00:00:00
I think Gavin Newsome is now coming out of this the deacto leader of the Democratic party and that was a void the
00:00:05
size of the freaking Grand Canyon. Hi everyone, this is Pivot from New York Magazine and the Vox Media Podcast Network. I'm Carara Swisser and I'm
00:00:18
Scott Galloway. This episode is presented by IBM. I am about to be in a city that has having a military parade. Scott, I am wishing I had gotten out of
00:00:29
town. We'll talk about that in a minute. But Oh, you are you in LA? I'm in DC. No, I'm not LA. There's nothing. I have
00:00:36
all the tanks here. That's where the actual insurrection is going on. Yeah, that's what I caught. I literally Why
00:00:42
doesn't he just stay at home? Yeah. And like like masturbate to the Apprentice martial law episode or something. I mean, I don't know. I don't know. There's Can you believe it? military a
00:00:55
military parade. It's the last time I was recalling one was during the Bush ad the first Bush administration. There was it was after something with Iran Iraq. I don't know. It was something but he had
00:01:08
a lot of military people and it was very disconcerting and it wasn't like this gang here. It's like there's a lot here.
00:01:14
It's sort of like North Korea plus old Russia kind of stuff. And the only thing I remember is a stealth bomber going down the mall uh in Washington from the Capitol to the to the Washington
00:01:26
Monument. And it was terrifying. It I was like, "This is not America." Like the stealth bomber even though it was
00:01:32
cool and enormous, but it was just chilling to the entire crowd. Yeah. Yeah, I mean we we won't we don't want
00:01:39
to put tanks on the ground in Ukraine as Russian troops pour over the border, but a guy wants to roll out tanks as he, you
00:01:46
know, [ __ ] posts or tweets from a golf court and golf cart and orthopedic shoes. I mean, the whole thing is just
00:01:52
such cosplaying masculinity. It's so weird. It's so sad. It keeps every every one of these things I'm thinking, how small is this? Well, anyway. Anyway, uh we got a lot to get to today, including
00:02:04
Elon Gring and Trump and China making nice for now. And just for everyone to know, next week Scott and I will be
00:02:10
together in France again. Trip to France. They tried to keep us out of the impenetrable magine. Was that your first? I used to do amazing accents. Now it sounds like a dead
00:02:22
language that twins speak to each other. I could do I could do an amazing Glaswegian accent.
00:02:28
You couldn't Oh my god. You could even le that famous day rapist Pepe Lew. You could do that. You didn't love Pepe Lew. Oh my god. He's It's so bad when you watch it now. It's literally literally
00:02:41
Harvey Weinstein of cartoons. It really is. You're like, go back between Pepe Lew. Yeah. I dream a genie. Yeah. And what was the other really
00:02:54
sexist thing I was watching all the time? Oh my god. The third three's company. Oh, The Price is Right. And now a new car and a woman in a bathing suit
00:03:00
showing you the new car. That one was tame compared to like um Oh, they're all terrible. I like Dr. Genie. I hate to
00:03:07
say it, but it was really sexist with that outfit. Yes, master. Genie, go to your bottle. Is it I'm literally the
00:03:15
Everyone should should just appreciate how far I've come. How far I have come. Yeah. Yeah. Why? Why have you come? You You liked I Dream of I liked I Dream. I
00:03:25
still like I Dream of Genie. I'm sorry. Barbine rock. Yeah, I wouldn't. But watching I'm not exaggerating. I watched two hours a day I Dream of Genie during
00:03:32
my formative years. And I'm not sure that was the right baseline level for how you
00:03:38
watch I loved I Dream of Genie. I watched it all the time. Oh, I bet you did. You little lesbian. I know. My little lesbian. I think essentially Jeff
00:03:45
Bezos is this is I Dream of Genie. He finds a 2,000-year-old magical woman with Botox and instead of freeing her, makes her his roommate. This it's Jeff Bezos. It's literally Jeff Bezos's I
00:03:57
Dream of Genie. Anyway, the kids look up I Dream of Genie and watch it sometime. It's really It's a It's a classic.
00:04:03
Anyway, uh we've got a lot to get to today. As I said, Elon Grubling and Trump in China making nice for now. But
00:04:08
there's a lot going on, including the protests against Trump administration's im uh immigration raids are now
00:04:14
spreading nationwide. Nice job, Trump. Trump is claiming that Los Angeles would have been completely obliterated without
00:04:20
National Guard deployment, which is a flatout lie for talk to anybody in Los Angeles is ridiculous. Unless you're watching Fox News and then it's true. Um, he also deployed 700 Marines in the
00:04:31
LA area against the objections of every single group of people, most of whom don't get along. In recent days, Trump
00:04:38
has floated invoking the Insurrection Act, a law that grants the president the authority to deploy the military on US
00:04:43
soil. It's a big move. California Governor Gavin Newsome, uh, who has gotten a lot of attention and is doing
00:04:50
quite a good job pushing back, spoke out about Trump's actions in a televised address on Tuesday, calling this a
00:04:55
perilous moment for democracy. Let's listen to some of that speech. California may be first, but it clearly
00:05:01
will not end here. Other states are next. Democracy is next. Democracy is under assault before our eyes. This moment we have feared has arrived. He's
00:05:13
taking a wrecking ball. a wrecking ball to our founding father's historic project. Three co-equal branches of
00:05:20
independent government. There are no longer any checks and balances. Congress is nowhere to be found. Speaker Johnson
00:05:27
has completely abdicated that responsibility. The rule of law has increasingly been given way to the rule
00:05:34
of dawn. Well done, Gavin. I have to say he's he's he's taken he's taken every opportunity here to show himself off, which he is. Uh more protests are expected this weekend uh tied to the
00:05:46
massive military parade in DC that's officially as I noted celebrating the army's 250th birthday but just so
00:05:52
happens to fall on Trump's 79th birthday which will call attention to the fact that the man is really old. The no kings
00:05:58
protests are set to be the largest nationwide mobilization since Trump took office. These look like astonishing
00:06:04
actually. They're all over the place. Trump is already warning that any protesters at the parade will be met with very big force. Whatever that is.
00:06:11
They are allowed to protest, by the way, FYI. But many of the no kings people are saying, "Don't protest in DC and give
00:06:17
them a reason to to attack us." But they are pretty much nationwide. Um, first let's talk about Newsome and then let me just also add that um Tom Cotton as
00:06:29
usual popped up like a bad penny uh with an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal titled Send in the Troops for Real
00:06:35
playing off his infamous New York Times oped in 2020. Um, we're recording this ahead of Trump's military parade, which is on Saturday. Uh, t talk a little bit about Newsome, Trump, these these
00:06:47
protests. Um, it feels very North Korean to me, but your thoughts. I think Nuome
00:06:55
um has basically identified himself right now. I think he's the big winner in all of this. Um I think he kind of
00:07:02
accidentally has become the spokesperson for the push back. And so I think this one of the silver linings here is that it is we we now
00:07:15
have what is kind of a deacto leader of the Democratic party. And I think it's essentially Governor Nuomo leads the
00:07:21
fourth largest economy in the world. It's a net giver in terms of federal tax income for all the problems California
00:07:28
has. It's it's actually on most metrics doing really well. Whether it's the center of the newest technology in the world. More people are moving back to California now. And California has more
00:07:38
billionaires than any other state. These are people with options for all the ship posting these techniquarians like to do
00:07:44
about California. They could move anywhere in the world and they decide to stay in see above California. And so
00:07:50
FYI, Scott, they're all back. Just so you know. Yeah. You've been saying that for a while. You said there was going to be a boomerang and you were right
00:07:55
because of AI especially. But go ahead. So look and anyone who has driven up driven up Highway 1 or or checked out
00:08:04
the surfers or Zuma Beach or been to the Hollywood Bowl or I mean it just or or been in the desert it's in sunset in the
00:08:11
desert or been to Carmel or YM I mean you just yeah it's it is it it's it's arguably the most beautiful country in the world. It just happens to be a state within the United States and it offers
00:08:23
the best universities, best technology. Anyway, he has become sort of overnight kind of the spokesperson for or the leader of the Democratic party. the the bad news here is that I think a lot of
00:08:36
these protesters are playing into Trump's hands and that is you can't you can't tell people how to protest but when you see images so for example you know if you could
00:08:47
give the protesters if the protesters are generally trying to help their own cause and that is say look a lot of us
00:08:52
have been here for 10 years it's one thing if you want to deport criminals but if you're deporting people if you're rounding up people at a Home Depot that
00:08:59
have paid their taxes for 20 years and then going to their schools and their churches I I don't think most people are on board with that. No, they're not.
