In short
The hosts debate Trump’s Iran “deal” (a short memorandum of understanding) and whether it’s a real win, then shift to Trump hosting a UFC cage fight on the White House lawn for his 80th birthday and what it signals politically.
Guests
None. The episode is hosted by Katty Kay and Anthony Scaramucci; they reference outside figures (e.g., historian John Meacham) but no guests appear.
Key claims
The Iran agreement is not a full deal; it likely leads to open-ended nuclear talks resembling the JCPOA, with Hormuz reopening under greater Iranian control and possible sanctions/asset relief (including a cited $300–400B figure). The war is argued to have weakened U.S. standing and increased global nuclear-proliferation risk if verification/inspectors are missing. The UFC event is framed as “owning the libs,” populist optics, and a transactional branding/stock-buying spectacle that may alienate broader voters.
Notable examples
Hormuz reopening in ~60 days; lack of access to the MOU text; comparison to JCPOA verification length; references to missiles/drones and global economic harm. UFC event details: 85,000 tickets, military involvement, Dana White, Rogan comments, and sponsors/branding.
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Chapters
Tap a time to open that second in VOWeekend Sports and Culture
0:00 to 0:52
Hosts discuss recent sports events, including the World Cup and the Knicks.
“For adults with Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis symptoms, every choice matters.”
Weekend Sports and Culture
1:00 to 1:23
Hosts discuss recent sports events, including the World Cup and the Knicks.
Weekend Sports and Culture
1:41 to 2:31
Hosts discuss recent sports events, including the World Cup and the Knicks.
“For all of us New Yorkers out there, as I explained to people I was watching with, I've been waiting for it longer than you've all been alive.”
Trump's Iran Deal Announcement
2:31 to 4:14
Discussion about Trump's recent deal with Iran and its implications.
“But let's talk about the Trump-Iran deal.”
Breakthrough or Setback?
4:14 to 5:32
Exploration of the potential outcomes and consequences of the Iran deal.
“which starts a period of about 60 days during which the Straits of Hormuz will be opened again.”
The Bigger Picture: Global Implications
5:32 to 12:16
In-depth analysis of how the Iran deal affects U.S. standing in the world.
“morning that we are probably in a worse off situation than we were before the war started, because Iran now has more control of the Strait of Hormuz.”
Analyzing the Administration's Spin
12:16 to 14:00
Discussion on how the Trump administration may frame the Iran deal positively.
“We've laid out how bad it is for the Americans.”
Analysis of Trump's Iran Deal
14:00 to 21:03
Learn about the perceived failures of Trump's Iran deal and its implications.
“And I'll just say the Gulf countries were probably paying America for protection coming through the Strait of Hormuz and protection in the region.”
Discussion on UFC Fight at White House
22:50 to 24:37
Explore the cultural significance of a UFC fight held at the White House.
“I imagine you're looking forward to Father's Day.”
Discussion on UFC Fight at White House
25:39 to 28:00
Explore the cultural significance of a UFC fight held at the White House.
“Listen, I love the founders and read a lot about the founders.”
Show all 13 chapters
Understanding the Divide in American Politics
28:00 to 30:42
Explore the cultural divide in America and how Trump appeals to certain voter demographics.
“If you want to do that, that's fine, but then you're not going to win elections caddy.”
Trump's Strategy: Owning the Libs
30:42 to 36:28
Discussion on Trump's political strategies and their implications for his approval ratings.
“Okay, if you want to attract low propensity male voters, the exact same voters that moved for Trump in 2024 in large droves, Scotty.”
Democrats’ Path Forward
36:28 to 39:06
Considerations for Democrats on how to address Trumpism and regain voter trust.
“governing the country in a way that helps all Americans and owning the libs won't do it.”
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:00Anthony Scaramucci:For adults with Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis symptoms, every choice matters. Tremphaya offers self-injection or intravenous infusion from the start. Tremphaya is administered as injections under the skin or infusions through a vein every four weeks, followed by injections under the skin every four or eight weeks. If your doctor decides that you can self-inject Tremphaya, proper training is required. Tremphaya is a prescription medicine used to treat adults with moderately to severely active Crohn's disease and adults with moderately to severely active ulcerative colitis. Serious allergic reactions, increased risk of infections or lower ability to fight them, and liver problems may occur.
0:40Anthony Scaramucci:Before treatment, get checked for infections and tuberculosis. Tell your doctor if you have an infection, flu-like symptoms, or need a vaccine. Explore what's possible. Ask your doctor about Tremphaya today. Call 1-800-526-7736 to learn more or visit TremfireRadio.com.
