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- [00:14]
A
It's Wednesday. That means it's uncovered. I'm Anthony, he's Ron. And we're about to uncover the MAGA propaganda that is not covered by the mainstream and corporate media. Ron, you're looking very sharp today. I say that because we finally worked out how to improve your webcam, but also because tomorrow is your birthday and I thought we should get ahead and, and wish you a, a big happy birthday for tomorrow. So.
- [00:37]
B
Yep. Big 57.
- [00:38]
A
Whoa.
- [00:40]
B
I'm really getting up there until I hit 60. I'm, I'm totally fine. 60. I may be in a deep bit of depression.
- [00:49]
A
Yeah. Okay, well, I'm, I'm not that far behind you, actually. I know that obviously I look much younger than you on this show, but I'm actually just, just a few years behind you, so. So, you know, we'll celebrate together. All right, let's get straight into the meat of the business, and that is that that Donald Trump's grift with his cryptocurrency is being exposed at greater and greater levels. For people that don't know, just explain. Because this kind of started like the day before his presidency started, didn't it? Like there was like a big, A big deal went off behind the scenes to enable him to just basically profit from this presidency.
- [01:28]
B
Yeah, it really all started in the summer of the last year is when, when the, the seeds of it were planted.
- [01:37]
A
Right.
- [01:37]
B
The actual grift itself wasn't unveiled until the day before the. The he took office. January 19th is when they, they launched it officially. Yeah, but, you know, this is a story that is almost completely ignored by media, and I've kind of been yelling and screaming about it a lot. In fact, you know, yesterday I just blew up because the new Reuters story uncovered some new stuff that just made it even more shocking. And, you know, there have been two major stories on this. This was Reuters, and I think the other one was. I don't remember, but I think it was also a UK publication that broke the story about UAE putting in 2 billion. And that was like a month ago. And those are the only, only two big stories. And I don't know what the reason why the media is ignoring this. The only thing I can think of is like, crypto is a subject that, like, people's eyes glaze over. They don't know a lot about it. But my, I don't either. But my point is, is that you don't need to know the ins and outs of the crypto industry because really, like, the Trump family doesn't really know the ins and outs of the crypto family. When you read these stories, it's, it's almost irrelevant.
- [02:55]
A
Yeah.
- [02:55]
B
The point is it's a bribery scandal. That's it. And, you know, so the seeds of this go back to the Libertarian convention when Trump was trying to get their endorsement and he was scheduled to speak in front of them, which was a boneheaded move, I think that was orchestrated by Jason Miller, one of his campaign people, because he was never going to get it. The Libertarian people are not simpatico with Trump, but I, I think for some reason they thought that they could, they could pull it off. And Mike Lee was in on that. And, and one of their big things is crypto. They wanted crypto completely deregulated. They wanted the government out of crypto. They wanted it to, you know, their alternative banking system is crypto. And they, and, and they wanted to be whatever they wanted. And it. Mostly, the scammers wanted that. Yeah, the pe, the pump and dump scammers who take advantage of people. And so Trump. That's when the Trump family, Eric and Eric especially, and Don and Baron, started looking into this industry and how they could get involved and how they could attach their name to it. And they're looking at all these people making big money for doing nothing, you know, not building anything, not producing anything, and they're just making gobs and gobs of cash. And, you know, that pricks. Anyone with the last name Trump pricks their ears up, you know, Right. How I can make a ton of cash for doing nothing, but. Except putting our name onto it. Sign me up, you know, So I think that that's when they started hooking up with a lot of the people who run these companies. They, they attached themselves to this guy who ended up creating the world Liberty Financial. And they figured out, you know, what these guys wanted. They wanted the deregulation, but they also wanted government to be involved in buying it, legitimizing it and, and pumping up the market. They wanted the Trump name attached to it and that. And they launched their, their thing and, you know, the day before the inauguration, they launched the, the Eric crypto, the dawn crypto, the, the Trump crypto, Baron crypto, and even Melania. And so we can get into next. I don't want to, you know, talk forever, but, you know, we can get into next, like the latest scandal, if you want to do that.
- [05:18]
A
Well, I think you're right. Firstly, that the, the reason people glaze over is because it's so intangible, but also because there is no paper trail. And, and so it's very hard to prove, probably from a journalist's perspective, what's actually going on. And I think, you know this. And, and so it is left to, you know, Reuters has a very good kind of financial arm of its, of its news agency, so they probably kind of understand it more than your average journalist. But, but that's why I think the Trump family is drawn to it, because it is so clandestine.
- [05:54]
B
That's a good point. And you're right, it takes a tremendous amount of digging and, and sources and tracking of things and resources to be able to do that.
- [06:02]
A
Yeah.
- [06:03]
B
So the, the last story that we covered on this was when we found out it was reported that UAE bought $2 billion worth of crypto and, and ended up getting some extremely valuable AI technology out of the US Government in exchange. Now, of course, on all these things, the Trump, they have the plausible deniability, oh, one had nothing to do with the other, you know, okay, sure, you know, now what do we find out? We found out how much money they've made. They actually figured it out how much the Trump family has made so far. And one of the things we learned is Trump Org. That's the umbrella organization that runs all the Trump family businesses for decades. It runs all the hotels, the resorts, the golf courses. It's all under the Trump Org umbrella. We found out last year at this point in time, last year, the Trump org made $51 million total. That's all of their businesses. And we know that their golf courses lose money every year and have for a long time. So that's not that profitable of a business. $51 million for, you know, something that, you know, for a billionaire supposed is not really that much money in the grand scheme of things, considering all the things that they, all the enterprises they have out there. So let's compare that to the same amount of time. This year they've made $864 million.
- [07:34]
A
Right.
- [07:34]
B
They went from 51 last year to 864. 90% of that is crypto and almost all of it is foreign money. One of their largest investors, the guy is a Chinese businessman who is currently under investigation for money laundering in the U.K. i mean, there are all of these shady operators. And by the way, this is not money that's like locked up, that can't be touched for a while. Like the Trump stock, Trump Media stock. You know how we heard like, oh, it's worth X, but Trump can't touch it for a while. This crypto that 864 we talked about is in their pockets.
- [08:15]
A
Yeah.
- [08:15]
B
Even Barron Trump has made over $40 million this year. 18 year old college freshman Barron Trump. Well, I heard, I heard somebody say he dropped out of college, but I don't know if that's true. Why would you. $40 million.
- [08:31]
A
I would not, I would not stick at college if I just made that. I've got this CNN clip with Jake Tapper. Let's, let's have a quick look.
- [08:39]
B
But I want to ask you one more thing before you go. As long as I have you, because you're head of the, you're chairman of the oversight committee. There's a Reuters report today on the Trump family's crypto ventures. Based on the family's own financial disclosures, Reuters found the Trump Organization's income from the first half of this year shot from $51 million to $864 million. About $800 million of that is from crypto. And the story details how most of the buyers are foreign investors and all how all this money's going to be, belong to Trump when he leaves office. Is this something that you're going to look into at all?
- [09:09]
C
Well, it's something that, that we, we are like you reading about this. We're trying to digest it. The difference between the way the Trump families operate and the Biden family is you, they're admitting they're doing this. The president campaigned as a business guy. I'm not defending the policy. I think there needs to be ethics reforms. And I had a bill that Jamie Raskin killed last session because he thought that Kamala Harris was going to win the presidency. But it would have increased the disclosure. So as long as you disclose your income and disclose the sources, I think that's acceptable. If you lie about the income, you say, I never received money from China and then we subpoena your bank records and there's $5 million from China. I think that's a problem. So, you know, I think it's a legitimate question. A lot of people are concerned, especially since the crypto industry isn't regulated. But, but as far as my position now, as far as long as the President's disclosing this and they're filling out disclosures and they're answering questions, he answers questions about it. If you ask him about his crypto, he'll say, yes, they've got the best crypto country in the world. Now do, do the voters like that? I think that's going to be an issue in the next presidential election. I think it's A fair question, but from an ethics standpoint and from an oversight standpoint, the President is disclosing this income. And, and that, I think, is the most important part, the transparency.
- [10:31]
B
All right, we're out of time. The last part. All right, we're out of time. Let's.
- [10:38]
A
Let's move on.
- [10:39]
B
Look, there's. There's so much, like, wrong with what we just saw.
- [10:44]
A
Yeah.