00:09:05
According to polling, not at all. But go ahead. But in my opinion, they hurt their own cause when they show up with
00:09:10
more Mexican flags than American flags. And I understand what they're doing. But keep in mind, a lot of Trump supporters
00:09:18
and a lot of moderates when they see protesters with Mexican flags, they think invasion. And the things that
00:09:24
really hurt this protest in my mind, and there's nothing you can do about it because it's free speech. when sh
00:09:29
someone shows up with a Palestinian flag and a mask, what people see as terrorism. So, and unfortunately, the
00:09:36
media will cover those limited instances which are 0.01% of these protests as opposed to covering a really thoughtful civil protest with signs. And that's
00:09:46
what most of this is. And just to show you how incredibly asinine this is, how the snake is eating
00:09:53
its own tail. Is that if you Who is the National Guard that's been pulled or deployed or activated? A lot of them are
00:10:01
cops. A lot of them are people who work in law enforcement. And a lot of them are in this division called the Rattlesnakes that Governor Nuome uses for fire reclamation or clearing out
00:10:13
brush. and then they get called up to the National Guard. But during the day, if they get called up to be police
00:10:20
officers or if the LAPD gets called up, the LAPD is being deployed, additional LAPD forces are being to deployed to where the National Guard is
00:10:32
because the National Guard's presence increases hostilities and likelihood, which is why the police department is like, "Get the [ __ ] out of here." like the LAPD has to be deployed to protect
00:10:45
the National Guard who is creating problems and dissent and agitate where there doesn't need to be any. I do think that is sinking into people. They're like, "What are they doing here?" And
00:10:55
especially in areas um that that I think the protests I get it they're going to play the picture of the the burning Whimo over and over again. The flags don't look good. But I think this
00:11:07
weekend will be interesting because what I think this no kings thing it could be
00:11:12
really effective because I was just looking at some of the stuff and Amanda was pointing out to me like they have 20
00:11:19
different no kings events in Maine like and they're very oversubscribed kind of they think a lot of people are going to show up. If there's a peaceful show of support, I think Americans do like that.
00:11:31
They don't. And the Republicans have tried to weaponize protesting, right? They're trying to say protesting is
00:11:37
insurrection when in fact, of course, because they're the most hypocritical group on the planet. You know, the real
00:11:43
insurrection was, of course, that attack on the capital. And so, when it suits them, they say protests are dangerous.
00:11:50
When it suits them, they say they're patriotic tourist visits or whatever they call it. What I I think they they
00:11:56
continue I think pe penny seems to be dropping with a lot more people I think than you think. I hope so. I really do
00:12:02
because um I think that at the end of the day this is I mean first off let's go to some historical analogies here right uh Kent State right the the Ohio
00:12:14
National Guard hopped up on authority in bad intel basically killed four kids protesting the Vietnam War and the governor called in troops to quote unquote restore order right that sounds
00:12:26
familiar didn't restore anything he radicalized a generation and permanently scarred the American psyche
00:12:32
the the the really the best analogy here is Hitler in the 30s the rich fire decree and that is he wanted to consolidate power so when an autocrat wants to consolidate power
00:12:44
essentially Hitler didn't invade Poland to consolidate power he invaded civil liberties
00:12:50
and he and what the playbook here is you use the threat of chaos to invoke emergency powers and suspend basic rights and criminalize descent and That's exactly what's going on here. And
00:13:03
this is essentially President Trump is lighting a match and kind of pointing at the smoke, so to
00:13:09
speak. Which is why I do think there's a lot of push, a lot more push back than you. I think there's a lot of push back.
00:13:16
Every every Democratic governor is now prepared as seeing his playbook are handle are trying to handle this in a different way. Um I think he's just incompetent at it. Now I know again you
00:13:27
don't have to be competent to be to do this. that you can be clawish and idiotic but it to me I mean the question
00:13:35
is will which message will get through and I do think Nome has been an effective messenger at finally right and so it's a question of messaging is we're not we we've been trying to get out of
00:13:47
he's also every time he speaks he goes we've worked to remove criminals immigrants from our you know from our
00:13:53
state you know we do it all the time and but these are but these there was images today of ICE people chasing farmer
00:14:00
markers across a field. This is not This is weird to people, especially employers. It's It's weird. You know, it
00:14:07
starts to hit businesses because of they because Stephen Miller can't find enough immigrants. It's a similar Reminds me a
00:14:12
little bit of Doge. They didn't really find as much, right? They didn't find as much trouble. They they have to go after
00:14:19
law-abiding people who are here illegally uh who are paying taxes. I I feel like which of the dueling messages is going to work is is we'll see. We'll
00:14:30
see. We'll see. When ICE has to go to to a Home Depot Mhm. a church or school and
00:14:36
a field. But it's a larger point and that is are these the people we should be kicking out? I mean, are these
00:14:44
churchgoing people working at Home Depot picking your crops? Are those really the people you want out? And uh so look that
00:14:54
I hope you're right. I if I could you can't manage or procure or manicure first amendment speech but if I had any advice if I wanted to say I've struggled
00:15:05
my whole life with the difference between being right and being effective. And I think civil protest against you
00:15:10
know the no kings movement it's very powerful. They're right. Where they lose all effectiveness and play into the
00:15:16
enemy's hands is when they show up with masks, Palestinian flags and Mexican flags. bring the [ __ ] American flags
00:15:22
and be civil and be make it impossible. I remember once you said to me, I always
00:15:27
used to say very provocative things and all of these things people were attacking me on Twitter and you said something. You said, "Scott, don't give
00:15:33
them anything." And right now I worry sometimes the protesters and I and I'll give you I mean I'm really Mabelian. If I were part of this Trump MAGA weird [ __ ] up Steven Miller movement, I'd
00:15:46
send out a 100 people with Palestinian flags and masks to try and cause trouble. Yes, I get to invoke an overreaction. They would do exactly what
00:15:53
they claim other people do, the false flags and all the nonsense. And to give people the impression that these people
00:15:59
on the left are out of [ __ ] control and and and get your anger glands going success. I think they're competent enough to do that. I think they are not competent actually. They're just more
00:16:09
American flags, less masks. I I would agree. But I do think this has not been a protest that's given them enough stuff
00:16:16
like the Floyd the George Floyd ones. They're I think they're disappointed at how civil it is. I know they don't have enough stuff. And if this too if this if
00:16:22
this if this no kings seems bigger than this military parade, it's it's it's a it's a dueling messages here. So, one of
00:16:30
the things that I doesn't help the Trump people, there's new reporting of this incredible piece in ProPublica uh on
00:16:36
Trump's favorite autocrats, President Blei of um El Salvador. The US investigate a US investigation found that Buclei colluded with MS13. Of
00:16:46
course, he did. even paying the gangs for votes according to ProPublica and despite his crime fighting reputation.
