The Megyn Kelly Show - Elon and Vivek Prepare to Lead DOGE, Pete Hegseth to Pentagon, and Trump Goes to White House, with Bill Ackman

00:00:00.600 Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show, live on Sirius XM Channel 111 every weekday at noon east.

00:00:12.100 Hey everyone, I'm Megyn Kelly. Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show.

00:00:15.460 President-elect Donald Trump is in Washington, D.C. today.

00:00:18.380 It's all happening. Meeting with President Joe Biden.

00:00:22.560 I mean, imagine that. God, to be a fly on the wall for the whole thing.

00:00:26.020 I mean, we will. We will be able to see it, but to actually be there.

00:00:28.900 And he's also going to meet with Congress.

00:00:31.800 And he keeps making picks for his next administration, and they're so fun.

00:00:36.900 It's so fun to watch people melt down over them.

00:00:40.500 Last night, he announced Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense, the co-host of Fox & Friends Weekend.

00:00:47.820 I have to say, I love this. Pete Hegseth is a great guy.

00:00:52.800 I love Pete Hegseth, but Pete Hegseth was not getting any airtime at Fox News.

00:00:58.900 And Tom Lowell, my old EP, and I put him on my show and went to Roger and said,

00:01:05.660 this guy is incredible. You need to make him a contributor.

00:01:10.380 And Roger was like, who? We're like, this guy.

00:01:13.240 He served in Afghanistan. He served in Iraq.

00:01:16.100 He's great looking. He's great sounding. He's smart.

00:01:19.860 He's also got an Ivy League pedigree.

00:01:22.000 We need to scoop him up before somebody else scoops him up.

00:01:24.940 And he did it.

00:01:27.080 I'm feeling like I have a very good record on this.

00:01:30.340 I helped make Ben Shapiro a star, Buck Sexton, Pete Hegseth.

00:01:36.780 I'm feeling really good today.

00:01:38.260 In any event, they're really upset about Pete.

00:01:41.780 I'm not.

00:01:42.500 I was surprised at first, but I'm actually really excited about it the more I think about it.

00:01:46.260 And we'll talk about it today.

00:01:47.160 Today, we've got someone on the full show who's making his very first appearance here,

00:01:52.240 someone I've wanted to bring to you for more than a year now.

00:01:54.440 And his name is Bill Ackman.

00:01:56.540 He's an extremely successful hedge fund manager, reportedly worth about $9 billion,

00:02:01.740 who became a household name after he began speaking out against the anti-Israel insanity

00:02:08.420 that unleashed on our college campuses last fall after the terrorist attack on Israel.

00:02:13.760 Remember the blame Israel crowd?

00:02:16.380 I mean, on 10-7, these people were blaming Israel.

00:02:21.020 This year, he had a political evolution of sorts and wound up endorsing Donald Trump.

00:02:27.480 He gave 33 reasons why, including the open border economic issues and the withdrawal from Afghanistan

00:02:33.400 and how disastrous it was under Joe Biden, echoing the common sense issues many Americans

00:02:39.540 also had on their minds when they voted for Trump.

00:02:41.660 He is the CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management and the co-trustee of the Pershing Square Foundation.

00:02:48.280 Bill Ackman joins me now.

00:02:50.380 This holiday season, millions of families across America will rely on credit card rewards to visit their loved ones.

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00:03:00.400 D.C. politicians are trying to pass a bill that would lead to the end of credit card rewards.

00:03:05.320 They say the Durbin-Marshall credit card bill would mandate credit cards run on alternative networks,

00:03:11.000 not the trusted and stable networks that you probably use today,

00:03:14.180 and that there's no guarantee that the convenience, zero liability, fraud protection,

00:03:18.220 and rewards programs you know and love will remain.

00:03:21.700 The Electronic Payments Coalition says corporate megastores are going to make more money

00:03:25.740 while you sacrifice your payment convenience, rewards, and peace of mind.

00:03:29.880 Find out more for yourself at guardyourcard.com and consider telling Congress to guard your card

00:03:35.340 while you're at it and oppose the Durbin-Marshall credit card bill.

00:03:38.880 Learn more at guardyourcard.com.

00:03:42.120 Bill, welcome to the show.

00:03:43.680 Thanks for having me.

00:03:44.500 Excited to be here.

00:03:45.400 Great, great to have you.

00:03:47.120 So it's super fun to watch Trump name these names to the cabinet.

00:03:51.460 And I don't know about you, but I'm loving it.

00:03:54.060 I think it's just so innovative to go completely Trumpian.

00:03:58.740 Just keep people on their heels.

00:04:01.700 Do not go with establishment types like he tried to do the first time.

00:04:05.840 And I see absolutely nothing wrong with him going with Trump loyalists,

00:04:09.720 but that term keeps getting bandied about as though it's a bad thing.

00:04:14.220 Actually, I think it's, I call it the dream team.

00:04:16.580 I'm really super impressed.

00:04:18.040 We have Elon Musk.

00:04:19.180 We have a good friend of mine, Vivek Romswani, who's incredibly talented.

00:04:22.840 I'd love all these.

00:04:24.420 I've actually been super impressed with all the picks so far.

00:04:28.300 The New York Times, the daily podcast today and the New York Times itself is

00:04:32.660 really wrestling with Elon's elevation to the right hand man of the sitting president elect.

00:04:40.940 They don't seem happy.

00:04:43.480 I feel like you should look at somebody like Elon who's willing to serve in any capacity

00:04:47.900 for our government and just say thank you.

00:04:49.620 But they are concerned he's got a hundred different lawsuits against him.

00:04:55.480 How is he going to deal with those conflicts of interest?

00:04:57.480 He's got all sorts of regulatory constrictions on him that are important to our safety.

00:05:03.780 You know, why can't, how can he possibly be in this important role?

00:05:07.320 What do you make of Elon being willing to serve as he is?

00:05:10.460 I think he's a great American.

00:05:13.080 I think he's a great global citizen.

00:05:15.220 You know, if you happen to think of a guy who's made more consequential impact on society,

00:05:21.480 on everything from the electric car to space to now Neuralink, AI, you know, he's, I would

00:05:29.660 say, the most important figure of our time in the non-political sphere.

00:05:34.580 And now we have the benefit of all of his talents, uh, you know, working alongside the president.

00:05:39.320 I mean, it's a incredible home run.

00:05:41.600 Uh, I, I, I have not been this excited to be, uh, you know, an American, if you will,

00:05:47.140 in a very long time.

00:05:47.900 And so it's, uh, amazing.

00:05:50.880 Yeah, I feel the same.

00:05:52.180 Um, and, and so what they announced last night was that Elon and Vivek are going to

00:05:56.300 work together on Doge, the department of government efficient efficiency, and start trying to find

00:06:02.400 efficiencies in the biggest business of them all, the United States government, and figure

00:06:08.020 out where we can tighten our belt and save some money.

00:06:11.460 And yet, you know, sort of the established Washington DC class is very upset about this

00:06:17.580 because it means jobs of federal bureaucrats, and that's what runs DC.

00:06:23.340 So what do you make of this idea of Doge?

00:06:25.540 Trump says in the announcement, it's going to be completely outside government.

00:06:28.080 These two will not be government employees.

00:06:30.880 Yeah, I think it's a home run.

00:06:32.120 Uh, you know, I've always thought of the United States is one of the greatest.

00:06:34.780 My day job is to find these really great companies that have lost their way.

00:06:37.940 And then what we try to do is bring in great new management and have them, you know, fix

00:06:42.660 the business.

00:06:43.500 And, uh, that's basically what's happening here.

00:06:45.460 And they're not going to have to look far.

00:06:46.940 And everyone knows the government is the most ineffective bureaucracy in the world.

00:06:51.760 Uh, governments generally, ours has not particularly, uh, impressed us, uh, as citizens.

00:06:58.240 And now we have an opportunity, not just to find a, uh, you know, cost savings, but actually

00:07:02.500 to operate more effectively.

00:07:04.320 You know, the, the analogy that Musk makes is he says, you know, think of the

00:07:07.920 government, uh, you know, as just, uh, you know, when you go get your license, you know,

00:07:13.900 updated, think about how inefficient that process is.

00:07:16.820 Well, imagine the entire country being run that way.

00:07:19.480 And I think that's the opportunity and having sort of outsiders do this, you know, Elon certainly

00:07:24.080 has the playbook.

00:07:25.100 You know, X was a quasi governmental, uh, agency and the way it operated in San Francisco

00:07:30.640 and he stepped in, he, uh, you know, took out 80, 90% of the employees and it's become

00:07:35.180 a much more, uh, effective platform software development.

00:07:38.300 The various features functionality, um, you know, have been able to happen much more quickly

00:07:44.400 under new leadership.

00:07:45.480 And I think that's what we have here.

00:07:47.080 Um, and so I think it's going to be a huge boon for, uh, you know, the economy for business

00:07:52.040 generally.

00:07:52.460 Uh, so, and that will help everyone.

00:07:54.500 When we saw, uh, Javier Millet run for, and then ascend to power in Argentina, a lot of

00:08:02.400 us were shocked by how he spoke and the things he did with the chainsaw that he was going

00:08:07.980 to take to government and highly entertaining here.

00:08:11.340 Here he is with his chainsaw and, um, look at this guy.

00:08:15.900 I love him.

00:08:16.940 So I have friends who are from Argentina and they're absolutely thrilled with what he's

00:08:22.020 doing and he told everybody there, we're in for some short-term pain as we try to get

00:08:26.380 our enormous inflation down.

00:08:28.200 But these are the things we have to do.

00:08:30.100 Here he is.

00:08:30.600 This is video for the listening audience of him pulling these names off a board, the ministry

00:08:34.720 of this ministry of that and throwing them behind him.

00:08:37.480 We don't need it.

00:08:38.080 It's down.

00:08:38.640 It's out.

00:08:39.700 And that's how I see Elon and Vivek, you know, who are supposed to go in there and Javier,

00:08:45.160 Javier Millet, our government.

00:08:47.320 I had the advantage of being next to Elon in September when he spoke on the all in

00:08:53.720 podcast, um, at their summit and I too was there and spoke on the same thing and he was

00:09:00.420 describing what it was he would like to do if this whole thing worked out, if Trump were

00:09:05.860 elected and if he could form this doge thing, take a listen here to sought 10.

00:09:09.820 If you could just pair two, three, four, five percent of those organizations, what kind

00:09:17.560 of impact could that have?

00:09:20.780 Yeah, I mean, I think we'd need to do more than that.

00:09:23.000 I think.

00:09:23.700 Ideally, but if you could shrink the size of the government with Trump, what would be a

00:09:28.580 good target just in terms of like ballpark?

00:09:31.680 I mean, are you trying to get me assassinated before this even happens?

00:09:34.620 No, no.

00:09:35.980 Pick a low number.

00:09:37.040 I mean, you know, there's that old phrase, go postal.

00:09:39.160 I mean, it's like their mind.

00:09:40.080 I'm not suggesting that people, you know, um, had like immediately, you know, tossed

00:09:44.980 out with, with no severance and, and, you know, can't, could not, can't pay their mortgage.

00:09:48.880 Then you see some reasonable off ramp, uh, where, yeah.

00:09:52.000 Yeah.

00:09:52.380 Um, so reasonable off ramp where, you know, they're still, um, you know, earning, they're

00:09:57.100 still receiving money, but have like, I don't know, a year or two to, to find, to find

00:10:01.620 jobs in the private sector, which they will find.

00:10:03.480 And then there will be in a different operating system.

00:10:05.580 So you heard him, Bill say, uh, when, in response to Jason, who said two, three, 4% and Elon

00:10:13.340 said, Oh, it's going to be more than that.

00:10:15.160 So how high do you think we could go on shaving the bureaucracy?

00:10:18.340 I think there's a massive amount of waste.

00:10:21.780 Uh, and, uh, I think you're going to see fairly dramatic change.

00:10:25.680 Uh, and I think the incredibly uplifting for the people who stay, and I think will be uplifting

00:10:30.700 for the people who have the opportunity to do something new.

00:10:33.000 Uh, you know, as he said, I think they're going to be quite generous with severance, making

00:10:36.060 sure that people can transition, uh, to the private sector.

00:10:39.160 Uh, so I think it's gonna be good for everyone.

00:10:40.360 So yeah, what do you make of that?

00:10:42.860 Because the last thing Trump wants a hundred days into his, uh, administration is massive

00:10:50.280 layoffs that run up the unemployment rate and make them look bad.

00:10:53.340 So he's not going to want that narrative in the press, even though he will want these

00:10:57.420 efficiencies.

00:10:58.300 So how would you recommend they handle the offloading of these federal employees?

00:11:03.940 Sure.

00:11:04.400 So what's interesting is you don't want to give people a disincentive to find a job, right?

00:11:09.120 If you just hand everyone two years severance, some people may say, okay, I'll take the next,

00:11:13.060 uh, you know, 20 months to just have fun.

00:11:15.680 I'll go look for a job.

00:11:16.560 And then it becomes hard to get a job at the end of that.

00:11:18.600 So I think the right approach is to give enough severance.

00:11:20.620 So people are absolutely covered, uh, between this, uh, job and the next one, and then basically

00:11:25.800 pay it to them over time.

00:11:27.520 But when they find a job, pay them the balance of the severance.

00:11:30.860 Let's say they give it a year of severance.

00:11:33.140 Someone finds a job a month after leaving government.

00:11:36.040 Well, then they can 11 months of salary as a bonus.

00:11:39.120 People are incentivized to find, uh, their next job.

00:11:42.780 And I think you have job training.

00:11:44.080 And then, of course, there are a lot of people in government where you could probably, you

00:11:47.700 know, just instead of severance, you allow them to begin the retirement process early.

00:11:52.500 And government employees are very well taken care of in terms of pension.

00:11:57.020 I like that.

00:11:57.960 That makes sense and is less scary for those worried that it might be their next on the

00:12:02.500 chopping block.

00:12:03.000 But we all know there's, there are too many employees that that we have 20 people to do

00:12:07.240 the job of one.

00:12:08.160 And they're, they're counting on no one paying attention to how inefficient the government

00:12:12.660 is.

00:12:13.000 That's it's baked into the system that no one's going to be looking at just how much red tape

00:12:18.380 that there is and how many people we have enforcing it and how useless it is.

00:12:22.280 And worse than useless, it's pernicious.

