TikTok's Future, Big Tech at Trump's Inauguration, and Biden's Final Warning

23:21It passed. It's law. It is law of the land, as you pointed out. Law of the land. And all this bullshit with Democratic senators trying to scramble to write new laws to extend the ban, hoping that China will back down. Well, guess what? We're blinking. They're not. And so to not actually ban this thing, regardless of the fallout, I believe weakens our ability and gives Xi the ability to think, you know what? When shit gets real, we don't blink. They do. We're blinking right now. And I think that has geopolitical ramifications across any negotiation, whether it's China or trade. And that is they've said, they've essentially said, we're calling your bluff.

24:03And we've said, oh, okay, maybe we can figure out a way to extend the deadline. So maybe you'll blink. They're not going to, or it doesn't appear they're going to. The other observation I would make is that, and I really hope this doesn't happen around Elon, is whenever Elon says something incredibly stupid or cruel or just downright bigoted, people do the kind of Trump thing. Oh, you know, he doesn't mean it. It's late at night. He says these things. You're right. It's just he has kind of one of the things we love about him is he has no filter. He has a lack of control. Well, guess what? Where he has a filter, like, you know, a woman on Tinder who's attractive, who's like going to swipe right on one out of 7 ,000 men.

24:51Notice how he never says anything negative about China? Of course not. He's got real self-control and maturity when it comes to China. Oh, and by the way, Brazil, who said, go fuck yourself, all of a sudden, he's really polite and doesn't say, and he's restrained around Brazil. So this is the problem with, again, with a democracy and free speech that's not enforced for everybody and people aren't protected universally, is the incentives become shitposts to people who don't have the balls or are still holding on to the fidelity of free speech and democracy because there's no downside. Yeah, it'll be interesting to see what happens.

25:31I do think the Supreme Court will probably weigh in on national security issues. It seems like it. All the other courts have done so. It is the law. A Trump executive order will do nothing, just so you're aware. It's just empty things. And he can say, I'm not enforcing it. Pam Bondi, in her hearing, which we'll talk about in a minute, didn't confirm or deny whether she'd do it. It doesn't matter what they think. If you're with Tim, what matters is what Tim Cook and Sundar Pichai thinks can happen to them in five years if they don't follow, because they can be liable for$60 billion in fines, right, if they don't follow it.

26:05Even if Trump later and stuff like that, they are liable. They have to follow the law, which is right now that. Now, Congress can change it. They can shift things. They can make new legislation. They can override the ban completely. But then you're right. We look like fucking wimps. We look like wimps to China. And once again, and of course, Trump wants to do the deal. I'm going to do the deal. I can see apparently spending an enormous amount of its time because it's so visually interesting to him. It's like, I'm going to show the art. It keeps saying art of the deal. Like, stop it. Like, there's no deal here.

26:36You were the one. Let me just say, you know, the OG person who started this? Donald Trump. Donald with his executive order against TikTok. I agreed with him at the time, by the way. And so he started this mess and now he's going to come. It's like the arsonist is going to come put out the fire. He started this thing. Now he's trying to stop it. Everyone wants credit for the deal. There's all these very self-interested people around the basket like Jeff Yass, Elon Musk, Larry Ellison, whatever cockamamie idea they have, whatever billionaire can take over. And so I think they're going to there's nothing they can do.

27:12So there's nothing they can do unless they overturn the actual law, which they can do. That's what they absolutely can do. Interestingly, while TikTok users are worried about the app will be banned, are flocked to other Chinese social media apps. They didn't rush off to Meta or anything else called Red Note, which I haven't gotten. It's apparently very fun. The app has grabbed the number one spot on Apple's most popular free apps chart, with a reported over 700 ,000 new users joining in two days. They can do this all day and night. You remember that from the Avengers? I can do this all day and night.

27:44The Chinese can do this all day and night with us. And now people are flocking to all these Chinese apps. Well, are we going to ban all those? Right? I mean, we should have had a larger bill because we should have had a larger bill. That's what happened here. We had a shitty bill that was all ridiculously political and performative. And now we've got this. And have you tried Red Note, Scott? What do you think about? Oh, Kara, I can barely like, I had to have my assistant download Blue Sky. I am so sick of building an audience and then finding out that the people that own this one are bad and trying to get on another one.

