2/18/25: Shock Delta Crash Landing, Trump Voters Sound Off On Elon, Elon Social Security Fraud Debunked, Trump Backstabs Unions

Summary

Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar – Episode Summary Release Date: February 18, 2025

In this episode of Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar, hosts Krystal Ball and Sagar Enjeti delve into a multitude of pressing issues shaping the political landscape in early 2025. From a dramatic airplane crash in Toronto to the intricate dynamics between Trump voters and influential figures like Elon Musk, the episode offers a comprehensive analysis of current events and their broader implications.

---

1. Plane Crash Landing: Delta Flight in Toronto

The episode opens with a detailed account of a Delta flight crash-landing in Toronto, Canada. The hosts examine preliminary reports and striking images from the incident, highlighting both the terrifying nature of the crash and the remarkable survival rate among passengers.

• Sagar Enjeti [03:37]: "There's yet another plane crash, this one in Toronto that will show you just unbelievable images. It's extraordinary. Everyone lived."

• Krystal Ball [05:29]: "It's been almost 15 years since you had such a deadly crash. This one… it's terrifying, and I think we can all sympathize with that. The incredible thing is that a plane can literally flip upside down on a runway, catch on fire, lose its wings, and nobody died. That's incredible."

The discussion emphasizes the robustness of modern aircraft safety designs, which likely contributed to the low casualty rate despite the severe crash dynamics.

---

2. Trump Voters Sound Off on Elon Musk and Policy Implications

A significant portion of the episode focuses on the sentiments of Trump voters regarding Elon Musk's influence in the administration and broader policy decisions. The hosts present insights from focus groups conducted by The New York Times, showcasing a spectrum of voter opinions about the early Trump administration's direction.

• Krystal Ball [13:18]: "This is the only place where you can find honest perspectives from the left and the right that simply does not exist anywhere else."

Notable voter quotes include:

• Tallie Jackant: "Sometimes you don't know who is talking. It feels like a tantrum of a four-year-old boy." [14:22]

• Mr. Wheeler Haynes: "Trump is steamrolling the government; it's unsustainable for the next four years. He's doing 80 miles an hour. I wouldn't mind if he went around 55." [36:07]

The hosts analyze these perspectives, discussing the potential "honeymoon phase" of Trump's presidency and the underlying support for his administration despite controversial policies.

---

3. Elon Musk and Social Security Fraud Debunked

Krystal and Sagar tackle the allegations surrounding Elon Musk's involvement with Social Security fraud, dissecting claims made by Musk and critiquing the validity of these assertions.

• Sagar Enjeti [48:07]: "Elon is trying to build a case against Social Security, period, end of story. Not just against improper payments or fraud, but against the program as a whole."

The conversation highlights how misinformation, possibly stemming from Musk's statements, can fuel distrust in federal programs. They discuss the technical inaccuracies in claims about Social Security beneficiaries, emphasizing the importance of verifying data before public dissemination.

• Krystal Ball [56:45]: "The data Elon shared... the 150-year-olds receiving payments... are completely made-up."

The hosts advocate for a critical examination of such claims, urging listeners to rely on verified information rather than speculative or fabricated data.

---

4. Trump Administration's Stance on Unions: Backstabbing the Workforce

A critical analysis is presented on how the Trump administration, influenced by figures like Elon Musk, is undermining labor unions and workers' rights. The hosts explore the appointment of controversial individuals to key positions and the rollback of labor-friendly policies introduced by the Biden administration.

• Sagar Enjeti [76:33]: "The National Labor Relations Board under Trump now is not even defending its own right to exist. It's been gutted so that it cannot even function."

• Krystal Ball [82:29]: "Union membership continues to decline. Your union membership continues to decline."

They discuss the repercussions of dismantling institutions like the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), highlighting the long-term impacts on workers' protections and union organizing efforts.

---

5. IRS and Public Trust: Navigating Identity Theft and Data Security

The conversation shifts to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), focusing on public mistrust and the agency's handling of data security, especially during tax season.

• Krystal Ball [16:34]: "No wonder the IRS reported tax fraud due to identity theft. Went up 20% last year."

• Sagar Enjeti [62:21]: "The IRS collected in 2024 about $5.1 trillion in revenue with a budget of $12.3 billion. So again, very high return on investment."

The hosts critique the IRS's resource allocation, arguing that inadequate funding hampers effective enforcement against high-income tax evasion while allowing lower-income individuals to be disproportionately targeted.

---

6. Tax Cuts and Economic Policies: Impact on the Middle Class vs. the Wealthy

Krystal and Sagar examine the administration's tax policies, emphasizing how recent tax cuts disproportionately benefit the wealthy and exacerbate economic inequalities.

• Sagar Enjeti [37:13]: "Billionaires pay an effective tax rate that is dramatically lower than your average middle-class person. That's utterly preposterous."

• Krystal Ball [34:07]: "Why would the government give you money and then you have to pay some taxes on it? It doesn't make any sense."

They discuss the implications of making tax cuts permanent for the wealthy, the erosion of progressive taxation, and the potential long-term consequences for social safety nets like Social Security and Medicare.

---

7. Policy Rollbacks on Labor and Workplace Safety

The episode concludes with an overview of the Trump administration's rollbacks on labor protections and workplace safety regulations.

• Sagar Enjeti [75:08]: "They have a Department of Labor nominee secretary who has a very bad AFL-CIO."

• Krystal Ball [75:27]: "The National Labor Relations Board is headed to the Supreme Court to be deemed unconstitutional."

The hosts articulate concerns over the weakening of labor institutions, the promotion of anti-union stances, and the broader implications for workers' rights and workplace safety.

---

Conclusion

Throughout the episode, Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar provides a critical examination of the Trump administration's policies, particularly focusing on the intertwining of political power with influential figures like Elon Musk. The hosts emphasize the erosion of trust in federal institutions, the disproportionate benefits of tax policies favoring the wealthy, and the undermining of labor protections. By incorporating real voter perspectives and analyzing policy changes, the episode underscores the complexities and challenges facing American democracy and its social safety nets.

---

Note: Advertisements, promotional segments, and non-content sections have been omitted from this summary to focus solely on the substantive discussions presented in the episode.

Transcript

[Crystal Ball]

Every day, our world gets a little more connected, but a little further apart. But then there are moments that remind us to be more human.

[Sagar Enjeti]

Thank you for calling Amica Insurance. Hey, I was just in an accident. Don't worry, we'll get you taken care of.

[Crystal Ball]

At Ameca, we understand that looking out for each other isn't new or groundbreaking. It's human. Ameca. Empathy is our best policy. The following is a high five moment.

[Sagar Enjeti]

From high five casino.com welcome to Burger Yippee.

[Crystal Ball]

Would you like a hot apple pie today? Yes. Yes. Yeah. I won. Woohoo. So that's a yes on the apple pie. I just went big time playing High Five Casino on my phone. Real cash prizes, free daily rewards, over 1200 games. So yes or no on the apple pie. Whoa. I won again. I'll take that as a yes.

[Sagar Enjeti]

Drive around.

[Crystal Ball]

Have you had your High5 moment today? Download the High5 app or visit High5casino.com High5casino was a social casino. No purchase necessary void were prohibited play responsibly. Conditions apply. See website for details. High five Casino when it comes to.

[Sagar Enjeti]

Playtime, never let your squad down. Unlock elite gaming [e-mail] Push your gameplay beyond performance with 13th gen Intel Core processors. Upgrade to smooth high quality streaming with Intel Wi Fi 6e and maximize game performance with enhanced overclocking.

[Crystal Ball]

Win the tech search and head to Lenovo.com Lenovo Lenovo hey guys. Sagar and Krystal here.

[Sagar Enjeti]

Independent media just played a truly massive role in this election and we are so excited about what that means for the future of this show.

[Crystal Ball]

This is the only place where you can find honest perspectives from the left and the right that simply does not exist anywhere else.

[Sagar Enjeti]

So if that is something that's important to you, Please go to BreakingPoints.com, become a member today and you'll get access to our full shows unedited ad free and all put together for you every morning in your inbox.

[Crystal Ball]

We need your help to build the future of independent news media and we hope to see [e-mail] Good morning everybody. Happy Tuesday. We have an amazing show for everybody today. Extra amazing. Crystal is back.

[Sagar Enjeti]

Well, thank you. You guys did a great job on the show yesterday though. I enjoyed it as a consumer.

[Crystal Ball]

Yes, people seem to enjoy it, so I'm happy.

[Sagar Enjeti]

Lots of news coming out of D.C. and around the world. Actually, there's yet another plane crash, this one in Toronto that will show you just unbelievable images. It's extraordinary. Everyone lived. You do have two people in critical condition, so we'll give you all of the images and the updates there. Voters are starting to sound off about how they think about the early days of the Trump administration. Some interesting comments there. Doge is now coming for Social Security and a weird court filing says like, oh, Elon's actually not technically involved with Doge. He's not technically the head of Doge. So a lot going on there. Eric Adams administration in New York City seems to be on the verge of collapse. You've got four deputy mayors who are now resigning. Some of the officials there are calling for a meeting that could push him out of office. This is all after that crazy deal struck with him and Tom Homan and the Trump administration, et cetera. So we'll give you those updates. Massive crypto scam backed by Javier Milei, the president of Argentina and one of the people who was behind that scam, really telling on himself. In a long interview with Coffee Zilla. Dave Portnoy is also involved. So a lot of pieces there, but this is like the anatomy of a giant rug. Pull the head of the SEIU is going to join us to talk about the lawsuits against Doge that they are involved with and also the Republican attacks against Medicaid. And Ali Bastucky is going to join us to break down her view of Elon's baby mama drama.

[Crystal Ball]

Yeah, I'm excited for it. This is a way that we get to horseshoe people into traditional values. Fellas, find a girl, marry her and just stay with her. Otherwise you're gonna end up like elon with your 20 something year younger baby mama tweeting, why have you not responded to me? So there's a lot of good stuff that's happening there. Should we get to the plane? What do we got?

