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Pat
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Tom
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Pat
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Tom
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Pat
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Pat
Did you ever think you were made again.
Vinnie
Adam?
Pat
What's your point? The future looks bright. My handshake is better than anything I ever s right here. 1 of 1 My son's right about. I think I've never said this before.
Tom
I. I don't know. I may have done that.
Pat
Well, we'll figure that. Folks, how you doing? We got a special guest here on the podcast. You'll see him in a minute when he joins us. But we also have Brandon Assetto here with us. By the way, he's speaking on behalf of those in their 20s and he is sick and tired of what's going on with the market. He wants a chance. He's going to give some data to you today that's going to be very interesting. I know what the numbers are. I'm not going to share it. I want him to tell you on what's happened, what it takes the average salary. I'm sure you have that data. What it takes the average salary of somebody to buy one share of the SMP today versus 20 years ago, 40 years ago, 60 years ago. Very, very interesting. And, and he's got a good point. And we should listen to what he has to say. For the rest of us in our 30s, we have different perspectives in here. Right. And we'll, we'll cover that. But we got a lot of stories to go through here. The tariffs is causing mayhem. Everybody thought Monday was going to be Black Monday. It didn't end up becoming Black Monday. But that doesn't mean there's not a Black Tuesday or Black Friday or Black Thursday around the corner as they're going through this negotiation. Especially after China said we are going to the very end, we're not going to cave at all. So we're going to cover those stories. Number one, 2200 points down Dow drops in a single day. $6.4 trillion is wiped out in a two day bloodbath as China declares trade war over Trump. Trump tariffs I cannot tell you how many minutes I've gotten specifically asking about what should I do with my investment portfolio, etc. Etc. And I have my own opinion on it. But so 6.4 trillion scares a lot of people. By the way, you know what 6.4 trillion is? That's like 6,400 people losing a billion dollars. That's 64,000 people losing $100 million. That's 60, 640,000 people losing 10 million. That's six and a half million people losing a million.
Adam
You're really showing your math skills.
Pat
Tell me what I'm trying to tell you. $6.4 trillion loss is a lot of money for a lot of people like that. So we'll cover that. China retaliates with 34% tariff on US imports. It only warns against counter tariffs on US calls for budget leeway Tom's got a very, very good angle on that one. He'll cover with you guys. Vietnam ready to remove U.S. import tariffs as it seeks to delay Trump's 46% levy. Trump urges Americans to hang on to tariffs plan as markets tumble Legendary economist says Trump's tariffs could replay devastating history State controlled Iranian newspaper calls for firing bullets into Trump's empty skull this is FOX News story. We'd lose the war. Tucker Carlson wars against bombing Iran as tariff war tanks markets Trump calls for Feds Powell to cut interest rates and stop playing politics Jerome Powell predicts when Americans will feel ripple effects from Trump's global tariffs. Jerome Powell predicts when Americans will feel it. So not everybody's on the same page. Eric Adams ditches them Dems primary to seek re election as independent Eric Adams had some interesting things to say. He was on the, what do you call it, the Andrew Schultz the Flagrant podcast. And it was actually a very good interview. Mark Cuban weighs in on transgender athlete and women's sports. Mark Cuban says we're just not ready for it. People are just not ready for it. I mean people are not ready to have men compete with women. Maybe that's going to be forever. You know that we're not going to be ready for it. But maybe Mark's got additional ideas we don't know about. He also warns that Trump's tariffs plan plus Doge cut cuts could lead the country to to a far worse situation than 08. Musk breaks with Trump on tariffs as he distances from the White House. Then we got a few other stories if you guys are looking for a good podcast. Michelle Obama's podcast is not doing that well, but if you were interested, you could check that one out. Kamala Harris was completely shocked by election night loss to Trump's to Trump after she bought the hype. Can you imagine? Like, she was convinced she was going to win and she was upset at the people that told her that you were going to win. So whose fault is it? And then Barack Obama destroyed the Democratic Party by competing for power and money with his own organization. This new book that just came out, it's not holding back with those guys. And we got a couple other stories that we'll cover here as well. Supreme Court clears ways for Venezuelan operate Deportations to resume. South Korea eyes boosting energy import to cut surplus. Vinnie's got some stuff he wants to say about what Bill Burr said as well as Taylor Lorenz. Disappointed to learn Joe Biden didn't die on Saturday. It's pretty strange to say something like that. And a few other things. Scott, bet lesson says up to 70 nations are wanting to negotiate. And there's some nuclear talks that's going on here as well. Now, for those of you that are watching this, we'll cover all these stories here. We got a lot of stuff that's going on. Are you a dog person or a cat person? We know this guy's a cat person. Adam, I have a special guest here today. If you can bring them over. This is my number one therapist for the last 16 years next month. This is our buddy Jimbo.
Vinnie
Jimbo.
Pat
Jimbo is going to be 16 years old next month and he's wearing Jimmo. Can we show off what you got on? He's got a future looks bright shirt back here. And because it is, it is. What is it? The National Pet Day. Rob, can you pull that up?
Tom
That's Friday. National Pet Day.
Pat
National Pet Day is Friday. We got this gear for you that our merch team thought it was a good idea. Okay. I want to show you this. So if you guys honestly, if this sells out, I'm gonna personally give credit to the merchant to come up with these ideas. And I will say this is their idea if it goes lights out. Okay, now, what do we have here? Few different things for you to pick from with Future Looks Bright. Frisbee, rope toy. This is one. We have this tennis ball. What does it say? Tennis ball, sling toy. We have this other one. This is sick, actually, if you look at it. This is the biting. You know, the dog toy. You know what, the leashes that we got with Future looks bright on it. And Vi, this is the gangster. If you're from la, New York, maybe Baltimore picked this up. Yeah, we got some of this stuff. And on top of that, if you go. By the way, look at that yeti one. Can you zoom into that yeti one? Is that like a yeti? Like, yeah. Look how future looks. Dog will be excited when he's going through this. Go back, Rob. So let's place an order on one of the things so they can kind of see. Let's place an order on this. Hypothetically, if you buy this, watch what happens. Okay, so you buy this, 15 bucks. You add it to the cart. Then it says here, are you team wolf or team Meow? So you're going to get a valuetainment mug that says meow or wolf, depending on if you're a dog person or a cat person. Obviously, Adam goes with meow and Vinny would go with wolf, but some of us like to like dogs and cats. But anyways, if you got animals, if you got dogs, go place an order for National Pet Day. Future Looks Bright. I never forget one of the shows I watch cartoons that it said all dogs go to heaven with the character Charlie. You remember that? What a great movie, right?
Vinnie
Cry all the time.
Pat
If you love dogs, you got dogs. Place an order. Future looks bright, not only for us humans, but also for dogs. Okay. All right. Jimmy, can you.
Adam
You want me to take this guy now?
Pat
Take him out, because he's got strong opinions about tariffs right now, so you.
Vinnie
Don'T want to hear him.
Pat
These items were a lot short for two months ago and now and shout.
Adam
Out to Kelly, and we actually had.
Pat
A very big debate. We're not on the same page with tariffs. He's not happy about it. No, no, he's not.
Vinnie
He wasn't happ.
Pat
Yeah, he wasn't happy about it, you know, when we were, you know. What was his biggest turn when he was no longer supported with Trump. What scared him? What, Christine? What happened when the story. He was kind of like, I'm. I'm. I can't. He was afraid.
Vinnie
He was shaking I'm like, she's a.
Pat
Good lady, but she's a hunter like you. You don't have to worry about that. But he's going to be okay. He's going to be okay. Yeah, that's right. All right, so let's go through the stories here on what we got. I think it's fair to say, Rob, we start off with the market and tariffs. What do you think? All right, let's go through this. Dow is down 2200 points at $6.4 trillion. Is wiped out in a two day bloodb as China declares trade war over Trump's tariffs. This is an April 4 story from New York Post. Okay, so let's go through this here is this on page. It says page. Okay, it's page three. Let me read this to you. The Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted more than 2200 points on Friday following 1679 previous drop marking its worst session since the start of COVID 2020. In as Wall Street's bloodbath erased $6.4 trillion of market value just in two days due to China's retaliatory 34% levy on US imports starting April 10th. In response to Trump's reciprocal tariff plan imposing a 54% tax effective April 9th. The tech heavy NASDAQ fell 962 5.8% entering bear market territory with a drop exceeding 20% from its December peak. While S&P 500 declined 322 points or 5.97amid global stock market descent driven by fears that Trump's 10% baseline tariff would harsher rates for many nations could stoke inflation and trigger a recession as noted by Federal Reserve Jerome Powell who warned of a potential persistent risk in inflation. Brandon, your thoughts on this story?
Brandon
Yeah, so a lot to cover here. So I mean first and foremost I'm super happy that the market's starting to go down. I think honestly people are going to hate this. But I think the best case scenario for the most people would be if the market goes down by something like 50%. Because.
Pat
50%.
Brandon
Yeah, because I mean 10% of people own 90% of the stock market. So the vast majority of people who own the stock market are the top 10%. And 50 years ago I looked this up. So what would you guys imagine it took for amount of hours worked to buy a share of the s and P500, say 1970. What would you guess?
Vinnie
20 hours?
Brandon
Yeah, no, exactly right.
Vinnie
Is it really?
Brandon
You know it is today.
Vinnie
60, 170 to what to do?
Brandon
Buy one share of the S&P 500.
Pat
To work 170 hours today to buy one share of the S&P500. But you have to work 20 hours 50 years ago to buy a share of S&P 500. I have my opinions, but I want to hear it keep going.
Brandon
Yeah. No, so I mean, we've. This goes into what we do with China. Like, you know, so when we got off the gold standard, when we started offshoring our jobs to China, that's where the wealth gap really widened between the working class of America and the people who run companies in America because profit margins got bigger and then wages didn't keep up with the stock market growth. So we've essentially decimated our middle class and for young people too. I've been waiting to buy the dip for 15 years now, and there hasn't been a dip to buy. Some people might say Covid, but we just pumped money into the economy right away. Some people might say 2008, but we did quantity of easing right away after that. So we.
Pat
Brad, how old are you? How are you?
Brandon
Just turned 30.
Pat
Just turned 30. So 15 years was 15 years ago.
Brandon
Yeah. I've been waiting to like, really feel like I could buy the dip for 15 years. And, you know, it hasn't come 15 years old.
Pat
You were looking at investing.
Brandon
Good for you thinking about it.
Pat
Yeah, yeah. So, okay, so. So a part of what you're saying is the, the gap between the poor, middle, upper and the rich keeps getting wider and wider and wider. Okay. And you wanting to see a massive market crash taking place. Maybe a correction for you to get in so you can get at a decent price. That's kind of what you're talking about.
Brandon
Yeah. And so that everybody could. And keep in mind too, the market is way higher than it should be. Like essentially the boomers markets hiding what it should be. Yeah. The boomers and Gen X have essentially stolen the future from the millennials and Gen Z by pulling wealth forward to themselves that belong to the future.
Pat
Right.
Brandon
So, you know, it's 36 trillion. Like all the deficits when we do that's been pulled from the future away from people who haven't even been born yet and put into the stock market, essentially.
Pat
Tom, what do you think about this?
Tom
Well, I think whenever you have an equation like this and thank you for doing the research. That's good. So the number of hours was 50 years ago was 20 hours to buy one share of S and P today with S and p at what, 520 or 490 or whatever you are floating around right now takes 170 hours. So that's 8.5x. Right, right. What was the PE ratio of the S and P going back then?
Brandon
It's usually in the ballpark of what, 20 to 30.
Tom
Okay, well actually under Jimmy Carter it was 7 to 9 and under Ronald Reagan it was 10 to 13. That was the PE ratio. If we want to go back that same time In January the PE was 29. And right now the PE and I'm saying of the S&P is 24. So wages is the problem because it's 8.5x in a number of hours. But the PE ratio is barely 3x and actually 2x. If you just go from Reagan from like 10 to 13, that would be 20 to 20. Well, right now it's 24 and it was 29. Beginning of this year. You go back to 2016, it was 22, 24, 25, the three years going into Covid. So I think you make a point. But it's not that the market is too expensive. It's that over all that time, wage growth for the middle class did not keep up. And as a result, an 8.5 difference in the middle class number of hours when the PE ratio is really only doubled, plus.
Brandon
Yeah, yeah, because that revenue has gone to corporations that have offshored their jobs and saved a ton of money on production costs instead of going to, you know, decent paying jobs. So I think like that the tariffs are going to solve two problems at once. It's going to bring the market down to a reasonable level and it's going to bring better jobs back to America and pull some money away from corporations because, you know, they've essentially like taken money from the workers to themselves by offshoring these jobs.
Pat
Let me ask you, when you did 50 years ago, was 20 hours, was that 1970 or 1975?
Brandon
Because that's a big 19, 1970. And then it eventually goes to 40 hours worked and then by the 90s it gets to 66 hours to buy.
Pat
The S and P. So okay, if we go in 1970, obviously a couple major events took place. We've talked about this multiple times. We went off the gold standard with Nixon. We allowed China to come in gradually, the whole ping pong, you know, and then in the, you know, World Trade Organization, China gets involved. And then for us right now, like the supplies that we have, if you go on Trump's store, all this stuff is not made in us. You'll see made in China, made in Singapore, made in this Made in that. Why labor has to compete for us to bring a lot of the stuff here. You know, you're like, what am I going to do? Am I going to have to compete? Because in America is not known for a lot of the products to manufacture. We've went away from that. We need to get back into that. So somebody needs to sit there and say, how do I make that competitive in America? We've missed the mark there. And at the same time, the one thing, once we went off of the gold standard, what happened? Debt became so easy.
Brandon
Yeah.
Pat
So people could raise debt and take a business and grow it. And then. So if somebody has access to debt, somebody leverages debt, somebody risks with debt, the other person doesn't. The disparity of the wealth is going to get wider and wider and wider. The part that they haven't yet figured out is what to do with the median income, because that's definitely not growing. And that should be a concern because some of these guys cannot afford houses. So either income needs to go up, correction needs to happen, or people need to go and live in a rural, you know, in a place that no one knows about and turn it into a next Frisco, turn it into a next Palmdale, turn it into a next whatever city that may be. And that's a valid concern.
Brandon
Do you think that we have to compete with labor, though? Because I almost think that tariffs have to protect us against this cheap slave labor from other countries. Because, you know, we could compete with other countries in terms of putting tariffs on them when they have tariffs against us about labor, how are we ever going to compete with like, Cambodia and China for labor? Because they could essentially make people work at slave wages, but we're not going to do that here, so.
Pat
Well, once you open my opinion, once we open that up and we went into that space, do you know what would happen? So think about it this way. When everybody says Trump's for the rich. Okay, you said something earlier. You said 90% of the what equities.
Brandon
Is owned by what, 10%.
Pat
10%. So who is Trump really hurting?
Brandon
Yeah, he's hurting the rich.
Pat
He's not hurting. He's hurting the rich. Yeah, to the rich are being the. Richard wants.
Vinnie
Even.
Pat
Even Musk is a little bit like, hey, you know, I don't know if you have that clip, Rob. Yeah, he doesn't like, you know, you know, let me read this. And then, you know, Musk breaks with Trump on tariffs as he distances from the White House. Now, whether there's truth on this or not, who knows? But Rob, can you play this clip? Go forward. At Capella University you can learn at your own pace with our Flex path learning format. Take one or two courses at a time and complete as many as you can in a 12 week billing session. With Flexpath, you can even finish the bachelor's degree you started in 22 months for $20,000.
Vinnie
A different future is closer than you.
Pat
Think with Capella University. Learn more at capella.edu fastest 25% of students cost varies by pace, transfer credits and other factors. Fees apply. This episode is brought to you by Greenlight. Get this. Adults with financial literacy skills have 82% more wealth than those who don't. From swimming lessons to piano classes. Us parents invest in so many things to enrich our kids lives. But we investing in their future financial success. With Greenlight you can teach your kids financial literacy skills like earning, saving and investing. And this investment costs less than that. After school treat start prioritizing their financial education and future today with a risk free trial@greenlight.com Spotify greenlight.com Spotify.
Vinnie
I hope.
Pat
That.
Brandon
I hope that the United States.
Pat
And Europe can establish a very close partnership. We obviously are, there's an alliance already.
Tom
But I'm hopeful that there can be.
Pat
A very close relationship with America and Europe. And I'm hopeful, for example with the.
Brandon
Tariffs that at the end of the.
