Why Democrats Refuse to Embrace Angel Moms, the True Health of the Economy, and Trump’s China Strategy

- Hey, everybody, welcome. This is Next Up with Mark Halpern. I am Mark Calpern, Header and Chief of the live interactive video platform.

“Two way and your host here for about an hour”

as we talk through all the latest news, information,

and always with an eye, directed straight ahead

over the horizon. The what's Next Up, grateful to you for being here. Two great guests and a couple of monologues including my reported monologues on the divisions in America and an opportunity to try to heal them.

First up, after the monologues next block, the former owner and CEO of Modell Sporting Goods, Mitchell Modell, he's a legendary business figure in New York and has moved to Florida. We're gonna talk about the environment

in the United States now for business. And then former assistant secretary for Homeland Security, Trisham Agloflin will be here to talk about all the latest use of AI and political ads and whether you're safe with your family

going to the World Cup. He here to talk to them both, but before they come in, my reported monolog on the question of Americans coming together around something that really should unite everybody, which is the tragic story of Americans assaulted often killed

by people who are in this country legally. And the Democratic Party's failure to grapple with it, but as a political issue, but also as a moral issue. Every time I speak now, just for the last 20 years or so, having a public or online,

I get almost always get a version of the same question,

what could bring the country together? And I always say, well, if we weren't brought together by Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama, it's gonna be hard to do 'cause those three guys were by inclination and history and intention,

determined to bring the country together as president. Each of them left office with the country more divided than before. And almost every day here on two way and on my other stuff, I talk to people in Red American, Blue America,

whether they're everyday Americans or political elites. And typically they'll say, well, it's the other side's fault. And if they were Republicans, they'll say, it's the fault of the media and the Democrats that were divided. And if it's the Democrats, they'll say,

it's the fault that Republicans were divided.

And honestly, both sides have some pretty good examples.

President Trump is a divisive figure. And then Republicans will say,

“well, maybe you should have tried to put him in prison”

when he was running for president and was the front runner. Democrats will say, look at January 6th, a dark day in American history. And Republicans will say, how about the riots in Iran to COVID? Both sides, as I say, have great examples.

But last week, President Trump did something that at the White House, which are at Mother's Day, for Mother's Day, that really set me off on a round of intense reporting with folks to try to understand just one issue.

And it's of a peace with a lot of issues related to President Trump's success. I hear all the time, all the time, all the time, from Democrats, how could people support Donald Trump? How could someone support someone horrible?

And I'll say, well, rather than approach it with incredulity or darkness in your heart, try to understand your fellow Americans who allowed Donald Trump to win the popular vote, who still supported some of it because of a positive agenda.

But a lot of it, a non-insignificant amount of it, is because of Democrats' failure to grapple with issues

“that really are passionately important to tens of millions”

of Americans. And one of them is an issue that I've heard Donald Trump talk about now for over a decade. It's people whose loved ones were killed by people in the country illegally.

That was a big focus of the president's mother's state lunch in the Rose Garden last week. And here's some of what he said to those angel moms who were present and whose lies were changed forever by a criminal in the country illegally.

As five, please. - With us this afternoon, our number of the angel moms who saw their precious children stolen from them by the open border policies of the radical left. Open borders, I call them stupid borders, not open.

I call them stupid borders. Many of them murdered more than one person. What a shame, what a disgusting shame. That people can even think that this is OK is pretty incredible.

But now, not everyone loves Donald Trump's bedside manner. But he has spoken passionately with purpose and knowledge for over a decade now about these angel moms and other family members in this position. And it's one of the things that struck me early on

about the Trump rallies starting in 2015 when his campaign team would arrange for members of this horrible community, just tragic community to come appear with them at the rallies. Here's the president in 2015 at a rally in Phoenix

- I'm gonna ask all of the angel moms

to come join me on the stage right now. These are amazing women. - Bye, go ahead.

“- Lara Wilkerson and my son was Joshua Wilkerson.”

He was murdered by an illegal in 2010. And I personally support Mr. Trump for our next president. - My name is Ruth Johnston Martin. My husband was shot by an illegal alien. He fought the good fight, but he took his last breath

in 2002 and I support this man who's gonna change this country for the better. - Now, if you're listening to the audio version only, you didn't see those beautiful family members wearing t-shirts with their loved ones images on them.

And one of the things that most struck me

as I traveled around to Trump rallies in over 30 states

in 2015 and 2016 was the, that's just the emotion in the audience when the president would bring those families on stage but how aware the members of those communities were of these cases.

Even if they happened in a different part of the country, they knew the names, they knew the circumstances of the crime. My colleagues in the media rarely did, but the people who supported Donald Trump did. And they weren't just saying,

I'm gonna support Donald Trump because someone with tragedy in their life supporting Donald Trump, they said, this is a matter of public policy. The reason these people loved ones were killed was because open borders of the Democrats

allowed them to come in here.

And very powerful, very powerful.

And I wondered, with the Democrats ever get the joke on this, the politically right thing and the morally right thing would be to learn about these families, to reach out to these families, to maybe include them in their discussions of public policy,

to maybe try to make common cause with them

“about how important it is to make sure this never again”

happens to a single American family. I'll say again, there are plenty of things that Donald Trump and Republicans have done that I understand why they cause outrage among Democrats. But on this one, I have still not been able to understand

why wouldn't the Democrats do both the politically right thing and the morally right thing? And say, President Trump is right, these families have just been put in such a horrible position. And we need to understand how democratic policies

may have contributed to this. So the Knight, the President, had that event at the White House that I showed you. I wondered how much coverage would he get in the dominant media next to none.

Really none is best I could found, but I'm sure there's something I couldn't find. And imagine if Barack Obama had an event with families who'd suffered such tragedy, we'd get more coverage.

