Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
You're listening to a podcast from news Talks B. Follow
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It's time for all the attitude, all the opinion, all
the information, all the debate, Now the lighton Smith podcast
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Speaker 2 (00:28):
Welcome to Podcasts two hundred and sixty four on seven
November twenty twenty four. Now, at the conclusion of podcast
two sixty three, well, at the conclusion of the interview
with Patrick Basham, I made a suggestion that we do
a follow up the morning after, which was of course
today if it was warranted. Well it was warranted and
(00:51):
in multiples, so we got together around midnight New Zealand
time last night. Patrick has been sensational over this election.
He is a wonderful man and his commentary for those
interested in this amazing election, his commentary is insightful. Have
a listen, Actually hold the horses, because I have just
(01:14):
received an email from Patrick. I mean literally our final
Democracy Institute Daily Express US poll Trump up three fifty
percent to forty seven percent. Our Democracy Institute Daily Express
US Exit poll Trump up four fifty one to forty
(01:38):
seven percent. Trump's popular vote win up four fifty one
percent to forty seven in Princess in twenty twenty eight,
we pledged to do better with our final poll. Congratulations
to them. It was headed by the way most accurate
US presidential election polster. Congratulations and well done. Now let's
(02:00):
have a listen.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
Indeed, latent, they're great to be back with you in
your audience again, it seems but for me yesterday, I
guess it was technically, but when the night goes well
personally and professionally, it doesn't seem so long or so hard.
But as you say, one of the more significant aspects
(02:30):
of Trump's victory is that it wasn't his victory alone.
That is, his party has regained control of the Senate,
held onto control of the House of Representatives. And this
is you know, this is a tremendous significance because Trump
is apparently going to attack his second term in a
(02:52):
more uncompromising and more focused and disciplined way in policy
terms and personnel terms, etc. And to do that, he
can have all of that planning and all of that help, etcetera.
But he's if he had been facing come January twenty five,
a hostile Democratic run Senate and or House, then his
(03:16):
chances of doing things that are truly consequential that might
outlive his own presidency let alone himself personally, would have
been heavily reduced. So there's far more opportunity now potential
if one favors Trump's program or parts of it, that
they may actually come to life, let alone to fruit
(03:40):
bear fruit. Of course, one of the tests will one
of the tests that will be one of the experiments
during this process will be to determine to what extent
Trump has remade the Republican Party in his own image.
By that, I mean his first term. He yes, he
fought the Democrats, He fought many fellow Republicans on Capitol
(04:00):
Hill in Congress as well. So how many of that
new Senate majority are truly on site within how many
in the House majority with him? You'll find out pretty.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Quickly, I think, indeed, except that I get the impression
that there won't be too much opposition, I think it's
even crossed my mind Patrick that in the victory that
he has driven, there could be a little danger, a
little danger, and I mean that he might upset some
people in the party because he is he assumes quite
(04:37):
rightly that he's the man.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
Yeah, I mean he is in a it's interesting for
a second term president. You know, usually it's some there
were immediately inducts in terms of the electoral calendar, and
often much of the energy and momentum has gone despite
the second victory. But Trump, it seems he's going to
(04:59):
the nature of his comeback, the fact that he has
a popular vote majority, can claim a legitimate democratic mandate, etc.
This whole country has moved in his direction. Whether he
won a state or not, every state has moved in
his direction. He is a more formidable president. I think
(05:20):
that's one of the great ironesy. A more formidable president
in January of twenty twenty five than he was in
January of twenty seventeen. And so there will be a
honeymoon period. For sure. Everyone on his side of the
aisle will say nice things about him, and I think
that far more are genuinely onside, and far more will
(05:41):
be wanting to go along to get along. But there
will be items, but in particularly on foreign policy, where
some of the more senior not necessarily majority representing, but
senior foreign policy establishment types on the Republican side are
going to try to from their point of view, talk
(06:02):
some sense into him over things like Ukraine and one
or two areas of contention around the world. But you know,
obviously ought to be decided, but he's never been in
you know, he begins his second term with an enormous
amount of capital. And I remember when George W. Bush
(06:22):
in two thousand and four, twenty years ago, sort of tonight, virtually,
when he won what for some was a surprising second mandate,
he said, you know, I've earned all this political capital,
and I'm now I'm going to spend it. Whether we
spend it wisely or not. You know, that's for the historians,
but it's a recognition that, you know, when you are
(06:45):
electorally victorious, you should do something with that. After all,
that wasn't at the point. I mean, Barack Obama famously said,
you know, elections have consequences, yes, and this won't be
any exception to that. In fact, probably quite the opposite.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Well, he appears to have won the popular vote. I
was asked today, actually, what is the popular vote? And
I answered, I answered it, of course, but I would
like your answer.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
Sure. Well, of course, technically it doesn't matter in American
in presidential American presidential politics, it is merely something that's
nice to win but doesn't dictate whether or not you
actually win the election. But you know, in practical political terms,
it usually goes along with your electoral college win. And
(07:44):
most importantly, it's a way of keeping the opposition at
bay a little because if you're Trump in his first
term or George W. Bush in his first term, in
both cases not having won the popular vote rightly or wrongly,
the opposition always go back to it, always used that
(08:05):
as a stick to beat you with, always that you're not,
you know, the people's choice. It's, you know, the peculiarities
of the system have produced you as the victor. Uh,
it's you know, it's whoever, whoever wins the popular vote,
it's going to say that if they don't win the
electoral college, even though you know, they all know the
(08:25):
rules when they start playing the match. So it's it's
an unusual thing about the American system, but it's by design.