Pat
Day I hope it is agreed that both Europe and the United States should move ideally in my view to a zero tariff situation, effectively creating a free trade zone between Europe and North America. And that, that would be my, that's what I hope, I hope occurs.
Tom
And also more freedom of people to.
Pat
Move between Europe and North America if.
Brandon
They wish, if they wish to work.
Pat
In Europe or wish to work in America. He says this right? You're allowed to do so. Rob, can you do me a favor, Rob, go online, type in Tesla sales by different markets, Tesla sales by different regions and then just go to news, go to Tesla sales by different, go to news, go to the third story. Okay, look at this here. Go a little bit lower, Rob. So just right there. Tesla sold 45% fewer cars in Europe last month compared to January of last year. So that's, he's, you understand, 45% fewer and what, that's not 4% fewer, that's not 10% fewer. So let's just say the stock does bad but your sales are high, you're fine. It's not that the stock's down, it's the sales are down 45% fewer in Europe than last month. Then BEV sales grew by 37%. That's the China car. That's like a $9,000 car reaching a market share of 16.7%. And self charging hybrids are Europe's favorite powertrain type with a 34.9%. So Musk is sitting here. I think sales in China is down 29 if I'm not mistaken. Europe, he's down 45% and he's down in US as well. So this is affecting a lot of people that are actual big businesses. They're concerned about what this is going to do with the tariffs. But even Musk right here I'll read this. Elon Musk publicly diverse from President Trump's on terrifying advocating at a virtual rally for Italy's Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini. I hope that the United States and Europe can establish a very close relationship. Both Europe and the US should move ideally in my view to a zero tariff situation, which is what he just talked about here. So we'll see what's going to happen there. And then he continues talking about possibility of, you know, Peter Navarro on ex writing a PhD in econ from Harvard is a bad thing, not a good thing. And he aimed to build shit after Navarro defended tariffs on CNN saying we're trying to do under the principle that the president wants to charge those countries what they charge us. So there's a little bit of a rift here with this situation. So we're going to see what's going to happen there. Adam, you wanted to say something?
Adam
I just want to get back to one point that Brandon made because you're a young guy, you're a smart guy. I was sort of a little bit younger than you when I really started investing in the stock market. So are you saying that you have not started investing yet because you're just waiting for the dip? You said I've been waiting 15 years. So you just haven't started investing yet?
Brandon
No, so I mostly have done day trading type of stuff for the last 15 years. And I'm like, I mean I have small investments here and there but like just straight up putting money in the S P every week. I haven't done that.
Adam
How have you done by day trading? How's it done for you?
Brandon
The biggest benefit from is I've learned a lot. Like I can't say that I've done like insanely well day trading. It's a tough thing to do.
Adam
I think you're a sharp guy. But here's where I'll tell you that More is caught than taught. So what you're doing is sort of acting on hypotheticals. What I've been able to do and what Pat and Tom's going to do is actually invest in the market.
Brandon
Yeah.
Adam
So actually experience the ins and outs, the ups and downs, the reds and greens. I started in 2008.
Brandon
Oh, perfect. Yes, exactly. It's a little bit different.
Adam
Well, no, because it's not timing the market. It's time in the market. If you're sitting around and just waiting to buy the dip, Waiting to buy the dip. You've had opportunities, buddy. You could have done it in. You said you started investing in 2009 to 15 years ago. You said 2010 market was down then you could have done it in 2020. So if you're trying to time the market, you're going to be waiting for the perfect time forever. So it's not about timing the market. It's about time in the market. So, you know, you said something pretty shocking, like you're. You're praying for a 50 downturn in the market. Well, there's going to be older people out there that are like, are you kidding me, bro? You want your grandma to go poor? We don't want that.
Brandon
But they stole from us, though.
Adam
All right, well, you sound like a victim, and I've heard that before on this show.
Brandon
No, just the numbers.
Adam
But at what point are you going to just buckle down and just say, I'm a smart guy. Let me play the long game and just start investing? Because I've seen so many people do what you're doing. Like, I'm gonna wait for the perfect time. I'm gonna wait for the. There's no perfect time. There's no perfect moment. If you generally started investing 15 years ago and gave up the day trade nonsense and just decade trade, you'd probably have tens, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars right now. So for someone like you, buy the dip now and let's see where it is in 10 years. That's how you invest.
Brandon
You think this is a dip?
Adam
Here's what I know about the market. If you pan out America, The American economy s&p500 always wins. If you follow day to day. Here's what I guarantee. Just because I've seen this a thousand times.
Pat
Go, Max.
Adam
Here's what I've seen a thousand times.
Brandon
Go macro trends.
Adam
It was bloodbath a couple days ago. I guarantee you today is going to be green.
Vinnie
It's up back 1300.
Adam
There we go. Just because I've seen this before more is caught than taught, I used to look at the market every day and when it's actually your money and not hypothetical woozies and floozies and woozies, you actually notice, oh my God, I made 20 grand today. Oh, I'm down 18 grand today. I made 50 grand today. I'm down seven grand today. It's actually actual money and you actually learn how to invest in the marketplace. Without that, you're just talking about what ifs, what ifs, what ifs. So my advice to you is put some money where your mouth is, put some money in the market and watch it grow. You can do this.
Brandon
Would you agree though our we've prevented ourselves from having a legitimate recession or even a legitimate downturn for everyone.
Adam
Here's the challenge that I have. Everyone's. You're, you're, you're trying to solve for what the American economy should do. Don't worry about the American economy. You know the economy. You should worry about your economy.
Brandon
I am. That's what I'm trying to buy the top.
Adam
Okay, but you've been waiting 15 years.
Brandon
Well, I mean realistically I should have like. Yeah. Got in during COVID but I, Yeah.
Pat
I didn't know where dow Jones at 15 years ago.
Brandon
Rob, just go where Macro trends is a good chart. It shows 90 years.
Pat
Go to Macro Trends. Macro trends. So where do you want them to go?
Brandon
There's a 90 year chart.
Pat
So just go to Dow Jones. Just go back where you were at, Rob. I mean the way you're going, it's going to take you a minute. Just go back doing what you were doing. You were fine where you were at. Yeah. Okay, so 15 years ago, does it go 15 years? Yeah. 2006 go to not 15 is 2010. Where was the market at 2010?
Adam
It was probably like at 15,000 right there.
Pat
It's grown 300%.
Brandon
Yeah. Yeah. From that point on yet. So I guess maybe like 10 years is a better to say but okay, 10 years.
Pat
Go to 2015. Even 2015, it's 2x more than 2x.
Brandon
The whole time though. We're pumping QE into the market so it just like it felt fragile at the time. So like I like sorry for being skeptical when we're just propping it up like quantity of easing.
Adam
Just to be clear, I'm not trying to rip you one. I'm trying to encourage you that you're trying, you're solving for macro trends. Just put your damn money in and figure it out. One last point, Pat. You'll remember this covet happens March. You talk. You talked about this. You're on Jesse Waters yesterday. I've seen like Incredible Takes. Rudy Gobert. NBA canceled, NHL canceled. What's going down? Everyone's freaking out. The market's going down. What do we do? I think the market was maybe at 25 000. 20000 cut in half. Everyone is like I should have sold. Oh my God, what should I do? Six months later I'm in the beautiful city of Addison, Texas talking about Dow just reached all time highs 30,000 and six months later it bounced back. So it's going to bounce back if you play the long game.
Pat
Let's do this. Rob, go back to the and I'm going to make the point here with Brandon for him to consider. Go back to the tweet you had with Peter Navarro and Musk which I was reading earlier. If he can go to that. Okay, so watch this. Insurrection Barbie. I don't know who that is. Here's Peter Navarro explaining the tariffs. And contrary to the fake experts class that is usually on corporate media, Peter Navarro has a PhD in economics from Harvard. He also is not going to lie to you about what is happening to globalist agenda. Notice how he uses specific details instead of blank statements like chaos agent and destroying America. Do you have the clip?
Tom
I do, yes.
Pat
Play the clip. Let's see what he says and then watch Elon Musk's response on the bottom. And this kind of ties into what you're saying, Brandon, go for it.
Tom
The economist tools because it's based on concepts like export and import, demand elasticities, currency adjustments and things like that. But here's, here's the analytical issue we're trying to do under the principle that the President wants to charge those countries what they charge us. As you pointed out, Vietnam has a tariff applied tariff rate. It's much larger than ours, but doesn't come near the tariff we've charged them. So question is, how do you value the following, Phil? So let me count the ways. You got to value currency manipulation. You got to value the VAT tax distortions, dumping export subsidies, technical barriers to trade, agricultural barriers to trade quotas, bans, counterfeiting, intellectual property theft and all of that. So here's the punchline. If you look at the trade deficit deficit which every country runs from us, the first thing economists should tell you, ask the next one you have on your show, should the UNs have chronic and sustained trade deficits? No, there's a good economic theory. They should not. So what the trade deficit does for any given country. It's the sum of all cheating. It's the sum of all unfair trade practices. And in a national emergency, where the trade deficit itself is the national emergency and security threat, because it takes our factories, our jobs, and transfers wealth abroad, the reciprocal tariff is.
Pat
Watch this. We can pause it right there. Okay, so you see this? Go back to it. You know who disagrees? Elon Musk. He says a PhD in econ from Harvard is a bad thing, not a good thing. Result in the ego, brains versus one problem. Right? So now who's right, who's wrong? When you see this here, Sometimes to get like, for example, you and I talk regularly every day, and I know who the guys are that you admire, the economists, you know, all these other guys that are in that space sometimes when you are so, so, so, so, so well read you what. What ends up happening is. What is that phrase? Paralysis by analysis, that you eventually just don't take any action and you're arrested. You don't even know what you're living in a prison that you don't. You don't even want to know. Like, for some, it's marriage because you have so much experience. For some, it's finances. For some, it's exercising. For some, it's buying real estate. For some, it's having a kid. For everybody, it's something, right? Because we have so much information here that we're worried about taking action. But, Tom, question. So I'm gonna. I'm gonna transition into this next. So I thought that was a great exchange. And I think, Brandon, probably a lot of people feel that, like, the way you do, and I actually really like what Adam had to say on what to do with this. But let's go to the next story with tariff. So we'll come back to this. China retaliates with 34% tariff on US imports. So this kind of goes in with what we just saw here. So the 34% imports, that's what caused the market to tank. Right? And while that is taking place, Trump comes back. Rob, is that story today? So Vietnam is ready to remove U.S. import tariffs as it seeks delay to Trump's 46% levy. So Vietnam comes out and says, we're ready to negotiate. What do you guys want to do? Right, that's that story. And then Trump comes out and says, rob, do you have the story of him putting the going even stronger on?
Tom
Yes, that's addendum, page six. China says it'll fight.
Pat
Right? There you go. China says it'll fight till the end after Trump threatens 50% additional tariffs. This is from yesterday. Okay. So yesterday they're not. They're saying, we're not going to back down and we're going to be negotiating with you till the very end. Okay, cool. China's Commerce Ministry vowed to fight to the end after Trump threatened an additional 50% tariff on US imports from China, set for Wednesday unless Beijing withdraws the 34% tariffs from last Friday. The ministry said the US threat to escalate tariffs on China is a mistake on top of a mistake and China will never accept it. Following Trump's 34% levy on top of 20% duties since February, pushing US tariffs on China to 65% per Morgan Stanley, the People's bank of China set the wand's midpoint rate at 7.2 per dollar Tuesday, the weakest since September 2023. Signaling strain with Robin Brooks telling CNBC this is Beijing politely saying this is getting a little too much. We are putting you on notice. China's 34% retaliatory tariffs after Trump's moves, noting since China already faces more than 60% in tariff rate, it doesn't really matter if it goes up 50% or 500%. Hinting at the readiness for a full trade war. Saying 500%. Is this him responding to it?
Tom
Rob, this is Donald Trump yesterday with Bibi Netanyahu from the White House.
Pat
Okay. And they're talking about tariffs.
Tom
Yes, the 50% tariffs.
Pat
Go for it. As you know, against my statement, they put a 34% tariff on. Above what their ridiculous tariffs were already. And I said, if that tariff isn't removed by tomorrow at 12 o'clock, we're putting a 50% tariff on. Above the tariffs that we put on. So they've gone for years. They've become a rich country because of people again that were in the White House that allowed this to happen. Hundreds of billions of dollars a year that make an arsenal trade, and it shouldn't be that way and have a great relationship. Rob, can you do me a favor? Go. Go find a clip. And this is the part where a lot of this stuff is kind of coming together. You have the clip from Pelosi on China with tariffs. This is in 1996, folks. If you've never seen this, you have to see this. Pelosi is talking about tariffs on how China. This is it. Rob watches, but it's 5 minutes and 42 seconds.
Tom
Let me. I'll find a shorter.
Pat
There's a shorter one. Rob, how long is that one?
Tom
That's the same.
Pat
Is it the same thing? Well, let's see how quickly she gets into it. Let's see how quickly. Oh, I found one that is. Let me see if this is the.
Brandon
One you wanna go. She's at the chart.
Pat
Do you have the chart?
Brandon
If you. I think if you click like a minute into it, shows her at the chart.
Tom
How far does China.
Pat
Go back? A little bit. Perfect. Go for it. Watch this folks, on the status quo that the business community is asking each.
Tom
And every one of you to each and every one of us to endorse today.
Pat
Right now we have a $34 billion.
Tom
Trade deficit with China. The 1995-95 figure, it will be over $40 billion for 1996. Since the Tiananmen Square massacre, this figure has increased 1000% from 3.5 billion then to about $34 billion now. In terms of tariffs, I think it's interesting to note that the average US.
Pat
MFN tariff on Chinese goods coming into.
Tom
The United States is 2% whereas the average Chinese MFM tariff on US goods.
Pat
Going into China is 35%.
Tom
Is that reciprocal on exports? China only allows certain industries into China.
Pat
Of US industries into China and therefore.
Tom
Only 2% of US exports are allowed into China. On the other hand, the US allows China to flood our markets with 30 a third of their exports and that'll.
Pat
Probably go over 40% and it's limitless.
Tom
Because we have not placed any restriction in terms of jobs. This is the biggest and cruelest hoax of all. Not only do we not have market.
Pat
Access, not only do they have prohibitive.
Tom
Tariffs, not only are our exports not sounds like let in very specifically, but China benefits with at least, at least 10 million jobs from US China trade.
Pat
We gave him.
Tom
The president in his statement requesting this special waiver said that China trade supports 170,000 jobs in the United States, 170,000 jobs. Whereas our imports from China support 10.
Pat
Million jobs at least.
Tom
Fact is that that US China trade is a job loser. And one of the reasons that it is is because in order.
Pat
Well, first let me just make another.
Tom
Point and that is that our colleagues.
Pat
On the other side of this issue will say the trade with China exports to China have increased three times in.
Tom
The last 10 years. They have. But they fail to mention that exports imports from China have increased 11 times thereby leading to this huge trade deficit. The other issue in addition is intellectual.
Pat
So, so. And then she gets into intellectual and a bunch of different things. This is Democrat Nancy Pelosi 96 talking about what's going on with China. And if you go back and listen to what Trump said on OPRAH Winfrey in 1988 when they talked about tariffs, that's exactly what he's been talking about. Trump's been talking about this with Oprah Winfrey since 1988. This is, is this a clip on tariffs?
Tom
Yes.
Pat
Go forward, Rob. Watch this, folks. Foreign policy. What would you do differently? Donald, watch this.
Tom
I'd make our allies, forgetting about the.
Pat
Enemies, the enemies you can't talk to so easily. I'd make our allies pay their fair share. We're a debtor nation. Something's going to happen over the next number of years with this country because you can't keep going on losing 200 billion and yet we let Japan come in and dump everything right into our markets and everything. It's not free trade. If you ever go to Japan right.
Tom
Now and try to sell something, forget about it, Oprah.
Pat
Just forget about it.
Tom
It's almost impossible. They don't have laws against. They just make it impossible.
Pat
They come over here, they sell their cars, their VCRs, they knock the hell.
Brandon
Out of our companies.
Pat
And, hey, I have tremendous respect for the Japanese people.
Tom
I mean, you can respect somebody that's.
Pat
Beating the hell out of you, but they are beating the hell out of this country. Kuwait, they live like kings. The poorest person in Kuwait, they live like kings, and yet they're not paying.
Tom
We make it possible for them to sell their oil. Why aren't they paying us 25% of what they're making?
Pat
It's a joke.
Adam
This sounds like.
