Timcast IRL - Tim Pool - Kash Patel CONFIRMED, Deep State PANICS, Mitch McConnell To RETIRE w- Kevin Smith | Timcast IRL

00:00:00.000 Thank you.

00:00:29.000 Thank you.

00:00:59.000 knees out waiting to finish off.

00:01:02.000 I think we've got Chavez Derrimer, Linda McMahon, Jameson Greer, and Elise Stefanik left.

00:01:09.000 So most of the people that...

00:01:11.000 Donald Trump has looked to a point, have gotten in, the notable exception being a friend of the show, Matt Gaetz.

00:01:19.000 But it looks like the primary people that Donald Trump has been looking to push forward, looks like he's going to get the cabinet of his choice.

00:01:28.000 So we're going to talk about that tonight.

00:01:31.000 Let's see.

00:01:32.000 There's talk about Donald Trump wanting to abolish the IRS and replacing it with tariffs, which I think is generally looked at as favorable among most of the people that are sitting around the table.

00:01:46.000 But we'll discuss that.

00:01:47.000 The Trump administration is talking about mass firing of federal workers and judge rules.

00:01:52.000 That would be something that, again, we would be quite positive.

00:01:56.000 We would look at as positive.

00:01:57.000 We've got some movement on Biden.

00:02:00.000 Doge.

00:02:01.000 So there's the Doge dividend, which has actually gotten a lot of people talking on my personal Twitter page.

00:02:08.000 I made a comment about it, and there's a lot of people with a lot of strong feelings about that as well.

00:02:14.000 Then there's some international news with Donald Trump talking to Vladimir.

00:02:18.000 Well, I don't think actually Donald Trump's doing it, but there's, I believe it was the Secretary of State in, was it UAE? Or is it Saudi Arabia?

00:02:29.000 I'm not sure where, but it's somewhere in the Middle East hosting the discussion between Russia and the U.S. about Ukraine and the policies that the United States are changing.

00:02:43.000 There's going to be a reverse on them.

00:02:45.000 There's discussions about who's going to be taking care of Ukraine's security and will the...

00:02:55.000 Europeans pick up the slack.

00:02:57.000 I believe Macron is going to Ukraine on Monday to discuss this, and France has said that they will pick up a large portion of it, so we'll get to that.

00:03:06.000 But before we get into that, how about if you head on over to castbrew.com and buy some coffee?

00:03:15.000 We're going to go ahead and bring that up in a second.

00:03:17.000 Castbrew.com is our coffee company.

00:03:21.000 You can go and you can get...

00:03:24.000 I think we can actually get Ian's Graphene Dream.

00:03:26.000 That's the big seller lately.

00:03:28.000 You guys love the low-acidity blend, and you're making a millionaire out of our good friend Ian.

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00:03:43.000 It's still available.

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00:03:53.000 Silly Santa Claus costume. 0.57

00:03:56.000 And then you can head on over to... 0.96

00:03:58.000 Are we going to do the boonies too?

00:03:59.000 No?

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00:04:48.000 Joining us tonight to talk about this and so much more, we have Kevin Smith.

00:04:52.000 Hey, how's it going?

00:04:53.000 Kevin, who are you?

00:04:54.000 What do you do?

00:04:54.000 My name's Kevin Smith.

00:04:56.000 Sorry, guys.

00:04:56.000 I know you saw that and thought Silent Bob was going to be on here, but that's the story of my life.

00:05:00.000 I'm an activist from Long Island.

00:05:02.000 I run an organization called The Loud Majority.

00:05:05.000 I'm also an advisory board member of the New York City Young Republican Club, and I host a podcast every day, 1 p.m.

00:05:11.000 Eastern, on LFATV on Rumble.

00:05:13.000 Awesome.

00:05:14.000 Well, thanks for being here.

00:05:15.000 Mary is here.

00:05:16.000 Hi, everyone.

00:05:17.000 My name is Mary Morgan.

00:05:19.000 I co-host Pop Culture Crisis here at TimCast.

00:05:22.000 We actually had Phil on the episode today.

00:05:25.000 Thrashing Thursdays.

00:05:26.000 It's called Thrashing Thursdays when Phil is on.

00:05:29.000 Hi, Alad.

00:05:30.000 Hey, Mary. 0.95

00:05:30.000 How's it going? 0.95

00:05:31.000 Hey, everybody.

00:05:32.000 I hope you're having a good day.

00:05:33.000 My name is Alad Eliyahu.

00:05:35.000 I'm a journalist here at TimCast.

00:05:36.000 Phil, let's get into it.

00:05:40.000 I did that on purpose.

00:05:42.000 That's great.

00:05:42.000 I love him.

00:05:43.000 So the Senate has decided to confirm Kash Patel as Trump's FBI director.

00:05:47.000 This is something that obviously we here at TimCast are very happy about, being that...

00:05:52.000 Kash Patel has been on the show multiple times.

00:05:54.000 We consider him a friend of the show.

00:05:56.000 But CNN is reporting the Senate voted on Thursday to confirm Kash Patel as FBI director, installing a staunch loyalist of President Donald Trump and conservative firebrand at the head of the nation's top law enforcement agency.

00:06:08.000 The Senate voted 51 to 49 to confirm Patel with Republican Senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski joining with Democrats in voting against his confirmation, which should come as a surprise to no one.

00:06:20.000 Both, uh...

00:06:21.000 Collins and Murkowski are from purple districts, I think is a safe way to say, but they're also very independent-minded, so maybe even if they're not specifically Democrat-leaning, they're definitely independent and they have their own opinions.

00:06:39.000 I think that around the table, we're all generally pro-Cash Patel.

00:06:44.000 We like the idea of...

00:06:47.000 Making changes in the bureaucracy and the FBI has had significant political bias in the past, definitely four years, probably longer if you want to go back to the IRS. Well, that's the IRS doing it, but the IRS should have been investigated by the FBI. Eric Holder, the AG, decided, declined to investigate the IRS targeting of conservatives.

00:07:14.000 But what do you guys think?

00:07:15.000 Do you guys have a fresh perspective on Kash Patel, or is it kind of...

00:07:20.000 Nah, honestly, I'm loving it.

00:07:21.000 I'm loving the change in D.C. I'm loving the fact that Democrats are getting exactly what they caused.

00:07:28.000 They think that politics happens in a vacuum.

00:07:30.000 I can't believe Donald Trump would ever appoint someone like Kash Patel.

00:07:33.000 And I'm sitting back here thinking to myself, if you guys hadn't acted the way you did over the last decade, you wouldn't have gotten many of these nominees.

00:07:41.000 But if Donald Trump has shown one thing, it's that the harder you push against him, the harder he's going to push back.

00:07:45.000 And Kash Patel is the, I would say, the strongest force forward for Donald Trump.

00:07:50.000 And I can't wait to see what he puts out first, what he thinks is the most important.

00:07:55.000 Is it Epstein?

00:07:56.000 Is it Diddy?

00:07:59.000 Is it all this stuff?

00:08:00.000 I want to know about the aliens.

00:08:02.000 Did you know he's a Long Island boy?

00:08:04.000 He is.

00:08:04.000 When you want something done right, you get a guy from Long Island.

00:08:09.000 You get a guy from Garden City.

00:08:10.000 Shout out to Kash Patel.

00:08:11.000 I'm not touching that one.

00:08:14.000 I know that there is a lot of people that are like, oh, the Epstein list.

00:08:19.000 They're very interested in that.

00:08:21.000 They're interested in the JFK files.

00:08:22.000 They're interested in possibly in UFO stuff, but I'm not sure that the FBI would have info on the UFO stuff.

00:08:29.000 Do you guys get the sense that that's the stuff that's going to have the most impact on Americans generally?

00:08:36.000 I understand that there are people that are extremely interested in this stuff and there are people that want to see the if you go to Epstein Island and you rape kids.

00:08:45.000 I know a lot of people like, yeah, we want to see these people punished.

00:08:47.000 Right.

00:08:47.000 And absolutely, I'm not in any way saying that that's not a valuable use of government resources.

00:08:55.000 When you hear people talk about Epstein Island or the JFK files, do those things actually have the most tangible effect on an American's day-to-day life?

00:09:08.000 Or do you think that there are other things?

00:09:10.000 Because it's my sense that the FBI's biggest...

00:09:13.000 The things that the FBI have done that are the most egregious are when they were targeting people that pray outside of abortion clinics or when they were targeting parents that were going to school, you know.

00:09:29.000 Oh yeah.

00:09:30.000 In teacher meetings and saying that they're likely terrorists because they're worried about what their children are being taught.

00:09:36.000 When they were targeting J6ers that were, granted there were J6ers that did things that maybe they should have been looked into, but most of the vast majority of the people that were arrested and had charges, those people were doing things that are constitutionally protected. 0.97

00:09:55.000 The FBI were picking those people.

00:09:56.000 I feel like those kind of things are the real, tangible, important things that the FBI needs to be...

00:10:03.000 I guess there needs to be changes at the FBI because of those things.

00:10:09.000 Again, it's not that I don't think that Epstein Island stuff is important, but that's not going to have tangible effects on real...

00:10:18.000 Normal Americans.

00:10:19.000 That's going to be the stuff that makes feel good for partisans.

00:10:23.000 It's the flashy stuff.

00:10:24.000 That's the big stuff.

00:10:25.000 But so much of what Kash Patel could do is...

00:10:29.000 Less.

00:10:29.000 He could do less of what was being done.

00:10:32.000 He could do less of the school.

00:10:33.000 I mean, we did a lot of work on school boards on Long Island.

00:10:36.000 And just to know that there were people out there from the FBI checking people's license plates because overzealous PTA moms yelled at people over masks and over curriculum. 1.00

00:10:48.000 That's terrifying to me, particularly when, look, there are bad people in this country.

00:10:53.000 There are.

00:10:55.000 They should be going after those people.

00:10:57.000 They should be going after the people distributing bad stuff online, we'll say.

00:11:02.000 You can take that however you want.

00:11:03.000 You know, there's so much stuff that they could be doing.

00:11:06.000 Just revert that, and I think that's what Cash has talked a lot about, putting them out in the field and making them actual cops again, arresting actual bad guys.

00:11:12.000 Phil, I think you're right that it's hyper-partisan to appeal to, like, we're going to uncover who's on the Epstein flight logs, and we're going to tell you about Diddy, like, what's on the Diddy tapes?

00:11:24.000 Like, that's hyper-partisan, but it's also chronically online.

00:11:28.000 Like, normies don't think or care about those things.

00:11:31.000 So I agree with you on that.

00:11:33.000 And something I've noticed, I think, ever since the election is that there's been a lot more reporting on school shootings and school shooting plots.

00:11:42.000 Not only ones that ended up being executed, but ones that were stopped.

00:11:46.000 There was a recent one.

00:11:48.000 I forget which state, but there was a plot by yet another trans-identifying teenager to shoot up a school. 0.76

00:11:58.000 And this is what you hear every time that headline comes out.

00:12:01.000 It's like the FBI was aware of this person and foiled the plot.

00:12:06.000 Perhaps they were responsible for grooming that person in the first place into incriminating themselves.

00:12:13.000 Can you expand on that?

00:12:14.000 Would you articulate what you mean by grooming?

00:12:17.000 Do you think that the FBI is actually involved in trying to...

00:12:21.000 I mean, they're interested in convicting people, and to do that, I think they want to get into contact with these people online.

00:12:29.000 Probably radicalize them, but also get them to say incriminating things so that they can, you know, stop the crime that they were planning, which they never would have planned in the first place had it not been for the influence of federal agents who are contacting them.

00:12:42.000 I mean, it wouldn't be the first time that's happening.

00:12:44.000 And also offering to supply them with illegal firearms.

00:12:47.000 Well, we saw that at things like Ruby Ridge.

00:12:49.000 We saw that at the Gretchen Whitmer plot where, like, what, nine out of the 12 guys were FBI agents.

00:12:55.000 So if they spent a little bit more time, even...

00:12:58.000 We're not talking nefarious.

00:13:00.000 No one to the FBI. Alright, well then maybe you should put three people on them and leave the school boards alone and then maybe we could stop to foil those plots.

00:13:08.000 Maybe we could get those obviously very sick kids help before the plot gets brought into fruition.

00:13:16.000 I just feel like the allocation of the resources of the FBI have been so used in the wrong way.

00:13:23.000 Can they stop infiltrating right-wing groups?

00:13:27.000 Like, they're obsessed with it.

00:13:30.000 Can they or will they?

00:13:31.000 Will they now that Kash Patel is in charge?

00:13:34.000 I don't know.

00:13:35.000 So in response to that, there's something that I've been mentioning on the show lately, and that's that we kind of live in a meilu of leftism, right?

00:13:44.000 And that the air that we breathe is steeped in leftist ideology.

00:13:52.000 When you hear, oh, the left is infiltrating right-wing organizations, the knee-jerk idea of right-wing, for normies at least, is bad.

00:14:05.000 There's an association of right is evil.

00:14:09.000 I think that if we do see a change at the FBI in that kind of demeanor, I think that that would be a very good thing for the United States.

00:14:21.000 An organization like Oath Keepers, unless they've actually done something, the only thing they're saying is we're going to keep our oath to the Constitution.

00:14:32.000 The whole premise is we're going to abide by the law.

00:14:36.000 And so to conflate that with knee-jerk evil, or even the left has managed to make a significant portion of the United States associate the word patriot with something negative.

00:14:51.000 Oh, absolutely.

00:14:52.000 And it's so, you know, we've been talking a lot about this over the last several weeks, not only with the FBI, but with all the non-profit stuff that goes on.

00:15:00.000 You know, organizations like the ACLU, organizations like the Southern Poverty Law Center.

00:15:04.000 I'm on a Southern Poverty Law Center list.

00:15:06.000 And to me, I'm just like, I don't know what I did to get on it.

00:15:09.000 I don't know why I'm on it, but I've been denied jobs because of this stuff.

00:15:13.000 It's wild.

00:15:14.000 When somebody first sent it to me, it was literally over the school board stuff.

00:15:17.000 That's exactly what it was.

00:15:18.000 So I want to know, I know Josh Hawley has talked about this with the SPLC, like figuring out where they're getting their funding from, who's paying for this, how much of it's coming from a, for example, a USAID that gets funneled through a non-profit that goes to an NGO that goes to another non-profit.

00:15:33.000 That stuff, if the FBI was really going to look into that, figuring out why it is that a non-profit...

00:15:38.000 Tied to Stacey Abrams, somehow got $2 billion.

00:15:41.000 If the FBI wanted to investigate those sorts of financial crimes, I think that that would go a long way in stopping that machine that you're talking about from just equating right-wing with bad, no matter what.

00:15:52.000 I mean, the way they smear people, just, oh, he's on the right, like a Rogan or Tim or anybody, and it's like, no, they're not.

00:16:01.000 Not traditionally.

00:16:03.000 Mike Pence would not think...

00:16:05.000 Anybody in this room is on the right.

00:16:08.000 George Bush wouldn't think any of us are on the right.

00:16:10.000 But sure enough, we all...

00:16:11.000 He might.

00:16:12.000 Maybe.

00:16:12.000 Elad's on the right.

00:16:14.000 And the argument that I make is...

00:16:17.000 That I have been making is because of the fact that we're so steeped in leftism.

00:16:21.000 Anyone that's not left is immediately associated with the right.

00:16:24.000 So that's why the discourse between Elon Musk or about Elon Musk and Ashley St. Clair and stuff, people can have their opinions about that situation, but they're considered right wing.

00:16:37.000 And then the conservative right was like, well, these people shouldn't be right.

00:16:41.000 And it's like, well, they're not really right.

00:16:43.000 They're actually center.

00:16:45.000 They're not right lean.

00:16:46.000 It's just that we live in a milieu of leftism, and because of that, anyone not left gets associated with the right.

00:16:55.000 But you said that the other day, that there's a difference between right-wing and not left.

00:16:58.000 Yeah.

00:16:58.000 And I think the not left is a lot of people, a lot of people come on this show who just go, you know what?

00:17:05.000 I don't know what that is, but I don't want anything to do with that, so this is my only option.

00:17:09.000 My point is that it's not the left infiltrating those right-wing groups, or even...

00:17:15.000 Groups that are unequivocally identified as neo-Nazi groups.

00:17:19.000 It is the FBI. And the way I see it, the FBI has been engaged in criminal behavior against the American people, so they're not going to investigate themselves.

00:17:30.000 They're not going to incriminate themselves.

00:17:32.000 They're only out to incriminate.

00:17:35.000 Civilians and get civilians to incriminate themselves.

00:17:38.000 They want convictions.

00:17:39.000 And I don't disagree with that, but if we do live in a milieu of leftism, just the FBI saying, oh, we're going to investigate, that means that it is kind of the left investigating, isn't it?

