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- [00:01]
Donald Trump
Oh, I have had no luck lately.
- [00:04]
Will Saletan
Wait. Lady luck Britsky. I got you. I've had so much luck on spinquest.com they have all of my favorite games,
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Donald Trump
slot games, live blackjack, craps and bubble craps.
- [00:15]
Will Saletan
You can even get a 30 coin pack for just 10 bucks. 10 bucks for 30. I'm headed over to spinquest.com right now. Spinquest is a free to play social casino void where prohibited. Visit spinquest.com for more details. This week at Safeway and Albertsons. Six to 16 ounce selected varieties of strawberries, raspberries or blackberries are $1.99 each. Limit three member price with coupon and extra meaty pork back ribs or St. Louis style spare ribs. Bone in previously frozen are $2.99 per pound limit four member price with coupon plus medium avocados, colored bell peppers or English cucumbers sold by the each or tomatoes on the vine or sweet onions sold by the pound are $0.99 member price. Visit safewayoralbertsons.com for more deals and ways to save. Hey there. I'm Will Saletan from the Bulwark. You know, we've made a lot of videos about Donald Trump, and most of them, frankly, are infuriating. But every so often I get to make one that's kind of fun where you just get to laugh at what an idiot this guy is. So we thought, hey, let's put some of those videos together. So here they are. This is a reel of my Bulwark videos where you can just kick back sort of and enjoy a couple of hours of well deserved mockery of the dumbest president in the history of the United States. Okay, so let's start with one of my favorite themes. Fox News anchors trying to coach Trump to say something intelligent. I know it's a fool's errand, especially because Trump is literally a fool. Look, he is just too dumb to learn what they're trying to teach him. So here's an example from a couple of months ago. It's Trump stepping all over himself in an interview with Maria Bartiromo about Iran. Hey, it's Will Salatan from the Bulwark. So how are things going in Iran? Well, the United States has the world's most powerful military, and we've got the world's most powerful economy, Right? So we have all, all the advantages except one thing. We have the world's dumbest president. And today we got a really good look at just how dumb he is. So let me show you what happened. Trump did a phone interview With Maria Bartiromo on Fox News. Now, Maria Bartiromo, in case you didn't know, is a total Trump suck up. So she is trying to, she's trying her hardest to make him look good, but he keeps exposing himself as just a total fool. So let me start by showing you one of her suck up questions. Here she is. Can you explain to those people why it was critical for the United States
- [03:04]
Donald Trump
to go into Iran?
- [03:05]
Will Saletan
Can you articulate what was behind that
- [03:08]
Donald Trump
move that was so important for the
- [03:10]
Will Saletan
US to go into Iran?
- [03:11]
Donald Trump
Yeah. So easy. The easiest question you've asked me so far. They can't have nuclear weapons. They have nuclear. They want to enrich what they have. They want to enrich more. As you know, we knocked out with the B2 bombers. Had we not knocked that out, they would have had a nuclear weapon within one month after we knocked out. In other words, that the B2. Those beautiful B2 bombers totally obliterated their three sides.
- [03:37]
Will Saletan
Wait a minute. We had to attack Iran this year, a month and a half ago, to stop them from getting nuclear weapons. But then he keeps talking and he says we already obliterated their nuclear sites with the B2 bombers. He says that was last year. So we already wiped out their nuclear program, but now we had to go back in again and wreck the world's oil supply and double your gas prices and bill American taxpayers for another $200 billion for this war to stop Iran's nuclear program, which we had already obliterated. He can't even get his story straight. Okay, next, Trump says we've already achieved regime change.
- [04:31]
Donald Trump
Look at their leadership. We have had regime change because the people we dealt with yesterday were frankly very smart, very sharp, very good, very good. I think they were smarter than the people from before Khomeini and that group.
- [04:49]
Will Saletan
Wait a minute, did he just say Khomeini in that group?
- [04:53]
Donald Trump
I think they were smarter than the people from before Khomeini and that group,
- [04:57]
Will Saletan
dude, the new supreme leader of Iran is literally another Khomeini. He's the son of the previous Ayatollah Khomeini. This so called new regime is the same damn regime we had before with all the Revolutionary Guards and the mullahs and the repression. It's, it's just new faces. And if you think, if you think this new regime is different from the old regime, check out what Trump said in this interview about what we just got from talking to them.
- [05:29]
Donald Trump
We had a very intensive negotiation and toward the end it got very friendly and we got just about every point we needed. Except for the fact that they refused to give up their nuclear ambition.
- [05:43]
Will Saletan
Oh, yeah, they were super smart and sharp and. And they were so friendly. The only thing was they wouldn't give up their nuclear program. Just like, just like the old regime. There is no new regime. There's just Donald Trump's bullshit. Okay, here's another one. Trump says we totally won the war and the Iranians have nothing left to fight with. Right. Except there's one little problem.
- [06:12]
Donald Trump
The whole place is gone. They have one thing that they can do. They can say, well, gee, we're going to put a mine someplace in the. Just a mine will drop one mine, two mines, 10 mines, and that will. If you have a ship that costs a billion dollars, you say, well, you know, I prefer not getting whacked by a mine, losing my ship or damaging it badly at least. And so that's a little bit of a thing that they can do, that it's military might and military power. Don't do it. But, you know, it's extortion and they're extorting the world.
- [06:42]
Will Saletan
Oh, really? Gee, it turns out that we have all the military power and their whole military is gone, but they can still drop a mine into the Strait of Hormuz or just threaten to drop a mine and that, that's enough to choke off all the shipping. Who could have imagined that? Well, every single military planner, that's who. They told him that. But this idiot, our president, seems totally surprised. I mean, you can hear his disbelief that he won the military fight, but he has no idea what to do about the mines. It's called asymmetric warfare, and he's just too dumb to understand it. So here's another one. On Friday, a reporter asked Trump about the Strait of Hormuz, which the Iranians had closed off. And here's what Trump said.
- [07:40]
Donald Trump
Yeah, but that'll open up automatically. Yeah, the answer is yes, but the strait will open up. If we just left, the strait's gonna. Otherwise they make no money.
- [07:48]
Will Saletan
Oh, so it'll open automatically. See, they'll have to open it and let all the ships through, because if they don't, they won't make any money. Right? But then here's what Trump said today in the interview with Bartiromo.
- [08:05]
Donald Trump
We're putting on a complete blockade. We're not going to let Iran make money on selling oil to people that they like and not people that they don't like or whatever it is. It's going to be all or none.
- [08:16]
Will Saletan
Oh, wait. Huh? It Turns out that Iran doesn't have to open up the strait for everybody. They can just let some countries bring their ships through and they can charge a toll for that, and that way they can make money without opening it up for everybody. But our genius president was too dumb to figure that out. Oh, but, oh, but he's a great. A great negotiator, right? I mean, he literally. He literally wrote the Art of the Deal, right? So let's see what he's saying about the talks with Iran.
- [08:50]
Donald Trump
I predict they come back and they give us everything we want. And I tell my people, I want everything. I don't want 90%. I don't want 95%. I told him I want everything.
- [09:01]
Will Saletan
Everything, huh? I mean, 95%, he says, is not good enough. I mean, if you wanted to make sure, make absolutely sure that you come out of a negotiation looking like the loser, the surest way to do that is to tell everybody up front that if you don't get 100%, literally 100% of what you wanted, that's not good enough. Trump is setting himself up for failure. Okay, but we're killing Iran in the war, right? I mean, we are absolutely smoking these dudes.
- [09:36]
Donald Trump
I mean, just listen to Trump and the Maximum campaign. You can't do any more Maximum. We've wiped out their whole country, essentially. But when you talk about Maximum, I think, you know, outside of those few things that are remaining, I think I pretty much maxed out. You are very, very violent and vicious. I don't want to have you against me, I'll tell you. What do you say? I think we pretty much maxed out. Other than those. Those few items.
- [09:58]
Will Saletan
Oh, yeah, we are totally maxed out. I mean, we have done everything we could. We are done. So then, if we've already done to Iran everything we could do, what exactly is our leverage at this point? This moron president. This moron is so determined to brag about all the damage he's done that he's basically telling our adversary, we can't hit you any harder than we already have. Right? And then. And then he's surprised when the Iranian negotiators say, okay, well, if you're maxed out, then we're not giving you what you want. Duh. But the dumbest thing about Trump and the Iranians know this is he's completely obsessed with. With his ego and his domestic opposition. He can't focus on the war because he's got his own petty fights back home. Watch what happened in this interview when he started talking about the military. And then his brain drifted over to the media.
- [11:04]
Donald Trump
Our military is so good. Do you know our military is a 94% approval rating now? Well, Congress has a 14%. The media has a 12%. When I started, the media had a 92% approval rating. Now they're down to 14%. And I'm very proud of it, because they're very dishonest.
- [11:22]
Will Saletan
Oh, he's very proud of that. I mean, we're in a war, and now we're in a negotiation to end the war. But what he wants to talk about is the fight he really, really cares about, which is driving down the media's approval rating. And check out what happened when Bartiromo asked him what's going to happen with the global supply of oil.
- [11:44]
Donald Trump
Let's talk about that, Mr. President, because
- [11:46]
Will Saletan
you referred to a post that hundreds of supertankers are headed to the Gulf of America to buy oil and gas from the U.S. what can you tell us about that, sir?
- [11:56]
Donald Trump
Well, I can tell you that it used to be called the Gulf of Mexico. That's what I can tell you now. It's called the Gulf of America because of me. One of my little things that I did, you know, one of my little sidelines. And it's a great honor. People are so happy. You go to Louisiana, you go to Florida, you go to these states, Texas.
- [12:11]
Will Saletan
She's asking him a serious question about the global economy, and he's going off about changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico, and he goes on like this. I mean, look, I know some of you can't stand to watch this guy, and I'm there with you, but this is real dementia. This. There is a war and an economic crisis, and this guy, instead of doing his job, cannot stop talking about this,
- [12:40]
Donald Trump
used to say, why. Why is that the Gulf of Mexico when we have 93% of the frontage and, you know, it fronts 93% in the United States? I said, I think I'm going to change it to the Gulf of America. What a beautiful name. And I did. And I give a lot of credit to Google, because once I filed the papers, I did it. And Google Map, once Google Map changed, you know, did it. It was. It was a done deal, but we had. We had lawsuits. We had lost. We won everything. And it's now the Gulf of America, which I'm very. Which I'm very honored by.
- [13:15]
Will Saletan
Oh, well, well, that's great for your honor, sir, but what about the people you're supposed to be working for? You know, what about, say, I don't know the skyrocketing price of gas. So do you believe the price of oil and gas will be lower before the midterm elections?
- [13:31]
Donald Trump
I hope so. I mean, I think so. It could be. It could be, or the same, or maybe a little bit higher, but it should be around the same.
- [13:38]
Will Saletan
Around the same, huh? Or, or maybe it'll be a little higher. He says, hey, it's just a little detour, a journey. This, this little military operation will. It'll be over soon. Right? And we're going to get right back to normal life, except for the part where you're still going to be paying $4 or $5 or $6 for gas right through the midterms. In fact, Trump says when he decided to do this, he thought the price would go up even more.
- [14:10]
Donald Trump
So the stock market has not gone down very much at all. Down a little bit. Much less than I thought. And frankly, the gas hasn't gone up as much as I thought.
- [14:19]
Will Saletan
Oh, well, that's great. I mean, do. Don't you feel so much better knowing that when Trump started this war, which we absolutely, we absolutely had to do to wipe out the nuclear program that we already wiped out last year? Right. Doesn't it make you feel so much better knowing that he thought, he thought he was going to drive your 401k even lower, and he thought he was going to drive the price of gas even higher. And what did you get for it? Well, your gas prices double, your mortgage rates are higher, inflation's up, and the Strait of Hormuz is still closed. But hey, hey, we sank a lot of ships, right? And have you noticed that the media's approval rating is way, way down? That's something, right? So congratulations, Mr. President. You do, you do win the Nobel Prize in stupidity. You know, finding a doctor you actually like feels like discovering a diamond in the rough. And yeah, you want someone who's in network, you want someone who's nearby, you want someone with open time slots. You want someone who's kind of nice and cool and easy to get along with and doesn't scare the hell out of you. But let's be honest, that's just the start. You also deserve someone who really listens, who makes you feel comfortable, who. Who calms your nerves. Your diamond. The rough doctor. Thankfully, they do exist, and finding them is easy. You just got to go to zocdoc. Zocdoc is a free app and a website that helps you find and book high quality in network doctors. So you can find someone who you love. Take this. As someone who has grown up with two parents who were doctors, I love them. They're great. Finding people like that, it's a life changer. So stop putting off those doctor appointments and go to zocdoc.com bulwarktakes to find and instantly book a doctor who you love. Today may not be my parents, but it could be close. That's z o c-o c.com bulwarktakes zocdoc.com bulwarktakes thanks to Zocdoc for sponsoring this message. So that was a couple of months ago, but it's not the first time that the people at Fox News have tried to help the moron in the White House. A couple of years ago when he was running for reelection, they tried their best to prop up his, his campaign and they, they practically wrote his lines for him. But again, he was just too stupid to take the hint. So here's a video from that time. It's a little slower because honestly, I was a little slower back then. But the idiocy from this guy is pretty comical. Take a look. Hey, everybody, it's Will Salatan from the Bulwark. Did you know that Donald Trump is one of the smartest people in the world?
