The Manhattan Project for our time

This is a global player original podcast. I don't think I've washed my hands for ten years. Really, I don't I don't really wash my hands. But help me! No, I don't know. I inoculate myself. So you're becoming immune to all of the all the bad things. You might want to get used to that voice because it's America's next Secretary of Defense. Donald Trump has just nominated a Fox News host who once injured a man when missing a target in an axe throwing contest.

That is Pete Hegseth. And you might think it's surprising that Donald Trump would appoint him when Trump is such a well known germophobe and doesn't like shaking hands with people because he fears they haven't washed their hands. But this is the cabinet that is taking place now at Mar-a-Lago, as Donald Trump prepares to travel to sit down with Joe Biden to discuss God knows what. Welcome to the News Agents USA.

It's Emily. And it is John and we are back in London after last week in the US of A. Yeah, and it's all happening pretty quickly now. These appointments are coming thick and fast. And to give Pete Hesketh his due. Um he's not just a fox news host, although he has been there for ten years and it is probably where Donald Trump knows him best from. But he is also a former army national guard officer. He served in Iraq, in Afghanistan, a decorated vet, as they say.

And he has pretty much come out of the blue on this one. If you were looking for names for the next Secretary of Defence, he would not have been on the list. even of most MAGA people at this stage, they've been quite surprised that he has now rocketed to the top spot. On an issue that will become, you would think, pretty dominant in the first few weeks of Trump's administration, when he's declared an end to foreign wars and an end to whatever Putin is trying to do next in Ukraine and Europe.

So you're absolutely right. He's for the last eight years he's been on Fox and Friends weekend as one of the anchors on that show. So what has he got that commends him to Donald Trump? Well he's loyal, he's on TV, he's good looking, he's tall, he's chiseled jawed, and he is a vet. He may know how to strip down an M4 carbine rifle, the standard issue of the US Army, but the Pentagon has a budget of eight hundred and forty one point four billion dollars.

What does he know about managing this gigantic sprawling? Defence Organisation. And that is why people are really arching an eyebrow at his appointment and some even questioning that although there is a Republican majority in the Senate he may be problematic to get confirmation for. So th to crystallise why he has probably got this job is to quote him on his position in terms of other army personnel. First of all, you've got to fire the chairman of the Joint Chiefs. This is Heskith's words.

Some time ago. Any general, any admiral or whatever, who was involved in diversity, equity and inclusion programmes or woke shit, has got to go. And this I think takes you to the heart of the kind of, you know, the new look Defence, the New Look Army, which is that Donald Trump has vowed to fire woke generals.

Now like so many of these statements, this has got people running round saying, What is a woke general? Do you know a woke general? What what would a woke general look like? Would a woke general have to be non Aryan? Would a woke general have to be talking about W would it just be a woman? I mean, what is a woke general? But the point is that Donald Trump has made this a sort of a centerpiece.

of whatever he's going to do to the army because he doesn't like the idea. And I guess this plays into the whole Strongman, authoritarian, you know, muscular figures. He doesn't like the idea that the army would be bending to the whims of things that weren't just about war. And the other thing that drew him to Donald Trump's attention.

Do you remember the case of Eddie Gallagher? He was the Navy SEAL who had committed war crimes and been found guilty of doing the most monstrous things when he was in this elite kind of military organization. Hegseth lobbied hard. that he should be pardoned and the other soldiers who had committed war crimes should also be pardoned and Donald Trump loved it and pardoned them. And so he has came to Donald Trump's crimes and not woke.

You're fine on that. That's all right'cause that's that's being toughen in the military. You've got to be you've got to do th you gotta do bad shit. You know, you've got to do bad shit. And so Heggseth, Pete Hegseth now is Donald Trump has nominated him. I mean we'll see whether he gets confirmation

or not. But there's something else that Donald Trump and we're gonna talk about a few other names, but I just want to talk about something else called recess appointments, which sounds so innocuous. The whole point of appointing a cabinet in Washington when you're the president is that you can appoint whoever you like, unlike in British politics where you have to be elected representative or be in the House of Lords before you can be a cabinet member.

