00:00:00
Trump. You're a grifting grifter. I don't know if you can stop him,
but he's, like, piling up the grift.
00:00:05
Like you can't believe. Hi, everyone. This is pivot from New York magazine
in the Vox Media podcast Network. I'm Kara swisher.
00:00:16
And I'm Scott Galloway. Scott, did you hear how my seatmate
was your favorite person on my way to California
to talk to Democrats, I can't say, oh.
00:00:24
Gordon Gekko, I mean. Speaker two Pelosi. She was delightful. She's a delightful seatmate. I must say.
00:00:32
Let me just tell you one thing about her. First of all, I recognized
it was her because it was like a
00:00:37
it was a
it was a plane full of political people. Zoe Lofgren was on there. Eric Swalwell was on there. But she she someone yelled out white
smoke really loudly at an older lady.
00:00:51
And it turned out to be her
and spent much of the beginning of the flight, having me figure out who
the Pope was for her.
00:00:58
She's, you know, quite Catholic
and carrying lots of newspapers constantly moving
throughout the entire thing.
00:01:04
I mean, she's in really good shape for
someone her of age of any age, actually. So it was fun. We had a good time,
she said. I think. She's, very fashionable. Now. She has. Well, she wearing a very comfortable
but fashionable outfit, I would say.
00:01:18
I would say very comfortable. And one of the things that struck me was
how many people came up to her.
00:01:23
I know you have antipathy towards her,
but most people don't. It was astonishing
how many people gave her notes and handed her little things,
saying they loved her and this and that.
00:01:31
It was interesting, like, I don't. I think she's been a great representative. I think she's a powerful, smart woman.
00:01:37
I also think she's, engaged
with some wild corruption. So, yeah. Not like a Katari airplane.
00:01:44
Well, we'll get to that, but. All right. But the slow creep has not helped. No, I agree
the stock thing has to be dealt
00:01:51
with throughout throughout
Congress, by the way. And and there was a Republican, who did it
who was saying he was against it.
00:01:57
And then he suddenly was doing
a lot of trading. Marjorie Taylor Greene
they shouldn't be trading. And I get and again, I think your idea of
paying them more is a great idea.
00:02:05
In order to get them off of that. The though, because another part,
you know, you're smart people, you want to make some money
and then you can't help yourself.
00:02:12
But you do have insider information
to a lot of things. Like I've said, this over and over, I'm trying to be better
about coming up with solutions.
00:02:20
I think there should be a bill,
and I think there's a decent chance would pass 1 million and a year
for representatives, 3 million a year
00:02:28
for senators,
10 million a year for the president in exchange for a zero
tolerance policy on corruption.
00:02:34
They put on drugs that. Like the Trump
people, have really taken it to the most. No, I agree, but that's that's a
that's a separate conversation.
00:02:41
I'm trying to talk about solutions. It's the Singapore model works
because what ends up happening
00:02:47
is the money they get cost
so much more in terms of loss of faith in the markets, in terms of people's
reticence to invest in certain companies.
00:02:59
It's just, That probably I'm going to agree with you. I'm going to agree with you all. I have to say is, I love a lady who has
a pile of newspapers all crumpled up.
00:03:07
She pulled out stories.
She knew where everything was. It was it was quite nice, actually. Made me feel a bit different era.
00:03:13
I liked it. And that showed newspapers
crumpled. Up. You know, she carried lots of
she reads newspapers on paper
00:03:19
like, instead of digitally. And at one point
when I figured out for her who the Pope was,
like getting online and stuff like that,
00:03:28
she had, him. And then she fished out
of this pile of newspapers an article The New York Times had done on this
particular man who became the Pope.
00:03:37
And she was like, I wonder
if he's too conservative like she he was. She was like, immediately
just out of this.
00:03:43
She was almost like the Wikipedia herself. It was really interesting. Anyway. Yeah. The guy who lived
across the hall from me and,
00:03:51
the faculty housing also collected
newspapers, also spoke himself and was 108. I just have seen someone
have a lot of these pick my mother.
00:03:59
I mean, you know. Anyway, it was fun. We had a good time. White smoke. Anyway, we've got,
How was your weekend, by the way?
00:04:05
I was in California very briefly to talk to Democrats
who was down in California again. And I'm back. I'm back. I'm in D.C.
00:04:12
she's going up to New York.
I'm staying with you. Just so you know, my weight graduating.
00:04:19
When are you coming here? I'm not getting. So what, are you checking into the hotel? Wednesday. Wednesday at the.
00:04:24
Hotel. Prostitution. And, yes, pastries from Baltasar. Yes. Wednesday.
Thursday. Friday. Saturday.
00:04:31
Okay, okay. My mother
self cleaning lady. Get rid of the. Get rid of the. Dodos and the condom. Okay, okay.
My mother self.
00:04:38
All right. Yeah. You're there. It was someone and, I if you want
have drinks tonight we're going to. I'm coming in today.
00:04:46
Pretend I'm coming up with a really valid
excuse for no. I'm going to do show up. I'm nearby. I'm at a hotel nearby.
00:04:53
My son had a great weekend.
I'm incredulous. It's your son. I went to the one of these new member
clubs and went to samba scented bungalows.
00:05:00
Oh, how is it?
I love that guy who runs it, Jeff. Oh, really? Yeah. You know, they're kind of all beginning
to look, smell and feel the same.
00:05:07
The differences, they're all
in the same area and are a bunch of them. So you got to want. And if you don't like the crowd,
you go to another one.
00:05:13
I mean, it's it's going to be,
So the easiest prediction in the world is there's going to be a Harvard business
00:05:18
case study on these private member's
clubs, that how it's over investment the shake out how that you try
to find their own lane and yeah.
00:05:25
Yeah. But I'm not exaggerating. I would bet
ten have opened in the last year. It's amazing.
00:05:31
They're the one in LA and it's lovely. The one in L.A is lovely. Just a guy who's a pivot fan actually. Jeff I'm like on his last name, but,
00:05:40
I love the one in L.A. It's quite lovely.
I've been there for lunch. I've been a guest to people.
00:05:45
But, did you like it? This one compared to. Yeah,
I like all of them. I'm, you know, I'm easily impressed, so,
But I think they're nice.
00:05:52
I also, I'm at the age. I don't want to. I don't want. To wait in line. I don't I want to go somewhere that
00:05:57
that they don't allow in other people
that I shouldn't be there. Yeah. You know. I need to be.
00:06:04
In a safe space. The oldest and ugliest person
in the room. Okay? And that happens at these guys.
00:06:09
So good. Would you care to say which one you like
best or not? Oh, my favorite. Is there a man?
00:06:14
Because I like the owner. And it's I think they do a nice job. And, my it's just sort of my cheers. I like it there. And it's sort of the original one that kind of took private members
clubs to the next level.
00:06:27
If I had to guess. I'm fascinated by markets. If I had to guess, I think the two
that will survive sort of the HBO
00:06:34
and the Netflix are, Zero Monde and Casa chip on it, which is has its own
kind of Eurotrash crowd.
00:06:41
And it was. A nice crowd. Yeah. And it's downtown and it's got,
it's it's got a very unique positioning.
00:06:46
And the other ones are all like, you know, Hulu and Peacock
trying to battle it out.
00:06:53
All right. Okay. It was very interesting to see what
what goes what actually survives. All right.
So I'll meet you at Zero Bond tonight.
00:06:59
That'll be great.
CB you're wearing me to TV. I well, I have to speak in front of,
See you.
00:07:04
And why is it Cooney, is that I am Cooney. I'm speaking in front of a Newmark group.
00:07:09
Craig
Newmark has funded a journalism thing. But then I'm free so you can meet me. And I'm free. You don't drink.
