5/18/26: Thomas Massie Rips Israel Lobby, US Preps Cuba War, Trump Pumps Stocks

24:26So for a while now, the Trump administration has been making noises about doing some Venezuela-esque operation in Cuba. Obviously, this is Marco Rubio's fondest wish. Trump was asked about this in the last couple of days. Let's take a listen to what he had to say. What he's done has been a virtual miracle. It's the hottest country anywhere in the world, and it is. We're having a different subject on Cuba. There's reporting that Raul Castro could be indicted by the DOJ, I believe. What does that mean? I don't want to comment on that. I'll let the DOJ comment on it. But they need help, as you know.

25:02And you talk about a declining country. They are really a nation. We're a country in decline. So we're going to see. We have a lot to talk about on Cuba, but not maybe for tonight. So he's asked there about Raul Castro, who is 94 years old, I think. Let's put D3 up on the screen. This, again, looks like potential pretense to or pretext to be able to do something akin to the Venezuela playbook. New York Times wrote this up with possible Raul Castro indictment. U.S. eyes Venezuela playbook amid stepped up surveillance flights, a visit to the CIA of the CIA director and an energy embargo. White House is trying to increase pressure on Cuba.

25:41They are threatening to indict him over a plane downing from like decades ago. And again, he's 94 years old. So that's what's going on with that. But then we've got another piece to add to the manufacturing of consent and creating a pretext for some sort of invasion or other illegal action, offensive action against Cuba. I can put D2 up on the screen. This is from Marco Pudo over at Axios, exclusive USI's attack drone threat from Cuba. Cuba, they write, has acquired more than 300 military drones and recently began discussing plans to use them to attack the U.S. base at Guantanamo Bay, U.S. military vessels, and possibly Key West shore.

26:25Florida, 90 miles north of Havana, according to classified intelligence shared with Axios. The intelligence, which could become a pretext for U.S. military action, love how they just write that right into the piece, appreciate that, shows the degree to which the Trump administration sees Cuba as a threat. No, they don't. because of developments in drone warfare and the presence of Iranian military advisors in Havana, a senior U.S. official said. When we think about those types of technologies being that close in a range of bad actors from terror groups to drug cartels to Iranians to the Russians, it's concerning, the official said.

26:57It's a growing threat. And they also mentioned the fact that CIA Director John Ratcliffe openly traveled to Cuba on Thursday, warned officials there against engaging in hostilities urged them to scrap their totalitarian government to end crippling U.S. sanctions. Another quote from the officials, Director Ratcliffe made clear Cuba can no longer serve as a platform for adversaries to advance hostile agendas in our hemisphere. The Western hemisphere cannot be our adversaries' playground. So there you go. Yeah, the drone thing. Look, I like Mark, actually. He lives in Florida. I'll say this. He works with Barack Ravid over at Axios.

27:33And I do really appreciate him saying this could be a pretext for U.S. invasion. By the way, this is what's going on here. He's telling you why they decided to come to him. They're like, look, this is our pretext. And he's like, this is the pretext for invasion. Let's actually break it down, though. 300 military drones. By the way, this is the reality of what we created with the Iran war, is we showed the world how vulnerable we are, our vast armada to drones. Now imagine, actually, Cuba with only 300, what they would be able to do even if the U.S. were to launch some sort of war against them.

28:05And that's actually the problem. Now, I am in no way saying that we should have some sort of preemptive war. Welcome to the world of what defense now looks like in an asymmetric conflict. And you can look all around from Mexico to Cuba to any of the U.S. bases that were all damaged and destroyed that are now all over the world, that we've spent billions and billions of dollars. And with 300 times 25 ,000, you can significantly disrupt and cause terror. So yeah, I mean, it would be smart actually for Cuba to get not just 300 drones. They should have hundreds of thousands of drones. That should be the only thing that their entire economy is focused on because it would be the only thing probably that would ever stop the United States actually from a lot of these sanctions.

