Trump Lies at the U.N. and about Tylenol with Olivia Troye, Dr. Rob Davidson and Elise Labott.

Summary

The Jim Acosta Show — Episode Summary

Episode: “Trump Lies at the U.N. and about Tylenol”
Host: Jim Acosta
Guests: Olivia Troye, Dr. Rob Davidson, Elise Labott
Date: September 23, 2025

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Overview

This episode dives into former President Donald Trump’s inflammatory speech at the United Nations, his repeated misinformation campaign on public health—most recently targeting Tylenol—and the troubling implications of his administration’s policies on both national security and international relations. Jim Acosta is joined by national security expert Olivia Troye, physician Dr. Rob Davidson, and foreign policy journalist Elise Labott to break down Trump’s rhetoric, its consequences at home and abroad, and the existential threat it poses to democracy and truth.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Trump’s UN Speech: America First, Facts Last

Host and Guest Reaction

• Trump’s speech was described as an “America First” diatribe, heavy on grievance and short on diplomacy ([01:17] Olivia Troye).
• The speech echoed his 2019 address, but was “folgers off the rails, kind of aggressive” ([01:17] Troye).
• He insulted allies, targeted environmentalists (“wanting to kill all the cows”), and attacked the UN’s legitimacy ([02:24] Acosta, summarizing NYT reporting).

Audience Response

• Unlike 2019 when Trump was laughed at by diplomats, this time the room was “strikingly quiet”—a silence Olivia Troye attributes to the global community’s growing anxiety over America’s direction ([03:08] Troye).

“Now they know that he's actually serious and that the US is being led by this individual who is unhinged and unserious.” — Olivia Troye [03:08]

UNGA Process and Fallout

• Troye reflects on the chaos behind the scenes during UN General Assembly sessions, noting that the U.S. State Department blocked delegations from attending, a rare and diplomatically damaging move ([05:34] Troye).
• Acosta points out that Trump’s 56-minute speech was roughly "four times as long as he is allotted" ([02:24]).

Impact on International Perception

• Elise Labott compares Trump’s speech style to Castro or Gaddafi: “somewhere between a word salad and verbal diarrhea” ([36:05] Labott).
• Trump missed an opportunity to lead; instead, he “ripped up U.S. leadership in a lot of shreds and threw it in the garbage” ([38:36] Labott).

2. Misinformation on Domestic Policy and Antifa

• Trump signed an executive order reclassifying Antifa as a domestic terrorist organization ([09:28] Acosta).
• Olivia Troye, who participated in policy discussons during Trump’s first term, warns this is a pretext for crushing dissent:

“They are going to use antifa and going after antifa as a way of just crushing dissent and going after political opponents.” — Jim Acosta [10:28] “In Trump’s head, it really is an actual organization. Never mind that Antifa...is not an actual formal organization.” — Olivia Troye [11:32]

• Acosta and Troye voice concern that legitimate protestors, critics, and the press may now be labeled as terrorists, eroding First Amendment protections ([12:26]).

3. Influence of Stephen Miller and Rise of Authoritarian Rhetoric

• Both Acosta and Troye emphasize advisor Stephen Miller’s outsized, unchecked power in the administration, calling this “the most dangerous I’ve ever seen him” ([13:50] Acosta, [13:56] Troye).

“What he delivered there [at the Charlie Kirk memorial] is something that we should really pay attention to, because this is their agenda.” — Olivia Troye [15:34]

• Miller’s speech reportedly included QAnon references and vitriolic, violence-inciting language that mainstream media failed to call out ([16:26] Troye).

4. Trump’s Medical Misinformation: Tylenol and Autism

Trump’s Claims

• Trump baselessly claimed that Tylenol (acetaminophen) causes autism and told parents not to give it to children ([19:21] Dr. Rob Davidson).
• Dr. Davidson highlights the public health dangers: misinformation from the President causes real-world harm, especially to pregnant women and children ([19:57], [22:59]).

Medical Community Response

“There is no causal link [between acetaminophen and autism]… That is how we do medicine. That is how we synthesize information from studies, not from this raving—just word salad coming out of his mouth.” — Dr. Rob Davidson [20:27]

• Dr. Davidson draws parallels to Trump’s COVID era misinformation (“bleach and light in the body,” hydroxychloroquine, ivermectin), linking these anti-science stances to increased suffering and preventable deaths ([21:19], [26:13]).
• He points out the danger of guilt-tripping mothers, many of whom will wrongly blame themselves for their children’s autism due to Trump’s baseless claims ([24:34]).

Damage to Public Health and Research

“This administration now is cutting funding...threatening universities if they don’t do what they want. What we need is more research...not a guy telling us about rumors he’s heard from other countries.” — Dr. Rob Davidson [29:51]

• The appointment of RFK Jr. as HHS Secretary and the administration’s targeting of mRNA research suggests an ongoing war against medical science ([30:18] Acosta, Davidson).
• Davidson warns of a “brain drain” in American medical research as funding and academic freedom are threatened, saying damage could take decades to reverse ([30:59]).

5. Foreign Policy Fallout and Shifting Global Alliances

• Elise Labott details how "America First" isolationism has cost the US international goodwill and influence ([41:02], [42:28]).
• She spotlights the deepening rift between Israel and the Arab world, with Iran now a less universal “boogeyman” than Israel due to new alliances and Netanyahu’s aggressive actions ([45:16] Labott).
• Trump’s off-the-cuff comments about NATO countries shooting down Russian aircraft raise the specter of catastrophic escalation ([43:08] Acosta/Labott).

6. Public Art & The Epstein Files

• Acosta visits a provocative Trump/Epstein statue on the National Mall, collecting candid reactions ([52:30]).
• Visitors widely suspect Trump is suppressing the Epstein files to protect himself—fuel for ongoing public distrust ([54:00]).

“Everybody gets this...that Donald Trump has something to hide, that this friendship is something that he wants to hide.” — Jim Acosta [54:34]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the U.N. speech’s global reaction:
  “The only thing I kept thinking of...was that this was actually done purposely, whereas he went off script...an America First speech on the global stage.” — Olivia Troye [01:17]

• On Antifa designation and democracy:
  “This is part of the strategy...figuring out ways to use the Department of Justice and federal law enforcement...by using this designation and saying, well, these people now fit under the definition of terrorists...which means it’s anyone who does not support Donald Trump.” — Olivia Troye [11:32]

• On Stephen Miller:
  “He has power...unchecked power, I would say.” — Olivia Troye [13:56]

• On Trump’s Tylenol claims:
  “When Trump is saying, I heard a rumor, you know...you should be suspicious.” — Jim Acosta [28:21]

• On US isolation:
  “Trump might have a lot of power right now, and the US may have a lot of power. We don’t have a lot of goodwill right now, and that is going to come back to bite us.” — Elise Labott [45:16]

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• UN Speech, Reactions & Global Consequences: [00:52] ~ [09:28], [35:39] ~ [44:25]
• Antifa as 'Domestic Terrorist Organization': [09:28] ~ [13:00]
• Stephen Miller’s Influence & Charlie Kirk Memorial: [13:50] ~ [17:15]
• Medical Misinformation—Tylenol, Autism: [19:02] ~ [34:15]
• State of U.S. International Leadership, Israel-Palestine: [35:18] ~ [49:54]
• Trump/Epstein Statue on the Mall, Public Reaction: [52:30] ~ [54:34]

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Conclusion: Tone and Call to Action

Throughout, Acosta and guests maintain a tone of urgent concern, sometimes sardonic but never hopeless. The episode ends by urging vigilance, media literacy, civic engagement, and the need to support independent media as democracy and truth face unprecedented challenges.