- [17:07]
Donald Trump
Trust me, I'm like a smart person.
- [17:10]
Will Saletan
That's what he says. And today we're going to test that theory. We're going to watch Trump as several Fox News anchors try to coach him to stop saying stupid things and start saying smart things. Let's see how well he does. We'll start with Trump's opinion of his own intellect. Here he is earlier this year explaining just how brilliant his family is.
- [17:35]
Donald Trump
You know, I had an uncle, he's the longest serving professor, Dr. John Trump in the history of MIT. Same genes. We have genes. We're smart people.
- [17:46]
Will Saletan
Smart people. And here's Trump at a rally in Atlanta on Saturday ridiculing his opponent, Kamala Harris.
- [17:54]
Donald Trump
She happens to be really a low IQ individual. She really does. She has a very low iq. She's Bernie Sanders, but not as smart. That's the way I view it. I said she's a dumb version of Bernie Sanders and actually further left than him.
- [18:11]
Will Saletan
So that's what Trump thinks of his own intellect compared to the intellect of his opponent. But let's see how Trump does in real life. Here's Trump in an interview with Sean Hannity two months ago. Hannity is trying to get Trump to clean up a quote in which Trump talked about bringing retribution to his Enemies. Watch.
- [18:34]
Donald Trump
Focus on those that want people to
- [18:38]
Will Saletan
believe that you want retribution, that you
- [18:41]
Donald Trump
will use the system of justice to go after your political enemies. Number one, they're wrong. It has to stop because otherwise we're not going to have a country. Look, when this election is over, based on what they've done, I would have every right to go after them. And, and it's easy because it's Joe Biden and you see all the criminality, all of the money that's going into the family and him.
- [19:07]
Will Saletan
That was a good try by Hannity. He wants Trump to let go of his grievances. But Trump can't let go. He repeats the grievances and says he's got every right to go after Biden. So Hannity tries again. This time he tries to spoon feed the right words to Trump and watch what Trump says in response. You'll see Trump blurred out in the interview that Hannity is trying to tell him what to say and that he's not going to say it. Will you pledge to restore equal justice,
- [19:43]
Donald Trump
equal application of our laws, end this practice of weaponization? Is that a promise you're going to make? You have to do it, but it's awful. Look, I, I know you want me to say something. No, I don't want you to say. I'm asking. I don't want to look naive. I don't want what they've done to the Republican Party. They want to arrest on no crime. They want to arrest the person that won the nomination in a landslide. There was nobody even close in a landslide. The person that got millions of votes, more votes than any other sitting president in history in the last election.
- [20:18]
Will Saletan
There he goes back to the grievances, the self pity and the ego. Hannity tried his best, but Trump just would not take the hint. So let's see how Trump does with a different teacher. Here's Laura Ingraham, another Fox News host, interviewing Trump last week. She's trying to get Trump to clean up a different quote in which he said that if he becomes president again, Christians won't have to vote anymore. They're also attacking you for other ridiculous reasons. They're saying that you said to a crowd of Christians that they won't have
- [20:57]
Donald Trump
to vote in the future. Yeah, let me say, what did I mean by that? I had a tremendous crowd speaking to Christians. I mean this was a crowd that liked me a lot. I think I'm at 97% or something.
- [21:10]
Will Saletan
Look, the assignment here is really simple. Ingraham wants Trump to say no, I Did not mean that if I win there won't be any more elections. But instead of saying that, Trump goes back to what an awesome guy he is and how everybody loves him, so Ingraham has to step in and try to steer him back to what she wants him to say. Watch.
- [21:36]
Donald Trump
Look, is that Christians are known. You know who else doesn't vote? Gun owners don't vote.
- [21:41]
Will Saletan
But just to be clear, what you're
- [21:43]
Donald Trump
saying, though, you're not saying it's being interpreted as you are not surprised to hear. No. By the left as well. They're never going to have another election. He says he's, he's saying there's not.
- [21:51]
Will Saletan
So can you even just respond?
- [21:54]
Donald Trump
I said Christians. I started off by saying, just so you understand, you never vote. Christians do not vote. Well, they vote in very small percentages. Why? I don't know. Maybe they're disappointed in things that are happening but for a long time.
- [22:10]
Will Saletan
Again, here's a Fox News host trying to spoon feed Trump the right thing to say and she can't get him off these rants. It's starting to look as though Trump, despite his brilliant genes, is a very slow student. Then link. Last Wednesday, Trump went to speak to the national association of Black Journalists. As you might have gathered from the name of the organization, there were black people in the audience and Trump needs to persuade black voters that he cares about them. Instead, he did the worst possible thing. He attacked one of the interviewers who shared the stage with him, Rachel Scott of ABC News, and he attacked the ancestry of Kamala Harris. This you gotta see.
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Donald Trump
She was always of Indian heritage and she was only promoting Indian heritage. I didn't know she was black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn black. And now she wants to be known as black. So I don't know, is she Indian or is she black?
- [23:15]
Will Saletan
She has always identified as a black college.
- [23:19]
Donald Trump
I respect either one. But she obviously, obviously doesn't because she was Indian all the way. And then all of a sudden she made a turn and she went, she became a black person.
- [23:28]
Will Saletan
Just to be clear, sir, do you believe.
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Donald Trump
I think somebody should look into that too. When you ask, continue. In a very hostile, nasty town, this
- [23:35]
Will Saletan
performance was so awful that another Fox News host decided to step in. Harris Faulkner, who has her own show on Fox, happened to be one of the three people on stage with Trump at the conference of black journalists. So she intervened in the conversation to try to get Trump back on message. Watch. Look, I want to talk about why you're here today. I mean, it is not lost on us how divided we are as a country. And as you were coming today, we really got to see that we were divided along the lines of race, along
- [24:11]
Donald Trump
the lines of gender, along the lines of gender.
- [24:13]
Will Saletan
And there is this question of, in this moment where we are, why Come here. What is your message today?
- [24:23]
Donald Trump
My message is to stop people from invading our country that are taking, frankly, a lot of problems with it. But one of the big problems and a lot of the journalists in this room I know and I have great respect for. A lot of the journalists in this room are black. I will tell you that coming. Coming from the border are millions and millions of people that happen to be taking black jobs. You had the best.
- [24:52]
Will Saletan
What exactly is a black job, sir? You gotta feel for Professor Faulkner. She's trying to get Trump to stop insulting black people. Instead, he goes back to his old riff about black jobs. So she tries again. She asks Trump to please focus on a constructive message about inflation and living expenses. How do you turn it around? What's your plan for the black community when it comes to money?
- [25:19]
Donald Trump
So, first of all, it's very hard to hear you, for whatever reason, because of the fact that they have bad equipment, because I guess, you know, this woman was unable to get the right equipment.
- [25:28]
Will Saletan
Can you believe this guy? He's still bitching at Rachel Scott. He can't even learn her name. He keeps calling her this woman. In fact, later in the interview, Trump goes after Scott again. And listen carefully to this clip, because as he speaks, you'll hear Harris Faulkner blurt out her dismay at what a jackass he is.
- [25:54]
Donald Trump
If I came onto a stage like this and I got treated so rudely as this woman, oh, my goodness. And I'm fine with it because she. It does it. She was very rude, sir. Very rude. That was a nasty. That wasn't a question.
- [26:08]
Will Saletan
Did you hear that? Oh, my goodness. That's the sound of a teacher acknowledging just how obtuse and obnoxious her student is. But let's give these Fox anchors one more shot. On Thursday, Maria Bartiromo, who has a morning show on the Fox Business Channel, interviewed Trump about a series of issues. She told him quite clearly that she wanted him to focus on his policy differences with Kamala Harris. Watch. Mr. President, I really want to focus on policy in this interview because I want to make sure people understand what your policy is. But once again, Trump did not follow the assignment. He insisted on attacking Harris personally, and he also personally attacked Joe Biden, who. Who isn't even running against Trump anymore. Here's what Trump said about both of them.
- [27:00]
Donald Trump
Oh, she's terrible. She's not respected on the, in these foreign, in foreign countries. I mean, she's laughed at everybody. Can't believe that this is happening. And I'm not a fan of Biden. He's not a smart guy, never was. You can go back 30 years. He was never a smart guy. But she's not smart either. She's not a smart person.
- [27:17]
Will Saletan
Are you going to debate her?
- [27:19]
Donald Trump
Well, I want to. We're leading in the polls, it seems, by quite a bit. Still, she's better than he is, but I think ultimately she'll be worse than him. She is not a smart person. She's not a smart person.
- [27:32]
Will Saletan
Those insults are the essence of Donald Trump. He's just a mean, petty, juvenile sob. He's way more interested in demeaning other people than he is in helping anybody. And it's especially ironic that his favorite insult is to call other people stupid. Because as you can see, calling other people stupid is one of the obnoxious, boneheaded, self destructive rants that the interviewers on Fox News are trying to steer Trump away from. These Fox News anchors desperately want Trump to win the election. They're trying so hard to get his foot out of his mouth and to teach him to say the right thing. And he's just too dumb and stubborn to get the message. Now, to be fair, Trump doesn't need help from those Fox News anchors to look stupid. He can do that all by himself. And during the Iran war, he has had lots and lots of practice. So here is one of my favorite scenes. It's from a visit to the Oval Office by the Japanese Prime Minister Trump. Trump managed to say the dumbest thing an American president could have said about Japan. And it's totally embarrassing. But since the embarrassment is Trump's, I thought you might enjoy it. Here it is. Hey, it's Will Salatan from the Bulwark. So if you were hosting the Japanese prime Minister at the White House as Donald Trump was doing today, and you wanted Japan's help in this war, you started with Iran, which you didn't consult Japan or any other allies about, what is the dumbest thing you could bring up? If you said Pearl harbor, you win. Yes, Donald Trump brought up Pearl harbor with the Japanese prime minister in the Oval Office today. But that was just the dumbest of a bunch of dumb things Trump said during this session at the White House. Let me take you through it. Here is the first thing the first dumb thing Trump said it was that he decided on his own to basically take down the US Economy. Here's what he said.
- [29:48]
Donald Trump
Everything was going great. The economy was great. Oil prices were very low. Gasoline was dropping to. I mean, we had $1.99, 85. We had great everything. And I saw what was happening in Iran, and I saw, said, I hate to make this excursion, but we're going to have to do it. And I actually thought the numbers would be worse. I thought that it would go up more than it did. But we're doing this excursion, and when it's completed, we're going to have a much safer world.
- [30:18]
Will Saletan
So the first thing to notice here is Trump keeps using the word I. I did it. Everything was great. The economy was great, everything was cool. But I said, I have to go do this war with Iran. Now, you might remember the last time there was an economic crisis under Trump. It was Covid, right? And he kept saying, the China virus came in. It was the Chinese and their virus that wrecked our economy. I was doing great. This time, he's right out there saying, no, no, it's me, it's me. I decided to go to war with Iran. And then the next thing he says here, he tells you what the price of gas was before he started. He says it was $1.85, $1.99, and that's only in certain parts of the country. But he might not be aware. The average gas price right now in the United States is about twice that. It's 388 as of today. And it's been going up. It's probably going to keep going up. So he's reminding everybody how much prices are up, that they've essentially doubled because of a decision that he made. And what was that decision? Was it a war that we absolutely had to fight? He keeps using the word. You heard it there twice. He said, it's an excursion. We just decided to go. I decided the economy was going great, but we needed to go on this excursion. I mean, who calls a war an excursion? An excursion is what people do from a cruise ship or you're on a vacation somewhere. Let's go, honey. Let's go on a little excursion. And it's a. It's a leisure term. Everybody uses it that way. So you, Mr. And Mrs. America, are paying twice the price you used to pay for gas for an excursion. The dumbest way I've ever heard to present a war. Okay, so we did all this for the excursion. So how is the excursion? That is the War. How's it going? Trump says it's going great. It's great. We are demolishing Iran. Watch.
- [32:14]
Donald Trump
I mean, we've. We've demolished. That country is close to demolished. The only thing is the strait. It's very hard. You could take two people and they could drop little bombs in the water, and they're holding things up.
- [32:26]
Will Saletan
Demolishing. We're demolishing them. We're kicking ass. It's great. We're killing them. We're great. We are great. The United States is terrific at destroying things. But there's just this one little problem which he brings up there. He says, you know, it's really annoying. We've. We've demolished all of their military. But he, you know, if they have a couple of people and a bomb, they can just drop it in the straight, a mine, they can block all the shipping, where all the oil comes out for the rest of the world, right? So we have this contradiction that Trump and Pete Hegseth keep bragging that we've destroyed the Iranian military. Oh, it's all gone. All the planes are gone, the ships are gone. You know, they got nothing left. And yet we can't get the oil out because just a couple of people with a bomb can. Can choke it off. And that means. That means if you're an ordinary person with an ordinary brain, that Iran actually has a big advantage. Not the advantage of beating us in the war, but it's so hard for us to get rid of every last thing they can do to close down the Strait of Hormuz and to choke off the oil. And here's the kicker. The way that Trump talks about it in that clip, you can see how surprised he is. He didn't see this coming. Like any person who was briefed on the history of Iran, the history of the Strait of Hormuz, Right. His generals would have told him this. Trump either never understood it, never heard it, he cannot get it through his head that this was going to happen. The most obvious thing, it's not real reassuring if you're the Japanese Prime Minister and Trump has brought you in for help, which he has in this case, and you're seeing what an absolute idiot he is at planning for this war. So then Trump gets to why we're here. We need minesweepers. It's. They discussed it in this. In this session. They discussed it in their meeting. Japan has minesweepers. And Trump is supposed to be asking the Prime Minister for that kind of help, but instead he says, we don't need anybody's help Watch.
