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Welcome to an unusual evening edition of Counterpoints. I'm Ryan Grimm. We're going to be joined by Emily Kashinsky from Milwaukee at the Republican National Convention. Emily, how are things going out there?
Well, they're going, Ryan.
I've been talking to a lot of people about the JD Vance pick, which I know we can discuss on the show. Got some interviews with folks, you know. Just talk to one woman local, she's selling dresses here. She right When I asked her how things are going, she said, the energy is high.
She was really excited.
They're dooining some you can hear they're doing some sound tests behind me. Tom Cotton just recited the Gettysburg address. So things are proceeding apace.
Well, I thought that we were both going to have our solidarity bandages for Trump Totos solmos Trump. But since you don't have yours, I guess I'm gonna take mine off here. But I still wish him well in his in his a full, earful recovery. You know, how are people feeling. I want to get to some of the speeches from last night. We're going to talk about you know, Jade Vance's you know, keynote speech tonight, but I want to hear just what the vibe is among people first
around the Trump assassination attempt. What like, are you hearing anything different there on the ground than we're hearing just generally from people around the country.
Yeah, that is really the big question.
I think probably the one thing on everybody's mind is what Donald Trump is going to say on Thursday, because he said so little. He's put out some posts on truth social but he's really taken a backstep or a back seat to this, you know, not Trump himself.
Everything is about Trump.
There's Trump posters everywhere, people are already saw selling t shirts of the fist raised in the air moment from Saturday. But him himself, you know, he really hasn't been in front of cameras doing a lot of talking himself, and I think that's really intentional. And I think one of the big ongoing questions is how Donald Trump, in his big prime time moment, is actually going to handle what happened to him with the trauma that just as a
human being, would affect anybody. And we still don't have an answer to that except for kind of reading body language he's been.
You know, I was.
I was watching him last night and I was looking right down at him from the press gallery and he was stoic, I think is the best word I would used to describe him. He wasn't giving a lot of reaction. It wasn't, you know, applauding at mines that I felt were written to be applauded at by Donald Trump.
He was.
He was sitting there stoically, smiling a little bit, but just not giving too much away.
And I think it's intentional.
His first entry into the arena he looked and subdued. It's sort of the first time, you know, since he's been a national political figure. I think that people are having a hard time reading him. He's the most kind of wears everything on his sleeve, kind of person. Is that unsettling to people? Or are they excited about the possibility of a new Trump? Are they nervous about where this is going?
Like?
How are people feeling about it?
You know?
I just talked to one congressman who said he doesn't want a new Trump, a Republican Congressman Ban Klein from Virginia, who I said, you know, what are we expecting to hear from Donald Trump? Yes or tomorrow? And he said, you know, I don't want a new Trump. He said, you know, it would change anyone basically can roll the clip.
But you know, I don't think people are unsettled. I think the kinds of people who are coming here to the R and C are the kinds of people who had already seen from their perspective this man be convicted of what thirty four felony charges. They've already seen him go through hell and come out as they see it on top. So I think this is the demographic of people that already felt like they had walked through the
fire with Donald Trump. So there's more I think confidence, and there's a sense of weight and gravity to everything that probably wouldn't have been here without Saturday. But this is a group of people that already was you know, hardcore Trump supporters, lovers, loyalists, and that I think that's the same as it would have been anywhere.
And they got to see Nicky Haley benning the knee last night speaking of Trump supporters. So let's roll a little bit of our speech. I want to hear your action to how she was received.
President Trump asked me to speak to this convention in the name of unity. It was a gracious invitation and I was happy to accept. I'll start by making one thing perfectly clear. Donald Trump has my strong endorsement period.
So how was Haley received, and how did Haley's How are Haley's delegates interacting with the Trump delegates.
I haven't actually seen any interactions between the Haley delegates and the Trump delegates, and have seen absolutely no evidence of any rift that that currently exists in the Republican Party, except for as I've heard a couple of people talk about jd Vance. You know, I had, you know, one strategist tell me that in a story that I wrote for Unheard, and then had some harsh words, let's say for jd Vance. But other than that, it has been Trump Trump, Trump, Uh not a lot of remaining questions.
Very different from how things were in one sixteen. Obviously, Ryan, you will remember that. And so Nicki Haley took the stage yesterday.
Again.
I was watching here in the convention center booze. It was a mix of booze and cheers, and then the booze were kind of drowned out by the cheers, and she was ultimately quite well received. She started very intentionally by saying that she was here at the invitation of Donald Trump, and she accepted.
You know, she didn't want.
It to look like she had begged for a speaking slot. She wanted it to be very clear that Donald Trump had given her the speaking slot. She was followed right afterwards by Ronda Santis.
And so let's roll a little bit of Rond de Santis with his trademark Humer. You know, here's here's Florida Governor DeSantis.
My fellow Republican. Let's send Joe Biden back to his basement and let send Donald Trump back to the White House. Life was more affordable when Donald Trump was president. Our border was safer under the Trump administration, and our country was respected when Donald Trump was our commander in chief. After all, if not us, who, and if not now, when, Let's make the forty fifth president of the United States
the forty seventh president of the United States. Let's elect Republicans up and down the ballot, and let's heed the call of our party's nominee to fight, fight, fight for these United States. Thank you, God, bless you.
