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How Trump’s Latest Grift Turned The Government Into a “Tollbooth” | Pivot

July 03, 2026 / 53:48

This episode of Pivot covers Donald Trump's financial gains from crypto, the implications of recent Supreme Court rulings, and the rise of progressive candidates in Democratic primaries.

Hosts Cara Swisher and Scott Galloway discuss Trump's reported $1.4 billion earnings from crypto, including his memecoin sales, and highlight the ethical concerns surrounding his financial activities while in office.

The conversation shifts to the Supreme Court's recent decisions, including rulings on birthright citizenship and campaign finance, with insights from Leah Litman, co-host of the Strict Scrutiny podcast, who emphasizes the potential threats to democracy posed by these changes.

Swisher and Galloway also analyze the growing trend of progressive candidates winning Democratic primaries, attributing their success to energy and a desire for change among voters.

The episode concludes with predictions about the future of tech companies and the potential consequences for Trump's family regarding ongoing investigations into their business dealings.

TLDR

Trump's crypto earnings raise ethical concerns; Supreme Court rulings threaten democracy; progressive candidates gain momentum in primaries.

Episode

53:48
00:00:00
This is grift on a very explicit scale and also like, yeah, that's right. I'm taking it. I'm cheating.
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>> Hi everyone, this is Pivot from New York Magazine and the Vox Media Podcast Network. I'm Cara Swisser
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>> and I'm Scott Callaway. >> We should get to the news. Actually, there's a big piece in this. Why not?
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>> Yeah. First, let me just tell you Donald Trump's embrace of crypto is paying off
00:00:25
in a big way. Trump earned about $1.4 four billion dollars over the past year from crypto, according to a new
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financial disclosure, which I think is underounting all the grift he's doing. A big chunk of that came from sales of his
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Trump memecoin and digital tokens for the Trump family crypto company, which he gets paid no matter what. And
00:00:42
everyone who's invested in it is losing, just so you know. He got all this money.
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It's not just crypto. Trump pulled in at least 2.2 billion in total income for the year, up from 622 million in 2024
00:00:53
before he returned to the presidency. That includes more than 620 million in real estate, hotel, and golf related
00:00:59
income, which is almost nothing. Um, plus 86.5 million from legal settlements from ABC, CBS, YouTube, Meta, and X. Uh,
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this grift is just and it turns out we're paying for the East Wing. We're paying for the Kenny
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Center. We're paying for all manner of things that he is up to. Um, which he said the public wasn't paying for. So,
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this is astonishing. I think they're underounted. What did you I mean, nobody's surprised, but the grift is
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really quite astonishing. >> Well, there's the grift and there's the I mean, there's the micro, and that is
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2.2 billion in personal income, you know, while sitting as you're occupying the Oval Office, and
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1.4 billion of it from crypto, a financial system that he now supposedly regulates. It's it
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>> it's not a conflict of interest. It's a business model. Yeah. And essentially
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what you have in America is slowly but surely we're monetizing everything. We monetize healthcare.
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>> We monetize education. >> We monetize uh enragement online. And now the president is monetizing the full
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faith and credit and power of the White House. He went from 622 million the year
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in net worth before taking office at 2.2 billion after. >> He's essentially set up a toll booth uh
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for the American government. And the memecoin would have been a five alarm scandal for anyone else but him.
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>> Absolutely. >> It's a financial instrument with no underlying value that goes up when the
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president tweets about it. And that's securities manipulation with a big red hat. And the fact that he did it the
00:02:28
Friday night before his inauguration under the cover of dark, you know, that he called people and said, "Thanks for
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giving me 10, 20, $100 million for my campaign. FYI, the coin coin gets announced tonight. Uh it'll it'll go up
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and then you can if you dump it, you dump it. Uh but on a larger level I was thinking about our 250 year anniversary
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and in I mean this is the reality that since 1991 childhood poverty has gone way down way down crime has been cut in
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half. >> Y >> we have a the number of people have gone gotten educations has gone up. We have a
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healthier better educated populace uh than ever before. The crime is at its lowest rate ever in New York. Right? But
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happiness, as Jimmy Carr says, or satisfaction isn't a function of what you have. It's the delta between what
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you have and your expectations. And what's happened in America, because there's now a normalization, an
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algorithmically normalized.1% in terms of your expectations. I'll give you an example. From 22 to 42, I did nothing
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but work. And I think my first vacation, the only vacations I took with my mom, we went to Niagara Falls once. We used
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to go to Magic Mountain because we couldn't afford to go to Disneyland. >> And I remember going to Club Med in
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Masalon when I was like in my late 20s. >> Oh wow. >> And I thought it was [ __ ] I mean it
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couldn't have been any tackier. Bad daquiries, not a very nice beach. >> All you can eat, but that you wouldn't
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want to eat all of it. >> And I thought it was amazing. I just thought it was the most I was bra I I
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brought back Club Med shirts. I had a Club Med hat. >> Oh my god. I just thought Club Med was
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the most amazing thing. And I was talking about >> Did you pay by beads? Was it? Didn't you
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have beads? >> Yeah, you get beads for bars, for drinks. >> It's amazing. >> Oh god.
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>> Yeah. Because here's the thing. >> That's a tell. >> I had never been to nor was I being
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reminded 105 times a day as people vomited their experience at St. Barts and Mkos. My expectations
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>> were low >> were dramatically lower. And then you combine that with the following. The
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people who are supposedly in charge are exhibiting a level of corruption and depravity that just makes us feel bad
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about institutions. >> Right. Exactly. >> So you have a coarsening of our discourse where quite frankly there's an
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economic incentive to [ __ ] post everything. It's happened a lot during the Biden presidency. It's also to a
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certain extent happening now. You have social media vomiting everybody's wealth in your face and giving you the
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impression that if you haven't made $3 million on Ethereum and your boyfriend doesn't have a six-pack, you're failing.
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And also the people in charge seem to be genuinely like low character people and
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>> grabbing everything, all the good news. >> Yeah. And people don't trust the CDC.
