It's Been 500 Days | Ep. 065 Lemonade Stand 🍋

Summary

Lemonade Stand 🍋 Ep. 065 – "It's Been 500 Days"

Date: June 3, 2026
Host: Vox Media Podcast Network
Panelists: Aiden, Atrioc (Michael), DougDoug (Brandon)

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Overview

In this milestone 500-day episode, Aiden, Michael (Atrioc), and Brandon (DougDoug) reflect on 500 days of Donald Trump’s second term, focusing primarily on the explosion of financial scandals, corruption, and business dealings within the Trump administration and his family. The discussion delves into the mechanisms, scale, and ripple effects of these scandals, comparative corruption in prior administrations, and the economic and geopolitical consequences witnessed during the term so far. The group also explores lighter stories regarding world business, societal shifts, and emerging market trends.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Opening and Setting the Scene (00:54–02:12)

• The trio opens with typical banter about podcast intros before quickly shifting into the day’s serious topic: Trump’s second-term financial scandals and corruption.

2. Trump’s “Anti-Weaponization” Slush Fund Scheme (04:52–17:40)

• Aiden explains the origins of the proposed $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization fund,” which started as Trump’s response/lawsuit against the IRS for leaked tax returns.
• The fund was a condition for dropping the lawsuit:
  • Trump’s admin proposed a fund for alleged “victims of government weaponization” (ostensibly January 6th participants/pro-Trump allies).
  • Controlled by Trump’s loyal Attorney General Todd Blanche and a handpicked board.
  • Brandon: “Trump is suing his own government … then agreeing to create a $1.8 billion fund to pay whoever the fuck he feels like.” (08:44)
  • Trump/family would also gain complete immunity from future IRS audits, shielding him from potential $100M+ in future tax liabilities.
• Takeaways:
  • Even some Republicans opposed the egregious conflict of interest.
  • Due to bipartisan pushback, the “slush fund” was dropped (15:16). However, the IRS audit immunity remains:
  • Michael: “Shockingly, that seems like the most important part to him.” (15:40)

3. Systemic Family Corruption: Trump’s Sons & Nepotism (20:01–32:52)

• Michael presents research on Don Jr. and Eric Trump making over a billion dollars in just 500 days.
  • Examples include fast-tracked Pentagon contracts (drones, rare earths) to Trump-family-tied companies, and a $2 billion UAE investment into the family’s stablecoin.
  • Key quote: Trump told NYT:
    • “In my first term, I prohibited them [his family] from doing business and I got no credit for it. I didn’t have to do that. And it’s really unfair to them.” (26:22)
  • Michael: “Nobody cared and I’m allowed to”–sums up the second term. (26:38)
• The group contrasts this scale with historical (Teapot Dome, Hunter Biden) and contemporary (Pelosi’s husband) corruption, finding Trump’s family eclipses all past records by orders of magnitude.

4. The Trump Coin Meme Coin Grift (37:04–44:27)

• Aiden spotlights “Trump Coin”—a meme coin launched just before inauguration:
  • Marketed directly by Trump, with perks for top investors (VIP events, White House access).
  • FT found $350M was netted by the Trump inner circle in 18 days.
  • Aiden: “It is the most indefensible money imaginable … a pump and dump coin we all know what it is.” (43:25)
• The group notes even ardent crypto or Trump fans have little to stand on, as the scam is naked and non-functional.

5. Attempting to Find Positives in 500 Days (44:27–52:19)

• Each panelist strains to identify any redeeming features from Trump’s second term:
  • Michael (sarcastically?) credits Trump with “accidentally killing crypto” for mainstream America by associating presidential power with meme coin grift. (45:15)
  • Noted elimination of the penny (46:17).
  • Brandon nods to a decline in the trade deficit and the “Trump accounts” for newborns – but even these are tainted by quid pro quo contracts and prior trends.

6. Broader Civil and Global Consequences, Concerns for Future (52:19–56:59)

• Aiden: Top worry is manipulation undermining elections and American democracy (53:57).
• Brandon: Cites erosion of international order, rising risk of global conflict, and increased nuclear armament as byproducts of Trump’s brand of chaos and transactional politics (55:16).
• Loss of global reputation is quantified—polls show America’s standing has plummeted below China’s for the first time, directly correlated to Trump’s second term. (56:20)

7. World Business, Geopolitics & Labor Trends

- Canada & Europe Diversify Defense Away from US (61:34–63:16)

• Canada partners with Sweden’s SAAB for military aircraft, moving away from historic US dependency—a direct result of recent American unpredictability.

- Samsung’s Profit Sharing Resentment (66:11–71:39)

• Chip division’s $350,000+ bonuses trigger intra-company and public resentment.
• Raises questions about fair distribution of windfall profits in a tech-boom era.
• Discussion on whether sovereign wealth funds or nationalization (a la Norway’s oil funds) could fix such disparities.

8. AI, Nationalization & Taxation: What To Do About Booming AI Profits? (71:39–80:45)

• Bernie Sanders’ floated bill: government taking 50% ownership of major AI companies (OpenAI, Anthropic).
• Panel is skeptical—uncertain about ideal methods (value-added tax vs. nationalization), wary of government picking winners in young industries.
• Concerns about economic efficiency, innovation, and the risks of taxing US models into uncompetitiveness versus cheap international alternatives.

9. Sports & Technology

- AI/Computer Vision in Sports Refereeing (81:46–88:35)

• Adam Silver, NBA Commissioner, proposes AI-assisted refereeing (like baseball’s “Hawkeye” system).
• Hosts approve, emphasizing increased fairness and the necessity of taming gambling-driven corruption.
• Michael: “Taking it out of their hands is … maybe the smart thing to do.” (87:06)

- Chinese Athletic Brands Go Global (88:35–94:30)

• Steph Curry signs $400M 10-year deal with Chinese brand Li Ning, reflecting surging Western adoption of leading Chinese shoes (often at better prices and comparable quality). Nike/Adidas market share threatened.
• Discussion touches on broader themes of East-West economic competition and consumer shifts.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Aiden on Trump’s IRS immunity:
  • “He would owe over $100 million in additional taxes … If this provision is to hold, then he would not owe that amount even if the audit were to uncover that he had done something.” (13:00)
• Michael on norm-breaking:
  • “One of the most impactful things of his second term is how many things relied on just everyone kind of following a norm … If he just ignores them.” (17:49)
• Michael on financial explosion:
  • “Don Jr. Was doing cameos for $500 bucks … now he’s on the Forbes list of billionaires, largely through abusing the connections through his father.” (20:38)
• Trump NYT quote:
  • “Nobody cared and I’m allowed to.” (26:38)
• Brandon on historical comparison:
  • “Teapot Dome in 1922 … $9 million in today’s dollars [in bribes]. … They are eclipsing that by like a thousand.” (29:14)
• Aiden on Trump Coin:
  • “It’s … the most indefensible money imaginable … a pump and dump coin that we all know what it is and he made a bunch of money on it.” (43:25)
• Michael on accidental positives:
  • “He has kind of put a bullet in the entire crypto meme dream.” (45:15)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

| Time | Segment | |-------------|----------------------------------------------| | 00:54–02:12 | Banter and episode setup | | 04:52–17:40 | Trump’s anti-weaponization fund scandal | | 20:01–32:52 | Trump family’s unprecedented profiteering | | 37:04–44:27 | Trump Coin and meme-coin grifting | | 44:27–52:19 | Searching for silver linings | | 52:19–56:59 | Broader societal and global consequences | | 61:34–63:16 | Canada–Sweden defense pivot | | 66:11–71:39 | Samsung labor conflict and fairness | | 71:39–80:45 | Sovereign wealth funds & AI nationalization | | 81:46–88:35 | AI refereeing in sports | | 88:35–94:30 | Chinese athletic brands on the rise |

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Tone & Flow

The episode retains the hosts’ signature irreverent, sharp, and highly informed conversational style. They mix in dark humor, historical context, personal anecdotes, and genuine analysis. While exasperated and at times deeply cynical about current events, the trio strives to keep the atmosphere approachable rather than bleak, always looping back to business and societal mechanics using their “lemonade stand” metaphor.

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Final Thoughts

The episode serves as a sweeping, witty, and deeply researched snapshot of the state of Trump’s second presidency: a period marked by aggressive self-dealing, norm-smashing, and accelerating inequality both at home and abroad. Through humor and clear-eyed comparisons, the panelists offer a trenchant critique of American political and economic rot—punctuated by the constant search for a silver lining and the hope that public scrutiny (and perhaps new coalitions) might begin to halt the slide.

For more: The trio teases extra content and travel goals for their Patreon audience and keeps the conversation rolling into diverse contemporary news stories, providing a well-rounded yet incisive summary of this historic “500 days” mark.

Transcript

[Aiden]

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[Michael]

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[Michael]

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[Brandon]

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[Michael]

Okay, ladies and gentlemen, I want you in on some little inside baseball for the podcast. Right before we start, we often go, who's got an intro? You know, just to get a little joke off the ground. We look around, we do, who's got an intro? And then Aiden, for the past like six weeks in a row, gets a little glimmer in his eyes and gets a little smile. He goes, I've got one. And then every time it's like some fucking joke at my expense. It's like some my address or some shit about me that leads to a lot of comments. So I said, I've got one. I don't have one, but I'm taking his slot. I'm taking your slot. So now the intro is almost over. We've already got the intro part.

[Brandon]

I mean, you're used to taking up a lot of space in this podcast.

[Michael]

Yeah, I forgot that I'm fat too. That's another thing that's been going around from this podcast. You have two podcasts that fill a lot of their time.

[Aiden]

Fill almost as much as we were

[Brandon]

supposed to, you know, bearing fat guy.

[Michael]

We were supposed to make fun of him. That was the point. We must do the yard thing.

[Aiden]

You guys said early on, I believe this is the first episode. This is a safe space for me.

[Michael]

I. Yeah, but it's turned into an unsafe space for me.

[Brandon]

Are you proud of the jobs that you create through these jokes? Do you know how many people work at the yard?

[Michael]

I assume you're paying full time commenters because they're doing it. There's a lot of jobs in that. But we have a more serious discussion today. So we have no time for Aiden's tomfoolery.

[Brandon]

No, it has been Losing weight. Donald Trump.

[Michael]

You think he's been losing weight? We're to find out, because, ladies and gentlemen, it has been 500 days of Donald Trump son's mustache. This is an earlier Prop. We are 500 days in as of the uploading time of this episode. It really went by, I mean, not in a good way, but it just kind of 500 flies when you're having fun, you're enjoying every minute of it. It's been 500 days of Trump term two. And given that that is a pretty significant milestone, we thought we'd take a look at some interesting aspects of that 500 days. We were discussing how to tackle this off pod because there really is a million ways you could take this, and a whole hell of a lot has happened, many of which we covered on this podcast. And we decided that one area of the Trump term that is worth further reporting is the financial scandals, which I feel like people's eyes sometimes glaze. It's hard to, like, get into the weeds of it and make it interesting. So we each.

[Brandon]

That's why we're doing a full episode on Hunter's laptop.

[Aiden]

Yes. We gotta start at the beginning, you know what I mean?

[Brandon]

And then the Patreon series. Patreon's all about Hillary's emails.

[Michael]

We're gonna do Hunter, Hillary, Pelosi, and then maybe we'll get the Trump out of it. No, we wanted to go into that and talk about some of the stories that kind of, you know, every day there's a new story with Trump, and so it kind of flies by. And so we each kind of went in our own directions and tackled a story we thought was interesting with regards to financial crime.

[Brandon]

Some of us even did the same story specifically. I said I was gonna do a different thing, and I literally read an article that was talking about Aiden's story, and I. Really interesting. I'm going to look at that. I just forgot to say it. So. Yeah, I'll back you up, big man.