00:16:52
Boule has his top aids blocking extraditions of MS-13 leaders to the US. Um, this guy is working hand and glove. So, US money is going to pay MS13
00:17:03
people. This piece is astonishing. And of course, no surprise whatsoever. This guy is such a a sleazy. He he presents sleazy and he is sleazy. Um, and the way
00:17:14
he's gotten into, you know, this is like the plot of a Harrison Ford movie of a Jack, you know, a Clancy, a Tom Clancy
00:17:20
thing where the the alleged good guy crime fighter is like up and up in the grill of drug dealers and other people.
00:17:28
So, this piece is really not great for Trump because it looks like Trump is paying for MS13 leaders um to I don't
00:17:35
even think that'll rise to the top. I don't know. I think it it has a little minute. I I sent it to a lot of people I
00:17:40
know from El Salvador. like you might want to read this like cuz they do they they it looks like he's not um pushing
00:17:47
back crime. He's just like he's getting em one of the things in the story is he's getting people like there was a lot
00:17:54
of crime in the streets and so there'd be dead bodies on the streets and what MS-13 is doing at his behest is burying
00:17:59
them. So it's you know it's sort of I don't this guy is I think this guy is but I think if you I mean what I was
00:18:06
trying to do is I try and step back from the you know force if you will or or get outside the matrix. I think the biggest
00:18:11
takeaways I think this is all going to come down. I think to your point I think the administration realized this isn't working as well as we'd hoped. Um one I
00:18:19
think the big takeaways here are that I think to your point a lot of states are going to prepare for this. This has
00:18:26
created I think a bit of an like a a fascist indigestion. Uh I do think more and more
00:18:32
people are like wow is this really I mean all of these emergency fake emergency orders to violate people's
00:18:38
rights. it seems like it's going really far. Two, I do think that Nuome is now kind of the de facto party leader. Um and um uh but the biggest thing is that
00:18:51
it's been it will be a two-e distraction from thoughtful robust discussion about around this tax bill um which is really
00:18:59
will have much more impact on the nation than than than um than this. Absolutely. But let me
00:19:05
just say, and this is not in here, but these polls that are coming out, the Quinnipac Quinnipak show, very bad
00:19:11
polling for Trump on immigration. He's he's underwater on every issue, including the bill, right? Including
00:19:18
Medicaid cuts, including immigration. I thought he was still positive on immigration. I thought one thing that positive on. No, it it's not. He is way
00:19:25
down. and there we'll see how the rest of them but there's several polls where he's show where people are including
00:19:31
what's more interesting is obviously Democrats are going to be against all this stuff but Republicans uh are
00:19:36
particularly irked and they were irked by the Elon thing too that seemed to set their no set them off um and so these
00:19:44
poll this polling is interesting is he's not uh it doesn't give him strength with going into this bill um because polling
00:19:51
is showing that that people don't like it don't like the bill itself and So, I I do think at some point the Republican
00:19:58
members of Congress are going to look very carefully at these polls. Um, and if Trump is not as strong as he um as he
00:20:04
seems, it it'll it'll take some shine off of him. I think I think it absolutely does. Um because projection
00:20:12
of strength when polling is showing lack of strength, this is to me a problem. Um
00:20:17
speaking of lack of anything, Trump says the US and China have a trade deal again. It's essentially the old deal uh
00:20:23
which is going back to zero. He posted on True Social the deal is done pending final approval for both him and
00:20:29
President Gi. It's such nonsense. According to Trump, China will resume shipments of rare earth minerals. Though
00:20:34
the Wall Street Journal reports China put a six-month limit on those export licenses. The US will back some of the
00:20:39
export restrictions and scrap proposed visa limits on chi Chinese students. More more taco, but tariffs will remain.
00:20:46
US tariffs on Chinese goods will now total 55% while Chinese tariffs on American products are at 10%. We're back
00:20:53
I feel like we're back we're back at square one. It surprise um no one of course also that Trump is highly likely
00:20:59
to push back his July 8th deadline to reach trade deals according to Treasury Secretary Bessent this is like spinning
00:21:07
wheels. It's like and you're back exactly where you started essentially. Yeah, that's been our prediction all
00:21:12
along that after all of this nonsense, after this erosion brand equity of the US, after creating a brand association
00:21:17
toxic uncertainty, we're going to end up kind of where we were before the tariffs. I would argue we may even be a
00:21:23
little bit worse off because of the brand is well even on straight empirical terms because I think China has recognized they have a very strong hand because of their of all things their
00:21:34
rare earth mineral magnets which I guess are key to automakers. They a lot of people lot of and they kind of have a
00:21:40
monopoly on and again the the calculus these guys just haven't been able to do is they look at both sides of the
00:21:46
equation and who is bigger or where the the sum is greater but what they forget is that it's a different scale because
00:21:52
China will starve people. You know we freak out when our Netflix goes goes down for 30 minutes. Um it's just uh
00:21:59
their tolerance for pain is much greater than ours and their leadership's ability or willingness to impose pain for
00:22:05
national interests are just you know it's just such a different system. We we say to our companies you know our companies that donate money to packs who get people nominated because of
00:22:17
gerrymandering. So essentially you have kind of corporate profits sort of are the most
00:22:22
at this point are the most influential thing. America's run for profit. You know China's run for power and that is
00:22:30
they decide what would be best according to the CCP would be best for the long-term interest of China according to
00:22:36
them and for them they the number one thing is we maintain power. But it's it's it's different in kind of the
00:22:43
long-term thinking, if you will. It's much more on China's side because they're not worried
00:22:49
about quarterly earnings. They're not worried about BYD hitting its numbers this quarter for fear that BYD isn't
00:22:54
going to give money to the CCB because basically all the money BYD has is in the CCB's
00:23:00
control. Yeah. Control. So yeah, this is just ridiculous. This is so he, you know what he could have just done is settled the situation in Gaza and settled the situation in Ukraine. He
00:23:13
look he'd get his famous Nobel Prize, right? Like that's all he had to do and shut the [ __ ] up instead of all this manic. He confuses there's an expression I use with people I use it when I was a
00:23:26
manager and I'm not a manager anymore, but that people that confuse activity with productivity, right? like people
00:23:33
that are manic and move around a lot. They look like they're doing things. Um it's sort of like look busy, Jesus is
00:23:40
coming kind of thing. They This guy confuses activity with productivity. And none of this is productive whatsoever. And it makes us look stupider and it gives an enormous amount of tells to all
00:23:53
kinds of people, whether it's Europeans or Chinese or whoever we're dealing with. Everyone can tell what's going to
00:23:58
happen here. um you know world's worst poker player of all time. Like really the the sucker when the when you don't know who the sucker in the room is, it is as it's turned out Trump. Um but it
00:24:11
just I find this just ridiculous waste of our time. Um and not good for the US economy. Um okay, Scott, let's go on a quick break. When we come back, Elon's caving continues. What a surprise. Test
00:24:22
test check one two. You know you need unique New York. You know you need unique New York.
00:24:29
Does that sound all right? Ah, that's better. You can always tell something's missing when you get isolated results. Like AI that's only right for one of your
00:24:42
systems. Get AI that can work across your data and applications. Learn more at ibm.com.