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They don't trust the Supreme Court. It's like what William Gibson said, the future's here. It's just not evenly
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distributed. Prosperity is here. They see it everywhere. But people don't feel like it's evenly distributed. So people
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now a quarter of a people under the age of 25 feel good about America. It's 3/4 of people our age. So, it's definitely
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like Kylo Scan coined the term vibe session, but the 250th anniversary if you if the well, you're down there.
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What's the vibe like? >> Well, you know, I think people feel like this this guy grabs everything like and
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what my my worry is that it goes we all hate everything because of these people,
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right? We think everything's on the take and it sort of makes you feel like nothing works or or that there's no
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payoff for anything. And you know, I was really struck by a really interesting exchange this week between, you know,
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Elon Musk attacked Roana for saying he's killed children with the cuts of US ID that he bragged about, you know, putting
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it to wood chipper, etc. without any care for the impact. Um, and then Nick, he said, "Show me one person who's been
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killed." And then Nick Kristoff, who does amazing reporting, the New York Times, here's some names. And by the
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way, there's >> and I saw them thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands more. And
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then instead of like actually engaging him, which he did exactly what Elon asked for because that's his thing. It's
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like name one person who's hurt that's their little stupid trick and he does and then he's like Nick Kristoff is
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evil. I was like you [ __ ] like what it made me think. It sounds really including this crypto stuff. It's like
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what is wrong? I I wanted to fight the feeling of everything sucks and it was really hard for the first time. I was
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like, "These people have no care." The same thing with Steven Miller spouting off about the um they won all these
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Supreme Court cases, but they lost the one that they really care about, which was birthright citizenship, right? And
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so, they just can't stop the hate. They just have endless pools of hatred and grift. And I wonder how you survive
00:07:17
that. And especially if you're a young person looking at it, like what is your reaction? I mean that that that to me
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was like I even feel exhausted by their enthusiastic villaining and stealing. Like I find them exhausting and I just
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don't know what I would do if I was a young person looking at all this. >> Yeah. It's look there's a lot of issues.
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I mean the the number of people in the middle has gone away and young people have a
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a rational reason to be to be upset. the the the traditional means of of building
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a life, finding a mate, developing economic security, advancing up the ladder, which is typically some sort of
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certification, either vocational programming or a college degree, and then buying a house. The incumbents have
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weaponized scarcity to make it more expensive for them to get those things such that the people who already own
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them, a college degree in housing, can see the value of those things go up. and also our tax policy which continues to
00:08:16
transfer wealth from them to to the incumbents. Right. Loosely speaking, our tax policy over the last 50 years has
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taken $50 trillion and transferred it from the bottom 90% to the top 10%. >> Rich old people. Yeah.
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>> Yeah. So they're they justifiably um can be very, you know, very upset. Uh having said that, if you actually look
00:08:37
at the data, things aren't as bad as you would believe in terms of the vibe. But
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again, and this is the great Jimmy Carr, your happiness and your purpose isn't a
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function of what you have. It's the delta between what you have and your expectations.
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And the downside of a meritocracy and especially when social media speedballs it is everyone believes if they're not
00:09:01
in the top 1% they're failing. >> Except when they're looking at the president just stealing, stealing,
00:09:06
stealing%. >> That's really it. Like there's just no even pre like look grift has been around
00:09:12
the game has been around forever from the beginning right from every every country every historical thing but this
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is grift on a very explicit scale and also like yeah that's right I'm taking it that's right I'm cheating and let me
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tell you let me let me put out another story that came out politico is calling this week's Democratic primaries in
00:09:31
Colorado an anti-establishment avalanche obviously was happening in New York which was no surprise with Mum Donnie
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getting you know backing a bunch of people, one of whom is really problematic. Colorado Attorney General
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Phil Weiser, though, upset longtime Senator Michael Bennett, who you and I both have a lot of regard for, who
00:09:47
looked like a lock for the nomination a year ago. We thought he'd be governor of
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Colorado. And then 29-year-old Democratic socialist. Meot Kirros unseated a 15 turn 15 term congresswoman
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and Manny Rutell, a progressive state representative, defeated a moderate Democrat. The results add up to a
00:10:04
growing string of progressive anti-incumbent. And I think that's actually Steve Bannon was very cany on
00:10:09
this stuff. Victories notably with what happen in New York and there are a number of primaries still to come over
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the next few months. Um all this is a New York Times uh Sienna poll showed Democrats within striking distance of
00:10:20
putting the Senate majority back in play. I want you to not go negative yet because I want you to understand talk
00:10:25
about these victories and what what they are. And let me read something that Robert Rich wrote on Substack about
00:10:31
these elections. Pundits eager to declare a new movement or sound the alarm about socialism are having a field
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day. But they're wrong. Voters who who have supported these candidates haven't done so because they've been
00:10:40
particularly attracted to the idea of democratic socialism. Most even don't know what democratic socialism is. In
00:10:45
reality, voters have been attracted to vigorous young people who are committed to getting stuff done. Steve Bannon said
00:10:51
nearly the same thing, which was really interesting. And I would agree talking to like Louie like he's just sick of
00:10:58
people not getting stuff done like and looking for something else which is interesting. What are your thoughts on
00:11:04
this? I think R and I hate to say it Bannon are correct. >> I think that's exactly right. The
00:11:09
establishment didn't lose on policy here Cara they lost on energy. >> No. >> And look I've been calling for
00:11:16
disruption in the Democratic party. I think leader Jeff and Minority Leader Schumer are absolutely the wrong people
00:11:21
to provide the kind of robust energetic push back that the Trump administration warrants. But here's the thing about
00:11:28
disruption is you don't get to pick the exact calibration of your disruption. So
00:11:32
for example, I consider myself a moderate and I'm convinced that the true litmus test of someone who's truly a
00:11:37
moderate is everybody hates you. So think about the senators who are moderates like Fedterman and Mansion.
00:11:43
Everybody hates them. So people claim they want a moderate, but when someone actually shows up and occasionally
00:11:50
