Liberation Day, Elon Exit Rumors, and Guest Co-Host Jon Lovett

4 Apr 2025 · 1 h 3 min

Ask about this episode

Ask anything about it. ChatGPT or Claude reads this page and answers with the times it was said.

Connect VO and ask about every podcast you hear, including the moments you saved. Add to ChatGPT · Add to Claude

In short

Podcast Notes: Pivot Episode - "Liberation Day, Elon Exit Rumors, and Guest Co-Host Jon Lovett"

Episode Details

  • Title: Liberation Day, Elon Exit Rumors, and Guest Co-Host Jon Lovett
  • Hosts: Kara Swisher and Jon Lovett
  • Release Date: [Insert Date]
  • Podcast Network: New York Magazine and Vox Media

Overview In this episode, Kara Swisher is joined by Jon Lovett, a prominent political commentator and co-host of Pod Save America. They discuss a range of political topics including the rumored departure of Elon Musk from the Trump administration, recent political victories for Democrats, and Cory Booker's historic speech in the Senate.

Key Topics Discussed

  1. Elon Musk and the Trump Administration
  2. Departure Rumors: Reports suggest Musk might be leaving the administration, denied by the White House.
  3. Impact on Tesla: Tesla's sales have significantly dropped, prompting speculation about Musk's focus shifting back to the company.
  4. Market Reactions: The possibility of Musk's exit is causing turmoil in various markets, particularly cryptocurrencies like Dogecoin.
  1. Wisconsin Supreme Court Election
  2. Democratic Victory: Susan Crawford won a decisive victory in Wisconsin, showcasing the effectiveness of Democratic campaign strategies, particularly in leveraging Musk's controversial public image.
  3. Elon's Influence: Despite Musk's investments, he could not sway the election, highlighting the limits of financial power in politics.
  1. Cory Booker's Historic Speech
  2. Longest Senate Speech: Booker delivered a 25-hour speech, surpassing the record previously held by Strom Thurmond.
  3. Political Strategy: This speech served as a rallying call for Democrats, framing their struggle against Trump as a war for democracy.
  1. Trump's New Tariffs
  2. Tariff Announcement: Trump introduced new tariffs, leading to a drop in the stock market and signaling potential chaos in international trade.
  3. Economic Impact: Economists predict significant losses due to these tariffs, with conflicting opinions on their efficacy and the underlying motivations.
  4. Political Implications: The tariffs are seen as a means for Trump to exert control and leverage over businesses, effectively rewarding loyalty and punishing dissent.
  1. Joe Rogan's Comments on Immigration
  2. Immigration Policy Critique: Joe Rogan criticized the Trump administration's deportation practices, describing them as cruel and chaotic.
  3. Cross-Party Agreement: There's a growing sentiment across various political spectrums recognizing the need for humane immigration policies.
  1. TikTok Ownership Shift
  2. Bids for Acquisition: Discussion on potential bids for TikTok, with various companies like Oracle and Amazon entering the fray.
  3. Public Sentiment: There is skepticism about the motivations behind TikTok's potential ban and the lack of transparency regarding its dangers compared to domestic social media platforms.
  1. Personal Reflections and Predictions
  2. Cultural Commentary: The hosts reflect on various cultural phenomena, including the effectiveness of reality television in understanding political dynamics.
  3. Future Predictions: Lovett predicts Eric Adams will eventually join the Trump administration, speculating on his potential cabinet role.

Key Takeaways

  • The political landscape is heavily influenced by personal narratives and public personas, particularly figures like Elon Musk, whose actions resonate widely in media and markets.
  • Recent electoral successes for Democrats suggest a shifting political tide, where financial influence may not guarantee electoral victories.
  • Cory Booker's lengthy speech reflects an urgent call to action among Democrats in the face of rising authoritarian tendencies.
  • Trump’s tariffs and immigration policies are under scrutiny, with implications that extend beyond immediate economic effects to broader societal impacts.

Conclusion This episode of Pivot provides a sharp analysis of current political events, showcasing the complex interplay between technology, economics, and governance. Swisher and Lovett's engaging dialogue highlights the significance of public figures in shaping political narratives, emphasizing the need for thoughtful engagement in an increasingly polarized environment.

Follow-Up

  • Listen to more episodes: Subscribe to Pivot on your preferred podcast platform.
  • Engage with the hosts: Follow Kara Swisher and Jon Lovett on social media for their latest insights and commentary.
  • Listener Interaction: Call in or leave questions for future episodes at 855-51-PIVOT or visit nymag.com/pivot.

Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.

Hear the part that matters, and keep it.Open this episode in VO. Double tap your headphones to save a moment as you listen.
Get VO free

Transcript

Automatic transcript. May contain errors.

0:27Adobe Acrobat Studio, so brand new. If you're waiting for your AI to turn into ROI, and wondering how long you have to wait, maybe you need to do more than wait. Any business can use AI. IBM helps you use AI to change how you do business. Let's create smarter business, IBM.

1:00Rinse takes your laundry and hand delivers it to your door, expertly cleaned and folded, so you could take the time once spent folding and sorting and waiting to finally pursue a whole new version of you. Like tea time you. Mmm. Or this tea time you. Or even this tea time you. So did you hear about Dave? Or even tea time, tea time, tea time you. Mmm. So update on Dave. It's up to you. We'll take the laundry. Rinse. It's time to be great. Yeah, lesbians know what penises look like. We know what they look like. That's partly the way you figure out you're a lesbian. That's correct.

1:40Hi, everyone. This is Pivot from New York Magazine and the Vox Media Podcast Network. I am the very nasty and openly lesbian Kara Swisher. That's according to my number one fan, Megyn Kelly. Scott is off today, but in his place, I brought in someone who Megyn Kelly might also take issue with, and obviously will, the host of Crooked Media's Pod Save America and love it or leave it, John Lovett. Welcome, John. Hi, good to see you. Good. Did you see Megan trying to flirt with me online? Did you see that situation? Yes. You know, dipping your pigtails in ink, for sure. I mean, seriously, what is the deal?

2:16Did you understand I like LGB but not T? Oh, of course. Of course. They're trying to divide the T off from the LGB. That's what they've done at all. I don't think she knows what Q is or plus. What is plus? What is Q? No, I don't think they know what the Q is. They certainly don't know what the IA is. They're not into any of these letters, but they're mostly focused on trying to, they want the T off of the flag. And we have to keep the T on the flag. Yeah. I didn't make a response to the New York Post when they called me for one. I felt that was the right way to go, didn't you think? It seems as though this is, is it just drumming up a misunderstanding from years ago to find a way to talk about you?

2:58Is that what this is? I called her a rage machine last week on the show because she is. She just yells at everybody. And, you know, and she wasn't, I hate to say, talking about Elon Musk, they weren't exactly like this then. And so it's kind of a shock. What happened is she had canceled on the show and we had back and forth, back and forth. And I think I wrote sort of to the staff and her person like, when are we going to do this thing? And then the person said, our sister died. And then I wrote, I'm really sorry. So the whole thing is, I didn't know, right? And then it was ridiculous. Of course, I'm sorry, her sister died.

