Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov - Kristi Noem Fired as Trump's Iran War is about to Make Everything More Expensive

Episode Date: March 5, 2026

Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov break down the political and economic fallout from Trump’s escalating conflict with Iran. After the Senate votes down an effort to limit the president’s war powers, the path is cleared for the fight to continue — even as American troops have been killed, gas prices climb, and the Pentagon warns the conflict has only just begun. Scott and Jess dig into what the war could mean for the issue voters care about most: affordability. With energy markets already reacting and the White House reportedly scrambling to contain rising gas prices, they explore how the conflict could hit your wallet — and why Democrats are still struggling to deliver a clear message. Jessica also discusses a major shake-up inside the administration: Trump abruptly fires Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem after mounting criticism over her leadership, including the handling of the immigration crackdown and disaster response. Plus, a dramatic moment on Capitol Hill as a Marine veteran is forcibly removed from a Senate hearing while protesting the war. Is this the start of a broader anti-war backlash? Then, they turn to why the House committee subpoenaed Attorney General Pam Bondi over the still-withheld Epstein files. With Republicans breaking ranks and lawmakers like Thomas Massie raising questions about timing, Scott and Jess ask the uncomfortable question — is the war drowning out scrutiny of the Epstein investigation? Follow Jessica Tarlov, @JessicaTarlov  Follow Prof G, @profgalloway  Follow Raging Moderates, @RagingModeratesPod  Subscribe to our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@RagingModerates Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Every family tree holds extraordinary stories, especially those of the women who shaped who we are. In honor of International Women's Month, Ancestry invites you to shine a light on their legacy. Until March 10th, enjoy free access to over 4 billion family history records and discover where they lived, the journeys they took and the legacy they left behind. Start with just a name or place and let our intuitive tools guide you. Visit Ancestry.ca to start today. No credit card required. Term supply. Welcome to Raging Moderates. I'm Scott Galloway. And I'm Jessica Tarliff. In today's episode of Raging Moderates, we're discussing how the war will impact your wallet.

Plus, Pam Bondi's subpoena and whether Trump is taking us to war to cover up Epstein. If you haven't already, please subscribe to our YouTube page to get up-to-date coverage on everything that's happening. We got a little bit of breaking news after Scott and I recorded this morning. DHS Secretary Christine Nome has just been fired by President Trump. This is his first firing of a cabinet secretary. We've been waiting a long time to see something like this, and it finally came. It was due to the fact that when she was testifying before the Senate a couple of days ago, Senator Kennedy was pushing her on the $220 million that she spent on ad campaigns,

in his words, to promote herself, very effective at that. And she said that the President Trump had authorized it. And it turns out that that was not the case, or at least that's the story he's going with at this point. I mean, to me, it puts the president in a terribly awkward spot. Rumors are Mark Wayne Mullen, who's a junior senator from Oklahoma, will be Trump's pick to replace her as DHS. Secretary. I have already seen that John Fetterman is going to be voting aye. That doesn't surprise me at all about John Fetterman at this point.

But it's a major shakeup, big repudiation also the way that immigration enforcement has been being conducted. But anyway, breaking news update. Now back to my conversation with Scott. The Senate just voted down an effort to rein in Trump's war powers, essentially giving him the green light to continue the fight. in Iran. The House is expected to follow. At the same time, Trump says he grades the war a 15 out of 10, even as American troops have been killed. Gas prices are rising, and the Pentagon warns the conflict has only just begun. And while Congress debate strategy, there are reports Susie Wiles is panicking inside the White House about the top issues on voters' minds, affordability.

She's scrambling for ways to bring down gas prices as the war drives energy markets higher. Democrats, meanwhile, are still searching for a clear message. There are calls for briefings and oversight, but no unified forceful stance on the war itself. And that vacuum is starting to show. A Marine veteran Brian McGinnis interrupted a Senate hearing to protest the war and was forcibly removed by police and Republican Senator Tim Sheehe. McGinnis now faces charges. No one wants to fight for Israel. His hand, his hand. Let go over your hand. It's rough stuff to watch, especially looking at him in uniform. The message is also rough what he's yelling.

