Mary Margaret Olahan (19:48)

Well, good morning, Ben, from the White House. It's great to be here. This was an extraordinary story that we reported on. I'm not sure if I've seen something like this before. So the United States Institute of Peace, it's down on the other side of Washington, D.C. it's a massive institution which is congressionally funded. But unfortunately, when Doge went in and told them that they needed to allow the new president or the organization to take over, they would not, in fact, do this. And so what sources have told us and what we reported on and the White House has also further clarified on, is that when the new president of the of usip, the United States Institute of Peace, went to take over and to enter the building, the old president, George Moos, would not, in fact, let him in. And this turned into a kind of bizarre standoff, not something you see in D.C. every day where security, the Metropolitan Police Department, the FBI were all involved in trying to let the new leader of this organization into the building while the old leader had himself barricaded upstairs in his office. And it was more than that, Ben. Actually, they were distributing pictures of the Doge employees of the new leader of USIP to show the people inside the building who not to allow into the building. They were also, when the new leadership was finally able to enter the building on Monday evening, they found that the elevators were not working, the Internet was down, the telephones were not working, there was white noise on, on the top floor where the executive suite was, and they found that all the shades were drawn. So just lots of confusingly suspicious behavior. And I'm told that there's investigations into what was going on there. But the old leadership of USIP filed a lawsuit trying to say that Doge should not have been able to enter, that Doge illegally entered. And a judge ruled earlier this week that no Doge could enter because the old leadership had been removed and the new leadership should have been allowed into the building. However, that judge did say that he was confused, or she was confused, by why Doge had behaved in this manner and kind of rebuked Doge for going into the building in this way. Now the White House is saying they should have been able to do this because the old. The old president had been removed. And when I asked Caroline Levitt about this during the briefing, she suggested that this was just an example of how bureaucrats are resisting change to the Trump administration and why this is one of the reasons that the Trump administration is so excited about Doge coming in and effectively cleaning house, removing bureaucrats who, who don't wanna serve the American people.

Ben Shapiro (22:13)

Mary Margaret, one of the things that's become quite apparent is that the hatred for the Trump administration is now being telescoped into hatred for Elon Musk personally. It's pretty clear it's a public relations ploy that's being done by the Democratic Party and members of the media. They can actually challenge many of the things that Doge is doing on a sort of populist basis, because most people actually want waste, fraud and abuse cut. And so they've decided they're gonna go after Elon personally. What's the feeling in sort of the White House about Elon at this moment?

Mary Margaret Olahan (22:37)

Well, what you're hearing from both sides is that the White House is really excited by what Doge has been doing, by what Elon Musk has been doing. They want to cut, waste, fraud and Abuse. And they're both horrified by the attacks on Tesla owners or by the attacks on Elon Musk. And I would say a little amused by the outrage that Elon is drawing. You know, for years, Trump, Trump and his campaign are used to the outrage that their efforts to change the United States have caused. You know, Trump has really drawn a lot of outrage since he first came down that escalator many years ago. But now a lot of that ire is being directed at Elon. And that's very interesting because Trump's support from the American people is just only rising right now. You know, more and more we're finding that most Americans are supporting Trump's efforts. Most Americans do support Elon as well. But I think a lot of Democrats are really focusing their ire on Elon rather than Trump, understanding that the President is very popular right now and his efforts are popular. So Elon might be the easier scapegoat.

Ben Shapiro (23:35)

Well, it's Mary Margaret Olihan. She, of course, is our White House senior correspondent. Mary Margaret, thanks so much for covering it and good to see you again.

Mary Margaret Olahan (23:42)

Thank you so much, Ben.

