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Good morning everyone, especially to Sager and Jenny, who is recovering from the Eagles game. He was actually there, so big congrats to Ryan and Sager.
Crystal Howard, Oh that's right, Ryan is an Eagles fan. This is outrageous. This is outrageous.
Not good, it's good.
I was a long suffering Wa Washington football fan. I you know, when I was a kid, they were so good, and then they were just terrible forever.
So I hadn't watched.
Any of their games in like a decade, and then I watched this one, and of course because I watched, they lost. So I'm sorry everybody. I really blowed myself.
She really was beating herself up this morning.
I'm attest to that, and I'm a curse on every team, so.
At least you have some self awareness.
Yeah, so sorry, guys, I will stop watching again, don't worry. Lots to get to you this morning, including we had to add yesterday evening there was a big showdown between the Columbian president and Donald Trump. Will tell you where
that stands this morning, over deportations on military planes. There's actually a number of countries that are taking a lot of issue with that, so we will break all of that down for You've also got some, you know, very disturbing comments from Trump pushing ethnic cleansing in the Gaza strips, so we'll break all of those details down for you. And also the israelis really violating the cease fire agreements
both in Gaza and in Lebanon. Elon decided to go and speak at the AfD rally, that's that far right party in Germany.
I'll tell you what he said.
Okay, more controversy about his political views.
Trump purged a.
Number of inspectors general, it appears to have been blatantly illegal the way he did it, so there is a fight brewing there as well, with even Republicans who are perturbed. I guess I would say by that, we're also taking a look at This is maybe the most important story of the day. A new AI development out of China. They have now launched a competitor. A Chinese company launch a competitor to Chat, GPT and Meta's offerings, etc.
Called Deep Seek.
They did it for wildly less money and less what they call compute in terms of the chips that it requires, and really has shocked Silicon Valley. Could put a real squeeze on our stock market. Huge implications here. We're going to have Arnault bertrand join us to break down these developments and what it means more broadly, and very excited to have Andrew Callahan on of Channel five News. He
just dropped a new documentary. It's really interesting. It follows this one man who's been sort of like radicalized into all the wildest conspiracies on the magaside.
And what led him there and what.
He's all oft and he just sort of like digs into this man's life and his family etc. And it's really interesting. I think you guys will like it. So we're excited to talk to Andrew about that.
Yes, we absolutely are. It's fantastic and he will be here later in the show. So Crystal, let's get started with Columbia, because yesterday was a roller coaster for Colombians for the United States, and it looks like maybe there's resolution at least for now.
Yeah, So the TLDR is, you know, all of these Central and South American countries have been routinely accepting deportation flights from the US, typically ice charters, civilian planes, but Trump has decided to use an addition to those civilian planes, use military planes, and they really have taken this as a sort of affront. In addition to the treatment of the migrants, of the deportees who are on these planes,
there have been images circulating. In fact, we can put this first tweet up on the screen which contains some of these images. You can see people being led off the plane. I think this is actually in Brazil, in shackles, in handcuffs and shackles. There were also reports that some of these deportees to Brazil in particular, were denied water denied bathroom and treated, according to them, with a total
lack of dignity. So this is the president of Columbia weighing and saying a migrant is not a criminal, must be treated with the dignity that a human being deserves. That's why I turned back US military planes that were carrying Columbian migrants. I cannot allow migrants to remain in a country that does not want them, but if that country sends them back, it must be with dignity and
respect for them and for our country. We will receive our fellow citizens on civilian planes without treating them like criminals. Colombia is respected. So Trump, wasting no time, jumps in with a major economic threat here, he says, I was just informed that two repatriation flights from the US with a large number of illegal criminals were not allowed to land in Columbia. This order was given by Columbia's socialist president Gustava Pedro, who is already very unpopular amongst his
people patriots. Denial of these flights has jeopardized the national security and public safety of the So I've directed my administration to immediately take the following urgent and decisive retaliatory measures number one, and this is the most significant emergency, twenty five percent tariff on all goods coming to the US.
In one week, the twenty five percent teriffs will be raised to fifty percent, a travel ban and immediate visa revocations on the Columbian government officials and all allies and supporters. And there were a number of other sanctions and provisions here which were threatened. So in the next development, the Colombian president chimes in and offers to allow the use of his presidential plane to help repatriate deportees.
From the US.
So he's offering the use of his presidential plane, again underscoring that what was really objected to here was the use of military planes to know, to do these flights. There were hundreds of these during the Biden administration. It was the change to use of military planes that irked this president. Also, I think the president of hunt Ors has weighed Lula down in Brazil was upset by this. Claudius Scheinbaum, it appears, may have also rejected one of these military planes landing.
So that was really kind of the beef.
And then we have the next piece, which is a lengthy post from Gustavo Pedro. I won't read the whole thing, but suffice it to say that he and President Trump, Emily I would say they sort of match each other's freak. Yeah, Trump, I don't really like to This is a translation from Google. I'm sure it's not entirely accurate, so do take it with a grain of salt. But he says in part Trump, I don't really like traveling in the US. It's a bit boring, but I confess there are some commendable things.
I like going to the black neighborhoods of Washington, where I saw an entire fight in the US capital between Blacks and Latinos with barricades, which seemed like nonsense to me, because they should join together. I confess I like Walt Whitman and Paul Simon and Nome, Johny and Miller.
I don't know who Miller.
Is, do you. I'm not sure what he's going for.
I'm thinking not Steven Miller, probably.
Oh you know what, But what if it is? What if this is his appeal to Trump.
That would be that would be a real anyway. At some point, I think I believe he indicates that Trump is trying to push him out of power. He says, overthrow me president, and Americas in humanity will respond.
But don't forget producer Max's favorite line, aybe one day over a glass of whiskey, which I accept despite Mike aestritus.
