September 22, 2025 • 52 mins
The Lincoln Project’s Rick Wilson examines the insane accusations of bribery against Tom Homan.
Then The Eurasia Group’s Ian Bremmer details how Trump’s reckless monetary policy is playing out on the world stage.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, I'm Molly John Fast and this is Fast Politics,
where we discussed the top political headlines with some of
today's best minds, and Senator Rand Paul says FCC chairs
comments threatening ABC were absolutely inappropriate and they will. We
have such a great show for you today. The Lincoln
Project's own Rick Wilson joins us to talk about the
(00:23):
insane accusations of bribery against Tom Holman. Then we'll talk
to the Eurasia Group's own Ian Bremmer about how trump
reckless monetary policy is playing out on the world stage.
But first the news.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
So Mally, we are seeing Disney tick a major hits
their stock, which pill by about two percent after their suspension.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Jimmy, come on.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
You know, I really wanted to talk about this with
you because pushback war okay, and people sold their Disney stock.
There are protests outside of Disney. I saw something online
where someone was saying, like, they don't expect the Disney
is to work, and you know what, guess what they
did work? And you know why they worked. And this
is like the most important thing when you're listening to
(01:06):
this podcast and you're feeling upset about what's happening, right
now in this country, about the attacks on free speech
and the ice facilities and the people being disappeared in
the middle of the night. I'm telling you you should know,
you guys have a lot more power than you think
you do. And autocrats want you to feel powerless. But
there's nothing to feel powerless about. They canceled Jimmy Kimmel,
(01:28):
and you know what happened. People are pushing back. By
the way, this is a disaster for them. And again,
like you just have to keep pushing back, even the
dogs really mount you to push back. None of this
is a feed accomplate. Every inch matters. The more that
people push back peacefully, the better, and that's what we're
seeing here. Look, you have to make it more expensive
(01:51):
for these companies to screw the consumer over, to screw
you guys over, than it is to fight with Trump.
And so that's what is happening now. We have Abs
is stuck between are they going to roll over for Trump,
which they think is the cheaper option, or are they
going to do the right thing. And if consumers tell
them to do the right thing, they will. And remember
(02:11):
if Target just had the same experience, they rejected all
of woke and you know what happened. Their numbers went
way down and their earnings went way down. So you
have power in your dollar, you have power in your protest,
you have power in your vote and voter registration. You
have a lot of power. And Trump world wants you
to think you don't have power, but you absolutely do.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Speaking of which, Chicago is a place where we've seen
a lot of that, and ICE plans to evacuate their
Chicago area based facility following protests which were pretty ugly,
including in front of the show Kataboozagala, who's running for Congress.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
They are getting thrown around.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
Yeah, I mean, really terrible. Look, peaceful protests work. It's scary.
This is a really scary moment right now. But there
are more people who want America to be not crazy
then there are the people who want whatever this sort
of terrifying Steven Miller vision is. So just know that
(03:08):
and know that the Trump people are not organized. They're
doing a lot of stuff that's illegal. That's why they
keep losing in court. You don't have to cave to
illegal actors. You can push back in a peaceful way
and it works. And that's what we're seeing in Chicago,
by the way, important. Remember Trump wanted to send the
Federal Guard into Chicago and now he's not. And remember
(03:31):
federalized the Guard. He sent the National Guard into California
and it was deemed illegal. And so I do think
it's important. Remember like pushback works. Princeker is a great
example of how pushback works. And I'm really heartened to
see what's happening in Chicago. I'm heartened to see what's
happening with Kimmel. These are the ways, these are the
things that worked in twenty sixteen. This is the way
(03:53):
to peacefully resist. This is the way to not lose
our institutions.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
Yeah, here's more good news.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
I'm shocked there's so much of it since I now
it's been a week.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
Really has been a bad way. God go on.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
Fortune magazine has a really interesting article by Jeffrey Sonenfeld,
who's a founder of the Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute,
And they say, behind closed doors, our top CEOs say
Trump is bad for business, and they're getting fed up.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
I mean, this is really, I think important because everything
Trump is doing is really is ridiculous. Crony capitalism is
not capitalism, turning America into Argentina. Argentina is not the
envy of the world. Let me tell you their economy sucks.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
But their president has such cool hair. Molly, I don't
know what you're talking about.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
Yeah, exactly, And I think it's important. Look, the Ft
had a really good graph about how the value of
the dollars since Trump has taken office has gone down
and down, and Danna, Dad, and that's because people don't
have faith in our economy, because they don't have faith
in our numbers, because they don't have faith in our leader.
And you've seen other Republicans speak out against this. This
is a completely crazy way to run a country. And
(05:06):
I think like a great example of how poorly thought
out and how just ridiculous so much of this is
is the H one B visas. So on Friday, Donald
Trump made this announcement about the H one B visas.
It's not thought out, it's not necessarily legal, it's going
to get challenged in court, and it's just like everything else,
like the tariffs, right, those tariffs were waiting around to
(05:28):
see what the Supreme Court does on the tariffs. Again,
tariff's being challenged by conservatives, by the surviving Koch brother
Trump is so bad for the economy that even Republicans,
the people who are supposed to be maga, are rebelling.
And I think it's a really good sign of how
(05:49):
untenable this situation is.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Hard to agree. A lot of people are reading this
Trump truth as if he was trying to send a
DM to Pam Bondi and accidentally put it on me.
I'm curious, Abouali, do you buy this theory?
Speaker 1 (06:05):
I don't know. It's funny because I was on television
today and somebody asked me what I thought Trump was
trying to do, and I was like, oh my god,
I forgot that we used to do this. So I
try to interpret Trump. I don't know. I mean the
fact that we're even trying to interpret someone. Like in
a normal administration, if a president did this, everyone would
(06:26):
be like he needs to be impeached.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
So for those not in the know, he basically wrote
what looks like a DM to Pambondy, basically saying, you
need to start putting my.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
Enemies for my enemies.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Yeah, and I'm tired of waiting, basically as one does.
And you know it, like whether he did that or not,
you are correct that like this is a silly thing
for us to discuss, because the real problem is with
the meat of the sandwiches, not what the crust on
the bread is, which is this is a really, really
scary authoritarian escalation.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
Yeah, I mean Trump wanting to prosecute his political enemies.
By the way, again, I just want to pause. He
said he was going to do this, right, Remember he
was running for president. Everyone's like, well, you're not going
to prosecute your political enemies, and he was like, no, no,
I am remember that. I mean, Like, the great thing
about it is that he does not lie. He just
(07:19):
I mean, except sometimes when he lies, like when he
said he was going to make things cheaper, remember that.
So look, he wants Bondie to prosecute his political enemies.
The fundamental problem is that Trump wants to do a
lot of stuff, a lot of it's not legal. He's
going to come into collision with his Supreme Court sooner
rather than later, probably sooner. And you know it's also
(07:42):
just insane.
Speaker 4 (07:44):
Ye.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
Part of what's happening here is that a lot of
these people don't want to do this stuff because they
don't see the evidence. And I think it's easier to say,
like prosecute my political enemies. It's a little harder to
figure out how to do it in the system without
ending up in And I think a lot of these
people are trying to figure out what is it worth
(08:05):
to them to follow what Donald Trump blonds them to.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Yeah, so Malli, I was told, mister Trump, he really
cares about the farmers.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
They're big, beautiful farmers.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Yes, the biggest, the most beautiful.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Yes, Yes, that's what I was told to chet Well.
According to this new reportant writers of Republicans are conflicted
between loyalty to constituents. Are Trump and the farmers are
basically saying, we're out of money, chief, and you better
start paying that.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
We need age, we need subsidies, subsidies for farmers, subsidies
for everyone who's not the arts or newspapers. Look, this
is again, all of this stuff is so. All of
Trump's economic ideas are terrible. He's going into a trade war,
which is, we need these other countries to buy our stuff,
(08:51):
and they're not going to buy our stuff if we're
tariffing their stuff at thirty percent or whatever. So I
don't know. I mean, he did this last time where
he totally over the farmers and he gave them some money.
There's a farm bell. I mean, I know that no
one in Congress legislates anymore, but you know, there was
a whole thing that we had going where the farmers
(09:11):
would grow the grain and we would then use it
for USAID. I mean, you'll remember USAID, which was the
thing that where we fed really poor people in countries
for like thirty cents. And it was a great case
of American soft power. Now Elon Musk, the richest man
in the world, said it was too expensive, so they
cut it. Thank you, Marco Rubio. So we have children
(09:33):
starving in Africa because of you know whatever, what is
a rounding error in the American budget. Can be prouder
to be an American right now, just so disgusting. So yeah,
I don't know. I mean, Trump has no plans to
make things cheaper, so I don't know what happens here again,
you know, I just want to talk about one thing
for a minute. There is right now Congress is hurtling
(09:55):
towards the shitdown. You'll remember Congress as the group of
people who made themselves com completely irrelevant by just going
along to get along with Donald Trump. Democrats have a
chance to extract something from Trump.
Speaker 5 (10:08):
Now.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
I don't think it's going to be something big. I
think it's going to be something small. And I think
Chuck Schumer has this idea that he can get Trump
to extend these payments for Obamacare subsidies so that the
Obamacare premiums don't go up twenty thirty percent. I think
that's a mistake. I don't think Republicans are going to
(10:30):
give that to Democrats, and I also think that if
they did, would actually help Republicans. I think a lot
of these people voted for this, They voted for higher
Obamacare premiums. So this is what I'm going to say.
I think that Democrats should try to get subpoena power.
I think they should try to get some kind of
trade where they can hold hearings that they can subpoena people,
(10:51):
because then at least they'll have a tiny bit of oversight,
and they can work with Republicans to make it so
that Republicans can have some bit of oversight, because I
know there are a lot of Republicans, I mean, they
won't speak publicly because they're cowards, but that who are
not happy with what's happening. Right now and who've lost
almost all their power. So if Democrats have subpoena power,
(11:14):
at least there can be hearings and they can blame
them on the Democrats. And honestly, I think shutting down
the government, I don't think it's going to work. And
I think that Democrats could conceivably be blamed. You know,
they want the government shutdown, they want the government destroyed.
So I can really see a world where if they
just make this one little trade, maybe it will come
(11:34):
off looking like they have nothing, but at least they'll have,
you know, some kind of power to get those people
talking to hold hearings. And I think that's a real thing.
So I could be wrong, but I don't think it
makes sense.
Speaker 5 (11:45):
You know.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
One of the things we saw on twenty sixteen was
Democrats were too successful at preventing people from losing things.
People are gonna have to lose things. That's what they
voted for. Rick Wilson is the founder of Lincoln Project
in the host of the Enemy's List. Welcome back to
Fast Politics, Rick Wilson.
Speaker 6 (12:04):
Oh, Molly John Fast, good to see you again. So always,
so many, so many days have passed.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
Right, Tom Holman, you may know him as the.
Speaker 6 (12:15):
Future future recipient of a of a one way trip
to the Hague.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
Okay, so the guy who runs jailing everybody from congressional
candidates to members of Congress to people who are here legally.
Pretty much, he's our jailer in chief. What's the news
that just broke about that guy?
Speaker 5 (12:36):
You know?
Speaker 6 (12:36):
It turns out that the FBI, undercover FBI agents offered
Tom Homan a fifty thousand dollars payment bribe if you will.
I think that's the word we still use in America.
Speaker 4 (12:47):
And technically bribery is still illegal, hypothetically unless you're a
member of the trunk cabal, in which case, And I
don't know how this happened, Molly with the with the
rigid ethical standards of today's Department Justice and FBI.