- [10:45]
B
Okay, let's start first of all with the question itself. Okay. At 2pm Eastern time, I tweeted out word for word the exact question Jake Tapper just asked. Two and a half hours later, Jake Tapper had Comer on to talk about the Biden auto pen scandal. Right. That's why Homer was not on to talk about crypto. Yeah, but I was screaming about this crypto story, and he literally read my tweet word for word in that question. That's what I. I say. Why doesn't anyone ask James Comer and the Republicans this question? So, lo and behold, I'm sure it was a coincidence that my viral tweet that had gotten, you know, a million plus views in two hours that Jake was gonna ask that anyway on his own, I'm sure. Right? So he asked that question. Exactly my question. Word for word. And what? And Comer, who just spent the last three years spending 24 hours a day on Hunter Biden's paintings and Barisma from 2014.
- [12:05]
A
Right.
- [12:06]
B
Whether he got $5 million. Now we're talking about an $864 million scam. And by the way, the Trump administration deregulated the crypto industry and is currently regulates it. And what is Comer's response? Comer's response to that? Well, why aren't you going to investigate that? Comer's response is it's not really a problem because, you know, Trump disclosed it. Okay, here's my question for Jake Tapper. When exactly did Donald Trump disclose this? He never disclosed it. Never, Eric, Never. They never. Reuters disclosed it. Reuters found this income. It is a Reuters story. Not one single member of the Trump family has ever admitted ever, how much that they have made off crypto. Never. So what the hell is James Comer talking about? He's lying. So we get to the end of this lengthy segment about the Biden auto pen scandal with James Comer. Tapper asked one question that I freaking wrote on Twitter, and then Comer gives an answer that is a complete lie, and Tapper says, oh, we have to leave it there. Yeah, this is exactly why we're in the mess that we're In.
- [13:30]
A
Yeah, well, it's, it's not just a cover up for, from Comer's perspective and the MAGA Republicans in Congress, but it's also a failure on behalf of, in this case, Jake Tapper and the wider media generally, because you only have to look at media ownership. They're all involved in crypto as well. And so it's almost like it's the worst kept secret and the media is never gonna come up with these stories. So that kind of takes us back to where we first started when you said, why is no one covering it apart from Reuters in London, where. Well, clearly this is, you know, it's like a golden goose for people who are plugged in to that kind of, you know, establishment mainframe.
- [14:12]
B
Well, and let's not forget CNN just launched their new digital platform two days ago.
- [14:18]
A
Right.
- [14:18]
B
And the headliner promoting that new digital platform is Jake Tapper, by the way. And the CNN new CEO was in the White House meeting with Trump to promote his new digital platform, then went back reportedly to the CNN offices and told them to, to back off all the stories about the ballroom. So, I mean, this is like, this is why. Making me like a Bernie guy. I mean.
- [14:49]
A
Yeah.
- [14:50]
B
You know, it's like I, I just want to burn down the whole oligarchy because that's what's happening here. These people are all in collusion.
- [14:56]
A
Yeah. The oligarchy extends to media ownership, politics and, and also to foreign investment as well, because that's part of. Whenever we see, you know, Jared Kushner or any of Trump's surrogates going off on these kind of business trips before Trump arrives for a state visit or whatever else, the deals are all being put in place. I mean, I don't even think Trump really knows what crypto is either, Ron.
- [15:21]
B
But he has no idea.
- [15:22]
A
He has people that do. And, and they are absolutely rinsing this. And maybe all of these grifters rely on the fact that no one really knows what crypto is either.
- [15:33]
B
I mean, I guess I'll just keep talking about it. I will say the encouraging thing is I've been talking about this for a year.
- [15:39]
A
Yeah.
- [15:40]
B
Trump crypto scam. And I got no traction from it. You know, nine months ago, six months ago, people, no engagement people didn't repost the stuff. And I think that they would see the word crypto and they would move on.
- [15:56]
A
Yeah.
- [15:56]
B
Good news is now, I think finally, after banging the drum on this for so long.
- [16:02]
A
Right.
- [16:02]
B
At least the public is starting to be interested, but the media remains uninterested.
- [16:10]
A
Well, there are stories that really connect with the public.
- [16:14]
B
Members of Congress, Democrats in Congress don't talk about this either.
- [16:18]
A
No. Well, I'm sure they have their own investments, too. But, you know, stories like Jimmy Kimmel is very tangible for the public. And so for me, that was like a moment when people actually, like, woke up and went, the ballroom. Yeah. And then I was gonna say the ballroom and certainly the desecration of the, of the East Wing of the White House. It's very visual. It's. It's very tangible. And it takes those types of things to actually get people to wake up and, and get engaged. Let's talk about.
- [16:45]
B
Part about this is, is this is all foreign money.
- [16:48]
A
Yes.
- [16:49]
B
This is not US Investors. The vast majority of money that they are pocketing is coming from foreign sources.
- [16:55]
A
Yeah.
- [16:56]
B
In the Middle east, in China.
- [16:58]
A
Yeah.
- [16:58]
B
I mean, this is corruption on a scale we have never seen before in a. In a presidency.
- [17:05]
A
The Qatari leader on Air Force One the other day, Ron.
- [17:08]
B
Yeah. No coincidence. And he was. He was all happy. This is the first time I've ever been on airflow. The principal sponsors of Hamas are on Air Force One having a great time with Trump and Trump saying how amazing they are.
- [17:23]
A
Trump thinks he's breaking new ground without realizing that he's breaking every convention of legality and human rights. It's so offensive, and yet there is no outrage. People have no point of reference. In a way, it's like, oh, yeah, he's like, doing something. You know, I'm sick of this. This kind of Republican response where, well, at least he's doing something. You know, these kind of references to Biden being benign. What you want is benign. I mean, we have this problem in the UK at the moment with Keir Starmer, who is underwater. His. His numbers are underwater. And I don't think there's ever been a. A prime minister that's had such bad polling, and yet he is probably the safest bet you can have as a political leader. He is intelligent. He is, you know, he's kind of moderate. He is serious. He's all the things that you want in leadership, but all of the things that the people kind of don't really get. And so that's why you'll see the rise of the far right coming in the UK Is because people just want some drama. Otherwise, they just think that the presidency or the prime minister is benign.
- [18:40]
B
Well, if they want drama, they could take our president because.
- [18:43]
A
Right. He's.
- [18:45]
B
He's full of drama.
- [18:46]
A
Yeah. But politics should Be boring. It should be serious. And it's not supposed to be a kind of performance art. And, you know, this is. This is problematic. Okay, let's talk about Trump's private army now, because of course, I'm referring to ice, the expansion of ice. And we've heard that there's been some firings at the kind of the very top. So. And a reorganization, really. So they're kind of bringing in Department of Home Homeland Security and the Border Patrol, and they're all going to kind of basically run ice. So ICE wasn't at the border, but now the border is going to be in. In inner cities. I mean, this is potentially creating a much more totalitarian version of what had gone before. Right.
- [19:32]
B
You know, when this story broke, I saw it on Fox, but a reporter who broke it for another outlet messaged me that they broke the story an hour before or something. Okay, all right, I'm sorry. You know that I said FOX broke. I mean, people get very upset about that in reporters. But, you know, when I first saw this story, which I saw on FOX at, I don't know, 8 o' clock at night on Monday, I was shocked. I mean, I was like, oh, my God, you know, this is huge. And again, like, I don't know, maybe I'm, like, the only one sometimes who thinks that these things are a big deal and nobody else does. But I thought this was huge. And I thought. I thought I would literally would wake up to the next morning to, like, 25 mainstream media stories about this, and there wasn't any. So I was like, I don't know. But anyway, let's talk about it. Yeah, I mean, the story is that, as it turns out, we didn't know this. There was a huge civil war between Border Patrol and ice, which are two different things. And, and basically the point of the story is that in the public's mind, they conflate the two things, right? They. They view them as the same, and they're very different agencies with different attitudes and different methods, but they are now working together really kind of for the first time in terms of they have taken the Border Patrol agents and assets off the border and move them into the cities to help ICE do deportations. But they're not trained for that. They're trained to police the border. They're trained as almost a paramilitary organization. And ICE is trained more as a law enforcement organization, traditionally.
- [21:17]
A
Okay.
- [21:17]
B
ICE deals with the public and civilians. The border. Border Patrol deals with foreign nationals trying to enter the United States. Right. But they're now working in conjunction with each other. And since they're not wearing identification is another reason why they're. You know, the American public just views all of them as ice, when in fact, like half of them are Border Patrol.
- [21:39]
A
Well, they call them federal agents. They're just federal agents.
- [21:43]
B
Yeah. And so what the ice, and this is a Fox story, by the way. And, and, and the fox reporter, Bill McGoolin, who's like their top guy, he's covered the border for a decade. Right. He wrote the story. So it's not like this is some liberal outlet making up. This guy has great sources inside these agencies. And what he's saying is that the worst abuses that you have seen on TV that have led to lawsuits, excessive force is actually more of them are Border Patrol guys that are involved in these things than ice. And then there. And, and so what you have is you also have a civil war where like Gnome and Lewandowski back the tack. The more aggressive, more physical tactics of Border Patrol. And then you have on the other side, Holman, of all people, and, and, and a few others in the administration who favor the ICE approach. And the ICE approach is basically, let's target the people with criminal records.
