Why Trump Is Fuming About Deranged Speech Fallout

Summary

---

The Daily Beast Podcast

Episode: Why Trump Is Fuming About Deranged Speech Fallout
Host: Joanna Coles
Guest: Hugh Docherty (Executive Editor, The Daily Beast)
Date: July 18, 2026

---

Episode Overview

This episode unpacks the political chaos and controversy following former President Donald Trump’s most recent “deranged” speech—a primetime address snubbed by major networks, sparking Trump’s public fury. Host Joanna Coles is joined by Hugh Docherty to dissect the fallout, analyze the speech’s content and significance, and explore wider implications for the Republican Party, Democratic responses, and American institutions. Key topics include the 25th Amendment calls, J.D. Vance’s questionable vice presidential conduct, the ongoing culture of grift in Trump’s circle, and a lively America 250 segment on American innovation with PMI U.S. CEO Stacy Kennedy.

---

Main Discussion: Trump’s Speech and Its Fallout

What Happened: Trump’s Unprecedented Primetime Address

• Trump’s Speech: Trump delivered an 18-minute White House address, airing grievances and recycling debunked claims about the 2020 election, but was notably cut from major networks’ primetime slots, fueling his anger ([05:20]).
• Energy & Tone: Trump sounded “low T,” raspy, and unenergetic:

  “The rest of the speech was, if I'm honest, a bit low T… he was raspy… not standing energetically, and he went through a whole lot of grievances.”
  — Hugh Docherty ([05:20])

Key Themes & Insights

1. Trump's Obsession With Ratings

• Trump's outrage stemmed more from being boycotted by media than the actual speech content.
• He targeted ABC and NBC, demanding “revenge” for not airing his address:

  “He demanded that they face revenge for not showing this speech. The rest of the speech was… low T.”
  — Hugh Docherty ([05:20])

2. Content and Contradictions

• The speech was a “conspiratorial rambling,” featuring China conspiracy theories with no evidence:

  “He went through a whole load of grievances... weird, sort of unconnected thoughts… complains there was interference by China. He doesn’t offer any proof.”
  — Hugh Docherty ([06:35])

• Irony: Trump’s own document “leaks” aiming to prove interference actually contained nothing secret and demonstrated the transparency of the U.S. electoral system ([08:17]).

3. The 25th Amendment and Democratic Response

• Gavin Newsom: Immediate viral response calling Trump a “mad king” and stating it’s a "legitimate 25th amendment moment":

  “Nothing about what you watched tonight... was real. It's make believe.”
  — Gavin Newsom, per Hugh Docherty ([11:35])

• Newsom’s quick, energetic social media response characterized the split between an aging, incoherent Trump and the Democratic “rising stars.”

4. Courts and the Truth

• Joanna Coles stresses the court’s thorough examination and rejection of election fraud claims:

  “There were more than 90 separate court cases… none was found to be true… the truth is, Joe Biden won. It’s really simple.”
  — Joanna Coles ([07:41], [08:17])

---

Standout Moments and Notable Quotes

Jon Ossoff’s Interrogation of Jay Clayton (13:52)

• Ossoff’s questioning brings national attention and cements his standing among 2028 Democratic hopefuls:

  "You refused to answer a basic question about who won a presidential election but you ask to lead America's intelligence community. Isn't it humiliating to be unable to answer this question, to have to indulge the President's delusions?"
  — Jon Ossoff ([13:52])

• Hugh Docherty:

  “It was absolutely electric... it demonstrated so much about the weird world of MAGA… He is at the peak of his legal career and yet, this guy was reduced to mumbling incoherence.” ([14:40])

The Ramblings of a “Mad King”

“The only thing missing tonight in Donald Trump’s speech was tinfoil.”
— Joanna Coles ([11:31])

On JD Vance’s Behavior as Vice President

• J.D. Vance criticized for misusing Marine Two to ferry his son to golf lessons and for “diva-esque” Secret Service demands:

  “This is really, really bad. Almost without precedent. Secret Service agents… have been leaking about the diva esque royalty level demands that are being put on them.”
  — Hugh Docherty ([17:58])

• Coles’s biting humor:

  “Well, that’s what people pay their taxes for? For the Vances to fly Marine Two and their child to his golf lesson? I don’t think so.”
  ([20:21])

---

Deep Dive: Hypocrisy, Power, and Grift in MAGA World

J.D. Vance: Contradictions and Criticism

• Vance’s hypocrisy highlighted by President Obama, especially regarding his comments on American “authenticity” and his own family’s immigrant background ([24:19]).
• Tension identified between Vance and Trump cabinet hardliners on immigration and diversity.

Grift and Monetization in the Trump Era

• Trump’s monetization efforts spotlighted, including new attempts to monetize Truth Social posts for financial-market insiders ([43:09]):

  “It’s as if he’s setting up his own sort of Bloomberg version... He’s now his own teleprompter operator.”
  — Joanna Coles & Hugh Docherty ([43:09], [43:19])

• Trump’s teleprompter operator busted for betting on ThinkMarkets with insider knowledge of Trump’s speeches, yet only receives a quiet settlement from DOJ ([36:58]–[39:52]).

• Ongoing issues with government contracts bypassing regulations, as evidenced by the failed repairs on the Reflecting Pool—a contract awarded on a “friends and loyalists” basis ([43:39]).

---

Other Political Highlights

Pete Hegseth and Military “Low T”

• Discussion of Secretary Pete Hegseth’s new policy to offer mandatory military testosterone testing:

  “He’s testing people in the military... compulsory tests... claiming that he’s very focused on the individual warrior... he might want to give one to his boss, Donald Trump.”
  — Joanna Coles ([29:14])

• Hugh:

  “He claims that high testosterone is the path to military greatness. Unfortunately, he has already been… checked on his facts by doctors who say… this is not necessarily scientifically proven.” ([31:37])

• Hegseth’s fitness-obsessed public persona lampooned as he is seen to use the military as a “personal training school” ([33:26]).

---

America 250 Segment: Toward the Future of American Innovation

With Stacy Kennedy, CEO PMI U.S.: ([46:33] onward)

The State of American Manufacturing

• Kennedy describes PMI’s new plant in Colorado as emblematic of U.S. workforce ingenuity and the importance of community partnerships ([49:54]).

Culture of Reinvention

• Kennedy’s ethos centers around continuous innovation and pragmatic problem-solving:

  “Each move, each job is an opportunity to step back and assess… what do I think, how do I think I showed up as a leader… and then what would I change if I could?” ([60:03])

Human + AI and the Future

• Emphasis on pragmatic use of new technology—human plus machine—rather than gadgets for their own sake ([51:29]).

Leadership, Literacy & Debate

• Kennedy shares family stories of fostering debate, critical thinking, and reading as pathways to future leadership:

  “When you’re discussing a book, your attention span is completely in a different place. Then as a family you can debate the book or your views on it.” ([65:25])

What Makes American Workers Unique

• Kennedy:

  “Americans can be rule followers and they can be rule breakers at the right moment… in America, it’s ingenuity. I need to solve a problem, but I can’t solve this problem the same way I solved the last problem.” ([68:28])

---

Timestamps for Key Segments

| Segment | Timestamp | |------------------------------------------------------|----------------| | Trump’s speech fallout begins | [05:20] | | Gavin Newsom’s viral 25th Amendment response | [11:31] | | Jon Ossoff grills Jay Clayton | [13:52] | | J.D. Vance Secret Service leaks | [17:58] | | Pete Hegseth and “low T” military mandates | [29:14] | | Trump’s teleprompter operator betting scandal | [36:58] | | Trump monetizing Truth Social posts | [43:09] | | Reflecting Pool grift example | [43:39] | | PMI/Innovation/America 250 discussion | [46:33]–[70:17]|

---

Tone and Style

Consistently lively, irreverent, and deeply analytical—Joanna Coles and Hugh Docherty mix biting humor (“The only thing missing tonight in Trump’s speech was tinfoil”), pointed critique (on MAGA “intellectual dissonance”), and generational contrast (between Trump’s enervation and Newsom/Ossoff’s energetic political ascendance). The podcast feels like a whip-smart current affairs dinner party—insider-y without being insular, brisk, and unwilling to let political absurdity pass unchallenged.