Speaker 6 (13:02):
Somehow, somehow this investigation got dropped, just some by some
strange legal twist of fate. Some Omen walks free.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
So this is a story from MS now that got
broke today. But I just when we talk about this
DOJ dropping investigation. So we had the Tom Holman investigation dropped,
we had all the charges against Trump dropped.
Speaker 6 (13:27):
Jeffrey Epstein investigation covered.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
Up, well, who even knows where that is? But we
did have one. Glaine Maxwell moved from a high security
two a non security right, basically a SPA with the
no one right and no one else. Who is a
who has a sex trafficking You know, you can't. The
(13:50):
kind of criminal she is does not belong in the
kind of jail she is in now.
Speaker 6 (13:54):
However, as we now know, her status as a sexual
offender was changed so she could go there. And and
when cash Battel was asked last week in a congressional hearing,
how did that happen? His the answer was there was
a lot of legalism, but it was like a hummahammahammadahammahamahammahammada.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Yeah, and cash Battel, I mean the Cash Battel hearing.
I'd love to go back to that for a minute,
because one of the incredible things about that hearing was basically,
he either if he doesn't know anything, which is certainly possible.
Speaker 6 (14:27):
It's in the range of possibility.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
He is not telling the truth about anything, also possible,
much more likely.
Speaker 6 (14:35):
Okham's razor seems to point that direction.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
Is there another is there something behind the third door?
Speaker 6 (14:41):
Yes, he's leading or helping to lead a massive government
cover up where he recognizes that every word out of
his mouth in a congressional hearing is probably going to
be perjury, and he better hope Donald Trump stays alive
for four more years so that this part.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
Of federal prison so he can pardon.
Speaker 6 (14:59):
Yeah, and I I will just say this make I
hope that we have an election in twenty twenty eight.
I hope a Democratic candidate wins, and I hope that
they definitely positively never consider Merrit Garland for any role. Yeah,
I think, because I want somebody who goes in there
on day one and they were having arrests on day three.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
I don't want to squander any time on Merrick Garland.
Bible squandered enough time, Yeah, right on Merrick Garland. But
I do think this is not okay now what I think.
I'd love to talk about Kimmel with you for another minute, Yes,
because we're seeing in real time the pushback works and
the caving makes you you. If you cave, you have
(15:40):
no legal remedy for anything you do, because when you cave,
you enter an illegal agreement with Donald J. Trump, who
will never be satisfied by what you give him.
Speaker 6 (15:54):
Molly, listen, I mean if if Bob Iger, who before
this was considered like a really good CEO before this, right,
people thought of Bob Iger as as an ethical and
smart guy.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
I understand, whose wife has a free speech charity? Continue,
who runs a journalism program? Yes, the journal? Yes, when
Bob Iger did this. First off, Bob Iger was around
for the agreement on the on the ABC payment. Okay,
the fifteen million dollars settlement. That was not necessary that
they went to cover the Steffanopolos case. He was not necessary,
(16:26):
as the Times prove this week.
Speaker 6 (16:28):
Right, right, as the Times prove this week, say no,
tell them that fuck off and move on.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
But Wall Street Journal New York Times both did the
right thing and both are winning in court orpen we
sid Trump.
Speaker 6 (16:41):
Tried to assume me for a billion dollars week before last,
and my response has been, literally my lawyer said, in
to his response, go fuck yourself. Iiger went to the
alter of shareholder value and said, oh, I've got to.
But here's what's going to happen. Watch what happens to
Disney stock tomorrow. The early selling is already ugly, and
(17:01):
it's going to be really hard for the Maga masses
to wake up and go, oh, the company that we
hate because they're so woke about the gays, remember DeSantis
and the Maga of people, and hell a war with
Disney because Disney is libtard woke culture war blah blah.
They're not going to go out of memestock Disney, right,
(17:21):
And so Bob Iger is about to get the worst
of all possible worlds. And then when that's over, he's
going to get a phone call from Trump said, Hey,
put my boy Don Junior on the board, right, what's
he going to do?
Speaker 3 (17:32):
What's he going to bed?
Speaker 1 (17:34):
And that is what we're seeing across the board when
it comes to making peace with Trump. And before we
talk about the tech pars, I want to just do
one more beat on the Paramount merger because I think
it's so important. There's a woman called Cherry Redstone, daughter
of Sumner Redstone. She decides she's got to sell her
(17:56):
company to the to Ski Das's owned by Big Trumpy,
the Ellison's second richest man in the world. So she's
does these three things right. She settles rich, well, it's
back and for us, right, but riches second, Yeah, he's
very rich. Is richer than we are. He does she does.
(18:17):
She does three things right. She pays, she does She
pays off this frivolous CBS lawsuit which is bullshit, which
she would have won. She cancels Stephen Colbert because on
high they told her to. And the third thing she
does is she puts this on this man at CBS, okay.
Speaker 6 (18:36):
A thought police representative approved by the administration.
Speaker 1 (18:39):
She does these three things, she paves the way. She
gets Whites right, well, she gets the that's she's gone now.
But she because Sherry has gotten the deal done, she's
gotten her money, she's got out. She thinks at the
time this is not such a big deal because she
wants to get the murder done. But what we see
looking back is that every single small decision is like
(19:02):
like this gets us to where we are today. And
so the road to authoritarianism is paved with just small
decisions to go along to get along.
Speaker 6 (19:12):
It's paved with merger merger ambitions. And look, I think
that that, you know, the backstory of Next Star and
Sinclair going after Jimmy Kimmel through through Disney is because
they want their own merger ambitions approved. Next Star in
particular wants to merge with Tegra, which is another chain
(19:32):
of TV stations, right of course, so they're going to
play the whole Maga role to the hilt. All of this.
If you're if your god alan is quarterly stock report, right,
then you're going to say, screw it. We may hurt
some people, we may break democracy, but you know, at
least our our shareholders.
Speaker 3 (19:52):
Will be happy.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
Right but the but ultimately, and this is why I
want to talk about the tech visus, the h one
visus and one hundred thousand dollars a year price tag
that Donald Trump has just put on them. So a
few things about this. It's yet another illegal thing from
the Trump administration. Yes, president does not set visus. That
(20:14):
is Congress. Now Congress has given up doing anything because
they don't want Trump to be mad at them. But
there are still our courts that are not completely in
Trump's pocket. All of this is illegal. But more importantly,
and I think this is what I really want you
to talk about. This presidential proclamation is written so poorly
(20:38):
that believe it or not, nobody even knows what the
fuck they mean. So here's what happens.
Speaker 6 (20:42):
You could run it through Chadgypt, and it would say
this is obviously written by a meth ATel raccoon.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
This is written by Chadgypt, and Chad JPD is not
where it needs to be at this moment. As we're
all seeing, Molly.
Speaker 5 (20:57):
Here's the thing, the H one b visas.
Speaker 6 (21:00):
And I know that that Stephen Miller is at the
center of this particular thing, and Navarro is at that
center of this particular thing. So two people who are
not notoriously shall we say, Nobel Prize Economics winners in waiting,
they're not They're not really.
Speaker 5 (21:18):
Good at this THEA.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
I do think it's important. Navarro is a lot stupider
than Stephen Miller.
Speaker 6 (21:24):
Oh yeah, Navarro's that's a very low but it's a
low bar. But Steven Miller is not stupid. He's just evil.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
Yeah, but is working a whole crazy thing that we
don't Yeah.
Speaker 5 (21:35):
He's the RFK of Trade.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
Of trade.
Speaker 5 (21:38):
Yeah, that's right, So Wally, I mean.
Speaker 6 (21:42):
What they don't understand is when you read it, it's like,
but I can waive this if you're nice to me.
This is another Trump bribery scheme, but an awful lot
of those H one p v's of workers who come
here in Silicon Valley in the tech industry. A huge
number of them are here as nurses and healthcare aids
(22:04):
because that is a giant, giant market that America's American
workers have not, do not want to, and will not fill.
So these these nurses who were coming over from Ireland
and India and Germany and all these other places there
they're going. Now, we're going to blow a big hole
in that market. And I'm sorry, Elon Chatgibt cannot replace
(22:26):
nurses and whole healthcare aids well.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
But I also think look at Milania, it was an
H one B visa, so let it, you know, in
a genius visa, and so was the she came in
on an Epstein visa, right right exactly. I think it's
called an Einstein visa and not an Epstein visa, but
very nice.
Speaker 3 (22:46):
I get confused.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
But the point I think is that these tech companies
have worked so hard to suck up to Trump. I
mean that we had Tim Apple give Donald Trump a
twenty four carrot chachke to in the White House.
Speaker 6 (23:02):
Thinking about you've got Mark Zuckerberg, Jensen Wang, Tim Apple,
Larry Ellison, Yeah, Jeff.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
Larry Ellison's doing better on this.
Speaker 6 (23:12):
All of these people H one B visa workers make
up a meaningful fraction of their employees.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
And one of the biggest users of H one absolutely.
Speaker 6 (23:24):
And you know who else uses H one B visas,
Donald Trump, Right, an awful lot of the hospitality workers
he has at mar A Lago and Bedminster and these
other clubs and these other buildings are here on H
one B visas and Andy. Yeah, and H one B
visa costs five thousand dollars too, right now, that seems
(23:44):
like a lot, but it's not that much for company,
for most companies, But one hundred thousand dollars means that
Trump will have them in his pocket and say, Okay,
you're gonna have to either pay me a bribe or
or or your company is going to buy into my
crypto or whatever ever scam of the week he's running.
And it's also and I know, I know this is
(24:05):
going to upset the magas, but an awful lot of
people who come to this country on H one B
visus meaningfully contribute to our economy. They pay taxes here.
It's also going to blow a hole in the economy.
And it's just nuts. We're gonna and we're gonna send
very talented scientists and computer science folks and medical researchers
(24:28):
to China. That's where they're going to go. They're going
to go.
Speaker 5 (24:31):
To China, right.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
But I also think it's important to realize here that
when this presidential proclamation was proclamation was issued, there was
so much confusion that different companies send emails to their
employees like, don't leave the country, get back as soon
as you can there and it's going to be like
(24:56):
a nightmare on airports. And also it's probably not legal,
and so it's going to get overturned in court. So
it's like, this is like I feel like it's such
a great example of trump Ism. It's like it is
like banana or public staff.
Speaker 6 (25:11):
I can tell you that the chaos it's causing is
amateur hour and stupid in every way, but it is
causing a lot of people.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
I know.
Speaker 6 (25:21):
Again, the MAGA folks think, oh, if if foreigners are afraid,
it must be good. But it's cllling a lot of
fear and chaos in disruption. There will be an economic
ripple effect on this because they're stupid. These people who
are doing this are stupid. And again, if you want
to help China become the dominant economic power in the world,
this is how you do it. You can talented people
(25:42):
who want to come to America and do research and
do work and pay taxes, and who are here legally
because I remember this is also Reveal's part of the
Maga LIAI oh, legal immigration as fuck.
Speaker 5 (25:54):
No, it's not. No, they don't like it.
Speaker 1 (25:56):
It's not.
Speaker 6 (25:57):
This is what they're trying to do. And I got
to tell you my part Renee, my fiance. She's got
scientists from all over the world who are now paralyzed.
They're like, I can't go home, I can't come back.
What the hell do I do?
Speaker 1 (26:08):
Right, we're already seeing the numbers right that the economy
is not the economy it was nine months ago. We
see the tariffs, We saw the Bureau of Large of
Farm Labor Statistics just delayed.
Speaker 6 (26:22):
Were going to talk about inflation and maybe it'll just
go right, And.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
I feel like, you don't. If the last head of
the bureau got fired for bad numbers and then you
decide not to release numbers, that's probably because those numbers
are not great.
