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Good morning to everyone. We have a girl show for you today. Soccer is out Where.
Where is he?
Crystal Soccer, my little trip down to Austin record a couple of podcasts with Lex Friedman and with Matt Shane on their podcast. So I'm looking forward to seeing all of those, and he will be back here on Monday. But very glad as always to have you here with us, Emily.
Special Blast and when Soccer goes on this honeymoon, everyone will get an extra dose.
That's right.
The Girls Show, yeahke loved, that's right. That is coming very soon. In the meantime, we have very much news to bring you this.
Pod morning in America, folks.
I saw to Ryan make the fascist and furious jokes.
Is that right?
And then someone tweeted, like nine sequels like to come, because yes, we're on Fast twenty.
Yeah, that's exactly right, and many of those sequels are coming this morning. So some pretty wild picks that we'll go through, some very interesting ones. We're also taking a look at Elon's influence on this administration. Some reports that the staff is already getting irritated with him because he's just like around all the time. So and of course there's always jocking for power, and right now Elon appears to have Trump's ear, so look into those dynamics as well.
James Carville absolutely shocking me and saying that, hey, you know, maybe that Bernie Sanders had a point. I never would have thought that those words would come out of his mouth. David Brooks has also said something similar. Wild times we're living through here people. At the same time, New York Times facing a lot of scrutiny over taking down a video because it showed actually the polar opposite of what they had originally claimed that it showed and no longer
served their narrative purpose. Pulled that I'm taking a look at the what billionaires want out of the Trump administration, and we've got a great guest on on the Democratic side to talk about how Democrats failed to appeal to young men. So that should be an interesting conversation as.
Well, hugely interesting conversation.
And speaking of interesting conversations, Crystal, we are about to have one, because we could go ahead and put a one up on the screen.
Yeah.
Donald Trump nominated Matt Gates to be Attorney General of the United States yesterday evening.
Yeah, and Crystal was celebrating right away.
She was my cup of tea right here.
She was like, this is surprisingly refreshing.
It's something. It was surprising that part was true at this part. This Axios report talks about how Republicans were stunned and disgusted at Trump picking Matt Gates for Attorney General. Now the uh, I think the spin on that would be, you know, he's unorthodox on this in that position.
True, true, he is no doubt about it. But he also is just.
Unrepentant asshole and is probably the most hated figure among his colleagues on Capitol Hill. You can back this up probably better than I can.
Yeah, even among Republicans, first of all, even among Republicans, as you said, like MAGA type Republicans I was talking to one source that's definitely Maga yesterday and it was just that's Wirt's described the reaction among types on Capitol Hill and on the House side as quote Vieepish, everyone was just shocked. And he is to your point, Crystal,
he's really beloved by the base. Like if you go to a Trump evet and Gates is that people love Matt Gates who are not like in DC, which you know, to most people would be like, oh, that means you're doing something right, that's a good thing. But in this case, it's because the more you've like interacted with him, the more you're like, oh no, no, no, no, Like you were just in this for fame and podcasting, and now I guess that's turning.
General definitely the vibe. I have my own like personal experience with him. We interviewed him a couple of times over Arising. Some of those times were actually even before Soccer was there, when it was myself and Buck Sexton that was co hosted. And I remember one memorable incident in particular where he was quite upset with the te selection in the green room and started raging at the intern there about how inadequate it was and storming around.
So that's just kind of the vibe he brings to the table.
You know.
I saw some people even like, you know, Matt Stoller was like, oh, look at it. He's good on antitrust. And you know, it's true, he likes Lenakon. He does genuinely have some like outside of the traditional Republican type of views. But that also, in my opinion, is definitely not why he was put in the job. You know, there's a few things that are going on here. I mean, Trump says he wants retribution, and Matt Gates is the type of guy who will deliver.
For him in that regard.
You know, in the first administration, Trump kept asking his White House lawyer Don McGann, how can I get the Justice Department to do what I wanted to do and basically be a tool for me. And the topic came up so often according to reporting that also mcgahann, And it was someone else who was in the administration at that point his name I'm blanking on, wrote a memo of like, listen, the Justice Department is supposed to be independent. Here is what you can do, Here's what you can't do.
And it was they made a point of not only putting sending this menm to Trump, but also leaking it so that there would be a record that they had instilled in him, like here are the rules and the boundaries,
because this was something he was very interested in. What he figured out in the first term eventually is that even though he couldn't just like call Jeff Sessions or whoever was the ag after that and be like, I want you to go after this person, that if he said something publicly, then if he had someone who was sufficiently loyal in that position, they would pick up on, oh, he wants me to do X and Y and Z. And so John Carey was one of the people I
don't even even remember what this beef was over at this point, but was one of the people that that had pissed him off, and so he talked about that publicly. The Justice Department started investigating John Carrey Komy was another one, of course. So that was how he did that in the first administration. This time around, you know, he's got a guy who's going to be even more who already really knows who Trump would want him to go after. The other piece with Matt Gates, and we could put
this next part up on the screen. That is significant to note is he immediately resigned his seat in Congress, which is unusual because in two days time, the House Ethics Committee was set to vote vote on releasing was described as a highly damaging report outlining its investigation into Matt Gates, according to multiple sources familiar with that probe, so by resigning immediately before that investigation comes out, and again this is an investigation from a Republican controlled House,
he's hoping to short circuit the release of those findings. He had previously himself been investigated by the Justice Department for potential sex trafficking of a minor. No charges were ultimately filed. This investigation is said to be related to that line of inquiry and perhaps some others. One of his colleagues has accused him. One of his you know, Republican colleagues, Senator Mark what's his name?
I always forget his name.
Mark, Mark Wayne Mullen, Wayne Mullen, Yes, Mark waynemull That last name always serves me for a loop. Anyway, he has accused Gates of always like, you know, showing around on the House floor pictures of like naked pictures of the women that he's sleeping with, and various things of that nature. So that's the type of guy we're talking about here. And the last thing I'm saying that I get your reaction, Emily and see if you agree with that or what you think is going on here is.
There's been a lot.
Said, of course, about the potential damaging information possible that's out there on Matt Gates. In one hand, you know that seems like, oh, that could be a problem for him with his colleagues. Obviously they don't like him already. This report could still come out. You only need one Republican on the committee to actually vote for it to come out and join the Democrats for there to be a majority for it to be released. Could also very
easily be leaked. But the other piece of that is if you're Trump and you know some damaging information about Matt Gates, that also gives you an insurance policy that this person is going to do exactly what you want them to do, or else you have this damaging information that you also could very easily release.
That's a really smart point.
Actually, I didn't even think about that, because it would make sense that Trump would want total compliance in an Attorney general role. Obviously, like you said, Gates already kind of knows the types of people that Donald Trump would want to go after. And this is one of the big debates in the Republican world period right now, is what to do with Lawfair and a second Trump administration because this sort of consensus position is that you have.