1:22Anthony Scaramucci:The next thing you know, it's a thing. Canva, the thing that makes anything a thing.
1:38Anthony Scaramucci:Welcome to The Rest is Politics US with me, Katty Kay.
1:41Katty Kay:And me, Anthony Scaramucci. How are you, Katty?
1:44Anthony Scaramucci:I am very good. It's been a fun sporting weekend. I've been watching the World Cup games. Team USA doing amazingly. I liked that on Friday. That was fun.
1:53Katty Kay:Of course, we have the Knicks, Caddy.
1:55Anthony Scaramucci:I know you. I realize.
1:57Katty Kay:We have the Knicks. For all of us New Yorkers out there, as I explained to people I was watching with, I've been waiting for it longer than you've all been alive. The last time the Knicks won, I was watching it from my Nana's little apartment on Rabbit Ear TV in black and white.
2:14Anthony Scaramucci:And New York went crazy. But now, look, guys, you've won the basketball. You can start focusing on the soccer and the World Cup. That's what I'm thinking. We can move on.
2:22Katty Kay:In the meantime, we had a UFC fight at the White House. I think at some point we have to talk a little bit about the culture of that and what the Democrats miss. But let's talk about the Trump-Iran deal.
2:33Anthony Scaramucci:Yeah, it's been a very busy weekend. It started with Donald Trump getting his name taken off the Kennedy Center too. That was kind of extraordinary to watch the live streams of that. Only in Washington is a Friday night's exciting entertainment watching a name come off the Kennedy Center wall. But there you go. That's what kind of city this is. But yeah, on Sunday, the president announced that a deal has finally been reached with Iran. Ships of the world, start your engines, let the oil flow, he said. But honestly, there are a lot more questions than answers because none of us have actually seen this memorandum of understanding, which is meant to be a couple of pages long.
3:09Anthony Scaramucci:It's going to get signed on Friday, in theory, and we will look at whether the strait is really going to get opened and under what conditions, what will happen to Iran's nuclear program, and perhaps the question that is most important to the Trump administration. Can he spin this deal, whatever it ends up being, as better than Barack Obama's deal? Because here's my new thought. I think that Donald Trump has Obama derangement syndrome. And that's what a lot of this was all about.
3:39Katty Kay:ODS. I like that. ODS. It could also be odious. ODS.
3:43Anthony Scaramucci:He would like that. And then in the second half, yes, we will talk about Trump's ultimate fighting championship event that was held for his 80th birthday celebration just down the road from me in Washington, D.C. But let's start with the headlines out of this Iran deal. Here is what we know. He's announced a breakthrough that the Pakistanis and the Qataris mediated. The Iranians have also said, yes, there has been a breakthrough and that some document will be signed on Friday. which starts a period of about 60 days during which the Straits of Hormuz will be opened again. The Americans will open the blockade, release the blockade on the Straits of Hormuz, and nuclear negotiations will start over Iran's nuclear program.
4:34Anthony Scaramucci:And then there's a lot of questions around about how much money Iran gets in terms of unfrozen assets and sanctions relief and reparations for the war. And when they get that, there's also questions about Israel, which was not part of these negotiations, and Hezbollah and what happens between Lebanon and Israel. So still a lot of questions. I've reached out to a couple of people who've been involved, Anthony, before the show in previous Iran negotiations. And the take is pretty similar from all of them. This looks like we're going to have open-ended nuclear negotiations that are going to blow past this 60-day period, the Strait of Hormuz will reopen but under greater Iranian control, and Iran will access some reserves that have been blocked.
5:26Anthony Scaramucci:And that's broadly this framework. And the conclusion seems to be from the people that I've spoken to this morning that we are probably in a worse off situation than we were before the war started, because Iran now has more control of the Strait of Hormuz. And any final deal that gets negotiated out of this is going to look very similar to the JCPOA, which was Barack Obama's negotiation. And we have not even got to the big question of how a deal gets regulated. Are there going to be UN inspectors in there? Are there going to be international inspectors of some kind? Because the JCPOA was 150 pages long.
6:08Anthony Scaramucci:It took 20 months to negotiate. And the reason it was so long was that they wanted to make sure they had every contingency settled in terms of verification processes. They wanted to make sure there was no windows in there for misinterpretation or for the Iranians to wriggle out of inspection. So I'm not sure that you can really call this a deal that puts America in a better position. Donald Trump is going to try and spin this as a win, But I think that's a stretch, don't you?
