309. Trump's Secret Weapon

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0:49Hello and welcome to the Restus Politics US with me, Katty Kay. And me, Anthony Scaramucci, how are you, Katty? I am good. I'm back from the DNC, which was great. I was listening to a Rory Analistus coverage of it on the Restus Politics UK feed. And it was great to hear how excited they were about what they saw and how impressed they were with the speakers. I think it was Alistair made this great comparison about how you couldn't sit through four hours of the Labour Party conference and keep your eyes open. But the quality of speaking in America is so good. I always go back to this thing that kids in school, my kids and your kids all learnt show and tell from the age of first grade.

1:28And it just gives them this confidence speaking in public. Anyway, it was not as a non -American, but who lives in America loves this country. It was very nice to hear them so excited about what is after all the greatest political show on earth. I'm going to message Alistair Campbell and let him know that you brought up the restus politics you can within a minute, within a minute. Yes. Okay. So you're getting very high. But it was genuinely very nice to hear them so excited. I feel like he's our headmaster. Don't you feel like that? I feel like I'm under, I feel like I'm under a lot of pressure there for some reason.

1:59I'm doing the best I can, Alistair. I know you're listening, Alistair. I'm doing the best I can. And that makes me today the perfect or the class president. Because look, I bailed us out. Amen. And I appreciate the good teamwork. No, what are we talking about today? So today, before we get going, there are some very exciting dates for your diary and some exciting news. We are going to be doing the first ever the restus politics US live shows at the end of October. So if you happen to be in New York, we're going to be there on October the 28th, put it in your diary or in your phone. And if you're a DC resident like me, we're going to be here in DC on October the 30th.

2:36So October the 28th in New York City, October the 30th in Washington, DC. We're going to have more details about how to buy tickets in the coming weeks. Keep your eyes peeled for those. And tonight, if we do not look like we're going to fill the venues, I am expecting 333 scaramuchis in Manhattan. Okay. You're low, you're low on the scaramuchi count. You can ask the first Trump campaign, we can deliver scaramuchis at a moment's notice. Okay. Excellent. Very good. All you got to do is tell my family free food. Okay, this may not have free food, but I'll promise to serve them popcorn before I dissolve.

3:11Okay, we'll talk to the goal hanger folks and see if we can rustle up some sandwiches in order to get the scaramuchis out. Anyway, we're excited about that. So we look forward to seeing you in New York and DC. Today though, we're going to check, but we did a lot last week on the Democrats. So we're going to check back into Trumpland and look at this question of whether he is possible to control because there's a lot of talk about how his campaign wants him to stay on message. There have been some great ads that are very message focused, but of course he goes off message. So is there a method to how they do it?

3:40In the second half, we're going to look at the swing states. Why they swing and zoom in on Georgia, which is where the vice president and Tim Walls have been this week. It's a very important swing state. It's kind of neck and neck at the moment. So we're going to sort of take a little bit of a deep dive into Georgia. And there's also new Fox News poll out, which has some interesting data in it that I want to talk about too. But let's start, Anthony, by looking quickly about whether you think that in the wrap up to the convention since we are just the week after the convention. And maybe it's a little too early to tell this, do you feel like the convention cut through to voters and made a kind of material difference for Democrats?

4:21Yeah, she didn't get the biggest bump in the polls that I thought she would get. I thought I thought it was well produced. I thought her speech was great, but it's telling you something that I think her strategist know minds are made up. And it's now about how are you going to get the vote out? Because if we can get the vote out on our side relative to the other side, we're going to win. But I think it was very well produced. I think she did a very good job. I think she's running an incredibly disciplined campaign. And on July 3rd, when you and I were talking or the 4th of July, actually, I said she was going to replace Joe Biden and that people were going to underestimate her.

4:59And it's now August 29th or August 30th. And we're sitting here with a candidate that is very disciplined. She's very much so un -message. And she is doing things that people don't necessarily like, which I like. She hasn't had an interview. And people say, well, that's terrible, blah, blah, blah. They don't really understand the voter. The voter doesn't care that she hasn't had an interview. She is going to have one. We should remind you at tonight, right? On CMA. Yep, tonight. Yep, she's going to have an interview tonight, Dana Bash. A mutual friend of ours is going to be interviewing her with Tim Waltz.