28:49But I think it also demonstrates there, this is what I've said earlier about Trump. Trump has given up, genuinely given up on changing the country. So by not being able to change the country, he wants to change the world. He wants to leave his imprint on the world. Look at all the shit that he is doing. The reflecting pool, the ballroom. What did I just see that the more recent project that they're doing? Oh, the golf course. The golf course. There's a new golf course here in Washington. With the Garden of Heroes or whatever, yeah. Which previously was like a volleyball court or something. Like, what he cares about is his imprint.

29:20Oh, his face on the$100 bill. His face on the passport. The Kennedy Center. The Kennedy, the Trump Kennedy Center, right? Like, this ultimately is what drives him. And what drives more than anything? What is his more recent obsession? Venezuela should become the 51st state. He wants to become the first president to expand the maps of the United States. And if not expand the maps, then to fundamentally change the globe in his image. More recently, what was that image that we had in the A Block? Is it A2? This is that map, right, that he posts of Iran with the full flag that's on top of it and then all of the converging arrows on top of Iran.

29:55Like he wants to change the map entirely in his image And Cuba has been a Republican obsession now for decades, right? Cuba is not a threat to the United States, like in any way. Preposterous. To the extent that it ever was, it was like 60 years ago. The idea, if you believe that they're really thinking of like drones striking Key West Florida, like that is just the dumbest shit you could possibly do. I mean, they might if we attack them, but outside of that, they're not going to. Planning on preempt, oh, we're just going to randomly attack Key West Florida to draw the ire of the nuclear-powered superpower.

30:33That makes no sense whatsoever. It's just idiotic to imagine that that is anything serious or real. Right. In reality, what they want, I mean, which would be smart, to have some sort of credible drone deterrent and be like, hey, can you turn our oil back on? Like, can you allow Mexico to ship us some oil? Because we do, you know, look, we may go, but we're not going to go quietly. That should be the strategy now for every nation in the world, actually, for some sort of deterrence from Taiwan with China to the United States. It's like the porcupine strategy for what they should be pursuing. But it does demonstrate, though, that at the same time, they're going to use it as a pretext like what they are with Iran.

31:07Why did we have to attack Iran, according to the administration? Because Israel was going to and because they were creating, what did they say, a conventional shield for their nuclear program. So they were going to create enough ballistic missiles that we could never attack them again in the future, which is why we had to do it now. So I think this is purely about his obsession with remaking the Western Hemisphere. This is the original Don Roe doctrine stuff that they were all in for. And I mean, from Ryan, you tell me. The Cubans, frankly, they seem very willing to play ball. Like they're like, look, maybe one of us will step down, but our regime needs to stay in power.

31:46Kind of like Maduro originally had shown. I just don't really know when these people are going to learn. Like that's just not how it works. Maduro literally said, I will happily step down as long as my guy replaces me in a few years. We went in and we kidnapped him. Like when are people going to learn? Like there's really no good negotiating with this. It's just all force and all strength. There's no other option. Yeah. Yeah. No, I agree with you on that. It's very clear. And I mean, the other piece that I think Trump will be looking towards is he needs to recover from his Iran humiliation. Yes, that's right.

32:18So he needs to, you know, punch some playground weakling, which Cuba, you know, I mean, their economy was already struggling because of our decades and decades of sanctions. And they don't have they're not a military power, anything approaching the level of military power that even like an Iran has. and so he feels like, oh, well, the way I can reclaim my glory, like what I achieved with Venezuela is to go in and just, you know, take Cuba and do with them what I want to do. So I think that's the other part of this. I mean, in a sense, Cuba, I think, is being spared right now for the moment because we are so occupied in Iran and so many of our military assets there and our focus is there and all of our top operators and all of that sort of stuff.

33:02So I think that has bought them some time. But in the end, it also provides another justification, another reason, another piece of logic for why Trump is determined to go in and do something against them. Also to shore up the one last constituency that he will have who will be with him to his dying day. South Floridian. I'm serious. We need to cut South Florida off and let it sail into this. Between Venezuela and this shit, just go. All right. Just leave. Leave all of us. Who are the Floridians? And they go, obviously, Rubio. Yes. Susie Wiles. Susie Wiles. God, it's been a while since I've compiled all the lists.

