00:00:00
The grift has been the most competent, elegant part of the Trump administration. He is strategic. He is
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thoughtful. His timing is excellent. The brightest people in the Trump administration are the grifters. Are the
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grifters.
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Hi everyone. This is Pivot from New York Magazine and the Vox Media Podcast Network. I'm Carara Swisser. And I'm
00:00:25
Scott Galloway. Scott, I went to the White House course. Oh, you went No, I didn't go to the dinner itself. There
00:00:31
was parties to parties. I went to the parties. I didn't go to anything. And I actually slept through one of the better parties. I I came home after Tammy
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Hadid's party and uh was so tired I slept the rest of the night which was interesting. So tell what have you
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heard? What's the scuttle about from the insiders? I will tell you actually, you know, it was supposed to be like, oh,
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the Trump people weren't there and oh how terrible. Actually, it was much more enjoyable. It was like kind of when the
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tech bros uh uh left uh San Francisco and everything was better like they had
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they sort of abandoned all the restaurants and everyone was like oh no and it was much more pleasant I have to say I went to uh a dinner for the
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Substack through with my agents UTA uh that was interesting I sat Substack party huh yeah we sat across there at
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night silver was there Jim Macost uh Medie Hassan was there it was nice the white house correspondent I feel some
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affection for her because it introduced me to who is my favorite comedian.
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Oh. Oh. Um, what's her name? She was great. Michelle. Michelle. Michelle Wolf. I think she's a genius. I think
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she's another great Yeah, they didn't have one this year supposedly. I wasn't there. No, they didn't. She wrote I love
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her this quote. You guys got to stop putting Kellyanne on your show. So, all she does is lie. If you don't give her a
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platform and she has nowhere to lie, it's like that old saying, if a trees if a tree falls in the woods, how do we
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know Kelly on Conway is under that tree? I'm not suggesting she gets hurt, just stuck.
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I did not get the Republicans were told to stay away. I did not have one Kellyanne Conway sighting. Usually she's
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out these things swinging around, but she wasn't there. Um, I'm trying to think what else was fun. I slept through
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the NBC party, so I slept all night. But the Tammy party was really fun. And I rode I I sat in a Corvette, which was
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cool. That was a cool car. Beautiful new Corvette. And uh saw the new EV
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Escalade, which was gorgeous. Um trying to think what else. Oh, there was a CNN party, too. Oh, I'll tell you one story.
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I'll tell you one story because I want So, I'm at the CNN party. Mark Thompson's there. All the CNN, you know,
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all the various, you know, Wolf and etc., etc. Um, and it was at the British Embassy, which has a new ambassador, and
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that's always a nice place because it has a beautiful garden. It was a beautiful day. Um, and I'm standing there. Uh, I was sort of like jawing
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with the Facebook PR people because of that story we'll talk about that Jeff Horowitz wrote in the Wall Street
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Journal about, um, sexy bots essentially that are probably bothering children.
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Um, and Joel Kaplan came up to me, the guy who's head of, you know, the big scary person of Facebook here in
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Washington who's taken it sort of on a right-wword shift or or removed some moderation. And he came up to me, he
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said, I just want to thank you because I, you know, I had talked about that I didn't think what they said he did in that book, he did, which I continue to
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agree. And and I said I something like, well, if I'm going to hate you, I'm going to hate you for the right things,
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like essentially. But we had an interesting talk. It was interesting. He He won't He won't have lunch with me, though. Really? Yeah. He I said, "Come
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on, don't be scared." I said, "Are you a man or a mouse?" And he said, "A mouse." And that was What can you say after that? Squeak.
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I don't Yeah, I went on the Good. I'm glad I'm glad. Uh I'm glad you had a
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nice time. Anyway, it was good. It was interesting to see some people and and and it was much more low-key. So,
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anyway, uh what did you do this weekend? Uh thanks for asking. I had a really nice weekend. Yesterday was the kind of
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ideal day. I did this long workout with my son in Regent's Park. He was I love
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Regent's Park. And then last night, me and my youngest went and had to There's
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this great little kind of street of restaurants uh right in Malibu Malibone. And and
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then we came home and we had like a dozen pork bow buns, which was awesome. Okay. And he
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got and he got boba and I got a beer. And every third sip sip we would switch
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because that made us feel both really naughty. Oh wow. And then we went home and uh he's 14. That's perfect. I think
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that's what he called child abuse. That's good. No, it's not. And then um uh we went home and watched an episode
00:04:42
and a half of Game of Thrones. So kind of perfect. But you're still watching Game of Thrones. It's eight seasons. Cara will be watching for a couple
00:04:49
years. On like season two. symboling season. Are you on? Yeah. No, we're
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we're we're still uh Ned Ned Stark hasn't even had his head cut off yet.
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So, I think we're we still Who's the tall lady who plays the one who's all devoted to is it Ned Stark or one of the
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Starks? Oh, no. Lady uh the knight or the knight in waiting Brianna of Tarth.
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Oh, thank you. Brianna Tarth. And actually, there's so many Game of Thrones is never fully recognized for
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how many wonderful love stories there are. The kind of the love story between her and Jamie is really really
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unexpected. Jamie, that's who she loves. She's committed to him. That's really I I got out this disembalment season when
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they kept disembowing people. I was like, "And I really don't want to see this any." And then when they crushed beautiful Pedro Pascal's head, I didn't
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like that at all. Oh, that guy was hot. I did not know that was coming. I told you this. I was like, "What?" Like, I
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don't I hate when that happens. When I'm like, "Oh, he's going to get killed." I did not have any clue that that was what
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was going to happen. Yeah. Yeah, I think the love story between um Jon Snow and what's her name? Oh god, our
00:05:55
producers is going to weigh in. The main lady, the wild Oh, Eager. I thought that was one of the nicest love stories
00:06:00
modern day television. That was really nice. Yeah. I think they're married. Yeah, in real life they're married. In
00:06:06
real life, they're married. Yeah. Beautiful. A love story that continues. Yeah. I forgot what else I did. I'm not
00:06:12
allowed to talk about it, but I went and I saw this thing called Bum Bum Train. Have you heard of this thing? No. Oh
00:06:19
wow. You You have to sign an NDA. Um but if you ever get if you ever get the chance to do it, go do it. It was really
00:06:27
incredible. What is it? It's Sounds like a gay bar, but go ahead. Bum Bum Train.
00:06:33
Go ahead. Did you ever go to Sleep No More in New York? No. You become I'm not
00:06:38
even sure. I don't want I don't want to give away other other than to say it's one of the most unique experiences. And the thing I love about it is that it's
00:06:45
about five or 6 hundred volunteers who help pull it off. Oh my god. But it's really it was very inspiring. London is
00:06:52
feeling kind of fun. It's the weather's nice, right? The weather's turning nice. Correct. I've experienced something today I haven't experienced in a year in
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London. No, I sweat. I took a run and I started sweating. It's so beautiful there when it gets warm. It really is.