- [34:28]
Donald Trump
We don't need much. We don't need anything. I mean, honestly, we don't need anything from Japan or from anyone else, but I think it's appropriate that people step up.
- [34:36]
Will Saletan
So he says, we want other countries to step up, but then he says, we don't need anything from Japan or anyone else. What the hell? What the hell? He is so arrogant that even though he obviously has no. No clue what he's doing and he's run into a problem that he can't solve, which is the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, he's saying like a child, I don't need anybody's help. Remember this guy Trump? He tariffed all these countries. He tariffed Japan and all the Europeans. He bragged about how much we could squeeze them, how much we could hurt them. And then he didn't even consult them about going into this war. He just did it on his own. And then he says, step up, you guys, since I didn't consult you, but now you need to step up and help us. And then he says, we don't need you. It's just a total mess of contradictions. And in fact, some countries have offered to help, and Trump says, they're too late. Watch this.
- [35:34]
Donald Trump
As far as I'm concerned, it's too late. You know, UK wants to send aircraft carriers now. And I said, I want the aircraft carriers before the war. I don't want them after the war is won.
- [35:48]
Will Saletan
It's too late. You're too late. What a whiny little president. What a whiny little president. And then in the course of complaining that all these countries aren't stepping up, he claims that they should do more. Because this whole war, it isn't really for us, for the United States, it's for them. Check it out.
- [36:08]
Donald Trump
Europe. Parts of Europe get a lot of their oil through the Strait. We get none. Practically, we're less than 1%. We don't have to be any percentage. We don't even. I think we do it just to be nice. But we think of it. We don't use the straight. We're defending the straight for everybody else.
- [36:27]
Will Saletan
We don't need this oil, says Trump. We have our own oil in the United States. We're just doing it to be nice. He says we're defending the straight for everybody else. So. So wait a minute. When Trump started this war, he said it was for us. Remember, he said that Iran posed an imminent threat to us, the United States. That was his whole pitch to the MAGA base. Remember, America first. We're not going to fight other people's wars. We're only going to do what's in our interest. But now he's admitting it wasn't for us. We're doing it for the world. We're the world's policemen. So how's that going to go over with the MAGA base? Right? He's contradicted himself. He didn't even realize it. But before we get to the fun part, which is Pearl harbor, unbelievably, I gotta show you one more thing that Trump said about Joe Biden during this session. Here it is.
- [37:19]
Donald Trump
We have a lot of ammunition, but it was taken down by giving so much to Ukraine. They gave so much. You know, Biden gave $350 billion worth of cash and military equipment to Ukraine, and he didn't rebuild anything.
- [37:34]
Will Saletan
So he says Biden gave $350 billion to Ukraine and that Biden then didn't do anything to rebuild or to build up the military. First of all, the $350 billion is a total lie, right? That's like three times the actual amount that we spent. Secondly, Joe Biden spent during the course of his presidency, we spent $3.5 trillion on the military, nearly a trillion dollars a year on the military. And Trump just sits there and says Biden did nothing. He is such a fantastic liar. I just had to bring that up. Okay, now let's get to the part about Pearl Harbor. It started with this question from a Japanese reporter.
- [38:16]
Donald Trump
One question.
- [38:17]
Will Saletan
Why didn't you tell US allies in Europe and Asia, like Japan, about the war before attacking Iran?
- [38:25]
Donald Trump
So we are very confused about.
- [38:29]
Will Saletan
And then here's how Trump answered that question from the reporter. Now, before I play this, I gotta flag one thing. I want you to watch the face of the Japanese Prime Minister. Her name is Sanai Takaichi. Okay? She's sitting right next to Trump and she's. She knows she shouldn't react. But then Trump says something so awful that she can't help herself.
- [38:52]
Donald Trump
One thing, you don't want to signal too much. You know, when we go in, we went in very hard and we didn't tell anybody about it because we wanted surprise. Who knows better about surprise than Japan? Why didn't you tell me about Pearl Harbor? Okay, right. He's asking me, and we had to surprise him, and we did.
- [39:15]
Will Saletan
Did you catch that the first time when Trump says, who knows better about surprise than Japan? And then she realizes what he's gonna say. You can see her take. She takes this sharp intake of breath. She can't believe what she's hearing. And you can see her eyes widen. Her eyes bug out as she hears it. And that's before he says the totally incredible part. Why didn't you tell me about Pearl Harbor? You. You, this prime minister in modern times, why didn't you tell me about Pearl Harbor? Like, you've inherited the guilt of Pearl harbor because you're Japanese. Okay, But Trump wasn't even finished. He keeps going. And then he says to her again, he just keeps digging in on this topic. You believe in surprise more than us. You, you, the Japanese again, blaming the current prime minister of Japan over this surprise attack. And. And you can see her eyes widen again. She can't believe that having made this incredible gaffe, he's digging in harder on this topic. So she's trying so hard not to react, but you notice that she's looking to her right. She's found somebody over there that she's supposed to be looking at to calm herself. And if, you know, when the camera backs up, I'll just tell you this. You can see there's two couches going on in the Oval Office, and on Trump's right, there's a couch that has J.D. vance and Marco Rubio, and I think it's Pete Hegseth. But really, if you're on the right, you don't want to be on a couch with J.D. vance, just as a general rule. Okay? But on the other side, on the left side, which is to the right of the Japanese prime minister, she's looking over there, and that's her delegation. So she's found somebody over there that she can lock eyes with and try to not burst out in anger or laughter at this incredible gaffe from Trump. This is a meeting where Trump is supposed to be asking Japan for help, and instead he brings up the worst insult, the most incendiary thing an American president could say to a Japanese prime minister. What an idiot. He's a moron. The President of the United States is an absolute moron. He's gotten himself into a jam in Iran, and he doesn't know how to get out. And he obviously needs help, but he's insulting the people who could help him in the worst way. And if we get out of this jam, if Japan and these other countries come to our rescue and bail us out and get us out of this, it won't be because of Trump. It'll be despite. What's up, everybody? It's Bretzky. And America is turning 250.
- [41:52]
Donald Trump
And I can't think of a better
- [41:53]
Will Saletan
way to celebrate that than playing on an American owned social casino. Spinquest.com with all of your favorite games,
- [42:02]
Donald Trump
live crabs, bubble craps, live blackjack, there's
- [42:05]
Will Saletan
no better place to play for free and win real cash prizes. Spinquest.com Spinquest is a free to play social casino Boyd where prohibited. Visit spinquest.com for more details. This week at Safeway and Albertsons 6 to 16 ounce selected varieties of strawberries, raspberries or blackberries are $1.99 each limit 3 member price with coupon and extra meaty pork back ribs or St. Louis style spare ribs bone in previously frozen are two $2.99 per pound limit for member price with coupon plus medium avocados, colored bell peppers or English cucumbers sold by the each or tomatoes on the vine or sweet onions sold by the pound are $0.99 member price. Visit safewayoralbertsons.com for more deals and ways to save. Okay, so as you know, one of the most infuriating things about Trump is that he is a racial demagogue. He just knows how to turn people against each other by playing on bigotry and fear and hate. And look, it's hard to talk about all of that without just getting angry and demoralized. So on occasion, we try to find a way to respond to his bigotry with ridicule and dark humor instead of just outrage. So here's an example from just before the 2024 election, we made a game show, a game show about Trump's preposterous, preposterous attempts to blame every problem in America on illegal immigrants. Hello, hello America. I'm Will Salatan from the Bulwark, and it's time once again for your favorite political game show scapegoat. Today's Contestant is a 34 time convicted felon and two time loser of the popular vote. Let's welcome Donald Trump.
- [43:54]
Donald Trump
Thank you very much, everybody. This is an honor.
- [43:57]
Will Saletan
Now, as our regular viewers know, the challenge for our contestant is to see how many economic, political and social problems he can explain away by blaming one scapegoat. And remember, the contestant has no idea which problems we're going to ask him to explain, but he does get to choose the scapegoat. So, Mr. Trump, what'll it be? Who is your scapegoat?
- [44:24]
Donald Trump
The illegal migrants. Now we call them. We used to call them illegal aliens. I call them whatever the hell I want to call them. So do you.
- [44:31]
Will Saletan
Okay, well, the judges are a little dubious about Your language there. So we'll just go with migrants. Mr. Trump's scapegoat is migrants. So let's get started. Round one, we're gonna give Mr. Trump four problems to explain. The first one is worth $100. Here we go, Mr. Trump, you have 30 seconds to explain away this problem. Difficulty finding a job. The problem is difficulty finding a job. You have 30 seconds.
- [45:07]
Donald Trump
Go. Every job produced in this country over the last two years has. Has gone to illegal aliens. Every job. Think of it.
- [45:17]
Will Saletan
Okay, well, that was quick. That's not actually true. In fact, it's not even remotely true. But that's why we call the show Scapegoat. You don't have to tell the truth. You just have to find a convenient scapegoat. So let's move on to our $200 question. The question is the cost of housing. Mr. Trump, you have 30 seconds to explain why migrants are responsible for the high cost housing. 30 seconds. Go.
- [45:51]
Donald Trump
The colossal influx of migrants into our cities is driving rent, rent absolutely through the roof. Some very smart landlords are getting a lot of money. That's why some of the luxury hotels are going into migrants. They can make much more money renting to migrant than to wealthy people.
- [46:07]
Will Saletan
Well, I've gotta say that is an impressive reach, Mr. Trump. Most people would say that the high cost of housing is due to a long term scarcity of affordable homes and apartments. And I'm guessing they'd say that luxury rentals generally go to wealthy people. But you, Mr. Trump, you have found a way to blame migrants. Well done, sir. Now for our $300 question. Medicare and Social Security. You have 30 seconds to explain why migrants are the real reason behind the precarious financial condition of Medicare and Social Security. Go.
- [46:50]
Donald Trump
You won't have Social Security, you won't have Medicare, you won't have anything. Already if you take a look at the numbers, they're filling up and loading up Social Security, medicine, Medicare with illegal immigrants that have come into our country.
- [47:04]
Will Saletan
Well done again, Mr. Trump. Actually, these retirement programs have been paying out more than they take in for decades, mostly to white people. But you, you have found a way to blame migrants. So our final question of round one is black unemployment for $400. Mr. Trump, you have 30 seconds to explain explain why black unemployment is the fault of migrants begin coming from the
- [47:37]
Donald Trump
border are millions and millions of people that happen to be taking black jobs. You had the best.
- [47:43]
Will Saletan
What exactly is a black job, sir?
- [47:45]
Donald Trump
A black job is anybody that has a job. That's what it is. Anybody that has.
- [47:50]
Will Saletan
All right.
- [47:51]
Donald Trump
And they take president. They're taking the employment away from black people.
- [47:55]
Will Saletan
All right, Mr. Trump, you are four for four. Congratulations. But now it gets harder. In round two, we're going to bring up some problems that are more difficult to connect to your chosen scapegoat. In this round, the money is 10 times higher. So let's get started. Our first topic in round two is schools. For $1,000, Mr. Trump, can you explain why migrants are to blame for problems in schools?
- [48:29]
Donald Trump
You know, our schools in a lot of places are not. You can't even go anymore. They've taken the place of our students. They have people sitting in chairs that don't speak a word of English and they're taking the place of our young children.
- [48:42]
Will Saletan
Okay, American kids can't go to school anymore because they've all been displaced by migrants. Again, not true, but I'm sure our contestant knows that. Next question, hospitals for $2,000. Mr. Trump, can you explain why migrants are to blame for problems in hospitals?
- [49:07]
Donald Trump
Go the hospitals. A person told me the other day from San Diego, they said they can't get into a hospital anymore. The hospitals are being occupied by the illegal aliens. Somebody's got to take care. They're being occupied.
- [49:21]
Will Saletan
The hospitals are being fully occupied by illegal aliens. That's quite a story. Mr. Trump, you are six for six. Let's move on to our three thousand dollar question. The topic is veterans. Mr. Trump, for three thousand dollars, explain why migrants are responsible for the homelessness of veterans.
- [49:47]
Donald Trump
You have soldiers right now laying on the streets of different cities, all Democrat run. They're laying on the streets in front of hotels, in some cases luxury hotels. And you have illegal immigrants coming in and living in those hotels and laughing at our soldiers as they, they walk by into a luxury lobby.
- [50:10]
Will Saletan
Wow, that is just a complete fabrication, but creative. Mr. Trump, you have already won $7,000. And for your final question in round two, the topic is hurricanes. For $4,000, explain why migrants are to blame for the suffering caused by hurricane.
- [50:37]
Donald Trump
Now we have a horrific disaster in North Carolina, Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama, Tennessee, Florida and Virginia. That's how big this hurricane was. And the Harris Biden administration says they don't have any money. They've spent it all on. They spent all of their money. They have almost no money because they spent it all on illegal migrants. They stole the FEMA money just like they stole, stole it from a bank so they could give it to their illegal immigrants.
