The Ben Shapiro Show - Ep. 219 - Trump Eats Dinner With a Side of Romney

Ben Shapiro and Adam Carolla discuss the ethics issues surrounding Donald Trump s business interests, Mitt Romney's dinner with Donald Trump, and the potential trade war between the U.S. and China. Plus, the latest in the Trump-McMitt Romney saga, and much, much more. Ben Shapiro is on The Ben Shapiro Show on Comedy Central's Late Night with Seth Meyers, and is a regular contributor on the and radio show on KWVS Radio in Springfield, MA. He is also the host of the conservative radio show on CBS Radio's "The O.C. Morning Show". He can be reached at ben.shapiro@cnn.com and is one of the most influential conservative voices in American politics. His work can be found at cnn.fm/TheBenShapiroShow and he is a frequent contributor on conservative media outlets such as CNN and the New York Times. If you like what you hear, please HIT SUBSCRIBE on Apple Podcasts and leave us a rating and review! if you re a supporter of our show and/or have any other recommendations or suggestions for future guests. We ll be looking out for you in the coming weeks. on our new bi-weekly presidential candidates! on the next episode of The Weekly Standard, coming soon! Subscribe to our new podcast, The FiveThirtyEight. Subscribe on iTunes and rate/subscribe to our newest podcast, FiveThirtyeight! Learn more about your ad choices! and our upcoming releases! Thanks for listening to FiveThirtynine s newest episode: Subscribe and review our newest episode of Five ThirtyEight's New Year's Eve special! is out now! - click here to get exclusive ad-free version of the show recommendations and much more! Thank you for listening and reviewing our new episodes coming soon on The Six Sigma s newest issue of The Six Figures Podcasts! in the next issue of Six Sigma's newest issue, Six Figures is out on Tuesday, February 14th and 15th, out on all major podcast directories and social media platforms everywhere else gets a chance to review the best of the best vids on the web? The Sixteenth episode of FourThirtyEight's newest podcast on the Fourteenth episode on the Six Sigma Podcasts Network? Subscribe for the latest Sixteenth Podcasts review the latest episode of Six Figures podcast?

00:00:00.000 One of the biggest problems dogging the incoming Trump administration would be Donald Trump's vast business holdings conflicting with his performance as president.

00:00:07.000 In the week after the election, the Washington Post reported that Trump D.C.

00:00:10.000 hotel officials had done outreach to local foreign embassies.

00:00:14.000 Trump met with Indian businessmen who work with his brand.

00:00:16.000 Ivanka Trump took part in a state meeting with the Japanese prime minister.

00:00:19.000 An Argentinian reporter said that Trump and his daughter had requested a business favor on a phone call with the Argentinian president.

00:00:25.000 By the way, the favor was later granted.

00:00:27.000 Trump himself told the New York Times that he'd be capable

00:00:29.000 We're good to go.

00:00:49.000 While I am not mandated to do this under the law, I feel it is visually important as president to in no way have a conflict of interest with my various businesses.

00:00:57.000 Hence, legal documents are being crafted which take me completely out of business operations.

00:01:01.000 The presidency is a far more important task.

00:01:04.000 So here's the deal.

00:01:04.000 This isn't enough.

00:01:05.000 We still need to know exactly how these legal documents will shape up.

00:01:08.000 Is Trump giving up his ownership stake?

00:01:10.000 There's no indicator he is.

00:01:11.000 Will his children continue to run the business, and yet continue to also advise him in his role as president?

00:01:16.000 That would actually maintain the conflict.

00:01:17.000 Will Trump liquidate his businesses?

00:01:19.000 Really, really unlikely.

00:01:20.000 In a joint statement, Richard Painter, who's George W.'

00:01:23.000 's ethics lawyer, and Norman Elson, who's Obama's ethics lawyer, they said Trump's continued business interest would, quote, sometimes conflict with the public interest and constantly raise questions.

00:01:31.000 But!

00:01:32.000 But, at least Trump recognizes the problem.

00:01:35.000 That's at least half the battle.

00:01:36.000 We can actually hope that he'll be cautious enough to silo his businesses and political interests, preventing the taint of his scandal from destroying his White House before it launches.

00:01:45.000 Good for Trump!

00:01:46.000 Now let's pray that he carries out his pledge.

00:01:48.000 I'm Ben Shapiro.