- [22:41]
A
Right.
- [22:42]
B
The Border Patrol is like the Stephen Miller Gnome philosophy. We got to get everybody, you know, and treat them all the same like criminals. And, and there was this huge conflict and push, pull. And what. And the result of that is that the ICE leadership lost and there is a massive purge of district directors all over the country. Like 12 different district records have all been fired this week, and they're being replaced by people with the. More of the Border Patrol mentality. So what we're going to see as a result of that is what we have seen so far from them is about to get a lot worse.
- [23:23]
A
You know, one word that I never hear in any of the reporting of this stuff is racism. Because at the heart of all of this is this white supremacy from Stephen Miller and subsequently Trump. And the fact that these policies and the handling of these incidents in person, when we see these memes in these videos, is deeply racist. And there doesn't seem to be any coverage in any newspaper, be it the New York Times or the Washington Post or even the Atlantic, kind of digging deep into this issue, that the white man in America fears that he is being outnumbered. And therefore, you know, we. We must remove the. The black and brown people, because that's basically what this is.
- [24:18]
B
J.D. vance just gave another interview today that I saw about this to the New York Post, Miranda Devine, and he repeated the, the Haitian, you know, eating the dogs, eating the cats. He said, he said, imagine, imagine what it's like to live in small town Ohio and have 20,000 Haitians move into your community. You know, he's painting that, that picture and eating the dogs and eating the cats and, and you know, what he talked about again is the great replacement theory. He said that it is a calculated conspiracy on the part of the leaders of the Democratic Party to import new voters. This is what he said today, you know, that, that this was a conspiracy to bring in all these new voters. And that's the reason why they allowed so many people into the country during the Biden years. It's to. For election purposes. Now, again, I, you know, I disagreed with a lot of the Biden border policy and immigration policy. I said, we had numerous, you know, discussions on here. We disagree on it and it's fine. You know, I, I get that. But the point is, is that I don't believe that that was the reason. I believe that the reason was probably too much compassion, you know, and too much, just a. Too, too liberal of a border policy. But I don't believe that it was done in a calculated way to increase the voter base of the Democratic Party.
- [25:47]
A
Because, because migrants can't vote.
- [25:49]
B
They can't vote even if you try to make them citizens. I mean, it would take, you know, a decade or, but, but they, but they, but this goes in hand in hand with their voter fraud conspiracies because what they believe is that Democrats intend to have all these people vote through fraudulent absentee ballots. Right.
- [26:06]
A
But Tucker Carlson kind of started this about 10 years ago.
- [26:09]
B
Yeah.
- [26:10]
A
You know, they've been, Elon Musk fed.
- [26:11]
B
Into all of it.
- [26:12]
A
Right. They've been talking about it for years. There is not an ounce of truth to it, and yet it kind of serves the purpose. But you know, it's just important that we remember that at the heart of all of this is systemic racism. And it's, you know, I mean, it's, it's America. I mean, this is, this is what, what is unfortunately baked in to the culture for, you know, not quite half the population. Maga. Mini maga. Mike Johnson.
- [26:40]
B
Well, by the way, the footnote to that is you never hear them complain about like the Ukrainians coming in or.
- [26:46]
A
You know, or even the South African, the white South African.
- [26:49]
B
No complaints about.
- [26:50]
A
No, they can come in because they've been persecuted in, in South Africa. Yeah. I mean, look, you know, if you understand the history, which of course they're also trying to Erase. You recognize where this comes from? MAGA Mike Johnson, who is also a, you know, one of these kind of white supremacists, you know, is just of a slightly different flavor, was asked questions about this. And as with everything that he's asked these days, he claimed to know nothing about it.
- [27:18]
D
But when you're out of resources, they go all the way up and it's out of their hands. It's out of our hands. And that's why we're so frustrated. You don't see the happy warrior Steve Scalise pound the, you know, the podium very often. But we're, we're angry about this. We're frustrated. We should be because it's wrong for the people and all. You should be angry about it as well. And I know many of you are yet raped.
- [27:37]
B
What's your reaction to yesterday's purge of.
- [27:40]
C
Senior ICE officials from field offices around the country? Are you worried that that's to going that resulted in less experienced leadership at ice?
- [27:46]
B
And again, when is it time for Congress to do some.
- [27:50]
D
I don't, I don't know any of the details of that yet. I just heard about that. Literally, I was walking in. So I'm not going to comment on it until I find out the details. I know some of these things get mis. Portrayed. Yeah, back row. Yeah.
- [28:01]
A
He's all. It's always either, oh, well, I only just heard about that before we started, so I can't comment on it now. Or. Yes, I think I read something about that, but I'm not sure. I can't really recall. I mean, the guy, the guy is a disaster.
- [28:14]
B
Yeah. Maybe it was fake news. Right? It's Fox. It's Fox News Fox.
- [28:18]
A
Yeah.
- [28:18]
B
You have a problem with their reporting. It's not, not the liberal media. I mean, this is what. Yeah, I mean, he's done these daily press conferences and every time he's asked about something controversial, you know, he, he plays ignorance. You know, he's like, I don't know anything about that. The guy, the guy claims to be working like 18 hours a day. Congress has not been in session for 40 consecutive days. The House, the Senate has. The House has done nothing for 40 consecutive days. There's no members in town other than his hand. Small leadership team. And by the way, he mentioned at the beginning of that clip happy warrior Steve Scalise. I've never seen Steve Kalis happy in his ever. I mean, when, when is Scalise happy? So, I mean, that's just an aside, but no, I mean, this is his, this is his way of handling everything. I don't know anything about that. I, I didn't read that. And what he's, what he's banking on is that the following day when the story is 36 hours old, the press will forget and not ask him again. And he's right.
- [29:23]
E
He's right.
- [29:24]
B
Well, because the attention press is about 12 hours.
- [29:27]
A
Yeah, let's, you know, sticking with this, let's talk about the shutdown for the moment. We are, we are currently in the longest shutdown in, in history and it doesn't look like it has any kind of, there's no real chance of it ending anytime soon. I think as of Monday, air traffic controllers did not get their, their or got their first kind of non paycheck. It was payday and nothing came. That's going to get problematic especially as we head into the holiday season, Thanksgiving and everything else again. MAGA Mike Johnson doesn't seem to know much about it or care. This tactic of blaming the Democrats. I mean we've discussed recently how the tactic of who to blame has kind of keeps changing. But specifically SNAP benefits, we know about, we know about health care costs that are going up. Did I tell you I actually got the quote for my health care for next year. It came through and it's up nearly 20%.
- [30:23]
B
But you're lucky it's only that.
- [30:24]
A
Yeah, but 20% is nearly $400 a month.
- [30:28]
B
It's a lot worse for other, I mean I just was looking at the tables of the, how they calculate that, the formulas of SNAP subsidies and it's a sliding scale for some people it's worse. You know, the situation will be worse.
- [30:41]
A
But the stealthy thing is that the, the services have changed. So it's not just because that's just for membership. Right. That's just, you just pay that money. So I'm paying nearly $2,000 a month for a family of four for nothing. That's just to be a member of the scheme because you've still got to do your co pays when you go. And this is not for the best health care. This is for really very kind of average health care. This is a silver HMO plan but also the, the caps and the, you know, the, the limits and all of these things, they've all changed so that we are worse off as well. But there was a little small print in the in because you know, they just sent this through as oh, by the way, this is what's going to be happening in January. But there was a little line that said anything could change between now and January. And I actually think, you know, I'll keep coming back to this as I get more information from the, from the, from the health care company. But I think it could continue to go up. You know, there's no reason why they're going to stick just short of 20%. Yeah.
- [31:37]
B
So on the shutdown, I mean, you know me, I'm always an optimist. I always think things are going to work out.
- [31:44]
A
Yes.
- [31:45]
B
You know, I, here's what I think, you know, and I follow this stuff very closely. You know, I read all the, the punch bowl people and the Huffington, all the congressional reporters, Manu Raj every single day. I follow their play by play. And they love to give you, you know, updates every five minutes on the latest twists and turns. I try not to get caught up in all of that, but you kind of have to look for the trend lines here. Here's what I think is going on because I do think that this is going to be resolved. I'm thinking by Monday or Tuesday because I think the pain points for both sides are getting too much and, and they have to find a way out. But here's the part of the problem is Mike does whatever Trump tells him to do, period. End of story. Mike has no, there's no daylight between the White House and Mike. And he's, he's even said that many times. There's no deadline between daylight between me and the White House.
