← Tom Bilyeu's Impact Theory
Tom Bilyeu's Impact Theory
Terror Attacks, H1B, Lex & Zelensky, And Is Trump Making Imperialism Great Again?! | Tom Bilyeu Show
00:55:45
Loading summary
Transcript108 lines
- [00:00]
Grainger Announcer
When you manage procurement for multiple facilities, every order matters. But when it's for a hospital system, they matter even more. Grainger gets it and knows there's no time for managing multiple suppliers and no room for shipping delays. That's why Grainger offers millions of products in fast, dependable delivery so you can keep your facility stocked, safe and running smoothly. Call 1-800-GRAINGER, click grainger.com or just stop by Granger for the ones who get it done. When you manage procurement for multiple facilities, every order matters, but when it's for a hospital system, they matter even more. Grainger gets it and knows there's no time for managing multiple suppliers and no room for shipping delays. That's why Grainger offers millions of products in fast, dependable delivery so you can keep your facility stocked, safe and running smoothly. Call 1-800-GRAINGER Click grainger.com or just stop by Granger for the ones who get it done.
- [01:00]
Tom Bilyeu
Only one week in and 2025 is already getting crazy. Trudeau resigns and Trump says a whole host of crazy things, including Canadians would love to be the 51st state. The Gulf of Mexico should be rebranded to the Gulf of America, Greenland should be available for American national security, and Panama Canal should never have been given back to Panama. Is this imperialism trolling or something else entirely? Also, Zuck is aping Musk and finally fighting for free speech, although not everyone, including my producer Drew, are buying it. Trump is being accused of marching closer to destroying his no New wars legacy by once again warning Hamas that all hell will break loose if the hostages have not been released by the 20th. And will the iconic image of a Tesla burning in front of Trump Tower on New Year's Day become a true, tragically prophetic meme marking the split between Musk and Trump? Or are they going to prove the haters wrong? A lot of drama on the world stage, everybody. But I also think that 2025 is poised to be an incredible year as long as we can stay emotionally sober. Let's talk about it. About the hows and the whys. Welcome to the Tom Bilyeu Show. I am joined today by my producer, Drew. What's up, Drew?
- [02:08]
Drew
Happy New Year, man.
- [02:09]
Tom Bilyeu
Happy New Year.
- [02:10]
Drew
We are back at it. We have not been slow. This break has been full for sure. Crazy. Jumping right into it. Trump had a press conference and he had time today. You covered it in the intro. 51st straight. He wants Greenland, he wants the Panama Canal, Gulf of Mexico, and he has some choice words for Hamas. What was your first impression?
- [02:29]
Tom Bilyeu
I. I really worry that Trump is backing himself into a corner. What he, he is doing the strongman routine. I think he has to do the strongman routine in order to re. Establish a balance on the world stage. It is very clear to me that a lot of the problems that we're having internationally are because America is weak. And when you don't have a policeman, you realize that the game that we're playing internationally is true anarchy. This is the might makes right world that we live in, and people are going to get what they can get, and that is the way that the world works. And I don't think people are very honest about that. And we're being slapped in the face with it. And so America does have to reassert itself as a dominant force. A system going to help get people back in line. However, it can't be a bluff. And so if he says it, he's got to be prepared to back it up. And if he doesn't, immediately, then people realize, oh, there really is nobody, because you put your strongest man supposedly in the White House, and we can still march all over you. So I don't think he's bluffing. So this becomes a. He wants to use it as a tactic. He's going to go in. He hopes he doesn't have to wield the hammer. But if you show people the hammer and then you're unwilling to bring it down, when they cross a red line, they're going to keep crossing those red lines. So that worries me in terms of this sort of ever escalating thing now, the rhetoric about Canada being the 51st state, rebranding, the Gulf of Mexico, the Gulf of America, whatever. It's. That's how Trump talks. I find it. This is not going to be a popular take. I find it amusing. I get it that you have this guy who talks like a loose cannon on the world stage, and that's deeply problematic. I actually don't think it is. I think it is going to be divisive internally. I think that it will make world leaders dislike him. I think that people think he's very uncouth. I think he is very uncouth, and I think he speaks in fractals. But as somebody that understands that there's a big difference between the YouTube headline and the actual content inside the YouTube video, um, I think that's what you're looking at is he's saying things in a press conference to get people to pay attention. All eyes on me. I'm taking this thing very seriously. You need to take it Very seriously, too. So I throw the vast majority of the things that he says out is just sort of WWE rhetoric. It's the threats directly to Hamas. It's the. It's that part for me, the drama that we're absolutely going to have with China. It's the stuff with Putin and what's going on in the Ukraine. That stuff's going to get real. Now, I'm not worried about the way that he talks about it, but I am worried that he's going to back himself into a corner in the negotiations where he's made it clear I'm holding a hammer and you need to act because of that. And I will be surprised if somebody doesn't call that bluff.
- [05:31]
Drew
I. I'm with you 100%. I think the Greenland thing, it's funny, there's 45,000 people there. What is Greenland going to do? And even talking to China, tough, it makes sense because we're in bed with China. They have our debt. We economically are in bed together. But what worries me is the Middle Eastern RIC and the. And the Hamas ric, because they don't care. Like, they. They have nothing to live for. It. It will be. They would get excited if they were able to punch the America, if they was able to, like, leave a bruise in America, like, they would celebrate that. So I think it's one thing to talk tough when you're talking to China, who's financially obl to mess with us. It's another thing you're talking to Canada, who hasn't been at war with anybody in 80 years, but Hamas just blew some people up. Talking tough to them, I think, is a little bit of a tricky thing. Do you think there's a line there on the tough guy act and maybe he should kind of dial it back, or do you think he kind of made his bet and he has to double down on it?
- [06:20]
Tom Bilyeu
Now, on. On this one, it is really the friction between him riding on the legacy of no new wars and the reality of getting what is, I think, the right answer in that conflict. They have American hostages. You need to get them back. And that should have been the stance from the beginning. So on that one, I feel like he needs to not only act tough, but he needs to make sure that we get the hostages back. Now, having said that, now you've got this legacy problem of there are going to be people who are like, wait a second, I voted for you because you were the guy that started no new wars. And I will be shocked if. I mean, look, there might be a way to spin this at the end, where it's like, well, it wasn't formally a war. It'll be some sort of rhetorical like that over there. Right. But if he's. It will almost certainly play out like this. We're going to arm the living daylights out of Israel. We are going to give them political cover to do whatever they want. And so if you don't give them back, it's not going to be American troops. America didn't start a war. This was coming in. I was just a strong guy that came in and stopped this. But people won't be blind to it. And so if he does all of that, it's the asterisks next to your name. And that's where I think that is going to be problematic for him politically
- [07:41]
Drew
from a prediction standpoint in the next four years. Do you think that we have soldiers, boots on the ground? I'm not going to say war, but an increased deployment of boots on the ground in one of these countries around the world.