It's how the folks who wrote the Constitution wanted it
to be, and so far it's largely served the country
fairly well.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
In fact, I heard quite a bit of talk today
on various channels with regard to this is the way
the system was designed to work, and it's worked. It's
worked either well through perfectly.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
What would you say, Yeah, I think it has worked
pretty well because one of thee something that from a
distance can be hard to appreciate is that America is
so vast in every sense, not just geographically, and that
the authors of the Constitution they recognized that their new
(09:19):
country was literally a United States. It's a collection of
otherwise independent countries who did and could sort of operate
self sufficiently with their own own sovereignty. And therefore the
only way to make it anybody to grow them together
(09:39):
in an effective fashion was to allow mean sure that
all of them had some power, had some say, so
aside from all of the delegation of a lot of
powers to the lower level of states and further down
the chain, it meant that when choosing a president, there
(10:01):
would be disproportionate influence given to the agricultural states, the
smaller population, and states, et cetera, to ensure that basically
the minority majority didn't gang up on the minority and
that everyone everyone had had to say, which would help
ensure that no one felt the need to, you know,
(10:22):
to break away. So it's just one of those one
of those interesting elements of the American system that we
can it's very trendy, has been for some time to
look at it and say, well, you know, a bunch
of old white guys other they were particularly old, but
you know, old, old racist white guys came up with
this elitist system designed to keep you know, democracy down,
(10:46):
but give it this sort of big leaf mirage effect
that we're actually electing a president in a democratic fashion.
But like most trendy progress so called progressive critiques of
old school approaches and processes and instruments, they generally, upon
(11:07):
close inspection closer in spectrum, they generally fall flat because
they don't understand the history behind them, and they also
don't understand the historical evolution and how in most cases,
and I think the electoral College is a good example.
They've proved to have been worthwhile, and you know, it's
you know, apologies to Churchill, or the least worst system available.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
It was during an at break on Fox that I
turned to CNN and there were a few of us watching,
and I did it just in time to hear somebody
make comment on the on the system and talk about
talk about the structure the structure of the Constitution and
(11:55):
how it needs needs to change, and they must do it.
They must do it as quickly as possible. And I thought,
I thought you were a crook, uh, And then I
thought you're stupid, and then after that I thought I
thought you were an idiot. And it was It was
frustrating for me because I because I don't have a
(12:15):
program on the radio tomorrow and the day after and
the day after that, and at times like this, I
feel like I want one. I want it back again,
because what he was criticizing is what holds the American
system together, and anybody with half a brain is aware
of that. He patently is short in that department.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
Yeah, absolutely, I mean what it's really starred. You know
when al Gore lost to Bush but won the popular
vote narrowly, but you know, one then it really picked
up steam when Hillary was quote unquote denied the presidency
are despite winning by a couple of points. And these days,
of course, they only want the electoral college gone because
they figure they will they with enough enough of legal
(12:58):
immigrants turned into US citizens overnight, you know, they'll always
have more votes on the other side. And they don't
like the they don't like a lot of Supreme Court decisions,
so they want to add justices to the court to
ensure they always have a majority. They want to end
the filibuster and the Senate so they can run through
(13:21):
anything they want they want to get, you know, all
these sorts of things they want to change, you know,
the number of senators or required to override a presidential veto,
all these things that you know have been around forever
for good reason, but they view as some of them
view them as not so charming relics of a antiquated past,
(13:44):
and others just view them as cold blooded terms. Is
just hindrances to ensuring that when they have the reins
of power, they can basically do what the heck they
like with that power. And assuming of course they'll they'll
never be on the other side, which is the classic
mistake of authoritarian types. You know, throughout history they always
think that they'll be in charge.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
Did you see perhaps speech?
Speaker 3 (14:08):
I caught little bits of it. I was I was
in transit.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Unfortunately much of it, Okay, I thought it was. I
thought it was very good. I wonder whether you think
that there might be a swing, a big swing, even
in support of Trump, having having won the election, A
support of Trump in setting out to do what he
(14:32):
intends to greater, greater than greater than might be expected.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
Yeah, I think that's certainly possible. It might even be probable.
He is so he has become so humanized. Clearly, you know,
it's incontroversible that a majority of voters support him. You
presume they support his program. And although it's mocked by
his opponents, he has genuinely built a coalition broader than
(15:03):
the Republican Party. And whether you think of it it's
a coalition of convenience or of principle, the fact is
it is a political coalition that extends, you know, to
many former Democrats and many independents. And they don't agree
on everything, but they agree on a lot of first principles,
(15:23):
and more to the point, they agree on what some
of the fundamental crises are in American society and politics
and have broad agreement on how to address them, and
the sort of worry about the other smaller stuff later on.
