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- [00:14]
Host
Welcome to Uncovered. It's Wednesday. It's the 9th of July. That's an in joke for viewers of the weekend show. Just thought I'd throw that in there to start with. We've shaken things up. Firstly, I'm wearing a gray T shirt, which is three thrown, me and everybody. So I, I don't know what's going on. You look fantastic as ever, considering your workload. I'm, I'm thrilled to see that you're holding up under this authoritarian takeover of, of America. How are you holding up, Ron? You've, you have unmuted yourself, unmute yourself on the software.
- [00:50]
Ron
Oh, sorry about that.
- [00:51]
Host
That's okay.
- [00:52]
Ron
I'm not allowed to leave the house, basically. Yeah, they don't, they don't, they don't allow me to leave. I pretty much have to work 24 hours a day.
- [00:59]
Host
Yeah, yeah, but I mean, it's a, it's a serious question about one's, you know, psychology, because the shift is, is significant. And, you know, as I said, you know, last week, this isn't the America you grew up in. You know, how does one cope, Cope with that is really the question. Yeah.
- [01:20]
Ron
You know, I get so many people ask me, like, okay, now you've told us everything that bad that's happened today. You know, everything that's going on, which is a lot of it is bad.
- [01:31]
Host
Yeah.
- [01:32]
Ron
Now we need you to tell us what to do about it. And, you know, it's just like, you know, I understand where they're coming from. I totally get it. But like, I'm a reporter. Like, I'm reporting news. Like, I'm, I'm, I'm giving you the information. I'm not running a pack. I'm not running for office. I'm not with the dnc. Like, I'm not an activist organizer. So, you know, I have enough on my plate just trying to get information to everybody and then it's up to other people really, to do all that other stuff.
- [02:06]
Host
And maybe that is a serious issue though, isn't it? That there is, because we've spoken about this power vacuum before. People are desperate for leadership right now. They are desperate for advice. I mean, this is why Jesus was so successful, let's be honest. You know, somebody has to step up pretty well. He did pretty well. So somebody has to, to step up and lead. Well, I'd like to nominate you anyway for a Nobel Peace Prize because I feel that the work that you do is deserving of that. Do you want to pretend to sound surprised that you didn't tell me to say that.
- [02:41]
Ron
Yeah, well, you know, I don't think that very many people would agree with that. That that sounds as about as good as, like, Netanyahu nominating Trump for, for.
- [02:53]
Host
One, which came as a big surprise to him. You know, I was looking through some of the recipients over the years of the Nobel Peace Prize. I mean, we're talking about people like Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr. Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Donald Trump does not really fit into that list. And then I was also did some research on, you know, the, the point of it. And so much of it is about putting your weapons down, denuclearization, you to bring peace. The reason it's called the Nobel Peace Prize is for peace brokerage. And Trump is just causes more death and destruction and chaos wherever he seems to go. Let's take a look at Netanyahu, who was having his kind of state banquet with Trump last night, doing this surprise announcement at the table, and how Trump's like, oh, wow, I had, I had no idea.
- [03:50]
Donald Trump
So I want to present to you, Mr. President, the letter I sent to.
- [03:55]
Host
The Nobel Prize Committee. It's nominating you for the Peace Prize, which is well deserved, and you should get it.
- [04:03]
Donald Trump
Thank you very much. This, I didn't know. Well, thank you very much. Coming from you in particular, this is very meaningful. Thank you very much. Beamy, thank you.
- [04:14]
Host
Thank you for everything you're doing. Thank you.
- [04:16]
Donald Trump
It's a great honor.
- [04:19]
Host
Thank you, Bibi. Thank you, Bibi. I had no idea.
- [04:22]
Ron
Think of, think of that statement coming from you in particular. This is a guy who's currently occupying another, basically another territory country, whatever you want to call Gaza, who has constantly involved in wars throughout 25 years in office. I'm not saying all of them. You know, he started them, but, you know, but, you know, Netanyahu is not a peacemaker. He's not never been very interested in, you know, making peace deals or, or accommodations. And many would characterize what's going on in Gaza as genocidal. Now, you know, again, do I think that they. Them going in there was justified? Yes, I do. Especially after what happened on October 7th. And for a long time, I completely supported, you know, what they were trying to do and rescuing hostages and things like that. But, you know, the longer this has gone on, the worse, the worse it's gotten. And so with no end in sight and talking about displacing the entire population of Gaza to another country so Trump can build, you know, condos on the beach there, you know, for the two of these. These clowns to be talking about the Nobel Prize, Peace Prize, of all things, is just. Is just. I think it's shocking to the whole world, really, how absurd it is.
- [05:54]
Host
It's also no coincidence that these two have both refused to acknowledge the International Criminal Court, who is seeking to investigate both of them for war crimes. They're both like, we do not. We do not recognize your jurisdiction. And it's like they've got that in common as well.
- [06:13]
Ron
Yeah. But, you know, the real point of all this is what we saw again today with the African leaders in. In. In the White House, where it's just all about glazing Trump. I mean, the word is out. I mean, the word is out around the world. Every world leader, every. Gets their briefing before their phone call or their meeting with Trump, and they're all told the same thing by their people. Flatter him, praise him, tell him how wonderful he is, and you'll get whatever you want. Which turns out to be the case more often than not, as Trump has actually acknowledged many times, look, if you're nice to me, you're gonna get what you want. I thought what was really bizarre about one of the things. Well, two bizarre things that happened today was, you know, one of the African leaders promised. Pledged to, like, build a golf course in Senegal, or I think it was Senegal for Trump, you know, to get him to lift the tariffs.
- [07:08]
Host
Yeah.
- [07:09]
Ron
I mean, that was just, like, absurd theater. And, oh, man, I just drew a blank on what the other one was. But there was a. There was another moment in today where. Oh, yes. Where you see, one of the things that Republicans have been obsessed with for many years is the fact that China owns some land, owns property throughout the United States, and a lot of that property is located within close proximity of US Military bases. And so they've always been upset about that. And there's been many laws introduced in Congress by Republicans to compel China to divest itself of all U. S. Real estate. Very popular issue among the MAGA base. And Trump was asked about this today, and he said, I don't even want to discuss that because I'm friends with President Xi and we have a great relationship. It's like, how many times is this guy going to take a core issue that the MAGA base is unified behind and just, you know, high five him and just say, I'm not doing that. Sit down and shut up before they finally wake up.
- [08:13]
Host
Well, he also claims to be friends with Putin, and it's only now that he's beginning to Realize that Putin might not be a very nice person or indeed a trustworthy person. The rest of the world has known this. The intelligence services have known this. My 9 year old daughter knows this about Vladimir Putin. And yet Donald Trump's like, he's my friend, he's my buddy, he's my friend. We're, we're, we're friends. He only takes my calls. I can end the war in 24 hours. And now we're having to go, you know, drag ourselves through these visuals of him being like, well, you know, Putin, I'm not sure about that guy.
- [08:51]
Ron
It's like, what was, what was so bizarre about what he said? And this is the first time he's ever said something like this.
- [08:58]
Host
Yes.
- [08:58]
Ron
Was he said, you know, he's always been really nice to me.
- [09:02]
Host
That's right.
- [09:04]
Ron
It's like you, you know, he's always been polite to me because Putin, again, he glazes him. He knows how to, oh, Trump, you're the man. You're so strong, you're so powerful. You know, he knows how to stroke his ego. So Trump thinks, oh, he's a good guy. I mean, all these dictators know what to say to Trump. Oh, he's a good guy. Meanwhile, Trump, you know, do you ever take into account what he actually does to, like, the people in his own country?
- [09:31]
Host
The people, like he's director of transport, last week, for example. Yeah.
- [09:36]
Ron
The people around the world.
- [09:37]
Host
Right.
- [09:37]
Ron
Assassinating his own officials. I mean, it's like none of that matters to Trump.
- [09:43]
Host
Yeah.
- [09:43]
Ron
If you're, if you're nice to him, it doesn't matter what you've done. We've seen this time and time again with people like Nick Fuentes, you know, Andrew Tate, all these horrible, terrible people who have floated into his orbit. As long as they're nice to him, they're all right.
- [10:00]
Host
Imagine being so naive, so egocentric, egomaniac, so much of a malignant narcissist, so completely unhappy and insecure and seeing the world through the weirdest lens and not knowing until this week that Vladimir Putin is a bad person, even after he's killed all of his adversaries and, and every. Like, imagine what it's like to be completely devoid of critical thought and then realize that that guy's the president.
- [10:34]
Ron
And what caused him to come to this epiphany?
- [10:37]
Host
Right.
- [10:38]
Ron
It's because Putin won't do what Trump wants him to do.
- [10:42]
Host
Yeah.
- [10:42]
Ron
Like, he's not saying, you know, I've come to the conclusion that Putin is bad because he's Bombing Ukrainians at four times the rate he was before I took office. He's not saying that. He's saying, I've come to the conclusion that Putin might be a bad guy because he's not doing what I want him to do. So it's, again, it's all about him.
- [11:01]
Host
Because he spent a lifetime extorting people and blackmailing people, and finally he's met his match.
- [11:07]
Ron
Yeah, he can't do that. To do that and he can't do it to Putin. Right. He said a brick wall with both of them.