[Aiden]

Well, we got a couple things. At least. I do think the financial corruption in the second term specifically has been.

[Michael]

It is the weak spice of the second term that's, like, way more juiced up.

[Aiden]

Yeah. I think it's weird to see how much more prevalent it is. And I think because the headlines go by, you see these huge numbers, you see tweets without an explanation behind them. You have this vague idea that, oh, Trump, Trump's family making millions, billions of dollars while he's in power right now, but not really having an idea of where that's coming from.

[Michael]

Yeah. And how corrupt it really is. And are they just successful or what? You know what? But I think when you look into the details on a lot of this stuff, it starts to paint a pretty uncomfortable picture. And then, by the way, we're going to talk about all that. We're doing 500 days. We're going to a little bit of recap of these stories. We're going to talk about is there anything in the 500 days that we liked? And then we're going to talk about, you know, what we expect to see in the future. So I don't know if you want to start. Aiden, you have a, you had a topic that I think was pretty interesting.

[Aiden]

Yeah. Okay. This is probably the most recent thing going on, the anti weapon weaponization fund. You may have heard about.

[Michael]

Is this the IRS thing or what?

[Aiden]

So I actually thought, I actually thought the Daily did a good background summary on this from a couple of weeks ago. And I'm going to yoink from them.

[Michael]

Well, there's always no lemonade stand. So let's, first of all, let's get that straight.

[Aiden]

Michael can never do what I do,

[Michael]

which is call me fat.

[Aiden]

He would never. And that's his biggest weakness. If you think about it, I think there is this recent talk of this $1.8 billion slush fund. And where that actually begins is during Trump's first term, there was a leak of his tax returns. So he didn't want to release them, which was like unprecedented at the time. Bunch of people talking about it. And then someone who had an in at the IRS leaked Trump's tax returns, among other high profile.

[Michael]

I remember during the election, it was like a big contentious point. Hillary released hers and he didn't release his. And then he said, don't worry, I'll release mine once some stuff gets sorted out. But then he just never did it. So when the leak came out, I was like, oh, yeah.

[Aiden]

And then he, in reaction to that leak. And he wasn't the only one who was leaked.

[Brandon]

It's worth saying the guy who leaked it was an IRS contractor whose name sounds like he's a spy in Game of Thrones. His name is Charles Littlejohn.

[Michael]

Sounds like a rat right there.

[Aiden]

What came right out of Sherwood Forest with those tax returns, bro. Yeah.

[Brandon]

He took tax returns from thousands of like the wealthiest Americans and then leaked them. Yeah.

[Aiden]

And then Bill Gates, I think Jeff Bezos.

[Michael]

Yeah.

[Brandon]

Griffin from Citadel. And he's in prison. Like, he pleaded guilty at 23. This is like a big crime it's like, to be clear, it's like, it is a big deal that he did that, even though most of us are like, oh, that's cool. Yeah, let's check this out.

[Michael]

I mean, for us, it's like dub. We get more information for them. It's a pain.

[Aiden]

And I think with that, Trump wanted to sue the IRS for damages, and this suit was going to move. He'd been trying to move the suit forward for a while, but the issue is now, because he's trying to do this and he has control over the Department of Justice. There's a conflict of interest there that the judge clearly sees. So there's a base of every lawsuit that you actually have to be in conflict with the other party in order to sue them.

[Michael]

Sure.

[Aiden]

There has to be an actual disagreement. I can't just sue my homie to, like, for fun, if we get along. And so the judge is. Is about to throw out this lawsuit unless someone comes forward at the DOJ and speaks out against why Trump is in the wrong. But nobody at the DOJ wants to do that at a time when he was particularly vengeful against people who speak out against him. So no one is willing to be the adversary of the DOJ for this lawsuit to actually take place. Okay, so the Trump administration's approach proposal in is like, we'll drop the lawsuit, but in exchange, let's create this $1.776 billion fund. That's 1776 for those of you point

[Brandon]

out an eagle screech.

[Aiden]

Right now, we're gonna make this anti weaponization fund in exchange that allows people to make claims to the DOJ that they were weaponized against by the government and need to be paid out some sort of reparations for that. And this immediately comes under scrutiny because

[Michael]

can this go to himself?

[Aiden]

So, no, no, he cannot pay out himself or his family directly from that fund being created.

[Michael]

Okay.

[Brandon]

But all of this is arbitrary. To be clear, Trump is suing his own government, who's then agreeing to create a $1.8 billion to. To pay whoever the fuck he feels like. All of this is just arbitrary, right?

[Aiden]

Yeah. And he. He. Todd. Todd Blanche, formerly Trump's personal lawyer, who is the Attorney General, now is the person sort of in charge of the fund. Technically, he would appoint five people of his choosing to choose who the fund gets paid out to. And the immediate attention that's brought to this is that people who were, like, victims of the Biden administration, like those people who were were prosecuted for January 6, would be able to make applications for payouts out of this fund for, you know, thousands, you know, or maybe millions of dollars. What, Whatever. Right.

[Michael]

And so it's, it's essentially a slush fund that Trump can tell Todd Blanche to deliver to whoever he wishes.

[Aiden]

Well, if you ask Todd Blanch that, he would tell you no. And he was, Would he give an

[Michael]

exaggerated wink when he does it or what?

[Aiden]

There's a little shiny tooth in his mouth. He, he, the defense. Okay, there's, there's one other important caveat that's tacked onto this as well, is that also as a stipulation of the lawsuit being dropped in this fund being created, Trump.

[Michael]

I'm supposed to believe that if Donald Trump says, hey, Todd, pay this guy out from the slush fund, Todd Blanche is going to go, no, sir, that is beyond my purview. No, I'm sorry. The sanctity of the law is too paramount.

[Aiden]

That's not really Todd's defense. Actually, Todd's defense is more along the lines of asks me to pay out a Democrat, I'd pay them out too.

[Brandon]

Okay, I have a question. Okay, so Trump sued. Trump sued his own government, the irs. Because, because his taxes got leaked by the irs. What's five years earlier? Six years earlier. And so he's suing for the damages because his tax returns got leaked?

[Aiden]

Yes.

[Brandon]

What the fuck does a anti weaponization fund have to do with the lawsuit about his IRS documents being leaked? I don't get it.

[Aiden]

Okay, so it, why is he dropping

[Brandon]

the suit in agreement for this thing, which has absolutely nothing to do with his lawsuit.

[Michael]

Why is he, why is the damages of your tax returns being leaked, which seemingly are no damages at all. You're still president.

[Brandon]

No, okay.

[Aiden]

No.

[Brandon]

The reason he says it's so he sued for 10 billion. The reason is because he's saying that every single publication that reported his tax returns was an additional like offense.

[Michael]

That's another billion on the pocket.

[Brandon]

Right, Right. So it's not just that it got leaked to the New York Times, it's that every single other publication who reported on that story increased it, and that's why it's worth 10 billion, but now it's suddenly not worth that for some reason. Todd, Todd. Why, why, why does this make, why does this make Trump's lawsuit against the IRS now?

[Aiden]

Okay, okay, so Todd would tell you that this fund is available to anybody.

[Michael]

It's. I can apply.

[Aiden]

It's for the good of the American people. A trio could apply. Well, he's a bad example. Hunter there on January six And I was there on january sixth.

[Michael]

And so that way I can apply.

[Brandon]

I was persecuted, literally is going to be for January.

[Aiden]

You're good, I guess weaponized by the government in any capacity, regardless of your political affiliation or actions. You could make an application to this fund to receive a payout from it. So I, and he's saying it's like there's nothing exclusive about this fund to like help out January 6th protesters who were convicted. But there is no direct like line that I can see between the original IRS lawsuit and this. Except one of the additional stipulations is that not only did Trump want this fund to exist, but he also wants complete immunity from future auditing of the IRS and his family as well. So that's the big, that's the other big chunk to this is that even if the IRS finds him at fault in an audit in the future, he will owe nothing.

[Michael]

Yeah. So it's like his businesses, his family and himself are immune from any tax related investigation in perpetuity.

[Aiden]

And he has been audited in the past. Like the, I think the New York Times reported in the past that if the alleged concerns with his taxes in previous years come to fruition and these audits come to come through, he could owe over $100 million in additional taxes.

[Michael]

We don't want that.

[Aiden]

And if this, you know, provision is to hold in the future, then he would not owe that amount even if the audit were too uncover that he had done something.

[Michael]

That's just smart forward tax planning.

[Brandon]

Well, here's, I mean, here's another way of putting this. We've saved almost $8.2 billion because Trump graciously dropped the lawsuit.

[Michael]

That's right.

[Brandon]

We're only having to pay 1770.

[Michael]

The government should have to pay out $10 billion of taxpayer money to a much bigger slush fund. Oh, he leaked the tax returns, which he accepted. That's actually a really nice.

[Brandon]

And Hillary's email, I mean about it.

[Aiden]

There's already a conflict of interest in the initial idea of the lawsuit.

[Michael]

Of course.

[Aiden]

Right.

[Brandon]

Question is this surely the money that this is all going to come somebody else's money. Right. It's not like taxpayers.

[Aiden]

It's actually Japanese taxpayers money.

[Michael]

Thank God.

[Brandon]

Because I was going to say I don't really want to pay for this.

[Aiden]

I think there's a huge overblown part where everybody's like, what if my tax money or debt we take out of the Japanese treasury Actually all in the

[Michael]

Japanese actually they don't even know.

[Aiden]

They're none the wiser. It's weird. It's really underreported. I did dig super deep for it. Okay, the big, big update is that today, yeah, there was already pushback for this, not just among Democrats, but among Republicans. They were trying to move forward a new immigration spending bill. And as a way of, like, pushing back against this, some Republicans were, like, threatening to drop their support from pushing forward that bill. And because of the collective negative reaction even on that side of the aisle to this, this slush fund, it got dropped today. Todd Blanche told Congress in like a hearing that they're not going to move forward with this anymore.

[Michael]

There's no slush fund.

[Aiden]

The slush fund is, is, is axed.

[Brandon]

Trump saves us another 1.7 billion, baby.

[Michael]

He can't stop winning.

[Aiden]

And they can't move forward with the original lawsuit either. However, the stipulation that he has complete immunity from future IRS audits and the damage or like the missing tax money that he would have to pay, that one's sticking around.

[Michael]

Shockingly, that seems like the most important part to him.

[Brandon]

We got a pretty good deal.

[Michael]

As the government investigated for two years,

[Brandon]

the Trump appointed lawyers defending the government from Trump did a pretty good job. I think here.

[Aiden]

I think there was a. The weird thing to me, I was a little confused at first because I, I did think I was like, doesn't the DOJ like not to say that this isn't corrupt or a conflict of interest, but why do you even need this fund? Like, doesn't the DOJ already have the capacity to settle suits against for people that are suing the government? They already have money to pay people that sue the federal government.

[Michael]

Yeah, but I think it was just for Trump to be able to give it to allies and friends and hang it over as a. Yeah, as far

[Aiden]

as I can understand, the difference here with this fund was that I wouldn't have to sue you to get the money. I wouldn't have to go through this huge legal process. I would just apply. And then if the board of five people that are picked by Todd Blanche, that was picked by Trump, picked me, then I could get money from this fund.

[Michael]

You know what's crazy is at the end of it all, I remember looking at the tax insurance. He doesn't pay a lot of taxes. Like, he's notoriously pays very low taxes.

[Brandon]

He paid 0 in 10 of the last 15 years.

[Michael]

When it was leaked, that was the leak because.

[Brandon]

Because he lost money, or at least on paper, lost money.

[Aiden]

I know, I know there's an actual answer to that. But, like, I still ask myself, like, how. When you hear that about, like, Jeff Bezos or Trump, how I pay. I pay a lot. I pay a lot.

