Based Camp - Dark Brandon： Can Leaning Into Corruption Be a Winning Move？

00:00:00.000 how the investigations into corruption via Hunter Biden, whereby the Biden family brought in more

00:00:06.460 than 20 million for God knows what, I mean, basically purchased influence. That's really

00:00:11.220 interesting, is that people are leaning into it that are supporters of Biden. And it's showing up

00:00:17.560 as the dark Brandon meme. So Biden supporters are the ones spreading this dark Brandon meme.

00:00:23.360 Mm hmm. Well, what I've noticed about irony today, which I think is really interesting,

00:00:29.260 is that irony is both 100 percent ironic and 100 percent earnest. This is this is actually a much

00:00:35.720 more powerful thing. We talk about a lot with presidential campaigns is one of the biggest

00:00:40.860 mistakes you can make is to try to run without obvious flaws. Then people will make up flaws for

00:00:47.260 you. And that was one of Trump's biggest strengths. People knew what his flaws were. And I think

00:00:53.140 moments like that, when he's first getting on the wealthiest person's list that he can't even afford

00:00:58.860 his own PR agent, and he is pretending to be his own PR agent to talk himself up, I think shows the

00:01:07.260 reality of the situation. And if we talk about his finances at the time, you know, the left will

00:01:12.360 take this. This is a damning thing. When we were like, dude, this guy has hustle. This guy makes

00:01:17.900 things happen. The way Trump actually got rich, because I think a lot of people don't really

00:01:22.160 understand what he did. Would you like to know more? Hello, Simone. It is wonderful to be chatting

00:01:27.720 today. I am really excited for this one. Well, as you know, because we're huge fans of Susie Weiss,

00:01:33.220 who writes for the Free Press, I try to follow as many of their publications as I can. And one of my

00:01:37.920 favorites that's not by her because I really just go there for her is called TGIF, where they do a news

00:01:43.380 roundup. And I was reading in today's TGIF about dark Brandon, this really interesting thing that's

00:01:52.080 trending. So let me let me kick this off by describing what's going on here. Because I feel

00:01:56.840 like this is just so intriguing. I can't, I can't not dive into it. Brandon. Yeah. So let's let's start

00:02:03.900 with some background, right? At one point, there was a baseball game where someone was being interviewed,

00:02:10.580 and the audience were chanting in the background while someone was being interviewed.

00:02:17.140 You Biden, again and again, so you Biden, and then the, the interviewer, a woman very charitably

00:02:25.520 thought that the person that she was interviewing was being cheered on. She says, Oh, they're all saying

00:02:31.580 let's go Brandon, which is really sweet. And so moving forward, I really, the phrase let's go Brandon

00:02:39.540 became basically shorthand for you Biden, which, you know, has, has been very fun. So obviously,

00:02:46.200 this is the reason why is it was seen as the way that the press just distorted anything they saw about

00:02:52.800 the world or anything they heard into a positive message for progressives. Exactly. Yeah. And what's

00:02:59.380 interesting now is it appears to be that Brandon as a meme is now being appropriated by Biden supporters.

00:03:07.140 So basically, what was covered in TGIF by the free press this week was how the investigations into

00:03:15.060 corruption via Hunter Biden, whereby the Biden family, well, President Biden was vice president,

00:03:21.220 brought in more than 20 million for God knows what I mean, basically purchased influence. And,

00:03:26.440 you know, to your point about the mainstream media, there's very little coverage of this,

00:03:32.420 this investigation. But what's going on that's really interesting is that people are leaning into

00:03:39.520 it that are supporters of Biden. And it's showing up as the like dark Brandon meme.

00:03:45.380 So Biden supporters are the ones spreading this dark Brandon meme.

00:03:49.400 Mm hmm. So what the free press basically said was Biden's campaign has embraced the new YOLO

00:03:55.380 middle finger vibe. The top selling products on his campaign website for this week are dark Brandon

00:04:00.300 items. The old saying goes never explain it never apologize. And these are literally like,

00:04:05.840 so the the dark Brandon meme is sort of like it's it's it's images of Biden, but with like evil

00:04:11.180 shining eyes. And literally, you can click over to the Biden campaign website and see,

00:04:18.420 like a mugs and t shirts. Like I'm on shop.joebiden.com slash dark dash t shirt.

00:04:26.820 I can imagine two reasons for this happening. Okay. And they're both really interesting.

00:04:32.760 One could be that what they actually see as one of Biden's biggest weaknesses going into this next 1.00

00:04:39.800 campaign cycle is that he's just a pussy. And it's not terribly interesting. And this is a way to 1.00

00:04:46.180 imbue him with power, mystery and danger in the same way that I think drove many people to Trump

00:04:54.620 and that he actually embodies those things for a lot of people. But then the other way to look at it

00:05:02.640 is it's just a middle finger to, you know, within their cultural group, things like Let's Go Brandon

00:05:09.760 have become such a sign of people who aren't in their cultural group and people who they detest

00:05:17.340 that they are embracing this completely ironically. Which of those do you think is is more what's

00:05:25.360 happening? Well, what I've noticed about irony today, which I think is really interesting is

00:05:30.960 that irony is both 100% ironic and 100% earnest. So I think people who are buying dark Brandon

00:05:37.300 merchandise, 100% are like, Oh, yeah, snub it to the people, you know, I'm appropriating your

