The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 7.15 EPSTEIN FILES BLOCKED! Trump’s Humiliating Denial, MAGA Rages, & Elon Musk's $200M Waifu Scandal

Episode Date: July 15, 2025

Watch Part 2 (bonus news): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ez9ERd5nUxg Use code DEFRANCO at https://incogni.com/defranco to get an exclusive 60% off. Get Current! Sign up at https://current.com/phil/ and use code PHIL50 to get $50! and unlock tools like a paycheck advance, credit building, and more. Terms and conditions apply. Our new interview with Tim Miller on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2CePXwDrvdQTes844wflKp?utm_medium=share&utm_source=linktree  Get More of Everything I do @ http://DeFrancoMedia.com  – ✩ TODAY’S STORIES ✩ – 00:00 - House GOP Blocks Release of Epstein Files 05:00 - Elon Musk’s Grok Unveils AI Anime Girl & $200 Million DoD Contract 08:26 - Sponsored by Current 09:26 - Trump Plans to Send New Weapons to Ukraine, Threatens Russia with Tariffs 15:19 - Consumer Price Index Shows a Dramatic Spike in Inflation in June 20:27 - Sponsored by Incogni 21:26 - Supreme Court Clears Way for Trump Admin. to Gut Education Department 27:52 - German Backpacker Found Safe After Spending 12 Days in Australia ——————————   Produced by: Cory Ray Edited by: James Girardier, Maxwell Enright, Julie Goldberg, Christian Meeks, Matthew Henry Art Department: William Crespo Writing/Research: Philip DeFranco, Brian Espinoza, Lili Stenn, Maddie Crichton, Chris Tolve, Star Pralle, Jared Paolino  ———————————— For more Philip DeFranco: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-philip-defranco-show/id1278424954 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6ESemquRbz6f8XLVywdZ2V Twitter:   https://x.com/PhillyD Instagram:   https://instagram.com/PhillyDeFranco Newsletter: https://www.dailydip.co TikTok:   https://www.tiktok.com/@philipdefranco?lang=en ———————————— #DeFranco #JeffreyEpstein #DonaldTrump Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's me, your brain. And I, your mouth. I act on logic. I act on taste. For me, Pizza Hut's Nashville Hot Chicken Pizza with Spicy Fried Chicken, Pickles, and Creamy Ranch Drizzle is confusing. To me it sounds good.

Pickles on pizza? Amazing. It shouldn't work, but it's so good. Try the Nashville Hot lineup at Pizza Hut. Your mouth will get it. Republicans just blocked the Epstein files from being released. Trump's now saying the Epstein files were made up

by Obama and Biden as almost 56% of likely American voters think the FBI and DOJ aren't telling the truth and 23% are unsure. The Elon Musk $200 million DOD and horny waifu scandals exposed were all in the bad place. Now Trump's tariff driven inflation is about to start hitting you. We're talking about all that and even more

on today's brand new Philip DeFranco show you daily dive into the news. And actually today there was actually so much to talk about I had to give you two videos. The first is already up. It's about Trump and MAGA versus Epstein. We had Tim Miller on. It's a really great video that you got to check out.

It's the top link in the description. But that said, we have a lot to talk about here starting with this. House Republicans just blocked an effort to release the Epstein files. In fact, they've actually now blocked this effort twice. I mean, yesterday we talked about the backlash that Trump's been facing for his handling of the case

with MAGA supporters furious at the administration trying to bury the whole thing and act like it's not even worth caring about. Especially as Trump and his surrogates have been the ones pushing this move for years and years now. Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein? This guy's been talked about for years. And so then with all that,

you had Democratic representative Ro Khanna introducing a measure to the House Rules Committee that would have forced attorney general Pam Bondi to publish all Epstein documents to a public website. And with that, you had Khanna telling Axios, the question with Epstein is, whose side are you on? Are you on the side of the rich and powerful or are you on the side of the people?