- [11:13]
Host
Yeah. She and Putin are these two characters that he cannot kind of cut through because, you know, he uses all of that kind of New York mafia style communication and that's how he's always got his way. But when it comes to these guys, because he's talking through interpreters and he doesn't really have the ability to do, you know, oh, you know, you know, the Trump stuff, the, the, whatever that ghastly gross sales tactic is of his. He just can't do it with these guys. And so it must be quite frustrating for him that like a child, he cannot get his own way.
- [11:54]
Ron
Yeah. And, and you know, it's made him look bad.
- [11:57]
Host
Yeah.
- [11:57]
Ron
Because he assured the American people that he was going to end this war right away and he assured his base that he was not going to send more weapons to Ukraine, that he wasn't going to send more aid because this war was going to be over. And now, you know, he's tried to, through back sneaky channels, he's tried to cut off aid a few times, or at least his Secretary of Defense has.
- [12:20]
Host
Yeah.
- [12:21]
Ron
But then Republicans in Congress thankfully stood up and, and pitched a fit and, and, and he reinstituted it. So again, it's all because he is being made to look bad himself personally, that he has suddenly decided that Putin might not be a great guy after all.
- [12:41]
Host
Let's take a look to Ukraine.
- [12:44]
Donald Trump
As you said last night, last week.
- [12:46]
Ron
The Pentagon paused some shipments of weapons to Ukraine.
- [12:49]
Donald Trump
Did you approve of that? We want to put defensive weapons because Putin is not, he's not treating human beings right. He's killing too many people. So we're sending some defensive weapons to Ukraine and I've approved that. So who ordered the pause last week? I don't know. What did you tell me? I think that's a question. Go ahead.
- [13:12]
Host
This is happening a lot these days, isn't it? He gets given a question, he doesn't know the answer. And these are high level national security questions. He cannot answer anything. And so he throws it back. I don't know. You tell me, trying to create some kind of conspiracy.
- [13:29]
Ron
First of all, he knew, because this was a big, the reporting on this, this was a big problem and a big blow up in the White House caused by Hegseth again doing something without telling the White House. Yeah. And I, I believe that, I don't believe that he told Trump because this is like the fourth time he's done something that caused a big controversy where Trump didn't know about it. So obviously this knucklehead and his henchman, Elbridge Colby is out there doing who hate Ukraine. Yeah.
- [14:02]
Host
They've got their own agenda.
- [14:03]
Ron
Hate Europe out there doing stuff and not clearing it because they don't care about the politics of it because they're not politicians. Trump has to factor in that Lindsey Graham and all and, and Roger Wicker in, in the Senate. They're all going to go nuts if he cuts off aid to Ukraine and he's going to get all the phone calls from them. So they're doing stuff without clearing it through him. And just to be clear on this, by the way, on. And also, I'll say this, that question was yesterday when he said he didn't know. So then a reporter came back who was actually very brave. He really went after Trump came back today and said, okay, you said you didn't know yesterday. Do you know now? Have you had a chance to find out? And he, you know, he got really nasty with him. But here's what happened. Congress approved 30 Patriot missile defense system which is going to protect Ukraine's population areas from missile attacks, which they're getting hammered every single day and every single night. Right. So there's 30 of them that were sent to Poland and Hegseth and Colby stopped them, blocked them from being moved from Poland to Ukraine. And then, you know, all Ukraine went nuts. Everybody went, what's going on? What is, you know, people in Congress went nuts. So then after the blowup, Trump then announces, which he just said right there, oh, I've approved, I've approved, you know, these to go through. Actually, not so fast.
- [15:31]
Host
Right.
- [15:31]
Ron
He didn't approve all 30. He only approved 10. So the other 20 are going to stay in Poland where they're not especially needed.
- [15:40]
Host
There is an issue, though, with these appropriations weapons for Ukraine and other things that, that Joe Biden's administration and Congress at the time ratified that Trump is kind of derailing. I mean, how is that even possible? Is there no system in place that prevents them from stopping legislation that has Already passed.
- [16:06]
Ron
He's not supposed to do it. I mean, they specifically authorize the money for this. I mean, months ago, like you said. And now, you know, stories also out today that, like, you know, all the NATO countries are all expanding their militaries. You know, they're all spending a lot more money. And now guess who's mad? The United States is mad because lo and behold, these European countries that are now opening up the piggy banks and now going to spend tons of money on weapons.
- [16:34]
Host
Yeah.
- [16:35]
Ron
Don't want to buy them from United States companies.
- [16:37]
Host
Yeah.
- [16:38]
Ron
Oh, I wonder why. So, so they're mad about that. Now they're, they're saying, you know, this is a problem with tariff trade negotiations with the EU is that they want these EU countries to buy weapons from us. And they're. We're saying, they're saying, like, you're not reliable. We don't want to put in because. Because these things take years. You know, you put in your order, you pay your money, you wait two, three years. We don't know for sure if we're ever going to get them.
- [17:02]
Host
And they also have the problem, which they've experienced previously, where if they're buying US Equipment, the tech support for it can only come from the US and that includes software updates and it includes kind of data storage. And it means that, you know, they're flying drones that ultimately the US still own the back end of. So countries might own the actual drone, but the. All of the technology that's driving it is still in the hands of the Americans.
- [17:32]
Ron
So you're going to rely on this maniac. Trump changes his mind on stuff every single day to come through and on this stuff and authorize this stuff, and then possibly even, you know, God forbid, J.D. vance, you know, past that, I mean, who, who hates them probably even worse than Trump does.
- [17:49]
Host
Yeah. He's already told them to welcome fascist parties.
- [17:54]
Ron
If you're Sweden, you know, why would you buy weapons from the United States? I mean, you would. Unless you just couldn't get something as good anywhere else. You know, you're going to buy them from other places.
- [18:04]
Host
The other irony is that, you know, Trump was pushing NATO to spend 5% GDP, so now they're kind of doing that, but they're now doing it knowing that the US Is the enemy. They're basically doing it to protect themselves from the very country that told them to raise those funds in the first place.
- [18:22]
Ron
Yeah. You know, the other thing is, you know, the EU has, has another problem, and that is this veto power that they Give these Mickey Mouse countries. I'm sorry, but to say that, but like Slovakia, I think Slovakia is, has been vetoing additional sanctions on Russia for three years now. They just keep exercising their veto. It seems like, you know, the EU has got, especially in national security and especially with Russia. I mean, if Russia can just co opt one country, you know, they can get a veto over sanctions against them and other things as well as we saw Orban has done as well. I mean the EU needs to very. Because here's the problem.
- [19:08]
Host
You're talking about NATO rather than the eu. You're talking about NATO rather than the eu. Because you keep saying the eu, but you're talking about NATO.
- [19:15]
Ron
No, I am talking about the eu. I'm talking about the eu. The eu. Slovakia just vetoed again economic sanctions that the EU wanted to impose on Russia. A new batch of sanctions.
- [19:28]
Host
Right.
- [19:29]
Ron
And this in Slovakia vetoed it. It's like the 14th time that they, that that country has vetoed something that the EU wanted to do with respect to Russia.
- [19:39]
Host
Yeah.
- [19:39]
Ron
And it just seems like, you know, I, I, I can understand like, because the frustration I hear from Ukraine is very much not just about us and our issues, it's about Europe as well being somewhat feckless.
- [19:57]
Host
But this is the problem when, when you have so many member nations.
- [20:02]
Donald Trump
Yeah.
- [20:02]
Host
Is that culturally they're all different.
- [20:04]
Ron
I know.
- [20:05]
Host
And so you're asking people to kind of play along. It's difficult. I mean, this is the argument. Why, why Britain?
- [20:11]
Ron
Maybe they should go to like 2/3 vote or something though, I'm saying.
- [20:14]
Host
Right. Yeah.
- [20:16]
Ron
Because you just one little country can just hold up things. It seems like a nutty system, but, well, it's democracy. I don't want to judge.
- [20:23]
Host
I know it gets in the way of things.
- [20:25]
Ron
We got enough problems here. Right.
- [20:29]
Host
Trump was quizzed about wind turbines, which of course he calls windmills and claims that, you know, he's friends with China. He's not blaming China, but he's friends with China. Let's take a quick look to what.
- [20:41]
Donald Trump
They'Ll be in about a year from now. But we're setting records and wind is a very expensive form of energy. It's very bad for your beautiful surroundings of plains and the valleys and the birds are dying all over the place. You know, the whole thing is disaster. They're almost exclusively made in China. Not that I have anything against China because they don't have a great relationship with President Xi. But I asked him, how many wind farms do you have? He makes them, but they don't Have a lot of wind farms, I'll tell you. Very, very few. And wind is tremendously expensive and is very ugly. And if you own a house that's inside of a windmill, your house is worth less than, than half. And people. And you hear noises. And interestingly, in New England, you probably read where for 50 years they had two whales washed up. 50 years. And last summer they had 14 washed up. Now, I'm not saying that's the wind farm that was built, but maybe it is, right? Probably is. It's tremendously expensive and it can only be done with subsidy. You know, I know a man that's in that business and one of the biggest in the world, actually runs a company that builds these stupid windmills. And he said, I hate the business because it's the only energy where you need subsidy. He said, energy shouldn't need subsidy. You should make money with energy. So when the other one is the solar, those big solar fields, they're taking our farmland, our farmers are, like, mortified by it. They hate it. It's very, very inefficient and very ugly too, you know, probably better than gibberish.