- [07:53]
Tom Bilyeu
I don't think you will in Israel. I think that's going to be arms, money and political cover. I don't think he'll have to do it. The Ukraine, if that escalates out of control. That's the only way that I see boots on the ground. Like if you start seeing NATO countries being invaded on their territory, and right now, the one card he's played is that you have to pay your dues in NATO. If everybody's up on their dues, you can't not back your eyes. You absolutely cannot. So that one, I think, is more a question of can he help reach a negotiated settlement on that. I think he's going to be good. I think that he understands that this is a game of negotiation. He has not said anything escalatory about that that I've heard anyway. So on that one, that's more just like, hey, I want the killing to stop. These two need to come to the table. I think he's gonna push Zelensky to make some concessions. He's going to push Putin to make concessions. If Putin doesn't make the concessions, I do think he would send a metric ton of weaponry, and I think that will be his play. He's going to back people financially, he's going to back them with weaponry, he's going to give them political cover. If he's not getting what he wants out of the Neg Association. That's my gut instinct. I think barring an escalatory move on Europe, he's not going to have boots on the ground. No way.
- [09:12]
Drew
Copy that. Copy that. And Justin Trudeau. Trudeau just stepped down. I just realized this. Canadia. I said Canadia. Canada doesn't have term limits. So he was in power since 2015, which is crazy to me, but he just stepped down waiting for his replacement, and he kind of suspended Congress until March 15. Right after that, Trump released the 51st state tweet. Do you think that there's something there
- [09:33]
Tom Bilyeu
talking about that for a while? So it is him. That one feels like a troll to me. I don't think he's serious. When I was at Mar a Lago, he literally brought that up, and he brought it up as if other people were saying it, and he thought it was funny. So if he suddenly starts saying that he thinks that's really serious. I think he so believes in himself and so believes in America that he probably does believe, hey, if you put it to a vote, Canadians might vote for it. That, to me, is beyond delusional. They have their own national identity. They do not want to be a part of America. They probably want Canada. Some people will want a different version of Canada, just like Americans wanted a different version of America. But for all the talk that people were spouting about I'm going to move to Canada, nobody does it. So I cannot fathom a universe in which Canadians don't feel a tremendous sense of Canadian pride that they don't want to be a part of Canada. I saw the interview that pov, I think that's how you say his name, did with Jordan Peterson. He's a very proud Canadian who feels like he sees a path forward for Canada. I imagine that the vast majority of people feel that way. So that one just feels like a grand troll to me. But us having a huge impact in their economy is very real. And if they have a bad relationship with America, that's going to be horrific for their economy. And so I think that they are going to want to have a very. Reckon a very conciliatory relationship with Trump, with America, because that's going to matter a lot. And so they. They don't want to be hit with a bunch of tariffs, but I don't think it's real.
- [11:05]
Drew
So we have Greenland potentially. We have Canada potentially. We have the Panama Canal potentially. It seems like Trump is trying to, like, make imperialism great again, like he's trying to expand the territory. What do you think about it?
- [11:16]
Tom Bilyeu
I think, look, if you were to peer inside his soul, you probably see something like, everybody be better if they were American. I have a feeling that he really does believe that it just isn't true. So it isn't true in the sense that people really need to understand that cultural differences are real and they matter a lot. And this is why you can't go into Afghanistan and try to give them American culture. It just doesn't work. Man, this stuff is so deep seated. Like your parents taught you a thing about their parents, who taught them a thing about their parents. This stuff just goes back for generation and generation and generation. And so there's a deep lore and in every person's mind about their country. And so it's just a different angle on the world. And I mean down to the. The thing I want this show to be is I don't want people just adopting my mindset. What I want them to do is say, oh, Tom is like an AI and I can get him to look at any topic that the community cares enough about that we get in front of him and he'll give us his strong take on that thing. I don't expect people to just go, oh, what Tom says is true. I'm just saying it's my angle. And people. The only way to triangulate the truth is to get a bunch of strong, sincere takes on what people think the truth is. And then you yourself act as a synthesizer and you look at that and say, oh, this is what I make of all these different things. So anyway, the whole world is like that. I think that one, we should want those different angles on the world. Just as I like living in a system where the States can be different from each other, all under this one umbrella, but we can all be very different so that we can test things out and people can vote with their feet. I love that. So at the international stage you're never going to get just blanket way of thinking anyway, so you should not be aiming for one government. I think that's a terrible fucking idea. It's never going to happen anyway. So even if he wanted that, I think it's a terrible idea. Also empires are ruthlessly expensive, so it'd be a terrible idea even if he wanted to do it. I, I don't think Americans are ever going to go for it. First of all, I think it's wildly impractical and so it's not going to happen. But is there that part of him that's like everybody be a little bit better off? Yeah, I think he probably does believe that, but I don't think he's going to make any serious play?
- [13:30]
Drew
Yeah, that kind of Naitivity. Naitivity kind of reminded me of the Lex Zelinsky interview that happened over the weekend as well, where it seemed like Lex was his nephew who was talking to his, like, grandpa. I was like, hey, can we just wrap up the war? We love each other. And Celestia was like, there's dead kids, there's. And he kind of gave him a more sobering lens. And I think that it's the same kind of with Trump where. How Trump is looking at it like, oh, you guys will be fine if you came over here. But then when you kind of look under the hood of that car, it's like, okay, I got to take your debt. I got to take your protections. I got to deal with the things that you guys don't want to deal with. So it's not necessarily just, we'll erase this border, and everything is fine. There's a lot that comes with that acquired.