In America you can appoint anyone, but they have to go through a confirmation hearing of the Senate. Donald Trump is saying recess appointments, if I want to appoint someone and the Senate isn't sitting, I can just do it and they don't need confirmation. So one of the f fundamental checks and balances of the US Constitution, Donald Trump wants to sweep away. So one of the first picks he has to make is who to make

Head of the Senate, the Senate Majority Leader. So in the ring are three names Rick Scott of Florida, John Corning, and John who's the other John? Thune, okay. And he has basically pre interviewed them and said, anyone who wants to be my Senate majority leader has to back me on this one point that you were making. My cabinet appointments have to be made.

during recess, or they have to be made when the Senate doesn't have to confirm them. And each of these three individuals has gladly signed up to that. Now why is that important? Because we always talk about the three branches of government. We talk about the executive, the legislature and the judiciary. And we talk about the separation of those branches because in essence They are checks on each other. The executive gets checks

by the legislature. In other words, Congress should offer oversight and should offer some kind of scrutiny of what the President is doing. But Donald Trump has managed to circumnavigate that or certainly looks as if he's going to by saying that he would like to have somebody in that top job, in that top position, who becomes essentially the third most powerful elected person in America.

who has already agreed to turn a blind eye to whoever Trump does or doesn't appoint to his cabinet. So you've got this immediate suggested blurring of the lines between the executive And the legislature. Yeah, absolutely. And I mean the interesting thing will be that th I think that who Donald Trump wants and who all his surrogates are going out and backing is Rick Scott.

So Rick Scott may be Donald Trump's preferred choice. Actually a lot of the senators are gonna either be facing reelection after Donald Trump has gone. Or they don't so I don't think Donald Trump has that much sway. And I'll be surprised if Rick Scott gets it. Anyway, we'll we will see on that one. But Donald Trump has effectively got the three front runners all saying, Yes, Don, we'll do whatever you say, Mr President. Yeah, all all I would say is when you look at what happened.

with that top job in the house. That Kevin McCarthy essentially Got ousted. I mean he had to he tried to run for it fifteen times, he finally got it, and then he got ousted. because the tide, the MAGA tide turned against him. He was still considered too old school. And in came Mike Johnson, who was very much part of the Trump plan to stop the steal. And so

Yes, even if there is not a direct appointment, I think a number of Republican senators are looking up at Trump now and saying, What would make that man happy? So let's consider the other kind of key appointment that Donald Trump has announced.

which is to have Marco Rubio as Secretary of State, though the Foreign Secretary of the United States. I mean Marco Rubio and Donald Trump go back because Rubio stood against Trump in twenty sixteen for the Republican nomination. I I remember doing an interview with him in Georgia where he said Donald Trump will never be the president of the United States. He's not fit to be the president of the United States.

Uh and he's now been on a bit of a journey like so many others and he now is on side. But at the time, in twenty sixteen, he was making jokes about the size of Donald Trump. Hands. He's always calling me little Marco. And I'll admit the guy he's taller than me, he's like six two, which is why I don't understand why his hands are the size of someone who's five two. Have you seen his hands? They're like this. And you know what they say about men with small hands?

You can't trust them. I remember watching that debate live and when Rubio went there there were kind of gasp. Which I think goes to the heart of the kind of Trump paradigm, which is that Trump can make jokes like that. Rubio couldn't. And actually his demise came pretty shortly after that. It was as if he had lowered himself to a place that was beneath him. He was you know, he's a Florida senator, he's the son of first generation Cuban immigrants

And he was always somebody who was quite hawkish on foreign affairs, very, very anti China. And that was the point in twenty sixteen where he basically crashed and burned because he couldn't be kind of gutter funny in the way that Trump could.

And Trump hated him. And when he was sort of back in the ring this time round and there were questions about him being the VP, we all thought that actually he was being led up the garden path, that there would be no job for him at the end of this, that Trump just wanted to

humiliate him publicly and remind everyone that he'd come round because we know that the thing Trump most adores is loyalty. He wants loyalty. And Rubio started off on the wrong side, but I guess this is his kind of damascing conversion. And he's now in this job which is arguably the most, you know, powerful one after Trump.