3:30It's just very strange. I think it was just an excuse to yell at me for a little while. Yeah, that's what it seems like. Yeah. She has a podcast network like you guys. Did you know that? Well, the reason I know about it is because she called you a bitchy lesbian or whatever she said. That's how I mean, that's the whole purpose. That's this is that this is there's like a like she there's a cycle to this. Right. Like, you know, she picks these fights. It generates a page six story. It gets attention. Who do you beef with? Who beefs at you from the right? Well, John got in a fight with J.D. Vance on Twitter.

3:58Yeah, I saw that. Which is it's just incredible that the vice president. Explain that for the people what it was about. It was about the fact that the Trump administration is, I don't even want to call it deporting. It is kidnapping people and dispatching them to a gulag in El Salvador. And we have increasing evidence that they're making mistakes as they do this. And now the administration is claiming once you've been sent to this mega prison in El Salvador, they don't have the ability to bring you back. So no mistakes. So there's no due process to catch mistakes in advance and no way to rectify mistakes once they've happened, which is obviously wrong, even if you are getting it right.

4:45But now we see that they are getting it wrong. And Vance was defensive and dissembling and lying about what the record said about one example. Right. That he was in M13 or whatever. MS-13. MS-13, excuse me. And then and then he wasn't right. It was just like nonsense. Well, we have no idea other than there is no evidence for it. Right. And the evidence there's no they want. Well, of course, there's there certainly. Yes. They have they have provided no evidence that this person was in MS-13. Vance claimed he was convicted. As far as we could tell, this person has never been convicted in the U.S.

5:27of a crime. Right. and the evidence he cited wasn't there. We have, you know, similarly, we have this for other examples of people that seem to have been rounded up because they had tattoos that rubbed an ICE officer the wrong way, including a tattoo for autism awareness. Yeah. The guy, that was the gay barber? Was that the gay barber? No, the gay barber had a crown that said mom and a crown that said dad. Yeah. I mean, it's ridiculous. It's just ridiculous. It's evil. It's evil, all of it. Well, good for John. Anyway, we've got a lot to get to today. This is really kind of a dark time at the same time.

6:04It's tons of material for us to talk about and tons of things to get up in arms about, about what's going on. And we've got a lot to get to today, including Trump giving the middle finger to the rest of the world via tariffs with these sweeping new tariffs, which seem ridiculous. And every economist on all sides is pretty perplexed about the whole thing. And plus, what's next for TikTok? But first, President Trump is probably told his inner circle that Elon Musk will be transitioning out of his administration in the coming weeks, according to Politico. The White House is denying the report, with Press Secretary Carolyn Levitt calling it garbage in a post on X.

6:36Elon also waited on X saying it's fake news. We'll get to Elon's role in Wisconsin election in a bit, but the big picture of Elon is indeed beginning to step back. What do you think about the move and the timing, the 130-day tenure as special government employees do to end in late May, early June, whatever that is? It might be time for him to focus back on Tesla. The company shared its dramatic numbers this week, dramatically bad. Sales plunged 13 % in the first three months of the year, the largest drop of deliveries in history. Nobody wants it. Obviously, these protests are counting, but also the fact they don't have any innovative cars.

7:09What is, from your perspective, what's going on here with their communications? And then what happens when he's not in his orbit and stops the day-to-day government business that he's doing? And what will happen to Doge when that happens? in Scott's absence. Just to finish it up, I'll note he predicted Elon's exit and the end of Doge just a few weeks ago. Let's listen. I think he's basically going to pull a Vivek and just slowly fade away out of, and I think Doge is going to die a quiet death because he has, it looks as if his power has been emasculated. And two, he's just losing so much money right now.

7:45So talk a little bit about this. What do you imagine is happening here? So I think, first of all, we should dispense with the idea that this is because the 130-day window is up. Because as we all know, Trump has nothing but respect for arcane rules governing when people can and cannot serve. So that's ridiculous. ridiculous. I think it is probably too pat and too convenient for all of us that have found the way that Elon Musk has sort of rampaged through the government to be obviously disgraceful, but also politically unpalatable to say, look, we'll talk about Wisconsin, but he's deeply unpopular.

8:25Doge is bringing negative attention to Trump. Trump put Elon out there as a shield. He took all of these hits. And now because he's unpopular, Trump's moving him aside. I don't think it's unreasonable for them to say this was always basically the plan that he was going to come for a few months, get this thing rolling and then step back. That said, Elon Musk has drawn so much negative attention to what could have been a far more boring endeavor that that he has brought so much negative attention to the kinds of cuts that they might have wanted to make, but probably not with this much fanfare and probably without this much chaos.

9:14Thus, what is unclear is, A, how much of this can go on without Elon as this singular aggressive figure? And B, how much of what he's already done is so damaging and so complete that really they've gotten what they wanted to get out of Doge and now they can move on? Which is to break everything. fire everybody. You know, I have a I have a friend at the VA and he was talking about how, yeah, you know, the the surgeries are continuing, but a bunch of people lost their access to the computer system because they were fired and then unfired, but they haven't gotten it back. So they're not really able to work.

9:59Right. Like a lot of the chaos, it leaves the headlines, but it's ongoing. Right. These agencies have been hobbled in ways that we know about in a lot of ways that we don't know about. So it doesn't surprise me that he'd be stepping back. And I also, you know, Trump can't possibly be enjoying how much blowback this is getting and how much is coming on to him. Yeah, I had talked about the idea of a heat shield that he does, like he wants to do these things and not get blamed. And it is interesting that Elon has such bad negatives. I think Harry Anton on CNN said he's political poison for anybody who's near him.

10:35And we'll talk about Wisconsin in a second, but Trump has less negatives, even though he's his boss, presumable boss. So peach yields are not the worst thing in the world. Someone, as you said, rampaging through the government. And I think one of the things I had said when these reports came out and when the Wisconsin thing happened, they were like, okay, that's it. I'm like, no, no, he doesn't care about a failure. He'll make it not a failure. He'll pretend it's not what you did here. And then he'll move on to his next disaster, this kind of mess. And he doesn't care. I think the issue is making a nuisance of himself, making himself the center.

11:14And in Wisconsin, he was by himself, right? Trump wasn't physically present there the way he often is. And so with Elon as the center of attention, wearing that cheese head, it was kind of like Dukakis and the tank. You remember when he had that picture or any of those unfortunate pictures or Ron DeSantis in the boots or things like that. But so let's talk about the Wisconsin election where despite spending$25 million, Elon was unable to buy a state Supreme Court seat. You can buy a presidency for$200 million, but you cannot buy a state Supreme Court seat for a tenth of that. Democratic-backed candidate Susan Crawford handily beat her conservative opponent, Brad Schimmel, maintaining the liberal majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

11:58She's replacing another justice who is a liberal justice. In terms of the other elections this week, Republicans did keep those House seats in Florida, replaced Matt Gaetz and Mike Walz through margins were significantly narrower than in the last election. The strategy making Elon the enemy was effective in the Wisconsin race. I think he's just irritating. And though he didn't help himself, as I said, with the cheesehead hat, what is the playbook? Because he's not always going to be there to beat up on. And of course, on Sunday, he said the entire destiny of humanity hung on this race. But he later said, I expected to lose.