00:05:43.040 appropriation, I'm gonna take your meme and throw it back at you. But at the same time,

00:05:47.040 they're kind of like, Yeah, I have a badass, dark leader, he's playing 40 chess, he'll take, you

00:05:53.060 know, you know, payments under the table, it doesn't matter. That's how badass he is. And I

00:05:57.260 think part of us, maybe we want a strongman kind of leader. I mean, there's that old research that

00:06:01.840 found that people who look presidential get elected for president. Maybe this is people wanting

00:06:06.540 their president to be a strongman. And frankly, because right now people are concerned about

00:06:11.500 President Biden being senile, being out of it, not actually being in control. This is this is

00:06:17.860 actually a much more powerful thing. We talk about a lot with presidential campaigns, is one of the

00:06:23.680 biggest mistakes you can make is to try to run without obvious flaws. Then people will make up

00:06:29.640 flaws for you. And that was one of Trump's biggest strengths. People knew what his flaws were.

00:06:35.840 Meanwhile, she was trying to be little miss perfect. 0.99

00:06:40.400 Yeah, she was trying to be everything to everyone in a big way. And what that meant is everybody who

00:06:46.020 didn't like her, one, it makes you suspicious of someone when they don't show obvious character

00:06:50.680 flaws. Totally.

00:06:51.760 But then two, it allows you to impose character flaws. Oh, they're out there murdering people or

00:06:56.800 something like that, right?

00:06:57.700 Yeah, as we would put it, if you asked, you know, 100 people, what's wrong with Trump, you're going

00:07:02.700 to get 10 answers. If you ask 100 people what's wrong with Hillary Clinton, you're going to get 50 to

00:07:07.140 75 answers. And that's a problem. You ask 100 people what's wrong with Trump, you'll get two

00:07:10.900 or three answers. And that's the great thing is, is when you choose your vices and you have them so

00:07:15.220 public and consistent, you can make sure that your public vices are not deal breakers for your

00:07:20.460 position. And none of, you know, like misogyny or like huge ego, like all the Trump problems do not

00:07:27.620 make him incapable of being president, where, you know, if you have a vice like senility, that could

00:07:33.980 actually, you know, be a deal breaker for presidency. So is this actually a super freaking

00:07:38.900 brilliant move where they're like, we're going to take a vice, we're going to own it, we are corrupt,

00:07:43.500 we have a corrupt family, but we are dark Brandon, like we we are we are embracing it. And is that

00:07:49.060 really appealing to you? These these are this isn't just like a thing that that like literal White

00:07:53.480 House operatives are starting to adopt, which we can historically, and you compare the way people

00:08:00.000 viewed Bill Clinton versus the way they view Hillary Clinton. This, I think highlights one

00:08:04.380 of Bill's greatest strengths is he leaned into, you know, his vice was, and when he did that,

00:08:10.640 his poll numbers went up, the amount that he had cheated on his wife and lied about it and stuff

00:08:16.320 like that. People were like, Oh, now I know what's wrong with you. And I can sort of mentally contain

00:08:21.180 that keep in mind, all we're talking about here was all this stuff is perception. Yeah, right. We are

00:08:26.640 not saying that this is actually what's wrong with these political candidates are actually

00:08:30.500 what's not wrong. Most of these political candidates have many bigger things that are

00:08:34.400 wrong with them than these public perceptions. What we're talking here is this game of public

00:08:38.620 perception. But public perception is what gets you elected or not elected. So in the end, that's

00:08:43.400 what matters, right? Well, and they may be leaning into it because they feel that they can't avoid it

00:08:48.220 anymore. They can't avoid the public perception of corruption. So you might as well just completely

00:08:53.500 rolling it so that that is the negative that everyone assumes to the extent of, you know,

00:09:00.240 Biden's, you know, in his speech and he does like a Trumpism. He's like, well, I got away

00:09:03.820 with it, didn't I? You know? Yeah. Well, at one point he even put on sunglasses and kind

00:09:07.540 of like a hat tip to the dark Biden campaign, like the crowd cheered. I really think like this

00:09:13.020 could be the thing that makes his reelection possible because I do, I do feel like going into

00:09:18.420 things before, even though it was, you know, he's coming in from an incumbent position. He's coming

00:09:24.240 in strong. This reelection is completely dependent on whether the Republican party fractures between

00:09:28.340 two candidates or stays. I don't think it will because DeSantis is currently performing pretty

00:09:32.160 poorly, although he did hire a new campaign manager recently. But I think what I think DeSantis

00:09:36.560 is the one who's really like messing up right here. So Trump is, I'm just one more indictment away from

00:09:41.100 presidency, right? Trump is leaning in. He's like his great old self. Biden is now going dark Biden.

00:09:46.260 We've got two very good caricatures going. And I think caricatures are golden in elections.

00:09:51.940 No, but the point I'm making is this election actually isn't decided by the strengths of the

00:09:56.500 candidates. It's decided by internal Republican party politics. Yeah. I just, I think the Republican

00:10:01.160 party is pragmatic enough to not try to push DeSantis if DeSantis isn't, you know, isn't kind

00:10:06.960 of like. Really? I'm not saying that it will be DeSantis. You don't know who else is going

00:10:13.120 to come up. Yeah. Yeah. Anything can happen at this point.

