Trump’s pathological relationship with Putin is on full display

I'm Dr. John Gartner. And I'm Dr. Harry Siegel. And welcome to another session of Frinking Trump. You know what time it is, John? Imagine in your life, John, that, you know, it's, it's, you know. name a time five o'clock four o'clock and you look at your watch and you realize you've got your therapy session in 15 minutes so what do you do you know you grab a cab you run down the street you get in your car and you

You stop in front of your therapist's office and there's a kind of hush in front of the office because this is where you go to talk about your inmost thoughts. It's where you share things that you share with no one else, with your therapist. This is your session, folks, our viewers. We are both clinical psychologists, John and I, and we are here to spend some time with you, to talk with you about our joint experience.

joined our common experience in suffering from the ruler, from the autocratic ruler, malignant narcissist that is Donald Trump.

who's having a tremendous impact on our culture, on our politics, on our freedom, on the ways in which we see one another. And although we have a media that resists talking about Trump, from a psychopathological point of view that is from seeing his severe personality disorder the early signs of dementia that are becoming more and more significant john and i are here in this program shrinking trump to help you think about it to share our views on it and john this is our 64th episode

I think it's funny you said that these are the secret innermost thoughts. Yeah, I want people to know we're not sharing this with anybody. Complete confidentiality. Just you, me, and the 50,000 people that usually watch the show exposed to this.

Yeah, you mentioned malignant narcissism. Well, I just want to let people know at the top of the program that we have an excellent guest. Dr. Richard Wood has written several books about malignant narcissism and some chapters about Trump and malignant narcissism. So that's something to look forward to at the end of the.

program. So there's a lot of stories to talk about today, but as we've been doing, we start with what we call the dementia update. Because that's the big story that we've been bringing to the fore that no one else is covering. However, there seems to be one newspaper in Ireland that seems to really like us and has been reporting almost...

on the things that we've been saying about Trump's dementia. So they're kind of the exception that proves the rule. So part of what we're trying to do with this segment is cover the coverage of trump so here we're going to go and look at what the irish star had to say psychologists reveal major sign that quote demented trump is quote aware that he's losing it

Psychologists Dr. Harry Siegel and Dr. John Gartner have claimed that Donald Trump is repeatedly displaying a sign that he is aware that he is losing it, as they accuse him of also acting like a dictator. Dr. Harry Siegel and Dr. John Gartner, it's interesting they put me first, John. I think you should be first. Claim that Trump's bragging about his cognitive test is a sign that he, quote, knows he is in some kind of cognitive...

And for those people who are just listening, I want to point out that they showed a still from the show that they took a photo of us on shrinking Trump. And so, Harry, shrinking Trump. has visually now been in a newspaper. Yeah, first time. There we are. Earlier this month, the president lashed out at Representative Jasmine Crockett, calling for her to take a cognitive test as he bragged about his own results following an annual health exam in April.

congressman jasmine crockett is a low very iq individual much in the mold of aoc plus gang gang of three of country destroying morons only slightly dumber trump wrote on truth social He continued ranting, each of these political hacks should be forced to take a cognitive exam, much like the one I recently took while getting my physical at our great Washington, D.C. military hospital.

as the doctor said quote president trump aced it something that is rarely seen these radical left lunatics would all fail this test in a spectacular show of stupidity and incompetence he then trump writes in all caps take the test it comes as trump's niece says quote he's declining rapidly after diagnosis as she claims he is losing it every day in the latest episode of their shrinking trump podcast on the really american network titled is trump becoming the demented dictator

the pair highlights how to the test trump underwent is simple dr siegel said he took a screen test a screen means a very brief test you give people if you're entering a hospital or a nursing home. Anyone can ace it. It's really not that hard. He continued. and trump keeps remembering it and i wonder if it's because he's partly aware that he's losing it and he keeps bringing it up to kind of reassure himself that he's really the genius that he thinks he is

Dr. Gartner weighed in, agreeing as he explained, well, actually, it's a pattern with him. The more spectacularly guilty he is, the more vociferously and vigorously and repeatedly he denies it. But the point is that it's not a test you ace, right? If you pass it, it means you don't have gross dementia. It doesn't even mean you don't have early dementia. It's actually from a certain level of deterioration.

So it's not an accomplishment to be able to draw a clock or pick out which animal is the lion or to repeat three numbers. That's really not a huge accomplishment. It's only a warning sign if you can't do it.

Continuing to examine some of Trump's recent behavior, Dr. Gartner went on to criticize Trump's Washington, D.C. crackdown, citing a crime emergency last week. The president deployed the National Guard troops to the nation's capital while taking over the city's... police force. Dr. Gartner accused Trump of creating a fake emergency.

of creating fake emergencies and declaring them as an excuse for taking dictatorial power. He also slammed the Trump administration's plans to review the Smithsonian's exhibits to make sure they align with the president's vision ahead of America's 250th anniversary. Every dictator does this, Dr. Gartner said. Every dictator, every single one, every dictator rewrites history. And so it's very dangerous. It's very dangerous that they want to rewrite American history and the Smithsonian, he warned.

So hats off to the Irish star. I love them. I mean, I'm thinking that if I watch this show, I'll be watching a video of us reading a transcript of a video we did the week before. It's kind of like. barbershop mirrors you know going back right okay well we're sort of like yeah we're we're kind of uh self-contained in that way

Well, listen, I'm glad we could repeat those points from last week, and I'm really glad they were published in the Star. John and I have been very frustrated with how this story is not getting out. Yeah. And we'll be talking more about that, but it's really a problem. It is a problem.

And so some of the more evidence that we've been talking about recently has been his psychomotor performance, that we're seeing a deterioration in his motor performance, which also goes with dementia, because with dementia, there's a deterioration of all. faculties, all functions. The language and the verbal dysfunction is what we notice first and also what we notice in terms of his public behavior. But now his motor performance is starting to get worse and worse.

things that one of the neuropsychologists that we were working with last year, that she pointed out that is almost a dead ringer telltale sign of frontotemporal dementia is something they call a wide-based gait. where you have a sort of one of your limbs, one of your legs, you kind of swing it in a semicircle. What we're going to show you is Trump going down the red carpet.

And you're going to see that he weaves. This is in Alaska when he met with Putin. He's weaving all along the carpet. But if you look a little more carefully, and we're going to show it fast in kind of a humorous way, and then we're going to show it slow so you can really examine it. it's that his right foot is swinging and it's pushing him to the left so as it's swinging he's veering left and then he over corrects and moves to the other side of the carpet

And then it happens again. So let's watch that. This is actually Midas Touch talking about it. Now, you'll see here as well, Donald Trump was struggling to walk on the red carpet that he rolled out for Vladimir Putin. You see right here, Donald Trump zigzagging around. I've just sped it up a little bit so you can see the zigzagging.

Trump unable to walk in a straight line here. I mean, if they pulled you over for a DUI and you walked that line, you know, you would fail. You know, I noticed it too. In fact, I even. come up with a different clip that John and I talked about as we prepared for our show today. It's very odd, isn't it? Because it doesn't look like someone who's drunk, but he's drifting.

back and forth as if, again, as if he can't control one of his legs. It's usually the, isn't it usually the left that swings around, John? I'm trying to think. I think it's his right leg. The right leg. And you have another clip of this, don't you? Yeah, we're just going to show it again, but this time not sped up, just so you can look a little more carefully at what he's doing with his feet.

One step at a time, right? You can see his sort of the leg swings and it moves him sort of one step to the side. And it was step after step after step. And then he overcorrects. I just think it's important for people to see that.

He had a couple of verbal slips this week. None of them were particularly egregious, but because we're following the story, we just wanted to show this to you. So he said that when he voted in Florida, he had to show his license plate. When you go to a voting booth and you do it the right way and you go to a state that runs it properly, you go in. They even ask me. They ask me for my license plate for identity.

i don't know if i have it he said sir you have to have it i was very impressed actually yeah i always take off my license plate before i go in to vote so yeah he won't let you vote if you don't take off your license plate off your car but it's it's it's not a normal slip You know what I mean? And it just keeps happening. Here's another kind of maybe called soft sign of dementia. It's where he starts getting, and this is what happens sometimes with people with dementia.

sort of lost on one aspect of a topic and elaborate on that kind of slightly irrelevant detail. He's talking about how they need to replace some of the grass in some of the public parks. We're going to be redoing the parks, redoing the grass. You know, grass is a lifetime like people have a lifetime. And the lifetime of this grass has long been gone when you look at the parks where the grass is.

All tired, exhausted. We're going to redo the grass with the finest grasses. I know a lot about grass because I own a lot of golf courses. And if you don't have good grass, you're not in business. Right, so just meandering on this topic. Yeah, but he's talking about the grass being old and worn out and depleted. And I wonder if he's talking about himself at that moment.

Yeah, yeah, that's a good psychological hypothesis. When he says, I know grass, it sort of reminds me of when Justin Hoffman goes, I'm an excellent driver. In Rain Man. So lastly, the last thing is, you know, one of the things that he does is he gets people's names wrong. And I'm a little sympathetic to this because I get people's names wrong, too. But he really blanks out. So when he met Tim.

cook from apple he called him tim apple well apparently he had this is actually a comedian michelle wolf talking about what happened when he couldn't remember the name of the prime minister of japan Trump had a meeting with the Japanese prime minister where he forgot the Japanese prime minister's name and called him Mr. Japan. Which makes him sound like he won a beauty contest for Japan. And I love it.

story like yes is it embarrassing that he did not know the japanese prime minister's name yes should he have known his name yes is mr japan maybe the least racist thing he could have called him? Also, yes. And these are the silver linings we have to take for a win these days. So sorry, Mr. Japan. Thank you for coming. I love her. Yeah, she's very funny. Michelle Wolf hosted the National Correspondents' Dinner during Trump's first turn.

term. And in her jokes, she said that Ivanka Trump was as useful to women as an empty box of tampons. he's so great no she's extraordinary um and and look it it's the comedians are joking now they're getting it i mean i know colbert has been doing this for a while but this is really becoming something that I'm hoping the culture, the population will start to catch.

