This Proves Trump Goons’ Catastrophic Incompetence | Inside Trump's Head

Either they don't know what it is because they are. that uninformed, that dopey. They are really kind of at at at a loss here, or they do have a sense. of what happens and they don't really want to fess up to it. Nothing is good in this situation there. Blaming the Democrats wouldn't actually they have been in power. for the past two years. There is nothing we should have confidence about in their explanation.

The impact is so great at this this point. We should keep that in front of mind. This doesn't happen. Michael. Oh my god, Joanna. Oh my God. Thank goodness we don't use Microsoft to connect us. And thank goodness neither of us were traveling yesterday or today. Well, I actually, in my house,

my wife was returning from Florida. on to where where her parents live on Thursday. And because of the bad weather in New York, the nor Easter, she was diverted to Pittsburgh. and of course, sat in the. in the airport for 6 or 7 hours. before she was told that the flight back to LaGuardia in New York was canceled.

Oh, there for a, a hotel room in Pittsburgh overnight. And she was not able to get on a flight back to New York until 7 p.m. yesterday, where upon. Actually, I heard from you first. So from the Daily Beast newsroom that that. the FAA was shutting down, grounding. 100% of American aircrafts.

So I was on the phone with my wife. I said, do don't go to the airport. Just just get and Uber. to Philadelphia from Pittsburgh where she could get a train to New York. Now, do you have any idea what. That's a five hour trip. Oh, do you have any idea what an Uber from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia cost? I don't and I don't want to know, but I will. I have a feeling that was surcharge.

I will, I will I will, soon find out. But I was going to say, why didn't she just get an Uber the whole way at that. at that point, after such a long trek back, I would just be like, you know what? I'm not going to. I'm just going to do it because you can't. And even that would have been longer. So in other words, she so she went from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia, got the train from Philadelphia, which is only it's a short. a quick train ride from Philadelphia to, to Penn Station.

That's like an hour in a few minutes. And then from there had to get a car to come out to our house in Emma Gansa. So it was a I think it was a ten hour trip, but she is home, unlike many people who are still caught in, in airports and will be for, I suspect, days to come, courtesy of, well, courtesy of our friends Mark Wayne Mullen and of course, Sean Duffy.

We will be coming on to. that press conference yesterday, which we were previewing before. We just hopped on to record this and I couldn't stop laughing at it. So we've got our favorite. highlights from the presser from last night where Sean Duffy is. Well, we'll get into it. We've also obviously got to talk about Best Saint versus. Nick, the prize heavyweight fight coming. out of the white House with a fallout from Jensen weighing and Nvidia.

Lots of people let lots of people commented that you in. particular have pronouncing envied you wrong and you keep seeing it moving. Yeah I do not in a video. People want us to to pronounce it Nvidia, which of course comes from I don't care. I'm like the Latin word for envy, right? I'm nobody's envying in the now. But and we have to go back to, to. Jensen Huang, which I'm sure I'm also pronouncing wrong.

Because I think this is a story. I think it's a much larger, much more serious story. and a story much, much more. targeted, not at Nvidia. or whatever the name of this company is, but targeted at the white House. So when you write, you write an excellent. Substack on this, which I want to unpack with you. Let's just start. with the sense that yesterday everything felt like it was in chaos.

Everything felt like there must be some larger cyber issues going on here. Is America under attack? You can't get a plane and you can't get on your Microsoft Teams. It felt chaotic. Well, I think Mark Wayne Mullen opened the news conference yesterday by saying, by saying the Microsoft fail and the. and the FAA fail were not related. So I think we can fairly say they probably are related.

I knew these guys. If these guys are saying we just have to, we're at the point where logic tells us. to assume whatever these guys say it has to be, it's a fair chance. The opposite is the truth. Well, and also, he then went on to say they didn't know what was behind it. Really? And then, well, then we can get into the Sean Duffy of it all, but let's play a clip of Mark. Wayne Mullin and you tell me, Michael, and in the comments, please.

Right. Whether or not you find this. as an American citizen, as and as they both keep saying this is not. Democrat, it's not Republican, it's an American moment. You tell us if you think this is reassuring. This is what, the leadership of President Trump. looks like by the organization and the team he's put together. We're built to handle crisis like this. This is what the team of Donald Trump looks like. There's no planes and you can't use your computer.

We're built to handle crisis. We're built to create crises. It's nonsense. It's like living in Alice in Wonderland. Okay, so I mean, you have I mean, I mean, these two guys, this is who we're counting on, but even set the context here, and they seem to be essentially dismissing this problem or dismissing the crisis. This is structural. We need more money to fix this. Well, instead of beginning with this is the.

not since nine over 11, nine, 11. Has there been a shutdown of American airspace as massive of as this. But pay no attention. It's just a little, what what do they describe it as? As kind of circuit overload circle? Yeah. They have no idea. They don't know what it is. Right? They're talking about data. They're talking about new technology. They're talking about old technology. They're trying to blame the past.

