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Elon, you are a sick puppy. I have to tell you, one sick puppy. And I feel bad for these women. I feel bad for these
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[Music]
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kids. Hi everyone, this is Pivot from New York Magazine and the Vox Media Podcast Network. I'm Cara Swisser. So
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when I'm in New York every morning, a ritual for me is I make coffee and I
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order a kiche and blueberry muffin and a chai latte from Baltazar.
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And then I go and I have my morning ritual as in my sitdown. You know, I like to stay regular. And then the
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doorman will put the Baltazar delivery in the elevator. And I heard the elevator door open. And if I don't get
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it, it goes all the way back down. And I'm always worried that someone's going to steal my chai latte from Baltazar.
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Okay. And so I literally this is going with all the grace and strength of a
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jungle cat. Yeah. I leapt up from the basin. And at that moment, it dawned on me, I'm an astronaut.
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And in between the time between my flight between the basin and the
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ceramic, Uhhuh. I realized we're all one part of the same species, Cara. We're
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all We're Why can't we just love each other? And And I I I recognized when I
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got back to Earth, everything had just changed for me, Cara. Everything had just changed. Yeah. Did you kiss the ground or kiss the ground? over how much
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[ __ ] these women are getting. Oh my god. But can I tell you I'm sorry to say deserved. I'd like I was trying to see
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the goodness in it. It's because they they won't stop defending themselves
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when something was just they should shush. They And also let me say I they did some stuff for women in STEM, but
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they're talking about themselves and not girls and women in tech. Especially when people are getting cut. It's just the
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it's they just need to stop talking. There's so much about this I love. My favorite moment was when they live
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broadcast it. The people kind of, you know, there was the actual people at Blue Origin, you know, saying, you know,
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two minutes to launch and someone said, and this is so exciting. When they're up there, Katie Perry is going to sing and
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right on cue, someone from Blue Origin goes, one minute warning.
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That was classic. That was just perfect. The the memes are fantastic and they are
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funny and I think they're hitting because they're true. Like the one about the best one I think you I I posted and
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so did you was you know what happens when a bachelorette party comes into a gay bar. This is the picture. Exactly.
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Like a straight lady's like whooping it up and stuff. I I think we should start a conspiracy that the Katy Perry that
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came back is not the same Katy Perry that went up. Something is going on here. Oh, they may have replaced her. But there's there's actually I have two
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sort of observations or two a couple things that struck me. The first is kind of trivial. The other I think is more I
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don't know meaningful. If the magazine industry Did you see the cover of L?
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Yes, it was. Yes. If the magazine industry wanted to just confirm that it's become totally irrelevant and
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tonedeaf, they managed to do it. I think the the kind of for people who don't know there El did a cover with them on
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it. But go and it's not just it's not just hers. I mean, did you see the Vanity Fair cover of Tim Cook with his
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mixed reality headset on? Yes, that was they decided that that had something to do with anyways and then that cover from
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Mel was literally like we need the world to we need to put a fine point on the fact that we as magazines are not only
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no longer relevant but we're totally tonedeaf. Anyways, that's my trivial observation. And my more deeper one, my
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more substantive observation that I'd like your thoughts on is that when we get to these levels of income inequality
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throughout history, they self-correct through war, famine, and oftentimes revolution, right? And when the
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guillotine shows up, it's okay. They come up with a crime and maybe this person committed the crime, maybe they
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didn't, but they're essentially at the end of the day, the crime is that the 1% have been just [ __ ] the bottom 99%
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for way too long. Way too long. And that's it. Go ahead. I was just going to say I think it's really interesting how
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much it stuck and especially what's really fun is people are having fun with it one which I think is funny and I like that but it's like very highprofiled
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people like they're they're you know just a lot of celebrities are like what in the actual [ __ ] is going on which I
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is surprising they usually keep quiet about each other you know what I mean they really do but a lot of people who
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don't are saying things some are doing really funny things like the the woman who's in hacks who plays she's amazing
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she plays a manager I'm blanking on her um she did this whole fake space flight.
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Everyone's really being creative, but that it it strikes at a cord of
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something that is and especially I think it is when they're saying it's sexist to say it's a ride. I think this is what
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Gail King said. It's sexist to say it's a ride when Alan Shepard did it. When she did the Alan Shepard,
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that's who she was comparing it to. Like like this was the train. This was this was hard. This was dangerous back then
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and and more dangerous obviously it's always dangerous to go up in space but um the fact that they're pretending it's
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feminist when it's not feminist is anti-feminist right that's the thing is
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is well they look ridiculous they make attaching it it's it's vanity rebranded
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as feminism or adventure but where I was headed was the following is that I think this can be reverse engineered to income
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inequality and that is my thesis around black lives matter in the me too movement was that these were righteous
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moments inspired by real concerns over systemic racism, the murder of George
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Floyd, over the fact that women have just been taking on the wrong end of of
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abuse and a terrible an unjust power dynamic at work. These are credible
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movements, but if you look at who they went after, they didn't go after sexism
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at small or medium-sized business. They didn't go after racism across u the
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middle class. They go after rich people. And I think this is part of that
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revolution. And that is people are just so sick of rich people trying to claim
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the little social status they don't have. And people are just [ __ ] angry.
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If they had sent up, you know, six middle class teachers or whatever, people it wouldn't have got any
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attention. But this is every revolution and I I think we're quote unquote
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rounding up people. It just takes on a different complexion. We're rounding up people and sending them to El Salvador.
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Um this is a form of revolution but it's little revolutions. And if you look at it that who people are going for,
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they're eating the rich because at the end of the day, they look at these people and they go, you know, this system has just become so perverted and
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slanted towards giving the top.1% everything, including some sort
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of false sense of adventure or heroism. And people have just people just had it.
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I again, I think this all can be reversed to income inequality. The rich need to stay quiet. That's what I feel like. Like shut up. Be rich and
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anonymous. Be rich and go to space on your own time. Good for you. You know, it's really interesting because, you
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know, this White House correspondents dinner is happening next weekend and one of our friends, I don't think I'm supposed to say who said it, but said
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one of the problems with it is that the the sort of prostrating before administrations thing has always been an
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issue. Like they go and they yuck it up with their sources kind of thing and it has a real bad feel to it. Why not
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invite real journalist if it's about the first amendment that dinner instead of trying to like hustle to get a good
00:07:30
celebrity at your table? Like that's what the press does. It tries to outdo each other and celebrity gets get real
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journalists from across the country and and you know from from small towns and
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everywhere else doing things and celebrate them at the dinner. Like that's the kind of thing that that the
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sort of the people that really do labor in very difficult circumstances aren't getting the attention when all these
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other people are like just like performing in in front of us and sort of sticky. It's it is sort of a let one of
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the best lines would let them eat space which was great. That's good. Let them eat
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space and I was like gh and I I want you to stop defending it. Just you realize I
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was awkward. We get it. We should have given a bunch of money to women and girls. We should have talked about the
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inequities. And even even there was the the the the breakthrough awards that Silicon Valley does every year. Another
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celebrity fest where the rich people give money to various inundry um scientists and stuff like that. Seth
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Rogan made a comment that was really true about rich people and they cut it out of the feed. They cut it out of the
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feed. Seth Rogan who's so funny. um that kind of stuff like you can't even like
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they can't even make fun of themselves is really um it's a really weird time.