[Sagar Enjeti]

Yeah, let's go ahead and get to that. So this was a Delta flight into Toronto and crash landed there, completely flipped over. There's unbelievable images coming out. We can put this up on the screen. We're just getting preliminary indications of what may have happened here. But here you see this plane landing. Everything looks normal. It's a very snowy, wintry day in Canada there. But then upon landing, it looks like one of the wings strikes the ground. It causes the plane to burst into flames. It ultimately flips over. And we did get some images also from the passengers coming off of that plane where the thing is completely upside down as they're trying to climb out. As I said before, only two people in critical condition. There were a number of injuries here you can see them being helped off of this upside down plane as the fireworkers are. You know, the firefighters are trying to douse the flames as well as this entire thing is catching fire as well. And then you had some passenger images coming off too, as they're trying to scramble. I mean, I guess here you can see the plane is completely upside down. So they're climbing out here on the roof and rescuers helping them there onto the ground. So again, we have just early indications of perhaps some sort of a plane malfunction here, but we don't really know. But of course, this comes in the context, Sagar, of so many plane crashes, including the one that happened really close to here, which was the deadliest since what, 2009 or something like that.

[Crystal Ball]

Yeah, it's been almost 15, 20, almost 15 years since you had such a deadly crash. This one. Well, there's two ways you could look at it. One is it's terrifying, and I think we can all sympathize with that. The other kind of incredible thing is that a plane can literally flip upside down on a Runway, catch on fire, lose its wings, and nobody died. At least now, which is incredible.

[Sagar Enjeti]

Yeah. And everybody is expected to.

[Crystal Ball]

Everybody's expected to pull through. Unbelievable. The paramedics set. Yeah. I mean, it's a terrifying situation. But passengers were able to crawl out of that. It's genuinely amazing. I read I used to have a real fear of flying when I was a kid. Mostly accident. Oh, did you? Yeah, it was bad. And especially after 9 11, I think. 9 11, I was young. It kind of screwed me. I was flying all the time. Cause my parents and I. And anyway, I remember doing a lot of early YouTube viewing in 2006 about how these planes are designed to absorb, like, horrible things that happen to them from turbulence and wing strike, how you can. Even the plane is designed so that even if the wings strike and, like, hit each other, that they'll break properly and that everybody in will survive. And so this is somewhat of a testament to that. We did have a CNN reporter who described some of the stuff around the plane. Why don't we take a listen? Because he did a good job breaking some of the safety stuff down. That is the bottom of the fuselage now on the top. You can also see the foam truck here and the firefighters responding from the airport firehouse putting out the fire, which looked to be primarily on the bottom of the fuselage of the airplane. That is where the fuel is. That is so critical to get that fire out quickly as you're trying to evacuate people. So a lot happening here all at Once let me re cue this so you can see some of what was going on at the very front of the airplane. You're probably familiar with this door here as we pan over. This is the R1 exit. In the aviation terms, this is what you would board on coming in and out of a Jetway. The door is fully open, the slide is not deployed. Don't need it because you're upside down. And you can see the folks here coming out of the airplane, which would have been completely dark and on fire. You have to imagine the terror as folks tried to get out of this very quickly. Everybody across the board, pilots, flight attendants, the control tower, the crash fire, rescue crews, even the passengers did a good job. The big takeaway here, always leave your stuff behind. Especially in a crash like this. Cause seconds count and mean lives. He's right. That is the big takeaway. Leave your dumb iPad behind. Nobody cares, okay? No one's gonna care that you lost your AirPod Pros or something in the back, obviously. Although frankly, I'd be the guy.

[Sagar Enjeti]

Those things are valuable.

[Crystal Ball]

Yeah, they are. I've got like four pairs of headphones. I'm constantly losing them and be scrounging around.

[Sagar Enjeti]

Kid's favorite blank. You can't replace that.

[Crystal Ball]

See, that's fair. Actually, I hadn't thought about that. Let's put this up there on the screen. The next part here. This has been being passed around and this does go to show you some of the dangers of what this will look like in the future. I'm not blaming this on FAA firings. This happened in Canada, so let's all remember that. This just what I've been trying to highlight is that if you are not careful around some things with Doge, you will eventually could have a situation like this happen in America. And then you have a full on demand domestic political crisis on your hands. So that's obviously been one that's passed around here. But obviously this happened on Canadian soil. It's actually Canadian company Bombardier that makes those CRJ regional jets. It was a flight coming from Minneapolis St. Paul to Toronto. Not that many passengers on board luckily, but you know, still scary. I mean, I can't tell you how many times I've flown on those regional jets, the CRJs. So the question is, what happened? Nobody knows yet. No indication yet of mechanical function. Obviously it was very snowy on the ground. But what Toronto airport doesn't know how to handle Snow or Minneapolis St. Paul has never flown in cold conditions. I've landed in Minneapolis with like 20 inches of snow on the Ground and where they spray you with all that de icing stuff. So there's procedures that are in place here and we do expect when you get on a plane, no matter what type of safe conditions, that they clear you for takeoff and landing, that you're going to make it, otherwise you should cancel the flight. So there's still a lot of questions here around what's happening with that. But yeah, honestly just really happy that all the passengers made it out. Still just a terrifying situation.

[Sagar Enjeti]

Oh my God. It's crazy to me that they thought they were like, I mean, the flight appeared to be totally normal, right?

[Crystal Ball]

And then, but you're at the Runway.

[Sagar Enjeti]

And then suddenly you're upside down, like, holy hell, what just happened? So, I mean, a new, new terror unlocked for me in terms of air travel. And I mean that is the big thing is so many plane crashes, so many issues recently, I think you are gonna start to spook a significant portion of the public that may have thought nothing. I mean, I put myself in this category. I would have thought nothing of getting onto an airplane, oh, it's safe, it's fine. These things never crash. Now I have different thoughts in my head. And again, this doesn't have to do with the FAA firings. It happened in Toronto. But it is crazy that the response to the deadliest commercial airline crash in the US since in over a decade was to fire a bunch of FAA personnel. And the point that Stoler has been making, I think Ryan's been making as well, is like they have set themselves up to be legitimately blamed for everything bad that happens in this country that the federal government touches whatsoever from here on out. And so it does outline some of the risks.

[Crystal Ball]

As you said, Sagar, it's a warning. During tax season, your sensitive info does a lot of traveling to places you can't control. Stopping off at payroll, your accountant or tax preparer and countless other data centers on its way to the irs. Any of them can expose you to identity theft because they all have the info on your W2. Just the ticket for criminals to steal your identity. No wonder the IRS reported tax fraud due to identity theft. Went up 20% last year. You need Lifelock. They monitor millions of data points per second and alert you to threats you could miss if your identity is stolen. LifeLock's US based restoration specialists will fix it, backed by the million dollar protection package and restoration is guaranteed or your money back. Don't let identity thieves take you for a ride. Get Lifelock protection for tax season and beyond. Join now and save up to 40% your first year. Call 1-800-LIFELOCK and use promo code iheart or go to lifelock.com iheart for 40% off terms apply. @ Ameca Insurance, we know it's more than just a car. It's the two door coupe that was there for your first drive, the hatchback that took you cross country and back, and the minivan that tackles the weekly carpool for the cars you couldn't live without. Trust Ameca Auto Insurance. Amiga empathy is our best policy.

[Sagar Enjeti]

Now I'd like to introduce you to Meaningful Beauty, the famed skincare brand created by iconic supermodel Cindy Crawford. It's her secret to absolutely gorgeous skin. Meaningful Beauty makes powerful and effective skin care simple and it's loved by millions of women. It's formulated for all ages and all skin tones and types. And it's designed to work as a complete skin care system, leaving your skin feeling soft, smooth and nourished. I recommend starting with Cindy's full regimen which contains all five of her best selling products including the amazing Youth Activating Melon Serum. This next generation serum has the power of melon leaf stem cell technology. Its melon leaf stem cells encapsulated for freshness and released onto the skin to support a visible reduction in the appearance of wrinkles. With thousands of glowing five star reviews, why not give it a try? Subscribe today and you can get the Amazing Meaningful Beauty system for just $49.95. That includes our introductory five star system, free gifts, free shipping and a 60 day money back guarantee. All that [e-mail] let's go ahead and get to these focus groups and what voters have to say.

[Crystal Ball]

Yes, that's right. So there's been some indication here about how are Americans feeling about Donald Trump? We can't yet exactly get a real sample of everybody. Polls itself can be somewhat unreliable, but in general it's always good. Let's check in on how people are feeling. So the New York Times put together a focus group, six Americans across the spectrum and ask them how they are feeling about the first Trump administration. So why don't we go ahead and we put that up on the screen. So here are six Americans on what they think of Trump, Elon Musk, and of Gaza. So why don't we start our slideshow which has some select quotes from each of these individual Americans. Here you have Tallie Jackant. I hope I pronounced that correctly. She says sometimes you don't know who is talking. It feels like a tantrum of a four year Old boy. The second one here is Hamid Chowdhury from Reading, Pennsylvania. This is exactly what I expected, that unexpected things would happen. Let's go to the next one. It says Mr. Musk seemed like a guy who was almost directly in control of the White house. This is Mr. Dave Abdullah of Dearborn Heights, Michigan.

[Sagar Enjeti]

I think he was a third party voter.

[Crystal Ball]

That's right, third party voter. Along with many other people in Dearborn, Michigan. Here is Mr. Jaime Escobar Jr. From Roma, Texas. With Trump, it just seems to be like boom, boom, boom, boom. A very apt description there. Next one, Mr. Isaiah Thompson, 22 years old from Washington, D.C. he says right now everything just seems so much in the air. He's a college student paying attention to this. And then we have Mr. Perry Hunter from Sellersburg, Indiana. When someone's trying to cut spending, which is going to help me in the long run, I take him at face value. So he has some interesting takes there from across the spectrum. And it is both important for class dynamics, workplace dynamics, and also, I can't hammer this home enough news. Remember that statistic about the more tapped in that you are, the more likely that you voted for Kamala Harris, which is just kind of amazing. But there's also a real refresh element, I think, to a lot of liberal activism and others these days. These are people who are statistically way more likely to read the news anyways. And so that whole feeling of people being in control or of things being out of control or things moving in a very, very fast paced direction, leading to some anxiety definitely comes through this and through some Wall Street Journal stuff that we're all about to show you. But I'm not ready to make any broad determines yet determinations yet.

