The Philip DeFranco Show - Taylor Swift VS Donald Trump, Gavin Newsom Threatens To "END THE TRUMP PRESIDENCY”, & Today’s News

Episode Date: August 13, 2025

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So, you beautiful bastards. Welcome back to the Philip DeFranco show your daily dive into the news. I'm trying to make sure today's show is out in time because it's Taylor Swift night. I know where people's eyes and ears are headed tonight when the biggest artist in the world's making her podcast debut. The internet in general is a buzz and oh my God, her army of dancing, friendship, bracelet, swapping conspiracy theorists, very excited. It's really just a question of how big of a podcast is going to be. With many debating and some even betting that her podcast is going to do as much, if not more, than Donald Trump on Joe Rogan in at least the first 24 hours.

But as far as what it's actually going to pull, I have no idea, and I guess we'll see. So I will say just this moment from the teaser has me interested in what this podcast is going to be. I think we all know that if there's one thing that male sports fans want to see in their spaces and on their screens. It's more of me. With Taylor making light of last year. With the NFL constantly just featuring her on camera during random points in Chiefs games. With it even getting to a point where people were getting angry at her, like she was the one making the You know, with all that said, what are your thoughts, reactions, and even predictions?

And while you leave or don't leave that comment, I will warn you that the rest of the show is not this light. But with all that said, we have a lot to talk about today, starting with this. Right now, we're seeing Donald Trump using his power to transform American culture in his own image. And there's a few ways that he's done that just this week, starting with the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Because every year, the Center honors five individuals or groups for their lifelong contributions to the art. It's a huge multi-day event, tons of people watch it on CBS, and it normally features dozens of

fellow artists who commemorate the honorees with speeches and performances. Right, in a committee of previous honorees and prominent members of the arts community, traditionally pick the honorees. But this year, the center appears to have broken with that tradition and gone with another process, which is just letting Donald Trump decide. Right, because today, you had a reporter asking him how involved he was in selecting the honorees, and he answered... I would say I was about 98% involved. No, they all went through me. I turned down plenty. They were too woke.

I turned... I had a couple of wokesters. And that, after he said at a Kennedy's center board meeting back in March, we'll go slightly more conservative, if you don't mind, with some of the people in the past, I mean, these are radical left lunatics that have been chosen. I didn't like it. I couldn't watch it, and the host was always terrible. And Trump, notably, did not attend the honors during his first term. In fact, he was the only president in the center's 45-year existence not to go. And that, because in 2017, Norman Lear skipped the ceremony

that takes place at the White House to protest Trump. Now, this way, you have Trump making sure that the event goes his way. With Trump, back in February firing Biden's trustees and replacing them with his own, appointing a new director and making himself chairman. Within all of that, bringing us to yesterday where he posted on Truth Social that he would reveal great nominees with a Trump-Kennedy Center. Whoops, I mean, Kennedy Center awards. Well, that may sound like a joke. It also isn't.

Because last month, the Republican-led House Appropriations Committee actually voted to approve an amendment that calls to rename the Kennedy Center Opera House after Melania Trump. Within the next day, Representative Bob Onder, introducing a bill to rename the entire Art Center, the Donald J. Trump Center for Performing Art. And so today, you had Trump holding a press conference where he revealed the honorees, And he tried to play it off like he accepted the burden of hosting, very begrudgingly. I've been asked to host. I said, I'm the president of the United States.

Are you fools asking me to do that? Sir, you'll get much higher ratings. I said, I don't care. I'm president of the United States. I won't do it. They said, please. And I didn't want to do it. Okay, they're going to say, he insisted I did not insist.

With Trump then announcing the honorees, starting with country music legend George Street. You're a good looking guy. I hope he still looks like that. Michael Crawford is being honored. One of my favorite talents, I think he's one of the greatest talents I've ever actually seen. Sylvester Stallone. Three-time Oscar nominee, Golden Globe Award winner, an action movie icon, and a friend of mine. Gloria Gaynor, I Will Survive, is an unbelievable song.