- [22:17]
Host
Total gibberish. As if the oil industry has not had subsidies. Right. I mean, utter gibberish. The other thing I would point out, and I know you're desperate to jump in on this, but he says that China doesn't, you know, doesn't bother with wind. China is the global leader in wind energy. It has the largest installed wind power capacity anywhere in the world. Just last year they added, I think it was 80 gigawatts of new wind power capacity. It is all of those things that he says, whales, noise, the value of your property, all that stuff is gibberish. And we've been listening to it now for nearly a decade.
- [23:04]
Ron
Yeah, I know. It's the same. It's the same exact thing he was saying in 2015. You know, he added the whales part like three years ago, but according to him, this, you know, a bunch all these whales washed up in New England this past summer. I missed that. I didn't.
- [23:21]
Host
Well, do you know where I think that story comes from? Someone will correct me in the comments, but he was hearing about wind turbines and in Wales, uk.
- [23:32]
Ron
Oh, I believe that that's what it was.
- [23:35]
Host
In the same way that he thinks asylum seeking asylum means that you, you are from an insane asylum. This was Wales, the country that he thought. The mammal.
- [23:49]
Ron
Yeah. I mean, you know, I've written articles about his obsession with windmills and how it all goes back to his Golf course in Aberdeen. Scott.
- [23:56]
Host
That's right.
- [23:57]
Ron
Sued the Scottish Government 15, 20 years ago to try and have it removed because it ruined his view from one of the holes was offshore wind turbine. I mean, we were calling it windmills because of him, but, you know, obviously they're turbines.
- [24:11]
Host
I know the. The Dutch are furious with us.
- [24:14]
Ron
Yeah. I mean, that answer was in response to a question about why in his new big ugly bill, he just completely decimated all subsidies and funding for clean renewable energy projects that are currently in. Underway. Halfway done in some cases, in order to return us to dependence on what he calls clean coal. Clean coal. So we. While China has raced ahead of us on production and everything else on clean renewable energy, racing ahead of us and widening the gap every year. And Biden put a lot of things in place to close that gap.
- [25:04]
Host
Yeah.
- [25:05]
Ron
Trump has just wiped it all out. Wiped it all out. And we are returning to the coal standard. We are returning to basically 1890 in energy production. And that's going to solve all our problems. And so this is his answer of why. Why is he rambles on about windmills and whales and, and my favorite part was like, people's houses inside windmills are not worth as much because the windmills are noisy. You know, I, I have seen some. Airbnb is actually inside.
- [25:37]
Host
Inside. That's what he must be talking about.
- [25:39]
Ron
Talking about those.
- [25:40]
Host
Yeah. The value of your wind turbine goes down if you Airbnb it. Did you not know that?
- [25:45]
Ron
I have always wanted to stay in one of those European Airbnb inside windmills, but Trump has kind of turned me off to him.
- [25:52]
Host
Maybe it's in Wales in the United Kingdom. Maybe that's where you'll end up.
- [25:57]
Ron
They. Wales is pretty windy. Right. Because you get the.
- [26:00]
Host
Yeah.
- [26:00]
Ron
Wind coming off the Atlantic.
- [26:01]
Host
That's why they have wind turbines. Incidentally, I watched a video of a guy who was touring that golf course of Trump's in Aberdeenshire, and they went. They stayed in the Presidential suite and they went. And it was filthy. That hotel is filthy. Like, it is a disgrace. And you know, maybe he hasn't been there recently because of the, because of the view.
- [26:30]
Ron
The other crazy. I'll just say because that, because they're. Because the British Open. I know you'd be mad at me for calling it the British Open. The Open Championship is next week. Right.
- [26:38]
Host
I'm down.
- [26:39]
Ron
And the Scottish Open is this week. Yeah. And. And you know, again, you know, he's. You're going to hear from him because it's already starting him grumbling. About the fact that he, he literally owns the nicest golf course. That's Scotland. But they will not. And they used to hold the open championship there on a regular basis like every four or five years. But since he bought the course, they will not hold it at, at the course. I suspect that we are going to hear about that next week as we gear up. But this is Donald Trump.
- [27:11]
Host
This is the consistent thing that anything that Trump touches becomes toxic.
- [27:16]
Ron
Yeah.
- [27:16]
Host
And whether it's universities or stakes or ties or whatever, you know, the, whatever his latest, well, we know what his latest business model is. It's, it's fragrance. You know, it is, it is a disaster. It's like it's a short term project to get him on TV doing infomercials. But, you know, and, but beyond that, it's just, just keeps him in the papers, which is what he loves. But just going back to the energy, you know, issue for a moment, America is going to be left so far behind because, you know, it's not just China with their investment in green energy, but all around the world there, you know, it is clear that there is huge amounts of money to be made from green energy, whether it be from turbines or from solar farms or from wave technology. You know, you can actually gener great energy any of these island nations. They're putting all this equipment in under the seabed and, and as the tide comes in and out, it creates energy. It's brilliant. Like it's literally really high tech stuff. And Trump, just because of his connection to the oil and gas industry, because he wants to own the libs and he sees anything that is green or green New deal as Al Gore and you know, not just Biden, but the whole kind of.
- [28:41]
Ron
Yeah, it's, he loves it.
- [28:43]
Host
He loves that good old, I mean, even gas, they rebranded natural gas. You know, natural gas is not a thing. It's methane.
- [28:54]
Ron
Sounds nice though.
- [28:55]
Host
It sounds nice. But me, it's methane gas. That's what it is.
- [28:59]
Ron
But by, by calling that word, no.
- [29:02]
Host
One wants to use that word but, but by calling a n gas. Oh, it, it's suddenly just, you know, the things you can do.
- [29:10]
Ron
And I really believe sincerely that with all the other. This is really the issue that separated Musk from, from Trump. I mean there's all these other reports of all these other things and I, I'm sure there's been other things on the margins, but I think that if, you know, we criticize Musk a lot, justifiably so. But there is one subject that Musk really knows. And that's this subject, you know, renewable energy battery. Because his companies.
- [29:38]
Host
Yeah.
- [29:39]
Ron
Absolutely depend.
- [29:40]
Host
Well, he saw the growth. He saw it as an industry and to draw revenue from. And he's become the richest person in the world from, from electric cars and solar farms and tech and, you know, communications.
- [29:52]
Donald Trump
Right.
- [29:52]
Ron
And so all in on it.
- [29:54]
Host
He's all in on it.
- [29:55]
Ron
And he walked away from it.
- [29:57]
Host
Yeah.
- [29:58]
Ron
It's based. And Musk fully understands how incredibly stupid this is for the United States. And he sees it right there in front of him.
- [30:08]
Host
But so does the rest of the world. That's the other thing is that the Europeans are looking on, going, are you nuts? You can literally power your entire nation and it not cost you in terms of air pollution. Like the. There's the air that you breathe. It's more money. It means the planet survives longer and we don't all die from, from heat exhaustion. I mean, there's so much to this. I mean, look at this heat dome that's currently over the, you know, over much of Europe and the US as well. Temperatures are absolutely ridiculous. And yet nobody seems to make that correlation. I mean, even the flooding in Texas, for all of the. As a greater tragedy that was for all of the news reports, nobody was talking about climate change. And that's exactly when you need to be.
- [30:57]
Ron
You know, and that's the thing. Like every time, every time, you know something, one of these natural disasters happen, you know, the Republican response is always, well, you know, people are building in dangerous, whether it's wildfires, hurricanes, people are building on floodplains or building. And no people have lived in that river Valley for 100 years. Right. And yes, they've had, but the weather is much more extreme and much, much more crazy. You know, people all around the world will, will tell you that. And, and one thing I noted was, you know, Ted Cruz was in Greece, in Athens at the Parthenon, which is if you've ever been to the top of the Acropolis, it's like one of the hottest places on Earth. You know, it's. You literally cook up there and they, in fact, sometimes they have to shut it down during the summer because it's. It's just too hot. So he was up there, you know, the day after these, this storm hit and he came back and he was talking about how hot it was. I was like 95 degrees there or so.
- [31:58]
Host
But like, no one wants to make the connection. And it's so, you know, this again, this total lack of respect for science.
- [32:06]
Ron
Or, or critical thought because Republicans say that you're politicizing it.
- [32:12]
Host
Yeah.
- [32:13]
Ron
Every time, you know, there's, there's a storm and you want to talk about climate change being a factor, they. Oh, you're, you're putting politics in it.
- [32:20]
Host
Yeah.
- [32:20]
Ron
You're being a bad person.
- [32:21]
Host
Distraction. Because they're, they're getting handouts from the oil and gas industry. I mean, it's, it's not rocket science, but this is my fear, is that, you know, for all of the problems that the world is facing politically, climate change knocks the socks off all of it. It is far more. Climate change is far more serious than anything that we are looking at domestically or internationally, apart from, you know, World War III potentially. But I, I feel that in this country, because you go anywhere else, it's. People are talking about it all the time. It's top story. They're talking about developing technology, people are, you know, working jobs, new industry, new, new, new. Whole new sectors have been created for employment through green energy. So good for the planet, good for the economy, good for people. New skills. And yet no mention of it in.
- [33:18]
Ron
The U.S. oh, I was talking to somebody in the main lobster industry last week, and, you know, basically what they're saying is like, it's not going. There aren't going to be any main lobsters in, in very soon because the water is getting too warm.
- [33:32]
Host
Yeah.
- [33:33]
Ron
And all the lobster is going to be Canada lobster. It's all going to be Nova Scotia. All the, the lobsters are migrating up.
