00:00:00
What does animate these people is the rigging of the 2016 election that this does satisfy them. It scratches their
00:00:06
itch. And I don't know if it scratches their itch more than Epste. Hi everyone, this is Pivot from New York Magazine and the Vox Media Podcast Network. I'm Cara Swisser and I'm Scott Galloway.
00:00:22
Scott, I'm in San Francisco, my beloved San Francisco today. Oh, really? What? Why are you there?
00:00:27
More filming. I ate I ate cell cell created salmon yesterday. Oh, really? Yeah. Um Yeah, that that Well, good for you. And what is that supposedly do for you?
00:00:40
Uh well, it's just the idea that we have to have healthier foods and they're trying to do all kinds of really interesting lab experiments uh on how to
00:00:47
create food and it's really it is actually and it's actually high in protein, all not additives, not all
00:00:53
kinds of things. It's interesting. Um, how do we feed the world health in a healthy way to make them live longer?
00:00:59
We we give poor people more money. That's correct. That's the other way to do it. But there's not enough fish in the sea. Thank you. Thank you.
00:01:05
There's my virtue signaling kicking in. We've got a lot to get to today, including Trump's AI action plan and
00:01:12
Tesla and Alphabet's earnings. But first, uh, Elon Musk was right. Donald Trump is in the Epstein files. Not a really big surprise, but Trump was reportedly informed by AG. Pam Bondi
00:01:23
back in May that his name appears multiple times in the file. It's probably quite a lot. According to the Wall Street Journal, Bondi says nothing
00:01:29
warranted further investigation or prosecution. In other Epstein news, the federal judge in Florida denied a DOJ
00:01:36
request to release the grand jury transcripts. Of course, the House Oversight Committee voted to subpoena
00:01:41
the DOJ for Epstein files hours before the House adjourned for early for its summer recess. Mike Johnson did this on purpose so they didn't have to keep voting on the Epstein situation. Yeah. Nothing to see here. Go ahead.
00:01:52
Nothing to see here. Close down the store. The committee has subpoenaed Epstein associate Gelain Maxwell. Of
00:01:58
course, it's another, you know, very performative thing with one the number two person at the Justice Department is
00:02:03
taking his time to go talk to her probably today. Um, we're going to get to Trump's latest distraction maneuvers
00:02:09
in a minute, which talk Scott got talked about and boy did he land a big one. uh another another bearing wall of the MAGA
00:02:15
movement around President Obama. But let's first talk about where things stand with Trump and Epstein. Is there
00:02:21
anything that he can do to stop the drip drip at this point? Is it an opportunity
00:02:26
for Democrats and um and we'll go through the if you want to go to the distractions first. Distractions is one
00:02:32
way, but what else? And then we'll get to the distractions. I think it's already underway. I think somebody has communicated to Jane
00:02:38
Maxwell in prison that if she exonerates the president, she'll get a pardon by the end of his term. I think it's already underway, which makes it worse though, right?
00:02:45
Correct. Doesn't that make it even more? I don't I don't know. I think his base I
00:02:50
think if she quote unquote I mean think about how ridiculous this is. All of a sudden they've decided they might want to speak to Jelane Maxwell.
00:02:57
I mean think about that that just dawned on the the just dawned on the attorney general's office and maybe they should
00:03:02
go speak to her. Uh so it's been in my opinion just logic has said okay if you provide us with information or credible information or just basically say he had he was there but make it make it
00:03:14
believable like he was there but he never engaged in anything like that um before the end of the term wink wink
00:03:20
you're going to be back in in Long Island or wherever she's from. Uh I just um and it will it get worse? I don't
00:03:26
know. his base seems to want I I I can't I I I don't feel as if I really understand his base at all. And I've been more wrong on this than right. And you've been more right on this and
00:03:38
wrong. So I'll I'll throw it back to you. What do you think? I think he's not going away. I think he'll he's he's sort of I think the
00:03:44
Obama thing, which we'll talk about in a second, is is the smart one because if there's two things this group is is
00:03:50
enamored with, which is that there was a Russian hoax to stop, you know, that the election was stolen. But I am not sure
00:03:56
which one is a bigger bearing wall for this group, the Epstein stuff or this. And I they're intertwined in the idea of
00:04:03
a deep state. So it's hard to know if this one will work. Um and especially when it's being led by such an idiot like Chelsea Gabbard. Let's let's talk about these distractions. You said last
00:04:14
week we tracked his attempts to distract the public and media from Epstein. Let's get go into what he's been up to. Most
00:04:20
of which is pointless and doesn't work. taking credit for Steven Colbear's cancellation and sending a warning to
00:04:26
the View. I think that's a nothing burger. Threatening to block a deal for the Washington Commander new stadium if the team doesn't go back to the old
00:04:32
name. I'm not even sure he can do that. Another nothing burger. Releasing over two thou 230,000 pages of files related
00:04:39
to MLK's assassination. Again, I think that went came and went. Visiting the Federal Reserve, another came and went.
00:04:45
Um, they're also proposing to rename the Kennedy Cent's Opera House after Melania Trump. I I don't even understand that.
00:04:52
But the one that seems to be the big one is Trump accusing former President Barack Obama of committing treason,
00:04:58
claiming he rigged the 2016 election, which is also, as I said, a bearing wall of the MAGA movement's uh conspiracy
00:05:04
theories. Uh Trump told uh reporters in the Oval Office this week that it's time to go after people calling out Obama,
00:05:10
Biden, Comey, and others. He cited declassified materials recently released by director of national intelligence
00:05:16
Tulsi Gabbard, which seemed to fall apart apart on initial scrutiny. Gabbard says the documents detail a year'sl long
00:05:22
coup by Obama's intelligence officials against Trump. Uh Obama is finally pushing back. I actually talked to uh
00:05:29
people with him and I was like, are you finally going to say something? Cuz I told you he was coming here. Uh his
00:05:34
spokesman described Trump's comments as bizarre allegations and called this a ridiculous and weak attempt at
00:05:40
distraction. I think it's not a weak attempt. I think it's actually a strong attempt at distraction and probably the
00:05:45
only one that has any legs. Your thoughts, Scott? You were 100% right about all these distractions, of course,
00:05:51
and there are lots. My thoughts are that you've never heard a heterosexual woman use the term bearing wall.
00:05:57
Um I was with a group of women last night uh that use terms like fractal laser, uh brow lift, kaggels, but no,
00:06:05
I've never heard a straight woman use the term bearing wall. Could you be a bigger lesbian? I'm in San Francisco and every
00:06:12
metaphor is is a construction term. The bearing wall. Well, you you got my point, didn't you?
00:06:18
Did I make my point? It makes sense. It's it's why you are who you are. The pillar. Lean into it. Lean into you like you
00:06:26
look foundation. Foundation. I think Obama I would have thought Obama was nearly bulletproof. Again, these
00:06:32
distractions are becoming so they're so ridiculous and yet every day I turn on CNBC or CNN or Fox and they're just
00:06:39
going for it. They're like, "Wherever he takes us, we'll take the bait." I would have thought that Obama at this
00:06:44
point these types of allegations would only I don't know hurt undermine his credibility. You're I think on this stuff you just you just get it more than I do. You think this is going to work or
00:06:56
you think that it's going to be effective? I do think it's the right one if you're looking for a distraction.