---

Memorable Quotes

• “It seemed to be a sort of incoherent, conspiratorial rambling, using the Oval Office to validate these frankly bonkers claims.”
  — Joanna Coles ([07:41])
• “No more American frag brew… the Daily Beast are robustly fair and accurate. So only fair and accurate to point that out.”
  — Hugh Docherty ([44:34])
• “I don't understand how Usha Vance gets into bed with J.D. Vance at the end of the evening, assuming they do well.”
  — Joanna Coles ([24:49])

---

For Listeners: Key Takeaways

• Trump’s struggle for media attention and validation is intensifying, with his own actions increasingly self-defeating.
• The Republican Party is wracked by internal contradictions and ethics scandals at the highest levels (Vance, teleprompter operator).
• Democrats are showcasing rising talent—Newsom and Ossoff—in sharp generational, rhetorical, and ethical contrast.
• The culture of grift under Trump persists, from government contracts to monetizing presidential musings.
• Broader discussions about the future of American industry and community hinge on leadership, adaptability, and real innovation.

---

For more explosive news and sharp commentary, new episodes drop every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. Use #America250 to join the conversation!

Transcript

[Hugh Docherty]

Hey, it's Ryan Reynolds here for Mint Mobile. Now, I was looking for fun ways to tell you that Mint's offer of unlimited Premium Wireless for $15 a month is back. So I thought it would be fun

[Stacy Kennedy]

if we made $15 bills, but it

[Hugh Docherty]

turns out that's very illegal. So there goes my big idea for the commercial. Give it a [e-mail] Switch upfront payment

[Stacy Kennedy]

of $45 for three months, $90 for six months or $180 for a 12 month plan. Required $15 per month equivalent taxes and fees. Extra initial plan term only greater than 50 gigabytes. Me slow when network is busy.

[Hugh Docherty]

See terms he want on primetime. There's nothing he loves more than being on primetime. He was boycotted effectively. He was switched off by ABC and by NBC. And the angriest and honestly, the most alive bit of this speech on Thursday night was when he demanded that they face revenge for not showing this speech. The rest of the speech was, if I'm honest, a bit low T. He was raspy. He he was not standing energetically, and he went through a whole lot of grievances. He's very sore about what happened six years ago and he became president again. But he can't get over that he lost.

[Joanna Coles]

I'm Joanna Coles. This is the Daily Beast podcast and it's Friday, so it must mean Hugh Docherty, the Daily Beast's executive editor, is here to process the week. You get to hear how the sausage is made in our brains as we dissect the week's news. Is it about low T? Is it about explosive diarrhea? Oh, dear, I can't believe I even said that out loud either. Is it about J.D. vance taking advantage of Marine too, to helicopter his son to a golf lesson? And is it about the way President Obama so carefully and diligently and deliciously sliced up JD Vance on a plate? Well, let's find out. Before we do smash the subscription button and let's get to it with Hugh Doherty. Hugh Docherty, executive Editor of the Daily Beast where are you, Joanna?

[Hugh Docherty]

I am in Ohio. I'm in J.D. vance's home state. I'm just outside Cleveland on what is known locally as America's north coast on Lake Erie. And I am also in the smoke, as I think many of us are in this country right now.

[Joanna Coles]

Yes, I can assure you as I cycled in on my city bike this morning, the air quality was not great. We will be talking about J.D. vance and the fact he's been using Marine Two to helicopter his children around as a taxi service on their way to golf lessons. Not very relatable, I'll warrant. But clearly he's going to try and use his son to curry favor with his boss, the president. But I think it's fair to say. Well, I very much hope I should ask you, did you stop off at a Taco Bell at the airport on your way to J.D. vance's home state?

[Hugh Docherty]

Luckily. Luckily I did not. Joanna, I was forewarned that a visit to the Bell is actually not very wise at the moment because of a reason that I know we've got an unpleasant reason, but there is an explosive diarrhea bug spreading across the and it has now been traced to one of Taco Bell's suppliers, ironically, in Mexico. And I'm sure that many in MAGA might have something to say about that.

[Joanna Coles]

I think they will. But what I was going to say is it's an explosive week for news. I barely know where to begin. We've had the Jay Clayton and the Todd Blanche hearings. We've got Donald Trump's bonkers speech from the White House, which I've got various thoughts about, and I know you have, and the White House itself has just sort of exploded at the negative reaction that Donald Trump has received from that speech. We've got Donald Trump's teleprompter operator being hauled up because he's been betting on polymarket and Kalshee about the contents of the president's speech. Yes, because he read them in advance. We've got Donald Trump trying to monetize his truth socials by selling them to Wall street in advance. Advance. Huey, where to begin? I suspect we begin, I mean, we could begin with Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, saying this is a really serious moment and it's a 25th Amendment moment after watching the president use the White House to spin his conspiracy theories about 2020, which he still seems remarkably sore about. But what struck you this morning?

[Hugh Docherty]

Well, all of that, Joanna. Luckily, explosive diarrhea did not strike me

[Joanna Coles]

and so far I've been safe. I'm not a consumer of Taco Bell, actually, but I definitely am not going to be now, I'm sure, sell shares in Taco Bell.

[Hugh Docherty]

Again. We always say we're not stock tipsters on this show.

[Joanna Coles]

We're definitely not stock tips. Maybe buy the dip, Hugh. Maybe buy the dip.

[Hugh Docherty]

Well, that would certainly be a dip, wouldn't it? Yes. Don't live mass. I think the biggest thing. Well, I think there are two huge things out of this speech first of all, the biggest thing for Trump, Trump spoke for 18 minutes, and many people who are watching now won't have seen it. And that's the thing that really angered him. He wanted this speech to be on primetime. There's nothing he loves more than being on primetime. There's nothing he loves more than ratings. And he was boycotted, effectively. He was switched off by ABC and by NBC. And the angriest, and honestly, the most alive bit of this speech on Thursday night was when he demanded that they face revenge for not showing this speech. The rest of the speech was, if I'm honest, a bit low T, as is now what you now see in MAGA circles, right? He was raspy, he was not quite slumped, but he was not standing energetically. And he went through a whole load of grievances that, as you just said, Joanna, he's very sore. He's very sore about what happened six years ago and he became president again. But he can't get over that he lost. And in the course of that 18 minutes, he came out with a whole load of half facts, half baked claims, weird, you know, sort of unconnected thoughts which he, in his mind appears to think prove that somehow China, the latest target, interfered in the 2020 election and may have helped Joe Biden get there. And there's an obvious intellectual dissonance in this. Not two words that one often associates with Donald Trump. But he complains that there was interference by China. He doesn't offer any proof. He didn't even say that they changed votes or that they'd got Joe Biden to win. So this speech effectively acknowledged that Joe Biden had won because it didn't say the opposite. And he talked about China, and yet he has described himself as an admirer and a friend of Xi Jinping, the Chinese leader.

[Joanna Coles]

Well, it seemed to be a sort of incoherent, conspiratorial rambling, using the Oval Office to validate these frankly bonkers claims, claims that have been taken seriously in the past. I mean, goodness knows, I think there were more than 90 separate court cases looking at allegations of alleged election fraud. None was found to be to be true. And this is him basically setting up for the midterms, saying, listen, guys, if I lose, it's nothing to do with me. People love me. They love the Republicans. It's someone else's fault.

[Hugh Docherty]

Yes, well, I think you're absolutely right. The big word there was seriously. These claims were taken seriously and they were dealt with by courts and they were dismissed. So we know what the truth is the truth is Joe Biden won. It's really simple. But the other thing, the other big takeaway I think for me out of this and for many others is that there is an element here of self owning. He released a whole tranche of documents which were supposed to prove his case. And the problem is that they did the opposite. They showed that China had access to US electoral records. They also showed that those are records that are publicly available that you can go and download. Some states make them freely available, some states sell them. You can go and get these.

