Raging Moderates: Trump’s Day One Agenda, Syria’s Civil War, and 2025 Predictions

Summary

Raging Moderates: Trump’s Day One Agenda, Syria’s Civil War, and 2025 Predictions
The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Release Date: December 10, 2024

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Episode Overview

In this thought-provoking episode of Raging Moderates, hosted by Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlove, the hosts delve into the tumultuous political landscape following Donald Trump's inauguration. They explore Trump's ambitious Day One agenda, analyze the sudden shift in Syria's civil war with President Assad's departure, and offer insightful predictions for the year 2025. The conversation intertwines domestic policy debates with significant international developments, providing listeners with a comprehensive understanding of the current geopolitical and political climate.

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1. Trump’s Day One Agenda

Immediate Executive Actions

Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlove kick off the episode by dissecting President Donald Trump's immediate plans upon taking office:

• Pardons: Trump has pledged to pardon individuals involved in the January 6th riots on his very first day. Tarlove highlights the controversial nature of this move, questioning its implications and potential precedents.

  Trump (10:22): "I plan to pardon January 6 rioters on day one."

  Jessica Tarlove (10:25): "These people are living in hell."

• Tax Cuts: Restoration and expansion of the previous administration's tax cuts are at the forefront of Trump's economic strategy. Galloway predicts these cuts will likely pass through the reconciliation process, favoring wealthy individuals and billionaires.

  Jessica Tarlove (54:54): "He's going to restore the Trump tax cuts, probably through reconciliation."

• Immigration Reforms: Trump's aggressive stance on immigration includes deporting millions of undocumented immigrants and ending birthright citizenship. Both hosts express concern over the potential human and economic impacts of these policies.

  Scott Galloway (16:34): "We’re becoming that nation [of deporting immigrants]."

2. The Syrian Civil War: Assad's Departure

Assad Flees and Rebel Momentum

The episode shifts focus to the surprising developments in Syria, where President Bashar al-Assad has fled to Moscow amidst a swift rebel offensive. Rebel leader Abu Mohammed al Jellani declares victory and promises protection for minorities under the new leadership.

• Geopolitical Implications: Galloway underscores the significance of this event, asserting that it represents a major geopolitical victory for the West. He attributes the fall of Assad to the combined pressures from Ukraine and Israeli actions against Iran and Hezbollah.

  Scott Galloway (23:11): "I think this, quite frankly, is the most undercovered story in the world right now."

• Rebel Leadership and Stability Concerns: While al Jellani presents a charismatic and seemingly progressive image, Galloway remains cautious about the stability and intentions of the newly empowered rebels, highlighting the presence of former extremist elements within the movement.

  Scott Galloway (26:03): "This is sort of a pro ball [sic] bringing together a group of people from some very bad organizations. So there is some risk here."

Assad's Background and Legacy

The discussion delves into Assad's past as an ophthalmologist and the stark contrast between his professional beginnings and his later actions as a ruler responsible for half a million to a million deaths in Syria.

Scott Galloway (30:25): "Do you know what Bashar al Assad... He's an ophthalmologist. I mean, it's such an interesting study in how people descend into hell."

3. U.S. Domestic Politics and Leadership Shakeups

Preemptive Pardons Debate

The conversation returns to the U.S., focusing on the White House's internal debate over issuing preemptive pardons to political adversaries such as Adam Schiff and Liz Cheney. Tarlove critiques the ethical and legal ramifications of granting pardons without prior convictions.

Jessica Tarlove (42:47): "I cannot think of anything that would enrage Democrats more than Biden pardoning Trump."

House Majority Dynamics

Galloway analyzes the fragile Republican majority in the House of Representatives, emphasizing the strategic maneuvering required to maintain control amidst narrow margins.

Scott Galloway (46:13): "I see you as sort of quiet power. I see you as, like, head of fundraising."

Leadership Shakeups and Generational Change

Both hosts discuss recent leadership changes within the Democratic Party, highlighting the removal of older, established figures in favor of younger, more dynamic leaders like Jamie Raskin and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC). Tarlove praises AOC's ability to connect with a broader electorate beyond her traditional base.

Jessica Tarlove (48:27): "She is clearly positioning herself for at least statewide election, maybe national if she's going to run for president."

Scott Galloway (50:13): "I think these people are way too old... we need a new set of leaders and voices."

4. Predictions for 2025

Domestic Policy Forecasts

Galloway and Tarlove make several predictions regarding U.S. domestic policies for the upcoming year:

• Immigration Crackdown: Expectation of stricter immigration enforcement and potential cooperation between local authorities and ICE to facilitate deportations.

  Jessica Tarlove (54:54): "I do think that hearing about the US on the world stage from younger communicators... will be a great benefit to the party and to the country in general."

• Tax and Entitlement Reforms: Anticipation of Trump pushing through tax cuts and initiating measures to reform entitlements, including Social Security and Medicare, possibly through reconciliation bills.

  Tarlove (54:54): "They are talking about small entitlements, things like food stamps, which are not that small to a lot of people."

• Healthcare Debates: An ongoing discourse on the flaws of the U.S. healthcare system is predicted, with discussions likely centered around regulatory capture, rising medical costs, and the inefficiency of for-profit healthcare models.

  Scott Galloway (59:35): "This is just an industry where the profit motive begins to turn healthcare into sick care."

Geopolitical Shifts

• Revolution in Iran: Based on current events and public sentiment, Galloway forecasts a potential revolution or significant rebellion within Iran by 2025, drawing parallels to recent upheavals in Syria.

  Scott Galloway (64:47): "I think it's going to see a revolution or a rebellion similar to what we've seen in Syria and Iran in 2025."

• Israel’s Role and the Abraham Accords: The hosts express hope for further normalization of relations between Israel and neighboring countries, building on the successes of the Abraham Accords.

  Jessica Tarlove (65:22): "I hope that we see further normalization of relations with Israel as the."

5. Healthcare System Critique

A significant portion of the discussion centers on the American healthcare system's shortcomings:

• Cost and Accessibility: The exorbitant costs associated with healthcare in the U.S., particularly in comparison to other G7 nations, are highlighted as a major flaw. Galloway points out the disparity in life expectancy and the economic strain caused by medical debt.

  Scott Galloway (60:00): "The US is paying $13,000 per individual versus $6,500 to $8,500 for other G7 countries with shorter life expectancy."

• Regulatory Capture and Profit Motive: Both hosts critique the influence of for-profit entities in healthcare, arguing that the profit-driven model exacerbates financial burdens on individuals and contributes to systemic inefficiencies and injustices.

  Jessica Tarlove (60:52): "I would love to... we have absolutely nothing that compares to kids getting their chemo rejected."

6. Conclusion and Final Thoughts

As the episode wraps up, Galloway and Tarlove reiterate their calls for renewed leadership within the Democratic Party and emphasize the importance of effective communication regarding the West's geopolitical successes. They advocate for a strategic shift towards younger, more relatable leaders who can resonate with a broader audience and address both domestic and international challenges head-on.

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Notable Quotes

• Trump on Pardons (10:22): "I plan to pardon January 6 rioters on day one."

• Jessica on Pardons (10:25): "These people are living in hell."

• Scott on Geopolitical Victory (23:11): "I think this... is the most undercovered story in the world right now."

• Scott on Healthcare (59:35): "This is just an industry where the profit motive begins to turn healthcare into sick care."

• Galloway on Iran (64:47): "I think we're going to see a revolution or a rebellion similar to what we've seen in Syria and Iran in 2025."