To fight fire with fire.
So if they're going to go after Donald Trump with the fire of their own lawfair, Comy is a really good example of this. I mean, I think there were some pretty obviously objectionable things.
Even some people on the left especially agree with that.
I mean, it was outrageous some of the things that James Comy did. So then the debate now on the right is whether you have your own James call me right, you have you put Camy in here to sort of like message who are you going to spy on those types of things?
Right?
And these questions are like actually very much being debated, and Matt Gates comes down on one side of that debate. Yeah, And I think you know, Lefong wrote a piece actually it's up and unheard this morning about how Matt Gates has a I think it was called the Progressive populist case for Matt Gates, and I'm reading it like, actually, Matt Gates has some really genuinely heterodots, like on Syria, on Africa, his policies have been consistent and sort of
like libertarian foreign policy type things. And then on the other hand, he's been so good on Lena Khan, like just when nobody else is defending Lena Khan, Matt Gates will defend Lina Khan. And it's just like, Okay, all of that may be true, but he's crazy.
I'm glad about the only one of those tables saying I'm crazy. It's like Trump is not mostly ideological, right, and so when if you're trying to parse and think that any of these picks are really about ideology, they're not.
They're about who he thinks.
For sometimes it's like who he thinks looks the right part right and like who you liked on Fox News or whatever. And with this one, remember jd Vance during the campaign said that the attorney general position was going to be one of the most important ones. With this one, I think loyalty like having someone who is going to be a sick aphant, who is going to do exactly what he wants him to do. That is the main
qualifying position. I don't think had anything to do with Matt Gates's position on Lena Khan, because I mean Elon Musk, who.
Is Although that is relevant at DJ.
It is relevant at DOJ, But I mean I would be shocked if Lena Cohn stays in her job because you've got Elon muskho was Trump's biggest funder, and we're about to cover how influential he is in all of this. He is at war with Lena Khan, as are like almost the entirety of the billionaire class, quite a few of him who lined up behind Donald Trump. So it would be shocking to me if Trump didn't deliver her head on a platter for a lot of the big
donors who are backing him. But you know, the other thing I'll say about Matt Gates I'm curious you're read on this one too, Emily, is that when this first came out, people a lot of people across the political spectrum thought like, well, this is just kind.
Of a ploy.
Gates is like a sacrificial lamb, yep, to kind of like grease the skins so that other nominees make it through the Senate more easily because he's so wild and out there that Republicans in the Senate can show that they have some independence by voting him down and then it'll make it easier to get the rest of the nominees through. I don't buy that at all. I don't buy that at all. I think Trump and there's reporting to suggest this now. In fact, I think we might have some reporting on this.
But anyway, right.
So, Trump is very serious about getting Matt Gates in and if he wants a nominee in, and he's going to get a nominee in, which is why I always thought, you know, the RFK junior getting floated for like you know, some cabinet secretary people, I will make it through Senate confirmation. Like that doesn't matter. Trump has already gained out how he can. Either he can either put people in as acting secretaries, as he's done in the past, or the real plan appears to be to use recess appointments to
get anyone through who wouldn't otherwise pass confirmation. And I think it's true that Matt Gates would have trouble getting through or you know, even this Republican Senate, they have a fifty three big forty seven seat majority. But if you think of like you know, Lisa Collins or Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins, Mitt Romney, there you go, there's your three.
Well you just mentioned Mark Wayne Mullin, who's like a conservative.
Well, actually, I think he's already come out and said that Trump knows what he's doing. And so, don't get me wrong, the overwhelming like probably fifty of the fifty three senators are likely to back every single one of Trump's picks, no.
Matter how wild they are.
But it still does put you on the margins with Matt Gates where he could get voted down going through a Senate confirmation process. But you know, reportedly they already have discussed how they're going to get around that and circumvent that. So I think you can expect Matt Gates to be Attorney General of the United States.
Yeah, there was a lot of conversation and conservative circles where people, to your point, Crystal, were sort of shocked by this and they were like it must be forty chess, like this must be a way to get Matt Gates to be governor of Florida. So Matt Gates drops out of a seat, he becomes governor of Florida, or it's like you said, greasing the skids. So if you don't want to vote for Matt Gates, that's fine, make sure you vote for Pete Hagg Seth Right, Like I understand, Okay, Gates.
I get it, it's Gates.
But like, if you're going to not vote for Gates, you are going to vote for Pete Pete haggsath at the part he was like a bargaining chip essentially is and I mean it's possible.
It's a little bit of both.
Right that the first and foremost the reason Donald Trump wanted Matt Gates because he wants Matt Gates. And then he realized what maybe puts it over the edge is like okay, we'll say, people say that's their line in the sand, Well we can definitely get Pete through then something like that. But I think it's absolutely true that he wants to Orney General Matt Gates.
Like that's the bottom line.
Yeah, And I think he wants if he wants something, he's going to get it. You know, he is firmly he has never been more in control of this Republican Party. So the voices of resistance that were there on the Republican side back when he came into office in twenty sixteen. I think you're going to see a lot, not that there won't be any, but I think you're going to
see a lot less of that. We've got to clip will show you later that I think you know backs that up and so and the other thing that you know, as someone who's left of center.
Here looking at the way.
Republicans operating, the way Trump operates in particular, versus how Democrats operate, Democrats would be, oh, I.
Don't know if they can make it through Senate confirmation.
We're going to try to go ahead and triangulate to the person that we think can make it through. And you know about that, there's this little rule that might keep us from being able to get it done. And with Trump, it's like, no, I want this thing. I'm going to find out a way to make it happen and come hell or high water, Like if I want Matt Gates is my attorney general.
Matt Gates going to be attorney general. So that's probably the way to look at it.
Republicans are very uncomfortable with it. They don't want to some are. I mean there's even even conservative Republicans are uncomfortable with it because they were always deferential to Senate procedure and to like the kind of traditions I mean, right conservative, But nope, not anymore.
Yeah.
Well, and we're going to get in a little bit. We now know who the Senate Majority leader is going to be. It is not actually the pick that Maga and Trump wanted, but Trump had already put out this thing. Whoever is the Senate Majority leader has to commit to
doing recess appointments. This can get in the weeds, I know, But you know, the Senate, it's this very prideful institution and one of their primary responsibilities is advice and consent on the nominees and going through this process of questioning them, et cetera, et cetera.
And all of the.
People who were seeking that job immediately when Trump said that said, no problem, we'll do it.
It's all you.
