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Political Analyst 1
Trump makes progress with China on the trade war and signs a deal with Saudi Arabia worth billions. Trump takes on Big Pharma by signing an EO to reduce drug costs. Qatar offers Trump a gold plated sky yacht. The Russia, Ukraine ceasefire drama continues. Kir Starma warns about immigration getting out of control. And a proposed Muslim city in Texas comes under scrutiny as rumors fly. Drew Trump moves fast, man, 100 days or not. Like this guy is non stop getting things done. But I hate to say some of the things that he's been getting done lately, I'm not a big fan of.
Political Analyst 2
Hey, well, he's taking a victory lap around this China deal that he just booked. So it was a 90 day reduction in all the tariffs. The 145 rate that we levied on them has came down to 30. The 125% reciprocal tariff they put on us has come down to 10 for 90 days. And this happened over the weekend with Switzerland. It seems like it's going in the right direction. But again, my question is, was the chaos worth it? So where do you think we stand with it?
Political Analyst 1
Well, I think there's a far bigger question which is are we being played by China? Are we actually going to be able to paper the deal? Honestly, I walk away from this and I go, okay, this is a step in the right direction in that we've got them to the table. They were saying that they were not negotiating and made it sound like they had absolutely no interest. Obviously we're now talking. Trump is saying he's going to be speaking to Xi with the week. We'll see if it, if it transpires. He also said in the meeting that they revealed that they were well aware that Biden wasn't going to do Any pushback. And so as soon as Biden came into office, they reneged on a bunch of the commitments that they had made. So we'll see. Trump feels very optimistic that they're going to get something done. I certainly take it as an optimistic sign that the conversation has begun, that we've got the 90 day pause. The big or the secondary question to all of this is, does this move buy China more time with their own people? Because it's entirely possible that things were rationing up, the pain was getting to the point where they were really going to be willing to play ball. Admittedly, Trump being conciliatory, being easy to negotiate with, if you have a negotiating partner who's negotiating in good faith, this is a great thing and it shows. Hey, I'm here to work. I'm not trying to cause maximum damage. Obviously, don't play. If you, if you mess around, then I'm willing to strike. But it is really possible that the Chinese economy is very weakened right now, that Xi was in a very weak position given the Evergrande housing fiasco, which I likened to 2008. It's not like I hear a lot of economists running around saying that, but I don't think I'm too far out of pocket to say that. So you've got them in their sort of 2008 moment. You've got Trump now putting effectively a trade embargo. You've got factories and warehouses shutting down like crazy. This is the moment of maximum leverage. And the question is, did he just throw them a lifeline that's going to make it so that they can drag things out long enough that this becomes problematic for him in the midterms, because, remember, we've only got like a year and change before people start really beginning to campaign. And if he's not got something cooking for a year. So, Look, I'm hoping 90 days doesn't set us back that far, but you did buy them more time, and so I'll be interested to see how that plays out. I feel parallels between Xi and him stringing us along and Putin stringing the ceasefire talks there along. So it's hard to know what exactly is real. You want to be magnanimous, you want to be the bigger man, you want to show a willingness to get the deal done. But if people are playing you, then that's gonna be the result.
Political Analyst 2
Do you think that this is something that will create an urgency for this deal to get done? Cause to me, 90 day pause, it can be interpreted in two ways. One, they're hitting the pause button to go talk to their delegates and come back with, all right, these are our terms, yes or no. But it also could be, all right, you gave me 90 day reprieve on this chicken. Let me go sign some more countries and see what I can do. Because it was released that China also met with the sea like nations, which is all the Caribbean and Latin America nations. So they're still on their China for the world tour. They're still organizing, you know, the deals and stuff on their side too. Can this 90 day pause be, I don't want to say monetized in that way, but is there holes in this agreement that could lead to a China not using us at all? Like, worst case scenario, you're not going
Political Analyst 1
to see a thing where China doesn't use the US at all. If Besing can be believed, China and the US Both don't want to decouple. Now, that's the right thing to say. Is it really true to your point?
Political Analyst 2
Scott Besant has this world of a big, beautiful rebalancing and there is a possibility that China and the youth can both win from this. So here's a video of him talking about that.
Guest Expert
As Ray Dalio might say, we could do a big beautiful rebalancing. President Trump wants to rebalance the American economy back to a manufacturing economy with high precision manufacturing. I think everyone agrees, including Chinese leadership, that they need to rebalance towards more of a consumption and consumer economy. And the dream scenario would be if
Political Analyst 1
somehow we could do that together. This is pure gut instinct based on personality type, based on each country's perception of themselves based on just Trump's personality. Xi's personality is you probably have the following setup going. Trump really wants to get this deal done. Is a deal maker is perfectly willing to make concessions, perfectly willing to use a stick. Xi thinks an extraordinarily long time periods, knows that he still has a ton of dry powder from an ability to stimulate the economy and print, print, print. I think he's got a lot of leeway to print his way out of this or at least elongate it. The more I learn about the way the banking systems work, the more I'm convinced that they are absolutely sinister. Central banks are evil, but that they also boy, one of the things that they're really good at is buying you time. And so I have a just gut instinct that Xi is going to buy himself time. He's going to try to trip Trump up in the midterms. He knows that Trump is a very singular character and that just about anybody else coming into office is going to be better for him than Trump. And if he can cause Trump some problems at the midterms, he will. And if he sees that the tide is turning and that Trump is very popular, then, oh, we were negotiating all along. That's pure gut instinct. I don't have anything to go on other than just the mental map that I have of the way that Xi moves through the world and what he believes he's going to be able to do. It does not behoove him to allow America to get strong. It does not behoove us to let China get strong. And so we're in a very weird dance with the Houthis. I take them at their word that they're not going to keep attacking, because he knows he's got a huge sledgehammer and he can bring it down if he has to. And I like that. Not dragging it on and not needing, like, endless, like, talks and talks and talks. All the while, you're just, like, nuking them into oblivion. So I like that he does that, but it does create an attack vector that people can and in the case of Xi, I think will use against him. But we'll see. Again, I'm well aware when I'm not basing something on facts, that I'm basing it on feeling, but like any instinct, it is somewhat honed. And so that's my sense of how this is going to play out.
Political Analyst 2
I think there's kind of like a learning moment in this scenario where Xi is kind of calling Biden out and saying that they don't think that he was going to make a move. So we didn't really have to come through where now with Trump, at the very minimum, he's engaging them in a way that they haven't been engaged in a while. So do you think that the chaos was kind of the cure? Sometimes you have to flip that table in order to rearrange it to the whole art of the deal.
