The Philip DeFranco Show - WOW! Trump’s Joe Rogan Problem is BACK & WORSE Than Ever

Episode Date: August 21, 2025

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Free access ends August 24th. Visit Ancestry.ca for more details. Terms apply. No matter how many distractions that Donald Trump has been hurling at you, there are people who just will not forget about Jeffrey Epstein. And there's a reason that I've been calling it Trump's Joe Rogan problem. Because in addition to Joe Rogan still being the, if not one of the biggest podcasters in the world, seeing which way he goes on this, it gives insight into how a lot of people go on this.

Right, people who jumped on the Trump train in 2024, but now that they're getting the product, they're not happy. At least with certain key things, or with Trump's responses to stuff. I know. I don't know. I heard as a, as a democratic, hoax. Yeah, I don't think that's true. Well, it's certainly not a hoax if you go to jail. Certainly not a hoax of Galeen Maxwell's in jail too.

So she's in jail for sex trafficking. Excuse me. She's in jail for sex trafficking. But the question is to who? You have to be sex trafficking to someone in somebody in order to go to jail, right? Yeah. So who? Because that's definitely not the first time that Joe Rogan has criticized Trump's response

to the Epstein scandal. And if things keep going the way they're going, it probably won't be the last. Right, especially because now three federal judges have all shot down the Justice Department's request unsealed the grand jury transcripts from the Epstein and Maxwell case. Last month, the first judge in Florida denied it, saying that the request falls outside the bounds of narrow exceptions to rules about unsealing testimony. Then last week, the second judge in New York said that nothing new would be revealed from the documents, that the public would come away feeling disappointed and misled and that the request was simply a diversion tactic. And then finally, yesterday another judge in New York said that the grand jury transcript, quote, pales in comparison to the Epstein and investigative information and materials already in the DOJ's possession. Or because the transcript, it's only about 70 pages long.

The Epstein files proper, they're about 100,000 pages. And so the judge arguing, the government is the logical party to make comprehensive disclosure to the public of the Epstein file. And adding, by comparison, the instant grand jury motion appears to be a diversion from the breadth and scope of the Epstein files in the government's possession. The grand jury testimony is merely a hearsay snippet of Jeffrey Epstein's alleged conduct. And for that very reason, it was unlikely that the transcripts would have satisfied Trump's critics anyway, which is why Congress has already begun issuing subpoenas for the actual Epstein files.

And in fact, the DOJ's deadline to send the files over to the House Oversight Committee was Tuesday. But the committee's chairman, GOP Representative James Comer, said on Monday that the White House would begin handing over the documents this Friday, right, which is tomorrow. With him writing, there are many records in DOJ's custody, and it will take the department time to produce all the records and ensure identification of victims in any child sexual abuse material are redacted. Though there, many noting that way back in March, Pam Bondi reportedly directed the FBI to

prepare the files for release, with agents working around the clock, over nine. nights and weekends to redact sensitive information, so you have people saying it's unclear why they needed more time this week. Plus, it's unclear whether the committee is receiving all of the files, and it could take a long time for them to be shown to the public. Meanwhile, Galane Maxwell's testimony, which was originally scheduled for mid-August, has been postponed while she appeals her case to the Supreme Court. Also, you have three former attorneys general testifying before the months up, followed in September and October by several more officials, including Bill and Hillary Clinton. Also, you've got Republican Thomas Massey and Democrat Roe-Kana

planning to bring some of Epstein's victims to Washington for a press conference on September 3rd, which also happens to be the day that Congress returns from its summer recess so that could bring Epstein back into the spotlight just as Republicans are coming back to Capitol Hill. And according to the two lawmakers, several of the victims will speak about their experiences publicly for the first time, or likely adding to the chorus of victims and their families who criticized Trump's bungling of the case, including Virginia Juffray's brothers. With Trump there so far biting his tongue, though in private, he's allegedly becoming annoyed at their statements.