Speaker 6 (26:38):
I am guessing if inflation had dropped significantly. They would
be having a ribbon cutting ceremony, they'd be setting off fireworks,
they would have been to sea. I told you so,
blah blah blah.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
And part of trump ISM's obsession right now, Trump's obsession
with crime, right His obsession with crime, his obsession was
rolling in the National Guard to different cities, is because
he thinks crime is a winner for him and he
doesn't have anything else because he's underwater. Talk to me
about those polls.
Speaker 6 (27:10):
Oh my god, listen, my son Andrew is a brilliant
young poster and about a month ago he says to me,
I think we're at the bottom.
Speaker 5 (27:19):
I don't know how he goes.
Speaker 6 (27:20):
Any lower than this. On the economy, in particular, Trump
is now so far underwater on the economy, it's twe
He's twenty seven percent negative on inflation and crisis.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
And that was his big winner. That was the thing
where he might have been. People didn't like this, they
didn't like that, but they always thought he was a better, a.
Speaker 6 (27:42):
Good businessman, he understood the economy, and he's upside down
on everything.
Speaker 3 (27:49):
Now.
Speaker 6 (27:50):
Fifty one percent of Republicans have a negative or very
negative view of the economy. I mean he is, and
his approval ratings now are in the mid th thirties,
mid to high thirties. And if you if you look
at the correlation of Trump's approval and the economic numbers,
it is very strong, and it is going down very quickly.
Speaker 3 (28:12):
Nothing.
Speaker 6 (28:14):
Nothing, There are no upside numbers. About a month ago,
he was still net favorable on protecting the border, right,
even that's underwater. Now the whole thing is collapsing. And
this is why I tell Democrats, do not be afraid
now to confront him. Eventually, eventually even his Republican you
(28:35):
know minions in the House and Senate, they're going to
have to run for the exits at some point. Go,
I got to protect myself.
Speaker 3 (28:41):
Boss.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
When you watch these companies cave to him, you have
to realize, like, and I think Target is a great example.
So Target went anti DEI because whatever, and now their
numbers are way down. This is not rockets ions, Like,
people don't like this, it's not popular.
Speaker 6 (29:01):
None of the things that he's doing outside of the
MAGA base itself, and even inside the MAGA base, a
lot of them are no longer. The the crime stuff,
the racism stuff, the populism stuff that's still pretty much
worse with the base. But there's a problem he's gonna
have any that he's already having. And the reason that
(29:22):
negative economic number of even Republicans saying they're unhappy is
because it's not spinnable. When you're in the grocery store.
When that maga mom who may who may not love
wokeness is in Target or Walmart, or or the gas
station or the grocer, those numbers are real. She's gonna
have to pay those or the man's going to fill
(29:42):
his tank at five bucks a gallon instead of the
promised dollar eighty five or whatever.
Speaker 5 (29:47):
Yeah, all of it.
Speaker 6 (29:49):
Eventually, even Trump's bullshit machine collide, is collides with reality,
and it's colliding really ugly in the polling.
Speaker 1 (29:57):
Yeah, and I think I think that's a really good point.
And that's what we're seeing, and that's why these companies
need to stop being fucking cowards.
Speaker 6 (30:04):
Yes, correct, correct.
Speaker 1 (30:06):
Wilson, Yes, Mary, will you come back?
Speaker 3 (30:09):
You know I will every time.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
Ian Brema is the president of the Erasure Group. Welcome
to Fast Politics, Ian Brema.
Speaker 5 (30:20):
Thank you, Molly John Fast. It's so nice to see you.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
It's very nice to see you. You know, there was
international strife and I thought, who could I talk to
about this? And especially the story that I think really
is the story that I think is a huge story
that's just not being covered right now, which is the
incredible fracas with the electric car company plant in Georgia.
Speaker 5 (30:44):
Oh, the South Korea situation.
Speaker 7 (30:46):
Yeah, yeah, I mean it's an important story. I wouldn't
consider it the most important story.
Speaker 5 (30:52):
It's embarrassing.
Speaker 7 (30:53):
It hurts their relations with an ally, but that is
kind of part of the course these.
Speaker 1 (30:56):
Days, right, So do go through micro macro what you
feel like the world is looking like right now.
Speaker 7 (31:03):
I just came from Washington literally a few hours ago,
and when you look at all the National Guard troops
that are there, we have to recognize the reason it's
not like setting in la or Memphis or Chicago is
because this is where all of the embassies of the
world are sending. You know, in many cases, they're most important,
they're most capable ambassadors.
Speaker 5 (31:24):
They've got massive staff, and.
Speaker 7 (31:25):
They're all reporting back on what's happening in the US
and in Washington. And you know, my meetings with those people,
they're kind of freaked out right, they're kind of thinking, wow,
this is it's a very unpredictable environment in the US.
Increasingly you have an unreliable government and leadership that we
can't count on, and it seems like your president is
(31:50):
not really interested in rule of law and checks and
balances on the executive and if you're trying to make
your country into a one party state, how should we
react to that? So, I mean, you know, I'm not
suggesting that they're panicked. I'm not suggesting that this is
the end of you know, American power. I don't think
(32:10):
the US.
Speaker 5 (32:11):
Is particularly in structural decline.
Speaker 7 (32:13):
I don't believe that, but I certainly think that the
US is doing incredible long term damage with relations with
so many friends, so many countries around the world, and
it's completely unnecessary.
Speaker 5 (32:28):
That to me, is what the state of the world
feels like right now.
Speaker 1 (32:31):
I think that's right, and I've certainly seen reporting that
bears that out. A good example is there was, you know,
this reporting from New York magazine about these fashion reporters
who came to New York for fashion Week, and we're
saying that it's like going to Russia or China, which
is such a shocking phrase, but I think it speaks
to the anxiety. Now, obviously it's not like going to
(32:53):
Russia or China or here are doing a podcast, so
obviously it's not Russia or China. I think they're sort
of this anxiety is too prong. There's the anxiety of
the anxiety, and then they're sort of the reality, which
is also pretty anxious. Making Why do you think that
the troops are still in DC and what do you
(33:16):
think that has created? I mean, do you think that
has added to it?
Speaker 7 (33:19):
Yeah, I think it's added to it right now. So far,
it's largely performative. They're there because they can be. He's
not I mean, in the case of DC specifically. You know,
there's no legal reason for them to have to go,
so he's not breaking the laws, not acting in an
extra constitutional manner. And my experience with those troops, and
(33:40):
I probably encountered at least one hundred of them over
the course of my very brief visit, I would say
they were mostly friendly, some were indifferent, none were hostile.
They were not threatening to me or to anyone else
that I saw, and mostly they didn't have anything to do.
But Trump likes them there, and his narrative is that
(34:03):
the country, and pockets of the country are in an
emergency with criminality that you've never seen before.
Speaker 5 (34:10):
It's chaos. You're going to lose your country unless I
do this.
Speaker 7 (34:15):
And of course that helps this broader point of I
am protecting you against the enemy, and the enemy is
the other.
Speaker 5 (34:25):
Side and by far the most I mean, we've.
Speaker 7 (34:27):
Got to talk about this briefly, although you want to
talk about foreign policy. But the Charlie Kirk thing, and
you know, it was such a horrible act, such a
despicable act, that's going to make our country far more
dangerous to assassinate this young man. But the fact that
the president of the United States, the fairly elected president
of the uniedaate it's my president.
Speaker 5 (34:47):
Your president came out before we knew.
Speaker 7 (34:49):
Who had killed this guy, before we had any motive,
and said, I know that it is the left that
is responsible for this. Is the most uncautionably, irresponsible, unaccountable,
non leaderly thing that I have ever seen a president
engage in in.
Speaker 5 (35:10):
The United States.
Speaker 7 (35:11):
That's obviously meant to help to facilitate his attacks against
one side of the political equation in the US, which
he considers the enemy. That is no way to run
a democracy and it's not sustainable.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
Frankly, right now, I think the big thing that world
leaders are not pleased with or the tariffs, because it
seems like the markets are pretty much not responding to them,
except with the bond markets and perhaps with the dollar
going down. But I wonder if you could talk to
us about Trump had a plan with tariffs they've been
(35:46):
or something, talk us through what people are feeling thinking
about the tariffs, and what he has.
Speaker 5 (35:52):
Is a tool.
Speaker 7 (35:53):
It's a principal tool of American power that he's believed
in for many decades now. And the reason I shook
my head when you said he has a plan is
because for Trump, the tariffs accomplish many different things, some
of which are contradictory. So tariffs are good to address
(36:13):
trade deficits that the US has. Tariffs are useful to
raise revenue in the United States.
Speaker 5 (36:22):
In a deficit spend environment.
Speaker 7 (36:25):
The tariffs are useful to help relocate manufacturing, investment, capital,
and jobs in the United States. The tariffs are useful
to address unfair non trade practices economically of certain countries
around the world. The tariffs are useful to address non
(36:48):
economic problems that Trump has with individual countries around the world. Now,
those are a lot of different reasons, most of which
have nothing to do with a national emergency, which is
the requirement for the AEPA clause that Trump used, which
is why the Supreme Court should rule against the legality
of him even being able to do this. But what
(37:12):
we're talking about, and you're right to focus on this, Molly,
because of all the things that Trump has done in
his first nine months globally, by far, the most consequential
has been to bring US tariff levels to their highest
since the nineteen thirties. Tariffs were functionally close to zero.
They're now likely to average out by the end of
(37:33):
the year thirteen to fifteen percent. It's a massive tax
on the American consumer. It is a significant drag on growth.
It will drive inflation. It hasn't yet because a lot
of these tariffs have only recently been put into place,
and because they were talking about it for a long time,
(37:53):
companies were able to get goods in place in advance
that could avoid those tariffs.
Speaker 5 (38:01):
That will end and then prices will go up.
Speaker 7 (38:04):
So this is I mean, if you think about Trump
having won the election in part on his management of
the economy. This is now going to be a vulnerability
that he will experience.
Speaker 1 (38:15):
Yeah, and again when you look at inflation, that was
really one of the secrets to his reelection, right.
Speaker 7 (38:24):
Yes, and that inflation, those numbers, I feel quite strongly
over the coming six months are going to continue to
go up.
Speaker 1 (38:31):
So feed is going to cut a little bit interest
rates at a moment like this, which is where inflation
is on the way up or it looks like it's
certainly on the way up for now. I mean, I know,
cutting interest rates when the economy is shaky is the move.
But when inflation seems like it's on the way up,
are you not supposed to do that?
Speaker 6 (38:51):
Yeah?
Speaker 7 (38:51):
Well, inflation isn't yet on the way up significantly. It's modest,
and oil prices are comparatively low, and that's the exception.
So it does seem to me that most economists, of
which I am not one, right, I'm a political scientist,
I'm an international relations guy, But I think consensus among
the economists now is, yeah, on balance, you'd expect a
(39:11):
move to reduce rates. Now, would that be the beginning
of several moves that would bring rates back to.
Speaker 5 (39:17):
The levels they were before?
Speaker 7 (39:18):
No, but I don't think that there's not a huge
amount of controversy around the president move that they're discussing.
Speaker 1 (39:24):
The whole point of the tariffs, at least if there
is a point, is to bring manufacturing back to the
United States. I mean, I think Trump thinks it's to
punish his enemies.
Speaker 7 (39:34):
There's lots of reasons, and that's one, and I think
it's one of the more stupid ones. Because only eight
percent of the US economy is manufacturing. I think only
two to three percent of the jobs in the US
of manufacturing.
Speaker 5 (39:46):
Labor rates are not competitive. To bring manufacturing back.