00:01:48.000 This is The Ben Shapiro Show.

00:01:53.000 All righty, so here we are.

00:01:55.000 Lots to get to today.

00:01:56.000 We're going to be having on Adam Carolla in just a few moments to discuss his new movie, his new documentary out called The 24-Hour War.

00:02:01.000 I've watched most of it.

00:02:03.000 It is really, really good, really fascinating, and about the American auto industry and about car racing in general.

00:02:09.000 We'll talk to Adam in just a second.

00:02:10.000 But first, we have to say hello to our friends over at Legacy Box.

00:02:14.000 This is an advertiser I feel very strongly about.

00:02:16.000 It's Legacybox.com slash Ben.

00:02:18.000 The way Legacybox works is they allow you to keep all of your memories by basically sending all your old films, we're talking reels, we're talking VHS videos, and they convert all of this stuff

00:02:29.000 We're good to go.

00:02:52.000 They put a sticker on there with a barcode so you can actually see where in the process all of your film is.

00:02:57.000 They have experts who go through it, make sure that it still works, make sure that it's all in order.

00:03:01.000 And I'm very big on preserving memories of the past, because I think you lose the past, you lose your family history, that's a real tragedy.

00:03:07.000 There's a reason why, when everybody says there's a fire, you grab your photo album.

00:03:11.000 There's a reason why they do that.

00:03:13.000 And right now, this allows you to instead of have 20 boxes full of stuff you'll never look at in your garage,

00:03:17.000 Okay, so joining us on the line is, oh actually sorry, he'll be joining us shortly so we'll get to that in just a second.

00:03:43.000 First, we'll jump right into the news.

00:03:45.000 So, the big news of the day yesterday was that Mittens-McRomney met with Donald Trump, and I do love how this went down.

00:03:53.000 So basically, they met, and here's a picture of that.

00:03:57.000 Well, first of all, I just need to set the stage.

00:04:00.000 Here's what Mitt Romney said about Donald Trump during the campaign, if you recall.

00:04:04.000 If we make improvident choices, the bright horizon I've described will not materialize.

00:04:10.000 And let me put it very plainly.

00:04:13.000 If we Republicans choose Donald Trump as our nominee, the prospects for a safe and prosperous future are greatly diminished.

00:04:22.000 If Donald Trump's plans were ever implemented, the country would sink into prolonged recession.

00:04:29.000 A few examples.

00:04:30.000 His proposed 35% tariff-like penalties would instigate a trade war.

00:04:37.000 And that would raise prices for consumers, kill our export jobs, and lead on to... ...a phony too, right? 1.00

00:04:44.000 He says that Trump is a phony, he's a conman, he's a liar, basically. 0.99

00:04:47.000 I mean, this is a pretty brutal speech, if you recall, this was in March during the primaries. 0.99

00:04:51.000 And so, you know, bottom line is that Romney was not very friendly to Trump.

00:04:54.000 And now they get together for dinner, and here's the picture of them at dinner.

00:04:58.000 It's just astonishingly good.

00:05:01.000 Oh, it's just wonderful.

00:05:02.000 I love it so much.

00:05:04.000 I will say that this presidency thus far has been wildly entertaining.

00:05:08.000 The picture of Trump with Obama was great enough.

00:05:10.000 This picture, just the way that it's lit, and the expressions on their face, so spectacular.

00:05:14.000 For folks who are going to be listening to this later,

00:05:16.000 Look at Romney's face.

00:05:18.000 Romney's like, oh my god, what happened to me, right?

00:05:21.000 This is the typical, this is like the photo.

00:05:23.000 Freeze frame.

00:05:24.000 How did I get here?

00:05:26.000 Well, let me explain from the beginning.

00:05:27.000 And then you rewind it six months.

00:05:30.000 It's incredible.

00:05:31.000 So there's his face.

00:05:32.000 Go back to the first picture for a second.

00:05:33.000 Uh, the first picture of Trump sitting there and he's lit from the bottom like you're in a campfire and they're, they're doing like a, you're gonna tell a horror story.

00:05:40.000 And he's lit from below and his face is red.

00:05:42.000 It's like, it looks like Mitt Romney just signed away his soul in a really bad business deal to Donald Trump.

00:05:48.000 And Trump's sitting there grinning like Satan, like the Cheshire Cat.

00:05:51.000 It's just spectacular in every way.

