← The Jim Acosta Show
The Jim Acosta Show
Sen. Chris Murphy blasts Trump meme coin corruption and Molly Jong-Fast on why the tariffs could trigger an economic meltdown that will haunt Trump.
00:54:02
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- [00:00]
Jim Acosta
Foreign welcome, everybody, to the Jim Acosta Show. And Donald Trump on this Tuesday, May 6, is still losing his grip on reality. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney visited the White House today and told Trump Canada is not for sale and never will be. Trump responded, quote, time will tell. It's only time. But I say never say never. Let's bring in our first guest today, Connecticut Democratic Senator Chris Murphy. Senator Murphy, good to see you, sir. How are you?
- [00:33]
Chris Murphy
I'm good, man. Thanks for having me.
- [00:35]
Jim Acosta
Hey, thanks for coming on. I know we have a lot to talk about. I do want to tackle this Canada thing or maybe check it into the boards. I don't know, using a hockey term here. But let's get to this very quickly. It's disturbing. It seems to me that Trump keeps talking about taking over Canada, that he's going to make Canada part of the US let's watch a clip of that and talk about on the other side. Mr. Prime Minister, I'd like to get.
- [01:03]
Chris Murphy
Your response to this, too.
- [01:04]
Molly Jong-Fast
Mr. President.
- [01:04]
Jim Acosta
You have said that Canada should become the 51st state.
- [01:09]
Donald Trump
No, no. Well, I still believe that, but, you know, takes two to tango, right? But no, I do. I mean, I believe it would be a massive tax cut for the Canadian citizens. You get free military, you get tremendous medical cares and other things. There would be a lot of advantages, but it would be, it would be a massive tax cut. And it's also a beautiful, you know, as a real estate developer, you know, I'm a real estate developer at heart. When you get rid of that artificially drawn line, somebody drew that line many years ago with, like a ruler, just a straight line right across the top of the country. When you look at that beautiful formation when it's together, I'm a very artistic person, but when I looked at that beauty, I said, that's the way it was meant to be. But, you know, it, I just, I do feel it's much better for Canada, but we're not going to be discussing that unless somebody wants to discuss it. I think that there are tremendous benefits to the Canadian citizens, tremendously lower taxes, free military, which honestly we give you essentially anyway, because we're protecting Canada. If you have had a problem. But I think, you know, it's, it would really be a wonderful marriage because it's, it's two places that get along very well. They like each other a lot, you know, Senator.
- [02:28]
Jim Acosta
And then, of course, Carney chimed in and said, it's never going to be for sale. I mean, it's disturbing that he keeps talking about this over and over. Your thoughts?
- [02:37]
Chris Murphy
Listen, I think he wants us to be talking about this because he doesn't want us to be talking about the corruption and the cuts to Medicaid and the fraud. Focus on increasing taxes for the very, very wealthy. This is, you know, sort of par for the course anytime, you know, some news comes out that's, you know, really relevant to the American people. Trump tries to, you know, propose invading and rebuilding Gaza or invading Greenland or rebuilding Alcatraz. You know, this, this is the stuff, to me, that doesn't matter, frankly. I mean, we're, we're never. Canada's not becoming a state. It's like, I guess, fun to listen to, but it literally doesn't matter. What matters is that behind closed doors today, Republicans are putting the finishing touches on the biggest transfer of wealth from the poor to the middle class. Cutting Medicaid by massive amounts in order to fund a tax cut for the wealthy. What matters is that Trump continues to operationalize the federal government to benefit himself. These big moves he's made on his meme coin and the stablecoin are largest, so probably the most corrupt thing White House has ever done. So I think you just have to recognize that you got to keep your eye on the ball. And the Canada stuff is, like, interesting, but just an attempt at distraction.
- [03:49]
Jim Acosta
And I do want to get into your efforts to, to reign in this Meme coin craziness, but, I mean, but pissing off, I mean, arguably our greatest ally, our best friend in the world, I mean, that. That ain't nothing, I guess.
- [04:04]
Chris Murphy
Yeah. I mean, but that's. That's Trump. I mean, you know, when you elected Trump, you knew that he was going to, you know, turn his back on our allies, and that comes at a huge cost to the United States. I mean, the fact of the matter is these tariffs on Canada and on Europe are going to cost taxpayers huge amounts of money. And, you know, remember, you know, the only time that NATO has, you know, ever been operationalized, the only time that, you know, we've actually called in Article 5, was to defend the United States after the 911 attack. And so, you know, at some point, the United states may need NATO's help, may need Canada's help, may need Europe's help, and they just won't be there for us if this keeps up. So it's just nonsensical. The attacks on Canada, they, they, they get headlines, which I guess is good for Trump, but it costs taxpayers money and it jeopardizes our security. It's just stupid.
- [04:59]
Jim Acosta
Yeah. Well, I'll. Let's not play his game then, per your suggestion, put very kindly. And let's, let's dive into this, because I've been obsessed with this, and I'm so glad that you are obsessed with it, because I sort of feel like this is one of the things that is just not covered enough. I was talking with Mark Warner yesterday about a different level of corruption going on with Elon Musk and Starlink. This is, this is different, but under the same category of just what the hell is going on in D.C. but CoinDesk is reporting this of all places. Trump's personal involvement in crypto has inspired a vigorous Democratic, Democratic response in the Senate. A new bill from Senator Chris Murphy to ban presidents and their families from dabbling in meme coins or issuing other financial assets. Let's talk about this. Why is this necessary? What's been going on? I, I know you must know this front and back, so I guess hit us with, with what's going on here.
