Pod Save America - Trump's Trade War Hits Hollywood

Episode Date: May 6, 2025

Donald Trump turns his attention westward, announcing new tariffs on any and all movies "produced in foreign lands" and pledging to reopen Alcatraz. In a long Meet the Press interview, the president admits that a recession would be "okay," defers to his lawyers when asked about his duty to uphold the Constitution, and doubles down on his message that American children have been spoiled with too many dolls, pencils, and strollers. Jon, Lovett, and Tommy discuss the absurdity of tariffing foreign films, how Trump's toy gambit has cost him the support of Karl Rove, and deliver another Corrupdate on Trump's memecoin scam. Then, Tommy talks to Chasten Buttigieg about his new children's book, Papa's Coming Home, and his husband Pete's journey to do battle in the manosphere.

Today's presenting sponsor is Simply Safe Home Security. Longer days mean more time for after work plans, weekend getaways, and unfortunately, more opportunities for break-ins. In fact, most burglaries happen during broad daylight. That's why Simply Safe's advanced security helps stop intrusions before they happen so you can leave home with confidence.

I'm sitting with someone who has set up his own Simply Safe system and has lived to tell the tale. I did set it up. And here I am telling you that it's a great, great service, easy to do. Here he is away from his home. Yeah. And feeling great because it's protected.

Feel great every day. Some days less great, but nothing to do with the house. It's more about the politics. But in the terms of Simply Safe, highly recommend it. Once you set it up, it just works perfectly. The app is great, customer support is great. You should get one. With SimpliSafe, millions of Americans

enjoy the new standard in home security and greater peace of mind every time they arm their system. When handing out in the morning or when locking up each night, traditional security systems only take action after someone's already broken in, that's too late. SimpliSafe's active guard outdoor protection can help prevent break-ins before they happen.

If someone's lurking around or acting suspiciously, those agents see and talk to them in real time, activate spotlights, even contact the police all before they have the chance to get inside your home. No long-term contracts or cancellation fees. Monitoring plans start affordably at around a dollar a day. 60-day satisfaction guarantee or your money back. Visit simplysafe.com slash crooked to claim 50% off a new system with a professional monitoring plan and get your first month free.

That's simplysafe.com slash crooked. There's no safe like Simply Safe. Welcome to Pod Save America. I'm Jon Favreau. I'm Jon Lovett. I'm Tommy Vitor. All right, on today's show we're going to talk about Trump's new movie tariff proposal, his plan to reopen Alcatraz. It's like a fucking parody.

It's unbelievable. And his big loss in court over his attempt to ban certain law firms from practicing law in federal court. Then later you'll hear Tommy's interview with our friend Chastain Buttigieg. Tommy, what'd you guys talk about? We, so Chastain's got a book coming out called Papa's Coming Home. It's a children's book.

We talked about why you wanted to write that, LGBT representation in books, what it's like to be the focus of disgusting, constant right-wing attacks on his family, book bans, their adoption story, being a dad. Pete's beard, got into that. Pete's journey into the Manosphere. It was fun to just hang.

Chastain was kind enough to bring some extra copies of his new book. That night I read it to Charlie, I told Chastain this, but Charlie loved the book. Like multiple LOLs from my- Endorsement. Yeah. Going on a back jacket.

He was a big fan, big fan. Charlie's first blurb. Maybe Pete will do an interview with Charlie. All right, let's get to the news and we'll start with the economy where Donald Trump is doubling down on his message that Americans just need to suck it up and sacrifice for the sake of His Majesty's trade war, especially our kids who've frankly been spoiled with too many dolls, pencils, and strollers. That's got a point. The president sat down for pencils. Where's the pencils? Pencils is such a David Bowie. Where'd the fucking pencils come from?

He doesn't, you think he spent a lot of time down on the floor playing with the kids? He doesn't know what the toys are. He thinks we still have the sharpeners that you could do this to. And maybe if we- Most people don't even know what I'm talking about. If we did have those,

maybe things wouldn't be so fucking fucked up. Okay, well that's- Get kids doing this. Yeah, there you go go make the sharpener. You're in the make America great again can't there totally wrong All right, okay. There you go Sound more like your dad every day Wait till we get to the movie terrible No, all right president sat down for a long meet the press interview where Kristen Welker asked him about the recession predictions That have accompanied his tariff policy. Here's a sampling of his answers.

Is it okay in the short term to have a recession? Look, yes, everything's okay. Are you worried it could happen? Do you think it could happen? Anything can happen. When does it become the Trump economy? It partially is right now, and I really mean this. I think the good parts are the Trump economy

and the bad parts are the Biden economy. Are you saying that your tariffs will cause some prices to go up? No, I think the tariffs are going to be great for us because it's going to make us rich. But you said some dolls are going to cost more. Isn't that an acknowledgement that some prices will go up? I don't think a beautiful baby girl needs, that's 11 years old, needs to have 30 dolls.

I think they can have three dolls or four dolls. They don't need to have 250 pencils. They can have five. So true. Just in case anyone thought he might have misspoken there, here's what Trump said when asked about this again on Air Force One Sunday night. A young lady, a 10-year-old girl, a 9-year-old girl, a 15-year-old girl, doesn't need $37. She could be very happy with two or three or four or five. Let's not waste a lot of time. What else? I'd like Americans to look at an industry,

lift it up and ask themselves, does it spark joy? Mm. Ha ha ha. Him just listing off the ages of girls just creeps me out. Especially that voice. Yeah, yeah, yeah, the older and older. The number of dolls, the number of pencils, the ages of the girls, it's just changing everything.

He's doing a weave on this one. Oh, 15 year olds with dolls, but. It's not the part that's gotten the most attention, but when she said you'd be okay with the recession, yeah, everything's okay. It'd be okay. Which I think really nails his mindset right now. It's like a philosopher. I know, when he goes in.

More than anything else. He becomes, I really, when he becomes a kind of sage-like figure, which is we're all a bit too materialistic, in the long run we're all dead kind of vibe-like figure, which is we're all a bit too materialistic. In the long run, we're all dead kind of vibe. It's interesting. What do you guys make of Trump's insistence on sticking to this message?

Are you surprised he's not just saying there won't be any recession or pain or need for sacrifice? The guy is like not exactly known for telling hard truths. Yeah, I think there's a couple parts of it. Part of it is like, it's not dumb to do a little expectation setting when you know your tariff policy is gonna create some at least rocky shores financially in the short run.

But then he's betting that blaming Joe Biden for everything, whether it's tariffs, the economy, Ukraine, immigration, Gaza, all of it, is some sort of get out of jail card, free card. And so, I don't know, when he gets to the $30 versus $3, it's so tone deaf because he doesn't realize that there are kids who can currently only afford $3, who will have zero dollars.

That's the part he can't compute. I don't know if you guys saw this, when people were posting a bunch of photos of his kids when they were younger, like driving around like little toy Mercedeses and things, like every toy you could ever imagine. Yeah, of course. Money is love with him.

I think he knows how to buy his kids $30. Yeah, I can't. So first of all, him saying the good parts of the economy are me and the bad parts of the economy are Joe Biden, that's a joke he's made real. Like that's what we were all joking about. It's incredible that he's just saying it out loud. I can't tell on the 30 Donald's front.

It seems like he knows he kind of fucked up and didn't say something exactly politically useful and now he can't let go of it. He can't back down. Interesting, it's true. I'm sort of with Tommy's point. I think he's just, I know this is like perfect democratic messaging,

but I think he's genuinely out of touch. I mean, he's always out of touch, but like this is like a, this is Luc perfect democratic messaging, but I think he's genuinely out of touch. You know, I mean, he's always out of touch, but like, this is like a, this is Lucille Bluth, not Lucille with the, Lucy with the candies. Yeah, yeah. This is Lucille Bluth with the, I know Lucille Bluth. What is it?

Well, this was from last time. So call back from last episode. I get it, I get it. With the one banana, Michael. What could it cost? What could it cost? $10. The man covers everything he sees in gold.

He's covering the oval office ceiling in gold. The whole thing looks, it's all sees in gold. He's covering the Oval Office ceiling in gold. The whole thing looks, it's all covered in gold now. He's talking to Kristen Welker in another segment in that same interview about building a new ballroom in the White House. He's throwing himself a military parade for his birthday. Like the guy just, he has no, he's not anywhere close to in touch with what people are going through.

Yeah, there was somebody tracked down what the objects were that have been attached to the Oval Office walls, and it turns out it seems like they just sent someone to Home Depot to buy kind of little spray painted objects to attach to the wall, little like lawn decorations. Yes. Can I just make a request to Kristen Welker,

whoever gets to interview Donald Trump for an hour next, the 10th time he complains, can someone just say to him, sir, do you ever get tired of just constantly whining about the media about our questions? He was so whiny. He's such a bitchy little baby. He's like, you never ask the night, you never say things like, the economy's doing,

some companies are doing great. And this is what happened. I'm like, yeah, because she's not one of the fucking- She doesn't work for you. Right-wing influencers that you let into the briefing now to ask you all the questions. Right, you never take a moment in these interviews to stop asking questions and to just praise me.

You never did this. Which is what he has become accustomed to, not only from his staff now, but from the reporters that he faces every day. They all praise him. Yeah, it's- And so do foreign leaders and so do business people. Everyone is praising him now because everyone-

It's exhausting. Either they're afraid of him or they wanna suck up or they're looking out for themselves. So it's very rare that he is challenged. Well, it is and it isn't, right? Because on the one hand, yes, he's sort of pushing AP and Reuters aside to make room for a right-wing gazette and Marjorie Taylor Greene's boyfriend

to slather on the love with him. But he is sitting down for a ton of interviews with combative reporters over and over again. And you know, we're- But he seems genuinely surprised. Every time. By each time, one of them asks a challenging question.

Like Terry Moran just blew his big break by asking a challenging question about a brand of drug, say that. It's a shame. Back to the miners for you, Terry Moran. Terry, I chose you. Because I didn't know who you were. Because he didn't know who he was because i didn't know who you are

incredible uh... former congressman trey gowdy said on his fox news show didn't know until this that he still has a fox news show that trump should triple down on this message with an oval office address where he'd presumably talk more about why our kids need to give up their dolls and pencils carl rove had a very funny response to that think we have a clip. So I thought it was really problematic when he said, well, you know what, the kids, those little girls at Christmas,

they don't need 30 dolls, they can do it too. And if they have to pay a couple more bucks for them, okay, well, it sounds like Mr. Scrooge. Carl Rove. Yeah. Also, you know, boys play with dolls. And obviously that's not the most important part of this, but you know, shout out to the little boys out there

who want a doll for Christmas. And very few young children use pencils. No, none do. It's weird that Trey Gowdy's kind of become a voice of reason. He opened that segment criticizing Trump for talking about invading Greenland and Canada. And then Rove made some smart points, I thought. He talked about how Trump hadn't visited the border yet. Why hasn't he visited the border?

