Trump WINS the Battle for Attention, LOSES the War in Iran

0:04 Welcome to Regime Change and Scott Galloway.

0:06 And I'm Jessica Tarlov.

0:08 If you're not already, please make sure to subscribe to our YouTube page

0:11 to stay up to date on all news, politics.

0:13 All right, let's get into it.

0:14 Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei said today

0:18 that the country will protect its nuclear and missile

0:21 capabilities and that the only place for Americans

0:23 in the Gulf was at the bottom of its waters.

0:26 The communication comes as President Trump continues to push

0:28 for a broader deal to end the conflict.

0:30 And after he posted on Truth Social, "No more Mr.

0:33 Nice Guy." Meanwhile, the war for which Trump sought no congressional

0:37 approval hit its 60-day mark on May 1st.

0:40 Under the War Powers Resolution, that's when the president is supposed to scale

0:44 back military operations unless Congress signs off.

0:47 And hanging over all of this is growing skepticism,

0:50 especially on Wall Street, about where this is all headed.

0:53 Investors even have a new nickname alongside Taco.

0:56 Now, it's nacho.

0:57 Not a chance or moves opens.

1:00 It's a sign the market isn't buying

1:02 that a deal with Iran is coming anytime soon.

1:05 Defense Secretary Pete Buttigieg testified before Congress yesterday fielding

1:08 questions about the Pentagon budget as well as Iran saying,

1:11 "If we need to go at it again to ensure that success,

1:14 we are prepared to in regards to more military action." Is the rhetoric

1:18 ramping up or is it the same kind of posturing we've been seeing?

1:23 I mean, kind of both.

1:25 I feel like Pete Buttigieg just has one gear

1:30 and he is always in it and it's fifth.

1:32 Is that I guess I can go to sixth, right?

1:34 I haven't driven a stick shift car in a while.

1:36 But I Yeah, it was just more of the same.

1:39 I think he fully got his butt handed to him in those hearings,

1:43 particularly by um Congressman Adam Smith.

1:46 Especially on the timeline.

1:48 Like getting him to admit that there

1:49 was no imminent threat and actually tracking us

1:52 from what happened with Operation Midnight Hammer

1:55 and the quote-unquote obliteration of their nuclear capacities,

2:00 he had to move to a place where he said,

2:02 "Oh, well, they still had nuclear ambitions." Duh.

2:06 Mhm.

2:06 The Iranians are always going to have nuclear ambitions.

2:08 The question is, can they actually get a nuclear

2:10 weapon and can they use it against us?

2:14 Um so, I thought that was a pretty embarrassing uh few hours for him in general.

2:18 Uh shoutout also, Seth Moulton was great and Pat Ryan, too,

2:22 especially talking about how we didn't protect our own military over there.

2:27 You know, we lost six soldiers in Kuwait

2:29 at that base where they had no protections from drone strikes.

2:33 So, they were essentially in like a makeshift office that was

2:36 put up and there were walls, but no roof on it.

2:39 Which, as you know, especially as you're doing an air campaign,

2:42 that stuff can come in from uh from up top.

2:45 So, I thought it was a bad day for Pete Hegseth,

2:47 but the story that I cannot believe and is so

2:51 important to the future of this war and this is

2:56 straight up war news is that apparently the Iranians

2:59 are getting vessels through um disguising them as Iraqi ships.

3:04 So, there is oil getting out of there and they've now

3:07 just updated the thought was that they had something like 10

3:10 to 20 days left um before they were going to have

3:14 to start pumping and dumping essentially their oil that they had.

3:18 That's been moved up to 4 to 6 weeks, which is a completely different timeline,

3:22 especially against the backdrop of this 60-day marker.

3:27 And I've seen um quotes and, you know,

3:29 reporters catching various GOP senators in hallways about,

3:33 you know, "Well, where do we stand?

3:35 Where do we stand?" And they're getting frustrated at this point.

3:38 I mean, this was supposed to be a strike operation,

3:42 similar to what we've seen before and people would be enthusiastic

3:45 about that, but now you're going to drag on past 60 days.