Political Analyst 1
I think that really is Trump's strategy. Whether it's the only way to play at this level, I don't know. Seeing how he is trying to actually move things forward is very interesting. And so with the relationship between Xi and Biden, I could very much see that one, Xi would never talk about Biden the way that his version of secretaries are talking about it. You're getting Trump's retelling of what they said, which I doubt is exactly what they were saying. So this is Trump using this as an opportunity to dunk on Biden, but in flipping the table over, in trying to really be aggressive and really get things done, unlike what it certainly seemed like Biden was doing, you get a lot of movement, you get what feels like a lot of momentum. And so I really think it's a mistake to call this before it ends. We have got to see how this actually plays out. We do not have a deal with China. We have a temporary pause. We do not have a ceasefire with Russia, Ukraine. We do not have a ceasefire in Israel, Gaza. We have not brokered deals with. We have now two countries that have really started signing some paper, and that's the uk. Okay, that felt good. You've got what is going on now with Saudi Arabia. That feels good. I don't know if they're calling that in the same bucket of the trade relations, but that's certainly so looks like it could be up to $600 billion of investment, 142 for military expenditures. So, anyway, I mean, there's a lot of good signs, but I'm so conflicted about how Trump is that I'm really trying to build a mental model of him where I'm being accurate as to why he both gets a lot of things done and legitimately seems like even if he's only doing it because his product is America and he's just a greedy capitalist, which is entirely possible that that's the right frame. So if he's just a greedy capitalist, America is his product or his company, however you want to think about it, and he's going to make that perform well on the world stage, period. End of story. And that's going to end up being good for me. And so he's doing all this stuff to make sure that America, the land of the free, my home, the thing that I want to see thrive, he's making thrive, but at the same time, he's taking what is rightly classified as a bribe. It's a $400 million airplane. That's crazy. Even if it's not meant to be a bribe of Donald Trump, it is. I mean, it's an outrageous gift. It's so crazy. Quick break, but don't go anywhere. There's more to come after this short break from our sponsors.
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Political Analyst 1
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Political Analyst 2
Okay, so let me. Let's start from, like, I'm taking from day one, level one. Was the Eiffel Tower. A bribe?
Political Analyst 1
So the Eiffel Tower. I think you mean the Statue of Liberty.
Political Analyst 2
Statue of Liberty.
Political Analyst 1
I'm sorry, the Statue of Liberty. The funny thing is, when I was thinking through this, I was like, okay, but what about the Statue of Liberty? Okay, the Statue of Liberty is a thing that sits in the harbor and it's a. It is a signal of hope. It is a beacon of what America meant to the world in that moment. This is a literally gold plated jet because Trump is fed up of waiting in line to get the new Air Force One. And honestly, I'd probably feel a little bit. I would feel very different if the following things happened. If Trump said, I'm going to seek congressional approval and this will be Air Force One and we're going to go cancel our contract with Boeing, great, then I actually wouldn't have any beef with it whatsoever. This isn't about Trump. This is about America. We'd have to, like, strip that thing down, though, man. You've got to assume this is like Trojan horse territory all day, every day. I mean, these guys have been isolated from other countries in the Middle east that we have historically looked at as like, oh, God, like, these guys are a problem. They are like, Qatar's a real problem. And so you're going to let Qatar give you the flying metal box that you protect the most important person in your country in. Like, dude, I've mentioned this before, but look up Stuxnet and how. Not easy, but it's easy enough for the right people to bury a virus deep into, like, the BIOS of an operating system. Something that is very, very, very difficult to detect. And so it's entirely possible that they embed on one chip on, like, something that turns on the mini fridge and like in that chip is a virus that can work its way into the system on a delay of like a year. And so you don't detect it at first. I mean, Jesus, man. So it just. Everything about this screams, this is a terrible fucking idea. I can't imagine what he's thinking other than like, this is where I'm like, the mental model of him as greedy capitalist is like, oh, that's actually kind of interesting because on the one hand, the reason capitalism works is you can always trust people to be selfish. And so as long as your selfish desires are aligned, everything works out. And so people talk about selfishness like it's horrible. They talk about capitalists like they're horrible in being a greedy capitalist. They have given you the modern world, they've given you life saving drugs, they've extended life expectancy, they've given you air conditioning, pulled you out of poverty, like just on and on and on. Food, agriculture, like all of these things we ride on the back of these technological advances. And nobody whose grandma was saved by antibiotics or nobody whose grandmother lived an extra five years because there was a hospital that took care of her when she had pneumonia, like, nobody's complaining about capitalism and innovation, all the things that gave birth to all that kind of stuff, or riding in your car or roads or I mean, just literally on and on and on. So all of that is born out of you incentivize people to do something and they'll do it. And the easiest way to make a whole lot of money, I know, because this is exactly what I did, is to create something of value for people that they really want more than they want their money. And so now all of a sudden you're like, oh, I'm going to do this hard thing. You get what you want and I'm able to generate wealth for myself.
Political Analyst 2
Cool.
Political Analyst 1
It's amazing. We're all enjoying the fruits of that labor. So him being a greedy capitalist, I don't mean that as a way to dismiss him. I mean that as I'm trying to capture how this guy can both be the person who is like out there tipping over the table, fighting for America, making sure that we're not getting abused anymore. And we're definitely gonna talk about the drug, the big pharma attack where he signed the EO to lower drug prices. And you've got that guy clearly, like the big Pharma gave him $100 million. He's like, Fuck you, I don't care. Like, this is what I promised the American people. I'm gonna do. I'm gonna do it. So that makes sense. Not when I think, oh, he's somebody with a big heart. Nope. Because he does too many wacky shit. But when I think, oh, oh, capitalist. He's, like, just trying to win. He's trying to get a little bit of alpha on everything. He's wheeling and dealing and trading. And so that has blinded him to the fact that this jet is a terrible idea. Terrible. I hate everything about it. This is full. He has gone full retard with the jet. And you never drew. You never go full retard. So that's bad. But, like, that mental map is like, oh, okay, I get it.
Political Analyst 2
Okay. If he. If he accepted the jet and put it into the National Aviation Museum in New Jersey, everybody's fine with it.
Political Analyst 1
Get congressional approval. I do not understand why you wouldn't. The. The Constitution says, hey, people can give you gifts. It's fine, but you must seek congressional approval. Great.
Political Analyst 2
Got it.
Political Analyst 1
Go to Congress. Hey, guys.
Political Analyst 2
He just has to tell the Congress, no matter what he does with it. It's not the use of the thing, literally.
Political Analyst 1
And because as far as I can tell, he's not saying, oh, I want to keep this. He's saying, we would donate it. Once we get the actual Air Force One, then we donate this to the Presidential Library, and it's owned and controlled by the government. Would have nothing to do with Trump at that point. He would have to, like, if he wanted to use it for whatever reason, which they probably wouldn't let him, but if they did, he would have to seek permission just like anybody else. And so making it property of the US Government certainly would make me feel a lot better. But I'm saying, dude, this is Trojan horse territory. This is Qatar. We do not have the kind of warm fuzzies with Qatar that we have with, like, the uk and to be honest, the UK Spies on us. We spy in the uk. France spies on us. We spy in France. Germany. Spies. We spy on Germany. It's like, dude, there's.
Political Analyst 2
Don't take no gifts from nothing. Don't eat people houses.
Political Analyst 1
Not like that. Like, let me tell you, I once got a gift of headphones.
Political Analyst 2
Yeah.
Political Analyst 1
Like iPad Pro. Not iPad, but iPhone Pro.
Political Analyst 2
IPad.