And I think that while obviously that appeals to arguably
and narrow small majority of Americans right now, if the
(15:47):
likes of Kennedy and Musk and gathered and JD. Varnce
and obviously Trump and Ron Paul. They put their shoulders
to the wheel and actually try to do as Trump
did in his first term, try to actually do what
they promised to do. And as some of us believe,
if they do that, they probably will have some fairly
good result. Then the year eighteen months, two years from now,
(16:09):
Trump may be maybe viewed as somebody, who, oh, wow,
isn't it too bad he can't run again? You know,
you know, you have a poppy a second term president
like Ronald Reagan, and people, oh, jeez, what this term
limit thing happened? A shame. He's such a great president.
And that would be one of the great ironies, wouldn't
it if Trump went from the the prior president to
(16:30):
the one that really had a legacy of not just accomplishment,
but a certain amount of goodwill amongst the the general public.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
What is your what are you what are your thoughts
on the court cases in New York in particular, that
are still confronting the sentencing, for instance, of the of
the of the of the of the of the Court
of the Judge. And I'm trying to think of a
lion that Ralph Harris, the Australian singer, Yeah, put into
(17:06):
put into a song about the Court of and I
can't think what it was, but it was an idiot.
So I think we've I think we've got a parallel
what what what do you think this might what a
think might this have?
Speaker 3 (17:19):
Well, it's this victory guarantees that all this stuff is
going to go away. It's going to be the end
of it. I mean, you know, he was on a
he was on an upward trajectory legally because you know,
he was winning cases within dismissed, he was winning appeals,
and so they there was a lot of light at
the end of the tunnel. But he wasn't out of
jeopardy yet. And although the you know, the more dangerous
(17:42):
cases were gone or going. But as this whole thing
has been politically driven, this decision, fairly recent decision to
postpone his sentencing till after the election was clearly very political.
I mean, an extremely political judge under the thumb of
extremely political prosecutors were deciding that well, Trump could win,
(18:08):
so why don't we wait till we find out whether
he's won to decide whether he really needs to go
to prison? And you know, these are cowardly, unprincipled types,
and so they're acting in that way. And I'm sure
they will have an epiphany sometime between now and January
(18:31):
nineteenth and decide that for the greater good, they can
see the other side of this, and that, you know,
I think that's the way. I think it will sort
of peter out right, and none of these people are
ever going to say they're sorry or wrong, but he has.
I mean, it's a shame that you have to be
elected president to avoid bankruptcy in prison. But you know,
(18:56):
you know, Elon must say that. I think I was
at the taper caston on one of the podcasts you
know that Trump doesn't win, the question is how long
will I go to prison for? And it's a funny line,
but it's also cuts to the very core of what
Trump has been dealing with on a personal level these
(19:18):
last couple of years. This is not you know, this
is not your father's or your grandfather of America at all.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
Yeah, spending a little time thinking while you were talking,
but listening all the same. The Court of King Correctus
was the name of the song, and it was a
very successful one. Now on the other side of the
ledger on Carmela's team, who was responsible for this scenario?
(19:47):
Who's to blame? Who can be held accountable?
Speaker 3 (19:52):
Well, in Washington, d C. So we don't hold people accountable.
We just we just they just fail upwards. But it's
I think it's a combination. I mean, some of the
blame is her own, but she's so in cape and
limited you can't say it's mostly her fault. It's more
(20:14):
the fault of those who put her in this position,
and I mean her, the people that she's had on
her campaign, the people who survived working for her, and
the Vice President's office, et cetera. You know, these are
folks who are fully paid up members of the woke
DEI identity politics club. And they immediately either concluded or
(20:39):
already thought had thought for some time that she ever
ran the president again. That you you know, you just
play the identity card, and that is how you collect
votes from the you know, the requisite groups, the women,
the people of color, this that and the other, and
you you you know you and when you pander to
the you know, the gay groups and the lesbian groups
(20:59):
and the Chinese grenda and all the rest of it,
and you you know, you just you do the arithmetic
and you add up that group and that group and
that group. You end up with a majority, and you
noly ignore, but you actually denigrate the other groups because
obviously woke politics succeeds in theory by you know, raising
your side up by knocking the other side down. And
(21:24):
so everything from their advertising to their what passed the
policy positions, Etcaster the way that the rallies were choreographed.
You know that everything was that and it stayed that
way the whole time because fortunately for Trump, these folks
don't tend to learn from their mistakes, right, and then
(21:47):
were there were a couple of moments when Obama Biden
people weren't allowed anywhere near and Obama people tried to
sort of grab the reins as they saw the thing going,
you know, going off the cliff, but to little avail.
So it's you know, it's it's a lot of you know,
(22:07):
if you're to have the Democrats, we're going to have
a firing squad and put put down all the people responsible.
