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I'm John Love it, I'm Tommy Detour. On today's show, Trump says the ceasefire with Iran is on quote, "life support." We'll talk about why and what comes next is he heads off to China. We'll also talk about his new plan to make Venezuela our 51st state. Nice, perfect plan.

Perfect plan, the follow from the Virginia Supreme Court's decision to throw out the Democrats' new maps. AOC taking on Jeff Bezos and what she might run for in 2028. And transportation secretary Sean Deffy and his wife Rachel Campos Deffy getting back to their roots with a new reality television show. Yeah, exciting. Great.

“Quick, no, before we start, if you're a friend of the pod subscriber, which if you aren't, you should be.”

You can now buy tickets for this year's CricketCon.

Special pre-sale, just for subscribers, just having this for you. May 12th that is today when you're listening, but if you're not a subscriber, because you hate pro-democracy independent media and you love listening to podcast ads, you can still buy CricketCon tickets, but you're going to have to wait till next week, starting on May 19th. And you might get a job at CBS.

You might get a job at CBS. You might get to some day interview, BB Netanyahu, and then yeah. So, sir, why are you so great? Yeah, that's the one that's your leadership's home. There's definitely a limited range of questions you can ask Netanyahu

if you get the job at CBS versus if you interview him here at Potset of America, which I don't think is going to happen anytime soon. Rhodes has got an asking. I think we will get Netanyahu before after we get Biden. Okay, actually we're real funny.

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November 5th through 7th.

Danielle did me for saying big fun party because he thought that was like jinxing the midterms. I'm like, it's still going to be a big fun party, even if we, we're going to still have a party. We're still going to live. Yeah, I mean, you know, what choice do we have? You got your humor is still humor.

June in 2017. I did. I don't. And we don't connect. And when Trump won and when Trump won, I remember telling Emily, there might not be a wedding now.

Yeah, and she's like, I'm related reasons. Well, she listened to us. And that did take you in through with it. Well, Hannah will tell us. It's going to be more about that.

Okay, don't put this under a comment of Emily's Instagram. You know, someone's going to, you know, send us to her. Yeah, I hate the stench tactic.

“I'm going to turn up at your wedding because what's going to turn up?”

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November 5th through 7th, Washington, D.C., it's cricketcon.com, and you can become a subscriber at current.com/friends. All right. It appears that last week's siren emojis about the U.S. and Iran closing in on a one-page memo to end the war have given way to this week's siren emoji.

The news is about Trump possibly resuming military action in Iran. Live by the siren emoji. Die by the siren emoji. Was that where reporters? I mean, that's who usually give them.

Well, actually, no. Reporters do. And now also just random influencers and they have to seal their order. Do any accurate information about sub-stack news. It's such credibility.

It does. It starts with drugs. The siren starts with drugs. The siren starts with drugs. The siren doesn't make sense as a newsbreak.

Then reporters started doing it and then just random influencer just trying to gather information that's not in any way that just shows up in your for-you-algorithm. People with names like Jelly Bloomberg. Bloomberg is reporting it. There's like a collab of the market.

Yeah. It is all caps, anyway.

They kept just kept telling it was one page.

Right. One-page. One-page. Anyway, rejected, which Iran waited 10 days to send and included demands for U.S. reparations and permanent Iranian control over the straight-of-war moves.

Trump called that quote totally unacceptable and inappropriate before elaborating on his initial reaction in the oval on Monday. I would say the ceasefire is on massive life support where the doctor walks in and says, "Sir, your loved one has approximately a 1% chance of living." It's unbelievably weak.

I would say, "I would go at the weakest right now, after reading a piece of garbage, they sent us. I didn't even finish reading. It was just unacceptable." You know, a lot of people say, "Well, does you have a plan?"

“You have to say, "Do I have the best plan out of it?”

I have a plan. Do you know what I mean?

It is a very simple plan.

I don't know why you don't say it like it is. Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon." Three to allow the removal of all their risks. Well, they did it two days ago, they did it. They did two days ago, they said, "You're going to have to take it.

We were going to go with them, but they changed your mind because they didn't put it in the paper." I've had a deal with them for five times. They changed your mind. They're very dishonorful people.

The leadership. Exhausting. Who would have thunk it? He's learning a lot of lessons over and over and over again. It may be not learned at all.

It drives me crazy when he says, "I have a plan around cannot have a nuclear weapon." No, that's a goal. That's where you want. What a plan. The plan is how you get to that.

Yeah, right. That's a destination. We need a route. We need a journey. So far as we start week 11 of the war hasn't seemed like that in a plan.

Baring fruit. Tell somebody that he didn't read the whole one page memo. Yeah, finish. Well, yeah. Get to the bottom of the thing.

Maybe there's some good stuff at the bottom. What are some pictures? Tommy, why do you think the way is deal fell apart and what are the options to trump have at this point?