00:07:15
I don't not I know, I'm honest. And I'm just going to show up, I'm sure. Yeah. I'll text you.
00:07:21
You come over, we'll do edibles. Yeah. Watch Meet the Press on my computer. And now sometime that's what I do.
00:07:27
That's literally what I do at night. I take edibles and I watch Meet the Press on the computer,
and I get really depressed. Mind you, tonight I eat, and then I go
to the theater tomorrow night.
00:07:34
Oh, my God, I can't think of anything. I'd rather less. Do I go to the thing.
That was you trying to up it?
00:07:41
That was you
try to, like, go one more. Yeah. No, no. Yeah. I'm. I'm interviewing Barry Diller.
00:07:48
I'm going on Nicole Wallace's
new, new podcast. I was on Nicole's thing. She's good. But you were on her show.
00:07:54
Show? She's on your podcast, too
now, everybody. Oh, really? Podcast. Yeah. So
I got I'm going to speak at a school here.
00:07:59
Yeah sure. I got, I got
this is literally how it is dying. You've done a lot lately.
Yeah I'm a total fucking horror lately.
00:08:05
So yeah. Anyway so when I'm in New York
I just say yes to everything. Almost. Everything. Not me, I see. Yes. You could. Well, come on, I know you. Go ahead. Anyways,
00:08:18
a CBS mornings or whatever
it's called with Gayle King reached out. So do you want to come on? And I said,
yeah, I've never been on the show.
00:08:23
I my understanding
is it gets a huge audience who. Does. Actually like Gayle King
for all the shit shit she's getting.
00:08:28
I like. Her. Yeah, I do too,
except for the flight thing, but go ahead. Okay, whatever.
You know, I've done worse. You. Exactly.
00:08:34
That's how I feel. And so their big assignment,
they do a precursor to a frickin preco,
00:08:40
like eight people. Oh, I decline those. You did them decline? No, my. Okay, my team agreed to it.
00:08:46
I don't do pre calls for talks or I get paid six figures, but they decide
I need to do it for CBS morning.
00:08:52
Okay. Hard
now anyway so I'm on with like eight. Very attractive intelligent pretty somethings
00:08:57
who are literally a third of the age of
their viewership is a program, you know, as they as they figure out
programing for people 140
00:09:03
and they're taking asks me
all these questions about young man and the economy and tariffs. We talk for 45 minutes and then I go,
can you tell me a little bit
00:09:11
about the segment. And they said it's with Gayle King. And I said how long is it.
And I said 4.5 minutes.
00:09:16
And I said, I'm not doing it. And I like what you do again. You've done this before. I'm not I'm not getting up at,
oh, dark hundred hours,
00:09:25
putting on a suit, coming to midtown,
getting in a makeup chair to speak to 800,007
year olds for 4.5 minutes. And.
00:09:31
And they were so shocked.
Oh, good for you. And and then, by the way, same night.
00:09:37
And I'm bragging, I went on Nicole
Wallace's show for 40 minutes. Yeah, yeah, but I'm supposed. To go on.
00:09:43
And the thing is, they don't get it. See? But did you
did you go on? I did, you know, I went.
00:09:49
No, I said I'm out. Oh wait. This is not
I said the juices and work the squeeze. I'm pissed off at my. Team for agreeing.
Yeah.
00:09:55
Am I going? It's bad for my brand
to show up with Gayle King for four and a half fucking minutes. That makes me look important. Support.
00:10:01
And they seem so shocked. And this is the thing. Broadcast news or just cable news. Yeah. You're.
00:10:07
It's one thing that you're dying,
but it's another thing. You don't realize it yet. Yeah, but I had they.
00:10:13
Literally seemed shocked that I wasn't
going to haul my ass to Midtown to be on the Gayle King
for four and a half. Minutes.
00:10:19
Yeah. Yep. I agree with you. I though the call before I see
I always return down. I was like,
now you can read my threads for.
00:10:26
4.5 minutes. Yay! We spent 40 minutes
talking through these issues and they want me to answer
like one question.
00:10:32
What Gayle. King. In 8:04 a.m. now Gayle King. Thanks. So I can sell more opioid induced
constipation.
00:10:39
You're never going to meet Oprah now.
Oh well. Oh that's right they're good.
They're they're good. Good friends. Best friend.
00:10:44
They're good friends. BFFs. Be if it's our best friend. It really, truly is. Well, that's a nice story.
00:10:50
Anyway, I'm so hungry. It's an ounce, so I'm agreeing to do it. Because it's anything I.
00:10:55
As long as it's substance. Nicole Wallace, she's great. Hello? Moderate. We like her.
00:11:00
We like, No. Moderate, I love her.
I think she's really great. And then I'm. I'm Barry Diller. You.
00:11:06
I'm a very excited in person.
We're going to do it in person. You want it? Yeah, because I'm excited. The book is wonderful.
00:11:12
Wonderful. Do you want some
more inside baseball? That, What? So what are the TV did you turn down?
00:11:18
No. This activist investor. Smart, smart young guys called me. They. They're thinking
about taking a big position
00:11:25
or they already have an IAC. And they wanted me to join their group,
and I'm like, there's no fucking way
I'm going up against her.
00:11:33
I'm like, one or more of us
will end up in the river. I'm like, and they're like, what? Are you scared of them all right.
00:11:39
Yeah, I'm really scared of him. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm I'm like, good luck with that.
00:11:44
And by the way, you don't know me. Yeah. And I said that I love Barry Diller
and I want nothing to.
00:11:51
Do I do an. Activist play against Barry. Events against I say. Anyway, we've got a lot to get to today,
including Maggie's meltdown over the Pope
00:11:59
vote Pope
and the return of Elizabeth Holmes. Sort of. I guess. But first, the U.S.
00:12:05
and China have reached a deal
to roll back the sky high tariffs they've imposed on each other,
at least for the next 90 days.
00:12:10
Another 90 day thing. Under the deal, the US tariffs on China
will drop from 145% to 30%,
00:12:17
while China will cut its own tariffs
on American goods from 125% to 10%. These tariffs
reductions will go into effect Wednesday. China also said it will suspend
or cancel tariff countermeasures,
00:12:28
including restrictions on rare earth metals that have been hitting
automakers and chip makers. The markets are thrilled by this
China deal.
00:12:35
The Dow surged 1000 points at the opening
bell. No surprise Treasury Secretary Scott
Bassett was on just on CNBC,
00:12:42
calling this a pause and saying he expects to meet with China in the coming weeks
to work out a larger agreement.
00:12:47
I mean, what like, why are we good? Why don't we do this? I guess to get them to do this,
is this better, better or worse?
00:12:54
I can't even tell because of
the specifics. Are are not there. Besson also said
neither side wants a decoupling,
00:13:00
meaning
we want to get along with the Chinese. That's probably. Hello,
we already knew that. If you're a American company right now,
I don't know what your next move is.
00:13:07
And Scott,
how many dollars are you buying me? That's what I really want to know. But talk about this deal, I guess.
00:13:14
This is capitulation. Yeah. You don't show up, and Levy say you're
letting hundred, hundred, 45%, and then.
00:13:20
And then a week later,
start negotiating against yourself and saying they're unsustainable. And so why did you put that number
00:13:26
out there to begin with
and then say there's a temporary target, interim. Tariff, 30. Percent. And, this is a reality China gets kind of
gets what they want because China
00:13:39
has made a strategic decision
to divest from the US. They have taken the percentage of their
exports from 24% to 17, which is huge.
00:13:48
When you look at the size
and as we pretend that we're take is much bigger than it is,
we're the third largest trading partner.
00:13:55
We're not even number one. So they're fine to slowly
but surely go through a measure decoupling actually, or reduction
in dependance upon us.
