Trump Melts Down Over AI Fears, Don Jr’s Shady Oligarch-Funded Wedding: A Closer Look Out of Office

0:02Hey everybody, Seth Meyers here. Please join us for Closer Look Out of Office. It's a new podcast series where Sal Gentile, who writes A Closer Look, and I chat about the stories we would have covered if we had shows. It's going to be a lot of fun or not. Let's all find out together. What's up, Sal? Hold on, do that again because I was pumping my fists like an idiot. I thought that was part of it. I literally thought that was. We literally got Sal was pumping his fists, and I thought that was my cue to say, what's up, Sal? And it turns out, so that was an off camera? You authentically pump your fists before the podcast?

0:36I was doing it, I guess, semi-ironically, but I was doing it, like, to rev myself up. But I think that's okay for the audience to see you revving yourself up. Don't pull the curtain. You know, don't hide your enthusiasm for the content. It's like an improv war. I'm an improviser, so it's an improv warmer. It's like zip, zap, zap. I'm an improviser too, Sal, and I haven't felt the need to pump myself up like that. But you know what? It comes in all sizes. Improvisers come in all shapes and sizes. I think of you more as a man of all media now. The king of all media. Yeah. What is it, a polymath?

1:16Oh, Chris, that's not really right because that means— I'm just a, I'm polymath within the realm of comedy. For podcast, you're a podmath. You're a podmath. I'm a pottymath. A pottymath. A pottymath. I'm a pottymath and a pottymath. So, Sal. Okay. First of all, it's our final out of office before our, and this is internally. I'm not saying it's long anticipated for you, the viewer, listener. We can't wait to get back to work. And we're going to be back to work on Monday, September 21st. people are starting to filter back into the office, including Sal and I. So this is the first out of office podcast where we are both technically in office.

1:56Yes, we are fully in office. So I guess it's much more of a proof of life. And it's fitting that this is the last proof of life before we return to our studio, because we are not the only ones returning. Yeah. The other, I was going to say person, but I guess I'm going to go, So I think a more appropriate word is entity. The other entity who has returned to public view is Mitch McConnell. Mitch McConnell wanted to obviously it was a bit of a power play by Mitch to to show his self in person before we could do it. Right. He was racing to beat us. He knew that we were kind of pulling his proof of life move.

2:36And so that's right. Trying to stay one step ahead of us. And that's right. And he did. Right. Now he's the one joking about how we are in a hospital bed with our jeans on. Right. He's going to have a lot of fun with are they? When's the last time we've seen them? Maybe they're dead.

2:57He's going to. That's his first thing from the Senate. How long? NBC. My question for NBC is where is the Senate? He's pulling. He's still pulling a salary. and I would feel like he shouldn't show himself.

3:17There is also some exciting news. If you had sex with an animal in your life, you are now cleared to join the FBI. Yeah. Cash Patel is testifying before the Senate. That's right. Yes, he's testifying before the Senate. And it had been reported that the FBI had made some changes to their eligibility requirements. They made it easier. We should note. Yeah. When I say changes. Yeah. Yeah. They didn't make it. It's not as if they put you more hurdles to jump through. It's interesting because at the same time that the military is like, we're going to test your testosterone. You know, we're going to do all that.

3:57We're going to put in all these different levels to make it harder. The FBI is like, hey, man, you do you. Yeah. You know what? Let your freak flag fly. And then when it's time to join the FBI, it's all forgotten. Clean slate over here at the FBI. So it was reported, yes, they loosened the standards. And for some reason, and it's actually kind of called out by Republican Senator John Kennedy. For some reason, they made the choice to, you know, again, you want to loosen standards. That's your, you know, that's your druthers, right? Why you would like bring bestiality into the conversation is sort of a real reflection of how unprepared Cash Patel is for this moment.

4:46You never want to bring it into the conversation. I think the way you put it, you never want to be the first person to start talking about bestiality in any situation. Yeah. That's it. You don't want to be the one to bring it up. Yes. The generous reading or the generous interpretation of what happened here is that it was a reflection on victims of trafficking. If there were things they did over the course of their life that they were coerced into, that should not eliminate them from future employment in the FBI. And let me just say, like, you know, my my wife does a lot of work with victims of trafficking.

5:27And like one of her fullest efforts is behind the idea of vacating the criminal convictions of those who have been trafficked. Right. Right. I fully understand and agree with the the idea behind how important it is not to blame victims of trafficking for any criminal activity they were coerced into. Right. This is not us sort of piling on cash. Senators, even those from Republican senators, are confused as to why. And and maybe, you know, we we do enjoy when Senator John Kennedy speaks. Yes. He has he has a down home style that he's cultivated. I think he learned it. I think he learned it when he was studying at Oxford, which is a true thing he did.

6:15every time he tries to remind you that he's a country bumpkin. He's a very smart man. Yes, very, super authentic. I think he learned, I think he's doing the Meisner method. Yeah. I think he's fully immersed in character the way Daniel Day-Lewis just walks around. Or he went to Oxford and they were like, oh, don't lose the accent, John. That's your moneymaker, John. so so again here's him asking because again the situation this puts cash in yeah as he makes sure that he's not he's only protecting the victims of bestiality yeah now historically I would have thought of the victims of bestiality as the beasts you know what I mean yeah like I, I, whenever I think of these jail, I never thought like, Oh, like a donkey trapped that guy, a donkey pin that guy down with his hooves and had his way with him.

7:22The donkey and that minor were trapped in those mountains for several weeks. And this, this, it seems like, like the end of a dirty joke where like, it does a guy's like, no, Paul, the sheep was doing it to me. Like, you know what I mean? Like, I don't, yeah, But but again, the real heart of this is don't be the one who brings up bestiality, especially if you're someone who at some point in the near future is going to testify before Congress. Yes, I think that's especially true. Don't bring it up when you will then have to answer questions under oath about it or even not under oath. You don't want to answer questions about bestiality.