Right. You know, we had a piece of tape that we wanted to show, but we can't show anything from Comedy Central or we get copyright violated. But it was one of the comedians on Comedy Central. It was Charlamagne Tha God. Oh, okay. I'll paraphrase, but he said, you know, it's unethical for doctors to diagnose dementia in someone that they haven't actually examined. He goes,

But fortunately, I'm not a doctor. He goes through all the symptoms. But so we're just describing it to you verbally because we can't show it to you. We can't.

Well, all right. I think the big news, obviously, of this week. often hard to say what the big news is, because we actually have a lot of big stories from this week. But one of the biggest is Trump's bizarre swings around the Ukraine war. Harry, do you want to? Yeah, I put together. some clips for all of you to take a look at because I think the Trump-Putin relationship is highly charged for Trump. Clearly, there's some people who believe that, as John does, and I think it's...

very likely that Putin has compromise, has dirt on Trump and manipulates him. But there's also a way in which Trump has really seemed to idealize or idolize Putin. Both. For a long time. For a long time. You know, bragging that Putin is nice to him and thinks he's smart. In fact, there was a hot mic moment. And when the NATO leaders came, the European leaders came to the White House, where Trump, not knowing he was being overheard, said, I think Putin's going to do the deal for me.

So there's a lot of projection and submission and all kinds of things going on for Trump and Putin. And Putin is playing him like a fiddle. so i wanted to begin with um with michael wolf uh who um actually is part of i think the culture starting to be aware of Trump's mental problems has begun a podcast with Joanna Coles called Inside Trump's Head, which so far has mostly been about.

about Jeffrey Epstein and Michael Wolff, who is really a kind of muckraking reporter who snags gossip. I think it'd be a great show, except that it's hard for me to listen to Joanna Coles. It's like talk on a blackboard. But this is Wolf on Instagram explaining Trump's psychology right now with Epstein, the Epstein threat, and Ukraine. Here, check this out. Within the White House for the last week or so, Trump has been saying, I need a big thing. I need a big thing. Who's got a big thing?

Now, everyone in the White House recognizes that this is code for something that will get them beyond Epstein, a distraction. the next chapter get rid of epstein a lot of people have had suggestions well let's uh let's go after mondani in new york let's make him the villain Or let's send troops into another city. As you will call, they sent troops into LA. And in fact, they are now sending troops into Washington, D.C.

But for Trump, it has been, we have to do Ukraine. We have to do Ukraine because that's the thing that will most... please the MAGA people, the people who are most upset about the Epstein story. So what that is going to be... And on Friday, Trump meets with Putin in Alaska. What this is going to be is that Trump is going to... sacrifice Ukraine because he doesn't want people to talk about his long friendship with Jeffrey Epstein.

Very compelling, given that he recorded that last Wednesday. And he seems to have sources within the White House who will speak with him. And I thought that was really, Trump, I need a big thing. Yeah, that was interesting. The impoverished language again, right? Well, the impoverished language. And also when you're talking about the big things, there's...

All of these are outrages, right? We're going to go after Mondami. We're going to invade another city. I mean, it's sort of like Wag the Dog, that movie where, you know, he declares war in Albania to distract from a sex scandal. Only instead of declaring war in Albania, he's just going to declare war. on washington dc in other words to do something it's interesting to see that they know they're going to do something horrific right but the point is that's the point it's so bad

that it'll distract people from the other bad thing. Well, and as we'll talk about with our guest, the Epstein story is the one that Trump can't get away from. It's the tar baby. He can't get it unstuck.

You know, everything he's tried hasn't worked. And it hasn't gone away. But I also think that Trump's relationship with Putin reflects Trump's... psychopathology that is yeah he worships putin he's afraid of putin putin controls him you know he's come out and said if you remember famously that he trusted putin more than his own intelligence in the first term

But we watch Trump get more and more angry at Putin because Putin has been playing him. Putin has been saying, yeah, I'll do a ceasefire with you eventually. And then he hasn't come through. so trump has been getting angrier and angrier and i want to show you um just a clip of of of trump calling putin on um you know on his phoniness here right

A lot of people are dying, and it should end. And I don't know, we get a lot of bullshit thrown at us by Putin, for you want to know the truth. He's very nice all the time, but it turns out to be meaningless. You know, Harry, you're right. It is a more complex relationship than I had first portrayed. I mean... In my mind, it's always been a very simple relationship. They're in cahoots. You can define it in one word, cahoots. Yes.

It's simpler than that. But I think in some ways it's sort of like the Hitler-Stalin relationship in the sense that these dictators have common ground and common aims and they can help each other transactionally. But then there's also... And this tension.

between malignant narcissists where at some point they feel like they need to break free and fight each other right for dominance and so it is actually interesting that trump even went through this phase of saying oh this is and we need a ceasefire

However, not to be a spoiler alert, which we're not, because by the time people hear this show, they know this already. He's reverted back to type, right? After Alaska. he's basically gone back to parodying the russian talking points and being uh putin's except that then all the leaders of Europe flew to Washington on a moment's notice to support Zelensky and then Trump was throwing it back towards them. So he's, you know, it's anyway, let's show you this next clip and we can then talk about it.

And let's go now back out to President Trump as well, making his way and alone right now as he's stepping forward. Ultimately, they will come down near this side and meet at the center of the tarmac right now. And President Putin coming closer as well. And here we go. President Trump now waiting. for the Russian president to come. We will see what the body language is in just moments, Andrew.

You see President Trump now clapping for President Putin, who is coming his way straight ahead right now. Let's watch and see. Isn't that nice? I know. It's just adorable. Two sociopaths meeting up and shaking hands with warmth. You know, the media went crazy. I mean, the social media went crazy over this. There were so many things wrong with the moment that you just showed. First of all, the social media went crazy about soldiers on their knees.

pushing the red carpet for um for putin also we rarely do roll out red carpets just so people understand what the precedent is it's not that it's never done but it's rarely done it certainly would not normally be done for foreign adversary that we're negotiating with. He also had the military do a flyover.

um and uh you know they're they're walking down the the red carpet holding hands you know like i feel like i should hear shiny happy people you know in the background while they're holding hands walking down the red no no it's it's it's awful and as many commentators said that by by coming to america Putin already won points. He got to be considered legitimate, like a legitimate world leader instead of the thug and murderer that he is. Completely the pariah.

I mean, he couldn't land in Europe. He'd be arrested. He'd be arrested because he's been indicted by the world court. It's just we don't go along with that. So we can come here. He can't get near any of those other countries. Now, the press conference, after they met briefly and Putin basically said, no ceasefire, Donald, even though Trump had been talking about a ceasefire for days.

days and then oh putin does something so um despicable and brilliant as far as flattering trump if you haven't heard it this is your chance to actually hear it happen I expect that today's agreements will be the starting point. not only for the solution of the Ukrainian issue, but also will help us bring back business-like and pragmatic relations between Russia and the U.S. And in the end, I would like to add one more thing.

I'd like to remind you that in 2022, during the last contact with the previous administration, I tried to convince my previous American colleague that the situation should not be... brought to the point of no return when it would come to hostilities. And I said it quite directly back then, that it's a big mistake. Today, when President Trump saying that

If he was the president back then, there would be no war. And I'm quite sure that it would indeed be so. I can confirm that. I think that overall, me and President Trump have built... very good business-like and trustworthy contact and have every reason to believe that moving down this path we can come and the sooner the better to the end of the conflict in ukraine thank you thank you well thank you very much mr president that was very profound and i will say that

I believe we had a very productive meeting. There were many, many points that we agreed on, most of them, I would say, a couple of big ones that we haven't quite gotten there, but we've made some headway. So there's no deal until there's a deal. I will call up NATO in a little while. I will call up.

the various people that I think are appropriate. And I'll, of course, call up President Zelensky and tell him about today's meeting. It's ultimately up to them. They're going to have to agree with what Marco and Steve and some of the... Great people from the Trump administration who've come here, Scott and John Radcliffe. Thank you very much. But we have some of our really great leaders. They've been doing a phenomenal job. We also have some.

tremendous russian business representatives here and i think you know everybody wants to deal with us we've become the hottest country anywhere in the world at a very short period of time of course he has to start talking about how great he is and his leaders and all that but did you hear putin say that he tried not to start the hostilities but But Biden wasn't a good president to deal with. But if Trump had been here, the war wouldn't have started. As if he didn't invade Ukraine.

Right. Unilaterally in a disgusting power grab. It's nonsense. Even the words he said didn't quite make any sense. It was vague. And there's Trump saying, well, it's very profound. Well.

Yeah. And not only that, but after that, he's gone back to the Russian talking point of Ukraine is the one who started the war. So, you know, before the meeting, he was saying ceasefire, ceasefire, ceasefire. After the meeting, he's saying we don't really need a ceasefire. And after the meeting, he's reverting to the idea that. that the war was started by ukraine let's hear this fox interview and he changed his tune on a major sticking point that echoes russia

And I think we'll probably end up at some point getting a ceasefire in the not-too-distant future. I want it to end immediately. I want a ceasefire now. Pretty soon have a full ceasefire. He has made it clear to both sides that he wants to see a peaceful... and a ceasefire as soon as possible. I'd like to see a ceasefire. I want to see a ceasefire. I don't think you need a ceasefire. You know, if you look at the six deals that I settled this year, they were all at war.

