3615 - Trump's Firing Spree; The Wealthy Obstacle to Zohran's Budget Proposal w/ Heather 'Digby' Parton

Summary

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The Majority Report with Sam Seder

Episode 3615 - Trump's Firing Spree; The Wealthy Obstacle to Zohran's Budget Proposal
Date: April 3, 2026
Guest: Heather "Digby" Parton

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Episode Overview

This episode is a sweeping analysis of the latest in US and international politics, with a focus on:

• The spiraling Trump administration, including staff firings and "war-making" in Iran
• The challenge of progressive governance in NYC (Zohran Mamdani’s budget fight) and the influence of wealth on local politics
• Escalating tensions in Iran and how these reflect on American power and priorities
• The right's fascination with Viktor Orban's Hungary as a political model
  Regular Majority Report contributors (Sam Seder, Brian, Emma, Oliver) discuss these themes, with guest commentary from Heather "Digby" Parton.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. NYC Budget Battle & Wealthy Obstruction

[08:36 - 20:01]

• Zohran Mamdani's progressive ambitions: Sam Seder highlights how NYC Assemblyman Mamdani’s push to tax the rich is hampered by the city's budget deficit and an entrenched wealthy political class.
• Julie Menon's 'creative accounting': Menon's claim to close the budget gap (“$5.4B fiscal gap without taxing the rich or cutting services”) is criticized as an accounting fiction that ultimately means agency cuts ([12:21]).
• Wealth, secrecy, and conflict of interest: The crew details Menon's under-disclosed personal and spousal wealth (including a $22M Hamptons home, $7M condo, private jets), and how political rules shield spousal assets from public scrutiny ([14:13]).
• Quote:

  "How psychopathic do you have to be, when you have this amount of money, to oppose this moderate tax increase?" — Brian [16:46]

• Political context: Menon, representing luxury areas (Upper East Side), is seen as emblematic of a NYC government run for the ultra-wealthy.

2. Trump’s Firing Spree & Staffing Chaos

[24:32 - 56:01]

• Trump shakes up the DOJ and Pentagon: Pam Bondi is out, and Trump’s attorney is made acting DOJ head; Pete Hegseth fires the Army Chief of Staff for not removing Black women from promotion lists.
• Racism and incompetence:

  "He just fired the Chief of Staff of the Army because the Chief of Staff of the Army refused to take off the promotion list two Black women... We're in the middle of a war. That's insane." — Sam Seder [56:01]

• Trump surrounds himself with loyalists and silences dissent, with input from Fox News and extreme hawks like Mark Levin and Marco Rubio.

  "He's tired of hearing from Megyn Kelly and Tucker Carlson criticizing this war. He's into boomer Fox News, traditional neocon territory." — Brian [37:53]

3. US War on Iran: History Repeating, But Chaotic

[25:34 - 62:23]

• Echoes of Iraq and missed peace: Sam and Digby reflect on post-9/11 offers of cooperation from Iran that were spurned, and how key negotiators are targeted today ([28:20]).

  "When the United States government wants a war... they just do it. And the people who were there to do any kind of peace agreement... they are marginalized or... eliminated." — Digby [29:25]

• Strategic incoherence: The current war is seen as more chaotic and dangerously unmoored than Bush's Iraq adventure.

  "It's so incredibly out of... completely without any form of strategy. The neocons... had a ridiculous idea about spreading democracy. Here, it's just... out of control." — Digby [31:40]

• Human and political costs:
  • US war spending in Iran is compared to abandoned social programs:

    "We could pay for college for all in a week on what we're spending in this war." — Brian [41:35]

  • Trump argues the government can't afford childcare, Medicaid, Medicare, only "military protection":

    "Our only priority is, you know, military protection... that's what we're dealing with." — Digby [43:20]

• International impact and American decline:

  "The rest of the world yesterday came together as an alliance to talk about opening the Strait of Hormuz without the United States of America, because we have screwed it up and we can't be depended on." — Digby [45:30]

4. Authoritarian Drift: Hungary as the New Right-Wing Model

[62:57 - 75:04]

• Victor Orban as conservative idol:
  • US right-wing figures (JD Vance, Tucker Carlson, Dave Rubin, etc.) flock to Hungary for the Orban model: soft authoritarianism through institutional capture, media control, and culture war orientation.

    "The right wing... intelligentsia... have really glommed on to Victor Orban and his program... it's part of Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation..." — Digby [64:55]

  • Orban’s success is built on manufacturing immigration threats and economically favoring nationalist priorities.
• Hard authoritarianism vs. soft:
  • US now veers more "hard" with Stephen Miller’s open violence and street thuggery, in contrast to Orban's "soft" bureaucratic bullying.

    "Trump actually went a step further... he put the thugs on the street... and that was going way further than Orban." — Digby [72:33]

  • The outcome of Hungary’s upcoming election is positioned as a bellwether for the international right.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On NYC, Personal Wealth, and Tax Resistance:

  "There's plenty [of council members]... taking this fiction... that we don't need to raise taxes, we just need to be smarter about savings... They're all gross to me." — Emma [18:50]

• On Trump’s "America First" Bait and Switch:

  "This might be Trump's greatest scam — how he tricked people into thinking this is maybe his greatest scam of all time." — Brian [42:29]

• On American Global Standing:

  "For the entire globe... we may be better off if the United States has far, far less resource." — Sam Seder [47:28]

• On Right-Wing Infighting Post-Trump:

  “That campaign is going to take place... within the Republican coalition... this particular argument is going to destroy both [Vance and Rubio].” — Digby [75:04]

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Important Timestamps

• Zohran Mamdani & NYC Tax Debate: [08:36–20:01]
• Deep-dive on Julie Menon's undisclosed wealth: [14:00–17:14]
• Analysis of Trump war priorities vs. social spending: [41:35–43:20]
• Interview with Heather "Digby" Parton begins: [24:32]
• Iran war parallels and dangers: [29:25–39:58]
• Trump’s firing spree & Pentagon chaos: [37:35–56:01]
• Orban and the new right-wing authoritarian model: [62:57–75:04]

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Flow & Tone

• Language/Tone: Irreverent, direct, full of gallows humor and pointed sarcasm; typical for Majority Report but also serious and thoughtful when covering war and economic precarity.
• Style: Convivial roundtable, interrupted by impassioned rants, exasperated sighs, and “Can you believe this?” moments.
• Balance: Offers both policy breakdown (NYC budget, federal spending priorities), historical context (post-9/11, Iraq, Iran), and critique of right-wing authoritarianism.

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Summary Takeaway

This episode is a whirlwind survey of the current political maelstrom: a government veering toward incompetence and corruption under Trump, the receding promise of progressive policy in local government, and the shadow of militarized, transactional governance replacing social priorities. With wry asides, the hosts show how today’s headlines are haunted by the ghosts of early 21st-century policy and how the global right’s fascination with “soft authoritarianism” in Hungary has hard American echoes. A must-listen (or read) for anyone seeking to grasp why everything feels both familiar and more dangerous than ever.

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Transcript

[Sam Cedar]

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[Brian]

I'm sorry.

[Sam Cedar]

But that's okay. I mean, I'm sure he doesn't bother him.

[Oliver]

Is he in a fight?

[Sam Cedar]

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[Brian]

Jesus.

[Sam Cedar]

U.S. fighter jet downed in Iran. Trump wants $1.5 trillion for defense in 2027. And then to pay for it, a 10% cut in all other government services. Speaking of government services, the Senate passes Department of Homeland Security funding without ICE again. And the House decides we're going to stay on vacation. Lawsuit filed challenging ice's ability to enter homes and arrest without a judicial warrant. Trump's DOJ does us all the favor of deciding the Presidential Records act is unconstitutional. So it doesn't matter that he had that stuff in his toilet. FBI declares China hacked US Law enforcement and FBI surveillance systems. I wouldn't worry about it. Economy adds 178,000 job jobs. However, job losses in February Revised downward to 133,000 jobs lost in February. And this month, more people seem to be leaving the workforce. All this and more on today's Majority Report. Welcome, ladies and gentlemen. Thanks so much for joining us.

[Brian]

It is Casual Friday.

[Sam Cedar]

Casual Friday indeed. I have to say I, I thought we would be at war by now. There is no stock markets closed today, which meant that I didn't have to wake up super early and follow the Nikkei like you always do. I don't know if the Nikkei is actually closed. It probably isn't. I have no idea. But the point being, the point being that it's a long weekend and if Trump wanted to do something that was gonna tank the markets, you'd expect him to do it any moment. It's unclear. I don't even know if they have a plan, really.