8:00Yeah. So here is – and again, just to hammer home that we're not piling on, here's a Republican senator whose basic point is, dude, why did you put this in? So let's listen to John ask Cash some questions. What about the bestiality? Same thing because the regs wrote it up in a fashion before I arrived that addressed prostitution, bestiality, and trafficking. They were there before I got there. Tell me what it said before. It automatically disqualified any individual who participated on either side of it. Obviously, we are never going to hire the criminal. This side of what? The bestiality? Yes.

8:41So you disqualified the animal? Well, I don't think we have great canines, but we're not going to disqualify them. I understand. I'm trying to understand why you did this. This is not directed at you, Mr. Director. And I understand the game. people try to make you look bad. We do the same thing when the other party's in office. Nice to admit that. Nice to admit that. Yeah, yeah. We do this too. Yeah, yeah. It's really hurt the FBI. He's basically like, if look, if a Democratic appointee had done this, we'd have a field day with people. Why would you, why would you, in light of the context and what we're going through and we're having a tough time attracting agents, good quality agents we all can trust, because so many people, fairly or unfairly, think that in order to be an FBI agent now, your political point of view matters.

9:46Why would you even get into bestiality? We are not into bestiality, but a lot of these individuals... I know you're not, but you changed... But I'm trying to explain it. Hang on. You changed the qualifications and mentioned bestiality. If Joe participated in bestiality, not as the animal, but as the human. Joe is a good animal. Don't you think he ought to be disqualified? If he voluntarily did it, sure, but if he was trafficked into it... Okay, how do you involuntarily do it? In a lot of these cases, when human traffickers, who are some of the worst individuals on planet Earth, they don't just traffic you for prostitution, should they traffic you for degrading acts of all kind and they force you into that type of conduct?

10:32And some of these individuals would go on to be law enforcement officers who qualified to be law enforcement officers and later applied to the FBI. I mean, these changes didn't start with you, did they? Somebody came to you and recommended? Yeah. Yeah. And when you saw bestiality, I say this with respect, the person who recommended it, why didn't you just say, what planet did you parachute in from? Why do I want to leave? Well, that was my initial response. Why do I want to leave with my chin and get into bestiality? That was my initial response, Senator. But they then explained to me and showed me cases in which people were forced into it and had applied to the FBI, and so I thought they should be considered.

11:17It's not an automatic disqualification. That's all. Okay. All right. I think I understand. But you're not telling us today that if a human being... had sex with an animal, that they can still be an FBI agent? No. Are you? No. They can't be, can they? They cannot. In fact, they ought to be in jail, right? They all are. They all are. We caught them all. We caught them. We got so much. There's so much in that clip. Just like, again, we live in an era, limited amount of time, limited amount of questions when you get the head of the FBI in front of a Senate committee. But time has to be spent to clarify that point.

12:02Yes. Like at the end of that, Senator Kenney still have to say, so you're telling me. What you're telling me today is. Being in a situation where an elected member of the United States Senate has to ask the director of the FBI for clarification on whether or not people who have sex with animals will be allowed to become FBI agents is in itself, regardless of the actual substance of what is happening here, incredibly revealing because it suggests that Cash lacks so much credibility. He's such an object of ridicule. He's such a ludicrous character that Republican senators are not entirely sure that he would not rule out FBI agents who have sex with animals.

13:00Yeah. Really had to hammer it home. Yes. But the good news is anybody, everyone who's ever had sex with an animal, according to Kash Patel, on the record. Including animals named Joe. Joe. Well, that was great. Joe. Joe. It would have been so much. Like, he wouldn't have had to clarify if in that example he had said, like, and, you know, if somebody engages in bestiality with, you know, Rusty, you know, fluff. No, my friend Rusty Jones. I'm not talking about a dog named Rusty. I'm not talking about my friend Allen's dog, Rusty. I'm talking about my other friend, Rusty Jones. I don't know if he's friends with any Allens.

13:43It seems unlikely It seems unlikely, I don't know why But it just doesn't seem that right That character I got a new car, Sal Oh wow Congratulations Runs on diesel That's the problem Got a deal on it Got a deal on it And then I feel like I maybe got a little ripped off Because first time I rolled up to the old tanks Let's just say a real rude awakening yeah oh boy they saw you coming a mile away oh look at this city slicker it was it was john kennedy it was john kennedy it was his character he's like oh let me see the character right here oh you know i'm one of those city slickers who i wanted to get one of those uh i wanted to get old beat up truck you know yeah i wanted to get an old truck to sort of performatively show people that I am, you know, blue collar.

14:37I'm an every man, you know. Yes. And he was like, plus it's diesel. So you're going to save a little couple of bucks. I'm like, great, diesel. Yeah, you went down to John Kenny's old lot. He said, now you ain't going to use this truck to have no sex with animals, are you? And I was like, well, what if I'm coerced into it? And he goes, oh, that's fine. That's fine. So if you're coerced into it, there's plenty of room back here for anything you want to do.

15:07and he's like and the good news is you can go straight but you can drive this straight up to the fbi the hoover building and apply because you in the clear now

15:20we did so much work getting ready for out of office of a proof of life and then uh just just it's like our show yeah you think you know what you're going to talk about and then there's To clarify, if you've gotten this far, we are going to get to, I hope, artificial intelligence. Crazy that you're putting. Crazy you think we're going to get to all this stuff. But go ahead. Lay out things that we're going to cut out this intro. Just, Jay, when you edit this, leave a long beep for everything that Sal brings up that we're then not going to get to. Keep going. What else do you think we're going to get to?

15:52Let's see. Let's see. I just wanted to put a pin in two. artificial intelligence and trump's bribe uh his five thousand dollar uh trump dividend his his bribe to voters but see i want to talk about i want to talk about other stuff so i don't know if we're gonna get to your big old story oh i did i did also but actually before we get to all that speaking we're on the topic of animals we might as well stay on it what do we got what other animal news the mystery meat oh yeah let's talk about the mystery meat this is very good i just think it's good oh and the other thing i wanted to put a pin in is don jr's wedding okay so it's very a lot let's see what let's see let's play let's start with that home start right now yeah guess get take a guess at home you've got four topics mystery meat don jr's wedding artificial intelligence potentially destroying all of humanity and the president i said saying the only guardrail is his own iq and uh and a five thousand dollar check that you will definitely get if Republicans retain control of the House and the Senate.

