The Cool Zone Response to Trump’s State of the Union

Summary

Podcast Summary: It Could Happen Here – "The Cool Zone Response to Trump’s State of the Union"

Date: February 26, 2026
Hosts: Robert Evans, Gia, Haider Raza, Daisy Kent

---

Overview

This episode features the It Could Happen Here team’s immediate and in-depth breakdown of President Donald Trump’s 2026 State of the Union address. The hosts dissect Trump’s rhetoric, fact-check key claims, and explore the underlying political and cultural currents. The conversation is lively, often sardonic, and pulls few punches as they analyze the pivotal and, at times, alarming moments of the speech.

---

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. General Impressions and Rhetorical Tone

• The hosts unanimously note the address’s strongman, performative, and heavily theatrical style, comparing it to fascist displays.
• Trump’s speech was described as a “transformation like no one has ever seen before—a turnaround for the ages” (Daisy Kent, 02:29).
• Heavy focus on awarding medals and highlighting acts of military valor:
  • "A lot of the length of this was just him announcing people who had won something or were about to win something and everybody clapping." (Haider Raza, 04:41)
• Repeated applause interruptions, chants of “USA,” and even the chanting of “Charlie Kirk’s first name”—a signal of orchestrated pageantry.

2. Dubious Statistics and Economic Claims

• Trump cited questionable statistics on fentanyl “down 56%,” border security efficacy, and “2.4 million Americans lifted off food stamps.”
• The hosts debunked the fentanyl claim by tracing its root to supply chain disruptions in China during the Biden years, not any Trump-era policy:
  • "The contraction of the supply had nothing to do with us stopping fentanyl at the border and everything to do with an issue somewhere in China." (Haider Raza, 07:20)
• Food stamps reduction attributed to stricter eligibility requirements, not improved prosperity.
  • "We simply introduced like, work requirements and other restrictions that kicked 2.4 million Americans off." (Haider Raza, 08:58)

3. Foreign Policy and Political Theater

• Notably transactional rapprochement with Venezuela, highlighting the release of a Venezuelan prisoner and oil deals.
• The incident was interpreted as a show of personalized diplomacy rather than pursuit of ideological objectives.

4. Immigration and Scapegoating

• Despite not naming ICE, Trump returned repeatedly to border and immigration themes, e.g., “no illegal aliens admitted in the last nine months.”
• Propagandistic stories involving undocumented individuals—including exaggerated or factually incorrect anecdotes intended to fuel anti-immigrant sentiment:
  • On commercial driver’s licenses for “illegal aliens”: “Illegal aliens cannot read road signs” (Trump, paraphrased by Gia, 14:27), which the panel debunks as nativist nonsense.
• Misrepresentation of high-profile crimes as tied to immigration, regardless of factual background:
  • “I have not found that reported anywhere.” (Robert, 15:59 — referring to Trump’s claim that a Charlotte train stabbing suspect was an immigrant.)

5. Overt Nationalism and Fascist Undertones

• The podcast makes repeated, explicit comparisons between Trump’s style and the classic hallmarks of fascism as articulated by Robert Paxton’s Anatomy of Fascism:
  • “His speech read like he looked at... the motivating passions of fascism, and it looks like he kind of went down that as a checklist.” (Robert, 45:25)
• The latter half, in particular, was described as a “Metal Gear Solid/Hideo Kojima military pageant finale”: a blend of military glorification and bloody storytelling.

6. Defiance of Legal and Constitutional Norms

• Trump’s open disregard for Supreme Court rulings—especially blatant in his intent to ignore the Court's decision invalidating his tariffs—was seen as “peak constitutional crisis stuff” (Gia, 24:29).
• The camera “kept going back and forth between the President and the justices as they just like sat there completely blank-faced as he’s talking about defying their order.” (Gia, 25:18)

7. Policy Announcements & Infomercial Moments

• Trump Accounts: A child savings/investment account, heavily hyped but based on improbable projections and private philanthropy.
  • “If I just plug it into the inflation calculator... Even at 16%, that's not doing it.” (Robert, 31:47)
• Trump RX: A prescription drug cost service likened to Mark Cuban’s cost-plus drugs, used to make dubious claims about health care improvements.
• Nuclear Power for Data Centers: New policy floated to allow/encourage tech companies to build their own (nuclear) power plants for their data centers.
  • "This is like the kind of conclusion of years of lobbying for small nuclear plants on behalf of big tech companies." (Haider Raza, 29:04)
• Discussion of “Rate Player Protection Pledge” and more tariffs.

8. Moments of Protest and Congressional Theater

• Democratic protest: Al Green’s interruption; Ilhan Omar shouting “He’s killing Americans” during Trump’s DHS shutdown comments (39:32+).
• Trump’s single mention of trans issues: A story about a detransitioning youth spun as a cautionary tale, followed by calls for immediate bans on such transitions without parental consent.
  • “We must ban it and we must ban it immediately.” (Trump, paraphrased by Gia, 41:18)
• Christians, Charlie Kirk, and new martyrs invoked as symbols of a patriotic, religious renewal.

---

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the medals and applause:
  “It's the most medals that we've seen in a State of the Union address.” – Gia (04:56)
• On immigration scapegoating:
  “It’s like being like, no bank robbers have legally robbed a bank.” – Haider Raza (06:05)
• Fentanyl supply chain debunk:
  “The contraction of the supply had nothing to do with us stopping fentanyl at the border and everything to do with an issue somewhere in China.” – Haider Raza (07:20)
• On the infomercial tone:
  “There is an infomercial vibe.” – Daisy Kent (30:14)
• On fascist parallels:
  “His speech read like he looked at... the motivating passions of fascism, and it looks like he kind of went down that as a checklist.” – Robert (45:25)
• On open defiance of the Supreme Court:
  “This is like real, real peak constitutional crisis stuff.” – Gia (24:29)
• On ending DEI (Diversity, Equity & Inclusion):
  “He did tout that we ended DEI in America, just like one of the annoying talking points. That means nothing.” – Daisy Kent (11:55)

---

Timestamps for Important Segments

| Timestamp | Segment/Topic | |---|---| | 02:10 | Hosts react to Trump’s “golden age” rhetoric | | 03:22 | First impressions: focus on awards, “simulated empathy” | | 04:26 | Medals, applause, performative patriotism | | 05:32 | Dubious statistics: fentanyl, border, “winning” | | 07:19 | Fact-check: Fentanyl drop not due to U.S. policy | | 08:35 | “2.4 million off food stamps”—actually via stricter rules | | 10:12 | Trump’s transactional foreign policy; oil with Venezuela | | 12:05 | Ending DEI, ICE, border rhetoric takes center stage | | 14:27 | CDL/immigration story; nativist claims debunked | | 17:00 | False narrative about crime and immigration | | 21:14 | Economy claims; “tax cuts” and storytelling | | 24:29 | Tariffs, Supreme Court defiance, “constitutional crisis” | | 26:56 | Tech companies, power plants, nuclear lobbying | | 30:14 | Trump-branded “savings accounts” and “Trump RX” | | 38:06 | Stop Insider Trading Act applause, Congressional theatrics | | 39:31 | Ilhan Omar’s protest (“He’s killing Americans”) | | 40:27 | Trans issue/rhetoric and immediate policy bans | | 42:03 | Charlie Kirk and the Christianity revival segment | | 42:40+ | Military pageantry, “Metal Gear Solid” finale | | 45:25 | Fascism checklist—Paxton’s Anatomy of Fascism | | 46:56 | “Waving the bloody shirt”—bloody stories, scapegoating | | 48:40 | Wrap-up, final thoughts (relief it’s over) |