So on two way tonight, I had on a very reasonable, very smart Democratic consultant, Doug Friednash, and I asked Doug, what's the deal with your party and these families? Here's what he said.

This is S2, please. Have you ever heard a prominent Democrat talk about angel moms in the last decade? I have not. Yeah, why would that not pick on you,

but you're the Democrat here? Why not? Why wouldn't Joe Biden have called Lake and Riley's family?

“Why wouldn't Democrats say how outraged they are by this?”

It's a fair question, and I think it's a huge blast pipe for the Democrat party. All right. A huge blind spot for the Democrat party. I preached Doug Friednash being so honest about it.

Because blind spots a good word. Again, moral blind spot and political blind spot. Because Donald Trump didn't just talk about this issue in 2015 and 2016, he talked about it in the White House. He talked about it when he was running, again, in 24.

And he's talked about it since he got back to the White House. Here's a present Trump in the 2026 state of the union address. Once again, highlighting a family of tragedy as four, please. Delilah Colburn was only five years old in June, 2024, when a 18 wheel tractor trailer plowed into her stopped car traveling at 60 miles

an hour or more. The driver was an illegal alien, led in by Joe Biden and given a commercial driver's license by open borders, politicians and California. So here's a political issue, a personal issue, a family issue, an issue of crime. The Donald Trump has been scoring political points on four over a decade.

And highlighting families-- I don't know, every particular of every case, although I've

But there's no doubt that whatever you think of Donald Trump, these families deserve to

be acknowledged. These families' cases deserve to be highlighted. The facts deserve to be understood. And we need to find better policies to make sure, as best we can, that not one other American family deals with this has to deal with this.

And what we get from the Democrats is not acknowledgment, including acknowledgment of democratic policies that have contributed to this over the years under Barack Obama under Joe Biden.

“But also an acknowledgment that it's important to celebrate these families, to acknowledge”

them, to help them, full stop, not hedging, not changing the subject to things they don't like about Donald Trump. But instead, what we have is-- and again, my colleagues and I did a lot of searching.

And you heard me ask the Doug Friednash there, you can't find almost any cases of Democrats

on their own bringing these issues up, or even when asked by reporters to do the right thing. And it's the right thing for these families. But it's also the right thing for the Democratic Party, politically. I would say.

But it's also the right thing for the country. Because we can't keep turning every issue into a red blue divide. And I would contend that even though the politics of the border are implicated in this, there should be no red blue divide on helping these families, and on looking for policies to keep this from happening again.

“So Donald Trump, almost every state of the Union address he's given, as speech to Congress,”

he's highlighted these families, he's had the family sitting in the box with the first

lady. He's talked about them. And many people--it not just in Magga, many people who voted for the president can tell you the stories of what's happened. Probably the most famous is Laken Rally, the young woman who was killed in Georgia.

Okay. That's probably the most famous. Here's Joe Biden when he was asked about Laken Rally. I'm sorry, when he was speaking about Laken Rally, in his state of the Union address, this is in 2024, right before the election.

Here's his heckle, it didn't seem he was planning to bring it up, and then he gets heckled about Laken Rally. Here's Joe Biden, number S1, please. To her parents, I say my heart goes out to you, having lost children of myself. I understand, but look, if we change the dynamic at the border, people pay, people pay these

smugglers, 8,000 bucks to get across the border. Because they know if they get by, if they get by and let it into the country, it's six to eight years before they have a hearing, and it's worth taking the chance to the 8,000. In that moment, and in his overall treatment of Laken Rally and her family, it was not equal. It was not the same as what President Trump has done.

I say that objectively. Here's a couple of members of the House asked about situations involving violence against illegal immigrants, and look how they handle it, these are Democrats. Here's some or Lee asked by a reporter about a case of a 12-year-old girl in Houston who was tortured by people in the country illegally, S12, please.

She's quickly about the 12-year-old girl in Houston that was-- On torture. On torture. I don't even know who you are. I don't know who she is.

I let him Pittsburgh. Okay. But there was a child who was killed, and I don't know anything about it.

“You don't know about the child that was killed by illegal immigrants?”

You know, again, she says, I don't know anything about it. Do you remember the Congress are busy? She can't know about everything. But the attitude was of a piece with what most Democrats attitude is. Here's Congressman Giopal, leader in the Democratic Party, same concept, talking to a reporter

S13, please. But as we know, the research is that the document of immigrants commit far fewer crimes than anyone else. Are these crimes preventable if we didn't parole them into the country? This line that you heard from Congressman Giopal, people in the country illegally commit far fewer

crimes. And sometimes they'll say it at the percentage of crimes per capita is lower. I don't challenge those statistics, but it is not what someone would say to these families. Well, your loved one was killed by someone in the country illegally, but you can take solace from the fact that the percentage of illegal immigrants who kill people is lower

than others, or the absolute number of people they kill is lower than others who are here illegally.

Here's Senator Schumer talking about the Lake and Riley act and why he was supposing

it.

“Some Democrats voted for it, but not Senator Schumer.”

This is from January of 2025 on the Senate floor. Charles Schumer explaining his position on the Lake and Riley act. S9, please. So, unfortunately, without more changes to address deficiencies in the bill, I'll be voting no.

We Democrats want to see our broken immigration system fixed. We worked with Republicans last year on the strongest immigration bill in a decade. While I do not support this particular bill, I stand ready to work with both sides to pass smart, effective, tough, and common sense legislation to secure our borders and reform our immigration system.

Now when I ask Republicans, why do Democrats talk about these issues in such antiseptics

way? Why do they turn away from recognizing that the tragedy that these families have dealt with towards saying, well, I don't like this piece of legislation or I don't like this bill or Donald Trump, January 6, would ever. When I ask Republicans, they say, well, because Democrats love open borders.