16:54But not before the election. But not before. No, not before. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. That's the best, the way Trump bribes work. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Which is like, you have to do the thing for him first. Yes. He is the, I have free candy for you, but you have to come in my van first, president. If somebody rolls up. Actually, it's weird because like in a weird way, like the only crime, as far as bribes go, he really only receives them. Yes. He doesn't know how to give one. No. Well, he because you giving a bribe is like parting with something of value. That's right. That's right. So he does a lot of promise.

17:32He promises to bribe you. Guaranteed if Republicans do control the House and the Senate the next day, he will he will announce a plan for everybody somehow to give him five thousand dollars. Yeah. I mean, they will eventually. Yeah. Yeah. Just not directly. We basically already have. I mean, he made$2 billion last year. All right. So$2 billion. Also, let's just knock this out real quick. The Trump boys have also done really well. Like anybody, family connections to the Trumps has been a very economically healthy time for you. Yes. Yeah. You would think you'd have enough to pay for your own wedding.

18:14Especially if you own a crypto company that's - Exactly. It's a boom time. You're printing money and you're making deals all over the Middle East. And you're worth supposedly hundreds of millions of dollars. And Sal, look, geopolitical events change who you should or shouldn't accept gifts from. Right. Before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, I knew a lot of people, myself included. We took gifts from oligarchs all the time. Garkin, that was the slang we used for it. I was garkin left and right. Garkin? Yeah, oligarching. Oh, yeah. You know, if somebody wants to gark you, you know, a ride to the airport, you take it, right?

18:56You know, Yuri calls up and is like, hey, you know. Yeah. You're about to say, if he got garked. Yeah, don't use Carmel car service, we're going to. Yeah. You know, whatever. So, look, but then, you know. Don't use Carmel car service and just get a gark car? Yeah, they were like, we're going to gark, yeah. We're going to gark. Use a gark service, which is when an oligark sends you a gark. So point is, but then it's a bad look, right? It's a bad look after the invasion of Ukraine. One might even say, you know, it's been a lot of times. It's been a bad look. You could say there's arguably you could say regardless of that, it would probably be not a great time.

19:36Yeah, I'm looking back at all. You know what? I'm looking back at all the oligarch and gifts I've taken. You know, I maybe should have thought a little earlier about it. No, well, for a political for a political official, I think for or anybody adjacent to a family in power, I think for you, you know, anybody you get a you get a Omar calls you up and he says, hey, I want to pay for a firework show over the bay. Yeah, I take it. All right. Let's get it. There's so many fun details about this that are also insane and are so representative of the Trump family corruption that let's play the clip kind of getting into some of the details so that we can so we can talk about them afterwards.

20:15A new investigation is shining a light on some of the money allegedly behind Donald Trump Jr.'s wedding. ProPublica reports that a Russian oligarch with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin secretly bankrolled much of the event, including hundreds of thousands of dollars in expenses. The report identifies the oligarch as Umar Kremlev, who attended this intimate wedding in the Bahamas. ProPublica reports a spokesperson for Trump Jr. did not dispute the wedding payments and characterized Kremlov as a personal friend of Trump Jr. and, quote, not someone he has a business relationship with.

20:54Umar Kremlov is, as you said, a Russian oligarch close to Vladimir Putin. And he, this was an ultra luxury affair. This oligarch rented out a private island in the Bahamas for it. He paid for this extravagant 4th of July-esque firework show out over the ocean. So this is hundreds of thousands of dollars in expenses. And what makes this even stranger is that Don Jr. met this guy only very recently. This is not some weird coincidence where his college roommate happens to be a very generous oligarch. This is a member of Putin's circle financially supporting the son of the president. But that's a very good distinction, the college thing, because I feel like a lot of people who go to sort of the top end American universities might very well form a 19 year old friendship with an oligarch.

21:50It's not it's not inconceivable at all that if you go to NYU, there's at least one semester you're going to spend sharing a dorm with a mysteriously wealthy 19 year old. Who I bet is a super fun hang. Yeah. A lot of access. Yes. And then all of a sudden you're like 42 and they're like, are you friends with Korlai Ygorogev's son? I was like, I am. But let me explain. Umar, by the way, there's a picture of Umar shaking hands with Vladimir Putin where he's fully twice the size. Yeah, this is a big. So this is actually really funny. This is one of my favorite things from the article is that he's this big imposing figure and he was kind of just like around and no one really knew who he was or why he was there.

22:39And this is a quote from the article. The oligarch was part of a large group whose presence puzzled the attendees. They sometimes stood off by themselves speaking Russian. It's just so funny to me to be at like an intimate 50 person wedding in the Bahamas. it's Pete like you're seeing like a cousin that you haven't seen in a little bit a while or like a close personal friend who took the time to fly to this destination wedding and then there's just these like big six foot five Russian gangsters just hanging out nearby mumbling to each other like the president of a boxing federation just everything there's I'm a Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy Smiley's people these are These are some of my favorite books.

23:25Love it. And there's a description of a certain kind of character, which is a six-cylinder Moscow-trained hood. And when I hear that line, that's what I picture. Yes. It's the kind of guy that you would describe him as such. Yes. Yeah. And, yeah, it's also, I mean, that is, you know, again, and the clip sort of told us. A recent friend, so recent that other friends at the wedding, an intimate wedding. Yeah. A wedding so intimate, I'm pretty sure his dad didn't go. Yes. His dad famously said he wouldn't be able to make it. But surely, even a recent friend has met Don Jr.'s family. Yes, exactly.

24:20Yeah, especially if you're at his wedding. And yet. This person puzzled the attendees to such a degree that even Donald Trump Jr.'s own brother said in a statement to a newspaper, this is a spokesperson for Eric Trump. OK, he's not he's not out there saying, oh, yeah, of course, I know. I know. Don't die, your buddy. Oh, yeah. I've met. Yeah. And they're just friends. And, you know, we've met and we've had dinner. His own brother's spokesperson said in the article, Eric has absolutely no clue who this person is, nor has never heard his name. So again, again, this is a little bit like John Kennedy pressing cash on the bestiality thing, right?