- [51:06]
Will Saletan
Well done, Mr. Trump. You have found a way to blame migrants for another completely Unrelated problem. That brings us to our final round. This round, the topics are even harder, but the money is tenfold higher again. So, Mr. Trump, the first question in this round is worth $10,000. The topic is Republicans losing elections. You have 30 seconds to explain why migrants are responsible for Republicans losing elections. Go.
- [51:45]
Donald Trump
She wants to give free health care for millions of illegal aliens and give them all citizenship into the United States immediately. And she then wants to sign that up for Medicare and Social Security. And she wants them to vote illegally, if possible. Any way they can vote. They don't care if it's legal or not. And they're signing people up as we speak. They're signing them up as we speak.
- [52:08]
Will Saletan
Wow. That is another complete fabrication. The Democrats are not, in fact, registering millions of illegal immigrants to vote, but points for audacity, Mr. Trump. Let's go to our next challenge, the bribery indictment of New York mayor Eric Adams. Mr. Trump, you have 30 seconds to explain why migrants are to blame for the bribery indictment of New York Mayor Eric Adams. Go.
- [52:42]
Donald Trump
I watched about a year ago when he talked about how the illegal migrants are hurting our city and the federal government. Government should pay us, and we shouldn't have to take him. And I said, you know what? He'll be indicted within a year. And I was exactly right, because that's what we have. We have people that use the Justice Department and the FBI at levels that have never been seen before.
- [53:09]
Will Saletan
Holy cow. That is an amazing answer, Mr. Trump. Mayor Adams was indicted for allegedly soliciting and taking bribes from Turkish businessmen and the Turkish government. But you. You have somehow found a way to cast the mayor as the victim of a corrupt law enforcement system that is punishing him for standing up to migrants. So now we're down to our last two questions. $30,000. Mr. Trump, can you explain why migrants are secretly to blame and for the decline of Little League baseball? The decline of Little League baseball. 30 seconds. Go.
- [53:56]
Donald Trump
The migrants have taken over Madison Avenue. They've taken over Fifth Avenue. They've taken over the parks. The kids can't play Little League. You know, it sounds like a trivial thing. It's a big deal when you have a son that's a Little League player and he can't play.
- [54:08]
Will Saletan
The migrants have taken over the parks. I gotta hand it to you, Mr. Trump. I didn't think you could find a way to connect migrants to the decline of Little League, but you proved me wrong. And that brings us to our final question. The topic is missing pets for $40,000. Mr. Trump, can you explain why pets that go missing in America are actually the fault of migrants.
- [54:41]
Donald Trump
Residents are reporting that the migrants are walking off with the town's geese. They take in the geese. You know where the geese are, in the park, in the lake, and even walking off with their pets. My dog's been taken. They're eating the dogs. The people that came in, they're eating the cats. They're eating. They're eating the pets of the people that live there. And this is what's happening in our country.
- [55:10]
Will Saletan
You did it, Mr. Trump. You just barely beat the buzzer on that one. Your total winnings today are $111,000. You found a way to blame migrants for hurricane damage, bribery prosecutions, veteran homelessness, missing pets, and the decline of Little League baseball. Congratulations. And to all of you at home, that's all for today. But tune in tomorrow when Mr. Trump's running mate, JD Vance, will be here to explain why all of America's problems can be traced back to women who don't have children. See you then. Happy birthday, America. It's time to celebrate and play your favorite Las Vegas casino games by American owned spinquest.com what's better than fireworks and American pie? Hitting a blackjack in the palm of your hand and you won't lose your fingers. Over a thousand games, including slots and live dealers and 30 point packs are on sale for 10 Spinquest.com buy American players. For American players, Spinquest is a free to play social casino. Visit spendquest.com for more details. This week at Safeway and Albertsons, six to 16 ounce selected varieties of strawberries, raspberries or blackberries are $1.99 each. Limit three member price with coupon and extra meaty pork back ribs or St. Louis style spare ribs. Bone in, previously frozen are $2.99 per pound limit four member price with coupon plus medium avocados, colored bell peppers or English cucumber sold by the each or tomatoes on the vine or sweet onions sold by the pound are $0.99 member price. Visit safewayoralbertsons.com for more deals and ways to save. Okay, so that's the bigotry. But we've also made fun of Trump's bizarre habit of conspiracy theories and you know his theory about the 2020 election. But last year he came up with a new conspiracy theory about the 2016 election. And this time. This time the theory was that Barack Obama tried to rig the 2016 election after it had already happened. The whole thing was so ridiculous that we made this video poking fun at it. Hey, it's Will Salitan from the Bulwark. Today, I want to fill you in on Donald Trump's new conspiracy theory. So we've all heard Trump's old conspiracy theory about the 2020 election, that it was, you know, rigged and stolen. But now Trump has a new theory. Those dirty cheaters, the Democrats, they've also tried to steal the 2016 election. In fact, here's the plot twist. They tried to steal the 2016 election after it had already happened. Whoa. I know. You're thinking, how could they do that? So let's find out. Okay, so here's Trump's usual theory, which he repeats all the time. Here he is.
- [58:12]
Donald Trump
On July 1, the election in 2020 was rigged. Millions and millions of votes.
- [58:17]
Will Saletan
And then on July 3rd, and then
- [58:20]
Donald Trump
they cheated and rigged the election.
- [58:22]
Will Saletan
And then on July 6, the election was totally rigged. And then again last week, that's why I ran again.
- [58:29]
Donald Trump
I got cheated. They rigged the election.
- [58:32]
Will Saletan
Okay, so the problem with this theory is that it's been totally debunked. My favorite quote on this comes from Trump's own attorney general in his first term, Bill Barr.
- [58:43]
Donald Trump
I made it clear I did not agree with the idea of saying the election was stolen and putting out this stuff, which I told the president was bullshit.
- [58:51]
Will Saletan
Right? So everybody knows Trump's story about 2020 is bullshit, but this week he came up with his new theory. Here's Trump at a reception with Congressional Republicans on Tuesday night. He's talking about documents that were just released by Tulsi Gabbard, who is the Director of National Intelligence.
- [59:11]
Donald Trump
She has all the documents. She has everything that you need. And she found out that Barack Hussein Obama led a group of people and they cheated in the elections, and they cheated without question.
- [59:23]
Will Saletan
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Obama, Remember, the old theory was that Joe Biden did the cheating because he was the Democratic candidate in 2020. Obama was totally out of the picture in 2020. He hadn't been president for four years. Does Trump really mean that the guy doing the cheating was Obama?
- [59:45]
Donald Trump
Obama cheated on the election. Remember this? Obama cheated on the election, and we have it cold, hard.
- [59:55]
Will Saletan
What is Trump talking about? He can't be talking about 2016, can he?
- [60:01]
Donald Trump
Barack Hussein Obama is the ringleader. Hillary Clinton was right there with him, and so was sleepy Joe Biden, and so were the rest of them. Comey Clapper, the whole group. And they tried to rig an election, and they got caught. And then they did rig the election in 20.
- [60:19]
Will Saletan
Huh? So Trump says they did rig the election in 20. 20. But before that, they tried to rig the previous election, which was 2016. And Trump says the evidence for this conspiracy in 2016 is the documents released by Gabbard, which supposedly, but not really, prove that Obama manufactured intelligence to frame Russia for interfering in the election. So when exactly did this happen? Here's what Gabbard told Sean Hannity on Friday. And the very next day after they pulled that document, President Obama called a National Security Council cabinet meeting to discuss how Russia interfered with the election. Again, this is the first.
- [61:09]
Donald Trump
This is December.
- [61:10]
Will Saletan
President Trump had already won, Correct? Wait a minute. Trump had already won. This treasonous conspiracy was directed by President Obama just weeks before he was due to leave office, after President Trump had already gotten elected. Okay, so according to Gabbard, this conspiracy happened after the election. But Trump says it was a conspiracy to rig the election. Remember, he says they tried to rig the election and then they got caught, and then they did rig the 2020 election. So what's going on here is Gabbard cooked up a story about Obama manufacturing intelligence, and Trump is so dumb or so indifferent to reality that he's trying to twist that story into his favorite shtick, which is about a rigged election. And Trump doesn't care that in his version of the story, to rig that election, Obama would have had to travel backward through time. Why would Trump tell such a ridiculous story? The answer is Jeffrey Epstein. Check out what Trump said on Tuesday when a reporter asked about the Epstein files.
- [62:31]
Donald Trump
I don't really follow that too much. It's. It's sort of a witch hunt. Just a continuation of the witch hunt. The witch hunt that you should be talking about is they caught President Obama absolutely cold. Tulsi Gabbard.
- [62:44]
Will Saletan
Ah, there you go. Trump is trying to change the subject from his cover up of the Epstein files to this wacky theory about 2016. In fact, at the reception on Tuesday night, Trump told congressional Republicans that when they get asked about the Epstein files, they should pivot to his conspiracy theory about Obama.
- [63:09]
Donald Trump
And you should mention that every time they give you a question that's not appropriate, just say, oh, by the way, Obama cheated on the election.
- [63:17]
Will Saletan
Look, I don't know how much Trump knew about Epstein or whether he had anything to do with the sexual abuse. And I don't know if Trump is trying to cover it up, but I do know that when somebody is so desperate to change the subject that they try to sell you a conspiracy theory that requires time travel, they probably got something to hide. What's going on, everyone? It's bluff here and you know what's more American than America's 250th birthday? Supporting American owned companies like Spinquest, America's number one social casino with over a thousand games like live dealer, blackjack and craps. They're offering new users a $30 coin package for just $10. Go to spinquest.com and sign up. Today. Spinquest is a free to play social casino void where prohibited. Visit spinquest.com for more details. This week at Safeway and Albertsons 6 to 16 ounce selected varieties of strawberries, raspberries or blackberries are $1.99 each. Large limit 3 member price with coupon and extra meaty pork back ribs or St. Louis style spare ribs bone in previously frozen are $2.99 per pound limit four member price with coupon plus medium avocados, colored bell peppers or English cucumbers sold by the each or tomatoes on the vine or sweet onions sold by the pound are $0.99 member price. Visit safewayoralbertsons.com for more deals and ways to save now. The conspiracy theories are just part of Trump's endless, endless stream of bullshit. So he just makes stuff up. He repeats it over and over, and usually it's just exasperating, as you know. But sometimes, sometimes the lies are so outlandish and stupid that you can actually laugh at them. And that's what we did in this video of the top 10, the top 10 dumbest lies told by Trump during the 2024 campaign. Let's roll the tape. Hey friends, it's Will Salatan from the Bulwark, and today we're going to have some fun. I'm going to show you the top 10 stupidest things Donald Trump is saying on the campaign trail. Now, just to be clear, this list is confined to things that Trump has actually spoken at rallies or in speeches or interviews. So it doesn't include any of the dumb stuff he's posting on Truth Social. Like I hate Taylor Swift. That's a great way to piss off a lot of people. And I'm also not including gaffes like last week when Trump said that Bagram Air Force Base, which is in Afghanistan, was actually in Alaska.
- [65:53]
Donald Trump
We have Bagram in Alaska. They say it might be as big, might be bigger than all of Saudi Arabia.
- [66:01]
Will Saletan
For this list, I'm just going to focus on Trump's lies. As we all know, Trump lies all the time, but some of his lies are so ridiculous that they're actually laughable. And today we're going to laugh at them. So let's get started. We'll begin our countdown with number 10. It's from Trump's debate with Kamala Harris on September 10th.
- [66:25]
Donald Trump
What they have done to our country by allowing these millions and millions of people to come into our country. And look at what's happening to the towns all all over the United States. And a lot of towns don't want to talk. It's not going to be Aurora or Springfield. A lot of towns don't want to talk about it because they're so embarrassed by it. In Springfield, they're eating the dogs. The people that came in, they're eating the cats. They're eating. They're eating the pets of the people that live there. And this is what's happening in our country.
- [66:56]
Will Saletan
They're eating the pets. I know it's infuriating that Trump told this disgusting lie about the Haitians in Springfield, Ohio, but what's underappreciated about this lie is just how stupid it is. Trump could have said the Haitians were catching and eating rabbits or squirrels, but no, he had to go one step further and accuse them of eating other people's pets, which makes no sense at all because, come on, if you wanted to eat an animal, why would you choose an animal that belongs to somebody who, who loves and feeds that animal every day? Those are the animals that are most likely to be watched and protected. And if they go missing, it's going to be noticed right away. In fact, that's why Trump's lie collapsed immediately. Nobody can find a person in Springfield who actually lost their pet to a Haitian immigrant. So, yeah, the lie is totally gross, but it's also really dumb. And on the theme of eating animals. Let's move on to our next clip. Number nine. This is from a rally Trump did in Atlanta on August 3rd. He's talking about Harris.
- [68:10]
Donald Trump
She vowed to ban fracking. She wants the government to stop people from eating red meat. She wants to get rid of your cows. No more cows.
