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- [00:00]
A
Hey, everyone, it's me, Sam Stein with Will Summer for another episode of Mega Mondays. Sorry we came to you one minute late. I gotta blame our technicians. They're with our mics. No, I'm just joking. It was our fault. We're gonna get the mics to work. Technology. I think it's because it's raining. We have a pack show today. I'm so thrilled to be joined by Will because there's a lot to unpack. Honestly, when we were thinking about, like, the main stories, we definitely wanted to do golf again. But then we looked at the numbers from last week and decided we probably shouldn't do golf again. Bunch of you guys don't like golf. So we're going to be talking about the golden statue to Donald Trump down at his Doral property in Florida. We're going to be talking about the reflecting pool. What else we got on the docket?
- [00:45]
B
Well, we got Sean Duffy's road trip. Oh, trip. Yeah. This is such a packed schedule. There's stuff we're leaving on the table. You know, over the weekend, Laura Loomer claimed that a bunch of MAGA influencers are going to be exposed as Turkish agents. You know, now one has to, you know, take her with a grain of salt, as always.
- [01:02]
A
But maybe, maybe she would know the Paola system. If anyone knows the Paola system, it would be her. She knows.
- [01:09]
B
Yeah, she knows it inside and out.
- [01:11]
A
Yeah, I trust her on this one. All right, let's jump into it. We're going to start with the statue because this thing was blowing up online, basically. I saw a photo of it. I didn't think it was real at first. Can we put the photo of it up that we have? Yeah, let's put that up. It looks absurd. It's so massive.
- [01:32]
B
I.
- [01:32]
A
At first I thought it wasn't because it looked like it was some sort of Argentinian flag colors. It was draped in, like. I. It didn't make sense to me that this was actually real thing, that people thought that this was not the most gauche, embarrassing possible thing to put up. And yet it is real. Can you explain what's going on here?
- [01:51]
B
Yeah. So this is the creation of some guys hawking a cryptocurrency meme coin, I believe, called Patriot Dollar sign Patriot. And this has been a couple years in the making, you know, these meme coins. What you want is you want a big splash, right? You want some sense of, like, legitimacy. And so in this case, these guys commissioned this giant Trump statue. It got held up in, like, litigation or There were some disputes over payment with the sculptor. One thing I do want to note as we look at the sculpture here is the sculptor complained that the crypto guys made him make Trump skinnier than in reality. I think his initial model.
- [02:40]
A
All right, well, look, well, I think your Internet's kind of in and out, so let's hopefully get a good, good connection here. I'll just note. But I didn't really understand the drapes because there is like a weird toga type thing or Argentine, Argentinian flag thing. Then it created a stir online because Pastor Mark Burns, who is this Trump sycophantic pastor, was kind of forced to defend it for obvious reasons. Basically, he went on to Twitter and he was like, today. And let's put up the tweet if we can, while we deal with Will, and you can mute Will while he's trying to do all that stuff. Today at Trump National Doral, Miami, we witnessed an unforgettable moment with the dedication of a 22 foot statue honoring President Donald J. Trump. Let me be clear. This is not a holding calf. We worship the Lord Jesus Christ and him alone. The statue is a celebration of life. It is a symbol of resilience, freedom, patriotism, strength, and the willpower to keep fighting for the future of America. Look, there was a lot of people online who are a little bit uncomfortable with the statue for obvious reasons. It suggests that you're deifying a fake God. There's obviously biblical connotations to having a golden statue of that magnitude. But Pastor Burns stood by while he was very much adamant that this is not a golden calf, which, yeah, it's not a golden calf. It's just a huge golden trunk.
- [04:10]
B
Don't call it a golden calf. Right up top. I mean, it is pretty crazy. I mean, what's funny to me is, among other things, and I don't think we played the video, but basically they then Trump, Trump didn't even bother coming to. I mean, you kind of, maybe you don't want Trump there if this is new. Focused on the. Trump called in with Burns and they, you know, he, he, he said, you know, we, we love
- [04:40]
A
man Trump. Yeah, the Internet is total for you, Will. I appreciate that. I'm going to try to wing it while you figure it out how bad your Internet situation is. Don't leave, though. Just stay in. Let's play the Trump video. He did call in. Will's referencing this.
- [04:57]
C
It's. Everybody is taking pictures of it. Everybody is. My people told me that it's unbelievable. All day long, they're taking pictures. They stand up next to it and they have their picture taken. It really came out beautifully. I don't know what to expect. I just want to thank you all, and we love you all, and God bless America. God bless you, sir. God bless you. We love you.
