Loading summary
Erin Andrews
Hey guys, it's Erin Andrews from Calm down with Erin and Carissa. So they say you can't plan for the unexpected, but whoever said that obviously didn't know about Aflac. You probably know the Aflac duck, but you might not know what Aflac can do for you. For example, did you know they pay cash that can help with expenses health insurance doesn't cover. If you get sick or injured, Aflac pays cash that can be put towards co pays and deductibles to even non medical expenses like rent or your mortgage payments. It's completely up to you. Get help with expenses health insurance doesn't cover. Visit aflac.com to learn more.
JVL
Not all meals are created equal. For instance, breakfast has the spicy egg McMuffin for a limited time and lunch doesn't McDonald's breakfast. Hey guys, it's JVL and Sarah and we have a secret podcast for you, Sarah. It's actually a really. Oh, see, it sounds weird when I say actually, doesn't it? It's actually a really good show we have this week. We do a little bit of Uday and Koussay Presidential palace talk, a little bit of Tariff talk, a little bit of Kamala talk, a little bit of Hunter Biden and Sydney Sweeney and Vegas. And Vegas.
Erin Andrews
It's a bunch of banger topics.
JVL
It kind of is. Hey guys, enjoy the show. Hello everyone. This is JVL here with my best friend Sarah Longwell, publisher of the Bulwark.
Erin Andrews
Why are we doing this head thing?
JVL
Because it's early in the morning.
Erin Andrews
It is so early.
JVL
Just, we're just. You can tell that I haven't showered and shaved yet today. I would like to open by noting. So we have a little channel in our slack called the Love Channel where we just drop in little compliments that we see from other people to, to, to our staff members. And I did not drop in a compliment which I saw about you this week. Tell me with someone who said Sarah's hair looks amazing.
Erin Andrews
I do get a lot of comments on my hair. Thank you guys. Thanks for noticing.
JVL
I didn't want to be lookist but I just wanted to tell you that.
Erin Andrews
Thank you.
JVL
People are noticing that your hair looks on point as the kids face.
Erin Andrews
Let me just tell you. I get comments really across the board. Like there's just. Yeah, what are you gonna do? Yeah, your hair looks good too, man.
JVL
I mean what's left of it. Sure.
Erin Andrews
The scruff on your face. Love it.
JVL
Yeah. Thank you. Thank you for that. Okay, so we got a big show today, but we wanna start with the news yesterday that Donald Trump has decided, decided to spend $200 million on a ballroom, a new ballroom for the White House. I mean, I think it's lovely that Trump is turning the People's House, the White House, the place where ordinary citizens come to rule, into Uday and Kuce's presidential palace. I think that's. I think that's just, just wonderful.
Erin Andrews
I bet Tim will think it's pretty.
JVL
I mean, I got a couple of questions for you. The, the, the stupid question is that are, are we not concerned with government waste and spending anymore? Is that no longer, like we did, stand up this whole department doge to cut the federal government's budget and its needless spending, and now we're spending $200 million on a ballroom in addition to the billion dollars.
Erin Andrews
That's what I was going to say.
JVL
On the jet that we have to take entirely apart and then put back together to make sure there are no listening devices on it.
Erin Andrews
What kind of a bribe is it for if Qatar gives us this jet? So he can take a bribe, but then we have to retrofit the whole thing and it still costs the taxpayers a billion dollars on top of all the money that the taxpayers have to spend on his golf games, on rooms at Mar A Lago for the Secret Service to be there. This has been Trump's level of corruption. And this is where, you know, when you talk about asymmetry and this is the whole ball game like this, people should talk about this. This is the kind of stuff you scream and yell about, because it's the kind of stuff the right screams and yells about to great effect. I mean, even on the impeachments. I mean, one of the main arguments against him.
JVL
Oh, it's a waste of money, people.
Erin Andrews
Money.
JVL
They spent a million and a half dollars on this impeachment. Can you believe it? Fucking guys. I mean, I.
Erin Andrews
What are we going to do in a ballroom? Is he going to have balls?
JVL
I mean, he wants it to be more of age. He wants it to be Mar A Lago, right?
