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- [00:00]
Podcast Host
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Alex Boris
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Podcast Host
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Podcast Host
My refund though. I'm freaking out.
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Alex Boris
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Podcast Host
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Alex Boris
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Podcast Host
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MIDI Health Representative
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- [03:13]
Podcast Host
This is an utter disaster for Donald Trump. He is completely losing his base. Some shock polls out this morning. That's a big SOS warning sign for Donald Trump and MAGA coming up in the midterms. In terms of how American people view the economy under Trump, much worse. They say he's making things far worse. And then in terms of a Trump base of people who did not graduate from college, Trump is deeply underwater with them. Now Trump's regime is out there continuing to talk about how it's going to be a great thing when AI replaces workers. And every time they go out there and they have Kevin Hassett or Donald Trump's, that's Donald Trump's national economic adviser, others go out there, they say right now we're getting rid of the workers and AI is replacing them. How amazing is this that's showing up in the polling data because workers are saying you're having AI replace us. I mean, you're rooting for that. Didn't you say you were going to help manufacturers? Didn't you? Oh, you're just going to help your right wing AI tech bro oligarchs and screw over the workers. Yes, that's what we've been trying to say. The Trump regime's plan from the jump. And as I've been talking to people across this country, let me be clear. One of the most important issues that people have is the fact that AI is taking over. People's jobs in these big data centers are just destroying communities. So let's just go through some of this data right here. First, let me show you Donald Trump's national economic adviser, Kevin Hassett, like bragging that AI is replacing workers. And even though our jobs reports coming out are going to be terrible, that's fine because AI and the right wing tech bros are making more profits right now. Here, play this clip.
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Economic Analyst
The open question really is what's going to happen to jobs as productivity goes up? And I think that there's a chance that job creation lags productivity skyrockets profits skyrocket, GDP skyrocket, but then all of a sudden, like you were making 20 widgets and you can make 20 widgets with a fewer person and then that person has to find a to new job. I think that that kind of transition could happen.
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Podcast Host
Here's another clip of Hassett saying that. Let me show that. Then I'm going to show you what some of this polling data suggests here, play this clip.
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Economic Analyst
The other thing is that there's a pretty big decline in the labor force because of illegals leaving the country. And so the break even job number is quite a bit lower than it was under Joe Biden when there were people, you know, you know, basically coming across the border willy nilly. And so I think that you should expect slightly smaller job numbers that are consistent with high GDP growth right now. And that one shouldn't panic if you see a sequence of numbers that are lower than you're used to because again, population growth is going down and productivity growth is skyrocketing. It's an unusual set of circumstances.
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Podcast Host
So here's how Harry Enton describes how the American people feel about the economy right now. Let's play this clip.
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Political Commentator
Staggering. You know, the economy used to be the wind beneath Donald Trump's presidency wings and now it's his Titanic. Because what are we talking about here? Well, let's just take a look here. Trump's economic net approval one year in, in term one. Hey, yeah. Plus side of ledger, plus eight points. It was his best issue arguably, but now it's one of his worst. Look at that. Way, way down in the basement, 18 points below water. What is that? John, quickly, Samantha, what is that? A 26 point switcheroo in the wrong direction. This is the type of number that Democratic midterm dreams are made of and Republican nightmares are also made of.
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Podcast Host
So by and large are voters saying it's Trump's fault.
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Political Commentator
Yeah, this is the key answer. Right? Which is why, what is driving these numbers? And it is because folks believe the voters believe it's the Trump administration's fault. Take a look here. Okay, The Trump admin has made the economy worse or better. You go back to January of 2018. Term number one, the plurality winner there was better at 40%. Just 22% said worse. Look at this side of the screen. The exact opposite story. What a switcheroo. My goodness gracious. 52%, 52% of Americans say that trumpet men their policies have made the economy, the economy worse. And look at that. Just 28% say better. Even among the GOP just 57% say they make it better. When you're only getting 57% of of the Republican base to agree with the positive position for Donald Trump, you know, you are in some massive trouble, which the Trump administration and Trump in particular are on the economy.
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Alex Boris
Just to remind.
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Podcast Host
And here's another clip from this morning as well about Donald Trump now completely losing his base among non college voters. Let's play this clip right here through this.