You're basically talking about a couple of dozen twenty thirty
somethings who've spent their lives to this extent. You know,
in graduate school and in political jobs, and most are
mostly themselves in the positions they are because they have
(22:31):
the right skin color, the right gender if I can
use that word, in democratic circles, and you know, all
the right sexual orientation, etc. So it's it's just everyone
likes to see people, you know, take a beating after
a failure. However, in this case you might say it's
(22:53):
more deserved than is often the case.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
Latens with.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
Look on the international scene, what do you think, what
do you think the world is thinking right now? And
when I say the world, I mean I mean the
parts of the world would matter.
Speaker 3 (23:10):
Ah, okay, I think it's it's it's mixed, not because
most of them are ambivalent, because where you stand on
Trump from a foreign perspective depends very much on where
you fit, you know, So you have well, I maybe
I'm about to contradict myself, not for the first time.
(23:31):
Like the Chinese, for example, they're very concerned about would
be tariffs, you know, Trump returning to getting tough on
on intellectual property protection, all these sorts of things, Concerned
that Trump is going to push back over Taiwan and
all of this. However, at the same time, the Chinese,
(23:54):
I think actually rather like dealing with Trump the way
that they back in the day, like dealing with Reagan
rather than Carter say, they like they understand the Chinese
and the Russians and others. They understand and strong leaders,
you know, they can they can not necessarily anticipate their moves,
(24:14):
but they understand then their headspace, their perspective, whereas these
sort of wishy washy liberal types, you know, preaching humanitarianism
and without much of a political spine, they don't really
know what to do with them. They're so you know,
so literally and figuratively foreign to them. So I think
(24:38):
on a on a person to person level, they the
Chinese will be quite happy that Trump's back. They know
what they're dealing with. But in terms of policy outcomes,
there's going to be some anxiety there, I mean Putin
and Russia. I'm sure he may have publicly endorsed Kamala Harris,
which I think is quite clever on his part. I
think he'll be very pleased, not because I think, as
(25:02):
the Democrats do, that Trump wishes to do his bidding,
but because Putin views Trump I think as as an
American version of himself, that is the patriot, nationalistic, self
interested America first to match Putin's Russia first again, someone
who he's not going to fall in love with, but
(25:24):
someone who he thinks he can under he understands, who
he can do business with. You know, they can reach
mutual agreements and accommodations. You know. Then you you know,
you have your your Western Europeans, You're particularly your EU,
who of course are not going to be happy. But
(25:44):
that's rather wonderful because they'll be unhappy for lots of
good reasons. You know. Trump is obviously everything that they
dislike culturally, politically, ideologically, and you know, he just he
calls them out, he shows them up. You have to
add the UK to that now now that there they
(26:06):
officially have a woke globalist government is rather than one
just in in practice, the likes of Justin Trude in
Canada for whatever months he has left in power. You know,
he's this is this is a nightmare for him. Uh.
And you know, when I think it isn't Trump, who
who says that Fidel Castro's Justin Trudeau's real father? And uh,
(26:32):
which is a rather delicious way of kicking off a conversation.
So I mean, I think a lot of the Asian
important Asian countries, you know, in addition to China, are
going to have that mix of economic trade repredation. But
at the same time, I think they know what they're
dealing with. And then of course you get the Middle
(26:54):
I say, the Middle East and many African countries, the
ones that are going to be most pleased outside of
probably Eastern Europe, because they in both cases, particularly in
the Middle East, the Arab State and obviously Israel thought
they had a very productive relationship and which it had
continued just having got back you know, from Saudi Arabia
(27:16):
and Qatar. I mean, it's incredible actually how widespread the
support for Trump's election was. You know, to a person,
they couldn't believe that America would even consider not re
electing him. And then many many of the more important
African in Nigeria's, in South Africa and South Africa's et cetera.
(27:37):
You know, they they there's two things about Trump that
stand out to them. One is the man himself. That is,
they they culturally are drawn to a strong figure of
which you know, for good or for ill he represents.
And then also they recognize more openly than and with
(28:00):
more experience than most other countries and cultures what a
corrupt political state looks and acts like. And so, you know,
I mean my experience. You're talking with your average African
about you know, the US, each state, and they just
not away because they recognize that and his critique of
it rings true to them because that's what many cases
(28:23):
they are have been, have dealt with, or are dealing with.
And uh, you know, so they don't they don't see
him as paranoid or conspiratorial. They just see him as
a realist. And so yeah, it's I mean in America
and I think probably in Canada, and I dare to
say maybe in New Zealand and Australia as well. The
(28:46):
sort of working assumption is that the when he was president,
the rest of the world was very unhappy, was very unhappy,
and that they would be again. And I think it's
more accurate to say that Western Europe was and would be,
and everywhere else it's a mixed, much more shade of grain.
In some cases you know, actually quite work, quite happy,
(29:08):
would be quite happy because.
Speaker 2 (29:09):
That speaking speaking of the rest of the world and
the the other countries that are making shall we say,
some headway of their own, and I'm talking maybe the bricks,
and I'm talking other other countries, especially in the Middle East,
who are carving out a future for themselves beyond what anybody,
(29:33):
I think expected. What sort of influence would would they
get out of this Trump being returned to the to
the White House and the effects that he might have
on them. Would they be nervous or would they be
anticipatory in a much more common, a much more positive sense.