We can talk frankly about this, but it's difficult because you consider me an inferior race, and I'm not nor as any Columbia. Anyway, the TLDR of this is that he ends up also threatening retaliatory tariffs in response. That was where things stood yesterday until later in the evening, and now it looks like we have come to some sort of a resolution and put this last piece a six guys put up on the screen. This is some
of the things that we get from Columbia. But in the final communication, it looks like Columbia's confirming some sort of deal has been made, notes that Columbia's foreign minister and ambassador the US will be holding high level talks, and also states Columbia's present continues to make the presidential plane available for Columbia nationals who were set to be deported to return home, and they even accepted Emily the use of the controversial military planes. So anyway, that's where
everything went. Obviously, the big picture here is you know, these heads of state bumping heads and the you know, Trump administration being quite aggressive. But also I mean I just look at this, and I know that people are, oh, Trump stood up to them, and they want I mean, first of all, it's Columbia, Like, who do you think is going to win in that fight against the giant superpower? But second of all, you won what the ability to continue to do deportation flights that have been going on
routinely for years and years with no incident. So sort of this like drama and fight and spectacle over really kind of nothing.
You know.
There's also an argument.
I was talking to one W. D. Rojas, who covers Central America. Yeah, well, and he was saying, the effect of this, the consequence of this might actually push Columbia closer to China.
Oh absolutely right, and not just Colombia.
Oh one hundred percent. And that's already a problem.
I mean, obviously it's the problem that Donald Trump says he's responding to in Panama. But that's I mean, this, if that's the consequence of this, which it very likely could be, that's very problematic for the Trump agenda in Central America.
So we'll see.
Obviously there's more to come on that, but I mean, I think there is something to the stepping back when Petro was saying, you can't treat Colombians like criminals. It goes back to I think back to those flights of Haitians that were taking place during the Biden administration.
They were basically rioting to get off the planes.
They so badly did not want to go back to Porta Prince that they were. You know, so I understand why the Trump administration is flying them back in handcuffs. But then you would also understand why the president, who's far left would be saying, this is causing me a problem because now I look like I'm cooperating with people who are being treated poorly, Colombians who are being treated.
Poor It's just a sense of disrespect because these are by and large people who are just you know, in certain instances like in Venezuela for example, of Venezuela does not accept our deportation flights, but they're literally fleeing like the sanctions that we have imposed in the economic hardship there, so to have people shackled. The other thing is the use of the military planes. It's it's really meant to
sort of provoke these fights. Like I think that Trump feels like this whole showdown really serves his the propaganda he wants to put out about we're really getting tough on immigration, and we're throwing our weight around in the world and we're not being pushed around anymore, etcetera, etcetera. But the reality is there's no real reason to use military planes. In fact, I looked it up, so the cost of the civilian flights that ICE charters are roughly
around eight thousand, nine thousand dollars. The cost of these military flights is upward of eight hundred thousand dollars, so wildly more expensive, sparking diplomatic crises throughout you know, Central and South America. And I think the broader picture is, like you said, Emily, and Arnold Bertrand was, who we have on later in the show, is a you know, good observer of these things too.
It's very late.
I mean, Trump's already picked fights with Canada, Mexico, with Panama, you know, with now we've got Honduras in Brazil and obviously with Columbia, and it's kind of like over what and all of these countries individually, no one of them can hope to sort of stand up against the economic
military might of the United States of America. But at some point they're going to get smart and say, but you know, we do have other alternatives at this point, like the multipolar world with bricks and with China that's already a reality. We have other patrons that we can go to and that we can become more cuzy with, and we can ourselves band together and have more strength than numbers, because individually, none of them stands a chance.
But you know, it's a preview of I think that the way are going to continue to operate, and it could have really far reaching ultimate consequences if he continues to behave in this way. And again it's like for what to be able to fly these deportation flights which have been a regular occurrence for years and years, and you just provoked this incident and are now like claiming a victory just to be able to do the thing that has already been done without incident for years.
You know, it's interesting because I guess one counter argument would be on the point of respect. I think what Trump is trying to say, is that he feels as though they actually are criminals because they committed a crime by crossing the border illegally. And that's sort of the baseline, like we just can all accept He's trying to say. I think if we all accept that, then we can have, you know, whatever, diplomatic negotiations.
But if you won't accept that, it's a matter of respect. Blah blah blah.
What's interesting about that is not every government in Central America has facilitated the exodus, right, like it's it's not like Mexico is a very different case study. Like Mexico actually really hasn't facilitated the exodus of people up through these cartel pathways, which is so sad to.
See what it's done to those countries.
And I'm not saying that Donald Trump has that in mind, like pushing back on the cartel takeover of some of these countries, which is obviously a problem in Mexico. But Cloudyer Shinbaum, for example, I mean, it's hard to connect her to actual cartel, like she's not in the pockets of cartels.
There were some of that with Amlo. There was some.
Speculation going back years when it came to Amlo, but they're not all in the pockets of cartels. But that said, I think there is something really important about understanding from the President's perspective that if you continue to allow people to send all of these migrants, it's just patting the pockets of the cartels that are literally taking over their territory. And that's actually helpful for negotiating because a lot of
them want help with that too. And I mean, if you're pushing them closer to China, I don't know that any problem gets solved.
He doesn't want to frame him as criminals in the sense of like they committed the crime of crossing the border. He routinely talks about he made up this thing, ab ouh you're emptying your mental asylums whatever, which many people have speculated He's confused between people who are seeking asylum and who were at insane asylums because there's no I mean, there's no evidence that any of these countries emptied their asylums.
This isn't like some you know, burial boatlift situation from Cuba where they literally did like empty their prisons and send them to US. So I think he wants the imagery of all migrants are criminals, like hardened criminals, like committing violent crimes here in America, which we know is obviously not the truth, Like there are some who have committed crimes, but the overall crime rate is lower among
both documented and undocumented immigrants the US. So in any case, I think the use of the military planes, the insistence on shackling people and treating them like they're these like hardened, like they're freaking serial killers or something like that, I do think this is this is sort of the fight and the imagery that he ultimately wants, and I think there will be a lot of that in terms of his immigration policy.
Like obviously what he's.
Done with his executive orders and his you know approach is already very hardline. But in addition, you know, ICE doesn't have any more resources than they did under Biden. In fact, so far, the number of deportations under Trump, it's very early days, obviously, but it's roughly the same number that Biden has been had been doing, you know, on a daily basis during his term and office as well.