“All the details weren't public, but I think that the U.S. sent over a bunch of hard”

line nuclear demands in the Iranians were like, "Nah, we just want you to stop locating the straight-oh removes and give us all this shit and that's our take and so now we're back." All the options are bad. You can restart the war, which is extremely unlikely to lead to regime change, but we'll

certainly lead to economic chaos in the region. You can keep the blockade going and hope that the economic pain breaks the Iranian regime before breaks the global economy. I don't think that's going to work either, and then he can find a way to declare victory and slink away, which seems like the most likely option, but Iran will probably control

the straight-oh removes in that case. I'm very interested in his-- how he keeps talking about the leaders and all these different ways.

First, he likes the new leaders, because they're better than the old leaders.

They killed all the old leaders. Then he also does sometimes, we don't know who the leaders are, and then this one was very awful, they're dishonorable people, they're lunatics. Yeah, it's also-- we've been through so many rounds of reporting in which we're-- which Trump felt we were on the precipice of a deal and the talks fall apart.

But if you take out the spinning coming from the administration, is it possible that really they've just been far apart the whole time, because the venn diagram of, on one side, you

“have Trump requiring a deal that is better than the JCPOA, the Obama deal, because he said”

that deal was the worst you ever made on the other side, you have Iran in a stronger position than when the war began, wanting a better deal than that, including consequences to the US-- yeah, to the US reparations for the cost of the war, and the power it's gained from having control of the straight-oh removes, those circles don't overlap, so what are we doing here?

Yeah, exactly. We keep-- and then the reporting is so credulous, and so it feels like we're having this upper-down up and down rollercoaster, but really we're just dealing with the kind of strategic reality of this stupid fucking war. Yeah, it sounds like-- it comes me out, personally.

Same. Well, it also sounds like-- and you know, they said that they-- and all these plans and proposals that Iran keep sending back or responding to, sounds like they just want to keep control of the straight-oh removes. No doubt.

And why would-- Or they want sanctions relief? Or they want it together. They need a financial lifeline. Right.

But it's also like, they're sending over their maximum position. We send over our maximum position, and then we just get mad and walk away. That's not how negotiations work, getting a room, hash it out, give a little on each side, maybe we can come to some conclusion, but they're just like-- they're not even trying. Trump's like, I didn't read the one-page memo all the way to the bottom.

Bob Cagan, the-- the Hawkesh Nio-Con, Iraq War Supporting, Bob Cagan, that one, just wrote a piece in the open to me. I'm not close at all. I'm Bob. I just-- I got him, Robert.

Robert. Bobby. Yeah, Bobby. Yeah. The romantic titled "Checkmate in Iran" that starts-- it's hard to think of a time when

the United States suffered a total defeat in the conflict, a setback so decisive that

He then ticks through every conflict since Pearl Harbor, and basically makes the case that

Trump's fuck up in Iran will be more consequential than all of them. Would you guys think? I just want to just-- before we get-- You're going to go back. You're going to go back.

The Nio-- the Nio-Con high-dogen of the 2000s, I still do not miss. It's like, look, this is a very big blunder.

“I think it's a little-- it's a little premature to be saying it's worse than Pearl Harbor.”

Oh, yeah. I know Pearl Harbor was actually one of the easier ones because Pearl Harbor has things like we came back and we won that one pretty decisive. Sure, in hindsight, it looks pretty fucking good, but a year or so after Pearl Harbor, things are pretty up in the end.

I think we're going to go to Iraq, because that one was-- he was like, yeah. Yeah. And then we left-- and then eventually, we left Iraq's stick more stickable. A little like, oh, did we? A lot of Yadria.

Yadria, Yadria. That was my big note too. I want to build the biggest ten possible, but his idea that Iraq was mitigated by a strategic change and then all's well that ends well, because Saddam's not there now, I-- yeah, that was a little much for me. But this is all, like, throw clearing around that.

What was truly a bracing and just dismal read on the situation, including laying out just how few options Trump has, because part of the reason he called off military strikes wanted

“a ceasefire is because of the leverage Iran had when it was striking, oil and gas infrastructure”

in the region, how he can try to declare victory, but that still leaves the straightive. Or moves how-- like, that all the options that Trump has are fucking terrible. Yeah, they're all terrible. And also, these are really, these have also just been crystal clear that they don't look like the words over him. If you watch NetEye on 60 minutes, he said as much, there's

also the war in Lebanon. If you want a weaker ceasefire, I could point you to one, but one in Lebanon, where they're bombing each other all the time, and there's constant fighting, like daily, there's casualties all the time. Yeah, so I agree with this assessment that these Iranians are not going to get up the straight

or her moves unless they get sanctions really for something like really big for it. And that we look weak and we look kind of feckless and unreliable. It's also like the goal of Trump saying, these people are dishonorable. You used previous talks as a smokescreen to bomb a leadership. You have ripped up the previous agreement, and you may not have liked it, but it was negotiated

in good faith by the United States, which you can-- who's authority came from Obama to you, so you've kind of undermined our credibility there. They have no confidence that Trump won't change his mind in a couple of months and resume bombing if they accept a deal. They have no confidence that Israel won't bomb Iran if it's used in its interest even

if there is a deal. So the way in which we're stuck in this morass, because Trump went into this so-have cocked, it's a gruesome minutes when you step back and look at it.