5:30The Wall Street Journal is picking on her this morning saying she's got a crutch in the interview. Governor Waltz being there. I don't believe that. Every president, she'll candidate, has been interviewed with their vice president over the last 30 years. So I think that's a bunch of bunk there. But I like what she's doing. What I fear for her is the substance. I fear for her. What are the policies? If she's going to tell people we're taxing unrealized gains, she's going to lose the rich and poor people. It's not just going to be well, ladies and gentlemen, rolling in a tax, people worth $100 million.

6:04She's something about America that you know and I know. This is an aspirational country. You're not rich right now, but you think you're going to get rich in America or you think your kids are going to get rich in America. And I just want to explain to people, if you make money in America and I make money here in New York, 52 % of that money goes to the government. Okay, so that's Joe Biden, Eric Adams, and Kathy Hocal are the majority partners in my life. I'm a minority partner. They get 52 cents. I get 48. If you're then going to tax my investments, let's say I take all 48. Don't spend anyone in my self -catti, but I invested in the stock market and I hold it for 10 years.

6:44They're now saying that they're going to tax that, which is basically a disincentive for investment and a disincentive for saving. So it's a ridiculously stupid idea. I hope they don't go in that direction. They had one of their economic advisors out on CNBC trying to justify it the other day. And I'm telling you, if they go in that direction, it'll be very, very tough for her. And we'll have to see. So if she says, hey, I'm a moderate now. I'm trying to reflect what's going on in the country. I want to be president for all people. My ideas have evolved because of who I am today. Right? There's a great expression in football.

7:21You have to remember where you came from, but you also have to remember where you are now. Okay? And she has that ability. And I think she comes into the zip code of moderation on policy. She's going to win the election. So I had a very, I exactly on what you're talking about. I had, I was up in New York dropping my daughter in college last weekend. And I had dinner with a very good friend of mine, Chris McGreele, who writes for the Guardian. And he had just come back from spending 10 days in Western Pennsylvania, going round, Trump rallies and going to events with Trump. And he says that she doesn't really have a chance on the economy.

8:00And she's kind of lost the economic message. And there's just not much she can do to recover ground on that. And that fox poll that we're going to talk a bit more about later, I think the real red flashing warning light for Kamala Harris is the economy. It says that in that poll, the economy is the number one issue for 41 % of voters. That is way ahead of all the other issues. The next issue is immigration. And that is only 14 % abortion is only 13%. And he still wins on the economy. So if everybody's going to be focused on the economy going into the polls in November and let's see how the economy is doing and how people are feeling, I think that is why all of this excitement coming out of the DNC and this sense of unity and joy and and all of the things you say about what a good candidate she's turned out to be, I think that is the big mitigating factor.

8:52And that's why I'm still a lot more cautious than some of the kind of excited Democrats were up in Chicago last week. Okay, let's talk about, but let me interrupt. Let's play strategist for a second. Okay, you're on the campaign team for the Harris people. You just came back from that dinner. You believe that the analysis there that she's having a hard time. What adjustments if Annie, would you make or would you see the economic issues to President Trump? She can't afford to see the economic issues totally. I mean, she's got to have a message on the economy because otherwise every time she goes out in public, she's not talking about the things that people are thinking about.

9:29So she has to have something on inflation, distancing herself from the previous administration. She has given an economic policy speech, but a lot of people were quite critical of that. But I think she's got, she's got to have some economic message that is around, I hear you, I know that it's hard. These are the things I'm going to try and do to make your life better. And if she can refine that at least, at least, you know, there's, she may be able to reassure some people who are on the fence. Okay, let's talk about Trump. And whether it's possible, there's a lot of talk about how his campaign stress and just Chris Lissiveta, Susie Wiles, now Corey Lundowski, who was his spokesperson in the 2016 campaign has been brought back into the team, but particularly Chris and Susie want him to stay on message.

