equivory. I believe 96, I

1:08:17

want to say. 857. 210.

1:08:19

35.501. One half. Three eight.

1:08:21

Three eight. Three eight. Three

1:08:23

eight. Nine 11, for instance.

1:08:26

$3,400, $1,900.5, $4, $3 trillion

1:08:28

sold. It's a zero-sum game.

1:08:30

Actually, you're making a thing

1:08:33

less of it. But let

1:08:35

me say this. Poop. You

1:08:37

can call Satire, Sam, or

1:08:40

Sam goes at Satire. On

1:08:42

top of it all? Yeah.

1:08:44

My favorite part about you

1:08:46

is just like every day,

1:08:49

all day, like everything you

1:08:51

do. Without a duck. Hey

1:08:53

buddy, we seen you. It's

1:08:59

just the week being weeded

1:09:01

out, obviously. Yeah, sun's out,

1:09:03

guns out. I don't know.

1:09:06

But you should know. People

1:09:08

just don't like to entertain

1:09:10

ideas anymore. I have a

1:09:13

question, who cares? Our chat

1:09:15

is enabled, because I love

1:09:17

it. I do love that.

1:09:20

Look, gotta jump, gotta be

1:09:22

quick. I get a jump.

1:09:24

I'm losing. Two

1:09:29

o'clock, we're already late, and

1:09:31

the guy's being a

1:09:33

dick. So screw him. Um,

1:09:36

um... Sent to a glove?

1:09:38

Outrageous. Like, what is

1:09:40

wrong with you? Love you,

1:09:43

bye bye. We

1:09:52

are back Sam Cedar and

1:09:54

Viglin on the majority report.

1:09:57

It is Friday and the

1:09:59

fun half and we're gonna

1:10:02

have some fun everybody super

1:10:04

fun yes It is a

1:10:07

story that highlights something that

1:10:09

some people within our press,

1:10:12

in our media, and you

1:10:14

know, what's her name, Bataya

1:10:17

Sargan Akad, or what? Batia

1:10:19

Unger Sargan. Okay. What? She,

1:10:22

you know who she is?

1:10:24

No. We played her before.

1:10:27

She was the one who

1:10:29

said, like, you know, Trump

1:10:32

is, is, is, to the

1:10:34

left of. Yes. Whose dad

1:10:36

is a Harvard neurologist. And,

1:10:39

and, and, and let's be

1:10:41

clear. I mean, there's, there's

1:10:44

a couple of things to

1:10:46

be learned from this whole

1:10:49

question of, Donald Trump and

1:10:51

pop up. This is a

1:10:54

Washington Post headline from a

1:10:56

Wednesday. Trump's inner circle ways

1:10:59

push for higher taxes on

1:11:01

millionaires. Now, as you know,

1:11:04

there is a budget bill

1:11:06

that is winding its way

1:11:09

through the House and the

1:11:11

Senate. It's going to come

1:11:14

to the head supposedly in

1:11:16

September. And they are cutting.

1:11:19

They're going to have to

1:11:21

cut a lot from Medicaid

1:11:24

to get to the numbers

1:11:26

where we've talked about this,

1:11:29

how they're trying to schemey.

