← The Beat with Ari Melber
The Beat with Ari Melber
Trump Approval Crashes as Prices Surge
00:41:06
MS NOW's Ari Melber reports on new ethics filings that reveal President Trump's stock trades. MS NOW's Ari Melber reports and is joined by Ty Cobb, former White House attorney during the first Trump administration.
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- [00:00]
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Ari Melber
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Ari Melber
that on your side? Save up to 40% your first year@lifelock.com Pandora terms apply. Welcome to the beat, everyone. We're about to be joined by a Trump White House veteran, lawyer Ty Cobb, who has spoken out against this Trump second term. And we're going to get into that ABC News bombshell about what some argue could be funding another insurrection. The report is that the Trump doj, under control of Donald Trump, may move to settle Trump's lawsuit, basically against his own administration, the irs, and that Trump would use, many critics say, abuse this process to try to take over a billion dollars from taxpayers and use it to give to his MAGA allies, including people who faced conviction for crimes against the United States, that corruption is not an occasional weekend excursion for them. Corruption is all they do.
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Ty Cobb
First, it's probably illegal. Secondly, it's outrageous. And finally, it's corrupt.
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Ari Melber
It's like watching the Sopranos and waking up in what? The scam of the day. Democrats wasting no time there, being very aggressive. You'll notice different than what we see sometimes in the first term where they say, well, this is a report or it hasn't happened yet, or yada yada, here, they've seen the movie enough times. And while it might have seemed once unthinkable that a sitting president would want to hand out your taxpayer money, if you're watching this in the US and give it to convicts convicted of crimes against the U.S. i mean, giving it to any convicts would seem odd by itself. But specifically those who attacked the United States Congress and attacked police and put 1-6-forver in infamy in American history, that you would want to fund and pay them. Which raises questions of why I'll show you what Raskin says because it is chilling. Another watchdog group says it's like walking into Fort Knox and stealing the gold, taking the gold. The potential beneficiaries here include the people charged and many convicted for the Jan6 attack. That includes people like this.
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Ty Cobb
Nothing but a traitor. And he deserves to burn with the rest of them. If P came, we're going to drag
- [03:17]
Ari Melber
mother through the streets. You politicians are going to get drug to the streets. Yes, the people convicted of violence against United States, against police, targeting lawmakers, calls to assassinate officials, those are the people that under this reported plan, would get your taxpayer money. There are many different ways this could run afoul of the law. But the problem, of course, is that the DOJ is the first line of the law. This would have to then be challenged in court, potentially held back. And the deeper question is why Donald Trump, who has no more elections yet to run, is so interested, so fixated on using or abusing a legal process to fund these people. He already freed them from prison, which remains one of his greatest scandals of this term. Some of these people were convicted of sedition against the United States. They were supposed to serve for over a decade. Now they might, under this plan, profit and at a time of economic hardship. The Trump plan is to take money from honest Americans, from people who aren't convicted of anything. Take your taxpayer money and give it to these convicts. Trump's slush fund could go beyond those so called foot soldiers or militia members. ABC says it could also be routed to anyone else who says the Biden administration weaponized the legal system against them. And that could just be other people, rich people, connected MAGA elites and insiders in Washington or elsewhere who are tied to Trump because remember, if he's in control of this slush fund and it takes your money and hands it out, he could give it to Bannon, could give it to others who were convicted of crimes back in that period of the law where the courts worked and there was accountability. If you ducked a subpoena or violated your obligations, you might end up in federal prison. So those people at the top could also try to get some of this money that Trump clearly wants to hand out. Giuliani, Eastman, Powell. We're talking about people who were supposed to learn their lesson and some of whom faced various types of accountability. There was a case in Georgia, there were disbarment proceedings. There were other types of accountability. Now he wants to take your money to pay them back. Lindsey Graham is another lawmaker among Republicans who's at Time floated the idea that again, by the way, this was knocked down under protest. So these things matter. Sunlight matters. But at one point, you had Republicans saying they should also get paid with, again, your taxpayer money because their phone records were caught up or reviewed in a prior DOJ probe that fell apart. But this looks like another end run around that controversy to try to get some of