00:07:05
Oh, it's for 11 weeks a year. It's the greatest city in the world. It's beautiful. Washington right now is spec has been spectacular for weeks and
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weeks. I mean, just one beautiful tree like explodes after another. Flowers everywhere. And this weekend was quite
00:07:18
beautiful. It's just gorgeous out and then it gets like a swamp. A complete swamp. Yeah. But that's good. I'm glad
00:07:25
you're liking the London. I got to come to London and bother you. I got to stay at your house, etc. Anytime for your
00:07:30
things. Yeah. Yeah. We got a Yeah, we got our guest room that's deep in the basement and Oh, excellent. I wanted to
00:07:35
put in a door between the basement and the and the first floor to lock and they wouldn't let me do it. No. Yeah, the
00:07:42
in-laws are in there now. So, occasionally I just slip a pizza under the door and say, "Don't come out." Nice. Nice. Nice. So, May is coming. May
00:07:50
is coming. We're almost into May, which is really nice. I'm going to San Francisco this weekend. Do you know? And what are you doing out there? I'm going
00:07:55
on Bill Maher on Friday. Um, are you doing the panel or are you the interview? I'm the panel, but it's just
00:08:01
me and Kevin McCarthy. I mean, of all people. Oh, wow. I know, right? So, so
00:08:07
two lesbians. He was He was excited. He was like I was like the former dingity
00:08:12
dog was excited to be with Caris, but you're fine. All right. So, literally a testicle with Z a panel with zero
00:08:19
testicles. No, I have several. There you go. I can lend them anyway. Um, anyway.
00:08:24
All right. Now, wake up. We got a lot to get. More energy. More energy. Yes, that's correct. Okay. Xanax last night. Some kind of Did you? I can feel that.
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Okay. We got a lot to get you today, including Trump's latest memecoin scheme scheme and the new affordable
00:08:37
Americanmade EV truck backed by Jeff Bezos. It's quite adorable. And again, I just saw the EV of the Escalade, which I
00:08:43
also thought was fantastic. It gets 466 miles to a charge, which is amazing. Uh,
00:08:48
but first, Alphabet earnings are out and Scott, it's time for another victory lab. You've been you are hitting it on
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all cylinders as That's right. There you go. That's why the people come here. That's why I make the big bucks. That's
00:09:00
right. The company overall revenue grew 12% year-over-year, beating expectations. Overall advertising was up
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8.5% from the previous year and search and other reported over 50 billion, up
00:09:12
9.8%. Well done, Sundarpachai. AI overviews, uh, Alphabet's AI tool at the
00:09:17
top of Google search page has 1.5 billion monthly users and Whimo is providing over 250,000 rides per week. I
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got to say Whimo is the quiet storm in a lot of ways in terms of being successful and useful to people. It's coming to
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Washington supposedly. And Alphabet's first quarter profit was boosted by uh $8 billion in unrealized gains from
00:09:36
investments in private company uh such as SpaceX. They they they make investments for people to understand.
00:09:43
Listen to what you had to say last week before these earnings were out. We're talking about Thursday. Alphabet's reporting at the end of the day and I
00:09:50
think rumors of Alphabet's struggles have been greatly exaggerated. I still think while chat GPT is ascending
00:09:57
dramatically and presents does present an existential threat to search, YouTube is just an absolute juggernaut. And you
00:10:04
talk about Whimo. I just think this company is so wellrun and Google continues to be the largest toll booth
00:10:11
in the history of mankind. I think that they're going to beat and and I I think
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they're going to have I think they're going to beat expectations this afternoon because I think some of those expectations have been beaten down. Well
00:10:21
done. Although I have to tell you Scott, a lot of people are talking about these cases which they they absolutely agree
00:10:26
with you and I that that will will be broken up. Everybody thinks thinks anyway. So Microsoft, Meta, Apple, and
00:10:32
Amazon are reporting later this week. Any predictions and any thoughts on Google? Um I don't have predictions on
00:10:38
the other ones. I'll save that for later in the week. But the I mean think about this. Uh I I think Alphabet still has
00:10:44
room to run because if you look at Alphabet or let's look at the S&P, the S&P 500 the average. So, take an average
00:10:51
S&P company. I don't know, Dow or Proctor and Gamble, like a good company. They're all great companies, but some
00:10:56
are amazing and some are not so amazing. But the average S&P 500 company, trades
00:11:01
at a price earnings multiple of 27. Alphabet, which I would argue has more growth prospects, and quite frankly,
00:11:08
it's just a more impressive company than 495 of the S&P 500, it trades at a
00:11:15
multiple of 18. Now, why is that? Why does Alphabet trade at a multiple that
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is a third lower than the average of the S&P? And I think it's because of the
00:11:27
fear of the existential risk that AI presents. Right? But just keep in mind
00:11:33
as of today, Google search handles 373 times more searches than chat GPT,
00:11:40
right? So it's going to take a while, folks. It's there's a competitor. Let's be clear. never been a significant
00:11:46
competitor to Google as yet. This is you would say a significant competitor on some level even if it's smaller right
00:11:53
but even looking at diversification or how robust the business is chatpt I
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think is projected to do 4 billion in revenues alphabet has five separate businesses that do more than 30 billion
00:12:06
a year and just to talk about just how incredible this company is uh Google
00:12:12
Cloud uh its operating margins hit 18% up from 9 and a half their margins
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almost doubled in their cloud business. Whimo is really, as you said, starting
00:12:22
to register potential. This was the first quarter uh in which um Puchai or Sunda answered
00:12:29
a question directly about Whimo. Whimo is now serving a quarter of a million paid rides per week. Yeah, exactly.
00:12:36
About 27 of them are mine whenever I'm in San I'll be taking it when I get to San Francisco. That's up fivefold from a
00:12:42
year ago, right? YouTube in just the last nine years, it its revenue has quadrupled. And between YouTube Premium
00:12:48
and Music, the platform now has over a 100 million paid subscribers. It's also
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commands 11% of all streaming watch time, which means it's the number one streaming platform. And if you think of
00:12:59
it as a social media company, it's the most popular social media company in the world. So this company is just it it has
00:13:08
seven products and platforms with over two billion users. Search Maps, Gmail,
00:13:13
Android, Chrome, Play Store, and YouTube. So, Alphabet, I mean, in We
00:13:18
both think it should be broken up, right? Or it will be correct. Oh, I think all of these guys should be broken
00:13:24
up. And here's the thing. Well, this one in particular has is under more pressure than any other company to be broken up.
00:13:29
It might be under more pressure, but I think I think the company I I think the company society would benefit most from being broken up would be Meta. Anyways,
00:13:36
the they they there's 11 amazing companies. Mhm. That that the majority of which will be worth more than the
00:13:42
original four companies that spin them. Apple, Amazon, Facebook, and Meta or Apple, Amazon, Meta, and Alphabet. Did I
00:13:50
say that right? Apple, Amazon, Alphabet. I get they change their name so [ __ ] often to so they're going to give eight people the CEO title. These companies
00:13:57
would all thrive uh on their own. But anyways, my point is going back to Alphabet. Um, Alphabet is just an
00:14:05
incredible company. I think Alphabet is arguably the most adult. I think they're
00:14:10
I think Meta is probably the most visionary. Apple is the most has the most robust supply chain.
00:14:18
Amazon [ __ ] they're all so wellrun. That's hard. It's hard to say give charact I think Sundar's often been
00:14:25
thought of as an afterthought for sure. like that he doesn't make there was a whole spate of things he could can't make decisions to save his life that
00:14:32
people were leaving it's not innovative enough it's too state I mean that was those were all the takes on him and
00:14:39
obviously these cases uh that they have lost um to the federal government I think they're going to be a boon to them
00:14:45
I think it's actually not the worst thing in the world to have to do what they're going to probably have to do the
00:14:51
most undervalued of all the tech companies though right now I think is um in the US market. I would say it's
00:14:57
probably it's probably Alphabet. Most overvalued would probably be Open Eye or Open AAI or um Palanteer, but the most
00:15:05
in my opinion the most undervalued of the Magnificent Seven and it's not in the Magnificent 7 would be Alibaba.
