Trump's Delivering on His Promises

Summary

Podcast Summary: "Trump's Delivering on His Promises"

Part Of The Problem
Host: Dave Smith
Guest: Robbie the Fire Bernstein
Release Date: February 11, 2025

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Introduction

In this episode of Part Of The Problem, hosts Dave Smith and Robbie the Fire Bernstein delve into the evolving political landscape under President Donald Trump. They explore Trump's rising approval ratings, media bias, his controversial foreign policy proposals, and the shifting dynamics within the Libertarian movement. The discussion is punctuated with critical analysis and sharp critiques of mainstream media portrayals.

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1. Trump's Surging Approval Ratings

Key Discussion Points:

• Positive Net Approval: The episode begins with Dave highlighting a CNN poll indicating that President Trump currently holds a positive net approval rating of +4 points, a significant improvement from his -5 points eight years prior during his first term.

• Media Presentation: Dave criticizes CNN's simplistic presentation of the poll results, feeling that the network underestimates the intelligence of its viewers. He states, “They really do talk to you like you're idiots” ([05:07]).

Notable Quotes:

• CNN Reporter ([03:59]):
  “This is Trump's net approval rating on February 10th... He's on the positive side of the ledger at plus four points.”

• Dave Smith ([05:09]):
  “They really do talk to you like you're idiots.”

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2. Media Bias and Public Perception

Key Discussion Points:

• Discrepancy Between Polls and Observations: Dave and Robbie discuss how media polls have historically underestimated Trump's support, contrasting with observable public enthusiasm at events and on platforms like Super Bowl appearances.

• Speculation on Real Support: Dave speculates that Trump's actual approval may be significantly higher than reported, considering the disconnect between media narratives and real-world indicators.

Notable Quotes:

• Dave Smith ([07:29]):
  “It's very interesting... even the polls now are admitting that he is in the positive, in his job approval rating... perhaps it's them covering up the story that he's way in the positive.”

• Robbie the Fire Bernstein ([11:34]):
  “What's more interesting to me than the poll number is just during COVID they lied and they pretended like everyone was getting vaccinated.”

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3. Trump's Foreign Policy and the Gaza Proposal

Key Discussion Points:

• Controversial Proposal: The hosts critically examine Trump's proposal to take ownership of Gaza, citing it as an "awful" plan that could jeopardize his administration's successes.

• Potential Consequences: Dave warns that such a policy could plunge the U.S. into another Middle Eastern quagmire, undoing Trump's positive initiatives.

Notable Quotes:

• Dave Smith ([42:44]):
  “I do not think this plan is going to happen... this could really sink his administration.”

• Brett Baier Interview Clip (51:29):
  “We'll build beautiful communities... safe communities a little bit away from where they are.”

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4. Libertarian Movement and Elon Musk’s Influence

Key Discussion Points:

• Ron Paul and Federal Reserve Audits: Dave highlights Elon Musk's support for Ron Paul's initiative to audit the Federal Reserve, viewing it as a significant advancement for the Libertarian cause.

• Impact on Libertarian Agenda: The alignment between Musk and Libertarian ideals is seen as a boost for transparency and reducing government corruption.

Notable Quotes:

• Dave Smith ([24:02]):
  “It's almost a wet dream, man, that our ideas would ever be shared on this, like, large of a platform.”

• Robbie the Fire Bernstein ([24:54]):
  “Do you think is against the American people?”

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5. Critique of Media Figures and Misrepresentation

Key Discussion Points:

• Response to No Agenda Podcast: Dave vehemently criticizes the No Agenda podcast for misrepresenting Scott Horton’s affiliations and political stance, emphasizing the importance of accurate information.

• Defending Libertarian Voices: The hosts stress the necessity of supporting credible Libertarian voices like Scott Horton against misleading portrayals by other media outlets.

Notable Quotes:

• Dave Smith ([60:09]):
  “Scott is not a lefty. No, Scott did not vote for Donald Trump.”

• Robbie the Fire Bernstein ([56:35]):
  “All these people, they got lost their homes like they're just returning to nothing.”

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6. The Role of Elon Musk and Tech Influence

Key Discussion Points:

• Tech and Government Transparency: The episode touches on how tech leaders like Elon Musk are influencing government transparency and accountability through their platforms and initiatives.

• Impact on Policy Making: The support from influential figures is seen as pivotal in pushing forward policies that align with Libertarian values.

Notable Quotes:

• Dave Smith ([34:15]):
  “There's never been an opportunity to actually see a positive agenda moved forward for the country like we have right now.”

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Conclusion

Dave Smith and Robbie the Fire Bernstein conclude the episode on a cautiously optimistic note, acknowledging the potential for significant positive change under Trump's administration. However, they caution against policies that could undermine these advancements, emphasizing the need for vigilance and support within the Libertarian community to maintain momentum toward a freer nation.

Final Thoughts:

• The hosts express hope that Trump's high approval rating and new mandate will continue to support meaningful legislative changes.
• They urge listeners to remain informed and engaged, highlighting the importance of challenging misleading narratives and supporting credible voices within the Libertarian movement.

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Notable Quotes Summary:

• “They really do talk to you like you're idiots.” — Dave Smith ([05:09])
• “It's all an illusion. The truth is we could go way smaller than that and we would just be better off for it.” — Dave Smith ([33:43])
• “He’s not representing our community well.” — Robbie the Fire Bernstein ([34:04])

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This episode offers a comprehensive analysis of President Trump's current political standing, media relations, and the broader implications for Libertarianism in America. Through incisive commentary and critical examination, Dave and Robbie provide listeners with a deep understanding of the challenges and opportunities facing the administration.

Transcript

[Bombus]

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[Dave Smith]

Cozy.

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[Dave Smith]

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[Dave Smith]

What's up? What's up? Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to a brand new episode of Part of the Problem. I am Dave Smith. He is Robbie the Fire Bernstein. We are back. I do apologize for the, the mess up in the schedule. I'm gonna make episodes up to you guys this week. I know I'm two members only in the can we will get. Me and Rob were down in Fort Lauderdale getting. I'm sorry. Down in Key west, getting a little bit of R and R over the weekend and doing some shows. Thanks to everybody who came out to the shows. Man, it is fun to go down to Key west in the middle of the winter when you live in the northeast.

[Robbie the Fire Bernstein]

I told you it was fun down there. I wasn't lying. You could drink in town.

[Dave Smith]

You were not. Oh my God. It's, I, I can't even describe how good a drinking town it is. It's a, it's such a good drinking town. It's a, it's a dangerous town. You just sit there, you fly. My wife came down and we hung out at this resort the whole weekend. And we're just, I'm like floating in the pool and I'm like, all right, let's have our first drink. You know, what is it? And then it's like 9:15 in the morning. All right, that might be a little bit early. Might be a little bit early to start. But we did and we lived and we're back.

[Robbie the Fire Bernstein]

If I went to a town in Russia and there were like 97 year old women and they're all sitting around smoking cigarettes, I'd be like, cigarettes aren't that bad for you.

[Dave Smith]

They're all doing it here, obviously. I mean, they're fine.

[Robbie the Fire Bernstein]

And then you go down to Key west and they're all like 65, they look okay, and they're drinking for breakfast. Are like, this can't be that bad.

[Dave Smith]

Yeah, it was, it's dangerous. It's a dangerous game to play. But man, was it a lot of fun. I'm, I'm looking Forward to that. I want to go back. I want to make that like a regular winter thing. We go down during the winter to Key West. Get out of this for a little bit. Anyway, it was a lot of fun. We got a, a lot of stuff coming up and also just a lot to talk about on today's episode. So let me try to do this as quickly as I can. Tomorrow night. Tomorrow night, as I'm assuming it's happening as planned. I know there's some, some bad weather forecasts out here in New Jersey, but I. Tomorrow night I will be debating Josh Hammer at Princeton University The. The U.S. israeli relationship. Very much looking forward to that. I believe there are. It's pretty filled up, but I think there are a few seats available if you want to go. I just posted it on my Twitter. There's a link there. And then in a couple weeks, we will be in Houston, Texas, at the Punchline, and then after that at Helium Comedy Club in Buffalo, New York. Me and Robbie the Fire Bernstein are both really looking forward to those gigs. All right, so obviously we were off for the second half of last week, and so a lot's happened and there's a few things that I really wanted to make sure we talked about this. Okay, let's start with this, which I just find very fascinating. And it has to do with Donald Trump's approval numbers. So let's. Look, I want to let you listen to CNN explain this because, well, for a lot of reasons. Number one, let's get some eyeballs on them. Not too many people watching. We can up those numbers a little bit. We'll probably double it just by playing this clip on the show. But also, it's just, it's interesting to watch even them admit this. And then maybe let's talk about what this means. Exactly. So let's go to the CNN clip. Let's let them say it first and then we can respond.

[CNN Reporter]

CBS News out with a new poll showing that Americans seem to be liking what they're seeing, but it's a mixed bag. Yeah, I mean, look, it's. But it's not just cbs. You know, I like to take an average of the polls. I like to take an average of the polls. And holy smokes, I mean, look at what the difference is between now and versus eight years ago during the first Trump term. Right. This is Trump's net approval rating on February 10th. You go back to 2017, Trump was already underwater at minus 5 points on the net approval rating. That's approval minus disapproval. What a difference. Eight Years makes. He's on the positive side of the ledger at plus four points. And again, it's not just the CBS News poll. We're talking about the Gallup poll, we're talking about the Ipsos poll, We are talking about the Pew poll. All of these respective pollsters have Trump in a better position now than they did eight years ago. The bottom line is Americans are far more likely to say they like what they're seeing now versus what they felt during Trump's first term. Okay, so how rare is this? You're going to show us sort of where we're at now and how rare it is that this. So I want you to take a look at this plus size, this plus sign, right? Compare that to the negative side being on the plus size.