I didn't do any ceasefires. But we can work a deal where we're working on a peace deal while they're fighting. They have to fight. So now he doesn't need a ceasefire. Let's also see what he said on Fox News about who started the war or who's responsible for the war. Mr. President, did y'all discuss any land swaps yesterday? Because we've talked a lot about the Donbass region. And what was the feeling in the room? What did the other leaders say about this?

Well, they understand. Look, everybody can play cute and this and that. But, you know, Ukraine is going to get their life back. They're going to stop having people killed all over the place and they're going to get a lot of land. But this was a war.

And Russia is a powerful military nation, you know, whether people like it or not. It's a powerful nation. It's a much bigger nation. It's not a war that should have been started. You don't do that. You don't take on a nation that's ten times your size. you know military experts look look if it wasn't for the greatest military equipment we make the greatest military equipment in the world and we gave them so you know whatever they took probably a lot of money too but

They had tremendous, you know, they had the Patriot missile, which is the best in the world. All the equipment. We make the best equipment in the world by far. Everyone else is like nothing. So we gave them a lot of equipment. Now, with that said.

The Ukrainian soldiers were brave as hell. Because there's fighting a force that's much, much bigger and clearly much more powerful. And, you know, it's not like they've stopped. I assume you've all seen the map. You know, a big chunk of territory is taken. And that territory has been taken. Now, they're talking about Donbass, but Donbass right now, as you know, is 79 percent owned and controlled by Russia. So they understand what that is.

So listen to this. He's echoing the Russian talking points that Ukraine is responsible for the war, which doesn't make any sense. But also he's justifying it at a deeper level, right? Well, they're a very strong country, you know, very powerful. And, you know, basically. when you're a powerful country, they let you do it. You know, that's just what powerful countries do. They just take land and, well, you know, let's be realistic about this. So he's got a, it's a sort of.

you know, survival of the strongest kind of, you know, Darwinian. social Darwinian philosophy that he's... No, it might be. It's right. But the lie of, you know, well, they shouldn't have taken on Russia. It doesn't make sense. It's so wrong that it just makes you want to slap yourself and say, you know, am I hearing this? This is not a subtle confluence of events.

It's like blaming someone for being mugged, you know? Yeah. Shouldn't have taken on that person. Yeah. The other thing, too, is, you know, you pointed out that when he was in the Russian, at the press conference, he has to... go back to praising himself. Right. And this is something he does. And we really should start pointing that more systematically. He pumps himself up with self praise. So.

While he's giving these rushing talking points right on Fox, at some level, he at some level, he knows he's actually submitting to Putin. Right. So he needs to pump up his ego again. So he goes to this, you know, we make the best missiles in the world and, you know, because it's only because we gave them missiles that they're able to survive and we gave them money too. And, you know, so again, he just has to go back to how great I am.

That's always right. The reset button is always going back to how great I am. Well, and as we've talked about on this show many times, someone with a severe narcissistic personality disorder. and malignant narcissism is a version of it, right, is that that person is so terrified of collapsing and feeling like they're nothing.

that they have to continually talk about how great they are and surround themselves with people who will tell them they're great. It's kind of puffed themselves up, but it's a fragile state. So every time Trump takes a bit of a beating from Putin or somebody else, he has to go and, as you put it, John, soothe himself with self-praise.

And that's what he did on Sunday morning after he returned from Alaska. So what he did was, this is what the president of the United States spent Sunday morning doing. retweeting memes about himself but he didn't actually just retweet them he actually cut and pasted them think about this he took the time to cut and paste them all of these ridiculous extreme memes praising him so

Just to give you an idea, I'm not even going to show you all of them. I saw about a dozen of them. I'm going to share about nine of them with you. But I just want to give you an idea of what our president is doing on a Sunday morning. Trump flooded social media with self-praise after Putin meeting disaster. Trump spent Sunday morning reposting a string of memes and praise-filled posts about himself following his abysmal meeting with Vladimir Putin.

in alaska on friday now for those of you were just listening i'm going to describe the image so it's a picture of donald trump looking very um like some sort of corporate titan with a giant lion right next to him Peace through strength. Anyone can make war, but only the most courageous can make peace. The next one.

picture of him with his make america great hat again behind the oval office seal i trust this man more than anyone now a picture of him looking like a man of action walking down the street goat which means for the greatest of all time, for those of you who don't watch sports, the legend, the golden age with President Trump, America is thriving and winning like never before.

Another one of the picture of Trump with a sunset behind him. You are such a blessing, President Trump. Thank you. Oh, he is. He's such a blessing. Praise the Lord. Oh, another one. It looks like it's bug shot type of picture. Thank you, Mr. President. On behalf of the American people, President Trump has reshaped the Republicans, broken the Democrats, exposed the fake news and is busy draining the swamp. Make DC safe again. And that is a picture of him holding a dove. No war, only peace.

I like this one. The best part of waking up is Donald Trump is president. Actually, that's the worst part of waking up. That's the nightmare we all wake up to. We can't believe it's really real, but clever meme. And then finally, talking about the Democrats, the party of hate, evil and Satan. The picture of some Democratic politicians looking ugly. The Democratic Party is dead.

they have no leadership no message no hope their only message for america is to hate trump and these are all the stuff that he put together And then he retweeted them. Yeah. And posted them. But I mean, that's what he spent his Sunday morning doing because he needed to inflate himself. Right. He did. He did. And to keep people really not realizing what a beating he took in Alaska. Well, we're going to move on to the manipulating. I just want to make one more point just to warn the audience.

So after Trump sues us and we come to our multimillion dollar settlement, I'm afraid we're going to have to be showing those memes. unironically so i just to prepare people for the worst i will not be around i will be somewhere else Radio free America. So he doesn't take our house. Please don't take my house. Okay. The best part of waking up is Trump is president. Sure. I just, I won't be around. Anyway, manipulating elections. So.

Of course, Trump is doing 8 million things to ensure that he stays in power. Yeah, but this is a big one. Well, it's one of the big ones. Trump is now against mail-in ballots and claims he can write an executive order. outlawing them. And guess you won't believe it, folks, if you haven't seen this. Guess who he quotes as an authority supporting his idea that mail-in ballots are a bad idea. Let me guess. Let me guess. Was it like Alexander Hamilton? It was, actually. Wait till you see it.

Go ahead. Next, let's see it. President Trump announced yesterday that he's drafting an executive order aimed at banning mail-in ballots. It's not clear when that will happen. And yes, it will likely face legal challenges if and when he does. The president said that the topic came up actually during his Friday meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Vladimir Putin, smart guy, said you can't have an honest election with mail-in voting. And he said there's not a country in the world that uses it now. Mail-in ballots are corrupt. Mail-in ballots, you can never have... real democracy with mail-in ballots and we as a Republican Party are going to do everything possible that we get rid of mail-in ballots

Putin said, you can't have a real democracy without mail-in ballots. Right. And Putin, of course, is the authority on democracy. He's practically a founding father. And there's Hannity. Hannity doesn't call him on it because Hannity doesn't call him on anything. Right. But isn't someone saying, hey, I wouldn't...

I wouldn't quote a dictator who doesn't have free elections in his country as an expert on how to have free elections. It's really like this looking glass we've gone through, and we keep pointing out how reality is upside down. It's almost like we're getting used to it. But, you know, you know, the battery's up and the Bowery's down. I mean, everything is upside down. So the idea that an American president would suggest a truncation of voting rights because a Russian.

dictator told him that's the way to do democracy. It's so comedic. It's so satirical. You wouldn't even imagine that this could happen. It sounds like a satire. But Putin's a smart guy, John. Yeah. Okay. Now here's the rest of democracy. Here's the rest of that clip.

How do voters in general feel about mail-in voting? Yeah, they feel that Donald Trump is full of BS. What are we talking about here? Let's take a look here. Allow anyone to vote earlier by absentee. In 2020, it was about two-thirds. You get 65%. Years after years after years that Donald Trump has been complaining about mail-in voting, where'd the numbers stand in 2024? Basically the same. 60% of voters say that anyone should be allowed to vote either early or by absentee with...

needing an excuse. And that actually includes, get this, even 37% of Republicans. You have a substantial portion of Republicans who believe that voters should be back allowed to vote either early or absentee without an excuse. So the bottom line is... The American people aren't with Donald Trump. They think he's full of it. Well, and this gets back to the 2020 election is where this the basis of this comes from. And because in the president's.

false view that it was that this is so crazy it's tough to know that this led to him losing the election um that he actually did win the election so he says still regardless i digress How do voters feel about the 2020 election now? Yeah, exactly right. This is all based upon the fugazi idea that Biden didn't legitimately win the election. But again, voters think that Donald Trump is full of it. Biden's 2020 election, 2020 election.

was legit look at this in December of 2020 look at that it was 60% in December of 2024 again after Donald Trump has been arguing year after year after year that somehow that the election wasn't legit which of course everybody who knows they're talking about disagrees with imam because the election was legit the voters are with the side of truth in this situation 63 of them believe that biden's win was legit harry anton my favorite

Yeah, no, he's very good. I mean, the glass is sort of half empty, half full. It's also chilling that 40% believe that it was stolen. 37%. Okay.

One of the reasons I wanted to highlight this is even though he doesn't have the power to do this, of course, he'll try to do it. He does many things that he doesn't have the power to do. But there's also other ways that he could be influencing state legislatures, state election officials in red states to implement his will.

you know we've been saying there's going to be an attack on the election right they're going to try to find some way to rig this election in fact they're trying multiple ways one of the ways that we discussed over the last couple weeks is the redistricting fight

Right. It's like, you know, Trump just asking for 11,800. Give me a break. Just give me five more legislative seats. You know, so he's just stealing five legislative seats. Right. But California is fighting back and producing five more on their map. looking for some way to cheat, this would be an immensely effective way to cheat.