that money. We're talking about a combination of alleged corruption and very likely greed. Now, Trump could also divert funds to other entities because while the ABC report says it wouldn't go directly to him, you have entities like Mar A Lago, which of course was subject to a lawful search. You have the Trump organization that has faced legal review. And you have a wider question tonight. And I'm going to put it to you this way. Before I bring in Ty Cobb, think about what we've lived through. This insurrection was the greatest violent crime against the United States in modern history. The DOJ investigated it, and it was the largest, most sprawling federal probe in our history. And there was at one point, accountability. Then Donald Trump started this term freeing those people, including those who attacked police, which very literally put Donald Trump against police, against blue lives, and on the side of the people who do violence against police, as long as apparently he thinks it's in his or the MAGA interest, that was already beyond anything we've ever seen. An anti police, anti law and order presidency, putting partisanship and an attack on democracy above America itself. Sounds stark, but that's what he did. This push to go further raises the question of why he doesn't just want these people out free roaming the streets, many of them, of course, former convicts, but why he wants them incentivized on his team with his money to potentially do what they did last time or do it again with more success. I want to bring in Ty Cobb, who, as mentioned, was a White House attorney in the first Trump administration. And Ty, this is serious. Jamie Raskin says this, it's an effort to refund what he calls a January 6th militia. And he says presumably to get them ready for the next round of battle. That's a serious allegation or concern against a sitting president. But do you think it's a fair concern?
- [08:15]
Ty Cobb
Oh, I think it's a very fair concern. I think Jamie Raskin is really a voice that, you know, 10 years from now, 20 years from now, when people look back at this time in history, people will point to his courage and the accuracy of his observations. But, yes, this is intended to basically give Trump, you know, $1.7 billion on top of either the $9 billion that Ted Lieu has, a chart that he uses in Congress frequently to demonstrate how much Trump has looted America over the last 18 months, or the $4 billion that the new York Times and the New Yorker use as a figure of Trump's looting to basically facilitate the illegal aims and the rewards that he intends for his people. Seriously, the potential uses of this slush fund are intended to be, as currently fashioned, totally opaque, not reviewable, not something that the American people are going to see or understand. It's completely illegal and absurd. Keep in mind, this is a case. The case against the IRS is a completely fabricated vehicle for Trump to try to loot the Treasury. It's barred by the two year statute of limitation. The statute involved only allows $1,000 per disclosure, per illegal disclosure. There's an argument that there may have been somewhere between one and 10 disclosures. There's no argument that supports the 10,000 or more disclosures that would necessary to get him to 10, $10 billion, which is what he's demanded. So it's, it's really, it's really absurd. You've got a judge who, when assessing the case, had very serious concerns about whether there's any adversity here. This is Trump negotiating with his team.
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Ari Melber
Yeah, that. It's not a real case.
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Ty Cobb
It's not a real case. I mean, he himself has admitted that he's negotiating with himself. That's true. That's not a case of controversy. And, you know, there's no basis for an award here. The Justice Department has vigorous defenses. Last night, the Miki Curie, the lawyers that the court had reached out to for guidance on whether this was really a case in controversy, filed their brief making it plain that there was substantial reason to doubt that this, this case could be fairly adjudicated between the two parties. Because there really is no case or controversy. And the court should ask some, you know, piercing questions. Clearly, in, in the case, they point to the fact that Pam Bondi directed her Justice Department to be loyal to Trump, not to the Constitution. Trump issued an executive order directing all government lawyers, all government personnel, government wide, you know, preventing them from taking positions that were contrary to his opinion about the law. Now, his opinion about the law is he's entitled to anything he wants. And the Justice Department is falling into line. Todd Blanche, who was cautioned early on in the administration about the necessity of recusing himself from most things related to Trump because of his personal appearance on Trump's behalf previously in many of the criminal cases that the Trump that Trump had, including the 34 felonies that he was convicted of while Blanche was his lawyer, was urged to recuse himself in connection with those matters. But he's now, you know, he's now the primary dealmaker for the Justice Department doing all things that Trump, that Trump wants. So, you know, with Blanche as a co conspirator, it's pretty clear there is no, there is no case or controversy here and that it really is Trump just looting the government.