[Dave Smith]

They really do talk to you like you're idiots.

[CNN Reporter]

Positive net approval territory. A positive net approval rating for Donald Trump. Again, Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Entire first term, just 11 days. Just 11 days.

[Robbie the Fire Bernstein]

Donald Trump feels like the SNL run.

[CNN Reporter]

Faster rating, really, that. To the second term. Just so far. Just so far. We get all day.

[Dave Smith]

It just doesn't.

[CNN Reporter]

Second term, so far, he has been on the positive side of the ledger 21 days, all three weeks. That's already 10 more days than he was and is.

[Dave Smith]

Yeah, no, we get it, Herbal.

[CNN Reporter]

So again, this is just another sign that Americans are far more likely to like what they're seeing.

[Robbie the Fire Bernstein]

This is 2% milk. It's not like the 1%. There's a whole nother percentage of milk in there.

[Bombus]

His second term.

[Dave Smith]

I just want to get this next number out there, but it is funny how they talk to you like you're a fucking.

[CNN Reporter]

Is there something that Americans say about why it is that they. That they like him now more than they did back in the first term? You know, I think one of the things that's so important for politicians is for folks to believe what they're saying and that they're keeping their campaign promises. So I think this gives you a pretty gosh darn good idea of what may be going on. Trump's doing what he promised to do. You go back to April of 2017. It was just 46% of all Americans who said that Trump was doing what he promised to do. Compare that now to February of 2025. You know, there was a good show that was on during the 1990s called a different World. That is what's going on right now. We're living in a different world. 70% of Americans say Trump is doing what he promised to do.

[Dave Smith]

We can get an act.

[Robbie the Fire Bernstein]

Now I'll throw in another stat you don't need.

[Dave Smith]

It is, by the way, it is almost before you even get to the substance of these polls, which is, it's very interesting. But before you even get to that, it is hard to not just be like, what does CNN think of the intelligence of their viewer that they actually, they, it's the way I'd explain this to my 6 year old is like how they talk to you about it. It's like very. Yeah, no, I get plus minus. I know the difference you don't have. And why does it help for him to underline it? Like as if I couldn't say there's two numbers on the screen and then he has to go, no, let me underline. Now you see the first number. Okay, now here's the second number. The second, the second number is higher. And so you understand it's like, yeah, no, I get it.

[Robbie the Fire Bernstein]

This is two inside baseball. But that guy's like, if you combine the ShamWow guy with Modi.

[Dave Smith]

If you know Modi the stand up comedian, it's a solid reference for the. There's five people out there who really enjoyed that. But it is. Okay, so there's that part which is just kind of funny. But there is something to watching these poll numbers, to watching Donald Trump. And by the way, you know, they, they were comparing it to his poll numbers at the very beginning of his first term. I think they had April 2017 in there. So a little bit further than, than where he is this time. But that doesn't even count his poll numbers that fell dramatically lower over the next years of his administration. So Donald Trump according to these polls is starting from like a much stronger place than essentially he's ever been. That is very interesting. I also will say this and look, I'm speculating a little bit when I talk about this, so I'm throwing this out there more as something to think about than I have a definitive take on this. But one of the major themes that we talked about on the show quite a bit throughout the election, which really was an election unlike any other that I've lived through. And one of the things that I would just notice a lot was that every, every sign around you, you know, everything you could observe or touch or taste or feel, just told you that this was Trump's year. Like that Donald Trump was running away with this thing. Whether you were looking at crowd sizes or, you know, crowd reactions to Donald Trump, anything you could feel in the popular culture throughout the entire campaign it just felt like it was all going in Donald Trump's direction. And yet the entire time, the, the major pollsters, the ones being cited here, the, you know, whatever CBS was, the poll they started with there, and then they mentioned Gallup and I think ABC and CNN and a few others, all of these polls told us all election long, this was a coin flip. It was a coin flip. I mean, he was up a little bit against Joe Biden, but then once Kamala Harris came in, she went up for a little bit, and then it came back to just being a coin flip of a race according to them. Everything you could observe was telling you, this is all Donald Trump. All the pollsters were telling you, this is a coin flip. And then on election Day, you have Donald Trump winning the popular vote and every single swing state. Reality was much closer to what we could observe than it was to what these pollsters are telling you. And I gotta say, I know none of this is scientific. This is why I said, I'm just speculating about this stuff, but you see Donald Trump go to UFC events, you see him go to the super bowl, you see him go to all these things. Again, not a random sample. It's a particular slice of America that's going to UFC events, are going to the Super Bowl. But he is just, he's met like a king. Like, people are just so thrilled, they're so on board with him. And, you know, I think about, again, this is not nothing scientific about this, but there was that, There was, right after inauguration, you saw, there was that video clip of Tucker Carlson walking through the streets of Washington D.C. and he's getting like a hero's welcome. Like, I, I would have a couple years ago thought it would be dangerous for Tucker Carlson to walk the streets of Washington D.C. and now that people are chanting as he walks by, we love you, Tucker. You know, and there is just, I'm just saying it makes me wonder what's really going on here. You know, it seems like the, the polls always, very consistently, from the beginning, have, like, Donald Trump's always outperforms what the polls are saying he does. And when even the polls now are admitting that he is in the positive, in his job, approval ratings, or that 70% of Americans think he's coming through on the things that he ran on, I just, it makes me wonder what the real number is and if it's possible that the real number is actually much, much higher than this. Just something I'm thinking about.

[Robbie the Fire Bernstein]

Uh, what's more interesting to me than the poll number is just during COVID they lied and they pretended like everyone was getting vaccinated. You're crazy if you were.

[Dave Smith]

Yep.

[Robbie the Fire Bernstein]

They lied to pretend that Donald Trump couldn't possibly win against Hillary Clinton because they wanted to convince you, don't waste your vote. Be on the winning side. Vote for Hillary Clinton. We know now from USA id, Politico is getting checks. BBC was getting checks. Their entire game is to try and pretend like everything is in the world of normal. And if you don't agree with them and that's why they repeat things as much as they do, that's the propaganda machine. It's interesting that CNN would give any favorable coverage to him whatsoever. And I'm almost surprised to see them reporting on this, same as they didn't report on border stats for a long time during the Biden administration. So it's almost more surprising, like, more than the indicator of the poll. The fact that CNN is forced to cover it in a favorable way and not just go, my God, I guess 5% more of the country' racist. Now that he's actually ahead in the polling, to me is the more remarkable story.

[Dave Smith]

Right. But that's what makes you wonder if it's a limited hangout of sorts where it's like, well, we have to at least admit this to cover up the much bigger story, you know, which is something is a technique that they use, you know what I mean? Like they will admit to 10% of the scandal so that we, okay, yes, this did get a little out of our hands. We're rolling that back to kind of let the wind out of the, you know, let the air out of the movie movement that's furious about the other 90%. So if even that's, that's what makes me think that if they are even admitting that this guy is in, in the positive, in his job approval rating, then perhaps it's them covering up the story that he's way in the positive. Again, as we've said for a while now, you know, when this guy says we live in a different world, I did enjoy that show, by the way. When he says we live in a different world, it's like, well, why are we in a different world? And really the obvious answer here is that we lived under four years of Joe Biden and it's impossible to not contrast Donald Trump with the last administration. Like with all administrations, it's impossible to not to some degree contrast them with the last one. And by any objective measure, Donald Trump by just existing is so much better than Joe Biden.

[Robbie the Fire Bernstein]

We're also not three weeks into hearing about how he's a Russian asset. So it's, I mean, they're also, the polls just started. Let's see if he goes and he redevelops Gaza and what that does for his polling.

[Dave Smith]

Well, we'll get into that in a second. Obviously, we have to weigh in on the Gaza.

[Robbie the Fire Bernstein]

You just think of how much of a change it is from cooking up a fake Russia collusion story to actually reporting, hey, the American people like this guy so much that to me, that's a massive change. Going from the entire media apparatus just undermining you to actually giving the honest information of. Wait, people like this guy?