There's no question about it. More Democrats vote by mail than Republicans. More Republicans vote in person than Democrats. So if you wanted to prevent Democrats from having a chance to be elected in a free and fair election. this would be a move that you would make. And I want to show Mark Elias, who's someone who's been very involved in maintaining election integrity in a lot of different lawsuits over the years.

He's railing on this show about how the Washington Post reported this executive order to stop mail-in voting. It's a lot more serious than the headline suggests. The goddamn Washington Post, I'm sorry for swearing, I'm sorry for taking the Lord's name in vain, but their headline after Donald Trump's executive order is, and I quote, Trump previews executive order on voting. I'm sorry, what? You think what Brian and I are talking about here is Trump previewing an executive order on voting?

It's as if like, you know, they are reporting on, you know, Barack Obama or Joe Biden, you know, announcing, you know, bald eagle month. Right. I mean, like this is not an executive order on voting and he's not previewing it. He is saying he is going to lead a movement among the Republican states to do away with...

with a method of voting that people rely on. He's going to issue an executive order that he does not have the power to do. He's going to expect states to act as his agent in the counting and tabulation of voting. And this is what the legacy media with the Washington... boasts what Jeff Bezos' House organ for Donald Trump reports as previewing executive order on voting? I mean, Brian, our democracy is not going to survive.

If we do not have more responsibility by the institutions of civil society, the nonprofit world, the legacy media. the law firms than we are currently seeing. We're going to need a modicum of courage. That's why I started a democracy docket in 2020. It's why you and I have been doing these videos now for years. And I wish I could say it is getting better.

I wish I could say the legacy media is getting more responsible. But then you read something like that from The Washington Post and you're left just shaking your head and saying, no wonder why Donald Trump is deploying the National Guard and no one seems to care. No wonder why you are seeing people. disappeared off the streets of major cities and nobody seems to care. It is because we have an absolute collapse and failure.

by the institutions that have promised us that democracy would not die in darkness, that in fact they stand for the fact, the proposition that democracy will die in plain sight of daylight. This is a big deal, and we should be reacting to it as if it's a big deal. But of course, it's hard to react to these things as big deals when there's so many big deals going on. And the media is underplaying these things. Utterly.

You know, I actually, sorry, I made a mistake. I had two pieces of tape, but I realized we only have one. So I'm just going to describe the one that we don't have. Trump talks about getting rid of mail-in voting, and he says, well, that way, no Democrats will be elected. He goes, because without mail-in voting, there'd no Democrats would be elected. He goes, it's even more powerful than redistricting. He actually says the quiet part out loud.

So, sorry, I mis-edited the thing. I would have shown you that tape, but let's move on. He also goes on to joke about canceling elections.

so let me just say three and a half years from now so you mean if we happen to be in a war with somebody No more elections. Oh, that's good. I wonder what the fake news is. So he's joking, but he's not joking. He's also needling Zelensky, who hasn't had elections since the war started. So he's also delegitimizing Zelensky at the same time. It's kind of a twofer, John.

Yeah, I agree. No, no, it's very dangerous. What I will say, though, is the only way that Trump can be pushed back... in an election if elections are allowed to be held in any kind of real way is if the fervor against him is high is really high and i'll tell you If people really believe the democracy is at stake, they'll come in person to vote. And that's the danger. When you try to pull moves like this, often you get a pushback.

you get you get a reaction you're not looking for so i'm hoping that whatever happens the only way to get to get this country back is if there are elections that are meaningful and if the people against trump will really come out

And we're about to look at some polling. Trump's polling is terrible. He hit in Reuters 38% approval rating. Now he's... he hasn't dropped below 40 in a long time if you're underwater in 40 in a normal off-year election you cannot hold congress it's never been done It's impossible. It's actually amazing statistically how often the president's party loses seats in off-year elections. It's really quite shockingly predictable, even under normal circumstances.

It's really been going on really since the early 90s, right, when Clinton had that horrific loss in 94. And Newt Gingrich swept him. I mean, ever since then, we've been seeing this. And look, Trump manipulates. He's criminal. He's dishonest. But this isn't off your election that involves 50 states. It's not a national election. So I still think it's our last chance. But let's listen to this long clip of John Heilman talking with Nicole Wallace.

uh heilman is someone i admire greatly i just think he's one of the i rarely hear him on television without learning something which is sort of my my standard of really good pundits. And he's been this way for years. So here he is sizing up the numbers and really explaining that Trump has been losing support actually for two to three months now.

Reuters has Hispanic voter support showing. Let me just read it. The latest poll showed Hispanics, a group that swung toward Trump in last year's election, have soured on the president. Some 32 percent approve of his performance in the White House, matching their lowest level. approval for Trump this year. And then the much-belly-hooed manosphere. Here's Joe Rogan on how he feels about how immigration is going.

It was a visceral reaction that a lot of people had the idea of people just showing up and Pulling people out of schools and pulling people out of Home Depot and pulling people that were just hard-working people that maybe snuck over here because it

didn't have a legal way to get over here but since they've been here they've been good people and they're a part of communities and that's what freaks people out because what people when people thought about ice they thought great we're going to get rid of the gang members they didn't think great you're going to get rid of a landscaper Your thoughts? Well, um...

You're putting your finger on the most important thing, Nicole. And I'm just going to try to connect a few of these dots. Tim just said that Trump is not in free fall. He's not in free fall. He's been underwater in terms of his net approval rating, approval, disapproval, since the middle of June. And it's been...

pretty constant, bumps up and down a little bit, but he's had this, he's got that net, he's been net negative underwater for now for two solid months. On all of the issues that he was strong on, on inflation. and the economy. He was strong on coming into office. On inflation, the economy, that's the first place he went underwater on the issue. He went underwater on that issue in February. He went underwater on...

He went underwater on trade. He went underwater on trade in March. The only big issue that he didn't go underwater on for a long while was immigration. And in the middle of June...

He went underwater in immigration. His immigration numbers did tank, in fact, in June. That number tanking... is part of why that's the moment when he overall went underwater because immigration was the strongest issue he had and to point to the thing that you just mentioned one of the groups that he suddenly has where the bottom has fallen out the bottom has fallen out for him with a lot of hispanic voters who were

crucial to his victory in 2024, and a lot of Hispanic voters had the same attitude as Joe Rogan right there, which was, they were, to the surprise of some on the left, They wanted to see the border closed, and they're perfectly fine with seeing criminal gang members, actual criminal gang members, actual people who are doing harm to anyone anywhere. They're happy with seeing those people sent home. They are more upset than anyone.

about the notion of the ICE secret police rolling up in front of Home Depot, rolling up in front of Circuit City, rolling up in front of wherever and just basically tossing people in the back of cars and taking them away. It's very interesting that even the conservative or red state voters are offended by this. They have enough humanity left in their souls that though they wanted to be tough on immigration, they don't want...

people in their community, their neighbors, people who work with them or for them to be just thrown into an unmarked car and disappeared. So that has really shocked the conscience of the country. So, Harry, I think we're really in. a very interesting spot right now because what these poll numbers that you've brought to us show is Donald Trump is a human monster and the majority of the country is starting to understand that.

Right. The majority of the country is starting to understand that this man is a not he isn't just bad. He isn't just against their policies. He's a flaming evil monster. Okay, so if the laws of gravity applied, and I don't know if they do on Earth too, okay, if the laws of gravity applied, he would get shellacked, right, in these midterm elections.

But at the same time, there's a competing trend, which is they are trying anything and everything right to control the guts of the electoral. process, the guts of the machine, the mechanical machinery of voting from who's qualified to vote, whose vote gets counted, right? How people vote, how many, whether the seats are gerrymandered. So we. have a race here okay there is a race going on that his popularity is plummeting

as his grasp on power is increasing. And we don't know how those two vectors are going to turn out. And the third vector is he's also declining cognitively. Absolutely. You've got three of these things going on at once. And what I really like about what Joe Rogan said is that... You know, when we had that wonderful commentator on from the New York Times who was in Russia and said how easy it was to get used to Putin's grabbing power. And I pointed out on that show, and I want to repeat it here.

um the russians have had secret police since the days of the czar like it's part of their political cultural experience historically for 200 years It's not true for us. Yeah. When Trump began separating babies from their parents in his first term, he really lost. That was the beginning of his losing the 2020 election.

began with that the next was when he had no empathy for people dying of covet and then he lost this vicious um you know authoritarian uh secret police that he's got going americans aren't used to it and they don't like it

And the Democrats really should be screaming about this more. I mean, a secret police that apprehend people without cause and without... accountability and you know this is something that they should be screaming about and they should be labeling this as trump's secret police trump's secret police trump's secret police over and over again know, it just.

It baffles me that they're kind of responding with a sort of half measure. They're denouncing it, but we need to label it, right? In these things, you need to market these ideas. And one of the ways you market them is you get something that's extreme. something that hits a chord, something that sticks, and you hammer it over and over and over again. Right. And why aren't they running ads? the Democratic Party. Why aren't people rich Democrats running ads that just show masked ICE police?

breaking car windows and dragging people into the vans. Do you realize the deportations are up? The ICE arrests are going up. It was in the Times today. It's getting much worse. It's not getting better. They're not dropping back. They're doubling down. And so, no, really, we're at a crossroads. Yeah. But I really like the Joe Rogan response. He's absolutely right. Right. Yeah. I'm sorry. Go ahead, John.

No, I mean, that's part of what elected him, the manosphere, right? These sort of swing male voters who could have gone sort of either way. They liked his get tough. kind of demeanor. But they didn't sign up for this. They didn't sign up for this. And he's losing them. And he's lost Hispanics. They should never have voted for him in the first place. That's not how he ever got them in the first place. I mean...

You know, I mean, I don't know, you know, he said so many racist things about Hispanics. It's like, could you imagine if someone just, you know, just every day got up and said anti-Semitic things and like, but, you know, 50% of the Jews voted for him. I mean, that'd be crazy.