And there are MAGA people who are really disgusted that Rubio's back in the room. They don't think he's MAGA enough because of all this baggage that has come before. Well I think it's gonna be really interesting to see the development of US foreign policy if Rubio gets confirmed as Secretary of State and I'm pretty sure he will, because he's got supporters on the Democrat side as well. He's gonna be tough on Cuba, he's gonna be tough on Venezuela, he's gonna be tough on Iran.

He is gonna be on Ukraine. He's already said he wants to stop America funding to Ukraine. Exactly. So that's the key, isn't it? Where is he going to be on Ukraine? Where is he going to be on Russia? Because he's not A Russian sympathizer. In the way that there are some on the MAGA right

who kind of look to Russia and think, God, if only America could be a bit more like Russia with its tough stance on, you know, anti trans rights or gay rights or whatever it happens to be. Yeah. And so I don't think Rubio is that. He's the nearest person that's been appointed so far. That you would say is a conventional Republican Republican. Yeah. Yeah. I mean Rubio and Ted Cruz, if that means anything to you, belong to the sort of

twenty sixteen Republican intake. Neither of them went on to work in the first Trump administration.

Really interesting to see what happens here. Let's go through a couple of other roles because one of the ones that I think you should keep an eye on is Stephen Miller. He will be working with Susie Wiles as the Deputy Chief of Staff. And why Stephen Miller's really interesting is he is basically the architect of the Muslim ban last time round. He is an absolute Trump MAGA loyalist.

Trump once again reinforciating, appreciating that loyalty. And Stephen Miller is hardcore. He's hardcore on deportation, migration, anything that involves kicking large numbers of people out, he is kind of like I'm your man. So, you know, he is right in the heart of the White House now as Deputy Chief of Staff. The other person I think we should mention is Christy Noem, who is the one you might remember as

The dog killer? I mean, pets have played a phenomenally important part in the twenty twenty four. I've saw s I've seen some great memes of dogs looking terrified and you know, kind of with the kind of slogan just received news that Christy Noam is the new Department of Homeland Security Secretary. She killed her own dog and you can go and look up the story, but basically she shot it because it was annoying.

And she wrote about it in a book uh that was published, you know, a few months ago and she was quizzed about the dog killing episode. I think there was a goat as well. Did she kill a goat? Yeah. Anyway, she said that people didn't understand rural living and that was part of her sort of shtick. But she's now been nominated or you know, Trump would like to nominate her for head of homeland security. Again, this is all about the removal of illegal immigrants.

So part of me thinks that Trump's just looking at her and saying I like a woman that can shoot her own dog. Just imagine what she's gonna do to all those illegals. You don't know what's going through his mind? Just for joya's sake. Can we have the clip of her describing why she had to kill the dog? Go. You know, that story's a twenty year old story of a mom who made a very difficult decision to protect her children. from a vicious animal that was attacking livestock and

and killing livestock and attacking people. So It's in the book because it was difficult for me and there's a lot in that book that I think people need to read. I don't know if you've read it or not. I read the whole thing. But it wouldn't be in the book if it wasn't a very hard situ Oh, good. Well I'm glad you did. Thank you for doing that. But And you know, fair does she explains in the book that actually It had come on the day when the dog had attacked livestock and

you know, she was trying to save other animals and she was presumably trying to save other people. I don't know. This This is a fourteen month old dog This is a fourteen month old dog that That she takes to a gravel pit and shoots. Yeah. Okay. Well, you know, strongman politics, what can I say? Strong woman politics. It's all coming at you. Rest in peace, cricket. We will be back after the break. The News Agents USA with Emily Maitley. And John Soport.