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Political Commentator
Yeah. Okay. So you know, if you know anything about Donald Trump, you know that he built his two presidential victories on winning voters without a college degree while Donald Trump's base with non college voters is absolutely collapsing. What are we talking about here? Well, why don't we just take a look. Voters without a college degree on Donald Trump. Look at this. Back in 2024, he won those voters over Kamala Harris by 14 points. You come over to this side of the screen. What's his net approval rating with him? He is underwater by nine points. That's a 23 point switcheroo with his base of non college voters. He is absolutely collapsing with a group of voters that helped put him into the White House.
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Podcast Host
K. Wow, wow, wow. I want to bring in right now an individual who's running for Congress right out of New in New York who's made major part of his platform discussing issues about AI. Alex Boris. Let me bring in this interview with Alex Boris. He's a New York State assembly member. I did this interview with Alex Boris. New York State assembly member Alex Boris. Watch this because his main thing that he's been talking about is AI. Let's play it. Alex. Great to see you, Alex. Assemblyman Boris is running for New York's 12th congressional district. It's a very competitive primary right there. One of the things most kind of prominently that you speak about that a lot of people don't talk about, which I think is one of the most important issues is some of the threats that are being posed by AI and data centers. You've made that a major part of your platform after you graduated from Cornell and computer sciences, later on at Georgia Tech. Perfect. You worked at Palantir, you saw firsthand and you quit after seeing what they were doing with ICE back in 2019. So right now people are making these connections, Palantir and ICE. But in 2019, you took a principled stand and now super PACs backed by Palantir and others are coming after you because you're one of the big voices in New York and across the nation now standing up to AI. And the threats of AI, you recognize there's utility, but standing up to the threats as well. So why don't we start there? Because it's an issue that when Senator Bernie Sanders and I always talk about, we do podcasts just on AI, and as he says, it's the biggest issue that people are discussing, but that's not being discussed in the news. So it's like where I want to start the conversation. Talk to us about why that's a major part of your agenda and why people should focus on it.
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Alex Boris
People are seeing AI in every part of their lives. They're seeing their kids use chatbots, they're seeing their jobs get replaced. They're seeing their utility bills go up because of these data centers. They're seeing all of these impacts, and they're asking, what is government doing about it? And that's not to say, as you mentioned, there aren't some benefits to AI, but there needs to be reasonable regulation. And then they look at D.C. and with the exception of Bernie Sanders and a few others, mostly they see people either not doing anything or just cheering on the industry and saying, let's get out of their way and let them have their will with the American people. And so when you have a few elected officials, a few people running for office that are willing to say, hey, Americans should have a say in this development of the technology that is both A, incredibly popular and B, incredibly terrifying to the few AI billionaires who have this extreme view that they should have complete control over the American worker and our kids and our climate and our energy bill. And that's why they're coming after me so hard.
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Podcast Host
Right. And, you know, there's so many issues that need to be focused on whether. And you're talking about them all, you know, whether it's affordable, affordability in general, but healthcare, education, housing. I mean, you as a New York State Assemblyman, you see these issues firsthand across New York, and efforts are being taken now. You know, I think Governor Hochul working with, with Mamdani, in my view, is a good development when it comes to lowering the cost of child, of child care. Talk to us about, though, why I think all of these other issues are still also going to be impacted by AI and by these data centers because it addresses affordability. And you have a lot of these people behind the AI industry hoarding the wealth as well and refusing to allow others to just live with decency.
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Alex Boris
Absolutely. You saw that something like, you know, 75%, 90% of growth during parts of 2025 were just AI. The normal economy was struggling, and yet you have incredible wealth being concentrated in these AI billionaires whose explicit goal often is just to replace all labor. They say they are trying to build the AI that is smarter than any human. And then you have people like Elon Musk who separately is investing in humanoid, humanoid robots. Because people say, well, white collar work will place, but you'll still do the trades. No, they're coming for all of that too. So it'll affect affordability broadly. But I think one of the things that people miss is it also affects our ability to have conversations about all of these issues. The use of deepfakes, the use of hyper targeted misinformation is making it impossible to have real democracy and real conversations. And as if the direct impact of AI weren't enough in that regard, you have the few billionaires who are now spending hundreds of millions of dollars to try to buy our elections. So, you know, three of the big AI oligarchs and three big mega donors to Donald Trump have put together a super PAC that they're saying will raise $125 million. And they've dedicated at least 10 million of that just to defeating me.