00:24:49
The AI built for business. IBM. Scott, we're back. Elon Musk says he regrets some, only some, of his recent post. He didn't say which ones about President Trump writing in an ex post at
00:25:01
3:00 a.m. this week that quote they went too far. Although he didn't exactly say which posts or what he meant and which
00:25:08
ones. The public graveling comes after a private phone call with Elon reaching out to Trump late Monday. According to
00:25:13
the New York Times, Vice President JD Vance and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wilds were reportedly the peacemakers pushing Elon to repair his
00:25:20
relation with Trump. When asked about Elon's uh post, Trump told the New York Post, "I thought it was very nice that
00:25:26
he did that." Um, I I don't know what to say. What a It's just I I don't think he
00:25:32
can hold on after if Trump does some things he doesn't like. I think he'll he'll have another 3:00 am something
00:25:38
else happening, but we'll see. Um, he's trying to turn his attention to Tesla, hyping the robo taxi launch in Austin
00:25:44
this next week. He says it could slide because Tesla is being super paranoid about safety. Also, um, we'll talk about
00:25:52
this advertising thing in a second, but talk about this apology. I mean, it's just Trump's never letting him back.
00:25:59
That's what I read from it. And Susie Wilds has played this beautifully um in in jacking this guy out of the picture.
00:26:06
And is, by the way, speaking of polling, his polling is even worse than Trump's. Yeah, I think he's I think right now he
00:26:12
looks like a dog roaming around with one of those domes, you know? It's like, okay, I'm going to give you one of those. I've just been neutered and I look stupid and I'm upset and depressed.
00:26:24
I think he's just walking around with his dog dome right now. He just he he the president is more powerful than
00:26:31
Elon. And I think he was under the impression that, you know, I'm I'm invincible. I'm Rocket Man. I'm Iron
00:26:37
Man. And and he gets into a fight. It's a giant [ __ ] distraction. He's not going to get anywhere near the West Lawn again unless it's highly catered and manicured. And I just thought it was so
00:26:50
funny listening to all these Fox people talk about how sad it was. the fight was and they're like they don't seem to be
00:26:56
worried about Ukraine or Gaza. They don't they just don't but they're just so like heartbroken over the breakup. I
00:27:02
know of Musk and Trump. They all turned on Musk in a second after being his biggest cheerleaders which was
00:27:08
hysterical to see. Yeah. I again another I don't know sad. Another another distraction. Who cares? Yeah. and his robo taxi thing is I mean it's incredible how many people are using
00:27:21
Whimo even though some of them got destroyed in Los Angeles but um we'll see if he catches up but I mean I going
00:27:28
to the launch event the the I mean I was looking at it last night 2015 he said it was going to be two years and every year since 2016 he said it's going to self drive is going to come every
00:27:39
interview I've ever done with him he's like well next year when we have full self-driving it's going to come within the year I was it was one of my
00:27:45
interviews was in a lawsuit where he lied about it, right? Where and then he said the interview was fake. It was just
00:27:52
crazy. He said it so many times. Um and it was got comical after a while. It's like, oh, this year, this year, is it
00:27:58
going to be this year? And of course, we'll see. I'm sure they'll get them out on the streets because other people are deploying them. So, he can just copy
00:28:05
them. But I feel like I I don't think this is going to be the winning move for him. And also, for people who don't
00:28:12
know, there the the the Optimus robot thing is the other thing they're trying to do at Tesla. and the person who ran
00:28:17
it just left. There's all these people leaving Tesla. Um I think it's an well he needs it's going to be interesting because he has a launch event they which they delayed another couple weeks. It's being in a done in a geofenced area of
00:28:29
Austin to try and control it. But even he said, "Okay, I've got um he said Tesla is either going to be worth a lot more with uh self- autonomous and Kathy Woods out there
00:28:43
saying that autonomous is the future and putting a $1,000 thousand price target on uh Tesla or he said or it's going to be worth next to zero." And if you were
00:28:53
to value Tesla as just an automobile company and say, "All right, that looks like they've are losing slash loss the
00:29:00
autonomous race and you valued every Tesla at the same market cap as BYD," which is generous because BYD is doing better and seems to have a better car for less money. But if you gave Tesla
00:29:12
the benefit of the doubt and said, "Okay, it's at least a BYD like brand." And gave them the same market cap per
00:29:17
vehicle that BYD commands, it would mean that Tesla stock would uh decline by 95%. It's such a brand destruction. You
00:29:24
know, I honestly, Scott, when I I when I see them on the street, I don't let them in. I don't know why. I I just hate the
00:29:30
brand now. Like, and I like the brand. I really did like the Tesla brand. Um but
00:29:35
I I I just don't like people in them. And I know that's unfair. I feel like a jerk for doing that. Um, you know, first
00:29:43
time in a while I saw a cyber truck in DC. There were a bunch of them here at the beginning of the Trump era and I I
00:29:49
saw one and I hadn't seen one in a while. And having seen it not in a while, I was like, what a terrible who
00:29:56
didn't stop him and say, "You can't do this. You cannot release this truck." Yeah. just just some compensation for
00:30:02
that is it's good to know that right now there are more National Guard troops and Marines in LA than there are stationed in Syria or Iraq combined. I mean talk
00:30:11
about if you're if you're the president for me it always comes back to management. What is a manager supposed to do? You're supposed to deploy capital
00:30:18
to a greater return than your competitive set. And this is how he is deploying the military capital. He's
00:30:23
taking it down in Syria and Iraq. He's not using his sway in power to force Israel to announce a multinational Arab force into Gaza and stop the destruction there. He's not he's not figuring out a
00:30:36
bipartisan legislation which he could get to put more teeth into the sanctions against Russia to get them to the table.
00:30:41
He's sending in the National Guard to [ __ ] Paramount Boulevard to like Culver City. I mean, he does not know
00:30:49
how to allocate capital. I I just don't. And at the end of the day, the president, folks, who you want as a
00:30:54
president is someone you don't hear about and it's just a very good manager and and yeah, and knows how to allocate
00:31:03
more capital than any capital allocator in history. And this guy is just a terrible capital such a shitty business
00:31:09
person. Um, one of the things that my favorite part of, we'll go back to this LA thing, is all these people posting
00:31:14
pictures of like having lunch in LA and like it's terrible here. a lot of friends. By the way, I've texted I've I've texted all my friends and I said, "What's going on there? How is
00:31:26
it?" And they're like, "You're watching the same thing I am. It's not Yeah. I mean, granted, a lot of my friends are pretty privileged. They're not living in
00:31:32
downtown LA, but they're like, "Yeah, we haven't seen anything." Yeah. I have friends all over LA and they're like, "This is [ __ ] ridiculous." But
00:31:39
anyway, there's a lot of AI slop out there showing much worse than it is. It's just not true. a lot of the a lot
00:31:45
of the imagery that's being used and Fox of course it's like it's Armageddon there. It's like I feel like they're
00:31:50
using clips from that movie Escape from LA or something like that. Anyway, um the second thing, this is interesting
00:31:56
because we're headed off to France which for con Lions. Um and it's the um or is it con? I don't know. It's called can I
00:32:04
know it's whatever. We're going to France. Um underpants. Uh and uh and and advertising is the big deal here. But this was an interesting story and I don't know if Linda Yakarina is going to be there, but I hope not to see her. Um
00:32:18
Elon Musk X has made a habit of threatening advertisers with legal action if they don't. I love that.