25:02Like this is now anyone who would make the argument, hey, there's nothing shady about Umar. Even Eric Trump wants to make it clear to all of us, like I've never met this guy. I've never heard his name. And so that like the level of shady, you gotta be for Eric Trump to want no piece of it because Eric Trump's like 99 % in the shade, right? Like this is not a guy he's living clean and free of. No. Yeah. They're in, they're in all this together. And yet even that is to a bridge too far for him. Yeah. I think the scene of these like Russian guys off to the side, mumbling and rushing to each other.

25:47What could the other explanation be? Like if you're at this wedding, the 50 person wedding and in the Bahamas, and there's just a group of like big, strong, imposing six foot four Russian guys who you've never seen before whispering to each other. and then one of them says like, yes, the fireworks, yes. And then the fireworks go off. Don, Bettina, it's fireworks for you. And Don, that other thing with your father, it's you are on it. Fireworks are not cheap, Don, Bettina. Congratulations on your new love. One of the other reasons that you know it's shady is like it doesn't seem like a fun wedding, right?

26:28Like it's 50 people. and for example like if i was if i had oligarch money right like i would have offered to do fireworks for like travis and taylor because like that's when you want an invite to right yes you know what i mean like you would get you'd be like and by the way i'm i'm i'm sure and by the way credit to travis and taylor who did not no oligarchs yeah been reported at the wedding right like they did they did it clean they paid for their own uh freight on that yeah yeah yeah No, I'd gark my way in. I'd gark my way into that wedding. If you had gark money, if you were going to ever spend the gark, you know, put in your credit card.

27:08Travis Kelsey just in a huddle with five or six big, tough Russian guys. And they would fit in because you've got to be beefy guys at that wedding. They would have fit right in. It absolutely fit way more in. Like, I mean, at least they would look like before they spoke, you would think they were linemen or they just friends with. He's, you know, he's friends with some boxers. I think maybe one of the most shocking things about this is how they're just like, yep, they were there. Yeah. They paid for the fireworks and they rented an island. And I don't know why any of you think this is weird. Yeah.

27:40No attempt to even explain how this is somehow any different from these are the guys who relentlessly talked about the Biden crime family. And they literally have Russian oligarchs, shady Russian oligarchs who are close to Vladimir Putin just paying for their wedding. And they're like, yeah, yeah, he did that. He paid for our fireworks. Who among us hasn't met a Russian person within the last three years who then didn't pay for fireworks the day after our wedding? Yes, of course. You cast the first stone. Yes. Now, I do want to say just as a caveat before we move on, Umar Kremlev was the best man at my wedding.

28:15Right. I remember his toast. So you're not really selling as very against the oligarch class. But Sal and I, freshman year we meet, intro to poetry. I am son of oligarch. Sal is interesting because Sal is from a previous era of Russia, communist Sal. Sal is Karl Marx. I am more unqualified crony. I am crony. Everything I have is from connections. He also But we connected over William Carlos Williams The plums are in the fridge Yes, Red Wheelbarrow We are both poem people I am crony, he communist Together We are Sal and Umar I like a Russian crony You just call I am crony, I am from crony era I am from crony era Sal says, will you befriend me?

29:21I am his friend, I am crony Yeah, what is a crony if not a paid friend? What is crony if not a friend? All I have is from people I know and how I treat them

29:39Oh, Wendy's We're already at an age where very few people We will remember the famous Wendy's ad, Where's the Beef, right? Yeah But if they were looking to reboot it right now Yeah I think the new tag would be where's the beef from? Right. Like we have the beef. Yeah. That's not the issue anymore. We have the beef. Yes. The question is where is the beef from? We believe you have the meats. The question is, what are the meats? How do you have the meats? Where is the meats from? How did you acquire the meats? How did you acquire the meats? So in August, I'm going to read this. Trump signed a proclamation that will allow the duty free importation of about 660 million pounds of inexpensive beef.

30:25People have referred to this as mystery meat because he won't say when asked directly where it's from. Now, the cuts of meat we're talking about aren't fresh sirloins, ribeyes or fillets. They're lean beef trimmings that will be added to fattier American cuts to make ground beef. They're small chunks of frozen meat that could have been kept in cold storage overseas for years. They are the quintessence of generic industrial meat imported here to be subsequently processed in massive grinders that combine pieces of tens of thousands of cattle from multiple countries, mainly into fast food hamburgers.

31:04Well, I don't know about you, Sal, but my mouth's watering. I don't know if it was your smooth delivery or just the underlying details. But I can't decide whether I want to eat that meat or have sex with it and then apply to be an FBI agent. But now let's listen to. So. All right. So Trump is doing this because beef is super expensive in large part for many reasons. But they're due to his, let's say. And again, this is a technical economic term. We've used it before, but it's stupid ideas about how to manage the economy and trade and tariffs. And so food prices are up. Beef prices are up significantly, which, of course, affects many American consumers.

31:48And his solution is just to import mystery meat. And it's mystery meat because when directly confronted, he will not say where it's from. On the beef deal, which countries did you make that deal with? What are the sources of the beef deal? I don't want to say which countries, but there are a few countries. but they're going to be sending in the highest quality beef and it's something that we need. If they're sending in the highest quality beef, why can't you say who they are? I mean, it's so funny that you go to a steakhouse and you're like, this is our finest primary. One of those steakhouses where they reel a tray out and they actually show you the cuts.

32:27And they're like, this one is from a farm and who the f*** knows where. like it's just you're so right like there are two things can't be true one it's the finest quality and two it's we're not going to tell you where also this is another case where it's much like the cash patel hearing the question in itself is as revealing as what's going on because the fact that reporters have to stop the president of the united states on a tarmac and ask him about quote the beef deal right also that he goes which one you're like i'm sorry you got a bunch of beef deals going on bud we're getting we're getting i can't say where but let's just say uzbekistan has the finest cuts of meat yeah um but again there's another connection which is their friendliness their everything is about ties to trump's family and your ability to enrich him and help him because it seems once again has come out through reporting that this idea basically germinated with a brazilian owner of a meat processing company yeah who has been uh jailed for bribes yes for bribing literally thousands of politicians in brazil paying 186 million dollars and bribes to almost 2 ,000 politicians, including three Brazilian presidents.