Democrats want the borders open and they're willing to deal with people coming in illegally in committing violent acts because they need people illegally in order to vote and mess with the census numbers and become Democrats.

“That's what Republicans will largely say to me.”

When I say to Democrats, why would Senator Schumer speak about it this way? Rather than saying this woman, this poor woman and her family, her memory must be honored. We need a better bill to honor her because the savages who killed her, savages who killed her, he must be brought to justice. Why wouldn't they do that?

I ask Democrats and most of them will just turn back to statistics about crime or things that are outraged about Donald Trump. And even when I have tried, in the past and again this week with the exception of the clip I showed you from two ways, even when I've tried to tee up Democrats, strategists like the officials, don't you feel in your heart the sadness, the pain, the anguish of these

families? I can't get an answer out of them that represents the way Donald Trump feels about this, a moral outrage that the outrage of failure by the American government to do the most fundamental thing which is to protect our borders, protect our citizens. We were able to find one Democrat, maybe not a surprise, Senator Warnock who's a Minister

from Georgia where Lincoln Riley was killed. We were able to find one Democrat and I'm sure they're more but we couldn't find too many.

When he was asked about the case of Lincoln Riley, here's what he said on CNN in March

of 2024, S6, please. Listen, first of all, let me just say that my heart goes out to this family, of the family of Lincoln Riley. And I can tell you as a pastor who has done hundreds of Ulegies and presided over all kinds of funerals, there is no grief worse than when nature is tragically reversed and rather than

the children burying the parents, the parents have to bury the children. And so it's unfortunate that in this moment of grief, there are those who are trying to score cheap political points. So the last thing, I thought was lovely what he said at the beginning, and again unusual for a Democrat. But then he accuses the Republicans of cheap political points.

And there's no doubt that the president, his political strategist, know how effective this issue is to rally folks, not just extreme magma, but people in the center and probably some Democrats who feel so strongly about this. No doubt they know the political publicity, but also no doubt that the president, the current president, has provided solace to these families that they did not get from Joe Biden.

And no doubt that the underlying public policy issue, we must secure the border for many reasons, including to keep people in America from being killed and assaulted by people who come to the country, legally. There's no doubt that that's legitimate issue. Okay.

My job on the national town square is multifaceted, but one of them is to try to look for opportunities to point out both sides doing things that not only are politically stupid, but really divide the country. And I cannot tell you if you're listening to me now, and your reaction is Donald Trump has exploited these families for political gain.

I cannot tell you how important this issue was to his election. And I can't tell you the level of resentment that people who agree with the president on these matters feel towards Democrats and many of my colleagues in the media for not treating this issue the way it should be treated by everyone.

“And that's what's so extraordinary about this.”

How could anyone have any different position than these families grief must not be in vain.

How could anyone have any other position than that?

“And when people say, how can we bring the country together?”

The answer is on an issue like this, set aside, set aside the division.

I wish that the president had invited lots of Democrats that lunch. And I wish if he hadn't invited them, and I have no reason to think based on the questions I asked in the responses I got, I've never even thought he did. I wish the Democrats would go. That lunch, celebrating Mother's Day, and honoring Mother's, he also under honored

gold star moms, but honoring these angel moms, that should be as bipartisan as anything as an America. And the search for solutions to try to keep it from happening again should be as well. This is not a hard thing to fix. Not a hard thing to fix as long as people will think about what's underlying this issue.

The Donald Trump has adopted and rallied in championed now for over a decade. That's underlying it is the most fundamental thing. Let's all agree for those families. Let's all support those families.

Let's all try to fix what's broken.

And let's all try to work together to keep them from any more of those families in the United States. All right, that's my report in my log on the issue of American families touch by tragedy because we cannot control our border. What do you think?

“Am I being too hard on the Democrats or not hard enough?”

Let me know. Send me your feedback directly. Next up, [email protected]. I email address again next up, [email protected]. Am I being too hard on the Democrats or not hard enough?

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Come back, Mitch Modell will be here for more owner and CEO of Modell sporting goods legendary operation here in New York City and someone with a range of businesses around the country who understands what's going on with the economy and frankly, I've been perplexed about it eager to talk to Mitch Modell, he's next up. Do you know that high blood pressure is the number one risk factor for mortality?

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This is your life we're talking about. 120 life can help. All right, next up and joining me now, a man who's going to help solve a biggest mystery that I dealt with lately, which is, I look at the macroeconomic data, I look at the micro data.

I talk to people, both business people and consumers, and I've never been more confused

by the American economy. And that's even if you subtract the tariffs and the war. So next up here, former owner and CEO of Modelle sporting goods, a iconic New York brand and managing director and partner of GSH development, Mr. Mitch Modelle. Mitch, welcome in.

Thank you for being here. Thank you, Mark. It's a pleasure being here. Congratulations on your success. You're very kind.

I appreciate it. Modelle's explained to people how you developed such an iconic brand in an industry that doesn't have as many iconic brands as some others. How did Modelle sporting goods get created and what was its trajectory of the success? So it was started in 1889 by my great grandfather Morris, who came from Russia and set up a shop

where people would come to New York City and sell hybrid ashore on the streets. Then we opened up one store in Portland, Street. Then he had a son Henry, Henry opened up eight stores to go over to Vegas Sporting goods in 63.

Then my brother and I unfortunately my brother passed away in 2001.

“We took over when we had 18 stores and we grew up to 169 stores and converted to a sporting”

in this operation where we wanted to be like the community sporting goods store. Family values, great savings to the consumer and all that giving back to the community and every market we served. The thing for me as one of your consumers for a long time, the most impressive thing is most sporting goods stores I'd say have pretty abysmal customer service.

