The Young Turks - Junkyard DOGE

Episode Date: February 4, 2025

Trump Tries To Start TRADE WAR With Canada And Mexico. Elon Musk Threatens To Call COPS On Federal Workers! DOGE Gets Access To Treasury Department Data. Hosts: Ana Kasparian & Cenk Uygur SUBSCRIBE on YOUTUBE ☞ https://www.youtube.com/@TheYoungTurks FOLLOW US ON: FACEBOOK ☞ https://www.facebook.com/theyoungturks TWITTER ☞ https://twitter.com/TheYoungTurks INSTAGRAM ☞ https://www.instagram.com/theyoungturks TIKTOK ☞ https://www.tiktok.com/@theyoungturks 👕MERCH ☞ https:/www.shoptyt.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to The Young Turks, the online news show. Make sure to follow and rate our show with not one, not two, not three, not four, but five stars. You're awesome. Thank you. Have common sense. Let's see how Earth responds to that. The guy! Oh! Welcome to the Young Turks, Jake, you're going to consparing with you guys on a lovely Monday evening. Is it? Okay, we're about to find out. All right, listen, lots of news. My God, Trump is a news machine. So, you know, Jank means it when he does the double brow lift, right? Lots of news. Lots of news. I didn't even realize I was doing that. Okay. But that is an awesome thing I do. Oh, see, I meant that one too. All right, anyway.

All right, guys, look, we're gonna tell you a bunch of disaster stories, of course, right? But it's got nuances we'll give you, I love this audience. That's why I like coming into work every day, because now we've got an audience that loves honesty and wants to do positive change in the world. So let's show you how. Well, let's begin with the trade war that might not happen after all. So bear with me as we go through the ups and downs of the story. Let's get into it. Americans are saying no, no, no, when it comes to these Trump tariffs, you know, there have been some things that Trump has perhaps done in his early days that are popular. I've pointed those out, but this, my dear friend, is not popular at all. I've looked at a bunch of polling data, some with vague polling language, some with more specifics like this one. And in every single one, the plurality or majority opposed the Trump tariffs.

way because the trade war that had been developing over the weekend might not actually happen after all. Now bear with me while I go through this story, how it developed, how it evolved, how it devolved. It really begins with Donald Trump and his threat of implementing 25% tariffs against Mexico and Canada. He also threatened to implement a 10% tariff against China. Now he gave a fascinating reason for why he wanted to implement these tariffs, specifically against Canada and Mexico. He claimed that it had to do with the fact that they're allowing fentanyl to flow into the United States.

Fentanyl is still a huge problem in the US, causing tens of thousands of deaths and overdoses every year. And last Saturday was when he made this announcement. And just today, Trump suggested that Canada should maybe consider becoming part of the United States if they want to avoid these tariffs. Take a look. And we'll see what happens. I can't tell you what's going to happen. You mentioned that he could agree to to change your mind on the terror?

We can always, but look, what I'd like to see Canada become our 51st state. We give them protection, military protection. We don't need them to build our cars. I'd rather see Detroit or South Carolina or any one of our Tennessee, any one of our states build the cars. They could do it very easily. We don't need them for the cars. We don't need them for lumber. We don't need them for anything.

We don't need them for energy. We have more energy than they do. We don't need them for energy. So I say, why are we doing this? Why are we willing to lose between $100 billion and $200 billion a year? We don't need them. As a state, it's different. As a state, it's much different.

And there are no tariffs. We kind of need some of the products coming from Canada. Notably, we import 60% of our crew. oil from Canada. That's because our refineries are able to refine the crude oil from Canada. And lumber is also incredibly important when you want to, of course, build housing. We get a huge percentage of our lumber from Canada as well. And after Donald Trump made these announcements, of course Justin Trudeau, the Prime Minister of Canada, came out and threatened a trade war while listing all the various things that the

United States relies on Canada for. Let's take a look at that. Our response will also be far-reaching and include everyday items such as American beer, wine, and bourbon. Fruits and fruit juices, including orange juice, along with vegetables, perfume, clothing, and shoes. It will include major consumer products like household appliances, furniture, and sports equipment, and materials like lumber and plastics, along with much, much more. So not only does the U.S. import quite a bit of goods from Canada, obviously Canada also imports goods that are manufactured and produced here in the United States. So U.S. businesses could have suffered significantly from a full-blown trade war with Canada. But it appears that Donald Trump's threats have brought Justin Trudeau to the negotiating table because the big update is that both Canada and the United States have agreed to put the tariffs on pause for 30. 30 days, they've also agreed to things.

So I'm gonna read you a statement from Prime Minister Trudeau. He wrote on X, I just had a good call with President Trump. Canada is implementing our $1.3 billion border plan, reinforcing the border with new choppers, technology and personnel, enhanced coordination with our American partners, and increased resources to stop the flow of fentanyl. Nearly 10,000 frontline personnel are and will be working on protecting the border. He continues to write, in addition, Canada is making new commitments to appoint a fentanyl czar. We will list cartels as terrorists, ensure 24-7 eyes on the border, launch a Canada-US joint

strike force to combat organized crime, fentanylondering. I have also signed a new intelligence directive on organized crime and fentanyl, and we will be backing it with $200 million. Finally, he ends the statement by saying that proposed tariffs will be paused for at least 30 days while we work together. Donald Trump announced something very similar, saying that he will put the US tariffs against Canadian goods on pause for 30 days as well. Now before we get to Mexico, Jank, I know you're gonna love this because you love to be proven right. But on Friday, TYT covered the threat of tariffs against Canada and Mexico. And Cenk had a little bit of a prediction.