33:55Yeah. Senators, including Marco Rubio, argued that allowing Josely Batista to own U.S. companies could endanger America's food supply and national security. Oh, but this is an interesting turn. Batista met with Trump after a JBS subsidiary. That's the name of his company. JBS subsidiary had donated$5 million to Mr. Trump's second inauguration, Which again, man, the other problem, chump change. You know what I mean? Like they just kick money in. If you're that guy, it's best$5 million you ever spent. Oh, yeah. Because now like literally the beef you can't sell that's been in fridges, freezers for like three years.

34:36It's just like moving to America, allegedly. Allegedly. We don't know. By the way, we don't know where the beef's from. We don't know. Yeah, yeah. Here's who else doesn't know. We've got some beef locked up in a refrigerator in Madagascar and we just can't get rid of it. It's like a World War II effort where they're like, you know, like a metal drive. They're like, if you got beef anywhere, check your house. Check the back of your freezer. Chip and get your ice pick in there. You might have a little bit of beef. We're buying. We're taking beef donations. We're taking, collect your beef, everybody.

35:08Go home and search. Search your house for beef anywhere. You may not be thinking of where you might have left some beef in your house. It's not a cattle drive. It's a beef drive. You just bring your beef down. There's going to be a bin outside schools and libraries. Just loose beef. Just loose beef. And like a cardboard Toys for Tots bin, except instead of toys. And again, here's the thing. You know, I'm not – I'll eat – I have eaten. I'll continue to eat lesser quality beef, right? Like it doesn't all have to be primary for me. I do think where the beef comes from matters to consumers, to Americans.

35:44Yes. Well, especially because a lot of beef has been rejected for having like antibiotics or other things that could make people sick in it. Yeah. Right. Like that's what we're supposed to have, you know, FDA to protect us from food that does not meet an agreed upon standard. Right. Yes. The Agriculture Secretary, Brooke Rollins, said in an interview. The president made the decision that for a short 90 days, there's a lot of ground beef. This is just ground beef. There's a lot of ground beef that's sitting in other countries that would potentially help serve Americans. Another word they try not to use at fancy restaurants is sitting.

36:26Yes, sitting. You never already said this is our finest kind of beef. It's been sitting. Right. Like they prefer things like aged, marbling. Those are words. Sitting. Yes. They don't want to ever say this has been sitting for a short three and a half years in a freezer in Kazakhstan. All right. So sitting in the bed, when asked which countries the beef was coming from, she said this is the agriculture secretary. So this would be I would assume if anyone knows. It would be her. I am actually not part of any of those conversations. So I am not sure what what that looks like. I think we'll know very soon.

37:10No, not soon. Not soon enough for you to stop eating the beef. Yes. The beef will be eaten. Here's when you'll know. As soon as you eat your beef, we will tell you where it's from. It's a game show. It's a game show. You eat the beef and then somebody unveils where it was and how long it was sitting for. Yeah. Yeah. But they're like, just eat the beef and we'll tell you where it's from. Also, by the way, they've also loosened the rules. It's not necessarily – they won't necessarily disqualify the beef if before they killed the animal somebody had sex with it. Or if it had sex with somebody. Yes, right.

37:51That's right. I mean, the thing that Cash made clear was that it's both sides. This yeah, this cut of meat you're about to eat is Joe. And this this is Joe is Joe is from Uruguay. And, you know, he was in a long term relationship. Yeah. What do we got next? All right. OK. The common factor that ties both of those stories together and leads us to the next story, which is just that the various conflicts of interest, like what governs Trump policy is just who he's friends with and who benefits him and who enriches him. And that's very much the case in the next story we're going to get to. The biggest story, arguably, of the past couple of weeks, which is the threat of the extinction of humanity by artificial intelligence.

38:40So a whistleblower came out, resigned from Anthropic, and basically his name is Jacob Coxon, and he issued these dire warnings where he said unequivocally that this technology could lead to the extinction of humanity within the next few years. And moreover, that the people in these companies and charge of these companies agree with that sentiment, that that is known by all. And then on top of that, others came out to say, yes, he's correct. We do know that. We are aware of that threat. Nobody came out to dispute him and say this is ridiculous. Doomerism from the company specifically. We'll get to the skeptics.

39:23We did get some. We did one of the, I mean, people with a high IQ, parentheses, genius, exclamation point, close parentheses, told me not to worry about this. Yes. Yes. So there are some skeptics. It's creating this in very weird, like vectors of agreement where because there's all these bizarre. It's this tangled web of conflicts of interest. And, you know, there are legitimate reasons to be skeptical of like the doomsday scenarios. But Trump is calling all of this a hoax. Yes. Not because he legitimately studied the various possibilities of recursive super intelligence. and what it could lead to, but because he's terrified of the house of cards of AI investment that is propping up the economy currently falling apart.

40:16Because we have gotten to a point where AI spending has outpaced consumer spending as a source of economic growth. It was at something like 40 % of the economic growth last year was driven by AI spending. Globally, it was something like a trillion dollars. And everybody predicts that even if you think the underlying technology is going to be at some point useful and is going to transfer in the economy, everybody predicts that the investment must be a bubble and it's going to pop at some point. And pretty much the only piece of this economy that's humming is the stock market, right? Exactly. Like inflation is up, you know, the bond market is bad.

40:58You know, people are having a hard time getting mortgages. Yes. Making car payments. So like the one thing that Trump can hang his hat on is, look, it's been a supercharged stock market that is driven almost entirely by AI. Which is why it's so telling to me that he is taking it personally, these predictions. So I want to read some. He went on this. He went on an insane bender on Truth Social where he dismissed all of these warnings as a hoax. And specifically, he compared the warnings about the dangers of AI to other real things that have happened to him that he also dismisses as hoaxes. And made it clear that for him it's very personal.