Walk in and there's nobody there to help you figure out what you want, how to get it. Every time I walked into a motels, I knew I was going to get great customer service. I would be directed to what I needed, people would be knowledgeable and that's been a big part of you and your family's attitude about dealing with consumers. Well, you know what, it's a great point mark, but it's started with the associates.

If you make the associates feel good, you've got a fighting chance they'll make the customers feel good and they'll love working in that environment and so we really had a big family

“business where the people do we really care about them that they were first and foremost.”

Yeah. And if they're happy, they make our customers happy. Remarkable success now, you're in a bunch of other businesses now. I want to drill down on some of them, but just take off what businesses are you involved with now directly or indirectly that you're engaged in, what industries and the scale

of them.

So it's basically three industries I'm involved in.

One is the construction and affordable housing. I partner with the scale Lawrence Goldman that 10 months ago. And she's been in this business for 20 years. She's a direct manufacturer and what we do is we could build homes literally in 15 days, a one unit house in 15 days.

We could build affordable housing, which is like so desperately needed all over, so we're starting in New York where I have one of my contacts with developers in Florida where I currently live now and then of course the United States, we're even looking to bring production here from overseas to the US where we can control our destiny. But we could build a 300 unit house, unit housing, affordable housing, student housing, workforce

housing, life for option, policemen, firemen, etc. in nine months, which is unheard of. And to end, so we ask is that developers have shovel ready property where we have to go through the permits, we have to go through our fees, we have to get city council votes of community group votes, we have developers that are shovel ready property that we could store and then we take over the whole process.

There are no cost over ones, we guarantee it, there's no construction fees, we have the GC, there's no engineering plans, we do that.

“So we provide a full solution, a turn key solution end to end to end to make it quicker, faster”

and cheaper than anybody on the planet. And again, that's a for profit business, it's not habitat for humanity, it's a for profit business. So for profit business, definitely needed. So number one housing that we'll get back to it, probably arguably in terms of the American

dream right now, it's the biggest thing we need, because young people don't think they

can buy home, that's number one, second business.

Swicing, because of all the years we were in the buying business, I'm not in the business, I wasn't in the business, I'm specifically buying today, but in any business, factories, I belong to an organization called YPO, young President's organization that gives you tremendous access to people 38,000 companies all over the world. So we source anything from produce, from Latin America, from trash bags, from Oman, where it's

power free, TAA approved, as well as natural clubs, the hospitals and distributors from Malaysia. So we do. Yeah. So again, the first thing in housing you're dealing with manufacturing, you're dealing with importing, you're dealing with permitting, implicating a bunch of stuff in the economy.

And with sourcing, you're again, you're dealing with bringing stuff in from around the world, supply chain, on time delivery, etc. Third business. Right. So it's supply chain, but it's dealing directly with the manufacturers, and working with the heads of government to make sure that we're all totally aligned.

That's the key. Yep. Okay.

And then the third business we have is called waffle, wash and fold laundry that will be

launching in August when the kids get back to school in Boston.

delivery in 24 hours, or it's free. So we have like an Uber type app, it's like Uber laundry, but it's really like when you're at Uber eats, anywhere you are, you put your zip code in, we're connecting with all the different laundry, we're starting in Boston because they have 46 colleges, they have the largest college town in the United States, and then we'll be expanding.

All right. And then, obviously, it doesn't have to just be used by college kids, could be used by lazy bodies, too. Correct. Yeah.

Okay. Now, you left out oat milk slices, and you have that business, too. Correct. So the fourth business is Veter Prince, which is, if you see this, this is no academia. I don't know if you could see it.

Yes, sir.

“So, look at Damia, the best thing since sliced milk, these are oat milk slices where”

we took out 87% of the water. And this is equivalent, this package is equivalent to five, 32 rounds, uh, curtains of oat

milk, takes up no space, it's not dated, it's fresh, and more important, it's got incredible

healthy ingredients, all of that nutrition. Yeah. Just mix, mix one of those slices with water, and you've got some oat milk. No refrigeration. No.

We're putting in a blender. Yeah. Where's that manufactured? Right now, it's manufactured in Germany, and moving off facilities to Ohio in July, we're bringing equipment, so we'll be making the United States, and saving a lot of time and

money. But we tested it with somebody in Germany, who was a manufacturer of that. All right. So again, now you're in the food business, and you're also dealing with importing. And again, you're dealing with on-shoring.

So my point in having you run through your business as ladies and gentlemen is this man, Mr. Modell is is at the center of understanding the both the possibilities and the pressures of being business in America today. So thank you for sharing all that. Here we go.

“What's working well in the American economy right now?”

We're dealing with the tariffs, which not everybody likes. We're dealing with the war, which is raised in gas prices. What are the fundamentals? As John McCain might say, what are the fundamentals of the economy in America now that are strong?

Embrace AI. You have, you can't fight it. You can't be threatened by it. It's not the replace human beings, but otherwise you need economy. It's going to drive productivity.

It's going to give us access information that we never had before.

It's going to help solve a lot of medical problems, and you could see everyone's building these data centers. It's that kind of the entire gold rush, but AI AI is going to have such an incredible positive effect. So it's going to be some of that going to affect.

Obviously, it's going to cost people jobs, but the most important things companies will be more productive.

“And I think you've seen that in the results.”

As you're dealing with the colleagues and suppliers and everybody overseas, as the United States currently ahead of AI, or the German milk company, or they do using AI more than American companies are, or we ahead. We're definitely ahead. We're definitely ahead.

And that's where the emphasis is on in the whole economy right now. Everything is AI. The wild, wild west, but I think it would be great the long run and the short run. What are the biggest problems with the American economy now? Is it determinants in the war?