So what he wants, in part is this show of force to overcome the fact that you know, they don't have nearly the amount of resources to detain and deport every undocumented immigrant who.
Is here in the US.
So, whereas the Biden administration really wanted to kind of keep under wraps these images of deportations, ugliness and the sort of cruelty.
Involved in that, Trump.
Has the exact opposite motivation, which he wants to put it on display.
Yeah, Biden quietly bribed Haiti into taking back flights like they didn't want anyone to know it.
It was reported in like the New York Post.
Biden deported more.
Now, there were more migrants coming in, but Biden deported more people than Trump did during his first four year term in office.
You would never know.
That, both because of the way it was covered, but also because yeah, the Biden administration did that didn't serve the propaganda, you know, direction that they wanted to go. And whereas with Trump, I think you're going to see some of these you know, they're they're highlighting these ice
rates that are going on already, et cetera. So I think this is part of that spectacle that he wants and he can sort of like claim this win here and also underscore his narrative of the world that these migrants are criminals, and not just in the sense of like they cross the border illegally, but they're with the cartels, or they're drug dealer, they're you know, their murders, they're violent,
et cetera. That's part of what you want from imagery of people who are like, you know, shackled and treated in this way on military planes.
Well, they're definitely going, I mean, and they've said that they're starting with people who are in the country illegally and have committed crimes, which is going to be an interesting thing in Chicago because right now the Chicago's a sanctuary city technically doesn't have to cooperate with ICE when they're trying to get people out of the prison or
out of the jails basically. And that's now one of the things that Tom Holman, I think it was in the Wall Street Journal just this morning, is talking about, is like, if you don't let us into the jails, we're going to have a problem. Because what we're trying to do in this first couple of weeks is deport people, send people back who have committed crimes beyond just crossing
the border illegally. And I think where the rubber is really going to meet the road is when the Trump administration doesn't have the optics of just flying military aged men back on military planes, which is when you look at the images at least from like a pr standpoint. As sad as it is to say, you can see what they're doing, they're actually like going specifically for military age males, the least sympathetic case.
I know, in the instance of Brazil, there were families and kids on those places.
Really, so the ones they're putting out the ones the administrations like.
This was highlighting leading with that makes sense.
Yeah, And so I think where the Rubb's going to meet the regis where we see them going into cities like Chicago, whatever. And you know, maybe they take the people out of the jails and they get cooperation, but then what happens, like then, what's next?
How are they going to handle that? Are they going to keep going full home?
And uh when it is you know, when the optics are you have news cameras with you and it's it's women and children.
I mean I think that they want that. I genuinely think they want that because they believe in this like deterrent effect, right that if you put sort of like fear and cruelty on display that that will force people to.
Leave, to not come in the first place.
So that's part of their you know, their theory and their ideology. And the irony is if you compare the Trump administration the first time and the Biden administration in terms of the number of actual criminal like not just crossing the border, but actual criminals who were released, there were more under the Trump administration. And that makes sense because the Biden administration and the actually the Obama administration
deported more than any of these people. He earned that title the deporter in chief, but they made a concerted effort to focus their deportation efforts on criminals. And if you know that that's sort of the policy of the government, then if you're not a criminal, you feel like, I'm probably okay. I need to be careful, but I'm probably okay.
The Trump administration, both in the first term and it appears in this term as well, they would rather have cast a broader net because that helps to put the fear of deportation in everyone, so you don't have that sense of like, well, if I didn't do anything wrong,
I'm probably going to be okay. So that's part of their sort of ideologically different approach is that they actually don't laser focus on just the criminals and the Lake and Riley Act, you know, a similar thing requires people who have been you know, who have been arrested for even like something really minor like shoplifting, requires them to be detained and then prioritize for deportation. Well, again, there's
only son. Ice doesn't have unlimited resources. So if you're focused on just to use like the most sympathetic like a mom who shoplifted diapers over an actual gang cartel member, you know, that is a change in prioritization that means you are going to have fewer resources to go after actually the war hardened criminals who have you know, who
are undocumented. Then you know, the Trump administration wants to to sort of capture a larger number of people and a larger sort of breadth of types of migrants who have come here, some of some of them who even came here through this process set up with the bidenministration, the cp wh've won app yeah, claimed asylum and all of that as well.
I mean, that's probably the most difficult thing for the Trump anddministration. And actually as much as I sadly do believe in the deterrent problem here, the deterrent effect here, because I've talked to people who work in Mexico, like immigration, at refugee centers and everything, and they say they've begged the government to do more and tell people don't come,
don't come. And one of the reasons I think it's so tragic is that the Biden administration with their asylum expansion, has put a lot of people in those situations now where they get into the country, they try to start lives.
Most of them have work permits, and.
The Trump administration and the Biden administration, if the Trump administration takes people who are here legally through asylum expanded asylum and deports them, that's disgusting. As much as they may want to and as much as they may be men who are abusing the system and people are being used as mules, whatever, that's disgusting.
They're here legally.
You can you hear their asylum cases faster, and you can be more stringent and hearing their asylum cases, but they're not here illegally. The Biden administration made sure that this was they they're actually really reclassified a lot of this legal illegal immigration to legal immigration.
So they're here legally, and that's now going to be one.
Of the most difficult things for the Trump administration to deal with because in the last a few years, a huge proportion of the people who crossed the border, and there were a lot of people crossing the border did it through expanded asylum.
So good luck with that.
It's a totally different ballgame than just taking people out who the cross the border illegally.
Yeah, So in any case, you know, the fight is I guess sort of resolved for now, but an interesting window into how things are going to go, how Trump is approaching things, how you know, he's he sort of has an interest in picking these kind of fights for show and throwing the weight of the United States government around.
And so it looks like we have a resolution here with Columbia specifically, But I don't think this issue of upset and a sense of like the dignity of a whole country being threatened by the use of these military assets and the deportations and the treatment of you know, Colombians or Mexicans or you know, people from hundred Doris or whatever. I don't think that issue is going to die down because you've already had a number of other heads of state express their upset about it.