Okay. So what we have here is either they don't know what it is. because they are that uninformed, that dopey, the American, the the, the the structure of air. travel has been so has been so disrupted and underfunded and, and so many people have been fired in jobs not replace that. They are really kind of at, at at a loss here or they do have a sense. of what happens and they don't really want to fess up to it.

So nothing is good in this situation? Nothing. And then there's this other weird thing that. that it seems to be a setup that they're blaming the Democrats. when actually they have been in power for the past two years. So it's like, okay, we we need. we need a, we need some, some setup, some theater. to begin to make create issues which we can put on the Democrats.

I, I don't know what we do know is that. is that there is nothing straightforward about this. There is nothing we should have confidence about in their explanation. Well, several people, several listeners or viewers emailed me this morning. to ask me to ask you, do you think that this is. a repercussion of the cuts that Doge somehow?

Yeah. Well, obviously I think everything within the Trump, the, the, the bureaucracy of the United States, of the United States government, of the federal government has to. we have to look at through that, through that lens, there has been incredible. disruption within the ranks of the of the bureaucracy. Now, that seems like an abstraction. Does that really have any real world impact? Well, yes.

This is this is real world impact. So I, I mean, impacting. I mean, obviously it has real world impact. But the impact is so great at this, this point. And that's what what we should, we should keep that. in front of front of mind. This doesn't happen. this time of year. Something's always going wrong at the worst possible moment.

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When you go to quote.com/beast, that's. q.com/beast. Well it didn't happen. And now it's started to happen. Let's play another clip from the press conference. Because the other thing that struck me was that both of them, again, this point that you make frequently audience of one, audience of one, so they both keep unnecessarily thanking Donald Trump.

Let's play the next clip. And this is Sean Duffy now addressing a press, the press conference. Mark Wayne, what's been great, Stephen Miller I put together. all of the intelligence assets of the white House. We were in multiple times talking to the president about what was happening. in the air space, complete engagement by President Trump's team. I mean, literally picking on the least popular member of the administration, Stephen Miller, and trying to reassure us that there's complete engagement.

by Donald Trump's team, which is a ship of fools, a ship of fools. Well, it's just I mean, we can we can certainly go over that. I mean, Sean Duffy is a moron. There's nobody within the administration itself, a filled with morons. who doesn't think that that in that respect, Sean Duffy stands out. I mean, a a stupid man, a man who has no business in this, in this job. You know, I saw some clips of, of of.

of Pete Buttigieg who had this job in the Biden administration. And you go, oh my God, oh my God. The contrast here, the, the. there is you you can't even begin to begin. to, begin to measure the two, the two against each, each other. There's this represents different universe. of universes of competence, although you've got to be fair. that both of them have a relationship with Fox News.

Sean Duffy used to be on Fox News, and Pete. Buttigieg is always on Fox News. I don't see the what that has to do with anything. I'm being slightly facetious, except that is frequently on Fox. News as he makes jokes about anyway. Carry on. Anyway, and then and then Mark Wayne Mullen, Mark Mark Wayne Mullen. I there was a curious Tucker Carlson just in, in the. in the increasing splits within the MAGA movement.

Did a piece the other day and went after Mark Wayne Mullen and, and and pointed out that he is the is. was famously the most corrupt senators in a. in in a Republican caucus of. of enormous corruption, which I hadn't known. But, I certainly make sense and, and within again, again, we have that thing.

and this is, this is something clearly we need to be tracking. Everyone needs to be tracking as MAGA falls apart. because the contradictions and the, and the, you know, the, the, the evidence. of their incompetence, they can't even defend each other. And, and I mean, here we are again. Again, the, the air traffic, the.

the air traffic in the United States came to a halt. Never before not sent or not since 911 has this happened. And these guys are kind of just, winging it. That winging it off, not this. You know, we we gotta upgrade the system. So, I mean, first of all, we're that to be true.

I mean, we're that to be actually what's what's at issue here, then they've just declared an emergency, basically in American air travel. Okay, well, let's hold that thought, because Sean Duffy refers to it. being an emergency. Let's play a final clip from the press conference. This is an emergency. I want Congress to give us emergency funding. This is bipartisan. This is American. I want $50 billion. President Trump is a builder.

He's going to build this network and deliver for the American people. But the president can't deliver for America. unless the Congress delivers the money to make it happen. Okay. What we have going on here is, is first, a sleight of hand. Congress, a Democratic Congress has to deliver this money. When the Republicans have controlled Congress for the past two years. and clearly did not deliver the money, then this idea of of Trump. as the builder, the expert builder, do we want to talk about the reflecting pool?