12:28There is a value to losing a piece for positional gain, which I'm calling downward facing doge. What is happening here? Because I'm trying to sort of like, is it a good thing? Is it a bad thing? Like, I'm always quite wary, even when these people lose, of how much they actually lose. Oh, it's a very good thing that he lost. He got nothing for that money. They lost the other statewide races as well. Well, I was in Wisconsin in the run up and I went knocking on doors. And obviously that's anecdotal, but we talked to went to 150 doors and Elon had made himself the main character. It was what's on people's minds.

13:14One example, we were just walking down the street and someone in the neighborhood was like, well, what are you guys what are you knocking on doors for? We said, oh, we're trying to make sure everybody gets out to vote for Susan Crawford. And they said, can you believe what's going on with Elon? They're setting the test list on fire. He's spending 25 million or spending millions of dollars in the state. And I think, again, like I would love to say that, oh, Elon, this is proof that Elon Musk is political poison. I don't know that. I think what you can say is that in this environment, and this is very good news, no amount of money can overcome the political fundamentals.

13:52and Elon Musk is not a persuasive figure to the kinds of voters that Republicans need. And so - The independents. Yeah, he seems to be, I call him repellent. He's repellent to voters. He is, he's toxic. Why is that? Why is it? Obviously rich guy, rockets, this and that. What has happened here? Look, I think there's the obvious answer, which he has a terrible personality and - So we're getting to know him more, meaning. Yeah. And he's and he's abusing his wealth without respect for our democracy. And I don't mean even, you know, look, he puts out this announcement saying basically he's going to buy votes in Wisconsin.

14:33It's based a lot of blowback. He's accused of committing crimes. He changes the language on it so that it's more legally permissible. So he's no longer giving you money for votes. He's giving you money for signing a petition, whatever it may be. But fundamentally, he's flying in to Wisconsin on a private jet to throw money down in front of the populace, like a grand vizier visiting the colonies. And we are he is cutting in this chaotic and destructive way parts of the government. And they may be the parts where they view it as the weakest for Democrats to defend places like USAID. But they're also shuttering Social Security offices.

15:18They're coming after Medicaid. It's a small—I don't believe most people are seeing this. But I do think it's important that this figure who has taken on this vast amount of power, basically bought his way into this role, does it with so little respect for the tens of millions of people that are skeptical of him or don't like him, that he that if he is if somebody is protesting him, they're Soros backed. Democrats oppose him only because they are evil and they want to send Social Security checks to undocumented immigrants that when people are critical of Doge, he claims, oh, it is because they're not being specific.

15:59Have you noticed they don't offer any specifics? This they offer there there has been there's never been more valid, specific, clear, focused criticism. Meet David Farenthold. We're talking like, yeah, are you are you kidding me? You are cutting billions across or claiming to cut billions across this government. We are pointing to specific container ships, holding specific amounts of food to get you to release it. So there's a total lack of respect for anyone who is not MAGA, right? That's one of his tricks, by the way. He does that in interviews all the time. Show me a specific example. And then I have 10 and then he goes, show me a specific example.

16:37It's just, it's exhausting. It's exhausting. And so like the, so he is basically, he's not acting democratically in any way that a person would. You can imagine a version of this whole process unfolding where he says, you know what? I'm going to all these agencies. I'm going to listen to some of the people there. And I'm going to go to the heads of these various departments. And I'm going to say, oh, you have three months, two months, three weeks to give me cuts. And these are the amount of cuts you have to give me. And if you don't give me this amount of cuts, I'm going to do it for you. And you can imagine him engaging with people on the actual substance of these criticisms.

17:16But he can't do that. He has no aptitude or willingness to do that. And we don't know with Elon, when he goes in front of a crowd and says, this is a grand scheme to bring in immigrants to turn them into voters. We don't know if he believes that or if he just believes that's an advantageous argument to make in front of the people for whom he has no respect. He burns PR people like you can't believe. And he had some good ones many years ago, right? But he obviously PR is critically important to him. He wants to be seen as the center of attention, you know, when he seems like a nuisance. And he pretends to be funny when the only person that's funny is his daughter, Vivian, right?

17:55Who's actually funny. I will just, can I just, I will say though, I do think the most important, like just stepping back from his sort of repellent qualities. Repellent, isn't that a good word? Very good word. Here's what I think we've learned. And I think this is what's most important, even if you don't. For Democrats. For Democrats and Republicans, even if you can't totally, you can't tease the, you know, $25 million in Wisconsin did not change the outcome of these races. And Crawford overperformed against other statewide races. And then we learned in Florida, in these special house races, that Democrats overperformed by roughly whatever, 15 to 17 points.

18:41And what does that tell you? It tells you that there are a bunch of vulnerable Republicans that are whose margins of victory were well below 15 points, who are looking at this and saying, hold on, I have a tear. I have a deeply controversial vote coming my way for reconciliation that involves tax cuts for the wealthy and Medicaid cuts. Elon's money cannot protect me from the general. So is it now the choice? Do I side with Elon, prevent a primary and hope his money protects me in the fall? Or do I side with my constituents, brace for a primary, get through it and hope my voters reward me for not going along with the Trump agenda?

19:27That choice just got a lot harder for some of these Republicans. It is. And I think one of the things that I heard one Republican making is they don't have any game below Donald Trump, because I think he's still popular with the people he's popular with, period. And I do, you know, I think that if he's not present, their bench gets real thin and really irritating. Like you've got the charmless J.D. Vance. You've got the sad, soulful Marco Rubio, who looks like a loser. You've got like there's no game. And then crazy Howard Lutnick, like, you know, he seems like crazy Eddie from the old days. And it just it doesn't have if Trump's not present, it's really hard for them to do anything.

20:06And at some point, he's not going to be present. Interestingly, in contrast, as New Jersey Senator Cory Booker invigorated Democrats this week with a 25-hour speech in Congress against the Trump administration, Booker is now in the record books for the longest speech in Senate history, surpassing Strom Thurmond's stand against Civil Rights Act of 1957. I have a serious question for you, but first, let's listen to Senator Booker explained how he managed not to go to the bathroom for the 25 hours. I talked to a lot of people. I copied some of the things we did for 15 hours. So I fasted for days into it.

20:40I stopped drinking water a long time ago. I think that had good and bad benefits. I definitely started cramping up from lack of water. So if somebody really drank nothing, at the end I was just trying to do something to stop my muscles from cramping. So there's just a lot of tactics I was using to try to make sure that I could stand for that long. So a progressive accomplishment of not peeing. But why do people like this? It had a huge following. Lots of people watched it. I was sort of surprised by those numbers. It had a, you know, Mr. Smith goes to Washington quality to it. But why do this?