00:14:04
Trump has created so much ill will. I mean, do you realize,
and this is the thing
00:14:11
people don't realize in terms of brand
for the first time in history, when you do when there was a national,
a global pull down of global consumers know for the first time in history
more people see China
00:14:24
as a positive force in the world
than the US. I cannot believe that I saw so. When opting for
where should my kid go to graduate school?
00:14:32
Where should
who should I do business with? Who am I, a client? What kind of business
am I inclined to meet with?
00:14:38
What widget or aircraft should I buy? Chinese or American? More people around the globe
for the first time now pick China.
00:14:45
Yes, an authoritarian communist country
that kind of follows this view. It is. Yeah. It's so ridiculous. What we've done here. Show. And then just on a more economic level
in terms of capital outflows
00:14:59
in the wake of this nonsense, investors
have rushed to the exits on all dollar denominated investments in the US, dollar
index is down 6% year to date. More than 10 billion has been wiped
out of the, for the stock market.
00:15:13
The Magnificent Seven alone lost you know,
2 trillion on April 3rd and fourth. So there's just this is just a massive attempt to claim some sort of
00:15:26
Pyrrhic victory
in exchange for massively trading off the equity that we have developed
over the last eight years.
00:15:35
This is just, just stupid. Again, these these guys don't understand
business. They don't understand negotiation. They don't understand
even our dollar dominance.
00:15:48
People estimate that we get interest rates
on mortgages, student loans and credit cards of between
a half a percent and a percent lower
00:15:56
because so many people buy
our dollars to invest here. And so the real damage is incremental.
00:16:03
It's like a virus that's eating away
that you can't even identify. It's all these little it's,
you know, death by a thousand cuts in
00:16:10
America has taken for granted
just how powerful having the dollar's the reserve currency,
having these inflows of capital,
00:16:16
having people feel decent
goodwill about us. And he's torn those up so that we can go
to 30% temporary tariffs.
00:16:23
Yeah. So it'll make it more obvious. All this 90 day nonsense
I mean wouldn't your business tell me,
00:16:29
how do you plan your business.
How do you know? I guess you're relieved that now
we're not being insane and ruining like.
00:16:35
But it's already wrecked
a bunch of people's businesses. It's thrown planning out the window. And what do you do?
00:16:41
Because you don't know
what this lunatics going to do next. And I don't mean China.
00:16:46
Yeah, they're like, I don't
I mean, we've talked a lot about this. I their America is meant to be
a platform for, for rights
00:16:56
to protect our shores and
and first off, Americans love their stuff. And so a 30% tariff is enough
to kind of get trade unclogged again.
00:17:07
But it'll be it'll be essentially
the percent of exports the US will go
probably from 17 down to 15 or 12.
00:17:13
And then the next time we try to do it, a
our products are going to get more expensive here. Give some of the Christmas
00:17:19
tree, every business
and all the shit they order. From China. It'll make it the cost of doing business
more expensive.
00:17:26
And it's done
huge damage, to our reputation. It's just we're no longer
seen as a reliable trading partner.
00:17:33
I think, actually, interestingly enough,
a big one is Europe. Who's going to find a lot of. They're going to be able to negotiate,
00:17:38
get a lot of products on sale as China
tries to get these factories humming. And I heard. That they were doing that. They were keeping up
sales across the globe.
00:17:45
It's just this is just
and then the stock will probably rally because of this,
because we're getting out of idiocy.
00:17:51
It looks like Scott, since just a clean up
lady like on aisle five. Essentially. Correct?
Yeah. It's a good way to put it. Yeah.
00:17:58
Anyway, speaking of also ridiculous,
President Trump is heading out, on the first major overseas
trip of his second term
00:18:05
this week, with stops in Saudi
Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates,
presumably to collect new bags of money.
00:18:11
The trip comes as Trump administration
plans to accept a $400 million luxury Boeing 747 800 from Qatar,
possibly the largest foreign gift in U.S.
00:18:20
history. The plane will be retrofitted
to be used as Air Force One, which I don't even want to think
about the security implications
00:18:26
and donated to Trump's
presidential library when he leaves office,
allowing him to still use it despite all the ethical questions
being raised.
00:18:33
Trump called it a very public
and transparent transaction. On Truth Social and Press
Secretary Carolyn Leavitt.
00:18:38
Tracy Flick,
who was just so bad, said in the statement any gift given by a foreign government
00:18:43
is always accepted in full compliance
with all applicable laws. It's the grittiest grift. Yet, I mean, this is just a note.
00:18:50
The Trump family struck a deal to build a luxury golf resort in Qatar
a few weeks ago. I mean, I would
00:18:58
it's all in plain sight, I guess is
the only good thing we could say about it. All the billions they're making and taking
from these, these Arab countries.
00:19:05
And he wants to call the, the, the Gulf,
the Persian Gulf, the Gulf of Arabia. Now, another one, I mean, what is why does he just go there in his plane
and live there for the rest of his life?
00:19:17
I don't know what else to say
because I was looking for a place to go. If he ever gets convicted of anything.
00:19:23
I don't honestly know
what's happening here. But again, I go to the brand. You know how stupid
this makes us like that?
00:19:29
We have to have it. Rich Qataris buy the president
a plane that's manufactured here, right?
00:19:35
We're the most prosperous nation
in the world. Yeah, but we need a government that
00:19:42
an authoritarian government that sponsors
the Houthis and Hamas. To give us a flier. Yeah, Hamas. And I have. So I have a group of friends from college,
00:19:55
mostly Jews, who are pro Trump. They can kind of hold their nose around
the man and his policies.
00:20:01
But they found that Biden and Harris is wavering around
Israel was really disappointing. And so they're they're quite frankly,
they're pro Trump or they voted for Trump
00:20:09
because they see him
as more resolute on Israel. Sure. This is, Qatar basically is the diplomatic
00:20:17
mouthpiece and funds Hamas. And so the notion that the Trump
administration gave a flying fuck about
00:20:24
anti-Semitism as they tried to implement
thought control across our universities and is meanwhile saying that Middle East
00:20:31
policy is now pay for play, that he's
now the ultimate frequent. There's now a new frequent flier
category for Qatar Airlines.
00:20:39
And the president
is the only person on it. And in exchange,
they're going to have leverage over
00:20:46
a guy
who claims to be focused on antisemitism. I mean, it's
just it's just I find I find that
00:20:54
Jews in America that support Trump are kind of like, okay. Yeah, that there's like the white
Christian nationalist the of angelic calls
00:21:03
are big font
really fond of Jews in Israel. But if you actually do a little bit of
digging, the reason they're fond of Jews
00:21:10
is a little bit unsettling. They think we're part
of their master plan. When Jesus comes back. Yeah.
00:21:16
It's like, okay, just dig a little deep on
what their plan is for us. And it's all about the end times.
00:21:21
Just so you know, I have relatives. I hear a lot about the
do you know what I did? The the bumper sticker my brother made for
my relatives who were very, very,
00:21:30
charismatic Christians.
I guess I would call them. What's that? He made a he made them. They're lovely people, but they're
00:21:38
they have varying degrees of religiosity. But she, he made, my aunt,
a bumper sticker said
00:21:44
when the rapture comes,
can I have your stuff? I thought that was going to be funnier.
00:21:50
How is Doctor Swisher? He's good. Is good. He's in Portland
visiting his son right now. He's got his sons in Oregon.
00:21:56
Yeah, one of his sons. Yeah.
The other lives in Australia. And his daughter is in the Dominican
Republic right now teaching.
00:22:03
Wow. I can totally see that. What does the son do in Portland? He's working on electrical engineering,
I think.
00:22:08
Oh, good for him
at the University of Oregon. One of them. Yeah, yeah. He's. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
00:22:14
Well, I can't say what Alex would be doing
because he signed an NDA, but Alex is doing an energy
related internship this summer.