The two sources telling the Rolling Stone last week that Trump had repeatedly criticized Epstein's accusers and their families, claiming that they were just trying to make him look back. And at times, he reportedly accused them of clearly having a Democrat political affiliation while wondering aloud if some of them are coordinating with prominent liberal attorneys or groups. And actually, the journalist who broke that story told MSNBC, whatever is going on on the political or personal landscape, he always values casting himself as the victim, as the besieged one. Even in a situation as black and white as this,

when it's pretty clear who the survivors are and who the victims and alleged victims and the accusers are. Though there, you had the White House denying the report and calling it, quote, just another desperate attempt by the failing Rolling Stone. Meanwhile, having weathered the Epstein storm so far, Attorney General Pam Bondi has now emerged from her self-imposed exile to reassert control over her Justice Department. With Bondi announcing this week that she's creating a new role at the FBI co-depity director and that Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey would be taking it up. So he'll work alongside the current deputy director Dan Bonino, who I guess is about to be knocked down to just another co-de deputy director. With some even characterizing it as

Dan getting a babysitter. There also there was reported that Dan had a heated confrontation with Bondi over the Epstein files last month and even threatened to resign. And so then with that, you had officials saying to CNN that they believe that Bailey's appointment is a signal that Bondi won that power struggle and Bongino is likely to exit. Though that, you have other saying that her position was really never in doubt because she's just far too valuable to Trump being one of his most sycophantic henchwoman. And now, after merely a month without taking any questions from the media, Bondi gave two interviews to Fox's week, but neither Sean Hannity or Larry Cudlow asked her about Epstein. But notably, if she ever testifies to Congress, Democrats have promised to grill her and other officials about the files. Meanwhile, Massey and Kana are also planning to file what's called a discharge petition, basically something that would bypass. House leadership and force a vote on a measure compelling the White House to release the files.

But for that petition to work, they'll need signatures from a majority of the House or at least 218 lawmakers. So we'll have to wait to see what happens there because they do appear to have more than enough support to succeed, but you had the times noting that they can't actually begin collecting signatures until next month. So you know, we're going to watch out for that as well as all these testimonies, the DOJ's internal politic and in the relentless clamor for more transparency from both left and right alike. But I will say one thing is for sure. And that is that next month, the Republicans, they're not going to be able to run away from this the way that they have for the past five weeks. And then also, because Congress has until September 30th to pass a bill funding the government and avoid a shutdown.

So actually, if lawmakers are determined enough, they could use that as leverage to push for votes related to the Epstein files. Especially if Democrats on the House Rules Committee, the one that determines which legislation goes to the floor, paralyze it again by threatening to force a vote. Notably, this week, a spokesperson for the committee's top-ranking Democrat told the times that they had, quote, no plans to let up pressure on this until Republicans released the Epstein files. And all of that as Speaker Mike Johnson is rapidly running out of excuses. is not to hold a vote on the matter. At first, he said they couldn't do it

because they had to protect the sensitive identifying information of Epstein's victims, but then many of those victims themselves said they support releasing the files and that the information can just be redacted. So now, you had Johnson arguing that the House couldn't do anything related to the files while the courts were still deliberating

on whether to unseal the grand jury transcript. Of course, now, all those requests are dead in the water. And last month, Johnson actually promised that if the courts did nothing, quote, we'll take appropriate action when everybody returns here. And so, you know, we should know shortly if he is actually going to follow through on that

or if he finds another way to swarm out of it. We will say, even if he does, we're seeing movement for Democrats in the Senate as well. Because last month, you had lawmakers invoking an obscure law that says that if at least five members of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee request information from the executive branch, it must hand it over. So Minority Leader Chuck Schumer actually sent a letter to the DOJ, giving it until August 15th to comply, but obviously that was last Friday.

So now Schumer has been pressuring Majority Leader John Soon to appoint a lawyer who can take legal action against the White House. But Schumer also writing last week, if he chooses complicity, we'll take them to court ourselves. For now, that's largely where everything Epstein-related stands. And of course, in the meantime, I'd love to know. your thoughts, opinions, and reaction to everything that we're seeing here. But actually, that brings us to more news about another headline dominating saga because Senator Amy Klobuchar wants you to know that she did not say this about Sidney's

jeans. If Republicans are going to have beautiful girls with perfect tittyes in their ads, we want ads for Democrats, too, you know. We want ugly fat bitches wearing pink wigs and long-ass fake nails being loud and twerking on top of a cop car at a Waffle House. Just because we're the party of ugly people doesn't mean we can't be. featured in ads. So that, I'd hope, like, if you looked at the video, is a pretty obvious deep fake.