Pat
You can pause it right there. Political, presidential. So the people that say Trump is, you know, he's just, he's doing this, he's doing that. He's been, he's been on this position with tariffs since 1988. Tom, your thoughts here with what's going on with China, the tariffs, as well as the clip we play with Nancy Pelosi.
Tom
Wow, there's a whole bunch of stuff. First of all, I'll take the easy one. The easy one is Nancy Pelosi. This is Nancy Pelosi in what I call PG mode, which I stand for as pre globalist. As she moved to globalism, all of those positions you just say shifted away. This isn't Nancy in history. This is a different Nancy. This was Nancy truly looking out for the American worker. And a lot of union dollars were in that gold necklace there. A lot of union support was in her campaigns there. And when you move to a globalist agenda, you realize the truth that they subtly moved away from supporting America's unions and they took money from other things. So Nancy's easy. She moved to a globalist agenda. That sounds like Trump because it does sound like Trump. Now then we go to China today. I find it very interesting that Vietnam, Taiwan and Cambodia, the little tigers that were all wanting to help during COVID I don't know if you remember, but they all spoke up and says, we'll help you with supply chains. We'll see what we could do. You know why they wanted market share of that manufacturing? They're not saluting. They're not saluting China, especially Taiwan. It's like, hey, we'll help you out. We'll manufacture. So Vietnam, Taiwan and Cambodia. And last night, Scott Bessant told Fox news it wasn't 50 countries, it was 70 countries that were ready to discuss and that China had, Japan had raised its hand early. And so it was going to be one of the first to the table in, in. Because you raised your hand first, you came to the first. Guess what you get, you get to meet the teacher first. So I think there's a lot of international market share of manufacturing that's responding here. Now, the market likes that. Today the market's up 3%. Everything's up 3% across the board. And before the market even opened today, the Vix was from 49 down to 41. And right now, I think somebody help me. I think the Vix is 38, meaning that the volatility as measured by the inside of the market, of the intensity there it is 38. The intensity of the market trading and change has dropped 10 points overnight. Why? Because the market loves what it heard from Vietnam, Taiwan, Cambodia and the number 70. And the word Japan from Scott. Now then, that does not yet help the American worker. What will help the American worker is when the jobs come here. And that's a multifaceted issue that Trump is fighting. But the market likes it. When we get back to some people cooperating. And by the way, you know who Ursula von der Leyen is? She's the president of the EU Commission and she goes out and makes speeches when Macron and people don't want to make cuz remember, they face the wrath of the media and the populace. So Macron comes out, makes a statement supporting Trump on tariffs. Look out. He's going to get slaughtered in the press and the people are going to be pissed. But Ursula von der Leyen President, EU COMMISSION can say to China this morning, she said it two and a half hours ago. I saw it. We had a phone call with China, and I spoke to the premier and I cautioned them strongly on responding irrationally and too roughly to what President Trump is doing. So that is a very large trading market with China calling them on the phone through their president of the EU Commission to say, hey, man, easy does it. Easy does it to just translate that. So that's what I think is going on right now. China's got to come to the bargaining table. But there's multiple facets here that encourage me a lot.
Pat
Brandon.
Brandon
Yeah. So, you know, this makes me think of you told me about the guy, Morton Downey Jr. The other day, how it was the fastest rise and fall ever of a person on tv. I think that's what China's going to be. If you look at China's gdp, I think it's going to be the fastest rise and fall of a country that we've ever seen before, because their GDP explicitly rose because of what we gave them. We gave them, like, the sweetest, best setup ever to pump money into China, you know, with no conditions. Just, hey, here, do our slave labor. We're getting off the gold standard, so we want cheap labor so that inflation isn't super noticeable.
Tom
But I think this in a fully manipulated currency.
Brandon
Exactly. Yes, exactly. And they've stolen our technology, and I think that this is the hilt they're willing to die on. So that is the one thing that makes me nervous. I think they're a paper tiger in a lot of regards, but I think they will take drastic measures to stop us from being successful at this, because this will decimate them if we follow through with it.
Vinnie
I love Brandon. I'm dead serious. And you could see it. I know you weren't looking, but exactly what you were saying was what hit me last night about China, first of all, they are adversary, correct? Well, I think personally adversary to be. It's a. It's an opponent in a contest, conflict or dispute. I think it's deeper than that. I think they are our enemy. Because if you think about it, we're at war with them. We're at war. It's not boots on the ground, it's not bullets being shot, but everything that they've done from trade from, you know, TikTok and poisoning our youth's brains and buying military, you know, land near our military bases. Trump has to be careful. This is what worries me. He's threatening them to do something within 24 hours. And then the Ministry of Commerce says, we will fight to the end.
Pat
Okay?
Vinnie
I Think we need to listen because what scares me is they'll do whatever they have to do to protect their power and their control. Okay? They are a communist regime. And it's funny how Nancy Pelosi is over there talking crap, but when Covid hit, what was she doing? No, no, in Chinatown. Come, come over here. So we know who's really, who's really, really in control. Okay? And then I definitely did this the last time Trump was doing this and having this attitude was in 2018, trying to stop their cheating, their theft, manipulation. What happened? A virus randomly leaked out of a lab that we kind of control and run. And nobody, meaning they still to this day are playing the whole game of it could have been a lab leak. I think we have to be. He has to be very care careful with them because I don't trust them one bit. They've shown that they're capable of going that length to shut everything down if they have to. And I think we're playing games with a, a regime that's willing to do anything, Pat, anything to stop us. This is going to get ugly, and it's going to get really ugly soon.
Pat
So, I mean, Rob, if you can play this clip. This is Scott Besson, which, by the way, what a very. I mean, I really like the way he speaks, the way he interviews, the things he says. He's actually very good teacher because he can explain something in 30 seconds that takes somebody else five minutes to explain. So the average person can also receive it. Can you play this clip on the number of people that have been calling countries that are wanting to negotiate with us with the tariffs go forward? I can tell you that there are.
Tom
50, 60, maybe almost 70 countries now.
Pat
Who have approached us.
Tom
So it's going to be a busy April, May, maybe into June. And Japan is a very important military ally.
Pat
They're very important economic ally, and the.
Tom
US Has a lot of history with them.
Pat
So I would expect that Japan's going to get priority just because they came forward very quickly, but it's going to be very busy.
Vinnie
And if President Trump again gave himself maximum negotiating leverage, and just when he.
Pat
Achieved the maximum leverage, he's willing to start talking. Adam, Love that.
Adam
Well, all these countries are coming to do what they were trying to do. One thing, cut a deal. Trump should probably make it. Whoever gets in the top 10 to negotiate will get a better deal. It's the art of the deal. So this is what it reminds me of. So we were talking about China. The number one goal of Trump is to deal with China, it's not to deal with Bangladesh. It's not to deal with Vietnam. Canada's, Mexico. It's all about China. So there's, you know. You know, I said you've done. You did a great breakdown when you shaved your head. And years ago, you talked about there's different levels to this. There's different levels to this negotiation. So China is the end boss. Right. So whether they're a paper tiger or a powerful dragon remains to be seen. But it's like. You ever play Mike Tyson's Punch out back in the day. What a game, right?
Vinnie
Yeah.
Adam
And Mike Tyson was the final boss.
Vinnie
Yeah.
Adam
So the guy who played in the game was what, Lil Mack?
Vinnie
Glass Joe. Yeah. Yeah.
Adam
So USA is like Big Mac. It's not like we're some wussy. We're the number one country, so we're Big Mac, and we're going through the ranks. The first guy is Glass Joe. Boom. Knock him out. Some, you know, fruity French guy. Done. Then you got Don Flamenco. He's doing his little dance. He's got his rose in his mouth. Boom. Knock him out. Vietnam, Spain, India. Boom. We're knocking these people out. King Hippo shows up. Here we go, right here. He's a fat guy, sumo wrestler. Boom. Knock him out. So did Popinski, the drunk Russian guy, maybe. I played the game this week, and who knows? All of a sudden, we're beating all these guys. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Then there's the final boss, Mike Tyson. That's China. So Trump's plan is to knock all these guys out. Bing, ding, bing, bing. Our allies, okay? Uk, we cut a deal. Israel, we cut a deal. Japan, South Korea cut a deal. Then we deal with India. We deal with this levels and levels and levels. And then we knock out China in the end.
Vinnie
But what. But what? Are they willing. What extent are they willing to go? Because guess what Trump is going to be for us. Are you not worried at all? Because, I mean, if you think about it, though, there's a reason. I mean, they're in control. There's a reason Gavin Newsom cleans up the city of San Francisco when they show up. There's a reason John Senna apologizes in Mandarin when he messes up. There's a reason. LeBron. Everybody bows down to them. And it's like, how far are we going to push them?
Adam
And why do you think they bow down to them?
Vinnie
Because they own them. They own all the money.
Adam
It's the money.
Vinnie
Well, obviously the money.
Pat
The money.
Vinnie
Lebowski and this is.
Adam
So what we're trying to do. Yeah, but is figure out.
Vinnie
But when you back up a Mike Tyson in a corner, Mike Tyson, he's going to punch in your face. These China.
Pat
Mike Tyson is going to do. He's going to bite your ear.
Vinnie
Thank you. Thank you.
Adam
And Trump got shot in the air. So there's an analogy.
Pat
So, no, he's going to bite you into your. No, but to me, you took the words out of my mouth. Everything they're saying right now, 50 people have called. 60 people, 70. But there's one person that hasn't called China. The only one that hasn't exactly. China hasn't called. So, you know, until China calls, they're the guy. Right. Everybody else can say whatever they want to say. They're the guy. They're the ones you're going to want to negotiate with.
Adam
Of course.
Pat
And it's going to be who can take the pain the longest. How nasty could it be? What other pains can you use against them? What other ways can you frustrate them? So imagine if all of a sudden you really want to irritate them. Imagine Trump takes a trip to Taiwan. Okay. No, no, I'm being serious. Imagine news comes out, hey, President Trump lands in Taiwan. Yeah. You don't want to do a deal? No problem. We're down the street from you. And takes a picture looking at China over the water. You know what I'm talking about? Takes a picture right there and posts it. I think Trump's willing to go as far as possible to make this work. And I think China knows if they do a deal, let's actually go and process this. If China does do a deal with us, what could happen to them? Think about that. They need the money. What's going to happen if China does a deal with us? Say, if China says, okay, let's just say right now they're sitting there saying, all right, let's do reciprocal zero, zero.
Adam
Well, if they're way back down to.
Brandon
Earth, they're going to come way back down to earth.
Pat
But forget about down to earth. Their vision and the dreams of becoming a reality is going to be, what?
Brandon
Yeah. No, it's not going to happen. There's not going to be a superpower.
Pat
So, you know, what's one of my biggest concerns? What's one of my biggest concerns that didn't happen, that would have given us additional leverage is that Panama Canal, the two ports didn't get done.
Brandon
Yeah.
Pat
And there was a stop there. So it's not. It's not done. But it's not completed yet. Right. CK Hutchinson still owns those 43 ports. What's the latest?
Brandon
I think that's something he's used military force for though.
Pat
Panama casts doubt on blackrock Canal ports deal touted by Trump Top bottle to see Couch owes $300 million in unpaid fees linked to two Panama Canal ports Go a little bit low Rob. So this is just this morning. Panama's top auditor says Hong Kong Sea Couch owes hundreds of millions dollar unpaid fees and failed to necessary to Poor's band of blows of plans US asset manager to buy the ports at 22 BlackRock's acquisition to the port situated at the end but is it done yet? Is it completed yet?
Brandon
It's supposed to be signed but doesn't sound like it was.
Pat
It doesn't sound like it's completed. The reason why initially April 10th blackrock for signing the definitive documents for the deal passed with no announcement but comments made late Monday by Panamanian comptroller this is yesterday General Anel Flores introduced the most serious hurdle yet to Blackrock taking control of the two ports. Flores said he was presenting the findings of an audit that began after the deal between Hutchison and Blackrock consortium was announced. Go a little bit low Rob. Let's see Florida said Panama Portsmouth operates the ports and didn't get the necessary clear clearances when it extended the 25 year contract. Yeah to me all I'm thinking right now is the amount of leverage Trump and the US has to go to China and say if you don't do this we're going to do this. Like you remember when China what was the first company that Trump said nope, you can't do business here in the States. Do you remember the big one? The hundred billion auto company was intensive. No, it was the daughter that would know the daughter was in China was a CFO of the company doing a deal with Iran and Trump said you guys are all out of here. Oh wow, that phone was blown up in the U.S. huawei. That phone was coming up and it was something that was with overnight they lost $50 billion of valuation. I think that was a number because of the daughter. So Trump has the ability to do some things here but this would have been a very, very big piece to the negotiation.
Tom
Tom, I don't think things are over yet and I think that China is being what people don't realize they are fighting a four sided war. Now the big giant side is these tariffs. They're also interfering with the TikTok deal and they're saying oh it's because of tariffs. No, it's not. You want that data and you want that path to power. And look, you see what's going on there. Panama's auditor are saying that CK Hutchinson owes money and there's an audit. So guess what? US Pressure on Panama, declare them in default and take the ports. You watch, there is an angle there administratively that China would flip out, but now they're trying to protect the port deal. They are trying to manipulate CK Hutchinson on the port deal because that's a path to power. So that's the second. And the third one is any deal they make. You have to remember they've never allowed their currency. Help me here, Brandon. To float with all the rest of the currencies on the world, the dollar, the currencies. There is one piece of free trade internationally. Everybody's currency floats with each other in terms of relative value, correct? Yes. Except one big one. There's some little ones, but big one, and that is the renminbi. That's where China refuses to let it flow and manipulates the value of its China and lies to its own banks about how much they're printing in the background.
Vinnie
Right.
Tom
They don't, they don't have a fed, but they have a balance sheet.
Brandon
They printed way more, way more than us.
Tom
They are, they are stuck on. They are stuck on tariffs, big. They are stuck on currency. They're trying to hold power with TikTok and they're trying to hold power with the ports. And I think that it's a very busy time. They are big and they are the one we have to talk to. But I like the fact that there is multiple fronts that Trump is pushing on against them.
Pat
I said this last night on Jesse Waters. If we get all the deals done, Trump needs to write art of the deal, too, because it's time and everybody's going to want to know how these deals got done. Brandon, you were saying?
Brandon
Yeah, no, just when it comes to leverage, I think we have far more leverage than China does, because the thing that made them valuable to us is going away. What made them valuable was cheap labor and their manufacturing capacity. But, you know, with AI and with their labor being more expensive now, that's no longer that much of an advantage for us. And then what they need us for is they need us for our customer, our consumer base. Because our consumer base, like, feeds, like probably the majority of their economy. Like, we absorb what they make because, like, nobody else in the world could do that. And, you know, they're extremely vulnerable in terms of what they have to import to feed their country. So if you look at them, they're pretty landlocked. So. And we have all of our allies around them. So we have like Japan, we have South Korea, we have Taiwan. So if we want to, we could easily blockade China and stop them from even importing, importing food and oil. So hopefully we don't have to do that. But I think we could very easily cut them down.
Pat
Adam.
Adam
And look, I think, you know, we talked about China being the, the end boss here. What's the definition of a good deal or a fair deal? The definition, in my opinion, is both sides kind of get what they want and both sides kind of give up stuff that they wanted, but they're willing to part with. Right? That's a negotiation. I kind of wanted this. We're gonna have to do something with the Panama Canal. You wanted TikTok, we'll meet you here. You know, supply, demand, trade, input. That's what it comes down to. But if we go back to what Trump believes, you know, people say that Trump doesn't really have an ideology. It's kind of clear he has one thing that he definitely cares about and that's dealing with these unfair trade practices. He's been talking about it for 40 years, starting with Oprah in 88. And he loves America. So I think, you know, Trump sort of goes by the shock and all. He throws out something crazy out there. He's like, the whole world's getting tariffs, bing, bing, ding, ding, ding. You're all getting these numbers. And then you see who's response. Vietnam responds, Israel responds, India responds. All these countries responding. And basically, in my opinion, Trump looked at the world on the second term. He had four years to sit back and relax and he goes, you know what I'm sick of? I'm just sick of kicking the can down the road. This needs to be dealt with at some point. And I'm that mother effer who's going to do it. So rather than kick the can down the road, I'm going to pick up the can, I'm going to spray print it red, white and blue, and I'm going to chuck it at China and say, make my day, mother sucker. And we're going to see where this negotiation goes. It could go terribly good or terribly bad, but Trump, Trump's willing to die on this hill.