- [05:19]
A
God bless you, Mr. President. I will just say it's, like, kind of pathetic that he couldn't even show up and that he had to do that. I feel a little bit for those guys. They look ridiculous, but they sort of deserve it. The other thing is, though, it's like, this is not the first statue of Trump in gold that has been put up. Our crack researchers unearthed this statue from CPAC 2021, if we can get it. No, that's the. That's the Doral one. Let's do the CPAC one.
- [05:45]
B
Were you there, Will, at the unveil? Oh, yes. I have seen that in person. And, you know, at the time, this made a stir. It's kind of like a Bart Simpson Trump, if you will. He's kind of like a little bad boy. He's wearing board shorts.
- [06:00]
A
It's ridiculous. And then you have, like, the whole Trump Bible thing, and obviously. And then what's it.
- [06:07]
B
What's.
- [06:07]
A
What's the woman's name? Who's, like, his lead pastor, who's kind of wild and she's. Do you know what I'm talking about? White. What's. Paula White?
- [06:14]
B
Paula White, yes.
- [06:15]
A
Yeah. So it's like this. I feel like this just fits into a larger pattern of sacrilege when it comes to Trump, but people just don't care. Obviously, I don't know what I'm talking about because I'm Jewish, but it does seem, like, problematic that they do this stuff.
- [06:29]
B
Yeah, I would say so. I mean. Yeah. You know, I think maybe you mentioned already the, you know, the image of Trump as Jesus and all this stuff. I mean, so it is. It is a. Yeah. And I mean, as our producer points out, I mean, the Golden Calf stuff goes back to Moses. So, you know, this is even a pre Christian issue.
- [06:46]
A
I think he was called. He was calling out my Judaism there. But I'm not gonna take offense to that.
- [06:51]
B
It is bizarre. You know, in the video, it's kind of funny. Like, from one angle, it almost looks like the statue's talking rather than Trump being on the phone. Like, if you don't see Mark, I really thought from the video that they had just, like, had a recording that was gonna be like, thank you so much for the statue. You know, one funny thing Here is that the. The Trump family, the sons, I think, have come out and said, we have nothing to do with this. Whatever. Well, besides the fact that it's being put up at Trump Doral, like, at your property, like, if you put up a big golden statue of yourself in front of your house, and he said, I don't know. I don't know who put it there. It really doesn't have anything to do with me.
- [07:21]
A
Well, it's funny you mention that, Will, because we actually made a statue, and we're gonna put up at the Bulwark for this occasion, and we did an artist rendering of. I don't know. Could we put. Is it ready for debut? Let's see if we can do it. Yeah, there it is. Okay. Yeah.
- [07:38]
B
Wow. Beautiful. Patron saint of podcasts. You know what? For optic purposes, I'm going to have to say I have nothing to do with this, but I do like it.
- [07:48]
A
Look at this. I mean, it matches the glory and splendor of the Trump giraffe One.
- [07:54]
B
You look. It's all golfers as well, which is
- [07:59]
A
a lot of men in golf attire, praying, daddy. I'm not sure why. Maybe they watched our show last week and they were just blown away by our golf content. You can see it's at the Bulwark Retreat, which does not exist. All hail Summer in signs. I'm not sure what the. Are they like. Yeah, there's flowers there and golf hats that they're paying. Why did they choose golf? I feel like our AI Slob could have been a little bit better, maybe more on point. But you look great.
- [08:30]
B
Thank you. Beautiful. Yeah, yeah, we can. We could take that haunting image down.
- [08:35]
A
No. Do you want to. Do you have anything to say like Trump did? What would you say?
- [08:38]
B
Yeah, they'll put me on the speakerphone and I'll say, thank you so much.
- [08:42]
A
Thank you so much. It's a beautiful statue.
- [08:44]
B
I did want to point out one more thing about this effort, which is that this was in part the brainchild of a guy named Dustin Stockton. And I was reading about this MAGA activist Dustin Stockton, and I said, now, where do I know that name from? We Build the Wall. He was involved. He was one of the key fundraisers on We Build the Wall, which sent, you know, among other things, it's, you know, it's leader to prison. So this is the kind of people who are behind the Trump golden statue.
- [09:07]
A
Just remind, and let's hope your Internet stays stable enough that you can finish this thought. Who paid for it? Again, like, how did where did the money come from for this?
- [09:15]
B
It was paid for by the creators of this cryptocurrency called Patriot.
- [09:20]
A
And the idea probably is they're trying to curry favor with Trump to get some regulatory.
