Morning Joe - Report: Trump has made more trades than all of Congress combined

Episode Date: September 16, 2026

September 16, 2026 - 6am:Democratic Senators grill FBI director Kash Patel at hearingTrump blasts Supreme Court for vote by mail rulingTrump-appointed Kennedy Center board votes to shutter buildingBloomberg: Trump has made more trades than all of Congress combined3 Dead after news chopper crash in Los AngelesWSJ: U.S. is burning through its supply of interceptorsCBS News: Photos show damage at U.S. positionsAXIOS: Aging Congress attempts to regulate AI without using it To listen to this show and other MS podcasts without ads, sign up for MS NOW Premium on Apple Podcasts. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This is about whether the United States citizens, Republicans, Democrats, independents are the deciders of this election or there's election interference led by the FBI and the Trump administration. Do you pledge that you will not in any way interfere in the will of the American people when they go to the polls in November? I pledge unequivocally that I will not participate in your charade of lies. Okay, that was one of several times yesterday that FBI director Cash Patel was asked about possible election hearings. Wait, I'm confused. What lines? Sharrade of lies. He asked him a question. Is that an idiom? Sharrated lines. We're going to have more. Hold, hold. Let's try this out. I'm going to be cash pal. You ask me what my favorite cereal is. Go ahead. Sir, what is your favorite cereal? I have come here to help the American people better understand, but I am not.

going to participate in your charade of lies. Okay. What does that even mean? He just asked him a question. Are you going to have the FBI go to polling places? Yes or no? And he tells us, he does the whole. I, you know, I wish Willie years ago, when we started the Sally Struthers,

fundraising campaign for Republicans with acting limitations, I wish more would have gone in. We started it for Ted Cruz. He really needed it. But you look at that, they still don't get it. And you're like, okay, they're winding up. Yep, here we go. Oh, there.

It's like a 50 cent opening pitch, you know. And it's like, they can't deliver it. No, I think a theater camp for the summer, maybe just one of those two-week things where you go kind of learn some tips, maybe up at Williamstown. Something like that. Willing sound like that.

I don't know if she ever told you that. I was in Congress. Yeah, but anyway. You know, you watch Cash Patel, and this is the formula for anyone in this administration, going before Congress. Think of Pam Body. He was spotted yesterday with APO research

on everyone who might be asking him questions. So when he was asked direct questions with very serious consequences about the election and other things, the firing of FBI agents who worked in anything involving Donald Trump, he would just go to his sheet and attack the person personally.

This is the model This is what, this is from Reuters who got some of the OPPO research on Dick Durbin, but this is what they do. They don't go to answer questions under oath. They go to please the boss who's watching on TV so they attack the questioner. In normal days, you would have the Republican chairperson on that committee, like stepping in for the Democratic member or a Democratic chairperson on that committee stepping in for a Republican member.

I've seen it happen time and time again. and say, listen, you're not here to attack guys, and you're not here to pull stunts like this. You're not playing for Donald Trump. He's on the other side of Pennsylvania Avenue. You're here because Article 1 gives us oversight responsibility. See, we're not doing this as we're having fun doing this. We're doing it because we have a constitutional responsibility to do this.

Now, if you could answer the question, that's fine. If not, I'm going to just go ahead and gavel to close this hearing. and we'll take it behind closed doors, and you'll like it far less there. And no dramatics there, Michael, tell you, that's what when I was there, even, you know, in times earlier this century, that's what a chairman, chairwoman,

on the other side would do if a member wasn't getting their answers, their questions answered. It just doesn't happen here. No, it doesn't happen here because Republicans don't want to be seen as crossing Donald. Trump. His officials, his cabinet members are there. It is indeed just a performance to please

the boss watching on television. And it's also, I think, a preview of what's to come. This is Trump officials treating Congress with utter contempt. And especially if the Democrats seize control of a chamber or two and are in the majority in January, that's what everything's going to be like. If Trump officials bother to show up at all. Yeah. Well, President Trump, meanwhile, called out three members of the Supreme Court that he appointed after the high court. Locked his efforts to restrict melon voting. And Mike Allen, somebody needs to tell Donald Trump

that the Supreme Court justices have to follow the Constitution and not Donald Trump. Now, of course, he doesn't have to say that to Thomas or Alito. They already understand their jobs not to do their job, their jobs to make Donald Trump happy. And they do that every day. That's me saying that, not Mike Allen with Axios. So please direct all nasty tweets to me.

But this is simple. Someone needs to tell Donald Trump, that's a long list, by the way. Don't participate in his charade of lies. I mean, the thing is, this is very simple. The Constitution of the United States says states run elections. Quite clear. If for any reason, the United States Congress wants to get involved, then Congress can step in and pass legislation to alter some things. Congress doesn't do that anymore.

They don't do that. You know, so that means states run elect, presidents don't run elections. What that tweet shows and his reaction shows is everything's personal. And like he's personalizing that fight with justices. Like it's another barrier that's been crossed, like one of the few institutions that stood apart. It's all personalities is if he's attacking someone on truth. Well, he's doing left winger's job. I mean, they want to add to the court.