You know, no one wants to fight for Israel. And that is a pervasive sentiment, certainly amongst a certain part of the MAGA base, and definitely a big subsection of the left. It feels like the administration is getting more incoherent on this war as each day passes. They have too many messengers and not a good enough message. I think the tone deafness of President Trump saying he grades this war of 15 out of 10 when we already have six dead service members is really tough to bear. And I'm not sure if you saw this exchange, but Pete Hagsas in the morning said that the press is obsessed with the things that have gone wrong, like six dead American soldiers, just to make President Trump look bad. And then Caroline Levitt doubled down on it during the press briefing. And I said yesterday on the five, go back to the Afghanistan withdrawal under President Biden, which everybody agreed was a complete disaster. It was front page news, as it should have been, that 13 service members passed away. And Pete Hegseth, amongst others, were out front banging that drum that the commander-in-chief needs to lead with empathy and understanding for the gravity of what's gone on here. Yes, people sign up to.

potentially sacrifice their lives, but when it actually happens, they should be honored. And you saw that from the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, but you did not see that from our Secretary of Defense. So I think we're in a really tough spot. The money of it matters for spending a billion dollars a day. We have to spend $4 million for each of these missiles to knock out $20,000 Russian drones. And I know that you're going to want to talk about this aspect of it. The fact that we had to call in the Ukrainians to help us out when we've deprived them of the Tomahawk missiles that would have taken out the Russian drone factories that they're then supplying to the Iranians is what's the right term for that? It's like poetic justice in some way. Is that right? I don't know.

It's ironic. It is ironic to say the least. And I love that Zelensky, you know, their drop of a hat, I will help you absolutely, even though we have ignored his requests, denied him. his requests and continue to waffle on the conflict, the existential conflict that the Ukrainians are in. Yeah, there's, I think the president could have made a really solid case to Congress, which he should have done and tried to pursue an authorization for the use of military force, which is how we have typically gone to war, if you will. We never get a declaration of war from Congress. And I think it would have been so much more powerful if he'd gotten just a few European nations or Gulf nations. And I think he could have to support very clear objectives around. We have a moment in

time where their air defenses are down to go in and take out their Navy, secure the Straits of Hormuz, make sure that we have minesweepers there, diminish their capacity to produce armaments and missiles, which only wreak terror and havoc in the region, and severely declares. And severely to decapitate leadership there. And here are the objectives. I think he might have been able to get congressional approval, allies on board, but the messaging here has been so inconsistent. Republican senators are calling it special operations combat operation. He's calling it war. We're going to be there. It's going to be regime change. No, it's not going to be regime change. This could be over in five days. We'll stay as long as we need to. Very difficult for them to

outline or for people to say, what are the clear objectives here? So the messaging has been totally incompetent. There's evidence that competence matters. And when you put a news show host, Secretary of Defense, that things like forgetting how to get thousands or tens of thousands of Americans and Westerners out of the region safely, like they never thought that through, that potentially bombing Tehran is not the way to go where there's more people sympathetic to the West that they should be focusing on the munitions factories and rural areas where there's more theocracy and more support for the regime. This is just a shit show in terms of messaging. And people talk about the markets, the real danger here, the markets are basically telling us

this war is going to be ring-fenced and over pretty soon. And gas is up or oil is up, 10%. That'll translate to about a 25 cent per gallon increase. But for the most parts, the markets are pretty much yawning. The problem here, or the real thing, or the real thing, damage is long-term, and that is the world used to operate on the American operating system. Our laws, we settled trades and dollars, we protected the shipping lanes that transferred the energy, our 700 military bases overseas and forced the people sort of played by certain rules. We just torpedoed a ship. It's the first time a torpedo has sunk a maritime ship in international waters since World War II.

and we used to be the nation protecting others from rogue nations, and now we are the rogue nation. Now we are the knock at the door because of this inconsistency and inability to explain our actions and to go about them unilaterally, which I think is the real tragedy. I think there was real legitimacy for why to do this and why to do it now, but he's undermined any basic notion that the Trump administration or the people to execute this operation because of what it just feels like incompetence around messaging and some tactics. So it's very partisan. It's like 71% of Republicans are in favor of it, but only 17% of progressives. And then the more indicative, probably honest answer is from the independence.