00:10:16.280 It's not. I mean, yeah, we'll see. But I think to a large extent, the strength of the Republican

00:10:20.940 position in this next election is actually Biden's messaging and everything like that is largely going

00:10:27.420 to be irrelevant. I think it would be pretty hard for him to beat a united Trump front or a united

00:10:33.900 somebody else front. But I think it'd be fairly trivial for him to be any sort of divided front.

00:10:39.140 I do think though, I actually, I personally find the concept of dark Brandon much more appealing.

00:10:45.420 I feel better about having a dark Brandon president than I did about Sleepy Joe, if you know what 1.00

00:10:51.820 I mean. It's just more fun.

00:10:53.200 Well, and I think that shows the strengths of Trump's branding in terms of the way he paints

00:10:58.520 negatives for people as he created simple, easy to understand negatives, which could be

00:11:04.780 paired with video and stuff like that and build this into your brain. And so the question is,

00:11:10.660 why is Sleepy Joe such an effective attack? Because it's not a particularly damning attack.

00:11:15.980 It implies low energy and it implies more than I think senility. It implies personal weakness of

00:11:30.840 character.

00:11:31.260 Well, actually, you know, it's really funny, the Sleepy Joe moniker. There's this one episode of

00:11:36.400 Doctor Who, where Doctor Who decides he's going to destroy the prime minister of the United Kingdom.

00:11:43.300 And he says something like, I will destroy you with three little words. And he turns to a press

00:11:48.700 agent and he says, she looks tired. And supposedly, this just like completely destroys her, I think. 0.98

00:11:55.900 But you know, like they really present it with a lot of gravitas.

00:11:59.200 Oh, that's why we're going to be great presidential candidates, all energy, all the time.

00:12:03.800 People will be like, yeah, I'm actually surprised we don't get more you look like you're on drugs.

00:12:07.340 We're not on drugs, by the way.

00:12:08.220 You got that a lot with the Chris Williamson appearance.

00:12:11.040 Oh, I did.

00:12:11.320 A lot of people were like, you're definitely on amphetamines. Everyone was sure you were on amphetamines.

00:12:15.940 No, guys, this is like literally him at five in the morning. I'm not kidding. You're like,

00:12:19.860 I have to tell him to not get close to our kids.

00:12:21.800 Yeah, he said to be really quick with that interview because I didn't know how long it was going to last.

00:12:25.020 I thought it was going to be 30 minutes and I was trying to get everything in as quickly as possible.

00:12:29.200 Whereas in our own podcast, I can afford to be much, much more relaxed in my timing.

00:12:34.340 Actually, I wonder though, if in the future, when we have a greater understanding of the way that our genetics function,

00:12:40.560 and we have a greater understanding of the way, like of the various chemicals in your body,

00:12:44.820 if like literally you are experiencing like your default state is what many people experience when they're on amphetamines.

00:12:52.120 I really wonder that because like you are high energy.

00:12:54.200 I suspect it might be why I drink so much is to get myself into a normal state, you know?

00:12:58.860 Yeah, just to bring, yeah, just to bring yourself back down to slow your mind down.

00:13:02.820 I really, I genuinely believe that.

00:13:05.280 So one thing I'm curious about is, okay, so we're seeing like with dark, Brandon, 0.72

00:13:08.560 I think really strong campaign action.

00:13:11.140 I deeply admire it.

00:13:12.360 I find it compelling.

00:13:13.460 I'm glad they're leaning into it.

00:13:14.600 I want to see where it goes with the selection.

00:13:16.660 When you run for office, what are your clear vices going to be? 0.96

00:13:20.340 I am arrogant as hell. 0.95

00:13:23.900 I want it to be arrogant and elitist. 1.00

00:13:27.140 Arrogant and elitist. 0.74

00:13:28.380 Yeah, I want people to know that I think I'm better than them. 0.91

00:13:31.700 Not that you think that you're better than them, Malcolm, that you know that you're better than them.

00:13:35.880 I know that I'm better than them, yeah.

00:13:37.160 No, I mean, I think that it's natural to who I am.

00:13:39.860 I am, it's something that I have trouble suppressing is arrogance.

00:13:43.480 I think a good vice, and I think why dark, Brandon works, is that it's true. 0.99

00:13:47.480 Is it like, it is incontroverted, like when you look at the reports, the investigation into what's going on with Hunter Biden, like it's bad.

00:13:54.000 And there's very little that they can do.

00:13:55.660 And I think the other thing is nerdy weirdness is the other thing I'm going to really.

00:13:59.700 No, sorry, that's a, my weakness is an employee candidate and then I just work too hard.

00:14:05.760 That is not, that is a humble brag and that is not advice.

00:14:08.540 I do not think so.

00:14:09.820 So I think that you see it that way.

00:14:11.800 The real key to advice, okay, in, in the political sphere is can you get your opponent's press to bite it?

00:14:20.480 Oh, to make fun of you. 0.71

00:14:21.640 Well, and Ben Shapiro did call you like a big fat nerd, didn't he? 0.94

00:14:25.120 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:14:25.900 This is on our own side, right?

00:14:27.600 But no, there was this Yahoo News piece about us that just basically went through our Reddit history.

00:14:32.860 Oh, yeah.

00:14:33.380 Did you know they follow like Tumblr in action and, and fat logic and all of these meanish right leaning stuff.

00:14:40.520 So when I say nerdy weirdness, I don't mean like general nerdy weirdness.