00:15:11
Think about it. There's a prediction. Do you want do you want Trump and the
00:15:16
American administration with the uh their hands on your data? Because the Chinese cloud Oh, this is sort of like
00:15:23
your Europe one, right? This is kind of like your Exactly. You're right. You're going to see a ton of European and Asian
00:15:29
companies defect from AWS and Azure and Google Cloud to Baba Cloud and Alibaba
00:15:37
trades at a huge discount to Amazon. You're about to see an incredible regression. One of the most powerful
00:15:43
forces in the universe, especially in the markets, is a regression to the mean. Chinese stocks trading at a multiple of 14, US stocks trading at a
00:15:50
multiple of 26. So the best companies in China that are a Amazon, Alibaba, are
00:15:57
not only going to regress this naturally in terms of a multiple regression, but Alibaba is about to skip is about to
00:16:04
scoop up so much unearned business in the cloud. Yeah, a lot of people are moving to France. There's it's
00:16:10
interesting a lot of tech people I'm talking about is putting their stuff elsewhere. I like had a long discussion
00:16:15
with someone this weekend about that. putting their stuff somewhere and it's not moving their bodies necessarily, it's moving their data. Interesting. Or
00:16:22
their money or I'll just you know what listen take a meeting with the head of Alibaba and let's talk about we're
00:16:29
Mercedes. Let's talk about putting our cloud there. We don't need to deal with these jerks. Send a signal. And by the
00:16:34
way, astonishing copy the head of the commerce department. Cop copy that assclick on our memo saying we're
00:16:41
switching from AWS. Yeah. To the Baba cloud. He wouldn't even know what to do. Anyway, we have to move on. But that
00:16:47
those are all really good ones, Scott. Very nice. I like it. Well, we'll see what happens there. FBI agents arrested
00:16:52
a Milwaukee judge accused of obstructing justice for directing an undocumented immigrant in her courtroom to exit
00:16:58
through the side door to avoid immigration agents. FBI director Cash Patel posted a photo of the judge,
00:17:03
Hannah C. Dugan, in handcuff saying, "No one is above the law." Dugan has uh
00:17:09
since been released from custody, is unexpected to be arraigned on May 15th, which is which is soon. Meanwhile, three
00:17:16
US citizens uh citizen children under 10 have been deported with their mothers, including a four-year-old with stage
00:17:22
four cancer. According to a recent Washington Post ABC Ipsos poll, 53% of Americans disrup Trump's handling of
00:17:29
immigration, where he was winning. That's up from 48% in February. This was his signature issue. We'll talk about
00:17:36
the polls for Trump, which are terrible right now, but this was the one where he was ironclad.
00:17:42
um a thought very quick thoughts on this.
00:17:47
Look, if you look at the polls and you try to be an honest broker, his signature
00:17:53
issues, he had a lot of support around. He had a mandate around immigration, he had a mandate around tariffs. Um you
00:18:00
know, he had a he had a mandate around kind of DEI or wokeness, whatever you want to call it. But as my friend Dev
00:18:07
Simman wrote a book on this, it's not about it's not about what you do, it's how you do it. And he's really blown it
00:18:13
because actually the majority of Americans believe you should deport people who are here illegally. However,
00:18:19
should you deport a four-year-old with stage four cancer without I mean, should
00:18:25
you start rounding up people because of the wrong tattoo? Should you levy club? Did you levy tariffs that basically
00:18:33
neuter domestic businesses and are about to put a ton of small businesses out of business? And it's the majority of his
00:18:40
policies actually, especially on the immigration side, he's a winner in especially over the Democrats who just
00:18:47
stuck out this chin, the world's biggest chin in the world. But the problem is the way he's going about it. He's kind
00:18:53
of in my view, he's kind of blown it with just a few and I'm not talking about what's right here or what I would
00:18:58
have liked to have seen done, but purely politically if he had just scaled back people actually agree with Doge, but the
00:19:06
way they've gone about it has been such overreach and the coarseness and the cruelty and quite frankly the
00:19:11
incompetence and stupid stupidity they've gone making doing victory laps without a victory. He could cara we the
00:19:19
media and progressives could have their hair on fire and he could be one of the most popular presidents in history in
00:19:25
the first 100 days if he had maintained these themes but handled them with a
00:19:30
little bit more caution nuance and discipline and had smarter people
00:19:39
execut base instincts and so he's also older I'm going to going to I'm going to start to really stress that I know all
00:19:45
these books are coming about Biden, but he's older and so he's unfettered. He's
00:19:51
adultled and he does what he wants and he has people around him who are incompetent or or have a cruelty streak
00:19:58
like Cash Patel, Christine Gnome standing in front of those people. I think everybody was uncomfortable with
00:20:03
that photo of her in front of those. I don't care what those guys did. That was gross. That was grotesque dressed like a
00:20:08
you know ice Barbie. Uh Cash Patel, the way he talks about things. Um they're they they have a cruel Steven Miller,
00:20:15
forget it, screaming on every TV station. I think you don't win by yelling at people and telling them they're stupid for finding um
00:20:22
deportation of a four-year-old with stage four cancer. And that Tom Hullman, he seems like he's had a few all the
00:20:28
time and he says stupid things almost continually. I mean, the cruelty is really quite diminishing of of you're
00:20:35
right, popular programs. But this number 53 to 48 if he I mean 48 to 53 he's
00:20:41
underwater on his signature issue which is really I mean that'll make other people act up against him anyway. We'll
00:20:47
see what's going to happen. I think it's going to continue to rise because I think he can't help himself. We'll see. He needs to pull back. If he did he he'd
00:20:53
probably be popular. Would have been a few tweaks, right? Tweets. We love our PhD students. Mhm. Of course. Oh, this
00:21:01
person is not a criminal. We we apologize. We're going to figure out where this person should be sent or brought back to America. We immediately
00:21:08
called Sloan Ketering and got this little girl help. I mean, show me
00:21:14
someone who is willing to be this cruel. I'll show you someone who invokes the name of Jesus Christ every [ __ ] minute. And if Jesus came back, he'd
00:21:21
puke on these people. Well, he's an he was an immigrant, you know. Anyway, uh let's go on a quick break. When we come
00:21:27
back, President Trump's switch up on Ukraine. Scott, we're back. President Trump and Ukrainian President Zalinski
00:21:32
met on the sidelines of the Pope Francis's funeral this weekend to discuss the end of war. It was a very interesting visual. I thought it was
00:21:38
terrific visual actually. Um and now President Trump appears to be on Ukraine's side. The US uh president
00:21:44
afterwards posted on True Social criticizing Russian President Vladimir Putin for recent missile attacks on
00:21:49
Ukraine, saying it makes me think that maybe he doesn't want to stop the war. Really, he's just tapping me along. Hm.
