Trump's Trade War Hits Hollywood

Summary

Pod Save America: "Trump's Trade War Hits Hollywood" – Detailed Summary

Release Date: May 6, 2025

Hosts: Jon Favreau, Jon Lovett, Dan Pfeiffer, Tommy Vietor

In this episode of Pod Save America, the hosts delve deep into former President Donald Trump's latest trade policy initiatives, his unconventional proposal to reopen Alcatraz, his recent legal setbacks, and engage in a heartfelt conversation with Chasten Buttigieg about representation and family in children's literature.

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1. Overview of Today's Topics

John Favreau opens the discussion by outlining the main topics:

• Trump's New Movie Tariff Proposal: Trump's attempt to impose a 100% tariff on all foreign-produced movies entering the United States.
• Reopening Alcatraz: An unconventional plan by Trump to transform the historic prison into a functioning facility again.
• Legal Defeats: Trump's recent loss in court regarding his efforts to ban specific law firms from practicing in federal courts.
• Interview with Chasten Buttigieg: A conversation about his new children's book, "Papa's Coming Home," and the broader implications of representation in literature.

Timestamp: [02:44]

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2. Trump's Trade War and Tariff Proposal

The hosts scrutinize Trump's continued trade war strategy, particularly focusing on his latest stance against the Hollywood film industry.

Discussion Highlights:

• Economic Sacrifice: Trump emphasizes that Americans, especially children, need to "suck it up" and reduce consumption of items like dolls and pencils to support his trade policies.

  Jon Lovett [04:06]: "He becomes when he becomes a kind of sage like figure, which is we're all a bit too materialistic in the long run, we're all dead kind of vibe. It's interesting."

• President Trump's Perspective: Trump asserts that his tariffs will benefit the U.S. by making the country "rich," dismissing concerns about rising prices.

  Donald Trump [05:16]: "I think your tariffs are going to be great for us because it's going to make us rich."

• Host Reactions: The hosts express frustration and disbelief at Trump's perceived disconnect from the economic realities faced by everyday Americans.

  John Favreau [06:26]: "It's sacrifice to make ourselves poorer and other nations poorer and basically everyone poorer."

Timestamp: [04:06 – 07:02]

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3. Analysis of Trump's Economic Messaging

The hosts dissect the effectiveness and ramifications of Trump's messaging strategy, highlighting its tone-deaf nature and potential long-term consequences.

Key Points:

• Out of Touch Messaging: Trump's remarks about reducing the number of dolls a child owns are criticized as being insensitive to families' needs.

  Tommy Vietor [06:19]: "The number of dolls, the number of pencils, the ages of the girls, it's just changing every. He's doing a weave on this one."

• Market Stability vs. Policy Reality: Discussions revolve around whether Trump's optimistic projections are merely attempts to stabilize markets amidst turbulent policies.

  Tommy Vietor [15:05]: "It's white label Republican policy. It's like tax cuts and deregulation and then these stupid tariffs that causing all the problems."

• Potential Consequences: Concerns are raised about retaliatory tariffs from other countries, which could escalate the economic downturn.

  Jon Lovett [16:07]: "Step first. First things first. I want you to stop worrying about all the harm we've already caused. We're in the process of trying to unwind some of that harm."

Timestamp: [07:02 – 16:57]

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4. Trump's Cryptocurrency Endeavors and Corruption Allegations

The conversation shifts to Trump's ventures in cryptocurrency, highlighting potential conflicts of interest and corruption.

Highlights:

• FR8 Technologies Investment: Reports indicate that FR8 Technologies raised $20 million to purchase Trump meme coins, with the Trump family benefitting from transaction fees.

  Tommy Vietor [26:35]: "The Trump family is entitled to 75% of net revenue on those token sales. And the family owns 60% of the company itself."

• International Investments: An Emirati state-owned firm plans to invest $2 billion in Trump's stablecoin, raising questions about foreign influence and financial manipulation.

  Tommy Vietor [30:29]: "The president of the firm...are purchasing $2 billion worth of Trump coin for no reason."

• Legislative Impacts: Senate Republicans' attempts to regulate stablecoins are hampered by Democratic opposition, partly due to fears of increasing Trump's influence over financial regulators.

  Tommy Vietor [34:26]: "Mr. Trump intends to usher in the most prosperous decade in American history, but not at the cost of the spiritual degradation of the working class."

Timestamp: [26:35 – 37:03]

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5. Legal Defeats and Trump's Executive Actions

Trump faces legal setbacks in his attempts to restrict certain law firms from federal court practice.

Key Developments:

• Perkins Coie Executive Order Blocked: Federal Judge Beryl Howell blocks Trump's order targeting law firm Perkins Coie, declaring it unconstitutional.

  John Favreau [47:37]: "Judge Howell said that eliminating lawyers as the guardians of the rule of law removes a major impediment to the path to more power."

• Harvard Tax Exemption Threat: Trump threatens to revoke Harvard University's tax-exempt status, a move deemed highly illegal by Harvard's president.

  Jon Lovett [50:10]: "They didn't need the executive order or social post to make clear that this was targeting."

• Judicial Critique: The hosts emphasize the unconstitutionality of Trump's actions, highlighting the Fifth and Sixth Amendment violations and the broader implications for the rule of law.

  Jon Lovett [50:10]: "This is the definition of an unconstitutional First Amendment violation, not just to liberal judges, but to conservative judges."

Timestamp: [47:37 – 51:27]

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6. Trump's Plan to Reopen Alcatraz

One of Trump's most controversial proposals involves reopening the historic Alcatraz prison.

Discussion Details:

• Symbolism and Practicality: Trump describes Alcatraz as representing "law and order" but overlooks the logistical and financial impracticalities of restoring the prison.

  Donald Trump [53:19]: "Alcatraz represents something very strong, very powerful in terms of law and order."

• Economic Impact: The hosts critique the proposal, noting the high costs associated with Alcatraz's original operations and its status as a popular tourist destination.

  Tommy Vietor [54:07]: "It makes money. There'd be a huge loss of tourist revenue."

• Cultural Ramifications: Concerns are raised about the potential loss of Alcatraz as a historical site and its metamorphosis back into a prison.

  Jon Lovett [54:36]: "It's a museum. It's a San Francisco museum. Let's not turn this museum back into a prison."

Timestamp: [53:16 – 58:00]

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7. Interview with Chasten Buttigieg

The episode features an insightful interview with Chasten Buttigieg, author of the children's book "Papa's Coming Home."

Key Topics Discussed:

• Book Inspiration and Message: Chasten shares his motivation to create a children's book that reflects his family’s diversity and emphasizes unconditional love without overt moralizing.

  Chasten Buttigieg [66:27]: "I just wanted a nice, sweet story, especially for bedtime. I was kind of thinking of the book that incorporates that message of unconditional love for your child."

• Representation in Literature: The importance of diverse representation in children's books is highlighted, particularly for families like his own.

  Chasten Buttigieg [67:27]: "We came up short. There are a couple good ones out there. And it was also important to me that the lesson in the book was just a family loves each other."

• Challenges of Being Public Figures: Chasten discusses the difficulties of maintaining family privacy amidst political scrutiny and the pressures of public life.

  Chasten Buttigieg [68:10]: "We try in our house to leave the discourse at the door. It's very hard. It doesn't need to be at the dinner table."

• Impact of Current Political Climate: Addressing how Trump's administration's policies affect educators and families, Chasten emphasizes the need for authentic representation and support for diverse families.

  Chasten Buttigieg [69:07]: "This administration definitely seems to love to go after teachers and families. Making it harder for teachers and harder for families."

Notable Quotes:

• Chasten on Authenticity:

  "We're just like every other family, going about our day, reading 15 books at bedtime."
  [75:00]

• Chasten on Representation:

  "I have always believed that the best thing that we can do for our community and our family is just to live our lives authentically, to show people who we are."
  [77:46]

Timestamp: [62:51 – 91:20]

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8. Closing Remarks and Future Episodes

The hosts conclude by highlighting upcoming events, promoting their friend's book, and encouraging listeners to engage with the podcast community.

Announcements:

• Book Release: Chasten Buttigieg's "Papa's Coming Home" is available for pre-sale and will be released on May 20th.
• Upcoming Shows: The hosts announce upcoming live shows in Los Angeles featuring guests like Sarah Silverman and Lamorne Morris.
• Support and Subscriptions: Encouragement to join the "Friends of the Pod" community for ad-free episodes and exclusive content.

Timestamp: [91:20 – 93:05]

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Conclusion

In this episode, Pod Save America provides a critical examination of Donald Trump's latest policy initiatives, exposing the potential flaws and consequences of his trade war strategies and unconventional proposals. The candid interview with Chasten Buttigieg offers a contrasting narrative, emphasizing the importance of representation and authentic family dynamics in the face of political adversity. The hosts blend sharp political analysis with personal stories, delivering a comprehensive and engaging discussion for listeners.

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps:

• Jon Lovett on Trump's Messaging:

  "I think he's just with Tommy's point. I think he's just... this is Lucille Bluth. Not Lucille with the Lucy with the candies."
  [07:02]

• Tommy Vietor on Reopening Alcatraz:

  "You have to try to figure out how to fix it right now."
  [22:55]

• Chasten Buttigieg on Book Representation:

  "I hope that other families will enjoy it. I hope it brings a lot of joy to bedtime."
  [67:27]

• Judge Beryl Howell on Executive Order:

  "Eliminating lawyers as the guardians of the rule of law removes a major impediment to the path to more power."
  [47:37]

---

Note: This summary focuses exclusively on the substantive content of the podcast, excluding advertisements and non-essential segments to provide a clear and comprehensive overview for those who haven't listened to the episode.

Transcript

[John Favreau]

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[Tommy Vietor]

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[Jon Lovett]

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[John Favreau]

Welcome to Pod Save America. I'm John Favreau.

[Jon Lovett]

I'm Jon Levitt.

[Tommy Vietor]

And Tommy Vitorin.

[John Favreau]

All right. On today's show, we're going to talk about Trump's new movie tariff proposal. His plan to reopen Alcatraz. It's like a fucking parody.

[Jon Lovett]

Unbelievable.

[John Favreau]

And his big loss in court over his attempt to ban certain law firms from practicing law in federal court. Then later, you'll hear Tommy's interview with our friend Chastain. Buddha Judge Tommy. What'd you guys talk about?

[Jon Lovett]

We.

[Tommy Vietor]

So Chasten's got a book coming out called Papa's Coming Home. It's a children's book. We talked about why you wanted to write that. LGBT representation in books. What it's like to be the focus of disgusting. Constant right wing attacks on his family. Book bans, their adoption story. Being a dad. Pete's beard got into that. Pete's journey into the manosphere. It was fun to just hang.

[John Favreau]

Chastain was kind enough to bring some extra copies of his new book that night. I read it to Charlie. I told Chastain this, but Charlie loved the book. Like multiple lols from. Yeah, going on the back jacket. He was a big fan. Big fan.

[Tommy Vietor]

Charlie.

[John Favreau]

Charlie's first blurb.

[Tommy Vietor]

Yeah.

[Jon Lovett]

Maybe Pete will do an interview with Charlie.

[John Favreau]

All right, let's get to the news. And we'll start with the economy, where Donald Trump is doubling down on his message that Americans just need to suck it up and sacrifice for the sake of His Majesty's trade war. Especially our kids, who've frankly been spoiled with too many dolls, pencils and strollers.

[Tommy Vietor]

It's got a point.

[John Favreau]

The president sat down for pencils. Who's the wisdom?

[Tommy Vietor]

Pencils is such a.

[John Favreau]

Get into it. Where the fucking pencils come from?

[Jon Lovett]

He doesn't. He. You think. You think he spent a lot of time down on the floor playing with the kids. He doesn't know what's going to have.

[John Favreau]

The sharpeners that you're. That you do this to. And maybe most people don't even know what I'm talking about.

[Jon Lovett]

If we did have those, maybe things wouldn't be so fucking fucked up.

[John Favreau]

Okay.

[Jon Lovett]

Doing this.

[John Favreau]

Yeah. There you go.

[Jon Lovett]

The sharpener.

[John Favreau]

You're in the make America great again.

[Jon Lovett]

It's not totally wrong. All right.

[John Favreau]

Okay. There you go. Sounded more like your dad every day.

[Tommy Vietor]

Or a maga Curious podcast.

[Jon Lovett]

Wait till we get to the movie Terror.

[Tommy Vietor]

I know.

[John Favreau]

All right. President sat down for a long Meet the Press interview where Kristen Welker asked him about the recession predictions that have accompanied his tariff policy. Here's a sampling of his answers.

[Kristen Welker]

Is it okay in the short term to have a recession?

[Donald Trump]

Look, yeah, everything's okay.

[Kristen Welker]

Are you worried it could happen? Do you think it could happen?

[Donald Trump]

Anything can happen.

