The Chris Cuomo Project - The Illusion of Elon Musk’s Control Over America

Episode Date: February 11, 2025

Chris Cuomo breaks down Elon Musk’s growing influence in U.S. government, questioning whether Musk’s role with the White House's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) amounts to an administrative coup. Cuomo unpacks the legal limits of Musk’s authority, debunks claims that he can dismantle agencies like USAID or the Department of Education, and explores how Musk’s control over X amplifies his personal agenda. He also examines the shifting dynamic between Musk and Trump, why their alliance may be unstable, and what Musk’s track record with Twitter reveals about his claims to government efficiency. Follow and subscribe to The Chris Cuomo Project on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube for new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday: https://linktr.ee/cuomoproject Join Chris Ad-Free On Substack: http://thechriscuomoproject.substack.com Support our sponsors: AG1 AG1 is offering new subscribers a FREE $76 gift when you sign up. You’ll get a Welcome Kit, a bottle of D3K2 AND 5 free travel packs in your first box. So make sure to check out DrinkAG1.com/ccp to get this offer! RadioActive Media Go to RadioActiveMedia.com or Text “CHRIS” to 511 511 Message and Data Rates May Apply. Oracle Oracle is offering to cut your current cloud bill in HALF if you move to OCI. For new US customers with minimum financial commitment. Offer ends March 31st. See if your company qualifies for this special offer at Oracle.com/CCP Beam Try Beam’s best-selling Dream Powder, get up to 40% off for a limited time when you go to shopbeam.com/CUOMO and use code CUOMO at checkout. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Is Elon Musk triggering an administrative coup? Is he taking over? Are things being done that are inherently unconstitutional? These are the questions that will not get traction on Twitter. Oh, I mean X. Well, there are answers and you need to know them. I'm Chris Cuomo. Welcome to the Chris Cuomo Project.

It is time to discuss what is unpopular, my brothers and sisters. Let's talk about what's happening in the government. Let's start with where we all are. Does government have waste, fraud, and abuse? Yup. Why? It's gigantic. It spends gazillions of dollars. It has thousands and thousands of people working across 50 states and all these agencies and all these needs and all these funding streams. There are tons of ways to rip it off. I mean, just look what happened during COVID with those loans that then became

forgiven by the government that people got when they didn't need them for payroll or for their businesses. It's tons of fraud, tons of abuse, a foreign aid. We see it all the time. Waste, fraud and abuse is real. Politicians tell you all the time when they wanna get into office that they're gonna cut. Waste, fraud, and abuse.

And what happens once they get in? Turns out that what keeps you in power is spending. Hmm, not cutting. Now, this time's supposed to be different. Why? Because of this magical notion that the private sector is better than the public sector, that running government as a business is what you need to do. Really?

So then what do you do as a private business that's different than as a public entity? Well, you save money and you're more efficient and you're smarter. Okay, because you're looking for what? Profits. Okay, you make profits one of two ways. You make more money or you save more money. Addition by subtraction, huge in the media business. Why?

They're not innovators. They're not good at figuring out how to make more pie so they figure out how to cut how many people are eating it. Now, what does that mean for us right now with DOGE, the Department of Government Efficiency? I did not like that Elon Musk named it with the same acronym as his crypto. Why? Because I thought it was too cute by half and it showed that he is thinking about himself,

not everybody else. Rama Swami is out, why? I believe there's only room for one pig at the trough. And that's Elon. And Rama Swami got pushed out. Oh no, that's because of what he said after Christmas and Trump won't tolerate that kind of bullshit. Bullshit.

Ramoswami got pushed out because there's room for one pig at the trough, okay? And now he's running for public office. I think Ramoswami has a good future in front of him. I know he's successful in business and all that. I'm saying politically, I think that there is a path for him. I don't know if it's in Ohio as governor, we'll see.