41:43And I think it's very revealing that he's taking it very personally. He had a bunch of truth social posts. In one, Trump said the claim that AI is going to take over the world is a hoax, just like global warming where everyone was going to be dead by now. Russia, Russia, Russia, Ukraine, Ukraine, Ukraine or impeachment hoax number one or impeachment hoax number two. These are all radical left Democrats. Nicely done. I just learned that there should be a B in that word. Who never give up. who never give up, but seldom win. Hopefully the voters have seen the light. Again, there was another post where he said, concerning AI, when in the history of business did anyone see the leaders of an industry call for regulation that if strongly implemented will drive them into oblivion and bankruptcy?

42:31AI taking over the world, destroying humanity and all other things bad is a hoax. No different from the Russia, Russia, Russia, Ukraine, Ukraine, Ukraine, impeachment hoax number one, impeachment hoax number two, and all of the other hoaxes and scams that America was forced to endure through the destructionists and deviants, foul play and illegal conduct. First of all, sounds like it was written by AI. It does. Like you asked Trump to write, you asked AI to write a Trump post, the destructionists and the deviants. It's the one thing, though, where AI is, even though it moves faster than anything, they're like, he tweets too much.

43:06We can't. They're like, have you read all his tweets? They're like, we're trying. That's why we're trying to scale up AI data centers as fast as possible. We just can't read them all. We just don't have the computing power. We have like a thousand agents on it. They can't read them all. But Sal, I will say that's a good point. Like I, you know, there's a good chance that Trump knows more about this because I think he's an active user of AI. And so we are, you and I are kind of a troglodyte layman who don't understand this new technology. And listening to us about it maybe is folly. so uh uh do you have a sort of a illustrative clip of trump explaining his ai use yeah well much just as he was very straightforward with the source of the mystery meat he was also very straightforward when asked what he uses ai for because he's obviously a big cheerleader for it yeah he's he has explicitly said if you don't want a data center in your community you want to be poor and stupid and so everybody should build data centers in their communities for this technology that they are being told will be very useful and transformative if in the meantime it doesn't kill everybody and so you might just want a basic explanation for the president of the states of okay well if it's so transformative what do you use it for have you ever used it yourself or have you been how do you use ai but uh i would say you know for the most part you can use ai for a lot of things what do you use it for i don't want to say okay you never want if you ask somebody in a conversation, any conversation, just ask a friend, what do you use AI for?

44:37They say, I don't want to tell you. I'm using it to find out where the beef is coming from. And it doesn't know. It doesn't know.

44:49Here's, you know, it's an interesting thing. And again, grain of salt, fully a layman. My take on this, right, is you do have these leaders of these AI companies. But I feel like they're also as close as human beings are to AI themselves. Yes. I almost think it's like a game of poker, right? They're all like, hey, we should all slow down, right? And nobody, none of them trust each other, right? Yes. Like Sam Altman and Elon Musk literally were just in court suing each other. The idea that they have to have an agreement as to what slowing down means when we have a government that is either incapable of or uninterested in having any regulation on this.

45:32It all seems like theater for the purposes of trying to win the AI race. But this is why, regardless of whether it's transformative or not transformative, regardless of whether it's dangerous or not dangerous, you shouldn't entrust a technology like this to the free unregulated market. Because once the pressures of hyperscaling take over, which is exactly what's happening now, you are trapped in this competitive balance problem. This problem of communal cooperation where everyone's trying to untie the knot of we have to keep racing ahead because if we don't, they will. But also everybody knows it's dangerous, so we have to slow down.

46:16But we're suspect if they say they're slowing down, but they might not really be slowing down. Right. How can you know? Exactly. And also at the same time, you're there's this claim that we have to keep going because of it's a national security issue because China is going to keep going and they might develop killer robots before we do. And if they develop killer robots before we do, then we'll get killed by a Chinese killer robot instead of an American killer robot, which would be so much worse. If you're killed by a killer robot, you don't understand what it says to you right before it kills you.

46:46Like, yeah, at least like an American robot could tell you you're like, yeah, and hopefully something pithy. You know, hopefully it's watched like all those 80s Arnold Schwarzenegger movies. Yes. Yes. At least don't say like, hasta la vista, baby. But if it's Chinese, it's going to say something you're not going to understand. And you're like, oh, not like this. And then you'd be like The Matrix. You're like, not like this. You're going to spend your last moments in life confused. Yeah. It is like, you know, like, again, if you, like, it's like if Oppenheimer was a private company. Exactly. Yes.

47:16You know what I mean? Like how terrifying it would be if you just had a guy, you know what that company would be called? And there were multiple. Sal, you know what his company would be called? What would it be called? Op and AI? Yeah. Okay.

47:30And he would be using Apple D-Maps. Thank you. And he'd be using an app. See, you're the one who called it back. Don't get it. Now you're the one calling it back. Tony liked it. Yeah, but you know what I mean? Like, you know, look, you can obviously like, you know, there's a real reason to be fearful of the development of an atomic bomb when a government's behind it. Yes. But especially not only not only one company, multiple competing companies racing to build a nuclear weapon. We could have a reasonable debate about this. We could have reasonable debate about what laws exist currently, what legal regime exists currently to enforce all these rules, whether we need more regulation.

48:10I personally think it's all of the above. But we could have a reasonable debate also about the various scenarios that are in play. Is it actually a doomsday scenario? Skeptics say it isn't. Why can't we just just the facts that we know right now? We could just deal with those instead of making up like crazy sci fi dystopian doomsday predictions. But right now we can't have that because we have leaders who aren't interested in it and aren't aware of it and don't have the faintest idea what any of this is about. And all Trump cares about, as we said before, is just keeping the house of cards standing.

