The Majority Report with Sam Seder - 3615 - Trump's Firing Spree; The Wealthy Obstacle to Zohran's Budget Proposal w/ Heather 'Digby' Parton

Episode Date: April 3, 2026

It's Casual Friday on The Majority Report   On today's program:   Julie Menin, the multimillionaire Speaker of the New York City Council, is opposing Mayor Zohran Mamdani's budget proposal by responding to a moderate tax increase on the ultra-wealthy with cuts to city programs. Unrelated, Menin owns a $22 million mansion in the Hamptons and a $7 million apartment on the Upper East Side. No conflict of interest there.   Heather 'Digby' Parton joins the program to recap the week's news. Check out Digby's work at Salon as well as her blog Hullabaloo. Topics include the American right-wing's desperation to keep Victor Orban in power in Hungary, Trump firing all the women around him, Iran and more. Trump In the Fun Half:   Harry Enten presents polling that shows Congressional democrats' ratings are in the toilet.   Joe Rogan gets very uncomfortable every time Theo Von brings up the genocide in Palestine.   Matt Gaetz tells Benny Johnson about an alleged briefing he got from a uniformed servicemember about an interspecies breeding program between aliens and people captured in warzones operated by the CIA.   Karoline Leavitt is fighting to keep her job by flattering Trump in typical North Korean style ass kissing.   Megyn Kelly is not happy with the Trump's administration's handling of the war of Iran.   A couple of pastors from Pete Hegseth's denomination perform unconvincing toxic masculinity - these guys are certainly not hiding from themselves.   all that and more   Preorder Molly Crabapple's book: Here Where We Live is Our Country.   To connect and organize with your local ICE rapid response team visit ICERRT.com The Congress switchboard number is [phone]. You can use this number to connect with either the U.S. Senate or the House of Representatives. Follow us on TikTok here: https://www.tiktok.com/@majorityreportfm Check us out on Twitch here: https://www.twitch.tv/themajorityreport Find our Rumble stream here: https://rumble.com/user/majorityreport Check out our alt YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/majorityreportlive Gift a Majority Report subscription here: https://fans.fm/majority/gift Subscribe to the AMQuickie newsletter here: https://am-quickie.ghost.io/ Join the Majority Report Discord! https://majoritydiscord.com/ Get all your MR merch at our store: https://shop.majorityreportradio.com/ Get the free Majority Report App!: https://majority.fm/app Go to https://JustCoffee.coop and use coupon code majority to get 10% off your purchase Check out today's sponsors: WILD GRAIN: Get $30 off your first box + free Croissants in every box. Go to Wildgrain.com/MAJORITY to start your subscription..   SUNSET LAKE: Use coupon code "Left Is Best" (all one word) for 20% off of your entire order at SunsetLakeCBD.com  Follow the Majority Report crew on Twitter: @SamSeder @EmmaVigeland @MattLech On Instagram: @MrBryanVokey Check out Matt's show, Left Reckoning, on YouTube, and subscribe on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/leftreckoning Check out Matt Binder's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/mattbinder Subscribe to Brandon's show The Discourse on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/ExpandTheDiscourse Check out Ava Raiza's music here! https://avaraiza.bandcamp.com

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Left is best, 20% off. They've got tinctures for your dogs and your cats, little seba dead tinctures. 20% off, sunset lake, seba dead. code is left is best. Check it out. And now time for the show. That means Monday is casual Monday. Tuesday, casual Tuesday. Wednesday. Casual hump day. Thursday. Casual thursday. That's what we call it. And Friday, casual Shabbat. The majority report with Sam Cedar. It is Friday. April 3rd.

2006. My name is Sam Cedar. This is the five-time award-winning majority report. We are broadcasting live steps from the industrially ravaged Gowanus Canal in the heartland of America, downtown Brooklyn, USA. On the program today, Heather Digby Harton, to look back on this week that was in the week, and to look forward on the week that will be. Meanwhile, yesterday, Pam Bondi out from the DOJ by Pam. And back in, well, Trump's longtime defense attorney is now the acting head of the Department of Justice. U.S. begins its war crime assault on Iran's infrastructure. Meanwhile, U.S. intelligence says Iran has plenty of missile launch.

and drone capacity contradicting the president of the United States. And Iran says it's now going to toll the Hormuz Straits traffic even in peacetime. Meanwhile, Pete Hedgesith fires Army Chief of Staff because he wouldn't take some black women off of the promotions list. Jesus. U.S. fighter jet downed in Iran. Trump wants $1.5 trillion for defense in 2027, and then to pay for it, a 10% cut in all other government services. Speaking of government services,

the Senate passes Department of Homeland Security funding without ICE again, and the House decides, we're going to stay on vacation. lawsuit filed challenging ICE's ability to enter homes and arrest without a judicial warrant and Trump's DOJ does us all

the favor of deciding the Presidential Records Act is unconstitutional so it doesn't matter that he had that stuff in his toilet FBI declares China hacked U.S. law enforcement and FBI surveillance systems I wouldn't worry about it.

Economy adds 178,000 jobs. However, job losses in February will revise downward to 133,000 jobs lost in February. And this month, more people seem to be leaving the workforce. All this and more on today's majority report Welcome, ladies and gentlemen. Thanks so much for joining us. It is casual Friday.

Casual Friday, indeed. I have to say, I thought we would be at war by now. There is no stock markets closed today, which meant that I didn't have to wake up super early and follow the Niki. Like you always do? I don't know if the NICA is. actually close. It probably isn't. I have no idea. But the point being, the point being that it's a long weekend. And if Trump wanted to do something that was going to tank the markets, you'd expect him to do

it any moment. It's unclear. I don't even know if they have a plan, really, right? I mean, I think it's probably, they think they're just going to keep bombing crucial infrastructure in Iran, as he said the other night, bomb it back to the Stone Age and hope that that in some way encourages Iran to say, oh, we will give up any type of leverage we have over the Strait of Hormuz. I mean, this is why this is so dangerous. It's because Iran has no choice but to escalate because they can't trust the Americans in negotiations. They have to make the West feel pain. And Trump in his psyche feels he has no choice but to escalate because he's obsessed with the idea of having some sort of rhetorical win at the

very least. So that's part of why this is, you know, what we were so fearful of because of all of those incentives on both sides. And we'll probably talk about this with Digny, and you may have mentioned this yesterday, but we bombed one of the. key moderate negotiators that we have negotiated with, who was instrumental, I guess, in the JPA COA. And also, and Digby will remember this, and we'll talk about it with Digby. But in the wake of 9-11, Iran offered the United States

a huge grand bargain at that time. And one of the negotiators who had offered this, through intermediaries in Switzerland, was this guy that we just targeted, maybe it was Israel targeted, and killed his wife and injured him. We'll talk about that with Dig because I'm quite sure she'll remember this.

This is something that we were talking about in the wake of our invasion of Iraq and the talk that Iran was now part of the axis of evil back in the day. But before we get into all that stuff, I want to just do something that talk about what's going on in New York City.