agrees with the other side, they become an apostate. >> At the same time, guys like me claim we
00:11:55
want disruption. We need to disrupt the Democratic party. And then when it happens,
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>> we freak out about it. >> Yeah. >> But here's the bottom line. There's a lot to like here. And I say this full
00:12:07
disclosure. I have given money to Senator Michael Bennett for everything he has run for for the last 10 years. I
00:12:13
hosted a fundraiser for him for president. You know, by the way, if you get money
00:12:17
from me, it's not a good sign. Uh, but I I think the world of Senator Bennett, former school superintendent, one of the
00:12:25
most credentialed people in the Senate, >> qualified, >> lost to a state agent nobody had ever
00:12:28
heard of a year ago. But here's the bottom line. If you want disruption, you don't get to pick your form of
00:12:35
disruption. And these candidates, they are, there's a lot to like about these candidates. They're young. They're
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energetic. They're unafraid. They don't have a bunch of blather about how you would go about universal
00:12:49
healthcare. They're just like Medicare for all. So, there's a lot to like about them, but the reality is for those of us
00:12:56
in the center, we don't get to pick our flavor of disruption. What I would say that bothers me is that democratic
00:13:04
socialists effectively want socialism through democratic means. The reality is if you really look at history, socialism
00:13:11
just doesn't work, folks. And they will always point to what about Northern Europe? Northern Europe is actually more
00:13:18
capitalist than we are right now. They just have a social safety net and they spend
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>> They call themselves that though, don't they? I mean, you you always you always
00:13:26
um threat um Sweden, for example, or the Netherlands. >> Here's the system that's worked.
00:13:31
Democracy, individual rights, and capitalism. Call it what you want. When you start believing that you should have
00:13:38
government sponsored grocery stores or that you shouldn't have border, I mean that [ __ ] quite frankly, it just not
00:13:45
only doesn't make sense, it threatens our ability to win the midterms. Rahm Emanuel had a fantastic statement in the
00:13:51
thread we were on and he said it publicly. We have to stop arguing and atomizing ourselves between blue and
00:13:58
cobalt blue. So, I'm more focused on my energy on, you know, the the the grift and corruption and just stupid
00:14:05
decision-making of the Trump administration. The thing So, I there's a lot I like about this disruption. It
00:14:13
you don't get to pick your flavor of disruption. And you know what? Young people just want change.
00:14:17
>> The interestingly, I was just on Scaramucci's podcast and he said he actually has been impressed by by
00:14:22
Mandani and he was very against him. He was sort of where you are, right? Kind of thing. That's right. And he's like, I
00:14:28
have to say he's effective. And I do think they're not looking for necessarily just upsetting the
00:14:33
incumbents. They want people who do [ __ ] >> And I one of the things about Wiser, and
00:14:37
I was watching this thing, is he was just a more energetic campaigner. He wanted your vote more. And he was he
00:14:43
wasn't necessarily much more liberal. It wasn't that cuz Michael's pretty liberal, relatively speaking,
00:14:51
right? Especially in Colorado. He just looked like he could like he like he just was energetic and not just fake
00:14:58
fake energy maybe like what Kennedy felt like back in the 60s. It was like I literally just
00:15:04
want you to do your job. Like I want and and I do think I think you're right about capitalism. I agree with that. But
00:15:10
it should needs to have everyone gets healthare. That is not that I think that's a really good message of the
00:15:15
democratic socialist and everyone else. Everyone should get good healthare. Everyone should get a good minimum wage.
00:15:22
You know, and and what's incredible, I'll tell you what really absolutely struck me and I re I finally realized
00:15:28
that the Republican party is [ __ ] in seven ways to Sunday. What's coming next, not I mean post Trump was uh
00:15:36
Mandani said, "Can we can everyone like we have an electrical grid problem coming up with this heat because there's
00:15:42
a huge heat warning all over the east coast including in New York and he said if you could put you know your air
00:15:47
conditioning to 78 versus 74 that would be great." That's all he said. Immediately Ted Cruz and Nikki Haley, I
00:15:55
told you she can't help herself, said communism, right? Or social, this is what socialism is. Immediately there
00:16:01
were tweets from years ago when she was governor of South Carolina. And he the same thing in Texas where they asked
00:16:08
people to put their put their air conditioning down surfaced. What is wrong with them? Like he was asking a
00:16:15
normal thing that they themselves had asked for. The minute they jumped on it, they were trying to do socialism. They
00:16:20
look like idiots and everyone can see it. And that's that's why I told you Nikki Hilly is impossible. She's never
00:16:26
going to win anything because she's so such a suckup in so many ways. It was so not sensible. He was saying something
00:16:33
sensible and everyone sees it and did not immediately think communism about the air conditioning even though I love
00:16:39
air conditioning. And so that to me is they're they're vigorous. They're vigorous young people who want to be
00:16:47
effective. That is what I think is attractive. >> I don't I I don't disagree with any of
00:16:51
that. And the thing that Mum Donnie and some of these people are doing, the most
00:16:56
admirable thing about Donald Trump, President Trump is actionorientation. It's ready, fire, aim. It's like, no,
00:17:03
I'm going to do this. We're doing it. And the courts might challenge it. We might have to roll it back. But
00:17:07
Americans really respect that. And Mandani, to his credit, immediately imposed certain taxes, certain policies.
00:17:14
And I think young people think, "Well, at least he's [ __ ] doing something." Now, the the glass half empty for me is
00:17:21
the following. The whenever the far left and the far right agree on anything, it's a really that's a tell it's a
00:17:28
really bad idea. They are both antivax. I believe they both the far left and the
00:17:34
far right come together on what I believe are anti-semitic themes. They both come together on an isolationist
00:17:39
foreign policy. And what I see here is they both come together on a cert on socialism as an economic policy. Donald
00:17:48
Trump is investing in Intel. Donald Trump is entertaining the idea of investing in open AI. Donald Trump
00:17:54
believes that the government should have a golden share in US steel. All that happens when you do that, all that
00:18:00
happens when you do that is you end up with warehouses in Ireland full of Deloreans and Air France. And you see a
00:18:07
lot of that rhetoric from the far left. I we absolutely need a more progressive tax structure. But here's how you get to
00:18:14
a progressive tax structure. The thing we spend the most money on is not the military. It's not our debt. It's not
00:18:20
even social security. The thing the American government spends the most money on, we spend $2.2 trillion on
00:18:27
givebacks from the tax code in the form of loopholes to corporations and the wealthy. We need to reduce spending on
00:18:36
tax l loopholes and give backs to the wealthy and corporations. And if you look at Northern Europe,
00:18:43
they're very capitalist. They let companies go out of business. They don't take stakes in Spotify. Their tax rates
00:18:50
are either the same or a touch higher than ours. But what they do is they enforce them and they say, "Spotify, you
00:18:57
don't get to ride off your jets, your plant property, and equipment." And in the richest people don't get to have
00:19:03
donor advised funds where they get to ride off donations they haven't made yet. So quite frankly there's some
00:19:09
things that really bothered me about the winds in New York because I felt like like being anti-Israel was a litmus
00:19:15
test. Obviously as a Jew that concerns me. >> Well there was one there was one theander is not
00:19:19
>> Shiovalier. >> Yes. Shiovalier is the problem. Yeah. >> By the way she's going to be the poster
00:19:23
child. She's about to become the poster child for Republicans. >> She's problematic. No question.
00:19:27
>> Anyways, let me circle out to where I started. I don't get to pick the calibration in the color and the flavor
00:19:33
of disruption. Disruption, they're youthful, they're energetic, they're unafraid,
00:19:40
and that for me is 70 or 80% good. Do I worry that they're embracing a form of socialism that has never worked
00:19:46
throughout history? Yeah, I trust there'll be modulating forces from the center on both sides on that. But the
00:19:51
reality is we need the the Democratic Party needs to shed its skin. And I gotta be honest, leader Jeff and Schumer