---

Conclusion & Takeaways

• The hosts locate the 2026 State of the Union as a performance blending performative empathy, ultranationalism, and a blizzard of factually shaky claims—a “jaunty walk through the burning ruins of the old world,” to borrow their phrase.
• They are especially alarmed by the open constitutional defiance, fascist signaling, restrictionist immigration rhetoric, and the relentless, militaristic pageantry.
• Multiple times, the episode returns to the themes that defined the original premise of this podcast: chronicling collapse and analyzing the playbook of authoritarian, illiberal power.

---

For listeners seeking more in-depth analysis, the hosts tease follow-up discussion of the Save America Act, the evolving status of tariffs and Supreme Court standoffs, and continued cultural-political decay.

---

Original language and irreverent tone preserved where possible.

Transcript

[Joe Winterstein]

This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.

[Roald Dahl Podcast Host]

You know Roald Dahl, he thought up Willy Wonka in the bfg. But did you know he was a spy? In the new podcast, the Secret World of Roald Dahl, I'll tell you that story and much, much more.

[Robert]

What?

[Roald Dahl Podcast Host]

You probably won't believe it either.

[Daisy Kent]

Was this before he wrote his stories? It must have been Okay, I don't think that's true.

[Roald Dahl Podcast Host]

I'm telling you, the guy was a spy. Listen to the Secret World of Roald Dahl on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[American Lung Association Ad Voice]

Talking to your kids about the dangers of vaping can be hard. Getting them to listen to hot gossip is easy. So here's some drama you could share with your kid. Dude, did you hear about Cassie and Jake? No. But did you hear that vaping can cause irreversible lung damage and nicotine affects brain development? Nuh. You don't need to gossip if you want to have an open conversation about vaping. So if you want to get tips on when and how to talk to your kids, visit talkaboutvaping.org, brought to you by the American Lung association and the Ad Council.

[Gia]

Welcome to Dirty Rush, the truth about

[Joe Winterstein]

sorority life, the Good, the bad, and the sisterhood, with your hosts, me, Gia

[Daisy Kent]

Giudice, Daisy Kent, and Jennifer Fessler. The reality of Greek life has been a mystery for those outside the sorority circles until now. Is it really a supportive sisterhood that's

[Joe Winterstein]

simply misunderstood, or is there something more scandalous happening on campus campuses across the country? Let's get dirty. Listen to Dirty rush on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Daisy Kent]

Then she says, have you seen a photo of my son? And I'm like, who is this person?

[Boys and Girls Podcast Host]

Welcome to the boys and girls podcast. Arranged marriage is basically a reality show, and you're auditioning for your soulmate. And who's judging? Only your entire family. I sacrificed myself to this ancient tradition, hoping to find love the right way. And instead I found chaos, comedy and a lot of cringe. Listen to boys and Girls on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Robert]

Media.

[Daisy Kent]

Welcome to it could happen here. I just want you to know our nation is back. It is the golden age of America, and we're going to talk about the Sears State of the Union by President Donald A. Trump.

[Haider Raza]

And I've been saying our nation's back since way before it left, honestly. So I'm glad to see that We've caught up.

[Daisy Kent]

But back to Wen, sir. You know, it's a transformation like no one has ever seen before. A turnaround for the ages.

[Gia]

We're gonna. We're gonna do it better and better.

[Daisy Kent]

Better and bigger and brighter and whatever B word he can decide to include.

[Gia]

We just keep winning.

[Haider Raza]

So you're getting some idea from this about the tenor of the president's State of the Union speech that we all just listened to.

[Daisy Kent]

Y.

[Haider Raza]

It is like 8:30pm at the end of a long workday that was already long before we listened to the president.

[Daisy Kent]

11:30pm for. For Gare.

[Robert]

Yeah.

[Haider Raza]

11:30pm for Garrett. But I don't actually believe in time zones. I think that's a conspiracy, but we'll talk about that later. So, in terms of, like, first responses to the State of the Union, I think mine was Trump spent a lot more time focusing on the achievements of other people, like, literally handing out a bunch of awards.

[Robert]

Yeah.

[Haider Raza]

And less time as a percentage of the speech, actually trumpeting things that he did and his own successes in a way that I found kind of telling. And I think this merges with the fact that he did not mention ice by name during the speech. So I kind of saw this as a recognition by him and his people that, like, there's some face that needs to be saved. And we've got to try in this speech to kind of minimize our least attractive attributes and maximize the positive, you know?

[Robert]

Yeah.

[Daisy Kent]

Yeah. My take was that he was trying to simulate empathy and try to keep hold of that Republican crowd and try to endear himself to them as much as he could, despite the state of things.

[Haider Raza]

Yeah, yeah.

[Robert]

And trying to associate himself with a lot of acts of heroism or military valor or, you know, which is classic strongman stuff. Right. Like the. You know, we're achieving a time of national greatness. Here are some examples of masculine virtue. Blah, blah, blah. We saw the US men's ice hockey team.

[Daisy Kent]

I really hated that.

[Gia]

12 minutes in, 12 minutes in. Because we just keep winning. Our country's winning too much. We're winning so much that we don't know what to do.

[Haider Raza]

Yeah.

[Gia]

And here are a bunch of those winners.

[Haider Raza]

And I did find that kind of surprising, too, like, how quickly they got brought in and how much of a. Like, a lot of the length of this was just him announcing people who had won something or were about to win something and everybody clapping.

[Robert]

Yeah.

[Gia]

It's the most medals that we've seen in a State of the Union address.

[Haider Raza]

And I wonder, because I know one way in which these get, quote, unquote, raided by news agencies is like, how much percentage of the time was it. Standing ovations. How much percentage of the time. How many times they have to stop for applause? Maybe he's trying to game that system.

[Robert]

Amazing. That's pretty funny.

[Gia]

It was really easy to take notes because of how much applause there was in between single lines. He said.

[Robert]

Yeah, and not just applause. Right. There were. There were large periods of time when people were chanting usa, usa. Or Charlie Kirk's first name.

[Daisy Kent]

Weird.

[Robert]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Gia]

I mean, it's. It started off with some. Some more like statistics of. Of dubious origin, but the economy and various other things. He claimed that fentanyl was down 56%, that the strongest border security ever, that there's been no illegal aliens admitted to the United States in the past nine months. Zero.

[Robert]

Well, that's a tautology. Right? Like, when you are admitted, that means you have been processed or released into the United States. So by definition, yes.