[Kristen Welker]

When does it become the Trump economy?

[Donald Trump]

It partially is right now. And I really mean this. I think the good parts are the Trump economy and the bad parts are the Biden economy.

[Kristen Welker]

Are you saying that your tariffs will cause some prices to go up?

[Donald Trump]

No, I think your tariffs are going to be great for us because it's going to make us rich.

[Kristen Welker]

But you said some dolls are going to cost more. Isn't that an acknowledgement that some prices will go up?

[Donald Trump]

I don't think a beautiful baby girl needs that's 11 years old, needs to have 30 dolls. I think they can have three dolls or four dolls. They don't need to have 250 pencils, they can have five.

[John Favreau]

So true. Just in case anyone thought he might have misspoken there, here's what Trump said when asked about this again on Air Force One Sunday night.

[Donald Trump]

A young lady, 10 year old girl, 9 year old girl, 15 year old girl, doesn't need $37. She could be very happy with 2 or 3 or 4 or 5. Let's not waste a lot of time on the stupid question. What else?

[Jon Lovett]

I'd like Americans to look at an industry, lift it up and ask themselves, does it spark joy?

[Tommy Vietor]

Him just listing off the ages of girls just creeped me out, especially that voice.

[John Favreau]

The number of dolls, the number of pencils, the ages of the girls, it's just changing every. He's doing a weave on this one.

[Tommy Vietor]

15 year olds with dolls, but it's.

[John Favreau]

Not the part that's gotten the most attention. But when she said you'd be okay with the reception. Yeah, everything's okay, It'll be okay. Which I think really nails his philosophy. I know more than anything else.

[Jon Lovett]

He becomes when he becomes a kind of sage like figure, which is we're all a bit too materialistic in the long run, we're all dead kind of vibe. It's interesting.

[John Favreau]

What do you guys make of Trump's insistence on sticking to this message? Are you surprised he's not just saying there won't be any recession or pain or need for sacrifice? The guy is like not exactly known for telling hard truths.

[Tommy Vietor]

Yeah, I think there's a couple parts of it. Part of it is like, it's not dumb to do a little expectation setting when you know your tariff policy is going to create some at least rocky shores financially in the short run. But then he's betting that blaming Joe Biden for everything, whether it's tariffs, the economy, Ukraine, immigration, Gaza, all of it is some sort of get out of jail card free card. And so I don't know that when he gets to the $30 versus $3, he doesn't. It's so tone deaf because he doesn't realize that there are kids who can currently only afford $3. Right. Who will have zero dolls. That's the part he can't compute. And I don't know if you guys saw this when people were posting a bunch of photos of his kids when they were younger, like driving around, like little toy Mercedes and things, like every toy you could ever imagine.

[Jon Lovett]

Yeah, of course. That's. Money is love with him. I think he's. He knows. He knows how to buy his kids $30. Yeah, I can't. So, first of all, him saying the good parts of the economy are me and the bad parts of the economy are Joe Biden, That's a joke he's made real. Like, that's what we were all joking about. It's incredible that he's just saying it out loud. I can't tell. On the 30 dolls front, it seems like he knows he kind of fucked up and didn't say something exactly politically useful and now he can't let go of it. He can't back down.

[Tommy Vietor]

Interesting.

[John Favreau]

It's true. I'm sort of with Tommy's point. I think he's just. I know this is like perfect Democratic messaging, but I think he's genuinely out of touch. You know, I mean, he's always out of touch. But, like, this is like a. This is Lucille Bluth. Not Lucille with the Lucy with the candies. Yeah, yeah, this is Lucille Bluth.

[Jon Lovett]

I know Lucille Bluth.

[John Favreau]

What is it? Well, this was from last night. So callback from last time.

[Tommy Vietor]

I get.

[John Favreau]

I get it with the one banana, Michael.

[Jon Lovett]

What could it cost?

[John Favreau]

What could it cost? $10? The man covers everything he sees in gold. He's covering the Oval Office ceiling in gold. The whole thing looks. It's all covered in gold. Now he's talking to Kristen Welker in another segment in that same interview about building a new ballroom in the White House. He's throwing himself a military parade for his birthday. Like, the guy just, he has no. He's not anywhere close to in touch with what people are going through.

[Jon Lovett]

Yeah, there was. Somebody tracked down what the objects were that have been attached to the Oval Office walls. And it turns out it seems like they just sent someone to Home Depot to buy kind of little spray painted objects to attach to the wall. Little like lawn decorations. Yes. Yeah.

[Tommy Vietor]

Can I just make a request to Kristen Welker, whoever gets to interview Donald Trump for an hour next, the 10th time he complains?

[John Favreau]

Just.

[Tommy Vietor]

Can someone just say to him, sir, do you ever get tired of just constantly whining about the media? He's such a bitchy little baby.

[John Favreau]

He's like, you never ask the night. You never say things like, the economy's doing. Some companies are doing great, and this is what happened. I'm like, yeah, because she's not one of the fucking. Shouldn't work for you right wing influencers that you let into the briefing now to ask you all the questions.

[Jon Lovett]

Right. Yeah. You never stop. You never take a moment in these interviews to stop asking questions and to just praise me, which is what he.

[John Favreau]

Has become accustomed to. Not only from his staff now, but from the reporters that he faces every day. They all praise him.

[Jon Lovett]

Yeah, it's.

[John Favreau]

And so do foreign leaders and so do business people. Everyone is praising him now because everyone is. Either they're afraid of him or they want to suck up or they're looking out for themselves. So he's. It's very rare that he is challenged.

[Jon Lovett]

Well, it is and it isn't. Right. Because on the one hand, yes, he's sort of pushing AP and Reuters aside to make room for right wing Gazette and Marjorie Taylor Greene's boyfriend just to slather on the love with him. But he is sitting down for a ton of interviews with combative reporters over and over again.

[John Favreau]

And, you know, he seems genuinely surprised each time one of them asks a challenging question.

[Jon Lovett]

Yeah.

[John Favreau]

Like, Terry Moran just blew his big break.

[Jon Lovett]

Yeah.

[John Favreau]

By asking a challenging question about.

[Jon Lovett]

It's a shame. Back to the minors for you, Terry Moran.

[Tommy Vietor]

Terry, I chose you because.

[John Favreau]

Because he didn't know who he was. He didn't know who I was.

[Jon Lovett]

Incredible.

[John Favreau]

Former Congressman Trey Gowdy said on his Fox News show, didn't know until this, that he still has a Fox News show, that Trump should triple down on this message with an Oval Office address where he'd presumably talk more about why our kids need to give up their dolls and pencils. Karl Rove had a very funny response to that. I Think we have a clip.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

I thought it was really problematic when.

[Donald Trump]

He said, well, you know what? The kids, you know, those little girls.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

At Christmas, they don't need 30 dolls.

[Donald Trump]

They can do it too.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

And if they have to pay a.

[Donald Trump]

Couple more bucks for them, you know. Okay, well, it sounds like Mr. Scrooge.

[John Favreau]

Karl Rove.

[Jon Lovett]

Yeah. It's also, you know, boys play with dolls and obviously that's not the most important part of this, but, you know, and shout out to the little boys out there who want a doll for Christmas.

[John Favreau]

And very few young children use pencils.

[Tommy Vietor]

No, none do. It's weird that Trey Gowdy's kind of become a voice of reason. He opened that segment criticizing Trump for talking about invading Greenland and Canada. And then Rove made some smart points. I thought he talked about how Trump hadn't visited the border yet. Why hasn't he visited the border? It's the only thing you seem to care about, sir. Why wouldn't you just go to the border and take some credit? The Oval Office address idea is absolutely stupid.

[John Favreau]

Oh, I disagree.

[Tommy Vietor]

Antiquated understanding of the media.

[John Favreau]

I want to say Trump would own us libs so hard. He gave a primetime Oval Office address on why Americans must sacrifice more for his trade war.

[Jon Lovett]

It's.

[John Favreau]

I want to say Stephen Miller is.

[Tommy Vietor]

Going to outright you too.

[John Favreau]

Yeah, please don't do it. Don't do it.

[Tommy Vietor]

You'll get us, Steve.

[Jon Lovett]

Yeah, we'll be gone. It's so like this idea that, like. No, no. Like we need to sacrifice. For fucking what? For what?

[John Favreau]

It's sacrifice to make ourselves poorer and other nations poorer and basically everyone poorer.

[Tommy Vietor]

Does that sound good?

[John Favreau]

That is the goal, I guess. Sacrifice so that Donald Trump can, as he's told the Atlantic, run the world and everyone has to beg him for exemptions and this and this deal and that deal. He just wants to be the center of everything.

[Jon Lovett]

I guess it's just sort of like, hey, like, we're gonna have a couple Christmases with more expensive dolls because in a few years there'll be American made dolls. Is that what we're meant to like? What? I guess so from their own point of view, what is the sacrifice for? It's.

[Tommy Vietor]

No. Also, Rove said that the Pope Photoshop was very offensive. As our resident Catholic, were you seeing a lot of chatter about Catholics upset.

[Jon Lovett]

About that Photoshop thing on your papacy grandson?

[John Favreau]

I just think there's just so. There's so much to be offended by, even if you're a devout Catholic. There's so much to be offended by from Donald Trump that I don't think the image of the Pope is gonna do much.

[Jon Lovett]

I would say, especially if you're a devout Catholic. But it's your, but it's your religion.

[John Favreau]

For example, for example, his, his immigration policy, his, his, his policy towards the poor.

[Tommy Vietor]

Yeah, they tend to trade all that stuff for the, the cruelty to people they don't like and the big hats.

[John Favreau]

Not Pope Francis. He was a good one.

[Jon Lovett]

Pope. But the, I talked about the dan on the YouTube who made fun of me for saying the YouTube, like Chuck Schumer, but I don't care. But snap face like, I think it's. There are all these dumb things that Trump is doing that are worth making fun of. I do think when it tilts over into it's going to cost him the Catholics in Ohio because this is so offensive. It's like, are you offended or are you just hoping people are offended? Like, I don't know.

[Tommy Vietor]

Yeah, I was just surprised to hear Rove say it. And there's someone. Fox News asked Trump about it today in the press briefing. So I just didn't know if there was a critical mass of angry Catholic. Photoshop Gates.

[John Favreau]

Yeah, there's a few conservative Catholics that are like this, this is what's going too far. This is not. You know, J.D. vance thinks it's a joke and just says he used the opportunity to attack Bill Crystal for the Iraq war.

[Jon Lovett]

How bad of a photo could it be? It is a costume you can buy at Spirit Halloween.

[John Favreau]

I will say that J.D. vance, he really like stopped posting for a while. And I thought maybe like, maybe Usha said to him, like, you gotta stop posting so much. But he's back. I think he just took a. He was traveling. He must've taken a break. Cause the last 48 hours he's been, he's getting into it with Bill Kristol. He's posting about all kinds of shit.

[Tommy Vietor]

I think all of them. They kind of like, Remember in the 2008 campaign, Bill Burton told all us little young com staffers that we had to call 10 reporters before 10am I think they have to pick like 10 Twitter fights before 10am with annoying libs. And that's just kind of how this.

[John Favreau]

White House operates, you know.

[Jon Lovett]

Have you figured out a way to post in the shower yet? There's only a few last kind of frontiers for you.

[Tommy Vietor]

You gotta be careful while you're sleeping.

[Jon Lovett]

Posting while you're sleeping.

[John Favreau]

I'm sorry, excuse me. I saw you posting about all kinds of movies today.

[Jon Lovett]

I'm sure.

[John Favreau]

We're gonna get that. I'm sure you're warming up a take for here.

[Jon Lovett]

Absolutely.

[John Favreau]

Okay, great.

[Jon Lovett]

That's where I put on. That's where I work things out.

[John Favreau]

Just gonna wave to you in that glass house over there. Scott Besant. Scott Besant was out here in LA on Monday. Just a fortuitous time for him to be here talking to investors at the Milken conference. This came after he wrote a piece in the Wall Street Journal about Trump's economic strategy. Bessen's taken a sunnier approach. He's telling everyone that we're close to making trade deals. The economy's gonna be quote, humming during the second half of 2025. I don't know. It does feel like this is a play to calm the market. To calm the markets.

[Tommy Vietor]

Dude, I was so mad. Unbelievable.

[John Favreau]

Calm the markets in the short term.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

I don't know.

[John Favreau]

It's the best long term strategy. Or maybe it just doesn't matter. What do you guys think?

[Jon Lovett]

Yeah. It just seems like clean up. Because steps one and two are undoing the damage from what they've already done. It's like.

[John Favreau]

Yeah.

[Jon Lovett]

Step first. First things first. I want you to stop worrying about all the harm we've already caused. We're in the process of trying to unwind some of that harm. Yeah. Step two is the tax cuts we've already been talking about for months. And step three is a bunch of, I guess, kind of a server farms. I guess that's something to look forward to.

