This is Gary and Shannon and you're listening to KFI AM six forty, the Gary and Shannon Show on demand on the iHeartRadio app. We begin with inflation. Good news on this front. Inflation did ease last month. Consumer prices in April were up from two point three percent from a year ago. It's a small annual increase, but it shows that it is cooled off a bit, which is good. Now they are predicting impending doom when it comes to
the tariffs and what that will mean for inflation. But right now, the what do you call it, the defecation has not hit the oscillation.
Correct, And this is, like you said, slow, and it's the slowest it's been since early twenty twenty one.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
They said that there's a specific number that they look at for underlying inflation that takes out things like food that can be volatile, energy which can be volatile, and they said that inflation went up two point eight percent compared to the same time last year, which would be in line with what we saw a month earlier.
That aside, if you are going to look at food, I don't know why they continue to look at eggs, especially when we're in the midst of a bird flu. They do, though, they continue to look at egg prices which were down twelve point seven percent in April because there was a break and the bird flu. It had nothing to do with inflation. Leave the eggs out of it if you're looking for an indicator, because they have been up and down and up and down just because of that bird flu alone.
Yeah.
I mean look at the things like they do, very specific categories here, food away from home, motor vehicle insurance, non alcoholic beverages, tobacco and smoking products. I think all of those would be more outside of some sort of regulatory issue, those would be a lot more indicative of the actual inflation.
Stephen Brown is an economist of capital economics. He says the overall tariff impact was muted, furniture costs were up a bit. But they say this coming on the significant u turn news from the Trump administration on the tariffs with China, is good. That this news coming on the idea that we see relief on the horizon, is all good for the economic forecast. I cannot find an article, even from Trump enthusiasts, where we won the whole thing with China, and I wasn't expecting to I wasn't expecting
to see Chin. I did see articles of Oh, China pulled one over on Trump or what have you, but they come from the sources that you would expect them to come from. These were two superpowers trade partners that were not going to budge. Nobody was going to capitulate wholeheartedly here.
Yeah, And I mean the ninety day pause or the ninety day e callback of the one hundred and forty five percent tariffs down to thirty percent. That doesn't mean this is over by any means, because there have been plenty of times when China has entered into agreements with the United States or the world think the World Trade Organization or whatever, and then just turned their back on those agreements.
Well, and I'm.
Wondering if it gets louder that Trump did not win this round, that he did back down.
If he jacked down and imposes more interior yeah tariffs, how he would react or moves the goalpost in terms of what he would want from China.
Right.
There is also something interesting about these inflation numbers.
Two things.
Number one, As we mentioned at the beginning, these are kind of lagging indicators. So this is last month's inflation. We didn't really get a chance for tariffs to kind of take hold. Before any of this materialized. In terms of inflation numbers, there could be a bump up if nothing else, just anticipation of the tariffs, and of course our biggest trading partner in China. That means that you know, with those off the table, the blip would be temporary.
But the second thing is what impact this has on.
FED chair and whether or not in the next meeting they decide to lower lower interest rates because you usually raise interest rates to try to cool off inflation. Now that it is cooling off, are they ready to lower those interest rates again and start moving some of this money around?
Well, the Trump family business has grown significantly in recent months in the Middle East. His sons have spent the past few weeks crisscrossing the Middle East laying the groundwolk work for deals that are going to benefit the Trump name and the company. A lot of people talking about constitutional conflicts, and this is just fascinating stuff. Not a lot of people pay attention to this, but it is fascinating.
And before you go name calling or finger pointing, we did the same We did the same deep dive into Biden and his family and the hunter. Hunter's fascinating how connected globally our political leaders are here in the United States, which goes to my point that they're never just looking out for the country. They're looking out for the bottom, the bottom, the bottom line when it comes to dollars and cents and families. By the way, did you hear
Biden's basically broke that. Usually, you know, a former president goes out on the speaking circuit, makes boatloads of money, but no one's paying for that. You can't do that er speech exactly, and no one does, and so he's not making any money. Apparently they're in not good straits, the Biden family financially.