[Haider Raza]

Have there ever been illegal aliens admitted to the United States?

[Robert]

Yeah. That is not what admission is. Right. It's like saying there are.

[Haider Raza]

It's like being like, no bank robbers have legally robbed a bank.

[Robert]

Yeah, exactly.

[Haider Raza]

It's like, well, no, I guess you're right.

[Robert]

Yeah. No fish have walked under my orders, like.

[Daisy Kent]

And Robert, you mentioned you wanted to say something a little bit about the fentanyl thing He. He brought up.

[Haider Raza]

Yeah, I mean, I love fentanyl, obviously. Big fan of this stuff. You know, I don't like to use it, just like to read about it, study it, use it. So. No, that's a joke. That's a bit. Don't do fentanyl, folks, please. And actually, people aren't doing as much fentanyl, which has nothing to do with the Trump administration. So when he was like, there's 56% less fentanyl getting into the country, I just. I knew that was wrong because first off, I remembered reading that during the Biden administration, there had started to be, like, a significant constriction of. Of the international fentanyl supply market. So I looked it up and I was, in fact, accurate in my recollection. I found a pretty good article hosted by the University of Maryland's medical school by Carl Hill, which notes that in 2023, the journal Science published an article by a Maryland criminologist that argued that the drop in overdose deaths that had started to be noticed in 2023 was driven by a collapse of the international fentanyl market supply chain. And you may note, 2023 is when Donald Trump was not the president.

[Robert]

Yep.

[Haider Raza]

For this article, we were trying to understand why fentanyl overdose deaths, after rising rapidly for a decade in mid 2023, suddenly turned downward. Peter Reuter, professor of public policy and criminology from the University of Maryland, told the Baltimore sun, where you're reasonably sure that something has happened to the precursor chemical supply from China that was a significant cause of the downturn in fentanyl. So again, what he's saying is the supply constriction happened in 2023, and it doesn't seem to have happened because of stateside US Policy. In other words, the contraction of the supply had nothing to do with us stopping fentanyl at the border and everything to do with an issue somewhere in China. Now, there's been a couple of theories as to this, including some international laws that have altered, like the way these kind of. Some of the chemical companies in China have to work. But the gist of it is that this started in the Biden administration and has nothing to do with border policy. It's purely a result of the actual physical supply of fentanyl. And that constriction began in China anyway. That's what I had to say.

[Robert]

Yeah. I think it's worth noting. I'm not quite sure where that. 56.

[Haider Raza]

No idea.

[Robert]

It could be seizures that they. They maybe seized a lot of fentanyl. Like, I'm not quite sure where that came from. Like, there were a number of statistics which I couldn't track down.

[Haider Raza]

Right.

[Robert]

The 19 billion fraud in Minnesota by Somali people.

[Haider Raza]

There was one I loved. He made a note that 2.4 million Americans have now ascended wasn't the word

[Gia]

he used, but gotten lifted off of food stamps.

[Haider Raza]

Lifted off of food stamps.

[Daisy Kent]

2.4 million Americans are off of food stamps.

[Robert]

Yeah.

[Haider Raza]

And he specifically lifted off, as Gare noted, which would insinuate that, like, their circumstances improved and they no longer needed food stamps. That's not true.

[Robert]

Yes.

[Haider Raza]

We simply introduced, like, work requirements and other restrictions that kicked 2.4 million Americans off of.

[Gia]

Kicked people off of the foodstein program. Yeah, we pushed people into starvation because we.

[Haider Raza]

We lifted them into starvation, Garrison. We lifted them into starvation.

[Gia]

And this was. This was his line right before he started talking about how we're winning so much and brought the hockey team. That was the segue. Was. Was talk. It was talking about how there's millions of people who now can't get food stamps and look, look how much we're winning. Quote, we're winning so much. We don't know what to do.

[Haider Raza]

Yeah, that's my big problem.

[Robert]

I feel so encountered that what to

[Haider Raza]

do with all the victories.

[Gia]

But no, there's, there's a few others. I mean, he's talked about like, you know, the lowest inflation in five years, which is continuing, you know, continuing trends that have been going on for the past like three years.

[Haider Raza]

Right.

[Gia]

Inflation, gas prices, mortgage rates. Did this interesting line a short time ago. We were a dead country. Now we are the hottest, hottest, the hottest. And then he said hottest again. And then he had a really, a really beautiful line of prose. Our new friend and partner, Venezuela has given us barrels of oil. Our new friend and partner, he called

[Robert]

out Delsey by name and was like, she's doing great things for Venezuela. We're going to do great things together. Like a bizarre really occurrence, like. But I think that it goes to show how he understands foreign policy, which is in a very transactional way. Right. It is not about an ideological disagreement. This is about having someone who, who he feels is personally loyal to him and owes him the position that they have. And that's, I think what he's going for in Venezuela. Right. He didn't mention the amnesty, but he at one point brought down a Venezuelan man whose niece was in the audience to reveal that her uncle had been released from prison. I will be eagerly awaiting news on that man's ongoing immigration status.

[Daisy Kent]

So bizarre.

[Robert]

Yeah, there was a lot of this, like really weird political theater and so

[Daisy Kent]

much of it that there just wasn't seats for all of them. And so there were these like awkward open door moments that were just, just unnecessary. But that, that's what he was going for tonight. Metal, metal, metal.

[Robert]

A lot of medals, a lot of

[Gia]

medals, a lot of awards.

[Robert]

We got the list right. The whole, the trifecta. We got the Congressional Medal of Freedom, the Medal of Honor.

[Gia]

Presidential Medal of Freedom.

[Robert]

Sorry, Presidential Medal of Freedom.

[Daisy Kent]

A Purple Heart.

[Robert]

Yeah. And a Purple Heart.

[Haider Raza]

Yeah.

[Gia]

We gave out a Purple Heart and Olympic gold.

[Robert]

Oh, yeah, many of those.

[Daisy Kent]

He like had this strange moment where he's like, I would like one of those. But apparently, like, it's not.

[Haider Raza]

Yeah. For the Medal of Honors you can only get them in the army. Maybe they'll open it up. Maybe they'll open it up. And if they do, I'll be the first one in line. Sir. Yeah.

[Daisy Kent]

What he, he did tout that we ended DEI in America just like one of the annoying talking points. That means nothing.

[Robert]

Yeah. Whilst ICE were not mentioned by name, there was a lot of border chat. Right.

[Gia]

Yeah. Especially at the. At the start and then a few times towards like the middle end.

[Robert]

Yeah. And one of the things he did pretty consistently was, was talk about horrific incidents, often involving the death of children, sometimes in front of their parents.

[Haider Raza]

Yeah.