- [68:19]
Will Saletan
No more cows? Really? I mean, Trump makes up stuff all the time about how Harris is going to ban this or that. No more guns, no more cars. But cows? How exactly would that work? And by the way, this was a rally in Atlanta, the sixth biggest metro area in the United States. Trump is telling an audience of city dwellers that Harris is going to get rid of your cows. Smart. Again, this is an example of Trump taking an argument that could be effective, that Harris is a rabid environmentalist and she's going to ban fracking. But Trump finds a way to push that lie one step further to the point where it's obviously ridiculous. So let's move on to number eight. This is from a town hall that Trump did on Aug. 29 in La Crosse, Wisconsin. It starts with a question from a Trump supporter, former Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard. What's going to happen if Kamala Harris institutes price controls?
- [69:23]
Donald Trump
So that's a communist plan. It's never worked and it's been tried by others. Believe it or not, Richard Nixon tried it. A lot of people tried it.
- [69:31]
Will Saletan
Okay, first of all, Harris has not, in fact, proposed price controls. What she proposed was a crackdown on price gouging. And there's a legitimate debate about how that would work and whether it's a good idea. But Trump always says that Harris is pushing price controls, and he always says that this shows she's a communist. Not a liberal, not a progressive, but an outright communist. And that's preposterous. But I don't have to persuade you of that because Trump just showed you how preposterous it is. He says right there that Richard Nixon tried price controls. Richard Nixon, a Republican President of the United States, who was, in fact, our most avowedly anti communist president. So congratulations, Donald. You just destroyed your own lie about what makes a politician a communist. All right, next up, number seven. This is from a rally Trump did in Wilmington, North Carolina on Saturday. He's going after Harris for saying that she once worked at McDonald's.
- [70:42]
Donald Trump
It was a lie. She never worked at McDonald's. And the fake news doesn't want to mention it. They had a big thing about her job at McDonald's, and they went there. And the manager's been there a long time. Other people have been there a long time, say, no, no, she never worked here, never worked here. She lied.
- [71:00]
Will Saletan
Did you hear that? Trump says that somebody, he can't say who, went and checked to see whether Harris really worked at that McDonald's. In fact, Trump says the investigators went there and spoke to the manager, and the manager says Harris never worked there. And the manager would know because the manager has been there a really long time. Let me tell you, that is one hell of a manager, because Harris's story is that she worked at a McDonald's franchise in Alameda, California, in 1983. That's 41 years ago. So that manager has apparently been working at the same McDonald's location for more than four decades, which I grant you, would be a career of commendable persistence and loyalty if it were actually true. But unfortunately, it's obvious bullshit. So, once again, congratulations to Trump for embellishing his story to the point where everyone knows he's making it up. Okay, now it's time for number six. This is from Trump's interview with Phil McGraw, the famous Dr. Phil, which was released on August 27th.
- [72:16]
Donald Trump
If Jesus came down and was the vote counter, I would win California.
- [72:21]
Will Saletan
Okay, wow. Now, you and I know that Trump lies all the time about elections and how anytime he loses, it was cheating or fraud. But this claim about California, this is something special. In 2020, Donald Trump got crushed in California by a ratio of nearly 2 to 1. He lost California by more than 5 million votes. That's more than twice the size of any margin for either candidate in any other state. He literally picked the state in which his loss was most indisputable. So when Trump says that if Jesus did the counting, Trump would have won, that's his way of showing everyone that either he's completely delusional or he's the world's dumbest liar. Alright, now we're down to the top five. At number five, we. We have another case of Trump struggling with math. Here he is at a rally in Las Vegas on September 13, talking about Harris and the population of illegal immigrants in the United States.
- [73:31]
Donald Trump
I will protect our country. She will surrender our country. She has already let in 21 million people. And if she gets four more years in America, our country will be obliterated. The 21 million people will be. Hundreds of millions of people will come in from all over the world, which is where they're coming from. Now. You'll have 150 million more people. You won't have a country anymore.
- [74:00]
Will Saletan
150 million. Let's back up. When Trump says 21 million immigrants have entered this country illegally in the last four years, that's definitely an exaggeration. The best estimate is that as of two years ago, there were about 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States total. So when Trump says Harris will let in 150 million, that would be about 10 to 15 times what we currently have. In fact, the entire population of the United states is about 330 million. So Trump is claiming that Harris would bring people in at a rate that would literally double our entire population in eight years. That is ludicrous. And while we're on the subject of ludicrous projections about immigrants, let's look at clip number four. This is from a town hall in Wisconsin on August 29th. Trump is talking here about Harris and Joe Biden.
- [75:02]
Donald Trump
And I don't know if you heard the latest statistic, that of the jobs that these people created, which is very little, every single job was taken, about 107% was taken by illegal immigrants.
- [75:17]
Will Saletan
Whoa. How about that? Every job that was created in this country in the last four years went to an illegal immigrant. Did you know that? I mean, I got a new job in the last four years and my son got a new job, and maybe, you know, people who also got new jobs. I had no idea that all of us were illegal immigrants. But Trump doesn't just claim that 100% of the jobs went to illegal immigrants. No, that's not ludicrous enough. Trump says 107% of the jobs went to illegal immigrants. The illegal immigrants are so dastardly that they took an additional 7% of jobs that don't even exist. It's just unbelievable. But before we move on from the topic of immigration, we have one more entry from this category. Let's play clip number three from Trump's rally in Wisconsin on September 7th. He's talking about what migrants to the United States have said when they're asked where they're coming from.
- [76:25]
Donald Trump
It's countries all over the world. They're coming in 22 people from the Congo in Africa. Where are you from? From the Congo. Oh, that's nice. Where, where did you live? Jail. Oh, what did you do? It's none of your business. That's what they told the people. It's none of your business.
- [76:46]
Will Saletan
Okay, first of all, Trump's general claim that the Congo is emptying its prisons and sending inmates to the United States has been fact checked. And even the Trump campaign couldn't come up with any evidence for it. He just made it up like he makes up everything. But this particular story about the 22 people coming in from the Congo, which Trump tells over and over at his rallies, is extra special. The story is that these guys from the Congo wouldn't say what crimes they had committed, but they were happy to say that they were coming from jail. Think about that. You're a criminal from halfway around the world. We have no idea where you came from, and you don't want us to know you're a criminal. But according to Trump's story, when we ask you where you came from, you say jail. So either those guys from the Congo are the stupidest criminals ever, or Donald Trump has invented another one of his incredibly stupid lies. I'm going to bet that the stupid guy is Trump. So now we're down to our final two clips. Here's number two. It's from Trump's interview with Dr. Phil on August 27th. He's explaining the secret backstory of how the Democrats forced Joe Biden off the ticket.
- [78:11]
Donald Trump
Nancy Pelosi went, I know the whole thing because I know people on the other side. You know, I have some very good friends on the other side. Hard to believe, isn't it? And they went to him and they said, we want you out, and we can do it the nice way or the hard way. And we can use the 25th amendment, we can use the 24th amendment, we can use all sorts of amendments and get you the hell out. It was nasty.
- [78:39]
Will Saletan
That's quite a story. Trump says he has the real scoop because he has some very good friends who were plugged into the whole thing. And according to Trump's story, Pelosi and the other Democrats didn't just threaten BIDEN with the 25th Amendment, they also threatened him with the 24th Amendment. That is some truly next level thinking, because here is the entire text of the 24th Amendment. It says that the right to vote shall not be denied or abridged by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax. It's an amendment about poll taxes. It has no conceivable relevance to removing Biden. So here's Trump pretending to have inside information about the plot against Biden. And he embarrasses himself once again by inventing a detail that's obviously bogus. And that brings us to our final clip. Number one, this is from Trump's rally in Wisconsin on September 7th.
- [79:45]
Donald Trump
Kamala supports states being able to take minor children and perform sex change operation, take them away from their parents, perform sex change operation and send them back home. Can you imagine? You're a parent and your son leaves the house and you say, jimmy, I love you so much, go have a good day in school. And your son comes back with a brutal operation. Can you even imagine this? What the hell is wrong with our country?
- [80:18]
Will Saletan
What's wrong with our country is that this guy managed to get elected president in 2016 and he's way too close to possibly getting re elected this year. I mean, listen to that ridiculous scenario. Your son goes off to school in the morning, they do a brutal operation on him. Apparently Trump means that they cut off your kids genitals, although it's not clear whether this is somehow done by the school nurse or or whether they have some secret arrangement with a local hospital. And then apparently they put Jimmy back on the school bus that afternoon and send him home. Honestly, it's A little weird to hear this medically absurd story from right wingers who claim that transgender people are the ones who don't understand biology. Obviously, it's gross that Trump tells all these lies about kids and pets and rigged elections and people from the Congo. But let's not forget what these clips also show. Trump isn't just a liar, he's also a moron. And being a moron makes it that much harder to lie without showing everybody what an obvious liar you are. Can you believe he won? He actually won that election. I mean, apparently the ridiculous lies he told were not ridiculous enough to cost him the election. This time in 2026, he's trying something new. This time, he's not just lying. He's also confessing the truth. The truth about how he started the war in Iran. In fact, he is bragging that he started the war fully expecting that he was going to tank the economy. It's just so incredibly stupid that I had to do a video about it. Hey, it's Will Salatan from the Bulwark. So, the midterm elections are coming up, and there's one person who's working really, really hard to make sure that Donald Trump and the Republicans lose, and that person is Donald Trump. Seriously, for weeks, this guy has been publicly admitting that he deliberately started the Iran war, knowing, he says, he knew that it would screw the economy. In fact, I'm going to show you the video of Trump telling voters how little he cares about their financial situation. It's. It's like he's making ads for the Democratic Party. So here's the story Trump has been telling about how he started the war.
- [82:55]
Donald Trump
I called in Scott Bassett and all of my people, mostly my financial people, and I said, all right, folks, congratulations. We just hit the highest price in the history of the stock market. Oil prices were very low. They were 60 and 70. You were buying oil for $2 and even less. Remember, just a couple of months ago, you were at $2 and $185. In Iowa, it was 185 a gallon. I said, congratulations. Now I'm going to upset the apple cart for you because we have to take a little journey down to a beautiful country known as Ireland, Iran.
- [83:28]
Will Saletan
So that was the situation. He says oil was under $70 a barrel and gas was under $2 a gallon. And he decided, he says, to upset the apple cart. So what happened? Well, the first thing is the price of oil went way up.
- [83:48]
Donald Trump
Oil prices are up 50%. If you told me that we were going to be at only 92 a barrel. $92 a barrel. I would have been very surprised.
- [83:58]
Will Saletan
All right?
- [83:58]
Donald Trump
And you know what? I'm very happy. And it's going to come dropping down very big as soon as it's over.
- [84:04]
Will Saletan
So oil prices went up 50%. 50%. And Trump said he was very happy with that because it could have been a lot worse. In fact, he says when he started the war, he thought he was going to take the stock market down 25%.
- [84:23]
Donald Trump
So when I did this, I thought the market would go down 25%. And I think I thought that was a great deal if it did. If it went down 25%, I was satisfied. I said, because we cannot let these people have a nuclear weapon. They'll use it. We can't. I also thought oil would go up to 200, 250, maybe 300.
- [84:40]
Will Saletan
Okay, just for context, 25%. 25% is basically the 1929 stock market crash. Trump is saying that he thought doing that again would be a great deal, and he thought $300. $300 for a barrel of oil would have been fine. That is more than four times what oil cost before the war. Right now, on average, gas prices in the United states are about 450 a gallon. If you do the math on a barrel of oil, Trump is basically saying he'd be fine if gas went above $10. Above $10 a gallon. Now, why is the price of gas so high? Well, the main reason is that the Strait of Hormuz, where oil comes out from the Middle east to the rest of the world, is closed. And who closed it? Let's ask Donald Trump right now.
- [85:40]
Donald Trump
We have it closed. We have total control of the strait. And the fact that it's closed, you know, they would have opened it up three days ago. They came to us and they said, we will agree to open the strait. And all my people were happy. Everybody was happy except me. I said, wait a minute. If we open the strait, that means they're going to make $500 million a day. I don't want them to make $500 million a day until they settle this thing. So I'm the one that kept the clause. We have total control of.
- [86:06]
Will Saletan
Oh, so he closed it. He wanted to make sure Iran would lose money. And they are losing money. They're losing a lot of money. And you know who else is losing money? You and me and all of us. But Trump thinks that's okay. Here's what he said in the oval office on April 23.
- [86:27]
Donald Trump
Does that mean Americans should anticipate spending more on gasoline for the foreseeable future. And you know what they get? You know what they get for that? Iran without a nuclear weapon, that's going to try and blow up one of our cities or blow up the entire Middle East.
- [86:41]
Will Saletan
So that's his argument. You need to keep paying more for gas and everything else, since the price of energy affects everything else, to stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. But here's what he said a week before that.
- [86:57]
Donald Trump
On April 15, we knocked the hell out of Iran. We stopped them from having. They're not going to have a nuclear weapon regardless, by the way, I could leave tomorrow. They would never be able to have a nuclear weapon. For years. They would, because their country is devastated.
- [87:13]
Will Saletan
So on April 15, Trump said he could end the war immediately and Iran would never have a nuclear weapon because we wiped them out with. With all of our bombing. But then a week later, on April 23, he said, you still, you still have to pay more for gas because we still need to stop them from getting a nuclear weapon. Do you get the feeling maybe he's lying to you? In fact, here's what he said about Iran's nuclear program even earlier. On April 12th, as you know, we
- [87:48]
Donald Trump
knocked out with the B2 bombers. Had we not knocked that out, they would have had a nuclear weapon within one month after we knocked out. In other words, that the B2s, those beautiful B2 bombers, totally obliterated their three sides.