00:22:20
I'm not exaggerating. When, your son took me and my son to work,
and we asked him to lunch
00:22:25
when we're touring
the University of Michigan, we asked him
what he was doing over the summer, and he looked around as if
there were spies about to take notes.
00:22:32
And I'm like, Alex,
you're not that important. Yes, not that important. He is. Don't tell him he loves you.
00:22:37
Do not say that
he's listening. Right. Okay. He says, what is he? He's going to a sophomore
where he's literally like, okay.
00:22:44
He's like,
you can't tell anyone about this. You know what? He's a very, very I love that kid.
00:22:49
You had a great weekend. Yeah. You love him like a son? No, I don't think he's
going to be a billionaire. And we should be
speaking of being scared of people.
00:22:55
You know. I'm glad he's on our show. It's going to take care. I'm glad he's on our side.
I when we're older. No, he's going to be. He's
going to be my bodyguard.
00:23:01
And also figure out what
what technology keeps me alive to 200. I think you can build something
really significant, I feel.
00:23:09
Yeah, he's got that kind of crazy
smart chain. Anyway. We can't say what he's doing. He's under NDA.
00:23:14
I know it's total like. I love that about him. Anyway. Trump, you're a grifting grifter,
that's all.
00:23:20
I don't know what to say. I don't know if we can stop him,
but he's, like, piling up the grift. Like you can't believe.
00:23:25
All right, when we get back, how
the new pope is riling up the MAGA world. And we'll also discuss
some our favorite pope memes.
00:23:31
Because I love a pope meme. Scott. We're back. The Pope Leo
the 14th, the first American pope, laid
00:23:37
out a vision of his papacy
over the weekend, identifying I as one of the most critical issues
facing humanity was interesting.
00:23:43
He was also sporting an Apple Watch,
his first official mass. He also seems to be very techie Pope.
00:23:49
Let's invite him on the show.
That would be great. And when many of cheered
the election of American Pope, the MAGA folks are not happy.
00:23:54
Activist Laura Loomer branded him woke Marxist Pope Steve Bannon
predicted friction with Trump. As for people, Pope
Leo's political leanings.
00:24:02
Voting records show
the Chicago native has participated in Republican and Democratic primaries
in various elections.
00:24:08
An X account under
his name has criticized Trump's policies in the past and also rebuke JD
Vance back in February.
00:24:13
He's got a crazy Trumpy brother. Whoo! Whoo hoo! What was he saying? He's saying
a bunch of things that are really nutty.
00:24:20
One brothers comma. His two brothers,
the older one is in seems insane. He's, as you said, from Chicago, is he has a background,
interestingly, of Creole and from Haiti.
00:24:32
He's got a really interesting, you know, there's calling me
also the black pope. But he's definitely got,
00:24:38
they did some really interesting
reporting on that, which is cool. He's been all over the world. He's very international.
Seems fascinating.
00:24:46
So we'll get to the memes in a bit. What do you think of this Pope Leo? And so far, he seems very vibrant
and exciting and, interesting.
00:24:55
I think he's the pope
because of Donald Trump. I think that if you look
at the new leaders of Australia
00:25:02
and or the existing leaders of Australia
and Canada, basically Trump got them elected and he got them elected
00:25:08
because the other their opponents
were more closely associated with Trump. So Trump is basically
anyone who's not Trump or represents
00:25:16
a push back on his policies, is a sending
in the most powerful positions in the world. I think that's what happened here.
00:25:22
I think the papacy or the papacy
takes very seriously how they can have the most impact.
00:25:27
And if you look at when the Eastern Bloc
was really going through a difficult time, they decided
to pick someone from the Eastern Bloc.
00:25:34
They picked Pope John Paul
the second from Poland. I think they see there's a relevance
00:25:40
and a
and a means of adding value by saying, when a place is struggling,
we pick someone from there in hopes
00:25:46
that they serve
as sort of a moral standard bearer. My father in law absolutely adores
Pope John Paul the second.
00:25:52
He's he's, born and raised in Poland. And I think that it's no accident
that they've decided that America needs,
00:25:59
a pope, that they need somebody. I mean, the best, the best line that identifies or marks this very dark moment in American history
is what Bill gates said in
00:26:12
that is that the richest man in the world
is killing the world's poorest children.
00:26:17
And I thought, Jesus Christ, that's puncturing and sad
and that kind of identifies,
00:26:23
that kind of identifies our, our, our,
our MAGA politics right now. And I think that the, the, the Cardinals
who elect, I think they decided that America need is in desperate
need of a moral standard bearer.
00:26:38
And the world needs
someone that America will take seriously. You know, I think it's so much about like,
00:26:45
how did my generation fuck up so bad? And I was thinking, and for me,
it all comes back to a personal parable.
00:26:51
My. You're doing a parable. Well, my my youngest is always built. He's got the most wonderful grandparents
and his current wife.
00:27:00
Parents, correct. Yeah. My grandparents went on average
expectancy. You know,
everyone says I'm going to live forever.
00:27:06
Like none of my grandparents
made it past 50. Now. Anyways. So he's just the most wonderful man.
00:27:12
Took over the family room
to build a train set for the for the boys. And he's always with, with,
my youngest built these Legos
00:27:20
and and this time he came over. My youngest is 14 and into a girl
and snap and fashion and football.
00:27:28
And they built about half of it. And then he said, you know, Georgia,
I don't I don't want to do this.
00:27:34
I don't feel like it. I'm, you know, he wasn't enjoying it
that much. And I could tell it was very upsetting. It's like one of those moments
when you feel like that's
00:27:40
probably the last time I'll pick up my kid, or the last time
I'll build a Lego with my grandson.
00:27:45
And I was trying to figure
out a way to say to him, look, that's not cool. Even if you didn't want to build this
or finish it, you should have realized
00:27:54
this was important to your grandfather
and finished it. And what I've been thinking about is that,
00:28:01
you know, I'm writing a lot about,
becoming a man. I think that my generation
and our politics
00:28:08
have become more about our feelings
as opposed to our values, and that is, we don't do a good enough job
of identifying values
00:28:16
and then basing those actions and those political views off
those values, as opposed to just what makes us feel good
or feel like we're part of a tribe,
00:28:23
or feels some sort of thrill
because the other side looks stupid or feels confirmation
because we're signed up for whatever narrative with the party
we've chosen believes.
00:28:35
But I do think there's a there's
a degradation or a move away from values and as a guiding light as.
00:28:41
Opposed to just feels like this guy. This guy is really God. I mean, he's not afraid. He's called he's called Russia's invasion.
00:28:49
You know,
he said Russia's living wickedness. He's not afraid to tweet about shit.
00:28:54
And, I like to think that the, the church has said,
all right, there needs to be
00:29:02
some sort of rejuvenation
or a move back towards values in the West as opposed to what everyone thinks
is going to make them feel good.
00:29:09
Depends on what your values are there, because there's a very conservative shift
in many people in the U.S, the the most,
00:29:16
devout. And I'm using that term loosely. Are the, the conservative groups that are
sort of machination behind the scenes.
00:29:24
In the, in the Catholic Church,
there's a whole groups of, of, very conservative Catholics.
00:29:29
And JD Vance is a convert, obviously. And is among those in
the concepts are much
00:29:35
more old Latin pope like Benedict. Let's go back to before Ben,
before Vatican Two and everything else.
00:29:42
And I agree, I think this guy is a choice
that they make. I happen to be Catholic. I don't know what you're really.
00:29:47
I don't even know what your religion is. But I my grandmother went to mass
every day.
00:29:52
I got confirmed I never went inside
a Catholic church since. Really? I did that for her. But, it's a there's a real movement. Either it goes quite left or quite right.
