January 19, 2025 • 17 mins
Donald Trump is set to be inaugurated as the 47th President of the United States.
After four years out of office after losing in 2020, Trump is set to return to the White House with a vengeance – with his ‘Make America Great Again’ agenda front and centre.
His administration has already raised eyebrows for some of his unusual Cabinet appointments, and Trump’s usual bluster has seen him make bold promises about what he’ll get done on day one – including being a “dictator” just for the day.
So what are Trump’s plans for his second term in office – and why are so many tech giants falling to his side this time around?
Today on The Front Page, Washington-based New York Times reporter Kenneth Vogel is with us to discuss what to expect from the next four years of Trump?
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You can read more about this and other stories in the New Zealand Herald, online at nzherald.co.nz, or tune in to news bulletins across the NZME network.
Host: Chelsea Daniels
Sound Engineer/Producer: Richard Martin
Producer: Ethan Sills
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hilda.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
I'm Chelsea Daniels and This is the Front Page, a
daily podcast presented by The New Zealand Herald. Donald Trump
is set to be inaugurated as the forty seventh president
of the United States after four years out of office.
After losing in twenty twenty, Trump is set to return
(00:29):
to the White House with a vengeance, with his make
America Great Again agenda front and center. His administration has
already raised eyebrows for some.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Of his unusual cabinet appointments, and Trump's usual bluster has
seen him make bold promises about what he'll get done
on day one, including being.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
A dictator just for the day. So what are Trump's
plans for his second term in office and why are
so many tech giants falling to his side this time round?
Today on the Front Page, Washington based New York Times
reporter Kenneth Vogel is with us to discuss what to
(01:11):
expect from the next four years of Trump. Kenneth, how
much anticipation is there in the US for Trump's inauguration?
Speaker 4 (01:22):
Well, there's a lot, I mean there's a lot.
Speaker 5 (01:24):
Obviously, the culturally, This is the selection was seen as
something of a tipping point but also among the business
community and the folks who are among the major donors
to his inauguration, there's a real sense that some key businesses,
including tech and cryptocurrency, could be unshackled, that there could
be a lot less regulation than what we saw under
(01:45):
the Biden administration that could be good for business. So
that explains why the inauguration has raised so much money
from people who want to tap into and take advantage
of that more favorable regulatory environment.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
And the actual event, what will it look like and
who's going to.
Speaker 5 (01:59):
Be the So there's actually a whole suite of events
over several days. In fact, by this point they've already
been going for several days. We're talking about parties. Both
parties that are part of the official inauguration package. These
are candlelight dinner and a reception with Trump and Vice
President of like vance, but then also unofficial parties on
(02:20):
the sidelines, including many that are sponsored by big money organizations.
These are political nonprofit groups or political action committees, but
also lobbying firms that all have a stake in matters
that are going to be considered before the Trump administration,
and so if they can attract clients and donors along
(02:41):
with Trump incoming Trump administration officials. You can see why
that would be a recipe for folks to want to
give a lot of money to get into those parties.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
So we'll talk about that in a moment. But on
day one, what's first on Trump's agenda.
Speaker 5 (02:56):
Well, he's talking about tariffs, you know, against China and
other trading partners that he feels and has felt for
many years. One of the few issues that he's sort
of been consistent on for decades that these trading partners
are taking advantage of lacks US.
Speaker 4 (03:12):
Trade policies to eat our lunch.
Speaker 5 (03:14):
And that's been his thinking. That's one of the major
messaging points of his campaign both in twenty sixteen and
his reelection campaign in twenty twenty and then his re
reelection campaign in twenty twenty four. So that's a major
thing that he's going to dive into. He's also talked
about pardons, pardons for people who were convicted of offenses
(03:34):
related to the January sixth riots at the Capitol. He
and his supporters believe that those folks have been unfairly
and and sort of disproportionately prosecuted, and so he's talked
about partning them. Those are just a few of the
things that we expect him to dive into immediately, and
these are things that he has unilateral executive authority to do.
