Based Camp - Trump's Unusual Beliefs About God & the Afterlife (An Investigation)

00:00:00.000 Hello, Simone. Today was, it's one of these episodes that's just stunning for me because

00:00:05.020 I come into it being like, you know what? I'm going to try to untangle what Trump's true

00:00:10.240 theological beliefs are. And my intuition going into this is he just didn't really have a theology

00:00:17.780 and he just had never thought deeply about this particular subject.

00:00:21.480 Right. Just Trump is great and everyone knows it.

00:00:23.760 Yeah. Yeah. As I dug into it though, I learned that that is very much not true.

00:00:28.520 Well, there's a fairly detailed theology that he doesn't share with the public a lot. So just,

00:00:34.920 you know, this is not what he signals to the public anymore. But when you understand his theology,

00:00:40.800 a lot of his behaviors that otherwise seem crazy or insane or don't make sense,

00:00:48.320 all of a sudden make sense. In fact, I would argue that to understand and predict Trump's behavior,

00:00:55.320 you need to understand his theology. And the other weird thing about this theology is while it is not

00:01:01.540 a traditional Christian theology, it came from a traditional Christian church, but just a unique

00:01:08.100 one. And we're going to go further here because I also think that his theology has changed a lot

00:01:13.340 recently, given that he thinks he's about to die or not about to die, but he's sort of like,

00:01:18.020 it's the end of my life. You know, he's contemplating his legacy.

00:01:22.240 Yeah. The, the quote recently from him that I absolutely love is if I can see, he's talking

00:01:27.860 about ending the war in the Ukraine. He goes, if I can save 7,000 people a week from being killed,

00:01:33.400 I want to try and get to heaven if possible. Trump said, I'm hearing that I'm not doing well.

00:01:38.620 I'm really at the bottom of the totem pole, but if I can get to heaven, this will be one of the

00:01:43.100 reasons. And I just love this idea of Trump beginning to get worried because, you know,

00:01:49.220 he's cheated on spouses. He doesn't really go to church. He doesn't seem to understand much about

00:01:55.420 the Bible. If we're going to talk about like not understanding the, there's the famous quote that

00:02:00.020 I love in the Bloomberg interview when asked what his favorite Bible verse is, you know,

00:02:04.960 he's just like the Bible's my favorite book.

00:02:06.920 You mentioned the Bible. You've been talking about how it's your favorite book.

00:02:09.780 And you said, I think last night in Iowa, some people are surprised that you say that I'm

00:02:13.900 wondering what one or two of your most favored Bible verses are. I wouldn't want to get into it

00:02:19.740 because to me, that's very personal. You know, when I talk about the Bible, it's very personal.

00:02:23.160 So I don't want to get into verses. I don't want to get into it. There's no verse that means a lot

00:02:26.980 to you that you think about or cite. The Bible means a lot to me, but I don't want to get into

00:02:30.720 specifics. Even to cite a verse that you like. No, I don't want to do that.

00:02:34.060 You're an Old Testament guy or a New Testament guy? Probably equal. I think it's just an 0.83

00:02:39.340 incredible, the whole Bible is an incredible, I joke very much so. They always hold up the

00:02:44.940 art of the deal. I say my second favorite book of all time, but I just think the Bible is just

00:02:50.020 something very special. And I don't know. I don't know. I can't name a book from it. I can't name

00:02:53.800 a quote from it, but it's my favorite book. Usually just a very personal thing. I'm not going to talk

00:02:58.320 about it. Yeah. And then during a family leadership summit interview, he said, why do I have to repent

00:03:04.580 or ask for forgiveness if I'm not making any mistakes? Which is a very Trump thing to say.

00:03:10.040 It does not align with traditional Christian theology. Then once when he was giving a speech

00:03:15.940 to a university campus, he called, and this is the type of thing I do because I don't go to church

00:03:20.720 often, he said two Corinthians instead of second Corinthians. And I asked Jerry and I asked some

00:03:28.560 of the folks because I hear this is a major theme right here, but two Corinthians, right? Two

00:03:33.800 Corinthians 317. Which is exactly the type of thing I do. I'd say two Corinthians. Totally. Yeah. But I

00:03:39.880 do, I do that because I don't go to church and I'm reading from a sheet of paper. Yeah. That's more

00:03:42.900 like, yeah, just spoken norms, not, not necessarily a sign of. No, no, no, but it indicates that he

00:03:48.300 doesn't actually, and we know this from, you know, he goes like on holidays and stuff like that. So

00:03:52.720 he's aware, you know, maybe not, not that high up, not that going to church more often in Christian

00:03:57.860 beliefs gets you into heaven more easily. I'm just saying like, he's aware that he has some vices,

00:04:03.080 right? And also the way he related to Christianity historically. So he referred to the Christian

00:04:09.300 sacrament of communion as drinking quote unquote, my little wine and eating quote unquote, my little

00:04:15.100 cracker and that it made him feel quote unquote, feel cleansed. Why does he say everything 10 times

00:04:23.640 better than anyone else? I know. I love it. But so then in one Christian church setting, he said,

00:04:28.440 I love you Christians. I'm a Christian. I love you. I love you Christians. I'm not a Christian. Now, 0.68

00:04:34.100 a lot of people think he meant to say, I am a Christian. I love you Christians. I am a Christian.

00:04:38.520 Although that makes less sense. I think he might not have interpreted himself as a full Christian at this

00:04:43.780 time period. So Chump, born Presbyterian, his parents were Methodists before this. But when he 0.82

00:04:52.220 was young, the family shifted to a new church. This was in the 1970s. And it was called the Marble

00:04:58.080 Collegiate Church in Manhattan, a reformed church run by a guy named Norman Vincent Peale. Okay.

00:05:06.320 Okay. Now you might be like, what's so special about a church run by a guy named Norman Vincent

00:05:13.140 Peale? Yeah. Well, he invented a philosophy that you've probably heard about called the power of

00:05:21.460 positive thinking. No. Blended Christianity with motivational self-help. No. Now you're beginning

00:05:30.580 to see. Oh, so Trump grew up going to a church that taught self-help principles of the 80s

00:05:39.800 through the pulpit. Wow. Wow. Or not 80s, early 70s, when it was really beginning to pick up.

00:05:47.460 So, so, and Trump really liked this guy called Peale. He calls him a mentor of his. He prays his

00:05:53.620 preaching style. We'll go into Trump's connection to him. But he went to church and drank the Kool-Aid.

00:05:59.200 I mean, hello. Now I want you to listen to what Trump says about Peale in this particular tape,

00:06:05.800 both to understand just how much Trump actually really enjoyed and took seriously the lessons

00:06:11.940 that Peale was teaching from the pulpit, but also how Trump relates to traditional Christian

00:06:17.980 concepts, like asking God for forgiveness instead of going out and attempting to improve yourself

00:06:24.540 on your own, which is a very self-help thing to do. Like, it reframes some of when you hear stuff and

00:06:33.520 you're like, that's so sacrilegious to, to approach it in this way. When you hear it in the context of

00:06:38.800 how Trump is thinking about it, you're like, oh, he's not thinking about it in a traditional

00:06:43.920 religious context. He's thinking about it in terms of a, how do I improve myself through the self-help

00:06:51.000 principles I learned at church context?