And we should be clear, the dynamic in New York now is what happens in New York is not going to stay in New York. And New York, because of Mom Donnie's win, because of the way he won, because of his agenda

to provide good governance and to expand essentially what government does for its citizens, this is going to be the model that is judged as Democrats move forward for better or worse. And so his success is very much tied into the willingness or the impetus for Democrats across the country to start leading and governing in this way. And when Mamdani got into office, it was quite clear that there was a massive multibillion dollar deficit. Now, cities are not, and cities and states, I should say, are not like the federal government. They cannot print their own money. And so budgets and balancing budgets is hugely important.

And Mamdani has a very ambitious program. And of course, if you have a deficit, you are constrained by that. And I think that's what's going on here in many respects. Um, Mom Dani wants to tax wealthy people in the city more than they are being tax now. Not like huge amounts. We're talking a couple of percentage points after like, you know, a million dollars. Um, and also a lot of money leaves New York City for taxes to the state. And, uh, mom dani wants at least some acknowledgement.

that that's happening. So there's some reciprocity. Here is Mamdani last yesterday, I think it was. The budget fight is taking place now and various, both on a state level and a municipal level, are coming out with their various politicians coming out with their proposed budget. And here's Mamdani reacting to the New York City Council budget proposed. and he's specifically addressing the proposal put out by the council speaker. Her name is Julie Menon. And, well, let's listen to Mom Donnie first. And then we could talk a little bit about Julie Menon, at least to the extent that we know, you know,

there's some interesting disclosure rules in New York City that may be infer. may provide some shed some light on this dynamic. Here's Mom Donnie. Back in January, we explained how the budget process worked. While my friends, we're in the middle of it now. Council Speaker Julie Menon just released her budget proposal. Her plan claims to close the city's $5.4 billion fiscal gap without taxing the rich or cutting services.

The problem is, that's not what it would do. If her proposal was adopted, it would result in slashing billions of dollars from agency budgets. And working New Yorkers would pay the price. It double counts savings, overestimates revenues, exaggerates savings on interest payments. And in the midst of this historic budget deficit, the Speaker's $6 billion proposal asks Albany for just one thing, more time to reduce class sizes. My position? Tax the rich.

Make sure the wealthiest New Yorkers and most profitable corporations pay their fair share. End the drain. For a long time, the state has taken more from the city than the city's received in return. And I'm working with Albany to change that. Without it, our deficit won't disappear. It will repeat year after year, asking future generations to shoulder the burden. We will solve this budget crisis, but I'm not going to let it come at your expense. So he is talking about this Julie Menon introduced budget.

And the big issue, of course, is she does not want to tax wealthy people. meaning herself. Well, I mean, here's the thing. Full disclosure. But not. Somewhat disclosure. The pop up this thing. Do you have the tear sheet?

Yeah. So great reporting here by the lever because I don't, and Luke Goldstein, Veronica, Ricka, Ricka Ben, I'm not, I don't think this was in her disclosure. I think that's part of the issue, right? Well, you don't have to, exactly. When you are a New York City elected official, you only disclose what your personal wealth is. There are rules allowing spouses' assets to remain confidential, even though that they are disclosed privately to the city's conflict of interest board.

So the conflict of interest board can't really tell us what's in there, but they know so there isn't a conflict of interest. Now, of course, you could argue, well, it's sort of a conflict of interest if you're super wealthy and you're... This is about taxing the rich. The super wealthy. But be that as it may, the lever reports that Menon listed under $500,000 in assets, which... There it is. Yeah.

You know, we don't know how under it is. 500,000 is quite a bit of assets. I mean, although I guess there's some people who's who theoretically you could have an apartment that you bought 30 years ago in New York and have more or less paid off your mortgage and the value of that apartment could, but that would be more than 500,000, I would imagine in these days. But be that as it may. However, her family holdings may be worth tens of millions of millions of,

of dollars, including a $22 million hampton's home. And there's also luxury. New York City properties and access to private jets. She lives in a, Luke says, a $7 million condo. Her spouse is a real estate executive at a firm worth $14 billion, and the firm has two private jets. None of this appears in her disclosure. Hmm. So perhaps it's unfair to say that she would be impacted by the millionaire tax.

It's just her husband. Yeah. Just her husband. But 22 million dollars. I honestly am just in the test with the idea. I don't think I've ever been in a $22 million house. But she says she doesn't want to do cuts. She just wants to do savings.

Just savings, not cuts. Oh, well, in that case. There's all little wasteful stuff. Don't look at that Hampton's mansion. There's all this wasteful stuff in government. How psychopathic do you have to be when you have this amount of money to oppose this moderate tax increase? It is just, I mean, it's why they can't be given this amount of political power and also financial power as wealth consolidates is because, like, the nature of the ultra wealthy like this is to hoard. And then conspire against everybody you're hoarding against. Exactly. They have to be broken.

and there can't be any shortcuts. I mean, this is also probably, like, this is what she is elected to do. I don't know where she comes from, but my guess would be the Upper East Side. I don't know. Can you double check that? Could be the Upper West Side, too. Yeah, Ludacondos on the Upper East Side listed as their residence. Oh, okay.

There you go. So that explains it. But this is like all our friends and all the people who elected her. and I suspect there was a significant amount of money spent in her campaign, is to do this, is to continue to keep New York City as a playground for people who have $22 million houses in the Hamptons. I mean,

I don't even leave Brooklyn. Take a limo to the Hamptons. Yeah, let's cater our city towards. people like that. Yeah. And shame on all the other city council members. They take a helicopter. Right, exactly. Sorry. I had my imagination. Although they probably also don't have to worry

about like, I got, I had to wait until Friday at five when I got off my job at the gap to drive out there and the traffic was just crazy. Right. That's the one downside about my $22 million house out there is

my 9th five. Such a pain in the ass here. There's a lot of city council members Well, maybe not a lot, but there's plenty, including another one from the Upper East side, that are taking this fiction of, no, Zoran, you don't understand the math we're doing. We don't want to cut anything. And we don't need to raise taxes. We shouldn't be smarter about savings and how to make government more efficient.

It's important to put the spotlight on those people because I don't know if they're all as rich as Julie Menon, but they're all gross to me. And the Upper East side, not shockingly, was where Cuomo, I think where he did best, or at the very least one of his best neighborhoods. We should, you should be calling, if you're in New York State, calling Hockel's office, the governor's office, and calling the speaker of the city council's office. Because, you know, she speaks for the entire city council,

which represents the entire city. Three words, text the rich. Yep. You don't need much more than that. By the way, her savings, where she wants to save, has nothing is not geared towards the city council at all because she's proposed increased travel tripled furniture spend more office equipment 12 million dollar increases council budget 1.3 million in consultants 250K for a new team 80 and 86,000 dollar year animal welfare staffer savings savings

savings it's amazing if they do pass that animal I just I'm sorry I'm so distracted by the concept of a $22 million a Hampton's house. Like, how is there other houses? Like, how big of a house is this? I mean, we have to raise taxes everywhere in this country. It's

obscene. Looking at most expensive Hampton's home between 250 million and 425 million. So this is basically a dirt shack. Sluffs. Yeah. Now, excuse me, I revise everything I said.