I can't if they want to. I mean, as he does that, all he does is he makes them look more political and he drives down their approval rating. So if somebody comes in, they can say, I'm going to, we're going to go up to 12. But it's just consistent with the general attitude always, right, which is that he did them a favor. You were not the person I interviewed. I put you on the court. You owe me now forever. That's the way he thinks about the Justice Department and everything else.

Not just personalized as in he takes it personally, but all of the bot, anybody he's ever, been involved with now works for him, whether they're in the judiciary or in the, that a supposedly independent agency or another branch of government, his attitude is, I interviewed you, I put you on the court, you're now mine. That's the way he's been his whole life. There's some through lines here. This all comes as the president's handpicked board for the Kennedy Center voted to shut down the venue indefinitely because a federal judge again prevented Trump's name from being added to the building without congressional. Willie, can you believe this? They're saying, oh, it's caving. in and oh, it's going bankrupt because, oh, they don't.

No, no. Their problems began when Donald Trump added his name. And when he added his name, that's when it all went to hell at the Kennedy Center. And now the attitude is very clearly, I will destroy this institution, this revered institution named after a martyred American president, a hero if I can't have my name put on top. That is what he's doing. It's cut and dried. If my name's not on it, it won't exist.

If I can't have you, no one can have you. And he wants his name on that. And if not, he's shutting it down and now threatening even to tear it down. This is, we should remind people, the sole federal memorial to President John F. Kennedy. There's no big memorial out in the mall or any of that. This is the memorial to President John F. Kennedy. And yet President Trump wants it renamed for him, or at least to have his name also on there. And if not, what he's saying here, I'm withholding the money.

We're going to let it fall into disarray. it's going to become decrepit. And we might even tear the thing down. Tear down the Kennedy Center if I can't have my name on it. Yeah, and it was renovated not that long ago. Just a few years ago, there was a couple hundred million dollar renovations project here. And this is extortion. This is Trump saying, if my name doesn't go on this, you know, I control the funds.

So therefore, I won't unleash those funds unless my name is put on. Despite repeated court decisions that his name should be nowhere on it. And one wonders if perhaps some wealthy benefactors will step up to try to make up the funding difference, perhaps. But yeah, I think it's clear. This isn't just going to destroy the Kennedy Center in terms of like shutting it down and letting the program fade away. He's going to knock it down. He's going to try to bulldoze the Kennedy Center if he can't get his name on. And we saw that tarp. I mean, I know it's a small thing, but that tarp was put up to cover up his name being I mean, this is really, this is the petulance.

About, well, it's more than that. The petulants. We have John Hellman here at the table with us. For in the village in order to say. Mike Allen here at the table with us, also with us in Washington, managing editor at the bulwark. Sam Stine. Sam, you look shady with the facial hair. Could you go over, put on like a black hoodie? And then tear down the, a lot of sunglasses and then like look like you, Obama, and then tear down that tarp so we can see what it really looks like there. Nobody will stop you.

Just to be clear, you want me to commit a crime on behalf of the show. But for the sake of journalism. Journalism, for the sake of journalism. I can do it. I can do you know what? Do you know what? Do you know what? I am not going to play the charade with you. Sharrade of lies. What's that? Sharrade of lies. I'm not going to engage in the charade of lies. I was just joking. But go ahead, Sam. No, I mean, it is. It's sort of, it's blackmail. It's blackmail. It's blackmail. It's pettiness. It's an egomaniac and control of power. It's kind of a microcosm of the Trump experience. Because, look, whether you think the Kennedy Center was doing great or not prior to Trump, it's undoubtedly true that when he took over, when he put this Trump-appointed board in place, when he put his own henchman, Rick Grinnell, in charge of the programming, ticket sales plummeted. He made it actively worse.

He made the finances of the institution actively worse. Then he turns around and he says, look, I've raised all this money. You can get it, but on one condition. I get my name on the building. The judges say no. and now we're in this place where, yeah, Jonathan's right. It's a real possibility that they try to bulldoze the entire building. I wouldn't rule it out.

At a minimum, it's going to be shut down for several years. And we're in this kind of weird continuum where you have this kind of authoritarian impulse to have your name put on every facade. At the same time, there are limited checks and balances, right? The courts have restrained him from doing so. And so he has the power to destroy an institution. but he doesn't have the power to put his name on the institution. So we're in this weird place now.

And I will just, just one thing to add, because this isn't not like a victimist crime. I think a lot of people are going to look and say, oh, well, you elites, you care about this cultural institution in Washington, D.C. This is not just a emblem for President Kennedy, a martyr. This is a place where people make their existence. People in the arts community make their existence. I know plenty of people who perform at the Kennedy Center.

They do not, they're not, like, rich. This is a rare opportunity for them to actually practice their craft. He is taking that away. He is hurting a major American cultural institution. It is really a wild situation we have right here. Mm-hmm. What the courts have said, Mika, is that Congress created this memorial to John F. Kennedy. So only Congress, by their vote, can change the name or vote to bulldoze it, which hopefully they wouldn't do.

So it's one more question here for this Congress. are you going to stand by and watch this happen? Are you going to continue to just be bystanders to what's happening here? Or at least in this case, and hopefully some others, at least, you would step up and say, no, no, this is a bridge too far.