Do we want to talk about the ballroom? Do we want to talk about the Kennedy Center? I mean, you know, this is going to turn out to be the reflecting pool. of American transportation. So but but again, the temerity. of saying of saying on our watch, this, this catastrophe has happened, but someone else is to blame.

I mean, first man stepped to the plate. Come on. What happened here? This is your responsibility. Your responsibility. And we have to, as a nation, we have to. And it's imperative that we, the nation, have some trust in the people who are. who are administering the systems so vital. not only to American life, but to everybody's to literal lives. Planes falling from the sky.

What the devil is going on here? Well, the devil is going on. And you will remember, I spent seven hours on the tarmac. at Heathrow when most of England's. airports were also closed. And then they said similar kind of excuses. Oh, it's just old technology. It's old technology. But everybody on the plane I was on assumed that. actually it was some kind of cyber warfare.

Possibly Russians had targeted the UK. because they'd just given out a warning saying that they were planning to. And it's hard not to think that coming the day after the Microsoft outage, where people were beyond frustrated that their basic software wasn't working, that these are connected. And again, it's this feeling. All you have to do as an enemy of America is just so chaos. to sow doubt in our system and those Thursday and Friday.

So doubt certainly in the competence of this government, which we knew from the previous week, and the election results, obviously. But also imagine being Sean Duffy and having to get up there and pretend. that you think Donald Trump is a builder and that all he needs is $50 billion. Neil thinking, of course he's coming in for the money grab. Of course he is. Even in this state of chaos, what they want is money. And you just imagine it being siphoned off into into personal pocket somewhere.

and and and again in, in this kind of crisis, the most important thing is to have some trust in the people. who are have responsibility for getting us out of the crisis. I mean, that's their job. I mean, there's nothing more important than that, right? Do you think Sean Duffy went to bed last night thinking, I cannot believe that I said yes to this job. I cannot believe the entire of American airspace.

falls on my shoulders, that this the buck stops with me. This isn't what I signed up for. Do you think he has the sort of sense of responsibility and anxiety about it? Or do you think he's as happy go. lucky as he appeared to be in the press conference? I think he's worried that he's going to be blamed. I think everybody is there who's who's going to get blamed for this? It's not I mean, you can begin it's not Donald Trump who's. going to get blamed for this or who's going to accept the blame for this.

So therefore it's going to fall on someone else. Okay. So what he's really thinking is, oh my goodness, when am I going to be sacked? How am I going to be sacked? Should I be sacked in a Truth Social post tomorrow. and not Wayne Mullin probably thinking the same thing, right? And they both should be sacked. Well, they shouldn't. have been hard in the first place, but now they have been hardened. Now they've really effed up. They should definitely be sacked. And and let's go. Let's. as I mean, how can you not ask.

the obvious question that is. where. was the air traffic in the United States. shut down by the Trump administration. as a diversion from its bigger problem? Well, I was going to say, if Jensen Wang has been fired. from Nvidia, note the pronunciation there, please.

Closing down. American airspace for utter incompetence, you would think would definitely be grounds for immediate firing. But nobody in Trump's cabinet gets fired unless they are a woman. But but let's let's look at this at this in a, in a broader sense, which is to say that there is a scandal now facing the Trump administration. in its earliest days, but clearly getting bigger.

And, and suggesting. suggesting how deep this might go, facing the white House and facing. And I think people are starting to get this more and more Trump individually now, this scandal has been in the last, in the last week. or ten days, focused on Jensen Huang,

Jensen Wang, the head of, of, of Nvidia. and whatever the name of the company is. I, I think we should all mispronounce this. It's just a it's just a kind of protest against AI and all these, these, these, these companies that have, out of nowhere, taken over our lives. Well, so, by the way, can we just add a company. that Donald Trump had not heard of and, and until 2024.

Exactly. Oh my God. And then. and then when it was explained to him, he couldn't believe that he didn't. know about it, because obviously. it was a source of funding that he hadn't thought of plugging into. And he rapidly got 25 million for his ballroom project from them. Anyway. So this is this has been Jensen Huang's problem. He got fired over, in fact, that he was having a relationship with a woman, not only not his wife, but a woman who was apparently a Chinese spy.