Last thought, actually it's just on Petro. It reminds me a little bit going back to OMLO. Trump had a very interesting relationship with Omlo, somebody who is like a cause you know, Latin American politics are so interesting, and they confuse our binary and interesting ways, like our left right binary and interesting ways. Petro obviously is different than AMLI, although they're not entirely dissimilar. And Trump loves those relationships
with other charismatic leaders. He obviously likes being able to like stomp on other countries and it flex America's power. But it is kind of interesting how he can get on the same wavelength. And you were saying that Petro's letter sort of matches the freak of Trump in terms of like incredible like.
Press releases and tweets.
So I don't know, I mean, maybe this is a beginning of an interesting relationship that Trump has with some of these like genuinely charismatic and interesting features leaders in Latin America.
Yeah.
Well, Columbia has long been sort of our strongest I mean, because they mostly have had these like extremely right wing governments that we you know, are very cozy.
With and drug cooperation.
Yes, very much though, and patrist is a real break from the typical political mold. And Columbia was a big deal when he was elected, et cetera. So in any case, very unusual to have this kind of fight between the US and Columbia, which has been a very reliable ally for US in the region. All right, let's go ahead and move to these Trump comments with regard to Israel and Gaza, which are quite disturbing. I mean also just
quite overt the audio, and this is not great. He's on the plane, he gets asked about, you know, what he wants to do with regard to the Gaza. Strip good and play this and then I'll tell you on the other side if in case it's difficult to hear the audio exactly what he said, too, General.
Of CC tomorrow sometime I've lived and I'd like Egypt to take people. Don't like Jordan to take me if I can. You're talking about rob million and a half people, and we just clean out that whole thing. It's you know, it's over the centuries. That said, many many conflicts, that's side. And I don't know, it's something has to.
Happen, but.
It's it's literally a demolition side right now. Almost everything's demolished.
And people are dying there.
So I'd rather get involved in some of the Arab nations and build housing at a different location where they can maybe live in peace tempywhere either could be either it could be temporarily, could be long term.
So the key quote there is he says he's going to talk to General c.
C IF Egypt.
He says, I'd like Egypt to take people, and I'd like Jordan to take people. You're talking about a million and a half People's referring there to the entire population of the Gaza strip and we just clean out that whole thing. I mean, it's obviously brazen call for ethnic cleansing. And you know, this couples emily with comments that both he and Jared Kushner made about he kind of alluded to.
He's like, oh, it's a demolition site, and previously he had said when he was in the Oval office, you know, it's very interesting they have all this beautiful like you know, coastline, et cetera.
Kushner had talked before about.
Waterfront development in Gaza, so you know, as a capitalist real estate developer, he looks at Gaza, the Gaza strip, and he sees dollar signs and says, let's just push out all the people there entirely into Egypt and Jordan.
And he said, this is one of the the thing is with Trumpet's like this was the most galaxy brain like libertarians smoking pot in their dorm room approach to the problem where you're like, oh, okay, so here's all of this rubble, we need to clean it out. Using the word clean, I mean, it's like you use the
word brazen. I think that's a great description. And he says towards the end of this like answer that he it could be temporary, it could be longer term, and it's like, dude, your idea is to take people off of the land that they have spilled so much blood over the years to stay on because it means something
to them. The land itself is important to them. And that's the most basic takeaway from what's happened over like the decades that he references there and the many many conflicts that he references theirs, it's specifically their homeland that they care about, So.
It's just sort of. It's so so you're.
His realism like bumps into galaxy brain dorm room libertarianisms, like this is actually not that smart, it's missing the most basic reality of this.
Well, I'm bumping into developer brain too. There's the profits to be turned here, Like I just got to get all these pesky people on, clean that out that whole thing.
That's what he says.
You're talking about a million and a half people, and we just clean out that whole thing. You guys might remember back kind of early after October seventh. I don't remember exactly the time frame. I want to say it was like a couple months in the Biden administration was floating, hey, why don't, hey, Egypt, why don't we just you know, open up the borders here and let Palestinians flow into the Sinai desert and set up camps for them there.
And they were actively trying to like, you know, basically bribe the Egyptians into accepting this. And obviously Jordan already has a huge number of Palestinian refugees, has for years and years. The Queen of Jordan is herself Palestinian, and neither one of these countries wants to be party to ethnic cleansing, not to mention that, you know, it's it's quite would be quite a lot for Egypt, which is already in kind of economic chaos, to take people in.
So they there.
Was a huge backlash to that idea from a variety of sectors, and so they kind of dropped that whole thing. But yeah, Trump just comes out and say's the quiet part out loud that the basic plan what he would like to see in effect here is a wholesale ethnic cleansing. We have some additional Trump news here too from Axios
to put this up on the screen. So I don't know if you guys remember there was this one shipment of two thousand pound bombs that the Biden administration had like as a token withheld out of concerns for how they could be used in Rafa in particular. Now now that there is this temporary ceasefire in effect, we've gotten a better look at Rafa, And some of the Biden administration cope was like, oh, well, we constrained them in Rafa and didn't let them do what they really wanted to do.
Wrong. Rafa is utterly destroyed.
But in any case, they did put this hold on the shipment of two thousand pound bombs. And so even the sort of like token signs of upset at the way that Israel has conducted themselves in Gaza have been rolled back by Trump, not just that, but also Emily. You probably remember there were some like also token sanctions put on a handful of extremist violent settlers that the Trump administration has also now rolled back. So that is very much the direction that they're going in. We can
put up Trump's truth about this this action. He says, a lot of things that were ordered and paid for by Israel but have not been sent by Biden are now on their way. So certainly no qualms here about shipping two thousand pound bombs or whatever else Israel wants. And also, just to add one more thing to this, the Trump administration issued in executive order putting a freeze on all foreign aid with the exception of Israel. Yes,
no qualm there. Got to make sure that they're getting everything that they want.
You know, it's about customer service, Crystal.
It's right.
You have to order something. You order the two thousand pound bomb, you expect to get it.
You know, he's been having a lot of conversations with Jeff Bezos, who knows more about customer service than anyone, so he's prepared to fill his orders in a timely fashion with great integrity.
I mean, you know they want the prime service.