33:40Well, Trump himself is a Mar-a-Lago resident, officially a Florida resident. And that's actually important because you can imagine there's all kinds. I mean, Mar-a-Lago is where he spends most of his time. Mar-a-Lago is pay for play. Do you know how many Cubans are down there and just be like, oh, Mr. Trump? You know, like, oh, you'll be the hero of Havana. I can't sleep at night while thinking about my family's plantation. Oh, and you can imagine Trump having fantasies of opening his Trump Casino in Havana. Trump Casino, yes. He's old enough to have those sorts of visions of what it could be.

34:07America cannot be great again until a rich Palm Beach residence can take a boat to Havana to gamble and to exploit the resources of this island. We simply have just never been great ever since we lost that. And rich Spaniards living in Cuba were able to own vast amounts of land and to exploit the population. I'm not some Fidel Castro fanboy, but I'm just like, let's be honest about what 1950s Cuba really was, right? The same with Venezuela. I mean, who are all these rich Venezuelans? Tucker had that line once where he's like, ah, these Venezuelans? I get it. You know, they had a really hard time.

34:44Live in pretty nice houses, though, here in Florida. Come on. Like, that's the truth. And then, especially in the migration context, everyone just blows past it. The whole reason that Trump, in my opinion, is one of the main reasons he's president, is because of uncontrolled migration into the United States from places like Venezuela and Cuba. And so this, like what? And why are they migrating? It's because of our sanctions primarily, right? Oh, my God. That has made, I mean, the sanctions are designed to punish ordinary people. And right now in Cuba, it's really dire. The fact that we've instituted this complete siege and embargo, and they're so dependent on little trickles of aid coming in, little amounts of fuel coming in.

35:31It really is absolutely devastating. You can look at the reporting. Ryan and others did on the ground while they were there to see the impact of that. But yeah, of course. And you've had many people who have fled Cuba just recently because of those economic conditions. A bunch came under Biden because I think he continued some of the sanctions. He did. He absolutely did. Did not go back to the Obama policy. This was one of the Obama foreign policy Ws where he normalized relations and lift sanctions and things got better. And then Trump comes in and completely reverses that and Biden continues the Trump course.

36:02Right. And yeah, we had a huge number of people who came from Cuba. Although, of course, they get a pass. What's that policy called? It's been a while since. Wet foot, dry foot. Don't get me started. Yeah, but it's, I mean, this is one of the areas where Trump has taken some blows in the Cuban community in Florida because they have been, they have been like arresting and detaining Cubans who are used to getting that pass. And so I think they're also, to your point about like his political constituency, this would be a way to, you know, unruffle the feathers that have been upset that like we're not getting our special treatment anymore.

36:37You're just treating us like any of these other migrants. Wow. The horror, right? I don't know. This Florida, our Florida occupied government, like it's too much. We cannot continue to have so many of our politics dictated by the internal politics of this one state, which is not even a swing state anymore. I know. It's ridiculous. Like everyone just stop and give up. All right. Okay. Let's move on. Let's move on to Trump's, more Trump corruption here. Apple Vacation's semi-annual sale is here and it's the a perfect time to plan your next beach getaway. Enjoy up to$250 off international and Hawaii vacations, up to$150 off domestic trips and hotel savings up to 70 % off.

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39:01Complete disclosures available at public.com slash disclosures. An absolutely stunning revelation of just how many stock trades Trump has made while serving as president of the United States. Let's put this up on the screen. Trump discloses hundreds of millions of dollars in trades in the first quarter, the first quarter of 2026. Do you see that chart? This is really important because he has gone from, you know, I mean, this was never ideal, the number of stock trades that are being made. But here in 2026, when we have all these concerns and obvious, obvious breadcrumbs pointing towards insider trading, that his portfolio has been insanely, insanely active.