But I think they, again, like everyone else, they identified with his strength. He said he was going to take care of all the thousands and millions of gang members that are... flooding and destroying america which isn't true never was true right and all they're doing is arresting people who have no criminal records i mean they're not dangerous right it's all made up it's all ginned up

for his uh to frame to leverage power yeah and we it's just we just have to keep watching so john what's next on the docket today that you want to talk about Well, last week we talked about Trump's systematic effort to rewrite history. And part of what they want to do is rewrite history in the way that makes white people look good.

they want to erase and sanitize any of the bad things that america has done um so they're trying to say well you know slavery wasn't that bad and the genocide against the indians wasn't that bad um so this is really one of their their missions and it's something that every uh authoritarian does is they rewrite the history books so um let's

see uh one of the ways they want to do that is by controlling what we teach the children about american history so um we're going to introduce you today if you're not aware of them to a group called prager university prager university is um in now about 20 in about 20 states

produces these kind of cartoons for schools that teach american history well prager has also been asked to write a test for testing teachers and whether they have the appropriate view of american history let's see that oklahoma will test some incoming teachers with an america first exam Candidates from California and New York must pass a 20-question test to qualify to teach in Oklahoma, State Superintendent Ryan Walter said.

Teachers from New York and California who apply to teach in Oklahoma will now have to answer questions meant to screen out woke indoctrinators. with left-wing views, the latest attempt by Oklahoma officials to push the state's education system rightward. The test's 50 questions will cover topics about U.S. government, religion, and gender, according to examples shared by the

Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters. Teachers unions have criticized the move as a political stunt that will discourage applicants as Oklahoma faces a teacher shortage. Walters announced the plans to administer the test at a state education board meeting in July in which he said California and New York, the nation's two largest blue states, have teaching standards considered, quote, antithetical to Oklahoma's Prager University.

a non-profit that produces educational materials emphasizing patriotic and conservative views developed the exam so now you have to pass an ideology test right to Like that'll be hard to pass. If you want to go to Oklahoma and you're from New York State and California and you want to pass that exam, I'm sure you can figure out what the right answers are. Sure. But then once you get the job, then you're going to have to teach that way. Listen, it's horrible. All I'm saying is it's also dumb.

It's just dumb. It is dumb and also it isn't because it's insidious. They're trying to subtly... rewrite American history. And I wanted to show all of you an example of one of the cartoons of Prager University. This is where some young people, Lilo and Stitch, I think, I don't know the names of the characters.

It's Lila and something. I don't know. Two children who travel back in time. That's sort of part of the premise. So that's how they learn about American history. So here they've traveled back in time to talk to Christopher Columbus. about slavery slavery is as old as time and has taken place in every corner of the world even amongst the people i just left being taken as a slave is better than being killed no

I don't see the problem. Well, in our time, we view slavery as being evil and terrible. Ah, Magnifico. That's wonderful. I am glad humanity has reached such a time. But you said you're from 500 years in the future? How can you come here to the 15th century and judge me by your standards from the 21st century? For those in the future to look back and do this is, well...

Estupido. Are you calling me dumb? Certainly not. I can tell you're a very smart young lady. But the idea of throwing away the past because of your present values is... Listen. I love and am thankful for the ancient Greeks, but they did lots of things that here in 1493 I do not agree with. They permitted lifestyles and worship gods that, as a Christian, I think is very bad.

But that doesn't mean I shouldn't respect and honor all the incredible and amazing things they did. So good and bad is based on the time you live in? That is a great question. I told you I knew you were smart. Some things are clearly bad, no matter when they happen. But for other things, before you judge, you must ask yourself, what did the culture and society at the time treat as no big deal?

Not everyone can time travel as you do and see how normal becomes very not normal. Well, that explains it, doesn't it? I mean, look, Harry. it's it's you know the woke left will it will be the first to tell you you shouldn't judge other cultures right that's cultural imperialism so how can we judge the culture of slavery. You see, they're using a left-wing argument to justify right-wing oppression, and they're doing it very deftly, I think.

well i i want to remind uh mr columbus that um the last the last um observed lynching in our country was in 1955 with Emmett Till okay it's not that long ago right that's 70 years ago And we can't judge. We can judge. And slavery wasn't that much earlier than that. That's just going back another 90 years. So, yeah, I mean, I yes. I mean, who can argue with.

Listen, I get frustrated with friends of mine in academia who who will reject great works of literature because they're sexist or they have older. social views in it because i think great art kind of transcends its limitations but that doesn't mean you don't talk about the limitations it doesn't mean you can't hold them as terrible Even if it comes from way back when. But I don't see the problem. I don't see the problem. It's better than being dead, no? Oh, my God.

yeah yeah at least he got at least at least he got some food when you were a slave yeah oh no no it's it's it's you know after listening to him i realized you know actually look you know it's it's not a popular view and you know people don't like to say it out loud but what the heck are these black people complaining about anyway with slavery really aren't they just making a big deal out of nothing

Well, it's really a job training program, wasn't it? I mean, they got a professional. They've made that point. They learned valuable trades and skills. Yeah, that's right. I mean, not every slave owner was mean or bad. Some were nice. He brought them to the new world. I mean, they should be thanking us, really. Yeah, they didn't have to pay for the travel. I was just going to say that. They owe us reparations.

No one ever paid for that fare. Come on, man. Pay up. No, no. It's true. It's like waking up in some bizarro land where everything is on its head. I mean, you know, look, when I was a boy growing up in Washington, D.C., for a few years I lived in D.C., and I remember, you know, reading these little books of history.

that we learned about the discovery of the new world and they all those books enumerated how many thousands and millions of people the the spaniards murdered i just wiped out the incas and wiped out the aztecs i mean i wasn't protected from from that when i was a kid i'm glad i learned about that i

i i hated those spanish conquistadors but harry harry that could make some people uncomfortable about their race and that's racism if you make someone uncomfortable about their race that's racism that's wrong there you go I'm sorry. You should be. I should be. And just to point out how systematic this is, this isn't just a Prager University cartoon. Look at what...

Trump is trying to do with the Smithsonian. Trump says the Smithsonian focuses too much on quote how bad slavery was. I'm sorry. I can't read this without laughing. I'm sorry. Look, you know. You can look at the downside or you can look at the upside. It's really a state of mind.

That loses control of my laughing. It's not that often that Harry can't control his laughing, but that's how ridiculous this is. The remark was made as the president ordered a wide-ranging review of museum exhibits added to...

to his pattern of minimizing black history. President Trump accused the Smithsonian Institution on Tuesday of focusing too much on, quote, how bad slavery was and not enough on quote the brightness of america as his administration conducts a wide-ranging review of the content in its museum exhibits quote the smithsonian is out of control

Where everything is discussed is how horrible our country is, how bad slavery was, and how unaccomplished the downtrodden have been. Nothing about success, nothing about the brightness, nothing about the future. Mr. Trump said in a social media post. This is the country cannot be woke because woke is broke. And we have the hottest country in the world. And we want people to talk about it, including in our museum.

mr trump made the comments a week after the white house told the smithsonian that its museum would be required to adjust any content that the administration finds problematic in tone historical framing and alignment with american idea within 120 days. Taken together, the Trump administration's examination and Mr. Trump's post on Tuesday were the latest examples of Mr. Trump trying to impose his will in a cultural institution and minimize the experiences and history of black people.

people in the United States. He's got to look at the bright side of slavery, Harry. Look at the sunny side of the street. But his impoverished language, not talking about the brightness. what the hell is that what is that it doesn't say anything you know if you just if you just let those words go by without challenging them you don't see how impoverished his vocabulary is i mean i

I think this position is just despicable. But, you know, someone who was more cognitively fit could at least have used words that had meaning. in some horrible way. Anyway, there we go. We really need someone, Harry, who can talk about the joys of slavery in clear and compelling language. God. Oh, my God. I know. They're going to rewrite 12 Years a Slave and make it kind of a travelogue. You know, John, lynching isn't that bad either.

Why not? Okay. All right. It's better to be a slave than to be dead, no? Oh, my God. Okay.

Listen, we're going to stop, folks. Sean showed me this last night, and I still can't get over it. And you shouldn't. You shouldn't get over it. uh you know talk about laughing instead of crying good god harry you asked me to keep people abreast of what's happening in dc yeah please and and i i just i'm going to show a few clips one of them is actually a from mother jones but the point i want to make is that

Washingtonians hate this. Washingtonians are angry. They feel invaded. They feel occupied. They're protesting. And this is a hostile. military invasion of our capital. But let's let Mother Jones summarize it for us, report it for us. We're taking America back, baby. We're going to be removing homeless encampments from...

All over our parks, our beautiful, beautiful parks. Donald Trump's takeover of Washington, D.C. is supposedly about combating crime, but it's looking more and more like it's actually about exerting partisan power over D.C. residents. These are homeless people. It's only been a week since Donald Trump deployed National Guard troops to Washington, D.C., took over the local police force and directed federal agents out onto the streets to patrol them.

And we've already seen that the real goal of the occupation is different. Crime, which is a real but declining problem in Washington. It's just Trump's excuse. This is suppression for public consumption. The authoritarian president is overriding democracy in D.C. to impose his version of order on staunchly opposed D.C. citizens. Going to take our capital back. We're taking it back. And if you look up close, it's also disturbingly partisan. A MAGA occupation of a left-leaning city.

National Guard troops are being sent to D.C. exclusively by Republican governors. And federal agents confronting angry citizens are making it clear they're not here to help, but to dominate. We're taking America back, baby. On Friday, masked federal agents showed up at a park in northwest Washington, Mount Pleasant.

where they rip down an anti-ICE banner. The video strikingly was shared by ICE's ex-account, and they claim the agency is removing criminals from American cities. But the only possible illegality you see in that clip is agents stealing a banner because they don't like what it says.