28:22I'm just kind of, I mean, there's tug tug boat. There's just so many. I'm just, at some point, I'm just going to go back to post-its and maybe put it in the elevator and maybe my neighbors will find it funny. I'm just going to start posting memes. I lived in Washington. I lived in faculty housing until 2017. And there was a woman there who's, you know, has, NYU is a gentle place and we don't kick people out of faculty housing. So it's literally a senior's home. I was hands down the youngest person by about 70 years. And there was a woman there whose husband, who was like some big wheel in, you know, the Greek classics in the 60s, has been living there.

29:01And she'd be outside and I liked her because she'd play with dog into this tennis ball. And she used to, she put up a little cork bulletin board and she put up like funny comics. That's where I'm headed. I think that's the last safe platform for me. I'm going to get you a cork bulletin board. I'm going to find the cork board and I'm going to post my shit there of Ariel Firefighters. Anybody on Monday, anybody on Monday that needs a break from this, I'm not going to advocate joining me in my Peronian Xanax methodology, the panics method. I am going to be nonstop posting 80s music and footage of aerial firefighters.

29:37That is it. That is it. I'm nothing. That is your pornography now at this point. Nothing about this. No, pornography I'm going to do on my own. I don't even take a wrench out. You got the story I wrote you about how popular they've become, how it's been like online pornography, watching these things. Oh, really? Yeah, I sent you the story. I don't read most of it. You should send shit out all day. I don't read most of it. I do. You should read it. I sent it directly to you. It's all about the area. And also, there's many women in that group. The funniest thing you sent me, you did send me something where I laughed out loud, was a picture of Pete Hegseth.

30:07And it said DUI hire. I thought that was really funny. That was an AI thing. Yeah, yeah. We'll get to that then. All right. We'll see where what's going to happen to the ban. Supreme Court, get going. Tick tock, tick tock. When we come back, we'll talk about the contentious confirmation hearings for Trump's cabinet, including DUI hire Pete Hegseth. And take a listener mail question about recovery responsibility with the L.A. fires.

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31:12We 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 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.

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32:48Scott, we're back with our second big story. A number of President-elect Trump's cabinet nominees are on Capitol Hill this week for their confirmation hearings. It's, you know, the speaking performative. Secretary of State nominee Marco Rubio got a welcome reception from senators on both sides of the aisle. Senator Rubio has never seen more qualified. I know. Low bar. He's like the statesman of the 20th century right now. Yeah, little Marco, little Marco is low bar Marco. And may I call you Marco? While Attorney General nominee Pambani faced pointy questions about election denial and prosecuting Trump's enemies, she was pretty slippery, I thought.

33:26And when asked by Senator Blumenthal about whether she would enforce the TikTok ban, Bondi avoided another direct answer. What a good lawyer she is. Let's listen. Will you commit to enforce that law on your first day if you are confirmed? Senator, as I discussed with you during our meeting, that is pending litigation within the Department of Justice. Well, it's pending litigation, but will you enforce that law? I can't discuss pending litigation, but I will talk to all the career prosecutors who are handling the case. Absolutely, Senator. Oh, what? Give her the job. I don't know what else to say.

34:05Yeah, I mean, I find all of this. It's pending litigation. And I just, are you going to pick your kids up from school after school today? That's speculative, Senator. I don't. That's a hypothetical. I don't. I don't know. Yeah. Yeah. She's not going to enforce it, but it doesn't matter. They'll enforce it themselves. What did you think of her at that hearing? Just curious. Pam? Yeah, Pam. Let's call it Pam. Marco Pam. Let's diminutize all of them. Well, look, okay. One, as a citizen and when these people evaluate people for what are incredibly important jobs, I would find it refreshing if some of them actually answered questions even if it upset people.

34:46But in terms of her skill set, I thought she demonstrated real skill. She demonstrated outstanding political skills. She came across as indignant and refused to answer any questions. And that's the environment we're in. So she was, I thought she was quite skilled, which makes her, quite frankly, probably even more scary. I think Hegseth. Oh, we're getting to that. Let me read. Yeah. So the real fireworks happened at the hearing for defense secretary nominee. The very unqualified Fox News host, he's qualified to be a Fox News host, Pete Hegseth, whose confirmation is looking likely at this point.