And finally, we'll be honoring one of the greatest rock bands of all time. it's an honor to present Chris Kiss thank you very much it's a big news for all of them especially Stallone who in the past compared Donald Trump to a second George Washington

which on the note of our 47th president the second George Washington he even suggested that someday he might honor himself. I wanted one I was never able to get one this year it's true actually and I said the hell with it I'll become chairman and I'll give myself an honor

maybe I'm gonna honor Next year will honor Trump, okay? Now, again, well, he sounds like he's joking. He did actually suggest at the March board meeting that the honor should be expanded to include executives, athletes, and politicians. But for now, Trump's just hosting the December event. And if it's anything like today's reveal,

it's going to probably be half-fancy gala, half-political rally. Because he also just could not resist going off on tangents about Democrats, D.C. crime, tariffs, and similar topics before catching himself like this. But I shouldn't make this political because they made the Academy Awards political and they went down there, too. So they'll say, Trump made it political, but I think if we make it our kind of political, we'll go up, okay?

Let's see if I'm right about that. But all of that, it's just one way that Donald Trump is reforming American cultural institutions in his image. Because the White House just announced that it would be conducting what it called a comprehensive internal review of the Smithsonian to bring it in line with an executive order from March titled Restoring Truth Insanity to American History. In order that accused the Smithsonian of coming under the influence of a divisive race-centered ideology and promoting narratives that portray American and Western values. is inherently harmful and oppressive as well as the view that race is not a biological reality, but a social construct. And so the White House says that this review aims to ensure alignment with the president's directive to celebrate American exceptionalism, removed divisive and partisan narratives, and restore confidence in our shared cultural institutions. Right and then

adding, within 120 days, museum should begin implementing content corrections where necessary, replacing divisive or ideologically driven language with unifying historically accurate and constructive descriptions. And to make sure that that gets done, Trump's people are going to be stick in their nose and everything, right? They'll be looking at all public-facing materials, including placards, wall didactics, digital displays, social media content, pretty much anything. It says anything. They're also requesting everything from grant-related documentation, budgets, and schedules to inventories of permanent holding, staff manuals and organizational charts. And then finally, they'll conduct on-site observations and interview curators and senior staff

to, quote, better understand how they decide what to exhibit. And according to the White House, all of this is just phase one covering eight of the Smithsonian's 21 museums. And then later on, phase two will expand the review to other museums as well. Now with all that, the Trump administration's barnstorming may give off the impression that it has the authority over the Smithsonian. But it actually doesn't, at least not officially. The Institute's day-to-day operations are run by a secretary who is appointed by an independent board of regions that broadly governs policy. And in June, the board said that it's committed to ensuring that it remains free from political or partisan influence. But not only did Trump's March executive order tie future federal funding to compliance, it said that

Vice President J.D. Vance, who sits on the Smithsonian's board, would work with Congress to appoint new board members who were broadly in agreement with the order. Which is then when weird shit started happening. Like in May, Trump announced on Truth Social that he was firing the director of the National Portrait Gallery, saying she is a highly partisan person and a strong supporter of DEI, which is totally inappropriate for her position. But with that, Trump didn't actually have the authority to fire her, though it didn't matter in the end because she ended up resigning.

Then in July, the artist Amy Sherald canceled her upcoming exhibition at the same gallery after a dispute over one particular painting of a trans woman with pink hair and a blue gown holding a torch, Statue of Liberty style. With her saying, while no single person is to blame, it's clear that institutional fear, shaped by a broader climate of political hostility towards trans lives, played a role. And then most recently, we found out

that the National Museum of American History removed references to Trump's first-term impeachments following a review. And now, the latest review also directs the Smithsonian to submit its plans to commemorate the country's 250th anniversary within the next 30 days. With that event scheduled for the next 4th of July, and we're already beginning to see how Trump's making a mark on that.