Then on Saturday, a group of federal agents tased and punched a delivery driver in front of a crowd of onlookers near Logan Circle in Washington. Asked to identify themselves or just name their agency, the agents not only refused, It gave onlookers a piece of their minds. Who are you guys?

Yo, can we see some badge? Who are you guys? Oh, are you guys the cops? Just shut the fuck up. Are you? Who are you? Yo, why you gotta wear the mask, man? Take your mask off and show me some badge, huh? Yo, let's see some badge work. Boys, let's see some badge work. Do I have hands with you? The conduct of these agents is pretty obviously unprofessional, but it's also telling. Like for the president they serve, for these agents, the wishes of D.C. residents don't count.

District residents have voted to have a police force that doesn't violently detain immigrants, and they have a right to hang any anti-ice banner that they want. But Trump and his agents want to change that. And this is a preview for what they plan for other American cities, as we saw in L.A. recently.

As that masked agent said when he grabbed that banner, they're taking America back. I think it's a pretty good synopsis. These are the brown shirts, right? That's what Hitler's brown shirts would do, that they would...

bust up the rallies of the opposition and beat people up. They're brown shirts, but brown shirts weren't secret police. These are secret police. But I love the fact that there's... people covering it that that people are challenging them we've been seeing you know clip after clip after clip um democracy is not going down without a fight john it just isn't it just isn't it's not like russia

Well, it's a good point. And here is another clip showing them how massive the protests are in D.C. right now. We have breaking news right now. This anti-Trump demonstration in Washington, D.C. is now spanning thousands of people, maybe about a mile long, has shut down the streets of Washington, D.C., near the White House, near the Washington.

monument this is significant this is one of the largest demonstrations against donald trump's takeover of washington dc of the metropolitan police department it is a completely safe demonstration and we are here on the ground. People are getting hydrated. People are marching. They're marching across the White House to the National Mall. Right now, like I said, no National Guard presence. Very little police presence, truth be told.

But it is a safe, safe protest. They are making their voices heard. I mean, look, I'm standing here and you have hundreds, overall thousands of people marching down the streets of Washington, D.C. This is happening and it's happening right now. So spread the word so more people know. And follow along for all the news you need to know about more to come soon. See, that's my point, right? In other words, so far, the protests are allowed to take place.

The next piece of danger, the next terrible thing, will be when these people start breaking up protests. Right. That's the next thing to watch out for. Like they did in, I forget, what square was that, where he held the Bible upside down in Washington? Yeah, yeah, across from Lafayette Park. lafayette park again i'm just blocking it on the name of it yeah where they were more aggressive

They tried to break up the protests with tear gas and whatnot and created a melee. And that's what they want to do. They want to create a melee. So that gives them an excuse to smash them with an iron fist. But look, they let this thing happen. And a lot of these National Guards in D.C. are standing around not doing very much. Sure, sure. And they're not allowed to arrest people. So it's the masked people who are doing it.

It's the secret people and the ones who can just beat people up and not have to tell anyone who they are or show a badge. But but but I just want to point out that it's still intimidating to have military personnel on the street. I mean, I'm talking to some of my patients in Washington and, you know.

Some of them are lighthearted. Yeah, walking here, I passed these soldiers and, you know, he said hello or whatever. I mean, it was an innocent encounter, but it still freaked him out. Sure. Of course. No, no, no. The intimidation is going on. I agree with you.

And this last piece of tape, I just found this recently. I just had to show this. So any of you who've ever passed through Union Station in Washington, D.C., it's kind of an iconic place. And it's got some good restaurants there. So J.D. Vance and Hague. Pete Hegseth decided to have lunch at Union Station. Well, let's see how the Washingtonians reacted to seeing them spontaneously showing up in Union Station.

Boo! We hate you! I mean, imagine if just like anywhere you go in that city, anywhere those people go, right, they're going to be booed. I wonder why. Yeah. I wonder if T.D. Vance spoke to the woman behind the counter about the donuts again. What would a human being order? What would a human being order? Listen, I don't mean to use a clinical term, but I think J.D. Vance is a creep. That's all I can say. He's just a creep.

He is a creep. I agree. Well, you know, so we're up to the section on resistors and trying to look at some positive news. This first piece of resistance... It's not exactly that positive, but I still felt we needed to say it. Obviously, there have been people in the Democratic Party who...

did prosecute Trump, and one of them was Letitia James in New York, who did so successfully. I think Trump had to pay something like a billion dollars, according to the judgment or something like that. It just was actually... It's going to be reduced by the appeals court. Okay. Okay. And they're going to, which everyone knew was going to be dropped down from that. Okay. Okay. But, but so now of course they're prosecuting Letitia James. Well, they're investigating.

her they're investigating her but there is actually someone yeah there's actually now someone there's actually now a a role in the justice department the czar of weaponization this is actually a real actual job title okay and of course allegedly he's there to de-weaponize the justice system because it's been so weaponized but they actually don't call him the desire of de-weaponization the czar of weaponization

Because that's what he is. He's there to really organize the Justice Department. Well, as part of the intimidation, you know, they're saying these ICE agents, right, need to wear masks. Some of them have been doxxed, and that's a total lie. But what are they doing to Letitia James? Our weaponization czar is posing for pictures in front of her Brooklyn home. We're also following new video obtained exclusively by CNN. It shows the director of the DOJ's weaponization working group, Ed Morton.

posing for photos outside of New York Attorney General Letitia James' home last week. All of this after he called for her resignation and is currently conducting investigations into her conduct. CNN's Kara Scannell is following the story for us. Kara, an unusual move. It is unusual, Boris. Usually you don't see a prosecutor who is leading an investigation going to visit the subject or the potential target of that investigation. Ed Martin was recently put in charge of the investigations.

into New York Attorney General Letitia James. There's an investigation looking into whether she committed mortgage fraud and also an investigation that is looking into her. civil lawsuit that was brought against Donald Trump, his adult sons and the company. And you can see here on this video, Ed Martin is there with a colleague from the Department of Justice. He's outside of Letitia James's home and he does.

pose for a photograph with him, pose for a photograph outside of that home. Now he was on Fox News on Sunday and he said that he was there because he had had meetings in New York and New Jersey and that he decided to go by the home. He said you have to lay

eyes on it and also saying that you got to get a sense of what is at state. But as you can see there, that's very unusual for a prosecutor to be there. And Letitia James's attorney, Abby Lowell, has pushed back. He wrote a letter to Ed Martin yesterday in which. he highlighted this unusual visit to Letitia James' home, which they say is an intimidation tactic. He also pointed out that soon after being appointed to be leading this investigation, that Ed Martin called for James' resignation.

And then also went on Fox News on Sunday and said that he wanted to look into every aspect of James's life, which some people would call a fishing expedition. So Lowell has said that, you know, were there any doubts as to your political retributive mission?

You erased them in your first statements about your appointment when you stated that your assignment is to, quote, stick the landing. A responsible and credible federal prosecutor is not a pommel horse gymnast. Now, I've spoken with other former federal prosecutors who also.

say that these moves are highly unusual and it could have real world implications if the grand jury were to return an indictment. This could be something that Letitia James legal teams could use to argue to the judge that the jury pool has been prejudiced.

and that this was a selective prosecution. Of course, James has been criticized herself for campaigning on saying that she was going to investigate Donald Trump. She does have that court victory in the civil lawsuit where a judge has ordered Trump to pay half a billion dollars. we reached out to the Department of Justice and they declined to comment. I want you to count the number of times she used the word unusual. And this is what I mean about the mainstream press's understatement.

Right. It's not unusual. It's outrageous. It's outrageous. OK, it's like it's very unusual for a prosecutor to pose for pictures in front of the home of the person they're investigating. Oh, is that unusual? It's more than unusual. It's gross intimidation. It's grossly unethical. And I'm sure it's illegal. I mean, this is intimidation. And this is the guy who couldn't be confirmed.

as a prosecutor or something because he's so corrupt and then trump stuck him in in this role to be his uh to be his bulldog his weaponization czar unbelievable

So that's depressing, but we like to be more upbeat when we talk about our resistors of the week. I am really, I have to say, I am really in love with Boston's mayor, Wu. She is really a fighter, and I hope that this keeps up. This is her response to the Justice Department's threats against her. And people in her administration, should they dare to resist ICE's Gestapo tactics? Last week, Boston received a letter from the Attorney General of the United States threatening

to prosecute city officials and withhold federal funds unless we cooperate with carrying out mass deportations. Silence in the face of oppression is not an option. The U.S. Attorney General Asked for a response by today So here it is stop attacking our city to hide your administration's failures Unlike the Trump administration Boston follows the law and Boston will not back down from who we are and what we stand for. We will not back away from our community.

that has made us the safest major city in the country and a leading example of why cities around the country make this country safer healthier and more prosperous for all americans to all the federal officials attacking communities that embody diversity creativity and moral clarity we may have said this in dc nearly six months ago and i'll say it again today you are wrong on the law and you are wrong on safety most of all

You are wrong on cities. The cities that live in your minds are totally foreign to the residents living in our cities. Over the last several months, we've watched Donald Trump send the National Guard into LA and DC to stoke fear and disorder. Boston stands with these cities as they sue over his abuse of power. We have reviewed those cases and we are prepared to stand up for our city's rights if we need to. Your attacks.

all come back to a common aim. The Trump administration seeks to divide, isolate, and intimidate cities and make Americans fearful of one another. But Boston is proof of something far more powerful than lies and intimidation. That safety and community come from loving your neighbor as yourself. This is our city. This is our country and I'm so proud and grateful to show the world who our community is here in Boston and what we're made of There's resistance

Oh, she wonderful. She really is. Thanks for showing that clip, John. That's just, I so admire her. That's an extraordinary thing she did. We need a little inspiration and hopium to keep going in light of the rolling catastrophes that we're reporting on. But this is the way democracy pushes back, John. This is the way communities push back. And I'm just as dangerous as Trump is and his amassing of power. I'm not ready yet to cede.

to him and to his people, the democratic spirit of our country. I just, I'm not ready to assume it's over. Not with someone like that running a major city.