00:06:53.720 I love my church. And Norman Vincent Peale, the great Norman Vincent Peale was my pastor.

00:06:59.800 The power of positive thinking. Everybody's heard of Norman Vincent Peale and I love my church.

00:07:04.100 He was so great. He would give a sermon. You never wanted to leave. Sometimes we have sermons and

00:07:10.400 every once in a while we think about leaving a little early, right? Even though we're Christian.

00:07:14.840 Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, Frank would give a sermon. I'm telling you, I still remember his sermons.

00:07:21.520 It was unbelievable. And what he would do is he'd bring real life situations,

00:07:25.800 modern day situations into the sermon. And you could listen to him all day long.

00:07:30.500 When you left the church, you were disappointed that it was over. He was the greatest guy,

00:07:35.380 but he was a great, the, he wrote the power of positive thinking, which is a great book.

00:07:38.880 But have you ever asked God for forgiveness?

00:07:46.480 I'm not sure I have. I just go and try and do a better job from there. I don't think so.

00:07:50.940 I think I, if I, if I do something wrong, I think I just try and make it right.

00:07:56.480 I don't bring God into that picture. I don't. Now, when I take, you know, when we go in church and,

00:08:02.760 and when I drink my little wine, which is about the only wine I drink and have my little cracker,

00:08:07.440 I guess that's a form of asking for forgiveness. And I do that as often as possible because I feel

00:08:12.480 cleansed. Okay. But, uh, you know, to me, that's important. I do that. But in terms of officially,

00:08:18.180 I should, I see, I could say absolutely. And everybody, I don't think in terms of that. I,

00:08:22.480 I think in terms of let's go on and let's make. And I would point here that Trump knows that what

00:08:29.820 he's supposed to say to appease a Christian audience is, yes, I have. You see, he says like,

00:08:36.220 I could say yes. And in this conversation and any controversy that come out of this,

00:08:40.820 see, I could say absolutely. And everybody,

00:08:42.740 but I'm trying to be as honest as possible about how I relate to God in this moment.

00:08:48.820 Peel was influenced by a guy called Ernest Holmes, founder of the science of the mind,

00:08:53.140 a new thought movement whom Peel regarded as a spiritual mentor. The influence began in the

00:08:57.920 1920s when Peel studied Holmes works, adopting ideas like fearless living and shifting focus away

00:09:03.440 from self-doubt thought through thought affirmations of God's presence. Overall,

00:09:08.320 his beliefs blended orthodox Christian elements with new thought philosophy, prioritizing personal

00:09:13.980 empowerment through faith over transcendent doctrines like salvation solely through Jesus

00:09:18.740 Christ, which some critics argued or diluted Christian tenets. Peel's teachings, which Trump

00:09:25.040 encountered through family attendance at the church, emphasized avoiding negative thoughts,

00:09:30.000 picturing success, and believing one's abilities as a pathway to achievement,

00:09:34.380 often framed with a quasi-religious tone of self-sufficiency and prosperity as God's will.

00:09:40.840 Trump's version amplified into a worldview where relentless positivity, denial of setbacks,

00:09:46.920 and self-belief override external realities, sometimes veering into what critics called magical

00:09:52.760 thinkings. And so another description of what Peel taught, just Peel without the Trump framing here,

00:09:59.180 was positive affirmations and visualizations of God's health. Essentially, it was a form of

00:10:05.140 Christianity dedicated to a form of like wishy thinking, as we call it, like that book, The Secret, 0.99

00:10:12.480 right? Like if you believe something enough, that thing will come true. You'll manifest it. Yeah.

00:10:18.060 Yeah, you'll manifest it. But it was structured a little differently in a way that I think is actually

00:10:22.480 more emotionally helpful, which is you don't believe in some sort of external goal enough.

00:10:28.220 It's that if you believe in yourself's ability to achieve that goal enough, it will manifest.

00:10:35.520 And so it wasn't like traditional manifestation, but it was definitely related to that.

00:10:40.120 But you also needed to believe that you were not capable. Like any failure that you have,

00:10:45.460 you reframe as a success in some way. And all of this is combined was repeated affirmation.

00:10:51.700 And so where do we get evidence that this is sort of what influenced Trump's actual religion, right?

00:10:59.620 So basically, I'm saying Trump's religion, like his true religion, if you boil down what he really

00:11:03.660 believed, I think before these last few years, when all of a sudden he's surrounded by Christians and

00:11:07.660 not like New York socialites, was self-help. That was his religion. And an extremist form of self-help

00:11:15.020 focused on self-belief. So in 2000, a Psychological Today interview, Trump stated, quote,

00:11:22.900 what helped is I refuse to give in to the negative circumstances and never lost faith in myself.

00:11:28.860 Note here that he sort of transformed this belief from a faith in Christ or God to a faith in himself.

00:11:34.520 I didn't believe I was finished even when the newspapers were saying so.

00:11:38.600 He added that a firm believer in the power of being positive. And this mirrors something that

00:11:46.220 Peel said, which was never thinking of failing and avoiding fear thoughts, framing self-face as a

00:11:54.020 metaphysical force for overcoming adversity. In The Art of the Deal, that came out in 1987,

00:11:59.620 Trump writes about envisioning grand successes before they happen, such as mentally mapping out

00:12:05.020 deals and properties. He expands on this in the think big kick. I'm going to change it to butt here

00:12:10.520 because I'm not going to curse on a show kids might be watching. Saying, if you're going to be

00:12:14.780 thinking, you may as well think big. And advising readers to see yourself as victorious. A direct nod

00:12:21.580 to Peel's techniques of, quote, formulating a mental picture of success and holding onto it tenaciously,

00:12:27.360 end quote. This implies a metaphysical belief that focused thoughts attract results,

00:12:32.680 akin to new thoughts, law of attraction. In Trump, never give up how I turn my biggest challenges

00:12:39.240 into successes. Trump recounts turning financial lows like his 1990s debt crisis into wins by

00:12:45.200 maintaining positivity. Quote, you will be attacked for trying to change anything, end quote, but

00:12:51.260 quote unquote, never give up. He ties this to Peel's influence, emphasizing self-confidence

00:12:56.980 and refusing negativity are key to manifesting success, even when the facts suggest failure.

00:13:04.340 In the book, How to Get Rich, 2004, where he discusses initiative staccato thinking styles and

00:13:11.440 references figures like Carl Jung for psychological depths, but pivots to practical positivity.

00:13:16.680 Quote, believe in yourself, exclamation mark. Have faith in your abilities, exclamation mark.

