In short
The episode argues that the MAGA/Trump world operates through money, access, and corruption. Topic 1: ProPublica reporting that Russian oligarch Umar Kremlev paid hundreds of thousands for Donald Trump Jr.’s lavish wedding—reportedly including renting a private island and fireworks—implying potential conflicts and access to Trump Jr.
Key claims
paying buys access to the president’s family; Trump’s administration normalizes corruption; Trump treats Don Jr. harshly (citing Michael Cohen’s claims) and Don Jr. may have addiction issues.
Notable examples
Trump’s Ireland comments about Don Jr. “calmed down”; DOJ investigating Gavin Newsom. Topic 2: Racism in Texas politics.
Guest backgrounds
none named in the transcript. Notable example: UT graduation photo post by Beau French; discussion of Ken Paxton’s response and James Tallarico; references to JD Vance’s family and Vivek Ramaswamy.
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Chapters
Tap a time to open that second in VODon Jr.'s Lavish Wedding and the Russian Connection
1:05 to 5:51
A shocking report reveals the financial ties between Don Jr.'s wedding and a Russian oligarch.
“got married and his dad didn't go to his wedding?”
Racism and the MAGA Movement
8:04 to 14:02
A discussion on the underlying racism within the MAGA movement and recent political statements.
“And we have a Texas MAGA candidate that put the following post up over the weekend.”
Examining Extremism and Corruption in Politics
14:02 to 16:19
Discusses the issue of right-wing extremism and political corruption in Texas.
“I think he said that Tallarico said that white men are the biggest terrorist threat in the country, which I agree 1000 % that they are.”
Transcript
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1:04Remember when Don Jr. got married and his dad didn't go to his wedding? Well, there's some really big bombshell reporting about this. Pop this up. ProPublica is reporting. Russian oligarch Umar Kremlev footed the bill for hundreds of thousands of dollars of wedding expenses at Donald Trump Jr.'s lavish wedding, including renting out a private island and paying for the fireworks show. Okay, this is some weird shit because we know that Don Jr. is making billions of dollars in all of this drone stuff and his dad is assisting him in giving government contracts to companies that Don Jr. and his dipshit brother Eric are investing in.
1:53We know that Trump's made billions of dollars, but it's not that big of a jump. Trump won't even share his money with other Republicans to get them elected. So, of course, he won't share it with his son. But Josh, what do you make of this? Think about it. Put this in context. You have someone who is in Putin's inner circle, in his inner orbit, going to Don Jr., the president of the United States' son's wedding, in pain, basically, for the whole thing, spending hundreds of thousands of dollars. So that puts this person in a position to have access to Donald Trump Jr. There's so many things wrong with this.
2:29There's so many inherent conflicts with this. It's frightening for us to understand. And one thing we see that's through and through this whole administration is that if you have money, if you can pay, you can put a price tag on everything, then you're going to have access to the president of the United States. You're going to have access to his kids. You're going to have access to anybody and everybody. And that's the takeaway here. Everything is about money with this administration. Imagine if Malia or Sasha Obama, even with Barack being out of office for over 10 years, got married tomorrow, and then ProPublica reported that a Russian oligarch paid for it.
3:12The impunity that this America First, We're so patriotic that this family gets. I understand that they are truly a crime family. I understand that Trump has set up a mafia style government. I understand that they're all rotten, depraved degenerates, every last one of them. What I don't get is still the media cover and normalization of this, with the exception of great outlets like ProPublica and the millions of people that vote for this, the millions of people that still support this and think, well, good on Don Jr. And you have to remember, Vladimir Putin is an absolute killer. He throws people out of windows.
3:55Alex Navalny, who was actually trying to run against him to restore democracy in Russia, he poisoned, imprisoned him, and killed him. And we have right now, who is Trump's DOJ investigating? the governor of California, Gavin Newsom. It's the same shit. The alarm bells are going off. Moving along, Trump was asked about Don Jr. while he was in Ireland. Play the clip. I have to say my son Don is here, a great friend of yours. Where's Don? Don's here with our whole group, right? A whole group of family and just got married. He's happily married, which is nice. he's calmed down so much. That's a good sign.