Political Analyst 1
Yeah. IPod, whatever the hell the headphones are called. And the guy was like, oh, man, enjoy. Like, I hope you, you know, you love them and just wanted to do something nice for your birthday, Christmas, whatever it was. I was like, oh, thank you, man. And then my phone or the headphones kept Beeping and it's like you're being followed by a device connected to another account. And so I went to him and I'm like, hey, like, super weird, but these are beeping as if they're still on your account. He's like, no, I never opened them. I was just like, boy, this is weird. So, yeah, I was like, it would get. Because that was the thing. It was like, it's reporting your address to like whatever where you are to the other thing. So finally I was just like, I can't use these anymore. So anyway, it is. This one feels like somebody who is blind to the fact that somebody's giving you something for $400 million. And you've so gotten used to like eking the benefit out of every situation that you somehow can't see that this is God awful.
Political Analyst 2
Yeah. We talked briefly about President Trump's trip to Saudi Arabia, but we got the numbers of the $600 billion investment that he got from them. It starts with $142 billion defense deal. This includes advanced American military equipment and training for Saudi forces. 20 billion in AI and energy centers. Saudi investment through data vault to build Data Centers for AI and Energy across the U.S. 80 billion in tech investments targeting major U.S. tech firms like Google, Oracle, Uber, AMD. 2 billion in infrastructure projects. Saudi backed infrastructure work executed by US firms like AECOM and Parsons. 14.2 billion in energy exports from GE Renova includes gas turbines. $4.8 billion Boeing aircraft deal involves a purchase of Boeing 737 jets. $5.8 billion health care investment through she make the Fourth IV Solutions includes a new facility in Michigan and 14 billion in three investment funds focus on energy, defense and sports sectors within the U.S.
Political Analyst 1
it's a great list, man. It's always important to tease out promises versus things that are actually getting done. But I mean, this is great. This is great. I will be very interested to see if the way that I'm being spun right now by the Trump administration is that the world loves Trump on trade. They want to do deals with him again. The whole Idea, we've got 18 major trading partners set China aside. You've got 17 remaining. Those 17 are all coming to the table. They want to do something. Besson has categorized them as coming with like really good opening salvos and that will negotiate them from there. And so, I mean, if we can actually get to the point where drug costs are lower, we're able to actually compete in markets. I mean, China is the holy grail. But even if we compete better, In Europe, if we can compete better in China, I mean, it's just the, the win to competing openly in the Chinese market, dude. Like, one, the innovation that will come as each of us tries to outdo the other. Peter Thiel talks about how we hit this point where we just stopped making innovation in the world of atoms. So there's only 66 years between the Wright brothers proving that flight was even possible to landing on the moon. 66 years, that's crazy. And now if you go back 66 years from where we are now, there's like no flat screen tv. It's like that. I mean, what year are we in? The 60s?
Political Analyst 2
Yeah.
Political Analyst 1
So all of a sudden you're like, wait a second, the TV's got flatter. The cars that we drive now, to some extent, people look back at classic cars and go, those are.
Political Analyst 2
We got more plastic.
Political Analyst 1
Yeah, we're doing the wrong. So it's like, well, wait a second now, in the world of technology, we've done a phenomenal job. And his thesis goes that we regulated the world of atoms so draconianly that we just ended up getting stuck. But technology moves so fast they couldn't keep up. And so technology always ran away from regulators who couldn't understand it fast enough to do anything about it. But that left them focusing on the world of atoms. And so if we can get into a true market competition with China. Oh, my God.
Political Analyst 2
In the world of atoms, yes.
Political Analyst 1
Then it's like, man, like some of the stuff they're doing in robotics, some of the stuff they're doing with cars is unbelievable. And some of the stuff they're doing with like building materials is crazy. So, like, I saw, I don't remember which of their cities it was, but one of their cities where they could control. I mean, there's like 30 buildings running, skyscrapers running like this simultaneous, like light show on, like the buildings were themselves like big LED walls, giant skyscrapers, 30 of them playing something in unison. I was like, whoa. And then cut to New York. And with the exception of, was it the Freedom Tower, like, with the exception of that, that looks old as hell. So it's just I, I want to compete. I want to compete and I. Partly because I want to wake up American kids, man, like young people, young Americans. Hear me when I say you've got an opportunity to do something extraordinary, but you have to have a crystal clear and thrilling vision of the future. And right now, they do not have a thrilling vision of the future. Right now there is self loathing, self hatred. We are in a downward spiral where we feel guilty for conquering the United States, which we fucking did. And people need to stop feeling guilty. It doesn't make any sense. It. It is so nonsensical. We've got to celebrate excellence, winning. We've got to push forward. Let's colonize Mars. Let's bring honors programs back. Man, it's crazy to me that people are still canceling honors programs. That is nuts. And as somebody who couldn't get into the honors program, at least not all of them, Drew, I'm telling you, hey, fine, leave me out. Like, give me something to strive for. I think this is crazy. I want to see people go ham. And opening up the Chinese market and actually having to compete would do that. Quick break, but don't go anywhere. There's more to come after this short break from our sponsors.
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Political Analyst 1
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Political Analyst 2
That, that's interesting that if we needed some type of trade war, hot war in order to motivate us to innovate again. Because I think the last time we had like industrial revolution, it was on the back of a war or as we were ramping up for war that, like started our.
Political Analyst 1
Well, so the big mythology that America tells itself, and I love this mythology very much, is that World War II when the Japanese dropped bombs on Pearl Harbor, I believe their line was, we awoke a sleeping giant or a sleeping dragon. I can't remember the word they used. And I think we're going to regret it. And so. And of course they did and we win. And when I was a kid, that was the ethos of being an American. People fucked with us. We came together. They'd never seen anything like it. And we turned on this magical thing called the manufacturing machinery, and we pointed it at war, and we just tore through everybody. Now, it's mythology. It's not actually real, but it was based on something real. And, boy, did that give me a sense of, like, I'm an American.
Political Analyst 2
Yeah.
Political Analyst 1
I can do anything I set my mind to. I'm the one you don't fuck with. And that is the exact attitude that we need kids to have. For sure. 100%. Now, I don't want it to come at the cost of war, but opening up markets and being able to compete on the battlefield of commerce. Yes, please.
Political Analyst 2
Yeah, but just that motivation. Sometimes we need that external force in order to awaken what we have.
Political Analyst 1
It works. Much to my dismay.
Political Analyst 2
We're praying on that. Or, you know, a comet, an alien attack, Something that would get the world together.
Political Analyst 1
Yeah.
Political Analyst 2
For a second, you gave me mad watchmen. So now that's my. That's my theory.
Political Analyst 1
Yeah.
Clip Narrator
Well,
Political Analyst 1
phenomenal piece of fiction, Drew. I don't want to derail us on that, but. But here's one thing I will derail us on. Read. Read. The Creature from Jekyll Island. Dude, the. The level of conspiracy is terrifying.