00:05:53.000 I love it so much.

00:05:55.000 Just the, the fact that Romney keeps going there and going there just to like get slapped around.

00:05:59.000 And people were getting very funny about this.

00:06:01.000 Like, the, the, for example,

00:06:04.000 Look, this is the Trump-Romney dinner, and the first thing that popped into my head is, of course, from The Little Mermaid.

00:06:09.000 Yeah.

00:06:10.000 That was the first thing that popped into my head when I saw that picture, because that's exactly what it looks like.

00:06:18.000 The other one that popped into my head, of course, was from Silence of the Lambs.

00:06:25.000 Horrifying. 0.95

00:06:26.000 It's just Romney being fed his own brain by Donald Trump.

00:06:30.000 The best one, though, was this tweet that somebody had.

00:06:33.000 They put it in black and white, this picture, and in black and white it's even better.

00:06:36.000 It says, I made the Trump-Romney photo black and white and it looks like a Twilight Zone episode where a guy just made a foolish deal with the devil.

00:06:42.000 And that, of course, is exactly right. 0.58

00:06:45.000 It's so spectacular.

00:06:46.000 Oh my goodness.

00:06:47.000 So good.

00:06:48.000 The one that's making the rounds a lot is this one.

00:06:53.000 It's great.

00:06:54.000 Somebody photoshopped Trump and Romney into the dinner scene from Empire Strikes Back where Han Solo walks into the room and realizes that Lando is sold about and Darth Vader is sitting at the other end of the long table.

00:07:07.000 And it is pretty amazing.

00:07:09.000 It is pretty amazing.

00:07:10.000 It is also worth noting, by the way, that remember when Donald Trump ran as a blue-collar working-class hero?

00:07:15.000 Remember that?

00:07:16.000 And now he's worth $10 billion.

00:07:18.000 Mitt Romney's a hundred millionaire.

00:07:19.000 And here's what their menu was the other night.

00:07:23.000 This is the menu.

00:07:24.000 It's a three-star Michelin-rated restaurant.

00:07:26.000 It's called Jean Georges.

00:07:30.000 Jean Georges is what it's called.

00:07:32.000 Gene George, as I like to call it.

00:07:33.000 And here is the actual menu.

00:07:39.000 Next they had diverse scallops with caramelized cauliflower and a caper raisin emulsion.

00:07:44.000 For their main course, both Priebus and the president-elect had primed sirloin with citrus-glazing carrots.

00:07:49.000 Romney had lamb chops with a mushroom bolognese sauce.

00:07:51.000 All three had chocolate cake for dessert.

00:07:53.000 Sounds like men of the people to me.

00:07:55.000 No corrupt bargains happening among the people who are eating frog legs.

00:07:59.000 Although, I have to say, poor Pepe!

00:08:01.000 Poor Pepe!

00:08:02.000 I mean, they ran this entire campaign, and Pepe was with Trump the entire way, and then Trump just ate him.

00:08:08.000 And somewhere, the alt-right cries and tears of sorrow roll down Pepe's cheeks.

00:08:13.000 It is all very, very tragic.

00:08:16.000 Then Mitt Romney came out afterward, and he made this statement after the dinner, and he just looks—I mean, Trump and his people had asked for basically an apology from Mitt Romney.

00:08:25.000 And Romney clearly wants the gig, and so now he's apologizing.

00:08:28.000 Pretty amazing.

00:08:30.000 These discussions I've had with him have been enlightening and interesting and engaging.

00:08:35.000 I've enjoyed them very, very much.

00:08:38.000 I was also very impressed by the remarks he made on his victory night.

00:08:43.000 By the way, it's not easy to win.

00:08:46.000 I know that myself.

00:08:47.000 He did something I tried to do and was unsuccessful in accomplishing.

00:08:51.000 He won the general election.

00:08:53.000 And he continues with a message of inclusion and bringing people together.

00:08:59.000 And his vision is something which obviously connected with the American people in a very powerful way.

00:09:03.000 It's a joke, right?

00:09:04.000 It's a joke.

00:09:04.000 I mean, Romney is looking for an excuse to jump back on the Trump train here.

00:09:09.000 And he's finding it in, you know, his speech and his cabinet.

00:09:13.000 Hey, Romney still thinks with Trump exactly what Romney always thought of Trump.