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Can I add something else but we're going to move on because we've got a lot to get to including Trump versus Harvard which I'm I know you see you're wearing
00:08:52
a Harvard shirt, Elon's herum obviously Zuck on the stand and a bunch of stuff but just briefly what was super funny is
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that the the disconnect is really real and people are trying to figure out a way through it. Um and I went out to
00:09:06
dinner last night. took my mom out to dinner with a bunch of my friends and we're coming out of the restaurant and one of our pivot fans stopped us and um
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one of her she worked for Pat Murphy and her boyfriend said I work for Christine Gillibrand and my mom was there in her
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wheelchair and my mom sudden goes h like that right because it's Christian Gillan
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and the late the woman goes oh you're the fox mother you're the fox mother you're lucky and it was so funny and
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tried to get a so so humor is a good way to do it. I know it sounds crazy. We
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were in hysterics and mom was even laughing because everyone was doing their little performative part, but it
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was actually true. And so the thing I do like about this whole space thing is
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humor. Like there's humor here. It's funny, which is funny. Anyway, I just that's the only part they need to like
00:09:55
stand down or shut up. Stand down, laugh at themselves, or shut up. That's my feeling. Anyway, um let's go first
00:10:02
because a very important thing. President Trump has lashed out again at Fed Chair Jerome Powell, saying Powell's termination cannot come fast enough. The
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attack comes a day after Powell warned that tariffs could create a challenging scenario for the central bank as it
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decides whether to control inflation or support economic growth. I mean, ch that's like the calst thing. Challenging
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scenario is like a calm way of saying, you know, man the man the barricades. Let's listen to what Powell said exactly
00:10:28
about the Fed's independence, too, speaking at the Economic Club of Chicago. So, our independence is a
00:10:33
matter of law. Um, Congress has in our statute, we're not removable except for
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cause. We serve very long terms, seemingly endless
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terms. Um, so it's we're protect protected in the law. So, you know, Congress could change that law, but
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there's I don't think there's any danger of that. Fed independence has pretty broad support uh across both political
00:10:58
parties and in in both sides of the hill. So, I think that's not a problem. Pow's term ends in May 2026. Oh god, I'm
00:11:06
so nervous about that. So, he's keeps threatening to fire him and he's done it at the FTC which had a level of
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independence and he just does it. Um, obviously he's doing it with everything like whether it's Harvard or we'll get
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to that in a second. Um, do you have much confidence in staying power the Fed's independence in the Trump administration? He's doing it at the
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Justice Department. Pam Bondi has lost her her ever love and [ __ ] mind, by
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the way, speaking of which her appearances this week have been embarrassing. Um, can you talk a little bit about what what happens here?
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Because he's hasn't he just runs through stop signs like no problem whatsoever.
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Um, I mean, I've just been I have such a inability to predict what's going to
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happen here. There's been so many things that have been disqualifying, what I thought were red lines that they've just blown through and people are sort of, I
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don't know, seem fairly numb to. But if you want to talk about a move that could
00:12:01
take the market down five or 8,000 points, it's fire chairman pal. Because
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the separation of central banks from politics is one of the key stabilizing
00:12:14
factors in the western economy. Because what you have is a group of people who leaders, elected leaders who panic. And
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the reason they usually get voted out of office can almost always be reverse engineered to economic strain on the
00:12:25
citizens and a a quick kind of fix or sugar high to get you out of trouble would just be to flood the market or
00:12:31
lower interest rates which might be over the medium or the long term absolutely disastrous. So, western nations, I mean,
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I think every western nation through central bank or their fed chair or whatever it is or I just interviewed
00:12:43
Prime Minister Carney. He was the first nonbrit to be the head of the Bank of England. Yeah, he was he's a big deal.
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They they all almost from all political persuasions all agree that if we subject
00:12:55
these people to political pressure, it's not it could be disastrous for the economy, right?
00:13:01
because these people have to look at the data and make very important decisions about interest rates that affect currency flows of capital and the
00:13:08
temptation to just put pressure on you know the Fed share and say lower interest rates I need a sugar high right
00:13:14
now I need the markets to go back up whatever it is and then you might end up with crazy inflation or stagflation so
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the independence I I don't I think he's going to back down because just the same way he blinked last week when he saw the
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10-year spike 50 basis points I I think Someone will say, "You do this. Hold on
00:13:34
tight when the market opens tomorrow at 9:00 a.m." Yeah. Um, so I don't even think it's I think they've decided the
00:13:40
courts will side with them. Who cares? We get a court order to turn around a plane. We got a court order to bring
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someone back and we want to claim we can bring Katy Perry back from space, but we can't bring a person we sent incorrectly
00:13:50
to these El Salvador and prisons. By the way, they brought people back initially. They brought back women and some
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Venezuelans. So, but I don't think I think the thing that stops him from doing that right
00:14:02
now. Chairman Powell is probably the most respected appointed. He's the most
00:14:07
respected person in the Trump administration right now. If you could call him part of the administration actually. Sure. But let me What is
00:14:12
Powell's termination cannot come fast enough because he his his job terminates
00:14:18
next May, right? Correct. So that is he meaning that what is what is the language here? Termination. I I don't
00:14:25
know. He's threatening to fire him. I don't know what it is. I don't know. You tell me. That's the problem. I mean, saying things like this, by the way, are
00:14:31
so dangerous. Just saying them what he's doing is so ridiculous. Brand toxic uncertainty. Yeah. And like I think
00:14:38
that's exactly the term that's correct. I think Powell is really just like, "Fuck you." Like, "Come at me, sir."
00:14:45
essentially the way he's talking. I think Chair Chairman Powell is is literally he's going to leave he's going
00:14:51
to leave his tenure as someone who pulled us back from CO who uh whose
00:14:58
economic policies the markets set new unprecedented highs. Some people would
00:15:03
probably criticize that little too much partying well or a little too much I
00:15:08
would say policies although you could argue he doesn't control this. The the reason we're in such a crazy corner
00:15:15
right now is because we as Americans, and this is true through Democratic and Republican administrations, are under
00:15:20
the delusion that we can spend 7 trillion uh we can spend $7 trillion a
00:15:25
year while taking in 5 trillion in tax receipts and that everything will be all right. And then we get backed into a
00:15:30
corner where we the whole world owns our debt and they not only are reciprocating with a trade war, they're reciprocating
00:15:36
with a capital war. and that is they just go into the market and sell a disproportionate number of our treasury
00:15:43
bills and the 10-year spikes and all of a sudden we have an additional 175 billion in interest rate payments which
00:15:49
we weren't planning on making. I mean, we have put ourselves in such a vulnerable position because if you think
00:15:54
of the US as a household, we make 50,000 a year in tax receipts. We're spending 70 and we have credit card debt of
00:16:03
370,000. And the scary thing is the kids, despite not spending any of this
00:16:09
money, are really benefiting from it, are going to inherit those credit card bills. Yeah. And everyone has power over
00:16:14
us now. We no longer really own our home. Um, so this is the
00:16:20
Chinese if you Anyways, but back to Chairman Pal. He probably can't wait for
00:16:25
his termination because guess what? He's going to go be chairman of like Bridgewater. No, I don't. I think he is.
00:16:31
I think he's taking his listening to him. I think he's taking his job rather seriously. I think he thinks he's the bull work against this lunatic. Agree.