35:19Hegseth had heeded exchanges with Democrats over allegations of sexual misconduct, his comments about women in combat and whether he's qualified for the job. And when asked by Senator Elissa Slotkin about whether he would carry out an illegal order from the president, Hegseth danced around and badly. Let's listen. Do you believe there is such a thing as an illegal order that Joe Biden or any other president, Donald Trump, could give? Is there anything that a commander in chief could ask you to do with the uniformed military that would be in violation of the U.S. Constitution? Senator, anybody of any party could give an order that is against the Constitution or against the law.

35:57Right. OK. So, and are you saying that you would stand in the breach and push back if you were given an illegal order? I start by saying I reject the premise that President Trump will be giving any illegal orders at all. All right. Well, again, you know, and they also came out swinging during the hearings, focusing a lot on Hegg's personal shortcomings. I did not feel this was an effective strategy. Me and the Cuban didn't think it. I thought they should, like, nobody cares that he's a drunk and a cheater and possibly a sexual predator. I mean, allegedly. I think he seems pretty yucky to me. Creepy at the very least.

36:35Creepy and drinks too much. We know that. I don't think anybody cares. Obviously, Donald Trump doesn't care. These senators, these Republican senators don't care. what they needed to do was show what an incompetent person is. And Senator Duckworth tried to by trying to get him to name countries. What are the nations in Asiana? Yeah, right, exactly. They should have been a rat-a-tat with, what about this in the Ukraine? What about here? What about Houthis? What about Syria? What would be your next move in Syria? What would be like, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, to show he is just as dumb as a box of hammers.

37:10And that would have been a much more effective thing to do, centering in on his with his honestly, I don't care that his wife was there. I mean, he's obviously a pig, but and he may have changed. I have no idea. I don't get the impression. I've heard there's been reports he continues to drink heavily. I don't think that matters at this point, even though I agree it's pretty heinous. But I thought they they bollocks this badly. What do you think? I think you're exactly right. You kind of stole my thunder. First off, Senator Jill Brown's questioning of him. totally triggered me and I was trying to figure it out.

37:42And I'm like, this is summarized. Her tone and his face summarized the last year of my first marriage. It just, that was a joke. I thought that'd be funnier. But you're exactly right. The questions, folks, Trump has demonstrated that we have moved. And that is, and Democrats kind of started this off. A lot of former presidents have not acquitted themselves well. But basically, President Trump has demonstrated that at least 49 % of the populace and probably more like 70, like regarding drinking, personal behavior, what I'll call more generally, we refer to as character, you know, honey badger just don't care.

38:27And it doesn't, you come across as indignant, you come across as a cultural priss, it doesn't work. What they should have been asking is, what do you think is the likelihood or the capabilities of an amphibious assault on China? And what are we doing to prevent that? What new technologies or combat techniques have you learned from the wars in Gaza and in Ukraine? And I think it would have demonstrated, I believe, that quite frankly, he just doesn't have the domain expertise to make really good decisions around this stuff. I believe. He knows a lot about combat, but the defense secretary is supposed to be able to make very high-level decisions strategically that position us to be the greatest, continue to be the greatest fighting force in history, and then coordinate resources across all sorts of agencies and five different branches of the armed services.

39:24And no, they didn't go there. Instead, the Democrats - They went a little bit around his bad management of his tiny little things, which I think they should have too. Well, even that isn't adjacent. Current things. Senator Duckworth was the only one that kind of did her, in my opinion, that kind of did her job. And that is. She's been in the army, obviously. He can be a low character person and still, I hate to say this, be probably a competent secretary of defense. What you can't be is a high character person who doesn't know what the fuck you're doing and how to organize three million men and women in uniform with multiple alliances, multiple technology.

40:00I mean, you have to understand somewhat the incredibly complex supply chain of trying to figure out a way to arm and supply nuclear submarines roaming the earth that aren't even coming above water for 18 months. This shit is complicated. Showing him as incompetent. I was always like, show, don't tell. They kept saying he was incompetent. Show him as incompetent. Show that he can't answer a question. The funniest one, though, was you show this, like, what are the countries in this group and what are the countries in this? And then you ask him, OK, what are the three brands of vodka? You could make a joke.

40:39You could bring that drunkenness in because he knows the three. That was George Conway. That's pretty disrespectful. I know it is. But I'm just saying, well, if they're going to do the performative thing, you might as well do that. General Jim Beam and Sergeant Jack Daniels. Right. This is the George Conway thing. First ask him the hard question and then ask him one that he knows the answer to. but it was it's really it was just let me just say it was interesting when I said this and Mark did the same thing I got like oh people do care I'm like they I care you care nobody else cares or they don't care enough to knock them off for this and by the way if you don't think we've had really creepy drunk secundary defense in our history I don't know what you're smoking because we have we've had a lot of creepy people in high positions of power in this country for years and years and years.