00:17:53.000 I don't know.

00:17:54.000 Wouldn't you say?

00:17:55.000 I mean...

00:17:56.000 Because if the...

00:17:58.000 This is now an arm of the Trump administration.

00:18:01.000 Well, now, yes, but I'm referring to like pre-Kash Patel, pre...

00:18:06.000 Oh, yeah, yeah.

00:18:07.000 Oh, definitely.

00:18:07.000 It was the left investigating the right.

00:18:10.000 When you had guys like Eric Holder say that he was Barack Obama's wingman, and now this CNN article, loyalist to Trump, I'm sitting there going, where were you?

00:18:19.000 And that's why you talk about the milieu, and it's so—watching it change in real time over the course of the last month, no leader on the left.

00:18:27.000 They are completely listless.

00:18:29.000 They have no idea which way is up, and that's why we're getting some of the most ridiculous things ever, like Margaret Brennan saying that— And I'm like, what high school textbook did you read?

00:18:43.000 Because you could go back to sixth grade, but because they have existed so long as the norm, when they are actually the far left, they can't see that they are losing the world to the center.

00:18:54.000 Yeah.

00:18:54.000 I think the big questions around Kash Patel is how he's actually going to run the FBI and who he's going to choose to go after.

00:19:03.000 And I think how we could tell this stuff is actually what he came up on.

00:19:06.000 So he sort of got his MAGA bona fides in the Nunez memo where he helped explain and debunk different alleged Trump-Russian collusion that didn't really exist.

00:19:16.000 And he helped expose that.

00:19:17.000 That kind of earned him his early MAGA bona fides.

00:19:20.000 And then he did a lot of press tour on that while doing the...

00:19:23.000 I don't truly think, you know...

00:19:50.000 I think he's going to be a fair FBI director.

00:19:53.000 I don't think he's going to go after people unjustly.

00:19:55.000 I think time will tell that.

00:19:57.000 But I know he has a lot of bluster when he's on Steve Bannon's war room, but I don't truly believe he would actually run the FBI like that.

00:20:06.000 Once you have to get confirmed and get in a position of power, a lot of different things change.

00:20:11.000 So, you know, things are different once you're out of the job.

00:20:15.000 Once you were in it, after you got the backing of people like Bannon.

00:20:19.000 So is it your sense that he was not saying that he was saying things that he doesn't believe, but he would...

00:20:24.000 Do you think that when he was in partisan or on partisan podcasts, he was kind of playing to the audience?

00:20:30.000 Is that your sense?

00:20:31.000 I don't want to make him sound disingenuous.

00:20:34.000 I think he believes what he believes, but once you get in the position to actually have to affect the change that he goes after...

00:20:40.000 So, for example, in this quote...

00:20:43.000 We will go out and find the conspirators, not just in government, but in the media.

00:20:46.000 We're going to come after you, whether it's criminally or civilly.

00:20:48.000 We'll figure that out.

00:20:49.000 I don't actually foresee him actually coming after NBC or something.

00:20:55.000 Trump is often also blusters against the media.

00:20:59.000 I can't think of a direct quote of Trump, but I'm sure we could find it.

00:21:02.000 But I don't foresee, you know.

00:21:04.000 Sometimes you have to bluster a bit, and that's what I think he's done in the past on a lot of these issues.

00:21:09.000 I think he'll be a fair FBI director.

00:21:11.000 And I think he said he'd judge people based on the facts when he had his confirmation hearings.

00:21:16.000 There's no righting past wrongs here, in my opinion.

00:21:21.000 Just like with Trump being sworn into office, we have no idea the level of state secrets that he learned, past and present.

00:21:30.000 Going into that role.

00:21:31.000 Similarly with Kash Patel, we have no idea the secrets that he has already or is about to learn by taking on that role.

00:21:39.000 And the level of responsibility that that comes with, it's incomprehensible.

00:21:45.000 And I don't see any past wrongs being made right.

00:21:51.000 I guess what, so like, for example, Democrats in the past have went after Donald Trump when he was running.

00:21:57.000 Would you like to see Kash Patel try to just, you know, what's the saying about...

00:22:03.000 A prosecutor could find, could indict a rock.

00:22:05.000 I don't know, like...

00:22:06.000 Yeah, you could indict a rock.

00:22:07.000 Give me the person and I'll find you the crime.

00:22:09.000 Kash Patel can find reasons to go after, I'm sure, different Democrat governors.

00:22:14.000 There's a lot of slimy politicians out there. 0.97

00:22:16.000 But I guess the question would be, is he going to go looking for things?

00:22:19.000 Is he going to apply a different standard of the law to Democrats than Republicans?

00:22:22.000 I don't think he should.

00:22:23.000 I don't think he will.

00:22:24.000 Would you guys like to see that?

00:22:26.000 Or, like, as a form of retribution, for example, I think is how Democrats fear-monger.

00:22:30.000 So, you know, they'd say, well, people in Joe Biden's administration went after Trump and different Republicans.

00:22:35.000 Now it's time for retribution.

00:22:37.000 Isn't that the word that Trump used, though?

00:22:39.000 Yeah, he said it.

00:22:40.000 Retribution?

00:22:40.000 He did say it.

00:22:41.000 He was like, I am your retribution.

00:22:43.000 But, you know, like you were saying.

00:22:46.000 So great.

00:22:47.000 But like you were saying.

00:22:49.000 We've lived in leftism for so long that if we actually ran things down the middle, the left would accuse us of going after them because they have basically run free for so long.

00:23:01.000 When the media goes on TV... Wait, would you like to see retribution out of Cash Bechel?

00:23:05.000 No, but when he goes after someone who libels, when he goes after somebody who slanders somebody, when he goes after a media entity for just making things up about...

00:23:14.000 Average citizens, it is going to feel like the DOJ is going after the media when really they should have been doing it all along.

00:23:20.000 It's not just going to feel like that.

00:23:22.000 That's the narrative that you're going to hear.

00:23:24.000 Any type of government action against a politician You know, they're going to characterize it as if it's politically motivated.

00:23:34.000 I'm innocent.

00:23:35.000 This is just Donald Trump coming after me.

00:23:38.000 Look, he said retribution, etc., etc., because they want to get the public on their side.

00:23:43.000 And there's a portion of the public, possibly a sizable portion, a plurality, that will side with them no matter the evidence, no matter how damning the evidence is.

00:23:54.000 I mean, just take an Adam Schiff, right?

00:23:55.000 Let's say Adam Schiff's been out there lying, making things up.

00:23:58.000 We don't like him.

00:23:59.000 All right.

00:24:00.000 Let's say he's got a nephew who works for a nonprofit that's doing something wrong, and Kash Patel goes and investigates him in that.

00:24:07.000 Adam Schiff now has provided himself the cover to go, look, what did I tell you?

00:24:12.000 He's going to come after us.

00:24:13.000 I agree with you, Schiff will say that, but Schiff, I'm pretty sure he was censured as well.

00:24:17.000 So, I mean, everybody knows that Schiff is as shifty as it gets.

00:24:23.000 That was just one example, but there's so many of them.

00:24:25.000 Like, if a media outlet goes after somebody and makes something up, and they're sued, and the DOJ goes after them, and they've actually done something wrong.

00:24:34.000 Everyone is now going to say, look, we told you this was going to happen.

00:24:37.000 We told you Donald Trump was going to come after his enemies, when really they're actually just calling balls and strikes.

00:24:42.000 But for the longest time, the umpire was betting on one team.

00:24:46.000 I guess, do you think he should be going after Trump's perceived enemies as retribute? 0.95

00:24:52.000 Not as retribute.

00:24:53.000 There's a fine line.

00:24:55.000 I think he will be fair and an equal opportunist under the law, as he should be.

00:25:00.000 And if he doesn't, people will actually lose more faith in the FBI than they already do.

00:25:04.000 So the more partisan he will act as FBI director, we could anticipate it in the next democratic...

00:25:11.000 I would push back on that in that...

00:25:15.000 I am of the opinion that the left is already going to be so partisan.

00:25:21.000 We know that the left has what they will do because they tried to do it to Trump.

00:25:27.000 They've already imprisoned their political opponents, their people based on politics.

00:25:32.000 The whole January 6th was all because of politics.

00:25:35.000 They've used the government against parents that would defy the...

00:25:42.000 You know, the Department of Education or what have you, the LGBT stuff in schools, parents that would go and protest that and they'd have the FBI look at them.

00:25:52.000 They've put people that have committed no crime.

00:25:55.000 Onto the Quiet Skies list, which is essentially a no-fly list or extra screening, basically making it a hassle to do things.

00:26:03.000 And I'm referring to Tulsi Gabbard, and she was a lieutenant colonel in the reserve, so it's not just someone...

00:26:11.000 Literally a war hero.

00:26:11.000 Yeah, well, I mean, and ostensibly it was because, oh, she might be a risk to national security, but she's already been vetted.

00:26:21.000 With multiple times she got security clearances.

00:26:25.000 Like, Lieutenant Colonel is not a low-ranking officer.

00:26:28.000 That's like an 05 or something like that.

00:26:31.000 It's a fairly high ranking.

00:26:33.000 You're in charge of a lot of people.

00:26:35.000 And so...

00:26:36.000 That kind of scrutiny based on politics is the standard for the Democrats.

00:26:42.000 So while I think you're right that we shouldn't, I don't want to see the Republicans do it, I don't think that we have a new crop of Democrats that aren't going to behave differently, that are going to behave differently.

00:26:52.000 Why don't you want to see the Republicans behave that way?

00:26:56.000 Because I want to see an actually legitimate government.

00:26:59.000 Because the things that they went after Republicans for, they didn't actually commit crimes.

00:27:07.000 So if there's no crime, then I don't want the government going after people.

00:27:11.000 If there's a crime, get them.

00:27:13.000 Get them and use to the full extent of the law.

00:27:16.000 But Tulsi Gabbard committed no crime.

00:27:20.000 You know, the J6ers that were just walking around, they committed no crimes. 1.00

00:27:25.000 J6ers who just got pardoned or got their sentences commuted, they should actually receive, like, financial reparation. 1.00

00:27:33.000 Yes, 100%.

00:27:34.000 But they're not going to.

00:27:35.000 The DOJ just awarded some Antifa guy $7 million in Portland.

00:27:39.000 He threw a grenade at a cop, but, sure enough, he threw an explosive at a police officer.

00:27:44.000 They turned around and, you know, did what you would expect they were going to do, and then ended up...

00:27:50.000 For $7 million, please, come beat me up. 1.00

00:27:53.000 I think it's easy to talk in abstracts, but if we get specific, for example, do you think Kash Patel should investigate former President Joe Biden, for example, for maybe, what was the exact line, 10%?

00:28:04.000 Some amount for the big man?

00:28:05.000 So things like that.

00:28:07.000 I mean, there's certainly enough evidence there to seek an indictment.

00:28:09.000 Do you believe so?

00:28:10.000 So you think that Kash Patel should be going after people like Joe Biden for investigation?

00:28:15.000 I think there is no problem with investigations.

00:28:16.000 I do not want anyone to concoct charges.

00:28:19.000 I don't want anyone to fabricate.

00:28:21.000 I don't want them to look at the person and find the crime.

00:28:26.000 I mean, the fact that Republicans slow-walked this 10% for the big guy and the money coming from the Moscow mayor and all the Kazakhstan stuff, and the fact that they slow-walked that for four years so that they had talking points to run on rather than actually pursuing something is...

00:28:42.000 Phil, do you think Kash Patel should investigate Joe Biden for his alleged crimes with percent for the big guy?

00:28:49.000 I don't think so because I think that...

00:28:52.000 That going after Joe Biden is a waste.

00:28:55.000 I think it's a waste of time because he's so old.

00:28:57.000 I would say that he should have gone, that they should go after, like, his family, but he's pardoned them all.

00:29:02.000 For me, it's more about the truth than the retribution.

00:29:05.000 I want to know exactly how much, because the media sat there and said, this is not real.

00:29:09.000 Meanwhile, we're all looking at the evidence going, then what is that?

00:29:12.000 Oh, that's a...

00:29:12.000 Yeah, I guess my frame of mind here is that every president's dirty, and if we're just trying to sic our current FBI on the...

00:29:22.000 I don't know if you guys have thoughts on it or not, but I think that it's worth mentioning.

00:29:42.000 If the federal government, if the Trump administration declares that The cartels are terrorists, and they actually do start treating them like terrorists, and there will be some type of effort by the cartels to...

00:29:59.000 Strike back at the United States, whether they be at the American people or whatever.

00:30:02.000 And I think that the FBI will have or should have a significant role in wrapping up as many terrorists and as many cartel members, which would be considered terrorists, here in the United States as possible in order to protect the American people.

00:30:17.000 One of the things that I hear most of the time when we talk about or when I see the conversations on X and stuff like that about the administration.

00:30:27.000 Calling the cartels terrorists as, oh, you don't know what the cartels will do.

00:30:32.000 They'll blah, blah, blah.

00:30:33.000 And it's going to be so bad and there will be so many attacks and stuff.

00:30:36.000 And I do think that there will be attempts at that.

00:30:38.000 But I do think that the federal government has a pretty good line on who is and is not a criminal.

00:30:44.000 And I think that the FBI can wrap them up and prevent a lot of the...

00:30:50.000 The supposed or proposed tax.

00:30:54.000 More of the designated as terrorist organizations.

00:30:56.000 I think that's more about federal allocation of resources because that opens up a few more avenues for them to like, you know, I know on Long Island.

00:31:04.000 I think it's about airstrikes.

00:31:05.000 I legit think.

00:31:07.000 Into Mexico?

00:31:08.000 Yes, I do.

00:31:09.000 Do you support those?

00:31:11.000 Honestly, I don't know that I support it.

00:31:14.000 I'm going to have to think about that one.

00:31:15.000 I don't know that I support it, but I do think that, I mean, look, the CIA and stuff like that has dealt with narco traffickers before. 0.89

00:31:23.000 That's the stuff we're trying to get away from.

00:31:25.000 No, it's not.

00:31:26.000 I think that's meddling in other countries.

00:31:29.000 It's not meddling in other countries' affairs because they're directly affecting the United States.

00:31:33.000 I understand we don't want to send...

00:31:39.000 I get that.

00:31:41.000 But when it comes to Mexico...

00:31:44.000 And on our border, and the amount of narcos that are involved in the government, how many people died before they decided that they would let a president live?

00:31:52.000 Was it 36 people that the narcos killed before the president became, before Shaban got elected or whatever?

00:31:59.000 So you know that the reason Shaban got elected or is alive is because the narcos said, okay, we'll let this one go.

00:32:06.000 So if that's the case, then it does make sense.

00:32:11.000 And that's why the United States has said, hey, we're going to go ahead and declare them terrorists.

00:32:17.000 And when I say airstrikes, I don't think they're going to be going after Mexican towns.

00:32:20.000 They're going to be like, it's going to be people finding the actual heads of the narcos and taking them out.

00:32:26.000 I will say, you think that the media and the left has lost their mind over the course of the last month?

00:32:30.000 Let Donald Trump drone a coca plant in Mexico.

00:32:37.000 And just sit back and watch, because people will lose their minds.

00:32:41.000 These cartels are a total powder keg on our southern border.

00:32:45.000 And beyond that, our country is deeply, deeply infiltrated with all of these different cartels and gangs.

00:32:52.000 And I don't know if we'll be able to stomach, if a real conflict arises, the damage that these cartels will do to not only...

00:33:00.000 I mean, American...

00:33:01.000 Not only law enforcement, but civilians.

00:33:03.000 And then also the damage done in Mexico on our border.

00:33:06.000 The perfect way out of this, I don't know.

00:33:08.000 This needed to be nipped in the bud a lot.

00:33:10.000 Sooner than now.

00:33:11.000 Like, we're kind of really deep in the game of Mexico essentially being a narco state. 0.89

00:33:16.000 They're not really run by their government.

00:33:18.000 Their institutions are very weak compared to the cartels.

00:33:21.000 The point is, like, I mean, the military is on the border now.

00:33:23.000 They put the Marine Corps on the border right now.

00:33:25.000 Like, they're actual Marines, and they have a green light to engage should they be engaged by the cartels.

00:33:33.000 It used to be where if the cartels shot, the Border Patrol had to duck and cover and don't return fire.

00:33:38.000 The Marines are...

00:33:39.000 See, I'm more worried about that.

00:33:41.000 I'm more worried about armed.

00:33:43.000 I've heard some stories in Mexico.

00:33:45.000 It's like, when you abduct one of these guys' sons, then the cartel punishes you by abducting, I don't know, the whole local government and all of their families and children, and then they end up releasing the father, the child, or something.

