PREVIEW - The Sunday Podcast: Isaac is back! Isaac and Ari discuss Elon Musk, government waste, the Ukraine deal and more.

Summary

Tangle Podcast Episode Summary

Title: PREVIEW - The Sunday Podcast: Isaac is back! Isaac and Ari discuss Elon Musk, government waste, the Ukraine deal and more
Host/Author: Isaac Saul
Release Date: March 2, 2025
Episode Duration: Approximately 37 minutes

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1. Welcome and Personal Updates

The episode kicks off with Isaac Saul returning from paternity leave, bringing a fresh perspective to the conversation. He shares heartfelt insights about balancing parenthood with his role as host, highlighting the challenges and joys of welcoming his first child, Omri Fuller Saul.

• Isaac Saul [02:11]: "I'm glad to be back in the seat, in the ring, in the arena. I miss the Tangle community."

• Ari Weitzman [02:41]: "I'm great. I'm doing wonderfully...I want to talk about something I got to do yesterday to scratch off my bucket list, but I think more people are here to hear about what you've been doing the last five weeks."

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2. Personal Reflections on Parenthood

Isaac delves into the realities of parenthood, discussing sleep deprivation, constant vigilance, and the emotional rollercoaster that comes with raising a newborn. He candidly shares his recurring nightmare about his baby to emphasize the deep concerns and fears new parents often face.

• Isaac Saul [03:53]: "The hardest mutual thing everybody says is asleep, which I think is kind of true. But it's really the constant, like, sort of insatiable fear that you're gonna kill this thing or he's gonna die."

• Isaac Saul [04:29]: "Babies are...the fourth trimester thing is real. They don't belong out here in the real world with us. He should still be in the womb."

Ari briefly shares his triumph of winning a trivia night with his wife, drawing a parallel to the small victories in personal life amidst larger societal issues.

• Ari Weitzman [08:16]: "We were finally, finally victorious and champions. I can't tell you the feeling of conquest that I enjoyed when the bar erupted in applause at 'Spongebob Millionaire' being announced..."

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3. Political Commentary: Steve Bannon’s Controversial Gesture

The hosts transition into political discussions, beginning with Steve Bannon’s controversial Nazi salute at CPAC. Isaac expresses concern over the lack of backlash and the normalization of such actions within political circles.

• Isaac Saul [02:58]: "Steve Bannon did a Nazi salute at CPAC and nobody cared. And we just kind of moved on."

• Isaac Saul [15:11]: "Seeing him do a Nazi salute at a mainstream Republican event and nobody caring does seem a little bit worrisome to me..."

Ari adds depth by comparing Bannon’s actions to Elon Musk’s, suggesting that the focus on high-profile figures overshadows more significant issues within the administration.

• Ari Weitzman [18:15]: "It seems like people are supporting Bannon and Musk more. That's a problem... The support of people who are legitimate neo-Nazis being so disproportionately on the right is a problem for the right."

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4. Elon Musk and Government Waste

Elon Musk's influence and actions are scrutinized, particularly regarding government interactions and perceived inefficiencies. The hosts discuss "Musk Derangement Syndrome," a term coined to describe the intense scrutiny and criticism Musk faces.

• Isaac Saul [15:13]: "It's a small portion both of the budget that he's cutting and a small portion of what the administration's doing. Which is why I feel like Musk Derangement Syndrome isn't a bad term to explain the coverage that's being driven."

Isaac highlights the disparity between public attention on Musk versus other critical governmental issues, emphasizing the need to redirect focus towards more impactful matters like budget cuts and regulatory reforms.

• Isaac Saul [26:45]: "If you look at what's happening as an ideological purge of the federal workforce, everything makes a lot more sense."

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5. Budget Bills and Federal Workforce Reforms

A significant portion of the discussion centers around the recent Republican budget bill, which aims to address federal government spending, debt, and deficit. Isaac criticizes the spending priorities within the budget, particularly pointing out the inefficiencies and misallocated funds.

• Isaac Saul [30:50]: "The Republican House just passed the budget that is going to increase the deficit by over $10 trillion in the next decade... They are doing the real thing right now."

He also touches upon Joe Biden’s efforts to hire air traffic controllers amidst administrative layoffs, illustrating the ongoing conflicts within federal agencies.