1:11:31

and sort of sub subterraneanly

1:11:34

cut Medicaid and make it

1:11:36

look like it's the fault

1:11:39

of the states. They're coming

1:11:41

up with all different ways

1:11:44

because they are desperate to

1:11:46

extend Donald Trump's tax cuts,

1:11:49

which were much more favorable

1:11:51

to the wealthy than they

1:11:54

were, to folks who were

1:11:56

making less than, let's say,

1:11:58

whatever, $125,000. and to expand

1:12:01

on that disparity that

1:12:03

the wealthy will get even

1:12:05

that much more in terms of

1:12:08

of tax cuts there are

1:12:10

some out there who would lead

1:12:12

you to believe that Donald

1:12:14

Trump is leading a

1:12:17

magga populist movement now

1:12:19

i think it's true that Donald

1:12:21

Trump will do whatever it

1:12:23

takes for him to get

1:12:26

elected he doesn't care

1:12:28

I don't think that he

1:12:30

has some populist streak inside

1:12:32

him, but is it possible

1:12:35

that he could in himself

1:12:37

definitely raise it? Are there

1:12:39

people in his coalition

1:12:41

that feel like there has to

1:12:44

be some type of economic

1:12:46

populism? Usually, it's like this

1:12:48

guy, Steve Bannon, who feels

1:12:50

that it should just be

1:12:52

for, you know, real, real Americans,

1:12:55

real pure Americans. should get

1:12:58

this as part of his

1:13:00

whole movement. But this is

1:13:02

Steve Bannon on Wednesday as

1:13:04

they, somebody is floating the

1:13:07

idea enough so that

1:13:09

Jeff Stein at the

1:13:11

Washington Post got it.

1:13:13

I don't imagine Jeff

1:13:15

Stein has too many

1:13:17

connections within the Trump

1:13:20

administration. But Stein wrote

1:13:22

Donald Trump's inner circle.

1:13:25

is weighing whether the White House

1:13:27

should back raising taxes on

1:13:29

Americans earning more than $1

1:13:31

million per year as part

1:13:33

of the Republican 2025 tax

1:13:35

legislation. This according to two

1:13:37

administration officials and three other

1:13:39

people briefed on the matter.

1:13:41

It has gotten largely a

1:13:43

chilly reception among Republicans on

1:13:46

Capitol Hill. No. What? I know that's

1:13:48

shocking. I know that's shocking. I

1:13:50

mean, what happened to Maga

1:13:52

Populism? I know that's shocking.

1:13:55

RIP Maga Populism, January 2025

1:13:57

to April 2025. Now JD Vance.

1:13:59

and budget director russle vote have

1:14:02

expressed openness to the idea

1:14:04

in internal administration deliberation in

1:14:06

our viewed as supportive said

1:14:08

the people who spoke on

1:14:10

the condition of a non

1:14:12

anonymity to describe the private

1:14:14

talks and i will tell

1:14:16

you right now it's their

1:14:18

aides who are the president

1:14:20

of the you're giving the

1:14:23

yeah because they want this

1:14:25

out there right like It

1:14:27

is helpful for them in

1:14:29

the same way that it

1:14:31

was helpful for other people

1:14:33

to say, Donald Trump's actually

1:14:35

a populist. There is no

1:14:37

populist movement on the right.

1:14:39

Anti-war too. There is no

1:14:41

populist movement on the right.

