075 - Nicki Minaj Goes MAGA, Epstein Files Get Messy

Donald Trump is slapping his name on everything from the Kennedy Center to warships, “TrumpRx” drug plans, Trump-branded kids’ accounts, and even the Institute of Peace—and Jimmy argues that might actually be a long‑term win, because those names will still be there when the pendulum eventually swings back and future leaders start scraping them off. Alyssa pushes on what it means to permanently attach Trump to the policies, money, and bloodshed of this administration when they inevitably try to blame it all on someone else.​

From there, they dive into the economy gaslighting: promises that cheaper gas and “fixed” supply chains would bring prices down versus the reality that corporations simply kept prices high because no one is forcing them not to, with eggs as the perfect example of a crisis‑spike that never returned to pre–bird flu levels. They talk about how this regime loves to boast about affordability while grocery bills and basic costs still squeeze everyone, and how that disconnect is already threatening them in upcoming cycles.​

Then it’s Epstein time. The two walk through how the newly released Epstein files are a mess of black bars and technical incompetence: PDFs that can be unredacted with simple copy‑paste or contrast adjustments, obvious Trump‑related material missing, and photos removed even when those images are already public elsewhere. They point out how the administration promised transparency but is now clearly more interested in protecting powerful friends—especially Trump himself—than in exposing any alleged pedophiles or abusers, even as survivors who once supported him now call for impeachment.​

Jimmy and Alyssa also dig into Barry Weiss taking over CBS News, killing a 60 Minutes segment that was reportedly unfavorable to the administration, and what it means when “we can’t air this without a White House quote” effectively hands veto power over critical reporting to the very people being investigated. They talk about how Weiss has built a career on “I left the left” grifts, curated outrage, and a brand of “both sides” that always seems to break in favor of power, Zionism, and clicks over integrity.​

Israel and Gaza run through the center of the episode: Alyssa describes watching a longtime friend post thirst‑trap vacation stories from Tel Aviv—beet juice by the beach, shirtless runs, murals demanding hostages be brought home—while people a short drive away are starving and entire neighborhoods are rubble. They talk about selective outrage over antisemitism, how criticism of Zionism and a US‑backed genocide gets relabeled as hatred of Jews, and why it’s obscene to demand perfectly “equal” emotional energy for oppressed people and those with vastly more resources, power, and safety.​

They also hit the weird celebrity MAGA pipeline: Nicki Minaj’s fall from a once‑beloved queer‑adjacent figure to someone courting reactionary stages, despite her music being full of lyrics the same crowd would deem degenerate if they weren’t so desperate for star power. They compare that to Russell Brand’s new charges, the P. Diddy doc, and the way fading celebrities often pivot to right‑wing audiences to launder reputations, distract from allegations, or cling to relevance.​

On the domestic front, they cover the University of Oklahoma firing a professor for giving a zero to a student who turned a psychology assignment into a “multiple genders are demonic” sermon instead of doing the actual work. Alyssa and Jimmy ask what happens to education when any critical standard can be reframed as “religious discrimination,” and joke darkly that by this logic you could answer “2 + 2 is Jesus” on a math test and get your teacher fired.​

Finally, the extended segment goes deep into Pluribus, a bleak sci‑fi near‑future where a unity virus links humanity into a shared consciousness, wipes out loneliness and inequality, but slowly kills the bodies it inhabits. Jimmy and Alyssa unpack the ethics of a world where everyone is happy and resourced, where a handful of uninfected “twelves” can ask the collective for literally anything—from grenades to nukes to all‑you‑can‑eat groceries—and where consent, exploitation, and utopia blur in ve