Pat
So. So you said TikTok. Tom, play this clip on Tik Tok and then, and then I'll give you some thoughts I have on this. Go for it.
Tom
R. Are you Open to deals with these countries.
Pat
The guy wrote the book. Everybody said that we're going to give.
Vinnie
You something that's so phenomenal as long.
Pat
As they're giving us something that's good. For instance, with Tik Tok as an example, we have a situation with Tik Tok where China will probably publicly say we'll approve a deal. But will you do something on the tariffs? The tariffs give us great power to negotiate. Always have. I used them very well in the first administration, as you saw. But now we're taking it to a whole new level because it's a worldwide situation.
Vinnie
Oh my God.
Pat
It's very exciting to see. And what it's done is driven a lot of great companies to our country. And you're going to see construction starting all over.
Brandon
The follow up on your earlier comment.
Pat
About Tick Tock, you said that the Chinese might be willing to agree to approve that sale in exchange for tariff relief.
Brandon
Is that something that you've floated to.
Pat
Them or you've heard from them or. I'm just using that as an example. Let's say we had a problem with TikTok and let's say China wasn't going to approach.
Tom
We could use tariffs in order to get it approved.
Vinnie
You know, you give them something in return.
Pat
What's the update on the deal negotiations we have? We're very close to a deal with a very good group of people.
Brandon
Larry Ellison, or is it multiple investors? Just multiple.
Pat
And then did the last minute bids kind of throw things into disarray for you? Or do you have your strategy completely.
Adam
Locked up on who's going to.
Tom
Which last minute, which.
Pat
On acquiring TikTok.
Tom
I think that China.
Pat
Maybe will call and say, well, we're upset with the tariffs and maybe they.
Tom
Want to get something a little bit.
Pat
In order to get TikTok approved. Who knows? Okay, TikTok versus tariffs. And in the list of like, if you were to put. Which is more important, 6040 tick tock or 6040 tariffs or whatever, how would you compare the two? Getting the Tick Tock deal done or.
Brandon
Tariffs 100 to zero?
Pat
Exactly. Who cares about tick tock? Who cares about TikTok at any point, if you want, you can shut down Tick Tock. Of course you're going to lose a lot of the younger audience that's not happy with you and all this other stuff. And Tick Tock kind of turned in his favor in the last election. Charlie Crow killed. Killed it on Tick Tock and a lot of the younger conservatives started using it. But no, this tariff thing is very big, Very, very big. If they figure out a deal with the tariffs, could be some very interesting things going on here, by the way. Rob, can you pull up? Let's just transition into the next story here. So with tariffs, we've covered a bunch of different things with tariffs. I want to go to this next story that we have with. Let me see which one I want to go to. I got so many of them, but I'm going to go to this. Let's go into the story, Rob. New York Post comes out with this article. Okay, if you can go to the New York Post story in the notes, Rob, that I have it at Barack Obama makes shockingly honest admission about the state of his marriage to Michelle. Okay, so here we go. Barack Obama shocking admission about the state of his marriage to Michelle. Go a little bit low, Rob, if you could. So everybody's wondering like you weren't there. Jimmy Carter funeral, you weren't there. Trump Michelle I'm talking about. And then you start a podcast with your brother. Barack Obama makes shocking Michelle. I was in deep deficit with my wife, he told Tepper Conversation Thursday. So I've been trying to dig myself out of that hole by doing occasionally fun things. The former President United States has previously suggested that his back to back terms in office from 09217 took a toll on his relationship with the former First Lady. Go a little bit lower. And then let me say this, it sure helps to be out of the White House and to have a little more time with her. He said this in an interview in 23 and making sure to praise Michelle for being forgiving of his shortcomings. At the age of 61, she revealed December 2022 that she couldn't stand her husband for a solid decade with their when their daughters Malia and Sasha were little, nothing. Noting that she wasn't being catty by saying this. According to Michelle, marriage is 50. 50 ever. Ever. She explained at the time. There are times I'm 70, he's 30 and there are times he's 60, I'm 40. But I'm guess what, 10 years we've been married 30 years. I would have, I would take 10 bad years over 30. Go a little bit lower, Rob. So I've been trying to dig myself out of the hole by okay, so you hear these stories and it's becoming more and more and more I guess here's the question. If they got a divorce, what's the big deal?
Vinnie
Nothing. Absolutely nothing.
Pat
So if they got a divorce and it didn't work out Michelle's doing a podcast. I saw the numbers yesterday. Their episodes keep getting fewer and fewer views according to the.
Vinnie
Do you want me to tell you the numbers?
Pat
If you have it, yes.
Vinnie
So the new podcast continues to tank. The viewership is down over 75% compared to our first episode. Her viewership has been dropping since her show on March 12th. So it went from episode one, 335, 000. Episode two, 194, 000. Episode three, it jumped back up. Episode five, 141. Episode six, 63000 views.
Pat
Can you just go to the channel, Rob? Let's see how it's doing.
Vinnie
So people are just not feeling it's ranked 34. Why? He's looking it up. It's not fair. Like if you're an unhappy relationship. I feel like when it comes to politics and these politicians you have to stay together because your public image and it's like, bro, you're unhappy. You keep saying that you're unhappy. All the rumors are out there about certain people's, you know, decisions and their.
Pat
Yeah, look at that, Rob. Zoom in a little bit.
Vinnie
5,000 views in four days.
Brandon
Yikes.
Pat
That's not possible.
Vinnie
Oh yeah.
Brandon
Oh yeah.
Vinnie
63. Those are the shorts.
Adam
This is on YouTube.
Brandon
Those are. Those are clips.
Adam
So is it Mostly Spotify?
Pat
Where's 5,000 views with Jay Shetty? There's no way.
Vinnie
Well, it's a six minute clip.
Pat
Millions on top of millions of. Yeah, well, the episode got 66000 views. The short. God.
Vinnie
But do you hear what they have you have you. I know it's hard, but have you watched what they. They're just talking about childhood and just. It's just not appealing.
Pat
Can you click on the J SH1? Let's see if they leave the comments open or they've closed it. That's all I want to see. But don't watch the video, Rob. Can you pause the video, Rob?
Vinnie
Ain't nobody watching this with 57 thumbs up.
Pat
Only here for the comments. Go a little bit lower, Rob. Too much censorship in the comment section. I'd rather go to the dentist than to listen for 10 minutes. We are at the market with the boys. I think it's important to understand happiness. Just an emotion like the rest of your emotion. You are not care something. That's a real one. Keep going lower clown show another one. Buying subscribers views and comments do not make a popular part. I don't think they're buying it to only what you love. That doesn't intentionally hurt you 63,000 subs laughing my ass off. So you know, this goes into this next story, okay. Because the Democratic Party is trying to find. Even the other day we had Sam Cedar on. We kept asking about a name. A name, a name, a name.
Vinnie
Couldn't do it.
Pat
I think we asked. Adam asked, I don't know, 10 times. Give me one name.
Adam
Just give me one.
Pat
So Barack Obama destroyed the Democratic Party by competing for power and money. This is a new book that came out written by a person that usually writes books trashing Trump. So Rob, can you go to Amazon to show what the book is and what other books this author has written? If you go on Amazon, you just type up the name of the book. So it's not like it's written by Sean Hannity or Bill O'Reilly or Glenn Beck. Can you go to it and then go to the top? Go to the author, click on the author's name, Jonathan Allen and zoom in a little bit to see the list of books. So inside here comes campaign. Who is this person? How Joe Biden earlier was the one. The president. So, okay, so fight. Go to fight the. The. The title is what Inside the Wildest Battle. Let's find out who's Jonathan Allen. By the way, can you go a little bit lower the description? It shows it on the bottom who the author is. I just want to know this guy's background. Jonathan is a political reporter at NBC News. Okay. He previously worked at Washington bureau for chief Bloomberg News. White House, you run political. Okay. Every one of them liberal, liberal, liberal. He has co authored three prior books with Ryan Barzan, nhrc shattered New York Times bestseller, Senior political correspondence at the Hill. Okay. She previously runs on staff for Trump's during the summer. Staff writer, Politico. Was that CNN political analyst. And he also appeared on cbs, NBC. Okay. All right. So the article says the book Fight Inside the Wildest Battle for the White House claims the former president Barack Obama's weakened the Democratic Party by creating Organizing for action in 2012 to push his legislative goals. Authors Jonathan Allen and Amy Parness write, though Organizing for Action never realized his vision, it competed with the party for power and money. They add that Obama left the party far weaker than he found it. Wow. With one operative quoted as saying, Obama destroyed that shit. Unlike Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden, Obama relied on black professionals for his campaign rather than party loyalists. After Obama's 2016 exit, the Clintons, Biden and Democratic National Committee chair Donna Brazile worked to rebuild the party's infrastructure and block far left Democrats from taking over the book notes by helping install a party loyalists at the national and state committees over the course of the years, these establishments Democrats keep progressive outsiders at bay. Tom, thoughts one on Obama with, you know, talking about his marriage as well as what this book is saying about Obama destroying the Democratic Party.
Tom
Well, I'm gonna say something's gonna surprise you. You know, it's been, we're coming in nine years since he's been in office and in the election it showed that he doesn't have a lot of mojo with the, with the voting blocks. He actually discovered how little he had and how it had gone away. And he was countered in situations that have imagined him being countered. And it's been a long time since he was inaugurating and gave hope to every person in America, regardless of your color, because on that moment, regardless of whether you agreed with his politics, you could say that it doesn't matter where you're from or what color you are, you could be President of the United States. The same thing. When Thurgood Marshall became Supreme Court justice, that was an important moment. After the eight years of his policies, it was like, oh man, that was hard to take. Now it's been almost nine years that he's gone, you know, and it doesn't surprise me because what is the hardest thing to do? Why did Michael Schumacher come back from retirement? Why do athletes come back for another two years? Why do they take another one year contract? Because sometimes it's hard to say goodbye and sometimes it's hard to go to retirement.
Pat
Are you gonna sing sometimes?
Tom
Maybe I could, maybe I could sing 5000 on Super Chat and I don't sing. And so now you're at a situation. It doesn't surprise me that after the Hillary, remember he was, he was standing way off to the left and behind the trees. And just when Hillary ran her campaign, there was no love there. Remember that? There is absolutely no love between the Clinton camps and the Obama camps. And then four years later, Biden's there and he's trying to influence the open convention and discovering how much little power he had. And so it doesn't surprise me now to see that what was going on behind the curtain. And it also doesn't surprise me to see how the Clintons, bidens and the DNC worked to rebuild in 2016. And you know what they did, they messed with Bernie Sanders in South Carolina. And now we can see behind that that Bernie had a point that he was heading for a nomination prop probably, but there were invisible hands that Messed with them. So you want to talk about the guys that are against democracy? It's them. But it's like, I think for Barack Obama, it is hard to go off into retirement and to really accept the fact that you don't have the athletic skills you want had and you gotta hang up the cleats then. He could be such a statesman right now. But now you see behind the curtain that this was there. Man, that's tough. I imagine it's tough for him. You said it's like the worst year he had. And Pat, I think you're right. And now we're seeing just behind the curtain how much was going on.
Adam
Adam, look, there's only one president who just refused to go away after his term was done, and that's Trump. This guy didn't even need to run, ever. He was a billionaire. He came in and did his thing. Yes, there's people that loved him. Yes, there's people that hated him. But after he lost in 2020, he could have just been done. But if you've ever seen that viral clip of Trump when he's like, he just can't quit, man. Just straight up can't quit. Some people. I've seen it all the time. People quit. People quit. Trump is a unique person. He don't quit. If you look at every other president since Reagan, even even Jimmy Carter from Bush Senior, Bush junior, Bill Clinton, like, most of these guys just kind of go away. Clinton allowed Hillary to be the. The, you know, the catapult to the top. Bush. Do you ever see the Bush, Bush Jr. Out, W out. You never see him. They just kind of go away. Barack Obama's issue was that he kind of was doing, like, the hokey pokey. He had one foot in, he had one foot out. Is he leading the parties and now leading the party? Is Michelle gonna run? She's not gonna run. You know, anytime someone floated Michelle's name out there I go, she's not running. She's never given any indication she's gonna.
Pat
Run your thoughts here.
Adam
So I think he's.
Pat
Can I. Yeah, because you went first. I went to Tom. I wanted to go to see what Vinnie wanted to say with this one. I'll come back to you. Go ahead.
Vinnie
Yeah, but just with the whole. What was. What was the main. What was the actual question?
Pat
No, Barack Obama. The whole situation was Barack Obama, marriage, you know, him destroying the Democratic Party. The book.
Vinnie
Oh, I think. Well, just because I'm. You're comparing him to Donald Trump, not.
Adam
Comparing him to Donald Trump.
Vinnie
Well, you Said the last guy that didn't want to leave.
Adam
Every president, but then Trump is the only one who is sustainable.
Vinnie
But the one that. But when you said didn't want to leave.
Adam
Consistent, persistent resilience. This guy ain't stopping.
Vinnie
But there was a difference.
Adam
Every other president just was like, I'm out.
Pat
Yeah, but.
Vinnie
But Barack wanted to hang around. It wasn't as if. And this is Trump's words, if they didn't cheat and they didn't cheat him out of an election, he would have. He would have easily. By the way, he would have been gone already this past year. He would have. A couple months ago, he would have been gone. So there's a difference, I think, between him and Tom made a great point on him just wanting. Not wanting to retire. But he also just. He spoke at some event. He was at Hamilton. He was at some college. And he was just up there saying, like, we have to keep. I think it was a talk in New York, I believe. And he's like, we got to keep fighting. And he's basically saying, you know, Trump supporters are this. Trump supporters are that. And I think when it comes to Michelle and him, you nailed it. If you guys want to get a divorce, get a divorce. Why should you be forced to stay in a relationship that you are completely unhappy? Remember that photo that they took at dinner? They're hanging, barely touching each other's fingers on the end of the table. And it's like. And if any of them, what do you think? They're actually happy.
Adam
I remember after 2020, everyone was like, that's it. Melania is going to divorce Trump. It's done. Put a fork in this thing.
Vinnie
Who said that, though?
Adam
Who said that everyone was saying this?
Vinnie
I didn't. I never heard that.
Adam
Me.
Vinnie
I know.
Pat
Okay.
Vinnie
How more distant can you be in a photo?
Adam
I'm just letting you know one thing, Vinnie.
Pat
Just because you didn't hear when she slapped her hand, when they're walking and she.
Adam
It was everywhere.
Pat
Yeah, there were stories about Melania, but.
Adam
Of course.
Pat
But.
Adam
So there's stories like this. There's stories about Melania, but we're all just here.
Pat
I'm with you on the hand stuff. The difference is that I think there's something going on here. It's. It's almost like Will Smith and Jada. Jada, you know how Bezos did it? Bezos, they came out in 2019 and said stories about him and such and such.
Vinnie
Girl.
Pat
He says, yeah, it's true. And then they got a divorce and moved on. And Guess what? She went and married somebody a lot more chill school teacher, McKenzie. And then divorced 18 months later. She was bored out of her mind. Every night she's comparing them to Bezos. And then Bezos went and ended up.
Adam
With somebody with nice hands.
Pat
Yeah. But no, he ended up with somebody who wants to be. And guess what? Everybody moved on. No one cares about it on what happens. People move on and have their own lives. By the way, Michael Jordan was married to a girl early on in his career that I think he got her pregnant before they got married. And then when they got married and he's in the NBA, he's Michael Jordan. They're having a challenging time. And then boom, she apparently hired somebody PR to go investigate him. I said, like, listen, let's just finish up and move on. They move on. You've never seen her in media at all. She kind of wanted to be to herself, very minimal stuff that she wants to do. The difference with this, that there may be something going on here is you don't show up to Jimmy Carter's funeral. He's a Democrat. And you don't show up to the inaugurate and you start your own podcast with your brother. And you're saying the comments and you're. If you want to go. All I'm saying is if a president gets a divorce, I wouldn't look at Obama one way or another. I would simply say, I get it, it's tough. God bless. And don't forget, they were young presidents, they weren't old presidents. So it's a difference. When you're a young president, when you're a young president getting out and you have, you're a star power like Netflix show and everywhere he goes and da, da, da, da, da. It's a different kind of a life. So who knows?
Adam
Quick question.
Brandon
Obama spouses in the Democrat Party, I think they pick their spouses the same way they pick their candidates. I think they're both arranged marriages. You said that the, when we were talking about how the super delegates, like, are the gatekeepers for the Democrat Party, I think there's a good chance that people in politics like the Clintons and Obamas, like, it could be an arranged marriage. So, I mean, I think that's. I think that's the biggest problem.