Erin Andrews
Yeah.
JVL
Then Mar A Lago has a ballroom, you know, where they do weddings. Remember, Remember when he was out of power, there would be weddings and he would just show up on a Saturday night and, like, go up and take the mic and hey, it's kids out there, right?
Erin Andrews
Complain about the election being stolen for 20 minutes.
JVL
Yeah, just.
Erin Andrews
What, Just the speech you want at your wedding.
JVL
I mean, frankly, if you're getting married at Mar Lago, you're.
Erin Andrews
That is the speech you want.
JVL
That's true. The other thing, though, is. And I'm going to wait till you finish and put that down because I don't want you.
Erin Andrews
Am I going to spit out my water when you say this?
JVL
It is pretty clear to me that you don't do stuff like this if you plan on moving out. Hmm.
Erin Andrews
That's a real JVL hit. Right. First thing in the morning, you do.
JVL
Not say, I'm going to transform this thing into the northern version of my Florida compound where I can hold court indefinitely. If you prepare on surrendering that to Wes Moore or somebody else in four years. I'm sorry, this is straight up. This is what dictators do, is they start building themselves presidential palaces, like, you see this throughout the Middle East. Again, I just think this is alarming as a state of where his mind is. And, you know, Carolyn Leavitt was. I think her quote is, this will be finished long before the end of his term. Notice she didn't say you could. When you have projects, you have construction projects, it's very easy to attach a date. We estimate, according to our contractor, that this will be finished by October of 2027. Right. Or something like that. You could. You could just put a date on it. She didn't put a date. She put an indefinite theoretical time tied to the end of his term in office.
Erin Andrews
Well, that I wouldn't read.
JVL
Plausible deniability. You could say, oh, she just meant 2028. She didn't mean when he surrenders his office. Right. This is. Again, these are games. They are playing entirely on purpose.
Erin Andrews
I don't. I don't know that I can see that deeply into that wording. That sounds pretty straightforward to me. However, it's going to be done before the end of his term. That sounds that. That. I don't know. I think you're reading too much into that part. That being said, state of mind. Does he think he's staying? Does he think he might be able to find a way? I agree with that. I think he's going to. I don't. I don't. I think you can. It's like an Occam's razor. Like, this is sort of an obvious one that Trump will try to figure out. Yeah. If there are people there saying, oh, no, you can keep this going now, why wouldn't. Again, this is like. Because it's just like the constant constitutionality of birthright citizenship. It is black and white in the Constitution. That doesn't mean Trump's not trying to challenge it. He is, so far, not Successfully because it's in black and white in the Constitution, just like his term limit. So I'm not saying he, I think he'll try.
JVL
Yeah, there's no such thing as black. This is what I want to disabuse people of. There is no such thing as black and white in the Constitution. The Constitution is what. There are two ways of looking at the Constitution. A, the Constitution is what four members of the Supreme Court say it is or B, the Constitution is what the guys with guns say it is. And this is just the real politic state of how the world works. And I'm sorry, like to people who think that, like it matters what the clause where the comma is on the 14th sub clause of the third amendment or something like that. That is, that's very nice of you to when you're in law school talk about it and pretend. But in the real world that's not how it works. And if four justices in the Supreme Court say that the Constitution mandates that Donald Trump stay in office for seven years, then that's what will happen. Unless the people with guns decide that he shouldn't. Like, that's just. I'm sorry.
Erin Andrews
So they need five.
JVL
Sorry. Yes.
Erin Andrews
Number one. And number two, you won't get five.
JVL
It's early. It's early in the morning, people.
Erin Andrews
I know, I know it is early. But here's the thing. I don't, I don't think I am, I don't think I'm being naive to say that the, the bar for him achieving a third term, getting five Supreme Court justices to go for it, whatever he. I am not, I am not bullish on the Supreme Court. I'm not bullish on the integrity of the Senate. I. E. There's much I and I am mostly in agreement with you that we are on a sliding scale that is starting to look pretty obvious in certain ways like fascist countries or dictator countries with dictators. I agree he's making moves. I still think it is too early to throw away the durability of the Constitution. And I just, I won't let my cynicism go that far. Hey jbl, can we talk about tariffs for just a little bit? Just because, you know, today is August 1st. This is the day that we've all been waiting for. This is the day that the trend Trump tacoed originally after Liberation Day and the markets crashed. August 1st was when everything got kicked to. It's when we've, we've all been anticipating the new tariffs are going to go into effect today. But last night in a 11th hour.