Let's go to video four. So he'll go in and he'll go, I want this. And I'm going to put a big consequence of punishment on you. And now the main weapon he uses tariffs. And then the other side goes, oh, yeah, we'll do likewise. But then they go out and they start to negotiate. Okay, first of all, as a strategy there, if we're being honest, that's not so bad because you're getting them to renegotiate something that we had already agreed to.

but now hopefully to more of our advantage, right? But if you do that over and over again, at some point people are going to call your bluff. And when you do it, now you're in a trade war, and now everybody's tariffing up, 25%, prices are going up, people are getting mad at you. So now that's where the interesting and potentially smart part of the strategy comes in. He'll then take a small concession because he's losing, right? Because once a bluff is called and things are going poorly and the prices are going up and his poll numbers are going down, then it'll take a minor concession and pretend it was gigantic.

And then call off the whole thing. So, Jenk, I mean, look, the tariffs that he implemented against China in his first term ended up being okay. Biden kept them. He extended them. He added to them. The 25% tariffs would have been insane against Canada and Mexico. But I think your prediction was totally right. I mean, not only did Trudeau come to the negotiating table, so did the new Mexican President Claudia Scheinbaum, which we'll get to in just a moment. But go ahead. Yeah, look, guys, there's a pattern to things, and we try to figure that out for you guys. And so, and if you watch the rest of that segment on Friday, I told you that at some point he's going to get caught. So remember, some of these tariffs are going to come back in a month theoretically. And right now,

I think he's playing a little bit too much Russian roulette. But what he did with Mexico is exactly what I described on Friday. So let's give you that. Yes. So Claudia Scheinbaum, the president of Mexico, also had a phone call with Donald Trump. Now, I felt that she was going to negotiate with Trump because just right off the bat, as soon as Trump threatened the 25% tariff, she said, you know, these tariffs aren't going to solve anything.

It's better if we have a conversation and find solutions together. So she was already signaling that she was willing to negotiate. Now they had their 45 minute phone call and she came out with a statement and she said, we also discussed our shared interest in reducing fentanyl trafficking between Mexico and the United States. At the end, he asked how long we can put the tariffs on hold and I told him, let's put them on hold permanently. He then asked, well, for how long? I responded, let's pause them for a month. And I'm confident that in a month we will deliver results for both his people and Mexico.

At the same time, I explained the gravity of the number of high-powered firearms illegally coming into Mexico from the United States. These high-powered weapons empower criminal groups and give them firepower. We also ask the U.S. to help prevent arms trafficking from their country into ours. He agreed. And by the way, if that ends up coming to fruition, if Trump actually does take action to prevent guns getting smuggled into Mexico, which is a. huge problem. That's a huge win, guys. So we have to wait and see what actually happens.

But it's not like shine bomb, you know, was, you know, a victim of a shakeup or whatever from Donald Trump. No, I mean, they had a conversation. And it seems based on what she's saying, there was mutual agreement and there was a bit of a quid pro quo here in a good way, right? She's willing to provide 10,000 Mexican troops to the southern border in order to protect the border, I guess. And Donald Trump agreed to do something about the guns flowing into Mexico. And of course, he didn't mention that part because that's not going to play well for the domestic audience in America. Of course, of course. Well, she didn't mention the 10,000 troops in her statement.

And that doesn't play well in Mexico, that's right. And so who's more reliable source of actual information, Shinebaum or Trump? Come on, guys, even if you're right wing, you know Schaerbaum's more reliable. So anyways, but to be fair, she didn't, like we said, she didn't mention the thing that hurts her domestically either. So when you put the two statements together, you get the actual truth. So there's a little caveat, though, and I really want to, I want to cover all basis and give you guys this caveat because right now it's unclear. So I want to be clear that during the Biden administration, Mexico actually had sent 15,000 troops to the southern border. border.

My understanding is those troops were already at the southern border as these negotiations were happening. So I need to understand, I need some clarity on whether Shine bomb is sending an additional 10,000 troops or if she's way smarter than Trump thought and she's subtracting 5,000 troops. We have to wait and see because there's no clarification on that. No, seriously, guys, look, we want a real border, but we don't want to uproot innocent people have been here for a long time, etc. But in terms of the substance of this, it is entirely possible that we got nothing out of it. But Trump doesn't think in those terms. He thinks

in terms of political wins, media wins. And so he's doing exactly what I said on Friday. Oh, I'm gonna get you dirty son of a guns and blah blah. And then they go, okay, we will give you important concession. 10,000 troops that might have already been there or not. Okay, but all right, We give you that concession. He declares make sure I have the greatest and I'll be back next month to do it again. Okay? So, so far if that's all it is, that's okay, God bless. Whether they were already there or they sent 10,000 new ones, I don't care.

And in fact, I like that we're gonna try to stop the guns going into Mexico because they go to cartels and create a lot of havoc. Absolutely, yeah. So now the Canada thing is still unclear. You guys have a lot of strong thoughts about it. I'll read it during the social break. I love our members, they're funny, they're good. Here, I'll just read one on Twitch, Chytown's finest 312 says, I need my Canadian maple syrup and the hot hockey players. Oh, I agree.

Okay, so these are the real concerns of the American people. I mean, they're the legitimate concerns of the American people, especially the hockey players. Okay, but the reason why I say it could be Russian roulette is, look, if he keeps poking this bear, what happened, one thing that happened today is really important. Actually, two things. Number one, why did he immediately go, yeah, that's good enough to 10,000 troops, okay, because the markets were crashing. So that's Trump, testing the waters, seeing the markets going against them, doesn't like it, and gets out of there as quickly as he can, okay? And by the way, then the market settled down, and they went back up. So he's looking at that stuff really closely and

maniacally. But the reason why it could be Russian roulette is the markets that, like the EU, this is the most important fact that almost no one else is mentioning. In the midst of all this, he's threatening the EU with tariffs as well, and that's going to come apparently in April. And the EU immediately put out a statement going, yeah, okay, like what Canada and Mexico is doing, we'll be retaliating as well if it comes in our direction. So apparently the markets, and I'm surprised by this, didn't expect Mexico and Canada and China to retaliate immediately. They thought that I guess that they were just going to go, okay, no retaliation, you went on everything.