Political Analyst 2
Trump signed a huge EO taking on Big Pharma for rfk, went up there and started calling out other senators about falling under Big Pharma and accepting those donations. It seemed like it's a win. What the EO states is that the US will pay the same amount as a favored nation rate. That is the cheapest rate that it's being sold in any country across the world. Theoretically, this should be a huge win. Lowering costs. I hear estimates from 50% to 70% in certain cases like this should be a win across the board. What's your take on it?
Political Analyst 1
It's going to be fought legally. Big Pharma is the biggest lobbyer by far, the next biggest one. They outspend them three or four times. This will be fought. Here's the really bad news. I want to see drug prices come down for sure. For sure. For sure. But this one is really. The way that this is being done is really making me realize that I have to update my mental model of what kind of system I live in, because we. This is price fixing. Price fixing is bad. It is bad. Not for even moral reasons. It's just bad because of the law of unintended consequences. And so you think you're doing a good thing and People are going to love this and this is going to be very popular. And if I were advising Trump, I'd be like, yeah, this is very smart, but this is only very smart politically. And the meaning people are going to love it, it's going to be very popular, and whatever negative consequences come of it, nobody's ever going to go, oh, this is because you. Price fixing. No one's ever going to say that this system is so broken that. And when I say this system, I mean the whole thing, the whole American economy. We, we have moved so far from a free market that the more I look at it, the more I'm like, you can look these videos up. There is a fungus for any last of Us fans, but there's a real life fungus that can find dead insects. I don't know if they have to implant themselves when they're living, but by the time they're done, they're literally a shell. Like they don't have guts, but they can move the shell. A fungus can move the dead bug. Like an exoskeleton, like it's Voltron or Gundam.
Political Analyst 2
It's Crazy Tickle Rick in that one episode.
Political Analyst 1
Exactly. And this feels like our free market system is that there is a fungus running it. That fungus is known as the central bank. And it creates this illusion that we have a free market, but we really don't. And so now people's temptation is. And I think there are going to be people on the right that are going to embrace the life out of this because they realize, like, okay, wait, it isn't a free market. And so I would feel ridiculous saying, don't smash Big Pharma in the face or don't smash the PBMs. And you should push me because I to, to like get into the nitty gritty of how this in particular works. But you'll sound unhinged if you push back on all of that stuff because it's corrupt. So to stand on your principles and say, okay, well, I don't want him to do this because this is price fixing. But, but wait, that means I'm essentially defending a corrupt system. So you're in this no win situation where it would be unprincipled of me to not say, this is price fixing, this is going to have unintended consequences and they are not going to be good. And at the same time, you're up against a corrupt system. It never should have been like this. What Mark Cuban. Shout out to Mark Cuban. What Mark Cuban has been doing is attacking the same problem from the free market perspective. And even he's like, yeah, it's probably good that he's doing this. So what I really want, the principle is stop over regulating everything. You've created a dead carcass that you are making mimic a free market. It's creating distortions and second and third order consequences that fuck people left, right and center. Dude, I'm telling you, if you want to be filled with rage, read the Creature from Jekyll Island. We are going to do a book report on this. I am going to do a 30 minute video.
Political Analyst 2
Let's go.
Political Analyst 1
Just literally breaking this thing down. It is so terrifying. And so just step by step, this is how it works. This is how they steal money from you. And they do steal money from you. Oh my God. It's. It's one of those books where it's like between pages I just want to scream until my vocal cords tear. Because it's all there, it's just there. It's just. We're in it. We're in this horrific manipulation. Horrific. There's no way to get ahead. The people that are punished the most, the people that are punished the most, Drew, are people that are frugal and save their money. That's immoral. That's the one group you can't punish. And yet in our current system, that is the group that gets hit the hardest. So anyway, I won't completely derail this, but we are going to do a very lengthy video on that so that I can hopefully not just elicit emotion because I want people to understand the way that the economy works, the way that finance works, the way the quote unquote system works, is knowable. But the system does not want you to know about it. And this is why things like if you try to. There's one of the Rothschild children, if you type their name AI, at least when it was being tested, maybe it's been fixed, but it would literally start to type his name and it would self delete. There's videos of it. You can see it plain as day. And here's the thing, like I don't know anything about the modern Rothschilds. Maybe they're all lovely, lovely people, but the ones that kicked off basically fractional reserve banking. Bad mojo. Bad mojo. Funding both sides of wars, realizing that you either need to be in war, preparing for war. And it just, it gives people the reason to print money. And printing money is exactly how you take you. You're basically over a hundred year period, you confiscate 100% of the wealth it's like 99.9. It's crazy. It's Drew. That's so outrageous. And because most of us don't live for 100 years and we're not really cognizant of money until we get to like 18, 19 and then we're just trying to take care of our families. So it's like nobody really puts their finger on it and goes, holy shit. Like there's this whole system. And then look, we're. Here's what I hope. We are living in the social media age. Information travels very quickly. It is very difficult to stop information from being completely and totally explored. I will do my best to present the facts first. I will present the what I think is correct emotional response as well. But I want people to be armed with the information about how you're being robbed to. How, how, how are you being robbed from, how you're being lied to, why it matters, what you can do about it, which is not nearly as much as I would like. But anyway, it collides in moments like this where I look at Trump and I'm like, this is price fixing. It's just as dumb when you do it as it is when Kamala does it. But you are in a corrupt system and it is politically expedient to just do the thing, get people to lower drug prices. And the way that it works is because other countries are socialist. They are already doing this. And they go to the drug companies and they say, you're not going to sell into France unless you give us much lower pricing, period. That just is what it is. And so people go, okay, I want to go into France, I want to go into England, maybe even the EU gets together and is like, hey, let's all make sure that we get what we need here, because we all have socialist medicine. And so each country negotiates in a centralized fashion. And so when you're a country that sort of does a hyper regulated version of decentralized negotiation that completely you up and denies you all transparency and all that and makes it impossible to do it effectively. But because of your free market roots, you don't have a centralized negotiating tool. You get screwed six ways a Sunday. And so the way that the PBMs operate is they sit in between the insurance companies and the pharmacies and they print up a list of what drugs are going to be insured. And then they use something called price spreads. And so what they do, they go to the drug companies and they say, give it to us for $100. And then they go to the pharmacy and they say it's $120 and nobody ever knows and they don't tell anybody that they're making 20 bucks or what. I'm sure it's worse than that. And without the transparent ability to see what is actually happening or to just say you can't. Price spread is the one thing you can't do. You charge fees, fine. But you can't have non transparent price spreads. So anyway, Trump is not at all afraid to act like an emperor, dictator, whatever. Like he'd be if he's the one in control. He just has the personality. He's perfectly happy to act like a socialist or whatever. So that's what he's doing. So it's like, it's terrible. We shouldn't be doing this, but we are in such a corrupt system. That I understand why we're here.
Political Analyst 2
Okay, let's take a step back because you said that this is a corrupt system to begin with.
Political Analyst 1
Yeah.