It's the only thing you seem to care about, sir. Why wouldn't you just go to the border and take some credit? The Oval Office address idea is absolutely stupid. Oh, I disagree. It's an antiquated understanding of the media. I wanna say, Trump would own us libs so hard. He wanted to write one.

If he gave a primetime Oval Office address on why Americans must sacrifice more for his trade war. I wanna say that. Stephen Miller is gonna outwrite you too. Yeah, please don't do it. Don't do it, you'll get us. Yeah, we'll be gone. It's so like, this idea that like, no, no.

Like we need to sacrifice. For fucking what? For what? Sacrifice to make ourselves poorer and other nations poorer and basically everyone poorer. Does sound good when you put it that poor. That's sound good. That is the goal. I guess sacrifice so that Donald Trump can,

as he's told the Atlantic, run the world and everyone has to beg him for exemptions and this and this deal and that deal. He just wants to be the center of everything. I guess it's just like, hey, we're gonna have a couple Christmases with more expensive dolls because in a few years, there'll be American made dolls.

Is that what we're meant to, like what- I guess so. From their own point of view, what is the sacrifice for? It's just not clear. No. Also, Rove said that the Pope Photoshop was very offensive as our resident Catholic. Were you seeing a lot of chatter about Catholics

upset about that Photoshop thing? On your papacy group chat? No, I just think there's so much to be offended by. Even if you're a devout Catholic, there's so much to be offended by. Even if you're a devout Catholic, there's so much to be offended by from Donald Trump that I don't think the image of the Pope is gonna do much. I would say especially if you're a devout Catholic. Right.

But it's your religion. For example, his immigration policy, his policy towards the poor. Yeah, they tend to trade all that stuff for the cruelty to people they don't like. And the big hats. Not Pope Francis. He was a good guy.

He was our guy. Not as people's pope. But I talked to Dan on the YouTube, who made fun of me for saying the YouTube, like Chuck Schumer. He should. But I don't care. But,

Snapface. Like I think it's, there are all these dumb things that Trump is doing that are worth making fun of. I do think when it tilts over into, it's gonna cost him the Catholics in Ohio because this is so offensive. It's like, are you offended

or are you just hoping people are offended? Like, I don't know. Yeah, I was just surprised to hear Roeve say it. And there's someone, Fox News asked Trump about it today in the press briefing. So I just didn't know if there was a critical mass of angry Catholic Photoshop gates. Yeah, how bad could you be? There's a few conservative Catholics

that are like, this, this is what's going too far. This has got, you know, JD Vance thinks it's a joke and just use the opportunity to attack Bill Kristol for the Iraq war. It's like, how bad of a photo could it be? It is a costume you can buy at Spirit Halloween. I will say that JD Vance, he really like stopped posting for a while

and I thought maybe like, maybe Usha said to him, like, you gotta stop posting so much, but he's back. I think he that JD Vance, he really like stopped posting for a while and I thought maybe like, maybe Usha said to him like, you gotta stop posting so much, but he's back. I think he just took a, he was traveling, must've taken a break because the last 48 hours he's been, he's getting into it with Bill Kristol, he's posting about all kinds of shit. I think all of them, they kind of like,

remember in the 2008 campaign, Bill Burton told all us little young com staffers that we had to call 10 reporters before 10 a.m. I think they have to pick like 10 Twitter fights before 10 a.m. with annoying libs and that's just kind of how this white house operates. You know, part of the- Have you figured out a way to post in the shower yet?

Post in the shower. There's only a few last kind of frontiers for you. You gotta be careful. While you're sleeping, posting while you're sleeping. I'm sorry, excuse me. I saw you posting about all kinds of movies today. I did, I was posted. I'm sure you're warming up a take for here.

Absolutely. Okay, great, great. That's where I put all, that's where I work things out.'re gonna get that. I'm sure you're warming up a take for here. Absolutely. Okay, great. That's where I work things out. Just gonna wave to you in that glass house over there. Scott Besson. Scott Besson was out here in LA on Monday. Just a fortuitous time for him to be here talking to investors at the Milken Conference.

This came after he wrote a piece in the Wall Street Journal about Trump's economic strategy. Besson's taken a sunnier approach. He's telling everyone that we're close to making trade deals, the economy's gonna be quote, humming during the second half of 2025. I don't know, it does feel like this is a play to calm the market, mark, to calm the market.

Markets, that was so markets. Unbelievable. Woo! Just went back to South. Calm the markets in the short term. I don't know if it's the best long-term strategy or maybe it just doesn't matter. What do you guys think?

Yeah, it just seems like cleanup because steps one and two are undoing the damage from what they've already done. It's like, first things first, I want you to stop worrying about all the harm we've already caused. We're in the process of trying to unwind some of that harm. Step two is the tax cuts we've already been talking about

for months and step three is a bunch of, I guess, AI server farms. I guess that's something to look forward to. Right, the policy is like white label Republican policy. It's like tax cuts and deregulation and then these stupid tariffs that are causing all the problems. Let me read you one line from this op-ed though.

Mr. Trump intends to usher in the most prosperous decade in American history, but not at the cost of the spiritual degradation of the working class. Did that give you a bit of like a Joey, a job is about more than a paycheck? I feel like that was an edit from the VP's office. Cause that's the, that's the, he's going into the sort of right wing view

that like we must bring the manufacturing back because the jobs we have now, this is like the Gen Z boss in a mini discourse. Email jobs make you gay. Email jobs make you gay. Right, we're just, we're all too materialist except for the crypto. Right, those guys are cool.

Yeah, and except for all the billions that we have, but otherwise everyone's too materialist and what we need is to be making the iPhones and making the shoes again. Besson was at Goldman Sachs, I believe. Right, yeah, Besson, yeah. All these rich people, yeah. These are all the wealthiest people on earth.

A Soros agent, as Elon Musk called him. Besson is the most upright person I've ever seen started to interrupt. He almost leaned backwards. I was gonna say, not, yeah, he's tipping over. He's tipping over this way. He's a Southern gay, they have great posture. You have to, you have to if you're gonna be a Southern gay.

Anyway. Yeah, I was gonna, like, this comes back to Trump talking about the dolls, and I do think it's kind of his ham-fisted, heard it during a meeting, JD Vance thing about like the kind of- It's a ban thing too. Yeah, it's kind of his ham-fisted, heard it during a meeting, JD Vance thing, about like the kind of- It's a banning thing too. Yeah, it's a spiritual crisis thing.

We need to get back to making things in real work. Yeah, yeah. I'm wondering if like as Besant was landing in LA and saw the Hollywood sign outside of the plane window, he saw the truth post from Trump Sunday night, that was a little bit of a surprise, where Trump announced that he will be expanding his trade war to the entertainment industry. President posted that our movie business is, quote, dying a very fast death as other countries

steal our entertainment jobs and make films that are just, quote, messaging and propaganda. So he's directing his administration to implement, quote, a 100% tariff on any and all movies coming into our country that are produced in foreign lands. Foreign lands is title case. Trump was asked about this in the Oval on Monday. Here's what he said. Our film industry has been decimated by other countries taking them out and also by incompetence like in Los Angeles. The governor is a grossly incompetent. Man, he's just allowed it to be taken away from Hollywood. Hollywood doesn't do very much of that business. They have the nice sign and everything's good,

but they don't do very much. How about this, guys? How are we, how's it gonna work? How are we gonna tariff the movies? Yeah, I don't, it's hard when a lot of them come in through ones and zeros. It's hard to figure out where to put the little tax bill. Yeah, when I saw this story, I swear,

the first thing I thought was, this is John Voight's fault. I really did, I was like, John Voight. And it was. And it turned out it really was. Although not really, apparently. He met with John Voight, but did you read, and it was either Deadline or, I can't remember which of the trades it was.

Deadline. John Voight talked to him about bringing production back and the tax incentives, but it said that he did not propose the tariffs. No, no, no. My assumption is that John Voight has been taking these meetings to try to figure out, there is a genuine problem which we can talk about,

but that he has been like as Trump's ambassador to Hollywood, been trying to figure out what to do about how to try to bring, about how to bring production back to the United States and to Los Angeles specifically, which is really important and a serious problem. And I'm sure he talked to Donald, about how to bring production back to the United States and to Los Angeles specifically, which is really important and a serious problem. And I'm sure he talked to Donald Trump about it. And then it kind of went through the fucking

Rube Goldberg's contraption at Trump's reign. It came out with, we're gonna tariff him 100%. And then at some point that will be kind of squeezed through some fucking broken chaotic policy process and emerge as his victory, whatever real policy ultimately lands at the end of it, that is not going to be a tariff on films made in foreign lands, whatever the fuck that means. Is it films?

Is it TV too? Is it some of the production overseas? Is it all of it? Is it where you shoot? Is it where the production company is? None of this makes sense. Yeah, so what's happening right now is there has been a strike, there was a pandemic

and a terrible impact on the film industry and television industry in California and in the United States. Over the last decade or so, we've lost a ton of production from California to other parts of the US and collectively the United States has lost a lot of production to Canada, Australia, Europe. The UK. And the UK. And it's a genuine emergency.

I do think California government has been slow to respond, but right now they really are genuinely responding. Karen Bass has been talking about this, ways to make it easier to shoot in Los Angeles. She's a little bit hamstrung because it actually is a big state issue, but they are trying to dramatically increase the amount of money that goes towards

subsidizing production through the tax code, increasing the number of the types of productions that are eligible to receive it, all of which will go a long way, because the real crisis is that there's a ton of people that live in California who are the best at what they do in making television and making film. They live here because things were produced here,

and fewer and fewer productions are taking place here. And a lot of the recovery that happened after the pandemic, after the strike has gone elsewhere, not just to New York or to Georgia, but also to other countries. And it's not wrong to say that California Democrats collectively have been slow on this, but they're on it. They really are genuinely trying to figure out

how to fix it right now. That's also a policy question where to be on it is to, like you said, offer tax incentives, change the tax code, whatever else. Tariffs are a fucking terrible idea, especially since one of the many explanations, rationales for the trade war has been the trade deficit, right?

On this instance, we export three times more content than we import in this country. So if we went the tarot fruit at all, other countries might start saying, okay, we don't want America. We're gonna put tariffs on American movies and American production that come here. Yeah, I mean, Trump throws out ideas

and we all sound insane trying to make sense of them. Yeah, you guys do, but. I have a few thoughts. One, industry. One soul, not industry. Always, it says industry. Yeah, you're stupid. I have a few thoughts. One, industry. One soul. Not industry. Always, it's just industry. Industry, I mean, sane.