[Sagar Enjeti]

It's just interesting to hear from actual voters. You're the first lady you put up there who said the thing about seems like a tantrum of a four year old boy. One of the things she said that was kind of interesting, and this is a lady who was traditionally more liberal, more of a Democratic voter, did vote for Trump, kind of uneasy about that vote. Not super happy with what she's seen so far. But part of what was interesting to me is she said even though she's not like super psyched about what she's saying, she's like, I have a metric in my head of how long a period of grace I'm gonna give him. She's like, he gets, quote, 100 days of charity. And I do think that there is that instinct among a lot of the American public of like, well, let's give him, he just got in there. Like, let's give him some time and see how this all shakes out. So it's indicative of the fact that in a certain sense he's still in that, quote, honeymoon phase.

[Crystal Ball]

Absolutely.

[Sagar Enjeti]

Where presidents typically have relatively high approval rating. For Trump, he's continued to have for him some of the highest approval ratings of his career.

[Crystal Ball]

No question. And that's an important point is don't forget Joe Biden's presidency did not officially sour until October of 2021. It took nine straight months. Go back to the Bush administration, it wasn't as long, but it took several months to get there. With the privatization of Social Security plus Iraq going down the hill, Trump really the only existential threat that he has to his presidency. Right. Cause inflation in the economy is much more of a slow burn, in my opinion. I think it's one of those that nobody's gonna flip on a dime. Absent some sort of massive financial crisis. The biggest existential threat to his presidency is foreign affairs. That's what's nuked Joe Biden. And because of the uncertainty that we currently have with Israel and with Gaza and his current plan to literally occupy Gaza, I think that's one where you could quite literally turn on a dime. The rest of it I think it's gonna be much slower. Although my caution around Doge is that if there is some cut to a government and then there's some hor or financial or natural disaster and something is not seem to be functioning properly, then that actually also could come back to bite you. Let's put some of the Wall Street Journal stuff up there on the screen because this is some similar focus group, but this one is even more interesting cause it's actually with Trump voters. So we thought we would look at some of the stuff here. So you have a voter here, Stacey White, she said she voted for President Trump, she wanted lower prices and to stop fentanyl from coming in the border. She said when we said safer borders, I thought he was thinking let's stop the drugs from coming to this country. I didn't know he was going to start raiding places. She said she didn't believe he would actually follow through on some of the more hardline policies he started doing touted during the campaign. Now I'm like, dang, why didn't I just pick kamala? Said the 49 year old Omaha, Nebraska resident, referring to the former Vice president and last Democratic nominee. Okay. I mean, you know, stood in front of a sign that said mass deportation but all right, let's continue to the next one. In terms of some of these voters here you have for example, Todd Wynant. He's a holistic from Cornhill, Ariz. Corn is it Cornville.

[Sagar Enjeti]

Cornville.

[Crystal Ball]

All right, I should visit. I don't think they grow corn in Arizona. Right. I'm thrilled with Trump and he's done more in less than a month than most presidents have in their whole term. Longtime Democrat who had initially been all in on Robert Kennedy Jr. But moved over to Trump after the independent candidate dropped out. So you've got the hippie voter here who loves Donald Trump, loving Maha, loving the confirmation and probably loving Doge as well. Let's go to the next one, please. Here you can actually see some more from you have one resident, 23 year old LA cheered on Trump's government's cuts and deportations, saying he would support more widespread removal of people who came to the US Illegally. I say he's pretty much exceeded expectations. Honestly, I did not expect him to be this quick in actually making these changes. Let's go to the next one. This one is actually honestly pretty amusing. Here you have Emily Anderson from Duluth who considers herself a Democrat but backed Trump after Kennedy dropped out of the of the race. Anderson, aligned with Kennedy's maha agenda, particularly the focus on getting toxins out of food, who works with disabled adults, said Kennedy's government role is the only bright spot for a vote that she categorizes now as the biggest mistake of my life. Honestly, I still don't really get this one cuz she said she's horrified by deportation. Alleged that Trump has been too focused on ridiculous flashy moves such as banning paper straws and renaming the Gulf of Mexico. Her daughters preoccupational therapist has stopped taking new patients over fears that the practice will have its funding dry up. She says I feel so guilty, stupid and regretful, embarrassed and huge one I'm absolutely embarrassed that I voted for Donald Trump. Okay. I mean, you know, I'm not gonna tell Emily how to feel, I guess. But you literally voted for the guy for RFK Jr. He got what you wanted. I wouldn't say a lot of the rest of this was not telegraphed, but in a certain sense you have some buyer's remorse, you have some trepidation. You have some people who are like this is absolutely amazing, but I think your honeymoon comment still sticks in terms of how I think things are still gonna shake out.

[Sagar Enjeti]

It's interesting too that not across the board, but a number of the people who are like RFK Jr. People who came into the coalition and voted with Trump seem to be some of the ones that are having some of the bigger regrets.

[Crystal Ball]

Yeah. But there was also that other guy.

[Sagar Enjeti]

Who is the greatest. I'm not saying it's across the board, but that was interesting. And it does make a kind of sense, because they're liberals, we're a liberal, you know, sort of like hippie, crunchy, like, skeptical of medical science, whatever. You end up in RFK's camp. He pulls you over to Maga, and, yeah, he's in at HHS. But let's not pretend like RFK Jr. Is like, a big part of the show at this point. The big part, Elon, is a big part of the show. And while on the one hand, yes, Elon was a big part of the campaign, even myself, who was, again, pretty, like, you know, upset about what a Trump administration could bring, did not foresee the level of control that Elon Musk would have in this administration. So in that way, it is very much a break from how Trump portrayed himself. And then, you know, the other thing that was interesting to me is the lady who was like, yeah, I want the criminals out, but I didn't know he'd be raiding workplaces and whatever. Like, there was an effort during the campaign, and this was part of Trump's, like, bro podcast strategy, to make it seem like this guy's not a radical. They're hyperventilating about him. He's just a normal dude. Whatever it is that they're trying to scare you about, it's not really real. And so my position was always like, no, you need to listen to what he says. These are his plans. Project 2025, by the way, is a real thing. They've spent the off season getting their ducks in a row so that they can execute on the more maximalist plans more aggressively. So you should assume that when the president is the former and now current president is at the RNC with signs that say mass deportation now that he literally means that, and you should operate accordingly. And it's clear that a number of people who voted for him didn't really take seriously the most maximalist things that he said. And in certain ways, he's gone beyond the most maximalist things that he said and even some of the more maximalist positions put out in Project 2025, which, of course, he lied about and pretend, oh, we have nothing to do with that. And, of course, the plan is not Project 2025, et cetera.

[Crystal Ball]

It wasn't the plan it just seemed to rhyme with the plan. Let's go and put this one up there, the last one from one of our voters here. This is a 66 year old telecommunications contractor. Said he is enjoying Trump's early days, particularly focusing on addressing government waste. Said he is, quote, steamrolling the government is unsustainable for the next four years. He's doing 80 miles an hour. I wouldn't mind if he went around 55. So just saying, just slow down here a little bit. But overall, I'm with you. I'm with you. So that seems to be what we have, we do have here some voters, Arab Americans who voted for Donald Trump sounding off on the Gaza plan. Let's take a listen to that. I could not believe that the President of the United States is uttering these words. Even Trump, I did not think that he would go this far breaking international law and disregard to our own laws. We do not regard Gaza as a land that's for grab. It's a Palestinian land. I was very shocked and surprised. He made a point to tell me.

[Sagar Enjeti]

He didn't vote at all for any presidential candidate. He usually does because he just didn't prefer either.

[Crystal Ball]

I spoke with a young woman, a.

[Sagar Enjeti]

College senior, who voted in her first presidential election.

[Crystal Ball]

She did vote for Trump.

[Sagar Enjeti]

She said when she, when she saw his remarks on Gaza, she gasped and was initially shocked, but ultimately not surprised. And I said, do you regret in any way voting for him? And she said, maybe, but if I hadn't and Kamala Harris had won, maybe we wouldn't still have a ceasefire.

[Crystal Ball]

I don't know what to say. Maybe she's right. Look, I really try hard not to go blue Maga, but what did you expect? Like, did I expect Trump to say we're gonna take over Gaza? No. But do you know what I did expect him to say? Yeah, it's over, the west bank is going to be Israeli. Like that was obviously telegraphed. I mean, I guess the position that they made is that it couldn't be any worse than Kamala Harris. But I mean, I gotta be honest, like, if that was your number one issue, I still have no idea how you voted for Trump. Because Kamala, here's the thing again about liberals and Democrats, their worship of international norms and of past US Policy would have been to the net effect because Kamala, yeah, she probably wouldn't have gotten a ceasefire through or any of that, but she would have been rhetorically committed to a two state solution, even though we all know that it's fake, which means that the status quo would not really change all that much. There would be de facto control. But there's a big difference between de facto control and US Government sanctioned taking over the West Bank. I mean, that question was effectively decided the day that Donald Trump was elected the president. And it was pretty clear if you were really paying attention. So I don't really know what to make of this. In a sense, like I said, I don't love to do the whole voter blaming thing, but if that was your number one issue, I'm still not really clear how you got to where you are. Maybe you could say, well, they got the hostages out and there was a ceasefire for a period of time, which I think is probably true. I don't know if there'd be a ceasefire without Donald Trump here in the office. But I mean, there's still a long way to go on that whole process. As we talked about with Ryan yesterday.

[Sagar Enjeti]

Yeah, very much so. And I guess the way I always looked at it is, you know, I have very low opinions of all of these politicians, of Trump, of Kamala and all the rest. I think the way to look at these individuals is think about who's in their coalition and who they're subject to pressure from. So with Trump, the Republican base is way more pro Israel and his donor base, including Mary Madison, who was one of his largest donors, is very like, that's her number one issue. And so on the Democratic side, most of the donors there too are quite pro Israel. But you do have a large percentage of the Democratic base who are at this point more sympathetic towards Palestinians, very opposed to the ongoing war, and where Donald Trump doesn't care what some lefty on a college campus has to say. But those are part of the Democratic coalition. So at least in theory there's an ability to exert some pressure on a Democratic administration. I mean, listen, I'm sympathetic to the fact that there were just no good answers in this election if this was your number one issue. Very sympathetic to the gentleman who said he just didn't vote cuz he couldn't stomach voting for either one of these candidates. But yeah, if you thought that you were gonna get some like, humanitarian position out of Donald Trump with regard to Palestinians, like, I don't, I don't really.