4:40He's like a different human being. He's a lot of energy now. He's a little less energy. This does not really help with the cocaine rumors that have haunted Don Jr. all this time. It's been widely reported by people that were in Trump's inner circle, one of them being Michael Cohen, who was in the circle, then a big whistleblower, and now trying to get back in, that Donald Trump treats Don Jr. like shit, just browbeats him in rooms, just completely humiliates him all the time. And I would think this is an extension of that. Yeah. And I don't think it's any surprise. It appears that Don Jr. is an addict.
5:19Like I think he's had problems. And from that angle, I have some empathy for him. You hear Donald Trump normalizing this a little bit, making a joke about how he's slowing down. And then you have the audience laughing at some of this stuff. You know, Don Jr. has been a mess and he is a mess and he's profiting just like his dad's profiting. And, you know, I think part of that's sad with his addiction, but still his ethics and his father's ethics is what's got us all into this mess. I mean, it's clear he's over there probably profiting. He ain't no telling who all is with him and what he's doing.
5:57It's kind of a sad situation for the American people. I don't have a lot of empathy for Trump or Junior about this, but it's sad for the American people that we have to foot the bill for all of their corruption. Okay, I don't know about you guys, but all over my social media feeds, I keep seeing about Korean skincare, Korean skincare. And I'm like, well, how am I supposed to get Korean skincare? Well, I'm going to tell you how to get it. It's called G.U. It's a Korean skincare brand that's taken over the internet because of the incredible before and after results that people are seeing. G.U. helps your skin look healthier, smoother, brighter, firmer, and more youthful without requiring some complicated and expensive routine.
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7:40And certain everyday behaviors, like sharing food, drinks, or kisses, could mean sharing bacteria that can cause meningococcal disease, known as meningitis. Although meningitis is uncommon, about one in ten who develop it will die. Ask your teen's doctor about missing meningitis vaccinations. Learn more at meningitis.com. Vaccination may not protect all recipients. Sponsored by GSK. And let's take a gander at really is the core ethos of the MAGA movement, the people who are supporting all of this dangerous technology, all of this transfer of wealth from working class Americans to degenerate billionaires.
8:18And we have a Texas MAGA candidate that put the following post up over the weekend. Pop this up. Beau French says, I heard UT graduation this year looked like this. I didn't believe it. The problem is now obviously far worse than anyone imagined. In the photograph, what I see when I see that, keep it up, Kylie, is a bunch of Texas Longhorns celebrating football victory and high-fiving, wearing cowboy hats. What MAGA sees is that some of these kids are brown-skinned some of these kids have the same color of skin that usha vance does which really makes jd vance's defense constantly of this movement that much more appalling that they see uh this and they somehow feel threatened shows you how fragile they feel about their own masculinity and their own race, if you will.
9:22This sort of racism, and you had some Republicans come out and condemn it, it always lives here. Barack Hussein Obama, he's not a real American. Where's the birth certificate? There is an umbrella of racism and all of these racists, we could call it a big tent of racists. MAGA has created a big tent of racists. And so when you see a vice president, whose wife and whose kids look a lot like those Texas longhorns right there. And he won't come out and condemn it. And in fact, he calls immigrants, what did he say the other day, dirty, filthy, something like that. This is a really huge problem, Josh.
10:05Well, and I find things like this so offensive. And we see a lot of that in Oklahoma, where if you look different or if you're from a different country, you hear this dog whistle. And that's what this is. This guy's running for office in a state office in the state of Texas. And he sees this and feels threatened. And he wants to reach out and he wants to send a message that this is not OK, that this is somehow they've infiltrated the campus at University of Texas. You know, this is dear to us because we have two sons that have gone to two different colleges and are at college now. And I see a picture like that, and we embrace that diversity.
10:46We see something like that, and our son goes to school with a lot of different ethnicities, a lot of different kids from different places, and we embrace that. To me, that's an asset. It's not something that you speak upon. but it doesn't surprise me in Texas where he's obviously running for office. And so he's throwing this meat out there trying to say, hey, I'm a racist too. I stand up for America. And the whole time, like you point out, JD Vance's wife is from India. She looks just like those kids. J.D. Vance's children look just like those kids. And so this sort of selective racism is really fascinating.