48:42And that's why when you ask him, he kind of just dismisses it. He's just like, it'll all be fine. Like, that's his answer. A whistleblower from a technology company, whether you are a skeptic or not, comes out and says, hey, this technology could kill everybody on Earth within the next decade. And Trump's answer. And again, you said it earlier. And then nobody at those companies runs out to say this is a disgruntled employee. You can't listen to this person. they don't dismiss him out of hand. No, their lead, their alignment science lead came out and quote seeded that tweet. And he was like, Jacob's right about this.

49:21We do think this. Which by the way, if the employees at your company are saying the technology you're making could kill everyone, let's even scale down the scenario to just like some people. Let's be a little more reasonable and say, hey, it could kill some people, not everybody. Why is one more single nail being driven into a board at an AI data center? Like, why are we stopping everything immediately? Like, it's insane. Well, we'll get to it, but it's Ted Cruz's point is the answer. Yes, yes, yes. So we'll get to that. But first, let's do Donald Trump's first. Let's talk about the president's solution, his high IQ solution.

49:58Some people say the worst case scenario with AI is that the robots, the machinery learns to – obviously, it thinks for itself. That's what it does. and that could turn against humanity. I just, do we have the guardrails? It's gonna be fine. We'll always have something to stop them, right? We'll have a little gear. I really hope so. I don't like that. I really don't like that robot. A little gear. A little gear. A little gear. Like, why couldn't he, first of all, a gear? We have to turn a gear? Like, can't it be just like a remote button or something? Like, what's the, I have to get in there and I have to like find the gear?

50:34I feel like they're, you know, and again, it's not going to actually be physical robots as I understand it. Right. But if it was like physical robots surrounding the White House. Yeah. And Donald Trump like is on the phone, picks up his special phone that has his name on it. And he's like, hit the gear. And everybody's like, what? There was no, the little gear. They're like, there was never a little. Did you think there was a little gear? He's like I never Get me the briefcase with Get me the nuclear football But the one with the little gear And meanwhile he's got his mouth Stuffed with mystery meat He's like you better baby I guess I'm having my last hamburger

51:19I guess it's time for my last hamburger Arby's robots coming to you And saying We have the meats We have the meats we cannot tell you where the meats are from and then just a laser shoots you kills you well i think it's more like they just like force feed you the meats and then that kills you but it takes like 35 years yeah and then the other and then that ai that did that to you is not disqualified from serving in the fbi yeah thanks to the new rules everybody's in now everybody's in baby because the fbi director at whenever that happens is like yes we did change the eligibility requirements to stop killer robots who force people meet mystery meet in order to kill them.

52:03We did make it that so that they could be eligible to serve in the FBI. Yeah. And so that's like, now, what would you do it again? Now, slow down here real quick. Yeah, I got to kill robots. You're telling me if a robot is coerced into having sex Now the cow, is that a real cow Or is that a robot cow Help me out here I'm a simple man from a simple place Is the cow robot Who's in charge Who's the top Who's the top And who's flesh and bone And who's robot Now this scenario Who's the top and who's the bottom Now can AI make a video of that Can you feed in this conversation and have AI make a video of that?

52:51All right. I would love it. Can we get that on the record, the video of what we're talking about? Yeah, can I get a Dropbox link? How much water are you going to use to make me a video, make me a private video of this whole back and forth? A killer robot having sex with a robot cow. No, you got to send that to a – I got a different email that I want you to send that one to. I don't want that to go to my official email. um all right so oh so ted cruz is the point here right ted cruz is like a supercharged yeah he don't want to throw the brakes on because right this is we're losing a mysterious and it's a space race by their account by their space race it's a space race it's a nuclear race with china um by the way A country that Trump incidentally also says he's very close with and good friends with its leader and that they're much nicer to deal with than Canada.

53:49He's he's on the record at the same time saying we have to beat China at AI, because if not, they will take over the world and kill all of us. But also we get along very well with them. And Canada is much nastier to us than China. Yeah. So those two thoughts are coexisting somehow. But, yes, the point is, in their minds, it's a space race. It's a nuclear race. And Ted Cruz explained why, because the easy solution would just be to say, oh, you're making a technology that could kill a bunch of people or everyone. You should stop right away. And this is Ted Cruz's answer for why we cannot stop. There's a bipartisan cohort of voices right now, Republicans and Democrats saying, whoa, we need to pause.

54:30We need to really slow this thing down. Here's the problem. We can't. That is an impossible endeavor because you know who's not pausing? China. they are not going to stop if you look at where the u.s. so if ai is going to kill us it should be us ai not chinese ai listen i've actually joked that that if and this is somewhat tongue-in-cheek but it's not entirely if they're going to be killer robots i'd rather they be american killer robots and not chinese killer robots so he does say he's joking but then also he says he's not um look i don't think he is joking i think that's right what else is at the core of this if not that Well, here's why we're just, I mean, again, it all comes back.

55:11Like, if you just take the American companies, right, there's because it's not America. Like, it's not like the space race. It's not like the nuclear race. It's not like it because it's not two countries. It's multiple companies across many countries. So the American companies might all agree there needs to be a slowdown, but they can't. They're never going to trust each other. Yes. And also, nobody wants to lose control because there's no diffused democratic control of any of this. It's all just a small cabal of people who control this. And by the way, another point I want to make is like you hear a lot of anthropomorphized language about this, like killer robots or alien technology or a mind we can't see in.

55:49And I just feel like it's worth remembering. This is just technology that humans are making. Yeah. Like that's what this is. Like it is not some sort of like alien species that popped up out of nowhere that we now have to deal with because you hear a lot of passive language from the people in charge. They're like, well, as this technology progresses, it's like as you continue to move the technology forward to a place where it could, by your own account, kill a bunch of people. You are doing that. Like that is 10 percent, 10 percent. I've said 10 percent. But don't worry. Sam Altman said, by the way, that he's firmly on team humanity.

56:26He was like, hey, hey, if we get to a point where I don't think it's going to happen. But like we have to melt all the GPUs. Of course. To stop like, you know, easy, easy. Yes. By the way, I just think that's not easy. Yes. Even easy. Yes. Is not a reassuring. Reassuring. Well, it goes back to if the FBI head of the FBI has to explain what he means about the new bestiality requirements. Yes. It's bad to reach that place. Yes. If you have to ask the president, where's the beef from? It's bad. If the head of an AI company has to say, like, hey, I'm on team humanity. Yeah. Yeah. Hey, if it comes to it, if I have to choose between melting the data center, it's an easy yes for me.