Let win in November. Thank you so much so. Unfortunately, the Florida governor couldn't quite get out of that manly joke without a voice crack. But otherwise, how did his speech land with people?
Really well?
He was really well received, no boos at all for Ron Desantas. Trump looked very pleased. There was one video going around online of Trump very much enjoying the weekend at Bernie's jokes made. But Desanta's was very very forceful, and people were really loving what he had to say. And again it was back to back Nicki Haley Ron de Santis. And it was, you know, in a sense, politically smart that they paired it that way, because it looked not just like, oh hi, we love Nikki Haley,
we love Rond de Santis. It looked like, here is everybody rallying behind Donald Trump. This is the quote Unity Show that the Trump campaign was presenting to everybody, and it was well received. Just some booze for Nicki Haley, But like I said, those were drowned out by cheers.
And so then Vivek. Nobody gives a speech like Vivec. He came out on stage as well. Let's watch a little bit of him.
Our message to black Americans is this. The media has tried to convince you for decades that Republicans don't care about your communities, but we do. We want for you what we want for every American. Safe neighborhoods, clean streets, good jobs, a better life for your children, and a justice system that treats everyone equally, regardless of your skin color and regardless of your political beliefs. Our message to every legal immigrant in this country is this, you're like
my parents. You deserve the opportunity to secure a better life for your children in America. But our message to illegal immigrants is also this. We will return you to your country of origin, not because you're all bad people, but because you broke the law and the United States of America, who was founded on the rule of law. And our message to gen Z is this, You're going
to be the generation that actually saves this country. You want to be a rebel, you want to be a hippie, you want to stick it to the man, show up on your college campus and try calling yourself a conservative one. Say you want to get married, have kids, teach him to believe in God, and pledge allegiance to their country.
So how how was Ramaswami received?
Extremely well?
Ryan, I just keep going down the line here, but everyone is being well received in these primetime speeches, and you know they've done rewriting. They've clearly done rewriting of these speeches since Saturday, and you could read something really cynical into that that they had. You know, Trump himself mentioned his speech for Thursday was going to be a quote barn Burner, and he's ripped it up and come up with a new speech, which again everybody's waiting to hear.
So you could say that maybe this was all toned down intentionally, or you could say that just you know, the trauma of what happened on Saturday would obviously change the convention no matter what. So it's probably a mix of both, to be quite honest, given that Trump himself was even saying that. But the thek I thought was really interesting in making a clear pitch to millennials and gen Z. Right after he made his clear pitch to millennials and gen Z, Lee Greenwood took the stage just
a fountain of youth. And you know, it's a bunch of boomers kind of dancing on the convention floor to a rousing Lee Greenwood live performance.
And you know that's to be expected.
Of any political party that you're sort of torn between these two demographics. But I thought that they gave a very effective speech. He he's liked by a lot of people. He's very well liked by a lot of people. Here are a lot of you know, delegates and the like, and a lot of talk that he's going to run for Senate in Ohio too.
And is there is there any chance that to Wine you think names him. It seems like if to want, if it's left to the Wine, like, if he's not under pressure, there's zero chance he names it. But might be under pressure, I don't know what's what's what's the read there about that choice? Or he would just run then, you know, to replace him down the road.
Yeah, yeah, that's so.
I did see Mike DeWine here yesterday, he's he's making the round. I don't think there's any chance that he would appoint the vake Ramaswami to that Senate seat should Trump and Vance actually win. But I would imagine that Vivik would have a very good chance if he ran for that Senate seat of winning the Senate seat, even just based on the reaction to everybody here. The Ohio
delegation as JD. Vance came into the convention center yesterday with all the pomp and circumstances, was doing the Ohio you know arm signals, and we're very enthusiastic about Vance, and Ohio is in such an interesting state politically.
They really like their own Ohio people.
So I would think, you know, if the vike Ramaswami, he would seem to have a good chance because he's really been out there about his his love for Ohio, and I think people really like him here, people really like him in the conservative movement. Trump people like him, and he's interesting to people kind of across the Aislezo.
And what about the substance of the speeches, you know, the theme being you know, crime and immigration. What'd you take away from, you know what the politics of that were.
Yeah.
So the theme of the first night, as I know Sager discussed, was you were there as well, make America wealthy again. And the theme of last night was make America safe again. And we're just kind of going down the line here this week. But what's interesting about that is the safety issue, the crime issue. I mean, they had an incredible speech from a woman who lost her son to fentanyl. I mean it was it was incredible and real stories of people who had lost loved ones
to crime and drugs. And interestingly enough, when we're talking about Trump being sort of what was the word you used, I really liked it. Somber tripping, somber stoic, Uh, maybe a little lower key then you normally see Trump. He was most animated when those average people were sharing their stories.
And it wasn't even close.