Speaker 7 (39:49):
It will certainly drive much more automation because it's the
only way you're going to be able to do it productively.
The American economy will not be driven by jobs from
the till late twentieth century. Just won't be knowledge economy.
It's a services economy. That's what we should lean into.
That's where populism is going to grow. I mean, the
jobs that are going to go away, they're not gonna
(40:11):
be manufacturing jobs in the next five ten years.
Speaker 5 (40:13):
They're gonna be AI jobs. And those are white collar
professional jobs.
Speaker 7 (40:19):
Those are university graduates, they're gonna have a very hard
time finding places to work.
Speaker 5 (40:24):
Those are coders that are no longer relevant.
Speaker 7 (40:27):
I mean, those sorts of things have nothing to do
with manufacturing. That is all the things that Trump is
focusing on. That to me feels like the least relevant
of his teriff arguments.
Speaker 1 (40:37):
Currently in the market that AI is is much of
the gains almost all I think of the gains right now?
Do you still feel confident that this is like a
smart beat and not a bubble.
Speaker 7 (40:49):
I don't have confidence as to share valuations because it's
not something I spend any time on.
Speaker 1 (40:55):
When you think of it as a game changer, yeah.
Speaker 7 (40:58):
I mean, first of all, I all already see among
the Hyperscalers, the Microsofts, the Googles, the Metas, the Anthropics,
that these companies already have the majority of their coding
done by AI, and they believe that within six months,
twelve months, eighteen months maximum, that that's going to be
(41:21):
a overwhelming majority. Now it should not surprise us, Molly,
that the companies that are making the AI algorithms are
the ones that are.
Speaker 5 (41:33):
Actually benefiting the most. First, because of course they're going
to orient towards what can we do that we can use.
Speaker 7 (41:41):
Right, They're going to be the first users, so I'm
not surprised.
Speaker 5 (41:45):
That they will benefit the most to begin with.
Speaker 7 (41:48):
But I think in very short order that's going to
bleed over into all sorts of different spaces. And I
see it with so many different folks in the private
sector I talk to in different sectors that are developing
use cases that are supplementing and are replacing workers. I
see it in my own company, two hundred and fifty people,
(42:09):
not that big, but the use cases we have for
AI and every component in every corner of our firm.
It's in graphic design, and it's in editing, and it's
in you know, sort of research and so many different
area and it's in helping us compile data analytics for
salesforce and you name it right. And I'm not personally
(42:29):
involved in all of that stuff, but I see it,
and it's inconceivable to me that this isn't a game
changer in pretty much every sector over the coming five years.
Speaker 1 (42:40):
Yeah, in this moment that we're in right now, what
are the tensions that you're watching here when it comes
to the world. You know, Trump was on this incredible
no Bel Peace Prize kick where he decided he was
going to solve, you know whatever, a certain number of
wars in a certain number of days, and what he
did was alien in aid India. Right, he was unable
(43:03):
to solve many wars. We still have Israel, we still
have Ukraine. What does the world look like now? It
strikes me that some of Trump's sort of strongman stuff
has not worked.
Speaker 5 (43:13):
Yeah, I think that's right.
Speaker 7 (43:14):
I mean, he has had some successes, including some successes
in wars. I would argue that he and Vance and
Rubio were useful at least that the margins and maybe
more than that on India Pakistan, but then wanting to
take credit for it, he embarrassed Mody in ways that
was unacceptable to the Indian Prime minister, who has an
inego that's almost as big as drumps. So unfortunately, you know,
(43:36):
I mean they kind of they did it right, and
then you.
Speaker 5 (43:39):
Know, he undermined his relationship.
Speaker 7 (43:41):
And he's also been aligning more with Pakistan for business reasons,
including personal and family business reasons, which are not what
we want to see the president do, but that's a
part of it. He has been useful in some other fights,
like the DRC in Rwanda, like Armenia and Azerbaijan, like
Thailand and Cambodia. There are real fights around the world
where I think Trump has made some positive contribution to
(44:04):
ending conflict. But the big ones, and there are two
that are big, which is Israel Gaza and Russia Ukraine
he has failed and Russia Ukraine he has actually admitted
he's used the F word. He said failure, which I
bet you were surprised when you heard that. Right now,
something Trump typically it iss, he's frustrated, he's.
Speaker 5 (44:24):
Kind of angry, he's a little embarrassed.
Speaker 7 (44:26):
It's a problem because, of course, what we have is
these two countries that are armed to the fricking teeth,
that are engaged in throwing everything they have at each
other in ways that could easily escalate me right now,
the thing that is fortunate, not fortunate for the Ukrainians,
by the way, not fortunate for the one million Russian casualties,
(44:47):
but fortunate for those of us sitting in the cheap
seats here is that that Russia Ukraine war has ground
to a near standstill for the last year and a half.
Speaker 5 (44:57):
I have no confidence that's going to.
Speaker 7 (44:59):
Be true another year, two years, and if it starts
to become the case where the Ukrainians start feeling they
could lose everything, or the Russians start getting hit in
ways that make Putin feel personally vulnerable.
Speaker 5 (45:13):
Then all bets are off, all bets are off.
Speaker 7 (45:16):
Then we're in serious trouble, right, I mean, then NATO
could have an active war on its hands, not just
a proxy fied supporting Ukraine.
Speaker 5 (45:23):
That's a really really dangerous thing.
Speaker 7 (45:25):
And the Israel war with Goza doesn't have that, you know, broader,
you know, beyond the region implication.
Speaker 5 (45:32):
But the fact is there are.
Speaker 7 (45:35):
A lot of countries right now that are really angry
with Israel acting with what they believe is impunity, what
they believe is ethnic cleansing, what they believe is war
crimes and unconscionable humanitarian depredation at the hands.
Speaker 5 (45:51):
Of Israel, which refuses to listen to anyone.
Speaker 7 (45:54):
And when you have the Israeli Prime Minister saying he
needs to get ready for the country has to get
ready for being isolated, that's a really bad message. Because
of course, historically Israel has been the guiding light for
democracy in the Middle East, to the extent that there
is one well, that ain't true anymore. That's a real problem,
(46:14):
and Trump is not is certainly not being effective, and
to the extent that he has his thumb on the scale,
it's in favor of a country that increasingly most American
youth think is the bully and aggressor.
Speaker 5 (46:26):
They're more sympathetic to the Palestinians.
Speaker 7 (46:28):
That's true for a majority of the Europeans, and it's
true for a majority of the country's an overwhelming majority
of the countries all over the world.
Speaker 5 (46:35):
So all of this is to.
Speaker 7 (46:36):
Say and then you know, you said, well, you know,
Trump's having some losses. Trump's also most spectacularly had to
back down on China, where he acted like he.
Speaker 5 (46:46):
Had the cards, and he came out after.
Speaker 8 (46:48):
Liberation Day with these big tariffs, and you know, continuing
with policies that he starred in his first term that
Biden expanded his second term.
Speaker 7 (46:58):
I mean, the one place you see by partisan agreement
in foreign policy is that China is the principal adversary
of the US and needs to have some level of containment,
and Trump throws it all out the window because it
turns out that China has the ability to.
Speaker 5 (47:10):
Hit him back hard, particularly on critical minerals. And so
now he's the one that bent the knee.
Speaker 7 (47:15):
And that is a message to other countries that if
you've got the cards, if you're strong.
Speaker 5 (47:19):
Enough to stand up to Trump, that is absolutely the
right move. Ian.
Speaker 1 (47:22):
Thank you. I hope you will come back so important
and interesting. Thank you.
Speaker 5 (47:27):
You're going to see him on.
Speaker 1 (47:30):
No moment, Wilson.
Speaker 3 (47:34):
Molly junk Fast. Is it that time?
Speaker 1 (47:36):
It is that time. I love the time of times.
What is your moment of fuckery?
Speaker 6 (47:41):
My momentive fuckery is something I have a lot of
very personal experience with, and that is Department of Defense
media policy. And I can tell you one thing used
to I did, indeed, and I and I handled a
lot of media media.
Speaker 5 (47:54):
Fends you worked for.
Speaker 1 (47:56):
Yes, let's talk.
Speaker 6 (47:58):
The greatest, the greatest sectuff of my life.
Speaker 5 (48:00):
Time.
Speaker 1 (48:00):
Jesus fucking Christ will agree to disagree.
Speaker 6 (48:03):
On Look, the policy in every defense department since World
War Two, there has been a relationship with the press.
Where As an institution that respects the American way of
life and the and the constitution, the deparminent Defense. They
may don't want to tell you every secret, they may
want to set some rules from time to time, but
(48:25):
they have by and large been honest and open with
the American media. Pete hexaf is establishing a new media
policy in the Pentagon which now says you may not
report on anything that is not officially provided to.
Speaker 5 (48:37):
You, yes, which this is North Korea. Yeah.
Speaker 6 (48:42):
Now, now the Department Defense at presspool has already been
replaced largely with Breitbart, o A, N Muse Max, you know, Eagle,
Patriotnews dot Org, Dot Mill dot r.
Speaker 1 (48:57):
U ah, Maga News one History right exactly.
Speaker 6 (49:01):
And so Hexa doing this, it tells you that he believes,
like Trump, that they deserve nothing but ludicrously favorable coverage
all the time. They're told they have to sign an
oath that they will not release information that is that
is not given to them, or they'll be taken out
of the out of the Pentagon. Here's the answer for
(49:22):
every major newspaper and every major press organization. Okay, Pete,
fuck off and they leave.
Speaker 1 (49:28):
And I want to point out that there was an
opportunity with the White House Press Pool to do the
same way. And Donald Trump told the Associated Press that
they had to call a Gulf of America, right, and
they did house, you know, and if Donald Trump and
if the White House press pool had been like, we're done,
we'll see you, and they left. Even if you kept
(49:52):
MAGA news one, two, three and Breifart, Donald Trump would
have caved. Is see what happened.
Speaker 6 (49:58):
They all said, all, well, shit out. I don't want
to not be here if Susie Wilds calls me into
her office to tell me something.
Speaker 1 (50:04):
And that's how we got and that's the road to authoritarianism.
That's how we got here.
Speaker 6 (50:09):
This is and I am not a person who says
all journalists are transactional blah blah blah, but the White
House is a very tempting beat to get very good
insider stories and make your career on and too many
people decided they could make some sort of they can
make some sort of accommodation with the bullshit.
Speaker 1 (50:28):
The organization just should have said no. They should have.
Speaker 6 (50:31):
Said they should have said no.
Speaker 1 (50:33):
And I don't think you can fault them for it,
because I think there's no playbook for this moment. But
now we are seeing clearly what works is pushing back,
and so.
Speaker 6 (50:45):
Pushing back is the key. It has always been the key.
And I've been telling people this for months now. He's
not as strong as you think he is. He's dangerous,
but he's not. He's not omnipotent. Yeah, he's not a god.
He's not god, and he can't he can't send you
to jail right yet. He might try at some point,
(51:07):
but his his numbers collapse and his health collapses. I
think we're going to see he will be dangerous. But folks,
we're not helpless. And if you know, it's like it's
like people were asking me over the weekend, like, oh,
should we should we.
Speaker 5 (51:20):
Sell our Disney stock?
Speaker 1 (51:22):
Yes?
Speaker 6 (51:23):
Yeah, sell your Disney stock and also make sure you.
Speaker 1 (51:26):
Have I know by the way has sold their has
sold their Disney stock.
Speaker 5 (51:29):
Oh yeah yeah, Rick Wilson during Fast see it that time.
Speaker 1 (51:37):
That's it for this episode of Fast Politics. Tune in
every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday to hear the best
minds and politics make sense of all this chaos. If
you enjoy this podcast, please send it to a friend
and keep the conversation going. Thanks for listening.