[Oliver]

Right.

[Sam Cedar]

I mean, I think it's probably they think they're just gonna keep bombing crucial infrastructure in Iran, as he said the other night, bomb it back to the Stone Age and hope that that in some way encourages Iran to say, oh, we will give up any type of leverage we have over the Strait of Hormuz.

[Brian]

I mean, this is why this is so dangerous. It's because Iran has no choice but to escalate because they can't trust the Americans in negotiations. They have to make the west feel pain. And Trump in his psyche feels he has no choice but to escalate because he's obsessed with the idea of having some sort of rhetorical win at the very least. So that's part of why this is, you know, what we were so fearful of because of all of those incentives on both sides.

[Sam Cedar]

And we'll probably talk about this with Digby, and you may have mentioned this yesterday, but we bombed one of the key moderate negotiators that we have negotiated with who was instrumental, I guess, in the jpcoa. And also, and Digby will remember this and we'll talk about it with Digby. But in the wake of 9 11, Iran offered the United States a huge grand bargain at that time. And one of the negotiators who had offered this through intermediaries in Switzerland was this guy that we just targeted. Maybe it was Israel targeted and killed his wife and injured him. We'll talk about that with Digby because I'm quite sure she'll remember. This is something that we were talking about in the wake of our invasion of Iraq and the talk that Iran was now part of the axis of evil back in the day. But before we get into all that stuff, I want to just do something that talk about what's going on in New York City. And we should be clear. The dynamic in New York now is what happens in New York is not going to stay in New York and New York because of Mamdani's win, because of the way he won, because of his agenda to provide good governance and to expand essentially what government does for its citizens. This is going to be the model that is judged as Democrats move forward for better or for worse. And so his success is very much tied into the willingness or the impetus for Democrats across the country to start leading and governing in this way. And when Mamdani got into office, it was quite clear that there was a massive multi billion dollar deficit. Now, cities are not, and cities and states, I should say, are not like the federal government. They cannot print their own money. And so budgets, and balancing budgets is hugely important. And Mamdani has a very ambitious program. And of course, if you have a deficit, you are constrained by that. And I think that's what's going on here. In many respects, Mamdani wants to tax wealthy people in the city more than they are being taxed now. Not like huge amounts. We're talking a couple of percentage points after like, you know, a million dollars. And also a lot of money leaves New York City for taxes to the state. And Mamdani wants at least some acknowledgement that that's happening. So there's some reciprocity. Here is Mamdani last. Yesterday, I think it was. The budget fight is taking place now, and various, both on a state level and a municipal level are coming out with their various politicians coming out with their proposed budget. And here's Mamdani reacting to the New York City Council budget proposal. And he's specifically addressing the proposal put out by the council speaker. Her name is Julie Menon, and. Well, let's listen to Mamdani first and then we could talk a little bit about Julie Menon, at least to the extent that we know, you know, there's some interesting disclosure rules in New York City that may be. May provide some, shed some light on this dynamic. Here's Mamdani.

[Julie Menon]

Back in January, we explained how the budget process worked. Well, my friends, we're in the middle of it now. Council Speaker Julie Menon just released her budget proposal. Her plan claims to close the city's $5.4 billion fiscal gap without taxing the rich or cutting services. The problem is that's not what it would do if her proposal was adopted. It would result in slashing billions of dollars from agency budgets. And working New Yorkers would pay the price. It double counts savings, overestimates revenues, exaggerates savings on interest payments. And in the midst of this historic budget deficit, the Speaker's $6 billion proposal asks Albany for just one more time to reduce class sizes. My position, Tax the rich. Make sure the wealthiest New Yorkers and most probably profitable corporations pay their fair share. End the drain. For a long time, the state has taken more from the city than the city's received in return. And I'm working with Albany to change that. Without it, our deficit won't disappear. It will repeat year after year, asking future generations to shoulder the burden. We will solve this budget crisis, but I'm not going to let it come at your expense.

[Sam Cedar]

So he is talking about this. Julie Menon introduced budget. And the big issue, of course, is she does not want to tax wealthy people, meaning herself. Well, I mean, here's the thing. Full Disclosure, but not somewhat disclosure. The pop up this thing. Do you have the.

[Brian]

The tear sheet? Yeah. So great reporting here by the lever because I don't. And Luke Goldstein. Veronica. Rick Ricoban. Ricobene. I'm not. I don't think this was in her disclosure. I think that's part of the issue. Right.

[Sam Cedar]

Well you don't have to. Exactly. When you are a New York City elected official, you only disclose what your personal wealth is. There are rules allowing spouses assets to remain confidential even though that they are disclosed privately to the city's conflict of interest board. So the conflict of interest board can't really tell us what's in there, but they know. So there isn't a conflict of interest. Now of course you could argue well it's sort of a conflict of interest if you're super wealthy and you about taxing the rich. The super wealthy. But be that as it may, the lever reports that menon listed under $500,000 in assets which.

[Brian]

There it is. Yeah.

[Sam Cedar]

You know, we don't know how under it is. 500,000 is quite a bit of assets. I mean although I guess there are some people whose who theoretically you could have an apartment that you bought 30 years ago in New York and have more or less paid off your mortgage and the value of that apartment could. But that would be more than 500,000 I would imagine in these days. But be that as it may, however, her family holdings may be worth tens of millions of dollars including a $22 million Hampton's home. And there's also luxury New York City and an access to private jets. Let me.

[Brian]

She lives in a Luke says a $7 million condo. Her spouse is a real estate executive at a firm worth $14 billion and the firm has two private jets. None of this appears in her disclosure. So perhaps it's unfair to say that she would be impacted by the millionaire tax. It's just her husband. Yeah, just her husband.

[Sam Cedar]

But 22 million. I'm. I honestly am.

[Brian]

I kind of want to know what

[Sam Cedar]

the house looks like with the idea I want to do. I don't think I've ever been in a $22 million house.

[Emma]

But she says she doesn't want to do cuts, she just wants to do savings.

[Sam Cedar]

Just savings, not cuts.

[Emma]

Yeah.

[Sam Cedar]

Oh well in that case there's a

[Emma]

lot of wasteful stuff. Don't look at that. Hampton's mansion. There's all this wasteful stuff in government.

[Brian]

How psychopathic do you have to be when you have this amount of money to oppose this moderate tax increase? It is just. I mean, it's why they can't be given this amount of political power and also financial power as wealth consolidates, is because, like, the nature of the ultra wealthy, like, this is to hoard and

[Emma]

then conspire against everybody. You're hoarding it.

[Brian]

Exactly. They have to be broken and there can't be any shortcuts.

[Sam Cedar]

I mean, this is also probably, like, this is what she is elected to do. I don't know where she comes from, but my guess would be the Upper east side. I don't know. Can you double check?

[Brian]

That could be the Upper west side too.

[Oliver]

Yeah. Luxury condos on the Upper east side listed as their residents.

[Brian]

Oh, okay.

[Sam Cedar]

There you go. So that explains it. But this is like all her friends and all the people who elected her, and I suspect there was a significant amount of money spent in her campaign, is to do this, is to continue to make. Keep New York City as a playground for people who have $22 million houses in the Hamptons. I mean, yeah, I don't even leave

[Emma]

Brooklyn, take a limo to the Hamptons. Yeah, let's. Let's cater our city towards people like that.

[Brian]

Yeah.

[Emma]

And shame on all the other city council members.

[Sam Cedar]

Helicopter. Right.

[Emma]

Exactly. Sorry. My imagination.

[Sam Cedar]

Although they probably also don't have to worry about, like, I got. I had to wait until Friday at 5 when I got off my job at the Gap, to drive out there, and the traffic was just crazy.

[Brian]

Right.

[Sam Cedar]

That's the one downside about my $22 million house out there. Is my 9 to 5 such a

[Oliver]

pain in the ass?

[Emma]

There's. There's a lot of City council members. Well, maybe not a lot, but there's plenty, including another one from the Upper east side, that are, say, are taking this fiction of. No, Zoran, you don't understand the math we're doing. We don't want to cut anything.

[Sam Cedar]

We.

[Emma]

We did. And we don't need to raise taxes. We just need to be smarter about savings and how to make government more efficient. It's important to put the spotlight on those. I don't know if they're all as rich as Julie Menning, but they're all gross to me.

[Brian]

And the Upper east side, not shockingly, was where Cuomo one of, I think, where he did best, or at the very least, one of his best neighborhoods.