And maybe we can get into exactly what that means. A Chinese spy. But at any rate, that was his problem. And the company, his his company. had to deal with it and get rid of him. But that is not really. if you if you begin to think of the larger parameters here. and the importance of this company and its relationship in the world. and to China, and the national security considerations of its product.

and Jensen Huang's relationship, not just with the spy, but with Donald Trump. And what does that add up to? And we can take a not not, not that large a leap. to see that the Chinese spy compromised. Jensen Huang and Jensen Wang, in his relationship with Donald Trump, compromised Donald Trump because remember the the the.

the goal here, the Chinese goal beginning with the Chinese spy. is to have access to, to the products, to America, to American technology products, most, most specifically, the chips that, Jensen Wang's company makes. And while they were,

precluded from, from access to that market, from the Biden administration. and in fact, going back to the first Trump administration, suddenly in this administration, with this new relationship of Jensen Wang, of of the this new relationship of the Chinese spy. to Jensen Wang and then Jensen Wang to Donald Trump, the market gets opened up and China gets access to the Nvidia chips.

Yes. And it's not clear that they've gotten access. to the most recent version of Nvidia chips, except through this company that the Chinese spy Alex Wang, no relationship to Jason Wang created or always running, we should say, let's not forget she was a former television journalist. She suddenly running a company called Mega Speed, which is importing Nvidia chips,

and then appears to be violating American export restrictions. and getting those more advanced chips into China. Okay. And also, Donald Trump has been told about. this on several key occasions. Jensen Wang, your friend, Mr. President Jensen Wang is having a relationship with someone. we have reason to believe is a Chinese intelligence asset. And what does he do?

Pay no attention. Couldn't apparently could not care less. And in fact, there seems to have been a move by people. within in the administration to keep Jensen Huang on the. to keep him away from the president and certainly to exclude him. on on the president's last trip. I think this was in April to China. But the president finds out that he's that gents his friend.

Jensen has been excluded. And then they make a special stop of the of Air Force. One to pick up Jensen, my buddy Jensen. So within the. the leadership and this is a kind of a Cold War. spy tale there is that that always. that goal of turning, corrupting, influencing the most significant leader.

you can and, and I think that this is where we're in the middle of. we are very likely in the middle of that same spy tale, that the that the Chinese targeted. Jensen Huang and through Jensen Wang. and in may have even prompted inspired design. Jensen Wang's relationship with the president of the United States,

which did not exist before he came into office two years ago. And Jensen Wang very specifically actually wasn't. at the wasn't among the group of tech execs at the inauguration. So we, we have we have a classic thing. What did Donald Trump know. When did he know it and what did he do? At the behest.

of his compromised friend Jensen Wang. And also, what's the Chinese end game here is the Chinese end game to. we don't know whether or not they bugged Jensen's phone. We don't know whether or not Alice Wang was able to get into Jensen's computer. We don't know whether or not they are. I mean, we know that standard Chinese business. technique is to steal and copy American technology. We don't know whether or not this relationship actually.

leapfrog China's AI strategy and program. Much further along than it would have would have been otherwise. Well, I don't know if those are separate questions. I mean, that's the question. What did this if there's a security breach, what did what what's the fallout from that. And that's an assessment that that made. the American intelligence community has the has to make.

But it's a more serious question. Was this was there a security breach here. caused by the president of the United States? Is is the president of the United States the security breach? I mean, so we're we're in a territory that I don't think we've ever been in before. Well, and it's thrown into particularly sharp relief. because the president goes to China next week for the APEC meeting, where he will have a side meeting with Vladimir Putin and she Jinping,

the Chinese leadership is saying that this woman wasn't a spy. and that this isn't true and blah, blah, blah, blah. They would of course there was. Nobody leaves that. No meaning nobody believes that. But we know that all eyes will be on Donald Trump. as he talks to Jinping and of course, Vladimir Putin. And that conversation is, you know, in theory about Ukraine. But of course, people will be looking and thinking.

what an easy mark Donald Trump turns out to be. Let me give a broader a broader sense here. And I think it's characteristic of Donald Trump and of the Trump. administration that that. perhaps never has a president. in individual president been so accessible. It really is easy to get to Donald Trump. It's really easy to call him up. And you might say, well, that's kind of,

you know, that's kind of refreshing. This is this is, right. And Biden wasn't available. He wasn't available press. But what what that means is that he is susceptible to almost anybody. I mean, famously, what influences him most. It is the last person he spoke to, or, and especially the last person he spoke to who flatters him most. So he is very clearly and easy, Mark.

And for the Chinese who, who have a significant and. and sophisticated intelligence spying and intelligence. gathering operation, this must have seen like hell. How can we not take advantage of this? What's also interesting is whether or not Alice Wang. was having an affair with Jensen, and the Chinese authorities turned her,

or whether or not she targeted him. because the Chinese intelligence wanted her to. Well, and I think I think that there's even a larger context of this. Any any senior business person. in China working in a critical industry. is, of course, working for the Chinese government. You don't achieve that position unless you have a relationship. with the Chinese government. I mean, the Chinese government. and Chinese business are essentially interchangeable.