[John Favreau]

Right?

[Tommy Vietor]

The policy is like white label Republican policy. It's like tax cuts and deregulation and then these stupid tariffs that causing all the problems. Let me read you one line from this op ed, though. Mr. Trump intends to usher in the most prosperous decade in American history, but not at the cost of the spiritual degradation of the working class. Did that give you a bit of like a Joey? A job is about more than a paycheck.

[John Favreau]

I feel like that was an edit from the VP's office.

[Tommy Vietor]

Huh.

[John Favreau]

Because that's the, that's the. He's going into the sort of right wing view that like we must bring the manufacturing back because the jobs we have now, this is like the Gen Z boss in a mini discourse.

[Jon Lovett]

Email jobs make you gay.

[John Favreau]

Email jobs make you gay. Right. We're just, we're all too materialist. Except for the crypto.

[Tommy Vietor]

Right.

[John Favreau]

Those guys are cool. Yeah. And except for all the billions that we have. But otherwise everyone's too materialist. And what we need is to be making the iPhones and making the shoes.

[Tommy Vietor]

Again, Besant, was it? Goldman Sachs, I believe.

[John Favreau]

But you're right. Yeah.

[Jon Lovett]

All these rich people. Yeah, these are all the wealthiest people.

[John Favreau]

A Soros agent, as Elon Musk called.

[Tommy Vietor]

Him, best thing is the most upright person I've ever seen. Sorry to interrupt. He almost leaned back.

[John Favreau]

He's. I was going to say, not yet. He's tipping over. He's tipping over this way.

[Jon Lovett]

He's a Southern gay. They have great posture. You have to. You have to if you're going to be a southern gay.

[John Favreau]

Anyway.

[Jon Lovett]

Yeah, I was going to like this is. Comes back to Trump talking about the dolls and I do think it's kind of his ham fisted. Heard it during a meeting. J.D. vance thing about like the kind of.

[John Favreau]

It's a band thing too.

[Jon Lovett]

Yeah. It's a spiritual crisis thing. We need to get back to making things in real work.

[John Favreau]

Yeah. Yeah. I'm wondering if like as Besant was landing in LA and saw the Hollywood sign outside of the plane window, he saw the truth post from Trump Sunday night. That was a little bit of a surprise where Trump announced that he will be expanding his trade war to the entertainment industry. President posted that our movie business is quote, dying a very fast death as other countries steal our entertainment jobs and make films that are just, quote, messaging and propaganda. So he's directing his administration to implement, quote, a 100% tariff on any and all movies coming into our country that are produced in foreign lands. Foreign lands is title case. Trump was asked about this in the Oval on Monday. Here's what he said.

[Donald Trump]

Our film industry has been decimated by other countries taking them out and also by incompetence. Like in Los Angeles, the governor is a grossly incompetent man. He's just allowed it to be taken away from, you know, Hollywood. Hollywood doesn't do very much of that business. They have the nice sign and everything's good, but they don't do very much.

[John Favreau]

How about this, guys? How are we. How's. How's it going to work? How are we going to tariff the movies?

[Jon Lovett]

Yeah, I don't. It's hard when a lot of them come in through ones and zeros. It's hard to figure out where to put the little tax bill. Yeah. When I saw this story, I swear the first thing I thought was this is John Voight's fault. I really did. I was like Jon Voight.

[John Favreau]

And it was.

[Jon Lovett]

And it turned out it really was.

[John Favreau]

Although not really. Apparently he met with Jon Voight. But did you read? And it was either Deadline or I can't remember which of the trades. It was deadline. Jon Voight talked to him about bringing production back and the tax incentives, but it said that he did not propose the tariffs.

[Jon Lovett]

No, no, no. My assumption is that Jon Voight has been taking these meetings to try to figure out there is a genuine problem which we can talk about, but that he has been like, as Trump's ambassador to Hollywood, been trying to figure out what to do about how to try to bring. About how to bring production back to the United States and to Los Angeles specifically, which is really important and a serious problem. And I'm sure he talked to Donald Trump about it. And then it kind of went through the fucking Rube Goldberg's contraption of Trump's brain. It came out with, we're going to tear up 100%. And then at some point, that will be kind of squeezed through some fucking broken, chaotic policy process and emerges his victory, his whatever real policy ultimately lands at the end of it. That is not going to be a tariff on films made in foreign lands, whatever the fuck that means.

[John Favreau]

Is it films? Is it tv, too? Is it. Is it some of the production overseas? Is it all of it?

[Tommy Vietor]

Is it where you shoot? Is it where the production company is? None of this makes sense.

[Jon Lovett]

Yeah, so what's happening right now is over. There's. There has been a strike. There was a pandemic. It had a terrible impact on the film industry and television industry in California and in the United States over the last decade or so, lost a ton of production from California to other parts of the US and collectively, the United States has lost a lot of production to Canada, Australia, Europe, UK and the uk and it's. It's a genuine emergency. I do think California government has been slow to respond, but right now they really are genuinely responding. Karen Bass has been talking about this ways to make it easier to shoot in Los Angeles. She's a little bit hamstrung because it actually is a big state issue. But they are trying to dramatically increase the amount of money that goes towards subsidizing production through the tax code, increasing the number of the types of productions that are eligible to receive it. All of which will go a long way, because the real crisis is that there's a ton of people that live in California who are the best at what they do in making television and making film. They live here because things were produced here, and fewer and fewer productions are taking place here. And a lot of the recovery that happened after the pandemic, after the strike, has gone elsewhere. Not Just to New York or to Georgia, but also to other countries. And it's not wrong to say that California Democrats collectively have been slow on this, but they're on it. They really are genuinely trying to figure out how to fix it right now.

[John Favreau]

But it's also a policy question. Where to be on it is to, like you said, offer tax incentives, change the tax code, whatever else. Tariffs are a fucking terrible idea. Especially since, you know, one of the many explanations rationales for the trade war has been the trade deficit. Right. On this instance, we export three times more content than we import in this country. So if we went the tariff route at all, other countries might start saying, okay, we don't want America. We're gonna put tariffs on American movies and American production that come here.

[Tommy Vietor]

Yeah. I mean, Trump throws out ideas and we all sound insane trying to make sense of them. That's what happens. I have a few thoughts. One industry, one soul. Not industry.

[John Favreau]

Always industry.

[Tommy Vietor]

Insane.

[John Favreau]

I know.

[Tommy Vietor]

Two, he's calling it a national security emergency. He's trying to do this. I think they're floating, doing this under the typical ipa, the legal authority. They're doing all the other terrorists, which would mean he's declaring a TV and film national emergency, which is just so stupid. Again, just to make fun of how stupid this is. Also the Gavin Newsom approach, as you said. Love it. It's to increase the tax credit from 330 million to 750 million annually to try to bring back some of these productions to the LA area, to the Hollywood area. But I was talking to someone in Gavin's office today and they're like, yes, we have to do that part for Paramounts, but we also need to do more for like the person who works craft services on these productions, help them find more affordable housing, better schools, better services. So they're trying to think of it in a more holistic way. And Trump's just like, I don't know, tariff it.

[Jon Lovett]

Yeah, the, the, at the core of this is, yes, there's just, we need to be competing on the tax structure to get more production here. But there's also just bureaucratic hurdles that need to be lifted that have to do with like, you know, a lot of long running problems. California. And it's just fucking expensive to be in California. Which goes to the deeper problem we have about not building enough housing, not building up transportation. I'm sorry, I'm just.

[John Favreau]

Klein has entered the chat.

[Jon Lovett]

Abundant.

[Tommy Vietor]

Abundance, abundant.

[Jon Lovett]

What are you saying about the word industry?

[Tommy Vietor]

He says industry. It drives me crazy.

[John Favreau]

He said he Was the one, the clip we just played, that was the worst I've heard.

[Jon Lovett]

Industry, Film.

[John Favreau]

Industry.

[Jon Lovett]

Film industry.

[John Favreau]

Very odd.

[Jon Lovett]

He's saying it like are you saying. And you wanted to be in. You want it to be industry, industry.

[Tommy Vietor]

Just quick.

[Jon Lovett]

Right. Anyway, you want it to be a dactyl.

[Tommy Vietor]

I want it to be, I don't know, better.

[John Favreau]

It's interesting. You don't know which way this is gonna go. He said, I don't wanna hurt the film industry. Which the film industry believes they would be hurt by this. So either some of them will come in and meet with him and then he'll make something up, or some Hollywood stars will go out there and yell about it and he won't like them and then he'll get dug in further and then we'll have a thousand percent tariff. But this would, you never know.

[Tommy Vietor]

This would kill like a Disney, for example, because they make the Marvel movies and the Star wars movies in England. So if those movies are getting tariffed at 100%, they are screwed.

[Jon Lovett]

Yeah, there's a. There look, there's a ton of. The other part of this too is like the production stuff. Same problem with the fucking tariffs coming on and off and being so chaotic like every other industry. It takes months, years to plan these things to be shot when they're gonna be shot. Do you know how hard it is to get on fucking the schedule of some of these actors? They're busy.

[Tommy Vietor]

Yeah, they're busy people.

[John Favreau]

I'm sure you know who didn't have a good morning is Ted Zorandos. Because Netflix, most of their production is overseas.

[Tommy Vietor]

Their stocks all went down like a couple recovered because one day everyone realized it was made up.

[John Favreau]

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[Chasten Buttigieg]

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[Tommy Vietor]

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[Chasten Buttigieg]

Rated Mature.

[John Favreau]

One person who may get richer because of Donald Trump's trade war. Donald Trump, we have a quick corrupt date for you all. We've talked a lot on the show about how the Trump family is basically inviting people to bribe them through their World Liberty Financial crypto business. Well, the Huffington Post reports that A company called FR8 Technologies, which handles shipping logistics for trade between the US and Mexico, raised $20 million in financing to buy $20 million worth of the Trump meme coin.

[Tommy Vietor]

Makes sense.

[John Favreau]

A move that the company is hoping will be a, quote, effective way to advocate for fair, balanced, and free trade between Mexico and the US Just said it just put a statement out saying that again, the Trump family owns the majority of the Trump coins and they get a cut of every transaction fee. So this is just a naked form of bribery right out in the open. Meanwhile, Trump's headlining a MAGA Inc. Super PAC dinner at one of his golf clubs in Virginia Monday night for quote, unquote, crypto and AI innovators. The price tag, $1.5 million ahead. Kristen Welker became one of the first journalists to ask Trump about his crypto dealings during his Meet the Press interview. Let's listen.

[Kristen Welker]

You've branded your own crypto cryptocurrency. The coins values actually surged recently after you announced that top holders would be invited to have dinner.

[Donald Trump]

I don't even know that. What did it surge to?

[Kristen Welker]

What did it surge to?

[Donald Trump]

Yeah, what's it worth? You might as well tell me, because I have no idea.

[Kristen Welker]

Well, 14.32.

[Jon Lovett]

What?

[Kristen Welker]

No dollars per cryptocurrency?

[Donald Trump]

Billion dollars?

[Kristen Welker]

No. Let me just ask you, what do you say to those who argue that when they hear that, they worry you're profiting from the presidency?

[Donald Trump]

I'm not profiting from anything. I'm just, all I'm doing is, you know, I started this long before the election.

[Kristen Welker]

You're not profiting off of the cryptocurrency?

[Donald Trump]

I haven't even looked. I'LL tell you what, look, if I own stock and something and I do a good job and the stock market goes up, I guess I'm profiting. But who really profits is somebody like Nancy Pelosi who uses inside information.

[Jon Lovett]

Got her.

[John Favreau]

Do you, you think it's plausible he's not paying attention to any of this?

[Tommy Vietor]

Absolutely no chance. I was talking to someone in the crypto industry today who said they believe that Trump's family has probably made around a billion dollars in cash from their crypto ventures. We're not talking about unrealized gains of the coins. We're talking about like transaction fees on the Meme coin. So they, you get fees, as you just said, when they buy and sell the Meme coin, they think they made.

[John Favreau]

That much just on the transaction?

[Tommy Vietor]

Yes. Wow. And also when you buy and sell the World Liberty Financial tokens, the Trump family is entitled to 75% of net revenue on those token sales. And the family owns 60% of the company itself. And by the way, there's like zero upside for the people who buy these tokens. You don't get any profits, you don't get to trade them. It makes no sense. And also in that interview, he's like, all upsee is like, we started this long before I ran for office. They started the company in September of 2024. It was right before the election. I mean, this whole thing, it's like the grift is, is staggering.

[Jon Lovett]

Yeah. And by the way, we just, we also like, like all of that is an estimate. We don't know that there aren't people just like putting, just giving him, giving him money. Like there could be huge amounts that are just being just directly transferred to him into his wallet. We'll have no idea. There's no way to know that. He could just, someone can go to the Oval and just show him their phone and be like, look, look what I gave you.