- [12:28]
Ari Melber
Right? Looting the government, self dealing, taking money from the taxpayers, which is bad enough and could be investigated. Indeed, if it's attached to other allegations. It's the type of thing that a Congress could impeach and hold a trial on and review the evidence. And if they refuse to participate, well, you can hold that against them because a Senate trial, which would be an option if the Democrats went back to midterms, that trial then deals with the government you have. And if you have a government that is basically unlawful and resisting, then you take the evidence as it is and you make that. And then you add to that this looming threat of them trying to fund and incentivize future potential violence to overthrow the elections. I mean, a lot of this is out in the open. Ty, I want to turn to another piece. So Ty stays with us. I'm going to give folks the facts. There's new ethics filings that show because some of the system does still work, they are required to release this and they did that. Trump has been trading heavily in the stock market, disclosing hundreds of millions of dollars in transactions, including in major companies. That includes securities and stocks in the tech space that obviously are involved with AI and other big ticket items that Trump oversees. Microsoft, which has a big stake in ChatGPT and OpenAI, they're in court this week as well. On another issue, Facebook, Meta, Oracle, big purchases of Apple and Nvidia. These companies have CEOs who also are very close with Trump. They've accompanied him to China, and you can see others there. And to be fair, there are other administrations that have tried to build business alliances, advocate for U.S. commerce abroad. The financial forms, though, show the timing of what Trump is doing, that he or his people on his behalf, but under his name and money seem to be pretty actively trading. You can see here Nvidia, that's the kind of the big chip that's powering all this AI. You can see that purchase. You can see, of course, Tim Cook and others are very much involved with Trump this year. The financial forms show that he purchased that on February 10, that was actually eight days before the company announced a big deal with Meta. Now, we don't know from the documents whether that's one of those many coincidences or whether all of these meetings and discussions give a clue. No one's alleging insider trading here, but a clue in terms of access, of mood, of information that, hey, this is a good time to buy or not. Trump also touted AI software maker Palantir on Truth Social, meaning he's using his public platform, which is mixed with the fact that he's the president, to promote a stock that he purchased. On top of all that, Trump continues to operate through himself and his family crypto and other business ventures to a degree we have never seen from a modern president. Ty Cobb, do you view this as aggressive, poor judgment, but ultimately legal, so it's okay, or do you view what we know, combined with the other corruption allegations against the administration, as something that should concern Americans about whether this actually goes farther and undermines our administration, our trust in it?
- [15:34]
Ty Cobb
Well, I think it does go farther, and I do view it as intensely criminal. It's not legal at all. It's never been done by another president. There's never been a president who has had the wholesale absence of frontal lobe control and impulse control to avoid the kind of corruption that Trump does on a daily basis, highlighted most recently by the $1.7 billion effort. But, yeah, and these stock purchases, highly irregular. Rarely in history has a president done anything remotely similar the.
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Ari Melber
Can I slow you down on that point, Todd? Sure, because you're, you're an expert. You've been a White House lawyer. Most, most people haven't done that. You're reminding everyone that we don't usually have presidents actively trading in individual stocks just because they wouldn't even want to go near the conflict that when they're meeting with CEOs, which of course, they, they may do, that there could be a conflict where their personal interest is against the public interest.
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Ty Cobb
No, that's exactly right. And let's go back to the $1.7 trillion case or billion dollar case that we were talking about, the tax thing, which we don't have cases like that either, because historically, every president has disclosed their tax returns voluntarily. You know, Trump is upset because he tried to hide everything, largely because it's full of the false valuations, you know, the fabricated losses that got him convicted of 34 felonies in New York. So he tried to hide all that. It came out in and from a subcontractor to the irs, not from the IRS directly, but from a subcontractor to the irs, which is a defense that is available in that case. And the same thing is true in the stock things. Usually you have blind trust. Usually you have total distance between a president's purchase and sale decisions that he typically does not make it. It's handled by either a trustee or family members or people that are not directed by him to make purchases. And the timing of these things, as you point out, is there are no coincidences when it comes to Trump, Ari. There are no coincidences. So when Trump buys a stock, promotes it. Yeah. When Trump buys a stock, promotes it.