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Podcast Host
Yeah, and it should be noted that your campaign in New York's 12th. You could always fact check me if I'm wrong about this, but you've raised more money than any other campaign other than the super PAC that's raising the money to try to take you out. That's the dynamic, right?
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Economic Analyst
Exactly right.
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Alex Boris
I've nearly doubled any of the other candidates. There's only two campaign of this 12 person race. There's only two campaigns that have raised millions of dollars, plural. And it is me and the super PAC against me. The super PAC did it from like three donations from large billionaires and I did it from thousands of people coming together, all individuals. I'm not taking any PAC money other than labor unions if they want to get involved. But all of that money was raised from individuals who just want a say in how AI develops.
- [14:38]
Podcast Host
One of the things that you point out which really concerned me as I looked at the economy on a macro level is I would see all of these reports, reports about jobs and about income and about inflation, and they'd all be very bad. Also the increasing the debt, they haven't. The federal spending is way out. That's why I saw stats like that. Then I would see the market's doing really not really well, especially over the past few days, but the market's chugging along and also not as good as Other countries which America used to lead the world when it comes. But anyway, I'm like still. But then you would see it's like, wait a minute, what's going on here? And it seemed to be number one, hiding the debt in these data center acquisitions to fuel the AI by doing these like lease out agreements so that they wouldn't show debt on the balance sheets. So there was this whole, I don't want to say it's a scam, but it was a scheme at least we'll say to hide debt from the balance sheets and just show profits when actually a huge amounts of money which they called capex expenditures but it was really debt kind of disguised as something. And then they would do all these deals with each other and so they would do these press releases. Oracle does a deal with OpenAI. OpenAI does a deal with so and so. And they just kept on cycling the deals. But the, but there wasn't extra money. It was just a deal flow that was being announced. And now here we are in 2026. Assemblyman. And a lot of these deals that they prom like, well, where's that happening? That's. And it's not happening right now. And it's like, so have you just been lying to us in 2025? And normally, and excuse my rant, we would have an SEC that would look into this stuff and say you can't do this. But there's no SEC anymore because the oligarchs are hanging out with Trump at Club Mar a Lago or wherever.
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Alex Boris
No sec. And also these, some of these companies can just stay private for so long now that they don't have to do a lot of the public report. I mean OpenAI and anthropic and some of the big ones are private and so some are behaving responsibly, but I'm sure some are not. And the public doesn't really have a way to see their underlying finances. Yeah, I want to be clear that I'm not in the camp that, you know, AI is all fake. I'm actually quite in the opposite camp. I think it is very capable and going to do a lot of things and that's why government needs to be involved. But even with that said, you're seeing weird financing vehicles that are happening where instead of directly investing in a data center which would, as you said, show up as debt, they'll have these special purpose vehicles that are somewhat off the balance sheet and so it doesn't really show on theirs and it's, it's things that are reminiscent of what we saw with the housing crisis with, with 2008 and what happened with the subprime mortgages. So this is a, you know, one of the things where the people in the AI industry are really terrified of any bump in the road. And so if it feels like sometimes you want to have a rational conversation about hey, here are some benefits of AI, here are some risks. How can we regulate? And you see that especially some of the executives kind of violently react to that even suggestion. Maybe that's because if they have any bump in the road in their growth, they're so leveraged that there's a real challenge of it falling down. And so what you're seeing is behavior where they try to stop the states from taking any action because they're losing at the state level. They go and they try to buy the White House. They literally are paying to have the White House demolished and the East Wing ballroom built. They're putting millions of dollars into Donald Trump's super PAC. In fact, Greg Brockman, the president of OpenAI in the second half of 2025 was Donald Trump's single largest mega donor. They are spending a lot right now to try to ensure that no one in America gets to have a say in how AI develops except the oligarchs.
- [18:49]
Podcast Host
Why do you think other politicians, even Democrats, I mean we know Republicans are not although, you know, some. You may be able to find some bipartisanship when it comes to data centers. It is an interesting issue. So I to don't want to paint.
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Alex Boris
A broadband no on it's like shockingly bipartisan. Yeah, this one hasn't really been polarized yet other than Trump and the people in his immediate orbit. Most Republican voters you talk to are also saying, hey, what is this is moving way too fast. And we want to say in this.
