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- [00:00]
Host
Hello everybody and welcome to Substack Live. This is part of our Midas Meetup series. I want to thank everybody who has been joining us over the past few weeks. As you know, we try to bring you the top guests not only in the country, but in the world. And that's why it's always a pleasure when we have somebody like Jim Acosta on with us. Jim, we're so excited to have you back here. It was so great seeing you a couple of weeks back in New York at the Webby Awards and in the flesh. And speaking of in the flesh, you got a big event coming up that folks need to know about if they are in the area or want to be in the area. They could see the Jim Acosta show live, a live town hall. And this lineup is absolutely amazing. I know it's going to be a lot of everybody's favorites. You got Rosie o' Donnell, Michael Fanone, Olivia Troy, Harry Dunn, Aaron Parnas, Tara Settmeier, Miles Taylor. And I hear you have a new addition as well. Representative Jasmine Crockett will be joining star studded lineup in the Deep DC area at the Lincoln Theater on Monday, June 2. So make sure to check out tickets for that@the lincolndc.com that's the lincolndc.com Jim. We certainly have no shortage of topics to discuss. I want to remind everybody as well to make sure that you're subscribed to Jim, here on Substack. There's some sort of button, you know, somewhere above my head over here. I know where you could hit subscribe, but let's get free taco if you free tacos. Speaking of tacos, we saw the taco man himself today standing alongside Elon Musk giving, you know, bizarre Oval Office press conference. Elon Musk had a, was sporting a fresh black eye for some reason. There's been rumors of some physical altercations that he's had with other members of the Trump administration, like Scott Besant. I'm not sure if that's related. He blamed it on his kid, Little X. It was a departure ceremony for Elon also kind of obviously felt like a funeral procession. I can't even, it was just the odd weird vibes in there. What do you make of that press conference, Jim? And what do you make of the job? What's Doge's legacy as Elon Musk kind of departs the White House right now?
- [02:13]
Jim Acosta
I mean, this is sort of like this is what happens when you put two fighting chickens in the same potato sack. I mean, it does it does not work out well. And obviously, when we heard from Donald Trump the other day, you know, oh, there's no problem with Elon Musk, even though Elon Musk is trashing the big beautiful bill. Give me a break. I think when Elon Musk made those comments, oh, the deficit's gonna go up. Okay. You're shocked that Donald Trump doesn't care about the deficit. Gee, thanks. You know, this, I think this is Elon Musk trying to distance himself from Donald Trump, from the Trump administration, probably even from Doge itself because of the utter, I mean, just catastrophic damage that has been done to Tesla and all of his brands. I mean, when you drive around D.C. these days, every Tesla, because of the person who's driving it, hates Elon Musk, has put like, F elon on their car or I bought this Tesla before Elon Musk was crazy and so on. It's been catastrophic. And the thing that. One of the reasons why I'm doing this town hall on Monday, not to start off with a plug, is there are so many Federal workers in D.C. who are suffering right now. I talked to a representative for one of the federal employees unions yesterday who said one of the ladies who's coming to the town hall is now getting by on food stamps because she got kicked out of her federal job. And of course there's waste, fraud and abuse. You want to trim the size of the federal government, fine. The way they did this was absolutely evil. The way they went after people and shut down agencies was absolutely evil. And I think that's going to be the legacy of Elon Musk doing this Doge thing. It'll be the hand gesture that he made on Inauguration Day. And then the way he just screwed over the American people for the next two months, two or three months, and going after the federal government with a meat ax when that was just not necessary at all.
- [04:01]
Co-Host
You know, one of the things that has defined this past week is if we've met, you've mentioned it already, the taco. The Trump always chickens out, which, you know, it's great to mock him with that. But to me, it also speaks to this bigger issue, though, of kind of how small he looks, how small he's made our country. And from a regime that has talked about from day one not wanting America to be a global super any power anymore, but to be part of a multipolar, you know, thing. America seems to be one of the weakest poles though that even exists in their. In their polarity. And it just was exuded by that moment with the reporter saying, you know, people are calling you a chicken because I'm a chicken. And I'm just. I'm like, you know, it's. It was just a moment that, to me, was bigger than the muck. What do you make?