00:30:06
And, and it's, it's
responding to growth in Latin America and Africa in different places,
I think, where there's more conservatism.
00:30:14
But there is a real conservative, shift
in this country. And I think Pope Francis was smart to pick
all those cardinals.
00:30:20
There's one pope that's France. I mean, excuse me, one cardinal. That's
Cardinal Dolan in New York who's, his,
00:30:28
his favorite one who's quite conservative. And I have to say,
Nancy Pelosi, me, gave me a walk through all the conservative cardinals
in, in the, in the country.
00:30:36
She's obviously she's not allowed to be, to get communion in San Francisco. But I think other priests
give her communion in some fashion. But, there's a real
there's a real struggle going on.
00:30:48
So this should be
a really interesting pope. But more importantly,
there's pope jokes, which are really good,
00:30:54
you know, whatever. If Laura Loomer and Steve Bannon do like
something, sign me up, I think, but,
00:31:01
you share in the Chicago Pope, one, which
looks like a new TV show coming to NBC. Very funny. The Wiener Circle,
which I love in Chicago, the famous.
00:31:08
It's the famous Chicago hot dog stand where they insult
you, puts a Latin translation. And he has eaten our dogs and their sign.
00:31:14
Someone posted on X smart play for the Vatican to go
with an American Pope to avoid tariffs. That was cute.
00:31:20
And Stephen Colbert put it, Holy Father,
you had me at JD. Vance is wrong. Did you have any other pope
means you like?
00:31:26
Did you have a joke yourself? I feel like you might have a Pope joke. Maybe you don't. Okay, you know, I the churches,
they're just religious institutions.
00:31:33
They're just are some limits
to even what I will say about the church and al papa and,
you know, I.
00:31:41
Mean, we go. I will say it was struck
me as kind of unusual when the pope said pets should not replace
children.
00:31:48
In Italy. I guess he doesn't like priests
practicing bestiality. Oh, I knew that was coming.
00:31:53
Sorry, folks. Won't stop pants. Do you know, Michael Che did a good one. You know, that that, Trump's Pope
picture was juvenile.
00:32:02
You'd think the Catholics would like it. Get it? But religion's
actually not that different. Jews don't recognize Christ, Anglicans
don't recognize the Pope,
00:32:09
and Baptists don't recognize each
other at the liquor store. Do you want me to keep going? One more, one more, one more. Pope joke. The staff says no,
but I say yes because I.
00:32:23
Says. No. No, I got one more. Well, no. Am I the only Catholic in my Jewish
fraternity?
00:32:29
Was my roommate Mike vote. And he wasn't circumcised. We used to get high and make him
show us his penis.
00:32:35
And we'd make an eater jokes. That's not really a pope, Joe. Oh, that's strange,
but you guys move on that why don't.
00:32:41
You guys are asking? All right. And chaos at Newark Airport continues
as of Monday, the airport has been hit
00:32:47
with three outages in under two weeks. U.S. airlines are meeting with the FAA
this week to discuss cutting Newark
00:32:53
flights. Transportation Secretary Sean
Duffy was on Meet the Press this weekend. Let's listen to what
this dingbat has to say.
00:32:59
I'm concerned
about the whole airspace, right? The equipment that we use, much of it. We can't buy parts for new.
00:33:06
We have to go on eBay and buy parts. If one part goes down. You're dealing with really old equipment. We're dealing with copper wires.
00:33:12
Not fiber, not high speed fiber. And so this is this is concern. Is it safe? Yes. We have redundancies,
multiple redundancies in place to keep you safe when you fly.
00:33:24
But we should also recognize Racine. Racine, stress on an old network,
and it's time to fix it. Yes.
00:33:30
So, George, of course,
they asked him about Dodge, and he sort of kind of squirreled around on the cuts
that Elon was trying to make there.
00:33:38
One of them was so weird
that I was reading about this weekend that Dodge made it so you couldn't
charge anything more than a dollar
00:33:45
to your credit card, your government
credit card, because I can't buy paper and pens right now
because of that stupidity.
00:33:51
So Newark, I don't fly out of New York. I tend not to. I try not to. I go out of JFK or LaGuardia,
but when I'm in New York at any
00:34:00
any thoughts about concerns
about air travel, what he had to say. Newark is a great airport. And this doesn't, in my opinion,
this doesn't reflect on them.
00:34:08
What it reflects on is that or look, it's
pretty basic fucking logic. When Lloyd Austin
00:34:13
was the secretary of defense, jets
weren't falling off of aircraft carriers. Yeah. And when Pete Buttigieg
was the secretary of transportation,
00:34:22
we didn't have near misses
and shutdowns at airports because air traffic controllers are so demoralized
and there's not enough of them.
00:34:29
And this guy figures out a way
to do his interpretive dance and blame. I actually saw him blame Schumer for this
and all these tropes around around.
00:34:38
Yeah, it's the safest form of transit.
Do your fucking job. Yeah. This is a totally unacceptable, people.
00:34:45
Well. But what do you want? If people want prosperity,
money is the transfer of time and work.
00:34:53
And when you're delaying people for hours
and sometimes days at a time because of your incompetence and decision
to bring in someone who knows absolutely
00:35:00
nothing about government and start
making reckless cuts, that results in, not only a reduction at safety,
but a massive expansion in the amount of people
and the amount of time people
00:35:12
that's taken away from their families
and their work and economic productivity. Again, it's another one of these slow
burning, slow burn of our prosperity.
00:35:20
And yeah, everything you're saying
is right, but they're they're all. This is his. He is responsible. What is he doing right now
to solve the problem?
00:35:33
A newer or Yemen young. Everybody else is wrong.
That's what they do. Okay. You know, I, I don't I.
00:35:39
Agree, it's like,
when did this suddenly happen? Oh, now it's because now we're here
and we figured it out.
00:35:44
No, now you're here
and you're an incompetent administrator of a very critical part
of our infrastructure guy.
00:35:51
This guy seems dumb as a box of hammers. Again, this is another thing
that I just don't think Americans.
00:35:57
And unfortunately,
they're about to learn the hard way. How incredible our FAA and our government
00:36:04
employees and, the regulations
and the certification and the suit check. As someone who's loved aviation
their whole life has been molesting
00:36:11
the Earth for 30 years, and it's flown
probably tens of millions of miles. And I'm fascinated with planes
and aviation. People don't appreciate what they were.
00:36:22
They realized very early on is
we're not going to make it like cars where there's an acceptable number of deaths,
10,000,
00:36:29
you know,
what is it, 20,000 traffic deaths a year? Because it's worth it. They said, no,
this is so uncomfortable to begin with. To put people in a cylindrical tube
with re circulated air
00:36:43
and then convince them
it's safe to travel at 8/10 the speed of sound
across the surface of the atmosphere.
00:36:48
Quite frankly, it's just unsettling. It does not feel natural. But if we can connect the world,
if we can give people the opportunity
00:36:57
to fly around the world safely,
we're going to have the most unbelievable unlock in terms of of human
00:37:04
capital being willing to go
to its greatest return. Okay, I can, I did this for ten years.
00:37:10
I commuted to New York. I wanted to live in Florida
because it was better for my kids, but I still needed to work in New York,
so I commuted. Why?
00:37:18
Because you can get on a plane and travel
a thousand miles and then try it. Commute a thousand miles because it's that safe and it's that comfortable
and it's that inexpensive.
00:37:28
These things are so overengineered. They are so safe. If we had anything resembling the fatality
00:37:35
rates of automobiles,
no one would get out. So if you've ever flown
in other countries, you know that.
00:37:41
Because when planes
go down, it's horrific. And it strikes the very difficult part
of our
00:37:48
of our instinctual fear
because we're land mammals. So the idea of dying in the air seems
especially upsetting to us right now.
