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Kara and Scott's AI Video Experiment Will Haunt Your Dreams | Pivot

May 30, 2025 / 01:05:50

This episode of Pivot covers topics including Donald Trump's tariffs, insider trading, Elon Musk's cryptocurrency ventures, and Google's new AI video generator. Hosts Cara Swisher and Scott Galloway discuss Trump's tariff strategy and a recent court ruling against it, as well as the implications of his unpredictable trade policies.

They highlight the concept of 'taco trade,' where Trump threatens tariffs but often retracts them, leading to market volatility. The hosts also examine insider trading linked to Trump's administration, particularly focusing on how his actions affect market trust.

Elon Musk's relationship with cryptocurrency is another key topic, with discussions on how it has become a significant part of his financial portfolio. They analyze the political implications of cryptocurrency and how it resonates with younger voters.

The episode concludes with a discussion on Google's AI video generator, VO3, and its potential impact on the media landscape, including concerns about misinformation and the future of video production.

TL;DR

Cara and Scott discuss Trump's tariffs, insider trading, Musk's crypto ventures, and Google's AI video generator.

Video

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Oh no. Oh my god. No. No. No. They're

00:00:03

kissing. Don't do it.

00:00:09

Hi everyone. This is Pivot from New York

00:00:10

Magazine and the Fox Media Podcast

00:00:12

Network. I'm Cara Swisser. And I'm Scott

00:00:14

Galloway. Hello Scott. How's it going?

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It's good. Um I'm I'm trying to I've

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been setting up my home gym. I'm I

00:00:21

actually You know what? I didn't I'm

00:00:23

trying to I took a week off of alcohol

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and edibles because I and I found this

00:00:29

research that is I find accurate and it

00:00:32

said that if you cut out

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alcohol and edibles from your life for

00:00:37

just uh for 21 days or more you lose 60%

00:00:42

of your will to live. Oh, I knew that's

00:00:45

where that was going. Oh my god. Also,

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Elsa, it's been a while. Hold on. Hold

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on. I'm not stopping there. My in-laws

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are staying with me. Oh, how's that

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going? You like them? Oh, they're

00:00:54

wonderful. It's perfect because they

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don't speak very good English, so we

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don't communicate. I'm convinced that

00:00:59

in-law your relationship with your

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in-laws starts to come off the tracks

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when you begin communicating. But, uh,

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something kind of awkward happened over

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the weekend. Uh-oh. I had left my

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computer out there involved. My

00:01:10

mother-in-law opened it and what did she

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see on my computer? No. No. What? Well,

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you can imagine. One guess. Porn. Porn.

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Porn. Yeah. So, but I had the perfect

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excuse. What? I said, I get my weather

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from cockgobblers.com.

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Okay. Before this didn't happen. Okay.

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Cockgoblers. I mean, that is good

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branding. That is really That signals

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awareness. It signals intent. It tells

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you what the product offering is. Yeah,

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I love that. Yeah, I love that. I get my

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weather there. Yeah, right. Okay. Well,

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I'm going on a big trip. Yeah, you need

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to travel less. I actually am worried

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about you. I haven't in a while. I

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haven't tried. This is the first big

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trip I'm taking. Good. I also think you

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need and I'll see you in France. Spend

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some of your money and enjoy yourself

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and relax a little. I'm not a

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vacationer, Scott, like you. Yeah, you

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should start. It's a lot of fun. I'll

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show you how. I

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never not

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liking gardening. I like doing

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organizing my things. And can I give you

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a hint? Two hints. One, don't take your

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kids. And two, travel to hotels, not to

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cities. Oh, well, I'm go I'm going to be

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in San Francisco, so I'll be at my

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beautiful home there, which I love to.

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Let's not travel. That's enough of our

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revelations. Personal revelations. We've

00:02:21

got a lot to get to today. I'm so glad

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you're You didn't really show your

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mother-in-law porn, did you? I hope not.

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No, that's that's a lie. I clear a

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lovely lady. I clear my browsing history

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once you Okay, now I'm all paranoid

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because I found out people actually

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listen to this thing and they get angry

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when I say stupid things about them. Oh,

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okay. Um, that aren't true. By the way,

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um, okay, let's make sure my in-laws are

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to be blessed with young, competent

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in-laws is just they are we moved to

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Florida because to be near them and it

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was one of the best moves we ever made.

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They're really lovely people. Also, uh,

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having grandparent that is a I did not

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witness that. I did not participate in

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that cuz all my grandparents passed

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away. Oh wow. The grandparent child

00:03:04

grand grandkid relationship absolutely

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is just so in incredible to watch.

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Absolutely. My grandmother was critical

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to my life. I have to say she really

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was. She raised me in a lot of ways. So

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anyway, uh we've got a lot to get to

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today, including uh Elon's farewell to

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Doge, his long [ __ ] goodbye, the

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Trump taco trade, and what happens when

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we tried Google's new AI video

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generator, VO. But first, uh, Donald

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Trump's tariff strategy has been dealt a

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major blow. The US Court of

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International Trade ruled Wednesday that

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the Trump overstepped his authority by

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using emergency powers to impose

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sweeping tariffs, in fact, not bypassing

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Congress. The three judge panel found

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that federal law did not grant Trump

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unbounded authority to tax imports from

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nearly every country around the world.

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The White House plans to appeal, and the

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case is likely going to the Supreme

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Court. They're working hard over there.

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Uh tariffs on steel, aluminum, and a few

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other sectors are still in place, but

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they're imposed under a different law.

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Uh this is going on. And let me just

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bring in taco trade. Uh have you heard

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you you've heard about taco trade? Taco,

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short for Trump, always chickens out, is

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a new acronym coined by a Financial

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Times columnist. It describes a pattern

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where Trump rattles the markets with his

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tariff threats only to backpedal a few

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days later, sending stocks surging. The

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latest example, Trump found 50% tariffs

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on EU goods last week hit pause on

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Sunday after a good call with European

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Commission President and when the

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markets reopened Tuesday, the Dow jumped

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over 700 points and the S&P 500 saw its

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biggest gain in weeks. Uh Trump doesn't

00:04:33

like the taco terminology, mostly

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because he probably doesn't tacos.

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Remember that whole thing with tacos he

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had going? His pissiness was on full

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display when asked about it on

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Wednesday. Let's listen. Oh, isn't that

00:04:44

nice chicken out? I've never heard that.

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You mean because I reduced China from

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145% that I set down to 100 and then

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down to another number and I said you

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have to open up your whole country and

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because uh I I gave the European Union a

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50% tax uh tariff and they called up and

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they said please let's meet right now.

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Please let's meet right now. And I said

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okay I'll give you till Janine. I

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actually asked them, I said, "What's the

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date?" Because they weren't willing to

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meet. And after I did what I did, they

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said, "We'll meet anytime you want and

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we have an end date of July 9th. You

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call that chickening out?" Oh, man. Is

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he sensitive about that taco trade? So,

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talk about the two things, the the court

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ruling and then this taco trade. The

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idea that his unpredictability has

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become predictable. Well, I just have an

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adjacent thought. And the first is that

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there's a lot

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of sort of quote unquote conspiracy

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theory from the right that there was

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this gigantic cover up of Biden's

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cognitive decline. First off, if it was

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a cover up, it was the worst cover up in

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history. They let him go debate and put

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his cognitive decline on full display.

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But it's no it was no more a cover up

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than the cover up of Trump's cognitive

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decline right now. Did you see his

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speech at West Point? I agree. I agree.

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I was really struck by. So is is this a

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cover up? The guy is rambling about

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nonsense. So it's are we in are we in

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the midst like one you might do? But go

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ahead. Are we in the midst of a cover

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up? Anyways, the in terms of the taco

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trade, Trump since the inauguration,

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Trump administration officials have

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announced new or revised tariff policies

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more than 50 times.

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And I'm having trouble finding one deal.

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I mean, he talks about deals, announced

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a deal with the UK, but nothing was

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signed. It was a it was an agreement to

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have further discussions. I I don't He's

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saying it's helping them come to the

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table by his crazy moves, his his wave

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or something, whatever he calls it. This

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is how terrible a business person and

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negotiator Trump is. Yeah. Trump puts a

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policy a tariff of 145% and then he

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admits himself, well that was kind of

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high and then he lowers it to 30 because

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the markets the markets throw up. So

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he's essentially if he's a poker player,

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he shows up to the table with all this

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bravado and swagger. He goes all in and

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then before he even sees what the other

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players say or do, he goes, I fold. I

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fold. He negotiates against himself and

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nobody takes him seriously. But here's

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the real story in my

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view. This is nothing but a weapon of

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insider trading. And that is he can

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create volatility. He can take markets

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up for some of their biggest gains in

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history when he takes these ridiculous

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trades off the table. He can take

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markets down. And the people around him

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are trading stocks like [ __ ] crazy.

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including you're going to find that some

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of his hedge fund buddies that he speaks

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to or tuxman in

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bedite some of whom we talk a lot about

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are going to vastly outperform the

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index. Yeah. And even even

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representatives Marjorie Taylor Green

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there was a whole bunch of people

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trading. Let's talk about this. Let the

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fish rots from the head. Mhm. The

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nation's top cop is the attorney

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general. Yeah. Pam Bondi. Pam Bondi on

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April the 2nd sold one somewhere between

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1 and 5 million in Trump media stock.

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Why April 2nd? That was the same day the

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liberation day tariffs were announced.

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So we have the person supposedly

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ensuring the markets have rule of fair

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play is trading stocks the day her boss

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announces tariffs that will take the

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markets down. She sells a ton of stocks

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and it is everywhere. uh the state

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department officials um Michael Platt

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staff director and congress uh sold

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around escalating the the trading in and

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out of the market based on who knows

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what when huge spike in options volume

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right before he makes these

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announcements which means that people

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know something and people hear this I

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just want to try and connect the dots

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here people hear this and go okay

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there's always been grift speaker Pelosi

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uh speaker Joe Pelosi, there's Osman

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Griff. So, so if some people are getting

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richer, fine. What people fail to make

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the connection is the following is that

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when you buy same day options because

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you know he's about to reduce the

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tariffs and the markets are about to

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scream up, somebody is on the other side

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of the trade that doesn't have that

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insider information that is selling that

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person that option and is going to get

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taken to the laundry, is going to lose a

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[ __ ] ton of money. And the reason why

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off a $27 trillion economy, we have a

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$50 trillion market cap stock market,

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which gives companies the ability to

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raise money. It gives people the chance

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to save money for their retirements. It

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gives people incredible compensation

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upside if they get options. The reason

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why we have such incredibly deep pools

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of capital that create prosperity and

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risk aggressiveness, we have $5 million

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in risk capital for every startup.

