Epstein Distractions, Columbia’s Big Check, and Tesla Underwhelms

23:14Scott, we're back with more news. Time for a quick roundup of earnings. First up, Tesla is on Musk that Tesla could, quote, probably have a few rough quarters, unquote, you think, Elon. After the company's latest earnings, the Musk company reported a 16 % year-over-year decline in automotive revenue, which is hard because it's an automotive company. Adjusted net income fell 23 % to$1.4 billion. This makes Twitter look like a great business. Sales of Model Y and Model 3 fell 12%, and Cybertruck sales fell 52%. I mean, that's gone right through the ground. I'll just mention the others. Alphabet's overall revenue grew 14 % year over year, but the company increased its capital expenditures forecast by$10 billion, citing demand for its cloud products.

23:56revenue for ALF, that's cloud computing business, increased 32%. That was impressive, finally. I had a many-year-ago discussion with Sundar Pichai about why they're not in the cloud computing business as much as they were a long time ago. And they seem to be right there. They're all pushed by, obviously, AI and stuff. For GM, the auto company said its profits fell by more than a third in the second quarter due to tariffs costing the company over a billion. And as Scott pointed out, that it's going to get hit further with this Japanese deal. Scott, any thoughts on any of these? Well, you cover the, I mean, Tesla's earnings again.

24:29No automobile company in the world trades at a PE of 180 and has a trillion dollar market cap. And at the same time, their revenues are declining faster than any automobile company in the world. And must knows, those two do not stay in unison for very long. At some point, he either has to massively reignite growth or the stock is going to crash. And it feels like the ladder. Or some merger of some sort. Or say XAI or announcing a diner or we're not a car company, we're doing robots. The fact that he opened this diner just days before these earnings came out is, again, no accident. I'm not exaggerating.

25:04Forty hours, 48 hours ago when it came out, I said to Ed Elson on Property Markets, I said, that means he's about to puke on the earnings call and he's trying to get everyone to look away. Their revenues are down 12%. The bright spot was their services or their supercharging station. but this thing's trading at a trillion dollar valuation and it's declining faster than Renault. I mean, there's no car company in the world that's posting these numbers this bad. On a more meta level, I think what's happened here, I think 2025 will be the year that late night TV turned out the lights. And also, I think this is the year where we kind of officially seed anything resembling leadership of the automotive industry.

25:42I think the automotive industry now in the U.S. is on a kind of the Green Mile death march. And what do you have? You have our national champion, Tesla, which was worth more than the rest of the automobile industry combined, starting to throw up. And they released the worst product, car product of the year, the Cybertruck. They're grasping at Strassen right now saying, we're AI, we're this. So that is a huge blow to the American automobile industry because Tesla was the national champion. And then the traditional player, General Motors, just announced that their earnings were taken down by a billion dollars because of tariffs.

26:15And then you have Japanese car companies. I love that Trump announces it's a big victory that they won't charge any tariffs on our cars going into Japan. Okay. Let's just talk about what a give that is. We buy about$54 billion of the Japanese cars in the U.S. Do you know how many, do you know the dollar volume of cars the Japanese buy from U.S.? $26. $2 billion. Right. So what is it? A few Japanese billionaires buy Escalades. That's it. The Japanese want nothing to do with our cars. This trade agreement is going to keep flat or lower the tariffs coming to the U.S. So what do you have? You have more pressure from amazing manufacturers, specifically Japanese manufacturers.

26:51You have our national champion going into the shitter. And you have our old guard, General Motors, announcing that these tariffs are really hurting them. And then if you want validation of just how bad this deal is for America, the ultimate neutral arbiter that absorbs millions of points of lights and is not politicized, it's totally focused on fear and greed as the markets. And what happened in the market when these tariffs, this Japanese big, beautiful deal was announced yesterday? Toyota was up 16 or 17 percent. Right, right. As usual. And he's made it worse. He's made it worse if he's talking about protecting manufacturing here.

27:26He's decided not to protect them, actually making it worse for them. What about Alphabet? Staggering. And I'm talking my own book here. Every year I make a big tech stock pick, and it's based on valuation. And, okay, the existential threat, you know, quote-unquote, search is being undermined by AI. Search revenue grew 12%. There's search, there's company, there's quote-unquote technology that's supposedly being disrupted by AI. it grew double digits. YouTube up 13 percent, cloud up 32 percent. They have five different businesses. As you've noted. They could be independent companies. And they have Search, an unbelievable display ad network, YouTube, subscriptions, and seven products that have over 2 billion users.

28:17Search Maps, Gmail, Android, Chrome, Play Store, and YouTube. And now their new growth vehicle is Waymo, which is by far the most dominant autonomous player with more than 100 million total miles logged on on public roads. In addition, this company trades at, I think the average S &P company trades at a PE multiple of 26. So Google, which is growing faster than the S &P, much faster and has this incredible, incredible leadership, is cheaper than the average S &P company. And pick your average S &P company. I would say it's Dow Chemical or P &G. Great companies, call them the average. Would you rather have autonomous and YouTube than hide?