(03:55):
These aren't things that require a congressional bill that has
to work its way through chambers of Congress where he
is narrow majorities in the Republican Party. These are things
that he can literally do with the stroke of a pen.
Speaker 6 (04:10):
Let me ask you about another group of people, the
estimated four million families in America who have mixed immigration status.
Speaker 7 (04:15):
So I'm talking about parents who might.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Be here illegally, but the kids are here legally.
Speaker 8 (04:21):
Your borders are you're talking about separation.
Speaker 4 (04:23):
I mean, there are two aspects to this.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
Your border Zara tom Holman said, they can be deported together.
Speaker 4 (04:27):
Is that the plan?
Speaker 8 (04:28):
That way you keep the well, I don't want to
be breaking up families. So the only way you don't
break up the family is you keep them together, and
you have to send them all.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Back, even kids who are here legally, well.
Speaker 8 (04:39):
Well, what you going to do if they want to
stay with the father? We have to have rules and regulations.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
He's also spoken about closing the border with Mexico and
deporting millions of undocumented migrants as well. What do Americans
make of that?
Speaker 5 (04:56):
Well, you know, immigration was a major issue during the campaign.
It was one where he you know, though his rhetoric
and his policy position seemed extreme to a lot of folks,
they were closer to I think, you know, polls show
closer to the positions of a majority of folks than
those of Kamalahiris, at least initially. Now Kamala Haris did attack.
(05:17):
I guess maybe it's sort of wrong to look at
this as a traditional left right partisan issue, but she
became sort of more of a hardliner as the campaign
went on, and I think that was a testament to
the fact that these public opinion polls show that people
did want to see a crackdown on immigration.
Speaker 4 (05:36):
And so Trump is going to try to do that.
Speaker 5 (05:38):
I mean, he tried to do that to some extent
during his first term. And that's one that does have
a little more or a lot more in some cases,
bureaucratic processes around it, and so it's less easy to
do something like that, even if you do enact some
executive order on day one. He certainly says he's going
to take action. We'll see if he's able to deliver
in a way that is commensurate with his campaign rhetoric.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
And one of Trump's boldest promises was that he could
end the war in Ukraine within twenty four hours of
taking office. Is there any indication there will be anything
like this?
Speaker 5 (06:12):
I know, that's another one that's a lot easier said that.
You know, there's a lot of promises on the campaign
trail that sound good and that are much harder to
actually implement, and certainly ending the war in Ukraine seems
to be in that category.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
Trump's cabinet picks have received a lot of attention worldwide
as well. You've got the vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy
Junior as Health Secretary.
Speaker 4 (06:34):
What I'm going to do is make sure that Americans
have good information with the beast, call centered science, out
their flood and medicines, and then leave the choice to them.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
Fox News host Pete Hegseth as Defense Secretary.
Speaker 6 (06:48):
Department of Defense under Donald Trump will achieve peace through strength.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
And anti China. Foreman Senator Marco Rubio as Secretary of State.
How can America promote the cause of peace on Earth
if it is not first safe at home? What good
is America to our allies if it is not strong?
To name a few, what can we raid from these?
Do you think?
Speaker 4 (07:12):
Well?
Speaker 5 (07:12):
I mean the ones that you just kicked off there
are pretty good representative sampling, and there's no consistent theme.
Some of these folks are functioning in a traditional sort
of Republican orthodoxy. I'm thinking of Rubio in particular there.
You know, he's a hawk, he wants to He's in
favor of robust American foreign policy that has a sort
of interventionist bent to it, and that's very different from
(07:36):
what Trump and a lot of his supporters in the
sort of Maga base want. They support a more non
interventionist foreign policy, including in Ukraine. So that right there
you could see some potential tension where you know, Trump
has said that he doesn't want more US military assistants
going to Ukraine and would prefer the US sort of
mind its business on that one, and that the US
(07:57):
doesn't really have business Ukraine. Whar's Marco Rubio has been
a real Russia hawk and wants to clamp down on Russia,
including by army Ukraine. So where will they find sort
of common ground? There and what will the policy be.