We really do need to cut savings here we can't possibly text she's not going to ever mean can you imagine how frustrating that must be for her that she's never going to be living in a $500 million home she's getting choked out of her neighborhood it's crazy

the gentrification gentrification fractal gentrification all right we're going to take a quick break and when we come back we're going to be talking to Heather Digby Parton contributing writer's salon proprietor of the blog Hullabaloo just a reminder a couple

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or whatever your podcast app is. All right, quick break. Heather, Parton, we'll be joining us. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the throwback tunes for to mark for your throwback guess yeah well how dare you what is old is new again

I guess here we are on the brink of another quagmire yep and you know I mentioned that there's a lot of things I want to talk to you I got a whole list obviously you know Pam Bondi's gone this war in Iran Trump now asking for $1.5 trillion in defense spending annually. The DHS longest partial shutdown in the history of the country, and the Republicans seem to be completely at each other's jugglers.

And then you wrote a piece about Victor Orban in Hungary, and all this week we're like, wait a second, why are all these right-winger coming back from Hungary to visit Victor Orban and Dave Rubin. Who are the others? Rob Schneider. Rob Schneider. I think Chris Rico's been there.

And now it's announced that J.D. Vance is going to go and stump. Yeah. Yeah. For Orban. He's going on the trail with Orban. I want to get to that. But let's start with Iran. And just before the break, I had mentioned this in 2003. And I'm sure you remember at least some of it, through a Swiss ambassador.

This is in the wake of nine. 9-11. Iran was very, very helpful. They, they, they were natural enemies with al-Qaeda. They, they were very, very helpful. There was candlelit vigils, the Iranian people who were very supportive. And through a Swiss representative, they offered a comprehensive, you know, it was like a grand bargain, comprehensive peace deal, which was limits. on its nuclear program, cooperation against al-Qaeda, help with stabilizing Iraq. This was, you know, in the run-up to the war.

They were willingness to accept a two-state solution for Israel. They were willing to sign on to the Arab League's Beirut peace plan. And what they wanted was essentially sanctions relief and security guarantees and normalization. and apparently Larry Wilkerson, you remember him, he was calling Powell's right-hand man

sort of did a big reformation tour in the wake of the Bush years to make, you know, to protect Powell's reputation and probably his own, wrote extensively about this because he and Powell wanted to do this

and of course Cheney and Rumsfeld said, we're not doing it. that because the neocons had had grander plans um and apparently the guy who uh kamal karat karatsi uh was the diplomat who led that initiative on the iranian side he is the guy who just uh two days ago we uh was targeted by uh either israel or us We killed his wife. Yep. And I think his son and injured him.

He was the former Iranian foreign minister to make sure that he was not in a position to negotiate any type of like peace. I mean, this is, it is psycho stuff. It's not, you know, Bush and Cheney and at all, they had done very similar stuff, obviously walking away from a deal like this because they wanted to have this war at one point. But here we are again. Absolutely. I mean, this is, I mean, I wake up every morning feeling like I'm, you know, in another moment of deja vu. I mean, this is, I mean, it's a different, I mean, after 9-11, I mean, look, there was nothing, I knew the minute that 9-11 happened, that there was going to be a war and that the United States was going to lash out and they were going to, I mean, it was just, and it was not a natural reaction to what had happened. I think the Iraq part of it was what really galvanized the anti-war people in the country and around the world because that was completely ridiculous.

But we knew there would be some kind of response to 9-11. So this time, of course, there's nothing. I mean, literally nothing that precipitated this particular thing other than Israel deciding that they wanted to, you know, I don't know, wield the final blow. and continue their rampage from the Middle East, now they're doing to Lebanon, what they did to Gaza earlier. And so, you know, we decide, I guess Trump, you know, emerging from his triumph in Venezuela,

figured that he was now king of the world and could do anything he wanted. So it is slightly different. But the fact is, is that when the United States government wants a war, which they wanted in 2002 and 2003, and which apparently Donald Trump wanted now, they just do it. And the people who were there to trying to do any kind of peace agreement,

doing any kind of mediation, they just, you know, they're either eliminated or they are marginalized or they are somehow taken out of the picture, despite all the payons to, oh, we're a piece, you know, we want peace. I mean, Trump, you know, doing his Nobel Peace Prize tour. So, you know, this is not a new thing. You know, this is sort of what we've become, I think. in the 21st century, I think it's pretty much definitional, that we've been, you know, hurtling toward rogue, rogue superpower status for some time, and here we are. And this particular

one is just, I mean, it's so chaotic, so irrational, so completely, you know, incoherent, that it's even more terrifying. I mean, not that, you know, that Iraq war in post-9-11, America wasn't terrifying, but this is something else again, because it's just done, it's so incredibly out of, you know, completely without any form of strategy. You know, I mean, the neocons, you know, they were terrible and they had a completely ridiculous naive idea about we're going to spread democracy at the, you know, at the end of a gun. But there was at least some kind of thing you could argue against. This is making it just, you know, what do you, what do you just say is that it's completely out of control? So, you know, I, again, you know, I just feel like the

21st century so far has just been one thing after another, all stemming from this same concept of America completely losing its bearings. And, you know, now I think we're at the end, we're coming to the end of that particular, you know, trajectory that we've been on for the last 26 years. And this is a very, very dangerous moment. Very good. I mean, the assassination of the more peace-prone negotiators is a tactic that the Israelis have consistent. used. So we talk about like what is happening in Lebanon or just Trump, uh, or that they've seized just a ton of territory and said, okay, if you're south of the Latani, uh, you have to evacuate for a small period of time, but don't worry, you'll be able to come back. When have is,

has Israel claimed that before and never and obviously reneged on that? It's an ethnic cleansing campaign. But in terms of like the U.S. tactics of war in wartime, Trump is bragging. about bombing civilian infrastructure. Oh, yeah. I mean, I'm still very, I don't think that we should take these psychotic Christian nationalists at their word when they say they didn't mean to double tap the girls' school when it was available on Google Maps to say that this was a girl school at this point.

And Iran is now saying, oh, hey, you're going to target our civilian infrastructure. They're now threatening U.S. tech companies in the region in response to this and saying that they're going to bomb them there. because all Iran can do is escalate. This is part of what is so scary about this moment. They can't trust the Americans in negotiations because of these horrific tactics and because in negotiations they've used that to lull them into a false sense of security and bond them before.

So what else is Iran going to do but escalate? And Trump is going to be roped into that because he doesn't want to look like he's losing. So this is where this is even scarier than I think. thinks people are are grappling with right now. I mean, I just, I would add, the only thing I would add is that I think what this, you know, we've said like he's high on his own supply after Venezuela and he's being lobbied, but I really don't think we understand. I don't know if we'll ever know. But it's interesting that there, we have yet to see, and I imagine we'll see this, you know, I don't know, it'll be three years or five years or ten years down the road.

We will start to read about how people around him were like, why is he doing this? Yeah. And because it really, it doesn't make any sense unless, I mean, to me, the only way to make sense of it, because he had promised, you know, Miriam Adelson that he would be okay with annexing the West Bank and certainly they've gone forward with that project.