3:48 They're all looking at the midterms saying,

3:50 "We don't want to go into a midterm election with gas at $4.23

3:55 and everybody saying that their economic situation

3:58 is bad except if you own Google essentially.

4:02 And it feels like we're really at a continued

4:06 stalemate and that the government is totally back-footed

4:10 at this point and possibly going to run up against

4:13 a wall of their own supporters in the GOP caucuses.

4:18 Um what do you think?

4:20 Yeah, I think I think that's a decent summary.

4:22 I've been spending all this time looking at big techs earnings yesterday

4:25 and I thought essentially big tech I mean the earnings were just staggering.

4:30 Meta increased its revenues 33% year-on-year for a company that size

4:34 and the others were up between kind of 18 and 28% and I

4:39 was thinking that essentially what you have is our economy is now

4:43 a giant bet on AI and all of these companies benefit from attention.

4:49 And I think what in a strange

4:51 way what's happened is these companies have benefited

4:54 from the fact that everyone's face is now

4:55 glued to their phone to see who we're bombing, what's happened, what he's said.

5:00 I mean I got to think that the amount of attention and Meta showed this.

5:04 Meta's actual time or viewership went up, time went up, CPMs went up.

5:11 And I wonder if that's going to even anger the voting public more

5:15 that there's a small group of companies that are doing so incredibly well.

5:20 No one else can raise money.

5:21 Their electric prices are going up.

5:24 I have a friend in Florida.

5:26 He's a hardcore Trumper and the last time I had dinner with him and this is

5:29 anecdotal but you know sometimes anecdotal can

5:32 be you can draw some conclusions from it.

5:34 He said oh yeah, I'm out on Trump and I said well what was it?

5:37 And his redline was Iran.

5:38 He said I don't I think these wars are stupid.

5:40 So and it also is getting very confusing.

5:43 So people aren't even I think able

5:45 to track the specific nuance of what's going on.

5:48 All they see is we're still there.

5:50 And the basic premise that the Trump administration is up against right now is

5:54 I believe that every day the war goes on, it seeds advantage to the IRGC.

5:59 Because they win by surviving.

6:01 And it's clear we're not going to be

6:02 able to accomplish regime change from the sky.

6:05 It doesn't look as if the president has support to deploy ground troops.

6:10 That would be very risky.

6:12 So, I think their attitude is as long as and it looks like what you were saying,

6:16 I didn't realize that about the Iraqi vessels,

6:18 is they can offload that oil and maintain some sort of economic

6:23 some sort of economic viability that every day this goes on, they win.

6:29 And in a weird sense, every day this goes on, you know, Democrats win.

6:34 I mean, this is just that that hearing yesterday,

6:38 where I agree rep- representative Slotkin and Ryan did a great job,

6:42 just makes the administration look terrible.

6:44 They're unable to answer these questions.

6:45 They have constantly zigzagged.

6:47 They've constantly upended their own assertions.

6:50 And, you know, they've consistently um backtracked on stuff,

6:55 contradicted everything they've previously said.

6:58 They seem to have painted themselves into a corner,

7:01 or Trump has, and that is if he leaves right now,

7:04 it looks like America is When Muhammad Ali first started as a boxer,

7:09 no one denied his strength,

7:11 his speed, his footwork, but he broke his jaw in one of his first fights.

7:15 And people said, "Oh, it's over.

7:16 He has a glass jaw." If America develops a reputation for a glass jaw,

7:20 that is, okay, gets real, we lose some troops,

7:23 we start firing on their neighbors,

7:25 and they leave, and they leave with the Strait

7:27 of Hormuz now determined by the IRGC,

7:30 we look like a glass jaw nation, in my view.

7:33 There's a lot of people in America like, "I don't care.

7:35 We never wanted this thing.

7:36 Get the out." I get it.

7:38 I understand the argument.

7:39 But the reality is that makes us look really bad,

7:41 and our Gulf neighbors say our Gulf allies go, "Okay, let me get this.

7:45 You broke it, now we have to fix it?" At the same time,

7:48 if he continues to engage in the war,

7:51 it feels as if it just seeds more advantage to Iran.

7:54 I really do think this is a definition of a quagmire.

7:57 He has almost no good options here.

8:01 Yeah, um just quickly, I agree with a lot of that.