00:19:59
are getting clear signals. >> Yeah. >> No one gives a [ __ ] what you think. You
00:20:04
have become >> institutional endorsements have become a liability. Just as we thought US bases
00:20:11
in Gulf States would provide a veil of protection. They become bullseye. You're going to start to see Democratic
00:20:17
candidates say, "Senator Schumer, please do not come to my rally." >> They are. They are actually. They're
00:20:22
like all talking about whether they'd vote for him. He's got to go. I've I told him that to his face. He thought I
00:20:27
was kidding. I was like, "No, you need to step down." It was like He's like, "Haha, Cara." I was like, "No, time to
00:20:33
go. Time to move along." I mean, we don't want to >> Mitch McConnell situation here. We want to move along.
00:20:41
Anyway, we need to go on a quick I agree with you. It's very It's It's exciting.
00:20:44
I find it exciting. >> We need a disruption. Good for them. Youth energy. Have at it. I think it's a
00:20:49
good thing, too. >> I like non-cautious people. I do. I think the Democrats have played it too
00:20:54
cautious. Anyway, um let's go on a quick break. When we come back, the Supreme Court finishes its term with some major
00:21:00
rulings. That was something. >> Support for the show comes from Framer. If your team wants a website that looks
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00:22:06
Rules and restrictions may apply. Scott, we're back with more news. It's been a big week for the Supreme Court as
00:22:12
it wrapped up its term. Let's go through a roundup of some of the cases the court
00:22:15
ruled on. Uh the court struck down a federal law that bars the president from firing members of the FTC. So he no more
00:22:22
independent agencies essentially. They lifted limits on how much political parties can spend on advertising and
00:22:28
other expenses with candidates. A problem and more more Citizens United upheld two state laws barring the
00:22:34
participation of transgender female athletes from girls and women's sports team. and upheld birthright citizenship
00:22:39
striking down uh an executive order. Let's hear some thoughts from uh Leah Litman who co-hosts the podcast Strict
00:22:46
Scrutiny which breaks down all things Supreme Court. Hey Cara and Scott, here are some quick thoughts on the most
00:22:51
recent Supreme Court term. We came within a single vote, one vote of saying the Constitution doesn't mean what it
00:22:56
says on birthright citizenship and nullifying a constitutional amendment that is the foundation of our
00:23:02
constitutional order of multi-racial democracy after the Civil War. They have also been systematically undermining our
00:23:08
democracy, killing the Voting Rights Act, enabling partisan and racial gerrymandering. They've also just killed
00:23:14
campaign finance regulations that were designed to prevent political corruption. As a result, the super rich
00:23:20
will be able to effectively funnel more than $500,000 directly to candidates in the upcoming election. and they have
00:23:27
been killing Congress's capacity to govern at expanding presidential power against a backdrop of a president who
00:23:34
has been engaged in corruption and paytoplay and that is just the start of it. >> Yes, I think she sort of articulated it.
00:23:41
I the ones that really upset me and I I'm the birth rate citizenship was far too close. Far too close and
00:23:49
>> that was disturbing and and by the way a lot of the Trump people have to go back
00:23:52
home wherever they come from. The two that really upset me to me are is this the um the voting rights act obvious
00:24:00
voting rights act absolutely but the finance to me it's all the money the the finance regulations uh designed to
00:24:06
prevent political corruption that was more more citizens united was the last thing we need and then secondly the
00:24:13
ability of the no independent agencies on things that deserve independence like the FTC and you've seen what Brandon
00:24:20
Carr has done although one of the justices did say Brandon Carr was a [ __ ] in part of his essentially said
00:24:26
that in in his ruling I think it was Kavanaaugh could have been Gorsuch whatever they look the same to me. So
00:24:31
those two were like giving more power to the president in general which I think will be just as bad with a Democrat and
00:24:38
is terrible with Trump um was two problems but the money to me was the focus focus I had. What about you? Yeah,
00:24:45
Citizens United is arguably one of the worst things that's happened in recent history to the US because of the 900
00:24:51
billionaires, they they make up a third of political giving. It's probably more than half of influence because they can
00:24:57
be much more targeted. You know, unions just give money to whoever's the union candidate. But a private equity firm can
00:25:03
give $700,000 to Senator Cinema and say just be the hold out for the infrastructure bill and ask that they
00:25:10
strip out the carried interest loophole. And that cost 20 or$30 billion which is
00:25:15
the most ridiculous loophole in history see above 22 trillion dollars spent on loopholes where private equity owners
00:25:22
get their commission on investment gains in the form of long-term capital gains.
00:25:26
It's it's totally indefensible. So that's that's bad. Th this silver lining, the dotted silver lining on on
00:25:35
this out of control spend is that what we're finding is it's gone past its utility. And that is it used to be 20
00:25:45
years ago like 97% of the time who raised the most money won. It's no longer happening. Like Tom Styer spent a
00:25:51
quarter of a billion dollars and didn't win. It's almost like the full local news station employment act. The amount
00:25:58
of money they're spending on the whole it's really bad. But what you are seeing is it's no longer the key fulcrum for
00:26:05
who or the key lever for who wins. The thing that upset me the most that which is so frightening that it was even this
00:26:12
close >> was um birthright citizenship. >> I mean this is the constitution, right?
00:26:18
>> Just straightforward. The constitution says if you're born here >> Yeah. >> you're amendment. It's right there.
00:26:24
>> And I'm going to give you a couple anchor babies. Uh Balagan who got a red card unfairly. the attack the the
00:26:30
premier striker for the World Cup team. His parents were here. I forget. She couldn't go home. He was born.
00:26:35
>> She's too pregnant. >> She was too pregnant. I think the airlines said you're too
00:26:40
>> good for us, right? And also it's a fairly small number. It's only 7%. It's a fairly small number of babies.
00:26:48
>> It is. And I would argue >> the whole word anchor baby is so [ __ ] ridiculous.
00:26:52
>> Not only that, but to a certain extent, this is what we don't like to talk about. Immigration is not only the
00:26:57
secret sauce. It's the most illegal immigration is probably the most profitable form of immigration because
00:27:02
they're risktakers and they generally fold back across the border when the crops are picked or there's not enough
00:27:07
demand for them and they pay taxes and they usually don't stick around to to collect social security and they usually
00:27:13
don't call the fire. They they commit crimes at a lower rate than citizens. The reality is we didn't just wake up
00:27:19
and find oops, there's 15 million undocumented workers here. Republicans and Democrats have looked at each other
00:27:25
and gone wink wink. It's nice having cheap housing being built in Phoenix, Arizona,
00:27:30
>> or grapes picked for cheap or whatever. >> How are we going to get all these people
00:27:33
to wipe grandma's ass for 11 bucks an hour? I mean, >> Haitian immigrants are the biggest um
00:27:38
nurses nurses aids. >> I mean, so it's not This has been an economic decision. Has it gone too far?
00:27:45
Absolutely. But be clear, folks. We didn't just wake up and let this happen. So Balagan is one anchor baby. You know
00:27:52
who else is an anchor baby? Carolia. No, the Trump. Baron Trump. >> You could say she's a male orderer
00:27:57
bride. She's not an anchor baby. She wasn't born here. >> That's true. Sorry. Who?
00:28:01
>> Your co-host, Cara. >> Oh, right. You're an anchor baby. >> My parents at the ages of 19 and 24 got
00:28:09
on steam ships from Glasgow and London, respectively, and they landed in Canada where my mom was a stenographer and my
00:28:15
dad was a candle salesman. They met at a dance. They fell in love. >> They had sex there. So, the conception
00:28:21
was Canada. in Toronto. They claimed they got married and had me. I'm not sure if that's true. I'm not gonna argue
00:28:27
it. I don't care. >> Uh but they decided they could not also >> I'm a bastard. >> That was my dad. Ankle a few inches we
00:28:37
short to the blanket, whatever that means. >> And by the way, he was a bastard. He was
00:28:41
born he was born in Australia unwet to an unwed woman who was a mc nanny at the Mcvigger family.
00:28:48
>> The entire family was really >> Yeah. literally were bastards all the way through. I'm the Jon Snow of Jon
00:28:53
Snow's. >> Mhm. >> And and anyways, my father basically my father's my father's mother freaked out,