00:07:01
That's all I'm saying. It's it's the right distraction cuz I don't think anyone cares about JFK anymore. I don't
00:07:06
I think some people do. I don't think anyone cares about MLK. I don't think anyone cares about Melania Trump or um
00:07:13
or or the commanders. I He can't He's not going to follow through. And I don't think his fights with Rosie O'Donnell or
00:07:19
The View or whatever matter. I don't think this animates these people. What does animate these people is the rigging
00:07:25
of the 2016 election that this does satisfy them. It scratches their itch. And I don't know if it scratches their itch more than Epste. That's the thing that I don't I'm not sure which one
00:07:37
animates them more. They like to let Trump off the hook. That's for sure. So yeah, it's I mean I'm waiting for what
00:07:44
the next distraction. At some point he's going to release a sex tape of him and Charlie Kirk. It's just
00:07:49
E. Say my name, Chuck. Oh, my name is now in my head. Teeing up hole number four. Five heads. Bearing wall. Um,
00:08:02
I don't got a lot going on today. I don't have a lot of insight. So, I'm going very dirty. I haven't gotten to power tools.
00:08:08
Power tools. Okay. My earn. These guys are coming from the same cloth. My Tesla earnings are [ __ ] So, I'm going to I'm going
00:08:14
to launch a diner. I mean, the art of distraction here. Don Draper summed it up about he said if you don't like what's being said about you change the conversation right and that this is the mother of all that
00:08:26
every day and I've said this before I I think there are three or four they have great communications people in a room
00:08:31
with AI saying with this massive prompt around something that's that doesn't the
00:08:37
maximum amount of distraction to the minimum amount of damage to Trump and maximum amount of damage to his enemies.
00:08:45
So, the Obama thing, AI came back and said, "Accuse Obama of of being involved in the Russia hoax." This is all brought
00:08:52
to you by AI. And every day it's the same thing. Look over here. This is I The term I use is we're at the Nuremberg
00:08:58
trials and someone on trial whips out the kazoo hoping that everyone forgets why exactly we're there and what they
00:09:04
did. And it's not working. I feel as if these things are creating a lot of noise. But maybe maybe they are a bit of
00:09:11
a distraction, but it feels like everyone is, you know, that the general public, including Republicans, it's like
00:09:17
a dog on a soup bone. They're just not letting it go on this on the on the Epstein because it
00:09:22
is also part and parcel of the same conspiracy theories. I just interviewed uh uh Dhoni from CNN and Julie K. Brown
00:09:29
who actually broke the original Epstein. She's the Miami reporter, Miami reporter who did that. And one of
00:09:36
the things they She's the hero in all of this. She is. She is. and she's been banging away at this for years. And one of the
00:09:42
things she did say though is that things I mean Donate from CNN is amazing. He covers conspiracy theories. He's like he
00:09:49
he couldn't tell which one will work. But this these two are intertwined. This idea of a deep state, right? That's at
00:09:55
the heart of both of these conspiracy theories essentially is that there's a deep state, there's a cabal, there's a
00:10:01
group, there's always a cabal. It has, you know, in the Epstein case, which I hadn't thought of, it had vague uh um
00:10:08
anti-semitic attacks because Epstein was Jewish and um there's all kinds of that
00:10:13
idea. Israel is in there and different things like that. I think Trump has to be very careful about what he does
00:10:19
around Julain Maxwell, right? Because if he lets her off or if there's any hint that he's letting her off, he looks like
00:10:25
he's been taken in. The other thing he's got to watch out for is that he's relying on Tulsi Gabbard, who is such a
00:10:30
sloppy, terrible uh national intelligence uh head. Um the stuff she's putting out is so easily provably wrong that it creates strength. I do think
00:10:41
it's to the the press should take whatever they're saying seriously and look into it no matter what. Right? Okay, let's show us the stuff. We're going to do the reporting and then
00:10:52
likely overturn it, right? Um, but I don't think it does any even if it's coming from a clown like Tulsi Gabbard. It It's not something you the press shouldn't say, "Okay, you're saying
00:11:04
this, let's go through it." Just like they did with the drawing, um, etc. It's like, "Okay, you say you don't draw, you
00:11:10
draw, right?" That kind of stuff. Just do reporting on all this stuff. I do I do think Epstein has longer legs than
00:11:17
anything. even this stolen election stuff. I think they are just it has so many elements of what works in a
00:11:23
conspiracy theory. Um I don't know about Obama. You're right. I thought he was untouchable. I thought he should have
00:11:29
said something way before this and weakened Trump long ago as you know. Um but he's going to now be on his back
00:11:35
foot on this stuff cuz how do you push you know when did you when did you stop beating your wife sir kind of thing. Um
00:11:42
yeah force him to deny it. But but just the only thing the only the only wrinkle I would add or nuance is that I think
00:11:49
the fix is already in. I think someone has already communicated to Jane Maxwell that if she's going to have to give testimony and it's going to be on the
00:11:55
record. And if by chance that the truth comes out that the president was a friend but was not involved in any of
00:12:02
this that who knows what might happen by the end of your term. Wink wink. And at the end of his term, at Trump's term,
00:12:07
when he pardons Jillian Maxwell, which is what I think is going to happen after she gives after she lies and says um he
00:12:14
was not involved in anything, I don't think he cares. He's an obese oxygenarian who has no love in his life.
00:12:21
That generally speaking means you're going to die soon. I I think biology is going to take care of Donald Trump. The most I put I said the most dangerous
00:12:27
person in the world was Pet Peter Teal, but anyways, the the I don't think he cares. I think the
00:12:32
fix is already in. And what are they going to do to the guy when he's 83 and they're like, "Oh my god, he he's pardoned Gelain Maxwell and this is
00:12:39
outrageous. Who the [ __ ] is he going to care?" Excellent point. Yep. That's an excellent point. The fix is already in. He's got away
00:12:45
with it. Why have they all of a sudden figured out it'd be a good idea to talk to Chile
00:12:50
Maxwell? Well, one is cuz she committed perjury, I believe, and she also has not really I mean, one of the things that Julie was
00:12:57
pointing out and I think correctly is Jula Maxwell is as culpable as Epstein in this. was this an equal predator to
00:13:04
him though you know he had the dramatic death but um she was part and parcel to this pair that you know the Bonnie and Clyde pedophiles essentially and um and
00:13:15
she was just as culpable and so I think letting her off would is a little stronger than that because she's not like some bystander she has not cooperated she has not said things she's
00:13:27
been found to lie um I think letting her off will stick to Trump in a way that maybe is not I don't think he cares. I
00:13:33
think you're right. If you're 83 and about to die and all you got is maybe seven more rounds of golf. Yeah.
00:13:39
What the [ __ ] do you care what sticks you or what doesn't? All he cares about is getting off this topic right now.
00:13:45
That's it. Right. Right. To to to accomplish any any idea of what his next distraction what would be a strong distraction? Any
00:13:52
ideas? I think that Oh gosh, I have no idea. I I I mean I I did not see we can't change
00:13:59
the name from to the Washington commanders coming. Oh yeah, that's true. I mean the most ridiculous trade deal uh
00:14:05
by the way the the trade deal with Japan is we've we've absolutely seated advantage to Japanese automakers on the announcement of this new quotequote big framework. Japanese automakers soared 12
00:14:17
to 18%. They're desperate to just do anything. Uh I think it'll mostly his biggest weapon right now because it gets a lot of attention is something around PAL something around um tariffs.