I know. Two, he's calling it a national security emergency. He's trying to do this, I think. They're floating doing this under the typical AIPA, the legal authority that they're doing all the other terrorists, which would mean he's declaring a TV and film national emergency, which is just so stupid.

Again, just to make fun of how stupid this is. Also, the Gavin Newsom approach, as you said, love it. It's to increase the tax credit from 330 million to 750 million annually to try to bring back some of these productions to the LA area, to the Hollywood area. But I was talking to someone in Gavin's office today and they're like, yes, we have to do that part

for Paramounts, but we also need to do more for like the person who works craft services on these productions, help them find more affordable housing, better schools, better services. So they're trying to think of it in a more holistic way and Trump's just like, I don't know, a tariff fit. Yeah. At the core of this is, yes, there's just, we need to be competing on the tax structure

to get more production here, but there's also just bureaucratic hurdles that need to be lifted that have to do with like, you know, a lot of long running problems in California. And it's just fucking expensive to be in California, which goes to the deeper problem we have about not building enough housing, not building enough transportation. I'm sorry, I'm just a little- As we're flying, has entered the chat.

Abundance. Are we abundant? What are you saying about the word industry? He says industry. Oh, I see. And it drives me crazy. He said it, it was the one that the clip we just played, that was the worst I've heard. Industry. Film industry. Film industry. Film industry. Oh, I see. It drives me crazy. He said it was the one that the clip we just played. That was the worst I've heard.

Industry. Film industry. Film industry. Film industry. Very odd. He's saying it like, are you saying industry? And you want it to be industry. Industry, just quick.

Right. You want it to be a dactyl. I want it to be, I don't know, better. It's interesting. You don't know which way this is gonna go. He said, I don't wanna hurt the film industry, which the film industry believes they would be hurt by this. So either some of them will come in and meet with them

and then he'll make something up, or some Hollywood stars will go out there and yell about it and he won't like them and then he'll get dug in further and then we'll have a thousand percent tariff. Well, but this would- You never know. This would kill like a Disney, for example,

because they make the Marvel movies and the Star Wars movies in England. So if those movies are getting tariffed at 100%, they are screwed. Yeah, there's a ton of... The other part of this too is like the productions... Same problem with the fucking tariffs coming on and off and being so chaotic like every other industry. It takes months, years to plan these things to be shot when they're gonna be shot. Do you know how hard it is to get on fucking the schedule of some of these actors? They're busy.

Yeah, they're busy people. I'm sure you know who didn't have a good morning is Ted Zarandos because Netflix, most of their production is overseas. Their stocks all went down like a couple percent. I mean, they recovered one day. Everyone realized it was made up. It's all so fucking stupid.

Pods of America is brought to you by Magic Spoon. Magic Spoon makes high protein, zero sugar cereal and treats reinvented from your childhood. The nostalgia. Love Magic Spoon. Been eating Magic Spoon for, I don't know, five, six years now. That's the only cereal that I'll have. And they've got the treats. Magic Spoons high protein treats are crispy, crunchy, airy

and an easy way to get 12 grams of protein on the go. I grab those when I'm walking out the door. They come in mouthwatering flavors like marshmallow, chocolate, peanut butter and dark chocolate. I'd recommend the chocolate peanut butter. Granola, Magic Spoons brand new granola packs and 13 grams of protein and zero added sugars.

They come in delicious flavors like dark chocolate, almond, honey almond, and peanut butter. And there's also, you know, the cereal itself. You got the original, you got some cocoa, you've got some peanut butter, which is pretty good. There's birthday cake. Don't sleep on the birthday cake. It's pretty good. Get $5 off your next order at magic spoon.com slash crooked or look for magic spoon on Amazon or in your nearest grocery store.'s magicspoon.com slash crooked for five dollars off. One person who may get richer because of Donald Trump's trade war, Donald Trump, we have a quick corrupt date for you all. We've talked a lot on the show about how the Trump family is basically inviting people to bribe them

through their world liberty financial crypto business. Well the Huffington Post reports that a company called FR8 Technologies, which handle shipping logistics for trade between the US and Mexico, raised $20 million in financing to buy $20 million worth of the Trump meme coin. Makes sense. A move that the company is hoping will be a quote, effective way to advocate for fair, balanced and free trade between Mexico and the US. Just said it, just put a statement out saying that.

Again, the Trump family owns the majority of the Trump coins and they get a cut of every transaction fee. So this is just a naked form of bribery right out in the open. Meanwhile, Trump's headlining a MAGA Inc. Super PAC dinner at one of his golf clubs in Virginia Monday night for quote, unquote, crypto and AI innovators.

The price tag $1.5 million ahead. Kristen Welker became one of the first journalists to ask Trump about his crypto dealings during his Meet the Press interview. Let's listen. You've branded your own cryptocurrency. The coin's values actually surged recently after you announced that top holders would be invited to have dinner. I don't even know that. What did it surge to? What did it surge to? Yeah, what's it worth? You might as well tell me because I have no idea.

Well, 14.32. What? No, dollars per cryptocurrency. Billion dollars? No. Let me just ask you, what do you say to those who argue that when they hear that they worry you're profiting from the presidency? I'm not profiting from anything. All I'm doing is, you know, I started this long before the election. You're not profiting off of the cryptocurrency business at all? I haven't even looked. Has your family?

I'll tell you what, look, if I own stock in something and I do a good job and the stock market goes up, I guess I'm profiting. But who really profits is somebody like Nancy Pelosi who uses inside information. Yeah, got her. Do you think it's plausible he's not paying attention to any of this? Absolutely no chance. I was talking to someone in the crypto industry today who said they believe that Trump's family has probably made around a billion dollars in cash

from their crypto ventures. We're not talking about unrealized gains of the coins, we're talking about like transaction fees on the meme coin. So you get fees as you just said, when they buy and sell the meme coin. They think they made that much just on the transaction? Yes. And also when you buy and sell

the World Liberty financial tokens, the Trump family is entitled to 75% of net revenue on those token sales, and the family owns 60% of the company itself. And by the way, there's like zero upside for the people who buy these tokens. You don't get any profits. You don't get to trade them.

It's like, makes no sense. And also in that interview, he's like, all ups, he's like, we started this long before I ran for office. They started the company in September of 2024. It was right before the election. I mean, this whole thing, he's like, we started this long before I ran for office. They started the company in September of 2024. It was right before the election. I mean, this whole thing, it's like, the grip is staggering. Yeah, and by the way, we also, like all of that is an estimate.

We don't know that there aren't people just like putting, just giving him money. Like there could be huge amounts that are just being just directly transferred to him into his wallet. We'll have no idea, there's no way to know that he could just, someone could go to the Oval and just show him their phone and be like, look what I gave you.

The only thing that's surprising is that Freight Technologies is so far the only company that we know of that has just spent $20 million to try to influence him on the trade, to get an exemption for the trade war, to influence the trade policy. Cause I imagine if the tariffs stay in place, we'll be seeing a lot more of that, right? Yeah, I mean, that's the only one on the trade war, but there's a far more egregious example that's out there.

So there's this Emirati state-owned investment firm called MGX. The president of the firm is like the president of the UAE's brother or something who runs the company. They want to make a $2 billion investment into Binance, which is the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange and one that has gotten into a lot of legal trouble in the United States because they were allowing people to money-wander, evade sanctions, criminal behavior, just like the Wild Wild West. The company paid $4 billion to the government because of that, and the CEO did jail time.

So, MGX wants to buy a piece of Binance for, instead of doing it in cash, for absolutely no reason, they are purchasing $2 billion worth of Trump's stable coin. It seems like some reason. The only reason is for any favor with the administration because presumably it will cost them more than $2 billion because there will be a transaction fee on the purchase of the stable coin.

So that one transaction will make Trump stable coin one of the biggest stablecoins in the world. And I think we're liberally, we'll probably get paid on both sides because they'll probably get a fee when you buy the stablecoin from them. And then normally the way these stablecoins are supposed to work is they're supposed to be backed by something which they use to peg the value of the stablecoin to like $1. So presumably they'll buy treasury bonds or something, and then they'll get the interest on those. And by the way, that's like the safest version of this scheme.

We don't know that they'll actually buy treasuries because we don't know how this works. So again, this Emirati state owned company is just going to buy $2 billion worth of Trump coin for no reason. The stable coin, the Trump stable coin will eventually be pegged to the Melania stable coin. Right.

It'll just be one. You know what? The American people are getting pegged. Hey. That's what's happening here. Yeah, I wish. You know what I mean? The doesn't, but what were we talking about?

Are they? Pegging. No, but the, I was thinking about this too, which is like, there's this kind of, I don't know, this feeling of like, they're openly corrupt. And this kind of feels like, okay. And then because Republicans in Congress don't know, this feeling of like, they're openly corrupt. And it just kind of feels like, okay. And then because Republicans in Congress don't care, it leads to nothing.

And I do think we need to be talking about this because I think it's really important. I do think people really care about this. Just for the politics of it, this is important to our politics. But I think long term, we need to be thinking about how do we start talking about, A, these are crimes. People are committing federal crimes every day, all the time, and just because your friends are doing it, doesn't mean it's not a federal crime.

Just because everybody's applauding in the ballroom doesn't mean you're not part of a federal crime. But then you have to also assume that Donald Trump is gonna use the pardon power that they're gonna try to find ways to wiggle their way out of this. And it would be, I think a lot about that Jonathan last piece around Pascal's Wager and the bet that Democrats will never seek retribution

and will behave really responsibly and always try to look forward. And we really do need to start talking about what we will do to investigate these crimes and make these and look back and make sure people pay a price for having been brazenly and openly corrupt, even if Republicans want to. So that the crypto industry will then dump

a couple hundred million dollars on that Democrat who said they'll investigate the crimes in the next election. It isn't tough. We should talk about that. Yeah. But I mean, well, look, we can do, how much does that money get you, right? Like we just went through a round of,

in Wisconsin where Elon's money could not buy them, is that right? Like we have to try, we have to try. Well, Senate Republicans have been trying to pass a bill with new rules on the stable coins that they thought had enough votes from more pro crypto Senate Democrats to pass, they had enough to pass until nine of those Democrats

just announced over the weekend, led by Ruben Gallego, that they'll oppose the legislation. Republicans were reportedly stunned by this news. Are you guys stunned by this news? No, I mean, the politics are complicated for the reason you just mentioned, because I think the crypto industry spent like $130 million last cycle on either pro crypto candidates or to target anti-crypto Democrats, even ones who were not anti-crypto at all. Their number one target was Sherrod Brown, former senator from Ohio. I think that one crypto PAC spent 40 million to defeat him,

and that was like their head on a pike to send a message. And I've been told by someone today that getting Sherrod Brown is a verb now on Capitol Hill. And so, Howard Lutnick and David Sacks were trying to ram this crypto bill through Congress. Democrats, I think, were trying to figure out how to like be for something. Because they don't, there's like,

there's not just the crypto money, but then there's a constituency that likes crypto, that thinks it's exciting, that thinks traditional financial services are broken and rigged against them and they're not wrong, but we don't need like a worse version backed on the blockchain, right? And like getting that message through is really hard.