00:14:44.340 I mean, like, I mean, like he's a internet freak.

00:14:47.280 Yeah.

00:14:47.600 And, and also keep in mind, you know, I have looked at the way people attack us on the Reddit threads that have done really well.

00:14:53.180 You know, we, we typically, we have a few Reddit threads that are over like 50,000 upvotes on us.

00:14:58.400 And well, I upvotes on hate about us.

00:15:01.000 Let's be clear.

00:15:01.460 Oh yeah, hate about us.

00:15:02.460 Yeah.

00:15:02.600 Nobody likes us.

00:15:03.700 Hate about us.

00:15:04.720 And, you know, very common stuff is, do you know he had a body pillow made of an anime version of his wife?

00:15:11.060 I mean, clearly I did this for fun, but like they really wanted to lean into how disgusting and terrible this was that I had done this.

00:15:19.220 I, I think that, or that when I proposed to you, one of the images we used was like an MLP fandom, My Little Pony fandom image.

00:15:26.560 I think that you may underestimate how much, and, and this is one thing that Trump did that was really, really smart.

00:15:34.620 Yeah.

00:15:34.940 He would bait reporters with lines that given their ideological perspective, they thought were things that they could use against him, but the majority of the population actually agreed with.

00:15:45.560 A great example here is when he's like, oh, we don't want to be like one of those, you know, I think it was like shitty countries in Africa or something like that. 0.98

00:15:53.760 He said, no, I think there's something about accepting immigrants from shitty countries in Africa or something, but it was very offensive to people that he said. 0.94

00:16:00.400 How dare he call countries in Africa shitty? 0.98

00:16:04.420 And they just went off on this where the majority of America was like, oh, that's pretty based. 0.99

00:16:09.020 Even Dems were like, yeah, they're pretty shitty.

00:16:11.760 You're actually reminding me though, of a really, an amazing, I would say vice leveraging tactic or vice Aikido tactic that Trump uses that has been underutilized in the world of the political sphere. 0.65

00:16:23.760 So right now, what most politicians do when they're presented with a question that they don't want to answer or an accusation that they don't want to address, they immediately change the subject.

00:16:32.480 Like they asked as though they were asked an entirely different question.

00:16:35.980 Trump does not.

00:16:37.500 If someone's, oh, you know, what about this woman who accused you of sexual assault?

00:16:41.260 And he'll be like, well, first, she's not my type. 0.90

00:16:43.620 I have no idea.

00:16:44.340 But like the fact that he says stuff like that and one shows he's, he's taking one accused vice. 0.77

00:16:50.900 Oh, you sexually assaulted a woman.

00:16:52.680 And then he like switches it to another vice of, oh, yes, I am misogynistic. 0.96

00:16:57.360 And oh, yes, I am very like self-important.

00:17:00.920 But this other thing isn't true.

00:17:02.700 That's actually really powerful.

00:17:04.900 If somebody accuses you of a vice you don't want to have publicly, transform it into another vice through the way you answer.

00:17:11.800 But meet vice accusations that are not on brand for you with your own vice.

00:17:17.280 I think that's like the trick.

00:17:18.900 And I don't know how Trump does it so naturally, but he does.

00:17:22.200 He's so good at it.

00:17:23.660 Okay.

00:17:23.840 So you're going to be a nerd and you are going to be.

00:17:26.920 What about you?

00:17:28.280 I don't know.

00:17:30.580 I don't know.

00:17:31.500 Do you not have any vices?

00:17:32.720 No, that's, I think that's the problem is, is my vice is I am oppressively boring.

00:17:39.520 So.

00:17:40.040 I don't think our audience would think that.

00:17:41.460 I think.

00:17:42.640 Okay.

00:17:42.980 So within conservative spheres, your big vice and people say this is that you look like a progressive.

00:17:48.220 Yeah.

00:17:48.500 But we might be growing out our hair because Brian Kaplan thought it would be a good idea.

00:17:52.640 Yeah.

00:17:53.340 So we'll say, yeah, we were told that she should grow out her hair and we're like.

00:17:56.260 No, he said just per the audience we're going.

00:17:59.160 And I'm like, yeah, you're right.

00:18:00.540 I can't pull it off as well, but he's, he's right.

00:18:02.880 So maybe, maybe I won't look like a, so what, but that's not a vice.

00:18:06.240 That's not a good vice that she looks like a progressive that I don't know. 1.00

00:18:10.400 What should be your vice?

00:18:11.280 I mean, it's your choice.

00:18:12.900 There's lots of things wrong with you.

00:18:14.780 Yeah.

00:18:14.960 But it has to be like, and there's tons of things wrong.

00:18:17.700 I think you could lean into the whole autistic thing.

00:18:19.860 Yeah.

00:18:20.200 Oh, just, yeah.

00:18:20.740 Just not liking to talk to people, like turning away from people, trying to give you their baby.

00:18:26.060 You know, maybe that's DeSantis's problem.

00:18:28.100 Your mom, before she passed away, was convinced that DeSantis was autistic.

00:18:33.480 Yeah.

00:18:33.720 I can tell.

00:18:34.660 And she, I mean, she called our son well before he was diagnosed.

00:18:37.880 So she's, you know, she, she knows what she's doing.

00:18:40.500 God rest her soul.

00:18:41.360 Of course.