But I think that he's better off away from these guys. And I have a prediction. I do not think Musk and Trump are the way they are today, a year from today. I do not believe Musk and Trump are together the way they are today, a year from today. Why? Because there's only room, let me put it in a nice way,

instead of pigs in a trough. There's only room for one bull in the yard. That's why. There's only one alpha. There's only one number one. And Elon now just seems like a jumping up and down fanboy, but more and more he's trying to flex. Now, what I don't like about what's happening here

is different than where most people are in terms of their scrutiny. I don't like how Musk is using Twitter to magnify his own agenda. I have never seen, not since the colonial days, have we seen publishers, and I know technically he's not a publisher because he doesn't control the content that comes in,

even though I think he kind of does. And he certainly controls how to monetize and amplify what comes in because he's obviously amplifying what he likes. And suddenly accounts like mine don't grow anymore. Wonder why? Wonder why? I think it's because of what they do with the algorithms. But he's not a publisher.

But not since the days of Franklin and Thomas Paine and all these other guys, have we seen the people putting out, publishing a pamphlet, a platform, whatever it is, manipulating it the way he is for his own agendas. And that's what he's doing. That concerns me.

More than what's happening on the government side. Why? Because Twitter doesn't have checks and balances. And the government does. Now, the interesting idea of an administrative coup, an administrative coup is where someone who is not elected, right, or can be appointed, starts abusing their power

to do things that they're not supposed to do and taking over control thereby. That's an administrative coup. pointed, starts abusing their power to do things that they're not supposed to do and taking over control thereby. That's an administrative coup. The irony is Trump and all these guys love to talk about the deep state as if they're just a bunch of lefties in the FBI and the CIA and all these other agencies, which I got to tell you, someone in this business 25 years, if you had ever told me that people would look at the FBI and think Democrats, I would have laughed in your face.

It has not been my experience in terms of who I meet there. I think this has been a brilliant political ploy by the right. I think it's completely disingenuous, intellectually dishonest, and flat out bullshit, but it's been effective. It's got you thinking it. The irony here is, when you think administrative coup, that is usually a function of what? The deep state. And yet, who is the deep state now? Elon Musk. Why? Because he is the not so hidden hand that you did not elect, okay, that you did not empower who's making things happen. Now, here's the good news. I don't think that's true. I think that all this talk about what he's doing is just that.

It's talk, it's bullshit, and it's people using the talk to scare you or to satisfy you. To scare you or to satisfy you. And both are wrong. Okay? Now, why can't he just do whatever he wants? Electoral will. That's why.

And also, there's another reason. The Constitution. How so? He works at the pleasure of the president. He's not even a vetted member of the executive branch. Okay? He's not even a cabinet secretary or an undersecretary or anybody who is subject to the advice and consent of the Senate.

So he's not even that, okay? Those people can have more authority. He has even less authority than that because he is just an appointee. Now, even if he were invested with all the power that can be mustered by the power of the president of the United States, does that mean he can do what we're hearing, let's say, with USAID? No.

Why? Because the President can't do these things either. Wait, what do you mean? I heard that they're getting rid of the agency, the Department of Education, and they're getting rid of the USAID, and he's sending emails to everybody telling them not to come to work. He may be. And let me tell you something about Brother Musk. If he is using government

email and sending people emails and agencies telling him not to come to work, there's going to be a lawsuit and he's going to lose. The president's going to lose. And there's going to be a penalty. And Musk is going to be out. He's got to be very careful. Now, how do we know that what you're being told is bullshit? Here's how we know. Can a president get rid of an agency that is under his authority, an agency within the executive branch? Okay, let's say USAID or the Department of Education. Okay?

Can you get rid of it? Yes. Oh, I knew it. Can the president get rid of it? Yes, ah, I knew it Can the president get rid of it? Nope. What you just said you can oh, no. No, I said can you? Rit large like cash Patel using the word weed that doesn't include him somehow which is one of the most bullshit answers I've ever heard in any nominating hearing ever So when you said we did this, you weren't talking about yourself? No, not necessarily.