21:13Because sometimes, I'll be honest, Booker does a lot of stunts that I'm like, a stunt. But this was a good stunt, I feel like in some ways. And I don't mean to minimize it by saying stunt, but, you know, it is what it is. He's trying to garner attention and get focus. Yeah, it's a good stunt. I, I too was, I thought it was a good idea. I was glad he was doing it. I'm glad to see when anybody is basically trying things to try to grab attention in this chaotic media environment. I was also, but I was like blown away by the number of people watching it, the amount of clips that were circulating because of it.

21:49And it just speaks to the fact that there is a huge hunger among the majority of the country that does not support Donald Trump that are looking for people who are going to fight, that just are going to respond to the moment, to the scale of what we're facing with a sense that this is a different time and we're going to need to treat this differently. And we can't just go along with business as usual that that you can't, you know, the plan can't be to vote for the continuing resolution and then go on your book tour. Like, that's just not the world we're living in. This is a dangerous moment. And you want to see leaders that reflect that.

22:36And this is a look, it is a stunt, right, because ultimately it doesn't have any impact, but it does draw people's eye to what is happening in our political system. And he is doing something that required him to sacrifice and to and to go through like some sounds like a fair amount of pain and good for him for doing that. And I think a lot of people will see moments from it, see his passion in it, hear some of the different arguments he was making. I thought he did a great job talking about Social Security and Medicaid. And, you know, look, I think a lot of times, you know, Democrats are skittish about how to thread the needle because on the one hand, they they view Trump as an existential threat to democracy.

23:34But in the other, they hear from the consultants and the polls and genuinely believe that where their best argument is day to day is on the ways Trump is going after Social Security, Medicaid, health care, the basics, the services and programs people rely on. And I thought he did a really great job of articulating both of those arguments, specifically around, look at all the chaos, look at all the destruction he's bringing to our democracy. What are we getting for it? Right. What are we getting? Does that raise his profile as a presidential candidate going forward? I mean, he's always been bandied about as that.

24:12I'm sure it does. I don't I'm sure it does. Everybody. Is he running for president? is there any senator that isn't in their minds in some way running for president yeah it was interesting when i was in michigan a lot of the students asked me who was going to run it was sort of surprised i'm like oh i don't know like and then maybe go through the various and sundry people it was interesting they certainly are interested um in looking over the democratic party in that regard he definitely raised his profile i sort of it's funny like even as you that. I'm such a political fiend. And for whatever reason, I have just no appetite for that right now.

24:51First of all, because it feels so far away. And also, I don't really think there's much you can do to kind of handicap this race right now. Anybody who wants to be president has got to be somebody, and Cory Booker did this, great, has to be someone out there in the fight showing that they understand the politics of this moment, that they have a passion and a rage in them to protect the country. And that's sort of, that's what I'm looking for. My one, my one, my one sort of feeling about it is I am so not interested in the kinds of planning and maneuvers that are about like building a profile and carefully managing the rollout.

25:42Like that is from another era and I'm just completely not interested in it. The book, the this, the that, the peer at Harvard. Yeah, it'll be interesting to see what works. Okay, let's go on a quick break. When we come back, it's Trump against the world with these new tariffs.

26:27It's time to do your best work with the all-new Adobe Acrobat Studio. Not all journalism is the same. Take The Guardian. our coverage has something unique, fierce independence. Nobody owns us or tells us what we can and can't say, so we're free to report the whole picture. We connect what's happening in Washington to the rest of the globe, expose corruption wherever we find it, and give fresh perspective on everything, from wellness and soccer to culture, the climate and more. Read, watch and listen to The Guardian for free at theguardian.com. Every day, millions of customers engage with AI agents like me.

Read the full transcript

27:06We resolve queries fast. We work 24-7 and we're helpful, knowledgeable, and empathetic. We're built to be the voice of the brands we serve. Sierra is the platform for building better, more human customer experiences with AI. No hold music, no generic answers, no frustration. Visit sierra.ai to learn more.

27:35John, we're back and recording on the day after Liberation Day. Do you feel liberated? Yeah, so this is liberated, this is a boxing day for Liberation Day. President Trump unveiled his latest tariffs, the most expansive yet, at the White House on Wednesday, with the help of a giant poster board. He's imposing a 10 % tariff on all U.S. trading partners as well as double digit. he's calling them a reciprocal terrorist. They're not, just so you know, about the worst offenders. He seems to, nobody thinks these are good things. And the math is like nuts. The EU faced 20 % tariffs, Japan 24%, South Korea 26%, and China additional 34 % on top of existing tariffs of, I think, 20%.

28:17Russia conveniently didn't make the cut. Trump also is slapping tariffs on unexpected places like some uninhabited islands in the Antarctic where only penguins live. People are having a good time with that. The EU, China, and others are already planning retaliation. He's been very flip-floppy on terror, sort of red-light green light, which caused chaos. And now he just dropped the bomb. Like, he really did essentially drop the mic. The markets opened just a little while ago. The S &P dropped 3.4%. The Dow fell 1 ,200 points, more than 2%. And the Nasdaq is down 3.8%, big numbers. A number of sectors are getting hit.

28:50But in terms of tech specifically, things are looking rough right now for tech, particularly because they're so invested across the world. Apple's down over 9%. Amazon down 8%. NVIDIA down 6%. Alphabet down 4%. U.S. tech companies are becoming collateral damage when it comes to retaliation, getting hit with fines, restrictions, and new taxes by major markets worldwide. They also have obviously interconnected with so many different markets. What do you think of this rollout? Peter Navarro is back, my friend. He's back and he's crazier than ever. Trump's building a wall and we're all going to pay for it is I think what's happening.

29:24Larry Summers posted this, and he's a former famous economist. Former Treasury Secretary and somebody who is not hyperbolic, saying that a crude estimate of Trump's tariffs puts the projected loss at$20 trillion or well over$200 ,000 per family of four. and then he walks through how he reaches that very conservative estimate of the damage. They're not reciprocal tariffs. People were baffled by the number. I'm not an economist, but people looking at this, they're sort of scratching their heads trying to figure out what this number is. And they realized that it's not based on the tariffs of these other countries.

30:12It's a crude calculation based on the trade deficit with these other countries and not Not the trade deficit on goods and services, but just the trade deficit on goods. The even the administration itself admitted that it was too hard to actually calculate for every country what the reciprocal tariffs would be. And so they came up with this ridiculous formula. The hope has to be that these fake numbers are just an opening bid in a negotiation. Then he's trying to do it. Chris Murphy had that in his, I'm going to read from some of it. Chris Murphy, who's been very vocal, just like Cory Booker, the senator.

30:55Those trying to understand these tariffs or economic policies are dangerously naive. The tariffs are a tool to collapse our democracy, a means to comply in loyalty with every business that will need to petition Trump for relief, which many people are. And what he was saying essentially is that this gives him power. And the reason he can is because he's taking control of spending and taxation into his own hands and rewarding loyalty and punishing dissent. Our own revolution was spurred by the king's use of heavy taxation on the colonies to punish our push for self-governance. The king's message was simple.