Because it's now been confirmed that the White House will host a UFC cage fight to mark the occasion, though it's a little unclear where it's going to happen since the fights usually take place in huge arenas with an octagon. But Trump has also previously suggested building a cage on the White House grounds and inviting as many as 25,000 attendees. Which honestly, I think he may actually do. But he kind of lines up with a made-for-TV presidency. And there's just a lot that's going to be going on in addition to the 250th anniversary. I mean, next year we're going to seeing the United States hosting the Olympics and the World Cup. You know a lot to keep our eyes on.

And then next up, let's talk some online backlash news. Because you have people right now, threatening to boycott elf cosmetics after the company featured comedian Matt Rife in its newest ad campaign. Hey girl. Has overpriced beauty hurt your wallet? Elf that! Elfino and Schmarns have gone to Elf court for millions of clients, helping them to access beauty products they deserve at prices that won't injure their livelihoods. I know a thing or two about red flags and pricey makeup, you deserve better than that.

It's a Matt Rife co-stars in the ad with drag queen, Heidi, and closet. They're doing a whole legal parody and many elf customers apparently not amused. And that imparts, seemingly because there are still many out there who feel burnt because of a controversy back in 2023 after Matt opened up a stand-up special special violence. And you know, he got a lot of heat for that joke and he ended up doubling down, saying if you were someone that was offended by that joke, you should buy a special needs helmet. So with this ad, you had the comments filled with things like, you didn't have the budget for a comedian who doesn't joke about abuse. The guy who jokes about DV and an ad targeted to women, that's a choice. And I think Andrew Tate's available for the next ad. Right. And the idea that Elf's customers are women, it was a big talking point in all the backlash. Especially because when Matt was coming up, he was kind of known as being very popular among women.

And we had things like that DV joke, turning a lot of women off. I mean, even he himself tried to distance himself from his female fans. With him at one point telling variety, I don't pander my career to women. I would argue this special is way more for guys. And so now with this new ad, you have people posting videos of them tossing out their health products, as well as videos like this one that have over 600,000 likes. For a campaign of this size, it would have had to pass through so many hands. The amount of checks and balances and approvals that would have had to happen for this campaign to go live,

Can you honestly sit here and tell me that nobody at the top stood back and said, hey, guys, I don't think this is a good idea. I don't think that as a multi-billion dollar business in the beauty industry with a customer base that is 90% women, we should have the face of our campaign be a man who openly jokes about violence against women. And then in addition to that, you had people calling out the brand for pairing him with Heidi. Writing things like, Elf, I'm going to hold your hand when I say this. Just because you got a drag queen in the mix does not mean it's a green light for Matt Wright.

Somebody said we have to have somebody from the conservative spectrum and somebody from the gay spectrum. So that way we appeal to everyone. But also something I will say is depending on where you go on the internet, there's not a universal reaction here. Because while you have tons of people saying they're no longer going to be buying Elf and they're going to be switching to other products, Matt Rife, he's not without supporters. Where you go to some areas of the internet, people are mocking the fact that there's any backlash here. And if you go to the comments on his Instagram post with the ad, there are tons of people praising it. But ultimately, we'll have to wait to see if there's a longstanding impact here or it's just a blip. And then I've got more news

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before the new gerrymandered lines can be finalized. Because yesterday, the state Senate passed the measure 19 to 2, with only Republicans voting in favor. And that, after 9 of the 11 Democrats walked out of the chambers in protest, calling the process corrupt and claiming in a statement, this mid-decade redistricting isn't about fair representation, it's about politicians picking their voters instead of voters choosing their leaders. And notably there, while the two Democrats who remained in the chamber voted no,