So when you know, normal Americans were sharing their you know, personal stories of tragedy and loss to crime and drugs, Donald Trump was that was by far when he was most animated. He seemed to be enjoying those speeches of the most and more than any of the politicians. Honestly,
so I think you know you're still hearing this. The themes are just not compartmentalized because they're so on message, right They're so on message about Biden inflation and Biden mygrant crime every day, and so the compartmentalization is almost an afterthought because right now Republicans are trying to be kind of transcendent and almost uninteresting right like now, Biden is kind of the chaos candidate, and they're trying to just stay on message, which is kind of a quick turn of events.
There was a little fun chaos on the floor this week. Didn't want to leave this segment without playing this this clip that we've been graced with of Matt Gates taunting Kevin McCarthy, who was trying to do a News Nation interview, which is embarrassing enough and it's in its own right, let's roll this.
You would get booed off the stage.
Shut up, Gates, dude, I don't even know are It doesn't matter.
So if I'm not Gates, I don't know if you could hear it there. But at one point he says to this guy who's telling him, don't be an a hole, he says, I don't even know who you are, which is one of the most like jerk things to do, Like who are Who do you think you are? Like to say, I don't know, I don't know who you are, doesn't matter who you are, just come on, get out, stop with this. But otherwise, kind of funny, What night are you speaking, Kevin? What night you're speaking? Really wanted
to kind of rub salt in the wound? What did what did you make of that?
M You know, Matt Gates is really well liked here, really really well liked here. He was, i believe, last night, actually in the Trump box with people like Marjorie Taylor Green, you know, socializing with Trump's inner circle. So he's not relegated to the fringe here, that's for sure. He's someone who you know, gets chased when he's out at the convention. People want to talk to him, people want to shake his hand, to get selfie's.
And all of that.
So I would probably argue that Matt Gates is more popular than Kevin McCarthy here, to be quite honest, although I think at least with you know, people that aren't just the the hardcore Republican demographic, Kevin McCarthy.
Probably got the best of that exchange.
If you saw the viral videos online of McCarthy just kind of batting him away like a nat.
Let's talk about some of the people you spoke with while you were out there, and anybody you want to you want to queue up.
Yeah.
So I mentioned earlier that we talked to Congressman Ben Klein from Virginia, sort of insendent member of Congress who you mentioned. He doesn't want a new Trump, he likes the Vance pick. I wanted to talk to people about JD. Vance because he's the focus today. Really he's speaking. It will be the first speech that he's given. And conservative movement people here, not just new right people, but conservative movement people here are really.
Excited about JD. Vance.
There's a ton of enthusiasm. His wife is speaking tonight as well. People haven't heard a lot from her yet, and they're excited to see her on stage and to kind of meet a new person, meet the new sort of family face of the Republican Party's future, as a lot of people see it.
So I was interested to.
Hear that from Congressman Klein because of reporting in places like Politico from some old GOP hands as they're sourcing, is that there is a divide. The Wall Street Journal has had some harsh words unsurprisingly for JD Vans, but you know, among regular people here to the extent you can be regular if you're at the Republican National Convention. There's just a lot of excitement about JD.
Vance.
Terry Shilling, who's been on the show before, Big Ally Big Ally of Vance. He runs basically a family values group that spends a lot of money on things like women's sports and those really red meat cultural issues. He's very excited that Advance was the pick. So talk to him and talked to a local woman who's here selling dresses and felt the energy was really good. Felt the attention on Milwaukee is really good. So let's take a listen.
Everyone's feeling good, having a good time here so far, everyone's excited about Trump and JD.
Vance.
I would just say that energy here is just so amazing. Everyone's excited to be here, The security has been amazing, and there's no place who'd rather be than here this weekend.
Some reporting is that people aren't not everyone is excited about the Jdvance pick, But you feel.
Good about it.
I do.
I think JD represents the future of the party, and Trump has great policies that represent the working man and jd Vance is going to continue those and help to put those into place once Donald Trump wins the White House.
He is a champion not just for families, but for working Americans, for everyday people that just want a voice, that want to know that they matter, that that they're not just run by a bunch of elite clowns in Washington, d c. And on Wall Street in Hollywood. We are a great nation. We have a great people here, and and jd Vance understands that. He knows that it comes from the from the from the bottom up, not the top down.
Anything you want to underline about any of those interviews, it's you.
Know, it sounds like a GOP talking point, Ryan, but it's actually true in this case. You know, not all talking points are false. There's just a lot of unity here. And were you at Were you at Cleveland in twenty sixteen? I actually wasn't there, but I think it's worth highlighting just how dramatically different that is, because there were actual fights on the floor. You know, people like Kim Kuchinelli, I think maybe even Ted Cruz at the time.
The large yeah, right, cru didn't even endorse Trump in his speech, and what just what was booed throughout the entire like second half of it.
There's just none of that, And there's no underhanded comments along the lines of like what you would see if you talk to the Wall Street Journal editorial board about vance populism and stadism or you know, Trump.
Being you know, such a joke or unfit.