Hi, I'm Molly John Fast and this is Fast Politics,
where we discussed the top political headlines with some of
today's best minds, and Senator Rand Paul says FCC chairs
comments threatening ABC were absolutely inappropriate and they will. We
have such a great show for you today. The Lincoln
Project's own Rick Wilson joins us to talk about the
(00:23):
insane accusations of bribery against Tom Holman. Then we'll talk
to the Eurasia Group's own Ian Bremmer about how trump
reckless monetary policy is playing out on the world stage.
But first the news.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
So Mally, we are seeing Disney tick a major hits
their stock, which pill by about two percent after their suspension.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Jimmy, come on.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
You know, I really wanted to talk about this with
you because pushback war okay, and people sold their Disney stock.
There are protests outside of Disney. I saw something online
where someone was saying, like, they don't expect the Disney
is to work, and you know what, guess what they
did work? And you know why they worked. And this
is like the most important thing when you're listening to
(01:06):
this podcast and you're feeling upset about what's happening, right
now in this country, about the attacks on free speech
and the ice facilities and the people being disappeared in
the middle of the night. I'm telling you you should know,
you guys have a lot more power than you think
you do. And autocrats want you to feel powerless. But
there's nothing to feel powerless about. They canceled Jimmy Kimmel,
(01:28):
and you know what happened. People are pushing back. By
the way, this is a disaster for them. And again,
like you just have to keep pushing back, even the
dogs really mount you to push back. None of this
is a feed accomplate. Every inch matters. The more that
people push back peacefully, the better, and that's what we're
seeing here. Look, you have to make it more expensive
(01:51):
for these companies to screw the consumer over, to screw
you guys over, than it is to fight with Trump.
And so that's what is happening now. We have Abs
is stuck between are they going to roll over for Trump,
which they think is the cheaper option, or are they
going to do the right thing. And if consumers tell
them to do the right thing, they will. And remember
(02:11):
if Target just had the same experience, they rejected all
of woke and you know what happened. Their numbers went
way down and their earnings went way down. So you
have power in your dollar, you have power in your protest,
you have power in your vote and voter registration. You
have a lot of power. And Trump world wants you
to think you don't have power, but you absolutely do.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Speaking of which, Chicago is a place where we've seen
a lot of that, and ICE plans to evacuate their
Chicago area based facility following protests which were pretty ugly,
including in front of the show Kataboozagala, who's running for Congress.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
They are getting thrown around.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
Yeah, I mean, really terrible. Look, peaceful protests work. It's scary.
This is a really scary moment right now. But there
are more people who want America to be not crazy
then there are the people who want whatever this sort
of terrifying Steven Miller vision is. So just know that
(03:08):
and know that the Trump people are not organized. They're
doing a lot of stuff that's illegal. That's why they
keep losing in court. You don't have to cave to
illegal actors. You can push back in a peaceful way
and it works. And that's what we're seeing in Chicago,
by the way, important. Remember Trump wanted to send the
Federal Guard into Chicago and now he's not. And remember
(03:31):
federalized the Guard. He sent the National Guard into California
and it was deemed illegal. And so I do think
it's important. Remember like pushback works. Princeker is a great
example of how pushback works. And I'm really heartened to
see what's happening in Chicago. I'm heartened to see what's
happening with Kimmel. These are the ways, these are the
things that worked in twenty sixteen. This is the way
(03:53):
to peacefully resist. This is the way to not lose
our institutions.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
Yeah, here's more good news.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
I'm shocked there's so much of it since I now
it's been a week.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
Really has been a bad way. God go on.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
Fortune magazine has a really interesting article by Jeffrey Sonenfeld,
who's a founder of the Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute,
And they say, behind closed doors, our top CEOs say
Trump is bad for business, and they're getting fed up.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
I mean, this is really, I think important because everything
Trump is doing is really is ridiculous. Crony capitalism is
not capitalism, turning America into Argentina. Argentina is not the
envy of the world. Let me tell you their economy sucks.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
But their president has such cool hair. Molly, I don't
know what you're talking about.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
Yeah, exactly, And I think it's important. Look, the Ft
had a really good graph about how the value of
the dollars since Trump has taken office has gone down
and down, and Danna, Dad, and that's because people don't
have faith in our economy, because they don't have faith
in our numbers, because they don't have faith in our leader.
And you've seen other Republicans speak out against this. This
is a completely crazy way to run a country. And
(05:06):
I think like a great example of how poorly thought
out and how just ridiculous so much of this is
is the H one B visas. So on Friday, Donald
Trump made this announcement about the H one B visas.
It's not thought out, it's not necessarily legal, it's going
to get challenged in court, and it's just like everything else,
like the tariffs, right, those tariffs were waiting around to
(05:28):
see what the Supreme Court does on the tariffs. Again,
tariff's being challenged by conservatives, by the surviving Koch brother
Trump is so bad for the economy that even Republicans,
the people who are supposed to be maga, are rebelling.
And I think it's a really good sign of how
(05:49):
untenable this situation is.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Hard to agree. A lot of people are reading this
Trump truth as if he was trying to send a
DM to Pam Bondi and accidentally put it on me.
I'm curious, Abouali, do you buy this theory?
Speaker 1 (06:05):
I don't know. It's funny because I was on television
today and somebody asked me what I thought Trump was
trying to do, and I was like, oh my god,
I forgot that we used to do this. So I
try to interpret Trump. I don't know. I mean the
fact that we're even trying to interpret someone. Like in
a normal administration, if a president did this, everyone would
(06:26):
be like he needs to be impeached.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
So for those not in the know, he basically wrote
what looks like a DM to Pambondy, basically saying, you
need to start putting my.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
Enemies for my enemies.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Yeah, and I'm tired of waiting, basically as one does.
And you know it, like whether he did that or not,
you are correct that like this is a silly thing
for us to discuss, because the real problem is with
the meat of the sandwiches, not what the crust on
the bread is, which is this is a really, really
scary authoritarian escalation.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
Yeah, I mean Trump wanting to prosecute his political enemies.
By the way, again, I just want to pause. He
said he was going to do this, right, Remember he
was running for president. Everyone's like, well, you're not going
to prosecute your political enemies, and he was like, no, no,
I am remember that. I mean, Like, the great thing
about it is that he does not lie. He just
(07:19):
I mean, except sometimes when he lies, like when he
said he was going to make things cheaper, remember that.
So look, he wants Bondie to prosecute his political enemies.
The fundamental problem is that Trump wants to do a
lot of stuff, a lot of it's not legal. He's
going to come into collision with his Supreme Court sooner
rather than later, probably sooner. And you know it's also
(07:42):
just insane.
Speaker 4 (07:44):
Ye.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
Part of what's happening here is that a lot of
these people don't want to do this stuff because they
don't see the evidence. And I think it's easier to say,
like prosecute my political enemies. It's a little harder to
figure out how to do it in the system without
ending up in And I think a lot of these
people are trying to figure out what is it worth
(08:05):
to them to follow what Donald Trump blonds them to.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Yeah, so Malli, I was told, mister Trump, he really
cares about the farmers.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
They're big, beautiful farmers.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Yes, the biggest, the most beautiful.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Yes, Yes, that's what I was told to chet Well.
According to this new reportant writers of Republicans are conflicted
between loyalty to constituents. Are Trump and the farmers are
basically saying, we're out of money, chief, and you better
start paying that.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
We need age, we need subsidies, subsidies for farmers, subsidies
for everyone who's not the arts or newspapers. Look, this
is again, all of this stuff is so. All of
Trump's economic ideas are terrible. He's going into a trade war,
which is, we need these other countries to buy our stuff,
(08:51):
and they're not going to buy our stuff if we're
tariffing their stuff at thirty percent or whatever. So I
don't know. I mean, he did this last time where
he totally over the farmers and he gave them some money.
There's a farm bell. I mean, I know that no
one in Congress legislates anymore, but you know, there was
a whole thing that we had going where the farmers
(09:11):
would grow the grain and we would then use it
for USAID. I mean, you'll remember USAID, which was the
thing that where we fed really poor people in countries
for like thirty cents. And it was a great case
of American soft power. Now Elon Musk, the richest man
in the world, said it was too expensive, so they
cut it. Thank you, Marco Rubio. So we have children
(09:33):
starving in Africa because of you know whatever, what is
a rounding error in the American budget. Can be prouder
to be an American right now, just so disgusting. So yeah,
I don't know. I mean, Trump has no plans to
make things cheaper, so I don't know what happens here again,
you know, I just want to talk about one thing
for a minute. There is right now Congress is hurtling
(09:55):
towards the shitdown. You'll remember Congress as the group of
people who made themselves com completely irrelevant by just going
along to get along with Donald Trump. Democrats have a
chance to extract something from Trump.
Speaker 5 (10:08):
Now.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
I don't think it's going to be something big. I
think it's going to be something small. And I think
Chuck Schumer has this idea that he can get Trump
to extend these payments for Obamacare subsidies so that the
Obamacare premiums don't go up twenty thirty percent. I think
that's a mistake. I don't think Republicans are going to
(10:30):
give that to Democrats, and I also think that if
they did, would actually help Republicans. I think a lot
of these people voted for this, They voted for higher
Obamacare premiums. So this is what I'm going to say.
I think that Democrats should try to get subpoena power.
I think they should try to get some kind of
trade where they can hold hearings that they can subpoena people,
(10:51):
because then at least they'll have a tiny bit of oversight,
and they can work with Republicans to make it so
that Republicans can have some bit of oversight, because I
know there are a lot of Republicans, I mean, they
won't speak publicly because they're cowards, but that who are
not happy with what's happening. Right now and who've lost
almost all their power. So if Democrats have subpoena power,
(11:14):
at least there can be hearings and they can blame
them on the Democrats. And honestly, I think shutting down
the government, I don't think it's going to work. And
I think that Democrats could conceivably be blamed. You know,
they want the government shutdown, they want the government destroyed.
So I can really see a world where if they
just make this one little trade, maybe it will come
(11:34):
off looking like they have nothing, but at least they'll have,
you know, some kind of power to get those people
talking to hold hearings. And I think that's a real thing.
So I could be wrong, but I don't think it
makes sense.
Speaker 5 (11:45):
You know.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
One of the things we saw on twenty sixteen was
Democrats were too successful at preventing people from losing things.
People are gonna have to lose things. That's what they
voted for. Rick Wilson is the founder of Lincoln Project
in the host of the Enemy's List. Welcome back to
Fast Politics, Rick Wilson.
Speaker 6 (12:04):
Oh, Molly John Fast, good to see you again. So always,
so many, so many days have passed.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
Right, Tom Holman, you may know him as the.
Speaker 6 (12:15):
Future future recipient of a of a one way trip
to the Hague.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
Okay, so the guy who runs jailing everybody from congressional
candidates to members of Congress to people who are here legally.
Pretty much, he's our jailer in chief. What's the news
that just broke about that guy?
Speaker 5 (12:36):
You know?
Speaker 6 (12:36):
It turns out that the FBI, undercover FBI agents offered
Tom Homan a fifty thousand dollars payment bribe if you will.
I think that's the word we still use in America.
Speaker 4 (12:47):
And technically bribery is still illegal, hypothetically unless you're a
member of the trunk cabal, in which case, And I
don't know how this happened, Molly with the with the
rigid ethical standards of today's Department Justice and FBI.
Speaker 6 (13:02):
Somehow, somehow this investigation got dropped, just some by some
strange legal twist of fate. Some Omen walks free.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
So this is a story from MS now that got
broke today. But I just when we talk about this
DOJ dropping investigation. So we had the Tom Holman investigation dropped,
we had all the charges against Trump dropped.