1:14:43

They may, like, you know,

1:14:45

throw it around. They may,

1:14:47

you know, suggest it. But

1:14:49

they're never going to do

1:14:52

that because you don't vote

1:14:54

for a president. You vote

1:14:56

for every, for its constituency

1:14:58

too. Which is why you

1:15:00

know Mike Johnson took about

1:15:02

30 seconds to kill this

1:15:04

Stephen Bannon who served as

1:15:06

the Trump's chief strategy during

1:15:08

has been publicly urging Trump

1:15:10

to endorse the plan as

1:15:12

part of a way of

1:15:14

defying Democratic attacks on the

1:15:16

GOP as party of the

1:15:18

rich now Someone should get

1:15:20

at least Slotnik on the

1:15:23

phone and did I say

1:15:25

in that? Alyssa Slotkin. Okay

1:15:27

Somebody should get everybody right

1:15:29

this time somebody should get

1:15:31

everybody on the phone and

1:15:33

tell them People understand oligarchy

1:15:35

Here is banning on Wednesday

1:15:37

trying to push this and

1:15:39

he's a of course like

1:15:41

you know shut out of

1:15:43

the The the inner sanctum

1:15:45

So the day of recognition

1:15:47

here folks the simple math

1:15:49

is unless you raise the

1:15:52

taxes at the upper bracket

1:15:54

The math doesn't work. The

1:15:56

math ain't that great with

1:15:58

doing that. But that's kind

1:16:00

of a starter. And so

1:16:02

anybody wants to show me,

1:16:04

come back with some math

1:16:06

and you know what they're

1:16:08

going to say is that

1:16:10

like Elon said it was

1:16:12

going to be a 5%

1:16:14

growth rate. said a lot

1:16:16

of stuff, that none of

1:16:18

it turned out to be

1:16:20

accurate. Like, where's my two

1:16:23

training cuts? Where's my one

1:16:25

training cuts? Where's my 150

1:16:27

billion cuts? Just show me

1:16:29

any cut. That's not programmatic,

1:16:31

because the programmatic were being

1:16:33

done by other people. Show

1:16:35

me waste, fraud, and abuse.

1:16:37

You've been over the Pentagon

1:16:39

for two months, bro. That's

1:16:41

a viper's nest of, wait

1:16:43

for it. Hang on, wait,

1:16:45

waste, fraud and abuse. I

1:16:47

got nothing. You're going to

1:16:49

have to cut the defense

1:16:52

budget. All these fantasies. People

1:16:54

have fan, people are running,

1:16:56

they've got fantasies. They're fantasizing

1:16:58

now. The global bond market

1:17:00

gets a vote here. Don't

1:17:02

forget the equity market. Right?

1:17:04

That's just long the cause

1:17:06

of making it out. We

1:17:08

don't need to, you know,

1:17:10

like, in these, he's, but

1:17:12

just, it's sort of fascinating

1:17:14

what he's saying here. First

1:17:16

off, he's saying exactly what

1:17:18

we were saying the other

1:17:20

day about, Elon, uh... not

1:17:23

too dissimilar from uh... tesla

1:17:25

profits in the same way

1:17:27

and banons saying is trying

1:17:29

to pitch to the freedom

1:17:31

caucus people like you gotta

1:17:33

raise taxes on millionaires if

1:17:35

you want to deal with

1:17:37

this deficit and debt from

1:17:39

my perspective you raise this

1:17:41

money because you want to

1:17:43

uh... decrease wealth inequality there's

1:17:45

a there's another reason it

1:17:47

has to do with this

1:17:49

the power dynamics within society

1:17:52

but nevertheless banons out there

1:17:54

pitching it but he knows

1:17:56

ultimately that it's not going

1:17:58

to work in this republican

1:18:00

party and there is no

1:18:02

other republican party folks Because

1:18:04

he, Bannon does like, you

1:18:06

know, he's a smarter guy

1:18:08

on the right. And I

1:18:10

don't, obviously he's a white

1:18:12

nationalist and has deeply, deeply

1:18:14

problematic ideas, but he understands

1:18:16

that in like. fascist movements

1:18:18

and far-right movements throughout history.

1:18:20

Like, you know, the Nazis

1:18:23

also, like, offered social programs

1:18:25

and employment to people. There's

1:18:27

a reason they called themselves

1:18:29

the national socialists, because capitalism

1:18:31

was discredited. Exactly. And so,

1:18:33

like, the... to have success

1:18:35

and to build like a

1:18:37

far right and that's their

1:18:39

definition of success like a

1:18:41

fascist takeover you have to

1:18:43

at least have that kind

1:18:45

of fig leaf and offer

1:18:47

that for people but the

1:18:49

republican parties completely captured by

1:18:52

billionaires and industry so it's

1:18:54

not capable of delivering on

1:18:56

that front absolutely not and

1:18:58

uh... even in that piece

1:19:00

from jephstein outside trump advisors

1:19:02

newt gingrich Steve Moore, Larry

1:19:04

Cudlow, have come out strongly

1:19:06

against it arguing the plan

1:19:08

undermines the president's promise to

1:19:10

cut taxes and will discourage

1:19:12

economic growth. Now, of course,

1:19:14

the whole laughter curve stuff,

1:19:16

I mean, as Bannon said

1:19:18

in there, you know, Musk

1:19:20

and Musk, of course, also

1:19:23

doesn't want taxes to raise,

1:19:25

you know, we're going to

1:19:27

have 5% growth, my ass.