And that represents, you know, immediate sort of abdication of an important power that they had to Donald Trump. So to me, that's indicative of the tone and the you know, the power dynamics that you're likely to see throughout this administration. Gates is not the only big, very interesting pick that we got yesterday. Let's go and put a one ce up on the screen. Tulci Gabbard has been tapped to serve as Trump's Director of National Intelligence.
Of course, Tulsi was previously a.
Democrat, previously very critical of Trump and his foreign policy. She said famously like being Saudi Arabia's bitch is not America first, a tweet which apparently still up to this day, kind of an incredible statement in.
And of itself.
Does she act Kushner?
I think it was implied it was a subtweet, subsweet, amazing. Yeah, So anyways, she's gonna be a director of National Intelligence. She also had there was some indication that she was herself being so under the Biden administration when she was moving through airport, she was like being tracked, et cetera. So what do you make of this particular pick.
Well, I think it's really fascinating that it's likely now we'll have because recess appointments, a great example, are the reason why I mean Telsy Gabbert is someone who would actually have a hard time listening confirmation, and we may see that happen, and we may see recess appointment in this case. But yeah, to have her and Marca Rubio side by side, I mean, just take both of them on Syria, just like go back and look at how both of them handled the question of Syria.
Right.
It is there foreign policies distilled into this like perfect contrast. They are so incredibly different from one another that it's amazing to think this is I mean D and I is not a joke, Like that's a very serious position. It's a powerful position. Obviously the same will be set of Secretary of State, so that those two will have those clashing viewpoints. I think a lot of regular Americans will say that's really good. The other possibilities is its
total mass. It's just a total disaster because nobody can.
Get on the same page. Our allies and enemies.
Are hearing different things from different people, and nothing is clear. So again, like maybe there's something good that comes from it. I don't. I can't think of a modern precedent for having that polarized viewpoints in such high profile positions in such a way that it's your worldview, not just like a policy difference on Syria, for example, but like Syria is a representation of how I mean. Marco Rubio is an old school cold warrior who has had a shift
towards realism. But I wouldn't call him a realist. He said, a shift towards realism. He didn't vote for the Ukraine aid package that was in the spring, but as some people pointed out, he really kind of hemmed and hot about why he didn't vote for it, and there were a lot of different reasons that he gave. He's been fairly supportive of Ukraine. He recently called the worst stalemates. He says it needs to come to an end, so at least that's something. But in Latin America he's like
old school cold warrior. He obviously was very supportive of older policies in the Middle East, as was Pete Haig said, by the way, although he seems to have, as Dan called well, Concerned Vets who worked for him with him at Concerned Vets has said he shifted. I think Marco Rubio has shifted less than a lot of people.
On the right, did it, am I remembering this correctly?
Like just a couple of months ago, Toldy say that Marco Rubio would be a disasters pick.
In July, she did an interview on Megan Kelly Show in July tenth and said, this is like this would be a really bad sign and a big mistake.
Yeah, I mean Marco Rubio, like by any reasonable standard, is a neocon. Like you know, I think there's and Sager mad at this point. I think this is an important point. Like it's one thing for people at this moment, given how clear the issue is on the Republican side of the ledger to pull back with regard to Ukraine. It's another thing to have been you know, correct from the beginning on things like the Iraq war on Afghanistan.
And you know, the other thing is that Trump himself there's no indication he is anti war, even as it's possible and even this is really not clear that he may take a different approach on Ukraine. But like I said, even that is not totally clear because he has been on both sides of that issue as well as the time hit Joe Biden from the hawkish end of saying
like you're not doing enough for the Ukrainians. But it's more that, you know, some of the critics of the Ukraine War, they're more interested in, hey, we need to keep our powder dry so that we can potentially go to war with China. None of these individuals, Tulsi included. Tulsi has completely shifted her position with regard to Israel. She used to be critical and now she's, you know,
completely on board with whatever Israel wants to do. Otherwise they don't think she would be in this particular position. Dare I say, given that, you know, a pack seems to have had a lot of influence, whether overt or covert, They've had a lot of influence in terms of the foreign policy related picks, in particular his.
Ambassador to Israel's My Khokapi.
So I mean it would be hard for Telsey Gabbert to have her old positions on Israel.
Yes, and Headseath is equally like as sort of like, you know, Messiania has this very religiously driven view of Israel, and this is quite unprecedented. I mean, obviously our foreign policy has always been like lockstep with Israel, et cetera, et cetera. But you know, how could be is the type where it's not just the Biden administration sort of like agreed with Yov Galant, who was also in my view, like a maniac and said that Palestinians like are our animals,
et cetera, et cetera. But he was at least interested in, hey, how do we get our own hostages back? How could be in Hegsath are more in line with like Ben Gaverin's motrich that are like, we need to just and this problem once overall take over the West Bank, like this is, you know, our religious fulfillment of religious prophecy. And they're all sort of like weirdly on the same page with that. So it does represent and shift in
that regard. We'll move on to talk a little bit more about Rubio, but I also one thing I was thinking about, both with regard to the quote unquote deep State and with regard to the Department of Justice, is, you know, the way he portrays these type of picks is like, I'm going to make sure that justice is done and that it's not weaponized, et cetera. That's not actually what he wants.
He wants.
He wants it to be weaponized the way he wants it to be weaponised. That's true in the first administration, I think will be even more true now. And you know he's been pretty upfront about that. It's the same thing with things like surveillance, which falls under the Tulsi Gabbard DNI where it's not that he's opposed to mass surveillance, it's not that he's opposed to censorship, it's that he
wants it to be applied to his enemies. So, you know, things like surveilling any sort of left movement racial justice, you know, economic justice, certainly, the pro Palestine movement, like any you know, resurgent, like Black Lives Matter movement, anything like that. He would be all totally cool, if not affirmatively in support of the type of surveillance that's been weaponized against all kinds of activist groups.
Across the board.
And we've already seen his position with regard to censorship. I mean, he wants to deport anyone who is pro Palestine, he wants flag burning to be banned. The list goes on and on. So it's not like he's actually pro First Amendment. He just wants speech restrictions to be applied in the way that serves him and goes against his own political enemies. So I think that's the other thing to keep in mind when we're talking about the powers at DMI.
Yeah.
Yeah, And there's some Republicans who are really strong on free speech and consistent, you know, like Thomas Massey.
Yeah, absolutely hopefully tells the Gabbard.
But I mean, I think it's an open question and Rand Paul, but you need one of them, you know what I mean, Like, Yeah, it's so easy for the others to slip into this is anti semitic speech. Of course it must be surveilled, or of course it's anti Semitic, it must be connected to foreign terrorist groups, so of course it falls under this umbrella. It goes into this category something we.
Have to surveil.
So it's just very very easy for even people who are like anti establishment Republicans to slip into that. That's all right, it's a I mean, I think that is also a huge unanswered question.
And uh there.