00:13:21.140 Echoing the Peel verbatim. He recommended self-help books aligning with this, such as Peel's work and

00:13:27.320 others on strategic thinking, revealing a curated worldview of mind-powered success. And then you

00:13:33.600 think about weird behaviors he has, like his habit of plastering his name all over his projects,

00:13:39.520 like Trump Tower, casinos, everything like that. This stems from one of Peel's teachings,

00:13:44.320 quote, raise one's estimate of ability by 10%, end quote, and desecrate obstacles. During his 1990s

00:13:52.500 bankrupts, he avoided admitting failure, instead reframing them as strategic moves, declaring a

00:13:57.700 quote unquote, never lost face in himself. Wow, this explains so much.

00:14:03.640 A great example of something that can seem really confusing until you understand that as a kid,

00:14:08.840 when he was in religious services, he learned that to be a good Christian, you're supposed to not admit 1.00

00:14:13.540 mistakes, was him never mentioning anything about the covfefe tweet. Never saying, oh, I, you know,

00:14:19.580 I was just sleep deprived and I just tweeted out something random, but pretending it was some sort

00:14:24.860 of like 4D chess move. And it ended up, I think, paying off for him in the eyes of his fans.

00:14:31.000 In terms of magical thinking in politics, yeah, it does. For me, like the moment I heard this,

00:14:36.100 I was like, oh my God, Trump is actually a deeply religious person. And it was a form of Christianity

00:14:42.220 that was actually taught to him in a church. Well, and it makes him seem less,

00:14:47.760 it doesn't sound great to say this, but it makes him seem less sociopathic. Like he wasn't doing

00:14:52.700 this just because he was like, well, I'm just the best. And I believe in myself. He was taught this

00:14:57.140 from a very young age. He was taught this in a church. And that this is a godly way to live life.

00:15:02.040 This is the pious way to live life. This wasn't just him like sociopathically and pathologically

00:15:09.280 believing in himself. It was him adhering to the faith he was presented with in childhood.

00:15:17.700 Yeah. And it was a form of Christianity taught to him. It was in a local church that branded itself

00:15:24.720 as a reformed church. Now, many people may be like a church that teaches you to believe in yourself

00:15:30.680 more than you believe in Christ and all of that. They may be like, that's not like actual Christianity.

00:15:36.260 But it's what Trump was taught with Christianity as he was growing up from a church.

00:15:43.460 And I find this really fascinating. And it explains bizarre behaviors, like putting his name in giant

00:15:49.800 letters on everything. And if you look in politics, you also see this manifesting power,

00:15:56.120 like him sort of believing in this in the way he talks, such as calling the 2016 popular vote

00:16:00.640 loss in the 2020 election results as moral victories. And then when he was early dealing

00:16:06.960 with COVID-19, if you look at this with Peel's philosophy of depreciate every so-called obstacle,

00:16:13.560 he downplayed it in the early days saying it'll disappear like a miracle. Like if he believed that,

00:16:19.720 that is what would eventually happen. And this is something that is commonly believed when you go

00:16:23.640 into this branch of metaphysics. If you look at personal alliances and public endorses,

00:16:28.860 Trump has publicly praised Peel as the greatest guy and as his pastor, officiating his first

00:16:35.860 wedding and showing lifelong integration. His family ties, father Fred's friendship with Peel

00:16:41.260 reinforces, shaping metaphysics where self-belief equates to divine favor. Basically to him,

00:16:48.320 believing in yourself is how you affirm your belief in God.

00:16:53.300 And this belief system feels very intuitive to me because most of my parents were into this to an

00:17:00.240 extent. When I was growing up and I remember being taught some of these ideas, you know, like you,

00:17:05.460 you just believe in yourself enough, you know, things will work out for you. Like,

00:17:10.380 right. Like your mom being like, make more money. And you're like, it doesn't exactly work like that. 0.99

00:17:15.180 And she's like, just go and tell them to give you more pay. Like she'd also always scold me if I 0.95

00:17:21.380 ever said something negative about myself. Oh yeah. Like if you say negative things about yourself,

00:17:26.180 then those things will manifest in your life. Right. Yeah. She was weird about that.

00:17:31.820 Yeah. And so I like grew up, like, it's another reason I probably don't see this as particularly

00:17:36.020 crazy because my parents said this sort of stuff all the time. This was a philosophy that was really

00:17:42.260 big for people growing up in the seventies and eighties. And so I think a lot of our fans who

00:17:46.580 grew up during that period are like, Oh yeah, I remember this was like a cool avant-garde intellectual

00:17:51.180 philosophy during that period. Right. Like Oprah was really into a version of this. Remember through

00:17:57.040 the secret, she was a big promoter of that. But I think the secret is a more toxic version of this.

00:18:02.740 I actually think that there are some psychological benefits to Trump's way of interacting with this.

00:18:09.720 But I also want to go over, we're going to go over all the other places where he talks about

00:18:12.800 religion because I find this really interesting to try and to peel out his religious journey. But 0.99

00:18:18.500 before I do that, I want to go over this idea of his evolving spirituality. Because if you,

00:18:25.940 if you look at these older things, like I'm not a Christian, right? I don't think he fully

00:18:30.100 identified as Christian. And why would he? Like he was in New York socialite living in New York

00:18:34.240 socialite. The, the parts of the lesson that he took apart the most were the,

00:18:38.420 the psychobabble stuff. And the stuff that he didn't take on board was the Christian stuff,

00:18:42.980 maybe because it just wasn't taught that much. Well, and I don't think it was pervasive. Like

00:18:46.300 the kind of Christianity that was big in the nineties, for example, was very different from

00:18:52.200 the type of Christianity today. And it was not in like New York urban culture, really.

00:18:57.800 Yeah. So, so I do believe though, that he went back to Christianity at one point, I think

00:19:04.000 maybe originally, like people know, we originally converted to our form of Christianity because we

00:19:09.580 thought it was what was best for our kids, not because of a belief that it was true. We came to

00:19:14.300 a belief in it was true after converting for our kids. And I think that this happens for a lot of

00:19:19.420 people. Like a lot of people can say, did J.D. Vance convert to Catholicism because Peter Thiel was

00:19:25.260 his sort of, what's the word here? Patron, right? And he wanted to win elections. Honestly,

00:19:34.000 75% chance that the original conversion was in part motivated by political beliefs and political

00:19:40.220 opportunism. But I believe now he is 100% Catholic. And same with Trump. I think Trump originally started

00:19:47.400 framing himself as Christian. Again, not understanding what Christianity was, making these early mistakes.

00:19:52.200 Like, why would I ask God for forgiveness? I don't make mistakes, right? Like to him, that's a totally

00:19:57.100 normal thing to say, given the church he grew up in. But because he's been surrounded by believers for

00:20:02.820 so long now, I think that he's beginning to change in these beliefs and really deeply believe in something

00:20:08.920 closer to a traditional form of Christianity. And with that, he's now applying his metaphysical

00:20:17.720 framework to this new Christianity to like the, oh God, if heaven does exist, I have sinned a lot.

00:20:26.120 Like, and a lot of people think I've sinned a lot. So like, maybe, well, I got to do something big

00:20:30.480 so that when I get to the pearly gates and they're like, what about all those times you cheated? What

00:20:34.420 about all those times, you know, you lusted after other people? What about all those times? He's like,

00:20:38.340 wait, wait, wait a second here. 7,000 people a day. 7,000 innocent souls a day. I saved by ending

00:20:47.260 that war. Can you, can you, it must, a day, a day. He's going in there with the art of the deal.