00:33:57.000 That was the reason I brought up the FBI, and does the FBI have the ability to actually wrap up?

00:34:05.000 You said yourself, there's a bunch of narcos in the U.S. Does the FBI have the ability to find these people and protect the American people?

00:34:12.000 But do we want, not without regime change and taking over Mexico and literally nation-building in Mexico, then no.

00:34:20.000 There's not a way to deal with this unless we were knee-deep, even deeper in Mexico, because the second they leave, it'll continue to just be a narco state. 0.95

00:34:28.000 We have to occupy Mexico. 1.00

00:34:31.000 If we wanted to do that.

00:34:32.000 I don't think that's something we want to do.

00:34:34.000 There's 100,000 Americans that have died a year from fentanyl and stuff like that.

00:34:39.000 Do we just say, well, you know, there's narcos and that's just the way that it is now?

00:34:44.000 Every overdose death is tragic, but I think it's distinct from a casualty from being shot up by a...

00:34:50.000 No, I think it's so different.

00:34:52.000 It's not an overdose.

00:34:53.000 It's a poisoning.

00:34:54.000 And that's the difference because nobody...

00:34:56.000 Some guy goes out to a nightclub, takes too much stuff, ends up overdosing.

00:35:00.000 That's an accident. 0.99

00:35:01.000 Nobody is out there looking for the crap that's on the streets, right? 0.99

00:35:04.000 Unfortunately, the crackheads in a lot of different areas of our country are looking for the craziest fentanyl. 0.99

00:35:09.000 And actually, when somebody ODs on the stuff, that's actually...

00:35:12.000 What's that new stuff they have?

00:35:14.000 It acts as like an ad to all the other crackheads.

00:35:16.000 It's like, wow, he had this good stuff.

00:35:18.000 I get what you're saying, but that doesn't really answer my question, so I'm going to go to Mary.

00:35:21.000 Mary, do you think that the U.S. should do nothing because the cartels are too dangerous?

00:35:30.000 Because that's essentially the argument being made here.

00:35:32.000 It's too dangerous to actually take the fight to the cartels.

00:35:36.000 Because you don't win if you don't take the fight to the cartels.

00:35:39.000 You either take the fight to the cartels, or this continues.

00:35:43.000 I mean, we can build a wall and we can stop it, but like you said, Alad, they're here in the United States.

00:35:49.000 If you don't take the fight to them, you don't fix the problem.

00:35:52.000 Do you think that it's too dangerous?

00:35:54.000 Is that actually the risk assessment that you're making?

00:35:56.000 I don't think the choices were between invade Mexico and nothing.

00:36:01.000 I didn't say that.

00:36:01.000 I said take the fight to the cartels.

00:36:03.000 Yeah.

00:36:03.000 Well, what would that mean in your...

00:36:05.000 Not drone striking them?

00:36:06.000 Well, I mean, so possibly sending in...

00:36:09.000 I mean, it's chemical warfare, what they're doing.

00:36:13.000 I agree.

00:36:14.000 It's not accidental overdoses like that.

00:36:16.000 It is poisoning.

00:36:18.000 It's chemical warfare on the American people. 0.87

00:36:20.000 And it should be met with...

00:36:22.000 Some kind of lethal force.

00:36:24.000 The point that I'm making is we have, as a country, spent 25 years finding and dismantling terrorist organizations.

00:36:31.000 The argument that's made when I say that is, oh, you can never actually win the politics side.

00:36:37.000 I don't think that we need to win the politics side.

00:36:40.000 If you're sending special forces and terrorist...

00:36:47.000 You know, HRT teams and stuff in and finding the bad guys and wrapping them up.

00:36:52.000 That's what they did to Noriega.

00:36:53.000 That's what they did throughout the 80s and stuff.

00:36:55.000 This isn't something the United States has never done.

00:36:58.000 And there were times where the violence in the United States was significantly worse.

00:37:03.000 Now, granted, we might end up seeing more violence here.

00:37:07.000 But you don't actually defeat an enemy by just saying it's dangerous to fight them.

00:37:13.000 Well, that's why I think that labeling them terrorist organizations.

00:37:16.000 It's more about reallocation of resources because I've seen many of these cartels and many of these Central American gangs.

00:37:23.000 I'm talking about takeover whole neighborhoods.

00:37:25.000 They've taken over.

00:37:26.000 We saw it with the Trendy Aragua in Colorado.

00:37:30.000 Brentwood on Long Island.

00:37:32.000 That should have caused the governor to activate the National Guard and go in and take them out.

00:37:42.000 I think there's a big difference between that, which I would totally support.

00:37:45.000 100% support that.

00:37:46.000 Then active duty troops in...

00:37:49.000 I'm not talking about big army.

00:37:52.000 I'm not talking about artillery.

00:37:53.000 But when it comes to the way that you get those guys, it would be a similar thing to the way that they were dealing with terrorists overseas.

00:38:04.000 It would be like, okay, they did it.

00:38:07.000 Wait, I don't understand.

00:38:08.000 Do you think taking out a few thousand cartel members would...

00:38:11.000 Stop the drug trade.

00:38:13.000 I mean, drug trafficking would continue.

00:38:15.000 You'd have to have a sustained presence there.

00:38:18.000 I don't know if troops on the ground is necessarily the answer.

00:38:21.000 We need to figure out a way to embolden the Mexican government to police their country in a proper way. 0.50

00:38:27.000 Well, the first thing you need to do is get rid of the people that are making the decisions about killing Mexican politicians. 0.94

00:38:34.000 If you... 0.99

00:38:35.000 And it's not...

00:38:36.000 I mean...

00:38:37.000 It's endless amounts of cartel members.

00:38:38.000 I can understand what he's saying. 0.99

00:38:39.000 You just keep cutting the head off. 0.99

00:38:40.000 Another gangster cartel member will just fill in the plates. 0.99

00:38:43.000 No, because...

00:38:44.000 Because the demand is still there.

00:38:45.000 I understand the argument that you're making, but the United States has dealt with cartels like this before.

00:38:52.000 It doesn't feel like we've dealt with cartels in the past 50, 100 years in any productive way.

00:38:57.000 The war on drugs was a huge failure.

00:38:59.000 Yeah, but that's like...

00:39:00.000 We did regime change.

00:39:01.000 Is that what you want to do here?

00:39:02.000 There was no regime change to do it.

00:39:04.000 Or Norieger?

00:39:05.000 Or Norieger.

00:39:05.000 Did we arrest him?

00:39:06.000 Yeah, we arrested him, but we didn't have to change governments to do it.

00:39:11.000 We got the government to allow us to...

00:39:14.000 We worked with the governments of the government of Colombia to do it.

00:39:18.000 We didn't have to go in and take out the Colombian government.

00:39:21.000 I think the big problem is that sometimes when you cut the head off the snake, somebody else just pops in.

00:39:25.000 Cartel is never going to end.

00:39:26.000 The black market here isn't going to end.

00:39:28.000 You need to address the market aspect of this and the Mexican government aspect of this.

00:39:32.000 It's funny because I feel like I sound like an isolationist when it comes to this point.

00:39:35.000 I do not want to get into some quagmire in Mexico on our border. 0.99

00:39:38.000 I feel like that would be...

00:39:39.000 But like you said, I'm more worried about the armed conflict on the border between the cartels and the marines that are down there.

00:39:44.000 So Noriega was actually the...

00:39:47.000 He was actually the military dictator of Panama.

00:39:50.000 That's what it was.

00:39:50.000 That's why I thought it was regime change.

00:39:52.000 We did regime change with Norieger.

00:39:54.000 Wait, do you want to do...

00:39:56.000 No, but he mentioned El Chapo, and we wrapped him up.

00:40:00.000 Yeah, but it didn't change anything with El Chapo.

00:40:03.000 Just another person filled his place.

00:40:05.000 The drug crisis didn't end with El Chapo.

00:40:08.000 It's only gotten a lot worse, actually.

00:40:09.000 Arresting El Chapo, actually, some people would argue, made it a lot worse.

00:40:13.000 So long as there's a market for drugs in America, someone will get it here.

00:40:16.000 Well, unless the Mexican government is emboldened to actually enforce their laws, but they're not because they're a narco state. 0.97

00:40:22.000 I'm sure we've tried to get the Mexicans to do it, and they haven't. 1.00

00:40:25.000 Why are you sure of that?

00:40:26.000 Because administration after administration has put effort into it, but we need to incentivize their government to do it.

00:40:33.000 Do you have evidence of that?

00:40:35.000 Because I don't think, I'm not so sure that the Mexican government has tried.

00:40:38.000 No, no, no, that the United States has tried to convince the Mexican government because the United States has many, many soft power methods.

00:40:46.000 They could go ahead and, I mean, we're talking about tariffs right now.

00:40:51.000 And tariffs, that has made Mexico stand up and be like, oh, this is a problem for us.

00:40:57.000 There are a lot of soft power and...

00:41:02.000 Actual military power.

00:41:03.000 I think the Mexican government actually have conflicting views.

00:41:05.000 It's kind of beyond a repair, too, at this point.

00:41:08.000 I don't know where that really leaves us.

00:41:10.000 And that's why I asked you, do you think that we should just leave it as it is?

00:41:14.000 Keep the powder keg.

00:41:15.000 Don't shoot up the powder keg.

00:41:17.000 Yeah, I don't know.

00:41:17.000 Let it keep accumulating.

00:41:18.000 Again, there's no perfect solution here.

00:41:20.000 I know a problem also that we need to consider is how China's heavily involved in this as well, because they provide many of the precursor chemicals to the Mexicans.

00:41:28.000 So they're working hand-in-hand with these other criminals.

00:41:31.000 Generally, I believe that we need a reinvigoration of the Monroe Doctrine.

00:41:35.000 Trump's kind of doing some of this stuff with what we're trying to do in Panama.

00:41:38.000 Maybe we can make Mexico great again as well.

00:41:43.000 Diminish the demand in America by making things a little bit better and giving 20-somethings a purpose to live rather than going out and doing drugs all day long.

00:41:50.000 I think that might be easier than fixing the card.

00:41:52.000 I thought you were going to say the legalization card because many people just say legalize heroin.

00:41:56.000 Something about that don't feel right.

00:41:58.000 Look at California.

00:41:59.000 I used to be very much pro, you know, hey, if we just decriminalize these things and stuff, it'll take care of itself.

00:42:07.000 But there's a lot of things that have to happen in conjunction with that and you're not going to get a government.

00:42:12.000 Government to say, okay, nationwide castle doctrine and we'll decriminalize drugs and if someone is using drugs outside of your house, you can go out there and take care of the problem yourself.

00:42:23.000 And it takes that kind of, it takes property rights more than just, oh, we're going to go ahead and decriminalize drugs and then provide needles to people.

00:42:31.000 Because then you end up with California.

00:42:32.000 And it's clearly a problem in California.

00:42:35.000 So we're going to go on to this next story though.

00:42:38.000 Donald Trump wants to abolish the IRS and replace it with tariffs.

00:42:44.000 Can it work?

00:42:45.000 I like the idea, personally, but I'm not exactly the most educated on economics.

00:42:53.000 But I do like the idea of getting rid of the IRS and getting rid of the income tax, because I think that the idea of making the American people pay for making money is bad, and I think that there are other ways to...

00:43:08.000 To generate income.

00:43:09.000 Absolutely.

00:43:10.000 From CNN, no one wants to pay taxes, and practically every American dislikes the IRS. But as the saying goes, the only guarantee in life are death and taxes, so the IRS is here to stay, right?

00:43:22.000 Well, maybe not, according to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.

00:43:25.000 Donald Trump announces the External Revenue Service, and his goal is very simple, to abolish the Internal Revenue Service and let the outsiders pay, Lutnick said on Fox News Wednesday night.

00:43:34.000 In other words, America will raise so much money from President Donald Trump's tariff plan that the Americans will no longer need to pay income taxes.

00:43:43.000 This sounds great, but it's riddled with problems.

00:43:45.000 Now, I do think the idea sounds great.

00:43:49.000 I would love to see tariffs take care of the funding for the American government.

00:43:57.000 I believe that tariffs were the majority of the way that the United States used to raise money prior to the income tax in 1913. 0.99

00:44:08.000 Thank you very much, Woodrow Wilson, you bastard. 1.00

00:44:12.000 Bastard. 1.00

00:44:12.000 Burn in hell. 1.00

00:44:13.000 Easily the worst president. 1.00

00:44:14.000 He is the worst president. 0.97

00:44:16.000 Both in practice and morality. 0.96

00:44:18.000 Absolutely.

00:44:19.000 But what do you think?

00:44:21.000 Do you think this mess would work, or do you think that it's a pie in the sky?

00:44:26.000 Well, I think it's a pie in the sky and that it would work.

00:44:29.000 The reason why is because I want to be clear.

00:44:31.000 We have built so many systems now that rely on such an intense tax revenue that if we just pulled the Band-Aid off, it would absolutely...

00:44:38.000 Blow out the deficit.

00:44:39.000 It would eventually work itself out over time.

00:44:41.000 But I think you guys were talking about this the other day about income taxes and how the rich don't pay their fair share.

00:44:47.000 And income tax...

00:44:49.000 So glad Alad's not here.

00:44:50.000 I know.

00:44:51.000 No, he should come back.

00:44:52.000 I waited for him to leave, actually.

00:44:53.000 But income tax actually benefits...

00:44:56.000 Rich people, because as we know, they don't take an income.

00:44:59.000 They got dividends and they got holdings and everything.

00:45:02.000 If we got rid of the income tax and brought some sort of a VAT tax, a value-added tax, where you pay, you know, we'll use a random number, you pay 10% tax on your milk and 10% tax on your yacht, that's actually a fair tax, as opposed to, you know, a guy of Bezos Musk that, you know...

00:45:21.000 They have a $1 salary while all of us are sitting here paying 42%, and they're just living the high life.

00:45:27.000 And to me, I'm thinking to myself, this is actually, it's going to make things a little bit more expensive, but it's going to make things a hell of a lot more fair.

00:45:34.000 And, you know, I think that would allow people, look, you want to buy your McMansion?

00:45:39.000 I got no problem with that.

00:45:40.000 You're going to pay for it.

00:45:42.000 Yeah, I mean, I don't know if a value-add tax is...

00:45:46.000 I'm not sure what the definition of value-added tax is.

00:45:50.000 It's basically just like a sales tax on everything.

00:45:53.000 A consumption tax?

00:45:53.000 Yeah.

00:45:54.000 Because I like the idea of a federal consumption tax because then you're not charged for saving money.

00:46:02.000 You're not charged on making money.

00:46:04.000 It depends on how much you spend.

00:46:06.000 And if you want to go out and buy a yacht, well, then there's going to be a percentage of whatever you spend.

00:46:12.000 The U.S. GDP is $29 trillion.

00:46:15.000 Gross domestic product.

00:46:17.000 So if you had a percentage of the GDP coming in as a tax on some kind of sales or value added or whatever you want to call it, I do think that the government could be funded.

00:46:32.000 I also think that the government could probably cut their actual expenditures by a significant amount.

00:46:40.000 And hopefully something like Doge is going to do that.

00:46:45.000 But I do think that that's something that's worth discussing.

00:46:48.000 Elad, do you have thoughts on a value-added tax or on getting rid of the IRS or on tariffs?

00:46:53.000 We were just talking about you.

00:46:54.000 I'm not sure that tariffs would be able to make up for the shortfall.

00:47:02.000 Do you think that?

00:47:03.000 Okay.

00:47:05.000 Serge is pointing out.

00:47:06.000 So that means tariffs would have to be at least 100% on all imported good for tariffs to replace income taxes.

00:47:11.000 I mean, this is CNN, and I don't expect CNN to have a positive outlook towards...

00:47:16.000 I don't think solely tariffs would be able to fund our government.

00:47:19.000 Look, I don't love taxes.

00:47:21.000 We live in a society.

00:47:25.000 Old stance a lot.

00:47:26.000 I don't like taxes.

00:47:27.000 Also tariffs, it depends on how you view tariffs.

00:47:30.000 Tariffs are actually a tax on you because they make products more expensive for you.

00:47:34.000 Well, there's arguments about that, but go ahead.

00:47:38.000 No, I mean, right, so if an item that...

00:47:42.000 It's to de-incentivize even buying it to begin with, but it's like, for example, I don't know, you buy a fancy shirt.

00:47:48.000 If there's a tariff on a fancy shirt from Italy, a 500% tariff, that money...

00:47:52.000 You'd have to pay for it to buy it, and then that money would go to the government.

00:47:57.000 Still feels like a tax to me.

00:47:59.000 But here's the thing.

00:48:00.000 Is that the person buying that expensive Italian shirt can afford it anyway?

00:48:04.000 No, you buy any item abroad because that's what the tariff would be, right?