But I think what happened here is Trump's stable coin corruption with the UAE was so brazen that even the member of the Democrats who are for this in committee were like, okay, we can't do this right now because this would essentially allow, like Trump put out an EO saying he has control of independent financial regulators and this bill would give him the authority to regulate the stable coin market as he is entering it. And like that is just insane. And it would also give big tech companies the

ability to issue stable coins. So you would see like X coin from Elon Musk or like Libra I think was the version that came out of Facebook. And so- That they stopped. They stopped. Because traditionally like there was an effort in like 2005, someone was reminding me that Walmart basically tried to launch a bank

and we tried to keep those two things separate because it's really bad. But now the outcome of this bill passing in a bad form would be you would have like bank like companies performing bank like services with no banking regulations. Also you get one bite at the sample on legislation and you know, Gallego was saying, they should not have been stunned. We worked with them for weeks and months to try to make the provisions in this bill have

real teeth and like have real regulation. He's like, and then the version that showed up on the floor didn't have like it was just weakened. He's like so I'm he was saying like I'm happy to continue working with them to make it stronger but like don't you know they're not going to water down a crypto regulation bill at the same time that the president is just you know inviting people to bribe him. You look there's a there's a nuanced debate I suppose around crypto around the techno the blockchain technology the ways it can Make life better. There are our genuine applications

But the concern voice from the beginning is this is going to be a tool for crime and corruption it is currently the most brazen and grand corruption tool in the history of our country That's it. I don't unless I mean I don't know if you guys are experiencing day to day the the benefits of the blockchain But but what I'm seeing is the most corrupt administration in history using it to enrich themselves to the tune of billions of dollars Donald Trump never been a billionaire maybe for you know, whether or not Donald Trump's ever been a billionaire He is one now because of just complete and total corruption because of crypto. Yeah, the Democrats on the committee like Elizabeth Warren they're trying to improve the bill

by being like, hey, what if it said the president and members of Congress can't get into the stable coin business? How about that? Or like, big tech can't either, or we got to apply consumer protections to stable coins. But I think the Republicans on the committee are trying to exempt stable coin regulations

from the CFPB, for example. So there's all the consumer protections are gonna go out the window. Yeah, and they can't cross the administration or the Trump family in any way. Right. Because they're there to serve. But like the Rubin guy goes to the world,

like I understand the people that are trying to work on this stuff in good faith, but like at the end of the day, the crypto industry fucking hates you, right? Like it is run by people like Marc Andreessen, who have a radical libertarian vision of the world. They view you as the enemy. They will not think twice about dumping tens,

if not hundreds of millions of dollars on your head in the next election and just go in there, eyes wide open, because you're not saving yourself from these people. Trump also made plenty of news over the weekend on Meet the Press and elsewhere, regarding his continued attack on the Constitution, particularly its separation of powers and amendments protecting free speech,

due process and the right to counsel. Those are big ones. Yeah, those are big ones. Those are some S-tier parts of the Constitution. I didn't even mention cruel and unusual punishment. I probably should put that one in too. Here he is answering a question about defying court orders. Your Secretary of State says everyone who's here,

citizens and non-citizens, deserve due process. Do you agree, Mr. President? I don't know, I'm not a lawyer. I don't know. Well, the Fifth Amendment says it's not. I don't know. It seems, it might say that. Don't you need to uphold the Constitution of the United States, as president? I don't know. I have to respond by saying again, I have brilliant lawyers that work for me, and they are going to obviously follow

what the Supreme Court said. What you said is not what I heard the Supreme Court said. They have a different interpretation. Yeah, Stephen Miller has a different interpretation. He is not a lawyer. On the bright side, Trump did say that running for a third term in 2028 is, quote, "'Not something he's looking to do.'"

And then he name dropped Vice President J.D. Vance, and surprisingly, National Archivist Marco Rubio, who currently holds three other titles as well, Secretary of State, USAID Administrator, and now National Security Advisor, big shoes for little Marco to fill. So Trump's now using this talk to my lawyer's answer every time he gets a question on disobeying the courts.

What do you guys make of that? It seems like he went to have to talk to my lawyer's answer too quickly. Like he was still processing her previous sentence when he got to like, you know you have to uphold the constitution, right? He's like, I gotta talk to my lawyers. It seems like, but wait, wait, wait. That's like you had took an oath.

It's like the first sentence of the oath. Yeah, I mean, we sort of talked about this last week too. It's the most beta passive aggressive way to start a constitutional crisis ever. Like the big strong man who says I alone can fix it is now like, oh, I gotta defer to my lawyers. You've been railing against the courts nonstop for years and now you're deferring them.

This is just a simple difference of opinion on a legal precedent. What are we talking about? Yeah, he's attacking the judges every day. Every day. He was at the rally in Michigan for 100 days and he was like, the judges are taking your president's power away, but I defer to my lawyers.

Well, he won't, right? It's the footsie with defying the orders. There's still, look, they see, Donald Trump sees all the polling and he can pretend it's not real all he wants, but he sees it. He knows that defying court orders, deeply unpopular, deporting people without due process, deeply unpopular. So when he's in front of Kristen Welker

and he's asked directly about this, he does not want to come out and brazenly say he is gonna violate the Supreme Court. So he leaves it to Stephen Miller to go out there and sort of rant about how the ruling really said it was nine-oh in my favor. And actually we are following the order because the order technically doesn't require us

to do anything at all. And as Stephen Miller did today, as a follow-up to this interview, said, no, due process is for citizens. It is not for immigrants who aren't here legally, which is just a lie. Just a lie. It's a lie.

It's been litigated for like hundreds of years. What's the plain language in the constitution? Alito said this. It says persons. It says person, but even if you leave it to the courts to interpret person and what it means, right? The most recent ruling in April on Briego Garcia, we even had fucking Alito and Thomas jumped in

and said, yes, of course, due process. He said, they said, due process is afforded to all people, immigrants who are here legally or not. As the government has agreed in this case, the Trump's own DOJ said that plus Rubio. And but Miller's out there being like, no, it's not true. Imagine like the counterfactual Imagine if it were not the case if you're a green card holder and the government could just threaten to punish you unless you what?

Gave them money supported them politically like it doesn't make any sense that what Stephen Miller's argument is is nonsensical. It's completely un-american I mean the Washington Post did an investigation over the weekend another one of about I mean, the Washington Post did an investigation over the weekend, another one about CICOT and El Salvador and who ended up there, and they found two people, at least two men, were sent there even though they had already been approved as refugees for resettling. Four people were sent there even though they had legal protections to avoid being sent there because they had temporary protected status. So already, people who were here legally, who had been, who had gone through a process here, were sent to a foreign gulag. We're only talking about Ibrego García

because he's the only one that the government admitted in a court filing they sent mistakenly. It's so stupid on its face. Due process is for only people who deserve due process. Okay, how do you figure out who those people are? Well, you have to have some kind of a process. The process that they are due. The process is DHS decides now who's a criminal, who's not, they have evidence. Trisha McLaughlin puts it out on Twitter

and she said, we have plenty of evidence and intelligence. It said this person's a danger. Say, what is the evidence? They go, oh, we're not gonna tell you. Even just at face value, it is predicated on the fact that A, the government is acting good faith, and B, if the government makes mistakes, they will try to rectify it. They are acting in despicable bad faith without regard for these people. And it is their official position that

even when they admit a mistake, they have no ability or need to rectify it. So this is dangerous. It's so obviously dangerous on its face. You guys find that 2028 answer any more assuring than the previous comments on the topic? It's real weird that he led with Rubio. Rubio's not a mad guy. He's just pretending. His real beliefs are down.

He wants to keep the celebrity apprentice going. Yeah, he can't have JD Vance getting too high on his own supply. He's gotta make it. Everyone's gotta feel needy. They need the boss apprentice going. You know, he's a good one. Yeah, he can't have J.D. Vance getting too high on his own supply. Yeah, I think both. He's gotta make it, everyone's gotta feel needy. They need the boss's approval. Look, you know, we're at the point where President of the United States is like,

joking around about violating the Constitution to stick around. He already tried to do that when he committed an insurrection. So, and then you got J.D. Vance doing interviews. It was like, this is classic Donald Trump humor, all right? This is the funny guy we all know and love.

He dresses up as the Pope, he threatens to not leave office in a kind of coup d'etat, like that is fucking hilarious. That's a joke. It's scolds in the media, who just don't have a sense of humor. Yeah, J.D. Vance, his tone is either the most self-righteous, sanctimonious, insufferable prick you've ever met online

or like, why can't you take a joke, man? Drives me crazy. Legalized comedy. Some good news from the courts, a federal judge. You know who had a great sense of humor? Who? Ashley Babbitt. I just got that. I just thought, no,

cause like she thought it was really funny when he was talking about staying in office. Remember Ashley Babbitt, she was so, she thought it was so funny when Donald Trump was joking around staying in office. Remember, I remember Ashley Babbitt, she was so, she thought it was so funny when Donald Trump was joking around staying in office. And so she went, she wanted to be part of the joke. So she went to the Capitol. I don't remember if you were happy,

but like honestly, that joke killed. Because if you remember Ashley Babbitt died, a bunch of people died at the Capitol. I say leave it in. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It bunch of people died at the Capitol. I say leave it in. Yeah, yeah. It's all funny, just really funny. He's so funny, he's funny. JD got that one.

Tax dollars are now going to payment to the settlement that the government has reached with her family now. This is just a funny joke. Like, do you remember the insurrection, how many of we were laughing? Yeah, we're paying for that. Remember how funny it was? We're also, we also.

All those people that died. We also have reparations for the Jan 6th. It's just like, you guys don't know how to fucking laugh. Well, that was because they had that fire jam they put out. That's right. The 26th choir. Yeah, the choir. They get the stream money. Pod Save America is brought to you by Sundaes.

