Breaking News from Pod Save America - Trump CAUGHT in Awkward Moment at Cabinet Meeting

Episode Date: March 26, 2026

An embarrassing cabinet meeting spirals into chaos for Trump. Jon Favreau and Tommy Vietor break down the fallout. CHECK OUT OUR SPONSOR: ZIP RECRUITER - http://ziprecruiter.com/CROOKED Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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But of course, he spent more time talking about his actual passion, the White House ballroom and other construction monuments to himself. There was also an extended rant about Sharpies. There was lots of glazing, ass-kissing, and coherence. You're surprised to hear that, I'm sure. So we watched it all so that you guys don't have to. Let's start with Trump's comment about Iran. They want to make a deal.

The reason they want to make a deal is they have been just. beat the shit. It would be nice if like the fake news, New York Times, which is so fake, and the Wall Street Journal is terrible. Terrible. I mean, I read a story today that I'm desperate to make a deal. I'm not, I don't, if I was

desperate, he'd be the first to know. Let's get the hell out of them. I'm the opposite of desperate. I don't care. I want to know. In fact, we have other targets we want to hit before we leave. We're hitting them on a daily basis.

John, your thoughts on I don't care as a message about a war that has killed 13 U.S. service members, injured hundreds more, and upended the global economy. Is that good framing? Well, the Wall Street Journal story he's referring to is basically the theme of that story is Trump is bored and wants to move on to other things. Because I actually, I know it's not funny, but I couldn't help myself but laugh at the story. It's basically like Trump thinks that the war is distracting from his other priorities. and some of his allies are hoping that he can wrap it up soon so he can pivot to regime change in Cuba. That part of the, yeah. Shout out, first of all, Alex Ward at the journal who wrote that piece is like one of the best reporters out there.

That part of the story killed me. It's like, I'm sorry, you need to go to another regime change. You can't finish this one. But it's like, you know, people have been watching Trump now for over a decade in politics. You tell me what you think is more likely that Trump is not desperate to make a deal at all or that he is incredibly bored of this war and wants to move on to the next episode of the Trump show because he sees that oil prices and gas prices continue to rise. It's like Lizette at that time when she's won't let me finish a book. She's like, one more, more. He also says later that we don't need the

Strait of Hamoos to be open because the U.S. is producing so much oil and gas. And first of all, look, he is dumb if he thinks that because it's a global oil market, as we've all seen. I think the price of oil is up like 5% today because the markets are finally waking up to the fact that he's manipulating them and full of shit and Axios is posting stories about like, Here are the four massive regime change options that he is reportedly considering. But even if it weren't true, and we were just going to be fine on our own, all the Gulf countries that have been bribing him need the straight of Ramos open to export their oil and gas. 80% of the oil that goes through the straight goes to Asia.

So that's hurting key allies in Korea and Japan. The Koreans are putting in price caps. The Japanese are hitting record highs in the price of oil. And then it's in poor and developing countries. They're rationing fuel, they're closing schools. It's like a disaster. The idea that we can close ourselves off from the global economy has been he's had a hard time understanding that you can't do that. Yes.

That was the story of the tariffs. That's the story with oil. Like, yeah, I guess they could put in place export controls so that American oil companies could never export or sell any oil outside of America. Yeah, it seems bad. But that also would only work for a short amount of time because if the whole global economy is hurting because they, because of high oil prices, it's going to hit us eventually. It's going to hit us eventually. And also, the thing that's really scary is one thing that's not getting through the straight of Homoos is fertilizer.

And so you could see a situation where there is just global starvation because of this war. Of course, Trump's brilliant cabinet weighed in on the war too. Here's pissy cadaver turned Treasury Secretary Scott Besson followed by a war crime beat poet Pete Hexeth. Let's watch. Many people, especially the Democrats, underestimate the will of the American people for short volatility for 50 years of safety that we are going to have on the other side of this. This actually isn't something new to me.