Yes, right, yeah, it will way be on two days at this point, so he has a lot of ground to make up for. But I mean, it's interesting to see the freak out that you and Sager covered last week about people like Dan Caldwell and others in Trump circles.
They did the same thing with Albert Colby, who have somewhat heterodox realist views for the Republican Party when it comes to focusing on the Middle East versus Asia, and you have this like neo conservative hissy fit over these people with different ideas coming in, or Steve Whitcoff, for example, brokering the ceasefire deal, and then you have the sanctions
being lifted and the bombs being delayed. So honestly, Trump has said some somewhat interesting things about the conflict, but we have no indication of him significantly changing course other than this eastfire deal, which no other Republican president would have been coverable with. But if it's just that, if it starts with that because he wanted the kind of optics of ending the conflict. It's just that, and it doesn't go any further than all the freak out was for nothing from the neo cons Yeah.
Well, not only that, but Israel has expanded their war aims to include the West Bank. And I know Ryan and Jeremy over a drop Side have been doing a great job covering that expansion, that deadly expansion in the West Bank. There's been settlers who are rampaging and also the IDEF backing up those settlers and you know, doing
raids in various villages in the occupied West Bank. So one of the things that has long been speculated and that you know, has been publicly reported, this is what Maria Madison wants is for mass annexation in the West Bank to occur under this Trump administration. I think you should have every expectation that that is ultimately going to occur. Another interesting development here out of Gosam we can put this up on the screen, is so we had another
hostage exchange between the Israelis and Palestinians. And as part of that, Hamas has really been coming out trying to show, like you know, it's a real show of force. Here is their propaganda video that they put out showing the latest These were actually female soldiers for female soldiers IDF soldiers who were released in this latest exchange. They you know, show them here smiling and getting goodie bags and various gifts, et cetera. But you know, again they're they're really trying
to show, look, we're still here. You didn't to feed us. And by the way, Tony blancoln on his way out, said, you know, we are. Analysis is that they recruited as many new fighters as were killed during the conflict. So certainly the fantasy, which we always knew was a fantasy, that we're going to be able to thoroughly destroy Hamas through military means has been completely disproven at this point. And there again you see is the hostages, the Israeli hostages being released.
They spent a little bit more time.
Oh yeah, it's a few.
You know, if Biden hadn't withheld that shipment of two thousand pound bombs, I think that would have done that.
Hamas would have been gone forever. They were so close, and you thorted it personally, it's cheerful, it's cheerful, but actually, I mean, it is such a ridiculous argument, and it's one that you're just expected to swallow whole cloth on the right or even in the center, that if Biden hadn't you know, been Truly the argument is that there's some type of like Iranian cell operating within the deep city of the American government and especially the Biden administration,
and they were taking every possible maneuver to make it look like they were cooperating with Israel, but at the same time we're thwarting Israel behind the scenes. And all that you need to do is let Israel fight, Hamas will be gone. You'll let them fight the world they want, and Hamas will be gone. But it's such a it's always from the very beginning, but an absurd goal. There's no signs Hamas can be significantly they can be significantly defeated,
but like fully defeated. We've clearly seen that to be like, there's no way that they're going to be able to do that.
Violent resistance is going to be popular as long as there is no peaceful alternative, Hamas is not going to be defeated through Bomb's period. I mean, if this doesn't prove that to you, I don't know what could. And part of why Bibi did not ever want this bombing to stop in Gaza is because when it does, you
have to reckon with that reality. And that's very difficult for him politically, because he promised these maximalist goals that Hamas would be eliminated, they would be eradicated, and obviously, you know, in terms of that, they were very successful in turning Gos into what Donald Trump describes as a demolition site, and I think accurately.
So they're very successful.
At killing god knows how many people, orphaning tens of thousands of children, creating mass numbers of amputees. They were very successful at those things. But in terms of the actual set out war aims, it was. This is manifestly evidence that it was a dramatic failure.
And do you know who's going to be really susceptible to Islamism radical Islamism is orphans?
Yeah, imagine, imagine you know, your only experience with this country is them destroying your home, murdering your parents, you know, creating all of this pain and trauma that doesn't exactly typically lead people down a path of peace and harmony.
So and we know this from the past.
So in addition, there were some updates with regard to this quote unquote temporary cease file fire.
We can put this up on the screen.
So over the weekend, the IDF was preventing Palestinians from returning home.
To northern Gaza.
These are, you know, people who are traveling with their belongings, trying to return to Northern Gaza. DF actually fired on some of these people and killed at least one injured a number of others. There's an update this morning that apparently this morning Palestinians are successfully returning to northern Gaza.
Again.
This was a key part of this phase one, part of the ceasefire deal. They were supposed to be allowed to return to northern gazas so it does look this morning, early indications are that that is actually happening. At the same time, you'll recall there was a ceasefire deal with Hesblah in Lebanon, and we can put this up on the screen. They have been completely blocking Lebanese people from
returning to their villages. And this says fifteen killed, it was actually twenty two people ultimately killed by the IDF. At least one hundred and twenty wounded as the IDF fired on these Lebanese civilians who are just trying to return to their homes at the time that the ceasefire agreement stipulated that they should be allowed to.
Return to their homes.
So, as far as I know, that block on people returning home continues in Lebanon.
The Israelis are claiming.
That the Lebanese army isn't ready to take over their responsibilities. But right now, as of today, you have the Israeli army occupying a significant portion of southern Lebanon, with a lot of questions over whether they ever intend to leave.
And they also continue to occupy.
Portions of Syria as well, so in addition to obviously Gaza and the West Banks. So that's the current state of affairs. And there's a stunning image that came out of this confrontation between the Lebanese civilians trying to return home and the IDF. We can put this up on the screen, have this lone woman standing up to a tank and trying to I guess argue with the IDF soldiers inside, and you know, people watching on you can see people there on the road trying to return home.
So and as I said before, that the idea fired on some number of these people, killing roughly twenty two and injuring over one hundred more. So both ceasefires are really kind of I mean, the Lemones cease fire they've just clearly brazenly violated. Honestly, the one in Gaza as well, they've brazenly violated in terms of the letter of what they're supposed to be doing. They're certainly not supposed to be firing on civilians. They were supposed to allow people
immediately to be able to return to northern Gaza. But so both really sort of already teetering on the brink.