Speaker 3 (29:52):
I think the latter. I think that in a sort
of political, diplomatic, war and peace sense, they viewed Trump
as someone based on his record and his sort of pledges,
somet who thinks first about how do we stop people
from fighting right or prevent them from fighting in the
(30:13):
first place, rather than how many countries can I invade?
Or which which wars can I keep going? Which is
the stereotype caricature, often with a lot of substance behind it,
of American foreign policies, whether it's Democrat or Republican led.
So I think, you know, the the Arab States, for example,
(30:35):
think that whatever Trump says in support of Israel, his
priority will be ending conflict and preventing it from kicking off.
You know, so there's there's that part of it. I
think the other part of it is, you know, more
on the economic side, where Trump's view of economic policy
(30:56):
through a businessman's eyes and brain and his sense of
trade deals being you know, corporate deals. You know, he's
the CEO of America and he's going to make a
good deal. I think they view them as someone who
is welcoming the opening up of many of the bricks countries,
(31:18):
particularly in the Arab world global self, where he's going
to be looking for a good deal for America, but
he's happy for them to prosper. He's happy for them
to be more globally facing. Economically, it favors trade deals,
but you know, his notion of what a good trade
deal is is different from a lot of his predecessors.
(31:39):
So again, I think it's this sense outside of Western Europe,
the sense of whether they are on paper ideologically in sync,
or whether they think he's a nice guy or not,
just a sense that this is somebody that you can
work with, right, This is somebody who's very bottom line oriented,
(32:00):
who isn't so concerned about what you may have said
about him in the newspaper last week. The way that
some sort of insecure leaders are He's just, you know,
let's get this done. And because he's so overtly America first,
it sort of clears the decks a little bit and
(32:22):
just focuses people's minds on the fact that, you know,
he's looking for a good deal for his country. That's
really all he cares about. But he doesn't think that
you benefiting is mutually exclusive from him achieving his objective.
Speaker 2 (32:36):
So from your perspective, what do you think Trump's view
of his fellow Americans is? And when I when I
asked that question, I mean of all classes, of all groupings,
and especially those who he has considered to be dumb,
stupid and dealt with them accordingly. Now that he's in
(32:58):
this position, what do you think his reaction is to
those people?
Speaker 3 (33:02):
Well, I mean he thinks generally. I think he's somebody
whose default position is to think very favorably upon you know,
his fellow Americans in an individual case basis, until they
prove themselves otherwise sort worthy of respect and all the
rest of it. He is someone who has I don't
(33:25):
think he's such a conversion. But because of the way
he was brought up, the time he was forced to
spend you know, working on his father's construction sites and
that kind of thing, whether it was in his DNA
or it was something environment because the environment that he
spent time in as a youngster, you know, he has
this lifelong rapport with working class, blue collar people work
(33:48):
you know, who work with their hands, make things, fix things,
and all that kind of stuff. He he doesn't just
know them and what they do, but he actually gets
them right. That's something that most obviously most billionaires don't.
But most these days politicians are usually from a pretty nice, comfortable,
class back background and all the rest of it, and
(34:11):
their exposure to those those folks who you know, belong
to unions or you know, do make things and build things,
fix things is pretty limited, you know, except for maybe
when somebody comes to fix something at their house. So
he has a lifelong kind of respect for quote unquote
(34:32):
ordinary people doing this, I'm putting words in his mouth,
but the ordinary things that make the world go around, right,
and that's his natural those are his natural. Those those
are whom he feels, he naturally automatically feels the need
to protect and speak for, you know. And and the
(34:54):
way that American society culture has evolved, they have become
increasingly marginalized economically, socially, et cetera, et cetera, insistence of
the Western phenomenon. But there are there are more of
them in America and in most places, and the changes
is more pronounced, probably and more painful. And so he
(35:15):
is ironically truly a spokesperson for those in the bottom half,
even though he comes from the top of the top half.
That means that many in his class and the class
of the strata just below him no only disagree with
him about the innique, goodness and utility of those in
(35:37):
the bottom half, but they resent him for his affinity
and the devotion and support and true affection that many
in the bottom half have for him, because they know
these are his critics in the middle and upper classes.
They recognize that not in a million years would their
(36:00):
plumber want to have a beer with them, unless you
know he was paid well for his time were in
Trump's case, you know, ordinary people just like to hang
with him because he just he's just a pleasant guy,
you know, who listens to their stories and actually seems
to care about their lives. So, but that means that
at this point he's far more acutely aware of the
(36:22):
people he thinks are lazy and stupid and what the
threat that they pose to him and to indirectly the
people he's trying to represent. And he recognizes that the people,
the people that he was putting those categories today at least,
are those who are very well credentialed and have impressive resumes.
But as Trump's always said, you know, when you're hiring somebody,
(36:45):
you know, the resume is the last thing you look at.