Maybe a young guy, Mr. President, but I'm not a rookie in this realm. In 2007, in 2007, I helped lead the surge, the public fight for the Iraq surge, stood and watched people stand in the Senate and declared the war is lost before it even started. Who was that? It was Harry Reid. Back then, it was three years into a war. Now we're three weeks into a war. in operation.

But she, unlike Iraq, this isn't a tie. This is not parody. This is not chaos. This is success. Pure American success. Well... Just a big fat line of American success. Well done, sir.

Well done on Iraq. Didn't know that I could... Didn't know that I could hold up Pete Higsef as the architect of the search. The public relations around the surge. Yeah, good for... I thought there was John McCain, who jokes on me. Which was dumber?

suggesting Americans are cool with high gas prices from Besson or Hexeth explicitly comparing the war in Iran to the war in Iraq. Well, I just want to say for Bessett, what Besson said was technically true, which is some people have definitely underestimated the will of the American people to deal with short-term volatility. I do think it wasn't necessarily at that. Yeah, exactly. And if you just look around, it's all the people that you're sitting with, including you, you dumbass. CBS pulled it. 67% of voters said Americans should not be willing. to pay higher gas prices during a war with Iran.

That seems like that's not good numbers for that. Yeah, no. I think there's been no estimating of the American people going on at all in that room. No, no. And then for those who don't remember, I mean, the debate over the surge was about sending tens of thousands of additional U.S. troops to Iraq. At the peak of the war, the U.S. had 168,000 troops. And guess what?

It was still a disaster. It was a war built on lies just like this one about WMD. 4,500 U.S. service members were killed. more than 32,000 were injured in hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, if not some estimated a million were killed in the war. Did you hear him call it a tie? Yeah, well, that was what we're talking about. He thinks the Iraq war was a tie? This is the man leading the defense department now. Yeah. Did you understand what he was talking about when he said he led the public fight for search? Was it from Fox? Was it when he was in the military himself? Maybe he was like as an NGO.

Yeah, I don't understand it at all what he's talking about either. And again, like the United States, It's that the war in Iraq cost the United States trillions of dollars, trillions of dollars. There was the direct cost of the war itself, and now it's health care costs for veterans, disability benefits, all the debt we took on to pay for the war so George Bush could give rich people a tax cut. If you ask Americans or anyone in the world, what is one of the biggest mistakes America has made in the last few decades? History. Nine out of ten people would say Iraq. Yeah.

And the others would say Vietnam. Right. Yeah, right. It depends on where you do the date. But like, off the top of their head, that's what people would say. Yes, they would and they would be right. And by the way, a lot of the media seems to have forgotten the Iraq war and that it happened and that it was a disaster. If that is pissing you off as much as it is pissing us off, please subscribe to POTSafe America here on YouTube because we remember Iraq.

We remember the war on terror. We're not going to fucking glaze Donald Trump or regurgitate these lies. And when you follow Potsave America on YouTube, it helps us grow the show. It helps us displace the pro war garbage from Fox News and Ben Shapiro that is all over this place. Okay. So, of course, John Trump dedicated a huge percentage of his time at this cabinet meeting to talking about, of course, monuments to himself. Let's watch a bit of that section. And we have some projects that are at this ballroom is going to be something that's so beautiful for this that he's so desperately needed by presidents.

I mean, now it's no secret. The military wanted it more than anybody. It was supposed to be secret, but it became unsecret because of people that are really unpatriotic. saying things. What? Do you want to be talking about? What is he talking about? Literally my question was,

what is he talking about? The military? Are they going to use it as like a barrack? It's a ballroom for rich people. It's like crypto donors. You buy fucking Melania coin, you go to the new ballroom. What is he talking about?

I do when he's like, the cities needed it for such a long time. It just made me think because we, of course, know when we were in the White House that he did call David Axirot and offered to build a ballroom then. And it's like,

his brain really is just, like everyone talks about, about how he's like kind of crazy. All that's true, but it's really stuck. Yeah. Like, he hasn't, he hasn't really advanced much in the last several decades. Maybe most of his life. Like, he just talks about the same shit over and over again has for years and years and years.