10:19And they feel that if he's going to, if he'll talk about the economy, if he'll talk about the border, then they have a winning shot. But every time they push that message forward and there have been some excellent Trump ads. I think there's a very good Trump ad out at the moment, trying Kamala Harris to buy dynamics, the failed economic policy, as they see it, of the Biden administration and it's very crisp, it's very sharp. That is the message they would like Trump to be talking about. But then he kind of undermines himself. So do you think it's, do you think it's possible for Trump to stay on message and actually as a kind of former strategist of his, do you think that's what he needs to be doing?

10:54Well, I think he needs to be doing that, but he's never going to do that. And I think Corey wrote a book, Corey Lundowski, let Trump be Trump. And I think the reason why he's back on the campaign is that he recognizes no matter what you do, Trump is going to be Trump. And so, and there's a reason for that. He's a pure narcissist. And he has to prove to everybody that he can be contrary to them. HR McMaster is out with a new book right now. He's saying that Trump was just reflexively contrairian. If you said, hey, don't mention that we're going to bring the military into Venezuela. We certainly don't want to do that.

11:30They walk out of the room. Trump gets in front of a microphone. It says, you know, we could probably bring the military in Venezuela. He just likes doing that. Okay. He's done that this week, by the way, on things like mail -in voting or he said, the campaign is saying, yes, please encourage people to do mail -in voting. And then Trump turns up and an interview and says, mail -in voting, I don't like it. It's always a fraud. Right. Okay. So let's talk about Corey for a second. So Corey Lundowski was a political operator for the Koch family. He's a new Hampshire resident. He knows New Hampshire about as well as anybody.

12:02He met with Mr. Trump in 2015 and Mr. Trump hired him as campaign manager. And so my first meeting to discuss the presidency of Mr. Trump was the day after the apprentice finale. I was sitting in his office and he said, did you see me on TV last night? I said, no, I didn't see you on TV. You were the only one. He said the ratings were spectacular. He went into his whole, you know, gibberish. And then, but that's the last time I'm going to be on TV. See, I hired this guy Corey Lundowski. He's downstairs on five and you're going to go downstairs and meet him and I want you to come work on my campaign.

12:36And I said, listen, I'm with Jeb and, you know, I was actually with Scott Walker at that time. He was coming out of the race. I said, and I'm going to be with Jeb. Well, when Jeb leaves the race, doesn't he have a low energy? Don't you think, Jeb Bush, you'll come work for me. And I foolishly said, yes, I'll come work for you. And then I went down stairs to meet Corey. This is the beauty of Trump Tower. Are you ready? Corey was on the fifth floor. If you walked up the steps from the fifth floor, you were on 14, Caddy Kay. Okay, so let me just say that again. Okay, you went from five to 14 with one flight of steps.

13:06Where did the nine floors go? Well, the nine floors went into the Reuter Triangle, but in the brochure, you're on the 68th floor instead of the 59th floor in Trump Tower. See what I mean? And that's Donald Trump. Okay, so I go down there to talk to the guy and I like Corey. Corey's down to Earth. Corey's a new hamper to write. You know, these guys are live free or die. And I got along very well, Corey, and I helped him with the campaign and organized the fundraising when he got fired, which was right after the convention or maybe just before the convention, it was probably June of 2016. I went to see Corey and said, how can I help you?

13:45And Corey said something to me that I will never forget. Just remember Mooch, you're never out of Trump's orbit. Okay, I'm going to stay close to these people. Never out of Trump's orbit. Help Trump when he was president. Help Trump in the post presidency. Wrote a book. Let Trump be Trump. Okay, so he's back. Lasavita, by the way, I'm Italian. So it's Lasavita. I love the way you pronounce the name, by the way. I think you said La Sivita. La Sivita. Sounds like, I think so. Like La Sivias. This is the reason why you're doing, this is the reason why you're doing so well in the United States. Okay, that accent is worth like 25 IQ points in the United States.