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Final Thoughts

This episode of Raging Moderates offers a critical and in-depth analysis of the shifting political and geopolitical landscapes as the Trump administration begins its term. Galloway and Tarlove provide a balanced discourse, blending their expertise to forecast potential outcomes and challenges for the near future. Listeners are left with a nuanced understanding of the complexities surrounding Trump's policies, the evolving situation in Syria, and the pressing need for leadership evolution within the Democratic Party.

Transcript

[Scott Galloway]

Support for the show comes from HubSpot. How do you begin to describe your job as a marketer? You have to generate leads, create content and gather data. You're spread way too thin. But HubSpot has a better way. With the help of Breeze, HubSpot's collection of AI tools and features like Content Remix, turn one piece of content into a suite of assets, pinpoint the best prospects and level up your campaign's KPIs with the new analytics suite. And most importantly, you'll have a way easier time describing your job at parties. Visit HubSpot.com marketers to learn more. Support for the show comes from Crucible Moments, a podcast from Sequoia Capital. We've all had turning points in our lives where the decisions we make end up having lasting consequences. No one knows this better than the founders of some of today's most influential companies, and Crucible Moments lets listeners in on the make or break events that defined major Companies like Dropbox, YouTube, Robinhood and more, told by the founders themselves. Tune in to season two of Crucible Moments today. You can listen at cruciblemoments.com or wherever you listen to podcasts Support for this podcast comes from Shopify. Companies need sustainable sales to thrive if you want to move your own business in that direction, you might want to check out Shopify. Shopify is an all in one digital commerce platform that wants to help your.

[Jessica Tarlove]

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[Scott Galloway]

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[Jessica Tarlove]

Per month trial period at shopify.com VoxBusiness all lowercase.

[Scott Galloway]

Just go to shopify.com VoxBusiness to upgrade your selling today. Shopify.com VoxBus welcome to Raging Moderates. I'm Scott Galloway.

[Jessica Tarlove]

And I'm Jessica Tarlove.

[Scott Galloway]

Jess, are you at home in New York with your lovely children?

[Jessica Tarlove]

I am and we had a big three year old birthday bash on Sunday. Frozen themed I won't sing for you, but it was. It was toddler intense.

[Scott Galloway]

Wow.

[Jessica Tarlove]

To say the least. How was your weekend? You're wearing a tie in case people aren't watching this. You're very dressed up.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah, my weekend could not have been more different. I went with a group of 40 and 50 somethings to a castle in the Cotswolds where we drank and then got up and about 30 people followed us into the middle of nowhere and loaded our shotguns and we shot at birds. And then the best part was the dogs that came and collected the birds. Fortunately, I'm not a very good shot, so a lot of birds are around today because I'm not very good at it. But it's a very British thing. It's probably my first. It's called a shoot. And the best part about it was one. I get to go. I got to go with a friend, my friend John of John and Wendy. He's a super impressive venture capitalist, but he loves shooting and he loves British culture. So he said, I'll take you for your outfit. And I went and I bought this crazy outfit. You get these boots and these things you tie around your boots. I don't even know. It's called these ridiculous socks that look like leg warmers. Anyways, it was a very kind of Downton Abbey meets Murder kind of weekend, so. All right, so before we get into it, I heard, Jess, actually, in addition to hosting great parties for three year olds, that you went to Donald Trump's Patriot Awards last week and it was the first time that you were actually in close proximity to the Donald. Give us your impressions after that event.

[Jessica Tarlove]

Yeah, well, it was a vibe, so it's actually Fox's Patriot Awards and Donald Trump was being honored. So I was there for work. We did a live show.

[Scott Galloway]

I was out on the side of the. Donald Trump gets a Patriot. That's a shocker. Wow, that must have been.

[Jessica Tarlove]

Well, I wanted to blow your mind after you blew the minds of birds. Anyway, the Patriot Awards is something that we do annually and is actually really lovely. It's all about honoring everyday heroes and people who've served the country.

[Scott Galloway]

I'm sorry, go ahead.

[Jessica Tarlove]

He is your president elect. Just let me get it out. And then you do whatever you want. Anyway, sorry. This was the first year that January.

[Scott Galloway]

6Th rioters, were they there? Did they get. Did they get a collective award?

[Jessica Tarlove]

They did not get an award. Thank you for asking.

[Scott Galloway]

Sorry, go ahead.

[Jessica Tarlove]

Okay. Are you sure?

[Scott Galloway]

No, I'm not, but go ahead.

[Jessica Tarlove]

Okay. Okay, I'm going to do it anyway. So we were out there, we did a live taping of the Five, which is always fun. Meet some people who, like me, also got booed a little bit, which kind of like. Yeah, well, you know, like choking, like friendly, funny booze. Yeah. Like, I didn't cry or anything, but it's never nice. And everyone, the rest of the cast is like, come on, guys. She's actually even agreeing with us on this one. But I get it. It's all. It's all part of it. And you get to play with the audience a bit. But the Patriot Awards, and it's going for a few years and we've done it in Florida, we've done, we did in Nashville last year at the Grand Old Opry, which was amazing. And you meet some pretty incredible people that are doing wonderful things for the country. And you can insert your Donald Trump joke later, but it plays into why this was such an interesting contrast for me. So the Patriot Awards this time honored. I don't know if you remember this story about an NYPD officer named Jonathan Diller, 31 years old, out on Long island, routine traffic stop, was shot and killed. He had a one year old son. His widow was the opening award recipient and speaker. And she was breathtaking that this woman did not have a complete meltdown doing this, talking about her husband and his service and loving police officers. And if you remember, there was a big back and forth like Donald Trump went to see the family, Biden didn't go. And it became this kind of touch point in the war over who actually backs the blue. And she in her speech says how great she thinks Donald Trump. They had like the UNC frat guys who protected the American flag from the pro Palestinian protesters on Chapel Hills campus last spring. These whistleblowers from the Phoenix va, the ones who actually ended up getting Shinseki, the VA secretary under Obama fired. Basically they exposed the VA for denying and putting off care for hundreds of veterans who would have lived had they gotten their care on time in this massive cover up. And so those are the kind of people that are being honored at this. And you're in this room with a bunch of people who did not vote the same way that I did. And they love these people whose message is over and over again, we love the red, white and blue. Right. Like America is the best place to be. Even if we've gone through something terrible like this poor woman losing her husband. And then a common current through all of it is. And we also love Donald Trump. There is a very good case to be made that Democrats do not show up well enough for these types of people, that we don't talk about our patriotism enough enough that we don't talk about loving cops. Yeah, that's my thank you. Anyway, so they all these amazing people who are getting these awards and giving really captivating speeches full of Americana. And then Trump comes out. I've, you know, I'm in the front table with a couple people like who.

[Scott Galloway]

Do you think who's the most fun to drink with. Who gets too drunk? Was Pete Hegseth there? Did he hit on you before, like, throwing up and passing out? Is he still. Does he go to that stuff?

[Jessica Tarlove]

I give up. Let's move on. I heard about your cable news cabinet from Pivot, though, and I didn't make it, which is kind of a bummer.

[Scott Galloway]

I see you as sort of quiet power. I see you as, like, head of fundraising.

[Jessica Tarlove]

I'm soft power. Okay.

[Scott Galloway]

Soft power. I can totally see that. Also, if you decide to ever run for Congress or Senate, I'll hedge your fundraising.

[Jessica Tarlove]

Well. You're honestly screwing me over with these conversations because you're making me seem a little.

[Scott Galloway]

It's all about awareness.

[Jessica Tarlove]

All press is good press.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah. Junior Junior Senator from. Wait, you grew up in New York, didn't you?

[Jessica Tarlove]

New York. Yeah. So me and AOC and the ring for it.