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Ari Melber
That's design. I'm only jumping in to say, and I'm only jumping in to say we value for your expertise. So you're free to say that that's your view. The government can respond in the news. We do more than coincidence. Right. So I'm careful to say that. Go ahead.
- [18:08]
Ty Cobb
Yes, no, you're absolutely right. I mean I'm not putting words in your mouth, but I'm just saying there really are no coincidences. When Trump says I'm negotiating with myself, you know what he means is I'm going to take what I want. When Trump goes to China to get a deal for Boeing to purchase 800 to 1,000 planes, leaves without a commitment and says it was a great deal and they're going to have a bunch of, they're going to have a bunch of disclosures about wonderful trade deals and the farmers are going to be happy. Notwithstanding the fact that that under the last year in the Biden administration they told sold $27 billion worth of soybeans to China. Last year they sold 14. This year they're going to be lucky to, you know, sell seven. You know this, he's, he's ruined the markets because of his crazy tariff stuff and, and the fact that we're shedding allies at a rate never before seen in American history. But he's going to continue to be to fabricate the status of those.
- [19:04]
Ari Melber
I'm going to keep you. You mentioned fitness. I want to ask you about his mental fitness when we're back with ty in just 90 seconds
- [19:12]
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- [19:41]
Ari Melber
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- [21:23]
Ty Cobb
We have strategic ambiguity.
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Ari Melber
His is just all over the place.
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Ty Cobb
It's confrontational, it's inconsistent, it's erratic.
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Ari Melber
I don't trust that man to be able to cognitively make a complete sentence, let alone negotiate with China.
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Che Komondori
I think he's seriously ill. I think Trump needs medical attention and
- [21:46]
Ty Cobb
there needs to be an intervention.
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Ari Melber
That's some of the response in Congress where we see this is a mainstream issue as it was raised at times for the last president. Ty your view?
- [21:59]
Ty Cobb
Oh, it's not just my view. In 2017, Bandy Lee, a well respected psychological professional trained at Harvard and Yale and highly regarded at the National Institute of mental health and 26 of her colleagues and other respected psychiatrists around the world, posted a lengthy journal article commenting on Trump's malignant narcissism and the appearance of frontal lobe early frontal lobe dementia. The symptoms have only gotten worse. They are remarkable at this stage of the game and the wake. Sleep reversal is a very common symptom highlighted by mental health professionals when discussing Trump's cognitive decline. The fact that he's up late texting about excrement, putting memes out of Democrats in the reflecting pool, which I see behind you when it was still a reflecting pool in your graphic there before he has changed it. The reality is what he does late at night causes him to sleep during the day and that is a very well known symptom of cognitive decline. Frontal lobe dementia, Alzheimer's. And because he has no impulse control left, he is guided solely by his malignant narcissism, which everybody has recognized for years. And he practices only vengeance and greed. Now everything he does is about revenge and looting the government for his benefit.
- [23:43]
Ari Melber
Yeah, it's striking. And you mentioned the late night posts. Any public official, you could be a CEO of a company. If you posted 30 times at night, people would say what's going on? And if you posted the hate and the bile and the misinformation that you mentioned, you might, you might be on review or removed by your board the next day. And we're in this, this strange moment where we talk about it, but there hasn't been consequences ty on more than one topic tonight. Thank you so much.
- [24:12]
Ty Cobb
Always a pleasure to be with you, Ari. Have a great weekend.
- [24:15]
Ari Melber
You too, sir. Appreciate it. We're fitting a break. When we come back, I have one of my breakdowns. Why Trump's gaffe, admitting he doesn't care about what's going on in the American economy is haunting them in the midterms. And Che Komondori as well.