- [14:11]
Tom Bilyeu
Yeah, the. The Lex interview is really interesting. So I, for one, am very glad that he did it. I love that. So I look at Lex as an AI that I can point at a given thing, and he will look at that thing and then report back with his very strong, very sincere take. Lex comes to the world with everything is love. And there's a way to reconcile all of this. And I have to admit, I was impressed with the swagger this. Walked into an interview with a world leader in the middle of a war, talking about, like, can't you ultimately forgive this guy that invaded your country, drop bombs on you guys? I mean, that. That really takes some balls. That's impressive. Now, it is very true that that is a unusably naive view on human nature. Again, I'm glad that I have the Lex AI that gives me that view, that I can integrate into my life in some way, even if only, like, aspirationally. Wouldn't it be nice if the world was like this? There is a really important book, you know, I've been hyping it inside the company that people should read called the Machiavellians. Machiavellians. And it is about man as political animal. Man as political animal, once you understand that one there. We're all on a spectrum, right? So the line between good and evil runs through every human heart. And we're on a spectrum. And some people, probably that line leaves a lot of space for the evil. And Mary, maybe very little space for the good. And other people, you know, leans way good and very little room for the bad. But if you don't understand that the nature of man as a political animal. Ah, man. I don't know that people are going to understand what I mean by that. Read the book, makes it very clear. But man as political animal, like man as economic. In fact, you're going to reign me in. If this fractal.
- [16:07]
Drew
Yeah.
- [16:07]
Tom Bilyeu
Goes nowhere, give it to me. Hold tight. We're going to take of a couple quick break.
- [16:13]
Grainger Announcer 2
If you work in university maintenance, Grainger considers you an MVP because your playbook ensures your arena is always ready for tip off. And Grainger is your trusted partner, offering the products you need all in one place. From H VAC and plumbing supplies to lighting and more. And all delivered with plenty of time left on the clock. So your team always gets the win. Call 1-800-granger. Visit granger.com or just stop by Granger for the ones who get it done.
- [16:44]
Tom Bilyeu
And we're back. Oh, God. Okay. Have you ever talked dirty to your girl?
- [16:51]
Drew
Yes.
- [16:52]
Tom Bilyeu
Okay. You usually do it like in a different cadence, a different way of talking. I for one, when I'm going like hard like that, I'm usually more quiet, like just to say it out loud. So weird. You're in just in a different gear.
- [17:03]
Drew
Yeah.
- [17:04]
Tom Bilyeu
And sex is just a different mode of being. And so things that are appropriate in that moment would be wildly inappropriate outside of that context.
- [17:13]
Drew
Valid. I'm with you.
- [17:14]
Tom Bilyeu
So that's man as sexual creature. Okay, cool. So if we all get it, it's a different gear. You're in a totally different mode, a different way of being. It's like a personality unto itself in that moment, in that context, man is political animal. While obviously very different is a gear like that. It is a different personality. It's a different mode, it's a different way of operating. And part of man as political animal is you will always seek more power. Okay. Period. Not. Oh, maybe some people don't. So I'm saying Lincoln wanted more power. Word. Why not just let half the country go off? It's not in man as political animals. Nature also a very just thing to fight for. But once you realize it isn't just him, it's all through human history, all these. No one is ever. The only person that I know of that comes close is Washington. Which is why people revere him so much. Because people are like, yo, he's going to become a king 100%. Nobody ever turns that down. And homeboy was like, fuck, I just want to go back to my fucking house. Like, this shit is crazy. I've been fighting for however many years, like out on the road, watching people die, killing people. I've had enough. I just want to retire.
- [18:29]
Drew
Slave life. That's it. My bad. I'm sorry.
- [18:33]
Tom Bilyeu
Not your bad. Like this is, this is the messiness of human nature. This is what I'm talking about. How the could you justify that? But you can get into that conversation of like it is a system. You're caught up in that system.
- [18:45]
Drew
Yeah.
- [18:46]
Tom Bilyeu
Anyway, obviously setting the wild complexities aside, but it is so rare that man will give up power that you might as well assume that they're never going to. Right. So even when you look at slavery as an act of having power over somebody else, they had to be murdered to give it up. So that, that is man is political animal. So if you're Lex and you're walking into that and you don't understand, a Zelensky is not going to speak Russian because he wants to establish power identity around. We are Ukrainians, we are drawing a border. All these guys, we're going to kill them. We're going to give over like they blew us up. I'm not going to go tell somebody whose kids were murder that, oh, you just need to forgive this guy. It's true. And Lex is right. And they're never going to end the conflict until they can, at a minimum, let it go. Okay. You don't have to re hug or anything. Like, you gotta let it go. Welcome to Israel, Palestine. If you don't let it go, it's just forever and ever and ever and ever and ever. Murder, murder, murder.
- [19:43]
Drew
Yeah.
- [19:43]
Tom Bilyeu
So Lex isn't wrong. It just. Man doesn't work like that. And so now it's like, you hope somebody like Trump can come in and say, okay, there's enough suffering going on that you have enough pain that I'm going to find the thing where you're like, yeah, I will take that because I don't want to deal with any more of the suffering, the bombing and all that. But it will be strength, it will be force. Because man is political animal. Is simply not going to relent. Putin is not going to relentless. He's forced to. Zielinski is not going to relentless. He's forced to. And the complexity of it is. I am boiling a very powerful book that is a constellation of ideas into an overly simplified notion. But that notion alone tells you that the thing that Lex was trying to do, it is never going to work in reality. In terms of Zelensky was never going to go, oh my God, Lex, I never thought about that. This is amazing. But again, Lex, I Love you. This is amazing. Please keep doing it. He commented in that interview, he's like, it's, it's getting harder to be vulnerable in public because he's just taking so many punches. Lex, this is me hugging you from afar. Yes. I love it more. Please go do your thing. Maybe you planted a seed that will bear fruit years to come. Maybe one person listening, it softened their heart a little bit. Not the people whose kids were blown up, but like somebody else. Like, it is so worth putting. If you're doing it sincerely, it is so worth being that one guy who gives you that one angle because you never know how that's going to have knock on effects. But the reality of that moment was never going to be that. Zelensky was like, oh, yeah, that's amazing. Let me hug it out. With Putin, all's well, everyone's going to be chilling. It is a very complex thing. Lex did not look at Putin as a political animal, but I'm still glad that Lex has the Lex vibe.