We are not going to allow the Kennedy Center to be bulldozed. Mike Johnson, the question goes to you in your caucus. It sure does. The template is what happened with the East Wing. The Trump administration will try to move so fast that courts can't do anything.

And what's the Supreme Court doing? They're going, oh, they've moved on so far along. No, there is something they can. do. They could stop it dead on its tracks right now. Okay. So along the same lines, this is something that you might find interesting. President Trump has made more stock trades than all members of Congress combined since returning to office. Wait, wait a second. Could you say that again? I'm confused. All members of the Congress combined. Wait. There's 535 of them. Yeah, there's 500. Are you saying one person has made

more stuff? The guy that constantly attacks. Nancy Pelosi for her husband. Her husband making stock trades. This guy has made more stock trades than every member of Congress combined. Yeah, that's according to a Bloomberg review of financial disclosures. Bloomberg reports Trump and his money managers have made over 28,000 trades in the 17 months. Wait, wait, over 28,000 trades. In the months between his second inauguration and June of this.

year. That compares with about 22,000 trades reported by all members of Congress combined. Of course, most Americans would agree with me that if you're in Congress, you should not be trading stock. The numbers come. What about the way has? A double. The numbers come as Republicans push a ban on congressional stock trading, but the legislation does not apply to the president.

Trump has backed the measure saying lawmakers should not profit from insubricial. insider information. But how many times Willie has he profited from insider information? How many times? 28,000 times. He'll invite people over to the White House. He'll talk about how great their company is after he's bought their stock. Yeah. And his family has benefited and he's made more than $2 billion in this term since he arrived a year and a half ago. What is a total for this, the drain the swamp crowd that the Trump's once called themselves? So wait, is it over around $3, $4 trillion that the Trumps have made off of, off of the so-called public service. Yeah, it's the Trump kids.

It's the Lutnik family. I mean, Susie Wild, Chief of Staff. So her son has profited. Yeah, it is billions at least. I don't know if it's quite that high, but it's an extraordinary amount of number. I was doing some math here, as you were reading the story. I mean, it's $1,600 a month. It works out to nearly 60 stock trades a day, every day since he has taken off.

60 stock trades. So why do you need a Russian oligard? That's more stock trades than I made my life. Wedding party. 60. The 61. Yeah. Yeah.

He made more trade in a day than I have in my life. Did you read the Dexter Filkins piece in the New Yorker about Jared Kushner's foreign policy? Not yet. There's a quote in that piece that is just so I proponent of this where he says what the foreign policy of the country is where we were imagining. He's talking about Whitkoff and Kushner basically mixing business and diplomacy. And the quote, it says, I know these guys. Some of the former American official who served in the Middle East says, I know these guys. They go to these meetings and they are doing business right alongside their diplomacy.

Okay. hey, enough about the ceasefire. We have this hotel we want to build. That's like that is the way this. You bet that's what Trump's presidency is, which is enough about getting costs down. I got these stock trades I need to make. Well, and that is when you start talking about corruption, the president, 28,000 trades, or however many, more than all of Congress.

You talk about his cryptocurrency, his wife's cryptocurrency. You talk about the sons and these defense contracts and just making just billions of dollars. you team that up, Mike, with the fact that Americans are struggling to pay for gas, for diesel, for groceries, for rent, for health care. Boy, that becomes a toxic mix for voters, doesn't it? No, for sure. And you put your finger on exactly what the Democratic through line is going to be, assuming they get House power in January of 2029,

is they know, as Jonathan said, the president's not going to show up, the president's people are not going to show up for subpoenas. but anyone who has done business with the family, anyone who has negotiated with this White House, anyone who has given to what donors in D.C. called the matrix of the ballroom and the 250th anniversary and the midterm convention, all of those are going to be targets as a bank shot for, this is what the president's doing while you're hurting. All right. So the White House says Trump's portfolio. is independently managed by third-party institutions

and that neither Trump nor his family can influence individuals. I like Dell. I like Dell. Come in, Michael, Dell. Oh, I already invested in Michael. By Michael Dell. By Dell stuff. I mean, I'm not just picking on Dell. I mean, he's done it with like a thousand.

I kind of, it's early. He's only one I can remember, but it's not Dell's fault. But it's like everybody that's going in there. He brings him in. And then I don't know if he makes the announcement before or after, but he always makes the announcement. And he profits after propping up a company. And that's the thing. It's not like this is happening behind closed doors.

It's not a secret at all. He's hyping companies whose stock he has bought and then watch the next day as the market goes up. Making money. His sons, as John said, are making tons of money out there. Jared Kushner is getting money from all over the place, including the Saudi sovereign wealth fund, Steve Whitkoff and his sons. There's just money sloshing all over the place. So alongside this, President Trump has repeatedly attacked, if you'll remember, Democrats for profiting off their positions, including in February's State of the Union address, where he mocked Nancy Pelosi on the issue.

A rising stock market. Let's also ensure that members of Congress cannot corruptly profit from using insider information. They stood up for that, I can't believe. I can't believe it. Did Nancy Pelosi stand up if she was here? So that was at the State of the Union address, mocking Nancy Pelosi and her husband. So Sam Stein, we talked about Dell. There are some 20 other companies where publicly Donald Trump has done what he did with Dell, hype it up, and after he's bought stock and watch it rise from there.