Sundaes is fresh dog food made from a short list of human-grade ingredients. Sundaes was co-founded by Dr. Tori Waxman, a practicing veterinarian who tests and formulates every version of each recipe. Sundaes contains 100% all-natural meat and superfoods and 0% synthetic nutrients or artificial ingredients. Dog parents report noticeable health improvements in their pups including softer fur, fresher breath, better poops and more energy after switching to Sunday's. Leo loves Sunday's for dogs. It is a dry dog food which is nice because you know those the wet the wetter dog foods there's just very messy and he does have better poops I gotta say as I'm always monitoring his poops. Unlike other fresh dog foods, it's just very messy. And he does have better poops, I gotta say,

as I'm always monitoring his poops. Unlike other fresh dog foods, Sundays does not require refrigeration or preparation because of their air drying process. Just pour and serve. Cancel or pause your subscription anytime with their 14 day money back guarantee. Every order ships right to your door,

so you'll never have to worry about running out of dog food again. Super easy to order, super easy to store, and you just pour it into a bowl. What more could you want? Get 40% off your first order of Sundays. Go to Sundaysfordogs.com slash crooked or use code crooked at checkout. All right, some good news from the courts. Federal judge permanently blocked Trump's executive order targeting the law firm Perkins Cooey. Judge Beryl Howell said that the order

itself was unconstitutional and opened her 102 page ruling with a line from Shakespeare. Trump's executive order targeting the law firm Perkins Cooey. Judge Beryl Howell said that the order itself was unconstitutional and opened her 102 page ruling with a line from Shakespeare. The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers. And wrote that, quote, eliminating lawyers as the guardians of the rule of law removes a major impediment to the path to more power. In not as good news, Trump renewed his pledge on Friday

to take away Harvard's tax exempt status because it's quote, what they deserve. Harvard's president, Alan Garber, did an interview with the Wall Street Journal calling the move highly illegal and an unnamed Trump administration official did say to the reporter that Trump's post did not constitute a formal directive to the IRS. Got it. Sure, sure.

You guys think that the Perkins win and Harvard's willingness to fight will maybe stiffen the spines of other law firms and colleges and institutions that Trump's targeting? I hope so. I think we've been, I think two things have happened that have made people realize that there's value in fighting.

One has been seeing the positive response to the institutions that do fight and the fact that they're winning in court. The other is the relentlessness of Trump's attacks on the places that have compromised. And the fact that once you capitulate to Trump, he doesn't leave you alone. All right, he's still going after ABC News.

He's not gonna give them a break because they did their $16 million dirty deal. You saw what he did to Terry. Yeah, he like, poor Terry. Poor Terry. A big break. Still going after Columbia. Relentlessly gonna go after Columbia,

even though they did this kind of a deal. So I think, and then all these demands that in interview after interview, he's basically saying that all of these law firms that capitulated- Admitted guilt. Admitted guilt. And then some of their clients are starting

to think about going elsewhere, to report that I think Microsoft, right, is thinking about leaving, I can't remember which one of these fucking interchangeable firms in my brain they're gonna leave, but hopefully they're gonna start to see negative repercussions. So I think the combination of not getting what you think you're gonna get out of this deal,

plus seeing the positive response to fighting can't be anything but helpful. Obviously it was unconstitutional, right? Yeah, of course. You can't tell the IRS out of something. I mean, I think the reason the judge used such dramatic language here, it's like, she's like, I don't know, the first, the fifth,

the sixth amendments violates all of those. Also, she made an example of the firms that capitulated is also part of the reason it was unconstitutional because she's like, well, the reason that you know it wasn't for, they didn't take, you know, this executive order didn't target these firms for reasons that weren't political, is because the ones that capitulated

suddenly didn't have the EO targeted at them anymore. Which is the same thing where, this is why the unnamed official said, you know, his post about Harvard, it's what they deserve. That's not gonna hold up well in court. I'm trying to roll back the Harvard's tax exempt status. And by the way, they didn't need the fucking tweet or whatever, true social post, to make clear that this was targeting.

Because Donald Trump has been talking about it, and all the administration has been talking about it openly. By the way, there's tons of record in the negotiation between the administration and Harvard that we can't see that would certainly come out. And by the way, even if you take it at face value, no, you can't make some claim that we are targeting Harvard because of antisemitism and so therefore,

we're gonna eliminate funding across a broad swath of research, that's like the definition of an unconstitutional First Amendment violation, not just to liberal judges, but to conservative judges. The problem here, right, is of course it's unconstitutional. The lawyers knew it was unconstitutional. Disney's lawyers- They're lawyers.

Because they're lawyers. Disney's lawyers knew that the case against fucking George Stephanopoulos was bullshit. They gave in, right? Paramount knows that the lawsuit against CBS is fucking bullshit. It's because they're saying it's not worth winning. They're saying it's not worth winning because Donald Trump is such a headache.

Well, and also the heads of these law firms, I understand there were actual real business pressures. Like if you're a head of a firm and some other firm is trying to poach your clients because they think you can't represent them because you can't go into a government building, that sucks, I get that. But the people doing these negotiations

thought they could be cute and just agreed to do pro bono work on like helping veterans or stopping anti-Semitism. And Trump is like, actually you're defending the coal industry. Yeah, yeah. Here we go. And we're client, the QAnon shaman. Yes, exactly.

And like the firms that capitulated publicly are getting most of the shit as they deserve. But someone from Paul Weiss was saying, look, when we were first making the deal with Donald Trump or talking to Donald Trump, we were looking for allies. We were looking for people who would stand with us and say no, and what our competitors were doing instead

was poaching our clients and taking our partners. Yeah, that's gross. And I do think it was a, like, and from going forward now that we know that he's losing in court over this kind of shit, like all the colleges and universities, all the other law firms, other media places like should stand together and not be fucking afraid. Yeah, Harvard through the first brick-and-stone wall. I've always said that.

In Maine, Janet Mills, governor of Maine, remember Trump yelled at her in the governor's meeting because he was going to freeze funding. He tried to freeze funding in Maine, education, because she was not abiding by his trans policies. And just one court, and the government had to back down. And they unfroze the funding in Maine. So looks like you can take on Trump

and not have to worry about it. Yeah, I mean, look, yes, until there's a fucking fire or flood or natural disaster. And like, everybody should fight, but like we shouldn't, like the point was never that these people thought they couldn't win in court. I think they all believed that they could win in court. It's just whether or not Donald Trump is gonna abuse his power and make like difficult

on other matters, right? Whether it's in Michigan, whether there's more. He will, and he will. And he will. But you have to fight anyway. The point is- That's why you need, that is the purpose of collective action. Yes.

Right? Like that is why you need to go find allies and you need to stand together because he is not as powerful if they all stand together. That's right. Of course, his favorite target is still immigrants. There are now multiple reports that the administration is looking at more places to deport people beyond El Salvador, including Libya, Rwanda, Angola, Equatorial Guinea, and Moldova, even if the people who'd be deported to these countries have never stepped foot in them. Marco Rubio basically confirmed this last week saying, quote, the further away from

America the better. Trump also hasn't forgotten about the people he calls our quote, homegrown criminals. In a Sunday Truth social post that seems to have caught everyone by surprise, Trump directed his administration to quote, in all caps, rebuild and open Alcatraz. Because our country quote, will no longer be held hostage to criminals, thugs and judges that are afraid to do their job.

In the Oval on Monday, Trump talked at length about the inspiration behind his plan to reopen the notorious San Francisco prison facility. Let's listen. How will you use it? How did you come up with the idea? Well, I guess I was supposed to be a movie maker. We're talking, we started with the movie making, it will end. I mean, it represents something very strong, very powerful in terms of law and order. Alcatraz is, I would say, the ultimate, right?

Alcatraz, Sing Sing, and Alcatraz, the movies. You look at it, it's sort of, you saw that picture that was put out, it's sort of amazing. But it sort of represents something that's both horrible and beautiful, and strong and miserable, weak. It's got a lot of qualities that are interesting.

Alcatraz contains multitudes. I've always said that. He's an artist. Let him cook. The independent reported that Trump announced the Alcatraz reopening just a couple hours after Escape from Alcatraz aired on PBS. That's awesome.

So causation is in correlation, but you know. I would like to imagine he's watching PBS. I think he's got the John, he met with John Voight, he's thinking about movies, he's got the whole, yeah. It's, I just hope they don't, they keep the tours. Well, you gotta keep the tour. It's a museum, I've been down, you've been down trends? Yeah, over a million people a year ago there,

it makes money, there'd be a huge loss of tourist revenue. But also, they closed the prison in 1963, because it was three times more expensive than normal prisons, because you have to take everything there by boat. And also you have to take your sewage back by boat. It's really expensive. This is so stupid.

It's a fucking cold ass boat ride. I remember, we went in August and it was still cold. Oh, well that's San Francisco for you. That's why you don't want to live there. I really, among other problems, a lot of fags, but the, but it's so funny just like, again, you'd like propose this incredibly stupid thing and then you have to walk through, well actually logistically, it's so funny, just like, again, he like proposed this incredibly stupid thing and then you have to walk through,

well, actually logistically, it's quite expensive. It's been a museum, it's a museum. It's a San Francisco museum. Let's not turn this museum back into a prison because we are not, are you boys under the impression that we have a huge problem of people escaping from our jails? No. No.

In fact, more people escaped from Alcatraz than escaped from any of our super max prisons, which are perfectly fine, that have been bigger, on fact, more people escaped from Alcatraz than escaped from any of our supermax prisons, which are perfectly fine, that have been bigger, on land, easier. He just needs to, look, Democrats are not fighting back enough on just him fighting regular crime. There always has to be another threat, right?

This is the whole, because he's an authoritarian, and so we always have to be just on the verge of being overrun by criminals. Like, we can put him in our supermax prisons forever if we want. Yeah, this one isn't even a threat to me. It's just like a headline grab. It's like, I don't know, reopen Al Capone. I don't care at all. No, I like that tour. Yeah, it's a good tour. You're right.

Kids go there, they get to walk around. I was talking to someone in Gavin. It's a little bit strange when you think about it. It is a little bit strange. Now that I think about it, I haven't thought about it. But Al Capone went there. It's a real suffering this. And I was like, have you seen any like economic assessments of what he's like? Why are we talking about this? Seriously? This is not a serious idea. Also the, but the Rwanda piece of tending migrants to Rwanda, I just want to point out was a Boris Johnson idea from 2022.

They were trying to send people who sought asylum in the UK to Rwanda and then forcing them to go through their legal processes. And then they were trying to get them to go through their legal processes. And then they were trying to get them to go through their legal processes. And then they were trying to get them to go through their legal idea from 2022. They were trying to send people who sought asylum in the UK to Rwanda and then forcing them to go through their legal process. And if they were granted asylum,

they would have to stay there. So we're stealing this one from the floppy-haired idiot across the pond. Livia, that's a good one. And just, we're just really, really safe places. And so this is, you know, like we are constantly conflating what he's doing to people by sending them to El Salvador.

This would just be deporting people to these places and that would be where they'd have to rebuild their lives. And presumably it would be because their home country wouldn't take them back. Although none of that makes sense because my understanding is that Venezuela is now taking deportation flights that leave out of Honduras.