But no rational government would do that, especially with Trump is a wild bluffer, right? So if Trump keeps insisting and the EU joins China and Canada and Mexico, and then they impose massive tariffs on us, we're gonna lose that battle. So hasn't happened, Trump usually backs out, but if he keeps going, that's the worst case scenario. So final thing I'll mention is how China has responded. China has not come to the negotiating table, at least not yet. But they have decided to run to the world trade organization. In fact, the ambassador, China's ambassador to the United Nations, put out a statement saying we are firmly opposed to this unwarranted increase, meaning increase in tariffs. We do believe it is in violation of the world trade

organization rules. That's why China is filing a complaint at the WTO. And we may be forced to take countermeasures, essentially threatening a trade war. There is no winner in a trade war. is the final sentence in that statement. And so we'll see how that plays out, but China less likely to negotiate with Trump, although you never know. So we'll stay on the story and give you updates as they come along. This is a fast evolving story, so. This is the latest development on the future of USAID after both President Trump and maybe

more importantly, Ilan Musk said it needed to be shut down. It's been run by a bunch of radical lunatics and we're getting them out. USAID run by radical lunatics and we're getting them out and then we'll make a decision. along with Elon Musk and Doge are on the war path against the U.S. agency for international development, also known as USAID. They want to eliminate it. But the question is, what does USAID do? How important is this government agency? And more importantly, can they legally, unilaterally eliminate this federal government agency? So we're gonna answer all those questions in just a moment. But first, here's the context and all the details of the

story. The agency's staffers were told to stay out of the agency's headquarters in Washington, D.C. this morning. The notice was distributed to federal workers after Elon Musk announced that both he and Donald Trump agreed with shutting down the agency entirely. U.S. AID staffers said they also tracked more than 600 employees who reported being locked out of the agency's computer systems overnight. Those still in the system received emails saying that at the discretion of agency leadership, the headquarters building will be closed to agency personnel on Monday, February 3rd. Now Musk himself also spoke about this during an X spaces meeting. So let's take a little listen to that part of the discussion. As we dug into USAID, it became apparent

that what we have here is, is not an apple with a worm in it, but we have actually just a ball of worms. And so at the point of which you don't merely, like, if you've got an apple and it's got a worm, and you can take the worm out. But if you've got actually just a ball of worms, it's hopeless. And USID is a ball of worms. There is no apple. And when there is no apple, you've just got to basically get rid of the whole thing. But is it really just a ball of worms? Is this a government agency that is currently involved in waste and abuse of taxpayer money? Well, both sides are saying completely different things with Democrats saying, no, no, no, this is incredibly important government agency and the Trump administration

seeking to eliminate it is illegal. Republicans, of course, are saying something entirely different. Take a look. Several Democratic House members and senators are going to be talking about in their view why this is a major national security mistake to either end or to significantly curb USAID and the aid it provides. The argument they have been making, I've been speaking to my sources, is this is not charity. International money that goes to countries that we consider allies is also national security because they say that if we provide aid for democracies around the globe, it does sort of provide a bulwark in defense of our adversaries. If there is, for example, a hypothetical where you've got China or Russia in conflict with the United States, those assets

become very valuable. Now, the other side of that coin that I've heard today from my Republican sources is they say that there's only about 10 to 20 percent of all U.S. AID money, which, again, tens of billions of dollars, actually goes to things on the ground. They say much of the budget, budget is inflated. Much of it stays here in Washington and goes to contractors, paying salaries, paying for office space, that kind of thing. So I did a deep dive into the budget for US AID, and we're gonna get very granular in just a minute. But before we do, I want to jump to you, Jank, and get your thoughts so far on this. Yeah, so I think it's illegal. Congress appropriated that funding. And,

they're just blocking it. So if you pause it, that's a slightly different story. The executive branch has interesting, you know, variability on how they can execute laws passed by Congress. And the Supreme Court decides, hey, did you cross the line or did you not cross the line and actually following the law? And so that's an interesting question. I certainly wouldn't have done this. I think it's totally wrong. And a little bit later in the story, I'll explain, And I think the right way to do this, even if you're opposed to some of these programs, or even a lot of these programs. And there are a ton of good programs in here, there's some bad ones, and so we'll distinguish

between those, and then later I want to give you guys my conspiracy theory on this too. So that'll be a little bit of fun on top of the actual facts. And one thing I'll add here is soft power. So when you block all of this funding, a lot of it was used for soft power throughout the The world, hey, China is giving you this, we're giving you that. It's a tiny amount of money way less than you would spend on defense and hard power. So just throwing out the entire barrel of apples, I think is definitely the wrong way to go. But we'll discuss for it.

Yeah, I'll give you an example. So one way that China is looking to undercut the United States, especially in regard to access to precious minerals and other natural resources, is they're exercising soft power specifically in Africa. And so they're building like they're working on infrastructure projects. and all sorts of things, not from the kindness of their own hearts, but because through those diplomatic means, through that soft power, they're able to access certain incredibly important elements for their own economy. So there is a place for soft power, and I think it makes sense. But this story is way more nuanced than anywhere you're hearing about it from.