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Europe has 1 million is because people

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believe there's a rule of fair play and

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fair trade. Now let's look at let's look

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at Russia. Russia is one I'm sorry 114th

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the size of our economy. 2 trillion or

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about 28 trillion. The total value of

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the Russian stock market is $80 billion

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because people don't trust it. People

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are like unless you know Putin you don't

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know what's going to happen. And there's

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so much insider trading and kleptocracy

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that the markets don't have any trust.

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So what do you have? You have

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essentially even on a size adjusted

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basis our stock market is 70 times the

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value of the Russian stock market even

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ramping it up to to adjust it for market

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I'm sorry adjust it for the difference

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in the size of the economy. So when a

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bunch of people think I lost money and

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I'm not on the inside, I'm not going to

00:11:06

participate in the markets. Yeah, I

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agree. This is that's a really fantastic

00:11:10

take actually. I really what's going on

00:11:12

here. He's also doing it because he

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doesn't have a plan at the same time and

00:11:17

people are either he is in on the grift,

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right? Or he's so dumb and a bad

00:11:22

business person they're playing him and

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rewarding his allies. there. He's

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rewarding his allies and also doing what

00:11:28

he does, which is run businesses right

00:11:29

into the ground, which is his that seems

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to be the consens consistent part of his

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business career is to run businesses

00:11:36

into the ground in some fashion with

00:11:38

these sort of capriccious things. And

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the fact that he gets so angry about it

00:11:42

was really revoly. It's like he he knows

00:11:45

exactly what he's doing. He's trying to

00:11:46

put it off. And I it's really depressing

00:11:48

when someone like Scott Besson says,

00:11:50

"Oh, acting crazy is a strategy." I'm

00:11:52

like, "No, it's not. It's not as I mean

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maybe once but you can't do it over and

00:11:57

over and over again and that's what he's

00:11:58

doing. And so Europeans he's like oh

00:12:01

they came to the table because they made

00:12:02

that threat. I'm like they probably

00:12:03

waited until you did this and then

00:12:05

they're like okay now time to come to

00:12:06

the table. Um but they are long they are

00:12:09

long gaming him so badly. It's it's

00:12:13

really an astonishing thing and he

00:12:15

deserves every single insult he gets

00:12:17

about how he's conducting these the

00:12:19

court thing. How do you feel like they

00:12:21

just are just all the courts? 96% of

00:12:24

courts are against Donald Trump on all

00:12:25

these rulings, not just the tariff ones,

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but all of them. 96%.

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Okay, I'll talk about the courts now. I

00:12:32

want to give you just some more data

00:12:33

here around the insider trading that has

00:12:34

gone [ __ ] out of control and it's

00:12:36

going to it's going to scare the [ __ ]

00:12:38

out of capital to leave the US.

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Okay, I feel for the most part 80 to 90%

00:12:43

of executive actions, tariffs, EU

00:12:45

tariffs, Apple tariffs, har going after

00:12:48

international students at Harvard, all

00:12:50

of this they know will likely be swept

00:12:53

away and these organizations will get

00:12:55

injunctive relief and these things will

00:12:56

not stand. I think it is again they're

00:13:00

like okay what could get us kicked out

00:13:02

of office how we lose con Congress is if

00:13:05

Americans wake up and instead of

00:13:07

focusing on the international students

00:13:09

that might be kicked out of Harvard

00:13:10

which will be turned over and we the

00:13:13

media clutches its its progressive

00:13:15

pearls for good reason. I realize it has

00:13:17

larger implications but folks this is

00:13:19

going to have no impact on anybody

00:13:20

because it's going to go away over the

00:13:22

long term. is bad and I'll come back to

00:13:23

why it's bad for our best one of our

00:13:25

biggest exports and that is education.

00:13:27

But it is a distraction from what really

00:13:31

impacts people. And this is my problem

00:13:32

with the left is we get outraged and

00:13:35

we're more interested with proving and

00:13:37

grasping at social virtue as opposed to

00:13:41

actually focusing on what impacts the

00:13:43

material and psychological well-being of

00:13:45

millions of Americans. And this is what

00:13:47

is going to impact tens of millions of

00:13:50

Americans. This big, beautiful tax bill

00:13:54

is about to cut taxes for 5% of the

00:13:57

wealthiest Americans and take away

00:13:59

Medicaid for 8 million people and

00:14:03

increase the deficit by almost 4

00:14:05

trillion, which will be a tax on tens of

00:14:08

millions of young people. So they I and

00:14:12

by the way, it's going to

00:14:14

disproportionately impact red states.

00:14:18

So if we focus on that and say what is

00:14:20

really impacting millions of people,

00:14:23

it's the rep we might actually take back

00:14:27

control of Congress, but instead we go

00:14:30

for oh no, let's get outraged about

00:14:32

Harvard. Okay, I get it. But they are

00:14:36

purposely trying to to misdirect us. Now

00:14:39

in terms of these court cases he if he

00:14:42

wants he can make really uh he can make

00:14:44

life really difficult when essentially

00:14:46

imposed tariffs in different ways but

00:14:49

it's not going to happen. I have made

00:14:51

the same prediction over and over in a

00:14:53

year from now two years from now the

00:14:55

tariff and global trade situation will

00:14:57

look remarkably similar to the way when

00:14:59

he started and he will have grifted and

00:15:01

his people will have grifted their way

00:15:02

into insider trading. Can I give you

00:15:04

some more data? Sure. But we have to

00:15:06

move on but go ahead. Okay. Okay. Just

00:15:08

because this insider trading thing, I

00:15:09

don't think people realize what this

00:15:11

does to the unbelievable

00:15:13

incredibly cheap capital and pools of

00:15:15

capital that the US trust that people

00:15:17

have in the market all the problems

00:15:19

they've had. Now they've had insider

00:15:20

trading issues for for 99% of our

00:15:23

existence on this planet. People would

00:15:24

never give money sell something to

00:15:26

strangers in a market. They thought it

00:15:27

was all insider, right? So the the trust

00:15:31

in markets is is literally the jet fuel

00:15:34

of our one of the jet fuels of our

00:15:36

prosperity. Okay. So this has been going

00:15:37

on for a while. In his first term, Carl

00:15:39

Carl Icon sold 31 million in steel

00:15:41

related stocks the day before Trump

00:15:44

announced steel tariffs in 2018. On

00:15:46

March 30th, 3 days before Trump's

00:15:48

initial tariff announcement, at least

00:15:50

three hedge fund managers attended a

00:15:52

private dinner in Mara Lago, and all

00:15:54

three dramatically increased their short

00:15:56

positions in the 48 hours following that

00:15:59

dinner. One of those phones, Bluestone

00:16:02

Capital, is run by a guy named Brian

00:16:03

Chevlin, who was instrumental in the

00:16:05

early days of Trump's media spa merger.

00:16:08

Bluestone Capital increased its short

00:16:10

position in Tesla by 300% or four-fold

00:16:14

on April 1. One day, one day, Cara,

00:16:18

before the tariff announcement that sent

00:16:20

Tesla shares down 17%. And then the fund

00:16:24

then closed most of its short positions

00:16:26

on April 8th, right before Tesla

00:16:29

rebounded 18% up on news of the tariff

00:16:33

pause. So this guy either has a [ __ ]

00:16:36

crystal ball or a gut like we've never

00:16:39

seen or investing or he is getting

00:16:41

information from people at the very top

00:16:44

about non-public information. So, why

00:16:47

would an average investor ever buy or

00:16:49

sell Tesla stock when chances are

00:16:51

someone on the other end knows more than

00:16:53

I do? And we have an SEC who's not

00:16:55

enforcing any of this or it's someday,

00:16:58

you know, as I told you, there's a lot

00:17:00

of people outside of government

00:17:03

following all of this and collecting all

00:17:05

this information. If our government's

00:17:06

not going to, there are technical

00:17:08

people, even some podcasters. Yes, I'm

00:17:10

keeping notes on all this [ __ ] Exactly.

00:17:12

But they're keeping the actual

00:17:14

transactions in case they people with

00:17:16

actual power. Power. Yeah, exactly. Not

00:17:18

yelling into Tik Tok. They are going,

00:17:19

this is someday they will probably run

00:17:21

off with this money, but it is

00:17:23

absolutely a grift. And someone who

00:17:25

understands the griftiness of it, Elon

00:17:27

Musk has talked about it, is officially,

00:17:29

he's using the term grift, but he's

00:17:31

talking about the problem with deficits

00:17:33

and tariffs. Um Elon Musk is officially

00:17:35

an ex special government employee,

00:17:37

posting on his social platform that the

00:17:39

Doge mission will only strengthen over

00:17:41

time, which means it will not. It's

00:17:43

over. um must thank Trump for the

00:17:45

opportunity to reduce wasteful spending,

00:17:47

but only after throwing some shade at

00:17:49

his former boss. Here's what he told CBS

00:17:51

News. By the way, the guy who hates old

00:17:53

media is [ __ ] all over old media

00:17:55

these days. Let's go. You know, I was

00:17:57

like disappointed to see the massive

00:18:01

spending bill, frankly, uh which

00:18:04

increases the budget deficit, not just

00:18:06

decrease it, and undermines the work

00:18:08

that the Doge team is doing. I think a

00:18:10

bill can be can be can be big or it can

00:18:12

be beautiful, but I don't know if it

00:18:14

could be both. My personal opinion.

00:18:17

Yeah. Yucking it up with Elon. He's not

00:18:20

uh the only one out there. Doge

00:18:21

spokesman Katie Miller is following him.

00:18:24

For those who don't know, she's married

00:18:25

to White House Deputy Chief of Staff

00:18:27

Steven Miller. By the way, there is a

00:18:28

lot of very funny memes about this on

00:18:30

the internet, but I'll let you go there

00:18:32

and find out what they're insinuating.

00:18:34

Um Elon meanwhile has ordered himself

00:18:37

back into the offices of X, SpaceX, and

00:18:39

Neurolink with mixed results. The SpaceX

00:18:41

Starship system exploded in a Tuesday

00:18:43

test. It went further, but it's still

00:18:46

this is the third failed launch in a

00:18:48

row. Um it did go further. Uh these are

00:18:50

this is what he does a lot of time. X

00:18:52

crashed twice in one week, which must

00:18:54

attribute to uh fail over redundancy,

00:18:57

whatever that is, issues that need to be

00:18:59

addressed. On the bright side, Mus says

00:19:01

Tesla's been testing roots in the

00:19:02

streets of Austin with no incidents and

00:19:04

promises delivery to customers next

00:19:05

month. Meanwhile, Whimo does millions of

00:19:08

these all the time. And Neurolink just

00:19:10

raised $600 million at a $9 billion

00:19:13

valuation, which is good for him. Um, so

00:19:16

couple things. One is uh they have wiped

00:19:19

out they're sending up a I think it's a

00:19:21

recision package of just $9 billion from

00:19:25

uh from Doge cuts that they may try to

00:19:27

fix, but that's $9 billion in our

00:19:29

multi-t trillion dollar promise that uh

00:19:32

Musk made to us. Um I think he's been

00:19:35

used as a jump for by Trump in a lot of

00:19:37

ways, sort of a handwavy thing. And then

00:19:39

Trump turns around and and and ruins the

00:19:42

whole thing through a deficit. I think

00:19:44

Musk does understand that the deficit

00:19:45

and the tariffs are a real problem. Uh

00:19:48

whether he can bring back his

00:19:49

businesses, that's an open question.