[Joanna Coles]

No. And the point for the states that make them available, the point is transparency. Right, Exactly. Look at the voter rolls. This is completely transparent material. That's the point of the process. We know that there is nothing wrong with the American electoral process. We saw what happened when Fox News claimed that the voting machines owned by Dominion were somehow faulty. Dominion sued and they settled for just under $1 billion. And the head of Tucker Carlson, Tucker Carlson, who was the lead news presenter on Fox News, was part of the deal that Fox made in a settlement with Dominion to say there's absolutely nothing wrong with Dominion voting machines. So this is something the Repub or the MAGA wing of the Republican Party have banged on about with absolutely no factual underpinning whatsoever.

[Hugh Docherty]

Correct. And it's very noticeable, just as a side note, it's very noticeable that Donald Trump did not name names or name companies or name people because, well, and

[Joanna Coles]

he didn't name the elections that he won. How come he won in 2016, how come he won in 2024? It all seems bonkers. What did you think of Gavin Newsom hopping into his back garden, which looked very nice. I'm assuming it was his back garden or the back garden of residents, and saying, time for the 25th amendment, guys.

[Hugh Docherty]

A tale of two screens. On one screen, Donald Trump, old raspy, let's be honest, didn't sound great.

[Joanna Coles]

He sounded bored by his own conspiracies. I thought, oh, my goodness, he might fall asleep in the middle of his own speech and goodness knows he's capable of doing that.

[Hugh Docherty]

Would anybody have been surprised? It was not energetic? And then almost instantly, Gavin Newsom on Instagram, on Twitter, on social media, phone in hand, as you know, people do, young, energetic, bouncing around outside in the sunshine. A new beginning and an absolute, absolutely virally coherent expression of what this was. The ramblings of a mad king.

[Joanna Coles]

Well, the only thing missing tonight in Donald Trump's speech was tinfoil.

[Hugh Docherty]

This was a legitimate 25th amendment moment. The ramblings of A mad king. Don't get me wrong. Foreign interference in our elections, that's a real thing. Nothing about what you watched tonight, though, was real. It's make believe.

[Joanna Coles]

He wants to rig the election in 2026.

[Hugh Docherty]

He knows he's going to lose. He needs to rig the election before one vote was cast. There's no doubt that Gavin Newsom at the moment is the presumptive first, the front runner for the Democratic nomination in 2028. Of course, other people may emerge. However, the important thing about this is in the one big moment that Trump has been hyping and hyping and hyping, Gavin Newsom was right there. He reacted immediately and he reacted in a way that people are talking about hours and hours after the speech, when they're not talking about the speech, they're talking about Gavin Newsom and they're talking about the 25th Amendment. The right window treatments change everything. Your sleep, your privacy, the way every room looks and feels. @blinds.com, we've spent 30 years making it surprisingly simple to get exactly what your home needs. We've covered over 25 million windows and have 50,000 five star reviews to prove we deliver. Whether you DIY it or want a pro to handle everything from measure to install, we have you covered. Real design professionals, free samples, zero pressure right now. Get up to 40% off site wide, plus get a free professional measure. @blinds.com rules and restrictions apply.

[Joanna Coles]

There was another politician who shot up, I think, the Democratic poll for potential presidential candidate in 2028, and that was, of course, the Senator from Georgia, John Ossoff, who had a masterful bit of questioning in frankly, what feels like it's been a pretty weak showing from the Democrats at the hearings for both Todd Blanche and Jay Clayton. Jay Clayton, who's up for the Tulsi Gabbard vacancy as head of of National Intelligence. Jon Ossoff asked him who'd won the election, you know, did he agree that Joe Biden had won the election? Jay Clayton wasn't really able to say it, and he came in with an amazing response.

[Hugh Docherty]

You refused to answer a basic question about who won a presidential election, but you asked to lead America's intelligence community. Isn't it humiliating to be unable to answer this question, to have to indulge the President's delusions? We know, you know, everybody in this room knows the truthful answer to that question. Why can you not give it?

[Joanna Coles]

I mean, for me, that was the quote of the week. It was a standout quote of the week. It was calm, it was logical, it wasn't angry. And it made a brilliant, brilliant emotional point at what these guys have to do to prostrate themselves in front of Trump.

[Hugh Docherty]

It was absolutely electric. There is no doubt that Jon Ossoff immediately tucked in behind Gavin Newsom in the Democratic running here. But it also, it demonstrated so much about the weird world of maga, the weird world in which these people live. Just to go back, Jay Clayton was a partner at Sullivan and Cromwell. That's one of the most prestigious law firms. In theory, I'll just say in theory. This is a guy who knows what the law is. This is a guy who at the moment is possibly the single most powerful prosecutor in the country. He is the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, which is the biggest office of federal prosecutors. It's always been the most powerful. It's one that has made far reaching prosecutions. So he is at the peak of his legal career and yet this guy was reduced to mumbling incoherence. And, you know, he looked, let's not get too into the appearance here, but Jay Clayton has always been admired by those who know him for his hair. It's the thing that everybody talks about. Jay Clayton, great hair.

[Joanna Coles]

Well, and it's the thing that Donald.

[Hugh Docherty]

Right.

[Joanna Coles]

And it's the thing that Donald Trump loves about his cabinet. Right. He sets them for central casting. Yes.

[Hugh Docherty]

And yet here was central casting really at work. Young, brilliant senator, let's be honest, bit old, bit unshaven, bit questionable on the hair color, guy up against each other. And one was forensic. He was not angry, as you say, Joanna. He was calm. And he kept going and he kept going. And he exposed, whether it's a moral or intellectual vacuum at the heart of Jay Clayton, his dream judge, but he exposed what happens when people get inside this Trump realm and have to do this bizarre dance of not just admitting, not just agreeing. Joe Biden won the 2020 election, but

[Joanna Coles]

also, it seems such a waste of time to look back for Trump on 2020. Why is he, I mean, if you were a shrink, and we should ask Dr. John Gartner this, but why is he fixed on the moment of losing when he won an election on either side of it? There's something that, you know, it's like a dog being drawn back to its own vomit. There's something that he spirals around there. And if he had won it, he wouldn't be in power now.

[Hugh Docherty]

Right. He would be former President Trump and he wouldn't have got the Olympics and the World Cup. And all the things that he was enthusiastic in America 250 and all the things he's boasted about having. So, yeah, it's a crazy obsession. I knew you were going to talk to Michael Wolfe about it.

[Joanna Coles]

So, Hugh, we've discussed the president. Let's discuss the Vice President using Marine two as a personal taxi for his son to take him to a golf lesson. And then, then of course, President Obama picked up on something that J.D. vance said.

[Hugh Docherty]

So this is not a good week for to be J.D. vance. I'll just be honest, I'm not sure

[Joanna Coles]

it's ever a good week to be J.D.

[Hugh Docherty]

vance, ever. I know he's kind of, he's always in the smoke, isn't he? So, J.D. vance, Hillbilly Elegy, humble background. You know, he claims to be from Appalachia. We do know he is actually from the greater Cincinnati suburbs. But, you know, certainly a tough upbringing. A state university, a state college, the Marines, an enlisted Marine. You know, there's a lot of, you know, a lot of humble background, all off the Secret Service. And this is really bad. This is really, really bad. Almost without precedent. Secret Service agents from inside his detail have been leaking about the diva esque royalty level demands that are being put on them. It's so bad that they have come up with badges that they swap with each other and they use obviously Vance and Obama and Trump and everybody who's protected by the Secret Service have code names. J.D. vance's code name is Bobcat. Again, not entirely clear. I don't know if they have Bobcats in the greater Cincinnati suburbs. But his nickname, his codename is Bobcat. And they're exchanging badges with each other saying Bobcat Survivors Club. And it has the motto tbd. Tbd. Because he and USHA keep changing their arrangements. That's really bad for security. Changing arrangements is expensive. It's difficult, it's hugely demanding on these agents who do incredibly difficult and demanding work. And another one has the, has a shield and it says on it Carplane commander because he moves about so much they have to fly his cars around. But as we heard, he's flying to the golf course with his son to learn how to play golf. He was taking Marine to, you know, helicopter as Trump. You see Trump getting on Marine One when Vans gets in, it is called Marine Two. He was taking it from the old Naval Observatory for the family live across to another, the golf course across the other side of the city. I mean, is that relatable? Is that, is that, you know, is that.