The senator did not say any of that, but the deep fake got so circulated that Club Chalbuchar just wrote an op-ed for the New York Times. One, to note that it wasn't real, and two, to warn about the dangers of AI. Where they're saying, as anyone would, I wanted the video taken down or at least labeled digitally altered content. It was using my likeness to stoke controversy where it did not exist. It had me saying vile things. Studies have shown that people who see this type of content develop lasting negative views

of the person in the video, even when they know it's fake. And on the note of video, you had TikTok taking it down, meta labeling it as AI, and X slash Twitter refusing to do any of those things. Instead, suggesting that she tried to get a community note on it, but really not helping her in that effort. And so you had Klobuchar continuing, for years, I've been going after the growing problem that Americans have extremely limited options to get unauthorized deepfakes taken down. But this experience of sinking hours of time and resources into limiting the spread of a single video made clear just how powerless we are right now. And asking, why should tech companies' profits rule over our rights to our own images and voices? And this, as she noted, it's just the tip of the iceberg. Deepfakes, they're becoming more and more common,

and they're often much more serious than just talking about Sidney-Sweeney's American Eagle controversy. Oh, interesting with that controversy, it did cause a small wave of AI being used against Democrats. Because Clochard wasn't alone, there was that one of AOC previously. And the American Eagle Jeans campaign is blatant Nazi propaganda. I mean, watching that sultry little temptress squeeze into a Canadian tuxedo, three sizes too small. And I know it's really easy to look at some deep fakes. and be like, only a fucking 80 would fall for that. But the problem there, I mean, well, there's a few.

One, it makes me think of the George Carlin quote when he's like, you know, think about how stupid the average person is. And then remember that half of people are dumber than that. But then also in cases like that AOC clip, you have people like journalist Chris Cuomo actually getting duped by the video and accusing AOC because of the video

of fueling culture wars. And then wildly, when he got called out for being duped by the video, he was like, okay, I got duped. But then he doubled down and he tried to make it about another thing saying that she ignored the part of the tweet that mattered. Which I guess wasn't him.

boosting a thing that was never said or happened. But then all of that, it brings us back to how people with bad intentions can shape conversations and culture wars and pin issues on whoever they want. And so you've got Klobuchar calling for more to be done to regulate AI and noting that, yes, Trump actually did sign to take a down act this year. That's big. It matters. It gives people protections against intimate image abuse. But Klobuchar also noted that it's really just the first step. And so she and other senators are currently working on legislation that, quote, would give people the right to demand that social media companies remove deepfakes of their voice and likeness while making exceptions for speech protected by the First Amendment.

And adding, in the United States and within the bounds of our Constitution, we must put in place common sense safeguards for artificial intelligence. They must at least include labeling requirements for content that is substantially generated by AI. Which I will say, I think it's important she included the free speech aspect of this. Because usually one of the big arguments against trying to rein in generative AI is, hey, we're just memin. And so with that it appears that the top level argument from Klobuchar and others is, okay, hey, meme away.

But let's also make sure people understand the difference between an AI generated meme and just blatant misinformation. But even with that, that's easier said than done. But I mean, some states, they've already made individual efforts to restrict AI. But even just today, we're saying things from Bloomberg about the many ways that tech companies are trying to block those laws and limit regulation. And so, you know, really, this is just yet another chapter in this push and pull that we're going to continue to see play out over the days, the months, and years. And then there's more that we got to dive into right here. But first, I got to say, you ever lay down after a long day and your mattress is just there? You know, it's like, hey, I'm just here to ruin your

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And no joke, I lied down, and it feels like this mattress knows exactly what I need, and I wake up feeling refreshed with no more restless nights. I mean, genuinely, I didn't realize how bad my sleep was until I tried Helix. From night one, I've been sleeping like a baby, no more toss in and turn and just solid restful sleep. It's like the mattress actually knows what I need, and now I'm waking up feeling rested and ready to go. Say, hey, if you're ready for some solid sleep, check out Helix's Labor Day sale at HelixSleep.com slash DeFranco. Or even easier, scan the QR code for 27% off sitewide plus free shipping. But then, diving back into the news, we're going to go from the chaos of deepfakes to one of the most chaotic campaigns for reelection that you've ever seen with the embattled mayor of New York City.

These Eric Adams scandals just keep on keeping on. Giving cash to journalists, forge, and signatures, even more corruption and bribery charges. But let's start with the cash. Because a top advisor to New York Mayor, Eric Adams, was just booted from his re-election campaign after giving a journalist a potato chip bag stuffed with cash. With the advisor here being Winnie Greco, Adams' former director of Asian affairs at City Hall and one of his best fundraisers. With Winnie having returned to Team Adams on the campaign trail as a volunteer as he runs for re-election.