Political Analyst 2
So to me, if there's already some crony capitalism mixed in there, it's not a free market anymore. Price fixing won't hurt. What is the thing that uniquely is dangerous about price fixing? That the other factors don't matter and this will still be bad no matter
Political Analyst 1
what the way the price fixing works is. You're saying to a marketplace that has problems that you couldn't possibly be aware of, you can only charge this amount for it. And just take Uber for a second. When you say you can't do surge pricing because that's gouging, then drivers just go, I don't feel like going out tonight. And the only way to get more drivers on the road is to say, okay, we're going to let the pricing surge and it'll just keep going up, up, up, up. Driver's like, whoa, I don't care that it's my kid's first birthday. I'm making $100amile. I'm gonna go do this. And so they jump in their car and now, boom, the supply meets the demand. But when you say you can't do that, then the supply never adjusts to meet the demand. And so you think you're doing a good thing, but you really strand me on the street corner. So it's entirely possible that by putting these caps on the drug prices that the companies say, okay, then we're not going to invest in new drugs. And so the rate of drug discovery goes way down. It's possible that they just won't be able to make the drugs as frequently that they'll run out of supply. So usually what ends up happening is when you price fix, you run into scarcity and people just can't get the thing anymore because supply and demand gets totally out of whack. So that's the problem. Centrally controlled economies have proven historically that they never work. Maybe one day with AI, but without an all knowing eye that can perfectly judge moment to moment, like how to mitigate all of those fluctuations. Just not possible.
Political Analyst 2
Yes, but there is a certain level of thinking that that will then decentivize the pharmaceutical companies and then more new nimble pharmaceutical companies will come in and kind of swoop and take their spot.
Political Analyst 1
No, because they're suffering from the same price caps. So if they could come in and they weren't going to be beholden to the price fixing, then yes they could. But they will be. There was a real estate guy that really made a great point and he was like, all of my developer friends tell me to develop anywhere other than these over regulated areas like Southern California. But he was like, I know you go into Southern California, he didn't use the word, but this is exactly what he's talking about. You go to Southern California because of regulatory capture. There's so much regulatory issues that basically nobody tries to enter the market. So if you're the one person that's willing to do all that obscene work, goes and like meets the people and knows how to get this done. He's like, once you get a building built, he's like, no one's going to build another building, no one's going to drive your rents down. He was like, man, when you look at Austin, so many people moved there, prices boomed, but there was no price fixing, no rent control. And so, and it was easy to build another house. So as soon as prices went up, people just like, oh, I'd rather build. And so they built their own house. And then all the prices came back down. And so that is supply and demand. Another way that this played out, there was a great study done on, I forget if this was during World War II. Anyway, it was a prison somewhere and money was being hyperinflated, so money didn't matter. But what mattered was cigarettes. And what they found was that the value of a cigarette was so static and people understood it so well that they just used it as a medium of exchange. And so they'd be like, oh, this is worth 5 cigarettes, this is worth 10, this is worth a carton, whatever. But then because it was like, oh shit, like cigarettes really buy you stuff in here. Then people would try to smuggle more cigarettes in and as soon as they got more cigarettes inside, the money would get out of whack, you would get hyperinflation and the value of any one cigarette would drop. And once the value of the cigarette dropped because it has intrinsic value, then people started using it for the intrinsic value and they'd start smoking it and they would smoke the cigarettes and then it would normalize again. And as they smoke them then the price would start going back up. And it's, this is how the free market works. But when you put distortions in the free market now you're constantly in these boom and bust cycles because you don't have that like mechanism that just re regulates itself. Which there was, I don't remember what empire it was, but there was an empire I think before the Roman Empire that used gold for 800 years without there being a debt cycle. Boom, bust. 800 years. That never happens. Now with central banks you get boom and bust. Every hundred to 250 years I think is like the max, max, max.
Political Analyst 2
But okay, I can call because pharmaceutical companies now are artificially doing supply and demand where they are minimizing prices to move a minimal amount of supply in order to take care of all the costs and a major leeway so that way they can pay for these price fixing in other places.
Political Analyst 1
No, they're lying to you. It's not supply and demand at all. What they're doing is saying, okay, you guys have collective bargaining. The US doesn't have collective bargaining. So this is very easy. We're going to charge you whatever we're, we think we can get away with in your country to make sure that we get every dollar that we can out of you. And then we're going to tell literally the Americans that you guys are funding the R and D. If you guys don't pay these prices, then we're not able to make these drugs and we're only able to give it to these other countries that can't afford what you can afford because you guys pay for that drug discovery. If you didn't pay for the drug discovery, these drugs just simply wouldn't exist. Trump looked at that and said that is stupid. And the reality is that everybody is going to pay a little bit more and we're going to pay a lot less. And that is nonsensical that we would carry the entire burden for the entire world. When you've got countries like the UK which can certainly afford to pay their share. Canada, I mean there's all kinds of developed nations that can pay more for the drugs. And the only reason that they're, they weren't doing that is because we didn't have collective bargaining and they did. And so, again, I hate that this is what it's come to, but when you have a system this corrupt, people just start going, well, maybe a little bit of authoritarianism, maybe a little bit of a dictator.
Political Analyst 2
This sounds like the pharmaceutical version of tax the rich. We just, if we collectively bargained and ask other people to pay their share, they would offset the cost that we're experiencing. And everybody. You'll pay a little bit more, we'll pay a little bit more.
Political Analyst 1
Meaning that's what they were doing before?
Political Analyst 2
No, it's the same sort of pitch in that same line of we're going to take a little bit more from other people who have a more profitable agreement and we're going to try to swallow up some of that revenue for ourselves.
Political Analyst 1
The irony is, it's the exact opposite. This is Trump saying, hold on a second, just do one flat tax for everybody. And the price is what the price is. Set your price. And I mean, technically, he's only saying America gets most favored nations, but everybody else is going to clamor. And so now it's like, they're going to have to set one price that's fair across the board. And then it's like, cool, yeah, maybe your profit margins take a hit, maybe they don't. But at a minimum, America is going to get whatever the cheapest prices that you pay for other people. Now, again, hey, here's a potential unintended consequence. The drug companies realize that they have to raise prices to a point where developing nations really can't afford the drugs now. And so, sorry, they don't get it, because we absolutely, we are way better off just cutting you guys off than we are letting America get away with paying that. But America represents 4% of the world's population and 72 or 74% of pharma profits. That's insanity. Insanity. So there was the drug that Trump has talked a lot about, which he never says, but it sounds like Ozempic.
Political Analyst 2
Yeah.
Political Analyst 1
Is 88 in the UK a developed nation, and $1300 in the US made from the same manufacturer, same plant. So that's crazy. And the thing that I haven't even mentioned yet, which is that if they isolated this to just Medicare and Medicaid, then I could really get behind it. Because now you're talking about fiscal responsibility, lowering the cost of the taxpayer dollars, lowering entitlements. So we have to pay less tax to cover it. So this could end up having a major impact on the deficit. I don't know the exact amount that we spend on drugs for Medicare and Medicaid, but I have to imagine it's not a small number, so that'll be interesting to see.
Political Analyst 2
But it should make the price go down, then.