[Joanna Coles]

Well, that's what people pay their taxes for? For the Vances to fly Marine to and their child to his golf lesson? I don't think so.

[Hugh Docherty]

It's not a minivan. J.D.

[Joanna Coles]

we should ask people to put in comments. Is this what you're paying your taxes for? Are you happy with the idea that J.D. vance is ferrying his son to a golf lesson on Marine 2?

[Hugh Docherty]

And by the way, he and Usha are also going to lease a country estate about 40 or 50 miles outside of D.C. in Virginia. And that means more movement, more travel, more security arrangements. We know the Secret Service are unhappy with them because they're leaking. And the Secret Service don't leak. We have wild rumors about difficulties with the clintons that emerged 15 years after they had left the White House. I am not aware that we have ever seen such a direct pipeline of behavior to leak with a Secret Service protectee in this sort of form. And especially these internal badges, which are a joke and are funny and we can see on screen now. But that's not something we're supposed to see. However, as you said, that wasn't even the only bad news this week for JD he also got a cutting put down, I think is one way you could put it.

[Joanna Coles]

I was going to say

[Hugh Docherty]

bitch slapped. Yes, choice hotels get you more of what you value. Here's a little tune to help you remember. Same drive, different day don't you wish you were getting away? Pack your bags and come on through Texas, Ohio, Alaska we're up there, too Comfort Inn, it's calling your name Save on the stay oh, and free waffles are yours to claim well, I hope you like my little song book. [e-mail] Right.

[Joanna Coles]

By President Obama, who appeared on the writer Malcolm Gladwell. He has a podcast. He appeared on that podcast and highlighted something that many of us don't understand about J.D. vance.

[Hugh Docherty]

Right? So J.D. vance. And actually there's a personal element to this as well, I think, and a very sort of personal element for Obama, because J.D. vance had been podcasting himself this week. He was supposed to go and meet a Republican group of members of the Republican House. And instead he went to Joe Rogan, because Joe Rogan, bigger than Congress. And he was asked about this appalling moment at the Trump UFC cage match when one of the fighters said, michelle Obama is a man. Horrible. Just, you know, this vile thing has come out of the MAGA fever swamps. And as we know, Joe Rogan was the man holding the microphone when this guy said it. He didn't push back and JD Was asked about it by Joe Rogan and he sort of grinned about it and said that wasn't even the funniest thing. He just no condemnation, no pushback. If there's one man, this is a new Catholic convert. This is a Yale graduate. This is a Marine. He's a man who's sworn to uphold the Constitution. He should know this is wrong. He should know this is disgusting. He should know that obviously Michelle Obama is not a man. And saying it is vile. None of that. Then Barack Obama goes on Malcolm Gladwell's podcast and points out the glaring hypocrisy of J.D. vance that he has spoken about how the people who fought, the descendants of those who fought in the Civil War, have more right to America than those who did not. And he is married to ushavans who are, who is the daughter of immigrants.

[Joanna Coles]

Well, the daughter of Indian immigrants, the

[Hugh Docherty]

daughter of Indian immigrants. And J.D. vance had in part an Indian wedding. He has spoken about eating vegetarian food. His children have a mix of names and he, you know, he's posed very happily with his extended Indian Indian American family. But Obama was absolutely forensic in knifing this hypocrisy. He called it to his face. Hypocrisy. The hypocrisy of the vice president.

[Joanna Coles]

I don't understand how J.D. vance and Stephen Miller can sit around the same cabinet table. I don't understand how they can talk to each other given how unpleasant and vile Stephen Miller is about immigrants, about brown people, about setting ice on people, about the president's comments about Mexicans and immigrants being racist. And the worst of the worst. I don't know how Usha Vance gets into bed with J.D. vance at the end of the evening, assuming they do well.

[Hugh Docherty]

And we know that Usha Vance's family are, they're in San, you know, they're in San Diego. They are embodiments of the American dream.

[Joanna Coles]

Right. Her mother's a science professor. They were Democrats.

[Stacy Kennedy]

Yes.

[Hugh Docherty]

These are, these are clearly, and you know, the immense pride that they would have had in coming here and making it American. Joanna, you and I are both proud to be immigrants. They then, you know, ushavans a brilliant career clerking for a Supreme Court justice, a degree from, you know, degrees from the most distinguished of colleges. And their son in law is saying she and they have less right to be America and less right to be American at the same time as he's going home to an Indian American wife and children with that heritage. I mentioned intellectual dissonance with Trump and kind of Hard to say. Trump's intellectual dissonance, it's not his thing. J.D. vance knows that this is intellectual dissonance. He knows better.

[Joanna Coles]

Well, he also knows that he's using the platform of being vice president to sell copies of his book, a point not lost on Kim Strassel in the Wall Street Journal, who pointed out that actually the Senate needs his attention. He's the president of the Senate. It needs his attention. And he's spending his time out on the View, as you pointed out, Joe Rogan promoting his book when actually he should be dealing with all the legislation that needs to get passed in the incredibly few working days left before the midterms. I mean, it's shocking how much time congresspeople and senators take off for the summer. It's shocking how late they come back to start the fall term. And of course, she points out that a lot of Republican senators are concerned that there may be another government shutdown, that the Democrats will blame the Republicans. And of course, this will happen right before the midterms.

[Hugh Docherty]

Kim Strassel in the Wall Street Journal. To those who do not know her name, she is not a news reporter in the Wall Street Journal. She writes for the Wall Street Journal opinion section, which is dyed in the wool. Conservative. It has been conservative forever. And she is very, very close to the she is, I struggle to say, an intellect in the MAGA movement, but she is certainly somebody that is looked to for her opinion. And she is scathing about J.D. vance. She calls him AWOL. She says that he is the glaringly obvious candidate to really run the White House's political strategy, and yet he is not there. He, I think, will be personally very hurt by this. But she points out that the 2028 election is going to be based on what is done by the Republican legislatures, the Senate and the House. Now, because they know, and she doesn't admit this, but they know they're not going to get the House. They know the Senate's in play. If they don't get anything through between now and January 3rd, there's nothing to take to the voters in 2028. And as she points out, it will be J.D. vance's fault.

[Joanna Coles]

I wonder if J.D. vance will be hurt. Hugh, I think you're I think he will be counting the number of copies of his book that he sold by talking for three hours on Joe Rogan. I mean, what vice president has got three hours to spend yapping on the Joe Rogan podcast?

[Hugh Docherty]

But that's why he had to put his son in the helicopter, because he'd taken three hours. He couldn't drive him over to the golf course, had to get there faster because, you know, it's just time management. Joanna. Well, I know I helicopter everywhere. That's what I see.

[Joanna Coles]

Well, someone who's obviously feeling very envious of J.D. vance being able to spend three hours on Joe Rogan's podcast is none other than the secretary of Forever Wars, Pete American Doll. Hegseth. My obsession is that he looks like an American doll with his little accessories, his stars and stripes everywhere, his socks, his sort of weird hairdo. But he is obviously keeping one eye on J.D. vance and of course, Marco Rubio, and thinking they're ahead of me in the race. I'm going to give everybody free shots of testosterone. So he's testing people in the military. He's introduced compulsory tests, claiming that he's very focused on the individual warrior and the warrior must be made strong. And he's concerned that people may be low T, which is actually sometimes a consequence of extreme stress, and that they will be making shots of testosterone available. I think he might want to give one to his boss. Donald Trump looks like he's run out of all hormones. All hormones. He's barely producing any natural substance at this point, apart from a stream of kind of incomprehensible garbage. Are you planning to get. I've never asked you if you're. And I'm sure that this is breaking some kind of HR rule and I'm going to do it in public on a podcast. Huey, are you high T, low T? Should we be testing our staff for testosterone? I suspect the Daily Beast staff, men and women, have all got very high testosterone. They come in bouncing every morning, ready to take on the world. So I don't think we're short of testosterone, but I think Pete Hegseth might be.