You know, it's like, what have they done, where they
achieved and what kind of person are they? And I
think that when he assesses, as he apparently does very quickly,
somebody he goes very much of first impressions, wisely or unwisely,
he pretty much very quickly knows and will know is
they work out who they want to hire. You know,
(37:07):
these several thousand ob every president get gets to fill
which of these categories people fall into. And He's going
to be pretty brutal about it, far more brutal than
he was the first time, because he thinks he's learned
lessons on that experience.
Speaker 2 (37:21):
Oh yes, so I saw him on television tonight walking
into the walking onto the stage to make his acceptance speech,
and he was accompanied by his wife, Millenia, and his
son Baron. Did you witness that I didn't. I didn't
write that's all right, No, So I now need to
(37:44):
explain it. So he walked in with them at the
head of the rest of the family, and the uz
Andahs were quite stunning because of one thing, you know what,
That was the height of his son. They thought they
thought they thought that he was about six foot six
(38:06):
or something like that, and I said, no, he's six
foot ten. This is before he came in. And they
walked in and everyone went old and wow, look at that.
And I wonder your thoughts on Trump's thoughts and attitude
and approach to having a son, because he's got others
(38:26):
as we know, but having a son, his youngest son,
who is outstandingly tall, apparently apparently very intelligent. I can't
verify that, but so I'm told. And what effect that
might have on the father as far as the son
is concerned. Do you know what I'm asking? I'm asking,
(38:48):
what does he what do you think he might think
about the son? And what the son thinks about all this,
and what impression he tries to make on him or
what he's what he's trying to encourage his son to do, be, etc.
Speaker 3 (39:03):
Yeah, it's an interesting one, but quickly because the age wise,
this las most recent son is more of a traditionally
a sort of grand grandson age right, difference in age,
So it's a yeah, I know, it's I think it's
something that's sort of really crept up, not creptal on people.
People feel that it's come out of nowhere because you know,
(39:24):
when he was first elected, his son with ten you know,
and suddenly he's a young man whose you know, towers
over his tall father and his son has been parent
not apparently. I mean, it's well documented, incredibly influential in
a positive way in directing his father towards all these
(39:44):
various uh general all these zoomored you know generation Z
podcast as an influence and all of that. Right, he's
sort of really got his head on straight into me.
He's obviously, however intelligent he is and like you, I
can't prove the years there isn't, but it seems he is.
He's obviously very astute and politically, he's obviously absorbed a
(40:07):
lot over the time he was in the White House
and ever since and he looks. I mean he was
I mean literally, I mean literally figuratively appears to be
somebody who you know, if this was the Kennedy family,
you'd say, oh, well, you know, in ten years he's
going to be in Congress and they're going to be
in the Senate and all that kind of thing, that
traditional sort of trajectory, And that may be the case.
(40:28):
The interesting but gut's really interesting with the Trunk family,
of course, is his two elder sons, Don Junior and Eric,
are quite formidable in their own right and in the
political sense. The working assumption is that Don Junior wants
to have a political future and it might not be
(40:48):
long before he jumps into a Senate race or a
gubernatorial race or maybe even you know, presidential race. You know,
he's impressed a lot of people. His brother has too,
but his brother's a little more I think keen on
the background, and I don't think has the desires on
being a candidate. But so it's I'm not trying to
suggest there's a Don Junior versus versus basketball playing son,
(41:16):
you know, Baron Baron versus John Junior competition coming to
be the next candidate, But you could see how both
of the Trump might look at both of them and
think there's somebody, you know who could follow in my footsteps.
And he you know, he may be right about both
or certainly you know one or the other. But given
(41:37):
the difference at an age, I think barren any any
opportunity of a baron, they may come, but they're they're
going to come a little while after his eldest brother
has already you know, tried his hand.
Speaker 2 (41:50):
Let me ask you, finally, what do you think the
first thing he will do will be?
Speaker 3 (41:55):
Uh, the first thing he will do, I think will
be something over the border, deportation, that kind of thing.
Partly because it's so central to people's concern is partly
because it's essentral to his his sort of his promise
to his voters. And also because and this is why
(42:16):
Biden worked on this issue in Biden and Kamala literally
day one, is that a lot of this stuff can
be done through executive order. You know, the executive orders
that Trump brought in on day one, Harrison Biden rescinded them,
and you know, Trump can you know, go reverse that.
And it's a way of being active on an important
(42:38):
issue right out of the gate. I think that's I mean,
I think what he would like to do right off
for that he may do is all of the releasing
all of the you know, jfk assassination files and all
this sort of deep state cover up stuff. Obviously Kennedy
would like that to happen yesterday. But I think the
Trump's own experience with the people want the institutions, the
(43:02):
people who run the institutions today, the people and institutions
he thought he could work with in one one to
work with him. Now he knows to say the opposite
is true. Is putting it diplomatically. I think he on
a personal level, would just like to just lift, you know,
take the top off it, turn the snow globe upside
(43:24):
down and shake it up and see how many of
them fall out, you know.
Speaker 2 (43:28):
Yeah, indeed, so it's going to be very interesting times.