00:14:28
Uh but you're right there's it'll if he comes up with three or four new accusations each day on Obama on the
00:14:34
Obamas um you know Clinton doesn't can't really beat that horse anymore, right? The Clinton misses
00:14:42
the Hillary emails. I don't I think even I think Hillary's I think Obama's a much better target for him in that regard.
00:14:48
Uh, we'll see if it works though because Obama's got his own skills, let's just say. Okay, Scott, let's go on a quick
00:14:53
break. When we come back, Elon's warning after Tesla's disappointing earnings. Scott, we're back with more news. Time
00:15:00
for a quick round up of earnings. First up, Tesla. Elon Musk and Tesla could quote uh probably have a few rough
00:15:05
quarters," unquote. You think, Elon, after the company's latest earnings, the Musk company reported a 16%
00:15:11
year-over-year decline in automotive revenue, which is hard because it's an automotive company. Adjusted net income
00:15:17
fell 23% to 1.4 billion. This makes Twitter look like a great business. Sales of Model Y and Model 3 fell 12%
00:15:24
and Cybertruck sales fell 52%. I mean, that's that's gone right through the ground. Um, I'll just mention the
00:15:30
others. Alphabet's overall revenue grew 14% year-over-year, but the company increased its capital expenditures
00:15:36
forecast by 10 billion, citing demand for its cloud products. Uh, revenue for Alphabet's cloud computing business
00:15:42
increased 32%. That was impressive. Finally, I had a many year ago discussion with Sundar Pachai about why
00:15:48
they're not in the cloud computing business as much as they were a long time ago, and they seem to be right
00:15:53
there. They're all pushed by obviously AI and stuff. For GM, the auto company said his profits fell by more than a
00:15:59
third in the second quarter due to tariffs costing the company over a billion and as Scott pointed out um uh
00:16:06
that it's going to get hit further with this Japanese deal. Scott, any thoughts on any of these? Well, you covered the I
00:16:12
mean Tesla's earnings again, no no automobile company in the world trades at a PE of 180 and has a trillion dollar
00:16:19
market cap and at the same time their revenues are declining faster than any automobile company in the world. And Mus
00:16:26
knows those two do not stay in unison for very long. at some point he either has to massively reignite growth or the
00:16:32
stock is going to crash and it feels like a merger of some sort or say XAI or announcing a diner or
00:16:39
we're not a car company we're doing robots it's no accident they announced by the way which is a really cool idea
00:16:45
it will add no shareholder value but it's an amazing marketing idea this Tesla diner it's no I said this on
00:16:52
property markets yesterday the fact that he opened this diner just days before these earnings came out is again No
00:16:58
accident. I'm I'm not exaggerating. 40 hours 48 hours ago when it came out, I said to Edson on property markets, I
00:17:04
said that means he's about to puke on the earnings call and he's trying to get everyone to look away, right? The revenues are down 12%. The bright
00:17:10
spot was their services or their supercharging station, but this thing's trading at a trillion dollar valuation
00:17:15
and it's it's declining faster than Renault. I mean, there's no car company in the world that's posting these
00:17:21
numbers this bad. On a more meta level, I think what's happened here, I think 2025 will be the year that uh late night
00:17:29
TV turns out the lights. And also, I think this is the year where we kind of officially seed anything resembling leadership of the automotive industry. I think the automotive industry now in the
00:17:40
US is uh on a kind of the green mile death march. And what do you have? You had our n you have our national champion
00:17:47
Tesla which was worth more than the rest of the automobile industry combined starting to throw up and they released
00:17:53
the worst product car product of the year the Cybert truck they're they're they're grasping at straws right now
00:17:58
saying we're AI we're this so that is a huge blow to the American automobile industry because Tesla was the national champion and then the traditional player General Motors just announced that their
00:18:08
earnings were taken down by a billion dollars because of tariffs and then you have Japanese car companies. I love that
00:18:16
Trump announces it's a big victory that they won't charge any tariffs on our cars going into Japan. Okay, let's just
00:18:22
talk about what a give that is. We buy about $54 billion of the Japanese cars in the US. Do you know how many Do you
00:18:28
know the dollar volume of cars the Japanese buy from US? $262 billion, right? What is it? A few Japanese billionaires buy Escalades. That's it. We don't sell. The
00:18:39
Japanese want nothing to do with our cars. So for them to say fine, no tariffs, it's not a give. And they're
00:18:46
now this trade agreement is going to keep flat or lower the tariffs coming to the US. So what do you have? You have more pressure from amazing
00:18:51
manufacturers, specifically Japanese manufacturers. You have our national champion going into the [ __ ] And you
00:18:57
have our old guard, General Motors, announcing that these tariffs are really hurting them. And then if you want
00:19:02
validation of just how bad this deal is for America, the ultimate neutral arbiter that absorbs millions of points of lights and is not politicized, it's totally focused on fear and greed is the
00:19:13
markets. And what happened in the market when these tariffs, this Japanese big beautiful deal was announced yesterday,
00:19:20
Toyota was up 16 or 17%. And he's made it worse. He's made it worse if he's talking about protecting
00:19:26
manufacturing here. He's decided not to protect them, actually making it worse for them. Um, what about uh Alphabet?
00:19:33
Uh, staggering. And I'm talking my own book here. Every year I make a big tech stock pick and it's based on
00:19:39
it's based on valuation and okay, the existential threat, you know, quote unquote search is being undermined by
00:19:47
AI. Search revenue, search revenue grew 12%. There's search there's company this quote unquote technology that's supposedly being disrupted by AI. It
00:19:59
grew double digits. YouTube up 13%. Cloud up 32%. They have five different businesses as you've could be independent independent companies and they have search uh an
00:20:13
unbelievable display ad network, YouTube subscriptions and seven products that have over two
00:20:20
billion users. Search, Maps, Gmail, Android, Chrome, Play Store, and YouTube. And now their new growth
00:20:25
vehicle is Whimo, which is by far the most dominant autonomous player with more than 100 million total miles logged
00:20:32
on on public roads. In addition, this company trades at I think the average S&P company trades at a PE multiple of
00:20:38
26. So Google, which is growing faster than the S&P, much faster, and has these incredible, incredible leadership, is cheaper than the average S&P company. and pick your average S&P company. I
00:20:50
always say it's Dowo Chemical or PNG. Great companies. Call them the average. Would you rather have autonomous and YouTube than you know Tide? I mean it
00:21:02
this company relative the existential threat or the overhang of the existential threat of AI has been vastly
00:21:08
exaggerated at Alphabet. And then if you look at the IP they have and the investments they're making and they
00:21:13
announced they announced massive capex here that you know they're just going to they're going to be like we're going to get there just on money. They've announced that they're increasing their capex up to 85 billion
00:21:26
from 75. Microsoft is at 80. Meta is between 64 and 72 and Amazon is up to 100 billion. But if you want to talk about capex going into AI, you know, a lot of Amazon capex goes into boring [ __ ] like, you know, like distribution
00:21:39
centers and planes and things. So what do you have? You have unbelievable businesses that continue to grow. You
00:21:46
have the probably some of the deepest IP around AI. You have a cloud business growing 33% a year and a company that's
00:21:54
trading at a lower multiple than the S&P. So any I'm very bullish. I would agree. One of the things you
00:22:00
everyone focuses so much on Mark Zuckerberg overpaying for talent. I would look at Google like I think he's
00:22:06
going to maybe blow the money in that regard in terms of catching up. He thinks he can do it by this brute force
00:22:12
research essentially just are you talking about or Sundar is quietly like making like he
00:22:19
has a lot of businesses to pull levers on as you note and I think they have a better story than the sort of flashy
00:22:26
jazz hands version that Meta is doing which is stealing talent all over the place. Look, Cinder sender is I've been
00:22:34
thinking a lot about they asked me at this thing last night who should run for president or who'd like to see as president and I said I think competence
00:22:41
we're entering an age where competence and the amount of press you get are inversely correlated.