41:28I'm sure we've had rapists. I'm sure we've had drunks. I'm sure we've had all kinds of malfeasance. But what matters is competency in this moment because publicly, it doesn't, it doesn't, they didn't put a glove on this guy, I thought. But just to be clear, he's never been convicted of anything. Right, exactly. He's clear. He paid her off. That's fine. Yeah. Yeah, which in some cases people do pragmatically. I feel like I have to be Mika with me on Morning Joe right now. But I'm all about, I don't think Nixon was a good man, but I actually think he was pretty fucking brilliant geopolitically. I want somebody, I'd like Dave Clark, the former head of operations from Amazon to be secretary of defense.

42:16Because the bottom line is that when you run defense, you are essentially the world's most important operations person. And there was no questions around the dumb important stuff like supply chain, weapons developments, new tactics in war, like tunnels and drones are the new weapons. In every war, whether it's tanks or jet engines or radar, there's new technologies that change the landscape. And if you're not on top of those technologies, you stand to lose to a smaller army, as evidenced by what's going on Russia and Ukraine. And there was no thoughtful discussion around whether this guy has any command of that.

42:53whatsoever. Instead, they wanted to know if he was drunk at some gathering. I mean, come on. Anyway, I thought the Democrats came across as like, okay, maybe you just bang your intern quietly or your PhD student, but just ask the fucking questions about being secretary of defense. Exactly. I don't know if it would have worked necessarily, but it would have put it on the record, right? And someone was arguing with me, and I said, do you know that Katie Couric interview with Sarah Palin was deadly because she was polite. She's like, what do you read? What about this? She wasn't rude. She just showed that Sarah Palin was unqualified and ignorant, and she didn't do it rudely.

43:36She didn't. She did it. You mean what you couldn't name? One newspaper? Yeah. Remember that? What do you read? Well, I read them all. Well, which one? Which one? Well, name just one. Go watch that interview, and that's how they should. They should have had Katie Couric in there teaching them how to ask questions, and she did it very gracefully. But at the end of the interview, Sarah Palin was finished, as far as I was concerned. And we understood. Everyone, the penny went click. The other thing that I thought, I will say one thing, Joni Ernst, I get that they're putting pressure on you and they're going to primary you if you didn't do this.

44:08But your values were around women in the military and sexual assault. She was a sexual assault victim. At some point, you got to stand up for what you are and you didn't. And you've taken a dive. And I understand why you did. But boy, I'm sorry, you should have stood up for women and you didn't. So and women like yourself. I've been thinking about Senator Ernst and I thought, God, it's given her background. And I thought, is it unfair to hold someone to a different standard because they were a victim of something? And not just that, she was in the military, too. Well, the one I love, though, My favorite is Senator Susan Collins is going to take the weekend because she's concerned.

44:49You want to talk about a new position in the narcissist crypt? Right. It is definitely, there is a place for Senator Collins because Senator Collins, I will, maybe Kalshi, oh my God, I'm going to bet on this. If anyone can find a betting site around how Senator Collins is going to vote. Oh, she's going to vote for her. Look at me. I'm concerned. I'm a moderate. I'm thoughtful. I need to take the weekend to review his testimony. I have never been this confident ever since Floyd Mayweather fought Conor McGregor that, oh, yeah, Senator Collins is really struggling with this decision. She's like, look at me.

45:34I'm a thoughtful moderate. Nobody owns me. Go back to Maine. No one, Pete Hegg, Seth, and President Trump are not worried about Senator Collins falling in line with the Republican Party. But she's like, please, look at me. Look at me. I'm going to think about it. I'm not sure. The one I like is Murkowski. I think Murkowski has got a set, but not the rest of them. Because, and it goes to the warning. Because she won. They went after her and she won. Yeah, but one of the keys to having moderates who actually vote their conscience and live in fear is that it's, I think it's final five voting in Alaska where moderates actually get elected.