00:18:41.740 We miss her a lot.

00:18:42.440 She will never be forgotten.

00:18:43.460 But yeah, maybe what he should be doing in terms of pivoting in this campaign.

00:18:47.300 And one reason why he's failing is one, he doesn't have any clear vices.

00:18:50.640 He's trying to be like Mr. Perfect with his wife, being all beautiful and nonsense and 1.00

00:18:55.340 like going on a campaign for him.

00:18:57.200 But he, I think he's missing that strong character with the dark side and the light side.

00:19:02.040 And I don't really, what's wrong with him?

00:19:03.440 What do you think is wrong with him?

00:19:04.320 I don't know.

00:19:04.780 I couldn't say.

00:19:05.820 And that's the problem.

00:19:06.780 You know, that's why he's not doing so well.

00:19:08.560 That's why he, I think he fired his campaign manager.

00:19:10.360 Cause he's not, he's not getting traction, but I think the bigger problem is he doesn't

00:19:13.120 have vices.

00:19:13.400 My read, and I'm not really following this too much.

00:19:15.740 So, so if, if this video does well, if people want like campaign talk, I'll start following

00:19:19.760 campaign politics again and do more on it because I, it's something that I can get addicted

00:19:24.640 to.

00:19:24.860 I've gotten really addicted to political news in previous cycles, just like a constant

00:19:29.340 fire hose when I get into it.

00:19:31.300 So I'm happy if this does well, I'm happy to do more on this, but my read is somebody who's

00:19:35.220 not really following it.

00:19:36.020 Is he just, he comes across as trying really hard to make this work and it's just not working.

00:19:43.880 Yeah.

00:19:44.480 Well, I think the bigger problem is that his original campaign strategy was I'm going to,

00:19:49.640 I'm going to be the culture wars president.

00:19:51.720 Everything's culture wars.

00:19:52.660 He kept pivoting answers back to, oh, and I'm going to make this about, you know, gender

00:19:56.880 and all this other stuff.

00:19:57.980 When that's, I think surprisingly not really what people care about that much.

00:20:02.040 No, people care about their kids being like brainwashed and stuff.

00:20:05.500 And this is, I think, a mistake that the Republican upper breath is just really slow on right

00:20:12.120 now.

00:20:12.740 Republicans do not hate gay people. 0.56

00:20:14.820 Okay. 0.93

00:20:15.140 They don't even dislike the gay people. 0.82

00:20:17.820 They, they dislike the way that the trans people are getting special privileges within 0.83

00:20:22.900 some circumstances.

00:20:23.680 They dislike the way that this stuff is taking over our school system, but they have no actual

00:20:30.160 animosity to the gay community other than where they vote different from them. 0.99

00:20:36.200 I mean, Milo Yiannopoulos, you know, back when he was gay, I don't know what's going on 0.99

00:20:40.120 with him now. 1.00

00:20:41.020 He was the gayest motherfucker I've ever seen. 1.00

00:20:43.460 He presented with, with all of the stereotypes and stuff like that. 1.00

00:20:47.240 And he was generally really well liked in the conservative sphere.

00:20:51.580 And, and, and this comes to something that we might do a full video on later is progressives

00:20:58.080 have created a narrative.

00:20:59.280 And unfortunately I think the upper brass of the Republican party, and this has been one

00:21:02.800 of the mistakes that DeSantis has fallen into, who created a narrative where conservatives

00:21:06.980 are like actually racist or actually homophobic.

00:21:11.120 They're like, no, like being, having a lot of gay friends, that doesn't make you not homophobic 0.93

00:21:16.380 or, you know, and it's like, no, it, it actually does.

00:21:20.180 What you mean when you say that is the only way to not be homophobic is to agree with you.

00:21:26.320 That is not, you know, as, as I said in a tweet I wrote recently, I signed up to be an

00:21:32.140 ally, not a minion.

00:21:33.580 Okay.

00:21:34.400 And you don't get to call me homophobic when I'm not a minion.

00:21:37.900 I don't, I don't have any animosity towards gay people.

00:21:40.240 I don't want them to, to suffer, but I also don't think that they, you know, get the right

00:21:45.360 to culturally impose this on other groups or other groups, kids.

00:21:49.120 And that's how I understand the Republicans anger there.

00:21:51.560 Well, any more than like anti-gay groups can impose.

00:21:54.680 Yeah. 0.89

00:21:55.120 He's specifically like actually seems to be targeting gay people. 1.00

00:21:58.700 Like he's like actually like fuck gay people. 1.00

00:22:00.540 Like what? 1.00

00:22:01.440 Like, I don't know.

00:22:03.580 That's been my read of his campaigns.

00:22:05.700 Yeah.

00:22:06.280 Yeah.

00:22:06.460 I just think it's, it's, it's insufficiently culturally compelling.

00:22:09.240 Whereas like really weird, dumb stuff like dark Brandon is, you know, and I think people 0.99

00:22:16.300 are really discounting that, you know, Trump won because people wanted someone to break 0.86

00:22:20.180 the system.

00:22:20.780 It was that simple.

00:22:21.680 Like we are not people, you know, get a lot into policy and, you know, all these debates,

00:22:26.140 the debates are just to see.

00:22:27.540 He also did a really good job as president.

00:22:29.800 We should do another video on just Trump someday.