So we're gonna get to that in a minute. Let me just address the question of legality. You are right, Jank. This is not something that the Trump administration can do unilaterally, you are also correct that the executive branch does have the power to pause funding for 90 days to review, but they can't just unilaterally eliminate a government agency like this, which receives its funding through Congress. Remember, Congress has the power of the purse. And so let's go to Graphic 10 here. According to just security, Trump can

drastically curtail U.S. AID with executive actions alone, however, he may not unilaterally override a statute by executive order. And here's something that I learned today about how USAID was formed in the first place. So the agency was established by statute as its own agency via Congress in 1998 after first being created by executive order in 1961 by President John F. Kennedy. Since an act of Congress established it as an independent agency, an act of Congress would be necessary to dissolve it. So usually executive orders can be reversed by a new president. But since this was something that Congress turned into an official government agency through statute, the executive branch can't unilaterally diminish it or get rid of it. Yeah, again, in a minute, I'll tell you how you could have done it the right way if you're,

Trump and the Republicans. Exactly. So let's get into the details about the funding, because I just wish there was a good faith effort to review where the funding is going and maybe cut some of the programs that aren't making any sense, because there definitely is waste and abuse. Okay, so for instance, the, there was a 2015 inspector general report that looked into the funding for a program that U.S. AID was doing in Cuba, and it was just a propaganda campaign to, let's keep it real, do away with the communist regime in Cuba. I really don't think that U.S. taxpayers should be engaging in propaganda campaigns in countries that have a system we don't agree with. Okay, I think that's a waste of our money. So that report again was actually

shared with me by Ken Klippenstein. It's from 2015. The program awarded 103 grants. 12 of which were made up of Twitter-like projects, eventually called Zunzuneo. Zunzineo's key objective, and I'm reading from the Inspector General's report right now, empowering citizens to participate in public decision-making. Specifically, the project was designed to provide a free flow of information to Cuban citizens to increase community engagement in social activities. The report found that there was a lack of oversight in how the money was used. I don't agree with this project at all to begin with. But even if I did, it wasn't implemented

or the funds weren't used appropriately or there wasn't enough oversight to ensure that the funds were being used appropriately. A lot of the money also goes toward governance. And I'm talking about the overall budget, not on projects on the ground. So what Republicans are saying, unfortunately in this regard happens to be true. So let's look at 2023. In 2023, the budget for USAID was 43.4 billion dollars. That was what was allocated in 2023. 16.8 billion of that money went to governance. What does that mean? That's super vague.

Yeah, I'm not as moved by it as you are because they need personnel to execute all of these things. You can't just do it with that personnel. That's fine. But hold on, I'm not done, okay. But let's talk about where the rest of the money goes and how much of that money goes to things that are important, right? Of that $43.4 billion, only 10.5 billion went to humanitarian causes, okay? Only $7 billion went toward health initiatives, and only $1.8 billion went toward education and infrastructure. We can break it down even further. The U.S. aid budget totaled $43.4 billion in fiscal year 2023, according to the Congressional Research Service,

and approximately 130 countries received assistance. Europe and Eurasia received 40% of the funding, $17.2 billion since Ukraine was the top foreign recipient for U.S. AID in fiscal year 2023. Now, the World Bank Group was actually the top recipient of non-military U.S. AID assistance receiving more than $20 billion between fiscal years, 2023 and 2022, followed by the World Food Program, which, by the way, I'm totally in favor of, which received more than $15 billion. The World Bank Group, the World Bank Group, was the top recipient of non-military U.S. aid receiving more than $20 billion between fiscal years 2013 and 2022. Like the World Bank, okay. There's also a lot of non-profits that receive

USAID cash, but a lot of for-profits receive that money as well. So let's start with the non-governmental organizations or NGOs. They implement 52% of USAID programs, while public international organizations administer 34%. The U.S. government is responsible for about 10% and foreign governments implement about 4%. According to a CRS study of U.S.AID non-military funding between 2013 and 2022, for profit firms, for profit firms received 40% of all U.S.AID NGO funding in the nine-year period, obviously 2013 to 2022. And that was included in that CRS report with for receiving at least a billion dollars each. Yeah. And I know there's Catholic relief service.

at the top of the list of nonprofits that get money, that seems like, well, that's going to a religious organization. But they're actually helping with some migrants. And then the right wing can say, well, I don't want them to help with migrants. So let's talk about the right way to do this. Look, so from the things that Anna read, you could say, hey, only 10.5 billion, as Anna said, went to humanitarian causes out of the 43.4. And that is a true statement. It's only about a quarter, right? At the same time, we just cut 10.5 billion dollars that went to humanitarian causes. Yeah, exactly, and that's wrong. I don't agree with that. Yeah, so we're agreed that that's terrible, right? I think these cuts are $7 billion going towards health

initiatives. You know, George W. Bush, one of the rare good things he did was he did a terrific job of reducing the number of AIDS cases in Africa specifically, and that money is now being cut, so now AIDS will rise up again. I don't do that, don't do that. So okay, on the other hand, it's a good question as to why the top recipient is the World Bank Group. Yeah, what What is that? Yeah, and maybe there's a great explanation for it, but hold on, we don't know it yet. And some are saying that some of these programs are secretly, you know, the CIA or the State Department, et cetera, using some of this money to do their own work.

Well, great, let's look into that, okay? And in fact, here, well, real quick, one of our members, Little Mac McGee said, foreign aid is 100% selfish, we do it to influence other countries to do what we want. Yeah, that's true. That's exactly right, that's true. And so that has a good side. So like just cutting it going, ha ha, we screwed those other countries over. It's not really true, we might have screwed ourselves over, right?