Where there are other things that are more bigger obstacles to robust growth? I think it's about uncertainty. People like certainty.

And so the most important thing, the most important thing is that people have certainty.

They want to know, tell me what the rules are, and we'll play by the rules. That's really important whether it be tariffs, whether it be any legislation rules, whether it be Congress, or the White House, people need to feel certainty. And we've got in the war. We've got in the war in Iran, get resolved, bring oil prices down, that's really killing

the consumer. The consumer was today's CPI that went up to 3.8 today, that's all about gas. And the one thing that we have great going for us is that we are one provider of gas. But unfortunately, with this war, it's a global situation that brings down the prices for the consumer.

Let's talk about housing. We don't have enough supply in the country. Your company is trying to address that. Others are as well. But your solution, as you laid out, it's going to fast track it.

It removes a lot of the obstacles, not all, but a lot of the obstacles to building more. What happened in America in order to go forward? What happened? How did we end up with insufficient supply of housing? You don't have the steel components, steel in the United States is very expensive.

We're with our recommended factual with China, and Vietnam for sourcing of steel. It's prefabricated like gauge steel. And so when you're competitive on pricing, when you could build construction end-to-end

And so it's not a Democrat issue, it's not a Republican, it's not an independent, this is a major issue for the country. So politics does not plan to this, and so we're benefiting from it.

“Who's got better water, Florida, or New York, to drink?”

There's no better water than New York. Correct. You want a bottle, you want a bottle of water, no, give me New York's fine. And New York water. Number one, you're correct.

Number two, who's got more compelling sports teams, New York, or Florida? New York. New York. New York. There's only one New York.

Okay. Who's got better than next? Who's got better live theater? I'd love the next. I'm so excited about the next, and I just hope Oklahoma City somehow loses because I don't

want to play them. Who's got better, better Broadway live theater, New York, or Florida? New York. There's only one. So basically, we built a compelling case here.

Why do you live in Florida, sir? I moved five years ago when we closed down Models. I wanted to have a whole new fresh approach to life. And you know what? I would say Florida's worst day is better than New York's best day.

Even when it rains here, it's cheerful in New York and the city when it went. Not for water, bagels, life theater, bagels, I miss, bagels and Chinese food. You can't get a good Chinese restaurant in Florida. Yeah. New York bagels, you've got to go to that old New York night.

So basically, basically, you threw away everything you grew up loving for decades because it's sunny some days. That's what you're telling. Sunny tax advantages. Yeah.

Solidarious advantages. The weather. Okay. We got a mayor in New York.

“Do you like the current mayor of Gotham City, Mr. Mundami, big fan?”

Do I like the mayor? Listen, whoever runs the city.

I always support, no matter Democrat or public intervention, dependant.

You always want New York City to win. I think he's got to be a little more pro business and I hope he takes his time to understand that you know, a lot of big organizations pay a lot of the freight with taxes coming into the government and you can't slap the hand that danger. So hopefully in time, he'll learn that.

Yeah. I've got a bunch of AI printed signs to say Modell for mayor, but you'd have to move back here. I don't think you're moving back. Who would be a good mayor of New York City who lives here now, who would be good?

I would love to see a guy like John Castan at the Edestron. Yeah. You need a business man. You need someone that, I mean, when you think about the city the last 25 years, the city was never run better when it was under the leadership under Michael Bloomberg.

Yeah. My former boss. Michael Jordan, top, top people got ran big businesses, really moved the needle, broke a lot of glass all the way and made New York where this today and you know, he was to stand up guy.

And today, it's not about who's got the best walking point, so who's got the best social media platform? It's who could run 100, one of the biggest businesses in New York, the city government. So we got, we got a business man mayor in the past did pretty well. Castan cast from the TDs, he's a bunch of businesses, but he's in the retail business, too.

And the customer business. So I understand why you find out appealing. A choice. I think would be, would have been a great mayor.

We should have someone with, was he running a hundred and twenty eight billion dollar

business. Yeah. We should have one of the dishes. Be mayor eventually. I don't care early which one it is.

I love Jessica. I think she is fabulous. She's a stand up girl dedicated to the city, knows the city inside out. Yeah. Don't know if she's got the brand recognition, but anywhere that she's been, she's been

unbelievable. Yeah. We'll make it down in the police department. We'll make some good AI ads for her. She decides to run.

Really. Absolutely. You're lecturing to a group of young, up and coming small business people. What are models, three rules for success in business? Understand what your reason for existence is.

Yeah. For God. I have a purpose. You gotta have a purpose.

“You gotta have a mission and you have to have values.”

Okay. That's. Is that number one? Is that number one? Is that number one?

Is that number one? Is that all three? Well, it's really combined. Because number one, you have to have a reason for your existence. Yeah.

Right?

I always ask the question.

If models went away, who would miss us, I never thought they would allow us to go away. Yeah. How about the three fees? Three fees.

A passion, purpose, and price. How about that? Yep. And values. Thanks.

You can start with the P though. And start with the P. You're right.

economy right now? Yes. Yes. I like, I like a lot of the initiatives. I like bringing back manufacturing to the United States, particularly in the areas that

we need to control. And I feel good about it.

“I think we just got to get through this war.”

You know, wars go on for years with still not even our third month over here.

So I'm going to go online, and next time I have a slice of pie, I'm going to have a slice of oatmeal with it, too. I love it. All right. It's not 99.99, and it'll sit on your shelf for longer than a frozen milk or refrigerated

milk. All right. Mitch Modell. Mitch Modell. Owner and CEO before a modell sporting goods, and now in the housing supply and technology

businesses, no retiring, but give up New York water. I'll say, you know what? I'm going to send you a court by FedEx every month. Okay. So I want a bagel.

