Sam Stein (3:33)

I didn't interrupt once. Even though you used a multitude of adjectives, including the word baldly twice. I just, I sat back and say anything. I just wanted that to be.

Andrew Egger (3:44)

Let's go back to the interruptions. I prefer the interruptions to the like, like the quick critique at the end. Come on, man. You, you, we. Let's do a video.

Sam Stein (3:52)

All right. In terms of the plane. Yeah. I didn't think anyone was ever going to shame the guy into, into not taking it. But I think a few tidbits are worth talking about here. One, it's not entirely clear now that it was a gift. CNN's reporting that we approached Qataris about it. Tom Malinowski, talking to, uh, Bill Crystal, uh, the other day, said he thought it was a shakedown, actually, that the Trump White House said we want the plane in exchange will give you, you know, some sort of, you know, security guarantees or, you know, tighter relationships, trade, whatever. So I, I want to just be clear. I mean, I'm going to call it a gift because that's the, the kind of how it's known at this point. But I'm not totally sure it was a gift. Two is, I'm not entirely sure that, well, it's obviously going to happen, but when I talked to Brian Schatz, senator from Hawaii, he said that Richard Blumenthal, his colleague, center from Connecticut, was exploring the Possibility, the anomalous clause to sue the administration. And so I wouldn't be totally shocked if a lawsuit was filed. I don't think it's going to go anywhere because they tried this in the first go run and it didn't work. Yeah, yeah.

Andrew Egger (4:56)

And they should absolutely explore that. Right. I mean, they'd be kind of derelict not to. But yes, but yes. In the first administration, that was the exact problem that they ran into because when Trump would get these gifts and these kickbacks from different foreign leaders at his companies or whatever, members of Congress tried to sue and ultimately where the courts came down on that, it didn't go all the way up to the Supreme Court. But, but where was, they didn't have standing. Individual members of Congress didn't have standing. The whole body, in theory, could, could bring some kind of legal action, but that hasn't been tested.

Sam Stein (5:25)

Okay, well, I doubt the whole body will in this case. But, you know, I guess the one element of surprise, it's not really a surprise, but like, evident to me is that this has been a political problem for Trump in ways that some stories are, but not every story, but like this one, you know, our colleague Lauren Egan was writing about it like, Democrats think this is really breaking through. And the fact that he went and accepted it shows he doesn't, just doesn't give. Fuck. At this point, I continue to be increasingly convinced that Trump knows he's not running for a third term. I mean, he's joking about it constantly, but like he's doing stuff that, like, if you really cared about a third term, you probably wouldn't do. And this is one of those things.

Andrew Egger (6:00)

Yeah, yeah. Especially with the, and I, I don't know what the, the, what the very latest bleeding edge state of the reporting on this is, but the, the idea that it would be eventually transferred to his presidential library. I mean, like that, that's the thing, first of all, that makes it so openly corrupt. All makes it such a, it makes it so compatible with what you're laying out right now that this is a pure cash in. I mean, just, just even the idea of retrofitting it for service as Air Force One.

Sam Stein (6:27)

Right.

Andrew Egger (6:27)

I mean, that's going to cost so long now.

Sam Stein (6:30)

Estimates of how much it's going to cost. I don't know. Has someone's done an estimate?

Andrew Egger (6:34)

Yeah, Joe, Joe had it in his newsletter the other day. It was some mind boggling number. I don't remember exactly, you know, many, many zeros. But, but the point is like, it's not like this thing is going to be in service as Air Force One, even during Trump's term, for very long. So if he's if going to try to then, you know, re decommission it, which will cost a bunch more money, by the way, because they have to strip out all the stuff that they put in there. The, the whole, the whole rigamarole, all this nonsense is for him to be able to fly around in it for a little while, a couple months, a year, who knows, and then park it at his library where it's like a new big fancy.

Sam Stein (7:05)

Do you really think he's gonna park it at the library or do you think.

Andrew Egger (7:08)

Well, I mean, I don't know. Maybe not physically. I don't know. What do you think? What do you think he's got.

