Rick Wilson 2

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, we're live though now.

Speaker 2 (00:01):
Hey everybody, all right, all right, well thanks for joining today, everybody.
I am delighted to have Aaron ruppar with me today.
Aaron is the guy who follows everything. I don't know
how you do it, brother, but but you've been especially
busy in the last two weeks now, because even above
and beyond the normal cadence of everything that goes on

(00:23):
around this world we live in during Donald Trump, it
has been even more crazy than usual. And you've been
up on this Epstein matter like few other people could
even imagine being talk to us about where you see
the say to play. I think today he had another
pretty bad day with Rupert dropping another shoe.

Speaker 3 (00:43):
Yeah for sure.

Speaker 4 (00:44):
And today was actually a day where I had this
scheduled many weeks out that I had some housing related
chores I had to do, and so I had I
had to step away, which you know, with my line
of work can be very dangerous, and thankfully I have
some people who kind of will DM me tips and
things like that, and so you know, I just had
left the hardware store and I got a DM about

(01:05):
the Tulsi press conference today. It's kind of like you
need to see this kind of thing, and you know,
it brought back memories of some of the really bonkers
press conferences that we saw during the first Trump term,
and you can go all the way back to the
Sean Spicer one is ready to stay. But you know,
of course, the reason I bring that up is because
I do think, you know, it's quite obvious that that
sort of thing, which you know, was like a dystopian

(01:26):
you know, like something out of like some sort of
dystopian movie. It was very clearly, i think, calibrated to
distract people from the Epstein stuff. And you know, you
kind of wonder now with the pacing of the story today,
which of course the big reveal is that Trump's name
with you know, is in the Epstein files apparently numerous times,
and that not only that, but Pam Bondy told Trump

(01:47):
this back in May, which of course, you know, caused
me to go back, because it was just last week
that Trump was asked by a reporter directly if Pam
Bondy had told him that he was in Pristine files.
Then he said no, So we lied apparently, or someone
who's lying. And I'm guessing I'm.

Speaker 1 (02:01):
Sure, I'm sure devild Trump would lie about this. That's
a that's a real poser right there.

Speaker 4 (02:06):
And then you know, it makes you think back to
when Elon Musk. I think that was around the same time. Wait,
may you know, apparently as when this briefing happened, when
Musk posted in his tweet that he pretty quickly deleted
about Trump right from the files. And so you know, now,
I guess the natural question is, you know, so we
it's not surprising that Trump would be in the Epstein files,
given the closeness of their friendship, their relationship over you know.

Speaker 3 (02:29):
The course of many decades.

Speaker 4 (02:30):
Of course, you know, Epstein up too long before he
died in jail, said that Trump was his best friend.
And he of course just saw the letter that Trump
wrote to him for his fiftieth birthday, So you know
the nature of their friendship. I don't think it's surprising
to learn that Trump is in there. But I guess,
you know, the question is in what context is he
discussed in the Epstein files? And will we ever learn that?

(02:53):
And you know, I guess I'm not totally sure we will,
but you know, it certainly has Trump shook. And I
think that Tulsy Gabbart today kind of revealed that, Yeah,
I mean.

Speaker 2 (03:03):
The TOASTI gabrid thing. I've decided I'm not even going
to dignify it with an answer. It's just as a
hide a wave of bullshit trying to cover up what is.
You know, clearly put him so off his game. And look,
you've been a really close observer of how Trump plays
out his madness as an effective communications tool for the

(03:24):
last few years, but you've noted a couple of times
he's really off pace. He's really not in the same
flow of being able to control the narrative, control the media,
control the headlines as he's been in the past.

Speaker 4 (03:42):
Yeah, you know, I'm kind of up to minds about
that a little bit, because you know, there's been a
lot of talk, Lady about Trump's pulling, kind of cratering,
and certainly when you look at the issue polls, it
looks pretty bad for him, the fact that he's down
in immigration and he's down on the economy and these
issues that are kind of signature issues for him. But
he still when you look at kind of the broad
trend line of his approve is kind of in line
with his first term. You know, he kind of he

(04:03):
staggered through his whole first term around low forties approval,
high fifties disapproval. So I don't think the bottom has
really like fallen out or anything like that.