[Sam Cedar]

So you should be calling, if you're in New York State, calling Hochul's office, the governor's office, and calling the speaker of the City Council's office, because, you know, she speaks for the Entire city council which represents the entire city.

[Emma]

Three words, tax the rich.

[Sam Cedar]

Yeah, you don't need much more than that.

[Oliver]

By the way, her savings that she where she wants to save has nothing is not geared towards the city council at all because she's proposed increased travel, tripled furniture spend more office equipment, $12 million increase its council budget, 1.3 million in consultants, 250k for a new team. 80 an $86,000 a year animal welfare staffer. Savings, savings, savings.

[Sam Cedar]

It's amazing that animal. I just. I am sorry I'm so distracted by the concept of a $22 million Hamptons house. Like how is there other houses? Like how big of a house is this?

[Emma]

I mean we have to raise taxes everywhere in this country. It's obscene.

[Brian]

Looking at most expensive hamptons home between 250 million and 425 million. So this is basically a dirt shack slump. Oh yeah,

[Sam Cedar]

excuse me, I revise everything I said we really do need to cut savings here. We can't get possibly tax. She's not going to ever mean. Can you imagine how frustrating that must be for her that she's never going to be living in a $500 million home choked out of a neighborhood. It's crazy the gentrification. Gentrification. Fractal gentrification. All right, we're going to take a quick break and when we come back, we're going to be talking to Heather Digby Parton, contributing writer, Salon, proprietor of the blog Hullabaloo. Just a reminder, a couple of housekeeping notes. First off, you can become a [e-mail] if you become a member of today. By today you will be on the list for the first come first serv free books that we're going to be sending a link out to for Molly Crabapple's book Where We Live. Where we are is where we live. And. But also if you are. If you're someone who can. Who has money is not an issue. Like if. Julie Menon, if you're listening, I suspect you may not be as interested in this book as some of our other listeners, but I would encourage you to purchase the book and you can go to. We will put a link where you can have a choice to purchase it from a couple of different places. I had mentioned Powell's the other day and somebody had said to me that apparently there had been a labor dispute with Powell's at one point and now there's a link where you can actually buy the book through a place that will credit the union or give the union an affiliate link so that it actually helps fund the union. We'll try and find that stuff and put it in the blog. I gotta try and see if I can find that now. Oh yeah, here it is. Sorry about that. It is bookshop.org and if you go to bookshop.org shop il Wulocal 5 il Wu Local 5, you can 10% of every sale through their bookshop affiliate page will go to the ILWU Local 5 Strike Fund. So that's worth checking out as well. Also, don't Forget our discord majoritydiscord.com over well over 15,000 now coming closing in on 20,000 people go there. Great place to chat if you're looking to organize somewhere. If you're looking for help, you're running for office or you know somebody who is and you're looking for volunteers. We got people all over the country and really frankly the world in that discord. And lastly, amquickie.com check out our amquickie.com three days a week you get emails in your inbox for free. Five days a week costs you a couple of bucks. Corey Pine, Whitney Wimish are great writers. Every day 9am give you the news of the day. And of course you're on Twitch. Donate your subscription to us. If you're on YouTube, give us a like, give us a good rating in itunes or whatever your podcast app is. All right, quick break. Heather Parton will be joining us.

[Heather Digby Parton]

Sam?

[Sam Cedar]

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the throwback tunes

[Heather Digby Parton]

for to mark for your throwback guest. Yeah.

[Sam Cedar]

Well, the thing is, Heather, here's.

[Heather Digby Parton]

How dare you.

[Sam Cedar]

What is old is new again. Because here we are on the brink of another quagmire.

[Heather Digby Parton]

Yep.

[Sam Cedar]

And you know, I mentioned that there's a lot of things I want to talk to. I got a whole list. Obviously, you know, Pam Bondi's gone, this war in Iran, Trump now asking for $1.5 trillion in defense spending annually. The DHS longest partial shutdown in the history of the country. And the Republicans seem to be completely at each other's jugulars. And then you wrote a piece about Viktor Orban in Hungary. And all this week we were like, wait a second, why are all these right wingers coming back from Hungary to visit Viktor Orban? Dave Rubin? Who are the others?

[Emma]

Rob Schneider.

[Sam Cedar]

Rob Schneider is just. And now it's announced that JD Vance is going to go and stump for Orban.

[Heather Digby Parton]

He's going on the trail with Orban.

[Sam Cedar]

I want to get to that. But let's start With Iran. And just before the break I had mentioned this in 2003 and I'm sure you remember at least some of it through a Swiss ambassador. This is in the wake of 9 11. Iran was very, very helpful. They were natural enemies with Al Qaeda. They were very, very helpful. There was candlelit vigils, the Iranian people were very supportive. And through a Swiss representative they offered a comprehensive, you know, it was like a grand bargain comprehensive peace deal which was limits on its nuclear program, cooperation against Al Qaeda helped with stabilizing Iraq. This was, you know, in the, in the run up to the war they were willingness to accept a two state solution for Israel. They were willing to sign on to the Arab League's Beirut peace plan. And what they wanted was essentially sanctions relief and security guarantees and normalization. And apparently Larry Wilkerson, you remember him, he was Colin Powell's right hand man, sort of did a big reformation tour in the wake of the Bush years to make, you know, to protect Powell's reputation and probably his own, wrote extensively about this because he and Powell wanted to do this. And of course Cheney and Rumsfeld said we're not doing that because the neocons had grander plans. And apparently the guy who Kamal Karazi was the diplomat who led that initiative on the Iranian side, he is the guy who just two days ago we was targeted by either Israel or us. We killed his wife and I think his son and injured him. He was the former Iranian foreign minister to make sure that he was not in a position to negotiate any type of like peace. I mean this is, it is psycho stuff. It's not, you know, Bush and Cheney and at all. They had done very similar stuff, obviously walking away from a deal like this because they wanted to have this war at one point. But here we are again.

[Heather Digby Parton]

Absolutely. I mean this is, I mean I wake up every morning feeling like I'm, you know, in another moment of deja vu. I mean this is, I mean it's a different, I mean after 9 11. I mean look, there was nothing. I knew the minute that 911 happened that there was going to be a war and that the United States was going to lash out and they were going to. I mean it was just, and it was not an unnatural reaction to what had happened. You know, I think the Iraq part of it was what really, you know, galvanized the anti war, you know, people in the country and around the world because that was completely ridiculous. But we knew there would be some kind of response to 9 11. So this time of course there's nothing, I mean, literally nothing that precipitated this particular thing other than Israel deciding that they wanted to, you know, I don't know, wield the final blow and, you know, continue their, their rampage through the Middle East. Now they're doing to Lebanon what they did to Gaza earlier. And so, you know, we decide, I guess Trump, you know, emerging from his triumph in Venezuela, figured that he was now king of the world and could do anything he wanted. So it is slightly different. But the fact is, is that when the United States government wants a war, which they wanted in 2002 and 2003 and which apparently Donald Trump wanted, now they just do it. And the people who were there to trying to do any kind of peace agreement, doing any kind of mediation, they just, you know, they're either eliminated or they are marginalized or they are somehow taken out of the picture, despite all the pay ons to, oh, we're a peace to, you know, we want peace. I mean, Trump, you know, doing his, his Nobel Peace Prize tour. So, you know, this is, this is not a new thing. You know, this is sort of what we've become, I think, in the 21st century. I think it's pretty much definitional that we've been, you know, hurtling toward rogue, rogue superpower status for some time. And here we are, and this particular one is just, I mean, it's so chaotic, so irrational, so completely, you know, incoherent that it's, it's even more terrifying. I mean, not that, you know, the Iraq war and post 9 11America wasn't terrifying, but this is something else again because it's just, it's so incredibly out of, you know, completely without any form of strategy. You know, I mean, the neocons, you know, they were terrible and they had a completely ridiculous, naive idea about we're going to spread democracy at the, you know, at the end of a gun, but there was at least some kind of thing you could argue against. This is making it just, you know, what do you, what do you just say? That it's completely out of control. So, you know, I, again, you know, I just feel like the 21st century so far has just been one thing after another, all stemming from the same concept of America completely losing its bearings. And, you know, now I think we're, we're at the end, we're coming to the end of that particular, you know, trajectory that we've been on for the last 26 years. And this is a very, very dangerous moment. Very.