- [32:44]
A
Trump referred to him as his puppet the other day.
- [32:46]
B
He bragged, he bragged that I'm both speaker and I'm, I'm the president and the speaker. He jokes at one of his dinners.
- [32:53]
A
He said he'll do whatever I tell.
- [32:55]
B
He's right. He's absolutely right. You know, I agree with Trump on that. So, you know, he, Trump's position is no negotiations, no concessions. They vote for clean cr, you know, and that's it. They got it. They have to surrender. I want the win. They got to get down on their knees and beg forgiveness. Right. And so that's Mike's position. And that's why the House is not even in session for 40 days. Right, right. That neptine. So th over in the Senate is a little bit more nuanced, you know, and of course that's where the hang up is. And you know, he is looking for a path out. And so what you have is you have people like, by the way, you know, let's talk about snap food stamps. Right? 20, 20 million. So people on, on, on snap benefits. Right. The vast majority of Them are in Republican states and Republican districts. And one of those is Josh Hawley, who has a, a huge number of SNAP beneficiaries in Missouri. And this is arguably an even bigger deal than the healthcare stuff because this is talking about working class poor people who are going to starve.
- [34:04]
A
Yeah.
- [34:05]
B
And that's going to happen on Saturday. SNAP benefits end Saturday. And so, yeah, people like Holly and, and Susan Collins who joined them and was like 12 Republicans who joined Holly that said, let's just do a standalone, build a fun SNAP so people don't starve. And th, you know, toyed with that idea. And I talked to the White House and then said, no, you know, I don't want to do that. He called it a shotgun approach. I don't want to do a bill for the military, a bill for air traffic controllers. I just want to get this resolved. So I think, you know, with SNAP expiring on Saturday, with the aca, you know, subsidies also expiring at the end of the year in the air traffic controller stuff, the military pay, all of this is kind of like a perfect storm coming to a head next week. So I just think it's become too painful. The deal I would like to see Democrats make. And, and I'll, I'll tell you this, I posted on Twitter to try to nudge some of them along because a lot of Democrats in Congress follow me on social media.
- [35:07]
A
Yeah, we'll get Jake Tapper to talk about it for you. Yeah, right.
- [35:11]
B
Maybe half of Democrats in Congress follow me. So I put it out there. I said, look, not that I'm like, not that they listen to me, but you know, I try. So my thinking is the, the do a one year extension of, of the ACA subsidies. Now Democrats don't want that. They want five years do one year. The reason why is this because that will expire right after the midterms.
- [35:36]
A
Right.
- [35:37]
B
So once you agree to that deal, okay, now everybody's pulled back from the brink on the cr. The government opens up and now the number one issue for the midterms becomes whether we are going to extend ACA subsidies. And that is a winning issue for the Democrats. So that's my thinking.
- [35:57]
A
You're very, you're very good at this, you know, and I, I think it's important that we continue to maintain our side hustle as consultants for the Democratic Party from this safe distance. Yeah, exactly. There's other things attached to this that I think are very concerning, like Trump taking 130 million dollar kind of gift from this private Investor, this friend of his, to. Right. To pay for the military. I mean, it doesn't go very far with the military. Works out about $100 per.
- [36:30]
B
Per service, about six hours.
- [36:33]
A
Exactly. But even so, what it does do is there is a bigger conversation to be had about privatizing the military. And that is a very serious issue because that, again, goes to what we were saying earlier about Trump creating a private army. And, you know, he has been asked about this and he has said, you know, I have every right to, you know, do whatever I want, which is basically to call for the Insurrection act and then, you know, bring various branches of the military into cities. We'll talk about that a little bit later. I want to show this clip, though, of, of Mike Johnson kind of responding to the question about SNAP funding. Here it is, second row.
- [37:11]
B
The White House was able to find funding for the military, for wic, for farmers. Should the White House now be able to find some funding for the staff program? If they.
- [37:20]
D
They certainly tried. I mean, one of the reasons that this shutdown has not yet been as painful as it might otherwise have been is because the president is bent over backwards. The administration. Think of it this way. The White House, the executive branch in a shutdown, has a large control panel full of dials. Under the Obama administration, they turned those dials, the pain dials, to 10 immediately. You remember, it was so egregious to us. Speaking of our veterans. I mean, they put yellow crime tape around the World War II memorial so that, so that people who served their country could not go visit the memorial. They wanted it to hurt. The Democrats have shown, and they've said in their own words, this is leverage. It gets better for them every day. They don't mind inflicting pain on the American people if they can somehow get some sort of political points out of it. The Republican Party is the opposite. And President Trump has proven that every day of this shutdown. He has tried to move funds around to find unobligated funds to cover the bases, to get the troops paid in the middle of October, and to make sure that WIC funding is not resolved. You know how he's getting Women, Infants and Children funding done. They did some very creative legal research I've quite admired. They found a statute in the 1930s that they could use to say that some of the tariff revenue could be used to cover nutrition because so much of that was transported over the border. So they've done some creative, amazing things to mitigate, to lessen the pain as much as possible.
- [38:45]
A
Gaslighting yeah.
- [38:46]
B
Before I get to that lie. Is that George Santos? Is that, is that George Santos next to Mike there? Oh, in that video. Can I see that? Did he sneak back in?
- [38:57]
A
Let's, let's have a.
- [38:58]
B
The White House was able to find money for the military, for wick, for farmers. Should the White House now be able to find some money for. In the staff program if they've done it?
- [39:08]
A
What do you mean? On, on the right.
- [39:09]
B
Yeah. I thought that female closing snuck in there. It's Harriet. Harriet Hageman. My mistake. I thought he got. Got out of prison.
- [39:17]
A
I see what you did there. Yeah.
- [39:18]
B
Okay, so what were we talking about? Oh, yes. So he's talking about creative accounting, moving money around. What a, what a load of nonsense.
- [39:26]
A
Because the irony.
- [39:27]
B
There's an emergency fund that's specifically there which is available to tap for SNAP benefits. Right. And John TH Was looking at using that, you know, wanting to have the President invoke that and, and put that. And it would only cover SNAP for three weeks. But three weeks is three weeks. Gives time, more time to negotiate. Right, but what did John TH Say? No, the, the White House does not want to do that, and the White House does not want me to do a standalone SNAP bill. So, so when Mike says, oh, Democrats want leverage, want to use pain points as leverage. Well, guess what the Republicans are doing? They're using pain points as leverage with snap, but it's not working because lo and behold, the majority of SNAP beneficiaries are in Republican congressional districts. What a surprise. So, so that's why they have their, some of their members like Holly, and Holly is. Holly is surprisingly like, leading the charge on this. But, you know, then you have Susan Collins who said she is very concerned. Not concerned. Very concerned.
- [40:40]
A
Yeah, we could do a whole program on Susan Collins. We really could. This is, reminds me of Trump, like stealing $2 billion from the military R and D funds to pay the military, you know, where, where it's like, oh, well, I'll just decide where the money comes from.
- [40:56]
B
That's it.
- [40:57]
A
In the meantime, the US Military will have no research and development for the foreseeable future because, you know, he can't manage the shutdown. My view is slightly different to yours. I don't think that they are going to resolve this. I think that he might carve out money for the air traffic controllers because, remember, he and his friends, they need air traffic control because they're flying their private jets all over the place. And apparently the sale of private jets is through the roof now. Thanks To Donald Trump. Trump. And so we, I, I think we'll see them fix the things temporarily that will benefit them. But things like snap, I don't see, I just don't see it being resolved because I maintain my position that, that the Trump regime wants poor people to die. And if it means that they're going to go hungry and starve, then so be it. That is not really the responsibility of Republicans who ultimately don't care for socialism.
- [41:55]
B
Because I can't see Democrats surrendering.
- [41:58]
A
No.
- [41:58]
B
And nor should they Iran, despite John Fetterman, you know, being out there every single day on Fox News, you know, yelling at Democrats that they need to surrender. He's not like him. I don't see it. I mean, they need five senators to flip, not one or two, five. And, you know, they've got to get something in return. I, I just can't see any scenario where the Democrats in the Senate are going to go, okay, we give up, you win, we get nothing. I mean, that's not going to happen. So Thune, if it's got, if a deal gets done, it's not going to get done by Trump, it's not going to get done by Johnson, it's going to get done by Thune in the Senate.
- [42:40]
A
Yeah.
- [42:40]
B
And that somehow they're going to have to figure out a way to give Trump credit for something. You know, he's going to have to get credit.
- [42:47]
A
You know, the spanner in the works right now is one of their members who's gone rogue, and that is Marjorie Taylor Greene. And last week you admitted to agreeing with her, which was a, you know, a seismic shift. The, you know, the whole world suddenly shunted on its axis.