And again I want to thank you. We have spoken
three times in the last three days, twice today, and
it is well twice yesterday and today, because it's now
twelve o seven am on the morning of the sixth
(43:49):
your time, sorry, on the morning of the seventh, out time,
and you're a day behind. I'm probably holding it up
from much industrial achievement today, but again.
Speaker 3 (44:02):
Holding up from anything approaching the level of enjoyment.
Speaker 2 (44:07):
Well, it has been an enjoyable day. I have to say.
I've taken phone calls from all over, texts from even beyond,
and everybody, everybody I know, seems to be very pleased
about it. I know I am, and I believe you are.
Speaker 3 (44:23):
Yes, we have our share of bad days, so we
must take our victories where we find them.
Speaker 2 (44:31):
Indeed, so thank you, and we will talk sometime in
the not too distant future. And it's always welcome, oh
my pleasure.
Speaker 3 (44:41):
Always look forward to it. Now.
Speaker 2 (44:55):
As you can imagine, there is so much being written
and published on this particular day for obvious reasons that
there is a massive choice of contributors that one could adopt.
But I've picked a couple come from people to who
I either admire or respect or both. Firstly, firstly, historian
(45:17):
Neil Ferguson, Trump's victory is a blow to political law,
fair critical race theory, woke campuses, legacy media, and Hollywood.
It's also a win for a new generation of builders
like Elon Musk. That was just the opening paragraph for
the article he wrote. There is in the Epic Times.
(45:38):
There is an article from Jack Phillips. I'm unfamiliar with him,
to be honest, but he's written Trump has sweeping plans
for second administration. Here's what he has proposed. I only
mentioned that because it's worth looking up if you can.
And we come to Melanie Phillips, who I interviewed many
I don't know years ago, it seems now. She's a
(45:59):
British journalist, but she was in Jerusalem at the time
and we had a terrible line. We must do her
again sometime. But she has written something that I think
really covers it for a lot of people. The unfortunate
thing is its five pages. So what I'm going to
do is start reading and see where we go. Maybe
(46:20):
we'll get the whole lot against all odds by Melanie Phillips.
But those so shocked by Trump's victory have only themselves
to blame. The relief for some of us is overwhelming,
even among people who dislike Donald Trump or worry about
his temperament. The possibility that Carmala Harris might win that
yesterday's US presidential election produced the deepest fear and dread,
(46:44):
fear for America and fear for civilization others, however, died
in the world. Democrats, formerly Republican, never Trumpers and progressives
in Britain and elsewhere are clutching their heads today and
moaning how good this have happened. It would take a
(47:05):
heart of stone not to laugh. The election result is
by any standard extraordinary. This is a man who the
Left has spent the past eight years trying to destroy
through every possible means other than a stake through the Hut.
He was subjected to an attempted rolling coup, impeachment twice,
(47:25):
law fare, prosecutions, and legal harassment. He was found guilty
of sexual assault and improperly reporting hush money payments. His
house was raided over the official documents that, like Joe Biden,
he had taken home. He was defamed non stop with
malicious distortions of his comments and claims that he was
a Nazi, fascist and dictator who would destroy democracy. Then
(47:48):
he survived, it would be assassin's bullet. Yet Trump and
the Republicans have now come through to win the presidency,
the Senate, and the popular vote. Moreover, in every constituency
that the Democrats had assumed was their own and in
which they were confident that they had the vote sewn
up African Americans, Hispanics, and other minority is, women, young people,
(48:10):
first time voters. Trump actually increased his support and crushed
his opponent. Why oh why, cry the traumatized liberals. How
could this possibly have happened when we said it wouldn't.
We stated definitively that Kamala would win by an overwhelming majority,
So how could it possibly be the case that she
(48:31):
didn't achieve what we had said would happen. The arrogance
and hoovers are overwhelming, a rich source of mockery and
comic memes which are now doing the realms. However, these
come from a mindset which is far from amusing. As
the default position of those screaming about the threat that
(48:51):
Trump is said to pose to democracy, this mindset is
actually based on profound and venomous contempt for millions of
regular folks. This was summed up in an unusually clear
eyed analysis by a member of the American media. As
the result was become clear last night, CNN's political commentator
Scott Jennings said, this is a mandate forgetting the economy
(49:15):
working again for millions of working class Americans. Fix immigration,
try to get crime under control. Try to reduce the
chaos in the world. This is a mandate from the
American people to do that. I'm interpreting the results tonight
as the revenge of the regular, old, working class American,
the anonymous American who had been crushed, insulted, condescended to
(49:39):
They're not garbage, They're not Nazis. They're just regular people
who just get up and go to work every day,
trying to make a better life for their kids. And
they feel like they've been told to just shut up
when they have complained about the things that are hurting
them in their own lives. Jennings was a rare voice
of odesty from within a liberal establishment that has thus
(50:00):
dismissed and defamed ordinary Americans for years. The reason that
so many liberals simply can't believe what's happened, the reason
why they were absolutely certain in their predictions that Trump
couldn't possibly win, the reason they never registered Carmala's manifold
and disqualifying flaws, is that the world they inhabit is
(50:22):
a fantasy world. What they want to happen is what
they tell themselves must happen. Because it must happen, it
will happen, and if they tell themselves lies, and where
it is undeniably not happening, they have a duty to
make it happen by foul means as well as fair,
because it cannot be allowed not to happen. So, when
(50:43):
faced with the evidence of the disaster that saw Kamala
Harris's candidacy, they simply didn't see what the rest of
us saw. They didn't see that her inability to answer
any question other than her gibberish word salads was evidence
of someone who was totally unsuited to public office. Instead,
the mainstream media censored those episodes on the grounds that
(51:05):
it was their duty to ensure that she was elected
because the all alternative couldn't be allowed to happen. They
didn't register the copious evidence on social media of African
Americans and Hispanics declaring themselves Trump voters. They did not
acknowledge couldn't possibly acknowledge the disaster of americ Obama's arrogant
(51:25):
attempt to bully young black men into voting for Carmela,
a desperate move which backfired so very badly when these
young men declared themselves insulted by a man who had
done nothing for them while he was president. But when
they deem unconscionable, really does happen despite all their efforts.