“Don’t give into the lies. Don’t give into fear. Hold on to the truth. And hope.” — Jim Acosta (Episode Description)

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Transcript

[A]

Foreign.

[B]

Welcome to the Jim Acosta show. It's another day that ends in y and Donald Trump's assault on American democracy. It's another day that ends and why. And Trump embarrassing the United States on the world stage. He did that again today. Also. I, I guess I'm just finding the rapture was supposed to happen today, according to Tick Tockers, but I guess that didn't happen. So you're just stuck with little old me and Olivia Troy. Who was Olivia, it looks like you were dressed for the Rapture or Dia de los Muertos.

[C]

I'm just prepared for whatever's coming my way, whether, you know, an antifa designation, whether it's a rapture. I'm here for it. I just, I don't know, I don't know what the rapture is going to be. So I'm just kind of, no, I'm just prepared for whichever way it goes. Jim.

[B]

Well, it looks like the way it's going is it's kind of rapture light. I guess maybe that might be the best way to describe it. If you, if you judge this based on Donald Trump's behavior at the UN earlier today. And Olivia, you have some experience in this department because used to accompany, you had the unfortunate duty of accompanying Donald Trump to the United nations during the first term. So you were probably having some PTSD today.

[C]

I was. And, you know, I, I watched the speech today. You know, I was there when he got laughed at at the UN back in 2019. I was there for the preparations. I had to run all of the delegation for the vice president at the time, Mike Pence. And all I kept thinking about during the speech today was that this was actually done purposely, whereas he went off script, the typical Trump of what he did. But it was very much an America first speech on the global stage, kind of an America first agenda. Very much like it was reminiscent. He delivered the same speech almost in 2019, except for this time it was just folger off the rails, kind of aggressive, whether it was against allies, whether it was against the un whether it was full of anti climate change rhetoric, which is what it was. And then attacking people for immigration and migration patterns. I mean, and then blaming the UN for the, did you see that? The broken escalator? I saw that broken teleprompter. I just, you know.

[B]

Yeah, I mean, he, it was sort of a Stephen Miller special. He, this had the New York Times reported on it. He accused environmentalists of wanting to kill all the cows. He personally insulted the Muslim mayor of London he bashed allies and foes across the globe. He questioned whether the United nations should even exist. What is the purpose of the United Nations? Trump asked. A gathering of the UN General assembly today in a meandering 56 minute speech is how the New York Times put it, which apparently is four times as long as he is allotted. But he doesn't give a about that. And he goes, at one point he says, I'm really good at this stuff. And he goes on to say, your countries are going to hell. And this has to do with his anti immigration message.

[C]

Yeah. Far from diplomacy. Right. Which is what the UN stage is supposed to be. And you're right, I mean, the speeches should be shorter. Typically they tend to go over some, but certainly not for almost a full hour. And I think what was striking to me is just how quiet the audience was this time. Like, you know, in 2019, people laughed, they were reacting to him. It was sort of like, he can't be serious at some of the stuff he's saying. Now they know that he's actually serious and that the US Is being led by this individual who is unhinged and unserious. Right. And they are concerned about how it's going to impact international relations. And so when he's up there on the stage, I think it was interesting to watch the audience and how quiet they were because they realized the severity of the moment that we are in when the President of the United States is standing there espousing these types of things and they're actually having to deal with the real world ramifications of his foreign policy and what is happening here, you know, and then the claims of ending all the wars. Right, right.

[B]

I mean, he was saying all kinds of stuff today. He was talking about his poll numbers. He was saying that his poll numbers are great. No, guess what? The Reuters Ipsos poll that came out today finds them at 41%. This is a three day poll. According to Reuters, Ipsos closed on Sunday showed 41 of respondents approved to Trump's performance as president, down from 42% earlier this month. Only 35% of the people surveyed approved of Trump's stewardship of the economy. I just want to point out, I mean, he and 28% on his handling of, of their cost of living, which is presumably why he was elected back into the White House. I mean, that's what all the smart people say. He was elected because of inflation and so on. He's completely the bed on, on that, on that subject. He's nowhere near positive territory.

[C]

Yeah, yeah. And he's nowhere near peace in the world, the ender these wars. We are far from it. But again, I think this was his personal pitch to get the Nobel Peace Prize again, is what we were watching before the world stage. And I think world leaders saw it for what it was. Right. And the only thing I kept thinking of, just because I've been tracking the lead up to the United nations, because, I mean, I can tell you, Jen, that it was one of the hardest things that I had to work on in my career.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Is getting through the United Nations General Assembly. It is a lot of work, especially when you're dealing with, you know, the negotiations behind the scenes, leading these leaders, getting in the room together, planning what meetings they're going to do. I can only imagine the discussions that are happening right now with the Trump team. Back then, it was mostly the Pence team trying to figure out how we're going to recover from whatever Trump did. And in 2019, we were in the middle of the. The impeachment approaching Trump. Can you imagine walking around the delegates looking at us? Yeah. In that sense. So I kept thinking about that today, but also the fact that, like, we. We blocked people from getting visas this time. Right. The State Department blocked delegations from attending the United nations assembly this time.

[B]

Like, unreal. Apparently, his motorcade was messing up Emmanuel Macron. There was that whole fiasco that went down, apparently. We have a little bit of sound from Trump at the United Nations. He was going off on immigration, just sounding completely unhinged. Let's listen to a little bit of this.

[D]

We have reasserted that America belongs to the American people. And I encourage all countries to take their own stand in defense of their citizens as well. You have to do that because I see it. I'm not mentioning names, I see it. And I can call every single one of them out. You're destroying your countries. They're being destroyed. Europe is in serious trouble. They've been invaded by a force of illegal aliens like nobody's ever seen before. Illegal aliens are pouring into Europe. Nobody is ever. And nobody's doing anything to change it, to get them out. It's not sustainable. And because they choose to be politically correct, they're doing just absolutely nothing about it.

[B]

So Grandpa Trump was railing on immigration again. That's what Grandpa Trump does. But, you know, I. I was in Norway, France, Portugal and Ireland this past year because I've been having fun since going into independent media, and I got no sense. I went to, you know, all. I went to three out of the Four capitals. I got no sense that these countries are going to hell, that Europe is going to hell. Yes, there have been migration issues in Europe. They've been dealing with these issues. They've been talking about them. Are there, are there spasms of pushback from the far right? Yes, there have been, no question about it. But just so the American people know, Europe is not going to hell. It's still beautiful with all the capitals and the lovely parks and everything, and the museums. It's all there.