00:12:24.900 It stops development.

00:12:26.260 It stops business.

00:12:27.940 Um, one more Elon clip.

00:12:29.660 And then I want to talk about a post you, you made on X today.

00:12:33.940 He explained with SpaceX how impossible the regulatory system makes it.

00:12:40.280 And really kind of said at this rate, we're never going to colonize Mars, which is one

00:12:45.520 of his life goals.

00:12:46.340 We're never going to get there because when it comes to building rockets and so on, it's

00:12:51.540 just absolutely prohibitive what they make innovators go through.

00:12:56.020 Here was his example.

00:12:56.980 It's not 27.

00:12:58.600 The next flight Starship is ready to fly.

00:13:00.540 We are waiting for regulatory approval.

00:13:02.840 You know, it, it, it, it really should not be possible to build a giant rocket faster

00:13:12.100 than the paper can move from one desk to another.

00:13:19.440 I mean, it's perfectly well said.

00:13:23.980 And he talked just about other problems he had, like one of the rockets dumped water.

00:13:29.720 I think it was potable water.

00:13:30.840 You know, it was drinkable water on the desert as a release valve.

00:13:37.480 And he got fined like $35,000 for that and went to them and said, what are you, what are

00:13:43.240 you doing?

00:13:43.840 You know, I'm, we're, I'm trying to innovate.

00:13:46.160 I'm working with the government.

00:13:47.200 I've been used by NASA to resupply the space station, get off of my back.

00:13:52.800 And they, they won't.

00:13:54.180 It's just, those are all great examples of a, why we need reform and be what drove him

00:13:58.800 here.

00:13:59.120 So what do you make of it?

00:14:00.840 Look, I think actually just getting back to what you talked about before, the context

00:14:04.880 for the efficiency creation and government is one in which I think there's going to be

00:14:08.900 a huge boon in the economy.

00:14:10.940 I think, you know, what's interesting is I'm hearing from, you know, friends who control

00:14:14.480 a lot of assets, invest in lots of operating companies, that the management teams of their

00:14:18.360 businesses are extremely optimistic.

00:14:19.900 Even those that have voted against Trump are excited about what's going to happen with

00:14:24.800 the economy.

00:14:25.320 So I think we're going to have a big economic boom and actually freeing up a meaningful

00:14:29.260 number of government employees to make them available to the private sector will actually

00:14:32.900 help manage the potential for inflation.

00:14:34.980 So I'm, you know, the cost cutting is one thing, but making the government more efficient

00:14:40.060 on regulatory approvals, you know, if you think about how difficult it is in America to build

00:14:44.300 a bridge, a highway, a house.

00:14:47.140 Um, and, uh, you know, the faster, if you can accelerate construction, obviously, uh, that

00:14:52.540 has a huge impact on infrastructure, the fluidity of the economy, uh, driving demand, um, and actually

00:14:59.140 I think freeing up government workers to step into some of these roles that will be created

00:15:03.720 will actually help, uh, the economy manage through this period.

00:15:06.820 It could really change their lives too, for the better.

00:15:09.520 It'd be so exciting to work for one of these innovative companies, hiring new blood.

00:15:13.640 These people have been stuck in these concrete jungles, um, in the circles of DC and maybe,

00:15:19.060 maybe it's a, you know, a new leaf for them too.

00:15:21.260 You wrote in that ex post to which I referred and you mentioned, um, that merger and acquisition

00:15:26.320 activity is about to explode.

00:15:28.160 Do you think so?

00:15:29.860 Yes.

00:15:30.480 Uh, so the Biden administration has been, uh, and Lena Kahn who's led the FTC, very anti,

00:15:36.140 uh, sort of merger.

00:15:37.660 Uh, and, uh, the result of that is, you know, many of the startups in our country don't get

00:15:42.060 to a scale where they can go public.

00:15:44.300 They have to be basically sold.

00:15:46.220 Uh, and if, you know, you don't allow the Facebooks and the Googles and the other, you

00:15:50.360 know, companies to make acquisitions, uh, these businesses eventually either run out of capital

00:15:54.460 or run out of opportunity.

00:15:56.060 And, uh, you know, there are a lot of big companies where meaningful synergies can be

00:16:00.120 created when one business buys another, but if you can't do a deal, uh, you have to sort

00:16:04.480 of put it on hold.

00:16:05.120 And sort of the antitrust environment in the last four years was one in which, uh, you wouldn't

00:16:09.060 even try to do a transaction.

00:16:11.160 I think that's going to change.

00:16:12.480 And so there's sort of a, a long list of transactions that are waiting to happen in the event there's

00:16:17.940 a change administration.

00:16:18.800 And now that, uh, you know, post November 5th, you'll see very aggressive announcements.

00:16:23.160 And, and the benefit of a merger beyond just the synergies is that often it's an opportunity

00:16:27.500 for the people who invested in the first company, the company being acquired to take their

00:16:32.100 capital and redeploy that and something else, it's going to free a lot of capital in the

00:16:35.640 economy that's going to put money into the, you know, in the system that's going to fuel

00:16:40.200 growth, you know, so it's, it's going to be a pretty exciting time for the country for

00:16:44.200 sure.

00:16:45.040 What are, what are you hearing about non-US companies looking at America right now?

00:16:50.160 Uh, I think they're frightened, I guess I would say they're frightened to the extent

00:16:54.560 they don't have a presence in the United States.

00:16:56.180 I mean, the U S is going to be the best economy.

00:16:58.280 We really are one of the best economies in the world right now.

00:17:00.660 Certainly the best large economy in the world.

00:17:02.120 You know, China is in a lot of trouble.

00:17:04.680 This whole European continent is really, you know, kind of struggling.

00:17:07.700 So we're kind of the best, uh, you know, economy and it's got, that's going to change in an

00:17:13.560 even more positive way.

00:17:15.240 And Trump, as we know, is very America first.

00:17:18.360 Uh, and if you don't have a presence here, uh, you're at risk of tariffs being put on your

00:17:22.020 goods.

00:17:22.320 So we're hearing foreign companies that don't have a presence here looking for an ability

00:17:28.020 to immediately have a presence, uh, so that they're not locked out of the U S economy.

00:17:31.800 And that of course is also going to bring jobs here and drive growth.

00:17:35.960 We saw an announcement right after Trump won that certain companies, Steve Madden was one,

00:17:41.200 but he wasn't the only one, um, had already decided that they would not build a plant in

00:17:46.340 China as they'd been considering doing.

00:17:49.260 Now that particular company didn't say I'll build it in the United States.

00:17:52.260 He went to another country, but it wasn't one of our enemies.

00:17:54.720 It wasn't somebody who's actively working against us like the Chinese are.

00:17:58.000 So that was a, a, a bit of good news too.

00:18:01.520 I wonder how many more U S companies like that, or even foreign companies like that will,

00:18:07.060 maybe they won't move to the, to the States to build their companies, but they'll avoid

00:18:10.760 enriching one of our enemies.

00:18:13.000 And that too is a, is a plus for us.

00:18:16.340 Yeah.

00:18:16.840 Look, I'm, uh, very, very bullish on the Trump administration as I think is the entire

00:18:21.580 business community.

00:18:22.300 And business is sort of a confidence game and people lose confidence.

00:18:25.640 They don't hire people.

00:18:27.360 They don't make investments.

00:18:28.320 They decide not to build the next factory, build the next building.

00:18:32.120 All of that is the opposite is happening.

00:18:35.020 People are actually hiring people in anticipation of growth.

00:18:37.920 Uh, they're making, they're increasing their, you know, estimates of what the revenues will

00:18:42.860 be in the next 12 months.

00:18:44.360 And that has a very powerful self-fulfilling effect.

00:18:47.180 Uh, so, you know, you're seeing interesting things, obviously, uh, on the economy, you're

00:18:51.460 also seeing our enemies, you know, Ron, I just read this morning, uh, is tabled their

00:18:56.620 response to Israel and is talking about, uh, you know, a negotiation with the U S I mean,

00:19:01.540 it just shows the importance of having strength, uh, in the white house.

00:19:06.300 Mm-hmm.

00:19:07.560 What, what do you make of, have you given any thought to Trump's tariff proposals?

00:19:11.440 Because those have been controversial, uh, with some in the business community and some

00:19:16.460 people got burned by, I mean, I, I remember some agriculture workers saying that the tariffs

00:19:22.000 he had in place first time around really hurt them, some farmers.

00:19:25.000 So, but you know, this is crux, a critical piece of his plan.

00:19:29.340 So what do you make of his proposed tariffs?

00:19:32.140 Sure.

00:19:32.600 I think Trump used tariffs.

00:19:34.660 Uh, I think you have to think about the context, right?

00:19:36.680 The context was world war two, uh, the rest of the world was decimated and Marshall plan.

00:19:42.980 We helped rebuild, uh, Europe, you know, Japan had to recover from, you know, the destruction

00:19:47.500 of the war and all of these governments put in place tariffs to kind of protect their home

00:19:51.680 markets.

00:19:52.060 And that allowed, you know, their economies to recover that allowed Japan to develop an auto

00:19:56.780 industry.

00:19:58.060 And, uh, now what's interesting is those tariffs stayed in place, even when Japan became, you

00:20:02.540 know, one of the most successful, built one of the most successful auto industries in

00:20:06.040 the world and Europe, you know, if you think about, uh, BMW, Mercedes and all the various,

00:20:10.500 uh, very successful auto companies in Europe, they've had the benefit of tariffs versus the

00:20:15.100 U S and that goes for everything from, you know, food and wine and so on and so forth.

00:20:19.460 And I think, you know, United States has been a very open market to the rest of the world.

00:20:24.100 And I think Trump's view is, look, if they're going to use tariffs, we should too.

00:20:28.580 And let's use tariffs as a way to, you know, make the world, you know, get rid of tariffs

00:20:32.060 that are out there.

00:20:32.580 So I think it's a very important negotiating tool.

00:20:35.600 Uh, and, uh, you know, I think, uh, I think you'll be very effective in using it.

00:20:40.660 Now there's risk associated with tariffs, right?

00:20:43.120 If the response to more tariffs from the U S is that our, you know, the, uh, foreign

00:20:47.600 governments decide to put even more tariffs on their own home markets, you can get into

00:20:52.260 sort of a downward spiral, which is very negative for the economy.

00:20:55.280 Uh, but, uh, I think he's pretty smart and sophisticated.

00:20:58.080 I think he'll have a very capable team working with him.

00:21:01.060 Uh, so I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt.

00:21:02.940 And, uh, you know, his goal, of course, look, I think president Trump's goal fundamentally

00:21:06.820 is to be one of the great, it's to be the greatest president of all time, right?

00:21:09.780 That has to be his ambition.

00:21:11.360 And, you know, obviously the economy is, you know, if not the most important, you know,

00:21:15.200 certainly one or two.

00:21:16.440 And, uh, uh, I would say it's probably the most important issue and it's something he knows

00:21:20.560 a lot about and he's going to build a very capable team.

00:21:23.180 And I'm just confident it's going to execute well.

00:21:25.960 Well, I know you have been a registered Democrat for most, if not all of your adult life.

00:21:33.020 And when you said, but I'm voting for Donald Trump this time, one of the things you pointed

00:21:36.980 out was if you wanted to destroy this country, one of the things you would do is open the

00:21:42.280 borders.

00:21:42.900 You would just let this influx of migrants come into the country, come into the cities.

00:21:47.420 And while we talk a lot about illegal immigration on this show and elsewhere, it's different

00:21:53.700 when you actually go, you zoom into a community, Springfield, Ohio was one during this election

00:22:00.060 cycle, but there are many others and see how that influx is actually changing the way people

00:22:05.640 live without their consent or approval.

00:22:09.860 Yeah, I think it's, I think it's a problem.

00:22:12.060 You know, we have a very small version of that in New York city where I live, um, but it's,

00:22:16.000 you know, 200,000 people in a city of 11 million, uh, Springfield, I think it was 20,000 people

00:22:21.080 in the city of 40,000.

00:22:22.380 Uh, so obviously, but even in New York, it's had a very significant impact.

00:22:27.160 Did you see what Mayor Adams said, uh, today or yesterday, I think it was where he said

00:22:31.680 he's not ruling out working with the Trump administration to try to deal with this problem.

00:22:36.200 New York is overwhelmed.

00:22:37.720 There are way too many illegal immigrants.

00:22:40.640 So we already have our problems.

00:22:41.880 It's not like New York was running super efficiently prior to all these buses and flights, bringing

00:22:47.580 all these illegal aliens up here.

00:22:50.720 Look, the, the interesting thing is that this is, you know, arguably, I certainly believe

00:22:55.020 it to be the best place, best country in the world.

00:22:57.260 And, you know, you see how many millions of people want to come here.

00:22:59.980 And when you have the opportunity of millions of people coming to your country and you actually

00:23:03.760 immigration is important for growth, for, you know, bringing in talent and so on and

00:23:07.020 so forth, you want to have policies that let in the people you want to let in.

00:23:11.380 Uh, and in fact, the way our policies work today, uh, you know, my wife runs a really interesting

00:23:15.920 company and she has a very talented collection of, you know, MIT PhDs, uh, that she used to,

00:23:22.100 uh, you know, teach when she was a professor.

00:23:24.080 Now she's hired many of them, but many of them are from Germany, other places around

00:23:27.800 the world.

00:23:28.080 And just the challenges and trying to get these incredibly well-educated, educated in

00:23:32.320 America, brilliant minds, uh, you know, obviously no criminal records, uh, you know,

00:23:37.540 they're going to help advance our society.

00:23:39.600 It's hard to, you know, can take a year or two, if not more, uh, to bring them into the

00:23:44.120 country.

00:23:44.400 If you, if you can do so, meanwhile, we've allowed, uh, sort of unvetted people walk across

00:23:49.620 the border and then we provide subsidies when they get here.

00:23:52.120 Uh, so it's, it's the reverse of a sensible immigration policy.

00:23:55.800 We should take advantage of the fact that this is an incredibly desirable country and

00:23:58.860 we should pick and choose the right people and we should vet them carefully.

00:24:01.720 And we, we need to, I mean, you know, one of the things I'm hoping from, from Doge, if

00:24:05.540 you will, if, you know, if you went to MIT, you don't have a criminal record and you've

00:24:10.420 got a job at, uh, you know, an interesting company in the United States, or you want to build

00:24:15.020 a business here, uh, it should be, you know, 30 day process to vet you, right?