00:32:25
Advertise with us or we'll sue your ass. Sue your ass. Excuse threats of lawsuit. This is a Wall Street Journal story. It
00:32:30
was really interesting. Everybody I've heard this from a lot of people. So to secure at least six large advertisers
00:32:36
that pressure campaigns targeted advertisers like Amazon, Verizon, Pinterest, Ralph Lauren, including some
00:32:41
of the illegally including accusing of illegally uh colluding in an ad boycott after must take over the platform and the threats weren't empty. Pinterest declined to increase ad spending on X and found itself added to the ad boycott
00:32:53
suit, which is they're going to lose. And as the world goes these days, the FTC is investigating whether antitrust laws were violated by coordinated
00:33:00
boycots of advertisers. So there you I think this is probably going to go away. Um what in the [ __ ] actual [ __ ] you that
00:33:08
you have to like like you have to take my ads if I don't think it's a safe, you know, I'm sure they've made tried to
00:33:14
made safety improvements on that platform, but it's not working. It's not It's not a safe place to advertise so
00:33:20
easily. It's so clearly not a safe place to advertise. What do you think about this? This is nuts. I I mean, I know
00:33:27
very little about X now. I got off it two years ago, but NBC did a study. They found that over 150 verified premium
00:33:33
accounts, I guess that's the blue check ones, uh have all posted or amplified pro-Nazi content. And I think I think
00:33:41
the easiest way to get fired in media is to buy ads on X. Because if you buy ads on X, it's like going to work for the
00:33:48
mob. There's no getting out. It's like you're not allowed to leave. And what basically is happening here is there's a
00:33:54
non-zero probability. If you begin advertising on X, if you decide to stop, you might end up in a lawsuit. They
00:33:59
might sue you. I can't think that's a good business strate. I can't I can't imagine how hard it must be to be
00:34:06
generally speaking ad sales people that end up at CAN, they're either former athletes or hot women because that's who
00:34:11
media buyers want to hang out with. And they're generally like 105 IQ, 135 EQ people. They're the they're the fraternity rush chairman. They weren't the president. They weren't scholars. They're super social, super likable,
00:34:25
nice people. And they make good money. They're their colleagues hate them because they're the
00:34:30
most overcompensated relative to their IQ and their work ethic, but they have they're really attractive and, you know,
00:34:38
they're nice people to hang out with. That job at Axe must be the worst job in the world right now. And I imagine most
00:34:44
of the pe sales people at X are not threatening people. They're not they're probably just trying to sell [ __ ] ear
00:34:49
cleaner ads. I whatever it is, they're they're doing their best to get L'Oreal to test again on this platform that
00:34:57
doesn't work. And then I would imagine a lot of advertisers who have no shortage
00:35:02
of places to spend their precious ad dollars are like, "Boss, why would I advertise with you? Is someone going to
00:35:08
call me and threaten to sue me if I decide to pause my campaign? I don't need that shit." Yeah, I think listen,
00:35:14
Linda used to have a great reputation in speak of this cadre of people. She's never going to work in this business again. Will she need to though? My guess is he's they're not dumb. She pro he
00:35:25
probably promised her enough [ __ ] you money or you know how he how that works with him. They people who work for him
00:35:32
don't always end up in the best place. But it must be just realistically Cara he's been able to attract so many
00:35:38
talented people to run different companies for him. Mhm. I don't believe that his compens compensation system
00:35:43
must be very generous. Possibly. Well, I've heard different things. I've heard mixed things. A lot of people couldn't
00:35:49
get out fast enough and then they didn't get what they were paid. He does he does a combination of things. In this case,
00:35:57
it's it is an embarrassment that someone who was a well- reggrounded advertising person is resorting to lawsuits in order
00:36:04
to sell ads. It's and in a paranoid fashion. I've heard from lots of people that she truly believes that there was a
00:36:10
it was a conspiracy and because she's in that world. She she's sort of a Trumper and everything else, but it's just it's
00:36:16
an embarrassment. Linda, you used to be I worked with her. She was good. This is an embarrassment and she should be
00:36:23
ashamed of herself what she's doing. Anyway, she was good. She was really She was the top one and or one of the top
00:36:29
people. And she worked at NBC. Is that right? She did. I worked with her and she was, you know, she was an ad person,
00:36:34
right? You know, that type. And I sure do. The people I hang out with at them and good good at it. But this is just
00:36:41
you have covered yourself in shame. Uh and and let me tell you, all your old friends say that to me. All right,
00:36:47
Scott, let's go on a quick break. We come back, we'll talk about OpenAI's Google deal. Scott, we're back with more
00:36:53
news. OpenAI plans to use Google Cloud Service to meet its computing needs. The deal doesn't replace OpenA's need for
00:36:59
Microsoft's Azure, which uh uh used to be the company's exclusive partner. Google is not yet delivering compute to
00:37:05
open AI, but the deal was reportedly signed last night. It's important. They need more compute. Um, this in a in a
00:37:11
similar story, Facebook is is working with Scale AI. This very talented guy uh who's who's the founder of it um in
00:37:18
trying to re reboot their AI uh the the llama stuff wasn't going as well as Mark
00:37:23
Zuckerberg expected and he's now, you know, shook the trees there and is redoing it, which is good. He he's good
00:37:29
that way to do those things. And on the o AI news front, open has delayed the release of its first open model in
00:37:35
years, which is really expected this month, but it's pulling away. Even I've talked to Meta people and other people
00:37:41
and they're like OpenA is pulling away in terms of features, constant features. So, it's still a real race going on
00:37:47
here. Google's extended voluntary buyouts, by the way, to US employees in multiple division as cost cutting
00:37:53
measures to help fund for AI spending. And they're all rejiggering. Even at Google, there's new people. They're
00:37:59
they're they're reassessing who should be running this and what their focus should be each of these companies. Um
00:38:05
but they're they're all doing a lot and and this new I research lab that Meta is doing is going to be dedicated to
00:38:11
pursuing super intelligence. Uh there's just a lot going on in the sector. Yeah, I thought the both announcements the the
00:38:18
announcement that OpenAI was going to work with Google, the Google cloud kind of blew my mind because I would have
00:38:24
thought that that Microsoft would have captured all of that business. And I I don't know if it's a falling out and open eye wanting to diversify their their compute supply chain or if
00:38:37
according to Microsoft Microsoft is saying we just don't even have enough given how amazing and how dominant open
00:38:43
AI is and we need more than one um more than one source of compute. It just kind
00:38:48
of blew my mind when I heard that. The other thing that I thought was really interesting is that Google is now a
00:38:53
newspaper company. I remember at the New York Times, we were constantly sending out letters saying uh voluntary buyout.
00:38:59
Google just sent out voluntary buyout letters to a ton of people and basically saying that these are the jobs that are most vulnerable to AI and typically the way it waterfalls is that all right we
00:39:11
offer you a buyout and if you don't take this buyout of X if you get fired in 3 months you only get.5X.
00:39:18
Now, the problem with these types of buyouts is the people, the best people leave. And the way you usually do these
00:39:23
buyouts is you go to your top 10% and you say, "FYI, you're on the inside. We're doing a buyout, buyout/layoff,
00:39:31
trying to encourage people to to leave, but you're doing really well here. You're about to get promoted. Just ignore the letter." That's the smart
00:39:37
kind of buyout move is you go to the people you don't want to leave. The other thing they're doing is everyone
00:39:43
talks about quiet quitting. The new quiet firing is back to work mandates. And if you'll notice on the same day,
00:39:49
Google announced a return to work mandate because they know they'll lose 10 20 30% of people who got really used
00:39:56
to walking their dog in Prospect Park every afternoon and so a lot of people will leave. So, but what's interesting
00:40:02
is Google which is got the greatest concentration of intellectual of IP around AI has real insight into the
00:40:10
world where the economy and jobs are have said AI is going to eliminate a lot of these jobs which we've heard from a
00:40:17
lot of companies you know we we've heard from a when even when we're together we were with I forget who it was Diller or
00:40:22
someone else um he was talking about it all these companies have been talking about this and are on the front end I I
00:40:29
think it's actually a good thing that Google does this I think It's a good thing that Mark, everyone was sort of writing, oh, Meta's AI thing got shook
00:40:35
up. I'm like, good. Like, they're doing it quickly, right? They're adding and subtracting people. He's he's Mark is a
00:40:42
going for it kind of guy. Like, right. He always like met Meta's not working. Gone. Like that kind of thing. And that's that's his superpower, I think, is his control. And speaking of good
00:40:53
managers, he is a good manager. Um, and so it's interesting that people look at it as a bad thing. I don't think any of
00:41:00
this is a bad thing. I think it shows that people are sort of adjusting as they're extending, if that makes sense.