39:44Just look at the weekly number of transactions there. So I'll read you a little bit of this article from the Financial Times. They say financial disclosures for U.S. President Donald Trump showed hundreds of millions of dollars worth of transactions involving securities in major American companies. Oh, which companies you might ask, including NVIDIA, Palantir, Paramount, Boeing, just in the first three months of 2026. They also show transactions involving Tesla, Apple, Meta, Visa, Citi, Qualcomm, and GE Aerospace. Top executives of all those companies accompanied the U.S. president on his trip to Beijing, this week to meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

40:29Trump wrote on True Social, it was an honor to have the business leaders on the trip, including the great Jensen Huang, a reference to the chief executive of semiconductor giant NVIDIA. The filing show 15 transactions relating to that chipmaker in the first three months of the year. Quote, I will be asking President Xi, a leader of extraordinary distinction, to open up China so these brilliant people can work their magic, the president wrote on his social media site on Wednesday, referring to the U.S. company executives. The number of transactions disclosed on Thursday far exceeds Trump's trading activity during the first year of his second term.

41:05It also marks the first major sale of assets since returning to office. Let's put the next element up on the screen here just so you can see. This is from our old friend, Unusual Wales, over on Twitter. They write, Breaking, Trump purchased up to$630 ,000 worth of Palantir stock during the first three months of the year In March alone, Trump made at least seven purchases of Palantir, totaling as much as$530 ,000. A month later, Trump literally wrote on true social, quote, Palantir technologies has proven to have great warfighting capabilities and equipment. Gee, who would that benefit? Whose stock portfolio would that benefit?

41:42It is just so brazen. It is so in your face that you cannot even, you can't make it up. I mean, Nancy Pelosi, nothing compared to this. And I got plenty of smoke for her and all of the congressional insiders who seem to always do very well in their stock portfolios. This is above and beyond anything, anything we have seen. And then he's out there. You know, he's out there. The government is buying pieces of some of these companies in some instances, certainly out there on True Social, boosting these companies. His government giving contracts to these companies. Absolute insanity. Yeah, we can't allow this.

42:20And the Trump organization says that their investment holdings are maintained exclusively through fully discretionary accounts independently managed by third party financial institutions with sole and exclusive authority over all investment decisions. And this is why, you know, your point about Pelosi and all that is very important. That is the loophole which we basically allowed all of these filthy rich government politicians to continue to trade while they're in office. As always with Trump, it's always dialed up to the most ridiculous degree. But this is why we've always advocated on this show for a total ban on trading is because there is no such thing, period, as not being influenced by your own personal financial – especially with Trump.

42:57But like really with any president, right? You can't allow them to have even independently managed blind trust because it's fake fundamentally. We've loaned this now for decades going all the way back to LBJ used to have a secret phone line where he would manage all of his financial decisions while he was president in the Oval Office. And this is where you buy Palantir stock. Maybe you get a report about it. And then you're also pumping the stock. But at the same time, even beyond that, it's not even just about your personal finance. You also have the support of those very executives for your administration and you're doing deals.

43:30And then there's just general knowledge in the back of your head. But it just – look, what it highlights to me is that these transactions, as opposed to specifying exact figures, are worth between$200 and$687 million, hundreds of millions of dollars in these companies, which are – you have their exact executives on the plane who are also pitching to you and setting up government policy, which you have immense interest and ability. Like, if you think Congress has the ability to affect a stock, the president is at times, I don't even know, 200? 500? I mean, you know, like. Not just in terms of, okay, government contracts.

44:10Okay, the bully pulpit. Okay, he took them on his trip to China. He was pushing one of the quote-unquote deals that came out of the trip to China was they're going to purchase 200 Boeing airplanes, right? That was one of the things, the deals that was struck there. But then you also have, and especially because of the way Trump operates the entire federal government as his own plaything, so there's no even illusion of independence, you also have the ability to greenlight or block different mergers or take different regulatory actions or not take different regulatory actions. So let me give you a couple more examples here.