- [05:50]
Chris Murphy
Well, you know, Trump's meme coin and now his stablecoin, and I know it's sort of hard for a lot of folks to know the difference. Difference, But Trump's crypto coins are the biggest scandal in the history of the presidency because it's corruption at scale. Trump's meme coin is making Trump tens of millions of dollars, and we have no idea who's paying him because all of the transactions are done in secret. So it is basically set up as a mechanism by which, you know, any CEO with business before the federal government, any sort of Gulf prince, any foreign oligarch, can just send Trump money by buying a whole bunch of coin or helping to infl the cost and whisper to Trump or Trump's family member, you know, what they want from the federal government. And they likely have a really good shot. In fact, the CEO of a big international trucking company just actually said it outright the other day. He said, I'm buying $20 million. My company is going to buy $20 million of Trump coin. Because that's how you get something from Donald Trump. I think my business will get what it wants. Better trade rules for my business if I give Donald Trump $20 million. Right. If a mayor did that. If a mayor put out a sign out front of City hall and said, give me $1,000 and I'm willing to, you know, give you your permit for, you know, your, your new garage. He'd be run out of town on a rail in a minute. And yet Donald Trump is doing that, not with Hundreds of dollars or thousands of dollars. He's doing that with tens of millions of dollars. And we sort of look the other way. He's selling the White House. He just announced the other day that if you're one of the top 25 buyers of his crypto coin, that he'll give you a special secret tour of the White House.
- [07:35]
Jim Acosta
I mean, bedroom.
- [07:38]
Chris Murphy
Yeah, it's illegal. I mean, it's illegal. It just is illegal. And you know, in the past there was concerns about giving access to the White House to campaign donors, but something totally different to give access to the White House to people who are lining your personal pockets. It's already illegal. All of this is, is likely already unconstitutional. But yes, we introduced a piece of legislation today to just make it perfectly explicit that the President, United States or any member of Congress cannot use their position to issue a crypto coin and then use their authority in order to try to market the coin and get people who have interest before the government to buy the coin.
- [08:19]
Jim Acosta
And this is an example of the level of corruption you're talking about last week. This is also according to CoinDesk. Last week, Eric Trump, one of his children, announced that an Abu Dhabi based investment firm would use Trump backed world Liberty Financial stablecoin to help it close out a $2 billion investment in global crypto exchange Binance. I think that's how you say it. This goes to the level of my ignorance perhaps on some of this stuff, but I, I just read that sentence. I don't even know what the hell it means. And I guess that's, that's the issue here.
- [08:50]
Chris Murphy
Yeah, but, but it's not, it's not. You're right. It's, it's really hard for Americans to understand what all this means. But this one's not complicated. So, so stablecoin is a, is a kind of crypto coin that's a little bit more stable than other coins because it's pegged to a, a currency like the US Dollar. Trump is now the fifth largest stable coin retailer. So he's got his own Stablecoin. And what he's doing is he's going to foreign governments and saying, listen, if you conduct transactions in Trump Stablecoin, then we can do business. Right? So the uae, for instance, it wants something very specific from the United States right now. The uae, this country in the Middle east, wants to be taken off of the list of countries that are given kind of increased scrutiny when they want to buy semiconductors. So UAE has a lot of squirrely business with China and so We've said we are not going to give you semiconductors without a real strong vetting process. UAE wants to get off that list. They want to be able to get all the semiconductors they want. They want us to look the other way about their integration with Chinese defense companies. Okay? So that's what they want, and they know how to get it. The way they get it is to send Donald Trump money. And the way that you send Donald Trump money is by doing business with either his Meme Coin business or his stablecoin business.
- [10:09]
Jim Acosta
And what's the difference between stablecoin and Meme Coin?
- [10:11]
Chris Murphy
Well, Meme Coin has no inherent value. A meme coin is just like, you know, the only value is the demand. So people buy Trump Meme Coin because they want to support Donald Trump. And as more people buy the. The price goes up. And so the price fluctuates wildly based upon how much demand there is and how much supply there is. A stable coin is different. A stable coin, its valuation, it fluctuates in a much less chaotic way because it never moves too far from the value of what you call a fiat currency, an actual currency like the US Dollar. So a stable, stable coin is different, and it is something that you would potentially use to do a big international transaction if you didn't want to do it in dollars. So Trump is now saying to foreign governments, okay, instead of doing it in dollar, do it in the Trump coin. I'll make a ton of personal money off of it. And in exchange, I'll get you what you need from the federal government. So instead of doing deals with foreign governments in which the foreign government gives the United States something we need, instead the deals are being done so that Donald Trump gets personally enriched. They literally just send money to Donald Trump's pocket. Yeah, the United States gives the country, the taxpayers of the United States gives this foreign country something they need. I mean, you just can't invent a more basic, brazen corruption than that. But it's happening right in front of us in the newspapers.
- [11:41]
Jim Acosta
Well, and, and on top of that, I mean, this is just being reported today in the Financial Times and New York Post aggregated a group of cryptocurrency Traders bank nearly $100 million in profits through suspiciously timed transactions involving first lady first lady Melania Trump's cryptocurrency token. This is according to the Financial Times, minutes before Melania Trump publicly announced the launch of her Melania cryptocurrency, two dozen digital wallets rapidly purchased large quantities of the token, netting a collective $99.6 million windfall. I, I'm, you know, I'm trying to imagine, Senator, and one of our, our viewers commented, you know, Trump is shooting somebody on Fifth Avenue and getting away with it. But I'm trying to picture the rage coming from Fox News if there were an Obama coin or a Michelle Obama coin.
- [12:27]
Chris Murphy
Right.
- [12:27]
Jim Acosta
I, you know.
- [12:28]
Chris Murphy
Right. No, it's. And, and, and it's really, again, it's not actually that hard to understand what happens here. Anytime that Trump talks about the meme coin online or announces one of these sort of big new benefit programs, like giving access to the White House to people who buy the coin, the value of the coin shoots up because it's just related to demand. So a whole bunch of people read that tweet, they buy it in bulk, the price goes up. So if you have advance notice of a Donald Trump tweet, you can make a ton of money because you buy it right before the tweet goes out, the price spikes. It normally always comes right back down, but you can buy it ahead of the spike and then sell it 20 minutes later.
- [13:19]
Jim Acosta
That's insider trading.
- [13:20]
Chris Murphy
It's 100% insider trading. It's 100% Insider trading, and it's happening all the time. And that article you're referencing is another version of it where right before you launch a coin, you give your friends, you know, the first crack at it, so you buy it before the price spikes. That's what happened with the Trump meme coin issuance, is that it spiked really high right at the beginning. And so if you were one of the first purchasers or you had advanced knowledge, listen, it's just, it's just so corrupt. Is absolutely insider trading.