Pat
Democrats believe in arranged marriage. Yeah.
Brandon
Both literally and figuratively.
Vinnie
You don't, you don't believe that, Adam. And hold on. In politics that somehow they could say, listen, guys, this guy's going to be the president. They've been back, dude, Obama was A work in progress for a while. And what if they were just like you guys have to get married because listen about it. Let's just talk about rumors because Adam, what if.
Adam
What year did the show me data on this not just speculation. What year did Bill and Hillary get married?
Brandon
I would guess 70s.
Adam
What year? 71. What year to become president? 92. All right, guys, it's a 20 year plan.
Tom
Who on the Clinton you're going to become governor of Arkansas.
Pat
Marriage. The arranged marriage for me is meaning they pick the candidates. The Democrats pick the candidates. They don't let you fight to win it. They pick and choose the candidate.
Adam
We're talking about political.
Pat
But if you're talking about the example that Brandon has given, I also do think a Bill and Hillary sit there and say, hey, one day we're going to be presidents. This is a good partnership.
Vinnie
Oh yeah.
Pat
To go together rather than I love you. There could be a.
Adam
You think they did ambition 71.
Pat
It could be because listen, there's a picture of him meeting Kennedy very early. Look at that picture with her zooming on her picture to the left. Zoom in on the picture to the left, Rob. The left one right there. Who is she meeting?
Tom
Barry Goldwater.
Pat
There you go. That's her meeting Barry Goldwater. And then there's a. It's a 68. But look at Bill in the back.
Adam
Similar interests and they're into similar things. They run similar circles. Yeah.
Pat
Ambitious. Fully agree that want to be president.
Adam
Say, hey listen, we're going to go on a 20 year run. If we do this partnership, we're going to end up becoming president one day. That is very hard to do.
Vinnie
How is that hard to do?
Adam
All right, go ahead.
Pat
You do it.
Brandon
With the CIA though alleged. Allegedly like people say that he sometimes reported to the CIA when he was in college.
Adam
The answer is they got married, they started a life together. They're both politically ambitious and things happen. Or the speculators are there. There was a CIA meeting in the.
Vinnie
Back of a room in our. What about.
Adam
And they planned and plotted the White House.
Brandon
Or what about random years later there is evidence.
Vinnie
Or what about random things like a letter that you wrote to your girlfriend in 1982 saying I make love to men daily. My imagination. Then you have Larry Sinclair.
Adam
You talking about the Clintons now? I'm talking about the Clinton.
Vinnie
I'm talking about Obama. You're talking about no arranged measures. What if, let's just say figuratively speaking speaking. And there's rumors out there. What if Barack Obama likes guys and this whole thing was set up because nobody's going to vote for a single guy president. So guess what? It could be possible.
Adam
It could be possible. Here's the beautiful thing about podcasts. Everybody can hear what you have to say. Here's the ugly thing about podcasts. Everybody's going to hear every ridiculous.
Vinnie
How's it ridiculous? Is what I just said a fact? Is what I just said a fact? In 1982, penned a letter to his girlfriend Alex McNear. Former President Donald Trump wrote.
Pat
No, no, no. Former president Barack Obama said, sorry, you.
Vinnie
See, I make love to men daily, but in my imagination. Adam, who says that? Adam, who says that?
Adam
But now I'm going to defend a letter.
Vinnie
No.
Adam
45 years.
Vinnie
I know you don't get the point.
Adam
Are you saying that in between all this.
Tom
So you knew about the letter? Is that what you're saying?
Adam
Barack, Michelle are arranged to become the president, I believe. Must be fun to just be half retarded and just.
Vinnie
I believe the. The public is on my side more than you. That and Adam, it's showing. They hate. They don't like each other. She's not happy.
Adam
Same Vinnie again. That's the same crap they were saying about Trump and Melania. They're still together and stronger than ever.
Vinnie
So there's a difference. I don't think Trump ever wrote a letter or had a guy named Larry Sinclair. Larry Sinclair, go, bro. This guy would drove with a limo and we would hook up and do drugs.
Adam
Here's.
Vinnie
Come on, man.
Adam
Generally the problem you're having.
Vinnie
Come on, man. I don't have a problem.
Adam
When you, when you look at the other side as the enemy and you can't just like, actually, actually look at things genuinely, like, like you just make up stories in your head to go along with your name. They probably just fell in love and got married.
Pat
Want to go with a light story? Mark Cuban weighs in on transgender athletes and women's sports, saying people are just not ready for it.
Adam
That's probably true.
Pat
Can you play this clip, Rob? Mark Cuban breaking it down with Stephen A. Smith. That we should be ready for it. If we're progressive enough, we should accept the fact that men should compete in women's sports. Go ahead, Rob. The whole sports transports issue, you know, it's like the old Willie Horton thing. You know, my attitude is if there's.
Tom
A trans athlete, no matter what side.
Pat
You let the opponent, whether it's an individual sport or a team sport, you.
Adam
Let them decide if they wanted to compete against them or not.
Tom
If they feel they can win if.
Adam
They feel it's not fair.
Pat
It's up to them.
Adam
But to make it just a national.
Pat
Issue so that if you weren't supporting the fewer than 10 trans athletes in the NCAA, then you know, you weren't a good person.
Tom
I just.
Pat
People aren't ready for that yet. And you've got to meet people where they are. We've gotten, We've taken this country so far in race relationships, races, in attitudes to.
Adam
Towards lgtbq.
Pat
You know, it takes time. You can't just force it down people's throat.
Adam
And instead of. What does he want to force down.
Pat
People who are being disadvantaged and being discriminated against.
Tom
Our helped.
Pat
They wanted to make it a campaign issue, focus on helping the people, not using them to campaign.
Adam
How does.
Pat
All right, Vinnie, thoughts? Actually, no, Tom, I'm gonna go to you first. Mark Cuban. He's got daughters. Okay, so. So he's a family man. He's been married for a long time. He's a good father. His kids love him. What do you say about what he had to say here?
Tom
I think Mart really gave a tangled up answer there. And I think what was interesting is, oh, if you don't like it, you can forfeit. I think that's really terrible. We've seen the stronger athletes. I don't think I'm ready to see men spike volleyballs and knock my daughter unconscious. I don't think I'm ready today. I don't think I'll be ready in 10 years. I don't think I'll ever be ready for that. And I think what Mark, I don't know what he was trying to say. He seems like he got a little tangled up around the point because I think that there is a common sense element to this. And it's been said by many people, they said, look, we spend all of this time on steroid detection and blood doping detection in the Olympics. And there were East German, back when there was 2 Germanys Power lifters that were blood doping for the Olympics. And we spend all this time. How do we stop this injustice? How do we find out about these steroids in the Olympics? How do we level the playing field? Remember that was the whole argument about steroids and what we got to do and the World Doping association, what it had to do because it's so unfair. You know, here you have countries like the United States and East Germany with these big budgets and this guy from Cameroon that's trained all of his life and is losing out to a guy who's Blood doping. That's not fair. What happened to that? Where did that go? Now you're all the way to Mark Cuban saying, well, if you don't like it, you can forfeit. So you could just lose. So Riley Gaines could have said, well, I'm not going to get in the pool. I'm just going to forfeit. Really. It's just, I don't think people are ready for that. I don't think people are ready for. I think people are ready for fairness and I think Mark gave a really tangled up answer there. People are ready for fairness. People are ready to step back and say, wait a minute, that's what people are ready for. People, it's not like, well, if we just wait long enough, we'll sacrifice our daughters to men and sports. No, we spent all this time getting steroids out and now we let the guy with built in steroids in his testicles walk in. That's. That's so unfair.
Vinnie
Yeah. And does he have, does he have, by the way. And it's always the people that. It doesn't affect their lives. Anytime people were open border or anytime people are like, let them play. Because you know what? None of. They're not getting affected. Their children are getting raped, their children are getting murdered. Their daughters aren't losing freaking scholarships. I think it's stupid. And you know what? I want people like Mark Cuban to keep talking, keep putting a mic in front of his face, keep letting him say dumb, ignorant stuff like that. Just like what was like Jasmine Crock and all the. Who was the other one that had the trans. The Neil DeGrasse Tyson, like the dumbest sounding arguments. And this, the left, these Democrats will not change the tune. It's like with all this stuff that's happening in the world, we're still talking about this. We're still talking about men playing with women. And, and this is from a party. The most hypocrisy I've ever seen. They're so pro women. They're so my body and my choice. It's like, bro, you're competing against men and people are getting injured. Women are losing their freaking scholarships. And they're so. All these feminists. There's such male feminists, but when it comes to this, they want men to compete with our, with our freaking daughters. And I think it's absolutely ridiculous. But let them, let them keep talking. There goes anytime that people are like, oh, you can maybe run for president. This is always going to come back to bite him, by the way.
Pat
You know, you know what? I Like, and I don't want to spend a lot of time on this story. I'm going to go to the next story. But Stephen A. Smith finally says, you know, he's open to the idea of running for president. Okay. He's actually leaving the door open. Okay, Stephen A. Smith. And guess what? You know what? At least Stephen A. Is doing. At least he's given a different angle. At least he has the audacity to disagree with the Democratic Party. At least he has the guts to say, yeah, you guys screwed up royally. At least he has the audacity to do that. And guess what? Whether it's going to work or not, it is what it is. I don't know if it's going to work or not. I do know they're going to attack the hell out of him. Is this it, Rob, with him saying he's open to the idea or not?
Tom
I believe so.
Pat
Play this clip real quick. Unfortunately, over the last few weeks, I've had no choice but to get a bit more serious about it.
Vinnie
It. I've been approached, approached by people on Capitol Hill.
Pat
I've been approached by people who are elected officials in office, whether it's governors or mayors or what have you.
Vinnie
And people have legitimately and seriously asked me about that.
Adam
I have no desire to be a politician.
Pat
My life is pretty well. But I've decided I'm no longer going to close that door. I'm going to keep my options open.
Vinnie
I'm going to entertain the possibility. And if the pro, if, if it.
Adam
Comes in 2020, late 2026, 2027, where.
Pat
I look at this country and I.
Vinnie
Think it's an absolute mess and there's.
Pat
Legitimate reason to believe, whether it's via.
Vinnie
Exploratory committees or anything else, that I indeed would have a legitimate shot to.
Adam
Win the presidency of the United States.
Vinnie
I am not going to rule it out.
Adam
And I'm not playing.
Vinnie
I just think that it's a mess right now.
Pat
I'm not scared. Big difference. Mark Cuban versus him. He'll call out BS And Mark Cuban is just going to sit there and try to spin. I don't get a feel that Stephen A. Is spinning a lot. I think Stephen A. Was afraid to be a little bit more public about it maybe a year ago, maybe a couple years ago, maybe a few years ago. I think right now he's more open about it. And he still got the contract. He's with espn. He has the mic now. He has his own show now. He has a bunch of stuff going on. You got to respect the difference between the two of them, Vinnie.
Vinnie
But how much of all. And this is all of the left. Chris Cuomo, him. The majority of the left now are just like, man, our party did this and our party did that. Where were they for the past four years? I understand what you're saying. Where they had to be kind of quiet and everything. But, like, we want. If you're gonna. If you just let all that slide. And now all of a sudden they're all like, yeah, man, the. Everybody's pointing that way and say, man, man, they messed up up. Okay? Everybody knew. Nobody. And he voted, right? Did he say he voted for.
Pat
He voted.
Vinnie
He voted.
Pat
And he voted for Kamala Harris.
Vinnie
How. Like, I don't understand how anybody in their right mind all of a sudden can make this flip. But you still voted for Kamala Harris. They couldn't name one thing that she was going to do. Positive. And yet now everybody's jumping ship. Everybody, even Jake Tapper and all these guys are writing books, talking about, man, they. They lied to us about Biden as if, like, as if we were all blind and we couldn't see what's happening. I just. I just don't know how genuine all these things are, because at the end of the day, this four years, Trump is going to be gone. What are you going to do different? Are they going to come in and reverse everything that he's done? That everything that he did for 2016, when he did all that he did with all the racism stuff, with all the COVID stuff, with all the, you know, negative Russia collusion, he still busted his ass to try to get this country back in order. And then Covid hit, and then now he's just trying to build us all the way back. What are they going to do when they come in? Because I'm telling you right now, I like Stephen A. Smith. I mean, I trust him way more than I trust Gavin. But those are the type of people, once they come in. What are you going to do to reverse the country, especially if we're on the way to a brighter future?
Adam
Well, you know, Stephen is getting a little bit more confidence now. Something. Something happens to you guys when a hundred million dollar check hits your bank account. So your chest gets a little puffed up, you get a little more bass in your voice. I get it. Stephen A. Smith, shout out to you still voted for Kamala, but we love you anyway about Mark Cuban. So I don't know. I don't know if this is something that he just worked hard for it. And I don't know if it's something where they just arranged a marriage for Mark Cuban because he met his wife, I think, in 1997. They married in 2002. They got three kids. He was an entrepreneur. He went to Indiana. He started these tech companies. He became a billionaire. He bought the Dallas Mavericks. All of a sudden, he's doing Shark Tank. Next thing you know, he transforms into Rachel Maddow. All of a sudden, he's doing these interviews. He's jumbling these words. Maybe that's just his career path. Or maybe the dark forces, the Democratic Party were arranging a marriage 25 years ago. I don't know the answer. I'll let the crowd speculate. But Mark Cuban, we're on to you, buddy.
Vinnie
I have a sense of being sarcastic right now. Is that what you're trying to do?
Adam
I am, Vinny, because some things are just what they are.
Pat
Did you just make any point? Just went on like, I'm, I'm waiting. This is sometime where I watch. I'm like, I. I want to hear something, but I want to go to this next.
Vinnie
Can I make some fast?
Tom
Can I show you how to make a point?
Adam
No. Tom, sit down.
Tom
Regarding Stephen A. Smith, really, really quick. I don't think it has anything to do with this contract. I don't think that. I think he's got deep personal integrity. And he was talking about looking at the country and looking at the party and saying, I'm going to leave the door open because if I see things I don't think are good there, I'm going to do it. And I think that's integrity. And by the way, how many of us here at this table cannot go to a drawer or a photo album that we have and look at pictures of ourselves and say, wow, what was I thinking? And so why can't Steven. Why Exactly. Why can't Stephen A. Smith look back over politics and things like this and going, wow, what are they thinking? And maybe I'm gonna. Maybe I'm evolving in the process. So we've been talking about a lot of things, but in terms of Stephen A. I think it takes a lot of guts what he's done, and I think he's got personal integrity. And I think it has jack to do with how much he earns. I think that's him.
Pat
I love it. I'm going to the next story. Kamala Harris was completely shocked by election night loss to Trump after she bought the hype. Is this not the funniest thing, Rob? Kamala Harris And a running mate, Tim Waltz, were blindsided to Donald Trump in 2024, as detailed on Fight Inside the Wildest Battle for the White House by the couple, the people that wrote it. Parnes told the podcast. Somebody's got to win with Tara Palmeri. She was completely shocked and Tim Waltz was shocked. Waltz was so stunned he sat silently in his hotel room with staffers explaining the defeat while Harris questioned, are you sure? Have we done a recap? Should we do a recount? The campaign victory was assured and Parnes noting they they thought they were going to win. Harris confidence stemmed from misleading optimism within her team as Parnes reported that some stuff felt gaslit by senior officials who claimed things were looking good. Harris bought the hype, swayed by crowd sizes, fundraising success and boots on the ground with Parn saying she bought all of that. She bought the hype and so did a lot of people in the campaign. Tom.