[Crystal Ball]

That's what I mean, I just don't know what to do for that.

[Sagar Enjeti]

And I think we both were, both were pretty clear about that in our election coming up. I even said being clear eyed about what you were getting at, people can.

[Crystal Ball]

Go roll the tape. I think I did a segment about the Arab em. And I said, listen, no offense, but if your number one is issue, you should vote for Kamala. There's no.

[Sagar Enjeti]

You did. You did say that.

[Crystal Ball]

Yeah. I mean, it was pretty obvious what was gonna happen. Maybe it's because I understand, like you said, pressures and coalition, they don't give a shit about you. I mean, like, at all. They'll use you for window dressing. But I mean, look. Look at who the administration is. Look at the promises that are made. Look at the secret. Oh, who? The ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee. There has not been a single thing on the Gaza policy outside of saying we will occupy it that has surprised me about the Donald Trump administration. I also do wanna put this one up there. A six. Let's put this up there on the screen. I'm feeling pretty vindicated. Financial although, so put my own caveat on this. Polls can often be bullshit and do not take this to the bank. So if you're against this, you should take that into consideration. Financial Times did a survey here. Majority of Americans believe foreign aid wasted on corruption. Exclusive polls suggest voters back Donald Trump and Elon Musk's view of Doge. A poll by Financial Trust found that 60% of respondents agreed that funds set aside for humanitarian causes were, quote, wasted on corruption or administrative fees. Only 12% disagreed with the proposition. So I mean that honestly, I feel very vindicated because that's why I said that the starting with USAID was brilliant because nobody cares about usaid. And to the extent that they do, they're like, yeah, it's fake and it's fraud. And the more that you have now all this information coming out, plus this media ecosystem around USAID and Mike Benson and all that, people are gonna be like, good, I support that. Donald Trump and Elon are still, in my opinion, not in any dange. So everything about it is about telegraphing what might happen. It's like fear. It's like, oh, they have access to data. It's like, yeah, well, unnamed bureaucrat has access to my data too, frankly, could be just as much of a threat. Maybe. People hate the irs, people hate the government. Even people who have Social Security have dim views of the actual Social Security Administration. But they love Social Security as in the checks. They hate the government and they feel as if it is completely unmoored from their own. So until like millions of people get affected by something like this or there's a natural disaster, I think it's just gonna keep chugging along. That poll. I mean, again, I really hate to say it, but you can just see how little trust the average American really has in these institutions and how they feel so taken advantage of that. The idea to them, even whenever people are like, oh, somebody in Myanmar didn't get their AIDS medication, they're like, okay, well, my cousin or whatever is sick and he's paying $800 a month for his pharmaceutical drugs. Now, you could very easily argue, okay, but it's not like Republicans want that to be cheaper, but they don't wanna hear it. They don't care. They're like, well, at least this. We shouldn't at least be giving our tax dollars away to all of that. It's a complex system that we live in here. But I don't know. Listen, and I look at this, that was my ultimate suspicion. I was like, nobody gives a shit about USAID except for the people who work there.

[Sagar Enjeti]

So I think it's very similar to, you know, if you ask people like, do you want to cut government spending?

[Crystal Ball]

They're like, yes, absolutely.

[Sagar Enjeti]

You know, do you think that foreign aid as a, like, lump category is corrupt or a waste of dollars or whatever? They're like, yes, of course. But then, you know, and I've seen the polling on this, when you ask people specifically about, like, HIV treatment for that has been impactful for millions of people in Africa. They support it. So do I think this is like a deal breaker for killing usaid? Do I think this is a deal breaker for China? No, but they've at this point gone a long way beyond usaid, number one. And number two, they are right now really playing with fire in terms of both what the actual impact of what they're doing will be. I mean, we're only one horrific event like a plane crash in the US from them being blamed with blood on their hands because of the cuts that they've made at the faa. You're also in a very precarious position because you have the specter of the richest man on the planet. It was all these conflicts of interest, et cetera, et cetera. A genuine literal oligarch who is running the show and keying up tax cuts to Social Security, Medicaid in particular, Republicans very aggressively going after Medicaid, and for what? In order to finance a giant tax cut for the rich. This is a lot of why so many people turned on the traditional, like George W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, Republican Party, and sought out a different approach with a Donald Trump who pledged to not be that kind of Republican, who really didn't care about the Debt and the deficit, frankly, who was like, I'm gonna make sure that we don't touch your entitlement programs whatsoever. So if you ask people like, do you think that a billionaire should be in control of the government or even have significant influence? An unelected billionaire should have significant influence in the government, they're like, no, because they're fearful of exactly that dynamic. Cuts in austerity for you, largesse, subsidies and tax cuts for themselves. And that's exactly the road that they are traveling right now.

[Crystal Ball]

Yeah, I actually think that could hit most during the tax bill because, remember, I always say it, the lowest approval rating that Trump ever had was the passage of the Tax Cuts and jobs act in 2017. But I also think the country's changed a lot since then. And I think the media environment that people swim in, the lack of trust and so will the same messaging hit. I also think they're probably gonna do enough that they'll be able. Last time around, the text messaging was bullshit, right? Remember Paul Ryan? And they'd be like, the average American family is gonna spend a thousand dollars. I was in a meeting with Paul Ryan where it was like, me and a bunch of journalists, and I remember him being like, that's enough for someone to get their kitchen cabinets replaced or something. And I was looking around, I'm like, do we believe any of this shit?

[Sagar Enjeti]

It was the stupidest thing I've ever heard. It's enough to get a Costco.

[Crystal Ball]

Yes. Enough to get. I was literally sitting there giving these.

[Sagar Enjeti]

People, like, billions of dollars, and we're just like, oh, we get a Costco membership.

[Crystal Ball]

Thank you. I'm sitting there with all these other journalists, and we were all looking at each other like, do they think this is gonna hit? It's like, how is this even possible?

[Sagar Enjeti]

Well, even that, though, so, you know, not to. We'll cover this more in depth in the future. The Republicans have set themselves a limit of $4.5tr trillion in tax cuts. Just the extension of the tax cuts for the rich people is 4 trillion. Trump made a bunch of promises. No taxes on tips. No taxes on Social Security, no taxes on overtime.

[Crystal Ball]

Salt. Don't forget salt.

[Sagar Enjeti]

But that's the key. If you like those pieces that are genuinely appealing and helpful to the working class, like the no tax on tips things. They don't fit in that $4.5 trillion budget cap. If you're doing the Tax Cuts and jobs acts extension, which 100%, they're doing that and you're doing salt. So they're Very likely. And Republicans don't support this stuff anyway.

[Crystal Ball]

Oh yeah, that's true.

[Sagar Enjeti]

Trump does, but most Republicans don't.

[Crystal Ball]

I think they're gonna.

[Sagar Enjeti]

I think there's a good chance that some of the promises that were made are also not gonna be fulfilled at the same time that rich people and the upper middle class in states like New York and California are getting the things that, that they want.

[Crystal Ball]

Oh yeah, if you're rich, you're about to have a bonanza coming your way. Because there are so many extensions in the tax code that these people are frothing at the mouth for. Because they want a permanent. They want to make permanent the adjustment to the overall income tax rates all the way at the top from. I think it's like 39%, something like that. Where it is currently, where previously I think it was like 40 something. But they want to make that permanent instead of a five year extension. There's a bunch of stuff going on with the estate tax, small business. But. But the real fights I think will be tax on tips. It'll be corporate tax rate too. There was actually an interesting one that happened previously. It will be salt, because currently the salt cap is at 10%. They wanna lift it, I think 20. That's what I'd heard. Although some New York Republicans wanna uncap it completely. Why would they do that? Right. Why would they put that into place? So I think that messaging will hit much more if and when the tax bill passes. But if they're smart, you're gonna have to put in. And some of this tip stuff and a few of the other. What else did he say? No tax on Social Security over time.

[Sagar Enjeti]

No tax on Social Security. Yeah, those are the ones.

[Crystal Ball]

You know, philosophically though, I thought it doesn't make any sense to tax Social Security. Why would you give somebody money and then take some of it back? I just don't get it, you know, and it's one of those where somebody explained it to me, they're like, well, it's because it's just to be taxed as overall income or et cetera. But why would the government give you money and then you have to pay taxes on it? It's like, why don't you just give me some money and then I don't have to pay any taxes on it. Doesn't make any sense.

[Sagar Enjeti]

But listen, I am in favor of lowering taxes for working class people and I am in favor of dramatically increasing taxes on people like Elon Musk and test companies like Tesla, which literally paid $0 in taxes.

[Crystal Ball]

Apparently the reason why they paid zero is to carry over a bunch of capex loss.

[Sagar Enjeti]

Yeah, great for them over there.

[Crystal Ball]

I'm just saying, I mean they did, they did lose a lot of money.

[Sagar Enjeti]

Billions of dollars in profit and they pay $0 in tax.

[Crystal Ball]

But it's basic investment analysis, right? It's like if you invest and have losses X, Y and Z over 5, 10 carries over to your tax losses. I don't think it's. Look, I'm not defending Tesla per se, but the idea that you can't burn a bunch of capex dollars and then write that off in the future when you actually build a successful company, I mean, that's tried and true. Our tax code is supposed to encourage business investment. Now if it's stock buyback and stuff like that, then absolutely, I'm with you.

[Sagar Enjeti]

Well, I think you would agree that the fact that billionaires pay an effective tax rate that is dramatically lower than your average middle class person is utterly preposterous situation, which is only going to be further exacerbated by the tax cuts.