46:15Right. Anyways, I'm all Andrew Yang. Well, they do have the prospect that this time it's slightly different, but I don't really care. I'd still be fuck you, is deploying Musk's money. He keeps threatening, Trump keeps threatening the deploying of Musk's money. just seen. I'm going to a new members club tonight, Shay Margot, and I'm not sure I'm going to drink, Cara. I'm not sure I'm going to get fucked up and become more charming and like myself and like the world more. I need to think about it, Cara. I need to think about the ills of alcohol. Remember, you are a team owner now. Behave like one.

46:50That is behaving like one. Are you kidding? That's fair. I just need to show up with a young, hot woman. You're Ryan Reynolds adjacent now, finally. Can you get him to come on the show? Ryan Reynolds? Yeah, get him to come on the show. Now that you're friends or whatever. I just want a discount on Mint Mobile. Yes, Mint Mobile. Okay, Scott, they're one of our sponsors many years ago or maybe recently. Okay, Scott, let's pivot to a listener question.

47:23This question comes from Nancy in Santa Rosa. Let's listen. Hey, Scott and Kara, this is Nancy in Santa Rosa, California. My question is economic and tied to the fires in Southern California. Having lived through several wildfires and been evacuated, I have to say it's breaking my heart to see what's going on in Los Angeles. But my question for you two is, where are the banks? It seems to me we're talking about government assistance. We're talking about rebuilding assistance. We're talking about what the insurance companies are going to be able to do. But it seems to me that most of those homes and most of those businesses were in buildings that were basically owned by the banks.

48:11And the occupants were paying it off. So where are the banks? That's my question. Where are the banks? Once again, in another disaster, where are the banks? Thanks, you guys. You've made me so much smarter than I deserve to be. Well, thank you, Nancy from Santa Rosa. I'll very briefly say they will be here because they will suffer losses or they will collect all this property because a lot of people probably aren't going to keep. You have to keep paying your mortgage even if your house doesn't exist, from what I understand, because you have the commitment to the banks. Many people will default or work out other terms with these banks or the banks will get the properties or the land, I guess, and be able to develop it or sell it or whatever.

48:53I mean, I think that's what's going to happen here. And I think probably some of them will suffer. Some of the banks will and some won't. You know, the more disturbing conversation going on is all these idiot Republicans saying that they're not going to pay. They're going to add, you know, add conditions onto payments around disaster relief. It's just a ridiculous way. Our country has always went to the aid and disaster relief. And so that to me is heinous. But in this case, I think the banks will either own the properties or give building loans to build these things back at probably pretty good rates.

49:24I know Newsom's working towards keeping insurance companies off the backs of people and getting probably government will probably play a big role here. Scott? I actually, I think they're going to be fine because I think it's federal legislation. I know that in Florida, to get a mortgage, you have to show proof of insurance. So I would imagine the majority of those homes that burned down are going to get an insurance check such that they can continue to pay their mortgage. The banks cover their ass as they're supposed to. And if you're in a high fire area or a dangerous area, or I think even if you just get any mortgage, you have as a condition of getting a mortgage, you have to show homeowners insurance.

50:03So I don't think they have much exposure. The more interesting conversation in my view, and I'm a bit of a Darwinian here. we have a tendency to always want to socialize the losses. And the reality is when you build a tinderbox or decide to buy a tinderbox in a beautiful, spectacular desert with high pressure and low pressure systems, I'll go to me, I live on the water in Florida. There's real climate change risk or weather risk. And my view is I should either pay for the insurance at a market rate or move or the value of my house should go down. And so instead, we go to this understandable sympathy for these people and taxpayers, including people who could never afford to live in the Palisades, end up bailing folks out.

50:55I just hate to say it. I think if you're going to live in a dangerous area because of the upside to you personally from a consumption standpoint, point, I don't think taxpayers should be bailing these people out. And until people feel the full weight of whether it's climate change or the cost of living in high-risk areas, we're not going to do anything about it. It's a fair point. I think there's initial disaster relief you can bring in. Yeah, 100%. And, you know, cover costs that people pay back and things like that. But I tend to agree with you. I think you, you know, I know I live in an earthquake zone in San Francisco.

51:29So I went out of my way to put in steel girders and put them down into the bedrock. I did so much stuff around fire in terms of not having as much wood. I thought about passive art. It's called passive architecture, which is thicker walls, more concrete, et cetera. I didn't do all of it because it was an old house. I wasn't able, it was an old wooden house, but I definitely did everything possible. It cost me a lot of money to do so. I have enormous insurance, you know, on that because of earthquake insurance. And it's all at the cost to me. Now, I would expect some federal help around food or temporary things or relief, but I wouldn't demand it after a certain amount of time.