00:16:38
and he's he's he came out he's one of the few people he's really the first kind of what I'll call leader to just in
00:16:45
a thoughtful methodical way to stand up and say okay just in case you you you
00:16:50
you didn't believe every point of light from every economist or anyone who doesn't have their head up their ass and
00:16:56
is trying to contort themselves into figuring out some way to justify this the the interpretive dance taking place
00:17:03
across podcasters and officials trying to support these tariffs is almost It's
00:17:08
it's it's literally hilarious. It's like modern art that doesn't make any [ __ ] sense, right? And for what? And for
00:17:14
what? Because you know, I was I was thinking as I was walking the other day, like when a especially listen to that
00:17:20
idiot Pam Bondi was it's like, you know, if the Democrats win in two years, you're all super [ __ ] Like super
00:17:26
[ __ ] You have to win in two years. And of course, they think they will through strongarming, but if they what a
00:17:31
risk they're taking because they're going to be investigated out the yingyang and deservedly so. Anyway,
00:17:36
let's move on. Um, Trump's feud, go Jerome Powell, we're on your side. We think you're behaving correctly. Uh,
00:17:42
Trump's feud with Harvard is escalating. The White House is asking the IRS to begin the process of revoking Harvard's
00:17:48
tax exempt status. This is not an easy thing to do by the by the way, but the IRS, because it's under the control of
00:17:54
Donald Trump, is reportedly considering it. The move comes after Harvard declined Trump's demands to scrap DEI
00:18:00
programs and overall hiring, teaching, admissions. It made a ton of changes, by the way. It has made a ton of changes uh
00:18:06
that are probably laudable in many ways. Trump's initial response to Harvard's push back was freezing more than $2
00:18:12
billion in federal funds for multi-year grants and contracts apparently wasn't enough. The Harvard president, Alan
00:18:18
Garber, condemned the Trump administration in an open letter early this week writing, "No government, regardless of which party is in power,
00:18:24
should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry
00:18:30
they can pursue." What do you think? The Harvard fighting back here is really interesting. Let me um give some
00:18:36
statistics. Um uh Harvard is gearing up for this fight financially. They issued
00:18:41
$750 million of taxable bonds last week to shore up liquidity. It does have a $53 billion endowment, but there are
00:18:47
restriction how the money gets spent. Um I see you're wearing a Harvard t-shirt. Uh I can't believe one of the jokes on
00:18:55
on threads was I can't believe we like Harvard again. like we're we're we're backing Harvard here which is sort of
00:19:00
the pinnacle of snoody elitism I think for most people in general. Um but at
00:19:06
the same time this is a real shot across along with MIT Princeton um Colombia of
00:19:11
course caved. So it's a really interesting situation happening here with these schools saying no [ __ ] we've
00:19:17
done enough and showing their work. Now today, for people who don't know, the Trump administration is trying to do
00:19:22
this with no proof whatsoever. Very similar to what they did with the im with the migrants who they sent out of
00:19:28
the country with no proof on any they don't give any proof to their allegations on almost anything they're
00:19:34
doing, no matter what across the spectrum. And in this case, they filed something without any proof that Harvard
00:19:40
did anything wrong. Um, so there's there's several and of course they're hurting funding of really important
00:19:46
research that's going on. Scott. Yeah. It took Donald Trump to get me to like Harvard. Um Yeah. Like you weren't that
00:19:52
t-shirt is handsome. Where'd you get that? Um my assistant got it for me because I I don't know. I just wanted a Harvard t-shirt to wear around. Um I was
00:20:00
strolling around in a Canada t-shirt last week and it was the look, if you
00:20:06
look at the the darkest moment of the last hundred years, there was some key attributes of a move to fascism. Uh one,
00:20:13
they start demonizing people and rounding them up. and it takes on a different complexion. But let's be clear, we have demonized illegal
00:20:20
immigrants, of which we have turned a blind eye to because it's very profitable. And now we're rounding them
00:20:25
up. We're taking them off the street and we're sending them to hellscapes. The other one of the other
00:20:31
key steps is you come for quote unquote the academic institutions and the cultural elite and you demonize them.
00:20:38
And that's what's going on here. So this is, you know, I'm not a fan of these
00:20:44
institutions. I've even suggested their taxfree status be revoked if they have an endowment over a billion dollars and
00:20:49
not growing their freshman class faster. But you're about making bigger, becoming bigger, not to tell them what to do or
00:20:55
how to run. No, I I don't care. They have the right to pick their curriculum. They have the right to pick their faculty. They have the right to talk
00:21:01
about what they want to talk about on campus. I think if you're going to have a law, and be clear, folks, this has
00:21:07
about as much to do with anti-semitism as evangelicals liking Israel. They just
00:21:13
see these that the the notion of anti- putting this under the banner of anti-semitism. They're just using it as
00:21:19
a vessel to go after an ideology and centers that
00:21:24
typically traditionally and right now are not supportive of these types of policies. They and there is is it true
00:21:32
that there's not enough intellectual diversity at these campuses? Sure. But when you start targeting individual
00:21:38
universities and going after quote unquote the cultural elite under the oposes of anti-semitism, it's just it's
00:21:46
not a it's not true and b it's morally corrupt, but more I'll just go to the economic
00:21:52
argument. The funding of research at universities has been the greatest
00:21:58
investment in history. And that is, and I've said this before, that the most
00:22:04
successful venture capitalists in history are middle- class taxpayers who give money to the government and then the government funds research. The
00:22:12
private enterprise can't afford to make these types of tuberculosis, for example, or a a a catalog listing all
00:22:21
things on the internet for academic research. it ultimately ends up becoming a $2 trillion company called Google or
00:22:27
vaccines looking at how mRNA might might be more effective than traditional vaccines or diabetes
00:22:34
medication. Most studies show and then the vessel for this unbelievable investment are universities. Government
00:22:42
funding of university research has proven to be one of the highest ROI public investments with economic impact
00:22:48
studies suggesting returns of get this cara somewhere between 20 at the low p
00:22:53
at the low end 20% and 60% annually on federal research dollars through job
00:22:59
creation new industries and increased productivity in agriculture genetically modified crops food safety technologies
00:23:05
and energy solar panels technology advanced battery companies natur researchers going all week. This is
00:23:12
fantastic. Natural natural gas racking, LED lighting, advanced materials, MOA
00:23:18
and biioentech, hundreds of drugs including Lica, Remisade I think it's called. We did that. The HIV protease
00:23:25
inhibitors the cocktail drugs came out of universities. Janentech was based on
00:23:31
recumbent DNA technology from UCSF and Stanford, Google, smartphones, Cisco
00:23:37
systems. I mean these this is the best. The US does actually a small number of
00:23:42
things better than anyone but we do them really well. People think it's not enough because like they haven't been as
00:23:49
involved in AI and it's been taken up by what happens is private enterprise takes the juicy bits and the parts that are
00:23:55
harder the universities used to do and they used to do no one else funds that sometimes end up being unbelievable lithium ion batteries. It's you don't
00:24:02
have to make this is [ __ ] ridiculous and here it is. Why do you think Harvard decided and [ __ ] this [ __ ] and Colombia
00:24:08
didn't like think about being inside these comp these these places?
00:24:14
Colia has Colombia has literally uh has this this virus of a lack of
00:24:20
leadership right now. I I don't I would argue that Colombia between the response I mean there were two there were two
00:24:26
campuses with protests. President Linda Mills just handled it much differently than the folks at Colombia. And I also
00:24:33
think Columbia, quite frankly, for whatever reason, has been a flash point and has been, you know, unfortunately targeted, whatever you want to call it.
00:24:39
But I do think the reason that Harvard decided to stand up, I think they have more leadership. I think there they're
00:24:46
they have more moral clarity. And quite frankly, it just really helps to have $54 billion endowment. Yeah. 53. Yeah.
00:24:53
It's just this is they can afford to do this. So, and it's also great. It's
00:24:59
great for their brand. Harvard probably this is probably one of the better brand moves of 2025. Yeah. Because they were
00:25:04
sort of the like elite irritants and now they seem like freedom fighters. Yeah. And the president of Harvard unable to
00:25:09
condemn anti- you know anti-semitic speech is hate speech or whatever it is. You know they they've had their hits the last the
00:25:18
last six months. This is absolutely them standing up and doing the right thing
00:25:24
even when it's hard. So we'll see if the IRS will if the IRS does this. It takes years. This is going to go, by the way,
00:25:29
everybody, again, it's going to go through lots of courts with the IRS. They're going to try to do this. It will
00:25:35
be litigated. And by that time, if Donald Trump is lost, the people who are
00:25:40
doing this to Harvard, the IRS are going to be [ __ ] royally at some point. Um,
00:25:46
if they if they make these moves, they think that Donald Trump's going to be in power forever. And that may be, but if
00:25:52
he's not, you're taking a rather large risk that you're not all of you aren't going to jail at some point for what
00:25:58
you're saying is so important and I've been talking to a lot of Democrats. I was on Governor Nuome's podcast yesterday. I think when something that's
00:26:05
missing from the Democratic party, I I don't believe that like this we go when they go low, we go high. I think that's
00:26:12
just like trying to capture social status. I absolutely think we need to get in the mud. And I think there needs
00:26:17
to be a Democrat who basically says, I'm running for president. I'm going to win.