Ben Shapiro (23:44)

Tesla, again, is a private company. Tesla is a company that sells cars and develops AI technology. What does protesting Tesla have to do with protesting what the federal government is doing in terms of cuts? Even if you don't like Musk, shouldn't you be going after Musk in his pseudo governmental capacity as opposed to in his private capacity as an owner of a business? Why does hitting the business matter? Why is that the end? The answer is because for the left, the government is never to blame. You just switch to the people at the top of the government. The government must be maintained at all costs. Even if that means you focus your ire on Tesla and not on the actual people in the government who are actively currently doing the kinds of firings that you're very angry about. Speaking of which, President Trump is moving forward to try and dismantle the Department of Education. This is a four decade long promise from Republicans that they are going to dismantle the Department of Education, which of course performs functions that should be performed not at the federal governmental level, but should be performed at the state level. Here is President Trump signing an executive order directed at abolishing the Department of Education. Yesterday there is President Trump signing the actual document with the marker. Okay, the President then made remarks about all of this. He was Talking about Linda McMahon, who is his Secretary of Education. And. And he says that he is interested in her being the last Secretary of Education. And we're pleased to be joined today by the woman who I chose because she's an extraordinary person, and hopefully she will be our last Secretary of Education, Linda McMahon. Linda, thank you. Thank you very much. By the way, worth noting here that everybody is yelling at Trump about the how could they're going to dismantle the Department of Education? They can't do that. It is an established department by Congress. He's not gonna dismantle the Department of Education outright. He's going to reduce the size and the scope of it, and then he's going to wait for Congress to do it. This is made clear by Caroline Levitt over at the White House yesterday. So the Department of Education will be.

Mary Margaret Olahan (25:52)

Much smaller than it is today.

Ben Shapiro (25:53)

As you know, the President's executive order directed Linda McMahon to greatly minimize the agency. So when it comes to student loans and Pell Grants, those will still be run out of the Department of Education. But we don't need to be spending.

Mary Margaret Olahan (26:05)

More than $3 trillion over the course of a few decades on a department.

Ben Shapiro (26:09)

That'S clearly failing in its initial intention.

Mary Margaret Olahan (26:12)

To educate our students.

Ben Shapiro (26:15)