00:37:57
And so they have totally overrun,
engineered these things. I mean, I've, I've owned planes.
00:38:03
The amount of safety
it would be imagine a car and every six weeks someone had to show
up, check the spark plugs, replace them.
00:38:12
If your tires showed anywhere,
they have to replace the tires. They test the thing over and over.
00:38:18
They they they detonate the airbags
to make sure they're working and then put them back to make sure
this thing will not
00:38:25
that are almost all airline
disasters are pilot error. And then they'd have very talented
people coordinate all of this
00:38:33
while it's sometimes there's
12,000 planes in the air at the same time. Yeah. This the fact that it's messing up
now is really a testament to the Trump
00:38:41
administration and the demonization
of our government workers, which is really gone far, too far. There's one thing to be critical and want
improvements in the money we're spending.
00:38:49
But this is this,
guys is seems like an imbecile. And the Trump ministration is just
presiding over like really low quality
00:38:58
executives everywhere,
which is not a surprise. All right, Scott,
let's go on a quick break.
00:39:03
When we come back, you'll never guess what kind of company
Elizabeth Holmes partner is starting. Scott. We're back.
00:39:08
We're going to make quick work of this,
I think. While Elizabeth Holmes is in prison
for defrauding investors, her partner and father of her children
is raising money
00:39:15
for a company that wait for it
claims to be the future of diagnostics. Billy Evans is distributing
marketing materials, claiming the company
00:39:22
and I, Hemanth this
I think that's what it's called, is a radically new approach to health testing
and will test blood, saliva and urine.
00:39:29
The company is probably aiming
to raise over $50 million. We'll start testing pets with the goal of developing a stamp size
wearable product for humans, marketing
00:39:37
materials reviewed by The New York Times
say there is no regulatory oversight. Investor presentations
probably did not mention Evans
00:39:43
relationship to Elizabeth Holmes. Will there
be free trials at the fire fest, too?
00:39:48
I just, you know, I believe in pivoting,
but this seems a little bit too much on the nose. I don't know anything about it.
00:39:55
What do you think? Well, I got a lot of shit for it,
but I thought Elizabeth Holmes sounds was overdone.
00:40:01
I agree. I have to. I agree with you with this.
I agree with you. Given what other people have done.
00:40:07
And I found it unsettling. Only 2% of of founders of unicorns
are female and want you know, I didn't think
there was a lot different between. What what?
00:40:18
Adam Neumann did and Elizabeth Holmes,
they both lied to their board. They both exaggerated.
00:40:24
Yeah. And I like a different set
of circumstances. I think things could have been
much different.
00:40:29
And people say, well, it's
health, it's different. She basically lied to the board
and exaggerated the results, which,
00:40:35
quite frankly,
unicorn executives everywhere do. And I agree she was guilty. I agree she should have gone to jail. And I said publicly I thought ten years
was overdone for a first offense
00:40:46
for a nonviolent criminal. And her husband reached out to me and asked me if I would get involved
in a campaign to get out of jail.
00:40:53
I said, like I said, this isn't
this just isn't something I'm emotionally invested in. I can't help.
00:40:59
I think he's doing him
and her a disservice by doing this, because all he's doing is bringing
attention to the fact that she did commit
00:41:05
a crime and commit fraud,
because that'll be the story here. The story won't be the start up. Whether it's a good idea or a bad idea,
the story will be reminding everybody
00:41:15
that his wife, who's in prison
and should be in prison, committed fraud. So I just don't think he's,
I don't think he's being smart about this. I don't I think this is strategically.
00:41:28
You know what I always wonder? Young people. It's so hard to read the label
from inside of the bottle.
00:41:36
Young people. Everybody needs to establish a kitchen
cabinet of people. And people are willing to do it
because people love to give advice,
00:41:41
because it makes them feel important. Or you can just call them and say, hey, I'm thinking about starting
a diagnostics company.
00:41:47
And somebody would say, okay,
you realize you're going to bring attention to your wife's
who is in prison for fraud, for lying
00:41:55
about the financial results
and the capabilities of a similar company. Have you thought this through anyone
he reached out to who cared about him
00:42:05
and was was honest,
would have given him that advice. So I. Hear this. I just think about this across
all of these people. When they make these decisions, it's like,
don't they have friends?
00:42:17
I have a I have a, a friend
who's literally a master of the universe. And he was talking to me about his baby
mamas and, and and what's going on
within his personal life in relationships.
00:42:30
And I said, I said, don't
you have friends? I could. You talk to about this stuff, could.
00:42:36
You drop some real. I said to him, I said, don't
you have friends because this guy
00:42:41
is literally one of the most impressive
people I've ever met. On any issue, he can give you
the most reasoned, thoughtful,
00:42:48
and then you hear about his personal life
and it's like, so you just took every piece
of bad judgment across your entire life
00:42:54
and stuffed it into your relationship
with women. Yeah, you don't make it just a couple. Phone calls to people saying,
hey, I'm checking in.
00:43:01
I could use your advice.
What do you think? What do you think about this? Yeah. Taylor, for clarification,
she's not, Evans.
00:43:09
His wife, Scott,
she's his partner and mother of the kids. They're together. Oh,
but they are actually married. That's already married ish.
00:43:15
Married adjacent, married ish. And finally, OpenAI and Microsoft
are negotiating the terms of their partnership
to allow OpenAI to launch a future IPO.
00:43:23
According to the Financial Times. Microsoft has invested
$13 billion in the company today
00:43:28
and is reportedly willing
to give up some of its equity in exchange for access to new technology
developed beyond
00:43:33
the 20, 30, cut off. Oh, there's going to be an IPO here. This is interesting. It's the one with the most revenues,
the most users, etc., etc. and I think they've got a run ahead
of everybody else.
00:43:45
Correct? I mean that this is a race. This is like them
and they are in the lead at this moment. It doesn't mean
they're going to stay in the lead.
00:43:52
A lot of the open systems like llama,
a lot of people feel that that's going to really dominate that,
that that, that meta.
00:44:00
Well, so any thoughts on this
because you're, you're Mr. Equity. This this
all this all this, it makes sense.
00:44:07
So what's happened is there's been a total the number of companies
that have publicly traded has been cut in half
in the last couple of decades
00:44:13
because there's been mergers
and acquisitions, and the private markets have have captured
00:44:20
a lot of the innovation and attributes
that used to be sequestered to the public markets. Specifically, you can now raise billions
00:44:26
or even tens of billions
in the private market. You can get liquidity for your employees because there's an active
secondary market.
00:44:31
And also you can avoid all regulation
and scrutiny and make kind of harder, tougher, deeper decisions without
the scrutiny of public earnings calls.
00:44:39
What you what you have in open
AI and the reason they will go public is that OpenAI is taking
and Sam is brilliant.
00:44:46
He'll go down is,
I think, one of the very kind of the iconic business leaders
of this generation. He realizes that this is an Amazon slash
Netflix play and that is
00:44:55
it is very difficult for
open it for any AI to establish technological differentiation,
because I just crawls it when you ask
00:45:03
deep seek,
what limit was for the first ten days it said I'm, I'm open AI yeah. So these things reverse engineer
each other. So this is a capital war around
getting the best talent, get it striking
00:45:15
the best
deals, making acquisitions and tokens. And now he's in an altitude
where he doesn't need to spend billions.
00:45:22
He needs to spend tens of billions. And the way the way he'll be able to do
that is by going
00:45:29
public and getting,
you know, a 400, $500 billion valuation. So it does make sense for him.
00:45:35
It's got huge sex appeal, global appeal. It's the fastest
I think 0 to $10 billion run rate.
00:45:41
Yeah. What is it I think. It's a five.
Billion dollar right. Or something like that. Yeah. But it'll get it'll be useful.