[C]

Yeah. And notable, actually, I mean, Trump, know your audience. I mean that this is Trump delivering his personal agenda to perpetuate his goals here domestically in terms of what he's doing in the United States. And he's doing it on the global stage. Right. He's calling it out and he's doing it also just to rile up his own base of followers and supporters. Right? That's the whole plan here. That's the point here, is he's speaking to actually his own supporters and saying, we're doing such a great job. Everybody else sucks. I'm the best. I'm the mediator. I'm doing, I'm solving everything. Everyone, every other country sucks because, you know, they're not doing what we are on immigration. We are the prime example. I mean, that is really what he was doing here. What I thought was ironic, by the way, and super, like, just incredibly amazing, was the fact that the President of Brazil spoke right before he did.

[B]

That was interesting.

[C]

And the president of Brazil is flat out calling anti democratic forces, anti democracy, talking about sovereignty and the rise of fascism in the world, like authoritarianism. Super serious speech from a country that, that Trump has personally been attacking with tariffs and everything. Because he's siding with Bolsonaro. Right? He's siding with the person that is being held to account in his own country for attempting to stage a coup. Something that Trump seems to be, you know, is very familiar with.

[B]

I would say yes, Trump has been trying to punish Brazil because Brazil has been prosecuting Bolsonaro for trying to stage a coup, and that's what Brazil should be doing. And Trump is trying to meddle in their own affairs. But, you know, I don't want to go on too on about this because I feel like, I mean, it's just the same old nonsense from him. And I do want to talk a little bit about Trump signing this executive order designating Antifa as a domestic terrorist organization. He talks about Antifa from time to time. This is one of his favorite punching bags. He did this during the first term. He's back at it again. And I'm reminded of the fact that, you know, the original, the OG and anti fascist guys are the ones who stormed the beaches of Normandy. I mean, our grandfathers, our great grandfathers, the people who saved the world. And I just, you know, but the thing, and you and I have talked about this offline, the concern is, is that they are going to use antifa and going after antifa as a way of just crushing dissent and going after political opponents. They'll say, you and I are antifa.

[C]

Yeah, look, I actually think that that is really what's coming. They're using this as the cloak for how they're going to go after dissenters, people who are outspoken critics or people who are either out there in media or protesting. I think this is how they're going to use this designation. To me, I think just there's a whole process that happens here when it comes to designating a terrorist organization. I've been through the process. I've sat in the policy meetings in national security. We did it for Al Shabaab. I mean, these are serious terrorist organizations and there really is no process for domestic groups. And I think this is part of Trump's obsession. He has been trying to do this Antifa thing since 2020. Right. We saw it surface. It surfaced after the George Floyd protest. I was there for the discussion where even with intelligence community products, they wanted us to focus on the fact that it was antifa, shift everything else, not talk about the far right threats that were happening in our country. Nevermind that the majority percentage of the violence that is happening is seriously coming from the far right. That has been the most violent actions they've been doing. It really just became this thing of downplay everything else, amplify antifa and blame it on this group. Because I think that in Trump's head, it really is an actual organization. Never mind that Antifa, if we had to remind people, again, is not an actual formal organization. So like I think, but I do think that this is part of the strategy of, you know, figuring out ways to use the Department of Justice and federal law enforcement, which I think is coming. And we're seeing it sort of develop along the way by using this designation and saying, well, these people now fit under the definition of terrorists because they belong to this anti organization by definition. Which means it's anyone who does not support Donald Trump.

[B]

Yes, and I mean, and you and I have been talking about this offline for several days. I mean, the way he has egged on Pam Bonney to go after political opponents. You know, the way he has been firing US Attorneys like the one in the Eastern District of Virginia, you pretty prominent US Attorneys post putting in a loyalist there. You know, this is, this is some, this is some scary shit. I mean, this is not anything that. Oh, this is just Trump being Trump. No, this is different than the first time around.

[C]

Yeah. And I think, you know, charging someone under a terrorist designation is a very serious charge.

[B]

Yes.

[C]

Not something that we should be taking lightly. And so I would say this is just another chipping away at the foundations of our freedoms here in this country. And, you know, I think it comes in the aftermath of, you know, what happened with the Charlie Kirk assassination. I think it comes in the aftermath of a lot of, you know, the language and rhetoric that we heard at the memorial from people like Stephen Miller. This is completely in line with what he sees this moment to capitalize on. And I think that we are going to continue to see interesting developments in the space. And I'm concerned, I'm concerned about how they're going to use this to charge them.

[B]

How dangerous is Stephen Miller right now? This is the most dangerous I've ever seen him.

[C]

Yes. Because he has power.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Unchecked power, I would say. Right. The reason that Trump can get up at the United nations and do that is because there is no one in the room saying this is a diplomatic, global event for diplomacy. This is not a grievance filled thing where you're kind of trying to control what he's saying. And actually you're not speaking to your America first domestic agenda. You're taught you should be focused on talking about serious issues, like talking about what's happening with Russia and Ukraine. I mean, it's just. He's able to get away with it. Right. And so I think this in the moment, I think is, is dangerous. I think this is, you know, we know who's in charge behind the scenes here and we're seeing it play out.

[B]

Yeah. There's no question. I mean, he's, he's the de facto chief of staff. He has the full weight of Trump support behind him. Almost everything I hear out of Trump's mouth these days sounds like it's coming out of Stephen Miller's mouth. And what gave it away to me was listening to what he had to say at Charlie Kirk's memorial. And I mean, Charlie Kirk, you know, I don't want to go down that road, but to hear Stephen Miller speak at that memorial service, it sounded like something out of 1940s, Germany or something. I mean, it just sounded. It was just batshit bananas. Stuff, like, stuff out of a. Out of a movie, A dystopian movie.

[C]

Yeah. I mean, he talked about, you know, the movement that has been arisen. He talked about his grievances, his agenda of what's to come. I mean, it was very much a very focused movement. Yeah, there he is.

[B]

There he is.

[C]

The speech is chilling, by the way. What he delivered there is something that we should really pay attention to, because this is their agenda. This is what he's pushing forward.

[B]

And, Olivia, I mean, I don't want to put words in your mouth. Feel free to push back on me. But what concerned me, watching the coverage was it felt to me that the major networks, that the American news media, by and large, maybe because they're just worried about Trump going after them and just more suppression and more attacks on free speech and these news organizations and screwing with their media deals and so on. Just not accurately describing the spectacle, the. I mean, just authoritarian spectacle of that memorial service.

[C]

Yeah. You know, to be clear, Stephen Miller's speech was full of vitriol. And they were actually, like. When I was listening to it, I was thinking to myself, like, there were QAnon references in it. Yes, they were veiled, the way he delivered it, but he talked about the storm. I mean, that's what. And I'm surprised that no one was talking about that as they were covering this. They were letting this propaganda go into people's homes. They. Thousands of Americans were watching this, whether they were in the stadium, whether they're watching online or national tv. And this propaganda, what he was saying literally parallels what QAnon and conspiracy, like, espousers say in these sort of circles. And so I think that was concerning. I thought Trump's rhetoric, as usual, was divisive, and I thought it was also.