00:09:16.000 There are two ways to read Romney's behavior here.

00:09:18.000 One is Romney really, really, really, really wants back into power.

00:09:20.000 That's the cynical way to read this.

00:09:22.000 The other way to read this is that Romney believes and thinks that Trump could use some staid, steady, sober judgment around him until he's willing to undergo the humiliation of dealing with Trump and maybe being thrown under the bus by Trump in order to do it.

00:09:36.000 Again, Trump hasn't selected him yet for Secretary of State, so this could all go wildly wrong, right?

00:09:40.000 There are only two possible ways this plays out as far as Romney is concerned in terms of public image.

00:09:46.000 These are both from Game of Thrones.

00:09:48.000 Way number one this turns out for Romney, just in terms of how this plays out politically, is this right here.

00:09:55.000 What is to be done with this traitor, Your Grace?

00:10:00.000 So long as I am your king, treason shall never go unpunished.

00:10:09.000 Like that.

00:10:10.000 That's possible.

00:10:11.000 That he goes out, he makes his obeisance to Trump, and then Trump aheads him and picks Rudy Giuliani, which would be hilarious, I will say.

00:10:17.000 It would be really, really funny.

00:10:19.000 The other way that this could go is that Trump actually gives him what he wants, but that involves him being a little bit humiliated.

00:10:26.000 Go on, Rick.

00:10:27.000 A nice, close shave.

00:10:41.000 It could go reek.

00:10:41.000 Right, it could be reek.

00:10:43.000 In reality, the truth is, a lot of this stuff is overplayed.

00:10:45.000 Trump likes to play reality TV.

00:10:47.000 It is reality TV.

00:10:49.000 It's very entertaining, I will admit that.

00:10:51.000 And I have all of my Bachelorette outtakes for when he actually makes this call, because the Bachelorette outtakes will fit Giuliani or Romney.

00:10:57.000 One of the two will be sobbing in a car about how they were so deeply in love, and then they were left at the altar.

00:11:03.000 But, in reality, is Trump playing this right?

00:11:05.000 Trump is playing this about as well as he could have played this, really. 1.00

00:11:07.000 I mean, he's making Romney look foolish. 0.99

00:11:09.000 He's making Romney look like he has to bend the knee to him. 0.94

00:11:12.000 And then, if he actually picks Romney, it's a brilliant move politically, because it looks like he's getting over his own pettiness about Romney in order to stock his cabinet with people who are good.

00:11:20.000 And if he doesn't pick Romney, well, then he's done what a lot of people expected him to do.

00:11:24.000 On his own side, you know, in his own base, and he stomped Romney in the face.

00:11:27.000 And he's going to get a lot of credit for that from his own base.

00:11:30.000 He's in a no-lose situation.

00:11:32.000 Romney played along, I assume out of patriotism and a sense of duty, but it could have also been out of ego.

00:11:37.000 Both are possible.

00:11:38.000 But it is fascinating to watch.

00:11:40.000 This sort of stuff typically is not done in front of the cameras, and yet Trump is doing it all in front of the cameras, which is going to make for a very, very entertaining four years.

00:11:47.000 Meanwhile,

00:11:50.000 Trump is being given a lot of credit for this, for Carrier keeping a bunch of jobs.

00:11:56.000 Carrier is an air conditioner manufacturer and they just announced they're going to keep a thousand jobs in Indiana.

00:12:02.000 And I want to talk about this in a pretty serious way because I think that a lot of people are ignoring the real story here and that's a problem.

00:12:11.000 A lot of people are immediately celebrating the fact that Trump kept jobs in America.

00:12:14.000 That's great, okay?

00:12:15.000 That's wonderful.

00:12:16.000 Except for that's not the actual story.

00:12:19.000 Lots of people can use the government to keep jobs in a particular place.

00:12:22.000 Barack Obama used the power of government, the threat of the pitchforks and torches, to leverage the banks to do things that he wanted.

00:12:29.000 Barack Obama was able to make the auto companies come on bended knee to him in order so that he could get them to do what he wanted by threatening them.

00:12:36.000 The bottom line here is not the thousand jobs saved.

00:12:38.000 The bottom line is what we still don't know, which is what did Trump do to get Carrier to keep its jobs there?

00:12:43.000 So a lot of people are saying we shouldn't even ask the question.

00:12:45.000 We should just sort of accept what it is.