- [33:39]
Host
The whole industry will get wiped out.
- [33:41]
Ron
We're gonna get wiped out. And so they're, they're looking into oyster farming now because they're looking at the future, saying our lobster industry, which has been, you know, part of Maine for 100 years, huge part of Maine. Maine's economy is going to be gone because of climate change. Yeah.
- [33:57]
Host
Elon Musk is talking about a third party creating an alternative to the Republicans and the Democrats. Once you want to call it the American party or something, the South Africa Party, I would have thought would be more, more fitting. Let's take a look at Trump responding to this suggestion.
- [34:14]
Donald Trump
Well, this is, I think, the first cabinet meeting since Elon Musk has not been a special government employee.
- [34:19]
Host
Not here anymore. He's now saying he's going to create a third party political party. Are you worried about the impact that that could have?
- [34:25]
Donald Trump
No, I think it'll help us. It'll probably help. Third parties have always been good for me. I don't know about Republicans, but for me.
- [34:34]
Host
I just want to say how Whacked out. He looks like, he just looks so exhausted. He looks awful. Checked out. And then I know what you're about to say. He's like, he's made it about him again. It's, he's, he's somehow managed to make everything about Donald Trump, not about the country, not about America, not about democracy, not about people having choice and options all about him.
- [34:59]
Ron
Yeah, his makeup job isn't great either, you know.
- [35:03]
Host
Yes.
- [35:03]
Ron
Yeah, he looks, he looks terrible. He sounds terrible. He's definitely circling the drain here. Oh, yeah. But you know when he's asked, do you think this is gonna hurt you? I mean, I, I, you don't even listen. You don't even need to tell me what the subject matter of your question is. It could be about any, any subject you want to name. It doesn't matter. If you ask him random subject and then end that, end it with, do you think that that hurts you? He will say no every single 100% of the time. He will never, ever, ever admit that something is not to his benefit or could hurt him or could impact him negatively. Never. So it doesn't matter, you know, whether it's true or not. He's going to answer that question.
- [35:53]
Host
No.
- [35:53]
Ron
No matter what the question is about. So the question is about will Musk's third party hurt him? Well, people have asked me this question too. Will it hurt Republicans more than Democrats? Look, you have to look at it like this. Who are the Musk fans? You know, who are the people who like Elon Musk? And it's, it's actually the very segment of people that were a lot of them who were Democrats or voted Democrat during Obama, who have been voting Trump. It's that, that's that group. And it's, it's, it's not a huge number of people, but it's enough to matter in close races. It's your libertarians, it's your tech bros, it's your young males, young white males. Those, those are your, it's your RFK type people. Yeah, you're, you're disaffected conspiracy theorists, anti migrant tech bro, crypto.
- [36:54]
Host
And these were the people that got Trump over the line. So those are the people that make the difference.
- [36:59]
Ron
Trump knows that very well. So he said, oh, they've always helped me in the past. Well, you know, why did he promise RFK HHS secretary? Because he knew that he needed those voters. Those voters may have flipped four states. And, and I can tell you, I still get in arguments with Democrats who are upset that Harris didn't try to get RFK into the fold and make him the same deal. You know, it's just like, you have to have some standards and some integrity at some point.
- [37:31]
Host
You shouldn't have even done Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, in my opinion.
- [37:34]
Ron
I mean, that was probably backfired, too.
- [37:36]
Host
Yeah. Yeah.
- [37:37]
Ron
So, you know, I. There is no question in my mind that this is going to hurt Republicans far more than Democrats. And Musk has already said he's not going to try and field candidates everywhere. He's going to choose eight or ten House races and two or three Senate races where, you know, his candidates could, could, could flip it and, and largely also depends on who he's going to run. But I ask you, like, what Democrat, what liberal is going to run under Elon Musk's banner? Like, there's not going to be very many takers out there that want to run under Musk. He's. If he picks any Democrats, they're going to be Democrats who can't get any Democrats to vote for them anymore.
- [38:27]
Host
You know, Another good barometer for how popular Elon Musk and his party would be is to look at the Tesla share price, which in my opinion, tracks Elon Musk's popularity, or lack of, and the fact that it took this huge nosedive when he started with Doge and, you know, just started playing up, you know, the stuff in the Oval Office, the kid on the shoulders, the Nazi salute, all that kind of stuff. And so the share price just goes down and down and down. And I noticed that he's. His chief executive of, Of Twitter resigned today as well. So, you know, things are not going great for him at the moment. I don't really know how he's going to turn Tesla's fortunes around without dropping the prices of cars significantly. And, you know, so I personally feel that this third party is just a distraction at the moment. It's just him playing politics and trying to piss off Donald Trump as much as possible. I don't think he's got the energy or the time to really get into this stuff.
- [39:34]
Ron
You may be right. It's certainly possible. But, you know, it's a distraction that for Republicans, much more so than for Democrats, who really don't care what he does on this. But Republicans are worried. They're very worried.
- [39:48]
Host
Yes.
- [39:49]
Ron
And there's a lot of people online, you know, the influencers and stuff, who are. Look, Trump daily pisses off the influencers. He, you know, over the Epstein stuff, over the, the ch. You know, just. He Just today said, you know, you know, China can keep all their land in the United States. You know, they're talking about amnesty for migrants now if they work on farms. I mean, it's, I'm telling you because I, I follow these people every single day. He does something to piss off his base and he's not on the ballot in 2026. So, you know, you add all those things together and you throw a musk third party candidate out there in a particular race, you know, they could be in. They, they could. I called it today when in my column, a perfect storm. It could be a perfect storm for Republicans in 2026. And by the way, here's another thing. Every time I talk about the midterms, and I know we're going to get it in the comments, there's probably some comments right now as I'm speaking that I can't see who the response every time I talk about the midterms is, oh, if we even have a midterms. I don't think we're even. He's going to cancel the midterms. Well, you know what? I am not putting it past Trump to do shenanigans and to try stuff. But here's the point. For guys like me and like you and other people who are out there working really hard to rally the troops to win these midterms, it's kind of disheartening when we do all this work and put this stuff out there and go, this is, this could help us in the midterms to have people go, oh, we're not even going to have midterms. It's like, okay, well, you know what? I'm going to prepare for them anyway.
- [41:26]
Host
Yes.
- [41:26]
Ron
I'm going to try and work hard and win them anyway. Yeah, you can go cry and you can quit. Yeah, I'm not going to do that.
- [41:33]
Host
Yeah, but you can.
- [41:34]
Ron
I'm not giving.
- [41:35]
Host
Do both. You know, you can do both. You can do what we do and keep one eye, you know, keep an, keep an eye on, on, on him and trying to, you know, screw around with the legitimacy of, of elections. But look, he's certainly laying the groundwork for claiming that we're under attack and, you know, anything, anything. War powers or.
- [41:57]
Ron
I get that there's many people out there who think that there won't be midterms, but. Yeah, we don't need to hear it from you every day while we're working on the midterms.
- [42:05]
Host
Yeah. Yeah, agreed, Agreed. Okay. We have to take a quick break. We're going to come back and talk about the latest on the Epstein files and Trump getting wound up about that because it was Musk, of course, who said that Trump was implicated there. And we're also going to talk about tariffs because that's all taken a bit of a turn for the worst in the last few days too. We'll do that next here on Uncovered. Feeling your best starts with the right products and for me that means via. We're proud to have them sponsoring this episode. If you haven't tried them yet, you're seriously missing out. Whether you need to unwind, refocus or boost your mind, Via is here to enhance your everyday and night Trusted by over half a million happy customers, Vire is changing the game in natural wellness, blending powerful, high quality hemp derived ingredients to deliver real effect driven benefits. Whether you're looking to sleep better or have a better libido, improve focus, recover or simply relax, Via has a tailored solution just for you. Via lets you fully customize your experience to fit your needs. Whether you're looking to support your daily wellness routine, enhance focus and clarity, or unwind with deep relaxation, Via has you covered. From their award winning effect Forward gummies to calming drops, every Via product is thoughtfully crafted, made with organic lab tested hemp sourced from trusted independent American owned farms. And the best part, VIA legally ships across the usa. Discreet direct to your door, no medical card required and backed by a worry free guarantee. Not sure where to start? Take Via's Product Finder quiz to get personalized recommendations tailored to your needs. It can take you less than 60 seconds to complete, so if you're 21 +, treat yourself to 15% off and get a free gift with your first order using our exclusive code uncovered at via hemp.com + enjoy free shipping on orders over $100. That's V I I A H E M P.com and links to our sponsors are in in the description below. Should we do you want to do Epstein or you want to do Taris first? What you in the mood for? Make it multiple choice.
- [44:27]
Ron
Well let's say Epstein because you know we kind of segue into it from the last segment a little bit.
- [44:33]
Host
Fair enough.