[B]

I mean, hating my opponents and so on. Yeah.

[C]

Yes. It's inciting more violence is what that is. Right. I mean, that is sort of the rhetoric that leads to that in a moment where we know that political violence is increasing and we are in a critical juncture. And, you know, I. I know I texted you this. I. I remain very concerned in the aftermath of these events, and it was very concerning to watch what was being said throughout that day.

[B]

Yeah, no, I'm concerned, too. I think Americans should be very concerned, and I think they need to, you know, people need to pull their heads out of the sand here and pay attention to what the Stephen Millers of the world are saying. What Trump is doing in places like the United nations and so on. And, and this is not, I mean, it's not stopping. But, Olivia, we'll keep talking about this. I do think there is one, you know, glimmer of hope and, and, and that is, I mean, we are seeing Jimmy Kimmel return to the airwaves. I'm going to talk about that a little bit later. And we are seeing people push back in very unique ways. I went down to the Trump Epstein statue earlier today, got some footage of that. I'm going to show that a little bit later on. But, Olivia, always great to see you. Thanks so much. Where's the hat again? Is the rapture. So the rapture didn't come. We're still here.

[C]

I'm just wearing disguises and stuff just in case it's coming for me. I don't know, maybe it won't recognize me. I'm wearing my glasses for the first time publicly. I mean, this is, you know, I don't know. And I just want to be prepared.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

If it's coming, I just want to make sure I decorate appropriately. I've been asking people about this on social media because I really care about Halloween and I want to make sure that I'm fitting the theme for it. So.

[B]

Yeah. And I was wondering, like TikTok said the rapture was coming. Is this the Larry Ellison tick tock? Is this the Chinese TikTok? Which tick tock is it? I mean, I guess it depends on which TikTok.

[C]

Well, yeah. Stay tuned. We're about to find out.

[B]

We're about to find out. Good to see you, Olivia. Thanks. Okay, the other disturbing thing from the dystopia is Donald Trump is once again handing out medical advice. Let's bring in Dr. Rob Davidson, if Dr. Rob Davidson is understanding. But there he is. Dr. Rob Davidson is there. Good to see you, Dr. Rob, as always, good to see you, Jim. I mean, there's.

[E]

Sorry we have to be talking about this.

[B]

It's so true. But I mean, the thing that concerns me is that, and you and I have talked about this before. When Trump is handing out medical advice, we're not in a good place. And here he was doing it yesterday, and I'm sure you were having the same reaction or maybe even a more concerned reaction than I was having, which is when he's just spouting stuff about Tylenol. It's so crazy sounding that I'm hoping that people at home are like, there's the crazy president again, saying crazy stuff. But this does have an impact on Public health.

[E]

Well, it absolutely has an impact, right? He is the ultimate purveyor of conspiracy theories now. And I mean, we saw it all during COVID with the vaccine, with treatments. Anytime you'd want to put a swab in someone's nose, literally half the time you'd get questions. Well, is there Covid on that swab? Because I read that there was. Well, I think when Donald Trump has this big megaphone and this stuff gets shared everywhere. I haven't worked a shift since this happened, but I'm anticipating, you know, wanting to give a kid some Tylenol for fever. And the last thing Donald Trump said in his press conference was, don't let him give it to your kids. Don't give it to your kids. It's. It had nothing to do with what they. Even with the BS that they were talking about throughout the conference about its, you know, direct link to causing autism, which there is none. There is no direct link. There are lots of studies saying lots of different things that I think doctors and their patients should talk about. You know, maternal fetal medicine specialists have come out. Acog, American College of ob, gyn, my, My organization, American College of Emergency Physicians have all said there is no causal link. You know, talk to your doctor, talk to your patients, use it judiciously. That is how we do medicine. That is how we. We synthesize information from studies, not from this raving. L Just. Just word salad coming out of his mouth about. About Tylenol. It's hard to believe. I mean, you were there, you know, front and center the last time this all happened, right? I mean, you were in the room.

[B]

I was.

[E]

I was there about bleach and light in the body.

[B]

And I mean, he was, he was talking about hydroxychloroquine. I mean, it was. You name it. I mean, it was bananas the last time around. It's part of the reason why I think he lost reelection the first time around. I think people thought he just had so mismanaged Covid. Yes. They thought he was a threat to democracy and he was a liar and so on. But they just said, you know what? You were given this job of managing Covid and you failed spectacularly. But I mean, just. And Dr. Rob, I should note, is with. He's on the substack account paging America as well, which is a great, great resource. But I mean, just to just give everybody the baseline here. New York Times, Trump and top federal health officials, this was yesterday, launched a broad offensive against the mainstream understanding of. Of autism, claiming without new evidence that acetaminophen, the active ingredient, the common pain reliever, Tylenol, was a. Tylenol was a cause of the disorder. And they announced new research into the root causes of autism. I mean, they were also talking about unproven treatments and so on. And, you know, I'm just curious to unpack all of this, Rob, what your thoughts were when you heard this, as they were just sort of unfurling this. Because typically, I mean, I know this from covering people like Dr. Fauci, Dr. Birx and so on. When public health experts, public health officials go out in front of the cameras and talk about this stuff, they typically speak from the authority of this is the established science. This is what's been proven. This is what we understand to be the best available science for a whole range of issues. And they were just kind of winging it. They were sort of, it was like guesswork on their part as to what was causing autism.

[E]

I mean, Trump, you know, multiple times. This is just how I feel. I mean, he talked about they're putting so much liquid into the bodies. I mean, we don't understand even what he's talking about. And, you know, I really, I think the problem here is they had a deadline, right? They told us earlier this year in September, we're going to give you something big, right? Something big on autism. And September's coming to a close soon. And, you know, they're. There are studies that come out every year that look at purported lengths of many different, either environmental factors or medications or genetic factors that could be contributing to autism. There is no single cause of it. And so as this data comes out, folks like me, but really folks kind of above me in ob, GYN world and pediatric world, they help synthesize all this data and come out with recommendations and kind of come down with, this is what the best evidence tells us. And the reality is, and I've said this before, so much of it is very much nuance. You know, most of medicine, I tell my patients, is at the bedside. Rarely is it black and white, right? Most of medicine is very gray. And that's why you sit and have long conversations with your patients, explain things. You have shared decision making. This guy's out there just spewing, you know, tylenol bad. I mean, that's it. That is the gist of what he said in, you know, in a thousand times more words and completely kind of raving lunatic fashion. But that's what he basically said. And it's going to cause pregnant women a, to suffer with Pain to not treat fevers. Because he said, as a little parenthetical side, well, if you have a high fever, maybe take a dose. But high fever in pregnancy likely is not good. We believe this is not good for developing fetus, developing embryo. And then he said, don't give it to your kids. And kids under 6 months can't get ibuprofen. That's all we have. If your kid has a temp of 104 and they're crying or they're pulling at their ears, what are you supposed to do? The other thing I worry about is women with kids with autism looking back and thinking, did I do something wrong? And we need to tell them, you did not do something wrong. And this guy is going to make a lot of those folks feel like they are somehow to blame his cruelty. Just kind of knows no ends. This is just another little notch that, in that history.