[Robert]

I just want to highlight a couple of those. The first one he talked about Delilah Coldman. Right. Who was injured in a. In a crash with big rig. The driver as. Which was not a US Citizen, but did have a work permit, a work permit issued by the federal government under Donald Trump. And this has been a claim on the. Right. This guy was undocumented for some time. Right. And that California has been giving cdls two undocumented people in this case. That. That is not the case. I'm interested in what happened to the Coldman family. I understand they've been through like a horrific thing. Right. Their daughter, it looked like she was gonna use the use of her legs. She's now relearning to use her legs and to walk, which is great. But previously they had met with the person who was driving the vehicle that caused their daughter this horrific injury, and they had explicitly declined to politicize it, saying that they weren't interested in doing that. So I don't know what happened here to. Now Trump proposing a law which. Delilah's Law, he's calling it. Right. Which would. I'm trying to remember, if he said stop non citizens or undocumented people or illegal aliens, use his parlance, from getting CDLs.

[Gia]

Obviously, I think illegal aliens.

[Robert]

There are states which will give you driver's license without asking for documentation for the very obvious reason that people in this country have to drive. Large parts of this country are set up around driving. You cannot exist in some parts of America without a motorcar. And it is better that people get a license and insurance than that they don't do that.

[Gia]

He said barring any state from granting commercial driver's license to illegal aliens. Was his framing. Okay.

[Robert]

Yeah. That's his normal framing. Right. I have never had a CDL in this country and I've never gone through that application process. But I'd assume one would first need a federal work permit. Right. As one would for any employment.

[Haider Raza]

Well, you need a driver's license. Yes.

[Robert]

You'd also need a driver's license.

[Haider Raza]

Let's start there. You gotta have a driver's license to get a cdl.

[Robert]

Yeah, yeah. There's a background check component, it looks like, to the cdl.

[Gia]

One of the lines that he used right before this call to action was that illegal aliens cannot read road signs.

[Robert]

Yes.

[Haider Raza]

Yeah, that's how we introduced the section of like. Yeah, they're all through this country driving around. They don't know what like a warning sign is or a stop sign.

[Robert]

Obviously, lots of people come to this country and are perfectly capable of speaking English. There are also people who are born in this country who don't speak English.

[Haider Raza]

Well, we, we just, we don't have an official language.

[Daisy Kent]

Just to say a lot of people can't drive very well in this country.

[Robert]

Yeah.

[Daisy Kent]

As an, as an LA driver,

[Haider Raza]

a

[Daisy Kent]

lot of you people don't know how to merge. And it has nothing to do with your, what language you speak or your citizen status. Okay. Like, this is a pointless remark to make.

[Haider Raza]

It's just, it's, it's a policy that they can make.

[Robert]

Right? Yeah. Yeah. Didn't he sign an executive order officially making English the official language at some point? Early on?

[Daisy Kent]

Yes.

[Robert]

No. I'm just, I'm trying to remember if that was the case or not.

[Daisy Kent]

Yes. Yes.

[Robert]

Okay. The other claim that I thought was interesting was the killer of this young woman in Charlotte. Right.

[Gia]

Who is killed the, the train stabbing incident from last year.

[Robert]

Yeah. Irina Zarutska. And Trump claimed that the man who killed her had come in through an open border. I am not able to find any evidence that this person is an immigrant to the United States. I have not found that reported anywhere.

[Haider Raza]

Yeah.

[Robert]

His father appears to have at least resided if not been born in the United States. His name is decalis Brown Jr. And so assuming that the Decalis Brown who is resident in the same place is his father, therefore I would assume that he was born in the United States and had citizenship through birth rate citizenship, I have no idea about. His father could well be a citizen too. I'm just trying to research things in a hurry. I have not seen it reported anywhere.

[Gia]

Zero reporting about this man being an immigrant, including from right wing outlets who used this horrific incident to stoke like racist crime panic narratives last year.

[Haider Raza]

Yeah. And that may not have been the goal. It may have just been more traditional, like race panic.

[Gia]

Yeah, yeah, that was what it was. They used it for racialized crime panic. This comment by Trump inferring that he is an immigrant may have been an unscripted ad lib that he just did. But from what we could tell, this. This man was, was not an immigrant.

[Haider Raza]

Yeah, no, it's just like a guy did a bad thing.

[Gia]

Nor was he released early from custody, by the way, which is part of the narrative that the right was using in their reporting around this, was that this guy was like released early from prison. And he did serve the entirety of his sentence.

[Haider Raza]

He may not have been released early from his sentence, but you're released early from your sentence of not listening to us. Here's some ads.

[Daisy Kent]

I hated that.

[Gia]

One of the worst ones.

[Haider Raza]

Yeah, well, too bad.

[Joe Winterstein]

Hi, this is Jo Winterstein, host of the Spirit Daughter Podcast where we talk about astrology, natal charts, and how to step into your most vibrant life. And I just sat down with a mini driver.

[Mini Driver]

The Irish traveler said when I was 16, you're gonna have a terrible time with men.

[Joe Winterstein]

Actor, storyteller, and unapologetic Aquarian visionary. Aquarius is all about freedom loving and different perspectives. And I find a lot of people with strong placements in Aquarius like are Misunderstood a Sun and Venus in Aquarius in her seventh house spark her unconventional approach to partnership.

[Mini Driver]

He really has taught me to embrace people sleeping in different rooms, on different houses, in different places, but just an embracing of the isness of it all.

[Joe Winterstein]

If you're navigating your own transformation or just want a chart side view into how a leading artist integrates astrology, creating creativity and real life, this episode is a must. Listen. Listen to the Spirit Daughter podcast starting on February 24th on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen to your podcast.

[Boys and Girls Podcast Host]

Ever feel like you're being chased by the marriage police? Welcome to Boys and Girls, the podcast where dating isn't dating. Arranged marriage is basically a reality show, except the contestants are strangers and your entire family is judgin. You're sipping coffee with one, maybe grabbing dinner with another, and praying your karmic Ken or Barbie appears before your shelf life runs out. Trust me, I've been through this ancient and unshakable tradition. I jumped in hoping to find love the right way. And instead I found chaos, cringe and comedy. And now I'm looking for healing. Boys and girls dives into every twist and turn of the arranged marriage carousel. The meat of awkward, the near misses, the heartbreak. And let's not forget all the jokes. Listen to boys and Girls on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Roald Dahl Podcast Host]

You know Roald Dahl, the writer who thought up Willy Wonka, Matilda and the bfg. But did you know he was also a spy?

[Daisy Kent]

Was this before he wrote his stories? It must have been.

[Roald Dahl Podcast Host]

Our new podcast series, the Secret World of Roald Dahlia is a wild journey through the hidden chapters of his extraordinary, controversial life. His job was literally to seduce the wives of powerful Americans.

[Robert]

What?

[Roald Dahl Podcast Host]

And he was really good at it. You probably won't believe it either.

[Daisy Kent]

Okay, I don't think that's true.

[Roald Dahl Podcast Host]

I'm telling you, the guy was a spy. Did you know Dahl got cozy with the Roosevelts, played poker with Harry Truman, and had a long affair with a congresswoman? And then he took his talents to Hollywood, where he worked alongside Walt Disney and Alfred Hitchcock before writing a hit James Bond film. How did this secret agent wind up as the most successful children's author ever? And what darkness from his covert past seeped into the stories we read as kids? The true story is stranger than anything he ever wrote. Listen to the Secret World of Roald Dahl on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[American Lung Association Ad Voice]

Talking to your kids about the dangers of vaping can be hard. Getting them to listen to hot gossip is easy. So here's some drama you could share with your kid. Dude, did you hear about Cassie and Jake? No. But did you hear that vaping can cause irreversible lung damage and nicotine affects brain development? Nuh. You don't need to gossip if you want to have an open conversation about vaping. So if you want to get tips on when and how to talk to your kids, visit talkaboutvaping.org, brought to you by the American Lung association and the AD Council.