But as we expected, Republicans blocked the measure in a five to seven vote, though one Republican, Representative Ralph Norman of South Carolina did support it. With Ankana writing, people are fed up, they are fed up, thanks Rep Ralph Norman,

need to put the American people before party. Then when it came time for the Full House to vote on a motion that would have allowed the Epstein files to move forward, again, Republicans stopped it from happening in a 211 to 210 vote. And so you have people out there seeing this and asking, what are they hiding for Trump?

But then also for his part, Trump was asked about the case today and specifically if his name was in the file to which he said. Now, now she's given us just a very quick briefing and in terms of the credibility of the different things that they've seen. And I would say that, you know, these files were made up by Comey. briefing and in terms of the credibility of the different things that they've seen. And I would say that, you know, these files were made up by Comey, they were made up by

Obama, they were made up by the Biden, you know, and we went through years of that with the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax with all of the different things that we had to go through. We've gone through years of it, but she's handled it very well and it's gonna be up to her. Whatever she thinks is credible, she should release. So then when Bondi was asked to respond to that, all she said was- Our memo today, our memo speaks for itself

and we'll get back to you on anything else. I haven't seen all of his statements today. Which that has just opened the door to more frustration. And that frustration, it doesn't appear to be going anywhere. I mean, even this morning you had Nikki Haley getting a ton of attention after tweeting, release the Epstein files

and let the chips fall where they may. This is why people don't trust government. You can never go wrong with being transparent. Redact victims names, but release the rest. And all of this is you have many praising Kana's strategy of forcing the committee to vote on the matter, saying, representative Ro Khanna getting Republicans to vote against releasing the Epstein files

was a brilliant political move. Every Democrat can go on record saying, vote against releasing the Epstein files was a brilliant political move. Every Democrat can go on record saying their opponent blocked the Epstein files. And all of this is more and more talking about it. John Stewart, for example, talking about how this is really the one thing that Trump's base won't let go. Generally they fall in line from everywhere else, but this appears to be the breaking point

and no distraction is working. Maga world for the first time in memory isn't just slavishly acquiescing to Trump's reality distortion field. MAGA is losing their shit right now. They cannot believe what they're seeing. Trump is lying? Dismissing reasonable concerns as bad faith whining?

Attacking anyone who disagrees? The Trump that you're just experiencing now to your deep disappointment and dismay is the dude we've been dealing with the whole time. You just didn't realize it because he's been nice to you. And you know, as far as why Trump can't just throw a bone at them so they run looking the other way, you had the AP saying,

his problem that nothing to see here approach doesn't work for those who have learned from him that they must not give up until the government's deepest darkest secrets are exposed. And with that you had Matt Dalek, a political scientist at George Washington University, saying, The faulty assumption Trump and others make

is they can peddle conspiracy theories without any blowback. The Epstein case is a neat encapsulation that it is hard to put the genie back in the bottle. And that is, you have polling finding that half of Americans are dissatisfied with how the case has been handled. Even though the outrage has been stronger on the left,

those who are Republican or lean Republican are 40 to 53% unsatisfied. So you're talking about a meaningful chunk. I mean, so much so that you had Bannon saying that this sort of thing, it could fuck Republicans in the midterms. They could lose tons of seats. As we wait to see how the situation evolves, if I can,

let me highly recommend to you today's other video and show. It's like 45 minutes on the Trump Epstein situation, how we got here, what's happening now, where it could go. Because it's a long form video in the links down below, not only will I link you to the YouTube video, but I just decided to release it on Spotify. And I know for people that don't have YouTube premium, it can just be a lot easier to do background play on that.

If you do watch and or listen, and please subscribe on Spotify, also give us five stars and let us know what you think. But also in the meantime here, let me know your thoughts on the vote and just how things seem to be shifting. But then next up in the news from that, Elon Musk's Mecca Hitler AI bot,

it just got a new job at the Department of Defense. XAI announced a new suite called Grok for government, which will make its AI products available to US government customers. And apparently its first taker is the DoD, which now has a contract with XAI worth up to $200 million. And then on top of that,

the company's products are available to purchase via the General Services Administration, which will allow every federal agency or office to access its AI tools. And that including the latest version of Grok, a feature called Deep Search, which is meant to provide quote advanced search and reasoning to prompts and other custom models