But also, hey, wait a minute, it has a downside if the CIA is using some small part of this as a slush fund. I'm not sure I want that. To do regime change in countries like Cuba, right? Like, so look, the point I'm trying to make guys isn't that, oh, I agree with the oligarch who hasn't been elected, okay, coming in and just eliminating government agencies illegally. I'm not in favor of that. I am not in favor of that, I'm not in favor of that. I feel like I have to repeat it multiple times so people absorb it, right? But I also know there is waste and abuse.

So it would be a far better situation if there was actual good faith negotiation happening. Here, I'm gonna give you another example. You know, Congresswoman Ilhan Omar put out a, you know, she had a press statement today. She had a press conference and she talked about how US AID actually tremendously helped her and her family when they were in need, when they were refugees. I want you to take a look at her statement, and then we'll discuss. I lived in a refugee camp for four years as a child surviving civil war. It is the essential programs that USA provided that kept my family and I fed and safe. It is the resources that so many people around the world rely on. When the world interacts with

Americans through programs that provide essential need, they get to see the heart and compassion of the American people. So there are programs that, sure, we might be implementing them or funding them because at the end of the day, it somehow benefits the United States, but it also is good because it helps people in need. And so she's raising awareness about that, and I think it's important that she does that. But I also think it's important to do a review. Hey, is this money really being utilized effectively? Or is this just, again, like a slush fund for the CIA to engage in, you know,

their operations and attempts at regime change? So it all really depends. And I would like to see a real effort to do some oversight and get rid of some of the programs that don't make sense and don't benefit the United States or anyone else. So I love what Ilhan Omar said. And guys, I guess some on the right don't think that this is important, but I think it's important, that the world like us. And so when we do these type of things and we take care of refugees in other countries, why do they come here? And I know right one was, oh, I don't want Ilhan Omar to come here.

Oh, boo, whatever. But they come here because they're like, America is the beacon, the shining light. And they save my family. They saved my life. That's not a bad thing. That's a great thing. And we spend a minuscule amount of money to do that. this entire program is less than 1% of the budget, all of USAID.

Correct, yep. So now, back to how do you do it right? So if you're right wing and or you're, forget it, you're independent or your left wing, but you think, I don't want the CIA get in the slush funds or I've got to ask about the World Bank, et cetera. So the right way to do it is when the budgeting process comes up, you say, okay, I look through, and hey, Elon Musk and Donald Trump, I don't know if you guys know this, you're in charge of the federal government, you could hire thousands of people and it won't

even make a dent in the budget. So don't worry about the money, right? Because getting this stuff right is super important. And you could put 100 people, 10 people, whatever number you want on go line by line through USAID, give me all the problematic ones. Give me the ones, by the way, that we want to save, right? And so then let's go to that people and say, look, here's the slash fun, we're getting rid of it. Here's the bank thing. We're getting rid of it. But we're keeping this stuff that makes America love throughout the world. You have any idea how much more popular you would be if you did that instead of we're cutting it all. Oh, the world aid is terrible and garbage and we don't want to help anyone else.

You look, you look terrible. So, I mean, look, as a person who's on the left, this is a giant mistake by the right wing. Keep going if you like, but it's not going to help the country. It's not going to help the world, et cetera. And when there's such an easy right way to do it, that would actually make the American people happy and make you more popular. But of course, no one will listen on either side. Okay, and so now it must be noted, we keep saying all. Remember, it is not all.

All foreign aid has been cut except to anyone can fill in the blank, right? You know what country it is. You're not gonna say Panama, you're not gonna say Peru, you're not gonna say China. You know which country it is. Israel, of course, right? And by the way, who's the largest recipient of USAID? Every single year, Israel.

This year, Israel, throughout history. Israel, $300 billion we've given to Israel and adjusted for inflation numbers. And the only country that wasn't cut was Israel, plus Egypt, because they have a deal with Israel. So Israel gave us permission to give money to Egypt as well, because they helped to keep the president in Gaza. Okay, so other than that, so you, like, wait, all the malaria fighting, the AIDS and the refugees, all that stuff is gone, gone, gone, threw it all out. But the one thing left is the most expensive program and the most needless one. Israel has paid family leave. We don't.

They have universal healthcare, we don't. They have the strongest military in the Middle East, stronger than all the other ones combined. They're the country that needs it at least. They're the only country that has an iron dome that protects it, almost 99% certainty. It's amazing all the things they have. And the one thing we didn't cut is Israel. Okay, so those are all stone cold facts. And by the way, when I say that to MAGA, a lot of MAGA goes, you're right.

I don't know why the hell we're still giving money to Israel. So some in the Republican Party, the ones doing these decisions, obviously don't agree with MAGA. They say Israel first, America's second. Now that's indisputable. They just said the whole worst of the world, forget it. But Israel first, then America can keep some of the money and then everyone else. Okay, now my fun conspiracy theory, all facts. Now this part of speculation.

So Elon Musk all of a sudden, so he does these outrageous what I think are PR stunts and which are just horribly misdirected like the Sig Heil salute, et cetera. And then the ADL and Netanyahu himself comes out and goes, no, anyone else doing that salute, we would despise and call anti-Semite to the rest of the virus. But Elon Musk, he's an angel, he can do that salute all day and long. Huh, that's kind of curious. And then what's the first thing that Elon Musk does? He cuts all funding to everyone, including everyone else in the Middle East, except Egypt,

but keeps Israel's funding. I wonder why Netanyahu thought that Elon Musk is great when he cuts all of the rest of the funding for everyone else except Israel. Okay, I'm just telling you, it's speculating. telling you it's speculation, but you, there's two and there's the other two. You make the calculation yourself. All right, when we come back from the break, we'll talk about how Elon Musk has gained access to our private and personal information through the Treasury Department. So that and more coming up, don't miss it. All right, back on TY-Y-T, Jankana, with you guys.