• Isaac Saul [21:22]: "Russell Vaught...claiming that the CFPB is weaponizing consumer protection against companies like Solo."

---

6. Doge Infrastructure and Government Transparency

The hosts critique the Doge administration's transparency and effectiveness in managing infrastructure savings. They argue that the reported savings are misleading and question the integrity of the data presented by Doge.

• Isaac Saul [33:55]: "They don't reveal the identities of the people that work there. The data that they're putting up on that website has been wrong and inaccurate repeatedly."

Isaac shares his experience engaging with critics on social media, defending his stance on Doge’s transparency while acknowledging the shortcomings of the administration’s infrastructure claims.

• Isaac Saul [33:48]: "They just removed contracts without explanation. The five biggest savings that were listed... have been cut or partially cut without explanation."

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7. The Intersection of Personal and Political Lives

Throughout the episode, the hosts intertwine personal anecdotes with political analysis, showcasing how individual experiences and national policies intersect. Isaac shares his frustrations about taxpayer money being misused for political advertising, highlighting broader themes of government waste and inefficiency.

• Isaac Saul [30:43]: "Donald Trump spent $200 million... like using taxpayer money about their immigration and deportation program."

Ari expands on Trump’s strategies, proposing theories on how the former president might be leveraging figures like Musk to further his agenda of reforming the federal workforce.

• Ari Weitzman [23:05]: "Trump will probably use Elon as a fall guy to soak up all that heat and attention... and then bring back in the people he wants."

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8. Concluding Thoughts and Forward Look

As the episode nears its end, Isaac expresses his commitment to his perspectives despite facing criticism. He emphasizes the importance of addressing genuine issues like the federal deficit and government spending over being sidetracked by high-profile personalities.

• Isaac Saul [30:50]: "I really will die on this hill... the odds so far look pretty well in my favor."

Ari and Isaac reaffirm their dedication to providing non-partisan political analysis, encouraging listeners to engage with Tangle’s content for deeper insights into current events.

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps

1. Isaac Saul [02:11]: "I'm glad to be back in the seat, in the ring, in the arena. I miss the Tangle community."
2. Isaac Saul [02:58]: "Steve Bannon did a Nazi salute at CPAC and nobody cared."
3. Ari Weitzman [08:16]: "We were finally, finally victorious and champions... a high that parenthood can never reach."
4. Isaac Saul [15:13]: "Musk Derangement Syndrome isn't a bad term to explain the coverage that's being driven."
5. Isaac Saul [30:43]: "Donald Trump spent $200 million... using taxpayer money about their immigration and deportation program."
6. Isaac Saul [33:55]: "The data that they're putting up on that website has been wrong and inaccurate repeatedly."
7. Ari Weitzman [23:05]: "Trump will probably use Elon as a fall guy to soak up all that heat and attention."

---

Conclusion

In this episode of Tangle, Isaac Saul and Ari Weitzman blend personal narratives with incisive political analysis, tackling pressing issues such as government waste, the influence of Elon Musk, and the implications of recent budget bills. Their candid discussions offer listeners a comprehensive understanding of the current political landscape, urging a shift in focus towards more substantial governmental reforms over celebrity-driven controversies.

For more insights and comprehensive political discussions, visit readtangle.com.

Transcript

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[Isaac Saul]

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[Isaac Saul]

Coming up. I'm back. Hello. Hopefully good to hear my voice. We'll talk about Elon Musk, obviously, government waste Doge. Some of the people that are flying under the radar thanks to Musk, the Republicans new budget bill, a terrible D3 college that completely ruined me and Ari and the Ukraine deal, some baby grievances, lots of good stuff. It's a good one.

From executive producer Isaac. So all this is Tangle.

Good morning. Good morning.

[Ari Weitzman]

Oh, did you want it? Sorry.

[Isaac Saul]

Yeah. We should rock the Versus shoot now. Welcome to the Tangle podcast. I'm. I'm. Can you bleep this? Jon, I'm back. I know people don't love it when we curse, so I don't want to offend anybody.

[Ari Weitzman]

I'm your host, man, we're on fire.