But shameless about it, which is probably a running theme through this. It's not like they're hiding it. No, he does it all out in the open. time and again. It's like, you know, sort of like Don Jr. having his wedding bankrolled by the Russian oligarch, you know, you would think you would hide it. But then they were like, yeah, he's a friend. Of course he covered $170,000 for the wedding. If you do it in the open, I suppose it becomes a little less toxic politically, but not really. I just can't get over the 60 trades a day. You know, what is he doing? He's got a job. And he's apparently trading stocks all the time. And then he's on these conference calls with

the Kennedy Center board and berating the one Democratic member, and he's managing, you know, vanity projects across Washington, D.C. And it's just, you look at this stuff and you're like, where is his priorities? And Mike Allen's right. I mean, I think the public looks at it. And this stuff really does resonate where it's like, man, I'm paying more for gases and for groceries. Everything seems to cost more. And this guy is taking ownership stakes and companies and profiting from them.

And then spends his days worrying about, you know, a ballroom. It just doesn't make sense. Reflecting pools? Why is he worried about reflecting pools instead of $6 diesel? Why is he worried about Marie Antoinette ballrooms instead of how much my groceries cost, how much my rent cost? I mean, how much my health care costs? Willie, again, it's just like, you know, Hungary.

Orban wasn't taken down by what he probably should have been taken down by. You know, his violations of the Constitution is weakening of Western democracy. there. It was taken down because of the corruption and because of the sagging economy. That's the same thing that's happening here. Inflation is hard. War is hard. What's easy as talking about an arch in Washington. What's easy to talking about putting your name on a building. This is stuff that he enjoys because it's easy for him. It's familiar to him. Well, and he has command control. He has command control. And now, I mean, gas is, it's spiraling right now. It's over $4.30 a gallon. Diesel, which is going to raise prices for everyone, especially farmers, but also just trucking,

getting goods where they are. Everything's going to become more expensive because diesel's more expensive. And it's going to get worse. Now that the Houthis have cut off access to another key waterway in the Middle East, some of the reserves have started to drain that the people have propped up the oil markets

in recent months. Now we're over $100 a barrel. But I think, I mean, you guys are right. It's the key is, look, if the economy's doing well for everybody, voters kind of like, yet politicians are corrupt, like, all right, everybody's getting their peace. We're doing okay.

We can live with it, whatever. But at this moment, when voters are struggling, when things are so expensive and the president and his cronies are profiting wildly off of this, that sets up a very tough situation. That is a lot of anger. And that's the kind of thing that I've,

Democrats, I've talked to say, that's resonating right now. That's resonating in the field ahead of the primary November. You guys are playing the Kansas Senate debate. Yeah. You want to understand why Kansas is not out of, totally out of reach. Kansas, Nebraska. Right.

The race is in Iowa. The corn belt, A lot of these states where you would never think a Democrat could be competitive or competitive because gas, diesel, fertilizer, and the tariffs are driving up to cost of food, if you look at those states, that's the whole story of the Great Plains and the corn belt right now is that those economies just can hammered by that combination and all bets are off. I will say one thing about Trump's personal enrichment. Although we say it's all out in the open and a lot of it is shocking amount is, I am rarely

been as competent in a prediction as I am in saying that after he has, he has done, is out of office, we're going to find out that the amount of profiteering inside the White House is going to be an order of magnitude larger. I mean, however big you think it is, how horrifying it is right now, we're going to find out, we can take better on the table, whether it's 2x, 3x, 4x, but there's going to be a lot. If that's going to be one of the great post-presidential stories is going to be just how much Trump and his family. And let me just say, especially from foreign powers. Oh, yeah. Especially from foreign powers who are hostile to America's interests, are hostile to American safety, are in fact providing satellite imagery to kill

U.S. troops, are working with the Iranians to kill U.S. troops, the money that's being transferred there, I would guess after he's out of office through whether it's cryptocurrency or whatever it is, I think the numbers are going to just be staggering. And it explains the mystery of why, whatever people point things out, like they'll put those I ask questions about it. He's like, yeah, it's so big deal. These adversaries are doing these things that are averse to U.S. interests. He just kind of brushes it off.

There's a reason he's brushing it off. It's not just because he's ignorant about it. It's because he's in some other deal off camera. He's making money on it. And you know how he thinks he sees it as beating the system. And that's why they don't hide from this. And that's why Democrats are going to say, look at this smash and grab in plain sight. Yeah.

And that's in January. But you're right that this fall. it becomes such a powerful image. It really does. Coming up on morning, Joe, what we're learning this morning about a deadly news helicopter crash in Los Angeles last night. We'll get a live report on that straight ahead. Plus, a Republican congressman moves to impeach defense secretary Pete Hexeth over the war in Iran.