“I think there were times in this conflict where people said, "Oh, I remember thinking”

this at one point." Oh, he could end up just going back to Obama's around deal, right? And then call it a victory, but it's going to be like, "Oh, you all criticized Obama for this." I think it's pretty clear now that there's no way he gets a deal that's better or even

the same as the Iran deal. It's going to be worse because when the Iran deal was made, Iran didn't control the straight of four moves. This piece made me think about the-- not the-- I knew about the strategic importance of the straight, but just from Iran's perspective now, they've got the control.

And they get some sanctions relief. They're going to have to get a lot more sanctions relief and a lot when they're calling it reparations or whatever, than they ever were before because they got the straight. They have full control over it now. Maybe they go for a deal where they charge some tolls, maybe they share control with other,

you know, Gulf of the Netherlands. But it seems like the scenario now where Iran willingly signed some kind of a deal where they fully give up the straight of Hormuz and it goes back to being like an international waterways seems very slant. There's no chance.

They just got this incredible toy and they're going to play with it for as long as they

want until it breaks or someone takes it away. There's just no chance. Also, it could get worse, like if Trump decides to go back to war, the economic cost could be just a resumption of what we've seen, but also the Houthi rebels could get involved. They're in Yemen.

They could start firing at ships in the Red Sea. They should choke off. You know, the Saudis have been sending a lot of their oil and gas if they can't get out through the straight of Hormuz, West through a pipeline and then it'll get out through the Red Sea or through the Suez Canal.

If the Houthi's get involved and they choke off those access points too, like prices could hit $300 a barrel. It's a disaster. By the way, we're not even talking about the reason we're there, which is the nuclear material.

The 900 pounds of highly enriched uranium was sometimes it's dust, sometimes it's critical

to get out. It is still sitting in Iran and also all of that material was enriched after Trump pulled out of the JCPO with a problem he created and now is probably not going to solve. I like the scenario that he mentioned where we're going to go in together with the Iranians,

dust together. I had to go.

“I thought that was a real, that's a show I'd watch.”

I also, like, and this is, so this is around giving up the straight through some negotiation.

Then there's the other option of trying to take it by force. With that, that requires, like, you know, US Navy ships potentially getting fired on and Iran's small boats firing on other ships too and then Kagan points out in this piece too, even if they were not firing on the ships, they can retaliate against Gulf, energy infrastructure, like they did our many weeks ago before the ceasefire.

They have plenty of options around and clearly they are fine taking a whole bunch of punishment because, you know, as the Trump administration likes to point out, they don't give a shit about their own people, they kill protests for the like, and stuff. They surely are not going to care if they're going to inflict a ton of economic pain on their country.

It's not like they care a lot about their people, so yeah, they're going to have the appetite for a lot of pain. That's the part that's sort of like chilling about where we're at because we're in this sort of stalemate in which Trump looks like a loser. He can try to clear victory, but they'll still be the ongoing cost of us having shown

“our might in Iran remaining a power and now controlling the straight of Hormuz or there's”

escalation and we've already done, we've already, you know, launched a massive campaign against Iran and the regime held together what escalation looks like, how far they'd have to go because the next, the next escalation is toward the regime collapsing, that's a combination of economic pressure to squeeze them, that's more an intense military action and like it all, and while that is happening, even if it were to happen relatively quickly

you're still talking about Iran unloading, whatever it is, it's willing to do in the Gulf and so just their terrible options in front of America's worst person. And this was totally, like, Trump is a drunk eye at the bar, has been lifting a lot and decided to pick a fight with the crazy guy who was cauliflower here. And that guy is kicking the shit out of him and is willing to go a lot further to win

this fight than Donald Trump is and take a lot more pain and it's not going to end well. Yeah, and by the way, you also killed his father, I guess. And there's no goal to deliver him, like it is to like, there was something someone said once a long time ago, which is like, if someone is willing to fight you, it means they have less to lose, and I don't think they'll ever learn that because I'm things

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again. Trump said Monday he's considering suspending the federal gas tax to it, which is currently about 18 cents a gallon for gasoline and 24 cents a gallon for diesel. President said he'd suspend the tax for as long as it takes, which seems like not that long

“if you believe Kevin has it, which of course you should, who just said oil prices will”

drop quickly before the midterms once, quote, "the gusher opens." Where is the gusher? I guess in the straight, Chuck Schumer's office, now that he heard about the gas tax bill. Because he thinks sides him. Sorry.