00:20:56.340 He's, he's, he's stacking. Oh my gosh. I almost promised you like he thieves in his head.

00:21:03.160 And that's the way heaven works in his brain. If he gets up there and he's like, okay, I'm stacking

00:21:08.400 the deck in my favor. I'm going to do all these, I'm working all these good deeds right before I,

00:21:12.720 right before the end here. And, and I'm okay with that, right? Like this is a, this is a,

00:21:17.120 a way to view. It's, it's not different from like indulgences in early Catholicism, right?

00:21:22.960 Right. There are. Well, I mean, it's, it's even better because he's actually doing the thing.

00:21:26.820 I mean, indulgences was just getting people to pray for you. It wasn't materially

00:21:30.340 doing good deeds yourself. So it's, it's even better. Yeah.

00:21:34.400 Yeah. He's just like, he's literally trying to pay in good deeds, which great for him.

00:21:39.820 Nobody tell him that most Christians today believe it's, it's faith alone. Even Catholics,

00:21:44.100 by the way, a lot of people think Catholics don't believe it's faith alone. The Catholics do believe

00:21:47.740 it's faith alone, but good deeds are also important for like another reason. I don't fully understand

00:21:53.300 it, but like, I listened to a lot of theologists on YouTube and this is what they tell me,

00:21:56.960 but anyway, don't, don't tell him that or he's going to stop doing good deeds.

00:21:59.500 Faith alone seems like a cop-out. That's, that's depressing.

00:22:04.980 But it's not just that. I also think that Trump genuinely cares about people dying. Apparently

00:22:08.120 to insiders who know him, it's something that he obsesses over a lot is people dying in wars

00:22:13.860 and, and that he talks about a lot.

00:22:16.720 He comes across as a very, a deeply empathetic person who's, who's affected by human suffering

00:22:21.540 on a profound level. Absolutely.

00:22:23.420 So, Oh, I now want to get into a piece that I really liked because I think it shows Trump's

00:22:29.100 sort of quest on this front that was put out by the free press. You know, I love it called

00:22:32.660 Trump's quest for heaven. And it's a short piece, but I think it really shows his, his,

00:22:38.540 his chase here. So Trump is getting a fair deal of criticism for his efforts to end Russia's war

00:22:44.860 against Ukraine. Just check out what Peter Baker, the New York times chief white house correspondent

00:22:49.440 has been saying about it. And while Baker is no dummy and I sort of am, I'm kind of impressed

00:22:55.200 with this round of Trump diplomacy. Trump didn't get the ceasefire he was hoping for when he met

00:23:00.020 with Vladimir Putin in Alaska last week, but I liked it when a few days later he was in the white house

00:23:05.860 standing with Vladimir Zelensky and seven European leaders. Trump critics insisted that the Europeans

00:23:11.480 went there to babysit and prevent another fight with Zelensky in the oval office. But to me,

00:23:16.640 it looked like a United West led by the U S trying sincerely to end the war while showing Putin 0.99

00:23:22.160 that we would be very, that he would be very stupid to start another one. And now in a welcome 0.98

00:23:27.820 departure from his previous hostile stance towards Kiev, Trump is talking about security guarantees

00:23:32.440 for Ukraine. They all laughed about Zelensky's new suit look in the oval office. And there was no

00:23:38.040 spat between him and the vice president. The whole thing was very much like mom and dad might actually

00:23:42.900 work this out in time for Christmas. The Europeans are stepping up and some credit has to be given 0.81

00:23:47.820 to Trump in that regard. They're increasing their defense spending. The Germans are rolling out 1.00

00:23:51.820 Panthers again, which naturally makes us all a bit nervous, but it's probably a good thing in this

00:23:56.020 case. And we can't be sure that they would be doing any of this if Trump hadn't cajoled and

00:24:01.000 browbeaten them for years. By repeatedly threatening to withdraw from NATO, he might have very well

00:24:06.400 have saved it. Could this be the art of the deal in action? I don't want to go that far.

00:24:11.160 That's the other person saying that. I actually think it is. And I think something that people

00:24:14.240 missed in a lot of the sort of positioning that Trump has, where he'll take one position,

00:24:19.160 then he'll take the other position, then he'll take the other position. And they're like, oh,

00:24:23.060 this is like a failure of negotiation, but it isn't at all a failure. This is what you need to do to

00:24:28.420 negotiate. If people don't know that you can switch teams, then they have no reason to compromise with

00:24:34.320 you. So suppose you're in a room with Putin or something like that. And I love this masterful troll

00:24:40.120 that Putin's troops did after the U.S. Putin meeting. And everyone was like, oh, Trump endorsed 0.68

00:24:44.300 Putin by bringing him in the limo. And so they put U.S. flags next to Russian flags on their APCs

00:24:49.760 invading Ukraine, because, of course, progressives freak out about that. But then Trump immediately

00:24:54.820 goes back. And remember, the first time he meets Zelensky, he basically shouts him out of the room.

00:24:59.780 You know, they're like, how are you not grateful about any of this? They got in a big fight with

00:25:03.700 Zelensky, which as a sign to Putin. So like you're going to Putin. Basically, Trump is like going to

00:25:08.400 Putin, like, I have shown publicly that I am willing to play game with you, right? Putin then

00:25:13.720 goes, I'm not going to end the war. I'm not going to budge on anything. Trump then at first signals,

00:25:19.880 you know, and he did this through a number of like tweets and stuff like this, like, I'm very angry

00:25:22.900 at Putin about this, right? But then he goes, Putin sort of finalizes it in this peace talk where

00:25:28.460 Putin is just like, I'm not going to do it. So Trump had given Putin the most he could possibly give

00:25:32.880 Putin to put Putin on the good foot. If Putin was ever going to be persuaded to do this,

00:25:36.740 Trump needed to first have the big falling out with Zelensky. He then needed to be nice to Putin.

00:25:41.340 He then needed to have this meeting with Putin while also making it clear that he would switch

00:25:45.020 to the other side. Putin doesn't agree. Then Trump has this meeting with Zelensky,

00:25:49.220 reaffirms US support of Ukraine in the war financially. And at the same time, by doing

00:25:56.240 this flip-flop, he gets Europe to fund Ukraine even more instead of leading us to foot the bill.

00:26:02.580 Sounds good to me. Across the board, it's fairly clever diplomacy. And a lot of people just fail

00:26:09.700 to see it because I guess they expect politicians to just always have one perspective, which I get,

00:26:15.100 right? Like they're used to that, but you can't make a deal if you always have one perspective,

00:26:18.780 because then it's always just a compromised version of that perspective. You can't go from

00:26:23.460 one party to the other party and be like, well, if I can't make a deal with you, then I'll make a deal

00:26:27.200 with them. And then to continue to the speech, because this is where he added the thing about

00:26:31.260 Trump bartering, you know, being like those 7,000 people. Trump seems to really genuinely want to

00:26:35.760 end this war. It's really who knows what goes on in Trump's head, but he's gotten good at his

00:26:40.980 peace brokering thing. Earlier this month, he got Armenia and Azerbaijan to stop shooting each other.