[Hugh Docherty]

Well, I've never been tested for my testosterone, so I don't know. I've no idea. Our producer Ryan pointed out that the end of my name ends in T. So that's high T. I don't know.

[Joanna Coles]

Well, and high tea, if you're English, means something completely different. It's a rather delicious punctuation point. Usually on a. On a Friday or Saturday, it involves very well buttered, delicious sandwiches with the crusts cut off, some scones with a bit of cream and jam, where the only controversial thing is, do you put the jam on first or the cream on first? And do you add butter? Answer, of course you do. And then some pieces of cake, usually a bit of Victoria sponge or some

[Hugh Docherty]

Fruitcake, if that's what the troops are going to be getting. Joanna, I think that he would be the most popular defence secretary ever. However, he's going to have them, he's going to offer them. And you know, if you're in the military, you can't just say, oh, it's optional because that's not how the military works. He claims that high testosterone is the path to military greatness. Unfortunately, he has already been rather, you know, quickly checked on his facts by doctors who say that this is the not necessarily scientifically proven, not necessarily scientifically wise and not really the solution to winning wars. The broad solution to winning wars I think is to pick ones that are not lacking in any strategic value. Iran. And ones that you can win.

[Joanna Coles]

Well, it's also behaving, Huey, as if war is mano a mano and it's actually mortal combat. And in fact, as the Ukrainians have shown, it's about drones, it's about using weapons where the person is frequently 3, 4, 7 thousands of miles away from the point of impact.

[Hugh Docherty]

Yes. And you know one thing that until the Pete Hegseth era, the top people in the American military, the generals, the admirals were absolutely trying to, you know, we're encouraging intellects, we're recruiting people on the basis of their technical skills and their knowledge. And this, this whole the making people look like gladiator or something.

[Joanna Coles]

Well, this is what he wants to do, right. He loves nothing better than to post a video of himself doing push ups or press ups or running with with the troops or pushing a sled. He's obsessed by posting pictures of himself. And I've said before on the podcast, I think he the military as a personal training school. I think he uses it as a very custom gym. You know, one of those gyms that we all long to be able to afford where they tailor everything to your body type. I long to go to one of those. But I think he's using the American military for his own personal body improvement. And we know he's struggled with alcohol and of course a much better thing to take that addiction. And we've seen this in RFK Jr too, still Jr at 72 and applied to of ferocity in the gym which I think somehow channels that addiction energy.

[Hugh Docherty]

And you also said they're using the American military. Michael Wolff made the very prescient point that this looks very much like using the American military to run for the presidency. He is trying to scoop up the bruise and the pot. You know, this sort of of looks maxing Strengthening protein obsessed podcast world.

[Joanna Coles]

Which Jaw hammering. Jaw hammering.

[Hugh Docherty]

You only asked about testosterone. But actually, after this, I've got to go and do a bit of hammering. But it is, it is a seer. It does appear to be the first maneuver from Hexus. I think Michael Wolf is absolutely right in that and in what is, let's be honest, a very open Republican presidential race. J.D. vance, not a good week. Not good. Charisma, question marks over him. Marco Rubio, clearly ambitious. If you're Pete Hegseth, why not?

[Joanna Coles]

Well, because if you're Pete Hegseth, you must be panicking too, that the war, which may turn into a forever war, the very thing that MAGA voted not to have, the very central point of Donald Trump's foreign policy, it's not going well. He'll get blamed for it. Trump always has to find someone to blame. He'll probably fire Hagseth and say it was Hagseth's idea to go into Iran. So he's looking to solidify a base while he still has a job and he still has reached.

[Hugh Docherty]

Yes, I absolutely think that analysis is going to hold up. And of course he embraced being Secretary of War. And if you win a war, I'm sure that's great. But if you don't win a war and you are Secretary of War, well, you know, who's going to get blamed?

[Joanna Coles]

And there ain't no ships leaving the Strait of Hormuz right now. Everything is back to a sort of weird stalemate. And what's happened to the memo of understanding?

[Hugh Docherty]

And fuel prices are back up.

[Joanna Coles]

Fuel prices are back up. It was the memo of misunderstanding. So, Hughie, one person that didn't benefit last night from Trump's speech, who traditionally would have expected to, is Trump's teleprompter operator, who has been frantically rushing to Kalshi, one of the betting markets, to bet on the contents of Donald Trump's speech, of which he had insider knowledge.

[Hugh Docherty]

It's just an extraordinary story Trump has often. Trump, weirdly, Trump's got a thing about teleprompters. He doesn't really follow them that well and he often goes off them and then he goes back on them and quite often complains that they're broken. You'll remember at the United nations, he couldn't follow it and it turned out they'd loaded it wrong and he blamed

[Joanna Coles]

that on the United nations when in fact it was his own people. And now we may have insight into the fact that the guy was probably not paying any attention, putting Donald Trump's UN speech into the teleprompter because he was too busy on his Kalshi app trying to bet on what was inside the speech.

[Hugh Docherty]

So, yes, this is a completely new phenomenon of these prediction markets. This is not your traditional betting. This is a very free ability to make a prediction and then ask people to bet against you. Now, obviously, I could predict, I don't know, we're going to the baseball tonight. I could predict that the Cleveland Guardians are going to win 3:2 for the point of argument, but I've got no knowledge. I've got no way of knowing if that's true. I could win. I could lose other people.

[Joanna Coles]

Probably. You shouldn't have predicted that England was going to lose 21 to Argentina on Wednesday. That was a memorable match.

[Hugh Docherty]

Oh, I always recuse myself from soccer because being from Scotland, as I have to make sure people are aware, we have complicated feelings about England playing soccer.

[Joanna Coles]

Well, I don't have complicated feelings. And I was gutted, I think is the phrase gutted in that last six minutes of the match. That was shocking. But we should point out that the teleprompter operator, this might sound like it's a trivial thing, has made $100,000. $100,000.

[Hugh Docherty]

And the thing is, as I was saying, I don't know what the result of the baseball is, but he was on this prediction market because he'd seen the speech, he loaded it into the teleprompter to practice. And these markets move very, very fast. So we don't actually know how long in advance he was making these predictions. But these markets can deal with predictions in the space of minutes, in the space in theory of seconds. And he had insider knowledge about what Trump was going to say, among the things. So this is a very intriguing part of this, is that he could, we think, have been prosecuted because he clearly was selling government secrets or government knowledge or government information.

[Joanna Coles]

Well, and certainly, certainly information that could

[Hugh Docherty]

move markets and particularly information that could move markets. And he was not. Instead, the Department of Justice settled with him. And that settlement means we don't actually have exact knowledge of what secrets he shared, what predictions he made. And the reason that I think this is pretty significant is that one of the features of gossip around dc, of raised eyebrows of questions about what's going on, is that there are people who make predictions online, on Twitter about words that Trump will use or phrases or that he's going to say this or he's going to say that. And they seem quite well informed. Now, are these people also getting this knowledge we don't know because we don't know what this. We don't know what this guy has agreed that he did.

[Joanna Coles]

But we do know that he's been suspended without pay. And we do know Don Jr. Is an advisor to both Kalshee and Polymarket, the two leading companies in the prediction market.

[Hugh Docherty]

So this is going to be an extremely busy month. I have to watch 104 soccer games, follow the pre game, the post game, yell useless opinions at the tv.

[Joanna Coles]

It's a lot.