8:04 And actually, I agree with all of it and wanted to add to it that the argument

8:10 for {quote} "operational excellence" that people had been

8:13 making and also how genius the blockade was,

8:15 even though we're just blockading their blockade

8:17 and there was free flow beforehand.

8:19 So, um you know, I I don't know how well that works as an argument.

8:23 It certainly never resonated with me.

8:25 But if it is true, and it's being widely reported, even Fox is reporting,

8:30 that crude oil is getting out,

8:32 there is nothing that is working at this point then.

8:35 The blockade is smoke and mirrors at this point.

8:40 And I'm not sure what they're going to be able to walk away with and say, "Oh,

8:47 this was worth our time, American lives, and the money." You know,

8:51 Pete Hoekstra testified that we've only spent 25 billion.

8:54 Estimates are, in reality,

8:56 over 80 billion dollars have been spent

8:58 because he wasn't even discussing the amount

9:00 that we put into repairing American military

9:04 equipment that the Iranians have blown up.

9:07 I mean, they have done enormous damage.

9:09 And the interesting um the last thing I

9:11 want to say about this, it looks like J.D.

9:13 Vance or J.D.

9:14 Vance's team recognizes how bad this is, and they've started leaking.

9:18 And they leaked to The Atlantic that J.D.

9:20 Vance is concerned about our munitions supply,

9:23 which is something that I was not hounded off the set

9:26 of The Five cuz I still sat there for the rest of the show,

9:29 but they were jumping all over me when I said that we

9:32 don't have enough weapons anymore that if China invaded Taiwan tomorrow,

9:36 we couldn't defend them.

9:38 And everyone was like, "What are you talking about?

9:39 How could If there's anything we've had, you know,

9:41 we have enough missiles." Well, I don't know.

9:44 J.D.

9:44 Vance doesn't think that we have enough munitions to be able to finish this job,

9:48 let alone to do all of the other

9:49 work that's important for keeping authoritarians in check.

9:53 Um so, I you know, 2028 on his mind, I guess.

9:57 But uh you know, if J.D.

9:58 Vance is back-channeling to the Atlantic, uh you know something is wrong.

10:03 That's That's wild.

10:04 And then the The thing that I'm curious to hear your thoughts here.

10:07 The thing I thought the most underreported story of the week

10:10 was the UAE deciding to exit the OPEC cartel.

10:13 That is really That is a breakdown in the cartel.

10:15 It's That's the cartel coming apart.

10:17 And I think what they've I think

10:19 what they've decided is at these elevated prices,

10:22 we don't want a Saudi-dominated cartel telling us not to sell everything we can.

10:26 And in addition, because the UAE has been the recipient

10:30 of the most inbound projectiles of any nation in the Gulf,

10:33 including Israel from Iran, they're like,

10:36 "We need the money." They're now going to the US and saying,

10:40 "We might need a financial bailout if

10:41 this keeps going." And they're like, "No, we're out.

10:44 We're not going to have what has been the kingdom's dominance

10:48 of this setting production levels and what you can sell." Like,

10:51 "Sorry, we need the money and we're out." That is a really big deal.

10:56 I like the fact I hate cartels, I hate monopolies.

10:59 That should, over the medium and long term, bring down prices.

11:02 But that is a real fracture in the Gulf states,

11:06 because their economic agreement on OPEC OPEC is,

11:09 arguably speaking, the most powerful cartel in history.

11:12 Maybe with the exception of you could argue

11:13 that maybe um certain trade agreements or NAFTA,

11:17 but I don't think anything comes close to you politically to OPEC.

11:20 And them leaving because of this conflict is I mean,

11:24 quite frankly, it's again, as I see it, it's probably another win for the IRGC,

11:29 who is trying to atomize the rest of the Gulf,

11:32 destabilize it because of America's actions.

11:35 Any thought on the UAE leaving OPEC?

11:37 Well, I was surprised to see it.

11:38 I mean, this isn't my predominant wheelhouse necessarily.

11:42 Um, but it seemed to be shocking everybody that was reporting

11:46 on it and people who spend lots of time focused on this.