00:22:47
That's correct. And that is I think one of the most accreative actions for the quality of life of Americans would be a president
00:22:53
like Michael Bennett who lacks the charisma to be in your face and in the news cycle every day. I think I spend
00:22:59
easily an hour a day thinking about or having Trump rent free in my brain. And I hate to admit it,
00:23:04
but just a competent, you know, the good governance is really [ __ ] boring and doesn't get headlines. And really
00:23:11
competent leaders don't feel a need to be attention merchants and want you to have time to focus on your kids and your relationships and making money. And
00:23:18
Sundra Pai is that kind of CEO. He's not he's not out there like Musk or or even Yeah. They're just like, I'm just going to do the boring [ __ ] that moves the
00:23:28
needle. I don't need press. I don't need to be in your face every day. I don't need to virtue signal and
00:23:33
talk about not working with this company. I, you know, these guys aren't these guys aren't shut the [ __ ] up.
00:23:40
These guys aren't jonesing for the camera every [ __ ] day or in your face every day. A lot of them I'm like, "Stop talking.
00:23:46
Stop talking. Please stop talking." Like, and you know, you see a Sundar not doing that. You see a satcha not doing
00:23:52
that. I mean they give interviews but it's very typical right it's the typ rather than the sort of jazz hands
00:23:57
performative stuff. Do you remember during co when we did those series of specials uh special webinars or podcast and Cinder came on?
00:24:05
Yeah. I think his kid was coming in the room he kept looking over and like waving people off his kid or his comm's person.
00:24:12
Get off of the bearing wall [ __ ] She's going to make us look bad. He love you're going to use Let me just tell you prediction. Your next
00:24:18
appearance in Aspen with the ladies of aloe. You'll use the word bearing wool. I swear to God. You know you are. You
00:24:24
You've said it so much. You're like, "Oh, that was good." They're love They love They're up and they're like, "Oh, why won't the Democrats listen to you?" And I'm like,
00:24:30
"Well, hello. What's your name? I think we have the same dermatologist. Let's go to San Ambrose. Would you like would you
00:24:36
like to take a hike with me tomorrow?" No, no one wants to take a hike with you. Um, and you don't hike. I can't
00:24:41
imagine you hiking, but Okay. I'm young and good-looking for Aspen. Most of the guys there literally like too much time in the sun. You made a lot
00:24:47
of money, but you didn't spend enough on sunblock. Anyway, speaking of which, Elon's XAI is working to raise up to 12
00:24:54
billion in debt for a massive supply of Nvidia clip uh chips to help train and uh power Grog. Valor Equity Partners, whose founder has close ties to Musk, has been working with lenders Secure
00:25:05
Capital to lease the chips for the company. This is a big [ __ ] play. First of all, Musk doesn't partner with anybody like OpenAI and the and and and
00:25:13
the others, Anthropic. Uh secondly, they're losing $13 billion. It's like crazy how much money this thing is losing and almost no revenues. Um, and they're raising the money. And by the
00:25:26
way, speaking of which, his money-making thing over at at SpaceX. Paperwork sent
00:25:31
to investors discussing a tender offer included an interesting risk factor that Elon Musk may return to politics. Uh,
00:25:39
this feels like I love that. This feels very shaky to me. Like I can't believe he's running on the Hot Topic ticket. I know. But one of the things is this is a lot like $13 billion. He's raising 12.
00:25:52
I mean, it's always good to bet on Elon, but I was like, this guy's a highwire act of all highwire acts here um around
00:25:59
the around all everything he's doing. And then he over at SpaceX, which would you would assume would be his his uh
00:26:06
seed corn. He's um his bearing wall, so to speak. Uh he's really kicking it kicking it in the foundations in a lot of ways with this political stuff. I don't know. I I don't think he has any choice. If
00:26:17
you look at the guy's a brilliant guy and there's the reason he's the wealthiest, there's there's a myth and I
00:26:23
hate it when usually venture capitalists or entrepreneurs say this. They get on stage and someone references their
00:26:28
wealth or money or the stock price and I say, you know, I never really thought about money. I just wanted to build something great.
00:26:33
These guys would [ __ ] their sister for a nickel. These guys are obsessed obsessed with money. And let me be
00:26:40
clear, if you want to have a lot of money, you need to be thinking about it all the time. Roger Federer thinks about
00:26:46
tennis a lot. You know, these you have to be and I I I think young people I love it when they talk about stocks. I try to be very open and transparent about my investments and how much money I've made or lost. You need to be
00:26:59
financially financially literate. And this guy understands the relationship between uh the means of production,
00:27:06
revenues, profits and also in an era of perception where essentially the multiple you get on whatever revenues
00:27:13
you have is purely a function of the perception of you as an innovator. And this is where he has between SpaceX,
00:27:19
Tesla and Twitter, he has about $1.4 trillion in value. The lion share of that is $1 trillion in value from Tesla. and he looks at it and goes, "This is a $50 billion company pretending to be a
00:27:32
trillion dollar market cap company." He knows it. Yeah. The only thing he can do to possibly
00:27:38
keep that trillion dollar balloon from bursting is is two words. First is a second is I.
00:27:45
So he is doing anything he can to try and figure out a way to establish the perception of AI leadership and wrap it
00:27:52
around all of this [ __ ] So he he is not afraid to spend. He he has the only way
00:27:59
this his empire stays worth $1.4 trillion dollars and he maintains his status as the wealthiest man in the
00:28:05
world is to figure out a way for Tesla to get some perception or to get wrapped in an AI glove. So he doesn't care what it costs. And 13 billion Tesla Tesla was
00:28:17
down what 7% Tesla lost 70 billion yesterday after their earnings. So 13 billion. He can't spend money fast
00:28:24
enough. If it if someone comes in and says, you know, I think this will give us a slight little bit of little AI
00:28:31
juju, but it's going to cost a billion dollars and I have no idea if it's going to work. Greenlight it. Greenlight it.
00:28:37
He has to get the AI veneer over this $ 1.35 trillion enterprise that is worth SpaceX, I believe, is worth 350 billion. Tesla 50, Twitter 10. I mean, he all
00:28:51
he's thinking about is how do I keep Tesla uh in the limelight and the only thing he can do again is the AI Botox brow lift fractal laser here. Yeah, I know. The thing is with SpaceX,
00:29:04
I think Trump can still do damage to it. There's even though they said we can't live without it, I think they're trying to figure out a way to live without it
00:29:10
right now. They're on that path. And so that's even, you know, and especially as he if he returns into US politics and it
00:29:17
will be loudly, by the way, so it will take focus off of it. And I that'll be a problem. And by the way, Peter Teal is
00:29:24
back spending money on politics, which you said he was getting out of quietly, right? Speaking of competence, he, you
00:29:31
know, that's what he's doing. Um, where nothing is at risk. But I don't think Musk can resist himself. I think he's
00:29:37
just the most highwire act I've ever seen. And in some ways it's I don't want to use the term admirable but it's like
00:29:43
ge when I saw that number I was like Jesus this guy's good luck. I don't know if it's the gy what number the number he's buying $13 billion in losses like wow well he
00:29:54
just isn't he's playing all you know the the sort of this game that he's playing is really high level in a way that's I
00:30:01
would never do. It's terrifying but this is him. this is the way he is and this is he's he's going to go down in flames
00:30:07
or probably he'll go down in flames but ultimately it it's really quite astonishing to watch it and I think
00:30:13
you're right the valuations are way off of what they actually will be and at some point they'll come down to earth. Uh all right Scott let's go on a quick
00:30:20
break. When we come back Trump says he's removing the red tape around AI. Scott we're back with more news. Trump says
00:30:26
he's removing the red tape around AI. The president spoke about his AI action plan, signed three executive orders, a
00:30:31
summit hosted by the All-In podcast in Washington this week. I wonder why they didn't invite us. The orders aim to
00:30:37
fasttrack uh permitting for data centers, which okay, promote American technology abroad. Okay. And ban
00:30:44
ideologically based AI systems from federal contracting. That's just stupid. But a little little meat for his face.