Political Analyst 1
It should make the price go down. Yeah, yeah. But I'm saying, like, as somebody who, okay, I hate price fixing, I think it's terrible, but if we're at least lowering our debt, then we're stealing from the people a little bit less. So that would be lovely. But listen, in no uncertain terms, price fixing is terrible. There will be unintended consequences. People are going to be like, what the fuck? Why can't we get this drug? Why does that country not get it anymore? And no one, I hate to be cynical, but nobody's going to be like, you know what? We should just go all the way to a free market. They're never going to do it.
Political Analyst 2
Well, I know a couple world leaders who have all the drugs they need.
Political Analyst 1
Oh, God.
Political Analyst 2
Going viral this past week was French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Frederick Mertz and British Prime Minister Keir Starmates were caught taking what looked like cocaine on a train to Kiev. I was looking at this as, oh, boys being boys. A bunch of world leaders linked up. It's the weekend, we're on our way to do some very important things. This is just the European equivalent of a beer. But you think they are way too excited for ceasefire talks that it should be.
Political Analyst 1
Well, so, okay, first of all, is this actually cocaine? I don't know, man. That really does look like a tissue to me. But Macron looks so dodgy when he pulls that off the table. I'm like, if that is just a tissue, why are you acting like you've got something that you're not supposed to have? It is the way he's behaving that led everybody to be like, that's cocaine. If he had just left it sitting on the table, nobody would have said a thing. If he had just grabbed it, like, he wasn't trying to hide it and, like, look for a trash can or put it in his pocket, nobody would have said a thing. But it is the way that he moves it to one hand and then the other.
Political Analyst 2
He's moving like somebody who's high, dude.
Political Analyst 1
It's crazy. So do I think that they're actually doing cocaine? I literally have no idea. Would I be surprised that world leaders do coke at These events. Yes, I would. That just seems so weird to me. But as somebody who's never done cocaine, that could just be me as a teetotaler. So I have no idea. But the story that I don't feel like anybody's talking about because everybody's caught up in the. Was it cocaine? Was it not cocaine? Is that these guys were. Celebrate it. The PR around this, I should say that was, in my opinion, carefully manufactured to make it look like these guys had already done something.
Political Analyst 2
Yeah.
Political Analyst 1
So looking at, like, people talking about, oh, it's the photo of the year with the three of them plus Zelinsky. Zelinsky laughing and looking like they're having a good time, and then this whole thing where they. They're laughing and they just look like they're having a great time. I'm like, what is going on? Like nothing happened. Putin didn't agree to anything.
Political Analyst 2
Yeah.
Political Analyst 1
And so the only thing that I can think, looking at all of this is that you have a dynamic that's beginning to play out in Europe, where they're referring to Ukraine. I don't remember if it was Kira Starmer that said this, but one of those guys called Ukraine the breadbasket of Europe. And you've got Trump pulling back, but giving his approval. You've got them getting together, starting to spend more on defense. You've got a new chancellor in Germany. Keir Starmer's not exactly been in there forever. So there's like a. It feels like this sense of these world leaders who have found each other, who seem to share a vision, new energy. Yeah. Like either were convinced that they were going to punch Putin in the nose and he was just going to do it. I don't know. Zelensky seems way more sober than that. So I am not sure what the vibe is, but in trying to build a mental model from a distance, the model that I'm building is European coming together, solidifying, feeling like they were on the same page, not just feeling like they were in Trump's shadow, putting an ultimatum in front of Putin that the US Is agreeing to, but they're doing it. So this felt like guys that were stepping into the limelight, feeling like, this is my shot. I'm powerful, I'm the big man here in Europe. And so that was the energy that I was getting far more than these are guys that are doing coke. But it does feel like, from a PR perspective, they are trying to establish themselves as a unit, as, like, a dynamic group that's going to get something done. But as we're recording this. Putin looks like he's going to blow off Turkey. Whatever. A day after they proposed the peace talks in Turkey, he launched a drone strike on Ukraine. So it's like, I don't think Putin is seriously considering this. Putin has promised his people that he was going to effectively subjugate Ukraine. That certainly hasn't happened. And if it's true that the Russian economy is really struggling, that the average person is now having trouble keeping food on their table, this is not a good time to say, yeah, remember when I started this whole fiasco in the first place and I said that we were going to get Ukraine back? We're not actually going to be able to do that. We're doing peace talks. I think that might be a tough sell for him. So we'll see. But he. I don't think he's going to show up in Turkey. That seems like a long.
Political Analyst 2
Yeah. And this is, again, they were celebrating the hard line. This is going to be a 30 day ceasefire. No more talks to Russia unless he agrees to this. And then Putin comes out and says, all right, let's meet in Turkey on Thursday. And then he throw. He launches a drone attack on Tuesday. So it's like, it's. I think Putin is definitely playing games with them. He's kind of.
Political Analyst 1
Yeah, it seemed to be a bit. Zelensky had been saying, I'm not going to meet with Putin unless it's for an unconditional ceasefire. And Putin wouldn't do it. So Zelensky was like, then I'm not going to meet. And so I think Putin was trying to be like, look, I'm the one willing to talk. He's not willing to talk. So according to Trump, who knows? But according to Trump, he said to Zelensky, you need to take the meeting. So Zelensky was like, cool, I'll take the meeting. And then Putin was like, well, I have to shower my cat. So, yeah, I think you're right. I just think he's stringing them along.
Political Analyst 2
Yeah. Keir Starmer bringing new energy to the British people has also changed his tune on immigration quite a bit. And I know that the culture war over there has been coming to a head. So this is what he said about securing Britain's future.
Guest Expert
Migration is part of Britain's national story. We talked last week about the great rebuilding of this country after the war. Migrants were part of that and they make a massive contribution today. And you will never hear me denigrate that, but when people come to our country, they should also commit to integration, to learning our language. And our system should actively distinguish between those that do and those that don't. I think that's fair. Equally, Britain must compete for the best talent in the world. In science, in technology, in healthcare. You can't simply pull up a drawbridge, let nobody in and think that's an economy that would work, that would hurt the pay packets of working people. Without question. But at the same time, we do have to ask why parts of our economy seem almost addicted to importing cheap labour rather than investing in the skills of people who are here and want a good job in their community sectors like engineering, where visas have rocketed while apprenticeships have plummeted. Is that fair to Britain? Is that fair to young people weighing up their future? To miss out on those apprentices, to see colleges in their community almost entirely dedicated to one year courses for overseas students? No, I don't think that it is. And truth be told, I don't think anybody does. Yet that is the Britain this broken system has created. So as this white paper sets out, every area of the immigration system, work, family and study will be tightened up so we have more control. Skill requirements raised to degree level, English language requirements across all routes, including for dependent the time it takes to acquire settled status extended from five years to 10. And enforcement tougher than ever because fair rules must be followed. Now, make no mistake, this plan means migration will fall. Without them, we risk becoming an island of strangers, not a nation that walks forward together. So when you have an immigration system that seems almost designed to permit abuse, that encourages some businesses to bring in lower paid workers rather than invest in our young people, or simply one that is sold by politicians to the British people on an entirely false premise, then you're not championing growth, you're not championing justice, or however else people defend the status quo. You're actually contributing to the forces that are slowly pulling our country apart. So yes, I believe in this. I believe we need to reduce immigration significantly.