[Brian]

I mean, the assassination of the More peace prone negotiators is a tactic that the Israelis have consistently used. So we talk about like what is happening in Lebanon or just Trump, that they've seized just a ton of territory and have said, okay, if you're south of the litany, you have to evacuate for a small period of time, but don't worry, you'll be able to come back. When have is, has Israel claimed that before and never and obviously reneged on it. It's an ethnic cleansing campaign. But in terms of like the US Tactics of in wartime, Trump is bragging about bombing civilian infrastructure.

[Heather Digby Parton]

Oh, yeah.

[Brian]

I mean, I'm still very, I don't think that we should take these psychotic Christian nationalists at their word when they say they didn't mean to double tap the girls school when it was available on Google Maps to say that this was a girls school at this point. And Iran is now saying, hey, you're going to target our, our civilian infrastructure. They're now threatening US Tech companies in the region in response to this and saying that they're going to bomb them there because all Iran can do is escalate. This is part of what is so scary about this moment. Yeah, they, they can't trust the Americans in negotiations because of these horrifically, these horrific tactics and because in negotiations they've used that to lull them into a false sense of security and bomb them before. So what else is Iran going to do but escalate? And Trump is going to be roped into that because he doesn't want to look like he's losing. So this is where this is even scarier than I think people are grappling with right now.

[Sam Cedar]

I mean, I just, I would add, the only thing I would add is that I think what this, you know, we've said like he's high on his own supply after Venezuela and he's being lobbied, but I really don't think we understand. I don't know if we'll ever know. But it's interesting that there we have yet to see and I imagine we'll see this, you know, I don't know, be three years or five years or 10 years down the road. We will start to read about how people around him were like, why is he doing this? Because it really, it doesn't make any sense unless, I mean, to me the only way to make sense of it because he had promised, you know, Miriam Adelson that he would be okay with annexing the west bank and certainly they've gone forward with that project. But attacking Iran, I don't think anybody paid for at least that we saw in, you know, prior to the election. And I can't help but think that there is some, he is making money off of this in some way. It may be the Saudis, there's certain Saudis right now are hurting, but it might be one of those short term pain for long term gain when oil is at $120 a barrel, Saudi Arabia is still selling some oil and it becomes economically sensible to start building pipelines.

[Heather Digby Parton]

Well, we're starting to hear that, aren't we? We're starting to hear this pipeline thing, which that came as a bit of a surprise to me. I'm thinking really? Okay, well, that kind of makes sense in the crisis around the Strait of Hormuz and all that kind of does lend itself to an idea that maybe this is part of the calculation. And we have heard that MBS has been talking to, you know, has been putting, it's been pushing Trump to continue the war with Iran. And he's got, they've got, you know, all the local American, you know, hawks are in his ear as well pushing that. And I would not be surprised at all. I mean, just look at the relationship between the Trump family and the Saudis, Qatar and ua. I mean, this is heavy. Yes. Billions invested.

[Sam Cedar]

Personally. Personally. And so I don't know, we may never know. It doesn't really, at the end of the day, it doesn't matter. I mean, we're clearly, there's probably, you know, half a dozen reasons why we're going in and certainly half a dozen different parties who are pushing for it. We know the Israelis are, you know, this has been a lifelong dream for Netanyahu and he's been pushing for it as well. And I imagine it's a combination of like some people are incentivizing Trump to do this and others are saying it's going great, don't worry, we'll be able to do this and understand that once you get past a certain point, the rate of acceleration in terms of falling into this war increases.

[Brian]

But also just look at who is on the outs with Trump now. And I think it says everything like Tulsi Gabbard is rumored to be the next person who's gonna, he's getting rid of all the women. Kristi Noem, these bitches, Pam Bondi, now

[Sam Cedar]

Tulsi Laura has a list that she wants me to get rid of and they just happen to be women.

[Brian]

But I, I really, I think that Hegseth, I think that Hegseth is he's proving a loyal soldier for Trump's aims. I think that Marco Rubio is as hawkish as it gets. And these are the people that he's listening to right now. And he's tweeting out, tune in to Mark Levin tonight. He's listening to like Mark Levin, I mean, who is as Zionist hawkish as it gets. So all he's, he's tired of hearing from, like on Megyn Kelly and Tucker Carlson criticizing this war stuff. He's into Boomer, Fox News, traditional neocon territory. That's where he's at right now and that's where he always was going to end up if you had two brain cells to rub together.

[Heather Digby Parton]

Of course, it's one of the most annoying things about this. You know, I mean, I'm trying very hard not to, you know, get too heavily into the I told you so's. But for the people who, you know, on the maga side who were, you know, well, he's not going to do any forever wars. I'm just going to. Have you met Donald Trump? Do you have any sense of what, you know, human psychology is? This man is a, is a, is a, you know, the narcissistic megalomaniac who, of course, given the chance, is going to take military action when it is, you know, when, when he gets the chance to do it and thinks that there's no ramifications, he's not running again. And I think that right now he, he's been saying some things, kind of getting, you know, sort of recognizing that fact now maybe he'll change his mind, but for the moment, he's kind of said a few things like, well, you know, there's the rules and I'm sorry it's bad rule, but it is. And I think he, this is legacy building for him. This is where he is now. And I think being a great conqueror has been, you know, implanted in his mind as being part of a big part of his legacy now. And so, you know, it doesn't really take much to get this guy on. And all these people who thought that he was some kind of a peacenik, you know, it's taking everything in me not to throw this back in their face as, you know, the Tucker Carlson's and Megan Kelly's. What, what, what war? We never, we didn't sign on for that. You know, I'm going, give me a break.

[Sam Cedar]

And here is, here's a clip. Get 13 ready, please. This is a clip of, or a mashup of, as the kids say, of Donald Trump on the campaign trail when he absolutely promised that, you know, what government can do, and now it just turns out like, oh, well, oh my God, we ran out of money because we gotta do the war thing.

[Heather Digby Parton]

I know.

[Brian]

If you win in November, can you

[Heather Digby Parton]

commit to prioritizing legislation to make child care affordable?

[Brian]

And if so, what specific piece of

[Heather Digby Parton]

legislation will you advance?

[Bradley]

Well, I would do that. Childcare is child care couldn't, you know, is something, you have to have it in this country. You have to have it. We're going to make this into an incredible country that can afford to take care of its people, and then we'll worry about the rest of the world. Let's help other people, but we're going to take care of our country first. This is about America first. We can't take care of daycare. We're a big country. We have 50 states, we have all these other people. We're fighting wars. We can't do take care of daycare. You got to let a state take care of daycare. And they should pay for it, too. They should pay. They have to raise their taxes, but they should pay for it. And we could lower our taxes a little bit to them to make up, but it's not possible for us to take care of daycare. Medicaid, Medicare, all these individual things. They can do it on a state basis. You can't do it on a federal. We have to take care of one thing, military protection. We have to guard the country.

[Brian]

So I, I What? We're spending $11 billion a day in Iran. And when you, I said this point on CNN last week, when you look at Bernie Sanders, his college for all plan from a few years ago, it's around 50 billion a year, but say adjusted for inflation and it's 60. Say it's 70. We could pay for college for all for people in a week in what we're spending in this war in Iran. And many of the people, the young men and women that will die over there, joined the military to get for the GI Bill so they could get a college education. I think that says everything about our priorities. And this might be Trump's greatest scam, like how he flipped there, the fact that he tricked people into thinking this is maybe his greatest scam of all time.

[Heather Digby Parton]

Well, it may be. I don't even know if it's, you know, I don't even know if it's, if it's his scam. I mean, I don't know if he knows what he's saying when he says things well, to be funny, I thought

[Sam Cedar]

it was a lobby for child care that would pay me more money with the weapons. Did.

[Heather Digby Parton]

That's all.

[Sam Cedar]

It's even. Steven.

[Heather Digby Parton]

Yeah, Fair.

[Sam Cedar]

Fair.

[Heather Digby Parton]

I mean, I think, I think it's really brilliant, though, that he gave this, that, that comment that you just played that he made about the daycare and what have you. I mean, it just happened a couple nights ago, right? I mean, he was at some Easter, at an Easter event of some sort. And, you know, so he's, he said this and I mean, he just said it out loud. He said out. You know, I mean, this is Russell Boat. This is their whole project, 2025. It's the heritage Foundation. This is what they've been saying.

[Sam Cedar]

There's that video by M too.