00:22:32.980 Because I have a lot of problems with his personal character, but he, I think objectively, if you

00:22:37.720 just go through it, was a genuinely really good president.

00:22:41.300 Oh yeah.

00:22:41.560 He hashtag nailed it.

00:22:42.880 It's very.

00:22:43.160 Especially foreign policy wise, which is my core area of focus.

00:22:47.260 He was just phenomenal foreign policy president.

00:22:50.520 Really, really good.

00:22:51.560 But yeah, yeah.

00:22:53.220 Whereas right now the Biden administration is apparently releasing about 3 billion in

00:23:01.180 frozen assets in North Korea to Iran in exchange for some prisoners, telling Iran that they

00:23:05.920 get about 1.5 billion per prisoner.

00:23:08.200 So now they're like really incentivized to kidnap people.

00:23:10.960 So friends don't go to Iran right now.

00:23:12.720 It's just not a good idea, especially if you matter to the United States government.

00:23:16.500 So anyway, yeah, I feel like the Biden foreign policy team, which is really interesting because

00:23:20.700 I think a lot of people originally voted for, for Hillary Clinton, for example, and then

00:23:26.900 next for Biden, because they were like, well, this is the responsible choice.

00:23:30.780 We're not voting for a person.

00:23:32.120 We're voting for a larger network of advisors.

00:23:35.040 And because yes, it's, it's actually pretty clear.

00:23:37.480 Trump's Trump's cabinet and team was pretty chaotic.

00:23:40.260 There was really high turnover.

00:23:41.500 There was a concern that you wouldn't really get the policy support, the foreign network that

00:23:46.420 you would need to succeed in the executive office.

00:23:49.820 And yet, you know, with Biden in office, we're really not seeing policies that give me a lot

00:23:54.820 of comfort, which is interesting.

00:23:56.980 And I think that a lot of Trump's vices played really well into his ability to be a president.

00:24:01.160 So one of the things that I think a lot of people slept on is, is, is why the economy

00:24:05.400 did so well when Trump was president, you know, until COVID, but not much you can do about

00:24:09.360 that.

00:24:09.580 It was that he was so economically unpredictable.

00:24:14.760 And what people don't realize, I think often about the markets is that they are hopelessly

00:24:19.900 optimistic.

00:24:20.560 They're always looking for some upside they haven't expected yet.

00:24:24.140 So when you look at things like his restrictions on China, what that meant is there was always

00:24:30.100 the potential in the future for some big economic uplift.

00:24:33.600 And as long as the investor class believes there is a near future potential that they

00:24:39.760 can't predict of economic uplift, they are going to continue to invest in the market.

00:24:44.660 So it's Trump's very unpredictability that both from an economic and a foreign policy perspective

00:24:49.640 made people behave well.

00:24:51.880 No, it was that he was doing things that artificially held down the market that he could easily turn

00:24:59.480 off that led to the market almost always rising.

00:25:03.060 When I'm putting money on the market, what I'm doing is I'm saying, how much higher could

00:25:08.300 the market go from where it is now?

00:25:10.740 And the perfect political environment for the market means you have reached the market peak

00:25:15.580 and it's time to start selling.

00:25:17.820 As long as you create the assumption that the market environment is suboptimal, which Trump 0.88

00:25:23.960 was constantly doing through often pretty dumb economic policy, well, it wasn't dumb in 0.93

00:25:31.600 its result, right? 0.92

00:25:32.640 Because it created...

00:25:34.320 We'll say chaotic economic policy.

00:25:36.700 ...policy where he was punishing foreign actors that he should have been punishing and

00:25:40.500 that we now know he should have been publishing because Biden carried on all these policies.

00:25:44.500 No one talks about it.

00:25:47.520 The public perception of what's going on in politics, I think, is so different than what's

00:25:52.240 actually going on.

00:25:53.960 Yeah, Alan, I think there's also the question of what does the executive office really do?

00:25:59.000 And I think the character of a president is underrated in influencing a nation's position

00:26:07.980 on the world stage.

00:26:09.260 Like just narratively, what people think of the president and how they model the president

00:26:13.540 may make just maybe not just as much, maybe just as much of an impact as all of their different

00:26:19.540 policy choices throughout their...

00:26:21.300 I think it makes a bigger impact.

00:26:22.740 I mean, I think that the reason...

00:26:24.120 I mean, just not to talk foreign policy, I think the reason Putin did not invade Ukraine

00:26:27.120 while Trump was president, despite him being, you know, inclined towards Russia, is I think

00:26:32.800 Putin genuinely believed that Trump might decide to do something like nuke Moscow.

00:26:37.340 He genuinely portrayed this air of mental instability and aggressiveness...

00:26:42.740 Yeah.

00:26:44.120 ...and not understanding the outcomes of his actions. 0.82

00:26:47.120 And I think that a lot of dumb people in the public just absolutely believe that he actually 0.82

00:26:52.620 was that way. 0.97

00:26:53.800 And I don't think he was that way at all.

00:26:55.220 I don't think he was 4G chess either.

00:26:57.960 I think he was like a dad who knew what was going on.

00:27:00.820 And sometimes he fell into the right circumstances, but he wasn't an absolute genius, but he...

00:27:07.200 Well, here's...

00:27:07.740 I think Trump is a genius at some things.

00:27:10.240 Yeah.