Political Analyst 1
Yeah, this immigration is going to be a huge issue in the coming 10, 20 years. Europe is ahead of us by quite a bit, but we're certainly going to be seeing it here in the US and people are going to have to get very comfortable that culture matters. In fact, there's an awesome a clip from Trump which it looks like you're pulling up right now where he talking to the Middle east, specifically in Saudi Arabia, talking about how their culture mattered and the west trying to enforce their culture upon them was a losing proposition. But them rising up on the back of Their own culture is very powerful. Let's play the clip and then I really want to talk about this because this is going to be, this is, this is going to be spicy.
Clip Narrator
The transformations have been unbelievably remarkable before our eyes. A new generation of leaders is transcending the ancient conflicts of tired divisions of the past and forging a future where the Middle east is defined by commerce, not chaos, where it exports technology, not terrorism, and where people of different nations, religions and creeds are building cities together, not bombing each other out of existence. We don't want that. And it's crucial for the wider world to note this great transformation has not come from Western interventionists or flying people in beautiful planes giving you lectures on how to live and how to govern your own affairs. No, the gleaming marvels of Riyadh and Abu Dhabi were not created by the so called nation builders, neocons or liberal nonprofits like those who spent trillions and trillions of dollars failing to develop cabal Baghdad, so many other cities. Instead, the birth of a modern Middle east has been brought by the people of the region themselves. The people that are right here, the people that have lived here all their lives. Developing your own sovereign countries, pursuing your own unique visions and charting your own destinies in your own way. It's really incredible what you've done. In the end, the so called nation builders wrecked far more nations than they built. And the interventionalists were intervening in complex societies that they did not even understand themselves. They told you how to do it, but they had no idea how to do it themselves. Peace, prosperity and progress ultimately came not from a radical rejection of your heritage, but rather from embracing your national traditions and embracing that same heritage that you love so dearly.
Political Analyst 1
Yeah, we, we are all going to have to come to grips with this. In fact, there's an incredible quote from the Dalai Lama where somebody said like, oh, shouldn't. I think they may have even been speaking about Muslims. I could be projecting, but I think it was. And they were saying like, shouldn't Muslims be able to come to the UK or wherever they were talking about and live here? And he said a few. They were like, what do you mean? Why shouldn't anybody be able to come? And he's like, it doesn't make sense, like this is your own country. It's too much. We should probably find the clip because I'm like, I'm very much paraphrasing, but that is so directionally accurate. Yeah, if you put Dalai Lama immigration that horribly wrong. Yep, there it Is from Afghanistan or the Middle east. Want to stay in Europe, shouldn't they be allowed to Limited number.
Political Analyst 2
Okay,
Political Analyst 1
but whole Europe eventually become Muslim country impossible.
Political Analyst 2
Or African country also impossible.
Political Analyst 1
There's nothing wrong with that, is there? I mean, you're a refugee yourself. They themselves, I think, better to their own land, climatically.
Political Analyst 2
Oh, much better.
Political Analyst 1
Europe too cold. My parents moved from India to the uk. That's now their home. That's okay too, isn't it? If Indians or anyone else wants to live in Europe, I think England, the small island, 90% become Indian then.
Political Analyst 2
I don't know. He's like laughing at her.
Political Analyst 1
Yeah, I mean, look, what he understands, what everybody will need to come to understand is that we're all stuck inside of a frame of reference. That frame of reference is built on your biology, your beliefs and your values. That's a culture. And not saying that the biology part swings wildly around the world. I'm just saying we all are made of those three things. And once you have beliefs and values locked in place, people see the world the way that they want to see it. And getting someone to accept that their country goes from one religion to another, that's what wars are fought over, man. That is what wars are fought over. And that those are beliefs and values, that's it. That's. People will kill other people over beliefs and values. So let us not think that those are minor things and let us also not confuse them with truth. It isn't true. Your beliefs aren't true. Your values aren't true. They're yours. They're important to you. A lot of people would die for them. A lot of people would kill for them. But they're not objective truth. And so when you start importing, importing, importing. And they don't assimilate. That's my thesis. They don't assimilate.
Political Analyst 2
So your thing is not the immigration, it's the assimilating into this beliefs and
Political Analyst 1
values, beliefs and values, beliefs and values. That's all that matters. But holy Jesus, it matters a lot. And so if you've got people coming in specifically because they want to recreate another value set here, you're going to have problems. You are going to have problems.
Political Analyst 2
UK just said that their immigration is going down. Our border is practically closed at this point. We just got a bunch of white Africans from South Africa.
Political Analyst 1
Yeah.
Political Analyst 2
So you're okay with that as long as they assimilate?
Political Analyst 1
Of course.
Political Analyst 2
Copy.
Political Analyst 1
I mean, listen, you want to get the best and the brightest, there should always be a lean towards that but yeah, if there's a sensible number of people that you're going to bring in for humanitarian reasons, I do unfortunately think it needs to be a sensible number. You can't just say yeah anywhere. Like we tried that with the southern border and people, they become incentivized to say that no matter what. So they will say that in the millions. That doesn't work. So unfortunately, you do have to have some way of vetting people. You need to keep that number pretty tight. And then you have to find some way. And I'm certainly not saying this is going to be easy, but you have to find some way for people to assimilate to your culture. You do not want to just bring people in and in and in and in and in. And then it overwhelms the system and then there is no sense of culture anymore. It's just a bunch of people pulling in a whole bunch of different directions. We're seeing this play out in Texas with the Epic city thing where it's all kinds of crazy rumors flying. And listen, I am not a scholar on this issue, so it's entirely possible that hiding somewhere, they really do want to bring Sharia law. But that does not seem to be the case. They do want to build a community. I've seen videos. God, this is always so tough, whether the videos are accurate or whether they're all actually talking about the same thing. But I have seen a series of videos that paint it to be that what they want to do is basically collect the equivalent of HOA fees and put the fees towards the mosque at the center of the area and something like 75% of them. And so that way they don't have to have zoning restrictions to keep non Muslims out. Just people wouldn't want to donate that much of their HOA fees to a religious organization. And so they're expecting them to self select out. Now look, I am definitely extrapolating on what I heard, but it was pretty close to that. So anyway, I think people are probably overreacting about that. But this does put a flag on a very important thing that we are going to have to contend with, which is man research, the Mormon Church, if you want to know. Like, oh, but Tom, we, we already have it in the Mormons. Yeah, there was like bloodshed and slaughter. So you don't have to look very hard to find how nasty and gnarly that got because it was people trying to stand apart from where we were as a country. And then same thing here. It's like if this is people they just want to assimilate and they just want to do a dope town. It's open to everybody. Oh cool. But if this is people who want to stand outside of the American value system, it's going to be a problem.
Political Analyst 2
Yeah. They're claiming racist religious based discrimination in a constitution as a constitution violation. Religious.
Political Analyst 1
I think when asked, they said that isn't true. We plan to adhere to every law. So. And we need to remember we have freedom of religion in this country. So people get to be whatever religion they want to be. And so the question becomes what do you do when you have one religion that's incredibly successful? They have a lot of kids. They're whether through birth or through importing, like they're just growing, growing, growing, growing, growing. And they can get them in tight knit groups.