Well.
We'll continue this great Tuesday show. A true crime Tuesday is coming up late in the show. Of course, we've got a wellness segment coming up. And I saw this amazing article airlines are planning for nuclear war. Yeah, I'm really interested in that. It's the weirdest concept to think of.
How about plan for just getting from point A to point B and having your traffic controllers to get you there.
Let's start with new one. Yeah, and then we'll move on.
Come on, you're listening to Gary and Shannon on demand from KFI AM six forty.
Maybe a little bit of a softer gentler Trump saying that he wants to avoid conflict with Tehran. He says he's willing to end passed conflicts and forge new partnerships for a better and more stable world, even with profound differences. He did dispatch Steve Witkoff to meet with Iranian officials yesterday for a fourth round of talks, trying to get
a rando abandon its nuclear program. You're not going to get that, but Trump says he hopes Saudi Arabia will soon join the Abraham Accords and eventually recognize Israel.
Are the other things I'm going to get that.
One of the big applause lines that he just leveled for everybody there in Saudi Arabia was a dropping of the extended sanctions against Syria now that bash Erasaud is out as the leader of that country, trying to give them a chance to succeed.
And also with President Ernigan of Turkey, who called me the other day and asked for a very similar thing, among others and friends of mine, people that have a lot of respect for.
In the Middle East.
I will be ordering the cessation of sanctions against Syria in order to give them a chance at great This.
That was, you know, it's probably the biggest applause line in that entire speech, that he just.
Thinks Syria a chance of greatness.
I mean, everybody deserves a chance.
Is that right?
Telling me there's a chance now.
The big question about the business conflicts, I think is one of the things that will hamstring this president.
We've said multiple.
Times he can be his own worst enemy when it comes to his desire to be the greatest president that the United States has ever had.
He continues to do things.
That chip away at whatever leg see he wants to build, and this is one of them. Allowing his sons, or encouraging his sons, or whatever he's doing with his sons to crisscross their way back and forth across the Middle East to come up with all of these cryptocurrency deals, these new Trump organization hotel deals.
There's going to be money to be made from the office. And Trump's legacy is that of a businessman. The Trump name is his legacy. This is what he wants to be known for. Just last week, his son Eric, spoke to a crowded convention center in Dubai about the Trump Organization's plans to build an eighty floor hotel and residential tower there. He boasted that the incredible icon would redefine luxury, have the highest infinity edge pool in the world. On
behalf of myself, on behalf of my family. Family. We love Dubai. This is a blatant We are using the office of the President and the Trump name to make money. It's blatant is because it's so far in your face that it's almost too much to raise your hand and go, is there some sort of impropriety here? Is this is a thing because it's so they have stepped on the gas pedals so far that it erases, well, there can't be anything wrong with this. I mean, you're so far
out in the open with it. It's all legal rights.
There has been no proven illegality.
No one has come forward and said what they're doing is completely illegal and here's why. But they're also doing something to your point, so out in the open, so crazy, so wrecking ball to the conventional norms that.
Who's going to challenge them?
My question is, did was there a moment when Trump, Let's say Trump jumped up in the polls before the election, right and he was pretty confident that he was going to win. Was there a moment in his mind where he thought, you know what, I left a lot of money on the table in that first term, and this time time we're cleaning out.
Yes, and let us all be distracted with the red herrings involving Alcatraz in the like Trump while the Trump brothers are in the Middle East selling the name. We're over here going you can't rebuild Alcatraz.
That was a Steve Bannon dictate, which was flood the zone with as much information, fire hose of state going on.
And then go hard in the paint. It's a basketball term.
Oh, I know exactly. I know exactly what it is.
Go ahead, make that segue.
Oh, that's why I'm trying to fight. Something else to talk about more of that.