31:28Stop protesting and I'll stop taxing. What do you think is happening here? besides even scott besson looked like an idiot and i don't feel like he is i think trump has believed since the 80s the last time he formed any new ideas that tariffs are good and that we that are that we have trade deficits because other countries are taking advantage of us he has been he has been pushing and pushing and pushing to do sweeping tariffs he was stopped in the first term by cooler heads. Like there's many ways in which what Trump what we're seeing with Trump is a kind of extreme, bizarro version of a normal pattern with first and second term presidents, which is in the first term, presidents work for the White House.

32:15In the second term, the White House works for the president. Presidents figure out where they can get more control. They feel more confident in exercising the power. They feel like they belong there. They no longer feel like They're imposters. And so all the people that would have stopped Trump from doing this, they're gone. Right. It's a different set of people. But he has more responsible people. I mean, I think they're all they all look like fucking idiots today. But he has more responsible people on on economics than he does, say, running around the FBI or HHS. But Trump wanted to do this and nobody could stop him.

32:52They put together this half-baked cockamamie plan involving a ridiculous calculation to create these charts. Nobody is really crossing the T's and dotting the I's, which is why we're taxing penguins. And the end result is this chaos. That said, I think the point that Chris Murphy is making is a really important one. He has a lot of grand language there. Trump knows Trump likes using his power. He likes the way it feels to exercise power. Congress has given way too much authority to the president on tariffs. He puts these tariffs in place and all of a sudden Republican House members are lobbying him.

33:34Businesses are lobbying him for relief. Countries are lobbying him for relief. And even if you view it, even if you take the most generous version of it, right, which is not that he's doing this to destroy democracy, but doing this to create leverage. The question is, what does he do with it? Right. And can he use these tariffs, say, on agriculture or to provide relief for these tariffs on agriculture to to rally votes for a bill, for example? And so I do think this is about power. I do think this is about control. But I also think he genuinely believes that tariffs are good. Implications right now, right, Right at the beginning of this, obviously, the stock market's down.

34:16Obviously, Wall Street's screaming. So are farmers. So are everybody screaming, essentially. I think we just don't know. It's interesting because we talked about this on Pots of America on Monday. And look, there's a lot of like hyperbolic partisans talking about how the markets are crashing, the markets are crashing. And they weren't. They actually weren't. They were down. They were, of course, down. But year over year, they were up. And the question was why. And it seems like what we've learned today is nobody really believed it would be as bad as what they announced. And I still don't think we know.

34:55And what we have to watch unfold is, are we seeing the beginning of a truly disastrous long term tariff policy? Or is this a extreme version of what we saw when he first put in place the Canada and Mexico tariffs, which is he talks a big game. But if he gets concessions in quotes or pushback or just fake concessions like a fentanyl czar or a press conference in which the Mexican president announces policies she had already put in place months earlier, will he lower them? Right. Like what what does he want to reduce these numbers? The hope has to be that because these figures are so ridiculous, right?

35:38Like he's calling them reciprocal tariffs. Like how does Vietnam, they're being asked to reduce their tariffs that don't exist below. You know, this is about a trade deficit. No, and I think the one thing that's not being noticed is service tariffs, service issues, because that's tech companies. And we are in a not a deficit. We're in quite the opposite where we have the advantage there by, I think, 300 billion dollars. We're in a surplus in that regard. And now Europe is going to target, you know, the McKinsey's of the world, the cloud business of whoever, Microsoft and whatever. And so we have a real vulnerability in the service, which is why you're seeing the tech companies get so whacked here.

36:20Well, look at like look, look at just the Canada example, right? Trump rails against this. They're taking advantage of us. This this trade deficit, this trade deficit. If you take away fossil fuels, if you don't if you don't look at oil and gas, we have a trade surplus with Canada. They're our biggest customer, right? This is supposed to be to help domestic manufacturing. Domestic manufacturers, a lot of their customers are around the world. They're going to take a huge hit because of this. The other big problem here is even on Trump's own terms, the fact that nobody truly believes or can know whether these will be upheld consistently.

36:55How is anybody going to plan to build in America? How is that possible? Why would you build a factory? Why on earth would you build a factory when you know that, A, when you don't know that these tariffs are going to stay in place? And even if they do, you know that America is going to be isolated from the rest of the world. It's actually just another example of just the chaos and incompetence makes them fail even on their own terms, even though on their own terms, right? Doge is going to end up costing the government money, right? Because of how ham-fistedly and stupidly they've done this, getting rid of the IGs, getting rid of the parts of the government that figure out what's effective and what's not, right?

37:38Firing the best and the brightest, the new and excited people that have just been hired, the people that were just promoted, the lawsuits that will inevitably come that will cost the government millions and millions and millions of dollars, billions of dollars, who knows? Same here. Yeah, I think we know now how he bankrupted his casinos. I just feel like we have such insight into why his businesses are so shitty at the same time. I'm going to move on really quickly because one of the things, another podcaster, Joe Rogan, thinks the Trump administration's deportations are horrific because now even the thing that he polls strongest on, which is immigration, some of he's starting to get pushed back there.

38:20Let's listen. You got to get scared that people who are not criminals are getting like lassoed up and deported and sent to, like, El Salvador prisons. This is kind of crazy. That that could be possible. That's horrific. And that's, again, that's bad for the cause. Like, the cause is, let's get the gang members out. Everybody agrees. But what's not innocent gay hairdressers getting lumped up with the gangs? And then, like, how long before that guy can get out? Can we figure out how to get him out? Is there any plan in place to alert the authorities that they've made a horrible mistake? Sounding somewhat reasonable for Joe Rogan, although, you know, you watch the penny drop slowly with this guy.

39:02The administration has acknowledged a deported man, for example, with protected status to El Salvador because of an administrative error and says they can't get him back. They can invade Greenland, but they can't get him back from people who are paying. Again, same thing, haphazard. People do not like the haphazard nature of a lot of these things. and the tariffs, this, the rollout on things that he actually polls well on immigration, for example. Yeah, look, I mean, it's, forget the politics. What they're doing is despicable. It is despicable. It is despicable. It doesn't serve public safety.

39:41It doesn't serve the goal of immigration, enforcement, border security, as Rogan points out, it doesn't serve their own agenda. It's just cruel. It's just evil. And there's just not been enough. Rogan has had more moral clarity than a lot of Democrats on this who have scared themselves into believing that if they're talking about immigration, they're falling into a trap as if the American people cannot handle a position as simple as we believe in enforcing our immigration laws, but we have to have due process because government makes mistakes and everybody has rights. Right. Like that's not that complicated an argument.

40:27The other part of this and, you know, Liberation Day is now kind of obviously we're glib about it. And they've mostly used it to mean tariffs, but they don't just mean tariffs, right? Stephen Miller has used it to refer to immigration as well. Do we believe that the administration is going to ramp down deportations? Do we believe the administration is going to maintain this level of deportations? They are building towards greater and greater deportations. Do we believe the number of mistakes will go down as they do this more? Of course not. Of course not. And the judge, one of the judges that was looking at this said that the Nazis got better treatment under the Alien Enemies Act in World War II because she points out you could accidentally sweep up somebody who's here legally, who's a citizen.