Absolutely. But attacking Iran, I don't think anybody paid for, at least that we saw in, you know, prior to the election. And I can't help but think that there is some, he is making money off this in some way. It may be the Saudis,

you know, there's certain Saudis right now are hurting, but it might be one of those short-term paying for long-term gain. You know, when oil is at $120 a barrel, Saudi Arabia is still selling some oil and it becomes economically sensible to start building pipelines. Well, we're starting to hear that, aren't we? We're starting to hear this pipeline thing, which that came as a bit of a support. surprised to me. I'm thinking, really? Okay. Well, that kind of makes sense in the crisis around the Strait of Hormuz and all that kind of does lend itself to an idea that maybe this is part of the

calculation. And we have heard that MBS has been talking to, you know, has been putting, it's been pushing Trump to continue the war with Iran. And he's got, they've got, you know, all the, the local American, you know, hawks are in his ear as well, pushing that. And I would not be. be surprised at all. I mean, you know, just look at the, the relationship between the Trump family and the Saudis, yeah, Qatar and UA, I mean, this is heavy. Yeah, billions invested. Personally, personally. And so I don't know, we may never know. It doesn't really, at the end of the day, it doesn't matter. I mean, we're clearly, there's probably, you know, a half a dozen reasons why we're going in. And certainly half a dozen different parties who are,

we're pushing for it. We know the Israelis are, you know, this has been a lifelong dream for Netanyahu, and he's been pushing for it as well. And I imagine it's a combination of like, some people are incentivizing Trump to do this and others are saying, it's going great. Don't worry. We'll be able to do this and understand that once you get past a certain point, the rate of acceleration in terms of the gap falling into this war increases. But all. But all, Also just look at who is on the outs with Trump now, and I think it says everything. Like Tulsi Gabbard is rumored to be the next person who's going to, he's getting rid of all the women. Kristy Nome, these bitches, Pam Bondi, now Tulsi.

Laura has a list that she wants me to get rid of it and they just happen to be women. But I, I, I, I think that hegseth, I think that Hegseth is, he's proving a loyal soldier for Trump's aims. I think that Marco Rubio is as hawkish as it gets. And these are the people that he's listening to right now. And he's tweeting out, tune in to Mark Levine tonight. He's listening to like Mark Levine. I mean, who is as Zionist hawkish as it gets. So all, he's tired of hearing from like on Megan Kelly and Tucker Carlson criticizing this war stuff.

He's into boomer Fox News, traditional neocon territory. That's where he's at right now. And that's where he always was going to end up, if you had two brain cells to rub together. Of course. It's one of the most annoying things about this. You know, I mean, I'm trying very hard not to, you know, get too heavily into the I told you so's. But for the people who, you know, on the magaside who are, you know, well, he's not going to do any forever wars. I'm just going, have you met Donald Trump? Do you have any sense of what, you know, human psychology is? This man is a, is a, you know, a narcissistic megalomaniac who, of course, given the chance is going to,

to take military action when it is, you know, when he gets the chance to do it and thinks that there's no ramifications. He's not running again. And I think that right now he's been saying some things kind of getting, you know, sort of recognizing that fact. Now, maybe he'll change his mind. But for the moment, he's kind of said a few things like, well, you know, there's the rules and I'm sorry, it's bad rule, but it is. And I think he, this is legacy building for him. This is where he is now. And I think being a great conqueror has been, you know, implanted in his mind as being a big part of his legacy now. And so, you know, it doesn't really take much to get this guy on. And all these people who thought that he was some kind of a peacock, you know, it's taking everything in me not to throw this back in their face as, you know, the Tucker Carlson's and Megan Kelly's.

What? What? What? War? We never, we didn't sign on for that. You know, I'm going to give me a break. And here is a clip, get 13 ready, please. This is a clip of, or a mashup of, as the kids say, of Donald Trump on the campaign trail when he absolutely promised that, you know,

what government can do. And now it just turns out like, well, we ran out of money because we got to do the war thing. Yeah, I know. If you win in November, Can you commit to prioritizing legislation to make child care affordable? And if so, what specific piece of legislation will you advance? Well, I would do that. Child care is child care.

It couldn't, you know, there's something you have to have it. In this country, you have to have it. We're going to make this into an incredible country that can afford to take care of its people. And then we'll worry about the rest of the world. Let's help other people. But we're going to take care of our country first. This is about America first. We can't take care of daycare.

We're a big country. We have 50 states. We have all these other people. We're fighting wars. We can't take care of daycare. You've got to let a state take care of daycare, and they should pay for it, too. They should pay. They have to raise their taxes.

But they should pay for it. And we could lower our taxes a little bit to them to make up. But it's not possible for us to take care of daycare. Medicaid, Medicare, all these individual things. They can do it on a state, He says you can't do it on a federal. We have to take care of one thing. Military protection.

We have to guard the country. So I, I, uh, what? We're spending $11 billion a day in Iran. And when you, I said this point on CNN last week, when you, uh, look at Bernie Sanders's College for All plan, uh, from a few years ago, it's around $50 billion a year, but say adjust for inflation and it's 60. say it's 70. We could pay for college for all for people in a week

in what we're spending in this war in Iran. And many of the people, the young men and women that will die over there, joined the military for the GI Bill so they could get a college education. I think that says everything about our priorities. And this is that, this might be Trump's greatest scam. Like how he flipped there. This is he, the fact that he tricked people into thinking this is, maybe his greatest scam of all time.

Well, it may be. I don't even know if it's, you know, I don't even know if it's his scam. I mean, I don't know if he knows what he's saying when he says things like this. Well, to be fair, I thought there was a lobby for child care that would pay me more money. And it turns out the guys with the weapons did.

That's all. It's even Stephen. Hey, yeah. Fair, fair. I mean, I think, I think it's really brilliant, though, that he gave this, that, that, that, that, that, that, that you just played that he made about the daycare and what have you i mean i it just happened a

couple nights ago right i mean he was at some east at an easter event of some sort and you know so he's he said this and i mean he just said it out loud he said out you know i mean this is russled boat this is their whole project 2025 it's the heritage foundation this is what they've been saying there they leave that video by mistake too they didn't and they pulled it back and they pulled it back but uh They didn't want that out there. I mean, well, you can imagine what the Republican candidates and the Republican, you know, House members and senators thought when they heard that. I mean, it's like, oh, my God. I mean, that is going to be in every Democratic ad.

Because he just said the quiet part out loud. He just said it. And he said, we can't afford to pay for daycare, Medicaid, and Medicare. Medicare, Fox News, brain rot, you know, people. I mean, did you hear what he said there? and that the states can pay for it and raise their taxes because we can't afford it because we have wars. And our only priority is, you know, military protection. And I'm sure he would add in immigration enforcement to that too because you don't have a country.

If you don't have borders, you don't have a real country anymore. Remember he said that a million times. So this is what we're dealing with. I mean, when I first heard it, I'm going, well, when you have Donald Trump as president, you don't have a country anymore because what he's essentially saying there is that the United States is merely an army and a police force and everything else that the United States stands for as a country is just a bunch of collection of states that can do whatever they want and you know by the way if you want to move to a new state well guess what you're moving to a completely different country

essentially he wants to turn the United States into the European Union with a an army with one big Army. This, you know, this is not the United States. It's not a country. He's not talking about a country anymore. And, and I heard that and I'm just going, you know, something, this is, to me, this is a bit of a watershed. Now, I don't want to say, you know, Caternity, Floyd, maybe, you know, we all say that every time he says something like that. But I think this war, something, this is big. I mean, I think it's a big, big moment for the American people. I think if you look at the polling, You look at how people are receiving this. I think that maybe the veil is falling.