[Crystal Ball]

Well, Trump does want to close the carried interest loophole, which even Kyrsten Sinema and Manchin voted against. So let's all hold him to that because that would be the biggest existential threat to all of his technology donors. The tech right people, they are printing money off of their carried interest loophole, which we don't have the time to go in and explain it fully. But when I do to all of you, it basically means that their labor is taxed at a much less value than yours, which is not right. Especially if you're a business owner or any of these other people, even small business owners are some of the highest paying taxpayers in the United States. Compared to whenever you cross the 10 million mark and you're almost certainly involved in finance and or venture capital, you pay almost 20%, which is ludicrous. Right. When somebody else is paying 45 or 50% effective tax rate if they live in New York or California, at a minimum, even if they live in Texas or something like that, paying almost 40% taxes. So doesn't make any sense. But I'm actually excited to get to the tax stuff because that is one where I'm curious to see how the politics actually shake out. Last thing on this Trump voter thing, let's put this on the screen. This one is they voted for Trump and now some of their jobs are at risk. It says that they're writing about some of these government employees around who voted for Donald Trump. There's about 75,000 government employees who apparently accepted the buyout and others. But, you know, even within this one, I'm feeling a little bit like I do the Palestine thing. Crystal, he said he was gonna not.

[Sagar Enjeti]

Run on gutting the entire federal government.

[Crystal Ball]

He ran on schedule F, which was to classify all of you as fireable.

[Sagar Enjeti]

I know, but he didn't. He didn't run on. I'm gonna get rid of 10% of the federal government workforce across the board without regard to how long you've been there, how effective you've been, or any of those sorts of things. So I don't know, I'll cut these people some slack. Obviously, I think you were fooled to vote for Trump no matter what, but you got tricked no matter what because of the policies that he was campaigning on. But nobody could have foreseen how much power would be handed to Elon Musk, who is an austerity anarcho capitalist. I want to literally get rid of the entire federal government guy. That's not what Trump has ever been. Trump has not positioned himself as freaking Javier Millay, and yet that's exactly the government that we've ended up with here. So I have sympathy for these individuals.

[Crystal Ball]

I'll say, with the Elon thing, but no, he ran on schedule F. They said he wanted to clean out the government. About the deep state, what did you expect? I mean, there's a reason that 90 some percent of federal employees who are not law enforcement vote for the Democrats.

[Sagar Enjeti]

Yeah, but if you're a Trump supporting federal government worker, you're like, I'm not the deep state. I'm your ally here. I'm loyal to the Democrats, bro.

[Crystal Ball]

I mean, what do you expect? It's like, I don't know what to tell you.

[Sagar Enjeti]

I think it was reasonable to expect that people who were especially high up in the government bureaucracy, who were sort of like, where their politics really matter. I mean, for most of these people, their politics really don't matter when they're just carrying out the functions of whatever it is they do within the federal government. So in any case, I genuinely don't think it was predictable, the level of control and the radical libertarian bent of this administration. I don't think that that was entirely true.

[Crystal Ball]

I would not have predicted it to be the vehicle through the current doge, but I did expect Stephen Miller to issue schedule F. When did we cover schedule F? Two years ago. People should go and watch that segment with Jonathan Swan from the New York Times, who wrote all. If you just read or watched that segment, all of this was eminently predictable. Now, I'm not saying that Doge would have been the one that cut you, but the entire architecture to mass fire millions of people from the government was absolutely not just a Project 2025, it was schedule F. It was openly endorsed by Donald Trump, openly crafted by Stephen Miller, Talk of the Town. It wasn't just in the news media, it was here. It was on the podcast space as well. So I don't know, I don't feel nearly as bad for a lot of those folks. But let me say this. I will never celebrate on a personal level someone losing their job. I think it's sad and I have unfortunately seen a lot of people who are taking pleasure. But listen, no matter who you are, government, non government, losing your job sucks. Not being able to pay your mortgage sucks. It's one of the highest predictor, one of the most stressful events that you'll ever experience in your life. High predictor of suicide. That's why a lot of people kill themselves whenever there's recessions, it's horrible. So at a personal level, we should not wish it on anybody. And I would tell people not to be cruel in that regard. It's important to always understand the humanity of them, even if, you know, I did think it was kind of predictable. But that's more about a voting level as opposed to no one. I'm not gonna celebrate you losing the job.

[Sagar Enjeti]

No one's out there. Like, we're gonna fire everyone who's still in the probationary period. Like, no one said no.

[Crystal Ball]

That was actually.

[Sagar Enjeti]

Which is not just.

[Crystal Ball]

I actually think that one was there.

[Sagar Enjeti]

Which was not just people who, you know, are new to the government. It's also people who newly changed, like, got a promotion in the government, which means that, you know, by like, sort of definition doing a good job, or at least someone thought you were doing a good job enough to promote. So in a lot of ways, between that and the structure of the deferred resignation program, it really is a culling of a lot of the best and the brightest from the federal government. So if you were an outstanding performer and generally in a non political position with the respect of your colleagues, I think it was reasonable to expect that you wouldn't be on the chopping block. So in any case, I will just say that even as I was taking Donald Trump very seriously about what he was saying he was gonna do, I knew Project 2025 was in fact, the plan. This has still been far more radical and aggressive than I expected. And in particular, the complete Handing over of the keys to Elon Musk. The complete deferential nature of Donald Trump to Elon Musk is bizarre and was not expected.

[Crystal Ball]

I'm with you on that one. I think it's weird. Every day our world gets a little more connected, but a little further apart. But then there are moments that remind us to be more human.

[Sagar Enjeti]

Thank you for calling Amica Insurance. Hey, I was just in an accident. Don't worry, we'll get you taken care of.

[Crystal Ball]

At Amica, we understand that looking out for each other isn't new or groundbreaking. It's human. Amica empathy is our best policy.

[Sagar Enjeti]

Now I'd like to introduce you to Meaningful Beauty, the famed skincare brand created by iconic supermodel Cindy Crawford. It's her secret to absolutely gorgeous skin. Meaningful Beauty makes powerful and effective skin care simple and it's loved by millions of women. It's formulated for all ages and all skin tones and types. And it's designed to work as a complete skincare system, leaving your skin feeling soft, smooth and nourished. I recommend starting with Cindy's full regimen which contains all five of her best selling products including the amazing Youth Activating Melon Serum. This next generation serum has the power of melon leaf stem cell technology. Its melon leaf stem cells encapsulated for freshness and released onto the skin to support a visible reduction in the appearance of wrinkles. With thousands of glowing five star reviews, why not give it a try?

[Crystal Ball]

Subscribe.

[Sagar Enjeti]

Subscribe today and you can get the Amazing Meaningful Beauty system for just $49.95. That includes our introductory five piece system, free gifts, free shipping and a 60 day money back guarantee. All that [e-mail] the following is a.

[Crystal Ball]

High five moment from high five casino.com I won Yahoo Private Put down your phone. This is the army sort. High Five Casino is a social casino. It's on your phone, goes wherever you go.

[Sagar Enjeti]

But with 3 spins.

[Crystal Ball]

Cash prizes.

[Sagar Enjeti]

Free daily rewards.

[Crystal Ball]

Over 1200 games.

[Sagar Enjeti]

I won again.

[Crystal Ball]

Platoon present cell phone.

[Sagar Enjeti]

High Five.

[Crystal Ball]

High Five Casino Casino [e-mail] and download the High Five app. High Five Casino is a social casino. No purpose necessary. Work perhaps playing sponsoring conditions apply. See website for details.

[Sagar Enjeti]

High Five Casino the latest fallout overdose is. We have put this up on the screen. Top Social Security official, the acting director of or acting commissioner rather of the Social Security Administration has now left their job her job. This weekend and after a clash with Doge and their attempts to access sensitive government records within the Social Security Administration, she left her position on Sunday after the disagreement. And it's also interesting. So this is reminiscent of the acting Director of the treasury who also left over a conflict with Doge and didn't wanna give them access and would rather be pushed out, then stay in and grant that access. Also interesting here is who Trump appointed now to fill this role as acting Director of Social Security. So bypassed dozens of other executive level individuals within this administration. Like, if you're looking at the org chart, bypassed dozens of people to pick this person. Leland Duduk, who has apparently posted positive remarks on social media about Doge's efforts to cut costs and search for fraud in federal agencies. So literally went through the list and looked at who had posted praise of Doge, and that's the person that they plucked and put in charge.

[Crystal Ball]

Well, who else would you put in.

[Sagar Enjeti]

While they're waiting for the more permanent replacement to be confirmed by the Senate?

[Crystal Ball]

Yeah, this is where I feel a bit torn. Cause we're about to talk about this with the IRS and others. There's this presumption in this that these people are good. And maybe they are and maybe they aren't, but there's this general presumption around this civil servant worship where they're like, oh, this is very tightly held data. And it's like, yeah, okay, but you know, when everyone talks about Doge extent, they're like, oh, it's scary that they're getting access. And I think that's deeply true on a conflict of interest level with Elon. But at a principal level, why is the civil servant supposedly supposed to be the one who is more trusted with all of our Social Security, our SSDI paperwork, our taxpayer paperwork? I mean, IRS people are convicted or shown to be biased all the time. There was all that stuff during the Obama administration. Look at all the stuff. Even during the first Trump administration. I remember, what were all those leaks that happened of that career IRS agent who leaked, like Peter Thiel and all these other people's tax returns? So, I mean, these are not heroes necessarily. Well, you know why he's a hero. That guy showed how you really should do it. Roth IRA, folks. Peter Thiel's got $5 billion in a Roth IRA in one of the most genius financial retirement schemes I've ever seen. Everyone should study it, especially if you're a normal guy.

[Sagar Enjeti]

Well, here's what I say. Part of why it's important and it matters who has access to that data. And with the treasury, it was also not just access to the data. It was also that this Doge Apparatchik had read write access on the code which controls the trillions of dollars in payments that go out from the Treasury Department. Similarly, obviously people really depend on getting them Social Security checks out and on time. So there's also a fear that these Doge apparagic hackers, whatever you wanna call them, mess around with things in a way that causes things to break. In addition, there are very specific laws regarding privacy of your data with the federal government. And so the civil servants are trained in those laws and are subject to the laws when they don't comply with them. Whereas the Doge people seem to be totally above and beyond the law. Not to mention some of the things that have come out about some of these individuals makes them not exactly the most trustworthy people. I'm not sure who it is exactly who's inside of Social Security. I'm not sure that that's publicly available information, which another thing too is that there's no transparency around what they're actually doing. But one of these dudes was fired from his job because he was sharing company secrets. I think that same guy is the one that you and Ryan were talking about, created the website, or maybe it was Ryan and Emily that were talking created the website where you could referencing child sexual abuse material. Whether that was just a troll or whether it was really a way for encrypting this type of stuff, hard to say. So in any case, we know very little about these individuals and what we do know has not exactly put anyone's mind at ease about them being in such a sensitive position as being inside of Social Security systems, being inside of the Treasury.