In swamp Watch, you're listening to Gary and Shannon on Demand from KFI AM six forty.
That book that comes out next week called Original Sin. Jake Tapper from CNN, Alex Thompson from AXIO. They describe I wouldn't I don't know if they're complicit in it or not.
I can't wait to read the book.
But they described the media's cover up of the decline of Joe Biden while in the White House during his term, and the obvious physical things that we could see in events that he was doing, but also some of the mental things that people in the White House noticed but didn't say anything about or didn't do anything about.
If you're wondering where that full page op ed from George Clooney came from, which really put the ball in motion for getting rid of Biden on that ticket, I mean, really that was the first thing.
It's because by far the biggest thing.
It's by far the big It was like Tom Hanks getting COVID. You know, it was like the first thing that got the ball rolling in terms of greater attention on a singular issue. It's because Biden didn't recognize George Clooney at a fundraiser. Yeah, I can't, although I don't know. Oh, if I saw George Clooney, I mean I have never met him. Biden had met him, but I would say something like that's not George Clooney, is it.
But if you're going to a fundraiser run by guy, Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure, and you know who he is.
That's true.
One of the things that has come out in this book again they're obviously doing drips and drabs to help boost the sales, is that aids in the White House were so concerned about his physical condition, about Biden's physical condition, that they were discussing the idea of putting him in a wheelchair if he had been reelected.
Which makes sense. I was just telling Gary off the air, you know, watching him walk to the podium or really walk anywhere. If that was our relative, we would have had them in a wheelchair. And I think it was the suit. Why that didn't dawn on us when you saw him walking so gingerly like he was going to fall every other step. If that was somebody that we know and love in our lives, we would raise the issue of, hey, why don't we just put you in a wheelchair and it'll be easier, what have you. But
it's a suit. I think the suit and the fact that we've seen Joe Biden for forty years in a professional capacity, that that didn't cross our minds. But of course it should have crossed our minds.
Yeah, well, we like I mean, yours is a great analogy if that was somebody in sweatpants and a dirty T shirt somewhere. Yeah, because dad doesn't have a good isn't getting around easily?
We would have gotten the walker, Yeah, we would have gotten a cane.
We would have done all on those things. Yeah.
So anyway, that.
Obviously is going to be one of those stories that continues to come up this week.
Sean Ditty Combs's former girlfriend are mb singer Cassie took the witness stand in his sex trafficking trial today. She is the star witness. She testified about being abused sexually exploited by him for years. Of course, we saw the video of Diddy beating her in that hotel in the hallway in twenty sixteen, and that has been showed to
the jurors as well. He met her when she was very young, and it seems like it was definitely a grooming process, him kissing her shortly after she was signed to the record label, introducing her to oral sex, which she didn't know about. Later progressive, she testified about his freakoffs, some of those crazy parties where gallons of baby oil were involved. She says. She testified today again eight and
a half months pregnant. On the witness stand, she testified that these freakoffs became a job that.
They would go on a lot longer than she wanted. She said one of them lasted four days, and that at one point in the relationship that was basically all they did was they would have these parties, these sex driven parties, and then she would recover like that was it. She didn't have time to do anything else, and then the next one would come around. She was on the stand and was asked about that video. Of course, that video that we've all seen from the Intercontinental Hotel where
she is trying to leave. She described it as having been right after one of those freak offs and apparently had had enough and was going to take off, and that's when Diddy comes out in just the towel and throws her to the ground and kicks her. They didn't spend a lot of time on that when it came to testimony, because she then started getting into some of the details of these sex parties.
That they would get into.
But we'll come back and there's more to this in terms of what she again she was twenty one. That was the first time they kissed. Was that her twenty first birthday.
Right when she signed the label. She said she feared saying no would have consequences making him angry, and also worried that he was going to blackmail her with the videos. It turns out she may be doing that to him. Well, not blackmailing, but those videos of the freak offs maybe introduced in court, they kind of set the stage for that. We'll talk about it when we come back.