Speaker 2 (04:10):
But uh, why, yeah, yeah, it's but it's starting to
nudge down under forty, which I think is also part
of what has set off this like freak out.

Speaker 4 (04:21):
Yes, and you know, I would admit I was as
surprised as anybody that Epstein seems to be the story
that is really kind of damaging him at this point.
I mean it's one of the first ones that I
can recall where his base is kind of turning on
him because you know, we used to the dynamic of like,
you know, people like you and me, you know, kind
of the bullrck style, right, you know, former Republican slash

(04:41):
like center left people you know who are you know,
appalled by Trump and scandalized by you know, whatever the
latest scandal is. And there's one, a new one every week,
but this is you know, one of the first ones
where it feels like his right flank, you know, is
equally if.

Speaker 3 (04:53):
Not even more, upset with him.

Speaker 4 (04:56):
And you know, of course Mike Johnson now is very
engaged in the you know, attempt cover this up by
basically canceling Congress for six weeks, you know, to to
forestall any votes on releasing some of these files, you know,
and I'm concerned. I mean, you know the topic of
my newsletter, Marral public Notice is going to be this
meeting that's happening with Todd Blanche and Glane Maxwell where

(05:16):
you know, it seems to me my suspicion is that
they're going to try to kind of get their cover
story straight and you know, probably some some sweetener in
it for Julane.

Speaker 3 (05:24):
I don't know what that would be.

Speaker 4 (05:25):
Probably not a pardon, but you know, something they can
do for her while she's in prison. So you know,
I don't think we're out of the woods in terms
of the cover up working in this case, but I
do think it's somepll. You know, The Wall Street Journal
dropped this bombshell last week about the letter that Trump
had written to Epsteina's fiftieth birthday. Trump responded by filing
a lawsuit for threatening and then filing it. But instead
of backing off the story, you know, as Today revealed,

(05:48):
the journal was following it. They're dropping new revelations, and
so you know, Trump thought he could kind of bully
his way out of this one.

Speaker 3 (05:54):
It doesn't seem like it's going to work.

Speaker 4 (05:56):
And that's you know, that's different because Trump has very
successfully in this second term, is then able to bully
outlets like CBS, you know, other outlets that have settled
with him basically paid him off over harassment lawsuits. And
it doesn't seem like the Wall Street Journal, which you
would think, you know, given Rupert Murdoch's relationship with Trump,
given the role that Fox plays and kind of propping
him up and serving as an echo chamber and kind

(06:17):
of a mouthpiece for his administration, that you know, they
might be they wouldn't go as hard on him as
they are. But it seems like at least that part
of the Murdoch empire is going pretty hard on him.

Speaker 2 (06:29):
Yeah, it will see how deeply Rupert wants to take this,
because there if it starts, if they start going at
Trump on the Fox side, it'll be in the day part.

Speaker 1 (06:38):
It'll be in the day side first. It won't be
at night.

Speaker 2 (06:40):
We shouldn't, don't folks should not expect Hannity to go
out and say how dare he? It'll be in the
day side, which will cause him Ajuda. But you know,
Rupert's ninety four years old. I think his give a
fuck reservoir is pretty low right now. Yeah, So, Aaron,
I want to ask you another question because I think
there's you know, you also follow a lot of what

(07:01):
the media is up to.

Speaker 1 (07:03):
I've sensed this. I was curious if you have too.

Speaker 2 (07:06):
I've sensed a kind of of uplift in the media
the last couple of days, like, huh, he's not bulletproof.

Speaker 1 (07:13):
Huh.

Speaker 2 (07:14):
We don't have to pretend that you know that that
all the bullshit coming out of carolyin love his mouth
is the exact truth.

Speaker 1 (07:22):
I don't know if you've since that too, but I'm.