- [19:20]
Podcast Host
And that's where the that's the thing is that the people you tour the country AI data centers is like a number one to two to three issue because it impacts all these others even where most people to be affordability, generally housing, health care, AI replacing jobs, you know, is right is right up there. Yet it's not talked about. The people talk about it, but it's not making the news. It's not, you know, other than when they announce on CNBC the deal flow that often is, you know, propaganda. So what do you why is there that incongruity? I mean you see that when people like you talk about it. Yes, you're under attack by, you know, super PACs, but you've galvanized people by making this an important issue, one that you know. But. So why doesn't other people talk about it? Like, why. Why are other people afraid of this issue?
- [20:15]
Alex Boris
Well, I think having a $100 million super PAC out there is scary to many people. But. But you're seeing more and more elected officials step up. I mean, you need to. You need two things. You need the willingness to go against this industry, to risk your job, to risk your career, but stand up for the right thing. And second of all, you need the knowledge of how to do it. If I'm elected, I'm going to be the second Democrat ever in Congress with a degree in computer science, following Ted Lieu from California. You don't need a degree in computer science to engage here, but I think a lot of Democrats are still trying to figure out what our playbook is, and so we've been trying to really push out there. Here's a bunch of threats from AI, whether that's democracy, whether that's threats to kids, whether it's. That's the workers or climate, or really catastrophic risks. And here's common sense steps we can take. Once you show people that there's real actions and things that can benefit them, people are galvanized by that. I mean, one of the most common responses I've gotten even in my role as an assembly member, let alone during the congressional campaign, is people saying, you know, I don't know what we should do about AI, but I am so glad you are there figuring it out. Voters are hungry to see real action here, and I think there's a number of steps we could take as Democrats and Republicans today that would start to give Americans more of a say in this technology.
- [21:42]
Podcast Host
Before we go, One, where could people learn more about the campaign? But two, we spent a lot of time talking about AI, rightfully so. It's a crowded primary. What's your message to the people in this crowded primary that you're in that differentiates you from others in addition to your AI that we just spent a lot of time talking about? What's your message? We have 6 million subscribers here. You've galvanized a national audience, so people know you outside of the 12th as well. What's your message more broadly within the 12th and then to the country?
- [22:17]
Alex Boris
I am fighting to take on the affordability crisis. I am fighting to end corruption in government, and I'm fighting to give Americans a say in AI and tech as it develops. And all of these issues are connected. If we don't have real regulation of some of this AI development that's going to drive up costs. If we don't stand up to these super PACs that are attacking us, we're going to see more corruption in government. We're, we need to have people who are willing to take it on the chin and stand up for their principles. And I think one of the big differences for me as someone who's running is not just the academic background, it's not just the computer science background, but it's a lifetime of examples of standing up for principle and putting the needs of society first, even when it was hard, even when I was challenged. The unfair situation that we all face right now is that Donald Trump is an authoritarian and he will individually target people who are running for office. And that is not how a democracy is supposed to work. That is not the way that you that what America was founded on. But we do need people that have proof, have a track record of being able to stand up to that heat. And whether it's me taking on this $10 million that is being spent by the super PAC, whether it's me walking away from my time at Palantir as they renewed a contract with ICE because I wanted to stand on principle, I have shown that again and again that I will take the hard path, but the right path. And those are the people that we need in office right now. So if that's something that resonates with you, or if you're in New York 12, I would say, and you're choosing who to vote for, judge me by my enemies. And if this resonates with you and you want to get involved, you can go to alexboris NYC to sign up, to volunteer or just to stay in touch or, you know, maybe even throw a few dollars to help fight the super pac. And you can follow me on every social media platform at Alexboris and Boris is spelled B O R E S.
- [24:18]
Podcast Host
New York State Assemblyman Alex Boris, running for New York's 12th congressional district. Alex, thanks for joining us and thanks for the fight.
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Alex Boris
Thanks for having me, everybody.
- [24:28]
Podcast Host
Hit subscribe. Let's get to 6 million subscribers. Want to stay plugged in? Become a subscriber to our substack@midasplus.com you'll get daily recaps from Ron Filipkowski ad free episodes of our podcast and more exclusive content only available@midasplus.com. well, the holidays have come and gone once again, but if you've forgotten to get that special someone in your life a gift, well, Mint Mobile is extending their holiday offer of half off unlimited wireless. So here's the idea. You get it now, you call it an early present for next year.
- [25:03]
Alex Boris
What do you have to lose?
- [25:04]
Podcast Host
Give it a try@mint mobile.com Switch limited.
- [25:08]
Commercial Announcer
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