This is not news everybody understands. But the thing I find really interesting is that, Donald Trump says that Jensen Wang told him. that he didn't know Alice was Chinese intelligence. How? Who was. surrounding Jensen Wang to warn him about these things? I mean, he was clearly fairly reckless. in his personal life and that he's had a series of relationships.

We know of two employees. At least what I'm hearing out of my friends. in Silicon Valley is the expectations are there are several more to come. What was his own security telling him? Were they not saying you should be careful of this woman? And perhaps he was careful. Perhaps she never had access to his phone or his computer. He never left the room with her. and left any of his things around that she could take a quick.

look at or take photos of, or insert something in that would copy whatever. But surely his own security detail. must know exactly what he's up to, who he's hanging out. with, have done a background check on her and would at least say, well, she's a customer. She's buying $4 billion worth of Nvidia chips. You shouldn't be having a relationship with her. I mean, we know that they had.

NDA for the staff to sign after. he was spotted canoodling at an off site with a member of staff and and someone. who caught it inadvertently on their cell phone was asked to sign an NDA. So there was sufficiently sophisticated to understand that the CEO and founder. shouldn't be fooling around with people on his staff. Yeah, I'm not sure. These aren't two separate issues. I mean, there's there's an issue of of basic courtesy,

morality, propriety, and, and you should or should not be fired for those, those reasons. I think it's another separate, separate discussion. And then there is a much more complicated. issue of his involvement with a. with someone who may or may not be. seems likely they are a Chinese intelligence agent.

And then what is that relationship? Because that relationship might very quickly tip over from. from an initial sexual relationship into colluding on a, colluding on much more serious issues. And in fact, actually having saying that, it makes me realize this may have started. not as not as a sexual relationship, but as a relationship of collusion.

You know, this is what does Jensen Huang want? In addition to sex, he wants access to the Chinese market. What is the most important thing for him? I would say that is probably key. Where is where is the big growth for his for his company? If you look out in the world, if you look out in the future, well, this is not this is not hard. It's China. So, so suddenly he's in this relationship. with someone who has the same interest as he does.

How do you open the Chinese market? Well, there's a very clear way to open the Chinese market. You convince the president of the United States. that this is good for him to. How do you convince the president of the United States? Well, there's a kind of larger. explanation or a larger justification because the stock market is going to go. up, the economy is going to expand, AI.

centers are going to going to pave the world. Well, and also the American, the American government. gets 15% of the business, which. all of these things and then whatever. And then there is, of course, the president's own interests. in his family's interests in AI companies and in, in AI, in. their personal interests in the, in AI share prices, all of that. So this becomes irresistible to Donald Trump.

Yes. And, and so Donald Trump is effectively. doing the bidding of the Chinese because it has become in his interest. And this is all shepherded by. Jensen Wang, who in turn. is shepherded by or is colluding with, a Chinese intelligence agent.

I think I told you that I had dinner. with a former CIA station chief who is based in Asia. China came under his jurisdiction, and I was talking to him about what did the what did she. Jinping it was just before the the last visit of ping to the States. I said, what do they think of Trump? And he said, oh, they just think he can be bought, that he's not very expensive. and that the only thing that motivates him, his money. Yeah. And so and again, the ease in which you buy him I mean you're talking.

you were talking before about about Jensen Wang's and the security people. who might surround him and, and and what did they say? But there's a larger question too. I mean, a much larger question, much more critical question. about the security people and the national security people. and the advisors who are surrounding Trump. But the truth is, they don't really, you know, all of these people. who surround Trump know the following things.

You can't correct him. You can't you can't really advise him. You certainly can't step in and give him warnings for his own good, even step in and given giving, give him warnings for his own good, because, among other things, he doesn't listen. In addition to the fact that you that he doesn't want to be told anything. and what he does is it is always he is. essentially and has done this in the first administration.

And the second administration farmed out his advice. The advisers around him are not there to give him his advice. They are there to do his bidding, and he gets on the phone with people. who are who he who have impressed him or who have flattered him, or. who have vastly more money than he does, and that's who he listens to. So there has been and I think that this is this is,

I mean, just an astounding characteristic of the Trump administration. No easier president has never been an easier. president to figure out how to influence. So what's interesting. here, too, is who among his cabinet have spoken? JD Vance seems to have gone very quiet. He's been busy distancing himself from the war. Going to be harder to distance himself from this. Now. Donald Trump has taken him off the duty.

of trying to find a deal with Iran, which he says we don't need anymore. And he's put him on sorting out fraud at home. He might want to turn his attention to the president. And you've now got Scott Bissonette and Howard. And as you pointed out on Thursday, everybody hates Howard. Nick, you've got Besson and Nick going at it. Scott Best, Treasury secretary, asked yesterday on CNBC Squawk Box. Why they hadn't done anything when they knew that Jensen.