00:12:47.000 We should just sort of take it how it is.

00:12:49.000 No big problem.

00:12:51.000 No big issue.

00:12:51.000 You know, at least he kept the jobs here.

00:12:53.000 That in and of itself is wonderful.

00:12:56.000 And that would be okay, except for the fact that how you use the government is really the issue for me, not necessarily the outcome.

00:13:02.000 You can always keep a company here.

00:13:04.000 Listen, if I were in charge of the federal government, pick a company in America.

00:13:07.000 I could keep it here just by paying them a lot of money.

00:13:09.000 I could bribe a company to stay here.

00:13:10.000 Or, alternatively, I could threaten that company in order to make them stay here, right?

00:13:14.000 The power of the presidency is vast.

00:13:16.000 The power of the federal government

00:13:17.000 Is vast.

00:13:18.000 The question is, what did Trump do in order to ensure the carrier would stay?

00:13:22.000 So here's what we know.

00:13:23.000 We don't know anything, really, because Trump has not announced what the deal was.

00:13:26.000 Mike Pence is the governor of Indiana.

00:13:28.000 He's the one really offering the incentives because he's still governor of Indiana.

00:13:31.000 Carrier is located in Indiana.

00:13:33.000 So we still have to figure out exactly what Pence offered.

00:13:36.000 And this does make a difference.

00:13:37.000 Here's what we know, or at least the little that we do know.

00:13:40.000 According to the New York Times, United Technologies, which is the owner of Carrier, is among the country's biggest military contractors, producing engines for the Pentagon's most advanced fighter jets, receiving more than $5 billion annually from the federal government.

00:13:52.000 That equals 10% of the company's revenue.

00:13:55.000 So there's the idea that perhaps Trump said, we'll have the Defense Department cut our contracts to you if you move those jobs.

00:14:01.000 Okay, that's bad.

00:14:02.000 That's bad.

00:14:03.000 That's the government

00:14:05.000 Leveraging businesses into making bad business decisions through threat.

00:14:09.000 Right?

00:14:09.000 Not getting the best deal for the American people because presumably the reason that they're contracting with United Technologies is because United Technologies provides the best service at the best price.

00:14:17.000 Here's what we know courtesy of CNBC.

00:14:18.000 Quote, while terms of the deal are not yet clear, the sources indicated there were new incentives on offer from the state of Indiana, where Pence is governor, that helped clear a path for the agreement.

00:14:27.000 Well, while United Technology was seeking the savings that would come from moving some production to Mexico, people familiar with the situation indicated the savings were not worth incurring the wrath of the incoming administration, including the potential threat to the significant business United Technologies currently conducts with the U.S.

00:14:43.000 government, largely in the form of orders for jet engines and other defense-related equipment.

00:14:47.000 So it's the federal government leveraging people.

00:14:49.000 Now, I don't like the federal government leveraging people, whether the person at the head of the federal government is a Republican or a Democrat.

00:14:55.000 That is not the job of the federal government.

00:14:57.000 The job of the federal government is to preserve your rights.

00:15:00.000 And if it has contracts that it needs to do, then it should contract with the best available operator, not the operator that makes bad financial decisions in order to please the federal government, right?

00:15:09.000 That's a backdoor form of bribery from United Technologies.

00:15:12.000 And by the way, this also sets up a pretty bad precedent.

00:15:14.000 A company says, we're going to move 2,000 jobs to Mexico, and then they wait for Trump to come in with an oodle of cash and just dump it on them.

00:15:21.000 Okay, this is not particularly a rip on Trump.

00:15:24.000 It's a rip on the policies that are bad.

00:15:27.000 Look, Trump made a promise and Trump is trying to keep that promise, but the way you keep the promise matters to me.

00:15:31.000 The principle doesn't change just because the name of the guy in power changes.

00:15:36.000 And I understand everybody's going to celebrate the thousand jobs, but these kinds of headlines routinely, routinely come out from administrations ranging from Barack Obama's to Hugo Chavez's.

00:15:45.000 The question isn't whether Carrier keeps the 1,000 jobs in Indiana.

00:15:49.000 The question is why they kept the 1,000 jobs in Indiana.

00:15:51.000 If Carrier kept the 1,000 jobs in Indiana, if they kept the 1,000 jobs in Indiana because Donald Trump was pursuing positive economic policies that benefit everyone, and they say in expectation of lower taxes and in expectation of loosened regulations,

00:16:07.000 We've decided that we're going to keep the jobs here.