- [24:28]
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Ari Melber
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Ty Cobb
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Ty Cobb
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Ari Melber
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- [26:07]
Ari Melber
President Trump's approval has crashed his own voters upset. You see it in polling and in moments like this. Robert Cleveland, Ohio Republican. You're on Open Forum. Well, I like to first say I apologize to all of America and all of Americans. I was a die hard Republican. I cannot believe I drank the Kool Aid. Okay, I am guilty. I drank the Kool Aid of Donald J. Trump. This man is ruining the Constitution of the United States. If you see all the corruption, the billions of dollars that the Trump family is grabbing, it's and he says it's never about the money. It's all about the money. The lies, the lies, the lies, lies, money and the corruption reports all of this may be accruing. The caller's not alone. 55% of Republicans blame Trump for these high prices. The war has really crystallized the issue. Oil is up. Fox News says Trump has now given this political gift to Democrats in a gaffe that has not gone away. This is a president who claims he can say and do almost anything, but admitting on camera he doesn't think about America's finances right now has not aged well at all. Mr. President, to what extent are American financing situations motivating you to make a.
- [27:36]
Ty Cobb
Not even a little bit.
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Ari Melber
The only thing that matters when I'm talking about Iran, they can't have a nuclear weapon.
- [27:42]
Ty Cobb
I don't think about American financial situation. I don't think about anybody.
- [27:49]
Ari Melber
Yeah, that's the problem. Indeed, that is exactly what Democrats want to prove and show going into the midterm. So having Trump admitting it in real time may help them. This kind of moment that crystallizes something tends to pop. It's the kind of out of touch moment that nowadays we say might go viral online. In the old days, we would just say it became something larger than a story or a moment in the news cycle. It can haunt a Politician to their political core.
- [28:22]
Ty Cobb
He was skewered for seeming out of touch at a grocer's convention. He marveled at new technology that could read a shredded barcode. The New York Times said he didn't know how an ordinary checkout counter worked. I think still the fundamentals of our economy are strong.
- [28:42]
Ari Melber
Well, you've been attacked obviously, for saying the fundamentals of this economy. The fundamentals are strong. There's an ad out this morning. There are 47% of the people who vote for the president and otherwise. All right, their 47% will with them. Who are the paragraph Mongolia. Do you believe that they are victims? The political earthquake in the presidential race
- [29:03]
Ty Cobb
and the Romney campaign is in full on damage control.
- [29:09]
Ari Melber
Admitting that you don't understand what people are going through in the economy or that you think 47% over 100 million Americans are just victims on the dole or when people were suffering in a crash and McCain said everything's basically fine and strong. These things define them. Republican strategist Karl Rove warns that Republicans will lose seats in the midterms because of that dreaded word in American politics, malaise. It's a reference to Jimmy Carter, who also, like Trump, was very unpopular once people got a load of what his governing looked like against economic problems. That notorious malaise speech is taught in campaigns and political science classes as what not to do. Carter didn't even actually use that word.
- [30:01]
Ty Cobb
The symptoms of this crisis of the
- [30:02]
Ari Melber
American spirit are all around us. For the first time in the history of our country, a majority of our people believe that the next five years
- [30:13]
Ty Cobb
will be worse than the past five years.
- [30:19]
Ari Melber
Trying to push or lie people into thinking that the economy that you oversee is better than it actually is has often failed. Telling people you don't even care and aren't thinking about it is probably worse. Our friend Chaiko Madhuri, Obama veteran, says that Trump has a Carter problem. We'll be right back together. And when they went to the queen to tell her Ruth Kubrick had no grid, do you know what she said?
- [30:53]
Ty Cobb
Let them eat cake.
- [30:57]
Ari Melber
Let them eat cake. It's the kind of gaffe that echoes across history. And Trump has done something like it. Which turns us to a special day here landing on this Happy Friday. It's Che day on the beat. You could tell because you have a picture of Che and the real chef. Veteran of several presidential campaigns, including Obama's. Welcome back, sir.
- [31:21]
Che Komondori
Good to be back, Ari.
- [31:25]
Ari Melber
Do you see this as a gaffe that actually will extend into the midterms?