[Crystal Ball]

I think that's fair. I get back to the civil servant point. We're like, I don't know who has access over my IRS data. I certainly don't trust them. Them based on my track record or the Social Security unelected bureaucrats. It just gets to that heart of in a certain sense, we're dealing with two unelected parties. And a lot of this is about partisan interest, as I showed with the USAID thing, which I think aligns. I'm not 100% sure. I'm willing to bet people are much more skeptical, I think, of the career civil servant. Now, these people, I've lived around these people my entire life, adult life. They think they're heroes and they think they're like the greatest, smartest people on earth. But they're also deeply partisan in their old capital liberal way. Are they truly to be trusted? And if anything, when you elect a Donald Trump and who is genuinely a scream and an eff you against the system. It's like why would anyone trust that you are going to faithfully carry out whatever the elected office wants you to do? Now if it's illegal, that's one different thing. But at a base trust level, everyone's like oh, it's so horrible that the top civil servant resigned. I'm like, yeah, but who is this lady? I don't even know who you are. Nobody elected you.

[Sagar Enjeti]

Someone who's been at the. Someone who's been there for decades. I think even worse, this individual and has been part of making sure that Social Security checks went out on time and in a reliable fashion. So am I gonna put my trust in that person who's been there for over a decade and been doing the job and doing that job effectively? Or some arrogant 20 year old brat who was like fired for sharing illegally share or not illegally, but sharing company secrets from his previous job? Like no doubt in my mind who I would.

[Crystal Ball]

But that's, that's my point about institutional trust is you have a baseline institutional trust. You think these programs are good. Most people think that these programs are bad.

[Sagar Enjeti]

Most people think Social Security is good. Okay, again, most people think Social Security.

[Crystal Ball]

When we talk at a first of all, nobody again unless you're old is logging in and knows what the Social Security administration is. They know it comes from the government. Now in terms of the Social Security administration, somebody my age, right. I'm not have deep familiarity unless I did this job with center of Medicaid, cms, how all this stuff works. I know because of I literally for the job. But the average voter is not having a deep amount of participation in all this. When they hear civil servant bureaucrat distrust immediately I think at least for the people who voted for Donald Trump and.

[Sagar Enjeti]

I think when they hear the richest man on the planet is messing around in the Social Security administration, red flags go up. And I mean to that point Elon. Elon is sort of building a case and has been by the way for months. Something we have been pointing out here for cuts to Social Security. He routinely shares these posts from Mike Lee, who is a libertarian who thinks that Social Security is a Ponzi scheme or pyramid scheme and should be dismantled. And as inherently as a program not talking about improper payments to this person, that person, but as a program is fraudulent. Elon shares that and agrees with that. And so now he's out out with this preposterous bunch of bullshit attacking the Social Security and its administration. Put this up on the screen claiming that, oh, we went in and we looked at the database and look at all these people who are 150 years old or who are 300 years old who are still receiving payment. So first of all, again, this could literally have just been invented, this spreadsheet. We don't even know that this is based on anything. But let's give him the benefit of the doubt that these are actually some numbers that was pulled from the Social Security database. We know on basic math that this is not indicative of people who are receiving payments. But also if you look at the number of people who are 150 years old, one thing I saw this morning, Sagar, is that this could be a result of all these systems are programmed using cobol, which is like this old ass programming language. And it has this particular quirk where if you don't fill in the birth date, then it defaults to it being 1875, which would indicate a year of age of 150 years old in this year. And this is part of the thing is just keep this up on the screen and I'll explain this as well is these apparatchics that he has going, they're 20 years old. They I'm sure maybe are very technically proficient at the latest and greatest. I used to work as a consultant for the government and I actually was like in these old ass SQL databases and I can tell you they are quirky and weird and they are certainly not state of the art. And if that's a thing you want to address, that would be a massive undertaking and could make the government more efficient. I'm not opposed to it. But to just go in and pull some data and be like, my God, look at all these 300 year olds that are getting paid. Do some basic logic and math and maybe ask the people around you what you are getting wrong before you just put out to the public this attack on Social Security. So in any case, this journalist goes in, runs the numbers and finds, of course it doesn't add up. This would indicate that they would be paying 41 million more beneficiaries than we actually are at a cost of about $1 trillion a year more than we're actually spending. If in fact that Social Security data that Elon tweeted was remotely real and consistent with the number of people that get paid out. So again, bottom line here, in my humble opinion, is that Elon is trying to build a case against Social Security, period, end of story. Not just against improper payments or fraud or whatever, but against the program as A whole. Now will that work out? Will he be able to get those cuts? Who knows? Donald Trump has been very consistent in saying that he would stay hands off Social Security. But I don't think there's any doubt that that's the attempt here is to. To make it seem like you can cut this program, that you can take money out of this program without it actually hitting recipients because there's so much fraud. This data though, and many of the other things he shared besides is completely made up bullshit.

[Crystal Ball]

Well, I'm with you on this data because it's hilarious. The guy who was there was from the Tax foundation, which is actually very good. They do a good job. You're gonna have to explain this to me cause I'm not a database guy. I haven't used it since my econometrics class. But the politically neutral sequel Reddit, you've taught me it's not SQL. Subreddit is apparently very upset about the way that this was compiled. Let's put this up there on the screen. This is classic subreddit behavior. I love it. If I know one thing, it's Star Wars. However, if I know two things, it's acquiring domain knowledge of company data using SQL. He is either that dumb and has done zero due diligence on his claim and simply done a select age count from people grouped by age where dead equals true without checking. Maybe if these people are actually drawing benefits via transactional data or he just wants to spread misinformation. Let's go to the next one. There's several of these screenshots. So again we can't know everything about all the data, right? Queries, but we can sanity check stuff. The 180, 189 range means that people were born in the 1830s. Social Security didn't start till 1935, meaning many of these people would have been in their 90s. Unlikely these people's records have made it to the computer age. I could be wrong, but it would make me want to check the source records before sending sending it to operational folks, which in this case is citizens of the U.S. plus we don't have the query. Just because you have a record in SSDB does not mean that you are collecting. No way to tell with a grid only view. I can only do that in Excel. So you've got some SQL warriors here that are very very upset about the way that this data has been compiled. And that is what I think validates your point most, which is that Elon is an equal quote, imperfect messenger in the nicest way to possibly put it around this. He's maniacal. He doesn't check his work, he's constantly posting about it has massive conflicts of interest. And that's why I think it's become like a culture war in and of itself of like a choose your own fighter. And the choose your own fighter again, in my opinion, splits very well along a political valence. Somebody like myself who generally doesn't trust, trust career civil servants, bureaucrats, I'm like, yeah, I don't know if you're such a hero. Just my experience. That seems to also be the general valence, I think, of a lot of people who voted for Trump or anti establishment. Whereas for a lot of people who are much more establishment minded or who are much more trustful of institutions, they look at somebody like Elon, they'll correctly point out all of their flaws and say, no, I'm gonna stick with whoever this 18 year career lady is at this or Social Security administration. So I understand why it's very difficult. I totally get also why a lot of liberals are furious about all of this. I try to think about the way that it will hit and until they actually do and cut a program that affects millions on a like actual basis, I don't think that there'll be any large political outcry just because I do think we're still living through a very anti institutional moment.

[Sagar Enjeti]

I think, I think what I want people to understand is that the real goal of DOGE is not cutting spending or rooting out waste and fraud. It's not efficiency. It is consolidating power in the hands of Elon Musk and whoever his billionaire allies are. And it is an ideological anti government project, at least as it goes for social safety net programs that benefit you. I mean, and this is again, he says these things out loud. You only need to listen to what he's saying. He believes that every, in his ideal world, every government worker would be fired and put into the private sector, which means a complete privatization of government. Something that I think most people would be deeply opposed to. But more to the point about how you know that this isn't about cutting government spending. They're using the like all of these things that they're talking about cutting usaid, you know, even the trimming of the federal workforce, taking a hatchet to it. 10% is a trivial part of the federal government budget. And what are they doing? On the other hand, they're securing $4 trillion in tax cuts for themselves alongside things like Medicaid cuts, alongside Elon Trying to build the case against Social Security, trying to build the case against Medicare, et cetera. So that's what I want people to understand is that this really has nothing to do with government efficiency or rooting out fraud or any of those sorts of things. And if you look at what they're actually doing and the way that they're going about it, that becomes very clear. And I think one piece of that is there's also a fight right now about access to IRS information and IRS data. We can put the tear sheet up on the screen. So this is same sort of thing like your most sensitive personal financial details held in this database and these 20 year old Elon Musk acolytes going in and rooting around and doing whatever. There's also questions about, okay, are they also going to have read write access to this system as well? But in addition, more to the point of what I was saying about what this project is really about, the irs, certainly as an agency, not beloved, let's be quite clear about that. However, it does get one of the best returns on investment of any government agency that exists. So the Trump administration expected to lay off thousands of IRS employees in the coming days. The IRS collected in 2024 about $5.1 trillion in revenue with a budget of 12.3 billion. So again, very high return on investment. And specifically there was, you guys probably remember, there's a big fight over the additional funds for IRS enforcement so that they can more effectively go after the millionaire and billionaire class. Because if you have fewer enforcement resources, guess who are the easiest people to go after? Your waitress who is not reporting all of her tipped income or whatever. They go after the lowest hanging fruit. That is a legitimate and horrible criticism of the irs. There's additional funds put in to try to enhance enforcement activities to more effectively go after bill billionaires and millionaires for their tax cheat activities. And it was really successful. It secured nearly $100 billion through audits. That was an additional 25 billion compared to the prior year, the irs spent only 34 cents for every hundred dollars that was collected through these audits that were targeted at going after rich tax cheats. And a lot of that is being attempted to be rolled. So again, it's just a sort of blanket assault on government. And of course, if you're Elon Musk, if you're his billionaire friends and allies, et cetera, et cetera, you don't want the IRS to have the ability to audit your taxes and to be able to go after rich tax cheats. You're happy to have them just going after the low hanging fruit. And that's the status quo that they're trying to return to.