00:30:51
One other thing Trump thinks is holding AI back, copyright law. incredibly. Let's So, he's kicked one industry in
00:30:58
the in the nuts. So, let's listen to a clip. You can't be expected to have a successful AI program when every single
00:31:04
article, book, or anything else that you've read or studied, you're supposed to pay for. Gee, I read a book. I'm
00:31:10
supposed to pay somebody. And you know, we we appreciate that, but you just can't do it because it's not doable.
00:31:17
Okay, this is amazing. I thought that was amazing. I thought the the the whole thing was kind of ridiculous. handwavy
00:31:23
stuff and it was sort of basic basics of like yes, we could have less regulation, but it essentially was Silicon Valley
00:31:29
getting back its money for spending on Trump. That's what it looked like. And then he also went off script a number. He talked about trans athletes, he
00:31:35
talked about tariffs, he talked about everything, but it looked like uh Silicon Valley was getting its bit. Um
00:31:41
David Saxs was sort of a leader of that. He's he's on the All-In podcast. Um but it's that to me it was sort of a nothing
00:31:49
burger. I think a lot of people didn't pay attention to it. It was very showy. Um, but essentially his minions uh his
00:31:56
minions in tech getting the payback for what they've gotten. I don't think there was anything here except for the
00:32:01
copyright law which was like showed an astonishing lack of of of knowledge about the real problem here. So, he's sort of giving the green light for tech to do what it did before. What are your
00:32:12
thoughts? I see this as just nothing but a kind of a long-term transfer of wealth from Los
00:32:18
Angeles and New York to Silicon Valley. And that is if if late night TV could go
00:32:25
back in time, they would have partnered with every other high-end um TV show and said, "We can't have YouTube crow. We've
00:32:30
all got to bind together and license it for more money cuz they're take basically with YouTube, I can go see the
00:32:37
best two minutes of Co Bear and I don't have to endure 22 minutes of advertising through the hour." So they're basically
00:32:44
and they let them do it and the time to stop it would have been 10 or 15 years ago. And effectively what they're saying
00:32:51
here is they're going back in time and saying, "Okay, these are they're opting for Facebook's right or Google's right
00:32:57
to crawl IP, slice it, dice it, and to a certain extent probably make more shareholder value than the traditional media companies have been able to do. The problem is is that journalism is
00:33:08
weakening, that an industry that employs more people is weakening. So, it's it's
00:33:13
disruption, but it's also all right, what is the incentive to do good work and create original IP and do
00:33:19
investigative journalism if the asset light companies that don't have to hire people or hire gaffers or sound people
00:33:26
can just come in and crawl our data. And they claim that you couldn't do this. Well, actually, the music industry's
00:33:32
figured out a way to do it. Every radio station in America can crawl any song and then play it. But they pay a small
00:33:37
fee, like probably a quarter of a cent, and every year they send a check to a royalty or an artist group that then
00:33:42
says, "Okay, Madonna, here's your check for $685,000 from the radio stations in the Southeast." So they could have
00:33:49
figured out he in my opinion, this is him. Now, this is payback for Silicon Valley who said, "We want to continue to to crawl and molest other people's data
00:34:01
that they've spent money on that they've risked their lives sometimes going into hotspots to cover reporting or I mean,
00:34:08
it's just a transfer of wealth to uh Silicon Valley by saying, okay, AI needs to run, you know, needs to run flat out with no friction, not have to pay anybody else, crawl books, crawl music,
00:34:22
and it we get to do it and the argument you would make is that part of America's
00:34:27
leadership from a market capitalization standpoint, innovation standpoint is that we heer on the side of a lack of regulation. So that is a real argument
00:34:34
and also you could argue okay so we're stealing a dollar from the garage of Warner Brothers but we can take that
00:34:40
dollar we're stealing and turn it into seven whereas they can they turn it into 50 cents. So there is sort of an
00:34:45
economic argument or an innovator's argument that this is good for AI. Let our let our thoroughbreds run. But we've
00:34:52
been to this movie before, folks. Just keep in mind, don't let your kids go into original IP or art or the creative
00:34:58
because now AI can just crawl it and doesn't have to pay you back. Yeah. Well, the problem is I don't think he's necessarily going to he's just
00:35:05
saying this whether it's everything he says like I'm going to dig the commanders out. He's not. He's not. And
00:35:10
the for example on Monday Josh Holly and uh from Missouri and Senator Blumenthal
00:35:16
uh Richard Blumenthal from Connecticut Democrat Republican Democrat unveiled legislation that require AI companies to
00:35:22
to to get consent of individuals for using their content and data and developing AI. I said this is not going
00:35:28
copyright law is quite robust in that regard. And so just because Trump says it's not so first of all he's as dumb as
00:35:34
a box of hammers. But um but they also did by the way they didn't mention deep fakes in this thing which is supposed to
00:35:40
be their big thing. They didn't mention like so many things were out of this thing. It was just a show. It was such a
00:35:46
such a nothing burger of a of an everything. Um, and one of the things that, you know, especially around, and I
00:35:52
have to say, Governor Nuomo, who is has on point, social media these days, um, wrote, "President Trump's executive order on AI threatens to defund states like California with strong laws against
00:36:03
AI generated child porn." Some might say that's an interesting priority, particularly in light of his close ties
00:36:08
with Jeffrey Epstein. I thought that was quite good, his picture of him with Jeffrey Epstein. Um, so I don't know if
00:36:14
this is going to be such an easy thing that I know that the tech companies would like to get out of this, but I don't think they are. I don't think in
00:36:20
this case copyright is quite strong. I think there's a lot of supporters of that even if not just, you know, media.