It seems most likely that the policy will be Trump's policy,
and Marco Rubio will be forced to bend his approach
to Trump's. You know, in other instances, RFK Junior, that
(08:20):
guy's a real heterodox character. He was a Democrat until
he ran in the Democratic primaries, or to the extent
that there was a Democratic primary. He sought to challenge
Joe Biden for the Democratic nomination in twenty twenty four.
Speaker 4 (08:33):
And as a long.
Speaker 5 (08:33):
History of you know, being aligned with democratic causes, a
support of abortion rights, and support for environmental policies that
are anathema to the Republican position. Then you mentioned the
vaccine skepticism. Well, that's a little more you know, anti establishment.
I don't even know if it is necessarily it fits
(08:54):
with Trump's policies or Trump's thoughts on this. He's been
asked a little bit about his stances on vaccines and
it seemed to take a more supportive approach than what
we've seen from RFK.
Speaker 4 (09:02):
So it's a real eclectic hodgepodge.
Speaker 5 (09:05):
And I think that to the extent that there is
a strong anti establishment sort of being that runs through
some of the nominees. It's certainly not universal, as is
shown by folks like Marco Rubio or at least Stefanaic,
who is the nominee to be or the presumptive nominee
to be the United Nations ambassador of the US Ambassador
to the United Nations is also sort of more of
(09:27):
a traditional hawk. So how does that fit with Trump's
foreign policy?
Speaker 6 (09:31):
We'll just have to see.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
You've written about the tech industry and how the elite
of Silicon Valley are celebrating Trump's return to power. Who
are some of his major backers and how have they
been commemorating ahead of the inauguration.
Speaker 5 (09:54):
Well, by far his biggest and most influential backer, not
just in the tech industry but overall, On Musk, the
billionaire owner of Tesla, SpaceX X formerly Twitter. Arguable that
we've never seen a private individual with as much influence
as he has right now. It's not just the wealth,
it's that he's actually been appointed to a position to
(10:16):
oversee a slashing of government spending. And it's sort of
notable because some of his companies, including SpaceX, have huge
government contract You know, he is aligned with Trump, even
though there are again sort of points of divergence, including
Elon Musk being for years one of the sort of
leading private sector fighters of climate change and Trump not
(10:38):
necessarily having that as one of his core positions or
one of his core concerns.
Speaker 4 (10:43):
So you know, Elon must will be influential. Then that
we have some.
Speaker 5 (10:46):
Some even newer comers to if not the Trump supporter fold,
at least folks who had been seen as critical of
Trump bender now seemingly on board with or at least
not opposed him. I'm thinking of Jeff Bezos, the owner
of Amazon and the Washington Post. He has sort of
taken a more hands off approach or maybe even supportive
(11:08):
approach with Trump and is going to be at the
inauguration along with Mark Zuckerberg, who is the founder of Meta,
which owns Facebook, and he is going to be at
the inauguration as well, the CEO of TikTok, which is
poised to be banned in the United States if a
legislation goes into effect shortly as is called for and
(11:31):
if that is not stayed by the Supreme Court. Trump
is you know, at one point was supportive of that
ban on TikTok, and then he started using TikTok and
became a supporter of TikTok because he saw how it
could be used to reach vast audiences of Americans and
help his election campaigns. So you know a number of
sort of strange bedfellow tech entrepreneurs or moguls who are
(11:54):
now on board with Trump. That's to say nothing of
all the cryptocurrency executives who have found and Trump a
great friend, to the point where he's promising to unshackle
crypto and take a less aggressive approach towards regulating cryptocurrency.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
All of these donations, and we're talking millions and millions
of dollars, Where does that money go and what is
it used for?
Speaker 4 (12:16):
It goes into this inaugural committee.