[Scott Galloway]

We're running you for president. Chris and Kirsten Gillibrand, straight to the top. Kirsten Gillibrand and Charles Schumer, in my opinion, are, like, weak, weaker, and weakest. And I think they absolutely need a young, dynamic, centrist Democrat to primary them. Derek, I've literally got it figured out for you. I've got it figured always. If you believe Senator Tarloff has a nice ring to it, then please DM me. I will take your name down. And when we decide when Charles Schumer turns 140 in 10 years, we can decide to primary him. And when everyone decides to kiss Kirsten Gillibrand while being a thoughtful, nice woman, is totally ineffective, then we'll primary her as well. I'm 100% behind this. Before we go here, before we bust in the news, we want to remind you to please follow Raging Moderates on your podcast platform of choice. If you want Senator Tarloff and you want Daddy to still have the money to go on his shoots and not kill birds, please just subscribe. Please help us out with that follow button this week. On Friday, we have an interview with Tim Miller from the Bulwark, only on the Raging Moderates feed. A lot of our interviews and our better stuff is only on the Raging Moderate feeds. Be sure to check it out. Okay. In today's episode of Raging Moderates, we're discussing Trump's promises for the first day of his tenure. Assad flees to Moscow with Syrian rebels capture Damascus. Biden's preemptive pardons debate, the final housemath and leadership shakeups. And finally, our predictions for next year. All right, where should we get to over the weekend? President elect Trump told NBC's Kristen Welker. He plans immediate action after taking office on January 20. He vowed to pardon January 6 rioters on day one, extend his first tax cuts, deport millions of undocumented immigrants, and push to end birthright citizenship. Trump also said he'd work towards a solution to protect dreamers, and he won't impose new restrictions on abortion pills, on pardoning rioters. He claimed, this is the most disgusting, filthy place.

[Jessica Tarlove]

These people are living in hell.

[Scott Galloway]

Let me just. And I think it's very unfair. Jess, what did you make of this interview?

[Jessica Tarlove]

This is, this felt like actually the kickoff to the new administration in a certain way. I know we have to get to inauguration, but it's crazy how quickly I feel like things have turned. I don't remember this when Biden won in 2020, that he suddenly became the president, but Donald Trump is like, he's at Notre Dame for the reopening. He is meeting with world leaders. He is meeting with Zelensky. It feels like everyone has just kind of shut the door on Biden and is like, hello, Trump, whatever that means. And, you know, choosing to go on Meet Meet the Press. He has been interviewed by Welker before, I think, definitely trying to send a mainstream signal right, to the public. I'm going to be out here in these places that you recognize and you don't have to come and find me on the Andrew Schultz podcast, necessarily. But it was classic Trump in that the things that he was promising to do or the things that he said, depending on what your politics are, it fits exactly in the box that you have put him in. So he says, I'm ending birthright citizenship. I'm deporting families together. Right. That was one of the big ones, which Tom Holman, who's his borders are, had said on 60 Minutes before when he was interviewed. So the idea is like, oh, we don't have to separate families, even if some of you are legal, you should just all go together and that he's going to jail. Liz Cheney. Right. So if you're Die Hard maga, you like that for obvious reasons. And then if you're more centrist or even a Democrat, you're crapping your pants again, right? And saying, this guy is going to do all of these terrible things to the country. And it's just, it's so difficult to pin him down, which I think is why he ended up winning, because he's, he's whatever you want him to be, right? He's a dream politician in that sense. And people have very legitimate arguments on both sides of the authoritarian coin as to which one he is. And that was my big takeaway. I mean, I want to get into the specifics of some of these things, but what do you think about that? I don't know if you watched it or I didn't.

[Scott Galloway]

The weird thing that's happened to me is I have a tendency to believe that, okay, the wonderful thing about our checks and balances is that there's a certain level of purposeful intransigence where it's very hard to get stupid, sweeping things done. It's also probably really difficult to get really genius disruptive things done. And that it's just unlikely. I don't think these tariffs are going to go through at anywhere near the magnitude I can't imagine. I would like to think that enough Americans look back on one of the great stains, one of the great stains of our society, and that was in turning great Japanese American citizens who for no other reason than the color of their skin, as many of their sons were fighting in the European theater, that the moment we start housing, hosting, aggregating, concentrating immigrants in anything resembling a camp, that. That the media and people and citizens in that neighborhood are going to go apeshit. So I wonder how much of this is really going to happen. Now, having said that, what I'm also growing into is realizing I never thought. I was never worried about Roe v. Wade being overturned. I didn't think there was any chance it would ever actually get overturned. And I was wrong. So nothing kind of surprises me anymore. And along those lines, in the last two weeks, I've had an iconic morning TV show host and an iconic tech billionaire call me and ask me about London. And I thought, oh, great, you're thinking about moving to London. I moved to London not because of America, because I felt like I needed to leave. I moved because of America, because America has offered me so much prosperity and, you know, just wonderful opportunity. I have the chance to give my kids an experience to live in Europe. These folks are scared and they're actually thinking about relocating to Europe because they believe there's a non zero probability they are going to be persecuted. And I was just so flummoxed that these are not reactionary, stupid people. These are household names that are incredibly successful. My first question is, you're really, you're seriously, really worried. You really think he's going to come for you? And they said, I don't know, but I don't need to live in a country where I don't know.

[Jessica Tarlove]

Yeah.

[Scott Galloway]

The reason why America, in my opinion, across a lot of dimensions is so successful is you have to have a massive base of innovation to create economic values such that we have the taxes to pay for the best military in the world. And to argue over entitlements and to argue over Veterans affairs and to bail out banks or Covid stimulus, you know, that top line number is really important. And to start both of these people create tremendous economic growth. Both of these people, and I'm not being biased, are good people. They're good people.

[Jessica Tarlove]

Yeah.

[Scott Galloway]

And that's the environment you want to create. Where do you think can you handicap what you think is going to happen post election?

[Jessica Tarlove]

I don't know.

[Scott Galloway]

I don't. It's a difficult question.

[Jessica Tarlove]

Yeah, no, you can say I don't know. I mean, I don't know an exact number. I do know, which we've talked about a few times, that what Trump cares about most is economic prosperity because that's what he knows he'll be remembered for, either good or bad. And frankly, it's what got him across the line in the 2024 election, that people had a favorable view of what the economy looked like when he was president. And I'm curious as to what you think about. You know, I get it, the fear mongering that is rooted in some very genuine policy chops on people like Stephen Miller, Tom Homan, et cetera, that are founded in xenophobia. As far as I'm concerned. All of that is very, I found.

[Scott Galloway]

It in bullying when they were in the eighth grade. But I agree with you, definitely Stephen.

[Jessica Tarlove]

Miller, I don't know about Homan. He seems like he was always a bully. But there are a lot of immigrants and successful immigrants and well educated immigrants that are very big supporters of the president. I mean, I was looking at the pictures of J.D. vance from Thanksgiving. He's married to Usha Vance, whose parents are Indian immigrants. He's with her family for Thanksgiving. He has a mixed family. And I would assume a lot of people in that group are big fans of Donald Trump. Donald Trump is out there saying, I'm going to cut regulations like you've never seen before. He saved $200 billion and cut regulations in the first term. He wants to go even further. I know there are a lot of people who run businesses that are excited about that, who feel like, yeah, you can be successful here, but you can be even more successful if we get rid of some more of this red tape. Now, I'm concerned about certain pieces of quote unquote, red tape that we need like climate protections and things like that. But there are going to be a lot of people who think that this is actually a place to be doing business with Donald Trump in the White House versus a more regulatory minded Democrat.