And I think that's more like 30-70. So America doesn't like this. And what could even be worse is that we look weak. And that is if we pick up and get out and come up with fake excuses or fake objectives and just, you know, hightail it out of there, I think that's even worse for us because any nation that's worried about our military just starts pointing their missiles at their neighbors

and says, let's fire up the Albanian troll farms to put pressure on the presidency. So he's backed us into a corner with a lack of preparation, a lack of competence, really inconsistent messaging, and what, in my view, could have been handled much differently. It's not the war itself that is hurting Trump. It's the fact that they have executed it so poorly

and that they decided to go out at it alone, and we are now that rogue nation. I mean, the execution going poorly or that argument, apparently in actual targets that have been taken out, et cetera, it has gone well. There isn't a level of effectiveness to this,

which you would expect if it's the American military and the Israelis and all of our Gulf partners. The problem is more to your point about the lack of preparation and then the what next and the follow-through to that. And there's been reporting that Secretary's Rubio and Hegssath are fighting internally about the boots on the ground element where Rubio does not want that to be the case. And Pete Hegstath is all for it, you know, just finish the job no matter what. And to have that kind of internal feuding with people in those levels of positions, you're not talking about like rando staffers having a disagreement, right? You're talking about the two guys besides the president who need to be on the same. And so you're talking about the same. And so, you're talking about the same. And you're talking about the same. And you're talking about the. And same page of that. And there is nothing that is going to matter more to the American public than whether American men and women are going to die for this. And it also feeds the flames of the argument over

how much of the timing was based on Israel's schedule versus our schedule. And I think you nailed it in pointing out the fact that there are tens of thousands of Americans or Westerners that are left sitting in hotels, apartments with no way to get out of their private jet travel costs like $250,000 to get out. And I saw that also people are taking their pets because they don't think that they're ever going to be able to go back, right? This isn't a, you can leave for two weeks and then you can come home. The president himself had to tweet out information of where to call in the State Department because people were essentially getting a wrong number when they were calling in to get help. So it feels absolutely disastrous on that level and that this is the group of people

that rather than admit that something went badly or change course will just dig in. And it has such astronomical consequences, right, to be the people like the Roy Cohn analogy that you were using the other day when we were talking about this. So I'm pretty bummed about it. And the Democrats are facing a challenge, there's going to be a request for another $50 billion in funding. A few of the Democrats, including like Jack Reed, said that they're open to it. Mark Kelly, a veteran himself, is saying, I would need to know more than we do right now if you're going to authorize this amount of money. But I know especially for the veteran community like Alyssa Slokin, Ruben Gallego, that they feel conflicted about it because our men and women are over there, whether we like it or not

at this point. And we are going to come to a time where we run out of munitions, and that's happening way faster than we expected. What do you think the Democrats should do in this? Like, I think that the reason we have a Democratic government is such that each of the representatives has a say and people feel as if they have a say on big issues like war. And the president is allowed to unilaterally respond when he feels that we're under threat and it's a defensive action. And because they recognize that they had declared war when they're not allowed to without consulting or getting a vote from Congress, they immediately tried to couch it as a defensive move, which resulted in what has been the greatest error to date in this war. And that was Senator Rubio claiming that an attack from Iran was imminent on one of our allies, and we were going to have to respond, so we might as well respond now.

That is basically saying, oh, conspiracy theorists on the far right and the far left, you're right, the 2% of the population in America that is Jewish, controls everything, including our military and our decisions. It was just a stupid. I don't doubt that Bibi Netanyahu has the president's ear and has a lot of influence over them. But basically, they said that Israel's actions are now dictating what the largest military in the world does. And by the way, we'll bypass Congress. We're more concerned with Israel's actions. A, I don't think that's true. But B, it just, it makes them look weak. And hands down, in my opinion, in the biggest error, and he tried to walk back those comments the next day. In terms of what Democrats do, I wouldn't take the argument of, I wouldn't even go to, I wouldn't even discuss