00:26:46.340 In June, he helped to broker another peace deal between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and

00:26:50.860 Rwanda. This might be small potatoes compared to Russia, Ukraine. But let's also remember that his 1.00

00:26:56.740 bombing of Iran's major nuclear enrichment sites ended the 12 day war between Tehran and Israel.

00:27:01.800 He might not be terrible at this exclamation mark. And I agree with that. I mean, I think

00:27:06.400 a lot of people were like, why is the US getting involved in this particular bombing? But we know

00:27:11.200 Israel wasn't going to stop the bombing until they felt that they had de-armed Tehran in terms of 0.91

00:27:15.400 its nuclear projects. The US basically is like, hey, we'll come in, we'll do this one big,

00:27:21.080 you know, bunker buster bomb thing or a few big bunker buster bombs. But on the condition,

00:27:26.580 you stop bombing immediately after. And they stopped bombing after. And then keep in mind,

00:27:30.500 Tehran keeps bombing them for a while after that. And so it took a while to negotiate this,

00:27:34.880 but they got it handled, right? Like that war could have really escalated. And it was Trump's

00:27:40.540 intervention that all of the Democrats criticized him for that gave Israel the peace of mind to stop

00:27:46.480 the conflict. And people can say, why doesn't he end the war in Gaza? And it's like, well,

00:27:52.620 that is a much more existential crisis for Israel. And I don't really see how that gets resolved

00:27:59.140 in any way that people want to talk about. But I think that Trump, and I think that Trump has shrewdly

00:28:07.260 not overly tried to engage there. I don't think that there's much we can do to Israel to get them 0.98

00:28:11.600 to end that conflict. That's not just going to drive a wedge between our relationship without

00:28:15.860 achieving the set goals. And the more you drive a wedge between that relationship, the more Israel 0.88

00:28:20.320 just no longer has any leash at all to do whatever it wants, which I think a lot of these European 1.00

00:28:25.340 powers don't worry, don't really grok. Like if you've already said, I just won't engage with you at

00:28:31.840 all. I won't give you, you know, any funding. I won't connect with you in any way. Why would they,

00:28:37.580 why would they listen to what you're pushing? And no amount of cutting things is going to cause

00:28:42.920 Israel to cave on an issue that's so existential for them. Right.

00:28:46.940 And I note here, I also think that Trump, as in his last administration, did a good job at ending

00:28:51.940 wars. It just seems to be something that he's exceptionally good at and fairly dedicated to.

00:28:57.140 Like he sees this as one of his jobs. Trump's an old man. He's presumably thinking about his legacy.

00:29:02.920 Some have speculated that he wants a Nobel Prize, which I'm sure is also true.

00:29:07.580 But also I'd safely wager that is never going to happen. He probably also wants an Oscar,

00:29:12.000 Tony and any other trophy he can get his hands on. But he'll call up Fox and Friends on Tuesday to

00:29:17.300 announce a different motive behind his diplomacy. And that's getting into heaven. But I think,

00:29:23.700 and this is where, I'm sorry, this is where they had the 7,000 people line. If I can save 7,000 people

00:29:28.040 a week from getting killed, I want to try that and get into heaven if possible. Trump said,

00:29:32.600 I'm not doing well. I'm really at the bottom of the totem pole. But if I can get into heaven,

00:29:38.020 this will be one of the reasons. I love it. And then the person writing the article goes on to

00:29:43.540 say, for a second there, Trump sounded like an old school Catholic, which he very much is not,

00:29:47.400 having been raised a Presbyterian. And it's the first time I can remember this president musing

00:29:51.720 about the afterlife. I respect how Trump never pretended to be an evangelical, despite the tremendous

00:29:57.420 weight in GOP primaries, when he first ran for president. Who can forget when he said he'd never

00:30:03.500 in his life asked God for forgiveness? He's a sinner and a somewhat proud one. Trump's religious

00:30:09.020 foundation, such as it is, was largely formed under the guidance of Protestant preacher turned

00:30:13.600 self-help guru, Norman Vincent Peale, best known for the book, The Power of Positive Thinking.

00:30:18.960 Peale even officiated Trump's first wedding. But while Trump certainly took confidence-building

00:30:23.120 aspects of Peale's thinking seriously, one of Peale's most famous pearls of self-helpitude,

00:30:27.800 quote, make a true estimate of your ability, then raise it 10%, end quote. This president has never

00:30:33.560 appeared partial to the whole Jesus thing. I'm not naive enough to say that perhaps Trump

00:30:38.540 is changing or growing before our eyes. As of now, as far as I'm concerned, he's the same

00:30:44.740 venal jerk he's always been. Then again, perhaps this is a guy who, facing the end of his political 0.99

00:30:49.880 career in just a few short years, is reckoning a bit with his mortality and deepening ever so

00:30:56.300 slightly. And if he's motivated to end wars by the prospect of seeing those pearly gates on which he

00:31:02.420 presumably will install a gold mailbox, it's a good trade to me. Actually, that's actually a good

00:31:08.700 point. I wonder if in Trump's mind the pearly gates are gold and not pearl. I'm sure they are when

00:31:15.380 he pictures them. It's gold and the angel is at a gold podium. Well, actually, I think in so many

00:31:20.560 cartoons, they are just drawn as being gold. It's more visually appealing. Okay. Okay. Well,

00:31:26.560 I just Google image search pearly gates. Yeah. They often look pretty freaking gold. Yeah.

00:31:34.580 Do you think it has a, do you think it has a big T on it that opens up? Yeah. Just put his name on it.

00:31:40.420 Donald Trump. I would love that. Did they do a South Park about that? I feel like people would

00:31:48.420 absolutely freak out about the idea of like Trump buying heaven and like branding it all Trump

00:31:53.440 themed. And that sounds like a South Park episode to me. Well, in the first one of the new season,

00:31:58.360 they did, or second one, they went to heaven to get the Mexicans or whatever. 0.91

00:32:04.760 Oh yeah. To arrest the Mexicans. 1.00

00:32:06.100 You're like shooting them all. To deport them all. Yeah. That was, that was great. Yeah. But yeah. 1.00

00:32:12.520 So this to me is a really interesting thing to think about. One, the people who were earlier,

00:32:20.920 you know, you can tell from this guy's writing, he's Trump skeptic, but he's like in this one area,

00:32:25.800 Trump seems to be fairly dedicated to, to win the battles he can win and to not attempt the battles

00:32:31.880 he can't win and to engage in areas where there's conflict, where even the U S isn't involved.