by not walking out, they still gave their Republican colleagues a quorum, meaning that they had enough members present to hold a vote on the maps. And so with that, you are the two Dem state senators issuing a statement defending their choice to stay. Saying we learned that quorum breaks can delay, but not defeat this effort. Legislators cannot stay away forever, and the governor will call as many special sessions as needed to prevail. Our greatest hope is at the courthouse, and the sooner we get there, the better. And those remarks are actually super significant because they come as, the Democrats in the state house have fled the state entirely to deny a quorum in the lower chamber after Governor Greg Abbott called a 30-day special session to redraw the maps. So it was a session that Abbott very much tried to promote as, you know, being about a number of other legislative issues, including relief for the deadly floods that killed 135 people. And with that yesterday, GOP leaders in the state house and Senate said that if Democrats do not return by Friday and give them a quorum, they would end the special session several days early, paving the way for Abbott to start a whole new one. With an Abbott issuing a statement saying that he would start a second special session immediately after the first one ends. With him claiming that,

special session to election Steelaroo will have the exact same agenda with the potential to add more items critical to Texans, saying there will be no reprieve for the derelict Democrats who fled the state and abandoned their duty to the people who elected them, saying I will continue to call special session after special session until we get this Texas first agenda passed. And that last part, it echoes comments that he made to Fox News over the weekend. This could literally last years because in Texas, I'm authorized to call a special session every 30 days. It lasts 30 days. and as soon as this one is over, I'm going to call another one, then another one, then another one, then another one, then another one. If they show back up in the state of Texas, they will be arrested and taken to the Capitol.

If they want to evade that arrest, they're going to have to stay outside of the state of Texas for literally years. So essentially, by restarting a new session, Republicans are effectively pressuring the missing Dems to return in the next few days or decide if they're going to stay out of the state for another four weeks. And Republicans making it abundantly clear that if the Democrats do decide to remain out of the state, the cycle will just continue. But that, not only blocking boats on the new maps, but also holding up other important legislative items like flood relief. A fact that Republicans have eagerly weaponized, accusing Dems of withholding aid to victims. There, you had Democrats hitting back saying that it was the Republicans who politicized the aid in the first place by tying into the redistricting plans and forcing the legislature to vote on the maps before considering the relief package. But all of this is many see that by remaining out of the state, the Democrats are essentially just postponing the inevitable. Which is why we're now seeing reports that the Democrats are now weighing whether to return to the state.

And there, you actually have ABC News and one of its local affiliates, even reporting that, that the missing members have already decided to return to Texas. There's reportedly, according to multiple sources, who said that the leaders feel accomplished in their mission of ending the first special session and raising national awareness about the power craft. Or with one source saying that Democrats are tentatively planning to return this weekend, but noting that the plans could change.

And you had a spokesperson for the Texas House Democratic Caucus saying that the plans are fluid and many members haven't made a decision on travel yet. But still, then, implying that things could be up in the air, saying members are still assessing their strategies going forward and are in a private meeting to make decisions about future plans currently. And adding, if and when Texas House Democrats' breaking quorum decide to go home is squarely dependent on the actions the governor, speaker, and Texas Republicans in charge make with regard to prioritizing flood victims over redistricting that hurts Texans. But really, unless the Democrats decide to stay out of the state until, like, after Christmas, this has largely been about raising awareness and kind of sounding the alarm for people like Governor Gavin Newsom. Because you have Democratic leaders around the country making or renewing their threats to redraw their congressional maps to add blue seats if Texas goes forward with its plan.

with one of the most vocal leaders being California Governor Gavin Newsom. And in fact, he had his press office mocking Trump in an all-caps post yesterday where he wrote. Final warning, Donald Trump, maybe the most important warning in history. Stop cheating or California will redraw the maps. And guess who will announce it this week? Gavin Newsom, many say the most loved and handsome governor and a very powerful team. Don't make us do it. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