1:19:29

And in addition, Sean Hannity.

1:19:31

House Speaker Mike Johnson, Republican

1:19:33

Senators Dave McCormick from Pennsylvania,

1:19:35

Swing State, Ted Cruz from

1:19:37

Texas. I mean, the list

1:19:39

of every sort of poll

1:19:41

in the tent, of every

1:19:43

tent pole of the tent

1:19:45

of the tent of the

1:19:47

Republic Party, which incidentally we

1:19:49

should say ranges from like,

1:19:52

you know, fascist rich guy

1:19:54

who has a slightly different

1:19:56

idea of what the party

1:19:58

should be. I mean this

1:20:00

is not exactly a mix

1:20:02

of, it's not exactly a

1:20:04

heterogeneous party. The Republican Party

1:20:06

is not going to cut,

1:20:08

is not going to raise

1:20:10

taxes on wealthy people ever.

1:20:12

They do not want to

1:20:14

disempower wealthy people at all.

1:20:16

Here's Gingrich now, going around,

1:20:18

like Gingrich, why are we

1:20:21

hearing from him? Because he

1:20:23

is the heart of the

1:20:25

Republican Party. And lest you

1:20:27

believe here's here's Gingrich today,

1:20:29

right? Gingrich believes Trump has

1:20:31

taken the tax off of

1:20:33

the wealthy off the table.

1:20:35

He is part of the

1:20:37

mechanism that runs the Republican

1:20:39

Party. And understand Gingrich is

1:20:41

doing this, but if you

1:20:43

go back just to show

1:20:45

you like how much of

1:20:47

a dupe you have to

1:20:49

be to believe that the

1:20:52

Republican Party is a populist

1:20:54

party i don't care who

1:20:56

the president is this is

1:20:58

how much of a dupe

1:21:00

you have to be there

1:21:02

is uh... gingrich sinking in

1:21:04

the uh... the uh... attacks

1:21:06

on the well and by

1:21:08

him coming out understand he

1:21:10

is the one who started

1:21:12

the Gingrich revolution he is

1:21:14

the one who oversaw the

1:21:16

takeover of congress for the

1:21:18

first time in about thirty

1:21:21

years from the democrats with

1:21:23

the republicates he is the

1:21:25

one who essentially created this

1:21:27

movement conservatism whether it's the

1:21:29

freedom caucus or in everything

1:21:31

you know the the the

1:21:33

tea party these are all

1:21:35

essentially grandchildren and children of

1:21:37

Newt Gingrich and this guy

1:21:39

was out one of the

1:21:41

point people to sink the

1:21:43

idea that they would raise

1:21:45

any taxes on a millionaire.

1:21:47

Newt worked with Grover Norquist

1:21:49

when the contract with America.

1:21:52

Yes, and Grover Norquist was

1:21:54

the original tea party. Grover

1:21:56

Norquist was the one who

1:21:58

would go and say, we're

1:22:00

going to primary you, we

1:22:02

don't care if you don't

1:22:04

take a pledge not to

1:22:06

raise taxes. This is the

1:22:08

bedrock of Republicanism. But it

1:22:10

was a short 12 and

1:22:12

a half years ago, 13

1:22:14

years ago, where Newt Gingrich

1:22:16

was attacking Mitt Romney. as

1:22:18

a vulture capitalist for being.

1:22:21

People forget. this but midrude

1:22:23

but new kingrich more than

1:22:25

anybody loosened up uh... the

1:22:27

ground in forced barack obama

1:22:29

in many respects to run

1:22:31

against mitt romney as a

1:22:33

vulture capitalist obama's twenty twelve

1:22:35

election was sort of like

1:22:37

uh... a coincidental almost like

1:22:39

a de facto populist run

1:22:41

because Mitt Romney was exposed

1:22:43

as being a, you know,

1:22:45

like a country club Republican.