[Isaac Saul]

Yeah, I'm your host, Isaac Saul, back from the dead, AKA paternity leave. And I'm here with Tangled managing editor Ari Weitzman. Ari, how are you doing, man?

[Ari Weitzman]

I'm great. I'm doing wonderfully, I think. I want to talk about something I got to do yesterday to scratch off my bucket list, but I think More people are going to be here to hear about what you've been doing the last five weeks. So I don't want to bury the lead dad life.

[Isaac Saul]

I'm just still thinking about Steve Bannon doing a Nazi salute at CPAC and nobody caring. That's just new parents.

[Ari Weitzman]

Yeah.

[Isaac Saul]

Yeah. Just like every 30 minutes. I just remember, oh, yes. Steve Bannon did a Nazi salute at CPAC and nobody cared. And we just kind of moved on. I guess that's normal. I guess that's cool. Now I'm good. If anybody hears a screaming baby in the background, you know, that's just real life. And we're just doing it. I'm working from home. I'm in my home office, studio. Little baby Omri Fuller Saul for Inquiring Minds. Upstairs, hopefully sleeping right now. It's, you know, I mean, I'm gonna write about this. Not this week, because, you know, Tangle community and the country. Fraying at the seams. And I'd like to talk about that a little bit first, but babies are.

[Ari Weitzman]

Sorry, I was just editing your piece, and one of the last things that I wrote was fraying at the seams is a mixed metaphor. You want to say it's fraying at the edges or tearing at the seams, but. Yes, go ahead.

[Isaac Saul]

Yeah. Tearing at the seams, I guess, is better, man. Yeah. It's everything everybody says, you know, it's exhausting. It's magical. You can't believe he's yours. It's beautiful. You want to kill each other. It's insanely hard and frustrating. I think the low hanging fruit thing to say is like, the hardest part is just the sleep deprivation.

It.

To me, it's like the. I mean, the hardest part is the breastfeeding. That. But that's what you have to do. I don't participate much. I try to help, but typically I'm just like, can I do something? But the hardest mutual thing everybody says is asleep, which I think is kind of true. But it's really the constant, like, sort of insatiable fear that you're gonna kill this thing or he's gonna die. That is honestly. It's just like, you listen to him sleep and he's like, gargling and snorting, and he sounds like a pug with some kind of lung disease. You know, it's like you're just. Are you all right? How are you possibly alive? The fourth trimester thing is real. They don't. Babies do not belong out here in the real world with us. He should still be in the Womb. And, yeah, that's the hardest part. I'm having a recurring dream that I've basically had every night for the last five weeks where I roll. It's like a nightmare where I roll over on top of him and he's in the bed with me. He'll be sleeping in the bassinet outside the bed.

[Ari Weitzman]

And then in my dream, viscerally upsetting.

[Isaac Saul]

Yeah, in my dream, I roll over on top of him and I wake up and I think I'm suffocating him and I start clawing around the bed looking for him. And then I realized that a dream. And I shared this with another parent who was like, I had that dream too. Yeah. So it's insane, but it's awesome. He's doing well. Mom and baby are good. Everybody's in good health. Thank God. Brook Hashem. That's all that matters. So I'm just happy to have a little structure back. I miss the tag.

[Ari Weitzman]

You got your mom with you, which is great.

[Isaac Saul]

Mom's here. Parents are good. Nothing makes parents happier than grandchildren. And nothing is better than having a third set of hands with a child. For sure. It changes everything. So this week we've gotten a little bit of help, which has been nice. But, yeah, I'm glad. Glad to be back, man. I'm good to be back. Glad to be back in the seat, in the ring, in the arena. I miss the Tangle community. I miss having an outlet for my observations about everything that was going on and looking forward to my first four hour stretch of sleep sometime in the future. I hope sometime in the near future.

[Ari Weitzman]

Do you ever worry just as you're going about your day and doing stuff, do you ever have the thought in the back of your head, like, am I asleep now?

[Isaac Saul]

No, I have not had that. I have not had that thought yet, though. What does happen is you wake up in the middle of the night and the baby's fussy, so you're trying to get him to go back to sleep. You think he can sleep longer? He's not really hungry, whatever. So I'll like rock him. And then you get tired. It's the middle of the night, so you sit down and then you start falling asleep with him in your arms. And then you're like, all right, I need to put this baby back in the bassinet before we both fish out on the floor in this chair or whatever. So that does happen. But no, I haven't questioned my reality, my existence, my consciousness yet, though maybe that's coming.