- [31:31]
Che Komondori
Yes. I mean, if you think about this, you know, Michael Kinsley said a gaffe is when a politician accidentally tells the truth. And what happened here was that Donald Trump actually told the truth. He doesn't care about Americans financial situations. He cares about his own financial situation. You can see how much money he's made in office. He cares about his ballroom. He talks about it incessantly, even in that clip. He talks about his triumphal arch. He posts pictures of himself on Mount Rushmore. He cares about his golden statue down in Mar a Lago. Those are all things that Donald Trump cares about. He doesn't care about the American people. And I think that what's important about this is that this is a key strength for Donald Trump and the Republican Party, the economy. Ever since the Great Recession, Republicans have had a superior advantage to Democrats on the economy. Trump has compounded that advantage because people do buy into that whole apprentice Persona of him as the great businessman who can make deals, who can get the economy revving. And he did inherit a really good account from Barack Obama and then incessantly praised himself for stewarding it. That all helped this particular. Particular gap, if you want to call it that, this particular truth that Trump uttered goes right to his core strength and can turn it into weakness.
- [32:58]
Ari Melber
Hmm. I know in preparing for tonight, you also had mentioned that there were moments when George Bush Sr. Where he was trying to. To show care and it didn't work, and that you saw a little bit of an echo there. Let's look at this and what history can teach us tonight. Just some kind of a useless exercise, but message.
- [33:20]
Ty Cobb
I care.
- [33:22]
Ari Melber
We're trying. We need help. We'll have good. We have had and we'll continue to
- [33:27]
Ty Cobb
have, I think, sound and sensible programs.
- [33:32]
Ari Melber
Check.
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Che Komondori
Yeah. When people heard that, what they heard was message. I don't care. I mean, who actually speaks like that? But to be honest, you know, to be fair to George Bush Sr. That was just a clumsy thing that he said. Same thing with Jimmy Carter's malaise speech. It was very clumsily worded. It was poorly worded in that speech. What happened here was not a matter of clumsiness. What happened here was that Trump just blurted out the actual truth. He doesn't care. And, you know, somebody who doesn't care would do the exact things that Trump has done, which is inflict tariffs on people, inflict this Iran war on people, which nobody asked for. He says it was about national security. Well, you know, it doesn't seem like national security has improved. It's not A mission accomplished in Iran at all. And I don't see how it ever will be at this rate. And he would. He didn't even care enough about what would happen economically to the country.
- [34:28]
Ari Melber
And it's hurting Congressional Republicans because you could tell they know it's bad because they don't say, yes. Let me explain. They just say, no, it didn't happen. Take a look.
- [34:42]
Ty Cobb
President thinks about American's financial situation. Every time I talk to him, he's focused on affordability.
- [34:47]
Ari Melber
I didn't think that.
- [34:49]
Ty Cobb
He's got a lot on his plate, including the war.
- [34:51]
Ari Melber
When we get the Strait of Hormuz
- [34:52]
Ty Cobb
reopened, that will alleviate a lot of pressure with gas prices and other things in the economy.
- [34:59]
Ari Melber
Jay?
- [35:00]
Che Komondori
Yeah, I think congressional Republicans are living in a world or they want to live in a world where Trump is significantly more popular, where he was just a year ago after inauguration of around 50% approval after winning the election. That is not the world we live in anymore. And I think one of the things that's really interesting about the way Trump has navigated this and Republicans have navigated this is that Trump has created his, you know, for the last 10 years, a reality distortion field. It comes from Star Trek. The idea you create this illusion. It's something con men are very good at. It's something that Trump was always very good at, creating an illusion of success. Creating illusion where he alone can solve the problems. That field, reality distortion field, is now failing. And there are a couple of reasons why it's failing, but I think one of the biggest is something you talked about in the last segment. Trump's own physical decline. He simply cannot deliver the message the way he used to. The illusion is simply not matching the reality that people are seeing at the pump.