- [43:02]
B
Let me read to her boyfriend and said how much I agree with her lately.
- [43:08]
A
Let's, let's post, read her post. You left out that I have no respect for the House not being in session, passing our bills and the president's executive orders. And I demanded to know from Speaker Johnson what the Republican plan for health care is to build the off ramp for off ramp Obamacare and the ACA tax credits to make health insurance affordable for Americans. Johnson said he's got his ideas and pages of policy ideas and committees of jurisdiction are working on it. But he refused to give one policy proposal to our GOP conference on our own conference call. Apparently I have to go into a skiff to find out the Republican health care plan. So, Ron, what this does effectively is it exposes what we've all known all along, and that is that there is no replacement for the Affordable Care act and that Republicans are just treading water here.
- [43:57]
B
Yeah. So, you know, my position on these things is to compartmentalize. Right. With these rogue Republican scenarios. So, you know, on occasion, I have, you know, praise people even like Rand Paul, Thomas Massie, you know, at various times when they pop their head up and, and go against Trump on something. I'm. I'm in on it. And, and, and again, I'm not saying that I like them, that they are heroic or that they're courageous or any of that kind of thing, although Massie has a. A lot of courage in him. But, you know, especially on the Epstein thing, I'm not. I'm just saying, like, on this particular issue, I appreciate what they have to say. And I texted her boyfriend Brian, you know, that I said, look, last month. I mean, she's like the one truth teller in the Republican Party in the House. I mean, she's really giving him the business. And I said, I appreciate that. And he told her and said, she says, thank you. So there you go. I mean, in March, Good buddies.
- [44:59]
A
Now, again, this is what we were saying last week about offering Republicans a soft place to land when they do see sense and not. And not feeling like it is essential to kind of box them, you know, put them into. Compartmentalize them, as you. As you said.
- [45:14]
B
Yeah. Because their response to Democrats on this ACA subsidy issue is to claim that. That we don't want to do it because we think Obamacare sucks and we have a better plan. And course, we've heard this for 10 years, you know, and they. We've never seen the plan. And so when Marge comes in and says, I confronted them behind closed doors and said, show me the plan, and they don't have one.
- [45:39]
A
Yeah.
- [45:39]
B
I mean, that's. I guess my only question is, why is she the only one who's willing.
- [45:44]
A
To say that, you know, well, have you seen her? She ain't frightened of anyone. And that's for sure. The only thing they don't like about Obamacare is that it has Obama in the title. So if they were only to.
- [45:58]
B
Well, that's why I try to call it the aca.
- [46:00]
A
Yeah. And. And that's why I saw some guy on YouTube who was going around asking Republicans if they preferred the ACA or Obamacare. He was interviewing people in the street and they were like, oh, definitely the aca. Definitely. Much better. It's just like. But this is the problem. It's the brand. I mean, Obama never called it Obamacare. You know, that was the that was the media, and that was, you know, something that, that, that kind of came about after. But in reality, the ACA is all we got. And it's, you know, it took what 80 million people gave. 80. About 80 million people Healthcare that didn't have it beforehand.
- [46:39]
B
I mean, 24 million get the ACA subsidies.
- [46:43]
A
Right. You know, it is, it is essential in this, in this moment. Okay, listen, we have to take a quick break, but we've got so much to talk about, including a very minor point which I think people might find of interest, and that is the tactics that Donald Trump is now employing to rig the midterms. We'll do that next here on Uncovered. The guys at True Classic started with a simple mission to bring premium comfortable clothing to the masses. Because looking and feeling great shouldn't come with a designer price tag. And clearly people agree. People vote with their dollars. And True Classic has sold over 25 million shirts to more than 5 million customers and is racking up over 200,000 five star reviews. Now, the brand isn't just about fabric or fit. It's about helping guys show up every day with confidence and purpose. Their shirts fit where they should feel incredible and don't break the bank. You get that tailored look without sacrificing comfort or blowing your budget. I've been wearing True Classic for a while now, and you can feel the difference the moment you throw one on. It's tailored where you want it, relaxed where you need it. No bunching, no stiff fabric, no bs. Just a clean, effortless fit that actually works for real life. So forget overpriced designer brands. Skip the cheap throwaway stuff. True Classic is built for comfort, built to last, and built to give back. You can find them on Amazon, Target, Costco, Sam's Club, or head to trueclassic.com uncovered to try them out for yourself. And you can find links to our sponsors down in the description below. Okay, so let's talk about the midterms. The last thing I said in last week's episode, I seem to remember, was, you know, the midterms, if we get a vote. And you had the saddest face. And I watched it back and I was like, oh, it's. It is. It's like a terrifying thought that all this effort and all this work is going into something that is so important in this moment. And if the system doesn't hold because Trump is taking advantage of it in the same way he has done with crypto and demolishing half the White House in the middle of the night, and everything else that he touches then, you know, it will be a very sad day and democracy in the US will be over. But your, your investigations into this are kind of starting now with the way that Trump is starting to kind of claim that the midterms are being rigged by Democrats effectively. And I'll read his posting, I'll pop it up here and you can see it. But it says what's worse, the NBA players cheating at cards and probably much else or the Democrats cheating on elections. The 2020 presidential election being rigged and stolen is a far bigger scandal. Look what happened to our, to our country when Crooked became our president. He's talking about Joe Biden there. We know we now know everything. I hope the DOJ pursues this with as much gusto as befitting the biggest scandal in American history. If not, it will happen again. Quiet part out loud, including the upcoming midterms. No mail in or early voting. Yes to voter id. Watch how totally dishonest the California prop vote is. Millions of ballots being shipped. Get smart Republicans before it is too late. He says there is so much to unpack here. And you know, saying the quite a quiet part out loud is Donald Trump all over, isn't it? I mean he's basically telling us what he is doing and claiming the Democrats did it in 2020.
- [50:24]
B
Yeah, you know, my position on the midterms now was articulated a lot better than me by there was somebody who, David, somebody who wrote a brilliant article in the Atlantic and two days ago about and I posted a link to it in my substack column that I, my Today in Politics column that I posted last night. I had a link to it and, and I included a few paragraphs and it was a brilliant column. All about what about the midterms and about the 2028 election and how he thinks what, how he thinks Trump is going to handle both of them and how he, and listing out many of the things he's already done to try and rig the midterms and 2028 and from, you know, the gerrymanders to so many other different things. And I encourage everyone, I never, never include any links in my daily column because I just don't want it filled with a hundred links and I don't want people jumping back and forth. But this is like one that I made an exception and I actually linked to it. It's that good. And the argument that he makes is that authoritarians throughout history love elections. They don't cancel them. They as long as they control them, they love them because it legitimizes them. And so what they like to do is when they achieve power democratically through a free and fair election, then, then they immediately begin to change the rules, change the mechanisms, because they want to have elections, and they want to have elections to legitimize their regime and to be able to say, see the people support. But they want to control how those elections are held, and they want to control all the rules to make sure, they want to make sure that they're definitely not going to lose.
- [52:20]
A
Well, that's what Putin.
- [52:21]
B
But they don't cancel them. And so that is the way he laid it out. And the way he laid, he laid out like 12 different things that he says that Trump has already done to try and influence the outcome of the midterms. And then he lays out several things he thinks he's going to do this upcoming year. And I thought it was just the most persuasive case that you could possibly make for Democrats to be aware of all of this stuff and to be ready for it, because I think that that reflects my position, too. So that's when I say, when people say, I don't think we're going to have an election, I don't agree with that. I think, I think we're going to definitely have an election. But it's, but it's going to be an election that they're going to do everything possible to rig.
- [53:06]
A
And it goes way beyond the gerrymandering and the redistricting, way beyond. Because, you know. Yes, you know, California's caught onto that, so they're kind of finding five more seats and playing that game. But I worry that that really isn't enough. I mean, the, one of the biggest flags. Again, talk about another story that didn't really kind of do much in the media. I think it was two weeks ago that Dominion Voting Systems was sold for an undisclosed amount to one of Donald Trump's friends, a Republican elections operative who, to all intents and purposes, now has control over 50% of the voting machines in American elections.
- [53:45]
B
Yeah, you may end up having this strange dichotomy where, you know, Republicans were wanting paper ballots. You know, that was one of the things that they wanted in 2020 because of fraud and all of this. And Democrats were defending the voting machines companies. Well, that could very much flip. Right. You could have Democrats calling for paper ballots. So, yeah, you're right. There's all kinds of little things like that. But, you know, he's already talking about invoking Insurrection Act. He's talking about sending the military. You know, let's look at the elections for next week. Right. The Virginia governor race and the, and attorney general and, and lieutenant governor and the New Jersey ones.