44:45Six trades in the filings relate to Intel, U.S. chipmaking giant. Oh, guess what happened with Intel this year? The U.S. government took a nearly 10 % direct ownership stake in that company in the past year. That was also 100 % Trump's decision. Seven transactions relating to Boeing. I just mentioned the deal that was struck in China with regard to Boeing. U.S. Special Envoy Paolo Zampali, Epstein-Linked, by the way, who accompanied Vice President J.D. Vance to Hungary last month, also works to promote Boeing sales overseas. So your special envoy is also working to promote Boeing sales, and you're buying stock in Boeing.

45:20interesting. That guy Zampoli said, whenever people see me, they want something. They want access to the president. I tell them, buy Boeing. If you want to make the president happy, buy Boeing. It's the simplest thing in the world. Paramount. Does anyone tell me out there whether Paramount's been in the news recently and for what? Paramount and Warner Brothers Discovery, the two companies involved in a$110 billion blockbuster takeover that is now in the hands of U.S. regulators, both appeared in Trump's disclosed trades. So there you go. I mean, it's just as brazen as it can possibly be. It's hard to keep track of all this stuff.

45:54We're gonna cover probably tomorrow that Trump is suing his own government and instead of going forward with getting some taxpayer-funded settlement for himself directly, instead his compromise is he wants to create a$1.8 billion slush fund to reward his own allies that he feels were unjustly prosecuted under the Biden administration. Then you have the whole crypto scheme, which is probably the biggest in terms of dollar amounts, the biggest source of corrupt dealings in the Trump administration and direct foreign interference, foreign influence on his government and just billionaire, just general, whoever wants to have influence over him.

46:32The way to do it is just buy a bunch of his crypto, prop up the stock, the price of that. So his bulk of his wealth now comes not from his real estate dealings, but from crypto. And of course, you've got all of the Trump hotels and all the Gulf tournaments that were paid for by Liv, which is owned by the Saudi government, all of this mess. And so it is truly, truly world historic, the amount of corruption here. And then the cherry on top is this massive amount of insider trading that we can see being done. Yeah, I mean, look, it's beyond madness. I also wanted to, I wanna give some attention to Kash Patel.

47:09Can we put that one up there? Oh, we always want to give some attention to Cash. Just want to highlight Mr. Cash, giving all of us a bad name. Snorkeling at Pearl Harbor, Cash Patel's travels had to focus on ethical issues. The FBI director continues to come under scrutiny for mixing government business with dates, vacation, and leisure time. Last summer, Cash Patel capped a whirlwind South Pacific trip with a snorkel trip in Hawaii. Navy SEALs used two boats to transport and escort Mr. Patel and nine others on what the DOD called a VIP snorkel next to one of the military's most sacred sites, the underwater tomb of the USS Arizona, which holds the remains of more than 900 Navy sailors and Marines who died at Pearl Harbor.

47:50Patel swam in the vicinity of the tomb for 30 minutes. And out of respect, as I mentioned, for the dead entombed at the wreckage, the rule bars, rules bar visitors from even wearing swimwear at the memorial, with some exceptions over the years for dignitaries. The only people allowed in the water around the tomb are military and National Park Service divers interring the remains of the last survivors. Officials from the DOD said VIP tours near the Arizona were common, but they declined to say how often they take people snorkeling. And, you know, this is the type of stuff which just drives people nuts.

48:26Like, I can't tell you why this bothers me almost as much as the trades. And it's because this is, you know, this clownish official who has bungled all of these investigations using his position to come into office and basically just treat it as a joyride for all the cool stuff that he never got to do. Because obviously he grew up as a loser. And it's like going to go and chug beers with the hockey team and snorkeling and what? Using his – pumping his girlfriend's country music. What did he say? that she's done more for the country than most people will do in their lifetimes. It's like, okay. Yeah, FBI director as like Make-A-Wish founder.

49:07No, yeah, it's crazy. Exactly. That's what it is. That's what gets under my skin. And oh, I've seen Mike Walton. Oh, I was offered a VIP swim tour of the Arizona. I'm like, well, okay, maybe. Maybe that is the case. But then I feel like we should just end that because I don't know, it's the Arizona. Have you been there before? I mean, first of all, it's incredibly sombering because you're looking down. On this thing, you're like, there are literally 900 bodies that are down there. And if you've ever read it, like, it's such a horrific incident. Like, you should sit there in silence and just be like, I can't believe that something like this happened.