00:48:09.000 I mean, if you look at a picture of Japan and you look at their cars, it's going to be all Japanese cars. 0.61

00:48:14.000 And if you look at a picture of Europe...

00:48:16.000 It's going to be all European cars.

00:48:18.000 And if you look at a picture of America, it's all Japanese and European cars. 0.95

00:48:22.000 Why is that?

00:48:23.000 I feel like that's an argument for America, if anything, because Europe's a dump and Japan's dying. 0.73

00:48:28.000 So, if anything, it sounds like the U.S. is more successful importing those Japanese cars and European cars, allowing Americans to buy super-made cars.

00:48:36.000 I prefer American ones.

00:48:37.000 What I'm saying is that Europe and Japan makes American cars more expensive than they buy Japanese and German cars. 0.84

00:48:46.000 We do the same thing.

00:48:47.000 Not on all of them.

00:48:49.000 I guarantee you, if you go to Munich right now, you will not see an F-150.

00:48:53.000 Okay, so for example, Chinese EVs don't exist in the United States.

00:48:57.000 We could argue about why.

00:48:58.000 I mean, no, we don't need to.

00:49:00.000 It's because we banned them, and the taft makes it too outrageous to buy.

00:49:04.000 That's China, not Japan.

00:49:06.000 Sure, well, I guess I'm kind of explaining to you guys the principle of what's going on here.

00:49:10.000 Our free markets benefit you.

00:49:13.000 Being able to buy goods from people worldwide is a benefit to you.

00:49:17.000 It makes it more difficult for American salesmen who have to compete, and American businesses who have to compete on a worldwide market, but it makes it better for the...

00:49:26.000 But what it also does is it also helps the multinational corporation export their jobs overseas because they know they can bring it back in with no tariffs.

00:49:35.000 And, you know, this is a long game sort of thing.

00:49:39.000 This is not going to be an easy fix.

00:49:40.000 But the fact remains is that there are so many companies that have fled.

00:49:46.000 Even with things like NAFTA, where all the Detroit motor companies all just made them in Mexico, brought them back over, paid slave wages, and they're making big bucks.

00:49:55.000 This is where I think...

00:49:57.000 This is where I think the populist left and the populist right can actually come together.

00:50:01.000 If you're an American company and you're going out of your way to screw over American workers, then you need to be punished.

00:50:07.000 I think it's a nice populist message, but if we get to the crux of the issue, it's affordability.

00:50:11.000 So, I mean, we obviously can't tell what would have happened otherwise.

00:50:14.000 But, for example, here's my fancy iPhone.

00:50:17.000 I still paid around, like, what, $700, $800 for it.

00:50:19.000 And this is from components sourced from around the planet.

00:50:22.000 planet, and it's actually amazing that this product could even exist due to the cooperation of millions of different Americans across the planet.

00:50:28.000 But how much would this cost if it was purely American-made?

00:50:31.000 Nobody would be able to have financial access to it.

00:50:33.000 Nobody would be able to afford this.

00:50:34.000 They might not be able to afford to get the new one every single time.

00:50:36.000 Maybe you skip an iPhone or two.

00:50:38.000 No, it would be three times, four times.

00:50:40.000 Again, remember the slave labor you were talking about?

00:50:42.000 This was made with Chinese slave labor. 1.00

00:50:44.000 Could you imagine how much it would cost if we had to pay for American unions to make parts like this?

00:50:49.000 It wouldn't be comparable.

00:50:51.000 So a lot of the products that we have that we sort of take for granted.

00:50:53.000 Look, that's not to say that there aren't issues with different multinational corporations.

00:50:56.000 See, I think there's a balancing act between the corporation and the American consumer, where, look, Apple, I love my iPhone.

00:51:15.000 This thing has changed the world.

00:51:16.000 But you know what?

00:51:17.000 Maybe, just maybe, you might have to take Apple as a corporation.

00:51:21.000 Should take, for the good of America and for moral reasons, maybe the company should take a little bit of a hit on their bottom line, on their quarterly earnings, and say, you know what?

00:51:34.000 You're right.

00:51:35.000 We probably could make this overseas for nothing, but I think more Americans would buy it if we made it here.

00:51:41.000 If American phones were made in American, not more people would... 0.86

00:51:45.000 Yes, the first car company.

00:51:46.000 Do you know how much more the iPhone would cost?

00:51:48.000 I am telling you right now that if the CEO of Ford came out during the Super Bowl...

00:51:52.000 With a commercial.

00:51:53.000 And said, look guys, we did ship our jobs overseas. 0.97

00:51:57.000 Americans don't give a crap about this not being made in America.

00:51:59.000 Every American has an iPhone already. 0.97

00:52:01.000 And it doesn't matter if it were made here.

00:52:03.000 Not more Americans would have iPhones.

00:52:04.000 Less would because they would be five times more expensive.

00:52:06.000 So we'll use cars.

00:52:07.000 It would be unfathomably more expensive.

00:52:09.000 Slave labor is what produces these iPhones, remember?

00:52:11.000 It's not just slave labor.

00:52:13.000 It's the fact that you can send it over there and have it be made and then send it back.

00:52:18.000 And all of that transport cost is still less in the United States.

00:52:22.000 You could actually take a lot of the regulations and get rid of them in the United States and a lot of the problems that you get with unions and stuff, and the cost of producing these things would go down.

00:52:33.000 But that's not something that you hear anyone actually discussing very often.

00:52:38.000 Regulations are a significant contributor to the cost and the hurdles to producing things in America.

00:52:49.000 I mean, look, I was saying it before, the first American car company, Ford, GM, Chevy, to come out and say, look, our cars are going to be a little bit more expensive, but we're going to make them here.

00:52:59.000 It's a different era.

00:53:00.000 I guarantee you, the first company that does that, there will be a pickup truck of that company at every construction site.

00:53:06.000 Every soccer mom will be driving around in whatever SUV that company has. 1.00

00:53:10.000 People want to buy American.

00:53:11.000 They won't be able to afford it, unfortunately.

00:53:13.000 People want to buy American.

00:53:15.000 At three, four, five times the price?

00:53:17.000 But you're making up that figure.

00:53:18.000 No.

00:53:18.000 How much, again, this technology, you're saying that slave labor is involved.

00:53:22.000 So let's start with cars.

00:53:23.000 People we have to, we pay the fees on the dollar.

00:53:25.000 You're right.

00:53:25.000 The company is going to have to take a little bit of a hit.

00:53:27.000 I mean, no, the people would, because that's who it's going to pay for.

00:53:30.000 It's a give and a take.

00:53:33.000 Look, I don't really think it is.

00:53:34.000 There are Teslas that are made in the United States.

00:53:37.000 Yeah.

00:53:37.000 There are some BMWs in Georgia.

00:53:39.000 They're heavily subsidized, both here and when they're also built in China.

00:53:43.000 Well, they're heavily subsidized, but there's also massive regulations and there's unions that you have to deal with as well.

00:53:48.000 So we could probably get rid of the subsidies if you got rid of the same regulations and the unions.

00:53:53.000 And there's competition.

00:53:55.000 Well, I mean, look, you can smirk and kind of smile.

00:53:57.000 No, because I don't think you're doing a fair example because, again, Tesla gets a ton of its parts and its workers abroad.

00:54:03.000 The workers that are working in America?

00:54:06.000 Phil, so a lot of the parts that...

00:54:08.000 Ah, a lot.

00:54:10.000 So a lot of the parts that Tesla uses in the building of their cars, it's a global market.

00:54:15.000 These items, these microchips, all these processors.

00:54:19.000 I'm aware that no one can make a pencil a lot.

00:54:21.000 I'm aware.

00:54:22.000 I'm aware that no one can make a toaster.

00:54:26.000 No one person can make a sandwich.

00:54:28.000 I know that there's a market out there and that it's the market that makes it possible for all the parts to be put together.

00:54:36.000 That's not saying that you couldn't make things in America, though.

00:54:40.000 I'm saying you can't.

00:54:41.000 It would just be...

00:54:45.000 I agree with you.

00:54:49.000 I understand your point.

00:54:50.000 I totally do.

00:54:50.000 But I'm saying that I think what he's trying to say is we should change the way that it works around here so that we have the ability to allow for American companies with incentives, which is the correct way to get people to do stuff, not by subsidizing stuff.

00:55:01.000 You subsidize, you kill.

00:55:02.000 Don't do that.

00:55:03.000 You incentivize American business to make things here for cheaper so that, like you said, you can have American-made cars and you don't have to have all these crazy, send everything across the country, etc.

00:55:13.000 I also believe in our 11 carrier groups because they're sweet, but I also think that I see your point.

00:55:21.000 I think what we're trying to say is we don't have to do things the way we always have done.

00:55:25.000 There's a bias to want to do things the same way you've always done.

00:55:28.000 You don't have to do that.

00:55:29.000 You can do things differently.

00:55:29.000 And we can radically change stuff.

00:55:31.000 Look what we've been doing.

00:55:32.000 So I understand what you're saying.

00:55:32.000 It would cost more to do in America if you're basing off the current structure right now.

00:55:36.000 But we can do paycheck to paycheck right now.

00:55:40.000 People are complaining, right, there are issues with the rising prices of eggs.

00:55:44.000 Now we're talking about these tariffs again that would...

00:55:47.000 Affect the consumer in a negative way.

00:55:49.000 I feel like there's a misunderstanding of what the tariffs are because, again, I still believe it's the purchaser who ends up paying the tax warrant.

00:55:56.000 Okay, I know that was a big, a whole topic that we were hitting on there.

00:56:00.000 If Trump is able to implement it properly, Trump has done, you know, flipped the table on a lot of different policy proposals and how we handle things.

00:56:07.000 You know, maybe we could check it.

00:56:08.000 I have faith in Trump.

00:56:10.000 I will come back and we will chat about it.

00:56:11.000 All right, so we're going to go on to this next story.

00:56:14.000 Donald Trump, the Trump administration can continue mass firings of federal workers judge rules, which is something that we have been discussing to some extent on the show lately about whether or not the executive has the authority.

00:56:30.000 To fire the bureaucracies or bureaucrats, people in the bureaucracy, or whether or not the bureaucracies actually are in control of the government.

00:56:39.000 The Guardian reports The Trump administration can for now continue its mass firings of federal employees.

00:56:46.000 A federal judge ruled on Thursday, rejecting a bid by a group of labor unions to halt Donald Trump's dramatic downsizing of the roughly 2.3 million strong federal workforce.

00:56:55.000 The ruling of the U.S. District Court Judge Christopher Cooper in Washington, D.C. federal court is temporary while the litigation plays out.

00:57:04.000 But it is a win for the Trump administration as it seeks to purge the federal workforce and slash what it deems wasteful and fraudulent government.

00:57:10.000 Now, actually, I'm going to try and look this up.

00:57:15.000 I saw Stephen Miller talking today during the press briefing, and he had a great breakdown of this situation.

00:57:30.000 I'd like to play it for you guys if I can find it.

00:57:34.000 And I retweeted it so it shouldn't be.

00:57:36.000 Shouldn't take too long. 0.75

00:57:37.000 You have a sick timeline, Phil. 0.54

00:57:38.000 In a good way.

00:57:39.000 You have a great timeline.

00:57:40.000 Thank you very much.

00:57:41.000 Okay, we're going to go ahead.

00:57:42.000 Here we go. 0.82

00:57:43.000 For four years, failed to cover the fact that Joe Biden was mentally incompetent and was not running the country.

00:57:50.000 It is also true that many people in this room who have used this talking point that Elon is not elected fail to understand how government works.

00:57:59.000 So I'm glad for the opportunity for a brief.

00:58:01.000 Civics lesson.

00:58:02.000 A president is elected by the whole American people.

00:58:05.000 He's the only official in the entire government that is elected by the entire nation.

00:58:10.000 Right?

00:58:11.000 Judges are appointed.

00:58:13.000 Members of Congress are elected at the district or state level.

00:58:15.000 Just one man.

00:58:16.000 And the Constitution, Article 2, has a clause known as the Vesting Clause.

00:58:19.000 And it says the executive power shall be vested in a president.

00:58:23.000 Singular.

00:58:24.000 The whole will of democracy is imbued into the elected president.

00:58:29.000 That president then appoints staff to then impose that democratic will onto the government.

00:58:36.000 The threat to democracy, indeed the existential threat to democracy, is the unelected bureaucracy of lifetime tenured civil servants who believe they answer to no one, who believe they can do whatever they want without consequence, who believe they can set their own agenda no matter what Americans vote for.

00:58:53.000 So Americans vote for radical FBI reform, and FBI agents say they don't want to change.

00:58:58.000 Or Americans vote for radical reform on our energy policies, but EPA bureaucrats say they don't want to change.

00:59:04.000 Or Americans vote to end DEI, racist DEI policies, and lawyers in the Department of Justice say they don't want to change.

00:59:12.000 What President Trump is doing is he is removing federal bureaucrats who are defying democracy by failing to implement his lawful orders, which are the will of the whole American country.

00:59:26.000 People.

00:59:27.000 Now, I mean, this is something that used to be obvious to people.

00:59:32.000 The idea that the federal government is actually, should be led by the people that are elected.

00:59:39.000 And the argument being made now, you know, based on these...

00:59:46.000 The hearings that the Trump administration is bringing to courts, and that's, I think, the intent of a lot of the things, whether it be the question about the 14th Amendment, where he decided that people no longer had birthright citizenship, which is going to end up in front of the Supreme Court, and this stuff.

01:00:04.000 This is all about getting the power back to the elected representatives, and Stephen Miller broke it down great.

01:00:11.000 The point...

01:00:12.000 Of the elected representatives, if you don't like them, you can get rid of them.

01:00:17.000 And a bureaucracy that is protected by unions, and when you can't fire people, that means that regardless of who's in office, you can't have any kind of...

01:00:30.000 You can't satisfy your...

01:00:34.000 You can't get your arguments or your problems taken care of by electing someone else because it's the same people implementing the same policies regardless of who's actually in charge.

01:00:47.000 So I think this is something that we're all generally in agreement on, but if you guys have any input on this, I'd like to hear it.

01:00:54.000 Was this his...

01:00:56.000 Rebuttal to people who voted for Trump saying, hey, I didn't vote for Elon Musk.

01:01:01.000 Why is he in the Oval Office all the time?

01:01:03.000 That's one of the things.

01:01:05.000 Because it's like Elon is Trump's shadow now.

01:01:07.000 And I find it very creepy and unsettling.

01:01:09.000 And I think he's deeply untrustworthy.

01:01:12.000 So that's not the will of the people.

01:01:14.000 The people who voted for Trump did not vote for Elon.

01:01:18.000 Also, how much money did Elon give Trump?

01:01:21.000 Over $250 billion.

01:01:24.000 Million.

01:01:25.000 Let me actually look that up.

01:01:28.000 I think he's only worth...

01:01:29.000 It was something like around $300 million.

01:01:32.000 He paid $44 billion for X, bro.

01:01:34.000 It was a few hundred million dollars.

01:01:37.000 And that was because he could stand to benefit.

01:01:42.000 And his interests are much different from the interests of...

01:01:47.000 Those who voted for Trump, they were interested in issues like securing the border, mass deportations, getting inflation under control.

01:01:56.000 Those are not the same as Elon's interests.

01:01:59.000 So I'll expand on that.

01:02:01.000 You don't think that the...

01:02:02.000 He wants benefits for his business.

01:02:04.000 So how does Doge, the work that he's doing with Doge, how does it benefit Elon Musk?

01:02:12.000 Well, I think that he donated to Trump's campaign so that he could have influence over Trump's decisions for the next four years.

01:02:22.000 He wants deregulation in his area of business.

01:02:26.000 I do think that he does have the incentive to have deregulation, at least with the FAA and with his ability to send rockets to space.

01:02:33.000 I agree about that.

01:02:35.000 I don't think that the motivation...

01:02:38.000 Personally, I think that's why Trump changed his tune on H-1B visas.

01:02:42.000 That could be.

01:02:44.000 But I don't think that Musk is...

01:02:48.000 I definitely don't think that Musk is controlling Trump.

01:02:51.000 I mean, he has some control over Trump.

01:02:54.000 He gave Trump...

01:02:55.000 A few hundred million dollars.

01:02:57.000 Why would he do that if it didn't mean he could have some control?

01:03:01.000 Just because he felt strongly about it?

01:03:04.000 Influence is different from control.

01:03:06.000 They're not the same.

01:03:08.000 No, it's totally not.

01:03:10.000 Control means you're in charge.

01:03:11.000 Influence means you can actually talk to the person and get your opinion in their ear.

01:03:16.000 It's totally different.

01:03:17.000 Influence is not control.

01:03:18.000 Those are two totally different meanings.