With him then a few hours later making this post, saying Donald Taco Trump, as many call him, missed the deadline. California will now draw new, more beautiful maps. They will be historic as they will end the Trump presidency. Dems take back the house. It's adding that there will be a press conference later this week that will be devastating for MAGA. The moves being made being serious, but obviously the message in the way it's being delivered being kind of a mockery of Trump who posts like that. And with that, I'll say as of recording, Newsom has not provided any specific details. But for a few weeks now, the governor has been pushing California state lawmakers to approve a bill

that would ultimately allow Democrats to pass a map that benefits them. And specifically there, the legislation, legislation sets up a special election on November 4th for voters to consider a ballot measure that would let Dems bypass the state's independent redistricting commission and enact their own maps ahead of the midterms. So also very notably, Newsom called on state lawmakers to set up a trigger mechanism, right, which would make it so that the new maps only take effect if Texas or other GOP-controlled states move forward with their power grabs. And you had him writing a letter to Trump on Monday saying he would only move forward with a redistricting effort if Trump refused to back down.

Writing if the other states call off their redistricting efforts, we will happily do the same and American democracy will be better for it. And generally speaking, it does appear like many Democrats and people critical of Trump have been supportive of this movie. And many noting that in an ideal world, an ideal country, you're not doing this. In an ideal world, you pass a federal law about having independent commissions and make it so that, you know, it's fair. But noting there that the Democrats have tried that and it's been killed by Republicans.

And so at a time where you have Donald Trump saying, get me five more seats, do whatever you need to do, Democrats can't just be a hall monitor saying, hey, look at that, that's not good. They also have to take action. Which also appears to be why many who are historically not in Gavin Newsom's corner cheering them on here. But hey, for now, it remains to be seen how it's going to play out. And I mean that both for the midterms as well as really just the country moving forward. And then next up of the news, this actually starts with a question. What percentage of Americans do you think drink alcohol?

And specifically, I'm talking about adults. I'm giving you 3, 2, 1, 54%. With that number coming from Gallupoles, and it's actually the lowest number since they began tracking back in 1939. And in fact, the last time it was almost this low was in 1958. And as far as why we're seeing the numbers we're seeing today, Gallup also found that there are shifting attitudes towards alcohol in general. 53% of Americans think that even moderate drinking is bad for your health, which is a drastic rise from 45% last year, which might be connected to it becoming more clear that even small amounts of booze are linked to at least seven types of cancer. But it's also not just people quitting entirely.

Even the amount of what's being drunk by drinkers, that's gone down. With now only 24% of people saying they had a drink within the last day and another 40% saying that has been over a week. A drastic difference from the pandemic when you had 62 to 67% of Americans reporting to drink. Right, back when you had people stuck, bored, and stress. But it's also believed that part of this might be connected to economic factors. For things like inflation and high interest rates that can drastically cut how much the average American has to spend. And generally, wages have uncapped up, so effective spending powers down. Which also means that how much alcohol people are drinking could be a useful metric

or how much money people actually have to waste. Because, you see, households that make less than $40,000 a year have radically reduced their drinking alongside those making $100,000 or more a year. There's also interesting trends among voters. Because while Democrats have almost not changed their drinking habits at all, there was a 20-point dip as far as Republicans drinking. And a decrease in alcohol consumption is likely to continue, especially with young people. Where the amount of young people who drink,

that is just continuing to fall and it sits at like 50%. It's outpacing the drop that we're seeing with other age groups. And while you might think, oh, they're just replacing alcohol with something else, that doesn't actually appear to be the case. Right marijuana use has gone up, but it's been at a consistent rate. And so actually, with this news, I'm very interested in your personal situation. Do you drink? Yes or no?

has the amount that you've drank changed. And then I've got more news you need to know in just a minute, but fun fact, my brain, it shuts it down when a restaurant menu is more than 12 items. And so when today's sponsor, ZipRecruiter said that they'd help cut through the hiring overload, I was like, yes, please. Because hiring shouldn't feel like you're drowning in resumes

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slash DeFranco, ZipRecruiter, it's a smartest way to hire. And then next up in the news, there were no credible reports of significant human rights abuses in El Salvador last year, according to the U.S. government. But notably, pretty much every reputable human rights organization on the planet would disagree. Right. And what you're seeing is that the State Department just released its annual report on human rights around the world. And it's also been scaled back significantly under Trump. With one of the main things that you'd notice being that there were softer words for the countries that he likes and the harshest criticism for those that have pissed him off.