Certainly it seems to be a little bit in the media, which, you know, in the mainstream media, that they're seeing here what we're dealing with, which is this is a catastrophic decision that he made that is changing everything, everything within the country and outside the country. The rest of the world, yesterday, came together as an alliance to talk about opening the Strait of Hormuz without the United States of America

because we have screwed it up and we can't be dependent on. And they are getting together as a huge alliance. I mean, it's a big, you know, I mean, was it 30 countries they pulled together on that virtual summit yesterday? That's a big deal. That's something I don't think we've ever seen that before since World War II. Trying to bring the world together. Right. Against us.

But, I mean, I don't want to address that we're cooked. I just want to get back to that one quote that he said about, first of all, we can't do, you know, a country can't do Medicare or Medicaid. Right. The country has been doing Medicare. We block grant Medicaid, which is a huge. It's the only way you can do it. You can't do it any other way. What's it talking about?

And then the idea, I like that he also said, like, and they can lower their taxes or they've got to raise their taxes these states. We can lower hours. The irony is. The first Trump tax bill back in 2017 or whatever it was got rid of the deductions for high tax states. That's what the whole salt debate was about. Literally doing the, his only thing that he has done is the exact opposite of what he was. I mean, so the point is he's a liar.

He's completely disingenuous. He doesn't want there to be Medicare. He doesn't want there to be Medicaid. He doesn't want there to be Medicaid. there to be any of these programs. States can do it if they do. If they don't, blah, bah, we're not going to do that. All our job is is to do the military. And I think you're right. I think, I think, well, I think we could do an entirely different episode on just how cooked we are as a country. Yeah. And frankly, like, I don't know. In the grand scheme of things, if you start getting up to, like,

you know, looking at, you know, just outside the atmosphere and you look down, you go, maybe at the end of the, for the entire globe, it may be, we may be better off if the United States has a far, far less resource. No doubt about it. No doubt about it. And whatever the agreement was in the past, it's gone. It's gone. And China, I mean, just like, I just saw a thing.

Well, they're not stupid. China forced its refineries, its refining sector to maintain 2025 levels, despite the fact that they would cut back in this instance. And it's basically just that's the way their economy runs. It's like, you know, when society needs something, this is our government's in charge of doing that. And they're just sort of completely out maneuvering us at this point. It's a joke. But I also get the sense that Trump has given up. He knows he's going to lose the House.

Yeah, of course. He's starting to wonder if he's going to lose the Senate. All of their efforts are going to be at somehow stopping the election from actually taking place in the way that we anticipate. he's putting his defense attorney in as acting DOJ, which he will have for at least 210 days, I guess. He'll have him in there, which it doesn't seem long enough to me unless he's like, I don't need this guy to defend me.

He'll go into the private sector and defend me against the impeachment. I need them here to make sure that like whatever we do over the next 200 days, which take us past the election, will, you know, keep me in power. Like, I think, and I think he realized, like, I think he realized, like, I think he realized, at least to some extent the Iran thing can't be helping him in any way. He must beware of that. That's why I think he's getting paid off in some other fashion, because it doesn't make any sense.

He's the type of guy in the past who's done or said anything to save his own hide. And he doesn't seem to be doing that right now unless he's getting his high. tied tanned from somewhere else. I don't know how else to say that. Well, I think it's a big part of it. I mean, I do think that, I mean, he's setting himself up. They've already made billions. They're going to continue to make billions. God only knows what deals are being struck that we won't hear about later down the road that we don't even know about yet. So he's setting up the family, I think, for massive, massive, you know, corruption and graft. And I mean, it's just, it's obvious, right? I mean, we know that. But I also think that, I mean, this has just been my theory for the last. And it. It's start my theory is still, I think, correct, but it's starting to get shaky from his perspective because he's been building his legacy. I mentioned this earlier. This is about the ballroom and the art of triumph and getting the Nobel Peace Prize and all this other garbage that he's been doing for the last year. That this is, this is his thing now. You know, I'm the greatest president the United States has ever had.

He knows he isn't. He knows he's just a fluke that it's, you know, that he's actually hated by vast, vast numbers of people. But on some level, he thinks about build enough statues and build enough buildings and build it tall enough ballroom, do whatever, that I'll be remembered as the greatest president, the world has ever seen, perhaps the greatest leader of the world has ever seen. I mean, he's a true megalomania. He really is. I mean, I think he truly is trying to convince himself and the rest of the world that he is that. And yet he's losing his grasp on that every minute of the day because he's, you know, I know, he's crazy, he's old, he's out of his mind,

but I know he follows the polls and I know he knows what what those polls are saying. He pretends that he isn't that he's only seen the good people around him are saying well he's only seeing the good polls so that's why he's saying it. No, he knows.

I think that much he does know. And this is, the legacy is starting to slip away from him. I think he's seeing now that all this stuff that he's doing, Iran is a cold water right in his face. That his great, you know, a stride the world like a colossal,

losses is actually not true, that Venezuela was just a, you know, picking a little military operation and it meant nothing. Now he's in a real war, a real war with a real adversary and he's losing it and he can't figure out a way to get out of it. And I think as he's watching this legacy start to slip away, even the ballroom this last week that, you know, the judge said you can't build it. I think the judge, I think he can go ahead now, though, but. Because of that, because of the commission saying that it's, it's okay or something to that effect yes yeah well the only thing that's kept his attention and so

i do get a little bit of joy thinking about the heartbreak he might have felt i get a lot of joy are you kidding i mean it's the i live for it i mean this is this is it i mean i'm like at a point where i'll take anything i can get just to you know whatever makes him unhappy on by the same token though when he is unhappy he becomes even more unstable i mean you can see the last week i really feel like the deterioration is really becoming just so blatant that even his own people are seeing it. And you're starting to see leaks coming out of the White House. Like this article in Time magazine that came out today or yesterday, I guess, that they're talking about how Susie Wilde is telling people, hey, you know,

probably need to bring him some more of the bad news. You know, it's not a good idea for him to just get the rosy scenarios about the war. And it says that Heggseth really was, you know, he was shaken to find. find out that Iran would actually retaliate against, you know, the Saudi Arabia and all the mid-eastern countries. And you're going, what in the, what? Are you kidding me? He is such an idiot. Like, truly in the sea of idiots. He's number one of the words. Yeah. I mean, Colin Jost is actually, his impression of Higgseth is really too nice. I really think it's much to, I think it's much to, he really pulls his punches. Because when Hegseth speaks, I, I'm torn between laughing and crying at how

idiotic it is that this man is actually in charge of the Pentagon. And he's spending his time firing, you know, women and black generals and people who are... He just fired. I mean, I think people should really understand this. He just fired the chief of staff of the army because the chief of staff, the army, would refuse to take off the promotion list to black women who were in line to get one-star generals. now aside from and we got some let's let's just we we have some uh some some some video on this aside from all this here's here put up the number eight this was happened we've been tracking this for the past couple of days um or i should say yeah put up uh put up number six this is from the new york times um from a couple of days ago and uh higgs is

wanted to make sure these people were off the, these two black and two female officers from the promotion list. I'm sorry, so it's actually four people. He, in this piece, it says that, I think if you scroll down, it says somewhere around the, Hegseth had told army leaders that the president wouldn't want to be standing next to female or black general. generals. And so, you know, therefore you got to, we can't have any because you don't want them to

get stuck in the same place together. And you know, Hexeth is just like the most qualified guy ever. Oh, yeah. So, you know, coming from being a defender of war, uh, war crimes and lobbying to get these war criminals pardon successfully under Trump to being also a Fox news host. And now he's the head of the Pentagon, so he should be telling everybody else that they're unqualified. But here is, here's the amazing thing. We just fired the chief of staff of the army when we are in the middle of war. I mean, this isn't a small skirmish. This is a big war. And I don't know, Brian, Brian, Brian served, you know, is it that. Brian, I know you know, you're not, you're not an expert. But would you say the chief of staff of the army is an important role in the middle of a war?