- [44:34]
Ron
I'll just say about, about this because I, I wrote, I wrote an article in Substack today about this trying to explain this because the MAGA mentality is difficult to explain to non maga people. Civilians. Right? You know, especially people in Europe or overseas which a big chunk of our audience is overseas trying to watch this show to figure out this movement. You know, and it's difficult to explain their mentality and on Epstein because the world has moved on. Most of the US has moved on from Epstein. It's terrible. They think that a lot of people got away with stuff, but it's ancient history. And, you know, we have a lot of other problems right now besides that. But this is not the case with maga. You MAGA has been obsessed with this for a long time. And there's generally. And I'm talking about millions of them, and. And there's generally two conspiracy theories around what they're obsessed about. One is that, you know, that there were. Of course, we know there's like 250 something victims here, girls that were. That were victimized. So obviously there's got to be a lot of men involved here, and only one man has been prosecuted. Right. So obviously there's a lot more out there. So what they believe, though, is that, you know, there's this deep state cabal of elites from both parties, Republicans and Democrats, that were involved with Epstein. So it's sort of like mutually assured destruction to where, you know, if one goes down, they all go down. So they have suppressed this and buried it and buried all the evidence and that Bill Barr is very much a part of the deep state, and he did that in term one. The second group of conspiracy theorists are generally like your anti Israel, anti Semitic block, you know, who believe that Epstein was a Mossad agent who was sent here or. Or was working for the Israeli government to get all this blackmail information on American political elites so that they can use that to blackmail them to get aid to Israel and whatever they want for Israel to get them to do what the Israeli government wants them to do. Those are the two basic conspiracy theories. Now, most of this Epstein stuff had died down because it's been a long time. And Trump hasn't talked about this in years because he never gets asked about it. But where he really screwed up here is when he appointed Patel and Bongino. Yeah. Because these are two of the leading conspiracy theorists on Epstein.
- [47:13]
Host
Right.
- [47:13]
Ron
For years they. They've been. They've been the leaders of this movement. So when he appoints them to run the FBI, all of maga, suddenly it's like pouring gasoline on their bonfire where they're like, oh, we got our guys in there. Now we're gonna find out all about Epstein. So they're banging on these guys, and these guys started doing interviews and they're like, oh, yeah, yeah, we're gonna put it all out.
- [47:35]
Donald Trump
Don't worry.
- [47:36]
Host
We're gonna find out.
- [47:37]
Ron
Yeah, you're gonna get it all. And then Bondi comes in and, you know, she, I think she gotta look at a lot of this stuff, and it's probably Trump's name everywhere, right. All over it and said, oh, we can't put this out there. And Trump didn't want it out there. Yeah. So, so they, they come out with this announcement this week. Did not even an announcement. You know, she didn't even come out and do a press conference, a Fox interview, nothing. They just post a memo on the DOJ website. Don't even make an announcement. This is closed. The case is closed. We're not disclosing anything. And MAGA has gone absolutely ape. And it's, it's been the number one trending topic on Twitter for like four consecutive days, all MAGA driven over Epstein. And they. I have, I have not seen them this upset at Trump over any other issue ever than this right now.
- [48:33]
Host
And it's Bondi, who is quite naive in her public communications because she says things like, oh, it's on my desk. I'm going to look at it. First thing, I'm going to publish that list, all that kind of stuff. She says it because she loves the power in the moment, but then she realizes that there are consequences to stuff that she says, mainly from the base, as you say. Let's take a look at this clip of Trump being asked. And Trump does not like this question. Here it is.
- [49:05]
Donald Trump
Sure.
- [49:06]
Ron
Your memo and release yesterday in Jeffrey Epstein, it left some lingering mysteries. One of the biggest ones is whether he ever worked for a American or foreign intelligence agency. The former Labor Secretary who was Miami U.S. attorney Alex Kostick, he allegedly said that he did work for an intelligence agency. So could you resolve whether or not he did? And also could you say why there was a minute missing from the jailhouse tape on the namesake?
- [49:34]
Host
Yeah, sure.
- [49:35]
Donald Trump
Could I just interrupt a little second? Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein? This guy's been talked about for years. You're asking. We have Texas, we have this. We have, we have all of the things. And are people still talking about this guy, this creep? That is unbelievable. Do you want to waste the time and do you feel like answering? I don't mind answering. I mean, I can't believe you're asking a question, Epstein, at a time like this where we're having some of the greatest success and also tragedy with what happened in Texas. It just seems like a desecration. But you go ahead.
- [50:14]
Host
We're having some of the greatest tragedy. I mean, A. It's gibberish. The answers are all gibberish. But it's also so amusing to watch Trump squirm, because none of us will forget the video images of him dancing with Epstein at the party.
- [50:33]
Ron
Perving over women. Yeah.
- [50:35]
Host
Perving over girls and jeering and pointing in the most horrific, misogynistic fashion. And, And. And Bondi is kind of on a bit of a power trip over this. So she's like, oh, yeah, no, I'll. I'll talk about it. To get. Dig herself deeper into a. Into a hole. I mean, the whole thing is a mess, isn't it?
- [50:56]
Ron
So props the reporter. I don't know who he is, who asked the question. He seemed very nervous.
- [51:00]
Host
He was nervous, yes.
- [51:05]
Ron
But how is it that this is the first time that Trump has been asked this term as president? This question about, like, hasn't. Of the thousands of questions he's been asked in the last six months, not one question about Epstein. So he finally gets one. Only after this whole thing blows up. A reporter dares to ask him about Epstein, and he's not even asking Trump, he's asking Bondi. But of course, Trump has to jump in there because this is personal for him. And though. And what he says is the worst possible thing he could have said for the MAGA base. They went crazy. At every turn, he makes this situation worse and worse and worse for himself with his own fans. I mean, what he could have said, what they all should have said, like from day one. What. What should they have done with this Epstein stuff? They should have just said. They should have ignored it, not talked about it. And then if they get asked about it in an interview, say, oh, yeah, we're. We're checking into that. We were two weeks. You know, what does he always say? We're. We're gonna look into it. You know, we're looking into it. And, and he could see how it goes along for quite a while because he strung them on. Along on a lot of stuff by doing that. But he doesn't do that in this particular case because he knows how dangerous this is. And so what does he say? He says, who cares about that? He's. Do you know who cares about this most passionately? His own people. Millions of them care about this issue almost more than anything else, almost more than deportations. They care about this issue because they want to see Bill Clinton hauled off in handcuffs.
- [52:56]
Host
Right.
- [52:57]
Ron
They are convinced that there is all these elites, journalists and everything else that are going to go to prison for life over this case. Yeah. And they're not seeing those handcuffs. And so when Trump gets. Finally gets asked about it and he says, what people care about this? Who the hell would care about Epstein? Who cared? Nobody.
- [53:17]
Host
He.
- [53:17]
Ron
His own people were like, we care. Yeah, they were pissed. This made it twice as worse as it was yesterday.
- [53:26]
Host
Don't forget Prince Andrew, of course, out of the British royal family, who.
- [53:30]
Ron
Okay, that's the only other person that's been faced legal liability over.
- [53:36]
Host
Right. And lost.
- [53:37]
Ron
I mean, besides himself. And. And. And just. Just Lane Maxwell. Right. Yeah, that's it.
- [53:45]
Host
Exactly. Okay, let's. Oh, we have a clip of Alex Jones. This is Alex Jones, the. I know you're gonna like this one. This is. This might. This Might be the best. Best clip of the. Of the day. He is furious, crying about, you know, about Trump covering up the Epstein files. He's not having it now. Remember, it came out in Alex Jones's deposition in his divorce that he's a performance artist. Just bear that in mind as you.
- [54:14]
Ron
Watch some of them throw up, actually. And this only happens every few years when something really, really bad happens or something. I mean, I'm physically gonna puke probably right now.
- [54:23]
Host
My mouth is watering right now because. Because I have integrity. And, you know, I just really need.
- [54:35]
Donald Trump
The Trump administration to succeed and to save this country.
- [54:38]
Ron
And they're doing so much good, and.
- [54:40]
Donald Trump
Then for them to do something like this tears my guts out.
- [54:45]
Host
Sorry, I didn't mean to cut you off. What were you gonna say?
- [54:47]
Ron
I was gonna say, like, he's definitely doing a little performing here. Yeah, I mean. Yeah. I mean, like, those are fake tears and all that kind of stuff, but. But at the same time, I mean, Alex is A lot. Has a lot invested in this conspiracy, you know, and so for his hero to go, who gives a shit about it, you know, that's. I could see why he would cry.
- [55:12]
Host
You know, I love that Trump called Epstein a creep. The irony is not lost on me how all these creeps like to creep out together. Okay. Tariffs has upset world markets yet again. It's as if Trump kind of, you know, isn't getting enough attention. And so he then starts throwing, like, high percentages around again. And just to put some heat back on him, like it's a drug, you know, he can't go without extorting someone for a few weeks. Oh, I haven't extorted anybody recently. Who am I going to choose this time? Picks these kind of random countries who have. Like. They're like, where does this come from? So you always talk about these 90 deals in 90 days, that was like the original promise of how many tariff deals they, they're going to do. So far, they have done diddly squit, as far as I am aware. They have these frameworks. They have, even the one with the UK is bullshit. There's no, there's no kind of reality or strength there. Let's see how Trump responded when he was asked what happened to the deals. Mr. President, on tariffs, what happened to.
- [56:22]
Ron
90 trade deals in 90 days?