14:21Hey, I'm going to keep them. I will take any IQ points I'm given for any reason. My accent is like minus 10 IQ points in the United States and around the world. But you're doing beautifully with the accent. But Lasavita is going to be at odds with Corey. I see the world differently. They're going to try very hard to stay composed because they got a sprint here for the next 68 days. But that's Corey Lewandowski. Why do you think he was brought back into the campaign at this particular moment? Because the campaign was faltering and Trump is a, he's a football owner. He's a baseball team owner. And when the thing is not working well, he wants to make change.

14:58He wants to fire the coach. But he wants to replace the coach with somebody. And so he's a conflict of orders who didn't fire Susie or Lasavita. They frankly have done a very good job. So he added somebody. So, so, Cady, please forgive me because some of this is graphic. And of course, if you're listening in the car with your children, you probably want to turn the volume down on some of this because it's graphic and ridiculous. But let me just ask you rhetorically, is this Trump on message? He posts a photo of VP Harris and secretary Clinton. And he says, funny how blow jobs impacted both their careers differently.

15:32Is that on message? He posts a message of VP Harris in an orange prison jumpsuit. Is that on message? He's posting QAnon tropes, which is this ridiculous conspiracy on the web that none of us can understand. And he says, nothing can stop what's coming. Is that on message? He's got a photo of Obama. And he texts asking followers to repost if they want Obama tried by a public military tribunal. Is that on message, Cady Kay? So, I mean, I could keep going, but but he's not on message. He sounds like a raving lunatic. And yet I can talk to billionaire friends of mine. And because of the tax issue and other issues, sort of like, yeah, no problem.

16:15I'm going with Donald Trump, even though he's a misogynist and a raising, raising lunatic. So explain that because you are a Brit transplanted to America, explain America to me. And again, for our British and internationalists, there's America. And then there's something called America. And you know exactly what I'm talking about, which is NASCAR, Tattoo's country music, Bud Light, explain to me how we can get away with that and still have this level of support. So all of those things you mentioned and the one particularly about the blow jobs is disturbing. And it is Trump playing to the kind of lowest of his instincts and the lowest of his basis instincts.

16:57He actually did something similar back in 2016 when he suggested that a female senator would go down on her knees in front of him to get his endorsement and his money. And and that was pretty gross too. And certainly disrespectful. And there's a section of the country that is appalled by all the things that Trump has been posting. And it was interesting that he did all of this in the space of a few hours this week, whether that was a reflection of him feeling kind of embattled, but it was deliberately playing to his base. And the thing about Barack Obama with that caption all roads lead to Obama re -truth if you want public military tribunals, that's kind of that's almost back to the birtherism stuff of the early 2010s when he was questioning Barack Obama's births.

17:43To forget, and there's a kind of dog whistle in all of this. So I think none of that is the kind of on message that the campaign would like him to have. But at another level, it gets in a huge amount of attention. I mean, I think one of the things that we in the press had to come out of 2016 asking ourselves was, did Donald Trump get too much free media? I mean, I think there's a policy group that has estimated that the amount of free media he got in 2016 was worth four billion dollars that he didn't even have to pay for. And I look at this week and when Trump is off message, the amount of coverage he gets spikes on CNN, MSNBC, all of the cable networks.

18:25And so for example, this week there was this altercation between a Trump staff member and somebody who works at the Arlington National Cemetery where Trump had gone to memorialize the third anniversary of the bomb attack at the airport in Kabul that killed 13 American soldiers. And the story then that comes out of that is the altercation between his staff member and somebody who works for the Arlington National Cemetery because the campaign was trying to film and you're not allowed to film for campaign purposes. But that incident again, he doubles down, he doesn't fire the staff member, he has JD Vance out there saying this is nothing and everybody's making a fuss about it.

19:06But it's getting him a lot of free media. And I wonder whether at some point, I think Donald Trump genuinely wants to win this time round. I'm not sure that was the case in 2016, but he really wants to win. He isn't stupid. He knows that if he wants to reach voters in the middle talking about the economy as the way to do it. But at some level, I wonder if he's also thinking, you know what, if I go off message, that's when I get attention. Is that sort of, do you think that's a that analysis is right? And do you think it works for him? Yes, I think I think that's right. I do think it works. He's talked about it at Nazium.