- [54:26]
A
Yeah.
- [54:27]
B
And the California referendum.
- [54:29]
A
Correct.
- [54:29]
B
Those are the three massive elections next week. Huge.
- [54:33]
D
Huge.
- [54:34]
B
Because think about this. I mean, the California referendum is going to pass easily. The Republicans have already given up. They pulled all their advertising. It's going to pass easily. Okay, great. But, you know, New Jersey and Virginia. Let's say we win both of those big, you know, and I think we're gonna win Virginia big. I think we're gonna win New Jersey. Close. But that's the two first big, really big elections in the, in this Trump presidency. And if Democrats win, and it's the first two elections for the new RNC chair, if the Democrats win those. That's, that's a big story. That's, that's a story that has legs, that carries with it momentum into the midterms. So what is Trump doing? They're sending election monitors out to the polling places in New Jersey, California and Virginia next week. Well, that's just a sign of things to come right there. You know, that's an intimidation tactic.
- [55:30]
A
The other suggestion is that this escalating drone kind of firing on, on these boats, these kind of drug cartels, you know, Venezuelan drug, drug boats. Supposedly they killed, like, nearly 40 people now. Yeah. And, and it's just, it's just insane. It's completely against international law. Forget human rights and everything else. I mean, it really puts the US Into a very difficult situation if they were ever held to account, which is highly unlikely. But he's also moved. Is it like the, the, the Gerald Ford aircraft carrier has now kind of been moved to, to Venezuela. And there's this plan to effectively start a war so that Donald Trump can then claim that war. Because we're at war. We either have to suspend elections or goodness knows what else.
- [56:24]
B
That's why how the Supreme Court defines emergency powers.
- [56:31]
A
Yes.
- [56:31]
B
And what is and is not a national security or national emergency threat in, in, in, for example, this tariff case is very important for other things, because if they give a very broad definition of what is a national emergency, because that's also the criteria to invoke the Insurrection Act.
- [56:53]
A
Yeah.
- [56:55]
B
And, and, and they, if they basically do what they did on presidential immunity, and they basically just say, look, we're not gonna, we're not gonna get in the weeds here and try and figure out what national emergencies are. That's not really our role. The president has broad discretion to determine what is a threat and what is not a threat? It's not really our place or Congress's place to get, or a judge's place to get involved. Then all of a sudden, you know, you could just, any president can just say something is a national emergency and. Yeah, and basically we have martial law, you know, and so that, that, that is definitely a concern. This tariff case is more about more than tariffs.
- [57:32]
A
Oh, 100%. I want to show this clip of Rand Paul, who's kind of arguing the case that the, the Venezuela kind of, you know, potential for war there is actually a false flag. Let's take a look.
- [57:46]
B
Start somewhere where I think the two of you agree and that's on some of what the last bit of what Lucas was reporting on there about those strikes out the in See, the president says there is going to be more information briefing coming to Capitol Hill. Here's what he said Thursday, the land.
- [58:01]
C
Is going to be next. And we may go to the Senate, we may go to the, you know, Congress and tell them about it, but I can't imagine they'd have any problem with it.
- [58:10]
B
I think they're going to probably like.
- [58:11]
C
It, except for the radical left lunatics.
- [58:14]
B
All right, so I'll start with you, Senator Paul.
- [58:16]
C
What do you need to hear in a briefing?
- [58:17]
B
What questions do you have?
- [58:20]
E
You know, it's not so much about a briefing, but we haven't had a briefing. To be clear. We've got no information. I've been invited to no briefing. But a briefing is not enough to overcome the Constitution. The Constitution says that when you go to war, Congress has to vote on it. And during a war, then there's a lower rules for engagement. People do sometimes get killed without due process. But the drug war or the war or the crime war has typically been something we do through law enforcement. And so far they have alleged that these people are drug dealers. No one said their name, no one said what evidence, no one said whether they're armed. And we've had no evidence presented. So at this point, I would call them extrajudicial killings. And this is akin to what China does to Iran does with drug dealers. They summarily execute people without presenting evidence to the public. So it's wrong.
- [59:10]
A
That is very inflammable language, isn't it, to refer to Trump's directives as extrajudicial killings. What will the ramifications of this be? Is anyone listening to Rand Paul right now?
- [59:24]
B
Certainly not on the Republican side. I think that there are many Republicans in Congress who agree with What Rand Paul said, I'm sure that there are, I mean, we've heard a few rumblings about it, but no one that's willing to speak up to that extent. Which is why I say, you know, on, on the health care with Marge Green and on this issue with Ramp, you know, we compartmentalize, we say we disagree with Red Paul and everything else, but on this he's been very consistent and he's, and he's a truth teller and he's, and he's saying all the right things. You know, look at, look at what Trump is saying there. I mean, when they asked Trump, are you going to go to Congress on any of this stuff, you know, this huge build up of fleet he's talking about, we're going to do the land next, what he's saying is we're not just going to be blowing up boats here. No, no, we're going to do strikes inside Venezuela on their sovereign territory. I mean, that that is an act of war. And what he said. And so they're saying, are you going to go to Congress on this? And what he says is, I don't know, maybe, you know, we might tell him about it. I mean, and what Rand Paul is saying is that's not, first of all, you haven't told us anything. You haven't given us one jot of information about any of these boats. And second of all, you have to do more under the Constitution than just tell us. You have to get our advice and consent, we declare war, you have to come to us for, to get, I mean, even George Bush, you know, on WMDs in Iraq, I mean, came to, got a vote from Congress. Joe Biden voted for it. You know, the Iraq war, I mean, they went to Congress on, on Iraq and Afghanistan. But Trump thinks, no, I don't, I don't need to do that. I can just do this on my own. And you know, there was one of the new White House correspondents for some right wing outlet who just got her press credentials and she was all bragging about it on social media and she said she was cheering this on. She was saying, oh, we got four more narco terrorists. She's, she's a White House correspondent, right? So I said to her on social media, I challenged, I said, what information do you have as a White House correspondent that these were narco terrorists? Let's just assume, okay, it's fine for a president to summarily execute a narco terrorist. All right, what proof do you have? You know, and her answer is, Pete, hegseth told me they are.
- [61:52]
A
Yeah.
- [61:52]
B
So this is what we're going to do now. If Hegseth says, someone's our drug dealer and we're going to kill them, you, as a White House correspondent, just say, okay, that's good enough for me.
- [62:06]
A
What you're describing, Ron, is a unitary government. And there has been, you know, talk of this is how Trump sees himself and the way that they operate. Certainly what Stephen Miller believes in, too, this concept of unitary government where they are. They have all the power. And I think that he feels that because they have a majority in Congress, that means that whatever he says goes, he doesn't need to go to them. In fact, probably embarrassing for Trump to feel that he has to go and ask permission when he is in the majority. If you just get into his psychology for a moment, it's a little bit when people said, oh, well, will he be the vice president in order to run for a third term? It's like Trump being a vice president. Do you not know anything about the psychology of this man? Like, not in a million years would he do that?
- [62:53]
B
Offensive to him.
- [62:54]
A
Completely offensive to him. So, you know, it's important that we recognize that we're dealing with a level of insanity combined with this kind of narcissistic personality disorder. And, and it comes from all of them. I mean, they're all diagnosed in a similar way. These. These men who just feel like they are gods. And, you know, my worry is that they also control the nuclear football. Ron. So, you know, if. If Trump is, like, boasting about extrajudicial killings, and I've even seen J.D. vance with his jokes, oh, well, you know, that'll teach you to go fishing in those waters. And. And Hegseth doing the same thing. These are people that relish the murder of these people. They. They are murderers. And, And. And they are actually enjoying it. And to me, it just goes back.
- [63:49]
B
A lot of these people like Hegseth and others, you know, they're not going to have Secret Service protection, you know, after they're out of power. I know they. They're acting like they never will be. I mean, that's. That's the thing. But, you know, the reason why the US Government doesn't do this kind of thing anymore, like it used to, you know, assassinating foreign leaders and stuff, is. Is because our leaders were getting assassinated, too. You know, and so, you know, Hegseth might not, in 2029, want to be on a boat himself. Right. Because there might be a lot of countries that are going to be looking at his boat. And that's, that's why we don't do things like this. But the point is, it also, we, we get, we have no moral authority. Other countries can do this to our people too. And, and what are we gonna, they, and what are we gonna say in response? You know, you can't do that. We've, we've forfeited all legal and moral authority and we're just thuggery. We're just a gangster government. And you know, it works both ways. But the problem is, is that Trump believes, and Hegseth and others believe the US Is all powerful and impervious and nobody can ever strike back and hurt us back. Well, that has also proven not to be true over the, over the decades.