one was being compromised by Chinese intelligence. And he said, well, commerce, new commerce, new Howard. Nick had the pen, which means that he had the power to do something and they chose not to. Yeah. No. What you have here, that's without a question, seems very clearly true. But more importantly, everybody is blaming everybody else. So this again, this again, Donald Trump is not going.

to take the responsibility or the blame for this. So therefore somebody else is going to be blamed within the administration. Now, let me let me step back and say, having said, Donald Trump is not going. to take the blame for this. He's not going to accept the blame for this. The blame may well be. And clearly the issue there is the issue now of a Democratic Congress. who will certainly,

look at this as a prime target of investigation. What did the president know? When did he know it. about the Chinese efforts to come to compromise the white House? I think you might fairly, frame it like that. That will be and that will be, I think, I think potentially devastating. Potentially. Dare I say impeachable? Is this, the the.

the well, here of potential. Illegality, the potential. compromising of vital interest to the nation, the potential for. I don't know, treason, I suppose, was Donald Trump. knowingly colluding with the Chinese. in order for them to achieve a,

a commercial advantage. which would ultimately benefit Donald Trump. And also push America. into second place in terms of of AI. I mean, it's a it's a story of a scope. And we should also talk about. how the white House are talking about. and preparing for those Democratic investigations. Stephen Miller.

and Todd Blanche, you know, saying, oh, these are going to be illegal. We're going to refer these to the Justice Department. They can't just come in to Congress and start firing off investigations. and subpoenas. You know, this could be illegal criminal activity on behalf of the Democrats. So again, doubling down, making a lot of noise, not making any legal sense while trying to create a distraction. Yeah, I don't think I think that's meaningless. That's just saying something because they have nothing to say at this.

at the at this point. So that's the that's just her room for her. Well, it's sort of war talk, isn't it? Which means nothing. Yeah. That means nothing. I mean, but what it will do, what it does is set the stage for, for the level of obstruction that they will try to engage in. There will be subpoenas to the white House to, throughout the executive branch, I'm sure. And then they will resist those subpoenas.

It will they will have to this will have to be litigated in court. They know what they know what is coming in their direction. And there's a, you know, there's a pretty, a pretty clear playbook for how they would have to respond. Now they could go the other way in some administrations have of looking. for compromise, of looking to, of looking for, a for ways in which this is, this isn't.

just pure conflict, but we can assume they're not going to do that, and they're just going to go for the, for the, for the conflict there. I don't know. In the end. What does that get them? It's it's just a delay. Effectively it is a delay tactic. Well, we shouldn't worry because Stephen Miller. is gathering all the intelligence with Donald Trump's team. to reassure us that the airspace is safe.

Yeah. It was a weird to suddenly evoke Stephen Miller, who's been in the job for hours. and, well, and it's literally the least liked person. by Republicans and Democrats alike. This isn't a Republican thing. It's not a Democratic thing. It's an American thing. Nobody likes Stephen Miller. So they were so, Sean Duffy. and Mark Wayne Mullen, Mark Wayne, that. that name that.

confuses you because you've never heard of another Mark Wayne. Has there ever been another Mark Wayne? Anyway? Not first name in middle name, by the way. That is one name Mark Wayne. They are sucking up to Stephen Miller. Oh, imagine. Imagine being in a position to have to suck up to Stephen Miller. Well, everybody's going to be sucking up to him now, aren't they? I mean, that does it's just horrible. It's a horrible idea. Let me let me just add something. Put an asterisk there that they're going to suck.

They, they are. But they are also going to be trying to take him down. I don't even know how to respond to that. I mean, it's just a den of vipers. And then you've got Susie Wild to. Of course, you said on Thursday. hates Donald Trump and will also be trying to bring him down in other ways. But the larger context that everybody. who has proximity to Donald Trump comes to hate him. Good times Michael, good times. All right. So we should probably have a chat about Ukraine.

Star shields, the military and of Starlink. Elon Musk's company once again started working slowly. so that it impacted the speed of Ukraine's drones and again. stops them from getting advanced knowledge of incoming Russian missiles. Trump XI Xing Ping and Vladimir. Putin, as we've referenced a meeting on Thursday. having a side meeting at APC in theory to discuss the future of Ukraine.

Missing, of course, is Volodymyr Zelensky. and Wyckoff and Jared Kushner, sort of bobbing and weaving, saying that the only way to get a peace deal is through business deals. And, well, what do we think of that? What do we think this ends up? Do we think Trump emerges from Asia saying that. he has to take some kind of a compromise? Well, let's add to this that that the Russians have just,

just announced that their position is. not only is not, not coming. addressing the, the Ukrainian position, but they have doubled down on their. essentially on their pre-war position. So the Russians are announcing they're not going to do anything. And partly what's going on here now is everybody's waiting to see what happens.