41:24They would have no ability to seek recourse. They end up in a gulag in El Salvador and now they can't get out. Now the government is claiming they don't have the ability to bring them home. It's just like a movie. I keep feel like a Sylvester Stallone movie. It feels like I've seen these, you know, I'm an aficionado of all these kind of movies where someone's in a prison for the wrong reason or they get swept up into something silly and then they're stuck. I mean, look, look, this, this example, right? Like they, they, they keep saying, oh, you know, we were deporting the most dangerous members of Tren de Aragua, this the the Andres, the the gay hairdresser, he was not being helped when they he he came for an appointment, an asylum appointment.

42:11He thought he was going to be deported until he found himself in this nightmarish situation. The he has not spoken to his family. He doesn't know that right now there are people anger and angry and fighting for him. he is in a nightmare. He is in a country that's not his own. I can't even think about it. His head has been shaved. He's been there for weeks. There's no outside. It's torture. We're torturing these people. This is not a deportation. This is a kidnapping. The government has kidnapped these people. And then meanwhile, Christine Noem poses in kind of like, you know, torture porn, essentially, her outfits are strange.

42:52In her Rolex. Not just the Rolex, the outfits themselves, the super shiny shoes. I'm like, what are you doing? Modified Nazi? What's happening? What's the fashion? Think about the inhumanity that is required to stand in front of a group of people that are forced to be there to film this kind of fascist porn. Are you surprised in any way? I am surprised, actually. Really? I'll admit to being, I'll be admitted to being, well, when I saw it, it was surprising. I couldn't believe that they were doing it. I believe there are a lot of people who like it. I'm not surprised that there are a lot of people who liked it.

43:28But I am surprised by how quickly we've gotten this low to have the Secretary of Homeland Security basically making Viet Cong style propaganda. Do you remember the movie Network? Of course I remember the movie Network. I mean, this reminds me of this. Like this is, you know. Can you believe Network is 50 years old? It's completely pertinent. Everything on there we've done. It's unbelievable. Right. It's unbelievable how good Network is. They're going to start broadcasting executions. That's what I see. Like, you know, that kind of thing. You know, we talk, that's sort of a sci-fi trope, the idea of a national, you know, broadcast of executions.

44:02This was one step in that direction. Absolutely. And it's just the whole nine yards of it is, and they won't fix it because they're incompetent also. They're incompetent and cruel, which makes it different. Well, think about think about the yes, they are incompetent and cruel. And the most the most dangerous force in in any society is an incompetent, cruel bureaucracy, a bureaucracy that doesn't know what it's doing and doesn't care who it hurts. In history, it is the most dangerous force. And it starts it. It starts with these unsavory gang members. And the next step is a wider roundup that gets that gets a bunch of people that that they'll point to as being awful human beings who are glad to get out of the country.

44:47How dare Democrats try to protect? While meanwhile, as part of these sweep ups, you end up with legal residents, visa holders, students, citizens, citizens who don't look like a Norman Rockwell painting, who have tattoos, have accents, maybe don't speak English as well as they would like, who look like the kind of immigrants they want to deport. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's where we're heading. And as they're doing that, as they're doing that, they're accusing people that do vandalism of being domestic terrorists. Right, exactly. Do you imagine that it's from, you have to think about it from political, is there a good political point of view?

45:26Because people can feel it, right? People are like, wait a minute, that could happen to me. I think that's really what gets it. Like, that seems strange. And people have that trope in their heads or people being unjustly grabbed and sent somewhere. It's very familiar from movies and, you know, history and things like that. Do you think it's an effective tool for Democrats to push in on? So we have increasing evidence that Donald Trump maybe not only outperformed among recent immigrants, but maybe won recent immigrants. There are more and more stories of people who can't believe that their family members are being impacted by this.

46:09That's not the kind of immigrants I thought Trump would, not my wife, not my husband. I thought they were going to go against. The leopard ate your face kind of thing. Right, right. And I hope people see that and feel that in the same way people voted for Trump and some of his positions on trade, poll well in the run-up to an election. And then they watch tariffs unfold and people hate it. They don't like it. They learn through the public debate and come to a new point of view, right? public debates still do manage somehow despite ourselves to educate people about the substance of issues. My my deeper hope is, you know, you see a lot of a lot of sort of hand wringing coverage about how Trump's turning us into Russia and Trump's turning us into Hungary, but that we have an advantage, which is that America is still filled with Americans and that we are an individualistic, rambunctious, rebellious, freedom-loving group.

47:04And even after years of anti-immigration propaganda and misinformation and caravans, Americans still largely are against draconian immigration policies. If you look at the polling, people want sensible—it depends on how you ask it. People still want those positions. People still obviously believe in process and people believe in the Constitution. And so we just have to figure out, we just have to make this real for people. And it is unfortunate that it does require playing defense and watching Trump do these things and then using those as examples to make it real for people. Right, right. Well, I think it's that it could happen to you.

47:44Absolutely. Absolutely. You know, that was a trope. A friend of mine was in local news. And I said, well, how do you like marketing is so interesting, like on everything. And he goes, oh, it could happen to you. That trope that they do in local news, like no matter what it is, killer bees, it could happen to you. Mold, it could happen to you. And it was very effective of getting people to listen to things. So that's what I thought, it could happen to you. And I think people then, and that's what Joe Rogan was doing. Wait a minute, I have tattoos. Just a second here. All right, let's go on a quick break.

48:13When we come back, we'll talk about the latest in the bid for TikTok. I know you're fascinated with TikTok, John. I am.

48:23Avoiding your unfinished home projects because you're not sure where to start? Thumbtack knows homes, so you don't have to. Don't know the difference between matte paint finish and satin, or what that clunking sound from your dryer is? With Thumbtack, you don't have to be a home pro. You just have to hire one. You can hire top-rated pros, see price estimates, and read reviews all on the app. Download today. From Pushkin Industries, I'm Jonathan Goldstein, and Heavyweight is back. The new season is bigger than ever. Bigger hopes. I keep waiting for this moment. When he says, Mom, I get it. I'm sorry.

49:03Bigger dreams. Tom Hanks wants to meet with you. This is a real chance. And bigger heartbreaks. I thought it would be my movie moment. And maybe he would even whisper in my ear, I've always been in love with you. Check out new episodes of Heavyweight on Apple Podcasts.

49:45security and compliance right can unlock growth or stall it if you wait too long. Vanta is a trust management platform that helps businesses automate security and compliance across more than 35 frameworks like SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA, and more. With deep integrations and automated workflows built for fast-moving teams, Vanta gets you audit-ready fast and keeps you secure with continuous monitoring as your models, infrastructure, and customers evolve. That's why fast-growing startups like Langchain, Ryder, and Cursor have all trusted Vanta to build a scalable compliance foundation from the start.

50:21Go to vanta.com slash vox to save$1 ,000 today through the Vanta for Startups program and join over 10 ,000 ambitious companies already scaling with Vanta. That's V-A-N-T-A dot com slash vox to save$1 ,000 for a limited time.