[Dave Smith]

Yeah, yeah. And of course it's like, why, Look, I guess I'll start with this, right? Because what you said there, even about the Gaza thing, and we'll, we'll get into the specific, the specifics of that in a second, but it does let, you know, like, look, Donald Trump is in there right now and he's got, let's just say, a lot of, certainly from our perspective, a lot of good things that he wants to do, right? Like he wants the economy to be booming. He wants to get illegal immigration under control. He wants, I think, on some level, for there to not be foreign wars like this. He wants to end the war in Ukraine. You know, the stuff in the Middle east is a little bit more not great, but having Doge, I mean, wanting, you know, to, to, to kind of audit the federal government and cut spending and reveal corruption within government, there's all of these great things. And right now he's got a strong approval rating. He's got this kind of mandate behind him. He's got the energy and the vibe shift behind him. And you just, it feels like, look, there's going to be a moment of, of coming back down to reality. There will be some point, Trump will mess something up. There will be something unpopular that he does. This is kind of the way it always goes with presidents, no matter who they are. But you can't overstate how much you need to not fall into one of these potential disasters, because that's what could really ruin all of this. If you can keep this up where you're somewhat popular and the, the, the corporate media and the old regime, the shadow government, they seem to kind of be out of bullets in their chamber. It seems like they just don't have another thing to go to. I mean, like, you know, like, as, as you mentioned, Robin, you're absolutely right. What were they doing last time around? Well, they were smearing him as a Russian spy. That was their game for the first Trump term. But after Russiagate completely fell apart and after Covid was just exposed for all the l, it seems like they don't have another big one of those to go to. Like, what are they going to say? He's a Russian spy again? You know, like, it just doesn't seem possible. And in that environment, there is. When I, when I say that, like, there's never been an opportunity to actually see a positive agenda moved forward for the country like we have right now. There's never been anything even remotely close. Like, there's just never been anything like this before, particularly with some of the stuff that's going on at Doge, which I want to get into a little bit more. But that's part of the reason why it's so important that Trump doesn't fall into one of these disasters. And what would the disasters be? Well, the pretty obvious ones right now would be getting into another catastrophic war in the Middle east or getting into an escalated confrontation with Russia. These seem to be the real dangers that are right in front of Donald Trump right now. So if he can avoid that, then we can continue with this positive agenda where things that, again, I can't really stress this enough. Things that would have seemed like libertarian pipe dreams two years ago are now being discussed by people with enormous influence and power. All right, guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show, which is my Patriot Supply. We've all seen the headlines. Cyber attacks on the power grids, drones flying in the sky, constant instability around the world. If you are anything like me, you want to make sure that no matter what happens, your family is protected. And that's why I trust my Patriot supply. Their four week emergency food kit is a must have. It gives you the nutrition you need to stay strong in a crisis. With 2000 calories per day and 100% of your daily value of 12 essential vitamins and minerals, the kit keeps you going when every meal matters. Right now, they're offering $50 off their four week food kits. Go to preparewithsmith.com to grab yours. Now. Don't put this off. Now is the time to prepare. Preparewithsmith.com to get your four week food kit today. All right, let's get back into the show. I don't know. Did you see this? Our very own Liam McCollum. Did you see what Elon Musk said to him? Let's. Let's pull that tweet up. Natalie so people can just look at this. This is what I'm talking about. As, as there are libertarians who want to fight about the latest drama on the LNC or like, whatever, some ridiculous factionalism. Our own Liam McCollum guest on. On this show. Great. One of the most talented young libertarians out there in the country. He tweets out, doge and Elon Musk should let Ron Paul lead a Federal Reserve audit team. To which Elon Musk replies, good idea. Elon Musk also recently shared, like, an entire episode of the Ron Paul's Liberty Report his show and to his 130 million Twitter followers, or whatever it is he has. You have the richest man in the world, one of the most influential men in the world, who's in charge of this, you know, kind of imaginary department, but seems to be turning it into some real things he's in charge of. He is sharing the message of Ron Paul. He just tweeted out this phenomenal Milton Friedman video where he's talking about how the only issue that matters is government spending and that that ultimately is the tax. And it doesn't really matter whether they tax you for it or print the money to make it up. They're still taxing you for it, for it. Even if they borrow the money. They're just promising to tax you in the future for it. So the only thing that matters is cutting government spending. Like, I'm sorry, but as somebody who's been in this libertarian world for what I 2007 is when I got into it. So what is this, 18 years I've been in this libertarian world? And this is like, this is a wet dream, man, that our ideas would ever be shared on this, like, large of a platform. The whole thing back then was that Ron Paul got into the presidential debates and they would never give him much time. They'd give him like seven minutes total. But in those seven minutes, he could say some awesome shit that would just be like, yo, that stole the debate. And that. And then the Internet was the only way you could spread because the. The corporate media would black him out. This was the Jon Stewart joke, if you remember the. Why are they pretending Ron Paul is the 13th floor of a hotel? Because they would literally. Jon Stewart literally plays this clip from CNN where they go, they go, they go, mitt Romney is now in the polls. Mitt Romney is now the favorite to be the Republican nominee, knocking Michelle Bachman down to third. And then Jon Stewart's like, who's number two? They would just not tell you, like, they would literally report on one and three and leave out two. It was so they just wanted to make sure no one heard this guy's message. And now people are hearing this guy's message from, like, this huge. Being amplified on the biggest platform. Like, that alone is so valuable. But also, Elon Musk has, like, found this team of, like, tech geniuses to really, like, go over the numbers, and he's openly talking about auditing the Federal Reserve. I just can't explain how great that is. And, you know, that's part of these things are all related. Like, Donald Trump's approval ratings being high is, like, a necessary component to be able to do anything positive with this shit, because you have to have somewhat of a popular mandate. That's at least part of it. You know, like, we've always said for years, right, that you would need these different aspects to come together in order to ever have anything positive happen in D.C. like, one, you would need popular will behind the ideas. Like, you would need people who were. Who had. Had been broken out of the government propaganda and were kind of, like, aware of how corrupt and criminal it was. And then you would also need, like, you know, elites. You would need, like, some billionaire who's, like, gets on board and is like, yes, I'm gonna fund this thing. I'm gonna get behind it. I'm gonna put resources into this. And we just kind of seem to see at least possibly a lot of these things coming together right now. Like, oh, we have that component now. Oh, we have that component. It's a pretty exciting time also. And I know, Rob, you got to love this. The. The reaction to Doge, in many ways says it all. Like, the fact that everyone's freaking out so much about the fact that, what, like, these books might be opened. We might actually be able to look and see what you're spending our money on, and then maybe even roll some of it back. And you see the freak out from people. You just could. If you got that. There's the other video that I sent you, Natalie. I think that I didn't put in the order for today, but it's the one with Kara Swisher, who I was just arguing with on Piers Morgan. Just. We don't have to go to it right now, but if you want to, just pull that one up. But isn't it interesting, Rob, as somebody who you've been talking about this stuff for a long time, to see people actually talking in a serious way about government spending and then to see it's the first one I Sent you? No, not that one. It's up on the text thread. It was the one that I had sent you right at 8:14am this morning. Right after I told you that I've decided to move. Yes, that's the one. Right after I told you that I was staying in Key west forever and I quit everything. That was my next text after that. But hold on one second on that. But any thoughts on what we were saying, Rob?

[Robbie the Fire Bernstein]

What about the just Doge and the.

[Dave Smith]

Freak out or any of it?

[Robbie the Fire Bernstein]

One of the parts of the freak out, which is incredible, is the people going, hey, this is such a small portion of how much money we spend. And he goes, wait, so are you against cleaning up fraud and abuse? Do you think we should just let that slide? I mean, it seems like the low hanging fruit to clean that up. And where's the Bernie Sanders screaming about with the millionaires, the billionaires? Well, what about the people who became millionaires because of a government check that just goes into a thing? What about those people? You got a problem with the free market millionaires, but not the green energy, new deal people, the Obama thing that just went under in California? What about all the people with favorable government contracts? What about all the people that constitute the 1% because they're just getting these government checks through backdoor handouts for, you know, transgender research in Jamaica?

[Dave Smith]

Dude, it's such a great point. I mean, I don't even remember the, the numbers offhand, but somebody please correct me if I'm wrong about this. And I'm sure Bernie Sanders said something vague about the transfer of wealth during COVID You know what I mean? Like, I'm sure you write some comment about like, oh, we're creating more billionaires and that's why we need to tax them, or that's why we need more government programs. But did he ever once, like, say, like, hey, well, I think it was like 40 new pharma billionaires were created during COVID During COVID You know, sorry, I said it like Bernie Sanders during COVID but you know what I'm saying? There was something, it was something like that. Like dozens of new pharmaceutical billionaires were created during COVID Did Bernie Sanders ever have a problem with that? You know, it's like he never seems to really highlight the billionaires that are created by government and make that argument because, like, at the very least, if that was your concern, you'd think you should have been against all the COVID policies, right? It's the largest transfer of wealth in human history from the working and middle class to the elite, yet you have no issue with that. They just think, look, and I think this kind of says it all right here, but if you just really zoom out and think about Doge and the reaction to it, okay? We, this, these are just like some objective facts, right? We, the US Federal government is the biggest organization in the history of the world, okay? By any measurement. They, we spend about $7 trillion a year and we are something like $36 trillion in debt right now. Maybe approaching $37 trillion in debt, okay? Biggest organization in the history of the world, spends more money than anybody else in the history of the world and has accumulated more debt than any other organization in the history of the world. And as soon as anybody even suggests modest cuts or even just opening the books, everyone in this town loses their freaking mind and says it's gonna be the end of the world. And that in fact, this is the corruption. The corruption is opening the books. The corruption is cutting any government spending. Think about for a second how fucking ass backward that is. You know, it's like, look, the whole thing here, the whole game is that this is big government. I mean, this is what it is. And people can sit here and they can say, as some kind of like right wing reactionary types will argue at times, they'll say that like, well, it doesn't really matter how big or small the government is. It matters how corrupt they are. It matters how good they are. But libertarians always had the answer to that, like from way back. That was always the point. It was like, yeah, but that's why you don't want the thing to be giant, because if it goes corrupt, then you're screwed. And so they're now like, no, no, no, the problem isn't that it was so big. The problem is that it went corrupt. No, the problem was that it was so big and it went corrupt. If it was, if it wasn't a gigantic organization, it wouldn't matter that much that it went corrupt. This is the whole game. The whole game is that they operate in secrecy and they have enormous power. That's it. All this wealth is extracted from the American people and given to this corrupt organization. And so for that issue to finally, finally, so long overdue for that issue to finally be in the forefront is just amazing to watch. And I gotta say, I really enjoy watching the people spaz out over it because just look at like what they're reduced to arguing here, look at this. Let's, let's play that clip. I forget the other guy's name. But Kara Swisher is the one I was just arguing with on Piers Morgan. She was saying dumb shit to me and here they are saying more dumb shit to other people.