Like there's there's no reluctance about Donald Trump anymore. I think that's what I'm really trying to say is that there's just not people who are kind of begrudgingly aboard the Trump train, like just about everybody here is. And maybe this is actually different if Saturday didn't happen, that maybe you would still hear some of the grumbling over Trump. But there's absolutely none of that anymore.
And twenty sixteen also had Clint Eastwood, which perhaps they're gonna no that was That was twenty twelve twelve with Mitt Romney.
Right, yeah, you're getting old, yes.
Right, yes, that's right, yes, right, because he was he was saying that he was interviewing Obama in a chair, but there was actually nobody in the chair, but he was saying it was Obama. That's right, Yes, I am mixing up, mixing up my conventions. So no, no Clinice would uh this this year. But just give us a little preview of what people are are expecting from dance tonight.
Yeah, you know, I think they're expecting a very polished JD. Vance who talks about the red meat issues like immigration. I think they're expecting to hear that for sure, about elites, about that kind of US versus them dynamic. And one thing we could probably put a tear shoot up of this that I think is worth highlighting, not just in the context of JD. Vance, but when we were talking about Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley.
I wrote for Unheard this.
Morning that as Democrats, I mean, there's that ap Nork poll that came out today, Joe Biden did his Lester Whole interview on Monday Day. Democrats right now, it's like two thirds of them in that poll want someone other
than Joe Biden. It's suddenly, after Republicans were hammering this for years about Biden's frailty, suddenly Democrats are paying attention and listening and Republicans aren't talking about it at all here fascinatingly, And you know, some of the people I talked to said, you know, the Democrats right now are like the Soviets in Afghanistan. The Republicans are letting the
wildfire burn on its own. Another said that after Saturday it was just a matter of a source said, everyone understanding it's us versus them, and Biden is not up to the job, so you don't have to be talking about that. So I actually wouldn't expect, you know, Ron de Sant's and Nikki Haley each had like a line about it, and it was just eluding, kind of joking. Sarah kckebe Sanders, whose speech was I would say the
most well received of the principal speeches last night. Like people, she got a massive applause, but Vate got massive applause too, But Sarah Hackeby Sanders was has clearly endeared herself to this crowd. People absolutely loved her. She had one line about it too. I'm not expecting to hear a lot about it from Vance. I'm expecting to hear something that's you know, typical Jdvent's a little bit more intellectual, focused on the future and absolute elites versus everyone else.
So the kind of business class, the Wall Street Journal, the Republican establishment types that are that are upset by the JD. Vance pick are certainly going to be watching it closely to see if they get any olive branches thrown their way. I know there are definitely some Republican consultants who are nervous that Vance opens Republicans up more to the kind of to the Democratic Roe voter who you know, surged out in twenty twenty two after the
row was overturned. Do you expect that Vance will make olive branches in either of those directions, either to people concerned that he's too extreme on abortion rights or to the publican kind of Wall Street journal class or like, do you expect more of a kind of populist red meat speech? And what would be what would be, what would the cues be, What would the clues and the qus be that we should look for to see kind of where where he came where he decided to come down on the base spectrum.
Hmmm, that's such a good question.
I was actually, you know, as somebody who's who's follow danced very closely, and there's a lot of people in the Vance circles, as as soccer does, and as you.
Probably do too, Ryan, Uh.
They I was very surprised by his Mythi Perstone answer on the news before while he was still trying out auditioning for the VP slot, where he said basically he supported the policy as it was about MEPhI Perstone. It was shocking to people in the poor life community who also felt rather shocked by platform.
For people who are not familiar.
Yeah, right, go ahead, right, yeah, And the and they they really they toned down, they took out, you know, the the part about now again. They actually truncated the whole platform. But you'll hear a little bit of this in the or you heard a little about this in my interview with Terry Shilling. But yeah, there was people really felt slighted in the anti Portia community about how things have transpired over the course of the last week.
Trump is obviously trying to moderate on that, and so I would expect really not to hear much about life from JD Vance, even though it's a it's a huge issue that everyone talked about before the last Trump has sort of changed that just the last month, to be honest,
So I wouldn't expect to hear that. I would expect to hear this kind of intellectual case for populism, and probably like you, I've been going back and reading a lot of old interviews that Jade Vance did just in the last five years, even you know, back when he was touring for Hellbiliology, and he's talking about like Renee Gerrard.
He's talking about like these super.
High level intellectual stuff because that's the kind of guy is And so you know, I would I still think jd Vance how he presents himself tonight, the mystery of how Donald Trump presents himself tomorrow will partially be solved. So like, to some extent, I don't know what Trump wants to see from jd Vance because Trump hasn't said a lot about what he wants to see from jd Vance except for his original true social post. The first thing that he said about jd Vance is that he's
a marine. Part of me really thinks that what Donald Trump likes about jd Vance more than the red meat, more than the policy, is that he is a marine with a good looking young family, a good looking, you know, young family of like with immigration involved. That sort of allows jdvs to talk about immigration in an interesting way and he's loyal, and so part of me thinks that we'll.
See yes, which might not actually be true because then he go to Ohio, not Yeale from.