00:24:19.540 It shouldn't be a year or two years.

00:24:21.140 We should make it really, really easy for the best and brightest to come to America.

00:24:25.140 And we should make it difficult for criminals to cross the border.

00:24:27.620 If not, you know, make it impossible.

00:24:30.440 The common sense is our man, Tom Homan and Steve Miller are going to get that done.

00:24:35.260 I guess under the leadership of Christy Noam, I will tell the audience the truth.

00:24:39.220 I'm not her biggest fan.

00:24:41.020 I've had her on the show, found her absolutely delightful.

00:24:43.500 And then a couple of things hit that really changed my opinion on her.

00:24:47.260 But I will say this, I don't care about my personal feelings toward Christy Noam and my

00:24:52.680 own opinion of what kind of a person she is.

00:24:55.540 She's now going to be given one of the most important jobs in the country.

00:24:59.040 And therefore we have to support her and root for her because DHS is big.

00:25:03.180 I mean, it is big.

00:25:04.780 That's a huge, huge responsibility.

00:25:07.520 And, you know, you look at anything would be an improvement over Mayorkas.

00:25:12.360 And I think she is loyal to Trump.

00:25:14.040 She'll work with Trump.

00:25:14.800 She won't push back on his agenda.

00:25:16.420 She's not going to have her own set of priorities.

00:25:18.440 She's going to enact his.

00:25:19.540 And he has made very clear what he wants to happen when it comes to immigration.

00:25:24.200 Let me ask you this, Bill, as you mentioned, like your wife's connections with people who

00:25:30.180 went to MIT and are in Germany or German, what have you, you look around the world, you look

00:25:35.480 at Germany, you look at France, the UK, and you see the influx, the just the absolute influx

00:25:42.420 of migrants from the Arab world.

00:25:45.240 And you see their cultures radically changing.

00:25:48.940 Many of these men in particular, but families in some cases won't assimilate and have zero

00:25:54.180 desire to.

00:25:55.580 And we've had people like Ayaan Hirsi Ali write, you know, books and papers and speaking

00:26:00.320 out about this for a long time saying, continue this way at your own peril because you really

00:26:05.260 don't have your country the way you thought you did.

00:26:07.300 And that became very clear after 10-7 in all of these countries, including our own.

00:26:14.240 So how does that resonate with you as a Jewish man who's been very outspoken on the blowback,

00:26:20.480 the blaming of Jews in the wake of the 10-7 attack and the, you know, the outpouring of

00:26:26.300 support for not just the Palestinians, but for Hamas, even in our own country?

00:26:32.480 Yeah, look, it's been a kind of a wake up call, I think, for the entire country.

00:26:36.480 You know, Jews are 0.2 percent of the global population.

00:26:40.680 And when a country, you know, sort of attacks Jews, it's usually a very bad warning sign.

00:26:45.500 And it went very quickly from sort of anti-Israel to anti-Semitism.

00:26:51.200 And then it became anti-Americanism.

00:26:53.360 You know, on college campuses, they were, you know, putting up, you know, holding Hamas

00:26:57.600 flags and burning American flags.

00:27:00.000 And so, you know, obviously very disconcerting about, you know, some of the youth in our country.

00:27:06.020 You know, with respect to Muslim immigration in Europe, I mean, I think, you know, you look

00:27:11.020 at what's going on in Amsterdam, what's continuing to happen since, you know, a soccer game between

00:27:16.320 an Israeli team and a local team.

00:27:20.380 And, you know, we're being beaten up on the streets and the police really doing nothing.

00:27:24.720 And I think, you know, on the anniversary or within a day of the anniversary of Kristallnacht,

00:27:28.980 which was a, you know, I would say the beginnings of the Nazi destruction of the Jews and during

00:27:36.520 World War II.

00:27:36.980 So, you know, these are obviously disconcerting things for, you know, someone who comes of

00:27:41.680 Jewish origin.

00:27:43.320 But I would say very disconcerting for someone who's an American because, you know, it starts

00:27:49.120 with the Jews and then, unfortunately, it expands to other groups.

00:27:53.140 And it really is representative of a group of people in the country that don't love our

00:27:57.720 country.

00:27:58.800 And that's not, you don't want to import into your country people who hate your country.

00:28:04.800 That is the beginning of the end.

00:28:06.220 And I think Ayaan and Douglas Murray, I don't know if you, if you know, if you follow him.

00:28:11.320 Yes, I love Douglas.

00:28:12.060 Yes.

00:28:12.500 He's amazing.

00:28:13.040 One of the greatest minds alive.

00:28:14.820 Absolutely.

00:28:15.240 We had the opportunity to have dinner with him a couple nights ago.

00:28:17.840 And seven years ago, we wrote a book about the death of Europe, basically.

00:28:22.420 And this was his, his warning.

00:28:24.220 So I think immigration policies globally are going to be rethought.

00:28:29.460 You look at what's happened to Sweden in terms of crime rates and the crimes and unfortunately

00:28:34.320 the rapes and so on.

00:28:35.460 They're still in denial.

00:28:36.640 Can I tell you something, Bill?

00:28:37.680 We went on two family vacations over the past year.

00:28:41.280 One, it was to the Netherlands and we went to Sweden.

00:28:44.200 They're still in denial.

00:28:45.160 I mean, we asked everybody about what, what consequence there's been to the influx of

00:28:49.260 immigrants.

00:28:49.900 No, it's fine.

00:28:50.720 We love immigrants.

00:28:51.700 We love immigration.

00:28:52.980 You know, that's the kind of country.

00:28:54.080 I'm like, okay, we'll see how that goes for you.

00:28:55.980 And then a year earlier than that, we went to Amsterdam and it's just crazy to see the,

00:29:00.700 the, what you just referred to this attack on Israelis there to support a soccer team.

00:29:06.460 When, when we were there, which was two years ago, it was November two years ago.

00:29:10.480 They were, they still like actively talked about the shame they had in, in what happened

00:29:16.700 leading up to the Holocaust and then not protecting Jews better.

00:29:19.160 And they had a Holocaust memorial that they, they really were very proud of because they

00:29:23.740 wanted to show, you know, sort of a tone.

00:29:25.580 It's of course where Anne Frank hid out and was ultimately found.

00:29:30.440 There's a long history in that particular region when it comes to the mistreatment of

00:29:35.820 Jews and they seemed to actively feel burdened by it.

00:29:39.360 And then you see this and the response has been really just pretty feckless.

00:29:44.680 And I wonder why do you think that is?

00:29:47.360 Do you think that's a migrant problem?

00:29:49.400 What, what, what is happening?

00:29:52.160 You know, I think, uh, you look at, um, my wake up call of course was actually not October

00:29:58.180 7th, uh, but October 8th on October 8th, 34 Harvard student organizations put out a letter

00:30:05.200 basically saying in the morning after and during a period where there were still terrorists

00:30:10.940 on Israeli soil, basically saying Israel was solely responsible, uh, for the acts of Hamas

00:30:16.960 and to take the side of terrorists after one of the most vile, certainly the most vile terrorist

00:30:22.500 activity, uh, in probably in our lifetime, uh, you know, it sends a very bad message about

00:30:30.460 what students are learning on campus.

00:30:31.820 And that really led me to kind of a deep dive of, you know, what is the origin of this sort

00:30:36.500 of point of view?

00:30:37.360 And, uh, when I spent time at the Harvard campus talking to faculty, they said, look,

00:30:41.460 Billis comes from really this DEI ideology.

00:30:44.820 And I'm like, what?

00:30:46.720 DEI has to do with, um, you know, Israel.

00:30:49.360 And, uh, they explained to me this whole, you know, the kids are basically, uh, taught

00:30:54.600 this framework where, you know, you have to think about the world.

00:30:57.240 There are two kinds of people.

00:30:58.280 There are oppressors, and these are basically the successful people, uh, and then they're

00:31:03.080 the oppressed.

00:31:03.620 And those are people that the successful people became successful by oppressing.

00:31:07.780 And, uh, in fact, people interpret American history this way.

00:31:10.540 And in some places, American history is taught this way.

00:31:13.400 And, uh, you know, it just shows the importance of, uh, you know, what, uh, making sure your kids

00:31:18.860 are learning, um, learning the facts and not being taught an ideology that ultimately,

00:31:24.440 uh, is very, very harmful.

00:31:26.160 Um, but, you know, when you believe that kind of ideology, uh, you take the side always of,

00:31:31.980 uh, you know, quote unquote people, uh, take the side against successful people, sort of

00:31:36.980 an anti-americocratic, uh, you know, ideology and America is this, you know, built on a meritocracy.

00:31:43.940 Uh, so it's really an anti-American, uh, idea.

00:31:46.300 I, um, it's been fascinating to be where I am watching you sort of come out on these issues

00:31:56.900 and come to grapple with the DEI program.

00:31:59.980 I mean, I think you would admit conservatives were onto this a long time prior and many of

00:32:05.140 us have been railing about it.

00:32:06.280 I was super, yeah, super late to the party.

00:32:08.580 Uh, my first kind of, uh, insight, uh, you know, uh, Vivek, who was a friend of mine, uh,

00:32:15.340 gave me a draft of his book, Woke Inc.

00:32:17.860 And, uh, and I read it and it really resonated with me.

00:32:21.080 I actually gave him a blurb for the back cover and people were kind of surprised, Bill, you

00:32:24.300 give a blurb to the back of Woke Inc.

00:32:25.940 Um, but it really wasn't until the events, uh, on campus after October 7th that I realized,

00:32:31.240 uh, the degree of harm that can come from what is actually fundamentally like this neo-Marxist,

00:32:36.540 Marxist, uh, ideology.

00:32:38.080 Um, and, uh, it's interesting how, you know, successful countries, you know, ultimately,

00:32:43.960 uh, you know, if you look at what's going on in universities, universities are very, become

00:32:48.180 very left wing in America.

00:32:49.980 You know, the Harvard campus, 2% of the faculty, an anonymous survey admitted that they were

00:32:56.080 conservative and they had to do an anonymous survey because they couldn't admit it in a

00:32:59.780 public forum.

00:33:00.540 98%, uh, were left or far left.

00:33:04.020 Uh, and if that's the backdrop, you know, you know, and you're teaching, uh, you know, young

00:33:09.660 minds, you're going to install a certain ideology in their point of view.

00:33:13.040 And it requires a very strong young person to, uh, to, to learn in that environment and have

00:33:18.640 different, uh, different views.

00:33:20.720 Mm-hmm.

00:33:21.900 I do feel hopeful.

00:33:23.400 I want to talk more about the universities.

00:33:24.900 I do feel hopeful though.

00:33:25.660 I mean, I've been seeing so many videos online of young people, college age people, male and

00:33:32.300 female with the MAGA hats on dancing, celebrating MAGA school.

00:33:38.340 Being a Republican right now is cool in a way it hasn't been for a very long time.

00:33:43.540 And I do wonder any, and also being subversive is fun.

00:33:46.840 You know, the, the more crap you get for putting on the red hat, the more attractive it can

00:33:51.660 be, especially to young people.

00:33:53.140 And so I really do wonder whether that filters into the Ivy league.

00:33:58.500 It's a certain kind of person that gets into the Ivy league.

00:34:02.060 They are diligent.

00:34:03.100 They're very hardworking.

00:34:04.940 They're usually very, very bright, though not in all cases.

00:34:08.440 And they're used to following rules and seeking approval.

00:34:12.360 I don't know that the subversive type gets attracted to the Ivy league, but it will be

00:34:17.340 interesting to see if they more and more do go to these institutions and enjoy stirring

00:34:22.960 the pot a bit.

00:34:24.460 What do you think?

00:34:24.940 I think, uh, if you've listened to president Trump speak about his plans for higher education,

00:34:31.140 uh, and, uh, I think universities are going to have to broaden, uh, perspectives on campus.

00:34:38.060 You're already seeing this at places like, you know, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, where the

00:34:41.060 alumni base, uh, is withholding donations because they're concerned about the ideologies

00:34:45.620 that have developed on campus.

00:34:46.920 So there's some combination of financial pressure, alumni pressure, you know, litigation as, uh,

00:34:52.280 you know, they have not, uh, provided a safe environment for their student bodies.

00:34:56.260 They've allowed sort of anti-Semitism to emerge, you know, Elise Stefanik, who's now going to

00:35:01.060 be at the UN has really been a, a very powerful advocate for kind of fixing.

00:35:06.560 Yeah.

00:35:07.000 She's amazing.

00:35:07.600 Not fixing the problems on campus.

00:35:09.040 Uh, so I think we bottomed, I would say sometime around October 7th, October 8th.

00:35:14.700 Um, and, uh, I think the country's made a huge recovery.

00:35:17.300 I think, um, you know, for Trump to get not just, you know, a windfall in, uh, uh, you

00:35:24.040 know, the States, uh, but also, you know, for public control of the Senate, public control

00:35:29.040 of Congress, as well as a mandate in terms of a majority of the American people voting

00:35:33.460 him into office.

00:35:34.080 I think, you know, we haven't seen something like this, uh, for, you know, many decades.

00:35:38.220 And I think that, um, I would say the left has been very quiet with the last, uh,

00:35:44.700 you know, eight, eight days or so, which I think is sort of interesting.

00:35:47.660 And I think hopefully it's a wake up call for everyone.

00:35:49.900 And then of course, markets have done very well and markets uplift, you know, many people,

00:35:54.560 whether you're a pensioner or whether you're, uh, you know, uh, an active person, uh, on

00:35:59.840 Wall Street.

00:36:00.220 And I think that lifts the mood certainly because the stronger markets, stronger economy, uh,

00:36:05.180 will help everyone.

00:36:07.460 The, uh, Trump plan for universities.

00:36:09.680 He's been laying them out over time.

00:36:11.560 This one, this clip is from November, 2023.

00:36:14.520 He hasn't said anything different than this.

00:36:16.620 So I think this is still what he plans, but this is, uh, what he said about it in part.

00:36:20.680 Take a listen, South 13.

00:36:22.580 Americans have been horrified to see students and faculty at Harvard and other once respected

00:36:28.420 universities expressing support for the savages and jihadists who attacked Israel.

00:36:34.580 We spend more money on higher education than any other country.