[Michael]

Yeah.

[Aiden]

And they don't pay anything.

[Michael]

Yeah. With Jeff Bezos, incredible. I mean, the way they do it where they borrow against their. Their stock sales, they're always in debt,

[Aiden]

and I don't got it like that.

[Michael]

You need to borrow against mogul moves.

[Aiden]

As soon as I escape the gravity of lemonade stand, I will also be abusing American tax law. Don't say gravity. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding.

[Michael]

Okay. Can I talk about one? Or wait, is that.

[Aiden]

No, that's basically it. So, like, the slush fund canned officially as of today. The stipulation of immunity ongoing still.

[Michael]

And I guess one thing I'll say is, like, the precedent Trump has set is that the previous rules and norms when you go into office don't matter. So I don't know how he puts so much stock in this piece of paper that says I can never be investigated by the. Like, if he loses power, theoretically, someone can run the same playbook he does to dismantle that. I'm not it all. You know, one of the greatest things of his second. Not the greatest in a good way, but, like, the most impactful of his second term is how many things relied on just everyone kind of following a norm or agreeing to, like, he. If he just ignores them.

[Brandon]

What do I mean? What do you mean?

[Michael]

I guess what I'm saying is like, he. He has been able to do a lot of things that it's like airbud rules. You know what I'm saying? No one ever said you couldn't.

[Brandon]

It's just like, I'm just gonna throw some stuff out there.

[Michael]

Yeah. I'm just gonna do things.

[Brandon]

Also, to be clear, it's not just Airbud rules. It's like he releases 300 dogs onto the court at once. Yeah. There's so many dogs. They're trying to figure out rules for each one of these dogs, dude.

[Aiden]

I think think it's that. But also, sometimes some of the rule books do explicitly say, you can't let the dog out. And he's like, ah, fucking letting him.

[Michael]

But that's the thing.

[Brandon]

He's letting so many dogs at the same time.

[Aiden]

Too many dogs.

[Brandon]

And there's cats. Like, there's just shit going into the gymnasium all the time. So even when they catch one of the dogs and they're like, look, here's a piece of paper that says you can't be here, there's, like, 20 more dogs already.

[Aiden]

When Steve Bannon said flood the zone, he also meant in Airbus.

[Michael]

I think that's where he got it.

[Brandon]

Yo, speaking of Trump's dogs, let's talk about his kids.

[Michael]

Oh, it's about his kids. Okay. They said these are his dogs, though he didn't go to his son's weddings, so not that close of a dog.

[Brandon]

I guess it's. As this is being pulled up, this slush fund thing that we talked about is notable in that one. It's one of the most just insanely egregious forms of conflict of interest ever. But also of the stories I believe that we're going to talk about, this is the only one where there's been some kind of reckoning where, like, the Republican senators were willing to push back against Trump and say, this is too far.

[Michael]

Well, that's what it requires. Like, any. Any of these. If you talk about the only way to stop it currently, with the way things are set up and the way they have the votes, is to have Republicans flip. And so they did on this one, or at least threatened to.

[Brandon]

So that's, like. That's mildly encouraging.

[Michael]

That's.

[Brandon]

That's one win. And now let's hit you with, like, six fails.

[Michael]

No, no, no, no. I. I like. I mean, I see what you're saying. I do think that as his polling drops and people feel more emboldened to take a stand here and there, it does put a limiter on him in a way he didn't have before. The reason I picked this topic, which is Trump's family, is because, thinking back on the last 500 days, obviously there are many things that everyone, or almost everyone's upset about that I could talk about. But this is the area where I feel like I'm. I'm asymptotically more angry than other people. His family somehow makes me want. It feels. I think the nepo. Ness of it or the corruption of it bothers me. So I wanted to look into specifically his two sons, Don Jr. And Eric. And. And when you look at how their net worth and financial situation has changed in just 500 days, it is unprecedented in any presidential family history. They have gone from being moderately wealthy, you know, millionaires, to near billionaires. Combined, they're over a billion. And so in, again, 500 days and Reagan in 2021, after January 6th, Don Jr. Was doing cameos for 500 bucks. And now he is on the Forbes list of billionaires, largely through abusing the connections that he has through his father. And there's many ways I can go through this. I mean, you know, people have talked about they've made massive investments in drone companies, which then the Pentagon buys a bunch of drones from their companies. They make a bunch of money. We talk about World Liberty Financial, which is the single largest financial aspect of this, which is that they own or are heavy investors in a stablecoin called USD1. And it wasn't doing that well. It wasn't a very successful stablecoin company compared to the other stablecoin examples. And then the UAE mysteriously put $2 billion into World Liberty Financial. And then two weeks later they get a clearance to buy chips they weren't allowed to buy before. And it was like just a weird coincidence that they just happened to pick this stablecoin and then happened to get this huge release they wouldn't have before, which again was blocked because there was a chance they might sell those chips to the Chinese, which there's reports they are doing that's happened. So like it's a, you know, there's a clear systemic corruption there. But I picked, I picked. By the way, this is a good, this is a good piece of reporting. I just want to point out that people analyzed the UAE deal to try and find out is there any reason they would have made this. And there really is no financial reason, which under. It's like similar to like, it reminds me of, you guys know the Kawhi Leonard aspiration fake tree. It's like, oh yeah, you can't find any reason they're going to pay Kwei learn this much money to plant trees. And so obviously there's another reason for it. And I think this is what attracts to that. But I wanted to go into a more recent example. This just happened. This is Vulcan Elements. And this kind of, I think this story crystallizes what's happening over and over and over again this first 500 days. So Vulcan Elements is a company that refines rare earth metals in America. Now we've done episodes before about how important that is because China controls the whole rare earth supply chain. And everyone's like, fuck, we have to get out from under their thumb on this. You know, magnets and jets and everything goes through China. And so Vulcan Elements is one of the hundreds of companies that have popped up to try and help fill this demand because there's a lot of urgency. And Vulcan Elements recently won a massive Pentagon deal. Okay, they got a huge amount they multiple millions of dollars and they can finally expand. And when you look into how Vulcan Elements Got chosen over hundreds of other companies. It comes back to this guy, Peter Navarro. They gave him a $620 million loan and a contract to buy what they make. So they basically funded the company and gave it a client, which is like instant success. And it was only founded two years ago. Of the dozens of companies the Pentagon was considering funding, Vulcan was the only one initiated by a top aide to the president. Who was that top aide? It was a guy named Peter Navarro. Peter Navarro, seen here on Triggered Don Jr's podcast, talking about how he's my boy, my good friend, okay? These guys are close friends. Peter Navarro was an advisor to the president who constantly mentions rare earth metals. I think I have a clip from Triggered.

[Aiden]

What a. What a banger name, huh?

[Michael]

China has revealed itself with this rare earth issue as a country which is using the weaponization of their manufacturing looks really interested their supply chains to exert pressure not just on the United States, but to every other country. So look, Peter Navarro rants about it on here. They're talking about it. Then all of a sudden, of the hundreds of companies, the one that Don Jr. Is heavily, heavily invested in suddenly is fast tracked through the Pentagon. Now you can talk to. Let's see if we can get the insiders here. They say that he had no involvement in the records of the deal. But look, Peter Navarro comes in and asks them to move at an unusually rapid pace. The staff worked late nights and with little sleep to get the loan through in a matter of weeks. The call came from the White House. We have to get this done. So this one company gets forced through, and all of a sudden it's generationally more valuable than it was before. And Don Jr. Owns a massive percentage of it, making him more fabulously wealthy overnight. And you can find examples like this over and over again with drones, with rare earth, with. With crypto, with any sort of tech where the government's big pot of money is spent on something that's strategically important, it goes to a company that Don Jr. Or Eric has invested in before it happens. So following the trail here, it's like they can say, no, this is not. Not part of the process every time. But when it happens again and again, it seems like there has to be a connection. And so I ended with this quote. On January 8th of this year, the New York Times interviewed Trump and they asked him why so many more of his family members are involved financially in White House and government and Pentagon dealings in his second term than in his first term. And he said in his first term he found out that nobody cared and I'm allowed to. I prohibited them from doing business in my first term and I got no credit for it. I didn't have to do that. And it's really unfair to them.

[Brandon]

It's really unfair to his family.

[Michael]

It's unfair to his family that they can't get involved in all these deals of government money. And now since nobody cared, he can do it.

[Aiden]

Dude, I was literally hoping you'd pull this girl out. So awesome.

[Michael]

It is kind of fucking wild. That just sums up nobody cared. And I'm allowed to Is like this sentence that describes the second term more than anything else to me.

[Aiden]

Okay, here's my beef, right?

[Michael]

What's your beef?

[Aiden]

You. It's like we, we get uptight about this and I understand why somebody might be upset, but I feel like the, the animosity towards this type of corruption is so one sided. Like in 2015, Malia Obama was selling F35s back to the government and nobody

[Michael]

said a word in the schoolyard.

[Aiden]

In the school.

[Michael]

Yeah.

[Aiden]

And it's so, it's like, do we pick and choose?

[Michael]

That's true.

[Aiden]

Who to blame?

[Michael]

No. It's funny. So on a more real level of your example, you actually sent me a great graph on this. People have talked about the Hunter Biden laptop scandal and, and his dealings in Europe using his connections with his family. And there is some shadiness there and it's worth looking into, but when you add it all up, it's in the tens of millions, I think, I don't remember.

[Aiden]

It wasn't even 10 million. It was like five. It was like five. Five.

[Brandon]

It's 20, I guess. 20. Well, so let me rephrase that.

[Aiden]

Sorry.

[Brandon]

With the Hunter. Okay, so with the Hunter Biden thing, the House Republicans like made this big argument against him, right? And they're like, we think Hunter Biden was basically getting all these business dealings because his dad was vice president. And maybe Joe Biden was aware of this and was giving favors in return, but that part's unconfirmed. And it was basically he was getting like $50,000 a month being on some random boards. And their accusation is he made over $20 million from foreign business deals. So at, at the worst from the Republican argument is Hunter Biden made $20 million and Joe Biden might have been a part of it, but we have no proof.

[Michael]

Yeah, absolutely. And so from the graph you showed,

[Brandon]

just Trump coin alone scammed our poor friend Ludwig out of 97% of his money. They made hundreds of millions of dollars Just from rugby people off of that, I think it was, each was like hundreds of millions. But that's like, okay, the other, the other thing I looked into, just because we're talking, we're talking about comparisons. I'm like, what is another comparison? Do you guys, I get angry just thinking about it. My, my, my ass tote is also like what you said. Ok. The Teapot Dome scandal, you remember that shit?

[Michael]

No.

[Brandon]

God, that fucking sucked. In 1922, you remember how Interior Secretary Albert F. Fall gave land oil rights to private companies without competitive bidding in exchange for bribes that fought.

[Michael]

Yeah, I remember that.

[Aiden]

I was pissed off.

[Brandon]

I was pissed that I'm pissed now.

[Aiden]

I don't remember that.

[Michael]

Teapot Dome.

[Aiden]

I'm young and energetic and I have a whole life ahead of me.

[Michael]

I had just turned 45 and I was like, this Teapot Dome thing is pissing me off.

[Brandon]

I remember the tower's fallen. I remember Albert Fall making, and to be clear, the total gifts and bribes he got was about $9 million in today's dollars. And that is quote, regarded as one of the greatest and most sensational scandals in the history of American politics. That's like a historian, Robert Cherney. So in this is one of the biggest scandals ever and it's in 1922 and it's $9 million in today's money of bribes for a private company. Yeah, they are eclipsing that by like a thousand.

[Michael]

No.

[Brandon]

So I guess about 500 was all

[Michael]

of Hunter Biden's plotted. And then they were like, okay, let's go bigger. Let's go. Nancy Pelosi's husband, which is considered to be. He has probably some insider access.