52:15Safety would be one of them, like keep my house safe, keep like looters and things like that. Why should taxpayers, federal taxpayers at the gas pump paying whatever it is, tax on their current income as a waiter or as a chiropractor, why should they be subsidizing my right to live on the water in Florida? Well, that's a bigger question. Why should people pay for schools? Because if I don't have kids, why should I pay for corn subsidies? Because there's a social good to having an educated populace. Is there a social good to making sure Scott can stare at the ocean waiting for the ass cancer? It's not my, it's not your right to live in a spectacular desert that collides with the sea, with these beautiful mountains that create these funnels of hot air.

53:02If you want to live there, in my opinion, you should bear the costs, including the risks. Yeah. Well, Nancy, the banks will be fine. If there's a mortgage of any kind, the banks will own the property. That tends to be the situation. or they'll figure something out. They always sort of work it all out and will overcharge people as healthcare companies have gotten so good at doing. Anyway, if you've got a question of your own that you'd like answered, send it our way. Go to nymag.com slash pivot to submit a question for the show or call 855-51-PIVOT. All right, Scott, one more quick break and we'll be back for your prediction.

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55:05Okay, Scott, let's hear a prediction and make it good. I think that inflation and the 10-year bond are going to be the adults in the room in the next few months. Well, if you think about 13 ,000 homes have been destroyed. And the idea that, I mean, Trump's two big policies are, I mean, a few things. The implicit kind of expectation that he'll either keep taxes low or lower them. Two, that he'll be very, he'll take a tougher stand on illegal immigrants. and three, that he's going to impose tariffs. This is the perfect storm for inflation and where you're going to see examples of it that hit the news are when people start to rebuild in the Palisades and the hiring pool is vastly diminished and the cost of a washing machine or a garage door is up 40 or 60%.

55:58And that month you see a bump up in CPI and the tenure goes fucking crazy. It's like his entire, The person I am most excited about in the Trump cabinet who is the most qualified is the 10-year bond. Because if it starts to spike and goes and says, the expectation of inflation is coming back because of this guy's inflationary policies around tariffs, deporting immigrants. And I want to be clear. If you've committed a crime and you're an illegal immigrant, that's your second crime. I am down with those people being deported. But the reality is, if you go to a construction site, it is an undocumented workers' Lollapalooza.

56:40It is indeed. And by the way, some of these people, speaking for a friend, are remarkably fucking talented and hardworking. Right, and especially in California, by the way. And will get on a roof, work 12 hours such that they can make, you know, 300, 400 bucks that day, and then send 200 home, you know, to wherever it is, to El Sal or wherever they're from. But the fact that all of a sudden these people are going to be scared to show up to a work site or that they might be worried about or they just might not come here. On a positive note, this workforce has been one of the most flexible, economically advantageous workforces in history.

57:17And then you're going to start this bullshit around taxing all these products. And by the way, these folks the next day will implement reciprocal tariffs. You want to talk about the choke point in AI? I used to think, oh, it's nuclear stocks are going to go up. Nuclear stocks, my analyst, Ms. Averial, reminded me that nuclear can't really be online. They can't handle a third of the incremental demand by like 2050 because there's latency in building a nuclear power plant. She said it's going to be all about liquid natural gas. We get a lot of LNG from Canada. What happens when Canada gets sick of being pissed on?

57:55Food prices. You're going to see. Do you know how many products? Chicken. There are cars that are eventually sold or quote unquote manufactured in the U.S. that go back and forth to Mexico, different components and different parts, like a half a dozen or a dozen times. So they immediately reciprocate with like-minded tariffs. And what's going to bring it to light is some of the costs around trying to rebuild. And then the adult in the room on the cabinet is going to be the tenure. And if inflation starts to spike, Like all of his grandiose plans around tariffs, it's going to come undone. So anyways, my prediction is that the rebuild effort as we begin to cost it out are going to shine a light on the inflationary pressures of kind of Trump's signature policies.