[John Favreau]

The only thing that's surprising is that Freight Technologies is so far the only company that we know of that has just spent $20 million to try to influence him on the trade, to get an exemption for the trade war, to influence the trade policy. Because I imagine if the tariffs stay in place, we'll be seeing a lot more of that, right?

[Tommy Vietor]

Yeah, I mean, that's the only one on the trade war. But there's a far more egregious example that's out there. So there's this Emirati state owned investment firm called mgx. The president of the firm is like the, the president of the UAE's brother or something runs a company. They want to make a $2 billion investment into Binance, which is the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange and one that has gotten to a lot of legal trouble in the United States because they were allowing people to like money launder, evade sanctions, criminal behavior, just like the wild wild West. And the company paid $4 billion to the government because of that. And the, the CEO did jail time. So MGX wants to buy a piece of Binance for, instead of doing it in cash for absolutely no reason, they are purchasing $2 billion worth of Trump's stablecoin.

[John Favreau]

Seems like some reason, the only reason.

[Tommy Vietor]

Is currying favor with the administration because presumably it will cost them more than $2 billion because there will be a transaction fee on the purchase of the stable. That one transaction will make Trump stablecoin one of the biggest stablecoins in the world. And I think world liberally will probably get paid on both sides because they'll probably get a fee when you buy the stablecoin from them. And then normally the way these stablecoins are supposed to work is they're supposed to be backed by something which they use to peg the value of the stablecoin to like $1. So presumably they'll buy treasury bonds or something and then they'll get the interest on those. And by the way, that's like the safest version of this scheme. We don't know that they'll actually buy treasuries because we don't know how this works. So again, this Emirati state owned company is just going to buy $2 billion worth of Trump coin for no reason.

[John Favreau]

The stable coin, the Trump stablecoin will eventually be pegged to the Melania Stablecoin. Right. It'll just be, you know what, the.

[Tommy Vietor]

American people are getting pegged. Hey, that's what's happening here.

[Jon Lovett]

I wish. You know what I mean. But what were we talking about?

[Tommy Vietor]

Pegging?

[Jon Lovett]

No, but I was thinking about this too, which is like there's this kind of, I don't know, this feeling of like they're openly corrupt and this kind of feels like, okay. And then because Republicans in Congress don't care, it leads to nothing. And I do think we need to be talking about this because I think it's really important. I do think people really care about this just for the politics of it. This is important to our politics. But I think long term we need to be thinking about. But how do we start talking about a. These are crimes. People are committing federal crimes every day all the time. And just because your friends are doing it doesn't mean it's not a federal crime. Just because everybody's applauding in the ballroom doesn't mean you're not part of a federal crime. But then you have to also assume that Donald Trump is gonna use the pardon power, that they're gonna try to find ways to wiggle their way out of this. And it would be, I think, a lot about that, Jonathan, last piece around Pascal's Wager and the bet that Democrats will never seek retribution and will behave really responsibly and always try to look forward. And we really do need to start talking about what we will do to investigate these crimes and make these. And look back and make sure people pay a price for having been brazenly and openly corrupt, even if Republicans won't do it.

[John Favreau]

So that the crypto industry will then dump a couple hundred million dollars on that Democrat who said they'll investigate the crimes in the next election. It is a tough.

[Tommy Vietor]

We should talk about.

[Jon Lovett]

Yeah, but I mean, well, look, we can. How much does that money get you? Right. Like, we just went through a round of. Of. Of in Wisconsin where Elon's money could not buy them. Right. Like, we have to. We have to try. We have to try.

[John Favreau]

Well, Senate Republicans have been trying to pass a bill with new rules on the stablecoins that they thought had enough votes from more pro crypto Senate Democrats to pass. They had enough to pass until nine of those Democrats just announced over the weekend, led by Ruben Gallego, that they'll oppose the legislation. Republicans were reportedly stunned by this news. Are you guys stunned by this news? No.

[Tommy Vietor]

I mean, the politics are complicated for the reason you just mentioned, because I think the crypto industry spent like $130 million last cycle on either pro crypto candidates or to target anti crypto Democrats, even ones who were not anti crypto at all. Their number one target was Sherrod Brown, former senator from Ohio. I think that one crypto PAC spent 40 million to defeat him, and that was like their head on a pike to send a message. And I've been told by someone today that getting Sherrod browned is like a, is a verb now on Capitol Hill. And so Lutnick, Howard Lutnick and David Sachs were trying to ram this crypto bill through Congress. Democrats, I think we're trying to figure out how to, like, be for something, because they don't. There's, like, there's not just the crypto money, but then there's a Constituency that likes crypto, that thinks it's exciting, that thinks traditional financial services are broken and rigged against them, and they're not wrong. But we don't need like a worse version backed on the blockchain.

[John Favreau]

Right?

[Tommy Vietor]

And like, getting that message through is really hard. But I think what happened here is Trump's stablecoin corruption with the UAE was so brazen that even the member, the Democrats who are for this in committee were like, okay, we can't do this right now because this would essentially allow, like, Trump put out an EO saying he has control of independent financial regulators. And this bill would give him the authority to regulate the stablecoin market as he is entering it. And like, that is just insane. And it would also give big tech companies the ability to issue stablecoins. So you would see like, oh, Jesus. X coin from Elon Musk or like Libra, I think was the version that came out of Facebook.

[Jon Lovett]

And so that they stopped.

[Tommy Vietor]

They stopped because traditionally, like, there was an effort in like 2005, someone was reminding me that Walmart basically tried to launch a bank. And we tried to keep those two things separate because it's really bad. But now the outcome of this bill passing in a bad form would be you would have like, bank, like companies performing bank like services with no banking regulations.

[John Favreau]

Also you get crazy. You get one bite at this apple on legislation. And you know, Gallego was saying, he's like, they should not have been stunned. We worked with them for weeks and months to try to make the provisions in this bill have real teeth and like, have real regulation. He's like. And then the version that showed up on the floor didn't have like, it was just weakened. He's like. So he was saying, he's like, I'm happy to continue working with them to make it stronger. But like, don't, you know, they're not going to water down a crypto regulation bill at the same time that the President is just, you know, inviting people to bribe him.

[Jon Lovett]

You look, there's a, there's a nuanced debate, I suppose, around crypto, around the technology, the blockchain technology, the ways it can make life better. There are genuine applications. But the concern voiced from the beginning is this is going to be a tool for crime and corruption. It is currently the most brazen and grand corruption tool in the history of our country. That's it. I don't, unless, I mean, I don't know if you guys are experiencing day to day the benefits of the blockchain, but, but what I'm seeing is the most corrupt administration in history, using it to enrich themselves to the tune of billions of dollars. Donald Trump never been a billionaire. Maybe for. You know, whether or not Donald Trump's ever been a billionaire, he is one now because of just complete and total corruption. Because of crypto.

[Tommy Vietor]

Yeah. The Democrats on the committee, like Elizabeth Warren, they're trying to improve the bill by being like, hey, what if it said the president and members of Congress can't get into the stablecoin business? How about that? Or like, Big Tech can't either. Or we got to apply consumer protections to stablecoins. But I think the Republicans on the committee are trying to exempt stablecoin regulations from the cfpb, for example. So there's. All the consumer protections are going to go out the window.

[John Favreau]

Yeah. And they can't cross the administration or the Trump family in any way because they're there to serve.

[Tommy Vietor]

But, like, the Rubin guy goes to the world. Look, I understand that people are trying to work on this stuff in good faith, but, like, at the end of the day, the crypto industry fucking hates you.

[Jon Lovett]

Right.

[Tommy Vietor]

Like, it is run by people like Marc Andreessen who have a radical libertarian vision of the world. They view you as the enemy. They will not think twice about dumping tens, if not hundreds of millions of dollars on your head in the next election. And just go in there, eyes wide open, because, like, you're not saving yourself from these people.

[John Favreau]

Trump also made plenty of news over the weekend on Meet the Press and elsewhere regarding his continued attack on the Constitution, particularly its separation of powers and amendments protecting free speech, due process, and the right to counsel.

[Jon Lovett]

Those are big ones.

[John Favreau]

Yeah, those are big ones. Those are big ones.

[Jon Lovett]

I didn't even mention S tier parts of the Constitution.

[John Favreau]

I didn't even mention cruel and unusual punishment. I probably should have put that one in, too. Here he is answering a question about defying court orders.

[Kristen Welker]

Your Secretary of State says everyone who's here, citizens and noncitizens, deserve due process. Do you agree, Mr. President?

[Donald Trump]

I don't know. I'm not. I'm not a lawyer. I don't know.

[Kristen Welker]

Well, the Fifth Amendment.

[Donald Trump]

I don't know. It seems. It seems it might say that.

[Kristen Welker]

Don't you need to uphold the Constitution of the United States as President?

[Donald Trump]

I don't know. I have to respond by saying, again, I have brilliant lawyers that work for me, and they are going to obviously follow what the Supreme Court said. What you said is not what I heard the Supreme Court said. They have a different interpretation yeah.

[John Favreau]

Stephen Miller has a different interpretation. He is not a lawyer. On the bright side, Trump did say that running for a third term in 2028 is, quote, not something he's looking to do. And then he name dropped Vice President J.D. vance, and surprisingly, national archivist Marco Rubio, who currently holds three other titles as well. Secretary of State, USAID Administrator, and now National Security Advisor. Big shoes for little Marco to fil. So Trump's now using this talk to my lawyers, answer every time he gets a question on disobeying the courts. What do you guys make of that?

[Jon Lovett]

It seems like he went to I have to talk to my lawyer's answer too quickly. Like, he was still processing her previous sentence when he got to like, you know, you have to uphold the Constitution. Right? I gotta talk to my lawyers. It seems like. But wait, wait, wait. That's like you had took an oath. It's like the first sentence of the oath.

[Tommy Vietor]

Yeah, I mean, we sort of talked about this last week too. It's the most beta, passive aggressive way to start a constitutional crisis ever. Like the big strong man who says, I alone can fix it is now like, o, I gotta, I gotta defer to my lawyers. You've been railing against the courts nonstop for years, and now you're deferring. This is just a simple difference of opinion on legal precedent. What are we talking about?

[John Favreau]

Yeah, he's attacking the judges every day. Every day. He's like, he was at the rally in Michigan for 100 days and he was like, the judges are taking your president's power away. But I defer to my lawyers.

[Jon Lovett]

Well, he won't.

[John Favreau]

Right?

[Jon Lovett]

It's, it's the footsie with defying the orders. They're still. Look, they, they see. Donald Trump sees all the polling and he can pretend it's not real all he wants, but he sees it. He knows that defying court orders, deeply unpopular. Deporting people without due process, deeply unpopular. So when he's in front of Kristen Welker and he's asked directly about this, he does not want to come out and brazenly say he is gonna violate the Supreme Court. So he leaves it to Stephen Miller to go out there and sort of rant about how the ruling really said it was 90 in my favor. And actually, we are following the order because the order technically doesn't require us to do anything at all.

[John Favreau]

And as Steve Miller did today as a follow up to this interview, said no due processes for citizens. It is not for immigrants who aren't here legally, which is Just a lie. Which is like. It's a lie. It's been litigated for, like, hundreds of years.

[Jon Lovett]

Well, it's a plain language.

[John Favreau]

Alito said this. It says persons, it says person. But even if you leave it to the courts to interpret person and what it means, right? The most recent ruling in April on Abrego Garcia. We even had fucking Alito. And Thomas jumped in and said, yes, of course, due process. They said due process is afforded to all people, immigrants who are here legally or not, as the government has agreed in this case. Trump's own DOJ said that, plus Rubio. But Miller's out there being like, no, it's not true.

[Tommy Vietor]

Imagine, like, the counterfactual. Imagine if it were not the case, if you're a green card holder and the government could just threaten to punish you unless you, what, gave them money, supported them politically. Like, it doesn't make any sense. That. What. Stephen Miller's argument is nonsensical. It's completely un American.

[John Favreau]

I mean, the Washington Post did an investigation over the weekend, another one about Seekot and El Salvador and who ended up there, and they found two people, at least two men were sent there even though they had already been approved as refugees for resettling. Four people were sent there even though they had legal protections to avoid being sent there because they had temporary protected status. So already, people who are here legally who had gone through a process here were sent to a foreign gulag. We're only talking about Abrego Garcia because he's the only one that the government admitted in a court filing they sent mistakenly.

[Jon Lovett]

It's so stupid on its face. Due process is for only people who deserve due process. Okay, how do you figure out who those people are? Well, you have to have some kind of a process.

[John Favreau]

The process that they process is DHS decides now who's a criminal, who's not. They have evidence. Trisha McLaughlin puts it out on Twitter, and she said, we have plenty of evidence and intelligence. That said, this person's a danger. Say, what is the evidence? They go, we're not gonna tell you.