for national security, healthcare and more. But it's also worth hitting on that XAI is not alone here. We had the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office announcing that the Defense Department awarded contracts to Anthropic, Google and OpenAI with all of those also worth up to $200 million. But of course, as you might imagine, Grok is getting the most attention as it recently went

on a hateful and antisemitic rant online and called itself Mecha Hitler. And while, you know, Musk has said the issues were being addressed and XAI ended up releasing an update for the bot, a lot of people are still wary of Grog. And that including just everyday people, as well as the Washington Post, which said of the rants, they demonstrated the pitfalls of rapid deployment

of new technology in the AI arms race and the potential consequences of training flaws or the manipulation of existing models. And that is, you also had headlines calling out the fact that one of Musk's companies landed a big contract with the DOD, despite him spending most of the year so far gutting government spending. And of course that is in addition as Trump and Musk

have been at odds ever since Musk left the White House and began criticizing Trump's so-called big beautiful bill with Trump even threatening Musk's government contracts. Yet what we're seeing here is that XAI still managed to land one with the company even planning to bring its tools, not just to the federal government, but to local and state ones as well

under its Grok for Government initiative. Also, I just gotta say while we're talking about Grok, they are making headlines right now because they also just launched a pair of AI companions named Annie and Rudy. And Rudy is a cartoon red panda who might look cute, but it has a quote, bad Rudy mode, which encourages it to say things like,

you dull as dishwater dipshit. I'll crash your day with a Molotov cocktail of mayhem. But you might not have even known Rudy was a thing because Annie is getting the most attention. And that, because she's got more of like this anime goth girl thing going on, it was more of a not safe for work nature. Or with users discovering that after spending enough time

with said companion, you can encourage her to remove her clothes and review lingerie. Which you know, because you've been on the internet, you know that people are being totally normal about it. And then also with this, you know, given the the mosque mecha Hitler of it all, you had, that people are being totally normal about it. And then also with this, you know, given the, the Musk, Mecca, Hitler of it all, you had outlets like Rolling Stone saying, there's no telling how these kinds of extreme behaviors

might manifest in Annie and Bad Rudy. And adding, Musk has already said that XAI is fine tuning the animal character to be less scary and more funny, suggesting that the company may have been surprised by the companions, especially uncouth comments. But no doubt users will poke and prod for extra abusive responses from the aggressive bot while seeing how explicit Annie becomes

with the right seductive prompts. Also, I just got to add here, I'm very confused by Elon Musk in the Annie character. Cause in addition to just so many other things you could say about it, it feels like it goes against Elon Musk's whole thing of like, we need more babies. It seems like a bot that's largely built

to keep guys just glued to their device. Not needing that real world connection and interaction that could lead to a relationship and a family when you have a internet waifu in your pocket. But also counterpoint, maybe that's part of the goal. He does this, more guys get addicted to it, more random women for him to impregnate. I think that might be the only thing he likes more

than doing ketamine and going to the White House. Allegedly, allegedly, allegedly. But hey, while we wait to see how this plays out, let me know what you think about the internet, waifu, Mecca, Hitler, DOD, $200 million contract of it all. And then I've got even more for you in a minute, but first, you know, I'm just checking in. Cause if your bank is still charging you overdraft fees

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Terms and conditions apply. Then, next up today, we've got to talk about Donald Trump, Russia, and Ukraine. Because Donald Trump has now pledged new military equipment for Ukraine for the first time since returning to the White House. And he's also threatening Russia and its trading partners with massive new tariffs. Not to mention that he's also reportedly thinking about giving Ukraine what it would need to attack the capital city of Moscow directly, which is actually insane when you think about it,

because this is the guy who five months ago berated Ukrainian president Zelensky in the Oval Office. You're gambling with the lives of millions of people. You're gambling with World War III. You're gambling with World War III. And what you're doing is very disrespectful to the country, this country. Right, and Trump has long questioned US military aid

to Ukraine while railing against European allies for not pulling their own weight. Though that's not to say like he's just totally changed his tune, you know, his support, he's not given it freely and we'll have to see how long it lasts. But at least for now, the news seems to be keeping with a shift that we started to see at last month's NATO summit in the Netherlands.