[Kara Swisher]

I want to know who are these, these young, highly intelligent, highly motivated zealots following them into these buildings and shutting off payments to schools and head starts? I want to know their names.

[Robbie the Fire Bernstein]

Well, I want to see Democrats.

[Dave Smith]

The local officials are trying to make that official. The new, newly installed Trump are threatening people for naming their names.

[Kara Swisher]

Just so you know, but go ahead. Oh yeah, but they can unmask CIA officers who put their lives in harm's way to try and keep our, to try and keep our Americans safe. I want to know who their names are and I want to see Democratic governors saying I'm going to do everything I can in my power to use the full faith and to the letter of the law to put you folks in prison. I think what you're doing is trespassing. I think this is a couple. And be clear, just because the new insurrectionist who was elected, you know, I don't believe this is legal and I'm going to hold the people accountable who are trespassing and part of a coup accountable to just sit back and say this is horrible and this is unlawful. We need to go gangster here and say, there you go. Look, we are not negotiating around this stuff. This is illegal. This is a coup. This is the unlawful seizure of power. We are not going to engage in these bullshit, ridiculous arguments over Gaza and Greenland. We are going to hold the people accountable. Here are their names, here are their faces.

[Dave Smith]

All right, we can pause it here. But of course we're now conflating Gaza and Greenland with Doge or something like that. It's a coup, Rob. It's another insurrection. This time the coup is when a president is democratically elected and does what he ran on doing. That's a coup. You understand? It's a coup when the guy who's democratically elected wants to open the books on the shadow government of non democratically elected bureaucrats and spies. You see, that's what a coup is, right? See, I'm over the same people who will say that I'm overplaying my hand when I call the Maidan revolution a coup because the US pumped tens of millions of dollars into a protest movement to overthrow a democratically elected president. That's not a coup. A coup, you understand, Rob, is when you go against the good men and women of the CIA who just want to protect Americans. Now this is like it's so it's so pathetic, the game here, too, because the other aspect, which he kind of touched on there, is that they go like, you're getting rid of charity, essentially. If you, if you're, if you want to bring down USAID or something like that, then you are, you know, they'll point to, like, one thing where they bought some kids some meals and be like, oh, look, you want these kids to starve. But this is, this is on the level of if, you know, the Mafia would buy, like, you know, as they always did, right? They'd buy like a waste management plant or something like that. And then you go, oh, we're shutting down the Mafia, you know, because they're like killing all these people and robbing from all these people and doing all this organized crime that they're kind of known for. And you went, oh, so you just want everyone's toilets to overflow. You just want everyone to be shitting in buckets and you're like, no, no, maybe we could do that part without the murder. You know what I mean? Like, maybe it's. That's really what we want to shut down. But that's what they're trying to convince you of now. That in fact, right, that. Look, even when you think about the. The most drastic cuts that have been proposed, right, Like, I think when Vivek Ramaswamy was still with Doge, I think they had. They had proposed $2 trillion in, in cuts. $2 trillion in cuts would take us to like 2017 levels of government. It would just be going back to pre pandemic, which, by the way, this is how it always works. The ratchet effect of big government. There's some emergency and they go, look, we need record high government spending for that emergency. And then that becomes the new baseline, and then we increase from there, right? So, like, if we had to, like, say we had to turn government spending way up in 2020 during COVID that was the justification. Well, why can't we go back to 2019 now? Isn't Covid over? Oh, no, that's just normal forever now. Same with George W. Bush's spending levels after 9 11. It's an emergency. There's 9 11. We have to increase government spending. And by the way, we're never going back down. We've never seen pre 911 levels of spending since then. Obama, the 2008 fiscal crash. The answer to that was the stimulus package. Again, the same thing. Just a different word for the same thing. Increase government spendings. Do we ever go back to the George W. Bush level spending. Nope. And by the way, just to be clear, when Elon Musk and the Vikramaswamy proposed a $2 trillion cut, they're not proposing we go back to the pre 911 levels. They're not proposing we go back to THE pre 2008 crash levels. They are proposing we go back to the pre Covid levels. And we're supposed to act like in 2017 when the biggest, most powerful organization to ever exist was the US Federal government, that somehow if we go back to that now, that is the wild, wild west. You know what I mean? That is like, that is cutting government to the bone. And we could never survive on that. It's all, it's all an illusion. The truth is we could go. We could go way smaller than that and we would just be better off for it.

[Robbie the Fire Bernstein]

I remember that guy was a real douche on Covid as well. And I'm sure I'd like to see him regrow his hair because I don't like him bringing such badness to our bald community when there's so many great.

[Dave Smith]

Bald leaders out there. And yet this, you, Larry David, that's all I can think of. But there's. I'm sure there's others.

[Robbie the Fire Bernstein]

He's not representing our community well. And so I'd like to disavow him. And same as I've disavowed some Jews and said, I don't like those Jews. That guy doesn't represent me or my fellow balds.

[Dave Smith]

That guy does not represent true baldness. Yeah, the message of true baldness was always one of limit limited government and peace and prosperity. I, I agree with you completely.

[Robbie the Fire Bernstein]

Now my, my second thought on this is that, you know, like, I, I kind of look at Doge. If I worked in office, some boss came out and said, hey, we're selling the following product. And you think they're a little bit. Being a little bit too aggressive with the marketing, but then it turns out the customers are real happy with the product and you go, all right, I don't really like the way we marketed this, but I guess everyone's happy. So it worked. I don't know that I love the Doge mechanism. I don't know that. Like, look at what happened with the Biden Hunter Biden thing. You had the Republicans investigating that forever. I listened to that cattle rancher a million Times. Talking about 20 companies this, that, or the next thing. It could be Elon Musk with his three wizards and some AI algorithms can actually cut through the entire government's budget and tell us where all the fraud and abuse is going to. And I don't understand how you take the other side of that. We should not get rid of the fraud and abuse from government. Like you were saying, where, where's the cue? Like, if that's the end result. So, fine, maybe there'd be a better mechanism for how to clean this up. And maybe Elon Musk, even if he's appointed by the President, shouldn't be allowed to have a private company also. Maybe. But even so, there are government contracts. Microsoft has a government contract for the cloud, or maybe it's Amazon at this point. So. And he's not even getting paid for this work, so he's. And it's from the directive of the President. But. So all I'm saying is, even if you take issue with the mechanism that it's Elon Musk doing it, what about the end result that we've seen so far? Do you think is against the American people?

[Dave Smith]

Listen, I would totally be open to the argument that this is not the ideal mechanism. If anybody could present me with a plausible alternative to where maybe we'd get some of this action from. Yes, you're right. Strictly speaking, this should come from the Congress, and the Congress should be abolishing all these organizations, auditing all these organizations, but that ain't happening. And so, you know, yeah, I would rather some of the, some of the things that Donald Trump's done through executive order, I'd rather they be done by the legislative branch and let them sign it into law. That would certainly, if you wanted to end birthright citizenship or if you wanted to, you know, whatever, ban men from competing with women in sports or if you want to do it, yeah, it'd be better off to have legislation that the next president can't just undo with an executive action. Okay, present the. You know, it's like I, I want to audit the Federal Reserve. Thomas Massie just introduced a great bill to audit the Federal Reserve. Okay, is that going to pass? Because then if not, I gotta be honest, I think, like, I'm, I'm against tyranny. I'm for individual liberty and natural rights. I'm against tyranny. I'm not that picky at this point about what method is used to roll back the tyranny and advance the individual rights. I don't know. I just don't really think we're in a position to be picky about the methodology.

[Robbie the Fire Bernstein]

It'd be tough to say. Let's say Elon Musk just made These recommendations of, hey, I found the following fraud, and now Congress has to decide not to fund that fraud, which would then be pretty ridiculous of Congress to go, no, we're going to continue to send checks to the BBC. We're going to continue to buy POLITICO memberships at $40,000 for a subscription. We're going to continue to send trans money down to Afghanistan.

[Dave Smith]

Right.

[Robbie the Fire Bernstein]

I don't even understand the argument though, that if Donald Trump wants to give data access to somebody to expose fraud and abuse, that that should be illegal or that that should be considered a queue coup or that in some way it's dangerous. Can you explain to me how the access to what should be public and transparent data is dangerous?

[Dave Smith]

Yeah.

[Robbie the Fire Bernstein]

Or how someone who's probably has better and more secure technology than I bet the blackberries or whatever the government's working with. And if you're the president, you can declassify information. So if you can declassify information, how can you not say, hey, I want this person to be able to access this data?