- [65:06]
A
What you've also just described, though, is the reason why they don't intend to leave office ever. Because the moment they leave office, they will be subject to the European Court on human rights, the Hague.
- [65:20]
B
They're war criminals.
- [65:21]
A
They're war criminals.
- [65:22]
B
That's why I said, you know, Russell Crowe's new Nuremberg movie comes out on Tuesday. I said, you know, some of these guys in the Trump administration and then the US Military who are following these orders need to go watch that movie and remember Nuremberg because, you know, a lot of the general, the Nazi generals and the German generals who were just following orders.
- [65:43]
A
Yeah.
- [65:44]
B
Were prosecuted.
- [65:47]
A
And that brings us to this, which was a posting by Phil Stewart who said scoop US Military officials involved with, with President Donald Trump's expanding operations in Latin America have been asked to sign non disclosure agreements. Story moving now. This is again, it just confirms our worst fears that, that they know what they're doing is illegal. They, they, by getting people to sign, service personnel to sign NDAs, that again, kind of gives them a little cover and protection. But to me, this all contributes to, to my theory that they have no plans to leave office. And, and, and, and I, I know, I hate to be kind of pessimistic about elections, and I agree with you, we will have elections, but they are going to do everything in their power to stay in office in the same way that they did everything in their power to win the last election, including employing Elon Musk and his millions.
- [66:51]
B
Yeah.
- [66:51]
A
And you know, it was essential Trump was going to prison, remember? Right. He couldn't go to prison. He had to win. And so they, and they are good at this stuff. You know, they might be disorganized morons in many ways, but, but when it comes to stuff like this, you know, life or death Rich or poor, they know. They certainly know which levers to pull.
- [67:12]
B
Sure. They're very ruthless in that respect. I mean, the NDA thing tells me two things. It tells me, one, what you just said, that they know what they're doing is wrong, illegal, whatever, on shaky ground legally. And two, that there are people inside the military objecting. And we already know that the admiral in charge of this whole operation has already quit, you know, resigned and is retiring early. And. But what this tells me is that there are others. There are many, I think there are many military officers who are very uncomfortable with what is happening down there with these murders, and they're very uncomfortable with themselves being put on trial, quitting Ron for war crimes.
- [67:58]
A
Some of them have already quit.
- [67:59]
B
And, and I think that they're worried about those people talking to the press.
- [68:05]
A
Yeah, 100%. I want to show this clip of Trump being asked about whether he would consider running as vice, his own vice president, just so we can, you know, see him. See that, see, see this, the solitary cog turning here it is. One theory on how you might try to serve a third term is that you could run as the Vice president.
- [68:26]
C
Yeah, I'd be allowed to do that.
- [68:27]
A
Is it the White House or the White House counsels or your legal position?
- [68:32]
C
No, you'd be allowed to do that. But I wouldn't, I wouldn't do that. I think it's too cute. Yeah, I wouldn't rule that out because it's too cute.
- [68:39]
B
I think the people wouldn't like that.
- [68:40]
C
It's too cute. It's not, it wouldn't be right.
- [68:44]
A
Yeah, it wouldn't be right because, you know, it would prevent me from looking like a strong man. We have to take this third term stuff very, very seriously. As seriously as the efforts they're going to, to, to rig, the, rig the midterms. If Trump is still healthy by then, and there's obviously a lot of coverage of his, of his health issues, not, not just the cankles and the, and the, and the hand, but, you know, the, just the cognitive stuff. And, you know, he's basically rotting from the inside, but that won't necessarily stop him from running again. And there's been plenty of people over the years that have, you know, installed themselves in senior positions in North Korea and elsewhere when they are seriously unwell. And, and this is, you know, this is clearly the plan.
- [69:31]
B
You know, it's always interesting to me to watch Marco Rubio when he's always, he always seems to be in the background on some of the Craziest things that Trump says. And whether it's a cabinet meetings or Oval Office meetings or, or Air Force One.
- [69:45]
A
Yeah.
- [69:45]
B
You know, and you watch his face and you could see like when Trump first, when he gets first asked the question, you see Rubio looking a little nervous.
- [69:53]
A
Yeah.
- [69:54]
B
Then when Trump starts out, his answer was, well, I'd be allowed to do that. You know, Rubio's like, you see him because Rubio wants to be Vance's vice president. Let's get, let's, let's get that clear. Rubio is going to be J.D. vance's running mate, in my opinion. Now, that's my prediction. Okay. So I think that's the plan and I think that that's already, they've already agreed on that is what my feeling. So whenever Trump starts talking about this subject, you know, Rubio starts getting a little like, what about me? You know, it's that little boy thing. So, yeah, I mean, if Trump, Trump would not do it that way. You know, the, the, the, the idea, the suggestion would be he would have some puppet person run at the top of the ticket. Some stooge.
- [70:40]
A
Yeah.
- [70:40]
B
And, and then that person would get elected with Trump as the running mate, and then Trump would really run the country as vice president.
- [70:48]
A
Him.
- [70:48]
B
No, he's not gonna do that. He wouldn't. There's, I'm not sure that there's anybody that trust that Trump would trust to run at the top of the ticket and agree to give up power.
- [71:00]
A
You would never even trust his own.
- [71:03]
B
Son in that scenario. And what he said, when he says too cute, what he's saying is, I know the country would freak the hell out and we would lose. You know, that's, that's what he means by too cute. So do I. My. There are two schools of thought in this Trump third term. Right. Thing with the media, with Democrats is on the one hand, it's like Trump is doing this to freak out Democrats, to freak out the media, to distract them, to get them all worked up over the shiny object. And look, the press does get all worked up. Every time Trump's bring this up, they get all excited and they get. Write all these stories and you know, it sucks that 300 stories have been written about this Trump third term and two stories about the crypto scam. Right. So that school of thought that Trump is only doing this to distract is, is, has a lot of legitimacy. And I get that argument because it works. On the other hand, I remember January 6th, and I know that Trump doesn't want to give this up. And I do think that he is going to look for some way somehow, if he's alive and has his wits about him, you know, to do this. So on the one hand, like, I don't want to get, like, distracted and obsessed with talking about it at the same time, like, I'm worried, you know.
- [72:33]
A
Well, by talking about it so much, not us, but the media and Trump, it normalizes something that is entirely abnormal. And. And he knows that. So by. And by printing the. The hats, the merchandise, and, you know, kind of taking it as red, that he is running it is a tactic that he uses and has used in many other ways. Do you want to know who my prediction. Prediction for the ticket is? If it's not.
- [73:01]
B
Okay, go ahead.
- [73:03]
A
Yeah, you're gonna like this one. So I agree with you. It's J.D. vance, but J.D. vance is the vice president. Uh.
- [73:09]
B
Oh, again.
- [73:10]
A
Yeah. And this time it's Don Jr. As the president, keeps it in the family, maintains the Trump merchandise, they don't have to reprint all the hats.
- [73:25]
B
It would have to be like Eric, I don't know.
- [73:28]
A
I don't know that Eric's really got the ego.
- [73:31]
B
But the thing is, Trump thinks that his Don is an idiot.
- [73:35]
A
Like, he doesn't Trump necessarily.
- [73:38]
B
He trusts Eric more than Don. That's why, like, Eric runs Trump. Org. You know, Don has nothing to do with it.
- [73:45]
A
But Eric, Eric.
- [73:46]
B
What about Ivanka?
- [73:47]
A
Or Ivanka, but a female in an American position of senior leadership. Are you out of your mind?
- [73:57]
B
Now, that would be interesting. I would like Don Jr. To run, you know, just, you know, because I think he would be killed. He would get destroyed.
- [74:05]
A
It's the dittest. It's the dynasty element. And that. And that is very important to them that it's, you know, people support Trump. Not just the individual, but the brand. I mean, Trump talks about himself in the third person all the time. And so it would just be taking another member of the Trump family. I mean, it could be baron, because. Goodness sake. And you know, making them the figurehead. But ultimately, it's. It's Trump LLC that is. Is America. I mean, he's already doing that. You know, the line is very blurred between the Trump Organization and, you know, the White House. I mean, it's very worrying that we're even having to have this conversation. But, you know, it is important to take it seriously. He breaks every protocol, every convention. The Constitution does not matter to Donald Trump. And anybody who thinks, oh, well, that can't happen because of the Constitution, I think you're missing the point of how this guy operates, you know.
- [74:57]
B
Oh, the Constitution means nothing.
- [74:59]
A
Nothing.
- [75:00]
B
Constitution is like toilet paper for Donald Trump. Yeah, The Constitution is just something that gets in his way from time to time. He doesn't respect it.