A summit where you might remember it was all about making Trump happy. You had NATO chief Mark Rutte calling him daddy. You had member states pledging to spend 5% of their GDP on defense by 2035. And you had Ukraine pitching a plan to get there by having them spend billions on US-made weapons. And this week you had Rutte meeting with Trump in Washington

and the two of them announcing the first attempt at implementing that plan. Or with Trump saying they would soon two of them announcing the first attempt at implementing that plan Or with Trump saying they would soon be sending top-of-the-line weapons to Ukraine via NATO countries. We make the best equipment, the best missiles, the best of everything the European nations know that and we've made a deal today. This is billions of dollars worth of military equipment is gonna be purchased from the United States, going to NATO, et cetera.

And that's gonna be quickly distributed to the battlefield. And with that, you had Brutus speaking Trump's language, thanking, praising him, and making it very clear that the US would not be footing the bill. You're being 100% paying for that. And so, you know, to be clear, this isn't exactly aid to Ukraine on the US end. Where for Trump, this largely seems like a business deal.

The US will sell to NATO countries, and then these countries will either send the equipment on to Ukraine right away, or they'll replace their own equipment and send the old stuff to Ukraine. And you also had Trump specifically noting that there were a couple of countries with Patriot missile systems that would give them to Ukraine

and then buy replacements from the United States. And I mean, that, it's huge, right? Cause these systems, they're one of the best defenses that Ukraine has against all sorts of Russian missiles. And in fact, they're the only defense against one Russian model that's regularly fired at Kiev and other targets. But then beyond that neither Trump nor Ruta

elaborated on what offensive weaponry might be sent. Although Ruta did say that the deal included missiles and ammunition. And then afterwards you had Pentagon officials saying that many details were still being worked out. Although notably there you now have the Financial Times reporting that Trump has privately expressed an interest in helping Ukraine step up deep strikes on Russian territory.

Even asking Zelensky whether he could hit Moscow. Right, and that conversation, it reportedly happened on July 4th, the day after Trump had a call with Putin that he described as disappointing with Trump, reportedly asking Zelensky, can you hit Moscow? Can you hit St. Petersburg too?

To which Zelensky reportedly replied, absolutely, we can if you give us the weapons. Because as of now, the longest range weapons that Ukraine has received from the US have a range of less than 200 miles, which is no far from enough to reach Moscow or St. Petersburg. And then even with that,

there have been restrictions on their use. Now, Zelensky's reportedly received a list of long range strike systems that potentially could be made available to Ukraine via the type of third party transfers that we talked about before. But I stress, we don't know anything for sure right now on that front.

And that is, in the meantime, it's not just weapons that Trump hopes can end this war. Because Trump has also threatened Russia with what he called very severe tariffs if a deal to end the war isn't reached within 50 days. And then he further claimed that the US would impose 100% secondary tariffs targeting Russia's remaining trade partners.

Although as with all of this, there's a huge question mark regarding how serious he actually is and whether it would even work. Because for one, you know, Trump isn't exactly known for setting deadlines and then sticking to them. I mean, just back in May,

he appeared to give Putin a two week deadline to prove that he was serious about ending the war. And two, tariffs on Russian imports probably wouldn't really have that big of an impact on the Russian economy. But the US only imported about $3 billion in Russian goods in 2024, according to the office of the US trade representative. Though notably most of that consists of exports

that have been deemed essential, including fertilizer, iron, steel, and uranium for US nuclear reactors. But finally, regarding the secondary tariffs, those, they could have a way bigger impact, particularly when it comes to Russia's energy sector. India and China, they've been spending tens of billions of dollars every year

on Russian oil and gas. But if Trump actually was successful in reducing Russian energy exports, it would drive up global oil prices, hitting American consumers at the gas pump and driving general inflation. And that is, if he wasn't successful, he would have just stumbled into another tariff showdown

with China, and that after he already backed down once from threatened tariffs of more than 125%. Though a big thing is that with Russia, it seems to be more personal for Trump, who has long talked about Putin as a friend. And actually when asked about the relationship during the meeting with Ruta, he just seems so close to figuring out

that is not the case. I speak to him a lot about getting this thing done. And I always hang up and say, well, that was a nice phone call. And then missiles launched into Kiev or some other city and it's strange. And after that happens three or or four times you say, the talk doesn't mean anything.