Speaker 5 (12:18):
It's a nonprofit group that stages the events that we
talked about, everything from the balls, to the parties, to
elements of the perks that the major donors get. But
we understand that Trump is raised so much money into
this inaugural committee that it's much more than they need,
and they are talking about transferring the surplus that's left
(12:40):
over after the inauguration and all the associated festivities are
over into a nonprofit group that will be funding his
Presidential Foundation and Library when that get going, whenever that
is there. No, we haven't seen any firm plans related
to that, but it just goes to show this guy's
raising so much money from business executives and others who
(13:02):
want to get close to him that it's more than
he needs, especially since he's not going to be running
for reelection in twenty twenty eight, because he's going to
be term limited out of the presidency, so they really
have a surplus of cash. They'll also be you know,
he's raised a lot of money into some of these
political groups that will be used to support his agenda,
both by supporting candidates who are aligned with his agenda
(13:25):
and by targeting candidates for defeat or members of Congress
for defeat who are dissenters or critics of his agenda.
Speaker 7 (13:35):
He also wants to invoke something called the Insurrection Act,
which will allow him to use US military force against
American civilians at home, and he says he's going to
invoke that on day one, which would give him from
that day forward the ability to use the army against
US at home. So floating all of those things at
once and calling his opponent's verman, he's deliberately inviting the
(14:00):
criticism that he is behaving like a Hitler and Mussolini
style fascist.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
I mean, to me, from the outside, it looks like
with this money and with this financial backing and like
you said, supporting up and comers, he's kind of trying
to create his legacy here, right, Yeah.
Speaker 4 (14:17):
There's a little bit of that.
Speaker 5 (14:18):
I mean, certainly, you know, his first term, at least initially,
and you know, really all the way through is marked
by a lot of chaos and a lot of folks
who seem to not understand the way the process works
and to be learning on the fly, and that limited
his ability to push through his agenda. And so this
time he's got a lot more money, both in terms
(14:39):
of money in the bank of his political groups and
his inauguration and potentially his presidential library, but a lot
more business executives and you know, wealthy donors who are
appear to be on board with him. And now whether
that's on board because they support his agenda, or whether
they fear that he will make good on his promises
to seek retribution against his critics and enemies, his political enemies,
(15:05):
you know, I think it's probably a mix of both
of those things. But either way, whatever the motivation is,
it's really made for a you know, a confluence of
events and individuals and companies and supporters that at least appear,
you know, from the outside and at the outset to
be giving him quite a lot of momentum headed into
his second term in office.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
Where does this sit with his traditional magabase because we've
already seen some tensions over visas for tech workers emerge,
for example with former Trump ally Steve Bannon calling Elon
Musk racist and a truly evil guy.
Speaker 5 (15:40):
Yeah, I think we'll see some tension. I mean, the
thing about MAGA is it sort of is Trump. I mean,
there are you know, there certainly are some philosophical issue
stands that pure to have white support, cracking down an
immigration obviously being one of the main ones, this sort
of populist nationalist sensibility, that the non andventionist approach to
(16:01):
foreign policy. That are things that he supports and most
of the people around him support. But as I've said,
you know that there are here nominees that he's picked
for key positions that don't support them. And so I
think there's a feeling that like wherever Trump comes down
on these things. Is what MAGA is, despite the fact
that there sometimes seems to be some discordinance between what
(16:24):
the base wants and what he wants, or what he
wants and what the people who are staffing his administration want.
That's sort of the Trump the Trump approach. He's sort
of all over the place on any number of issues,
and wherever he lands, which may be different from one
day to the next, is what MAGA is.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
And last of Kenneth, what do you make of his
new presidential portrait.
Speaker 6 (16:45):
Oh?
Speaker 5 (16:45):
Yeah, it's the very very blue steel there similar to
his mugshot in some ways that famously circulated after the
authorities in Georgia indicted him or and a series of
crimes related to the effort to overturn the twenty two
the election. This is again, this is his part of
his appeal to his supporters. They like that, they like
(17:05):
that he has this tough guy persona.
Speaker 4 (17:07):
They like that he has.
Speaker 5 (17:09):
Positioned himself and claimed to be persecuted by the establishment,
by Democrats and by whomever his enemies of the moment are.
And so I think the portrait sort of captures that vibe.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
Thanks for joining us, Kenneth.