28:57I mean, this company relative, the existential threat or the overhang of the existential threat of AI has been vastly exaggerated at Alphabet. bet. And then if you look at the IP they have and the investments they're making, and they announced massive CapEx here, they're like, we're going to get there just on money. They've announced that they're increasing their CapEx up to$85 billion from 75. Microsoft is at 80. Meta's between 64 and 72. And Amazon is up to$100 billion. But if you want to talk about CapEx going into AI, You know, a lot of Amazon CapEx goes into boring shit like, you know, like distribution centers and planes and things.

29:38So what do you have? You have unbelievable businesses that continue to grow. You have the probably some of the deepest IP around AI. You have a cloud business growing 33 percent a year and a company that's trading at a lower multiple than the S &P. So I'm very bullish. I would agree. One of the things everyone focuses so much on Mark Zuckerberg overpaying for talent. I would look at Google. I think he's going to maybe blow the money in that regard in terms of catching up. He thinks he can do it by this brute force research, essentially. Are you talking about Sundar or Mark? Sundar is quietly—he has a lot of businesses to pull levers on, as you know.

30:16And I think they have a better story than the sort of flashy jazz hands version that Metta is doing, which is stealing talent all over the place. Look, Cinder is, I've been thinking a lot about, they asked me at this thing last night, who should run for president or who would like to see as president? And I said, I think competence, we're entering an age where competence and the amount of press you get are inversely correlated. And that is, I think one of the most accretive actions for the quality of life of Americans would be a president like Michael Bennett, who lacks the charisma to be in your face and in the news cycle every day.

30:51I think I spend easily an hour a day thinking about or having Trump rent free in my brain. And I hate to admit it, but just a competent, you know, good governance is really fucking boring and doesn't get headlines. And really competent leaders don't feel a need to be attention merchants and want you to have time to focus on your kids and your relationships and making money. And Sundar Pichai is that kind of CEO. He's not out there like Musk or even, yeah, they're just like, I'm just going to do the boring shit. that moves the needle. I don't need press. I don't need to be in your face every day.

31:25I don't need to virtue signal and talk about not working with this company. You know, these guys aren't, these guys aren't jonesing for the camera every fucking day or in your face every day. Yeah. Yeah. I was like, shut the fuck up. And you know, you see a Sundar not doing that. You see a Satya not doing that. I mean, they give interviews, but it's very typical, right? It's the typical, rather than the sort of jazz hands performative stuff. Do you remember during COVID when we did those series of specials, special webinars or podcasts and Cinder came on. Yeah. I think his kid was coming in the room.

31:56He kept looking over and like waving people off. I don't know if it was his kid or his comms person saying, He's a very nice man. Get off of the bearing wall, bitch. She's going to make us look bad. You're going to use, let me just tell you, your next appearance in Aspen with the ladies of Aloe, you'll use the word bearing wall. I swear to God. You know you are. You've said it so much. You're like, oh, that was good. They love, they love, they're up and they're like, oh, why won't the Democrats listen to you? And I'm like, well, hello, what's your name? I think we have the same dermatologist. Let's go to San Ambrose.

32:24Would you like to take a hike with me tomorrow? No, no one wants to take a hike with you. And you don't hike. I can't imagine you hiking, but okay. I'm young and good looking for Aspen. Most of the guys, they're literally like too much time in the sun. You made a lot of money, but you didn't spend enough on sunblock. Those guys. Anyway, speaking of which, Elon's XAI is working to raise up to$12 billion in debt for a massive supply of NVIDIA chips to help train and power Grog. Valor Equity Partners, whose founder has closed ties to Musk, has been working with lenders, secure capital to lease the chips for the company.

32:56This is a big fucking play. First of all, Musk doesn't partner with anybody like OpenAI and the others, Anthropic. Secondly, they're losing$13 billion. It's like crazy how much money this thing is losing and almost no revenues. And they're raising the money. And by the way, speaking of which is money making thing over at SpaceX, paperwork sent to investors discussing a tender offer included an interesting risk factor that Elon Musk may return to politics. This feels like. I love that. I hope so. He's running on the hot topic ticket. I know. But one of the things is this is a lot. The 13 billion dollars he's raising 12.

33:38I mean, it's always good to bet on Elon, but I was like, this guy's a high wire act of all high wire acts here around everything he's doing. And then he overed SpaceX, which we would assume would be his seat, Kaurani's bearing wall, so to speak. He's really kicking it in the foundations in a lot of ways with this political stuff. I don't think he has any choice. If you look at it, the guy's a brilliant guy. And the reason he's the wealthiest, there's a myth, and I hate it when usually venture capitalists or entrepreneurs say this. They get on stage and someone references their wealth or money or their stock price.