- [09:24]
B
They're trying to make Trump like them. And I think they're also trying to kind of get some kind of Trump shine onto their meme coin so that people say, oh, this is like a quasi Trump endorsed meme coin.
- [09:35]
A
Everything is such a grift. But it's also so funny because it's like the most ridiculous things that would embarrass anyone are what you have to do for Trump. You have to build up a big golden statue. I'd be humiliated. I'd be mortified. I'd be, I'd say, take it down. But he's like, you know, it looks, looks kind of good. And then there's one other quote from Pastor Robert Jeffress, who said, who was trying to like, justify it. And he goes, and, you know, the great irony is it looks like President Trump has a better understanding of the bi. Of what the Bible teaches about the role of government than the Pope has. And I'm glad the president hasn't backed on. I'm sorry, that's in reference to him arguing with the Pope somewhat. Semi related story. So, yeah, all right.
- [10:17]
B
Yeah, we can move on. Edition of the Bible that, you know, golden calves or golden Trumps are good.
- [10:22]
A
We're gonna skip to the reflecting pool, so. And we'll do Duffy third. So I've been sort of tickled by this story about what's going on at the reflecting pool. People probably been following it basic. Just as Donald Trump wanted, a big repair was going to happen to reflecting pool. Because reflecting pool is a kind of architectural disaster. Low hanging water to make a reflection. But it means that it's going to get just, you know, filled with algae. It drains poorly. Like something like, you know, you have to repair it once a year. Potentially got to fix the p. The, the pivots. You got to repair all the time they tried to repair during the Biden administration. It was going to cost a lot. Donald Trump comes in and says, you know, I could do it for a lot cheaper and I can make it better and I could do it in time for July 4th. And so he's like, I'm gonna paint the reflecting pool blue like a swimming pool, and it's just gonna seal it. It's going to be a poor, a small portion of the price tag, and you're gonna have beautiful blue reflection. And it Turns out it hasn't gone to plan. So a big New York Times article over the weekend looked at the company that he had hired to do it. It appears to have some connection loosely with his Golf Properties, but has never done a project of this magnitude. It was no bid contract shocker. And already it's looking like a logistical nightmare because the way they've planned it, in addition to Trump literally driving over with his motorcade, it's going to turn green. And so before I get to. Well, I just want to read a couple portions of this Time article because it's ridiculous. Let's start with this. The government documents obtained by the time say the contract has already cost far more than Mr. Trump said it would and that the repairs would be needed again far sooner. They also show that Mr. Trump's plan does not address one of the pool's main problems, faulty plumbing in the in its filtration system. As a result, experts said it's unclear if Mr. Trump's pool will remain blue or if it would be soon be obscured by a recurring layer of green algae. Painting is not going to solve that problem, said Tim Arhan, the chairman of the Aquatic Council consulting firm for the pool and hot tub industry. Mr. Arhan said he was also concerned about Mr. Trump's decision to drive his motorcade across the pool surface on Thursday night to hold a press event highly the renovations that might have put a huge amount of weight on the notorious leaky and newly repaired joints between the concrete slabs. Quote, if it were my project, I require an immediate inspection, he said. All right, well, what do you make of this? And do we have any photos of it? Because we could put them up while we're talking. Yeah, here we go.
- [12:55]
B
You know, when I saw this last week, I thought, oh, jeez, is the reflecting pool like, highway grade?
- [13:01]
A
I don't think so.
- [13:02]
B
I mean, you know, these are not just regular SUVs. These are like some of the heaviest SUVs in America with all the security equipment and the armor plating and what have you. So it is totally crazy. I mean, this, you know, a few weeks ago when this all began, the MAGA people were like, you know, the Obama or excuse me, Biden had this plan to fix the pool. It was gonna cost hundreds of millions of dollars, but we figured out you can just slap a coat of paint on it. I thought, well, that doesn't really make sense. Really. I mean, you know, if the whole issue is the algae, you know, the algae will still look at this.
- [13:34]
A
The paint's not even uniform. What is going on here?
- [13:39]
B
It looks really, really bad. Yeah. You know, you mentioned that this company doesn't have a lot of experience doing this. Someone looked at their website and some of the examples were like, well, we sealed like five parking spots at an apartment building or we sealed like this small staircase at a school. So I mean, it's crazy. I think this is something that, you know, clearly this is like a rush job ahead of the July 4th at 250 and you know, I, I suspect even before this administration is over, we'll be dealing with this again.