- [88:02]
Will Saletan
You notice he keeps talking about the B2 bombers. That was last year. Last year, he sent the B2s to destroy Iran's nuclear sites, and they did. He says we totally obliterated the sites. So that's twice last year. And then this year that he claims, he claims we already destroyed Iran's nuclear program twice. And then he still says we have to keep our military there and you have to pay more for gas and everything else to stop. To stop the nuclear program we already destroyed. In fact, why exactly do we have to stay over there? Trump says we don't even need the oil. We don't even need the oil from the Strait of Hormuz. He says Europe and China need that oil.
- [88:54]
Donald Trump
We really don't need anymore. It'd be nice to take it, but we don't need it. And we say to Europe and all these countries that, do you know China gets 90% of its oil from the Strait of Hormuz and they should be policing their own strait. We shouldn't be policing it for them. We have been for years.
- [89:14]
Will Saletan
In other words, you're paying to police the Strait of Hormuz to help China and Europe. You're not even getting a benefit from this. And how about the countries that do need oil from the Strait? Do you know where they're getting their oil from now? They're sending ships to buy oil here, the United States. And Trump says that's great for us.
- [89:40]
Donald Trump
And if you take a look at the ships, they're all coming up to Texas, Louisiana, Alaska. Did you see the line? Our country is getting stronger and stronger. This has been amazing. The amount of oil and gas that we're selling now is at a level that nobody's ever seen.
- [89:57]
Will Saletan
It's amazing. He says. But here's the part he's not telling you. When other countries buy up our oil, that leaves less oil for you. It drives up prices for you. That is basic supply and demand. Now either he's too stupid to understand that or. Or he thinks you're too stupid to figure out that he's helping American oil companies by screwing you. And then he lies to you. He lies to you about what you're paying for food and for everything else.
- [90:32]
Donald Trump
But core inflation has dropped. Grocery prices are down. Used car prices are down. Rent is down. The only thing that is up is the gasoline and that's coming down. Grocery prices are way down. Used car prices are way down. Look at eggs.
- [90:46]
Will Saletan
Really. Inflation is down. Groceries are down. Let's check the latest numbers. Let's turn now to the economic impact of the war with Iran. The latest inflation report out today showed price increases for American consum consumers in April hit a three year high, driven by a spike in the cost of gasoline. But it's also electricity prices. You mentioned food prices. Everything from coffee to beef to a lot of vegetables are really up in price. Some medical care costs, and don't forget those airfares have gone way up. Huh? So actually, thanks to the war, prices are going up. How much? This much. And the other thing that really stood out in this report is for the first time in three years, inflation is wiping out all wage gains. What a great message for the midterms. The President started a war that wiped out the entire increase in wages. And that's not the only cost. On Tuesday. On Tuesday, the Defense Department told Congress that the war has already cost our government. Okay, this is separate from the gas and the groceries. It has directly cost our government almost $30 billion.
- [92:02]
Donald Trump
So at the time of testimony from the ask, it was $25 billion. But the joint staff team and the comptroller team are constantly looking at that estimate. And so now we think it's closer to 29.
- [92:12]
Will Saletan
And at the same hearing, Pete Hegseth, the Secretary of Defense, said Trump is increasing the defense budget. Get this, from $1 trillion to. To $1.5 trillion.
- [92:28]
Donald Trump
The $1.5 trillion budget request put forward
- [92:31]
Will Saletan
by the President will build upon the historic $1 trillion FY26 top line. That is a 50% increase. A 50% increase in one year on what was already a $1 trillion budget. Okay, just for context, that is more. That is more than $4,000 from every man, woman and child in America. That is how much Trump is trying to bill you for. One year's worth of military spending. So he could do what? More wars like this one in Iran. And what does he think about that? What does he think about you? Here's what he said on Tuesday when a reporter asked him about it.
- [93:16]
Donald Trump
We're negotiating with Iran, Mr. President.
- [93:18]
Will Saletan
To what extent are Americans financial situations
- [93:21]
Donald Trump
motivating you to make a deal? Not even a little bit. The only thing that matters when I'm talking about Iran, they can't have a nuclear weapon. I don't think about American's financial situation. I don't think about anybody. I think about one thing. We cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon. That's all.
- [93:40]
Will Saletan
I don't think about Americans financial situation. Yes, yes. The President of the United States actually said that out loud because that's what he thinks. He doesn't care about you. He already got your vote. He got to be president. So now he gets to go around the world knocking off countries he doesn't like. And hey, if it cost you a little more money, what you gonna do? You can't vote against him anymore. He's not even running this year. But. But there is one thing you can do. You can show up in November and make sure that his party loses control of Congress, and maybe, just maybe, you'll start to get a government that actually cares about you. So, as you can see, Trump is constantly sabotaging himself and the people around him. They try to hide what an idiot he is. And they also try to hide what a jerk he is. Okay? They advise him not to act like a jerk, but it's really, really hard because of course, he is a jerk. In fact, he is such a jerk and such an idiot that he goes out on stage and he tells the public that his advisors are begging him not to say mean, nasty things. And then he says the mean, nasty things. Anyway, so I made this video of Trump doing exactly that in the 2024 campaign. Hey, folks, Will Salatan here from the Bulwark. Today, I want to talk to you about the hardest job in the world, coaching Donald Trump to act like a normal human being. As you all know, Trump is running for president, so he needs to persuade a lot of voters beyond his hardcore supporters that he's a good person, or at least that he has some sense of decency. That is a real challenge because when Trump goes off script, when he expresses what's in his heart instead of what's written for him on a teleprompter, he tends to reveal the sort of person he really is, which is spiteful, malicious, and mean. Here's an example of how Trump acts when he's expressing his true self. This is from a rally in Asheboro, North Carolina, on August 21st. Remember, that's a full month after Joe Biden withdrew from the presidential race. But Trump decided to go after him anyway.
- [96:17]
Donald Trump
Where's Biden? What happened to Biden? Where is he? He's on a beach. He's on a beach. You know, he's got somebody that thinks he looks great in a bathing suit. He likes to go to a beach. How do you help? How do you leave here and go on a beach? You can't do it. There are things you just don't do. People don't want to see you in a bathing suit, walks badly. It's hard to walk in the sand. You know, he has a hard time lifting his feet through the sand. And then he grabs, he grabs a chair. The chair is meant for old people to lift and young kids to lift, like, you know, four year old kids. Right. And he can't lift it. He needs a little help.
- [96:53]
Will Saletan
That's Trump. He's not interested in doing anything to help ordinary people. He's not even interested in Biden's policies. What he wants to talk about is how Biden looks in a bathing suit. So that's the challenge. Take this deeply unpleasant person, Donald Trump, and somehow persuade him to stop being a jerk and start being nice. A lot of Republican politicians and Republican advisors want Trump to make that shift. And many of them have said so to reporters. The reporters then convey that message to Trump. But Trump is not interested. Listen to this. From a press conference Trump gave on Aug. 15 at his golf club in New Jersey. A reporter is shouting a question at the former president. Many of your allies who want you to win in November say your current strategy isn't working, that you need to stop with the personal attacks on Kamala Harris. And deliver a more disciplined message. Do you agree? And here's how Trump responded as far
- [98:00]
Donald Trump
as the personal attacks. I'm very angry at her because of what she's done to the country. I'm very angry at her that she'd weaponize the justice system against me and other people. Very angry at her. I think I'm entitled to personal attacks. I don't have a lot of respect for her. I don't have a lot of respect for her intelligence.
- [98:20]
Will Saletan
You gotta give Trump credit. He's not hiding who he is. All these Republican politicians are begging him to pretend that he's emotionally mature and that he cares about serving the country. But Trump's response is, nope, I'm in this for my own revenge, and I'm fully entitled to focus on personally insulting my enemies. Now, some Republican politicians have the temerity to suggest out loud, sometimes even on tv, that Trump might want to consider changing his ways. One of those politicians is Trump's former UN Ambassador, Nikki Haley, who ran against him in this year's primaries. Here's what happened at Trump's press conference in New Jersey, when a reporter asked Trump about Haley's latest advice. Nikki Haley told our Brett Baer that Republicans need to stop whining about Kamala Harris. Focus on courting those independents, those suburban women, the moderates out there. What do you think of that strategy? And here's what Trump said in response to that question.
- [99:28]
Donald Trump
You know, I fought Nikki very hard. I beat her in her own state by legendary numbers.
- [99:35]
Will Saletan
That's how Trump reacts to advice he doesn't like. Haley has actually endorsed Trump for president. The primaries are over, and she's on his side. She wants him to unite the Republican Party against Harris. But Trump can't let go of the joy he feels at having crushed Haley. He insists on gloating publicly that he beat her in his own state by legendary numbers. In fact, according to the reporter, Haley didn't even name Trump as the target of her advice. Haley was asking Republicans to focus on appealing to moderates and suburban women. But Trump decided to take Haley's advice as a personal attack on him, because that's the kind of guy he is. Let's skip forward a couple of days from that press conference. On Aug. 17, Trump held a rally in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania. Again, he went after Harris with insults, but this time he added a key. Sir, watch this.
- [100:45]
Donald Trump
We're not going to let this socialist lunatic. And she's a socialist lunatic. That's the other thing. Please, sir, please don't call her a Lunatic, I said, but that's what she is. She's a lunatic. She's a lunatic.
- [101:04]
Will Saletan
Did you catch that? Please, sir, don't call her a lunatic. That's Trump mocking his advisors and political allies like Haley for asking him to lay off the insults. He's not listening to their advice, and he's incorporating it into his rallies as an additional target of his mockery. He's still ridiculing Harris and Biden, but now he's also ridiculing anyone who asks him to stop ridiculing people. Two days after that rally, on August 19, Trump gave an interview to Caitlin Huey Burns, a reporter for CBS News. Here's what he said when she asked him about advice from Lindsey Graham, Trump's most devoted ally in the Senate, to focus more on policy and less on insults. Lindsey Graham said that Trump the showman
- [101:56]
Donald Trump
will not win this election. Look, I like Lindsey. I don't care what he says, okay? Lindsey wouldn't have been elected if I didn't endorse him.
- [102:05]
Will Saletan
Graham gets the same treatment Haley got. All Graham did was politely suggest that Trump could help himself, but by being just a little bit less arrogant and hostile. And Trump's response to Graham is, you're nothing without me. Piss off. Then came the Democratic Convention that really annoyed Trump, and he decided to double down on the insults. Here's Trump at that rally in North Carolina on Aug. 21, talking about some of the speeches at the convention.
- [102:40]
Donald Trump
Did you see Barack Hussein Obama last night take little shots? He was taking shots at your president, and so was Michelle. You know, they always say, sure, please stick to policy. Don't get personal. And yet they're getting personal all night long, these people. Do I still have to stick to policy?
- [103:01]
Will Saletan
You see what's going on there? Trump's advisors have asked him to focus on policy. And instead of taking their advice, Trump is reporting that advice to the only people he really cares about, the people at his rallies. He's asking the crowd whether he should follow the advice, and of course, the crowd says no. They love the personal attacks, and so does Trump, so he keeps going. Here's another clip from that rally. About three minutes later, this calamity is
- [103:34]
Donald Trump
on Comrade Kamala Harris's shoulders. I think her name will be Comrade, because I think that's the most accurate name. You know, I've been looking for a name. People are saying, sir, don't do it. You know, all my names, they've all worked. They've all been very successful. And I really didn't find One with her, sir, She's a woman. I said, so is Hillary Clinton. I called her Crooked Hillary. So nobody. Nobody complained about that, right? Right, Mr. Governor, nobody complained about that? No, I called her Crooked Hillary. I call people names. I call crazy Nancy Pelosi crazy because she is. She's nuts.
- [104:14]
Will Saletan
By this point, Trump is going after everybody. Harris, Biden, Obama, Michelle Obama, Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, and none of it is about policy or helping the country. Trump is literally talking about how he loves to come up with insults, and he's openly mocking people who ask him to lay off the misogyny. Sir, she's a woman.
- [104:40]
Donald Trump
Sir, she's a woman.
- [104:42]
Will Saletan
He loves the misogyny. But to be fair, Trump doesn't just target women. He loves to attack people of all genders, races and religions. People as long as they don't belong to his favorite religion, which, of course, is worshiping Donald Trump. Here he is at the same North Carolina rally responding to Barack Obama's speech at the Democratic Convention.
- [105:07]
Donald Trump
It could have been Barack Hussein Obama. Perhaps we should ask him now. He was very nasty last night. I try and be nice to people, you know, but it's a little tough when they get personal. Please, again, remember, please, sir, don't get personal. Talk about policy. Let me ask you about that. We're going to do a free poll. Here are the two questions. Should I get personal? Should I not get personal? Ready? Should I get personal? Should I not get personal? I don't know. My advisors are fired.
- [105:43]
Will Saletan
There you go. The people have decided Trump's advisors want him to talk about policy, but the MAGA heads at his rally don't. So he's going to listen to the MAGA heads, not the advisors. In fact, the advisors are now part of the schtick Trump does at his rallies. Listen to this excerpt from Trump's rally in glendale, Arizona, on August 23rd. The video is a little wonky, but you'll be able to hear the gist of what Trump is saying now.