11:49 And I immediately went to what you just mentioned

11:53 about uh the UAE sniffing around for a bailout,

11:57 um which would totally defeat the purpose of having done all of this.

12:01 And I was thinking about it in terms

12:03 of the legacy of Trump in the Middle East, right?

12:06 I mean, he always goes back to and and rightly so,

12:10 you know, how meaningful the Abraham Accords were.

12:12 There's hopes for a second round of Abraham Accords.

12:15 And I mean, I doubt that Saudi is

12:18 going to want to play nice with anybody, frankly,

12:21 in the region after this or trust us as a partner in the same

12:26 way as we're calling we're causing an enormous financial hit um to them.

12:31 So, if there were back channels the administration about

12:34 how happy they were that we were going after Iran,

12:37 I don't know if those calls are are being made

12:40 with the same level of fervor as they were before.

12:43 And it's a major I don't want to say destabilizing necessarily,

12:46 but an a major change at least for the region.

12:52 Mhm.

12:51 Okay, let's take a quick break.

12:53 Stay with us.

12:57 Welcome back.

12:58 So, moving on in what was likely Jerome

13:00 Powell's final meeting as chair of the Federal Reserve,

13:02 the governing body announced it would keep its key

13:04 interest rate steady in the 3.5% to 3.75% range.

13:09 The decision was a dramatic 8-4 split among members.

13:12 That usually doesn't happen.

13:13 That's that was unusual.

13:14 Powell used his closing remarks to warn that legal actions

13:18 by the administration risk undermining the Fed's uh political independence.

13:21 Let's listen.

13:22 You know, my my concern is really about the series of legal attacks on the Fed,

13:27 which threaten our ability to conduct

13:29 monetary policy without considering political factors.

13:32 And I I want to note here,

13:33 this has nothing whatever to do with verbal criticism by elected officials.

13:38 Uh I I've never suggested that such verbal criticism

13:41 is a problem and neither has anyone else here.

13:43 But these legal actions by the administration

13:46 are unprecedented in our 113-year history,

13:49 and there are ongoing threats uh of additional such actions.

13:52 That piece of institutional architecture

13:55 separates successful countries from unsuccessful countries.

13:58 It is extremely important,

13:59 not for the people who work at the Fed at any given time,

14:02 but for the people that we serve,

14:04 that the Fed remain able to conduct monetary policy

14:06 in a way that doesn't get pulled into politics.

14:10 I mean, is Jerome Powell the leader of the resistance?

14:13 I He's just always so classy and stand up,

14:17 and I love I thought Scott Bessent was on with Larry

14:20 Kudlow and talking about how Jerome Powell has smashed our norms.

14:26 Like, buddy, do you know who you work for?

14:28 The guy who brought a lawsuit against Jerome Powell.

14:31 And what's really interesting,

14:32 so they dropped the suit against Powell so that Kevin

14:35 Warsh could get through because Tom Tillis was holding it up.

14:39 Right.

14:40 And Trump made an offhanded comment.

14:41 He's like, "No, we didn't drop the lawsuit." So,

14:43 I have no idea what happens now, right?

14:45 Like, maybe he's so pissed that Powell's going to hang

14:47 around that he's going to start this up again.

14:50 But, it sends a very good message that even when it

14:53 feels bleak and powerless against the behemoth of the federal government,

14:59 which has been weaponized in totality against average Americans,

15:03 against institutions,

15:05 against good policy, that there are ways to stand up.

15:08 And I just think Jerome Powell is remarkably brave that he would do

15:13 that in the press conference and just call the balls and strikes of it.

15:16 Say, "Of course, you can verbally criticize me and the Fed.

15:20 We have a First Amendment right to do that.

15:22 But you can't bring frivolous lawsuits and think that I'm just going to retire

15:28 to wherever it is that he enjoys spending his summers and get out of your way.

15:33 This institution matters and I'm going to protect it for as long as I'm able to.

15:41 Yeah, the I think what the media got wrong here is they reported that there

15:45 was an 8 to 4 that four people dissented from the decision to keep rate steady.

15:51 And it's misleading cuz my understanding is three

15:53 of the four dissenters didn't agree with the notion

15:56 that they would signal that they were looking

15:58 to cut rates at some point later in the year.