[B]

Yeah, but as a parent, I mean, I know that children's Tylenol is the standard. I mean, it's one of the things that you give kids when they're dealing with pain and fever issues. And, and there are kids. I mean, there, there were times when I took my kids to the ER because they had, they suddenly had a 103 degree fever and so on. And, and the, the ER doctor prescribes children's Tylenol. I mean, that's just something that's typically done. And the thing that I worry about is that we have so many new parents out there, young kids coming up, people who are impressionable, people who don't want to. All they do is listen to conservative media, watch conservative media. And just like the vaccine issue here is yet another issue where you're moving people away from established science into sort of the realm of quack, you know, snake oil salesman type of medicine. And it's just bad for public health. It's bad for all of us.

[E]

Well, remember you brought up hydroxychloroquine during COVID I remember when he was pushing that. And ivermectin. Right. Still unproven, still shown in the largest trials that they do not work for Covid. And people ask, well, what's the big deal? As long as you're not taking mega doses of horse pace, you're probably going to be fine. And that was probably true. But the problem is it gives a whole group of people something to latch onto that will treat their Covid. So they don't care if they're sick or someone else is sick. They were getting together in very small spaces. They were Rejecting the vaccine because they were also told that there was something wrong with that, but they figured, I'm okay. I have this treatment, I have this drug that the President keeps talking about. I keep hearing people talk about it. So there is real danger in that. And there's real danger in telling pregnant women, don't treat your pain, don't treat your fever. Pregnant women shouldn't be taking ibuprofen. There are established links with certain defects and certain issues and the fetus that ibuprofen is something we don't recommend. We certainly don't want pregnant women.

[B]

Is Advil and acetaminophen. Yeah, yeah.

[E]

We don't want people taking opioids. Right. We don't want them taking, you know, hydrocodone or oxycodone, you know, those kind of things any more than they have to. And so, you know, when he tells them to tough it out, I mean, this is not a individual who has toughed anything out, really.

[B]

You know, to be telling people how much. How much is he popping? I mean, honestly, let's just be real.

[E]

Oh, man. Man.

[B]

And then the other thing, he was. He was spreading a lot of misinformation about other countries. I think we have a bite of that where he's talking about Cuba. I took an interest in this because my dad's from Cuba, but he was trying to say they don't have autism in Cuba because they don't have Tylenol. Let's, let's. If we have that, let's listen to this.

[D]

We'll say there are parts of the world that don't take Tylenol. I mean, there's a rumor, and I don't know if it's so or not, that Cuba, they don't have Tylenol because they don't have the money to fight Tylenol, and they have virtually no autism. Okay, tell me about that one. And there are other parts of the world where they don't have Tylenol where they don't have autism. That tells you a lot.

[E]

Wow, I forgot about that one.

[B]

When Trump is saying, I heard a rumor, you know, that's right there. You should be suspicious. But I looked this up. They have autism in Cuba. They have places where, you know, kids with autism go to school and so on. And they have acetaminophen. They don't call it Tylenol there. They have. They have acetaminophen. People use acetaminophen in Cuba. And so what he's saying there is just. It's just Nonsense. It's just like when you and I were kids, Rob, when people would pass on urban legends, you know, and it's just bullshit.

[E]

Yeah. We have a signal chain for paging America. And some of the folks in the chain just saying, I can't believe that I could be surprised by him again. Like, you think you've seen it all and it's almost like, you know, almost he's replaying the greatest hits from during COVID but you think you've seen it and then he does this and you go into it anticipating the worst and then it's worse than that. And I know he's superseded this, this horrible stuff with what he's done at the UN and since then, right. It's almost like every day something new pops up and it's hard to stay on top of it all. But from the world that I work in, you know, with, you know, treating kids, treating pregnant women, using this drug, you know, for decades and seeing that, you know, the preponderance of evidence tells us there is not a causal link, you know, between this and then the other is that leucovorin that they're now citing as a sort of a miracle cure. And again, these are studies that show promise and that is great. We should latch on. The problem is what we need is more research. We need bigger studies. And this administration now is cutting funding, or has cut funding for research across the board and threatening universities if they don't do what they want to do. They're going to cut more money from them. You know, so what we need is more data, right, to tell us what works, what doesn't work. We don't need, again, we don't need a guy telling us about rumors he's heard from, from other countries. It's crazy.

[B]

But he's put, he's put RFK Jr. In charge of HHS. He is the king of medical conspiracy theories. Donald Trump is the grand poobah of all conspiracy theories theories. But RFK Jr is the king of medical conspiracy theories. And that is why they've gone after MRNA vaccine research. That is why they're going after child cancer research. And I just wonder what the long term effects of all of this might be. Because it seems to me, and I've talked to, because, you know, here in D.C. you talk to a lot of folks in the public health specter, there are folks here who are concerned that this is basically permanent damage, that this is damage that could take a decade or two to unravel and reverse.

[E]

Yeah, it's absolutely generational Right. From, from a couple, you know, parts. When you drop the funding, the research kind of stops and then it's hard to just start back up again. One, two, you get a brain drain. Right. Where the finest researchers out there in the US and in the world, they're not going to stick around in a place like this where there's censorship in their studies and the funding is being undercut. They're going to go elsewhere. Right. And there will be places to receive them. Like we have an exceptional system in this country of research and certainly an exceptional system of health care for those who can afford it. I'm not going to say we have the best health care system in the world because for the 17 million new people who will lose their Medicaid because of Donald Trump and Republicans and all the other people who already don't have access or can't afford it, it is a non existent health care system. But our research system has been sort of championed for decades as sort of the cream of the crop. And if that brain drain just flees this country and goes elsewhere, they're not just going to come right back if a new person's in charge in three and a half years because who knows what happens another four years after that. If the systems are so, well, I guess if the politicians that are there to have oversight over these systems and over this president, just bend the knee and let him do whatever he wants, I don't think they have any faith that there's going to be a long term plan to reinstate that, that kind of research excellence that we've all come to expect.

[B]

Yeah. And so we're two Americas now when it comes to public health.

[E]

Absolutely, absolutely.

[B]

Yeah. And, and you're at Paging America now. How's that going so far? It sounds like that's going great. We need more of this, we need medical expertise now more than ever. Unfortunately, we don't have it and it's hard to, I suppose with the big megaphones now here in Washington. But how's that going?

[E]

Hopefully that's it is and really like our focus isn't, isn't just the medical expertise because my, my, my colleague in doing this, my chief of staff at the Committee of Healthcare, Miles Baker, he's not a medical guy. He jokes about failing AP Bio back in, back in high school. He's, he's a politics guy. And really what we do at Hedging America is kind of explore that interaction, that intersection between politics and health care and sort of building power for patients in our system. We, I Personally, and we wish it didn't have to exist and it didn't have to be so that you had to consider politics when it came to people's healthcare. You know, we found out, I mean, we found out back in 19, in the 60s with Medicare when the AMA initially opposed that. We found out, you know, with the ACA and the Tea Party Revolution. We found out in 2017 when, when, but for John McCain's thumbs down, we could have lost the Affordable Care Act. And we found out again this year when they cut, you know, tens of millions of people off of health care to pay for tax cuts for rich people. So we'll just keep plugging away because people have to understand it and know how important their vote is to determine how their healthcare is.