6:35Katty Kay:Yes and no. OK, so hear me out for a second. I'm going to make the administration's case for a second. And then I'll tell you where there's some holes in it from my opinion. But in the administration's case, they're going to say this ongoing nuclear discussion is where the holy grail is. And so they're going to say that they're eventually going to get Iran to give up their nuclear weaponry. And now the question is, at what price? And so, Caddy, that's where that$300 billion number keeps coming up. So to me, what the administration is going to say, we have the trade more or less open. We've signed this deal.
7:15Katty Kay:It'll probably take six to 12 months to get the rest of the deal finished. and then the question is how much of that can they bury how much of the money i guess it's probably three three to four hundred billion dollars that the iranians have frozen around the world trump is going to give them that i think it's pretty clear if you look at any of the tea leaves here and the question is how is he going to convince himself and convince others like his buddies at Fox News, that that's okay to do. And that's better than the JCPOA, to your point about Obama derangement syndrome. So to me, getting the straight open, again, just the administration's point of view, he's hoping to knock down oil prices.
8:01Katty Kay:Markets have responded to that. And I think he's going to ignore the tit for tat coming out of Iran in terms of how badly he got beaten by the Iranians here. But the issue that I'm super worried about is America standing in that area of the world. And so if I were an American cynic, I would say, okay, wow, they got their asses kicked over there. It's disrupted our Gulf state alliances. It's made China definitely more powerful, possibly even Russia. They got their own problems with Ukraine, but possibly even Russia more powerful. And so what's at issue basically is what happens to the United States?
8:47Katty Kay:Is it just a Western hemispheric power as a result of what it did, Katty? And so what's your response to that?
8:54Anthony Scaramucci:I think that is the concern. And I had a long conversation with John Meacham, the historian who was saying, look, this whole deal will be judged on whether Iran ends up being a problem in the way that it has been a problem for 47 years for America? And does it end up with a nuclear program? And that is how we'll judge this. Now, on February the 27th, the Iranians were in a position where they were offering to degrade their highly enriched uranium, water it down, and offering, we understand, to have it shipped out of the country as well. So, that deal was on the table before this bombing campaign.
9:32Anthony Scaramucci:I'm not sure that we're in a better position than we are today than we were when those negotiations were taking place. But here is the bigger concern. This is not just about Iran, Anthony, and you're right to point to America's standing in the world as the critical component of this, because that is where the risk lies for nuclear proliferation beyond Iran itself. We may deal with Iran's nuclear program, although most people I've spoken to are pretty skeptical about whether the Iranians would actually agree to whatever they sign to. Will they actually stick to that? Unlikely. They need a period of rebuilding their nuclear program.
10:07Anthony Scaramucci:They're happy to delay rebuilding it for a while because they need to do their own reconstruction efforts. But here's the problem, right? We could be in a situation where the risk of global nuclear proliferation has been substantially increased because of what America has done over the last four months. If you're sitting now in South Korea, if you're sitting in Japan, if you're sitting in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, or you're sitting in the UAE, you're not as confident about the American security umbrella as you might have been. In fact, you're not as confident about America's desire or ability or willingness to stand by its allies in the way that it has done for the last 30 or 40 years.
10:46Anthony Scaramucci:And guess what? You might think, actually, you know what I need to do to protect myself? I need the ultimate deterrence myself because North Korea didn't get attacked by the Americans. Iran did. What's the difference between those two countries? North Korea has a nuclear weapon. I think we're in a position where the world is less safe because of this. It's cost an enormous amount of money. The devil is always in the details. But if there are not nuclear inspectors in there who are monitoring everything in the way that they were under the JCPOA, and Iran was not in breach of the JCPOA, then we are in a worse position than we were before Donald Trump ripped that agreement up when he came into office.
11:27Katty Kay:I think everybody around the world would agree spending a couple of, you know, I don't know, let's call it a couple hundred billion dollars on the war, and then having probably a$700 billion economic disruption to the global economy, and then putting the entire region in a worse off position relative to Iran. Everybody would agree that that was a terrible idea and that did not work out for the Americans. It also did not work out for the Israelis because it's not anti-Semitic to criticize a government and a government's policies. It just isn't. People can say that it is, but it isn't. But I think that the Israelis overplayed their hand here.
12:10Katty Kay:And I think they were very successful in convincing Donald Trump that this would be a very quick expeditious war and he would come out as a winner. So he's not a winner. We've laid out how bad it is for the Americans. But again, I want to give the administration's position because this is how they're going to pitch it. And this is how they're going to sell it to the people that watch UFC fights from the lawn of the White House. OK, this is how they're going to sell it. They're going to say that he is uber terrific. They're going to say that they put a pounding. Why are you laughing?