Speaker 2 (07:24):
Seeing a little bit like eating around the edges and
the corners, a little bit like, huh, maybe this story
deserves another rut.

Speaker 1 (07:32):
Maybe we should, you know, not be as afraid of
these people.

Speaker 4 (07:37):
You know. I think there is something too that I mean,
we already talked about kind of journal element of this,
you know at O'Keefe. I believe is that CBS during
today's press briefing ask Carol Levitt like a pretty part
hitting in a kind of unflattering question about how you
know Marco Rubio during the first Trump turnout, he's in
the Senate, you know, signed off on the intelligence report
that basically, you know, undertind a lot of the claims

(07:58):
that Telsea gabbartt is now making about the politicization of
intelligence and Obama's role in all of this, And so
you know that to me, O'Keefe is not a guy
who's normally kind of going for the juggular. But I
saw that kept really circulating widely because they didn't really
have an explanation for this. No, I will say because
I'm immersed most of the time in kind of the
raw materials, in the sense that I'm watching the press
free things. I'm watching the congressional hearings, I'm watching the

(08:19):
Trump speeches, I'm watching the Mike Johnson press conferences.

Speaker 3 (08:22):
So you know, I do read. I mean, obviously I
read a lot of news.

Speaker 4 (08:24):
I can't say I've noticed like any huge change in
the tone of coverage like in a New York time.

Speaker 1 (08:30):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (08:30):
I'm not saying it's like a big thing yet, but
I feel like a few reporters I've spoken to have
been like, you know, I talked about this a couple
of years ago, maybe I should go back and go
at it again. I looked at this at one point
and said, da da da dad. We'll see what happens.
But I do think there's.

Speaker 1 (08:45):
A little bit of a a little bit of a.

Speaker 2 (08:49):
I'm not sure what it is yet. It's something chemical
in the water. And while they while a lot of
the White House correspondents are still going to play the
Carolyn Lovett game, yeah, a lot of others, I think.
And maybe it's because they are seeing that that, you know,
it's it's the old thing for the movie Predator. You know,
if it bleeds, we can kill it. It feels different

(09:11):
for me. And and like I said, I don't think
it's widespread yet. I think it's sort of growing slowly,
kind of bubbling up a little bit.

Speaker 4 (09:20):
Do you think that specifically on the Epstein story or
are you talking kind of more broadly.

Speaker 1 (09:25):
I think I think the Epste story may have catalyzed it.

Speaker 2 (09:28):
But the trade stuff, even a couple of weeks ago,
the trade stuff was like, okay, enough of the bullshit,
you know, enough enough of the drama. The Taco moment
hurt him with with a lot of press when they
when even though they.

Speaker 1 (09:41):
Should have known it because it's gone on for years.

Speaker 2 (09:44):
When they when they're like, okay, oh, this is the game,
says one thing for the base, another thing for the
for the diplomats, and and and I do think that
that sort of shifted the shifted the ground a little bit.

Speaker 3 (09:58):
Yeah. You know.

Speaker 4 (10:00):
The other thing with that though, is that you know,
you look at you look at the doubt to day,
it's you know, flirting with record highs again. And right
you know, we're coming up on August one, where you know,
you mentioned the taco thing. I think taco wing is
still very much on the table for August one. However,
you know best and what he's been doing the rounds
of TV shows this week, he's been very adamant that

(10:21):
August one is a firm deadline that the tariffs, you know,
for that if there aren't deals, they are going to
be these reciprocal tariffs which are hugely dacronian. And then
at that point, you know, will reality set in because
you know, part of my frustration with what we've seen
over the past six months has been, you know, just
kind of the widespread assumption that Trump is full of shit,
and how you know that lets him get away with
a lot of stuff, especially you know, this like insane

(10:43):
tariff policy where the markets are just kind of been
denial about it. They don't actually believe he's going to
implement them. I don't know if they're just kind of like,
you know, huffing hopium and and they think it's not
gonna be as bad because maybe they've been brainwashing and
believing that tariffs actually will be eaten by the foreign
countries or you know about formerch or somebody else. But
you know, I mean, that's that's kind of thing. I mean,
you keep waiting for the stove touching to occur. And