Yeah, no, absolutely, And if this Trump administration really is so unconventional and Steve W.
Kofferly is just an enemy of.
Israel, surprise, this comes as a surprise to the people of Gaza in the last couple of days.
Yeah, very much.
So.
All right, let's get to our friend Elon Musk fresh off his your friend of course, of course, Yeah, he's not really your type.
Yeah, no, I know, you guys are close.
I don't want to it's it's stolen valor really to come in and act like you guys, go.
Here fresh off his awkward gesture, his awkward Hyle Hitler esque gesture.
Sager and I very much are on the other side of this one.
With you ryot yeah, oh yeah.
Hold on, though, I have to say even now, I mean because like after he did the he has never denied that he was trying to, like in a trollish way, do this wink wink, nod nod thing.
He said he was throwing his heart to the crowd. Girl. It was the next line of a speech. It would be extraordinary.
It is twice Emily.
I mean, I think it would be extraordinarily stupid for a man with billions and billions and bill millions of dollars on the line to go out there do a brazen Nazi.
He does a lot of brazen stuff.
He does a lot of Brazins stuff. He does a lot of stuff does exactly makes sense.
Here's the thing that Okay, here's this. So in addition to the AfD thing we're about to show you, which I think I think bolsters my side of the case here. Any reservation I had about whether this was intentional was eliminated when first of all, he's posting on Twitter about how much a troll he is, and he was sharing that sceme of like the goose with like the thing like there, and it's like the thing I'm not supposed
to do, you know that? And then he's doing that thing he's not supposed to do, and it's like you knew what you were doing, You one hundred percent knew what you were doing. And you know, to me, whether it's a quote unquote troll or whether it's like.
Done in earnest.
Given his politics and his support for the furthest right most reactionary forces in Europe in particular, I'm not sure that it really makes all that much of a difference. But in any case, he decided to speak again, I mean, this is the thing that a troll would do. Fresh off of this, Kyle Hitler con Germany decides to go and speak to the far right reactionary a FD party
in Germany. Okay, so the scene of the crime, so to speak, and tells this assembled audience that he doesn't think that they should feel guilty for the Holocaust anymore. Let's take a listen to how that went.
I'm very excited for the I F T. And I think I think you are really the best hopeful Germany. I think some things that something I think that is just very important is that people take pride in Germany and being German. This is very important. It's okay to be proud to be German. This is a very important principle, and it's proud. It's okay. It's good to be proud of German culture, German values, and not to lose that in some sort of multiculturalism. That that that that deludes everything.
You know.
I think there's like frankly, too much of a focus on past guilt, and we need to move beyond that. Children should not be guilty of the sins of their parents or even let on their parents their great grandparents.
So you know, be proud of German culture, don't feel
guilty about the past. And I mean, whether you want to call it guilt or not, I think it is appropriate to like, the whole thing is you never want something like that to happen again, right, So to carry some emotion around that and to keep fresh the lessons and the warnings of the past, which should be lessons and warnings that all of humanity takes in, because there's nothing particularly distinct about the German people versus any other people. We're all made of the same you know, good and
evil inclinations and tendencies. But yeah, I think I think we should carry that forward. And obviously these are you know, these are talking points that AfD wants to hear part and parcel of their sort of like you know, their right wing ideological positioning in Germany.
But again, you know, he.
Wanted to push the envelope coming off of the Heil Hitler controversy and wanted to continue to kind of flirt with this, and you know, I think does it quite successfully here.
He's been flirting with AFT for a while because AFT is genuinely so it's different than the other like reactionary populist movements that have cropped up in that it came about in the like I guess maybe this was like the middle of Merkle's periods, like twenty thirteen, as this libertarian like almost mela anti government type of party, which is so different than other populist movements across Europe that are reactionary and have this blend of like cultural reactionary
conservatism and then economic leftism. And so Elan has had this like magnetic interest in AfD because it's anti immigrant and also like very libertarian.
Very like right wing economics. It's not like the you know, Li Pen or somebody who's like social safety net but just for the French and keep on all the immigrants kind of.
A deal, right, yeah, exactly.
So it's an interesting movement and it does thrive. I mean AfD does have some legitimate it's not like a smear to say that AfD has some extreme associations and that's like actually been a legitimate problem for AfD. But you know, I work for a British publication, so have a little bit of context.
Like they thrive on.
It's kind of like Trump in a way, that criticism of them and how bad their enemies are politically, that like Germany is having such a hard time getting on track, and AfD is able to then say we have to totally close the borders and remigrate and blah blah blah, and then the opposition is so hysterical and freaks out about it that more and more people go to AfD, and AFT keeps on growing, and so it's just this awful doom spiral that's not unfamiliar to the rest of us,
and somebody needs to make Elon must stop being a diplomat because he just is not a diplomat.
He is not a diplomat.
But when he's in this like random unpaid advisory position for the US government, true and talking to foreign countries, it carries the weight of diplomacy. Not that it wouldn't given that he's like a zillionaire who has all of these really powerful companies and military contractory, a starlink which controls foreign conflicts and has influenced significant influence over foreign conflicts. But like he's now basically speaking on behalf of the US government.
Yeah, that's right.
So it's like we're just all letting it happen and.
Back in characters like Tommy Robinson, who even Nigel Faraj was like, yeah, I draw the line.
So yeah, there's some reporting.
I'm curious what you think about this, Emily, about some upset within the Trump administration. I personally think the theories about how Trump and Elon are imminently going to have some major falling out, I just don't see it because I think that they I think they really find this to be both of them mutually beneficial.
Elon is taking actually a lot of heat.
His approval rating is plummeting in the US, which I'll show you momentarily. Trump's is not, and he gets to go in. And I mean, part basically why Pete Hedgsteth got confirmed last week is because Elon Musk threatened to primary Joni Ernst or anyone else who didn't fall in line and has a bajillion dollars to make that threat reality, so he doesn't even have to do it.
And so for Trump, you know, Elon can.