00:28:59
said to her boyfriend, "We got to get out of here. I've already sold the baby to this wealthy family." And they went
00:29:03
they literally went to the dock and got it shipped to Glas, Scotland. Anyway, my
00:29:07
mom's seven and a half months pregnant. They said that we cannot endure another winter here in Toronto. and they read an
00:29:14
article in the Toronto Globe and Mail saying that the best weather in North America was in this town called San
00:29:20
Diego, >> San Diego. >> So they loaded up my mom's Austin Mini Metro, which is basically a lawnmower
00:29:26
with doors. Like if you've ever seen Mr. Bean, that's the car. And seven and a half months pregnant,
00:29:31
>> no idea you were. >> My mom and my dad drove to San Diego and something like 37 days later, I was born
00:29:40
at Lao. >> They were not hospital. They were just visiting. >> And let me make a flex. I'm a US
00:29:46
citizen. >> Why didn't I know this about you? >> I am a US citizen. I've had to pay US
00:29:52
taxes. >> Yeah. >> Me and my companies have paid well over hund00 million in taxes over the last 30
00:29:57
years. >> It seems like it's worked out for everybody. And I just want to notify the
00:30:01
IRS and the Trump administration. >> My mother, I am an illegal anchor baby. I think my citizen should be revoked.
00:30:08
And by the way, when I sell my next company, I'm going to be in Dubai and I'm not going to be subject to US taxes.
00:30:13
I am down for you to revoke my US citizenship. And also abdicate, absolve me of all and refund me of all the tax
00:30:23
payments I have made because my parents decided to come to the US and, you know,
00:30:29
drop a nine pound stone called Scott in San Diego instead of Toronto. >> Wow. And I would imagine that there is
00:30:37
more of uh Balagan and Galloway than there are people eating cats and dogs, >> right? Or just showing running across
00:30:45
the border be pregnant. This the screed from Steven Miller who I cannot wait till he gets his reckoning
00:30:52
>> is astonishing. So hateful and like ridiculous and full of lies that it's it's so full of li this whole their
00:30:59
whole and let's not use the term anger because it's so gross. It's such a gross way of and hateful way of looking at it.
00:31:05
I had no Scott, you could have been sent back wherever. Where would you Canada? Where would you have been sent to? Do
00:31:12
>> you hear that [ __ ] weirdo talking about eugenics that people should be sterilized before they get here?
00:31:17
>> Yes, I know, right? Are they not allowed in if they're >> boss? 19 1939 Germany's calling and
00:31:22
wants you back. >> I know. Wait a second. Where would you go? What country would you go to?
00:31:26
>> Now, >> that's the that's the other thing. Where do we send them back to? Right. Cuz
00:31:30
would you go to Canada if this passed like you would >> send them? People are leaving. Last year
00:31:34
was the first time in since World War II we had no negative immigration. >> Lost at the Supreme Court which it could
00:31:40
have, right? Where would they send Scott Galloway back to? Was it Canada or is it
00:31:44
England or is it Scotland? Like what country do you are you >> what country are you from?
00:31:50
>> Well my parents my parents my dad is a or was a Scottish or British citizen. My
00:31:56
mom became a citizen of the US but I guess back to the UK. I don't know. >> Oh god, I had no idea. Well, okay. Well,
00:32:02
I'm glad you're safe. >> I'm opening a bar in St. Barts, so I'm a French citizen.
00:32:06
>> Okay. >> But then I have to vote. Then I have to root for team France, and I just can't
00:32:10
do that. >> Oh, yeah. >> I just can't do that. >> All right. Well, this is some news I
00:32:13
didn't know. I >> after seeing after seeing team Japan, has there ever been a product that's
00:32:20
better been better for the umbrella brand than team Japan? Did you see what they did after they lost in a
00:32:25
heartbreaking loss to Brazil? They all walked over to the Japanese side and they bowed to apologize to their fans.
00:32:32
>> Oh, they did. Oh, >> these I I I think I'd like I want to move to Japan anyways. Yeah, I would
00:32:37
love to spend more time in Japan. >> Lived there for a couple of months. I loved it. Um All right. Other Supreme
00:32:41
Court news. Wow, Scott, this I'm just I I'm need to calculate the situation now.
00:32:46
>> You need to get me kicked out. >> I need to get you kicked out. All right. So, um in this week in I'm going to ask
00:32:51
everyone for their ID when they come and be a guest host. In other Supreme Court
00:32:55
news, by the way, NPR retracted an article saying that Samuel Alo, another piece of [ __ ] Sorry, Samuel, but you
00:33:01
are, had retired, uh, reporter Nina Totenberg has said she heard retirement announcements were coming and mistakenly
00:33:06
assumed it was Alto, prompting her team to publish a pre-written story. Uh, that
00:33:11
seemed like odd. It seemed like that. I think he's probably leaving, right? He's
00:33:15
going to have they're going to have to he's got to he's got two years left to put in, you know, younger versions of
00:33:20
Alto and and and um Thomas, I guess. Correct. >> Why would you think these people are any
00:33:26
less narcissistic than Ruth Bader Ginsburg? They all think they're going to live forever.
00:33:29
>> Oh, they may not leave. Oh, interesting. You don't think they'll do it for the
00:33:33
take one for the team kind of thing? >> Well, that's what Sudter did. I I think it depends on the individual and I just
00:33:38
don't know him well enough. Yeah, he seems like >> RBG RBG I mean RBG and Senator Feinstein
00:33:45
both lovely important women who really >> forged paths >> screwed who really put a a a unfortunate
00:33:53
punctuation mark at the end of the sentence of their career by not believing they would ever die.
00:33:58
>> Yeah. Oh, you think Alita will just stick around because he loves I have no idea what he's like
00:34:03
>> all his like things. And by the way, in Thomas's whatever his his anti- whatever, he he like mentioned
00:34:10
DreadScott an awful lot. He's like, which of course was a terrible thing. 14th Amendment is here to protect all of
00:34:16
us. So, it's glad that it's there. They're going to try to they're going to try to take it down, but they're going
00:34:19
to be a successful >> protect podcasting and erectile dysfunction drug sales. >> Exactly. Anyway, let's go on a quick
00:34:26
break. When we come back, we'll talk about SpaceX donating to Trump accounts. Scott, we're back with more news. The
00:34:31
Trump administration has talked with SpaceX about donating stock to the administration's Trump Accounts child
00:34:35
savings program. It's unclear whether Elen Musk has agreed to that or how it would be structured. Trump accounts are
00:34:40
set to launch on July 4th with over 6 million children enrolled. Other big donors include uh billionaire Michael
00:34:46
Dell and his wife and companies like Black Rockck and Bank of America which have agreed to match donations made by
00:34:50
employees. The Open A is reportedly also discussing giving Trump administration a
00:34:54
5% stake in the company. uh proposal reportedly involved other US uh AI companies also giving governments
00:35:01
similar stakes. To me it was really interesting. Paul Graham had a really interesting point. The reason that
00:35:06
OpenAI was doing that is because they don't get asked for 10%. Like I thought that was true. This all feels like a
00:35:11
shakeddown or you get something in return for doing this kind of stuff. I don't hate the idea of accounts. I don't
00:35:18
I wish we will hope we will be renaming them from Trump accounts to something else. USA accounts. Um, but it seems a
00:35:25
little uh socialist to me. I don't know. What do you think? >> Again, it's where the far right and the
00:35:30
far left meet that with just different objectives and different claims. Open AI offering the government a 5% equity
00:35:38
stake is essentially to buy protection, neutralize regulation, lock in a government anchor client. It's not
00:35:45
patriotism. It's protection money. It's a moat. and and you don't think they're going to be the first to get government
00:35:51
contracts versus other AI startups. It's also the beginning of what I think is going to be the one of the biggest
00:35:58
bailouts in recent history. And that is we're starting to see cracks >> AI. Yeah.
00:36:02
>> Cracks in the wall where there's fewer companies have actually figured out a way to create demand. There's only a two
00:36:07
now. Open AI and Anthropic consistently and their their spend and capex commitments are so out of control that I
00:36:18
think Sam Alman says I like the idea of the full faith and backing and maybe even governmentbacked debt. Yeah. So
00:36:24
>> from the president >> bailout >> and here's the bottom line. The government should not the government
00:36:28
should not be taking equity stakes in companies. They just shouldn't. I I mean there are some exceptions occasionally
00:36:35
when I do think you can make an argument in the great financial recession that it
00:36:39
made sense for the government to bail out the automobile industry because it was a huge employer but they didn't