(11:05):
I think we've definitely seen it in immigration realm, where
like you know, what we've seen in La just the
you know, the and the kidnapping of people off the
streets and like just the brutality of ice and the
deportation policy. So I don't want to minimize that part
of it. But I think, you know, the issue is
that kind of helped Trump, you know, I guess immigration
was one of them. And you know, certainly securing the
burger I think is something he could tout as a

(11:27):
legitimate victory for him. But you know, kind of beyond
that economically, you know, we haven't really seen even despite
the tariff stuff. Inflation has gone up a little bit,
but not that much. The markets have been pretty strong,
the job market's okay, So like, you know, that's where
I still feel like, you know, we're kind of in
this weird liminal phase where like the policy and the
rhetoric is totally insane, but that hasn't really translated to

(11:49):
real world impacts where people are feeling it, which I
think the kind of thing that would really cause his
support to kind of crash through a floor in a
way that it hasn't yet.

Speaker 2 (11:58):
Yeah, I mean, the one thing, the one number strikes
me is that the new Yugu pull that came out
this week, where he's twenty nine points upside down on
inflation and prices in a weird way. In a weird way,
he's falling victim to the same thing inverted that the
Harris campaign fell victimy They fell into a culture war
trap that he said about trans and other stuff, and

(12:20):
they didn't.

Speaker 1 (12:21):
Do enough to offset that idea about inflation and prices.

Speaker 2 (12:27):
Trump now is playing a culture war game with all
this bullshit he's throwing out there about about Russia and
trying to hide away from the cultural war impact of Epstein,
and he's ignoring that flank where his own voters were
pretty sensitive to prices and if they're going up, and
you see that in his numbers, he may be setting

(12:48):
himself up for when those economic chickens come home to roost,
a pretty a pretty bad crash into the reality wall.

Speaker 3 (12:58):
Yeah, you know, I agree with that.

Speaker 4 (13:00):
I'm kind of waiting for that to happen still, because
I think a lot of people expected it after April two,
you know, with the Liberation Day tariffs, and then you
know that the markets were spooked, and then even after that,
you know, he kept the ten percent across the board
tariff in place, which is like a much higher tariff
than we've pretty much ever had in American history. And
you know, I mean it depends what you talk to
whether you know it is the case that some of
these big retailers kind of stocked up before the terroiffs,

(13:22):
but they bought ahead, right, and so that forced all
the impact a little bit. And you know that that
won't last forever obviously, you know, and especially now for
a heading to a place here in about a week
where we're going to have you know, thirty to forty
percent tariffs on most of the world, Like, you know,
that's certainly going to have an impact. But you know, again,
I don't think it's fully like happened yet. You know,

(13:43):
even the inflation report that came out last week, it
went up like, you know, slightly, which which that and
you're right that this puts White House. White House officials
in a bad spot where they have to explain that yeah,
place she went up a little bit, but it's really
not that bad, you know, which was basically their line
last week. And it's like, you know, didn't we just
live through an election where you know, this was the
issue where.

Speaker 2 (14:01):
Joe Biden said, inflation isn't that bad, it's getting better
all the time.

Speaker 4 (14:05):
We're okay, yeah, I mean that's you know, and that
was something that I really learned from that from that election.
I mean, you know, you're a bit older, but so
you probably lived through a little bit the inflation in
the seventies at least for a child when that happened,
and kind of yeah, yeah, but you know, for me, it.

Speaker 1 (14:20):
Was it was spectacularly bad.

Speaker 2 (14:23):
I mean I was, I was, I guess I was
about ten when it hit but I could remember that
was a thing for people. They were upset. It was
bad and and you know, I don't know that we're
on the cusp of that yet, but we didn't have
to be here at all as the irony we inflace
was coming down, it was coming under control. The inflationary

(14:45):
decisions now and then spend a shit ton of money
on the big bill, do the tariffs and not do
anything about the other cost drivers that are hurting people. So,
you know, we'll see if he owns it in the end.
It's always it's always problematic. But I do think this
Epstein stuff has been it's kind of it's kind of

(15:06):
let people reset on the expectation that he's going to be,
you know, focused completely on the economy, because for the.