They just didn't wanna send their planes to the United States because they was concerned under the Alien Enemies Act that those assets could be seized by the US government and claimed under forfeiture. Also over the weekend, I believe this was part of the Washington Post reporting, the investigation, is that it turns out their discussions

with Venezuela were going well, even when they ended up sending people to CCOT. Venezuela was willing to take some. Well, yeah, Rick Cornell, like former human Twitter troll came to life, became a person, wanted to be Secretary of State, didn't get the job, but he was going down on these little missions to go see Maduro

and trying to get back people, Americans who were in prison. And he tweeted, I think like the day they sent all these Venezuelans to El Salvador that he had gotten a deportations agreement signed with the Maduro government. And it really is why like, I don't like talking about this in terms of immigration, cause it's not about immigration. It's not even about deportations.

Even renditions is hard cause renditions like they're trying to get intelligence out of the person. This is just literally, just literally sending people to a prison for the rest of their lives in a foreign country based on no trial, no due process, nothing. That's what it is. And as the, you know, Trump today is saying,

oh, we're gonna give everybody a thousand dollars if they self-deport, threatening to send migrants to countries that they have no familiarity with. A lot of this is about scaring people. Yes, for sure. Terrifying people into not coming and if they are here to leave, I think that's partly why they won't give an inch even in these, even where they've already admitted like in Abreu Garcia, that case that they've made a mistake. It is all about instilling fear in people as a means of getting people to never come

or leave. And there's just a dehumanizing aspect to this too, whether it's intentional or not. I believe it's intentional, but I mean there was some crime on the subway in New York and they were all out there. Stephen Miller, the White House, Caroline Lovett, like screaming at the New York Times for not detailing the person's immigration status who committed the crime and like demanding that the New York Times — so now I guess every time someone commits a crime in this country, we need to know exactly what their immigration status is.

This is also behind the whole he's not — he'll never be a Maryland man, he'll never be a Maryland father, he's MS-13. So like you can't even now say that immigrants who aren't here legally, you can't say like, where they live in the United States or where they're from or the fact that their parents, the only identifier has to be that they are illegal and not here. By the way, the crime that they were all tweeting about

that happened in the New York subway was a man raping a corpse. Yes. And the mega people were like, why did you say he was an illegal immigrant? I'm sorry, that's not the part of that story that worries me the most. That's not the part that shocks my conscience,

his immigration status. Also, if we're gonna, I mean, we're gonna start listing everyone's immigration status that commits a crime in this country, it's not gonna look good for what they're trying to prove here. Right. Since that's not, since most of the crimes

aren't talked about as an immigrant. And wait till they hear who commits crimes in women's prove here. Right. Since that's not, since most of the crimes aren't, I'm not talking as an immigrant. And wait till they hear who commits crimes in women's restrooms. Right. No, seriously, it's like this is their playbook, right? Like if a crime is committed by one of their unsavories, that's really important. If it's not, it shouldn't be mentioned at all.

That's bad. All right, we're gonna take a quick break. Two announcements before we do that. We got a new book from Crooked Media Reads. Our friend Amanda Lippman has written When We're in Charge, The Next Generation's Guide to Leadership. It drops next week, May 13th. Amanda's the co-founder of Run for Something, so she has more experience than almost anyone in helping young people get into leadership positions. She talked to a ton of people for the book, everyone from Maxwell Frost to Teen

Vogue's Versa Sharma. It's a fascinating book, essential for anyone considering that next step. Interviewed Amanda a couple weeks ago on Pod Save America. You can pre-order the book right now at Crooked.com slash books or wherever you get your books. Also some exciting love it or leave it shows coming up in LA. What do we got? What do you think? On May 8th, I believe you guys are gonna be

at the Dynasty Typewriter. We have a bunch of great shows lined up in LA. We're gonna, some surprise, very special guests, will be at Dynasty Typewriter this Thursday. Then next week we'll be at Flappers in Burbank. We have, I think Sarah Silverman. Yeah. And wait, you have it.

Who else is gonna be there? Sarah Silverman, Lamorne Morris. Oh, Lamorne Morris. Lamorne Morris and Esther Povitsky. Oh, great. That's gonna be an awesome show. That's a great show. So yeah, we're gonna be at Flappers.

Flapper, that's a fun name. I never even heard of Flappers. It's a comedy club. So yeah, we're gonna be at Flappers. Flappers, that's a fun name. I never even heard of Flappers. It's a comedy club. Cool, grab your tickets now. Yeah. Kierke.com slash events. When we come back, Tommy's interview with Chastain Buttigieg.

Podsave America is brought to you by Zbiotics Pre-Alcohol. Let's face it, after a night with drinks, I don't bounce back the next day like I used to. I have to make a choice. I can either have a great night or a great next day. That is until I found pre-alcohol. Zebiotics Pre-Alcohol Probiotic Drink is the world's first genetically engineered probiotic. It was invented by PhD scientists to tackle rough mornings after drinking.

Here's how it works. When you drink, alcohol gets converted into a toxic byproduct in the gut. It's a buildup of to the gym. I don't want to go to the gym. I don't want to go to the gym. I don't want to go to the gym. I don't want to go to the gym. I don't want to go to the gym. I don't want to go to the gym. I don't want to go to the gym. I don't want to go to the gym. I don't want to go to the gym.

I don't want to go to the gym. I don't want to go to the gym. I don't want to go to the gym. I don't want to go to the gym. I don't want to go to the gym. I don't want to go to the gym. I don't want to go to the gym. I don't want to go to the gym.

I don't want to go to the gym. I don't want to go to the gym. I don't want to go to the gym. I don't want to go to the gym. I don't want to go to the gym. I don't want to go to the gym. I don't want to go to the gym. I don't want to go to the gym. I don't want to go to the gym. I don't want to great the next day. When I don't use it, definitely feel 43. Every time I have pre-alcohol before drinks, I notice a difference the next day. Like I just said, even after a night out, I can confidently plan on doing whatever without worry, like

reading the news, talking about the news. Spring is here, which means more opportunities to celebrate warmer weather before drinks on the patio, that tropical vacation, or your best friend's wedding. Don't forget your Z-otics pre-alcohol, drink one before drinking and wake up feeling great the next day. Go to zbiotics.com slash cricket to learn more and get 15% off your first order. When you use crooked at checkout, Zbiotics is back with a hundred percent many back guarantee. So if you're unsatisfied for any reason, they'll refund your money.

No questions asked. Remember to head to zbiotics.com slash cricket and use the code cricket to check out for 15% off. Visit zbiotechs.com slash Cricut and use the code Cricut to check out for 15% off. My guest today is the author of the new children's book, Papa's Coming Home, which is out May 20th, right, but available for pre-sale now. That's right. Yeah. Chastain, Buddha Judge, great to see you.

Nice to see you. You're also the bestselling author of a young adult memoir called I Have Something to Tell You. Yeah. Folks can pick that one up too. Thanks. Thank you for making the trip to LA. Happy to be here. I know it's not an easy thing when you have little to tell you. Yeah. So folks can pick that one up too. Thanks. Thank you for making the trip to LA. Happy to be here. I know it's not an easy thing

when you have little kids at home. In fact, that's kind of the point of the book in a lot of ways. Yeah. I hope you don't mind if I give listeners just a little peek behind the curtain here. So I called Chastain, was it Monday night? We had just recorded Paz de America.

I called you at like 430 Pacific. Yeah. And you would just put the kids down and we were kind of like commiserating over the battle that can be bedtime and like patting ourselves on the back for getting it done. And I hear this adorable little voice in the back. It's like, daddy, who are you talking to?

Yeah. Yeah, it was like the kids in The Shining. I turned around and they're just two twins standing around. I didn't even hear them come down the stairs. Just jailbreak. Yes. And they're really into talking about our friends right now. OK. So they'll be like, who are you talking to?

Are you talking to your friends? Or if we're FaceTiming one another, if I'm FaceTiming the kids back home, they'll say, if I was FaceTiming them right now, they'd be like, can I see your friends? Even if they had not met anybody in this room, and they would have to say hello to everybody. I think that's good.

I think that's great. Do they manipulate you at bedtime the way my daughter does me, just like for extra seconds? Extra seconds. Hours. Hours, yeah. The other night, I think I'd read Lizette like 10 books. Like the stack just gets higher every single night.

So I read through all the books, Hannah comes in to say good night. She has this little stuffed animal called pink lovey. It's a little bunny, right? We sleep with it every night. We have like four of them because pink lovey gets like kind of nasty and you got to wash pink lovey, but God forbid you don't have pink lovey at bedtime. So sometimes she'll tell us she wants not that pink lovey, but that

other identical pink lovey. And she started to fake cry, but then halfway through made herself crack up. Yeah. And we just like had this moment where we like, all were laughing about knowing she was manipulating us. And it was just like funniest thing too. Oh wow. Yeah, I'm done, I'm screwed.

She's got me just. The floor around Gus's bed is like 30 stuffies. And like people just give them to you and they just keep giving them to you. And it's really hard to make them go away. And then he doesn't have a favorite one though, so every night it's like, I want little bear. And I have now learned that little bear is the tiny white bear, because there's 15 bears in there.

But of course, it's always the one that you can't find. 100%. You have to turn the lights back on, look under the bed. Yeah, it's a journey. So your book, Papa's Coming Home, it's a very sweet bedtime story about a young family welcoming dad home from a work trip. And by the way, I appreciate that you guys,

the dog is like a fully fledged family member. I love that, that's how we are too. Why did you write the book and what's the deeper message for the parent reading the book? Yeah. Our kids are about to turn four, so it's weird to think that I wrote this book, I believe before they turned two. I was coming home from a work trip

and had been thinking about writing a children's book because I had asked around for books that looked like our family. As you know, you read 15 books every night, so it would be great if just one of those books featured a family that looked like ours. And we came up short. There are a couple good ones out there. And it was also important to me that, you know, the lesson in the book was just a family loves each other. Unconditional love for your child. It wasn't kind of punching you in your face with like the morals. Right. So I was on an airplane and the idea came to me

how excited I was to get home and how excited my kids might be that I'm coming home. And that was it. I just wanted a nice sweet story, especially for bedtime. I was kind of thinking of, you know, the book that incorporates that message of unconditional love for your kid, but also with, you know, some silly things in there that they're gonna latch onto.

Yeah, it's very cute. I think the little kids, they'll like the way the story escalates. I don't want to ruin the ending for anybody. Yeah, they helped me write it, right? Because there's so many things that they decided to bring to the airport to greet Papa with, and that was fun to work with Gus and Penelope and I would workshop it and see if they'd giggle or not.

Perfect, I love it. Yeah. You talk about the need for representation in books like this. Yeah. Republicans, they love to make LGBT parents the focus of their attacks, their culture war, like things they're demagoguing.