You're listening to Gary and Shannon on demand from KFI AM six forty.
Did you see Connor and Jack Black on one of the late night shows Connor from Love on the Spectrum? But no, it wasn't Connor, it was Tanner Tanner.
Yeah, I did I have seen that? Wait?
Was it the one where Jack Black surprised him? Yes, yeah, I've seen that. Yeah, that's really great. You just reminded me of Tanner.
Mostly lizards and squirrels, but right now it's lizards, but the squirrels are there too. And then we sit it and then I got cold.
Do you like lizards?
I like lizards? Okay, So Cassie Ventura is on the stand. This is Diddy's former girlfriend. She entered the courtroom. They say, eyes facing forward, passing by the jury box straight to the witness stand eight and the half monks pregnant Calms was seated, turned around in his chair and watched her walk to her seat. No eye contact between the two. She would dab her nose and her eyes at time
with Kleenex and they were wiven. A disclaimer the court room was the details are going to be graphic, and we will tell you the same.
She said that she knew that Sean Combs had many girlfriends, but that in the early part of her relationship again she's twenty one, when they kissed for the first time, she thought that they were in a monogamous relationship, but quickly realized they weren't. He had been connected to I
think it was kim Porter as well at the time. Yeah, and that she said, within the first year of the relationship, he proposed this idea, this sexual encounter these are her words, that he called voyeurism, where he would watch me have sex with a third party, specifically with another man, and she said she didn't feel like she could refuse those offers from him because he controlled a lot of her life, including her career.
She described him at this time, in the beginning as a fun guy who happened to have her career in his hands. That this was the guy who called all the shots when she was younger. You can imagine he's the head of the label. You're a young artist. All of this. She said that some of their arguments would be violent and result in some sort of physical abuse. Here's a quote. He would smash me in my head, knock me over, drag me, kick me, stop me if
my head was down. She experienced or he experienced, she said, mood swings. If she didn't answer her phone, he would call her incessantly, send staff to find her. She kept broken laptops, iPads and phones. She feared that blackmail materials would become public, and she has turned over the laptops to the prosecution. They do allegedly store the freak off videos, black eyes, bruises, yep, all part of the relationship.
She is probably going to be the star win.
I can't think of anybody more impactful than hers her testimony. One of the guys that was paid to have sex with her testified yesterday, as did the security guard from that hotel here in la that was originally called after that beating incident where everybody caught on tape what he did to her.
She said that.
All of that stuff that she's got, like you said, had been turned over to prosecutors, and there's a good chance that they'd be able to recover something that would
also be one of those things. Here's my question. Though he's not charged with domestic violence, is he and the defense attorneys in this case we mentioned yesterday, Tenny Garags is Mark Garrogos's daughter, says that, yeah, Sean Combs had an unusual lifestyle and he was a swinger, but that the sex was always consensual, which obviously Cassie is explaining wasn't and that she also acknowledged that Sean Combs had a bad temper this is the defense attorney, and had
committed some acts of violence against his victims, but that they were domestic incidents that was fueled by jealousy on both sides.
Yeah, it's hard to prove domestic violence like this over a ten year period. You've got that video that's very helpful, sure, but the sex trafficking, the racketeering, that's where the real that's where the real time is. When you look at that type of sentence, you're not going to get that for domestic violence. You're going to get that for sex trafficking. If he was moving these girls around like they said.
He was, well, we'll see what happens when the defense also get a chance to question Cassie venture.
They are on break for lunch. We will get you caught up coming up at noon when we talk about everything that's trending everywhere, because the story will continue to do so. When we come back, though, we've got a sex stortion scam that has been linked to a California teenager suicide to tell you about. This is a problem that is not going away. We'll get into it.
You've been listening to the Gary and Shannon Show.
You can always hear us live on KFI AM six forty nine am to one pm every Monday through Friday, and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.