00:21:56
And this has to be dealt with differently through banking or secondary sanctions, whatever that is. On Sunday,
00:22:02
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who really looks like he's blinking for us to come save him, said administration
00:22:08
will decide this week whether to continue pursuing a negotiated settlement of the war. Uh who do you
00:22:14
think got in his ear about Russia here? Um and um uh it's really it was kind of
00:22:19
a shift. I thought that picture was kind of weirdly beautiful of him in in these in this incredibly um ornate sea setting
00:22:27
on these two simple chairs sort of leaning into each other and it was one of the images of the year. I agree. I
00:22:33
was sort of like whoa that's a great image. You know what it looked like? It looked like they were about to address the Senate on the planet of Naboo.
00:22:41
Were you expecting Natalie Portman to come so what do you think about this shift? Who got his ear? Who got his ear?
00:22:47
Like I think this is I think this is the
00:22:52
issue and I always say that and then I go back to deficits. But what you have here is when Trump was
00:23:01
asked uh after they said we need to you know they both need to give up something and and accept things they don't want.
00:23:09
And Trump was asked what is Putin supposed to give up? And he said well to
00:23:14
stop the killing and stop the invasion. Now, think about that statement. What the president of the United States is
00:23:20
saying to the world is that if you're an autocrat, you now have an incentive to invade and kill people because you gain
00:23:26
something to give up. The whole point of pushing back, the whole point of NATO, the whole point of having an $800
00:23:32
billion military-industrial complex is create a we create a series of incentives that when you illegally
00:23:38
invade a neighboring country and start shelling maternity wards that you end up worse off. And what Trump and Vance are
00:23:46
effectively saying is they're going to have to seed all the land to Russia and
00:23:52
exchange Russia will just stop its illegal murderous activity. That is that
00:23:57
is exactly what America is not supposed to be doing. And what got in his ear?
00:24:03
I'd like to think some sanity that at the end of the day, the president is the world's largest capital allocator, the
00:24:09
world's largest manager, trying to allocate capital to the greatest return possible. The greatest return in
00:24:16
geopolitics is for 60 to80 billion or 8 to 10% of our military budget. We give
00:24:22
we arm the brave Ukrainian army with the weapons to fight back on Russia such
00:24:29
that they have to spend half a billion to a billion dollars a day to distract them from the surface area of attack
00:24:35
against the US which they they deploy in one of two ways. They either steal our IP or they cyber attack us. So, keeping
00:24:43
Russia distracted in Ukraine, and I know this is Macabra, and I know this ignores the incredible human sacrifice, but if
00:24:48
we're going to just talk about rail politic, this is the best money we've ever spent. And until Russia, until we
00:24:55
show other autocrats who are thinking about invading South Korea or invading Taiwan, until we give them a clear
00:25:03
signal, there is incentive not to do it. Meaning you are worse off when you do
00:25:08
this, not better off, the world is less safe. Is there a person you think got in his head?
00:25:15
I don't know, Cara. I don't know. I don't know who this guy listens to other than Peter Navaro. Best thing that could happen for our economy is if someone
00:25:22
chained Peter Navaro to his bar. I mean in his room in
00:25:27
his the worst thing that could happen to our economy is every time you see Peter Navaro anywhere near the president go
00:25:33
short the market. Yeah. I don't know what Gio Secretary Rubio but the thing
00:25:38
about Secretary Rubio is I literally think he'll say just anything. Anything. Right. I agree. Anything. Yeah. That'll
00:25:44
get him. He wants to put himself position himself for the presidential race. Obviously the next one. Yeah. What
00:25:50
do you think? I think he I think he understands he got taken and he's he
00:25:55
needs a win and there's no winning with Vladimir Putin and he un I think he
00:26:00
understands that. Maybe he doesn't care about whatever um with that relationship anymore. I think he they they kept
00:26:07
bombing when they said they weren't. So like why wasn't he listening to me? I thought I had control. And he's got to do he said he was going to do it on day
00:26:13
one if you remember. Settle the war. I mean he had some promise. He's got to settle it. And so I think backing
00:26:19
Ukraine is the best way to do that. I mean, it's the only way to punching a bully in the nose as a bully like Trump
00:26:25
would know is the best way to do it. We'll see. I just wasn't really struck by it. We'll see if he can he could change next tomorrow. Like, who knows?
00:26:32
That's the problem here. The flippity flippity, you know, flippity. But look at what Zilinski's done. And it's a great lesson. And that is Zilinsky
00:26:39
hasn't gotten emotional. He's shown up. He's he's shown up. He's kissed his ass. He's just tried to be very resolute and
00:26:46
calm and dignified. And just a a quick review here, folks. We spend $60 billion a year. Almost all of that comes back to
00:26:54
America. And almost all of that goes into red states. And in exchange, we're going to get incredible drone technology.
00:27:01
We're unifying Europe. I mean, we're sending a very strong children to the rest of the world. And if we take all of
00:27:06
that money and just give Russia everything they've wanted, we're basically saying, "Okay, y it's a go
00:27:12
sign. It's green light for any autocrat that watches. That's right. And also that someday Ukraine is going to be one
00:27:18
of those countries, tech forward, exciting place to invest, exciting place for US capitalists to be. It is a
00:27:26
wonderful economy in that regard. It's just getting the [ __ ] beat out by a bunch of people who are not a wonderful
00:27:31
economy. So, it is a real opportunity to back Ukraine from a financial point of view from what Scott was saying and in
00:27:37
the future. Um, anyway, we're going to move on. Speaking of now, the other side of Donald Trump, his official memecoin
00:27:44
skyrocketed after announcement that he that the top 220 holders of the coin would get invited to dinner with the
00:27:49
president. Oh my god. Oh my god. What corruption in plain sight. Steve Ratner wrote a great piece about this by the
00:27:54
way this week. The initial price surge was over 50%, boosting the coin's total market value to $2.7 billion with Trump
00:28:01
and his allies reportedly pocketing close to $900,000 in trading fees in two days in trading fees. Uh, Senator Chris
00:28:08
Murphy posted on next that the memecoin sale was the most brazenly corrupt thing a president ever done. I think pretty
00:28:13
much so. And senators Adam Schiff and Elizabeth Warren are calling for an ethics investigation saying this dinner
00:28:18
might constitute a pay-to-play corruption. I think it doesn't constitute it. I think if he loses the house in two years, this is all we're
00:28:24
going to be talking about. Um, you have talked a lot about um, this memecoin.
00:28:30
Um, and then speaking of ascus, I'm going to add this on Donald Trump Jr. Omidi Malik, I think that's his name.
00:28:36
Anyway, um several other investors are reportedly launching an invite only club in DC that costs more than a half a
00:28:42
million dollars to join. The executive branch will cater to business and tech looking to nurture relations with Trump
00:28:47
administration according to Politico. This one just sounds douchy, but I don't have a problem with it. They can have
00:28:52
their little clubs to meet at and do their like man things there if they want. But uh talk about uh the second
00:28:58
one I don't think is corruption. I just think that the Democrats have it too. There's always been clubs. There's always been this kind of thing. It just
00:29:04
is, you know, extra douchy is all. Um, thoughts on on the coin and the club. I'm exactly where you are. I believe in
00:29:11
the right of free assembly and if Don Jr. wants to get people together and charge them, that's his right. I don't And by the way, that's kind of what
00:29:16
lobbyists do. It's like lobbying with the party. I I don't have a problem. Yeah. So, they they can go to a steak place or this place. Who cares? Fine.