[Haider Raza]

And we're back. Back.

[Robert]

Hooray.

[Gia]

So in the start to. To middle section where he was, he was still, still kind of talking about the economy. Before the entire pageantry performance took over, he, he started talking about the tax cuts and the one big beautiful bill.

[Robert]

Yeah.

[Gia]

And he, he had this fun line about how all the Democrats voted against these tax cuts, and this made all the Democrats stand up and applaud.

[Robert]

Yeah, that was kind of funny.

[Gia]

But then he talked about this mom who is homeschooling two kids.

[Robert]

Oh, yeah.

[Gia]

Who also works as a waitress during the night shift on top of her husband, who also, you know, works full time. And how these, these tax cuts have. Have gotten them to take an extra $5,000 home each year. Right. This is the no tax on tips thing. And this story of this, of this mom who's homeschooling kids and working at night and a full time husband was, was like, framed as this, like, as this, like, triumph of the American economy. Yeah, it was hard to interpret this as, like a massive economic triumph when you're talking about a mother who's not only doing labor at home by schooling her children and then also working nights and a husband who's Also working full time like that, that. That demonstrates how difficult it actually is to exist economically, especially if you have a family in the country right now. And his. His kind of twisting of this scenario to support his notion that he's helping the American economy I found to be quite interesting. And that's mostly what the Democratic response by Governor Spanberger was about, is how it's pretty clear to most Americans that it's actually been quite economically challenging based on his wildly unstable trade agreements and tariffs, which have caused a great deal of economic instability in this country.

[Robert]

Yeah, there was a feeling during the Biden administration, especially with, like, Psaki.

[Haider Raza]

Right.

[Robert]

Like the Biden administration was somewhat gaslighting people as they struggled economically. Sure. But Trump has not. Not diverged from that policy. Right?

[Haider Raza]

No.

[Robert]

And obviously now the Dems are calling it out. Talking of budgetary issues, did anybody else catch that the Democrats have frozen funding to dhs? Who would like to be out there helping people shovel their snow?

[Gia]

I missed this. I missed this shoveling snow line.

[Haider Raza]

Yeah, I didn't catch that either.

[Robert]

Really.

[Daisy Kent]

I caught it. I caught it.

[Robert]

Okay. I thought it hallucinated that from me.

[Daisy Kent]

Hallucinated.

[Haider Raza]

Maybe that flooded the banks of, like, Gareni's nonsense filters and we just shut down for a second.

[Daisy Kent]

I don't know.

[Robert]

Yeah, that one. Like, I actually went back on the livestream and that was one of the few moments where I. Yeah, I wondered what the heck he was talking about.

[Gia]

Yeah, I'm sure he's gonna be deploying fema.

[Robert]

Yeah, right.

[Gia]

Fema to New England to help us shovel this down.

[Robert]

Yeah, great. I'm sure that will be received well. Yeah, that was one of the more insane ones that. It really took me a second to work out what on earth was happening. But, yeah, I believe that was maybe a FEMA reference.

[Gia]

No, I won't be happy until Homeland Security investigation agents are shoveling snow.

[Haider Raza]

Honestly. And make them do it in every state, even the ones without snow. Just get out there and pantomime it with a shovel.

[Robert]

You know, we got sand in California. We'll find him some work.

[Haider Raza]

Shovel some sand.

[Gia]

I think the most interesting portion of the State of the Union address was when Trump talked about his tariffs specifically because just days ago, Supreme Court struck down his tariffs as not being legal. This will get discussed more in Executive Disorder tomorrow. But I found this to be quite interesting because Trump acknowledged all of this and then discussed how he is going to keep doing the tariffs anyway right in front of the justices. Just as openly talking about defying a Supreme Court Order in front of them. And the camera kept going back and forth between the President and the justices as they just like sat there completely blank face as he's talking about defying their order. This is like real, real peak constitutional crisis stuff.

[Daisy Kent]

He kept saying it's an unfortunate ruling by the Supreme Court. Mind you, there is four of them there. They all stayed stoic, and some voted for him, some voted against him. So it was a mixed bag. But he was basically like. It was like, you know, when you do something wrong and the teacher lectures you in front of the class, it was very much that. They didn't really give him much of a reaction. He was talking about all countries and companies want to keep the deal, talking about tariffs and it's saving our countries. And this is such an unfortunate ruling by the Supreme Court, but that it doesn't matter because he's going to keep doing it.

[Gia]

We're still doing the tariffs. Yeah, we've talked a lot about it. You know, there's going to be a certain point in this, in this administration there where it's going to come down to a Supreme Court ruling saying that something he's doing is illegal and he's going to keep doing it anyway. He's already flirted with this in the past year. There's a few kind of more minor moments where, if not fully breaking a ruling, was bending it to a near buckle.

[Robert]

Yeah.

[Gia]

But like, this is. I think this is the most blatant incident so far of the President just blatantly ignoring and defying a Supreme Court ruling. And then he talked about how, you know, ideally tariffs will take the place of income tax, which. Sure, man. Good luck with that.

[Robert]

Yeah, cool. He had a bit where he was like, we've worked out a new and totally legal way to do it.

[Daisy Kent]

Is that when he mentioned that congressional action won't be necessary for the new tariffs?

[Robert]

I think so, yeah. There was some new and established.

[Gia]

I mean, because that would be the legal way to do it. That is. That's the power that Congress has.

[Robert]

Yeah, yeah. We have the need to work it out. Like, we've got that one covered.

[Gia]

Oh, my God. Do you want to talk about the Rate Player Protection Pledge?

[Robert]

Yes, sure.

[Haider Raza]

Yes.

[Gia]

The idea that tech companies will have to provide their own power to the data centers popping up around the country, lowering energy costs for. For residents of these neighborhoods.

[Haider Raza]

Yeah. And this is relevant for a couple of reasons. He's talking about allowing. Basically the issue is that all of these data centers have increased electricity costs for a lot of Americans. And he's claiming we're going to put that on the tech companies by allowing them to make their own power plants. Like that's probably, he says by making them responsible for like funding the power that their data centers cost. But specifically the way this is supposed to work is by letting them build power plants.

[Gia]

Is that explicitly laid out in this plan? Because the way he said it certainly was unclear.

[Haider Raza]

I mean he said they're going to have power plants. The direct statement was like, tech companies will be operating power plants that they're using to fuel these facilities. And that's like in line with lobbying Silicon Valley has been doing for years to make it easier for them to create small nuclear reactors. Like this has been for the last like several years. Silicon Valley interests including like Krose Power have been pushing to make it a lot easier, regulation wise to operate small nuclear plants. Like that's definitely what he was referring to.