00:41:06
Yep. Yeah. You know, it makes sense to do this and and the more these companies do this, the stronger they're going to
00:41:12
be. Um, but I do pretty much everyone at the other companies I've been talking to a lot of these other companies do
00:41:18
acknowledge that that OpenAI has been running away with it in terms of features moving faster, uh, getting
00:41:24
things done. Obviously, one of the worries at Meta is that chat GPT has become the Kleenex, right? Just like Google became the word for search, that
00:41:36
chat GPT is now the word for this. Um, and so can you catch up if if if a one company represents, you know, that's what people think of when they think of AI from a marketing
00:41:48
point of view, it's an interesting moment. I think uh I agree. I have nothing to add. Yeah, but I mean it it
00:41:53
depends on how important it'll be to them. When have you heard that from me? I know. Yeah, they're the Kleenex. Everyone is interesting. All right, last
00:41:59
thing. These two interesting little stories which I thought we should talk about very briefly. ABC News has parted ways with senior national correspondent
00:42:05
Terry Moran after he called President Trump and Steven Miller worldclass haters on X. Uh if you remember, Moran
00:42:11
was the one who did that testy MS13 interview with uh Trump who kept pretending a Photoshop thing was real. The network announced it would not renew Moran's contract after a 28-year stint,
00:42:23
calling the Expose a clear violation of policies. As a reminder, ABC paid $60 million to settle case over comments
00:42:29
made by anchor George Stephanopoulos last year. Moran seems okay. He's he's already told followers he did a really
00:42:36
delightful video that he'll be on Substack shortly. He's sort of taking it well. Um any thoughts on this? I he
00:42:43
shouldn't have posted that largely because he was a he was a beat reporter and was covering the White House. It's
00:42:48
he probably even if he thought that he should have kept it to himself. He could have done it in a different way by
00:42:54
pointing to polls or things they've done or videos or other people talking about it. Um he shouldn't have done that.
00:43:02
Yeah. But Dan Rather and Peter Jennings did much worse. But when the market was booming, they didn't fire people for this. They just called them in and said,
00:43:09
"Hey boss, sucks to be a grown-up. Don't do this again." So he wasn't fired by ABC. He was fired by Alphabet and Meta
00:43:15
who are sucking so much oxygen out of the room of cable adported news that these guys are looking for looking for
00:43:22
reasons to fire people. And I I think this is quite frankly I think this is [ __ ] I I don't think this is how you treat people. The guy worked there 28 years. He was the kind of guy that in my mind sort of did the work and was
00:43:35
good at what he did. So what you do is you call him and you say, "You know what? You made life hard for us. Business sucks. Um, you need to announce
00:43:42
that I I know I don't know. I don't know Terry. I mean, I know Terry. I don't know him well. I think he was looking
00:43:48
for his next gig. ABC needs to cut costs. There's a way they could have done this without publicly shaming the
00:43:54
guy and pretending to have [ __ ] virtue. If the company was going, if the company's revenues were increasing 10 or
00:43:59
15% a year, they would have called him in and said, "Boss, you can't do this again." He would have said, "Fine." And they would have wink wink, see at the
00:44:05
country club. But now they're all looking to cut cost. So they pretend to be virtuous and have these journalistic
00:44:11
standards. If if Terry had been anchoring a news program where they had more and more opioid induced
00:44:17
constipation ads that were they were increasing the ad rates faster than inflation, they would have found Skyzy.
00:44:23
It's skyrizzy is the ads. But go ahead. But they they Mark Zuckerberg fired him. Not ABC. ABC
00:44:30
is looking for any reason it can to lay off people and then pretend they're journalists. Meanwhile, they're about to
00:44:35
get [ __ ] in the ass by in a bad way, not the not the pleasurable way, by a fascist, uh, and bend the knee like
00:44:42
every other media company that's scared to death of this guy right now trying to stay out of his crosshair. So, yeah,
00:44:48
fine. When people work for you for 28 years, I agree. I think he's a talented bride,
00:44:55
but he did put himself in a given history here recently, not a smart move on his part. I I I agree. I He should have been just uh taken off for a little while, talked to. Remember when Dan
00:45:08
Rather walked off set and CBS went to black for what was it? Six minutes. Yes, I remember. I remember he left the air
00:45:14
and but they found excuses to keep Big Dan around until he did that lawsuit that didn't work out so well. They they
00:45:20
they definitely I agree. I agree. I when it when I saw it, I was like, "Oh, no, no, no. He's got All these companies
00:45:25
talk about how we're a family and a team." You don't need a family or a team when you're doing well. You need them
00:45:31
when you [ __ ] up. They should have treated him. He was there 28 years doing the work. You show the guy a little bit
00:45:37
more grace. And if if at the first false move that you [ __ ] up, you get ceremoniously drawn and quartered. Guess
00:45:44
what? All of us are going to be unceremoniously fired at some point. Except now he's not cuz he's on his own. I'm like, welcome to the do whatever the
00:45:50
[ __ ] you want. So, I hope he does well. Yeah. What's the substack? Let's promote it. Do you know what it's called? Absolutely. I'm going to bring him on on
00:45:56
Scott free August. Oh, I like that. Oh, that's Troublemakers bringing in Scaramucci. I'm making troublemakers for
00:46:03
you. I really like Terry cuz more than anything he's very handsome. He's very handsome. He's a handsome man. In any
00:46:10
case, I agree with you. Is given this environment, he shouldn't have done he should. ABC, you're so righteous. No,
00:46:15
here's $10 million. Dear fascist, dear leader. Oh, ABC. Good for you, Bobby Iger. You're a man of principles. Here's
00:46:22
the thing. I have never thought of anywhere I worked as my family. Have you? I've never had been under that
00:46:29
delusion. You you have a much more romantic version of companies, don't you? Yeah, but my companies are are
00:46:35
smaller and I get very strong paternal reward from my companies because it's a bunch of young people. So, I get very
00:46:43
I'm very rapacious the first year or two years. I'm like, you got it. This is like the Navy Seals. Anyone can try out, but most of you aren't going to be here
00:46:48
in a year. But the people I I've worked with, I mean, you know, my people, I've been
00:46:54
working with my people, you have 20 years, the same people working for code. I get it. I get that. And I never would
00:46:59
have treated them like this. But it's it's a really interesting thing is that a lot of these um I kind of would rather
00:47:06
the Google thing like, okay, it's not working. We're shifting. It sort of feels cleaner to me in a lot of ways. Um
00:47:13
and and and not be offended by it. J Terry Moran is a very talented broadcaster and we wish him incredible
00:47:20
well we wealth and health and whatever the heck. Um and don't feel bad Terry don't worry about it. [ __ ] them if they can't take a joke. Anyway, you'll like it better on the outside. It's much more
00:47:31
fun. Um come on in the water independent. Independent. Well, you're an independent journalist. Independent
00:47:36
like whatever it is I do. You're going to enjoy it. It's fun. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's true. You're not a journalist, but
00:47:41
you're something. I don't know what you are. You're a turduckan. You're a turducken of some sort. You have the
00:47:47
journalism is I'm that alien from Close Encounter. Your media is like we don't understand
00:47:53
him, but we think he's nice. Yeah. In other Disney news, this is interesting though. Disney and Universal have sued
00:47:58
AI uh image generator Midjourney, which is a People really don't like MidJourney for copyright infringement. The lawsuit
00:48:05
alleges Midjourney uh helped itself to countless copyrighted works to train some of its software while news
00:48:10
organizations, record laborers, and others have filed similar suits. This marks the first suit by a major Hollywood studio. This is a good move on
00:48:17
their part. The mid just like this, you know, doing [ __ ] with Mickey is not cool
00:48:22
for or whatever. Mickey's out of maybe he's out of copyright, but I think it's parts of him is um parts of Mickey is.