00:29:23
The the Trump coin is gripped on an entirely different dimension. And let's just talk about the timing. He announced
00:29:30
the Trump coin the Friday night before his inauguration when there was just a media masttorm and it he buried it,
00:29:36
right? Because he knew that the market would go, "This is incredibly corrupt." There were about 30 people who made
00:29:43
about six or $800 million according to logs in those first few hours. And my
00:29:49
guess is those 30 people might have been tipped off or been really close to the president because they clearly had a lot
00:29:55
of money and they were clearly in first. And then over the course of the next few weeks about 80,000 people lost billions
00:30:03
cuz it spiked. The insiders got out. Then let's talk about more timing. He
00:30:09
decides that about the time that the lockup is going to come off and that is the insiders, the people who started it
00:30:15
get to sell. He decides one to have a meeting, you know, to announce this
00:30:21
meeting to distract people and get the get the price back up. And shortly before that, he announced that he was
00:30:27
doing away with the DOJ unit that investigates crypto scams. So this is
00:30:33
really I wish I wish he approached geopolitics and tariff policy with the
00:30:39
same strategy he approaches his grift because the grift has been the most
00:30:44
competent, elegant part of the Trump administration. He is strategic, he is
00:30:51
thoughtful, his timing is excellent. The brightest people in the Trump administration are the grifters. Are the
00:30:56
grifters are the people handling they're bearing the stories at the exact right moment. They're neutering the
00:31:02
investment. They've been at it for a long time. They're experienced grifters. Go ahead. They're they're they're very good at this, but this is again it's
00:31:10
just very simple. If you found out that Vladimir Putin had been buying hundreds
00:31:17
of millions or billions in Trumpcoin and saying to Trump, you're going to be the wealthiest man ever as long as we keep
00:31:24
buying. By the way, in unrelated news, what are your thoughts on Ukraine? Wouldn't all of this make sense? And
00:31:30
that might not be true. But the whole point of the president and our elected officials is you're not supposed to have
00:31:38
that that doubt, that cloud of corruption over them. And it and just
00:31:43
because I want to move to a solution, I absolutely think we need to move to a Singaporean model. I think the president
00:31:48
should make 10 million bucks a year. I think senators should make three million and representatives should make a million dollars a year. And in exchange
00:31:54
for that, abs fuckingutely nothing resembling correction. Speaker Emirates
00:32:00
Pelosi, you can't trade stocks. You cannot when you're be voted out of office, you there's a three-year sunshine period. You can't go to work
00:32:06
for a lobbyist. You can never talk about an individual company. For God's sakes, you can't get involved in none of your
00:32:11
family members can start a crypto company. Zero tolerance corruption, but we're going to pay you a lot of money
00:32:17
because all they're doing now with the current Can we hit them with a cane when they do it? like that they do in well but to be fair when you're making
00:32:24
$185,000 which is what uh uh our Congress people make and they have to support two homes the opportunity and
00:32:32
they see everyone else engaged in grift the seduction of grift just becomes too great. Yeah. So pay them a lot of money.
00:32:40
These are important impressive people who have a big impact on our economy. Pay them a lot of money. Zero tolerance.
00:32:46
And if you propose that I think they would pass it. I don't know. I don't know. People would
00:32:52
go, "Why are we paying the congressman?" No, the congress people would pass it. I They They get to vote on it. I don't
00:32:58
think they would. You don't think they would? You don't think they said, "All right, a million bucks." No, I think from the perception, I think people
00:33:04
would be like, "Why are you getting a million dollars for that job?" Like, what in the hell? I'm just saying it's would be a very difficult political
00:33:10
thing to pull off. But if they all did it at once, are they going to vote all of them out? Yeah, they never do anything all at once. just it's just
00:33:16
such a good thing for like a Marjorie Taylor Green to say because she makes all this grift on the side. Speaking of grift, she had a big stock sales. Um
00:33:23
yeah, I agree with you. I I agree with you on her stock sale. She didn't do anything that Pelosi hasn't done dozens
00:33:29
of times. Correct. I But I if you're going to insult Pelosi, please belly up to the [ __ ] griff bar if you want.
00:33:36
All right, let's go on a quick break. We come back, Trump claims he's made 200 deals on tariffs. They're kissing my
00:33:42
ass. Scott, we're back. As President Trump marks a 100 days in office, 64% of Americans disapprove of how he's
00:33:48
handling the tariffs according to a new ABC that new ABC News Washington Post Ipsos poll. It's one of many that are
00:33:53
pointing in these directions. Trump is now saying he's made 200 deals on tariffs in an interview with Time magazine. He also keeps claiming to have
00:33:59
spoken with China's President Xi. Who knows? Uh China denies any talks are happening and said the US should stop
00:34:05
creating confusion. I'm believing China on this one. Treasury Secretary Scott Beston was on ABC's uh this week where
00:34:11
he tempted to explain Trump's tariff strategy. This was so painful to watch. Listen. And game theory is called
00:34:17
strategic uncertainty. So you're you're not going to tell the the person on the
00:34:23
other side of the negotiation where you're going to end up. And nobody's better at creating this leverage than President Trump. You know, he's shown
00:34:29
these the high tariffs and it's here's the stick. the this is where the tariffs
00:34:36
can go and the carrot is come to us, take off your tariffs, take off your non-tariff trade barriers, the stop
00:34:44
manipulating your currency, stop subsidizing labor and capital and then we can talk. Oh my god, Scott. Scott,
00:34:51
it's like sticking your eye with a dry stick and saying we won. Like what? Like
00:34:58
this was like it's chaos. I just don't strategic you do strategic uncertainty to me all the time, Scott, and I find it
00:35:04
irritating. That's all I have to say. Thoughts, thoughts, thoughts. I I'm fascinated by game theory. I I teach a
00:35:12
class on game theory. And this could not be This is their go-to. It's uh the
00:35:18
general script that they all have to follow. Couch everything and what a genius Trump is. And also chess. That's
00:35:25
right. claim he's playing claim he's playing 4 D chess and the reality is the
00:35:30
world thinks there's a decent chance this manchild is going to start eating the pieces he said a [ __ ] idiot that's correct and I don't know our
00:35:38
let's look at our three largest trading partners and I'm boasting about I'm name dropping now but without name dropping the our three largest trading partners
00:35:45
are Canada then Mexico then China in the last week I have I interviewed the prime
00:35:52
minister of Canada the soon to probably be today by the Well, he's prime minister now and he's probably going to be reelected because of Trump today.
00:35:58
Today because the opposition, the Conservative party, 25 points has overcome a 25 point.
00:36:06
Anyways, by the way, this guy probably has the most impressive resume in global politics. I kind of want to marry him. I
00:36:11
think Prime Minister Carney, he is dreamy. He's tall. He's very nice. Anyways, I asked him straight up, are
00:36:17
you talking to the administration? He said, no. So, Canadians, the Canadians
00:36:23
literally, they can't. It's difficult for them to lie. They're just not good at it. It's like if I asked Brian Adams
00:36:29
or, you know, Allan Thick the most personal things, they would they I just get the sense they give you a straight
00:36:34
answer. Y I don't think he's lying. On Saturday night, I was with the CEO of one of the largest uh Chinese companies
00:36:41
in in the world and in China. And I said, "Do you have any sense for if the CCP or she is talking to to the US?"