01:03:21.000 And then, as for his...

01:03:24.000 Whether or not he wants to change regulation, yes, I agree about that.

01:03:28.000 I do think that he wants to see less regulation on SpaceX and stuff like that because he can't get rockets into space at the tempo that he wants to with the way that the FAA looks at SpaceX.

01:03:43.000 So I agree with you there.

01:03:45.000 But I don't think that the work that he's doing when it comes to things like this, right?

01:03:51.000 Firing of...

01:03:54.000 I don't know how that actually benefits most personally.

01:03:59.000 I don't know how I feel about him trying to cut costs in the federal government when he wants the federal government to subsidize his company.

01:04:07.000 That doesn't make sense to me.

01:04:10.000 You understand that he doesn't actually have any power to make cuts.

01:04:13.000 An audit is just making recommendations and then the president has to say yes.

01:04:17.000 Okay, sure.

01:04:18.000 I just don't think anyone donates hundreds of millions of dollars to a presidential campaign not thinking it gives them power.

01:04:25.000 Like I said, I agree that he assumes that he has influence.

01:04:30.000 He's correct.

01:04:31.000 That is not just an assumption.

01:04:33.000 That is correct.

01:04:35.000 And again, I'm agreeing with you.

01:04:36.000 I'm not disagreeing about that.

01:04:38.000 But what I'm talking about is stuff like this, because the topic that we're kind of talking about right here is whether or not the executive has the power to fire people in the bureaucracy.

01:04:53.000 I think everything you said is kind of plain and obvious.

01:05:13.000 I don't know how people would debate otherwise.

01:05:15.000 He was Trump's biggest donor.

01:05:17.000 I looked it up.

01:05:17.000 It was $290 million.

01:05:19.000 There's conflicts of interest all across the board.

01:05:22.000 I mean, he could gish-gallop his way into different things.

01:05:24.000 This affects me.

01:05:25.000 This doesn't.

01:05:26.000 But he won't be able to actually go through all the individual business dealings.

01:05:31.000 I guess the real issue at hand here is that...

01:05:33.000 It's a creepy relationship.

01:05:35.000 Wait, if I can finish.

01:05:36.000 One second.

01:05:37.000 Elon Musk and Donald Trump have a creepy relationship.

01:05:39.000 It should be concerning.

01:05:41.000 And, Mike, I think there's some validity to people who are concerned about this relationship.

01:05:46.000 Steve Benn was actually one of the first guys on the right to say something about this.

01:05:50.000 I think there will be a rift in that.

01:05:53.000 It's a very odd relationship.

01:05:54.000 There was a recent interview that he did with Sean Hannity, where Sean Hannity had both of them on together.

01:05:59.000 There was a weird dynamic.

01:06:00.000 Steve Bannon issued a warning to conservatives and Republicans saying, Elon Musk is one of the oligarchs who will abandon us.

01:06:06.000 And I mean, like, on certain top issues that are really important to MAGA, he already has abandoned us on.

01:06:12.000 So, for example, like the H-1B visa stuff.

01:06:14.000 So I think there's a lot of valid concerns around Elon Musk, and we shouldn't just sweep this all under the table.

01:06:19.000 There's so many conflicts of interest between SpaceX.

01:06:22.000 Tesla, his interests in China.

01:06:24.000 He has so many Tesla mega factories in China.

01:06:28.000 We don't even fully understand the depth of conflict of interest that Elon Musk has.

01:06:32.000 And I feel like wading through it is so difficult to a point where it's impossible.

01:06:39.000 I understand that.

01:06:40.000 So you both have a kind of, I mean, essentially, for lack of a better term, you both kind of have the ick about it, right?

01:06:44.000 And that's fine.

01:06:45.000 It's kind of a strange relationship that the...

01:06:48.000 The richest person on planet Earth donated the highest amount ever donated to a political campaign.

01:06:54.000 And he's benefiting from it in one way or another.

01:06:57.000 That's not to say...

01:06:58.000 Elon Musk could be doing some good work with those.

01:07:00.000 When you get to things in one way or another, then it loses any kind of ability to actually debate it.

01:07:06.000 You're just like, well, he's benefiting in one way or another.

01:07:08.000 If you can't articulate how you think he's benefiting...

01:07:10.000 Because he has a conflict of interest.

01:07:12.000 What do you think is a conflict of interest?

01:07:18.000 In cutting some aspects and not others.

01:07:20.000 And he's getting this sort of influence in the halls of powers behind the scenes with a lot of these players.

01:07:26.000 Hold on, hold on.

01:07:26.000 I think that you guys have this all wrong.

01:07:29.000 I think, and look, I want to be clear.

01:07:31.000 I wish we had money out of politics like this.

01:07:33.000 However, I'm going to play the same rules as the Democrats.

01:07:36.000 They want to take hundreds of millions from Zuckerberg and George Soros.

01:07:40.000 I'm going to take hundreds of millions from Elon.

01:07:42.000 Until we change the rules, I'm going to play the same rules as everybody else.

01:07:45.000 What does Elon get for his money?

01:07:46.000 I have no idea.

01:07:47.000 What do you think he gets for his money?

01:07:49.000 Do you get anything?

01:07:49.000 I told you there's a conflict of interest.

01:07:52.000 You don't think he gets anything for the 300 mil?

01:07:54.000 I absolutely think he does.

01:07:56.000 Do you think there's conflict of interest with Elon Musk?

01:07:58.000 When there is a conflict of interest, I will absolutely call it out.

01:08:02.000 But right now, I have yet to see any of that.

01:08:04.000 I know that when NASA screwed up and left two astronauts in space, the first thing they did was call Elon and say, hey, can we get your help to go rescue these guys?

01:08:14.000 So, to me, I would rather...

01:08:16.000 I would much rather spend the money on whatever Elon Musk is doing as far as SpaceX or Tesla, which I mean, Tesla is just awesome.

01:08:24.000 I would much rather spend the money on that than the absurd waste, than the comic books in Peru, than any person who's ever worked in a government agency.

01:08:34.000 Any person who's worked for the government knows you could cut 20% of the workforce and not notice.

01:08:38.000 Can all these things be true at once, though?

01:08:40.000 So I agree with these cuts.

01:08:42.000 He might be cutting things in proper ways.

01:08:44.000 There may be good things that he's doing, but I think the conflicts of interest and then the political contributions getting the...

01:08:50.000 What's the negative outcome that you're afraid of?

01:08:53.000 Undue influence by the richest people in our country.

01:08:56.000 Influence isn't an outcome.

01:08:58.000 But that's nothing new.

01:08:59.000 And the conflict of interest that are downstream from that.

01:09:01.000 But what is it that you think Musk is going to do?

01:09:05.000 My main worry is that Elon Musk is a transhumanist, technological accelerationist, and I do think that he has a certain animosity toward the American people because he is not American.

01:09:19.000 And that's very clear by the absolute naked vitriol that he threw at Americans who are against H-1B visas.

01:09:27.000 The way that he spoke to them in that moment said everything about who he is.

01:09:32.000 I think even the way that he conducts himself in his personal life says everything about the type of person that he is and that he's untrustworthy.

01:09:39.000 So, okay, the...

01:09:41.000 And he has the most influence over the president than anyone.

01:09:44.000 I agree with you about all the...

01:09:47.000 The transhumanist technology stuff.

01:09:49.000 I think that that's...

01:09:50.000 He wants to shoot us into space so we can live underground in pods on Mars.

01:09:56.000 And then also grow babies in laboratories.

01:10:00.000 I get what you're saying.

01:10:03.000 He's like an actual storybook supervillain.

01:10:07.000 I get what you're saying and I understand where you're coming from.

01:10:10.000 I understand your argument.

01:10:11.000 I understand where it's coming from.

01:10:13.000 The point that I was making from Elad was to get some kind of articulation more than I get the ick.

01:10:21.000 He has conflict of interests.

01:10:22.000 I don't think he actually holds our values.

01:10:25.000 And he's just using MAGA as a vehicle for his own interests.

01:10:28.000 So that's how I explicitly believe.

01:10:30.000 And for example, the H-1B visas.

01:10:32.000 This is something that MAGA diehards know are all on the same page about.

01:10:37.000 But oh, for some reason or another, Elon Musk isn't.

01:10:40.000 And then Trump flips on a dime on this issue.

01:10:42.000 Trump, the unfortunate thing is that Trump is actually able to be influenced by money.

01:10:48.000 It's not unique to any politician, and Trump's a politician here.

01:10:51.000 So, for example, another issue, Trump flipped on the TikTok ban.

01:10:54.000 Many people have questions as to why he flipped on that.

01:10:57.000 Well, Jeffrey Yass, he has a large ownership stake in ByteDance, who is the parent company of TikTok.

01:11:04.000 He stopped donating to Trump at one point.

01:11:06.000 They rekindled their relationship.

01:11:07.000 And now Jeffrey Yass' support was donated millions to Donald Trump as well.

01:11:11.000 And then he suddenly changed his tune on TikTok.

01:11:13.000 So I don't think, you know.

01:11:15.000 Well, I think on some of those things, I think what Donald Trump does, he puts the idea out there, gauges public reaction, and then makes a decision.

01:11:22.000 And so that a lot of people were, I'm talking...

01:11:25.000 Do you think Jeffrey Yes had anything to do with, and his donations to Trump had anything to do with Trump flipping his decision to ban TikTok?

01:11:31.000 See, but here is how I'm going to answer this, and it's not a deflection.

01:11:35.000 It's going to sound like it is.

01:11:36.000 Until you can prove that...

01:11:37.000 No.

01:11:38.000 Until there is proof that his donations had an impact.

01:11:41.000 Until there is proof that Elon Musk's subsidies are actually...

01:11:45.000 He wasn't donating to him, and then Trump was for banning TikTok.

01:11:49.000 He wasn't donating to him.

01:11:50.000 He started donating to him, and then Trump flipped on this issue that he was outspoken about.

01:11:56.000 I think a lot of people were against it.

01:11:59.000 Don't you think that Donald Trump is more pliable when it comes to stroking his ego than monetarily?

01:12:07.000 Donald Trump is unique in...

01:12:12.000 Politics in that I think that you can actually get more out of Donald Trump by telling him that his hair is nice.

01:12:18.000 You stroke his ego with the money, trust me.

01:12:20.000 He still likes the hundreds of millions donated to him.

01:12:23.000 I really do think that the...

01:12:26.000 Not that Donald Trump doesn't need money to donations and stuff like that, but I really do think that Donald Trump is far more pliable when it comes to getting people to like him than when it comes to actual money donations.

01:12:39.000 If you give Donald Trump money and then you insult him, he's not going to let that bludger percent. 1.00

01:12:45.000 The issue here is you're arguing in the abstract, and I'm trying to give you guys specific examples.

01:12:50.000 But you haven't yet.

01:12:50.000 You haven't given any specifics at all.

01:12:53.000 I asked Mary and she was able to articulate point by point.

01:12:56.000 I kind of want to hear more about that transhumanism thing.

01:12:59.000 That's Neuralink, man.

01:13:01.000 That scares the crap out of me.

01:13:04.000 He literally wants to sew the internet into our brains. 0.52

01:13:08.000 There is nothing on earth I want less than that.

01:13:11.000 I like, like, taking this and putting it on the other side of the room for like an hour.

01:13:14.000 The way that he describes it is simply that, like, right now, the interface for your...

01:13:18.000 Everyone's already a cyborg, and it's just that the interface is slow because your phone is...

01:13:23.000 You're using your thumbs, and his argument...

01:13:26.000 Now, I'm not trying to convince you of anything, Mary, but his argument is that the interface, if you can speed up the interface by having a chip in your brain, which is what Neuralink is, that people will take the next step to become transhuman and...

01:13:40.000 He's absolutely that.

01:13:42.000 There's no way that ends well.

01:13:45.000 Well, I mean, look, I don't...

01:13:46.000 He is someone who wants to conquer human nature, who wants to basically abolish death and also have complete technological control over human reproduction.

01:13:59.000 Do you think that he wants to control it or do you think that he looks at it like that's what he thinks that human beings should be able to do?

01:14:05.000 I mean, he is that preeminent figure, isn't he?

01:14:08.000 I don't know that he has that kind of desire for control.

01:14:11.000 No?

01:14:12.000 He's the richest man on the planet.

01:14:14.000 Is that just something that happens by accident?

01:14:16.000 He's the richest man on the planet, but he's the richest man on the planet.

01:14:19.000 By taking, like, really, really, really big risks about things that he believes in.

01:14:24.000 Whether or not you agree with him, like, you can totally disagree and that's fine, but, like, he believes that, you know, climate change is something that's important to worry about, so that's why he started Tesla.

01:14:35.000 And he believes that it's possible for an asteroid to come and wipe out all of humanity.

01:14:40.000 That's why he thinks we need to be multi-planetary.

01:14:42.000 He believes that it's important for people to have access to the internet no matter what their government says.

01:14:46.000 That's why he started space.

01:14:48.000 He started Starlink.

01:14:49.000 He believes in free speech, which is why he bought X. Yeah, and now X is just a garbage dumpster fire of a social media platform.

01:14:58.000 It's so much more fun now.

01:14:59.000 No, it's not.

01:15:00.000 It used to be way more fun back when Jack Dorsey ran it, and I stand on that.

01:15:05.000 Yes, it was.

01:15:05.000 It was always more fun when you need to get in trouble for saying something funny.

01:15:09.000 And now, everything on X is just brain rot slop. 0.99

01:15:14.000 Damn, Mary, you're number one muskator right now. 1.00

01:15:16.000 I am. 1.00

01:15:16.000 I have Elon Derangeman saying that. 1.00

01:15:18.000 And you're spot on with your Twitter take and your Musk take.

01:15:21.000 Twitter's so much more fun now.

01:15:22.000 No, it's really not.

01:15:24.000 It's really not. 0.99

01:15:25.000 It sucks. 1.00

01:15:26.000 It's just a giant dump. 1.00

01:15:28.000 It's a giant dump of bot accounts, pornography, and clickbait.

01:15:34.000 Other than those first two.

01:15:36.000 We can get rid of those.

01:15:36.000 People engagement farming.

01:15:38.000 That's basically all it is now.

01:15:39.000 And people are getting arbitrarily censored based on Elon Musk's personal taste.

01:15:44.000 Totally.

01:15:45.000 Spot on.

01:15:46.000 He's not a free speech absolutist.

01:15:47.000 He's free speech when it benefits him.

01:15:49.000 I have questioned whether I should even tweet these certain opinions about Elon in case it throttles my algorithmic reach.

01:15:56.000 That's not a free speech platform in the slightest.

01:16:00.000 Look, you're definitely not wrong.

01:16:02.000 But I think it's better than it was where people were arbitrarily booted off and no one knew why from one side.

01:16:10.000 I think Elon, he probably senses, he probably boots people, but I think it goes across the spectrum.

01:16:16.000 You had actual human conversation instead of robots.

01:16:20.000 I wish that there was more transparency on it.

01:16:22.000 No, I think a lot of people are completely botting their accounts and there are a lot of bot accounts that are promoting Trump and Elon.

01:16:31.000 And others, but yeah, I totally think that there's definitely...

01:16:35.000 Foreign and domestic, like, influence campaigns going on rampant on Twitter, especially. 0.99

01:16:40.000 Other than that, it's gambling ads, it's pornography, it's, like, stupid, like, power-washing videos and, like, whatever, like, AI-generated crap. 0.99

01:16:50.000 I definitely watch those. 0.99

01:16:51.000 That's not my...

01:16:52.000 Stolen content, ripped from other people's reporting.

01:16:54.000 That's not my experience at all.

01:16:56.000 I mean, I follow a lot of people, so I think that my, uh...

01:16:59.000 I don't know.

01:16:59.000 Maybe it's just because a lot of people joined Twitter after Elon bought it so they don't know what it was like before.

01:17:04.000 But I saw way more organic content and organic human conversation than I do now before he owned it.

01:17:12.000 And it was a lot more fun.

01:17:14.000 I had Twitter count as early as 2015. And it was way more fun.

01:17:20.000 Because people actually...

01:17:21.000 It was people talking.

01:17:24.000 And yeah, you got censored arbitrarily.

01:17:26.000 It happened to me.

01:17:27.000 But...

01:17:29.000 Even that added a bigger appeal to the platform, honestly.

01:17:34.000 Dodging the bans.

01:17:35.000 You're like, ah, let's see if I can skirt this issue.

01:17:39.000 Alright, well listen, we're going to jump to this next story here.

01:17:42.000 And it's some international news.

01:17:44.000 It's about Donald Trump.

01:17:46.000 And I think that it actually speaks to the thing that I said about how you can actually get along with, or what it's like to try to get along with Donald Trump.