And yesterday, at an event in Harlem, she handed a journalist from the outlet, the city, a red envelope tucked in a potato chip bag. And in that envelope was a wad of cash totaling more than $100. with the reporter Katie Honan saying that she was hoping to get some information from Winnie about the new indictments against Adams Associates, but when they met, Winnie just handed Katie a bag of chips, which the reporter tried declining, but Winnie reportedly just walked away. And then when Katie opened the bag, she said that she found the cash and immediately tried calling to return it. So I initially hoped it was a note, a tip, and then I looked and I go, oh my God, it's money.

And according to Katie, when he laughed at the attempt to return the cash, and that's when Katie took the envelope to her editors and told them the whole story. From the area, the outlet reporting the incident to the city's Department of Investigation and federal prosecutors in Brooklyn contacted the outlet's lawyers. With them then taking the bag with the envelope and cash in it, and as you can imagine, the campaign was quick to try to do some damage control. With a spokesperson saying they were shocked and adding, Winnie Greco holds no position in this campaign and has been suspended from all volunteer campaign-related activities.

And saying that Adams has, quote, always demanded the highest ethical and legal standards. And then as far as Winnie's side, her attorney said that it is customary in Chinese culture to give reporters cash and saying that it was a gesture of friendship and gratitude. And that's also exactly what Winnie told. the outlet whose reporter she gave the cash to insisting it was cultural and asking him not to publish about it. With her attorney saying, I can see how this looks strange, but I assure you that Winnie's intent was purely

innocent. Winnie is apologetic and embarrassed by any negative impression or confusion this may have caused. But whether you believe that or not, we should talk about the information that the reporter was actually looking for from Winnie, which is really anything about the indictments coming down the pipeline for several of Adams' close associates and supporters. So I will say, notably, it doesn't include the mayor himself, but it does include his closest political ally and former chief advisor, Ingrid, Lewis, Martin, and her son. Because Ingrid, she is facing some bribery charges that accuse her of exchanging political favors for cash,

home renovations, and a speaking role on a TV show, with her accused of accepting more than $75,000 in bribes during her tenure as one of the most powerful people in New York City. And she's been hit with a total of four counts, a conspiracy, and bribe receiving, and that's on top of the wave of bribery charges from last year that resulted in her resigning from her position in December. And with this, you had Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragge,

we alleged that Ingrid Lewis Martin engaged in classic bribery conspiracies that had a deep and wide-ranging impact on city government. As alleged, Lewis Martin consistently overrode the expertise of public servants so she could line her own pockets. So then with that, you would have statement from Ingrid's lawyers responding and saying, Ingrid Louis Martin is facing charges classified at the lowest level of felony in our justice system. Her only so-called offense was fulfilling her duty, helping fellow citizens navigate the city's outdated and often overwhelming bureaucracy. And no point did she receive a single dollar or any

personal benefit for her assistance. We will vigorously fight these charges and ensure that the facts prevail. But Ingrid's also not alone here. There are also charges against Adams' friend and former state senator Jesse Hamilton, who Adams put into a powerful position in the city, as well as siblings Gina and Tony Argento, major supporters and donors to Adams. So again there, we saw similar proclamations of innocence from their representatives. But also a huge thing is that this latest cascade of legal drama, it's happening as Adams is frantically trying to sanitize his public image while he lags behind in the polls. And so with all this, he had a spokesperson for his campaign saying Mayor Adams was not involved in this matter and has not been accused of or implicated in any

wrongdoing. He remains focused on what has always been his priority, serving the 8.5 million New Yorkers who call this city home and making their city safer and more affordable every single day. But they're then reiterating specifically that Ingrid Lewis Martin no longer works for the administration. But then also as that's playing out and we're waiting to see how it develops. I mean, there's also another Adam scandal we have to talk about. A few weeks ago, the Gotham has published a report claiming that his re-election campaign submitted faked and fraudulent petition signatures to get him a spot on the ballot as an independent. Right, because under state law, Adams needed at least 7,500 signatures from voters who wanted him to run as an independent.