00:36:49
He's like, "Yeah, I have a very strong sense." And the answer is they're not talking. Their attitude is, "Yeah, bring
00:36:54
it, boss. We've we've taken on much worse. There's no there's no dialogue." So, two of the three largest trading
00:37:01
partners are not, unless these people are lying to me, are not h have no dialogue with Trump. They're just
00:37:07
letting him flail around, wythe, and scream on the ground like a three-year-old and saying, "Yeah, have
00:37:14
at it. Cry and scream and negotiate against yourself." This is the same guy, speaking of 3D chess, who imposed a 145%
00:37:21
tariff on Monday and then on Friday said the tariff rates unsustainable and it needs to come down. And he just
00:37:30
But but talk about Bessant here. Like what is he doing? He's in an impossible position. He's not impossible. He's
00:37:36
fallen into the same He's fallen into the same trap as Gary Cohen and all these guys. They there's a called when
00:37:44
you're called to serve. You can understand that you go. Rubio wants to
00:37:49
go because he wants to be more presidential and then announce his presidency in about two years and 11 months, his candidacy. Again, these guys
00:37:56
all think this is an unbelievable opportunity and I'm going to be the one that pulls things off his desk and can
00:38:01
convince him. And also, I've heard when you talk to Trump in person, he comes across as remarkably sane. So, they all
00:38:07
go in, I think, with the false illusion they're going to be able to make a difference and talk some sense into this guy. Because when you talk to people who
00:38:13
know Howard Leutnik, they say the following. Nice guy. He's he's an ass in
00:38:19
terms of these decisions and his way over his head. When you talk to people about Scott Bent, they say very
00:38:24
intelligent guy. People are very impressed with him. But the question is, and a lot of people acknowledge this,
00:38:30
including Bill Clinton, and that is the only way you can have influence is to maintain your job or get elected. And
00:38:36
sometimes you have to do things you don't want to do. Uh but Scott Bent is I think he goes home at night and
00:38:42
literally looks in the mirror and says, "I hate myself." And none of this makes any [ __ ] sense. And he's like, "I
00:38:48
have to go on and defend the indefensible." Yeah. He cries into his cashmere pillows. I can see that. Don't
00:38:54
you see it? All right. We're going to we're going to move on in a second, but um but the word strategic uncertainty is
00:39:01
chaos. That's what that's their word they're using and it's to put, you know, lipstick on a pig. This is a pig no
00:39:07
matter how you slice it. Like that is if you want to slice a pig. In any case, uh what a disaster. By the way, uh fast
00:39:14
fashion giant got uh likes uh sheen is already hiking prices as high as
00:39:22
377%. So instead of a dollar, it costs $4. Well, just and just you know, some of the the companies, for example, we
00:39:29
were talking about Alibaba earlier. Do you know what percentage of Alibaba's business is done in the US? Not much, I bet. 2%. Yeah. So, you think they're
00:39:37
scared? Yeah. And the the thing about is big. Shien is big here. The Sheen is big
00:39:42
here. But but but what's interesting about it is the following. The math that people failed to do is like, oh, it'll really hurt them. And then Shien and
00:39:48
then she will get nervous. So, Shien is not doing well. Even though Shien claims to be a Singaporean company, their supply chain is in China. They employ a
00:39:55
lot of people in China. So, oh, we're going to intimidate them and scare them because their products are gone up. Okay, let's do the math. No, Sheen's
00:40:01
whole value proposition is I can get you or they can get you a $10 reasonable
00:40:06
faximile of a Kashmir sweater. Then get get it they can import it in for 10 bucks because of their supply chain.
00:40:13
Whereas Ralph Lauren when they import something in from China, it costs them 60 or say 50. Generally speaking, a
00:40:19
retailer kind of triples it. So it goes from 10 to 30 bucks. If the 145% tariff
00:40:25
goes from that takes it from 10 to 24 bucks. So then it needs to go to 72. The
00:40:31
$50 sweater that comes into Ralph Lauren goes from 50 to 100 and what is that 45%
00:40:39
$125? So that goes to $375. So the question is do these less
00:40:45
expensive products the whole market shrinks but I would argue the cheaper
00:40:50
stuff from China ends up taking share. So the economy goes down because the price differential on cheaper goods
00:40:57
broadens between the more expensive goods. So what happens? The economy goes down spending goes down. But I wonder if
00:41:04
some of those less expensive Chinese products actually end up grabbing share from the American companies that are
00:41:10
bringing in China Chinese products. So it's like the worst of both worlds for American companies. Yeah. It's just a
00:41:16
mess. Anyway, uh speaking of another uh interesting thing, uh we we haven't talked about Elon. He's been very quiet.
00:41:23
Um he's not he's not wielding his chainsaw. Uh as I noted, I saw the Escalade EV, which I thought was a very
00:41:30
impressive car. Uh but another one uh again there could have been Cybertruck
00:41:35
could have been a terrific beautiful car and it turned out to be a lemon and it's it's a disaster for for Tesla. Quite a
00:41:41
big disaster. A startup called Slate Auto backed by Jeff Bezos and other investors is launching a made in America
00:41:46
EV truck with a starting price of 20K inexpensive after federal tax credits.
00:41:52
The Slate's truck design is pretty basic. No power windows, no infotainment screen, no paint. People will get custom
00:41:58
wraps. You can also um change it and you can make put a back on it. It can be a um can be a pickup. It can do a number
00:42:04
of different things. It's really quite I love the idea of it. It's a lot like um Zuks which he also has where you can
00:42:11
customize it very much. Um it gets about 150 mi of range on a charge. The car is designed in California and Michigan will
00:42:17
be manufactured in the Midwest with domestically sourced parts. Very It's like a Lego car. It looks like Slate
00:42:22
plans start deliveries in late 2026. I bet they will. I bet they'll actually do what they say as opposed to what Tesla
00:42:28
always does. Over in Europe, VW overtook Tesla as a top EV seller for the first three months of 2025. That's a big deal.
00:42:36
Their car, I think, ID4, I think it's called, is I want to buy it so badly. I can't even stand it. I don't care how
00:42:41
much it costs. It's so great looking and looks terrific and wellmade. um all these EV companies I I've seen more and
00:42:48
more not just BYD and there's another one in Japan but so much competition so
00:42:53
many beautiful cars which are fun and interesting and at so many different price points and EV sales are up along
00:42:59
with hybrid sales. So uh again another thing Tesla could have done um and and
00:43:05
had the market and losing it because they had to indulge in in his cybert truck fantasies. So any quick thoughts?