You know, I'm optimistic about Tulsi Gabbert. I'm one of the like, I'm still still faith in Tulsa.
But we'll see, Yeah, we will.
I Mean the reason I don't is because she's just totally flipped her position on so many issues with no explanation for it, and so you know, to me, it just seems like she made a calculation that her path to having more notoriety influenced power, et cetera. Was just to come on board with Trump and whatever that entailed. And hey, she played her cards right.
I'd rather have a Trump administration with Taulsi Gabbert and Mark Rubio than and I like Marco Ruby honestly, but then just Marko Rubio, you know what I mean? Like it just makes me more comfortable as an American that
there's at least some divergence on really critical issues. And yes, I think Gabert has changed her mind on some key things, but some of those have been I mean, I just don't have a sense that maybe, other than Israel, she's had a fundamental shift in her worldview and foreign policy in a way that would put her in line with a Marco Rubio. So I think we could be in for some really interesting disagreements in the Trump administration.
Yeah, we'll see. We'll see how this all plays out. It was definitely going to be interesting. We've referenced this already. We could put a two up on the screen, Mark or Rubio. It is official in for Secretary of State Emily what happened here? Because this got reported and there was kind of a freaking on the Magi side, because he is a Neocon and you know, low Marco Trump himself had very critical words of him to say in the past about how he'd be Sheldon Naedelson's puppet, et cetera,
et cetera. How far we've come from those days, you know. Anyway, there was a delay in the release.
Of this name. On the Trump side.
There was some suggestion that like, oh, you know, Tucker was flying down to talk to him, and there was this whole coalescing of all these people who are going to try to talk about MARKA. Rubio in a state, but ultimately Marco Rubio is in as state. So what do you make of all of that? What can you know? What can you say about that?
I mean, I think it was so the Rubio people were really confident from the beginning, so I think they and someone was confident obviously enough to leak it to Maggie Haberman. And but that said, even after it's leaked to the New York Times, there's a series of days where Donald Trump makes all of these other major announcements and of people who are much less, much less orthodox picks than a senator. You know, Pete Haig Sath is a good example, and Marco Rubio comes what Wednesday night,
Wednesday evening somewhere around there. I mean, yeah, I think there was serious. I think there was an effort to thwart it among people. You know, you probably get people can probably guess who they are if you remember when Dave Smith tweeted something like the battle against Mike Pompeio is good, but like we have to make sure there are no neo cons in this administration. Don Junior Donald Trump Junior quote tweeted that and said agree one hundred.
One hundred, Yeah, I'm on it.
And so I think you could probably read into what happened over those series of days. There was some leaks that it was coming from Rick Cornell's camp. Rick Garnell obviously would have wanted a position similar to that, and he hasn't. He doesn't have anything so far, not D N I, not.
C I A.
Those are all things that he was talked about for, not d D, any of those like. It just didn't happen for Rick Cornell, and I think there probably was. Rick Cornell said he wasn't the one leaking negative things about Marco Rubio.
But that doesn't mean that it wasn't. People in his camp.
It doesn't mean it wasn't people in his camp, And it doesn't mean actually that other whether they were in his camp or not, it doesn't mean that, you know, maybe somebody like Donald Trump Junior or Tucker Carlson weren't lobbying really hard for basically anyone but Marco Rubio or John Bolton obviously, but basically anyone other than Marco Rubio because they see him as a pretty like that's that's a holdover from the previous Republican right on foreign policy right.
And so the fact that he gets chosen anyway in spite of that kind of relatively organized effort to block him, what do you think that that indicates about who has influenced?
Yeah, I mean, I think that tells you exactly what's going to happen in this administration that you.
Know, and you right into that Susie Wiles or.
Susie Wiles, probably Susie Wiles and Susie Wilds, by the way, is I you know, has been affiliated with Mercury, which is like the swampiest lobbying firm in d C.
It was kind of pharma, like all the all the bad guys.
And it was who Paul Matnafort was lobbying for when he was lobbying on behalf of the Party of Regions in Ukraine, he was doing as a part through Mercury. And so there's just a lot of I think donor class baggage that comes with las A Vita and Stuzie Wiles.
And I wonder actually if the announcement of Tulsi as D and I, which came out either right before, right after Rubio, maybe right after the Rubio announcement, was part of that push and pull with Don Juior, Tucker Carlson and others saying like, okay.
Well at least give us throw us a bone here basically bone right.
Yeah, So I kind of wonder if that's what happened in all of the infighting, because what was happening over the course of this week, Like I had us Wurst, who was very knowledgeable about the transition, who said, the Trump people don't fully trust Tulsi Gabbard.
Ryan and I talked about this yesterday.
That's not Trump himself, but Trump world doesn't fully trust Tulsi Gabbard, and so she was.
Kind of on the chopping block.
Rubio I think absolutely was on the chopping block just it seemed like Trump was pretty set on the pick, but there was still intense fighting among like Don Junior and others. So I don't know if Rubio, maybe this is an interesting part of the story, if Rubio indicated that his foreign policy was shifting more than maybe publicly we've seen his foreign policy shift in a way that made them feel comfortable.
But it's hard to imagine.
I mean, those guys are aligned basically with the Tulsi Gabbard ideology, and I don't know how Rubio could have indicated anything to them that would say he was really in that category.
Yeah, And the thing is with Trump, if he actually takes like a you know, an interest in something and has a clear ideological position, and everyone's going to fall in line with whatever it is he wants. It's just that he doesn't always have, you know, And then it becomes okay, well, what are the voices in the room saying what are the options that are being presented?
And we've seen him be.
Very you know, kind of malleable in the past based on who happens to be around him, etc. On something that isn't core. So in any case, that was you know, to me that was an interesting indication of the way some of these intra mega battles are playing out. And when Susie Wiles was first named chief of staff, I was a little bit surprised by that, to be honest with you.
But I also was surprised that.
There wasn't concern over that in megaworld, because the thought was like, Oh, she's just an apparatic, she's just non ideological. There's no such thing in this town. There's no such thing as non ideological. Non ideological basically defaults to like whatever the sort of mainstream conventional wisdom is, you know. And so I think perhaps her fingerprints and her influence seems to be on some of these picks. But also, you know, Trump is a big boy and makes up
his own mind. And I always get irritated when people are like, oh this it's the fault of this person, is the fall of that person. It's like, this is the man that was elected president of the United States. He's had years to think about who he wants in these positions. He's making up his own mind. So you know, he also deserves like direct blame credit, however you want to look at it. For the picks that he is ultimately putting forward Rubio certainly another one in the you know,
Miriam Maddilson very pleased with this pick as well. He's been extremely aggressive and hawkish, you know, on the side of Israel. There was a poor Michael Tracy tweeted down Israeli media apparently quote unquote dancing the horror and Netanyahu's office over Trump filling his administration with quote old school Republicans. Not exactly music to the ears of people like Tucker Carlson or Dave Smith at I'll let's go ahead and take a listen to a little bit of that.