We'll take a look at that effort as the conflict drags on. And as we go to break, a look at the travelers' forecast this morning from Ackyweather's Bernie Rayno. Bernie, how's it looking? Make another beautiful day along the eastern seaboard. You're active weather forecast. Some sun, Boston, New York City, Washington, D.C., shower, thunderstorm around Pittsburgh. Some wet weather in Chicago today. Hot and dry in Texas, what else is new? Also, some isolated thunderstorms, Florida, Central Gulf Coast states, boy, it's hot in Nashville, 90 degrees in Atlanta. Travel delays? I don't think there'll be many. Watch Miami this afternoon in Chicago,

day. To help you make the best decisions of be more in the know, download the ACUweather app today. A lot of pretty sunrises this morning. All right, just about half past the hour, three people were killed, one person hospitalized overnight after a helicopter covering news for NBC, Los Angeles, and Telemundo 52 crashed in the Los Angeles community of Chatsworth. NBCLA confirmed the helicopter was Newschopper 4, which was providing coverage of a separate. crash involving a metro bus. The victims aboard the helicopter identified as Eliana Moreno, a familiar voice for NBC4 and Telemundo 52 during the station's aerial coverage and pilot George Marcono. Let's bring in Emmys now, senior reporter Josh Enochner, who's live at the scene

in chatsworth. Josh, what's the situation there? Mika, as you know, there's perhaps no TV market in the country that's more dependent on aerial news gathering than the L.A. market and all the stations, or at least many of them, were in the air in this area of Chatsworth covering this fatal crash between an SUV and a city bus, providing a service to their community less than 12 hours ago during the early evening news yesterday. When something went wrong with the chopper belonging to NBC-owned station, KNBC, they call it News Chopper 4, and it fell out of the sky into a ball of flames in the lot behind me here. Right now, the wreckage, which fire officials describe as being barely recognizable,

is awaiting the arrival of an NTSB investigator as that agency determines how it proceeds as it tries to figure out what went wrong. As you point out, the crew and the crews of these helicopters risk their lives every day to provide this service to their communities. As is a fact that came home. So with such numbing loss yesterday, George, Marceano and Eliana Moreno actually worked for a company called Angel City Air, which contracted with NBC to operate that helicopter. Right now, the LAPD is holding the scene. There are some investigators with Tyvec suits going through some of the wreckage as they wait for the NTSB to take the lead in this investigation. One other person, as you pointed out, Mika was also killed on the ground when it landed in this industrial park.

behind me. Right now, it's just a numbing loss for the L.A. TV community. These were fixtures of the airwaves, a partnership between the two of them that they've been flying together as partners for more than two years. And right now, the L.A. community is in mourning as they wait for answers on what went wrong. Mika. All right. MS. Now is Josh Einerger. Thank you very much for that update. Keep us posted. Mika, a footnote on that partnership. And this is the station I grew up. watching the News Center for Gave me my love of news. But the L.A. Times pointed out that

Eliana, who was on social media Ellie and the Helly, very well known and often would refer to George Marcono when she was doing her report. So very personal for L.A. viewers in that statement. Thank you for that. And coming up, we're going to dig

into a new Vanity Fair piece that looks at Vice President J.D. Vance's time at Yale, the author behind the Chris Whipple joins us to discuss how it shaped the vice president and what it could mean for the future of American politics. Morning Joe, we'll be right back. Last week, the U.S. military had to fire up to 70 or more interceptors to counter a barrage of Iranian missiles, as the Wall Street Journal notes, that expenditure is roughly equivalent to what the Pentagon has used in a full week at other times in the war. The incident underscores Iran's improved and ongoing ability to target American forces

in the region. We're going to show some images in a second. But this goes back, John Lamere, you've seen it every day. There's been, you know, when there was reporting early on in this war that they had not obliterated everything, just like they had not obliterated all of the nuclear facilities and the three places. You know, Hagsith and everybody else was so shocked and indignant. You all hate America. Why are you deriding the U.S. military? Here we are. are six, what is it? Six months into it? How many months? Seven. Seven months into it now. The Iranians are getting stronger. Now, that may be because of China and Russia, but the Iranians are getting stronger. They figured out how to really inflict damage. It appears,

based on some pictures we're going to show from CBS in a second, it appears that the White House, the Pentagon, have been covering up just how much damage the Iranians have inflicted on U.S. bases throughout the region throughout this war. Since the early days of the war, I mean, the damage to the base is also the number of soldiers injured. The Pentagon suppressed that information for months, and it took reporting from outside outlets to uncover that. The munitions thing is a deeply sore subject for this administration, but it's undeniably true. They do not have. Why is that a, I don't understand. Why is that a sore subject? That is objectively true. Everybody knows.

it's objectively true. It is a national security challenge for the United States of America. Do your blanking job. Do your job. Figure out how to make more munitions. But part of the reason is that it was both foreseen, it was foreseeable and foreseen. This was known going into the war. And so, of course, that's part of the reason that they're very reluctant to talk about it. And we have the great reporting from Jonathan Swan and others at the New York Times that the vice president went did his own investigative reporting with the combatant commands because he didn't trust what he was being getting around the table in the sit room. Yeah.