[Jon Lovett]

Even just at face value, it is predicated on the fact that, A, the government is acting in good faith, and B, if the government makes mistakes, they will try to rectify it. They are acting in despicable bad faith without regard for these people. And it is their official position that if they even. That even when they admit a mistake, they have no ability or need to rectify it. So this is. This is dangerous. It's so obviously dangerous on its face.

[John Favreau]

You guys find that 2028 answer any more assuring than the previous comments on the topic?

[Tommy Vietor]

It's real weird that he led with Rubio. Rubio's not maga. He's just pretending his reality.

[John Favreau]

He wants to keep. He wants to keep the Celebrity Apprentice going, you know?

[Chasten Buttigieg]

Yeah.

[Jon Lovett]

He can't have JD Vance getting too high on his own supply. He's got to make it. Everyone's got to feel needy. They need the boss, his approval. Look, we're at the point where President United States is joking around about violating the Constitution to stick around. He already tried to do that when he committed an insurrection. And then you got J.D. vance doing interviews. This is classic Donald Trump humor. All right? This is the funny guy we all know and love. He dresses up as the Pope. He threatens to not leave office in a kind of coup d'etat. Like, that is fucking hilarious. That's a joke.

[John Favreau]

Scolds in the media who just don't have a sense of humor.

[Tommy Vietor]

Yeah. J.D. van Sooth. His tone is either the most self righteous, sanctimonious, insufferable prick you've ever met online or like, why can't you take a joke, man? Drives me crazy.

[John Favreau]

Legalized comedy. Some good news from the courts. A federal judge youe know who had.

[Jon Lovett]

A great sense of humor?

[John Favreau]

Who?

[Jon Lovett]

Ashley Babbitt.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

No.

[Jon Lovett]

Cause she thought it was really funny when he was talking about staying in office. Remember? I remember Ashley Babbitt. She was so. She thought it was so funny when Donald Trump was joking around staying in office. And so she went. She wanted to be part of the joke, so she went to the Capitol. I don't remember what if you happened. But like, honestly, that joke killed because if you remember, Ashley Babbitt died. A bunch of people died at the Capitol.

[Tommy Vietor]

I say leave it in.

[John Favreau]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Jon Lovett]

It's all funny. Just really funny. He's so. He's funny.

[Tommy Vietor]

Yeah, JD got that one.

[John Favreau]

Tax dollars are now going to payment to the settlement that the government has reached with her family.

[Jon Lovett]

Now this is just a funny joke. Like remember the insurrection, how we were laughing? Remember how funny it was all those people that died?

[John Favreau]

We also have reparations for the Jan 6.

[Jon Lovett]

It's just like you guys don't know how to fucking laugh.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

Well, that was.

[Tommy Vietor]

Cause they had those, that. That fire jam they put out.

[John Favreau]

That's right.

[Tommy Vietor]

J6 choir.

[John Favreau]

Yeah, the choir.

[Tommy Vietor]

You get the stream money.

[John Favreau]

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[John Favreau]

All right, some good news from the courts. Federal judge permanently blocked Trump's executive order targeting the law firm Perkins Coie. Judge Beryl Howell said that the order itself was unconstitutional and opened her 102 page ruling with a line from Shakespeare the first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers, and wrote that, quote, eliminating lawyers as the guardians of the rule of law removes a major impediment to the path to more power in not as good news, Trump renewed his pledge on Friday to take away Harvard's tax exempt status because it's, quote, what they deserve. Harvard's president Alan Garber did an interview with the Wall Street Journal calling the move highly illegal. And an unnamed Trump administration official did say to the reporter that Trump's post did not constitute a formal directive to the irs. Sure, sure, you guys think that the Perkins win and Harvard's willingness to fight will Maybe stiffen the spines of other law firms and colleges and institutions that Trump's targeting.

[Jon Lovett]

I hope so. I think we've been. I think two things have happened that have made people realize that there's value in fighting. One has been seeing the positive response to the institutions that do fight and the fact that they're winning in court. The other is the relentlessness of Trump's attacks on the places that have compromised and the fact that once you capitulate to Trump, he doesn't leave you alone. All right, he's still going after ABC News. He's not gonna give them a break because they did their $16 million dirty deal.

[Tommy Vietor]

You saw what he did to Terry.

[Jon Lovett]

Yeah, he like, poor Terry. Poor Terry, big break. Still going after Colombia. Relentlessly gonna go after Colombia, even though they did this kind of a deal. So I think. And then all these demands that in interview after interview, he's basically saying that all these law firms that capitulated admitted guilt. And then there are. Then some of their clients are starting to think about going elsewhere to report that. I think Microsoft is thinking about leaving. I can't remember which one of these fucking interchangeable firms in my brain they're going to leave, but hopefully they're going to start to see negative repercussions. So I think the combination of not getting what you think you're going to get out of this deal, plus seeing the positive response to fighting, can't be anything.

[John Favreau]

But obviously it was unconstitutional. Right?

[Tommy Vietor]

You can't.

[John Favreau]

You know, the judge was. I mean, you know, I think the reason the judge used such dramatic language here, it's like, I don't know, the first, the fifth, the Sixth Amendments violates all of those. Also, she made an example of the firms that capitulated is also part of the reason it was unconstitutional. Cause she's like, well, the reason that, you know, it wasn't for. They didn't take, you know, this executive order, didn't target these firms for reasons that weren't political, is because the ones that capitulated suddenly didn't have the EO targeted at them anymore. Which is the same thing where this is why the unnamed official said, you know, his post about Harvard, it's what they deserve. That's not gonna hold up well in court on trying to roll back the. Harvard's tax exempt status.

[Jon Lovett]

And by the way, they didn't need the. They didn't need the fucking tweet or whatever true social post to make clear that this was targeting. Because Donald Trump has been talking about it and all the administration been talking about it openly, by the way. There's tons of record in the negotiation between the administration and Harvard that we can't see. That would certainly come out. And by the way, even if you take it at face value, no, you can't make some claim that we are targeting Harvard because of anti Semitism. And so. And therefore we're gonna eliminate funding across a broad swath of research. That's like the definition of an unconstitutional First Amendment violation, not just to liberal judges, but to conservative judges. The problem here, right, is of course it's unconstitutional. The lawyers knew it was unconstitutional. Disney's lawyers.

[John Favreau]

They're lawyers because they're lawyers.

[Jon Lovett]

Disney's lawyers knew that the case against fucking George Stephanopoulos was bullshit. They gave in. Right. Paramount knows that the lawsuit against CBS is fucking bullshit. It's because they're saying it's not worth winning. They're saying it's not worth winning because Donald Trump is such a headache.

[Tommy Vietor]

Well, also, the heads of these law firms, I understand there were actual real business pressures. Like, if you're a head of a firm and some other firm is trying to poach your clients because they think you can't represent them because you can't go into a government building, that sucks. I get that. But the people doing these negotiations thought they could be cute and just agreed to do pro bono work on, like, helping veterans or stopping anti Semitism. And Trump is like, actually, you're defending the coal industry.

[Jon Lovett]

Yeah, here we go. The QAnon Shaman.

[Tommy Vietor]

Yes, exactly.

[John Favreau]

And, like, look, the firms that capitulated publicly are getting most of the shit as they deserve. But, you know, someone from Paul Weiss was saying, look, when we were first making the deal with Donald Trump or talking to Donald Trump, we were looking for allies. We were looking for people who would stand with us and say no. And what the people were. What our competitors were doing instead was poaching. Poaching our clients and taking our partners.

[Tommy Vietor]

Yeah, that was gross.

[John Favreau]

And I do think it was a like. And from going forward, now that we know that he's losing in court over this kind of shit, like, all the colleges and universities, all the other law firms, other media places, like, should stand together and not be fucking afraid. Yeah.

[Jon Lovett]

Harvard threw the first brick at Stonewall.

[John Favreau]

I've always said that in Maine. Janet Mills, governor of Maine. Remember, Trump yelled at her in the governor's meeting because that he was gonna freeze funding. He tried to freeze funding in Maine education because she was not abiding by his trans policies. And just one Court, and the government had to back down, and they unfroze the funding in Maine. So looks like you can take on Trump.

[Jon Lovett]

Yeah.

[John Favreau]

And not have to worry about it.

[Jon Lovett]

Yeah. I mean, look, yes, until there's a fucking fire or flood or natural disaster. And, like, everybody should fight, but, like, we should. Like, the point was never that these people thought they couldn't win in court. I think they all believed that they could win in court. It's just whether or not Donald Trump is gonna abuse his power and make life difficult on other matters. Right. Whether it's in Michigan, whether there's.

[John Favreau]

He will and he will, and he will, but you have to fight anyway. The point is, that's why you need. That is the purpose of collective action.

[Jon Lovett]

Yes.

[John Favreau]

Right. Like, that is why you need to go find allies and you need to stand together. Because he is not as powerful if they all stand together.

[Jon Lovett]

That's right.

[John Favreau]

Of course, his favorite target is still immigrants. There are now multiple reports that the administration is looking at more places to deport people beyond El Salvador, including Libya, Rwanda, Angola, Equatorial guinea, and Moldova. Even if the people who'd be deported to these countries have never stepped foot in them. Marco Rubio basically confirmed this last week, saying, quote, the further away from America, the better. Trump also hasn't forgotten about the people he calls our, quote, homegrown criminals. In a Sunday Truth social post that seems to have caught everyone by surprise, Trump directed his administration to, quote, in all caps, rebuild and open Alcatraz because our country, quote, will no longer be held hostage to criminals, thugs, and judges that are afraid to do their job in the Oval. On Monday, Trump talked at length about the inspiration behind his plan to reopen the notorious San Francisco prison facility. Let's listen.

[Tommy Vietor]

How will you use it?

[Jon Lovett]

How did you come up with the idea?

[Donald Trump]

Well, I guess I was supposed to be a movie maker. We're talking. We started with the movie making. It Will end. I mean. Mean, it represents something very strong, very powerful in terms of law and order. Alcatraz is, I would say, the ultimate right. Alcatraz, Sing Sing and Alcatraz, the movies. You look at it, it's sort of. You saw that picture that was put out. It's sort of amazing, but it sort of represents something that's both horrible and beautiful and strong and miserable, weak. It's got a lot of. It's got a lot of qualities.

[Jon Lovett]

Alcatraz contains multitasking.

[John Favreau]

I've always said that he's an artist. Let him cook.

[Tommy Vietor]

The Independent reported that Trump announced the Alcatraz Reopening just a couple hours after Escape from Alcatraz aired on pbs.

[John Favreau]

That's awesome.

[Tommy Vietor]

So causation is in correlation. But you know, I would like to.

[Jon Lovett]

Imagine he's watching pbs.

[John Favreau]

I think he's got the John he met with Jon Voight. He's thinking about movies. He's got the whole.

[Jon Lovett]

I just hope they don't. They keep the tours. They gotta keep the tour. It's a museum. I've been to Al Trans.

[Tommy Vietor]

Over a million people a year go there. It makes money. There'd be a huge loss of tourist revenue. But also they closed the prison in 1963 because it was three times more expensive than normal prisons because you have to take everything there by boat and also you have to take your sewage back by boat. It's really expensive.

[John Favreau]

Cold ass boat ride. I. I remember we went in August and it was still cold.

[Tommy Vietor]

Oh, well, that's San Francisco. That's why you don't want to live there.

[Jon Lovett]

I really. Among other problems. A lot of fags, but the.

[Tommy Vietor]

Jesus Christ.

[Jon Lovett]

But, but it's so funny. Just like again, he like proposed this incredibly stupid thing and then you have to walk through. Well, actually, logistically it's quite expensive. It's been a museum. It's a museum. It's a San Francisco museum. Let's not turn this museum back into a prison because we are not. Are you boys under the impression that we have a huge problem of people escaping from our jails?

[Tommy Vietor]

No.

[John Favreau]

In fact, more people escaped from Alcatraz than escaped from any of our supermax prisons, which are perfectly fine. That have been bigger on land. Easier. He just needs to look. Democrats, we're not. Are not fighting back enough on just, you know, him fighting regular crime. There always has to be another threat. Right? This is the whole. Because he's an authoritarian and so we always have to be just on the verge of being overrun by criminals. Like we can put them in our supermax prisons forever if we want.

[Tommy Vietor]

Yeah, this one isn't even a threat to me. It's just like a headline grab. It's like, I don't know, like, reopen Alcatraz. I don't care at all.

[Jon Lovett]

No, I like that tour.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

It's a good tour.

[Tommy Vietor]

You're right.

[Jon Lovett]

Kids go there, they get to walk around.

[Tommy Vietor]

I was talking to someone in gallery.

[Jon Lovett]

It's a little bit strange when you think about it. Little bit strange now that I think.

[Tommy Vietor]

I thought about it.

[Jon Lovett]

But Al Capone went there.

[Tommy Vietor]

Suffering Tour. That's one of the titles.

[Jon Lovett]

It is a great movie. The Clint Eastwood movie.