00:19:51

He's certainly talented. Uh your

00:19:52

thoughts, Scott? Well, I'm I'm glad you

00:19:55

brought it up. It was a good week in the

00:19:57

sense that Neurolink, which creates

00:19:59

diversification for him, raised money at

00:20:00

a nine. I thought it was seven, but

00:20:02

you're saying it's 9 billion. That's

00:20:03

incredible. And in and also a testament

00:20:06

to his genius and vision to do things

00:20:08

like that. Uh we'll see how it it pans

00:20:11

out. But yeah, I don't you know if you

00:20:16

the two seminal impacts of Doge are the

00:20:18

following. It has almost no impact on

00:20:19

the budget because if you look at it

00:20:22

essentially what's happened here is he's

00:20:24

also cut

00:20:26

um I think it's uh a ton of staff at the

00:20:29

IRS and the estimates are that that will

00:20:31

inh reduce their ability to collect what

00:20:35

would have been another $400 billion in

00:20:37

revenue. So give him his word that it's

00:20:39

150 billion in savings. That means that

00:20:41

Doge is essentially taking the deficit

00:20:43

up another quarter of a trillion dollars

00:20:46

a year. Nobody believes that 150 number.

00:20:48

By the way, most people think it's about

00:20:50

10 billion. I like what Mitch McConnell

00:20:52

believes that the chocolate and peanut

00:20:54

butter of our power around the world is

00:20:56

a combination of hard and soft power.

00:20:58

and he's essentially gutted our soft

00:21:00

power by taking I mean that $75 million

00:21:04

in US aid was just when there's genocide

00:21:08

in a nation a bunch of people show up

00:21:10

and try to hold people accountable such

00:21:12

that it doesn't happen again and a lot

00:21:14

of those people are Americans when there

00:21:17

is a war torn ravaged village town in

00:21:21

Ukraine a soup kitchen gets popped up

00:21:23

and a lot of those people are Americans

00:21:26

and that just makes people

00:21:28

mostly Jose Andre, but now it's not the

00:21:31

government, it's Joseé Andre, but go

00:21:32

ahead. Well, but we do we do have all

00:21:35

sorts of hospitals around the world that

00:21:37

that help kids with vaccines. And I

00:21:40

mean, there's just a ton of stuff. The

00:21:41

old Hershey bar American GI story

00:21:45

100%. And that will have a long-term

00:21:48

impact on our brand. Uh, Doge is cutting

00:21:52

more than it's or it's it's going to end

00:21:54

up costing us more than it saves. And

00:21:57

again, I go back to the same thing,

00:21:58

Cara. It did its job. It was it was a

00:22:01

distraction from this administration's

00:22:04

decision to blow up the deficit to give

00:22:06

a tax cut to you and me. I mean, the

00:22:09

griff that's what Democrats should be

00:22:11

focusing on right now. Yeah. I mean,

00:22:13

it's been a failure for him. Also, at

00:22:15

first, it sort of raised his wealth

00:22:17

substantively, and it certainly got the

00:22:18

regulators off his back, which was one

00:22:20

of his goals. Absolutely. It got him

00:22:22

some Mars stuff that he wants,

00:22:24

allegedly. you know, the Mars money. So,

00:22:27

he got his Mars money, he got some

00:22:29

regulators off. He lost a lot of money

00:22:30

in the in his in terms of his in terms

00:22:33

of Tesla and also his personal brand is

00:22:36

decimated, I think. And he certainly

00:22:38

could get it back, I suppose, but he's

00:22:40

certainly done not draped himself in

00:22:42

glory in this effort at all. He looks,

00:22:44

you know, one of the things about these

00:22:46

tech people is they look a little

00:22:48

godlike and now he looks like he has

00:22:50

feet of clay, right? and you've seen

00:22:52

parts of him that are a nuisance and

00:22:53

irritating and weird. Um, so it hasn't

00:22:56

been, you know, this is stuff a lot of

00:22:58

us who spent time with him have seen,

00:23:00

you know, his like telling jokes like

00:23:02

that and laughing at his own jokes and

00:23:04

stuff like that. He seems odd and

00:23:06

strange. Um, and so I uh I I just feel

00:23:10

like this has not been a plus for Elon

00:23:12

Musk. He may bring it back. He may do

00:23:14

other things. The question is whether

00:23:16

he's going to return to politics or if

00:23:18

he's had it with them. It felt like he a

00:23:20

little bit kind of he had it. He kind of

00:23:22

has enough of this and he realized he

00:23:24

got he got taken by the world's most

00:23:28

adept con man which is Donald Trump.

00:23:31

99.9% of the time if you're on a board

00:23:34

or you have a temptation to take a

00:23:37

political stand as a corporation. The

00:23:39

answer is no. You don't do it. And not

00:23:42

only that, he not only bet one way. He

00:23:45

went into politics which is sort of a no

00:23:47

no. He bet the wrong way because

00:23:49

threearters the people that he's

00:23:51

endeared himself to by taking a red pill

00:23:53

stand, threearters of them say they

00:23:55

would never buy an EV. So it's just very

00:23:58

unusual that he would decide to go into

00:24:00

politics in a way that alienates his

00:24:02

core market. Oh, maybe it's some

00:24:04

psychological problem he has. Please

00:24:06

hate me. Hate me. Please hate me. I

00:24:08

don't know. It was It's very strange.

00:24:09

We'll see if he can recover. He's

00:24:11

certainly a talented business person. He

00:24:13

may have gotten data and information

00:24:15

that he didn't have before. Who knows? I

00:24:17

think that needs to be investigated. Not

00:24:19

not just me, but Sad Bannon does. What

00:24:21

exactly did they download? Where is the

00:24:23

data? What happened to it? I think there

00:24:25

needs to be at some point a real look at

00:24:28

what they did, what do Doge has done.

00:24:30

And we'll see if they continue. But

00:24:31

without the engine of of and the threat

00:24:34

of Elon Musk, I don't think it's going

00:24:36

anywhere. They will just they will just

00:24:38

they will just smother it. But I always

00:24:41

feel I always feel a need to try and

00:24:43

bring I always feel a need to try and

00:24:45

bring some semblance of balance around

00:24:48

Musk. I was I've thought for a long time

00:24:51

Whimo's just so far ahead they'll never

00:24:53

be able to catch them. And I did speak

00:24:54

to an analyst around Tesla and said

00:24:56

Tesla does have some very real

00:24:57

advantages around autonomous and that is

00:25:00

they have more data because they have a

00:25:03

huge you know they have hundreds of

00:25:05

thousands of cars that have been in the

00:25:06

market for a while and all of that is

00:25:07

great data and also the average cost of

00:25:11

a Whimo car is almost a quarter of a

00:25:13

million dollars. Yeah, it's Jaguar.

00:25:15

Yeah, it's outfitting it. It's just

00:25:16

really expensive and they say that the

00:25:18

Tesla autonomous driving vehicle is

00:25:20

going to be substantially less

00:25:22

expensive. So they may be sacrificing

00:25:25

safety for that. There's all these

00:25:26

debates over whether they have enough

00:25:27

points of failure. And look, he doesn't

00:25:30

he takes them off. This guy likes to go

00:25:32

commando on a lot of stuff. Well, you

00:25:34

bring up an interesting point because a

00:25:35

lot of people say regardless of what has

00:25:37

happened in the markets or the

00:25:39

perception of his brand. The Tesla

00:25:40

brand's gone from the eighth most

00:25:41

revered brand to the 93rd. I don't think

00:25:43

I've ever seen a destruction like that.

00:25:44

I don't even think that happened to

00:25:45

Exxon when with the Valdes. But you

00:25:48

bring up an interesting point and that

00:25:50

is a lot of people say, "Well, he's

00:25:51

playing the long game." Because all of

00:25:52

the inspectors and all of the lawsuits

00:25:55

that were getting in the way of his

00:25:56

regulation around autonomous or going

00:25:58

after him for lawsuits or whatever have

00:26:01

all just disappeared. So it still might

00:26:04

have been he might he might in fact be

00:26:05

playing chess, you know, who knows?

00:26:07

Yeah. In his case opposed to Donald

00:26:09

Trump who is eating the pieces. Musk

00:26:12

does. That said, I would not get into

00:26:13

Tesla right now. I think they're they

00:26:15

they don't have as many points of

00:26:16

failure. You know what I mean? He

00:26:17

doesn't care about safety as much as

00:26:19

others. And I just don't I I have talked

00:26:21

to a lot of experts about how they're

00:26:23

putting them out there. And they're just

00:26:24

I would rather have an extraordinarily

00:26:26

safe eventually it'll be looser, but not

00:26:29

today. And I don't I just don't trust

00:26:30

them. I trust those I trust those

00:26:33

Jaguars more than I would trust a Tesla.

00:26:35

So again, I I would get in I mean I

00:26:38

don't get into Teslas because I don't I

00:26:40

don't like the men and I don't want to

00:26:41

paint the fence as someone who I think

00:26:42

is such a terrible role model for young

00:26:43

men. But on the safety point, I would

00:26:46

get in a Tesla because I I think an

00:26:48

autonomous Tesla. Yeah, an autonomous

00:26:50

Tesla just because I think Yeah, because

00:26:51

I think from a perception standpoint, I

00:26:54

think if they have two or three crashes

00:26:55

in their first month, they're pretty

00:26:57

much out of business. I think just from

00:26:59

a pure economic standpoint, they got to

00:27:00

make sure this thing is pretty safe. He

00:27:02

has a theory about what they need on

00:27:05

those cars. It's very different from

00:27:07

every other person I know. And they all

00:27:09

are like, "This is a risk you should not

00:27:11

be taking." And it's not cuz they want

00:27:13

me to ride in their cars. I I have I'm

00:27:15

going to send some people to you because

00:27:16

it's really he he he he argues with the

00:27:19

entire industry about how much how much

00:27:22

um we need test pilots and it's a

00:27:25

dangerous job. I'm you can get in them.