And actually with that, you had a Kremlin spokesperson saying the US president's statements are very serious. Some of them are addressed personally to President Putin and adding, we certainly need time to analyze what was said in Washington and if and when President Putin deems it necessary, he will definitely comment. And then as far as the response in the United States,

many on both sides of the aisle, they remain supportive of Ukraine. And a very key thing is that because Europe is paying for the weapons, Trump has been able to play this off as America first for a lot of his supporters. Though that is not universally the case, especially among the most hardcore MAGA crowd with for example, Marjorie Taylor Greene,

criticizing the idea of selling weapons to Ukraine as a betrayal of the promise to end US involvement in foreign wars, saying, this is what we campaigned on. This is what I promised also to my district. This is what everybody voted for and I believe we have to maintain the course. And that is the likes of Steve Bannon going after the move on his podcast,

suggesting that Zelensky's quote, number one priority is drawing Trump deeper into the conflict. So a lot of play, a lot of big moves, a lot of big shifting. And while we wait to see how it plays out, I got to pass the question off to you. What are your thoughts here?

But then next up in the news, we've got to talk about how Trump's tariffs have actually led to a surge of income for the federal government. But in return, you and I have gotten inflation and a higher cost of goods. And that is according to the federal government's own stats. So still the Trump administration trying to pitch this

as a massive win for the government with Peter Navarro, who's an economist that counsels Trump saying on ABC News. We're collecting about $5 billion in tariffs a week and the numbers are going up. We've collected over $100 billion in tariffs since President Trump took office. Those help us cut our taxes, reduce our debt,

and they act as a tariff wall to bring home investment. And taking in a hundred billion dollars from tariffs, it's very significant and it marks the first time that the government has done so, which also means it had a $27 billion budget surplus for the month, which also means that the tariffs are becoming a significant part of the federal budget. But reportedly, that's also coming at a very real cause

with the federal government's own consumer price index report showing that inflation rose to 2.7% between June of 2024 and June of 2025. Now there, I'll say that is considerably less than the peak inflation that we saw during COVID-19, but a dramatic rise since Trump took office. And then another notable thing is that the pace of inflation is rising.

It was expected that prices would go up by about 2.4% across the year, but instead we had 2.7%. And while that may not seem like a lot on the surface, it's like a 13% jump from expectations. And then what's really concerning is that 2.7 number, it includes things like food and energy, which are notoriously volatile. Also with this, I'll say, you know,

core inflation is often seen as a better metric for how much prices are actually shifting. And that number, it ends up being even worse. It's at 2.9%. And then imagining those numbers across the time span of a year, I mean, that can feel abstract. So let's shrink it down.

Across just the month of May, prices went up by 0.1% and in June alone, that accelerated 2.3%, which runs tariffs widely being blamed for the jump. Although supporters of his administration have denied that tariffs have an inflationary effect at all. I mean, you've seen takes out there like tariffs or taxes. They don't cause inflation. They remove money from circulation.

Businesses will either eat the cost increases and take the margin hit, or they will let sales decline. The pie doesn't grow, only the tax burden. And a lot of people seem to think that inflation is only when there is more money in circulation, but that's not the case. At its most fundamental level,

and this is according to the International Monetary Fund, inflation measures how much more expensive a set of goods and services has become over a certain period, usually a year. And that it can be for a variety of factors, such as a flood of cash, lowering how much a dollar can buy and leading companies to raise prices

or from a huge tax on items, like in the case of a tariff. And then with that, you had the New York Times showing how Trump's tariffs are directly tied to inflation since the only product category that had significant price increases were goods, which are the things affected by tariffs. And it's also notable that the reason

we didn't see this before was because Trump's tariffs just weren't really enforced yet after months of delays. So that's bad news on its own, but Trump might be particularly annoyed because it likely means that there's going to be a showdown with the Federal Reserve. Trump has long been trying to get the bank to lower interest rates,

arguing that they'll help the US government pay down deficits. What we've seen is that the Federal Reserve has been reluctant to move on them at all, which is why Trump has been bashing and bashing Jerome Powell, who heads the Fed and saying things like this yesterday. Jerome Powell's been very bad for our country. We should have the lowest interest rate on earth, and we don't.