- [21:35]
Drew
Yeah, it's definitely important and somebody who's a little bit newer and greener to the conflict. I at least appreciated Zelensky's willingness to go to war for his country. Talking about being on the front lines, talking about being in the community. I'm not doing interviews in the studio somewhere in the island. I'm on the front lines doing it. I'm stepping out. I'm holding things so people know that I'm real. And Ukraine, we paid them too much money. Like, I don't care how you feel or where you saw where, like what size you fall on, but when a leader gets on the front lines, you get my respect. Because I think it's way too easy to just throw a couple drones, throw a couple poor kids to go die for you, and you fought a war. No, somebody else did your bidding. And the fact that Zelinsky is at least trying to be the at the front lines, I gotta at least commend him for that.
- [22:20]
Tom Bilyeu
That's big. His response, I don't need a ride, I need bullets. Gangster like that, that is amazing. So, yeah, anyway, I love that Lex is doing his thing. It's very interesting because he's not a journalist. And so this new era of podcasters interviewing world leaders being taken seriously on the world stage, it's very interesting. And I have little tolerance for people that don't want Lex to do that or don't want politicians to do those interviews. And there's plenty of pushback on that. There's plenty of people that Think it's crazy, but I think is pulling all of these global conflicts into your living room and in a transformative way, in the way that the Vietnam War being broadcast on TV ended that fucking war.
- [23:13]
Drew
Yeah.
- [23:15]
Tom Bilyeu
We're having a similar moment now where it's like, you're getting to hear these leaders up close. And so it's like, was Putin manipulating me by doing the Tucker interview? Was Tucker a useful idiot? Is Lex a useful idiot? You get to decide. You get to see these interviews. You get to see this guy go in Lex and ask the kind of questions only he would ask from the lens that only he would ask them from. And. And that, to me, is so powerful. And I really, really, you know, I call this the dumb voter problem. I, at this point, just love it because it pisses people off. I have a weird thing in my personality over that. But I think you have to want people. You have to trust people to be able to make up their own mind. And anybody that doesn't think, quote, unquote, dumb people can make up their mind. Remember, I say that as a derogatory thing. Not to the quote, unquote, dumb people, to the people who think other people are dumb.
- [24:08]
Drew
Yeah.
- [24:09]
Tom Bilyeu
And I'm just saying, stop thinking people are dumb. Let people make up their own mind. Yes, it is going to be messy, but this is. This is when you don't alter the landscape of ideas and you let the ideas compete freely. I truly believe the best ideas will rise to the top, even if that means this was the whole thing I was railing on with Eric Weinstein. I was so desperate for him to engage with Terence Howard, shout out to him. He did it. Not. Not at my beckoning or anything, but I thought that was important. Even though I know really smart people fudgeing hate it. They hate that they have to address it, but you got to let people make up their own mind, and they're never going to be able to do that. Well, if you're like, no, no, no, let me. Let me just control the conversation. That's done.
- [24:55]
Drew
Yeah. I think it came to the head for me over the holiday break with the Trump Tower attack, because, yes, I watched the news and I found out about it. But then seeing Sean Ryan talk to Sam Shumate for an hour, unedited, no cutaways. They're reading through the email. They're. They're. I literally heard them deduce the information while I talk to my FBI contacts. You know, I talked to my guy, and you can kind of see them trying to work through the problem versus telling me, this is what happened, this is how you feel. It was a terrorist. Go back to sleep. I'll tell you. I'll talk to you next week. I can kind of see them trying to work through the problem, and I felt more connected to it. So I think the podcast movement and this independent media, grueling, it's going to get bigger before it gets quieter. For sure.
- [25:32]
Tom Bilyeu
Like, for sure.
- [25:33]
Drew
World leaders, elections, now, the terror attack, like, it's. It's getting ingrained into society on a whole now.
- [25:38]
Tom Bilyeu
And I really hope people see one terrifying truth. There's nobody in charge. This is like two guys that both have FBI contacts. I was, what? It's just a bunch of people bumping into each other. Like, my guy said this, my guy said that. Reading the email, trying to figure it out. Then the community doing all the sleuthing, looking at the email. It's got the spell check thing and everybody's like, oh, it's emails don't show up like that. So I get the impulse to want to control the communication because humans are controllable. And so if you can control them and keep them in line, then you're going to want to do that. And you think you're doing the right thing. And I understand it. But we're never going backwards. The only way to go backwards is by force or just global scale manipulation, which don't get me started on AI. We're going to talk about that in the next episode later this week. But you, you really have to let the conversation play out. You've got to let people talk. And what we're all getting a chance to see is that the Steve Jobs quote, the world is made by people no smarter than you is, is true in the optimistic sense of, like, whoa, I can really matter. It's also true in the terrifying sense of, oh, my God, like, there. There are no parents. It's just us. It's crazy.
- [26:52]
Drew
Yeah. And then pivoting now to those devastating attacks that happened over the holiday break, we sent our thoughts and prayers, condolences to all the families affected. But outside of Trump Tower, there were seven injured. And of course, the gunman committed suicide with one Desert Eagle shot in New Orleans.
- [27:08]
Tom Bilyeu
Is that confirmed now?
- [27:09]
Drew
Yeah, it was one shot.
- [27:10]
Tom Bilyeu
The body had a bullet hole in
- [27:11]
Drew
the head, oral, like when you put it in your mouth thing. In New Orleans, there were 15 dead. And that told just. It's kind of slowly taking up. Some people are still in critical condition. The interesting thing about both these attacks, though, both of them were American born citizens. Both of them were military adjacent. One was a reserve, one was a Green Beret. But it kind of thinks that like it kind of changed that archetype that we're used to of like it's supposed to be the foreign powers, it's supposed to be the open border, it's supposed to be the Middle east. And these are two Americans causing this devastation. How do you like rectify that?
- [27:45]
Tom Bilyeu
How do I reconcile it? So man, this one is tough. So ideas are powerful and we have spent a very long time chastising America for sure that we are horrible. Whether it's that we held slaves in the past, whether it's that we've been imperialistic around the globe. You have architecture in your brain that craves to kneel before something. If you tear down religion, if you tear down the state, people will go in search of something. And I think it's very important to separate these two people out. So one seems to have been early days. We'll find out if this is all true, but seems to have been radicalized. So he found religion. Now the question becomes, did he find a religion that is innately leading to that kind of violence where it's like you need to destroy people that don't believe or just one where it can be easy to radicalize people? Because that lean is there. I don't know Islam well enough to speak on that, but certainly there's a history of Christians being radicalized when you go back to the Crusades and stuff like that. So I don't want to let anybody off the hook here. So.