Speaker 6 (13:27):
Jeffrey Epstein investigation covered.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
Up, well, who even knows where that is? But we
did have one. Glaine Maxwell moved from a high security
two a non security right, basically a SPA with the
no one right and no one else. Who is a
who has a sex trafficking You know, you can't. The
(13:50):
kind of criminal she is does not belong in the
kind of jail she is in now.
Speaker 6 (13:54):
However, as we now know, her status as a sexual
offender was changed so she could go there. And and
when cash Battel was asked last week in a congressional hearing,
how did that happen? His the answer was there was
a lot of legalism, but it was like a hummahammahammadahammahamahammahammada.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Yeah, and cash Battel, I mean the Cash Battel hearing.
I'd love to go back to that for a minute,
because one of the incredible things about that hearing was basically,
he either if he doesn't know anything, which is certainly possible.
Speaker 6 (14:27):
It's in the range of possibility.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
He is not telling the truth about anything, also possible,
much more likely.
Speaker 6 (14:35):
Okham's razor seems to point that direction.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
Is there another is there something behind the third door?
Speaker 6 (14:41):
Yes, he's leading or helping to lead a massive government
cover up where he recognizes that every word out of
his mouth in a congressional hearing is probably going to
be perjury, and he better hope Donald Trump stays alive
for four more years so that this part.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
Of federal prison so he can pardon.
Speaker 6 (14:59):
Yeah, and I I will just say this make I
hope that we have an election in twenty twenty eight.
I hope a Democratic candidate wins, and I hope that
they definitely positively never consider Merrit Garland for any role. Yeah,
I think, because I want somebody who goes in there
on day one and they were having arrests on day three.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
I don't want to squander any time on Merrick Garland.
Bible squandered enough time, Yeah, right on Merrick Garland. But
I do think this is not okay now what I think.
I'd love to talk about Kimmel with you for another minute, Yes,
because we're seeing in real time the pushback works and
the caving makes you you. If you cave, you have
(15:40):
no legal remedy for anything you do, because when you cave,
you enter an illegal agreement with Donald J. Trump, who
will never be satisfied by what you give him.
Speaker 6 (15:54):
Molly, listen, I mean if if Bob Iger, who before
this was considered like a really good CEO before this, right,
people thought of Bob Iger as as an ethical and
smart guy.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
I understand, whose wife has a free speech charity? Continue,
who runs a journalism program? Yes, the journal? Yes, when
Bob Iger did this. First off, Bob Iger was around
for the agreement on the on the ABC payment. Okay,
the fifteen million dollars settlement. That was not necessary that
they went to cover the Steffanopolos case. He was not necessary,
(16:26):
as the Times prove this week.
Speaker 6 (16:28):
Right, right, as the Times prove this week, say no,
tell them that fuck off and move on.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
But Wall Street Journal New York Times both did the
right thing and both are winning in court orpen we
sid Trump.
Speaker 6 (16:41):
Tried to assume me for a billion dollars week before last,
and my response has been, literally my lawyer said, in
to his response, go fuck yourself. Iiger went to the
alter of shareholder value and said, oh, I've got to.
But here's what's going to happen. Watch what happens to
Disney stock tomorrow. The early selling is already ugly, and
(17:01):
it's going to be really hard for the Maga masses
to wake up and go, oh, the company that we
hate because they're so woke about the gays, remember DeSantis
and the Maga of people, and hell a war with
Disney because Disney is libtard woke culture war blah blah.
They're not going to go out of memestock Disney, right,
(17:21):
And so Bob Iger is about to get the worst
of all possible worlds. And then when that's over, he's
going to get a phone call from Trump said, Hey,
put my boy Don Junior on the board, right, what's
he going to do?
Speaker 3 (17:32):
What's he going to bed?
Speaker 1 (17:34):
And that is what we're seeing across the board when
it comes to making peace with Trump. And before we
talk about the tech pars, I want to just do
one more beat on the Paramount merger because I think
it's so important. There's a woman called Cherry Redstone, daughter
of Sumner Redstone. She decides she's got to sell her
(17:56):
company to the to Ski Das's owned by Big Trumpy,
the Ellison's second richest man in the world. So she's
does these three things right. She settles rich, well, it's
back and for us, right, but riches second, Yeah, he's
very rich. Is richer than we are. He does she does.
(18:17):
She does three things right. She pays, she does She
pays off this frivolous CBS lawsuit which is bullshit, which
she would have won. She cancels Stephen Colbert because on
high they told her to. And the third thing she
does is she puts this on this man at CBS, okay.
Speaker 6 (18:36):
A thought police representative approved by the administration.
Speaker 1 (18:39):
She does these three things, she paves the way. She
gets Whites right, well, she gets the that's she's gone now.
But she because Sherry has gotten the deal done, she's
gotten her money, she's got out. She thinks at the
time this is not such a big deal because she
wants to get the murder done. But what we see
looking back is that every single small decision is like
(19:02):
like this gets us to where we are today. And
so the road to authoritarianism is paved with just small
decisions to go along to get along.
Speaker 6 (19:12):
It's paved with merger merger ambitions. And look, I think
that that, you know, the backstory of Next Star and
Sinclair going after Jimmy Kimmel through through Disney is because
they want their own merger ambitions approved. Next Star in
particular wants to merge with Tegra, which is another chain
(19:32):
of TV stations, right of course, so they're going to
play the whole Maga role to the hilt. All of this.
If you're if your god alan is quarterly stock report, right,
then you're going to say, screw it. We may hurt
some people, we may break democracy, but you know, at
least our our shareholders.
Speaker 3 (19:52):
Will be happy.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
Right but the but ultimately, and this is why I
want to talk about the tech visus, the h one
visus and one hundred thousand dollars a year price tag
that Donald Trump has just put on them. So a
few things about this. It's yet another illegal thing from
the Trump administration. Yes, president does not set visus. That
(20:14):
is Congress. Now Congress has given up doing anything because
they don't want Trump to be mad at them. But
there are still our courts that are not completely in
Trump's pocket. All of this is illegal. But more importantly,
and I think this is what I really want you
to talk about. This presidential proclamation is written so poorly
(20:38):
that believe it or not, nobody even knows what the
fuck they mean. So here's what happens.
Speaker 6 (20:42):
You could run it through Chadgypt, and it would say
this is obviously written by a meth ATel raccoon.
Speaker 1 (20:47):
This is written by Chadgypt, and Chad JPD is not
where it needs to be at this moment. As we're
all seeing, Molly.
Speaker 5 (20:57):
Here's the thing, the H one b visas.
Speaker 6 (21:00):
And I know that that Stephen Miller is at the
center of this particular thing, and Navarro is at that
center of this particular thing. So two people who are
not notoriously shall we say, Nobel Prize Economics winners in waiting,
they're not They're not really.
Speaker 5 (21:18):
Good at this THEA.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
I do think it's important. Navarro is a lot stupider
than Stephen Miller.
Speaker 6 (21:24):
Oh yeah, Navarro's that's a very low but it's a
low bar. But Steven Miller is not stupid. He's just evil.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
Yeah, but is working a whole crazy thing that we
don't Yeah.
Speaker 5 (21:35):
He's the RFK of Trade.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
Of trade.
Speaker 5 (21:38):
Yeah, that's right, So Wally, I mean.
Speaker 6 (21:42):
What they don't understand is when you read it, it's like,
but I can waive this if you're nice to me.
This is another Trump bribery scheme, but an awful lot
of those H one p v's of workers who come
here in Silicon Valley in the tech industry. A huge
number of them are here as nurses and healthcare aids
(22:04):
because that is a giant, giant market that America's American
workers have not, do not want to, and will not fill.
So these these nurses who were coming over from Ireland
and India and Germany and all these other places there
they're going. Now, we're going to blow a big hole
in that market. And I'm sorry, Elon Chatgibt cannot replace
(22:26):
nurses and whole healthcare aids well.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
But I also think look at Milania, it was an
H one B visa, so let it, you know, in
a genius visa, and so was the she came in
on an Epstein visa, right right exactly. I think it's
called an Einstein visa and not an Epstein visa, but
very nice.
Speaker 3 (22:46):
I get confused.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
But the point I think is that these tech companies
have worked so hard to suck up to Trump. I
mean that we had Tim Apple give Donald Trump a
twenty four carrot chachke to in the White House.
Speaker 6 (23:02):
Thinking about you've got Mark Zuckerberg, Jensen Wang, Tim Apple,
Larry Ellison, Yeah, Jeff.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
Larry Ellison's doing better on this.
Speaker 6 (23:12):
All of these people H one B visa workers make
up a meaningful fraction of their employees.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
And one of the biggest users of H one absolutely.
Speaker 6 (23:24):
And you know who else uses H one B visas,
Donald Trump, Right, an awful lot of the hospitality workers
he has at mar A Lago and Bedminster and these
other clubs and these other buildings are here on H
one B visas and Andy. Yeah, and H one B
visa costs five thousand dollars too, right now, that seems
(23:44):
like a lot, but it's not that much for company,
for most companies, But one hundred thousand dollars means that
Trump will have them in his pocket and say, Okay,
you're gonna have to either pay me a bribe or
or or your company is going to buy into my
crypto or whatever ever scam of the week he's running.
And it's also and I know, I know this is
(24:05):
going to upset the magas, but an awful lot of
people who come to this country on H one B
visus meaningfully contribute to our economy. They pay taxes here.
It's also going to blow a hole in the economy.
And it's just nuts. We're gonna and we're gonna send
very talented scientists and computer science folks and medical researchers
(24:28):
to China. That's where they're going to go. They're going
to go.
Speaker 5 (24:31):
To China, right.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
But I also think it's important to realize here that
when this presidential proclamation was proclamation was issued, there was
so much confusion that different companies send emails to their
employees like, don't leave the country, get back as soon
as you can there and it's going to be like
(24:56):
a nightmare on airports. And also it's probably not legal,
and so it's going to get overturned in court. So
it's like, this is like I feel like it's such
a great example of trump Ism. It's like it is
like banana or public staff.
Speaker 6 (25:11):
I can tell you that the chaos it's causing is
amateur hour and stupid in every way, but it is
causing a lot of people.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
I know.
Speaker 6 (25:21):
Again, the MAGA folks think, oh, if if foreigners are afraid,
it must be good. But it's cllling a lot of
fear and chaos in disruption. There will be an economic
ripple effect on this because they're stupid. These people who
are doing this are stupid. And again, if you want
to help China become the dominant economic power in the world,
this is how you do it. You can talented people
(25:42):
who want to come to America and do research and
do work and pay taxes, and who are here legally
because I remember this is also Reveal's part of the
Maga LIAI oh, legal immigration as fuck.
Speaker 5 (25:54):
No, it's not. No, they don't like it.
Speaker 1 (25:56):
It's not.
Speaker 6 (25:57):
This is what they're trying to do. And I got
to tell you my part Renee, my fiance. She's got
scientists from all over the world who are now paralyzed.
They're like, I can't go home, I can't come back.
What the hell do I do?
Speaker 1 (26:08):
Right, we're already seeing the numbers right that the economy
is not the economy it was nine months ago. We
see the tariffs, We saw the Bureau of Large of
Farm Labor Statistics just delayed.
Speaker 6 (26:22):
Were going to talk about inflation and maybe it'll just
go right, And.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
I feel like, you don't. If the last head of
the bureau got fired for bad numbers and then you
decide not to release numbers, that's probably because those numbers
are not great.