[Tommy Vietor]

I was talking to someone in Gavin's office today about this and I was like, have you seen any, like, economic assessments of what he's like, why are we talking about this? Seriously? This is not a serious idea. Also, the. But the Rwanda piece of tending migrants to Rwanda, I just want to point out, was a Boris Johnson idea from 2022. They were trying to send people who sought asylum in the UK to Rwanda and then forcing them to go through their legal process and if they're granted asylum, they would have to stay there. So we're stealing this one from the floppy haired idiot across the pond.

[John Favreau]

Libya. That's a good one. Just, we're just really, really safe places.

[Jon Lovett]

And so this is, you know, like we are constantly conflating what he's doing to people. By sending them to El Salvador, this would just be deporting people to this, to these places and that would be where they'd have to rebuild their lives.

[Tommy Vietor]

And presumably it would be because their home country wouldn't take them back.

[John Favreau]

Correct.

[Tommy Vietor]

Although none of that makes sense because my understanding is that Venezuela is now taking deportation flights that leave out of Honduras. They just didn't want to send their planes to the United States because there was concern under the Alien Enemies act that those assets could be seized by the US Government and claimed under forfeiture.

[John Favreau]

Also over the weekend, I believe this was part of the Washington Post reporting the investigation is that it turns out their discussions with Venezuela were going well. Even when they ended up sending people to seekot. Venezuela was willing to take some.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

Well, yeah.

[Tommy Vietor]

Rick Cornell, like, like former human Twitter troll, came to life, became a person, wanted to be Secretary of State, didn't get the job, but he was going down on these little missions to go see Maduro and trying to get back people, Americans who were in prison. And he tweeted, I think like the day they sent all these Venezuelans to El Salvador that he had gotten a deportations agreement signed with the Maduro government.

[John Favreau]

And it really is. Why, like, I don't like talking about this in terms of immigration because it's not about immigration. It's not even about deportations. Even renditions is hard. Cuz renditions, like they're trying to get intelligence out of the person. This is just, literally, just literally sending people to a prison for the rest of their lives in a foreign country based on no trial, no due process, nothing. That's what it is.

[Jon Lovett]

And as the, you know, Trump today is saying, oh, we're gonna give everybody $1,000 if they self Deport, threatening to send migrants to countries that they have no familiarity with. A lot of this is about scaring people.

[John Favreau]

Yes. For sure.

[Jon Lovett]

Terrifying people into not coming. And if they are here to leave, I think that's partly why they won't give an inch. Even in these, Even where they've already admitted, like in Abrego Garcia, the case, that they've made a mistake. It is all about instilling fear in people as a means of getting people to never come or leave.

[John Favreau]

And there's just a. There's a dehumanizing aspect to this, too, whether it's intentional or not. And I. I believe it's intentional. But, I mean, there was some. There's some crime on the subway in New York, and they were all out there. Stephen Miller, the White House, Caroline Levitt, like, screaming at the New York Times for not detailing the person's immigration status who committed the crime and, like, demanding that the New York Times. So now, I guess every time someone commits a crime in this country, we need to know exactly what their immigration status is. This is also behind the whole. He's not. He'll never be a Maryland man. He'll never be a Maryland Father. He's Ms. 13. So, like, you can't even now say that immigrants who aren't here legally, you can't say, like, where they live in the United States or where they're from or the fact that their parents. The only identifier has to be that they are illegal and not here.

[Tommy Vietor]

By the way, the crime that they were all tweeting about that happened in the New York subway was a man raping a corpse.

[John Favreau]

Yes.

[Tommy Vietor]

And the mega people were like, why did you say he was an illegal immigrant? I'm sorry, that's not. That's not the part of that story.

[John Favreau]

Burying the lead that worries me the most.

[Tommy Vietor]

That's not the part that shocks my conscience. His immigration status.

[John Favreau]

Also, if we're going to. I mean, we're going to start listing everyone's immigration status that commits a crime in this country, it's not going to look good for what they're trying to prove here.

[Tommy Vietor]

Right.

[John Favreau]

That's not. Since most of the crimes aren't immigrants.

[Jon Lovett]

And wait till they hear who commits crimes in women's restrooms. No, but seriously, it's like, this is. This is their playbook. Right. Like, if a crime is committed by one of their unsavories, that's really important. If it's not, it shouldn't be mentioned at all.

[John Favreau]

It's bad. All right, we're take a quick break. Two announcements. Before we do that, we got a new book from Crooked Media Reads. Our friend Amanda Lippman has written Win where in the Next Generation's Guide to Leadership. It drops next week, May 13th. Amanda's the co founder of Run for Something, so she has more experience than almost anyone in helping young people get into leadership positions. She talked to a ton of people for the book. Everyone from Maxwell Frost to Teen Vogues versus Sharma. It's a fascinating book, essential for anyone considering that next step interviewed Amanda a couple weeks ago on Pod Save America. You can pre order the book right [e-mail] books or wherever you get your books. Also, some exciting love it or leave it shows coming up in LA.

[Tommy Vietor]

What do we got?

[John Favreau]

What do you think? On May 8th, I believe you guys are gonna be at the Dynasty Typewriter.

[Jon Lovett]

We have a bunch of great shows lined up in la. We're gonna some surprise, very special guests. We'll be at Dynasty Typewriter this Thursday. Then next week we'll be at Flappers in Burbank. We have, I think Sarah Silverman.

[John Favreau]

Yeah.

[Jon Lovett]

Wait, you have it? Who else is gonna be there?

[John Favreau]

Sarah Silverman, Lamorne Morris.

[Jon Lovett]

Oh, Lamore Lamorn Morris.

[John Favreau]

Lamorn Morris. And Esther Povitsky.

[Jon Lovett]

Oh, great. That's gonna be an awesome show.

[Tommy Vietor]

That's a great show.

[Jon Lovett]

So, yeah, we're gonna be at Flappers.

[Tommy Vietor]

Flappers. That's a fun name.

[John Favreau]

I never even heard of Flappers.

[Jon Lovett]

It's a comedy club.

[John Favreau]

Cool. Grab your tickets now.

[Jon Lovett]

Yeah.

[John Favreau]

Cricket.com events when we come back, Tommy's interview with Chasten Buttigieg. Pod Save America is brought to you by Zebiotics Pre Alcohol. Let's face it, after a night with drinks, I don't bounce back the next day like I used to. I have to make a choice. I can either have a great night or a great next day. That is until I found pre alcohol Zebiotics. Pre Alcohol Probiotic drink is the world's first genetically engineered probiotic. It was invented by PhD scientists to tackle rough mornings after drinking. Here's how it works. When you drink, alcohol gets converted into a toxic byproduct in the gut. But it's a buildup of this product, not dehydration. That's to blame her rough days after drinking. Pre alcohol produces an enzyme to break this byproduct down. Just remember to make pre alcohol your first drink of the night. Drink responsibly and you'll feel your best tomorrow. Love Zebiotics. Try never to forget it. Every time I use it, feel great the next day when I don't use it, definitely feel 43. Every time I have pre alcohol before drinks, I notice a difference the next day. Like I just said, even after a night out, I can confidently plan on doing whatever without worry. Like reading the news, talking about the news. Spring is here, which means more opportunities to celebrate warmer weather before drinks on the patio, that tropical vacation or your best friend's wedding. Don't forget your Zebiotics pre alcohol drink one before drinking and wake up feeling great the next day. Go to zebiotics.com crooked to learn more and get 15% off your first order when you use Crooked at checkout. Zbiotics is back with 100% money back guarantee so if you're unsatisfied for any reason, they'll refund your money, no questions asked. Remember to head to zebiotics.com cricket and use the code Cricut at checkout for 15% off.

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[Tommy Vietor]

My guest today is the author of the new children's book Papa's Coming Home, which is out May 20th. Right. But available for pre sale now.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

That's right. Yeah.

[Tommy Vietor]

Chastain Buttigieg, Great to see you.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

Nice to see you.

[Tommy Vietor]

You're also the bestselling author of a young adult memoir called I have Something to Tell youl.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

Yeah.

[Tommy Vietor]

Folks can pick that one up too.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

Thanks.

[Tommy Vietor]

Thank you for making the trip to la.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

Happy to be here.

[Tommy Vietor]

I know it's not an easy thing when you have little kids at home. In fact, that's kind of the point of the book in a lot of ways.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

Yeah.

[Tommy Vietor]

I hope you don't mind if I give listeners just a little peek behind the curtain here. So I called.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

Sure.

[Tommy Vietor]

Chastain, was it Monday night? We had just recorded Pot Save America. I called you at like 4:30 Pacific.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

Yeah.

[Tommy Vietor]

And you would just put the kids down and we were kind of like commiserating over the battle that can be bedtime and like patting ourselves on the back for getting it done. And I hear this Adorable little voice in the back. It's like, daddy, who are you talking to? Yeah.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

Yeah. It was like the kids in the Shining. I turned around and they were just two twins standing around. I didn't even hear them come down the stairs.

[Tommy Vietor]

Just jailbreak.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

Yes. And they're really into talking about our friends right now.

[Tommy Vietor]

Okay.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

So they'll be like, who are you talking. Are you talking to your friends? Or if we're FaceTiming one another, if I'm FaceTiming the kids back home, they'll say, if I was FaceTiming them right now, they'd be like, can I see your friends? Even if I. They had not met anybody in this room, and they would have to say hello to everybody.

[Tommy Vietor]

I think that's good. I think that's great. Do they manipulate you at bedtime the way my daughter does me? Just, like, for extra seconds.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

Extra seconds.

[Tommy Vietor]

Hours.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

Hours, yeah.

[Tommy Vietor]

The other night, I think I'd read Lisette, like, 10 books. You know, like, the stack just gets higher every single night. So I read through all the books. Hannah comes in to say goodnight. She has this little stuffed animal called Pink Lovey. The bunny. Right. We sleep with it every night, but we have, like, four of them. Because Pink Lovey gets, like, kind of nasty. And you gotta wash Pink Lovey, but God forbid, you don't have Pink Lovey at bedtime.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

Yeah.

[Tommy Vietor]

So sometimes she'll tell us she wants not that Pink Lovey, but that other identical Pink Lovey. And she started to fake cry, but then halfway through, made herself cry up.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

Yeah.

[Tommy Vietor]

And we just, like, had this moment where we, like, all were laughing about knowing she was manipulating us, and it was just.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

How old is she?

[Tommy Vietor]

The funniest thing.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

Oh, wow.

[Tommy Vietor]

Yeah, I'm done. I'm screwed. Yeah, she's got me.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

Just the. The floor around Gus's bed is, like, 30 stuffies.

[Tommy Vietor]

Yeah.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

And, like, people just give them to you, and they just keep giving them to you, and it's really hard to make them go away. And then, like, he doesn't have a favorite one, though. So every night it's like, I want Little Bear. And, like, I have now learned that Little Bear is the tiny white bear. Fifteen bears in there. But of course, it's always the one that you can't find 100. Turn the lights back on. Look under the bed.

[John Favreau]

Yeah.

[Tommy Vietor]

It's a journey. So your book, Papa's Coming Home. It's a very sweet bedtime story about a young family welcoming dad home from a work trip. And by the way, I appreciate that you guys, the dog is like a fully fledged family member. I love that because that's how we are too. Yeah. Why'd you write the book, and what's kind of the deeper message, you know, for the parent reading the book?

[Chasten Buttigieg]

Yeah. I mean, our kids are about to turn four, so it's weird to think that I wrote this book. I believe before they turned 2, I was coming home from a work trip and had been thinking about writing a children's book because I had asked around for books that looked like our family. As you know, you read 15 books every night. It would be great if just one of those books featured a family that looked like ours. And we came up short. There are a couple good ones out there. And it was also important to me that the lesson in the book was just a family loves each other, unconditional love for your child. It wasn't kind of punching you in your face with the morals. So I was on an airplane, and the idea came to me how excited I was to get home and how excited my kids might be that I'm coming home. And that was it. I just wanted a nice, sweet story, especially for bedtime. I was kind of thinking of the book that incorporates that message of unconditional love for your kid, but also with some silly things in there that they're gonna latch onto.

[Tommy Vietor]

Yeah, it's very cute. I think the little kids, they'll like the way the story escalates.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

Yeah.

[Tommy Vietor]

I don't wanna ruin the ending for anybody.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

Yeah. They helped me write it.

[Tommy Vietor]

Right.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

Cause there's so many things that they decide to bring to the airport to greet Papa with. And. And that was fun to work with Gus and Penelope on. And I would workshop it and see if they'd giggle or not. Perfect.

[Tommy Vietor]

I love it. You know, you talk about the need for representation in books like this. Republicans, they love to make LGBT parents the focus of their attacks, their culture war, like, things they're demagoguing. You and Pete get singled out in, like, very terrible ways by some of these horrible people. How do you deal with it? Is that something you have to talk to your kids about?