whether or not this is a good or a bad idea. I'd go straight to, do we have a democracy or not? You know, Senator Warner, the head of the Senate Intelligence Committee, has had a lot of presidents and heads of CIA come in front of them. He's very thoughtful and smart and can provide really great feedback. You want to consult with Senator Kelly, who has flown these missions. You want You want to consult with Admiral Stavridis around naval power. And what is so obvious is that the degradation in thoughtful input and the wisdom of crowds and the belief and the arrogance that they are, can go about this alone unilaterally and make good decisions without the benefit of our allies, without the benefit of input from people who are very smart and experienced here, is a level of arrogance that ultimately, you know, pops up and gets you. The other thing, and I'm curious if you saw this, the most disturbing piece of news I've seen in the last 48 hours, is that so many senior ranking officials in our military have been replaced with what effectively are white Christian nationalists,

that there is rhetoric in meetings, command meetings, planning meetings, and people saying, our president is ordained by Jesus and falling into this weird white Christian nationalist fucking crazy. line of thinking that we owe, we have to protect the Israelis at all cost because when the rapture comes, it's Jesus comes down to Israel, and then the Israelis get to decide, the Jews get to decide if they want to convert or die in the final apocalypse. And that Donald Trump is a divine being himself. So let me get this now. We're the mullahs, were the the theocracy?

Totally. So we're the religious lunatics. Yeah. So wait, let me get this. bat shit crazy now? I read that and I thought, oh my gosh, that that can't be true. And now there are multiple reports that these fucking wing nuts are saying this shit in front of their troops. So the messaging has been inconsistent. You're probably right. The tactic so far, I mean, six servicemen dying or service people dying, I think it's been four men and two women.

It's a tragedy. I don't anyone in any way want to be callous about this. But when you do Claire war, and this is war, people are going to die. And 10 service people a week kill themselves. You know, there's a larger discussion around the way we acquit ourselves. I have found generally speaking, when we call people heroes, whether it's teachers or nurses or military, that means we're about to fuck them and not pay them. And we're not going to give them their benefits. We never call CEOs heroes. We never call people making their fair share, getting correct compensation being treated with dignity heroes. When you're called a hero in a Super Bowl commercial, that means you're getting fucked. And so I don't, it's like, okay, yeah, they're heroes.

We should honor them. It is a tragedy for them and their families. And an all-volunteer army, when you're going to declare war on a nation of 93 million people and 150,000 members of the IRC, yeah, there's going to be deaths. I'm shocked there haven't been more, quite frankly. I think that why people are also focusing on what happened to these six service members is that their deaths were completely preventable. They were in a makeshift office structure that had six foot walls around it, but nothing on top. So because of the kinds of drones that were coming, they were able to be killed. And it was another notch in the argument that we were not prepared to be doing this and that we started this. war too early and weren't protecting our own people. But I, yes, of course, and I do like that

about the nurses, especially. I mean, during COVID, as I was outside with my pots and pans, right, cheering for all the essential workers who were exposing themselves to a horrible disease that was killing millions of people across the world, and I didn't have to do anything about it. So, 100%, but I'm so glad that you brought up this crazy rapture stuff, because if you take a look at, that the preachers and pastors that people in high positions of leadership in this government subscribe to, go to their services, you would think you were watching a documentary on Christian nationalism in this country. And nobody talks about it. It was barely a blip that people who were controlling huge government social media accounts, like DHS and the Department of Labor, were posting white nationalists memes and rhetoric. Nazi stuff. It is a huge problem. And the percentage of young people, especially young men in the Republican Party, like the Gen Z faction that are white nationalists, they work in elected officials' offices. You know, they're not out on the fringes just listening to Nick Fuentes and hanging out

with one another. They're part of the party infrastructure. So I'm glad you brought it out because I'm always weirded out by the photos of people like preying around Donald Trump and all of that. but this is like taking it to another level, especially when you're sending people potentially to die. And the best performing organization in history, I would argue, is the U.S. military, at least the last 80 years, a combination of technology, culture, or sacrificed courage. And key to that, one of the keys of that,