You and Pete get singled out in like very terrible ways by some of these horrible people. How do you deal with it? Is that something you have to talk to your kids about? Well, luckily no, right now. I can shield them from the internet. There are only three. You know, we try in our house

to leave the discourse at the door. It's very hard. It doesn't need to be at the dinner table. It doesn't need to be in the minivan on the way to school. We don't need to be talking about, you know, negativity while our kids are around. Yeah, like another thing about Tucker Carlson, Gus. Yeah, well, like, you know, the kids are talking to you

and there's like spaghetti flying at the dinner table, right, it's like, hey, did you see this crazy thing that, you know, Caroline Levitt decided to say, say like, why does that need to be in our kitchen? Why does that need to be at our door? I'm no stranger to the attack, but I have always believed that the best thing that we can do for our community and our family

is just to live our lives authentically, to show people who we are. We're just like every other family, going about our day, reading 15 books at bedtime. And you know, there's probably a lot of applesauce and mac and cheese stuck to our kitchen table chairs, just like yours. And to the dog.

The dog is a good dog. Buddy loves it. Buddy's like a Roomba. Yeah, my dog is gaining 15 pounds probably, but her fur is just, you know, finally you think you've got her groomed, because it's like, you know, there's constellations in there. Yeah.

The book is coming out at a time when books like yours are being targeted, challenged, banned, taken to court. What is it like to debut this book while the Supreme Court is hearing this case at Mahmood versus Taylor, where parents are trying to pull kids out of lessons with just LGBT characters like this? Yeah, I mean, I started writing it,

like I mentioned, two years ago, so I didn't see the Supreme Court case coming, and now, of course, it's coming out in a couple weeks. And I just keep thinking about what a kid like ours might feel sitting in a classroom where someone says, like, I don't want to read that. I don't want my kids exposed to that when it's simply a book about two loving parents going about their day, and at the end of the day, loving their children unconditionally. So, you know, I'm really disappointed, especially to see that the conservative Supreme Court

seems to be favoring the parents in this particular case. As a former teacher myself, I think that's gonna put a lot of unnecessary burden on teachers and schools. I mean, the school district in that particular case already said they tried it, right? And it failed, it didn't work. It was so cumbersome to constantly deal with those.

Communicating what's gonna be in the lesson and letting people opt out. And then like where does the line get drawn? Like I wanna pull my kids out of lessons about evolution or like how many permission slips are we sending every day or every week to pull our kids out of lessons about evolution or how many permission slips are we sending every day or every week to pull our kids out of certain lessons. So again, this book, it was very important to me that this is a Father's Day book. It's just a book about two dads who love their kids. I think it's like a modern American family. And so I hope that other families will enjoy it.

I hope it brings a lot of joy to bedtime. But again, I'm not naive and understand what we're up against as a community and as a country. So not to be like the guy out here hawking his book, but a great thing that you can do is request books like this at your library and at your school, because I do think it represents who we are as Americans. And there's room for everybody at the table.

And also it works, you know what I mean? Like it does normalize families that look all kinds of ways. As an educator, I mean, I imagine when you were teaching like the kind of libs of TikTok, kind of like these assaults on teachers, like they probablys on teachers. They probably weren't happening. But I mean, do you talk to educators?

Are they scared of, I don't know, being singled out, being targeted? Well, I think this administration definitely seems to love to go after teachers and families, making it harder for teachers and harder for families. Imagine that you're like a 21, 22 year old college graduate with your bachelor's degree in education and you're looking around thinking,

okay, I'm ready to start my career in education. Where am I gonna go? Places like Florida, probably not as attractive. You know, places like Oklahoma that welcome Libs of TikTok in, right? Who bring her to the table to draft policy. You know, just a bigoted real estate agent is now the person who's going to be helping draft education policy. But imagine that college graduate thinking, is this really what I want to do?

Or, you know, what kind of environment are we creating as a country that asks people to step up to the call to become educators, right? You're underpaid, right? It's a really hard job. You don't get the appreciation and respect. On the way over here in the Uber, I was reading about how they want to do away with Head Start. Like, you're talking about the most vulnerable kids in our country. So now you want to take away Head Start. Now you're talking about the most vulnerable kids in our country. So now you want to take away Head Start. Now you're putting tariffs on baby goods coming from Asia. Right? So now you're making car seats more expensive,

strollers more expensive. And these are the people in Washington who are screaming like, have more kids, right? That's like their weird thing right now. It's like, well, natalism is real weird. We'll give you money to have kids, but then like we can't afford childcare. We can't afford a stroller.

Yeah. Right. The rub is it's gotta be Elon Musk's kid, it turns out. To be, yeah. will give you money to have kids, but then we can't afford childcare, we can't afford a stroller, right? The rub has got to be Elon Musk kid, it turns out. To be, to come off it. I thought you were gonna say Elon Musk designed stroller. No, no, I saw a cyber truck. Those explode off the truck. Yeah.

I've experienced the joy and the wonder of being a parent, and also setbacks and the challenges that go into the process of trying to become one. I know that you and Pete have talked about the adoption process and setbacks you guys had, heartbreak. Did that, like, what was that experience like for you? Did it cause stress between the two of you? And do you have advice for other parents

like going through the adoption process, which I know can be tough? Oh yeah, yeah. It's so weird to think about that chapter in life now that we have these brilliant, incredible kids running around our house and just destroying the walls. But when we were- Crayons? Crayons everywhere.

Okay. They just started. Yeah. And I swear, like the other week I was like, I think they're doing really good with the white walls, right? And then just like boom, just like cram on everything. Yeah. Yeah, jinxed it.

You know, there was a time when Pete and I, we were on a list, we were on an emergency placement list. So that's where you sign up and say, you know, if there's a call in the middle of the night, in our case where a kid is left at the hospital, the hospital works with an adoption agency to make an adoption plan. So a parent might need to be called right away. So we had about 24 hours notice. They could give you the call and say, hey, you're next on the list, we really need you. Are you stepping up? Yes or no. And you have a couple hours to decide.

We had about five adoptions fall through in the span of a year. And the really hard part is they tell you not to plan the nursery. Don't buy anything because when one of those cases might inevitably fail, it hurts to look at the crib, to look at the room, to look at the nursery and have it fall through. So we, you know, for Christmas and birthdays and stuff, like aunts and uncles and parents,

they couldn't help themselves, right? And so they'd start getting things. And it did, it always hurt seeing those things in the corner. You get the call in the middle of the night, there's a situation, are you guys ready to step up? We'd say yes, and then, you know, it turned into 1 a.m., 2 a.m., 4 a.m., 8 a.m., we wouldn't hear back, and then ultimately something changed, where you think you're going to be parents and then you're not. But then it works out. And, you know, whatever God you believe in or however you come to religion or believe, I think, like, the star is just aligned. And then one day you're standing in a hospital room and you're holding your kids. But there

were multiple nights along the way where there was some heartbreak. But then, my God, as you know, that moment you hold them, there's nothing like it. Yeah, no, I know exactly the feelings you're talking about, like get that stroller out of this house. I don't ever wanna fucking see it again. We had that.

And then there's also the moment you meet your kids. And in a weird way, you're like, okay, everything that came before this had to happen, should have happened because it brought you here. All the heartbreak, everything that gets you to the point you're in. That's beautiful chaos now. It's like, you want it so bad.

And we wanted to be parents so bad. And that's the thing that I felt like I kept saying to them. They had some health complications after they were born. We were in the hospital for quite some time. RSV? Before the RSV. So after they were born, we were in the hospital for almost two weeks.

And we went home, and then I got RSV. That's when Gus wound up on the ventilator. I just remember holding them and like, you're so loved. Like you are so wanted in this world. Like just looking at them, they were like barely five pounds, they were premature. And just thinking how badly we wanted that and how loved that they were and that they were going to be. This huge community excited to welcome them. And then, yeah, you fast forward.

It's like, why is there a magnet tile like under my pillow, you know? You step on another Lego and you're like, ah, did you, do you, do you put in for twins? Was that in a miraculous accident? Like, how's that work? Yeah, I was, um, helping my dad and helping is, is doing a lot of work here.

My dad was a, a floor in our basement and I needed to go to Lowe's to get some more tile. Sure. And I was driving to Lowe's. As one does in Michigan. Right. Just me. Hammer. Tools and stuff.

And I get a call from the adoption agency and immediately panic because whenever I see that number come up, it usually means like there's going to be a heartbreak. I just know like that's that was my history with it, right? So talking to the social worker and I say, you know, here's the situation. And they said, like, are you sitting down? I was like, well, I'm driving to Lowe's right now. And they're like, okay, well, like pull over, like don't crash, you know, like it's twins. I was just like, oh shit. What a curve ball.

Yeah, so I had to, so Pete was on a work trip and I remember like pacing outside this gas station and I called him and he's like, hello. I was like very formal. It's like, hey, the adoption agency just called and it's our turn. Like they think it's real this time. And like here's the situation. I'm giving them all the details.

I'm like, and by the way, like, are you ready for this? Are you sitting down? It's twins. And it's just silent. And then I just hear him go, OK, well, thanks so much for that information. And I'll get back to you as soon as I can. Oh, no.

And I was like. He had some serious meetings. Yeah, I was like, are you around? A lot of other people. And he's like, yep. He's like, OK, call me back. And then it turns out he's on an airplane. And he's like, he, call me back. And then it turns out he's on an airplane. And he's like, he's somewhere out west

and he couldn't call me back until he like lands at the next spot and had to like turn around, get on a red eye, come home and meet me at the hospital. But yeah, the twins thing really threw a wrench in everything. Incredible. You and Pete, you walk this tight rope of your public figures.

You're also millennial dads who spent half your life on social media. I know for me, I struggle with, I got a cute video of my daughter and I wanna post it on whatever. Oh yeah. But then I know it's in the world forever and strangers will see it

and my kids don't have a say in that decision. How do you navigate that? Yeah, one of the things that bugs me the most about being a public person, the thing that people say to me that bugs me the most is when they say, I wanna see more pictures of those kids. It's like, you don't, they're not yours.

You're not entitled to access to them. And it kinda creeps me out. And I know that maybe that's coming from a really good place. Like they're so happy for you and they want to see how happy they are. But I don't know if you've read Jonathan Haidt's book, The Anxious Generation. No, but I've read enough takes on it

to feel like I have a good sense. Yeah, but you know, my kids can't consent to that. Like they can't consent to having their face online. And like in a digital age, like I've seen enough deep fakes of my husband and I that like I don't need to put my kids on the internet. One, because they can't consent to like being on the internet. And two, I don't want people messing with them. And you know even when we were in Washington,

I remember we were taking them to the Easter egg roll. We were so excited and like picking out outfits and Pete's mom was with us, it was gonna be a big family day. And the moment we came out of the White House, I sort of had a panic attack, because for some reason, all morning I hadn't thought about the press.