Speaker 4 (17:22):
Yeah, it's a pleasure.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
That's it for this episode of the Front Page. You
can read more about today's stories and extensive news coverage
at enzid Herald dot co dot mz. The Front Page
is produced by Ethan Sills and Richard Martin, who is
also a sound engineer. I'm Chelsea Daniels. Subscribe to The
Front Page on iHeartRadio or.
Speaker 3 (17:46):
Wherever you get your podcasts
Speaker 1 (17:48):
And tune in tomorrow for another look behind the headlines.
Hilda.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
I'm Chelsea Daniels and This is the Front Page, a
daily podcast presented by The New Zealand Herald. Donald Trump
is set to be inaugurated as the forty seventh president
of the United States after four years out of office.
After losing in twenty twenty, Trump is set to return
(00:29):
to the White House with a vengeance, with his make
America Great Again agenda front and center. His administration has
already raised eyebrows for some.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Of his unusual cabinet appointments, and Trump's usual bluster has
seen him make bold promises about what he'll get done
on day one, including being.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
A dictator just for the day. So what are Trump's
plans for his second term in office and why are
so many tech giants falling to his side this time round?
Today on the Front Page, Washington based New York Times
reporter Kenneth Vogel is with us to discuss what to
(01:11):
expect from the next four years of Trump. Kenneth, how
much anticipation is there in the US for Trump's inauguration?
Speaker 4 (01:22):
Well, there's a lot, I mean there's a lot.
Speaker 5 (01:24):
Obviously, the culturally, This is the selection was seen as
something of a tipping point but also among the business
community and the folks who are among the major donors
to his inauguration, there's a real sense that some key businesses,
including tech and cryptocurrency, could be unshackled, that there could
be a lot less regulation than what we saw under
(01:45):
the Biden administration that could be good for business. So
that explains why the inauguration has raised so much money
from people who want to tap into and take advantage
of that more favorable regulatory environment.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
And the actual event, what will it look like and
who's going to.
Speaker 5 (01:59):
Be the So there's actually a whole suite of events
over several days. In fact, by this point they've already
been going for several days. We're talking about parties. Both
parties that are part of the official inauguration package. These
are candlelight dinner and a reception with Trump and Vice
President of like vance, but then also unofficial parties on
(02:20):
the sidelines, including many that are sponsored by big money organizations.
These are political nonprofit groups or political action committees, but
also lobbying firms that all have a stake in matters
that are going to be considered before the Trump administration,
and so if they can attract clients and donors along
(02:41):
with Trump incoming Trump administration officials. You can see why
that would be a recipe for folks to want to
give a lot of money to get into those parties.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
So we'll talk about that in a moment. But on
day one, what's first on Trump's agenda.
Speaker 5 (02:56):
Well, he's talking about tariffs, you know, against China and
other trading partners that he feels and has felt for
many years. One of the few issues that he's sort
of been consistent on for decades that these trading partners
are taking advantage of lacks US.
Speaker 4 (03:12):
Trade policies to eat our lunch.
Speaker 5 (03:14):
And that's been his thinking. That's one of the major
messaging points of his campaign both in twenty sixteen and
his reelection campaign in twenty twenty and then his re
reelection campaign in twenty twenty four. So that's a major
thing that he's going to dive into. He's also talked
about pardons, pardons for people who were convicted of offenses
(03:34):
related to the January sixth riots at the Capitol. He
and his supporters believe that those folks have been unfairly
and and sort of disproportionately prosecuted, and so he's talked
about partning them. Those are just a few of the
things that we expect him to dive into immediately, and
these are things that he has unilateral executive authority to do.
(03:55):
These aren't things that require a congressional bill that has
to work its way through chambers of Congress where he
is narrow majorities in the Republican Party. These are things
that he can literally do with the stroke of a pen.
Speaker 6 (04:10):
Let me ask you about another group of people, the
estimated four million families in America who have mixed immigration status.
Speaker 7 (04:15):
So I'm talking about parents who might.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Be here illegally, but the kids are here legally.
Speaker 8 (04:21):
Your borders are you're talking about separation.