[Ari Weitzman]

No more so than the rest of us, I guess, the way things have been going lately. Well, I want to share since something that I think is probably equally as interesting, which is what you're doing.

[Isaac Saul]

Yeah, I was going to say, what's your.

[Ari Weitzman]

Yesterday.

[Isaac Saul]

Sorry.

[Ari Weitzman]

It's all right. Yeah. I put this in the show notes. Something that's probably on equal footing with Isaac welcoming his firstborn child into the world is yesterday. My wife and I went to a packed trivia night and won just the two of us, which has always been a thing I've wanted to do.

[Isaac Saul]

Whoa.

[Ari Weitzman]

So, just huge winners. Yes. Our team name, which we've had for about a decade, spongebob Millionaire. We were finally, finally victorious and champions. I can't tell you the feeling of conquest that I enjoyed when the bar erupted in applause at spongebob Millionaire being announced as the first name at the top of the leaderboard at the end. Oh, what a buzz. There's a high that parenthood can never reach. Like winning a trivia night with just your wife.

[Isaac Saul]

How close have you come before this?

[Ari Weitzman]

I've come close for sure, but also, like many, many, most times, not close at all. I think going to trivia nights, winning.

[Isaac Saul]

Trivia with two people seems impossible.

[Ari Weitzman]

So there's an interesting format at this bar, which I really. I was skeptical about, but made it kind of. It felt like a wild ride the whole time, where it was seven rounds. And in four of the rounds, there's just four questions and you rank them 1, 3, 5, and 7 points based on how confident you are you're going to get them right. And then you have the option for any of the rounds. So That's a maximum 16 points for those rounds. And then the other ones are 10 point rounds with, like different formats. For any of those, you have the option to double down. So you can double your point total in those rounds. You can do that as many times as you want, but if you double down and you miss one question, you get zero for that round. So there's always the possibility that you can gain a lot or just completely stall out. So, like, we were somewhere in the middle for a lot of the game and we were chipping away. We got like a double round sort of towards the end, so it put us close to the leaders, but we're still behind them. And then the last question, you wager as many points as you want. You can wager up to all of your points. And all three teams in front of us lost everything, and we got it right. And I'll ask you. See, this is. This is now, my favorite question of all time. So these four books, can you rank them in order from most number of movie adaptations to least movie adaptations?

[Isaac Saul]

Okay, I'm ready.

[Ari Weitzman]

Got it. Okay, so it was Catcher in the Rye, Dracula, To Kill a Mockingbird, and A Christmas Carol. So most adaptations the least.

[Isaac Saul]

Okay, I would say Dracula, A Christmas Carol, Catcher in the Rye, To Kill a Mockingbird.

[Ari Weitzman]

Very, very close. You just had the last two swapped. Catcher in the Rye has never been adapted to film. And To Kill a Mockingbird only one time. Yeah, when you think about it like, that sounds impossible.

[Isaac Saul]

Yeah, that's hard. But it is. Dracula first. Dracula first. Seems like the slam dunk. Christmas Carol I'm just assuming is not as many as Dracula, but I guess, was it close? Do you know what the actual number is?

[Ari Weitzman]

No, it's like an order of magnitude. They said it was over 160 known adaptations of Dracula and 16 known adaptations of Christmas Carol, but several groups put it swapped. So when the trivia master says Dracula, there's an audible no, which is pretty common.

[Isaac Saul]

Yeah, there are definitely a lot of Christmas Carol movies, so I could see that.

[Ari Weitzman]

There's a Muppet Christmas Carol.

[Isaac Saul]

Yeah. All right. Well, congratulations, Ari. I can see how that's a really big deal in your household this week, for sure.

[Ari Weitzman]

I'm still glad you feel like a winner.

[Isaac Saul]

Yeah, you should. I can't believe I've never. I don't think I've ever participated in a team that has placed top three in a trivia night. I literally don't think that's ever happened to me, so.