- [13:50]
Jim Acosta
Policing his own people, because it's like a Ponzi scheme. The people who get in early, they get the maximum benefits. People who invest at the end. Joe Schmo from kokomo throws in 10 grand, 20 grand at the very end before it crashes back down. He's out thousands of dollars.
- [14:05]
Chris Murphy
And people have lost a ton of money off the Trump coin because it did jump up to, I think, $35, and then settled back down in the teens very quickly. The same thing happens with investments in the market. So when Trump announced this pause on some of the tariffs and the market shot up on that announcement, of course, there were people inside the administration, Trump family members, who knew that Trump was about to announce a pause in the tariffs and made big. Made big money. So this is happening, you know, throughout the economy, certainly in the crypto economy. And it's just our choice to sort of let this persist.
- [14:44]
Jim Acosta
Yeah. And it's interesting because I, I think I heard Pam Bondi and Cash Patel saying the other day, no one's above the law. But anyway, I digress, Senator, apparently you've been on the road doing some town halls with Congressman Maxwell Frost, the AP reporting you've been staging events in Republican congressional districts, going after GOP lawmakers such as Representative Richard Hudson, who represents the area that you visit, I guess in the last week or so, and I guess it was Hudson who is discouraging Republicans from holding these kinds of town halls. What are you hearing from people at these town halls? And I suspect if you're having town halls in these red districts, you're talking to Republicans and what are they saying?
- [15:20]
Chris Murphy
Yeah, I mean, these town halls have been, you know, oversubscribed from almost the minute we announced them. So our problem when we do them, and I've done them thus far in sort of Republican districts in Missouri, Michigan, North Carolina, or going to be doing some more this weekend, our problem is just the venue size. Like, I don't necessarily have the ability to, you know, fill a public square like Bernie Sanders does. But, yeah, I have trouble finding theaters that are big enough because thousands of people want to come in these Republican districts. Here's, I think, what Republicans are grappling with today. And this is what I hear when I'm out on the trail. You know, a lot of people who voted for Donald Trump, you know, heard him say that he was going to be a dictator on day one, but they just didn't believe him. And they heard him say that he was going to really focus on prices. And they did believe him. And it turns out that the opposite is true, that he was serious about being a dictator and he wasn't serious about attacking prices. And, you know, it's a permission structure for Trump voters to rethink their support for him because he wasn't straight with you. These Republican voters, they do not like the fact that he's doing nothing about prices. In fact, he's exacerbating prices. And it's made even worse by the fact that they also didn't really believe him when he said he was going to try to undermine our democracy. And he's spending an awful lot of time trying to undermine our democracy. So our pitch for these Republican voters is that, you know, he just wasn't straight with you. He wasn't straight with you. And it's okay for you to, you know, abandon him to think about voting for the other party because he's not on the level and the things that he told you just didn't turn out to be true.
- [17:02]
Jim Acosta
Yeah. And is it your sense that you're talking to voters who are just not gettable and they're just not going to come back, or is there something happening out there, do you think, or are we just as polarized as ever? The Trump voters are going to vote for Trump. They're going to vote maga, they're gonna vote Republican. It's nice that you went out there, talk to these folks. They're not going to vote for you or Maxwell Froster. Let's say you run in 2028, which I just slipped in there just to see how you'd react to it. But no, but seriously, I. What do you think on that front? Are these folks.
- [17:33]
Chris Murphy
It's a good question, but I'm not yet worried about, you know, what it means for 2026 or 2028 purposes. I think that, you know, one of our most immediate tasks is to stop this budget bill that's moving through the House and the Senate. This would be, as I mentioned earlier, the biggest transfer of wealth from the poor and the middle class to the rich in the history of the country. So they're talking about throwing millions of people off of Medicaid, which is the program that insures 24% of Americans. It's not, you don't know it as Medicaid. It's called something different in every state. In Connecticut, the Husky program. In Wisconsin, it's badger care, but it ensures tons of working families. So he wants to throw millions of people off that program in order to pass along a massive new tax cut to the wealthy. But he's got really slim margins in the House and the Senate. So just like with the Obamacare repeal, if only a handful of Republicans turn against him, then they can't pass this and lives would be saved. So right now it's really important to drive his approval ratings down because if he sort of ends up spending most of the spring in the 30s, right, less than 40% of the country approving of the job that he's doing, then it really has a good chance to peel off just enough Republicans so that we save the Medicaid program and we don't pass another massive tax cut for the wealthy. So, you know, down the road, we definitely have to make sure that we, you know, do our politics in a way that allows us to win elections. But right now, we need to do our politics in a way that stops the really bad policy from becoming law. And that's why I think it does matter that more Republicans are showing up in these town halls. They maybe not, they maybe haven't fully decided to, like, vote for Democrats in the future, but just the fact that they're leaving Trump and expressing real disapproval with him is going to have a chilling effect on Republicans willingness to keep voting for, for his policies.
- [19:21]
Jim Acosta
Yeah, so it sounds like you're focused on Senator stuff, which is what you should be doing as a United States Senate. And I know I got to let you go because your staff says you gotta go, but you mentioned the dictator thing. And I, I, I, I, I don't think that that's, I, I don't think you're being glib or, or sarcastic. I think this is serious. And I, I've covered him a long time and I think he's, he's, he's somewhere over the rainbow right now. He, he's, he thinks he can just do whatever he wants. I don't buy that he's saying that he's not going to do a third term. I mean, I think he could definitely test that out and continue to do that. I mean, just finally your thoughts on that? Because it concerns me, too, that he's just, he's out of control. It seems to me he's out of control.