Tom
Well, Pat, I thank you for when you challenged us to say, hey, let's do, let's do a 16 week series and let's look at these polls and let's look at facts, let's look at numbers and let's see what we can find. And we saw polls that, we saw where they were going, we saw where the numbers were going. We also saw and talked to friends inside the polling industry, people that have come out and talked to us that said that a lot of these pollsters milked the Democrat campaign. $3 million a month polling contracts. Hey, you're doing well. You're doing great. You know what? More white men than you think you look what you're doing with married Hispanics, it's better than you think. And how is it that people like Nancy Pelosi saw the car going over the cliff? It was like the last scene in Thelma and Louise. And you've got Kamala Harris and Tim Waltz holding hands as the car's going over into the canyon. That's what was going on. Everybody knew it. And I believe that Tim Walls and I believe that Kamala were lied to during the last lap of the campaign where people said it's looking good cuz there was too much money to be made. And do you remember what we all said? Remember when the audit came out? The pre, the audit at the end? And how much money was spent? What did we say on this podcast? How the hell did they spend that much money? Remember this, Vinnie? We were all looking at that. Well, guess what? I'll tell you how they did it. They paid a bunch of consultants that were looking at him and kissing him on the ear and saying, everything's okay, you got this thing locked up. But they were cashing checks right up to the end. And I believe that this shows along with the book we just looked at just how divorced the Kamala Harris, Tim Walsh campaign and the blood suckers that were around it, just making money on it from the core Democrats, including Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama who were rubbing their, their temples, you know, sitting at their own kitchen tables saying, man, this is going over the cliff. They all knew it. And that's what's going on here. And it doesn't surprise me, by the way, Tim Waltz just sitting in a room, just shocked, not talking, staring at nothing. That's a normal day. That's a day ending in Y for Tim Waltz. It's like, you know, so let's not be hard on Tim. He's versatile. To tell you, I was such a knucklehead.
Brandon
Yeah. So I think Kamala just genuinely hates people and being around people and interacting with people that she considers regular people because I think you have to like to speak to people and be around people and be in front of people when you're running for president and if you want to do something where you're serving people. So I think that she was so cut off and detached and out of touch with the average person where she didn't interact with them unless they were pre screened and they had their pre approved questions and everything. So I think she was so cut off from reality with like the average person that of course she was shocked. She had no idea, like no perception of what the average person was doing or thinking. And then, yeah, the pollsters, we know the pollsters are fake. I mean, like I've never been called by a pollster before. I don't know anybody who's been called by a pollster before. So I don't know like what kind of sample size these guys are getting stuff from. But yeah, it's, it's not. I think both sides always think they're going to win all the way down to the wire with any campaign. So yeah, I'm not surprised that she.
Pat
Was shocked of any.
Vinnie
Well, that's, and that's. Never underestimate the power of the mainstream media as well. Like, you know, she was watching and she was paying attention and people are like, we got this. And you have the backing of Barack Obama and their lovely marriage to Michelle Obama constantly saying, listen, we're going to go out there, we're going to tell, you know, we're going to rally up the troops, and we're going to tell the African American community, you have to vote. Like, if you don't, then, you know, you're ruining the rate. You're not helping us. And none of it. Everything fell flat. And that's what you get when you have just people like you. Like, you say it all the time. The flattery. It's just killing people. Like, you got. You got this. We're gonna win nothing. You. He's not gonna. He's a racist. He's Hitler. We're all gonna say that. He's Hitler. We're all gonna say that. He's gonna ruin the world. And. And that's it. And that's what you get when you listen to the mainstream media and you have people patting you on the back all the time, and you're not aware and you're not living in reality. That's what happens. That's exactly what the hell happened, Adam.
Adam
I mean, I just. I'm picturing Tim Walls being like, what happened?
Vinnie
Yeah.
Adam
I thought we had this in the bag.
Vinnie
Knucklehead.
Adam
Are you. What, this guy?
Pat
Yeah.
Vinnie
Gosh, give me one of them tampons from the bathroom so I can wear my tears.
Adam
So, I mean, it just maybe just shows you how. How much politicians, maybe even on both sides, sort of live in echo chambers, and you're being coddled, and your. Your handlers are kind of telling you what you want to hear. They're not necessarily telling what you need to hear. They're not telling. They're not speaking truth to power, and they're sort of insulated. I'm not shocked. You know, nobody's shocked that they lost. You know, it's like when Walter Mondale, I think, lost a Reagan, I think 49 states to one. You know, Reagan just cleaned up and the electoral college cleaned up across the board. And Walter Mondale just sitting there, he's like, what?
Tom
You're kidding me.
Adam
Look at this map right here. And by the way, reference Tim Walls, Governor of Minnesota. Walter Mondale. Minnesota. There's a Minnesota. They're drinking the Kool Aid over there. But nobody was shocked to see that Trump won. What we were shocked was that he ran the board. Every single swing state, popular vote. Now, Kamala is a drunk person on the Internet.
Pat
Let's go to the next story. The Supreme Court clears way for Venezuelan deportation to resume for now. Okay, so this. Rob, if you got the clip on this one here, Supreme Court ruled Monday that the Trump administration can resume deporting Venezuelan migrants under the alien Enemies act overturning a lower court's pause. The unsigned order stated that detainees are confined in Texas, so venue is improper in the District of Columbia directing the case to Texas. All justice agreed migrants must get noticed within a reasonable time to challenge removal, per Justice Bred Kavanaugh concurrence through. Is this the clip? Rob it is.
Tom
This is News Nation reporting on this late last night.
Pat
Go for it and the Trump administration can restart deportation flights under the Alien Enemies Act. The Supreme Court ruling in a narrow majority that the wartime law can be used to deport illegal immigrants. Those flights have been at the center of a legal firestorm between the administration and the Justice Department. News Nation's Tom Dempsey has the latest from Washington. Washington so Tom, this wasn't a complete victory for the president, was it? Yeah, but a temporary win, you could.
Tom
Say, for the Trump administration.
Pat
And a good morning. Look these for now, these deportation flights under the Alien Enemies act can continue as this case makes its way through court. And as part of this Supreme Court.
Brandon
Decision, anyone ordered to be deported must.
Pat
Have their day in court. President Donald Trump, though, celebrated this decision when it came down post posting the Truth Social quote, saying that the Supreme Court upheld the rule of law and calling it a great day for justice in America. The Supreme Court did not rule on.
Vinnie
Whether those Venezuelans on flights to El.
Pat
Salvador last month were improperly classified for deportation under the Alien Enemies Act. But the justices did determine that the court cases challenging those deportations cannot be held in Washington, D.C. they must take place where the detainees are being held. In this case, that was Texas. Liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor led the dissenting.
Vinnie
Opinion writing, quote, the government's conduct in.
Pat
This litigation poses an extraordinary threat to the rule of law. We as a nation and a court of law should be better than this. And we will know too.
Brandon
In this close 5 to 4 margin.
Pat
On the Supreme Court.
Vinnie
Conservative leading Justice Amy Coney Barrett actually.
Pat
Joined the three liberal leading justices in dissenting in the opinion.
Brandon
Anna.
Pat
Yeah. And Tom, what about the Maryland man mistakenly deported to El Salvador? Do we know when he's coming home?
Adam
Oh my God.
Vinnie
Yeah, we do not know when he's coming home. Look, that case has gotten national attention. Kilmar Abrego Garcia is the name of the man.
Pat
And right now he does not know.
Brandon
When he's going to be returning home.
Pat
After Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts.
Vinnie
Issued an order pausing that official order.
Pat
For him to return home by midnight.
Vinnie
Night, the Trump team admits Abrego Garcia was mistakenly.
Pat
Tom, thoughts?
Tom
So first of all, I think we're seeing some of the true colors of Amy Comey Barrett. Vinny has talked about this, but I think what we ought to do, let's, let's look at this, you know, somewhat objectively and what sort of what, you know, Justice Sotomayor said, I think we look at that, it says each and then. And also what Tom Dempsey, the correspondent said, each person has to have their day in court. Look, all the crazies out there want you to believe that we're just going down the street. You, you, you, you and you, and we're throwing you on a plane and sending you back. No, you're going to detention centers. Public defenders. Look at who you are. What identification do you have? What have you done? What's going on? We check you out and away you go. And with all that activity and all that stuff going on, we have one guy, one in all the activity, one that we have found a whoops. And guess what? Even John Roberts has said, hang on, he is gonna come home. But hang on a second because we have to do this right and let's get it right. And so when you see a 5, 4 decision here, what I'm really seeing is Comey Barrett and Sotomayor saying, hey, we gotta get the rule of law right? And then we got other liberal justice that just don't want Trump to do anything, so they'll vote no and whatever. But remember, this law goes back to help me out. 1789 is when this law was started regarding foreign combatants. And we are seeing new levels of foreign combatants. And I believe the Trump administration is correctly categorizing these people as foreign combatants. And so if that's the way it's going to be, then you're going to have an expedited ride home because you're causing issues here. But I also think Vinny probably got opinion on this. We're kind of seeing that we maybe don't have an exact conservative justice. Maybe we have like a moderate leaning right on big issue justice. Not the, not the support that I wanted to see from her, like at.
Vinnie
The end of the day. And you nailed it, Tom. Out of all this situation, one guy that they have, like, out of how many thousands that we made one mistake. I love how everybody thinks we're going to be perfect in this whole situation. But let's just ask ourselves, who are we deporting and who are we. Okay, we're deporting illegal. There's the word illegal. People that are freaking gang members. Okay? What do gang members do? They don't skip down the street holding hands. No, they sell drugs, they beat up people, they shoot people. Look what Trendaragua was doing in freaking taking over apartment complexes in, in Colorado. It's like enough like the left, what they're sticking up for these people. And I get this due process situation. Maybe the process needs to change when it's. You are here and we have documentation that you are illegal and you're in a gang. There's no. What day in court? What day in court? Get out of the country. You don't belong here in the first place. And Tom, Mitch McConnell brought Amy Colby Bear. He rushed. He brought Amy Colby Bear to Trump and rushed the nomination, okay? And some would argue that she's a freaking plant because look at her. Look at the. Remember when she was at the. His what? Not the State of the Union when Trump walked in. Have you ever seen a Supreme Court justice look at a freaking president with that much disdain, Tom, have you ever.
Tom
Seen that Bush was tricked the same way Bush Sr. Over David Souter.
Vinnie
Okay, so exactly my point.
Brandon
And John Roberts maybe, too.
Vinnie
Yeah, yeah. But at the end of the day, Brandon, what do we, what are we fighting about? And I don't know if you saw this. Like, it just drives me crazy. They're illegal gang members. Get them the hell out. We made one mistake, okay? They're going to fix it. They're not going to let the guy stay there forever. It just drives me bananas, Adam.
Adam
Trend. I love Trump saying that. Trend. But look, there's a, there's something happening, by the way, in Venezuela. I'm getting a lot more messages from people. Are you getting these messages on my nectar? You're seeing these things about Venezuela and this upheaval of what's going on in Venezuela. There's something happening there. It's Maduro guy, no bueno. But obviously we, we agree with getting these criminals and these gang members out of the country. But let's not just gloss over. There's this one dude, what's his name, Kilmar Garcia. That's like, guys, you ship me out to El Salvador to a maximum security prison, and I guess when you go fast, things are going to break. I get it, and I agree with what Trump is doing, but just put yourself in this guy's shoes. They're like, he shows up to the prison, maximum security prison in El Salvador. They're like, what's up, bro? What gang You. You turn the agua? He goes, no, I work for Zephyr Hills. Like, I just like water. I'm working in the Water industry. What gang you sending home? Like, imagine this guy's experience. Just he's a citizen or he's married to an American citizen. He's not tatted up, he's not a gang member. Shows up to El Salvador. Can we just show an image of what it looks like in El Salvador when you show up there with Ms. 13?
Vinnie
What is it?
Adam
Could you imagine the jail you're talking about?
Vinnie
Yes, but Adam, would you imagine what.
Adam
This guy is dealing with right now?
Vinnie
But is it crazy that it has to go to Supreme Court for them to fight?
Adam
Like, Trump pictures than that.
Vinnie
Trump has to fight.
Adam
There we go.
Vinnie
Trump has to fight to keep the flight going. Because, Adam, for four years they came in here willy nilly. They gave, they gave them the green light. The Biden said, come on in. So I'm not harping on one guy.
Adam
Be a comedian for a second. It's not funny. But just imagine you're just a regular dude. You end up here because of an administrative error. Feel like it's a Chappelle skit at this point.
Vinnie
He's safe in there, cuz. Guess what? They don't play games. Everybody's head is down.
Pat
Everybody.
Brandon
I think he was a former gang member too. I don't think he was a citizen. And. But no, like, when it comes to like 80, 20 issues, though, you know, like, why would somebody go out and try to argue against this? Like, you know, like, what kind of argument are you gonna make to say, like, oh, no, we shouldn't do. It's not a good idea to deport gang members?
Adam
Like, oh, I think everyone's on board with illegal.
Brandon
Yeah, clearly not, though, because they're not arguing about this one guy. They're arguing about the concept of mass deportations of gang members.
Adam
Well, he got elected on this premise, right? He's gonna do what he was elected to do.
Brandon
Yeah, no, for sure. I'm just saying, like, what's the pitch that people are making to say, like, oh, it's not a good idea to poor gang members? Like, why?
Adam
They just don't like Trump?
Vinnie
No, but. But Supreme Court's going 54. It shouldn't be that close. Did you study?
Adam
Did you study? Did you study the case, Adam?
Vinnie
I'm studying what? I'm just following what is happening. Anybody fighting for the other side, this is the left and this is why they're going to keep losing. What are you standing on? And then you have Adam shift and Jamie Rassy. You know, they do. They're doing shadow hearings now. Did you know that that's what the left is doing. They're having shadow hearings because they're trying to circumvent what Trump is doing. This is what they're doing.
Adam
I think it's a very, you know, simplistic answer to say Amy Comey Barrett, who was appointed by Trump, now doesn't like Trump. So she's gonna vote.
Vinnie
You ever like Trump?
Brandon
Well, she votes against him. It's a strong army. And says she. It looks like she doesn't like him.
Adam
But then. But then you actually have to go do the work and find out maybe what she thinks on this, maybe what she believes on this. I don't know what she thinks, so I'm not going to speculate. You guys are just going down the. Well, she voted against it. She must hate Trump. So, you know, there it is. That's a simplistic answer.
Vinnie
No, I'm going off.
Adam
That shows you haven't done any work on this.
Vinnie
No, I'm going off of. There's no. Adam, you cannot explain to me how it's a 5, 4 ruling on deporting illegal gang members out of the country, period. It should be nine, zero. And then we. We made a mistake on one freaking guy. So let's fix the mistake. So the ruling. The ruling, Adam, I have to do the ruling over our elite. Yeah. Gavin Newsome. Let me do the hands. We. I don't want any illegal. If you're an illegal gang member, get the out of my country. Bye. Yeah, bye. Bye. Next.
Pat
Sorry, it's very firm with this idea. Yeah, he's been partying with Venezuela.
Vinnie
That's what it is.
Adam
Listen, I. I stand by one thing alone. Thick Latinas are able to stay right now.
Pat
All right, here we go. Iran. This is getting a little bit interesting and dicey here. So state control. Iranian newspaper calls for firing bullets into Trump's empty skull. Okay. If you really want to get someone to like you, do something like this. Okay, so they do this. Perfect then. Iran's currency plummets amid Trump's maximum pressure plan. So obviously their economy is being affected by it. Rob, if you got the clip. Iran's currency plummet to record low on Saturday. That each dollar equals 1,043,000 riyals. That is insane, by the way. Worsened by the Persian New Year, closure of stores and informant street trading. As reported by the Associated Press, the rial had already lost nearly half of its value since President Massoud Pezeshkian's July 2024 inauguration. Per Reuters, amid international sanctions, US pressure on money exchanges turning off electrical signs due to uncertainty over real value. The White House February 4th announcement of President Trump's maximum pressure restoration via national security presidential memorandum. Aims to block Iran's nuclear weapon development. Encounter this influence abroad, intensifying economic strain. Rob, what's this one about?
Tom
This is President Trump yesterday with Netanyahu from the White House where he talks about possibly meeting with Iran this Saturday.
Pat
For a nuclear Go for it. We're having direct talks with Iran and they've started. It'll go on Saturday. We have a very big meeting and we'll see what can happen. And I think everybody agrees that doing a deal would be preferable to doing the obvious. And the obvious is not something that I want to be involved with or.
Tom
Frankly that Israel wants, wants to be.