19:42I think it's a combination of calculation. I think it's a combination of real rage. And then Trump has something that I would call full rage. Okay, he acts like he's raging when he's actually not. And so what I find amusing about the journal is that they don't give him credit for how smart he actually is. Yeah, I agree with that. And Richard Branson once said to me something about Donald Trump, but this is years ago, and I'll share it with you. Richard Branson had a reality show in the United States on Fox. I think it lasted one or two seasons. I was down on Neckar Island with him talking about it.

20:20And I said, well, you know, you were up against Donald Trump in that time slot. You're smiling right now because I'm an unbelievable name dropper. You're so good. It gives me such pleasure. I just, I just, I just what, you know, I own my name drop not only Richard Branson, but with Richard Branson on Neckar Island, right? You like that? Yeah, of course, of course, I got it in of course, I've got the photos as receipts in my office. Okay, but anyway, and I love Richard. Okay, and Richard's a great guy, but he said something to me in 2013. So remember, this is three years now prior to Trump running.

20:53He said, you know, I was up against Trump. And we're similar in some ways. We're very different in others. How are we similar? I have ADHD, adult attention deficit disorder. And I have a little bit of dyslexia. I have a hard time reading a result of which Anthony, I've had to develop other skills. I have a high IQ, but maybe can't assimilate the information through reading. And so I have to do it through observation and intuition. I have to pick an account in who's a very good accountant that I trust because I can't really necessarily do the numbers myself. That's Donald Trump. He definitely has issues reading.

21:29You can tell just by the way he reads the prompt, and he has some of the same issues. And what Richard said to me, sir, Richard said to me, is that there's a lot of differences. He's morally bereft. I feel that I'm not, but he's a great risk taker. His show, the apprentice, went 15 years because he's an incredible risk taker. Okay, and so this off message stuff fits right into the wheelhouse of his personality. Because he thinks it's a risk that's worth taking. He thinks, okay, this is not what my campaign wants me to do. They want me to be the good guy, but actually, you know, screw them. I know how to do this.

22:06Let Trump be Trump. It's the Cori Lloyd. Yes, exactly right. My risk taking has been the key to my success for 50 years. Nobody else can get away with it, but me. Let me show you what I'm going to do. I'm going to do the opposite of my advisors and still win the presidency. So two little quick bits of news from this week on Donald Trump before we go to the break. One is that there's reporting that Trump is spending $48 ,000 on ads specifically to run in the West Palm Beach area in that media market, which is guess where it's where Mara Lago is. And it's not because they particularly feel they have to defend Florida at the moment.

22:44There isn't polling that's just that Florida is in play, but what I've heard is that it's because Trump is not happy that he and his visitors to Mara Lago are not seeing campaign ads. So a quick 48 ,000 being spent down there, which I think gets to some of Trump's personality. But I have to ask you about these digital collectors cards that with about 68 days to go before the election, Donald Trump is hawking digital collectors cards of himself, Anthony, for $99. So you too for $99 could have a little collector's card of Donald Trump. What's going on there? Okay, well, first of all, he loves these cards.

23:26Okay. If you want to, if you want to take a look at these cards, I'm going to recommend you get a vomit bag, you know, like they have on the planes. They're actually kind of cool. They're quite funny. Okay, okay. We'll have the vomit bag by your chin because he's muscular. He looks like Johnny Rambo. He's dressed a Superman. Superman. Yeah, Superman. He's got laser eyes. He's like, I mean, he's the man. Okay, and he loves this because because you know, he's fat and he wears a girdle. He once said that he had a, he said he's better looking than camel hours, but he once said he had a better body than Joe Biden.

23:58I mean, this guy, I mean, there's an Italian with Googoots. I mean, this guy is absolutely crazy. Okay. Tony soprano would say Googoots. Okay. But these playing cards are from his family, you know, so his family is young son who's a brilliant kid, Baron, and these guys are all into crypto. And he's a money maker, Trump. He will sell stakes. He'll sell bottled water. He'll, he'll sell sneakers. He doesn't care what it is. And he also knows that if he's out there flouting this stuff, it's irritating his haters. Okay. So there's a couple of things going on. I'm going to make a little bit of money.