- [28:59]
Drew
But for the New Orleans guy, he did have an ISIS flag in the car. So he, he, yes.
- [29:03]
Tom Bilyeu
And he did a video as far as I know. I couldn't find the direct video myself, but I would love to watch it, to hear in his own words what he said to his family. Because he told his own family, from what I've read, that he doesn't spare them either. Like, hey, if you don't believe, like wow, this is all coming for you as well. So anyway, you people want to kneel before something. He found a new religion to kneel before. So we have this vacuum in the US where we're not. We don't have that sense of pride of religion, pride of country. And so that leaves people in search of something, something to stand for, something to believe in, something to fight for. I think that's very important. We are not living in hard times. And so it's people that want to matter. They want to have a crusade A thing to believe in, a thing to die for. I think that's very important. So that's that side. And then you've got Matthew Livelsberger. That, I think is a different thing. We'll learn more about this as it comes out. But military sounds like ptsd, because one of the things he said in the brief. I don't know if I'd call it a manifesto, but that's what people are calling it. In that brief thing. He said, I needed relief from the lives that I've taken. That's a paraphrase. But us very, very close, if not verbatim. So here's somebody who believes that the US Committed war crimes in Afghanistan, that he clearly feels like he was part of that that's clearly weighing on him. He had reached out to an ex girlfriend not long before and said, hey, I'm really spiraling. This is. I think he said something like, I get so depressed sometimes or feel so lost. Something like that. But very much the language of somebody that's either in depression or sliding towards depression. So that one may have just the mental illness of PTSD and sliding into depression angle to it. Now, if he also believes that, hey, I can't continue living, and I can't continue living because I believe that the US has committed war crimes that I was a part of. And I see this opportunity for a symbolic statement in front of Trump Tower. I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna draw attention to this thing. I think he said, like, this is not terrorism. I'm not doing this because somebody coaxed me to do it. But I know people will only respond to spectacle. And so those are very different things. So you've got one guy who's trying to kneel before something. The architecture in the human mind that's got to be fed by something. You've got another person just being crushed by their own psyche that believes that there is an injustice, a bad thing, and that they have an opportunity to bring awareness to it while ending their own suffering. And so, man, there's a lot there in terms of just the way the human mind can be so cruel to us. And that's my own hobby horse that I could certainly get up on.
- [31:48]
Drew
Yeah.
- [31:49]
Tom Bilyeu
But I think it's important to differentiate between the two things. So I think we are probably going to see more terrorism in 2025 from the open border, because you're drawing people that do have different ideologies that do have an ax to grind with America. And, you know, as somebody who was cognizant was old enough to be aware of what was happening during 9 11. It was like, yeah, they really have an ax to grind with America. They feel that a great injustice has been done and they want to strike back. And so when you have a border as open as we've had and you get so many people pouring in, some percentage of them, hopefully a very small percentage, but some percentage of them are almost certainly taking advantage of that to strike back. Now, will they be successful? I don't know. But the fact that in one week week we've already had a terrorist attack, it's like that's a bad sign of things to come. So I think we can expect more of that. The fact that this was two Americans, I think actually helps. I think that you would just exacerbate the drama over visas and immigration. And I think that's already dialed to 11. I don't think we need any more juice on that. So I ideology, I think, is the thing to focus on far more than where you were born. It's just that where you were born is going to give you an ideology.
- [33:13]
Drew
Copy that. And it definitely makes sense. It's hopefully you're wrong on the more terror attacks in 2025, but trust me,
- [33:19]
Tom Bilyeu
I both hope that, yeah, this was
- [33:20]
Drew
definitely not a great way to start this year. And then speaking of immigration, some other sparks flew. Trump, I'm sorry, guys.
- [33:32]
Tom Bilyeu
There were more fireworks I think would have been a. They were more horrific.
- [33:36]
Drew
There you go. More.
- [33:36]
Tom Bilyeu
That's a reference.
- [33:37]
Drew
There are more fireworks between Elon and Trump over this H1B visa program.
- [33:44]
Tom Bilyeu
Hold tight. We're going to take a quick break.
- [33:48]
Grainger Announcer
When you manage procurement for multiple facilities, every order matters. But when it's for a hospital system, they matter even more. Grainger gets it and knows there's no time for managing multiple suppliers and no room for shipping delays. That's why Grainger offers millions of products in fast, dependable delivery. So you can keep your facility stocked, safe and running smoothly. Call 1-800-GRAINGER Click grainger.com or just stop by Granger for the ones who get it done.
- [34:19]
Tom Bilyeu
All right, let's pick up where we left off.
- [34:21]
Drew
People not familiar H1B visas are typically to a lot of high ranking tech jobs, cybersecurity, kind of that computer science field. But one of the stat that definitely jumped out to me was that Tesla headquarters in Austin laid off 2,688 people the same year that they issued 2,639 H1BS. And I think people were kind of trying to call Elon's bluff being so hard, Immigration wanted to close the borders, but yet he allowed immigration on this side. And then it just kind of spired out from there. So what's your take on the H1B visa? How do you feel about that? And let's. Let's set a line in this.
