Jimmy Kimmel Canceled, Marine One Grounded, and Golden Trump Holds Bitcoin: Democracy's Really Going Grea

Patrick Gutfield breaks down the week's absurd political news: Trump threatens to revoke broadcast licenses while Jimmy Kimmel gets indefinitely pulled from ABC, Marine One makes an unscheduled landing in England due to hydraulic issues, crypto investors install a twelve-foot golden Trump statue outside the Capitol during the Fed's rate announcement, and the fate of TikTok hangs on a phone call between world leaders. Plus, why Congressional Democrats are now the ones fighting to protect free speech, and what happens when your backup helicopter pilot finally gets their moment to shine.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Calaruga shark media from America, where you can't criticize the
president or you lose your show. This is ballot. I
don't know why anyone would criticize him anyway. He's awesome.
I'm Patrick Gutfield, and President Trump is now threatening to
revoke broadcast licenses because late night hosts are making fun

(00:25):
of him. And apparently the Federal Communications Commissioned chairman was
pressuring ABC so hard that they just pulled Jimmy Kimmel's
show indefinitely. Now I know what you're thinking. Didn't Trump
spend years saying he was the champion of free speech. Well,
turns out that was only when other people were being censored.

(00:45):
When it comes to comedians making jokes about him, Suddenly
he's very pro censorship. The man who complained about cancel
culture for four years is now canceling Jimmy Kimmel faster
than a Netflix subscription after a price hight. And here's
the beautiful irony. Congressional Democrats are now trying to pass
legislation to protect free speech. Yes, the party that Trump

(01:07):
claimed wanted to destroy the First Amendment is now literally
trying to save it from Trump. But hey, at least
Seth Myers is still on the air for now. He
paid a nice tribute to Jimmy Kimmel and then jokingly
told Trump he's a visionary, an innovator, a great president,
and even better golfer. Then he added that if anyone's
ever seen him say anything negative, that's just Ai, which

(01:31):
is an absurd notion to think that Ai could write
lame late night style jokes. Trump is having another phone
call with Chinese President She, and this time they're trying
to hash out the great TikTok Deal of twenty twenty five. Yes,
we've reached the point where international diplomacy now revolves around
whether teenagers can keep posting dance videos. Trump said, I'm

(01:52):
speaking with President She as you know, on Friday, having
to do with TikTok and also trade, and we're very
close to deals on all all of it, which is
exactly what every negotiator says right before talks completely fall apart.
She is probably thinking about Jimmy Kimmel and the times
she canceled Late Night with Lee Ming Wait. I thought

(02:14):
we were supposed to be the ones with government censorship.
This is very confusing. Now, let me get this straight.
We're in the middle of a trade war with China,
Farmers are losing billions in exports, late night hosts are
being canceled, and the big breakthrough everyone's waiting for is
saving TikTok, the app that Trump wanted to ban, then

(02:35):
didn't ban, then maybe wanted to ban again, and now
apparently credits with helping him win the election. But here
we are, with the fate of TikTok hanging in the
balance of a phone call between two world leaders. Future
historians are going to have a field day with this chapter,
The Great TikTok Crisis of twenty twenty five, how dancing
videos nearly started World War Three. Trump had quite the

(03:04):
adventure getting around England yesterday. Marine one, that's the presidential
helicopter for those keeping track at home, had what the
White House is calling a minor hydraulic issue, which is
government speak for the helicopter started making scary noises. Now,
when your helicopter has hydraulic problems, there are really only
two options. Land immediately or become a very expensive paperweight

(03:29):
that falls out of the sky. Fortunately, the pilots chose
option one and made an unscheduled landing at a local airfield.
The President and First Lady safely transferred to the backup helicopter,
which raises an interesting question. Why do we have backup
helicopters following the president around? Somewhere there's a Secret Service
agent whose whole job is flying around in a spare helicopter,

(03:51):
thinking I hope I never have to use this thing.
Yesterday was his day to shine. What was supposed to
be a twenty minute flight from the Prime Minute's place
to Stanstat Airport turned into a forty minute journey. So
Trump was late, but for once it wasn't because he
was tweeting or getting distracted by a mirror. The Royals
were hosting the Trumps to discuss a large US investment

(04:13):
in the UK, which probably means Trump looked at some
castles and said, I could put my name on that.
While the Federal Reserve was making their big interest rate announcement,
someone thought, you know what, this moment really needs a
twelve foot golden statue of Trump holding bitcoin, and then
they actually did it. The timing was perfect. Right at

(04:35):
two pm, the Fed announced they were cutting interest rates
by a quarter point, bringing them down to about four
point one percent, and there's Trump immortalized in gold, clutching
bitcoin like he's about to make it rain digital currency.
The Fed also said they're planning two more rate cuts
this year, but only one in twenty twenty six. Wall
Street was hoping for five cuts by next year, so

(04:57):
they're probably looking at this statue thinking maybe the gold
and Trump knows something we don't now. The organizers claim
this statue is meant to provoke debate about the future
of digital currency and monetary policy, which is a very
fancy way of saying we made a giant golden Trump
because we really really like bitcoin. The group says they

(05:18):
chose Trump because of his outspoken support for cryptocurrency, which
is true. Trump has been very vocal about crypto, especially
after he figured out people would pay him in bitcoin.
Nothing says currency of the future like a seventy eight
year old man who just discovered it. To be fair,
it probably got more attention than any Fed announcement in history.

(05:39):
When was the last time anyone cared about interest rate decisions?
Now they're appointment viewing thanks to golden Bitcoin Trump. You
wonder what the Secret Service thought when they showed up
for work and saw this thing. Portions of today's show
were made with the grant by the First Amendment and
AI