- [20:06]
Chris Murphy
Yeah. And, and I think the, the, the playbook is pretty well known. You know, there are countries, a lot of countries in the world where there are still elections. I mean, there's still elections in Russia, but even in, you know, countries that are less autocratic than Russia, Hungary or Turkey, you know, there are still federal elections, but the ruling party, the regime, never loses, and they never lose because they've rigged the rules just enough so that the opposition never has enough oxygen to ever get over the top. And that's what Trump is trying to do here, right? The way in which he is trying to sort of co opt the media, shut down truth telling. The way in which he's trying to shut down the ability of lawyers to petition for people's rights. The way in which he is trying to shut down the mechanisms by which Democrats raise money, which is primarily this website, Acts Blue. The way in which he is, you know, threatening to use violence or threatening to endorse violence in order to interrupt democratic political action. It all is in service of ultimately just degrading the, the mechanisms of accountability in a democracy so that he can never lose. And he already has one major information platform, excuse me, Twitter. He wants to get hold of TikTok, he may be able to extort Meta into tweaking its algorithm so that it favors conservative content. If all of that happens, then, yeah, we'll still have an election in 2026, but Democrats won't have a chance to win and Trump will be able to stay in power forever. That's the future that I really worry about. Not some, you know, burning down of the Parliament building, not a coup in which Donald Trump arrests every member of Congress, but this gradual erosion of democratic norms that we have seen take place in many other countries so that the election still happens. It's just that the same group of people, the folks who surround Donald Trump and his family, win every election.
- [22:03]
Jim Acosta
Yeah, yeah, a slow motion coup that happens while he's in office, while he's enriching himself and his family and his friends.
- [22:11]
Chris Murphy
And there's no day that democracy dies, Right? There's. It just. You wake up one day and, oh, wait a second, I can't get anybody to turn out for my protests against Trump because, you know, their job, they're going to lose their job if that, if that happens. And there's half as many journalists willing to tell the truth. And, you know, the algorithms are now controlled by the regime. You know that, that happens all very gradually, and before you know it, you just are not living in a democracy any longer. That's happened before all around the world, and we should not be so full of hubris to believe that it couldn't happen here.
- [22:46]
Jim Acosta
Yeah. Senator Chris Murphy, thank you so much for your time. Really appreciate it. Enjoy the conversation. Good to see you. All right, thanks a lot. And I do think, you know, you know, folks get accused, I guess maybe yours truly included, of, of, of being hyperbolic and saying, oh, well, you know, democracy is, is on the line here and our way of life is on the line here. I'm so glad to talk to Senator Murph and to hear from somebody who's very serious about these issues, who puts it in a very thoughtful, easy to understand, you know, easy to digest sort of way. And to me, I mean, the scenario he laid out is perfectly plausible. Something that could easily happen in this country. I want to, if Molly is waiting, I want to bring in Molly John fast, because I always, always enjoy our conversation. Hey, Molly, how you doing?
- [23:43]
Molly Jong-Fast
Good. How are you?
- [23:45]
Jim Acosta
Good.
- [23:45]
Molly Jong-Fast
Can you hear me?
- [23:46]
Jim Acosta
I can hear you. We came to you just as the siren was going up Second Avenue.
- [23:50]
Molly Jong-Fast
The best. You're so lucky.
- [23:53]
Jim Acosta
I love New York Dream forever and ever. Senator Murphy, you know, I'm One of the reasons why I wanted to have him on is he's really hot on this Meme Coin thing, this Trump meme coin corruption thing, which is. It's just outlandish. It's just out in the open. And I guess when they do it in broad daylight, you don't call it corruption. Is that, Is that the thinking here?
- [24:15]
Molly Jong-Fast
No, I mean, I think you do call it corruption. And the New York Times had an article about the meme coin and the boys enriching themselves and the just incredible corruption, really catastrophic level stuff. I think we know what it is. I mean, the question of, you know, how we prevent this sort of how we protect these norms and institutions, how we prevent the authoritarian creep from. And the creep towards authoritarianism from engulfing all of us. The real question.
- [24:59]
Jim Acosta
Yeah, and I mean, I was. The other thing I was talking to Murphy about was, you know, this silliness in the Oval Office with Trump and Mark Carney, and. And, you know, Trump is saying, you know, it takes two to tango and I still want Canada. And look how beautiful the map will be if we. We erase this. Imagine. I, you know, when he says these things, it's hard for me to say him back in the words that he's using because I sound crazy saying these things. Murphy was saying, you know, we shouldn't talk about this stuff because it's the bright, shiny object. But I. Our friends at Canada don't like it.
- [25:34]
Molly Jong-Fast
I mean, here's what I would say. Yeah, I found his talk with Carney terrifying because I see us as heading towards an economic meltdown when it comes to tariffs. So when you start to hear him talk about trade and it becomes completely clear that my man has no idea how trade works. Literally no idea. I. When he was saying, you know, well, they make cars in Canada, but we don't want to buy Canadian cars anymore. And Carney, who is this, like, very smart, you know, what was it comes from economic or, you know, as an economist says, well, you know, we make cars and the parts go back and forth. He says, we're not going to buy Canadian cars anymore. And it's like, no, sir. I was like, they're just going to all go around us because we are in a period when we were supposed to have 90 deals in 90 days. So far, we have zero deals in zero days. This pause ends in mid July. We have empty shipping containers. I mean, we are looking down the barrel of a Go to the grocery store and there's nothing, you know, there are, you know, there aren't five different kinds of paper towels. There's one kind of paper towel and four, you know, or five, there's some grocery stores, there's 10 different kinds of paper towels. I don't think Americans understand. See, the authoritarian creep and the anti democracy stuff is real bad. But the thing that's gonna just unravel this presidency is the anti capitalist stuff. And that is, you know, when my man is like, they had $25 and now they'll only get two. And I want to just, I love that. I just want to like, so talk. I was interviewing for my podcast Fast Politics. Please join us. It's.
- [27:32]
Jim Acosta
Please always join us.
- [27:33]
Molly Jong-Fast
It's totally separate thing, even if we're.
- [27:34]
Jim Acosta
On the same time watch.
- [27:36]
Molly Jong-Fast
That's right, exactly. But I was talking to Governor Bershear and I said, you know, the pot, the, the 25, the $2. And he said, and, and again, this is, was really important that he said this. He said, so I'm gonna be $25 to $2. It's gonna be $2 to no dolls. And that's what this is about. Right? This is about people aren't gonna be able to afford to buy their kids Christmas presents because Donald Trump doesn't understand how onshoring manufacturing works.
- [28:03]
Jim Acosta
Well, all those little girls out there who have 20American Girl dolls are going to clean up big is what's going to happen on the, on the American Girl doll exchange that is coming to ebay an e. But I mean, the.