He did his own investigation and then he dutifully leaked it to the New York Times. He did. I mean, the J.D. Vance play here of repeatedly saying privately, I'm opposed to this war and then publicly being a full-throated defender of it. By the way, by the way, can we just unpack this a little bit? Uh-oh. Because this is a young guy. I learned very quickly about leaking.

in politics by just observing what James A. Baker the Third did in the race. So why does everybody keep writing these great stories about James A. Baker the Third? I loved him, right? And then I go, oh, wait a second. He's given them all their stories. So when you see J.D. Vance being the hero throughout Maggie and Jonathan's book saying, oh, do not go to war. Wait. We must release all the Epstein. Files, that accusation of him being with a 14-year-old girl, the president I know would want that to be released. And Susie Wiles is in the corner, he goes, no, he wouldn't.

No, I wouldn't. And so now he's leaked to the New York Times. I had to do my own investigation, and I am deep. Now, here's a guy who, by the way. But it is true. He did do it. Yeah. But then it's true.

He had to have leaked it to the New York Times. because now we all know that he did it. The same guy who called Trump Hitler, like the same guy who I think we're going to find out actually may have tried to help Hillary in the 26 King campaign. Come on. Yeah, I don't know. We'll see about that in a few minutes.

That's a tease. I also think the other subplot to this as we unpack is a lot of these stories also paint a very, very negative light of Defense Secretary Pete Hakeseth. And there's certainly those in the administration who are trying to push him out. But he still has the only defender that really matters, at least for now, in President Trump. Why would Donald Trump, we ask this every day, why would he continue to defend a guy that caused his first real problem, his first year when things were actually going well for him with Signalgate going, hey, guys, da-da-da-da. Hey, Jeffrey Goldberg, we're about to launch a secret attack. Boop. Nobody does that. And then, and then, and then, you. he screwed up munitions.

He pushed the president into war, along with Netanyahu. None surprising because he was not qualified for the job. Well, of course. And there were many other concerning issues about his ability to do the job in a complete and completely put together fashion. And then sensibly pushed out? Put together in fashion. Sober.

This tie straight. Want me to say it? Sober. Yeah, a sober character, exactly. But we talked about Susie Wales. Susan Wiles didn't like him from the start because he lied from the start. He even lied in the transition. This guy's, as we say in Northwest Florida, look at him. He's a runaway beer truck. Like, you don't want to see a runaway beer truck in Northwest Florida. And you sure don't want to see it run in your Pentagon, but that's what we have. Well, on the nose that medical. Yeah, that image.

A munitions crisis. And pushed out so much of the senior leadership there at the Pentagon, who would have, of course, been helpful at a time of war. And the biggest cheerleader of a war that will forever define Donald Trump's presidency in the night of light. And reshape the Middle East. He's the guy right there that Donald Trump. You know, get rid of that guy. And a lot of your problems at the Pentagon go away. Get somebody who actually knows what they're doing. It is a question we've been asking.

Donald Trump usually has pretty good instincts for this stuff. That guy's bad for me, so he has to go. This guy is bad for Donald Trump. It's horrible for Donald Trump. And the best answer, when John knows this better than anyone, the best answer you get is he likes that he looks the part. It's like he's got good hair or something. But like at some point that has to expire. And you say he's bad for me.

Get Brad Pitt and do less damage. But also, but as you say, the reason we're running out of musicians is because whether it was in good faith or not, Secretary Hegs had thought this will be a quick war. Netanyahu thought with American military might and Israeli military might combine, we will knock out their leader. Wipe out their military, crush their program in a matter of weeks. Remember the four to six weeks prediction? Yeah. Now we're up to seven months. And that's why, because of terrible preparation and things that many, many experts saw like closing of the Strait of Hormuz, the launching of Iranian air power, or military power against bases of our allies around the country. That's why this is going on and on and on to the benefit of Iran. Meanwhile, the Republican Congress from Thomas Massey of Kentucky has introduced articles of impeachment against Pete Hegzith. He did that yesterday. The 34-page resolution alleges Secretary Hegzith has, quote, abused the powers of the Department of Defense by unlawfully entering the U.S. military into the war against Iran in late February and then keeping armed forces in the region.

Massey's effort unlikely to succeed in the Republican-controlled Congress, but the move does mean House lawmakers will be forced. force to vote on that potential impeachment this week. We'll keep an eye on that. This comes, as we were just mentioning, as CBS News has obtained new images that show widespread damage caused by recent Iranian attacks at multiple U.S. positions, bases across the Middle East. The images show a burned-out American aircraft in the Air Force base in Saudi Arabia, similar seen in Kuwait, where U.S. infrastructure was left in ruins.

Willie, does that look like war to you? He sure does. It sure does. Because I know some people that have been victims of this war are not getting paid because the Pentagon doesn't want to call it a war. Yeah, Americans in harm's way. But the president keeps calling it a war. He says that out loud. No, no, he talks about it.

Staff trailers that we saw a minute ago, they were also destroyed along with vehicles, buildings. CBS reports, quote, the Defense Department's Inspector General this week released a fresh report on the war in Iran that revealed equipment losses. worth up to $3.7 billion, including nearly 60 aircraft. So we're told it's not a war. This isn't really a conflict. This is small potatoes, as President Trump said. We can end it whenever we want. And yet, American service members have died, 18 of them.