11:24You can also look at Vivek Ramaswamy. He should be out on the front line speaking out against this. You could also look at the FBI director, Kash Patel, condemning this. But of course, they don't because they think they're the special. I'm the special Indian or, you know, with Scott Besson, I'm the magic homo or Barry Weiss. They think they're special. They think they're universally unique. And from people who, Josh and me, who grew up in a red state, I can tell you that the basic white racist doesn't discriminate in their racism. They don't see you as any special or any different. At the end of the day, you're always going to be an other to them.
12:04And Ken Paxton has responded to this, popped this up. I condemn racism in all its forms, including James Tallarico saying white men are America's top terror threat and that he prays to overcome his own whiteness, whatever that means. Only one person in this race has a history of dividing Texans by race. And it's James Tallarico. I will continue to focus on uniting our state and bringing together the broadest possible coalition to fight for Texas, our values and our families.
12:39This is so ridiculous from start to finish. Ken Paxton, of course, I'm just going to say, of course, he's a racist. Of course, he's all up in on all this shit. James Tellarico is a real threat to the to the racket that the Ken Paxton's have been running that they're good Christian men. And a lot of Republican men run this racket that we're over Moses, Mike grinder, Johnson, for example, Josh Hawley, for example, Ted Cruz, for example, Ken Paxton, for example, we're, you know, we're good Christian men, the Lord, this the Lord that Jesus, this Judeo Christian values that. It's all bullshit. It's total bullshit.
13:25And Tallarico actually says, you know, Jesus felt this way and that way. And let's just look at it this way. If Jesus existed, he would have been a brown-skinned, radical empath. And if he came to the United States today, I would argue that MAGA would want to deport him and put him in alligator Alcatraz because he sounds more like Zoran Mamdani than any of these Christian people. And the brown skin issue would be a huge problem for the Supreme Court, etc. That's right. And I will agree with part of Ken Paxton's tweet. I think he said that Tallarico said that white men are the biggest terrorist threat in the country, which I agree 1000 % that they are.
14:11If you'll remember last week at the convention, I think Donald Trump said something like Ken Paxton, he's not easy to look at or he's not like, I don't remember what it was, but he made a comment about how unattractive he was. And this guy is an awful candidate in the state of Texas. So surely Tallarico, you know, we went through this with Beto like a few election cycles back, trying to get him elected in Texas, thinking we've got a good candidate. Surely we can get Tallarico across the finish line. Paxton, I mean, you want to talk about corruption. He has owned the title of being corrupt down there.
14:48He's been indicted in federal court. He's went through an impeachment process. I mean, he is the worst of the worst. Right, but this is an electorate that continues to elect Ted Cruz. I know. And so, I mean, I think you we all get, you know, you go to Dallas, you go to El Paso, you go to San Antonio, you go to Houston and you're like, oh, OK, this is great. There's diversity and you see all these signs for Democratic politicians around. But to your point about white men being terrorists, and I always, I will never not point this out. All of us from Oklahoma City, when Timothy McVeigh bombed the federal building, it was right-wing extremism.
15:31Since then, the FBI has consistently reported that white right-wing extremism is a huge problem in the country. And you would think that these good people of Oklahoma from that day forward would not vote for right wing extremists, but they continue to do so. Even the governor, Kevin Stitt, right now, I dedicate every square inch of this state to Jesus Christ while he takes away a woman's right to privacy and values a rapist's rights over a woman's rights. He values gun rights over little kids' rights to be safe at school. and these these MAGA Christians are absolutely terrorists in my opinion and all of the right-wing channels clip it up post it take it to the bank because that's what I think that's all we have like subscribe comment and we will be back later with more news
16:32who says Halloween only lasts one day with Wayfair one night of Halloween becomes a whole season at home. From larger-than-life yard decor and moody lighting to festive accents for every room in the house, Wayfair has what you need to make Halloween feel like magic all in one place. Because the best Halloween memories aren't made in just one night. They're made all season long. Shop Halloween decor now at Wayfair.com. Wayfair, every style, every home.
From the publisher
Trump's mental degradation has his openly disparaging his sons to the media.
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