And to get those signatures, Adams' campaign reportedly hired several companies to send employees across the city and gather signatures from registered voters supporting Adams's re-election. But according to the Gothamist, there were some corners cut. With the reporting that an executive from one of those companies said that he told the campaign they should run quality control measures beyond just, you know, the signature from the gatherer promising they were all legit. The executive then saying the campaign rejected the idea. And as far as the campaign, they responded to the Gothamist's inquiry saying they expected the companies to follow the law. But then with that, promising they'll be investigating themselves. And as far as what they'd be

investigating, when the Gothamist reviewed the petition, they reportedly found 52 signatures that were fraudulently obtained or outright forged, with thousands more that weren't properly vetted. They also said they found issues like strikingly similar handwriting between residents of a specific building or just dubious numbers coming from campaign workers, or things like one who reportedly got 700 signatures in a single day. And you know, the Gotham is saying they spoke to several people

who had seemingly signed this petition, but claimed that their signature was forged. One of which they reported was out of the country the day she supposedly signed. And in some cases, signers' names weren't even spelled right in the signature. And that's nothing compared to the fact that there were dead people supposedly signing this. Or with the Gotham is reporting if they found the campaign

turned in signatures from at least three people who were already dead. With all this, I'll say, you know, the truth is, well, petition fraud is illegal, it's also not likely going to have much impact on Adams' campaign. Or because Adams got some 50,000 signatures, obviously well over that 7,500 requirement threshold. That and these petitions rarely receive too much scrutiny anyway. So from here, it's up to local prosecutors on whether they want to investigate this or not, and amid all the other chaos and scandals that Adams dealing with, this one's probably the lowest of the bunch.

But then from that, let's zoom out from New York, and let's head overseas to talk about the insanity that's happening in Gaza and the role that the United States is playing in. Because Trump's government will not say that it opposes the forced displacement of people from Gaza, and it's now punishing international judges for calling out war crimes. The White House announced new sanctions against the ICC, and it's increasingly clear that Trump's unprecedented backing of Israel has only emboldened Netanyahu even further, despite domestic and international outrage. With it even resulting in part of Trump's Maga Bay saying that Trump appears to be Israel first.

But the starting point for this whole conversation is the U.S. State Department. And specifically there, the recent firing of its time, press officer for Israeli-Palestinian affairs, allegedly, after his loyalty to the administration's stance regarding Israel was called into question. There were reportedly several disputes about how to talk about America's foreign policy, but one of the big ones? It came up when this employee drafted a response to a question from the media about ongoing discussions regarding the possible relocation of Palestinians from Gaza to South Sudan. Which one, like Gaza, is a war-torn part of the world facing a hunger crisis, and two is a country that's already received immigrants deported from the U.S., despite the fact that most of those immigrants actually aren't from there. And so the draft response reportedly included the line, we do not support forced displacement of Palestinians in Gaza.

Which I will say notably, is something that Trump and envoy Steve Whitkoff have both said more than once in the past. Although, of course, they've also backed what Israeli officials have described as voluntary relocation, which rights groups say wouldn't be voluntary at all. But there is at least some idea of at least saying the U.S. was opposed to potential war crimes. This time, however, the department reportedly rejected the idea. But this now fired employee arguing his termination begs the question of whether the country's Israel-Palestine policy is about to get even worse, including an unwillingness to take any stand against ethnic cleansing and adding, the future looks bleak. And then beyond that, you reportedly have American officials

saying that the firing has sent a chilling message that communication straying from Arden pro-Israel messaging, even if it's in line with longstanding U.S. policy will not be tolerated. But that's also just one of the ways that U.S. support of Israel is going to a whole new level. With now, another thing that we're saying this week being those new sanctions against the International Criminal Court. Because back in February, you had the White House announcing sanctions against the ICC's former chief prosecutor Karim Khan after he sought arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Israel's former Minister of Defense. The U.S., then imposing sanctions on four ICC judges in June, two of whom authorized the arrest warrants. And now you have this latest round of sanctions being leveled against

another two ICC judges and two more ICC prosecutors. And you've got the state department saying in a statement that one of the judges has been sanctioned for authorizing an older investigation into U.S. military personnel in Afghanistan. But then the other one has been targeted for authorizing the arrest warrants. And then the two prosecutors, they were on the list for continuing Khan's investigation into Israel's actions in Gaza, including upholding the warrants. And you have Secretary of State Marco Rubio saying in a statement announcing the action, these individuals are foreign persons who directly engaged in efforts by the international criminal court to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute nationals of the United States

