Thirty three days until Donald Trump raises his hand and in an instant is transformed from citizen to caesar, the president with immunity above the law. The man who said he will be a dictator on day one will have an opportunity.
To be one.
This is the warning Donald Trump, forty seventh president of the United States, and he has picked a cabinet of weirdos, of criminals, of nair dwells strangeness that defies description in every direction, emanating from the most powerful seat of government in all of the world. The person Robert Kennedy that he has picked to run the public health agencies is
a vaccine denier. So when we think about making America great again and making America healthy again at the Christmas season, what better way to start by taking a visit back to the old polio award lot.
Joy and Bloods. We'll always find sun Sun schoolways, most line and tried Sony.
Yes, making America great again, bringing back mumps and rebella and all of the cured diseases. When Donald Trump appeared at his news conference, wasn't it like he was trying to tell the whole con that not only does he know who Jonas salk Is, but he can spell it. It was quite a moment. Thanks as a Trump.
What about the polio vaccine? Well, I'm a big believer in it, and I think everything should be looked at. But I'm a big believer in the polio vaccines vaccine. Do you think schools should mandate vaccines?
Do you think schools should mandate vaccines?
I don't like mandates. I'm not a big mandate person.
At any rate. The carnival of unfitness continues rolling along unabated, as Trump fills the government with the most galactically unfit specimens ever forwarded by anybody into positions of responsibility. It will be amazing to watch unfold on the edge of catastrophe as we journey into that abyss which is surely to come during these days, It's important to remember, though it may not seem like it, the nose of Donald Trump's proverbial rocket ship is already tipping down. He is
at his epigy. It seems like the whole world is bending in his direction. He says something and people rush to make it so he cannot be stopped. He points his finger, and news organization after news organization prostrates itself. There's a great example at hand about how not to face Trump, about how not to roll over, about how not to operate through a political lens. Let's look north of the border. If there is a more ludicrous figure than Justin Trudeau, it's hard to find one, and Trump
is having fun with him. He is like a cat playing with a mouse. Now let's go through Justin Trudeau's humiliation and the fall of the Canadian government, which is upon us and will likely happen this week or into early next week. Everything that has happened in Canada is as a direct result of how Trudeau appeased Donald Trump. Step one, there was the threat. Step two, there was panic, Step three, there was a race to get tomorrow Alago, to kiss the ring, and then well, humiliation, Just like
Joe Scarborough. Step one, there was the threat, step two, there was the panic, Step three, there was the capitulation.
Over the past week, Joe and I have heard from so many people, from political leaders to regular citizens, deeply dismayed by several of President elect Trump's cabinet selections, and they are scared. Last Thursday, we expressed our own concerns on this broadcast and even said we would appreciate the opportunity to speak with the President elect himself. On Friday, we were given the opportunity to do just that. Joe and I went to mar A Lago to meet personally with President Elect Trump.
And that's going to come as no surprise to anybody who watches this show, has watched it over the past year or over the past decade, that we didn't see eye to eye on a lot of issues, and we told him so.
Joe and I realized it's time to do something different, and that starts with not only talking about Donald Trump, but also talking with.
Him and then the humiliation.
All of us are going to do the best we can do, and we're all working towards a better America. Take it day by day, day by day by day, and again you can and you can. You can predict the future by shaping the future.
Or we can look at ABC News. Step one, there is the threat. Step two, there is the promise to stand firm.
Trump sumed me because I used the word rate, even though a judge said, that's in fact what did happen, and in fact, we filed the motion to dismiss last week. Unfortunately, it now comes with the territory. But I'm not going to be cowed out of doing my job because of the threat.