- [36:02]
Ari Melber
Yeah, economic failure met with message failure. Che, thank you. We'll be right back. Americans are facing higher prices. This gas crunch. Plenty of questions about how to hustle in these hard times. Well, our next guest is known as much for his artistry as his business acumen. A hit maker, Grammy nominated rapper entrepreneur Rick Ross has really defined the hip hop soundscape with anthems you know or you've danced to at weddings and bar mitzvahs. Hustlin the Boss, bmf, I'm Not a Star. The wider Maybach music series. He's celebrating the 20 year anniversary of the debut album that changed everything. Port of Miami, Florida. Boy, what's up? He has also led what has now become a really popular move where brand name stars launch their own brands and businesses. He's Got a fleet of wingstops, spirits business, a car show, a real estate portfolio. And here in newsland for political junkies, I should mention Ross is an Obama level artist joining then President Obama in the Oval. A great moment considering that Ross has rap. Thought it was Obama. The way I came through, I'm talking different commas from them lame dudes. That's the kind of Ross Barr that, you know, sticks in your mind. In fact, they come up often on this show so much that we played a few to Ross the last time he joined us. You're one of our most quoted artists here. This is a little sampling of when we cite Ross to explain something happened in the world. Take a look. Was it not Rick Ross who said, I am flawed? Walking in the courtroom, sipping on a beverage. I know the judge, so I got a lot of leverage. Every day is another opportunity to touch the paper, count the profits. You could bring them in a Nike box, grinding in my Jordans, kick them off, they might be hot. Shoe box, no shoes in it. And the implication is there's drugs in the shoebox. No, I. We have fun, even if it's a little meta to play Ross our Ross catalog to the extent that news shows have a catalog. Well, the boss is here. He has a new book, Renaissance of a Boss, Notes from a creative Awakening, and joins us now. Welcome back.
- [38:25]
Rick Ross
Good looking family.
- [38:26]
Ari Melber
You look great. You feel great?
- [38:28]
Rick Ross
Oh, man, I feel wonderful. Celebrating the book release.
- [38:31]
Ari Melber
Got the book right here, the Renaissance. I have so much to talk to you about. But first, this is all about creativity, facts. What does that mean to you now?
- [38:39]
Rick Ross
Just 20 summers in the game and still being excited, still waking up, remaining creative and actually contributing something to the game.
- [38:47]
Ari Melber
You say to be creative, you gotta start somewhere. People think it's the other way around, waiting for lightning to strike. That's not the way it goes. It's engaging in the process of creation that ignites the imagination. I'm curious how you apply that. Because people look at you and say, okay, he's done it, he's successful. And you got folks sitting around sometimes saying, someday I'll rap, someday I'll write. I got a book idea, but I haven't written a page. What are you getting at there?
- [39:11]
Rick Ross
The time is now. You can't postpone nothing. We have no time to waste. Not a day, not a second. Apply it all right now. If it's heavy on your heart, let's
- [39:21]
Ari Melber
execute you also write from the new book. Speaking my dreams into existence has always been my modus operandi. I was Dead broke when I started calling myself the biggest boss. And I love that because. Because your music is like this. Movies are like this. People watch Scarface. They identify with the star, with. With the rich person. Maybe not all of the worst parts of him, but. But we identify with that. And hip hop does that. And so you were saying now
- [39:50]
Ty Cobb
you
- [39:50]
Ari Melber
were identifying success before you achieved it.
- [39:53]
Rick Ross
Without a doubt, I understood that I was willing to go to the greatest heights to achieve my goals, which is to be successful, which is to be a writer, an author, whatever it was that I had ideas of. I knew that I would do exactly what it took and even much more. So I began manifesting. I put it out into the universe. I'm the biggest boss. I'm gonna have 40 cars in MC Hammer. That's what I said.
- [40:20]
Ari Melber
And now here it is.
- [40:22]
Rick Ross
Here it is.
- [40:24]
Ari Melber
I was listening to some of the songs here, and we've talked before, but one I've never asked you about was interesting because you. There's a toughness in your voice, the way your voice sounds, and sometimes in the way you deliver a message. And I wanted to ask. So you talk here in Marathon. You say, Judas was a politician made up like a Ronald Reagan. This is just a war on drugs. Tell me how you feel about it. And then you sort of seem to be challenging. I want you to explain what you mean. You say black lives really matter now. Tell Emmett Till about it. George Floyd was face down. As you all stood around it, did your little facetimes, left the neighborhood astounded. Who are you addressing there? What are you getting at?
- [41:05]
Rick Ross
I'm really addressing everyone who's listening to the vibe. You gotta join the fight. You gotta join the struggle. It's like it came a time where, you know, some of the worst things could be happening and Everybody just wanna FaceTime or go live. Let me get a little content instead of getting in the battle. Getting in the fight.