[B]

Well, Dr. Rob Davidson, great to see you. Let's do this again soon. I feel, I feel like when we, we do this, though, it means that something terribly wrong is happening in public health. But we'll keep doing this and we've got to do something.

[E]

Absolutely.

[B]

Thanks, man. Thanks, Doctor. Appreciate it. Great. Great. Thanks to Dr. Rob Davidson. And, and it's so true. I mean, I used to speak to him all the time during COVID And the reason why we spoke to him during COVID and so many other medical, great medical experts is because Trump was peddling medical garbage. He was dispensing medical advice that was, you know, basically about as reliable as, you know, talking to somebody on a park bench, in a park that you probably shouldn't be talking to in the middle of the night or down a dark alley. I mean, it's that kind of quality of information. And he was doing it yet again when he's talking about, when Trump is talking about Tylenol, you're probably better off just turning the channel, maybe turning on independent media, because we're not taking the bait. We're going to fact check him. We're going to, we're going to fact check his bs, but we're not going to take his bait. So I thank Dr. Rob Davidson for his expertise on this. Let's bring in Elise Labett, because my friend, Elise Labitt, foreign policy expert Elise labet. Are you up in New York right.

[A]

Now at the UN I am, I am. I'm up in New York at the United Nations. Not right now, actually in the building. But yeah, I'm up here around the events and, and just talking to sources, meeting with people and just, you know, trying to make sense of what we saw today.

[B]

I mean, I mean, I remember those UNGA days as we would call them and, you know, I was talking about this with Olivia Troy earlier. You know, there was a time a few years back when Trump went in front of the United nations and they laughed at him. The diplomats in the room laughed at him. That was apparently, that was not the case so much this time.

[A]

No.

[B]

They have been either stunned into silence or intimidated into silence is what it sounds like.

[A]

Yeah, it was more like a gaping. Like what. You know, it reminds me, Jim, of, and you'll appreciate this, it reminds me of when Castro used to come to the United nations and he would give these, like, I don't know, three hour diatribes or Gaddafi, the one time Gaddafi came in our memory and just this kind of long, you know, stream of consciousness was just kind of somewhere between a word salad and verbal diarrhea. I mean, I don't know what to say, you know, and you always tell me this and, you know, maybe I'm guilty of naivete, but I always kind of, in the beginning of this, and I see the United nations as the beginning of the new year. Okay, back to school. It's the UN General Assembly. For Jews like me, it's the Jewish New Year. And so I always kind of think this is the new beginning. Maybe he'll rise to the occasion.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And, you know, look, there's a lot of reform that's needed at the un. The UN is a colossal mess, of course. Right. And a lot of the things that, you know, during the first Trump administration, I mean, Nikki Ally, you know, was very, you know, tough on the rhetoric, but she worked behind the scenes very closely with countries on reform, on, you know, on budgeting. And I think even though she was very tough on rhetoric, in the end she was really respected by a lot of countries because she very, she really worked closely with them. So if you want, you know, there was an article by this friend of mine, Danny Pletka, of what the hell is going on substack, and she said that Trump was coming for a reckoning of the UN and like a good old fashioned reckoning, like, guys, you know, you know, this institution really isn't living up to its potential. You know, I think he said that once, like 80 years better together. If he gave him a reckoning and said, hey, let's work together to reform, that would have been fine. But I don't think anybody kind of either understood, could comprehend or really appreciated what he had to say and kind of tuned out after this stream of consciousness talking about D.C. and immigration and all this until he said all you Countries are going to hell, and then they tuned out again. So I just think it was such a missed. It was such a missed opportunity. And I keep looking for Trump to be the world leader that he wants to be and that he claims to be and that people are looking for, but he just never rises to the occasion. And it's just a huge. I mean, we shouldn't be surprised, but it's still a disappointment nonetheless. You know, for someone who's covered, I don't know, 25, maybe 30 ungas. I'm going to date myself here, we call them ungas. But for someone who's covered 29 of these things or 30 of these things, you know, you always look for the U.S. president to show us leadership. That was like taking us leadership and, like, ripping it in a. In a lot of shreds and throwing it in the garbage. I mean. Well, that was not a US President up there today. I'm sorry.

[B]

No, it was not. It was. It was a dictator wannabe and somebody who is always, I mean, at war with the facts. He was saying that climate change. This is what he said. It's the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world, quote, unquote. He also said, quote, the carbon footprint is a hoax made up by people with evil intentions, and they're heading down a path of total destruction. This is what he said. This is. These are quotes. I read this. This is what, the Washington Post.

[A]

Yeah, I mean, I listened to the. I listened to the whole thing. Okay? I was at msnbc, and I'm, you know, kind of listening, and usually I have my notebook, I have a, you know, printout. Of course, they don't send embargoed remarks because he didn't have any. Just kind of, you know. And then he went on for, like, 20 minutes. I don't know if you heard about how he went on for 20 minutes about the teleprompter and the escalator and it wasn't working. And the only thing he got from, you know, I was at the UN and all, you know, instead of saying all I got was this T shirt, all I got was a broken escalator and a no working prompter.

[B]

It was his Vegas act.

[A]

Yeah, it was. It's, you know, it's the same speech he gives all over the place, except, you know, for the teleprompter part. But, you know, all of that stuff, I don't even listen to. It's the same speech he gives at home, by the way. It was a lot of domestic speakers stuff and, you know, it's, I don't look at these things about, you know, the, the things, the, you know, mistrudes or, you know, misleading statements or stream of consciousness. I look at what the big picture is and the, you know, let's look at the big picture here. Okay? The U.S. i know, you're right. Viewer comment. He behaved as expected. Stop thinking Trump, he behaves expected.

[B]

Stop thinking that Trump brings as.

[A]

No, I know you're right. That doesn't mean I can't, you know.

[B]

And that was a live. You were, that was an actual comment.

[A]

No, you're right, you're right, you're right. I'm completely saying that, you know, this is, this is naivete on my part, but the US Pulled out a billion dollars in funding, right? Withdrew from the World Trade Organization, withdrew from the UN Human Rights Council, withdrew from UNESCO. These, again, these organizations need reforms. But, you know, pulling back and, you know, kind of disengaging does not help. You know, taking out that money doesn't help. He's talking about all the people in the world he want to save. That money means less people are getting fed less. You know, the un, The World Food Program is, you know, begging countries to try to help make up this. So when you look at the U. The picture, the US Is diminishing its influence around the world. And when you look at, you know, countries like China trying to fill the void. And when you look at what happened yesterday, 142 nations, including some of the US biggest strongest allies, UK, France, Canada, Australia, all recognizing a Palestinian state in defiance of the US Marco Rubio sent cables to every embassy trying to get these countries not to go to the meeting to boycott this summit. And this New York declaration signing onto it failed. Had the US Been more engaged, you know, maybe he could have done better.