- [04:53]
Jim Acosta
Yeah. And you know what? He seems to confirm the criticism almost every day. I mean, he does chicken out. And the fact that you have Wall street traders coming up with a way to trade stocks based on Trump's nuttiness tells you where we are as a country right now. And the way, I mean, if you go back and you look at the way he responded to the taco question, which, by the way, kudos to that CNBC reporter for asking that question. That was a very. It just goes to show you, I remember this from my days at the White House. You ask a. Just a very honest, straightforward question, and he comes unglued because he can't even answer those kinds of questions. And so she asked that question, and he starts throwing out these ridiculous statistics about what he's done with tariffs and so on. And it's almost like somebody has to tell him, like, you don't know what you're doing. Here you are wrecking the global economy based on a philosophy you've held on for three decades that is just never going to pan out. And so to me, the taco thing is. Is perfect because. And if you look at the memes, my God, I mean, this has been like, gift from the heavens, you know, all week long, we've seen these amazing taco memes in the chicken memes and so on. And it just, you know, we don't need to be in this place. It's kind of sad that we're in this place where the President of the United States has been reduced to this kind of a punchline, but he does.
- [06:16]
Co-Host
It to himself and its impact, I think, on the international community. Just even how the European Union looks at America. Now, how Canada, this was a week also where King Charles gave that speech from the throne, which in any other period, Canadians would have not even viewed that necessarily as a favorable thing. But here he's coming in because it's like punk and Trump, right? And speak about or speak to. Your coverage throughout your career has focused on America leading the world internationally. So now, as you're leading independent media with groups like us and others, you must be looking at. It's just strange to see America not a global superpower, and it's pretending to be one. And it's embarrassing because it's like, look how strong we are. And it's like, not really anymore how people look at it.
- [07:08]
Jim Acosta
Yeah, we're kind of like, locked in Trump inception right now. You know, it's a riddle wrapped in an enigma wrapped in a mystery. And, you know, it is sad. And the thing that, you know, sort of proves the Taco Chicken point is the way he deals with Vladimir Putin. This is one of the reasons why we're not respected around the world. He puts out these messages like, I am so mad at Vladimir Putin. You think Putin gives a rat's ass what Donald Trump thinks? There's just no way. He's been doing this for two decades now. He's got this down to a science. The only language that Vladimir Putin understands is the one that's being communicated by Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the Ukrainians. It is peace through strength. It's the old Reagan Doctrine of peace through strength. It's something that Donald Trump will never understand because he doesn't know how to speak that language. He gets out there, he puffs his chest out, and then he doesn't back it up. And that's the reason why Vladimir Putin doesn't rely on his word. It's the reason why the traders on Wall street don't rely on his word. And our European partners. I mean, I've been to so many parts of the world, but when you go to Western Europe and you talk to people in the NATO alliance and you talk to countries. I was up in Norway not too long ago. People are afraid. People are scared. They're afraid because they see the United States of America being led by. By somebody who is just completely unhinged and somebody who's completely out of control. And that makes the world a much more dangerous place. There's no question about it.
- [08:38]
Co-Host
Talk to us about this. You and I first chatted, Brett and everybody, when you first made the move to independent media as well, though, what's been interesting, and it even feels in the past two, three weeks, kind of an additional momentum that we're even seeing as more people are starting to recognize. I think what you recognized right away, what we've been recognizing, that people are coming here now and speak to that experience.