49:38It's not really like a joyride going snorkeling type thing, you know, that you're supposed to – you're not supposed to be reveling in it as some great experience, right? You're supposed to go there and be like, wow, what a horrific event. Like, that's how I – I feel the same way at Arizona that I did if you go to, like, the 9-11 memorial. Well, I saw somebody in this piece said like, you know, this would be like playing kickball at Arlington National Cemetery. A hundred percent. Exactly. Perfect. Perfect example. Like when you go to Arlington and they even do that, you ever seen kids, you know, who are screaming or something like that at the tomb of the unknown soldier?

50:08Those guys will even break and they'll be like, you know, you need to show respect. I agree with that. That's a good thing. You know, those there are certain sites like that where you're just supposed to have some somber and level of respect. And that's why like breaking that like, yeah, it drives me nuts. The other thing with Cash, I mean, just such a hypocrite. Before he was FBI director, he would always criticize Chris Ray. Oh, the PJ travel? Chris Ray. He said this quote, I'm just saying Chris Ray doesn't need a government-funded GV jet to go to vacation. Maybe we ground that plane. This was one of his big criticisms of the previous FBI director.

50:41And now, I mean, it's not even close. Like the things that, like whatever, I'm not a big Chris Ray fan. I'm here to stand Chris Ray. But it's not even close to the level of clownish, like, self-indulgent behavior here. I still find it so interesting and fascinating and curious that the would-be assassin at the White House Correspondents' Dinner in his manifesto was like, any of the administration officials are targets except for Mr. Patel. What? Why? That was a weird one. I also appreciate Zed Jelani always jumps in when one of these Cash Patel scandals erupts and is like, he is single handling, destroying the mythology around Indian Americans being like competent and intelligent and good at their hardworking and good at their jobs.

51:25So he's busting up some racial stereotypes. I've always tried to tell people we're just like everybody else. Just like any whites, blacks, others. There's dumb ones. There's smart ones. All right. And cash is living proof, actually, of why, yeah, of that. So there you go. Yeah, we got one more corrupt Trump dealing here that we needed to get into the show, which is Katie Miller, wife of Stephen Miller, has a podcast. She has access to basically any administration official that she wants. I think J.D. Vance went on there. Who's the first guest? First guest was J.D. Vance. She had Dana White on recently.

51:58Nicki Minaj went on her show, et cetera. She had cash on, remember, and his girlfriend. Oh, yes, that's right. That's right. In the middle of a manhunt. Yeah. Oh, that's right. That's right. I forgot about those details. Yeah. Sharp, sharp memory there. Anyway, she's getting a deal, it looks like, courtesy of the MAGA-CBS owners. We can put this up on the screen. This is from the Daily Beast. MAGA-CBS owners plot soft landing for Trump aide's wife, the wife of a top White House advisors and talks, for a podcasting deal with a media giant currently seeking approval from the Trump administration for$111 billion merger.

52:34So there you go. She's going to get paid for this podcast. Let's check in. How is this podcast doing, Soghar? Surely if she's going to get some significant podcast deal, she must be really excelling. She has access to so many people. Can we put E5 up on the screen here? So she's got 58 ,000 subscribers. She's got her latest video from five days ago has 4.9 thousand views. Dana White did clock in at 37 ,000 views. Brendan Carr, FCC chair, 4 ,700 views. What is it really like being a Trump? I think that was with Laura Trump, 22 ,000 views. Byron Donalds, 9 ,000 views. Whoever Chris and Liz Wright are, oh yeah, Chris Wright, on Iran, solar, nuclear, and Card County, 4 ,000 views.