or Israel without the consent of either nation. And then adding that the administration will continue to, quote, take whatever actions we deem necessary to protect our troops, our sovereignty, and our allies from the ICC's illegitimate and baseless actions. But then you have the ICC hitting back with a statement calling the sanctions a flagrant attack against the independence of an impartial judicial institution, and calling it a, quote, affront against the court state parties, the rules-based international order, and above all, millions of innocent victims across the world. Though this is Netanyahu, of course, loved

the move from the United States, describing it as a firm measure against the mendacious smear campaign against the state of Israel and the IDF. Right in there, he's seemingly referring to the fact that more and more world leaders are condemning his actions and the actions of the Israeli government. Though despite the condemnations, Netanyahu, and his allies, they're more emboldened than ever. And of course, that may have something to do with a level of unconditional support that seemingly goes even beyond what we've seen from previous presidents. And with that, you had Netanyahu saying in an interview yesterday. Thank God, President Trump has proven an exceptional, exceptional friend of Israel, an exceptional

leader. I think we've been very fortunate to have a leader in the United States who doesn't act like the European leaders, who doesn't succumb to this stuff. Now, that said, we should take a look at what's happening on the ground. For one, you had the Israeli government officially approving a West Bank settlement, explicitly aimed at undermining the prospect of a Palestinian state. With that, involving the construction of more than 3,000. and housing units and what's known as the E1 area, and it would effectively cut the territory in two,

with the minister who announced the project saying afterward that the idea of a Palestinian state is, quote, being erased from the table, and adding, every town, every neighborhood, every housing unit is another nail in the coffin of this dangerous idea. Right, in the E1 project, it's been under consideration for more than two decades. You know, the fact that it's never happened until now has been partially attributed to international and especially U.S. pressure, including in the form of sanctions against individuals and organizations involved in illegal settlements introduced by Biden. sanctions that were promptly gotten rid of when Trump returned to office. So now, despite most countries having their frostiest relations with Israel in years, it's going forward.

And then, moving on to Gaza, Israel has seemingly abandoned any pretense of working toward a deal. With Hamas saying that it's accepted a ceasefire proposal by Qatarian Egyptian mediators, which would reportedly involve a halt and the violence and exchange of prisoners and hostages. The Israeli government, they haven't said anything. Instead, it's just told 60,000 reservists to report for duty in September and is moving forward with a plan to take over Gaza City. And you've got the IDF's chief spokesperson claiming the military has begun the next. phase of the war. And that as you had another official claiming that the operation would be quote, gradual, precise, and targeted, and saying that it would extend into areas of Gaza

city where Israeli soldiers had not previously been. Although notably, there's not many areas the IDF hasn't already been. Or the IDF claims that they have operational control over 75% of the Gaza Strip, but the UN says the number's actually closer to 90%. And of course, in the process, it's killed tens of thousands of people and virtually leveled the entire territory, which seems to now be continuing. With, for example, one resident telling the New York Times that Israeli troops were sending remote-controlled vehicles packed with explosives to blow up buildings, block by block, in the neighborhood near where he lives. And while thousands of Palestinians have already begun to flee, you have the UNRWA saying that nearly one in three children in Gaza City are

now malnourished, with the head of the agency saying that children in Gaza are extremely weakened, that many will simply not have the strength to undergo a new displacement and adding, it is a manufactured and fabricated famine, it is deliberate, food has been used as an instrument of war, which to be clear is the prevailing opinion among reputable experts and rights groups who not only say starvation has been used as a weapon of war, but that it's one facet of a genocide against the people of Gaza. With that, you had Netanyahu saying this about the allegations of genocide. If we wanted to commit genocide, we would have done it in one afternoon. We have the capacity, but we don't do that.

Which I will say, out of all the arguments he could have made, it's not a genocide because we could have done that in an afternoon, is a very weird defense. But ultimately, it appears that that is where we are right now as the situation continues to develop. But with all of that said, let's switch gears to a different piece of news from all those rapid fire updates and talk about actually a very rare piece of news. Senator Bernie Sanders has come out and agreed with the Trump administration on something. And that thing is actually the government getting involved in private businesses. And so I'll explain. All of this, it comes after Trump officials announced that they're exploring the possibility of buying 10% of Intel. And the money here