16:01 So this was actually

16:02 Oh, so it's even worse.

16:04 Yeah, this was actually the governor saying, "No,

16:07 we you know and then immediately Kashkari responded

16:10 and said the likelihood of a rate increase has

16:13 gone up because essentially what the governors are saying

16:16 is there's no evidence that we should cut rates.

16:19 Also, I think Warsh has lost a lot of credibility.

16:21 One, when he said in his confirmation hearing he

16:24 refused to acknowledge that Biden had been elected only

16:28 that he'd been sworn in and that he might

16:31 in fact be politicized and be looking to cut rates.

16:35 But it looks as if the governors are saying, "No,

16:38 this the information here it does not lend itself to a rate cut,

16:41 especially with oil and inflation where it is.

16:44 This is in Powell's right.

16:46 Powell is, you know,

16:47 threads needle between being forceful yet dignified and he does he does

16:54 give everyone hope and I thought what he said was really eloquent.

16:58 Do you like Kevin Warsh?

17:00 I think he's a substantive guy.

17:01 I've got to be honest,

17:02 I was just incredibly disappointed that the key component of the Fed is, okay,

17:08 obviously you want them to get it right,

17:09 but more than anything you want them to get

17:12 it right or wrong in isolation of political influence.

17:15 And when he refused to say that Biden had been elected and would just say,

17:20 "Well, he was duly sworn in." Yeah.

17:23 It's like, okay.

17:24 And not only that, I think he I think

17:26 at that moment he would have been approved anyways.

17:28 He might have pissed off his boss, the guy who appointed him,

17:31 but it's a 12-year appointment and I think at this point he's in.

17:34 No Republican was going to say, "I'm not voting for him because he

17:37 acknowledged that Trump was actually fairly elected." Yeah.

17:40 The key component of the Fed chairman a close

17:44 second to IQ is a fidelity to independence.

17:47 And right there he said, "No, I've been weaponized." Now,

17:51 fortunately, there is a wisdom of the crowds on the governors.

17:54 These are I've known people who have been Fed governors and they're very smart.

17:58 And they're typically pretty large ego individuals who

18:01 are not going to be intimidated by anybody.

18:03 So, I I think it's an actually a really

18:06 outstanding body that does a lot of great work.

18:08 Unfortunately, they're not getting as much good data

18:11 as they used to when you you know,

18:12 when you do away with the Bureau of Labor and Statistics.

18:15 They're armed with less information to make good decisions.

18:19 But my estimation of him has gone down dramatically.

18:22 I was relieved that he was going to he appointed someone serious.

18:24 He is a serious person who's well qualified.

18:27 But when he got up there and said, "Yeah,

18:29 I'm I'm Trump's too." I mean, it was just sort of really disappointing.

18:34 And the political calculus was off.

18:36 He could have I think if he'd said yes, he was he was elected.

18:39 I don't think Trump was going to weigh in and pull his nominee.

18:42 I I just don't get it.

18:44 I was very disappointed at that.

18:47 Yeah.

18:47 Your thoughts?

18:47 There was this uh hot mic moment of uh Chuck Grassley.

18:52 So, uh you can hear Grassley, his mic's still on and he's 92.

18:55 This happens.

18:56 And he says to a staffer,

18:57 "What would the big deal be if he said that Biden won 2020?" Yeah, what?

19:03 What's the downside?

19:05 What would be wrong with saying I am uh amazed.

19:12 And really appalled that And Blumenthal kind of pauses a little to like let

19:17 people hear this because that's what a normal human being thinks.

19:21 Like, we're so far past this.

19:23 Trump came back and had an incredible victory.

19:27 It was still like the third smallest in modern history or whatever,

19:30 but it was a big deal that he won again and he swung all these voters.

19:33 And like who cares at this point?

19:36 It's And you know a Democrat is going to ask you every single hearing.

19:40 Someone's going to say who won the 2020 election?

19:43 Was it a free and fair election?

19:45 It's just anyway.

19:46 Uh agreed.

19:47 So, moving on, the Florida House of Representatives have approved a new map

19:50 of the state that could turn four

19:51 congressional seats over to Republicans this year.