[Dave Smith]

As the guy, as your fellow baldy was saying to you, Rob, he goes, I don't even want to argue about this. There's a reason why he doesn't want to argue about this. Because you have no argument. Yeah.

[Robbie the Fire Bernstein]

Present the case. What is the, what is the danger here?

[Dave Smith]

Just say it's a coup. And, and, but also, by the way, and this is where you realize it's so, it's something. I mean, I've been beating this drum for so many years at this point, but it's just so true that this is not a left versus right issue. This is like an establishment versus dissident issue. This is a, this is a who wants to protect the regime and who wants to restore the Republic.

[Robbie the Fire Bernstein]

Yeah. Probably has a USA check.

[Dave Smith]

Yeah.

[Robbie the Fire Bernstein]

It's because he's out showing some bullshit and he doesn't want his money turned off.

[Dave Smith]

Look, it's one thing, it's one of the things that I find to be unfortunate that that still exists, that people just get. And I'm not saying like left and right aren't useful concepts. They certainly are. But it's when people, you'll see a lot of the Trump supporters, like the left is freaking out or something like this. Look, if you, if the CIA is brought up and your definition of the CIA in your head is these great American patriots who are just out trying to save people's lives and you're gonna unmask them, you know, like as if, as if it's taken as an A priori given that the CIA are just the good guys. And so if they do anything in secret, then you're the bad guy for trying to reveal their secrecy. Think about that. That is not a left or a right wing position. That is a I am a defender of the regime position, period. And nobody, I mean, like, nobody what, like how brain dead would you have to be to actually believe that? Who thinks that? That's what the CIA does. Just a team of good guys. Just a team of good guys who are always out trying to protect Americans. That's just what they're driven by. It's Jack Bauer is real life. That's what they're doing. They're just always trying to torture the truth out of somebody so that we save everyone's lives. Who doesn't recognize that the CIA is a paramilitary organization that lies the American people into war after war after war, that commits covert military actions that are not totally undemocratic, that are not even decided by our democratic leaders most of the time. I mean, come on. Exposing the secrecy and the corruption of the CIA makes you the good guy, not the bad guy. And if you have the opposite worldview, then I'm sorry, that's not. That's not a left wing position. That's just an evil defender of the regime. And I, you know, that's a. I wouldn't be surprised if you don't want to debate about that because who the hell would want to take that position in a debate? All right, guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show, which is Public Rec. Guys, you gotta try the Game Changer pants from Public Rec. If you are sick of stiff office pants where you feel awful, this is what you gotta check out. Now you can feel like you're just relaxing in your sweatpants, but you still look appropriate at the office party or at a. Or at a function where you're supposed to be dressed up. This is the type of thing that I would really go for. I don't have an office job, so I'm able to be comfortable most of the time. But if you do have an office job, go check out the Game Changer pants. They'll be your new Go to Public Rec. Not only has the most comfortable pants ever made in many different styles, but they also have a huge selection of high quality everyday basics. You can revamp your entire wardrobe with the perfect fitting. Polo shorts and hoodies. These are the most comfortable dress pants you will ever wear in your life. So now you can actually look good while not having to sacrifice comfort. So stop suffering in regular pants. And for a limited time only, our listeners will get 20% off when they use the promo code problem at checkout. That's 20% off with the promo code problem@public rec.com and after you purchase, if they ask where you heard about this, make sure to mention that you heard about it on the part of the problem podcast. Public rec.com promo code problem for 20% off. All right, let's get back into the show. Okay. Site crashed for a second, but we're back up and running, guys. All right, let's, let, let's move on here because I do want to make sure we hit both of these things. And this is what happens when we're off for too long. I'm, I'm, I'm backed up and I want to make sure we get all of this. So first, we haven't yet. So we got to talk about the Trump Gaza proposal, which, look, I just, that's our rubble.

[Robbie the Fire Bernstein]

Our bombs made it. We own it now. We demolished the area. We're going to rebuild it.

[Dave Smith]

Well, it really is right. Israel breaks it, we buy it. I guess that is the, the lesson to, to be learned. If you break it, you buy it. But the you is Israel, and then the other you has to be us. Look, man, and, and like I, again, I say this as somebody who just said everything I've said on the show so far and somebody who supported Trump in this election and is just, you know, cautiously optimistic but incredibly hopeful about what could actually be accomplished in this administration. This, I do not think this plan is going to happen. I think it is almost inconceivable that he could actually get Egypt and Jordan to take in the Palestinians from Gaza. But I just, I, I, to be clear here, this is about as awful a proposal as you as any president could make. This is, and it, part of what's so horrible about it is that it has the potential to, like, ruin all these other positives. Like, if Donald Trump actually were to try to go through with something like this, this could really sink his administration. It could plunge America into another just catastrophic quagmire, and it could undo all of the good things he's done and all of the potential good things that he could do with this high approval rating and this new mandate and, and all the energy behind the Trump administration. So, man, I, you know, I don't think this is actually going to happen. I think this is kind of a Trump first, you know, whatever. It's like the way his mind works is that he's a real estate developer. So he goes, ah, ocean front property. Money could be made off this. He's floating out an idea that I think he believes is going to put pressure on the other Arab nations. But even that is just terrible because that's not really. Who needs pressure put on them? Like the idea that you're pressuring any of these other countries. Like, look, even someone said to me, I was trashing this idea on Twitter and someone said to me, now, Dave, what he's really doing is putting pressure on Saudi Arabia to come to the table now and to negotiate in good faith. It's like, dude, go look at Saudi Arabia's proposed peace plan. It was totally reasonable already. They took the same. I mean it's, it's pretty easy to propose a peace plan in this region because the same plan has been on the table so many times before, which is what, 67 borders, you know, like a, a two state solution. Like, you guys have to stop occupying Palestine. Palestine has to stop suicide, suicide bombing people in Israel. Like that is the, Everybody knows what the solution is. But the idea that people are saying, which is what seems to me to be the most common defense of this insane proposal that Donald Trump floated out, which is like, gotta try something new, gotta shake it up. The status quo hasn't been working. It's like, okay, well, I agree with you on that. What exactly is the status quo? Oh, yeah, the status quo is unconditionally supporting Israel in. No matter what, no matter what they want to do. Even if what they want to do is against what the President wants them to do, they'll still get their check in the mail. They'll still get their bombs in the mail. I don't think you send bombs by mail, but you get my point. That's, that's been the status quo. So you want to shake things up and try something new. Okay, how about America not funding Israel anymore? That's something new. How about a Palestinian state? That would be something new. So don't just give it no, just to shake things up and try something new. Doesn't mean we will go ethnically cleanse the Palestinians out of Palestine for you Israel, since that's been your goal all along, it's like, oh, I don't know, like, I'm all for, you know, I thought when Michael Knowles was defending it the other day and he said that, he goes, well, you know, the definition of insanity is trying the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. And it's like yeah, okay, but that doesn't mean that the definition of sanity is you just suggest anything that's different than the same thing, you know, like, yes, if you, if you have like a headache and you take Advil every single day and the headache won't go away, then, yeah, taking Advil the next day and thinking the headache is going to go away maybe is a little bit insane to think the same thing is going to work this time when it hasn't worked. But that doesn't mean hitting yourself in the head with a hammer is a great proposal. You know what I mean? Like, just because it's different doesn't mean it's the right thing to do. And no, this would be. Oh, my God. First of all, the idea, it's so not based in reality, the idea that you're going to get Egypt and Jordan to take in the palace. By the way, one thing you might have noticed from the press conference, Rob, that Trump said, he said all of them and he said either 1.6 or 1.7 million, by the way, you know, the latest numbers were that there were 2.3 million people in Gaza. And so I just saying, I don't know exactly where he got these numbers from, but I've always said from the very beginning of this that the people who were arguing over whether the Ministry of Health's numbers were accurate or inaccurate, that this was all a complete, like, non point, and that if you just look at what Israel is doing here and you look at the population density and you look at the number of bombs that they've dropped, that there are going to be hundreds of thousands of people who die as a result of this. And it's. A lot of them die, which is what always happens in war. A lot of them die from secondary effects. You know, like they don't necessarily die because a bomb dropped right on top of them and killed them. They might die because they couldn't get medical treatment because all the medical resources have been exhausted due to the war. You know what I mean? Like there's, you blow up hospitals, people die for unrelated reasons. And so anyway, it's a interesting window into what the real numbers are there. But Donald Trump makes the point that, oh, these other countries will take them and then we can go in there and build up. But look, here's the bottom line. How are you going to make them leave? I mean, they, they've stayed through all of this. They've stayed through decades and decades and decades of brutal occupation, of brutal blockades. How are you going to make them leave. And if the US Owns it, as Donald Trump said, we're taking it over. The assumption would be that we have to make them leave. So you're saying what, we're going to send the US Military in to now fight a war with Hamas, something that Israel's been unable to eliminate? Hamas by all intelligence reporting. So what, we're going to take that on now? And also, is there anything thought at all to, like, understanding that this has been at the center of the Muslim world's beef with America? Like, this is the reason why we've had to deal with the Al Qaeda problem, why we had to have this, this terrorism issue to begin with? Do you have any idea, like, how much that will increase if we were to actually go in and just, just transparently, nakedly finish the ethnic cleansing for Israel? It is just, it's a disastrous proposal, and I truly hope it ends soon, like, even entertaining this. I don't know if there's anything you want to add to this, Rob.