Speaker 1 (15:13):
Last two weeks this has been it.

Speaker 2 (15:16):
No matter what he's been throwing out there, it's all
related back to this.

Speaker 4 (15:20):
Yes, And you know, I don't know how you feel
about this, but there's been you know, for me a
little bit. It kind of makes me almost feel crazy
in that Just yesterday, you know, I saw people re
upping the Jonathan Swan Trump interview from the summer of
twenty twenty, which happened shortly after the press briefing where
Trump was asked about Glane Maxwell and basically said, very awkwardly,

(15:41):
you know, I wish her well.

Speaker 3 (15:42):
I didn't really know her that well.

Speaker 4 (15:44):
But yeah, oh yeah, you know, like yeah, And then
you know, Swan asked him about this, and he sounded
so guilty in his reply, you know, with kind of
the flailing about all I didn't really know her, and
you know, anybody who's in prison, I wish them well.

Speaker 3 (15:55):
I don't want anything bad to happen to her.

Speaker 4 (15:57):
And you know this and that, and it's like, how
did this not really break through more back then? I mean,
where we just maybe so consumed with COVID and of
course that was you know, the the BLM protests were
going on that summer, and you know, there are million
other things happening. But you know, since I've revisited some
of this stuff because it's back in the news, it's
like all the pieces.

Speaker 3 (16:14):
Were were there. I mean, we knew about the friendship.

Speaker 4 (16:17):
You know, we saw the videos of them partying at
mar A Lago, you know, I mean it's just all
the same conspiracies about you know, Epstein's death were relevant
at that time, So it really is, you know.

Speaker 3 (16:30):
And the other thing that I think is kind of
a misnomer.

Speaker 4 (16:32):
There's this idea that I see people on social media
kind of push sometimes where it's like Trump campaigned on
the Epstein on the Epstein files, and it's like, no,
he didn't. Actually, I mean the one time that he
was asked, he did a Fox News interview, like in
October last year, where he was very plumby about it,
and he was kind of like, well, we released whatever
was pertinent to release.

Speaker 1 (16:47):
You know what He's say, We don't want to hurt
other people who might be caught up in it.

Speaker 3 (16:52):
Yeah, right, So yeah, I mean they're the you know,
cash Matelda.

Speaker 4 (16:54):
There were pop aids of his who made a big
deal of this obviously and did kind of build brand
and audiences off it. But this notion that like Trump
has really betrayed people by promising one thing and then
not delivering, Like, that's not really true. Maybe he shouldn't
have put these people in prominent roles in his administration
for a variety of reasons, one of them being that
you know, it's backfiring him in this context of the

(17:16):
Epstein files. But Trump never made a big you know,
any big promises about releasing all this stuff. He's been
very consistent trying to distance himself from it.

Speaker 2 (17:25):
He did. I was struck by what you said. It's like,
so much happened back in twenty twenty. We almost sort
of like gloss it over. It's one of my folks
reminding me of my production team. Like, remember we did
an add about Julne Maxwell of Trump saying I wish
her well because at the time, I remember, you know,
I've written two books about the guy, and Epstein came

(17:47):
up while I was interviewing people for both books, like
you should look into Palm Beach. He's crazy, GEPs scene's dirty.
All Their relationship was always a known quantity. But this
idea of of Trump and Epstein, you know, of him
thanking a woman who had just been sentenced to prison

(18:08):
for twenty years for old sex trafficking. Yeah, it's not
nobody processed that on the MAGA side at all. Like, Okay,
this is problematic, this is weird. Why would he do that.
I don't know that he would get the same pass
on it today from his own people.

Speaker 3 (18:27):
Yeah, maybe not.