Ohio State, but then he went to Yale Law. Yeah right, and he enlisted first.
And then went back to school.
But yeah, so I think I would expect to hear a lot about JD Vance's personal story and that popular sort of US versus them as opposed to you know, kind of a policy grocery list.
Yeah. I bet that's right. And he's a good writer, so he's going to tell He'll probably tell that the same story that people are familiar with if they read the book. But this is his chance to be introduced to millions of people who have no idea who he is, and this will be the first their first encounter with him. So looking forward to seeing how that goes well. Up next, we'll talk about Elon Musk deciding he's going to cut regular forty five million dollar checks to help Trump advance.
Stick around for that next. So, not long after President Trump was nearly assassinated Elon Musk, the Testla CEO posted on Twitter, we can put up this tweet with the vo in the background. Post on Twitter quote, I fully endorse President Trump and hope for his rapid recovery unquote, there was really no question at that point that Elon Musk was was behind Trump all the way. This full endorsement is now coming, we learned via the Wall Street Journal.
We can put up C two here. Elon Musk plans to get forty five million dollars a month toward a super pack that is backing Trump to an enormous sum of money by political standards, that for a single individual to be throwing in Emily, what you read on how much this will boost Trump.
Well, I'm curious what you think personally. I think this is a very significant bump because we've also seen Bill Ackman say on Twitter that he's planning to roll out a significant Trump.
Endorsement and.
Elon or this is actually Vivaik posted a long list of people from the tech community to X yesterday actually that had suddenly kind of got on the Trump bandwagon. The Winklevy both each Winkle Boss, each member of the Winkle Boss twin pod has given a million dollar in crypto to the Trump campaign. This is like significant amount of money, especially as we interviewed Crystal set up a great interview with Abagail Disney.
What was that two weeks ago.
Now there's still Democrats who are refusing to give more money to the party as Biden's at the top of the ticket. The money actually, you know, Hiler Clinton massively outspent Donald Trump back in twenty sixteen, and he still managed to win the electoral College. So it's not everything. But Donald Trump has a lot of you know, legal battles, although those seemed to be perhaps petering out in the next maybe the fungibility of money over the next couple
of years as a benefit. In that case, you can put some money into the campaign right now that may have immediately been used elsewhere. But money does obviously make a difference, and especially when there's a disparity, it can make a big difference. Ryan, So I also think it's significant that it's going to change the Trump administration's crypto and AI policies.
There's just no question.
And obviously there's a divide in the sort of e ACT community that Andresen is literally the leader of about whether.
E I AI is good or bad.
You know, Elon Musk himself kind of seems to go back and forth on the dangers of AI and crypto. But I think, you know, this is the Trump administration is now going to be all in on crypto. That seems to have been I'm actually curious what you think of that too, Ryan. It seems to be like writing is on the wall. This is uh, everyone's sort of all in on crypto, and that's going to clash. Absolutely going to clash. The AI and crypto policies are going
to clash with the quote new Right. That feels like it just had a massive win with JD Vance here in Milwaukee.
Yes, certainly compared to Biden's sec which is which has been you know, aggressively pursuing crypto and and kind of pushing crypto companies to begin to register as securities, which which I believe they are and would in many ways be the end of the entire industry. So I think you're right, it's will it will change, And it seems like the Silicon Valley is seeing that it's headed in that direction and trying to you know, ride and push
that wave. If we can put up C three, Mark Andresen and Ben Horowitz famously and Reason Horror, it's you know, just absolute kind of iconic figures in Silicon Valley are also making donations to Trump's re election effort. And people might not understand quite how much this matters because the campaign press coverage almost never talks about the amount of spending that's going on between the two different campaigns, and because everybody already knows who they are, we assume that
spending doesn't actually influence voters that much. But that's not generally the case, Like there are still you know, people out there who when they get blasted with enough advertising information, you're able to move the needle. Biden really kind of unloaded the cannons in June, and that's a really undercovered story. He was outspending Trump in these battleground states one hundred to two hundred to one, and yet Trump is leading
in all of those battleground states. And for Trump to be leading without having started his own avalanche of spending portend's disaster for Democrats. And it's something that isn't being incorporated into the conversation that Democrats are having about how
bad the race is for Biden right now. Like people understand that Biden is in deep, deep trouble, but when you layer on top of that that he has been massively outspending Trump in an almost unprecedented way you almost have to go, you know, other than say Hillary and Trump. Hillary outspent Trump massively as well, and then you realize that he hasn't been able to make up ground despite
the fact that he's outspending him so heavily. And now you've got, you know, this massive spending coming from tech bros. It's you know, couldn't look worse for Biden.
I think, well, it also becomes a big question for Donald Trump. And you know, obviously these policy questions right now are taking a back seat and often do you know that's not new at all. I was gonna say to the vibes because we're in such a post vibe moment this week because of what happened on Saturday.
And I don't use vibe to cheapen it.