Just because he loves it, you know, he does a press conference. Yeah, yeah, sure sure. Sure, sure, sure. Suspending the gas tax. Good idea.

Or great idea. Yes, it's been the gas tax. Release all of this strategic petroleum reserve, get rid of all the sanctions on Iran, maybe Russia while you're at it. Go nuts, prices will stay high, but now we won't be able to pay for high.

The ways or mass transit. It's a great idea. Let's do it. Yeah, we already can't pay for those things anyway. And over the last sort of half century, more and more of our roads are paid for, without

the gas. They asked us to supplemental, but we still pay for it ourselves. I mean, having a gas tax is a good idea, the politics of suspending it are great. Just do it. This is said like someone who is on Hillary Clinton's primary campaign in 2008.

Well, she, I don't even remember. We were forced. You guys, yeah.

“I had to think about that too because it was like the mandate fight was, no, you guys, when”

we did the Indiana and North Carolina primaries, Hillary was saying we should suspend the gas tax. And Obama was saying, that's just a, that's just a gimmick and it's bad and we shouldn't do it. And it's just, it's not really going to affect your prices that much.

That one child McCain sent tire gauges to us, and that's something different. That was, that was when we were going to solve it. That was when we were making, we wanted people to check. He just suggested people to check their tires and they're like, you fucking piece of shit. (laughing)

We've run it on these soft tires, cushy, it's cushy, I've got fill up my tires, communist bastard, but the, yeah, I look. - But the way it does it does, it doesn't actually bring down the price of the car.

- No, it's twice, it's twice, it's 18, 18, 18, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, some a little bit more for Diesel. I mean, it's a bigger deal for truck drivers, commercial, like it does make a big difference for people and like that.

- It's also ridiculous to jump, said he would do this, can't do it without Congress. There's some bipartisan legislation that was floating around, it might get a little more lift now that he said it, but he can't do it on his own,

“or I guess he, he's not supposed to do it on his own,”

who knows he can try anyway. And yeah, of course it robs the government of, you know, revenue, it can't afford to lose, because we have a lot of big ticket items that we need to pay for like bombing around

as cool building a ballroom, and now apparently painting the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, American Flag Blue, which along with some other repairs

is apparently going to cost $13.1 million,

according to David Fairon Holds at the times. This is apparently it's an 88% jump in the cost of what it's going to take to repaint the Reflecting Pool, and you know why it jumped so high, because Donald Trump decided to give a no-blade contract

to the guy who did all his pools at Bedminster. - Which is really, really funny. (laughing) - I'll be filled better. (laughing)

- It's also, there's trying to sue it to stop it, and it was funny that the guy that was suing, like, we just look, it's a process thing, but also we just think they chose a bad color, which you know they did.

You know it's either the tackiest fucking thing or the tackiest blue. - Like come on, it doesn't need to look like a god damn like splash mountain thing. Like the best blue is North Carolina, Carolina blue.

Just do that, UNC colors. - Now, be pretty bright, and they're reflectant pool. - I don't know, I'm just making this up.

Why does Kevin Hassid always,

it looks like Dennis the menace just took down the biggest nitrous balloon you've ever seen, and he just spouts like economic bullshit on you. - See, it's like, he spouts at the best. - He's the best.

- Get him out more, come get him out there. - $13 million for the reflecting pool. They're voting on the ballroom this week. I've remembered that's a billion dollars that they want to add in security.

- That's a lot of security. - Did you see what we're doing to that? - Speaking of your boy Chuck Schumer, he coined a new term for Republicans 'cause the ballroom did you see what it was?

- I didn't. - No. - Ballroom Republicans. - He's calling him ballroom. He's calling the party ballroom Republicans.

- Yeah. - And it's one of those, I'm like, it's definitely not using a scalpel there. More of a sledgehammer, but maybe he throws out ballroom of Republicans and then everyone, it's like a signal,

but everyone knows what the message is 'cause he-- - Schumer, it shouts me in this point last week

that because this billion dollars is in the budget,

they're all gonna have to vote on it, and I think that's great. It's a yes or no. - Oh yeah, on the fucking ballroom. - True, that's good.

- Terrific. - The idea that they're doing. - They're saying, oh, it's security security security security security service needs it.

“What would they need it if you didn't have the fucking ballroom?”

- Oh, we not. (laughing) - Both with it, it's like, you'd knock down the East Wing, and you got to rebuild it. Did you not, was it a different America,

in which there wasn't security? - Yeah. - When you knocked down a building. - But that line item in the budget, when you were doing up the budget for the new ballroom.

- You knew what the thing was gonna fucking cost. It's like, now it's like every fucking, now it's like a football stadium where, these donors are gonna have to go to the big unveiling 'cause they're the ones responsible

but the vast majority of the cost of the taxpayers, 'cause it building the, if the actual kind of construction

is 300 million, but securing the facility is a billion dollars,

costs that were inevitable and required in order to ever use it. It's a taxpayer ballroom, just 100%. - Just trying to add it up here. We got, there's the ballroom, there's the Trump Kennedy Center, there's the arch, we haven't even started building the arch yet.