00:27:27

I'm not getting in them for ever. But

00:27:29

but I would I would recommend I I do not

00:27:31

feel unsafe in a Whimo. I suspect feel

00:27:33

you know what I did about what a year

00:27:35

and a half ago? I went to the DMV. Yeah.

00:27:37

And my son, who has barely driven a golf

00:27:40

cart, took a test saying that he

00:27:42

understood the difference between a

00:27:43

single yellow line and a double yellow

00:27:44

line. And then they gave him a driver's

00:27:47

permit and he was allowed to drive home.

00:27:49

Yeah. I mean, it was just like, God be

00:27:51

with you. Well, I'd rather Here you go.

00:27:53

Okay. I will get a

00:27:55

test with your son. I was at the DMV

00:27:58

going, "Wait, he can drive right now?"

00:28:00

I'm like, and I I said to her, I looked,

00:28:01

I'm like, "Are you sure that's a good

00:28:02

idea? He can drive right now?" Oh, and

00:28:04

your son probably was like, "Dad." And

00:28:06

on the way home on a red light making a

00:28:10

left, he pulled out into the

00:28:11

intersection. I'm like, "What are you

00:28:12

doing?" He's like, "I stopped first."

00:28:13

I'm like, "You can't make a left." I

00:28:16

don't know. I think there's a lot of

00:28:18

dangerous drivers. I think humans are

00:28:20

much more dangerous than autonomous. I

00:28:21

um I You know what? I'd rather take a

00:28:23

like Okay. All right. That's my favorite

00:28:25

story. Sorry. A quick lucky story.

00:28:27

Regular quick lucky story. She comes

00:28:29

over to our place with her aunt, with

00:28:32

her sister, they drove there, which is

00:28:36

crazy. Yeah. And after her kind of, you

00:28:38

know, mildly offensive comments to me

00:28:40

over and over,

00:28:43

she gets she leaves and you're giving

00:28:45

her instructions to get to Palm Beach,

00:28:47

which is north of where I live. And

00:28:51

first off, I'm horrified. I walk out and

00:28:53

I see Lucky behind the wheel. I thought

00:28:56

you were giving instructions to your

00:28:58

aunt or whoever, your niece, whoever

00:29:00

that is, who's who is much younger than

00:29:02

Lucky. She's like 90.

00:29:04

I see Lucky behind the wheel. And so I

00:29:07

walk over and think, "Okay, Lucky, all

00:29:09

you have to do, you come out of the

00:29:11

driveway, you bang a right. Got it. Stop

00:29:14

talking to me. Stop talking to me."

00:29:17

Right. Heads out, gates open, bangs a

00:29:21

left

00:29:23

without looking. And I'm like, she's

00:29:25

going to end up in Havana. It's true.

00:29:28

Can I just say I I didn't let my

00:29:30

children drive with Lucky after at any

00:29:33

point. Never. Never. She like, "Why

00:29:35

can't I drive them?" I'm like, "Cuz I

00:29:37

want them to live until the next should

00:29:39

not be driving." No. No. No. I have not

00:29:42

gotten a car. It's a cover up. You're

00:29:43

engaging in a cover up. This is one of

00:29:45

the things she do. She'd throw us in the

00:29:46

car and we never knew where we'd end up.

00:29:48

This is why we stay home. Anyway, let's

00:29:50

go on a quick break. When we come back,

00:29:52

Trump's many feuds with Harvard Putin

00:29:54

and Tim Cook. Scott, we're back. I know

00:29:56

you don't think it's important, but I do

00:29:57

actually. The feud, and I think it's a

00:29:59

real feud. The feud between Donald Trump

00:30:01

uh and Harvard doesn't appear to be

00:30:03

wrapping up anytime soon. Trump now says

00:30:05

the school should cap international

00:30:07

student enrollment at 15%. Why is he

00:30:09

telling people what to do? This follows

00:30:11

last week's legal fight where a judge

00:30:13

temporarily blocked the White House from

00:30:14

revoking Harvard's ability to enroll in

00:30:16

international students. Uh Trump is also

00:30:19

moving to cancel remaining federal

00:30:20

contracts with Harvard. It's not just

00:30:22

Harvard. The administration is now

00:30:23

considering social media vetting for all

00:30:25

foreign students. So free speech, hello.

00:30:27

And is halting student visa interviews.

00:30:30

In the meantime, Secretary Marco Rubio,

00:30:32

what a show he's become, also says the

00:30:34

US will aggressively work to revoke the

00:30:37

visas of Chinese students. Ah, crazy.

00:30:41

He's also accusing Russian President

00:30:43

Putin of playing with fire after Russia

00:30:45

recently ramped up attacks on Ukraine,

00:30:47

launching its largest drone and missile

00:30:49

attack of the war so far. Uh in the post

00:30:51

on truth social, Trump also exclaimed

00:30:53

that Putin has gone completely crazy.

00:30:55

But despite uh floating sanctions of

00:30:57

Russia over the weekend, Trump now says

00:30:59

he's holding off because he thinks taco

00:31:01

he's close to a deal and doesn't want to

00:31:02

screw it up. Taco Trump said uh he was

00:31:05

going to resolve this conflict on day

00:31:07

one. It's not day one anymore. And he

00:31:09

bragged about his relation with Putin.

00:31:10

So, that's something. And lastly, uh

00:31:13

it's not the only one. He's still got

00:31:15

Tim Cook in his crosshairs of Apple

00:31:17

threatening a 25% tariffs on iPhones

00:31:19

made outside the US. The move comes in

00:31:22

the wake of Cook reportedly buffing the

00:31:23

White House's invitation to join Trump

00:31:25

on his recent Middle East trip that all

00:31:27

the others went along on all the other

00:31:29

tech mogul. There is also Financial

00:31:30

Times report that Apple contractor

00:31:32

Foxcon is preparing to spend $ 1.5

00:31:34

billion on a new plant in India. And

00:31:36

problems for Apple are piling up in

00:31:38

addition to these tariffs. Cook is also

00:31:40

judg juggling legal battles, global

00:31:42

regulators and a rising AI competition.

00:31:45

Um there's a book out about by uh

00:31:47

Patrick I think it's Matt Meyer talking

00:31:49

about how much money Yes. I had him on

00:31:51

the pod. Yeah. Uh spending in uh has has

00:31:54

created the Chinese tech sector

00:31:57

essentially. They trained them up. So

00:31:59

let's start with all these things. I

00:32:00

know you think they're distractions, but

00:32:01

I think he's quite committed to this

00:32:02

Harvard thing. either he didn't get in

00:32:05

or something is going on here, but he

00:32:07

seems obsessed with controlling the

00:32:09

amount of uh of uh foreign students that

00:32:12

enter the United States, too. And

00:32:14

Harvard is proxy for doing that at this

00:32:16

moment. So, look, if you look at there's

00:32:20

few there's few people that have added

00:32:22

more economic value than graduates,

00:32:25

foreign graduates of our uh elite

00:32:27

institutions. 70% of graduate students

00:32:30

in AI research in U in the US are

00:32:33

international students and over half of

00:32:36

America's startup companies valued at at

00:32:38

least 1 billion. So over half of our

00:32:40

unicorns have at least one immigrant

00:32:42

founder. So let's even go beyond that.

00:32:45

Let's just go short term. I have said

00:32:48

the term we should use for international

00:32:50

students is there are cash cows. They

00:32:53

pay full freight. they're not eligible

00:32:55

for a lot of financial aid unless

00:32:56

they're PhD students who are the

00:32:58

brightest people in the world who we

00:32:59

bring in we actually pay. I was on the

00:33:01

first day of class at the first day of

00:33:03

class NYU at business school I say get

00:33:05

to know the international students

00:33:06

because they're real they're rich kids.

00:33:08

So the richest kids in El Salvador and

00:33:09

Brazil get to know them. They like to

00:33:11

party. They're fun and they're really

00:33:12

rich and when you go and hang out in

00:33:14

Brazil you want to know them.

00:33:17

By the way, America does a small number

00:33:19

of things really well. Hands down. are

00:33:23

the best in tech and software. I don't

00:33:25

even know what the export val volume is

00:33:27

of that. I tried to figure it out this

00:33:28

morning. I couldn't figure it out. We

00:33:30

make the best weapons in the world. We

00:33:32

sell about 300 billion, 350 million,

00:33:35

about a third of a trillion dollars. We

00:33:37

export weapons around the world, right?

00:33:40

Violence and death are fantastic

00:33:42

businesses for us or the ability to

00:33:44

deliver them. And we have the best

00:33:45

military industrial complex in the

00:33:47

world. We make the best media in the

00:33:50

world. And we ship we the total export

00:33:54

volume or business of our movies and TV.

00:33:57

So all the money we make from Fantastic

00:34:00

4 and you know

00:34:02

uh Frozen and Big Bang Theory and the

00:34:06

White Lotus that is we get $40 billion

00:34:11

in uh revenue from exporting our TV

00:34:14

shows and our movie. We get $43

00:34:18

billion from the tuition and the

00:34:21

economic value of international students

00:34:23

who come here to buy our education. So,

00:34:26

US education is really a bigger US

00:34:29

export than movies or TV

00:34:32

shows. And and if you want to raise

00:34:34

tuition on domestic students, just take

00:34:38

away the full freight high margin cash

00:34:40

flow of international students. I'm not

00:34:41

even talking about the brain drain,

00:34:43

right? The money we get from them.

00:34:46

It's we make so much coin from

00:34:49

international students because why? It's

00:34:51

the ultimate luxury item. What's the

00:34:53

ultimate signal of your success? If you

00:34:55

live in China or South Korea or

00:34:58

Singapore, your kid gets in and attends

00:35:01

an elite American university. Of the

00:35:04

hundred best brands, we own like 70 or

00:35:06

80 of them. So, it's great for his Why

00:35:08

is he doing the Harvard thing and then

00:35:10

Russia next? Go ahead. I think Russia

00:35:12

just tickles the sens his sensors. I

00:35:15

think his his uh a lot of his far-right

00:35:18

supporters love this and attack Putin

00:35:22

and then come back on it cuz he's being

00:35:25

played. I don't I don't know what he is

00:35:28

thinking on the I mean the you want to

00:35:32

talk about someone who makes absolutely

00:35:33

no sense. You know Putin's bombing

00:35:35

cities. I don't like what he's doing.

00:35:37

He's sending missiles in the city. Okay.

00:35:39

You realize he's been doing that for two

00:35:41

and a half years, right? Nothing. No, I

00:35:44

don't know if he got personally insensed

00:35:45

or I don't know what's going on there.

00:35:47

It's it's a sclerotic impossible.

