The Philip DeFranco Show - The Secret Pentagon Influencer Scandal Nobody Is Talking About & Tucker Carlson Goes Nuclear

Episode Date: August 31, 2026

More http://CrashingOutTour.com San Francisco, Phoenix, & Denver tickets now available!Sign up for Nourish at  https://nourish.com/philipdefranco to get personalized nutrition guidance. Grab the Emotionally Exhausted Tees & Premo Blanks at https://beautifulbastard.com/ Donate to the LFG campaign @ http://lindsayforga.com/donate  LISTEN TO THE SHOW iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-philip-defranco-show/id1278424954 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6ESemquRbz6f8XLVywdZ2VWATCH CRASHING OUT w/ PHILIP & ALEX Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCergKLoy-Yv9zlPk3XQYK7Q?sub_confirmation=1 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2DkU87umhGH9mH1z24Bi9w?si=6sSdjhVNQjyVeBQDLiXcyg Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/crashing-out-with-philip-defranco-and-alex-pearlman/id1843429519 JOIN OUR COMMUNITY 📸Instagram: https://instagram.com/PhillyDeFranco  🐦Twitter: https://twitter.com/phillyd  🎵TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@philipdefranco TODAY’S STORIES 00:00 - Pentagon Secretly Hired Influencers Touting Hegseth Talking Points 06:17 - U.S. and Iran Trade Strikes for First Time in Nearly a Month 13:00 - Sponsored by Nourish 15:09 - Milo Yiannopoulos Arrested and Deported by ICE 17:17 - NBC News Crew Attacked by Masked Israeli Settlers in West Bank 18:52 - One Dead, 15 Missing in Devastating Grand Canyon Flooding  19:53 - RFK Jr. Didn’t Cause This Summer’s Food Recalls, But He Didn’t Help, Either 21:42 - Trump Defends Data Centers Amid Public Backlash 23:32 - Man Accused of Posing as NFL Player in Massive Romance Scam THE TEAM 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, Victor Sledge, Ilana Frost   ———————————— #News #TuckerCarlson #PeteHegseth Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Two and five Canadians will hear the words, you have cancer. That's why every step and dollar raised matters. On September 19th, join thousands in Toronto for the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation Walk. Challenge yourself, friends, and family to walk 21 kilometers in support of life-saving research. Together, we can carry the fire and help create a world free from the fear of cancer. Register today at pmcfwalk.ca.ca. Do you wish you could just hit skip on the worst parts of your life? You know, the same way you can skip an ad?

I get it. I'm Siaia and I live in Ice Cove. I've made some questionable decisions that didn't end up the way I planned. And today, I'm still figuring it out. Somehow things usually get worse before they get better. Apparently, that's how I roll. So bundle up and come along for the bumpy ride. Don't miss the new season of North of North

starting September 8th on CBC Gem. The Pentagon's secretly hired influencers who spew Pete Hegsett's talking points to their massive audiences. The war in Iran's getting crazy again with Tucker Carlson calling for Trump to be impeached. We dive into Milo Yiannopoulos getting arrested and then deported by ICE in the most, oh no, the leopards ate my face moment of 2026. We're talking about all of that and even more on today's brand new Philip DeFranco show you daily dive into the news, starting with this. Influencers that you've got defending Pete Hegseth and promoting all his culture war talking points online,

they might secretly be on the government payroll. Right, that's what we're now learning thanks to this massive new report from the Washington Post. And we're all started with these influencers who were military vets with large followings, the Pentagon, not disclosing their assignments, but you have sources claiming that some of them were assigned to civilian roles that, quote, could lead to changes in policy. Where you've got one of the influencers identified by the post being Rob Made Ness, who has over 130,000 followers on Twitter. And in addition to his very regular posts there, he's also written a slew of op-beds