00:26:22
And when I win, I am absolutely targeting I'm going I'm I'm going to have the SEC look into all trading on
00:26:30
April the 9th. I'm going to look at all illegal deportations. I'm going to look at the unlawful seizure of
00:26:36
constitutional power. It's going to be done to the letter of the law. But be
00:26:42
clear, be clear, folks. If you're breaking laws and you're under the impression you're no longer subject to
00:26:47
the law, that might be true for the next, you know, 40, you know, 44 months,
00:26:53
but in 44 months, the law is coming back. The the sheriff is coming back. In
00:26:59
two years, if the Democrats win, this is just I like that even more. In 20 months, let me say it also doesn't help
00:27:05
people. It doesn't bring the price of eggs down. This is what we're doing. This tit for tat. And by the way, this tit fortat is going to be required. They
00:27:12
have to go down. Um, and it's going to waste everybody's time what they're doing here. They're gonna they're going
00:27:17
to do this, they're going to lose, and then they're going to jail, but that it's just it's such a waste of time
00:27:24
and effort. And Harvard could be doing all kinds of really interesting things in research and anyway, this is it's
00:27:32
it's the greatest brand change for Harvard. You're right. I think that's really an important thing. And we'll see if Donald Trump could pull this off. Um,
00:27:39
just because he's going through stop signs right now doesn't mean he can keep doing it or there will not be
00:27:44
consequences later. Um, okay. Let's go on a quick break. When we come back, new details about Elon's creepy harum and
00:27:50
legions of babies. Scott, we're back. And Elon Musk is trying to build an army of super babies with quote, "No romance,
00:27:58
just sperm." It feels like you would have said something like this, Scott. That's from an explosive report in the Wall Street Journal about the tactics he
00:28:05
used to recruit and manage his offspring and their mothers. This romantic hero has even used social platform X to
00:28:10
recruit willing wombs. Uh here's what Jimmy Kimmel had to say about the latest revelations. It is believed that Elon
00:28:16
has fathered at least 14 children and based on this photograph he may have given birth to them, too. He's happy
00:28:23
carrying a few around in his pouch like a kangaroo. Sources told the journal they
00:28:28
believe there could be more mini musks out there. Many more mini Musk. You've
00:28:34
heard of Alien versus Predator? Elon might be both of them. So, another other
00:28:40
another other tibbits from the journal's reporting, and by the way, I've spoken about this with so many reporters. I'm
00:28:45
so glad that they're finally writing about this and not pretending it's just a silly, you know, an ex who's mad at
00:28:52
him. This is really significantly weird stuff and especially since he's in such a position of power. Musk believes
00:28:58
population decline is massive threat and wants uh to make enough babies to quote reach legion level before the
00:29:04
apocalypse. And Musk urged former girlfriend Ashley St. Clair to or I
00:29:09
don't know what she is, I guess girlfriend, to give birth via C-section because he believes that vaginal bursts limit brain size. You remember I was
00:29:16
arguing with him about this given I had a C-section. Scott, uh I Where should we go with this? Where should we go? Where
00:29:23
should we start? I mean, I'm thrilled that reporters are actually doing these things around the drugs, around these
00:29:28
weird weirdnesses around children. um it is really demented in a way that's
00:29:34
really around the bend and it's fine if someone wants to have a lot of kids but this is a whole theory. I think the one
00:29:40
person in this story that didn't get enough [ __ ] is Jared Burchaw who works for him and is his facilitator. He's
00:29:46
happens they wrote about him being a Mormon and he talking about him having such a stable family. Jared if you're
00:29:52
facilitating this you don't get to hide behind your perfect family and your you know that you don't behave like this.
00:29:58
you're just facilitating a rich person behaving badly and um and and
00:30:03
manipulating women um who are having kids. I mean, everything sounds so pathetic and at the very and then I'll
00:30:10
let you go on, Scott, but the children are really what really concerns me here is that these kids are getting
00:30:16
manipulated by Musk in in terms of what they're going to pay the mothers and this and that. Um, you don't need $15
00:30:22
million to do to raise a kid or anything else, but the the the ethical implications of all of this for all of
00:30:30
you who are facilitating this for Musk are rather deep and you should be ashamed of yourselves. Go ahead. Look,
00:30:37
there's a there's a kernel of truth here. Just calling balls and strikes. There was this fear um or this moral
00:30:44
panic around a population explosion that we were going to absorb that our population was growing faster than the
00:30:50
than the earth's resources and we it was going to collapse under population uh growth. What's actually happened is
00:30:56
that bomb has detonated but it's imploded and that is western nations as they become wealthier and more educated
00:31:01
women decide having a lot of kids is a bad deal for them and also men and basically birth rates go down and
00:31:09
evidence has shown that as population has gone up poverty has gone down. It ends up that if you put 10 10 new brains
00:31:16
into society, you know, one is a problem, eight do just fine and one might solve
00:31:23
more problems than those 10 brains create. So population growth is actually really it's a huge problem in Japan. In
00:31:30
South Korea supposedly like only three or four people will have grandkids right now with these birth rates. Now, you can
00:31:36
solve it with thoughtful immigration policies and also restoring a tax code
00:31:42
that doesn't rob from the young and give money to the old such that young people, should they decide to have kids, which
00:31:47
60% did 40 years ago at the age of 30, now it's 27%. So, we can solve for this
00:31:52
problem. I do believe that his basic theory is rooted in something that's
00:31:57
true like having more kids. Now having said that, having said that, if you look
00:32:03
at what I believe uh maybe next to income inequality is the biggest thing threatening the US, it's extremism led
00:32:10
by a group of young men who feel are sequestering from society and becoming shitty to uh citizens. They're not
00:32:16
attaching to work. They're not attaching to school. They're not attaching to relationships. They become prone to misogynistic content. They start blaming
00:32:22
women and immigrants for their problems. They become less likely to believe in climate change. And what if they don't
00:32:28
have a relationship or work by the time they're 30, the levels of substance abuse and self just go crazy. Just go
00:32:35
crazy. That is a hu struggling young men in this country is a huge threat to our
00:32:41
society. Wrote a book about it out in November. There you go. What? Now, if you were to reverse engineer it to the
00:32:48
the point of failure where a boy with a lot of potential comes off the tracks,
00:32:54
you might say, "Well, the prefrontal cortex doesn't mature as quickly." Well, the education system is biased against them. They're twice as likely to be
00:33:00
suspended on a behavior adjusted. There's a lot of things. They've been told for 40 years that they're the the
00:33:05
oppressor, and they're starting to believe it. They have big tech trying to sequester them from society with
00:33:11
gambling and porn. They have a lot of things going against them, but the number one point of failure to be
00:33:18
reverse engineered to is when they they lose a male role
00:33:23
model. The worst thing or one of the worst things you can do as a man or let
00:33:29
me put it this way, the best thing you can do is to stay involved in your kid's life. He's no he's not around. And
00:33:37
what's interesting is that when you have a single parent household, which he is creating, he's creating 14 single parent
00:33:43
households. He doesn't have 14 kids, he has 14 single parent household, more kids than that, I think. And what's interesting is that the daughters in
00:33:49
single parent households have similar outcomes as dual parent households. And I'm not saying girls don't need their
00:33:55
dad, but if you look at high school and college attendance and rates of self harm, they're not material materially
00:34:01
different in single parent households and duel. It is an entirely different story for boys. And what it ends up is
00:34:10
that while boys are physically stronger, they're mentally and emotionally much weaker. But him creating a series a a a
00:34:18
cadra of children that don't have their dad around, even if he sends checks,
00:34:24
that is bad for society. But he also Scott, two things. He uses checks as the control point by the way. And secondly,
00:34:32
it's I listen, there's a pronatalist movement going on obviously and he's part of this. They're not he's talking
00:34:39
about smarter people and and that reads to me white people essentially, right? I
00:34:44
don't think he thinks all people are equal. Well, it's almost as if he'd give a Nazi salute, right? Yes. Exactly. Who
00:34:50
knows who does that? Or that his dad started banging his stepdaughter. I
00:34:55
mean, is that right? Level of this his stepdaughter, I think. Yeah, correct. Um, but here's the thing. It's about
00:35:02
white people, more white people. That is or more people he considers smart, which is I think thought of that. Is he only
00:35:09
procreating with other with other white women? I guess that there's a there's a a someone he didn't know online named
00:35:17
Tiffany Fong, I believe, she's Asian, but that's but but here's the thing. He thinks his genes are smart. So, who
00:35:23
isn't smart where there are population increases? Brown people. That's what they're that is what he is doing here.