19:54 The approval came just after the Supreme Court announced a decision

19:57 to limit a key provision of the Voting Rights Act impacting a redrawn

20:01 map of Louisiana that had served as the impetus for Florida Governor

20:04 Ron DeSantis to seek out a new map for his own state.

20:07 Just what does this mean for the larger battle that seems

20:11 to have broken out around gerrymandering every state for additional seats?

20:17 Yeah, that's really the main story,

20:20 especially when it comes to the Supreme Court ruling yesterday um on the Voting

20:25 Rights Act when it wasn't a you know fully striking down section two,

20:29 but chipping away at at it.

20:31 The net impact for the midterms is going to be pretty minimal.

20:34 It could It could honestly even be like zero or one seats.

20:37 I think the maximum that anyone who knows

20:39 what they're talking about has said is four seats.

20:42 If southern states uh get really aggressive about it, uh Jeff Landry,

20:46 the governor of Louisiana, is trying to suspend the election,

20:49 I think it was, but ballots have already

20:50 gone out and they're running up against schedules,

20:54 which are happening very quickly.

20:55 And if ballots already out, um or you know folks who live abroad,

20:59 mil- people who serve in our military,

21:01 then you can't be changing the rules and redistricting.

21:04 This is really more of an issue for 2028 and beyond

21:07 and it's going to push liberal

21:11 and conservative states to essentially go nuclear.

21:14 And a Democratic representative Terri Sewell said,

21:19 you know, okay, so California, 52 seats.

21:23 Illinois, 17 seats.

21:24 Kathy Hochul has already posted that, you know,

21:28 she's heard the call and that if you have

21:30 to redistrict New York so that it's all blue,

21:34 even though we have, you know, Republican seats here,

21:38 then that's what you've got to do because that's

21:40 the level of warfare that we're engaged in at this point.

21:43 And, you know, this is something

21:45 that is deeply unpopular with Americans, gerrymandering.

21:49 They they don't like it.

21:50 That's why you had independent commissions,

21:52 bipartisan commissions all over the country that were supposed

21:55 to draw these maps and no one likes to see,

21:58 you know, the shapes of some of these districts are just ridiculous, right?

22:02 But I think it's going to get very ugly and very political.

22:06 But relieved that it is not as much of a problem

22:10 for 2026 as some people were saying yesterday when the ruling came down.

22:17 Yeah, it this feels like a job for AI.

22:20 Here Here are the Here's the number of people.

22:23 Here's the lay of the map.

22:26 We want something that represents best represents

22:28 people and please draw our districts for us.

22:31 It's gotten It has gotten out of control and it's worth mentioning

22:34 that Democrats have proposed to de-gerrymander

22:38 and Republicans have blocked it every time.

22:41 Nationwide ban.

22:42 Yeah, so it feels like this would be kind of if

22:46 there is a change in leadership and Congress and the White House,

22:50 it feels like this could be a pretty good thing

22:53 to not run on, but immediately to say we need to de-gerrymander.

22:57 Bipartisan commission.

22:59 Here it comes, folks.

23:00 And of course Congress and Senate will hate it,

23:02 but it feels like that would have a lot of public

23:04 support and be very be very hard to defend not supporting it.

23:10 It goes in the bucket.

23:11 I don't know if you saw it.

23:12 Jon Ossoff released this incredible It's not an ad cuz it's over 4 minutes.

23:16 This video yesterday about who's really taking advantage of Americans

23:21 and keeping you down and it's targeted at the pharmaceutical companies.

23:26 Mhm.

23:25 Incredibly well done and it's talking about

23:27 the part that he played in getting reforms so

23:29 that we could negotiate drug prices through Medicare

23:31 Part D and cap costs at $2,000 per senior.

23:36 And so that's great for Jon Ossoff who's running, you know,

23:38 he's in a tough race as a swing state Democratic senator,

23:43 but this is an issue that goes up there with corruption.

23:51 Mhm.

23:50 We have an oligarch class here and there are no

23:53 guardrails to stop them from just continuing to fill their coffers.

23:59 And I think that the argument

24:01 about gerrymandering falls into that category, too.