Throw on a new York City bagel with a bagel in May, and maybe a Brunson cap. Mitch, thank you for being here. grateful to you. Thank you. Have a great day.

All right. Next up, my preview of the presence trip to China, an important meeting with lots of different differences between the two leaders. Trump versus Xi is next up. Are you being lied to?

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All right, next up, the president's trip to China.

He went there in his first term, but it's always a big deal whenever a president goes

to China, particularly now with those two countries in the United States and China are considered the undisputed heavyweights of the American geopolitical scene. It's an interesting thing. The president loves having relationships with world leaders that carry over and I've reported on Asia, my whole career, and on President Trump's attitude towards Chairman Xi since

his first term, and the president will frequently praise him. As he'll praise many world leaders, including Vladimir Putin, he likes to show respect. And this is one of the areas where President Trump intuitively understands something big of adhesion, culture, face is an enormously important concept in Asia. You have to allow your adversaries in business or politics wherever it is, in geopolitics,

“to have face-to-safe face, to not be embarrassed.”

Run up to this meeting, which has been rescheduled once because of Iran, has put the Chinese in a position they don't love being in. They don't love disorganization, they don't love lack of clarity of what the schedule is going to be. They like the whole thing to be scripted really, and the U.S. just doesn't play that

way in general as much as the Chinese, but certainly it's compared to Donald Trump. So there are just some big differences here.

First of all, the time difference makes a huge difference for people in the United States

journalists covering the summit producing content from Beijing, but also for coordination. He will have all his people there who matter and can coordinate on the time difference. The President will have a big team with them, but they'll also have to coordinate back with Washington. So that's one big difference.

The cultures are so different. President Trump is very confident on the world stage. We've all seen that, but it'll be dealing with a different kind of culture. And the Chinese, for instance, are, you think the President of the United States is rough on the media.

The Chinese are extremely rough on the media. And so on a trip like this, you can expect to see at times the Trump administration, maybe there's some irony here, standing up for the White House press corps. These are also different types of leaders, as much as they seem to get along. And of course, she had a long standing relationship with Joe Biden as well.

There are different time horizons. President Trump is out of office in a couple of years, no matter what.

office.

“And that dovetails with the big difference between the political cultures of these two countries.”

The U.S. thinks about this year next year, maybe a year beyond that.

The Chinese think in the 10 years, 25 years, 100 years. And that patient's like cultural patience is in advantage for them in most cases, because it means they're not in his big hurry. There's no midterm election coming up that's going to be decisive for Xi's time and office.

And that gives him, I'd say, an asymmetrical advantage. Another big difference is the goals going into this summit. United States cares about the economics. They want to have more investment, more business activity in China, for particularly things like financial services.

They want to sell the Chinese stuff, including Boeing airplanes. And so there'll be a lot of prominent CEOs on this trip, trying to be part of the end

of the summit and the agreements about economics.

U.S. cares about security for the world.

“And of course, about AI, AI is going to be on the formal agenda at this summit.”

So unprecedented historically to have this kind of prominence. But the U.S. would like to see a lot of coordination for the threats from AI that threatened both the United States and China according to my sources. And of course, the United States cares about human rights, China, less so. And then lastly, the U.S. cares about Iran, although my sources are skeptical.

That this meeting will produce a lot of Chinese help on solving the current problem. What does China care about? Well, the U.S. is China cares about Taiwan and trying to move the United States towards a softer view of the reunification between Taiwan and Communist China that the Chinese would like to see.

As I said before, China cares about stability in the summit, order, certainty. They'd like to see that in the world. So they don't like the tariffs coming on and off. They don't like disruptions in the relationship. They want to be able to plan carefully. And of course, China cares about world dominance.

And the United States would like to check China. In the end, this summit will be almost certainly covered as if it's a battle run. But I don't expect from my sources much Iran progress. It'll be a bad economics. That's what we'll dominate.

Both countries want to figure out a way to have win win in the relationship. Not best is a key figure at the summit. Treasury Secretaries typically are not as front and center as summit like this, as Scott Besson will be because he's really the point person for the relationship between the two countries and ideals with his counterparts in China at a very high level to set up the summit.

It's going on for a while to set this up. And to think about how you make the relationship less tense, make the United States less reliant on China for things like rare earth minerals and other things that the United States would like to decouple on medicine, but also to have a productive relationship. They don't want this to be so adversarial that it dominates in occupies the American military

budget, the American diplomatic bandwidth. So you'll see a lot of symbolism. A lot of pomp and circumstance the Chinese will roll out lots of red carpets for the President Trump and extraordinary bankwits.

“So let's focus as as I always do for these summits, what are the deliverables?”

And while my sources are not optimistic that they'll be a settlement, a meaning related

to Iran, there can always be surprises.

We'll watch it. The President will be there for the rest of the week. Takes off Tuesday afternoon and the long flight and then heads into summitry. There you go, my reporting on where we stand on the U.S. China summit. Next up, Trisha McLaughlin, former Assistant Secretary for Homeland Security and a proud

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With the Trisha McLaughlin of the Ohio State former assistant secretary for the Department

of Homeland Security and a keen observer of pretty much everything. Trisha, welcome Mark, thanks so much for having me. I like to ask everybody on the program poll questions. So here's a poll question CNN asks, how much has you have you been affected personally in your finances by the Iran war?

I will say I don't drive very often, but today I gas prices were pretty brutal when I was only at my tank. Yeah, I talked to a lot of Republicans strategists who tell me that if the war doesn't end soon and gas prices don't come down soon, it will be the the main factor in the midterms.

“How do you feel about that that position, are you strongly agree disagree?”

How would you react to that position I hear from a lot of your colleagues these days?