00:35:29
So I agreed. Listen, nobody believes in kids more than me. Like I for like I'm
00:35:35
not the Elon Musk of lesbian. But you're openly lesbian. You are openly lesbian. At
00:35:40
least you could be closeted. At least you could drive your Subaru with blackout windows being so openly
00:35:47
straight. At least you could hide that German Shepherd times. Anyway,
00:35:53
um, so he did, you know, but nonetheless, he thinks there are smart people and dumb people and all the smart
00:35:58
people are not. You know, that's this has a racial element to it. Let's But I just want to go back to openly lesbian.
00:36:04
Let me ask you this. Is it true that on all dates with lesbians, they hug for three hours, cry, and then decide never
00:36:09
to see each other again. Is that true? No. Is that true? No. Okay. You know what? Me and my You're coming to Lesbians who tech this year, and we're
00:36:16
going to I went I went three years ago. I'm doing it again, and this year we're going to kill you. I took my shirt off and the whole audience was like, I made
00:36:23
the right choice. Literally, every woman in the crowd's like, I did make the right choice seeing me my shirt off. I
00:36:28
was the second straight guy to ever be on the stage. First with Mark Benny off. Anyway, Elon, you are a sick puppy. I
00:36:33
have to tell you, one sick puppy. And I feel bad for these women. I feel bad for these kids. And the story was terrific.
00:36:40
The the journal the that the journal's doing it um is amazing. I have to say I
00:36:46
told oh a half a dozen top reporters about this Ashley Stlair to to like this
00:36:52
was really weird what was happening and nobody followed it and the journal did a really good job. I have to I have to give them credit. It is not puran. It's
00:36:59
they it's a really along with their board coverage of how they party with him along with um his strange behaviors.
00:37:07
I think the journal is doing amazing journalism here as is Christian Grind of the New York Times who was previous. I
00:37:12
think it's important though that we bring this back to me. Okay. Um, so I have more kids likely, substantially
00:37:21
more kids than Elon Musk. You know why? Oh, right. Because you gave We know this. We've talked about this sperm
00:37:26
donor. Yeah. I could get 40 bucks a shot because I was a quoteunquote athlete at UCLA. Anyways, I got called back four
00:37:34
times a week for a full year and I couldn't figure it out cuz the two guys I went with were the two guys I went
00:37:41
with were literally blonde gods. They were they were water polar players who went to the Olympics. They were smarter
00:37:47
than me. These guys were specimens Jewish. You've said the story. That's right. And I said, "Why do I have the
00:37:53
golden seed here?" And they said, "You have the two things, baby. My man gravy is like literally it's like Nvidia
00:38:00
chips." Anyways, the two things, the reason why my sperm was literally an
00:38:06
Hermes bag. I was the Hermes of sperm was two things. What are the two things that people in West LA parents want in
00:38:12
their sperm? Tall Jewish babies. Tall and Jewish. I had the peanut butter and chocolate of sperm donation. There are
00:38:19
Scott Galloways all over. Can you imagine how many receding hairlines are out there right now? I don't want to know. I don't even want to know. I don't
00:38:25
even want to know. Thank God. Not my children. Anyway, um here's an idea. three depressed people. They didn't test
00:38:32
me for that [ __ ] All right, that I you know, I didn't pick someone because they he had a history of depression in his family. Anyway, here's an idea. There's
00:38:38
some hot new real estate about uh 120 light years from Earth where Elon could go. Researchers announced on Tuesday
00:38:45
that they've discovered a massive planet known as K2 18b. I'm going to call it Galloway. Um whose atmosphere suggests
00:38:52
the possible presence of living organisms. It's really hot and wet. That's really pretty much what's happening. Don't say anything. Don't say
00:38:59
I know. Don't say anything. Anyway, um just really quickly, Nvidia says it will start producing AI supercomputers
00:39:04
manufactured entire in the US. The announcement comes conveniently after reports of upcoming tariffs. We'll see.
00:39:10
The company plans to use $500 billion of infrastructure in the US via manufacturing partners over the next year. They all say 500 billion. They
00:39:17
Apple did this. They've commissioned over 1 million square feet of manufacturing space to build chips in Arizona. They're working with Foxcon and
00:39:25
Taiwan's Wistron on additional plants in Texas, of course. Um, and then Trump said all the necessary permits will be
00:39:31
expedited and delivered. They're trying to appease Trump or or I'm sure he'll still screw them on tariffs. Jensen Wong
00:39:38
said made a surprise visit to Beijing to meet with Chinese trade officials as follows. In Nvidia is revealing on Wednesday it's taking a 5.5 billion hit
00:39:45
thanks to new US restrictions on the exports of its H20 chips to China. Uh,
00:39:50
the shares have been plunging very quickly. Thoughts on the planet or Nvidia? and nothing other than that this
00:39:58
all of this stuff announcing investment is performative thinking he's an idiot if we just repackage existing
00:40:03
investments he'll go for it and he'll potentially leave us alone and the stocks are now trading based on the
00:40:10
prediction markets of the mad king I mean this is just not the way to run an economy they they weren't going to do
00:40:15
this before and you know just this you know you can force manufacturing back in the US but it will have a price later um
00:40:22
if it's not economic that's just the way it goes unfortunately All right, Scott, let's go on a quick break. When we come back, we'll talk about Zuck
00:40:29
taking the stand and how much he was willing to pay and uh to get the antitrust case to go away. Scott, we're
00:40:35
back with more headlines. There's lots going on. Mark Zuckerberg has taken the witness stand for three days in Meta's antitrust trial this week over its
00:40:42
acquisition of Instagram and WhatsApp. Also, Cheryl Samberg was also on the stand. If the FTC wins, Meta could be
00:40:48
forced to sell off the app. Some highlights. years before the FDT sued Meta under the Trump administration.