00:36:27
I think it's movies. There's lots and lots and lots of people that still have some juice. Um, and we'll see if they
00:36:33
can do that. They also are showing some signs of weakness. Soft Bank and OpenAI's $500 million Stargate project
00:36:39
intended to boost US AAI is facing setbacks over disagreements about key terms of the deal, including where to
00:36:44
build data centers. The company's pledged to immediately invest hundred billion dollars in the project in January. But the only plan right now is
00:36:51
to build a small data center by the end of the year. It's pretty pathetic actually. Well, probably cost tens of millions of dollars, maybe 50. Like just
00:36:57
cuz Trump says it, like a lot of things, doesn't mean it's happening. And this AI thing was incredibly weak sauce. I
00:37:04
thought I was sort of like, well, I wasn't invited, but I'm kind of glad I wasn't. Um, and it just looked like a payoff to me. Um, the one that I thought
00:37:12
was more disturbing was Columbia University agreeing to pay $200 million fine to resolve the Trump administration's investigation into
00:37:18
alleged violations of federal anti-discrimination laws and all kinds of stuff around DEI. It essentially gave
00:37:25
Trump an ability to to the government an ability to meddle in in emissions. And so I just love your thought on that. Uh because I you know I I know you you you know you you talk about the over uh use
00:37:38
of DEI programs etc. This seems like like a first the first the the founding fathers did not like were not worried about woke. They were worried about this. This is what they actually I mean
00:37:50
they're it's annoying but it's different than what is happening here which is a clear violation of the government
00:37:56
meddling in private enterprise. But go ahead. Well, we've never had a president that's more socialist. He demands a
00:38:03
golden share to control a steel company. He's doing one-off deals with companies. And now he's decided if you want to
00:38:08
appoint Supreme Court justices that overturn a race-based affirmative action, which has happened. I get it.
00:38:14
You may agree or not agree with that decision, but it's meant to be a thoughtful, slow, grinding process that affects every university. But when you
00:38:22
show up and start threatening using the full weight of the DOJ and government to go after individual universities and then just make these vague statements,
00:38:28
you want to have input into less politically correct admissions. That's just not how you run a government. It's
00:38:34
not how it's so it's it's socialism and then it's kind of thought control uh at the places that are supposed to have the most freedom of thought. That is why they are so successful is that we
00:38:46
provide this ridiculous thing called tenure which is very expensive and and occasionally someone says so something
00:38:52
so stupid they'd be fired anywhere else and we can't fire them because the whole idea is we built universities outside of
00:38:57
the city center so people could say crazy [ __ ] like well maybe the world isn't flat and not risk being burnt at the stake and so when government starts
00:39:04
coming in and telling the admissions department I look I do think that if you are going to provide billions of dollars
00:39:09
in assistance and federally backed student loans You do have some input, but that input should be systemic across
00:39:16
all universities. I do believe that if you are not growing your freshman class faster than population growth, uh, and you have an endowment over a billion dollars, you should lose your taxree
00:39:26
status because you're no longer a public servant. You're a hedge fund offering courses. And and and then I like the
00:39:32
carrot idea. offer instead of student debt relief, offer a capital investment if they one keep their tuition flat for 10 years and two increase their enrollments by 3%. What do you end up
00:39:43
with? College in the 80s where the admissions rates are double what they are now and on an inflationadjusted
00:39:48
basis tuition comes down by a third and then force them to have non four-year degrees in things like nursing and
00:39:55
specialy construction. So, I am very much up for the federal government providing both sticks and carrots to to
00:40:02
reformat higher education such that it returns to its original mission of increasing the likelihood that middle
00:40:08
class unremarkable kids have a shot. I'm I'm all about reform. And quite frankly, I'm all about showing up and saying,
00:40:15
"Oh, we're not asking." But the way you do that is by passing laws and then everyone is subject to these laws. Not
00:40:22
going after because they pissed you off. Let me tell you with the Epstein things, they're not interested in the victims.
00:40:27
They're not. That's that's not why they're there. That's not why they're there. And you know why? Trump is not at these universities to make them better. If
00:40:33
they made a mistake around not protecting Jewish students, find them for that like and tell them they have to
00:40:39
fix something. That's a very easy fix, right? And this but this is something very different. And it's a it's a the
00:40:46
government should not be telling universities who who what to what to say. Just period period period period.
00:40:53
And again, this I think you're exactly right. It should be based on on finances versus race maybe and that will fix the problem anyway probably. Um but it
00:41:04
should certainly um this is such an overreach. It's crazy. And the Colombia I went to Colombia by the way for
00:41:09
graduate school and I they will never see another I don't give them money anyway. So they'll never ever see money
00:41:15
from me. It's they're embar they're an embarrassment to their to their long and storied history. But it's an
00:41:21
embarrassment for Columbia and I hope Harvard and others as much pressure as they're under don't fall prey to this
00:41:26
kind of nonsense because it's not it doesn't make these universities better to let more white people in. It just
00:41:32
doesn't it just it's not it's not it doesn't solve the problem that we have here. But they don't care. They don't care about the victims in Epstein. They
00:41:39
don't care about they don't care about AI and having a really robust AI system. and they just want to get what's what's
00:41:45
good for them. Their instincts in some ways are correct. It's again the execution is wrong. Not the government's business.
00:41:51
60 years ago, 12 black people at Harvard, Princeton, and Yale combined, that was a problem. Racebased affirmative action. Now 60% of Harvard's
00:41:58
freshman class identifies as non-white. But the problem is, right? 70% of those non-whites come from upper
00:42:04
inome households, right? Most most Republicans and all Democrats Democrats agree that there are
00:42:09
some people who face such incredible headwinds through no fault of their own that if the government gives them a hand
00:42:14
up, okay, we're down with that. The question is, and all the argument is over, is who qualifies for the hand up?
00:42:20
And Tyler Perry and Trevor Noah's kids should not get a hand up. Right? There has been quite frankly, and this
00:42:26
triggers people, too much advantage shoved into the kids of non-white parents. Those are the ones getting the
00:42:32
most advantage right now. And a lot of good kids have been pushed out by foreign students and by quite frankly
00:42:38
wealthy wealthy non-whites and they've said, "Okay, fine. We need to we need to reconfigure affirmative action as the University of California did." And they made it an adversity index. But this
00:42:50
says to the white community who's poor and from single parents, you got the same shot. We're going to lift you up. And at the same time says, okay, okay,
00:42:58
you know, Tyler Perry's kids, sorry. You have the same advantages as a rich wife. never address the white kid rich kids,
00:43:05
right? They never like go, "Oh, wait a minute." Like, it's always like, "Okay, we're talking about doing away with legacies."
00:43:11
Yes, that's what I mean. Do away with legacies. But again, this is not the government's job. I'm sorry. It's just
00:43:16
they should not tell a university how to what to say, how to operate. If they The
00:43:22
one thing is if they didn't protect students, Jewish students, whoever the students that were were attacked on
00:43:28
campus, that's something the government might want to get involved in. But otherwise, help poor kids get into
00:43:35
colleges and make and help figure out a way to get colleges to open up more as you said, instead of being a private
00:43:41
hedge fund that happens to give classes, figure out a way to get more people educated at especially at the lower
00:43:47
levels of the economic run. That is and there are models out there, you know, WMadison, University of North
00:43:53
Carolina, which prioritizes instate applicants. these some of these California the University of California
00:43:59
they are doing their level best to let in as many kids as possible such that they can go deeper and deeper into the
00:44:04
barrel because here's the bottom line no individual or institution can be the arbiter of predicting greatness when a
00:44:10
kid is 17 or 18 you just don't know the key is and by the way the kids getting in right now if you're come from a 1%
00:44:17
income earning household you're 77 times more likely to gain admissions to an elite university and here's the the
00:44:23
truth of it the top 1% they need college the least. They already show up well educated. They already have contacts. They've already gone to camps. They've already gotten really good socialization. Dad is already super
00:44:34
wellconed. It's the bottom 90 that need college the most. And anyway, I the one place we do disagree here is I do believe if you're going to back uh you're going to fally back student loans, you're going to offer Pell
00:44:47
Grants, you're going to offer taxfree status. They've cut PEL grants, Scott. They don't care. I'm just saying.