JVL
Someone make a run for the border. Live Moss. Did someone live Moss last night?
Erin Andrews
Of course. Trump just tacoing so hard. He gave nearly 70 U.S. trade, he gave nearly 70 U.S. trading partners seven days to negotiate deals with or face new tariffs ranging from 15 to 41%. So we've got now another seven day hiatus and, or it's not a hiatus, what would it be? Pause, pause, race, period. And so, you know, we're still doing this and but it's the uncertainty, it's the uncertainty that kills businesses. People sometimes I think they want, they want to see the negative results of things like this quickly. Right. And we saw the market drop when Trump did during Liberation Day. It did feel sort of like abrupt, like you immediately saw the market tank high, you know, long term yields start to drop. I do want to say to people though, the repercussions from a lot of this, there's going to take time to seep in. They're not shocks to the market as much as they are. They shift long term trends. And I think for people who are waiting for sort of the bottom to drop out because of these, that's not what's going to happen. It can be deleterious, but it will be over time.
Sarah Longwell
You're great at protecting your own personal information. You probably even use things like two factor authentication, strong passwords and a vpn. But as much as you try to be in control of how your information is protected, there are lots of places that also have it and they might not be as careful as you are. That's why LifeLock monitors millions of data points every second for identity threats. If your identity is stolen, a LifeLock US based restoration specialist will help solve identity theft issues on your behalf, guaranteed or your money back. Plus, all Lifelock plans are backed by the million dollar protection package, meaning LifeLock will reimburse you up to the limits of your plan. If you lose money due to identity theft, you might not be able to control how others handle your personal information, but you can help protect it with LifeLock. Save up to 40% your first year. Call 1-800-LIFELOCK and use promo code IHEART or go to lifelock.com iheart for 40% off. Terms apply.
JVL
Yeah, and you know, you, it's like taking out a series of load bearing pillars in a large structure. You know like when you, when you knock down one of the pillars, like the structure wobbles for a minute but then it, it settles. And until you cross over the tipping point at which the, you know, the the last load bearing pillar that was helping support it all goes and everything collapses. And I, you know, like what we're doing with academic research and you know, biomed research and the people who are, you know, the academics and researchers who are fleeing America and like going to go, go to China, go to Europe, go to Canada. What? We saw a piece yesterday about doctors and nurses just going up to Canada to work instead Canada recruiting real hard to bring doctors and nurses up there from America. Business which realizes that it can't make capital investments here in this climate or that businesses have to start currying favor with the regime the way they would if they were trying to build a pineapple processing plant in South America. You know, like where they have to, hey, when we're working out our budget for the next fiscal year, we've got to put $150 million in for bribery because we're going to need to bribe people in the administration like, I mean, as corruption seeps in, because that's really what we're talking about. I just, there's no going back. I guess that, that's what I, so, I mean let's, let's pretend we do go back. Let's pretend that three and a half years from now a Democrat is elected and this Democrat is a normal person and not himself or herself a corrupt demagogue. Okay? So businesses can go back to making long term plans like normal for up to four years. But then they understand that, well, if that Democrat is replaced by Don Jr or JD Vance, we go back to this. Here's what I'm saying. It's like businesses are put in the same situation that NATO is put in. And short term businesses can maneuver. Right. If your business is really never looking out more than 12 months or 6 months, you can maneuver within that sort of environment. But larger concerns have to think in longer time frames the way say NATO countries do. Right. And NATO countries have realized we can't put our security at the whim of 40,000 voters in Wisconsin every four years. And big businesses are going to come to the same conclusions. Right. They just can't make long decades. You know, you're building an automotive factory that's going to, going to work for 20 years and put out. You can't make those decisions based on the idea that like, well, things are okay for this four year period, but you know, our cost structure might change for the four years after that because if Republicans are in charge, then we have to start paying money to the president's anti DEI fund or something, you know.