1:22:47

It was the 47% thing

1:22:49

and he was forced to,

1:22:52

Obama was very good at

1:22:54

campaigning as somebody as more

1:22:56

economic populist, although when he

1:22:58

got into power that's not

1:23:00

exactly what he was governing,

1:23:02

but that was effective against

1:23:04

Mitt Romney even as... the

1:23:06

previous midterm cycle had seen

1:23:08

such enormous backlash with the

1:23:10

democrats he was able to

1:23:12

survive that was a private

1:23:14

equity guy whose private equity

1:23:16

firm killed toys are us

1:23:18

yes and and and new

1:23:21

gingrich put out a i

1:23:23

think he bought time i

1:23:25

think he bought a thirty

1:23:27

minute ad i think it

1:23:29

was that basically went around

1:23:31

to the the companies that

1:23:33

were destroyed in the factory

1:23:35

workers who were destroyed by

1:23:37

bane capital And then, as

1:23:39

soon as that election's over,

1:23:41

Google right now, Newt Gingrich,

1:23:43

I went too far. To

1:23:45

the extent the Republican Party

1:23:47

ever uses the, the, I

1:23:49

guess, the, the, I guess,

1:23:52

the, the, the veneer. Maybe

1:23:54

say Romney. Gingrich went too

1:23:56

far on the yeah, yeah,

1:23:58

put Romney Gingrich went too

1:24:00

far Romney, Bain Capital.

1:24:02

Yeah. And go to news.

1:24:05

Search news. Oh, wait, oh,

1:24:07

wait. Go back. We'll just

1:24:10

go back a little

1:24:12

bit. You just scroll

1:24:14

down. Oh, yeah. Newt

1:24:17

explains why he

1:24:19

was so wrong. Oh,

1:24:21

oh, wait, that wasn't

1:24:23

it. He ended up

1:24:25

going on an apology

1:24:28

tour. for attacking Romney

1:24:30

as a vulture capitalist.

1:24:32

Anybody who is like over the

1:24:35

age of, I don't know, 30,

1:24:37

should understand that when the

1:24:39

Republican starts talking

1:24:41

like their populist, they

1:24:43

are full of it. Exactly. Here

1:24:45

it is. I crossed the line

1:24:47

is what he said. That was, yes,

1:24:49

I crossed the line in Politico.

1:24:52

And that was back in 2012.

1:24:54

I shouldn't have done this.

1:24:56

Yes, New Gingrich signaled Wednesday

1:24:58

that he believes his criticism

1:25:00

of Mitt Romney's record at

1:25:03

being capitalism mistake, and that

1:25:05

he's created an impression that

1:25:07

he's echoing democratic rhetoric. He

1:25:09

actually not only echoed democratic

1:25:12

etiquette, he forced the Democrats

1:25:14

to adopt that rhetoric because it was

1:25:16

so effective. Now, what's her face? Slockin.

1:25:18

Slockin. We should pull this up. And

1:25:20

says, like, people aren't going to know

1:25:23

what oligarch he is. Really? Did

1:25:25

people know what

1:25:27

vulture capitalism was? Yeah.