00:35:50

And Marco Rubio has to be the clown

00:35:52

behind this elephant cleaning up his

00:35:54

[ __ ] trying to make some sort of sense

00:35:56

of our nonsensical foreign policy. He's

00:35:58

being played. He's been I think it

00:36:00

occurs to him and he's mentioned it.

00:36:01

Maybe he's been playing me. Yes, he has,

00:36:03

sir. Um been playing him. I think look

00:36:07

for Russia right now. The war is its

00:36:10

economy. It's now it's not going to pull

00:36:12

very quickly away from it because they

00:36:14

don't got nothing else and they got this

00:36:15

war and he Putin has created Russia as

00:36:18

as a military economy now um with this

00:36:22

war and he hasn't won and so they're in

00:36:25

a world of hurt to get out of this and

00:36:27

create a dynamic society and so war is

00:36:30

their best choice right now in a lot of

00:36:32

ways. So not going to be easy for them

00:36:34

to to pull themselves out of this

00:36:36

situation. Um Putin Putin's life depends

00:36:38

on it. I mean, we think that he has

00:36:39

total control. There's a lot of other

00:36:41

people. Yeah. If if Putin if Putin loses

00:36:44

face in Ukraine, we're going to find out

00:36:46

he's going to fall out of a window. He

00:36:48

cannot not win. And the economy is now

00:36:50

based on it. And Trump does is being

00:36:52

played like a like a fiddle. It's just

00:36:54

like and this going back and forth

00:36:55

publicly is so embarrassing. Same thing.

00:36:57

It's the same thing as the tariffs. It's

00:36:59

the same stupidity that got us Trump

00:37:01

stakes or the casinos in in He's just

00:37:04

not very good at business. Um the Cook

00:37:07

one is really particularly strange. Um

00:37:09

and it all is about feelings. It's all

00:37:11

about feels it feels like. Um he has a

00:37:14

point that Tim that that that Apple has

00:37:17

created a very robust technology economy

00:37:20

in China over the many many years 50

00:37:22

billion something like that. Um and not

00:37:24

in the United States but there were

00:37:26

reasons for for them doing that

00:37:28

obviously to save money to to do it at a

00:37:30

cheaper amount. What do where do you

00:37:33

think Apple is at this moment on the

00:37:35

outs? For sure. It's so fascinating. You

00:37:37

referenced that book by I think it's

00:37:39

Patrick McGee and he really opened my

00:37:41

eyes. So Apple has upskilled and trained

00:37:44

25 million Chinese. That's amazing.

00:37:46

Think about that. They've upskilled the

00:37:48

population of California and uh

00:37:52

Patrick's thesis and I thought it was a

00:37:54

fascinating one is that essentially

00:37:55

Apple's investment and upskilling of

00:37:57

their tech sector has given rise to

00:37:59

Xiaomé and Huawei. basically that the

00:38:03

Chinese who are very smart and play the

00:38:04

play the long game have an IP flow that

00:38:06

is one way at the same time now that

00:38:09

Cook is trying to move manufacturing to

00:38:12

China I'm sorry from China to India

00:38:14

China is getting in the way of that flow

00:38:16

and not issuing visas to Chinese who

00:38:18

Apple Chinese employees who Apple wants

00:38:20

to send to India to set up manufacturing

00:38:22

capacity there also the notion that I

00:38:25

said I I used that stat that that

00:38:27

analyst used I think it was Dan Ies that

00:38:30

uh foam produced in the US would be

00:38:31

$3,500. And he said, "It might as well

00:38:34

be a million. We're not capable of it.

00:38:36

There are a thousand parts in every

00:38:37

iPhone that make a million phones a day.

00:38:39

So that's a billion distinct parts from

00:38:42

hundreds of different sources that we'd

00:38:43

have to coordinate." He said, "It I genu

00:38:46

I believe now it would it was easier for

00:38:49

Oenheimer and the army and these

00:38:51

universities to get to splitting the

00:38:53

atom than it would be for us to get to

00:38:56

producing all of the iPhones. Yeah. We

00:38:59

just couldn't do it. What is happening

00:39:00

with it? What what how will this affect

00:39:02

you know they they have their their they

00:39:04

have their legal issues of course with

00:39:05

the government right now in terms of

00:39:07

cases and all kinds of stuff. But this

00:39:09

falling out I mean he this appeasement

00:39:12

that Tim did I I never thought would

00:39:14

work. There's no appeasing Trump.

00:39:16

There's no appeasing this guy. He's he's

00:39:18

endlessly thirsty. And the minute he

00:39:21

didn't I I think I did talk to to Maggie

00:39:24

Haberman over on my podcast this week

00:39:26

and he was genuinely angry that Tim

00:39:29

didn't go like genuinely angry.

00:39:32

Straight. He takes these slides

00:39:33

personally. But the market the market is

00:39:37

starting to respond to the taco trade

00:39:39

and that is the juices coming out of it.

00:39:41

Because if you look at Apple Mhm. I

00:39:43

mean, if he did what he said he's going

00:39:45

to do, it would seriously diminish the

00:39:47

most profitable product in history, and

00:39:49

Apple stock would take a pretty big hit.

00:39:52

Apple's

00:39:53

off. I mean, it's down 15% in the last 6

00:39:57

months, but that's off an enormous high,

00:40:01

and it's still it's still up. It's still

00:40:03

up in the last 12 months. What would you

00:40:05

do if you were Tim? uh be nice, stay out

00:40:08

of his way and and put out fake press

00:40:11

releases that says that says, "Oh, we're

00:40:14

investing in a you know, because of the

00:40:16

great work of President Trump." It

00:40:19

depend does Tim want to be totally

00:40:22

focused on shareholder value or on the

00:40:24

rights afforded him as an American. Who

00:40:27

I mean, it depends who you're calling

00:40:28

on. If it's calling on his fiduciary

00:40:31

obligation to shareholders, he should

00:40:33

just kiss his ass, put out a bunch of

00:40:35

fake faux press releases and wait for

00:40:37

the midterms, stay out of his way, and

00:40:39

what do you know, Trump will move on to

00:40:41

the next red dot that angers him and and

00:40:45

the cult of iOS will be fine. Yeah. If

00:40:48

Tim Cook recognizes that the reason I'm

00:40:50

a billionaire, the reason why if I want

00:40:52

to marry a woman or a man, I can do that

00:40:55

because America has had the foresight

00:40:58

and the rule of law to afford to give

00:41:00

people rights or if I want to continue

00:41:03

to access the deepest pools of capital

00:41:05

in the world. If I want to have a a

00:41:08

society where I am fairly safe, if I

00:41:10

want to have a society where uh someone

00:41:13

can't wake up and come take all my [ __ ]

00:41:15

just because they don't like who I am.

00:41:17

Mhm. Then he should, in my view, take a

00:41:19

stand and say this is an American

00:41:22

company and what is going on here is is

00:41:24

unamerican. Nobody has done that. I

00:41:26

don't want to put that pressure on Tim

00:41:27

Cook cuz nobody has done that. He is

00:41:29

going to be a billionaire the rest of

00:41:31

his life. The question is at the end of

00:41:33

his life, does he want to be known as an

00:41:34

American hero?

00:41:36

And most of these CEOs, and I understand

00:41:39

it, have decided my job is just to stay

00:41:43

out of the angry child's way until he

00:41:45

gets mad at somebody else and go about

00:41:47

my business. You know who could do that?

00:41:49

An owner of a company, a Zuckerberg.

00:41:51

Someone who has full control is the only

00:41:53

one who can do that. Is the only one who

00:41:55

who has the who has the ability. Tim is

00:41:58

not the owner of Apple. The shareholders

00:42:00

are, right? And so it's got to be that

00:42:02

guy, whoever that guy is. There's a

00:42:04

Zuckerberg controls his company. Very

00:42:07

few are companies are controlled. I

00:42:09

guess Snapchat, nobody cares. It's It'd

00:42:11

be very hard for Apple to all of a

00:42:13

sudden get high and mighty about

00:42:15

American patriotism when they've

00:42:17

essentially outsourced their entire

00:42:18

supply chain to China and upscale China.

00:42:20

I'm just the company that has the ripest

00:42:22

opportunity here to to wrap themselves

00:42:24

in the flag through the lens of sport

00:42:26

and immigrants is Nike. Oh. And their

00:42:29

stock has been kicked in the nuts so

00:42:30

badly they don't have a whole lot to

00:42:32

lose. That is the rip the ripest

00:42:33

opportunity and branding right now would

00:42:35

be for Nike. Not even to mention Trump's

00:42:37

name, but to talk about American

00:42:39

immigrants who have excelled, built the

00:42:42

world of sport and competition and rule

00:42:45

of fair play. When you're on a when

00:42:47

you're on a field, you have to have rule

00:42:48

of fair play. And and they also have the

00:42:52

creative resources. They are known as

00:42:54

risktakers. And the majority of their

00:42:57

business just do it. Their majority of

00:42:59

their business comes from young people

00:43:00

who are more progressive and don't want

00:43:02

to be part of a [ __ ] fascist state.

00:43:04

All right, let's get on it. All right,

00:43:06

last quick quick quick quick Harvard.

00:43:08

What should they do?

00:43:10

Many people there was a New York Times

00:43:11

piece saying they've got to they're

00:43:13

going to get hit hard by this even if

00:43:15

Trump is wrong. Get rid because of the

00:43:18

of the all the things he's doing is very

00:43:20

damaging to Harvard that they were like

00:43:23

they may not win this fight with him

00:43:24

until he goes away, which is inevitable.

00:43:27

I don't I I don't see I think Harvard

00:43:29

has so

00:43:30

many I in a weird way I'd go long

00:43:34

Harvard. I think Harvard comes out of

00:43:35

the stronger. I think Harvard was

00:43:37

developing such a awful reputation for

00:43:40

the definition of

00:43:41

elitism and and how progressive

00:43:45

progressivism when it goes out of

00:43:46

control can accidentally turn into

00:43:49

racism. And I think them standing up, if

00:43:52

you think about it, what I'm urging Nike

00:43:54

to do, Harvard's been the first

00:43:56

important organization to actually stand

00:43:57

up and say, "Fuck you." And they're

00:44:00

winning in the courts. They have a lot

00:44:02

of powerful alumni. They have the

00:44:03

capital. Yeah, you're right. It cleans

00:44:05

them out. It clean It starches them

00:44:07

white. That's correct. You're right. It

00:44:08

starches their hat white. I never

00:44:11

thought I'd be wearing a Harvard

00:44:12

t-shirt. I wore I wore one at the 92nd

00:44:15

Y. I know. A month ago when I was on

00:44:17

with Jeff. You like to slap those

00:44:18

Harvard people a lot. You like to run

00:44:20

around Harvard yard and slap them. When

00:44:22

you have a $54 billion endowment and you

00:44:24

decide to let in the number of students

00:44:25

that a good Starbucks serves, you're not

00:44:26

a public servant. You're a [ __ ]

00:44:27

Chanel back. There he's back. He's back.