- [56:26]
Donald Trump
Oh, we've spoken to everybody. We know every, it's all, all done. I told you, I told you. We'll make some deals, but for the most part, we're going to send a letter. We're going to say, welcome to the United States if you'd like to participate in the greatest, most successful country ever. I mean, we're doing better than ever. We have, I don't think. And you're going to see these numbers. So we've never had numbers like this. We've never had investment like this. We have more than 90. We're going to have much more than 90. But most of those are going to be sent a letter. This is exactly what I said. Now, we've made a deal with United Kingdom, we've made a deal with China, we've made a deal. We're close to making a deal with India, others we met with. And we don't think we're going to be able to make a deal. So we just send them a letter. If you want to, if you want to play ball, you have to. This is what you have to pay. So we're, as far as I'm concerned, we're done. We're sending out letters to various countries telling them how much tariffs they have to pay. Some will maybe adjust a little bit, depending if they have a, you know, cause we're not going to be unfair about it. And actually it's a small fraction compared to what we should be getting. We should be, we could be asking for much more, but for the sake of relationships that we've had with a lot of really good countries, we're doing the way I do it. But we could be getting a lot more. We could ask for a lot more than what we're asking for because you're sending the letters.
- [57:49]
Host
To follow up on the ED earlier, you're counting visas deals by saying, here's the tariff rate.
- [57:55]
Donald Trump
I'm saying, here it is. Congratulations. Welcome to the United States. I hope you make a lot of money and you're going to pay us money.
- [58:04]
Host
Gibberish More gibberish.
- [58:07]
Ron
It's just. It's just amazing that we're in this nightmare. You know, it's just like, first of all, Wall street completely ignores all of his terror. They don't even pay attention to him anymore. Yeah, I mean, it's probably not very smart for them to ignore them because, you know, I think he's very serious. But. But they don't. I mean, they're kind of like, betting on the fact that he'll always back down. But. But many of these have been in place. I mean, money's coming in. He's always bragging about how much money we're taking in. We're taking the money from Americans. You know, they're the ones paying the tariffs. But, you know, these form letters are a joke if anybody's ever seen him. They're form letters. They're all the same. They're extremely poorly written with random capitalization. They read like his true social tweets. He changes the name at the top and he changes the number. Most of the tariffs are 25, but some of them, it's really weird. Some of them, he changes them to, like, 24 or 26 or 30, based on any analysis. So one he sent to some country, and it said, Dear Mr. And the. The President was a female. So I know we hit Tunisia with one, and we import olive oil and dates from Tunisia. And Tunisia, their people are not especially wealthy. They do not buy very much American stuff because they can't afford it. So we're gonna punish them because we buy dates and olive oil from Tunisia, which I hear is quite good, actually. But I don't know. They. They say that they have the best olive oil in the world. Obviously, some Americans agree, but, you know, I mean, what we got hit Sri Lanka today, I think, you know, we gotta get those damn Sri Lankans. South Korea has not had any tariffs on the United States for years because that was negotiated in a real trade deal years ago. So it's like, we're going to these countries, and they're like, we don't have any tariffs on the United States products. It's just that our people can't afford American goods. And basically Trump is just saying, well, we're putting tariffs on until you start buying stuff from us. I mean, what are these countries gonna do? What is Tunisia gonna do?
- [60:17]
Host
Well, they're gonna get bankrupted. That's what's gonna happen. Or they're gonna have to start to trade with other nations. They just won't trade. Trade with the US he does not understand what international trade is. He just fundamentally doesn't understand he is transactional. He thinks it should be tit for tat. And instead he thinks, as he keeps saying, well, they're screwing us, so we're going to screw them even harder. And that's been his whole mantra, going right back to the Roy Cohn days. Right. So that's where his mentality is. But it doesn't match up with the Project 2025 plan for free trade, which is what they believe in. So there's this conflict. This stuff is all coming from Trump. And then think about any nation that had been so abused by Donald Trump. So, you know, they must feel so aggrieved to be on the receiving end of his bile that of course they're not going to respond. I mean, didn't Scott Bessant admit, or was it Howard Lutnick admit that we haven't heard from anybody like it was Scott Besson, I think. Well, no one's got in touch. Well, of course they haven't. You've been insulting everybody for the last six months.
- [61:27]
Ron
Yeah. So sending them a letter is not a deal. I mean, the other crazy part of this is like, literally there's virtually no Republicans in Congress, Senator, House, who agree with any of this. Tariffs.
- [61:40]
Host
Yeah.
- [61:41]
Ron
The Republican Party has always been about low tariffs, no tariffs, free trade, etc. Some of them want, you know, China, something done about China, because China can be very predatory and they are definitely an adversarial nation when it comes to trade. But we are very inter dependent on their economy and them with us, and us with them. But, but the point is, you know, going around the world, 200 countries and slapping tariffs on Sri Lanka, Tunisia and Mauritania and, you know, an island with penguins on it is. Makes no sense whatsoever economically. But, but what I was getting at is it's crazy that, like, virtually 90% of the Republicans in Congress think that this is madness and completely disagree with it and can stop it at any time. They can revoke his authority and they will say nothing because they're so afraid of him.
- [62:35]
Host
This idea that a letter is a deal is a great way for Trump to backtrack, isn't it? Because it's like saying, you know, meeting somebody who you are attracted to, but it's unrequited, and then sending them a letter and saying, we are. Yeah, from Monday, you are my girlfriend, Right? I'm the.
- [62:56]
Ron
You are my girlfriend whether you like it or whether you like it or not.
- [62:59]
Host
And that, that's obviously that's the way Trump has dated, I guess, in the past, too. But, you know, he has, he struggles with relationships. He. He thinks that if someone says something nice to him, then immediately they're his best friend. And yet if they don't respond to him, then they have to be punished for it when they didn't do anything wrong in the first place and they didn't ask for it. I mean, he talk about the wrong person to be not just the president, but the president of anything. You know, I often say he shouldn't be the president of a golf club. Unfortunately, he is, and he keeps winning those tournaments as well. So, I don't know, I feel like we're. We're kind of stuck between the devil and the deep blue sea. Because tariffs are deeply personal to Donald Trump. When he talks about all the investment that's coming in, what is he referencing? Because, you know, I've seen these fake announcements of factories being built, but it's all fake, as it was with Foxconn years ago, you know, digging a hole and saying, here we go. You know, this is, this is the next big thing. And then, of course, once the cameras leave, everything just dissipates.
- [64:05]
Ron
Yeah, that. Those, those announcements are largely nonsense. And yeah, they have a website that the White House has set up for, and it's called the Trump Effect. That's where you can read all of their announcements, where they're like, claiming that this is all the money that countries have pledged to invest, which is like double our whole economy. Yeah, he claims he's brought in, like, double our gross national product in, in deals. But also, like, I just read a story, I think it was Wall Street Journal who. Or Bloomberg who. Who went through each one and found that, like, half of the stuff was happened under Biden, you know, that he's taking credit for, of course, as he's doing with infrastructure product projects as well. So, yeah, I mean, look, this is not. This is not going to be good. I just also read that, like, Amazon Prime Day, I think started now, and their sales are like, down 40% from last year on this day. It's just been a complete. Because why? Because all of that stuff comes from overseas and large, a lot of it from China. So people don't want to pay the tariff.
- [65:13]
Host
And also people know that the economy is not going in the right direction and they need to save something for a rainy day. I mean, anything could happen. And. And that's my fear. I also realized this week that he's got to a point now because of his control of, of the Senate and, and of the House, obviously the executive, but also of the judiciary and the Supreme Court keeps ruling in his favor that he feels all powerful. And, you know, he's been saying things like, well, you know, about, about New York and Mamdani, you know, well, we'll just run New York. We'll just go in there and we'll, we'll run it because it'll be better. And I was thinking, okay, this is really scary now. And then he starts talking about GDP and the jobs numbers and making numbers up, just saying anything. And I realized, you know, we really, we talk about post truth, but I think that he is so brimming with power now because, you know, the press keep asking him questions about him having power. And he's used the word rule a couple of times. Well, I don't rule like that. I rule like this. It's like, okay, now you're admitting to being a king. But he's realized that because he controls the narrative in every government department and those that he doesn't, he's shut down. He can lie about gdp, he can lie about jobs numbers, he can lie about anything. That is how it's going to be from this point onwards.
- [66:45]
Ron
This is, this is one of my fears. I mean, is that one of the things that the US has had, has been, has driven the US Economy is a couple, is accuracy of data. You know, data, you know, when it comes to unemployment, economic growth is our, our methods that we use to measure those things, including weather forecasting, has been the world standard for, for many decades. Right. And so my concern is that that data is going to be messed with. You know, it's not going to be. I, I'm, I'm starting to question all economic numbers coming out of, because most of the numbers come out of the Commerce Department, which is run by Howard Lutnick and the Labor Department. And so, you know, I'm very skeptical, and the Treasury Department, I'm very skeptical about some of these numbers. Now there are some third party groups, some outside government groups that compile data as well, that measure things as well. And I'm starting to see anomalies, especially in employment data and wages, between those third party groups and the government data that don't match up.
- [68:03]
Host
But this happened during COVID That's a concern. Right? Do you remember this happened with Ron DeSantis in Florida trying to hide the COVID numbers.
- [68:11]
Ron
Exactly.
- [68:12]
Host
You know, there becomes suppression of information and then. So what does the authoritarian do in 1984? They create the ministry of information. So they control the information. And I, I feel it like you feel it, Ron. And I've been seeing it like, I've literally been seeing it where you can see him just say any number. That's how he's operated for years. Just says any number. You know, like bringing down the price of, of eggs by 900%. And it's like, okay, so what, the grocery store is going to pay me $35 to take eggs away from them now? I mean, what are you even talking about, man? So, so it's beginning to become, it's now official, especially with Pam Bondi, because she's such a sycophant. She is also controlling information in his favor out of the Justice Department.