- Well, get going. (laughing) - We got the, and now the reflecting pool, they're also, that, that UFC fight, that's gonna, that's gonna take some doing to put up that

and take it down on the White House lawn. Now some of this is like, privately fun. - Privately fun. - It is, of course, it's the, it's the worst of all worlds for Trump, that's to all worlds for us in the politics,

but it's like some of it's being funded by major donors, corporate donors who now get special access to Trump because of their donation, and then the rest is the taxpayers put the bill, so that's like a good mix of shady influence of corporate allies of Trump and just, you know,

good ol' fashion, just, you know, corruption. - They're reflecting pool, brought you back for you. So when you're reflecting on your life, you like to think about the drones. - They're like, hey, we got really.

The reflecting pool wasn't a problem. - No, I was fine. - I'm hoping to the possibility that they could use a ballroom,

“I don't think it would have been my priority, right?”

But the reflecting pool was just doing its thing. - It was just sitting there. - It's not the wrong color. - It looks great, it's classic. - I do think, listen, I've said this before.

No offense to Steve, it's Spielberg. I think that that world were too memorial. - Oh yeah, you're facing that. - My, this is my position, which I think is, I don't want, I don't want it, I don't want the final, was that,

trickle down ballroom. - The Steven Spielberg does that, no, he was part of that. - 'Cause it was part of the post, saving private Ryan Tom. It was in the, it was part, he was helped raise money for it. He was kind of a big booster of it.

I don't know exactly what his direct involve was, it was not the designer of it, but he was a big face of getting it done. - So Democrats, so for what we're gonna do, bulldoze the ballroom, bulldoze the world were too memorial.

- No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. - No, you ain't ain't ain't ain't ain't ain't ain't ain't ain't the reflecting pool. - What do you mean, they're reflecting pool? 'Cause that were Jenny and Forest Company night, it was that in the reflecting pool?

- Yes, it is, it is, it is, don't mess with that, wait a minute. - It's, look, the, the, the, the, the, painting the reflecting pool kind of undoing that, that's an easy one. - Yeah, that, that, that, that's all the gold on the White House. - That's coming off, that's easy, the writing on the outside

of the oval, that's like, that person's gold writing oval this way. - It's a clip, yeah.

“- Why do you think this house needs a fucking name tag?”

We all, you, everyone knows what it is, that's the whole idea of it. - We funny, they did a big gold, like in this house, we believe, kind of like, the Marlago, Abam Pong, umbrellas, the yellow umbrellas, those are all gone. - Those dried me, you did, it looks just like Marlago.

- Yeah, that's the, it's a silly color. - It's a long list. - Well, if suspending the gas tax doesn't work and the, and the gusher of oil doesn't open, Trump does have one of the top saying gusher.

- Gusher, gusher, gusher, gusher, and you, yeah. - To snack, gusher. - It is a snack, yes, Tommy. - Trump does have one other trick up his sleeve. President told Fox on Monday that he is, quote,

"seriously considering making Venezuela the 51st U.S. state because there's, quote, $40 trillion in oil there and, quote, Venezuela loves Trump. - Isn't this the maga fever dream? Isn't he president?

Because Joe Biden led in too many people from Venezuela and prisons. Where is Steven Miller on this one? I don't understand, like, I prefer, every person in a Venezuelan prison would become an American.

(laughing) - He would, he would, he would, I'm president and a number of Venezuelan prisoners. -Quiet an amnesty. -Every person in the asylum, the worst people in Venezuela.

-So, all become American. -It's a good question. -Uh-huh. -But I wonder if, um, just to play this out.

If this administration is even Miller would make sure that they are second-class citizens who have

to stay in Venezuela. We know how they treat the citizens of Puerto Rico, right? -The old in Maduro's advocate here. -Right. -Yeah.

-Well, they're not a member. They're not, they don't have stated that. -Right. -Right. -Right.

-Exactly. -Just considering. -Oh, you're considering. -Right. -But it's so am I.

-You also need, I mean, I know that we don't care about international law or the UN anymore, but it's a flagrant violation of international law. The people of Venezuela would have to, of course, vote on this. -Well, only a flagrant violation of, in an international law, the Venezuelans don't choose to do it.

-That's what I'm saying. -Yeah. -Yeah. -That's what I'm saying. -That's what I'm saying.

-But that's quite a presumption. Also, boy, creates a bunch of new, interesting borders that presumably would also need walls for Mexico to pay for, I guess. -Yeah. We said that they love Trump, and I did look at some polling on this.

They did pick a big poll in Venezuela. In January, 92% of Venezuela said they felt grateful to Trump for capturing Maduro. That was like a couple days after the capture. And a few weeks ago it's down to 47%, 89% of Venezuela's rejects Trump's continued backing of Rodriguez, and 78% think the country's on the wrong track under her.