1:25:29

Mitt Romney went down in

1:25:32

flames. When Barack Obama had

1:25:34

passed the Affordable Care

1:25:36

Act, which was so, um,

1:25:39

so toxic for Democrats

1:25:41

that Republicans ran

1:25:43

on that thing for like

1:25:45

the next eight years. They

1:25:47

still are like, Republicans ran

1:25:50

on that thing for like

1:25:52

the next eight years. And

1:25:56

so the idea that A,

1:25:58

Republicans are... any way populist

1:26:01

is a joke. And the idea

1:26:03

that B, an anti-olegarkic, would you

1:26:05

rather vulture capitalist, whatever it is,

1:26:07

attacks aren't helpful to Democrats, it's

1:26:09

just absurd. See, this is this,

1:26:11

this, I haven't even seen this

1:26:14

full quote here. She said Democrats

1:26:16

should stop using the term oligarchy,

1:26:18

a phrase she says doesn't resonate

1:26:20

beyond coastal institutions, and just says

1:26:22

that the party opposes kings. And

1:26:25

to be, okay, the way that

1:26:27

some of these Democrats speak about

1:26:29

the rest of the country is

1:26:31

just frankly offensive. Rahm Emanuel is

1:26:33

like this too, when he's talking

1:26:36

about how, you know, we should

1:26:38

be talking about kitchen table issues

1:26:40

and not basically saying we need

1:26:42

to throw trans people under the

1:26:44

bus and not defining what kitchen

1:26:46

table issues are. As if people

1:26:49

don't have the ability to grasp

1:26:51

what's important to their life in

1:26:53

politics and what isn't. And we

1:26:55

know from exit polling that trans

1:26:57

issues were not a determining factor

1:27:00

in the selection whatsoever. The economy

1:27:02

was. And Trump was the one

1:27:04

guy coming out there and saying,

1:27:06

okay, yeah, the economy's not working

1:27:08

for people. And his big tariff

1:27:11

plan is immediately blowing up in

1:27:13

his face and people are already

1:27:15

seeing how full of crap he

1:27:17

was. But this is, can we

1:27:19

pull up the data for progress?

1:27:21

She's just wrong on this. She's

1:27:24

wrong in her cynical assessment of

1:27:26

the American people, and she's the

1:27:28

one acting elitist because she's underestimating

1:27:30

people's collective understanding of their own

1:27:32

material circumstances and of this term.

1:27:35

Here it is, data for progress.

1:27:37

What do you know? A majority

1:27:39

of voters can correctly identify the

1:27:41

definition of oligarchy. There you have

1:27:43

it. And a majority of independent

1:27:46

and third party people that's that's

1:27:48

that's the best part in third

1:27:50

parties No more about the definition

1:27:52

you want to talk about the

1:27:54

center of the country you want

1:27:56

to talk about how you actually

1:27:59

went over independent voters and you

1:28:01

win elections, that graphic says it

1:28:03

right there. It shows you right

1:28:05

there. There's even more class consciousness

1:28:07

about oligarchy from non-democrats or Republicans,

1:28:10

people who are less politically engaged

1:28:12

because they fundamentally don't like either

1:28:14

party because they think they're captured

1:28:16

by the oligarchs. You know what's

1:28:18

a good way to get around

1:28:21

that? And for Democrats to have

1:28:23

electoral success, harness that energy. And

1:28:25

Slockin representing her donors. is, and

1:28:27

wealthy interests, and that faction in

1:28:29

the party is trying to undercut

1:28:31

the most salient political messaging opportunity

1:28:34

that the Democrats have had in

1:28:36

years. Language is a tool when

1:28:38

Trump called DeSantis, DeSanktonius, everyone's like,

1:28:40

people don't know what that means,

1:28:42

but people like being given a

1:28:45

new tool for a job that

1:28:47

they want to complete. The problem

1:28:49

is, Slotkin doesn't want them to

1:28:51

do that job. Well, here's the

1:28:53

thing. Yeah. If you wanted to

1:28:55

replace oligarchy. You

1:28:58

wouldn't talk about you wouldn't

1:29:00

say king The reason why

1:29:02

she says king and this

1:29:04

is important Yeah If you

1:29:06

take down if you sat

1:29:08

down with a historian it

1:29:10

talked about a king and

1:29:12

they could say well actually

1:29:15

the king It was an

1:29:17

oligarchy Like it was a

1:29:19

very much of a oligarchic

1:29:21

system. It was feudal, but

1:29:23

you had the dukes and

1:29:25

the king was the richest

1:29:27

person of everybody because he

1:29:29

was the king the popular

1:29:32

imagination king denotes someone who

1:29:34

is trying to exert political

1:29:36

power as if they're a

1:29:38

dictator but oligarchy is something

1:29:40

different that is that money

1:29:42

interests control our government yeah

1:29:44

that our democracy is under

1:29:47

siege not because powers consolidated

1:29:49

in one individual but it

1:29:51

is a consolidated within a

1:29:53

class of individuals And

1:29:55

this is what she doesn't

1:29:58

want, she does not want.