By the way, that's inarguable. Educational performance in the United States has sunk over the course of the existence of the Department of Education. When it comes to American educational performance, sort of like America's performance in the War on Poverty, the question isn't did America get worse at education over the past few decades? The question is whether we got better after injecting trillions of dollars into the system. So if the War on poverty took $22 trillion to reach the same point that we had before, that would be a failure. And if you have a Department of Education that spends trillions of dollars and achieves basically nothing, that would also be a failure. So I asked Perplexity, one of our sponsors, quote, has American educational performance versus the rest of the world declined since the creation of the Department of Education? And Perplexity answered, american educational performance relative to other countries has not significantly declined since the creation of the Department of education in 1979. While the US does face challenges in some areas, particularly in mathematics, the overall trend shows mixed results rather than a clear decline. But what does that actually mean when it comes to the Program for International student assessment? In 2022, US students ranked 21st in math, fifth in reading, and tied for 10th in science among OECD countries. When it comes to the Trends in International Mathematics and Science study, in 2019, the US had higher average scores than most participating countries in both math and science at 4th and 8th grade. Levels, but higher than most. We also spend virtually more than anybody. The US ranked eighth out of 41 countries in educational attainment, with 92% of adults age 25 to 64 holding at least a high school diploma. But that particular measure is also not a great measure, because a lot of people in the United States are elevated through high school without ever learning anything, which is why you have to have remedial courses in college. One of the things that tends to happen when it comes to analyzing educational performance is people saying, look, how many people have college degrees, rather than have the degrees been watered down such that a college degree is now worth what a high school degree used to be worth, or a high school degree is now worth what a junior high degree used to be worth. The bottom line is we've expended trillions of dollars over time via the federal government and very little to show for it. Meanwhile, after more than a year of war, terror and pain in Israel, the need for security essentials and support for first responders remains critical. Even during periods of supposed ceasefire, Israel must maintain constant vigilance and preparedness for potential threats that could emerge from literally any direction. Throughout this challenging time, the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews has stood firmly alongside the people of Israel, providing essential security resources that save lives. We remain committed to this vital mission. Your gift today will directly contribute to life saving security measures including bomb shelters to protect families during rocket attacks, armored security vehicles, ambulances that provide critical medical care, advanced firefighting equipment for emergency response teams, protective gear like flak jackets and bulletproof vests for those on the front lines, and numerous other crucial resources. By making a generous donation today, you're helping ensure that Israel's communities remain safe and secure during these uncertain times, allowing families to live with greater peace of mind in the days ahead. Make your life saving gift to bless Israel and her people by visiting Benforthefellowship.org, again. That's Benforthefellowship.org and they're doing amazing work on the ground in the Holy Land. Go check them out right now. Benforthefellowship.org, thank you and God Bless. Also to help us feel energized and balanced, my team and I we've been partnering with livegood. My assistant Kelly recently tried their bioactive complete Multivitamin as well as the organic complete plant based protein powder because this year she wants to stay on top of the health and the wellness since taking them and getting all the nutrients, vitamins and minerals your body typically needs she's noticed a big difference in overall health and strengthened immune response even with all the bugs that have been going around recently. And the protein powder is so convenient for throwing in smoothies after gym recovery as well. LiveGood delivers expert formulated premium supplements at unbeatable prices by eliminating middlemen and excessive markups. It's no surprise they become the fastest growing supplement brand with over 1.5 million satisfied customers. Plus all their products fit conveniently into your day. Kelly takes their multivitamin after breakfast. She throws some of the protein powder into smoothies after workouts, and she says she's noticed just how much more energy and focus she has throughout the day compared to before she added those Livegood products into her routine. If you're ready to make the switch and start saving, we'll make it even easier for you. Use our link. You can save an additional 10% off your first order on top of already low prices. Just go to livegood.com ben to save 10% on that first order. That's livegood.com Ben don't miss out on this opportunity to invest in your health without overspending. The actual executive order, by the way, does