- [69:04]
Ron
So the people who speak about Trumponomics, Trump nomics, Right. Is Bessett, Treasury Secretary Bessett, Scott Hassett, who's the economic advisor, who many believe will be the next Fed chair, that Trump is going to push him for Fed chair.
- [69:18]
Host
Right.
- [69:19]
Ron
The White House economic advisor. The guy who's always smiling, smiles, you.
- [69:23]
Host
Know, as he very positive.
- [69:24]
Ron
Yeah. And then Lutnick and Navarro, who's the trade advisor. Right. Those are the four horsemen of the apocalypse that are always out there speaking about Trump, Trumponomics. Right.
- [69:35]
Host
Yeah.
- [69:36]
Ron
And they keep hammering over and over again that all these deficit problems, all these problems are going to go away if we achieve, if we hit 3% growth. Well, they're right about that.
- [69:48]
Host
That's.
- [69:49]
Ron
You're right. We can grow our way out of a lot of these deficits if we hit those numbers. But we just had negative growth last quarter in a quarter that was projected to have positive growth. And I don't see the next quarter getting any better. So they're banking everything. It's like a gamble. It's like pushing all your chips into the middle of the crap table, the poker table. They're gambling everything on 3% growth. And if it doesn't happen, I mean, there they have to be forced to acknowledge if it doesn't happen, this budget bill is a total disaster and the economy is going to get much worse. They're banking everything on very optimistic growth numbers. And you can't, you can't ask no question on a Sunday show and say, what if we don't hit those numbers? Then what? They will not answer that question. All they say is, oh, it's going to happen.
- [70:46]
Host
And this is why Trump is so desperate to get rid of the Fed chair. It's because he basically wants to print money. He wants to quantitative ease. He wants to Kind of do all.
- [70:56]
Ron
These interest rates to go to zero.
- [70:58]
Host
Bring interest rates down through influencing and fudging the economy. And I mean, I, you know, there is a theory, a Project 2025 kind of theory is that, that crashing the economy and crashing world markets is part of the plan. And the, and the, you know, then America can kind of come out of it as the, as the strong man. I don't personally believe that's true.
- [71:23]
Ron
Let me tell you all the stories about him attacking Fed Chair Powell constantly, as he does. All the stories have centered on why is Trump doing that. Trump is doing that because he, he's working the ref. Right. As Trump loves to use that phrase, working the ref. He's, he's arguing, arguing, trying to get him to do what he wants by constantly berating him. But I think there's a different reason. I don't really believe that because I, I think Trump knows Powell is very stubborn and Powell is not susceptible to political pressure and he's going to do what he thinks is right. He doesn't care about Trump chirping on true social right. The reason why they're banging on Powell every day is because they understand that blaming Biden for their economy, it only lasts so long and that expiration date is pretty much here.
- [72:16]
Host
Yeah.
- [72:17]
Ron
And so they, if, if the economy does tank, who they going to blame? If they can't blame Biden, Powell, they're gonna blame Powell. You're gonna watch. If the economy heads south, they're going to be blaming Jerome Powell for it.
- [72:35]
Host
Let's take a look at Peter Navarro setting that up effectively and saying that the problem is that Powell just doesn't understand Trumponomics.
- [72:45]
Donald Trump
Powell is doing the same thing he did with the first term of Donald Trump.
- [72:50]
Ron
He doesn't understand Trump nomics.
- [72:53]
Donald Trump
He doesn't understand the supply side aspects of tax cuts and deregulation. He doesn't understand the importance of strategic energy dominance and the President's ability to dramatically lower oil prices. And he doesn't have a clue about tariffs.
- [73:09]
Host
Yeah. Because he's not a far right nutcase. That's why. I mean, this mindset that Navarro is describing is very much the mindset of this, of this kind of extreme right wing project 2025 movement. And I think that, you know, people need to understand that. It's almost like these people like Navarro, they've made money through gambling and so that's really all they know what to do and how to do. So gambling with the US Economy is no different to throwing all their poker chips into the center of the table.
- [73:46]
Ron
I mean, supply side economics has been around since like 1980, 81. Arthur Laffer was the one who came up with it. Ronald Reagan fully embraced it. You know, and the theory is when you cut taxes, it's going to stimulate the economy and result in more economic growth. Therefore tax cuts pay for themselves. And we saw during Ronald Reagan's presidency that did not happen. They thought that that was, there were massive tax cuts. And I believe that our top tax rate, which at that time was 70%, was too high. I agreed with, you know, we had basically a Scandinavian tax code in 1981. I think that was a bit too high. But, but the point is, is that they predicted that revenue would go up, not down, by cutting taxes, and it did not. And they were forced to scramble and go back a few years later and raise taxes. And even Ronald Reagan raised taxes because the deficit went crazy. So they're back, what, 40 years later with the same plan.
- [74:51]
Host
You know, that did not say cast of characters. Yeah, but Trump is the man of the 80s and people who have their greatest success and look their sexiest as he felt that he was in the, in the 80s and that's who he will forever be. And so to him, to put bring in 80s policies is perfectly acceptable because that was him at his best. Well, I mean, I do feel that he idolizes Reagan.
- [75:17]
Ron
It's also like eating chocolate cake for dinner, you know, it's like, no, it's like, yeah, it's, it's not it. Because it's no pain. It's like, I'm gonna give you all tax cuts and, and we don't have to worry about the government having not enough money to operate because the economy is just going to explode and all this money is going to come flowing in like a casino from where?
- [75:39]
Host
I mean, they're just relying on trickle down economics.
- [75:42]
Ron
Putting a quarter in a slot machine and hoping to hit the jackpot.
- [75:45]
Host
Yeah, yeah.
- [75:46]
Ron
Meanwhile you're just keep pumping in quarters, you know.
- [75:49]
Host
But, but, but trickle down economics has been debunked time and time again. Yeah, it was basically created by conservatives to give them an excuse to kind of, you know, lower their, their tax burden, but it just doesn't work.
- [76:06]
Ron
I saw a great economic study the other day that said if the Trump tax cuts in 2017 never happened, if we had just kept the tax rates the same as what they were in 2017, the deficit would be cut in half.
- [76:21]
Host
Right. And GDP would be prospering. We wouldn't be seeing negative growth either. Even After a pandemic.
- [76:30]
Ron
And this is another issue, Elon Musk, two big issues, renewable energy and the debt. And I'll tell you, he's right about both. Yeah, I agree with him on both.
- [76:40]
Host
Would you vote for him, though? Would you vote for him?
- [76:42]
Ron
I'm not going to vote.
- [76:43]
Host
There we go.
- [76:44]
Ron
I'm not going to vote for his candidates. But on those two issues, he's totally right. And those are the two issues that has fractured his relationship with Trump.
- [76:52]
Host
Yeah, we have to stop in a sec, but let's finish with this story about the migrant amnesty. You touched on it a little bit earlier. This is, of course, this backtracking that Trump had to do because, you know, these, I mean, it's just awful. And it seems to be getting worse. The number of ICE agents that are out and about snatching people off the streets, they're going into places of work. People have stopped going to work because they fear being abduct, abducted. And the knock on effect of this is that, you know, America now is seen as a totalitarian state. And, and, and Trump's wealthy farm owner friends are like, well, you're snatching my staff. I can't, you know, I can't harvest. The crop has to be picked. Trump's like, oh, I didn't think of that because I thought Putin was a nice guy. You know, he's still in that place. And so he backpedals for like 48 hours saying, okay, we're going to give them this kind of opportunity to not go after the farm laborers. Then two days later, they, they reinstate it again. Now we're hearing Brooke Rollins talking about it in the most authoritarian language I think I've ever, ever heard. Let's take a look.
- [78:10]
Ron
But I can't underscore enough. There will be no amnesty. The mass deportations continue, but in a strategic way, way. And we move the workforce towards automation.
- [78:19]
Donald Trump
And 100% American participation, which again, with 34 million people, able bodied adults on.
- [78:25]
Ron
Medicaid, we should be able to do that fairly quickly.
- [78:28]
Donald Trump
Thank you.
- [78:32]
Host
These people are evil. So tell us what's really going on.
- [78:36]
Ron
Evil and stupid. I mean, yeah, I mean, I could spend a lot of time on the whole story of how we got here on this particular issue. But I'm not going to do that because I don't want to bore everybody. But let me just get to the point.
- [78:50]
Host
Yeah.
- [78:50]
Ron
Which is she's actually connected up Medicaid cuts with the, with the migrant farm worker deportations, which is like, I'm not creatively evil. Enough to come up with a scam like this. But Brooke Rollins, who's not very smart, obviously came up with this wild scam and married it up with automation, by the way, which is really interesting.
- [79:15]
Host
The first time I've heard the administration talk about automation.
- [79:17]
Ron
Automation, every, everyone in the farm industry I've read, I probably read more than anybody alive right now. I mean, because, because I, I gotta go now. I gotta read from farm, farm journals and stuff. Made me the most well read person in the, in the universe.
- [79:34]
Host
Yeah, well, you're getting a Nobel Prize.