Speaker 4 (18:29):
You know again, like when you go back to twenty twenty, though,
I mean the QAnon stuff was kind of at a
fever pitch. Then you know, that was when I think
it was Eastbo had the big documentary on QAnon, which
you know, which is of course is you know, both
that and Pizza Gate are kind of obsessed with pedophiles,
and you know, and so you know, all of the
base was the same base. You know that he's been
working with this whole time. But for whatever reason, you

(18:51):
know this, you know in Bondie, you know, when you
reflect on that interview that she did in Fox and
the comments that you made about oh, you know, the
list is on my dead right, you know, if she
just wouldn't have said that, you know, I mean that
that was one of the things that I think really
kind of fuel this idea that there's a cover up happening,
and it is notable even today. And I have a

(19:11):
kind of a hard time disentangling this where you know,
so there's all these allegations now that Tulsa Gabbert is
making and that Carolyn Levitt and Trump are making about
Obama attempted a coop and it was seditious conspiracy and
all this stuff. But then you know the next thing
is when they're pressed on Okay, so what's going to
happen to him? And it's always well, that's up to
Pam Bondi. You know, I wonder like, are they like

(19:32):
setting her up to kind of be the person that
they blame when he's not arrested.

Speaker 2 (19:37):
Yeah, I will say this, And as an observer of Maga,
Pam Bondi speaks maga fluently or no, I'm sorry, excuse me,
excuse me does not speak maga fluently. Bongino and Patel
speak Maga fluently. I think she is very nervous. If
I were her, I would be very nervous as being
the fall guy in this whole thing, because there may

(20:01):
be a point where Trump says, oh, she misled me.

Speaker 1 (20:04):
I don't. I can't believe what she's done to me.

Speaker 2 (20:07):
Because this is this is, this is going to reach
a cadence where it's gonna be hard for them to say, Okay,
Carolyn Levitt's doing a great job of changing the subject,
and this and and and Tolsi Gabbard's doing a great job.
None of them are doing a great job right now.
This has weighed into the culture more than than they
than they could have imagined, and You're right there there

(20:28):
are a lot of MAGA influencer types who are ahead
of where the base is. I think of trying to
like steer away from it a little bit. I'm not
sure it's working though at scale.

Speaker 4 (20:40):
Yeah, I mean, what are your thoughts on uh, you know,
because I've been with Pam Bonni specifically kind of surprised
at you mentioned that you don't think that she speaks
MAGA fluently, but like she definitely speaks the language of
authoritarianism pretty fluently, or she kind of you know, the
life for sure. Yes, And you know, there was this notion,
you know, and I'm sure you've seen this meme on

(21:01):
social media, you know, because of course the Washington Post
Edite Royal Board basically endorsed her confirmation and said, oh, she's.

Speaker 3 (21:08):
A serious person with like a serious background.

Speaker 4 (21:10):
And I kind of knew her, you know, from her
connection with like the kind of petty Trump corruption stuff,
or when she was running for age there was an
investigation of the you know, the Trump organization and then
you know, for kind of a pittance, it was like
thirty thousand dollars, she backed off. But you know, have
you been surprised by kind of how seamlessly she's fit
into the role of like kind of attack dog, you know,

(21:32):
like almost like frothing at the mouth during these Yeah,
it's that she does, like, yeah, because I didn't see
that coming.

Speaker 1 (21:37):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (21:38):
She she she is has two qualities.

Speaker 1 (21:41):
He adores she's blonde, and she's obedient.

Speaker 2 (21:44):
And and you know, I've been told that that Miller
is very much in contact with her as the sort
of Trump whisperer for her side. I always told that
Susie Wiles was the one who called her and said,
this has you gotta you've gotta calm this down.

Speaker 1 (22:00):
You got to take to take care of this when
it came to the Epstein stuff.

Speaker 2 (22:03):
But she has been very big on that Miller Vaught
wing of the Party of Absolute Executive Power.

Speaker 1 (22:14):
You know, we won't tolerate rogue judges.