But the big important things that we need to do here is, one, talk about what the deal is with these reports anyways, two, what changes the White House made this year, and three, what those changes actually look like with some examples. And so starting with one, what you should know is that the U.S. has compiled these reports on every country in the world since the 1970s. This is, you know, if we're being honest, the United States doesn't have a stellar human rights record itself. Right? And also, the U.S. doesn't always act on it even when it does call out another country for violations. These reports historically have the reputation for being reliable and

comprehensive. They're relied on by journalists, activists, diplomats, and lawyers all around the world. Congress uses them to shape decisions on foreign aid and weapons sales. Typically, you have the Secretary of State presenting these reports in a public briefing and a Congress. But this year, Marco Rubio decided against scheduling a dedicated event. But is something that's made even more notable when you consider how vocal of a supporter he used to be of this whole process. you had him issuing a statement saying. The State Department's annual human rights report sheds a light on foreign government's failure

to respect their citizens' fundamental rights and arguing. The world has been a better place because America has strived to defend these fundamental human rights, both at home and abroad. And in fact, in 2016, Rubio actually criticized Trump's then Secretary of State Rex Tillerson for not presenting that year's report to Congress in person. So with all that, then you fast forward to today,

and you have the likes of Senator Chris Van Hollen who voted to confirm Rubio as secretary, saying he regrets that decision. saying when he was a member of the Senate, he used to stand up and support an American foreign policy based on promoting democracy and human rights. But ever since he was confirmed, he seems to have forgotten all that. With many noting that this version of Rubio today

is more like an errand boy for Trump, saying he's been tearing apart the office overseeing human rights and democracy issues and firing many of the people who work there. And connected to that sentiment, you had Van Hollen saying, if the Trump administration is going to be undermining human rights here, they don't want to have to report

on what's happening in other countries. But then, I think it's important we move on to the specifics of what's different with this year's report. Because a lot of it actually goes back to an earlier internal State Department memo. A memo that instructed employees to remove whole categories of violations not, quote, explicitly required by statute. And the result of that was that basic rights widely seen as fundamental under international law, including the right to a fair public trial, they've been dropped. So that's also just the tip of the iceberg. Right, according to the memo, employees were

directed to remove discussion of diversity, equity, and inclusion, sexual violence against children and interference with privacy. And it didn't stop there. They were also told to get rid of references to restrictions on political participation and government corruption, violence against minorities, and LGBTQ people, and harassment of human rights organizations. And if you're really interested, NPR made a detailed look at every section and subsection that's been cut from the outline. But also, notably, the cuts go beyond just crossing out entire categories. That memo reportedly directed employees to reduce the number of examples of each violation to just one illustrative incident no matter how widespread the abuses were. And as far as why that

would be an issue, you had the National Director of Government Relations and Advocacy at Amnesty International USA explaining, if you strip it down to one case, it makes it easier for governments and particularly authoritarian governments to say that, you know, this is just one case. It minimizes everything. It makes it easier to just cast aside, sweep under the rug. And one of the questions with that is whether that's on purpose. And so then connected to that, this memo ordered that reports on 20 specific countries be flagged for special review by a guy by the name of Samuel Samson. In Samson, he's a political appointee in the Office of Democracy and Human Rights Office that Rubio overhaul. And his This resume includes working at a conservative organization whose mission, according to the CEO, is placing

right-wing activists in well-paying jobs where they will have influence. And that partisan background may be key because those countries that were sent to him for review, many of them have some special interest to Trump. Right in El Salvador, that's where hundreds of migrants that were detained in the U.S. are now in prison. We're talking about people who claim to be the victims of physical and psychological torture. But in this year's report, there's almost no mention of prison conditions. And like I said at the beginning, this report said that there were no credible reports of significant human rights abuses in the country at all.