34:16And they say, you know, I never really thought about money. I just wanted to build something great. These guys would fuck their sister for a nickel. These guys are obsessed, obsessed with money. And let me be clear, if you want to have a lot of money, you need to be thinking about it all the time. Roger Federer thinks about tennis a lot. You know, these you have to be. And I think young people, I love it when they talk about stocks. I try to be very open and transparent about my investments and how much money I've made or lost. You need to be financially literate. And this guy understands the relationship between the means of production, revenues, profits, and also in an era of perception where essentially the multiple you get on whatever revenues you have is purely a function of the perception of you as an innovator.

35:01And this is where he has between SpaceX, Tesla and Twitter. He has about one point four trillion dollars in value. The lion's share of that is one trillion dollars in value from Tesla. And he looks at it and goes, this is a 50 billion dollar company pretending to be a trillion dollar market cap company. The only thing he can do to possibly keep that trillion dollar balloon from bursting is two words. First is A, second is I. So he is doing anything he can to try and figure out a way to establish the perception of AI leadership and wrap it around all of this shit. So he is not afraid to spend. And he has the only way this, his empire stays worth$1.4 trillion and he maintains his status as the wealthiest man in the world is to figure out a way for Tesla to get some perception or to get wrapped in an AI glove.

35:56So he doesn't care what it costs. And$13 billion, Tesla was down, what, 7 %? Tesla lost$70 billion yesterday after their earnings. So$13 billion. He can't spend money fast enough. If someone comes in and says, you know, I think this will give us a slight little bit of little AI juju, but it's going to cost a billion dollars and I have no idea if it's going to work. Greenlight it. Greenlight it. He has to get the AI veneer over this$1.35 trillion enterprise that is worth SpaceX, I believe, is worth$350 billion. Tesla,$50 billion. Twitter,$10 billion. I mean, all he's thinking about is how do I keep Tesla in the limelight?

36:42And the only thing he can do, again, is the AI Botox brow lift fractal laser here. Yeah, I know. The thing is with SpaceX, I think Trump can still do damage to it. Even though they said we can't live without it, I think they're trying to figure out a way to live without it, right? Now they're on that path. And so that's even, you know, and especially if he returns into U.S. politics, and it will be loudly, by the way, so we'll take focus off of it. And that'll be a problem. And by the way, Peter Thiel is back spending money on politics, which he said he was getting out of quietly, right? Speaking of quiet confidence, you know, that's what he's doing, where nothing is at risk.

37:19But I don't think Musk can resist himself. I think he's just the most high wire act I've ever seen. And in some ways, it's, I don't want to use the term admirable, but it's like, when I saw that number, I was like, Jesus, this guy's, good luck. I don't know if it's the guy's set. What number? The number he's on? The$13 billion in losses. Like, wow. Well, he just isn't, he's playing all, you know, the sort of, this game that he's playing is really high level in a way that I would never do. It's terrifying. But this is him. This is the way he is. And he's going to go down in flames or probably he'll go down in flames.

37:54But ultimately, it's really quite astonishing to watch it. And I think you're right. The valuations are way off of what they actually will be. And at some point, they'll come down to earth. All right, Scott, let's go on a quick break. When we come back, Trump says he's removing the red tape around AI.

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40:43Scott, we're back with more news. Trump says he's removing the red tape around AI. The president spoke about his AI action plan, signed three executive orders at a summit hosted by the All In podcast in Washington this week. I wonder why they didn't invite us. The orders aim to fast track permitting for data centers, which, OK, promote American technology abroad. OK. And ban ideologically based AI systems from federal contracting. That's just stupid. But a little meat for space. One other thing Trump thinks is holding AI back, copyright law, incredibly. So he's kicked one industry in the nuts.

41:18So let's listen to a clip. You can't be expected to have a successful AI program when every single article, book, or anything else that you've read or studied, you're supposed to pay for. Gee, I read a book. I'm supposed to pay somebody. And, you know, we appreciate that, but you just can't do it because it's not doable. Okay. This is amazing. I thought that was amazing. I thought the whole thing was kind of ridiculous, hand-wavy stuff. And it was sort of basic basics of like, yes, we could have less regulation. But it essentially was Silicon Valley getting back its money for spending on Trump.

41:53That's what it looked like. And then he also went off script a number. He talked about trans athletes. He talked about tariffs. He talked about everything. But it looked like Silicon Valley was getting its bit. David Sachs was sort of the leader of that. He's on the All In podcast. But to me, it was sort of a nothing burger. I think a lot of people didn't pay attention to it. It was very showy. But essentially his minions in tech getting the payback for what they've gotten. I don't think there was anything here except for the copyright law, which showed an astonishing lack of knowledge about the real problem here.