00:36:43
start saying you can only buy Fords or >> they save Tesla's ass back when it >> these companies have gotten trillions of
00:36:52
dollars in market cap let them run I mean this is just straight up cronyism privatize the gains socialize the losses
00:36:58
>> yeah can I ask you a question one of the things Al Karp is in seems insane every
00:37:02
time he opens his mouth and and and you know hopped up on something. But he was he was going on sort of trash.
00:37:08
>> Very cogent. >> I thought he was very cogent. >> I do too. And I had to listen for a
00:37:12
second because he's so nuts. He always throws in some nutball thing on the side and and his manner is so But what he was
00:37:18
saying is something that Mark Cuban had said to me previously is this token maxing is going to come back to bite
00:37:24
people and that when people find people are cheaper than the tokens, it's going to sort of collapse. Mark said Mark
00:37:29
Cuban said this absolutely first to me. Um months and months and months ago and and Karp was was articulating this idea
00:37:37
of these open uh systems mostly from China as you predicted Scott um taking the place of you know with regular
00:37:45
corporations um and two things he was saying is one keeping your data yours and not giving them to open AI and
00:37:52
anthropics and secondly the cost of these tokens is really untenable and I as nutty as he is and he he took a
00:38:00
number of like slaps said competitors cuz he can't help himself. He made a lot of sense. I can't believe I'm saying
00:38:06
this too, but but he did as I was listen I had to listen to it twice and I was trying to think if I could put it in
00:38:10
someone else's voice. Um cuz I every time I hear him he says nutty things but tell this is the kind of thing I was
00:38:19
like we're we're going to this is going to collapse and a bunch of economists all of these world economists are all
00:38:24
worried about these cracks that you've talked about. So talk a little bit about this because this idea, you had the idea
00:38:29
of China, these open systems from China replacing and and sort of knocking the stuffing. You have these economists
00:38:36
saying this, you have Karp saying this. Again, I want to give credit to Mark Cuban for being the first to mention it
00:38:41
to me. Um, talk a little bit about this cuz all this like government intervention seems really problematic
00:38:48
going forward. >> The government intervention is bailout cosplay growth and Karp is right. cheap
00:38:55
models are eating the expensive ones. The token consumption of Chinese models has surpassed the token consumption of
00:39:01
frontier models in the US because all of a sudden the CFO of of Uber goes our entire AI budget was burned through in 8
00:39:08
weeks and I don't see any consumer talking about the improvement in ride hailing service. I I don't
00:39:16
>> or it's not improving it. It's not improving. >> Well, it's sort of like experimentation
00:39:19
is over. This can no longer be a magic trick. you either have to incorporate this into in the plumbing and show me
00:39:24
ROI. We're going to reduce our budgets here and AI is following kind of the same curve as cloud computing and that
00:39:32
is margins compress. There's this reminded me of 99 and tell me if you think this this analogy is
00:39:40
that okay so the internet comes and we think everyone's going to buy their dog food and their cars and Pepsi's going to
00:39:48
buy their sugar online on the internet and we're all going to buy not just CDs and books but we're going to buy
00:39:53
everything online and there's the front layer so everyone invests in Amazon and etoys and you know pets.com
00:40:01
and it ends up that they're just not nearly creating enough demand and not enough commerce is going through
00:40:06
e-commerce to justify anything resembling the valuations these companies are getting. So they go, "Oh,
00:40:11
wait. We're not sure which part of the application layer, which LLM, if you will, is going to win. So let's all
00:40:17
invest in the infrastructure layer." And everyone invested safely and like I can't pick the winner. So I'm going to
00:40:22
invest in Cisco or in Telco infrastructure. And Cisco hit an all-time high, lost 93% of its value
00:40:30
from 99 to 2001. And I see kind of the same thing here where everyone's saying, "All right, let's invest in the demand
00:40:37
side." You know, XAI, Llama, uh, uh, Grock, Anthropic, or excuse me, Claude, uh,
00:40:48
Chat GBT, and all of a sudden it looks like the demand may not be as exponential as we thought,
00:40:54
>> or it's too costly, or it's too >> or it's too expensive, which lowers demand. And some of the players who
00:41:02
thought they were going to need infrastructure for their own demand, specifically Meta and XAI, have said,
00:41:07
"We overestimated the demand of our own LLM, so we're renting out our infrastructure." Right?
00:41:12
>> In a matter of 30 days, it looks like we've gone from a supply crisis to a demand crisis.
00:41:18
>> And what you'll see, I think, is just as in 99, the first companies to crash were
00:41:24
the B TOC, then it went to B2B. Oh, wait. I not pets.com. Let's go to remember Internet Capital Group. Well,
00:41:30
they're selling >> sugar in between. >> I forgot about from farmers, right? >> I totally forgot about that. I wrote so
00:41:37
many stories. >> It had a valuation greater than General Electric. And then everyone figured out
00:41:41
no one was buying [ __ ] anything. And it was easier to fax your orders than it was to go on the Internet Capital Group.
00:41:47
>> Yes. >> website. And then everyone went to went B to C then B2B. B TOC gets creamed. B2B
00:41:55
then gets creamed. And then the infrastructure guys got creamed. I think we're sort of going through a similar
00:42:00
cycle right now >> overbuilding >> and we're starting to see the beginning of the cracks at the application layer
00:42:05
saying people are questioning the amount of money they've they're spending on anthropic and open AAI. What's evidence
00:42:13
of that? >> Open AAI and Anthropic are considering delaying their IPOs. I agree and I I do
00:42:18
think one of the things I think will recover would be computing demand because there's only going to be more
00:42:23
computing demand eventually and I think that's what happened with all those internet companies like look there were
00:42:28
a million like I forgot about ICG oh my god I you just to brought me back um you
00:42:33
know everyone remembers pets.com but um you know eventually there'll be a Google
00:42:39
right eventually there'll be a Facebook >> the technology will survive these companies will survive
00:42:44
>> I would bet computing isn't area you would want to eventually like when it once it crashes buying it up would be a
00:42:51
smart thing right computing um apps would be an important thing like understanding where it's going but
00:42:58
you're right these are a lot of these companies aren't ready to buy these things and prices have to come down and
00:43:02
then that'll have a knock-on effects of Oracle and all the others who have you know a lot of other companies will be
00:43:10
affected in the in the blast radius of this I agree I think these economists I was reading the report from this thing
00:43:16
and usually I don't pay that much attention to like predictions but I was like this makes perfect sense of where
00:43:22
it's going and it does have a feel you're absolutely right of 1999 >> Amazon's an amazing company from 99 to
00:43:30
2001 and I it lost 92% of its value >> yeah then you buy >> um Meta is an amazing company four years
00:43:37
ago in 2022 it lost 72% of its value these companies the natural curve of these companies is very volatile
00:43:46
and the technology and these companies will survive and they will be great companies
00:43:51
or can they go down 90% in value? The answer is yes. This feels it just feels so 99 to me. It's
00:44:01
>> the government meddling makes it worse. The government >> Oh yeah. propping them up because Trump
00:44:05
is like my entire administration is America is a giant bet whether it's the the GDP growth, capex spendings,
00:44:13
earnings growth in the S&P is all a big bet on AI money. His political if these guys go down is going to be really rough
00:44:21
for me. I I'm telling you a bailout is coming. >> Yeah, one would assume. Yeah, cuz
00:44:25
they're the future of America. Yeah, you're right 100%. All right, Scott, one more quick break. We'll be back for
00:44:31
predictions. Okay, Scott, before we get into this week's predictions, I want to play a prediction you made last week at
00:44:37
CAM. >> My prediction is the biggest IPO in terms of First Day Pop is going to be a
00:44:41
European the Berkshire Hathaway I forgotten internet brands and that's this company called Bending Spoons that
00:44:47
I had not heard of until two weeks ago. I'm kind of fascinated with it. >> Well, Scott, take a victory lap. Bending
00:44:52
Spoons surged 40% after the company's IPO this week. What's next before you get to your prediction? Well, so first
00:45:00
off, the company was up. So SpaceX was up, I think, 22 or 23%. We predict it would be up 20. Bending Spoons was up