He just refuses to do it, and yet he's spending two and a half billion dollars rebuilding the Fed, the Federal Reserve building. We have no inflation. We have cash pouring in. It was me and somebody else. Then I could tell you, I don't need 5,000 people working for me behind the scenes like Jerome Powell to tell him what he should say once a month

because they got it wrong. And then in addition to that, he's been sounding off on social media saying, "'Tariffs have had zero impact on inflation. "'Cut interest rates, Jerome, now is the time.'" And it's interesting there that Trump was posting that just days before the Consumer Price Index showed that inflation is still unfortunately a thing,

all of which gives the Fed even more reason to not lower interest rates. But with the short version here being that the Fed lowering rates means that banks offer lower interest rates for stuff like homes. And in the short term, that can be awesome for Americans who can more easily buy homes. Just ask any homeowner with a mortgage,

they will tell you that even a 1% rate difference is massive, but that introduces more liquid cash into circulation, which also fuels inflation and raises prices. And we go into this economic death spiral. But with all this, a huge thing is that Trump's not gonna have to wait too long to get rid of Powell since his term ends in 2026,

with the administration already looking for a replacement according to Treasury Secretary Scott Besson. Well, look, there's a formal process that's already starting. There are a lot of great candidates and we'll see how rapidly it progresses. It's President Trump's decision and it will move at his speed. But at the same time, you have many of Trump's supporters

calling on him to remove Powell sooner so that Trump doesn't have to wait so long to implement lower interest rates. Which I mean that, it's its own entire legal quagmire. You know, ultimately that is where we are and who knows what's next. I'm gonna keep my eyes on this, but I'm not gonna try to make a prediction.

Well, there are a number of things that are understood. The economy is especially hard to predict, especially when you have moving variables like tariffs, inflation, and interest rates. And so while we wait to see how all of this unfolds, one of the bigger questions in the meantime is, well, how does it feel to you right now? Is anything regarding prices hit your wallet yet?

Yes, no, why, why not? I'd love to hear from you. And then there's more news to talk about in a minute, but first shout out to Montana, for the first day to actually close the shady data broker loophole. Because you might not know this, but in most places, law enforcement,

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And next up in the news, we have to talk about how the Supreme Court just handed Trump a massive win and they've cleared the way for him to make massive cuts to the education department, which functionally allows him to dismantle the agency's inner workings. Because Trump has long said

that he wants to eliminate the department entirely, but acknowledged that he can't do so without an act of Congress. And so instead he opted to do as much damage as possible without the legislature testing the limits of his executive power. What you saw is that early in March, just about a week after Linda McMahon was confirmed

as the secretary of education, she announced that the agency would be firing 1,300 employees, which I mean, it's just huge. We're talking about cutting nearly a third of the entire department, which was already the smallest in the federal government with only about 4,000 employees before Trump took a machete to it.

But then also that's on top of the probationary workers that the administration also fired, as well as the employees who were given offers to resign. And so actually when taken all together, the department's workforce was actually cut down to about half of its size. And then about a week after McMahon announced the layoffs, you had Trump signing an executive order,

directing her to quote, take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the department of education and return authority over education to the states and local communities while ensuring the effective and uninterrupted delivery of services, programs, and benefits on which Americans rely. And Trump the next day announced

that he was moving key education department functions to other federal agencies. With that, including the $1.6 trillion federal student loan program, the $18.4 billion Title I program that gives federal funds to low income public schools and the $15.5 billion in funding for students with disabilities among other things.5 billion in funding for students