and articles defending Heggseth in the Defense Department. And that including a letter to the editor that was published to the post last month at a recent blog posts that claimed Hegeseth is doing exactly what the voters elected this administration to do, drain the swamp in uniform, and put warriors back in charge. And it's also as you the post pointing out, Kurt Schlichter, who has over 600,000 followers on Twitter. And he writes for the conservative news site, Town Hall, and some of his articles in recent weeks include, leftist women are an abomination. The Dumers can't deny Trump's big wins. And Canada deserves all the trolling it received. And just so we're all on the same page, that's his grammatical

error, not mine. Right. And some of his social posts also include him saying that we are lucky to have Pete Hegseth. And he's called Trump a hero for finally fighting back against Iran. And that, as the post also noted, that Thomas Anderson, who posted 300,000 followers under the name Cynical Publius, was previously listed in Pentagon records, though, is no longer. And the influencers that you've had hired by the Pentagon, they've either been assigned as special government employees or highly qualified experts. The first of which means that they're limited by law to only working 130 days out of a year, while the experts can work full or part-time, with or without compensation, but we also

don't know what financial agreements were reached. And actually, a Pentagon spokesperson declined to say if any of them were drawing a taxpayer-funded salary. But even the Possibility alone as well as just this relationship happening in general, it sparked a ton of outrage. Though it is then also very important to note that this is not necessarily the first time that we learned that a conservative influencer was hired by the Trump DoD. I mean, just one example. Earlier this month, there was a massive controversy with influencer Genica Poundz who posts on Twitter as Data Republican, which he was previously a member of the credentialed Pentagon Press Corps, which we remember what Hegseth did with all that. And now her account posts a ton about right-wing politics. And in a since-delated post, she claimed that a Trump administration official approached her with documents to publish and tout as a major

But Pound, she thought that this was actually a setup and that the official was trying to entrap and trick her into posting classified government secrets. Right, and you had her going on this whole rant. But then it turned out it was an undersecretary in the state department who said that this was not a trap and just posted the documents herself. But as all of this played out of the key takeaway here is that we learned that Pound's this online influencer was hired as a special government employee by the DOD in July after her press credentials expired. And rightly so, this prompted a ton of outrage with people saying if you are literally a government employee constantly posting about administration policies, don't you think you should have disclosed? this with a bulwark then putting out a piece saying that Hegset is building a pentagon troll army and among the reactions you had representative adam kinsinger posting a video saying the pentagon is using your tax dollars to hire influencers on x to put out partisan talking points that is the biggest violation of the hatch act of the intention of taxpayer money that i can ever think of now my question is how many more people that are blue check marks on x that are putting out information on behalf of the federal government in Donald Trump and the Republican Party, partisan that are actually special government employees being paid by your tax dollars. And so with all this, you then fast forward to

today and you have people going, well, how widespread is this? There's always been talk about influencers taking money. There's always been talk about, well, what are the connections between actual government officials and the kind of talking heads you're seeing on Twitter, on YouTube, on Rumble, all those places? And now you've got this Washington Post report revealing, yeah, that wasn't a one-off instance. This appears to be a trend within the DOD. So how widespread is it? Branson, with that in mind, you had Kinzinger adding. Pete Eggseth, we know as, as fragile as he is, he wants to have all the support on X because that's what means everything to him. If you're a media member out there, every question to Pete Heggsath and every question to one of these blue checkmark influencers

has got to be, what are you being paid to do? This was like the Biden administration doing this, you'd be hearing about this nonstop on Fox News. And he's also not the only politician speaking out now. You had Senator Chris Murphy, for example, writing, what's extraordinary is the Pentagon is refusing to even confirm these social media influencers or drawing government salaries. The contempt DOD has for taxpayers is unreal. And fighter pilot, Amy McGrath, adding, think about how weak and insecure a man has to be to bring right-wing influencers into the Pentagon for the sole purpose of serving as his personal cheerleaders. You also had the director of influencer partnerships for the Democratic Party claiming that there's a lot of conversations we need to have on the left about paying creators,