[Ari Weitzman]

Well, Katie said that she remembers when he came to Trivia night with us out in San Francisco, and she said, quote, he didn't get a single thing right. He was useless. I thought he'd do so much better. He's a journalist. I thought he knows stuff. And there was, like, no current events questions that night.

[Isaac Saul]

That's totally true. I am historically bad at trivia. One of our mutual friends, Ty. Ty and Al. Two of our mutual friends, Tyler and Alex, took me out to trivia night in Philly one time, and they were like, how do you suck so much at this? Like, I thought you were going to be a wealth of knowledge. I got some Internet stuff, like, some, like, meme type Internet.

[Ari Weitzman]

I'm very all over current events, too, and government and stuff. It just doesn't come up a lot.

[Isaac Saul]

The thing is, there's so with trivia, for someone like me, there's, you know, I know a lot about U.S. history and U.S. politics, but, like, My brain's also fried from having so much information, almost like so much input that I, I can't, I don't do anything, I don't believe anything confidently without being able to, like, check it. So I would be like, I'm pretty sure. And then they're like, well, are you sure? And I'm like, I really don't want to put my name.

[Ari Weitzman]

I want to confirm it.

[Isaac Saul]

Yeah. We'll be right back after this quick break.

[Ryan Reynolds]

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[Isaac Saul]

@Mintmobile.Com Switch upfront payment of $45 for 3 month plan equivalent to $15 per month. Required intro rate first 3 months only, then full price plan options available, taxes and fees extra. See full [e-mail] hey, prime members, are.

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[Isaac Saul]

All right, well, man, I don't even know where to start looking at these show notes with all the potential stuff that we have to talk about. I mean, is it. I don't really know if it's worth spending more time on the Steve Bannon thing, but Steve Bannon did. I just did. Think of it again. Steve Bannon did do a Nazi salute at cpac and nobody.

[Ari Weitzman]

That's still true. It's still a thing.

[Isaac Saul]

That's still true. And I love this. I'm really into this new the Roman salute thing. Everybody's calling it the Roman salute now to just like, you know, people. It's like, it makes me think of that Shane Gillis bit about, you know, people starting to study World War II, how it's like early onset republicanism. It's just like, you know, you just, you don't have to pretend like you have some like four dimensional understanding of history. And we get it. You read the Wikipedia page for Nazi salutes or whatever. It's just like, please stop. Yeah, he did it. It would be awesome to be a.

[Ari Weitzman]

Peace symbol in Africa.

[Isaac Saul]

Yeah, yeah, it's. That's a great. It's exactly like that. Yeah, I. I don't know. That feels like it could matter a little bit. That just, you know, the Elon thing. I know you took a ton of you for that. I don't want to relitigate it. There's that word again. Ari says I use relitigate too much. I said we.

[Ari Weitzman]

I use it a lot, too. We don't have to relitigate the relitigation.

[Isaac Saul]

Yeah, we don't have to relitigate that either. But Bannon did it. Just straight up and he did it. It was like, meant. He smiled. He was talking about.

[Ari Weitzman]

He sort of looked around a little afterwards, like, y'all saw that he wanted.

[Isaac Saul]

To do it and he did it. The only person who really seemed to care was some far right French politician, ironically, who was like, oh, maybe I won't come hang out with you guys anymore because you seem a little bit too much. It's just like. Just don't. Maybe, I don't know, we could stop. I mean, Bannon, I will say there is, of course, there's some element of it that's like, oh, they're just trolling, whatever. They're doing it to get the reaction. I think Bannon genuinely wanted. Yeah, I think he wanted to get the same attention that Elon got, and he didn't get it. And he's probably disappointed by that a little bit. Yeah. But we could not, you know, and at least Bannon, I mean, you know, he's not like a Nazi, but he's, like, got some pretty draconian beliefs and viewpoints about immigration and minorities. And, you know, I don't think Bannon hates Jews, though. I think he might have, you know, sort of fascist tendencies toward particular minority groups in our country. So seeing him do a Nazi salute at a, you know, mainstream Republican event and nobody caring does seem a little bit worrisome to me, and I think it's okay to say that. But, yeah, I mean, you had the. I'm seeing the. The must arrangement syndrome now coming into the lexicon, which is funny. It's like, is this just because we're all obsessing over Elon that we don't really pay attention to some of the other things that are going on here, which is a good question to raise, even though I know we're probably going to talk a bit about Elon today, But it's a good question to raise.