- [41:26]
Ari Melber
So that's deep. Cause. And we see that in politics. And we see that across. You can see that on whatever your politics are.
- [41:31]
Rick Ross
Exactly. Exactly.
- [41:33]
Ari Melber
That's pejorative. You're saying, doing your little facetimes. Like you wanna get clout or content on this, but you don't actually want to deal with the important part.
- [41:41]
Rick Ross
Nah, you don't. You're not in the. You're not in there. The battle. You're not in it. Yeah, you want to stand around. I get it.
- [41:49]
Ari Melber
Respect. I want to do a lightning round, starting with. In a word, we'll finish some sentences, but this is just In a word.
- [41:54]
Rick Ross
Too easy.
- [41:55]
Ari Melber
Miami Flamingos. The promised land in Fayetteville. Rich Wingstop, Lemon, Pepper. I'm pitting Ross bangers against Ross bangers. So you gotta pick one. Hustling or bmf?
- [42:14]
Rick Ross
I'm gonna say hustling because came first.
- [42:17]
Ty Cobb
First.
- [42:18]
Ari Melber
I'm not a star. Or MC Hammer.
- [42:20]
Rick Ross
I'm not a star. Wow.
- [42:22]
Ari Melber
All right, I got. I just gotta be honest.
- [42:25]
Rick Ross
I'm not a star.
- [42:27]
Ari Melber
What does that mean when you say because I'm not a star? Because I'm really hot.
- [42:29]
Rick Ross
So I was riding in la. I had my. My homeboy Spiff playing instrumentals for me. And I had the driver just ride me through the hills, show me the $50 million homes. And he showed me Michael Jackson's. And he came across one. That's where MC Hammer lived. Damn. Stop the car. Play the beat. Ten minutes later, the song was done.
- [42:52]
Ari Melber
These are my last ones. Finish the sentence.
- [42:54]
Rick Ross
Too easy.
- [42:56]
Ari Melber
Being broke means we gotta start all over. Being rich means we can't this up. Being a boss means shot caller. Real boss is no.
- [43:13]
Rick Ross
Everybody depends on you.
- [43:16]
Ari Melber
The difference between money and success is money you have.
- [43:23]
Rick Ross
Success is an opinion.
- [43:27]
Ari Melber
Wealth or respect? Wealth. Last two. Failure means you bloated. Success means
- [43:42]
Rick Ross
everything. All right?
- [43:44]
Ari Melber
Respect. The book is Renaissance of a Boss. Everything's all right right now. I really appreciate you coming in and thanks once again.
- [43:51]
Rick Ross
True Hip Hop head salute to you.
- [43:53]
Ari Melber
Respect the show.
- [43:54]
Rick Ross
Always on fire.
- [43:55]
Ari Melber
Thank you, Rick. Thank you. We follow the news, and if you care about America and our civil society, you've probably followed a lot of what's been happening these last years. Tonight, I want to end our hour with a look at how that is also echoing in art, because we've seen these ice protests that have really galvanized people in Trump's second term. And we've also created some indelible images. Take this photo. A line of California National Guardsmen who squared off, as you see, holding the top of the image, against all of these unarmed protesters. Or a street beset by tear gas as an agent pins an individual to the ground. You see there in the middle, the human on the ground, or two people separated by masked officers. These are photos of reality, but they also have become a type of art because they're in a new photo exhibit. Tension and tear gas fill American streets on display at Photoville, which is actually a free public art event. It's in New York, opening this weekend. The images tell their own story and people can decide how to view them. And like all art, what to do about them. We wanted to mention that as we go into the weekend. Thanks for watching the Beat. Real talent is defined by what people can do, not where they learn to do it. So by stopping at the education section of a resume that you might throw away the perfect Hire Skills First. Hiring helps you see talent others miss. Like more than 70 million stars skilled through alternative routes, let their story unfold and gain a competitive advantage. Because hiring managers who start with skills are 60% more likely to find a successful hire. Hire Skills first. Learn why at tearthepaperceiling.org, brought to you by OpportunityAtWork and the Ad Council.