Yeah, I feel like that's kind of the baked in consensus at this point, but the data isn't pointing in that direction, I mean not given the voting rights act decision and these new maps coming out. And then of course you're looking at the the cook predictions over the weekend, 11 of them moving into the Republican lean Republican space, it looks like it's a jump ball at this

point for the midterms. I think that the American people are starting to probably get used to the fact that they're paying higher prices for for gas, it does look like inflation is up, but the Democrats don't have a vision, they don't have a leader and their brand is incredibly diminished. I'm so fascinated by candidates who can make great videos for social media and TV and

once you can and in the last presidential you worked for the background of Swami who made great videos. Maybe not totally love the plain tennis with no shirt, but he made a lot of great videos. And now we've got Spencer Pratt running for mayor of L.A. and people supporting him, not all the great videos coming out of that campaign are official campaign videos.

What are the traits and we saw, we saw in New York, Montgomery, made great videos. What are the traits needed for a candidate to be able to make funny, interesting, virally videos? What do they have to have?

“I think it has to make you have to evoke some sort of emotion.”

You might not have liked the shirtless tennis video, but you surely remembered it with the Spencer Pratt video and evoked this emotion that you're seeing really the juxtaposition of what the politicians and L.A. where they live versus what the everyday citizens who are impacted by the fires like Spencer Pratt and his family live. And so Mandami, again, he did, he seemed so likable, very humanizing and I think that

what it takes people are so used to politicians being so stiff. I think what Donald Trump brought to the table is you felt like you already knew him. And so what politicians like Vivegaram is want me like, well Spencer Pratt is a reality star so to some extent, L.A. some of us millennials do know him, but I think what Donald Trump was able to bring is you felt like you knew him already and so what these politicians

like Mandami are trying to achieve is this human factor that you do know him even if it's just through a screen or a digital platform. But can anybody do that, again, the four people we're talking about here, Mandami, Promisewami, Pratt and Trump, they're all great TV performers, they're great on camera, they like me, can you make ads and videos like that for people who aren't like in the

caliber of those four or really if you got a candidate who's kind of a dud on camera, there's just no way to do that.

“I mean, I think you have to be authentic to your candidate, that people can immediately”

smell out fake and phony and so I think whatever your candidate's strengths are, you have to play to that if they're really charismatic like Mandami is, play it up if they're kind of nerdy or quirky, play that up, but really whatever you're delivering from a video perspective, it has to play to their story and what their personality strengths are. A lot of the Pratt videos are made by AI and in Hollywood, there's a backlash, the Oscars

have now basically said you can't have a movie made by AI and qualify for the Academy Awards,

Golden Globes have a slightly less strict rule. Do you think there's any barrier now, like press backlash or voter backlash to making ads with AI or just whatever you make now with AI, everybody accepts? Yeah, I don't think you're going to be able to tell a difference, it's a much cheaper mechanism for these political consultants and their campaigns to be using out of Ohio.

They just haven't had with Sharon Brown, he was as a clown and everyone was thinking that

making a ton of money through this cycle knowing that Ohio Houston versus Sharon Brown

“is going to be a very expensive race, but it turned out it was AI and so I think you're going”

to be seeing more and more of that and to some degree, some of these ads are going to get nastier and nastier because people aren't going to be able to tell the difference between a candidate and the flesh or a candidate made by AI. You're talking about the ad that we're, Sharon Brown is portrayed as a guest who won't leave a party or you're saying that, are you saying that entire ad was made by AI?

No, that Jared Brown himself, there was no stand-in, it was the, the candidate was AI.

So somehow they superimposed it fascinating, it's a very good ad.

I thought you'd have at 100 times because it's funny every time, it's not at all. Yeah, um, uh, there's going to be probably in November and maybe before some of the upcoming primaries, there's going to be moments where somebody drops a really emotional, a really effective AI produced ad at the very last minute where there's no fact checking,

“there's no press scrutiny, how can campaigns who are worried about being hit with that?”

How can they prepare for that or can they? I mean, that's a really tough one because I do think using AI, especially when you have an AI

version of the candidate or the politician actually, you know, conducting that act that they're

being accused of likely without fact checking or there's a good shot, that's incredibly compelling and it doesn't evoke an emotion and it's going to be memorable for the viewers and the target voters. So I mean, I think the best you can do is get good op-o research against yourself and make sure that you're trying to control the narrative. If you have something that you know about your candidate, that you know your opponent is going to get out there. It's better you give that

to the press yourselves. Friendly press, if you can, uh, to try and control that narrative, the best you can. So again, just to get into the nitty-gritty here, I've been thinking about this lately, as I see these Spencer credits, they get so much attention, they get so much free media, so much what some people call earn media, so much sharing on social. And so in the last 96 hours before election day, and of course with early voting, you know, that's a movable target,

but when people are voting, you got to have like a war room, it seems to me, and track and tracking, and if you're opponent puts up something about you, okay, you see it. So there's a, there's a an AI ad that shows the candidate for city council, Trisha McLaughlin, uh, eating, uh, stealing apples from a fruit stand, and it shows it looks like her, she's stealing apples from a fruit stand.

“You see that on social media, you see it on TikTok, et cetera, then what do you do?”