What a bullshit answer. This guy's gonna run the FBI? Anyway, how do we know? The Constitution, the thing that you say matters more than anything else, and yet you haven't read it. I cannot get over this. I just saw this recent polling

that less than 40% of Americans know the three branches of government. Read the fucking constitution. It's seven articles, 27 amendments. My little book of it is like 20 something pages. Read it. Read it a few times and you'll start to get this feel for things that I don't think that's how it fucking works. Now, has there been a lot of empowering and effectuating and extending legislation since then that changes things? And are agencies able to do things that, you know,

kind of extend away from the constitution in different ways? Kind of. We just had some Supreme Court litigation that reigned that back in. The administrative, the APA, which is what makes agencies, what governs what agencies can do with their own guidelines and restrictions that kind of hem them in

a little bit. But what's the point? Checks and balances in the Constitution. Article one, section eight. Article one is Congress, Article two is the executive, Article three is the judicial. All right? And then four, five, six, and 7 wind up real falling. They really fall off and give you a great window into the minutia that they were arguing about

in the Constitutional Convention and how little they had to do with the things that matter to us most. Anyway, worth a read for you. Now, well, if I'm gonna digress, the Bill of Rights is the same thing. Well, they're in the order of importance. No, they're not. Well, they're in the order of how they wanted them thing. Well, they're in the order of importance. No, they're not.

Well, they're in the order of how they wanted them approved. No, they're not. They were in a randomized order and then they now in the current thing, they just reflect how Madison organized them. Why? Because of the way they came in in the ratification process. Many of them were ratified on the same day,

some day in December. Many of them were done, like five or six or eight were done on that one day. And he then organized them the way he wanted to, not in terms of primacy or importance. So I know people tell you that all the time, the First Amendment's the most important, the Second Amendment, it's not true.

It's not true. It's demonstrably false. You can look it up and see. Now, Trump can't get rid of an agency by himself, which means Elon can't get rid of an agency by himself. And can you hire and fire? Yes. Are there guardrails on that?

Yes. Especially if it's done by Musk? Yes, yes. Why? Are there guardrails on that? Yes. Especially if it's done by Musk? Yes, yes. Why? Because he does not have the power that agency heads do. How do we know? Do you notice what was discussed least around the whole USAID thing?

In Trump world, what was discussed least? You know what it was? Marco Rubio saying, you know, this is really what I'm supposed to do. So USAID is under the umbrella of the State Department. He's the Secretary of State, right? Now interestingly, 1961, Kennedy creates USAID and moves it under the State Department. Then, 1998, Congress passes legislation to emphasize that USAID is really its own thing. Bill Clinton was pushing at the time to kind of clarify what it is, why. They didn't want foreign aid, even though it is allocated by Congress.

And remember that because it's a huge reason that the president can't act unilaterally in terms of getting rid of an agency is because he doesn't establish it, Congress does because they fund it. Clinton wanted to streamline it because he didn't want politics to dictate the foreign gifting, the giving, the allocation of aid. So he wanted to make sure that they could have their own standalone leadership so that they wouldn't just get sucked into whatever the political agenda of the moment was. So it was well intentioned. Now they're saying it lacks oversight and they've made all these bad decisions and they

gave you a list that sounded so impressive, so many bad things that they're doing at USAID. It was less than 0.4% of the overall USAID budget. Less than half of 1% of the overall USAID budget. Less than half of 1% of the overall budget she was pointing to as why you need to end it. What kind of bullshit is that? That's politics. And that's why you gotta know better. President can't do it himself.

Article 1, section 8, all laws necessary to effectuate what money they disperse. Article 1 is who? Congress. Congress has to be a part ofse. Article one is who? Congress. Congress has to be a part of it. How do we know? Because when they got rid of the CAB, the Civil Aviation Board, 1985,

on 1985, yeah, 1985 is when it was phased out. Congress had to do it. Why? There was whole reorganization structure going on where they were moving things in, the executive branch was collapsing things. Yeah, I know, but they needed Congress because they established the agency.

And then when they folded it under the FAA and the Department of Transportation, the CAB was dissolved because they was part of the deregulation of the Reagan era to give airlines more competitive control and less oversight. Great idea. Being sarcastic.

And they folded it into the FAA. You needed Congress to do it, okay? Well, doesn't the president run the executive? Yes, Article 2, Section 3. He can enforce the laws, but he can't abolish them. He can execute the funding. He can delay it. He can apportion it somewhat differently

as long as it is still, unless granted extra power by Congress, it's still reflective of how they allocated it and where they allocated it. But he cannot abolish by himself. Not the agency, not the money. Okay? So if he can't do it, Musk can't do it. Support for the Chris Cuomo project comes from I Restore. We're in the new year, but everybody always needs a fresh start. This February, how about self-love? How about trying to do something that may help you look and feel better?