00:16:09.000 Wonderful!

00:16:10.000 All credit to Trump.

00:16:11.000 If they say we're keeping the thousand jobs here because Donald Trump bribed us, or because Donald Trump threatened us, that's not something that I'm cool with.

00:16:17.000 And as a conservative, you shouldn't be cool with that either, because that's just using government to pick winners and losers.

00:16:23.000 And as I am fond of saying, I'm old enough to remember when we thought that was bad, when Obama did it with green jobs and stimulus packages and auto bailouts and bank threats.

00:16:30.000 Again, Barack Obama actually used the threat of pitchforks and torches.

00:16:34.000 He actually said, he brought bankers to the White House in the early part of his administration.

00:16:38.000 He said, my administration is the only thing between you and the pitchforks.

00:16:42.000 And then he leveraged them into doing what he wanted.

00:16:43.000 He did the same thing to the health insurance companies.

00:16:45.000 He said to them, listen, I'm going to offer a public option if you don't cave to me and give me what I want.

00:16:50.000 That was bad.

00:16:51.000 It wouldn't be any better if Trump did it.

00:16:53.000 Hey, Hugo Chavez used to do this.

00:16:54.000 Hugo Chavez actually had a show, the Venezuelan socialist dictator.

00:16:58.000 He actually had a show in Venezuela.

00:17:00.000 When it was called Hello President, that was the name of the show.

00:17:02.000 It was a full day show.

00:17:03.000 He would literally go on camera at like 8 in the morning on Sundays all the way to like 6 in the evenings.

00:17:09.000 And the producer of the show would explain this way.

00:17:11.000 He said, the president decides everything, it's his show.

00:17:13.000 It was called Hello President because people would call in, but it became like a lottery.

00:17:17.000 Everyone looking to get a job, a house or something.

00:17:20.000 Chavez would literally give jobs to people on the air.

00:17:22.000 People would call in and say, I don't have a job.

00:17:23.000 Chavez would say, I'll give you a job.

00:17:25.000 Look at my magnificence.

00:17:27.000 The only way he could give a job, of course, was to take a job away from somebody else or to take money away from somebody else.

00:17:33.000 This is the definition of the swamp.

00:17:35.000 When people talk about the swamp needs to be drained and crony capitalism,

00:17:39.000 This is the definition of it, and it doesn't become good just because our guys are doing it.

00:17:43.000 So before we get too excited about the Carrier Decides to Keep a Thousand Jobs in the United States headline, let's find out how it was done.

00:17:50.000 If the headline said, Cylindra Decides to Keep a Thousand Jobs in the United States Thanks to Obama Promises, we'd all be saying, wait a second, that's bribery, you can't do that.

00:17:59.000 Again, consistency in principle.

00:18:00.000 I know people get upset with consistency in principle.

00:18:03.000 I know people get very upset with the idea that we're going to hold everybody to the same standard, or that we're going to mandate that Donald Trump actually act in accordance with conservatism.

00:18:11.000 But the fact is, that if we don't hold him accountable for his sins, then who are we going to hold him accountable to?

00:18:16.000 Like, who's going to be accountable?

00:18:17.000 The way that you hold presidents accountable is making them accountable for their behavior.

00:18:21.000 So, I hope that Trump reveals his plan, and his plan is get rid of regulations, get rid of taxation, lower the corporate tax rate.

00:18:27.000 That's why Carrier kept the jobs.

00:18:29.000 If that happens, I will celebrate louder and longer than anyone, because that will be excellent Trump.

00:18:33.000 Not good Trump, excellent Trump. 0.99

00:18:35.000 But, if this was just another crony capitalist payoff to Carrier, so that he could have his headline in his moment in the sun, where he said that he kept Carrier there with its thousand jobs, that's a bunch of crap. 0.99

00:18:43.000 And it's crap whether a Democrat does it, and it's crap whether there's a Republican that does it, okay? 0.97

00:18:47.000 These things do not change just because the name at the top of the ticket changes, the name in the White House changes. 0.99

00:18:53.000 The minute you sacrifice principle for political convenience, the principle no longer matters.

00:18:57.000 It no longer matters.

00:18:58.000 So before you celebrate headlines, let's look for the actual content of the story, right?