[Heather Digby Parton]

They did and they pulled it and

[Sam Cedar]

they pulled it back, but they didn't

[Heather Digby Parton]

want that out there. I mean, well, you can imagine what the Republican candidates and the Republican, you know, House members and senators thought when they heard that. I mean, it's like, oh, my God. I mean, that is going to be in every, every Democratic ad. Because he just said that, the quiet part, out loud. He just said it. And he said, we can't afford to pay for daycare, Medicaid and Medicare. Medicare. Fox News. Brain rot, you know, people. I mean, did you hear what he said there? And that the states can pay for it and raise their taxes because we can't afford it because we have wars. And our only, our only priority is, you know, military protection. And I'm sure he would add in immigration enforcement to that, too, because you don't have a country if you don't have borders. You don't have a real country anymore. Remember, he said that a million times. So this is what we're dealing with. I mean, when I first heard it, I'm going, well, when you have Donald Trump as president, you don't have a country anymore. Because what he's essentially saying there is that the United States is merely an army and a police force and everything else that the United States stands for as a country is just a bunch of collection of states that can do whatever they want. And, you know, by the way, if you want to move to a new state, well, guess what, you're moving to a completely different country. Essentially, he wants to turn the United States into the European Union with a, an army, with one big army. This, you know, this is not the United States. It's not a country. He's not talking about a country anymore. And, and I heard that, and I'm just Going, you know, something. This is, to me, this is a bit of a watershed now. I don't want to say, you know, the turning point. You know, we all say that every time he says something like that. But I think this war, something, this is big. I mean, I think it's a big, big, big moment for the American people. I think if you look at the polling, you look at how people are receiving this, I think that maybe the veil is falling on it. Certainly it seems to be a little bit in the media, which, you know, in the mainstream media that they're seeing here what we're dealing with, which is this is a catastrophic decision that he made that is changing everything, everything within the country and outside the country. The rest of the world yesterday came together as an alliance to talk about opening the Strait of Hormuz without the United States of America, because we have screwed it up and we can't be depended on. And they are getting together as a huge alliance. I mean, it's a big, you know, was it 30 countries they pulled together on that virtual summit yesterday? That's a big deal. That's. That's something. I don't think we've ever seen that before since World War II, trying to bring the world together right against us.

[Sam Cedar]

But, you know, I mean, and I want to address that. We're cooked. I just want to get back to that, that one quote that he said about, first of all, we can't do, you know, a country can't do Medicare or Medicaid, right? The country has been doing Medicare. We block grant Medicaid, which is the

[Heather Digby Parton]

only way you can do it. You can't do it any other way. What are you talking about?

[Sam Cedar]

And then the idea, I like that he also said, like, and they can lower their taxes or they got to raise their taxes.

[Heather Digby Parton]

These states, we can lower ours.

[Sam Cedar]

The irony is the first Trump tax bill back in 2017 or whatever it was, got rid of the deductions for high tax states. That's what the whole SALT debate was about, literally doing the. His only thing that he has done is the exact opposite of what he was. I mean, so the point is, he's a liar. He's completely disingenuous. He doesn't want there to be Medicare, he doesn't want there to be Medicaid, he doesn't want there to be any of these programs. States can do it. If they do, if they don't, blah, blah, we're not gonna do that. All our job is, is to do the military. And I think you're right. I think. Well, I think we could do an entirely different episode on just how cooked we are as a country. And frankly, like, I don't know, in the grand scheme of things, if you start getting up to, like, you know, looking at, you know, just outside the atmosphere and you look down, you go, maybe at the end of the. For the entire globe, it may be. We may be better off if the United States has a far, far less resource.

[Heather Digby Parton]

No doubt about it. No doubt about it. And whatever the agreement was in the past, it's gone. Yeah, yeah.

[Sam Cedar]

In China, I mean, just like I just saw a thing. China forced its refineries, its refining sector to maintain 2025 levels, despite the fact that they would cut back in this instance. And it's basically just. That's the way their economy runs. It's like, you know, when society needs something, this is. Our government's in charge of doing that. And they're just sort of completely outmaneuvering us at this point. It's a joke. But I also get the sense that Trump has given up. He knows he's gonna lose the House.

[Heather Digby Parton]

Yeah.

[Sam Cedar]

Of course he's starting to wonder if he's gonna lose the Senate. All of their efforts are going to be at somehow stopping the election from actually taking place in the way that we anticipate. He's putting his defense attorney in as acting DOJ, which he will have for at least 210 days. I guess he'll have him in there, which doesn't seem long enough to me, unless he's like, I don't need this guy to defend me. He'll go into the private sector and defend me against the impeachment. I need him here to make sure that, like, whatever we do over the next 200 days, which take us past the election, will, you know, keep me in power. Like I think, and I think he realized, like I think he realized at least to some extent, the Iran thing can't be helping him in any way. He must be aware of that. That's why I think he's getting paid off in some other fashion, because it doesn't make any sense. He's the type of guy in the past who's done or said anything to save his own hide, and he doesn't seem to be doing that right now unless he's getting his hide tanned from somewhere else. I don't know how else to say that.

[Heather Digby Parton]

Well, I think it's a big part of it. I mean, I do think that. I mean, he's setting himself up They've already made billions. They're going to continue to make billions. God only knows what deals are being struck that we will hear about later down the road that we don't even know about yet. So he's setting up the family, I think, for massive, massive, you know, corruption and graft. And I mean, it's just, it's obvious, right? I mean, we know that. But I also think that. I mean, this has just been my theory for the last. And it start. My theory is still, I think, correct, but it's starting to get shaky from his perspective because he's been building his legacy. I mentioned this earlier. This is about the ballroom and the Art of triumph and all getting the Nobel Peace Prize and all this other garbage that he's been doing for the last year. That this is, this is his thing now. You know, I'm the greatest president the United States has ever had. He knows he isn't. He knows he's just a fluke that, you know, that he's actually hated by vast, vast numbers of people. But on some level, he thinks, I'll build enough statues and build enough buildings and build a tall enough ballroom and do whatever, that I'll be remembered as the greatest president the world has ever seen, perhaps the greatest leader the world has ever seen. I mean, he's a true megalomaniac. He really is. I mean, I think he truly is trying to convince himself and the rest of the world that he is that. And yet he's losing his grasp on that every minute of the day because he, you know, I know, you know, he, he's crazy. He's old, he's out of his mind. But I know he follows the poll and I know he knows what, what, what those polls are saying. He pretends that he isn't. That he, you know, that he's only seen the good people around him are saying, well, he's only seeing the good poll. So that's why he's saying no, he knows. I think that much he does know. And the legacy is starting to slip away from him. I think he's seeing now that all this stuff that he's doing, Iran, is a cold water right in his face. That his great, you know, moment astride the world like a colossus is actually not true. That Venezuela was just a picayune little military operation and it meant nothing. Now he's in a real war, a real war with a real adversary, and he's losing it and he can't figure out a way to get out of it. And I think as he's watching this legacy start to slip away, this, you know, even the ballroom, this last week that, you know, the judge said you can't build it.

[Sam Cedar]

I mean, I think it's. I think he can go ahead now, though.

[Heather Digby Parton]

But because of that. Because of the commission saying that it's

[Sam Cedar]

okay or something to that effect. Yes.

[Heather Digby Parton]

Yeah.

[Brian]

It's the only thing that's kept his attention. And so I do get a little bit of joy thinking about the heartbreak he might have felt.

[Heather Digby Parton]

I get a lot of joy. Are you kidding? I mean, it's the. I live. I mean, this is. This is it. I mean, I'm like at a point where I'll take anything I can get, just, you know, whatever makes him unhappy. By the same token, though, when he is unhappy, he becomes even more unstable. I mean, you can see the last week, I really feel like the deterioration is really becoming just so blatant that even his own people are seeing it. And you're starting to see leaks coming out of the White House. Like this article in Time magazine that came out today or yesterday, I guess that they're talking about how Susie Wilds is telling people, hey, you know, probably need to bring him some more of the bad news. You know, it's not a good idea for him to just get the rosy scenarios about the war. And it says that Hegseth really was, you know, he was shaken to find out that Iran would actually retaliate against, you know, the Saudi Arabia and all the. The Mideast countries. You're going, what? In the. What? Are you kidding me?

[Brian]

She's such an idiot. Like, truly in a sea of idiots. He is.

[Heather Digby Parton]

He's number one of the worst. Yeah, I mean, Colin Jost is actually. His impression of Hegseth is really too nice. I really think it's much too. I think it's much too. He really pulls his punches because when Hegseth speaks, I. I'm torn between laughing and crying at how idiotic it is that this man is actually in charge of the Pentagon and he's spending his time firing, you know, women and black generals and people who are fired.