00:36:39.040 And yet they're turning our students into communists and terrorists and sympathizers.

00:36:44.700 Under the plan I'm announcing today, we will take the billions and billions of dollars that

00:36:49.500 we will collect by taxing, fining, and suing excessively large private university endowments.

00:36:56.380 And we will then use that money to endow a new institution called the American Academy.

00:37:01.860 Its mission will be to make a truly world-class education available to every American free

00:37:08.100 of charge and do it without adding a single dime to the federal debt.

00:37:13.380 It will be strictly non-political and there will be no wokeness or jihadism allowed.

00:37:20.540 What do you make of that to tax the private endowments?

00:37:23.140 That's getting more and more steam.

00:37:26.240 Yeah, look, I think, uh, if you think about it, I'll use my Harvard example.

00:37:30.400 Harvard gets huge subsidies from taxpayers.

00:37:33.640 You know, one is the tax exemption, which of course is enormously valuable to Harvard.

00:37:37.700 It's enabled them to generate billions of dollars.

00:37:40.160 So effectively, when you think about a tax exemption, it means the entire country is paying

00:37:44.420 for the education that's taking place on the Harvard campus.

00:37:48.220 And that sort of nonprofit status, uh, I think confers certain responsibilities, right?

00:37:53.680 If the entire country is supporting a university, the university only represents one political

00:37:58.360 ideology, that doesn't make sense.

00:38:00.960 You would, you would argue if you want to be a private university and adopt a particular

00:38:03.980 ideology, then fine, be private and private means no funding, uh, from taxpayers.

00:38:08.140 So I think there's a real logic to it.

00:38:10.960 The other thing he said in there was that these universities are turning our students into

00:38:14.580 communists.

00:38:15.300 And you actually have some experience with that too, on a personal level, uh, as far as I read

00:38:22.820 with your own daughter, can we, can you talk about that?

00:38:25.760 Because I've told this audience before, I am not a billionaire, but I do know a lot of them.

00:38:30.780 And a lot of them have told me the story of their kids going off to college and they typically

00:38:36.860 go to these great schools, you know, quote, great.

00:38:39.280 And, um, they come home within a year or a semester, loathing the parents, loathing the

00:38:46.580 parents' wealth while they're riding on the private jet, ripping on the dad for, for earning

00:38:52.120 it, you know, just, they, they get turned loving children get turned against the country

00:38:57.940 and their parents by these so-called great universities.

00:39:01.640 Yeah, look, I think there's some truth to that.

00:39:03.540 I mean, unfortunately I've got a wonderful relationship with my girls.

00:39:07.180 I've got four of them, um, but my, my oldest, uh, was a social studies major at Harvard and

00:39:12.000 the social studies department really has become the Marxist department at the school.

00:39:16.200 And she studied Marx, um, and, uh, Adorno and a, and a bunch of other sort of philosophers.

00:39:22.660 And, you know, over, uh, Thanksgiving, we, you know, we'd be talking about, I talk about

00:39:28.800 something, if you will, capitalistic, and she'd have an incredibly negative reaction.

00:39:33.140 There was a period there where she would, you know, leave the table incredibly upset at

00:39:36.820 her father for, uh, you know, sort of questioning some of the ideology she had learned on campus.

00:39:44.000 Now I would say the good news is that's worn off a bit as she's had to operate in the real

00:39:48.140 world.

00:39:48.620 Um, and so, uh, but I do think I didn't understand it, uh, again, until, um, post October 7th

00:39:56.640 and I had a better understanding of what's being taught in school.

00:39:59.380 So it's not a, I thought it was, I didn't really believe it to be true until you, I saw

00:40:05.260 the outcome.

00:40:07.280 Mm-hmm.

00:40:08.380 Do you, are you surprised that we haven't had, uh, and forgive me because I've seen different

00:40:13.340 stats on this.

00:40:14.000 I've been checking since a week ago to see how the Jewish vote went and people I trust

00:40:19.720 have said, Oh, Jews went more for Trump.

00:40:21.340 But then when I look at the actual data, the, the data doesn't support that.

00:40:24.920 What I've seen that they did not go more for Trump, at least we, he's always had the more

00:40:28.640 Orthodox Jewish community behind him.

00:40:30.420 They're more conservative.

00:40:31.580 Um, but the more liberal Jews do not seem to have migrated over to Trump in any significant

00:40:37.180 fashion.

00:40:37.620 Of course, according to what I last looked up on the data, why not?

00:40:43.240 You know, what's interesting is, uh, and I think of particular examples of, uh, people

00:40:49.240 that I know, uh, that, you know, they watch MSNBC, they read the New York times, they live

00:40:54.880 in a very sort of, uh, they're in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

00:40:58.760 Um, their friends, uh, you know, read the same newspapers and read the fall, the same

00:41:04.540 media, uh, and they, they become really indoctrinated.

00:41:07.780 And actually what's interesting is many, many of these people are, I would say Jewish by,

00:41:12.880 uh, you know, uh, their mother was Jewish.

00:41:15.720 Um, but their, their new religion is sort of progressive, uh, politics.

00:41:20.640 And, uh, you know, it's, it's interesting in America, what's happened is I think people

00:41:24.860 like to belong to something and people today belonging to a political party, uh, can have

00:41:31.500 more, um, you know, instead of going to a temple or, or, or church, you know, once a week,

00:41:37.940 they go listen to, uh, you know, their favorite, uh, um, you know, media, uh, to speak about,

00:41:44.300 you know, what they should believe.

00:41:45.920 And, um, when you, you know, it's, it's, it's like being part of a cult.

00:41:50.040 I mean, I, it's, uh, really remarkable.

00:41:52.180 Uh, so I do think there's some subset of people.

00:41:54.380 That's why they're so shocked by the election outcome.

00:41:57.160 Um, and I think, uh, you know, mainstream media has, is, is suffering.

00:42:01.740 Uh, and you've seen, I saw some interesting statistics on CNN viewership down 40% since the

00:42:06.880 election, Fox up 60% since the election, something like this.

00:42:09.640 But actually the general trends are, are X is taking more and more share and podcasts

00:42:15.260 are taking more and more share.

00:42:17.000 Cause I think the public and one of the big wake up calls for me, I, I for years believed

00:42:22.720 that Trump had said that, you know, the good people on both sides included the Nazis and,

00:42:28.180 uh, you know, quote white nationalists.

00:42:30.560 And when you actually watch the entire clip of what he actually said, he said explicitly

00:42:35.100 the opposite.

00:42:36.180 And that was a major wake up call where I, I held a belief for years on the basis of

00:42:40.260 something I saw on, you know, probably CNN.

00:42:43.100 Um, and you know, I, I've been sort of more, uh, you know, X has become my principal source

00:42:48.360 of, of media and, and I'm it's citizen journalism, it's podcasts.

00:42:53.420 And then it's actually watching, you know, the entire video clip as opposed to something

00:42:58.040 that's excerpted in a way to cause you to come to a certain conclusion.

00:43:01.460 I mean, the most perhaps dramatic example of that during the election was the, uh, the

00:43:05.380 60 minutes interview of, uh, Kamala.

00:43:08.840 Um, and, uh, that's still, you know, the transcript is still not seen the light of day, but, uh,

00:43:13.360 60 minutes basically destroyed their credibility to help advance a political candidate.

00:43:17.600 Um, and that, you know, I think the people now realize what's, what's happened.

00:43:21.680 I think this election is a great example of that.

00:43:24.400 It's, uh, I don't know what made the difference between you and everyone else, because that's exactly

00:43:29.600 right.

00:43:29.960 And of course people on, you know, more my side of the aisle, I'm in a, I'm a registered

00:43:34.980 independent, but I, I voted Republican.

00:43:37.060 I supported Trump have been seeing this for a long time.

00:43:39.760 Right.

00:43:40.000 And we're immersed.

00:43:41.100 I of course spent 13 years at Fox and this is kind of what we do over at Fox and in conservative

00:43:46.440 media.

00:43:46.940 We keep an eye on the other side and we try to remind people not to trust them for very

00:43:51.120 good reason.

00:43:51.720 But so I look at you, Bill, and I think, how did you get out?

00:43:55.540 It was 10, seven, I guess, because so many people don't get out of that brainwashing

00:44:00.180 that they, that they give to you, not just at MS, but at CNN as well, as you know, and,

00:44:05.020 um, walk away believing the, the very fine people.

00:44:08.080 And I'll, I'll give you one example on that.

00:44:09.380 When I went to NBC, my very short stint there, Trump said that comment while I was over there

00:44:15.220 and I was giving an interview, you know, as, as myself to, I think it was USA Today.

00:44:20.360 I'm trying to remember the publication to promote my show.

00:44:23.720 And the reporter asked me about that.

00:44:26.780 Like, how could he say very fine people on both sides?

00:44:29.040 And I said, that's not what he said.

00:44:30.860 He, he made clear he wasn't talking.

00:44:32.540 And the NBC PR person jumped right in and said, he said it that there's, we don't really want

00:44:39.460 to get into that.

00:44:40.260 And I remember looking at her, like, what, what do you do?

00:44:43.360 First of all, I don't need your protection, but is it that important to you that that narrative

00:44:47.040 get forwarded, you know, get advanced?

00:44:49.740 And the answer is yes.

00:44:51.360 So do you think it all came down to 10, seven for you that like that you got out of the brainwashing?

00:44:57.480 Actually, I give, uh, so I big believer in free speech actually invested with Elon in,

00:45:02.460 uh, Twitter when he took it private, you know, he put up whatever 30 billion, I put up 10 million.

00:45:06.340 So it was more of a symbolic, you know, support for free speech.

00:45:09.760 And, uh, I, I think by the way, it's going to end up being a good investment.

00:45:13.820 A lot of people have knocked Elon for throwing away, you know, 20 billion or whatever the

00:45:17.380 number is.

00:45:17.900 Um, but you know, Mike, I wasn't really focused on making a profit.

00:45:20.660 I want it to be just sort of symbolically, you know, supportive of free speech.

00:45:23.560 And I think, I think what's happened, I think this is sort of, uh, you know, in order for

00:45:29.420 mainstream media to survive, they're going to have to move to providing the, you know, the

00:45:34.740 truth to their audience.

00:45:36.600 I really believe that.

00:45:37.560 Uh, interesting, uh, this morning, the owner of the LA times, uh, announced that he was

00:45:42.320 basically firing the entire editorial board, uh, to bring in a more diverse editorial board.

00:45:47.580 He said, look, the American people have spoken in the election.

00:45:49.500 They want to, you know, hear more.

00:45:51.220 They want broader, uh, sort of viewpoints.

00:45:53.620 And, uh, the beauty of X is that you can, I try to follow people, you know, on climate,

00:45:58.640 I follow people who are quote unquote climate deniers.

00:46:01.160 And I follow people who are, you know, uh, believe quote unquote in, uh, climate change.

00:46:06.700 And, you know, on every, you know, sort of issue, whether it's, uh, vaccines, uh, you

00:46:12.060 know, all the controversial issues of the day, you can find very thoughtful people expressing

00:46:16.500 their arguments on, on both sides of an issue.

00:46:18.720 And I, you know, I think the algorithm has some trouble with me because I can't quite

00:46:22.320 figure out who I am, but I do think, uh, how do you get to the truth?

00:46:25.700 You listen to, uh, the most thoughtful, intelligent people who make their case on one side of

00:46:31.520 an issue and, and, and the people on the other side.

00:46:33.920 And then, you know, I think, so I've been using X as a, as a vehicle, uh, to get to the

00:46:39.120 truth.

00:46:39.380 And actually it's quite helpful in my business.

00:46:40.960 I, I've had some insights on everything from, you know, I, I was aware of the impact

00:46:46.580 of COVID would have on markets, uh, before, you know, weeks before the rest of the world.

00:46:50.820 So, and when you know more than the rest of the world, a few weeks in advance, you can

00:46:54.400 do very, very well.

00:46:55.180 And the same thing was true on, uh, the feds move on interest rates.

00:46:58.780 So it's actually, um, you know, I still read the, uh, wall street journal, the FT, uh, skim

00:47:05.080 the times, uh, economist and other, you know, sort of publications, but I've really broadened

00:47:10.200 my sources of media and I try to find empirical, uh, sources.

00:47:14.600 Um, and, uh, you know, I was on Lex Friedman.

00:47:17.060 Uh, I don't know.

00:47:18.020 I'm sure you probably know Lex.

00:47:19.380 Uh, I thought, you know, Trump should do a long form podcast.

00:47:22.720 And I was very happy to see him do Lex and of course Joe Rogan.

00:47:25.620 And that, of course, I think played a very significant role because people have been

00:47:28.740 hearing all this stuff about Trump, uh, as translated and excerpted through, uh, the

00:47:33.480 media.

00:47:33.760 And then they got to see him unscripted for three hours and they got a better sense of

00:47:37.140 who he was this person.

00:47:38.720 That's exactly right.

00:47:39.740 I completely agree with everything you said on X.

00:47:41.760 Elon's changed the world with that.

00:47:43.140 I mean, he's truly, he's opened up conversation in a way it wasn't available to any of us in that

00:47:48.320 larger forum prior to him owning it.

00:47:50.520 I mean, and you need look no further than the gender stuff.

00:47:53.480 You were not allowed to say that a man cannot become a woman on any of these platforms until

00:48:00.580 Elon bought Twitter.

00:48:02.340 And obviously that issue is personal to Elon.

00:48:05.760 And I don't know, I guess I just, I believe in divine right order.

00:48:09.760 And I just kind of think maybe that happened to Elon so that, cause he too was, I think

00:48:14.720 a Democrat and was voting, you know, Obama and so on.

00:48:18.160 Then this happened to his son who was convinced that he was a girl.

00:48:22.560 Elon says that he was duped into signing the papers that would allow for transition surgery

00:48:27.920 at 16.

00:48:29.160 And, um, before you knew it, truly he was changing the world in profound ways in a

00:48:34.560 different lane.

00:48:34.940 He's already been changing it, but in the free speech lane and on this particular issue,

00:48:39.680 allowing conversations we, we couldn't have had before bill to hold that thought.

00:48:43.760 Um, hold, hold your response until, uh, I take a quick break and we'll come back bill

00:48:47.820 Ackman with us for the full show today.

00:48:50.180 And we will get into Trump's latest cabinet picks, including Pete Hegseth.

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00:51:00.320 that you consume.