[Robbie the Fire Bernstein]

It seems particularly cruel. And for as much as I fought back on the sanctity of borders and Putin talk, because of all the things we've been doing in the world, and there was, you know, I think we provoked him and, you know, we're moving a military close to him, but the idea of, but Israel being able to bomb its neighbors out of the territory and then just keep. It seems. Seems like it shouldn't be part of the world in 2025.

[Dave Smith]

Yeah. Well, listen, here's. Let's play here. Donald Trump did elaborate more on this for some people who were arguing with me that he wasn't saying that the Palestinians would get kicked out.

[Robbie the Fire Bernstein]

Some of the things he was saying in the Netanyahu conference also where he goes, the Palestinian people have just been unlucky, and no matter how long they're going to be here.

[Dave Smith]

Yeah.

[Robbie the Fire Bernstein]

It's like he's just describing as if this was the result of an alien invasion.

[Dave Smith]

But you're sitting next to the guy who did it. Yeah. You're sitting next to him and going, the place has been destroyed. It's unlivable. It's horrible that people have to live like that. And he's like, yeah, no, I agree. You totally should kick him out for us now.

[Robbie the Fire Bernstein]

Yeah.

[Dave Smith]

And then, of course, Donald Trump, you know, he speaks in kind of coded language, but at the same time, I know who this guy has always been, what his position on Israel has always been. I know the people that he has around him in his cabinet, and I know that Miriam Adelson our Palestinian friend gave him $100 million. Okay. So it's like, people are like, oh, he's not really saying this. He's saying this like, no, it seems much more likely. This is actually what he's saying. He said Gaza would be for the people of the region, but that the Palestinians would have to go.

[Robbie the Fire Bernstein]

Yeah.

[Dave Smith]

So if it's not for the Palestinians, who are these people of the region that it's for? Sounds like Israelis would be the answer to that. Okay. And here a bunch of people were arguing with me on Twitter. No, no, no, no. He's just saying, relocate them while we clean up all the mines, and then they can go back in. Well, here is Donald Trump addressing that on his super bowl interview with Brett Baier.

[Brett Baier]

We'll build beautiful communities for the 1.9 million people will build beautiful communities. Safe communities. Could be five, six, could be two, but we'll build safe communities a little bit away from where they are, where all of this danger is. In the meantime, I would own this. Think of it as a real estate development for the future. It would be a beautiful piece of land. Would the Palestinians turn? No, they wouldn't, because they're going to have much better housing. Much better. In other words, I'm talking about building a permanent place for them. Because if they have to return now, it'll be years before you could ever. It's not habitable. It will be years before it could happen. I'm talking about starting to build. And I think I could make a deal with Jordan. I think I could make a deal with Egypt. You know, we give them billions and billions of dollars a year. We'll build beautiful communities.

[Dave Smith]

Just to be clear, this is the. This is what he's saying. We'll build them big, beautiful refugee camps, and they'll love them so much. They'll love the refugee camps in Egypt so much that they will. I don't know, whatever. And I gotta tell you, I also do think, you know, for people who argue with me about this and they're like, no, no, no, this is art of the deal. Well, first of all, it doesn't make any sense. He's not putting pressure on the people you'd need to put pressure on to actually get to the right deal at the end of this. And number two, I do not think there's any practical way that this can be pulled off. You know, he can sit here and say, oh, we give foreign aid to Egypt and Jordan. That is true. You know, and people will point out, like, they'll go, they'll go, oh, well, look, Dave, he was able to threaten tariffs on Mexico and Canada and get them to send 10,000 troops each, you know, to the border. And so, look, he's going to get these concessions out of them. It's. Look, I, I understand when people feel that way. All you're really saying is that you don't understand the region at all and you don't understand the history and you don't understand the issues here. And it's fine. Not everybody has to. But it is such a wildly different ask to, to ask Egypt and Jordan to take in nearly 2 million people than it is to ask Mexico to send 10,000 troops to their border. That is not a regime threatening request that you're asking of Mexico. Like, the Mexican government does not believe that they will fall if they put 10,000 troops on the border. But in Egypt, last time you had elections, the Muslim Brotherhood won and then there was a military coup and now there's a military dictatorship where they're holding that Muslim Brotherhood down. You think they're just going to take in a bunch of people from Hamas and change around those numbers? In Jordan, you have a. I don't know the exact percentage split right now, but it's close to 50% of the population is Palestinian. Okay. You think the Hashemites are going to bring in another 500,000 Palestinians to give a majority or like that much more of a majority to the. It's like, these are very difficult questions to ask, but they're very, I should say, very difficult things to actually achieve. But the idea that, look, but first of all, in theory, if the people of Gaza, if we got them, like, if we gave them the option to relocate somewhere while Gaza is rebuilt, and then they could move back in after, and they voluntarily wanted to do that. I'm not like, necessarily opposed to that. Like, if you got Egypt on board to be like, hey, we have these facilities, they can stay here until this thing is rebuilt and then they can move back, that's one thing. But if you're actually talking about this is just blatant ethnic cleansing, if you're saying that we're just going to, against the will, we're going to force nearly 2 million people, whatever's left of that 2 million people, we're going to force them out and then make it something for Israelis to come and live in, that is just, that's just so wrong and so not our responsibility to, to do. It's just a disastrous proposal. Really hope that Donald Trump changes his mind on that one. All Right, guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show, which is Moink. I love this company so much, especially in this current moment where I think people are waking up to what's really in our food and how you kind of can't really just trust the supermarket. You got to check out Moink. Okay? Moink works with American family farmers. The business is simple. Moink meat comes from animals raised outdoors where a pig is free to be a pig. Their farmers are given an honest day's pay for an honest day's work and they deliver meat straight to your doorstep at prices you can actually afford. If you want to get grass fed, grass finished beef, delicious chicken, sustainably caught, wild salmon, they got a ton of different options. And you're keeping American farms going by joining the Moink movement. Join [e-mail] potp if you sign up today, you get a free gift in your first order. That's moinkbox.com m o I n k b o x.com potp to get fresh, delicious meat from local family farmers delivered right to your door. Moinkbox.com PotP all right, let's get back into the show.

[Robbie the Fire Bernstein]

I also, there's a lack of conversation about the Israel responsibility for all the homes that they've demolished. I mean, human life is an issue, obviously, but all these people, they got lost their homes like they're just returning to nothing.

[Dave Smith]

Yeah.

[Robbie the Fire Bernstein]

Like, and then when the ceasefire is over, they got to go back to the south. This keeps like what? I don't even, you know, I mean, there's not much of a conversation here about Israel responsibility or what the plan is.

[Dave Smith]

I could not agree more. All right, listen, I just, let's, let's move over because I just do want to make sure I get this in today. So evidently there's the, the no Agenda podcast with Adam Curry is the host of it. I'm not familiar with this. I've heard of the show before, but I'm not super familiar with it. I know Adam Curry was, was a MTV VJ like way back in the day. But anyway, he's a podcaster now. I guess he's been in the podcast game for a long time. And they recently, I just saw this earlier today that they were, they were attacking Scott Horton on the show. And then I listened to it and it was from our show. Uh, it's, it's the, I think the last time I interviewed Scott. Um, and so I just. Look, nothing personal against these guys, but Scott Horton's My guy, and I'm simply not going to allow him to be criticized in this manner without responding. So I do want it to play this. I think we can probably get through it pretty quickly. I listened to, I think, most of it and seemed like it wasn't anything too challenging to smack down, but. So I just. But I wanted to be on record responding to this because if people are going to play clips from our podcast and go after our best foreign policy guy, I think there should be a response. And honestly, if I just being completely honest, I think the work Scott Horton does is too important for him to need to waste his time with this. So let me just handle it, and then we can move on back to fixing the world. Okay, so here is the no Agenda podcast with Adam Curry as they start discussing the great Scott Horton. Hurry.

[Adam Curry]

It's kind of interesting because there's again, just more whining and moaning and groaning from npr. Npr.

[Dave Smith]

All right.

[Adam Curry]

I also have this Week in Trump. I got some Scott Horton stuff. Scott Horton stuff is interesting.

[No Agenda Co-host]

What do you want to do? You want to do? I mean, I've had enough NPR whining. What's you want?

[Adam Curry]

Okay, well, let's listen to Scott now. Scott, this is on a podcast. This is Scott Horton, who's a writer. He did this book called Provoked. And Scott, he's a lefty, but he's of Trump. He voted for Trump because he got. He says he's a. And he's done a lot of books. You can look him up.

[Dave Smith]

Okay, so look, man, wrong and wrong. Scott is not a lefty. He did not vote for Donald Trump. So you start this, you go, oh, this is actually really interesting. I just never quite understand these people who, like, they, they launch into a topic on a podcast and they have not familiarized themselves with the most. Like, one Google search of Scott Horton and you'd be like, oh, he started the Libertarian Institute. So, like, okay, that you would probably find that out. In fact, I think one of them is Googling as the other one's talking because they come to this in a second. But just so you guys know, no, Scott is not a lefty. No, Scott did not vote for Donald Trump. Like, both. So you're just starting with. You don't know what the fuck you're talking about. Not the best start. Let's keep playing on Amazon.