00:44:29

All right. All right. Let's go on a

00:44:31

quick I'll be here all week. We will

00:44:33

attack them once they're once they've

00:44:34

won the fight. All right, Scott. Let's

00:44:36

go on a quick break. When we come back,

00:44:38

Trump dives deeper into crypto if

00:44:40

possible. Scott, we're back. President

00:44:43

Trump's romance with cryptocurrency is

00:44:45

getting more serious. Early this week,

00:44:46

the administration killed Biden era

00:44:48

guidance against using crypto in 401k

00:44:51

plans. Oh my [ __ ] god. Trump Media

00:44:53

and Technology Group, the parent company

00:44:54

of True Social, announced is raising

00:44:56

$2.5 billion to invest in Bitcoin, a

00:44:58

Michael Seller move. And listen to what

00:45:00

JD Vance told a crowd in a keynote

00:45:02

address at Bitcoin 2025 conference. I'm

00:45:05

here today to say loud and clear with

00:45:08

President Trump, crypto finally has a

00:45:10

champion and an ally in the White House.

00:45:16

In our administration, we understand the

00:45:18

full potential of the digital assets

00:45:20

industry, not just as an investment, not

00:45:24

just as a flashy technology, but as a

00:45:26

symbol and driver of personal liberty

00:45:29

for all our citizens. Also, Grift, he

00:45:31

left out Grift. The president's crypto

00:45:33

holdings now reported represent around

00:45:35

40% of his net worth or approximately

00:45:37

$2.9 billion. Scott, you had a rant

00:45:39

where you called the crypto dealings

00:45:41

where you called the crypto dealings in

00:45:43

Trump's first 100 days the greatest

00:45:44

grift in our history of our economy. And

00:45:46

now it is a divisive issue for

00:45:48

Democrats. Some want to support the

00:45:49

Genius Act, which regulates stable coin.

00:45:52

Others say it supports Trump's grift. Uh

00:45:54

what do they do here? Public companies

00:45:56

are leaning into crypto as well, not

00:45:57

just through social. There are

00:45:59

reportedly 114 publicly listed companies

00:46:01

that own Bitcoin, up from 89 at the

00:46:04

beginning of April. Um uh what do you

00:46:07

think about also the reports that big US

00:46:08

banks are having internal discussions

00:46:10

about expanding into cryptocurrencies?

00:46:13

Look, he he their smart one of the

00:46:16

genius moves of the Trump campaign was

00:46:19

recognizing that this was not going to

00:46:21

be a referendum on women's rights. It

00:46:22

was a referendum on struggling young

00:46:24

men. I'd still hold to that. And I think

00:46:25

the evidence is everywhere. That's

00:46:27

that's who showed up was was young men

00:46:30

and the people worried about them that

00:46:32

swung this election in terms of the

00:46:33

people who pivoted hardest from blue to

00:46:35

red. And the easiest way to signal that

00:46:38

was to go Joe Rogan embrace Musk and

00:46:41

also really embrace crypto which has

00:46:43

this almost

00:46:44

like you know testosterone smell to it.

00:46:48

It's so male e and tes what is

00:46:51

testosterone smell and is that your

00:46:53

smells like I'll tell you later when I

00:46:55

inject it in my ass. Uh yeah. Okay.

00:46:57

Actually, I don't think it has a smell.

00:46:59

I don't think it has a smell. I don't

00:47:00

want to think about that. Smells like

00:47:01

victory in the morning. Okay. All right.

00:47:04

Anyways, that's right.

00:47:07

Um I think they're smart to embrace

00:47:09

sniff on this podcast. Go ahead. Sorry.

00:47:11

I think they're smart to embrace the

00:47:12

crypto community. I think financial

00:47:14

services innovation is a good idea. I

00:47:18

you know, fine. I I'm a no coiner. I was

00:47:20

on the board of a company that was a you

00:47:22

know, the leading hardware wallet. It

00:47:24

feels to me that the Democrats screwed

00:47:26

up by not at least being more clear

00:47:29

about what the regulation is so people

00:47:30

could actually do something with it. And

00:47:33

and I think Trump has leveraged

00:47:35

beautifully the crypto community and

00:47:38

also it's the perfect vehicle for a

00:47:40

griff because there's no records. I

00:47:42

mean, people say you can track it, but I

00:47:44

don't, you know, my sense is when a guy

00:47:46

launches a meme coin the Friday before

00:47:48

his inauguration and it runs to 70

00:47:51

billion and then and now it's like I

00:47:53

said, he's made a billion dollars a

00:47:54

month since he's had this thing, I think

00:47:56

they're smart to embrace it. I also

00:47:59

think a lot of or small and mediumsiz

00:48:02

investors are probably going to lose a

00:48:04

lot of money. And what I tell people is

00:48:06

if you want to take two, three, 5% of

00:48:08

your net worth and put in and put it in

00:48:10

Bitcoin, I wouldn't do any of these

00:48:12

other coins. There is a genius to

00:48:14

Bitcoin because it has established a

00:48:16

credible sense of scarcity because

00:48:17

people do believe the technology will

00:48:20

result in that they will stop mining at

00:48:22

21 million coins. I do think that's

00:48:23

actually a very elegant way of creating

00:48:26

a currency that has more veracity than a

00:48:28

fiat currency, which everyone has failed

00:48:31

throughout history. the other coins I

00:48:33

see as just like that's just Vegas. But

00:48:35

I think he's smart to embrace the

00:48:36

community. I think it's working for

00:48:38

them. Yeah. I think it has to become

00:48:39

something more than just like a

00:48:41

speculative instrument like that. It's

00:48:43

that it's useful in some fashion. And

00:48:45

there's all kinds of companies working

00:48:46

at that. For Trump, it's a it's a gam

00:48:49

it's a casino. This is a casino kind of

00:48:51

mentality that he's got around it. Um

00:48:53

and and a fee getting fees. Most of the

00:48:55

money he's made has been in fees of the

00:48:57

transactions. The current income they

00:48:58

made over 300 million fees so far.

00:49:00

Right. Yeah. And so uh and then the

00:49:02

value of it is that you and it's not

00:49:04

traceable in some ways. And so it's a

00:49:06

perfect sort of bribery grift slash scam

00:49:10

kind of thing which he's very familiar

00:49:12

with. Um that said, you're right, the B

00:49:14

administration didn't really lean in.

00:49:16

They had uh the SEC head who was openly

00:49:18

hostile. I think these people got

00:49:20

activated politically and they should

00:49:22

have been because they needed to defend

00:49:24

themselves and they they took out Sher

00:49:26

Brown in Ohio for sure. like they they

00:49:28

they targeted a lot of things and so

00:49:30

they really got organized in ways that

00:49:33

uh that Trump helped facilitate and were

00:49:35

able to do that and I think they will

00:49:36

remain political. Um but at some point

00:49:39

though there has to be safety around it.

00:49:41

If you put a lot of Bitcoin in these

00:49:42

401ks and they get destroyed uh through

00:49:45

scam um it's going to be a real problem.

00:49:48

But Bitcoin is or crypto just going meta

00:49:50

is a bit of a of whenever you have these

00:49:53

levels of income inequality you have war

00:49:55

famine or revolution. I think it's a

00:49:56

form of revolution because I think young

00:49:58

people have decided if you're going to

00:50:00

continue to bail out the market such as

00:50:01

the incumbents stay wealthy and I never

00:50:04

get disruption. I can never buy a house

00:50:06

or stocks on sale like you guys have

00:50:08

gotten to do time after time every seven

00:50:09

years with the recession. I'm going to

00:50:11

create my own asset class. And I get it.

00:50:15

I you know I can I can empathize and

00:50:17

understand it. It's like great Scott.

00:50:18

You had your time in the sun to buy

00:50:20

Netflix at 11 bucks a share. But now

00:50:22

that you and your other seniors voting

00:50:24

yourself more money and using my credit

00:50:26

card to bail your ass out every time the

00:50:27

economy gets rough and I have an

00:50:28

opportunity to buy in inexpensively,

00:50:31

[ __ ] that. I'm not going to play your

00:50:32

game. I'm going to invent my own asset

00:50:33

class. Yeah. And they have become very

00:50:35

politicized. And so it's up to the

00:50:37

Democrats to not be

00:50:39

ju the don't cut your nose to spite your

00:50:42

face kind of thing. I think is a play

00:50:44

here. Trump is grift in this thing, but

00:50:46

you can't not lean into it just cuz he's

00:50:48

doing that. You come after him later if

00:50:51

you have to, but you can't. A lot of

00:50:52

them are, we can't do it because Trump

00:50:54

will grift more. He's going to grift no

00:50:56

matter what. No matter what, he will he

00:50:58

will find a way to grift and we can't

00:51:01

make policy based on uh you you need to

00:51:04

lean into those Democrats in a way

00:51:06

that's safe and good for consumers and

00:51:09

good for young people and not worry

00:51:11

about the Trump part until later. That's

00:51:13

my feeling. Anyway, one more quick

00:51:15

break. when we come back. Uh, is

00:51:17

Google's new AI video tool a studio

00:51:19

killer? A story we didn't get to chat

00:51:21

about last week is Google's launch of

00:51:23

VO3, which is a video generator that

00:51:25

creates full video with audio. Its main

00:51:28

competition is OpenAI Sora, but the key

00:51:31

distinction is V3 is supposed to be able

00:51:33

to incorporate audio that includes

00:51:35

dialogue between characters as well as

00:51:37

animal sounds. The main buzz about it on

00:51:39

the internet as well. Will this replace

00:51:41

movie studios? Some of the stuff is

00:51:43

pretty impressive to look at. And will

00:51:45

this flood the news media with

00:51:46

misinformation? Oddly enough, I

00:51:48

interviewed Jesse Armstrong, who is the

00:51:50

creator of Succession for his new movie

00:51:52

that's coming out this week called

00:51:53

Mountain Head. And this is one of the

00:51:55

plot points uh in it. Uh is a is a is a

00:51:58

social media company with a sort of a a

00:52:01

Musk Musk Zuckerberg character who runs

00:52:04

a company called Tram that floods uh

00:52:06

puts out tools like this and causes

00:52:08

worldwide destruction. Um, in any case,

00:52:12

uh, you talked a lot about, uh, this

00:52:14

during the writer strike and, uh, we're

00:52:17

going to talk a little bit about it by

00:52:18

stuff that we made, too. But quick

00:52:20

thoughts. I think it goes after

00:52:22

commercials first and quick hits where

00:52:25

if you're selling stuff on Facebook or

00:52:28

Shopify, and you need just a 30-se

00:52:29

secondond kind of competent, elegantl

00:52:31

looking, I I think it'll start there.