00:51:01.440 I'm Megan Kelly, host of The Megan Kelly Show on Sirius XM.

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00:52:05.120 Bill, what do you think?

00:52:06.260 Do you think these media companies that we discussed are in a downward spiral right now

00:52:10.380 will take a cue from Elon and X and start allowing more discussion on these hot-button issues?

00:52:18.940 Well, actually, I give CNN some credit.

00:52:21.180 Scott Jennings, I think, has been really outstanding in terms of presenting an alternative voice.

00:52:28.040 And so I think he's sort of helpful.

00:52:30.280 But, you know, I think what's unfortunate about media companies, I think that the privilege

00:52:34.160 of owning a media company for some people appears to be this is a vehicle that I can use

00:52:38.160 to advance my political point of view.

00:52:40.580 It's really not about, you know, bringing truth to the people.

00:52:43.420 It's about how do I manipulate the audience to coming to a conclusion about what I believe.

00:52:48.680 And I do think, you know, the X platform is about, you know, just open, free speech,

00:52:55.860 let people, you know, share their views and let the truth kind of emerge.

00:52:59.280 I think that, you know, world, I think fundamentally people are looking for truth.

00:53:03.100 I mean, perhaps some subset of people want to just be reinforced with whatever they already

00:53:07.540 believe.

00:53:08.380 But when you, you know, have an election outcome like this one, where you have, I would say,

00:53:14.360 45 percent of the country in complete shock about what took place, they have to be questioning

00:53:19.020 their sources of truth and sources of information.

00:53:23.320 And so, you know, economics are a very powerful force.

00:53:27.600 And as the audience leaves mainstream media, they're going to have to adapt.

00:53:31.020 And so I think that's really the opportunity.

00:53:34.440 You know, if no one's watching MSNBC, they're going to have to change.

00:53:36.580 Yes, a few and few people, fewer and fewer people are watching MSNBC and even fewer than

00:53:43.820 that are watching CNN, which is why there's a report out in Puck News that they will be

00:53:48.320 having mass layoffs at CNN.

00:53:50.100 I'm not surprised.

00:53:51.320 The numbers are rock bottom.

00:53:53.120 I mean, they're not even a remote competitor to Fox anymore or to MS.

00:53:59.760 Chris Wallace just announced he's leaving CNN.

00:54:02.800 Obviously, they did not renew his eight and a half million dollar deal.

00:54:05.540 His show got relegated to like another channel and then didn't do well.

00:54:10.060 They can't they can't support those salaries anymore.

00:54:12.220 Not with not with their ratings, not not nearly with their ratings.

00:54:15.500 I know I will say this.

00:54:17.040 Having been through many presidential cycles at Fox News, I mean, I remember the doldrums

00:54:22.280 of when Romney lost in 2012 and our ratings were in the tank compared to where they normally

00:54:27.640 were.

00:54:28.000 I mean, the audience left.

00:54:29.720 They did not want to see anything about the start of Barack Obama's second term.

00:54:34.400 So the audience, whatever was there before, will likely come back.

00:54:38.140 But CNN's problem is it was crappy to begin with.

00:54:41.040 It's not going to get any better even if they recover from this valley.

00:54:44.880 There's the promised land is no longer in sight.

00:54:47.860 And for MSNBC, Bill, I don't know if you saw the story is absolutely incredible.

00:54:52.100 We've been talking about some of these crazy donations the Harris campaign made to get

00:54:56.660 these endorsements, you know, that reportedly paid five million dollars to Megan Thee Stallion.

00:55:03.280 Somehow Oprah's production company got a million dollars to build that set.

00:55:07.760 I mean, I'm in TV.

00:55:08.800 It doesn't cost a million dollars to build even the fanciest set.

00:55:11.200 It just doesn't.

00:55:11.860 A hundred thousand dollars to the sex podcaster to make her hotel room look.

00:55:17.320 No, that doesn't cost a hundred thousand dollars.

00:55:18.980 It doesn't.

00:55:19.940 At most, that would cost maybe 20 grand.

00:55:22.220 I don't I don't know where all this money went or why they spent so

00:55:25.160 willingly and irresponsibly.

00:55:28.180 But there's a report out today that Al Sharpe.

00:55:30.340 Thank God she's not running the country.

00:55:32.660 Because imagine what she would do with the federal budget.

00:55:35.300 No kidding.

00:55:36.180 It's the opposite of what Elon's about to do with Vivek.

00:55:39.860 Um, hold on a second.

00:55:42.320 Al Sharpton, who not only runs the National Action Network, that's his nonprofit organization,

00:55:49.620 which is very sketchy to begin with.

00:55:51.920 Um, he hosts a show on MSNBC and it just came out today via the Free Beacon, which is a great

00:55:57.920 group, Chuck Ross there, that her campaign donated, donated $500,000 to his nonprofit weeks before

00:56:09.480 Harris went to sit with him for an interview on MSNBC.

00:56:14.800 I'm dying.

00:56:16.020 I'm dying from the conflict of interest.

00:56:18.300 I'm dead.

00:56:18.860 It happened.

00:56:19.480 I, Bill, this is like the bias is coming out of the ears.

00:56:23.500 This is so irresponsible, unethical, and not allowed.

00:56:28.820 It's so egregious, MSNBC is going to have to respond.

00:56:33.200 You cannot make a donation to an anchor's charity on the side of $500,000 as a presidential candidate,

00:56:41.720 then go sit with the anchor, and he didn't disclose it.

00:56:46.320 He didn't disclose.

00:56:47.780 So this is not a news organization, but they continue to masquerade as one.

00:56:53.900 Yeah, it's terrible.

00:56:55.060 And actually, we've had our own experience with Al Sharpton.

00:56:56.980 I don't know if you know this, but, um, uh, after I sort of, he protested you.

00:57:02.480 Well, the protests happen every Thursday, 12 to two.

00:57:05.580 Uh, and when I actually read on X that he was going to be protesting me, uh, I, uh, reached

00:57:11.820 out to him.

00:57:12.580 I said, look, you know, happy to sit down and happy to explain my thinking on DEI.

00:57:17.700 Um, and he, he's been unwilling to meet with me.

00:57:20.920 Uh, and you know, the off ramp, of course, with, uh, sadly with, uh, or maybe sadly it's

00:57:25.760 the wrong word, but Al Sharpton is, you know, if you make the right donation to the right

00:57:28.680 place, you know, the protesters go away, but this is not something that we do here.

00:57:32.820 So 12 to two, uh, and, uh, the protesters have no idea who I am actually, I've actually

00:57:39.660 walked through the protest to come into the office, you know, they're paid, you know,

00:57:43.340 look, at least people are getting paid something, which I feel good about.

00:57:46.200 Um, maybe they get $25 an hour to protest us for a couple of hours, but it's so silly.

00:57:50.940 Um, you know, this because you supported the firing of Claudine Gay, a black woman who ran

00:57:57.560 Harvard.

00:57:58.080 This is what got you in trouble with him.

00:57:59.460 Um, I don't, I know it's specific Claudine itself, but I, I wrote a 5,000 word piece

00:58:05.540 on DEI that, uh, you know, got, went viral, you know, 40 million views or something.

00:58:09.960 And, uh, ultimately I was a catalyst or an important catalyst for her, uh, stepping down

00:58:14.300 from Harvard.

00:58:14.980 Uh, so, you know, combination of those two things, I think he, he, he doesn't like me

00:58:19.540 for that, or he saw this as an opportunity and happy to discuss, and I'm happy to hear

00:58:23.720 his point of view.

00:58:24.340 And if he disagrees with something, I'll have you explain where I'm coming from, but

00:58:27.340 he's been unwilling to take a meeting, which I find, you know, usually people protest so

00:58:32.440 you can engage.

00:58:33.420 There's no engagement.

00:58:34.980 Yeah.

00:58:35.460 I don't recommend it.

00:58:36.260 I've talked to Al Sharpton.

00:58:37.280 It's not worth your time.

00:58:38.260 Um, he, plus I think he's going to be fired soon.

00:58:40.620 He's got, they got to fire Joy Reid now and they got to fire Al Sharpton because honestly,

00:58:44.440 this is one of the more egregious breaches of journalistic ethics I've ever seen.

00:58:49.320 There is, they didn't respond to Chuck Ross of the free beacon when he called, there is

00:58:53.920 no way they can get away with not responding on this.

00:58:56.120 I mean, I'm going to have, in fact, team, please call them every day.

00:58:58.760 Let's call them every day and demand a response.

00:59:00.760 I think they can't get away with this.

00:59:02.120 This is an absolute black eye for the entire profession.

00:59:04.800 That's already made a fool out of itself, but this is just, this is beyond, um, yeah,

00:59:10.680 that was crazy because I remember he was very mad at you for, for supporting the firing

00:59:14.020 of Claudine Gay.

00:59:14.800 Meanwhile, you also supported the firing of the MIT and the stamp, although the, the white

00:59:19.800 women who were running those other organizations, it had nothing to do with color, but he's

00:59:24.200 a race hustler.

00:59:25.060 So he saw an opportunity to get his so-called charity in the news and himself in the news.

00:59:32.000 And I guess those 12 people, I, they need, they need work from 12 to two.

00:59:36.280 Can you hire them, Bill?

00:59:37.280 Maybe we can offload them onto the new Elon program.

00:59:40.580 I'm sure they're good people, but, uh, I don't know that they know why they're there.

00:59:43.840 Uh, actually, I actually chatted with one of them one day I got dropped off at the office.

00:59:48.040 I forgot it was between 12 and two.

00:59:49.400 And I was chatting with the, one of the people there and I said, look, anytime Hal Sharpton

00:59:52.800 wants to sit down, I'm, you know, available to speak, but actually what you make, I think

00:59:56.760 is a really important one.

00:59:57.820 I think that campaigns have to disclose if they're paying, you know, Oprah or, you know,

01:00:04.400 a Hollywood star or, you know, music, uh, you know, an artist, uh, yeah.

01:00:11.480 So they can't do it after the election.

01:00:13.220 It's, it's right, right.

01:00:15.620 They, she bought the endorsements of all these stars.

01:00:19.760 That's clearly how it looks.

01:00:21.440 If we're wrong, tell us we're wrong.

01:00:22.980 How are we wrong?

01:00:23.620 Because why, why is Megan Thee Stallion get $5 million?

01:00:27.340 Obviously they paid her in no world.

01:00:29.580 Does it cost $5 million to show up in a couple of stages to run up and down on these weren't,

01:00:33.340 it was not, uh, advanced production.

01:00:35.720 So this is kind of crazy.

01:00:37.300 And, and for what, all right, for what, what did she get?

01:00:39.700 This is why, uh, Lindy Lee, she's on the DNC finance committee.

01:00:44.160 She spoke with my friend, um, over at news nation, Rich McHugh, who I met while at NBC.

01:00:51.060 He he's a great producer and now he's doing some more on-air work.

01:00:53.900 He was Ronan Farrell's producer during the whole me too stuff.

01:00:56.980 He quit NBC and discussed when they spiked the Harvey Weinstein story that they had.

01:01:03.480 He had no job, this guy, Rich McHugh's a hero.

01:01:06.860 He has four daughters and he said, you people are so gross.

01:01:10.160 You're going to pretend we didn't have the story when we did.

01:01:12.160 I'm out of here.

01:01:13.180 And I'm just thrilled to see Rich at news nation now with a job.

01:01:16.420 So he's doing more on-air work.

01:01:17.740 And he sat down with this woman, Lindy Lee of the DNC finance committee and listen to her.

01:01:21.540 She's not happy about the spending either.

01:01:24.240 It's absolutely in turmoil.

01:01:25.620 People are stepping down.

01:01:27.720 Yeah.

01:01:28.160 And there are going to be elections.

01:01:29.260 What about the current hierarchy leadership at the DNC?

01:01:34.320 I mean, almost everyone's going to be gone.

01:01:35.960 They're just going to be gone.

01:01:37.400 Gone?

01:01:38.260 Yeah, they're going to be gone, to be clear.

01:01:41.720 I thought it was just obvious that it was.

01:01:44.020 A disaster.

01:01:45.640 Yeah, I just thought it was obvious.

01:01:47.580 I didn't realize that it would be a shock to everyone.

01:01:50.220 This wasn't a loss.

01:01:52.040 This was a shellacking.

01:01:53.320 This is not some, like, blip.

01:01:55.100 This is an avalanche.

01:01:57.740 And if we don't wake up and realize, this is not because we weren't left enough.

01:02:02.260 If we don't correctly diagnose the problem, we're never going to change.

01:02:05.240 We're going to keep losing.

01:02:06.200 And some people are just saying, oh, America is misogynistic and sexist.

01:02:10.160 You know, obviously there's some of that.

01:02:11.440 But we can't just blame the entire country and label them as, you know, racist.

01:02:15.600 That's not going to get us anywhere.

01:02:16.740 But the way that the campaign was run and the way that the finances were handled were just, it left much to be desired.

01:02:25.520 Top donors have not gotten any sort of briefing or an apology or any sort of explanation as to where our money went.

01:02:32.720 There are names, like, you know, random staffers who are being paid mountains of money.

01:02:37.060 I mean, they obviously didn't deliver.

01:02:38.960 But one million, does Oprah really need a million?

01:02:41.180 That reminds me of when Tom Brady got millions from the PPP program.

01:02:44.820 I mean, come on.

01:02:46.220 And also building a Call Her Daddy set for $100,000.

01:02:51.140 What in the world?

01:02:52.520 I mean, come on.

01:02:53.640 Wow.

01:02:54.120 I was really stunned to hear that.

01:02:57.400 So, Bill, as somebody who's been a donor to campaigns in the past, what would you do if you were a Democrat donor in this round and you found out you donated, you know, millions of dollars?

01:03:06.360 Is there anything to be done?

01:03:07.500 Well, fortunately, I really have not been a major funder of elections, politics, etc.

01:03:16.620 I have generally historically supported more Democrats than Republicans.

01:03:22.900 But, you know, the DNC is a total disaster.

01:03:25.740 I've been very, very public about that, you know, beginning over a year ago.

01:03:28.420 But if you think about, you know, lying to the American people about the cognitive health of the president, making it impossible for RFK to get on a ballot or making it incredibly expensive for him to do so, changing the rules on debates so that people can participate, you know, threatening.