[Ari Weitzman]

Well, I think there's things that are about Elon and things that people are making Elon represent more than probably he should. And I think it's a little bit of an echo with Trump from what we saw in his first term. But the Steve Bannon issue is a really good microcosm of that, in my opinion, because Bannon did the salute thing. He just did that. And I still. I'm still not sure. I still don't think that what must have was intentional either way. Like, they both did a thing, and the focus was so much greater on Musk, and all the points would still apply to Bannon. It's like the people. So point one, the people who care about that and are cheering about the salute are people that are now, like, supporting Bannon and Musk more. And that sounds like a problem. The people who are the actual neo Nazis are excited about it. That's a problem. The. He's did it to get the reaction that he wanted, which is to provoke, and that feels like a problem. Like, all of those things are true. It's still a huger issue. Like, the left has its own issues, but the. The support of people who are legitimate neo Nazis being so. So disproportionately on the right is a problem for the right. Like, it's a huge, huge issue. I think it's their number one issue right now. And that is still true with Bannon, but the conversation was just like, oh, yeah, we know that. And then we moved on. So it seems to me the real issue was the person who did it. It wasn't the salute, the saluter, and that was Musk. And I do think that people care a lot more when Musk is doing it because they just dislike him the most. The most. Like, we talk about Bannon instead of Musk. We talk about. Or, sorry, we talk about Musk instead of Bannon. We talk about Musk instead of Russell Vaught at the OMB and the firings and schedule F reclassification. We talk about Musk instead of Trump. And like, Ukraine tariffs, all stuff that. I think it's a little bit more debatable what Trump's doing. And we'd rather talk about Mosque and Doge and the people he's employing who aren't up to the task, and him saying ridiculous numbers about budget cuts that he's saving for the federal government when the focus should be probably on the. If we're talking about cuts, let's talk about Congress and what they're doing and the budget bill that they're passing that the Senate just passed, but instead it's Elon, Elon, Elon. And, yeah, we're going to talk about it more. I feel the magnetism, I feel the pull. There's an innate contradiction at play there, which is he's obviously a smart person and he's saying some obviously stupid things and a lot of people get drawn to contradiction. So it's something that's really tough to not talk about. But there's a focus on Musk in this administration and it's such a small portion both of budget that he's cutting and a small portion of what the administration's doing. Which is why I feel like Musk Derangement Syndrome isn't a bad term to explain the coverage that's being driven.

[Isaac Saul]

Yeah, the Russell Vaugh thing is particularly interesting on Twitter. Just recently he posted this thing about this company setting up an innovative solution to create a platform that allows borrowers and lenders to connect for loans at no interest with borrowers able to tip the lender and also donate to keep the platform going. This company called Solo and then there's a literal community note on him basically shilling for this company that says Solo advertise zero interest loans. But almost all of Solo's loans carry an equivalent annual percentage rate of over 36% APR and many loans carry an APR in excess of 300% with some over 1000% with a link to like a Bloomberg article, the Attorney General's Office, Consumer Finance. I mean it's incredible. He's the guy running or who was running what was the CFPB that they've now basically destroyed, claiming that the CFPB is weaponizing consumer protection against companies like this company. Solo and the literal company that he picked is guilty of the most run of the mill horrific predatory payday lending practices that there are. This is like, I mean, yeah, people like this aren't getting any attention right now and they probably should be. I don't think that's necessarily intentional by the administration, but I'm sure it's advantageous for them. And for someone like Russell Vaught to just kind of be doing what he's doing in the background while Musk sucks up all the attention, including our own, is, you know, not a bad thing for them. Definitely not a bad thing for them.