How's it getting handy? Yeah, I mean, I think that this comes down a little bit to hand to hand combat as well. You also have AI at your disposal. You also have hopefully opposition research at your disposal, and those AI ads are incredibly quick to make their relatively cheap to make. I mean, I think it's mutually assured destruction with some of these ads. So my recommendation if I was running that war room as I would come up with an ad of of the opponent myself, but I mean,

I think, in general, in the year 2026, every single major campaign, if they have the funds, they should at least have a one-man war room to be combating bad stories to be pushing, positive stories about their candidate, but as well, they need a surrogate network. So that whether that means building relationships with the top influencers say and the conservative movement, the gump their eagles, the lips of TikTok, but those are really, I mean, there's a kind of

core contingency about 10 to 15 of these guys. And if you can build relationships with them, they can blow up your material and really help debunk and defang the attacks against your candidate. How developed is the industry of people who can make AI ads that are really good and make them really fast and then get them out there? Is that, is that a, is that a, are there stars already in the party who know how to do it? Are they people who specialize in political

ads or is this still growing from a pretty small base? It seems like it's still very much decent. Based on my knowledge of it, some of these guys, the bigger advertising agencies they have, you know, AI specialist, but then some of the digital, smaller digital companies who don't typically do your larger scale TV ads, they've come up quick on this. And so I think this cycle alone, we're going to be seeing a major evolution in the use of AI and how quickly, how cheap,

a call like the American Association of Political Consultants, whatever that group's called,

would you expect they'd have an award for best AI ad? That's a good question. I mean, I think that they should. I mean, I think that, you know, if the Republicans aren't going to use it,

“the Democrats surely will. And so you have to be able to compete. It's a tool that can”

certainly be used for bad, but it can be used for good as well. So I would, I would think if we don't see that for 2026, we will certainly see that kind of award for 2028. Yeah, I'd be eager to see the contestants because because you said that the cost is so low. So even if you're running for city council or or school board, you can, you can make a pretty, if you learn how to do it, you can make a pretty good ad now with no production budget just just the cost of whatever AI

platform you're using. And, and you can apply your own creativity, but these these systems now, you could just say, make me give, show me five great ads attacking my school board candidate rival or show me a great positive biospot and add some stirring music and, you know, it can happen quick and and at almost no cost. You know, true. And it also actually poses kind of a problem for some of these political advertising consultants and these companies. If it becomes incredibly

easy and cheap for these politicians, whether they be local or even statewide, they could become obsolete and the next I would say four to ten years. Yeah, I worry a little bit about your

“household here, but I think I know, but I think human human human creativity will always be”

important and and someone has to talk to the candidates spouse about why everything's okay. I don't think it's a closure. My husband has a political advertising company. Yeah, yeah, he does. He's very good at his job, but he's not, he's not totally impervious to AI. I'll just nobody, nobody is. Put on your homeland security hat. People have talked about this summer with the World Cup and then also the Republicans are going to have a convention. They're going

to be candidates out there. A question was asked right early after 9/11, you know, 25 years ago. Are we safer now than before 9/11? What how safe is our people now in public events, whether they're political or sports or whatever it is, how safe are we now as compared to 25 years ago? Well, homeland security has a whether it be secret service or TSA. They have a no-fell mission. I do feel based on my knowledge, my experience there. I was at homeland for 13 months.

And I mean, the technology, which I would say Mark, it was pretty lackluster. I would say in the last five years, they've really modernized and caught up and it is impressive to see through TSA, just the multi levels of screening and how they really do try to make it different at every airport, different on an hourly basis so that people can't game this system and try to get through. But that's going to be replicated at these America 250 events. Of course, the FIFA World

Cup, which is equivalent to something like 10 Super Bowls. So I mean, they have they've certainly been hiring up, which is something that they needed. That was a goal when the administration started for homeland security was that they needed to have even more of these TSA agents and homeland security personnel who could be deployed across the country so that they do have these events that are safe. If a family say to you, Trish, I know you worked in homeland security,

is it safe to take my family to the world cup? What would you tell them? Absolutely. Go be vigilant.

Be smart, but I feel very confident. Even, you know, of course, the world isn't always the safest

place today. We are at war. There are these lone wolf attackers, but I think it's the administration has done an excellent job. It's been incredibly proactive. It has been planning this since day one for all of these events, but as well, I think it's our patriotic duty. Don't bend the knee to the terrorists. Don't bend the knee to these bad actors. Get out there. Celebrate. Have a great time with your friends and family and just just be smart. When people say as you did be vigilant,

what does that mean? I mean, it sounds so right, right Marc. At this point, we hear it all the time. If you see something say something, but I mean, there are local law enforcement and federal

law enforcement. They're on the ground for a reason. They won't always see everything, but if you

do see something that doesn't feel right, doesn't look right, mentioned it to a law enforcement personnel. That can save a life. Does it sound right? Yes, but that is, we are told time and time

“again in these briefings. That's what it really comes down to. When lives are saved,”

it's so often just an everyday person who sees something and they prevent a tragedy from occurring.

guy in there with the gun. Tell everybody, yeah, there's a guy in there with the gun. Lastly,

“so happy and proud that you joined two ways, a contributor to the morning meeting. Just tell”

everybody what the reaction you've gotten is both from the announcement, but also being on two

ways, what's the reaction been like? Marc, thank you so much. It has been in honor and I so enjoy

“not just being on two ways, but I watch it every morning with you and Kevin and Larry. It was just”

actually at a party last night, non-political people, but this woman knowing I involved in politics

pulls me aside and she, I guess to know yet that I was part of the two-way family, but she said,

“"Have you heard of two-way and Mark Halper and you have to watch this show?" So it's certainly”

broken through and I think it's refreshing people want to see people who can disagree, and agree and do it in a civil way and I think every person watching two-way and you three, we all learn something every time we watch. Well, very nice of you. Love having you on next up, love having you on two-way and very grateful to have you, have be a part of it and making time today. Trish McLaughlin, thank you. Marc, thanks for having me.

All right, that's it for today's show. We'll be back on Thursday, brand new episode of the program subscribe here, wherever you get the show, whether you watch it on YouTube or whether you listen to it as a podcast and make sure all your friends know about it too so they know what you know, which is what's coming next up.