01:17:57.000 From NPR. Reversing U.S. policy, Trump attacks Zelensky, blames Ukraine for a war with Russia.

01:18:05.000 Now, I mean, I'm going to say right out front, like, it's not Zelensky's fault that Putin invaded.

01:18:12.000 The whole thing is Barack Obama's fault for telling Medvedev that Putin could go in after his election.

01:18:20.000 Yep.

01:18:20.000 It was when Barack Obama said to Medvedev, he said, tell...

01:18:25.000 Tell Vladimir that after my election, I will have more latitude.

01:18:29.000 And after the election, that's when the little green men started showing up in Crimea. 0.90

01:18:34.000 That's when Putin went into Crimea and took Crimea.

01:18:37.000 It was because he understood Barack Obama as saying, the U.S. will not get involved.

01:18:44.000 You can go in.

01:18:46.000 After my election.

01:18:47.000 So it's not because of Zelensky.

01:18:49.000 It's because of Barack Obama.

01:18:51.000 And look, I want to be very clear.

01:18:53.000 I have no doubt who the bad guy is here.

01:18:55.000 Barack Obama.

01:18:57.000 I feel like that's the answer to a lot of that.

01:19:00.000 I know who the bad guy is.

01:19:01.000 Barack Obama.

01:19:02.000 But no, look.

01:19:03.000 Obviously, Putin's not a great guy.

01:19:04.000 Obviously, he shouldn't have invaded Ukraine.

01:19:07.000 But I think the Trump angle is just...

01:19:10.000 The same way he looks at everything else differently.

01:19:13.000 We've been doing foreign policy with Russia the same way since the end of World War II, and we have gotten virtually nowhere.

01:19:19.000 Yeah.

01:19:19.000 Let me go ahead.

01:19:20.000 The NPR reports, Washington and Kiev.

01:19:24.000 For the past three years, the U.S. has been Ukraine's leading supporter in its war with Russia, yet with a series of blunt comments, President Trump is now sounding more aligned with Russia than Ukraine.

01:19:34.000 Trump, writing on social media, used his strongest language to date in describing Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky, a dictator without elections.

01:19:42.000 Zelensky better move fast or he's not going to have a country left.

01:19:46.000 With limited room for maneuver, Zelensky has said relatively little, but he did strike a nerve when he said Wednesday that Trump seems to be living in a Russian-created disinformation space.

01:19:55.000 It's my sense, and I think we talked about this a little bit at the very beginning of the show, it's my sense that Donald Trump wants to see Europe as a country.

01:20:05.000 Actually pay for the defense of Ukraine because Europe has the most to lose.

01:20:11.000 European nations have been living off the United States' military protection for the better part of 60, 75 years, something like that, since the end of World War II. The United States has taken the lion's share of role in making NATO an intimidating force.

01:20:35.000 A lot of it has been intentional because the United States didn't want to see nuclear proliferation throughout Europe.

01:20:41.000 The United States was trying to keep every country in Europe from getting nuclear weapons because that's just a recipe for disaster.

01:20:50.000 But the U.S. spends...

01:20:51.000 Our GDP is like $29 trillion.

01:20:55.000 The U.S. spends 3.6% of our GDP on our military.

01:20:59.000 I think the NATO agreement is every country in NATO spend 3% of their GDP on national defense, on their military, which in net dollars is vastly less than in the United States. which in net dollars is vastly less than in the And they don't even meet their requirements to be in NATO.

01:21:22.000 And they haven't forever.

01:21:24.000 The United States used to spend...

01:21:26.000 15%.

01:21:27.000 In 1953, the United States was spending 15% of our GDP, and it's been going down ever since.

01:21:33.000 Like I said, now it's about 3.6 or something like that.

01:21:36.000 But the rest of Europe, who is the most threatened by Russia, won't even pay for their own militaries.

01:21:43.000 They won't actually spend the money on their military.

01:21:46.000 They've been living under the U.S. protection, the United States protections for all of the Cold War and since, and now it's time for...

01:21:54.000 For the European nations to actually spend the amount of money that they're supposed to spend on their own defense.

01:22:02.000 And I think that that's the whole goal.

01:22:04.000 Now, there's personal animosity between Zelensky and Trump.

01:22:09.000 When Zelensky went to Pennsylvania with Josh Shapiro during the election, that definitely pissed Trump off.

01:22:15.000 And I don't think that there's anything wrong with him actually having a problem with that.

01:22:19.000 Why a foreign country that we've been sent just shoveling money into has their president come and actually pick sides in an election?

01:22:28.000 It's a bad look.

01:22:31.000 And I don't think that there's going to be any way to save the personal relationship between Zelensky.

01:22:36.000 It's also worth noting that on Monday, Macron is going to be going to Ukraine to talk to Zelensky.

01:22:43.000 And Macron has said that France will stand with Zelensky and with Ukraine.

01:22:49.000 And I think that that's...

01:22:50.000 A perfect situation.

01:22:52.000 If the French want to go ahead and pick up the tab, fine. 1.00

01:22:55.000 I think we're at $70 billion that we've sent to Ukraine so far since the war started in 22 and an additional 70 since 2014 when Barack Obama opened the door for President Trump.

01:23:10.000 Putin to invade the first time.

01:23:12.000 So it's time for the U.S. to actually stop paying for this because there's been no changes.

01:23:18.000 It's just a meat grinder.

01:23:20.000 And Ukraine's going to run out of people to fight.

01:23:23.000 And you know what?

01:23:24.000 You are totally right.

01:23:25.000 And just the way Zelensky operates, like, you mean you're not going to give me money?

01:23:30.000 Like, I expect this.

01:23:32.000 Not thank you for what you've done so far.

01:23:35.000 When it comes to foreign policy, I've spent my entire life, I'm 35, and it happened long before this, that every time there's an international conflict or a crisis somewhere, whether it's an earthquake or a landslide or a famine, something happening, the entire United Nations all get together and they look down the row and they go, hey America, you guys got this, right?

01:23:53.000 And I'm sitting over here going, we are struggling.

01:23:57.000 We have problems.

01:23:58.000 There are people freezing to death in a tent in western North Carolina right now, and I don't know what the NATO nations have done about it.

01:24:05.000 I don't remember getting a lot from North Macedonia.

01:24:07.000 I don't think we're getting a lot from Slovenia.

01:24:09.000 If we got invaded right now and the Slovenians were like, hey guys, we're on the way. 1.00

01:24:15.000 Do you feel safer about that?

01:24:17.000 But no, we're paying for their top line expense.

01:24:20.000 And then we get to be lectured to.

01:24:23.000 Buy the Europeans. 1.00

01:24:24.000 Well, we have free schools.

01:24:25.000 We have free healthcare.

01:24:27.000 We have free this.

01:24:28.000 Of course, because you're not paying the most...

01:24:30.000 If somebody was paying my mortgage, I could afford to drive a Lamborghini because I'm not paying the most expensive thing in my life.

01:24:37.000 And it is so frustrating to see all the other countries lecture America instead of sitting back, shutting up, and saying, thank you, daddy.

01:24:45.000 I am sick of being the sugar daddy of the world.

01:24:49.000 And I'm sorry it falls on Ukraine right now, but...

01:24:53.000 This is just the times we're living in.

01:24:54.000 It's the truth.

01:24:55.000 I mean, a lot of my lefty friends always remind me, like, oh, I wish I lived in Europe.

01:24:58.000 I wish I lived there.

01:24:59.000 I'm like, yeah, I'm sure you do.

01:25:00.000 Because essentially you're living in this little colony of the United States where we give you guys a ton of money so you can live this dream of a lifestyle with all these walkable cities and all this nonsense.

01:25:09.000 Meanwhile, the American guy is working ridiculous hours under all these crazy regulations to get enough money to feed his family.

01:25:15.000 And yet everybody can go and have a wonderful, you know, a wonderful, I don't know, a wonderful evening out in Copenhagen.

01:25:20.000 You know, whatever.

01:25:21.000 It's just not fair.

01:25:22.000 Copenhagen is a little bit, they're their own thing.

01:25:24.000 But I'm saying like, for instance, I would like to say France.

01:25:27.000 Let's say England, but a lot has changed there recently, so I don't know, but they like to complain anyways.

01:25:31.000 They glow online.

01:25:32.000 I see my European friends, they're on vacation to the Canary Islands, and I'm like, man, I have a hard time getting to Philly.

01:25:38.000 Like, you know, I'm just sitting, and it's like, why?

01:25:41.000 I feel like the first, if you work a 40-hour work week, the first eight hours you work goes to four and eight.

01:25:46.000 That's what it feels like, and it's not 80% of the time.

01:25:49.000 It's not 90% of the time.

01:25:51.000 It's every time something happens, everyone just looks around and goes, well, America will take care of it.

01:25:56.000 Meanwhile, even in the lefty paradise of California, all that money that we've given to Ukraine could be spent to go rebuild the people in California who, if we went $36 trillion in debt and we had airplanes that didn't fall out of the sky and roads that didn't have potholes and kids that could read, I probably wouldn't mind that we were in debt, but the fact that we're borrowing money from China to protect Taiwan from China seems like a recipe for disaster.

01:26:25.000 Yeah.

01:26:26.000 I mean, I know you've got a lot of foreign policy opinions.

01:26:29.000 What are your thoughts on Europe and the spending and the treatment of Vladimir Zelensky by President Trump?

01:26:35.000 I think it's extremely commendable that Donald Trump is making an effort to end wars both in Eastern Europe and the Middle East right now.

01:26:45.000 And I think this rhetoric is trying to manage the expectations of the Ukrainians.

01:26:52.000 In a way, with rhetoric like this, he's kind of letting them know your aspirations of getting back Crimea and Donbass aren't going to happen.

01:27:02.000 That's been the narrative that Zelensky has been pushing, that they're getting back Donbass.

01:27:07.000 Well, he'd be extremely unpopular.

01:27:10.000 Guess what?

01:27:11.000 In Ukraine, they want Donbass and Crimea back.

01:27:14.000 But I do disagree with the specifics of what he was saying.

01:27:19.000 I don't think...

01:27:19.000 Ukraine started this conflict.

01:27:22.000 So hopefully it's just a...

01:27:24.000 Here's the thing.

01:27:24.000 As we hand off this conflict to the Europeans, because we are more interested in what's going on in the Pacific, where more of the world is being centered now, Europe's becoming old news.

01:27:35.000 Ukraine, after a settlement is reached here, I foresee the Europeans not picking up the tab, and then eventually actually more of Ukraine getting bitten off.

01:27:45.000 If we didn't support Ukraine to begin with, I think all of Ukraine would have fallen, which were the ambitions of Putin.

01:27:52.000 And thanks to the money spent and the weapons sent over there, the Ukrainians were bravely able to fight themselves.

01:27:58.000 We didn't spill American blood in Ukraine, and the Ukrainians proudly fought off. 1.00

01:28:03.000 The Russians. 0.71

01:28:04.000 So, you know, this is a negotiating ploy.

01:28:07.000 If the Europeans do not step up and if the Americans do decide to take a full step back, I foresee Putin just steamrolling through Ukraine down the line.

01:28:15.000 It was part of the Russian Empire.

01:28:17.000 It was part of the Soviet Union.

01:28:19.000 And Putin is an irredentist who believes that the fall of the Soviet Union was the greatest tragedy of his life, the greatest geopolitical tragedy of his life.

01:28:28.000 So I think we're going to see more ambitions of Putin as a result of this.

01:28:33.000 Hold on, is it your sense that Putin actually does want to move into Europe and, like, say, get Poland and get the former Soviet states back?

01:28:43.000 Within Putin's lifetime, was Poland part of the USSR or the Warsaw Pact?

01:28:49.000 It was the Warsaw Pact.

01:28:50.000 Yeah, so the other country, like, I do believe that he wants to...

01:28:54.000 Claw back as much former USSR countries as he can or former Russian Empire countries.

01:29:00.000 Yeah, because he lost territory within his lifetime.

01:29:04.000 He's seen his country collapse into pieces.

01:29:06.000 So totally, I think that's within his ambition to return Russia, in his mind, to its rightful place in world politics, where he sees Russia as a major world power.

01:29:15.000 They've kind of been delegated to kind of an afterthought right now.

01:29:21.000 The Russian demographics are horrible, too. 1.00

01:29:24.000 You know, Russia's going to struggle to move forward. 0.56

01:29:26.000 You know, I know we like to talk about Ukraine and their struggling demographics, but beyond the war, Russia's in a complete demography collapse.

01:29:34.000 Mary, what do you think about Ukraine?

01:29:37.000 Well, what I wonder with looking at the combination of, first of all, Trump's truth social post excoriating Zelensky, along with him meeting with Putin, excluding Zelensky to Zelensky's deep dismay.

01:29:53.000 I just wonder, what is the face-saving move for Trump to make this not look like letting Russia win, basically?

01:30:07.000 They're going to get what they want, and Putin doesn't actually want to throw his hands up and call it a day.

01:30:13.000 He wants his objectives met.

01:30:15.000 Is it your sense that he wants to take all of Ukraine?

01:30:18.000 I don't pay close attention, but my sense is that he's not going to make compromises in negotiations, especially now that Trump has thrown Zelensky under the bus.

01:30:32.000 It looks like, oh, the adults in the room have come in to fix this.

01:30:37.000 I just wonder if that really just looks like Trump.

01:30:44.000 I don't know.

01:30:45.000 It makes it look like Russia has definitively won in this conflict, and that's a terrible look for the U.S. In terms of a global superpower.

01:30:57.000 So I disagree that it's a bad look for the U.S. in that it wasn't the United States actually fighting.

01:31:04.000 The U.S. was supporting and giving money to Ukraine.

01:31:08.000 Also, Trump was giving lethally to Ukraine in 2020, which was a mistake.

01:31:13.000 But I still don't think that it's actually the United States that's losing here.

01:31:18.000 It is Ukraine.

01:31:18.000 I don't think...

01:31:20.000 I don't think that...

01:31:21.000 I honestly don't think that Putin is going to try to take all of Ukraine.

01:31:26.000 I think that there's going to be a peace deal.

01:31:28.000 Go ahead.

01:31:28.000 Do you think he's satisfied?

01:31:29.000 Do you think Putin's war aims were just the amount of territory in Ukraine that he currently occupies?

01:31:35.000 I don't know for sure.

01:31:37.000 I think that he...

01:31:38.000 I think the...

01:31:40.000 Parts of Ukraine that he took are actually the strategic parts, if I understand correctly.

01:31:46.000 He wanted the warm water port.

01:31:47.000 He wanted the Donbass because of the actual topography in the land there.

01:31:53.000 So they made a move on Kiev early on in the war.

01:31:56.000 People say, like, oh, it's a feint, it's a fake-out, according to the amount of Russian casualties from that part of the invasion.

01:32:02.000 I don't think so.

01:32:03.000 Let me address that.

01:32:05.000 I do think that his initial...

01:32:07.000 His initial impulse was to take all of Ukraine.

01:32:10.000 I do.

01:32:11.000 I think that because of the stalemate, because of the support from the rest of the world, I think that he's going to have to take, he's going to have to settle for what he's got.

01:32:20.000 And that's why I think that he won't go after the rest of Ukraine.

01:32:24.000 I think that there's going to be some kind of deal.

01:32:28.000 And that's why I don't think that the U.S. looks like they lose.

01:32:31.000 Because the U.S. was never going to get Crimea back.

01:32:35.000 Or never going to invade, get Crimea back from the Russians and give it to Ukraine.

01:32:39.000 Now, he did take a little more territory, but I don't think that he's going to be able to take all of...

01:32:47.000 Ukraine, because I don't think that Russia has the, unless they were to, you know, drastically increase or escalate the violence, I don't think they have the ability to take it.

01:32:57.000 Well, it's a war of attrition between us and them, essentially, because...

01:33:01.000 And not between us and them, it's between Ukraine and them. 0.90

01:33:03.000 Yes.

01:33:03.000 No, but we're de facto funding Ukraine.

01:33:06.000 Ukraine can keep finding...

01:33:07.000 It's not about funding, it's about the people that are dying.

01:33:10.000 No, it's not.

01:33:10.000 Ukraine will keep fighting until we pull the plug.

01:33:12.000 What's happening first here is not the Ukrainian will collapsing, it's the American will to continue... 0.62

01:33:21.000 Yes, but that's not the current issue.

01:33:23.000 The current issue with why they would stop the war right now is not because they're running out of people.

01:33:28.000 It's because the Americans would stop funding their arms.

01:33:30.000 Here's the thing, though.

01:33:31.000 If I'm a neocon Russian edition... 0.69

01:33:34.000 What I'm saying is I'm trying to run this back in a decade or two, make the same move on Kyiv, and I could take Ukraine in piecemeal.