00:40:53
Zuckerberg considered having Instagram be its own company to avoid antitrust issues. Meta tried to buy Snapchat for
00:40:59
six billion which actually I think I broke that story at the time. He thinks it would have been bigger now if it accepted the offer. Zuckerberg had of
00:41:05
course it then copied Snap everything Snapchat did in they it's buyer Barry
00:41:10
really and Barry was the choice that unfortunately Snapchat had to face. Zakarun once had a crazy idea to wipe
00:41:16
out all Facebook users friends. Uh to start again, the Meta CEO called Tik Tok the highest competitive threat for
00:41:22
Facebook and Meta. If it were up to Zuckerberg, this trial never would have happened. Too bad, Mark. He offered uh
00:41:29
the FDC $450 million, which is laughable. Um later upping the amount to 1 billion, but the offer was well below
00:41:35
the 30 billion the FTC wanted. This is under uh its current um chair, Andrew
00:41:41
Ferguson. You got a set there. Ferguson. Uh Zuckerberg reportedly felt confident
00:41:46
President Trump would back him. Uh obviously he didn't. It allowed it to go forward. Um it's not the strongest case
00:41:52
as we've talked about and this idea of who its competitor is in in the in the then it's a strong case in the now. It's
00:41:59
not as strong a case and everybody has shifted from social media to entertainment in a lot of ways. Social
00:42:06
media in the with a stress on media not on social. Um, so G give me is there
00:42:13
this ask kissing doesn't work. Give me one of your crazy ideas, Scott, here on this trial. Well, I I just think that if
00:42:22
they're So there's different remedies. One is a fine, which it looks like they're pursuing right now if they're found guilty of monopolistic behavior
00:42:30
and certain consent decrees also along with the fine. By the way, nine out of 10 people in the world outside of China
00:42:36
are on a Meta app. um if not I think it's either every day or every week and
00:42:41
they have 70% share of social media. Now that alone
00:42:46
isn't isn't illegal. What's illegal is if you're using that 7% 70% share to uh
00:42:53
deploy monopoly pricing that's bad for consumers and I would argue or engage in
00:42:58
anti-competitive behavior. And if you look at the notes that have come out in discovery, a big justification for acquiring Instagram is he said we need
00:43:04
to neutralize a competitor. That right there, that statement, that's illegal. That you're not allowed to acquire a
00:43:10
company to neutralize a competitor. You're not allowed to do a tails. In addition, what I always like to appeal
00:43:15
to people's greed glands on this. If they were forced as a remedy to spin Instagram, you know who wins and
00:43:22
WhatsApp and WhatsApp too and WhatsApp. You know who wins here? Shareholders. Mhm. Because the company right now it
00:43:27
trades at a really healthy multiple of 7.7x times revenues. Instagram on its
00:43:32
own I think would trade at 15 to 20 times revenues. Instagram just to give you you were at my birthday in Scotland.
00:43:38
Scotland is overrun because a bunch of Instagrammers went there and went crazy
00:43:44
talking about Scotland two summers ago. Instagram now dictates global tourism
00:43:50
patterns. You see it happen in Los Angeles and parts of your neighborhood. people take a picture in front of Oh, if
00:43:56
we went to my window right now, we would see three or four Asian women. Yeah.
00:44:02
With their Hermes bags in my on my cobblestone street taking pictures of one another. It is literally one area
00:44:09
where they're all taking. You talk about commerce. You talk about I mean that Instagram is an independent company.
00:44:16
Yeah. Everyone would want to own that stock. So shareholders would do better. I would buy that stock. In addition, the
00:44:22
competition here would lower rents. And specifically, I've argued that the rents that have gone up here are the biggest
00:44:28
rent increase has been non-economic. Think about the rents that parents have had to pay because of the monopoly
00:44:34
control of Meta. So the fact that they wouldn't compete and coordinate with core Facebook, the
00:44:39
fact that WhatsApp would probably be the largest telco in the world and rather than being a vessel for finding data for
00:44:46
better targeting for fa the core platform Facebook or Instagram, they would have to figure out a way just to
00:44:51
be the largest telco and start charging money. I think sher if they announced they were breaking up these companies, I
00:44:57
would buy meta stock because I think that ultimately shareholders would win more tax revenue. By the way, employees
00:45:03
win because there's more companies trying to rent your labor. Employees win, tax revenue,
00:45:10
shareholders win. The only person that doesn't win is the person who wants to sit on the iron throne of all seven
00:45:15
realms, not just Westeros. But I I I've always thought the be the two best
00:45:20
things you could do to oxygenate the global economy are if China and the US kissed and made up. We have IP, they
00:45:26
have manufacturing enough already. Let's lower everyone's costs by getting along again. And obviously, President Trump
00:45:32
does not get that. And then the second biggest way to oxygenate and unleash the global economy would be to take Amazon,
00:45:38
Apple, Facebook, and Meta and go from four companies to 15. It would create,
00:45:44
it would unleash so much competition and innovation and innovation, new things,
00:45:49
innovation, innov Tesla. I'm like, their car sucks
00:45:55
and it's not innovative. Did you see the Japanese stuff that's coming out? The EVs are so adorable and fantastic. I
00:46:01
just keep thinking why didn't any why didn't Tesla do this like why didn't they had the anyway well that's
00:46:07
another because he's having lesions of babies and taking ketamine apparently but and running the government into the
00:46:12
ground um but you're right you're absolutely right we'll see what happens here people find this to be a very weak case though because the the limits of
00:46:19
who they're it doesn't address what's happening now which is intense
00:46:24
competition in this in the social media space again as I said emphasis on media
00:46:29
he's trying to get away from the social part of it, by the way, which is really interesting because people aren't doing
00:46:34
what Facebook was originally intended for anymore. Now they're like consuming just like they did television. It's
00:46:41
really there has been a shift, don't you think? Don't you find you you're using social media for consumption more than
00:46:47
declaration or friendship. Now, I gotta be honest, I'm addicted to both Instagram and to Tik Tok and
00:46:54
consumption. You like looking at it, right? Well, honestly, it's now my news source.
00:47:00
I get really good I Tik Tok has figured out I want to see an economist talking about interest rates or a woman talking
00:47:07
about social issues that forgot to put her bra on. Those are the two that's how my feed that's how my feed was economist
00:47:14
putting his bra on. And then that's good. That's good. he's or
00:47:22
uh chiropractors aggressively adjusting people or of course it's amazing like oh
00:47:27
my god she has neck pain oh my god what is he going to do and then all of a sudden you hear celery and she's like I
00:47:33
can walk again I can walk again I love that oh my god and I see great danes
00:47:38
they like sick they have figured out I love great danes I could watch great dance all day and my also have you seen
00:47:44
the new ones where some chef Yeah will take like a $300 Chateau bion. Yeah. And
00:47:51
line up three dogs at a table. What? And then show them the chateau bion. And then literally this chef will will cook
00:47:58
it in front of them and get in front of them and then slice it for them and create some amazing sauce and then just
00:48:03
feed these three pit bulls this amazing that's end times. That's that's worse
00:48:09
than killing. Maybe it's late stage capitalism, but it sure is entertaining. Oh wow. Oh my gosh. I watch I do on
00:48:15
threads a thing called food porn, which I love, which is they just cook [ __ ] all over the place. I love cooking videos.