00:27:10.380 He's an absolute genius at hype, at PR, you know, like him being his own press agent when

00:27:15.180 he couldn't even afford to have his own...

00:27:16.200 That made me respect him so much.

00:27:18.000 Yeah.

00:27:18.340 So for color, for background.

00:27:20.500 Yeah.

00:27:20.740 When I really start to respect somebody...

00:27:22.820 And press, I believe, is press that would make somebody look bad.

00:27:25.540 And there was that case where people released these recordings.

00:27:29.460 You want to talk about it?

00:27:31.480 Basically, I think when Trump was originally running, someone released a recording of him

00:27:36.240 pretending to be his own press agent, trying to promote Trump, I think for, you know, Forbes'

00:27:41.860 top wealthy people list or something.

00:27:43.480 Yeah, top 10 wealthiest people.

00:27:44.360 And at the time, of course, he was so obscure that people didn't know his voice or his mannerisms.

00:27:48.620 So when he called this person on the phone talking about Trump pretending to be his agent,

00:27:53.880 he's totally sounded like himself.

00:27:57.360 And you're like, Trump, he's such a great guy.

00:27:58.900 He's just the best.

00:27:59.640 Every, you know, I can't do Trump, but like he did Trump as Trump's agent.

00:28:03.320 So very obviously it was him.

00:28:04.380 But when we were like, dude, this guy has hustle.

00:28:07.340 This guy makes things happen.

00:28:09.220 And he is a hype machine.

00:28:10.080 He knows what to do.

00:28:10.840 He knows where to apply pressure.

00:28:12.060 And he's not above doing things like this.

00:28:14.680 Whereas most people would never deign to, first off, even self-promote, like many people

00:28:19.980 can't deign to hire a press agent.

00:28:21.780 Not only could he deign to do that.

00:28:23.600 He could deign to do it himself.

00:28:25.160 Well, yeah, the sad thing is, is Trump has this personal self-image that is he is a wealthy

00:28:32.020 person from a wealthy family and he is high class.

00:28:36.060 And he has this so much that he doesn't portray just how self-made he actually is.

00:28:42.780 And I think moments like that, when he's first getting on the wealthiest person's list, that

00:28:48.340 he can't even afford his own PR agent, and he is pretending to be his own PR agent to

00:28:54.940 talk himself up, I think shows the reality of the situation.

00:28:58.960 And if we talk about his finances at the time, you know, the left will take this.

00:29:03.360 This is a damning thing.

00:29:04.680 And so the way Trump actually got rich, because I think a lot of people don't really understand

00:29:08.280 what he did.

00:29:09.540 So if you're born to a pretty wealthy family, the sane, unambitious thing to do is to take

00:29:15.620 that money, to invest it, and to live a life where you never have to really worry about

00:29:20.180 medical expenses or running out of money or anything like that.

00:29:23.660 That could have been Trump's life.

00:29:26.220 He was born to a wealthy enough family that realistically he never had to worry about money. 1.00

00:29:31.240 You could also do something stupid, take that money and blow it on drugs, right? 0.99

00:29:36.820 That's what many people do as vices in wealthy families. 1.00

00:29:42.220 Trump did something actually insane that actually makes me respect him a little less because it

00:29:49.060 was just such an insane move.

00:29:52.220 Trump, he went around and convinced people who would give him debt that he had more assets

00:30:02.680 than he had.

00:30:03.800 So he didn't just take debt out against the assets that he owned so that he would be broke

00:30:10.920 given his own assets.

00:30:12.420 He pretended that he owned things his dad owned and took out debt against that.

00:30:18.860 Then he took all of this debt he accumulated and bet it on New York Real Estate in a way

00:30:27.700 where if the real estate market had gone down, somebody who literally could have lived their

00:30:33.980 entire life without worrying about money would end up, well, he would have gone bankrupt and

00:30:39.860 would have had to give up his assets and stuff like that.

00:30:42.280 And he might have been okay.

00:30:43.860 Like his dad could have said, these aren't his assets, but then could the bank have put something

00:30:47.900 on him so they could have taken the assets later, but basically live life with nothing

00:30:52.720 for the rest of your life.

00:30:53.960 So he took a gamble there and it worked.

00:30:57.980 Now, now that I'm thinking through this is actually a pretty smart gamble.

00:31:00.660 So I'll explain why it was a smart gamble.

00:31:02.820 So what's the worst case scenario?

00:31:05.040 The worst case scenario is the New York real estate market goes down as it did when he did

00:31:09.700 the, I think the Atlanta deal, because he did this a few times.

00:31:12.580 And one of the times that actually did go bust on him, just not the first time, which provided

00:31:16.400 him was enough money that he didn't have to worry about it, but borrowed money that he

00:31:20.220 didn't have like against money.

00:31:22.020 He didn't have and made these big sort of economic gambles on real estate.

00:31:26.780 If it had gone tits up, yes, he would have gone broke, but because he hadn't gotten the

00:31:33.300 money from his dad yet, he would have just gone bankrupt.

00:31:36.720 And then later when his dad died, he would have gotten a big inheritance.

00:31:40.900 Okay, I take it back.

00:31:43.480 Actually, a pretty brilliant plan is a moderate cost to him, but actually not a very big cost.

00:31:50.120 The biggest cost associated with this gambit would actually have been the wire fraud charges,

00:31:55.320 which Simone and I had a long discussion offline about how big a cost that actually would be,

00:32:01.100 given that it might not have been in the bank's financial interest to pursue those charges.