[Hugh Docherty]

So I knew that when it comes to screening for colon cancer, the choice was clear. The Cologuard plus test, it can be used at home and can only take 15 minutes. So I can do it during halftime and not miss any action. If you are 45 or older and at average risk, ask your healthcare provider about screening for colon cancer with the Cologuard test. You can also request a [e-mail] the

[Joanna Coles]

other thing that we should comment about because you mentioned how fast the prediction markets move is the speed with which Donald Trump crazily puts out his Truth Socials and he's now trying to create a separate channel to charge for them so that the markets get access to the policy observations and rando thoughts that he puts out on truth Social. It's obviously a way to monetize the platform, which has had a 77% drop in valuation since last year. Do you think anybody's going to sign up for it?

[Hugh Docherty]

Well, I mean, realistically, yes, the biggest traders, the biggest movers of, of shares, of bonds, of futures, of shorts, they want every advantage they can possibly get. There was the flash crash a few years ago, and one of the components of that was that people had set up faster fiber optic cables to get information so fractionally faster that they were ahead of others. So if you're a trader, why would you not want to know in advance, I suppose, but ahead of everybody else what the President is about to do? You can make money on this, it seems. I mean, it's an offer that you can't refuse because if you don't do it and others make money, then you have lost out.

[Joanna Coles]

Hugh, surely it must be wrong. It's as if he's setting up his own sort of, of Bloomberg version. Right? A sort of and dram version of it.

[Hugh Docherty]

He's now his own teleprompter operator.

[Joanna Coles]

Right. He's the President of the United States.

[Hugh Docherty]

We've all paid for him already.

[Joanna Coles]

Right. Is this how he should be thinking about his policy statements that he puts into his socials that he can somehow monetize them for his own company.

[Hugh Docherty]

Well, you know, this has been the hallmark of his presidency and is grift is cashing in, is Don Junior's presence on defence boards, is contracts without bids to people that live near Mar a wagon.

[Joanna Coles]

So the reflecting pool, perfect example, a contract without any bidding process, which is completely abnormal for something as important as the reflecting pool. And it goes to someone that has worked on a Bedminster property of Donald Trump and they've made a catastrophic, a catastrophic effort to repair the reflecting pool so that in the peak summer of the 250th anniversary of America's history, the reflecting pool, there's no water in it, it's a concrete hub and it's hidden behind wire fences.

[Hugh Docherty]

And I know you said to Urfara Thomasin the other day that one of the pleasures of going to DC is a walk along the reflecting pool. I always love that there's something about it.

[Joanna Coles]

Well, it draws tourists from around the world who turn up and they see that Washington looks like a dump, that it looks like it's completely unable to fix its own monuments, despite the fact that Donald Trump said the guy he'd given the contract to knew exactly what he was doing, he was going to do it better than anybody else who was going to do it cheaper than anybody else. And of course, it's not true.

[Hugh Docherty]

Well, it was true that he, his company was called Greenwater and he at least delivered on that.

[Joanna Coles]

He at least delivered on that. No more American frag brew.

[Hugh Docherty]

Oh, yeah, the Daily Beast are robustly fair and accurate. So only fair and accurate to point that out.

[Joanna Coles]

Well, Hugh, I know that you're about to go off and stroll along the north coast. I'm sure JD Vance is very pleased that you're in his home.

[Hugh Docherty]

So State, I am going to be scanning the skies for Marine 2 in case he's off to a golf course near here.

[Joanna Coles]

And I can only guess at the enormity of news by next Friday when we come back to talk about it. And again, as we said, explosive, explosive news this week. And I'm sure there'll be more explosive news next week.

[Hugh Docherty]

Well, I was hoping the explosiveness of it might end now that we know the source of that, that particular problem. Joanna. But when it comes to the news, it's not letters from Mexico's that are the issue that are bringing us the news. It's probably mostly the President. And he's not going away.

[Joanna Coles]

Well, he's not going away. Although if he does. Let's hope that he's flying in his grift Force One as you have coined it, and not the old plane. Hugh, great to see you. Have a fabulous weekend.

[Hugh Docherty]

Thank you.

[Joanna Coles]

I will look forward to seeing you back in the office on Monday.

[Hugh Docherty]

And I will be there too. Thank you, Joanna.

[Joanna Coles]

I'm now joined by Stacy Kennedy, CEO of PMI U.S. for our America 250 series produced in partnership with PMI U.S. u.S. Businesses of Philip Morris International as part of its year long initiative to celebrate and accelerate American innovation and reinvention. We're looking ahead to the next 250 years of America reacting directly to your comments. And Stacy and I are discussing the of manufacturing and American innovation. So let's dive right in. So we have Stacy Kennedy, CEO of PMI us. Stacey, what is it going to take for America to re establish itself, if this is even the right goal, as the center of the manufacturing world?

[Stacy Kennedy]

Thanks, Joanna, for having me. I'm delighted to be here. And you know, I think America's got what we need to reinvent ourselves.

[Joanna Coles]

Okay.

[Stacy Kennedy]

Reinvent ourselves in manufacturing, reinvent ourselves in a whole host of areas. I mean, if we look at the American dream and the core of the American dream, I think it's not just about an economic prosperity. It's about the fundamental right and the freedom to invent and reinvent.

[Joanna Coles]

Okay, so how do we do that? What does that mean for people? Because the American dream for people, I think meant that they would have the opportunity, they would have economic opportunities that would get them past where their parents were. Right. Their life could be aspiring. So what are the ingredients?

[Stacy Kennedy]

I think the ingredients are in bringing communities together with business because these are the people that make the magic happen. If you want manufacturing states have to create a great economic climate. They have to attract business. There has to be something in it for the community. And I fundamentally believe in the quality of American workforce, hands down. So we just built our new factory in Aurora, Colorado, 18 months from ideation to operational. And this was because there was a fundamental need for us to produce more product because consumers were demanding it. You look for a great state that's offering opportunity and a great workforce. And that's what I think it takes. I think it takes all of those kind of stakeholders working together to just get it going.

[Joanna Coles]

What's the product?

[Stacy Kennedy]

The product is Zyn, America's number one smoke free brand. We're a smoke free company.

[Joanna Coles]

Right?

[Stacy Kennedy]

That's our mission.

[Joanna Coles]

So I know you used to be a smoker and you're still A fan of nicotine. Right. So are you a Zyn user?

[Stacy Kennedy]

I am.

[Joanna Coles]

Okay.

[Stacy Kennedy]

And I'm predominantly an IQOS user. ICOs is our smoke free heated tobacco. So it's a similar experience to a cigarette, but without the smoke, which is what causes all the harm.

[Joanna Coles]

Right, the cancer. Right, Exactly. All right. So I've read that your favorite thing to do for lunch, because you're always on the go, is an espresso and an. How do I pronounce it? Ikos.

[Stacy Kennedy]

Yeah, Espresso and an iqos. That can get me through any lunch or any day, but put me in a meeting or an airplane and Zen is my go to.

[Joanna Coles]

Okay, so Colorado.

[Stacy Kennedy]

Yes.

[Joanna Coles]

Up and working. What was it about the energy of Colorado or the workforce that you felt you could lean into?

[Stacy Kennedy]

Well, first of all, it started with the community. So whenever we are looking for, it's for me, not about the state incentives or the land or these types of things. We went into communities, deeply in the communities, and talked to local politicians, the mayor, the business chamber. We met with civic organizations. So we do a lot of work with veterans organizations. So we want to hear from people in the community about what they would think about our presence being there. And so I did a listening tour across America when we first started doing business here three and a half years ago, and the things that people were saying about how important manufacturing is to local communities. And so that's where we started and we started working with the community. And then we say, okay, now we have tangible examples of the type of workforce, what our factory would mean in this community, how we can partner together. Do we have, is there enough affordable housing? Is there enough, you know, restaurants and businesses around? And that's how we made a decision about the exact location.

[Joanna Coles]

Okay, so you've talked about tobacco free product, what the sort of as you look out. And obviously 250 years is an insane amount of time to think about. But in terms of breakthrough technologies, do you see anything on the horizon that you think, oh, this really is going to be breakthrough?