Though notably, the Biden administration's report on El Salvador last year, which was about four times longer than the Trump administrations, it said differently. Right? It said that there were significant human rights issues that included credible reports of unlawful or arbitrary killings, enforced disappearance, torture, or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment by security forces, harsh and life-threatening prison conditions. So the list actually goes way further than that, but you get the point. And then when you move on to the country of Hungary, we see something similar there. We're like Salvador President Naï Boukele, Trump is a fan of Hungarian Prime Minister of Victoria. Orban. A man who most observers agree has overseen a crackdown on civil society, the press, and the LGBTQ community. But according to the State Department, there were also no credible

reports of significant human rights abuses in the country there. Now, with all that, I will say that countries including Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE, they could not say the same, but their reports were still significantly scaled back. And, you know, focusing on Israel, the Biden administration, of course, didn't really call out Netanyahu or take any action. But its report did fairly extensively document allegations against the country. And it also said clearly in the executive summary that its actions in Gaza had resulted in tens of thousands of deaths, displaced the vast majority of Palestinians in Gaza, and resulted in a severe humanitarian crisis. Right. And then you fast forward to now, and the Trump administration's report is way less

detailed. It doesn't even mention the death toll or displacement. It also ignores or downplays many of the serious allegations. And, I mean, it makes no mention of the Israeli government's restrictions on humanitarian aid contributing to widespread hunger and starvation. With that said, it's not like these reports didn't criticize anyone. In the UK, as well as France, Germany, and some other European countries, you had the Trump administration concluding that the human rights situation worsened during the year. With their reasoning there, generally being rising anti-Semitism and restrictions on freedom of expression. And notably there, there was a specific emphasis on right-wing or conservative expression. Or just to zero-in on the UK, you had the report highlighting safe access

zones meant to protect people accessing abortion services from harassment. With it saying that these and other restrictions could include prohibitions on efforts to influence others, even through prayer or silent protests. Then, most notably for many, you had the report claiming that government officials repeatedly intervened to chill speech online after the 2024 Southport stabbings. With referring there to efforts to control hate speech and misinformation and connection to that attack that helps per huge riots across the country. Then the report also claiming there's a two-tier system with the censorship of ordinary Britons becoming increasingly routine.

And there, it kind of sounded like right-wing leaders such as Nigel Farage, who have called British Prime Minister Keir-Starmar, two-tier Keir. But then also, according to the Trump administration in this report, the human rights situation has deteriorated in Brazil last year. And there, as we talked about, Trump's imposed massive tariffs and sanctioned to Supreme Court justice in response to the government's efforts to tackle online misinformation and its case against ex-president Jayir Bolsonaro, who is accused of plotting to assassinate his rivals to stay in power after losing an election in 2022. And so you have this human rights report

hitting the same notes, even alluding to the country's short-lib ban on X over Elon Musk's refusal to comply with court orders. And it specifically accuses the government of disproportionately suppressing the speech of supporters of former president Jayir Bolsonaro as well as journalists and elected politicians. Then finally, the State Department finding that the human rights situation had significantly worsened in South Africa, which is another country that Trump has repeatedly criticized since he returned to office while also making baseless claims tied to the myth of a white genocide. Falsehoods that he also used as the basis for his welcoming dozens of Afrikaner refugees to the United States. And so with value of the country's report claiming, the government did not take credible steps

to investigate, prosecute, and punish officials who committed human rights abuses, including inflammatory racial rhetoric against Afrikaners and other racial minorities or violence against racial minorities. Which is arguably a very interesting argument to make when violence against minorities has been de-emphasized in most other reports. But then on the other side of this, you had the Trump administration saying, hey, this is just about streamlining, making the reports more readable. And then with that saying, they're just sticking to what the law explicitly requires. But hey, that's where I'm going to leave that one and you can be the judge. But then, finally today, I want to end on a congratulations and a special clip.