- [106:14]
Donald Trump
They really were nasty. And then they say to me, sir, please stick to policy, don't stick to personality. You should be nice to people, sir, you have to be nice. I go, I call them up, my geniuses. They get paid a fortune. Actually, not that much. But I call up my people, I say, they're knocking the hell out of me, and you say, I shouldn't get personal. I have to get personal, don't I? I have to get. I have to get.
- [106:42]
Will Saletan
Did you hear that dig about geniuses? That's Trump deriding his advisors. He doesn't mean they're geniuses. Of course he means they're idiots. And in particular, he means they're idiots for asking him to stop getting personal. The real genius is Trump, who's making it clear to everyone as loudly as possible that he's not the decent human being his advisors want him to pretend to be. In fact, Trump's behavior is actually getting worse. The more he falls behind in the polls, the lower he goes. Watch this clip from a rally he did in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, just a week ago on August 30, and you look
- [107:25]
Donald Trump
at what she's done to. Every place she's touched has turned to shit. Every single place she's touched. Have to say it. Every place she's touched. You know, you might have heard this. Franklin Graham is wonderful, and he wrote me a letter, and he said, sir, I love your stories and I love listening to your rallies, but could you please don't use foul language? Your speeches would be even better if you didn't use foul language. But there's an example. It's not really that bad a word, but how can you top that word for what I'm talking about? Right? What word?
- [108:19]
Will Saletan
Look, it should be obvious by now that Trump is just a terrible person. He's not into helping anyone. He's just into mocking and humiliating people. Even most Republican politicians know this, but they tell themselves, and often they tell reporters that Trump's defects as a human being don't really matter. They argue that his obsession with insulting people and bragging about how great he is is just a bunch of mean tweets. But they're wrong. It's a lot more serious than that. And I want to show you one example. It's from a town hall Trump did last week in La Crosse, Wisconsin. He's talking about the 2020 election, which he still claims was rigged and stolen from him.
- [109:08]
Donald Trump
We had a bad election. I'll be very nice. I'm supposed to be nice when I talk about the election because everybody's afraid to talk of. Oh, please. Or don't talk about the election, please. You know, if you can't. If you can't talk about a bad election, you really don't have a democracy if you think about it, right?
- [109:26]
Will Saletan
That is not just a petty, personal insult. That is an attack on the legitimacy of the 2020 election and the legitimacy of American democracy itself. When Trump says that he has been asked to be nice about that election, please, sir, don't talk about the election. And when he openly scorns that advice and says that the truth is we don't really have a democracy. He is telling you bluntly that he will never accept that he lost an election. He is telling you that all these Republicans who pretend that Trump has gotten over it and that we can trust him to respect basic norms if we reelect him are full of, you know what? He's telling you that he cannot be coached, reformed, or civilized. He's a hater and a predator, and he's out for revenge. He is what he is. Take it or leave it. Just a couple more. I gotta throw in one video about Trump's love affair with Vladimir Putin. I mean, look, obviously it's a very serious problem for the world that Trump has a thing for Putin, and the bond between those two guys has been enormously destructive, especially in Ukraine, obviously. But there's also something weirdly homoerotic about it. And in this video, we highlighted some of the weirdness. You might like the music in this one. Hey, everybody, it's Will Salatan from the Bulwark. Can you feel it? It's springtime. Love is in the air. It's the time of year when we think of sweethearts like Romeo and Juliet, Antony and Cleopatra, and, of course, Donald and Vladimir. Now, some of you may be thinking, really, does Donald Trump truly love Vladimir Putin? And I'll admit the only two people who really understand a romantic relationship are the two people who are in it. But what I want to show you today, and please, let's not gossip about this, is what these two lovebirds have been doing in public. And specifically, I want to show you the highly suggestive way Trump has been talking about the man of his dreams. First, a quick reminder about how this courtship began. Ten years ago, when Trump was running for president, Putin gave a news conference in which he said Trump was, in English terms, bright and talented. And when Trump heard that, he practically blushed. Here's Trump the next day on Morning Joe. Do you like Vladimir Putin's comments about you?
- [112:28]
Donald Trump
Sure. When people call you brilliant, it's always good, especially when the person heads up Russia.
- [112:34]
Will Saletan
In fact, Trump was so smitten that he would not listen when Joe Scarborough tried to warn him about Putin.
- [112:43]
Donald Trump
Well, I mean, also as a person that kills journalists, political. I mean, political opponents, and invades countries. And invades countries. Obviously, that would be a concern, would it not? He's running this country, and at least he's a leader, you know, unlike what we have in this country.
- [112:59]
Will Saletan
Wow. So Trump really had a thing for a strong man, even One who murders people and invades other countries, which, by the way, the country Putin had just invaded a year before that interview was Ukraine. But Scarborough tried to warn Trump one more time, don't date him, girl.
- [113:21]
Donald Trump
But again, he kills journalists that don't agree with him. Well, I think our country does plenty of killing also, Joe.
- [113:30]
Will Saletan
So, you know, so that was the beginning of the relationship. Trump made it clear that he liked Putin, really liked Putin. And no matter who Putin killed, Trump thought Putin was hotter, sorry, better than the leaders of the United States. And then, as you probably remember, Putin authorized a cyber hacking operation to help Trump win the 2016 election. And that led to the whole Russia investigation. And look, there's a lot of debate about what that investigation found, but the one finding that was super clear, according to Dan Coats, Trump's director of National Intelligence and every US Intelligence agency, was that Russia did the hacking. So in 2018, when Trump and Putin got together behind closed doors at a summit in Finland, Trump asked Putin whether it was true that. That Russia did the hacking. And when Trump came out of that room, here's what he told the press.
- [114:40]
Donald Trump
My people came to me. Dan Coats came to me and some others. They said they think it's Russia. I have President Putin. He just said, it's not Russia. I will say this. I don't see any reason why it would be. I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today.
- [115:01]
Will Saletan
And that was it. Trump wouldn't listen to his own intelligence experts. He believed Putin because Putin was strong and powerful. In fact, Trump said the American investigation of Putin was a terrible thing because it was keeping Trump away from the man he wanted to be with.
- [115:23]
Donald Trump
The probe is a disaster for our country, I think. It's kept us apart, it's kept us separated.
- [115:30]
Will Saletan
So that was seven years ago. Now Trump is back in the White House, and two months ago, he hosted a meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine. And Zelensky, whose country was under attack again from another Russian invasion, tried to warn Trump again about Putin. But Trump still wouldn't listen. Here's what Trump said. War. When a reporter asked him why, he believed that Putin, who at that moment was literally waging war, actually wanted peace.
- [116:05]
Donald Trump
I've known him for a long time. I've dealt with him for a long time. He had to suffer through the Russia hoax. You know, Russia, Russia, Russia was a hoax. It was all Biden. It was nothing to do with him. So he had to suffer through that. And he was able to do that, I think that he wants to make a deal and he like to see it end.
- [116:25]
Will Saletan
That was an eye opening confession. Here's Trump sitting next to Zelensky, whose country is under bombardment from Russia. And despite that, Trump chose to talk about what he saw as Putin's suffering. Trump was telling the world that the investigation of Putin's interference in our election had only deepened the sympathy Trump felt for Putin. And as that meeting with Zelensky went on, Trump got more and more agitated. By the end, he was practically shouting his love for the man in Moscow.
- [117:02]
Donald Trump
Let me tell you, Putin went through a hell of a lot with me. He went through a phony witch hunt where they used him and Russia and he had to go through that. And he did go through it. We didn't end up in a war and he was. He went through it. He was accused of all that stuff. He had nothing to do with it. It came out of Hunter Biden's bathroom.
- [117:20]
Will Saletan
You can hear the passion in Trump's voice. You can see it on his face. This is not geopolitics. This is an emotional connection. It's the kind of connection that can blind a lover to the danger posed by the man he loves. Watch what happened in that meeting when Zelensky reminded Trump that Putin had repeatedly violated previous ceasefire agreements. 25 times he broken his own signature,
- [117:53]
Donald Trump
25 times he broken ceasefire. But he never broke to me. Never broke?
- [117:57]
Will Saletan
No, no.
- [117:57]
Donald Trump
You were the president. He was the president during. Never broke to me.
- [118:01]
Will Saletan
That's the way a besotted lover thinks. She won't listen when you tell her that the guy she's after has betrayed other women. She thinks she's special. He's never betrayed me, she says. And watch what happened when Zelensky reminded Trump that two of the presidents Putin betrayed, Joe Biden and Barack Obama, were Americans.
- [118:24]
Donald Trump
It wasn't me for you. What? That wasn't with me. That was with a guy named Biden who was not a smart person. That was your president. It was your president. Excuse me, that was with Obama.
- [118:36]
Will Saletan
Zelensky thought that Trump would care that other American presidents had been betrayed. What Zelensky didn't understand was that Trump felt nothing for Biden or Obama. Trump didn't care that those guys were American because Trump doesn't love America. Trump loves himself. And the fact that Putin betrayed Biden and Obama, the men Trump views as his real enemies, only strengthens Trump's conviction that he and Putin have something special. This bond that Trump feels with Putin is deadly serious. After that Meeting with Zelensky, Trump didn't punish Russia for bombing Ukraine. Trump cut off American aid to Ukraine to pressure Zelensky to surrender Ukrainian territory to. To Putin. And a week later, when a reporter pointed out that Putin was still bombing Ukraine, here's what Trump said. Do you, Mr. President, think that Vladimir
- [119:42]
Donald Trump
Putin is taking advantage of the US
- [119:44]
Will Saletan
Pause right now on intelligence and military aid to Ukraine?
- [119:48]
Donald Trump
I actually think he's doing what anybody else would do. I think he's. I think he wants to get it stopped and settled and, And I think he's hitting him harder than he's been hitting him. And I think probably anybody in that position would be doing that right now. He wants to get it ended.
- [120:06]
Will Saletan
He's doing what anybody else would do. That is an American president defending a Russian dictator who is bombing an American ally. Trump was mentally putting himself in Putin's position and saying, hey, I'd be doing the same thing. You can see how strongly Trump identifies with Putin. And in case there was any doubt, Trump spoke again about his feelings for
- [120:36]
Donald Trump
Putin despite the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax. I've always had a good relationship with Putin, and, you know, he wants to end the war. He wants to end it, and I think he's going to be more generous than he has to be, and that's pretty good.
- [120:52]
Will Saletan
You can hear Trump making excuses for Putin the way some people make excuses for a man who beats up women. Hey, it could have been worse. Let's give Putin credit for not killing even more people and stealing even more land. And three weeks ago, when Russia killed more than 30 Ukrainian civilians, and in another missile attack, Trump blamed Ukraine and America. Mr. President, you repeatedly mentioned last night
- [121:22]
Donald Trump
that Russia's attack on Ukraine was a mistake.
- [121:26]
Will Saletan
What is the exact mistake?
- [121:28]
Donald Trump
And had you given Putin a deadline
- [121:30]
Will Saletan
to actually move towards ceasefire?
- [121:32]
Donald Trump
The mistake was letting the war happen. If Biden were competent and if Zelensky were competent, and I don't know that, that he is, we had a rough session with this guy over here. He just kept asking for more and more that war should have never been allowed to happen.
- [121:47]
Will Saletan
In fact, Trump accused Ukraine, Putin's victim, of starting the war. Have you spoken to President Zelensky, sir, about his offer to purchase more Patriot missiles?
- [121:59]
Donald Trump
Oh, I don't know. He's always looking to purchase missiles. You know, he's, he's against. Listen, when you start a war, you got to know that you. You can win the war. You don't start a war against somebody that's 20 times your size and then hope that people Give you some missiles.
- [122:13]
Will Saletan
Again, that's classic victim blaming. Trump is so determined to love Putin that he's willing to blame Ukraine for Putin's violence, and he's willing to whitewash Putin's long history of brutality. Here's what Trump said a couple of weeks ago about Putin's previous invasion of Crimea, another Ukrainian territory.
- [122:39]
Donald Trump
When you say Crimea, that was handed over during a president named Barack Hussein Obama. That was. Had nothing to do with me. Crimea, that was 11 years ago with Obama. And they made a decision. There wasn't a bullet fire. There was no fighting. There was no anything. They just handed it over. Now they. They say, well, can you get it back? I think that's going to be a very difficult thing to do. That was given by Barack Obama when he was president, not by Donald Trump.
- [123:10]
Will Saletan
Can you believe that? Trump says Obama gave Crimea to Putin. He says there was no violence. They just handed it over as a reminder. Putin literally sent tanks into Crimea. Russian forces surrounded Ukraine's military bases, broke into government buildings, and threw everybody out. But Trump says the victim consented, which, come to think of it, is also the way he talks about women. Remember this?
- [123:44]
Donald Trump
And when you're a star, they let you do it.
- [123:46]
Will Saletan
You can do anything, whatever you want.
- [123:48]
Donald Trump
Grab them by the pussy. I can do any of that.
- [123:52]
Will Saletan
That was a classic bro moment. Couple of guys bonding over their shared contempt for women. And that bond between the men is what was really going on in that conversation. It's not the women Trump admires. It's the man who steps up and grabs those women. That's what Trump sees in Putin. A man who. Who takes what he wants. And Trump loves that. Watch this clip of Trump on Friday talking to Kristen Welker about his special chemistry with Putin.