[Robert]

Hmm, that's great. I feel good about that.

[Haider Raza]

Yeah. I mean there's a, There's a good BBC article on it from like 2025 with the title why Big Tech's Nuclear Plans Could Blow up. But features like a lot of quotes from guys at AI companies and at Google talking about like small nuclear reactors could provide 24,7 clean energy near data centers. According to Haider Raza, an expert in AI and energy use at the University of Essex. Like, there's a lot of these quotes that have been going around for years. So when I heard Trump say they'll have their own power plants, that's what I read it in the context of.

[Gia]

Okay.

[Daisy Kent]

And he just, he says big tech companies. He didn't list out like who. Yeah, he doesn't who who that would be because it's just like not a thought out plan. It's just something for a headline.

[Robert]

Yeah.

[Haider Raza]

This is like the kind of conclusion of years of lobbying for small nuclear plants on behalf of like big tech companies. And I'm not against the idea of more nuclear power. I am against the idea of letting OpenAI.

[Robert]

Yeah. Be the ones who have operate a

[Haider Raza]

power plant of any kind.

[Robert]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And having it in the State of the Union is something of a signal by him to them. Right. Like that they are like his constituency. Yeah.

[Haider Raza]

I think it's also as Gare noted, it's like a nod to the affordability thing. Like he's had to deal with that a lot because people can't not notice that things are getting more expensive. So he's promising your power bill will go down because I' done this Thing.

[Robert]

Yeah. Talking of getting more expensive, he spent a while talking about fuel prices, like how he'd gone around and he'd seen like 185 a gallon gas and blah, blah, blah. Like I, I thought it was interesting that clearly they understand. Right. Again, it shows that affordability is something that they know they're weak on. And he's trying to, trying to I guess reinforce the areas where he feels stronger within that and not talk about the one he doesn't. He talked about home prices, talked a lot about his Trump savings accounts.

[Gia]

Yeah, the Trump accounts for, for, for kids.

[Daisy Kent]

There is an infomercial vibe. This state of. He plugged a couple different Trump, Trump

[Gia]

RX and Trump accounts.

[Robert]

Yeah. And he talked a lot about like I think Robert, you got the transcripts in front of you, if I'm not mistaken. He said that with a small investment they could be worth $1,000, $100,000, $100,000 by the time the person is 18. Yeah.

[Daisy Kent]

The website describes it as we're building a long term financial security for millions of children by creating tax advantaged Investment accounts for US citizens under the age of 18. It asks you to fill out a form and then it says get a thousand dollars for every American child born between January 1, 2025 and December 31, 2028. The account is fully in your child's name and you are the sole custodian until they turn 18. No contributions necessary, but you can deposit up to 5,000 per year for maximum growth. That's what the website says.

[Haider Raza]

Yeah, like, and like if this is, I guess to start off this was like real.

[Daisy Kent]

If it was real, then like I

[Haider Raza]

don't have a problem with the idea. Like it's okay, sure. But that's my immediate question, especially since it seems like the big thing that he was harping on is that like this was funded in large part by like a six something billion dollars donation by the, by the Dells, by like Michael Dell and his wife.

[Robert]

Yeah.

[Haider Raza]

And so first off, I've used Dell computers, so I was immediately like, oh, this doesn't seem like it could be good. But yeah, I don't, like, I don't know enough about this program to really know though. It just like my, it's a Trump thing involving money, so I'm on edge. But what are we actually looking at here?

[Robert]

Yeah, so I'm just going to work out the, the amount of interest it would take for that 1,000 to turn into 100,000 in 18 years. If I just plug it into the inflation calculator yeah. Even at 16%, that's not doing it.

[Gia]

Well, if. If they put that 1,000 in Nvidia stock five years ago, then it's certainly possible. Which I. I think. I think that's part of. Part of these accounts is that it's. It's like it's tied in with stock investments. It seems. It seems like. I. It doesn't sound like it's just like a high yield savings account.

[Robert]

Right.

[Gia]

The other Trump branded service that was advertised infomercial style during the State of the Union address was Trump Rx, which is essentially Trump's version of Mark Cuban's Cost Plus Drugs website to get prescription drugs at very close to the cost of manufacturing. Something that Trump reiterated multiple times that he did not name the Trump accounts or Trump RX himself.

[Robert]

Oh, yeah, sure.

[Daisy Kent]

Is this what, the part when he tried to use a woman's IVF story for propaganda? Yeah, I really disliked that.

[Robert]

Yeah.

[Gia]

Yes, he did. He did one of these, like, one of these people either brought in or sitting. Sitting high up in the pews. You know, he tells a lot of these little stories throughout the State of the Union. He talked about a woman who was trying to do ibs, and the drugs were very expensive. And now, thanks to Trump rx, it's. It's less money.

[Daisy Kent]

Well, it's just obnoxious because Trump said that he was, quote, unquote, the father of IVF and claimed to be able to provide resources for people that want to pursue ivf, and he has not fallen through on any of those promises.

[Gia]

He signed some executive orders that did

[Daisy Kent]

all, and it's still an absolutely outrageous cost to do ivf. And he's done nothing. He's done nothing.

[Robert]

Yeah.

[Daisy Kent]

So to use it as propaganda, I find it to be extremely offensive.

[Haider Raza]

Well, yeah, sure, but there's a lot that's offensive about the propaganda he does in this. Like, about the things he uses for propaganda. All the murders and like, that's 100. That's all this is.

[Daisy Kent]

You know, I just didn't want to. I just didn't want to skip over that because it's not going to get as much of a headline as some of the other horrific things he did. But it sucks.

[Haider Raza]

Yeah.

[Robert]

You know what else sucks pretty hard, Robert?

[Haider Raza]

Ads. Not the ads for this podcast.

[Robert]

Oh, no, absolutely not. No. I was thinking something's highly different.

[Joe Winterstein]

Hi, this is Joe Winterstein, host of the Spirit Daughter Podcast where we talk about astrology, natal charts, and how to step into your most vibrant life. And I just sat down with a mini driver.

[Mini Driver]

The Irish traveler said when I was 16, you're going to have a terrible time with men.

[Joe Winterstein]

Actor, storyteller and unapologetic Aquarian visionary, Aquarius is all about freedom loving and different perspectives and I find a lot of people with strong placements in Aquarius like are Misunderstood a Sun and Venus in Aquarius in her seventh house spark her unconventional approach to partnership.

[Mini Driver]

He really has taught me to embrace people sleeping in different rooms, on different houses, in different places, but just an embracing of the isness of it all.

[Joe Winterstein]

If you're navigating your own transformation or just want a chart side view into how a leading artist integrates astrology, creativity and real life, this episode is a must Listen Listen to the Spirit Daughter podcast starting on February 24th on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast or wherever you listen to your podcast.