00:48:29
Um but what do you think about this? Uh when I was in the fraternity, one of my fraternity brothers or one of my close
00:48:36
friends was the head of campus events at UCLA or involved in campus events and he
00:48:42
ran this ad that showed for um Simba. They were doing a a screening of the Lion King and he showed Mickey Mouse riding Simba in the Daily Breuin
00:48:54
and uh we got a call from I think it was Disney's lawyer saying, "Hi, just FYI, you'll be served a subpoena. We wanted to give you some forward notices of courtesy, but um you know, you're not
00:49:06
allowed to do this." And I'm like thinking I can solve every problem. And so, of course, we did like three bong loads. And then I said, I know Michael
00:49:13
Oitz was president of our fraternity. He was president of ZBT, UCLA. We'll call him. We know we know these powerful
00:49:19
people. I know how to solve this, right? I think I can fix every any problem. Total total arrogant douchebag American
00:49:24
male. So, and I'm like, but first we need to get high. So, we call the lawyer and and and we say, "Look, we we apologize. This was clearly wrong. We won't do it again, but we were fratern
00:49:37
brothers with Michael Oitz thinking that would carry real weight and and um we won't do it again. And we apologize. cuz we're just, you know, just a bunch of college kids and the council said the general counsel was like, "Oh, my my my
00:49:50
daughter goes to UCLA and we end up we know we had a nice conversation, da da da." He's like, he was like, "Anyways
00:49:55
guys," he goes like, "Back to the lawsuit." He's like, he's like he's like, "Guys, I'll see you in court. You
00:50:00
don't [ __ ] with the mouse." And then he hung up. [Laughter] And and here's the bottom line. best companies uh usually invest a lot, have
00:50:11
good people, and they're also rapacious about the defense of our IP. And as I go full circle circle for my fraternity in
00:50:19
this situation, this is a moment for content creators to absolutely rally together and not do one-off deals, but to get someone really mean and really angry and a lot of law firms and charge
00:50:31
everyone a certain amount of money and go after all these guys and say, "Okay, if we see you're crawling our books, our content, our songs, our our speeches,
00:50:43
anything, we're coming for and you gather it all similar to what the artists do around the rights labels
00:50:51
where they say you can and then we'll license it to you. We're going to make a lot of money here. You guys are making a lot of money. That's fine. If you want
00:50:57
to use all of Penguin Portfolio Randoms House's archive of every single book they have,
00:51:02
fine. And then we're going to figure out a deal with our authors. We're going to do this for all artists. We're going to By the way, I met one of my my I
00:51:08
literally met my favorite artist last night. We'll come back to that because I know you're dying to talk more about me. But this is a moment. We passed that
00:51:14
moment about 20 years ago, letting Google crawl our [ __ ] and now it's too late. This is that moment in AI. All of
00:51:21
these guys should be should be binding together. Everyone from Axel Springer to News Corps to the Royal Academy of Arts to everyone that has intellectual property shoulder said a year ago, a
00:51:34
year and a half% and I said it I said it a year and a month ago. Thank you very much. So, but they need one. They need
00:51:40
to speak with one voice and they need to be very aggressive in the push back here. All these little efforts pushing
00:51:46
back. Reddit filed a lawsuit last week. They all need They all need to come together. They do. Anyway, you're 100%
00:51:52
right. You're 100% right. Well, we'll see if they do. Uh, so the mouse, we like this move which you did to Terry.
00:51:58
Not great. You didn't want to hear about my favorite artist. Oh, who's your favorite artist very quickly? So, I went to this very, very fancy event last
00:52:05
night. I went to the Royal Academy of Arts. like summer gayla last night. You know, I don't like to go out. I was
00:52:11
forced to go out and uh I only own one piece of art. I don't buy wine or art because all my friends as they got rich
00:52:18
started buying art and wine and I'm like I'm just not that guy. But someone very important to me when I was in Istanbul
00:52:25
with them took me to see uh this exhibition said, "I know you'll just love this guy even though he knows I'm
00:52:30
not into art." And it was um a guy named Grayson Perry. And his art he has, do you know that big orange? You probably know better than I do. You know that big orange sketch etching I have in my
00:52:42
living room. Mhm. And it's called Map of a Politician. And I just fell in love with it. And then this person for my
00:52:47
birthday bought it for me. And it was the only piece of art I own. But anyways, he was there last night and I got to meet him and that was really
00:52:54
exciting. He's a really lovely man. But anyways, I got to meet the artist of the one piece of art I own. Oh, that's nice.
00:53:00
That's Scott for you are just evolving into such a lesbian. It's fantastic. Aren't I? By the time I'm 90, I'm going
00:53:07
to be like I'm gonna have manners. I'm going to be able to read the room on my 100th birthday. The journey of Scott
00:53:12
Galler. All right, Scott. One more quick break. We'll be back for predictions. He's a human boy. Okay, Scott, let's
00:53:19
hear a prediction. I sort of had kid gloves around this, but Well, prediction. What's that noise? I don't know. I have a prostate exam later today and I'm just practicing. Okay. Um,
00:53:31
elbows on the table. Elbows on the table. That's all I know. H Yeah. Run your run your hands through my hair. Yeah. Um, yeah. Uh, I think Gavin Newsome is now coming out of this the
00:53:43
deacto leader of the Democratic party and that was a void the size of the freaking Grand Canyon. You, as you've
00:53:50
noted, now should he declare for his presidency? I was thinking this. I almost texted him and said, "You should declare right now." He's he has actually
00:53:57
and then start making pronouncements. No, probably not yet because it would warrant but but he's already he's the
00:54:03
people who should declare president say the people that nobody knows because they'll get a ton of he he is already the deacto candidate by virtue of what's
00:54:10
happened this week and he should start and he also and I said this a few months ago him bringing Charlie Kirk on and new
00:54:17
King on his podcast as much as the Taliban of the left hates that interview Scott I don't have a problem with him having it on. just he didn't do a good job. But go ahead.
00:54:28
I think he's the de facto leader of the Democratic party right now coming out of this too. Can I ask can I add something?
00:54:33
Who do you think if he was running I was thinking if he ran his vice president should either be Pete Buddha Judge or
00:54:39
someone I saw the other night, Gina Raundo. Anyway, those are my ideas for I think she's fantastic. She is amazing.