[Chasten Buttigieg]

Well, luckily, no. Right now. I can shield them from the Internet. They're only three. You know, we try in our house to leave the discourse at the door. It's very hard. It doesn't need to be at the dinner table. It doesn't need to be in the minivan on the way to school. We don't need to be talking about, you know, negativity while our kids are.

[Tommy Vietor]

Around, you know, like, another thing about Tucker Carlson. Gus. Yeah.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

While, like, you know, the kids are talking to you and there's, like, spaghetti flying at the dinner table.

[Tommy Vietor]

Right.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

It's like, hey, did you see this crazy thing that, you know, Caroline Levitt decided to say, like, why does that need to be in our kitchen? Why does that need to be at our door? And, you know, I'm no stranger to the attack, but I have always believed that the best thing that we can do for our community and our family is just to live our lives authentically, to show people who we are. We're just like every other family, you know, going about our day, reading 15 books at bedtime. And, you know, there's probably a lot of applesauce and Mac and cheese stuck to our kitchen table chairs, just like yours.

[Tommy Vietor]

Yeah. To the dog.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

Buddy loves it. Buddy's like a Roomba.

[Tommy Vietor]

Yeah. My dog has gained 15 pounds, probably, but her fur is just, you know, finally needs to get her groomed because it's like, you know, there's constellations in there. The book is coming out at a time when books like yours are being targeted, challenged, banned, taken to court. What is it like to debut this book while the Supreme Court is hearing this case? It's Mahmoud versus Taylor, where parents are trying to pull kids out of lessons with just LGBT characters like this.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

Yeah, I mean, I started writing it, like, I mentioned, two years ago, so I didn't see the Supreme Court case coming. And now, of course, it's coming out in a couple weeks, and I just keep thinking about what a kid like ours might feel sitting in a classroom where someone says, like, I don't want to read that. I don't want my kids exposed to that, when it's simply a book about, you know, two loving parents going about their day and, at the end of the day, loving their children unconditionally. So, you know, I'm really disappointed, especially to see that the conservative Supreme Court seems to be favoring the parents in this particular case. As a former teacher myself, I think that's going to put a lot of unnecessary burden on teachers and schools. I mean, the school district in that particular case already said they tried it. Right. And it failed. It didn't work. It was so cumbersome to constantly deal.

[Tommy Vietor]

With those, like, communicating what's going to be in the lesson and letting people opt out.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

But then, like, where does the line, you know, get drawn? Like, I want to pull my kids out of lessons about, you know, evolution or, like, how many permission slips are we sending you know, every day or every week to pull our kids out of certain lessons. So, again, like, this book, it was very important to me that this is a Father's day book. It's just a book about two dads who love their kids. I think it's like a modern American family. And so I hope that other families will enjoy it. I hope it brings a lot of joy to bedtime. But again, I'm not naive and understand, like, what we're up against as a community and as a country. So not to be like, you know, the guy out here hawking his book, but like, a great thing that you can do is request books like this at your library and at your school, because I do think it represents who we are as Americans and there's room for everybody at the table.

[Tommy Vietor]

And also works, you know, I mean, like, it does normalize, like, families that look all kinds of ways.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

Yeah, yeah.

[Tommy Vietor]

As an educator, I mean, I imagine when you were teaching, like the kind of libs of TikTok, kind of like these assaults on teachers, like, they probably weren't happening, but I mean, do you talk to educators? Are they scared of, I don't know, being singled out, being targeted?

[Chasten Buttigieg]

Well, I think this administration definitely seems to love to go after teachers and families. Right. Making it harder for teachers and harder for families. Imagine that you're like a 21, 22 year old college graduate with your bachelor's degree in education, and you're looking around thinking, okay, I'm ready to start my career in education. Where am I gonna go? Places like Florida probably not as attractive. Places like Oklahoma that welcome libs of TikTok in who bring her to the table to draft policy. Just a bigoted real estate agent is now the person who's going to be helping draft education policy. But imagine that college graduate thinking, is this really what I want to do? Or what kind of environment are we creating as a country that asks people to step up to the call to become educators? Right. You're underpaid. Right. It's a really hard job. You don't get the appreciation, respect. On the way over here in the Uber, I was reading about how they want to do away with Head Start. Like, you're talking about the most vulnerable kids in our country. So now you want to take away a head start. Now you're putting tariffs on baby goods coming from Asia. Right. So now you're making car seats more expensive, strollers more expensive. And these are the people in Washington who are screaming, like, have more kids. Right. It's like their Weird thing right now.

[Tommy Vietor]

It's like, well, natalism is real weird.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

We'll give you money to have kids, but. But then, like, we can't afford child care. We can't afford a stroller. Yeah, right. Grocery price.

[Tommy Vietor]

Got to be Elon Musk kid. It turns out to be. Yeah.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

I thought you were gonna say an Elon Musk designed stroller. No, no. I saw a cyber truck.

[Tommy Vietor]

Those explode off the truck. I have. I've, you know, experienced, like, the joy and, like, the wonder of being a parent, and also the setbacks and the challenges that go into the process of trying to become one. I know that you and Pete have talked about the adoption process and setbacks. You guys had heartbreak.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

Yeah.

[Tommy Vietor]

Did that, like, what was that experience like for you? Did it cause stress between the two of you? And do you have advice for other parents, like, going through the adoption process, which I know can be tough.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

Oh, yeah. Yeah. It's so weird to think about that chapter in life now that we have these, you know, brilliant, incredible kids running around our house and just destroying the walls. But when we were crayons everywhere, they just started.

[Tommy Vietor]

Yeah.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

And, you know, I swear, like, the other week, I was like, I think they're doing really good with the white walls. Right. And then just like, boom. Crayon everything. Yeah. Jinxed it. You know, there was a time when Pete and I, we were on a list. We were on an emergency placement list. So that's where you sign up and say, if there's a call in the middle of the night. In our case, where a kid is left at the hospital, the hospital works with an adoption agency to make an adoption plan. So a parent might need to be called right away. So we had about 24 hours notice. They give you the call and say, hey, you're next on the list. We really need you. Are you stepping up? Yes or no. And you have, you know, a couple hours to decide. We had about five adoptions fall through in the span of a year. And the really hard part is they tell you not to plan the nursery. Don't buy anything, because when one of those cases might inevitably fail, it hurts to look at the crib, to look at the room, to look at the nursery and have it fall through. So we, you know, for Christmas and birthdays and stuff, like, aunts and uncles and parents, like, couldn't help themselves. Right. And so they'd start getting things, and it did. It always hurt seeing those things in the corner. You get the call in the middle of the night. There's A situation. Are you guys ready to step up? We'd say yes. And then, you know, it turned into 1am, 2am, 4am, 8am we wouldn't hear back. And then ultimately something changed where you think you're going to be parents and then you're not, but then it works out and, you know, whatever God you believe in or however you come to religion or belief, I think, like, the stars just aligned. And then one day you're standing in a hospital room and you're holding your kids. But there were multiple. There were multiple nights along the way where there was some heartbreak. But then, my God, as you know, that moment you hold them as. There's nothing like it.

[Tommy Vietor]

Yeah. No, I know exactly the feelings you're talking about. Like, get that stroller out of this house. I don't ever want to fucking see it again. We had that. And then there's also the moment you meet your kids, and in a weird way, you're like, okay. Everything that came before this had to happen should have happened because it brought you here. Yeah, right. All the heartbreak, everything that gets you.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

To the point there's beautiful chaos now.

[Tommy Vietor]

Yeah.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

It's like, you want it so bad, and we wanted to be parents so bad. And that's the thing that I felt like. I kept saying to them when they had some health complications after they were born, we were in the hospital for quite some time.

[Tommy Vietor]

Rsv.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

Before the rsv. So after they were born, we were in the hospital for almost two weeks, and we went home, and then I got rsv, and that's when Gus wound up on the ventilator. I just remember, like, holding them, thinking, like, you're so loved. Like, you are so wanted in this world. Like, just. Just looking at them, they were, like, barely five pounds. They were premature. And just thinking how badly we wanted that and how. How loved that they were and that they were going to be this huge community, excited to welcome them. And then. Yeah, you fast forward, it's like, why is there a magna tile, like, under my pillow?

[Tommy Vietor]

You know, you step on another Lego and you're like, do you put in for twins? Was that a.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

No.

[Tommy Vietor]

Miraculous accident. Like, how's that work?

[Chasten Buttigieg]

Yeah. I was helping my dad, and helping is doing a lot of work here. My dad with a floor in our basement. And I needed to go to Lowe's to get some more tile.

[Tommy Vietor]

Sure.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

And I was driving to Lowe's, as one does Michigan. Yeah. Right. Just me, hammer tools and stuff. And I get a call from the adoption agency and immediately panic because Whenever I see that number come up, that usually means, like, there's going to be a heartbreak. I just know, like, that's. That was my history with it, right? So talking to the social worker, and I say, you know, here's the situation. And they said, like, are you sitting down? And I was like, well, I'm driving to Lowe's right now. And they're like, okay, well, like, pull over. Like, don't crash. You know, like, it's twins. I was just like, oh, what a curveball. Yeah. So I had to. So Pete was on a work trip, and I remember, like, pacing outside this gas station, and I called him, and he's like, hello. Like, very formal. It's like, hey, the adoption agency just called, and it's our turn. Like, they think. And they think it's real this time. And, like, here's the situation. I'm giving him all the details. I'm like, and by the way, like, are you ready for this? Are you sitting down? It's twins. And it's just silent. And then I just hear him go, okay, well, thanks so much for that information, and I'll get back to you as soon as I can.

[Tommy Vietor]

Oh, no. And I was like, he had some serious meeting. Yeah.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

I was like, are you around a lot of other people? He's like, yep. He's like, okay, call me back. And then. And then it turns out he's on an airplane, and. And he's like, he's somewhere out west. And he couldn't call me back until he, like, lands at the next spot and had to, like, turn around, get on a red eye.

[Tommy Vietor]

Oh, my God.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

Come home and meet me at the hospital. Yeah, that. The twins thing really threw a wrench in everything.

[Tommy Vietor]

Incredible. You and Pete, you know, you walk this tightrope of, like, you're public figures. You're also millennial dads who, like, spend half your life on social media. I know, for me, I struggle with. I got a cute video of my daughter, and I want to post it on whatever.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

Oh, yeah.

[Tommy Vietor]

But then I know it's, like, in the world forever, and strangers will see it, and my kids don't have a say in that decision. How do you navigate?

[Jon Lovett]

Yeah.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

You know, one of the things that bugs me the most about being a public person, like, the thing that people say to me that bugs me the most is when they say, like, I want to see more pictures of those kids. It's like, you don't. Like, they're not yours. Like, you don't. Like, you're not entitled to access to them. And it kind of creeps me out. And I know that maybe that's coming from a really good place. Like they're so happy for you and want to see how happy they are. But I don't know if you've read Jonathan Haidt's book, the Anxious Generation.

[Tommy Vietor]

No, but I've read enough takes on it to feel like I have a good sense.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

Yeah, but you know, my kids can't consent to that.

[Tommy Vietor]

Right.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

Like, they can't consent to having their face online and like, in a digital age. Like, I've seen enough deep fakes of my husband and I that like, I don't need to put my kids on the Internet. One, cause they can't consent to like, being on the Internet. And two, I don't want people messing with them. Them. And you know, even when we were in Washington, it. I remember we, we were taking them to the Easter Egg Roll. We were so excited and like picking out outfits. And Pete's mom was with us. It was going to be a big family day. And the moment we came out of the White House, I sort of had a panic attack. Cuz for some reason all morning I hadn't thought about the press.

[Tommy Vietor]

It's like open press. Yeah.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

And the moment we walked out, there's just a flood of cameras. And my heart sank because I just, I didn't think about it. And then sure enough, the next day, they were on the COVID of the Washington Post.

[Tommy Vietor]

I got my cousin Easter egg roll tickets in like 2011. And then in 2012, I was like, hey, Jeremy, you want to go back? And he's like, no, we're good.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

Yeah.

[Tommy Vietor]

It was a lot for me.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

Yeah. And plus, like, you're just on, you know, like, it's really hard to feel like you're having an authentic family experience when people are photographing you.

[John Favreau]

Right. Of course.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

The constant click of the camera and. And you're just trying to protect your kids.

[Tommy Vietor]

Totally.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

So, yeah, it's, you know, you, you want people to see your joy and your happiness and like, I like talking about dad life, but there's still an element of that that kind of creeps me out.

[Tommy Vietor]

Yeah. It's a fuzzy line. Yeah. It's hard to know where to draw it.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

Yeah.

[Tommy Vietor]

Speaking of more personal questions, on a podcast, it'll be heard by strangers. Who keeps the baby Mom?

[Chasten Buttigieg]

You didn't ask for. You didn't ask for pictures.