[Brandon]

Yeah.

[Michael]

And so they took everything he's made. Let's assume every single trade he's ever done is corrupt since 1974 or whatever. Every trade is life. Okay, so that was, that was like, I don't know, 80 million. Whatever it was, it was, it was a much bigger number than the Biden, the Hunter Biden number. And then they plotted what the Trump family has made off of crypto and these dealings in this one year. And you couldn't see them on the graph anymore. It was such a tiny sliver. I mean, a billion versus a million is so astronomically bigger. I think the example, the amount they've made in these 500 days is greater than the profit of two times greater than the profit of Starbucks in the same time. I mean, it's going to like four or five people who are in his family. It's an astronomical Level of difference, and it's coming so fast.

[Brandon]

I have a counter argument. Maybe they're just better than us.

[Michael]

Maybe they're just.

[Brandon]

They're very talented businessmen.

[Michael]

You know what? I'll give you that. Maybe they're the greatest business of all time. Why are they so much greater when he's in office? Why are they seemingly bad at being great businessmen when he's not in office? And then they suddenly just hit their fucking stride right when he gets into power? That's the weird part.

[Aiden]

Late bloomers.

[Michael]

Well, because.

[Aiden]

And this is. They weren't swagging out in the first term.

[Michael]

Maybe their dad inspired them. You know what I'm saying? It's like, Dad's working hard.

[Aiden]

Dad works so hard.

[Michael]

I need to work hard.

[Aiden]

He's so old and he works so hard.

[Brandon]

Still, success isn't linear. We a lot of books about this.

[Michael]

You got to work hard, and then

[Brandon]

suddenly you see you succeed.

[Michael]

Yeah, maybe you're right.

[Aiden]

Okay.

[Michael]

Maybe I'm like.

[Brandon]

When my YouTube channel went from like 500 views a video to 500,000 in one week, it's like it blew up early 2019.

[Michael]

That was when your father ran YouTube, right? Yeah.

[Brandon]

Those are coincidences. And I worked really hard.

[Michael]

Worked really hard.

[Brandon]

But also Hillary's emails.

[Michael]

Hillary's emails.

[Brandon]

Let's move on.

[Michael]

No, well, let's never move on from that, because that's the biggest scandal of all time.

[Aiden]

Do you have more here?

[Michael]

No, that was basically. I mean, you know, broadly, I think his kids are very openly and nakedly abusing their access to the president to make a lot of money. And that's frustrating.

[Aiden]

Okay.

[Michael]

I think it's almost more frustrating than Trump to me. I don't know why.

[Aiden]

I'm not that. There's. Not that I think this is necessarily defensible, but I do. There's, like, something more vague about these. There's more ambiguity in investing in a company that is, like, producing an output or a service that the government is using to accomplish something. Not saying there's nothing wrong.

[Michael]

No. I just want to push back a little bit in that it's like all of the companies they're investing in are companies that only make their money from government contracts. Like, they're like, thriving businesses that then do a government deal. It's like they're getting the funding to build the factories that don't exist yet, and then they're getting purchase orders from the government. So it's. It's kind of a direct transfer of taxpayer money to them using strategic goals like rare Earths and drones, which are important. But are these really the best companies for those jobs, or are they the ones most connected to Trump's?

[Aiden]

I would say almost certainly not, but

[Brandon]

this episode of Lemonade Stand is sponsored by Anthropic. Now, we've all been using this for a while. There's lots of different uses of Anthropic, but right now, I think one of the most interesting ones is Claude Code, which is either a standalone app or you can use it within Claude AI. And this is incredibly helpful for building little applications that you can use for whatever you want, even aside from the more, like, professional element that many people are using it for. We have examples just with us three. A couple weeks ago for this show, I used Claude to put together a little custom country website. You did something, or was it you?

[Michael]

It was me.

[Brandon]

You did something.

[Michael]

One of my friends, Hera, is a professional gamer who's a young man. He's in his 20s. He doesn't know anything other than playing Age of Empires for the last, last 20 years of his life. He's about as old as the game is. And he put together a streamer tournament and made a website that tracks everyone's viewership and their rating and their data. And he did that with Claude. And like, he absolutely could not have done that. Two years ago. It was. And he put it together. It was pretty cool.

[Aiden]

I use it to practice the podcast. I. I have Claude pretend to be two other people that like me.

[Brandon]

That explains why you're never prepped. That's why. For problems worth solving, get started with Claude today at Claude AI/Lemonade. That's Claude AI/Lemonade. And check out Claude Pro, which includes access to all the features mentioned in today's episode.

[Aiden]

Claude AI slash Lemonade. I'll put the podcast out if you guys want to listen to it.

[Michael]

Don't encourage him, Claude or viewers.

[Brandon]

Today's episode is sponsored by fora, a travel agency built for people who love to plan travel and help others plan as well.

[Aiden]

Doug, say you were the one planning a trip for us. We all got to go somewhere.

[Brandon]

Yeah.

[Aiden]

Who would be the hardest one to make plans for?

[Brandon]

It takes a little while to think

[Aiden]

who would make the most assistance.

[Brandon]

And for audio listeners, there was a dramatic squeak of my chair as it turned inward towards a certain person.

[Michael]

It could be any one of us. Any one of us. It could be any one of us.

[Aiden]

It could be.

[Michael]

We have all our own unique quirks

[Aiden]

and say, Doug, if you wanted to put your travel planning experience to the test, perhaps get better at it. Perhaps offer it as a service to people like Brandon who can't help themselves.

[Brandon]

This is true.

[Michael]

You can afford travel final boss of becoming a travel agent.

[Brandon]

Yeah. Brandon will be on the test.

[Aiden]

Well, you can become a for advisor today at for travel.com lemonade. That's what do you do your clients

[Michael]

stuck at a train station.

[Aiden]

He's driving travel.com lemonade. And make sure you tell them that we sent you for travel.com lemonade to help your friend who only knows how to buy a basketball but not a train ticket, plan his trip.

[Brandon]

You're saying I could make a job out of dragging him places? That's today's episode is brought to you by True work.

[Aiden]

I've been wearing my true work pants. I just went camping.

[Michael]

You can't. You can't wear them because you're not tough enough. People like me. I know you guys. Look at me.

[Brandon]

Are you wearing your true work pants?

[Michael]

Not currently. I. Wait.

[Brandon]

I'm the toughest one here wearing them right now. Chat. Anyways. Continue.

[Aiden]

I was gonna say I went camping in mine and they were great.

[Michael]

You didn't go.

[Aiden]

I had to. Yeah.

[Michael]

I had to play counter strike in your room.

[Aiden]

You stay at home all the time.

[Michael]

We're out there.

[Brandon]

I was working fields.

[Michael]

We were working in the farm. And we were our true workers. We're tough guys.

[Aiden]

You can wear them outside. You can work. Work anywhere with them at least.

[Michael]

Listen, the work doesn't stop, Aiden, because the weather changes.

[Brandon]

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[Michael]

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[Aiden]

You have never left your home. When you approach somebody who is like a die hard Trump supporter, right. They find like the ambiguity and they play in that to like rationalize why it's okay. Like when you bring things like this up, right?

[Michael]

Yeah.

[Aiden]

One thing that blows my mind and what I wanted to segue into is Trump coins specifically.

[Michael]

Okay.

[Aiden]

Because I feel like it's. It's like so much of a joke that people don't. I don't think people like realize the gravity of it like the size that it was at. And to be fair, our friend did buy it in a stock trading competition that we all participated in.

[Michael]

That's true. Is the world's biggest supporter of Trump coin, and I think he believes it's going to bounce back.

[Aiden]

But I think when you ask people about, like, a lot of what you outline here who are Trump supporters, they're like, oh, like, it's. They're just doing business and they're doing the right thing and I. And I can.

[Michael]

Is that what they sound like?

[Aiden]

Yeah, and they do. And they sort of dance while they do it. Oh, I don't know why they sound like that.

[Michael]

Doing a spongebob thing. You have some crazy Trump supporting relatives, bro. I don't know.

[Aiden]

I think Trump coin specifically drives me fucking insane. You guys might remember Trump Coin was announced by Trump on Twitter a few days before he started in office in 2025. And immediately this coin takes off and has a ton of traction.

[Michael]

It becomes, like, one of the most. I. Because I just remember this moment so vividly. Not to. Because I was reading so much financial news and financial substacks and stuff going into this, and I remember they were all praising how Trump was gonna be. Not all of them, but a lot of them were like, he's gonna be more fiscally responsible. He's gonna be the guy to get us off this Biden Harris nightmare. And, you know, some of these are visual podcasts. And, like, the moment he did this, their whole. You could just tell the wind came out of the sails. Cause, like, it was like the whole energy got evaporated because he's immediately, before we come into office, doing a huge Meme Coin scale. And they all know that meme Coin, like, these guys know. So it's just a funny. It's a very vivid moment for me because I was like, wait a minute. You guys are fucking wrong.

[Aiden]

So the President, the soon to be President of the United States, announces his official meme coin on a website called gettrumpmemes.com which is still up right now.

[Michael]

Dude, the AI Trump looking shredded is also crazy.

[Aiden]

He's just so much.

[Brandon]

Celebrate our win and have fun. They signed digitally by Donald Trump.

[Aiden]

And you guys might remember the highlights. Like, there was a promise of, like, some of the, like, 200 of the top investors were going to be invited to a private reception with the President.

[Michael]

Yeah.

[Aiden]

And, like, the top 25 holders would get special VIP White House tours that Trump would be present at. And after, like, upon the announcement, there's a huge traction in the coin. It does, like, become one of the highest valued overall coins in the world in the top 100. And then upon the announcement of things like the VIP tour jumps another like 50% in value. And even I remember going so far to announce an NFT associated with the project called the Trump Diamond Hand that would earn you reward points of some kind of. And, and I think what's insane about this to me is there's no. Even if you're a die hard crypto guy who like truly believes in this like, decentralized future and the power of these technologies, like some of these things have applications like, I don't know, like Monero has a. It has a purpose, a heinous one, perhaps.

[Michael]

Well, dealing in human trafficking.

[Aiden]

Yes.

[Michael]

You bring up Monero like you're paid to promote it. You bring it up all the.

[Aiden]

Oh, whoops, looks like I stumbled into a bit of human trafficking. And I see that. Never mind. No, I'm digging the hole.

[Michael]

Not. Cut that out. That we're going to. Rest of your opening sound bite.

[Aiden]

No, but I think there's this vague idea that like crypto could have some sort of utility. Right. But it's well understood by this point, by the time this coin is announced, that you're basically pump and dumping a speculative asset. You are trying to get in and get out in time to get lucky someone else. Purely for that. I feel like it's almost universally understood that that is the case at this point. When you buy a fucking shib coin that produces.

[Michael]

You are trying to find a Ludwig to hold the bag.

[Aiden]

Yeah, exactly. But literally, and I think even for the like, even for the hardcore crypto believers, they aren't looking at shib as the future. It's like, no, I'm trying to fucking speculate and like gamble and like get some money out of this.

[Michael]

This.

[Aiden]

So it's the fact that he did this is so blatantly for money, you know, whether it was money that goes directly to him. I'm sure Trump's not the guy at the computer launching the fucking coin. I understand that, but it's under his name for people associated with him who are directly, directly tied to him, including his family.

[Michael]

Yeah.

[Aiden]

So the.

[Michael]

And this is Barron Trump is deeply involved in this. I heard he's has a net worth at 18 of 100 million entirely through.

[Brandon]

It's better than US crypto.

[Michael]

Crypto where he's like, Barron's got four of these wallets. I don't even know what a crypto wallet is.

[Brandon]

It's so, man, it's so awesome. I just realized, you know, like, you can't you can't. There's a limit to how much you can, like, pay for someone's campaign or. Right.