24:04 That there are, you know,

24:05 a select few people that are making decisions as to whether

24:08 your vote really counts and what kind of representation you should have.

24:13 And maybe this gets so bad and Democrats go so

24:18 nuclear on this that Republicans will support the nationwide ban.

24:22 But, you know, AOC said you we've got to be

24:25 as maniacal as possible until we get our ban.

24:29 And I think you're right,

24:30 it should be adopted into people's platforms as they look

24:32 towards 2028 for sure that they're going to fix this.

24:36 No one likes it.

24:38 Yeah, we have a tendency to focus on the outputs instead

24:40 of the atmospherics or the structural changes we need to make.

24:43 And it's the boring stuff that moves the needle.

24:45 And I think we're going to end up with extremists on both sides

24:49 in a dysfunctional system until we do both

24:53 de-gerrymander and also get rid of Citizens United.

24:56 I increasingly believe that the 900 billionaires

24:58 that are responsible for 20% of all PAC giving,

25:02 it's actually probably 300 of them.

25:03 I bet 2/3 aren't interested in giving money.

25:05 What people don't realize though is I think it's over 50,

25:08 60% of total influence because if you're a union PAC,

25:11 you just give money to the union guy.

25:13 Whereas if you're a billionaire,

25:14 you can be very targeted and surgical about the money you give.

25:18 And these people have totally disassociated from common Americans.

25:22 They don't use the airports, the police,

25:24 the school system, the healthcare system.

25:27 So the the people swaying our elections no longer

25:30 have a vested interest in the well-being of Americans.

25:34 And that's why I think you see the monetization of healthcare, of technology,

25:38 of education because the people who have a disproportionate amount

25:41 of influence don't really have an invested interest in in America.

25:45 I was studying with my son last night about the rail system in Chongqing, China.

25:50 And it's such a marvel of creativity, infrastructure, long-term thinking.

25:55 And I'm like, "We don't think that way anymore." Because at the end of the day,

25:59 an investment in infrastructure is an investment in the middle class.

26:02 And it costs money and it requires long-term

26:04 thinking and nobody gets really rich off of it.

26:07 What it does is it shaves 3, 5, 10 minutes off of everyone's day and gives

26:11 it back to middle class people to spend

26:13 time with their families or make a little

26:14 bit more money or be a little bit healthier, a little less stressed.

26:18 And the reality is the people that get to decide,

26:19 make these decisions aren't really interested in that because they've they've

26:23 got their own way to get to work to and from work.

26:25 But anyways, let's move on.

26:27 Speaking of elections, Maine Governor Janet Mills announced today that she'll

26:31 drop out of the Senate election in Maine.

26:33 I was curious to hear your thoughts here.

26:35 Leaving the midterm race,

26:36 a face-off between incumbent Republican Senator Susan Collins

26:40 and Marine Corps veteran and Democrat Graham Plaster.

26:43 Jess, your thoughts?

26:44 Uh it's a really big deal.

26:46 Uh this was, you know, one of the ground zeros for the kind of battle

26:50 between the old guard and the new progressive left.

26:54 Janet Mills didn't want to run.

26:56 Chuck Schumer recruited her and Kirsten Gillibrand,

26:59 a lot of pressure for her to do this.

27:00 She's 78 years old, I think.

27:02 She's already pledged to serve one term.

27:05 But basically no one else wanted to do it

27:07 from the kind of more moderate or center-left wing of the party.

27:12 And it will be a big test for Graham Platner's kind of politics.

27:17 Obviously, he's had a lot of, you know,

27:18 scandals with the Nazi tattoo and past comments.

27:24 You know, but he has clearly done a good enough job, you know,

27:27 vis-a-vis the people of Maine or the Democratic

27:29 primary voters to explain himself and his evolution.

27:35 And I was glad to see that Schumer and Gillibrand released a statement saying

27:39 that they're going to be backing the nominee

27:41 because we need to defeat Susan Collins here.

27:44 But Janet Mills cited and, you know,

27:45 she's been losing in the polls by like 30 points for quite a while.

27:49 I can't raise money.

27:51 And I spoke to a DC fundraiser who told me the same thing about

27:55 it that they could not get people to come to a Janet Mills fundraiser.