00:43:13
I love the new Rivian car. I mean, the automobile industry is is a case study in economics around fixed costs and that
00:43:20
is to build to build um an assembly line or to build a platform. All right, we
00:43:25
want to build an SUV. It costs so much money to build a platform that it's all
00:43:31
about scale. You got to just shove a [ __ ] ton of cars down that assembly line. So, what did they do? Volkswagen
00:43:37
says, "Okay, we're building a platform for SUVs." And about 80% of the way down
00:43:42
the assembly line, they shove a Volkswagen Torug, a Porsche uh Porsche
00:43:48
Cayman, and an Audi Q7. They're all on the same assembly line. And then the last 10 or 20% of the assembly line,
00:43:54
they take different routes, and the Porsche gets much higherend leather and badging and a better stereo. And then
00:44:01
once it's off the assembly line, they get a different ad agency to appeal to men in midlife crisis. The Tour gets an
00:44:08
ad agency for families. The Audi gets someone who thinks they're a little bit more euro, whatever it might be. But
00:44:14
they've got to shove as many cars down that assembly line for scale as possible. And basically, Rivian saying,
00:44:20
"Okay, we've got to come out with a lowerc cost product and shove as many as many cars down that assembly line." I
00:44:26
think the most impressive company in the world right now, I'm actually thinking of buying their stock even though it's up 60% in the last year, is BYD. I think
00:44:35
this company is gonna ultimately ultimately trade barriers come down because people are more greedy than they
00:44:41
are concerned about their fellow citizens or whatever it is you want argument you want to make around tariffs or trade protections. The world
00:44:46
ultimately is up and to the right around um free trade. It just makes sense for
00:44:52
everybody. It's just everybody everybody wants cheaper grapes and more toys under the tree than they are worried about Joe
00:44:57
who's a union guy over the long term. And BYD is literally just I if you look
00:45:04
at their products relative to the cost they're putting out a car right now. If
00:45:09
we didn't have any trade barriers, you could get a really good EV for less than $10,000. Can you imagine how many of
00:45:15
those things they would sell in America? Anyway, I'm I and not only that, everyone keeps talking. I mean,
00:45:22
this ridiculous notion about humanoid robots at Tesla. You want to see the most unbelievable robots? Go to a
00:45:28
factory in China and see the robotics there. I mean, Tim Cook said this. He
00:45:35
said, "The misconception of China is it's a bunch of lowcost wage labor and factories doing, you know, tedious work.
00:45:41
You go into these factories, it's something out of Westworld. So, they they've already got
00:45:47
robotics and humanoids doing incredible things." any there's a ton of companies but
00:45:53
unfortunately or fortunately like Volkswagen has unbelievable scale and now they're
00:45:59
selling the most EVs in Europe and you just want to shove as many cars down that fixed cost assembly line and the
00:46:05
one I think that's going to be become the automobile and innovation company of
00:46:10
the next 5 years is going to be BYD BYD but let me just say all the car companies are really have exciting cars
00:46:16
they're offering all of them in some ways and they'll either be popular or not, but impressive. I mean, you put the
00:46:22
Cybert truck next to these and it's such a fail on behalf of Tesla to have had the lead here and it could have been
00:46:29
innovative. He just doesn't want to be in the car company. And then he's bragging about um robo taxis, which
00:46:34
Whimo is doing beautifully. And then he's talking about the Optimus Prime, which nobody wants to have a robot in
00:46:40
their house right now. It's just not happening. Maybe someday. But this idea like these they're they're they're
00:46:46
indulging someone to yell at. I can't believe you forgot to take the roast out of the freezer. I know exactly. But you know what? I he they're indulging in
00:46:53
this guy's weird fantasies. They never should have done the cyber truck. Never. There was so much opportunity for him to
00:46:58
do a big killer Escalade killer, a Ford, you know, a truck killer. And he just
00:47:04
didn't do it. Didn't do it. Had to create this weird thing not a woman would never buy. And the only men that
00:47:10
would buy it are [ __ ] Well, you know why robots don't have brothers? Why? Oh, because they have transistors.
00:47:17
That's good, right? Okay, quick break. That's a good one. We'll be back for
00:47:23
wins and fails. Okay, Scott, here's some Let's hear some wins and fails. I think I'll go first today. Um, there's a story
00:47:30
in the Wall Street Journal. I again, I argued with meta people this weekend at these parties. Um, called digital
00:47:36
companions. They have the ability to engage in romantic roleplay with users, including kids. According to a Wall Street Journal article, Mark is the one
00:47:42
pushing it through to be more aggressive. I've talked to a lot of people internally at Facebook, they've been trying to keep him from doing that
00:47:49
and to be very safety conscious around these things. Very sim similar to Character AI, which was an offshoot of
00:47:55
Google. It was people went off and did it and Google's not licensing it and a lot of a lot of kids, one kid killed
00:48:02
himself, etc. just these you cannot have digital companions that kids can get near and there can't be any holes in
00:48:09
your wall if you're going to do this. I have no problem with I don't have a problem with these digital companions and being romantic. they cannot get near
00:48:16
certain people and it should be like it the fact that the Wall Street Journal was was able to get them to do this and
00:48:23
also they also have celebrity voices for these things and they start to get apparently uh John Cena got sexy with
00:48:30
someone on he didn't want to get sexy with them but he did his bot did and so
00:48:35
if you're going to do this stuff you've got to have it lock the [ __ ] down and the fact that they haven't is just
00:48:41
typical and Mark is pushing it through and there's a lot of pressure, etc., etc. Um, I think I just I'm just
00:48:48
astonished that they continue to build things without this the the the level of care they need to. It's just maybe I
00:48:54
shouldn't be surprised, but it's really amazing that they keep doing so. It's um it's it's such a fail. It's so it's such
00:49:01
an astonishing fail. And I think probably my positive this week, there's a lot of stuff coming out. I'll be
00:49:06
talking about mission the next Mission Impossible soon and other things that are coming out. Looks like some great movies this summer. Um, but I have to
00:49:13
say I think this this Carney in Canada is is playing it beautifully. I assume
00:49:18
he's going to win tonight. Um, uh, and he's, uh, he looks like he's on track to
00:49:24
win. And what a comeback for the Liberals and in and changing their candidate is what they did. They've been
00:49:29
in charge for a long time. I don't think any country should have one party in uh, in charge for uh, for too long. But he
00:49:37
seems to be a fresh new face when he's not a fresh new face. So, gives a lot of lessons to Democrats um in terms of
00:49:43
finding a fresh new face even when you're not fresh. So, I'm really uh we'll see what happens. And then very
00:49:48
briefly, there's a there's a big outage of power in in Spain and Portugal, and I hope everybody's there. And of course,
00:49:54
we have to think about a cyber attack uh in situations like this, but they're having it right now. And uh it's really
00:50:00
uh this is going to happen more in the future. Just good good luck to the people there as it's happening. Scott, I
00:50:06
love your fail. And I I do believe that this requires some sort of legislation
00:50:13
because I think one of the biggest threats to our society is a lack of companionship and and love and mating
00:50:21
that turns people especially young men into misogynists and nationalists and
00:50:27
extremists and also suicidal. I keep I see all these Tik Toks about and it's
00:50:33
heartbreaking about women talking about why would they go on a date when they might go out with someone that murders them. And I understand that men are more
00:50:40
violent and I think it's a real issue and I can understand and it breaks my heart to think that women aren't safe around men. But the reality is 2500
00:50:47
women are murdered by men a year and that's way too many and they're usually domestic partners or someone they know.