00:44:53
I agree. What I'm saying though is that the federal government should have should have and nothing's for free input
00:45:00
into the policies, but it should be and the word we always use is systemic. It should apply to everybody, not one-offs
00:45:05
based on where Baron did or did not get into college. Right. No, I agree with you. I I that's not the argument I'm making is the
00:45:11
government is should not tell colleges what to teach. Colleges can decide and then the market will decide of what they do. It's just they need to keep their dirty little hands out of it. Like
00:45:24
it gets complicated fast cara because universities have taken in 14 billion dollars from international from from
00:45:30
other governments. Four of the 14 billion has come from a nation with 300,000 people Qatar. And what do you
00:45:36
know? We have all of these Middle East studies departments who quite frankly aren't teaching that Israel has a right
00:45:41
to exist. So it does get pretty gray pretty fast. I think this it's a complicated issue but universities have
00:45:49
the government should not be deciding this. I'm sorry. It's this first amendment. They can look I I I I'm not
00:45:55
loving guitar doing I didn't take money from they should be allowed to they shouldn't be allowed to get money is the how
00:46:00
maybe that's a great solution. Great. That's great. That's a good idea. But here's the deal. Our government should
00:46:06
be funding these educational institutions more and they don't. Instead they give out handouts to the to the very wealthy AI people and you know
00:46:12
just take from anyway it's a long thing. I just feel like Colombia you should be embarrassed by yourselves uh by what
00:46:19
you've done here. You've created a really bad president and I hope the others don't follow. Um, all right. We
00:46:24
have to take a quick break and we'll be back for predictions. Okay, Scott, let's hear a prediction. I just want to
00:46:30
There's one that I could throw out at you. President Trump met with Jeff Bezos at the White House last week in a meeting that lasted over an hour. What
00:46:36
do you predict they were talking about? I I predict Trump wants in on the Bachelor Party. I don't
00:46:43
Didn't that already happen? Did it? I didn't hear about that. I would have been a post marriage bachelor party. Lauren's
00:46:49
not putting up with that. Oh yeah. It's called a midlife crisis. It's called a second marriage and daddy getting together with his friends every
00:46:55
six weeks. My prediction, I already made my prediction. The fix is in. Someone has communicated to Gelain Maxwell that
00:47:01
if she were to provide states evidence or testimony that in any way reflects well on the president that the president
00:47:08
has a habit of pardoning people towards the end of his administration. And there's nothing like jail to convince you to lie and do whatever you need to
00:47:13
do to get out of jail. Uh, I think the fix is in. Uh, the what we're going to have is something resembling a it'll be a kangaroo court where they took testimony, pretend to take it seriously,
00:47:24
pretend they're pursuing the truth, and all evidence from Gelain Maxwell will show that the president while was a
00:47:30
friend and showed errors in judgment, was not involved in any illicit or illegal activity. And then on the eve
00:47:36
before Trump, you know, takes off and JD Vance is elected president or or in my opinion if I were to bet on anyone right now and I might do this on poly market is someone you mentioned earlier. People
00:47:48
vastly underestimate Governor Nuomo. He is the only one pushing back right now. I believe if I had to bet on anyone, he
00:47:54
would be the president. But anyways, whoever 30 days before the the president is the next president is inaugurated, she will be pardoned. Uh-huh. Okay. Well, we'll see. Um, just
00:48:05
so you know, two things. Julie Maxwell's is a liar. She faced two perjury charges stemming from these accusations. She
00:48:11
lied under oath around Epstein. They dropped those things because they they had she also had sex trafficking
00:48:17
convictions she received in December of 2021. So, let me just say she's a sex trafficker. So, think about that people that he's going to let off a sex a convicted sex trafficker who is probably
00:48:29
just as equally um she doesn't get as much attention, but she was equally culpable in what happened. We need a special counsel with Matt Gates. I mean, are we in a simulation here? Literally, are we in a simulation?
00:48:41
They just seem like Julian Maxwell is a terrible person and should die in prison. And um and she and again the
00:48:48
focus is off the people it should be on which is these young women who are terrified now because the president is
00:48:54
trying to cover this up. And that's what the president's doing. He's trying to cover up a sex trafficking uh scandal uh
00:49:00
that that where his name is involved. And so uh the everybody uh all this stuff whether you're going to get Trump or not get Trump just remember all these possibly hund hundreds of women they
00:49:12
think were sexually abused here and that that is lost in this entire thing. Even Even worse hundreds of girls
00:49:18
girls. Exactly. People have people have correctly corrected me and said these are not underage women. They are girls.
00:49:24
They're girls and that is what we should be focusing on and we never have. And these these they're women now. They're
00:49:30
older. They they're not here. They they have been traumatized and and Trump is further traumatizing them with this [ __ ] circus. And that's what we need to focus in on. That's my And we won't.
00:49:43
My prediction is we won't because we don't value the lives of young women. Um as we much as we do is rich old
00:49:49
syphilolytic. These are sypholytic men. Anyway, your prediction that she's going to be that this is going to happen.
00:49:55
The fix is in she's going to be pardoned 30 to 60 days before the end of his term. Well, everybody, she's a liar and a sex trafficker. So, take it that for
00:50:02
the for the thing anyway. Okay. All right. But it won't come till the end. You're saying won't come to the end of the
00:50:08
Well, I I I think he that he'll create some distance to try and lower the volume and the outrage. The fix was in
00:50:14
and this woman basically came out and lied and took the heat down. Yeah. What the [ __ ] do you care? Pardon her. That
00:50:21
the fix is in. The fix is in. All I just say is remember the girls of all of you. At least Nancy is fine, but remember the girls. A real attorney general has a group of
00:50:31
people who are doing nothing but trying to convince people to narcune more powerful people. They work their way up
00:50:36
the chain. This is the first Department of Justice that an attorney general who is trying to figure out a way to get
00:50:42
people to flip and exonerate people more senior than them. This is this is exactly what they are not supposed to
00:50:48
do. They're supposed to be truth to power. the law affects everyone means that quite frankly you work your way up the food chain. Oh, you're a small time dealer. This is how we're going to give you one year in prison and
00:50:59
not 10. You're going to help us find the kingpin here and put him in prison. They realize that there's a the key to law
00:51:06
enforcement is that the more senior, more powerful, more mendacious you get in criminal activity, the bigger the
00:51:12
more important it is that that person get put away. You you want to punish you want a progressive just as we're
00:51:19
supposed to have a progressive tax structure which is part of our culture. We're supposed to have a progressive criminal criminal prosecution structure
00:51:27
that says the more senior and powerful the more damage you're doing the more we try to find uh the truth on you. And
00:51:34
this this is entirely the opposite. That's let's give her a pardon if she lowers the heat on the most powerful
00:51:41
person in the world. Uh I I I think this one is so obvious. It's like I know that but I again I want to stress
00:51:48
to Pam Bondi these are hundreds of young of girls and you have a horrible shameful person to do this and this is the woman who sexually abused them.