- [09:09]
Jim Acosta
I mean, guys, we talked about this when I left my old place, and I think the world of you guys and what you've done, the corporate media world needs to be reminded from time to time that there is such a thing as we the people. And that's what independent media is all about. That's what places like Substack are all about. That is kind of like what YouTube is all about, quite frankly, where you guys have been really so dominant. And I'm not saying that to blow any wind up your skirts. I'm saying it because it's true. And, you know, the people out there are pissed. They're mad at the corporate media world right now. They're seeing these deals being cut, apparently. The other day, according to the Wall Street Journal, paramount offered Trump $15 million. $15 million and it wasn't enough for Trump. Trump wants $25 billion in an apology. And I was on my substack yesterday saying, paramount, don't you dare pay that money. Don't you dare pay that money. You are going to undermine this country because as soon as you pay that kind of a bribe, you pay that kind of intimidation racket payment, it teaches him, he learns that he can keep doing it to everybody else. And we can't have a situation in this country where the President of the United States rules over the media, rules over the press, the arbiters of the truth, with an iron fist like that, or an iron fist with a taco in his hand, I suppose you might say. But so I think what's happening right now in the corporate media world is very dangerous. And the independent media world, which is a revolution right now, in my opinion, is keeping that in check. I mean, look what some of these media outlets are doing right now. They're saying, oh, this anchor is going to start a podcast, or this person over here is going to do this. They're doing it because of us. They're saying, oh, wait a minute. I mean, I've had network executives reach out to me and say, hey, Jim, how can we get on substack? And I have to say to them, like, you realize that the people out there think you're compromised right now, and they don't. They. You could go get on substack. You can go get on independent media. They're still not going to want to watch you because they're, they're bloody pissed at you right now. And I, I, I, I, I. I think it's a, it's an important moment that we're in right now, and it's good that we're here standing strong.
- [11:24]
Co-Host
You know, it's interesting because I heard a reporter who will remain nameless who said, I don't look at the comments. I never read the feedback. I never really want to know. And my instinct was always, that's kind of a mistake. Like, it doesn't mean you should be dominated and be in fear of your comment section and what people say. But I think the most important thing to be thinking about is what's the community saying. I think to be a great independent reporter, you have to be a great listener. And I think one of the things that you've done is saying, let me just see what the people are talking about. And then you recognize the things that they're talking about right now on corporate news networks is not what the people are talking about on their day to day lives when they are home and they're chatting with it.
- [12:10]
Jim Acosta
Right? Yeah. I mean, why, you know, who the hell cares about, you know what Joe Biden's mental state was? You know, I'm sorry, who the hell cares at this point? We're, we're in a different place right now. We have ICE agents showing up in masks and scooping up people off the streets and grabbing US citizen children and sending them out of the country without due process. They're taking people off the streets and sending them off to gulags in other countries. And that is what we should, those are the kinds of things we should be focused on right now. I mean, for Pete's sake. Honestly, what we're up against right now is pretty daunting. And I don't know if I told you guys this story before, but I was with Trump the day he left office. Rode on Air Force One with him, flew down to Mar a Lago, dropped him off at the West Palm beach airport, off he went. And I thought to myself, at that point, thank God he got on that plane. Thank God he left the first time around. I am not so sure that's going to happen this time around. And so we've got some big, I'm trying to curse less on these podcasts. We're in some big friggin trouble right now and people need to be paying attention to the here and now. I'm not saying can't write a book, go write a book. If you want to write a book, go write a book. But we need to pay attention to the here and now because what we're in the middle of right now is pretty terrifying and people need to be paying attention to it. Yeah.
- [13:33]
Host
And it's what makes that kind of capitulation that we've been seeing all the more frustrating, I think, for the folks who are watching this. Because this is a time when things are not normal, when all the things that you were speaking about are happening every day. There's like a hundred things like that every single day. And so it's so hard for people to even keep track of everything that's going on. And then you look in one direction and you see a major corporation like a Paramount offering $15 million to Donald Trump. You look in the other direction, you see these law firms who you figure would be these big, powerful law firms with millions, if not billions of dollars able to actually fight back against somebody like a Trump. You see them capitulating to Trump. It's easy for folks to sort of think, you know, of course, like, all this does feel kind of rigged against me, and all these executives don't have my best interests at heart. But, you know, occasionally we do see that oftentimes this resides with a lot of these executives, the people who are running these companies, less so than a lot of the journalists who are actually at these places who are doing some terrific work. And you just see all these lies being spread every day by the administration. And so, thankfully, there are places out there who are still doing a good job, journalists that are still doing a good job. I know there was a question the other day about this Maha report, this Make America Healthy Again report, and this reporter from notice they discovered over there that at least seven of the citations, and I think they may have located a few more today, were totally made up in this report. This report that was basically used as a pretext to take away people's vaccinations or recommendations for vaccinations, remove all these health protocols. And it seems like the whole thing was essentially made up with AI. Like they developed this whole report by AI. So how do you in your mind hold an administration accountable that so doesn't care about the truth to the point where they are literally creating, crafting evidence out of thin air through artificial intelligence and trying to pass it off as the real thing?