[Scott Galloway]

It's a great point. And on the issue of immigration, we have someone who's worked with us for a long time, who's incredibly talented and English is her fifth language and yet she's arguably our most talented copywriter editor just and around immigration, while she's very progressive while immigration, she hasn't stated explicitly, but I know she, I'm fairly confident saying she doesn't want people rounded up. But she says, look, I waited in line to get here and it took me seven years and I did it legally. And so many of these, so many people in America, you know, seem to feel that we should just have open borders. I was like, which is it? Can I come? Can my parents come now? You know, which is it? I waited in line. And what's interesting we saw in this election is a lot of recent immigrants are the most pro Trump's immigration policies that they feel like it's just absolutely gotten out of control. It's going to be, I'm just sort of fascinated to see how the dynamics of what is effectively sort of a semi lame duck president. He's especially lame duck after 2026 and push back on economic policies should inflation tick up. And also is he has a negotiating tactic starting really high, saying, okay, tariffs of 100% and then going down to 20. And the thing that scares me about saying I'm never going to deny people access to their abortion pills. Well, okay, but if you keep appointing conservatives to the Supreme Court, it's going to be the law of the land.

[Jessica Tarlove]

Yeah, that's definitely a concern. And there is no one at the top levels of the administration, even with these appointments that I can look to and feel secure about something like that. I mean, they just, they all feel like power, power, power. People.

[Scott Galloway]

Let's take a quick break. Stay with us. Support for the show comes from LinkedIn ads. Let's get real. B2B marketing can feel like shouting into a void. Too much noise, not enough signal. If your message isn't dialed in, it's not just ineffective, it's invisible. Enter LinkedIn ads. It's a platform full of the people who are most likely to find your ads relevant. LinkedIn ads allows you to build the right relationships, drive results and reach your customers in a respectful environment. You'll be able to drive results with targeting and measurement tools. Built specifically for B2B in technology, LinkedIn generated 2 to 5x higher return on ad spend than other social media platforms. Plus you'll have direct access to and be able to build relationships with over 1 billion members, including 130 million decision makers and 10 million C level executives. You don't need to waste dollars on the wrong eyeballs. You can start converting your B2B audience into high quality leads today. We'll even give you $100 credit on your next campaign. Go to LinkedIn.com Scott to claim your credit. That's LinkedIn.com Scott terms and conditions applied. LinkedIn the place to Be to Be Support for Profg Comes from Miro if you're a CEO, you understand the challenges of growing a company. One of the issues is balancing the big innovative ideas with actually executing them. Because once you face the challenges of outdated process management tools, context switching, team alignment and constant updates, you begin to lose sight of the big picture and your creative ideas. But now you can take a big step to solving these problems with the Innovation Workspace at Miro. The Innovation Workspace comes loaded with AI enabled tools to help teams get from idea to output faster, and it can accelerate you through the full innovation cycle, from ideation to execution every step of the way. Plus, the AI summaries can condense documents, stickies and overall board content in seconds and produce retrospective summaries, product briefs, meeting notes and more. It's time to create an intuitive, intelligent innovation workspace that gets everyone on the same page every step of the way with Miro. Whether you work in innovation, product design, engineering, ux, agile or it, bring your team to Miro's revolutionary Innovation Workspace and be faster. From idea to outcome. Go to miro.com to find out how. That's M I R O.com support for Prop G comes from Give Directly. The holidays are a great time to make a charitable donation to a cause you care about. But how do you know if your money is actually helping the people who need it most? Well, if you want to get cash directly to people in need, consider donate to GiveDirectly. GiveDirectly believes that cash allows people the dignity and freedom to make their own decisions about how they can improve their lives. That's because every person, regardless of their financial status, has their own specific needs, preferences and aspirations. And people living in poverty deserve to have a say in how to best invest in their future, whether that's housing, education, business support, and more. In fact, many academic studies show that cash transfers can improve earnings Health, education, and much more. That's why Give Directly lets you do exactly that. Give directly to those who need it. Your donation this holiday season has the power to lift families and entire communities out of extreme poverty. To learn more and send money directly to people living in extreme poverty, visit GiveDirectly.org profg. Okay, so what's next here? Let's go to something a little bit more fun.

[Jessica Tarlove]

Syria.

[Scott Galloway]

Let's talk about Assad. So The Assad family's 50 year rule over Syria came to an end following a swift rebel offensive. President Bashar al Assad fled to Moscow with his family, where they were granted asylum. President Biden called the regime's fall a historic opportunity for Syria to rebuild while warning of risks ahead. Rebel leader Abu Mohammed al Jelani, speaking in Damascus, hailed the victory as one for the entire Islamic nation and pledged protection for minorities under the new leadership by his HTS group. I think this, quite frankly, is the most undercovered story in the world right now.

[Jessica Tarlove]

Totally. Well, it was definitely undercovered for the first 12 days and then if Syria fell on the 13th day and everyone was like, oh, hey, there's something going on here. I felt I got chills watching some of this, especially the footage of the prisoners being freed from, I don't want to mispronounce the Sednaya prison, that huge complex in Damascus, but this guy Jelani, who's the head of hts, which is the main rebel group, so there's an amalgamation of rebels that have come together to do this, seems like with some pretty heavy help from Turkey. But he is the figurehead of everything at this moment. He seems to be quite charismatic. He's former Al Qaeda, which is interesting. And he's been imprisoned before and has had changed from, I guess a jihadist to a Syrian nationalist, though they are, they're very heavy Islamicists, as many CIS that I put into one sentence. But I have enjoyed, I guess, what he has had to say so far. You know, he's ordered that all of the borders be opened and that anyone who was displaced. You know, there are 14 million Syrians who have been displaced over the last 13 years and they're flying the Free Syria flag at the embassy, watching it up in Sweden, there are 200,000 refugees that they've taken over the years. He's said that there's amnesty for all Syrian soldiers and conscripts, like, no questions asked. You want to come back and be with us, you can be with us. I don't know if this will hold, but he's also commanded his troops that they cannot interfere with women's clothing at all. So we'll see how that holds up. But it is fascinating geopolitically. I mean, if Ukraine hadn't taken Russia apart to this level and if Israel hadn't hurt Iran and Hezbollah to the level that they have in the last couple of months, this would never have been possible because Syria just Assad couldn't do it without Russia and Iran anymore. And that seems to be why this happened. But what are your initial thoughts?

[Scott Galloway]