[Boys and Girls Podcast Host]

Ever feel like you're being chased by the marriage? Welcome to Boys and Girls, the podcast where Dating isn't dating. Arranged Marriage is basically a reality show, except the contestants are strangers and your entire family is judging. You're sipping coffee with one, maybe grabbing dinner with another, and praying your karmic Ken or Babi appears before your shelf life runs out. Trust me, I've been through this ancient and unshakable tradition. I jumped in hoping to find love the right way, and instead I found chaos, cringe and comedy. And now I'm looking for healing. Boys and Girls dives into every twist and turn of the arranged marriage carousel. The meet awkward, the near misses, the heartbreak. And let's not forget all the jokes. Listen to boys and Girls on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Roald Dahl Podcast Host]

You know Roald Dahl, the writer who thought up Willy Wonka, Matilda and the bfg. But did you know he was also a spy?

[Daisy Kent]

Was this before he wrote his stories? It must have been.

[Roald Dahl Podcast Host]

Our new podcast series, the Secret World of Roald Dahl is a wild journey through the hidden chapters of his extraordinary, controversial life. His job was literally to seduce the wives of powerful Americans.

[Robert]

What?

[Roald Dahl Podcast Host]

And he was really good at it. You probably won't believe it either.

[Daisy Kent]

Okay, I don't think that's true.

[Roald Dahl Podcast Host]

I'm telling you, the guy was a spy. Did you know Dahl got cozy with the Roosevelts, played poker with Harry Truman, and had a long affair with a congresswoman. And then he took his talents to Hollywood, where he worked alongside Walt Disney and Alfred Hitchcock before writing a hit James Bond film. How did this secret agent wind up as the most successful children's author ever and what darkness from his covert past seeped into the stories we read as kids? The true story is stranger than anything he ever wrote. Listen to the Secret World of Roald Dahl on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[American Lung Association Ad Voice]

Talking to your kids about the dangers of vaping can be hard. Getting them to listen to hot gossip is easy. So here's some drama you could share with your kid. Dude, did you hear about Cassie and Jake? No, but did you hear that vaping can cause irreversible lung damage and nicotine affects brain development? Nuh. You don't need to gossip if you want to have an open conversation about vaping. So if you want to get tips on when and how to talk to your kids, visit talkaboutvaping.org brought to you by the American Lung association and the Ad Council.

[Gia]

All right, we are back. One thing that did get both. Both chambers applauding, to the surprise of Trump, because both for the Democrats applauding and a little bit of the Republicans is he talked about the Stop Insider Trading act, which would somehow. I need to look into the actual. Actual bill itself, but. But restrict to congresspeople from doing insider trading. And this, this did cause a lot of applause on the. On the Democrats side and some applause on the Republican side. And Trump remarked on both being interesting and then made a Nancy Pelosi joke.

[Daisy Kent]

She was there. They showed her later on.

[Robert]

She was there.

[Gia]

In terms of disruptions from the Democratic side, Al Green did a little protest thing at the beginning, and then during the section where Trump was talking about the Democrat DHS shut down, he told. He told the room to. To stand up. If you believe that. That protecting American citizens is more important than protecting illegal immigrants or something. Something to that effect.

[Robert]

Yeah. The role of the government is to protect American citizens. Right. Like.

[Gia]

Yes.

[Robert]

Not illegal immigrants.

[Gia]

And this caused a shouting back and forth between Alon Omar and Trump, which. Which lasted for. Lasted for quite a while. Yeah, I wasn't able to hear very much on the hard to tell newsfeed. And it's. It's. There's. I've not seen much reporting on it yet because we are recording this literally minutes after.

[Haider Raza]

Yeah.

[Daisy Kent]

She shouted that he's killing Americans.

[Haider Raza]

Okay, that makes sense.

[Robert]

Okay. Yeah, yeah.

[Gia]

Which.

[Robert]

Accurate.

[Haider Raza]

Yeah, Which.

[Gia]

Which he is. I mean, that is. That is a solid. That is a solid retort when you're talking about the DHS shut down and standing up for American citizens.

[Daisy Kent]

Yes.

[Gia]

As American citizens are being gunned down by the dhs. That is a fine retort. Retort that was mirrored in the Democratic response, which we might talk about an executive disorder tomorrow.

[Robert]

Yeah.

[Gia]

He mentioned trans people kind of one time in the speech close to the middle. He, he talked about how a school socially transitioned someone without telling parents. This, this kid ran away from home and then a left wing judge refused to return the child home. And this, this person who was, who was at the time a trans, a trans guy was sent to a, an all boys state home, but is, is now a proud young woman with a scholarship to Liberty University.

[Robert]

Yeah.

[Gia]

And this woman who is part of this little performance did this like zoomer finger gesture bit.

[Robert]

Yeah.

[Daisy Kent]

The Hailey Bieber hand gesture.

[Robert]

Yeah.

[Daisy Kent]

I'm hip with the kids.

[Robert]

Yeah. I'm not. I don't know what you're talking about is annoying.

[Gia]

Like we need more normal D transitioners, but if you are, you just never. Are never going to show up to anything like this.

[Daisy Kent]

No.

[Robert]

Yeah, yeah, right. Yeah. Who wants to have the President of the United States talk about your transition?

[Gia]

You know what? When Joe Biden gets, gets elected again, I'll show up. I'll show up at the State of the Union.

[Daisy Kent]

Joe Biden gets elected. Did again.

[Haider Raza]

I think it could happen.

[Daisy Kent]

You know, stranger things have.

[Gia]

But, you know, Trump's line after this was, you know, talking about how there's all these transitions happening without telling parents and then, quote, we must ban it and we must ban it immediately.

[Daisy Kent]

Whatever.

[Gia]

And the trans stuff was, was all, was all in relation to minors transitioning without parental approval. That was Trump's framing for the entirety of the transition stuff. It wasn't expanded beyond that.

[Robert]

He did like go off script to be like, these people are crazy during that.

[Gia]

Yeah. When the Democrats didn't applaud for his trans comments, he did, he did start talking about how, you know, deranged the Democrats are.

[Haider Raza]

He said, shame on you and like got like a kind of a chant going almost.

[Gia]

There was a lot of shame stuff back and forth in this section. Same thing during the, like the stand up. If you believe that the role of the government is to protect American citizens,

[Haider Raza]

those were the most like out and out fascist moments of, of this whole thing.

[Robert]

Yes.

[Haider Raza]

Like that, in my opinion.

[Robert]

Yeah.

[Gia]

We got a Kirk moment after this trans thing. Talked about this renewal in Christianity among young people thanks to one Charlie Kirk who was martyred for his beliefs. Yeah, they, you know, trotted out Erica to do her like, stick that she's been perfecting for the past like six months.

[Daisy Kent]

Surprisingly no. Like fire or sparkers or like Anything.

[Gia]

It was. It was hard to recognize her without the fireworks. Then after this section, after the Charlie Kirk Christianity section, after the St. Kirk section ended, it really became a military pageant for. For the rest, it got very. Metal Gear Solid.

[Daisy Kent]

Correct.

[Robert]

For.

[Gia]

For the final. Final, you know, 45 minutes, where he brought up a whole bunch of people and gave. Gave the medals, as we've discussed, and then recounted the Maduro extraction.