disclosure, etc. But nothing comes even close to this shit. Absolutely insane. We're spending taxpayer dollars on MAGA influencers to make pro-Hegseth propaganda. And others just adding, these are the people who used to call everyone a Fed, who told their conspiracy adult audiences that USAID paid off the media, saying every single accusation the right makes is a confession. And as far as a response from those influencers themselves, you're the post saying that all three identified declined to comment. Though Anderson, the one who was no longer on Pentagon Records, claimed he did in fact respond and told the reporter, why in the name of all that is holy, would any rational human ever comment on anything that the Washington Post asked him or her? Then also claiming that he's never been

compensated by the government for anything he's posted and added that his time with the DoD was limited to briefly servicing on a task force. Meanwhile, you had Mainas not directly responding to the Rorba kind of vague posting saying don't forget kids regime media is still fake news So one of course I'd love to know your thoughts here but two I just have to end this here That last lied it always bugs the shit out of me I do not know how so many of these motherfuckers can say with a straight face That they're against the mainstream media or the regime this or that you both the house and the Senate you have the white house you have the Supreme Court Fox News is the biggest mainstream news player out there that serves to the right. Many of the biggest podcasts in the world are conservative podcasts. Also, how many times and how many different ways we have to learn about secret group chats that are happening,

that connect apparently government officials to talking mouthpieces that are independent. You are the mainstream at this point. You are the regime. And really, it feels like the biggest question is not if, but how many of the people that are out there are Trump-owned compromise, fed-slop propagandists? But then also, it's not the only news. surrounding the Trump administration of the Pentagon right now. Because the U.S. and Iran, they're now trading strikes again for the first time in a month. Yesterday, you had the U.S. launching key strikes on Lyrgyrish Island, a key strategic outpost in the

Strait of Hormuz, with U.S. military officials claiming that they had struck rocket launchers that Iranian forces were planning to use to disperse sea mines in the Strait of Hormuz. And you then had Iranian state media reporting that the attack killed two people and wounded several others. And so then, in response, you had Iran vowing punishment, claiming that they had fired at bases in Jordan and the United Arab Emirates that host U.S. military personnel. But then Jordan confirming that it had intercepted eight missiles and in its airspace while the UAE said that it shot down an Iranian drone near its territorial waters.

So this ends up being incredibly significant because it ends up shattering a period of what was relative calm that existed between Iran and the US for kind of the last month. And again, that's generally speaking. A period that came after Trump pulled back from the brink of restarting a full-blown war with Iran, claiming that the two nations had made progress on a peace deal. But according to reports, Trump actually stopped short because of growing concerns that the US munition stockpiles were running low as well as continued calls for restraint from key Gulf allies like Saudi Arabia. But now you've got it seeming like Trump's going to escalate again, prolonging the war that's now dragged on for six months. And again, that is

despite the fact that Trump promised that it would end quickly and his repeated claims that we have actually somehow already won. And so you had Trump, threatening to forcefully strike Iran after their attacks on the basis in Jordan and the UAE, reportedly telling Fox News this morning, we're going to hit them hard, there will be a response. And in the meantime, you also had Trump seemingly threatening the possibility of further action against Iran and specifically the strategic Iranian oil hub, Karg Island. With Trump posting what appeared to be an AI generated video of oil infrastructure exploding and then writing in the caption, and Carg Island being blown to smithereens.

With many than wondering if he knew that it was an AI video and it was kind of posturing or if he thought that maybe it was real. And then notably here, we did see Vice President J.D. Vans trying to walk that back a little telling reporters. Well, you know, like the president likes to switch it up on social media a little bit. He would be the first to say he doesn't make announcements about military actions on social media, but I think that he's sending a message to the Iran. Of course, this by no means that the first time Trump's used AI slop to threaten military action against Iran.