[Stacy Kennedy]

I think there are plenty to talk about. I mean, AI, of course, being the forefront of that. But I think the real breakthrough needs to be. It's critical how humans and machines work together, because there are fundamental things about a human being that we're never going to replace. The cognitive capabilities, the judgment, the empathy, and the ability to have emotions and to deeply understand the human condition. But AI can deliver, of course, such enormous capability. And the breakthrough needs to be how that's going to work in a new operating model. Societally. But I think what I'm hearing from Americans is we listen, as exciting as that is. And of course, some find it. They're skeptics. Some find it a little frightening. Others find it incredibly exciting and energizing. But most Americans just want better, Joanna. They just want innovation to serve them in their everyday lives.

[Joanna Coles]

We all want that. Okay, so what kind of innovation? I desperately want innovation in my daily life, but I'm not quite sure what is it, what it's supposed to do for me. And some innovations feel like, oh, it's too much. I've got to learn how to use yet another thing. So what, when you're listening to people, what are the kind of innovations they're talking about?

[Stacy Kennedy]

So it usually comes across in four areas. So give me something that I love but better. That's where our Zen fits in. Right. People use nicotine for a reason.

[Joanna Coles]

Right.

[Stacy Kennedy]

But they don't want the smoke and the things that the can't that smoke causes, like cancer. That's a better product.

[Joanna Coles]

Right.

[Stacy Kennedy]

Give me something that makes my life easier. Easier to navigate. Give me something that makes me and my family, and especially my children safer, and give me something that is healthier. So those are usually the corridors that we find. Most Americans are talking about very pragmatically about something that's going to make a difference in their life.

[Joanna Coles]

Okay, so we have a question here from someone saying, how do we get back to that sense of community where the factory, the local factory was actually at the center of the town and people sort of knew other people and there was a sort of purpose to the. To the town, to the community?

[Stacy Kennedy]

Well, I think that we can get there through those who are invested in America like we are, that are building manufacturing facilities. But I think I would broaden the question and the idea of variety of things that can unite a community. A town, it may very well be a factory, but it could also be a new mission around reinventing education. It could be a civic organization. It could be, you know, power behind first responders and what they're doing in the community. So I think we need to define community pretty broadly, but look for the right mix in communities of things that are going to pull the community together. Super important. And that's what I mean, Joanna, by a reinvention, I'll give you just a quick example. I'm from Mississippi. You may hear a little magnolia.

[Joanna Coles]

I love your voice. I love your accent.

[Stacy Kennedy]

Thank you. My mom is always very upset when she says, you're losing the magnolia in your voice. But My state when I was growing up, we were dead last or next to dead last in education in the state of Mississippi.

[Joanna Coles]

Famously so, right?

[Stacy Kennedy]

Famously so, yep. And what Mississippi has done to reinvent its entire education system, they're now above middle of the pack in just a short decade and plus which is amazing. Other states are now copying Mississippi's education model and trying to replicate that.

[Joanna Coles]

Right. And how did they do that? What was the essence of it?

[Stacy Kennedy]

So I think it was an, it was first of all curriculum, getting back to the basics and they had a very specific curriculum model based off of phonics. But it was also around putting a performance based system in schools that the schools got a chance to fix, to write things themselves. And if that didn't, they got help. And so it was really coming from a place of helpfulness. But it was, it was performance culture and they, there was more to that whole story. But I think it's really amazing in what others, what other states are trying to copy. You can look at other states that really it's been based around economic development. So I look at states like, like the state that's my home now, Connecticut, and how public private partnerships like Advanced ct. I'm on the board of Advanced CT focused with the state on economic development and developing the right mix of small mid size and extra large corporations that are all coming together to make sure that you've got good dispersion of jobs across the state. You're constantly attracting the right types of businesses that are going to add to not only the fabric of society but create jobs and empower the economy and the small businesses that are so important. I was thrilled last night to hold an event at my home to honor the recipient winners of the Women's Business Development Council of Connecticut.

[Joanna Coles]

Yay.

[Stacy Kennedy]

These are women entrepreneurs that are getting grants to either start or expand their small businesses. These women are amazing. And you need small businesses as well to power the community and power economic development at the state level. And I think that's what Americans are looking for that falls right in that give me better quality safety, safety for my kids, help the environment, make my life a little bit easier on a day to day basis.

[Joanna Coles]

It sounds like you're running for office. Are you running for office? Why aren't there more people from business like you running for office?

[Stacy Kennedy]

I don't know Joanna. This if we had more business pragmatists. I spend a lot of my time with governors. I think as a country we talk about the federal government a lot but many of the decisions that affect our Lives happen at the state level. So if we have business driven, pragmatic governors and we've got some great examples around the country, we just had more of that. I think we would be so much better off.

[Joanna Coles]

So how do you encourage people to take the risk to do something like that? Because part of leaning into the future is also about. And I wanted to ask you this, and actually we got some questions in about this is what does it take to be a leader? To take America forward for the next. I mean, as we've said, 250 years feels like a very long time. But for the next 50 years, navigating the challenges of AI, navigating a society which feels more fragmented, where there are fewer places for us all to come together and agree on an agreed set of facts. What does it take to get, as you say, business leaders or the leaders of tomorrow to stand for office?

[Stacy Kennedy]

I think it takes society in general being willing to finally get behind some of those who are serving in office. I definitely believe in accountability for those who are holding public office, but I also believe that they are serving us. And those who serve have. They need support. So that's why it's so important for me as a business leader to get behind organizations like Advanced CT in Connecticut that are serving alongside those in the governor's office and in state office, because we owe it to them and to our state and to all of our constituents that we're standing up and supporting them and helping to move that policy forward. So I think if we saw more positive examples of that, then we might have more business leaders who would be willing to run for office. Because right now it's a lot of risk and not much reward. Who's standing up for them when they're trying to do the hard stuff to tackle the really big problem.

[Joanna Coles]

You're a leader of a company. You've worked at PMI for over 30 years. Is that possible? Doesn't look possible. Oh, now I'm flirting with you. Very strange. Very strange. How have you developed as a leader? Because so much of what you talk about depends on good leadership in America. You have a great reputation. You've become the CEO. How do you think of yourself in terms of showing up as a leader?

[Stacy Kennedy]

I think the answer to that question, Joanna, is fundamentally in what we were talking about, the American dream and reinvention. So I've moved more than a dozen times in my career. I've lived on three continents, five countries. I look at each new job and each physical move as an opportunity for a do over.

[Joanna Coles]

Oh, Interesting.

[Stacy Kennedy]

And I don't want to change fundamentally who I am. I don't believe that you can really do that, nor should you if you try as a, as a human being. But I definitely believe in the opportunity to pivot and reinvent how I show up as a leader in ways that it's just a constant improvement. Right. So each move, each job is an opportunity to step back and assess. What do I think? How do I think I showed up as a leader in a way that felt really authentic for me and really resonated with my stakeholders. Be that, that government, private enterprise, employees, you name it. And then what would I change if I could? You know, holding the proverbial mirror up in the face to have a really deep look and asking feedback from other people. And then each move is an opportunity to say, you know what, I'm going to reinvent that aspect of how I show up as a leader. I'm going to be bolder in my decision making. I'm going to. I'm generally a very collaborative person, but sometimes collaboration overused becomes unproductive, whatever it might be. I use that as an opportunity each and every time. But it always starts with listening. You can't make any of those reinventions without listening.

[Joanna Coles]

Okay, so you also read a lot.

[Stacy Kennedy]

I do.

[Joanna Coles]

Do you think reading continues into the future? And I ask that because I know you read three books a week, two fiction, one nonfiction. I have two sons in their 20s, so young adults in the workforce, one of whom also reads three books a week, one of whom says, why would I read when I can watch television? So he gets his stories in a different way. What do you think the future of reading is?