27:58 And candidates are pulling in tons of money.

28:02 Like they're pulling in Q3 money in Q1.

28:05 Like James Tallarico, Jon Ossoff, Sherrod Brown, Mary Peltola in Alaska.

28:11 And Iowa, Rob Sand for instance who's running for governor.

28:15 You watch his ads, you don't even know if he's a Democrat or Republican.

28:17 He's a complete marvel.

28:20 And Janet Mills couldn't get people to give her five bucks,

28:23 let alone big donors that, you know, you could bundle their money.

28:27 So, big test for the big tent, I guess, going forward.

28:32 But I'm excited to see how it plays out

28:34 and I think it's good that she dropped out,

28:36 frankly, versus going into an ugly primary.

28:39 People going out and voting,

28:40 her getting trounced gives us time to coalesce around the nominee.

28:45 Yeah, there's few senators I would enjoy seeing

28:48 get kicked out of office more than Senator Collins.

28:50 I think she's such an unproductive narcissist.

28:54 I'm so sick of her supposedly really struggling with you know,

28:59 whether or not she should approve Very concerned, right?

29:02 Always concerned.

29:04 Yeah, I really Yeah, he said these incredibly sexist Oh, he's against abortion.

29:11 I'm just so concerned.

29:12 I will do whatever the Trump asked me to do.

29:15 She just loves the attention of pretending to be concerned and thinking through.

29:20 And Senator Collins, we know exactly how you're going to vote.

29:23 So, stop It's just performative.

29:25 It's so performative.

29:26 Yeah, I mean, it is an advantage in the Trump era that, you know,

29:29 she can call him up.

29:30 Like they were going to send ICE to Maine and she called and said,

29:33 "Could you not do that?" And then they didn't.

29:35 So, that that is a bonus for Mainers,

29:39 but in reality, they're economically suffering.

29:42 They want something new and Grand Plastering of anything is something new.

29:47 It's something new.

29:49 Mhm.

29:49 Let's end on a lighter note.

29:50 President Trump is now putting his face on US passports.

29:53 Let's watch what AOC had to say about it.

29:56 What do you make of Donald Trump putting

29:57 his face on all these on the new US passports?

30:01 It's like it's giving Monopoly money.

30:04 It's like you know, I think he's jealous that you know,

30:10 Mount Rushmore got a page.

30:11 You got four presidents in there and he's probably saying,

30:15 "Why don't I get a passport page?" And I think um I think it's

30:19 also like all these lower level people

30:20 competing for his love and attention as well.

30:25 I was in a complete state of panic because my older

30:27 daughter needs to renew her passport and I was like,

30:30 "There is no effing way that we're going

30:31 to have a Donald Trump passport." But it's

30:33 only for people who go in person in DC and for a select amount of time.

30:38 So, if you're listening to this and you're worried about it,

30:40 you don't have to have a Donald Trump passport,

30:43 but apparently he now thinks he's above even just like great

30:46 American presidents like George Washington and Lincoln had nothing on him.

30:50 He's like most powerful people that ever lived like Napoleon,

30:54 Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar.

30:57 Guy, I mean, I don't know if he's just

31:00 messing with people and having these kind of diluted thoughts,

31:03 or it's really what he thinks,

31:05 but I would err towards this guy who hasn't gotten,

31:09 you know, much pushback, let's say.

31:11 There's no reason to think that he doesn't

31:14 think that he's a little bit Alexander the Great.

31:18 Yeah, it reminds me in some Gulf

31:19 states and some developing nations where you see the the leader who is not was

31:24 not really democratically elected has their picture everywhere.

31:28 And I think a decent talking point for a Democrat running would be,

31:32 "I'm the bleach to this stain,

31:34 and I promise within 90 days of being elected to the White House,

31:37 I'm going to sign an executive order to remove his image from everything,

31:42 remove his name from everything, and also I promise to never use his name.

31:46 I will reference the previous administration,

31:48 but I'm going to give you visual presence

31:51 or visual relief and more time back with your family.

31:54 He's the stain, I'm the bleach." I'm in.

31:59 Let's leave it there.

32:00 Thanks, Jess.

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32:17 Thanks so much for joining us today.