01:33:40.000 Like, hey, I'm the Russian neocon.

01:33:42.000 Hey, I remember when, you know, this was a part of our country.

01:33:45.000 Kyiv was the first capital of our ancient Russian civilization that goes back centuries.

01:33:50.000 I'm ready to do this all again.

01:33:52.000 Look how successful we were.

01:33:53.000 First, we started with Crimea, right?

01:33:56.000 Almost a decade later. 1.00

01:33:57.000 Now we took another piece of the dumbass. 0.99

01:33:59.000 Now that the Americans aren't even interested anymore, they won't be sending them weapons. 1.00

01:34:02.000 We only need to deal with the stupid Europeans now. 1.00

01:34:05.000 They're licking their lips. 1.00

01:34:06.000 And Putin's about to say, I'm going to send this message all around the world.

01:34:10.000 Donald Trump, the president of the United States, says this guy's a dictator.

01:34:13.000 Imagine how he's going to use that as propaganda.

01:34:15.000 Who did Trump say started the war?

01:34:16.000 He blames it on Ukraine.

01:34:17.000 So I think that will be used as propaganda in the future.

01:34:20.000 Also, I think Ukraine has such a malign influence on all of our politics. 1.00

01:34:24.000 That has yet to be fully exposed.

01:34:25.000 And all of our social media platforms, they're looking to fund different things in different ways.

01:34:29.000 And I think it's very important to stay cautious of Russia. 0.66

01:34:32.000 I hate to make it like that.

01:34:33.000 I'm not saying Trump's a Russian agent, but there's a ton of Russian propaganda out there.

01:34:37.000 And if you don't think so, I don't think you're paying attention.

01:34:38.000 No, I think that the American people are far smarter than to...

01:34:41.000 You know, have the entirety of their election be decided by a couple hundred thousand dollars on Facebook ads.

01:34:48.000 But here's the thing.

01:34:48.000 I think the takes on Ukraine could be influenced by Iran.

01:34:50.000 I think Americans would have a lot more of a taste for this war if they felt like Europe was doing their part.

01:34:56.000 And I think that...

01:34:56.000 Wait, a taste for this war in supporting them?

01:34:58.000 I don't want troops on the ground, boots on the ground in Ukraine.

01:35:02.000 No, no, no.

01:35:03.000 Even financially.

01:35:05.000 Even financially.

01:35:06.000 It seems like, as I said before...

01:35:08.000 Russia invades Ukraine, the UN gets together and goes, ah, don't worry guys, America will take care of this. 0.58

01:35:14.000 Now Keir Starmer in the UK is saying that he's going to send some troops over there.

01:35:19.000 The UK only has 72,000 active duty troops.

01:35:22.000 Do you know why?

01:35:23.000 Because daddy America is paying their top line bill.

01:35:26.000 They don't need to invest in a serious military because they know that if anything happens to them, here come the Americans over here.

01:35:33.000 And I think that is the impediment to the America First idea that Europe...

01:35:39.000 It is time for you to step up.

01:35:41.000 We are not living in the Marshall Plan where every one of your countries is destroyed by World War II. You have rejoined the land of the civilized, advanced nations.

01:35:51.000 It is time for you to step up.

01:35:54.000 It was different after World War II. Everything was destroyed.

01:35:57.000 So America was the only superpower.

01:35:58.000 As an American, you should know better.

01:35:59.000 The Europeans will never stand out. 1.00

01:36:01.000 Well, then you know what?

01:36:02.000 Then they can rise up to the occasion.

01:36:03.000 The reason why, just like if you let a child live in your basement and never pay rent till they're 40, they're never going to grow up.

01:36:10.000 And it's time for the Europeans to grow up and start paying their own bills. 0.98

01:36:14.000 Is it your belief that the Europeans would allow Russia to take more countries?

01:36:21.000 When push comes to shove, if the United States wasn't looking to get involved in, if they attacked a NATO country.

01:36:29.000 Well, no, I think a NATO country, I think that the United States would live up to its NATO obligations.

01:36:33.000 I don't know if I agree with that.

01:36:36.000 Like, I don't know how many Americans would hear, oh, Russia just invaded Estonia, Mary.

01:36:41.000 Do you think we should go to war based on the Estonia?

01:36:46.000 Mary?

01:36:47.000 Like, should we go to nuclear?

01:36:48.000 Should we go to war with a nuclear power?

01:36:50.000 I know we have the treaty obligation, and that's important, and it's supposed to be deterrence.

01:36:54.000 But when push comes to shove, oh, they're invading Estonia?

01:36:57.000 I feel, I guess, me and you are going to go, you know, I think there's going to be a conversation that needs to be...

01:37:02.000 What do you think of that?

01:37:03.000 You're 100% right.

01:37:04.000 Well, with Putin knowing that Ukraine is struggling to even...

01:37:12.000 Rally, like, human capital to keep this war going.

01:37:15.000 And also knowing that the war is deeply unpopular in the U.S. and among Trump's own voters, what concessions is he going to make?

01:37:26.000 Well, no, but I mean...

01:37:27.000 He has more leverage based on that.

01:37:30.000 Well, I think that...

01:37:31.000 I think that what Russia's capable of is limited by the United States.

01:37:35.000 Well, I get what you're saying, but I think that it's limited by the U.S., whether or not the U.S. will fund, right?

01:37:41.000 So if the U.S. decides, okay, you're not going to come to the table, then we can still make this a nightmare for you.

01:37:48.000 Because the U.S. does have that ability.

01:37:50.000 And that car, whether or not...

01:37:52.000 Donald Trump wants to play that card.

01:37:54.000 That is a card that they're all well aware that the United States does have.

01:37:57.000 Putin knows that the US can print tanks like it prints money.

01:38:01.000 He knows that the US can print advanced weaponry and send it there if he changes his mind.

01:38:08.000 So this is always an option for the United States.

01:38:11.000 Russia... 0.54

01:38:12.000 It doesn't have the ability.

01:38:14.000 They've always done lower tech, not that they don't have some high tech, but lower tech and just massive amounts, right?

01:38:21.000 So whether it be tanks, people, whatever it is, they have a significantly larger population to draw on to send to Ukraine.

01:38:29.000 Ukraine has...

01:38:30.000 Has almost exhausted their young men, their capacity to put young men into fighting positions and stuff.

01:38:39.000 They're bringing in 50-year-old dudes, 60-year-old dudes that are fighting.

01:38:44.000 Now, granted, this is an existential war to Ukraine, so that's going to inspire men of all ages and some women to go and try to fight.

01:38:53.000 But at some point, they run out.

01:38:56.000 The United States has the ability to pump money into Ukraine long after they run out of viable fighters.

01:39:04.000 We can keep pumping money into that war until all of the people in Ukraine that could possibly fight die. 0.62

01:39:11.000 And Russia has enough people to keep supplying the front lines with people.

01:39:16.000 Longer than Ukraine. 0.96

01:39:17.000 Well, that's why there's an incentive for both to negotiate.

01:39:25.000 Now, Putin doesn't get what he wants because he did want to go.

01:39:28.000 I do believe that he wanted to take all of Ukraine. 0.87

01:39:30.000 But I think that he's fairly satisfied with what he's got because the locations that he has now are strategic.

01:39:38.000 I don't know if the limiting principle is the Ukraine.

01:39:41.000 He can go back to Russia and say he got a win.

01:39:43.000 Look, he got the one more report that he wanted.

01:39:45.000 Exactly.

01:39:46.000 We can actually say, we're not funding this anymore.

01:39:48.000 We're going to stop the dying in Ukraine. 0.95

01:39:50.000 Alright, so we're going to go ahead and wrap this up.

01:39:53.000 We're going to go to Super Chats.

01:39:55.000 Don't forget to smash the like button, follow this page, and share this video with your friends if you like it, if you want more content.

01:40:02.000 The best way to support TimCast IRL and the project we do here are to share them with your friends, send the videos to your friends, and stuff like that.

01:40:11.000 So, let's...

01:40:12.000 Bring this Super Chats up.

01:40:15.000 What do we got here?

01:40:15.000 Can you make these a little bit bigger?

01:40:17.000 Yeah, we can.

01:40:18.000 Where's that button?

01:40:19.000 There we go.

01:40:21.000 Keep going.

01:40:23.000 One more.

01:40:25.000 There we go.

01:40:25.000 Alright.

01:40:27.000 So, Pochita says...

01:40:30.000 oh now it disappeared there we go Zoom it up.

01:40:42.000 There you go.

01:40:43.000 Pochita says, baby beanie fun.

01:40:46.000 Congratulations, Tim Pool and family.

01:40:48.000 Yeah, the reason that I am running the show tonight, in case you don't know, is Tim and his wife are out.

01:40:55.000 Welcoming their first child to the world.

01:40:58.000 I have no more updates than that.

01:41:00.000 I don't know if the baby has been born yet or if Allison is still suffering.

01:41:10.000 I don't think it'll ever end, Allison's suffering.

01:41:12.000 Oh, I know.

01:41:13.000 But that's why I'm here.

01:41:15.000 I'll be doing the Culture War tomorrow and also I'll be running IRL tomorrow night because Tim is going to spend some time with the family, some well-deserved time with the family.

01:41:22.000 Mazel Tov, Tim.

01:41:23.000 Congratulations, buddy.

01:41:25.000 Let's see.

01:41:27.000 What do you got here?

01:41:30.000 Just Cause I'm Free says, want to have your mind blown on what most of the money for Biden's Inflation Reduction Act went to?

01:41:38.000 Go to U.S. spending site and search the keyword climate justice, then look under the grant tabs.

01:41:44.000 Billions are there.

01:41:46.000 That is true.

01:41:47.000 The Inflation Reduction Act was really just a bait and switch.

01:41:52.000 It was the Green New Deal. 0.79

01:41:53.000 They just changed the name, and most of the programs that were proposed in the Green New Deal were in the Inflation Reduction Act.

01:42:01.000 Well, that's why I'm so inspired when I see EPA Administrator Zeldin going, we're going to get that $20 billion back.

01:42:07.000 I love it.

01:42:08.000 I mean, look, the fact that they pushed it all out the door as Biden was leaving just lets you know that this was not well thought out.

01:42:16.000 This was everybody's wish list.

01:42:17.000 Everybody on the way out the door hung their...

01:42:21.000 Ornaments on that Christmas tree and took as much out as they could the minute they knew it was over.

01:42:26.000 Is it just me or is climate change as a political issue just completely dropping off the Democrats' interest and agenda?

01:42:33.000 I don't know if it's above abortion or transing the kids anymore. 1.00

01:42:38.000 Climate change has really fallen off the Democratic agenda.

01:42:41.000 It's because they don't have a leader and they don't have anyone to message properly.

01:42:46.000 And that's why you are seeing people going out there who you've never heard of before.

01:42:50.000 Because they are looking for someone, anyone, to be able to move them forward.

01:42:55.000 And unfortunately, I think that if they continue to search for that voice, they are going to come up with some people they do not want.

01:43:01.000 I think that the brand, the climate change brand, was hurt by Greta a lot, honestly.

01:43:07.000 I think that when Greta was doing her whole shtick at the UN when she was a little kid, it was compelling.

01:43:14.000 But as she got older and people saw her in other places doing leftist activism, they started to get the idea that, you know, maybe climate change isn't really the issue that we thought it was.

01:43:27.000 And I also think that part of the reason, I think part of the reason is that, but also part of the reason is that the, like, like Kevin said, the left is kind of lost right They are having a civil war on the left.

01:43:39.000 They don't know if they should follow the extreme left or if they should go back to the, you know, Democrat kind of mindset where we're not going to hate people for owning property.

01:43:51.000 We're not going to hate people for doing for being capitalists right now.

01:43:55.000 People like G here and I just saw this this post today.

01:43:58.000 People like G here are saying we should go with the ideas that the DSA are talking about.

01:44:04.000 Now, the DSA are the Democratic Socialists of America.

01:44:06.000 That is not Social Democrats.

01:44:08.000 That is effing commies. 1.00

01:44:11.000 I couldn't agree more.

01:44:12.000 They are absolutely communists.

01:44:14.000 They tweet about Marx and the immortal science of Marx that they were like, we follow the science.

01:44:21.000 We follow the immortal science of Marx.

01:44:22.000 I'll tweet that in just a little bit.

01:44:25.000 But the DSA and the far left are fighting with the reasonable left of people like Ro Khanna and people like...

01:44:34.000 He's dangerous.

01:44:35.000 He is.

01:44:35.000 If they listen to Ro Khanna...

01:44:37.000 Not that I'm giving Democrats any advice, but...

01:44:40.000 People like Ro Khanna, people like Richie Torres, people that are actual Democrats that are saying things like, we need to get away from the identity stuff, we need to get away from the LGBT issues, because the idea of taking the marginalized and making that the focus of our party leaves us without an actual center that can rally around this stuff.

01:44:59.000 You can only get so many people to think, oh, these...

01:45:03.000 These minority communities are what we need to worry about when they're actually living through serious problems of their own. 1.00

01:45:10.000 And it's also the way they do the protesting. 0.59

01:45:13.000 I think that laying in the street thing, blocking traffic, people were like, whatever you're for, I'm for the other thing.

01:45:18.000 Absolutely.

01:45:19.000 I mean, the BLM riots and stuff did significant damage.

01:45:22.000 Throwing soup on the Mona Lisa.

01:45:25.000 Come on.

01:45:26.000 Yeah.

01:45:26.000 All right.

01:45:27.000 Let's see.

01:45:29.000 Alien Starchild said, you guys are forgetting Elon donated to help win an election.

01:45:33.000 What would have happened if Kamala won to Elon, to business, to us?

01:45:36.000 This is something that's legitimate.

01:45:38.000 Like, Kamala Harris, I have some friends that work.

01:45:41.000 That work closely with people in the former administration that had friends in the DOJ there.

01:45:48.000 And there was a lot of talk about going after people like Musk, going after people like Joe Rogan, possibly going after people like Tim because they were considered a threat to democracy.

01:45:59.000 And I think that had Kamala won, the country that we live in would be significantly different.

01:46:05.000 There would be significant It's a blessing that Donald Trump won, not just because of Donald Trump or because of Donald Trump's policies, but because the administration that he's put into place is the antithesis of what it used to be.

01:46:25.000 Tulsi Gabbard was on the Quiet Skies list.

01:46:29.000 Kennedy was actually looked at as the persona non grata by the HHS and by the...

01:46:38.000 Wasn't he considered for an Obama-level position?

01:46:41.000 He was for a minute, yeah.

01:46:42.000 Like a low administrator position?

01:46:44.000 He was a candidate, yeah.

01:46:46.000 Or he was being talked about.

01:46:48.000 So, yes, I do think that it's a very, very, very good thing that she left for...

01:46:53.000 For multiple reasons.

01:46:55.000 Tim Roadrage Langdon said, Elon offered to build a solar field and get electricity to native Australians on his dime because he feels people deserve that basic human right and the Australian government denied it.

01:47:06.000 The man cares.

01:47:08.000 I think that was directed at you.

01:47:10.000 Sounds like this guy has a great PR team or something, too.

01:47:13.000 He was trying to help all the starving Africans and then, I don't know, the African government blocked it.

01:47:18.000 Where'd the Jay Shields one go?

01:47:20.000 I was talking to Serge.

01:47:22.000 Go ahead.

01:47:23.000 You were saying?

01:47:23.000 I just want to do next Super Chat.

01:47:24.000 No, I think we've done enough on Elon tonight.

01:47:28.000 I found it real interesting that Bannon was willing to come out with those comments about him.

01:47:33.000 And Trump's relationships with people who work for him almost never last.

01:47:38.000 So we'll see how long Elon Musk stays.

01:47:40.000 I will say this about the Bannon comments, and I find this interesting, and I like this on the right, is that we all do disagree, but we all...

01:47:48.000 We actually have the diversity of ideas that the left continues to shut out, and I think that's what this administration is going to show more than anything else.

01:47:55.000 Like you said, with Bobby Kennedy and Tulsi and Bannon not agreeing and this one over here.

01:47:59.000 Former Democrats.

01:48:01.000 But that's worth pointing out because I think that that speaks to the argument.

01:48:04.000 We can hate the neocons.

01:48:05.000 That speaks to the argument that I made earlier that, like, we have been living in a leftist milieu so long that now the people that are, like, conservative or save the right or saving the country, they are almost all former Democrats.

01:48:21.000 Elon Musk, Donald Trump, you know, Tulsi Gabbard, Kennedy.

01:48:25.000 These people are you.

01:48:26.000 I mean, I'm a New Yorker.

01:48:29.000 We start out as Democrats in New York, the majority of people, and then the more you read and the more you learn, the more you go, hmm, nothing here is getting better.