The city will have no access to the ballroom. You know, he has, is it a park? He's like, oh, it was horrible. You'd have to go to a tent in the back of the White House. The tents are beautiful. Some of the coolest tents you've ever seen your life. We've been into some of those. Amazing.

It's like you're inside. It's like you're the nicest wedding. in history. Neither might nor there, but still. China's there. Fucking insane. It's crazy. Potts of America breaking news is brought to you by ZipRecruiter. What's the latest trend in hiring? It's skill-based hiring, which emphasizes capabilities over education and direct experience. According to experts, this leads to faster hiring and better job performance. If you're an employer who's adopted skills-based hiring,

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Four to five employers who post on ZipRecruiter get a quality candidate within the first day. And now you can try it for free at ZipRecruiter.com slash crooked. That's ziprecruiter.com slash crooked. Meet your match on ZipRecruiter. I thought you'd enjoy this little back and forth with the reporter about Trump's passion for voting by mail. Let's watch that exchange. Tell me about mail-in ballots going. You may not use the mail-in ballot.

You probably said, yeah, I did. You know what? Because I'm president of the United States. And because of the fact that I'm president of the United States, I did a mail-in ballot for elections that took place in Florida. Because I felt I should be here instead of being in the beautiful Sunday. sunshine taking you were on Palm Beach served the last few weekends. That's right. And I decided that I was going to vote by mail-in ballot because I couldn't be there because

I had a lot of different things. But you know, we have exceptions for mail-in ballots. You do know that, right? So if you're away, we have an exception. If you're in the military, we have an exception. If you're in a business trip, we have an exception. If you're disabled, we have an exception. And if you're ill, if you're not feeling good, we have.

So I was away, mostly in Washington, D.C., so I used a mailing bell, but I appreciate the question because I know it was so well meaning. This episode is brought to you by Redfin. You're listening to a podcast, which means you're probably multitasking, maybe even scrolling home listings on Redfin,

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That was funny. You want to tell the listeners why he's a bit touch hypocritical on this one? I mean, because last night he was at a fucking NRC dinner and he was saying mail-in ballot is cheating. Mail-in voting is cheating. I hate mail-in voting. And, you know, he's trying to ban it except for all those exceptions, which, can you imagine? Like, how are they, okay, so there's all these exceptions.

They're going to check. You need a doctor's note now? If you're ill, how is they going to do? How's that going to work? You have a work trip? So basically what he's saying there is when they told him he was actually in Florida is that he was, he was busy and so mail-in voting was more convenient and so he took the more convenient choice, which is, yes, exactly, that's why we have mail-in voting because it's more convenient

for people. I love, I think, I don't know who the reporter was, I'm glad that she was like, sir, you were there the last two weeks. Amazing follow-up. You've started multiple wars from Mar-a-Lago. You couldn't hang out until Tuesday to vote? Just caught him in the lie. Like it's so funny how he deals with being caught in a lie like that.

He's bad about it. He just, he just sort of like casually just goes into, yeah, no, I was there and here and there and also there. And I was things to do. And now I'm here. I have appointments. I have to look at my ballroom. Hold for my ballroom. Pick out curtain, gold curtains.

He went on about the fucking ballroom for so long. It like wasn't even worth. No, it's because it's all repetitive. The Penn's thing was new. The Penn's thing was new. We didn't clip that because it's just so stupid and extended. But he basically was like, when I got here, I would sign bills and I'd give out $1,000 pens and I'd be given out a $1,000 pen to a kid.

So I called the guy to the CEO of Sharpie. I was like, can you make me a Sharpie that doesn't look like the ones we have? So they made me this one. And it has a White House on it. And like, you know, it's just made up. There's no way they were giving out $1,000 pens. But also, what? What are you talking?

We were at war. We are spending more, we're doing a billion dollars a day on this war. And he's bragging about saving money on Sharpies. Of course, any cabinet meeting would not be complete without the glazing, the ritualistic dick-sucking. This exchange with Interior Secretary and eyebrow, aficionado, Doug Bergam, is one of my little favorite moments. Let's watch.