00:48:20
Anyway, we got to get back to the important things. I I'm not sure where this this case is going, but it sure has
00:48:26
a lot of cool emails um of them acting like [ __ ] all of them. Like, we're going to kill this company. We're going
00:48:31
to do this. This is exactly how they talk in reality, and it's just very entertaining to But one of the things
00:48:37
that's coming out of it is how much Mark Zuckerberg doesn't like his actual business, the social part of social media. That's been really interesting to
00:48:44
me. There was a big announcement this week. I think the biggest story that people haven't been talking about
00:48:49
um is OpenAI deciding they might get into social. Yeah, we were going to talk about that next week. We're talking
00:48:55
because we we'll see. I think they're just tweaking. They love to tweak everyone. But yes, they could do that too. Again, consumption consumption of
00:49:02
videos. That's where they're going to go. I mean, the creation and the creativity of people with this stuff. Um
00:49:08
this is just in, by the way. A federal judge has ruled that Google did act illegally to maintain a monopoly in
00:49:13
online advertising technology. The judge said in a ruling that Google had broken the law to build its dominance. No [ __ ]
00:49:19
Sherlock. The Justice Department in a group of states had sued Google, arguing that its monopoly in ad technology
00:49:24
allowed the company to charge higher prices and take a bigger portion of the sale. Yes, because they're on both sides
00:49:29
of the deal, everybody. Remember, a federal judge ruled in August, a separate federal judge, that the company
00:49:35
had a monopoly in online search. He is now considering a request by the Justice Department to break the company up, spin
00:49:40
parts off. Um Google's I this is a much stronger case and it is so obvious the
00:49:46
dominance of Google in both advertising and search and their behaviors around this. Um uh it's really interesting and
00:49:53
of course Sundar was at the inauguration. It doesn't seem to be helping. Now a lot of these cases were started in the previous Trump
00:49:59
administration. Again I cannot underscore this. Um so thoughts thoughts on this one? This one's stronger and and
00:50:06
they've lost. They've clearly lost. They This will go on. They will appeal, but they've lost again. Once again, I like I
00:50:13
said, I just I think everybody wins if these companies start to I think their share price goes up. I I don't know what
00:50:20
to say other than that. Although I I was more cynical about antitrust under a Trump administration. And Jonathan
00:50:26
Caner, who knows a lot more about this than me, sent me straight and said, "You're underestimating some of the people who are at justice in the FDC."
00:50:33
Yeah. the person who replaced him is very well Gail I think it's Sla Sla Slaughter or Slater um is very well
00:50:40
respected. She's a JD Vance person from the JD Zance side of the aisle who has been very antirust focused. Um great
00:50:47
respect for people like in terms of they understand. Here's the thing everybody less competition less innovation higher
00:50:55
prices shittier products. I I that's the way it goes. And the fact that these
00:51:00
company and by the way the the side effects of both these companies for their dominance in both social media and
00:51:06
advertising and search which is linked to they're all linked to advertising is the death of regular media. They have
00:51:12
two of these two companies have run over. Now look media old media has done a lot of things to kill itself but this
00:51:18
is not that the the hollowing out of the business model by these companies using these tactics has been right in there to
00:51:25
really hurt these companies. So that's another that's another uh you know delletterious effect of these things. So
00:51:32
there you go. There you go. Anyway, we'll be right back and we'll get to predictions. Okay, Scott, let's hear a
00:51:38
prediction. What's a prediction from you? Um besides children of Scott all over Southern California, you may know
00:51:45
this. Are you creating a legion of babies? Well, you know, you can there's now a website. If you go to it, you can
00:51:51
type in your name and say, "This is the clinic I donated." Yes, I know all about it. and they send you a certified thing,
00:51:56
certified mail, and if you sign it, an email goes out to all your biological children saying, "This is your biological father." I would do it if you
00:52:04
could gate it. And you can't. And the problem is you don't know if it's absolutely going to do this now. So I
00:52:09
can meet all of Scott's children. Well, that's why I don't do 23 and me because people could figure it out. But I don't know if I have two kids or 2,000 because
00:52:16
it wasn't regulated back then. So you have like hundreds of kids. You remember the Vince Fawn movie where he had My mom
00:52:23
told you this. My mom made me stop because she said she said, "I put my I'm not exaggerating. I paid for my junior
00:52:28
year at UCLA doing this. I wonder how many kids." And my mom said, "You need to stop." And her rationale was, "What
00:52:34
if your son ends up marrying your daughter?" Oh my god. That's the typical fear thing. The fear thing. I know. But
00:52:39
anyways, she had a real point. She's like, "You're going to go up in LA and you're going to come and you're going to
00:52:44
meet Anyways, but it's it's a weird it's a weird thought. I've thought about
00:52:51
maybe like I don't know leaving him some money when I die or something like that. But anyways, I I I know I've used those
00:52:56
sites because I' I saw other how many other kids my sons are related to um
00:53:02
through that. Make for a fun party. Think about what an awesome party I would throw for 238 year olds that all
00:53:08
sort of look like me. That would be a fun party, wouldn't it? I feel like I want to go find all your children and
00:53:14
apologize and give them a documentary Searching for Scott. Oh, let's start a podcast network. Yes. Let's start a Vox
00:53:21
Media podcast with just our children. Why is Oh my god, that's so [ __ ] up.
00:53:27
So [ __ ] up. Let's hear a prediction. Anyways, sorry. I predict this would be disastrous and then they could marry all
00:53:33
of Elon Musk's kids. Anyway, sorry. I'm stop. I'll stop. So, anyways, the Okay,
00:53:39
prediction. The I think my prediction is the following, Cara. I think the worm has turned. I think that my sense is
00:53:46
that the things that have kept Republicans quiet because of their dear leader has more power in this cult that
00:53:52
where he can get vote them out of office. The fear factor of saying I'll weaponize the DOJ against my enemies.
00:54:00
Donald Trump, I'm not comparing him to Hitler, but Hitler's biggest mistake that reshaped the world was he decided
00:54:07
to open a second front in the war and he declared war on Russia. That is we probably would have had to come to some
00:54:13
sort of agreement with him where he got Europe and Britain got the empire or whatever. But that is what kind of lost
00:54:19
the war was in addition to British brains, Russian blood and American
00:54:24
brawn, Russian blood, they they sacrificed 20 million people and they
00:54:29
were allies at the beginning of the war. Trump has decided to fight everyone
00:54:36
all at once. He's not he's not going after targeted tariffs against against
00:54:42
China or figuring out if there's certain tariffs that that on on dairy that are
00:54:47
not reciprocal or asymmetric. He's not saying to the EU, we need we need you to
00:54:53
pay more for our NATO. He's just declared war on everyone all at once.
00:54:59
And it is literally the only we had to ally with dozens of countries to get
00:55:04
Hussein out of Kuwait. But this guy's under the impression he can declare war on everyone. And it it does feel like
00:55:10
declare war on everyone, doesn't it? Everyone all at once. Whether it's Harvard or Kajakistan, he's just
00:55:16
declared war on everyone. Yeah. And they're going to be very creative. Getting any and strike back. They're
00:55:22
just going to be very creative and strike back. Anyways, the I think the worm has turned. I think that so many
00:55:28
public company CEOs who wake up in the morning and say, "Hello, Mr. President." That think that someday they're going to
00:55:33
be drafted because of their incredible leadership skills to run for president. Let me save you three classes at a
00:55:39
business school on ethics, um, leadership, and sustainability. Ethics is like, think about what the
00:55:45
right thing is. Leadership is do the right thing even when it's really hard. And sustainability is doing the right
00:55:51
thing when it's really hard. You might actually make money. There, you don't need to take those three classes. You're about to see, I believe, some very
00:55:58
high-profile business leaders and Republicans come out in the next week or two and say, "This is just bad." And
00:56:06
they're going to get a ton of attention. Not one. I don't I I can't think of a Fortune 500 CEO who is who has spoken
00:56:12
out. I can't think of a Republican who has really taken a stand here. And the
00:56:17
person I am reminded of is a guy named Martin Nimler. And he was essentially uh
00:56:24
he was a prominent Lutheran pastor in Germany in the 20s and early 30s. He sympathized for me right that guy.