00:32:37.300 I do like, I do. And people can be like, well, are you suggesting that Trump was lying when he first

00:32:44.000 said he was a Christian and that it took a while for him to like, yeah, probably. I mean, if we know

00:32:52.160 that Trump has lied about things before, I don't think that there's like some Republican faction that

00:32:56.540 thinks that Trump is not a person who would lie to get a deal in his favor. Right. But I also think

00:33:03.720 that now so close to the end of his life, he is genuinely motivated both by the compassion he has

00:33:11.040 for other people, but by beginning to re-engage metaphysically while keeping in mind his metaphysical

00:33:17.880 roots. So what do you get here, Simone? So there's variation, but the most commonly cited by the,

00:33:25.140 the white house and the Trump administration are the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. This is between

00:33:31.880 Armenia and Azerbaijan. He helped broker a peace agreement in August, 2025. So like actually just

00:33:37.540 now that ended decades of violence. There's a democratic Republic of Congo in Rwanda. So in June

00:33:45.400 of 2025, the DRC in Rwanda signed a peace agreement that was brokered at the white house. That one was

00:33:51.480 really bad. That one had a genocide as a component of it. Yeah. And the whole peace agreement was aimed

00:33:55.960 at ending the cross-border violence in a major humanitarian crisis. So that's, that's pretty

00:34:01.200 cool. I mean, I guess, you know, TBD, cause it was just June, how that goes. Then three is Serbia and

00:34:06.900 Kosovo. Trump claims credit for facilitating peace talks and normalization between Serbia and Kosovo,

00:34:12.520 which have been in conflict since the breakup of Yugoslavia. And then Egypt and Ethiopia,

00:34:19.000 the grand Ethiopian, Ethiopian Renaissance dam dispute, which I've never heard of.

00:34:25.080 Oh, I've read a lot on this. It's really bad. It was almost certainly going to, that's not going

00:34:29.140 to lead to a war now. There were tensions between Egypt and Ethiopia, Ethiopia over the Nile dam,

00:34:34.200 which had raised the risk of armed escalation. Oh yeah. Yeah. Okay. So there's a dam on the,

00:34:39.460 on the Nile. Yeah. So it almost certainly would have caused a war. So Ethiopia is, is upstream of 0.90

00:34:47.200 Egypt on the Nile, right? Yeah. Yeah. Nile, big river, right? Big. If you put a dam in the Nile,

00:34:53.200 you can have most of the power needs of the entire country of Ethiopia met. But now Egypt loses fresh

00:35:00.220 water. Egypt's entire civilization is built on the Nile. If you, if you look at where people live in

00:35:06.540 Egypt, it's all right around the Nile and they don't even have enough fresh water as it is in

00:35:11.040 Egypt for their existing infrastructure needs. Yeah. So it's, it's an existential issue for both

00:35:18.540 countries for, you know, Ethiopia, it's free power for a huge chunk of their country for Egypt. It is 0.56

00:35:25.700 an end to their ability to live. You can see why both countries would go for it.

00:35:31.280 Okay. Yeah. I totally get that now that that is totally fair. And then India and Pakistan,

00:35:37.120 the white house includes Trump's diplomatic involvement to deescalate border tensions

00:35:41.580 between India and Pakistan, particularly over Kashmir. No formal peace treaty was signed,

00:35:46.300 but violence reportedly subsided after us led negotiations that was flaring up in May.

00:35:53.040 So no. And, and the countries have nominated him for a Nobel prize.

00:35:57.160 So sorry, it was Pakistan only, not India as well, because India has some weird thing about 1.00

00:36:03.560 foreign powers intervening in the, in the mediations. But anyway, Pakistan who nominated him for a peace

00:36:10.720 prize stating it was for his decisive diplomatic intervention and pivotal leadership.

00:36:16.680 I can't remember if it was India or Pakistan, but I think Trump actually.

00:36:20.420 Yeah. I mean, tops.

00:36:22.140 So yeah, he definitely from their perspective was the key player in ending the conflict. You know,

00:36:29.200 you don't do that if you don't think that he was the one who got this done. And that could have

00:36:33.720 been a nuclear war. That could have been an absolutely egregious war. But can you look at

00:36:40.720 the ones from the last administration of his? Cause those are all from this administration. I don't

00:36:45.060 want what the, what he, and also look at the context of them. But the other thing I wanted to note

00:36:49.660 here is the war end with the Ukraine. So a lot of people that look at me and they'll be like,

00:36:52.880 well, you don't just want to end a war. Like what about all the people who've died so far in the

00:36:55.760 war in the Ukraine? Like how dare he in this on Russia's terms, i.e. keeping the existing land. 0.64

00:37:01.600 And even in some areas, pushing back past the existing front lines. I actually think the deal

00:37:08.120 that he was trying to get from Russia of keeping the existing land and pushing past the front lines in 0.57

00:37:12.480 a few areas was an extremely good deal from the Ukrainian perspective, especially if Ukraine could

00:37:18.200 loop in UN membership to it. I don't think that they'd be able to get NATO membership,

00:37:22.640 but I think they could have gotten UN membership if they made the territorial concessions.

00:37:26.080 And people can say, Malcolm, Malcolm, Malcolm, how could you say that? And I'm like, bro,

00:37:29.620 Ukraine has a fertility rate of like 1.2. They're basically halving their population every

00:37:34.380 generation. Russia is at about the same level. Okay. In the new world order where populations of 1.00

00:37:42.360 productive individuals are falling rapidly, what matters is your population, not how much land you

00:37:49.500 have. And if you, you trade a population for, for dirt, people a hundred years from now are just

00:37:56.840 going to see it as crazy. They're going to be like, why did anyone ever do that? Why are they

00:38:00.580 worse trading human lives for soil? Right? Like as soon as you know that you're going to be losing,

00:38:07.760 you know, a thousand citizens a day or something like that, you know, keep in mind, these are,

00:38:12.920 these are fathers of people's kids and stuff like that. Right. You get to a point where you've just

00:38:17.140 got to be like, I guess that now we just have to say it sucks that this happened. And you can be like,

00:38:23.720 oh, you are, you are giving into a dictator. Right. And I always point out Russia is not in a position

00:38:29.840 now to do another war. Everyone's like, oh, next they'll attack, you know, Northern Europe or

00:38:34.700 something like that. I'm like the, they had this giant stockpile from the cold war of old musicians

00:38:44.360 and old planes and old truck missions. Yeah. He said musicians and it was just a stockpile of old

00:38:54.340 musicians that they shot at the Ukrainians. Yeah. So they have mimes as well. Mimes. 0.62

00:39:02.160 They sent their mimes and musicians to the Ukraine. No, but they had this giant stockpile. That is what

00:39:08.400 allowed them to fight the beginning of this war, but they have burned through that stockpile at this

00:39:15.140 point. And second, they also lost a lot of their fighting population. They just don't have like

00:39:23.180 no normal country would have fought to a level of depletion of their troops as Russia has.