Speaker 6 (26:38):
I am guessing if inflation had dropped significantly. They would
be having a ribbon cutting ceremony, they'd be setting off fireworks,
they would have been to sea. I told you so,
blah blah blah.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
And part of trump ISM's obsession right now, Trump's obsession
with crime, right His obsession with crime, his obsession was
rolling in the National Guard to different cities, is because
he thinks crime is a winner for him and he
doesn't have anything else because he's underwater. Talk to me
about those polls.
Speaker 6 (27:10):
Oh my god, listen, my son Andrew is a brilliant
young poster and about a month ago he says to me,
I think we're at the bottom.
Speaker 5 (27:19):
I don't know how he goes.
Speaker 6 (27:20):
Any lower than this. On the economy, in particular, Trump
is now so far underwater on the economy, it's twe
He's twenty seven percent negative on inflation and crisis.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
And that was his big winner. That was the thing
where he might have been. People didn't like this, they
didn't like that, but they always thought he was a better, a.
Speaker 6 (27:42):
Good businessman, he understood the economy, and he's upside down
on everything.
Speaker 3 (27:49):
Now.
Speaker 6 (27:50):
Fifty one percent of Republicans have a negative or very
negative view of the economy. I mean he is, and
his approval ratings now are in the mid th thirties,
mid to high thirties. And if you if you look
at the correlation of Trump's approval and the economic numbers,
it is very strong, and it is going down very quickly.
Speaker 3 (28:12):
Nothing.
Speaker 6 (28:14):
Nothing, There are no upside numbers. About a month ago,
he was still net favorable on protecting the border, right,
even that's underwater. Now the whole thing is collapsing. And
this is why I tell Democrats, do not be afraid
now to confront him. Eventually, eventually even his Republican you
(28:35):
know minions in the House and Senate, they're going to
have to run for the exits at some point. Go,
I got to protect myself.
Speaker 3 (28:41):
Boss.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
When you watch these companies cave to him, you have
to realize, like, and I think Target is a great example.
So Target went anti DEI because whatever, and now their
numbers are way down. This is not rockets ions, Like,
people don't like this, it's not popular.
Speaker 6 (29:01):
None of the things that he's doing outside of the
MAGA base itself, and even inside the MAGA base, a
lot of them are no longer. The the crime stuff,
the racism stuff, the populism stuff that's still pretty much
worse with the base. But there's a problem he's gonna
have any that he's already having. And the reason that
(29:22):
negative economic number of even Republicans saying they're unhappy is
because it's not spinnable. When you're in the grocery store.
When that maga mom who may who may not love
wokeness is in Target or Walmart, or or the gas
station or the grocer, those numbers are real. She's gonna
have to pay those or the man's going to fill
(29:42):
his tank at five bucks a gallon instead of the
promised dollar eighty five or whatever.
Speaker 5 (29:47):
Yeah, all of it.
Speaker 6 (29:49):
Eventually, even Trump's bullshit machine collide, is collides with reality,
and it's colliding really ugly in the polling.
Speaker 1 (29:57):
Yeah, and I think I think that's a really good point.
And that's what we're seeing, and that's why these companies
need to stop being fucking cowards.
Speaker 6 (30:04):
Yes, correct, correct.
Speaker 1 (30:06):
Wilson, Yes, Mary, will you come back?
Speaker 3 (30:09):
You know I will every time.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
Ian Brema is the president of the Erasure Group. Welcome
to Fast Politics, Ian Brema.
Speaker 5 (30:20):
Thank you, Molly John Fast. It's so nice to see you.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
It's very nice to see you. You know, there was
international strife and I thought, who could I talk to
about this? And especially the story that I think really
is the story that I think is a huge story
that's just not being covered right now, which is the
incredible fracas with the electric car company plant in Georgia.
Speaker 5 (30:44):
Oh, the South Korea situation.
Speaker 7 (30:46):
Yeah, yeah, I mean it's an important story. I wouldn't
consider it the most important story.
Speaker 5 (30:52):
It's embarrassing.
Speaker 7 (30:53):
It hurts their relations with an ally, but that is
kind of part of the course these.
Speaker 1 (30:56):
Days, right, So do go through micro macro what you
feel like the world is looking like right now.
Speaker 7 (31:03):
I just came from Washington literally a few hours ago,
and when you look at all the National Guard troops
that are there, we have to recognize the reason it's
not like setting in la or Memphis or Chicago is
because this is where all of the embassies of the
world are sending. You know, in many cases, they're most important,
they're most capable ambassadors.
Speaker 5 (31:24):
They've got massive staff, and.
Speaker 7 (31:25):
They're all reporting back on what's happening in the US
and in Washington. And you know, my meetings with those people,
they're kind of freaked out right, they're kind of thinking, wow,
this is it's a very unpredictable environment in the US.
Increasingly you have an unreliable government and leadership that we
can't count on, and it seems like your president is
(31:50):
not really interested in rule of law and checks and
balances on the executive and if you're trying to make
your country into a one party state, how should we
react to that? So, I mean, you know, I'm not
suggesting that they're panicked. I'm not suggesting that this is
the end of you know, American power. I don't think
(32:10):
the US.
Speaker 5 (32:11):
Is particularly in structural decline.
Speaker 7 (32:13):
I don't believe that, but I certainly think that the
US is doing incredible long term damage with relations with
so many friends, so many countries around the world, and
it's completely unnecessary.
Speaker 5 (32:28):
That to me, is what the state of the world
feels like right now.
Speaker 1 (32:31):
I think that's right, and I've certainly seen reporting that
bears that out. A good example is there was, you know,
this reporting from New York magazine about these fashion reporters
who came to New York for fashion Week, and we're
saying that it's like going to Russia or China, which
is such a shocking phrase, but I think it speaks
to the anxiety. Now, obviously it's not like going to
(32:53):
Russia or China or here are doing a podcast, so
obviously it's not Russia or China. I think they're sort
of this anxiety is too prong. There's the anxiety of
the anxiety, and then they're sort of the reality, which
is also pretty anxious. Making Why do you think that
the troops are still in DC and what do you
(33:16):
think that has created? I mean, do you think that
has added to it?
Speaker 7 (33:19):
Yeah, I think it's added to it right now. So far,
it's largely performative. They're there because they can be. He's
not I mean, in the case of DC specifically. You know,
there's no legal reason for them to have to go,
so he's not breaking the laws, not acting in an
extra constitutional manner. And my experience with those troops, and
(33:40):
I probably encountered at least one hundred of them over
the course of my very brief visit, I would say
they were mostly friendly, some were indifferent, none were hostile.
They were not threatening to me or to anyone else
that I saw, and mostly they didn't have anything to do.
But Trump likes them there, and his narrative is that
(34:03):
the country, and pockets of the country are in an
emergency with criminality that you've never seen before.
Speaker 5 (34:10):
It's chaos. You're going to lose your country unless I
do this.
Speaker 7 (34:15):
And of course that helps this broader point of I
am protecting you against the enemy, and the enemy is
the other.
Speaker 5 (34:25):
Side and by far the most I mean, we've.
Speaker 7 (34:27):
Got to talk about this briefly, although you want to
talk about foreign policy. But the Charlie Kirk thing, and
you know, it was such a horrible act, such a
despicable act, that's going to make our country far more
dangerous to assassinate this young man. But the fact that
the president of the United States, the fairly elected president
of the uniedaate it's my president.
Speaker 5 (34:47):
Your president came out before we knew.
Speaker 7 (34:49):
Who had killed this guy, before we had any motive,
and said, I know that it is the left that
is responsible for this. Is the most uncautionably, irresponsible, unaccountable,
non leaderly thing that I have ever seen a president
engage in in.
Speaker 5 (35:10):
The United States.
Speaker 7 (35:11):
That's obviously meant to help to facilitate his attacks against
one side of the political equation in the US, which
he considers the enemy. That is no way to run
a democracy and it's not sustainable.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
Frankly, right now, I think the big thing that world
leaders are not pleased with or the tariffs, because it
seems like the markets are pretty much not responding to them,
except with the bond markets and perhaps with the dollar
going down. But I wonder if you could talk to
us about Trump had a plan with tariffs they've been
(35:46):
or something, talk us through what people are feeling thinking
about the tariffs, and what he has.
Speaker 5 (35:52):
Is a tool.
Speaker 7 (35:53):
It's a principal tool of American power that he's believed
in for many decades now. And the reason I shook
my head when you said he has a plan is
because for Trump, the tariffs accomplish many different things, some
of which are contradictory. So tariffs are good to address
(36:13):
trade deficits that the US has. Tariffs are useful to
raise revenue in the United States.
Speaker 5 (36:22):
In a deficit spend environment.
Speaker 7 (36:25):
The tariffs are useful to help relocate manufacturing, investment, capital,
and jobs in the United States. The tariffs are useful
to address unfair non trade practices economically of certain countries
around the world. The tariffs are useful to address non
(36:48):
economic problems that Trump has with individual countries around the world. Now,
those are a lot of different reasons, most of which
have nothing to do with a national emergency, which is
the requirement for the AEPA clause that Trump used, which
is why the Supreme Court should rule against the legality
of him even being able to do this. But what
(37:12):
we're talking about, and you're right to focus on this, Molly,
because of all the things that Trump has done in
his first nine months globally, by far, the most consequential
has been to bring US tariff levels to their highest
since the nineteen thirties. Tariffs were functionally close to zero.
They're now likely to average out by the end of
(37:33):
the year thirteen to fifteen percent. It's a massive tax
on the American consumer. It is a significant drag on growth.
It will drive inflation. It hasn't yet because a lot
of these tariffs have only recently been put into place,
and because they were talking about it for a long time,
(37:53):
companies were able to get goods in place in advance
that could avoid those tariffs.
Speaker 5 (38:01):
That will end and then prices will go up.
Speaker 7 (38:04):
So this is I mean, if you think about Trump
having won the election in part on his management of
the economy. This is now going to be a vulnerability
that he will experience.
Speaker 1 (38:15):
Yeah, and again when you look at inflation, that was
really one of the secrets to his reelection, right.
Speaker 7 (38:24):
Yes, and that inflation, those numbers, I feel quite strongly
over the coming six months are going to continue to
go up.
Speaker 1 (38:31):
So feed is going to cut a little bit interest
rates at a moment like this, which is where inflation
is on the way up or it looks like it's
certainly on the way up for now. I mean, I know,
cutting interest rates when the economy is shaky is the move.
But when inflation seems like it's on the way up,
are you not supposed to do that?
Speaker 6 (38:51):
Yeah?
Speaker 7 (38:51):
Well, inflation isn't yet on the way up significantly. It's modest,
and oil prices are comparatively low, and that's the exception.
So it does seem to me that most economists, of
which I am not one, right, I'm a political scientist,
I'm an international relations guy, But I think consensus among
the economists now is, yeah, on balance, you'd expect a
(39:11):
move to reduce rates. Now, would that be the beginning
of several moves that would bring rates back to.
Speaker 5 (39:17):
The levels they were before?
Speaker 7 (39:18):
No, but I don't think that there's not a huge
amount of controversy around the president move that they're discussing.
Speaker 1 (39:24):
The whole point of the tariffs, at least if there
is a point, is to bring manufacturing back to the
United States. I mean, I think Trump thinks it's to
punish his enemies.
Speaker 7 (39:34):
There's lots of reasons, and that's one, and I think
it's one of the more stupid ones. Because only eight
percent of the US economy is manufacturing. I think only
two to three percent of the jobs in the US
of manufacturing.
Speaker 5 (39:46):
Labor rates are not competitive. To bring manufacturing back.
Speaker 7 (39:49):
It will certainly drive much more automation because it's the
only way you're going to be able to do it productively.