What is the fallout from Donald Trump's, what what do we call. drubbing, rebuke, rejection. by the American voters? Well, that seems to put it mildly. I mean, Scott column just got announced in Mississippi. The first Democratic senator, the first black senator. from Mississippi for decades, decades. It's a massive repudiation, a massive dropping,

complete humiliation a century, essentially. Or was it more than a century? Right. I think it might have been 130 years. It should be. But but it's a colossal rebuke, a catastrophic humiliation for Donald Trump. No, I think in the Scott column thing is, again, another measure of how deep this has gone, what a reversal has taken place here at a level. that no one quite understands, and can grasp yet.

So that's part of the story. that we would see, Michael, I think I think they do understand it. And I think this is a lot about Donald Trump. It's about I don't think they understand it. I think I think I completely disagree. I don't think the white House understands it. I don't think the Democrats yet understand it. I don't think the country yet understands what has happened here. I mean, how I think fans don't think that's true.

I think it's simpler than that. I think people are repulsed by Donald Trump and his vibe, and they've had enough. And everybody turned out to vote in unison. What is the meaning of that? We don't know. We don't know about the mechanism of this. This goes to what what do the Democrats do now? And, you know, how do they. how do they harness what we now understand to be this,

This almost. this massive wave of, of hatred of Donald Trump? I don't, I don't know, I mean, and and to. I mean, just think of, of the, of the shift that has taken place. This is a shift that, that it's. I'm not sure that we can. that we that it can be understood so, so, so clearly in such a short period of time.

I mean, we are now we have entered a historical, and historical shift, the likes of which we haven't seen in quite some time. And it takes a while to figure out what that means. Well, I do think that Congress, the incoming. Democratic Congress, has its work cut out to figure out. how do they take on the issues that clearly concern people. But the neutering of Donald Trump, inasmuch as he can be on a domestic front,

less so on a foreign front or international front, is one thing. But how they deliver services for people and re. instate American competency. is also going to be top of mind for them. Yeah. I mean, that's I mean, you've just laid out a technical sense of, of what they have to of what they have to do in the legislative process. I'm not sure it, it,

it really begins to appreciate. the potential cultural change that has taken place here. And it may not be I mean, that's the other thing you have to say. Is it really a cultural change that has that has taken place, or is it just, is it just, you know, that, you know, that Donald Trump, you know, again, shot himself in the foot, but that there is still the, the, the anger, the resentment, the anti-establishment feeling,

the the distaste of all politicians? Or is this has Donald Trump and the resentment and hatred. toward him really created a, a, a cultural. revolution? Well, we can pick this conversation up on Tuesday. when we go back inside Donald Trump's head to figure out what's going on.

And I'm sure the, Nvidia story will have progressed since then. Did you see that they put in charge the CFO temporary c o. at the moment is Colette crisis and long serving CFO and video. And immediately stories began. emerging that Jensen was a screamer, that he had dressed her down. frequently, that his biographer, a man called Steven Witt, came out.

and said that Jensen is performative. and that he pretends to be a family man, but he's not. He pretends to have a flat hierarchy, but in fact he behaves like an emperor, and that this is going to be a very difficult company to run, because he ran it as as if he were a king. So that's something that he and Donald Trump have in common. There's. also, parallel with that, a movement among many top tech. executives to continue, continue to protest, Jensen.

Huang's ouster and to call for his return to the CEO post. Right. Of course, Elon Musk saying, I'll give you a job, Jensen. I'll give you a job. Palmer Lucky, the founder of Andrew, weapons. manufacturer and also actually one of the founders of Oculus. I mean, I assume that that story is not going to go anywhere, but who knows? I mean, well, I mean, that's also what what social media does, right?

Everybody was piling into X yesterday. Lots and lots of finance, bro, saying, oh, this is outrageous. Leave gentle and lone. He's on a salable blah blah blah. Clearly he's, he's not unassailable and I'm sure they'll find someone to run it. Yeah. No. And I think I think as we discussed the other day, I think that he probably made this decision to step down. because there's much more to come out.

Well, and he may have been more compromised than he realized if he really didn't know. that she was a Chinese asset, if he actually didn't have any. or anybody telling him of their concerns when they knew this, including the president of the United States, then perhaps he's. been more compromised than he would like anybody to know. Anyway, yesterday was holed up. at his apparently $38 million mansion. in in San Francisco, which is very near.

to Nancy Pelosi's house, apparently ordering in fried chicken. There were lots of pictures of fried chicken being delivered. Only $38 million. Well, I dare say he's got more than one home. I don't think we need to feel concerned about his real estate portfolio. I suspect that he's, well, real estate. He did have solar panels on the roof at the photos I saw, so that's good.