[Stacy Kennedy]

I deeply believe in the future of reading and I'm hopeful that this next generation, you start to see some signs that they're wanting more tactile, more analog opportunities in life. I think there's incredible exhaustion with social media. There's an exhaustion with the echo chamber of the news that everybody, that we're all hearing. So I think that reading is going to come back and the old fashioned paper, I have a Kindle, which I travel with, of course, but if I can put a real book in my hands and when I look at, I have 17 year old twins and I look at both of them, it's a hard hardcover book. That's a hardcover book. Hardcover book.

[Joanna Coles]

Okay. And do they get those from the library? Do they buy them?

[Stacy Kennedy]

Are they gifts, either public library or Barnes and Noble? My son's meticulous about his points, whatever this is. He's collecting at Barnes and Noble. And I'm so glad they got back into reading. He was. My son, particularly, was a phenomenal reader at a very young age. And he had one negative experience where the teacher, new teacher, first day of school, ask all the kids to bring a book that they read in the summer. And he was so excited to show his book. And then in front of the whole class, the teacher said, there's no way you could have read that book. That's not even close to your grade level age range. He was crushed. Trying to. He didn't pick up a book other than it was mandated at school for almost four years.

[Joanna Coles]

Wow.

[Stacy Kennedy]

And then in high school.

[Joanna Coles]

Terrible. What was the book? What was the book? Book.

[Stacy Kennedy]

It was one of our summer reading books. I think it was a Jane Austen book. So we did the classics over the summer. And she said, no way could you be reading a Jane Austen book. And whatever he was, I think it was fifth or sixth grade. And of course we did it together. It was not exactly probably his age range, but a brilliant English teacher and humanities teacher in high school have now gotten him right back in love with a whole series of. He's very reading postmodern books. He's like all sorts of exciting books that he has to read. And so now he's giving me my reading list as opposed to.

[Joanna Coles]

Oh, that's nice. That's a very nice mother son thing.

[Stacy Kennedy]

It is. Yeah. That was actually my Christmas gift. He chose a book a month that the whole family would read. We started with Kurt Vonnegut, so he picked a book would be, you know, short enough that everybody could have time to read it and then to discuss his family.

[Joanna Coles]

Wow. So as a family. Because also family unit is important as one leans into the future. So you as a family, read a book a month.

[Stacy Kennedy]

We do.

[Joanna Coles]

Wow. That's impressive. I wish I'd thought of doing that with mine. My kids are out of the house now. But what a great idea. And also having something which focuses your attention span. Cause I wonder if our attention spans are going to be the thing that trips us up as we go forward. Because it's so easy to get distracted now.

[Stacy Kennedy]

It is. And I tell you, even with my reading, when I start a fiction book, it's hard to put it down. So I just helped myself recently out of the suggestion from my son, and I went to short stories. Awesome. So he suggested Amor Towles has some great short stories. I liked Ernest Hemingway short stories. But you can finish a short story in a night.

[Joanna Coles]

Yeah. And then you get a sense of achievement, right?

[Stacy Kennedy]

Exactly like I can. I have a sense of completion. The story is finished. I can go off to sleep better. But I think it's really important because it also brings in a sense of debate. Because when you're discussing a book your attention span is completely in a different place. Then as a family you can debate the book or your views on it, which is great. Another great practice is debate. My daughter's in debate.

[Joanna Coles]

I saw that.

[Stacy Kennedy]

And I get to judge a high school debate on occasion. What hope and inspiration it brings for this next generation. For the next America. 250. I remember high school being very competitive and I think as Americans we are very competitive. But after the first debate that I attended with my daughter, I got it back in the car and I expected her to be talking about the points she scored, who on her team, what were the wins, what were the losses. But Joanna, it wasn't at all. Her conversation centered around how the arguments improved when her team brought in some of the opposing team's arguments into their logic.

[Joanna Coles]

Oh, interesting.

[Stacy Kennedy]

If you think about that and put that in a lens of the next 250 for America. Innovation, listening to consumers at the core of innovation, how we reinvent ourselves. If society could just do that, bring opponents ideas into our own logic of argumentation.

[Joanna Coles]

Wow, there's so much talked about how much pressure there is on a CEO these days. There's just so much coming at you. And yet I think you have a practice where it's phones down when you have dinner with your family and that your husband often suggests a topic for you all to debate. And I love this idea. I love this idea. Is that something that you recommend for people regardless of what parents do, but just that sense of connection and again staying focused on one subject?

[Stacy Kennedy]

I do. It's been a game changer for our family and I'm a very blessed because my husband's a journalist by background and trade profession. So curiosity out the Yang. And it was really his idea to start educating the kids by having topics that are important to society brought to the dinner table. And it's a great way to just put the phone down, have conversations. So he'd ask everybody to read an article. So this is part of his media literacy training. Read an article, read it from several different points of view, left, right, center. And then let's just discuss and debate. So that's usually where I think good conversations starts with listening, starts with being able to hear others points of view. Sharpening your own arguments by bringing in something that Someone else has. That's maybe not where you started with the subject. I think it's really been a great practice for our family. Highly recommend.

[Joanna Coles]

You've worked in Asia, you've worked in Europe. What are the things you most appreciate about the American worker or what are the differences?

[Stacy Kennedy]

So one of the things that I appreciate about the American worker the most, and this may sound like an odd thing to say, but Americans can be rule followers and they can be rule breakers at the right moment. So my husband's German, so this is like rule following culture. Like if it's not written in the manual, this is not happening. Asian also, you get some. It's like, think that the way of education is to think a certain way. And there's all pros and cons of those cultures and the workers and those cultures. But in America, it's ingenuity. I need to solve a problem, but I can't solve this problem the same way I solved the last problem. Thinking outside the box to think, how can I make it happen? How can I make it more efficient? So I think Americans are just, just great at creating things. And it doesn't have to be a tangible thing. It can be, you know, small innovations that add up and make a really big difference. I deeply believe that ideas can come from every single one of us, every part of our communities or individuals across the workforce. And we have tangible evidence that that happens. And that's the great thing about American workers.

[Joanna Coles]

Yeah, it's so interesting. I've always said any newsroom that I've been in, there's no hierarchy for a good idea. A good idea comes from where it comes from and it's either good or it's bad, or it can be iterated on, but it's not. You don't have to have a certain set of backgrounds to come up with a good idea.

[Stacy Kennedy]

I totally, totally believe that. And I see it every day in my company. Ideas come from everywhere. From a territory sales manager, someone working on a factory floor, somebody in the finance department. Ideas come from everywhere and that's what makes America great.

[Joanna Coles]

Thank you to Stacy for joining me. Next Friday, I'll be talking about the future of the Internet with Dick Costello. He's the co founder and managing partner at O1 Advisors and the former CEO of Twitter. And the following week, I'll be talking about the future of sports and technology with Vivek Ranadive, co owner and chairman of the Sacramento Kings. If you want the chance to have your prediction read and responded to live on air, leave us a comment with the hashtag America250 on this YouTube video or head to Beast Pub America250 reminder that by posting with America250 you agree that the Daily Beast may include your comment in PMI US sponsored segments on the Daily Beast podcast and to other potential PMI US uses. If you have been thank you for joining us. Don't forget to leave us your comment about the podcast or about your dreams for the next 250 years of America and hashtag it America250. Big thanks to our production team, John Romero, Ryan Murray, Rachel Passer, Heather Passaro, Max the Intern and Neil Rosenhaus. So the good news is we have so many Beast Tier members now there are too many names to read out and we really appreciate your support.

[Stacy Kennedy]

Starting a business can seem like a

[Joanna Coles]

daunting task unless you have a partner like Shopify. They have the tools you need to

[Stacy Kennedy]

start and grow your business.

[Joanna Coles]

From designing a website to marketing to

[Stacy Kennedy]

selling and beyond, Shopify can help with everything you need. There's a reason millions of companies like

[Joanna Coles]

Mattel, Heinz and Allbirds continue to trust and use them.

[Stacy Kennedy]

With Shopify on your side, turn your

[Joanna Coles]

big business idea into Sign up for your $1 per month [e-mail] specialoffer.