I mean, it's not even the first time he used AI slop to threaten a strike, on Karg Island specifically. But very notably here, the president's latest threats come as we've seen one of the biggest voices in right-wing media raising the prospect that Trump might be gearing up to use nuclear weapons in Iran. Because in an episode of his podcast that notably aired right before the U.S. launched the latest wave of strikes, you had Tucker Carlson claiming that there is mounting evidence that the U.S. was seriously considering deploying nukes without nuclear level provocation. And specifically there, you had Tucker flagging recent reports that the Pentagon is drafting a new nuclear doctrine that places a much stronger emphasis on the potential deployment of shorter range tactical

weapons if the U.S. were to be drawn into a regional war with Russia or China. And while those reports did seem to indicate that the scenario was specific to conflict with Russia and China, Carlson seemed to argue that he had evidence that the draft doctrine applied to Iran as well. Reports in the last two weeks indicate that during meetings within the Pentagon about how to respond to Iran in that current war, the possibility, the option has been floated of using what are called tactical nuclear weapons, which are just nuclear weapons, detonated at a higher altitude or at a lower strength, but there's still nuclear weapons, that discussions about their use have taken place in the Pentagon. And we're here to confirm that that is absolutely true. And not only

have there been discussions about the use of nuclear weapons, tactical nukes against, say, Karg Island or Pickax Mountain, or various spots within Iran, those discussions have included slide decks, which is to say somebody wrote down on a computer screen, hey, maybe, maybe we should use nuclear weapons in this war. And you also had Tucker claiming that Trump himself has repeatedly threatened the use of nuclear weapons against Iran. Now, if you were to pose this question to the White House press office, they would say the president has never suggested using nukes.

But of course, that's not true. Because in statement after statement, post on the internet on true social, the president has threatened the total destruction of Iran, of the civilization itself. And of course, you can't achieve that with any conventional weapon. There's only one way to achieve that, the total destruction of a civilization. and that's with nuclear weapons. And so openly in public for the world to see, the president has threatened, the U.S. president has threatened the use of nuclear weapons in this war. And so we should consider that a real possibility. I will say this is an extrapolation that Tucker himself is making.

For all his rhetoric, we haven't seen verified reports or Trump publicly saying that he's actually seriously considering using tactical nuclear weapons against Iran right now. In fact, he explicitly said back in April that he would not use nuclear weapons in the ongoing war. Though then, to be fair, his word kind of means nothing these days. And actually, I don't know why I felt I needed to add the qualifier these days. It's Trump. You never know what's going to happen. And I mean, term two is shown that the guardrails are off. But with all this, you also had Tucker's guest, former director of National Counterterrorism Center Joe Kent, echoing his claims here.

I think we would be fools to think that this couldn't happen here in this current scenario, especially as the administration scrambles for a way out. And you then had Tucker going on to argue that Trump should be impeached if he's actually considering using nuclear weapons first without any nuclear level provocation in any context. The second any president actively considers first use of nuclear weapons, that person should be removed from office immediately, immediately, because that's got to be the red line, destroying all of humanity with a nuclear strike? I mean, I, like, so why isn't there an attempt to remove him from office? Like, immediately. And then you have all of this coming amid reports that

multiple top military leaders have warned Pete Hegsteth that extending large, scale operations against Iran is unsustainable and risks undermining their ability to confront other threats, including those at home. And actually, according to the Washington Post, the warnings were given to Heggseth by the heads of the Army, Navy, and Air Force, as well as multiple four-star commanders as part of the August 14th edition of the Secretary of Defense orders book. Right in the SDOB is a Pentagon document produced every few weeks that's used to make and record major military decisions while also outlining the global availability of U.S. forces. But this latest edition allegedly direct some troops deployed in the Middle East to remain there

through September, while some have been directed to state all the way into 2027. So as a result, sources say that at least three top commanders in the Navy's top admiral all responded with what's known as a non-concur. Which means that they disagree with the secretary's order to extend their forces, but will execute it anyway. And while Army and Air Force leadership agreed with Hegset's desire to extend their deployed forces, they both emphasized that doing so would carry significant risk. And you had one source reportedly saying that the outlook now is more dire overall in