[Michael]

Yeah.

[Brandon]

And. But I guess if you make a meme coin, you can just say, I'll meet with the top 200 investors and you just buy access to Trump. That's so cool that as long as a meme coin.

[Michael]

So Trump stablecoin.

[Aiden]

Yeah.

[Michael]

You just dump it in and it's like an investment.

[Brandon]

The ft, are you upset that Ludwig put a thousand dollars into Trump coin and lost 95% of it?

[Aiden]

I think it's not that. That what upsets me. It's the idea that the FT reported shortly after the coin launched, like, within the first 18 days that they had made 300 net. They had net $350 million from the coin within that first period of it launching, which is insane. And it's $350. 300. 350 whole dollars. $350 million of what I see as the most indefensible money imaginable. Like, it is. There's no secret, like, utility of the Trump coin. It's a pump and dump coin that we all know what it is and he made a bunch of money on it. How could you possibly rationalize.

[Michael]

Not that I. It's like, for me, I think the meme coin is so tacky and classless for a president coming back in office. Do I get that? But it's the most similar to, like, selling merch. So I don't. It's like almost like this is a dumb product for really dumb fans to lose money on.

[Brandon]

To me, it's like sports gambling or something, where it's like, have fun. I mean, it literally says, have fun. Quote Donald Trump. It sounds to me it's like, equivalent, which is like, look, we all know this is gambling. Good luck. I mean, it's, it's, it's, it's awful. But he's, it's, it's not as, it's not as, like, hidden behind, oh, this is real business. As some of these other ones.

[Aiden]

No, I think that's what I think is crazy is like, the fact that it's not hidden and people still are like, it's fine that the President is doing. No, I think it's because the other ones have this ambiguity. If you're like, if you want to have the cognitive dissonance. Dissonance, it's kind of easy to. But on this one, it's like, I feel like it's difficult. It's like, dude, it was literally Designed to make money from the end user while giving you nothing.

[Michael]

Wait, it segues well though, because. Okay, counterpoint. So we were supposed to come up with possible things we think are. Or what of the 500 days, what do we think was the best or like was you, was there any part you liked or anything that you thought you did right or was on the right track or whatever? I mean it was kind of an open ended prompt but we wanted to look into it to have some semblance of not just showing one side here. And I want to be honest with you, I don't think he intended this. But one of the best effects of the first 700 days of Trump directly caused by him is that I think he has kind of put a bullet in the entire crypto meme dream.

[Brandon]

I don't think that we could give him credit for a thing he clearly tried to not do and then cause it. I don't think we can give him kudos for that, dude.

[Michael]

Well, I'm going to do it. I'm going to give him kudos.

[Brandon]

Okay.

[Michael]

Because so we're going to, we're going

[Brandon]

to list what do we think some of the things he ended up doing? Well and yours has killing crypto accidentally.

[Michael]

He has, I mean crypto bitcoin is tanking today. He has basically if you look, if you flashback crypto right before he got inaugurated and now him removing the SEC's ability to investigate crypto, him making it so that you cannot, you keep basically get away with any crime with crypto launching his own meme coin. All of this kind of ironically shoved every sane investor away from it. It became, it pushed it more to the fringe, it made it less safe and in a way directly, I mean it's like one of the credit for is like a lot of the weird far right populist parties in Europe are losing some traction because of him.

[Brandon]

Okay.

[Michael]

He's done more. He Carney would not have won in Canada had it not been for Trump.

[Aiden]

Can't steal mine. Still mine.

[Michael]

Do you have more to say on that? I just, that's his thing, bro. He's had some unintentional effects. And then there is one thing I want to say.

[Brandon]

Yeah.

[Michael]

That he did do. Apparently he pushed for this or was one of the close things that I think was on the whole good. The elimination of the penny. The penny is gone. It saves the Mint $80 million a year. We don't even use the damn penny anymore. And I think Trump specifically said like we don't need the penny. I Think he like pushed it. So.

[Brandon]

So kind of even Stevens.

[Michael]

Yeah, that's my point. What I'm trying to say is that. Go with the.

[Brandon]

All right, so you. All right, as long as you have one that is. Look, I suggested doing this not only because I'm a big Trumper, but also because a publication I really enjoy called Tangle basically did a piece that he fucking hates Trump basically. And he's like a very, like tries to be very moderate and then did a giant piece about his corruption. And then he did a follow up, I believe a week ago now, which is like, what has Trump done? Well, and prefaced it with like, I think he's just dog shit in all these ways. But for the, for the point of trying to even acknowledge good things that are happening. Let me do that.

[Michael]

Okay.

[Brandon]

And so that's why I brought it up and I got me the pennies one. Although it's like the least.

[Michael]

If I were to get broad, I would say like the way. I don't like the broad tariff thing, but I think the way he has engaged with China via tariffs has ended a like head in the sand. 40 years that we've had where we completely ignored it. And I think if we had done. I think he's done it in the worst possible way. I think it's execution on everything. But I think the idea there of like, we need to re industrialize America and there should be. I think there is truth to that. And if no one was going to do it, maybe there's something to that. But that I'm stretching because I really don't like how he executed it.

[Brandon]

Yeah. From tangle. Concurrently, from April 2025 to April 2026, the US total trade deficit fell 14%. So if that's important to you, which to me it's not, but if that is like, you know, he has to some degree of success dropped trade deficits and that's across the whole world, not just with. Not just with China. You know, one thing I think he did well is the Trump accounts. I like the Trump account thing we talked about a little while ago with the birth. Basically every kid who gets born gets a $1,000 account. And then he's trying to get all these businessmen to like invest into it and you know, use this as kind of use his like, chummy relationship with people.

[Michael]

Yeah. Okay. I just want to say. So I watched the announcement of the Trump accounts and I remember I did it live on stream and I was like, you know what? I can't really see the problem here because Michael Dell's putting his own money up.

[Brandon]

Yeah.

[Michael]

As one of the biggest investors and it's going to kids and it's like, this is great. I mean, but flash forward and Dell just got a massive $10 billion government contract and Dell's stock is up like, like 4x. I mean, like, and it's entirely from the government connection. So it just feels like even on this simple thing there's like a quid pro quo level of corruption where Dell gives a little bit to Trump accounts and then gets a lot back. I don't know. So I agree with you. Like, I think the kids getting the money, that seems like a win.

[Brandon]

But yeah, I think like what I got looking into it and from tangles, like a lot of the wins that you would be like, yeah, that's good. Like crime is reducing Medicare. They're continuing to argue for, like negotiate for better prices with some of the things. But these were all programs and trends that were happening before he got elected. He made money from that intel investment that I think was unethical and, and illegal border crossings are down. Although overall it has been a fucking shit show with not increasing legal immigration and obviously everything with ICE just being done in a horrific way. So I literally. These are, this is all I got. Really trying to give like an earnest, sincere look at it. And all of these have caveats, man. It's not good.

[Aiden]

I thought about that one too. Like, I feel like the, like for his supporters especially, they'll know like immigration at the border specifically. And I want. But I feel the same way about that as I do with like China where like there's some aspect of this system is broken and not working and you're doing something to like try and approach the issue, but it's not working in the way that I don't, I don't agree with any of the approach at all. And that was my frustration when I was going through this is like, I don't think that there's anything other than the like accidental outcomes other than I think just the base. I think there's base things that benefit individual people. Like, I think there's like little things like no tax on tips that I'm sure, like individual people are happy for sure that I don't think is like a broadly good.

[Michael]

I mean they're good ideas.

[Aiden]

So it's like, yeah, yeah, but like my, but other than that, like, even if like there's a addressing of some sort of issue or thing in the past, it's almost. It's not the way that I Want or support going about it. And now I think the only thing I was like, okay, this is like a really net good that I feel like was countries, countries almost like unionizing globally. You know, like the mid tier countries of the world are like, we all need to like gather our strength as a block in order to combat the like two great powers in the world and like how they influence us. And I think that's like a really positive outcome that I don't think would have arrived without this happening. But is it? And then it, but then it like begs the question, is like, is all the trade off and like strife like worth that? Worth that outcome? Probably fucking not.

[Brandon]

Like, I don't want to be here.

[Michael]

We can't like presidents based on the reverse rule where that doesn't make sense.

[Brandon]

And there's a difference between like, hey, we as America are going to unwind the American empire and influence and we're going to. And this is how we're going to do it. And we're going to work with you and be constructive and try to make this as painless as possible. Like a breakup versus a breakup where you just start throwing plates and knives at your partner and they're like, I need to leave. Very different.

[Aiden]

I think it's like, it's like the, like having immigration raids at the Home Depot down the street and being like, I wanted more asylum judges. Like, I wanted. I, I wanted you to do that.

[Michael]

Yeah.

[Aiden]

Like, and not that I thought this guy was specifically going to do it.

[Michael]

Nobody wanted to invade Greenland and be like, well, no, I just wanted Europe to spend a little bit more on defense. It's like, that's not. It's ridiculous, bro. It's ridiculous.

[Aiden]

So it feels weird to be like, yeah, I think that's my problem. Like as I was like trying to find things and like going through the exercise of this, I was like, I. I think it's good that Europe's doing that. But it's like it could have just. We could, we surely could have gotten there another.

[Michael]

A different way. Yeah, no, I legitimately think it's the worst. I mean, you know, I'm not as old as you say. It's the worst term of a president in my lifetime. And it's not close. After doing this exercise, I could not find enough upside to. And it's only been 500 days. It's really crazy. So last, last thing and then we'll move on because we have a lot more stories. Actually get a stories. Is there anything. What are you worried about? For the next 500 days.

[Brandon]

What's your everything else that we've been talking about for the last year?

[Aiden]

And I'll give, I'll give the biggest one because I think in this sea of the 500 days, obviously there's way more than the financial corruption. There's like these new violations of like civil rights and like consolidation of power. A this real, like all of these things are awful in their own right. But what scares me the most is the idea that elections are being messed with to a degree that they don't have their opinion anymore.

[Michael]

Yeah, I agree.

[Aiden]

And so if there's a removal of my mechanism to like remove the people from power in the, in the safe way that we ideally want to keep, that's what I'm the most worried about.

[Michael]

Yeah, it's, you're so impactful, man. I, I, I, I've been buoyed with some hope seeing the continued cratering poll numbers and seeing, you know, a lot of things. I, I, but if, if something weird happens around this midterm, I'm going to be much more upset. But we've talked about this before. I think that's the main. Yeah, yeah.

[Brandon]

I think for me it is the breakdown of. You mentioned that the middle powers uniting is good. I think there's many great things about that. There's a lot of problems with the American empire over the last 80 years. What, 85 now. But it is worth acknowledging that there's been an historic level of peace over the world over the last 85 years. There's no great powers who have openly been at war. And so has it been perfect? No, of course not. Am I worried about a world where America suddenly becomes this like totally chaotic attack? Everybody instigate anything all the time. Just feels like the likelihood of World War III does actually go up a lot. And that is, yeah, pretty fucking concerning, to be honest.

[Aiden]

Yeah, like, I mean, there's like this rise in like nuclear armament and.

[Michael]

Right.

[Brandon]

Because like if you're, dude, you know Ukraine, right. They gave up nukes voluntarily, right? Yeah, to Russia because they're like, okay, cool. We trust that the world system will protect us. And then we gave up the nukes and then they're. And so every country is going to justifiably going, I gotta take care of my own. And that's just gonna lead to a cascade of horrible things. Ah, man, it's real sad. Probably, probably. Maybe this was gonna happen in some form regardless, but it's like the way it's happening, the way it's happening is

[Michael]

truly Chaotic breakdown with. Yeah, I agree.