[Ari Weitzman]

I kind of have a theory about that. I want to see what you think about it. We are pretty consistent about our theory of Trump of he's a guy who like plan B is do what happens after plan A. He's not a multi step plan person. He's like I'm going to do everything I want all the time and Then I'm going to get as much as I want as often as I can. I think like that's kind of, He's a pretty simple person to understand with that model. I think it explains a lot of what he does. But I think with Musk, maybe there's a step two at play, which is this is the way I'm thinking about it. Here's my, my theory of Trump and Musk, which is for the past four years, Trump hasn't been in government. He's been thinking about what he wants to do when he gets in that chair. And he's been campaigning and campaigning and campaigning and now he's got it and I think he wants to leave a legacy. So Greenland, Panama Canal, Gulf of America, all things that can be impacts after you're gone. And another thing is reworking the civil service or draining the swamp. Something that he said from the beginning. A theory of Trump's which is also backed up by real data, this is statistically defensible, is federal civil service workers tend to be more liberals. They tend to, they tend to be part of the Democratic Party more than the Republican Party that we don't have strong numbers that show like we can't access alignment per agency. That's protected information. But you can get a sense based off of like zip codes of where we know civil server civil servants tend to live and see the voting alignment. And it's broadly true that more people work for the government tend to be more towards the liberal pro government side than the conservative small government side. And that makes sense. So my theory is what Musk or sorry, my theory is that what Trump wants to do is just fire as many people as he can. Just get them all, get as many people out the door as he can right now. Whatever the reason is, it doesn't matter. Invent a reason, have an excuse and say they're gone and then add in the people that you want have a lasting impact on the federal workforce by replacing them with people that are conservative minded, similar to what you would do with the judiciary, which the president has the constitutional power to do, appoint federal judges and nominate Supreme Court justices. It's just a different thing is thinking about reworking the executive branch, but the same playbook and the reason that he's supplying for cleaning house is cut budgets, cut regulations, cut waste, find fraud. And the guy who's saying that is Musk. So how perfect is it? This is where it gets like the most complicated that it can get. I think this is the devious plan is how perfect would it be for Trump to have a fall guy, to have somebody who can soak up all that light and attention and hate in the press that can then be the symbol of government cuts? And then once you get as much out of that as you can, you cut fat. And by cut fat, I mean Trump will like eventually. This Elon Musk Trump thing can't last forever. And when he cuts Elon loose, he'll have been the face of that, the government cutting reforms. And then Trump gets to bring back in the people he wants. That's like the master plan as I see it. And then Trump will have a legacy of reworking the federal workforce that I think he's interested in.

[Isaac Saul]

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[Isaac Saul]

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Yeah, there's a lot there I agree with. I mean, I think if you look at what's happening as an ideological purge of the federal workforce, basically everything makes a lot more sense. If that is the framework that you approach it with, then what they're doing feels and seems more competent. The buyouts that are probably not really going to save us money maybe are going to cost money. They're just laying a bunch of people off and seeing how everybody reacts and then having to rehire all these people that you accidentally fired. And then, you know, like I saw, oh my God, this amazing tweet from Elon that he was basically posted something about how the FAA is in need of. Sorry, one second. I saw this incredible post from Elon that was basically how the FAA is in need of air traffic controllers, which is just unbelievable. Yeah, he just. Sam Stein, who is a journalist who I overlapped with a little bit when I was at Huffington Post, is a very young bull and is now working for the Bulwark. He posted this thing, a play in four acts. And the first is a headline that says Biden wants to hire 2,000 air traffic controllers in 2025. The second is a headline saying Trump administration begins firings of FAA staff just weeks after fatal DC plane crash. The third headline is Layoffs hit FAA including employees tasked with producing air traffic navigation maps. And the fourth is a tweet from Elon saying there is a shortage of top notch air traffic controllers. If you have retired but are open to returning to work, please consider doing so on February 27th. Like, it's just. Yeah, the stuff like that is so hard to wrap your head around. But yeah, the. I think the ideological purge theory makes a lot of sense. I think if I were to read in some post presidency memoir that Elon and Trump made a deal where Elon was going to take all the heat for what was going on and Trump was going to let him sort of run rush out over the federal government and the regulators and scoop up all these SpaceX and Starlink contracts and everything, I would not blank. I would totally believe that is like a formula that they. I don't even think that's that tinfoil Hattie. I think it's almost like a rational conclusion to draw based on how they're acting. I mean, the efficiency and cost saving thing, if. I'm sorry, if you still believe that Doge is about improving efficiency and cough saving after what we've watched, this administration.