01:03:44.260 Dean Phillips was a guy I met early on, I thought, was a very capable potential candidate for president.

01:03:51.120 And he tried to hire political consultants, you know, sort of Democratic political consultants.

01:03:55.780 And the DNC threatened the consultants that if they worked for him, they would never get another job working in politics again.

01:04:02.800 And he had to hire people and they would use a pseudonym when they worked for him for fear that, you know, if he was not successful and, you know, the very low probability, very high probability that he would not make it, they wouldn't be done in the political sphere.

01:04:22.940 So it's a it's operated like the mafia and in an incredibly anti-American, anti-democratic fashion.

01:04:30.940 And I think the best thing I heard from that clip is the whole thing is, you know, going to get blown up and needs entirely new leadership.

01:04:37.300 Look, I think it's important. Frankly, I think there should be more than two parties.

01:04:41.060 But if there are two parties, it's important that they're both effective and they put forth quality candidates because I'm a big believer that, you know, competition, you know, one of the sort of American attributes of our country, you know, leads to the best outcomes.

01:04:52.700 And we want the best candidates for president from all parties and we want a fair system and let the public decide, let the American people decide.

01:04:59.660 But don't none of these tactics. And, you know, the Harris campaign, based on the disclosure, spent five hundred and eighty three million dollars on staff in one hundred and three days.

01:05:12.020 Over the same period, maybe even over a longer period, the Trump administration, the Trump team spent, you know, on their spent 10 million, you know, like a 50 to one, 60 to one difference.

01:05:27.060 You know, there's clearly going to be a lot of fraud there. But, you know, again, that's the past.

01:05:30.980 It speaks to some extent on the, you know, how the DNC and the Democratic Party ran this election.

01:05:38.300 But I'm going to be a little more optimistic because I'm very happy with the outcome.

01:05:42.040 And I think the outcome is going to be a great, you know, this is a very significant turning point in the country and the economy and, you know, in geopolitics.

01:05:53.680 And you're seeing it in geopolitics in just the last week, you know, which I think is very encouraging about a safer world.

01:06:03.100 We have tape just coming in of the president. I'll show it to you in one second.

01:06:06.220 But just to put a period at the end of that discussion, the Free Beacon report also notes that the Harris campaign donated to the National Urban League, two million.

01:06:14.680 The Black Economic Alliance, one hundred and fifty thousand black church pack, one hundred and fifty thousand Haitian Ladies Fund, 30,000, obviously trying to just buy the support of all these organizations with the money of their donors.

01:06:29.920 This isn't get out the vote. This isn't campaign signs. And same way they tried to buy Al Sharpton.

01:06:35.680 And maybe that's what Al Sharpton's so-called charity, again, in air quotes, is in the business of.

01:06:41.280 But you may not then interview that donor on the air and not disclose it.

01:06:50.580 You know, I'll just give you an example. I'm in Connecticut and I don't get specific about anything involving how you could ever find my kids just for their safety.

01:06:58.980 So I don't talk about which schools they go to. And there have been stories in the news involving my kids' schools, various stories.

01:07:07.760 And I don't touch those stories because I cannot bring you the story as the anchor and talk about the school for good or for bad without disclosing to you that I have a relationship to the school.

01:07:18.820 That's dishonest. It's not ethical. So even though I'd love to talk about some of these stories, I can't look at the position this guy's in.

01:07:26.520 He just pocketed half a million dollars from her. And then he sits across from her and doesn't tell the audience it's outrageous.

01:07:37.020 OK, enough about that. Let's let's take a look at President-elect Trump sitting down with Joe Biden, who is still the president.

01:07:43.680 Just FYI, we kind of lost track of him, but he's there in a remarkable sight on Capitol Hill this morning at the White House.

01:07:49.320 Let's watch. Well, Mr. President-elect and former president. Thank you.

01:07:54.600 Donald, congratulations. Thank you.

01:07:56.940 And I'm looking forward to having, like we said, a smooth transition to everything we can to make sure you're accommodating what you need.

01:08:06.100 And we're going to get a chance to talk about some of that today.

01:08:08.260 Good. Welcome. Thank you very much.

01:08:12.240 And politics is tough and it's, in many cases, not a very nice world, but it is a nice world today.

01:08:20.840 And I appreciate it very much. A transition that's so smooth, it'll be as smooth as it can get.

01:08:26.780 And I very much appreciate that, Joe.

01:08:29.060 You're welcome.

01:08:29.540 I mean, that the man on screen right has been trying to imprison the man on screen left for the better part of two years.

01:08:43.500 That's an extraordinary gesture for President Trump to go in there, shake his hands, his hand and be magnanimous.

01:08:53.020 I mean, I give some credit to Biden for making it go smoothly and being a pro in the moment.

01:08:59.720 But what's behind that picture is the one man trying to ruin the other.

01:09:05.780 That's what just went on for four years.

01:09:07.300 I mean, it's I'm taking a deep breath, Bill, because it's what we used to love about our country, like more than virtually any other thing.

01:09:14.020 The peaceful transition of power.

01:09:15.420 Trump behaved very badly around 2020 and kind of threw that out the window.

01:09:19.980 But then the retribution against him was unmatched.

01:09:24.400 Maybe it's the dawn of a new day.

01:09:26.140 You know, maybe we're getting back to a more dignified political class.

01:09:31.540 But I doubt it.

01:09:32.720 What do you think?

01:09:34.260 I think you might be right.

01:09:35.860 Look, I think that the problem last time is that it was unexpected.

01:09:39.800 I think both to Trump and to many, certainly to Clinton, Hillary Clinton and others and her followers that he would get elected.

01:09:46.560 It was this incredible collect, you know, grown and sort of half the country.

01:09:51.720 And, you know, from the moment he, you know, his candidacy and his election was questioned in terms of its legitimacy.

01:10:00.020 And then he was attacked with, you know, by the media instantaneously and then the Russian, you know, sort of investigation.

01:10:07.500 And, you know, it's very made it very difficult for him to be magnanimous, I would say, from the beginning, you know, because he was really like under attack, you know, over time.

01:10:18.160 And I think what's great about this outcome is that he's coming in with a groundswell of support, majority of the country.

01:10:25.220 No one's questioning, you know, such a landslide.

01:10:27.300 You couldn't question the legitimacy of the election.

01:10:29.380 You know, that's not a healthy thing for the country.

01:10:33.140 And it's actually been very peaceful, very quiet, which I think is very good.

01:10:37.840 And he's been working very quickly to bring in a new team.

01:10:40.400 And we're starting to see some indications of green shoots in terms of geopolitics.

01:10:46.660 And I think you're going to see the same thing from some big announcements from companies of some combination of transactions and investments.

01:10:56.060 And that will really lift the economic spirits of the country, which will be great.

01:11:01.460 That's great.

01:11:01.900 Well, if it happens in the next two months, Biden will take credit for it.

01:11:04.940 Same as he's he's tried to do, same as Obama's tried to do about Trump's first term.

01:11:09.080 Um, this just in the first lady, Jill Biden handed Trump a handwritten letter of congratulations per the White House and expressed her readiness to assist with the transition.

01:11:18.440 I mean, like that's pretty rich because she's been sitting in on cabinet meetings.

01:11:22.740 She's been acting as a co-president to the sitting president.

01:11:26.420 So pretty extraordinary.

01:11:28.380 She felt the need to insert herself in that moment.

01:11:29.980 But OK, let's go back to what Trump has done so far, because I'm very interested in some of these nominations.

01:11:35.760 Now, the Hegseth one, he was just on Sean Ryan's podcast.

01:11:40.120 And what great timing for our friend Sean and said a lot of great things.

01:11:45.140 I'm sure Trump didn't see that.

01:11:46.780 But Trump does for sure watch Fox and Friends every day.

01:11:49.840 And there's zero doubt he knows Pete from Fox and Friends.

01:11:52.500 And they've met before.

01:11:53.560 He considered him for VA secretary on his first term.

01:11:56.160 But it didn't work out.

01:11:57.720 So here's a little bit why, for the listening audience, you can see why Trump chose him.

01:12:02.460 Again, he's young.

01:12:03.580 He's only 44.

01:12:05.200 But by the way, I learned this today.

01:12:07.780 Did you know that JFK appointed, of course, his brother, RFK Sr., as attorney general when RFK was only 35 years old and had never tried a case?

01:12:20.000 He had never tried a case.

01:12:22.040 And he became our attorney general.

01:12:24.400 So age is but a number.

01:12:26.060 However, Pete Hegseth actually has gone to war for our country twice.

01:12:29.860 He went to Iraq.

01:12:30.460 He went to Afghanistan.

01:12:31.300 He was a combat vet in the Army National Guard and has been has just wrote a book about our woke military, is very much in touch with the troops.

01:12:39.980 Maybe not beloved by the generals, but I think that's probably why he got hired.

01:12:43.260 Here's a little bit from Pete on the woke military with Sean Ryan's SOT7.

01:12:50.520 Well, first of all, you got to fire.

01:12:52.740 You know, you got to fire the chairman of Joint Chiefs and you got to fire this.

01:12:55.320 I mean, obviously, you're going to bring in a new secretary of defense, but any general that was involved, general, admiral, whatever that was involved in any of the DEI woke shit has got to go.

01:13:04.160 Either you're in for war fighting and that's it.

01:13:07.560 That's the only litmus test we care about.

01:13:09.280 You got to get DEI and CRT out of military academies.

01:13:12.880 You're not training young officers to be baptized in this type of thinking.

01:13:16.940 And then, you know, whatever the standards, whatever the combat standards were, say, and I don't know, 1995, let's just make those the standards.

01:13:23.780 And as far as recruiting, to hire the guy that, you know, did Top Gun Maverick and create some real ads that motivate people to want to serve.

01:13:31.080 People don't want to serve because they don't trust that their senior leaders are going to have their best interest in mind in combat.

01:13:39.260 Just hearing that is exciting.

01:13:41.140 What do you think of it?

01:13:42.800 Totally agree.

01:13:43.720 Look, I don't actually know the guy, but I've read a bit about him.

01:13:47.200 You know, 20 years in the military, he's kind of seems like a soldier's soldier.

01:13:51.840 You know, one of the problems we have is, you know, recruitment.

01:13:54.180 I think he's the kind of guy to inspire young Americans to enlist.

01:13:59.760 Clearly is a, you know, very good spokesperson.

01:14:03.320 Strikes me as a good leader.

01:14:05.400 Got a master's degree in, I think, foreign policy from the Kennedy School.

01:14:10.200 You know, clearly a smart, articulate person.

01:14:13.120 You know, when you send people into battle, the fact that you have combat experience, you know, a couple of brown stars, I think gives you a lot of credibility.

01:14:20.940 And I love the fact that this administration is much younger than, you know, perhaps previous administration.

01:14:27.480 You know, we have people in roles.

01:14:28.940 I'm a big believer.

01:14:29.820 You don't need to be old to be right, which I think is one of the most powerful things ever told to me when I was, you know, 25 years old.

01:14:36.800 Um, and so, you know, George Washington was what, uh, you know, when he was, uh, saving the country.

01:14:44.400 How old was he?

01:14:45.400 Not very old.

01:14:46.240 I don't know, but they were all very young.

01:14:47.940 It's incredible.

01:14:48.740 You go back and look at Thomas Jefferson, all of them, other than John Adams, he was the, he was the oldie of the group.

01:14:53.320 Um, but yeah, they were all, they were babes.

01:14:56.020 Um, Pete goes on.

01:14:57.840 This is controversial, but gotta say, I support this too.

01:15:02.220 Sot six.

01:15:02.760 I'm straight up just saying we should not have women in combat roles.

01:15:08.120 It hasn't made us more effective.

01:15:10.000 Hasn't made us more lethal.

01:15:11.300 Has made fighting more complicated.

01:15:12.980 We've all served with women and they're great.

01:15:15.200 Um, it just, our institutions don't have to incentivize that in places where traditionally, not traditionally, over human history, uh, men in those positions are, are more capable.

01:15:28.500 FYI, NPR, Marine Corps released a study on women in combat roles.

01:15:32.760 Uh, it was a year long study.

01:15:35.660 The study found all male units outperformed mixed gender units across the board.

01:15:39.360 I just, it's not sexism.

01:15:40.940 It's about results.

01:15:42.380 Women can absolutely serve in support roles to those who are in combat, but I completely agree with him on it.

01:15:48.140 What do you think?

01:15:48.620 Well, actually one example to the contrary, uh, is Israel, you know, they don't have a choice because it's such a small country.

01:15:55.220 Um, but you know, women play a very important role in the military, uh, in Israel and they serve, um, you know, I don't know enough of the details to know, you know, precisely how they serve.

01:16:05.060 Uh, you know, for example, in Gaza or otherwise, um, but you know, it is a mixed gender, uh, military that's, you know, one of the most effective militaries in the world.

01:16:13.120 So I don't actually know enough to know the answer, but I think, uh, you know, it depends on the facts.

01:16:19.460 I'm, I'm pro women's conserve.

01:16:22.300 Women can do a lot of great things.

01:16:23.380 I don't think it's, it's useful or helpful in the combat setting.

01:16:26.840 I've heard that from a lot of vets.

01:16:28.380 It's no offense to women.

01:16:29.520 We can do, in fact, when I trained to be a Marine, which this is a joke bill, but I did go down to camp Lejeune and I did advanced training for the Marines there for two days for a segment.

01:16:38.120 It was amazing.

01:16:39.220 I slept there.

01:16:39.840 I showered there, did the whole bit.

01:16:41.480 Um, they did say that women, one thing that women are better at is aim on the triggers for whatever reason.

01:16:47.980 I guess women do a better job of controlling their breathing generally, and it can affect, you know, your trigger finger.

01:16:54.740 So, you know, I realized that would be combat, but there may be supportive roles for women that would not change the dynamic of the group setting, which is one of the things that guys complain about.

01:17:03.820 All right.

01:17:04.240 I'll give you, uh, just a couple more.

01:17:05.900 Cause it's interesting to hear from Pete.

01:17:07.240 He only did this interview like a week ago.

01:17:09.740 So, and I, I hear this came together for secretary of defense two days ago.

01:17:14.380 So it is possible.

01:17:15.400 Trump saw it, uh, here he is in set for.

01:17:19.440 In the past X number of years, 10, 12, 15, uh, the Pentagon has a perfect record in all of its war games against China.