and one of the really exciting or wonderful things about the military is it's been in the great equalizer. And that is there's nothing like being in a foxhole with someone and having bullets fly over your head where you just don't give a shit any longer how rich their dad is, the color of their skin, their sexual orientation, or their religion. And it's meant to be a place where they say, okay, we kind of have one religion here, and that's the defense of the United States of America. And they purposely, I think, try to be pretty secular

and say, I mean, it's been, the military has played a huge role in the advancement of non-whites. And immigrants. Immigrants. And it's because it's supposed to be our character and performance. And I think a key component of that is to saying, look, you have the, do you remember there was even a controversy airline pilots were not allowed to wear yarmacus. And they said, okay, look, folks, we get it. We appreciate religious freedom. You're free to do whatever you want on evenings and weekends.

But in the military here, we have one religion, and that's fidelity to the flag in the Constitution. And so the injection of religion, specifically a certain type of any religion, I just think is very unhealthy and frightening. And I read it, and I didn't think it was credible. And then it apparently came from a, a variety of institutions. But yeah, I found it really distasteful. The thing I would say that I think is overestimated in the markets believe this is that I believe the economic impact is largely so far

ring-fenced. The biggest move in markets with the South Korean Kaspi, which you could argue was let some air out after a 70-plus percent run last year. But what they've said is the energy disruption would be greatest in Asia because of the Straits of Hormuz where 20% of oil flows through, but a disproportionate amount of that oil ends up in Asia. And the Korean companies are very energy consumptive, and they have none of their own energy. So the markets kind of threw up. But if you look at, I would argue, the risk trade, when there's sort of risk off, you go into metals. And on the night of the attack, metal surged, but they've come way down.

In some, the markets, and the markets can be wrong, because the thing about war is that your enemy has a voice. Your enemy gets to provide input on what actually happens or doesn't happen. I don't think anyone expected Iran to start firing missiles at everybody. You know, you go into a bar and the two biggest kids start beating up on you. So your response is to start hitting everybody in the bar. And also what's encouraging is the number of missiles being fired out of Iran at its neighbors has declined dramatically. It looks like they may have sort of, they may have run out of munitions, if you will. And if you look at the markets historically, they dip when a war breaks out. And the year after the war ends, the markets usually surge. And so that dip is getting shallower and

shallower because people expect a rebound after things look like they're going to settle. But right now, the markets, I mean, okay, could oil go to $110?10? Sure. The markets are saying right now it doesn't think that's going to happen. Well, the markets also understand that Donald Trump is a lunatic and they've kind of been able to figure out how to continue to perform well amongst that. Let's take a quick break. Stay with us. After decapitation strikes against Iran's leadership, what can we expect next in the escalating war?

The big question is, if there is going to be a next strong man in Iran, what kind of strong man will that person likely be? I don't think that there's going to be another powerful cleric, supreme leader. I'm John Feiner. And I'm Jake Sullivan. And we're the hosts of The Long Game, a weekly national security podcast. This week, we sit down with Kareem Sajapur to discuss what to expect in this next phase of the war against Iran. The episode's out now.

Search for and follow the long game wherever you get your podcasts. Are Democrats their own biggest problem? You know, a party becomes defined by who their central figure, who their quarterback becomes. Democrats haven't really anointed a effective quarterback since Barack Obama, pretty much. And this week, the Atlantic staff writer Mark Leavovov. joins me to discuss the state of the Democratic Party and which race is to keep an eye out for this midterm election. The episode is out now.

Search and follow. Stay tuned with Prete, wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome back. Yesterday, a House committee voted to subpoena attorney general Pam Bondi over her handling of the Epstein files. With five Republicans joining Democrats, that's a real crack in GOP unity and a clear sign that frustration over those documents isn't fading. Now, Kentucky Republican Thomas Massey is going further, Trump's escalating conflict with Iran may be overshadowing scrutiny of the Epstein files. His warning, bombing another country won't make the Epstein files go away.

Oh my gosh, that's a good line. And AOC echoed a similar sentiment. Let's watch a clip. Trump has impulsively went in on Venezuela. He impulsively went in on Iran. There was no exit and no endgame for either of these situations. it led to increase global instability everywhere he goes. And every time he's done that,

it has been consistent with a spike or a revelation in what is happening with the Epstein files. I think that he feels existentially tied to it. And I actually think that it is one reason that he must be removed from office. The girl has a point. The woman, I should say. It's just being too colloquial about it.