1:30:00

address the issue of money

1:30:02

in our politics. And the

1:30:04

way that you avoid that

1:30:06

is by almost like it

1:30:08

is the equivalent of sectoralizing

1:30:10

a religious question. She wants

1:30:12

to take she wants to

1:30:15

take this out of the

1:30:17

realm of material and materialism

1:30:19

and economic power and the

1:30:21

political economy and she wants

1:30:23

to keep it only in

1:30:25

the That process and democracy

1:30:27

frame now we know the

1:30:29

democracy frame in and of

1:30:31

itself as As real the

1:30:34

threat as Trump is to

1:30:36

democracy Has not succeeded in

1:30:38

animating people in voting against

1:30:40

Trump. I mean aside from

1:30:42

like from a policy standpoint

1:30:44

It failed it failed he

1:30:46

attempted a coup four years

1:30:48

ago and four years later

1:30:50

he wins the presidency and

1:30:53

it's not like nobody was

1:30:55

talking about he just does

1:30:57

not animate people so you

1:30:59

cannot say you cannot say

1:31:01

we shouldn't refer to an

1:31:03

oligarchy we should refer to

1:31:05

him as a king and

1:31:07

also we should talk about

1:31:09

kitchen table issues those two

1:31:12

things are yet odds with

1:31:14

each other exactly right because

1:31:16

the reason why people are

1:31:18

sitting around their kitchen table

1:31:20

and saying We can't pay

1:31:22

these health care bills or

1:31:24

you know my job's not

1:31:26

paying me enough or Gosh,

1:31:28

I wish I had parental

1:31:31

leave or how we gonna

1:31:33

take care of mom or

1:31:35

how we can take care

1:31:37

of dad or how we

1:31:39

can take care of our

1:31:41

sick children The reason they

1:31:43

you keep Those conversations happen

1:31:45

at the kitchen table is

1:31:47

not because of a king

1:31:50

because a king can beven

1:31:52

benevolent is because of an

1:31:54

oligarchy and if you want

1:31:56

to call it the rich

1:31:58

or the rich elite, or

1:32:00

wealth disparity, or money in

1:32:02

poverty. But it is because

1:32:04

our politics are dominated by

1:32:06

money, period. Yeah. And the

1:32:09

other effect of talking about

1:32:11

him as a king is

1:32:13

also, it's a retread of

1:32:15

the exceptionalizing of Donald Trump

1:32:17

also from the Republican Party

1:32:19

and from the Republican project.

1:32:21

It's another version of this,

1:32:23

which basically shows that... It's

1:32:25

acting like he's outside of

1:32:28

the Republican Party. It's acting

1:32:30

like he is acting alone.

1:32:32

That's what the king would

1:32:34

imply. He's ruling as a

1:32:36

monarch as opposed to a

1:32:38

part of a structure that

1:32:40

is oppressing people. And if

1:32:42

you want to beat the

1:32:44

Republicans, you have to tie

1:32:47

Donald Trump to that structure.

1:32:49

So what are the Republicans

1:32:51

if he's a king? 100

1:32:53

percent. I mean, and that

1:32:55

is, it is just so,

1:32:57

so frustrating on so many

1:32:59

different levels, which is that

1:33:01

she is doing both a

1:33:04

disservice to the Democrats and

1:33:06

using harnessing this message for

1:33:08

electoral gains, but also doing

1:33:10

a disservice in terms of

1:33:12

like killing the Republican brand,

1:33:14

because the Democrats brand is

1:33:16

in the shitter right now.

1:33:18

It is like the lowest

1:33:20