50:47John, we're back with more news. President Trump is reportedly reviewing proposals for TikTok this week. Obviously, the administration is said to be considering bids from Blackstone, Oracle, and Marc Andreessen. Amazon threw in a last-minute bid. It actually makes sense. It's probably not a top contender, but Walmart was in the last go-round here. Oracle was, too. The TikTok ban requires no more than 20 % of TikTok or its parent companies owned by foreign adversary countries. So they're thinking about letting ByteDance stay in for 19%, apparently. I'd love to know, you use TikTok a lot, correct?

51:18Well, I'd love to know a day in the life of your For You page. But what do you think is going to happen here? And there was an interesting story, which I think there's sort of a pull that's been cast over for TikTok on this, like where it's going, who's going to own it. A lot of people feel that if they don't get the algorithm, it's not going to be as good. As a product, it's lagged a little bit recently. Maybe I'm wrong about that, but it feels like it a little bit that people aren't really creators aren't putting their shoulders into it the same way. Maybe I'm wrong about that. But how do you imagine it's going to happen here?

51:51I thought Elon might get a hold of it. Maybe not a good idea to give it to Elon right now. Yeah. From a perceptible point of view. He seems busy. I haven't noticed any change in the actual use of the app. It is interesting how much this has become Trump's decision. right? Like this, how far down the road we've come. We talk about how he wants to be the main decider on tariffs and wants people to come kind of kiss the ring. That's what we're seeing here, right? This presumably should be ByteDance's decision. Right. Well, China has to cooperate here. And now with these tariffs, I'm not so sure they're feeling cooperative.

52:29But Trump is, right. Well, that's, and that's, that, that there was some hope apparently on the part of the Chinese that TikTok was a bit of leverage in the, in the terror fight, but that doesn't appear to have gotten them anything. I don't know what happens with TikTok. I was pretty upset about the way this all went down. The law itself. The law itself, because there was very little public debate or explanation about why TikTok was so dangerous. And a lot of the explanations were about the harm it does to people. But people didn't seem to mind if that harm was being done to Americans by Americans.

53:04Instagram is awful for young people. I think TikTok can be really awful for young people. So why is it a good thing if Americans do it to each other, but a bad thing if a foreign country does it to us? Why do our own billionaires running rampage through our minds? Why is that acceptable? And so I never thought they made the public case, which is why when all of a sudden they caught the car and TikTok was about to be banned, they did this ridiculous, save TikTok, thank you, President Trump bullshit. And it worked. So I really don't like the way this went down. The law itself. Right. That it should.

53:40They didn't make the case. Many people argue that. They didn't make the case at all. They didn't. They didn't. They're just always a national security threat. Excuse me. Excuse me. Like my for you pages. Show me your homework. Show me. My for you pages, you know, recipes and old clips of Conan. A lot of recipes. Got to make the viral Turkish pasta, Kara. Really? You have recipes and Conan O 'Brien? Just, you know, among other things. Hot guys, hot guys doing new kinds of exercises, teaching me ways to lift weights. You know, that's Scott Galloway's favorites, too, just to, you know. I think that there's a big overlap between fit middle-aged men and gay guys.

54:22Like that, there's a big overlap in what they're seeing, which are just handsome man rocking their delts. Rocking their delts. What do you imagine is on mine? I don't use TikTok that much, but what do you imagine? Oh, I think there'd be, hmm, I think we'd see, you know, lesbian talk and gay talk are so separate. They're so distinct. They're such distinct universes. I don't know what we'd see with you. Woodworking, clips of Brandi Carlile, that kind of thing. No, no. You'll be surprised. ASMR. ASMR, ASMR. I love ASMR. and cooking. I like watching people cook. I like watching people. I don't want to do recipes.

54:58I just like watching people. Especially, there's one on Threads called Food Porn that I love. Do you cook? I don't. I do. I'm a good cook, but I don't. I don't do it very often as much as I should. But I like watching other people cook. That's weird. But I used to watch The Galloping Gourmet when I was a kid. I'm not going to go into it, Jeff. Okay. You remember him? And then he drank at the end. Drank himself. Who was The Galloping? I want to look up The Galloping Gourmet. Galloping Gourmet. It was a guy who seemed gay, but wasn't. Oh, the Galloping Gourmet. Look at that. Yeah, yeah. He was like Julia Child, but funnier.

55:31I used to watch him cook all the time. And then he'd always drink a bottle of wine by the end of it. And it was very amusing to an eight-year-old. When I was a kid, the Food Network launched. Yeah. And everyone was like, that's got to be a joke. How can you fill a whole network with food content? And the answer was, you can. And it's great. It was ahead of its time. But I used to watch the Food Network with my mom. I bet you like Paula Deen. I bet you secretly liked Walidine, didn't you? You know, I was at Jeffrey Weingarten. Remember Jeffrey Weingarten? Oh, yeah, of course. I remember he said, my mother and I used to joke about this for years because he said, fava beans are very in right now.

56:04And that's just something we said to each other for years. Fava beans are very in right now. They are never in. They've never been in. Anyway, what do you think the resolution is going to be? Make a prediction. I think one of these deals is going to be the deal. and it's going to basically look the same at the other side of it. And the user experience will roughly be the same, but there'll be this sort of change in ownership. It's a nothing burger. You know, it's owned by a lot of U.S. people. U.S. people own a lot of this thing. And then it's not going to be any more protected if there are problems with China.

56:36And I, unlike you, believe there are indeed abuses by the Chinese and they're a little different. I believe that. I believe that. I agree. Mark Zuckerberg is dangerous, but I don't really want the Chinese government also up in our grill in this way because they have different goals besides just fucking us. They want to fuck us and beat us kind of thing. But I think that it's going to be more dangerous than ever in those regards from a national security point of view. And they won't solve the problem. And then everyone will make money, the same people you're complaining about. But we'll see. I don't think Elon will be part of this, but maybe he will.

57:10Maybe he'll get him. He's such a nuisance, he'll probably try to get in there. All right, John, one more quick break. When we come back, we'll be doing some predictions.

57:46AI needs, where you can run any workload in a high availability, consistently high-performance environment, and spend less than you would with other clouds. How is it faster? OCI's block storage gives you more operations per second. Cheaper? OCI costs up to 50 % less for compute, 70 % less for storage, and 80 % less for networking. Better? In test after test, OCI customers report lower latency and higher bandwidth versus other clouds. This is the cloud built for AI and all your biggest workloads. Right now, with zero commitment, try OCI for free. Head to oracle.com slash vox. That's oracle.com slash vox.

58:30Adobe Acrobat Studio, so brand new. Show me all the things PDFs can do. Do your work with ease and speed. PDF spaces is all you need. Do hours of research in an instant. with key insights from an AI assistant. Take a template with a click. Now your Prezo looks super slick. Close that deal, yeah, you won. Do that, doing that, did that, done. Now you can do that, do that with Acrobat. Now you can do that, do that with the all-new Acrobat. It's time to do your best work with the all-new Adobe Acrobat Studio. Mercury knows that to an entrepreneur, every financial move means more. An international wire means working with the best contractors on any continent.

59:10A credit card on day one means creating an ad campaign on day two. And a business loan means loading up on inventory for Black Friday. That's why Mercury offers banking that does more, all in one place, so that doing just about anything with your money feels effortless. Visit Mercury.com to learn more. Mercury is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services provided through Choice Financial Group, Column N.A., and Evolve Bank & Trust members FDIC.