[Sam Cedar]

I mean, I think people should really understand this. He just fired the chief of staff of the army because the chief of staff of the army refused to take off the promotion list to black women who were in line to get one star generals. Now, aside from. And we got some. Let's just. We have some video on this. Aside from all this. Here's here, put up the number eight. This was hap. We've been tracking this for the past couple of days. Or I should say, yeah, put up a number six. This is from the New York Times from a couple of days ago. And Hegseth wanted to make sure these people were off. These two black and two female officers from the promotion list. I'm sorry. So it's actually four people.

[Heather Digby Parton]

He.

[Sam Cedar]

In this piece, it says that. I think if you scroll down, it says somewhere around there, Hegseth had told army leaders that the president wouldn't want to be standing next to female or black generals. And so, you know, therefore, you gotta. We can't have any because you don't want them to get stuck in the same place together.

[Brian]

And, you know, Hegseth is just, like, the most qualified guy ever. Oh, yeah. You know, coming from being a defender of war crime, war crimes, and lobbying to get these war criminals pardoned successfully under Trump to being also a Fox News host, and now he's the head of the Pentagon. So he should be telling everybody else that they're unqualified.

[Sam Cedar]

But here is. Here's the amazing thing. We just fired the Chief of Staff of the army when we are in the middle.

[Heather Digby Parton]

In the middle of a war.

[Sam Cedar]

I mean, this isn't a small skirmish. This is a big war. And I don't know. Brian. Brian served. You know, Brian, I know. You know, you know, you're not. You're not an expert, but would you say here. Yeah. Would you say the Chief of Staff of the army is an important role in the middle of a war?

[Oliver]

I believe that role would be described as critical.

[Sam Cedar]

Critical. And you've just fired because you didn't like the promotion list that he wouldn't intervene with. I mean, aside from him probably saying, like, hey, dude, I'm in the middle of a war. I don't have time to deal with this. I mean, this is amazing. It is insane. But I guess if, you know, as long as we're not woke, the Iranians will be like, yeah, you got us. We were gonna mock you for being so soft, like, where's your pink uniforms?

[Brian]

But now, well, maybe this is what will do. The trick is making sure that anybody that tries to promote women or black people within the army like that will unleash the strongest military that this country, the world, has ever seen and finally will win this war.

[Heather Digby Parton]

Of course, they will all be basing their. Their. Their image on Donald Trump, their great commander in chief, the man who wears more makeup and hairspray than RuPaul. I mean, you know, this is. This is a guy that, you know, they all need to emulate. And you know, Pete, he's, you know, he's, he looks pretty, he wears, his makeup is perfection, let's just put it that way. He really, really looks good on camera. He's got a whole makeup room set up in the Pentagon just. Yeah, from the liver damage. Yeah, you know, exactly. I mean, you know, I mean this is, this is the insanity of it. I mean, you have these guys going on, on social media doing pull ups and showing off their muscles and doing, it's like a cartoon show. You. What are you talking about? I mean, it's, but it's absolutely beyond belief that we have, I mean, look at the, look at the propaganda that they're putting out about the Iran war that the Pentagon is putting out. And it's like, what, what are we, you know, what are we talking about here? This is actual humans. I mean, do we have any idea how many people have died in this?

[Brian]

Well, that's, that is.

[Heather Digby Parton]

What's the death toll?

[Brian]

We don't know. I mean, in Iran it's Thousands, but in US troop deaths. Sam headline this, but there was an F15 that was shot down, it appears,

[Sam Cedar]

and Iran's actually saying there are two.

[Brian]

Okay, well we have one, we have one that's confirmed, although the administration continues to deny it to the press skate. Jeremy Scahill had this, of course, hours ago, but now CNN's even reporting it. And there are conflicting reports about whether or not the pilots evacuated. If they evacuate and they land in Iran, they could potentially be hostages or they could be killed. And there was a report from the Intercept two days ago that Nick Turse kind of crunched some of these numbers and found that the Pentagon's numbers are not reflecting really what the true death injury toll is. We don't know. But they were trickling out the deaths when the war started. I wonder how much information they're withholding right now because Trump keeps saying two to three weeks like they want. They feel they have this limited window, but it's just gonna continue to escalate as things have gone.

[Heather Digby Parton]

Of course. And you know, by the way, if Iran does capture these pilots, which is fairly good chance that could happen. That seems to be the big story this morning of what's happened to the pilots. They found the ejection seat. I guess there's actual footage of that. So it appears that they did eject from the, from the plane. And you know, I, I have to wonder if they capture them. Donald Trump is known to be saying that he doesn't like people who've been captured. He prefer, you know, he, he prefers that they not be captured. You may recall he was Talking about John McCain at the time of, you know, prisoner of war. So who knows what he will do there? And that's another, you know, that's, that's a very, you know, it's a, It's a very useful bit of leverage that the Iranians will have if they capture a couple of fighter pilots. And this is what, this is how wars escalate. This is, you know, if these people. I mean, one of the most shocking things about this is the total lack of historical knowledge among these people. I mean, Trump and Hegseth and the rest of them, it's like, I mean, I'm no military scholar, but I've been around long enough to have read, you know, and lived through several wars. And it's like, this is ridiculous, the ideas that these people have of just, I mean, it's like, again, we're. We're living with people who are like cartoons.

[Sam Cedar]

And part of the problem is, too, is that the American public has no sense of history. Although I have to say, like, the American public, you know, it's sort of hard to assess because the Trump administration has spent exactly not 60 seconds on trying to sell this war. You know, like the Iraq war. The bush administration had nine, 11, and it still took them, like, two years to get to the point where they could sell it. And there was machinations in this instance, Trump has just done it, and the war is already as unpopular as the Iraq war ever was.

[Heather Digby Parton]

Yeah, at the end, I mean, at the worst moment. At the worst part.

[Sam Cedar]

Yeah, indeed. And so I wanna give the American public credit, but I don't wanna give them too much credit because, you know, there was no effort even to try and sell them on this. And they're just like, what's going on? And now. But let's. I, I want to turn from this. I have a feeling we're going to be sadly talking about this Iran excursion for a very, very long time.

[Heather Digby Parton]

I mean, he meant incursion, but he's just stupid to know that. You know, I mean, I call it

[Sam Cedar]

a little excursion, like a little distraction.

[Brian]

As long as I don't call it a war, then I can't get in trouble.

[Heather Digby Parton]

Yeah, exactly.

[Sam Cedar]

Even though I say war 50 times a. Yeah.

[Brian]

In his speech, he kept listing the length of World war, World War I, World War II, and like all these other wars, Vietnam, and said, but our military operation is only lasting this amount. It's like, then what was the point of comparing it to the other wars if it's not a war?

[Heather Digby Parton]

Yeah. It's just so stupid.

[Sam Cedar]

I do want to.

[Heather Digby Parton]

My brain hurts.

[Sam Cedar]

You wrote about Viktor Orban this. And, and you know, with everything going on, it's. It's hard maybe to people to understand why this is important and why. But, but then you see the way that, you know, you know, Dave Rubin is not an important figure, but it's quite clear. And Rob Schneider, outside of being a comedy legend, I mean, why hasn't he

[Heather Digby Parton]

got the Mark Twain Prize?

[Sam Cedar]

American jig or jug. What was it, what was it called?

[Oliver]

Deuce Bigelow, Male Gigolo.

[Sam Cedar]

Oh, Deuce Bigelow. Jail Miguel, whatever. Just, you know, it was just. These are, these are of course iconic American figures. But J.D. vance, you know, we have a war going on the outside of the Democrats are, you know, whatever it was. 55% of Democrats are. Think Democrats are crappy, but they're still crushing it in special elections, which is indicative of the fact that, like, we have a two party system.

[Heather Digby Parton]

Right. We have no choice. I mean, if we did, horrible as

[Sam Cedar]

the Democrats as a party are, the Republicans are worse. You would think the vice president. Right. The presumptive nominee, I mean, if there is gonna be one, you know, in 2028, the presumptive Republican nominee, at least he would be the presumptive forerunner, would be out there trying to shore up the base going into the midterms. And now he is being sent to Hungary to campaign for Orban.