The American economy will not be driven by jobs from
the till late twentieth century. Just won't be knowledge economy.
It's a services economy. That's what we should lean into.
That's where populism is going to grow. I mean, the
jobs that are going to go away, they're not gonna
(40:11):
be manufacturing jobs in the next five ten years.
Speaker 5 (40:13):
They're gonna be AI jobs. And those are white collar
professional jobs.
Speaker 7 (40:19):
Those are university graduates, they're gonna have a very hard
time finding places to work.
Speaker 5 (40:24):
Those are coders that are no longer relevant.
Speaker 7 (40:27):
I mean, those sorts of things have nothing to do
with manufacturing. That is all the things that Trump is
focusing on. That to me feels like the least relevant
of his teriff arguments.
Speaker 1 (40:37):
Currently in the market that AI is is much of
the gains almost all I think of the gains right now?
Do you still feel confident that this is like a
smart beat and not a bubble.
Speaker 7 (40:49):
I don't have confidence as to share valuations because it's
not something I spend any time on.
Speaker 1 (40:55):
When you think of it as a game changer, yeah.
Speaker 7 (40:58):
I mean, first of all, I all already see among
the Hyperscalers, the Microsofts, the Googles, the Metas, the Anthropics,
that these companies already have the majority of their coding
done by AI, and they believe that within six months,
twelve months, eighteen months maximum, that that's going to be
(41:21):
a overwhelming majority. Now it should not surprise us, Molly,
that the companies that are making the AI algorithms are
the ones that are.
Speaker 5 (41:33):
Actually benefiting the most. First, because of course they're going
to orient towards what can we do that we can use.
Speaker 7 (41:41):
Right, They're going to be the first users, so I'm
not surprised.
Speaker 5 (41:45):
That they will benefit the most to begin with.
Speaker 7 (41:48):
But I think in very short order that's going to
bleed over into all sorts of different spaces. And I
see it with so many different folks in the private
sector I talk to in different sectors that are developing
use cases that are supplementing and are replacing workers. I
see it in my own company, two hundred and fifty people,
(42:09):
not that big, but the use cases we have for
AI and every component in every corner of our firm.
It's in graphic design, and it's in editing, and it's
in you know, sort of research and so many different
area and it's in helping us compile data analytics for
salesforce and you name it right. And I'm not personally
(42:29):
involved in all of that stuff, but I see it,
and it's inconceivable to me that this isn't a game
changer in pretty much every sector over the coming five years.
Speaker 1 (42:40):
Yeah, in this moment that we're in right now, what
are the tensions that you're watching here when it comes
to the world. You know, Trump was on this incredible
no Bel Peace Prize kick where he decided he was
going to solve, you know whatever, a certain number of
wars in a certain number of days, and what he
did was alien in aid India. Right, he was unable
(43:03):
to solve many wars. We still have Israel, we still
have Ukraine. What does the world look like now? It
strikes me that some of Trump's sort of strongman stuff
has not worked.
Speaker 5 (43:13):
Yeah, I think that's right.
Speaker 7 (43:14):
I mean, he has had some successes, including some successes
in wars. I would argue that he and Vance and
Rubio were useful at least that the margins and maybe
more than that on India Pakistan, but then wanting to
take credit for it, he embarrassed Mody in ways that
was unacceptable to the Indian Prime minister, who has an
inego that's almost as big as drumps. So unfortunately, you know,
(43:36):
I mean they kind of they did it right, and
then you.
Speaker 5 (43:39):
Know, he undermined his relationship.
Speaker 7 (43:41):
And he's also been aligning more with Pakistan for business reasons,
including personal and family business reasons, which are not what
we want to see the president do, but that's a
part of it. He has been useful in some other fights,
like the DRC in Rwanda, like Armenia and Azerbaijan, like
Thailand and Cambodia. There are real fights around the world
where I think Trump has made some positive contribution to
(44:04):
ending conflict. But the big ones, and there are two
that are big, which is Israel Gaza and Russia Ukraine
he has failed and Russia Ukraine he has actually admitted
he's used the F word. He said failure, which I
bet you were surprised when you heard that. Right now,
something Trump typically it iss, he's frustrated, he's.
Speaker 5 (44:24):
Kind of angry, he's a little embarrassed.
Speaker 7 (44:26):
It's a problem because, of course, what we have is
these two countries that are armed to the fricking teeth,
that are engaged in throwing everything they have at each
other in ways that could easily escalate me right now,
the thing that is fortunate, not fortunate for the Ukrainians,
by the way, not fortunate for the one million Russian casualties,
(44:47):
but fortunate for those of us sitting in the cheap
seats here is that that Russia Ukraine war has ground
to a near standstill for the last year and a half.
Speaker 5 (44:57):
I have no confidence that's going to.
Speaker 7 (44:59):
Be true another year, two years, and if it starts
to become the case where the Ukrainians start feeling they
could lose everything, or the Russians start getting hit in
ways that make Putin feel personally vulnerable.
Speaker 5 (45:13):
Then all bets are off, all bets are off.
Speaker 7 (45:16):
Then we're in serious trouble, right, I mean, then NATO
could have an active war on its hands, not just
a proxy fied supporting Ukraine.
Speaker 5 (45:23):
That's a really really dangerous thing.
Speaker 7 (45:25):
And the Israel war with Goza doesn't have that, you know, broader,
you know, beyond the region implication.
Speaker 5 (45:32):
But the fact is there are.
Speaker 7 (45:35):
A lot of countries right now that are really angry
with Israel acting with what they believe is impunity, what
they believe is ethnic cleansing, what they believe is war
crimes and unconscionable humanitarian depredation at the hands.
Speaker 5 (45:51):
Of Israel, which refuses to listen to anyone.
Speaker 7 (45:54):
And when you have the Israeli Prime Minister saying he
needs to get ready for the country has to get
ready for being isolated, that's a really bad message. Because
of course, historically Israel has been the guiding light for
democracy in the Middle East, to the extent that there
is one well, that ain't true anymore. That's a real problem,
(46:14):
and Trump is not is certainly not being effective, and
to the extent that he has his thumb on the scale,
it's in favor of a country that increasingly most American
youth think is the bully and aggressor.
Speaker 5 (46:26):
They're more sympathetic to the Palestinians.
Speaker 7 (46:28):
That's true for a majority of the Europeans, and it's
true for a majority of the country's an overwhelming majority
of the countries all over the world.
Speaker 5 (46:35):
So all of this is to.
Speaker 7 (46:36):
Say and then you know, you said, well, you know,
Trump's having some losses. Trump's also most spectacularly had to
back down on China, where he acted like he.
Speaker 5 (46:46):
Had the cards, and he came out after.
Speaker 8 (46:48):
Liberation Day with these big tariffs, and you know, continuing
with policies that he starred in his first term that
Biden expanded his second term.
Speaker 7 (46:58):
I mean, the one place you see by partisan agreement
in foreign policy is that China is the principal adversary
of the US and needs to have some level of containment,
and Trump throws it all out the window because it
turns out that China has the ability to.
Speaker 5 (47:10):
Hit him back hard, particularly on critical minerals. And so
now he's the one that bent the knee.
Speaker 7 (47:15):
And that is a message to other countries that if
you've got the cards, if you're strong.
Speaker 5 (47:19):
Enough to stand up to Trump, that is absolutely the
right move. Ian.
Speaker 1 (47:22):
Thank you. I hope you will come back so important
and interesting. Thank you.
Speaker 5 (47:27):
You're going to see him on.
Speaker 1 (47:30):
No moment, Wilson.
Speaker 3 (47:34):
Molly junk Fast. Is it that time?
Speaker 1 (47:36):
It is that time. I love the time of times.
What is your moment of fuckery?
Speaker 6 (47:41):
My momentive fuckery is something I have a lot of
very personal experience with, and that is Department of Defense
media policy. And I can tell you one thing used
to I did, indeed, and I and I handled a
lot of media media.
Speaker 5 (47:54):
Fends you worked for.
Speaker 1 (47:56):
Yes, let's talk.
Speaker 6 (47:58):
The greatest, the greatest sectuff of my life.
Speaker 5 (48:00):
Time.
Speaker 1 (48:00):
Jesus fucking Christ will agree to disagree.
Speaker 6 (48:03):
On Look, the policy in every defense department since World
War Two, there has been a relationship with the press.
Where As an institution that respects the American way of
life and the and the constitution, the deparminent Defense. They
may don't want to tell you every secret, they may
want to set some rules from time to time, but
(48:25):
they have by and large been honest and open with
the American media. Pete hexaf is establishing a new media
policy in the Pentagon which now says you may not
report on anything that is not officially provided to.
Speaker 5 (48:37):
You, yes, which this is North Korea. Yeah.
Speaker 6 (48:42):
Now, now the Department Defense at presspool has already been
replaced largely with Breitbart, o A, N Muse Max, you know, Eagle,
Patriotnews dot Org, Dot Mill dot r.
Speaker 1 (48:57):
U ah, Maga News one History right exactly.
Speaker 6 (49:01):
And so Hexa doing this, it tells you that he believes,
like Trump, that they deserve nothing but ludicrously favorable coverage
all the time. They're told they have to sign an
oath that they will not release information that is that
is not given to them, or they'll be taken out
of the out of the Pentagon. Here's the answer for
(49:22):
every major newspaper and every major press organization. Okay, Pete,
fuck off and they leave.
Speaker 1 (49:28):
And I want to point out that there was an
opportunity with the White House Press Pool to do the
same way. And Donald Trump told the Associated Press that
they had to call a Gulf of America, right, and
they did house, you know, and if Donald Trump and
if the White House press pool had been like, we're done,
we'll see you, and they left. Even if you kept
(49:52):
MAGA news one, two, three and Breifart, Donald Trump would
have caved. Is see what happened.
Speaker 6 (49:58):
They all said, all, well, shit out. I don't want
to not be here if Susie Wilds calls me into
her office to tell me something.
Speaker 1 (50:04):
And that's how we got and that's the road to authoritarianism.
That's how we got here.
Speaker 6 (50:09):
This is and I am not a person who says
all journalists are transactional blah blah blah, but the White
House is a very tempting beat to get very good
insider stories and make your career on and too many
people decided they could make some sort of they can
make some sort of accommodation with the bullshit.
Speaker 1 (50:28):
The organization just should have said no. They should have.
Speaker 6 (50:31):
Said they should have said no.
Speaker 1 (50:33):
And I don't think you can fault them for it,
because I think there's no playbook for this moment. But
now we are seeing clearly what works is pushing back,
and so.
Speaker 6 (50:45):
Pushing back is the key. It has always been the key.
And I've been telling people this for months now. He's
not as strong as you think he is. He's dangerous,
but he's not. He's not omnipotent. Yeah, he's not a god.
He's not god, and he can't he can't send you
to jail right yet. He might try at some point,
(51:07):
but his his numbers collapse and his health collapses. I
think we're going to see he will be dangerous. But folks,
we're not helpless. And if you know, it's like it's
like people were asking me over the weekend, like, oh,
should we should we.
Speaker 5 (51:20):
Sell our Disney stock?
Speaker 1 (51:22):
Yes?
Speaker 6 (51:23):
Yeah, sell your Disney stock and also make sure you.
Speaker 1 (51:26):
Have I know by the way has sold their has
sold their Disney stock.
Speaker 5 (51:29):
Oh yeah yeah, Rick Wilson during Fast see it that time.
Speaker 1 (51:37):
That's it for this episode of Fast Politics. Tune in
every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday to hear the best
minds and politics make sense of all this chaos. If
you enjoy this podcast, please send it to a friend
and keep the conversation going. Thanks for listening.
Host
Molly Jong-Fast
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