[B]

That's right. But this, this goes to show you when he's, he's going it alone. He's alone and that's where you end up. And I think the Palestinian state issue is a perfect example. The United States is, is more and more isolationist and isolated and, and Trump is getting exactly what he wants. And the other thing that he did today, he, he made some news outside of this speech. From what I understand, he said that he thinks N should shoot down Russian aircraft if they enter their, their airspace. Yes, I do. Trump said in response to a question about this, I mean, that, you know, he throws out just crazy talk like this. And I have to think NATO countries are thinking to themselves, well, we should.

[C]

Do it because Right.

[A]

Well, and what if, what if we, what if we do it? Thinking Trump, you know, will support it. And then the next day he says, no, like, don't forget, you know, him and Zelensky in the Oval Office in February. So, you know, a friend of mine sent, you know, what he said on Truth Social about, you know, that Europe, that, you know, the Ukrainians can win the war now with Russia, with NATO help. And I said, love it if he doesn't change his mind tomorrow. And so, you know what it is.

[B]

A European country, a NATO country, to shoot down a Russian plane. And then Russia says, oh, okay, I guess we're at war. We're going to go to war with this country.

[A]

I think what it is, is, is that he's not taking this world leader stuff seriously. And he's, you know, I mean, he.

[B]

Just wants to be a bully or.

[A]

Win the Nobel Peace Prize or, you know, for his seven wars. I mean, but he's not taking, you know, the job of being the US President and the US the leader of the free world seriously. And on a day like today, which is like the, you know, for people, you know, wonks like me who cover U.S. foreign policy, this is the most important day of the year when the president goes out and lays out a US Vision for leadership in the world.

[B]

Those days are gone. Those days are on hold.

[A]

And also, how does that hurt? How does that hurt us? Okay, you know, I've heard this story a couple times in the last few months. On October, on 9, 11, Nick Burns, who's the, you know, who was the ambassador to NATO, called up Connie Rice, who was the secretary of State, and said, you know, Canada says we should invoke Article 5, which is attack on one is an attack on all. And she said, go ahead, you know, whatever about the logistics of it. And then she says, you know what, Nick? Nice to have friends. Yeah, nice to have friends. Nice to happen right now. Trump may have, I think I read this quote somewhere, but I agree with it wholeheartedly. Trump might have a lot of power right now, and the US May have a lot of power. We don't have a lot of goodwill right now, and that is going to come back to bite us.

[B]

No, you're absolutely right. Let's talk about this Palestinian issue. Just let's peel back the onion on that a little bit. How isolated, speaking of isolated, is Israel right now? Is Benjamin Netanyahu right now?

[A]

I'll tell you how isolated Israel is right now. Last week, and actually, as we're talking right now, President Trump is meeting with a bunch of Arab states and Turkey and a couple of others about what to do about a path forward in Gaza. And he's going to get an earful. Okay, after Israel bombed Qatar, what's going on in Gaza, threatening to annex the West Bank? Last week, there was a meeting of these. All the Arab states and all the Muslim nations, the Organization of Islamic Conference. And who was there? Turkey, Qatar, all the Gulf states, Egypt, Jordan, all the Arab states, and Iran. And Iran all together right in one room. And used to be when those countries got together, who was the big boogeyman? Iran. Who is the big boogeyman now? Israel. And Israel is seen as the most dominant power and the biggest threat to all these countries in the region. And that's not good for Israel, and that's not good for the United States.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

So Israel. And I'll tell you, you know, for how many.

[B]

How many years at least, did you and I cover the. The Iran nuclear program, the Iran nuclear deal? Iran was the threat, Iran isn't.

[A]

You know, you see countries cozying up to Iran now. The Saudis in Iran, Turkey and Iran, Syria, you know, is, you know, and you know, Israel is threatening to annex the west bank in retaliation as a pretext. Right. We knew that this was their plan all along. But to annex the World Bank, The World bank, the west bank, after this conference and all this recognition, if that happens, you know, President Trump is, you know, kind of not saying anything. Marco Rubio was out of the region. He's not saying, don't do it. And even if they did, I don't know if Israel would listen at this point, because Netanyahu continues to disrespect Trump in every way, shape and form, even after everything Trump's done for him. If Israel annexes the west bank, it's on. You think it's bad now? You think it's bad now? It's going to be really bad. Not only is it going to be a hell of a lot more bloody than Gaza, but Israel is going to face, unfortunately, I think, a lot more of these terror attacks in Jerusalem. There'll be attacks on US Embassies, there'll be protests at US Embassies. I'm really, really nervous about that. And I hope that President Trump has something that he's saying to Netanyahu when they meet not to do it. But I'm afraid Netanyahu kind of said in his statement, there will never be a Palestinian state. Which he's never said before. Yeah, said that before.

[B]

Interesting.

[A]

They're Just saying, hey, there's not going to be a Palestinian state. We're taking the West Bank. They call it Judea and Samaria. And you know, what about those poor hostages? You think that's going to help those poor hostage families?

[B]

No, of course not.

[A]

The Jewish New Year. This is the, what, third Jewish New Year, that they don't have their loved ones with them. You know, he's just doing this for, you know, because of these right wing ministers. He's totally entrenched with the right wing.

[B]

Now because that's all he has left.

[A]

That's all he has left. And he needs to stay into power, to stay in power and stay in office, stay out of jail. And what a shame, What a wasted opportunity. You know, Israel after 9, 11, after October 7, had a lot of goodwill. Arab countries went to Israel and said, look, we all hate Hamas. Be careful, be slow, be thoughtful. You know, we'll, we'll support you, but don't go crazy. Went crazy. Okay? And you know, they did, to their credit, dismantle, you know, disarm Hamas, disarm Hezbollah, went off to weakened Iran. There's a whole new kind of battle, whole new kind of climate in the region, and they've really helped the security situation in the region. But now instead of capitalizing on that goodwill, they've lost the plot, Jim. They've lost the plot. Trump's lost the plot on the larger kind of world stage, and Netanyahu has lost the plot about making Israel safer and secure.

[B]

I think there's no question about it. I don't know if Trump ever had the plot, but I think you're absolutely right about. There's no question about it. But Elise, I, I don't want to hold you up because I know when you go to unga, there are cocktail parties and dinners and stuff to go to, so you have to.

[A]

Well, I, also. Can I, Can I make a little shameless plug for mention something? Yeah. On Cosmopolitics, on my sub stack, which I hope you'll subscribe to. My friend Danny Pletka and I are doing what we call Hot Takes Happy Hour. We do it every Thursdays at 5:30, but today we're doing a special edition about Trump. And Danny's a lot more conservative than me and she supports Trump a little bit. She's not like a MAGA person. But we have a healthy debate and it's fun and it's. But we disagree, but we disagree respectfully.

[B]

Which we like.

[A]

Which we like, which we like. So I hope you'll Join us after this for Hot Takes happy hour. And Jim, it's always good to be with you. Keep on keeping the, you know, keeping on.

[B]

Will do.