Starting with congratulations to Michael L. Seek's latest weekly winner, and he'll be attending the commander's opening game against the Giants this poll. And for the rest of you all, that's right. Seekeek is still giving away $500 in tickets and you should definitely enter today if you haven't already. I mean, you could be the next winner and snag $500 towards seeing your favorite artist, sporting event, or play, and there's like over 70,000 events to choose from. All you got to do is just add code PDS to your Ckeek app profile for a chance of the

weekly $500 prize, no purchase necessary. Searchlight Pictures presents The Roses, only in theaters August 29th. From the director of Meet the Parents and the writer of Poor Things, comes The Roses starring Academy Award winner Olivia Coleman, Academy Award nominee

Benedict Cumberbatch, Andy Sandberg, Kate McKinnon, and Allison Janney, a hilarious new comedy filled with drama, excitement, and a little bit of hatred, proving that marriage isn't always a bed of roses. See The Roses, only in theaters, August 29th. Get tickets now. Finally, that brings us to the clip, and it really revolves around R of K Jr., the HHS, and Dr. Mike. Because yesterday I talked to Mike for a little under two hours for my podcast in Good Faith,

and it was really just so enlightening. It's been one of our best-received podcast over on Spotify. Well, there's like 50 important things I could point to in the podcast, especially with how much we're seeing RFK Jr. And his decisions around the HHS popping up in the news, I wanted to share this bit. In what ways are we screwed, do you think? The biggest way and the way that people probably don't feel yet

is we're screwed on our innovation front, especially health care innovation. Because with this administration, they have come in raising all of these flags on issues that are important, that have been discussed, that have not been neglected, but they're complex issues that require time to solve, like the chronic health issues that face America, the obesity epidemic that faces America.

But instead of actually solving those problems, they just talk about them and then actually cut all the research funding and the labs that are evaluating the problem and trying to find unique solutions for those problems. They talk about cancer rates going up, and then they cut a half a billion dollars worth of research for mRNA vaccines,

which can potentially be used to prevent cancer. So all the innovation that we could be having as a country in order to prolong our lives, improve the quality of our lives, in order to give us the competitive edge in this very tough landscape against other countries that are trying to create their own innovation, we're losing that battle big time.

So the fear for me is when your viewers and listeners are going to come to their doctor 10, 15, 20 years from now, hoping that there's a solution to their problem, there isn't one. We could all look back at this moment and understand why. That's the thing that I always wonder is, will people actually look back, right? Because there's a number of times where people will, you know, they'll get a lot of likes or, like, retweets. And it'll be like looking at a problem that we're seeing today and going like, oh, it's so crazy that this started with Reagan. It's like, but it's so far down the road.

And the impact's going to be felt. But also then, I guess one of my questions is, why? do you think that they're they're canceling medical and scientific research like what is the point i know that when trump went in he was like i'm a let r of k junior just fucking run wild but like what do you why do you think they're doing it i think that's a better question for a psychic rather than a physician like myself simply because i can't even begin to understand what is the value of doing these things i try and put myself in the shoes of other people quite often i try to exhibit charitable thinking. I think that's beneficial for the world and my own mental health. But in this scenario, there is no form of charitable thinking that I can imagine someone coming in

and canceling these contracts, canceling the ability to do research, harming actual preventive things that our health care system does well instead of actually focusing on the problems of our health care system. Even in a recent Jubilee debate that I had where I was surrounded by people who were either vaccine hesitant or full on anti-vax, they agreed that our health care system is too reactive, not proactive. I'm like, great. They agreed that we need to do more prevention rather than focusing on cures. Great, I'm on board. But vaccines check all those boxes, and yet they're anti the thing that can accomplish those goals. So for all the issues that our health care system has, which there are many, and I'm excited to discuss them with you, vaccines are

not the problem. They're the solution and they've been doing great things. But hey, that is where I'm gonna end today's show. If you wanna check out the full podcast and I highly recommend it, you can get it on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and even on YouTube, I got links in the description. No matter what you do, I'm closing this thing out the same way. Thank you for watching.

I love yo faces and I'll see you right back here tomorrow.