53:20So in any case, the Hannity one here did a pretty decent 150. I think her biggest one was this Nicki Minaj one, 270. But we're not talking about blockbuster numbers here. In fact, we went and looked. We compared to the free press because that's our benchmark for podcast performance, kind of roughly on par in terms of typical views. But as you know, you guys know, obviously here at Breaking Points, we get a lot more on our videos than this place. And we don't have nearly access to the officials that she's able to just, you know, call in favors from because of who her husband is. So just complete pay to play here.

53:54No doubt about it. It is totally nuts. I mean, there's so many, look, I mean, this is the thing. It's just divorce from the market. Like the free press acquisition had nothing to do with their actual views and or influence. It was about buying Barry and installing like a pro-Israel ombudsman and her staff over at CBS. Like, that's what it was. It's like, okay, it was an acquihire, I guess that's what they call it. Yeah. Right? In Silicon Valley. Here, this is, it's very obvious they want influence with MAGA world and she's literally the wife of Stephen Miller. Yeah. And this is, again, the Ellisons who are offering up this deal who, you know, want to make sure that their merger goes through with no problem.

54:28So not, No big deal to throw the wife of an influential Trump aide. And Steve Miller continues to be very influential. Trump aide. Throw the wife some cash and see what she can get. I just, I'm always amazed at these celebs or people with, you know, people who, and not to view shame, but, you know, a little bit. Just because we are literally in this business. I can watch people sign deals for like$10,$15 million, which I'm like, whoa. Like I know what, you know, what's making over here. And then what those people are getting paid in terms of checks. and they're getting one-fifth the number. And sure, they read ads.

55:01We don't. Like, I get it. There's a bit of a gulf here. But sometimes these guys get cut checks, which make no market sense whatsoever. And I think it's the execs either want to seem cool by hanging out with celebrities, or in this case, they want more influence, like with people who are in power. And that's really what it's all about. It has literally nothing to do with the actual market-based reality of this business. Because if it did, it would be very, very, very different. You know, in terms of who gets blessed by these big, you know, by these big companies for cool deals and stuff like that.

55:35I'm always like, this is just fascinating to me. You know, where the money goes and for whom. So that's - I'm also still not over the fact that freaking Sean Duffy, who's the, you know, transportation secretary and former real world star, filmed, took seven months off of his, just film a reality show with his wife and kids. I mean, I remember all the smoke that came from Pete Buttigieg for like taking paternity leave. Which was fair. And this guy just took seven months. Are there any transportation issues in our country? Have we had any problems at the airports? I don't know. You people tell me.

56:06So insane to me. And because this whole administration is so lawless and insane and starting wars and, you know, creating shit coins and trading insider trading every single day, it's barely a blip. It's like we didn't even get a chance to cover it because so many other insane things are going on. Whereas in any other administration, the Biden administration, even if you go back to like the George W. Bush administration, you know, W. Bush administration, this would have been a scandal. You just wouldn't do it because it would be such a scandal. And here he goes and announces it proudly on Fox News.

56:39Oh, that's great that you got to do that thing with your kids. Disgusting. The only thing I will back up Sean Duffy on is his try to ban pajamas in the airport. But they also do it in the most cringeworthy way where they're starting to put pull-up bars in airports and be like, just crank out a few sets ahead of your flight. Well, you have the right take, which is like if you don't want us to wear comfy clothes, then make the experience better. Yeah, that's what I'm a fan of. It's like, look, let's turn it into a nice experience, all right? And then people will dress up according. Well, maybe not, but a little light shoving in that direction.

57:09But that's how we create a good environment. But if things are going to be so shitty, then people are going to treat it as such. hence is the country. You gotta be in survival mode when you go to the airport, man. These days? Oh, yeah. You gotta be in survival mode. You gotta plan for - Also with what you're costing, what it's costing right now. It's just so insane. Like insane. The fares that I'm seeing for summer travel, like unless you are genuinely rich, you are going nowhere this summer, in my opinion. Like, and even driving, it's gonna cost you for everything. Okay, all right. That's it.

57:41That's right. All right. So we are about to do our AMA, So stay tuned for that if you're a premium subscriber. We'll see you all tomorrow.

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