00:54:46
She's as sharp as if you want someone if you want someone that's good for the economy and just does the work. She's
00:54:52
she's that person. It's a question. She may run for president, by the way. So, a woman will not be the Democratic
00:54:58
nominee, and nor should she be. If we have another woman lose for the third time, Carrie, you're not going to have a female president for years. As much as I
00:55:04
think she is utterly capable of being president, I thought she should be the vice president for Gavin Newsome. That would be a really interesting Let me be
00:55:11
lis and sexist in one fell swoop. I can guarantee you not one person, the Democratic nominee will not be under
00:55:16
5'10. No president in the last 100 years has been under 5'10. He's big man. He's a handsome man. That's my point. I hate to say it. A handsome man. The first We will have a female
00:55:27
president. She will be a Republican. And the key attribute you will she will bring is a reputation that if your
00:55:32
family runs a stop sign, she'll drone your ass. She will be the first female president of the US. Will have to be
00:55:39
someone [ __ ] scary. She'll drone your Well, that would have been Liz Cheney, right? That would have been in the old
00:55:44
days. Liz is probably the closest we could have had to an electable female president. If someone else will come
00:55:50
along, she would drown. Anyways, it's not going to be a Democrat. And the Democrats are not going to take their chances on a gay man. They're not going
00:55:56
to take their chances on a woman. They're not going to take their chances on someone who's less than 5' 10. I'm sorry. That's the bottom line. All
00:56:03
right. Anyways, as VP, that's a really good one. Just play that game for a second. I'd probably macho it up and bring in like a former military person.
00:56:14
I don't know. Mark Kelly. There's a lot of There's so many good VP candidates. Yeah. I think yeah. Um I don't know.
00:56:23
They'll figure out what states they need help in. Who do you like? Uh I I think there's a lot of interesting people, but
00:56:28
I I think there I think there's a lot of interesting people. I don't know yet because I think Wes Moore is always talked about and most feared by the
00:56:35
right, that's for sure. Um I think um uh that's very good. I still like in my life, Michael Bennett would be such a good president. Um I I always think of who'd be a good president. Of course,
00:56:48
that doesn't matter anymore. to celebrity matters. Um probably I I think I I when I ran into Gina Rondo the other
00:56:55
day, I was like, "Oh, she's so [ __ ] impressive. She's so [ __ ] impressive." Um anyway, um you know who
00:57:00
we just had on uh on the raging moderates pod yesterday was Richie Torres. Uh oh, I don't I'm not a fan.
00:57:08
What? Not a fan. Sorry. Oh my god. I think he's so performative. I I still keep thinking I agree with you. raised by a single mother, struggled with depression. Not imp. Oh, by the way, let
00:57:22
me say um by the way, our producers are saying there have been presidents under 510, but not the last 100 years. I don't
00:57:29
know who it is. Let's see. They're going to tell us. Harry Truman, Jimmy Carter. Jimmy was 5 foot 10 under, I guess.
00:57:35
Yeah, must have been. Jimmy Carter was 5 foot 10. He says 9.5. All right, whatever. He's not tall. He wasn't tall. Whatever. All that matters is I'm 8 in. Um Oh my god. Okay.
00:57:49
I won't tell you my nickname in the fraternity. You're doing this. I won't tell you my nickname in the fraternity. Don't force me to tell you my nickname
00:57:55
in the fraternity. Cara. It's tripod. Um, so, uh, you've already told me. God, we're like an old couple. I know we are.
00:58:01
Um, give me the Republican candidate then. Give me just No, it's going to be I think it's going to be JD Vans. I do
00:58:08
not think that. No. Go ahead. Who do you think it's going to be? It's either gonna be Marco Rubio or like a Glenn Yncan. That's my feeling. Uh, Yncan's
00:58:14
the guy who would win. Well, um I think the most spectacular Virginia situation, but Trump's going to have so much power
00:58:21
that he'll basically unless he has a huge erosion in his base, he'll be able to pick the person. I think it'll be I
00:58:28
don't think it'll be I think Oh, [ __ ] I don't think he likes Vance. I don't think he likes You don't think he likes Vance. Vance is unlikable. He really is.
00:58:35
He's just He repels voters. They need a interesting looking person. It's got to be like a a Ynan or And Trump wants to keep it there. So, it's not going to be his son who forget that. I mean, he
00:58:48
knows he's a loser. Um, probably it's got to be It's got to be Rubio or something like that. Something like that. I think Rubio's too short. All right. Okay. Anyway, he's also somewhat
00:59:01
charmless, too. Also, that's true. I when he said Lil Marco, I thought Mhm. That is correct. Anyway, we'll see.
00:59:07
Wait. So my predict my actual prediction was that um the worst I think probably the worst acquisition of the last decade in terms of value destruction or overpaying happened last week. Uh Open
00:59:18
AI's acquisition of the design firm I think it's called IO. Um I think Johnny is fantastic. Uh just to be clear company with no
00:59:28
products gets acquired for $6 half billion dollars for a guy who is he's a genius designer. I I give he deserved all all his due. Uh sorry boss, that's not worth $6 half billion dollars. This
00:59:40
thing will be costplaying Steve Jobs. This thing this thing will be written down by
00:59:46
let me be clear iconic legendary designer may have even worth like a hundred million which means a $6.4
00:59:54
billion write down and in addition open AI is going to find that designing products they'd be much better off. let me save them some time. Partner with hardware firms. Right? You thinking
01:00:05
that you're going to bring in this Guy Richie like genius who dresses incredibly well and rightfully is
01:00:12
considered one of the great designers of all time is going to figure out a way for you to get into products. No, he was the last speaker at Code along with
01:00:18
Lorine Powell Jobs and Tim Cook. Yeah. By the way, amazing. I'm not I'm not this a lot of money. the whole thing when the the two of them did this promo video on the uh acquisition and it was
01:00:30
so much like I'm just a billionaire standing in front of a billionaire wanting to be trillionaires.
01:00:36
It was just so like it was it was strange. It was strange. Whatever. Let's give it to them. They've done a nice job
01:00:41
over there. All right, we want we want to hear from you. Send us your questions about business tech or whatever's on
01:00:47
your mind. Go to nymag.com/pivot to submit a question for the show or call 85551
01:00:53
pivot. Uh elsewhere in the Cara and Scott universe, this week on ProfG G Markets, Scott spoke with Katherine Anne
01:00:59
Edwards, PhD economist and columnist for Bloomberg News. She weighs in on the latest jobs data and unpacks how the
01:01:06
economy has reached reacted to Trump's policies. Let's listen to a clip. What we are seeing is the effect of
01:01:12
uncertainty. And uncertainty is all about idling. I'm not going to move much in either direction until I know which way the wind is blowing. So, I'm not going to hire that many people. I'm not going to
01:01:23
fire that many people. I'm not going to make massive investments, but I'm not going to pull back from the ones that I have. I'm just waiting in place to
01:01:30
understand what the world is going to look like. And that has been the economy really since September. Really very
01:01:37
absolutely true. No one knows what to do because he's crazy. Uh, okay. That's the show. Thanks for listening to Pivot and
01:01:43
be sure to like and subscribe to our YouTube channel. We'll be back next week. Scott will be back next week from
01:01:49
France where we I will be charging things to Scott's room. Uh very soon, very very soon. Overpriced whatever it happens to be. But I will be that will be the charge there. Scott, uh we'll be
01:02:00
back next week from France. In fact, uh Scott, read us out. Today's show is produced by Laura Neon, Joy Marcus,
01:02:06
Taylor Griffin, and Kevin Oliver. Ernie or Todd entry this episode. Thanks also to Drew Bros, Misso, and Dan Shalon.
01:02:12
Deshakura is Vox Media's executive producer of podcast. Make sure to follow Pivot on your favorite podcast platform.
01:02:18
Thanks for listening to Pivot from New York Magazine, Box Media. You can subscribe to the magazine.com/pod.
01:02:24
We'll be back next week for another breakdown of all things tech and business. This is not leadership, it's fascist foreplay, and history will not
01:02:35
be kind. [Music]