It's as if the world has turned backwards on its axis.
(51:48):
It's an offense against nature itself. It simply cannot be.
Hence the titanic effort by the liberal establishment in Britain
to reverse the twenty sixteen Brexit vote. Hence the unconstitutional
and probably illegal three year attempt by elements in the
Justice Department, the FBI and Democratic Party forcilvie d by
(52:09):
a shockingly partisan media suppressing the truth to leave Trump
out of office the first time. Round Lo and behold,
there are already threats to repeat that attempted coup against
democracy by those who, in the same breath are intoning
that Trump will now destroy democracy. In the Atlantic, Tim
(52:30):
Nichols writes, after Barack Obama was elected president in two
thousand and eight, then Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell vowed
to make Obama a one term president and obstructed him
at every turn. McConnell, of course, cared only about seizing
power for his party, and later he could not muster
that same bravado when faced with Trump's assaults on the government.
(52:51):
Patriotic Americans and their representatives might now make a similar commitment,
but for better aims. Although they cannot remove Trump from office,
they can declare their determination to prevent Trump from implementing
the ghastly policies he committed himself to while campaigning. The
kinds of actions that will stop Trump from destroying America
(53:12):
in twenty twenty five are the same ones that stopped
many of his plans the first time around. They're not planshy,
and they will require sustained attention. Because the next battles
for democracy will be fought by lawyers and legislators in
Washington and in every state capital. They will be fought
by citizens banding together and associations and movements to rouse
(53:35):
others from their sleepwalk that has led America into this moment,
and Philip's writes get that patriotic Americans must now prevent
Trump from carrying out the pledges he made to the
American people on the basis of which they voted for him,
the essence of a democratic election. Liberals having this smeltdown
(53:55):
are accusing Trump of behavior of which they themselves are guilty,
contempt for democracy, subborting the constitutional order, lying bullying extremism,
suppressing contrary opinions, and promoting hatred and division. Psychologists call
this kind of accusatory behavior projection. It's a mental disorder.
(54:17):
The chances that projection word has come into play from
out of nowhere. Maybe it's been part of the psychologists
or psychiatrists lexicon for a long time, but I've never
heard it before, just recently. But it is a mental disorder.
The chances of this election resulting in such people questioning
(54:38):
their own mindset and assumptions which have now so spectacularly
blown up in their faces, the chances are very slim.
A notable exception has been Scott Jennings, who, in his
rare media copper also said the following, I also feel
like this election was something of an indictment of the
(54:58):
political information complex. We've been sitting around it for the
last couple of weeks, and the story that was portrayed
was not true. All these gimmicks we were we're going
to push Harris over the line, and we were ignoring
the fundamentals inflation. A feeling like they were barely able
to tread water at best. For all of us who
(55:18):
cover elections and talk about elections and do this on
a day to day basis. We have to figure out
how to understand, talk to and listen to the other
half of the country that rose up tonight and said
we've had enough. Absolutely correct elsewhere, says Phillips. Elsewhere, However,
(55:40):
liberal commentators are employing funereal tones today, as if they
are in mourning, and of course they're lashing out at
the people they say at a blame. They blame Harris
for failing to be different enough from Joe Biden. They
blame women for unaccountably failing to vote for her. They
blame people without a college degree for not having the
(56:01):
intelligence to agree with them. They blame the dark forces
of human nature. They blame Elon Musk for existing. What
such people can't see and never will see, is that
the people to blame are themselves very good piece. Don't
you think it covers? It covers so much, so much
(56:23):
that hasn't been recognized, so much that wasn't broadcast, wasn't
put into print, and now they're faced with the consequences,
and that will take us out For podcasts number two
hundred and sixty four For those of you who've stuck
with it and have enjoyed it and appreciated it. I
thank you. We shall No, there's no Mai room because
(56:45):
well there's no momorroom this week, so we shall. We
shall return next week with the podcast two hundred and
sixty five. Until then, as always, thank you for listening
and we shall talk soon.
Speaker 3 (57:05):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (57:07):
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