I agree a lot of the initial complexion and body language is very positive. But this is sort of a pro ball bringing together a group of people from some very bad organizations. So there is some risk here and the Israelis sense that risk. And they've actually been intensely bombing and attacking military sites and munitions caches inside of Syria, thinking we don't know anything about these people and we don't want them to have access to these weapons. There's no getting around it. Bashar al Assad, that regime, him and his father, a murderous regime. I think somewhere between half a million and a million Syrians have been killed. Gas attacks on their own people. Now, you know, the world didn't seem to be that outraged by it because it wasn't Jews killing these people. But that's another talk show. But the thing that strikes me about this is that we have such a self hate for America. We are so remiss and I believe at the hands of an America where they see the top 1% doing better than them, at the hands of platforms that have been weaponized by bad actors that want to divide us and get us to hate each other. We don't recognize that America and the west are winning geopolitically. And that is Bashar Al Assad, who does not share our values. Immediately when Sheikh Real turned to Russia. But here's the problem. A Russia is like, sorry boss, we got our own issues. Because unbeknownst to me, where I thought I was going to roll into Kyiv in about seven days, the west backing the incredible Ukrainian army is killing about 1,500 of my people a day. I've lost half a million people. I just don't have the time, the resources or the energy to come in and back you up. And then he turned to his other friend, Iran. And Iran's like, well, I don't know if you've heard, but in addition to you, our proxies, including Hezbollah, the Houthis and Hamas are not doing that well. And our air defenses have been taken down and we're a lot less popular amongst the Iranian people than Hamas is among the Palestinian people. Sorry, boss, we can't show up. So when you think about really bad people, Assad, Putin, the Islamic regime and Iran, the West being unified around their support of Ukraine, you know we're winning and I don't. It bums me out that people don't high five the west and our alliance and our commitment to American values, our support of Israel, which has kicked such serious ass over the last, since October 7th, over the last 14 months, doing our dirty work for us, taking more people off the most wanted terrorist list in six weeks than we've managed in the last 25 years. Totally defanging this quiet, supposedly sleeping giant of Hezbollah with the most precise anti terrorist action in history. Going into Syria and making sure they don't have weapons in case these guys aren't as warm and cuddly as they're pretending to be right now. But basically Iran, Russia and Syria, this triumvirate, oh, and North Korea is sending people into a meat grinder now in Russia. This is an enormous, this is essentially, this is an indicator that our good cholesterol has never been higher and our bad cholesterol has never been lower. Globally, you know, we are, geopolitically, the good guys are winning here and the bad guys are just getting increasingly fucked. They are having Putin, the Islamic regime and Assad are having really bad days a lot. And it, it strikes me that we never take time to recognize how talented our security apparatus is, how resolute and thoughtful and committed we've been around joining forces to support Ukraine. So I'm both excited about it, possibly, but I'm also disappointed that we don't take more of a victory lap for the west and also recognize that Israel, in my opinion, is essentially destabilizing the world for bad people and stabilizing the Middle East. In my view, over the medium and long term, the Middle east is going to be a much less dangerous place. It's one of those things that's so difficult to understand. Do you know what Bashar al Assad, he and his wife were educated in the United Kingdom. Do you know what he was educated as?

[Jessica Tarlove]

No.

[Scott Galloway]

He's an ophthalmologist. I mean, it's such an interesting study in how people descend into hell, right? This guy was helping people see again, this guy was doing cataract surgery. And then fast forward 15, 20 years later, or not even if it's that long, he's gassing his own people.

[Jessica Tarlove]

But his dad was always Doing this, I mean, that was a facade. I mean, I'm glad that some people can see better because of him, but Assad was raised in this. I mean, his family's been in power for 50 years. His wife and I, from when I lived in London. There are a lot more people floating around there who know these people. And I heard similar. Oh, she's lovely. Give her a chance. No fucking thank you. You knew what you were marrying into at the very least, but it is. I don't know. I'm all for people getting great educations, of course, but I do hate that we share institutions with some of the world's most evil. That really does burn me. And this is one of those examples. There were debates constantly at LSE about this, about what money they would be taking from the Middle east and who was going to get to go. Remember about Bin Laden's kids that went to Harvard? I don't think everyone should be punished for what their parents did. You know, you. You may not go into the family business, as it were, but Assad surely did. And on the Israel front, I totally agree with you. I think the issue about us taking a step back and having spending more time reflecting on how well the west is doing or that these are good moments for Western values, that is not computing for the average American citizen. And I think a lot of it is due to the. The cost of all of this that they're being hit constantly with a barrage of information around, you can't get X thing for your kids, but we're sending another billion dollars for people you've never met in your life or that you feel completely disconnected to. And that became such a key plank of Trump's candidacy, where he was just like, America first means that your kid should get a good education and shouldn't have a classroom full of kids who are from another place and are here illegally, or that that money that we're sending abroad should be going to you first. And I understand for someone who is not living as much of a charmed life as we are, how that is persuasive. It also made me think back to the red line with Obama about Assad, and that as much joy as I was feeling, you know, that maybe this would be a real positive future for the people of Syria who have endured more than my mind can even process, I'm thinking, how did we let this continue? What we saw the videos of the mass graves. We knew he was gassing his own people. We had a red line.

[Scott Galloway]

Huge stain on Obama's legacy. Yep.

[Jessica Tarlove]

Totally. And it does seem like that has been one of the kind of lessons or big thread lines in the aftermath of the election.

[Scott Galloway]

A lot of people think Putin, Putin went into Ukraine. I mean, these red lines, when they no longer became lines, a lot of people would argue that we were no longer.

[Jessica Tarlove]

That he went to Crimea because we don't stand tall about this.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah, we gave him a green light. The thing that disappoints me, I think it's a politically advantageous and somewhat short term minded, expedient way of political opportunism. You've never met anyone in Ukraine. Do you really care your son's not doing well? Do you really care about territorial sovereignty in Ukraine when a 12 pack of Bounty is $30? What frustrates me more? I respect the fact they play that political opportunism. What frustrates me is that we don't have a Democrat who can punch back and say, okay. That's the same argument that was made to FDR and that kept us out of the war too long in 39. That was the same argument that Parliament made to Churchill about staying out of. He could have cut a deal with Hitler and saved Britain, at least in the short term. When fascists or murderous autocrats invade Europe, it usually doesn't end well when we just let them. And then to go straight to the numbers, and that is, I would have gone on offense. There are few investments that have shown a greater ROI than our and Europe's greater investment than the US's in the support of the Ukrainian army. We're talking about 60 to 80 billion dollars. I think it's maybe over 100 now. But when you look at, we spend 800 billion dollars a year on our military. And in exchange, if someone had come to us and said, you know what, I'm going to take out a third to almost half of Russia's kinetic power. I'm going to delegitimize their army, I'm going to take out a half a million troops. I'm going to make it less likely that China invades Taiwan because they see what a small, motivated, technically sophisticated defense force can do. Would you pay $80 billion for that? We would hit that bid all day long. This was instead of apologizing and talking in broad sweeping strokes, they should have said, folks, if we had been offered the ability, Russia's our enemy. Russia wreaks havoc. Russia takes oil prices up purposefully. Russia creates instability, greater likelihood of War. For $80 billion, we're going to pull the mask off this clown. We're going to absolutely decimate the reputation and we're going to take out a third to half of their kinetic.

[Jessica Tarlove]

And Americans won't die for it. And that's an important point.

[Scott Galloway]

Great point. And not a single American boot on the ground.

[Jessica Tarlove]

Yeah, okay. For training, but not dive for seven.

[Scott Galloway]

Our federal budget is $7 trillion. So I need, I need about 1%. For 1%.

[Jessica Tarlove]

You need a penny.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah, I need a penny on the dollar to do this. This is the best investment America has made.

[Jessica Tarlove]

But no one's used it like that. And the way that.

[Scott Galloway]

Not until the new junior senator from New York.

[Jessica Tarlove]

Hey now, there you go. And her friend who shoots birds. No one conveys it in those terms because we are always into the soaring rhetoric, right, about protecting democracy and people took out X amount of terrorists. Like that's what they want to hear in all of this. Or Vladimir Putin is flipping out because he has lost control of these 10 areas. Right. And this is what their economy looks like. And I don't want to say that there aren't any Democrats that communicate well about these things. I think especially the folks who are veterans that know exactly what this fight means are good about it, like the Jason Crows of the world. But you know who I think does a pretty decent job? Cocaine? Mitch. I listened to Mitch McConnell talk about why we need to continue to send money to Ukraine and to Israel. And you can tell that that man deeply feels this. And I know that a lot of Republicans, especially the maga wing, detest him probably for being this, having this level of clarity.

[Scott Galloway]

Okay, let's take a quick break. Stay with us.