Pat
Involved with if they can avoid it. So we're going to see if we can avoid it. But it's getting to be very dangerous territory and hopefully those talks will be successful. And I think it would be in Iran's best interest if they are successful. We hope, we hope that's going to happen. All right, so what's he talking about? What we don't want to happen. US base and 4,000 troops at risk of destruction if Trump strikes Iran. Iran warned via its armed forces run defra press on Wednesday that it certainly has sufficient weapons to attack Diego Garcia, a US military base in the Indian Ocean, threatening 4,000American troops with risk of complete destruction if Trump strikes Iran. The report suggested using Shahad 136 drones with a 4,000 kilometer range and Khoram Shars missiles despite a depleted stockpile after Israeli airstrike airstrikes in April and October 2024. This follows US airstrikes on Thursday against pro Iranian targets with the Houthis reporting six deaths and additional casualties in Hodeda and Sada. The US has ramped up its Middle east pressure with Defense Secretary Pete hexett extending the US as Harry Truman deployment and redirecting the USS Carl Vinson to the Persian Gulf, creating a rare two carrier stance as announced by Pentagon on April 2nd. Okay, so, so that's this Tom, so far. What is your thoughts on what's going on? And by the way, this is the clip that he tweeted about. If you want to press it. This is Click to play these Houthis gathered for instructions on an attack. Oops. There will be no attack by these Houthis. They will never sink our ships ever again.
Vinnie
Wow.
Pat
And he post this on Truth Social.
Adam
That is.
Pat
Click it again.
Vinnie
Fucking gangster. How many people are there? What 50 people done, gone. Wow.
Pat
Thoughts on this?
Tom
So the first thing that we read in that story was what's happening to their currency and their economy. This is what happens when your country is and has a currency of its own and it's allowed to trade on the world stage. Their economy is getting decimated because of the reaction in the financial markets and it's hurting their people and their economy. This doesn't happen in China because they hold the currency back and it's all artificial and you don't know what they're printing. So point one, this is a tool in the toolbox that the west has to work with bad actors is crush their economy. And by the way, they've turned off trading. They said they turned off the electronic signals that run around the country, Pat, where you go to like an AMEX office or even just a store and it tells you what the trading rates are to euro and dollar. They turn those off because it was fluctuating so wildly. They turned them off and they're like, hey, well, right now we're frozen at this number. The second thing, Diego Garcia, you might as well be saying, you know, Pearl harbor, that base is our most precious international naval base. Diego Garcia. And if they launch something there, I worry that we could be baited into something because of its location. We don't want to be baited into this fight. And now you've got the two carriers standing there in the are you sure Position, right? Are you sure you want to do this? I don't want to get baited into this. I do not want to get baited into armed conflict with Iran. I think there's people and hawks, warhawks in the United States that would want us to because it's good for the economy. Money flows into a lot of companies, blah, blah, blah. But it's deficit spending and I just, I don't think we want to be in an armed conflict with Iran. They don't scare me as an adversary. It just, it's a distraction and it's just really tough to get out of. And now you've got their economy where you want it and now maybe you can get them to back down saying, you know what? But you're talking up an awful lot here, man. You're at a million dollars to one right now. You want to go to 2 million. Your economy's about to collapse.
Pat
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Brandon
So they can focus on strategy and growth.
Pat
Free up your team and focus on your future. Learn more about the technology insights and Support available@AmazonBusiness.com Brandon?
Brandon
Yeah, so I definitely don't want to get baited into this either. What's scary about this is that in the 90s, right before Netanyahu got into office, there was a draft of something that came up called a clean break, which the plan was to overthrow Saddam Hussein, overthrow the leadership in Syria and then overthrow the leadership in Iran. And Netanyahu is a big fan of this and a lot of people say that Trump is being influenced by Netanyahu to some degree. Who knows if that's true. But I think if we do get baited into a full on war with Iran, then you know, that's definitely going to support that argument because I don't see anything that's in our best interest in terms of going to war with Iran. I think if we want to change the regime in Iran, I think the easiest thing to do is to help their population have revolution because like more than 50% of their population wants a, a new form of government. You know, that's easy, that's confirmed. They've done studies on that. So we did it in the 50s. I, I'd say the best thing we could do if we want to change Iran is to help them have revolution, help people have revolutions. They've had a record amount of revolutions in the last 10 years. So I think they're primed and ready to overthrow their government if we help them.
Vinnie
But do you think that like, if our government, I mean every time the CIA or anybody was involved in changing regime change, it was always to make war and to have us keep fighting these people. Do you think it would be in their best interest? Because I mean, from the looks of it, Brandon, from the outside looking in, yeah, we want a war. J.D. vance. J.D. vance's first time speaking, he was like, we're gonna bomb the hell out of Iran. He's like, bro, he just got here.
Brandon
I know.
Vinnie
And it's like, and I saw Tucker tweet yesterday too about, like, I, I think like you said, this is, I, I, the people, I wish they had a bigger voice. I mean, because they're out there, man, they're in the streets and they're doing the things, especially when stuff comes up, especially with the girl that had her hijab on, right, I forgot her name, but they, the cops, I think killed her, beat her and killed her. Like they're, they're, they're there, I don't think. Yeah, exactly. So I, I don't know, but I, I, it's scary because you nailed it. BB Has a tendency, like, if he wants something and he's, like, he pushes towards it, like with Saddam Hussein and all these. When he said, you know, going to war with Iraq would send positive reverberations around the region, it did anything but that. So I just, I just hope nobody's in his ear. I mean, they're going to be in his ear, but he doesn't take the bait.
Pat
Because a war. Whatever you think of tariffs, it's clear that now is the worst possible time for the United States to participate in a military strike on Iran. We can't afford it. Thousands of Americans would die. We'd lose the war that follows. Not nothing would be more destructive of our country. And yet we're closer than ever. And thanks to unrelenting pressure from neocons, this is suicidal. Anyone advocating for conflict with Iran is not an ally of the United States, but an enemy. Adam?
Adam
Well, lots on pack here. First and foremost, the people of Iran deserve better than what they've had to suffer for the last 45 years. So let's just start with that. You know, they talk about, you know, free Gaza, free Palestine. Yeah. From Hamas, free Iran, from the ayatollahs. They deserve better. You know, the whole concept of regime, regime change is that you don't know what's on the other side. So when you get rid of isis, who's coming into power? When you get rid of Saddam Hussein, who's there? Right. When you get rid of Bashar Al Assad, who's there? We know who's there in Iran. It's the people of Iran. It can't be worse than who the current leadership is now. So whether you put the Shah somehow back in there or whether they have an actual leader, an actual democratic leader, it can't be worse than the Ayatollahs. Now, as far as Iran goes, you know how they say, like, believe someone when they tell you who they are? When the regime of Iran is screaming death to America, when they're burning the American flag, when they're trying to get a nuclear weapon? You know what? I believe them. And at what point do we say, all right, enough's enough here? Barack Obama and Joe Biden gave Iran how much money to appease Iran? What did that do? Yeah, Trump is playing hardball. I mean, like, no, dude, we're not playing this game. And, you know, people want to give Bibi Netanyahu a hard time, I get it, because he's Israel and he prioritizes Israel not be ending in a nuclear holocaust because that's literally what Iran wants to do. There's a clock in Iran bbd. Do you know what this is? A clock in Iran where it's like the death to Israel clock. So this is what their objective is. So real quick on Israel, Israel is feeling a little bit more powerful than ever because Iran's been basically, you know that guy that just talks trash, you know, what's up bro? You want to go, you want to go, you want to go? And then they go and you realize that wasn't tough at all. And then Israel punches back and knocks them out, took out their air defense capabilities, knocked out their military sites. And then last point here with Trump, it just came out, I think a few months ago, three Iranian backed men tried to assassinate the President. We've heard the story. Right. So you don't think that Trump has a little something, you know, up his sleeve for Iran? I don't think we need a war with Iran right now. But the bottom line is Iran is not as tough as they make make believe that they are.
Pat
That's my thoughts, you know, you know what's going to by the way, if you look at the real, I just looked up right now what the real was to dollar when I left Iran and came here in 1979. The real was for every US dollar you could get 70 Iranian riyals. 70, okay, then in 89 when I left I was born in 78. So I'm saying 79. When we left in 89. In 89 it was 90 riyals to a dollar. If you just type in 89. Okay, 89. Yeah. You got 9200 riyals per dollar. And he said today in the story, a million riots to a dollar.
Vinnie
What?
Pat
That's the story we just read a minute ago.
Vinnie
Ridiculous.
Pat
That's insane to see where it's at today. What is it today, Rob? Today Rials to dollar today. Yeah, but, but you got to flip it the other way around. So that would be 500 000, give or take. Right? So that, that's, that's extremely devastating to the people that are living there. Okay, so there's a couple things here that's going on, you know, Tucker, in regards to war. Who the hell wants war? Who, whoever wants war, period. Nobody does. Should the President be able to, should the president be a 42,002 one? Should the president be able to? So Rob, I think the story said something about, if you go to page six, the story that we just read, the story says, Let me go to it.
Adam
About the. Iran's currency to a record low on Saturday.
Pat
Yeah. It says $1 equals a million 3,000 Riyal's. That's the story. Look at that right there.
Vinnie
So Pat, if you go.
Pat
When I left it was 70.
Vinnie
So if you go there with $5,000American dollars. You're chilling.
Pat
Yeah. No, you're. You're a billionaire. But go to it. So let me go. Here's a question. So shouldn't Trump be able to use that threat? Should he be able to use that card that if we do this, we will destroy you? Should he use that? Do we want to go to war? No. Should he be able to say, if you do this, we're going to do this? Should they be able to do that? Is that a card he should use?
Brandon
Should he be allowed to use it? He should be allowed to use it. Should he be using it? Right now I think that's more questionable because last time it worked out. I mean, when he took out Suleimani, it seems like Iran quieted down pretty much nothing.
Pat
They went and reacted to a base where nobody was there and they knew nobody was there. So nothing happened. But let me tell you what happened. Where I'm going with this. There's two thoughts on this that I have. One is I had D.J. shipley and Cole Fackler here last week. I think, Rob, if I'm not mistaken, their podcast goes out tomorrow. Sick podcast. Cole told a story that he's never told before that has to do with Osama bin Laden. And the way he said it was very awkward. And he says, I've never said this before. Okay, you'll have to hear what it.
Vinnie
Is he said on the podcast.
Pat
He said on the podcast, yeah, so, but I asked him a question. I said, listen, you know, what do you think about threats? Like out of all the countries in the world, I asked DJ this question. Who do you not believe? Whose threats have no weight? Right? Like, you know, I'll do this. You're not going to do shit. Holy shit, that guy's going to do something. I'm going to kill. You believe him, right? I said, if you notice a lot of threats with lately with Putin has been Ukraine, nuclear, nuclear, nuclear, three times, nothing's happened. Ukraine has not backed down as a Trump. Hey, if you don't release all the hostages, Hamas, we're going to do this two, three times. They still didn't do all of Them, Right. If I'm not mistaken, all the hostages.
Vinnie
They'Re not all done.
Pat
I said, okay, so, hey, we're going to do this. Whose threats do you not believe? And I'm going to Iran when I'm asking this question. And he says, well, we definitely didn't take Osama bin Laden seriously all those years when they said they're going to do something, and then we realized they did. So you know what we do now? We take every threat seriously. Every threat seriously. We don't sit there and say whether we're going to do it or not, that we don't have the ability. We can't do that. Meaning both of them are Navy Seal Seal team 10, 17 years, they both weren't there. Now they run a company together, doing incredible things together. But the second part to me is the following. So Trump's trying to change the comp plan to a 250-year-old company. And this is what I mean by it. So when you have a new insurance company, new company, period. I changed the comp plan so many times because I could. We're small, and it was drastic changes I would make. Boom. I lost 28 guys. I lost 17 guys. I gained 88 guys. And then you would kind of see which comp is producing what results. Right. It's like changing the tax system. Trump is changing a comp plan with countries around the world with tariffs. Super disruptive. Super, super disruptive. You're in the middle of doing that, and you want to deal with this Iran situation. I think here's what's going to happen. I'm not one to sit there, and, you know, I wrote a book called 25 Laws for Doing the Impossible. So I'm not one that's going to be saying, don't do it. But it's either going to cause every one of them to fall apart and none of the deals to get through, or they're all going to happen. And sometimes it's about sequencing. So I'm just wondering, if we go into war right now while you're trying to change all the tariffs, does that slow things down?
Brandon
Yeah.
Pat
Does that throw a wrench in the. Yeah. Does that get some of the people to be a little bit hesitant? Does that get some of your own people that won't be on your side? Do you think a hundred percent of people on Trump's camp are for war? Do you think a hundred percent. So this. This is when all of a sudden, it's been long enough where we're getting close to the first hundred Days that some of the people even on his own camp are going to be like, look, man, I'm just not forward. They're doing over here, Look, I'm glad that we won, but I'm not for this. And if you get about, you know, 40% that now disagrees with you internally, that were all online, even behind closed doors, you know, then you start worrying about who to trust. Is that person on my side? Is that person not on my side? It's going that then that can lead to a panicky type of a leading, which that's not the vibe he gives today. He seems like he's very stable and confident. What he's doing. He seems like he has 100 of it all under control. He seems happy, but I don't know. There's a part of me that says Iran has to know. Look, you keep doing this, here's what's possible. But at the same time, you don't ever want to use that card. You want to avoid that crowd as much as possible. He just did. Just so you know, that bomb on Houthis. Hey, you guys having a meeting? No problem. Boom. You're dead.
Brandon
Yeah.
Pat
So he's already done it. So it's not like it hasn't happened yet. We've already played offense. He's already shown that I'm ready for it, you know, and, and, and the speculation about this and that. And is it this? Is it allies that. Is it Israel? He's trying to do deals.
Adam
Yep.
Pat
I think he's at a phase right now that he's trying to do all these deals and deals sometimes means, what do you need from me? I'll do this. I'll give you this. That's. He's, he's transactionally looking at deals being done. And he knows he's got to do something for you as well.
Brandon
Yeah.
Pat
It's not going to be 100% of deals being done for you. That's kind of how I process this.
Adam
Don't forget this one thing. You know, Trump's not just talking tough, he's already taken action. Soleimani?
Pat
Yeah.
Adam
Killed the general. Done. You know, he's behind closed doors, been working with Bibi on whatever they're working on. But listen, Trump has a deep, deep vision objective to get stuff done in not four years, not in two years. I want to get this, this, this, this, and done. Tariffs, border, immigration, doge, taxation. What are we doing here? Russia, Ukraine, Israel, hostages, Iran. This is just one more thing on his list. So he's got, he's he wants to accomplish. Hold on, Britney. Accomplish all these things as soon as humanly possible. I love the reference you made. 25. What is it? 25 years doing the impossible.
Pat
25 loss for doing it possible.
Adam
This guy's got 250 things of doing the impossible before America's 250 birthday. So I think Trump is gonna get all this and that done before then.
Brandon
How delicate do you think the regime is in Iran right now? Like, how much assistance you think they need to topple the regime for the people? Like, you know, there's what, two or three revolutions in the last 80 years? So, like, how close do you think it is to something like that? How much help do you think they would need in executing that?
Pat
I asked him the question. It wasn't in his top priority.
Brandon
I know it's not his top priority, but, like, I wonder if it would even require.
Pat
I can't do without the help of Trump. Iran can't do without the help of Trump. The camp. Even if they do, let's just say they create a revolution in Iran, they're gonna say Israel was behind it. They're not. No matter what happens there. And I'll go back to when's the last time Iran was safe, at peace, Middle east, no issues for decades. When? 78. What happened pre 78. Shah was there, right? It's a very different way of living and running the world. They got along with Israel. Things were good. No wars. People weren't getting killed. They had 3,000 political prisoners. They told us it was a lot more than that. Even the founder of the IRGC Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, who started with Khomeini, said no, that number was never accurate. It was really around 2500 to 3000 people. We exaggerated the number. Now you want to say it, but you topple the great country. The people got along. I saw a concert yesterday. I texted to my dad, you know what concert I saw yesterday? I don't even know if we can play this or not, but maybe. Rob, I'm going to send it to you and. And don't play the music. Just play the clip and you're going to be shocked when I send this to you. Rob, just play this clip here. This is 1975 in Iran. Okay? 1975 in Iran. Try to find a way, Rob, to. To mute the audio and just play the video. Don't play the audio. Just play the video. Even though I don't think there's going to be any issues with it, I just want to make sure we don't know the artist. Yeah. You're going to see right now. Here's what it is. You ready? This is 1975 in Iran. Sinatra, the video. Just go, that's 1975 in Iran. That's him. That's Iran. That's what Iran was like. Can you imagine right now Justin Bieber going to Iran? Can you imagine right now, you know, Adele going to Iran? Okay, who's the other guy? All of these guys going to Iran and perform. No, they're not coming back. Look at this. Look at the beauty. Okay? Look at that music. Enjoying Frank Sinatra, hero. Being there, hanging out. That's Iran. That's the Iran most people today don't know.
Tom
People are wearing ties and dresses.