[Robert]

Yeah.

[Gia]

In an extremely Metal Gear Solid style. He talked about, you know, the bombing, the Iranian nuclear facilities. He talked about bombing drug smugglers and remarked that we, quote, seriously damaged their fishing industry, unquote. Which is a little joke about how the people that they blew up might have just been fishermen, not actually drug smugglers.

[Haider Raza]

Well, and a joke about how, like, the fishing industry has collapsed because people are too scared to get murdered by the US to go fish. So they support their families. Yeah.

[Robert]

In addition to the fact they were already struggling to afford fuel for, like, I. I know Venezuelan fishermen, things weren't going great for them.

[Gia]

Talked about how Hamas had to dig through piles of hundreds of bodies to find some of the slain hostages to return them as a part of the negotiations between Trump, Hamas and Israel, and boasted that he had ended 10 wars. And Marco Rubio looked a little soulless.

[Robert]

Yeah.

[Haider Raza]

Marky Mark.

[Daisy Kent]

I took a little bit of a note on Marco Rubio because he said he will go down as the best ever Secretary of State. And it seemed like he was really throwing his Support towards Marco vs Vance tonight at the State of the Union.

[Gia]

No, because Vance is now in charge of the war on fraud. The totally real thing.

[Haider Raza]

Yeah, yeah.

[Gia]

That is happening, which Trump announced as J.D. vance's new role is to be in charge of the war on fraud.

[Haider Raza]

Great pick. J.D. vance, war fraud.

[Gia]

But do we. Do you want to talk a little bit more about this? Like, Metal Gear Solid? Hideo Kojima, military pageant finale to this speech.

[Haider Raza]

Yeah.

[Robert]

All I know about Hideo Kojima is he tweeted in support of the FTF and then deleted it. Sad.

[Gia]

Yeah, well, you live by the tweet, you die by the tweet.

[Robert]

A lot of this was kind of textbook fashy stuff, not to, like, you know, overly belabor the point, but the bringing out of the survivors and victims of crime, the parading of military heroes. Right. Like, you can just go to Robert Paxton's book, which I have just over there, but I'm not going to read from it right now.

[Gia]

Anatomy of Fascism.

[Robert]

Yes, the Anatomy of Fascism. And you can start checking off the list. And you see so much of it here. Right?

[Gia]

Yeah. I mean, a mix of, like, you know, war veterans, World War II. Trump tied a lot of this to 1776, the fact that the 250th anniversary of the United States is coming up.

[Robert]

Yep. And then the national betrayal and the scapegoat group and him being the renovation,

[Haider Raza]

like, we got it all, baby.

[Robert]

Yeah. His. His speech read like he looked at. Paxton has these motivating passions of fascism, and it looks like he kind of went down that as a checklist, as he was. As whoever wrote this was writing it. Right. Like, it has almost everything from that. The glorification of martial valor, like I said, the blaming of a scapegoat group. Like, I alone can bring this nation back to greatness. Yeah. Things that were not new.

[Gia]

Fort Bragg is back, James.

[Robert]

Yes, actually a different.

[Gia]

A different.

[Robert]

Different brag. Yeah. They found another guy called Bragg, which he didn't mention. They. The fought brag is back, but it's a different brag this time. And I'm sure it's just a coincidence. It's the same as the first.

[Gia]

But. No, Robert, I think you're totally right that, like, he started off by, you know, you have to address the economic stuff at the front because he ran on so much of it, but they want to get through that as quickly as possible. Then in order to try to coax this, like, you know, patriotic spirit, it devolves into this ceremony of, like, military greatness, of, like, returning to military greatness. Something that, like, was lost and now we have redone. You know, this was the most successful military operation in decades. I had foreign leaders calling me to congratulate me on it. He took down the Chinese and Russian defense systems. This guy's leg was ripped apart by bullets, but he still landed the chopper. Like, so much of it becomes about, you know, the heroic moments done by other people to kind of pad pad around the actual fractured state of Trump's. Of Trump's America.

[Haider Raza]

And waving the bloody shirt is a phrase you hear. Like, it is a phrase you hear associated with fascist movements. It's literally referring to, like, a thing that happened during the rise of the Nazis. Right. As a result of, like, the murders of some of their street fighters. But that's. I mean, like, he. He's doing very much a version of that here. Like, including the fact that while he was talking about this attack on Venezuela and the guy who got injured piloting the chopper, he spent, like, a lot of time talking about blood, like, sloshing around in the bottom of the. Of The. Of the flight deck.

[Robert]

The aisle.

[Gia]

The aisle or whatever, like the aisle of the Chinook. The blood was streaming down. So all of the. All the special in the back knew that the pilot was injured and that they were all at risk. Very bloody. Very, very bloody speech in general.

[Robert]

Yeah, A lot of blood mentions.

[Gia]

There's similarly. Like the Lake and Riley sections of his State of the Union address last year were very similar. And he. He was trying to, you know, play. Play the hits in terms of how much that stuff. That stuff played well among his base last year. He was trying to recreate that in a few moments when. When one of the instances you have is, you know, of someone who was socially transitioned who now isn't, and someone who. Who was injured in a car accident, you know, not a murder. Those are two of your instances. It's starting to get weakened a little bit. He tried to use the Kirk assassination. That's one of these instances. And then one. One instance of a stabbing. That was a murder. Those were the bloody shirts that he was waving, as well as the National Guard.

[Daisy Kent]

And Jared Kushner.

[Robert]

Oh, yeah, Kushner was out there.

[Daisy Kent]

Mention him by name, I think more than once. It's always a jump scare for me.

[Robert]

Yeah. He may have mentioned Kushner more than Vance.

[Gia]

Yes, definitely.

[Daisy Kent]

He barely mentioned JD Vance, which is very interesting.

[Robert]

Yeah.

[Daisy Kent]

Does anybody else have any thoughts?

[Haider Raza]

Nope.

[Daisy Kent]

It's over. I'm glad.

[Haider Raza]

Yeah. Let's be done with this.

[Daisy Kent]

Let's be done with this. That I. It was too long to begin with.

[Haider Raza]

I wish we were finished with this State of the Union as soon as Al Green was. There's a reference to him getting kicked out for the second year in a row.

[Robert]

Yeah, he's made it happen.

[Haider Raza]

I wonder if he, like, plans dinner for halfway through. We're like, worry I'm not going to be there long.

[Robert]

Like, I'm gonna.

[Haider Raza]

I'm gonna get out immediately. Don't worry, guys.

[Daisy Kent]

Why not? And, you know, if we decide there's more to talk about, we'll mention it on ed, but for now, that's all we got.

[Gia]

The Save America act he did mention, which we need to cover in depth very soon. And we will.

[Daisy Kent]

Yes, we will. But for now, bye. It could Happen. Here is a production of Cool Zone Music Media. For more podcasts from Cool Zone Media, Visit our website, coolzonemedia.com or check us out on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts you can now find sources for. It Could Happen here, listed directly in episode descriptions. Thanks for listening.

[Joe Winterstein]

This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.