adding that certain generals and admirals, they were more direct than normal in telling Hegg said that they disagreed with the orders to keep providing equipment and personnel when the trajectory of the war is so uncertain. And again, all of this comes to made reports that the U.S. is running out of key munitions and draining military budgets. And regardless of how you feel or what you think about Tucker's whole claim about Trump and nuclear weapons, the general sentiment that he was expressing there is very real. The more Trump feels like a raccoon pushed into a corner, even one of his own making, the more irrational his actions will become. And then there's more crazy news we got to dive into in just a minute, but really quick, two things. One, just a massive thank you to all you

beautiful bastards that showed up and showed out in Boston and Philadelphia this last weekend on our crashing out live tour. Oh my God, what a fun, insane time. It's filled me with so much joy and hope, as well, I'll say. All of us just together crashing out about the news. I'm tweaking the shows up until 30 minutes before we go on stage, though I also like sharing my experiences in your cities. I will say walking through Philly, out of all the places we've gone so far that I've been to, it does feel like, one, a place where shit has actually happened, right? There's a lot of history, but also at the same time, it feels like shit could go down at any second.

Yeah. I saw bands of kids on e-bikes. Yo, okay. I've never been so scared by silence. Yeah. And hey, we have eight more cities to go. So if you haven't yet, get your tickets at crashingout tour.com,

especially if you are in or near San Francisco, Phoenix, and Denver. Not this weekend, but next, I'll be there Friday, Saturday, Sunday. So luckily, that gives me time for my voice to recover. But again, crashingoutor.com. I got links in the description on the comment. and then two, we'll be right back after a quick word from our sponsor.

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In between appointments, the nourish app lets you message your dietician, log meals, track macros, view labs, and find recipes tailored to your goals. Plus, no surprise billing. Your appointment never exceed your estimate, and 94% of patients pay zero bucks out of pocket. So if you're working toward your own nutrition goals and you want personalized guidance, check out Nourish. Head to Nourish.com slash Philip DeFranco or just scan that QR code. Two and five Canadians will hear the words you have cancer. That's why every step and dollar raised matters.

On September 19th, join thousands in Toronto for the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation walk. Challenge yourself, friends, and family to walk 21 kilometers in support of life-saving research. Together, we can carry the fire and help create a world free from the fear of cancer. Register today at pmcfwalk.ca.ca. Don't you wish you could just hit skip on the worst parts of your life? You know the same way you can skip an ad? I get it. I'm Siaya and I live in Icecove.

I've made some questionable decisions that didn't end up the way I planned. And today, I'm still figuring it out. Somehow things usually get worse before they get better. Apparently, that's how I roll. So bundle up and come along for the bumpy ride. Don't miss the new season of North of North starting September 8th on CBC Gem. But then actually, from that for your final block today,

let's give you some more news you need to know quickly. Starting with the news that right-wing commentator, provocateur, and general douchebag, Milo Yanopolis, was arrested by ICE last week, and he was put on a plane out of the country the very next day. And I'm not going to give you his full background. It is very, very long, very disturbing. But the key thing you need to know here is while he's been a Trump supporter,

he's also been on Maga's shit list for a while. And so along the way, he's made some enemies, including the Trump whisper and someone just call her a deranged lunatic, Laura Lumer. Right, and you've had her making it very clear, she is not a fan. You're gonna die from a fentanyl over or not what's gonna happen to you. You're such a miserable,

these, and your sorrows are gonna bring you to the brain behind him. And immediately after the Milo Ice News broke, she celebrated and even took credit for her, or saying that Milo got Lomered. So you'd border czar Tom Homan saying, she didn't have much to do with it. A lot of people tipped ice off down.