- [35:00]
Tom Bilyeu
Okay, so there's a couple things going on here. So number one, I really hope people are paying attention to Eric Weinstein on this. He is really trying to get people to listen to him that H1B visas are actually designed to undermine American workers. That's my understanding of his take. He has asked for someone to host a debate or to let him come on and talk about it. Eric knows he has a standing invite here. I assume he's done one somewhere that'll be coming out shortly. If not, Jesus, Eric, by all means. You know, I'd kill to talk to him about it. But I have a feeling that that's going to be coming out soon where he's really going to go into that. So I am very eager to hear his deep dive on this. Eric is just such a profound thinker and really well researched on if he pops off and says, I know about a topic, listen, trust he knows about the topic. And this one he's saying, look, I've been thinking about this and trying to talk about it for a long time and people will not engage. So it'll be very interesting to hear his take on that. Okay, so setting that aside for a second, as somebody who has also done H1B visas, this is my take on it because I'm definitely not trying to undermine American workers. My thing is, what does it mean to be America first? Does America first. And that is going to be the debate and this is the divide. Like, the left is loving this moment because they would love to drive a wedge between Elon and Trump. And I have to say, again, coming back to just how quickly it happened that you get this pull between the mega base of. Okay, you've got on one hand, America first means American workers. Ideally born here, but at least the citizen, hopefully long term, long standing. Like the whole thing was Sriram that that kicked off. Shroom's a good dude, by the way. I happen to know him. Not well, but I know him. Lovely guy behind the scenes. So that he got caught in the middle of this whole kerfuffle was so bizarre to me. But I. That's. That's take one, right? Is that this is about people that were born here. And take two is America on the World stage America as the dominant economic superpower. And because we've been the dominant economic superpower, essentially for anybody's life, the entire life of anybody who's alive, they don't understand what it means to be the country out there having to fight for your place in the world, and that's not where you want to be. Man, everything gets worse for everybody in the country if we're not number one. If you think things are bad now, like, if you're in the low class and you're scraping to get by, dude. Now imagine that you're in a country that can't print its own currency, that can't borrow, borrow, borrow, borrow, borrow, and just print its way out of all that. Now, they print by stealing from all of you, but at least they're stealing not just from you. They're stealing from globally, they're stealing from everybody. And so if you're in a country where when they print the money, they're only stealing from you, that's a far worse place to be. So only one country gets to be the country that steals from everybody, and that's America. So we're also the only one that can run around wielding that hammer and saying, we want Greenland for our own defense and you're going to give it to us, or we're going to tariff the life out of Denmark, which has the claims to Greenland. So I would really like people to put these in priority order. Both matter. Both matter. Okay. America first should mean taking care of the citizens of this country. Personally, I don't think being born here should buy you a fucking thing more than being a citizen. That's my take. Light me up in the comments. If you want to, man, you gotta stand by. Hey, if you want to make becoming a citizen harder, cool. I haven't thought about it, so I don't know if I love that or hate it, but that debate seems very worthwhile. But once you tell somebody you're in the family, you can't treat them like the redheaded stepchild because they weren't born here. That. That to me is 10 pounds of ass.
- [39:03]
Drew
Doesn't make sense.
- [39:04]
Tom Bilyeu
Yeah. So rank order number one. Stay dominant on the world stage. Stay dominant on the world stage. Stay dominant on the world stage, Drew. That's priority number one and then very important. But things have to be done in priority order. It's you. Hire as many Americans as you can. Now, dear Americans, if you want to be mad about something, be mad about your education system, because we should be turning out the greatest minds in the world. Because the greatest minds in the world come here to get educated in the Ivy League and then they bounce. So from the time we are little kids, we should be trained in a way that doesn't just make dumb factory workers. That is, I'm not saying factory workers are dumb. I'm saying that's what the education system is training you to be. We need factory workers, but we want the brightest factory workers that we can make. Everybody has an upper bound on their intelligence. I get it. I have an upper bound on mine and I'm very sad about my upper bound. We all have an upper boundary. But you can train all you're. You're never going to train long enough and hard enough to reach your upper bound. Nobody is. So you want everybody to have that opportunity to be optimized for the absolute maximum that you can be. So we're not doing that right now. And we have an education system that if you're poor, you are. And the reason you are is you will be awash in terrible ideas from the time you're born until the time you die. But it's the ideas that are the problem. I could go into my whole thing. The number of words that you hear by the age of five changes how the language centers of your brain develop. And so if you grow up in a middle class household, your parents are told, hey, read to your kids all the time. They're putting headphones on the belly while they're pregnant and they're playing things for their kids and they're talking to their belly. I mean, they're just like going hard from the jump. If you're in survival mode and no one's ever taught you, hey, the language centers of their brain are impacted by how much you talk to them. You're not going to talk. You're not even going to think about it. You're in survival mode. You're working three jobs, you're a single parent, you're trying to make ends meet. And on and on and on it goes.
- [41:09]
Drew
The cycle continues.
- [41:10]
Tom Bilyeu
Yeah, like, it's brutal. So that's where I would love to see, like, if people want to get mad, be mad about that. Don't be mad that we are like, hey, we have a today problem, which is there are smart people that are not here that I would rather have here fighting against China, which is, we are getting ready for that Cold War. I want that battle to be intellectual. I don't want it to be kinetic. I want that battle to be intellectual. I don't want people shooting each Other.
- [41:38]
Drew
Okay.
- [41:39]
Tom Bilyeu
So to make sure that that battle remains at the intellectual level, I want to get the best and the brightest. I don't care where they were born. I want to get them here. I want to assimilate them to American values. I want them fighting for freedom of speech and just making this an amazing place to be. That would be incredible. And hiring Americans, I love it the most. But we got to get the best and the brightest no matter where. Find them in America if you can. If you can't, go wherever the hell you have to go. But we should be the place that relentlessly collects brilliant minds.
- [42:09]
Drew
I'm gonna push back on this a little bit. So you don't think it's necessarily an undermine Americans thing, but it's more. So these are. I just want the most talented talent pool. And I don't care if it's 50 H1s, 50 citizens, as long as I have the best coders, the best.
- [42:25]
Tom Bilyeu
Whatever the bad news is, what I'm saying is it is entirely possible that the H1B visa was designed to undermine American workers. It's entirely. Eric. I'm waiting on Eric. I have no doubt he's going to lay some gnarly at our feet and be like, hey, back when this was created, we were really trying to Americans over. That's really, really terrifyingly possible. All I'm saying is it doesn't have to be that. And we want to keep America at the forefront. And one of the ways that we do that is by getting the best and the brightest. So the best and the brightest first of all is going to be a way smaller number than the millions of people of all kinds of horrifying backgrounds that we let come into this country. Criminal records, rapists, and all kinds of crazy that's coming to the forefront now. But in addition to making sure that we are finding the best and the brightest here in America, given that we have a today problem. Because I think we have to fix the education system. So let me be very clear. Very possible H1B visa meant to up Americans doesn't have to be used like that. Like guns were invented to kill people, but you don't have to use it to kill people.
- [43:31]
Drew
Cool.