12:42Anthony Scaramucci:Because I'm not sure they're actually going to say uber terrific. It doesn't sound very Hegsethian language.
12:48Katty Kay:That's just gestalt of what it is. They're going to say he is the best. He is the best negotiator ever. He's sauntering down the presidential hall of fame like he did last night. And he's just.
13:00Anthony Scaramucci:He's a fighter. He's a fighter.
13:02Katty Kay:Yes. And they do 17 flyovers, the White House, and they'll shoot out red, white, and blue smoke. And they're going to tell everybody how uber terrific the guy is. And then they're going to say that he won and that he's better than Obama. And then those people, Caddy, are going to say, yes, he won and that he's better than Obama. But when you actually do the analysis here, he fell into a trap that was set for him by the Iranians who have observed the Americans in the Middle East for the last quarter of a century. And an historian will write that this was a very big miscalculation and not the Suez crisis, not saying it's that bad for the Americans.
13:47Katty Kay:OK, it's not an Eden situation. You may disagree, but it's bad because it's weakened our standing and it's now made people question our relationships. And I'll just say the Gulf countries were probably paying America for protection coming through the Strait of Hormuz and protection in the region. And maybe some of that money, that payment, that protection money is going to go to the Iranians from the Gulf. Maybe the Gulf countries are going to say, hey, man, we're going to ship you a palace of cash and we're going to help you rebuild your country. And you have to live on your side of the strait.
14:26Katty Kay:I have to live on my side of the strait. and I misplayed my hand with the Americans. So that's what's going to happen. But they are basically going to sell this as a win with a big flyover the White House.
14:40Anthony Scaramucci:Yeah, I think, look, you have to believe in the tooth fairy to believe that this is a win. You take Donald Trump at his own words. On the night that he launched this operation and he gave that video address, he gave six different goals. Let's go back to what he said about this himself. The goals were to destroy the missiles. That's not been achieved. To destroy the proxies. That has not been achieved. To have regime change. That has not been achieved. To annihilate the Navy. That has been partly achieved. To raise the missile industry. The intel community says, well, that's only half been achieved.
15:16Anthony Scaramucci:And to ensure that Iran doesn't get nuclear weapons. That I think we have to say we don't know yet. So you take Donald Trump at his own words, only a couple of the things that he pointed out out of the six have actually been achieved in any substantial way. So I think he can sell this as a win. This is an emperor has no clothes moment. There is nobody serious that I have spoken to who says that this, we are better off than we were on February the 27th. And by the way, it's worth listening. Any of you who are out there who are interested, the daily, the New York Times podcast at the risk of committing pedultery, sorry, Alastair Campbell, did a really good heartbreaking daily last week on the boomerang effect of this war.
16:00Anthony Scaramucci:Because when we talk about, oh, well, this has had a knock on effect to the global economy, they've gone to South Sudan and Somalia, and they've talked to the people who have actually been impacted by this war in terms of lack of fertilizer, and prices of diesel being too high and aid programs being shut. And people have literally died in some of the poorest countries in the world because of the last four months of bombing. So yeah, we're worse off. And I think if anyone, I think if the White House tries to sell this, even on Fox News, I think even Fox is going to struggle to sell this as a big win.
16:32Katty Kay:But again, hear me out. Okay. We decimated them. We wiped them out. I don't know why he calls 1 ,000 pounds, 440 kilos of uranium nuclear dust. I still can't figure that one out.
16:46Anthony Scaramucci:Is it meant to make it sound like sort of more something out of a James Bond villain movie or something.
16:51Katty Kay:I feel like it's like creme brulee on my brain. I feel like the top of my skull is open and they pour sugar on the top of my brain and they just, they just.
Read the full transcript
17:00Anthony Scaramucci:Maybe he can't say highly enriched uranium. That's just too complicated.
17:04Katty Kay:I don't get it. But, but I would just say this to you. Here's my pitch. Cause I gotta, gotta bring this out there. Just what people listening in can, if you're carrying a vomit bag while you're walking your dog, just listen in. He is going to say that I devastated them and I blockaded them for 100 days and they had tremendous economic pain. And don't please ignore those missiles and drones that are landing in the Gulf states because they don't exist because I wiped all of those out.
17:34Anthony Scaramucci:Because we've got a ceasefire. So yes, exactly. They've all gone, been obliterated. And by the way, I did
17:39Katty Kay:things in a way, Obama didn't have the guts, didn't have the guts to do it. And again, for those That's what it was all about. I'm tilting and swiveling my massive body as I'm walking. That's what it was all about. I mean, I'm just telling you that's what's going to happen, Caddy. And so, but the bottom line is, as a market participant, you got to get some type of deal done in the hopes that you can lower oil prices and that you can lower the heat that's coming out of the Middle East and perhaps put a little bit of a dent in the affordability crisis in the West, not only here in the United States, but around the world.