Many have been injured. And now we're seeing just because of journalists, not because of the Department of Defense, that there's been real destruction and threats to our military. And Sam Stein, we lost billions of dollars in military equipment, lost American lives and the Pentagon saying it's not a war and in fact trying to shield the media from getting this information. Yeah, I mean, just a cascading about amount of bad news on this front that I think the administration just has to grapple what you see there. $38 billion. Look, that's a conservative estimate. That's just the Pentagon that's just through August 1st. So if you take in the other

agencies, if you take in the time since August 1st, it's much higher than that. You have oil analysts now saying that the price deal is going to actually go higher. You mentioned the Tom Massey impeachment vote. There was a war authorization vote as well. We saw seven Republicans cross the aisle, including conspicuously some in very tough races this cycle in Iowa. I think it's very clear where the political winds are shifting on this. And yeah, look, I'm with you on the J.D. Vance posturing stuff just to circle it back. I think he knows where the winds are blowing here. It's odd to me that they keep saying, well, this will resolve after the new, after the election, right? They keep bringing this out. This war is going to end after the election. You would think they'd try to get it done

before the election, considering all the horrible headwinds that are associated with it, but it just gets back to the fundamental problem, which is they do not have a way out of this. Joe, you're right. The Iranians have obviously used this time during these weird sort of diplomatic negotiations slash non-negotiations to strengthen their position. The administration's blockade. It may be working, but it's, it's not working fast enough. The straight is not open despite their proclamations. So there is just not a good way out of this.

And so then you just say, well, we'll do it after the election. But the situation doesn't change. Well, the only thing that changes is, in fact, the Iranians don't have the leverage of the election to hold over the negotiators. Because six months ago, there were four months ago, three months ago, the Iranians were thinking they're desperate to finish this thing off before the election. If you say, we're going to wait until after the election, Mike, suddenly. the ratings don't have that leverage. And then you've got the president's negotiators in a position and say, hey, election's over. I'm not running again. I can do this all day if you want. I can grind your economy into dust if you want, or we can sit down and negotiate and get rid of this.

So that's one approach. Problem right now, though, also is the Middle East is on fire. Saudi Arabia really being challenged right now. Of course, the Emirates. Colorado, Qatar, you just go across the Middle East or allies are in deep trouble. Right. And where President Trump, you've covered him for decades, prided himself on being the great negotiator, world leaders around the world have discovered his weak spots as vulnerabilities and we're seeing it here. The other option, the post-election day play, is that that could be the moment with electoral concerns gone, Trump administration actually ramps up the

conflict again. They go back to war or at least a threat of war because it would not theoretically hurt Republicans at the ballot box. Well, think about that before the election. Quietly, there are. I mean, as much as the talk here about trying to wind this down, we've been reporting that the Navy has given orders, quiet orders,

to have extend deployments in the region preparing for potentially that. And I will say, if you are going to negotiate, maybe you like this, Maybe you don't like this. But if you're going to negotiate, if the Iranians think that you are limited by elections, if the Iranians think you are limited to war from, like, above, then they're just not going to negotiate.

At least if there's a credible threat where Donald Trump can say, I'm not running again. I'm going to put boots on the ground unless you guys want to negotiate now. I'm not saying I want boots on the ground. So everybody just that's freaked out, you know, just breathe. into a paper bag right there, and we'll talk through that. We'll get through this together. Mika's very good with mindfulness. She went to an MS now mindfulness thing yesterday.

It's in our membership. It's in our membership for MS now. You can be a calm app and Dan Harris, who leads in meditation and actually helps take you through the news with a mindful approach to news. I love it. It's very calming. It's very cool.

It is so soothing. So, yeah, you all just get on your MS now app and get mind. for what Willie and I talk about negotiations. This is the art of the deal. You let the Iranians know the hammer could fall. What you've seen, that's just a precursor to what I'm going to do now because I don't have to run for re-election again. So I don't really care.

I've proven every day of my political life, I don't care. Do you want to negotiate an end of this or not? And I think that actually might, after the election, give him some leverage to get a deal that will at least reset this back to where we were before the war began. A little bit of the madman theory. on the other side. Exactly. I don't know what he's going to do

now that he's kind of a lame duck. But I think the Iranians, when you talk to them, feel like they've taken the United States best shot militarily, and they've hung in there and now can use these other levers. The Houthis and the Red Sea,

Saudi Arabia, as you said, is scrambling because of that, closing the straight-of-hor moves. They feel like they've got levers, too. But the economic, again, yes, is probably out of order, should have started with the economic pressure, but that does have the ability

to bring them to table, is the hope. All right, we're going to get to Chris Whipple in a moment, his new reporting on J.D. Vans, but first, Mike Allen, on the ongoing issue of AI, Axius is out with new reporting titled, An Aging Congress Attempts to regulate AI without using it. This is a problem. This is a problem. Yes, so this is great reporting by the Axis politics and congressional teams. They've talked to more than two dozen governors and members of Congress who admitted that they don't use AI. And the quotes in this story up, up, an Axis Roger Wicker chair of the Armed Services Committee, Republican of Mississippi. Heavens no, he said when they asked him if he used AI, remind me my mommy, you say, heavens to Betsy. One of my senators, constituent of Senator Tim Kane, Democrat of Virginia, he said,

