How Trump Turns Enemies Into Employees

0:00Irreverent news, talk, opinion, satire. It's Newsweek Radio. I'm Jesse Edwards. Trump says he's transferring$10 billion from the U.S. government to his Board of Peace, which he chairs and can use the funds as he wishes. Hey, where the hell is Congress? Listen to this. I want to let you know that the United States is going to make a contribution of$10 billion to the Board of Peace. And that number is a very small number when you look at that compared to the cost of war. That's two weeks of fighting. Wow, yeah, that sounds legit. Yeah, it kind of reminds me of the Human Fund from Seinfeld. You remember when George makes up that fictitious organization to hand out his gift cards to a fake charity at Christmas?

0:42I would have all this money and people would love me. Then they would come to me and beg. And if I felt like it, I would help them out and then they would owe me big time. Yeah, strong George vibes coming from Trump on this one. I'm telling you, these countries are calling us up, kissing my ass. Speaking at the Board of Peace meeting today, President Trump also praised the nation of Qatar. His Excellency Prime Minister Al Thani of Qatar, just a great man, please, a great man and highly respected. And he's working with a man who is amazing. I always say he needs a public relations agency because you do so much good and they have you down as evil.

1:28And you're not evil. You help us so much. And you're such a good ally. And I just want people to know that. And the Amir is incredible. Here's what far-right, unofficial Trump, psychophant loyalist Laura Loomer had to say about Trump's statement here. And instead of quoting Laura Loomer here myself, I'm just going to have A.I. read what she said on social media. Actually, Qatar is a state sponsor of Islamic terrorism. They fund and own Al Jazeera, which attacks Trump every day. Qatar harbored the mastermind of 9-11. I'd be here all day if I listed every example of how evil Qatar is. They funded Hamas and provided protection for Hamas leadership in Doha, while Hamas was holding U.S.

2:06citizens hostage in tunnels in Gaza. Qatar will create scandals for this administration, and in the end, everyone will come to regret getting involved with those jihadi manipulators and financiers of the Muslim Brotherhood who think they can get away with bribing every single elected official in D.C. Qatar needs a PR agency because they are one of the most evil countries in the world. I love President Trump, and I hate Qatar. I love America. I reject Islam. Yeah, well, this is where Laura Loomer gets it wrong. And it's probably why even Trump knows better than to let her toxic energy anywhere near the White House.

2:35The point is, Trump will do business with anybody as long as they smile and nod at the meeting and pretend to kiss his proverbial ass. I'm telling you, these countries are calling us up, kissing my ass. There's also something here that I suspect Trump knows better than even P.T. Barnum or Colonel Tom Parker understood, and that's that the opposition is not something to always be defeated. If you can, it's better to be converted or absorbed. And if all else fails, purchased. P.T. Barnum filled his museum by encouraging arguments about whether his attractions were frauds because he understood that skeptics were still paying customers at the moment curiosity pulled them through the door.

3:14Colonel Parker took that same instinct and applied it to Elvis Presley in a way that felt almost cynical at the time. When the Elvis backlash exploded in the 1950s, Parker leaned into it and licensed I hate Elvis buttons right alongside the fan merchandise, turning resentment into revenue and proving that emotional resistance is just inverted fandom waiting to be monetized. The lesson is simple, but it's brutal. Hate is not a barrier to influence. Indifference is. And Trump just applies that basic instinct to people and governments instead of ticket buyers. If If Qatar flatters him publicly while quietly playing its own little game on the side, it doesn't disqualify them.

3:55It makes them negotiable. The same logic explains how J.D. Vance can go from calling Trump a modern Hitler to standing beside him as vice president, and how Marco Rubio can spend years dismissing Trump as a fraud, only to become a top ally once the incentives shift. Look, I don't think that Trump is very sharp in most departments, but he does understand that today's enemy is often just tomorrow's partner. Could I be bought by Donald Trump? No, I don't think I could live with myself. Five million dollars? Oh, man. Ten million dollars? Jeez, you know, it would be tempting. But I don't think I could live with myself.

4:28Don't worry, I'm pretty sure those offers aren't coming anytime soon. But this is why Laura Loomer is just a wannabe, groupie simp for Trump. But even she's going to disown him by the time I think it's all said and done. I could be wrong, but it's just, you know, a prediction I'm willing to make. I guess J.D. Vance even spoke at Donald Trump's Hands Across His Wallet Fund event. Let's listen to that. Thank you, Mr. President, very much for your leadership, but also for the kind words about me personally. I knew exactly what I wanted to say, but then after the president said that I was so smart and that I didn't want to repeat our congresswoman who froze for 20 seconds over in Munich.

5:01Now I'm tempted, sir, just to freeze for 20 seconds and just stare at the cameras and maybe they'll say nice things about me like they do about Congresswoman Cortez. but wow um yeah there's something there's something wrong with jd vance i mean aside from the fact that he's a little bit socially awkward i mean that's fine whatever but this guy is downright spooky because he just doesn't have any charisma for one but he's also sort of kind of the heir apparent i guess to donald trump if there is such a thing what i don't understand is why and how hollywood got behind this guy jd vance with his book deal and ron howard making an entire movie about J.D.