00:52:00
Absolutely. 100% has been convicted of that. You're a you know there I'm going to do a lesbian thing and quote Gladiator because it's my favorite movie. The time for honoring yourself is
00:52:10
at an end. the guy's he's getting all the attention and the emperor's all pissed and he then the emperor tries to
00:52:18
you know tell him about his uh his wife and child being killed in a terrible way including rape in this thing and he
00:52:26
turns around instead of hitting him he goes the time for honoring yourself is at an end will soon be at an end such a
00:52:32
great line that's what I feel about these people anyway yeah I don't I don't I'm going to go out
00:52:38
on a limb here and say Attorney General Bondi's ethics morals around the president are sometimes a little bit
00:52:43
patchy. Patchy. Patchy. You're a term. It's time for honoring herself. She's a heinous term again is what she is. Anyway, uh we want to hear and I'll blame the men just as much, but when a
00:52:54
woman does this, even worse. These are girls, Pam. Girls, okay. Um anyway, we want to hear from you. Uh send us your questions about business, tech, or whatever is on your mind. Go to nymag.com/pivot
00:53:06
to send a question for the show or call 8551 pivot. Elsewhere in the Cara and Scott universe, this week on Profy
00:53:12
Conversations that we talked about earlier this week, uh Scott spoke with Governor Gretchen Whitmer, the 49th
00:53:18
governor of Michigan. Let's listen to a clip of Big Gretch with Scott. Well, I'm going to say something that's
00:53:24
going to be really depressing, and that is we're 5 months in to a 48-month term.
00:53:31
All right? And I understand the desire to fight to fight everything. I get it. I feel that, too. I feel the same desperation you just spoke to. And as a governor, I have a role.
00:53:47
You know, I have an important role. My fellow governors and I do. We talk about this a lot. How do we band together and
00:53:54
show Americans what Democratic leaders do? It's by delivering in our states. It's by fighting the federal government when they're impacting our states. But
00:54:04
we are not the counterpoint to the executive branch and the federal government. That's Congress. That's
00:54:10
their whole job is to be that counterpoint. So you like that interview, Scott? You do? Yeah. Every time I every time I get to know
00:54:21
some of these individuals on both sides of the aisle, I'm really impressed and heartened. And I think Governor I I
00:54:27
think I said this last show, Governor I I do this numerous, you know, every presidential candidate is calling one or both of us and we we will interview
00:54:34
between now and then I think any any viable candidate uh at least on the Democratic side and I do this no mercy,
00:54:41
no malice review of the interview and to the upside she reeks of integrity and character. There's just you she's just one of those people that within a minute you think this is a competent, decent
00:54:51
woman. Yeah. And uh and also Michigan has a lot to be proud of. It's not it's not an easy
00:54:58
environment to have a manufacturing based economy. She's managed to maintain economic growth even if it's not stellar. The quality of life of
00:55:03
Michigan, meaning affordability relative to salaries, is some of the best in the nation. She has a lot to run on. My
00:55:10
downside was she's infected with the same rhetorical flourish and avoidance of hard policies. the the Democrat
00:55:16
that's going to race to the head of the polls is going to be someone who comes out with crazy bold solutions and says
00:55:21
we're going to lower Medicare eligibility by two years every year in socialized medicine. We are going to have an alternative minimum tax of 40%.
00:55:28
We're going to do away with the exemption on real estate on on trusts. There is such an opportunity now for
00:55:34
someone to come out with big [ __ ] bold [ __ ] we're moving social security back to 72
00:55:40
and we're means testing it. Sorry folks, it's time to be the grown-up in the room. what what an alternative minimum tax on corporations who are paying their
00:55:46
lowest taxes since 1939 of 30% get away for president but there's such a huge opportunity and
00:55:53
she wants to talk about you know in very big bold flowery speech Americans and and I'm like okay folks o Obama you're not going to out Obama Obama we need
00:56:04
someone who has real policies and also this is not the way the world should be it's the way the world is Democrats are going to elect and nominate a straight
00:56:15
white male over six feet. We are highly looksist. Uh they are not going to for the third time nominate a woman. No [ __ ] way. They're not going to nominate a gay man because they're
00:56:25
worried about blacks in South Carolina. They're not going to they're not going to nominate anyone under 5'11 because
00:56:32
they're they realize America is so goddamn lookist and sexist still. So I don't I think no Scott Galloway for president. I'm just saying just pointing it out. you
00:56:43
the problem is I wouldn't enjoy it and I wouldn't be very good at it. You're in and my job Cara is to to bring attention
00:56:50
and oxygen to fantastic Democrats and help them get elected. Anyways, the she is she I think is on everyone's
00:56:58
short list for VP because she is she's she would be she's just a great foot soldier and she also she has she's
00:57:05
hugely popular in a swing state. She is she's very she's still very popular despite everything. Um, let me
00:57:10
just say uh I think you're right about all those things unfortunately, but the but whatever you think Mandami and
00:57:18
there's lots of attacks on him recently. I think the reason he broke through was big ideas. Whether you think they're right or not, they were big interesting
00:57:25
ideas. He's saying something, but they were kind of interesting. They were some of them were good, some of them were bad. And he's good at social
00:57:31
media. Andy's handsome and he's well spoken. Like to me like get away from whether you Same thing with Abby Spamberger by the way. Great speaker, great looking, great um great
00:57:43
communicator saying things of real meaning like what are you going to do for the people of Virginia or what are
00:57:49
you going to do for the people of blank and what are you going to do for the people of the United States? You're 100% right. Scott, you should run for for
00:57:55
office. I can be your vice president. I'll be fine. I'd really run the show. So, as we do here, um
00:58:00
we will build a giant baron wall. We will build I like that. We'll build a bearing wall for America. Oh my god. You could not be more lesbian. Bearing wall. I'm going to go build one right now here
00:58:13
in San Francisco. Go to metaphor. I'm going to build one right here in San Francisco and then I'm going to have a kombucha. I hate kombucha. Anyway,
00:58:20
do you want to hear the most offensive thing I said at the Aspen ideas? I'm sure I'll get a text.
00:58:25
There was some I was joking about masturbation and I said I found the ultimate birth control and that is I get
00:58:30
lotion. I have this lotion that I put on myself and if I put it on for more than two minutes, I don't need to have sex.
00:58:36
And there was this awkward silence and then a bunch of women in aloe who liked me laugh and go and then looked around to say, "Can I laugh?" And it would be
00:58:43
like, "I'm laughing. You just can't tell. I've had so much poison injected into my face." Oh my Scott. Scott. Oh my god. There you
00:58:50
go. You know what you need to do? This is the thing you need to do. Let me just give another recommendation. Go watch Hunting Wives. It's a less
00:58:58
Hunting Wives with Malin Arian. um and and others. Um Melan Acriman, Britney Snow. It's a based on a book set in Texas. It's about a bunch of sort of rich East Texas ladies and you think
00:59:10
it's going to be all about shopping and drinking, but it turns out to be a lesbian drama and like and a murder
00:59:15
mystery and it is so good cuz Malin and Brady are really hot and they have sex all but everyone's all the women are
00:59:22
making out in it. I'll see it twice. Exactly. You need to watch. You're going to thank me next week. Anyway, that's the show. Thanks
00:59:29
for listening to Pivot and be sure to like and subscribe to our YouTube channel. We'll be back next week. Scott,
00:59:34
read us out. Today's show is produced by Laraman, Zoe Marcus, Taylor Griffin, and Kevin Oliver. Ernie Todd engineered this
00:59:40
episode. Thanks to Oscar Dubaros, Ma and Dan Shalon. Nashak Kura is Vox Media's executive producer of podcast. Make sure
00:59:46
to follow Pivot on your favorite podcast platform. Thanks for listening to Pivot from New York Magazine and Vox Media.
00:59:51
You can subscribe to the magazine at nymag.com/pod. We'll be back next week for another breakdown of all things tech and
00:59:58
business. Bearing wall. [Music]