not intentionally, there were lots. Wait, wait, wait, somebody said that. I don't really understand that. He said that when it summarized his meetings, it wasn't always accurate. There were lots of, I don't know, and God bless Susan Collins, who I saw in the Pender Airport the other day, said, Republican of Maine said that sometimes it popped up on her phone. The way it matters of this is this is very technical. We're seeing right away that the simple. right-left positions that can guide you on so many issues are not going to work here and across the

country around tables around the country. People are talking about this and every member, every governor running this fall is going to be asked about it, needs to be able to talk about it with authority. People have very understandable fears and they don't use it. They just don't know. I really don't know how John Hillman in 2026, I hope you use it, how in 2026 people don't use perplexity or chat GPT or you name it, whatever clawed, whatever device that is. Because whatever part of your life you're dealing with, you can get answers.

You can get quick answers. It's not about taking over the world. It's about summarizing management things. you can get some quick medical advice. If you've got a child saying about this, this, this is very good on that, by the way. It's really good on medical advice. So when you call the doctor, you know what you're talking about. If you're like, you know, I don't want to get too deep into it.

But, you know, Mika said, hey, we're in this place. I want to know where antique stores are. Hey, perplexity, where's the best antique store in this area? And it gives you instantly five antique stores. Here are the websites. This is why this one's better. You go through all of that. as an exercise. And one of the reasons I do it is to see how rapidly it's improving. Chat GPT

today is 100 times better than chat GPT was a year ago. The day before yesterday. The day before yesterday. Exponentially, it keeps getting better and that's something that they should know. They also, it would be great for them to just dig in. There are footnotes, by the way. If Tim Kane, Tim Kane, if you're worried that it gives you bad information, you can get footnotes on an advanced chat GPT or perplexity. Everything it tells you, there's a footnote. You hit the link. You go to the link and you can confirm what it's telling you.

I don't know why everybody in Congress wouldn't be using it, but if they're not even using the little apps, how on the hell are they going to figure out how to regulate frontier systems. Right. So a number of things to say about this. First is, it's like the least surprising thing in the world. In every wave of technological innovation, the Congress always behind. And we now have a more gerontocratic Congress than ever.

You remember the tubes. Yes. Well, and we, you know, if you were around, and I know you were, for the period of time where the transition happened from the information superhighway to the Internet. Some of these people in the Senate are still barely kind of passed, may be the transition to they realize it's not the information superhighway anymore. It's the Internet, let alone getting onto the AI systems. It's not, so Congress, Luddites old and technologically kind of thought. What I hear in Tim Cain there is, as much as anything, is a sign of how toxic this issue has become. What I hear is a guy who is is.

John Lomir agrees with you. It is toxic. If he is using it, he doesn't want his conceptual and so how he's using it. His reaction to this is, Tim Cain is not up this year. His reaction to the question is, I don't want to be anywhere near AI right now. I just, and I'm sure he is also not super familiar with it. But in the conversation with an actionist reporter, it's like, I don't want to be like a seen as someone who uses a lot of AI.

That's how we've gone from AI being politically positive to politically neutral. It's now politically toxic where people's immediate reaction is like, nope, keep that away from me. I don't want to get that on my shoes. Yeah. And look, it's a catastrophe given by me. Mike and Jim have been on this case for a long time. But it is devastating. It's a place where the failures of Congress end of the political class to get their arms around this are more devastating than probably any issue.

that we've had in our lifetime. We're going to talk about this on the other side. I will tell you something that I think everybody around the table will remember. This reminds me so much of what happened. I've said it before a year. I'll say it again. What happened in 2007? When I kept reading in the New York Times,

Wall Street Journal about these credit default swaps, I was like, what is this? This doesn't make sense to me. I don't understand how you chop up bad mortgages. You put them with other mortgages. You sell them across the globe. But I always came back to, well, I don't understand it. these people must be smarter than me.

I'm a country lawyer. Exactly. And that's where we are right now. Yeah. And this is existential. We need expertise. The flip side of this Congressman Dom Meyer, Democrat of Virginia, he went back and got a master's in machine learning, very on brand.

Did he really? For Don. And he recommends quad. So that's the first side. But just social media is a good example of a thing where with a much lower stakes. Congress was very slow picking up on social media. all what the consequences there were, which we didn't regulate, didn't have a good net policy. It is taken as happened to.

To all those platforms. For the system to catch up to the damage and the harm caused by social media. Still being caused. Mike Allen, thank you so much. Mike, roll time. He is co-author of the new book. Simplify, do 50% more with 50% less. John Hellman, Sam Stein. Thank you both as well.

And still ahead. Hey, Sam, good luck with your assignment. We're going to be joined. Oh, God. Sorry, Sam. Can I just say something? I use AI, but only like Mika for antiquing. Right.

Exactly. Let's all go antiquing. That's good. Okay, we'll be joined by the former ambassador to Japan, Rom Emanuel, for a wide-ranging conversation. Morning, Joe, we'll be right back. Look at that. Here we go. He's ready.

All right. Bring it off. Yes. Yeah.