42:29So he's sort of giving the green light for tech to do what it did before. What are your thoughts? I see this as nothing but a kind of a long-term transfer of wealth from Los Angeles and New York to Silicon Valley. And that is, if late night TV could go back in time, they would have partnered with every other high-end TV show and said, we can't have YouTube crawl. We've all got to bind together and license it for more money. Because basically, with YouTube, I can go see the best two minutes of Colbert, and I don't have to endure 22 minutes of advertising through the hour. So they're basically, and they let them do it.

43:06And the time to stop it would have been 10 or 15 years ago. and effectively what they're saying here is they're going back in time and saying okay these are they're opting for facebook's right or google's right to crawl ip slice it dice it and to a certain extent probably make more shareholder value than the traditional media companies have been able to do the problem is is that journalism is weakening that an industry that employs more people is weakening so it's it's disruption but it's also all right what is the incentive to do good work and create original IP into investigative journalism.

43:42If the asset-like companies that don't have to hire people or hire gaffers or sound people can just come in and crawl our data. And they claim that you couldn't do this. Well, actually, the music industry has figured out a way to do it. Every radio station in America can crawl any song and then play it. But they pay a small fee, like probably a quarter of a cent. And every year they send a check to a royalty or an artist group that then says, OK, Madonna, here's your check for$685 ,000 from the radio stations in the Southeast. So they could have figured out, in my opinion, this is payback for Silicon Valley who said, we want to continue to crawl and molest other people's data that they've spent money on, that they've risked their lives sometimes going into hotspots to cover reporting.

44:28Or, I mean, it's just a transfer of wealth to Silicon Valley by saying, okay, AI needs to run, you know, needs to run flat out with no friction, not have to pay anybody else, crawl books, crawl music, and we get to do it. And the argument you would make is that part of America's leadership from market capitalization standpoint, innovation standpoint, is that we err on the side of a lack of regulation. So that is a real argument. And also you could argue, okay, so we're stealing a dollar from the garage of Warner brothers, but we can take that dollar we're stealing and turn it into seven, whereas they turn it into 50 cents.

45:05So there is sort of an economic argument or an innovator's argument that this is good for AI, let our thoroughbreds run. But we've been to this movie before, folks. Just keep in mind, don't let your kids go into original IP or art or the creative because now AI can just crawl it and doesn't have to pay it back. Yeah. Well, the problem is I don't think he's necessarily going to, he's just saying this, whether it's, everything he says, like, I'm going to dig the commanders out. He's not. He's not. And, for example, on Monday, Josh Hawley from Missouri and Senator Blumenthal, Richard Blumenthal from Connecticut, Republican Democrat, unveiled legislation that would require AI companies to get consent of individuals for using their content and data and developing AI.

45:48I said, this is not going to be – copyright law is quite robust in that regard. And so just because Trump says it's not so, first of all, he's as dumb as a box of hammers. But they also did, by the way, they didn't mention deep fakes in this thing, which is supposed to be their big thing. They didn't mention like so many things were out of this thing. It was just a show. It was such a nothing burger of an everything. And one of the things that, you know, especially around, and I have to say Governor Newsom, who has on point social media these days, wrote President Trump's executive order on AI threatens to defund states like California with strong laws against AI-generated child porn.

46:26Some might say that's an interesting priority, particularly in light of his close ties with Jeffrey Epstein. I thought that was quite good as a picture of him with Jeffrey Epstein. So I don't know if this is going to be such an easy thing. I know that the tech companies would like to get out of this, but I don't think they are. I don't think in this case copyright is quite strong. I think there's a lot of supporters of that, even if not just, you know, media. I think it's movies. There's lots and lots and lots of people that still have some juice. And we'll see if they can do that. They also are showing some signs of weakness.

46:56SoftBank and OpenAI's$500 million Stargate project intended to boost USAIs facing setbacks over disagreements about key terms of the deal, including where to build data centers. The company's pledged to immediately invest $100 billion in the project in January. But the only plan right now is to build a small data center by the end of the year. It's pretty pathetic, actually. It would probably cost tens of millions of dollars, maybe 50. Like, just because Trump says it, like a lot of things, doesn't mean it's happening. And this AI thing was incredibly weak sauce, I thought. I was sort of like, well, I wasn't invited, but I'm kind of glad I wasn't.

47:28And it just looked like a payoff to me. The one that I thought was more disturbing was Columbia University agreeing to pay$200 million fine to resolve the Trump administration's investigation into alleged violations of federal anti-discrimination laws and all kinds of stuff around DEI. It essentially gave Trump an ability to, the government an ability to meddle in emissions. And so I just love your thought on that. Because, you know, I know you talk about the overuse of DEI programs, et cetera. This seems like a first, the founding fathers did not, like, were not worried about woke. They were worried about this.