There were a lot of people was calling ice, and she said, She was one of she probably was, but bottom line is, it doesn't matter. He was ordered removed by an immigration judge, and ICE's job should execute that order. But also, regardless of Lumer or not, it felt like DHS was really trying to add insult to injury. They even plastered Milo's face online, where they said that they picked him up after he, quote, chose to overstay his welcome, apparently blown past his visa deadline and missing an immigration hearing, which led to his removal orders last month, with him then trying to use it as a way to get

other people to self-deport. But then this is also an area where people really started to focus. And that's because the standard removal period after final orders, that's 90 days. But there are also plenty of cases where immigrants, they're stuck in detention centers past them, facing issues like medical neglect, food quality concerns, and overcrowding. So this raised different red flags about Ionoplas. You didn't really get a taste of any of that. He was arrested Thursday. We understand he was deported the next day.

That seems like a pretty quick turnaround. Was he given preferential treatment to leave instead of remaining in an ICE detention facility longer? But there, you have officials denying that you got any special treatment. No, we've been working steadily the last few months. I'm getting people out quicker. We track the average length of stay, and we want to get the average length of stay, average length of stay in detention down. We want to, you know, we want to execute those orders as soon as we can get them.

But generally, you're people kind of celebrating and enjoying this moment. Or with many saying, Milo being humiliated like this, it couldn't have happened to a more deserving guy. Right, and that, for a number of reasons, including, he had tweets as recently his last year talking about pleasuring himself to ice raids. And then you've got the news that an American news group was just violently ambushed in broad daylight in the West Bank by Israeli settlers. Right, because over the weekend, you had NBC News Foreign Correspondent met,

Bradley and his team in the Palestinian town of Jaloud near Nabluse. And they were interviewing a 51-year-old Palestinian woman by the name of Ada Ahmed Abdullah, who says that she had been forcibly evicted from her home by Israeli settlers. And while walking toward the house, a car with Israeli license place reversed, up the hill toward them, and at least four mass men jumped out, wielding wooden clubs, and throwing rocks. Or with Bradley saying the men straight up beat them before speeding off, Bradley getting hit twice in the arm, members of the crew taking hits,

and Abdullah, she was rushed to a Red Crescent Hospital. And you've got all of this as there's been a sharp documented spike in settler violence across the West Bank. But then also what really stands out here is the immediate international backlash. Even Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Njahou had to issue a very rare public statement calling the assault criminal acts of violence committed by a handful of rioters. And then while you get a spokesperson adding that they don't represent Israelis from Judea and Samaria, and that quote, their actions violate the law, they endanger both Jews and Arabs and they interfere

with the Israeli defense forces as they carry out vital security missions and, of course, they harm Israel's international legitimacy. With the Israeli military also saying they've opened an investigation and seized vehicles used in nearby clashes. Most everyone else, they're not buying it, saying that they're just saying all this to try to save face. Essentially arguing this is not a few bad apples situation, saying this represents a much bigger, much more widespread problem. Right, and actually on the same day that NBC was attacked, an activist was essentially abducted on camera and his colleagues were attacked. So it appears like what happened with Bradley and his crew, it's not uncommon, at least for local

Palestinians. Right, and there was a belief that settlers weren't going to attack Americans if the government didn't greenlight. But for now, we'll have to wait to see what happens. But many don't think that the outrage here is going to amount to much given that the Trump administration just hates mainstream news and loves the Israeli government. We then also have to talk about yet another flash flood disaster, this time at the Grand Canyon. Because as I'm recording this, at least two people are dead and about 15 others are missing after a storm slammed the area, so we've got away boulders, shelters, and foot bridges. Where you would rescue teams, evacuating over 60 people, with some even having to run to a