00:32:06.360 We've actually had this as a problem with our businesses, where like, we're mad at somebody

00:32:11.380 and we totally want to sue them, but there's just literally no economic upside to suing them as a

00:32:15.760 business. So we just decide not to because lawsuits are expensive. And she was pointing out that even

00:32:20.560 if the charges did go through, people with that in their background, you know, even some people

00:32:24.900 we know still find ways to do business. That's specifically where the wire fraud charges would

00:32:30.180 hurt you so much that it would make you very, very difficult to take out loans and stuff in the future.

00:32:33.620 But I think that this is, this is like a microcosm for one of the things that made Trump a really

00:32:38.560 good foreign policy figure for the particular time in which he was in office. He, he's super

00:32:45.140 based macho man, just balls out. What's you going to do? I'm going to bomb you. What do you think? 0.72

00:32:51.340 And people are like, legit, I think he's going to bomb you. You probably should.

00:32:54.700 No, it wasn't that they thought he was going to bomb them. It was that they thought there was a

00:32:59.280 non-zero chance he would bomb them.

00:33:01.160 Yeah. Well, he was, he was enough of an agent of chaos and he was enough of an ego driven

00:33:04.700 man, man. We're like,

00:33:06.720 Where he just like randomly, they, they crossed a line for him. And so he was like, okay, well

00:33:12.160 then I'll cross a line. I'll nuke one of your diplomats. Not nuke. What was it? He sent 0.99

00:33:15.800 like a guided missile to move up the guy's car.

00:33:18.280 Yeah. I can't remember exactly what happened, but what was really interesting about it. I think

00:33:22.760 it was such a diplomatic, like overreach. It showed such diplomatic overreach that no one would normally

00:33:29.020 do, but it was also so incredibly targeted. It was, I say, you don't do something. I'm going to do

00:33:37.100 something that is an equal offense to what you just did, but the targets top people within your

00:33:44.280 military community. This was Iran. I think actually, what's this Iran? Anyway, I've been

00:33:50.860 forgetting, but yeah. So that you personally and your families personally feel there may be some

00:33:55.880 price to pay that is equivalent to the, to you, to your top brass, but feel like random people

00:34:01.740 you're killing. A lot of people could say that can spiral out of control. I think what we've seen

00:34:07.120 with what's going on with the Ukraine war in Russia, it's actually a lot harder for things to

00:34:11.040 spiral out of control than the public thinks. In fact, it's never really happened except for

00:34:17.000 the Cuban missile crisis, which, okay, there it almost did actually spiral out of control.

00:34:20.000 But I also think that there's a lot of value to like boiling complex issues down to really

00:34:25.120 simplistic actions and narratives. And Trump was very capable of doing that. And I think he also

00:34:31.520 drew other figures into simplistic detents, essentially, that like really worked well in

00:34:37.460 foreign policy. Well, we need to do a whole video just on Trump's Middle Eastern policy,

00:34:41.480 which was really good. Yeah. Well, I mean, we'll see how this video does. This is,

00:34:46.140 this is doing something a little bit, you know, less evergreen. And I didn't prep beforehand. So

00:34:49.840 obviously I'm mentioning a bunch of stuff where I don't, I don't remember all the specifics. So I

00:34:53.200 probably got some stuff wrong. But there, there is something pretty universal and clever here,

00:34:56.860 which is like the, the power of vices and the power of simple characters. And I think it's so,

00:35:04.180 so, so underrated. You know, everyone wants to be perfect. We've even had people who've read our

00:35:08.700 books where we talk about this. We're like, you have to have super simple vices and super simple

00:35:12.840 virtues. And people have been like, okay, well, here are the virtues that I, that I've chosen for

00:35:17.260 myself. And here are the vices. All the vices are just virtues. Like they're just humble brags.

00:35:22.380 You've done the same thing, Simone. I asked you what your vices are and you wouldn't get me.

00:35:27.420 My vices are that I'm bored. Okay. Dear YouTube, please select my vices for me because I just

00:35:33.600 can't figure it. Maybe it's that I hate people and that I'm secretly really evil on the inside

00:35:38.260 because that's probably true. You know, maybe it's that I, I don't know. It's bad. Malcolm,

00:35:44.940 you're good. This is why you're going to run. And I, I, I'm not, I'm not a good person to run.

00:35:48.080 You're running in the first election. The people who want to fund us, they want a woman. 1.00

00:35:51.420 Okay. YouTube, please figure out my vices fast because apparently I need them. But Malcolm,

00:35:55.340 I love you. And I especially love your vices. What is it that Churchill said? He said something

00:35:59.880 like he has none of the vices I love and all the virtues I hate. Something like that. The man,

00:36:06.020 that man understood vices. This is, it's a universal thing that has withstood the test of time. So,

00:36:14.320 well, I love this conversation. I think maybe we might have some more of these, but yeah, we'll see.

00:36:19.020 And I'm very excited for the next, next election cycle. I'm sure we'll be doing more politics,

00:36:23.160 even if it doesn't do well. That's too fun. Can't not do it. All right. Have a good one.

00:36:29.180 Love you, Malcolm.

Based Camp - August 14, 2023

Dark Brandon： Can Leaning Into Corruption Be a Winning Move？

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