Be very effective enforcer of whatever it is that he ultimately wants to do. But put C two up on the screen. There was some there was some reporting to the indication that Trump's chief of staff Susie Wilde, who he apparently calls the ice Maiden.
Did you know that? Amazing?
I think she's Joe Bennett from the office Kathy Bates character. Oh really, yes, it's the Florida vibes.
It's immaculate.
Okay, all right, I'll take your word for it. That sounds that sounds correct. But in any case that she's trying to limit us direct access. One of the things that I had seen is that he is going to take office space in the old Executive Office building, which is adjacent to the West, but it is not actually in the White House, and that he wanted, actually wanted to be in the West Wing. And she was like, that's not happening. But he's still plenty close to Trump.
Don't worry.
Then give up your business conflicts. If you want to work in the West Wing, then divest.
Why should he when Trump himself has the greatest business conflicts of you know, of old time.
He formally divested. But it's that's why it's like, yeah, it's a joke.
Yeah, it's a total incomplete Joe. I mean, Elon is one of the largest government contractors. Yeah, one of the largest, has all kinds of regulatory disputes of our a legend, labor and SEC violations and environmental violations. I mean massive, massive, massive, unimaginable conflicts of interest.
But yeah, Starlink is a not insignificant part of the Ukraine War.
That's that's true. Yeah, that's right, that's right.
Obviously, the NASA contracts with SpaceX are gigantic, so I mean just massive amounts of conflicts of interest. We can put this next piece up on the screen from Politico. Trump's staff, furious after must trash's AI projects, Cleary's abused
the proximity to the president. But again, this is all like staffers leaking to Politico and probably the most you know, And there's no indication that Trump is furious, just that the staff is furious, which makes sense because they, I'm sure, put a lot of work into this big announcement, getting
these leaders there and doing the whole thing. This has in reference to the five alleged five hundred billion dollars Stargate investment effort, and Elon immediately goes out and is like, they don't have the money.
Yep, Well because he's in an anti trust suit against Sam Altman. Right, It's like, that's to this big question about whether the Trump and Elon relationship ultimately implodes.
I'm with you. I think it's they both have way too much on the line.
Like again, with Trump, this is a man who, via Starlink and SpaceX, is controlling so much of the country's domestic and foreign policy one man. Yeah, so he can't really afford to blow up that relationship. Elon Musk certainly can't afford to blow up that relationship because he has now staked his entire reputation not just as a person but as a businessman on Donald Trump as a leader on Donald Trump, as a diplomat on Donald Trump.
And so that's.
How high the stakes are for both of them to play nice with each other. It doesn't mean that they're not going to get incredibly annoyed. I think it's more likely that Trump gets annoyed with Elon Musk than the other way around.
But like those Elon seems like a pretty annoying person.
Yeah, he does.
Those leaks are I feel like the Trump White House is either going to encourage them forever like quick and Elon's just going to have to get used to them, or if Musk is really sensitive, they're going to shut those down really quickly, and we'll find out in the next couple of months. But I mean, the relationship is just way too high stakes for either of them to bungle. And yet Elon Musk continues to now go and you like,
act as a as a diplomat and make policy by tweet. Yeah, as somebody who's not like a government, who has not divested up as conflicts of interest, cannot take a paid position with the US government because he hasn't done it, but is in this position of the US government. It
means the entire arrangement is completely insane. And I think Trump thinks and Trump supporters think that it's the type of thing where a hundred years you look back on and you're like, this was brilliant, This was a gilded age. You know, JP Morgan saving America because you know, someone one of the presidents asked him to. And that's a hell of a bet. That's a that's a hell of a risk, and it's one that they're in it so deep right now there's no way really out of it.
You can't really dig yourself out of this hole.
Yeah, no, that's right.
And obviously some parts of the MAGA coalition are very upset with the influence and sway of Elon, who they don't see as you know, an ideological ally of the like original MAGA view that broke out into the opinion with the h one P fight. But you know, Steve Bannon really been cooking with the with the Elon insults, calling saying that he called him evil. He said that white South Africans are the most racist people on the planet. I wonder if he agrees with me about the sigil salute.
Oh that interesting, Yeasayden.
But anyway, Well, I'll leave that at that.
But the key quote from the piece on Politico was the problem is regarding Elon, the president doesn't have any leverage over him, and Elon gets zero. The president has no leverage because he's the richest man on the planet, he owns a major communications platform, he has his own funning base of cult support, and you know, really and also he spent more than a quarter of a billion dollars getting Trump into office. So yeah, he feels like, I'm going to do what I'm going to do and
you're really not going to have any saying it. And that means like undercutting your announcement on Twitter. You're just gonna take it. And actually Trump did just take it. Let's go and play Eric if we can. Trump got asked about Elon undercutting him on the AI thing, and
you know, he was very unruffled about it. He was like, yeah, well he hates one of the people involved, referring to Samul's and he says something funny, something very Trump like, I have certain hatreds too, So let's take a list to that.
It bother you that Elon Musk criticized a deal that you made publicly that he said that he treated that.
No, does he hates one of the people in the deals?
Have him since then?
No?
No, well I've spoken Elon, but smoking.
All of them actually people in the deal of very very smart people, but Elon one of the people. He happens toy. But I have certain hatreds of people too.
I'm certain hatreds of people too.
So it's so that was a classic Trump moment.
I mean, just we all hate people that we do deals with, right, were adults about it, and we.
Move on, move on.
He does have he has some leverage over Elon mus because clearly Musk has something, he has a lot at stake in his relationship with with Trump and the US government. And that's part of the problem is that he's expecting favors in return. But Musk obviously would have so much power even if he fell out with Donald Trump.
I mean that's yeah.
And we were talking about countries that have other places to turn, like, you know, to China, like Musk also can turn more to China. That's huge, yeah, because he has significant business relationships there and has really you know, gone on his way to cultivate I mean this was also important.
You remember that whole.
Spending bill fight that he and at that point Viveigue, who's now been excised from that kingdom. But in any case, that they picked over that spending bill, and one of the things that got pulled ultimately out of the spending bill was these restrictions on high tech investments in China because Musk didn't like that.