18:21Anthony Scaramucci:Yeah. And look, the reporting from inside the White House is that the president, all of the president's advisors had turned against this war inside the White House. There was nobody who felt this was a good idea to continue this. and everybody was urging him to end it. And of course, the Republican Party above all is urging him to end it because ding dong, the clock is ticking on the midterm elections and it's going to still take a while. I mean, this is where we are still not into the details of this because initially the president said, you know, get the ships moving, the oil will be flowing as of Monday.
18:57Anthony Scaramucci:The Iranians have come back and said, not so fast, we're not opening anything until Friday, but it's going to take a while to move those ships in and out. Yes, because of speculation, the oil prices have already come down. But in reality, it's going to be a few months before this all gets moving again. And I think the real drawback of this whole scenario and of this memorandum of understanding is that Iran is still in a stronger position to control the Straits of Hormuz. Let's say the Israelis decide they are going to bomb Beirut again. Do you think that Iran is just going to sit there and think, well, we've got this very useful weapon.
19:33Anthony Scaramucci:Why won't we use it again?
19:34Katty Kay:Yeah. Well, of course. But I mean, listen, I think at this stage, the medium term outcome is that the strait does open and it does provide some level of economic relief for both sides, Caddy, because I do believe...
19:48Anthony Scaramucci:And the Iranians needed the relief too.
19:50Katty Kay:I do believe that there's pressure in the Iranian economy that's led to them needing to get the straight open as well. So we'll, in the immortal words of Trump, we'll see what happens, but man, is this a bad deal. And by the way, if you're a Democrat that's studying this for the 2028 presidential election, you know, I have thoughts there, but I would just be careful with the culture, guys, because when you're shitting on Trump with the UFC fight, you're turning off 55 to 60 % of the country.
20:24Anthony Scaramucci:We'll get into that in the second half. Okay, so that's our take on the Iran deal. I still think actually we should not be calling a deal because there is no deal yet. We've got to negotiate this thing. It's a two-page memorandum of understanding until it isn't, guys. And in the Middle East and in negotiations with Iran, a lot can change between now and even Friday, and a lot more can change from now and in 60 days. But the president wants some kind of a deal. Every single person around him in the White House wants him to get some kind of a deal because they know this was not in America's best interest and certainly not in the best interest of the Republican Party heading into the midterm elections.
21:02Anthony Scaramucci:OK, we're going to take a break. We'll come back and talk about the great fight on the White House lawn. I wish that was going to be my birthday. That's what I want, Anthony, by the way. So if you could start planning for November now, because I expect a spectacle like that, please.
21:20Katty Kay:You want it to be a women's UFC fight or a male UFC fight? Because you can have your choice, Kat. Just think about it. You don't have to answer right now. You've got plenty of time between now and November.
21:29Anthony Scaramucci:All right. But just so long as it's big and glitzy and loud.
21:32Katty Kay:Sponsors too. We're going to hook you up with some sponsors.
21:34Anthony Scaramucci:Oh, yeah. I want sponsors. Definitely for the White House. Somebody's got to finance America right now. Okay. We'll be right back.
21:46Anthony Scaramucci:Anthony, you have a few kids. I imagine you're looking forward to Father's Day.
21:50Katty Kay:It's a special day in the UK, also here in the US. And look, as a dad myself, I wanted to give our listeners a quick tip. This year, why not give your dad a membership to the Restless Politics US?
22:04Anthony Scaramucci:And because we love all the dads out there, those who send us questions who are in our founding members club, those who come to our shows and come up and speak to us afterwards, we are offering a 25 % discount on an annual gift membership. I mean, come on, Caddy.
22:17Katty Kay:What dad wouldn't want our exclusive founding members Q &A, our members only miniseries, ad free listening, early access to our live shows, ticketing and much, much more.
22:31Anthony Scaramucci:Just head to the rest is politics. U.S. dot com. You can click on gifts and the gift will land straight in your dad's inbox right on Father's Day.
22:39Katty Kay:It's an excellent Father's Day present. I would know. Go to the restispoliticsus.com and click on something to make your dad a founding member. Happy Father's Day, everybody.
22:51Anthony Scaramucci:Happy Father's Day.
22:57Anthony Scaramucci:Anthony, you have a few kids. I imagine you're looking forward to Father's Day.