[A]

So many people are looking to you to kind of, you know, help. And especially now with all these threats against the mainstream media and censorship and the fact that these mainstream media organizations are bowing to censorship.

[B]

I'm going to say something.

[A]

Independent media is so much more important than ever. And so we really have to, you know, keep fighting the good fight here.

[B]

No, no question. We will keep at it. Elise, great to see you. Thanks so much.

[A]

Have fun in New York, everybody. I will.

[B]

All right. And. And speaking of hot messes, I got to tell you something. I saw something. I don't know if you guys are familiar with the Instagram account. I think it's on Twitter, too. Washingtonian problems. So I'm looking at. I'm looking at my phone this morning. I see. I'm looking at Washingtonian problems, and right there on my damn phone, they have a. There's a. There's a picture of a statue down on the National Mall of Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein. And I said, you know what? I got to get off the damn couch. I gotta ask Duke if I could just have five minutes of his time. It was probably a couple of hours to. To leave him at home. Go down to the mall and check this thing out. This thing was unreal. We were down on the National Mall today and found this brand new addition right in front of the U.S. capitol. I want to show it to you right now. Take a look. I also talked to some of the folks down there. Take a look. Watch. I know Donald Trump has always wanted a statue in his honor, but I'm not sure this is what he had in mind.

[A]

It's the most popular thing on the mall right now.

[B]

It looks pretty popular.

[F]

Whoever put it there, you know, deserves to be basically punished.

[B]

Punished? Why?

[F]

Because you can't post something like that, you know, without any permits or anything like that.

[B]

Did you know what this was as.

[F]

Soon as you walked up?

[A]

Yeah, I actually saw it on Tick Tock this morning, and so I knew we had to come and see it for ourselves.

[B]

You saw it on Tick Tock?

[C]

I did, yeah.

[B]

I was gonna ask you, what do you think about this Trump Epstein statue?

[F]

Well, I think it's hilarious. I think it's. I mean, I think it all makes sense. They're not lying. I think there was a relationship before he took over the President.

[C]

It.

[F]

Yeah.

[B]

Why do you think he won't release the files?

[F]

Because he knows he's dirty. Like, there's no doubt about that. But yeah, you know, he's got power and that's why he's protecting him.

[B]

And there are plenty of people down here who wanted to talk to us. They had plenty to say. They didn't want to comment. You can sum it up in one word. Retribution. You guys are Trump supporters? You guys like Trump or yeah, you like him?

[F]

Yeah, I like him.

[B]

Why do you think he won't release the files?

[F]

Because he's on it.

[B]

You still like him though, if he's on it?

[F]

Probably not, no. But I prefer his. I prefer him over his opponents. Well, what I think about it, yeah, it's an excellent, you know, comment on where we stand right now in society. If we got someone who's hiding their truth, just release it. Release the files.

[B]

Why do you think he doesn't want to release the files?

[F]

He's in them. It's that simple. When your name's in it over a thousand times, you're. You're gonna hide it.

[E]

Simple as that?

[F]

As simple as that.

[B]

And this part just might be the icing on the cake. You got the statue right here, but off in the distance, hanging on the Department of Labor is the Kim Jong un, like Trump banner. You gotta love it.

[C]

I think people are calling for something here and it's pretty powerful.

[B]

And it says, in honor of friendship month. I guess they must be very good friends or we're very good friends or something like that.

[C]

Yes, yes.

[B]

And you're very good friends. Is that, is that also the case? Yeah, very good. Okay, good. That's good. It's nice to have friends. But, but my God, not that kind of a friend. I mean, you know, listen, we, I. And, and there were some outtakes that I can't even show you. I wish I could show you. There was a whole group of school age kids who were on their field trip down on the National Mall. I could not show you any of it because their teacher said, no, no, no, they can't be on television or they can't be on video, they're minors. But I will tell you, they were. There were about 20 or so kids on their school field trip. I think they were in high school. And I asked them, does anybody know who Jeffrey Epstein? All of those kids knew exactly who Jeffrey Epstein was. They all thought the statue was hilarious. And I mean, it just goes to show you, the entire country has figured this out. Donald Trump, what are you hiding in the Epstein files? You must be hiding the Epstein files because there's something in there that you don't want the public to see. And what was, I mean it was so, I'm sure you saw it there during the piece, but it was just, it was absolutely remarkable. Here is this statue dedicated to the friendship of Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein. And off in the distance you could see one of those Kim Jong Un Stalin esque type banners hanging off the Department of Labor. He's got them on a bunch of the federal buildings downtown. And you know, we had a bunch of federal workers coming up to us. They were afraid to talk to us because they don't want to get doged. And you know, there were a number of them. You could see their badges and they were laughing and taking their pictures. Everybody gets this, everybody gets this that Donald Trump has something to hide, that this friendship is something that he wants to hide. And I would tell you, I've been hearing from the subscribers, followers, viewers and so on who have been saying, jim, don't forget about the Epstein files. Do not forget about the Epstein files. I have not forgotten about the Epstein files. There's been a lot of stuff going on. But we're going to continue to cover the Epstein files and ask the question, why are you hiding the Epstein files? Why will you not release the Epstein files? Maybe it's something Jimmy Kimmel will talk about tonight. That's the last thing I want to leave you with, is yes, our friend Jimmy Kimmel is going to be returning to television tonight. Jimmy Kimmel is back. This is how the Hollywood Reporter put it. Kimmel may be returning to ABC, but his show will remain dark in a large swath of the US this is a very important development. Sinclair Broadcast Group, nextar are both saying that they will preempt the show tonight. So if you live in markets where you have a Sinclair or nexstar stations, this is the other thing I wanted to bring up before we go. I'm Here in Washington D.C. the ABC affiliate in Washington D.C. is owned by Sinclair Television. If you live in one of these markets where they are blacking out the Jimmy Kimmel show, we're so happy that he's back. But if they're blacking out the Jimmy Kimmel show because they're owned by one of these MAGA Trumpy companies, you need to call the station. Just Google the station's call letters or the station number and what town you're in, you'll find that the number will pop up in your Google and call those stations and give them a hard time and ask the question, why are you not showing the Jimmy Kimmel Show? Why are you not showing the Jimmy Kimmel Show? And why do you not believe in free speech in this country? Why do you not believe in freedom of the press? And that question just needs to be asked and there needs to be pressure brought to bear on these stations. So, yes, call your local ABC stations and tell them tonight to air the Jimmy Kimmel Show. You know, government censorship, corporate censorship, corporate suppression of free speech. That's not the American way. Come on, guys, give me a break. All right. We had a lot packed in the show today. My thanks to Olivia Troy, my thanks to Dr. Rob Davidson, my thanks to to Elise Labet as well, and my thanks to my producer, my new producer, Sam Simpson, for going down to the mall with me and filming all of those highlights of talking to folks down about the Epstein Trump statue. Of course, as always, my thanks to my executive producer, Matt Hoy for putting all this together today. Great show today, guys. Thanks for tuning in. Still reporting from Washington, I'm Jim Acosta. Have a good evening. I'll see you next time. Sam.