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tell them you heard about Cozy Earth from me, Chris Cuomo on the Chris Cuomo Project. Now, there is a separate question, okay? So when people tell you Trump can do it, now you know the answers, okay? He can change, he can change staffing, but he's gotta be careful about how much because if he doesn't in a way that affects

the overall allocation of money that was given to it, it may be overreach and Congress may have power there and there'll be litigation and there is going to be litigation. You're going to see litigation about USAID. It's going to slow it down. He's going to blame politics for it, but he's the one playing politics, Trump, and he's probably going to lose.

So can he get rid of the Department of Education? No, not by himself. Can he get rid of anything? The DOE, the Department of Education, the USAID? No, not by himself. Can he get rid of anything? The DOE, the Department of Education, the USAID? No, not by himself. So Elon can't? No, not by himself, period. That's the end of the answer.

Can't do it. Yeah, but can't you collapse things? Yeah, you can restructure and do stuff like that. But they better come up with better reasons than the 0.03%, you know, 0.3% of 1% is what they showed you. All right? Of what their waste is that they found. Now, Elon Musk as a change agent,

pluses genius, done great things, thinks big. Minuses, who the fuck has ever shown you that Elon Musk is good at cutting costs in ways that don't hurt the overall point of that concern? Who? What is he known for? Cutting staff and perks. So making it less fun to work at his places, which is his choice. But where do we get that he's great at cost cutting? Well, look what he did at Twitter.

Do you know what he did at Twitter? He cut 80% of the workforce. Yeah, and now it's fucking doing great. Wait, what? It's doing great, right? He cut 80% of the workforce. Oh, okay. So is that what you want? You cut 80% of the workforce. Oh, okay, so is that what you want? You want 80% of the federal government to have its jobs cut? Is that what you want? You want that many people put out of work and you think that's gonna allow all the services

to still be done the same way? How do you assess whether or not somebody has been good at improving efficiencies? Bottom line, right? In a business, harder to do in public sector, but in private sector, it's easy. Okay, what do we know about Elon Musk? Well, he grossly overpaid for Twitter.

Well, sometimes you gotta do that to get what you want. Okay, how has his 80% workforce cuts worked out for him? Well, how's he doing in terms of growth? Let's look at it in terms of users and let's look at it in terms of revenue. Okay? And remember, he now has that paid for part of it to kind of juice his revenue. Why? Because he was bleeding ad revenue. Why? Because Twitter's not as cool a place to be anymore. Why? Because he's changed how reliable the information is on the platform and it's meaner and more geared towards propaganda. Oh, that's you saying it, is it? Why is user growth, people going in and people going out almost netting to zero if he's so good at picking efficiencies

and making it better. Why is his ad revenue down 55% if he's good at finding efficiencies that helps him make something better? If he's not getting more users and he's losing money on ad revenue, well, maybe he's coming out of the hole like we are with inflation at the rate of it going down is curving back up towards getting to a place of positive growth. No, the numbers show that he's losing more money under his stewardship than when he bought

Twitter. He's losing more now than they were then when they stunk and he had to save them by cutting 80% of his workforce and putting them all out of work from 7,500 to like 1,500. So he cut 6,000 workers. Yay, not more users, not a better experience losing ad revenue. So why is Elon Musk the guy to find efficiencies? Because of his software engineers?

It's not working out great for him at Twitter. Why would it work out better for us? He can't do it by himself. He better not be sending government emails telling people they're fired. He can't get rid of an agency. Trump can't get rid of an agency. He needs Congress.

Those are the answers. Doge has a good mission to find inefficiencies and get rid of them, but the idea that he's got some magic touch, I'm not seeing it. And the idea that USAID is like the holy grail of waste, I'm not getting it. And you know who else isn't?

The Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who quietly came in and told Elon to get the fuck out. That's what happened. Support for the Chris Plomo Project comes from AG1. I dig it. I'm one and done. I use it every day. When I travel, I take it with me. I put it in warm water. It's great to drink, tastes fine.

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program and I am using Factor meals and so far so good. I've gotten rid of that first batch of bloat inflammation. Why? Better food. Factor has all the nutritional information on the back. They balance sodium with protein and carbs with everything that you need in a way that will help you sustain my weight loss goals. How does Factor do that? They have chef-made gourmet meals that make the eating part easy, they're tasty.