01:48:36.000 Maybe let's try the other way.

01:48:38.000 When was that for you?

01:48:39.000 I would say about halfway through Obama's second term, when I started to see that Things weren't adding up.

01:48:46.000 Also, I went to college late.

01:48:48.000 I went when I was, like, 26. And going to college made me a Republican.

01:48:51.000 Because I was watching 18-year-olds who had no jobs and no life experience tell me about, like, effective tax rates.

01:48:58.000 And I'm like...

01:48:59.000 So you voted for Obama twice?

01:49:01.000 Yep. 1.00

01:49:01.000 Damn, dude. 1.00

01:49:02.000 Did you vote for Trump the first time? 1.00

01:49:04.000 Damn, dude. 1.00

01:49:05.000 Did you vote for Trump the first time? 1.00

01:49:06.000 Yeah.

01:49:07.000 Yeah.

01:49:07.000 Okay.

01:49:08.000 The minute he was on that stage and said, only Rosie O'Donnell... 1.00

01:49:13.000 I remember I was sitting...

01:49:14.000 In journalism class, when that happened, I just went, oh, this is over.

01:49:19.000 This is over.

01:49:20.000 They're like, what?

01:49:20.000 It's over.

01:49:21.000 He's done.

01:49:21.000 And I'm like, no, he's going to win.

01:49:23.000 Like that.

01:49:24.000 Because he's a normal person.

01:49:27.000 And I think that's what the last 10 years has really shown, is that more normal people are rising to the top than the children are our future.

01:49:38.000 Performa20 says, glad to see you here, Kevin.

01:49:40.000 My wife was your nurse at Good Sam a while back.

01:49:44.000 She told me to tell you about your rumble.

01:49:47.000 Good to see you on TeamCast.

01:49:49.000 Well, thank you very much.

01:49:50.000 Hopefully it wasn't the most recent one where I had to have an organ removed.

01:49:54.000 But that's pretty wild.

01:49:57.000 Happy to see that you're okay.

01:49:58.000 Oh, yeah.

01:49:59.000 It was a minor one.

01:50:01.000 I'm all good.

01:50:02.000 Mine are working.

01:50:03.000 I can't be stopped.

01:50:06.000 ShadavTheVedMac says, Hey Phil, maybe review how the UAE is doing in regards to their no-income tax and VAT. UAE doesn't have as much infrastructure as America, which can mitigate most foreseeable pitfalls.

01:50:18.000 Take care.

01:50:19.000 I'll have to look into that.

01:50:20.000 I don't know, but I know that the UAE is not some kind of third world hellhole, if I understand correctly.

01:50:27.000 That's Dubai, right?

01:50:29.000 United Arab Emirates.

01:50:30.000 I don't think that's Dubai.

01:50:33.000 Yeah, Dubai's the city in the...

01:50:34.000 Is it?

01:50:35.000 Maybe.

01:50:35.000 Could be.

01:50:36.000 Yeah, I think it is.

01:50:37.000 I think that's like the most advanced city in the world.

01:50:40.000 Didn't they build it in like nine months?

01:50:42.000 Meanwhile, it took 60 years to build the Second Avenue subway in New York.

01:50:46.000 Yeah, Dubai is in the UAE. It's kind of uncanny though.

01:50:50.000 I mean, you see videos of Dubai.

01:50:51.000 I would never want to live in a place that looks like that.

01:50:55.000 I could never be somewhere where it's that hot.

01:50:57.000 It's in the middle of a desert and everything's concrete.

01:50:59.000 And there's no plumbing.

01:51:01.000 Remember, there's no plumbing.

01:51:02.000 They have to take trucks to literally take out all the sewage of every building and line up trucks for miles.

01:51:07.000 It's not a wonderful...

01:51:09.000 They're doing marketing campaigns for Dubai trying to convince Westerners to move there.

01:51:14.000 Is that where they're trying to build the line?

01:51:16.000 Yes, that's Saudi Arabia.

01:51:18.000 But there's a lot of projects that get funded by a lot of that oil money that are just like wild pies in the sky that may or may not happen.

01:51:26.000 They're doing a lot of excavation.

01:51:27.000 I've seen whether or not it actually comes to fruition, I don't know, but they're doing a lot of digging out there.

01:51:34.000 So, anyways.

01:51:36.000 Grimov says, we have to weaken the cartels to the point the Mexican government can establish control, incentivize long-term proper governance, then they can keep a lid on things.

01:51:45.000 They, too, will have to have a clearinghouse of corruption.

01:51:48.000 Yeah, I think that that goes without saying, but I... I just don't think that saying, well, it's too dangerous for us to try to fight the cartels is a good option.

01:51:59.000 Because they're only going to infiltrate the U.S. more. 0.69

01:52:02.000 They're only going to have more cities fall, more areas come under their control.

01:52:07.000 I don't think that the U.S. just saying, well, we'll go ahead and build the wall and then not let anyone else in.

01:52:14.000 I don't think that that's enough.

01:52:15.000 I think that if you're not on the offense, you're...

01:52:18.000 You're losing.

01:52:20.000 It's not something that I'm hoping for.

01:52:24.000 I think the situation could have been handled, like Elad said, a long time ago.

01:52:30.000 Could have been prevented, but now that it's here, I don't think that we have as many options as people think.

01:52:37.000 I think that it's kind of like we're going to have to do some fighting to fix this situation.

01:52:43.000 Malekhek Zakav?

01:52:49.000 I hope I pronounced your name right.

01:52:50.000 Says, please read this, Phil.

01:52:53.000 You need to speak to Ed Calderon about cartels.

01:52:56.000 Was previously on Timcast IRL. Cool.

01:53:01.000 Okay.

01:53:03.000 Let's see.

01:53:05.000 What do we got here?

01:53:06.000 Hal Gailey says, Free trade only exists between free markets.

01:53:09.000 The CCP market isn't free.

01:53:11.000 Our trade is hobbled via a controlled economy.

01:53:14.000 Each U.S. state has free trade with the other 49. It works because it's fair and free.

01:53:19.000 Versus a controlled economy there.

01:53:20.000 What does it say?

01:53:21.000 Our free trade is hobbled by a controlled economy.

01:53:24.000 Or our free trade is hobbled versus a controlled economy.

01:53:27.000 So each U.S. state has free trade and the other 49 do too.

01:53:30.000 It works because trade is fair and free.

01:53:32.000 I couldn't agree more.

01:53:34.000 There's only one of us that's trading fairly.

01:53:37.000 There's only one of us playing by the rules, and we're wondering why China's winning.

01:53:41.000 Yeah, I mean, China kind of makes the rules that they make their own rules, and they don't. 0.94

01:53:48.000 I don't consider China to be an honest broker. 0.92

01:53:52.000 I don't think that if we're not able to actually check to see if China's... 0.60

01:54:00.000 They're not going to be living up to their commitments they're not going to.

01:54:05.000 They lead the world in...

01:54:10.000 Piracy and taking existing technology and within...

01:54:15.000 I've listened to this podcast.

01:54:16.000 I listen to the All In podcast and they've had people on saying, you know, you'll come up with an innovation and as soon as you release it in China, two weeks later another company has it because they reverse engineer stuff so quickly.

01:54:28.000 And if you're dealing with that kind of disregard for property rights, it's tough for countries like the United States that have to have all the rules that we do have.

01:54:42.000 It's tough for them to compete.

01:54:44.000 So let's see.

01:54:45.000 Afuera Media says Toyota makes the cars they sell in North America.

01:54:50.000 They have plants in Texas, Alabama, Mississippi, and Indiana, among others.

01:54:55.000 Good.

01:54:55.000 I like that.

01:54:56.000 I think that we should incentivize making cars in the U.S., and I think that the incentives should be things like lower tax rates for the companies that make them or no taxes.

01:55:10.000 I think that those types of incentives for manufacturers that produce jobs or for companies that make jobs, I think those things are a net benefit for the American people and for the country as a whole.

01:55:25.000 Let's see.

01:55:28.000 Waffle Sensei says, if Trump didn't win, the Democrats would have destroyed Elon Musk.

01:55:33.000 He donated to Trump for survival, then went all in.

01:55:35.000 His reward was influence.

01:55:37.000 I think that that's probably right.

01:55:38.000 There were something along the lines of 12 or 13 different investigations into Elon Musk's companies.

01:55:48.000 And that was under the Biden administration.

01:55:50.000 And the administration was clearly hostile to Elon Musk.

01:55:54.000 Didn't the federal judge stop him from like, was it buying stocks?

01:55:58.000 No, from getting the reward for his stock.

01:56:00.000 So he basically said, hey, I won't take pay at Tesla unless the stock becomes worth this amount of money.

01:56:08.000 And everybody thought that's a ridiculous thing to do because there's no way that that stock is going to become that amount of money.

01:56:15.000 And then it did.

01:56:16.000 So essentially what he said is like, look.

01:56:19.000 I won't get paid.

01:56:20.000 If I get paid, if I do this, I'll make a boatload of money, but I won't get paid unless everybody that owns Tesla stock makes a boatload of money first.

01:56:27.000 He did it, and then a judge in Delaware stepped in and said, no, you can't.

01:56:32.000 And that's all politically motivated.

01:56:34.000 There is nothing quite like somebody who bets on themselves.

01:56:37.000 Who says, you know what, I'm going to make this work, and if I don't, I go bust.

01:56:40.000 Or this entity goes bust.

01:56:43.000 There's just so many conflicts of...

01:56:45.000 Interests that are the issue with so many governments around...

01:56:48.000 Can you point to one person that doesn't have a conflict of interest?

01:56:50.000 He just has the ick.

01:56:52.000 No, but I think...

01:56:53.000 If you work for a campaign because you want to get a job in the White House afterwards, do you have a conflict of interest?

01:57:00.000 I think it's fundamentally different when we're talking about the richest person on Earth.

01:57:04.000 Elon just doesn't like rich people.

01:57:05.000 No, no, no.

01:57:07.000 This is important.

01:57:10.000 Again, Elon Musk donated almost $300 million to Trump campaigns through different PACs.

01:57:16.000 He owns Twitter, SpaceX, Tesla, and so he has a lot of these interests across the board.

01:57:23.000 Show me one person who could donate that level of money that doesn't have a conflict of interest.

01:57:27.000 And I would love to get big money out of it.

01:57:33.000 I think Elon Musk isn't doing, you know, he's saying certain things and I don't think he believes in all of them and again I think he's using the MAGA group as a vehicle for his own interests and I think we'll be...

01:57:49.000 We're seeing the effects of that in the near future.

01:57:53.000 Again, I don't think he was never MAGA right before.

01:57:56.000 Trump's been president before.

01:57:58.000 You know, he wasn't MAGA there.

01:57:59.000 Maybe we're using Elon Musk.

01:58:01.000 Trump was against electric vehicles until, you know, Elon Musk started donating a bunch of money to him.

01:58:05.000 And then he actually has a famous quote of when he says, oh, actually, you know, Elon Musk is donating a lot of money now.

01:58:10.000 I guess I got to support EVs and Tesla.

01:58:12.000 Well, maybe we used Elon Musk for his money.

01:58:14.000 Maybe we said, all right, we'll be nice to Elon Musk.

01:58:16.000 So use him for his money and then tell him to go.

01:58:18.000 Continue running SpaceX and Tesla and all these other companies that he owns.

01:58:23.000 It sounds like he has more than enough work to do so.

01:58:25.000 I think we're going to get burned by Musk down the line.

01:58:28.000 We've got to get back to some Super Chats here. 1.00

01:58:30.000 Lorican says, Mary said X has less organic conversation and more botted activity with no evidence.

01:58:35.000 I guarantee you there's way less bot posts than pre-Elon.

01:58:40.000 X isn't perfect, but it's way better now, no question.

01:58:43.000 What say you?

01:58:44.000 I don't know.

01:58:45.000 Let's just, like, glaze Elon.

01:58:47.000 Fine.

01:58:50.000 Glaze?

01:58:50.000 What evidence do I need?

01:58:52.000 Like, what evidence would that be?

01:58:56.000 I don't know.

01:58:57.000 I'm only reading the super chat for you.

01:58:59.000 I don't have a study for you, no.

01:59:01.000 I'm talking about what it was like to be a user of Twitter versus what it's like to be a user of X.

01:59:08.000 And the user experience has taken a sharp downturn.

01:59:13.000 Let's see.

01:59:18.000 I mean, there's some substance to that. 1.00

01:59:33.000 Your metaphor is stupid because there's only one God. 0.99

01:59:35.000 And so in your metaphor, you know, I'm not going to say anything. 1.00

01:59:39.000 You know, you're not touching that at all.

01:59:42.000 From that, there's no equal footing of the United States and Russia. 0.95

01:59:45.000 And like compare the two makes you like deeply have a deeply deep misunderstanding of how geopolitics and our economies interact.

01:59:53.000 There's no multipolarity here.

01:59:55.000 You know, we're unquestionably the hegemonic power.

01:59:58.000 And was this a win for you?

02:00:00.000 Was this a win for Russia? 0.96

02:00:02.000 Doesn't really feel like it.

02:00:03.000 They didn't really achieve all their goals at the cost of under a million deaths in Russia.

02:00:09.000 If I'm a Russian, I don't know how much pride I'm taking in struggling to take piecemeal parts of Ukraine.

02:00:15.000 You didn't even get all of it.

02:00:17.000 I'm not wishing you good luck on the next try.

02:00:19.000 All right.

02:00:19.000 We're going to do one more.

02:00:21.000 This one glazes me, as Mary says. 0.99

02:00:23.000 Walken says, Phil, the new record is fucking fantastic. 0.99

02:00:27.000 Rip Ollie. 0.98

02:00:27.000 By the way, please confirm that the second bridge on Divine is a very respectful nod to Ollie's riff on Not Alone. 0.98

02:00:33.000 I know it, and you know it, and I love Jason for it.

02:00:35.000 Cheers.

02:00:36.000 Yes, it was absolutely a nod to Not Alone.

02:00:38.000 All right, everybody.

02:00:41.000 Smash the like button, share the show with your friends, tell everybody you know, and become a member at TimCast.com.

02:00:47.000 If you become a member at TimCast.com, I believe you also become a member of Rumble, and you'll be able to jump into our after show.

02:00:57.000 There's the Rumble Rants, which we're going to touch.

02:00:59.000 We're going to talk about, and we'll take callers.

02:01:02.000 Every night after the Rumble Rants, we'll take a bunch of callers from the Discord, so go ahead and join that Discord.

02:01:10.000 Kevin Smith, where can people find you?

02:01:12.000 You guys can find me 1pm Eastern on LFATV on Rumble or I stream on X or on my personal page, Loud Majority US. I want to thank you guys all for having me on.

02:01:23.000 And real quick, Tim, congratulations.

02:01:26.000 Sorry I didn't get to meet you, brother, but I guess we'll take a rain check on that one.

02:01:30.000 Yeah.

02:01:31.000 You can find me on Pop Culture Crisis.

02:01:34.000 We go live every Monday through Friday at 3 p.m.

02:01:38.000 Eastern, noon Pacific time.

02:01:40.000 And you can go follow me on Instagram and, believe it or not, X as well.

02:01:44.000 Both at Mary Archived.

02:01:47.000 Mary, it was so much fun.

02:01:48.000 I feel like we were never on IRL together, so I had a really good time.

02:01:52.000 Speaking to you tonight.

02:01:54.000 And others, of course.

02:01:54.000 My name's Elad Eliyahu.

02:01:55.000 I'm a journalist here at TimCast.

02:01:57.000 You can catch me on X at Elad Eliyahu.

02:02:01.000 And then on Instagram is barely informed with Elad.

02:02:04.000 I guess my DMs are available to be glazed or...

02:02:07.000 Is that what you guys say now?

02:02:09.000 What?

02:02:10.000 Complimented or complaints.

02:02:12.000 The DMs are open.

02:02:14.000 I am PhilTheRemains on Twix.

02:02:15.000 You can subscribe to me there.

02:02:16.000 I'm PhilTheRemainsOfficial on Instagram.

02:02:18.000 The band is all that remains.

02:02:19.000 Our new record dropped on January 31st.

02:02:20.000 It's called Anti-Fragile.

02:02:21.000 You can check it out on Apple Music, Amazon Music, Pandora, Spotify, and Deezer.

02:02:26.000 Oh, and on YouTube.

02:02:27.000 And don't forget the left line is for crime.

02:02:29.000 We will see you tomorrow morning with The Culture War.

02:02:33.000 And if you are a TimCast member, stick around because we are going to be right here with the Rumble After Show.

Timcast IRL - Tim Pool - February 21, 2025

Kash Patel CONFIRMED, Deep State PANICS, Mitch McConnell To RETIRE w- Kevin Smith | Timcast IRL

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