And going back back to Mike Wagonheim Mike just in the past hour, the Trump team confirming the pick of Mike Waltz as the National Security Advisor. And I don't want to exaggerate and say that Israel, the government here and its supporters are breathing a sigh of relief over
these picks. But certainly I think some of the concerns they had about the next administration have been eased by picking certainly these three, especially Marco Rubio, Mike Waltz, people who have for example, spoken with I twenty four News just in recent months about their strong support Israel and their concerns over Iran.
Not just breathing a sigh of relief. God of, they're dancing the horror right now at the Prime Minister's office with these selections by Donald Trump. I mean, we were expecting some isolationists possibly in those positions, or maybe some who lean at least a little bit toward Trump's new foreign policy in the MAGA foreign policy hasn't been that case at all. I mean, Rubio and Mike Waltz are in the mold of an old school Republicans on policy,
both pro Israel stalwarts to the hilt. They'll they'll challenge anybody who have views the situation otherwise. I mean, you couldn't have selected two better picks. I think if you're sitting in the Prime Minister's office right now, and at least the Phonic will be a firebrand at the United Nations.
She already told Isaac tug in a meeting this morning that you'll have Israel's back there, and we didn't expect otherwise, but always always good to hear that if you're within the Israeli government in a very problematic institution like the UN. By the way, Marco Rubio told us last Tuesday at Donald Trump's watch party on election night that he would with the Republicans taking over the Senate, not knowing then that he would be nominated, likely for Secretary of State.
He said that the Republican Senate should take up defunding more UN agencies that he feels are either in cohoots with Hamas or turn a blind eye to those terror organizations that operate in Gaza and elsewhere.
So, Miriam, definitely getting our money's worth with, you know, cabinet that is quite is real first so and the.
Was he trying to sabotage them.
Script is that in a way that would like actually piss off Maga more getting work.
Like none of that Maga forign policy here, old school republic school Republican.
He's like that, they're totally from the old school Republican mold, very very reassuring.
Yeah, yep, well there you go.
Mary Madison gave him a hundred million dollars and there were quite a few other donors in that camp that Bill Lackman's of the world whatever who you know, wanted a certain thing from the foreign policy team, and they.
Certainly got it well certainly got it.
And it's also just Marco Rubio surrounds himself with people who actually are genuinely more realist. He's obviously been new right on populist economics, so just being in that category means that his milieu is more new right than it is old right. So and he's you know, had some kind of he said some interesting things about Ukraine that have indicated, as we were talking about before, a possible shift.
But clearly, clearly if that were more evident, if there was much more of a shift, you would not see that.
Yeah, the other thing that's worth noting too, And then we'll move on to the Senate stuff, but this will be a good transition to that. Rubio is one of the more interesting people in economics. He's more you know, in terms of economics, he is more clearly in that new right camp, as of course is Jade Vance. And neither one of them will be in the Senate anymore, leaving very few remaining there that have anything other than
kind of like old school doctrinaire or republican views. Yeah, so, I mean that's another significance of pulling him out of that role and putting him into the role where his ideology is the worst.
Yeah, there's some people who are on the New Right in particular, who are now really starting to worry about this set because vants were very very key in that new coalition of at least on the economic front, especially in the economic front.
Let's talk about the Senate. Put a four up on the screen.
So Maga's choice, Trump's choice, Tucker Carlson's choice was Rick Scott, and he got third in terms of Senate majority vote. It was a secret vote. John Thune ultimately wins with twenty three votes, corn And got second with fifteen. Rick Scott comes in third at thirteen. I'm quite sure if this was not a secret ballot the results would be very different. But break down some of these dynamics for Assemily.
Yeah, so this was and Ryan and I talked about this yesterday as the vote was happening, which was like it was a mess. I mean, this entire process has been a mess. But Rick Scott for years has been laying the groundwork essentially to step into the vacuum, knowing that McConnell was ailing, which is another thing that was
kind of kept quiet. Yeah, for a long time, I was talking to someone last night who works on the hill and takes pictures on the hill and was saying basically that McConnell doesn't like to be photographed in his wheelchair.
Wow, he is often in a wheelchair now.
So a lot of people in the Senate knew that this was coming, and Rick Scott saw that started laying.
The groundwork for it.
Cornyan and Thune are big McConnell allies, So Maga world. Donald Trump Junior tweeted, I mean this was like a year ago, maybe.
Less than a year ago. We cannot let Cornyan.
And Thune take over the Senate after Mitch McConnell leaves, like he flat out said that. And now obviously John Thune has won this race. So conservatives what got behind the Rick Scott bid? Like maga people got behind the Rick Scott bid because Rick Scott said agreed with Mike Lee that they needed to do some of these procedural changes to the way the Senate worked.
Some of that was like pulling.
Back Harry Reid's centralization of power, which people could debate the internal inside baseball Senate mechanisms, but it was that it was also just like come out with a clear plan for your policy goals every year, like some fairly unobjectionable things, but that Republican leadership is hesitant to do because they don't want to be bossed around by what did John McCain say, the like cuckoo birds like remember this was back in twenty fourteen.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
They don't want to be bossed around by people like that. They want to do what they want to do. And so Rick Scott became the very problematic figurehead of what I think is a good movement. Rick Scott has all kinds of corporate baggage. He's all kinds of like he's just not a charming spokes like.
A medicare frodster yep, yep.
And not a charming spokesman at all, right, for you know, he doesn't make deals.
He's not one of those people.
Like even there's some maga people who you can hate the swamp and you can still be good at, like operating, you can still be good at like actually negotiating. Rick Scott is not seen as one of those people at all, and for good reason. He's he's started prickly, and so everyone gets behind Rick Scott. But knowing that Rick Scott's it doesn't have a shot in hell because people don't
really like him that much. They started to maga Conservative started to work on John Cornyn, started to try to get concessions out of John Cornyn and say, all right, you know, Cornyn, you know that you need us, so why don't you just say or why don't you just like give us a little bit of these procedural differences. He became a Kevin McCarthy figure. That's how Kevin McCarthy became speaker, sort of giving a little to the Freedom Caucus, right, that's what Mike Lee was asking for, and Corny went
along with it. Cornyn lost and it was obviously, I mean, there was a sort of splitting the vote between Scott and Cornyn. So I think most people didn't want John Thune. But one of my sources who was working on this gave a pretty good quote yesterday when I asked basically what happened, how did fuon Edge ut Cornyn and Scott? The source said, quote handing out committee assignments like candy and activating k Street. The conference has been clear. This
person said that they want reforms and expect them. John Thune did not win by an overwhelming margin. He's edge ut corner by five votes. He has a mandate, but barely. He's going to have to shake up the status quote to retain the trust of the conference. So we will I see if John Thune feels that pressure and gives in to some of these things, like having four weeks of debate before an omnibus, which I think everyone should say, like, yeah,
that's great. Four weeks of debate before we spend billions of dollars in all of these different ways.