Erin Andrews
Yeah, so I'm gonna, obviously I'm gonna disagree with some of this, but I, I'll, I'll, I agree with the part where confidence, we no longer get the deference of confidence. Like America won't get it anymore and not until it rebuilds trust over a lengthy period of time. Like, enormous damage is being done to American credibility. I just won't use the term never because I just think history doesn't. Yeah, like, oh, totally. Over time, I do think we can claw our way back from this. I just, it is going to take leaders who name this level of corruption and help voters understand that they don't want it to be like this and America doesn't do things this way. Donald Trump did it this way and that was wrong. And I think that's, that's tough. But like, that has to be the future we're pushing for.
JVL
Yeah, let me, let me put a little more of a finer point on it. What it would take to rebuild confidence would be a normal Republican administration.
Erin Andrews
Yeah, right.
JVL
That's probably what it would take is it doesn't take a normal Democratic administration that doesn't establish anything, that just establishes that when Democrats are in power in this current environment, America behaves more or less, you could say, like, oh, they're too regulatory, they spend too much money, whatever. But, but more or less like a rational actor which adheres to the rule of law and doesn't try to shake down businesses. Okay. It would take a Republican administration that acted normally as well. And what do you think the odds are in the foreseeable future of us getting a Republican administration that doesn't act this way? I mean, I think they're pretty low.
Erin Andrews
I'm not sure about that. I really do. I think, and this comes down to, I think that the Republican Party, J.D. vance, they've been enormously corrupted by Donald Trump and they are deeply culpable. Right. Every. This is not, this is not where I'm Talking about the 23 year old who's cutting doge like that. There's, there's accountability there and, but I also feel like that is different than all of the people who have surrounded and enabled Trump. We do. You do have to wipe them out. And this is where, and I'll tell you that I think we talked about this on the next level when, when George W. Bush left office, he was at 32% approval rating and that not only ended like his legacy, it completely fundamentally opened the door for the Republican Party to look radically different than it was.
JVL
Can we talk about Kamala Harris, My girl Kamala.
Erin Andrews
Yeah.
JVL
Because this week.
Erin Andrews
What's she up to?
JVL
She made news this week. First, she said she's not gonna run for governor of California.
Erin Andrews
Saw that.
JVL
Great. Thank you for announcing that you're not running for a job that nobody's asking you to run for. And second, she soft launched the preview of her book about her presidential campaign. I'm. I'm not going to say I'm a Kamala Stan, because that's not true. I think she did a very credible job running for president. I think she saved a bunch of congressional seats in doing so. And I. I think America owes her a debt for her service.
Erin Andrews
Yep.
JVL
I also think that if you are the person who loses to Donald Trump, as he is in the process of assembling masked secret police and building presidential palaces and violating the Constitution and setting himself up to be some sort of quasi soft authoritarian, you should not be writing a memoir about what it was like losing to him and then, like, smiling while you hold it for your Instagram post about the book. I don't like that. This is. This is like if Erwin Rommel, at the close of the North Africa campaign, had, like, decided to write a book about, hey, I just lost North Africa for us. Let me. I'm not comparing Kamala to the Nazis. Please don't. So take another example, right? Somebody somewhere who loses some very large and important and consequential battle than being like, hey, I wrote a book about this. Here I am smiling on the COVID of the book.
Erin Andrews
Yeah.
JVL
Let me tell you my story. Available on Amazon for 27.99. I. This reeks to me of. It's just wrong. It's just wrong. And I don't want to, like, overstate it because, again, America owes Vice President Harris a debt, I think, for the way she stepped up and. And really did as good a job as anybody could possibly have asked while being disserved by Joe Biden and his coterie of people. So I. I'm not, like, ripping my hair out over this, but I don't like it.