00:19:04.000 For example, I'm willing to give Trump the benefit of the doubt right now on, is he going to separate from his business?

00:19:09.000 He's gonna have to fill that out with content.

00:19:11.000 If the content is, my kids will run the business, and they'll also advise me, in the White House, the conflict still exists.

00:19:16.000 If he separates off, and his kids run the business, and they have nothing to do at the White House, good for him.

00:19:21.000 I'll be cheering, because I want his presidency to be a success.

00:19:24.000 I want him to govern like Ronald Reagan.

00:19:25.000 I would love to see it.

00:19:26.000 I would love to be wrong about him.

00:19:28.000 I would.

00:19:29.000 But we have to call out bad things when we see them, and we can't just say that they're good if they're not.

00:19:34.000 We actually have to see evidence of good.

00:19:36.000 We just have to see evidence of good.

00:19:37.000 That's all.

00:19:38.000 And this whole idea, you know, Steve Bannon has said this, we're going to create a 50-year dominance based on big government spending and Obama stimulus packages.

00:19:47.000 It was bad when Obama did it, it's bad when Trump does it.

00:19:49.000 I don't need to beat a dead horse here.

00:19:51.000 Okay, now as far as the sort of drain-the-swamp language,

00:19:55.000 As far as the drain the swamp language, remember everybody's chanting drain the swamp, drain the swamp.

00:19:59.000 Let's go through some of the picks that Trump has made.

00:20:01.000 We're still waiting on Secretary of State.

00:20:04.000 The people who are currently up for it, I guess Bolton has fallen out of contention on the latest reports, which is too bad.

00:20:08.000 He was my number one choice.

00:20:09.000 I think Bolton knows the State Department, knows that place has to be absolutely gutted.

00:20:14.000 And knows how foreign policy works, but he's fallen out for some reason, probably because he and Trump don't agree on foreign policy.

00:20:20.000 That's actually one of the more bizarre aspects of the Romney thing, is that no one has actually said that Romney shouldn't be Secretary of State, because he and Trump disagree on foreign policy.

00:20:28.000 And they do, right?

00:20:29.000 Romney was super anti-Russian.

00:20:31.000 Trump was very, very pro-Russian during the campaign.

00:20:33.000 They really disagree on this stuff.

00:20:34.000 The only real criticism has been that Romney ripped Trump during the primaries.

00:20:40.000 But in any case,

00:20:41.000 I guess it sounded like Corker and Romney and Giuliani, and Petraeus are the ones that they're discussing.

00:20:47.000 All big names of the people who are left, Romney and Petraeus would probably be at the top of my list, probably Romney at the top of the list, then Petraeus, then Giuliani, and then Corker.

00:20:56.000 Corker would be the worst of all of them.

00:20:58.000 If he's picked, I'll explain why.

00:21:00.000 But some of the other picks that Trump has made,

00:21:03.000 These are pretty typical establishment Republican picks.

00:21:06.000 He actually just picked a bunch of Democrats.

00:21:08.000 He actually just picked a bunch of Democrats to staff out his administration.

00:21:11.000 It isn't quite draining the swamp.

00:21:12.000 And we'll explain all of those things if you go to dailywire.com right now and subscribe.

00:21:17.000 There's plenty more to come here on the show.

00:21:18.000 I've got to talk about the persecution of Christians that is being attempted by the left media.

00:21:22.000 Which is really insane.

00:21:23.000 They're attacking now the Gaines family, these home builders on TV.

00:21:27.000 We'll talk about that.

00:21:28.000 I have a lot to say about that.

00:21:29.000 And we have some pretty awesome things I hate coming up, plus some Bible talks.

00:21:33.000 So lots coming up here on The Ben Shapiro Show.

00:21:35.000 Go to dailywire.com to subscribe.

00:21:38.000 Eight bucks a month gets you a subscription.

00:21:39.000 Annual subscription gets you a free copy of my novel Signs.

00:21:42.000 Plus there are lots of goodies coming up.

00:21:44.000 Tomorrow's the mailbag.

00:21:44.000 You get to be part of the mailbag if you're a subscriber.

00:21:47.000 And you get to be part of the largest podcast, the largest conservative podcast in the United States.

The Ben Shapiro Show - November 30, 2016

Ep. 219 - Trump Eats Dinner With a Side of Romney

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