- [15:35]
Jim Acosta
Yeah, I mean, shocker. When you put the guy who took his kids swimming in Rock Creek park in Washington, D.C. sewage filled rock Creek park. It may not have the best handle on public health in this country. I mean, my God, you know, I worry about this almost more than anything else because of what we went through during the COVID pandemic. I went to the White House every day during the pandemic, had to put the mask on, went to the White House with the mask on while the Trump people weren't wearing masks and acting like morons. And to see these types of folks in charge of public health again is frightening because if we have another pandemic, if we have a public health crisis where a virus is on the loose, where you need to have competent public health people in charge. We're not going to have that. The Dr. Fauci's of the world, those types of folks, they've been knocked off the battlefield by these kooks and these wackos. And to have a situation where we might just let a virus run loose the next time around, to me should scare every American in this country. And it's one of the things that the public should have taken into account during the 2024 campaign. I would talk about this from time to time. I would say I covered Donald Trump when he was saying, you can inject yourselves with disinfectants or put a light up you know where, and ward off the coronavirus. My God, why in the world was that guy given the nuclear codes? Again, I think that's a reasonable question. It doesn't mean you're off in one direction or another. Politically, I think it's a reasonable question to ask. Why would you put that person in charge of public health? Again, ultimately, he's the guy that put RFK Jr. In this job. And so it does not surprise me at all that these people didn't do their homework like a kid in high school and says, oh, let me just AI it. I'll put it into ChatGPT. What we should do about vaccinations. Of course it didn't go well.
- [17:32]
Co-Host
And there seems to be all these ticking time bombs, whether it's with health and the cuts to the NIH and cdc. What happens if there is another pandemic or a massive situation like we've seen before, FEMA being cut, what we're about to hit hurricane season and FEMA's basically gutted. There are so many, you know, and obviously in the economy, people aren't talking about it that much. But with Donald Trump going after student loan delinquencies, we now have a whole group of people whose credit scores are getting dinged, who can't participate in the economy anymore. Credit card delinquencies are at an all time high. And what we saw in the housing crisis in 2008, which led to Fannie and Freddie having this robust role in the government, Trump wants to break that down as well. And he wants to make Fannie and Freddie decoupled from kind of real, real government oversight. So it's like recreating all of the issues that we tried to solve with legislation over and over again. It's which, which time bomb's gonna burst first.
- [18:38]
Jim Acosta
Yeah, yeah, no, you're absolutely right. And I mean, to me, that is where the Congress comes into play here. And that is why I think, you know, Trump's in a world of trouble come midterms next year because the people have figured out, enough people have figured out, okay, we shouldn't have taken a second chance on this guy. They thought, you know, inflation's not doing as well as I wanted it to. During the campaign, people thought this and so on. They may have voted just slightly in Trump's direction to put him over the line. So he won the thing. But way more than that. I think this time around, going into the midterms, are going to say, we gave this guy another chance and he's made a mess of everything. He's made a mockery of the presidency. He's made a mockery of things like the pardon power, he's engaging in corrupt activity again, trying to get a free plane from the Qataris and so on. I mean, these ads for the 2026 campaign, they're already writing themselves, you know, with the tacos and everything, or Joni.
- [19:35]
Co-Host
Erce today saying, we're all going to die anyways.
- [19:37]
Jim Acosta
We're all going to die anyway. Isn't the point to not die?
- [19:41]
Host
Yeah, I think the idea is to push that off as far as possible. I think is our goal not to speed it up by taking away people's Medicare.
- [19:49]
Co-Host
I just want to make that point, though, because I say that a ton on the show. I say that for these Republicans who claim that they're pro life, which they're not, they are so pro deaf that I said, I try to take away the politics out of it because I think sometimes politics gamifies the humanity of what we're all kind of experiencing here. And I said, if you just look at these policies that they're pushing forward, they're literally killing you. So when I think about, like, I saw this, I saw this segment recently of Cubans for Trump, and especially in light of what happened today with Cubans losing their protected status, with Trump pushing that to the right wing Supreme Court, it's like, well, we don't support him on deportation, but on all of the other issues we are more alive. And I'm like, okay, but let's just say that's true. The issue that you don't support him on is the issue where he kills you. And so.