[Tommy Vietor]

That's right.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

That was gonna be.

[Tommy Vietor]

That's my next question. Who keeps on the. The nanit or the Baby monitor at night or do you guys. Do you trade off?

[Chasten Buttigieg]

Well, we don't need it now. I mean, like, is your.

[Tommy Vietor]

You're fully done with the. Yeah, I guess they get out of bed and they. They IRL wake you up.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

Oh, yeah. And I've, like, lately, I just sleep through it. I feel really bad. It's like, people be like, oh, Penelope had a really bad dream last night, and she woke me up at, like, 2. Like, what? I didn't hear any of that.

[Tommy Vietor]

That's awesome.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

Yeah.

[Tommy Vietor]

That you can do that.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

Which makes me feel really bad. But, yeah, I mean, they'll. They'll come get us. And. And Gus is, like, up with the sun. It's usually like 5:55 on the dot. He's up, he's singing. He goes downstairs and gets his little power tools. He's got this little drill.

[Tommy Vietor]

Yep, I know that drill.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

And he's fixing things around her bedroom.

[Tommy Vietor]

It's helpful.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

Penelope, she's like a teenager. You have to drag her out of bed to get ready for school in the morning.

[Tommy Vietor]

Oh, my kids. Last night, I think Lizzie was kind of chirping on the Nana at like, 10, 2:30, 3:30. And then at 5, we had. The whole family was just up. No, we got to. We got to get them to sleep in.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

So there's two modes. Like, they will go down at 7. Like, they're. They're wiped and they just go down. Or they were going to be up till 10.

[Tommy Vietor]

Battle. Yeah, I know the feeling. Are you going to enter the manosphere podcast universe on your book tour the way Pete has?

[Chasten Buttigieg]

Is this not the manosphere?

[Tommy Vietor]

I don't know. Maybe the beta Manosphere, the Rogan Theovon flag. Are you doing any of those?

[Chasten Buttigieg]

I don't think I need to. I'm glad Pet is.

[Tommy Vietor]

I'm glad he is too. I thought I listened to the whole flagrant thing. Okay. You know, it's 75 of it.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

Yeah. I opened it. I was like, oh, no.

[Tommy Vietor]

I. I got in this weird Twitter back and forth with Andrew Schultz about it too, because I was like. I tweeted that I was. I thought it was good that Pete went on. I guess I described it as, like, unfriendly territory.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

Yeah.

[Tommy Vietor]

And that was maybe, I think, an unfair shorthanding of.

[Jon Lovett]

Sure.

[Tommy Vietor]

Their political beliefs.

[Jon Lovett]

Yeah.

[Tommy Vietor]

But I do think, like, I don't know. I'm. I. I am glad he's going on these shows. I'm trying to force myself on these shows. I do think.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

Yeah.

[Tommy Vietor]

What's the point of talking about I.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

Think it shows a side of him that a lot of people hadn't seen before. Like, you know, when he was mayor, you have to talk to everybody, right? We live in North Michigan. You talk to everybody. And this is one thing I really admire about him, is he can talk to anybody, and he can hold his own. And I love. I love when you hear the hosts go, oh. Oh, I had no idea. You know, like, he's. Not only is he, like, surviving in that environment, but he's actually teaching him something.

[Tommy Vietor]

No, he was thriving. He got a fire clip that he's also good at. That's a quote. He's also good at just pretending he didn't hear. Like, the thing he doesn't want to respond to. You know, like the. The dude in the fourth row chirping, like, kind of sexual innuendo or whatever, and he's like, yep, it's gonna. Yeah, that's just.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

Yeah. I feel like every time I go to the gym, I'm in the manosphere because it's just, like, yes. Like, Innuendos flying and, like, just jokes flying. I can only keep up with, like, half of them. Yeah, that's. That's his professional and personal life, because he probably is probably getting that from me too. Like, I'm just, like, a constant, you know, roll of puns and jokes. And so he's. He's pretty good at tuning out what he. What he doesn't want to respond to.

[Tommy Vietor]

It's a necessity in this weird world we're all in. There's a lot of commentary on Pete's new beard.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

Yes. I'm a fan.

[Tommy Vietor]

Fan.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

I love it. Yeah.

[Tommy Vietor]

Okay. I can't grow one.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

Me either. But now, like. Like, I can usually let it go, like, two days where it's not, like, terrible, but, like, I can go to, like, the grocery store and go to Meijer, and no one's gonna say, like, well, he's really letting himself go. But now I feel like that since Pete does have a beard, if I even let my stubble grow for, like, one day, they'd be like, oh, he's trying too.

[Tommy Vietor]

Oh, he's dope.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

Like, I'm not. No, I just was really lazy today.

[Tommy Vietor]

You're doing, like, a samesies. Yeah. I just get, like, a patchy thing here, and then.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

Yeah, it's not good.

[Tommy Vietor]

It's not good.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

It's not great.

[Tommy Vietor]

Like, waiting for it to work. It doesn't.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

He's like a teenager about it right now, though. Like, it's really scratchy, though. Like, what did you put moisturize on. Did you, like, put the beard balm or, like, beard oil on it? No.

[Jon Lovett]

Oh, that's like.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

Oh, yeah. It's like. Don't.

[Tommy Vietor]

I didn't even know.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

Just told him yesterday. I was like, stop complaining about something you're in control of. Just put the beard bomb.

[Tommy Vietor]

Shave it, pal.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

Yeah, do whatever you want. What do you think? Should he keep it?

[John Favreau]

I look good.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

I like it.

[Tommy Vietor]

Yeah. I. I don't know. I. I just. I just wish I could grow and. Seems cool.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

Same.

[Tommy Vietor]

It seems cool.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

Yeah.

[Tommy Vietor]

Just have options, you know? I've had the same haircut since I was birthed, essentially, and can't grow a beard. Sucks. Barely have eyebrows. Yeah. Pete seems like a bit of a.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

A workaholic.

[Tommy Vietor]

Does he drive you crazy if he's home too much?

[Chasten Buttigieg]

No, he. When he. When we moved back from D.C. he set up an office in the basement. So it's really just become like the Pete Cave down there. It's like the Pete office in the laundry room.

[Tommy Vietor]

So go hang. Fold some laundry.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

Yeah.

[Tommy Vietor]

Do some calls with Biden or whatever.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

Whatever you do down there.

[Tommy Vietor]

Yeah, whatever you down there. That's good, you guys. Anything good on tv? Anything? You're streaming.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

Oh, man. We just watched. Was it episode two of the Last of Us of the new Season? So I don't want to spoil anything for anybody, but you know. And finished the White Lotus mixed. Can I say one thing?

[Tommy Vietor]

Sure.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

He went in on that pod flagrant, and they were talking about the White Lotus, and he was like, hot take or whatever, like, Lachlan should have died. That was my hot take.

[Tommy Vietor]

Oh, okay.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

And then he just goes on a pod and says it. When he came home, I was like, you can't just take my hot takes. You can't take my hot takes without crediting me.

[Tommy Vietor]

You were absolutely. Spoiler alert. We were absolutely right.

[Jon Lovett]

Oh, you're right.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

I just spoiled that one. Well, you guys didn't cut that out. We'll just take it back for the last question. Start over.

[Tommy Vietor]

There was nothing to spoil. Whatever.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

It's been out for long enough.

[Tommy Vietor]

Right?

[Jon Lovett]

So long.

[Tommy Vietor]

Everyone can.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

One month, I thought.

[Tommy Vietor]

I don't know. It just. It didn't do it for season. It's fine.

[John Favreau]

It's.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

I really liked this season.

[Tommy Vietor]

It's beautiful places, beautifully shot, fun to watch.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

Yeah. Half of it is just like.

[Tommy Vietor]

Yeah, Travel candy Brother's doing that. Okay. What a twist. You know?

[Chasten Buttigieg]

But that's Mike White. Like, he knows what he's doing on that show.

[Tommy Vietor]

Yeah, he does.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

And I. That's why I like it. It just like slowly builds and then it all just like, like, falls apart.

[Tommy Vietor]

I've been loving the studio on.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

I haven't seen Apple TV.

[Tommy Vietor]

It's like Seth Rogan 30 minute comedy. Hilarious. Makes fun. It seems like every terrible TV executive that they have ever come across makes a cameo in this and they're just like. It's like a punching bag, like, catharsis for them.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

I. That sounds like something I would like.

[Tommy Vietor]

Highly. Highly.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

Started the Residence on Netflix.

[Tommy Vietor]

Okay.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

It's cute. It's like a Murder in the White House. Oh, it's like a murder caper. It's kind of weird like this. I know. I. I'm going to hear the words that are going to come out of my mouth. But if you've been to the White House, it is wild to, like, they do it well.

[John Favreau]

It.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

It's done so well. You're like, yeah. When you do walk down that stairwell, that's what it looks like there. And it's. It's like very fast paced and it's very funny. But we don't really watch a lot of TV together. We commit to one show to watch together and then everything else we're on our own.

[Tommy Vietor]

More than one is too many. And also, it's so hard to find overlap. I know what you're saying about watching these shows and having worked in these places in politics and then becoming the annoying person about realism. Yeah.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

Like, I don't want to be that guy. I'm sorry.

[John Favreau]

I know.

[Tommy Vietor]

Well, I don't. My wife got really into, like, the ambassador or whatever it was.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

Oh, yes. Yeah.

[Tommy Vietor]

And I'd be like, Cary Grant. This is not how it is. And she's like, I don't care.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

They would never email that shit like that.

[Tommy Vietor]

I remember when Homeland came out, I was in the White House at the time and I was, like, talking to a bunch of people and Obama was there about it and we all, like, loved it. We were like, this guy's fucking texting from the sit room. Come on, man.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

Yeah.

[Tommy Vietor]

Like, we were.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

That's why this whole, like, signal gate thing is so wild.

[Tommy Vietor]

It is so funny.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

Like, the ways in which, like, I could not communicate with my husband when he worked, like, about mundane stuff, you know, like the. They're so. It's just like, you do whatever now.

[Jon Lovett]

Yeah.

[Tommy Vietor]

Pete Hexeth is just hammering classified details. He's copy and pasting from centcom.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

Nothing matters.

[Tommy Vietor]

Yeah. It's just. I know Mike Waltz is out, though, so some good news.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

But didn't he just get. Did he get nominated for UN Ambassador?

[Tommy Vietor]

He got sent to New York.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

Is he out? Like, this was really bad. So we're gonna let him go represent our country in front of the United Nations. It's a good spot to put him in.

[Tommy Vietor]

It says a lot about what they think about the UN that they were trashing this guy.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

There's no top secret information at the un.

[Tommy Vietor]

No damage can be done there.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

Imagine meeting him. Hi, Mike. What brings you to the un?

[Tommy Vietor]

Oh, well, humiliated. Out of dc.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

Yeah, I was just sharing confidential information.

[Tommy Vietor]

Well, listen, Jason, thank you for joining us today.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

You got it.

[Tommy Vietor]

Papa's Coming Home is out on May 20th. Everyone pre order it today.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

Oh, thanks.

[Tommy Vietor]

Buy one for your local library.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

I appreciate that. Yeah, support your local library.

[Tommy Vietor]

Support your local library. And thank you for coming in.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

Appreciate it.

[John Favreau]

That's our show for today. Thanks, Chastain, for joining. Dan and I will be back with a new show on Friday. If you want to listen to Pod Save America ad free or get access to our subscriber discord and exclusive podcasts, consider consider joining our Friends of the pod [e-mail] friends or subscribe on Apple Podcasts directly from the Pod Save America feed. Also, be sure to follow Pod Save America on TikTok, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube for full episodes, bonus content and more. And before you hit that next button, you can help boost this episode by leaving us a review and by sharing it with friends and family. Pod Save America is a crooked media production. Our producers are David Toledo and Saul Rubin. Our associate producer is Farah Safari. Reed Churlin is our executive editor and Adrienne Hill is our executive producer. The show is mixed and edited by Andrew Chadwick. Jordan Kantor is our sound engineer with audio support from Kyle Seglin and Charlotte Landis. Madelyn Herringer is our head of news and programming. Matt De Groat is our head of production. Naomi Sengel is our executive assistant. Thanks to our digital team, Elijah Cohn, Hayley Jones, Ben Hethcote, Mia Kelman, Molly Lobel, Kiril Pelaviev and David Tony Holes. Our production staff is proudly unionized with the Writers Guild of America East. I've never felt like this before. It's like you just get me. I feel like my true self with you. Does that sound crazy?

[Chasten Buttigieg]

And it doesn't hurt that you're gorgeous.

[John Favreau]

Okay, that's it. I'm taking you home with me.

[Tommy Vietor]

I mean, you can't find shoes this good just anywhere.

[John Favreau]

Find a shoe for every you from brands you love like Birkenstock, Nike, Adidas.

[Chasten Buttigieg]

And more at your dsw store or dsw.com.