That sounds good. I wouldn't be super optimistic that he'll do that.
Though, yeah.
I mean from Trump's perspective, I think he just wanted someone who he felt would be guaranteed to do what he wants him them.
To do, yeh.
And he felt the most confident that Rick Scott would be that person. And again, like you know, to try to parse the ideology is a waste of time in a lot of ways, because on ideologically.
You can corrack me if I'm wrong. I don't think the three of.
These guys have much ideological difference. I mean, Rick Scott is not on the New Right. You know, he put out a he put out the Republican Policy Priorities for the midterm elections that were like a disaster for them because it called for sunsetting every single federal government program, including Social Security and medicare every what was it three years or something like that, and it was an albatross
around the nets of Republic. He's just he's a standard issue Reagan type conservative as far as economics go, as are all three of these. So I think it was more about for Trump, which one do I feel the most confident is going to be the most loyal to me.
My guess, looking from the outside at how all of this is going to go, is that Trump has such a hold on the party now and has such a clear track record of punishing anyone who crosses him that probably John Thune is going to do whatever Trump wants him to do when Trump decides to wade into these debates.
And I think that's that's the part that maybe separates the three of them, is that Trump doesn't always wait into these So there's a lot you can do behind the scenes that he's not really paying that close attention to,
and perhaps that's where the difference comes. But on anything that actually is important to Donald Trump, like all three, and the indication to me is all three of these men immediately when Trump was like, I want recess appointments, were like, no problem to recess appointments, which again is handing a gigantic part of their power over to the executive branch.
Although one point that I think is interesting, just as a hypothetical to test, is what does John Thune do when Donald Trump? If Donald Trump we don't know this yet because we don't know much about what he would actually do when it comes to Ukraine, but when Donald Trump wants to pair Ukraine funding to a border thing that won't get through, or when Donald Trump wants to actually force Ukraine to the table and the aid becomes
conditional or something like that. John Thune is a McConnell ally he is, and Mitch McConnell's still in the Senate, and Mitch McConnell is tied into the donor class that is deeply, deeply, deeply, deeply deeply supportive of Zelensky and Ukraine, and that is their red line. And I'm genuinely I think it's a pretty interesting hypothetical. I agree that I think John Thune will go along with a lot of the Trump agenda, but there are certain things that are such red lines for the donor class.
We don't know if Trump will test those boundaries.
But if he does, I actually wonder what would happen. I don't know because John Thune is so deep fully in Mashton k Street, the donor class, McConnell world, the old school Republican Party, and their red lines are so bright. Let's say Donald Trump decides to do something hydrodocks in Ukraine. Maybe he would do something weird on Israel. Maybe Telsea
Gabbard does something that they find objectionable. These are all just random hypotheticals, and if they happened, I don't know that Sune might put up a like a fight because.
He's just so entangled with McConnell world.
So we'll see, but I think generally I agree that he'll he'll be pretty what's the best word, compliant, Yes, pliable?
Yes, all right.
Let's also so we don't have to play the thot, but it is worth noting this is a five. You don't have to play it though that he did say he's going to keep the filibuster in place. We'll see if that maintains. But that's the current current positioning. I imagine there may be some pressure to get rid of that, but there's also a lot of mechanisms you can use, like budget reconciliation that allows you to get through what
you want using majority vote. You know, democrated some of that they were in office, but they also be like, oh, the parliamentarian said we could do blah blah blah. I don't think that the Republicans will have that same like.
Oh the rules the parliamentarian ruled, we can't do.
So there's still a lot they can get done with a fifty three se majority.
They're pushing reconciliation right away. That has to be first one hundred days, pass the priorities through reconciliation, border priorities.
Like put it all in there. Yeah, so that'll definitely happen.
Absolutely.
The other thing that David Soroda always with his eye on the ball, You guys should be subscribing to eleve News because they.
Do great work.
I don't care where you are on the ideological spectrum. Put this up on the screen soon. Is like an actual lobbyist, like like that was his profession before he was in the Senate.
Yeah, he was a lobbyist.
And Serota says less than two years after the East Palestine disaster, Republicans have now made their new leader a former railroad lobbyist who helped block real safety legislation. So he is a swamp creature. I don't think there is any denying that he.
Was the problem.
On that jd Vance shared Brownville, Johnathan was a huge, hugely problematic.
What's the what's the phrase gumbing up the works? Yeah for that, bill?
Gotcha?
The other thing last piece and time we'll get to Trump's meeting with Biden, is you know this is indicative of how I think most of this is going to operate on the Hill, whether it's people who were at some point adversarial to different Donald Trump priorities. Trump has cemented his full control of this party Congress, and Troy Neills had a memorable quote about this.
Let's take a listen.
There's no question he's a leader of our party. So now he's got a mission, state of his mission, and his goals and objectives, whatever that is. We need to embrace it, all of it, every single word. If Donald Trump says jumped three feet high and scratch your head, we all jump three feet high and scratch your heads.
Okay, sure, I mean that's that's whatever his goals are doesn't matter.
It's what a lot of the Magabas wants. It's exactly what the Magama wants to be hear. And it's a great reminder that there is no Mago without Donald Trump, meaning he is the ideology. And you know, normally what you would say is whatever you know is you know what the Tea party wants, that's what we want. You know. It's different when you're saying when this one individual wants, that's what we want.
He is the ideology of MAGA.
Yeah, I mean this is Yeah, that's exactly right. And so it's a very honest statement. And while others would have too much shame to say it quite as overtly as this gentleman did, that is that is the operating sentiment among the vast majority of the Republican Party at this point. Interesting meeting that happened yesterday between the current president and the once in future president. We can go ahead and take a look at this Joe Biden meeting
with Donald Trump. There fireplace a blazon in the background, and seemed quite friendly. I was enjoying himself, certainly. Look at Joe Biden, man, big old smile on his face, seems happy and relaxed. There's a photo op afterwards, everybody getting together for a nice, nice picture with fire is.
The metaphor, right Crystal, Because if we go back and we look at fire of.
That relationship, right, burning.
Bright, burning bright, burning furious, I know we're gonna have a Also, if you're if you're watching this, we're gonna play the video of Obama and Trump's meeting, which was so much colder, and literally must have been colder because there was no fire trying in that same fire.
That's so true.