[Jessica Tarlove]

Support for this show comes from Amazon Prime. The feeling that makes the holidays so special is made up of countless elements. A classic dish here, a piece of decor there, a song or movie you always go back to. Amazon prime can help you get the most out of that holiday feeling. Find everything you need to warm up your home for the cold days ahead. Maybe you just need a few more stocking stuffers, one more set of string lights and some candles to tie the room together. With prime, you can get fast free delivery on all your last minute supplies, gifts and decor. And when it comes to gifts, you can even get creative and curate a playlist for someone on Amazon Music.

[Scott Galloway]

And when you're ready to curl up.

[Jessica Tarlove]

On the couch for your holiday movie marathon, pull up the classics on Prime Video. Whatever you're into this holiday season, from streaming to shopping, it's on Prime. Visit Amazon.comprime to get more out of whatever you're into.

[Scott Galloway]

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[Jessica Tarlove]

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[Jessica Tarlove]

Learn more@ IBM.com WatsonX IBM let's create.

[Scott Galloway]

Welcome Back. Since Hunter Biden's pardon, there's been chatter about whether Biden should issue preemptive pardons for other people Trump is openly targeted, including Adam Schiff and Liz Cheney. Politico reports there's a heated internal debate in the White House, but Biden hasn't weighed in yet. Supporters including Brendan Boyle, say Trump's move to put Cash Patel in charge of the FBI shows this isn't just hypothetical. Shift, ironically is urging Biden not to do it, saying it would look defensive and unnecessary. Jess Pardons, what are your thoughts? Do you think that doing this preemptively is a smart move or a bad precedent?

[Jessica Tarlove]

It could be both at the same time, but the problem is there's no crime. They haven't been charged with anything. I mean, there's even the debate within the Democratic Party. I don't know if you saw Bill Clinton was being interviewed and it came up about Hunter's pardon and how he had pardoned his half brother, I think, or stepbrother and he said, but he served time. There's a big difference between even just getting convicted and then getting a pardon, which is what that had happened with Hunter, but let alone someone who hasn't even been convicted of anything. And it scares me for these people, I think the fact that Cash Patel has an enemies list in his book Government Gangsters, and I'm sure has been adding to it on a nightly basis like mirror, mirror on the wall, who else should I put in jail? But what are you going to do, just say, for crimes that they may have committed within the last five years and that they may commit in the next 20 years? I don't understand it. I think Adam Schiff is completely correct. And then Jim Clyburn in the same interview where he's talking about the pardons for the January 6 folks from the committee, not the January 6 rioters, said that Trump should pardon, that Biden should pardon Trump and that it would clean the slate, I think was the term that he used. And I cannot think of anything that would enrage Democrats more than Biden pardoning Trump.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah, I don't think that's going to happen. It used to, my understanding is it used to be, let's review some of the most outrageous miscarriages of justice. Because if you have a big system that unfortunately gets it wrong, as anytime you routinize anything, this is an opportunity that the president has sole discretion over to just kind of, as you said, clean the slate. And I wonder who started this mess. And I go to, was it Clinton when he pardoned one of his donors? I mean, pretty soon there's going to be an implicit number on pardons. The head of fundraising is going to say, well, I can't guarantee anything. I can't put this in email. But generally speaking, I think a donation of 10 million or more might get you a pardon for you and your family should something happen to you over the next four years. It just seems like, like we're just, we're becoming that nation.

[Jessica Tarlove]

Well, there was at least there was rumor reporting that, that those were conversations going on in the first Trump administration. And then I imagine with him not even thinking about running again, I mean, who knows what he's going to be thinking about? But let's just say that he knows that he has to leave after the next four years, that there's sky's the limit on the kind of salacious pardon activity that'll be going on. But Congressman Steve Cohen, who's from Tennessee, has proposed a constitutional amend to limit presidential power, pardon power. And he's never once had a Republican Co signer. The people are out there, you know, pants on fire, like losing their minds about what Biden did. I mean, this is something that gets abused on both sides and they should really look at limiting it. And I was listening to a really interesting conversation. Preet Bahara and Joyce Vance have a podcast and they were talking about the Hunter pardon and they were on opposite sides of it. Preet was against it. Joyce Vance was for it, laying out their cases. But Preethara said, which I thought good on you. He said, if you are in the same position as Hunter, committed a similar crime, been convicted of it, getting sentenced, reach out to me and let me defend you. Like, come to me and I'm going to try to help you get a pardon. I shouldn't say defend you. They had already been defended. But he's like, I want to, I will go to the president and say there are actually a whole host of people who are in the same position as your son that are deserving of pardons by this logic. And my guess is that they're not, if those people come forward, are not going to be given the same treatment again. We both think that we would have done the same thing for our children, but it's a very ugly road that we are traveling on.

[Scott Galloway]

Okay, let's move on, Jess, let's move on. Let's talk about what's happening in the House. With Adam Gray's narrow win in California, we're looking at a razor thin wafer thin margin of 217 to 215 Republican majority. If Democrats stick together, they'd only need one Republican to flip for a tie, which in the House means the vote fails. But even with that slim margin, Republicans still get the gavel control committees and set the agenda. Meanwhile, Democrats are shaking things up, bumping older ranking members for younger, more telegenic folks. Jamie Raskin just ousted Jerry Nadler on Judiciary, apparently with Pelosi support on oversight. AOC has hinted she might go for Raskin's old spot. Jess, what do you, what do you make of these leadership shakeups?

[Jessica Tarlove]

So first I want to say that the narrative, if you would like to revisit the initial conversations about the election where you said we got shellacked, might need a little bit of a revision. So in the end. Well, I don't know. Democrats not presidential.

[Scott Galloway]

No. No. On the president. No.

[Jessica Tarlove]

But the mood in totality was Democrats got their asses completely kicked and we ended up picking two House seats and won very, very competitive races and held a lot of really important Senate seats. It could have been much worse. I mean, they were expecting that we were going to lose Nevada, that we're going to lose Wisconsin. Pennsylvania was a big pickup with McCormick. Anyway, it was not as bad as people make it out to be in terms of the new chairs of the big committees. I think it's time for these things to happen. And, well, I don't like to. You know, I. I'm a traditional gal. And I think that when people have served honorably and done these incredible things for the country, it's very hard for me to get to the point where I wanna say, Nancy, you take a seat, right? You shouldn't be doing this anymore. And I know she stepped back from being speaker, but she still holds her seat. And there are still a lot of young Democrats that wanna run for Congress in San Francisco. Jim Clyburn is still there. Steny Hoyer is still there. And while they might not be as powerful as they were before, this is rarefied air that they're breathing, right? There are only. Was it 435 of them. And I think the transition to a new generation is bigger than they are allowing to happen right now. That said, it's great to see Jamie Raskin doing this, though. He's in his 60s. This is not a kid. The AOC thing, I think, will be fascinating if it is what happens. And she's clearly positioning herself for at least statewide election, maybe national if she's going to run for president. But if you notice, at the dnc, and we were both very taken with her speech. Great speech. One of the top ones from the convention, at least for me.

[Scott Galloway]

Thank you.

[Jessica Tarlove]

Thank you. She struck every note properly. She manages the economic populism, I think, better than anybody. She's clearly moderated on a lot of stuff, but in interviews since then, she talks about upstate New York all the time. She was giving an interview with someone. She mentioned Buffalo twice. I'm like, have you even ever been to Buffalo? So clearly she's thinking about what does AOC look like beyond the Bronx? Bronx and Queens, right? Like, what does AOC up north look like? And wants to make sure that she is palatable to those people. And getting a committee chair and getting to show off in those ways will be one route to potentially getting a Senate seat. So what do you think about the new. The new gen, next gen?