48:10This is what they actually, I mean, it's annoying, but it's different than what is happening here, which is a clear violation of the government meddling in private enterprise. But go ahead. Well, we've never had a president that's more socialist. He demands a golden share to control a steel company. He's doing one-off deals with companies. And now he's decided, if you want to appoint Supreme Court justices that overturned race-based affirmative action, which has happened, I get it. You may agree or not agree with that decision, but it's meant to be a thoughtful, slow grinding process that affects every university.

48:42But when you show up and start threatening using the full weight of the DOJ and government to go after individual universities and then just make these vague statements that you want to have input into less politically correct admissions. That's just not how you run a government. It's not how, it's socialism and then it's kind of thought control at the places that are supposed to have the most freedom of thought. That is why they are so successful, is that we provide this ridiculous thing called tenure, which is very expensive. And occasionally someone says something so stupid, but they'd be fired anywhere else.

49:14We can't fire them because the whole idea is we built universities outside of the city center so people could say crazy shit like, well, maybe the world isn't flat and not risk being burnt at the stake. And so when government starts coming in and telling the admissions department, I do think that if you are going to provide millions of dollars in assistance and federally backed student loans, you do have some input, but that input should be systemic across all universities. I do believe that if you are not growing your freshman class It's faster than population growth. And you have an endowment over a million dollars.

49:46You should lose your tax-free status because you're no longer a public servant. You're a hedge fund offering courses. And then I like the carrot idea. Offer, instead of student debt relief, offer a capital investment if they, one, keep their tuition flat for 10 years, and two, increase their enrollments by 3%. What do you end up with? College in the 80s, where the admissions rates are double what they are now, and on an inflation-adjusted basis, tuition comes down by a third. and then force them to have non-four-year degrees in things like nursing and specialty construction. So I am very much up for the federal government providing both sticks and carrots to reformat higher education such that it returns to its original mission of increasing the likelihood that middle-class, unremarkable kids have a shot.

50:31I'm all about reform. And quite frankly, I'm all about showing up and saying, oh, we're not asking. But the way you do that is by passing laws. and then everyone is subject to these laws, not going after Columbia because they pissed you off. Let me tell you, with the Epstein things, they're not interested in the victims. They're not. Yeah, that's not why they're there. That's not why they're there. And you know why? Trump is not at these universities to make them better. If they made a mistake around not protecting Jewish students, fine them for that and tell them they have to fix something. That's a very easy fix, right?

51:02But this is something very different. The government should not be telling universities what to say. Just period, period, period, period. And again, I think you're exactly right. It should be based on finances versus race, maybe. And that will fix the problem anyway, probably. But it should certainly, this is such an overreach. It's crazy. And I went to Columbia, by the way, for graduate school. And they will never see another, I don't give them money anyway, so they'll never ever see money from me. They're an embarrassment to their long and storied history. It's an embarrassment for Columbia.

51:40And I hope Harvard and others, as much pressure as they're under, don't fall prey to this kind of nonsense. Because it's not, it doesn't make these universities better to let more white people in. It just doesn't. It just, it's not, it doesn't solve the problem that we have here. But they don't care. They don't care about the victims in Epstein. They don't care about, they don't care about AI and having a really robust AI system. They just want to get what's good for them. Their instincts in some ways are correct. It's, again, the execution is wrong. 60 years ago. Not the government's business.

52:1260 years ago, 12 black people at Harvard, Princeton, and Yale combined. That was a problem, race-based affirmative action. Now, 60 % of Harvard's freshman class identifies as non-white. But the problem is 70 % of those non-whites come from upper-income households. Most Republicans and all Democrats agree that there are some people who face such incredible headwinds through no fault of their own that if the government gives them a hand up, okay, we're down with that. The question is, and all the argument is over, is who qualifies for the hand up? And Tyler Perry and Trevor Noah's kids should not get a hand up.

52:45There has been, quite frankly, and this triggers people, too much advantage shoved into the kids of non-white parents. Those are the ones getting the most advantage right now. And a lot of good kids have been pushed out by foreign students and by, quite frankly, wealthy non-whites. And they've said, OK, fine, we need to reconfigure affirmative action, as the University of California did. And they made it an adversity index. But this says to the white community who's poor and from single parents, you got the same shot. We're going to lift you up. And at the same time says, OK, OK, you know, Tyler Perry's kids, sorry, you have the same advantages as a rich white kid.

53:23Except, Scott, they never address the white kid, rich kids, right? They never, like, go, oh, wait a minute. Like, it's always like, okay, now— Well, they're talking about doing away with legacies. Yes, that's what I mean, do away with legacies. But again, this is not the government's job. I'm sorry. It's just they should not tell a university what to say, how to operate. The one thing is if they didn't protect students, Jewish students, whoever the students that were attacked on campus, That's something the government might want to get involved in. But otherwise, help poor kids get into colleges and help figure out a way to get colleges to open up more.