- [28:17]
Molly Jong-Fast
Point is there is a lot of really scary authoritarian stuff that this administration is trying to do. But they're, but the thing that's going to sink them for better or worse. I ultimately think it's for better because we do like American democracy is going to be the tariffs.
- [28:36]
Jim Acosta
Well, and he screws himself. No, there's no question. He screwed himself on the economy the last time in 2020 because of the way he fucked up Covid. He screwed up Covid to the extent that he exacerbated a pandemic which exacerbated the economic situation in this country, which screwed him in the end. Come election time in 2020, people had no confidence that he was gonna get us out of it and so on. This time, he's the virus, he's the pandemic.
- [29:04]
Molly Jong-Fast
Well, and I would add one other thing which is one of the things that Biden world did that was bad was they couldn't message. Right. They just couldn't explain what they were doing. Now I'm not going to get into why they couldn't explain it, but they just couldn't do it. So nobody, you know, they Chips and sciences, which was about. On shoring manufacturing, nobody understood what the fuck it was, right? It was onshore manufacturing. No one understood, okay? But one of the big things that Biden did brilliantly and that, that I think didn't, they didn't get much credit for was inflation. So we had a real perilous moment with inflation. The reality was it was transitory, sort of, right? You turn on the supply chain and it's inflationary. Okay? Now here's what's going to happen. We're going to have nothing on the shelves, right? Nothing on the shelves. Maybe we'll only have four kinds of paper towels instead of eight kinds of paper towels, okay? But here's what happens with Americans when they can't get their stuff. Not happy. They get pissed and then they hoard. So just like in the pandemic, when they turned the supply chain back on, it was an epic shit show that was highly inflationary and it took a.
- [30:29]
Jim Acosta
Long time to unwind those supply chain issues. That was a horror show too. People forget that.
- [30:34]
Molly Jong-Fast
So. So you got the port of Long beach and the port of Los Angeles. No ships are down, right? You got Seattle. We're seeing ships down. So ships are down. Trump is got to get to Chi. Oh, it's just going to be me now. He's got it.
- [30:50]
Jim Acosta
This is fancy. We getting fancy now? I don't know.
- [30:52]
Molly Jong-Fast
Jim has left. No, he's still here. I'm glad he's still here. But anyway, so you have. So supply chain is off, right. Right now with China. Anyway, so say he makes, say Trump freaks out and decides he's going to make a deal with China. Say he does that. Even if he does that, which he says he doesn't want to do, but say he does that, we're still going to have nothing coming for three weeks, right? So we're three weeks behind on trade or four weeks behind and trade. So when you turn it back on, you're going to have more inflation because there'll be less stuff, people will charge more for it.
- [31:27]
Jim Acosta
But Stephen Miller said the other day, I think it was in the briefing room or something, he said, well, people will give up their 20 China made like little girl dolls for one really well made American made American girl doll. I mean, first of all, what does he know about any of these?
- [31:45]
Molly Jong-Fast
When are they going to build these factories that are going to manufacture these things? I mean, when is that happening? What. How is onshoring Manufacturing going to happen in three weeks, like it's not going to happen. Completely preposterous proposition. But I want to go one step further. So you have, you have inflation, you have a supply chain, you have whatever is happening with China, you don't know if Trump can make a deal. And then you have this underlying really scary thing, which is dollar flight. And there is a real world. And we saw this, this is why Trump stopped the trade war. The last time was we saw the bond market, showed that America didn't necessarily need to be the default currency. And I think that is something really to be scared about. Then there's one other thing which I don't think people are talking about enough because it's scary and because nobody remembers history at all. United States of Amnesia. We remember nothing, we learned nothing.
- [32:47]
Jim Acosta
I don't even know what we just.
- [32:48]
Molly Jong-Fast
Said 10 minutes ago, exactly. But stagflation is a scenario that really was terrible happened in America in the 80s. And what happens is you go into a recession, which means, right, there's negative growth and things get more expensive. So you can't raise interest rates. Right. Because things are already more expensive. So if you make things more expense, even more expensive, you can't do that, can't lower interest rates because it's highly inflationary. So you end up with it in a.
- [33:22]
Jim Acosta
It's so hard to get out of it juice.
- [33:25]
Molly Jong-Fast
Right. And it is very, it seems very likely that this tariff thing will make things more expensive, will create inflation, will also create recession. So it's hard to imagine how we avoid this.
- [33:42]
Jim Acosta
No. And it's a scenario that will slowly evolve over months and months. It won't be something that he can turn off like a light bulb. You know, when he plays chicken with the, the tariffs, he can, he can threaten it. He can turn them on, he can turn them off. But once he gets this train moving, where we start heading toward Stagflation Mountain, that is going to take us into the midterm cycle. And he's not going to be able to turn that off. And so he is going to make his bed for himself and he's going to have to lie in it, is what's going to happen.
- [34:10]
Molly Jong-Fast
Yeah. And I mean, yeah. And you see Republicans, I mean, today we learned that Kemp is not going to run and Sununu is not going to run. These guys see the writing on the wall and they know the midterms are going to be rough.
- [34:24]
Jim Acosta
And I just saw today that Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Republican, who is one of These Republicans that say, oh, you know, he could be. He could be beaten and so on. Apparently, he's informed the White House that he's not going to support Ed Martin. This is an update for a story I've been doing on my show, Trump's Pick.
- [34:40]
Molly Jong-Fast
That's good, because Ed Martin is definitely putting you in jail, Jim.
- [34:44]
Jim Acosta
Well, that's fine. You know, maybe an Alcatraz. See, first we thought we were going to seek out. Now, apparently, we're going to Alcatraz. I don't do that, Molly.
- [34:50]
Molly Jong-Fast
But if it's a choice, at least.
- [34:52]
Jim Acosta
We'Re in San Francisco, you know?
- [34:53]
Molly Jong-Fast
Right. If it's a choice between seacon and Alcatraz, I want to go to Alcatraz.
- [34:58]
Jim Acosta
Alcatraz is. I mean, you got a view of the bay and the bridge.
- [35:02]
Molly Jong-Fast
Much better.