[Crystal Ball]

The problem I always find here. Cuz I don't disagree with a single thing you said and we talked a lot about that. The problem for me with the IRS is that they have so little public trust. It's not just about people who perceive about getting rich in the future and they don't want that. It's from their decades of going after people who are the lowest income bracket. You're multiple times more likely to get audited if you make less than $25,000 than if you make $2.5 million now. I mean people have tried to come at me on that. There's a lot more people who make less than 25,000, et cetera. And in terms of their own enforcement, there are these automatically generated letters where they go after all of these people. But it's one of the most stressful events that a lot of people can go through. So they burned all their public credibility over the years. That Venmo thing, if you recall the $600 transaction limit to go after people like hairdressers and other folks who are getting tips and things off of Venmo. That burned a ton of public credibility. So a lot of people just generally feel they're like screw you, I don't care. Which leaves it open to weaponization or gutting by a lot of people who are like Elon. So this is my general thing with all of this is that because public trust is rock bottom and because people are so have lack of faith in the government, yes, it absolutely opens at the door for conflict of interest folks and others to use it to their own advantage. But it is incumbent upon people who are pro institution to not only have to make their case, but prove to the public that they won't use it against them. And they have the track record is that they have used used it against them.

[Sagar Enjeti]

What I would say is there's a real parallel here with the crypto scam meme coins that we're going to talk about later.

[Crystal Ball]

That's exciting.

[Sagar Enjeti]

Which is that they're, you know, we're going to go through the whole thing. But one of the scammers who was involved with this thing did this long interview with Coffee Zell and part of it, Coffee is pressing him on like hey, aren't these things basically just. And he's like yeah, they're all scams, they're all scammy. You know, every single Meme coin launch. It's the same sort of like rug pull, market manipulation, insider trading bullshit. That's the nature of what it is. His justification for that is, well, the regular financial system has scams too. And so, you know, the answer to that, in my humble opinion, isn't, so let's just have a completely lawless situation where we just scam people as much as we possibly want to and totally rig the system in favor of the rich. Instead it's, hey, how about we put more regulation, how about we put more protections into place, how about we make the existing financial system more fair and less extractive and less corrupt, rather than just being like, so let's just be as corrupt as we possibly can. And I think there's a similar mentality that you're describing when it comes comes to something like the irs. Like the problem with the IRS is that they have not gone after there are billions of dollars in unpaid taxes from millionaires and billionaires. That is who much of their enforcement should go after. But actually because the IRS budget has been cut back over successive administrations that have bought into this like, libertarian or at least neolithic liberal idea of privatization and crushing the federal government, that's exactly how you end up in this situation to begin with, where they don't have the resources to effectively go after the millionaires and billionaires who have their own lawyers and who have much more complicated schemes for hiding their money versus the waitress who doesn't fully declare her tips or whatever. So what you're advocating for is actually just accelerating the very trajectory that has led us to this bad place to begin with, rather than trying to fix the problem and give them the resources they need to actually be an effective agency within government and be fair and equitable in the way that their enforcement is rolled out. So I do think you're right, that that is part of the perception, I don't deny, about the politics, public perception. What I would say is that the cure that is being offered here is actually what made the IRS sick to begin with. This will just push it more in the direction of targeting those waitresses and those people who are getting their cash app or their Venmo or whatever. And we'll make sure that Elon Musk and his buddies and people at the top end of the income bracket are unscathed. And so that's why I think it's important to try to explain those things and for people to understand what's really happening here, not just going off of the vibes of like, well, I don't like the irs, let's just destroy them. That's actually going to make things worse and make the IRS worse, which again is part of the goal. And this is part of the goal of conservatives over years and years and years, which by the way, again Clinton was big into privatization. Like Democrats have participated as well. But the idea is if you strip government of capacity and you make government fail, then people turn on government and then you can further strip the government of capacity and the people who really benefit are the very wealthy because then the government cannot check their excesses and then those social safety net programs that benefit you are always the first ones on the chopping block.

[Crystal Ball]

I think it's well said. I just think it's a vicious political cycle because you can't prove your bona fides or credibility on this without the funding that you were talking about. But it's a decades long problem. I want to save some of this for the crypto discussion because I still have a lot to say. People who want to get scammed, which we will get to At Amica Insurance, we know it's more than just a car or a house. It's the four wheels that get you where you're going and the four walls that welcome you home. When you combine auto and home insurance with Ameca, we'll help protect it all. And the more you cover, the more you can save. Amica Empathy is our best policy.

[Sagar Enjeti]

Now I'd like to introduce you to Meaningful Beauty, the famed skincare brand created by iconic supermodel Cindy Crawford. It's her secret to absolutely gorgeous skin. Meaningful Beauty makes powerful and effective skin care simple and it's loved by millions of women. It's formulated for all ages in all skin tones and types and it's designed to work as a complete skin care system, leaving your skin feeling soft, smooth and nourished. I recommend starting with Cindy's full regimen which contains all five of her best selling products including the Amazing Youth Activating Melon Serum. This next generation serum has the power of melon leaf stem cell technology. It's melon leaf stem cells encapsulated for freshness and released onto the skin to support a visible reduction in the appearance of wrinkles. With thousands of glowing five star reviews, why not give it a try? Subscribe today and you can get the Amazing Meaningful Beauty system for just $49.95. That includes our introductory five piece system, free gifts, free shipping and a 60 day money back guarantee. All of that available@meaningful beauty.com the following.

[Crystal Ball]

Is a high five moment from high.

[Sagar Enjeti]

Five casino.com I won.

[Crystal Ball]

Yahoo. Private. Put down your phone. This is the army sort. High Five Casino is a social casino. It's on your phone, goes wherever you go.

[Sagar Enjeti]

I'll win free spins.

[Crystal Ball]

Cash cash prizes.

[Sagar Enjeti]

Free d rewards.

[Crystal Ball]

Over 1200 games.

[Sagar Enjeti]

I won again.

[Crystal Ball]

Platoon present cell phone.

[Sagar Enjeti]

High Five. High Five Casino. Casino.

[Crystal Ball]

[e-mail] and download the High Five app. High Five Casino is a social casino. No purchase necessary. Conditions apply. See website for details. High Five Casino.

[Sagar Enjeti]

So in addition, we've had a bunch of attacks on. Well, so OSHA is the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. And actually if we could go to B6 first. Trump has put in like maybe one of the worst people you could possibly put in to head the agency that is supposed to protect workers. This dude, David Keeling is his name comes from, he was the safety executive from UPS and Amazon. Now if you've watched our coverage over the years, you know that UPS was in trouble because they didn't have air conditioning in their truck and a worker literally died of heat exhaustion because these things bake in oven like conditions. Like I'm talking 130 degrees in the back of these trucks. Now I do believe the new Teamsters contract secured air conditioning improved conditions. But he was overseeing UPS safety back when they were cooking drivers alive. And then Amazon like, need I say more, they have the worst record of safety in the entire warehouse industry. Something like 41% of their workers get injured on the job. He was specifically the company was cited numerous times for serious violations while he was the head of quote unquote safety at Amazon. So you've picked someone who's just a complete industry shill and then let's put the one before this B5 up on the screen. In addition, they've now taken down a bunch of workplace safety practices publications. And this is also very revealing, Sagar, because what they've done here is something they've done in other places with doge, which is they'll just search for words that are now on their banned list. Things like diversity or equity or whatever. And a bunch of these workplace safety publications have nothing to do with anything DEI related. But as one example, there was guidelines for EMS agencies that cited a quote, diversity of safety, state specific certification, training and regulatory requirements. And since it had the word diversity, even though it has nothing to do again with dei, it just gets blanket taken down. I saw another situation, I think actually right here in Virginia in Spotsylvania county, not too far from here or from where I live, where A program to help disabled teenagers be able to transition to some sort of a job was blanket cut because it also used diversity in some other context or some other banned word. And so they're just doing a blanket search for these terms. And even if it has nothing to do with DEI just completely gutting and cutting it. And so that's another example of this, the Amazon one.

[Crystal Ball]

I'm like, look, Jeff Bezos doesn't stand behind you for nothing, right? I mean, these guys, they know what they're doing. Do we have the. No, we don't. The Steve Bannon oligarchy warning? I don't think we do. But he did. This is exactly what he's talking about. And the crazy thing is a lot of the promises and all those people have made for Trump and all that haven't even materialized. I talked previously. Zuckerberg promised to stop fact checking on Facebook and I literally got a fact check on my Instagram from one of his news organizations. I'm only putting the two together because. Because this was the reason that you had Bezos and all these other people stop the endorsement or stand behind Donald Trump at the inauguration. They do it because it's not just about cache. It's they get something in return. That's what a lot of this is about. And I mean, I think quite a lot of that was pretty open before the election. A lot of it is pretty open right now. I mean, in terms of will there be pushback and all of this other stuff. Stuff, I'm not so sure. Not in the current media environment.

[Sagar Enjeti]

There was rules changes that came out at the National Labor Relations Board too. We don't have an element for it. But some of the best things that the Biden administration did for labor organizing have been rolled back. So things like they banned captive audience meetings, which is like just you have to, you force your workers to go and sit through some union busting speech. Captive audience meetings are back. The rule that they put out about banning non competing, so giving workers more flexibility, more ability to maneuver and change jobs, whatever, that also is rescinded. So they're rolling back. Even the, some of these things were significant, but even the more minimal changes that were made in favor of workers and labor under the Biden administration are being rolled back. And this again where, I mean, Trump went out in a garbage truck and worked at McDonald's and talked a big game about labor and there was all this rhetoric, oh, it's going to be different with Republicans and labor unions. Like, you should never have bought that bullshit. Donald Trump has always been a union buster. He's always been a strikebreaker. I don't think that, though, but. Well, I mean, Sean O'Brien seems like he did, so. Some people did for sure. And you had. This was part of a strategy to convince union workers to drop their longtime association with Democrats and vote for Trump because he was going to be different on labor. And that is very plainly not the case at the time.