[Scott Galloway]

I think Churn is good. I think these people are way too old. We have the oldest legislative body, I believe, in the world outside of Iran. I mean, it's just insane that we, our leadership's become a cross between the walking dead and the golden girl. This must be the most amazing job in the world because they never seem to want to leave unless it's feet first. I would love mandatory retirement age. I just think in the US most corporations, it used to be 65. And because of gerrymandering and fundraising and Citizens United, these fossils keep getting reelected. And I love a crisis. Is a terrible thing to waste. The fact that we let a convicted felon, a convicted rapist, an insurrectionist, regain the White House means they should clean house. How did we let this happen was the way I see it. And Charles Schumer versus Mitch McConnell. Senator McConnell has played Senator Schumer like a fucking fiddle.

[Jessica Tarlove]

And he's older, but he still got it in terms of his chess game.

[Scott Galloway]

You show that you brought up Speaker Pelosi. Speaker Pelosi has some of that Machiavellian Riz. She deserves it. By the way, she's gonna make it nearly impossible for anyone to launch a campaign in her district. And then she's going to decide to coordinate her daughter, who, by the way, was born when Castro declared martial law. That's how old Speaker Pelosi is. So she's not. I'll be curious what happens in San Francisco. That'll be an interesting race, but we need a new set of leaders and voices. And for God's sakes, some of these people just need to get a gold fucking watch and leave. Or at least bring In, I mean, AOC's policies. To me, she's, you know, she's not. She's not my cup of tea from a policy standpoint. She's a leader and she's telegenic and she represents youth and she can speak to what it's like to be a waitress and how important tips are and what it's like to work for a living and what it's like to be a young woman in America. I mean, a young, you know, non white woman in America. She's fantastic. She's a fantastic representative for the Democratic Party. Raskin. Yeah. Early 60s. Fine. That dude, he is so quick on.

[Jessica Tarlove]

His speech, I might be being unfair. Yeah, he is so. He's amazing.

[Scott Galloway]

He's fantastic. We need some gangsters to go in there and go toe to toe with these people. My favorite is, and I think we talked about a long time, you mentioned his name, the congressman from Florida who tried. Yeah. Who moved to impeach Biden on that ridiculous panel because he realized none of them had any desire to do it or had any that this panel was as nothing but an attempt to feed Fox with more fodder for their evening programs and was wasting the time and taxpayers money anyways. They are just much. They're just better than us, quite frankly. The Democratic Party suffers from, from something I suffered from my entire professional life, and that is the ability to discern the difference between being right and being effective. And we'd rather be right and get our asses kicked than effective. And we absolutely need to take this crisis as an opportunity to have a dramatic shift in leadership. Anyways, that's my rant. Go ahead.

[Jessica Tarlove]

It wasn't really even a rant. I liked it and I just want to add to it, connecting it back to our conversation about what's going on in Syria. And it's been a lot of good days for the west, but we haven't been able to communicate it. I do think that hearing about the US on the world stage from younger communicators, many of whom have served, will be a great benefit to the party and to the country in general. Like Elisa Slotkin, who just won the Michigan Senate seat. Mikey Sherrill, who's running for governor in New Jersey. Abigail Spanberger in Virginia, having a. A younger, more relatable face to people telling you about why it is so important to support our troops. Western values. These fights against dictators and totalitarians I think will be much more resonant with people than hearing about it from relics of the past.

[Scott Galloway]

Senator Gallegos, Representative Molten out of Massachusetts. Senator. Senator Duckworth. I think people in uniform deserve a hard look at their views. I mean, the most patriotic people in America are the ones. Anyone with kids knows loyalty and affection is a function of your investment. So your kids could end up being jerks. You're still irrationally passionate about their well being because you have so much invested in them. And wouldn't you know it, the most loyal and patriotic Americans are the ones who've invested the most. Specifically our veterans. And what's so upsetting is the least patriotic are the ones who've received the most but haven't invested a lot. I call them tech Bros. But these are the people who are the most blessed and yet don't want to acknowledge their blessings and shitpost America. Anyways, I do hope that we have a new cast of leadership. All right, Jess, anything else? Anything else on your mind before we go? Oh, wait, we're supposed to do predictions. Hold on, hold on. On. Producers are free.

[Jessica Tarlove]

That's on my mind because it's in our script.

[Scott Galloway]

It's in our script. Okay, so before we wrap, this is our last regular episode of the year. So let's talk 2025 predictions. It's shaping up to be a big year with talk of tax cuts, entitlement reform and immigration changes. Chess, what do you think is on the horizon?

[Jessica Tarlove]

Well, politically speaking, I do want to talk about Taylor and Travis actually getting engaged or publicly engaged. But politics wise, I do think, at least on a small level, that Trump is going to make good on the main planks of his campaign. So I think that there will be some immigration crackdown. And I really hope that Blue City mayors and officials will play ball with ICE to turn over criminals so that we can avoid a deportation force the way that Tom Homan fantasizes about it. I saw Michelle Wu, who is the mayor of Boston, talking about an absolute blanket no to cooperating with ICE and protecting all Bostonians. Criminals are illegal. Criminals are not Bostonians. You should play ball with them to do that. Mayor Adams has already said that he will. Then again, he also wants a pardon. But I'm sure we are going to have some, some level of immigration change. It'll be interesting to see what he does in terms of executive orders on the border, probably keeping in place a lot of what Biden has put in over the last year. And in cooperation with President Sheinbas of Mexico, I agree with you. Small tariffs probably coming, not this, this huge 100%, 60% that he's been talking about tax cuts, restoring the Trump tax cuts, probably through reconciliation. The kind of question marks for me are around what Doge can really do if you're not going to go after the Pentagon and Medicare and Social Security. They're talking about, quote, small entitlements, things like food stamps, which are not that small to a lot of people, but means testing as much stuff as possible. And then, you know, what could it into a huge reconciliation bill. I was listening to Larry Kudlow, who was in the first Trump administration. Now he's a Fox Business host, not going back to the administration even though Trump wanted him. And he says that we are definitely going to have a big reconciliation bill that'll probably be next September. And I'm curious to see what's, what's going in there. But I know that those tax cuts are a huge priority, especially when you look at who got them over the finish line, the billionaires that are smacking their lips at the thought, thought of another round of it. So those are my predictions.

[Scott Galloway]

I like it.

[Jessica Tarlove]

Yeah. The Taylor and Travis part or the Doge Part.

[Scott Galloway]

But the thing they're going. I don't know if you heard this. The thing they're. First off, my understanding is they are looking at the military. So for. I didn't. I. I knew this, but I'd know it. The military has five air forces. Do we need five air forces? They. My sense is they are in fact actually willing to address the military. The question I have around, whenever I hear means testing, I'm like, okay, let's start with Social Security. And I realize that Social Security is technically an off balance sheet. Yeah, we pay for it, but it's still a tax on young people who are less wealthy than they've ever been relative to their seniors. And yet I don't understand why there wouldn't be a tax on wealthy seniors that create Social Security for young people. But that's another talk show. But I wonder if we're ever going to have a serious conversation around means testing Social Security or pushing the age back, given the fact that we're all living so goddamn long. But you know, no one. My sense is they don't want to talk about that. Have you heard them talk about entitlements at all?

[Jessica Tarlove]

Yeah, a lot. And they've said that quote, unquote. Everything's on the table. Medicare, Social Security. Not an entitlement. Right. You've paid in. I take your point obviously about it being a tax on young people are never going to get to enjoy it. There would be if you want to see civil war, take away Medicare and Social Security. So I don't think that's happening. But I do think I love Medicare.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah.