would come from the Biden era chips act, which had set aside $39 billion to boost US microchip manufacturing. The timing I'll say is also notable because Intel's kind of been in the gutter recently. Many of their newest consumer CPU releases, they've been lackluster compared to their rivals, AMD. And that's before mentioning that their other projects have also failed to meet expectations. All of which led to their CEO being switched out last year. A decision, I'll say, was controversial by itself because the former CEO spent his tenure trying to set the company up for the future. But this new CEO, Lipp Bhutan, has done the opposite and gutted a ton of the projects to save money. And some of them have raised major eyebrows, such as a move to completely abandon the race for the latest semiconductor tech,

meaning that TSM is almost literally the only player left in the space. Within that right there being a hint as to why the Trump administration is pushing for a 10% state. Right, TSM is based in Taiwan, meaning that the US won't have any real players moving forward with advanced semiconductor. In the Chips Act, it wanted to prevent that, but using the money to expand factories didn't seem feasible for Intel because they'd abandoned those projects. Also, another factor here are the allegations by the administration that Lip Bhutan has a major conflict of interest due to his ties with China. There, to be clear, Lips not from China, they're Chinese Malay. Instead, the problem is that Lipp has a bunch of other business dealings within China, which allegedly puts him in too much contact with the Chinese government. And in fact, Trump is so worried about this that he publicly called for

LIP to step down as CEO. And with all this, I'll say the U.S. government getting direct stakes in private companies, that's pretty rare. But what's even rarer is that Sanders agreed with the administration on this. But Sanders saying in a statement, if microchip companies make a profit from the generous grants they receive from the federal government, the taxpayers of America have a right to a reasonable return on that investment. So I will say if you follow Sanders, this isn't the most surprising thing. He and Elizabeth Warren had actually proposed an amendment to the Chips Act that would require the U.S. government to get a stake out of each company that receives its extensive grant money. And that logic is pretty much exactly what the administration

is saying with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnik adding, the Biden administration literally was giving Intel money for free and giving TSM money for free and all these companies just giving the money for and Donald Trump turned it into saying, hey, we want equity for the money. If we're going to give you the money, we want a piece of the action for the American taxpayer. And of course, this isn't the first time that Trump has pushed for the U.S. government to be more directly involved with companies. But recently, he made a deal with NVIDIA and AMD that would let them sell advanced AI chips into China. and in return, the U.S. would get 15% of the sales. And then on top of that, the Pentagon just became the largest shareholder in a smaller mining company

that specializes in rare earth minerals. And then there's Nippin Steel, which was trying to buy U.S. steel. Right, in return for letting that deal go through, the U.S. was given shares and given limited veto powers within the company. With all of that said, the news that the U.S. government was becoming an actual player in the private sector, it appeared to raise some alarm bells, and it led to Intel stock falling about 7%. But apparently, one of the biggest concerns being that it opens American taxpayers to risky investments. Which, you know, has been one of the big arguments for why the U.S. government has rarely done this in the past, but it remains to be seen how this is gonna play out.

You know, we still have to wait to see if this deal goes through. But with that said, today I wanna end with an announcement and one final thing. Right, and the announcement is at over at Beautifulbash.com, we just did a fantastic mini drop. We got three new pieces. And like usual, a lot of it's been affected by my feelings.

I've been in kind of a hope for more hope place. So we've got strive for better times. Don't dread it and move with serenity. These are available on our BB28 teas, so they're lighter for summer. We also have crews and tanks. And I just dropped $10 off the tea price. So you can get it for $28,

No promo codes, no nothing. So definitely grab what you want while you can, whether it be that or any of our bestsellers. Then finally today, the last 24 hours of my life have been kind of revolving around two billionaires. First being the founder of Kind Snacks, Daniel Lubetsky. Because yesterday he made the decision

to randomly come at me over Texas gerrymandering, which then ended up prodding me and letting a little of the old DeFranco out, much to y'all's pleasure apparently by those comments. And the update there is a billion dollar Barry, ended up apologizing, kind of, I'll explain. Right on his post he ended up writing, I do want to apologize for saying,

saying, this guy is pissing me off because the headline should have been, this guy is bringing to light a very important issue. Because yeah, Daniel, I could see how you could mix up those two sentiments. With him then going on to say, we agree on the problem. That said, this is a systemic issue with wide abuse by both parties. And we need to recognize it in order to win for the people. Look forward to discuss how we will do so as I've researching this for years. Thanks for your passion about this critical issue.