54:01As you said, instead of being a private hedge fund that happens to give classes, figure out a way to get more people educated, especially at the lower levels of the economic rung. That is a brilliant idea. And there are models out there. You know, UW-Madison, University of North Carolina, which prioritizes in-state applicants. University of California. The University of California, they are doing their level best to let in as many kids as possible such that they can go deeper and deeper into the barrel. Because here's the bottom line. No individual or institution can be the arbiter of predicting greatness when a kid is 17 or 18.

54:34You just don't know. The key is, and by the way, the kid's getting in right now. If you come from a 1 % income earning household, you're 77 times more likely to gain admissions to an elite university. And here's the truth of it. The top 1%, they need college the least. They already show up well-educated. They already have contacts. They've already gone to camps. They've already gotten really good socialization. Dad is already super well-connected. It's the bottom 90 that need college the most. And anyway, the one place we do disagree here is I do believe if you're going to back, you're going to federally back student loans.

55:09You're going to offer Pell Grants. You're going to offer tax-free status. They've cut Pell Grants, Scott. They don't care. I'm just saying. No, I agree. What I'm saying, though, is that the federal government should have, and nothing's for free, input into the policies. But it should be, and the word we always use is systemic. It should apply to everybody, not one-offs based on where Barron did or did not get into college. Right. I agree with you. That's not the argument I'm making is the government should not tell colleges what to teach. Colleges can decide and then the market will decide of what they do.

55:42It's just they need to keep their dirty little hands out of it. It gets complicated fast, Cara, because universities have taken in$14 billion from other governments. Four of the$14 billion has come from a nation with 300 ,000 people, Qatar. And what do you know? We have all of these Middle East studies departments who, quite frankly, aren't teaching that Israel has a right to exist. So it does get pretty gray pretty fast. I think it's a complicated issue, but universities have become— The government should not be deciding this. I'm sorry. It's First Amendment. Look, I'm not loving Qatar doing it.

56:19I didn't take money from Qatar. Well, they shouldn't be allowed to get money is how I would handle it. That's a great solution. Great. That's great. That's a good idea. But here's the deal. Our government should be funding these educational institutions more, and they don't. Instead, they give out handouts to the very wealthy AI people and, you know, just take from it. Anyway, it's a long-gant thing. I just feel like, Columbia, you should be embarrassed by yourselves, by what you've done here. you've created a really bad precedent, and I hope the others don't follow. All right, we have to take a quick break, and we'll be back for predictions.

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58:33Okay, Scott, let's hear a prediction. I just want to, there's one that I could throw out at you. President Trump met with Jeff Bezos at the White House last week in a meeting that lasted over an hour. What do you predict they were talking about? I predict Trump wants in on the bachelor party. I don't. Didn't that already happen? Did it? I didn't hear about that. I would have been so good at that. Would you have a post-marriage bachelor party? Lauren's not putting up with that shit. Oh, yeah. It's called a midlife crisis. It's called a second marriage and daddy getting together with his friends every six weeks.

59:01Anyways, my prediction, I already made my prediction. The fix is in. Someone has communicated to Jelaine Maxwell that if she were to provide states evidence or testimony that in any way reflects well on the president, that the president has a habit of pardoning people towards the end of his administration. And there's nothing like jail to convince you to lie and do whatever you need to do to get out of jail. I think the fix is in. What we're going to have is something resembling a kangaroo court where they took testimony, pretend to take it seriously, pretend they're pursuing the truth. And all evidence from Ghislaine Maxwell will show that the president, while was a friend and showed errors in judgment, was not involved in any illicit or illegal activity.

59:42And then on the eve before Trump, you know, takes off and J.D. Vance is elected president or or in my opinion, if I were to bet on anyone right now, and I might do this on Polymarket is someone you mentioned earlier. People vastly underestimate Governor Newsom. He is the only one pushing back right now. I believe if I had to bet on anyone, he would be the president. But anyways, whoever 30 days before the president, the next president is inaugurated, she will be pardoned. OK, well, we'll see. Just so you know, two things. Jillian Maxwell is a liar. She faced two perjury charges stemming from these accusations.

1:00:18She lied under oaths around Epstein. They dropped those things because she also had sex trafficking conviction she received in December of 2021. So let me just say, she's a sex trafficker. So think about that, people, that he's going to let off a convicted sex trafficker who is probably just as equally culpable in what happened. We need a special counsel with Matt Gaetz. Are we in a simulation here? Literally, are we in a simulation? I just am like, Jillian Maxwell is a terrible person and should die in prison. And again, the focus is off the people it should be on, which is these young women who are terrified now because the president is trying to cover this up.