not actually close the Department of Education. It says that it should close, but it doesn't close it because Trump doesn't have the power to do that. The actual text of the executive order says, quote, closing the Department of Education would provide children and their families the opportunity to escape a system that is failing them today. American reading and math scores are near historical lows. This year's National Assessment of Educational progress showed that 70% of 8th graders were below proficient in reading and 72% were below proficient in math. The federal education bureaucracy is not working. Closure of the Department of Education would drastically improve program implementation in higher education. The Department of Education currently manages a student loan debt portfolio of more than $1.6 trillion. This means the federal student aid program is roughly the size of one of the nation's largest banks, Wells Fargo. But although Wells Fargo has more than 200,000 employees, the Department of Education has fewer than 1500 in his office of Federal Student Aid. The Department of Education is not a bank. It must return bank functions to an entity equipped to serve America's students. Ultimately, the Department of Education's main functions can and should be returned to the state. And then the actual executive order says, quote, the Secretary of Education shall, to the maximum extent appropriate and permitted by law, take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education and return authority over education to the state. Now, again consistent with the provisions of law. And that's all. So he's saying we should move toward that. We can't actually do it without some sort of congressional intervention, but we are going to move toward that. And this, by the way, is a broad spectrum popular conservative policy. Chris Sununu, Chris Sununu, who is the former governor of New Hampshire and very popular in the state and certainly not a radically conservative Republican, talked on CNN about why conservatives have been focused on closing the doe. What value add does the federal Department of Education bring when you return power to states? And as a governor, I can tell you that's very important. And not just it's not just the money, it's the control, how those dollars are spent, all the red tape that comes with the federal Department of Education when it comes to special ed, school choice, homeschooling, charter schools, whatever it might be. Let states have those options. Look, I might disagree. I'll use an extreme example. I might disagree with Gavin Newsom in California on a lot of things. But believe me, California knows what their students need a heck of a lot better than a bunch of bureaucrats in Washington. So parent. And this isn't just a MAGA idea, guys. This is empowering parents, teachers, that better communication at the local level, driving curriculum at a localized level for the needs of that community. He is right about all of that. And again, what President Trump is doing here, this is the thing the left cannot deal with, is actually popular. Many of the things he's doing, these cuts, examining for waste front Doge, remains a popular idea, which is why the left is fulminating against Musk. They're trying to personalize the politics here. It's about Musk. It's not about what he's trying to do, which of course is doomed to failure. But the good news is that Democrats do have a bunch of federal judges on their side. According to Politico yesterday, a federal judge barred Elon Musk's Doge from accessing sensitive information at the Social Security Administration, saying the group appears to be on a fishing expedition that could jeopardize the data of millions of people. The Doge team is essentially engaged in a fishing expedition at SSA in search of a fraud epidemic based on little more than suspicion, said U.S. district Judge Ellen Hollander in a 137 page ruling. It has launched a search for the proverbial needle in the haystack without any concrete knowledge that the needle is actually in the haystack. That is a terrible analogy, truly a terrible analogy. First of all, we know that there are people who are using false Social Security numbers in the United States. That is a very real thing. Illegal immigrants in particular have spent decades obtaining false Social Security numbers and then receiving aid or employment based on those false Social Security numbers. But beyond that, that is really stupid. If you're auditing a government department and the argument is you can't audit the government department because you don't know if there's anything wrong, that's literally the purpose of an audit. That's why an audit exists, is to determine if there is something wrong. Honest to God. That's like suggesting that police should never, ever be able to serve a search warrant because they don't know for sure what's inside the house before they actually search the house. Yeah, that's the point of the search warrant. That's the whole idea. Hollander, of course, a Barack Obama appointee said the group's broad access likely violated privacy laws and then ordered an immediate halt to the DOGE Social Security team's access to any systems that contain sensitive data of Social Security recipients. The judge wrote, ironically, the identity of these DOGE affiliates has been concealed because defendants are concerned the disclosure of even their names would expose them to harassment and thus invade their privacy. The defense does not appear to share a privacy concern