01:17:28.460 We lose every time the way our system works, the way our bureaucratic system works, where the speed of weapons procurement works.

01:17:34.000 We're always a decade behind in fighting the last war.

01:17:38.240 China's building an army specifically dedicated to defeating the United States of America.

01:17:42.640 That is, that is their strategic outset.

01:17:44.580 Take hypersonic missiles.

01:17:45.620 And if, you know, 15 hypersonic missiles can take out our 10 aircraft carriers in the first 20 minutes of a conflict.

01:17:50.520 What does that look like?

01:17:52.940 If they've already got us by the balls economically, uh, which you pointed out very well, uh, with our grid.

01:17:58.720 Culturally, there's plenty of elite capture going on, uh, around the globe.

01:18:02.680 I mean, and then microchips and everything.

01:18:05.340 Why do they want Taiwan?

01:18:06.140 They want to corner the market completely on the technological future.

01:18:10.060 We can't even drive our cars without the stuff we need out of China these days.

01:18:13.160 I mean, they, they have a full spectrum, uh, long-term view of not just regional, but global domination.

01:18:21.500 And we are, we have our heads up our asses.

01:18:25.480 I think it's going to be very tough to defeat him, Bill.

01:18:28.480 He's that the, he's got the star factor.

01:18:31.860 He's very bright.

01:18:33.040 He's actually served and, and signed up after 9-11.

01:18:36.600 He was one of those guys who rushed to the war.

01:18:38.280 Um, he understands television and sound bites.

01:18:43.220 I, I don't, good luck to them in trying to convince enough Republicans to peel away from Pete Hegseth.

01:18:49.220 I don't think it's going to happen.

01:18:51.240 I think it looks like a very interesting candidate for sure.

01:18:55.680 Who, what else do you think?

01:18:56.760 Because right now, one of the big roles we're looking at is maybe treasury.

01:18:59.980 We don't know, you know, he hasn't made a lot of the big financial announcements yet, Trump.

01:19:04.740 Yeah, actually, Lee, Scott Bessent is sort of the, uh, lead candidate for treasury secretary.

01:19:10.520 It's a super important role.

01:19:11.780 Uh, I know Scott not well, but I have a lot of respect for him.

01:19:15.060 He's, um, you know, trained by one of the best, uh, Stanley Druckenmiller is probably the greatest

01:19:19.500 macro investor of all time.

01:19:21.440 And macro investing requires a real knowledge of the economy, interest rates, uh, you know,

01:19:26.380 all the kinds of things that treasury secretary, uh, needs to think about.

01:19:30.280 So, uh, big fan of, uh, you know, that decision.

01:19:33.040 He's definitely, I think the best, best, uh, athlete, if you will, in consideration for

01:19:37.600 the role.

01:19:38.000 And I think, you know, the market would respond very favorably to that choice.

01:19:42.120 Now, this is a dumb question, but how does the treasury secretary affect your world?

01:19:47.640 Like business leaders like you, why do you pay such attention to that?

01:19:52.380 Treasury secretary is like, you know, sort of the CFO, the chief financial officer of the

01:19:57.820 United States government.

01:19:58.660 Uh, and so while, you know, you know, think about your favorite company, you know, CEO

01:20:03.820 plays a very important role.

01:20:05.020 CEO in this case, of course, is the president, but his, you know, the, the, the right hand

01:20:09.360 finance, you know, the person who has to step in and think about how crises are managed.

01:20:14.380 Um, you know, uh, uh, Pete in that, uh, interview talked about how important the economy was in

01:20:20.200 terms of military effectiveness.

01:20:21.780 Uh, so just having the right, uh, you know, finance executive, if you will, in that seat, I think

01:20:27.000 is something, you know, you need the right person making, you know, the right decisions

01:20:30.600 about, uh, the government and how the government's financed, uh, economic policy.

01:20:35.180 And it's also really important for markets that, uh, investors have confidence in the

01:20:40.640 person who sits in that seat, you know, and, and Steve Mnuchin did a great job.

01:20:43.760 Uh, he's really one of the, uh, people who made it through the whole Trump administration,

01:20:48.180 uh, with his reputation entirely actually enhanced, uh, dealing with some of the biggest challenges.

01:20:54.760 Yeah.

01:20:55.940 Yeah.

01:20:56.700 That's a feat in and of itself.

01:20:58.220 All right.

01:20:58.720 Marco Rubio.

01:20:59.680 One of the things that pro Israel Americans, which is the majority of Americans, um, have

01:21:05.280 been pointing out is that, you know, Rubio, Elise Stefanik, these are very pro Israel, uh,

01:21:12.000 lawmakers and Trump has elevated them, which is making a lot of folks feel better about what

01:21:17.420 Trump, you know, what his policies will be.

01:21:19.500 I think they had no reason to worry.

01:21:21.080 He wants the war to end, but by the way, Israel has already won the war.

01:21:25.220 Um, but he's not in any way ever shown an anti-Israel strain.

01:21:29.920 He's not empathetic at all to the Hamas crowd.

01:21:34.480 I think the reason a lot of folks in like Dearborn, Michigan voted for him and he won

01:21:38.480 it is because he, he wants to bring it to a close.

01:21:40.820 He is not a neocon.

01:21:42.220 He's not all about like, let's dump more weapons and ammo ammunition so that we can keep

01:21:46.900 this thing going.

01:21:47.800 Um, but Marco Rubio, one of the reasons that people love him was he was very, very fiercely

01:21:55.000 defending Israel after they got attacked, even when it became controversial in some

01:21:59.120 pockets to do it.

01:21:59.980 Here's a clip of him from November of 23 in Saw 3.

01:22:03.540 Are you filming it?

01:22:05.420 I want you guys to get this.

01:22:06.620 I want them to destroy every element of Hamas they can get their hands on.

01:22:09.920 These people are vicious animals who did horrifying crimes.

01:22:13.240 And I hope you guys post that.

01:22:14.660 And what about the civilians that are being killed every day?

01:22:18.100 Hamas has stopped hiding behind civilians, putting civilians in the way.

01:22:20.980 Hamas knew that this was going to lead to this.

01:22:22.940 Hamas has stopped building their military installations underneath hospitals.

01:22:26.380 So you don't care that 15,000 have died.

01:22:28.880 You don't care about the babies that are being killed every day.

01:22:31.320 I think it's terrible.

01:22:32.380 And I think Hamas is 100% to blame.

01:22:34.380 That's what I think.

01:22:35.360 Make sure you post that, please.

01:22:37.740 That's Medea Benjamin of Code Pink.

01:22:40.260 So what do you make of Rubio?

01:22:43.020 I think he's a great choice.

01:22:44.660 He's got a lot of foreign policy experience.

01:22:47.500 He's been in the Senate, you know, significant period of time.

01:22:50.140 I think he serves on the foreign policy committee.

01:22:52.400 He's got some very senior roles.

01:22:54.000 And I think he's entirely right about Hamas.

01:22:55.480 I think Israel needs to get rid of them.

01:22:57.300 And that ultimately will protect civilians long term.

01:22:59.660 Mm-hmm.

01:23:01.720 The border situation is going to be very dicey, as we alluded to earlier.

01:23:06.700 It's not, the media is not going to go along with deportations.

01:23:10.820 They're going to film everyone, whether the person's a murderer or not, and try to make

01:23:16.960 it seem like they're pulling some law-abiding, sweet grandpa away from his family.

01:23:23.800 And this will be a test to see how much of that the American people can take who are getting

01:23:29.460 their news only from these biased news sources.

01:23:31.700 What do you think about the deportation plan?

01:23:34.900 Well, I don't know precisely what the plan is ultimately going to be.

01:23:38.200 But I think, you know, Obama, Clinton both deported, I think, millions of people.

01:23:43.400 I think people forget that.

01:23:44.500 You know, we wouldn't have to deport people if we did a better job managing the border

01:23:48.560 in the first place.

01:23:49.980 You know, I've been a big, you know, supporter of actually so-called DACA kids, financed a

01:23:57.300 lot of, you know, these are kids brought into the country by their parents when they're,

01:24:01.440 you know, six years old or whatever.

01:24:02.700 They grew up here.

01:24:03.400 They go to high school here.

01:24:04.240 And then they want to go to college and they've been able to, you know, the, none of the scholarships

01:24:09.920 and government financing sort of applies to them.

01:24:12.760 So Don Graham, the former owner of the Washington Post, inspired me to help these kids.

01:24:18.280 So I'm someone who certainly has a, you know, soft spot for, you know, people who, you know,

01:24:23.440 these are striving, hardworking, you know, young Americans.

01:24:27.300 And so I think it's a complicated issue, but, you know, unfortunately we have, you know,

01:24:33.400 people who are, you did not come here illegally.

01:24:36.200 You know, they've overwhelmed cities and you heard Eric Adams talking about what's sort of

01:24:40.740 necessary here.

01:24:41.580 And, you know, I think we have every right to return people who came to the country illegally

01:24:46.320 and send them back to the countries they came from and let them, you know, apply to come

01:24:50.180 here legally.

01:24:50.860 I mean, perhaps, you know, just the cost of sending back, actually the economic cost of sending

01:24:55.520 10 million people back tomorrow and even the logistics of doing something like that is

01:24:59.160 impractical.

01:25:00.000 So I think we're going to have to come up with some way with sorting through the millions

01:25:05.000 of people that came here illegally.

01:25:06.380 And if someone's came here illegally and they've worked hard and they've paid taxes and they

01:25:10.320 haven't committed a crime, you know, I think you should think quite seriously about whether

01:25:14.500 that person should be entitled to stay in the country.

01:25:17.040 Whereas if someone's committed a crime, you know, it gets, it gets very easily or they

01:25:21.360 haven't paid taxes or they haven't been a good citizen or, you know, so I think some

01:25:25.360 sort of sifting where you prioritize the people who are the greatest threat to the country,

01:25:30.300 we're not making a contribution and where you perhaps give a benefit to the people who,

01:25:34.440 you know, while they may have come here illegally, they have made an important contribution to

01:25:41.080 the country.

01:25:41.560 And I think that might be a way to address the problem.

01:25:44.900 I think one other way to do it is I think that, you know, one, people are turning back,

01:25:49.540 you know, some of these, some groups that were, you know, trying to come into the country

01:25:53.860 before the, you know, the election happened, have literally turned back.

01:25:58.120 And I think some number of people, uh, you give them a ticket, they'll head back home,

01:26:01.500 um, for fear of getting quote unquote deported.

01:26:04.220 Uh, so I think it's a complicated issue.

01:26:06.400 I don't think it's practical to send 10 million people home overnight.

01:26:09.480 I think that would actually have some economic implications.

01:26:11.460 So I think a sorting and a prioritization, uh, there certainly are, uh, you know, a couple

01:26:16.160 million of those should go back, you know, promptly because they're a threat to the country.

01:26:21.140 One of the problems we may have is Venezuela saying it's not going to take them.

01:26:25.100 It's not going to take its own citizens back.

01:26:26.800 So I'm looking forward to seeing what Trump does with that.

01:26:29.200 Cause I don't think he's going to respond well to that at all.

01:26:32.680 I say, yeah, you have to start with the criminals, the ones who have committed additional crimes

01:26:37.020 here or who we know are criminals in their homes, home countries first, as they are planning

01:26:41.020 to do.

01:26:41.440 But no one who came in over the past four years should stay.

01:26:44.040 Not one.

01:26:44.860 We opened the border.

01:26:46.140 They've done nothing.

01:26:46.780 I don't care whether they found a job or not.

01:26:48.480 They need to go back home.

01:26:49.360 We can't, the country's full.

01:26:51.160 We cannot brook 10 to 20 million illegal immigrants who took advantage of Biden's open border.

01:26:57.260 People have been here 20 years.

01:26:58.580 That's a different story.

01:26:59.400 I don't think Trump's going to look at those folks.

01:27:01.240 We got enough to deal with, but, um, it's going to be spawned as a no mercy, as a brutal,

01:27:06.600 as a cruel policy.

01:27:08.840 And some will say, I'm with my family.

01:27:10.720 And you heard Tom Hogan say, you know what?

01:27:12.940 Then the family should go home with you.

01:27:14.280 If you want to stay with the family, then they should go too.

01:27:16.120 But that's not a reason for you to be allowed to stay here.

01:27:19.140 But that's going to be the major story of Trump's administration, um, probably after

01:27:23.060 the Elon-Vivek joint partnership, because the left is already primed to hate it.

01:27:27.520 They don't like Vivek.

01:27:28.900 They don't like Elon.

01:27:30.340 They don't want them to succeed.

01:27:32.180 So I think those will be the two biggest news stories that we see.

01:27:34.860 And then the tariffs, they'll, they'll be looking forward to that and his, his dismantling

01:27:39.940 of DEI, which will all be cheering from the sideline, but the media will not.

01:27:44.820 Now they're in an existential crisis about the DEI things, Bill, as you know, as somebody

01:27:49.260 who know, who does not support DEI, um, and you've got lots of charges of racism and misogyny

01:27:56.080 in the wake of Kamala Harris's loss.

01:27:58.540 I wonder if you think, cause we've been debating this on the show, that this party is capable

01:28:04.260 of excising that cancer from its base.

01:28:09.400 Can it go forward as the Democrat party of old, the, the Bill Clinton party that you probably

01:28:15.340 voted for, right?

01:28:16.300 Like, is that gettable still or no?

01:28:20.180 I don't know.

01:28:22.400 I really don't.

01:28:23.580 Depends on how they respond.

01:28:24.980 You know, if the same people are in power, I don't see any changes.

01:28:28.280 If this, uh, as you saw the video earlier on your show leads to, uh, you know, an effect,

01:28:33.140 a neutron bomb blows up in the party and they have to reconstitute and go back to their roots,

01:28:38.060 then you could see a meaningful change for sure.

01:28:41.960 I don't think they can do it.

01:28:43.240 You've got the, the amount of distress over Trump's win is related to their belief that

01:28:51.360 he's a misogynist.

01:28:52.700 He's a racist.

01:28:53.920 He's a fascist Hitler-esque character.

01:28:56.460 And it's expanded beyond Trump, as you know, to the Republican half of the country, the people

01:29:01.240 who voted for Trump.

01:29:02.120 There was a clip over on the view yesterday.

01:29:04.540 My audience says, I love to make fun of the view bill.