So he that is.
His agenda that was not originally Trump's agenda, but he was able to successfully get it through just by u using Twitter and throwing his weight around and threatening primaries in that context as well. Last piece here put C four up on the screen. So both Elon and Doge are not popular. They are really unpopular, and this Musk
approval rating has dramatically fallen. I mean, Americans have sort of it's interesting, Americans have a reflexive bias against I would say appropriate so not biased in a negative way, but against billionaires as a group in general, but specific billionaires. You know, they really buy into this. Oh they must have done something great and they made a great product. They must deserve what they got, et cetera.
Et cetera.
And Elon had a very positive approval rating until pretty recently, and now his approval rating is roughly that of Joe Biden. So disapproved is fifty two percent, so majority approve is only thirty six percent. So you're talking about about a third of the country that is still on board with this guy.
Doge also not popular.
I mean, you still have a good number of people in these numbers who were like, I don't really know what that is, and I haven't made up my mind, but it's underwater by ten points. You've only got twenty nine percent who are like yes to Doge, which to me, I'm actually kind of surprised about Emily because you know, the idea of like we're going to root out fraud,
Like who could be against that? But because Elin has become such a toxic figure that you know, has sort of tanked the whole Doge project in terms of public perception. And then lastly, and I think this is the big Achilles seal for the Trump administration if Democrats were able, slash willing to exploit it. Sixty percent of people think that billionaires advising the president is bad and only twelve
percent say this is good. And when you compare, you know, when you pair the Musk influence with all of those guys that were behind him on the DAYA Suckerberg and Bezos and all of these people that all these billionaires, four of the five richest people on the entire planet standing behind him at the inauguration. You know again, this is this is I think a real vulnerability ultimately for Trump.
So yeah, I mean, Trump thinks the world sees him as having co opted these CEOs and he can parade them around like trophies.
And I don't think that's clear.
You know, that's and sounds like what I just said is entirely obvious. But Trump thinks that people are seeing him as the conqueror of Silicon Valley as opposed to the conquered, and Silicon Valley understands that, which is why they are allowing Trump to kind of frame it that way and are being absolutely obsequious.
Yeah, and that's yeah.
And Trump, on the other hand, or they, I should say, Silicon Valley, on the other hand, has all of these plans actually to conquer the US government and to get these monopolistic contracts. Actually, interestingly, one of the things that Elan is fighting Sam Altman on is the Open AI relationship with Microsoft. Elan is trying to compete in the AI space and issuing them for monopolistic practices. And he's
completely right that it's a monopoly. It's a government sanctioned monopoly essentially, and our relationship it's turning into like crony capital not turning into it is crony capitalism when it comes to AI. It's a crony industrial policy that is being paraded as this like Melay esque libertarian triumph and
it's nothing of the sort at all. And so the American public, when you have sixty percent saying they don't like the billionaires, Trump still thinks he has room to operate with that because it looks like he's kind of he's on the same page. He's right, like, these guys aren't running the government. I'm running these mother efforts like
they're answering to us. They're answering to the US. And his thing going forward is going to be whether the public sees him as the conqueror or the conquered, and that for him is going to be a challenge to make it look like he really won because these guys are getting a hell of a lot at the end of the arrangement, and increasingly more and more and more so good luck.
Yeah, no, that's that's absolutely right.
I mean they're already getting you know, the five hundred billion dollar star rate thing is like they're putting up the money. It's not supposed to be public funds, but just getting that big White House announcement and all that access.
Trump already rolled back.
There were a few like modest AI safety type of things executive orders that Biden had signed, which we need to do way more, but at least it was something. He's already rolled those back. You know, they're doing their exploration about a digital asst reserve, which is just like, to me, so disgusting because, like I said before, imagine he puts the Trump and Millenia shit coins in the digital asset reserve.
That means you and me and you are all.
On the hook for pumping up the price of this just total like fake invented scam and many others. Besides, if it's a digital asset reserve, it could be any number of things that are.
In that and all.
I mean it's basically listen, Crypto is an even more unequal marketplace than the like general economy. There are a handful like a few dozen gigantic whales that own the overwhelming bulk of crypt currencies, and so they have a problem, which is that if they sell a bunch into the market, then it completely tanks the price and they can't pull out any like real dollars out of this ponzi scheme.
Theoretically, they like to talk about theoretically the democratization that comes with crypto, but that's not in practice what's happening at.
All, not at all, not at all, And with these meme coins, like there's not even a theory of that really, it's just like, yeah, it's just it's just anner.
It's just it's it is a pyramids.
It's just can I get more people to be greater fools than me and get in after meat and pump the price up. I mean, there's not even an illusion of Like the Bitcoin, there's some illusion of like, oh, this could be used for transactions and you know, evading sanctions is the use that I personally prefer for bitcoin as like the best use case. But with these there's not even like a theory of that of it being used or useful in any way other than just like
Borzen speculations. So in any case, he is doing a lot for them he is, you know, taking any sort of breaks off in terms of AI development, and also well has I mean he removed Lenakhan, so and the guy that he put in is much less signaled to be much less aggressive in terms of anti trust enforcement. So, and they're all going to get a giant tax cut, that much is for sure. So they already have gotten
a lot out of the deal. And I think your way of framing it, Emily is totally correct about it's going to all come down to whether Trump is seen as like the victor or the vanquished of these billionaires, right.
And you know it's not just that he I think he understands. You know, a lot of people are arguing this this sort of basic point that it looks gross to surround yourself with all of these oligarchs. But I think Trump sees that differently. His perception of it is that he looks like he's taken over the men who
opposed him at every step. And it's true, like Zuckerberg is a great example of somebody who poured a lot of money into the twenty twenty election, and it wasn't with the goal of getting Donald Trump elected or getting as many.
People to the polls as pop possible.
It was you know, he supported Joe Biden, and here Trump has him on his dais that is inauguration. It's not just about, you know, the proximity to power. It's about saying I own you now. But the public may not see it that way going forward, for the very reason that Trump was successful in the first place, which is that people hate billionaires and Trump came out of somebody who hated other billionaires.
Good luck, yeah, so true.