Do you have anything to say? Well, back on Venezuela, where Chris and I have both had a chance to be there, I literally think they're going to put up a statute of President Trump. And I'm not being, it's not a political statement. It's not a whole thing. That would be great on. No, because it's like they view. President Trump, like Simon Mueller, he's the liberator of a country.

And this is a country where they... Forget that straight their NBA jersey and Delsey and her team working with us. You know that, Chris Michael experience is the first time in general history that they had the three paths allowed to come on in the system of their White House. Before we show, it was like an emotional thing for people who have never had a chance to meet it. So whether it's a music, the production, showing up the production and the American companies that are coming back. Most of those American companies have many. Yeah. Shut up, Betty Kenny on our team.

So well done. Yeah. Yeah. The funny thing, you know what he was talking about there is how energy is getting to market so that people can have like, he's talking about how to like deal with the greatest oil shock that we faced in the history of the country. It was like the most substantive part of the meeting. Very important update on all the ways we're getting energy out of Venezuela to deal with this crisis that's happening around the world because no one can get oil and gas because you're dumb war. He's like, I just want to say for all the people who are like, Trump's got dementia, Trump's fallen asleep. No, no, no.

He was able to hold the statue thing in his mind through that very, very long. It's not that he's losing his mind. It's just that he is a lunatic narcissist who has not fucking changed in 50 years. How about Doug Bergam just casually floating that he's the equivalent of someone. Psemon Bolivar, one of the most consequential figures in the Western Hemisphere in history? As I saw that Delcy Rodriguez just appointed like the guy responsible for torturing dissidents in Venezuela is her like number two or something. And they're swapping out like the worst people in the world for the second worst people in the cabinet. Like nothing is getting better.

I'm sure you and Ben have talked about this too. But like it gets me so angry that Venezuela is held up even in the press now. He wants the Venezuela model because that went so well. It's like, did that go well? Because like I guess that like the country hasn't like fallen into civil war. But like we haven't changed anything except the guy that was running Venezuela. And so it's still a fucking repressive regime there. Yeah.

It's just the most short-term thinking. I mean, it's sort of similar to Iran when you think about it. Like, we killed the Supreme Leader and swapped in his kid. Great. Great. And huge win everybody. Maduro has a court hearing today. We sank their Navy. There's a lot of talk about all the naval ships we sank as if that's a big deal. And then Pete Hegsath, one of this extended rant about how like wardhog planes are flying low because they don't have air defenses anymore. So, guys, the Taliban didn't have a Navy. The Taliban didn't have an Air Force. How did that turn? not in Afghanistan, 20 years later. I was going to say, like, yeah, which, which time do you want to even talk about there? Yeah, right, the Russians, us, whomever.

Yeah, it's really terrible. And it just, you know, it's hard to tell. I mean, Steve Wickoff talked for a while about the whatever negotiations are happening and talked about like his 15 point plan for peace and what may or may not be happening via the Pakistanis in terms of conversations with Iran. None of this feels good. Like on Monday, all the markets thought maybe this war is over. I just, it doesn't feel like that's going to happen.

No, it sounds like, you know, that we could be on like the cusp of a ground invasion or some kind of a ground deployment here of troops. But like, again, everything he's been saying about around this week that they want a deal, they just prefer to deal. Like, none of the reporting matches that. Then the Duranians are denying it on the record. Then they're putting out like AI Lego movie shit talking hype videos about the United States. So everything's going great. I'm glad they did a cabinet meeting and locked down some of the big issues. Thank you guys for watching this POTTave America here on YouTube, and thanks for subscribing.

Ryan Reynolds here for MintMobile. I don't know if you knew this, but anyone can get the same premium wireless for $15 a month plan that I've been enjoying. It's not just for celebrities, so do like I did and have one of your assistance assistants assistants switch you to MintMobile today. I'm told it's super easy to do at mintmobile.com slash switch. Up front payment of $45 for three-month plan equivalent to $15 per month required. Intro rate first three months only, then full price plan options available. Taxes and fees extra. See full terms at mintmobile.com.