I believe that role would be described as critical. Critical. And you've just fired not a person because you didn't like the promotion list that he wouldn't intervene with. I mean, aside from him probably saying like, hey, dude, I'm in the middle of a war. I don't have time to deal this. I mean, this is amazing. It is insane. But I guess if, you know, as long as we're not woke, the Iranians will be like,

there you got us. We were going to mock you for being so soft. Like, where's you pink uniforms? But now. Well, maybe this is what we'll do the trick is making sure that anybody that tries to promote women or black people within the army, like that will unleash the strongest military that the world has ever seen

and finally will win this war. Of course. They will all be basing their image on Donald Trump, their great commander-in-chief, the man who wears more makeup and hairspray than Rupal. I mean, you know, this is a guy that, you know, they all need to emulate. And, you know, Pete, he's, you know,

he looks pretty. He wears, his makeup is perfection. Let's just put it that way. He really, really looks good on camera. He's got a whole makeup room set up in the Pentagon just to take care of it. Yeah. Yeah. From the liver damage.

Yeah. Exactly. I mean, you know, I mean, this is the insanity of it. I mean, you have these guys going on social media doing pull-ups and showing up their muscles and doing it. It's like a cartoon show. You're too. What are you talking about? I mean, it's absolutely beyond.

believe that we have, I mean, look at the, look at the propaganda that they're putting out about the Iran war that the Pentagon is putting out. And it's like, what are we, you know, what are we talking about here? This is actual humans. I mean, do we have any idea how many people have died in this thing yet? Well, that's, that is, what's the death pole? We don't know. I mean, in Iran, it's thousands, but in U.S. troop deaths, Sam headlined this, but there was an F-15 that was shot down, it appears. And Iran's actually saying there are two that have been shot down. We have one that's confirmed, although the administration continues to deny it to the press. Jeremy Scahill had this, of course, hours ago, but now CNN's even reporting it. And there are

conflicting reports about whether or not the pilot's evacuated. If they evacuate and they land in Iran, they could potentially be hostages or they could be killed. And there was a report from the intercept two days ago that Nick Turs kind of crunched some of these numbers and found that the Pentagon's numbers are not reflecting really what the true death and injury toll is. We don't know. But they were trickling out the deaths when the war started. I wonder how much information they're withholding right now because Trump keeps saying two to three weeks, like they feel they have this limited window, but it's just going to continue to escalate as things have gone. Of course. And, you know, by the way, if Iran does capture these pilots, which is a fairly good chance that could happen,

that seems to be the big story this morning of, you know, what's happened to the pilots, they found the ejection seat. I guess there's actual footage of that. So it appears that they did eject from the plane. And, you know, I have to wonder if they capture them, Donald Trump is known to be saying that he doesn't like people who've been captured. He prefers, you know, he prefers that they not be captured. You may recall, he was talking about John McCain at the time of, you know, prisoner of war. So who knows what he will do there? And that's another, you know, that's a very, you know, it's a very useful bit of leverage that the Iranians will have if they capture a couple of fighter pilots. and this is how wars escalate.

This is, you know, if these people, I mean, one of the most shocking things about this is the total lack of historical knowledge among these people. I mean, Trump and Hegset and the rest of them. It's like, I mean, I'm no military scholar, but I've been around long enough to have read, you know, and lived through several wars.

And it's like, this is ridiculous. The ideas that these people have of just, I mean, it's like, again, we're living with people who, are like cartoons. And part of the problem is, too, is that the American public has no sense of history. Although I have to say, like the American public, you know, it's sort of hard to assess because the Trump administration has spent exactly not 60 seconds on trying to sell this war.

You know, like the Iraq war, the Bush administration had 9-11 and it still took them like two years. to get to the point where they could sell it. And there was machinations. In this instance, Trump has just done it. And the war is already as unpopular as the Iraq war ever was. Yeah. At the end, I mean, at the worst moment. At the worst part.

Indeed. And so I want to give the American public credit, but I don't want to give them too much credit because, you know, there was no effort even to try and sell them on this. And they're just like, what's going on? to know. But let's, I want to turn from this. I have a feeling we're going to be sadly talking about this Iran excursion for a very, very long time. I mean, he meant incursion, but he's just stupid to know that, you know, I mean, I call it a little excursion, like a little distraction.

As long as I don't call it a war, then I can't get in trouble. Yeah, exactly. Even though I say war 50 times a day. Yeah, and even though in his speech, he kept listing the length of World War I, World War II, and like all these other wars, Vietnam and said, but our military operation is only lasting this amount. It's like, then what was the point of comparing it to the other wars if it's not a war? Yeah, it's just so stupid. I do want to. My brain hurts.

You wrote about Victor Orban. Yeah. This and and you know, with everything going on, it's hard maybe to people to understand why this is important and why, but but then you see the way that, you know, Dave Rubin is not an important figure. But it's quite clear and Rob Schneider, outside of being a comedy legend. I mean, copyman. American Gigolo or Jugger. What was it? What was it called?

Deuce Bigelow male jigolo? Oh, Deuce Bigelow, jail, meiglo, whatever. Just, you know, it was just These are, these are, of course, iconic American figures. But J.D. Vance. You know, we have a war going on. The outside of the Democrats are, you know, whatever it was, 55% of Democrats are, I think Democrats are crappy. But they're still crushing it in special elections, which is indicative of the fact that, like, we have a two-party system.

Right. We have no choice. I mean, if we did, maybe it'd be different. And as horrible as the Democrats as a party are, the Republicans are worse. you would think the vice president, right, the presumptive nominee, I mean, if there is going to be one, you know, in 2028, the presumptive Republican nominee, at least he would be the presumptive forerunner, would be out there trying to shore up the base going into the midterms. and now he is being sent to Hungary to campaign for Orban. What the F? Well, I think there are two things going on with that.

You know, I wrote about this, and I've been writing about this Orban phenomenon for a couple of years now, as we've seen the right wing, the sort of, quote, intelligentsia of the right wing of such a thing actually exists. They've really glommed on to Victor Orban. his program. And, you know, this is part of the Project 2025 thing, and it's part of the Heritage Foundation, and this sort of group of conservative, erstwhile, conservative intellectuals, deciding that this program was going to work in the United States, which is a joke. But Victor Orban came in.