for the millions of Americans who. Whose SSA records were made available to DOGE affiliates without their consent. Well, hold up. That is not the same thing at all. The people who are working for DOGE are properly concerned based on the fact that, you know, the left is burning cars and doxing people and swatting their homes. That may be. The revelation of their names would be a problem for their safety. Who thinks it's a problem for their safety? If the DOGE team looks at a list of Social Security numbers and tries to match it up with, say, birth records. And what exactly is. What is the problem here? But this is part and parcel of a broader judicial attempt by Barack Obama appointees, in large part Clinton appointees, too, Biden appointees, to undercut the functioning of the executive branch. The judiciary saying that basically Trump can't do what he needs to do because the judiciary says no, and it's all exaggerated and ridiculous. Vice President Vance is correct on this. He's talking about judicial overreach yesterday. Here's what he had to say. You can't have a judge who's controlling troop deployments. You can't have a judge who's controlling how we enforce our immigration laws. You know, the American people actually invested the president of the United States with some of these core law enforcement authorities. And the president has to be able to do the job the American people elected him to do. I think what you're seeing, right, really, is judicial overreach on a scale we've never seen in the history of this country. And I think the Supreme Court has got to put a stop to it. I mean, he's right about that. By the way, JD Went to Yale Law School, so it's not like JD has no background in any of this sort of stuff. Meanwhile, Chuck Schumer, who was perfectly willing to buck the Constitution on behalf of both Barack Obama and Joe Biden, routinely, he says that the United States is now in a constitutional crisis. Now, why? Seriously, why? What is the constitutional crisis that he mentions? The administration has no intention of bucking Supreme Court orders the way I say Joe Biden did. They have no intention of doing that. What they are saying is a district court judge should not have the ability to issue nationwide injunctions on national policy before the Supreme Court has weighed in. And again, the Supreme Court needs to take this up. They do. The Supreme Court rejected taking this up just a few months ago and reverted it back to district court level. They need to take up the question of what exactly is the jurisdiction of a temporary restraining order issued by a district court judge? Because it is wrecking the system. It is a real problem. Overreaching judges can, in fact, wreck systems. By the way, you see this abroad all the time. You see it in Brazil, you're seeing it in Israel right now. You've seen it in South Korea. Like, the overreach by a judiciary into the realm of what the legislature or what the executive does is just as much of a damage as, as the executive branch reaching into the functions of the judiciary or the legislature, or a legislative branch reaching into the functions of the executive or the judiciary. This kind of notion of a completely unfettered judiciary that can simply encroach upon the prerogatives of the other branch is a complete violation of what the founders meant to do. That's the constitutional crisis. Here is Chuck Schumer making the case that the Trump administration not waiting around on every district court judge in America to sign off on their action, but instead wanting the Supreme Court to sign off on it is somehow a violation of the Constitution. Democracy is at risk. Look, Donald Trump is a lawless, angry man. He thinks he should be king. He thinks he should do whatever he wants, regardless of the law. And he thinks judges should just listen to him. He thinks judges should just, I mean, so did Barack Obama. Barack Obama so much thought that judges should listen to him that he literally ripped the Supreme Court in front of the Supreme Court, leading Justice Samuel Alito to shake his head mildly and create an entire news cycle about how the Supreme Court justice had been disrespectful to Barack Obama. Again, remember, for the press, if the Supreme Court does not rule the way Democrats like the Supreme Court is the threat to the republic. If the Supreme Court rules against a Republican and the Republican says, I don't like it, that's a threat to the republic. It's all about power. It is never, ever about principle. Now, again, I don't think that the Trump administration is dumb enough to. To start defying Supreme Court orders. And in fact, they've said repeatedly they are not. It would, in fact, be a foolish move to start defying Supreme Court orders. And this is what every poll finds. Here's Harry Ensign explaining the American people do not, do not want Trump to defy court rulings. All right? You rarely see numbers like this. So Trump follow court rulings. Look at this. 84% of all adults. That's near uniformity in this day and age. You Rarely ever see 92% of Democrats, 82% of independents, 79% of Republicans agree on anything. But they do agree on this. They may disagree over Donald Trump, but they all agree that he must follow court rulings. To cross that Rubicon is a big no no in the eyes of the American public. Okay, but the American public is not really talking there about, like, a lower district court judge who puts a temporary restraining order and then that temporary restraining order doesn't hold. They're