I actually mean, you know, to Trump's benefit, you know, getting up after that and you know, putting fists in the ears and a hell of a vibe and it has I think inspired a lot of people, even saw like Jeff Bezos calling him our president, you know, reacting that way to what happened on Saturday.
But I really do.
Think that, you know, Trump's one of his biggest specialties in twenty sixteen was railing against corporations and railing against all of that stuff. You know, one source told me after jd Vance was picked that it puts quote the CIA and K Street unnoticed. And a big chunk of K Street right now is Silicon Valley. And so some of these Silicon Valley kind of fashioned themselves as outsiders.
Even the Silicon Valley over the course of the Obama administration, as you've reported for a long time, became the art insiders, ultimate insiders. They're positioning themselves as outsiders on cultural questions. But in recent in particular as the head of the accelerationist movement, he has those sort of libertarian sensibilities maybe that you know, people like Peter Thiel and Trump.
Have had before.
But that is so unsettled right now because there's so much cultural fear about you know, remember when Google's AI came out and it was you know, everyone's like, yeah, it's dei AI like that. This is a pretty genuinely interesting tension within the kind of anti establishment Silicon Valley establishment.
And it's also seems intention with this new affair that Trump is starting with other elements of corporate America. You know, you had that famous meeting with it what was the oil companies where he brought them all in and he's like, I need a billion dollars. Give me a billion dollars and then tell me what you need in one of the most you know, staggering, you know, quid pro quos with an entire industry that you could even imagine. And reports it's so trump in. It is very is very trumpiant.
Give give me a billion dollars and just tell me what you want.
And I don't worry. I don't care if people report it.
Yeah, which I explain to me how he is able to package that with his populism.
I think people that the populism is the transparency. You know, it's it's not about I think with with with Trump he's had he's been right in that his policy has been anti establishment on things like forever wars.
The media. Basically policy plank of.
Is at this point and you know, all of those immigration and trade, but the specifics of that policy. It's not as though people are demanding of him a certain level tariff or you know, it's never been like that when presidential politics really are about the specifics policy. And so I think it's just whether the people misunderstand about why regular Americans like Donald Trump is because it's it's that sense that he is paying attention to them and
in a way that is empathetic. And so I think the transparency makes that scene, you know, when he's sort of openly saying you know, X, Y and Z that he made the perfect.
Phone call with Zelenski.
Those sorts of things like actually make people feel like he's real and dear the endear him to them in a different way.
Although with that when he kept it secret until it was exposed.
But it was like it was perfect call.
It's perfect, perfect black. Yeah, So what are people expecting out of Trump third Thursday Night? Like are they or what are you? And what are people hoping that they're going to see?
I think this is the biggest question.
And I know we talkt this earlier in the show, but like, even just as I'm here reporting things out for unheard, That's the thing I keep coming back to all week. It feels like a reality television show because truly, maybe some people think they know what they're going to see from Donald Trump, but I really don't know that that's the case, because how he reacts to This is
still a totally open question. There's some reporting and there've been memos from his campaign from Chris Lasivita and Cusey Wilds telling people who kind of bring their own temperatures down. We know that speeches have been rewritten, including Trump's speech to be kind of more grandiose and to not be that quote rip roarer that he mentioned, But his body
language has been different, He's been different. And yeah, I mean, he caught a bullet in the head just a few days ago, so nobody knows what to expect, and that with Trump, you know, everybody kind of knows to expect the unexpected. But now it's just like, do we expect the unexpected or is this going to be a totally new, like predictable on script Donald Trump, who uses this sort of soaring and lofty rhetoric that is positioned to make him sort of have centrist appeal.
I don't know.
I don't think we've actually had too many clues in that direction so far.
One little side note, I've seen some of our Pakistani viewers start comparing Trump's arc to that of Imran Khan, and it is actually quite fascinating, Like both of them were kind of womanizing celebrities, you know throughout the age of nineties and two thousands who then got into politics as bombastic populists. Both of them were then subject to assassination attempts and Ron Khan was shot. It was very lucky that he survived. He came out of it kind
of born again Muslim. He reads the Koran all the time. Now you know he was born Muslim, but he was. It was a London cosmopolitan figure like.
It's like Trump two Corinthians.
Yeah, yes, exactly, So it would be amazing if that arc continued. Then all of a sudden Trump becomes born again. But we should for Trump, folks should study, study the Imron conarch and see if they think they see any of that coming. But we'll see. You can't can't wait for tonight. What time does Jdvance go on?
Do you know he's the last speaker, so he'll be on.
Whenever other people get done.
Yeah, yeah, it expected to be around ten.
Cool looking forward to that and then also Trump tomorrow stick around, will update on Israel Palestine next. Ex Blackwater CEO Eric Prince, the International Mercenary Baron, spoke at the Heritage Foundation recently made a rather remarkable confession. Let's take a listen.
The Navy has been ineffective in Yemen. US has given very bad advice, very mixed advice in Gaza, preventing the Israelis from finishing it or even from.
Ending that war in a clever way.