And Rage Rock for now, gifted 10 Youngters. Memberships on YouTube, you're awesome. Now, that's the kind of rage I like. All right, Casper, what's next? All right, well, we just did the USAID story. Now let's talk a little bit about how Elon Musk, an unelected tech billionaire, managed to gain access to all of our personal private information through the Treasury Department. So this news just broke in the last hour, the Department of Government efficiency run by Elon Musk got access earlier today to the U.S. Treasury Department's payment system.

They discovered that basically no one has ever denied. There's basically no oversight. Now you know others, trillions missing from different federal departments, including the Pentagon. On Saturday, Alex Jones reported on the Doge team, including Elon Musk, of course, gaining access. to the United States Treasury Department's payment system while shirtless in front of a fireplace. You know, his trademark look. Now, in response- Why, why, Alex? Why not? Why not? Why not? I've seen that man without a shirt way more times than I ever wanted to. Well, you speak for America. Yeah. In response to an ex-user who asked why, he did answer that question, Jank. He said, I had just gotten out of the hot tub

and wanted to do a report. Good to know. I'm pretty sure that it would take you about 10, seconds to put on a shirt. But anyway, this is actually an incredibly important story. So not to make light of it, but I thought that moment was hilarious. Now let's get to the details of what's going on here. Let's dive right in. The Treasury's payment system is run by the Bureau of Fiscal Service and it processes a massive amount of transactions.

So the sensitive systems control the flow of more than six trillion dollars annually to households, businesses, and more nationwide. Tens, if not hundreds of millions of people across the country rely on the systems which are responsible for distributing social security and Medicare benefits, salaries for federal personnel, payments to government contractors and grant recipients, and tax refunds among tens of thousands of other functions. Now, Elon Musk, much like what you heard from Alex Jones, is making some very serious allegations about malfeasance within this system. On Friday, he wrote that the Doge team discovered, among other things, that payment approval officers at Treasury were instructed always to approve payments, even to known fraudulent or terrorist groups. They literally never denied a payment in their entire career, not even once, he claims.

He didn't provide any evidence at all for that, but we looked into it, and guess what, there is evidence of at least some ways of preventing fraud in the system. According to Politico, improper payments across the government spiked in recent years, when Congress approved massive new relief programs to help Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic. Federal agencies reported $236 billion in improper payments in the 2024 fiscal year. The bulk came from Medicare, Medicaid, unemployment, insurance, pandemic relief loans to small businesses, treasuries earned income tax credit, and social security payments. So that does happen.

The fraud sometimes does happen. But to say that there's no system in place to prevent fraud is ridiculous because there is. The system has a do not pay portal that lets users verify whether or not a recipient is eligible to receive a payment from the federal government. The Bureau of Fiscal Service also has a payments integrity office dedicated to preventing fraud. It's part of the reason why we know about the fraud that I just listed in regard to the COVID relief money.

Now per the New York Times, the Doge operatives who now have access to the system have been made government employees, pass background checks, and received proper security clearances. So at least you can say that that has happened. But again, Elon Musk is not some elected official. And for him to have, he's an entrepreneur. He has multiple corporations that he is the CEO of. Okay, he's got multiple conflicts of interest here and the idea that this guy should have access to all of our personal information through the Treasury is insane. And look, Trump asked why it's important for, Trump was asked why it's important for Elon Musk to have access to the Treasury's payment system.

Here's what he had to say in response. Well, he's got access only to letting people go that he thinks are no good if we agree with him. And it's only if we agree with him. He's a very talented guy from the standpoint of management and costs. And we put him in charge of seeing what he can do with certain groups and certain numbers. The numbers, some of the numbers are horrible, what he's found. A hundred, think of it, a hundred million dollars on condoms to Hamas, condoms to Hamas, and many other things that are frankly even more ridiculous. Leon can't do and won't do anything without our approval.

And we'll give them the approval we're appropriate. We're not appropriate. We won't. Oh my God. Okay. We did not send condoms to Hamas in Gaza. That just didn't happen. We debunk that story last week.

He said it was $50 million worth of condoms to Hamas today. He just decided to double it to $100 million. Yeah. There was money appropriated to Gaza. for HIV prevention, but it's Gaza and Mozambique. There are two different gaza. Yeah, anyway. Would have been nice to check.

Okay, and by the way, that number will keep going up. The 50 million would have bought a billion condoms. I don't think Hamas is that large. And now apparently 100 million will buy you two billion condoms in case you needed. There's no end of the absurdity there. Okay, now I want to tell you something really important here. Tom Krause is CEO of Silicon Valley, company called Cloud Software Group.

Okay, he also has access to the treasury information because he's part of the Doge team. And so that's just one of the guys that was reported. I would like to know who's the entire Doge team. Is it all Silicon Valley CEOs? And so let's get this right. A bunch of donors go in and give a presidential candidate a ton of money. One of them is the wealthiest man in the world and he gives them the most.

He gives them over a quarter of a billion dollars in order to seize power. And they do. And then that candidate was his president turns around and says, hey, my top donor, why don't you have unfettered access to the treasury? Now let's pause. I don't know if anyone is capable of being fair, but shoe on the other foot. Imagine Biden wins and he goes, oh great, George Soros was my top donor. By the way, that's not true. But if it was, if that happened, if that happened, well, and it doesn't matter that he's not the top donor, he's one of his top donors, okay?

And see he says, George Soros, you now have unfettered access to the Treasury Department. What do you think the reaction would be? I know what my reaction would be. Hell no. Are you insane? Are you insane? You're going to hand the Treasury Department over to one of your goddamn donors? Right wing, do you have principles?