Political Analyst 2
I call them Jews, dude.
Political Analyst 1
The, the funny thing is literally that's how the pogroms end up kicking off. So it's like you've really gotta be, you've got to be thoughtful about how this stuff ends up stacking up. Now the question of Jewish people gets a lot more complicated because they've tried assimilation, blah blah, blah. There's a whole episode to be done just on that. But this, we will have to contend with this whether we want to or not. Because we become such a global world. The world is so small now that every country is going to experience. Japan is about to get hammered by this. They are clamoring for people to move to Japan because they've got houses just sitting empty because they're an inverted pyramid. They have a ton of old people and basically no young people. South Korea is in trouble. Trouble. I don't even know if South Koreans are going to exist as a discernible race in a hundred years. Something would have to change or they won't.
Political Analyst 2
That's wild on here. The reason they're claiming it to your point of the HOA fees, that the state is saying that there has to be equal proportion to Christian, Jewish, Muslim and other nationality other religions. It can't just be giving to a mosque. So that's the argument to me.
Political Analyst 1
Is there actually a law that says
Political Analyst 2
that that's religious based discrimination because you're not giving it equally to other religions. You're forcing, you're forcing the resident to give to this specific community. To your point, that was their way of self selecting. But that's the same thing that they're also crying foul on that it's a violation of the constitution.
Political Analyst 1
Yeah, I mean this is where the laws are going to be where the laws are going to be. And my thing is, you control this at the level of immigration. Once they're in here, if they're an American citizen, man, they get a party how they want to party. And as long as they're adhering to the laws, it is what it is.
Political Analyst 2
And so if all of those people are American citizens, they all own the land. About right? They want to do it this way. Are you, like.
Political Analyst 1
And they adhere to the laws?
Political Analyst 2
They adhere to the laws.
Guest Expert
Yeah.
Political Analyst 1
You. You can't force them to assimilate. You can write laws. You can say, hey, everybody, as a matter of policy, must meet these requirements. All signs are going to be in English or whatever. As long as it is a blanket policy that applies to everyone equally, yeah, go for it. But, yeah, we have freedom of religion. So if these guys are American citizens and you let them in the country and you let them become a citizen, they are a full citizen. You do not get to tell them what religion they can practice. If they are abiding by the laws, they can do whatever the fuck they want. And I'm like, I'm here for it. So my thing is control this at the level of incentives. First of all, make being American awesome. Make people want to be a part of it. Make it be like, this is the illest thing ever. Of course I want to be a part of this culture. Certainly felt more like that in my day. And then if you are worried that you're overwhelming your own culture because you've got so many people coming in and they're just not. Not assimilating fast enough, then you need to slow immigration way the hell down, which obviously we've already done.
Political Analyst 2
We'll keep playing it out. I'm interested to see where it breaks, because as of right now, they are. It's a citizen versus a citizen. So to your point, should they be allowed to do it? But.
Political Analyst 1
And can we get, like, really crazy for a second? This is a good playbook.
Political Analyst 2
Yes.
Political Analyst 1
This is what. This is how Israel became a state. Hey, World War II shakes down, we got nowhere to go. Gonna return to our ancestral homeland, and we're gonna take this thing over by becoming economically and politically powerful. But we need a lot of bodies, so we gotta get a lot of people here. And they did it, and they pulled it off. And if I'm Native American, I'm like, oh, hey, I've got a strategy. We're gonna be like the Catholics. No more birth control. We're gonna. We're gonna have kids. We're gonna use the money that we raise from the casinos and we are gonna support families and we are going to out populate these and we're gonna take it over. Hey it that's the game. It. I don't want to see it. I want to see everybody get along. I want to see everybody be American. Regardless where you grew up. Like if you've come here to be an American, to embrace freedom and our values and you want to get on the fight with me to get rid of the Fed, Drew. And you want a free market and you want to see everybody thrive. Hell yeah. I literally don't give a fuck where you've come from. But you need to be American, whether foreign born or otherwise.
Political Analyst 2
But when you start talking about Sharia law or kind of doing your own things, that's when it gets a little dicey.
Political Analyst 1
For real, that's not a man.
Political Analyst 2
Got it. I think I see that. The left and right.
Political Analyst 1
If you haven't already, be sure to leave us a five star review. And until next time, my friends, be legendary. Take care. Peace.
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This episode of Impact Theory dives into the recent 90-day pause on US-China tariffs, unpacking whether this diplomatic detente is a meaningful step toward resolution or a stalling strategy by China. Tom Bilyeu and co-host analyze the implications of the pause, wider geopolitical moves by the Trump administration, and the intersecting issues of global manufacturing, Big Pharma policy, immigration, and cultural assimilation. The conversation is critical but nuanced, offering multiple perspectives and challenging conventional wisdom about trade wars, capitalism, and national identity.
Notable Quote:
"You want to be magnanimous, you want to be the bigger man... But if people are playing you, then that's gonna be the result." (04:35, Political Analyst 1/Tom)
Notable Quote:
"This feels like our free market system is that there is a fungus running it. That fungus is known as the central bank. And it creates this illusion that we have a free market, but we really don’t." (31:47, Tom)
UK & Europe:
Assimilation Principle:
"Beliefs and values, beliefs and values, beliefs and values. That's all that matters. But holy Jesus, it matters a lot." (64:26–64:44, Tom)
Texas "Muslim City" Controversy:
On Tariff Pause:
"Did he just throw them a lifeline that's going to make it so that they can drag things out long enough that this becomes problematic for him in the midterms?" (03:39, Tom)
On Bribery and Security:
"This is Trojan horse territory... You’ve got to assume this is like Trojan horse territory all day, every day." (13:32)
On Capitalism:
"I mean, in being a greedy capitalist, they have given you the modern world... You incentivize people to do something and they'll do it." (15:50)
On Price Fixing:
"Listen, in no uncertain terms, price fixing is terrible. There will be unintended consequences." (48:43)
On Cultural Assimilation:
"If you've come here... to embrace freedom and our values... hell yeah, I literally don't give a fuck where you've come from. But you need to be American, whether foreign born or otherwise." (73:00, Tom)
| Segment | Timestamp | |--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|-------------| | Quick intro & news rundown | 01:00–02:01 | | Deep dive: China tariff pause — intentions, risks, opinions | 02:01–09:02 | | Trump’s gifts, Qatar jet, ethical concerns | 13:00–17:57 | | Big Pharma EO & US drug pricing system — economic breakdown | 29:18–49:20 | | Europe’s leaders & Ukraine ceasefire politics, viral cocaine moment | 49:28–55:20 | | Immigration integration — UK & Texas cases, global implications | 55:32–73:13 | | Final words on national identity/assimilation | 71:53–73:09 |
This episode offers a comprehensive, unvarnished exploration of current US–China trade talks, the intersection of economic policy and national character, and the complexities arising from globalization. Through skeptical inquiry and lively debate, listeners are encouraged to question mainstream narratives, understand institutional incentives, and reflect on what will help nations — and their people — thrive in an unstable world.