23:02Katty Kay:It's a special day in the UK, also here in the US. and look as a dad myself, I wanted to give our listeners a quick tip. This year, why not give your dad a membership to the Restless Politics US?
23:15Anthony Scaramucci:And because we love all the dads out there, those who send us questions who are in our founding members club, those who come to our shows and come up and speak to us afterwards, we are offering a 25 % discount on an annual gift membership.
23:27Katty Kay:I mean, come on, Caddy. What dad wouldn't want our exclusive founding members Q &A, our members only mini series, ad free listening, early access to our live shows, ticketing and much, much more.
23:42Anthony Scaramucci:Just head to the rest is politics. U.S. dot com. You can click on gifts and the gift will land straight in your dad's inbox right on Father's Day.
23:50Katty Kay:It's an excellent Father's Day present. I would know. Go to the rest is politics US.com and click on something to make your dad a founding member. Happy Father's Day, everybody.
24:02Anthony Scaramucci:Happy Father's Day.
24:08Anthony Scaramucci:Welcome back to the rest is politics US. In this half, we're going to talk about Trump's big birthday bash. and I was a little disappointed that the president did not mention our live tour as one of the exciting things that is happening during this 250th anniversary of the United States because we are going around the country, Anthony and I, for a bunch of live shows, Atlanta, Boston, Toronto, we're going to Canada as well, Minneapolis, Chicago, New York and DC, we would love to see you there. If you would like to get tickets, tickets are on sale now, go to therestispoliticsus.com. We will be taking your questions.
24:45Anthony Scaramucci:We can't wait to meet you all. So please do come and join us.
24:48Katty Kay:Kat, do you want me to see if I can get a presidential tweet out there?
24:52Anthony Scaramucci:I think that would be great.
24:53Katty Kay:Would that hurt or help ticket sales?
24:56Anthony Scaramucci:I thought you were going to say, would we want the president to come to our show?
25:00Katty Kay:Oh, should we interview him on stage?
25:01Anthony Scaramucci:I'm not quite sure we can put on quite the show that he had last night on the White House lawn on Sunday evening, because that was wild. This big, massive structure and underneath it, a literal cage fight. I'm not sure, Anthony, I know that we're going to get into the culture of this, but I'm not sure that the founding fathers, when they were sitting there thinking forward, would have thought to themselves, in 250 years to show the best that our young democracy has to offer, we will celebrate with, on the White House lawn, a cage fight. But anyway, maybe they did. Maybe they did. Maybe that's what they wanted.
25:37Anthony Scaramucci:Sponsored by crypto.
25:39Katty Kay:Listen, I love the founders and read a lot about the founders. And one of the things I learned, particularly from Mr. Franklin, Dr. Franklin, as they called him, is neuroplasticity. So Frank would be looking at this and he would be laughing to himself and saying, okay, they've gotten a little fat and happy and they are no longer focused on the rigors of what it takes to be fat and happy, right? So you're on the back end of it, right? If you're in the wealth management business, you always tell the client the first generation makes it, the second generation keeps it, figures out a way to keep it.
26:15Katty Kay:The third generation squanders it. And we're now in the third century, the second half of the third century of this thing, which seems to be squandering. But, Katty, I want to go to three things and then you respond, please. So, number one, the$60 million expense was offset by logos and advertising coming from the White House South Lawn. First time that's ever happened, right? Yeah, first time it's ever happened. But the UFC says that they're losing$30 million on this thing, but they probably got half a billion dollars worth of branding off of it. But the president himself is buying shares in TKO, the company that owns the UFC before the fight starts.
27:01Katty Kay:So, I mean, you just have to love the openness of all this.
27:05Anthony Scaramucci:The transactional nature of it.
27:07Katty Kay:I'm going to tweet about this company and tell you to buy it. But guess what? I'm also buying it. So that's number two. And then the third thing, which I think is, for me, something that the liberals miss. This is a huge part of the culture, okay? For those of you outside of the United States, this is America, okay? What is America? It is Bud Light. Bud Light is back, by the way. They were one of the sponsors last night. It is NASCAR. It is hot dogs, trailer hitches, pickup trucks, gas guzzling SUVs and big flags, big flags, flyovers. Okay. Now you could sit there and you could sneer at it and you could look at it in a garish way and you could say, this is ridiculous.
27:58Katty Kay:And this is the trailer park trash part of America. If you want to do that, that's fine, but then you're not going to win elections caddy. And by the way, this is the Platner America, by the way. This is also the Platner America. And that, of course, is now the Democratic nominee for the Senate in the state of Maine. So go ahead, react to all of that, Katie. Do I have that wrong or should we all be sneering? Should the Atlantic Magazine write a sneer fest on Donald Trump hosting this event?