Do we, I mean, that this puts you to the test. And you know what? I'm now seeing, and even Pierce Morgan did it this morning. He's like, yes, but Ilam Musk is different because he's very, very smart. Right, right, okay. Okay, so hold on, I've got to adjust that in a couple different ways. Number one, George Sorrows, whether you like him or not, is one of the most successful investors in human history, also very smart. So should we give him access to the Treasury Department?

Just the fact that you're smart doesn't mean a goddamn thing. Number two, did it ever occur to them that he's so smart that maybe he did this for his own advantage? instead of just doing it for the benefit of the American people. And okay, so look, you get it. This is insanity. And it's not just Musk. You guys sound like Nancy, like mainstream media when I would question Nancy Pelosi's donors. They'd be like, what do you mean?

Those are the good billionaires. Right, right. Those are the good donors. So you don't want to sound like mainstream media. And that's right now what Maga sounds like. When they go, yeah, sure, have the Treasury Department. Let's see how it turns out. So look, we asked the poll question, but it's super.

important because we're going to get to a fact that's critical here. What do you think Doge is going to do with the Treasury Department system? It's in the live chat on YouTube. Watch the show live 6 to 8 p.m. Love to interaction with you guys. A, nothing, B, view payments, C, block payments, D, steal treasury money. Okay, now we think we have some good news for you on that. Yeah, we do. So let's share that with you guys, and then I'll tell you why I'm still concerned. So let me just preface this by saying, I am not happy, and I do not agree with the idea that these unelected, you know, oligarchs, these tech billionaires and these entrepreneurs have all this access to viewing this treasury payment system, okay? Because it has all this private information, this is wrong. So even with what they have access to, this is bad.

Now for those concerned that Elon Musk would have the ability to stop payments to Americans, maybe Social Security payments, Medicaid, Medicare payments, things like that, it appears he does not have that kind of access. He's able to view, but he's not able to take any actions. So let's get to the details on that. So let's go to Graphicate. According to reporting in Politico, the Doge team doesn't have the capability to withhold or change payments, at least not yet.

Instead, access by Doge's Treasury representative software executive Tom Krause is read only. However, Musk is vowing to stop payments. But those payments are approved by Congress. Congress has the power of the purse. This is how our government is structured. It's our system of checks and balances. He is not able to unilaterally stop, you know, congressionally appointed funding from going to where it is supposed to. to go. So his idea of doing this is illegal. And so I'm sure there will be challenges to it

if he attempts to do it. And time will tell if Musk is bluffing or if he will do so anyway and kind of test his luck with our courts. Additionally, if Musk wants to change the way the payment system operates, well, that would be subject to an internal review process by the Treasury department's officials. Yeah, we hope. So first of all, viewing the information is already disaster. So let's say you're an opponent of Elon Musk, whether it's a political person who's spoken out against them or your opponent of his in business world, right? He now can look up all of your information through the Treasury Department, your social security number, you're, hey, are you paying your taxes? And you can say, oh, well, he'll just bust the guys who aren't paying their taxes.

Will he? What if they're his allies? What if they're their fellow Silicon Valley CEOs that are looking at that information? And you're telling me all those. guys are never going to use it against their competitors, even though we just gave them all the access in the world. That's insanity. So hell no, you wouldn't trust the Democrat to do it. If you're on the right, you shouldn't trust the right way. You shouldn't trust any donor to do this. This is insanity. And then secondly, if you, once he starts cutting payments, well, technically he can. Anna's right, except they just did it at USAID, even though technically they can't. And it's illegal. What they're doing is, what are you going to do, impeach us?

You've already fired all your bullets. You can't touch us. So we're just going to break any law we like and see how it turns out. So then Anna's right. It's going to go to the courts. And then the courts have to go, no, you're not allowed to do that. And so let's all cross our fingers that that's what happens. So far the courts have held.

They have, yeah. Yeah, so that's good news. And then finally, they say that they can't redirect payments. So one thing stopping payments, the other is having payments go somewhere else, right? So that has to hold. I'm a little worried about it because now the precedent is Elon Musk goes around the federal government goes, USAID, you're now closed. And then when they question him, he goes back to Daddy Trump. And Daddy Trump says, yes, you're all suspended, the buildings closed down.

Elon runs the government now, right? So at the Treasury, if he goes, now I'm redirecting payments to this offshore account, are they going to have the courage to challenge him? Are they gonna say, no, no, no, you're not allowed to do that. That's illegal, I hope so, and probably. But now we're taking chances. So I'm a billion percent against this, it makes no sense at all. And guys, as always, let's be constructive. What's the right way to do it?

You've got problems with money that's being spent at the Treasury? No problem. You've got access to all the information. Look at their budget, look at their line item. When it's time for the budget negotiations, you guys are in charge, you've got Congress, You've got the white house, you've got everything you need, be insistent on stopping payments that you don't agree with. And by the way, that might be unpopular.

But going in and go, I now run the place because I was Trump's top donor is disaster 101. Let me explain something real quick and then we gotta wrap up because I know the left gets uncomfortable when I complain about taxes, but I'm gonna complain about taxes. I see how much money gets taken out of my check every pay cycle and it gets allocated specifically to Social Security and Medicare. I am not interested in having a conversation about Elon freaking Musk taking a look at how the Treasury is dispersing Social Security and Medicare payments, okay?

That's money that we have specifically paid into. I'm angry about this. Okay, this is not okay. This is not okay. It's not up for debate. It's not up for negotiation. We have paid into this system. The idea of potentially ripping it away from Americans freaking infuriates me like you wouldn't believe.