Erin Andrews
Well, you know, I think. Can I tell you why I think you don't like it, and I think you're justified in not liking it, is that I think for us, I don't know about particularly us, but certainly people like us who take Donald Trump's threat to American democracy very seriously and think that threat is catastrophic to the points we were just talking about. Even, even. Even the, The. Your. Your and my slight disagreements over the impact of this, whether it is irreversible or whether it is simply in a spiral that I'm hoping we can pull out of. Right. Those are. That's the difference between you and I.
JVL
And when I say irreversible, to be clear, what I mean is, like, for the foreseeable future.
Erin Andrews
Okay.
JVL
I don't mean for a thousand years from now, it'll be like this. I just mean that, like, we. We can't see a future from here. At which point we could say, yes, there'll be an end. Like, that future lies somewhere over the horizon.
Erin Andrews
Yeah. So, like, we're in a. So we're in a wildly abnormal situation. And so when these politicians act like it's all just political. Beanbag. Hey, I ran a race. And then here's my book. And when. This is. This was one of my signature complaints about Joe Biden. Joe Biden talks about the existential threat to democracy, but he did not behave like the threat to democracy was existential. And I think that's what you see from Kamala Harris right now. Where. Look, I haven't read this book. I might even be kind of interested in the book because I do think she. I'm. I, like, I'm interested to know whether she was back there fighting for her and Tim Walls to. To be able to be unleashed and go out there and talk to everybody, whatever. Like, I. I have. My. My normal political instincts can have curiosity about that. But that's different from. I think it changes how I think about Kamala Harris right now. Just like, Joe Biden just got $10 million to write his, like, autobiography, which, actually, I don't want to read that one. I don't want to read it.
JVL
That cheeses me off pretty bad.
Erin Andrews
Yeah. Like, this is. This. Is it, like, oh, is it all just. Is it all just normal politics to you? And like, hey, Kamala Harris, if you want to write a book, write a book about, like, what Democrats need to do going forward. Actually, no, don't even. Because she's not credible on that. But, like, I don't know. I told you so Donald Trump is, like, destroying it. Like, be a voice fighting Donald Trump in this moment. That's what people want, right? Be.
JVL
Be somebody who exercises Snyder, B. And Applebaum.
Erin Andrews
Yeah.
JVL
Don't be a politician writing. And. And, you know, here I want to say, I haven't read the book. Nobody has read the book. And maybe it is not what we think it is, although it is being positioned as the kind of thing which is honestly, is an attempt to. An attempt to write the record the historical Record in such a way that the author wants. Right. And so it's, it's an attempt to correct the narrative or set the narrative or something like that, which is a very political kind of book. And maybe it's not that. Like, maybe it is a On Tyranny kind of book, which. Because that's the kind of book which I would be happy to have her write.
Erin Andrews
Yeah.
JVL
A sort of. Hey, so these are the stakes. This is, historically speaking, how democracies push back against authoritarian attempts. Right. I mean, there are, there are things where it would be very powerful to have her voice saying them. Doing a very typical campaign memoir in which you're attempting to, like, hit back against the stories from Politico that you think were unfair because they were sourced by the people who you were fighting against or something like that. That is the kind of thing which, again, maybe it's not that, but it, it's being positioned as that.
Erin Andrews
Yeah. And it probably is that.
JVL
That.
Erin Andrews
Right. It's probably a little bit of score sell settling a little bit. And, and it's funny, when you were introducing the topic, I thought you were going to say she's decided not to run for governor. And you said so that she can. And it was like you said, write a book. And I was like, so she can run for president in 2028. I mean, the reason that, when you said nobody was asking her, the reason people care about whether or not she's going to run for governor is, number one, she would probably win if she was the candidate for governor in California. Two, it takes her off the table. It shows that she does not have additional presidential ambitions. And I think there is a real anxiety from people who are like, she's got the highest name id. She was the vice president. She got done dirty. But please, God, don't have her run again. What a catastrophe that would be. And it would be.
JVL
I think it would be bad for her.
Erin Andrews
Oh, it'd be awful.
JVL
And not, again, not. It has nothing to do with her.
Erin Andrews
Yeah, not really.