00:39:29.360 The only reason they fought this far is because Ukraine's allies are basically keeping it from

00:39:33.580 invading Russia. And the way we know that is when there was, you know, turning against Putin and

00:39:39.820 then marching on Moscow, right? There was no forces to stop him. He was basically just able to march

00:39:45.440 straight to Moscow. It looked like it was very little pushback with only a fairly small contingent

00:39:51.520 of troops, which showed that Russia cannot defend itself right now if somebody went into Russian

00:39:56.840 territory. Well, I mean, though that didn't exactly. Well, it didn't exactly go the way he wanted it to,

00:40:02.780 but it was not because of Russia's ability to defend itself with its own troops. It was due to

00:40:07.680 sort of internal politics. So that was, that was not, not great for Russia. But yeah, the point I'm

00:40:13.540 making here is, and in addition to all of that, like not only do they not have the manpower or anything

00:40:18.500 like that, but this war, Putin went into it because all of his intelligence told him, this is going to

00:40:26.600 be really easy. You're going to be able to run and take the capital. Everyone's going to forget about it.

00:40:30.640 We've paid off all the politicians. Don't worry about it. We've paid off all the politicians. This is what

00:40:34.540 everything, even if all of Putin's intelligence services were telling him, don't worry, you could just

00:40:42.020 take Estonia. You can just take Finland. You don't need to worry about this at all. We've handled everything.

00:40:46.760 Europe's not going to react, which they're not telling him. I promise you, this is not what they're telling

00:40:51.400 him because this isn't true. But even if they did tell him that, do you think he's going to believe it this

00:40:57.240 time? Do you think he's going to risk a giant black eye like this again? No, he's not. Not for the rest

00:41:05.480 of his life is he going to risk this again. This idea that he's just going to be like, oh, I won that

00:41:11.060 one. Yay. Look at these, you know, minor territorial gains I made. What's going to happen is he's going to

00:41:16.460 be like, well, I better make sure I don't do that again because I am out of weapons and I am in a

00:41:22.900 dangerous position geopolitically because of my incredibly low fertility rates, which are lower than most

00:41:28.580 European countries. And keep in mind, they also had a giant brain drain as well because of the war, which

00:41:34.500 again puts them on the back foot economically when they switch out of a wartime economy. So I just don't see

00:41:39.980 that. And then people are like, what about the nukes? I point out to people that Russia hasn't successfully

00:41:46.260 tested one of its nukes since before I was born. Oh, since, you know, if, if their nukes are in any

00:41:53.780 condition, like the rest of their, they won't work incredibly hard to keep up. Yeah. Since, since 30,

00:41:59.840 30 years ago or more since, since anyone has tested that these nukes work, I, I can guarantee you,

00:42:06.020 they are terrified to attempt to use one of these nukes and you can say, oh, well, you know, at least

00:42:10.700 they try it. I was like, you know what? The fact that they haven't tested one recently to show the

00:42:15.580 world that they still work to me indicates that they know they don't. So I've, I've just not

00:42:21.280 worried at all there because if he wanted to do that, what he would do like, this is me. Okay.

00:42:25.240 I'm in Putin's shoes, right? I want to be able to use nukes to scare people and other politicians in

00:42:30.560 a war. What do I do? I go and I secretly test some to see if they work. And then if they work,

00:42:37.320 I announced that the test happened. Obviously it comes up on like seismographs and like public stuff

00:42:42.340 and everybody else knows they work, but I do this in secret and I would certainly try this.

00:42:46.240 I'd want to know if this stuff works. So my best guess is Putin actually has tested the nukes and

00:42:52.960 that they don't work. I don't see why he would leave this up to chance. That just seems illogical.

00:42:57.260 So my best guess is Putin has tested his nukes and he knows they don't work.

00:43:01.220 Now people would say you shouldn't roll the dice on something like that, but I'm like,

00:43:04.180 but there's not a lot of reason for Putin to escalate in that way because that would cause other

00:43:09.700 people to, to escalate was potentially attacking the homeland, even if they don't go in with nukes,

00:43:15.380 then that's very bad for him. Like you can say like, well, what if one in five of them works or

00:43:18.960 something like that? Still very dangerous for him to engage in that sort of, you know, doing a,

00:43:24.760 what's the word I'm looking for here? Coordinated like nuke, nuke strike.

00:43:29.740 And keep in mind, every part of the nuke has to work. The giant missile has to work.

00:43:33.420 The warhead has to work. It's so many things. When you, when you look at the fact that the jets

00:43:39.340 had, had been like internally stripped and all their parts had been sold so bad, I'm not so

00:43:44.880 worried about the nukes. But anyway, the point here being, if I actually think that from a morality

00:43:50.360 perspective, I know it sucks, but in terms of what you can realistically accomplish, because

00:43:55.800 why would Putin give up his territorial gains? Like, like, just think about it like a businessman 0.74

00:44:00.520 doing a deal. Why is Putin going to give those up? You can say because his people are dying.

00:44:05.140 Not exactly. He's in kind of a different position than the Ukraine in terms of people dying.

00:44:10.100 So Putin puts into his troops, people who are in prison systems, people who are of ethnic minorities. 1.00

00:44:17.800 He doesn't really put lots of productive ethnic Russians in his troops. When I say ethnic Russians, 0.78

00:44:25.060 I mean like of, of his sort of Slavic ethnic background. He is essentially trying to create 0.99

00:44:30.220 a eugenic genetic pressure through the, the, the war while also shoring up his ethnic group,

00:44:38.220 which is uniquely low fertility by exterminating other ethnic groups for him. It's kind of okay. 1.00

00:44:44.480 If the war keeps going on in the Ukraine, that's not the case in the Ukraine. It's like patriotic

00:44:49.400 Ukrainian, like programmers who are in the war. This was a very different scenario in terms of

00:44:55.500 how each side values the lives that are dying. And Simone recently asked me, well, how can,

00:45:01.600 how can, why isn't Zelensky taking the deal if it just ends the death? And I'm like two things.

00:45:07.620 He genuinely does believe Russia will attack again, which I think, you know, they did attack 0.97

00:45:12.360 Georgia again after the peace deal. So I understand that. And the U S did have a pact saying that they

00:45:18.020 would protect Ukraine when Ukraine gave up its nukes. So I can see why he doesn't believe us when we say

00:45:22.820 otherwise now, but I, what was I going to say here? I just think he's wrong in this assertion.

00:45:29.340 If he can get EU membership, I do not think that if he can get EU membership, people will see this

00:45:34.580 the same, or Putin would see attacking it the same. I mean, it would be a huge win economically for the

00:45:39.060 existing people who do survive within the Ukraine. The, the second reason I think he's doing it is

00:45:44.900 because he is really scared legacy wise about all of the people who sacrificed themselves sort of

00:45:53.120 having their lives, not matter in his eyes, but they saved all of Ukraine. You, you, Putin wanted

00:45:58.620 Kiev, Putin wanted the whole thing. Okay. So yeah, that's where we are with that. And I appreciate

00:46:04.820 what Trump is doing with this, by the way, wars ended in the first administration. Did you get any here?