1:00:56And that's what the president is doing. He's trying to cover up a sex trafficking scandal where his name is involved. And so everybody, all this stuff, whether you're going to get Trump or not get Trump, just remember all these possibly hundreds of women, they think, were sexually abused here. And that is lost in this entire thing. Even worse, hundreds of girls. Girls, exactly. People have correctly corrected me and said, these are not underage women, they're girls. They're girls. And that is what we should be focusing on, and we never have. And they're women now, they're older. They're not here.

1:01:32They have been traumatized, and Trump is further traumatizing them with this fucking circus. And that's what we need to focus in on. And we won't. My prediction is we won't, because we don't value the lives of young women as much as we do as rich, old, syphilitic. These are syphilitic men. Anyway, your prediction? That this is going to happen? The fix is in. She's going to be pardoned 30 to 60 days before the end of his term. Well, everybody, she's a liar and a sex trafficker, so take it that for the thing. Anyway, okay. All right, but it won't come till the end, you're saying. It won't come till the end of the administration.

1:02:08Well, I think that he'll create some distance to try and lower the volume of the outrage. The fix was in, and this woman basically came out and lied and took the heat down. Yeah, what the fuck do you care? Pardon her. The fix is in. The fix is in. All I just say is remember the girls of all of it. Release the empty tiles is fine, but remember the girls. A real attorney general has a group of people who are doing nothing but trying to convince people to narc and impugn more powerful people. They work their way up the chain. This is the first Department of Justice that an attorney general who is trying to figure out a way to get people to flip and exonerate people more senior than them.

1:02:46This is exactly what they are not supposed to do. They're supposed to be truth to power. The law affects everyone means that, quite frankly, you work your way up the food chain. You know, you're a small-time dealer. This is how we're going to give you one year in prison and not 10. You're going to help us find the kingpin here and put him in prison. They realize that the key to law enforcement is that the more senior, more powerful, more mendacious you get in criminal activity, the more important it is that that person get put away. You want to punish. You want a progressive, just as we're supposed to have a progressive tax structure, which is part of our culture, we're supposed to have a progressive criminal prosecution structure that says the more senior and powerful, the more damage you're doing, the more we try to find the truth on you.

1:03:35And this is entirely the opposite. Let's give her a pardon if she lowers the heat on the most powerful person in the world. I think this one is so obvious. I know that. Again, I want to stress, to Pam Bondi, these are hundreds of girls. And you have you horrible, shameful person to do this. And this is the woman who sexually abused them. Absolutely. 100 % has been convicted of that. You're a, you know, I'm going to do a lesbian thing and quote Gladiator because it's my favorite movie. The time for honoring yourself is at an end. I'm just disgusted. The time for honoring yourself is at an end. You know, remember when he's getting all the attention and the emperor's all pissed, and then the emperor tries to, you know, tell him about his wife and child being killed in a terrible way, including rape in this thing.

1:04:31And he turns around, instead of hitting him, he goes, the time for honoring yourself will soon be at an end. Such a great line. That's what I feel about these people. Yeah, I don't. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say Attorney General Bondi's ethics and morals around the president are sometimes a little bit patchy. Patchy, patchy. You're a termagant. The time for honoring yourself. She's a heinous termagant is what she is. And I'll blame the men just as much. But when a woman does this, it's even worse. These are girls, Pam. Girls, okay? Anyway, we want to hear from you. Send us your questions about business, tech, or whatever's on your mind.

1:05:07Go to nymag.com slash pivot to send a question for the show or call 855-51-PIVOT. Elsewhere in the Kara and Scott universe, this week on Profky Conversations that we talked about earlier this week, Scott spoke with Governor Gretchen Whitmer, the 49th governor of Michigan. Let's listen to a clip of Big Gretch with Scott. Well, I'm going to say something that's going to be really depressing. And that is we're five months in to a 48-month term. As a governor, I have a role. I have an important role. How do we band together and show Americans what Democratic leaders do? It's by delivering in our states.

1:05:45It's by fighting the federal government when they're impacting our states. But we are not the counterpoint to the executive branch and the federal government. That's Congress. That's their whole job is to be that counterpoint. So you like that interview, Scott? Yeah, every time I get to know some of these individuals on both sides of the aisle, I'm really impressed and heartened. And I think Governor, I think I said this last time, Governor, I do this no mercy, no, every presidential candidate is calling one or both of us. And we will interview between now and then, I think, any viable candidate, at least on the Democratic side.

1:06:23And I do this no mercy, no malice review of the interview. And to the upside, she reeks of integrity and character. She's just one of those people that within a minute you think, this is a competent, decent woman. And also Michigan has a lot to be proud of. It's not an easy environment to have a manufacturing-based economy. She's managed to maintain economic growth, even if it's not stellar. The quality of life of Michigan, meaning affordability relative to salaries, is some of the best in the nation. She has a lot to run on. My downside was she's infected with the same rhetorical flourish and avoidance of hard policies.