Pat
Some of the most incredible math, intelligence, engineering. This was a beautiful place. The people have such a rich history. One of the famous, most famous Iranian soccer players that played with Messi. He's a good friend. You know, he's messaged me on Instagram saying, hey, I went to the Shah's house in Iran. I want to send you clips. He was sending me clips of what the place looked like. This is just last week, the museum. It's not the same of what it used to be, but that was Iran for you. So to go back to that, it requires a massive revolution. But you need the help.
Brandon
Do they know that, though? The people there? Do they know that used to be this way, or the people in your husband know that?
Pat
No, of course they know that.
Vinnie
That's a business.
Adam
Because it's not like this was hundreds.
Pat
And Hundreds years ago. 46 years old in my lifetime, that was Iran.
Brandon
Yeah.
Vinnie
Besides the same. Besides the security aspect, you know, to make sure, like, no terrorism or stuff like that comes out. What would be an incentive for Trump on top of that, to go and help them to do something as drastic as, like, a revolution?
Pat
Are you kidding me? Like, take Iran out? Take Iran out? How many proxies do they control?
Brandon
All of them.
Pat
Okay.
Adam
Hamas.
Pat
So who else?
Adam
Hezbollah.
Pat
What do you think Saudi wants? You think Saudi MBS likes what Iran's doing?
Adam
No.
Pat
No. What do you think Saudi wants? The Middle east to be peaceful. So people want to go there. They would like to see the Middle east, have traffic going in Dubai. Look what happened with Dubai. Dubai is doing a great job. Look what's going on with Dubai. Even Dubai had to make some adjustments with, you know, outside with, you know, kissing a girl or some of that stuff. They even came a little bit more, you know, fluid with that. But no, I mean, to me, this is a very complicated situation where everybody can jump to conclusion with different things to say, but the president's trying to handle and juggle all of them at the same time, and you're going to stumble every once in a while. So far they've been able to get it under control, 80% of the stuff that they've been doing. But this is a delicate situation. And by the way, Iran is one of those things like, you know, when you're controlling everything in the company and you look at what departments it can go zero to nuclear, you score every department or every business that you're running and you're like, that department is going to be fine. That company is going to be fine. That business unit is going to be fine. That leader running that department is going to be fine. That department is going to create a lot of headaches. Iran is one that can go zero to nonstop headache overnight. That's how it can happen. And that's why I'm saying you have to be prepared for everything that could take place. But at the same time, I want to go to our last story and then wrap up Jerome Powell. That's the only story that we haven't done that I do want to do. Powell predicts when Americans will feel ripple effects from Trump's global tariffs. Rob, if you got this clip, I think you got a clip on this. If you can play. Because Trump calls for federal feds Powell to cut interest rates and stop playing politics. That's what Trump said. Okay. On the same exact day when Trump says this, okay, President Trump urged federal General Powell to cut the rates on Friday on Truth Social. This would be perfect time for federal Jerome Powell to cut interest rates. Energy prices are down. Interest rates are down. Inflation is down. Even egg is down 69% and jobs are up. Urging cut interest rates, Jerome, and stop playing politics. That's Trump. And this is what Jerome Powell said. Go ahead and play that clip, Rob.
Tom
We have stressed that it will be very difficult to assess the likely economic effects of higher tariffs until there is greater certainty about the details, such as.
Pat
What will be tariffed, at what level.
Tom
And for what duration, and the extent of any retaliation from our trading partners. While uncertainty remains elevated, it is now becoming clear that tariff increases will be significantly larger than expected. And the same is likely to be true of the economic effect effects, which will include higher inflation and slower growth. The size and duration of these effects remains uncertain. While tariffs are highly likely to generate at least a temporary rise in inflation, it's also possible that the effects could be more persistent. Avoiding that outcome would depend on keeping.
Pat
Longer term inflation expectations well anchored, on.
Tom
The size of the effects and on how long it takes for them to.
Pat
Pass through fully to prices.
Tom
Our obligation is to keep longer run longer term inflation expectations well anchored and.
Pat
To make certain that a one time.
Tom
Increase in the price level does not become an ongoing inflation problem. We'll continue to carefully monitor the incoming data, the evolving outlook and the balance of risks. We're well positioned to wait for greater clarity before considering any adjustments to our policy stance. It is too soon to say what will be the appropriate path for monetary policy.
Pat
Tom. Excuse me, Tom, I just said your name. Brandon.
Adam
Tom's getting very emotional over drone. Yeah, so give me one second.
Brandon
Yeah, yeah, so I got you. So with this, I think that we don't, we don't need to cut rates right now because I think we're going to take care of the inflation just fine with what's going to happen with the market. So but I think just as a result of the market going down, like oil's already below $60 a barrel, so inflation's going to go down. I understand how people are trying to make the argument that tariffs are both going to make the stock market go down and cause inflation. Like no, we're not going to have inflation of the stock market's going down. That's one thing too. I don't like Trump telling the Fed to what to do with the rates and I absolutely despise the fact that the Fed controls the rates. I think that's the most communist thing ever that we have this weird like company, this weird private company controlling the price of money for our entire country. I think that, that the ten year treasury should be what we base things off of in terms of interest rates because I think that's the market telling you what the rate is rather than some weird governing body telling you what the price of money should be.
Pat
So you don't like the fact that Trump's telling Fed but you also don't like the fact that they dictated. Yeah, so what would you like ideally to happen?
Brandon
So that's what I just said. So like whatever, Treasury 10 year treasury should basically act as the Fed's federal funds rate because that's the market telling you that the market buys and sells. The treasury market market's probably the smartest group of money in the world. So I think that's like a better market based way of saying what the price of money should be instead of Powell just going in and giving his opinion.
Pat
Tom?
Tom
Well, what was interesting was the last thing he said it's too early to determine if these economic forces have impacted monetary policy. He's talking back to the President. President saying, you got to do this, you got to do this. He said, it's too early to do it. Well, May 6th and 7th is what they're all aiming at. Write those down. May 6th and 7th, June 17th, 18th, those are the next two meetings of the Fed. May 6th and 7 is coming up. We're less than a month away now. We're just under a month away. And what Trump wants is, hey, look at all this mayhem. Give me a quarter point. Better yet, give me a half point. That won't happen, but give me a quarter point. And the Fed Board of Governors, it ticked up yesterday where it Suddenly was over 25% chance, like they were all in sub voting. You know, the dot chart. All of a sudden it was like a little bit high. And so Maybe there's a 30% chance in May. So what Trump is trying to do is put political pressure on the Fed to look at all of these other statistics and say, yep, let's give a quarter point. Because what does that do? That lets businesses borrow at a lower rate, that lets them borrow money more, and maybe that puts a little more pressure deeper grok here on the 10 year or the 30 year in the bond market, which will help mortgages go down. Because right now, mortgages have got one of the highest spreads they've had in a while. In other words, the bank on the 30 year fixed, I think right now is six and a half, depending on what bank you look at right around. And Trump wants to see 5.875. He wants to see a 5, because people say 5.875 is the mental. That is the mental barrier that I'm getting a 5 rate. And so take that and do it with what you will. But the, but Trump wants to get a cut on May 6th and 7th. Definitely on June 17th, 18th.
Vinnie
Adam?
Adam
Well, you know, there's a song that goes, you can't always get what you want, but if you try sometime, you get what you need. With Jerome Powell, Trump has met his match. Who appointed Jerome Powell chairman of the fed? Well, in 2018, Trump did. And for seven years now, Trump's been trying to dictate, mandate, criticize, condemn Powell. And Powell's just been like, nah, I'm good, bruh, and just does what he wants. Now you can criticize Powell. You could say he's doing a good job, he's doing a bad job. In my opinion, he's Doing a very steady Eddy job. So I love the fact that the President can't just control the chairman of the Fed. So it's called polarity. You know, Trump is all gas. Jerome Powell might be the brakes, right? Thunder and lightning, logic and emotion, order and chaos. Trump wants to go, go, go, go, go. At some point someone needs to be like, relax, I got this thing over here. We don't want Trump just dictating everything that's going on in this country. We want someone saying, well look, have you thought about this? I don't know about that. So I'm totally in favor of Jerome Powell doing what's best for America. And Trump will also think do what's best for America and hopefully the two meet in the middle. But until then, I'm cool. With Jerome Powell holding the line is the Fed.
Vinnie
So they don't, who do they answer to? Because it isn't an unelected body.
Brandon
It's the bank, Citibank, JP Morgan Chase.
Vinnie
So it's, they're not nobody, they're not elected, they're chosen. But they answer to themselves.
Tom
They're nominated and then elected. And then Jerome Powell has his own term and the president cannot fire him. The same way he can fire all of the cabinet members is saying. Because most every cabinet member resigns before they're fired. When you change presidents. Jerome Powell, he's not, not that way. He has a term that he serves out.
Vinnie
Gotcha.
Adam
Why it's a 10 year term.
Vinnie
I'm just curious because Brandon, like, Brandon makes a good point. Like, like, like who, who are they answering to? Who, how do they have that, that much control? And I'm not saying I wish Trump could fire anybody or whatever, but if.
Pat
You'Re just on all the way back to. You gotta reach Jekyll Island. We hosted an event at Jekyll island in the room where the Federal Reserve got started. It's a compound, it's a very interesting, very weird place filled with trillions of mosquitoes. If you go to that restaurant right by the water, you're gonna be bit from head to toe if you're at this property. But there's a lot of history to this place. Anyways, we're at the end of it. Guys, a couple things. This cigar lounge thing this weekend, last weekend, prior weekend, it's been very, very busy. Very interesting, a lot of fun this last Friday night, this place had a lot of interesting guests have been showing up a lot. Rob, if you can pull up this clip here with what this, this is a highlight from the last couple weeks. Go for it, Rob. Do we have audio right there? The audio is paused. Rob, can you go back? Rob, can you go back? Go for it, people. Good conversation. Sports, football players, NBA players, producers, people showing up, business people all over the place.
Vinnie
Wow.
Pat
Members only, guys. It's a. It's very, very exciting. Three tiers of membership. Silver, Gold and Platinum. What is the website to go to? To apply? You have the website to the Boardroom. Is that the Cub QR code right there?
Tom
Yes, that's the QR code.
Pat
Check to see what the website is so I can say to the Spotify.
Tom
Audience, yep, it's boardroom cigar lounge.com boardroom.
Pat
Cigar lounge.com BoardroomCigarlounge.com we had a person become a member the other day that's not even from the States, from Brazil. We have people internationally becoming members of this place and to come and visit. There's benefits to Platinum. We have an announcement to be made here soon for a live event there. But anyways, if you do want to be a member, everybody, there's no phones allowed in this place. When you get in, nobody can have a phone. No one's taking pictures. If everyone's asking and saying, hey, I want to exchange numbers with this person, what do I do? Back in the 80s, oh, yeah, you would write it down. So grab a paper and pen. It's really cool. And there's a lot of new surprises. Members know about this. If you want to find out more, Apply. Everybody goes through background check. And then some of you guys will get a chance to be there, and I'm there quite often and we'll get a chance to have a conversation as well. Anyways, take care. God bless. We'll do it again On Thursday. Tomorrow. D.J. shipley and Cole Fackler take care.
PBD Podcast Episode 572: "Iran Threatens Trump As Tariff Trade War RAGES"
Release Date: April 8, 2025
In Episode 572 of the PBD Podcast, titled "Iran Threatens Trump As Tariff Trade War RAGES," hosts Pat, Tom, Vinnie, Adam, and Brandon delve into a tumultuous period marked by escalating trade tensions, political maneuvering, and international conflicts. The episode offers a comprehensive analysis of the ongoing trade war between the United States and China, Iran's provocative stance against former President Trump, Supreme Court decisions affecting immigration, and internal dynamics within the Democratic Party. Additionally, discussions touch upon societal issues such as transgender athletes in sports and the declining viewership of Michelle Obama's podcast.
Market Turmoil: The episode opens with a deep dive into the severe impact of the US-China trade war on global markets. Pat highlights the drastic decline in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which plummeted over 2,200 points, wiping out a staggering $6.4 trillion in market value within two days following China's retaliatory tariffs.
Economic Disparities: Brandon further discusses the widening wealth gap, emphasizing that wage growth for the middle class has stagnated while the stock market has soared, benefiting primarily the top 10% of investors.
Host Insights: Tom provides a nuanced perspective, analyzing the Price-to-Earnings (PE) ratio and its implications on market valuations, while Pat underscores the systemic issues stemming from offshoring and wage disparities.
Tariff Escalation: China's imposition of a 34% tariff on US imports as a response to Trump's tariff plans intensifies the trade war. Pat points out that despite expectations of a "Black Monday," the situation remains volatile with potential threats of further escalation.
Corporate Reactions: The discussion shifts to the impact on multinational corporations like Tesla, where Elon Musk distances himself from Trump's policies amidst declining sales in Europe and China.
Strategic Negotiations: Brandon emphasizes the importance of major allies like Vietnam, Taiwan, and Japan in negotiating tariff agreements, highlighting the strategic maneuvering required to stabilize the trade environment.
Legal Rulings: The Supreme Court's decision to allow the Trump administration to resume deportations of Venezuelan migrants under the Alien Enemies Act is scrutinized. Pat and Tom discuss the implications of this ruling, balancing national security concerns with humanitarian considerations.
Ethical Considerations: Vinnie raises concerns about the fairness of deportations, especially in cases of administrative errors, highlighting the human aspect behind legal decisions.
Internal Party Dynamics: A significant portion of the episode is dedicated to discussing the claims from Jonathan Allen and Amy Parness's book, which alleges that Barack Obama weakened the Democratic Party through internal conflicts and diverging priorities.
Personal Struggles: The hosts delve into Obama's personal life, particularly his strained marriage with Michelle Obama, as reported by the same book. Pat questions the impact of these personal issues on the broader political landscape.
Hosts' Perspectives: Tom reflects on Obama's legacy and personal challenges, tying them to perceived vulnerabilities within the Democratic Party.
Sports Fairness Debate: Mark Cuban's stance on transgender athletes competing in women's sports sparks a heated discussion among the hosts about fairness, safety, and the readiness of society to handle such integrations.
Ethical Implications: The conversation navigates the complexities of ensuring a level playing field in sports while respecting individuals' rights, with varying opinions on the best approach to address potential disadvantages.
Corporate and Political Separation: Elon Musk's public distancing from Trump amid the escalating trade war is analyzed. The hosts speculate on the motivations behind Musk's stance and its broader implications on the intersection of business and politics.
Media Ventures: The decline in viewership for Michelle Obama's podcast is discussed, with hosts attributing the drop to political tensions, personal revelations, and possibly waning public interest.
Public Perception: Vinnie and Brandon express skepticism about the sustainability and appeal of Michelle Obama's media endeavors, linking it to broader political narratives.
Economic Strain: Iran's currency plummets to a historic low amid Trump’s intensified pressure plan, exacerbating the country's economic woes and increasing political tensions.
Military Threats: Vinnie elaborates on Iran's aggressive posturing, labeling the regime as an enemy and warning of potential military conflicts if provocations continue.
Strategic Discussions: Brandon and Pat discuss the precarious balance of power, the potential for regime change through internal revolutions, and the risks associated with military interventions.
Monetary Policy Under Scrutiny: The hosts scrutinize President Trump’s attempts to influence Federal Reserve policies, particularly his calls for Jerome Powell to cut interest rates amidst economic uncertainties caused by the trade war.
Fed’s Response: Jerome Powell’s cautious stance on adjusting monetary policies is analyzed, emphasizing the need for data-driven decisions rather than political pressures.
Hosts' Takeaways: Brandon criticizes the Federal Reserve's autonomy, advocating for market-based interest rate determinations, while Vinnie questions the accountability of unelected Fed officials.
Legal Developments: The Supreme Court's narrow 5-4 decision allows the Trump administration to resume deportation flights under the Alien Enemies Act, sparking debates on immigration policies and legal ethics.
Human Impact: The case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man mistakenly deported to El Salvador, is highlighted to showcase the human consequences of stringent deportation policies.
Episode 572 of the PBD Podcast offers a multifaceted exploration of the pressing issues shaping the current socio-political and economic landscape. From the devastating effects of the US-China trade war and Iran's aggressive posturing to internal Democratic Party dynamics and contentious societal debates, the hosts provide insightful commentary backed by data and personal opinions. Notably, the episode underscores the intricate interplay between political strategies, economic policies, and their broad-reaching impacts on both national and international stages.
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Note: Timestamps are indicative and correspond to the transcript provided.