[Brandon]

And it's truly sad to go to talk to people from other countries and realize just how little respect, like, how sad people are about Americans and like our country now, you know, and I know, I know we have lots of European, like hate watchers and we've talked about this, but. No, but like, legitimately, you know, you used to go to a foreign country and for the most part, you know, growing up, people would be like, oh, cool, you're American. There's like a, to some degree, a sense of like, happiness or excitement towards that, and it's like a real sense of shame and it's just, it's a bummer.

[Aiden]

Yeah.

[Michael]

By the way, you. I mean, you know, you could extrapolate that for a longer period of time, but based on the polling, because I've seen the charts of the polling on that, like foreign citizens, attitudes towards America, you can localize that entirely almost to Donald Trump's second term. Like, it literally craters. In fact, there's a great chart that shows attitudes towards China versus the US and it's literally, China is flat down here, America's flat up here. And in this term, it is crossed for the first time ever. And that, that, I mean, the amount of damage done so quickly is. Is shocking, man. It's shocking. But you know what else is shocking?

[Aiden]

What? My Nordic fact of the week banger.

[Michael]

There's nothing shocking about you having another Nordic.

[Brandon]

Get to the important stuff. What happened? I guess what local municipality has a new policy around shoveling snow? Aiden Meta.

[Aiden]

I guess a meta got hacked or

[Michael]

we could do Norfaction week. But I did want to talk about this because it's related to world leaders in that I believe Obama, a previous US President who heard, that guy's corrupt. Hardy's corrupt.

[Brandon]

He made a lot of money in office because he sold.

[Michael]

I don't know what his slush fund was like, but he, he is. Instagram account got knacked. There was a massive Meta hack that just happened. And I want to walk you through it real quick because I think it is actually pretty funny. So Meta dissolved a lot of their trust and safety system in terms of getting moving fast and breaking things, getting a little quicker. And they've also been all in on AI. And so the Meta AI support assistant was attached to the customer service aspect of Instagram. And it turns out you could just go to any account, ask the Meta AI support assistant, say, hey, I forgot my password. Can you get me in? It would say, okay, I need to make sure you're in the right location. So you could just spoof your IP to be in the location that that person normally is in like their same region.

[Brandon]

Right.

[Michael]

Then it would be like, all right, well I need to see a live photo to make sure it's really you. But you could use AI to take a photo of Obama, for example, and make the mouth move. And then all after that it would go, okay, fine, then what's your new email? And then you give it a new email and then it would send a code to that. You would use the code and then you have access to the account. Your past two factor. And so they were using that to get access to like literally hundreds of celebrity accounts and handles. And you met a fixed it relatively quickly. But we don't know the fallout of everything that's been leaked is it just. I mean this is brand new. This happened I think yesterday. So I thought that was a really, really funny result of like a higher

[Aiden]

stakes version of the Tinder thing we talked about.

[Michael]

Yeah, exactly. I just think it's a funny example of AI and security in a different way. And I do think using the meta AI to create the video that breaks the meta AI is a funny recursive loop. Yeah, but yeah, that's. It's a little story that's. I just want to show that up. What's the Nordic fun fact of the week then? I'm sorry.

[Aiden]

No, I just. Hold on. I was making that up. I don't have anything.

[Brandon]

You don't have a Nordic nothing?

[Michael]

You have to have a Nordic fact of the week.

[Brandon]

The show.

[Aiden]

Dude, they just fucking and drank beers this week.

[Michael]

And this shows bedrock is the Nordic fact of the week.

[Brandon]

Surely their healthcare was bad. Was it good again?

[Aiden]

Their healthcare performing well, relatively.

[Michael]

It's crazy. Some problems because we've done 100 episodes. I don't know how many episodes we've done.

[Brandon]

We've not done 100. Wait, no, we've not done 100. We've done like a year.

[Michael]

180 episodes, I think. And in 179 of them said that

[Brandon]

so confidently I second guessed myself. And I was like, are there a hundred weeks in a year? And then I realized, no, no, they're not.

[Michael]

On episode 212. In these past 211 episodes, Aiden has come to every episode unprompted with a Nordic fun fact of the week. Then we establish a new segment about it and it lasts one week.

[Brandon]

Okay, let's be fair. The instant something becomes your job, it's not that fun. I don't Play video games that much anymore. All right.

[Michael]

We made it his job.

[Brandon]

We made it his job.

[Michael]

No, he doesn't have a Swedish snow snuggling permit fact or something. That's crazy.

[Brandon]

Going to ruin all the fun of it moving there.

[Aiden]

Well, I do it. Sorry, I guess I do have fogging something. Oh yeah, I guess I do now.

[Michael]

I'm excited to segment in the vein

[Aiden]

of middle powers cooperating.

[Michael]

Okay.

[Aiden]

And the man who made the big speech that we talked about a while ago, Carney Carnster, Canada Dog Canada and Sweden, two great nations have have recently made an agreement. Our rather Canadian Prime Minister or the Canadian government making a deal with Saab, the big defense company in Sweden, that they would be buying a surveillance planes from Sweden and also reconsidering a deal to buy a bunch of F35 jets from the US instead redirecting that purchase to that company in Sweden to buy fighter jets from them. And also being the grounds for where that Swedish company will produce or build some of those planes in the future. Basically the Canada has said for a while that they're like too reliant on the US when it comes to defense. At least starting starting last year.

[Michael]

Yeah.

[Brandon]

What happened last year?

[Michael]

Whatever the past 500 days, I don't know what could have changed their mind.

[Aiden]

And dude, I kind of forgot about that.

[Michael]

To go to Canada and say you should be the 51st day is crazy.

[Aiden]

That's low key. It feels so long ago.

[Michael]

We don't even talk about that. That would be so crazy for any other president. It's so wild. He gets away with it anyway.

[Aiden]

Yeah, Perry's scrolling through some of these.

[Michael]

They're buying some planes non F35s.

[Aiden]

But I think this is an example from what I can see of this partnership or this change.

[Michael]

Do the Swedish ones send you a bunch of parts and you have to build them yourself?

[Aiden]

Me going to IK to buy my fighter. They have other companies there, man, they have spoken defy balls in there.

[Brandon]

But made out of thin cardboard. Looks like a Swedish fish.

[Aiden]

I think Canada, similar to NATO. A lot of the countries, European countries in NATO not meeting their base commitment of spending a certain amount of their GDP on their military. Canada was in the same boat not meeting that 2% threshold that they're supposed to meet while simultaneously admitting that a lot of their defense spending and defense strategy has been too reliant on the US for so long. And this is them pivoting away to a different company and partner to strengthen ties there like in defense and also economically in order to diversify away from the US A direct result of those conversations and that speech that we saw last year. So I just thought this was interesting. Like, it's an example of these things, like, progressing and not just like a headline that you saw at some point.

[Michael]

Now this is happening all over Europe countries. European countries specifically. I mean, like, Germany's really leaning into this. As their exports slow down and their manufacturing's in trouble, they're kind of pivoting to a pure defense. Not a pure defense, but a heavy defense industry. A lot of their companies are doing quite well, and they're selling to other Europeans. They're building tanks and missiles and planes. And anyway, as everyone knows from history, a militarized Germany is a good sign

[Brandon]

for just long as they sell the weapons to other people.

[Michael]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Aiden]

Third time's charm.

[Michael]

Third time is,

[Brandon]

hey, look, my German ancestors had a great track record up until those two times.

[Aiden]

Okay, if you exclude. If you exclude those two times, I

[Michael]

thought it was a three strike.

[Aiden]

And then also, what are we talking

[Michael]

about here for two times?

[Aiden]

If you take away the two times and you also don't go much before that. If you don't read about any of the before stuff.

[Michael]

Hold on. If you start in 1910 and ignore two times.

[Brandon]

What? No, dude, germs were great before that. I got Prussia.

[Michael]

They were, you know, they were whooping.

[Brandon]

They're whooping some ass.

[Michael]

That's always what you want.

[Brandon]

We got the German. We got the Celts. We got the barbarians.

[Michael]

Yes, sir.

[Brandon]

Barbarian as fuck, bro.

[Michael]

Remember that scene in Gladiator when the Germans fight the. The Romans in the For.

[Brandon]

Yeah, we were badass. We're fucking badass. That was literally my grandparents in that movie.

[Michael]

That was sick. Good shit, bro.

[Aiden]

You got guys. I love this.

[Michael]

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[Aiden]

Sponsored jobs. Study and play come together on a Windows 11 PC. And for a limited time, college students get the best of both worlds. Get the unreal college deal. Everything you need to study and play with select Windows 11 PCs. Eligible students get a year of Microsoft 365 Premium and a Year of Xbox game Pass ultimate with a custom color Xbox wireless controller. Learn [e-mail] studentoffer while supplies last ends June 30th terms at aka Ms. College PC. This episode is brought to you by State Farm. You know those friends who support your preference for podcasts over music on road trips? That's the energy State Farm brings to insurance. With over 19,000 local agents, they help you find the coverage that fits your

[Michael]

needs so you can spend less time

[Aiden]

worrying about insurance and more time enjoying the ride. Download the State Farm app or go [e-mail] like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. I would love an update about the Samsung strike.

[Brandon]

Oh yes, we were talking about. All right, so there's not a ton here, but I did think this was an interesting thing worth following up on. So last week we talked about how Samsung's workers who work in their chip division had agreed. The labor union had gotten Samsung to agree. We're gonna give you basically 10%. I believe that's the number. But giant percentage of the not even giant big percentage of the profit of Samsung this year is going to go to bonuses for you guys. And what that turned into 340,000 on average per person in the semiconductor vision. And that's dollars for somebody in South Korea where it's a lot cheaper than the US So that's crazy money. And then I steel manned it and I was like, okay, well the argument would be like maybe that money should be more broadly spread out. So there were some Bloomberg articles this week that I read about this where there is in fact now a bunch of division and resentment not only sort of broadly in Korea, but in Samsung itself. Because in other units they're like, what the fuck? We're being excluded from this generational amount of money.

[Michael]

You're like in Samsung HR or Samsung, like washing machines and chip guys got like a new Ferrari.

[Brandon]

60% of the workforce of the Korean workforce is in the semiconductor division. Everybody else in the company is getting a $4,000 bonus, which is 1%.

[Aiden]

Dude, wait, I should have Aiden knows a guy. Is this. I know somebody that works at like Samsung corporate in the US I wonder what the vibes are.

[Michael]

What the vibes are like.

[Brandon]

Yeah, even that. Cause this would go to the Korean workers. So okay, so here's some interesting quotes. Samsung Electronics is one company, said Lee Ho Sio, head of a smaller union made up mostly of workers in Samsung's finished product business division, known as Digital Experience. We cooperated with each other and overcame crises when there was A crisis. But now the strong results have been achieved. Saying that only the division where the performance occurred should get them bonuses makes no sense at all. Another one said anonymously that the gaping compensation divide had killed motivation for workers who don't make memory chips. And on top of that the memory unit I looked in, they were unprofitable during entire periods of Samsung's history. And other divisions of Samsung had to funnel money over to this division to keep it alive. And now that division is going gangbusters and only those employees are going crazy.

[Aiden]

Right.

[Brandon]

Like including from the Galaxy smartphones is like allowed them to keep building factories for chips and whatnot.

[Michael]

This is why all the money should stay in the CEO's hands.

[Aiden]

Yeah.

[Michael]

Because it gets too complicated when you try to distribute amongst the poor's. You just keep it in the executive class.

[Aiden]

You consolidate. Yeah. It stays safe.

[Michael]

Everyone's like well that guy's rich, he's going to keep billions.

[Aiden]

And then it might not know the

[Michael]

difference between four or five or six

[Aiden]

Slowly in small parts make its way down.

[Michael]

Yeah.

[Aiden]

It'll trickle down.

[Brandon]

This is CEO buys a bunch of jets from ikea Sweden. Yeah.