28:30Anthony Scaramucci:I think the one thing that liberals must learn from the whole Trump experiment of the last 10 years is that part of the reason Donald Trump got elected was because liberals sneered at conservative America. And this UFC fight was kind of, you know, tailor-made to prove the axiom that America is two countries sharing the same landmass and that you have a very divided world. Liberals don't understand, and at their worst, they sneer at that everything that the UFC represents, the overt nationalism, the hyper-masculinity, the deliberate torching of elite sensibilities. And look, some of it may have been understandably offensive.
29:12Anthony Scaramucci:When you had one of the fighters suggesting that Michelle Obama, by the way, is a man, that's a kind of deliberate offensive thing that the crowd there may have cheered at, Pete Hegseth may have cheered at, but I think it's perfectly legitimate to call that up as an offensive moment in the course of the evening. But generally speaking, you're right. This is a part of American culture that liberals don't understand. And by the way, it's not just liberals that don't understand it and don't like it. This is very far. What we watched on Sunday night is a world away from the old Republican Party. I mean, this is not how the Republican Party of George Will and Bill Buckley would have celebrated America's 250th birthday.
29:58Anthony Scaramucci:They would have had a kind of, you know, black tie dinner at the Heritage Foundation. Mitt Romney, who you campaigned with in 2012, I'm just going to take a flying hunch that this is not how Mitt Romney would have celebrated his 80th birthday party or would be planning to celebrate his 80th birthday party. So it's that you've got, yes, the Democratic Party and liberals and coastal elites don't understand it and they don't like it. But you've also got all of these old school Republicans who don't understand it and don't like it and they don't have a home to go to anymore. They're out there in the wilderness thinking, what is my home?
30:30Anthony Scaramucci:It's certainly not, you know, the country club is looking increasingly like a diminished place and a diminished home for them too.
30:36Katty Kay:All of that is true. Now, let me say a couple of things for Trump, and then I'll say a few things against Trump. Okay, if you want to attract low propensity male voters, the exact same voters that moved for Trump in 2024 in large droves, Scotty. Then you have a UFC fight on the South lawn of the White House. This was incredible way to attract people to politics that don't normally think about politics.
31:07Anthony Scaramucci:And by the way, those are the people, young men who have abandoned him since 2024. There's an economist YouGov poll out from the beginning of June, showing that he is underwater with men, 21 points. He's among young men, age 18 to 29. Trump's job approval is 34 points underwater, just 32 % approved, 66 % disapproved. That is a total turnaround, massive swing.
31:34Katty Kay:That is on the against, you're right.
31:35Anthony Scaramucci:He's got to pick those men up again.
31:37Katty Kay:You're right.
31:38Anthony Scaramucci:Maybe that's why he did it.
31:39Katty Kay:I want to show you this. For those of you listening, this is a bejeweled American flag on my lapel. And my wife gave that to me for Father's Day about nine years ago. And so I wear it. And I was in Europe recently wearing it, and it smacked of MAGA. And it turned off some of the Europeans who don't like Donald Trump. And I said to myself, hmm, Trump has done something that we should all acknowledge. He has hijacked American patriotism. So when you have the anthem, you have the Thunderbirds and the Blue Angels fly over and the 250th anniversary, the birth of the president, if you're wearing a flag, you are now a Trumper.
32:26Katty Kay:You see what I mean? So he's actually hijacked, which was, and by the way, I'm old enough to remember the Bicentennial. The Bicentennial under Gerald Ford was a bipartisan celebration. And if you had a flag in your hand or a flag on your lapel, you were just expressing your love of the country and patriotism. But this is something that Trump has done. He's hijacked this. It now looks like jingoism or it almost looks like a, you know, authoritarian sign to some people. And again, that would be represented in this UFC fight. last point caddy he gave 85 000 tickets out okay a lot of american military got tickets uh someone called this a rich man's vanity event okay but the optics are populist they're not elite
33:18Anthony Scaramucci:when you've had 85 000 people well you did have to pay to watch it on television you had to pay paramount subscriptions this was not marco rubio had said this is free a gift to the american people
33:29Katty Kay:you actually did have to pay to watch it yeah but as trump pointed out with the playoffs and everything else in sports now. You have to pay to get access to this stuff in the United States. Again, up against this is your point about his low approval ratings. He's reinforcing that he's governing for himself and not for the country with these pet projects. He's buying stock in the damn thing, which I think is unbelievable. Even Rogan, who was there, he called the event unwise. He didn't like it himself. He showed up because he's a UFC person. He showed up and he want to put into the ring. And he's the one that held the microphone up to the fighter that said the slur about the First Lady Obama.