58:41God, that was boring. No, it wasn't. It's interesting. Jesus, I'm bored. No, it is interesting. You know, Amanda and I are renovating our house in D.C. and we were thrilled it's almost done. Like I remember we were like we missed like all the cost of wood, the cost of labor, all the costs of all the things that were from all. You know, we bought locally, but we did a lot of local stuff, windows fixed and stuff like that. But I went to this guy who was doing our window restoration. We restored old windows and it was I don't know who the workers were, but they were these wonderful skilled workers all over the place.

59:14And I don't they were all from from other countries. Every single person in there. He was training them. And they were wonderful craftspeople. But I don't know where they were from. I don't know anything about it. But at the same time, I was thinking, oh, my God, if this was in Trump administration, this would cost us double to do the renovation. Or it would be the inflation pressures or the ability to even have workers would have been, like, spiked. And I agree with Scott. It's going to be, people are going to start to feel it really hard. Food prices, furniture, couches, everything. Everything you own is subject to this problem.

59:53We are so intertwined. One of the great stories, actually, I would push people to look at was Atlantic did one on how many plastics there are in everything we do. And so one of the reasons these things burn so quickly was because so much of our goods from couches to everything. There's so much plastic in our houses. It goes up and it's quite toxic. I heard we have plastic in our testicles. Did you read that article? Not my testicles. Mine are clean. My testicles are clean. Well, based on that down vest you're wearing, I'm now convinced you have testicles. Where did you get that thing? Stop it.

1:00:25David Saslov gave it to me. Oh, of course he did. Yeah, he wears it. Of course he did. He wears it. I said, where can I get one of your lesbian vests? Any year you are? Yeah, I got it. I had an interview, Mark Thompson, at one of their events. This was part of the schwa. I love it. That fits. It's very Kara Swisher. It is. It is. I love it. It's one of my favorite things. It's high quality. He's very soft because it's from David Zaslaw. Before we go, a quick look at what's going on elsewhere in the Karen Scott universe. This week on Prof G Markets, Scott spoke with our favorite Canadian, who now will be under tariffs, Andrew Ross Sorkin, editor at large of DealBook at The New York Times and co-anchor of CNBC's Squawk Box.

1:01:07Disclosure, he's not actually Canadian. We just call him that. Let's listen to a clip of you and Andy Ross. If China is prepared to sell to Elon Musk and only to Elon Musk, what does that say about the leverage and influence that China must think that they have over Elon Musk by dint of his factories and Tesla business in the nation state that is China? And then it probably raises a whole secondary order of questions, which is, if China feels this way, how should we as Americans feel that people are calling him the co-president of the United States? To say nothing of Russia, Andy Ross, and his influence, his various influence.

1:01:49How did that go with you and him? I love Randy Ross. I think the most trusted journalist in the world right now is Anderson Cooper. And I think second is probably, I think the most trusted business journalist in the world is Andrew. And my co-host, Ed Elson, this 25-year-old kid who's been working with us, who is to me what I am to you, and that is I discovered his ass. And he said to him, he stopped the podcast, no joke, and he said, you're my professional role model. To which I responded, well, I hope he pays your bonus, bitch. But anyways. That was like not good. Ed, don't you understand the fine art of kissing up?

1:02:27He has better hair, let's be clear. He's arguably the most likable man in media. I've never heard anyone say anything bad about Andrew R. Sargon. I think he's underpaid, actually. I've told him that because he just thinks he wants to work at the end. I know, but he could make bankier. He could make bankier because he could go off on his own. He does. He does. He does quack box. He likes to stay. He can't give speeches. He can't do other things. He can't do this. He can't do that. Maybe you should buy the New York Times. Oh, stop it. Oh, God. Listen up. Next week, we'll be in your feeds a day late because of the holidays.

1:02:59See you on Wednesday. to talk about the inauguration. We're going to tape on Tuesday after it's over. We'll have plenty to talk about, all the pictures of the three amigos or the three idioties who will be sitting at the parade. And listen, it is no degrees, and the richest people in the world have to sit there on really uncomfortable chairs until Donald Trump gets up. What a great world this is. Scott, read us out. Today's show was produced by Lara Neiman, Zoe Marcus, and Taylor Griffin. Ernie and Todd engineered this episode. Thanks also to Drew Burrows, Josemir Saverio and Dan Shulon. Nishat Kauras, Vox Media's executive producer of audio.

1:03:34Make 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. The Dallas Cowboys, the Los Angeles Lakers, Manchester United, Man City, cricket in India. Nothing, nothing compared to that second best team en Bogota la Equidad.