[Ari Weitzman]

Congratulations on finding your phone and accessing it and being able to use it and live and breathe like you. It's a huge accomplishment.

[Isaac Saul]

You're a mark. I mean, I don't know how else to say. I said to somebody too, like, the same. This. It's the same thing about, like, if you think that this is. And I know, I mean, we got. I went hard on Elon in my first piece back and I got. I heard it from people on the left who still support him and a lot of people on the right who were just like, I'm done with tangle. You know, you're. You're a hack. Whatever. I will die on this hill. I really will. Like, and I know that. I'm very confident that my Take will age well and maybe it won't. Maybe I'll end up looking really stupid in four years. But. But I think the odds so far look pretty well in my favor. Just to give you a couple examples. First of all, the Republican House just passed the budget that is going to increase the deficit by over $10 trillion in the next decade. They are doing the real thing right now. It's underway. That has to happen in order for us to address the debt and the deficit, which this whole Doge thing is supposed to be about. Out of control federal government spending, debt, deficit. And the numbers are out like they are. They're not doing it. They don't care. Donald Trump spent $200 million. He told Krissy Noem to spend $200 million on an advertisement, a series of advertisements that would run on Fox News of using taxpayer money about their immigration and deportation program. To Fox News viewers, that is literally 10% of all the money that Doge claims to have saved. Like they're talking about $2 billion. They say that the moon. They don't say it. They say they've saved 55 billion. But the actual independent analysis is about $2 billion, which is a lot of money. But Trump literally just blew 10% of that on an advertising campaign on Fox News about illegal immigration and all the people they were deporting. As if he needs to convince Fox News voters. I mean, first of all, I don't want my tax dollars going to that. Second of all, like as if he needs that. That is government waste. I don't know. You know, I got tangled up with somebody today on Twitter or X who I think is, I think is a tangle subscriber. I'm not sure. Their account's a little bit anonymous and I believe it's a woman based on the avatar. So I'll refer to her as she. But you know, she was like basically criticizing my view that there's no transparency in the Doge, you know, infrastructure. And like they, they have indeed stood up this kind of half assed website that's riddled with errors that purports to show all the savings. And I understand why some people might glance at that and think, oh, this is this really neat, transparent thing they're doing. They don't reveal the identities of the people that work there. The data that they're putting up on that website has been wrong and inaccurate repeatedly.

[Ari Weitzman]

They just at least misleading about contracts have already been cut or partially cut and they're claiming all of them as.

[Isaac Saul]

Savings they just removed without explanation. The five biggest savings that was listed on the website two days ago and they didn't explain why they're threatening journalists, right? They're, they're threatening journalists who report on their work. I mean like Elon Musk is openly, you know, posting pictures of like a Wall Street Journal reporter reported.

[John Law]

Hey everybody, this is John, executive producer of YouTube and podcast content and co host of the daily podcast. I hope you enjoyed this preview of our Sunday podcast with Ari and Isaac. We are now offering this podcast exclusively to our premium podcast members along with our ad, free daily podcasts, Friday editions, in depth interviews, upcoming new podcast series, bonus content, and much more. If you want to receive all that and give your support to help grow Tangle Media, Please go to readtangle.com where you can sign up for a newsletter membership, a podcast membership, or a discounted bundle membership which gets you both access to the premium newsletter and the premium podcast. If it's not the right time for you to sign up, please don't worry. Our ad supported daily podcast isn't going anywhere. But if it is in your ability to support by signing up for a membership, we would greatly appreciate it and we're really excited to share all of our premium offerings with you. We'll be right back here tomorrow. For Isaac and the rest of the crew, this is John Law signing off. Have a great day. Y'all.

[Ari Weitzman]

Take care.

[Isaac Saul]

Peace. Our podcast is written by me, Isaac Saul, and edited and engineered by John Wall. The script is edited by our managing editor, Ari Weitzman, Will Kdack, Bailey, Saul and Sean Brady. The logo for our podcast was designed by Magdalena Bokova, who is also our social media manager. Music for the the podcast was produced by Diet75. If you're looking for more from Tangle, Please go to readtangle.com and check out our website.

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[Isaac Saul]

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