“So honestly, honestly, him losing support for deposing Maduro that quickly is actually very”

American to me. It's like, you've done for me lately, bitch. -Yeah. -I'm 100% sure that we've now officially thought about this longer and deeper the dollar. -This is your past, but sure.

-Certainly, there's an easier way to just seal all their oil than to make that another state. -Yeah. That's the end game. -By the way, aren't we doing that now?

And we're doing that now already? -The oil's not just like, it's like, in the Amazon, it's like, very hard to access, actually. Real pain. -I know. I know.

I was flirting with not talking about this at all, but we saw what happened with Greenland. There's, you know, NATO had exercises, military exercises, Greenland, so we got pretty close on that one. -Rafael Lempkin just wanted to shout out us about international law over here. -Yeah.

-Look, a mall cloney over there. -Mah, oh, my, cloney.

-I didn't get the first one.

-No, no. -No, no. -No, no. -No, no. -No, no.

-No, no. -No, no. -See that ship is been. -Yeah. -Take it to the world, Earth.

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All right, so Trump is staying on this subject. Trump's about to spend some quality time this week with fellow imperialist Xi Jinping when he takes his first trip to China since 2017, naturally, Trump will be rolling a few billionaires deep Elon Musk and Tim Cook are joining among others probably because of their diplomatic skills.

“I think we positive that, hey Tim, you're resigning.”

You don't have to do this anymore, Tim Cook. You know what? You don't have to do this anymore. You just don't have to do this anymore. Yeah.

I think he's in. I really do. Anyone who thought Tim Cook was just like, dude, I think Tim Cook is just like, I think Tim Cook is just a fan of yours. I just liked fucking screen.

No, fuck Tim Cook. He sucks.

I hope you're iPhone. All right.

I hope you're Apple Careers.

Yeah. I think. Anyway, so Tommy and Asian diplomat in DC told Politico they're worried that China might offer to help reopen the straight and exchange for American concessions on Taiwan, which I'm sure of Trump, right?

That would be a good idea. How big of a deal would that be? How concerned are you? I mean, I first on just skeptical that China could actually force Iran to reopen the straight and kind of go back to the before times because if you're like, China buys 90% of

Iran's oil, but still if you're around you're thinking, look, we got a couple of million worth of Bitcoin, I've had every boat that goes by, we find a new buyer for that oil. I don't know. I'm skeptical.

I asked a China expert friend about this quote in Politico and his take was like, it would likely be more like, how can you expect me to help you with the straight or her moves and not sell my Iranian friends anymore weapons when you're selling weapons to the Taiwanese and giving them diplomatic cover?

“That could certainly happen and Trump, I think, basically said today that Taiwan arm sales”

are up for negotiation, which is a huge deviation from traditional foreign policy, where that's just not a thing that is discussed with the Chinese, it's, you know, congressional mandated loss, which he signed, right, didn't I?

This is an interesting thing is like, I've always assumed Trump could give a shit about

Taiwan. He cares in so far as losing access to their semiconductors would be an economic calamity, right? It would be a historic ego, ego wound. But he doesn't give a shit about freedom, democracy, human rights, religious freedom,

caving communism, all the traditional things that once animated Republicans on this. So I assume he would trade away Taiwan in a heartbeat for a good trade deal, but even, but she didn't think like, he doesn't need Trump to be to make some historic shift even rhetorically. I think if he gets what he, if he hears what he wants to hear behind the scenes, that's

more than enough. I do what you got to do, I'm not going to go after you. I mean, so we'll see, like, all that said, the Trump administration has greenlit huge arm sales packages to Taiwan. Now, the, the rub here is that those haven't been delivered yet.

They're like 20 billion behind in the delivery of those weapons, but like people like Marco Rubio is making sure that the packages get authorized, so I don't know. And then they're, they're going to be talking about AI a lot as well. Apparently, it seems like a good outcome on AI, it seems like it could be, there's reports that they may open a channel of communication to make sure that, like, cold war style with,

like, nuclear weapons, like, make sure there's no. She gives me a chat about it. Yeah, this is me. I talk about it. Like, you want, I want those to go deep on AI, but I would like our country cooperating

with China on, on making sure that we are keeping a line open on AI when it comes to scale. Yeah. Yeah, I don't have to worry about it. It was the last week.

It feels like, time flies. But, like, there's obviously a space between, like, hamstringing whatever advantage we think we have, and allowing just sort of unfettered development, like, they're clearly, would be some kind of, there's a way to have an agreement about some kind of limits to prevent sort of catastrophic outcomes with AI, like, that seems like exactly what we would want

them to be working with. And they said they were going to talk about it, so I think I do think that's changed. Sure, they will. They're not AI. The nuclear decision make process, no AI in that.