57:09Yeah, yeah. I mean, I'm, yeah. Like, I hate the Patriots, Sal, but if it's, like, them or an alien race, Team Patriots. Yes. Yeah. But here's the good news, Sal. Yeah. Because, again, most of the doomsday scenarios for AI are at least, like, five years from now, right? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Midterms are coming up a couple months. Yeah. We're all going to get$5 ,000. Yeah. $5 ,000 check, courtesy of our president, High IQ! Exclamation point. Parentheses genius. Close parentheses. I'm opening my wallet, and I'm making room in my fridge for mystery meat. And I'm going to tell you something. I'm$5 ,000.

57:52You know what I'm going to do with$5 ,000? I'm going to get my new pickup truck, and I'm going to go coast to coast, unfortunately make it all the way to Denver, and then hitchhike. what with the price of diesel. But still five grand is five grand. Sal, I've read some naysayers who have claimed that the president has made these sort of promises before about checks. It's ludicrous. Right? That's not true. He wouldn't do that. It's not true at all. He would never promise that a doge dividend or a tariff dividend. If he's multiple times made a promise of free money to the American people, why would he still be making that promise?

58:30Because at this point they must. I mean, does he take us for suckers? You're being a cynic. You're being. Look, this is the only stuff I'm probably too online, Sal, because I will say it's a real pool of cynicism there. That's why I'm turning to you right now to tell me, like, I can take this man at his word, right? Yes, I think you can. I think the honesty is just oozing out of this guy. Let's listen. If we win the midterms, we will, on the other hand, provide a, let's call it Trump dividend,$5 ,000 for every adult citizen in our country. And we can do that because our country has never done better.

59:11We're taking in trillions, trillions of dollars. We win$5 ,000 for every adult. We love our adults. It's about time we take care of our adults. Adults? Yes. So I think that— This is now the new—this is who we've overlooked? That's how desperate he's gotten. The pool was, like, specific and narrow at some point. It was like the forgotten man is like a coal miner in West Virginia. Yeah. And now he's gotten so desperate, he's just saying, adults. Adults. We're just—we gotta—they're trying to—we gotta take care of our adults. It's the greatest frame, which is like we're just for too long. Kids. Yeah.

59:52Kids have had a run of the place for too long. Too long. Kids and the elderly have sucked on the teat of the federal government. But now finally adults. It's adults day. So the thing. I mean, again, it's it's where he's like the dumbest genius. Like he's either the dumbest guy or genius. He's like, who votes most? adults great so by percentages it's mostly yeah it's like he's looking i've looked at the statistics and it's primarily adults his team is coming in with all kinds of specific demographic information they're like okay sir you're really lagging very badly with like and he's just like i go to do it give me an age babies or adults who do i need to say babies or is it adults uh you know what taking trillions pay down that pay down the national debt a little bit right like that yeah I think we'd all agree.

1:00:45I mean, this is sort of what the Republican Party always claims to be the party of fiscal responsibility. I would say single-payer health care. But sure, he could do – that's what he should do. Yeah. All right. So there we are. There's a difference between you and I as far as what we use the money for. You use it for fireworks at your Bahamas Island? No, no, no. Somebody else can pay for that. That's right. Sal, when am I going to explain this to you? If you're going to have fireworks that you pay for, it's not even worth having. I can't enjoy the wonder of fireworks you paid for. So, yeah. But anyway, point being, it's, you know, the methodology behind it is, of course, blatantly untrue as well.

1:01:27Any time that anybody wants to do something that would say like serve, that would actually provide dignity and comfort to working class people and create a society where people are intrinsically speaking of AI taking over our jobs. Like a big part of the fear there is that we don't have a society that treats human beings as intrinsically worthwhile. It's only their jobs that makes them worthwhile in our society. What if we had a society where every human being is intrinsically worthwhile and worth dignity and comfort and happiness? And anytime anybody wants to do something like that, like, say, provide health care to everybody, it's immediately like, where are you going to get the money from?

1:02:05How are you going to pay for that? But Trump says, let's send five thousand dollars to every adult in the United States, which it's also so so ludicrous to say, why can't you do it now? Like you control everything right now. And by the way, all they do is things now. They're like the last people in the world who wait and need to plan. You know what I mean? They literally start building ballrooms before they finish the blueprint. Exactly, yeah. Wait, so you can bulldoze the East Wing of the White House without asking for anybody's permission. But then you like the checks, and then you know, you got to print all the checks.

1:02:40And we want them to be big old novelty checks. And we're going to have a hot lady bring the check to your door, bing bong. and then you go out and then they take a picture with the check. And we're going to give you a choice. We're going to give you two briefcases. One's going to have a check in it. One's going to have mystery meat. Enjoy your meat. Most of the briefcases are meat. They're mostly beef. That's how we're going to make it affordable. And by the way, you're going to know before you open them because we haven't found a briefcase yet that hides the smell of the beef, of the loose beef.

1:03:12You can smell it coming. All right. So I'm just going to say nobody's ever getting a$5 ,000. So it's kind of immaterial. No, it's just never going to happen. And hopefully people are smart enough to know. I mean, I think that people, you know, I think that's a real like people who are already going to vote for Donald Trump are going to be pretty excited about the$5 ,000. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah. Yeah. The same way people who are already in a cult are very excited about the alien spaceship they're about to ascend to. Sal, this is our final out of office. It's been very fun. Thanks, everybody, for checking it out, watching, listening.

1:03:47All right, everybody. Thank you. Okay. Bye.

1:03:58Late Night with Seth Meyers airs weeknights on NBC at 1235, 1135 Central. Original music on the Late Night Podcast is by the HE Band. Don't forget to follow the handle LateNightSeth on social media and tell your friends to subscribe to the Late Night Podcast wherever they get their podcasts.