5:42Vance's early life. I mean, it was a good movie. I watched it. It was okay. With Hillbilly Elegy, I wouldn't watch it again, but it seemed to me at the time like this was the left's golden boy because he was still kind of conservative, but very, very anti-Trump. And I'm still kind of hung up on how anti-Trump he was. I mean, we can always take a listen back to some of the things he said. Go for it. I didn't vote for Trump. And so one of the takeaways is not just that the Republican Party base is somehow fundamentally flawed in a way that's unique in American political history. It's that Trump is a really bad candidate and frankly, I think a really bad person.

6:18My current plan is to vote either third party or as I joke to my wife, I might ride in my dog because that's about as good as it seems. I think there's a chance if I feel like Trump has a really good chance of winning that I might have to hold my nose and vote for Hillary Clinton. And now he's kind of the vice president, though. It seems like to a lot of people that Marco Rubio is the only one doing the real work. And J.D. Vance is just kind of like Trump's victory trophy or something. I don't know. It's kind of weird. To any conservatives I've ever talked to behind the scenes or in front of them, they've always treated J.D.

6:53Vance like some sort of insider joke. Nobody takes him seriously. And now you've got the openly racist half of the conservative movement who does nothing but constantly mock his wife because she's of Indian origin. I don't get it. The entire party is a giant mess. And if they think that they're going to be able to salvage anything that's left over once Donald Trump is gone, they've got another thing coming because the wokesters are waiting in the wings like vultures waiting to pick the last few scraps of meat off of our bones as American citizens. Starting to get so graphic about it, but the way the pendulum tends to swing in this country, I cannot help but be terrified of whatever the equal and opposite reaction to Trumpism is going to be on the other side when it's coming from the left.

7:39This is something that my conservative friends and family fundamentally do not understand. Well, I'll back that up just a little bit. Maybe they're starting to, some of them, but I'm afraid it's a little too little too late. And then you've got Marco Rubio who said things like this a lot before Donald Trump was ever a problem for the rest of us. Listen. Lightweight Marco Rubio was working hard last night. This is true. The problem is he is a choker. And once a choker, always a choker. I guess that's what he meant to say. He spelled choker, C-H-O-K-E-R, choker. He called me Mr. Meltdown. Let me tell you something.

8:20Last night in the debate during one of the breaks, two of the breaks, he went backstage. He was having a meltdown. First he had this little makeup thing, applying like makeup around his mustache, because he had one of those sweat mustaches. Then, then he asked for a full length mirror. I don't know why, because the podium goes up to here, but he wanted a full length mirror. Maybe to make sure his pants weren't wet. I don't know.

8:49Then, then I see him pacing back and forth and then he's huddled in the corner talking to somebody. and he's like waving his arms up and down, and the person's trying to calm him down. So, anyway. But I'm a chocker. All right. Next tweet. Leet weight chocker, Marco Rubio, looks like a little boy on stage, not presidential material. He meant to say lightweight, but he spelled it E-L-E-I-G-H-T. So he got that wrong. Looks like a little boy on stage. It's not that I look like a little boy. I wouldn't even be the youngest president, but he would be the oldest president ever elected. And it's like an eight-year term, so you start to worry.

9:28So how does this guy, not in one tweet, three tweets misspell words so badly? And I only reached two conclusions. Number one, that's how they spell those words at the Wharton School of Business, where he went. Or number two, just like Trump Tower, he must have hired a foreign worker to do his own tweets.

9:50guys we have a con artist as the front runner in the Republican Party a guy a guy who has made a career out of telling people lies so that they come in and buy his product or whatever he does you ever heard of Trump vodka you have what then around anymore or Trump mattress or Trump air or Trump ice or Trump water Those are all businesses that are gone because they were disasters. Okay? Trump hot air. Yeah. So we cannot allow the conservative movement to be taken over by a con artist because the stakes are too high. Now look, I know we've all heard these sound bites a million times over by now if you're paying attention.

10:31And apologies for taking such a long gaze into the rearview mirror here today on Newsweek Radio. But it still baffles me on some level. Much like it's baffling Laura Loomer as to why Donald Trump would be so cozy in playing footsie with Qatar, I still can't understand how Donald Trump got somebody like J.D. Vance and Marco Rubio to turn. I assumed they had more integrity. I knew he didn't. But like Marco Rubio and like J.D. Vance and like the rest of most of the GOP, save a small handful of guys like Thomas Massey, reluctantly even Marjorie Taylor Greene, and it looks like Nancy Mace is the next one to turn here soon.

11:07and she just won't say Donald Trump's name. I keep trying to get her just to say it, but she keeps dancing around it. She's probably waiting for the most opportunistic moment to actually distance herself from Trump, much like I argued on yesterday's show that most of the conservative movement that I know behind the scenes is waiting to do. Nobody likes Trump anymore. They didn't like him very much to begin with. They just knew that he was easy to manipulate. That hasn't been true for the last year because Trump is off chasing butterflies internationally speaking. and domestically speaking, just kind of doing whatever the hell he wants because he realizes he's not beholden to anybody, including those who got him back into the White House.

11:47Many people were surprised the entire East Wing was being demolished because you had said initially that the ballroom would just touch. Well, certain areas are being left. But we're out of time for today. So until we can do it again, it's Newsweek Radio. Catch you next time by Newsweek Radio is a member of The Trust Project. And we say bye-bye! His Excellency Prime Minister, the undisputed... When did this come out?