Speaker 4 (04:23):
I mean, there are two aspects to this.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
Your border Zara tom Holman said, they can be deported together.
Speaker 4 (04:27):
Is that the plan?
Speaker 8 (04:28):
That way you keep the well, I don't want to
be breaking up families. So the only way you don't
break up the family is you keep them together, and
you have to send them all.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Back, even kids who are here legally, well.
Speaker 8 (04:39):
Well, what you going to do if they want to
stay with the father? We have to have rules and regulations.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
He's also spoken about closing the border with Mexico and
deporting millions of undocumented migrants as well. What do Americans
make of that?
Speaker 5 (04:56):
Well, you know, immigration was a major issue during the campaign.
It was one where he you know, though his rhetoric
and his policy position seemed extreme to a lot of folks,
they were closer to I think, you know, polls show
closer to the positions of a majority of folks than
those of Kamalahiris, at least initially. Now Kamala Haris did attack.
(05:17):
I guess maybe it's sort of wrong to look at
this as a traditional left right partisan issue, but she
became sort of more of a hardliner as the campaign
went on, and I think that was a testament to
the fact that these public opinion polls show that people
did want to see a crackdown on immigration.
Speaker 4 (05:36):
And so Trump is going to try to do that.
Speaker 5 (05:38):
I mean, he tried to do that to some extent
during his first term. And that's one that does have
a little more or a lot more in some cases,
bureaucratic processes around it, and so it's less easy to
do something like that, even if you do enact some
executive order on day one. He certainly says he's going
to take action. We'll see if he's able to deliver
in a way that is commensurate with his campaign rhetoric.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
And one of Trump's boldest promises was that he could
end the war in Ukraine within twenty four hours of
taking office. Is there any indication there will be anything
like this?
Speaker 5 (06:12):
I know, that's another one that's a lot easier said that.
You know, there's a lot of promises on the campaign
trail that sound good and that are much harder to
actually implement, and certainly ending the war in Ukraine seems
to be in that category.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
Trump's cabinet picks have received a lot of attention worldwide
as well. You've got the vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy
Junior as Health Secretary.
Speaker 4 (06:34):
What I'm going to do is make sure that Americans
have good information with the beast, call centered science, out
their flood and medicines, and then leave the choice to them.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
Fox News host Pete Hegseth as Defense Secretary.
Speaker 6 (06:48):
Department of Defense under Donald Trump will achieve peace through strength.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
And anti China. Foreman Senator Marco Rubio as Secretary of State.
How can America promote the cause of peace on Earth
if it is not first safe at home? What good
is America to our allies if it is not strong?
To name a few, what can we raid from these?
Do you think?
Speaker 4 (07:12):
Well?
Speaker 5 (07:12):
I mean the ones that you just kicked off there
are pretty good representative sampling, and there's no consistent theme.
Some of these folks are functioning in a traditional sort
of Republican orthodoxy. I'm thinking of Rubio in particular there.
You know, he's a hawk, he wants to He's in
favor of robust American foreign policy that has a sort
of interventionist bent to it, and that's very different from
(07:36):
what Trump and a lot of his supporters in the
sort of Maga base want. They support a more non
interventionist foreign policy, including in Ukraine. So that right there
you could see some potential tension where you know, Trump
has said that he doesn't want more US military assistants
going to Ukraine and would prefer the US sort of
mind its business on that one, and that the US
(07:57):
doesn't really have business Ukraine. Whar's Marco Rubio has been
a real Russia hawk and wants to clamp down on Russia,
including by army Ukraine. So where will they find sort
of common ground? There and what will the policy be.
It seems most likely that the policy will be Trump's policy,
and Marco Rubio will be forced to bend his approach
to Trump's. You know, in other instances, RFK Junior, that
(08:20):
guy's a real heterodox character. He was a Democrat until
he ran in the Democratic primaries, or to the extent
that there was a Democratic primary. He sought to challenge
Joe Biden for the Democratic nomination in twenty twenty four.
Speaker 4 (08:33):
And as a long.