It's like open press, yeah. And the moment we walked out, there's just a flood of cameras. And my heart sank, because I just, I didn't think about it. And then, sure enough, the next day, they were on the cover of the Washington Post. I got my cousin Easter egg roll tickets in like 2011, and then in 2012, I was like,

hey, Jeremy, you want to go back? And he's like, no, we're good. Yeah. It was a lot for me. Yeah, and plus, like, you're just on, you know, like it's really hard to feel like you're having an authentic family experience when people are photographing you.

Right, of course. You know, just the constant click of the camera and you're just trying to protect your kids. Totally. So, yeah, it's, you know, you want people to see your joy and your happiness and like, I like talking about dad life, but there's still an element of that that kind of creeps me out. Yeah it's a fuzzy line. Yeah. It's hard to know where to draw it. Yeah.

Speaking of more personal questions on a podcast by strangers who keeps the baby monitor on? You didn't ask for you didn't ask for pictures. That's right. That's my next question. Who keeps on the the Nanit or the baby monitor at night? Or do you guys, do you trade off? Well, we don't need it now. I mean, like. You're fully done with the? Yeah. I guess they get out of bed and they IRL wake you up.

Oh yeah, and I've like, lately, I just sleep through it. I feel really bad. It's like, people will be like, oh Penelope had a really bad dream last night and she woke me up at like two, like, what? I didn't hear any of that. That's awesome that you can do that. Which makes me feel really bad.

But yeah, I mean, they'll come get us. And Gus is like, you know, up with the sun. It's usually like 5.55 on the dot. He's up. He's singing. He goes downstairs and gets his like little power tools. He's got this like little drill, you know? Yup, I know that. And he's fixing things around power tools. He's got this little drill. And he's fixing things around our bedroom.

Penelope, she's a teenager. You have to drag her out of bed to get ready for school in the morning. My kids, last night I think Lizzy was kind of chirping on the nanite at 10, 2, 30, 3, 30, and then at 5. The whole family was just up. We've got to get them to sleep in. There's two modes. they will go down at seven Like they're they're wiped and they just go down or they were gonna be up till ten battle. Yeah, I know the feeling Are you gonna enter the Manosphere podcast universe on your book tour the way Pete has is this not the man?

Oh, yeah, I don't know. Maybe the beta Manosphere the Rogan Theo von Flaygren. Are you doing any of those? I don't think I need to I'm glad Pete is I'm glad he is too Oh, maybe the beta Manosphere. The Rogan, Theovon, Flagrin, are you doing any of those? I don't think I need to. I'm glad Pete is. I'm glad he is too. I thought I listened to the whole Flagrin thing. The whole thing? Okay, you know, it's 75% of it.

Yeah, I opened it and I was like, oh no. I got in this weird Twitter back and forth with Andrew Schultz about it too, because I was like, I tweeted that I was, I thought it was good that Pete went on. I guess I described it as like unfriendly territory. Yeah. And that was maybe, I think, an unfair short-handing of their political beliefs.

Yeah. But I do think, like, I don't know. I am glad he's going on these shows. I'm trying to force myself on these shows. I do think, what's the point of talking about only people we care about? I think it shows a side of him that a lot of people hadn't seen before.

When he was mayor, you have to talk to everybody, right? We live in northern Michigan, you talk to everybody. And this is one thing I really admire about him, is he can talk to anybody, and he can hold his own. And I love, I love when you hear the host go, oh, oh, I had no idea, you know? Like, he's, not only is he like surviving in that environment, but he's actually teaching him something.

Yeah, he was thriving. He got a fire, clip that. he's actually teaching him something. He was thriving. He got a fire, clip that. He's also good at, that was a quote, he's also good at just pretending he didn't hear the thing he doesn't want to respond to. You know, like the dude in the fourth row chirping kind of sexual innuendo or whatever, and he's like, yep, it's gonna.

Yeah, that's just, yeah. I feel like every time I go to the gym, I'm in the manosphere, because it's just like, yeah, it's gonna do that. Yeah, that's just, yeah. I feel like every time I go to the gym, I'm in the manosphere, because it's just like, yeah, it's like innuendos flying, and like jokes flying. I can only keep up with like half of them. Yeah, that's his professional and personal life,

because he probably, it's probably getting that for me too. Like I'm just like a constant, you know, roll of puns and jokes. And so he's pretty good at tuning out what he doesn't want to respond to. It's a necessity in this weird world we're all in. There's a lot of commentary on Pete's new beard.

Yeah. I'm a fan. Fan? I love it, yeah. I can't grow one. Me either. But now, I can usually let it go two days, where it's not terrible.

But I can go to the grocery store and go to Meijer, and no one's going to say, well, he's really letting himself go. But now I feel like since Pete does have a beard, if I even let my stubble grow for one day, they'd be like, oh, he's trying too. Oh, he's doing it. I'm not.

No, I just was really lazy today. You're doing the same z's. Yeah, I just get a patchy thing here and then. Yeah, it's not good. It's not good. It's not great. I'm waiting for it to work. It doesn't.

He's like a teenager about it right now. He'd be like, it's really scratchy, though. Well, did you put moisture eyes on it? Did you put the beard balm or beard oil on it? No. Oh, that's a thing? Yeah, it's like, don't. I didn't even know that was a thing.

I just told him yesterday, stop complaining about something you're in control of. Just put the beard balm on it. Shave it, pal. Yeah, do whatever you want. What do you think? Should he keep it? I think it'll look good.

I like it. Yeah. I don't know. I just wish I could think it'll look good. I like it. Yeah. I don't know. I just wish I could grow one. Seems cool. Same. It seems cool.

Yeah. Just have options. I've had the same haircut since I was birthed, essentially, and can't grow a beard. It sucks. Barely have eyebrows. Yeah. Pete seems like a bit of a workaholic.

Does he drive you crazy if he's home too much? No. When we moved back from DC, he set up an office in the basement, so it's really just become like the Pete cave down there. It's like the Pete office in the laundry room. Go hang. Fold some laundry. Yeah.

Do some calls with Biden or whatever. Whatever you do down there. Yeah. Whatever you do down there. That's good. You guys, anything good on TV, anything you're streaming? Oh, man. We just watched

Was episode 2 of The Last of Us of the new season So I don't want to spoil anything for anybody, but you know and Finish the White Lotus Mixed Can I say one thing sure? He went in on that pod flagrant and they were talking about the white lotus, and he was like, hot take or whatever.

Lachlan should have died. That was my hot take. Oh, okay. And then he just goes on a pod and says it. When he came home, I was like, you can't just take my hot take. You stole your take? You can't take my hot takes without crediting me.

You were absolutely, spoiler alert, we were absolutely right. Oh, you're right, I just spoiled that one. Well, honestly. You guys can cut that out. We'll just take it back to the last question and start over. There was nothing to spoil. I love it.

Whatever. It's been out for long enough. So long. Everyone can deal with it. One month. Yeah. I thought, I don't know. It just didn't do it for me this season.

Really? It's fine. I really liked this season. It's beautiful places, beautifully shot, fun to watch. Yeah, half of it is just like, yeah. Travel candy. Brother's doing that, okay. What a twist, you know?

But that's Mike White. He knows what he's doing on that show. Yeah, he does. And that's why I like it. It just slowly builds, and then it all just falls apart. I've been loving the studio on Apple TV. It's like Seth Rogen, 30 minute comedy, hilarious, makes fun, it seems like every terrible TV executive

that they have ever come across makes a cameo in this and they're just like, it's like a punching bag, like a Tharsis for them. That sounds like something I would like. Highly, highly. I started The Residence on Netflix, cute. It's like a murder in the White House. Oh.

It's like a murder caper. It was kind of weird, like this, I know I'm gonna hear the words that are gonna come out of my mouth, but if you've been to the White House, it is wild. It's like. They do it well. It's done so well. I'm like, yeah, when you do walk down that stairwell,

that's what it looks like. That's cool. And it's like very fast paced and it's very funny. But we don't really watch a lot of TV together. We commit to one show to watch together. And then everything else we're on our own. More than one is too many. And also it's so hard to find overlap.

I know what you're saying about watching these shows and having worked in these places in politics and then becoming the annoying person about realism. Like my... I don't want to be that guy. I'm sorry. I know. Well, I don't even... My wife got really into like the ambassador or whatever it was. Oh, yes. Yeah.

And I'd be like, this is not how it is. And she's like, I don't care. They would never email that. Yeah, sure. Like that. I remember when Homeland came out, I was in the White House at the time and I was like talking to a bunch of people and Obama was there about it. And we all loved it,

we were like, this guy's fucking texting from the sit room, come on, man. That's why this whole Signalgate thing is so wild. It is so funny. The ways in which I could not communicate with my husband when he worked, about mundane stuff. It's just like, you can do whatever now. Yeah.

Pete Hegseth is just hammering classified details. He's copying and pasting from like, sent com emails. Nothing matters. Yeah, it's just, you know, Mike Walz is out, though, so. Some good news. But didn't he just get, did he get nominated for UN Ambassador? He got sent to New York.

Is he out? They're like, this was really bad, so we're going to let him go represent our country in front of the United Nations. That's a good spot to put him in. It says a lot about what they think about the UN, that they were trashing this guy. There's no top secret information at the UN. No damage can be done there.

Imagine meeting him, hi Mike, what brings you to the UN? Oh, well. Humiliated out of D.C. I was just sharing confidential information. Well, listen, Jasson, thank you for joining us today. You got it. Pop is coming home, it's out on May 20th.

Everyone pre-order it today. Oh, thanks. Buy one for your local library. I appreciate that, yeah, support your local library. Support your local library and thank you for coming in. Appreciate that. Yeah, support your local library. Support your local library, and thank you for coming in. Appreciate it. That's our show for today. Thanks, Chastain, for joining. Dan and I will be back with a new show on Friday.

If you want to listen to Pod Save America ad free or get access to our subscriber discord and exclusive podcasts, consider joining our Friends of the Pod community at crooked.com slash friends, or subscribe on Apple podcasts directly from the Pod Save America feed. Also be sure to follow Pod Save America on TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube for full episodes, bonus content, and more. And before you hit that next button you can help boost this episode by leaving us a review and by sharing it

with friends and family. Pod Save America is a Crooked media production. Our producers are David Toledo and Saul Rubin. Our associate producer is Farah Safari. Reed Cherlin is our executive editor and Adrian Hill is our executive producer. The show is mixed and edited by Andrew Chadwick. Jordan Cantor is our sound engineer with audio support from Kyle Seglin and Charlotte Landis.

Madeleine Herringer is our head of news and programming. Matt DeGroote is our head of production. Naomi Sengel is our executive assistant. Thanks to our digital team, Elijah Cohn, Haley Jones, Ben Hefkoat, Mia Kelman, Molly Lobel, Kirill Pellaveve, and David Tolles. Our production staff is proudly unionized with the Writers Guild of America East.