00:45:48
It'll have a $10 billion run rate. Pretty soon it'll go he, he needs to
basically this is a capital war.
00:45:55
He's going to outspend everybody. And there are a few companies
that can't find enough capital
00:46:00
on the private markets.
This is probably one of them he needs. He's had hired a very adept executive,
the former,
00:46:07
CEO, former,
I think, meta person or Googler. Who is the former CEO of Instacart
who's going to really run this? It's the Sheryl Sandberg moment
here in that regard.
00:46:21
To, to run the companies
a lot of the business parts of it. So they really need to run
fast and run hard.
00:46:26
And they I think most people feel meta
is their biggest. The open, source meta
is their biggest competitor.
00:46:35
And Mark has is
it has no guardrails of anything. So we'll see what happens. Anyway. It has to happen has to happen. This is going to head that way.
00:46:45
All right Scott. But one more quick
break will be back for wins and fails okay Scott where do some wins and fails
I think I shall go first today.
00:46:54
I recommend there's so many
there's so many great. Like, you know, TV's gotten great.
00:46:59
There's a lot of great journalism going
on. I have to say. I've been there's some several stories
I've read recently. They're just so good,
interesting and fascinating to read.
00:47:07
The one that I really was struck me
this week was Nick Kristof latest column in The New York Times. It's a long one.
00:47:12
It sheds light on internal emails
from Pornhub that were made public because of a filing error
going back to 2020.
00:47:18
They show employees
laughing about what's on their site and reveal
how the company handles child pornography.
00:47:24
The the the inability of sites
like Pornhub to get rid of, c Sam Sam. It's called, child
pornography is horrifying. And the fact that they're so casual about it
and you see these emails laughing about
00:47:38
it is with with the pain it happens to
these people is just astonishing. These these people should be sued back into the dark ages
for what they're doing here.
00:47:49
It's gross and it's bad for kids. I mean, it's bad for excuse me, it's bad
for young men, as you write about a lot.
00:47:54
And I agree with you, but the fact that
they that they think it's funny about, child pornography
and the the extent of it is so enormous, and we can talk about the audience
for this, and that's another issue.
00:48:07
But the fact that these companies
facilitate it makes them that, I mean, there's a sickness that
the d part of humanity on this issue, but,
00:48:15
that this company deserves
to be sued out of existence from justice and again, not I, I don't know,
I don't like porn.
00:48:23
I think it's bad for us. I think the digitization of it
has made it even worse. But the fact that they can't control this
and they think it's a joke is repulsive.
00:48:31
So that's a huge fail. For when there's a lot to choose from,
including New York will now require schools statewide
to ban smartphones during school hours.
00:48:39
That's great. But I was thrilled to see Cecily Strong
return to SNL this weekend
00:48:45
to reprise her role as Judge
Jeanine Pirro. After Trump named Pirro, the interim U.S.
00:48:50
attorney in D.C. that's another incompetent
hire, by the way. But she did the whole Colin Jost,
also came back.
00:48:57
He came back. Pete Hegseth,
and she spits, drinks at him. And it was so funny. I love Pete Hegseth.
00:49:04
He's my old drinking buddy. Surprise. No, I love, Cecily Strong
and was just delighted to see her there.
00:49:17
And I'm glad they got her to do that. She does the best, Jeanine Pirro, but,
from a female point of view, Jeanine Pirro
was an incompetent person to do this job.
00:49:25
Never just incompetent
beyond incompetent for this job. Although the guy she replaced
was venal and evil
00:49:32
kind of type personality,
where he was defending J6 people and had all these crazy schemes
and everything.
00:49:39
So, I guess she's better than him,
but that doesn't mean, she's any good, and it's such
an irresponsible appointment.
00:49:47
Your thoughts here? Go for it. Okay. Sam, I my feel I referenced before. This, Qatar luxury suite,
basically the privatization of the white House at 40,000ft.
00:50:05
That's not a kickback. It's it's government capture. And meanwhile, Qatar has funneled over
1.8 billion to Hamas since 2012.
00:50:15
They host Hamas's political leadership
in luxury Doha compounds and serves as the terrorist groups
primary diplomatic shield.
00:50:23
You know, he the president, positions
himself as Israel's greatest defender. At the same time, he's
accepting lavish gifts from a country
00:50:30
that bankrolls
the organization that murdered 1200 Jews. It's like you're fucking twins.
00:50:36
And then trying to convince each of them
that you're monogamous with them. I mean, it's just so the cognitive
dissonance here is stifling.
00:50:44
And Qatar's influence
doesn't stop at the white House. They've poured get this 4.7 billion
into American universities since 2001.
00:50:53
That's
more than any other foreign government. You know,
this is such a weird relationship. While they host our largest military base
in the region,
00:51:01
they also maintain cozy relationships
with Iran and Hamas. And meanwhile, America's
leverage in the Middle East deteriorates
00:51:09
as our president becomes essentially
an employee of Qatar Airways with nuclear codes and our elite
universities become intellectual
00:51:18
laundromats for authoritarian,
anti-Semitic propaganda. So this is not just corruption.
00:51:24
It's it's
the purchase of American influence, from the Oval Office to our universities
00:51:31
training our next generation
of presidents. And when you think about, you know,
what's the point here?
00:51:38
We want our government, the Founding
fathers wanted checks and balances, not deposits
and withdrawals from foreign powers. So this is a get again. And I'm I'm at a point where it's pretty
easy and I think the other side loves it.
00:51:53
How outraged we are. I think a Democrat needs to sponsor and make very public legislation that says the government of Qatar is engaging
in graft or corruption or foreign bribery.
00:52:07
You're not supposed to accept gifts
over $400 as a public official and say that again, in three years
and nine months, we're
00:52:15
going to reveal Kuwait,
our relationship with you, based on it, we're going to do X, Y, and Z in exactly
three years and nine months.
00:52:23
We need to stop. There's no stopping the Trump
administration. He's weaponized the DOJ. He has neutered.
00:52:29
He is neutered. Basically all checks and balances here. My attitude is
go after the foreign governments
00:52:35
and some of the lower level people
who aren't who are enabling this. You know, I told you Qatar tried to buy
the buy our all things D code.
00:52:42
Got like
they wanted to give us $10 million each. All this stuff. I was sort of a stunned. This was more than 15 years ago
00:52:49
where they wanted us to bring our
our conference there to Qatar. And well, it was like,
you know, I'm a Jew and you back, come on.
00:52:56
I was like, he was like,
no, like it was just an astonishing offer. And it was so massive.
00:53:01
We were sort of shocked. Largely
they wanted the technology they want. They're sort of trying to buy.
00:53:08
It was the influencer to look good, right? We were sort of clean, clean
washing them in some way by going there.
00:53:15
And there's a lot of money, by the way. There's a lot of events
that go there now and do that. But I remember what was like,
no fucking way.
00:53:21
Like and it was an enormous
sum of money, you know, at the time, like $10 million sticks in my head. But,
00:53:28
we were sort of shocked by it
and astonished and of course said no immediately.
But I agree with you. This is just beyond I mean, the Nazis
did this during right ahead of World
00:53:37
War Two, like tried to like buy influence
through their various agents the same thing, you know, very much
trying to influence U.S.
00:53:46
policy. But this is
I don't even know what this is. This is even what's the goal here?
00:53:52
Precisely. That's the thing
is, what's their actual goal? I'm so focused on the fact
you don't know what religion I am.
00:53:59
I don't. What are you? You're Jewish, you're Jewish,
you're partially. You're half Jewish. No, I'm whole Jewish.
My mother was Jewish.
00:54:06
I'm a I'm an atheist,
but I'm a raging Zionist. I just think it's hilarious when people in the comment section
call me a Zionist, as if it's an insult.
00:54:13
I'm a proud Zionist. So wait, what? Your mother is Jewish?