They're also dietitian approved and they're easy, ready to heat and eat in two minutes. Eat smart with Factor. Get started at factormeals.com slash Cuomo 50 off and use the code Cuomo 50 off and guess what you'll get off? 50% off your first box plus free shipping. Now, Trump is in a fix with his buddy Elon Musk. Why? Because he's created a monster, and nobody wants to see Shady no more. He created a monster with Elon Musk. That was Eminem, by the way, because he has now made it seem like Elon's place is to run around breaking shit because that's how you make people change.

Yes, when you're in the mob and you want the women that you're putting on the street to be better earners, that's what you do, is go in and bust some fucking heads. I don't think that's the way you run good government and make it more efficient. I don't think you go in there and just fire a shit ton of people before you really know what the net effect is going to be, not just on your bottom line, but on what matters most. Services to the American people. So that's the difference between what he's doing now and Twitter. Twitter is just another shitty social media platform.

Okay? That's what it is. Threads, Blue Sky, Mastodon, whatever one you wanna pick, Instagram with Meta and all the things. They're just all shitty platforms and you pick your own. on whatever one you wanna pick, Instagram with meta and all the things. They're just all shitty platforms and you pick your own. And you just get lost in this sea of speculation. And if it works for you, fine,

I can get into that scrolling thing every time, but I'll tell you what, I think you should look at your search bar and see what it says about you. You wanna see what mine says about me? And this is completely unrehearsed, okay? Here's my search bar, okay? I'll point out things to you.

Now that you see that there, they can freeze it on it. I'll show it to you. Farrier, guys who fix hooves, I really believe I can shoe a horse. And I can definitely fix a cow with an ingrown nail and the horn when it grows in. I think I can fix an ulcer. The, what do they call that?

That asthma phenomenon, that the sound and the thing that makes you feel good, ASMR. I'm big on that, but I think it's also made me a better farrier. I feel like I have the skills. I love the guys who are doing trades that everybody thinks are so unpopular and beneath them are now blowing up because people wanna watch them do

what they don't wanna do in their own lives. So they don't wanna be a landscaper, but they'll watch guys clean up lawns at two and a half times, 2.5X all day, plumbers, electricians, all these artisans doing their jobs are blowing up. I love it. So I have fist fighting in the background, muscle car, muscle car, farrier, farrier, fight video about how to self-defend, farrier, farrier, a donkey biting a hyena, I don't know

what the... that's about... car, car, oh, this may be some kind of girl video. There's some kind, oh no, they're in a barnyard. They're probably horse, they're probably equestrians. So what am I not seeing online? I'm not seeing Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump. I'm not seeing AOC, or AOC, or AOC. I'm not seeing any of that negative space shit. I'm seeing my hobbies and things that distract from me

when I'm doing what I don't wanna do to be more a part of what I do wanna do. And again, look at it. I'm sure there's some like naughty shit and stuff I'll get in trouble for, but you know, look, this is my search bar, okay? And you should look at your search history and see what it is that you're absorbing

ridiculous amounts of and see what is it serving in you. That's the question that I don't know that Elon Musk is asking. How does this serve us? Not just the bottom line, not just an impressive dollar amount that you can cut like all the people you just kicked out of jobs that I don't know improved your experience, right?

Because your user numbers are stagnating and your revenue amount is down a lot. So how are you the magic man when it comes to finding efficiencies? And now Trump has a problem because this guy's running all over the place. He's an easy target and he's a target for his own. Republicans do not like the idea that he's subverting Congress.

Now, fuck them for not doing their job. I'm good with that too. Two things can be true at once. You don't do your job of oversight. You just prosecute one another. Persecute one another. That's what you do. Russia, Russia, Russia. Biden, Ukraine, Ukraine, Ukraine, Burisma, Burisma, bad businessman Trump. You know, the only case that was a real case was what Trump did in Georgia.

That state case that was fucked up by Fonny Willis because she allowed herself in her own personal, whatever dramas to completely color the perspective of fairness and the perception of fairness in that case. That was a real case. Trump did shit he shouldn't have done to try to change the outcome of the Georgia election.