talking about the Supreme Court says, for example, that student loans cannot simply be relieved by dint of executive action. And then Joe Biden does that. That's what the American public mean. Meanwhile, the leftist agenda here suggests, of course, that everything is danger to the Republic, including, by the way, the idea that if you deport Hamas supporters, somehow this is a danger to American citizens. So Mehdi Hasan, who is an Amer, I mean, I understand why he's upset. Mehdi Hasan is pretty warm toward terrorism and also became an American citizen in 2020. But no one can deport Mehdi Hasan, and no one's calling for the deportation of Mehdi Hasan. But here he was claiming that the threat is to American citizens. If, you know, a person on a student visa or a work visa goes to a Hezbollah funeral here in Mehdi Hasan being the horseshoe theory here is so strong. Here he is with Rick Wilson of the Lincoln Project, Mehdi Hasan, crossing streams of Tucker Carlson these days. And the horseshoe theory of politics is quite a real thing. We are in a very dark place. Because if you accept the argument from the Trump administration that there's no due process for people, then what is to stop them from going after citizens and green card holders and political enemies? Because by definition, all we have is their say so. And the United States of America's entire constitutional system was built on the basis that you don't just take the President's say so for something. Correct. So I'm just wondering, what is the due process that has been denied to citizens and political enemies? Can he name it? Truly, can you name it? And the answer is no. That is a large jump. That is a very, very large scale jump. Even the people that he's talking about, for example, this green card holder who is going to be deported for being a Hamasnik, that guy's getting due process, literally. His case is in the process of appeal right now in front of the judiciary. Meanwhile, the battle on the left continues between the kind of insane and the people who are more moderate. The insane are likely to win that battle. On the side of the more moderate are people like James Carville, who keeps pointing out, why is it that the Democratic Party has abandoned the traditional sort of Clintonian blue dog Democrat audience. You know, the stupidity of we gotta be the most progressive, self righteous, moralistic people in the world. And you know, people live in rural America just, you know, fat, lazy and stupid, which is decidedly not true. But that's the way that some of the urbanist elements of our party have tried to come across. And it's stupid and they ought to apologize to the world for being so stupid. Again, Carville is not wrong about this sort of stuff, but Democrats are not going to listen to him. And the reason they're not gonna listen to him is, is because they actually do not like non college educated white men. This is a very big problem for the Democrats. They do not like a constituency that they actually need to win a larger share of. And you can see it in the polling right now. The Democratic Party is run almost entirely by college educated white ladies. That is what the Democratic Party is. It is run by college educated white ladies who are disproportionately unmarried. This is evident from the polling from NBC News earlier this week. For example, Steve Kornacki says when it comes to positive or negative views of Trump among all voters, 46% positive, 49% negative. Among white voters, Trump is 52, 45, 52% positive. 69% of white men without degrees view Trump positively. Only 28% see him negatively. Among white women with degrees, it is 29% positive and 67% negative. That is a net negative of 38 points. That is a 79 point net rating gap between the two groups. Those splits are absolutely enormous. And by the way, it does not include white non college educated women. White women with no degree, for example, are plus 14 on Donald Trump. They are negative 38 on Donald Trump. If you're a white college educated woman, if you're a white college educated man, you're plus one on Trump. If you're a white man with no degree, you're plus 41 on Donald Trump. The gigantic outlier is not educational. It is educational and also sex based. White college educated women are enormously woke. Take for example the issue of dei. So in this NBC News poll, what it shows is that on DEI, white men with no college degree, negative 40. On DEI, white men with a college degree, negative 17. On DEI, white women, no degree, negative 1. On DEI, white women,. College degree plus 31. On DEI, plus 31. It is a truly, what a complete disaster area for the Democratic Party. They are holding to a one slice of the electorate and they're holding onto it tighter and tighter and letting it define them. This is why you end up with the popularity of people like Alexandro Ocasio Cortez, because Alexander Ocasio Cortez is appealing to one group of women, white college educated ladies overall. That is really her subgroup. Those are the people who want these sort of resistance nonsense. Here. She was just a couple of days ago saying that Americans, the Republicans, have disdain for working people because they make fun of her being a bartender. Well, yeah, we make fun of you being a bartender because you have not shown that you are qualified to be a useful person in the halls of Congress. And by the way, cosplaying as a blue collar working woman while earning a pretty good salary to live in a really nice Georgetown apartment, it doesn't play anymore.