Okay, one more appointment which we think you're gonna love. Elon Musk working alongside Vivek Ramaswamy, who is also in the contest to be the Republican nominee, they will both be head of department of government efficiency. The point about Doge... Is it's the name of a Bitcoin. Musk's favourite cryptocurrency, which is now going stratospheric. So that that is not a coincidental na i exactly. It is not a coincidental name. And it is also

not a tiny bit ironic that two people are job sharing this department of cutting waste. So um Trump has called it I think the Manhattan Project of our time. Obviously after Oppenheimer who developed the first nuclear weapons. I mean that's reassuring and is Trump wanting a to see a mushroom cloud rising over Washington. Sort of. I think I mean the the words he's using is slash dismantle and restructure. And this is about

Seven trillion pounds worth of bureaucracy. And when we say bureaucracy, it's money that goes on health, it's money that goes on veterans. It's money that goes on Safety, environmental safety. But they're going to slash and burn that. And actually If you want to get an idea of what Elon Musk looks like when he slashy and burns stuff, just look at what's happened to Twitter, right? Look at look at how many people were fired. I mean he does carry out the things that he says

he's gonna do. He launches rockets into space. He's not scared of a certain amount of explosion. Uh the fact of the matter is that Elon Musk is now the second most powerful person in America by a country mile after Donald Trump and maybe even more powerful because he seems to be pulling the strings on absolutely everything. Um kind of areas where you might think, ooh, isn't that a bit of a conflict of interest?

That he is in charge of this. He's naming things after his favorite cryptocurrency, which presumably he stands to gain from. His platform X. is now almost uh it's like Pravda in the Soviet Union. I think you're being very two thousand and eight when you talk about conflicts of interest. The difference this time round

is that we used to talk about the fraud of government contracts and oh what's really going on behind the scenes. This is not behind the scenes. This is all upfront and it has all been democratically elected. We know, or rather the American voter knows, that Musk owns X, which is the mouthpiece for Trump. Social media is now the media.

The contracts that he has with government are well known. In fact, Musk can do things that the state cannot. In terms of space exploration, in terms maybe of bringing astronauts home where the state is struggling or failing. Musk can do more, said And he's been described in sort of certain, let's say, meme circles as the new first lady. You know, you will find memes

to saying, ooh, look, picture of the first lady topless, and there'll be a picture of like Musk sitting on a beach, right? I mean, people are talking in terms of not just him getting into Vance's space, but into Melania's space. Probably happily vacated, it is must be Well, that is still to be confirmed. I mean by the time you listen to this we'll know for certain whether he has or he hasn't. But I mean this is one of the sacred bits of the US constitution, obviously ignored by Donald Trump

four years ago where he didn't invite Biden to the White House for any kind of handover because he was so busy claiming that the election had been stolen from him. But it's a time honor tradition that the outgoing president sits down with the incoming president to talk about Some of the things that are nonpartisan and how you can be ladies discuss things over tea. And the ladies discuss

You know, curtains curtain swatches and what would be a new kind of nice marble tile to have in the bathroom or whatever. Anyway, so you know, in gender terms he has shaken this one up. You know, if two bros are now moving into the White House, there is something So radical, a little bit of me is is quietly impressed.

I reckon that this has catastrophe written all over it, that there'll be an explosive falling out. Because of the jealousies of so many of the other MAGA people, that Musk seems to be absolutely glued. to Donald Trump's side on everything. The Zelensky call, Musk is sitting in on it. Cabinet decisions, Musk is sitting in on it. Going to see Joe Biden, Musk is there. How much more Musk?

Can any human being take? And I just wonder whether this is something that combusts. I'm pretty sure it's something that combusts because the question is. Who is the more powerful? I mean, is it the richest man in the world? Or is it the democratically elected president? Is it the man who controls The medium or the man who puts out the message and is the person who actually isn't constrained by the panoply of office.

I mean, not that Trump has been much in the past, but does it give Musk more leeway to do More stuff that's off the charts. He's not going to be head of any department, any cabinet post that has to sort of go through a confirmation process, Doge, it will shock you to know, is kind of newly invented. And stands outside the normal government circle. So Donald Trump has got

a very, very rich hitman to do whatever he wants whenever he wants, putting Musk in an extraordinary position. In a moment we're going to talk to somebody who fell out with Elon Musk, the famous US anchor One time host of a show on X D. Newsagents USA.