00:52:33

It'll start moving its way up. I just

00:52:35

see it similar to what CGI did in terms

00:52:37

of reducing the cost of special effects.

00:52:40

it'll start to move its way up. It'll

00:52:42

just lower the cost of the means of

00:52:44

production. It'll be especially hard on

00:52:45

certain people. But I still

00:52:48

think as someone who has, you know, a

00:52:51

limited but increasing amount of

00:52:53

exposure to the

00:52:54

industry, the way I see it is we're we

00:52:57

outsource their shitty manufacturing

00:52:58

jobs overseas, but the real value add in

00:53:01

the higher paying jobs are in design,

00:53:04

distribution, product marketing, all

00:53:06

that good stuff back here. I think this

00:53:09

is kind of the same thing and that is I

00:53:10

don't want to say the low value work but

00:53:13

things like you know lighting and sound

00:53:16

and

00:53:17

extras you know the people that Tom Cruz

00:53:20

is going to be very aggressive and smart

00:53:22

about protecting his own IP and his own

00:53:24

his own

00:53:25

likeness the what I have seen with and

00:53:29

we talked about this before whenever I

00:53:31

write I use I use AI to brainstorm and

00:53:35

to when I say I don't like this

00:53:37

paragraph what additional data could be

00:53:39

out there. But when I try and write

00:53:41

stuff with just AI, it's very anodine.

00:53:45

It lacks all sex appeal. It's all chip,

00:53:48

no salsa. I still think that for the

00:53:50

boring stuff, it works for press

00:53:52

releases, things like that, like

00:53:54

commercials are showing a pro. I think

00:53:55

you're absolutely right. I think this is

00:53:57

something I discussed with Armstrong,

00:53:58

who's just a brilliant person. He was

00:54:00

like, I'm not really sure what to think.

00:54:02

I've seen some of this and it's very

00:54:03

impressive. I'm like, but it's not you,

00:54:04

Jesse Armstrong. like you can't make you

00:54:07

you for the for the untalented it will

00:54:09

be a problem for or the stuff that's

00:54:11

anodine as you said it will be a problem

00:54:14

and and there's a lot of people like

00:54:15

that right there's a lot of people who

00:54:16

make sort of the boring Scott work that

00:54:19

are going out okay now for our personal

00:54:23

uh experience on on doing this uh we had

00:54:27

our video producer Kevin mess around

00:54:29

with it and he said he's not too worried

00:54:31

about his job just yet uh we just hired

00:54:33

him I hope not here are his initial

00:54:36

findings, uh, V3 automatically puts

00:54:39

makeup on Cara, but not Scott. It

00:54:41

crashed and failed to generate video an

00:54:44

aggravating number of times, and people

00:54:46

are complaining online uh, about its

00:54:48

audio failures as well. What VO3 can do

00:54:51

frighteningly well is generate videos of

00:54:54

fake people. For example, this AI

00:54:56

newscast we asked it to create. Scott

00:54:59

Galloway has broken the record for most

00:55:02

dick jokes told in a podcast. The

00:55:04

competition was extremely stiff.

00:55:10

That was good. That wasn't a real

00:55:12

person. That person I was showing the

00:55:14

video to someone and like who is that

00:55:15

person? I'm like that person doesn't

00:55:16

exist and they're like a very they were

00:55:18

attracted to the person. Um it was a

00:55:21

fake newscaster reading a very realistic

00:55:23

but unconfirmed story that the

00:55:25

competition was stiff. I don't think the

00:55:26

competition is stiff at all. Um uh when

00:55:29

prompted to use images of real people

00:55:31

like me and Scott, it failed to generate

00:55:33

audio and came up with some less than

00:55:35

ideal results. Here's what we got with

00:55:37

the prompt. Cara and Scott podcasting on

00:55:41

Mars. Oh, what we're seeing here is

00:55:43

Karen Scott. Cara look with a lot of

00:55:45

makeup on. And Scott, why don't you

00:55:46

describe it? Well, no. That's Carara's

00:55:49

straight cousin. That's not

00:55:50

Cara. Um I'm I'm more handsome than that

00:55:54

guy. Aren't I Cara? I think so. It's a

00:55:57

And I have a third hand. Explain what

00:55:58

we're seeing. Explain what we're seeing.

00:55:59

I have a third hand. At least I got the

00:56:00

panory right. Oh, look at that hand of

00:56:03

yours. I have a third hand. What? Who is

00:56:06

that? Who the [ __ ] is that? He's got

00:56:09

your hair. But you also look younger

00:56:11

than that person. Yeah. Yeah. You don't

00:56:14

look like you. That guy looks like he

00:56:16

knocks on your door and says, "The law

00:56:18

mandates that I notify you I've moved in

00:56:20

next door." Um,

00:56:23

all right. Uh, here's what we've got

00:56:25

with the prompt. Cara and Scott as

00:56:27

bodybuilders. Oh,

00:56:30

hello. Oh my god, that does look like

00:56:32

you. That does look like you. Describe.

00:56:35

Uh, it's us as bodybuilders. And the

00:56:37

faces are actually quite accurate. Jeez,

00:56:41

this is so

00:56:43

disturbing. Oh my god, this is rough.

00:56:46

That is really rough. This This looks

00:56:49

like the beginning of the most

00:56:50

disturbing cinemax. It's like from It's

00:56:52

like from that um movie Stanley Kubric,

00:56:56

the the uh Oh my god. The with Malcolm

00:57:00

Mal, the Malcolm McDow, the really

00:57:02

disturbing one about Yeah. Clockwork

00:57:04

Orange. Yeah. Clockwork Orange. You

00:57:05

know, when they basically want to turn

00:57:07

him off violence and sex and they force

00:57:09

his eyes open and they show him. This

00:57:12

would literally turn watching this. Do

00:57:14

not watch this, folks. It will This will

00:57:15

turn you off any physical encounter with

00:57:18

anyone for a long time. This is so

00:57:20

rattling. Cara and Scott is

00:57:22

bodybuilders. So rattling. All right.

00:57:24

Here's what we got with the prompt. Cara

00:57:26

and Scott getting married. Okay. Oh,

00:57:28

that's nice. Oh, that's nice. We're

00:57:31

holding hands. We're walking down there,

00:57:32

by the way. Oh my god. No, no, they're

00:57:36

kissing. Don't do it. Unfortunately, it

00:57:37

looks like Stanley. Don't do it. It

00:57:39

looks like It looks like Stanley Tucci

00:57:41

and Marlo Thomas. Not like you're And by

00:57:44

the way, I'm a good foot taller than

00:57:45

you. That is just unrealistic. Don't do

00:57:48

it. They're kissing. Don't do it. It

00:57:49

looks like you. That doesn't look like

00:57:50

me, does it? Don't do it. Look, I'm

00:57:52

totally hesitant. I'm like, I'm a

00:57:53

lesbian. What's happening here? Look at

00:57:55

me thrilled to be married to you. A very

00:57:57

heavy version of me. Any They make me a

00:57:59

lot fatter in uh Anyway. Okay. George

00:58:01

Clooney doesn't have anything to worry

00:58:03

about right now. Well, no, he'll he'll

00:58:04

be able I do think that the but but

00:58:07

again, it'll be more of a transfer of

00:58:10

wealth from the entrance to the

00:58:11

incumbents because the incumbents that

00:58:13

already have established their IP will

00:58:14

be able to scale it. A guy like Jesse

00:58:16

Armstrong is going to make a lot more

00:58:18

money because he's going to get to

00:58:19

produce three things a year, not one.

00:58:22

And because he has already established

00:58:23

brand equity, he'll it's like a really

00:58:26

good lawyer, I think, is going to make

00:58:28

more money because they'll be able to

00:58:30

scale themselves faster by outsourcing

00:58:32

the 80% of the creative part and then

00:58:34

have the creative part. Yeah. But I

00:58:36

think the the entrance are just going to

00:58:37

have a really tough time because there's

00:58:39

going to be less training, fewer jobs at

00:58:42

the lower mid- levels that really teach

00:58:43

you about creative and film making and

00:58:45

give you an opportunity to shine and

00:58:47

rise up. It's just going to be I think

00:58:49

the incumbents are just going to get

00:58:50

wealthier and wealthier. I would I would

00:58:52

agree. One of the things I was talking

00:58:53

to Jesse about is like what if you put

00:58:55

all of your work in in succession? They

00:58:57

could make more seasons of succession

00:58:59

eventually. They will be without your

00:59:01

input. And he's like, "Well, we have

00:59:03

those rights and the contracts." I said,

00:59:04

"But do you like it?" It it'll be

00:59:07

interesting to see what what happens.

00:59:09

Like if like for example, I would love

00:59:11

more episodes of the West Wing and

00:59:12

they're not going to make them, but they

00:59:14

could, right? If they put if they jammed

00:59:16

all the West Wings in there, uh they

00:59:19

could possibly make a pretty decent

00:59:21

thing. I have the feeling they will be

00:59:22

able to. Well, that's that's a really

00:59:24

interesting thought because it ends up

00:59:26

that HBO owns the IP to the White Lotus.

00:59:29

Yeah. And that was I think a hundred or

00:59:32

$200 million I want to call mistake for

00:59:34

the original producers. Now they still

00:59:36

make a lot of money because they want

00:59:37

that incredible talent back to make

00:59:38

seasons four, five, and six. But if at

00:59:41

some point it's no longer worth the $150

00:59:44

million in production for that season.

00:59:46

Yeah. They might say, "Well, we'll spend

00:59:48

three million and we'll use new

00:59:50

characters and we'll do seasons five,

00:59:52

six, seven, and eight and squeeze and

00:59:54

then it makes it even harder for new

00:59:55

entrance uh to break in." I can't figure

00:59:58

out does it help does it make it less

01:00:00

expensive? It could help the studios or

01:00:02

whoever owns the IP. Whoever owns the IP

01:00:05

of the original IP and there's got to be

01:00:07

a lot of it. So you could make more all

01:00:10

kinds of shows like Happy Days. Lots of

01:00:12

There's lots of shows that went on for

01:00:13

10 seasons and that you could

01:00:15

possibly it could write them. It could

01:00:18

write them. It could. Anyway, we want to

01:00:20

hear from you. Send us your questions

01:00:21

about business, tech, or whatever is on

01:00:23

your mind, or go to

01:00:25

nymag.com/pivot to submit a question for

01:00:27

the show, or call 8551 pivot. Elsewhere

01:00:30

in the Cara and Scott universe this week

01:00:32

on the latest episode of ProfG Markets,

01:00:34

Scott spoke with Azwath Deodorin,

01:00:36

professor of finance at NYU's Stern

01:00:39

School of Business. Azwath shared his

01:00:42

take on the recent tariff turmoil and

01:00:44

what he's watching with the next round

01:00:45

of earnings. Let's listen. This is going

01:00:47

to be a contest between market

01:00:49

resilience and economic resilience as to

01:00:52

whether in fact the markets are

01:00:54

overestimating the resilience of the

01:00:56

economy. And that's what the actual

01:00:58

numbers are going to deliver is maybe

01:01:00

the economy and markets are a lot more

01:01:02

resilient than we gave them credit for.