Mary Margaret Olahan (44:53)

But I want you to understand that she isn't just talking about me here.

Ben Shapiro (44:58)

She's talking about you. She's talking about all of us.

Mary Margaret Olahan (45:04)

Because the entire job of the President's lawyer is to speak for him. Trump hired her to speak for him. So imagine what it means, means for our country that the President's own lawyer cannot even conceive of a working class person being intelligent simply because of the.

Ben Shapiro (45:28)

Job that they have. Ridiculous. Let's be clear. Trump voters are much Warmer toward your normal bartender than Democrats. Truly. Like across the country, Democrats are exactly the sort of people who believe that a degree in gender studies from Wellesley qualifies you for higher office. Alyssa Slotkin, who is the senator from Michigan who's attempting to do the James Carville routine, she actually spent yesterday slamming AOC and Bernie Sanders and said, what the hell do you guys do for a living? You're useless. All of those things require me to.

Mary Margaret Olahan (46:01)

Be more than just an aoc.

Ben Shapiro (46:04)

I can't do what she does because we live in a purple state and I'm a pragmatist.

Mary Margaret Olahan (46:09)

Everyone you mentioned has a lot of words, but what have they actually done.

Ben Shapiro (46:14)

To change the situation with Donald Trump and Senator Alyssa Slotkin in Michigan? And she, of course, is right. Ripping on Bernie and ripping on az. They haven't done anything. But that is gonna be their entire pitch going forward for the Democratic Party. We weren't involved in the system. They are a danger to the Democratic Party. Now. The real danger is that God forbid Bernie Sanders and AOCs start to gain credibility if there's an economic downturn. I've said this a thousand times. I will continue to say it. Bad economic policy is the greatest threat to the Trump administration. There's a bunch of good economic policy that they are currently doing, ranging from deregulation to presumably enshrining tax cuts permanently. The current tax rates should be maintained. All of that would be really, really good. But the markets are still quite nervous about the possibility of a major hike in tariffs come April 2. The Dow Jones is bouncing around a lot. It was up yesterday, it's down today. There's just a lot of turmoil in markets and a lot of lack of faith right now in what the markets are going to do. There's a reason for that. The Federal Reserve set out its projection yesterday, and what they suggested is that the president's tariff plans are likely to subdue the strength of the economy. Policymakers had presumed that they would spend 2025 gradually cutting rates to keep inflation heading down without a big rise in joblessness. According to the Wall Street Journal, the latest projections point to the prospect that tariffs covering a swath of goods and materials will actually send prices up while sapping investment sentiment and growth in the short. In the short term. Fed Chair Jerome Powell said, we now have inflation coming in from an exogenous source. The underlying inflationary picture before that was basically 2 1/2% inflation, 2% growth and 4% unemployment. Now officials are projecting weaker growth, higher unemployment and higher inflation. President Trump continues to push forward with the idea that, that there should be both tariffs and rate cuts, which is not a thing that's going to happen. He put out a statement on Wednesday saying, quote, the fate would be the Fed would be much better off cutting rates as US Tariffs start to transition and ease their ways into the economy. Do the right thing. But cutting rates in the middle of inflation that is still 50% too high while tariffs are increasing prices would actually not be the world's best move. The truth is that if you want to wipe inflation completely out, the Fed made mistake last year by artificially lowering those interest rates. They should have actually kept the interest rates where they were and let the inflation peter out in the economy. Now there is some good news again. The economy is ready to go in a lot of ways. For example, existing home sales rose 4.2% in February from the month prior to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.26 million, according to the national association of Realtors, which was far better than expectations. I think one of the reasons for that probably is that there are a lot of people who are now running out of cash and now they are going to have to try and sell their houses. And they figure that the interest rates on mortgages are not going to drop dramatically anytime in the near future. And so they're, they're basically giving up. And now they're selling their houses. There's more inventory. So people are buying those houses. However, there are people who are in fact capable of buying those houses. So you are seeing some action in the real estate markets. Weirdly enough, that action in the real estate markets might actually lead to prices going down as supply increases to meet demand. The Trump administration's number one goal at this point has to be a booming economy. All the other stuff is secondary. All right, folks, it is a Friday, so it's time for a cultural recommendation. So I have recommended the show Severance on Apple TV before. It is great. It is a truly terrific show. It's fascinating, it's interesting. It raises really interesting philosophical questions about identity, work, life, balance, relationships. It really is a fascinating show. So the season finale is out on Friday. I had a chance to watch it and I will say again, really well constructed show. It is doing the thing that Lost never did, which is answer the questions that it actually poses, which is wonderful. So I was a huge Lost fan for people