You know it and I know it, but we never can know it for sure because they didn't get to prove it in court. Everything else, I believe, played to going after someone because of who they were as opposed to what they did. And that's what we see. Congress is motivating it. Courts wind up being their instruments,

back and forth, back and forth. And that's what gives opportunity to bring in a guy from the outside. That's Trump's secret sauce, and that's Musk's secret sauce. But not everybody from the outside is equal. And now you have a guy going in there saying, he's finding inefficiencies, finding inefficiencies.

I want to know what the fuck they are. And I want it itemized and I want it understood in terms of who's going to lose. Because I don't give a shit how many users Twitter has. I don't give a shit what kind of ad revenue it has. I don't care if it goes out of business tomorrow. Somebody will take its place. That is not true with government services. Okay?

If somebody needs something, if a country is getting something that is helping, oh no, we've been funding the Taliban. Do you really believe that all the money in the USAID or the majority of it or any meaningful piece of it is going to terrorists? Really? Really? You just think that that would have been missed by Congress all this time? Yeah, they're lazy.

Yeah, they don't do enough of their job. But really? I don't buy that. If I see it, then I'll change my opinion. And that's something else we got to get used to here. If the facts change, your opinion should change. Stick with your first practices, your first principles, okay? What matters most to you? What are your ideals? What are your values? But then as the facts change, your position changes. This is what we got fucked up during COVID. And now they're playing with this in our politics.

You're not allowed to change your opinion. If you do, it means you didn't know what you're talking about or you're a liar or you're stupid or you're deceptive. No, the facts changed. So you show me money that's in USAID that shouldn't be there, that's great. Shrip it out. But the idea that you're gonna get rid of the whole thing

or that you even can is nonsense. And the idea that you're going to get rid of the whole thing or that you even can is nonsense. And the idea that Musk is a magic man is based on what? Because he can put rockets into space? That's awesome. But what does that mean about him understanding efficiencies? He's known for getting rid of perks and making it less fun to work where he is. I mean, read online.

Oh, yeah, but he totally changed the bottom line of Twitter. Yeah, for the worse. And he cost 6,000 people their jobs. His prerogative, again, not his prerogative of the US government. So, Trump can't do it by himself. Musk sure as hell can't do it. But there may be things that should be done and presented to Congress. And I'm open to that. I'm not anti-Musk. I am anti-subverting the Constitution. Aren't you? So how are you pro-Musk getting rid of agencies on his own and pro-Constitution?

Oh, because it's an open question whether or not with USAID. No, it is not. And it's going to be litigated so Don't be a sucker. But more importantly, don't be a hypocrite. Okay, don't back Things that you wouldn't back if it were the other side, for example, my last point on the hypocrisometer Hippocrometer Hippocraseometer everybody in trunk land who's pissed off about these protests,

shutting down highways of people who are protesting against the ICE raids. I get why it pisses you off. It's frustrating to have those places closed down. Imagine if they did it at the US Capitol. Imagine if a bunch of pro-immigrant or even pro-illegal immigrant or anti-Trump or anti-Rome, whatever they are, imagine if those people went and bashed into the Capitol while they were voting on new legislation about ICE and immigration in this country. Think how you'd feel then. You want them thrown in jail for being on a highway. How would you feel if they were at the Capitol? But that's not how you felt about January 6th. It's not how you felt about them. Those people have suffered enough.

Nobody ever went to jail for BLM. Imagine if these people had done it at the Capitol, what you would want to see. Hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is a problem, and it is forced on us by this binary battle to the bottom where everything your side has to be right, but more importantly, everything the other side does has to be wrong.

And that's why we're getting nowhere. If Musk can make it better, great, but it's gotta be done the right way. And it's gotta be done in a way that doesn't just change the bottom line because this is not some bullshit Twitter business. It's services for people who can't take care of themselves in a lot of instances. We have to be careful about how we do it. We have to be in keeping with the Constitution. Are we or is this an administrative coup?

You tell me. Chris Cuomo, thank you for subscribing and following. See you at News Nation, 8P, 11P, every weekday night. If you want the podcast, but not the ads, subscribe on Substack, five bucks a month, 50 bucks a year. You also get all these private videos of my wellness journey. My doctor helping me with my long COVID, me working with my food, with my fitness, to try to get myself to a better place,

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Let's get after it. ["Dog on Fire"]