I provided that Israelis a fully funded, donated ability to flood Gaza with water, with seawater, to flood the three hundred miles of tunnels blocked by the Pentagon. We have a leadership apparatus that is truly the most sclerotic and
literally obese. We have as many general officers today as we did in World War Two when we had fourteen million men in her arms, and so in an era of video conferences, emails and instantaneous communication, we have a super bloated, super top heavy and clearly not very effective security apparatus.
All right, Well, first of all, Emily, I think I'm going to take his word on his assessment that the Pentagon is probably a little bit bloated at the top, and that the individual figures in the Pentagon are themselves a little bit bloated. That seems to that seems to track with my understanding of our current Pentagon, But the ruthless war crime he claims that he had funded and had seems to suggest that he got approved by the
Israeli government. But what's blocked by the Pentagon is rather shocking. There was some discussion in Israeli press about flooding these tunnels with seawater, but for a variety of reasons, that kind of faded away. What do you make of Erik Prince acknowledging that or claiming because you know, we should say claims because you know, we didn't provide evidence that he had actually gotten the funding for this and pushed
it forward. What do you make of the claim that he had gotten funding for this and that the Biden administration blocked it.
I mean, I'm not in any way surprise that it was blocked, because even and this is why he's sharing the story, I mean, kind of confirms his point about the Pentagon. I know I sent this when he wrote it. I think it was a couple months ago. For I'm seventeen seventy six that website. This piece went pretty viral in kind of new right circles, conservative circles when he was talking about just the lack of dexterity the incredible lack of dexterity in American foreign policy and innovation and
inventiveness and creativity. And actually he mentioned flooding the tunnels in that point in that article back at the time, And I think that's why he's being sort of greeted warmly in Heritage Foundation circles because as people are kind of craving some type of ingenuity and flexibility in American important policy and are so eager to bash the Pentagon in the aftermath of the Afghanistan withdrawal and the Trump moment on the right which has become really opposed to
forever wars in the midst of the Ukraine conflict. I think that's why our princes kind of being invited warmly into those circles, because he speaks to something with specifics that a lot of people are like, Yes, that makes sense. Why aren't we doing these like different ideas. It's because of the k Street and the lobbyists and this massively bloated Pentagon. So it's not surprising to me at all, and I guess it's probably not surprising to you Ryan either.
I guess the idea seems to run into even for supporters of Israel the obvious problem of well, aren't aren't or weren't the hostages being kept in those tunnels? It seems counterproductive to getting the hostages released if that is your actual goal to drown everybody involved.
Unless you have intelligence suggesting as you know that we get conflicting reports on what the intelligence is actually telling people, but that you know, they have some idea of where
people are and they're you know, not whatever. But hostages that have been recovered I have said they felt like the bombing was indiscriminate and that they they could have been killed, that they didn't know that they did think that, you know, they were just saved by sheer luck, and actually expressing discomfort with the idea of bombing from that Vantash point.
And all of this comes as ongoing bombing campaigns in Gaza continue to kill dozens of people a day, off to hundreds over in recent weeks, while the Israeli economy seems to be badly suffering from this kind of endless situation as who seems kind of hell bent on making sure that these ceasefire talks that are that are underway and it seemed to be accelerating, never make it. But meanwhile wanted to talk about one of the one of the economic implications. You can put up this this next
element here. This is from Middle East Monitor headline Israel says a Lot Port bankrupt after months long hoo the naval blockade. There's the lead of the article. The Israeli Port of a Lot has officially declared bankruptcy because of a sharp decline in commercial activities and revenues due to the naval blockade imposed by Yemensuthi's on Israeli linked to
cargo ships since last November. A senior official has confirmed quote, it must be acknowledged that the port is in a state of bankruptcy, explained the CEO of a Lot Port, Gideon Goldber. Only one ship has come here in recent months. The Yemenis have effectively shut off access to the port unquote. This is why the Israeli economy is taking a massive hit. Kind of across the board. Tourism has plummeted to virtually zero.
The entire kind of low wage workforce, which was made up of residents of the West Bank and Gaza who would travel to Israel and work those jobs, that has been completely shut off. At the same time, you have the you know, tens two hundreds of thousands of people being called up out of the Israeli economy into the war economy to serve you know in Gaza, or in the North, or in in the West Bank, which has left you know, firms across Israel going bankrupt or or
running extremely short staffed. So I guess it's not terribly surprising that this port is is now bankrupt, but it's it seems like quite a projection of power for a group of people, the Huthis, who kind of were derided as kind of just just nuisances a few months ago.
Right, And it kind of also explains I think some of the domestic pressures that are going to mount on Yahoo. And we've been saying that obviously since basically October eighth, because Yahoo is not, you know, operating in the way that the American media sometimes portrays him that you know there it's it's so myopic. American coverage of Israel is just you know, it's all about, uh, the and it
should mostly be about the war. Of course, you know, it's obviously the most important issue for the media to cover, but there's never any context.
There's just so like it's just a.
Lack of domestic context. I think explaining why people either are rallying behind Netanyahu or realizing why they you know, their their support may be fading Fortan Yahoo. And I think this is one of those pieces of that puzzle that we so rarely hear about.