- [43:32]
Tom Bilyeu
So then number two is we need to stay number one on the global stage. And because it takes 18 years to make an 18 year old and it takes whatever 12 years to educate them, well, you got a problem in the immediate term because you are in a cold war with China. Hey everybody. Later this week we're going to be showing you A video of a Chinese car that can jump, okay? Not off ramps. It can just jump. Not an American car, a Chinese car. Go freak yourself out and watch Chinese drones, okay? World War 3 is going to be fought with Chinese drones. So, kids, so this is where I going back to the idea of at the international stage. This is anarchy. There. There is only power. Diplomacy rides on the back of power. It's the only thing that we have to keep the peace. And we're going into a really weird moment in time. You have a rising China. You have a weakening U. S. Maybe the US Is about to come back. Maybe we really are going to go into the golden age that Trump is talking about. But, boy, do we have a lot of problems to fix first. So, again, it's. This is just rank order. Now. If my life as an entrepreneur has taught me anything, people are really fudgeing bad at rank ordering things, like, really bad. So I know that people are going to have a seizure on this one. They're not going to be happy. Deal with the world the way that it is, not the way you wish it were.
- [45:06]
Drew
Into Elon's credit, he definitely. He tweeted right after this that the system is broken, it needs reform, and it should be materially more expensive to offshore. So I give him his credit for saying the right things in that moment. But on paper, it does look like CEO guy could pay American guy 200,000 or he can pay international guy 100,000. I'm gonna go with the 100,000 and save the cause. And I think that's where this vitriol is coming from.
- [45:31]
Tom Bilyeu
Got it. Yeah. Like, well, in the sense that.
- [45:35]
Drew
Cool.
- [45:36]
Tom Bilyeu
So here you have a problem that Eric Weinstein is going to drag into the public consciousness, and we're all going to be like, oh, word. Okay, cool. So this really can be done in a way that messes with American workers. We're going to stop doing that immediately. But I think Tom is right, and we really do want to remain number one on the international stage. So we are going to make sure that you're not doing it because they're cheaper. And you're only doing it because this was the only way that you could find somebody that had that skill. Because think about it. The talent pool is global. Going back to rank ordering, you can quite literally rank order coders. You can rank order teachers. Everyone's going to say this is an art. No, you can rank order people by the. The effect that they have. What. What is the outcome of the thing that they do. Pick the metric by which you're going to judge it and then rank order the world. And look, are there going to be ties? Sure. Great. But you're going to find that some massive percentage of these talented people in ranked order are not in America. And so all I'm saying is make it cost the same. No beef with that whatsoever. But get the best and the brightest here so that we can stay number one. And then, for the love of God, please educate your people. Yeah, so. And look, I will tell you, having worked in the inner cities, that intelligence is evenly distributed, but good ideas are not. And so I saw people that. I'm like, holy. Now, to be clear, I define intelligence as the speed at which you process raw data. So how quickly can you parse through something and make sense of it in a way that you can deploy in your life? I met people that could do that way faster than me. And I was just like, what the. Why are you here working for, like, next to nothing? And the reason was they had dysfunctional ideas. Like, wildly dysfunctional ideas. Reading is selling out. Actually, no. Two people that got in a fist fight because one of them started reading and the other one said that you're a sellout. What? What the f. What? Like, that's so dumb.
- [47:37]
Drew
Yeah.
- [47:38]
Tom Bilyeu
So anyway, I think America has a moral obligation to the people of this country to educate them. And we are not doing that well
- [47:46]
Drew
when we haven't been doing it for a very, very long time. And I think I overestimated how important public education was. I was a public school kid. I got a scholarship to Rutgers. Like, I had a 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, no problem. I'd have to think about paying for school. My daughter. Now, that's cool. As, like, I have to. Like, you can't go here. You can't go here. Like, we have to. It's a 30 minute commute to get her to school. I'd, like, move closer to it, but it was one of those things that, like, I had to consciously bring it to the front of my mind that, like, oh, the school that the government pays for is not going to be good enough for my child. And I feel like it was. At least there was a higher baseline, maybe in the back. I don't know what happened. Maybe China and their overnight school system is a better approach and we just need to go there. I don't know. But I agree that if we really want to be competitive, we can't just be bombastic. We can't just threaten with military action. We have to innovate. We have to have education, we have to hit them on different sides. We can't just be the biggest spear anymore.
- [48:38]
Tom Bilyeu
And. And we got to get hungry again.
- [48:44]
Drew
Was it. That's good times. We're making weak men.
- [48:46]
Tom Bilyeu
Well, for sure. But, like, this is. This is the one where I legitimately, I can articulate the counterpoint to what I'm about to say, but I cannot make it make sense. Like, I, I get where it's coming from, but it will manifest in your life so poorly that I can't wrap my head around what people are steering by. So goals, make demands. If you want to be the best, you're going to have to work harder, smarter, and longer hours. If you want to make people mad, tell them they have to work harder, smarter, and longer hours. Every time I say it, people freak out. Tom, if I'm working hard and smart, why do I have to work long hours? Because you're going to go up against China and they're doing all three. It's just so simple. So if we know that people are going to strive to be the best because being the best means that you're dominant, and being dominant means you get things your way and that everybody clamors for that, then what are we talking about? So to get to that point, you are going to have to do those things. Someone in the world is going to do that, and if it's not you, then your lunch is going to get eaten by that guy. Oh, God. There's a great quote. I don't remember who it's by, and I'm going to paraphrase it, but it goes something like this. Every moment that you take off, somebody else is working, and when you meet, they will beat you. And I was just like, yeah, that's true. And like, everybody gets it at the level of sports, but somehow people tap out when you get to business or when you get to global conflict, bro. Like, that's just how it goes.
- [50:20]
Drew
Yeah, I think the global conflict thing hits home too, because you do have to think, like, there's people sleeping in trenches, there's people who want it. And we're like, yeah, I don't feel like it. And it's like, that's not a winning, like, attitude. Long term.
- [50:31]
Tom Bilyeu
Correct.
- [50:31]
Drew
Full stop, man. In lighter news, Zuckerberg continues his rebrand. He's going full Joe Rogan at this point. He's talking about implementing community notes like X, and he's moving the Trust and safety division, the. The section of meta that moderates content from California to Texas. I call BS on It. But I want to hear your take on it.
- [50:55]
Tom Bilyeu
Okay, so one, I. The visual and the MMA thing, maybe Rogan, but I think he's going full Elon Musk at this point.
- [51:02]
Drew
Oh, yeah.