I hate reducing something of this level of import to he's really freaked out because he's mentioned in the Epstein files tens of thousands of times and feels like the walls are closing in. But that man is such a cornered rat when it comes to this. And there have been two significant breaks in their defense system. So the first is Pam Bondi getting subpoenaed and Republicans, five of them joining with the Democrats. The other is that Howard Ludnick has volunteered to testify. So there was that picture of him that came out in the big dump like a month ago. But then the DOJ took it down and people noticed and put it back up, which drew more attention to it, obviously. And it was him with Jeffrey Epstein and

three unidentified men when he visited the island. But he wasn't with his wife and his kids and his nannies. He was just hanging out with them, which flies in the face of his testimony under oath as well. So I think that Trump sees that this is going on and feels even more cornered by it because if they can get those two up there, then they're just going to keep ticking down the list. They're also calling, which I feel like this should have happened a long time ago, Leon Black, is going to be testifying long overdue in this. So it does feel like there's a pretty strong case that that's what he's trying to bob and weave around, even if it means taking us to war in the Middle East. I mean, you've always said Jeffrey Epstein is the most powerful factor in our politics,

certainly for a dead man. Do you think AOC is right on the money? So when I was a consultant and I would review a deck of someone before they presented it in a meeting, I would ask a series of questions. And one of the questions I would ask would be, who's in the room that's not in the room? And what I meant by is that you're in a corporate, If you're presenting to a corporation, they're generally bringing in a philosophy, a bias, or trying to please someone that is not in the room. And you need to be cognizant of the forces outside of the room before we got there before we parachuted in. What's going on here? And the two people who are most in the room but not in the room right now are one, Roy Cohn. If you look at these Senate hearings, basically it's the Roy Cohn philosophy of lie, never acquiesce, never apologize. double down, double down, never give an inch, fight, be obnoxious. It's just the complexion and the way the Trump cabinet members acquit themselves in front of the Senate in these hearings has taken us to an absolute new low. It's probably been one of the most damaging things for our brand.

Remember when you used to see on the evening news, the South Korean Senate or whatever breaking into fist fights? And you'd think, oh, Jesus, we've now become that where they're asked a question, they don't answer, and they just keep. going on or they call or Pam Bondi calls people failed lawyers or why you're, you know, they just, it's Roy Cohn is in the room anytime these individuals give testimony. I do think in, in every meeting, on every conversation and every major initiative, a big question is, how do we potentially keep Epstein out of the news cycle for another, whatever it is, another 34 months until the next election? because when the ungets peeled back, it just gets worse and worse and worse. Now, do you think he actually went to war to keep Epstein out of the news cycle?

I don't know. That's a lot even for Trump, but I think it's a free gift with purchase here. That, okay, my thesis all along has been the following. There are two or three very smart people in a room, constantly querying every LLM. What can we do to keep Epstein out of the news? and ideas, policy programs, tweets on true social, insults, and I think they are monitoring how much Epstein is in the news, especially links to Trump.

And then they are saying whenever it gets above a certain temperature, they're like, oh. We got to dodge. Yeah. Call Taylor Swift a name or something. Or say you're going to raise tariffs on Spain 50%. Like just suppress, suppress. to keep it out of the news. So I'm sure it was, I'm sure it was a factor. I mean, it might have been a

tipping factor, but I think the thing that convinced him to do this was in any geopolitical strategy or long-term thinking about America, it was you have a chance to be a hero here and bring peace to the Middle East and be seen as the iconic president of the age by doing something only you could do right now. I think it was appealing to a sense of heroism that probably, I think this is ego. Well, he has a divine being. There you go. All right, before we go, if you're watching us on YouTube, make sure you hit subscribe. As a reminder, Raging Moderates is now five days a week with new episodes dropping every weekday evening on YouTube, Apple Podcast, Spotify, and everywhere else.

That's all for this episode. Thanks for listening. And just have a great rest of the week. And we'll see you next week. All right. See you later.