- [35:03]
Jim Acosta
It's. I mean, I don't know why they didn't turn that to condos long time ago. But Tom Tiller says he's gonna. He's not gonna go for Ed Martin, and that may stall that whole nomination, which I personally, me on my soapbox. That is one of the best things I've heard in a very long time, that that nutbird would not become the U.S. attorney in D.C. after.
- [35:23]
Molly Jong-Fast
After you don't want to go to jail.
- [35:25]
Jim Acosta
I mean, again, I might get Alcatraz for saying that, but there you go.
- [35:29]
Molly Jong-Fast
Tell us, is the Jeff Flake of 2020, whatever year this is.
- [35:36]
Jim Acosta
Yeah.
- [35:37]
Molly Jong-Fast
Prove me wrong. But I think I may be right here.
- [35:39]
Jim Acosta
Yeah. No, I mean, I think Thom Tillis is. Is somebody who probably should be worried about stuff. And. And I have to ask you, Molly.
- [35:47]
Molly Jong-Fast
Thoughts? Prayers?
- [35:48]
Jim Acosta
What the hell is going on with Newark? I know you.
- [35:51]
Molly Jong-Fast
Yeah. Don't fly out.
- [35:52]
Jim Acosta
You don't fly out of Newark.
- [35:54]
Molly Jong-Fast
Nothing good.
- [35:55]
Donald Trump
I know.
- [35:56]
Molly Jong-Fast
Does not fly out of Newark. Yeah. Do not fly out of Newark. Look, is this. But this is like, I. I can't believe how stupid everything is. And I should know because we did elect someone who, you know. But no, they fired. You know, Doge came in there and said, the federal government spends too much money on poor people and not enough money on tax cuts for very wealthy people. It's the wealthiest person in America. Said. Wealthiest man in America who got rich off government tax incentives who said, you know, we're spending too much money on air safety. By the way, you're just seeing the air safety stuff. Wait till you see what they did to the fda. Right, Food safety.
- [36:43]
Jim Acosta
No, but I mean, when I see a headline that says air traffic controllers at Newark Briefly lost communications with planes under their control, quote, unable to see, hear or talk to them. Last week, officials say. I don't remember these headlines during the Biden administration. I just woke.
- [37:00]
Molly Jong-Fast
You need the woke at the woke FAA back. Right? I mean, that's what you need is.
- [37:08]
Jim Acosta
Awake FAA would be nice awake them.
- [37:11]
Molly Jong-Fast
Yes, they need to be woke.
- [37:13]
Jim Acosta
That's a dad joke.
- [37:15]
Molly Jong-Fast
I know. But I went along with it because I'm such a good person.
- [37:18]
Jim Acosta
You are a good person and a good friend. Yeah, no, I, and I, I just, you know, my thing is, and I'm thinking about this Chris Murphy thing because, you know, you and I, we get accused of Chicken Little. Oh my gosh, democracy and stuff like that. When you sit there and you listen to Chris Murphy outline how it could happen, the way the media has been put under the boot. Donald Trump, it's happened. I, I said this the other day. He's cracked the code. He's figured out how to intimidate 60 minutes of all goddamn places. But you know, he, When Murphy is laying out how it can happen in social media and you know, Meta, I mean, you know, he's right. I mean, in this kind of. And you, you tailor election laws to a certain degree, that just makes it more difficult for people. I mean, I, you know, I'm glad to hear somebody serious, as sober as he is laying it out because he's, he's right.
- [38:13]
Molly Jong-Fast
I mean, we've seen he's right. Meta is already very right leaning. So I don't know what Meta's going to, How Meta is going to get worse. But by the way, Meta, like, you know, they were found liable of the Rohingyan genocide. Okay. These guys, they're not the good guys. They're. They're maybe not as bad as Elon.
- [38:33]
Jim Acosta
But they're not good threads is less repugnant than X. But, you know.
- [38:38]
Molly Jong-Fast
Right. But it's still, I mean, they are, these guys are not the good guys. And by the way, not to just. Now, I will get on my soapbox. Congress could have prevented tech companies from eating us all. Yeah, they really could have. They could have said, you are responsible for things that are placed on your platform. You are. And then you would have had, you know, I mean, there's a real, There were many, many times where Congress said, no, too complicated to regulate, that. We're, no, thank you, we're fine here. So I would say, I don't think that. I think this is 100% the fault of Congress for inability. And by the way, like, we could have 100 newspapers and a thriving media industry. If Congress had put as much protection of, like, mainstream media as they did for, like, oil companies. Right. If we get like the kind of tax incentives you gave to Elon Musk to make him the richest man in the world, you could have given those to pbs.
- [39:44]
Jim Acosta
Exactly.
- [39:44]
Molly Jong-Fast
But instead you get.
- [39:46]
Jim Acosta
And this is my idea, and anybody can feel free to steal it if they want to run for president in 2028. I think in the way that Trump has been wildly obnoxious about going after PBS and NPR, presidential candidates in the Democratic Party should absolutely 100% say not only are they fully funding PBS and NPR, they're going to fund it to the point where it is going to be too big to fail.
- [40:10]
Molly Jong-Fast
Do it, man.
- [40:11]
Jim Acosta
Do it. Wouldn't it be amazing?
- [40:14]
Molly Jong-Fast
Threaten me with a good time. Yeah.
- [40:16]
Jim Acosta
Like a really well funded public broadcasting system in this country. It would be amazing.
- [40:24]
Molly Jong-Fast
BBC, I mean, 10 times smarter. Yeah, no, no, it's no question. I mean, yeah, no, I. Listen, I'll go there with you. It is just a completely ridiculous thing that we have this country where the tech billionaires have been so empowered and actual mainstream media outlets are so just destroyed. Can we do two seconds on Chris Murphy's beard?
- [40:51]
Jim Acosta
Yeah, what was. I saw that. And Pete Buttigieg has a beard, too. Should I grow a beard?
- [40:58]
Molly Jong-Fast
No, no, no. Chris Mercy from Connecticut, you know, no, there's nothing about you that's Ted Cruz like. And that said. But also, wow. It's very fancy in here.
- [41:14]
Jim Acosta
We've gotten kind of cool in here.