[Adam Curry]

But he's. He votes for Trump because he's. He thinks the left is doing nothing but lying to him. And he. And he sees it as such an insult that he has to vote For Trump, even though he hates him.

[No Agenda Co-host]

The trolls are saying he's losing.

[Dave Smith]

Oh, okay, so the trolls are saying he's a libertarian, is the next line. That's really funny that. So someone corrects them there. They didn't even Google it to find themselves just one of their own listeners is like, ah, the guy's a libertarian. Okay, first of all, just think about how Brain did that. So he goes, he's a lefty, but he voted for Trump because the. He says the left never stops lying to him. Well, that doesn't really sound like the way lefties usually talk. And no, he didn't vote for Donald Trump. So you're. Because he voted for Donald Trump. Because. Because you're already wrong. Cause you just don't know what the fuck you're talking about. There were some of us libertarians who broke and voted for Donald Trump. I was one of them. Scott was not. So, you know, just know something before you come at some. Especially before you come at someone as fucking brilliant as Scott Horton. Know the first goddamn thing.

[Robbie the Fire Bernstein]

It's amazing. I understand. Going, hey, I'm not too familiar with this person.

[Dave Smith]

Of course, of course.

[Robbie the Fire Bernstein]

Let's get into what they said. And we do that quite a few, quite a bit. Particularly me. I'm more guilty of that. When you.

[Dave Smith]

Right now. Literally right now, I don't know anything about Adam Curry, but I'm not, like, coming out going, like, here's the problem with Adam Curry. He's a Buchananite Paleo conservative who voted for Bill Clinton. Because, like, none of that's true. And why would I just say that?

[Robbie the Fire Bernstein]

And to speak so authoritatively, to go, I know that he's a leftist and he specifically voted for this reason.

[Dave Smith]

Yeah. Not even. You're right. Not even the humility to go, like. Like, I think the guy's a leftist. I believe he voted for Donald Trump. You're just saying it like, these are the facts and you don't know what the. You're talking about. It's so goddamn embarrassing. All right, let's keep playing Libertarian.

[Adam Curry]

Oh, yeah, that's what he calls himself.

[No Agenda Co-host]

Okay.

[Adam Curry]

Yeah, Libertarian. By any Libertarian. Yes, he's a libertarian, technically. And he's one of those Libertarian. You know, I was. Everyone's a libertarian once in their life.

[No Agenda Co-host]

That's like, well, isn't libertarian someone who doesn't want to admit they're Republican.

[Dave Smith]

Or.

[Adam Curry]

Or they don't want. I don't know what liberal. You know, looking back on it, I have no idea what a libertarian's supposed to be. It's like, they want to legalize drugs and people should be free to have sex with whoever they want.

[Dave Smith]

All right? So let's face it, I think that's the whole. By the way, this is just, just true in general, in political commentary, whenever you say, you know, I. I have no idea. I don't even know what. I really even have no idea. That's not the brag you think it is. That's not really. You're just saying you have no idea what the fuck you're talking about. And so you're reduced to the most pathetic of straw mans of, oh, libertarians are Republican. Who doesn't want to admit that he's a Republican? Oh, a libertarian. What did he say? A Libertarian. They just want to legalize drugs and say, you should be. You should be free to have sex with who you want to. Well, like, yes, we do believe in legalizing drugs. That's not something Scott Horton has ever specialized or talked about too much. I don't think that is true. That's the libertarian position. We also have arguments for why we believe that's the case. What is this comment about? You should be free to have sex with whoever you want to. First of all, are you arguing people shouldn't be free to have sex with whoever they want? I mean, assuming we're not talking underage children here, obviously none of us agree with that. But are you arguing that, like, should orgies be illegal or should homosexuality be illegal? Like, what's the counter argument to that? Actually, that's not just a libertarian position, and that is just every American doesn't really believe. I mean, okay, outside the tiniest sliver of fringes, it's pretty much the consensus in America that voluntary sexual acts between consenting adults should be legal. Whether they should be praised or should be promoted might be more of a contentious issue, but should be like, what, are you differentiating yourself? No, no, no. All you're trying to do here is poison the well because you know nothing. You don't know who. You just found out the guy's a libertarian because one of your listeners told you that you didn't know who he voted for. You know nothing. So you'll just poison the well by being like, he's one of these sex freaks. You know he's one of. Whereas I challenge you. Find me one example ever in the Does. I think Scott Horton. I think the Scott Horton show is up to 6,000 episodes. Like they've been doing. He's been doing the show for a very long time. And then all his interviews on all the other shows. Scott Horton has done, like, a hundred thousand hours of podcasting. He's written three incredible books. Then he had a couple other books that were, like, transcribed of, podcast interview in all of his work. Find me one time where he talks about weird sex stuff. That's your challenge. He, like, there's just never a topic that's got. He's a foreign policy specialist. Occasionally he'll do an interview about, like, other libertarian issues that he cares about. There's a few domestic issues that he's kind of known for. Like, he's. He's known for being a real critic of Waco. You know, he was against burning babies Alive, Ruby Ridge, and he's talked about OKC a bit. But, like, this sex, this is just nothing but, like, let me just get you. Let me get you to have a preconceived bias about who this guy is. And here we're racing up against time. So let's. Let's keep flying.

[No Agenda Co-host]

Is on CNN all the time.

[Adam Curry]

I've never seen him before.

[No Agenda Co-host]

Okay, maybe.

[Dave Smith]

Oh, yeah, guys, Scott Horton is on CNN all the time. Were you guys. Were you guys unaware of Scott's numerous CNN appearances? Scott's never been on cnn. He's not a leftist. He didn't vote for Trump. He's never been on cnn. Like, at what point, by the way, if you're the other guys, if you're Adam Curry and you're listening to me respond to you right here, wouldn't this just be the point where you go, all right, I was kind of speaking out of my ass. You know what I mean? Like, when you start with that, what was you just. Just objective claims, every single one of them wrong? How about you don't know what the fuck you're talking about? You brought up a guy who you know nothing about, and you're pretending that you know anything about him. Let's keep playing.

[Adam Curry]

He might be. I don't watch cnn, so let's listen to here. So he's got a lot of tidbits that are interesting. And this is him on. On Kushner.

[Bombus]

He was reaffirmed in that, thinking, oh.

[No Agenda Co-host]

I'm sorry, wrong one. Here we go on Kushner. Here we go.

[Bombus]

And does Donald Trump know any reason why in the world he shouldn't just let Netanyahu, as he said, quote, quote, finish the job, is what he told Netanyahu the other day. Well, what do you mean by that? How about, well, we finished cleansing all of historic Palestine, and we'll call it Greater Israel. How about that for finish the job? And what does Donald Trump really care? His son in law. And I guess people don't know this. Seems like they should talk about this every day, all the time. His son in law, Jared Kushner, you know, the guy who was in charge of his entire Middle east policy for four years, is Benjamin Netanyahu's godson the whole time. When he was a young boy growing up in New York City, when Benjamin Netanyahu would come to town, he had to sleep on the couch because Benjamin Netanyahu would sleep in his bed. Google that.

[Dave Smith]

Google it.

[Bombus]

Okay? That's who Jared Kushner is. He's an Israeli agent. He's an Israeli psym. He's here to represent the interests of a foreign power. And he's got Donald Trump completely boned. Like the gimp in the box on Pulp Fiction phoned. So Donald Trump can dress up like Pat Buchanan all he wants. He's not Pat Buchanan. He's a Zionist. And when you're a Zionist, you can't be America first.

[Dave Smith]

All right, guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today.

[No Agenda Co-host]

Hold on a second.

[Dave Smith]

They almost got our sponsor, by the way.

[No Agenda Co-host]

People losing their ever loving minds over Trump, you know, so Netanyahu was signing something I know they probably signed, you know, whoever is going to own Gaza, whatever, and. And the President pulls out the chair and then pushes it in as Netanyahu sits down. And the online rage went something like this, Trump is Netanyahu slave.

[Dave Smith]

Let's pause this for a second here. God, man. No agenda. I mean, listen, I don't know about your. I've never listened to your podcast. I'm not saying you have a bad podcast. Maybe it's a good podcast. I don't know. This is so goddamn cringy and embarrassing. Okay, Rob, this is how bad it is because literally all the stuff I just said to you about how much they get it wrong, and I didn't even really know. So I'm listening to this clip first, and then when I hear me start reading the ad, I'm like, yeah, this was on our show. I forgot. I didn't even realize they were playing an episode from our show. So now he responds, and he goes, look, dude, this is what happens. Trump has Netanyahu over. He pulls the chair, puts it back in. He says, hey, maybe we take over Gaza, floats out this idea, and now everyone's losing their mind about how he's in his room. Israeli sp. Wrong. I haven't had Trump on Since that I haven't had Scott Horton on since Trump floated out that proposal. That's not what we were talking about. Dude, you're wrong on every. This isn't an opinion. It isn't like, I think you got this wrong objectively. You've gotten it all wrong so far. All wrong. Now, if you wanted to. To pick apart one thing that Scott Horton said there, you know, he's being hyperbolic, not literal. So when he says he's his godson. Jews don't have godsons. But you can read in the New York Times about how Jared Kushner got kicked out of his own bed when Bibi Netanyahu came to stay at his house. He's right about this. So after you guys getting everything objectively wrong, you just sit there and giggle through like, this is what. They're all reduced. It's another Jonah Goldberg. They're reduced to being a 16 year old girl. They just giggle through what he's saying. They're not arguing with anything he said. They're arguing that he's just reacting to Donald Trump's Gaza proposal. Well, he's reacting to it three weeks before he made the proposal. So. No. How do you not just feel stupid? I'm sorry. Maybe there's some people out there who like this show. Maybe they make some good points on some other things. I have absolutely no idea. I have nothing but respect for all former MTV, MTV VJs. Long live the great Kennedy. But you. This is embarrassing, dude. You've got this all wrong objectively. Let's just play the end of it and then I'm gonna have to wrap up here.