- [79:36]
Ron
Electric cars. I'm reading about farm workers and you know, I immediately, of course, I go to them, you know, and, and they're all like, this is ridiculous. Like, yes, some, some automation in farming works, but vast majority has been a total failure. It doesn't work with fruit. You know, you bruise vegetables. Yeah, there's, and plus you have to have, they use the workers to maintain the equipment and do maintenance on it and stuff. So there's all that part of it too. And so it's just the idea of like, okay, here, here's the problem. They were doing all these raids. Farm workers are not showing up to work. They're afraid. They're afraid to show up. They don't want to, you know, get the poor. So all this produce is going under. Farms are screaming they can't export their food because of the tariffs and they can't get their stuff picked and processed and all that. So, you know, they're screaming and yelling at Brooke Rollins, who's the agriculture Secretary, you gotta, you gotta carve out an exception. So Trump makes this announcement, which he's talked about a few times, which we're.
- [80:43]
Host
Slavery, by the way. Should we, should we just talk about. What he described was basically a form of modern slavery.
- [80:50]
Ron
I called indentured servitude, but indented slavery.
- [80:54]
Host
Right. So basically he said that they would give responsibility of these migrant workers over to the farm owners and they would have like a docket or some kind of papers that they would hold on to. And I was listening to this and I was thinking what you just described was, was outlawed in this country, and yet he didn't even notice that. What he was describing was the slavery from the very plantations that are written about in the history books, which they have removed from the shelves.
- [81:23]
Ron
Yeah, well, I mean, that's kind of why I use indentured servitude, because it's sort of like more like that than slavery. But it's pretty close. I mean, you're giving an Employer. The authority to deport someone. Because any, you know, if the. You want, you want a raise, you don't want to do what you're told, you don't want to sleep with me, you don't. Whatever. I'm gonna call ICE and you're out of here. You know, it's. You can't give an employer power to control whether somebody.
- [81:53]
Host
Sounds a lot like slavery to me in the country.
- [81:56]
Ron
It may be closer to slavery. Okay? So, yes, I mean, it is absolutely insane, but this is what they're gonna roll out. But I can tell you this is another issue. Maga's not happy because MAGA has been told that these people are all criminals.
- [82:13]
Host
Yes.
- [82:13]
Ron
That they're all rapists and murderers and drug dealers. They're all having dozens of anchor babies and they're gonna make the whole country brown.
- [82:21]
Host
And they're insane as well. Don't forget that. Because they've come from saying to their.
- [82:25]
Ron
Hannibal Lecter, yeah, they want all of them gone. And so you see, what she's doing is she's out here doing damage control in that state.
- [82:33]
Host
Right. Because they were.
- [82:35]
Ron
When Trump announced, we're going to do work permits for farmers, we got to take care of our farmers. MAGA went crazy again. What the hell are you talking about? Get these people out of here. And so she goes out, oh, no, we're not going to do Annecy. So I mocked this because all the MAGA people follow me and said, okay, yeah, it's not amnesty, but, I mean, they're just going to call it something different because they think they're going to fool you by saying, we're not doing amnesty, but they're going to let all these people stay. But then she marries it up with this. She says, well, it's. This is only going to be temporary. It's only going to be for a year or so because we're going to get all these people that are freeloading off Medicaid that are going to need to work to get jobs, and we're going to put them. And clever.
- [83:19]
Host
So clever.
- [83:20]
Ron
All the Medicaid people are going to start working on farms.
- [83:23]
Host
Yeah.
- [83:24]
Ron
And that's going to solve our problems. Then we'll get rid of the migrants.
- [83:27]
Host
I mean, this also, she. She's saying the quiet parts out loud about cuts to Medicaid as well, isn't she? Which Trump has denied the whole time. You know, read my lips. Do you remember? No cuts to Medicaid. And, and the reality is that this bill that they just passed, kind of, you know is, is, is extremely destructive. They think that people are freeloading. Of course, there's always a little bit of fraud, but it's in a tiny, below 1%. The people that are on Medicaid and Medicare are desperate for. It is a, it is, it is their life force. And so we're gonna see people, I think I described it last week as, you know, people just dying a slow, painful death without the support that they need, whether it be through therapy or through drugs or through help in the home or whatever it is that they're relying on that they're going to lose. I just fear that this is a perfect storm of disaster, of chaos. It's going to mean there'll be no food on the shelves, there'll be nothing to eat. There'll be people dying in their homes. It'll be so hot outside, you can't leave the house anyway because no one's bothered to do anything about climate change. And then, you know, AI and the robots will take over and everything will be fine. I mean, you couldn't make this up.
- [84:47]
Ron
Like, why? Just, you know, farming. Like the construction workers, like, they're, you know, a small. I think it's only like 1% of the migrants in the US are in farming. 1%. It's.40 of the farm workers are migrants, but 1% of the total migrants are in farming. So that means 99% of them are working in other industries. So, you know, apparently they're, they're, they're not going to get a carve out, you know, and you know how Trump is going to do this? He's going to pick and choose. If you're, you know, a Democrat who's given money to Kamala Harris and you're a farmer, you might not get, get your workers approved. Right. You know, so. But this is not going to work. MAGA is going to rebel against this. As soon as they roll out the program, which they have not yet, and as soon as they put the details out there, his base is going to go crazy. And I could tell you, like, all of his big fans like Mike Lee and all these guys have all said they do not want this plan. They do not want exceptions for farm workers. So it's going to be very interesting to see. This is yet another issue where he's getting backlash from his own people.
- [85:59]
Host
Everything that he does and announces or actions is a disaster and has been over the last six months. It's either performative and it's not real. Like tariffs, random numbers that don't exist that he backtracks on that. There's deals, but there's no deals. There are no tariff deals. None. We've had, we've had months of this now and there's. Nothing has been, has been done. It's the same when it came to any of these announcements about dealing with Gaza, which now he's gonna, he's going to solve Gaza. I love it when he uses that word, I'm going to solve it. That we just know that these things are a recipe for disaster. And how long are people going to kind of just play along? Because the media, I mean, I was listening to NPR this morning, man, just the way they were covering him, legitimizing him. They refer to him as, I mean, I won't say President Trump ever. I always refer to him as Donald Trump. But, you know, the President this, the President that. He's. That's right. Their opening line was, well, the president has been working an awful lot on foreign affairs.
- [87:08]
Ron
I don't think I've ever said that.
- [87:09]
Host
Right.
- [87:10]
Ron
I think you would be hard pressed to go back through our shows and find us ever referring to him as President Trump.
- [87:16]
Host
Exactly. But why is NPR giving him the credence to say that he is working on foreign affairs? He doesn't know what foreign affairs are. He doesn't understand diplomacy. He just wants his Nobel Peace Prize nomination from Bibi to be, to be broadcast because it's the closest he's ever going to get.
- [87:35]
Ron
What was he talking about yesterday? Two things that he was, he, he spent time talking about.
- [87:40]
Host
Yeah.
- [87:40]
Ron
One was that Ron DeSantis renamed a street in Palm Beach, Donald J. Trump Boulevard.
- [87:47]
Host
Yeah.
- [87:48]
Ron
He was all excited about that.
- [87:49]
Host
Loved it.
- [87:50]
Ron
He was talking about whether he should use gold leaf on the crown moldings in the Cabinet Room.
- [87:56]
Host
Yeah.
- [87:56]
Ron
Or gold paint. And spent a few minutes debating with his Cabinet whether which one would be better. Yeah, these, this is, these are the things that, like, he's focused on.
- [88:08]
Host
Yeah.
- [88:08]
Ron
Not, not, not those other things he doesn't, didn't even know that Hegseth cut off Patriot batteries to Ukraine. So these are the things he doesn't know about. But what he does know about is gold foil and streets being named after.
- [88:23]
Host
Well, that's what he cares about. That's all he cares about. How high the flagpole is, flag poles.
- [88:29]
Ron
Gulf of America, the new ballroom.
- [88:31]
Host
Yeah.
- [88:31]
Ron
At the White House.
- [88:32]
Host
That's what he cares about. It's the only thing he cares about comes back to him. But you know that clip we showed earlier when they, they, you know, they asked him about Epstein. And he goes, why are you asking me about Epstein when we've got all this other stuff? And then he goes, we've got Texas and we've got all this other stuff.
- [88:52]
Ron
Five minutes later, he was talking about the gold foil and the crown molding. Right.
- [88:56]
Host
He couldn't think of anything else that was going on in the US and across the world right now to use as an excuse for why they shouldn't have asked him about Epstein because his mind is blank. It is completely echoey.
- [89:11]
Ron
I can't talk about Epstein, which is the biggest story in America on social media, especially right now, because I'm so worried about Texas. Right?
- [89:24]
Host
Yeah. He don't give two hoots about Texas. And we should probably finish by saying that undoubtedly, and it's the weather people that have made this pretty clear through the whistleblowing, is that undoubtedly the failure of investment in Texas in early warning, but also with Noah and the cuts through Doge and, you know, the additional cuts that we've seen since were the reason why there were so many and continue to be so many fatalities in that tragic event. Weather event. Because, you know, we have the technology, we have the ability to mitigate these things. And it is again, these Republican states that refuse to spend taxpayer dollars on these things, they just, you know, they just won't do it. And they. And nothing will change. Just thoughts and prayers. And prayers. Should have never happened. Yeah. So sad. Okay, well, with that, we shall leave you for this week, but we'll come back next Wednesday and do another edition of Uncovered. You can download the audio podcast, which drops later tonight. And don't forget to comment down below. Check out our sponsors and share the show as best you can. We bid you a good Wednesday. Thanks a lot, Ron.
- [90:43]
Ron
All right, next week.
- [90:44]
Host
Bye for now.