- [41:16]
Molly Jong-Fast
I mean, it's like. It's very fancy. It's very fancy.
- [41:20]
Jim Acosta
I didn't mean to throw you off. You were saying?
- [41:23]
Molly Jong-Fast
I don't even know. The discourse has completely moved on without me. No, I mean, I think Chris Murphy has a really sober assessment and I think that it's really scary what this administration could do. That said, I think it's about to completely undermine itself by causing an economic catastrophe.
- [41:40]
Jim Acosta
Yeah. And I. And the thing I say, and I. I don't want to hold you up forever, but the thing I say, we're only like 105, 106 days in or whatever, and we have a shitload of time left and we have no idea. I mean, he sounds like he's unraveling now. Now at 105 days, he. Most of what he says makes no sense. And I'm sorry. When I watch my friends in the media and they come on TV and they try to normalize and rationalize and, And Put into normal words and language. What he is saying, they really are.
- [42:16]
Molly Jong-Fast
Doing a lot of work for him. Like imagine it's kind of work for Biden.
- [42:21]
Jim Acosta
Yeah, exactly.
- [42:23]
Molly Jong-Fast
Really meant to say was it's so true.
- [42:26]
Jim Acosta
And I said, you know, I did a thing on this over the last weekend, you know, when Trump is out there saying that the MS.13 on Kilmar's knuckles are real and they're clearly photoshopped. I mean, that's like, you know, that's take keys from grandpa type stuff. You know what I mean? Like, you know, he can, he can use the remote control. That's about it. You know, Denny's, it's 5:00. You know that.
- [42:50]
Molly Jong-Fast
Yeah, no, no, I mean, I think that's right. My favorite was he said this thing about how you can't find. I guess he tweeted truce, whatever that you. That there's gas for under $2 and does not. Hasn't been true in, in, in a bunch of years. And, and. And then someone said, well, he means to. That you can buy it by the barrel. The, the sort of the, the. And I was like, no, no, stop it. Like, stop. He means, like he says. Who cares what he means? I mean, he's the only person in the world where he says something and everyone goes, but he means, yeah, yeah.
- [43:33]
Jim Acosta
This is, this is sane washing on steroids. This is, this is insane washing. And you know, some of this is like. I think he's stuck in a mindset of like the 80s and the 90s. And the gas, the gas example that you mentioned is sort of in that category. It's sort of like when he talks about I'm going to turn Alcatraz back into a prison again. You know, it's probably because he is remembering like his affection for Alcatraz movies. You know what I mean? And it's just like, you know, I mean it's. Yeah, there's, there's, there's a brain functioning kind of issue going on.
- [44:07]
Molly Jong-Fast
I mean, he looks, you know, again, he has another whatever thousand. You know, the Economist had really great cover of like a bald eagle looking like it had the shit kicked out of it. And then underneath, underneath it said like 1300 days to go or something like, can America make it?
- [44:31]
Jim Acosta
Yeah.
- [44:31]
Molly Jong-Fast
And like that's the Economist. The woke Economist. You know, the Economist. This is a magazine that is like written for business people. By business people.
- [44:44]
Jim Acosta
Yeah.
- [44:45]
Molly Jong-Fast
And they were like, yeah, not looking good.
- [44:49]
Jim Acosta
Not looking good. And, and the other, the other component of the scene washing thing that, that bugs Me is like, Gavin Newsom, I guess put out a tweet because of the tariff on the movie thing that Trump has been talking, which also just maybe we, if we had just made him a TV and movie star, like, in addition to the Apprentice, he had been in a bunch of movies, he just wouldn't have wanted to be president. You know what I mean? And, and Gavin Newsom put out a tweet. California built the film industry. We're ready to bring even more jobs home. We're proven what strong state incentives can do. Now it's time for a real federal partnership to make America film again. Let's get it done. Potus. And, you know, you know, in, in the meantime, Trump's in the Oval Office today calling him Gavin Newscomb.
- [45:30]
Molly Jong-Fast
You know, he really hates Gavin. I, you know, it's interesting because there are some governors who have played this extremely well and some governors who have not. Yeah. Janet Mills won in court. She said, I'll see you in court. That's the main governor about trans kids sports. Trump said, I'm going to take away all your federal funding. Mills won. Kentucky Governor Bershear, again, really doing well, building roads and bridges. Has he said, you know, he actually said something smart. He said, you know, when they do well with fema, with us, we're happy. When the federal government works for us, Great. And when they don't, we criticize them. And that is the balance, right? That's the balance for a lot of these Democratic governors is you need to be able to get stuff for your constituents. That's your job, right? Is to take care of your people, the people who live in your state. And then you also have to push back when he does anti Democratic things, which are what we're looking at with Mills. And we've seen this in other states, too. It's a balance. What you don't want is to be found in the Oval Office hiding behind a manila folder.
- [46:46]
Jim Acosta
Don't. Don't hold the folders up over your.
- [46:48]
Molly Jong-Fast
Don't. I think you just stand there and you just try. You.
- [46:51]
Jim Acosta
I mean, but also, Gavin Newsom, don't make America film again. You know, it's like, it's okay, so it's like, I don't know, like he has Charlie Kirk on and Steve Bannon, what are you doing out there? What's happening in California? What are you doing?
- [47:04]
Molly Jong-Fast
So here's the thing. I want Democrats to go on every podcast. I think Gavin Newsom should go on Steve Bannon's podcast. But I don't think Right, Gavin, get on the war room. Get in front of Steve Bannon's people, but don't bring Steve Bannon in front of your people.
- [47:22]
Jim Acosta
Right.
- [47:23]
Molly Jong-Fast
Like you get. Go on his podcast.
- [47:27]
Jim Acosta
Buttigieg does this. Buttigieg goes into enemy territory, goes into the lion's den, tames the lion. He goes, yeah, I'm out of here. Let's go have a beer. And.
- [47:36]
Molly Jong-Fast
Yeah, yeah. But he's not doing, like. He's not like, let's get Ann Coulter over here so we can showcase her.
- [47:44]
Jim Acosta
Yeah.
- [47:45]
Molly Jong-Fast
And that.
- [47:45]
Jim Acosta
And then not ask hard questions and.