00:56:30
That's exactly right. Very well well done. He sympathized with many Nazi ideas and supported radically right-wing
00:56:35
political movements. But after Hitler came to power in 33, Nuller became an outspoken critic of Hitler's
00:56:41
interference in the Protestant church. He spent the last eight years of Nazi rule uh in prisons and concentration
00:56:48
camps. And Nim Müller is perhaps best remembered for his post-war statement which begin which begins first they came
00:56:55
for the socialists and I did not speak out and his full quote is first they
00:57:00
came for the socialists and I did not speak out because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists
00:57:06
and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because
00:57:12
I was not a Jew. Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak for
00:57:18
me. I mean that is really powerful and what I would argue I have a lot of faith in America over the medium and the long
00:57:25
term. We get it wrong in the short term a lot but over the medium and long term we demonstrate tremendous generosity and leadership. And I think we're at a point
00:57:32
where people realizing that, okay, a guy with the wrong tattoo who gets basically
00:57:37
rounded up a university or the cultural elite that are targeted under [ __ ]
00:57:42
narratives of anti-semitism coming after uh
00:57:47
weaponizing the DOJ against your political enemies. I think the school is
00:57:52
about to rise up against the bullies. I think we are although Scott in the short term like Chris Krebs had to leave his
00:57:58
business has to leave his company because he got targeted by Trump in his there's been Cara there's been damage is
00:58:05
there's been uncalculable economic and moral damage here and loss of brand equity and a loss of moral authority. I
00:58:12
don't I'm not in any way assuming this will repair everything. What I'm suggesting is the following. There is
00:58:18
now it is so obvious how damaging this is. Republicans showing up to their town
00:58:24
halls and literally getting just absolutely ravaging continues. Although there's so much hostility towards her,
00:58:30
it's really fascinating from some Democrats. But I think you're going to see in the next one or two weeks a cadra
00:58:37
of Fortune 500 CEOs, Republicans stand up, business leaders
00:58:42
stand up and say, "Okay, enough already. While you all claim he's playing 4D chess, at this point we're worried he's
00:58:48
going to start eating the pieces. This guy is making the stupidest decisions.
00:58:53
And the first person I I'm I love Nike. I just do a lot of work with Nike. I'm I'm I'm going to call I don't know if
00:59:00
Call me back. I'm going to call Elliot Hill the CEO today. The biggest opportunity right now in the commercial consumer world is for the CEO to
00:59:06
weaponize their creativity and their agency and to come out against this [ __ ] and say this is
00:59:12
anti-American. This is not part of our values. This is not what it means to be an American. Someone Yeah. Someone in
00:59:18
the Fortune 500 is going to come out and say, "This is bullshit." And guess what?
00:59:24
The people who actually have the money to buy this [ __ ] are going to think, "You know what? I like this swoosh." Again, I like your prediction. I hope
00:59:30
it's true. I They made Harvard he's made Harvard likable again. Yeah. And you know, interesting. Josh Shapiro, who got
00:59:36
attacked on Passover, his his house, who's the governor of Pennsylvania, Trump has yet to call him, which is
00:59:41
really an astonishing thing. Of course, if it was a if there was a Tesla in the in the driveway, he certainly would call it terrorism. Um, but of course, he's
00:59:49
not. Yeah. He wanted to label people throwing [ __ ] at Tesla's an act of domestic terrorism. Also, Pam Bond, but
00:59:55
the governor of Pennsylvania, someone tries to burn his house down with him in it on during Pass. I mean, but but oh,
01:00:04
we're just going to keep that. We're just going to ignore that. Anyways, I I like to think that all of a sudden a
01:00:09
bunch of leaders in the Republican party and in the business world are reaching down and fighting these spherical things
01:00:15
called testicles. Marco Rubio keeps making stupid arguments. They're trying to administration guy who's in El
01:00:23
Salvador with no proof. People in the administration are they're they're they've they've signed up for the deer
01:00:29
leader pack. They're in they're in the cult. They're like, "Okay, maybe maybe I disagree with Jim Jones, but I came down to Guyana. I'm going to drink the
01:00:35
Kool-Aid. Yeah. I'm talking about Fortune 500 CEOs and I'm talking about even some some Republican Congress
01:00:42
people. This has gotten so out of control and and they're going to do it out of greed. The first consumer brand
01:00:50
that stands up and says, "I am standing up to this." The first Republican that stands up and says, "Okay, come for me.
01:00:57
This is insane." especially in a district where like in Kentucky where Canada being more strategic is like no
01:01:03
let's just not do blanket tariffs let's go after red states. I mean this I do
01:01:09
think anyway my long-winded way of saying my prediction is the worm has turned and we're going to see people who
01:01:16
supposedly were part of the cult the Fortune 500 which has been visibly absent. They're going to remember that's
01:01:22
going to this guy's quote, you know, first they came first they came for the
01:01:29
socialists, right? Okay. Be clear folks. Everyone could get this knock on the
01:01:34
door. And I do think the worm has turned. I think there is economic incentive now to come out against this
01:01:39
[ __ ] And you know who provided cloud cover for it? Chairman Powell. Yes, he does. But we'll see. We'll see. I from
01:01:45
your mouth to all your leaders. You're cynical, you know, or you don't think you're I don't know. I don't I think it'll take longer than you think it'll
01:01:50
be more damaging. I think he will have damaged and wrecked people's lives and in the process. Oh, I think that's already happened. Yeah, I think he's
01:01:57
going to keep doing it. I think until until the midterms and if the Democrats win, he's in for a world of pain for the
01:02:04
rest of his life. Um elsewhere in the Scott and Car universe, uh Scott, you just had a big interview with Canada's
01:02:10
new prime minister Mark Carney. Very nice get. You chatted about a lot of things including Canada's role in
01:02:15
changing world and whether the US uh Canada relationship can be fixed as trade tensions rise. Obviously Scott is
01:02:21
a particular friend of Canada and they love us there. Um let's listen to a clip. You know from a Canadian
01:02:26
perspective we are willing to take the price to restructure our economy in a different direction. It's been such a
01:02:33
sense of I mean the word that's used is betrayal. So you know we signed a deal.
01:02:38
We've had this partnership. We observe it in good faith. We set up businesses. We, you know, we know lots of American.
01:02:44
We like Americans. We listen to American podcasts. And all of a sudden, you know, we get these uh, you know, these attacks
01:02:52
is which is the way these this is viewed is okay. So, it's going to cost us for a period of time uh, and we'll build out
01:02:59
and build with others. What a nice voice he has. He's a very impressive guy. He
01:03:04
was he was asked to be again the first nonbrit to head the Bank of England. I asked him, I thought the nicest part of the podcast, I asked him in a lightning
01:03:11
round, I said, "If you could go back and speak to someone who's not with us anymore, who would it be and what would
01:03:16
you say?" And he paused and he said, "My dad." And I would tell him I love him. Oh, wow. It was really a nice moment.
01:03:22
Oh, Scott, you probably weep, didn't you? Oh my god. Well, he got emotional. Made me feel very emotional. He's a
01:03:27
really he's an impressive, by the way. Incredible turnaround in Canada for the Liberals. like this this this weird
01:03:33
little conservative was going to win and now he looks like you know who but I mean Trump Trump is is literally toxic
01:03:41
for the entire world right now the most elegant way to reduce everyone's prosperity but in terms of popularity
01:03:46
he's taken Claudia Sham bomb above 80% incredible incredible I mean everyone is
01:03:52
rallying against this guy we'll see if he wins we'll see but anyway that looks like that's the case um okay that's the
01:03:57
show and that was a good interview Scott I listened to it was terrific okay that's the show. Thanks for listening to Pivot and be sure to like and subscribe
01:04:04
to our YouTube channel. We'll be back next week. Scott, read us out. Today's show is produced by Laren Neon, Zoe
01:04:11
Marcus, and Taylor Griffin. Ernie Tat engineered this episode. Jim M edited the video. Thanks also to Drew Bros,
01:04:17
Miss Aario, and Dan Chalon. Nishak Kurwa is Vox Media's executive producer of podcast. Make sure you subscribe to the
01:04:24
show wherever you listen to podcast. Thank you for listening to Pivot from New York Magazine and Vox Media. You can subscribe to the magazine at
01:04:30
nymag.com/pop. We'll be back next week for another breakdown of all things tech and business. Then they came for me and
01:04:39
there was no one left to speak for me.