01:29:06.920 Sorry.

01:29:07.160 I'm going to take you over to the view with, um, Sonny Hauston lamenting about people are

01:29:13.220 going to have to visit their evil family members this, this Thanksgiving and this Christmas

01:29:18.580 who may have done the unthinkable and that's vote for Donald Trump.

01:29:22.020 Here's a bit of that.

01:29:23.600 I would never let my politics be the reason I don't show up to see my family because they

01:29:28.920 won't always be there.

01:29:29.800 I'm going to disagree.

01:29:31.120 Um, I, I completely understand her point because I, I really do feel that this, um, candidate,

01:29:36.780 uh, you know, president elect Trump is, is just a different type of candidate, um, from

01:29:42.380 the things he said and the things he's done and the things he will do.

01:29:46.600 It's more of a moral issue for me.

01:29:49.040 Um, and I think it's more of a moral issue for other people.

01:29:51.640 We're just, uh, you know, I, I would say it was different when, let's say Bush got elected.

01:29:57.360 You know, you may not have agreed with his policies, but you didn't feel like he was a deeply flawed

01:30:02.800 person, deeply flawed by character, deeply flawed in morality.

01:30:06.660 And so I think when people feel that someone voted not only against their families, but

01:30:12.040 against them and against people that they loved, I think it's okay to take a beat.

01:30:19.000 What do you make of that, Bill?

01:30:20.100 As somebody who's probably got a lot of Democrat friends who feel she does.

01:30:24.100 And Democrat kids.

01:30:25.880 So, uh, we're hosting for Thanksgiving.

01:30:28.620 Look, I think it's very, uh, anti-family.

01:30:30.740 It's crazy.

01:30:31.200 Uh, look, we got to a place in America where, you know, very sadly that if you supported

01:30:36.000 Trump, uh, you know, people would sort of disown you.

01:30:38.980 Uh, and that, uh, you know, this, this hit, the crazy notion, the Hitlerian notion, as you

01:30:44.580 referred to it, we were just talking about how pro-Israel his picks have been, right?

01:30:49.140 Would Hitler, okay.

01:30:50.540 Chosen, uh, built a team that's supportive of Israel.

01:30:54.320 I mean, the whole thing is absurd.

01:30:55.660 It really is really absurd.

01:30:56.840 And it just speaks to how people have been indoctrinated into a cult, right?

01:31:00.680 They're like, the religion is that this guy's evil.

01:31:03.320 This guy's Hitler.

01:31:04.180 This guy is, uh, and therefore if you support Hitler, you know, clearly you're an evil person

01:31:09.140 and therefore you shouldn't show up at Thanksgiving.

01:31:11.440 But, you know, I think the evidence shows that he's not, obviously he's not Hitler.

01:31:15.760 But, you know, many of his friends are Jewish.

01:31:17.560 Grew up in the New York City real estate community, which is a lot of Jews.

01:31:21.160 His daughter's Jewish.

01:31:22.800 Sure.

01:31:23.660 His grandchildren are sure.

01:31:26.300 So.

01:31:26.980 The part of the problem.

01:31:28.580 More religious people.

01:31:29.900 I think you asked before about the statistics and the statistics I've read is he got more

01:31:34.800 of the Jewish vote, uh, than, you know, uh, than any Republican, uh, in, I don't know,

01:31:41.960 maybe ever decades, you know, number, something like 45%.

01:31:45.100 And that may understate it.

01:31:47.100 And by the way, yeah, I would say, you know, in light of how some members of the progressive

01:31:51.300 left members of the Jewish community feel, uh, this may be a case where the, you know,

01:31:56.580 the post vote, uh, they might not be telling the truth, voting for Trump.

01:32:00.880 They're still not willing to admit the reform.

01:32:02.620 So I think the percentage, I'd be surprised if it's not a majority of Jewish people, particularly

01:32:06.740 in light of what's going on around the world with antisemitism, what's going on with anti-Israel,

01:32:12.420 uh, sentiment.

01:32:13.020 I bet it's a substantial majority of Jews voted for Trump.

01:32:16.620 Part of the problem, as we discussed earlier is these universities, and it's not just the

01:32:20.320 Ivies, but a lot of the universities, even a second tier are indoctrination factories,

01:32:26.420 churning out antisemites, churning out pro DEI warriors.

01:32:31.740 And so even while you might have party elders like James Carville jumping up and down saying,

01:32:36.600 stop doing this.

01:32:37.920 Yes, this is not the way to win elections.

01:32:40.220 You've got whole factories creating woke little Democrats who think this is really important.

01:32:46.340 And this leads me to a tweet you sent out.

01:32:49.140 I think it was yesterday.

01:32:50.120 Was it yesterday where you were saying a friend of yours was asked to write a recommendation

01:32:54.720 for someone's child to get into Yale.

01:32:58.820 I'll read just a little bit of what you posted.

01:33:01.380 Um, you wrote a friend was asked to write a recommendation for a daughter, somebody else's

01:33:06.320 daughter who was applying to Yale worth a read dear blank.

01:33:09.420 I'm unwilling to write a letter of recommendation in support of your daughter's application to

01:33:12.900 Yale.

01:33:13.500 I no longer do that.

01:33:14.920 It's not that I don't believe she's qualified on the contrary.

01:33:17.320 It's because I do.

01:33:18.400 You wouldn't ask me to write a letter of recommendation for her admission to Hamas,

01:33:21.900 but Yale is no different than Hamas, a cult that abides no disagreement and a cult certain

01:33:27.900 of its purpose and mission beyond reflection.

01:33:30.580 Yale is potentially even more dangerous.

01:33:33.240 Hamas will be defeated shortly.

01:33:34.360 Yale will continue to sell, send its graduates into positions of power for years.

01:33:39.000 And then he goes on and say, our recent study at Harvard found roughly 50% of the students

01:33:43.180 and professors would not discuss uncomfortable topics.

01:33:46.860 An essential life skill is the ability to change your mind.

01:33:50.320 She won't learn any of that at an Ivy league school.

01:33:53.380 Any of them, um, there's been some blowback on this online.

01:33:58.420 You're still trending for it.

01:33:59.840 People saying Yale is like Hamas.

01:34:02.800 Yeah.

01:34:03.080 Yale is no different than Hamas.

01:34:05.060 It's more dangerous.

01:34:06.400 How, how could it possibly be?

01:34:08.660 So, uh, that's my friend, Adam, uh, and he's got, uh, he, he sends out some interesting

01:34:15.020 emails.

01:34:15.360 So I, I, uh, I thought that was a particularly interesting one, but I think the point he makes,

01:34:19.460 uh, about the indoctrination, uh, nature, you know, maybe really what I've been talking

01:34:25.100 about before a bit of a cult, you know, the, the structure of elite universities, uh, you know,

01:34:30.620 even 30 years ago, they were more left than right, but the balance was different.

01:34:35.800 You know, over time, uh, what happens is each faculty department, you know, the economics

01:34:40.580 department, the social department, the physics department promotes, uh, the, the, you know,

01:34:46.720 if you think about the structure of universities, basically it used to be that professors got

01:34:51.600 tenure and they do today and they got tenure to protect them to the extent they had views

01:34:56.700 that were inconsistent with kind of the convention, the conventional views or the, or even the,

01:35:01.100 the, the, the church's views, you know, the Galileo, you know, to protect the next Galileo

01:35:05.720 sayings or controversial things, what tenure has become is a device to really control the

01:35:13.020 politics of a university.

01:35:14.260 So if you're an aspiring PhD candidate and you want to get your degree, you can't put forth

01:35:19.360 a paper that's inconsistent with the politics of the department.

01:35:22.460 And each of these departments have tipped sufficiently far to the left.

01:35:26.700 Um, because each, they won't promote a candidate.

01:35:29.040 Uh, you're not going to get appointed to the Harvard social studies faculty if you don't

01:35:32.640 agree politically with the, you know, with the very progressive, uh, left wing, uh, nature

01:35:38.320 of that, uh, department.

01:35:39.700 So once you reach a certain tipping point in terms of the percentage of the faculty, uh,

01:35:44.960 on the left, the whole university appears left.

01:35:47.620 Uh, and that's really sort of the point he's making.

01:35:49.380 Uh, there is, there is not an opportunity for viewpoint diversity.

01:35:52.480 Uh, there's enormous self-censorship because of people, again,

01:35:56.580 that people are self-censoring vote that they voted for Trump.

01:35:58.860 Uh, they have to self-censor on university campuses that they have conservative views.

01:36:02.680 And this, of course, think about a university.

01:36:04.680 It's a place where you're supposed to be exposed to very broad viewpoints so you can figure out

01:36:08.020 the truth and that's not what's happening.

01:36:10.280 And, uh, so I think it's obviously the, the letter is, uh, a bit tongue in cheek.

01:36:14.400 He probably sent it knowing him.

01:36:15.800 Um, but, uh, but it really makes the point, uh, of the problems with our elite universities.

01:36:22.060 You mentioned you have four kids.

01:36:23.500 Do you have any who are in college or yet to go to college?

01:36:28.020 Uh, so I have, uh, two have graduated, one in college now.

01:36:31.240 Uh, she was not happy with me, uh, voting for president, uh, Trump and she made a very,

01:36:36.300 you know, did her best to try to convince me otherwise.

01:36:38.060 And many of the arguments and videos and things she sent me were, you know, I would say, no,

01:36:43.360 that's not true, sweetheart.

01:36:44.540 You know, please, let me, let me send you the full clip.

01:36:47.440 Let me send you the video.

01:36:49.180 No, there's a counterpoint to that argument.

01:36:50.920 Um, but you know, people become incredibly, again, it feels like a religion and it shouldn't

01:36:57.060 be right.

01:36:57.840 We should choose a presidential candidate, a Senator, uh, et cetera, on the basis of, you know,

01:37:03.280 who we think isn't going to act in the best interest of the country.

01:37:05.820 Um, and, uh, you know, he's going to, dad, he's going to make abortions legal everywhere

01:37:11.500 in America.

01:37:11.980 He's going to take away reproductive rights.

01:37:14.480 Um, you know, these are, uh, I said, no, no, no, that's, that's already been decided.

01:37:18.600 It's a state level issue.

01:37:20.260 Um, but it, I'm sure there are many families where, uh, there's a lot of dissension over

01:37:25.160 this and, and I'm looking forward to the opportunity.

01:37:28.080 It's gotten to a place where they don't want to really want to talk about politics at all.

01:37:33.680 That's not a good place because.

01:37:35.820 They're going to stay where they are emotionally and, you know, with their faulty logic on

01:37:41.140 some of these accusations.

01:37:42.160 You should send her some Megan Kelly show videos there that the Friday before the election,

01:37:46.340 I took on the abortion issue in depth.

01:37:48.560 And, um, we, we have never taken a position on abortion itself on this show.

01:37:53.700 So she should listen to it because it's purely from a legal standpoint, uh, I practiced law

01:37:58.000 for 10 years.

01:37:58.800 You should send it to her because it will not offend her pro-choice nature and it will make

01:38:03.580 her feel better about what is and is not going to happen in a Trump administration on this

01:38:08.040 issue.

01:38:08.860 And you should send her all of my stuff, frankly, because I think she, I can get her, Bill.

01:38:11.740 I can, I can get her, I can get her over my son.

01:38:13.840 If I could get her to watch it, I got you.

01:38:15.860 I would, I absolutely will.

01:38:17.000 Well, here's what I was going to ask.

01:38:19.760 So you've got a little one, I think with your, with your second wife, your current wife.

01:38:23.180 Um, yes.

01:38:24.060 Would you send your daughter to any of these schools?

01:38:27.800 Like, what do you, should she not go to college?

01:38:30.160 Like, what do you, what should people be doing?

01:38:33.780 Yes.

01:38:34.200 Well, look, I think the economic logic behind sending someone to college today is much less

01:38:40.140 compelling than it was in the past.

01:38:41.300 First of all, you can learn anything today with some combination of a podcast, YouTube

01:38:45.820 videos, what you read, uh, et cetera.

01:38:48.700 There are actually many online free courses, MIT and other places.

01:38:52.440 And to spend 320,000, which is what it costs to go to Harvard today, you better get a great

01:38:59.060 education.

01:38:59.900 Um, so I'm hoping that, you know, we've got 13 years before she's applying to school or

01:39:04.680 maybe 12.

01:39:05.200 Uh, I think hopefully what's happened in the last, uh, year is going to catalyze sufficient

01:39:10.760 change, uh, in our higher system of higher education and hopefully in our secondary schools,

01:39:16.300 uh, so that we, uh, you know, it's really important that America has a great educational

01:39:20.480 system.

01:39:20.980 We're ranked like 30th in the world and we spend more than anyone else.

01:39:23.560 It's a bit like our healthcare system.

01:39:24.680 And I'm hoping this administration, it's going to play a very powerful role in, uh, in fixing,

01:39:29.200 you know, both of those disastrous aspects of our country.

01:39:33.340 Yeah.

01:39:33.400 Well, thank you for being part of the solution.

01:39:37.060 Bill Ackman is a pleasure to meet you.

01:39:38.680 Thanks for being here.

01:39:40.460 Thanks for having me.

01:39:41.740 Really appreciate it.

01:39:42.600 Wow.

01:39:43.320 What a time.

01:39:44.160 What a crazy time.

01:39:45.360 I want to tell our audience before we go, just breaking John Thune wins GOP leader race.

01:39:50.100 So Rick Scott did not win.

01:39:51.880 And, uh, John Thune, who is a good man.

01:39:53.780 I think Trump will do just fine with him.

01:39:55.500 He's not pure MAGA, but he's a conservative guy and, uh, he will be the new leader.

01:39:59.880 The point is the Republicans are in the majority and hallelujah.

01:40:04.040 It looks like they'll control the house as well.

01:40:06.320 President Trump's in DC.

01:40:07.300 There'll be a lot of fallout tomorrow and we will talk about it all with the fellas from

01:40:11.280 ruthless for the full show.

01:40:13.000 Don't miss that.

01:40:15.140 Thanks for listening to the Megan Kelly show.

01:40:17.060 No BS, no agenda, and no fear.

The Megyn Kelly Show - November 13, 2024

Elon and Vivek Prepare to Lead DOGE, Pete Hegseth to Pentagon, and Trump Goes to White House, with Bill Ackman ｜ Ep. 943

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