[Crystal Ball]

Well, it's just one of those where I'm not going to tell a union guy what to. Clearly he doesn't give a shit about the NLRB or he would have voted 100% for Joe Biden and for Kamala Harris. They've got other things that they hold important, culture stuff, wars, manufacturing tariffs, general vibe. And they decided that's important. I mean, I think it was pretty clear.

[Sagar Enjeti]

But don't you think having Sean O'Brien at the RNC was an attempt to convince them that Trump would be different on labor?

[Crystal Ball]

Because sean. Oh, Sean O'Brien smartly looked at the poll of his own voters and said, oh, Shawn, half of these guys are gonna vote for Trump anyway. And I wanna burn any ability of me to be. Actually to get in the room. You wanna be shut out of the door or at least have one foot in that door. I'd rather have at least one foot if my job is to represent the union. He can't control what all of his people do.

[Sagar Enjeti]

No, but he could have made the case. I mean, he's in a leadership position. So you do what a leader does and you make the case for why. Listen, you can vote however you want if, like guns or gays or whatever is most important to you. You vote how you want. But in terms of labor issues, here's the track record. It's pretty clear cut with the Biden administration versus the previous Trump administration. And so, yeah, I think he comes off looking like a fool because they're union busting even more aggressively than they did before. But that's not even my point. My point is that the whole reason that Trump and the RNC invited Sean O'Brien to speak at the RNC was to try to create an impression that they were gonna be different on labor, when clearly they are not different on labor whatsoever.

[Crystal Ball]

I don't know. I think people who look more foolish are those who constantly preach at their own union members and tell them what to do, and then they keep not voting for them or they're moving more in the Republican direction.

[Sagar Enjeti]

But isn't their job to stop telling people what to Do a lot of them. Do they literally make it impressive? If you are in a leadership position explaining the very clear difference in the track record on labor specific issues between Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and the Trump administration. Yeah, I think it is your job to explain those differences. People can do with that what they want, but to equivocate and pretend like he's gonna be good on labor or actually it's the Democrats who are worse. Like that was just a lie. So then you're just lying to your members and you're confusing them about the choice. You're not helping them to make a better decision.

[Crystal Ball]

I don't think that. And again, this is the problem with union leadership. They've been sucking at the democratic teachers for 40 years or whatever and they've lost all their membership and they keep.

[Sagar Enjeti]

Endorsing busters like they've also support also.

[Crystal Ball]

Are endorsing ceasefires in Gaza, which is pretty stupid, or ceasefire or BLM protests or any of this. Keep on signing on to socially liberal causes and oh, lo and behold, membership.

[Sagar Enjeti]

Starts voting is the exact opposite of that. Sagar, which is that you're saying that, oh well, they should. Just because their members are more culturally conservative, they should focus on those cultural values. Values. What I'm saying is actually they needed to be more specific about the economic labor related, like directly related to their unions. And that's where I think there was a real failure to communicate from Sean O'Brien specifically the very clear differences when it comes to union organizing. I mean, the National Labor Relations Board under Trump now is not even defending its own right to exist. It has been gutted so that it cannot even function because they don't have a coordinate. They're probably illegally removed from. This is an ongoing court case. But in any case, they've gutted it. So it cannot even advance any of the claims of union busting and other illegal behavior. And this was all very predictable to your point, about people knowing what they were getting. And if you weren't telling your union members that, if you weren't making that clear, and again, people can do with that information whatever they want. If there are other issues that are more important to them, that's fine. But if you aren't making that clear, you are just lying to your members, you are confusing them and you are failing at your job.

[Crystal Ball]

Bring it back to the government point I made. Is it because they lost so much credibility with their leadership or with their member base, which is basically what has happened with the divergence of the leadership? Basically just being careers Democrats and then the rest of their guys, 2016 onwards, voting more and more for Trump, they don't have any trust individually on that basis. The reason I'll defend O'Brien is because O'Brien was trying to hold on to some credibility with an administration which but won the popular vote all seven swing states. And not willing to say 100% or, sorry, 50% of his union members, but a very good number of them. So, you know, you have to follow where your people are. You are a representative of them. You don't just work for some NLRB worship. Like, you have to actually clearly listen to your union voting base and say, well, clearly these guys like Trump, so I need to figure out a word to work with them. So I just think it's the same structural problem from the government direction. And on the union front, I just come back to this. On the nlrb, if people really cared, the union voters about nlrb, and they probably know more about it even than I do, than a lot of these union other people who talk about it online, and they still voted for Trump, what does that tell you? They don't actually care that much.

[Sagar Enjeti]

But Sagrada, it's not a number one. It never will be union. Like, belonging to a union is still one of the biggest indicators of. Of voting Democrat.

[Crystal Ball]

Yes.

[Sagar Enjeti]

So obviously it does still matter to a lot of union members. And all I'm saying is that if you were not explaining the differences between these two candidates when it comes to union issues specifically, then you were not being honest about the choice in this election. And listen, he wanted to preserve his access and his ability to get in the room, whatever, congratulations, you did it. You were invited to the inauguration. You're on Trump's good list. You accomplished your goal. But if your goal was to help people understand what the differences were between these two candidates on labor issues specifically, you did not accomplish that. You confused people. You were not honest about what the clear difference was. And now you've got. And this is important especially for the Teamsters, because they're trying to organize Amazon. One of the things that matters a lot for that is that the drivers, Amazon drivers be classified as employees. Piece of Amazon. That was something that the Biden administration, Biden Harris administration was in favor of and the Trump administration is opposed to. So you have just set back even your own organizing efforts in terms of trying to unionize Amazon. So I'm also just not gonna, I'm not gonna buy this was some noble attempt to like, you know, represent his members. I think he Wanted to be in the room. I think he wanted that invite to the inauguration. I think he wanted to be Buddy, Buddy here. And Sheila, he got.

[Crystal Ball]

I'd rather be him than some idiot on some idiot preaching next to Hopkins.

[Sagar Enjeti]

I wouldn't because at least I didn't lie to my members.

[Crystal Ball]

I don't think he lied to his members. He didn't endorse anybody.

[Sagar Enjeti]

Yeah, he was very, I think it was very deceitful the way that he portrayed the Democrats as the real opposition to labor. And I'm not here to cape for Democrats. Lord knows I've been critical as well. But if you look over the past number of decades like there's a reason why the unions at this point do typically always endorse Democrats, it's because Republicans hate them and want them to not exist. Like Elon Musk, who is in charge of our government now, doesn't think the National Labor Relations Board should exist and hates unions and thinks they should all be illegal. So, like, yeah, you're not gonna, you shouldn't back that person because they think you, they hate you and they think you should die.

[Crystal Ball]

I think that the Teamsters in the long run will probably be vindicated because they're gonna get something out of the Trump administration that the rest of these guys, Whis Spring and Hakeem Jeffries years are not gonna get. And that's probably better than absolutely nothing. So I don't blame Sean O'Brien.

[Sagar Enjeti]

They got a Department of labor nominee secretary who has a very bad AFL cio.

[Crystal Ball]

We are not even supported the problem one month into the Trump administration.

[Sagar Enjeti]

But it's completely irrelevant now that the National Labor Relations Board is gutted and headed to the Supreme Court to be deemed unconstitutional.

[Crystal Ball]

We are not even one month into Trump administration already clear over. Over a four year period. I am absolutely certain O'Brien will be much more vindicated than the rest of these people who are completely shut out of government. So if you wanna be bitching on the sidelines like, okay, I mean, good luck to you. While your union membership continues to decline.

[Sagar Enjeti]

Got his power.

[Crystal Ball]

And your own people continue to vote against the things that you tell them to do. I just, that's where I keep coming back to. It's like, clearly you do not have credibility with your own voting base now. Union is still one of the best predictors, but highest percentage of union members going for Trump, I think was in the 2024 election, which was a trend that started in 2016. We should learn from that. It's also very, I think patronizing to try and tell people NLRB is the only thing that matters when the Democratic.

[Sagar Enjeti]

Can say that no.

[Crystal Ball]

But for them they get to decide that immigration, tariffs, manufacturing and culture and all of those things.

[Sagar Enjeti]

I'm not saying that. What I'm saying is that if you are not being honest that this man is a union buster and a strikebreaker and was celebrating with Elon Musk Musk Elon Musk breaking strikes. If you did not know that the gutting of the NLRB was coming and that he was going to return to his longtime union busting ways and you were not being honest about that, then you are a fool. That's what I'm saying. Same way you're saying that people were like I didn't think they'd be raiding the workplaces like you're a fool too because the track record is incredibly clear. So if you are the leader of a union then yes, I think definitionally your number one priority should be labor issues. And if you're not being honest about those then you're a liar and you're a fool and you're actually misleading people versus helping to clarify and allow them to make their own educated decisions based on whatever it is the range of issues that they care about are at David's Bridal Love is in every stitch. From the initial sketch to the final details. Each style is designed with exquisite craftsmanship. Every wedding gown, bridesmaid look, prom dress and special occasion style in between features handcrafted details filled with love. Come see the magic in person. Book an appointment and sign up for diamond loyalty to save 15 on your.

[Crystal Ball]

First purchase, earn points towards special rewards and [e-mail] the following is a high five moment from high five casino.com I won Yahoo Private Put down your phone. This is the army sort High five Casino. It's a social casino. It's on your phone goes wherever you go. I'll win free spins, cash prizes, free damage rewards. Over 1200 games. I want to get Platoon present cell phone high5high5casino casino [e-mail] and download the high5 app. High5casino is a social casino. No purchase necessary.

[Sagar Enjeti]

Woodwork prohibited.

[Crystal Ball]

Playing sponsor supply. See you outside for details.

[Sagar Enjeti]

High Five Casino Kroger brand products have the great taste you'll celebrate. That's why over 40 million people choose Kroger brand products, making them a true crowd pleaser and with quality guaranteed. You'll love your choice or get your money back. Score Kroger brand products with savings you can cheer for and great taste. You can't resist Kroger. Fresh for everyone.