- [75:09]
A
Trump went on a trip to Japan yesterday. The shouldn't he. He's doing a kind of, you know, doing a kind of Asian tour at the moment, seeing who he can upset, you know, the most. Apparently, he's now done a deal with China over tariffs, so the world can finally relax. You know, it could have just done.
- [75:26]
B
There's no deal, man.
- [75:28]
A
No, there's no deal. But, I mean, it's, you know, it's a press release, but I want to show this clip of. Of him wandering around lost and, and being ushered in the right direction. And there's lots of things to look at in this video. Trump's gate, we talk about a lot, you know, and, and he can't walk in a straight line again, a lot of these things connected to dementia and everything else. But, I mean, he's just. The guy is. He's completely out of it. Here it is, Sam.
- [76:42]
B
You know. You know, that reminded me of was the Queen Elizabeth thing, where you, like, didn't know where to go. And he was walking because here's what, here's how this works. You know, world leaders get briefed on protocol, and they have some. They have a protocol purse travels with them. The foreign government. Trump has this person, too. Monica Crowley is her name. And that person's sole job is to learn the traditions and the customs of certain events and ceremonies when the President is traveling and to brief him on them. This is where you're supposed to stand. You're not supposed to salute the flag. You know, you're supposed to go here. This is how it's going to go down. But what we know about Trump is he doesn't care about any of that, doesn't want to hear any of that. He's not interested in any of that, you know, and so when he gets in these scenarios with cultures like the Royal Family in the UK and the Japanese, who's very big on ceremony, and all this stuff that, you know, with a lot of rules, and he just, as a bull in a China shop, he blows right through them.
- [77:51]
A
So.
- [77:52]
B
So you see two things there. You see, like, him wandering around like a dementia patient, you know, not knowing where to go. And you see the Prime Minister trying to over here, you know, stand here, and he's just wandering around, doesn't know what to do. So you have that. Plus you have the fact that he has zero respect for tradition and protocol and all of that.
- [78:11]
A
Well, he sees any country that is not kind of white and American, English speaking as a shithole country, whether it's China or Japan. I mean, you know, you're not really supposed to say these things out, out loud in the US But China is so far ahead of the US in so many ways, excusing their human rights abuses, of course, but you know, the US does a fair crack at that as well, but just in terms of everything. And we're led to believe by Trump that, that China is some kind of third world country that is like copying everything that we do. And it's like, have you actually been.
- [78:50]
B
I was like, 1975, right?
- [78:52]
A
Yeah. And, and this is a real problem because when Trump is canceling all of these, you know, climate, all this climate infrastructure and getting rid of the wind farms and getting rid of this huge solar project that he's just canceled, and, and not building bridges and thinking that he's owning the libs, it's giving countries like China and Japan the opportunity and India as well, to, to basically get much further ahead in the, in the race to the top. And the naivety, I mean, it's just, it's so short termist, this view.
- [79:27]
B
And by, by the way, you know, remember after his meeting with Ursula von der Leyen of the eu, yeah. You know, he announced that she agreed. The European Union has agreed to give them, give him $550 million to invest however he wanted in the United States, or a billion, I think it was, right. However he wanted, you know, blank. And then she has to issue the statement after the next day saying, because of course everyone in Europe's going, what? You know, and then she issues the statement going, no, no, no, that's not happening.
- [79:57]
A
We would have to have a vote on it.
- [79:59]
B
This is like a pro. These are promises that We've made over 10 years investment investments that we're going to make anyway is how they, how they, how did they come up with a number? They figured out how much European companies are planning to invest in, in the, in their U.S. enterprises. And they gave Trump that number to throw out there. So he did it again in Japan. You know, he announced after this little thing, big press conference, Tokyo, not Tokyo, Toyota has agreed to invest $10 billion in the United States. All these new plants. I did this. And then of course, what happens is a few hours later, Japan issues a statement saying, no, we actually did not agree to that. You know, it's like, and this is why it's so frustrating for us at Midas. We go through this drill every time. It's like Trump makes this ridiculous announcement of announcements and press reports it. I know Trump announces. And then we always find out 24, 40 hours, 80 hours later that it's all smoke and mirrors and it's not true. And, and it's like, when is the media gonna stop doing this, playing this game? Because, like, you know, we never hear the retraction or the clarification. Only people who follow this closely do. But the general public just hears, oh, my God. All these company deals being made everywhere.
- [81:27]
A
From people outside of the US who say, well, America's doing really well at the.
- [81:34]
B
Headline. They. People tend to just read the headlines, and the headlines are Trump's making deals. You know, they don't read the story the next day saying, oh, it's not exactly, that's not exactly accurate. And so my, my question to the press is, and I tweeted this today is like, shouldn't instead, shouldn't the headlines start saying, instead of Trump announces deal? It's like Trump claims that he's made a deal. I mean, shouldn't that be the headline from there? Because that's always the case.
- [82:03]
A
Well, a couple of weeks ago, he was claiming it was $13 trillion worth of investment. This week it's $22 trillion worth of investment.
- [82:11]
B
Goes up like a trillion a week.
- [82:13]
A
Right? So if anybody hasn't quite grasped how much money a trillion is, I mean, it is more than the GDP of many countries. And the idea that this money is coming in, firstly, where is it going? Because if 13 trillion has come in, then he might start want to paying off the debt and the deficit, but that's obviously not being touched. So. And Ben's been asking the question on his hot takes, you know, where's the money? I mean, if this, if there's $22 trillion, has Trump stolen it and maybe we need to start asking for it back? But Also, if there's 22 trillion, then why are we not paying the SNAP benefits? Why are we not paying the military? Why are we not paying air traffic controllers?
- [82:53]
B
Where's. Where's the money?
- [82:54]
A
It's just a lie. And the other things, I'm on a bit of a roll here, but the other thing is talking about it's making us so rich now. We have to. He says that a lot. He says it's making us rich. We are so rich. And you have to ask the question, what are people really feeling? Regular people what are they really feeling? They're certainly not feeling wealthy in this moment. And, you know, the inflation numbers came out 3% still. We're also looking at, you know, terrible jobs numbers. The price of cost of living, rent is through the roof, groceries are through the roof. Don't get me started on beef. But the point is that the lies can only go for so long before people, and mainly Republicans living in, in, you know, Appalachia and various places in food deserts where they can't even get tins of beans are going to start to think, well, hang on a second. He's saying we are so rich and I am not. When is that breaking point?
- [84:00]
B
Yeah, I mean, he continues to say grocery prices are coming down when even in the latest inflation report, which he was bragging about 3% inflation, which is not great, but even that report had grocery prices higher than that. And, but he claims that they're, that they're have all gone down. I think part of the problem is this. It's, this is not a situation where Trump is very well aware of reality and is lying.
- [84:26]
A
Yes.
- [84:27]
B
In this particular scenario, this is a situation where he is surrounded by people who are giving him false information. We know this. You know, we know Stephen Miller and others are doing this. Part of the reason is they are afraid to bring him bad news. Like most dictators, most people over the centuries, you know, rulers, they don't want their court people bringing them bad news. They only want to hear the good stuff. And so I think I truly believe that he is being fed the biggest liar in the world. Donald Trump is being fed a steady diet of lies right by his own aid. So it's not a situation where they're telling him one thing and he's lying about it. I think that this is what they're telling him. But it's Fox News, which is his only news source. And it's more of the same. It's all just nonsense from, from the.
- [85:25]
A
Perspective of people like Stephen Miller and Russell Vogt, who are basically running the, the country right now. Right. It must be transactional because if they're telling him things that he needs to hear or wants to hear, that enables them to then impose policies that they want, that Trump is so kind of distracted with his successes that he's like, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, you can just do that. That's fine. And so to slip things under the radar. And so I think it's a diversion tactic because he's not lying about 22 trillion. He thinks that's the number because he made that number up. There is absolutely no paper trail for that.
- [86:04]
B
And so that's something he makes up.
- [86:07]
A
He makes that when it comes to.
- [86:08]
B
Prices and stuff like I think he and or deep or immigration or court decisions. I think in those scenarios people are.
- [86:16]
A
Lying to him 100% especially when he says things like you know the border is now closed and effectively no one is coming in and that's been solved and it's like yeah I don't know that that that's true. Listen we have to finish but very interesting. Lots of food for thought and we will continue these conversations every Wednesday here on the Midas Touch Network. Don't forget to check out the substack Ron's you know Midas news which is essential reading and subscribe there. I'm on substack as well the Anthony Davis so you can follow me too. We'll come back next Wednesday and do it again. Thanks a lot Ron.
- [86:53]
B
Okay we'll see you next time.
- [87:00]
A
Sa.