00:46:09.100 Okay. Highlighted is Israel and the UAE, the Abraham Accords. That was the big one, August, 0.99

00:46:15.120 2020. Big one. Yeah. Yeah. And there was also Serbia and Kosovo. Trump administration

00:46:20.540 facilitated economic normalization agreements in September, 2020. I don't remember, but I mean,

00:46:26.680 it was 2020 who knows what was going on. Right. And also in February of 2020. So before the pandemic

00:46:31.680 really hit, there was a Taliban peace deal in Afghanistan where the Trump administration signed a

00:46:37.880 conditional peace agreement within the Taliban, setting a timeline for the withdrawal of U S troops

00:46:43.380 in Afghanistan. I mean, that didn't exactly play out. Yeah. And well, but they tried. So, I mean,

00:46:49.640 you know, well, it ended well, as long as Trump was in office. Yeah. Yeah. They were on their way.

00:46:54.820 There was, there was theoretically a path. And then Biden was like, yoink.

00:47:00.280 Just all right. Have a spectacular day, Simone. Does this change your view of Trump?

00:47:05.800 Totally. No, this, this explains it. It, it, it really, it humanizes him more. It gives him,

00:47:11.800 it makes him seem more moral and less like selfish and delusional. It's very interesting. So thank you

00:47:19.540 for digging deeper here. Cause who knew, right? I just thought the punchline was, you know, that great

00:47:25.400 exchange with Trump being asked when his favorite Bible passages were and him just being like, I don't,

00:47:30.400 that's highly personal. I don't talk about it. The one that says you're the best. If you believe

00:47:36.440 you're the best. Yeah. That one. Love you. Love you too. How about now?

00:48:06.440 All right. How am I coming through? Yes. I can hear you now. Good. That is absolutely wonderful.

00:48:12.860 Sorry for being late again to start this. I'm like, okay, everything's set. I'm all good to go.

00:48:17.640 Just going to quickly change Indy's diaper before her nap. But of course it's diarrhea. And of course

00:48:22.760 it's blowout. And of course the moment that I open up her diaper, she shoves her shirt down into it. 1.00

00:48:27.820 And then she takes her other hand and she grabs down into it. And I don't like, do I need to hog tie

00:48:33.340 her just to change her diaper now? Like what, what am I supposed to do? That's why. The cleanup, the. 0.99

00:48:40.620 She just loves tormenting you. All of her children do. Oh my gosh. Last night.

00:48:46.800 Does it float? I love that you heard that and you knew there was a major issue going on.

00:48:52.060 I spent the night telling Titan and Torsten, it's not okay to play with water unless these very

00:48:59.260 specific contexts are in place. Like it's okay to use the toilet and wash your hands and brush your

00:49:04.600 teeth and play with water toys at water time. We don't play with water in the house.

00:49:11.440 What's the first thing they do when they go to bed?

00:49:15.480 Go to the sink, fill up a bucket, bring it over the bed.

00:49:19.460 Oh my gosh. I love that you could hear them through the floor just a little.

00:49:24.380 Thank goodness our house is so old. You can just hear everything everywhere.

00:49:29.400 So comments today. Some were good, I guess.

00:49:33.540 Yeah. No, it's, it's so funny how like videos that like the YouTube algorithm loves or hates,

00:49:39.880 it doesn't predict whether people will love it or hate it on X or on Substack or elsewhere.

00:49:46.260 I really don't know what to expect anymore. But yeah, I think a lot of people

00:49:51.440 pointed out that also like economic growth and prospects was a major factor in whether a country

00:50:03.900 had a baby boom. Like it wasn't just looking forward to a bright future because you could argue

00:50:10.120 that in Soviet countries, there was at least a lot of optimistic propaganda. So also apparently

00:50:20.260 Austria wasn't communist. So maybe I was right. The AI was wrong. I, I will dig into this more,

00:50:29.000 but hopefully I get sweet, sweet vindication. So we'll see. As for AI, there's this really big

00:50:34.540 bifurcation between people who like, just don't get it yet, or because they personally don't see it.

00:50:41.860 They just, regardless of us saying it's probably an issue of you just not personally seeing it.

00:50:47.680 Like they still refuse to believe that it's going to be disruptive. And then those who get it,

00:50:55.740 plenty of people say, well, yeah, but I still think that many large AI companies are in a bubble.

00:51:00.480 And I don't doubt that at all. And I don't think you doubt that either. They're, they're massively

00:51:04.480 overvalued, especially because you believe, and I think that you have very good reason to believe

00:51:08.520 this, that they're likely to become commoditized and undifferentiated in the end. So yeah, absolutely.

00:51:15.000 There's an AI company bubble, but that doesn't mean AI is overhyped and people just trying to like

00:51:22.120 lull themselves into this false sense of security that AI is not going to change everything very

00:51:27.940 fundamentally. This is silly. There are also some people who are like, well, AI hasn't changed that 0.97

00:51:32.660 much. I've only done like this, that, and the other thing with it. And they like proceed to talk

00:51:37.020 about how like huge flows in their life have changed, but they're like, but I could, I could

00:51:43.340 never use it to do this aspect of my work. And it's like, well, yeah, but you just rattled off like

00:51:48.960 five other things that you've completely outsourced to AI now. I don't know what to tell you,

00:51:54.780 but like AI is overhyped. I think people, they forget, it's like you, you normalize to a new luxury.

00:51:59.000 They forget how much they're using it. Oh yeah. Someone's comment also was like,

00:52:02.960 I mean, consider how life hasn't really changed that much since the nineties. And I'm like,

00:52:07.940 what are you talking about? Yeah. I mean, I'm hoping that was a joke.

00:52:12.940 There was some sarchasm between us. I hope that was sarchasm. Yeah. I hope so too, but we'll see. 1.00

00:52:18.880 The person who was like, AI is just a lossy algorithm. And you're like, okay, it's a lossy

00:52:24.200 algorithm speaking for a lossy algorithm, you know? Yeah. I'm sorry about that. Anyway,

00:52:28.820 I'll get started on this one. Awesome.

00:52:33.460 Okay. So what happened, Torsten? Can you explain?

00:52:35.880 Well, I was blowing up for an inch with a lot of pieces then I just...

00:52:43.200 Octavian, did you make a mud moat around our house?

00:52:45.900 Yes, I did. And is that how we're going to be protected?

00:52:49.880 Yeah. And what happens when a bad guy gets in the mud moat?

00:52:54.400 Um, they were not like in the mud. And when he's distracted, he did the mud moat and get a shoot him like this.

00:53:03.060 That makes a lot of sense.

00:53:06.580 Professor, what about you? What are you going to do when the bad guy gets in the mud moat? 0.96

00:53:08.960 What did you find?

00:53:17.240 Well, I find this.

00:53:19.060 Oh my God, it's a crystal.

00:53:20.760 Yeah.

00:53:21.440 Sure, come. Sure, go in.

00:53:23.220 It's a little dirty. You can't clean it off.

00:53:26.320 Well, you can clean it off with water.

00:53:28.300 By the way, Torsten, I think that's quartz.

00:53:30.960 Sure, go in.

00:53:31.960 Sure, go in.

00:53:33.960 Yes.

Based Camp - September 02, 2025

Trump's Unusual Beliefs About God & the Afterlife (An Investigation)

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