- [14:10]
A
Yeah. Okay, to your point, the pool repair cut. This is from the Times. The pool repair contract was given on April 3rd to Atlantic Industrial Coatings, which is based in New Canton, Virginia. Contracting records show the firm had never previously held a federal contract. That's great. Mr. Trump said he consulted with three companies that had worked on his swimming pools, but he chose one that had performed work at his Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia. Problem is, as the piece goes on, Atlantic Industrial Coatings does not appear to advertise an expertise in painting swimming pools. Company's website show it specializes in waterproofing highway culverts, pipes, roofs, and chemical and water storage tanks. The site does not mention swimming pools at golf clubs, at Trump golf clubs or anywhere else. So it looks like we just found these guys somehow. I'm eager for the follow up reporting on this.
- [14:58]
B
Well, they have a pretty badass logo. I don't know, you know, can we show the picture where it's kind of the overhead shot. I think it's maybe the next one in the slideshow. This one? Yeah.
- [15:06]
A
Let's download.
- [15:07]
B
Look at this bad ass. It's like a, like a, it's like a guy with all the gear on, the mask gear and he's just like spray painting an American flag. And so I don't know if Trump saw that and said, that's cool, you know, let's let them take care of one of America's most treasured monuments.
- [15:23]
A
It gets to a larger thing that in this, I'm not trying to be, I'm not trying to joke by bringing the golf course back up because there was a breakthrough in the golf course. They did have a deal. Trump is going to take over East Potomac, but the other two golf courses,
- [15:36]
B
I think we could take this down. Yeah, I think we got.
- [15:38]
A
Yeah, we could take. Yeah, so it does get to this, which is the imperial of it all. Like just absolutely bulldozing small and big projects, sentimental works, historical works, whatever. And like if it Gets done. It gets done. Like, like where? I have no confidence in, in how it's going to get done. But if you can't do a reflecting pool like this, what are you going do with the Kennedy Center? Right? Like they have a two year reno for the Kennedy Center. They are supposed to renovate the East Potomac Golf Course. Now they obviously have the ballroom that they have to do. Apparently they're going to paint the old executive office building next to the White House, which is a massive edifice. They're just going to paint it white. Are they going to go to the aquatics company and do that again? Like, hey, you did such a bang up job on this. Like, come on down the block. It is, it's destructive and it's imperial and it is narcissistic to think that you can just do this. And, you know, if it gets done, it gets done. If not, who cares? And now the other thing that I saw is they're going forward with the UFC fight for.
- [16:46]
B
Oh, yes, yes. I have something to contribute on this.
- [16:49]
A
Yeah, go for it.
- [16:50]
B
So me and the boys, we really wanted to go and so, you know, unfortunately, I don't think you can get tickets to the thing itself, but they have a, they have like UFC day on the Saturday. It's like a big fan festival at the Ellipse. And then they have like the weigh in or something. There's some other thing on that Sunday. Or maybe they're signing, simulcasting the fight. And so we all applied for tickets and I thought, there's no way, you know, this UFC mania has hit dc. There's no way we can get tickets. But everyone who applied got, got two tickets. So I think I, you know, the Ellipse is pretty big, so maybe.
- [17:21]
A
Did you get two tickets?
- [17:23]
B
Yeah, yeah. So I'll, I'll be, you know, I'll be posted up at. Yeah, you want to go see? You know, maybe we can do a little brawl, maybe we can weigh in, whatever.
- [17:31]
A
I have zero desire, honestly. Zero desire. Have you gone to a UFC fight?
- [17:36]
B
No, I mean, this is truly like American carnage type stuff. You know, it's like we're all living in D.C. we might as well go see what the country has come to. So it is though, right?
- [17:46]
A
It's like so insane to me. Just gonna use the White House front lawn for this. It's insane.
- [17:51]
B
Well, and they posted some like, kind of image. I don't think we have it, but just sort of like what it's supposed to look like. And it's like, well, yeah, I guess that's if you put a big UFC fight in front of the White House.
- [18:00]
A
We gotta find that image. It does look ridiculous. There was also some question about whether the tickets are being like or sponsorships are sold off for like a million to a million and a half dollars. Did you see that?
- [18:10]
B
Yes.
- [18:11]
A
I mean, I. So they, the UFC said this is going to be a free fight. Anyone could come. It's open to the public. They're going to lose $30 million on is how they've said it publicly, but apparently they're selling sponsorships for like an insane amount of money and people are buying them up, so.
- [18:26]
B
Well, you know, UFC guy, Dana White is famously a big time gambler. He's.