But I mean the photo shot, the photo shoot that they did with Joe Biden. I actually thought was at first, I was like, this looks like AI right when I saw the pictures, Yeah, because they were so friendly and warm, and a lot of people, Chris, I don't know what your take is on this, but a lot of people are looking in this, at least in the online discourse and being like this makes me so mad because you were calling him, You were calling Trumpet fascist, the end
of democracy. He was being compared to Nazis. He was saying, you know what, you were pushing the story about how he wanted generals like Hitler. The DNC projected that onto Madison Square Garden. So now you're, well, look Mingham with this beautiful, warm fire and friendly smile that is just as warm as the fire into the Oval office and acting like it's business as usual. Feels like you were just messing with us to get our votes. Yeah, well, that's what serious about it.
That's a thing to be enraged about, whether you're on the right or the leaf, because from my perspective, Donald Trump does have a fascist ideology and attempts to operate as such. And Joe Biden is the person I mean, in a way, it's perfect because Joe Biden is the person most proximately responsible for ushering Donald Trump back into the White House. So why shouldn't it be warm and friendly?
You know, his ash should have gotten out after one term, and there should have been a democratic primary and a democratic process, and instead, you know, even as he was so aduled that he was unable to even host like a leadership meeting of Congressional Democrats without Nancy Plosi having a Russian and save him because he forgot where he was and what he was even supposed to be doing, he still was so arrogant that he thought he needed to run again and have another four year term in
the White House, even though it's preposterous that he's even the president right now given his condition. So in a sense, it's like, yeah, this is kind of perfect because you are the person who helped get this man right back where he was before, even though your previous you know, stated goal and what you thought was going to be your legacy was the one thing that Joe Biden was nominated by Democrats to do in twenty twenty was to end the Trump era, and instead you have extended it.
So hey, you know, there you go, enjoying the fruits of your labor.
Joe Biden.
Great work, totally, And I'm loving the memes that Brandon is like a secret Trump supporter, right, like this has all.
Been He does lookt up, he does look hat when.
He put the Trump hat on, and I don't think.
He understands because his brain doesn't function that Like he thinks he's been proven right by the fact that Kamala lost. Yes, he thinks people are looking at this because I'm sure this is what his aim aids are telling him and his wife and whoever hunter that oh, you would have won Pops, you would have done it, and everybody sees
that now everybody regrets that they didn't keep you. No, the reality is, as the Pod Saved Dudes revealed, you are headed to a four hundred electoral college vote loss, like a dramatic sweeping. Right now, It's like, okay, they lost every battleguard. It's like what it was closed, it was like a couple hundred thousand votes. All right, we could get back in and blah blah blah. We held on to most of our senates wing state seats outside
of Bob Casey. Like, okay, but if it was four hundred electoral college but you're talking at super majority in the Senate, very likely, you're talking massive house margins.
You're talking like just it's over, It's over, over, over.
Just to show you the contrast with the Obama Trump visit, which I think also is just a symbolic two of this is in Trump's first time in Washington, like this is normal now, And there are a lot of young Americans for whom you know, in terms of their cognizant life, the trump eras really all they know. So let's take a look at the very different vibe of Obama and Trump together during that transition.
Most of all, I want to emphasize to you.
Miss President elect, that.
We now are going to want to do everything we can to help you succeed, because if you succeed, then the country succeeds.
Please fun well, Thank you very much, President Obama. This was a meeting that was going to last for maybe ten or fifteen minutes, and we were just going to get to know each other. We had never met each other. I have great respect. The meeting lasted for almost an hour and a half, and it could have, as far as I'm concerned, it could have gone on for a lot longer. We really we discussed a lot of different situations,
some wonderful and some difficulties. I very much look forward to dealing with the president in the future, including council.
So anyway, no fire blazing.
There very obviously much different body language for those who read into all of those things, and the vibe very different.
And I like your point that for a lot of young Americans this is perfectly normal now and for the last ten years now, this is don Trump has been normalized.
Yeah, this is this is politics in America now.
The host of the celebrity I will never get numb to the host of the Celebrity Apprentice being the president, going straight from the Celebrity Apprentice to the President of the United States, partially because Democrats insisted on Hillary Clinton and then insisted on Joe Biden.
Yeah.
And I think, you know, of the many takeaways and autopsies and whatever, it's not maybe the most important point, but one important point is, like, this is the era that we're living in, and so just now trying some blow dried like Pete Bootage or Gavin Newsom or whatever, and thinking that's going to be the answer.
To your prayers.
Blow dried.
True?
Right, Oh you know what I mean by that, well quaft, Yeah, I mean like that very like buttoned, buttoned up politiciany, like very smooth on Fox News or whatever that liberals fall in love with. But you know, Trump is obnoxious and divisive, and he puts on a show and he goes out there and ransom raves about you know, people's dick size and Hannibal Lecter and whatever.
By the way, nobody has talked about how Hannibal Lecter. Nobody's talked about him for Attorney General, and nobody's talked about how he's the big winner of this election cycle. Because I remember a couple of months ago NPR did like a half hour long show about how weird it was that Donald Trump was.
Saying this than every rally.
Of course it was weird, but like who.
Cares the scheme of things?
And Democrats are still out there, like, let me focus group test my way, Like do you watch this man? Yeah, do you see what he does? Do you think that he went, oh, Hannibal lecter focus groups? Well no, literally no, no, that is not how politics works, at least not in this era. So you know, take some take some cues here, learn some lessons.
Yeah, and they just The last thought on all of this is I blamed Democrats for like their failures and allowing the host of celebrity Apprentice to become president. But it's also Republicans, like Donald Trump is right in his diagnosis of many many of the problems in the Republican Party, and because Republicans don't have viable alternatives to Donald Trump, you keep getting trumped too.
So it's just it's the system we get. We get the system we deserve.
We get the culture and the system and everything we deserve. All right, Well, speaking of speaking of who's in control and what era we're in, I mean a lot of ways this is Elon Musk's era as well.
We can put this up on the screen.
Apparently, reportedly from a couple of different outlets, there's starting to be some heartburn among the Trump's staff with Elon Musk's described near constant.
Presence at Mara a Lago.
One person said he's behaving as if he is a co president and making sure everyone knows it.
There is no indication, though, that.
Trump himself is irritated with Elon. I'm and it would make sense to I would not be surprised if at some point Trump does get irritate with Elon, especially if he feels like he's hogging too much of the spotlight, taking too much credit for things that Trump thinks he should be getting credit for, etc. So I could certainly
see that break coming. But this reporting suggests more that internally some of the other people who would be jocking for position around Trump are pissed off at how much influenced Elon has.
Is that the way you read it too?