01:01:04

In which case, we'll come out of this

01:01:06

year just like we came out of 2020 and

01:01:08

2022 in much with much less damage than

01:01:11

we thought would be created by what we

01:01:14

saw happening on the ground. Yeah.

01:01:16

Interesting. That's interesting. He's so

01:01:18

smart. He's so smart. That's a good

01:01:20

question. And by the way, an Indian

01:01:22

immigrant who got his PhD at UCLA.

01:01:24

That's correct. And and is is arguably

01:01:27

one of the 10

01:01:28

best instructors in America, right? I

01:01:32

know that is a kid training young

01:01:33

Americans. So much value. And okay, but

01:01:36

yeah, let's let's go after those folks.

01:01:38

Yeah. Well, the good thing Baron's at

01:01:40

NYU. Scott, before we go, you have a

01:01:42

quick fail. Uh Trump is claiming, you

01:01:45

know, one of the things Trump's calling

01:01:46

for or claiming that America would

01:01:48

benefit if they Harvard reduced the

01:01:50

number of international students is it

01:01:51

would open up more seats for domestic

01:01:54

students. I do think there is some truth

01:01:57

to that that we need to expand freshman

01:01:58

seats for Americans. There's um great

01:02:01

university systems like University of

01:02:03

California do take their commitment to

01:02:06

native Californians really seriously. I

01:02:09

do think, you know, University of

01:02:10

Wisconsin is living up to its mission.

01:02:13

Uh but what if he was really serious

01:02:17

though, it's all such [ __ ] because

01:02:19

also in this big beautiful bill, he's

01:02:22

talking about gutting

01:02:24

um Pell Grants. And that is he wants to

01:02:26

cut Pell Grants by about 67 billion

01:02:29

through 2034, reducing grants to

01:02:31

low-income students by more than 15th

01:02:33

from 2027 through 2034. And really, it's

01:02:36

more like one half when you take

01:02:37

inflation

01:02:39

um into account. And more than half of

01:02:41

PEL students would have their aid

01:02:42

reduced in some way. I'm not

01:02:44

exaggerating, Cara. I'm here. There's a

01:02:46

lot of things that led me to being here

01:02:47

and having the wonderful life I lead.

01:02:50

One of them is PEL grants. I got PEL

01:02:52

grants because my mother was a

01:02:54

secretary. We were considered in the

01:02:56

lowest quartortile of income earning

01:02:58

households. Every summer I had to save

01:03:01

$2,300 at least work and save $2,300

01:03:04

because I knew I would get a PEL grant

01:03:06

for $13 to

01:03:07

$1,800 and I could go back for my next

01:03:10

year at UCLA. So Wow. I didn't realize

01:03:12

you were a PEL grantee. The reason I got

01:03:14

through UCLA was was because of PEL

01:03:16

grants. Wow. And by the way, the Cal

01:03:18

State system in California is the large

01:03:20

granter of PEL grants. Pell grants in my

01:03:22

opinion and I'm biased here is where

01:03:24

affirm all affirmative action needs to

01:03:25

go and that is affirmative action should

01:03:27

be based on color should be based on

01:03:28

green specifically the economic

01:03:30

situation you face and without Pell

01:03:33

grants without affirmative action I'm a

01:03:36

beneficiary of affirmative action it's

01:03:38

called PEL grants and these things are a

01:03:42

lifesaver for those of us who just

01:03:43

wouldn't have access to college give you

01:03:45

that extra amount of money that you

01:03:47

don't that will give you the wouldn't

01:03:48

have graduated from UCLA I just wouldn't

01:03:50

I couldn't

01:03:51

the relief that you don't have to work,

01:03:53

you know, slinging burgers. Well, and

01:03:54

it's a grant. It's not a loan. I I don't

01:03:57

have to worry about, okay, with my

01:03:58

philosophy degree and 150 grand in

01:04:00

student debt, am I going to is this

01:04:01

worth it? These are like, okay, the the

01:04:05

the fastest way for us to level up

01:04:07

America, full stop, is to put more money

01:04:10

in the pockets of people who don't have

01:04:12

money. That's correct. It's not It's not

01:04:14

complex, folks. Yep. All right. and

01:04:16

Pelgrants figured that out and it's done

01:04:18

a great save Pelgrants. Uh a really

01:04:20

important program. I'm going to give a

01:04:22

quick uh positive one was Go See

01:04:24

Mountain Head by Jesse Armstrong. I'm

01:04:26

curious what you think about it. It's

01:04:27

really crazy. Mountain Head. Mountain

01:04:29

Head. It's an HBO show that's going up,

01:04:31

Max show. That's going up on um I get

01:04:34

that in Aspen every year at the summer

01:04:35

solstice. Stop it. I knew you'd say

01:04:37

that. Anyway, Mountain Head. Steve

01:04:38

Carell is starring it. It's really good.

01:04:41

Uh anyway, uh and it's by Jesse

01:04:43

Armstrong who's fantastic. There's so

01:04:44

many good lines in it that it's crazy.

01:04:46

Um, one line I'll do one line. They were

01:04:49

in They were looking They were in

01:04:50

nature. They were up in Utah essentially

01:04:52

and they look around and the guy who

01:04:54

plays Mark Zuckerberg/ Elon's characters

01:04:57

goes, "Oh my god, it's so beautiful. You

01:04:59

could [ __ ] it." And I just thought it

01:05:01

was the best line ever. That's exactly

01:05:04

how they look at nature and think.

01:05:05

Anyway, it's Jesse Arm. It's Jesse

01:05:07

Armstrong. Yeah, it's Jesse Armstrong.

01:05:09

So, it's so fantastic as you might

01:05:10

imagine. All right, that's the show.

01:05:12

Thanks for listening to Pivot. Be sure

01:05:14

to like and subscribe to our YouTube

01:05:16

channel. We'll be back next week. Scott,

01:05:18

read us out. Today's show is produced by

01:05:20

Larara Neon, Zoe Marcus, Taylor Griffin,

01:05:22

Kevin Oliver, and Karen Roth. Ernie and

01:05:25

Todd engineered this episode. Thanks

01:05:26

also to Drew Burrows, Miss Aaro, and Dan

01:05:28

Shalon. Nishak Kuras, Vox Media's

01:05:30

executive producer podcast. Make sure to

01:05:32

follow Pivot on your favorite podcast

01:05:34

platform. Thanks for listening to Pivot

01:05:36

from New York Magazine and Vox Media.

01:05:37

You can subscribe to the magazine at

01:05:39

nymag.com/pod. We'll be back next week

01:05:41

for another breakdown of all things tech

01:05:43

and business.

01:05:45

[Music]

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May 30, 2025
Putin's Dilemma
If Putin loses face in Ukraine, it could lead to dire consequences for him.
“If Putin loses face in Ukraine, we’re going to find out he’s going to fall out of a window.”
@ 36m 44s
May 30, 2025
Trump's Thirst for Attention
There’s no appeasing Trump; he’s endlessly thirsty for attention and validation.
“There’s no appeasing Trump. He’s endlessly thirsty.”
@ 39m 16s
May 30, 2025
Harvard's Stand Against Trump
Harvard has taken a bold stance against Trump, declaring, 'Fuck you.'
“Harvard has been the first important organization to actually stand up and say, 'Fuck you.'”
@ 43m 57s
May 30, 2025
Crypto as a Grift
Trump's embrace of cryptocurrency is seen as a clever grift with no records.
“Trump has leveraged beautifully the crypto community and it’s the perfect vehicle for a grift because there’s no records.”
@ 47m 35s
May 30, 2025
Young People's Revolution
Young people are creating their own asset class in response to economic inequality.
“Young people have decided if you’re going to continue to bail out the market, I’m going to create my own asset class.”
@ 50m 00s
May 30, 2025
AI Video Generation Fails
V3 struggles with makeup application and crashes frequently, raising concerns about its reliability.
“V3 automatically puts makeup on Cara, but not Scott.”
@ 54m 39s
May 30, 2025
Scott's Record-Breaking Podcast
Scott Galloway breaks the record for most dick jokes told in a podcast, amidst stiff competition.
“Scott Galloway has broken the record for most dick jokes told in a podcast.”
@ 54m 59s
May 30, 2025
Pell Grants Discussion
Scott shares his personal experience with Pell Grants and their importance for access to education.
“Without Pell grants, I just wouldn’t have access to college.”
@ 01h 03m 45s
May 30, 2025

Episode Quotes

Key Moments

Musk's Challenges23:12
Tesla's Brand Crisis25:41
International Student Value32:53
Putin's Control36:36
Trump's Manipulation36:52
Apple's Dilemma37:35
Crypto Grift45:44
Pell Grants Importance1:03:45

Words per Minute Over Time

Vibes Breakdown

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February 13, 2026

01:05:50

Nancy Guthrie Disappearance Raises New Surveillance Questions | Pivot

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01:05:19

Scott Galloway Predicts a $10 Trillion Market Wipeout | Pivot

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59:55

Trump’s Movie Tariff Threat Puts Hollywood on Edge | Pivot

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September 09, 2025

58:44

Kara Swisher Slams Tech CEOs’ “Grotesque” Dinner with Trump | Pivot

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September 30, 2025

01:00:49

Consumers Force Companies to Cave on Kimmel | Pivot

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November 25, 2025

01:06:19

How Foreign Trolls on X Are Manipulating U.S. Politics | Pivot

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01:06:26

The 'Creepy' Truth About Meta's New AI App | Pivot

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01:12:54

Trump's Tariffs and Tirades Fuel Market Mayhem | Pivot

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59:29

What's Elon's Next Move After X CEO Exit? | Pivot

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October 17, 2025

01:20:43

Sam Altman Says OpenAI Not "Moral Police" After Backlash | Pivot

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January 25, 2026

27:39

Alex Pretti Shooting: "This is a Turning Point" | Pivot

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November 07, 2025

59:54

Scott Galloway and Kara Swisher Agree to Disagree on Zohran Mamdani's Policies | Pivot