mule corral to dodge the flood water waiting there in piles of dung for three or four hours before helicopters could then pull them out. And that was after the storm had already swept away some of their phones, backpacks, and tents. And then actually, as far as a different kind of damage, the National Park Service said that the inner canyon took a huge hit, specifically the Trans-Canon water line. That is also a biggie because they've poured over $208 million into their water system since 2023 and there was set to be finished working on it next year. But after this type of disaster, we have no clue what's going to happen there. And they've had to drop some heavy water conservation measures while trying to figure that out, which also means cutting off

overnight accommodations until things get settled, though day visits and dry camping will still be allowed. But really a big part of this is that things right now, they're touch and go as we speak because officials, they're warning that there could be even more storms to come before the day is over. So definitely a situation we're going to have to keep eyes on as, you know, people hope that they're going to be able to find some of the missing people as search efforts continue. And then in the news, right, if it feels like half the country is currently battling or trying to avoid violent food poisoning, no, you're not crazy. That is definitely a thing right now, and there's a lot of blame to go around. And while there is a lot of blame to a place on RFK Jr. and Trump for gutting regulations and funding,

the reality is that there's even more blame to go around. And again, I'm not going to downplay what a disaster their decisions have been. They most recently decided to stop FoodNet, which was a CDC program that kept track of all these outbreaks to figure out where they came from. Combined that with massive staff cuts from the FDA and CDC and experts are warned. that our food safety radar is heavily degraded. And you just have to look at things like the cyclospora outbreak. Right, 2026 has seen at least 12,000 recorded and investigated cases, which is like six times the next highest number in the past five years.

Not to mention, that number is an undercount, with the feds admitting that they know of at least 11,000 other confirmed cases that need to be looked at. That is all objectively bad. But the reality is that even if they were reversed and fixed, there's still major problems. Right, first off, summer always increases foodborne illnesses since it's prime conditions for the bacteria to multiply while in transport,

and in the fact that in modern supply chains, a single field, an iceberg lettuce of Mexico can end up in salad bowls across dozens of states before anyone notices. And there's where the biggest loophole is, as the law currently is. Importers, brokers, and trading companies that facilitate the shipment of food,

but don't physically handle it, aren't really subject to tracking regulations. You've got this weird situation where they're supposed to make sure that the food is compliant with tracking regulations but aren't actually subject to those rules. So therefore, they're not really liable for it and don't face real consequences when screw ups happen.

And all of that makes tracing food board and outbreaks outside of the U.S. very hard. And actually, that's even more true if the original supplier isn't keeping accurate records, which can be common in many countries. While that's supposed to be softened by the FDA, checking these facilities, which they do about 1,000 a year

since before Trump was even president, that is far less than the roughly 8,500 checks across the US and Trump's cuts haven't helped that. So yes, the criticisms of Trump and RFK Jr. Very valid, but there have also been loopholes for years. Those are two separately important things to understand because what they did was make the consequences far, far worse, but then also two,

more needs to be fixed anyway. Also in the news, Donald Trump has a very blunt message for anyone that's complaining about these massive AI data centers taken over their neighborhoods. Have fun. staying backwards and poor. Bring with Trump, in a fired-up truth social post, slamming local opposition to these new facilities writing, the only reason that communities throughout the USA should not want data centers is if they want to end up being backwards and poor. And you had a warning,

voters against killing what he called the golden goose claiming these tech cubs bring lower taxes and endless jobs. Now to mention that he says that China has apparently laughing all the way back to the bank over American pushback. Right. And then he saw his administration quick to fall in line. You have VP JD fans who argued that as long as tech giants put clean power back into the grids, these developments shouldn't be controversial. Also, he had his chief technology officer, They're adding, railroads connected our continent and the electric grid turbocharged American history, saying Americans today have a choice, build the infrastructure of industrial growth in your community. And so you've got their argument essentially being that opposing data centers is like asking,

should the U.S. stop building railways during the Industrial Revolution. But then also Dino, John Federman, making it clear that he supported them as well to have AI supremacy over China. Right, and if you're anti-data center, it's because you either believe Chinese misinformation or spread it. But that's as all of them appear to be extremely out of touch with the American public. Recent polling shows over 70% of Americans opposed building data centers near their homes. and, I mean, looking at just the Republicans, it's still almost that high. It's so hated that even in pro-AI conservative places like Texas, the governor, Abbott, he pumped the brakes on data centers and just pulled the plug on flock surveillance cameras.