Speaker 2 (22:16):
All that stuff. I mean that that to me, I
think she has done a good job for him in
making happy on that front. But some of that now
is going to be subsumed by you know, she'll be
judged only on whether the Epstein materials stay or go
in the public consciousness, I think, right.

Speaker 4 (22:34):
Right, Yeah, And you also wonder, you know, with the
follow up that we saw today from the journal, like
what else they have? And you know, are they already
kind of reporting out stories where they're looping in Trump?
You know, basically in a sense of like, hey, do
you have comment on we're reporting out this story, you know,
as you do as a reporter basically, but you know,

(22:57):
when you kind of sync up some of the more
unhinged allegations that Trump has made, like the deflection with
this like Obama Gate two point zero thing that he's trying. Now,
like the timeline kind of checks out where it's like, okay,
so they probably told Trump that they had this letter
two weeks ago roughly, you know, which is when kind
of crazy started cranking up on Trump's side. And now
we see, know we see today, you know, Tulsa has

(23:18):
this kind of just surreal press conference and then you know,
an hour or so later, they dropped a story about
Trump being named in the Epstein files.

Speaker 3 (23:26):
So I don't know.

Speaker 4 (23:26):
I mean, I'm assuming if they had kind of the
smoking gun of like not only was he named, but
here's how and you know, let's let's actually kind of
quote from the Epstein files or characterize what's going on there,
I would assume that they would come out with that
right away, but you know, it does. It does make
me believe that there's a lot more there.

Speaker 2 (23:43):
Here's Here's sort of as a Rupert observer over time,
I think Rupert loves good content spread out over a
ratings period. So if they've got ten items, they're going
to drop a hot one to open the gate. Then
they'll drive it out, drib drab it out for a
little while, then they'll set the hook and and he

(24:06):
Trump has been very very responsive to being baited by
Rupert lately, and I don't think this is I don't
think that this beef is one that that Trump can
just say, Rupert, it's over. You're not going to do
this anymore, or my base will stop watching. Remember that
guy's ninety four years old, he's out of Fox, and

(24:26):
he's brought down he's brought down governments before, he's brought
down prime ministers before he is and he he when
he does it, he does it so he can build
audience and visibility for his media properties. So I think
he's been a weird I think Trump's in a weird
place where he doesn't he doesn't have anything to give
Rupert or even to threaten him with really, so we'll

(24:48):
see what happens. But if they do have the a
crown jewel, it might let even have come yet.

Speaker 1 (24:54):
You know, think about this.

Speaker 2 (24:56):
They assigned a thousand FBI agents to look through all
this EPSTEE material to lag for Trump's name. That's a
thousand potential leaks. It's a thousand potential sources, a thousand
people who could have seen something and thought, I'm not
going to be part of a cover up.

Speaker 1 (25:12):
I'm not going to be the guy. I'm not gonna
be the last guy.

Speaker 2 (25:14):
You know, when the music stops and it is. It
is striking to me that that, for all that Trump
wants to do here, he is is two big hole cards,
Julane Maxwell and Rupert Murdoch. Neither one of them may
cooperate in the end. I don't think Maxwell. I don't

(25:36):
think Maxwell does as much for Trump as some people think.
Even if she says no, it's like, oh, so you're
taking the word of a woman who ran a child
sex trafficking ring, and I think that that. I think
she's a weaker witness than the Trump folks in the
White House like to.

Speaker 3 (25:54):
Think, Yeah, what did you make of this?

Speaker 4 (25:58):
Was when where I just kind of saw, you know,
come across the transfom on social media. Didn't I didn't
go in the bbit hole of researching this, but I'm
guessing you probably saw the reports as well that JD.
Vance was in New York meeting with I don't know
if it's.

Speaker 1 (26:09):
Rupert Montana for he went to Montana to meet.

Speaker 3 (26:12):
Okay, he was in Montana's you know.