who Remember back to 2007, 2008, Lost was a huge show on ABC. A fascinating show that posited a bunch of mysteries and then refused to answer any of them and suggested you were an idiot if you wanted to know the answers. Which is why Damon Lindelof, who wrote the shows of Schmuck. I'm still angry at Damon Lindelof. Here's an entire show filled with interesting mysteries and you have faith in the writers are gonna solve them. And then he says at the end of the show that if you want those mysteries answered well, you're just not mature. Well, then don't pose the mystery. I get it. Life is a mystery. But TV ought not be. So Severance is doing the opposite. Severance sets up a bunch of mysteries and then it actually starts solving those mysteries. So for those who haven't watched Severance, there will be spoilers. The setup for Severance is essentially that there is a process that has been invented by a company called Lumen Industries. And Lumen Industries has made it so that you can sever your brain in such a way that your work life is completely separate from the rest of your life. So you lead your life and then you get in an elevator, and as you go down the elevator, your brain actually changes when you get off the elevator. In your workplace, you don't know who you are, you don't know where you are. You just have your work life. And the purpose of this would be that when you get home, you're not thinking about work, and when you're at work, you're not thinking about home. And so it's for people who have trauma and they're trying to dissociate from that trauma and all of the rest. And so immediately you've set up some interesting sort of spiritual and identity based conundrums. Like, for example, if you have a completely separate identity when you go to your work life, a completely separate love life, because you might fall in love with a coworker because you don't even remember that you have a wife upstairs, for example. If you do that, is that a separate human? And if that person goes away, did you just kill a person? It's these sorts of questions that Severance is asking. What is the nature of identity? Is it. Is there. Is there a common thread between the different parts of your identity that holds them together? And it's wrapped into a really compelling plot with really likable and interesting characters and terrific writing. It's super weird and super interesting. So in the season two finale, the setup is that the main character, played by Adam Scott, is Mark Scout. When he goes into his innie world, which is sort of the employment world, then he's Known as Mark S. And he falls in love in the innie world with a woman who is not his wife. His wife supposedly died, but actually has been taken prisoner by Lumen, is being used in experiments, as it turns out. And he doesn't realize when he's in the innie world that he actually has a wife. So he falls in love with a coworker who it turns out, is working for the company in her Audi life. The Audi life is what's happening outside the workplace. The innie life is what's happening inside the workplace. And so Mark S finally breaks the barrier. The course of season two is about him sort of introducing his innie to his Audi and trying to find what is the connection between them and what their various interests are. Because it turns out that Mark Scout's wife is alive. And so his interest is in getting his innie to go and free his wife and then for him to basically turn back into Mark Scout as opposed to his innie, and then he and his wife can be together. And meanwhile the innie is saying, well, I have my own separate life down here, and sure, it's kind of hellish because we live in this cubicle office space, but I have a love life, I have somebody I love, I have friends, so you're asking me to give up my life to you. And so that's the central conflict of season two. It's really well thought out. The characters are really fascinating, all the way down to the certain characters who are sort of the indoctrinated parts of the Egan empire, which is Lumen Industries, particularly. The guy who plays Mr. Milchick is really a terrific actor. He's really great. It's a really well thought out show. The season finale really pays off and again, I won't spoil it for those who haven't seen it because it's still pretty early. It only came out late Thursday night on Apple tv, so a lot of people are gonna watch it tonight. Presumably. I will say that it pays off for those who've been watching, the show's great. More of this, more creative shows. There's so many paint by numbers pieces of content right now, and good for Ben Stiller and for his team for putting together a piece of content that truly is interesting, ask cool questions, is well plotted, is well written, truly well acted. I think it's the best TV show of the last several years. I mean, minimum, by the time it's over, if it continues to operate at this level, it's going to be one of the top five TV shows of all time. It really is that good. Severance is terrific. If you haven't seen it, you should get into it today. I will admit that I watched the first season thinking my wife wouldn't like it. And then like various travels last year and then this year I said, you know, season two's coming out. Maybe we should go back and watch season one. And after watching it, she's very angry at me that I didn't wait for her to watch season one. And so now she's all caught up. It is. It's great. Can't wait for season three. On it. Alrighty. Coming up, we'll get into some more cultural questions, including apparently LGBTQ + divided by signed narratives on Assassin's Creed Shadows, a video game and also images of the new Mattel doll have broken. We'll get to that momentarily. First, you do have to become a member. 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