He's an environmentalist, Michael. He's offsetting the data centers. with his solar panels on his roof. Just the final plea that this, our understanding of of this, of this scandal not be restricted to, to Jensen Wang, but be, expanded to include the president of the United States, his, well and and it appears the commerce secretary and the Commerce secretary,

who the Treasury secretary is trying to bury with this information. and who the Secretary of State is probably trying to bury, too, because he wrote and as you said, he put it on paper. He wrote a report about this. And who has been leaking it? Where did the leak come from? That's what I want to know. Yeah. No. And I mean, to me, the the possibility. that Marco Rubio is the leaker here, Marco.

Rubio is the person who has, who wrote the report, who brought this to the attention of the president of the United States, who probably acted to keep Jensen Huang. off of the off of the the April. April flight or the April trip to China. And Marco Rubio is. Just to. he always seems so long suffering, so angry,

so, so aware. that this was not the place the Trump administration. that he imagined his career would take him. Well, he looks like that. And JD Vance also. must be curled up in the fetal position, because they must understand. how catastrophic this is potentially for their administration. I mean, if, as you point out, Trump was the real mark here and Jensen.

one simply the mechanism to get to Trump, then this is devastating for all of them. And they all hate him anyway, as you point out, they all hate him anyway. and they are all saddled with him. So are they. How did they how to get off this horse? We are going to see this more and more and more. Could it be more interesting?

And could there be a better time for the Democrats to come in? We may see criminal investigations here. We may see criminal accountability. Well, the problem with that, however, is that that would depend on the Justice Department. And the Justice Department is controlled by, by the criminals. Well, and the Supreme Court, Trump will argue, gave him a license.

to do whatever he wanted, an immunity acting as president. And he might argue that it was good for the American economy to be exporting. these sophisticated chips to our adversary. Yes, the president without without question. But that becomes actually, that's that's an impeachable offense, which is separate. from from what the Supreme Court has has the Supreme Court decision. But within the administration also, there are.

likely not likely there are there are potential targets, criminal targets after criminal targets, after criminal targets. But again, that would have to go through the Justice Department. And so then it becomes. all about Todd Blanche and what Todd Blanche is prepared to do. No, it's not all about it becomes all about Donald Trump. Todd Blanche is is is not going to act against the interests of Donald Trump. In fact, if he did, would be fired. But is Todd Blanche going to act against the interests of Todd Blanche?

Todd Blanche is in. that Trumpian position of so having. having himself to Donald Trump that I don't think. he has his own interests anymore. What a what a story. I mean, what a story. And as you say, no one signing up for the Trump administration. They probably all thought. it was going to be a bit of a bumpy ride, but it would be an interesting ride.

None of them could have anticipated it would be this bumpy. I decided indeed, that you couldn't take it. They could have anticipated. They should have anticipated they have. They had read. I was just going to say the book's written. But of course they don't. They don't read. But even in addition to that, you always assume it will be someone else and not me. Well, as I say. frequently on this podcast, be careful what you wish for, do you?

I don't think I do. You say this, I did. I said that about Todd Blanche that Todd Blanche, you know, probably at the age of 15, as he was thinking about a career. in law, thought, oh, can you imagine one day I might even be a tourney general. And then he gets to be attorney general for Donald Trump. I think that's not true. I don't think Todd, Todd, Blanche, ever in his wildest. imagination, thought that he would be attorney general. And that's actually a kind of a kind of symptom of this,

that all of these people do what they do. because this wholly unexpected light shown on them. And not true for Marco Rubio, not true for Marco Rubio. Marco Rubio, new at the age of five, he wanted to be a politician. Well, I think of course, of course, but and was a politician was one actually. of the few people in the administration who had a successful. career, his own trajectory independent of Donald Trump.

And so he made a deal and I, I, I think he's, he looked forward to thinking. I think he haunted all the face every day he goes back and forth. What did was this do? Can I survive this? Well, I'm sure actually every day he goes back and forth thinking, should I resign? Should I resign if I resigned to things get worse? Who replaces me if I resign? What am I staying here for? I think that's not true. I don't think anything anyone in American politics thinks, ways that question.

Should I resign? That is a, That's a moral position. And, that's kind of looked at. as in America as weakness, as weakness. Yeah. Of course. Well, all I can say is the camera doesn't lie. when it takes pictures of Marco Rubio and he looks like a panicked individual. And you can see in those brown eyes as they stare into the middle distance,

a look of the Faustine bargain. that he made and how it hasn't worked out as he planned. But maybe it will do yet. Maybe he will rise. Maybe he will eventually get the presidential chair, but right now wouldn't want to be in his shoes. Those enormous shoes that Trump forced him to wear. that cost $148 from Florsheim. Michael, always good to talk to you.

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