Speaker 4 (26:13):
And so I saw the speculation that this was some
sort of like kind of cool in motion here that
you know, I you know, I don't know what they'd
be planning specifically, but you know, what did you make it?
I'm curious you mentioned that you're Rupert observer, So yeah,
I wrote, I wrote a I wrote a piece about it, okay,
short fiction piece about it the other night.

Speaker 2 (26:33):
Basically like, if you were going to do the twenty
fifth Amendment, you'd have to have Rupert on your side.

Speaker 1 (26:38):
You'd have to shut.

Speaker 2 (26:39):
Down one of the big venues where MAGA would lose
their mind bye by you know, giving Vance the space
to pull it off. I don't think it's I don't
think that's quite what it was. I'm sure Vance went
in there in his sort of eager bird dog kind
of way, and said, oh, we want to come together

(26:59):
on that. We're all on the same team with you know,
Rupert's on team Rupert, Ruperts on team Murdoch.

Speaker 1 (27:05):
That's it.

Speaker 2 (27:07):
But I don't know where we're gonna end up in
terms of of you know, does Vance have the juice
to pull off a twenty fifth Amendment thing even if
Trump is obviously insane? Probably not, but it's not. It's
not for nothing that that. You know, Trump's got a
you know, he keeps half an eye out on Vance.

(27:29):
He brought him in. He but he knows he's ambitious,
he knows he's a snake. And remember JD. Vance transformed
himself from a hardcore anti Trump guy to this.

Speaker 1 (27:43):
Why why would you trust him? Why would you trust
him as an emissary to Rupert Murdoch? That's to my mind,
like cuckoo.

Speaker 4 (27:52):
Yeah, yeah, the other one. I'm curious to get your
thoughts on that. You know, it's already kind of faded
from consciousness because so much has happened over the past week.

Speaker 3 (27:59):
But I was really struck. I was, you know, one
of the press briefings last week.

Speaker 4 (28:03):
I'm forgetting specifically which day, it was, but where you know,
Karen Levitt kind of out of nowhere, you know, brought
up Trump's health issues, and you talked about, oh, you know,
I've been getting questions about his swollen ankles and uh,
you know the thing on his hand, you know, lookst
like a flesh eating situation on his hand, and you know,
he's got some sort.

Speaker 3 (28:20):
Of vein thing, you know. And again I didn't, I didn't.

Speaker 4 (28:24):
I didn't, you know, pull up the web MD to
to to read Oh, okay, because you know it's so
out of character, you know, I mean, look, I think
mind there in the first term is that if he
just stopped eating cheezburgers, he'd be immortal. And we've gone
from that to like, you know, getting a health update
out of nowhere, you know, because his anchor rolls will end.

Speaker 2 (28:42):
Look that that was quite clearly in my mind at least,
all about the the the pendency of the e f
scene issue over everything.

Speaker 1 (28:52):
For Trump to admit a physical frailty is astounding.

Speaker 2 (28:59):
That that's how how bad this is with Epstein, that
he's admitted that he's got a physical frailty of some kind.
Because that's you know, that's part of the autocratic image
making thing that the deer leader is always seven feet tall,
covered in steel, can never get sick, never, nothing ever
goes wrong. It's like, you know, it's like Stalin was
until Swan Lake plays on the fucking radio and everybody

(29:21):
knows that the dictator is done.

Speaker 1 (29:23):
I think they'll play y mc A on the.

Speaker 2 (29:25):
Radio as a as a final as a final quota
to Trump's era. But hey, well listen, Aaron, I really
appreciate you coming on today, Man Weld, We'll.

Speaker 3 (29:33):
Talk against anytime. I love it, very nice. Thanks, I
appreciate it. Yea comments, yep, yeah.

Speaker 2 (29:41):
Great comments, And everybody, thanks for coming on today and
checking in on this live. We will be back again
with more of them soon, and stay tuned for Friday Brief.
This week is going to be a big one and
we're gonna have some fun with more live guests in
the coming week.

Speaker 1 (29:56):
Thanks everybody, talk to you again.

Speaker 3 (29:58):
Come b