And before we go, I did want to highlight one piece that my colleague Jeremy Scahill did over it over at drop site news we can put that other element up. So this is a This is an exclusive in person interview that he did with the second in command of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, with doctor Mohammad al Hindi. Al Hindi has basically never since the nineteen eighties given an interview two way Western journalists and it's uh. The whole thing is is is revealing and startling in a number of
kind of fascinating ways. We published it as a Q and A that you can find over at drops like news dot com.
Uh.
And there are a couple of kind of funny moments in it as well, when when al Hindy starts talking about kind of the American election, at one point he says, you know, we would actually we would prefer a candidate other than Joe Biden. And I was joking on on Twitter the other day that like Biden has even lost Palestinian Islamic jahad Uh at this point with with you know, following on the heels of at Adam Schiff bailing on him.
Uh.
But so p i J is a is a kind of an ally of Hamas. But p i J was was created before Hamas and but as as an armed resistance group kind of exclusively aiming at aiming at liberation, uh, rather than getting into politics and governance like like Hamas does. So they don't participate, you know, they basically negotiate. Al Hindi is the kind of lead negotiator for p i J. But they they have basically given their proxy to Hamas.
They and what he told when he told Jeremy take it with a grain of salt because it's you know, it's not it's not confirmed, but this guy would know that they had they had, they had There was zero coordination around October seventh that p IJ was not involved with any of the planning and basically only learned of it,
you know, as it started happening. It had been reported for months that October seventh was this joint operation between Hamas and these multiple other factions, including p I J. But he said, no, that they saw, just like everybody else saw that Hamas had busted through the fence and was launching this operation on his operation atloxa flood, and they quickly scrambled to join in with them, but were not actually part of the planning or or the strategy
behind it. So the whole thing is, the whole thing is totally fascinating, and it's insight into the mind of a guy who was actually listed by the State Department as a as a terrorist, which I guess you know, it makes he said, it makes it difficult for him to get like a US bank account, but otherwise so far has not cast some caused some significant problems though you know, most people in his position eventually do end up getting you know, either assassinated or or drawn struck.
But he is walking across the Southern border.
Is that a boomer jokes the Southern border?
So as you know, there there were when Nikki Haley spoke yesterday, there were Israel flags being waived by a couple of people. Nothing, I mean, it wasn't a huge amount, but there were a couple of people who were waving those flags. I saw him a couple of times yesterday and actually on Monday had a chance to speak with protesters who had a honk for ceasefire signs right outside the convention. And obviously security is really tight here, but
right outside the perimeter protests have not been huge. She does say that there were thousands of people. They came out from Minneapolis, so that's a decently long bus ride, probably took him about six six hours or so, and got here marching in the heat. Was hot when they did it and making their presence known. It has been the security situation. There was security issues with a man who was shot by police outside One man was taken into custody after he came near the perimeter with apparently
an ak fortyes of a pistol, just yesterday. But inside the perimeter things have felt quiet and calm, except for those two incidents which happened beyond the perimeter, and the protester beyond the perimeter too, so that not much outside noise.
That instant where police shot somebody, right, they was it was two people that seem to have some personal beef, right had nothing to do with the convention.
It seems that way as of right now. Yeah, it does seem that way as of right now. Now, the guy who was arrested.
With a pro tip if you're going to get cream mask, Yeah, if you're going to have if you're gonna have personal beef that involves guns or knives, don't do it anywhere near political convention with within days of an assassination.
That is a pro tip.
Yes, sorry, go ahead.
No, that's just you know, it really has been again like we were talking about this earlier, but not a lot of infighting inside the convention and any of that stuff that's happened outside of it has remained outside of it. There hasn't really been any uh, you know, people have quote respected the perimeter. Now it's another boomer joke to the same segment to quote Action Kutcher in Cheaper by the dozen. I guess that's not boomery. That's like a
cringe millennial joke. But the perimeter has been respected, and I can confirm that from Milwaukee.
I suspect that will not be the case in Chicago, but you and I will both be out there covering that, and so we're looking forward to that perimeter undoubtedly not being respected. There will be plenty of tension inside whether Biden stays on the top of the ticket or or if he doesn't. Either way, it's going to be rather raucous.
That's right, all.
Right, Well that'll do it. That'll do it for us today. Thanks for everybody for joining us. It's a special evening edition of Counterpoints r n C. Emily, enjoy the rest of your time there. Emily's going to join me on my my drop site podcast, Deconstructed, so check check that out later and get the get get her fuller insights into her time out in Milwaukee and the rise of this new new populist right, which if if there's got to be a right, this is this is the one I'd rather see rising.
I'd say very interesting.
I think, hey, I think that's right, you know, see, but this is where, you know, maybe we can talk about this on on Deconstructed tomorrow. I don't think there's as much daylight between Reaganism and Vancism as people think there is, so we'll save that for another conversation. But you know, I'll be checking back in with Crystal and we'll be eager to come back to DC and chat with.
Everyone about what happened here next week. Thanks Ryan, all right
See everybody tomorrow.