And they're gonna try, guys. So, and I'm telling, look, I go and I talk to the right wing host, I come back and tell you they're anti-war. Some folks don't believe it, but that's good news, and it's true. I'm telling you they're mad that Israel's still getting money when no one else is, that's true. But I can also tell you, a lot of right-wing hosts are talking about cutting Social Security. You guys touch that Social Security money, and you're gonna have your political heads removed. Okay, again, never anything physical. I'm just talking about politics. Right. Okay, poke the bear, see how it turns out for you. But I don't know why you would be so monumentally stupid. But I do know why, because all this, one of our members talked about it,

I'll read it during the social break, is all this effort is so that they can make enough room for giant tax cuts for the richest people in the country and the largest corporations, including Elon Musk. So they are cut, cut, cut, oh, we're helping and saving the American people. My ass, they're going to save about 10% of the tax cuts. And then they're going to say, we save plenty. We cut, you know, AIDS funding to Africa. We're such heroes. That's why we should now get a $4 trillion tax cut for Elon Musk and his Silicon Valley CEO friends. So that robbery is headed straight in your direction. All right, we got to take a break. And when we come back, Jenk is going to read your

comments and more. Don't miss it. All right, we're back, Jank and Anna with you guys, Anna, do I have permission to read more member comments? You have permission. Yes, my favorite thing. Okay, guys, I'm gonna do a quick segment here and then we got a lot more news on the day for you guys. But our guy writes, and so must just reports and any crazy BS you can think of, and Trump believes it. This might not be the best way to run a government. Of course, of course.

And remember, Trump will believe anything, especially if it's to his advantage. I mean, you tell him there's $100 million worth of condoms in Gaza and he'll believe it instantly, right? So super worried about it. Suspaw says, Jenks, right, I went and looked at other shows trying to figure out what was going on. Hands down, TYT is the only one who tries to be strategic and help move the national conversation forward. Viva, TYT. That's beautiful. Thank you.

Appreciate it. Look, guys, challenged other shows, too. Are you guys ever going to talk about policy? Are you guys ever going to come up with a strategy for how, like today? Are you guys ever going to play clips in context? How about that? Oh, well, that's, of course that's not going to happen. But so today we'll talk more about it in a minute.

There's a poll out. Democrats' approvals at 31, disapprovals at 57, nearly 2 to 1. I think we should continue doing what we've been doing. So I asked, I think Democrats should continue. It's working out really well. So I asked the far left that was complaining about my tactics. Okay, guys, God bless, let's go, let's get constructive. You guys offer suggestions.

One guy was like, you have to call them Nazis. them Nazis. Yeah, yeah, that's worked. That's worked really well in the past. We should do more of that. Like that's how we got to 31 to 57. Okay. So anyways, guys, and then the other one was like, we don't have to debate anything about USAID, right? And I'm like, yeah, but you know we're not in charge, right? Like if we're in charge and you say, let's just cancel them, not allow a debate and we just win because no one else is allowed to talk. Okay, I don't agree, but at least it could work. while you're in charge. But if you're not in charge, how does that work?

Yeah, we wouldn't talk to them. So they wouldn't cut the whole thing anyway. Ask them for an actual strategy to win back the country. So I'll be surprised if you get anything, you'll at least force them to think for a second, right? And that'll be a fun exercise as this it spins and spins. Okay, not a dragon says, by the way, they'll say later. We were going to propose that strategy earlier. They're not because they called a out. No, no, we tell, we was imminent. It was imminent. I'm damn it. What's our strategy? Okay, so anyways, now the dragon says, Musk and Trump are only interested in cutting budgets to help offset their tax cuts for the

billionaires. Exactly nada. That's what I was saying earlier. And in fact, I was referencing you when I said it. Trump lawyer says, man, I see Democrats just letting all this happen with an unelected oligarch given access to government information. I'm convinced this thing as a unit party. Will the people rise up and take to the streets in mess? No, look, that one I disagree with a little bit. Number one, I don't think it's a unit party. I think are genuinely upset about all of this, even the Democratic establishment guys. And they are doing the best they can. They're just not very good at it.

They sent Chuck Schumer out there and you go, well, you're upset about this. And you're like, but no, look, I'll tell you when it's a unit party. I don't think this one is it. Democrats don't like it at all. But there you go. This is interaction. This is good ideas going back and forth. And I love it, guys.

Keep it going. Those are all on t.com. We appreciate everybody there. New members on YouTube, Dinosaur, I have actually upgraded, appreciate you. You could also do that through the join button ZZY. Thank you for becoming a member. And you guys are amazing. Last ones are from Twitch about Canada.

Octo Squiddies says Canada is going to build an ice wall and America is going to pay for it. Maybe we're going to put some watchers on that wall. Stellar wingman and about my tariff prediction says hashtag Jack was right. Thank you. Kopey the Epilepsy. Cody, the Epilepsy Dragon says, It was so obvious he was bluffing. He bluffed with the freeze as well.

He's gonna bluff and test the waters. Ding, ding, ding, ding, exactly right. Fairy Cat 55 says, Canadian here, living half an hour from the heart of the opioid crisis in Vancouver. And seriously, if we could stop the fentanyl from being here in Canada, we would have done it years ago. Of course, of course, the idea that Canada is the real problem when it comes to fentanyl is so absurd. Doesn't mean that you shouldn't try to stop it from coming across the border, but the real number one problem, whether it's Canada or America is demand, not supply, but like solving it from the demand side, very, very hard. So nobody wants to do the actual solution. Instead, they want to play

politics. All right, a lot more where this came from. Let's see a quick break. We'll come back and tell you about some of that polling that we were referring to.