34:10Katty Kay:And it's doing something, Caddy, that we've got to be very careful of. It's blurring the military and a partisan spectacle. Remember, he used our color guard. He used the Marines as part of the props there. Caddy, I want you to react to him walking down the presidential wall of fame with Dana White, the founder of the UFC, going past the Joe Biden auto pen picture. Think about how these guys think. And again, if you're on the left, you'd be inflamed, triggered, and infuriated. And by the way, that's exactly what Donald Trump wants you to feel.
34:45Anthony Scaramucci:Yeah. I mean, they want to own the libs. And a lot of what drives Donald Trump is owning the libs. And I get your point about liberals sneering at conservatives and everything that UFC represents. And I think it's a really well taken point. And I think if Democrats want to learn one thing, they have to learn how to re-embrace those parts of America that the coastal elites don't understand. But I'm just not sure it's such great strategy because Donald Trump can divide and divide and divide and he can keep slicing the salami. And all he does is he gets closer and closer to his base and a smaller and smaller base because he alienates so many people.
35:23Anthony Scaramucci:I mean, that thing of his name being taken off the Kennedy Center. Yeah, OK, it was a bunch of Washingtonians standing there cheering. But it's emblematic of what Donald Trump has done. He takes something over, he puts his name on and he destroys it. I mean, the Kennedy Center is a shell of itself. He gives out a no bid contract to his mate who fixed his swimming pool at his country club to fix the reflecting pool that is meant to be beautiful and shiny. And guess what? Three days later, now it's open again. It's already got algae. It's no longer blue, it's green because these guys are swimming pool people.
35:57Anthony Scaramucci:They're not necessarily the right people to do this. There was no bidding process. There was not a thorough architectural review. And now we have Algie back in the reflecting pool. And I think in the process, he's just not competent. So those are signs of incompetence. But you can play to your base and play to your base and you can own the libs. And at some point, you alienate more people than you draw in. And I think Donald Trump's approval ratings at the moment, even among young men, suggests that he is talking to an ever-shrinking pool of people. And he needs to get back to governing the country in a way that helps all Americans and owning the libs won't do it.
36:35Anthony Scaramucci:It's not enough anymore. Yes, it might have got him into office in 2016. It scraped him back into office in 2024 when there was a very weak Democratic Party to run against. But I don't think it's going to be enough to either secure his legacy or help Republicans in the midterm elections.
36:52Katty Kay:So the question is right there. That's the central question. Was it a good night or is it a setup for a good November? And the answer is he owned the libs. He triggered them. He got his buddies there. There were some great Instagram photos. There's a great flyover photo. There's a lightning strike photo. And, you know, he's attached himself to the flag. I mean, the thing that blows me away, Gaddy, it's someday you're going to have to explain this to me, how a three-time married guy who hung out with Jeff Epstein has attached themselves to the religious right. That's the thing that blows me away more than anything.
37:31Katty Kay:And it almost weirdly, I give the guy credit for it because it's like the con of the con on top of the con. But there he is. He did it. And if you're a Democrat listening to this show and you are sufficiently triggered, I'm not saying you shouldn't be triggered, but you should take a step back. You should say, OK, do I want to write off 80 million people that voted for Donald Trump or do I want to figure out a way to get them back into the fold? Because a lot of those people, their grandparents and their parents voted for Democrats, Katty. Those are blue collar people that voted for Democrats.
38:06Anthony Scaramucci:And if you are Democrats looking at taking back the House in the midterm elections, you would be smart to think to yourself, do you go after Trump and Trumpism or do you just go after the money? Do you focus on the corruption? It's about the corruption and the chaos. If I were them, forget impeachment, I would be laser focused on this idea that what you started by saying he has put corruption back into the White House and with the UFC event, literally because there are the companies that he is selling stock in and buying stock in and promoting stock in right there on the White House lawn. Okay, we're going to leave it there.
38:45Anthony Scaramucci:If you would like to listen to our bonus episode, we're going to have a big discussion about Anthropic and the Trump administration's relationship with Anthropic and shutting out all foreign nationals, what that means for America's allies, what it means for America, what it means for AI. And we'll also talk a little bit more about Joe Rogan getting into a bit of a fight with Donald Trump as well. You can become a member at therestispoliticsus.com and send us your questions. We'll see you later this week. Thanks, guys.
39:12Katty Kay:See you later this week. Thank you.
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