[Jessica Tarlove]

Let me throw this Medicaid, frankly, which. I mean states are expanding, even Republican states at a rapid pace and seeing incredible feedback from it. And we talked about it. Wasn't the program that your dad is using a Medicaid program?

[Scott Galloway]

Yes, the home health care. Yeah. Yeah. I don't. What? I don't.

[Jessica Tarlove]

They're gonna go snap. Snap food benefits. It doesn't sound like anyone's talking about the child tax credit, which was one of the things they said they were gonna do. It's just a lot of cuts versus helping people out to cut child poverty in half.

[Scott Galloway]

But so my idea has always been. Or one of them around healthcare is lower Medicaid eligibility by a year every year for the next next 44 years until basically you do you basically get away with universal 100%. People love Medicaid. And when you look at. I mean, we didn't talk about the United Healthcare issue.

[Jessica Tarlove]

Oh my God. Yeah.

[Scott Galloway]

That's going to spawn a very. Or already has a very interesting conversation around the fact that 40% of Americans have some sort of medical debt related to dental or traditional medical debt that impacts them and their family. I think that's been actually the tsunami we didn't see coming in terms of political discourse. Any thoughts?

[Jessica Tarlove]

Yeah, well, I would love to. We don't have time. But I was really disturbed to see the glorification of this murder and then people doxing other healthcare CEOs. And I understand we need tremendous reform. And some of these stories are absolutely harrowing. And I realize how lucky I am to have the healthcare problems that I do like, because I have some right. I'm getting bills constantly for stuff. Giving birth is still expensive even when you have platinum insurance and all of that. But obviously nothing compares to kids getting their chemo rejected and whatever people have to go through on a monthly basis with these. These people. But I thought it brought out some of the worst sides of the American populace. Looking at the reaction to that, what about you?

[Scott Galloway]

Over on Pivot? Kara and I were both saying this is the wrong way to go about having a conversation, and we're horrified by it. And I got a lot of feedback. It sort of resonated. That said, spoken like someone who's overinsured or can afford health insurance. And some of the memes were just so puncturing. Right. My empathy is outside my coverage. And the reality is, which. And this in no way justifies murder, but which health insurance company has the greatest percentage of rejected claims? You guessed it, United Healthcare.

[Jessica Tarlove]

By a large port, it was like 20% more.

[Scott Galloway]

And the reality is, when you look at how a lot of these insurance companies have increased earnings over the last five or 10 years, it's coming up with algorithms and legal justification for identifying who is less likely to push back and rejecting claims. And it just goes. For me, it goes to the same place. I never used to think this, but I look at the UK system and the NHS has real issues mostly around underfunding right now because they're not able to add a quarter of a trillion dollars in four minutes. Post an earnings call. Nvidia. But I like the idea of national or nationalized healthcare for the 80 or 90% that want to use it and then having a private layer on top for people who want better service. I just. When you inject, the bottom line is this is just an industry where the profit motive begins to turn healthcare into sick care. And you're going to have the same thing in any capitalist environment. That is not perfectly regulated is. This is not. You have regulatory capture among corporations and the top 10% who can afford it have the best healthcare in the world. And the bottom nine are being squeezed economically. And the amount of despair and anxiety the US healthcare system is causing people, at some point we've got to realize that regulatory capture around our food supply system, tremendous stress and anxiety around. Oh, the bad news is your wife has lung cancer. The worst news is you're going to go bankrupt. At what point does our healthcare system. Are they. At some point for the bottom, bottom 50% if not the bottom 90%? At some point do we have to realize they're the problem? They literally are the problem. They're creating more anxiety, obesity, high blood pressure, deaths of despair. We're going to lose 45,000 people to suicide. I'd like to know how many of those people would cite financial strain, specifically medical debt, which is now the number one cause of bankruptcy in America. How much death by suicide is that cause? So my prediction, I have two predictions. One's a domestic one. I think the debate and the resurfacing of regul regulatory capture and the for profit US model around US healthcare that has resulted in US paying $13,000 per individual versus 65 to 8500 for other G7 countries with shorter life expectancy, more anxiety and more obesity. It just isn't working. That's going to be the debate and the big discussion we weren't expecting at this moment. And then on a geopolitical level, I think we're going to see a revolution in Iran. I think Hamas had 70% support of Palestinians. The ruling party in Iran does not have nearly that support. It has a minority of people who support it. Iran's actually a very young country and there are a lot of people, I think, who are waiting to see weakness, which they have observed over the last couple weeks. With the fall of Assad and all of the Iranian proxies having kind of their being kneecapped, I think it's going to give a lot of license and backbone. I bet there's a lot of entities in Iran right now who are thinking, is this our moment? I think, I think we're going to see a revolution or a rebellion similar to what we've seen in Syria and Iran in 2025.

[Jessica Tarlove]

Yeah, I didn't realize we were doing global ones, but I like that one.

[Scott Galloway]

And I'm just, oh my God, I feel ashamed. I feel ashamed.

[Jessica Tarlove]

No, I just. No, I like it. It's good. I think it's really good. I'm just curious with all of this, where Israel fits in and whether a new Iranian regime, if such a thing happens, where they are in terms of relations with Israel. Because, you know, the big accomplishment from the first Trump administration for me was the Abraham Accords. And I hope that we see further normalization of relations with Israel as the.

[Scott Galloway]

Kingdom will go first, I think.

[Jessica Tarlove]

Well, yeah, Jared's already on the WhatsApp about that, so.

[Scott Galloway]

Oh, is that right?

[Jessica Tarlove]

I don't know. I just think it's crazy that he made $2 billion off of Saudi and was. What's happening about it?

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah, he raised 2 billion. It's not fair to say he's made it so far. We'll see. But he's raised.

[Jessica Tarlove]

Why are you defending Jared Kushner all the time?

[Scott Galloway]

He was my student.

[Jessica Tarlove]

I don't care. You probably had a lot of my student. All right, fine.

[Scott Galloway]

Jared and Ivanka, they're super nice. They're super nice. And his brother, the brother, Josh Kushner is a total gangster. He's a great PC.

[Jessica Tarlove]

Carly Claus is hot. Yeah.

[Scott Galloway]

Oh, yeah. Come on. That counts for a lot.

[Jessica Tarlove]

And they're liberals.

[Scott Galloway]

There you go. All right, that's all for this episode. Thank you for listening to Raging Moderates. Our producers are Caroline Shagren and David Toledo. Our technical director is Drew Burroughs. You can find Raging Moderates on its own feed every Tuesday. That's right. What a thrill.

[Jessica Tarlove]

Never mentioned that before.

[Scott Galloway]

We can't bring that up enough. Raging Moderates on its own feed. Please follow us wherever you get your podcast. Support for the show comes from Alex Partners. Did you know that almost 90% of executives see potential for growth from digital disruption? With 37% seeing significant or extremely high positive impact on revenue growth. In Alex Partners 2024 Digital Disruption Report, you can learn the best path to turning that disruption into growth for your business. With a focus on clarity, direction and effective implementation, Alex Partners provides essential support when decisive leadership is crucial. You can discover insights like these by reading Alex Partners latest technology industry Insights available at www.alexpartners.com Vox. That's www.alixpartners.com. in the face of disruption, businesses trust Alex Partners to get straight to the point and deliver results when it really matters. Creating highly advanced AI is complicated, especially if you don't have the right storage. A critical but often overlooked catalyst for AI infrastructures, solidigm is storage optimized for the AI era. Offering bigger, faster and more energy efficient solid state storage, solidigm delivers the capability.

[Jessica Tarlove]

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[Scott Galloway]

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