So kind of as a segue to our guest, Richard Wood, who is going to talk about Trump's malignant narcissism and his sort of attraction. and the Trump cult and the way in which it can appeal to certain people's insecurities and prejudices. We have a history teacher, Jane Converse, who is so articulate. It's kind of a long tape.

But she talks about the different ways in which a political authoritarian cult works. And it's actually very psychologically sophisticated. And I thought it would be a good intro. Absolutely. You know, I actually found her on Instagram and you can follow her there on YouTube or Facebook. But yeah, she's just wonderful. I'm going to we'll keep watching out for her, John, and see if we can show more clips.

time goes on I've been dying to dig into this I've been asking myself for years why Trump's followers can't see reality so I did my research and I'm going to share it with you Let's talk about the psychology behind the Trump cult, because that's what it is. It's not a normal political movement anymore. It's a cult of personality. And if we want to fight it, we have to understand it.

So let's break it down. First, Trump doesn't offer policies. He offers identity. He's not popular because of what he does, but because of what he represents. to many of his followers he's the walking talking middle finger to a system they believe has failed them they see him as their guy not because he's honest

Not because he helps them, but because he talks like them, rages like them, and punches the people they've been told to blame for everything. In psychology, there's a term for this. Identity fusion. It's when your personal identity becomes fused with your group or leader. That's why criticism of Trump feels like a personal attack to his supporters. It's not just he's being criticized. It's I'm being criticized.

Second, he offers revenge, not solutions. He doesn't promise to fix health care or raise wages or protect your rights. He promises to go after them. Whether it's immigrants, the press, black activists, LGBTQ people, liberals, college students, elites, anyone outside the tribe. That's classic authoritarianism. Give people a sense of law.

Tell them who stole it, then promise to make them pay. And to some people, that rage, that promise of vengeance is more emotionally satisfying than actual policy. It doesn't fix their problems, but it feels like power. Third, people crave order and Trump promises strength. When institutions fail, When you don't trust the media, the courts, elections, schools, you start to look for a savior, someone who says, only I can fix it. That's why Trump acts like a strong man. He creates the crisis.

then sells himself as the only one tough enough to stop it. He's done that over and over again. He's not leading a movement. He's leading a dependency. So eloquent. She's so right, isn't it? Jane Converse is her name. You should have to really, guys, you should follow her on Instagram and other places. He's selling a dependency. And also, I think she really brings out the dark side, which is he's not selling solutions. He's selling revenge. You know, when he was campaigning, I'm your vengeance.

right you know so you know if you just think about it from a human point of view you know in terms of just human relationships right never mind national relationship just between human beings if someone is only driven by a drive for dominance and revenge right we would see that as a destructive person and yet somehow writ large in this Trump cult, the fact that I am your vengeance feels empowering to people who have felt disempowered or disrespected. But it's really interesting to see how it is.

ultimately driven by very dark impulses. No, I think she summarizes it perfectly. We'll be on the lookout for more of her clips. Maybe we can get her on the show, which would be even nicer. Oh, that's a great idea. Well, Harry, I'm very excited about our next guest. He's also an expert on malignant narcissism and has written a chapter about that.

uh bandy lee's second book um more the more dangerous case of donald trump let me read to you a little bit about dr wood's background he received his ba from cornell where you teach and his doctorate from Wayne State University in psychology. He served as a staff psychologist. at Mount Sinai Hospital and an associate professor in the Department of Behavioral Sciences at the University of Toronto Medical School, and he is in private practice.

He was president of the Ontario Psychological Association and a founding member of the Canadian Association of Psychologists in Disability Assessment. He was the director of the Thornhill Multidisciplinary Assessment Center, and he's the author of three books. a study of malignant narcissism personal and professional insights psychoanalytic reflections on vladimir putin and the cost of malignant leadership and narcissism a contemporary introduction

So he was basically made to be a guest on this show. That's right. All of his life, he's been preparing for this moment. Clearly. To be on Shrinking Drump. With no further ado, let's introduce Dr. Wood. Hi.

Nice to meet you. Great to have you. That's a formidable introduction. Well, you're welcome. Well, you earned it. Apparently, your whole life has culminated at this moment now to share with our audience what malignant narcissism is and why it's a problem. Donald Trump in America. I think all of us share the sense that malignant narcissism is a profoundly dangerous psychological entity.

a constellation of dynamics that creates enormous risk and has the potential to generate terrible injury for great numbers of people. Some of the people who've been described as malignantly narcissistic, of course, include people like Trump and Putin, but also people like. Stalin and Hitler, people, for instance, that Eric Fromm studied. Right. And Mao and Pol Pot and a variety of other people. When you begin to look at the...

at the injury that these people have created throughout human history. It's daunting and sobering. Hitler and Stalin, between the two of them, 120 to 170 million casualties in the Second World War. And many more people have been maimed and wounded and traumatized, setting the stage for future wars. It's really sobering. I just, I'm involved in a European project called Horizon Europe that's just getting off the ground that's making an attempt to look at

some of the changes we need to make if the human project is going to survive itself. The focus is on changing our values. I was just asked to write a chapter on evil for a book that they're going to be publishing as sort of the opening gambit of the work that they're doing.

uh this book will focus on changing religious values and the chapter um the chapter of course my chapter centers on on malignant narcissism it's uh it's a profound threat to all of us in the world now is dividing itself up between democratic more or less democratic forms of government and forms of government which are more or less autocratic in nature. According to Freedom House, something like...

Only 20% of the world's governments, world's population can be said to be living under fully democratic societies. The rest is... is being run by autocrats, people who create a bunch of self-interested silos, many of which I assume are blatantly narcissistic. Not fair to draw that conclusion without studying them. That means that these governments are unempathic.

Unable to care about anyone outside the sphere of influence. Profoundly interested in extending their power and their holdings, their money. their notoriety but not able to demonstrate caring for the human community, collaboration, genuine empathy or compassion. It's a scary prospect. And honestly, I don't know how we find our way out of this. It's so overwhelming. I remember learning that Kim Jong-un had starved millions of people. Just starved them in his own country.

I mean, what an extraordinary severity of malignant narcissism to not care about millions of people. Oh, oh, sure. And we see, I mean, in Trump. We see a guy who was celebrating the new health care plan that he and Paul Ryan were proposing that was going to cut. 23 million Americans out of healthcare. He's destabilized economic conditions, created conditions of threat for everybody to live with.

I think is doing his best to try to instigate serious civil unrest that he hopes to exploit by by instigating the. of the Insurrection Act so that he can consolidate power. I don't think he has any intent of holding elections. In 2026, I think he's going to do his best to obviate election process. He's consolidating power, negating other voices and doing it as malignant narcissists do.

by debasing and humiliating and threatening those people he perceives as standing in his way. And he does all of this without conscience, without hesitation, without demorse, without shame. The more someone imposes him, the more virulent his retaliation is. It's a scary process, and I don't see anybody standing up to it really effectively.

I know. You know, in your chapter, you actually engage with a question that a lot of our listeners have been asking about, which is what is the attraction of the malignantly narcissistic leader to the population that supports him? Could you say. something about the psychology of the cult, as it were, the psychology of his followers and what it is he represents to them. Sure.

I've written an awful lot about leader follower relationship, which I'm guessing you guys have as well. Malignantly narcissistic leaders. either take advantage of genuine crises that produce alienation and injury in a population or they generate crises that don't exist.

but that they render credible. And I think Trump has done both. We see leaders like Hitler and Stalin having done those kinds of things as well. As a result, As a result of the crises that these leaders are able to harness, they create an impression of empathic attunement with members of society who feel injured by the events that have transpired.

that have led them to feel disadvantaged in some way or humiliated in some way or dispossessed. The empathic attunement, which the malignantly narcissistic leader... offers the dispossessed is a sham. It's an empty vessel. The appearance of empathic attunement is only an appearance. These are not people who are capable of feeling depth of compassion and empathy for the people around them or experiencing genuine caring. They're only interested.

in filling the black hole that defines them at the center of their souls. And the reason I say that is because these are people who... can't tolerate human connection. They can't tolerate genuine human intimacy that would be marked by respect for another person. The ability to share one's vulnerabilities with another person and profit from the openness and from the discourse that evolves is...

You know, as I talk about some of the difficulties I'm having with myself and you do the same thing and we help each other and we reach out to each other and we touch each other and we experience real concern for the other party. These guys can't do that. And if they can't give, they can't get. And if they can't get, they're serving. But while Trump creates an impression of great wealth, he's actually remarkably impoverished.

And that impoverishment gives rise to rage and to inquisitiveness. Agreed. Richard, I want to interrupt you just for a moment because how do you read the Epstein crisis crisis which i believe is a real crisis between trump and his followers because this pseudo intimacy that you're talking about has been broken Because he can't release the files that have his names. You know what? I don't know what your experience of the Epstein affair has been like.

for me the whole thing has been so surreal the guy's been charged with 34 counts of felony he started an insurrection and now people are worried about his sexual history Are you kidding me? But they are. This is terribly important to MAGA. And it seems to create a rupture in... in the regard in which they held him. It's hard for me to piece it together because the Epstein stuck.

has been on the table for the longest time. And we saw picture after picture of Trump standing together. Yeah, it's not news. So then my question is, Why is it news? So in response to you, Harry, Mike, the best I could do is say, I don't really understand why this is so important. When there's so much else on the table that ought to have disqualified the guy. Well, the guess I have is that the pseudo empathy is I will stand in for you as your warrior.