[No Agenda Co-host]

Boy, look at him. He's holding his chair for him. I'm like, Trump, he's a hospitality guy. He makes sure you have mints on your pillow at night. I'm sure that. But everyone's.

[Dave Smith]

Oh, no.

[No Agenda Co-host]

Yeah.

[Adam Curry]

Our take on this is from the get go, is from the intelligence side, which is that we run Israel, they don't run us.

[Dave Smith]

Exactly.

[Adam Curry]

And once you get past this, like, this guy, just always a spy for Israel, blah, blah, blah. That's bull crap. But if you want to believe that because you're a libertarian writer, even though you don't even notice what you're writing. For example, the book he just came out with, which. Which was provoked.

[No Agenda Co-host]

Or if you're on Mastodon.

[Dave Smith]

Yes.

[Adam Curry]

Yeah. The book about provoked is about how we provoked the Russians to take over Ukraine. It's got all the stuff we've talked about on this show for years. You know, The Maidan, the whole thing.

[No Agenda Co-host]

Well, you know, that's what a Zionist would say, John.

[Adam Curry]

And so. Yes, exactly. And so the way these guys don't have, they don't know who they think the tail's wagging the dog. Well no, no, the dog is wagging the tail. So let's get over that. But okay, you can think what you want. Meanwhile, what I thought was interesting.

[Dave Smith]

Just pause it real quick. His only argument here is that he's not arguing with anything Scott actually said. He's not really making an argument when he's saying the tail's wagging the dog. No, actually the dog's wagging the tail. He's just saying that like America is controlling Israel. Israel isn't controlling America. Again, you can't really debate with any of the specifics that Scott's arguing with here. And there are lots of examples where America is actually to some degree controlling Israel or exuding influence on Israel. The elections I think in Gaza in 2005 was not a neocon Zionist project. I think that was much more of a Condoleezza Rice spreading democracy to the world type project. There are examples where, but there's clearly a million examples too of where no, actually Israel has the tail has been wagging the dog and where there are presidents of the United States of America, multiple presidents who want a certain policy done and cannot get their way because actually Israel's influence is stronger than the President's in some ways. So again, all just not after getting everything wrong and not knowing what you're talking about now they're just making an assertion that's not Even really a 100% correct assertion. When he said Scott was just making the points of all the things they've talked about on the show and they've talked about made on it's like okay, so Scott's also been making those points for many years before he wrote the book about it. I don't, again, that's just not a point. Then I guess you would say you agree on this. Anyway, let's keep playing thing from this.

[Adam Curry]

Guy that thinks a little more. He's irked about Woodward who is another spy agent spook.

[Bombus]

Yes.

[Dave Smith]

Pause it for a second.

[Adam Curry]

And I thought this was worth.

[Dave Smith]

Bob Woodward came from naval intelligence and as a young man in his 20s was given the Watergate story. He was given the biggest story in the, in the world as, as a young 20 something year old right out of naval intelligence. Is it that crazy to refer to him as a spook or a spy? I, I, I, I don't know. Again, it's. They, they never have an argument. It's always just a mocking tone of voice. Like, that's let. Okay, I don't know any of the facts. I don't have an argument. But I'm just gonna kind of laugh through everything you say. Repeat back to you. The name of the book is provoked. Is that supposed to substitute for an intelligent thought? Because it's not doing it for me. All right, let's keep playing and then listening to.

[Adam Curry]

And this is Scott Provoked on Woodward is a two parter.

[Bombus]

He was reaffirmed in that thinking watching the fall of Afghanistan and how indecisive Biden was in, in finishing out the withdrawal.

[Adam Curry]

He's talking about Putin.

[Bombus]

Yeah, not withdrawing at all, but just botching it the way he did. And you know, the Bob Woodward book, the new Bob Woodward book has quotes, the high level intelligence officials saying that they assessed that. That they even claimed, I think to have sources in Russia saying this was part of their thinking was that Afghanistan made Biden look so weak that they thought, yeah, we could definitely press our advantage now. But the problem is you got to throw out that whole Bob Woodward book because he's got a big fake quote of Sergei lavrov on page 88. And then the whole book, the whole point of a Bob Woodward book is he has quotes from people that nobody else can talk to, but he gets interviews with. But so if he's lying about a quote that I can ch on the OSCE website, then what is he saying when he's quoting Blinken and Sullivan and the rest of these people? Like, if they don't dispute all the quotes, then I'm supposed to accept them or something. I don't know. I just can't. I started to write a note in my book because I had actually, you know what, man? In that book, there's all kinds of quotes of Biden saying how right I am about everything. Like, I started quoting some good stuff in there. And April Haynes, the dni, I had them admitting, oh yeah, Horton's right after all, blah, blah, all over the place. And I had to cut all those quotes out. Once I got to the part where, where Woodward's lying to me, I started to write in the footnotes, well, you got to kind of take these with a grain of salt. And I'm like, I can't put quotes that you got to take with a grain of salt. In the book where, like, I'm all right, I got a disclaimer. Even though he is the most prominent journalist in America. But like, he just happened to have a quote in there. I, and I happen to be writing a book about this. I have the Lavrov quote already. I know what he said. So when I read the live version of it, I'm like, hey, I know that quote and that's not right.

[No Agenda Co-host]

I can't wait to subscribe to this podcast. Yeah, riveting stuff.

[Adam Curry]

Can you like, maybe focus a little more instead of, you know, yammering like that? But okay, so the second part of it, he explains a little more in detail. But then there's a kind of a kicker about Amazon taking his, his commentary off the site.

[Bombus]

And so it's, it's page 88, if anybody wants to check this out. And also Amazon removed my review about this, saying that I claimed I got an inauthentic copy of the book. That's what I said. I said there's a fake quote on page 88. So I had a great one star review on there and they took it down and there's now all the one star reviews are my book was torn or whatever. And no criticism of the actual substance of the thing. But if anyone wants to check, the quote is the Playing with Fire quote of lavrov on page 88. If anybody. I'm not selling it. If anybody already has the new Woodward book. And then go and check the OSCE websites from December. Pretty sure, December 2, 2021, but certainly December 2021. And you'll find the quote from Sergei Lavrov playing with Fire. And you'll see how Bob Woodward turns the meaning of the quote entirely upside down to. He's saying essentially it's so reckless the way you guys completely disregard our opinion about your expansion of the NATO alliance. And then they turn. He butchers the quote into saying Lavrov is saying that America has no right to decide who should be in its alliance or not, which of course makes no sense whatsoever because that's not what he said. The whole thing is stupid. But anyway, point just being, you can't trust Bob Woodward to tell you a quote. Right.

[CNN Reporter]

Wow.

[No Agenda Co-host]

Okay. That was revealing. Season of Reveal.

[Adam Curry]

Well, of course, we've been saying this.

[No Agenda Co-host]

For what, since day one?

[Adam Curry]

Since. Since Legacy would not Legacy of Ashes, but Family of Secrets.

[No Agenda Co-host]

Yes, Family of secrets.

[Dave Smith]

That's right.

[Adam Curry]

Which was brought out, that Bob Woodward came out of. That was Navy Intelligence, I think.

[Dave Smith]

Yeah.

[Adam Curry]

And he basically is.

[Dave Smith]

I thought you just mocked the idea of calling him a spook or a spy. Am I miss so that's your criticism after all of that Scott Horton is sitting here on our show, by the way. Yeah, you should subscribe to the show. You could learn something. It's. I know it's. You don't like when people are ranting or something like that? I'm sorry. We're not just making bullshit up and claiming we know stuff about people and are objectively wrong. Scott's going, literally, what he's saying here is just talking about what a meticulous, like, writer he is and how he's an honest enough actor that he goes, look, there was this Bob Woodward book that had all these great quotes that was like, proving my case. He goes, but then I found this one Sergei Lavrov quote, and he's totally lying about it. And so here's the real one. Here's the one. And then he goes, once he does that, I go, I can't use any of these because I can't trust you're not a liar. And their big critique at the end of that is just, we've been saying he was a liar for a long time. Okay, fine. So you've been saying it for a long time, and now someone far smarter than you, who's a far better researcher, is saying it to more people. Seems like a win. Listen, I'll say this. You don't have to subscribe to the podcast, but no agenda, guys. Open invite if you want to come on the show. We can argue about Scott Horton or any of this stuff if you want to, but just do a little bit of research first, get a few facts down, because otherwise you're going to get embarrassed anyway. Sorry. I just can't have people coming at my guy, Scott Horton like that, especially when they have nothing. It's amazing, Rob, that people will do a segment about this stuff like this and have nothing. All right, we're way over time. I got a wrap. We're back. Thank you guys all for watching, listening, and we'll catch you tomorrow with a brand new episode.

[Robbie the Fire Bernstein]

Peace.