Yeah. And they have, they have, they have both agreed so far. Do that. Split that off. Yeah.

But there's a lot more, there's a lot that. Oh, they could end the world, you know, by a weapon to the rest of it. All right. We have an out of chance to talk about the shitty news we got on Friday about Virginia, where the state Supreme Court overturned the referendum that voters just passed to create

new congressional maps ahead of the midterms, Tommy and Dan covered the news when it broke on the PSA YouTube channel. I have to say we crushed it.

“Go, that's why you should go subscribe for free.”

Subscribe to Pasta American YouTube, free. If you want to see Dan look in spicy on the Friday. Okay. Y'all know he does most of the YouTube's pops at the top. Well, he does.

Popless YouTube. That Friday. Yeah. And then he got under the table camera. That's for the subscribers.

That's for the subs. I'm talking about a polar coaster. Yeah. Don't be like this. Nice.

Amy. Nobody put this in the comments. I'm on message box. That's the only way Dan will know this happened. The reshubbery.

Be fucking cool. Fuckin' narks. Anyway, what was I going to say? Oh, yeah. There's been some more developments on the potential redistricting and fallout in Virginia

and other states ahead of the midterms. Here's glass half empty. Nate Cone. Of course. Calculated that Republicans could now lose the popular vote by more than two points

and still keep control of the house. Then there's glass half full. Jonathan Martin is out with the column arguing that Republicans still might lose many of the newly drawn districts, which by definition will be more competitive.

Amy Walter could put political, basically said the same thing.

“I think you guys probably talked about that on Friday.”

I think she thinks that when all of a sudden done the realistic gains probably like five seats in a good scenario, they could net like 11 or 12, but probably won't.

And that's because of the Democrats still winning those tough districts not because they

would still get to redraw them. And J. Martard argues that they're handing Democrats a generational opportunity to mobilize out-raged black voters, case and point Republican representative Ralph Norman said on Monday about the state's loan democratic congressman Jim Clyburn, who's one of the longest serving black members in the house, quote, "I like him personally, but he does not represent

the rest of South Carolina." Well, that's Jesus. That is part of the point of representing one district in the state as you represent some people in the state and not all the people in the state. How are you guys processing the news generally and specifically on the question of whether

this is all as bad as people think and on that point, some breaking news while we were recording this, the U.S. Supreme Court did rule they lifted the injunction on Alabama that they had in place before, now allowing them to pursue their new maps. That's okay. To the dickheads, they voted forward their new, you know, map proposal in the middle

of a tornado warning. They just kept going. They're supposed to evacuate. They're like no, no, no.

“Stripping away black people's voting rights is more important to us.”

So what do you guys think? Come back.

So, seeing a couple of different numbers, but basically, even with these new maps, if

we have, you know, if we went by, let's say, 4%, right, nationally, the house, the house, the house margin is 4%, then we still win the house. I get... That's an important one. Just to put an exclamation point on that because that was if Louisiana, Alabama, in

South Carolina, all go, which now seems like we are definitely here to turn that scenario. And they say, if we won the popular vote by four, in that scenario, Democrats still in the house. I'm all for doing, like a round of worry and recrimination, but I would say that in this political environment, the deeper problem would be not having confidence that against

a president with disapproval rating with both, kind of, on the politics and on the policy has been as bad a president as you could ever imagine as destructive a force. As you can ever imagine, enabled directly by Republicans who deserve to be held responsible for this president's misadventures. We ought to be able to beat that 4%, we should focus on that.

“Because if we do that, then not only do we overcome their advantages in the gerrymandor,”

we can win those Virginia seats that on the old map, and we can actually prove that some of their maps were drawn to aggressively and make them more nervous the next time they look at doing this to redraw the maps because the Republican incumbents will start to think, "Oh, if there's even a slight way if I could lose my seat." I mean, Democrats won the House Popular Vote by 8 in 2018.

So if we're thinking and hoping and expecting this cycle to be better than even 2018, then we should have no problem in the House, and look, if we're not winning by 8, if we're only winning by 4, then something else went wrong. Exactly. More than redistricting.

If I've, like you said, if after all this, Democrats won by 4 or 5 or 6 in this kind of year, and do worse than we did in 2018, maybe they like the ballroom, maybe they like the ballroom. Maybe they like the ballroom. Maybe they like $5.

Yes. Even if we were like approximately how much money left over after they filled up their tank. Yeah, people hate it. They hate having other options with what to do with the money.

But yeah, and I would also say, if all of this does galvanize people, and we are able to win the House, suddenly we have people showing up in the Senate races that might not have otherwise, and all of it sort of, you know, Republicans can be hoisted by their own patards. Yeah.

Nate Cohen points out that the challenge is the median district post district now in the country will have voted for Trump by five and a half points. Sweet. So that means to win back the majority, you're winning a lot of not all.