JVL
Literally nothing to do with her. As I said, I think she's very well. Yeah. I just think that it has to be new. Right. Some. Something. It has to be different and new and it can't be whatever.
Erin Andrews
Yeah. Like, I'm not sure that anything has changed more for me over the last three or three years or so. Then my estimation for Joe Biden going down and my estimation for Kamala Harris going up because I think she comported herself extremely well. And I, and I, I actually, and I actually think A lot of the things that were, were did her campaign in, in some ways are, were her strategist's fault where them just like not letting her go out and be herself or like them not letting her be in lots of places and, or words, you know, Joe Biden's fault instead of, instead of letting her during her four years as vice president shine. And I mean, look at what, look at what J.D. vance is doing right now. J.D. vance doesn't have like the worst portfolio in the world. Donald Trump's not giving him like his.
JVL
Portfolio is going on podcast, podcasts and.
Erin Andrews
Like, like defending Donald Trump so that he can be the heir apparent.
JVL
Yeah, I would say. Would I? I don't know what I mean. The problem for Kamala is that she's not 75. Like she's still relatively young. And there is a question of like, okay, well then what is this, this very accomplished woman supposed to do with the rest of her life? And my answer to that as unfair and as it is is that I'm sorry, but you have to be an older states woman.
Erin Andrews
Now she could have been governor of California. That would have been a perfectly good thing for her to do.
JVL
Maybe. I don't know. I still think that's like taken up space that, that should be occupied by a rising generation. Of course, you know, we'll probably wind up getting some 70 year old as governor of California because that's the way Gerontocracy works. But I don't know, I, I think her role really has to be like as one of the wise women, you know, like somebody who sits around and like, thinks deeply but isn't in the spotlight, you know, because that's just the way politics has shaken out. But maybe that's wrong. I don't know. Hey, do you want to talk very briefly about Hunter and Hunter's scorched earth interview?
Erin Andrews
Oh, did we ever talk about. Did we not?
JVL
We never did. And I kind of want to talk about that and definitely want to talk about Vegas. And I 100% want to talk about Sydney Sweeney.
Erin Andrews
I want to talk about Sydney Sweeney.
JVL
But we got to do that for. Just for the, the Bore plus members.
Erin Andrews
Guys, it's time to subscribe. Okay. We give. We. We believe that you can't save democracy from behind a paywall, which is why we make almost everything free. There's only a couple things that we do to say, hey, come be with us. Please join us. Right? Help us, help us build this mission that we're on. And so to do that, you got to subscribe and you got to get your friends to subscribe and then you can hear us talk about Vegas, Sydney Sweeney and Hunter Biden.
Sarah Longwell
You're great at protecting your own personal information. You probably even use things like two factor authentication, strong passwords and a vpn. But as much as you try to be in control of how your information is protected, there are lots of places that also have it and they might not be as careful as you are. That's why LifeLock monitors millions of data points every second for identity threats. If your identity is stolen, a LifeLock US based restoration specialist will help solve identity theft issues on your behalf, guaranteed or your money back. Plus, all LifeLock plans are backed by the million dollar protection package, meaning LifeLock will reimburse you up to the limits of your plan if you lose money due to identity theft. You might not be able to control how others handle your personal information, but you can help protect it with LifeLock. Save up to 40% your first year. Call 1-800-LIFELOCK and use promo code IHEART or go to lifelock.com iheart for 40% off terms apply.
Erin Andrews
Does Friendly have a taste? If it does, it's probably like hello's Peppermint Flavored Anti Plaque and Whitening toothpaste. Brush away plaque, show tartar who's boss and remove surface stains to naturally whiten. Hello's thoughtful and flavor forward products make brushing your teeth feel like a confetti filled bathroom dance party. So say hello to hello with the always cruelty free, never tested on animals toothpaste that's made to spread smiles. Visit helloproducts.com and let hello add some everyday yay into your life. Not all meals are created equal.
JVL
For instance, breakfast has a spicy egg McMuffin for a limited time and lunch does it McDonald's breakfast first.