He also, you know, he follows Trump's trajectory in the sense that he was elected, he failed, he lost his next election, then he, you know, he, and he was, more or less a little bit normal in the first one or more normal than he is now. He came back, he came roaring back on an immigration platform and won, and he's subsequently been reelected numerous times under very dubious circumstances with the kind of, you know, election manipulation that they're attempting to do here in the United States. And he, his part of his program was taking over these institutions within their culture. They called it sort of a soft fascism, which is just, you know,

that it wasn't really military guys in streets or, you know, jackbooted thugs or that sort of thing. It was much more of this institutional takeover at the universities, particularly the media where he would put they, he put cronies in in charge of the media and, you know, sort of, you know, censored in academia, anybody who didn't agree with them, that sort of thing, which we're seeing Donald Trump do. I mean, in his second term, it's just following it, you know, bit by bit. Now, Hungary doesn't really have, you know, a military to speak of. and they have a very close affiliation with Russia,

which, you know, they're very dependent on Russian energy, Russian oil. So, you know, this idea that these conservatives are just, they are really bought in on Hungary's program. Rod Dreher, you know, he went over there, he lived there, he moved to Budapest, so he could be part of it and feel the beauty of the Orban, you know, policies. I mean, it was so great.

The streets are clean. Kentucky Carlson went over there and walked the streets of Budapest, Peskine, look how beautiful it is. We could have this, if only, you know. You can try your testicles there. Exactly. They get the, you know, perfect. It's beautiful. Yeah. So they are really bought into this. The problem is, and here's the issue. And part of it was the immigration thing, too, because Hungary didn't really have an immigration problem. This was part of the weird thing. He jimmed that up. It was all about immigrate. They're coming here to

kill you in your beds. They're going to rape your women. And it was during the Syrian you know, war that was going a civil war and there were a lot of Syrian refugees and of course he was doing that. Hungary really wasn't part of that. But he used it to his own advantage in his elections and basically scared the hell out of people and that's what happened. Doing it again in this election, only it's the Ukrainians who are the evil ones who are coming to kill you in your beds and rape the women and all that.

And it's like this time the public in Ukraine, the public in Hungary is going, really? Really? The Ukrainians are coming to kill us. Okay. great and there's an actual opposition party there he's a former member of Orban's party the Fidez and he is running his name is Peter Magyar and he's running as sort of a you know he's he blams on to some of the culture war stuff they're very culture war oriented anti-LGBQ all of that kind of stuff anti-feminist they've got you know they're giving money to women to

stay home and have as many babies as possible you know the usual garbage and and and he And Magyar hasn't really rejected all that stuff, but he has totally rejected the economic program, and Hungary is in deep, deep shit economically. And so this is happening. It's possible that Orban, I think the election is on the 12th of this month, so it's right around the corner. And they're sending in the big guns. Rob Schneider went over there to help them out. I mean, you know, they're not holding back. And of course, then we've got JD, who's going over to actually stump with Orban.

And that's how desperate these conservatives are to save his presidency because, or, you know, his administration and get him elected again because if he loses, it's kind of just a, you know, it's a complete repudiation of their whole program as well. And there's a good, Magyar has been polling ahead the whole last year. And he's way ahead right now. And there's a good chance that he's going to win if they have a free and fair election, which as we well know, is always up for grabs with these people. So that's where we are. And it's a very interesting thing. I hope everybody watches it because this has been,

this is their model. This is their model. Two weeks away less, the election. I mean, it is weird. I think it's hard to people appreciate like when, what a model this becomes and it changes the narrative. Like, oh, this can't survive, this type of, you know, a rule. I mean, it's also interesting, too,

where you take a look at it and you really get a sense of what authoritarianism is. Yeah. Without, without like, you know, I think for many years, you know, people have felt like, oh, troops, you know, at every corner and, you know, the Stasi and this and that. But you can have this type of authoritarianism and it may ultimately lead there. I mean, frankly, just Trump. Look at us. Yeah. Well, just Trump, I mean, aside from like intimidation of universities, you know, forcing, what is it, Stanford or somewhere to give us a list of all the Jews there.

I think it's Harvard. Penn. Harvard rather. Sorry. Penn, Penn, exactly. But also all the harassment, the harassment of the law firms. But even something like paying the TSA, right? Like, yeah.

If you can justify doing this without our system, first of all, everybody's going to have those expectations in the future. Could you also not pay people? Like, if you have the right to pay people and it's not been congressionally authorized, why wouldn't you have the right to not pay people despite the fact that that's not been congressionalally authorized? Well, I think they've been testing that from the minute they came in with Doge and all of the stuff that they've been doing. They've been testing the waters. Here's one difference, though. I had thought, and I think everybody thought, that what Orban was modeling was a new, like I called it, soft fascism, which is just, you know, it's this soft authoritarianism with all the things that Trump has done, with the intimidation factor, going to the law firms, you know, and saying, hey, you know, we're going to remove your ability to deal with the government and intimidated all these, you know, so-called, you know, legal heroes. And they all agreed to it. And then they're going to give him free, you know, pro bono work. That kind of.

kind of thing. That's the Orban program. That's the so that's it's intimidation, but it's not, it's not violent, right? It's just, it's just this sort of bullying that we're going to take away your privileges if you don't, you know, if you don't do it. And all these elites are going, well, gee, don't do that. I mean, then we're really screwed. But Trump actually went a step further because he's got a guy named Stephen Miller, who is not an Orban guy. Stephen Miller is not that. But Bannon is. Banon is. Bannon is. And Miller is. And Miller, he put him in charge in this immigration program, which is huge, and they put the thugs on the street. They went ahead and did that hardcore violent thing, and that was actually going way further than Orban.

And that's also one of the things that has been instrumental in turning the tide in public opinion. Yeah. You know, and when people started to see that here, I mean, that is stuffy stuff, right? I mean, that's what we're looking at. And you're seeing, and the surveillance, you know, the facial recognition and all that kind of stuff. That's very stothy big brother. That's Stephen Miller. Miller and Bannon,

and Skiy pointed out Bannon, because he's a good example of this, because Bannon's been over in Europe for years, you know, since the first Trump term, trying to put together this alliance of the right wingers and all that stuff. And very much into the whole Orban program and trying to, you know, get this stuff together. Yeah, he was not for any of that, you know, you want to keep it,

you know, you're supposed to keep it subtle. You're supposed to keep it, well, not subtle, but you're supposed to keep it nonviolent because that's, that's not the modern way. They're supposed to be smoother than that. You're not supposed to do this so that people are getting, where you start shooting citizens in the street. That just wasn't really part of the program. Miller, no, it is part of the program. His program is to absolutely dominate, intimidate, and, you know, essentially unleash violence on his political enemies. And that is what, yeah, what, yeah, sorry.