- [124:29]
Donald Trump
Do you know that the European Union leaders have asked me to call Putin so many times because he doesn't return their phone call, because he wasn't dealing with anybody in Europe. He wasn't calling back. Do you know that? I asked him, I said, did Biden ever call you? In three years, did Biden ever call? He said he never called. You know, Biden didn't call him one
- [124:46]
Will Saletan
time, poor Vladimir Biden never called him. Biden didn't appreciate him. But I do, says Trump. I'm the only one Vladimir will talk to. I'm the only one he trusts. Look, it's obvious there's something going on between these two guys, and it's not just money or favors. The President of the United States clearly has a thing for the President of Russia. And nothing, not human rights, not democracy, not hundreds of thousands of dead Ukrainians can stand between them. Let's end on a high note. With all the evil and the tragedy that's happening in this country, there's one good thing that Trump has not found a way to erase. In 2024, he was convicted of 34 felonies by a jury in Manhattan. And Republicans have tried really, really hard to pretend that that verdict was illegitimate. And they have failed. So here's a video we made back then of the top 10 Republican copes for Trump's felony conviction. Hey, it's Will Salatan from the Bulwark. Well, after weeks of happiness, something sad finally happened to Donald Trump. I don't mean the fires in California. Trump could care less about those liberals in California. No, I'm talking about a sad thing that happened to the person Trump cares about most, himself. On Friday, Trump was formally sentenced for his 34 felony convictions. And in the New York hush money case, he didn't get any jail time because as the incoming president, he has legal immunity against any sentence that would interfere with his job. But it still hurts to be certified as a felon. So it was a tough day for Trump and his many bootlicking apologists. But on the bright side, bootlicking is their job and they're really good at it. So today, let's give a shout out to the most creative lies and excuses they've come up with to cope with this terrible tragedy. Here are the top 10 right wing copes for Donald Trump's formal certification as a felon. Number 10 voters are the only jury that matters. We've heard this line from lots of Republicans, but none of them craves attention more than Congresswoman Nancy Mace. So let's be nice and give her the attention. Here's what she said on Instagram right after Trump was sentenced. The only judge that matters today is you, the American people. You are judge and jury. And you elected Donald Trump to win for America. And thank you and God bless. Bless you for doing that. You are the only judge. You, the people that matter. Can you feel the desperation there? You're the only judge. You're the only jury. It's obvious bullshit because there was an actual jury in this case that sat for more than a month and listened to all the evidence and found Trump guilty. But Republicans can't handle that, so they pretend that the real jury didn't exist. In fact, Trump has his own version of this cope, and he presented it in court just before he got sentenced. Let's call this one Cope number nine. Voters are the real jury because they saw the trial firsthand. Here's what Trump told the judge.
- [128:36]
Donald Trump
And the people of our country got to see this firsthand because they watched the case in your courtroom. They got to see this first firsthand. And then they voted, and I won and got the largest number of votes by far of any Republican candidate in history and won. As you know, all seven swing states won conclusively, all seven swing states, and won the popularity, the popular vote by millions and millions of votes. And they've been watching your trial, so they understood it.
- [129:08]
Will Saletan
Okay? So first of all, the people of our country did not see this trial firsthand. You may have noticed that what I just played for you is audio from the court, not video. And the reason there's no video is no cameras were allowed in that courtroom, not during the sentencing and not during the trial. And during the trial, no audio was available either. So the jury did hear the evidence, but the voters did not. And that's one reason why the jury convicted Trump while the voters reelected him. Now, to be fair, there was plenty of media coverage of the trial, and a lot of voters did pay attention to that. So let's see what those voters thought. Here's a question from the national VoteCast survey that was conducted as people were actually voting. As you can see, a majority, 53%, said that the legal cases involving Donald Trump were an important factor in how they voted. But that majority did not vote for Trump. 73% of them voted against him. So Trump didn't win because the jury of voters who paid attention to his trial thought he was unjustly prosecuted. He won because that jury of voters got outvoted by other people who didn't pay attention or didn't care. So let's go back to the real jury, the one inside the courtroom. Some of Trump's allies say the jury simply got it wrong. And one of their arguments is COPE number eight, the jury didn't hear all the evidence. Let's hear this one from Greta Van Susteren, a host on Newsmax.
- [130:58]
Donald Trump
The fact that it's a jury verdict, you know, I appreciate jury service. I appreciate they did that, but they're not infallible. They don't hear all the evidence. They don't hear all the defense.
- [131:07]
Will Saletan
Well, that's true. In every trial, there's some evidence that the jury doesn't hear because the defense objects or the prosecution objects, and the judge keeps that evidence out of the courtroom. But then why did Trump and Nancy Mace and other Republicans pretend that voters know better than the jury did. Voters didn't hear any of the evidence. So let's not pretend that the fallibility of juries is a reason to trust the voters. Instead, next up is Cope number seven. Trump's lame sentence shows he didn't do anything wrong. For this one, let's listen to Rob Finnerty, another Newsmax host. The man they called Hitler will serve no time in prison. He will pay no fines, not a dollar. He will not be on parole. Further proof that this whole thing was a farce from the word go. Nobody would get off that good, especially in New York City, if they were just convicted on 34 felony counts. You know what? That's true. Nobody else with 34 felony convictions would have gotten off so easy. But that's not because Trump is innocent. It's because he's going to be president. When the judge gave Trump his pathetically lame sentence, he said Trump was going to walk free because the president basically is above the law. Listen, this court has determined that the only lawful sentence that permits entry of a judgment of conviction without encroaching upon the highest office in the land is an unconditional discharge. In fact, the judge specifically said that the empty sentence was not about the severity or triviality of the crime. The protections afforded the office of the President are not a mitigating factor. They do not reduce the seriousness of the crime or justify its commission in any way. Okay, so that COPE was about how light the sentence was, that the judge basically did nothing to Trump. But at the same time, Trump's fanboys are complaining that his conviction is too harsh and mean. And one version of this complaint is Cope number six. Trump has been unjustly stripped of his rights. Let's hear it from Jesse Waters, a host on Fox News.
- [133:41]
Donald Trump
Now he's a convict.
- [133:43]
Will Saletan
Donald Trump in some states can't vote. He can't own a weapon. So a two term US President has less rights than most of the other people in this country. Oh, that's so sad. That's so wrong. Trump can't vote or own a gun in some states just because he's a convicted felon. How dare the courts and legislatures in every state treat him just like every other felon. I've never heard such deeply felt sympathy from Republicans for the rights of a poor convicted felon. Doesn't it warm your heart? Of course, not all of Trump's flunkies are feeling empathetic. Some are quite pissed off and they're looking for people to blame. And that Brings us to Cope number five. Trump was betrayed by Amy Coney Barrett. The complaint here is that Justice Barrett, who was appointed to the Supreme Court by Trump four years ago, voted with a majority of the court and not to intervene in the hush money case and not to block the judge from sentencing Trump. Here's Carl Higbee, another host on Newsmax. It could have been stopped too, but Amy Coney Barrett, this woman voted with the liberals to okay the sentencing for the guy who will be president in nine days. The guy who appointed her, by the way, after telling us that the presidents
- [135:12]
Donald Trump
should enjoy presidential immunity.
- [135:14]
Will Saletan
Higbee is lying, of course. Barrett did not vote to okay the sentencing of Trump. She just did what a principled conservative judge is supposed to do, which is not to intervene unless you have to. But Higbee and Trump's other MAGA followers don't have any principles. The only thing they care about is loyalty to Trump. That's why they're furious at Barrett, but. Or as Higbee refers to her, this woman, for failing to protect the boss. And that attitude about Trump, that he's the ultimate authority and that laws for little people don't apply to him. That attitude is pervasive on the right. It also shows up, for example, in Cope number four. Convicting Trump is like arresting Abraham Lincoln. You're probably thinking, they wouldn't actually say that, would they? Oh, but they have. Let's watch John Yoo, a right wing law professor, talking about the courts in New York.
- [136:21]
Donald Trump
You have a state here attacking someone
- [136:23]
Will Saletan
who is the president elect.
- [136:25]
Donald Trump
A state attacking, as you said, the Supremacy Clause is supposed to stop states
- [136:30]
Will Saletan
from interfering with the valid operations of the federal government. Government.
- [136:33]
Donald Trump
It's almost as if Lincoln, after he was elected, trying to get to Washington,
- [136:38]
Will Saletan
D.C. and Maryland, decided to arrest him
- [136:40]
Donald Trump
on his way to the Capitol.
- [136:42]
Will Saletan
Almost. Almost. It's almost the same, except that Trump isn't getting detained and he actually got tried and convicted as a private citizen before he got elected. And an arrest isn't the same as a conviction. And also, as far as we know, Abe Lincoln never falsified business records to cover up payments to a porn star to keep her quiet so he could win an election. But that's not the craziest thing we've heard from a law professor defending Trump. I got two more for you. The next one is Cope number three. Trump is the victim of a Soviet show trial. Take it from Alan Dershowitz, the longtime Harvard law professor who's now a regular on right wing tv.
- [137:33]
Donald Trump
He's not a Convicted felon. I refuse to call him a convicted felon any more than I would call somebody convicted in the Soviet Union back in the 1950s or somebody convicted in Iran today a convicted felon. This was not a legitimate case.
- [137:48]
Will Saletan
The Soviet Union, huh? A billionaire who got convicted by a New York jury, selected in part by his own high priced legal team in a trial attended by reporters from dozens of news organizations is just like some poor guy in a Soviet Gulag. And that isn't even the most ridiculous thing Dershowitz has said. The most ridiculous thing he said so far is, is Cope number two. Trump is like a persecuted civil rights worker. Here's Dershowitz again.
- [138:27]
Donald Trump
I will never call Donald Trump a convicted felon any more than I would have called a civil rights worker who was convicted of spitting on the street in the south when I was part of the demonstrations down there, a convicted felon.
- [138:39]
Will Saletan
He is a convicted innocent man, a civil rights worker in the South. Dershowitz is comparing Donald Trump, who literally got sued by The Justice Department 50 years ago for discrimination against black tenants, to civil rights workers in the Jim Crow South. But the best cope, the one that really captures the mentality of maga, is that Trump wasn't even convicted by a real jury. No, Cope number one is that Trump's jury was rigged by the FBI and the CIA for real. Listen to Greg Kelly, the son of a former New York police commissioner who now has a primetime show on Newsmax. Look, I'm suspicious. I don't think that all the government just would leave it to chance, right?
- [139:37]
Donald Trump
They wanted to take President Trump out. Would they have arranged to make sure the jury pool was dominated by, say.
- [139:46]
Will Saletan
I don't think you could just count on Democrats. I think you had to count on government contractors. Three letter agencies. I have a three letter word for you, Mr. Kelly. In fact, I got a whole jar of them. Look, let's take off the tin foil and put away the nuts and just face the facts. Donald Trump is a convicted felon. He was convicted by a real jury just like other felons. And I'll be honest, this wasn't even the best case against Trump. The other cases, the ones about Trump stealing classified documents and hiding them from the government and using fraud to try to overturn the 2020 election, those cases were, were actually stronger. But this was the only case that went to trial before Trump won the election and he was convicted and he is a felon. And until he finds some way to throw out this case and pretend it never happened, which he might all those Trump loving saps and bootlickers in Congress and right wing media are just going to have to suck it up and deal with it. And on that note, I hope you got a few laughs out of this collection. Look, these are bad times, but now and then everybody needs a little bit of comic relief. So if you liked this reel or if you have more favorite videos that you think we should include in a future collection, let us know in the comments. And on behalf of the Bulwark, have a great day and let's all keep working for a better tomorrow. What's going on everyone? It's bluff here. And you know what's more American than America's 240 50th birthday? Supporting American owned companies like Spin Quest, America's number one social casino with over a thousand games like Live Dealer, Blackjack and craps. They're offering new users a 30 coin package for just $10. Go to spinquest.com and sign up today. Spin Quest is a free to play social casino, void where prohibited. Visit spinquest.com for more details this week at Safeway and Albertsons. 6 to 16 ounce selected varieties of strawberries, raspberries or blackberries are $1.99 each limit 3 member price with coupon and extra meaty pork back ribs or St. Louis style spare ribs bone in previously frozen are $2.99 per pound limit four member price with coupon plus medium avocados, colored bell peppers or English cucumber sold by the each or tomatoes on the vine or sweet onions sold by the pound are 99 cents member member price. Visit safeway or albertsons.com for more deals and ways to save. I'm Jake Stauch, co founder and CEO of Serval. We built Serval to automate the IT work that slows companies down. Onboarding password resets, access to applications. My laptop stopped working. While employees wait for help, their real work is put on hold. IT desperately wants to automate this work, and that's why they need Serval. You just tell Cerbal what you want to automate in plain English and it's built. No drag and drop workflows, no expensive consultants. Employees get unblocked and IT teams go from drowning in tickets to building what actually matters. With Cerbal, IT becomes the AI engine powering the entire company. This is a new way to run it. We guarantee you'll automate 50% of all tickets and we'll prove it to you in a free four week pilot. Go to cerbal.com tickets that's S E-R-V-A L.com tickets.