- [20:49]
Jim Acosta
Exactly.
- [20:50]
Co-Host
The one guy doesn't kill you. The one guy kills you. Why you keep voting for the guy who literally kills you.
- [20:57]
Jim Acosta
I, I agree with you. And my dad is a Cuban refugee, so this one hits close to home. I mean, I'm so glad that I grew up in a country and my dad came to a country, you know, he came in the 60s when John F. Kennedy was president, where they weren't doing this sort of thing to migrants, where they weren't just, you know, my dad had refugee status because he was fleeing a communist country. Hello, Cuba is still a communist country and Donald Trump is taking away their protected status. And so for the Cubans out there down in Miami and so on, who, you know, we don't want to have Kamala Harris as president. I'm going to vote for Donald Trump. Well, you, you saw the signs at the Republican National Convention that they were waving, right? They were waving signs that said mass deportations. Now, did you think that they were not referring to Cubans? Did you, you think they were not referring to Venezuelans? They were referring to you. Those signs should have been a warning sign to you that you were, that you might get scooped up and sent back to a communist country.
- [21:56]
Co-Host
So how do we, what's your with that being there? We know they flood. We know that. I mean, in South Florida, they flood the zone with the messaging. Democrats are communists, you know, and it's. Is independent media the path?
- [22:13]
Jim Acosta
You know, do I think so? I think so. And one of the perils of independent media, my phone may run out of batteries here soon because, I don't know, the substack machine, as I like to call it, is sapping my iPhone. But I would say that, and I love substack, don't get me wrong. But it does crater my battery. But I love those guys. But it's true. No, but the thing is, is that people don't understand this is happening down in South Florida, that there are right wing radio stations that are constantly pumping out this propaganda all the time. And just in the way that we've seen independent media make its mark on the national level, I believe it's going to start filtering down to the local level, like the Midas touch. Wouldn't it be great if you had the Midas touch in all of these big cities and towns all around the country where you had independent journalists in those communities? Maybe you're already starting to do that. But if it were expanded on a national level, I mean, this is something that could really take the country by storm. I don't know, you may not want more work, but you may get more work and it may happen naturally because people want these alternatives, you know, and.
- [23:19]
Co-Host
I'll, before your phone goes, I'll let you do the graceful exit versus the abrupt Jim Acosta exit.
- [23:25]
Jim Acosta
So instead of going perk, yeah.
- [23:29]
Co-Host
Well, I'll leave with this, too, you know, which is why I think people see independent journalists supporting independent journalists at all steps. And I think we all recognize that, you know, we're in this together. And I think people like to see us all together and do our own things on our platforms, but then come together on big things. And we look forward to coming together on more big things with you, Jim. We'll let you go. Everybody subscribe to Jim Acosta substack. Subscribe to our substack. We really appreciate all the work you're doing, Jim. And everybody go to the town hall. Plug it one more time.
- [24:06]
Host
Jim Acosta show live DC who are the special guests? Jim?
- [24:11]
Jim Acosta
We got Jasmine Crockett. We got Rosie O' Donnell, Mike Fanone, Harry Dunn. January 6, police officers Livia Troy, Miles Taylor, Tara Sett Meyer, I mean, Aaron Parnas is going to be there. It's going to be a great lineup.
- [24:22]
Host
Monday, June 2, go to the lincolndc.com get your tickets. I know if I were in the area, I would be there in an absolute heartbeat. Jim, it's always a pleasure. Let's do this soon. Let's do some hits on YouTube as well. I always love chatting with you.
- [24:38]
Jim Acosta
Thanks, guys. Great to see you.
- [24:40]
Host
All right, charge that phone up.
- [24:42]
Jim Acosta
And my phone made it.
- [24:44]
Host
Charge it up.
- [24:45]
Co-Host
Plug it in.
- [24:46]
Jim Acosta
All right. Bye. Bye.