00:45:06
close up, I think, 42% yesterday. They're going to have to show that they can scale a model of buying stuff at,
00:45:16
you know, Xibbita and >> these orphans and then substantially reducing costs, which is Latin for hire
00:45:24
younger people, and replace the expensive 40-year-olds. And to their credit, they have some of the highest
00:45:29
revenue per employee of any digital company right now or any internet company. But they're going to have to
00:45:34
show that they can consistently make these accretive acquisitions. What this really is is like Martin Surell kind of
00:45:40
pioneered this model. He went and bought all the big agencies. I don't even remember them now. Oglev Mayor, he could
00:45:46
go in and buy these companies at seven times or eight and they'd immediately he'd take their earnings and the market
00:45:52
reward him would would reward them with 12 times. They're going to have to show that they can that this model, this
00:45:59
private equity-like model of acquiring companies, they don't get them cheap. They get them for a good price. You
00:46:04
would argue that their ability to reduce costs, continue to see growth, add some
00:46:09
growth organic, and then the market will give them a markup. They're going to have to show they can continue to do
00:46:14
that. >> Slightly down right now today. They're going down today. >> Well, to be clear, the valuation last
00:46:21
year it was about 7 billion. It came out at 19 billion. It's trading at about 23
00:46:26
now. The stock's not expensive, but you would argue that they are going to have to show sooner rather than later their
00:46:33
ability to continue to scale these types of accretive acquisitions. So, but I thought when I talked to when
00:46:40
I looked around and I said, "Okay, all of the oxygen had been sucked out of the air for SpaceX." And when these guys
00:46:46
came out at seven or eight times earnings and all of those brands and the fact they were only raising a billion
00:46:52
half dollars, I thought this thing's going to get I mean this is the sad part about IPOs.
00:46:58
This is what I believe JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs are doing and that is they use AI and their incredible market
00:47:03
insight and their incredible marketing machine. They are the new engineers. They engineer a 20 plus% pop on day one
00:47:11
because the reality is that is the ultimate branding event. Everywhere in the news today is that bending Italian
00:47:16
company bending spoons is up is up 20%. And personally I wanted to see the company go up and the reason I brought
00:47:23
some sunlight to it was because I am so sick of talking about American AI companies. I love the idea of a European
00:47:30
company that's not AI >> and also cleanup a cleanup company. You know what's interesting is that I'm just
00:47:36
looking at the meta thing that they're at 20 the PE ratio is 20 which seems healthy.
00:47:42
Um and and and that SpaceX is more is valued at 500 uh billion dollars more than them is insane.
00:47:51
>> I don't care how good they are at robots. It's just nutty. What he'll do is he'll fold Tesla into this. But
00:47:57
>> as I've said many times, >> which is another anchor, two anchors. >> Yeah. >> Two anchors each other. Um, but it is
00:48:04
there are some real values here, right? Like Meta seems to be I mean I don't even usually make
00:48:10
>> Meta on a price earnings basis I don't think has ever been this cheap and the
00:48:12
cheapest of them all was my big tech stock pick for 26. The uh Amazon has never had a price earnings ratio this
00:48:18
low. >> Yeah. What is theirs? Wow. You know Google Alphabet is 27. Meta is 21. Amazon you're right is low 29.
00:48:28
>> Yeah. And it's usually its average over the last 20 years has been 55. Um, and
00:48:33
anyways, industrialized robots all gone forever. But, uh, so my prediction is um
00:48:40
um that essentially, and I said this, we're starting to see uh uh cracks in the wall around
00:48:48
um evidence. And I think it's nuance, not definitive. It's not cracking because AI doesn't
00:48:54
work. It's cracking because investors are starting to ask much more pointed questions. Specifically, can we actually
00:49:00
earn a return on the trillions of dollars being spent here and the evidence the there's evidence that the
00:49:08
narrative around AI is changing and that is capex is outrunning uh monetization. The largest cloud
00:49:16
companies are on pace to spend 6 to 700 billion on AI infrastructure just this year. Yet many enterprise customers are
00:49:24
struggling to demonstrate measurable ROI and that is the narrative's move from can a can AI work to can AI pay
00:49:33
and it used to be spend more money this is the future infinite demand and it's like well hold on CFOs are starting to
00:49:40
tap the brakes here and the market is splitting JP JP Morgan noted uh the divergence AI infrastructure suppliers
00:49:49
continue to outperform form uh and the companies writing the biggest AI checks, the hyperscalers have begun to lag. And
00:49:57
that's reminiscent again of latestage infrastructure booms where the suppliers prosper before the customers earn
00:50:03
adequate returns. And also Wall Street as it does eventually focuses on ROI. And the debate has shifted from 12
00:50:10
months ago the debate was who can build the biggest model. Now it's who can make
00:50:15
money. >> Right. Yeah. And and one of my role models here are this fantastic chief
00:50:20
economist Paul's Torston SL. He puts out these fantastic emails every day with a
00:50:25
chart and he argues that the markets may be pricing and productivity gains that will take years, not quarters to
00:50:32
materialize. We're starting to see central bankers issue warnings. >> Yeah, they are. They're all over the
00:50:37
place. >> And here's the thing, Cara. If the AI trade unwinds, the most vulnerable names
00:50:43
are generally the ones whose valuations depend most valuable on continued AI infrastructure spending. The tier one
00:50:49
risk level is Nvidia, Astera Labs, and Marvel technology. These companies are extraordinary businesses, don't get me
00:50:56
wrong, but they're the most exposed to a slowdown in GPU and networking demand. >> They're the Cisco. Nvidia is the Cisco.
00:51:03
>> And then the tier 2, Verdive, Super Microcomputer, Coreweave. uh these are effectively picks and shovels for the AI
00:51:09
gold rush. And then and then you go to the third level, the Microsofts, the Alphabets, the Amazons, the met there
00:51:14
will be nowhere there would be nowhere to hide here. And that is the technology story is intact.
00:51:22
It's just that the valuation story is beginning to get stress tested and I don't think it's going to survive that
00:51:28
stress test. So what's the prediction? you know, all eight or 10 of those companies, a basket of them, uh, down 20
00:51:36
to 40% in the next 12 months. And by the way, still great companies, the technology will survive. I believe that
00:51:43
the the the better AI players are going to be juggernauts in 5 to 10 years, but we are entering uh these guys are just
00:51:51
way out in front of their skis. >> Yep. I would agree. I'm going to make a short prediction, too. Thing that we
00:51:56
started beginning with the Trumps. I just noticed this New York Post on Trump family corruption, which was
00:52:02
interesting. I think it's not Trump that's going to pay for this cuz I think he's going to die before we can get to
00:52:06
him, but I think his children and the children of the Lutnik and the rest are going to get it. I do think they're
00:52:12
going to >> get it. You mean be prosecuted? >> Yes. Here's why. This is the New York
00:52:15
Post. The Trump sons, meanwhile, are part owners or investors in companies neck neck deep in key defense contracts
00:52:23
to mine tungsten reserves in Central Asia. It stinks to high heaven. If the president's family making bank from
00:52:28
obscure resource companies in the former Soviet Union sound familiar, maybe it's
00:52:32
because Hunter Biden's lucrative connection in Berisma Ukrainian gas company was a major scandal in the 2020
00:52:37
election and beyond. Republicans, including Donald Trump, were justifiably outraged at the obvious influence
00:52:42
pedaling. These kids are going to pay a price. That's my prediction. >> You don't think they'll get pardons? I
00:52:51
think he'll try, but I think they're state they're a state. There's all manner of ways to go get to them. I just
00:52:57
think they're in for a I think they're uh in for a lot. Um anyway, that's my prediction. Anyway, but I think it's all
00:53:04
part of the same thing like you're talking about that we cannot save these internet companies. We cannot keep
00:53:10
intervening for friends of Donald Trump or family members. Anyway, it's gross. It's it's socialism is really what it
00:53:17
is. Anyway, communism really. Anyway, we want to hear from you. Send us your questions about business, tech, or
00:53:22
whatever's on your mind. Go to nymag.com/pivot. Submit a question for the show or call
00:53:26
85551 pivot. Okay, that's the show. Thanks for listening to Pivot. Be sure to like and subscribe to our YouTube
00:53:32
channel. We'll be back next week.