Heather, go on. No, no, go ahead. I'm sorry. No, it's just, it's just to zero in on the difference then between, like, Miller keeps winning and Bannon keeps losing. And I just want to keep pointing that out, because as Trump says he's the America first guy, we played the clip of him saying, we don't have money for health care and child care because of wars. It's the exact opposite of what he said his agenda was, which would have been more in the Bannon style. Like this whole like militarism, the violence is very, is Stephen Miller. And I just, J.D. Vance, if he really thinks he can turn back the clock and be the first guy with Orban and Bannon and the organized right in Europe, good effing luck, dude. You are tied to this war. You are tied to these tactics. Don't like, it's going to be interesting

to see how he tries to cozy up to that part of MAGA that continuously loses within the administration. Yeah. And I mean, this is going to be fast. to watch, terrifying, but fascinating, because you've got him, and he's, you know, he's trying to continue to lean into that faction, to that, to that faction without, you know, rejecting Donald Trump. I mean, that's a very, very, very, very high wire to be walking on. And then you got Rubio over here, his chief rival, who was just all in his hawkish as he can possibly get. I mean, the guy is, I mean, he's always been a hawk. It's nothing, no surprise there. But he's just, He's just gone full on with the program.

Even on the immigration stuff. I mean, he's hardcore anti-immigrant now, and he's the son of immigrants. I mean, he's a, you know, a product of the birthright citizenship. His parents were not citizens when he was born. As same as true, Don Jr., Eric, Ivanka, and Barron, all of whom their mothers were not citizens when they were born either. But I mean, this is, you know, this is a big, this is where the rivalry is. And we're going to see that play out. And I'm sort of not to get into, you know, the sort of campaign politics.

But I do think that that's where that campaign is going to take place. And I suspect that it's not going to be either one of those guys that will end up winning the nomination. It's going to have to be somebody who's outside of this because this particular argument within the Republican coalition is. going to destroy both of them. Tucker Carlson. I wouldn't be surprised. I wrote a piece I remember like five years ago that it said, you know, I think Tucker Carlson's going to run

for president at some point. It just seemed to me like that's where we're headed. God help us. Well, on that note. Yeah, hey, have a nice weekend, guys. Heather Parton, proprietor of the Uber blog Hullabaloo. We'll put a link to that and of course we'll link to your piece to Zinselon.com. Heather, always a pleasure.

Yes, it was fun. As you will. All right. Take care. Stay safe, everybody. Thanks, Heather. All right. All right, folks. That ends the free half of the program. We will now head into the fun half of the program. You can join us there by becoming a member.

Join the Majority Report.com. When you do, you not only get the free show free of commercials, but you also get the fun half. Yet I AM us. Maybe we'll take calls today. I don't know. I don't know. Ain't nothing going to break up my stride.

Oh my God. Ain't nothing going to slow me down. In the fun half today, I'm going to have a tough conversation. With really every member of the staff. Because I have certain expectations. And some people need to move into the next phase. I don't care what people think. Oh my God. I'm so mad at you guys for doing that clip yesterday.

It was so mad. Ain't nothing going to break up my stride. Ain't nothing going to slow me down. Oh, my God. It's also like, I've never heard someone sing. I've seen that on, like, oh. I know. I've never heard someone sound desperate while singing.

I'm looking on sunshine Yeah It's like somebody put a gun to his head And sing My future's so bright I gotta wear shades What are you talking about Everything's fine

It's like they have his family hostage Hakuna Matata Oh my God Oh my God All right Don't forget You can become member join the majority report.com.

Also just coffee.coffey. Co-op. Fair trade coffee. Hot chocolate. Use the coupon code. Majority get 10% off. You can even get the majority blend. So come on. Matt.

Yeah. My Instagram is rapidly approaching the coveted as of like last week when I found out that I meant something. 10,000 follower mark, which by what happens in 10,000? He can post links.

You can post links. and you can call yourself a micro-influencer. Is that right? I'm really excited about, yeah. So, folks, that and also the thing I should actually promote is a new Jacobin show talking about Brazil with Andres Pagliari, I think is how he pronounced his name. Great conversation about Lula. He's got one more term, and then there's a new, for an open horizon for the left,

and how they're going to navigate that as they try to figure out what comes after that. So a great conversation with a lot of relevance to a... left that is growing in America too. So check that out at 3 o'clock Eastern time right after the show today. Hey, I just found out that I have 8,500 followers. So I got to get to 10,000

so I can start doing that other stuff, too. That's been part of the reason why I've never posted is because I didn't have that other. Yeah. To what? You're going to have to show me basically I just spend my time watching that kid whose dad teaches him to play baseball.

The kid's amazing. He's like seven years old. Not even. He's like five. Kid has a cannon. He can switch hit. He can switch hit. His dad throws,

his dad will throw like two, three balls at him, small ones, different colors and he'll yell out a color. and the kid will hit that ball. Oh, so he's like a prodigy? Yes. It's amazing.

And the whole thing is like basically designed to A, impress you impress you with his kid and make you feel like you're a bad dad. And these videos have infiltrated like five group chats of mine. It's amazing. The boys are excited about this kid. Were you about saying the boys are buzzing? Somebody unfollowed you because I never post anything? That's absurd.

Why would you, why would you unfollow because I don't post anything? It doesn't cost anything. It doesn't cost me anything. It's stupid. If I get to 10,000 people, I'm going to post my first poster. I think it's the second post. I don't know. I shared a poster. You've got like one post with like Molly Jong fast or something.

I think that's- Yeah, because she sent it, and I just kept hitting all the buttons. I mean, this is so fascinating. We should keep going. Seeing the fun half. Three months from now, six months from now, nine months from now. And I don't think it's going to be the same as it looks. like in six months from now, and I don't know if it's necessarily going to be better six months from now

than it is three months from now. But I think around 18 months out, we're going to look back and go like, wow. What? What is that going on? It's nuts. Wait a second. Hold on for, hold on for a second. Emma, welcome to the program. Hey. Fun pack. Matt. What is up, everyone? No, me keen. You did it. Fun, crap. Let's go Brandon. Let's go Brandon.

Fun rap. Bradley, you want to say hello? Sorry to disappoint. Everyone, I'm just a random guy. It's all the boys today. Fundamentally false. No, I'm sorry. Women's...

Stop talking. Oh, wow. And let me finish. Where is this coming from, dude? But dude, you want to smoke this? Seven, eight. Yes. Yes?

It is you. First me. I think it is you. Who is you? Three single. freaking day. What's on your mind? We can discuss free markets

and we can discuss capitalism. I'm gonna just know why. Libertarians. They're so stupid though. Common sense says of course. Gobbled euk. We fucking nailed him. So what's 79 plus 21?

Challenge men. I'm positively quivering. I believe 96 I want to say. 857. 210. 35. 501. One half.

3-8s. 9-11 for instance. $3,400. $1,900. $6.5,4. $3 trillion sold. It's a zero-sum game. Actually, you're making anything less.

But let me say this. Poop. You call it satire. Sam goes satire. On top of it all? My favorite part about you is just like every day, all day, like everything you do. Without a doubt. Hey, buddy, we've seen you.

Folks. It's just the week being weeded out, obviously. Yeah. Sundow guns out. But you should know. People just don't like the entertainment. ideas anymore. I have a question. Who cares? Our chat is enabled, folks.

I love it. I do love that. Got a jump. I got to be quick. I get a jump. I'm losing. Two o'clock. We're already late. And the guy's being a dick. So screw him. Sent to a gulaw? Outrage. Like, what is wrong with you? Love you. Bye.

Love you. Bye-bye.