- [47:48]
Molly Jong-Fast
Yeah, well, no. The whole idea that government. That. That government officials need to be podcasters. Only Ted Cruz can be a podcaster. Everyone else has to be. It's because Ted is so incredibly charismatic.
- [48:03]
Jim Acosta
You did the weed and brought it back to Ted Cruz. That was her.
- [48:06]
Molly Jong-Fast
It's always about Ted Cruz and Lion Ted.
- [48:10]
Jim Acosta
Lion Ted.
- [48:11]
Molly Jong-Fast
Lion Ted.
- [48:12]
Jim Acosta
Yeah. What did he. What did Trump used to say? He holds the Bible up high and then he lies or he said something. I can't remember.
- [48:18]
Molly Jong-Fast
Lion Ted and little Marco.
- [48:21]
Jim Acosta
Oh, my goodness. And look where we are now.
- [48:24]
Molly Jong-Fast
Runs the whole administration. He has, like, 55 jobs.
- [48:27]
Jim Acosta
Secretary of State. He's National Security Security Advisor. Is he the Postmaster General?
- [48:33]
Molly Jong-Fast
He's the hud. He's the head of hud. He's the head of education, apparently. And he has a. And he has a coin. Marco coin.
- [48:43]
Jim Acosta
Marco coin. Why can't we start?
- [48:45]
Molly Jong-Fast
Little coin. Little coin. Little coin.
- [48:50]
Jim Acosta
Little coin. But it would be just a very tiny, like the half of a penny. It would be a.
- [48:53]
Molly Jong-Fast
Hey, yeah, we'll start. Our coin will be called. Will be called neolib coin. No, no.
- [49:01]
Jim Acosta
Alcatraz coin.
- [49:02]
Molly Jong-Fast
Probably Alcatraz corn. It would be please buy this coin to get us out of Alcatraz.
- [49:07]
Jim Acosta
It's sort of like when you put the penny in your thing and you smash it and then you get a smashed penny. That'll be our coin.
- [49:13]
Molly Jong-Fast
I run a dog kennel here, but I also have. Nothing good is coming from here. But I do have a book. It's coming out. Wait, hold on.
- [49:23]
Jim Acosta
Are we allowed to plug the book yet, or will the publisher get crazy?
- [49:25]
Molly Jong-Fast
We can absolutely publish. We can plug them.
- [49:28]
Jim Acosta
Okay, guys, Molly's book. We need to have Molly back on.
- [49:31]
Molly Jong-Fast
How to lose your mother. You can pre order right now. Pre order, baby. Very. People like it. It's gotten good reviews.
- [49:42]
Jim Acosta
It's gotten very good reviews.
- [49:44]
Molly Jong-Fast
That could change tomorrow, but for now, it's gotten good reviews. It has. It's very. The COVID is Very fancy and shiny.
- [49:53]
Jim Acosta
And look at my producer, Matt. He immediately has the title up on screen.
- [49:57]
Molly Jong-Fast
Yes, Matt. Good for Matt. So please pre order it. Look, it's so nice. It's the words. It has a lot of words, but not too many words.
- [50:07]
Jim Acosta
It has the best words. You always use the best word.
- [50:10]
Molly Jong-Fast
Here's what I'm gonna say about this. I actually wrote it.
- [50:13]
Jim Acosta
You. I. People ask me that when I did my book. People were like, did you really write it? I'm like, well, yeah, I really wrote it. Explain a lot. But I did actually write my book.
- [50:22]
Molly Jong-Fast
Don't say that. It was a number one bestseller. Wasn't it a number one bestseller?
- [50:26]
Jim Acosta
It was a bestseller. It was.
- [50:28]
Molly Jong-Fast
It was something like New York Times bestseller. I'll take it, Diana.
- [50:32]
Jim Acosta
I. I will.
- [50:33]
Molly Jong-Fast
Peter, have me back so I can pull my book again. Please send me back. We will better have me back.
- [50:39]
Jim Acosta
We'll do it very soon. Tell me when.
- [50:40]
Molly Jong-Fast
Have me back. All right, let's go.
- [50:42]
Jim Acosta
Okay. All right.
- [50:43]
Molly Jong-Fast
Thank you, Jim Acosta. Bye.
- [50:45]
Jim Acosta
Bye. I won't grow beard by that was Molly John Fast, and Duke is bringing me a toy. Duke, is it time to play? Is it time to play already? I was gonna say it's a little sad about the fact that it's May 6th. May 4th is very cool because it's the. It's May 4th be with you in Star wars, and I'm a huge Star wars guy. And plus, May 5th is Cinco de Mayo. It's just May 6th. I guess I. I'll just go walk. I'll just go walk. Duke. Now, on this May 6, I did see that May 6 is also the day that the Hindenburg caught fire and crash. I don't know if that means anything, if it relates somehow back to Donald Trump and his presidency, but it is. It is the day also that the Hindenburg crash. And on that note, on that cheerful note, on that hopeful note, I do want to thank Senator Murphy for coming on. Please go take a look at that conversation. If you tune in a little later. To me, the most uncovered story right now is that the President of the United States has a meme coin. And somehow that's okay with Republicans in Congress, and somehow it's not corruption. And to members of the Republican Party and maga, and when Pam Bondi and Cash Patel say no one is above the law, and then Donald Trump and Melania have meme coins. I don't know. I mean, you just tell me, like, what would have happened Again, I brought this up with Chris Murphy. What would have happened if Barack Obama and Michelle Obama each had their own meme coin. We're each trying to sell a, a token that basically has no value other than people just getting giddy and spending their hard earned money on something that probably has no intrinsic value. I just ask you that everybody, and maybe that does tie back to the Hindenburg in some way because perhaps that may be what may be coming for our economy if this kind of financial tomfoolery continues and people are allowed to get away with it. I mean, to me it's just unreal. But my thanks to Chris Murphy for coming on to talk about that. Of course, my thanks to Molly John Fast. We talked a lot longer than I thought we would. And so you got your, you got your fill of Molly today and we'll bring her back to talk about her book as well. Thanks everybody for watching. Still reporting from Washington, I'm Jim Acosta. Have a good evening, everybody. Take care. Good night.