Badges

This episode stands out for the following:

  • 70
    Most shocking
  • 60
    Most intense
  • 60
    Most surprising
  • 60
    Most controversial

Episode Highlights

  • Trump's Crypto Grift
    Trump earned about $1.4 billion from crypto, while investors are losing money.
    “Trump's embrace of crypto is paying off in a big way.”
    @ 00m 23s
    July 03, 2026
  • Disruption in the Democratic Party
    Young, energetic candidates are challenging incumbents, signaling a shift in political dynamics.
    “There's a lot to like about these candidates. They're young. They're energetic.”
    @ 12m 37s
    July 03, 2026
  • Concerns Over Birthright Citizenship
    A recent ruling nearly nullified birthright citizenship, raising alarms about constitutional integrity.
    “We came within a single vote of saying the Constitution doesn't mean what it says.”
    @ 22m 53s
    July 03, 2026
  • Supreme Court's Major Rulings
    The Supreme Court wraps up its term with significant rulings affecting democracy and citizenship.
    “They have been systematically undermining our democracy.”
    @ 23m 06s
    July 03, 2026
  • Political Donations and Corruption
    Recent rulings have lifted limits on political spending, raising concerns about corruption.
    “The super rich will be able to effectively funnel more than $500,000 directly to candidates.”
    @ 23m 20s
    July 03, 2026
  • Government Intervention and AI
    The discussion centers on the implications of government equity stakes in AI companies, suggesting it's akin to protection money.
    “It's not patriotism. It's protection money.”
    @ 35m 45s
    July 03, 2026
  • Cracks in the AI Market
    Experts express concerns about the sustainability of AI investments, indicating a shift from supply to demand crisis.
    “We're starting to see cracks in the wall.”
    @ 36m 00s
    July 03, 2026
  • Bending Spoons IPO Success
    Bending Spoons surged 40% after its IPO, showcasing the potential of European tech companies.
    “Bending Spoons was up close to 42% yesterday.”
    @ 45m 09s
    July 03, 2026
  • Valuation Concerns
    Predictions reveal that major tech companies may face significant drops in value due to overvaluation and market shifts.
    “A basket of them, down 20 to 40% in the next 12 months.”
    @ 51m 33s
    July 03, 2026
  • Trump Family Legal Troubles
    Predictions suggest that Trump's children may face prosecution due to their business dealings.
    “These kids are going to pay a price.”
    @ 52m 47s
    July 03, 2026

Episode Quotes

  • This grift is just astonishing.
    How Trump’s Latest Grift Turned The Government Into a “Tollbooth” | Pivot
  • Your happiness isn't a function of what you have. It's the delta between expectations.
    How Trump’s Latest Grift Turned The Government Into a “Tollbooth” | Pivot
  • I think it's exciting. We need a disruption.
    How Trump’s Latest Grift Turned The Government Into a “Tollbooth” | Pivot
  • It's not patriotism. It's protection money.
    How Trump’s Latest Grift Turned The Government Into a “Tollbooth” | Pivot
  • This feels so 99 to me.
    How Trump’s Latest Grift Turned The Government Into a “Tollbooth” | Pivot
  • We cannot keep intervening for friends of Donald Trump.
    How Trump’s Latest Grift Turned The Government Into a “Tollbooth” | Pivot

Key Moments

  • Political Disruption12:37
  • Tax Loopholes18:36
  • Democratic Disruption19:54
  • Supreme Court Rulings22:11
  • Birthright Citizenship22:53
  • Protection Money35:45
  • Bending Spoons IPO45:09
  • Valuation Drops51:33

Tension Over Time

Words per Minute Over Time

Vibes Breakdown