with disabilities among other things. And so in response, you had a group of school districts, teachers unions, and more than 20 states suing the administration and asking a federal judge in Massachusetts to block Trump's executive order and reverse the layoffs. But I'm arguing that Trump's actions were illegal because they prevented the education department

from carrying out responsibilities that Congress literally mandated under federal law. And they claim that the administration's plans would functionally shut down the education department, which is unconstitutional because only Congress has the power to get rid of agencies. And in May, you had the federal judge overseeing the case, ruling in their favor, issuing a preliminary injunction that temporarily blocked the administration from carrying out its plans

while the case played out in the courts. Ordering the education department to reinstate all the fired employees and the judge arguing that it was abundantly clear that the Trump administration's true intention is to effectively dismantle the department without congressional approval. With the judge adding that he agreed with the argument that the cuts would cause irreparable harm from financial uncertainty, delays,

and loss of essential services for America's most vulnerable student population. And then last month, the federal appeals court also upheld that decision. But then not long after that, the Trump administration filed an emergency appeal with the Supreme Court. And they asked the justices to pause

the federal judge's ruling while litigation continued. And you had that, the Trump administration filed an emergency appeal with the Supreme Court. And they asked the justices to pause the federal judge's ruling while litigation continued. And you had lawyers for the Trump administration arguing that the president was just streamlining the agency, not eliminating it entirely. And claiming there that the lower court had overreached and infringed on Trump's executive powers, writing, "'The Constitution vests the executive branch,

"'not district courts, with the authority "'to make judgments about how many employees are needed "'to carry out an agency's statutory functions.'" So you had the plaintiffs arguing back, saying that the federal judge had explicitly said that the administration was likely to lose its argument that it had not eliminated the education department. Arguing that Trump officials shouldn't be able

to carry out their plans until the courts definitively determine whether the actions are legal in the first place. And claiming that it doesn't make sense for the administration to move forward with its plans while the battle over whether it's even legal plays out. Or because if the courts ultimately determined that the actions had been illegal all along, it would be too late to undo all the damage

that was already caused to the department. But still what you ended up seeing was the majority of the Supreme Court ruling in favor of the Trump administration. Temporarily allowing Trump officials to move forward with dismantling the department and firing 1300 employees while lower courts decide whether or not it's legal to dismantle the department

and fire 1300 employees. And as is common with these kinds of emergency applications, the majority did not provide any reasoning for their decision and no vote count was given. Though you did have Justice Sonia Sotomayor writing a scathing dissent that was joined by the court's other two liberals. Writing that Trump had clearly taken unilateral action

to eliminate an agency that was created by Congress and thus can only be abolished by them. Arguing that the majority's decision is indefensible because it effectively gives the president the authority to repeal statutes by firing all those necessary to carry them out. And then claiming that this amounts to a dramatic expansion of presidential powers that in turn pose a grave threat

to our constitution's separation of powers. And adding, when the executive publicly announces its intent to break the law and then executes on that promise, it is the judiciary's duty to check that lawlessness, not expedite it. Right now, it does appear that the ruling has indeed just further empowered Trump,

with a White House spokesperson shearing on the decision and saying in a statement that the court, quote, once again, recognize what radical district court judges refuse to accept. President Trump, as head of the executive branch, has absolute constitutional authority to direct and manage its agencies and officers. Right, in the Supreme Court ruling,

it also comes as the education department is now facing a fresh lawsuit from nearly two dozen states, which have sued the agency for withholding almost $7 billion in funds already allocated by Congress. And this, it's significant, right? The money that they're withholding amounts to 14% of all federal funding for elementary

and secondary education nationwide. And those funds, they're essential to pay for a number of key programs. Things like covering free or low cost afterschool programs for kids to attend while their parents are at work as well. It's helping pay for important teacher trainings, English language learning and other necessary programs. And specifically, those funds were supposed

to be distributed to states on July 1st. But the day before, the education department told state agencies that it was withholding the money to conduct a review to make sure that the funding was in line with Trump's priorities. But notably, you're gonna love this, the Office of Management and Budget saying that they were investigating whether any of the funding