Speaker 5 (08:33):
History of you know, being aligned with democratic causes, a
support of abortion rights, and support for environmental policies that
are anathema to the Republican position. Then you mentioned the
vaccine skepticism. Well, that's a little more you know, anti establishment.
I don't even know if it is necessarily it fits
(08:54):
with Trump's policies or Trump's thoughts on this. He's been
asked a little bit about his stances on vaccines and
it seemed to take a more supportive approach than what
we've seen from RFK.
Speaker 4 (09:02):
So it's a real eclectic hodgepodge.
Speaker 5 (09:05):
And I think that to the extent that there is
a strong anti establishment sort of being that runs through
some of the nominees. It's certainly not universal, as is
shown by folks like Marco Rubio or at least Stefanaic,
who is the nominee to be or the presumptive nominee
to be the United Nations ambassador of the US Ambassador
to the United Nations is also sort of more of
(09:27):
a traditional hawk. So how does that fit with Trump's
foreign policy?
Speaker 6 (09:31):
We'll just have to see.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
You've written about the tech industry and how the elite
of Silicon Valley are celebrating Trump's return to power. Who
are some of his major backers and how have they
been commemorating ahead of the inauguration.
Speaker 5 (09:54):
Well, by far his biggest and most influential backer, not
just in the tech industry but overall, On Musk, the
billionaire owner of Tesla, SpaceX X formerly Twitter. Arguable that
we've never seen a private individual with as much influence
as he has right now. It's not just the wealth,
it's that he's actually been appointed to a position to
(10:16):
oversee a slashing of government spending. And it's sort of
notable because some of his companies, including SpaceX, have huge
government contract You know, he is aligned with Trump, even
though there are again sort of points of divergence, including
Elon Musk being for years one of the sort of
leading private sector fighters of climate change and Trump not
(10:38):
necessarily having that as one of his core positions or
one of his core concerns.
Speaker 4 (10:43):
So you know, Elon must will be influential. Then that
we have some.
Speaker 5 (10:46):
Some even newer comers to if not the Trump supporter fold,
at least folks who had been seen as critical of
Trump bender now seemingly on board with or at least
not opposed him. I'm thinking of Jeff Bezos, the owner
of Amazon and the Washington Post. He has sort of
taken a more hands off approach or maybe even supportive
(11:08):
approach with Trump and is going to be at the
inauguration along with Mark Zuckerberg, who is the founder of Meta,
which owns Facebook, and he is going to be at
the inauguration as well, the CEO of TikTok, which is
poised to be banned in the United States if a
legislation goes into effect shortly as is called for and
(11:31):
if that is not stayed by the Supreme Court. Trump
is you know, at one point was supportive of that
ban on TikTok, and then he started using TikTok and
became a supporter of TikTok because he saw how it
could be used to reach vast audiences of Americans and
help his election campaigns. So you know a number of
sort of strange bedfellow tech entrepreneurs or moguls who are
(11:54):
now on board with Trump. That's to say nothing of
all the cryptocurrency executives who have found and Trump a
great friend, to the point where he's promising to unshackle
crypto and take a less aggressive approach towards regulating cryptocurrency.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
All of these donations, and we're talking millions and millions
of dollars, Where does that money go and what is
it used for?
Speaker 4 (12:16):
It goes into this inaugural committee.
Speaker 5 (12:18):
It's a nonprofit group that stages the events that we
talked about, everything from the balls, to the parties, to
elements of the perks that the major donors get. But
we understand that Trump is raised so much money into
this inaugural committee that it's much more than they need,
and they are talking about transferring the surplus that's left
(12:40):
over after the inauguration and all the associated festivities are
over into a nonprofit group that will be funding his
Presidential Foundation and Library when that get going, whenever that
is there. No, we haven't seen any firm plans related
to that, but it just goes to show this guy's
raising so much money from business executives and others who
(13:02):
want to get close to him that it's more than
he needs, especially since he's not going to be running
for reelection in twenty twenty eight, because he's going to
be term limited out of the presidency, so they really
have a surplus of cash. They'll also be you know,
he's raised a lot of money into some of these
political groups that will be used to support his agenda,
both by supporting candidates who are aligned with his agenda
(13:25):
and by targeting candidates for defeat or members of Congress
for defeat who are dissenters or critics of his agenda.