About step three, Well, there is the bending of the knee, the laying down. And so Donald Trump is cutting through the American media like a man with a sickle swinging it at blades of grass, cutting them down one by
one by one. And what this will mean in every American newsroom is a chilly atmosphere, and every thirty thirty five forty year old reporter making two hundred fifty fty thousand dollars a year will be told indirectly with a look, don't be the shit for brains that costs the company fifteen million dollars by not being nice to Donald Trump. There is going to be a fire hose and assault of information that sprays out over the American people, and
the reaction to it will have been planned. It will have been predicted, and what Donald Trump and all of his people will want is the panic and the outrage, because there will be too much to focus on any one action. For example, Donald Trump is going to party in all of the January sixth protesters, with a few exceptions, But the next thing he's going to do is potentially deploy the US military, and the news environment will not accommodate the outrage on all fifty things that he plans
to do. The question at hand is when, what day, what hour, what subject will be the one where Donald Trump fatally overreaches? Where will it occur or will the failure be brought to him? Will an event occur not precipitated by him that he fails to react to properly. It could happen on day three, or it could happen
on day three hundred and thirty three. Who knows. The Trump presidency will not be a smooth ride, though a lot of the reporting makes it seem like Donald Trump has somehow become wise omnipotent and he just points a finger, says something and it happens. And that's not the way it's going to work. There's a new District Attorney in Los Angeles, and unlike the last one, he can speak, and he understands the law and has, let's say, a
level of sophistication about its application. The point that he's made when it comes to Trump's mass roundup is that under California law, a lot of what Trump is planning is illegal. So there's no legal authority for California law enforcement to aid the Feds in their round up. The argument that he's making is a complex one, a serious one, and a lawful one. The type of argument he's making is the type of argument that tangles up Donald Trump.
The meetings that should be taking place in Washington, DC right now by Democrats should be focused, and they should be singular, and they should be about obstructing Donald Trump's ability to do the damage that he planned to do. On January twentieth, two thousand and nine, very famously, Mitch McConnell and the group of Republicans gathered together on the night of Barack Obama's inauguration. Their plan their meeting was to make sure he failed as president. They didn't care
about the country succeeding. They just wanted him to fail. Democrats shouldn't want the country to fail, and they should prevented from doing so by obstructing Donald Trump at every conceivable opportunity. The application of political power is going to flow from the House of Representatives, where Republicans have maybe a two seat majority. That means, because every appropriation bill, all of the money flows out of the House, Democrats will have the ability over the next few months to
do things that slow down the damage, that stop catastrophe. Now, there are some people who say Donald Trump won the election, and of course those people are correct. There are some people who say, because he won the election, Democrats should see politics to him completely and let him do as much damage as he can so voters will turn against him as quickly as possible, so Democrats will be in
the position of maximum strength for the next election. Being a co conspirator to Arson is not a political strategy. What the Democrats need to do is model conviction, common sense, and toughness. Who will be the person and who will be the team of people that do not step back from Trump, that do not lay down in front of Trump, that tell Donald Trump and tell his lawyers and say to his threats, Hey, mister President, go fuck yourself. Because those people need to start moving to the front of
the line. Because the power of the word know is about to be tested. And right now all we're seeing is examples of people looking to advance your self interest, to get out of trouble, off the naughty list. They want that permanent mark removed from their record because they're scared of Hitler or Trump. The thing about fear is it's contagious, and the contagion that it spreads is an ugly one. It's panic. Panic causes people to debase themselves,
and in that debasement, they lose dignity. And as they lose dignity in the face of a genuinely awful opponent, that opponent Trump takes advantage of it, and a politics of dehumanization is what follows. And so watching what plays out in Canada is a lesson. It is a lesson about what weakness in dealing with Donald Trump brings to you. The same thing happened in the Republican Party. It's destroyed justin Trudeau's government. It's taken out two Democratic presidential candidates,
it's wrecked the American news media. But somewhere out there, someday the line will hold. And when it does, Donald Trump will start stepping backwards. And when he does, it will be a very good day, indeed, a good day for America. This is the warning. I'm Steve Schmidt. This is the warning, and I invite you to join. Subscribe on our substack, on our YouTube channel, follow us. Welcome to the community.