Podcast Summary: The Next Level Episode 1003: The Go-Home for Summer Show
Release Date: August 1, 2025
Hosts: Jonathan V. Last (JVL) and Sarah Longwell
Producer: Erin Andrews
The episode kicks off with humorous banter between Jonathan V. Last (JVL) and Erin Andrews, setting a casual and engaging tone. JVL introduces the episode’s agenda, which includes discussions on recent political developments, campaign strategies, and pop culture events.
a. Government Spending and Corruption
JVL initiates the discussion by highlighting President Donald Trump’s decision to invest $200 million in constructing a new ballroom for the White House. This move sparks a debate on government waste and potential corruption.
Erin Andrews and JVL express concern over the misuse of taxpayer funds, questioning the priorities of the administration. They draw parallels between these expenditures and historical instances of governmental overreach.
b. Implications for American Democracy
The hosts delve into the broader implications of such spending, suggesting it signifies a shift towards authoritarianism. They discuss the potential for President Trump to undermine constitutional limits and establish a quasi-dictatorial regime.
Erin counters by expressing cautious optimism about the resilience of constitutional mechanisms, though acknowledging the severe challenges posed by Trump’s actions.
a. Implementation of New Tariffs
Marking August 1st as a pivotal date, the hosts discuss President Trump’s announcement of new tariffs affecting nearly 70 U.S. trading partners. These tariffs range from 15% to 41% and are intended to coerce trading partners into renegotiating deals.
b. Market Reactions and Long-term Effects
They analyze the immediate market reactions, noting a significant drop post-announcement. However, they emphasize that the long-term repercussions will manifest gradually, affecting business confidence and investment strategies.
c. Impact on Businesses and Global Relations
JVL draws analogies to structural weaknesses, explaining how persistent tariffs and corruption lead to systemic instability. He compares the situation to NATO’s strategic planning, suggesting that businesses are forced to adopt short-term maneuvers rather than long-term investments.
a. Decision Not to Run for Governor
The conversation shifts to Vice President Kamala Harris, focusing on her recent decision not to run for Governor of California. The hosts critique this move, questioning the timing and implications for her political aspirations.
b. Soft Launch of Her Presidential Campaign Book
Harris’s announcement of a book preview about her presidential campaign sparks further debate. JVL and Erin are critical of the timing, viewing it as a strategic move to influence public perception rather than a genuine literary endeavor.
Erin counters by acknowledging Harris’s strengths and expressing a nuanced view of her political trajectory.
While the transcript briefly touches upon Hunter Biden and Sydney Sweeney towards the end, the primary focus remains on the political discourse. The hosts hint at deeper discussions on these topics, aiming to explore the interplay between pop culture and political narratives.
a. Erosion of Trust and Confidence
Erin and JVL reflect on the current state of American democracy, noting a significant erosion of trust and confidence among the populace. They discuss the long-term damage to American credibility and the challenges in rebuilding it.
b. Path to Restoration
The hosts debate the pathways to restoring confidence, contemplating the role of a "normal" Republican administration in reversing the current trends of corruption and authoritarianism.
Erin remains cautiously optimistic, suggesting that leadership committed to transparency and rule of law is essential for recovery.
The episode concludes with a call to action for listeners to subscribe and support the podcast’s mission to safeguard democracy. The hosts reinforce the importance of community engagement and vigilance in the face of political challenges.
JVL [05:35]: “This is straight up. This is what dictators do, is they start building themselves presidential palaces...”
Erin Andrews [08:11]: “I still think it is too early to throw away the durability of the Constitution.”
JVL [13:15]: “Businesses are put in the same situation that NATO is put in. And short-term businesses can maneuver...”
Erin Andrews [16:53]: “Enormous damage is being done to American credibility. I just won't use the term never because I just think history doesn't.”
Episode 1003 of The Next Level offers a critical examination of recent political maneuvers by President Trump and Vice President Harris, delving into issues of government spending, potential authoritarianism, and the fragility of American democracy. Through incisive dialogue and sharp analysis, Jonathan V. Last and Sarah Longwell provide listeners with a comprehensive understanding of the current political landscape and its implications for the future.