1:06:58The Democrat that's going to race to the head of the polls is going to be someone who comes out with crazy, bold solutions and says, we're going to lower Medicare eligibility by two years every year and socialize medicine. We are going to have an alternative minimum tax of 40 percent. We're going to do away with the exemption on real estate, on trust. There is such an opportunity now for someone to come out with big, fucking. Big, bold, fucking ideas. Moving Social Security back to 72 when we're means testing it. Sorry, folks. It's time to be the grown up in the room. An alternative minimum tax on corporations who are paying their lowest taxes since 1939 of 30 percent.

1:07:32Scott Galloway for president. But there's such a huge opportunity. And she wants to talk about, you know, in very big, bold, flowery speech, Americans. And I'm like, OK, folks, Obama, you're not going to out Obama Obama. We need someone who has real policies. And also, and this is not the way the world should be. It's the way the world is. Democrats are going to elect and nominate a straight white male over six feet. We are highly luxist. They are not going to, for the third time, nominate a woman. No fucking way. They're not going to nominate a gay man because they're worried about blacks in South Carolina.

1:08:11They're not going to nominate anyone under 511 because they realize America is so goddamn luxist and sexist still. So I don't – No Scott Galloway for president. I'm just pointing it out. You fit all that criteria. The problem is I wouldn't enjoy it and I wouldn't be very good at it. You're in my job, Cara, is to bring attention and oxygen to fantastic Democrats and help them get elected. Anyways, she is she I think is on everyone's short list for VP because she is she's she would be she's just a great foot soldier. And she also she has she's hugely popular in a swing state. She is. She's very she's still very popular despite everything.

1:08:53Let me just say, I think you're right about all those things, unfortunately. But but whatever you think, my dummy, and there's lots of attacks on him recently. I think the reason he broke through was big ideas, whether you think they're right or not. They were big, interesting ideas. He's saying something. But they were kind of interesting. They were some of them were good. Some of them were bad. 100%. And he's good at social media and he's handsome and he's well-spoken. Like, to me, like, get away from whether you'll, same thing with Abby Spanberger, by the way. Great speaker, great looking, great communicator, saying things of real meaning.

1:09:30Like, what are you going to do for the people of Virginia? or what are you going to do for the people of blank? And what are you going to do for the people of the United States? You're 100 % right. Scott, you should run for office. I can be your vice president. I'll be fine. I'd really run the show as we do here. We will build a giant bearing wall. We will build. I like that. We'll build a bearing wall for America. Oh, my God. You could not be more lesbian. Oh, my God. Bearing wall. That's your go-to metaphor. I'm going to go build one right now here in San Francisco. That is your go-to metaphor.

1:09:58I'm going to build one right here in San Francisco, and then I'm going to have a kombucha. I hate kombucha. Do you want to hear the most offensive thing I said at the Aspen Ideas Festival? I'm sure I'll get a text. I was joking about masturbation, and I said, I've found the ultimate birth control. And then I get lotion. I have this lotion that I put on myself. And if I put it on for more than two minutes, I don't need to have sex. And there was this awkward silence. And then a bunch of women in aloe who liked me laughed and then looked around to say, can I laugh? And it would be like, I'm laughing.

1:10:26You just can't tell. I've had so much poison injected into my face. Oh, my God. Scott. Oh, my God. There you go. You know what you need to do? This is the thing you need to do. Let me just give another recommendation. Go watch Hunting Wives. It's a lesbian. Hunting Wives? Hunting Wives with Mal and Ackerman and others. Mal and Ackerman, Brittany Snow. It's based on a book set in Texas. It's about a bunch of sort of rich East Texas ladies. And you think it's going to be all about shopping and drinking. But it turns out to be a lesbian drama and a murder mystery. And it is so good because Mal and Ackerman and Brittany Snow are really hot.

1:11:02and they have sex all day. But everyone's making, all the women are making out. I'll see it twice. Exactly. You need to watch. I'll see it twice. You're going to thank me next week. Okay, that's the show. Thanks for listening to Pivot and be sure to like and subscribe to our YouTube channel. We'll be back next week. Scott, read us out. There you go. Today's show was produced by Lara Neiman, Zoe Marcus, Taylor Griffin, and Kevin Oliver. Ernie Intertot engineered this episode. Thanks also to Drew Burrows, Misevera, and Dan Shalon. Nishat Kroa is Vox Media's executive producer of podcasts. Make sure to follow Pivot on your favorite podcast platform.

1:11:32Thanks for listening to Pivot from New York Magazine and Vox Media. You can subscribe to the magazine at nymag.com slash pod. We'll be back next week for another breakdown of all things tech and business. Daring wall. Lara, do not take that stuff out. You hear me?