00:50:53
40,000 men kill themselves. So these men are not only dangerous to society and
00:50:59
dangerous to women but especially dangerous to themselves. And the question is well why are we creating
00:51:05
these violent men who are prone to just information that becomes turns them into
00:51:11
shitty cit citizens makes them more disparaging of women more and much more
00:51:17
harmful to others and especially harmful to themselves. And I think part of that is they're mammals and they're losing
00:51:23
connection with other people. And when you have the deepest pocketed, most well-resourced companies in the world
00:51:29
all trying to convince these men they can have a reasonable faximile of life on a screen with an algorithm, we're
00:51:35
we're making the problem worse. And I've I've said that I think wanting
00:51:41
to have friends, wanting to go through the pecking order, the humiliation of figuring out friendships, wanting to
00:51:48
figure out how hard it is and to navigate the corporate world. I think that can turn you into a better person,
00:51:53
especially a better man who these guys don't mature very early. And also that fire, that real fire of sexual desire, I
00:52:02
think when channeled correctly makes you stronger, more kind, demonstrate
00:52:08
excellence, have a plan. You know, there's a reason, I've said this over and over, there's a reason romantic
00:52:13
comedies are two hours, not 15 minutes, and that this [ __ ] is hard, but it's worth it. and anything that convinces
00:52:19
even more young men that they don't need to go through the difficult and
00:52:24
rewarding and worthwhile effort of establishing human connection with other sentient beings is a threat to our
00:52:32
society. I would agree. But if they're going to do it, they have to do it safely. Like honestly, I I don't My
00:52:38
question is if it it's one thing to give seniors companions who are in their 90s and have lost all their loved ones. I'd
00:52:43
like to have one for my mother. I'll be honest with you. But but but should we have should we have or maybe tax the
00:52:50
[ __ ] out of them? I don't know. Should we have AI sex robots that convince all men to think that oh I don't need to be
00:52:57
kind to women. I don't need to have a plan. They're going to make them Scott whether you like it or not. They're going to make them because it's these
00:53:03
guys they they can't have children and they desperately want to have children in a weird strange [ __ ] up way. When
00:53:10
you who are you talking about they want to I mean I think sometimes I think AI you told I told you this theory. I think AI is the way get so dominated by men
00:53:17
and there's so lack of safety and everything else. They said it's because I think they men can't have children. Certain men, not all of them think this
00:53:24
way, but um can't have children. This is their way of giving birth. I I just or something are created. I never thought
00:53:30
about that. Think about it. But you are you saying are you saying incel culture
00:53:35
or the people who run No, I think the people that run these some of these companies they can't make beings. It's a
00:53:41
very beautiful thing to make a child. Men and women make them together obviously, but really women grow children, right? And men, this is men's
00:53:49
way of growing things, growing beings. I don't Anyway, go ahead. Dystopian weird
00:53:54
thing. I know it is. It is. Think about it. But I hear this stuff. Everyone talks I I I do a lot of talks on AI and
00:54:00
they talk about, oh, they're going to be sentient, self-healing weapons, misinformation. Hands down, the biggest
00:54:05
threat of AI is loneliness. Loneliness. You're right. It's going to convince more and more people they don't need to engage. Yeah, social media is already
00:54:12
well on its way. All right, your win and fail. Please go ahead. Sorry. Okay, so that's my fail. I like my win is a
00:54:17
little bit longer and I know you are probably interviewing the ghost of B but [ __ ] but you're going to have to put up
00:54:22
with me. So, after the Pope passed, uh there was something that was attributed to him. I don't know if he said it, but
00:54:28
I I think it's lovely and I'm going to read it anyways. The walls of hospitals have heard more honest prayers in
00:54:33
churches. They have witnessed far more sincere kisses than those in airports. It is in hospitals that you see a
00:54:39
homophobe being saved by a gay doctor, a privileged doctor saving the life of a beggar. In intensive care, you see a Jew
00:54:45
taking care of a racist, a police officer and a prisoner in the same room receiving the same care. A wealthy
00:54:50
patient waiting for a liver transplant ready to receive the organ from a poor donor. It's in these moments
00:54:56
when the hospital touches the wounds of people that different worlds intersect according to divine design. And in this
00:55:02
communion of destinies, we realize that alone we are nothing. The absolute truth
00:55:08
of people most of the time only reveals itself in moments of pain or in the real threat of an irreversible
00:55:16
loss. A hospital is a place where human beings remove their mass and show themselves as they truly are in their
00:55:23
purest essence. This life will pass quickly. So do not waste it fighting
00:55:28
with people. Do not criticize your body too much. Do not complain excessively.
00:55:33
Do not lose sleep over bills. Make sure you hug your loved ones. Do not worry too much about keeping the house
00:55:40
spotless. Material goods must be earned by each person. Do not dedicate yourself to accumulating an inheritance. You are
00:55:47
waiting for you are waiting far too much. Christmas Friday next year when you have money, when love arrives, when
00:55:54
everything is perfect. Listen, perfection does not exist. A human being cannot attain it because we are simply
00:56:01
not made to be fulfilled here. Here we are given an opportunity to learn. So make the most of this trial of life and
00:56:08
do it now. Respect yourself. Respect others. Walk your own path and let go of
00:56:14
the path others have chosen for you. Respect. Do not comment. Do not judge.
00:56:19
Do not interfere. Love more. Forgive more. Embrace more. Live more intensely.
00:56:25
and leave the rest in the hands of the creator. Anyways, Pope Francis, rest in peace. That was beautiful, Scott
00:56:32
Galloway, and I appreciate that you brought it here. Anyway, uh Cara, what does a priest scrotum look like? Oh, no.
00:56:39
Oh, come on. Every child knows that. That's good. It is. He's back. A moment
00:56:46
of beauty followed by a moment of horror. Okay. I didn't see I didn't I
00:56:52
didn't see that coming. Anyway, so uh it's a new joke. Thank you for the scrotum joke. Uh, we want to hear from
00:56:57
you. Send us your questions. You have good jokes today about business, tech, or whatever is on your mind. Go to
00:57:03
nymag.com/pivot to submit a question for the show or call 8551 pivot. Elsewhere in the Cara and
00:57:09
Scott universe, this week I talked to comedic actor Ed Helms for the OnWith with Carara Switcher show. I named
00:57:14
members of the Trump administration and asked Ed to match each of them with a character in The Office where he starred for so many years. Such a great uh such
00:57:20
a great guy. He's been in tons of things like The Hangover, but he also has a really cool podcast about snafu, about
00:57:26
fuckups over the many centuries. Let's listen to a clip. Pete Hegth. Okay. Pete
00:57:32
Heg Seth would be a little like Packer. Someone thinks Meredith actually because
00:57:38
alcoholism. Oh, interesting. JD Vance. Uh JD Vance is a little Dwightish. I
00:57:46
think he's a little Dwight Fruity maybe. Yeah, absolutely. Cash Patel. M Oh, what
00:57:51
was Zach Wood's character? There's something about something there like intense loyalty, a subscribing to a
00:57:57
hierarchy with dedication and uh and like actually being well spoken in the
00:58:03
midst of all that. Yeah, Gabe. Gabe. Gabe, of course. He's really delightful. Um, okay, that's the show. Thanks for
00:58:09
listening to Pivot and be sure to like and subscribe to our YouTube channel. We'll be back on Friday. Scott, read us
00:58:15
out. And your jokes are excellent today. I have to give you the star. Five stars. Thanks for that. Thanks for five stars.
00:58:21
Most most comical in high school. Today's show is produced by Larara Nean, Zoe Marcus and Taylor Griffin. Ernita engineer of this episode. Jim M edited
00:58:28
the video. Thanks also to Jubos. Miss Savo and Dan Chilon. Nishak Car Vox Media's executive producer of podcast.
00:58:35
Make sure you subscribe to the show wherever you listen to podcast. Thanks for listening to Pivot from New York Magazine and Vox Media. You can
00:58:41
subscribe to the magazine at nymag.com/pod. We'll be back later this week for another breakdown of all things
00:58:47
tech and business. Cara, have a great rest of the week. Rest in peace, Pope Francis.
00:58:52
[Music]