[Michael]

This is, you've seen that kind of resentment from people I know in, in SF where it's all the.

[Brandon]

Yeah. If you're in anthropic, anthropic open air you're going to be, you're going to be $20 million in a couple months.

[Aiden]

Yeah. Is there, is there truth to, to that where I've heard in the Valley like people feel like they just coin flipped the wrong companies or startups to work at and it's like you happen to work at one. Like we're both good engineers. I work at this one, you work at that one.

[Michael]

And your lives are dramatically different. It's, it's tens of millions of dollars and that's, that's.

[Brandon]

I think so. There are also quotes like from a taxi driver. It's basically the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. Somebody who's worked and lived as a taxi driver for 30 years. So now the South Korea presidential policy chief is suggesting using AI tax revenues to essentially create a sovereign wealth fund in Korea. But it's interesting you have, you know, within Samsung now there's this divide and then in Korea somebody who's. Because again what's worth remembering is Samsung is one of the most sought out companies in Korea. This is the equivalent of giving. I don't. This is the equivalent of giving a giant bonus to people at OpenAI or something like that. Where it's like you are. These are people who already went to the best schools in Korea and have the best opportunities and get to work at fucking Samsung where they're paid really well and they are minting them as millionaires. So obviously, obviously you want to see this spread out to some degree more. But it's this really bizarre thing happening right now. And if you're a taxi, like, you'd be so pissed at this. Right? I can't think of any similar, analogous situation in the United States.

[Michael]

No, we don't, we don't do it like that. It's terrible. But here's the thing. It's kind of tough. So it's because you could take this a lot of different directions. I do think you could tax Samsung with a. Less loopholes, corporate tax and spend that on the public.

[Brandon]

Right.

[Michael]

But it's for me, it's like this is a step in the right direction. So I hate to shit on it too much.

[Brandon]

It's like, no, no, I think like

[Michael]

you're profit sharing with the employees of the division that did really well. That's, that's better than, you know, it all going to executive bonuses. So I don't know. I can understand the frustration, but it's also like, compared to what other companies normally do, this is kind of good.

[Brandon]

I love, I love where the trend is going. And I want to hit it to a broader question, which is, is this moment in AI development a good opportunity to create a sort of sovereign wealth fund? And coincidentally, I believe yesterday Bernie, Bernie said he's putting a bill to the floor that the US government should take control of 50% of these AI companies. And the idea would be this is, you know, the profits from this would then flow to some sort of like, public. I don't think there's a clear policy of how the money is distributed. But you know, as a reminder, like Finland and democratic Saudi Arabia have sovereign

[Aiden]

wealth in Norway, but maybe Finland has one.

[Brandon]

I thought it was Norway definitely got the big one. Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry. I mixed them up. Yeah, yeah, Norway, not, not Finland. And then Alaska, our fucking. We have a state in America that has like a sovereign wealth run from oil, where people get ubi, which we forget about, and it's like incredibly successful as a program. Helps lift people out of poverty. And so the idea of, of potentially creating a sovereign wealth run from this, treating this as though we hit the jackpot with oil and other countries doing this. What do you think? Or conversely, do you think the CEO should get it all?

[Aiden]

I think that's my real opinion now, Steel man, what my. What the opposite would be. No, I saw this headline and I was thinking about it. So there was something a little further back where Canada made an announcement about creating a sovereign wealth fund in the vein of Norway in order to support local investment in Canada. And that's one of the goals of that fund. I'm not against nationalization of companies. I think I'm very pro that compared to most people. I think in this specific situation my confidence in it wavered a bit because as far as I understand, if you want a successful sovereign wealth fund, a lot of that, like you're trying to diversify away from your own economy and its like shortcomings now in the US the economy is so large and so diverse, maybe that doesn't matter. But in like Canada's case, to replicate the Norway sovereign wealth fund and then have the majority of that fund's investment go into local companies sort of defeats the mechanism of that sovereign wealth fund's success.

[Michael]

Right.

[Aiden]

That's why Norway does it. They don't want to be so reliant on their oil. They want to diversify money away from that industry. So is creating a fund where we invest primarily in an American industry a good thing? Do these things matter at all? In this conversation I was kind of asking myself those questions without coming to an answer. I don't know if I would vote. Like I like if, if you can nationalize these companies, like you kill all the willingness. Do you kill all the willingness to continue developing those products? If you're doing it, I'll be the

[Michael]

econ brain of it because I saw this. I don't know the exact details of Bernie's specific thing. I like Bernie a lot, so maybe I'll look into it, but pull it up. The, the thing that spooks me, and you know I was against Trump when he did with intel, is I don't like the government picking winners and losers, especially this early in industry like I. So if we take 50% of the biggest AI companies and now they become directly tied to the fortunes of the American government, American people, there's a strong incentive to make sure those are the ones that succeed and that we all profit off of it. Again, I'm just a bigger fan of closing loopholes. And you just tax all corporations at a certain amount and we all benefit, no matter. They all compete.

[Brandon]

Right.

[Michael]

And then we get 25% or whatever. We should always get it. I like that a lot more than like the government taking shares and stakes in these companies and it creates a lot of weird distorted incentives that I, I'm generally against and I was against it when Trump did it with intel and I'm against it. I think based on this I'll look at it a little bit more. I obviously agree that especially with all the money flowing into AI, it's creating a real divergence in outcomes. People who are not in the AI industry are getting just even as like businesses, even small businesses are not getting any investment dollars are not getting any money. It's all going, every amount of capex in America is going to this one industry and it's creating a huge K shaped divergence. So I agree with that. I just think taxes usually solve this. I think we've, I think we've given up on taxes as a concept because people evaded taxes for so long.

[Brandon]

Okay, let me, let me throw two things your way. One, so basically this appears to be it. It's just the bill proposes that, that the government would take 50% stock on, on the two companies. Like just direct ownership.

[Michael]

The two, two anthropic and open AI.

[Brandon]

Yes. Yeah, it just says the large, it just says the large AI ones. I mean I tend to, I tend to agree. And then one, it's like the industry is so young. But there's two things that I think are interesting. One, these companies are unprofitable. They burn through billions of dollars every single quarter. And so it's not like I don't even know where the money would come from. It would have to be from the stock market. But even then when these, and crack me if I'm wrong, these are going to IPO soon, right? And people can invest, but it's not like the entire company goes up for sale.

[Michael]

No, just a percentage.

[Brandon]

Even if it was a trillion dollars and America got half of that and then sold that, it's like this one time windfall. And I would rather see something that's like a sustainable thing long term. Although I guess if we hold ownership of it forever, that would be the idea. And then the other is what do you think of a proposal that has come up a lot which is a value added tax on tokens which is instead of taxing a company's profit, you tax every time that AI models are generating something for like as part of a business transaction, you know, whatever Microsoft or insert SaaS company here or insert person who's using ChatGPT for their own stuff, that a piece of that transaction just instantly goes to the government.

[Michael]

It's an interesting idea. I do think again I just worry right now at this moment, by the way, I probably should think this through more because I want to have something I suggest that I want to advocate for instead of being against. Yeah, yeah, but like when I hear that, I'm worried because I, for example, know a guy who's doing a startup in the nuclear energy space with that involves AI, and he told me off the record that all the companies, even the startups in America in these areas, even in these critical industries like nuclear, are using Chinese models because the cost per token is way cheaper. And so if you make it so that American models have a tax on each token that makes it more expensive, then everything is going to switch to Kimi and Deep Seek and, and all the data goes to the Chinese companies. And so I, that's my concern is that that might be prohibitively expensive. Again, I'm not like the ad companies need to succeed at all costs. I'm just thinking of like, if you want this industry to be something and you want to be America. I, I just, I guess I don't know why kicking out loopholes, getting taxes, spending on people is like not, that was a great system that has worked in the past. We've like abandoned it.

[Aiden]

I don't, I, I, I, I think I agree with you. I want to preface, this is like, I don't think I really understand the full consequences of nationalizing a company or even buying like 50% of a company in an industry that's developing and changing so much. I can't really like weigh that.

[Michael]

I don't know either.

[Aiden]

But it did make me think of a conversation I had about co ops a while ago where a business that I think we're all familiar with was a co op initially. And I talked to some people that work there.

[Michael]

What business is it? Still around 3 million more dollars in my pocket.

[Aiden]

And I remember a thought that I got from somebody about the work discrepancy within that company and how co ops, like the thought from somebody was co ops work really well for companies that have an established, straightforward business model. So if you're just like, if we were like a utility and we had to like supply, you do one thing,

[Michael]

you do it well, you do the same thing over and over.

[Aiden]

And we do that over and over indefinitely because it's probably not going to change. That environment works really well for a co op. But when you have a company that's like not established, growing demands a bunch of extra work, it's not necessarily clear what direction it's going in. You often need some sort of technological or innovation at the company. The co op structure, which is not necessarily nationalization, begins to fall apart because of the discrepancies between the amount that people are willing to do and what is necessary to continue innovating and developing the product. So I feel like there's something here in that. If you take something like nationalizing Saudi Arabia's oil or Norway's oil, it's like the value proposition is very straightforward right now. There will be a time when oil's demand ends in the far off future still, but it makes sense. But this is a technology that is still developing and people don't really know what the endpoint is or how it's going to be effectively monetized. And so many things about it need to be changed. I think about a company that we toured last year week and how, like how they're on the cutting edge of something, but they don't really know where this is all going to end up yet.

[Michael]

Right.

[Aiden]

And I think with that all in mind, the risks of taking that over from the government's perspective and just trying to force a winner upon something where we don't even really know it's going to end up seem like it might not work.

[Michael]

I want to look more into it because I, you know, I think as

[Brandon]

far as I can tell, the bill is not actually out. He's just saying he's going to be introducing something soon. And it just says, quote from him on X, give the public a 50% ownership stake in the largest AI companies. So that's where the idea is at right now.

[Aiden]

And if they're also. I want to say that I think if there's enough, like, if there's enough willpower within the government to work, like say you wanted to like fully buy out one of the big AI companies, have that be the public AI company that gets a ton of investment and like attention put towards it. Well, the government has built a bunch of extraordinary, successful, innovative scientific achievements in the past. Like you could, you could develop the winner and have that.

[Brandon]

The Manhattan Project.

[Aiden]

Yes. And there were no. Yeah, I, Yeah, no, that's cool.

[Michael]

I want to follow up on this. I think we should learn more when he puts the bill out. It'll be interesting to find out. Yeah, I have a question for you guys and it's related to.

[Brandon]

We're doing a whole segment on Game seven.

[Michael]

I want to talk. No, not necessarily Game seven, but I do want to talk about basketball real quick. And you don't need to be a basketball fan to enjoy this section all right, this is what I want to talk about. There was a really highly profile, interesting series between the Oklahoma City Thunder and the San Antonio spurs. Recently went to game seven. Really exciting. And one thing that has been remarked upon both in the media and by me now is that the vibe was. Was quite angry at one team, the Ogles Henry Thunder, and there was a lot of, like, vitriol against their lead player, Shay Gilich Alexander, for flopping is the idea. He's like. He's exaggerating contact to draw fouls. Again, you don't even know the specifics, but the. The analysis that I saw said that this is kind of a rising trend in sports discussion. People are getting. Instead of being like, this is my team. That's your team. And I like this team, and I like this team. People are kind of uniting in hatred against certain players and the refs. It's like the way the sports media landscape is changing, and I think it's undercutting the vibe of the game and the. And the competition because people's wins are discredited and their losses are amplified. And so a solution was proposed by David Stern, the commissioner of the NBA, and he said, what if we had, like, they have now in tennis and some others and I think hockey, this Hawkeye AI system that automatically scans the court, tracks the players and calls fouls.