Well joining us now is Don Lemmon. He used to be on CNN late at night, an anchor there, until April twenty-three when they dispatched him and Don started up on his own and he has done a series of reports

during the election campaign, basically just talking to people on the sidewalk, trying to get a sense of where the voters' minds are. And Don, it's great to talk to you. I just wanna Try and digest where we are a week on from that very comprehensive victory and reading out some of the names of the people that Trump has now appointed or hopes to appoint Marco Rubio, Elon Musk, Pete Hesker. Christine Ohm, Susie Wiles. Just give us a sense of what these appointments will mean. Look.

Christy Gnome was uh, I think she was, you know, a respected figure in her state. Uh, but then you have the whole killing of the puppies thing, right? And now she is going to be in in charge of the government. When you think of Pete Hegsa, I mean You have like a what, a four or five-star general, four or five star generals who are usually secretaries of defense who have, you know, decades of service and that kind of service under their belt, generals, and then you have someone who is.

has been in the military, is a respected member of the military, but then is a host on Fox News. And now he is, you know, poised to possibly become the defense secretary. I don't believe it's going to happen. I think that re even Republicans will fight a fight against that. But I think a lot of these folks I mean it's laughable. Is it two fingers up? Is that what he's doing? He's just going

I'm just gonna wind you up. This is my two fingers up to the establishment. I think it's two fingers up. I think if it's one finger. I think it's a middle finger too. Yeah. I think it's one finger up to the establishment. But look In a way, I'm kind of enjoying it because it is a look, it's great for the media, it's great for us as far as content.

But it's also interesting to watch and I think people will get what they vote for. I don't know if you guys know the old saying, I never thought the leopard would east eat my face. You think you're one of them, you're part of them, and then all of a sudden they eat you up. I think the folks who voted for Donald Trump

Many of them, especially immigrants or illegal immigrants not illegal immigrants, but especially immigrants, they're gonna go, wait a minute, or Latinos, they're gonna go, wait a minute, what's happening? My family members are being deported. You know, I think that they're gonna get their comeuppins, but You know, you've got normal folks in there like uh Mike Walsh, who's kind of a normal Republican. You've got uh Marco Rubio, who's kind of a normal Republican, you have Susie Wiles.

He's never ran anything before, except, you know, has been popular in Florida politics, but did a very good job, obviously, with Donald Trump's campaign by simply letting him be Donald Trump. But I mean I think some of the appointments are just laughable and I think the American people will get what they deserve because that's what they voted for. But isn't it going to be different from the first Trump term? Because there was of a degree of chaos.

in the Trump first term, which you couldn't make up and it just seemed every day there was a slapstick horror show of something crazy unfolding. This is gonna be worse. You think it's gonna be worse? I'm interested. I think it's gonna be worse because he he knows better now. And I think he's unfettered. I mean, look, the Supreme Court has granted him basically just complete immunity.

He has won the Senate, is poised to win the House and the Supreme Court. So he has the judicial branch, the legislative branch, and the executive branch of government. And quite frankly, immunity and will have immunity, especially now that he's president, he cannot be prosecuted. He cannot go to jail. So he's just gonna show his if I can say a bad word here, as we say in the United States, he's just gonna show his ass.

And he's gonna do exactly what he wants to do. So I think it's gonna be, I don't know if it's gonna be more chaotic. But it's definitely going to be something to watch. It's gonna be different, and I think it's gonna be quite frightening for a lot of people. And some folks are really, really going to love it because they feel like it's going to own the libs and they're getting their country back.

John Lemon. Fantastic to talk to you. Thank you for getting up so early for us. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Holler any time. We will be back next week. But if you want to hear more from Don Lemon, go over to the Daily Show because we talk to him a lot there about the power of Elon Musk, who he worked with and fell out with. And it's a really interesting listen. We'll see you next week. Bye-bye. Bye.