Sam Stein (7:13)

I think he's going to use it. I think he's going to take it and he's going to use it. And eventually he'll be at his library. But that's probably when he passes. He'll go to his library, but he's going to use it and he'll say something like, you know, we spent so much money retrofitting this thing, like it would be a shame to waste all that money and just put it as an ornament in my library.

Andrew Egger (7:28)

Right, right.

Sam Stein (7:29)

I got to use this thing. Come on, don't be a sucker. Anyways, to underscore the sensitivity of the matter, let's play the clip of Trump responding to Peter Alexander and we'll do reactions on the flip side.

Andrew Egger (7:45)

Okay, Mr. Investor, the Pentagon announced it.

Sam Stein (7:48)

Would be accepting a Qatari jet to.

Andrew Egger (7:50)

Be used as Air Force One.

Donald Trump (7:51)

What are you talking about? We know we need to respond. You know, you ought to get out of here. What does this have to do with the Qatari jet? They're giving the United States Air Force a jet. Okay. And it's a great thing. We're talking about a lot of other things. It's NBC trying to get off the subject of what you just saw. You are a real, you know, you're a terrible reporter, number one. You don't have what it takes to be a reporter. You're not smart enough. But for you to go into a subject about a jet that was given to the United States Air Force, which is a very nice thing. They also gave $5.1 trillion worth of investment in addition to the jet. Go back. You ought to go back to your studio at NBC because Brian Roberts and the people that run that place, they ought to be investigated. They are so terrible the way you Run that network and you're a disgrace. No more questions from you. Go ahead, talk about that. His name is Peter Suffolk. He's a terrible reporter.

Sam Stein (8:56)

All right, so there you have it. Now in Trump's defense, he was on like a 20 minute tangent about how white genocide was being committed in South Africa. He just played a situation sizzle reel of totally out of context news clips and you know, viral videos of minor political parties talking about white genocide. And the South African president was just sort of sitting there being like, I don't know what I'm watching. And then right as they went out of the clip, Peter Alexander's like, Mr. President, what do you think of this Qatari jet situation? So he lost it. But then also that's like, that kind of behavior is just so abnormal and, or should be, at least not for Trump.

Andrew Egger (9:33)

So that, that is, I was gonna bring up the one thing that cuts a little bit against maybe the theory that you laid out before that he just kind of is totally in on the take and it's a cash in and it's naked and whatever counter take. Well, well, I just think that there is this also this element in Trump, like psychologically where, where stuff that he doesn't want to see, he just doesn't see. You know, it's not like, it's not like this like conscious decision to like to insulate himself from the, from this criticism. He just, he just, it bounces off of him and he short circuits to ah, you know, the fucking fake news people are so sick. And he does this on a lot of stuff. I mean, like back in his hundred day interviews you would see this kind of thing where it's like the second, the second he is asked to kind of contemplate a concept that is, that is difficult or, or, or like you know, unhappy for him to have to contemplate or to answer real questions. It's just a, it's just like a defensive reflex to, to, to bloviate and push back against it. And he is so surrounded by people now who, who just flatter all of that stuff. Like the whole world is shaped to fit his psyche now that he just barely ever has to contemplate these things except in these interactions with the fake news media that he brings into the office. And it's very easy for him just to be like, ah, you know, these, these jerks in the media, nobody likes them. You're, you have no viewership. It's all fake. Like, like there's no one in the whole world who has this complaint except this asshole in my office who's giving it to me right now and so and so. And I think that is part of it. Like I don't think he's necessarily making like a calculation. I can afford to do this even though it's politically bad for me because it's just a cash out later and I never need to run again. I'm not 100% sure it's as calculating as that. Just for the reasons I said.

Sam Stein (11:10)

I will just say his behavior, his petulance is eerily, eerily similar to how you treat minor edits that I offer in the morning track school doc. It's uncanny.

Andrew Egger (11:20)

Yeah, but I'm trying to get better. He's only getting worse.

Sam Stein (11:23)

Are you.

Andrew Egger (11:26)

All right?

Sam Stein (11:26)

Andrew Egger, thanks so much for doing this. Appreciate it. Thank you guys for watching this. Appreciate it. If you have a Qatari jet to gift me, I will accept it and put it in my library at a given point in time. But until then, just subscribe to the feed. That's all we ask.

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