Speaker 7 (13:35):
He also wants to invoke something called the Insurrection Act,
which will allow him to use US military force against
American civilians at home, and he says he's going to
invoke that on day one, which would give him from
that day forward the ability to use the army against
US at home. So floating all of those things at
once and calling his opponent's verman, he's deliberately inviting the
(14:00):
criticism that he is behaving like a Hitler and Mussolini
style fascist.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
I mean, to me, from the outside, it looks like
with this money and with this financial backing and like
you said, supporting up and comers, he's kind of trying
to create his legacy here, right, Yeah.
Speaker 4 (14:17):
There's a little bit of that.
Speaker 5 (14:18):
I mean, certainly, you know, his first term, at least initially,
and you know, really all the way through is marked
by a lot of chaos and a lot of folks
who seem to not understand the way the process works
and to be learning on the fly, and that limited
his ability to push through his agenda. And so this
time he's got a lot more money, both in terms
(14:39):
of money in the bank of his political groups and
his inauguration and potentially his presidential library, but a lot
more business executives and you know, wealthy donors who are
appear to be on board with him. And now whether
that's on board because they support his agenda, or whether
they fear that he will make good on his promises
to seek retribution against his critics and enemies, his political enemies,
(15:05):
you know, I think it's probably a mix of both
of those things. But either way, whatever the motivation is,
it's really made for a you know, a confluence of
events and individuals and companies and supporters that at least appear,
you know, from the outside and at the outset to
be giving him quite a lot of momentum headed into
his second term in office.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
Where does this sit with his traditional magabase because we've
already seen some tensions over visas for tech workers emerge,
for example with former Trump ally Steve Bannon calling Elon
Musk racist and a truly evil guy.
Speaker 5 (15:40):
Yeah, I think we'll see some tension. I mean, the
thing about MAGA is it sort of is Trump. I mean,
there are you know, there certainly are some philosophical issue
stands that pure to have white support, cracking down an
immigration obviously being one of the main ones, this sort
of populist nationalist sensibility, that the non andventionist approach to
(16:01):
foreign policy. That are things that he supports and most
of the people around him support. But as I've said,
you know that there are here nominees that he's picked
for key positions that don't support them. And so I
think there's a feeling that like wherever Trump comes down
on these things. Is what MAGA is, despite the fact
that there sometimes seems to be some discordinance between what
(16:24):
the base wants and what he wants, or what he
wants and what the people who are staffing his administration want.
That's sort of the Trump the Trump approach. He's sort
of all over the place on any number of issues,
and wherever he lands, which may be different from one
day to the next, is what MAGA is.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
And last of Kenneth, what do you make of his
new presidential portrait.
Speaker 6 (16:45):
Oh?
Speaker 5 (16:45):
Yeah, it's the very very blue steel there similar to
his mugshot in some ways that famously circulated after the
authorities in Georgia indicted him or and a series of
crimes related to the effort to overturn the twenty two
the election. This is again, this is his part of
his appeal to his supporters. They like that, they like
(17:05):
that he has this tough guy persona.
Speaker 4 (17:07):
They like that he has.
Speaker 5 (17:09):
Positioned himself and claimed to be persecuted by the establishment,
by Democrats and by whomever his enemies of the moment are.
And so I think the portrait sort of captures that vibe.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
Thanks for joining us, Kenneth.
Speaker 4 (17:22):
Yeah, it's a pleasure.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
That's it for this episode of the Front Page. You
can read more about today's stories and extensive news coverage
at enzid Herald dot co dot mz. The Front Page
is produced by Ethan Sills and Richard Martin, who is
also a sound engineer. I'm Chelsea Daniels. Subscribe to The
Front Page on iHeartRadio or.
Speaker 3 (17:46):
Wherever you get your podcasts
Speaker 1 (17:48):
And tune in tomorrow for another look behind the headlines.
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