You've got many seconds, easy to see why no one wants these next to their homes. They're massive industrial warehouses that consume water, local electricity, they drive up residential power bills, create constant low-frequency noise, and they strain local infrastructure. And the jobs they allegedly bring, they don't really exist, at least in the long-term. But yes, they bring the short-term gigs to actually build the facilities, but once they're up and running, they offer a few long-term positions. In fact, it's gotten so toxic that political candidates in over 20 midterm races are actively running anti-Data Center campaign ads.

Because many of them have shown they will switch if Trump changes his tune. Right, because it wouldn't be the first time that they were opposed to something like the Iran War, with a men just quickly changing position because Trump told him to jump. And then last step today, there is this not so dynamic duo that's facing federal charges for scamming over 20 women out of $1.3 million after one of them posed as a San Francisco 49er player for four years. Because you've got Dejan Love and Taylor Chan. And to pull this off, Love would meet women on day. dating apps, catfishing them as a 49er and a big time real estate investor. Right. And he posed as this NFL player on social media to the extent that it actually tricked Google's AI system into thinking

that it was true. Right, they seemingly poisoned search so that the AI thought that this was real. So even a quick search would back up things that he was saying. And then on top of that, Chanwood poses Love's financial advisor. They'd exchange messages about fake investment opportunities so that Love would then share those screenshots with his victims. Right, he'd also make fake bank and investment accounts to show them as well. It was a full operation. But also from there, he'd kind of convinced the women that he had real feelings for them, so they'd send him money. Sometimes he said it was to build wealth and a future together. Other times, they'd just be loans. And actually there, he even asked some of them to take out personal loans if they didn't have the money on hand,

promising to repay them. But then obviously that never happened. Right. And then, apparently, if they started asking too many questions about it or they ran out of money to give him, you just blocked them. So the women who come forward about this, they haven't seen a dime from him or the investments that they made. So now with all that, after four long years of scamming, they're being charged with wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. With the two, both getting arrested in Idaho last week. where Love had gone to meet Chan, as well as some of the new potential victims. So the story's gone viral for a few reasons, but here's what I'll say.

One, I understand why a lot of people have focused on the social media videos. With many looking at the videos of him, like running routes at the beach, always with a 49er's helmet on, saying things like if you've ever seen an NFL player, that is not the body of an NFL player, that is not the speed of an NFL player. Some even shaming the victims who thought that he was real, but here I'll say, no. Well, yes, to people that watch football a lot, you could go, okay, he does not look like he's actually good. I think the real and scarier story here is how easy it is apparently to poison AI search. Because women, they presumably Google this guy before doing anything.

I mean, he even pointed to the Google results as, hey, I am who I say I am. And for me, I think that's really the point of the story. How easy apparently it is to poison search to the point of what used to be a way to fact-check something is now part of the reason you get tricked. I mean, we've even seen this play out in a way that I might talk about tomorrow. I'm just making sure we get the clear on this. But truly, very crazy times. and something that I very much believe

is probably being abused in a way that we don't fully understand the scale of right now. But that, my friends, you beautiful bastards, is the end of your Monday show. Thank you for watching, like it, being a part of those comments in another daily dive, it helps keep us in your feed. Also, if you haven't yet, before it's too late,

go get your tickets at crashingout tour.com. We're gonna be in San Francisco, California, Phoenix, Arizona, and Denver, Colorado next. That'll be next weekend, which I'm thankful for because I feel like I'm actually about to lose my voice. So actually, I'm gonna go rest this thing so I can see you right back here tomorrow. Love your faces. See you then.