59:44Okay, John, let's hear a prediction. Do you have a prediction for us? I do have a prediction. I'm actually re-upping a prediction that I made before the election, but I want to make it here because I want it on the record, which is, I said this last year, which is that if Donald Trump won, Eric Adams would end up in the cabinet. And I just want to just lay that down once again, that I believe that that is the end result of a lot of this. mayoral election. He's going, he just announced today he's going to be an independent. And he's already, he's already started the suck up process with Trump. I just.

1:00:16What job will he get? I guess, who are they going to take out? Kash Patel? Well, I always, I thought he was always a, I thought he was a natural for Homeland Security. Oh, Kristi Noem. Hip chicken Kristi Noem. That's a natural fit for him, but I could see him at FBI too. We'll see. We'll see. Depends on when the, since how long Kristi Noem lasts? Oh my God, they're all moving here. Speaking of moving here, I'll tell you what, I'm pretty pissed about. Supposedly, Elon's leaving. I don't think he is. I think he'll, he's such a nuisance. He's going to stay. Apparently, Mark Zuckerberg bought a$23 million mansion in D.C.

1:00:50So he's here, too. I moved here, John, and they followed me here. The stalkers that they are, they're all here. You got to get close to the king. And it's all the bad ones. The ones I liked are not here. The bad ones are. If America's going to go from having a democracy to a court, you got to be near the court. That's true. I get it. I get it. honestly, although$23 million seems cheap for a house in Washington, like one of the big ones. But he was supposedly lobbying Trump to avoid the antitrust trial. I'm not so sure that's going to work. Because ultimately, as dislikable as Elon has become, Mark Zuckerberg has always been dislikable.

1:01:24And I think he polls, you know, all those polls show they still don't like him at the White House. They still don't like him. But anyway, he's here. I'm so excited to see him at brunch or over drinks at Cafe Moana. Do these people leave their... Do they leave the compound? Are you going to see them at the restaurants? They just don't leave their houses, right? They're not going to leave their houses. I mean, unless there's some MMA fighting or something happening, he'll not be going anywhere. But we'll see. I just don't want them here. I'd like them to leave. Already, I'm not thrilled to be here, but here I am.

1:01:57And I actually live here. You're not thrilled to be there? I like it. I like it. I like it. You should try LA. I love LA. I love California. I cannot get my wife to move us back to California. Put me in. Put me into this debate. Put me in. All right. I shall. I shall now. I really want to be part of that. I have this beautiful new studio you're seeing behind me. I like D.C. very much. It's very lovely. And you've spent a lot of time here. But I really miss California so much. That's for you, right? Los Angeles. I love Los Angeles. It's so beautiful. Despite all the problems you've been having lately, it's still...

1:02:28I was just in San Francisco. It was gorgeous. It's wonderful. So anyway, I will not go on about that. John, one thing before we go, is there something you're watching or reading that you love lately? I mean, everyone's talking about White Lotus, obviously, or Severance. Is there anything else? I'll tell you. I've gone back to the beginning of Real Housewives of New York. And it is a joy. Look, when the world is - Rewatching it? Okay. I'm starting from, I never watched it before. So I'm going back to the very first season of Real Housewives of New York. I have been resistant, I think from a kind of snootiness to Real Housewives for years.

1:03:05I've always said to myself, I don't like the reality shows. I like competitive reality shows, but I don't like the true bravo. Right. And in hindsight, that was I was hurting my own viewing. The Real Housewives are incredible. And I do believe it is hard to understand Trump. Right. People call up, talk about him being a reality show because of The Apprentice. But that was a competitive show. You really need to understand real housewives. Now that I see it, it is a great way to understand how Trump operates and the way these women use conflict to draw attention to themselves. Oh, all right. You love it.

1:03:41It's a joy. That's interesting. So go rewatch that. I'm going to give the recommendation Hacks is about to come back. And I love Jean Smart and Hannah Einbender. Yeah, she's they're amazing. It looks hysterical. and I think they're the best pair of like, speaking of conflict, the two, the most fantastic pair that I never expected. So I'm very excited for that comeback online. Anyway, okay, that's the show. Thanks for listening to Pivot. Be sure to like and subscribe to our YouTube channel. We'll be back next week with more and Scott will be back from his college tour. Just so you know, he hung out with my son in his frat yesterday and I can't wait to hear that story.

1:04:20But thank you so much, John. You can hear John on Podsafe America and love it or leave it every week wherever you listen to podcasts. They're wonderful podcasts. I will read us out. Today's show was produced by Lara Naiman, Zoe Marcus and Taylor Griffin. Ernie Anderdot engineered this episode. Jim McIll edited this video. Nishat Kerwa is Vox Media's executive producer of audio. Make sure you subscribe to the show wherever you listen to podcasts. Thanks 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.

1:04:55And John, thank you so much. Thank you.

1:05:06What do walking 10 ,000 steps every day, eating five servings of fruits and veggies, and getting eight hours of sleep have in common? They're all healthy choices. But do all healthier choices really pay off? With prescription plans from CVS Caremark, they do. Their plan designs give your members more choice, which gives your members more ways to get on, stay on, and manage their meds. And that helps your business control your costs, because healthier members are better for business. Go to cmk.co.access to learn more about helping your members stay adherent. That's cmk.co.access. PSS. The pumpkin spice latte is back at Starbucks.

1:05:50Crafted with our signature espresso and real pumpkin sauce. Then topped with whipped cream, cinnamon, and nutmeg. The PSL. Get it while it's hot or iced. Only at Starbucks. Support for this show comes from Airbus. It took 100 years for electric vehicles to catch on. Modern solar panels? Half a century. Lithium batteries? decades to go from their debut to daily use. It's a pattern. Energy tech breaks through, stalls, and then something tips the scales. But for every success, there are even more almosts. So what if there was a breakthrough sitting at this crossroads right now? SAF, or sustainable aviation fuel, could forever change the future of flight.

1:06:37Learn more about how Airbus is contributing to accelerate this journey at fly.airbus.com slash theflightpath.

From the publisher

Kara is joined by Jon Lovett, co-host of Pod Save America and host of Lovett or Leave It. They to discuss Elon Musk’s possible departure from the Trump administration, a Democratic win in Wisconsin, and Cory Booker’s record-breaking speech. Then, Liberation Day liberated us all (and threw the market into chaos), Joe Rogan thinks the Trump administration’s deportations are “horrific,” and President Trump reviews bids for TikTok. Stick around to hear what’s on Jon and Kara’s For You page.

Listen to Pod Save America here, and Lovett or Leave It here.
Follow us on Instagram and Threads at @pivotpodcastofficial.
Follow us on Bluesky at @pivotpod.bsky.social.
Follow us on TikTok at @pivotpodcast.
Send us your questions by calling us at 855-51-PIVOT, or at nymag.com/pivot.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

More from Pivot

All 383 episodes
Liberation Day, Elon Exit Rumors, and Guest Co-Host Jon LovettPivot · 1 h 3 min
Listen in VO