[Heather Digby Parton]

What the f. Well, I think there are two things going on with that. You know, I wrote about this, and I've been writing about this Orban phenomenon for a couple of years now. As we've seen, the right wing, the sort of, quote, intelligentsia of the right wing, if such a thing actually exists, they've really glommed on to Victor Orban and his program. And, you know, this is part of the Project 2025 thing, and it's part of the Heritage foundation, and this, this sort of group of conservative, erstwhile conservative intellectuals deciding that this program was going to work in the United States, which is a joke. But Viktor Orban came in. He also, you know, he follows Trump's trajectory in the sense that he was elected, he failed, he lost his next election. Then he, you know, he, and he was more or less a little bit normal in the first one, or more normal than he is now. He came back, he came roaring back on an immigration platform and won. And he's subsequently been reelected Numerous times under very dubious circumstances with the kind of, you know, election manipulation that they're attempting to do here in the United States. And he, his part of his program was taking over these institutions within their cultures. They called it sort of a soft fascism, which is just, you know, that it wasn't really military guys in the streets or, you know, jackbooted thugs or that sort of thing. It was much more of this institutional takeover. The universities, particularly the media, where he would put. They. He put cronies in. In charge of the media and, you know, sort of, you know, censored in academia, anybody who didn't agree with them, that sort of thing, which we're seeing Donald Trump do. I mean, in second term. It's just following, you know, bit by bit. Now, Hungary doesn't really have a, you know, military to speak of, and they have a very close affiliation with Russia, which, you know, they're very dependent on Russian energy and Russian oil. So, you know, this idea that these conservatives are just. They are really bought in on. On Hungary's. Hungary's program. Rod Dreher, you know, he went over there, he lived there, he moved to Budapest so he could be part of it and feel the beauty of the Orban, you know, policies. I mean, so great. The streets are clean. Tucker Carlson went over there and walked the streets of Budapest. Look how beautiful it is. We could have this if only, you

[Sam Cedar]

know, you can throw testicles there.

[Heather Digby Parton]

Exactly. Perfect.

[Sam Cedar]

Yeah.

[Heather Digby Parton]

So they've been. They are really bought into this. The problem is, and here's the issue. And part of it was the immigration thing too, because Hungary didn't really have an immigration problem. This is part of the weird thing. He. He ginned that up. It was all about immigrants. They're coming here to kill you in your beds. They're going to rape your women. They're, you know, all these. And it was during the Syrian, you know, war that was going, a civil war, and there were a lot of Syrian refugees. And of course he was doing that, and Hungary really wasn't part of that, but he used it to his own advantage in his elections and basically scared the hell out of people. And that's what happened. Doing it again in this election. Only it's the Ukrainians who are the evil ones who are coming to kill you in your beds and rape the women and all that. It's like this time the public in Ukraine, the public in Hungary is going, really, really. The Ukrainians are coming to kill us. Okay, great. And there's an actual opposition party there. He's a former member of Orban's party, the Fidez, and he is running, his name is Peter Magyar, and he's running as sort of a, you know, he's, he gloms onto some of the culture war stuff. They're very culture war oriented, anti lgbtq, all of that kind of stuff. Anti feminist, they've got, you know, they're giving money to women to stay home and have as many babies as possible. You know, the usual garbage. And, and he, Magyar hasn't really rejected all that stuff, but he has totally rejected the, the economic program. And Hungary is in deep, deep economically. And so this is, this is happening. It's possible that Orban, I think the election is on the 12th of this month. So it's right around the corner and they're sending in the big guns. Rob Schneider went over there, help them out. I mean, you know, they're not, they're not holding back. And of course, then we've got JD who's going over to actually stump with Orban. That's how desperate these conservatives are to save his presidency because, or, you know, his, his administration and get him, and get him elected again. Because if he loses, it's kind of just a, you know, it's a complete repudiation of their whole program as well. And there's a good. Magyar has been polling ahead the whole last year, and he's way ahead right now. And there's a good chance that he's going to win if they have a free and fair election, which, as we well know, is always up for grabs with these people. So that's where we are. And it's, it's a very interesting thing. I hope everybody watches it because this has been. This is their model. This is their model.

[Sam Cedar]

Two weeks away, less the election. I mean, it is weird. I think it's hard to people appreciate, like, when. What a model this becomes and it changes the narrative, like, oh, this can't survive this type of, you know, a rule. I mean. But it's also interesting too, where you take a look at it and you really get a sense of what authoritarianism is without, like, you know, I think for many years, you know, people have felt like, oh, troops, you know, at every corner and, you know, the Stasi and this and that. But you can have this type of authoritarianism and it may ultimately lead there. I mean, frankly, look at us, just Trump. I mean, aside from, like, intimidation of universities, you know, forcing, what is it, Stanford or somewhere to give us a list of all the Jews there I

[Heather Digby Parton]

think it's Harvard rather.

[Sam Cedar]

Sorry, Penn. Penn, exactly. But also all the, the harassment, the harassment of the law firms. But even something like paying the tsa, right? Like, yeah, if you can justify doing this without our system, first of all, everybody's going to have those expectations in the future. Could you also not pay people? Like, if you have the right to pay people and it's not been congressionally authorized, why wouldn't you have the right to not pay people despite the fact that that's not been congressionally authorized?

[Heather Digby Parton]

Well, I think they've been testing that from the minute they came in with Doge and all of the stuff that they've been doing. They've been testing the waters. Here's one differ. I had thought, and I think everybody thought that what Orban was modeling was a new, like, I called it soft fascism, which is just, you know, it's this soft authoritarianism with, with all the things that Trump has done, the intimidation factor, going to the law firms, you know, and saying, hey, you know, we're gonna, we're gonna remove your ability to deal with the government and, and intimidated all these, you know, so called, you know, legal heroes. And they all agreed to it. And then they're gonna give him free, you know, pro bono work, that kind of thing. That's the Orbon program. That's the. So that's, it's intimidation, but it's not, it's not violent. Right. It's just, it's just this sort of bullying that we're going to take away your privileges if you don't, you know, if you don't do it. And all these elites are going, well, gee, don't do that. I mean, then we're really screwed. But Trump actually went a step further because he's got a guy named Stephen Miller who is not an Orban guy. Stephen Miller is not.

[Brian]

But Bannon is. But Bannon is.

[Heather Digby Parton]

Bannon is and Miller is. And Miller, he put him in charge. This immigration program. Yeah, huge. And they put the thugs on the street, they went ahead and did that hardcore violent thing. And that was actually going way further than Orban. And that's also one of the things that has been instrumental in turning the tide in public opinion. You know, and when people started to see that here, I mean, that is stuffy stuff, right? I mean, that's what we're looking at. And you're seeing in the surveillance, you know, the facial recognition and all that kind of stuff. That's very stossy. Big brother. That's Stephen Miller. Miller. And Bannon and Skid. You pointed out Bannon because he's a good, he's a good example of this because Bannon's been over in Europe for years, you know, since the first Trump term, trying to put together this alliance of the right wingers and all that stuff and very much into the, into the whole Orban program and trying to, you know, get this back together. Yeah, he was not for any of that. You know, you want to keep it, you know, you're supposed to keep it subtle. You're supposed to keep it, well, not subtle, but you're supposed to keep it non violent because that's, that's not the modern way. They're supposed to be smoother than that. You're not supposed to do this so that people are getting that where you start shooting citizens in the street. That just wasn't really part of the program, Miller. No, it is part of the program. His program is to absolutely dominate, intimidate, and, you know, essentially unleash violence on his political enemies. And that is what Oregon is supposed to do.

[Brian]

That was. Yeah, sorry, Heather, go on.

[Heather Digby Parton]

No, no, go ahead. I'm sorry.

[Brian]

No, it's just, it's just to zero in on the difference then between, like, Miller keeps winning and Bannon keeps losing. I just want to keep pointing that out because as Trump is says, he's the America first guy. We played the clip of him saying we don't have money for health care and child care because of wars. It's the exact opposite of what he said his agenda was, which would have been more in the Bannon style. Like this whole, like, militarism, the violence is very, is Stephen Miller. And I just. J.D. vance. If he really thinks he can turn back the clock and be the America first guy with Orban and Bannon and the organized right in Europe, good effing luck, dude. You are tied to this war. You are tied to these tactics. Don't like. It's going to be interesting to see how he tries to cozy up to that part of MAGA that continuously loses within the administration.