[Aiden]

Okay, this is. Sorry, you said David Stern. This is now. This right now.

[Michael]

Did I say David Stern?

[Aiden]

I thought you were going on, like, a history.

[Michael]

Adam Silver. I'm sorry.

[Aiden]

Okay?

[Michael]

David Stern. I'm fucking old. No, Adam Silver, Commissioner, NBA now said Hawkeye AI NBA scanning. Obviously, the refs would do some parts still, but for, like, things that are guaranteed, like, on the line or whatever, they would just be instant. And I was wondering, know what? You. It's like a. It's like a philosophical question about what you guys think about computer vision. Refs, AI Refs.

[Brandon]

I think if you took the word AI out of this and said, should we have some sort of, like, digital checking and you're not just going off of a person standing there making the decision. And almost everybody would say, yes. Am I crazy?

[Michael]

Say yes instantly. And I. I don't even care who put the stupid word AI in it. It's like I find it to be something I beg for when I watch every.

[Brandon]

Every faster I. Unless maybe I'm wrong, because I've never been a die hard, like, sports fan of a good team, but every sports fan ever has experienced the feeling that a game was robbed because of poor refereeing Refereeing. Right. Refereeing referee. You know, maybe this is less common in soccer, but. No, absolutely, it's more common in soccer. It's an insane thing. The incident that came out of my

[Aiden]

mouth, like I was.

[Brandon]

Basketball, football, everything. Right. Like, I can think of visceral moments where I mean, literally, Perry and I grew up in like, one of the most. There's like, big scandal, whereas the Sacramento Kings didn't. Anyway, we don't have to get into it, but, you know, giant refereeing scandal, which is like. That was real deeply personal to Sacramento and like, ruined our entire sports career and trajectory. What is the. What is the counter is that we like the human mistakes of referees. Like.

[Aiden]

Well, I think there's the idea that the AI won't be good enough or doesn't understand, like, the human nuance of the game and won't be able to call it correctly. But checking.

[Brandon]

Right. There's no way they're going to just send it and say chatgpt, make the call. Right.

[Michael]

No, it would be a human. To check the output. And I just want to say. So I was looking into this. Baseball has done this recently with the, you know, whether it's a ball or strike system.

[Brandon]

Yeah.

[Michael]

And the players can just tap their helmet to challenge whatever the umpire says in the field. And it instantly goes to the AI analysis.

[Brandon]

Yeah.

[Michael]

And if they're correct, they just. They get their challenge back. And it apparently, according to baseball fans, I know it has sped up the game and made it more watchable and entertaining and their ratings are up. Tennis has done this for things when they go on the line. Like, sports are trying this and it seems to be successful. So I just think it's weird because referees have a lot of. The referee union has a lot of power in basketball and there's like a hesitancy to this, but I think from my pov, it feels like it would speed up the game and be better. So I just want to know if there was like, maybe it's open to the fan. I'd love to. If there's a counter argument that I'm missing, but I kind of want this bad.

[Aiden]

Yeah. I'm kind of in the camp of if you're a big sports fan, what your practical pushback to this is. And. But. And then also imagine the world where the AI is literally perfect at calling the game, like 99.99% effective at calling basketball. Now, are you still against it for some other reason? Because in my head, it's like. It's like cars. As soon as it averages out better than the humans. I prefer it in this case.

[Michael]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Aiden]

And I'm not super pressed about NBA ref unemployment. I'll come to it.

[Brandon]

Well, there's another which is like if, if, if this replaces refereeing, you would presumably get an increase in interest in the sport, as you saw with baseball, which will overall increase the investment and interest and job, like more jobs, be creative. If the sport is more popular, like, I, I have a hard time seeing what. The argument against this and the last

[Michael]

aspect of this which really kind of drives it home for me is that the unfortunate reality of sports in 2026 is that gambling has become a much, much bigger industry than it ever was before. It's always been an undercurrent. Zachary King's example, definitely. But like, in the past few years, it has just 100x in the amount of money flowing around in gambling. And of course there is a massive incentive, especially because we've gone from like just betting on the winner of the game to betting on how many rebounds one player will get, how many point. Like point shaving has so much more money you can make. And so the incentives on every ref to just do small things that can have a massive financial impact are real. They're just real. And so taking it out of their hands is not only like, I think a good viewing experience, but maybe the smart thing to do to reduce the impact of a human over a financial decision that's becoming more and more. I don't think the gambling is a good thing, but it's happening. So, yeah, I don't know. I just want to bring. We're mostly in agreement, so it's not as a debate like I thought it might be. But I want to hear what, what the audience thinks because I, I'm, I'm. I've watched a lot of NBA this year, and I found it to be the most frustrating part is the refs and the. And the slowing down of the pace of the game.

[Brandon]

Is this done with soccer, do you know?

[Michael]

Right now I only know. I only know baseball, tennis, and I think hockey is doing it as well.

[Aiden]

I mean, everything to do with like even adding cameras to the review process of sports that's been integrated over time is. I feel like I don't know anybody that doesn't like that. And this feels like just the next evolution of it. Well, I have a juicy little basketball tidbit.

[Michael]

You got a basketball segue. I kind of lobbed it up. I don't know if you had.

[Aiden]

And you might remember, listener, you might Remember, I have a friend who was dribbling his ball in a terminal in China. And that basketball he was dribbling. What brand was it?

[Michael]

Li Ning.

[Aiden]

Li Ning. So I thought this pretty fascinating as a lot of people know the way that athletes, at least superstar athletes, make a lot, maybe most of their money is through their endorsement contracts, like their shoe deals and athletic wear, all those types of things, things. Steph Curry, notable figure for having a deal with Under Armour and bringing it to a point of popularity through his own superstardom. He's seen as one of, like the great oversights or snubs by the other athletic brands.

[Michael]

Nike. Yeah, they got his name wrong or something in the pitch, apparently.

[Aiden]

Yeah. And his contract, or it came up, or he ended it with Under Armour, I believe, a year or two ago. And he had a 13 year partnership with Under Armour that had gone really, really well. But then he effectively entered free agency within this world of sportswear endorsements, especially shoes. He recently, I think it was today, signed a 10 or, sorry, yesterday signed a 10 year, $400 million deal with Lee Ning.

[Michael]

Steph Curry, like 37. Yeah, he's not going to be in the league, bro. He's doing 10 years.

[Aiden]

Yeah, but Roger Federer makes shoes and he's, he's retired, you know?

[Michael]

Right, you're right.

[Aiden]

I, I think the value of Steph Curry, they see it, this Chinese company recognizes it, which we became a little more familiar with while we were there. And this deal is expected. He not only gets to produce, like, shoes through this, but it's also a golf wear brand because Steph Curry's gotten like, really into golf in recent years. And he's actually very good. At least, you know, as far as a casual golf player goes. He won like some celebrity tournament a couple of years ago.

[Michael]

He just keeps winning.

[Aiden]

He just keeps winning. How's he do it? But I thought this was kind of interesting because I can pull this up.

[Michael]

I want to jump in because I think it's fascinating, the growth of leaning and do we not have. Okay, so this is an analysis I saw on Twitter of the number of mentions of Chinese footwear brands on the Reddit subreddit, running shoegeeks. And if you go back to 2023 and 2022, essentially no mentions. And in the past few years, even in these Western audiences, hyper niche audiences of people like, looking for the best quality stuff, it is spiking. And this trend is the same across basketball shoes and all the other, like, major enthusiast footwear subreddits and so you're seeing kind of this invasion at the same time you're seeing the implosion of Nike stock, which is just getting crushed. So I think this is like a big, like, you know, I hate you guys, hate the book. But when everyone knows that everyone knows type moment where Steph Curry, a massive superstar, kind of breaks that ice and signs a deal outside of the big

[Aiden]

Western brands, I think he's expected to be the gateway for this brand in the US Market because they have such a limited American presence as it stands. Right. I think it's interesting because we went to that one store, it was Antiguan Chen.

[Michael]

Yes.

[Aiden]

And we all bought some stuff. We thought it was cool. It's this brand that within China surpassed Nike last year.

[Brandon]

And yeah, same vibe, same selling the same type of stuff. But now they're actually more basically a Nike competitor directly.

[Aiden]

And I think it's what's cool about that is having worn it back at home, most people are like, oh, what is that? You know, and this is like this giant American athlete that is their means of like promoting this brand in the U.S. lean in.

[Brandon]

Well, as a question, so for you guys's knowledge, is this. Are these brands, like, better? You know, the everyone knows what everyone knows thing kind of implies, like this has been around and that suddenly this big wave of change is happening. Is it just new players entering the market or is there some reason this would disrupt?

[Michael]

So my understanding about leaning specifically versus Nike is that the big thing you have to factor in is cost. So the quality is as good for a lower.

[Brandon]

So they are selling lower is.

[Michael]

That's the. Okay, that's the idea is. The idea is that they have like the prices for established brands like Nike and Adidas have gotten higher and higher. Specifically Nike. Nike is the one that's like really being eaten into here.

[Brandon]

Right.

[Michael]

Because they have kind of fallen behind. And one thing that Nike did specifically is that they wanted to switch to an online, direct to consumer format of like selling their shoes. When they did that, they lost a ton of retail space at all these shoe stores. They didn't think it mattered. But it turns out that did matter because people find their first shoe there or they. So they, they like, they did like the Disney thing where they cater only to the Disney adults who already they love. And you lose the new flood of consumers. And so they're now panicking and backtracking. But it's created this opening for a lot of competitors, specifically Chinese ones, to really swoop in. And it's just, it's an Interesting.

[Aiden]

I mean even in, even in like running shoes, right? There's been companies like on that have like really popped off in recent years that like are eating into their market on the run.

[Michael]

Yeah. Hoka, what's that like New Zealand or what was that?

[Aiden]

Hoka's French.

[Michael]

French, yeah. But I mean there's like, it's not just Chinese. Like a lot of companies are, are breaking this established like triopoly of running shoes.

[Brandon]

They'd be, it'd be particularly interesting if these also are definitively better. You know, because that's happening in EVs, right? It's like these are some of just the best cars. Like when we were there in China it was like these are better than the, the cars we are driving or seeing in America. And I would assume with running shoes there's a cap, but I don't know. And I run all the time. I've never noticed the difference between the shoes. So I doubt at some point I'm going to try a Chinese shoe and be like, whoa, they cracked the code. So at that point.

[Michael]

But I think even in evs, like you could say the Porsche Takan is like maybe even a better driving experience than the SU7, but it's 1/4 the cost. So it's like that is where the real like holy shit moment comes. Comes from.

[Brandon]

Yeah. No, actually that's a fair point,

[Michael]

folks.

[Brandon]

Aiden, you. You made a noise like you're gonna say something and now you've been looking directly at the camera without changing his face.

[Aiden]

I have them all in suspense right now.

[Michael]

You've got us in the palm of your hand, but you might lose it. If you don't, you have to bring it home.

[Brandon]

Ladies and gentlemen, prepare yourself for the final words of Lemonade Stand.

[Aiden]

If you want to see my palm, you can see it on the Patreon.

[Brandon]

Horrible.

[Michael]

That was terrible.

[Brandon]

Be replaced by cheaper Chinese.

[Michael]

Yeah, we need a cheaper Chinese. Aiden. Dude.

[Aiden]

Yeah, you need leaning. Aiden. You need leaning. Aiden. Go to patreon.com lemonade stand if you want an extra hour of the show every week. How about that?

[Michael]

How about that?

[Aiden]

How about that?

[Michael]

Check us out on patreon.com lemonade stand we need a new Patreon goal to travel somewhere or something. We'll figure that out.

[Aiden]

We got to come up with a new plan.

[Michael]

Thanks guys for watching. That was another week of news. Appreciate you. See you next week.

[Brandon]

Next week.

[Michael]

Goodbye.