And then the reason I say he was only kind of apologizing aside from, you can kind of see why he was leaving that initial comment. Then went to my Instagram real to write. You were persuading me until you rationalized what Gavin Newsom is doing in California as justified. I'm totally in agreement with you that Texas Republicans shouldn't cheat via gerrymandering. I just also want to hold the other side accountable. We need a unified front against all the cheating from both parties, or they'll keep manipulating us with, they did it, so now we must BS.

Glad to go deeper with you in person and apologies for saying this guy is pissing me off, when the truth is I really should applaud your passion and look forward to work with you on this. And then he used an emoji that I've only ever seen people use when they want to kiss someone. Which, Daniel, I guess I'm flattered. Yeah, no, you're still repeating the reason many people, including myself, had an issue with what you're saying. You want Democrats to drop the knife in a knife fight that Republicans brought a gun to. And that's an easier thing to say when, hey, congratulations on your success when you're a fucking billionaire. The undemocratic power grabs that we're seeing affect you in a far less way.

It's going to affect your net worth, not like your actual worth to exist in the world. You're shouting from your ivory tower, we got to play by the rules when one side shank in the ref. And again, it just seems like you're paving the way for authoritarian. by false equivalent both sidesism. But that, dear listener, is not where my experience with billionaires ended today. That's because today I had a big conversation with another billionaire, Billy, and that was the governor of Illinois, J.B. Pritzker. He's been in the news a lot lately.

He's been trying to combat Trump and his administration. You also saw I'm getting involved in the Texas gerrymander by Republicans when Texas Democrats fled to Illinois. There was just so much we needed to talk about today, and we did. And you can watch or listen to the whole thing on my brand new in good faith podcast. I got links to it in the description. You can subscribe to it on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Just one of the things that I wanted to include from it in today's show was this. So you support, though, I imagine what Governor Newsom is trying to do in California,

though, based off of the realities of the situation right now. I would rather, I mean, I mean, you're asking me a straight up question about like today. Here's what I think that should happen. I think Texas should look at what California is now intending to do, and they should back down. I understand you don't think that's going to happen. I don't think that's going to happen either, But the reality is that we can do this tit for tat for quite some time. And it will be bad for democracy. It will have been lit on fire by Donald Trump. The fuse has been lit, right?

And then we're going to see Texas and then California. You're going to see Missouri and Maryland. You're going to see Indiana and maybe Illinois. And you know, you're going to see this happening wherever it can happen because now we're in the situation of apparently the Republicans have thrown the rulebook out entirely. and Democrats have to do something. And it is time for us to stop playing by the old rules. The Republicans stopped doing that for, I don't know, for a long time now.

And we've always held fast to we've got to do it this way. This is the way it's always been done. And now apparently we're going to have to fight fire with fire. So that I think is why I support what Gavin Newsom is doing in California. I don't want to redistrict in Illinois. I don't want to. I don't want California to have to do what they're doing. But it happens that that's a vote-rich and district-rich environment as New York is.

And so at least in both of those places, if we have to counter as Democrats, what's happening, what Republicans are trying to steal in Texas, going to have to go to those states. And we can't unilaterally disarm by saying, well, we have these independent commissions. And everybody should have an independent commission, but only Democrats apparently have independent. commissioners and are trying to do the right thing. I mean, I'm done many years ago, Paul Simon, one of my heroes in politics, I'm not talking about the singer, but the U.S. Senator, who was opposed to PACs political action committees. And then someone said, why do you accept PAC money if you're opposed to PACs? He said, because I can't unilaterally disarm. The other side gets to go raise PAC money.

Well, I don't because I'm opposed to PACs. I'm going to get elected so I can end PACs. And unfortunately, that's where we are. We can't unilaterally disarm. And that's why I think Gavin Newsom's got it right. I think it absolutely makes sense. We're not in an ideal situation, but I just don't get people saying, well, yeah, fight with your hands behind your back. At least there's an honor in it.

I think that's crazy. I'm going to, I feel like I accidentally. We did that for too many years. We did that for too many years. I feel like I incidentally ended up grilling you there for 20 minutes out of nowhere, where we ended up going. I want to end on a lighter question. But that is where we're going to end things for now.

my friend, at least for this episode. Tap or click right here to watch the latest episode of my podcast or go there and subscribe because I have a new episode dropping in the next 24 hours. Or tap or click right here to watch the latest episode of the Philip DeFranco Show. I've even got links in the description for both if you want to get filled in on YouTube,

Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. No matter what you do, I'll see you right back here on Monday with more news you need to know.