You have aggression you can't express. You feel helpless. I'm a tough guy. I'll do it for you. And I'll clean up all this shit. And now all of a sudden he's saying nothing to see here. In fact. If you want the Epstein files, you're part of the problem. So he attacked them. Yes, he did. Absolutely. And they're not liking it.

It's not working. I'm not saying it's going to bring him down, but it's the first time I've seen him stumble with his bass. Yeah, I think it's the first time I've seen him stumble too. I mean, I get what I've read. His base understood that the Epstein files were going to demonstrate conclusively that the Democrats were profoundly corrupt. Not him, but the opposition. And now it appears he's corrupt as well.

And my incredulity is, but how could you possibly miss that? It has been written so large. It's like saying I'm shocked, shocked that gambling is going on here at the cafe. River City. Yeah, yeah. So, yes, I mean, my hope is that.

If it's the wedge that lets in a little daylight and creates real dissonance for people, I'm grateful. I want to get back to another point you made in your chapter. You talk about this concept, very important concept of malignant normality, that under the leadership of the malignantly narcissistic leader, people... their conscience kind of dissolves or or they are absolved of any guilt and they identify with his aggression

now being sanctioned by the authority. And not only do they buy into his crazy beliefs, but they also kind of buy into and enact for him his amoral behavior to establish this vengeance and dominance. Maybe you could say more about that coarsening of society and how we're seeing it now. Well, I think that's what happens.

an autocracy establishes itself. Just watching time, I know we've only got a limited amount of time. I think one of the things that I've argued Besides addressing some of the questions that you just mentioned in that chapter, one of the things that I've argued is that Personalities like this are driven by profound envy of decency and love. And that envy impels them. to deconstruct the personalities around them. And they do that by scaring the shit out of everybody.

And creating hierarchies of prejudice and hatred that people are asked to enact. People surrender their discretion to the malignant narcissistic leader and he directs. He assumes responsibility for their psychic life. He decides when it's okay to unleash hell and when it's not. You're no longer responsible for yourself. You're no longer ethically responsible. Just following orders. You just, yeah, that's right. You're following orders. Fromm wrote about this in Escape from Freedom. Yeah.

It's easier to let somebody take charge of your inner life in exchange for a sense of authority and power and belonging and purpose. But you give up your humanity in the process.

And people appear to be willing to make that bargain. Yeah. I mean, these are all things I know you guys see as well. Yes, but it's well put. Yeah. And could you tell us, I know you only have a few minutes, how do you see the Putin-Trump dynamic to malignant narcissists? I just tried to get it.

piece published in the in the newspapers um without success uh frustrating as i know it has been for you guys i'm worried as is a colleague of mine that the two of them are more inclined to act in concert and to share common interests than they are to act as adversaries. I'm also very much worried that, and this is an old theme, that Putin has decisive compromise on Trump. But I think more than that...

If you take a look at Anne Applebaum's book, Autocracy, Inc., which I'm guessing you've probably seen. There is evidence that autocrats work together, support one another, share resources, divert resources to different parts of the world to shore up autocracies that are facing threat. I think Putin and Trump are part of that same network of inner support. Interesting. Making the world safe for autocracy. Yeah, exactly.

richard uh it in uh solzhenitsyn's book the first circle i don't know if you know but it's a wonderful novel about a prison camp in moscow for intellectuals and scientists, and it's about their life. But he also portrays Stalin as this terrible character in the novel. At one point, Stalin was thinking, to himself, the one I really admired was Hitler. And there was someone I could tell. Oh, it sounds like Trump, doesn't it? Yeah.

It does. And he used to read Hitler's essays. But I would say, I would add a little asterisk. They're friends until they're not. You know, like... Hitler and Stalin, you know, they were just so close until Hitler declared war on Stalin. Yeah, yeah, that's right. Molotov, Ribbentrop fell apart. Yeah, that's right. The relationships that all these guys establish are transactional. Right. I mean, that's that's ultimately that's that's right. So I don't think that there's.

a bond of warmth and friendship between Putin and Trump, but I think there is a shared sense of common purpose and common goals. I agree, yeah. Also, I think that Trump sees Putin. I think there's a kind of father transference towards Putin, too, because he even said he said in Alaska that he noticed that there was warmth. that putin had warmth well well actually you make the point in your chapter

It's not entirely a new point, but you do devote a lot of time in your chapter to talking about the abusive relationship with Trump's father, who was also a bit of a monster, right? Oh, yeah. And so maybe Harry's theory is right. Maybe there is a transference relationship with Putin because he had this malignantly narcissistic father and now he has this malignantly narcissistic international ally. It didn't occur to me to go so deep as to say that there might even be some transference.

here, but Harry, you have a point. No, I agree with you, Harry. I think you do have a point. I hadn't considered that, but... that makes psychological sense yeah yeah i want to lie with a dictator just like the dear old dictator that married mom yeah that's right

Yeah. Well, anyway, I know you have a one-third, you have a client in about one minute, right? I better stop. You got to bounce. Okay. Well, thank you so much for talking to us. This has really been fascinating, and I know that this is really answering a lot of questions that our listeners have had, so I appreciate it. Oh, it was a pleasure.

pleasure, and I hope we get a chance to collaborate in some other way. Oh, and also, it'd be great to have you back on the show. Exactly. We'll be in touch with you. Anytime.

Thanks so much, guys. Well, thank you. All right. It was nice meeting you. Take care. So, John, what time is it? I think it's time for shrink wrap, Harry. What did we learn this week? We are still stuck in that place where we see the forces of democracy pushing back against Trump's pushing against it to amass. We're also watching his decline. Yeah. Which is cognitive and psychological. But he does have a real hold.

And this is going to be a long fight. Yeah. That's what I would say. That's what I learned today. You kind of took the words out of my mouth. I mean, I really was going to say something very similar, that it feels like we're watching these forces unfolding, that on one hand, he's becoming really massively unpopular.

You know, I mean, they talk about being really underwater. And I think that even the statistics don't quite show how massively unpopular he is because, you know, it's not just that he's at 37 percent. tens of thousands of people are flooding the streets in protest. I mean, people are incensed, people are enraged, people are frightened and angry.

so if you in normal political terms the laws of gravity would say that we're about to go for a big win in this coming election but at the same time they're amassing power in ways that allow them to cheat. And so they're doing it in every way they can. And so it really feels like we have a race of these two countervailing forces.

and it's really hard to know how it's going to turn out and then as you point out there's a third trend which is his cognitive decline it's continuing and will continue And actually, at some point, he will dramatically, I predict, fall off a cognitive cliff where it will be absolutely undeniable. and dysfunctional and we could really end up with a weekend at bernie's white house where they wheel him around babbling and just continue their fascist takeover nonetheless um so it's

It's scary and it's also hard to predict how these different forces are going to come together. But we're here every week. We really are. I'm not using this to make an ad. We're here every week to talk about it with you, really, and to think about his cognitive psychological pathology and his decline and to serve as another set of voices. trying to help you and each other to navigate this very difficult time. Yeah. So, Harry, the intrepid reporters at Shrinking Trump have snagged get another.

phone call transcript. This one, I think they put on Instagram. That's good. I'm glad we're getting more coverage. Yeah, but no, unfortunately we were following their account and they inadvertently put this on Instagram. So here you are, folks. This is a phone call between Trump and Vladimir Putin.

24 hours and now you won't even meet with Zelensky. Donald you need to stall. I have more Ukrainians to kill. No one stalls better than you. You're the best. Not this time, Vlad, not this time. You gotta give me something, anything. Look, I won a Nobel Prize. That's all I'm asking is help me find a ceasefire. I promise peace, you know.

I've sold the Super Trophy, but it's not so easy to steal a Nobel. What happened, mind you? Uh, do you really need the Don Boss? Can't you throw Zelensky a bone? You go back on me now? What I took from Ukraine stays in Russia. All right, don't get mad at me, Vlad. I know you're a strong country, but you just have to give me a little. No, I don't. And you know why. not afraid of you. You're just a Russian thug, a Moscow version of my dad. It's time you do what I say.

I think you've got a bad connection. What's that sound? No, no, but that's not what I think, is it? Oh, that's wee-wee on your belly, mister. All right. I say we scheduled a one-on-one meeting with you and Zelensky, and then you can have Lavrov say it'll take weeks or months to set up. Happy now? I thought you'd come around, pee-pee boy.

So it's true. I knew I believed in the PP tape. They have Compromat on him. Wow. Christopher Columbus. Mr. Columbus. thank you for speaking with me oh de nada de nada what what what is it you want to know well some of your statements regarding slavery are frankly disturbing Well, like I always say, it's better than being a dad. Am I wrong or am I right? Those aren't the only choices, sir. I mean, people should be allowed to live freely in their own countries and not abduct.

torture or exploit them these are dark heathen i see them they are eating they they eat the cats they eat the dogs that they eat each other we brought them to the new world to get so they gave them salvation and taught them a trade on the plantation sir we held these people in bondage brutalized them raped them separated them from their families This is America's original sin. You can't be saying it wasn't that bad.

Nobody is a perfect. When you're an empire, they let you do it. Fortunately or unfortunately. You can't judge a culture from the past. Slavery has been with us forever. Who were we to judge? Believe you me, those slaves, they were happy. they used to sing like this i am a slave in america Okay, buy me in America. I'm property in America. Buy me for a fee in America. Happy, you're whitewashing history.

Happy they would sing. I am a slave in America. Okay by me in America. I'm property in America. But just for a fee in America. La la la la la la la. This is where woke us tonight. All right, folks. We'll see you next week. Have a great week. We hope to see you next time here. La la la la la la la la la