- [51:03]
Tom Bilyeu
So I think it's the right play. So I think Zuckerberg is probably very. I think two things are happening. He was very young when he first got approached by the government, and they started putting pressure on him and all that. And then over time has realized I was unwilling to stand up for my ideas. And I have a feeling that does not feel good. And so in watching Elon step to the forefront and be like, come at me. Like, sue me. Try to kill me, literally, that man is a lunatic. As far as I can tell. I don't know what he's thinking. To make yourself that kind of target where governments want you dead, that's nuts. But if you're Zuck, you're looking at that going, yeah, that's ballsy. I'm impressed. And I think Zuck even said something when Trump got shot was like, all right, that was gangster. And I think he's stepping into his own now. So the rebrand is seeing where the wind is blowing, realizing that you look weird with the super bizarre haircut.
- [52:06]
Drew
He just wearing the gray shirt all the time.
- [52:08]
Tom Bilyeu
Well, that, like, when he was testifying before Congress, he just looked weird.
- [52:11]
Drew
Yeah.
- [52:11]
Tom Bilyeu
And now he looks normal. And so by growing his hair out, adding a little bit of muscle, dressing down, it's really smart, man. It's really smart. And so I'm not going to throw shade at that. I think it's super wise that he's rebranding. If I'm right, that this is somebody who's like, oh, I don't like that. That guy just out. He. Musk was willing to face the firing squad, and he wasn't.
- [52:33]
Drew
Yeah.
- [52:33]
Tom Bilyeu
And, yeah, it's just more impressive. And so that he's stepping up now, it's way easier now, but I'm certainly glad he's doing it now. If he holds, if the winds change again, then I'll be really impressed. And I'll be like, all right, this is a guy that. That found his balls and is ready to stand up. If he's just going with where the winds are blowing and he backs off again, then it will be less impressive. But it. I think he's making the right moves. I think it's the right play. And as somebody who is still in California, it hurt when he said he didn't say these words, but he's moved. I Don't know if it's the trust and safety team, but it's that kind of thing. He's moved them out of California into Texas, and he said that for a reason. And it's basically going back to ideology. California just has a. A toxic ideology. And the fact that you can't build a team here because the people that you would naturally find are going to have this ideology that's all about censorship and wanting to control the conversation. That stings, man. Yeah, that stings. I don't love that.
- [53:30]
Drew
It's tough. There was a Wired interview that. A Wired article that I read years ago about Zuck in that exact point that you brought up, that he was at the billionaire camp somewhere in the hills or whatever, one where everybody wears the Patagonia vest. And, like, I think the Fox News do, like, Murdoch.
- [53:47]
Tom Bilyeu
That's so accurate.
- [53:49]
Drew
Like, Murdoch cornered him and was like, hey, like, Facebook needs to chill on, like.
- [53:53]
Tom Bilyeu
Like.
- [53:53]
Drew
Like the content posting or something like that. He was like, yeah, I'm not listening to you. Whatever. Like that. And then, like, that following week, it was like a slew of, like, local news networks. Facebook is hurting your kids. Take your kids off of Facebook. And it was just like, he got insulted. And then Murdoch came back and was like, you ready to talk now? And then he kind of, like, kissed the ring in that way. And I think that now, to your point, seeing Elon double down, triple down, put on a black maga hat, go to rally like that, it has to eat away at your soul. And I feel like when you have the whole world, when you own an island, when you are MMA fighting, when you married, you got kids, you did all the things, all you have left is that soul. And that's probably why he's like, you know what? Let's actually stand 10 toes down and do this.
- [54:33]
Tom Bilyeu
I'm telling you right now, the only thing that matters. I don't care how much money you have, the only thing that matters is how you feel about yourself when you're by yourself. And if you can knock somebody there, you can get them to do the right thing. Or crazy.
- [54:46]
Drew
Yeah.
- [54:46]
Tom Bilyeu
And if you can make somebody insecure, they'll lash out. They'll play the fool. This is how people get in fights that they should just not get in because someone got inside their head that they're a. And they'll just do the dumbest on planet earth to make that feeling go away. This is why you have to know who you are and not let other people control that. But to do that, you have to define your belief system. You have to define your value system. You have to live in accordance with it. And then if somebody says something to you, you're like, like, look, that violates my values. I'm not going to violate my values because I want to respect myself. Yeah, it's. The mind is a fascinating thing.
- [55:23]
Drew
It's a good initial move. But to your point, I'll highlight you. In four years, if we swing back blue, when things go different, will his tune change too? And I think that's what, that's what gets me with this whole kind of, hey, guys, I know we did it wrong, but we're gonna do it right this time. And it's like, we've heard this six times already with Meta. Specifically what, like, so I don't know, I'm just. Zuckerberg, you did it. Social media, social network was a great movie. Shout out to Aaron Sorkin, but I just don't, I don't believe it. I feel like it's, it's a, it's a. He's going where he's blown, Going where the winds are blowing.
- [55:52]
Tom Bilyeu
I'm certainly not going to go to bat. I, I would like to see it over time. Here is an interesting thing. One of the things you have to take into consideration is he has a fiduciary responsibility to his shareholders to do what's right to make them value you. And if I'm a shareholder, which I'm not, but if I were a shareholder, I'd be like, yeah, like, you better recognize that if you're getting attacked and they're absolutely destroying the value, you better do something to get that value up. Now, admittedly, I much prefer Musk's move of like, I'm gonna out big dog everybody ever. But you better deliver. That is a high risk game, man. A high risk game. So I, I don't know how many people would be able to pull that off. So he has that looming. He can't just be a tough guy. Like, he really does have to pay attention to what's going on with the stock price. But I will say that if, if he has just been blowing with the wind all the time, he's done a phenomenal job of returning shareholder value. It's impressive. Like, that kid's taking dives only to build back up. Only to dive to build back up to that. To build back up like It's. Publicly traded. CEOs are just a different breed, man. It's really interesting and to your point.
- [57:05]
Drew
He did it young. He's been doing it so long for, like, doing it well for so long over different generations at this point. What? Facebook's like, 20 years old at this point. Like, it's. Yeah, it's not. It's your mom's social network now, so the fact that he spanned a generation, like, I got to give him credit where credit's due. Cool. That's all I got.
- [57:24]
Tom Bilyeu
All right, everybody, if you haven't already, be sure to subscribe. And remember, we are a community now, so I am in the comments all the time. Get in there. Let me know what you think, let me know what you guys are wanting to see more of, and we'll do it. And until next time, my friends, be legendary. Peace.