had been used to finance a quote radical left-wing agenda. And that is they didn't indicate how long the review would take or when those funds might be released. And in their lawsuit, the plaintiffs argue the Trump administration is violating the constitution by exceeding the powers of the executive branch and withholding funds that Congress approved. And that is they also accused Trump officials

of illegally violating federal laws that govern funding processes, including one that bans the president from just unilaterally deciding they don't want to spend money appropriated by Congress. But then also beyond that, the suit alleges that there are very serious practical implications here

that could impact millions of students. Because advocacy groups estimate that the withheld funds would affect afterschool services and other programs for 1.4 million children nationally. That's nearly 20% of all students who participate in those programs, most of whom come from lower income households. And in a lot of rural areas,

those afterschool programs are the only options working parents have for childcare. And with that, you have the lawsuit saying that those vulnerable families will lose access to afterschool programs if the money isn't released soon. And that, as they noted that in some states, school starts back again in a few weeks. And then beyond that, the states also claim

that the funding freezes caused chaos for school districts and could impact hundreds of thousands of adult learners in high school diploma and English language programs. But counterpoint, who needs learning? And or who cares about poor people? Poor people learning is DEI, everyone knows this. Right, is that part of the argument? Okay, for now, we'll have to wait and see though.

Understand, a lot is at stake in both of these cases. But then, shifting gears from that, as we're beginning to wind down today's show, I wanna talk to you about Carolina Wilga. And you've probably never heard of Carolina. She's a 26 year old woman from Germany who just recently took a trip to Australia. And on June 29, she was spotted at a general store

in Perth, the capital of the state of Western Australia. But then she went missing. And after days of radio silence, her Carolina's family raised the alarm and the search began. With police and volunteers combing the area and her car was then found bogged and abandoned roughly 150 kilometers from where she was last seen.

For 12 days, Carolina was missing in the bushland with nights getting down to freezing temperatures and heavy rain rolling through the area. But then, thanks to some overdue luck, a local woman named Tanya Henley saw her alongside a road looking fragile, but alive. With Tanya explaining, "'Everything in this bush is very prickly.

I just can't believe that she survived. She had no shoes on, she wrapped her foot up.' And Carolina, she was ravaged by mosquitoes, dehydrated, starving, and exhausted, but her injuries were relatively minor and she was airlifted to the hospital in Perth. And then after receiving some much needed care and rest, Carolina filled in the blanks for the police

and the public, where they're saying in a statement that she lost control of her car and it rolled down a slope and she hit her head in the crash. And then saying in the state of confusion she was in, she left her car to try and find help and she headed west with the sun, but ultimately she got lost. Since you know, she wasn't exactly prepped for a hike

across the Australian wilderness, she was forced to drink water from puddles. And at one point she found a cave to take shelter in. And all of this is you had Jessica Securo, the acting detective inspector of the Western Australia police telling the media that after speaking with Carolina, that there was a point when she had convinced herself

that she wasn't gonna be found. But you know, luckily we got the good ending and you had Securo applauding the Western Australia community that stepped up to make that hope a reality. Saying we're incredibly grateful that she's been found safe. And obviously this is a huge relief for her family

and all of her loved ones. And notably that gratitude was echoed by Carolina herself, who said, previously I didn't know where my place was in a culture on the other side of the world to my own, but now I feel a part of it. Western Australia has taught me what it really means to be part of a true community.

Here, humanity, solidarity, and care for one another are what truly matter. and in the end, that's what counts most. And so hey, a little good news story for ya, a good ending, and otherwise, you know, dumpster fire, new cycle. But then my friend, you beautiful bastard, is where today's show's gonna end.

But hey, one, remember, if you haven't watched it yet, definitely check out, I uploaded two videos today, I'll link to it here, and it's gonna be part of the outro card. We dive into Trump and Epstein versus MAGA, Tim Miller joins us. And then also too, either way, I'll see you tomorrow. Because of course, remember, I got a brand new show free every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday at 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 p.m. Pacific.

Stay safe out there, stay sane out there, and I'll see you right back here tomorrow.