What is your father? Yeah. My my my father's Presbyterian.
00:54:20
My mother, my mother. Who was a Jew, and made a name living. So I identify with Judaism. I just don't believe I have an invisible
friend. Oh, okay.
00:54:32
It was a nice picture of her
you put up for Mother's Day, by the way. That's that nice.
That was so many. Comments. But that was lovely.
00:54:38
I have to say, I was, I was touched. I meant to ask you happy Mother's Day. What did you do? Oh, was Amanda's birthday also?
00:54:45
We do we don't picnic. I took my mom out with the kids for. Does anyone get more flowers?
00:54:50
How does this whole lesbian thing happen? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Anyone who. Who did it,
who gets breakfast in bed first?
00:55:00
No. How does this all work
when it's like there's so many? I have so many questions
about lesbian relationships
00:55:05
when there's a really difficult
parking spot. Who parked the. Car? I do. Okay.
Yeah, okay. I'm a really good Parker.
00:55:12
I would say. Let me try not to insult my wife. She's not a very good parker.
What do you do for Mother's Day?
00:55:18
I just I had breakfast with my mom. I took the kids, and I and Amanda
rested at home, and then we had a lovely,
00:55:26
a picnic, for her birthday. And I bought her a, a lemon tree. Meyer lemon tree as a gift,
from for Mother's Day and her birthday. Because she loves the Meyer lemons
in my house in San Francisco.
00:55:39
So we're going to try to grow one here
in our house. This is so clearly a new relationship.
00:55:45
This is so clearly. A. Thoughtful, well planned out gift. I mean, I think I might
that had lemons on it and then lemon
00:55:54
things and then a beautiful lemon
colored a picture that's beautiful. It was a lemon situation,
as in when life gives you.
00:56:01
That's a new relationship.
This is where you're had it. My wife sends me a picture of a
what she wants. And I'm like, here's
the Centurion card number.
00:56:08
That's where we are. No, I got her a lemon
tree to grow for for our life. When life gives you lemons,
eat mushroom chocolates.
00:56:15
That's my song.
All right. What's your win? My winners. I'm really. I am really excited. I make a lot of jokes about the church.
00:56:21
But I am excited about an American pope. I think that the Pope
is sort of a standard bearer for morality.
00:56:29
I think this guy is, up to the task. Unlike our elected leaders,
he seems to actually understand technology
00:56:37
in a strange way. I'm happy for Villanova. I can't tell you how many. Oh, I hate the people
from being a Georgetown person.
00:56:43
I can't like them. But I have a
I have a guy I've become friendly with who's pretty involved in Villanova,
and he can't stop sending out
00:56:50
message like memes
showing all the universities in America. How many popes? Zero.
00:56:55
Villanova one. He's just he's so aggressive to Villanova. He's so excited. Yeah, yeah.
00:57:02
We played him in basketball. We were supposed to hate Villanova
as they were. But I think I think America needs kind of
a I don't know, a rejuvenation.
00:57:12
Yeah. EpiPen. You know, Narcan of values. And I think we're more inclined to take
an American pope or listen to an American.
00:57:20
Pope and hear the weirdest thing. I thought about going back to church
after I had him. Oh. That's nice.
I thought about it. I'm still not going.
00:57:28
Probably because I know so many,
so much corruption. And the man thing. I'd like to. I think we. Need I as a raging atheist, I also believe
we need more religious institutions.
00:57:37
I've come to believe when I was younger,
I was one of those snobs who consider myself a scientist
and really was disparaging about religion.
00:57:43
And as I've gotten older, other than the extreme batshit crazy part of every religion,
I generally find it
00:57:50
that 90 plus percent of it
gives people a lot of comfort. And that's especially I think young people also need more place
to to be in the agency of something bigger than themselves and meet
potential friends, mentors and mates.
00:58:03
I'm a I'm actually I've come full circle. I think religious institutions
are really important. Interesting. I'm an agnostic,
not an atheist. I'm an I don't that.
00:58:10
Just means you're a closeted atheist. No I'm not, I'm not either. I have
I feel like I'm a dude. Say that by who?
I'm getting hit on that one by a lot.
00:58:17
I'm gonna hear it on that one. I've been walking by and I want to go
in, and I don't know what that is. I honestly, I'm apparently you just.
00:58:24
Trying to get away from your kids. It's called having little kids at home. I almost went to church
when we had little kids.
00:58:29
I, I was like, I was thinking,
I want some peace. I know it sounds crazy, but I was. I don't know
if that's going to church tonight.
00:58:35
Let's you and I, okay? No, I find I find peace at San
Vicente Bungalows. He's talking. To some 25 year old, an executive
whose parents are putting her through New. York. Yeah. Okay. All right.
00:58:46
We want to hear from you. Send us your questions about business,
tech or whatever's on your mind. Go to NY mag.com/pivots
and a question for the show.
00:58:53
Or call 85551 pivot elsewhere in the Karen Scott universe
this week on on with Kara Swisher,
00:58:59
I spoke with CNN's chief
international anchor, Christiane Amanpour. Let's listen to a clip.
00:59:06
I've covered almost all America's
major wars since 1990, and I probably got a lot more war
experience than J.D.
00:59:14
Vance and Pete Hegseth,
despite their military deployments. And I'm much older than them.
00:59:20
The way I see it is we Europeans are not pathetic
freeloaders. We have come to America's aid time
and time again in the last 35 years.
00:59:29
So it was a good interview.
She's terrific. Well, I'm curious, though,
how how has your. I asked this to learn
not to make a statement.
00:59:35
How's Europe come to America said. Oh, she missed it goes on. She talks about the various
you know, when we moved into Afghanistan
00:59:42
and about different things, that
they have done to be supportive of us. She wasn't saying
America hasn't helped Europe.
00:59:47
That was not what she was also saying. She thinks that Vance and putting out the idea that they don't do
anything is ridiculous like that.
00:59:55
It's that she was saying that
that the alliance is so important and that the, the narrative they're
putting about freeloaders was not true.
01:00:04
And I think and she made a larger case,
but she was in no way saying America's aid to to Europe wasn't critical to.
01:00:11
So just she was being more,
you know, complex. Anyways, I'm I've been on Christiane
the show I think she's and I also like her
01:00:18
because she's one of those journalists that tries to set you up for success
and she lets you she lets you speak.
01:00:24
I find so many journalists are. Substantive is what you're in the word
you're looking for? Well, actually it's not, but thank you.
01:00:29
Lemon tree. Weirdo. Okay, that's what I. What I was thinking was actually generous.
01:00:35
And that is, I find there's some times
when I go on a show, they're there to try and corner you
or get you to say something provocative
01:00:45
because they want to tick tock moment
or and I do. I'm guilty of this too. A lot of times I ask questions trying to show how smart
I am as opposed to get to an answer.
01:00:52
And then there's journalists
who will that you just speak and want you to get your views out there, whether
they personally agree with them or not.
01:01:00
They're generous.
They want to set you up for success. And I find that she's one of those people. She is. I really, really adore her.
01:01:06
We become good friends and I really like I
she's just it was a great talk. Anyway, please listen to it.
01:01:11
Okay. That's the show. Thanks for listening to pivot
and be sure to like and subscribe to our YouTube channel.
01:01:17
We'll be back on Friday.
Scott, read us out. Today's show is produced by Learning and Zoe Marcus, Taylor
Griffin and Kevin Oliver, earning her.
01:01:24
Todd engineered this episode
thanks also to Jim Burrows, Mr. Barrow and Daniel on the Shark Heroes.
01:01:29
Vox media is executive
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01:01:35
Thank you for listening. To pivot
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01:01:41
We'll be back later this week for another breakdown
of all things tech and business care. We have a new pope.