Yeah, I think, And it could just be that the surces to NBC are a few people who have been really put off by this, and there are other people who haven't said anything about it. I think that's the case with some of these stories, is it gets the temperature of a group of people who are like upset, and then they tell the reporter to talk to their friend who they know is also upset, and then that person sends them to one other person. And it could be limited to a small group of people, and they're
not impossible. Yeah, although it's also entirely possible that Elon Musk has turned Donald Trump off or still will turn Donald Trump off because you fly too close to the sun, and we've seen it happen with Trump that he really, I mean jd Vance has handled this fairly deftly that like you really do not want to look in any way whatsoever, like you were taking credit, like you are
the brains behind the operation that infuriates Donald Trump. So it wouldn't surprise me if that had started to rub Trump or people close to Trump in the wrong way.
It also wouldn't surprise me if this.
Was limited to like, I don't know, Susie Wiles or someone like that, Yeah, and her allies.
To me, the way I read these comments. One of the things they said is that Elon's sure taking lots of credit for the president's victory, bragging about America packet ex to anyone who will listen, trying to make President Trump feel indebted to him in the present is indebted to no one. I read those comments as someone wanting Trump to see those comments then get pissed off. Yeah right, I think an attempt to try to create that division, which probably is inevitable given Yeah, I mean too, I
think egos and narcissist. Eventually, there's going to be some source of conflict. I would be surprised if that didn't happen at some point.
Especially with what seems to be right now a very fluid moment in Musk's sort of ideological journey, and that after Donald Trump was assassinated like he had been giving significant money we now assassinated, yet attempted assassination still alive, still with us, very much so that Elon Musk was formally endorsing him, but we now know he had been giving a lot of money to Ron DeSantis R. In the past, and so we also know he had been like fairly aligned with Democrats in the past.
Yeah, now he previously thought that Trump was completely unacceptable to be in the presidency.
And not just because he was like a never Trump Republican, but because he I mean, this is a Testla guy like he has. Like we heard them talking about climate change that one time on the X Space when Donald Trump, Like it was just a wild, like total cartoonish conversation that they were having.
But like they do have some differences.
It just seems like Elon Musk, in this ideological journey that he's on, is becoming more and more ideologically aligned with Trump himself. Like Donald Trump as an ideology, like we were just talking about, is like Donald Trump is the ideology of MAGA. It seems like Musk has become more and more aligned with that, even so though he's not fully there. I mean, they don't agree on one hundred percent.
Of the thing.
So you could see there being a break for a number of different reasons, or you could see Elon Musk just saying the stakes are so high, That's why I put literally so much money behind this election. I'm going to go along to get along, and I'll be able to be playing in the little sandbox with the aik and overseeing what kinds of stuff my competitors yeah, might benefit from.
Yeah. I mean it's just like such oligarchic behavior.
Absolutely, just like peak oligarch I'm going to talk.
A little bit more about this in my monologue, so I'll save some of my commentary for there, but I just want those of you, my friends on the right, Imagine if it was George Soros, who was we We can put this next piece up on the screen. Elon went with Trump to his first post election meeting with the House Republican Conference. Imagine if Kamala got elected and she had her little George Soros babysitter, her oligark billionaire babysitter, running around with her to all.
Of her important meetings.
And there's some rumors, and I think it's appropriate for people to take this also as a sort of threat. We can put the next piece up on the screen that Elon is threatening to fund primary challenges against any House Republican who dares to step.
Out from Trump's agenda.
And I don't know if that rumor is true, but I certainly believe believe that's the message that is being sent to House and Senate Republicans.
You've got the richest.
Man on the planet, who has tens of billions of dollars in federal government contractors. His companies are some of the largest Pentagon contractors. So he's got a lot of incentive to make sure that, you know, Trump gets his way, and because when Trump gets his way, Elon gets his way, and for him to be there acting as sort of
like enforcer and you know, and threat. Again, just imagine if the shoe was on the other foot and it was Kamala with George Soros or Bill Gates or whatever billionaire you want to imagine, who was like your worst nightmare. You know, no one voted for Elon Musk, right, he's not elected, and yet he has this incredibly powerful position and a lot directly at stake, not just in terms of those government contracts, in terms of, hey, what happens
with the you know, the ev subsidies, how are those managed? Hey, he's got a number of his companies have different regulatory issues with the federal government and under investigation from things
like you know, labor violations and environmental potential violations. And so he has putting aside any ideological project, which I think he has as well, an ideological project, but even putting that aside, he himself has more at risk in you know, with federal government contracts and regulation than probably any other person on the planet.
I agree with that completely.
And we have more at risk as a country from his companies, which in some cases like SpaceX, this is an amazing company.
You turn to Neuralink. I think it's a.
Totally different conversation about the benefits of Neuralink and some of those companies. Now, I would rather have Elon Musk than to his credit. I'd rather have Elon Musk than either like Charles Koch or George Sorows partially because of something he tweeted very early this morning, Crystal, when somebody said, some are calling Elon the George Soros of the right.
That's not really accurate.
He's more like forty four George Soros of the right. Alongside their two net worths juxtaposed.
And based on their giving and their influence in this election in Por two, there really is no Kamala has plenty of billionaires bagging. I don't want to, you know, make it seem like she doesn't, but there is really no parallel for the level of influence and infiltration of the Elon Musk with the Trump campaign.
So Musk responded to that tweet, oh really, one fifteen am and said, more accurate would be that I'm quote George Soros of the middle. I don't want the pendulum to swing too far right, but right now is just too far left. And like, this is a guy who, you know, a couple of hours later was quote tweeting Glenn Greenwald, he's just a I like to again, to his credit, I find him to be a genuinely interesting
ideological figure. I find him to be objectionable as an oligarch and someone who's like clearly using his business empire to I would say, influence public policy beyond the bounds.
Of what's fair and just. But yeah, at.
The same time, at least he's being honest about it, whereas we throw awards at the Kox and George Soros and honor them for their influence of a public policy instead of being like that this is corrupt.
Another thing that's going to be interesting is if Trump is less Hawckey should be SEVI China this time around, because Elon has massive financial interests and you know, good
relationships with the Chinese government. So you know from my perspective that could be benefit of Elon having you know, again, I object to the oligarch babysitter concepts out of principle, but that doesn't mean that there might be some areas where I'm like, Okay, well that's actually better if we're not trying to start a warwi China right now.
And I know this isn't any conservatives priority, but just from the question of principle, Like if you're somebody that's upset about electric vehicles, you know, and you don't like electric vehicles, and you think that the government has been unduly subsidizing electric vehicles, and you think that that's green corruption.
Elon Musk is the man behind that, Like he's been the architect of that with Tesla, and Donald Trump has changed his position on electric vehicles because of Elon Musk Musk, And this is again, the difference between Trump and Elon is like the difference between Trump and Elon and other politicians is Trump has come out and said he's literally changed his position on electric vehicles because Elon has been giving him a lot of money and support.
Yeah,