[Heather Digby Parton]

Yeah. And I mean, this is going to be fascinating to watch. Terrifying, but fascinating because you've got him and he's, you know, he's trying to continue to lean into that fashion, to that, to that faction without, you know, rejecting Donald Trump. I mean, that's a very, very, you know, very high wire to be walking on. And then you got Rubio over here, his chief rival, who's just all in, as hawkish as you can possibly get. I mean, the Guy is, I mean he's always been a hawk. It's nothing and you, no surprise there. But he's just, he's just gone full on with the, with the program. Even, even on the immigration stuff. I mean he's hardcore anti immigrant now and he's the son of immigrant. He said he's a, you know, a product of the birthright citizenship. His parents were, were not citizens when he was born as same is true. Don Jr, Eric, Ivanka and Baron, all of whom their mothers were not, were not citizens when they were born either. But I mean this is, this is, you know, this is a big, this is where the rivalry is and we're going to see that play out. And I'm sort of not to get into, you know, the sort of campaign politics, but I do think that that's where the there, that that campaign is going to take place. And I suspect that it's not going to be either one of those guys that will end up winning the nomination. It's going to have to be somebody who's outside of this because this, this particular argument within the Republican coalition is going to destroy both of them. I wouldn't be surprised. I wrote a piece, I remember like five years ago that it said, you know, I think Tucker, Tucker Carlson's going to run for president at some point. It sure seemed to me like that's where, that's where we're headed. God help us.

[Sam Cedar]

Well, on that note, yeah.

[Heather Digby Parton]

Hey, have a nice weekend, guys.

[Sam Cedar]

Heather Parton, proprietor of the Uber blog Hullabaloo. We'll put a link to that and of course we'll link to your pieces in salon.com. heather, always a pleasure.

[Heather Digby Parton]

Yes, it was fun as usual. All right, take care. Stay safe, everybody.

[Brian]

Thanks, Heather.

[Heather Digby Parton]

All right.

[Sam Cedar]

All right, folks, that ends the free half of the program. We will now head into the fun half of the program. You can join us there by becoming a member jointhemajorityreport.com when you do, you not only get the free show free of commercials, but you also get the fun half. You get to IM us. Maybe we'll take calls today. I don't know. I don't know. Ain't nothing gonna break up my stride.

[Brian]

Oh, my God.

[Sam Cedar]

Ain't nothing gonna slow me down in the fun half. Today I'm going to have a tough conversation up scare with really every member of the staff because I have certain and some people need to move into the next phase.

[Oliver]

I don't care what people think.

[Sam Cedar]

Oh, my God, I'm so mad at you guys. For doing that clip yesterday. I'm so mad. Ain't nothing gonna break up my stride Ain't nothing gonna slow me down. Oh, my God.

[Brian]

It's also like I've never heard someone sing.

[Sam Cedar]

I've been saying that on like.

[Brian]

Oh, I know. I've never heard someone sound desperate while singing.

[Sam Cedar]

I'm working on Sunshine.

[Oliver]

Yeah. It's like somebody put a gun to

[Sam Cedar]

his head and said, sing. My future's so bright I gotta wear shades. What are you talking about? Everything's fine.

[Brian]

It's like they have his family hostage.

[Sam Cedar]

Oh, my God. Oh, my God. All right, don't forget, you can become a member. Join the majorityreport.com Also Just Coffee Co op, fair trade coffee, hot chocolate. Use the coupon code. Majority get 10% off. You can even get the majority blend. So come on, Matt.

[Emma]

Yeah. My Instagram is rapidly approaching the coveted as of like last week when I found out that I meant something 10,000 follower mark.

[Sam Cedar]

Which by. What happened to 10,000?

[Brian]

He can post links, you can post

[Emma]

links, and you can call yourself a micro influencer, which I'm really excited about. Yeah. So folks, that and also the thing I should actually promote is a new Jacobin show talking about Brazil with Andres Pegliarini, I think is how you pronounce his name. Great conversation about Lula. He's got one more term and then there's a new for an open horizon for the left and how they're going to navigate that as. As they try to figure out what comes after that. So a great conversation with a lot of relevance to a left that is growing in America too. So check that out at 3 o' clock Eastern Time right after the show today.

[Sam Cedar]

Hey, I just found out that I have 8,500 followers. So I gotta get to 10,000 so I could start doing that other stuff too. That's been part of the reason why I've never posted is because I didn't have that.

[Oliver]

Other links.

[Sam Cedar]

Yeah.

[Oliver]

To what

[Sam Cedar]

you're gonna have to show me. Basically, I just spend my time watching that kid who. Whose dad teaches him to play baseball. The kid's amazing. He's like 7 years old. Not even. He's like 5 kid as a cannon.

[Oliver]

He's can switch hit. It's.

[Brian]

He can switch one kid.

[Sam Cedar]

His dad. His dad throws. His dad will throw like two, three balls at him, small ones, different colors, and he'll yell out a color and the kid will hit that ball.

[Brian]

Oh, so he's like a prodigy.

[Sam Cedar]

Yes. It's amazing. And the whole thing is like basically designed to a impress impress you with his kid and make you feel like you're a bad dad.

[Oliver]

And these videos have infiltrated, like, five group chats of mine.

[Sam Cedar]

It's amazing.

[Oliver]

Boys are excited about this game.

[Brian]

Were you about to say the boys are buzzing?

[Sam Cedar]

Somebody unfollowed me because I never post anything. That's absurd. Why would you. Why would you unfollow? Because I don't post anything. It doesn't cost anything stupid. If I get to 10,000 people, I'm going to post my first post. Or I think it's the second post. I don't know. I shared a poster.

[Oliver]

You've got like one poster, like Molly Jong fast or something, I think.

[Sam Cedar]

Yeah. Because she sent it and I just kept hitting all the buttons and then.

[Brian]

I mean, this is so fascinating. We should keep going.

[Sam Cedar]

See, in the fun half, three months from now, six months from now, nine months from now. And I don't think it's gonna be the same as it looks like in six months from now. And I don't know if it's necessarily gonna be better six months from now than it is three months from now, but I think around 18 months out, we're gonna look back and go like, wow. What? What is that going on? It's nuts. Wait a second. Hold on. Hold on for a second. Emma. Welcome to the program. A Fun pack. Matt. Fun. What is up, everyone? Fun hack. No.

[Bradley]

Me ke.

[Brian]

You did it.

[Sam Cedar]

Fun pack.

[Brian]

Let's go, Brandon.

[Bradley]

Let's go, Brandon.

[Sam Cedar]

Fun pack. Bradley, you want to say hello?

[Julie Menon]

Sorry to disappoint everyone.

[Sam Cedar]

I'm just a random guy. It's all the boys today.

[Brian]

Fundamentally false. No. I'm sorry.

[Sam Cedar]

Women's talking for a second.

[Brian]

Let me finish. Where is this coming from? Dude?

[Bradley]

But.

[Sam Cedar]

Dude, you want to smoke this? 7A.

[Heather Digby Parton]

Yes.

[Sam Cedar]

Yes.

[Heather Digby Parton]

Is this me? Is it me?

[Sam Cedar]

It is you.

[Heather Digby Parton]

Is this me?

[Sam Cedar]

Oliver's me. I think it is new. Who is you know sound every single freaking day. What's on your mind?

[Brian]

Sports.

[Sam Cedar]

We can discuss free markets and we can discuss capitalism. I'm gonna go snow white. Libertarians.

[Emma]

They're so stupid.

[Heather Digby Parton]

Though.

[Sam Cedar]

Common sense says of course.

[Brian]

Gobbledygook.

[Sam Cedar]

We nailed him.

[Brian]

So what's 79 plus 21?

[Sam Cedar]

Challenge. Man. I'm positively quivering. I believe 96. I want to say 8, 5, 7, 2, 1 0, 35. 5, 0, 11 half. 3, 8, 9, 11.

[Emma]

For instance.

[Brian]

3, $400. $1900.

[Sam Cedar]

5, 4, $3 trillion. Sold. It's a zero sum game. Actually.

[Brian]

You're making me think less.

[Sam Cedar]

But let me say this. You call it satire. Sam goes satire.

[Brian]

On top of it all, my favorite part about you is just like every day, all day. Me do.

[Sam Cedar]

Without a doubt. Hey, buddy, we see you. All right, folks, folks, folks.

[Brian]

It's just the week being weeded out, obviously.

[Sam Cedar]

Yeah. Sun's out, guns out. I. I don't know.

[Brian]

But you should know,

[Sam Cedar]

people just don't

[Emma]

like to entertain ideas anymore.

[Sam Cedar]

I have a question. Who cares?

[Emma]

Our chat is enabled, folks.

[Sam Cedar]

I love it.

[Brian]

I do love that.

[Sam Cedar]

Gotta jump. Gotta be quick. I gotta jump. I'm losing it, bro. Two o', clock, we're already late, and the guy's being a dick. So screw him. Sent to a gulag.

[Brian]

Outrageous.

[Sam Cedar]

Like, what is wrong with you? Love you. Bye. Love you. Bye. Bye.