Trump and the Chrisleys

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
A week or so ago, we talked about the Trump magic,
why world leaders don't just fear him but envy him.
Rich guy had his own plane before the presidency, swimsuits,
supermodel wife, fast cars, his own country club, big houses,
and millions and millions of dollars. These other guys don't
want to be like him, They want to be him.

(00:22):
Trump is something very few politicians, elected officials, even captains
of industry could ever imagine being. He is a real,
genuine celebrity with real power. Oh sure, some celebrities have
influence Taylor Swift, Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks, But influence isn't power.
Trump has both from where does he get it? And

(00:44):
how does he keep it? Well? Through lots and lots
of practice. He looks like a celebrity, He thinks like
a celebrity, he behaves like a celebrity. For example, out
of almost nowhere, he pardoned two of the most celebrated
jailbirds in the country, reality show stars, Todd and Julie

(01:05):
Christy Remember them. They had a weekly Network TV show
that followed these two self indulgent real estate millionaires around
their Nashville mansion all day. Their spoiled kids would sleep
in till ten, drive their expensive cars over to mom
and Dad's house, the lounge around before ordering designer clothes online,
and give each other a hard time. The show highlighted

(01:28):
Todd and Julie's eccentricities, like the time Todd, a notorious hypochondriac,
put a plastic rain bonnet on his granddaughter thinking she
had lice, and then sprayed her with some homemade concoction
that only ensured that she was lonely at lunchtime. Or
how about the episode when he rented a hyperbaric chamber
and an IV drip, convinced a pandemic was about to

(01:51):
begin with him. All of that, with his passive aggressive
parenting style, left two million viewers a week. Both thoroughly
entertained but glad. Even rich people have fa dub lives.
Todd and Julie got into real life trouble attempting to
turbo charge of their real estate holdings, were convicted of
bank fraud, wire fraud, tax evasion, sentenced to federal prison

(02:11):
for seven to twelve years. Trump pardoned both of them
yesterday afternoon. They'll be home for dinner tonight, says, just
like him. The Chrislies were victimized by a weaponized judicial system.
But unlike Trump, they actually did it. Well, everybody sitting
in a federal jail serving time for trying to defraud
banks get a pardon today? Well, of course not, for

(02:33):
none of those folks are getting their reality TV series
back on USA Network next fall. Like any celebrity, especially
those who have taken a header in life, Trump is impressed.
He liked the Chrislies had daughter Savannah Chris Lee make
a speech before the GOP convention last summer. Get this
pushing prison reform. Quick, Name all of the Republican presidential

(02:56):
candidates in your lifetime that had prison reform on the
party platform. Trump can relate even in failure. It was
important for him to stay famous. If Trump wasn't a
real estate tycoon business guy, he'd be a celebrity. Oh
wait a minute, he is, or was, and in that
TV show The Apprentice, he got to be both. As
a condition for the producers of the movie Home Alone Too,

(03:20):
who wanted to shoot some scenes at one of Trump's
New York hotels, Donald insisted he get a cameo. In fact,
Trump has twenty three acting credits to his name before
he ran for president. From soap operas to sex in
the City, there's Trump. Some of it may be strategic.
Cameras tend to follow celebrities around like cattle, and all

(03:42):
that attention allows voters to get used to him. He
wears more makeup than a mime and wants nobody around
him to look anything less than camera favorable, except for
one Commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick. Otherwise, the whole staff, especially
the women, look like stand ins from his USA pageants,
So the Chrisly thing shouldn't surprise you, nor would be

(04:05):
his likely last words before death, something like show me
the funeral guest list one more time and hand me
the red pen.