“But you're, you have to win some significant amount of seats that, you know, Trump won”

by five and a half. Look, it's a... I've already been doing it in every, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

The swings from 24 to these specials have been like on average, I think, 13 points. You know, these are based elections, Democrats are already more motivated. Hopefully they will all learn about this, be angry about it, be even more motivated to turn out. But the good thing about Trump is he just things are as bad as they've ever been for

him politically, and he's like, give me a shovel. I'm not done digging billion dollar ballroom, 1.5 trillion dollar. Pentagon budget. Let me drive my stupid car on a fountain for some reason. And you just like, wasting his time on stupid shit.

Look, the bigger long-term problem here that will outlast Trump is the concentrated power of the state legislatures in red states, which they have because they have jerry-mandered their state legislative districts in such a crazy fashion. And in many cases, like in North Carolina, know that if the full state elects a Democrat as governor, which happens in places like North Carolina, Wisconsin, then the state legislature,

which never has to worry about competitive elections or Republicans losing, just takes

all the power from the government. So, like, it's simple. Whatever project 29, however long-term thing we're doing, like, we have to figure out a way to win back power in some of these state legislatures in some of these Southern states and other heavily Republican states that have jerry-mandered themselves on a state

level, forget about the federal level and to such a point.

with a lot of power when it comes to elections. Certainly. Certainly. A lot of power. Certainly.

Certainly. But that is a good question. And on that note, if Democrats do control Virginia, I don't know if you guys saw the many

“new cycle about Virginia Democrats considering whether to -- what's the many new cycle?”

Yeah, it's always like a many more, which we're talking about this morning.

It's already over. Anyway, they were considering whether to change the retirement age for state Supreme Court justices, so to bring it down in order to get rid of all the state Supreme Court justices on the Virginia Supreme Court and appoint new ones in time to change the maps and then have the new democratically appointed Democratic Party -- party appointed State Supreme

Court justices approved the new maps and in time for the midterms. First of all, first they don't have to get a bunch of new -- they have to replace those justices because they've been retired by the government at the age of, I think, in decrepit 54. I mean, first of all, shout out for create.

Points for creativity. What's for creativity? What's for creativity? Local news out in Virginia, floated this idea and all of a sudden, we're talking about it. It's real dog.

Another thing says a golden retriever can't be speaker in the house situation is without a doubt, an undemocratic, terrible precedent, the kind of thing the voters would absolutely despise. In this climate, absolutely would do it. What kind of person is that appropriate?

The government of Louisiana is just talking about on TV how he's thrown out ballots and he's like, "It's not my fault." Yeah. Do we get canceled on election? Do we really think Abigail Spanberger, Governor Spanberger, would have wanted to, you know,

kind of, hemorrhage all the political capital she'd built up with independent Republican voter doing this early on? I doubt it. I bet she has other things she wants to do. As you see, Greg's sergeants' peace in the new Republican room, when at the reason they're

not doing it. May 12, which is the day you're listening to this, that is the deadline set by the Department of Elections for having congressional maps in the system, in time for early voting in June ahead of the August primary, so they couldn't pass a lot of lower-the-retirement to get involved in the Judges to appoint all the new Judges to reach on the mess to send it back

to court because the technology, because the technology is so old, it takes a lot of time to input new districts into the computers. What the heck?

“We put in like, how are we putting the maps, like, are we, like, a flop?”

Yeah, as a punch cards, like, I don't know what we're doing. Like, how big is it? Is it a room? Does it over-sheet? Like, I don't understand.

Can you make a club? But the idea that we could potentially lose the house, it's a good club. Can you help in Virginia? The computers? If called upon.

If called upon. Virginia, the Virginia government's computers are too slow to be a democracy. That's what the potential. I like sergeant is colonel, person by accident, like a lot I do doesn't know. I think it was like the guy that runs the state Senate.

He was the one that was saying the dead. Yeah, I think you're, no, no, he got a real guy in the phone. I don't think, I don't think, I don't think, I don't think it's Greg Sergeant got got by, like, I don't even, he was trying to get a real person, but that guy was like, hey, listen.

It was bugger off. Yeah, it was bugger off. Yeah, it was bugger off. I love your idea. Yeah, I mean, look, my, my take on it was, I was trying to be keenies, but I'll stay

with you. Yeah. On all the districts. All the districts have just magnificent, magnificent Yavos. Yeah.

- Look at this. - Okay, it's just so Virginia State Senate Majority Leader Scott Serva. - Yeah, I just made what he's old and doesn't know come here.

- No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, - Yeah, that's fair, but I did want to, I refuse to join up. - I'm calling him the Jim Komey of fucking Virginia. No, I don't think that's fair.

No, look, the thing about it is-- - 86, that I like. - He's the one who picked up the phone, right?

- Yeah, never gonna do make them at the end.

- Could have been Spainberg or she didn't pick up the phone? - Yeah, well, it's Mark.

“- Yeah, no, no, that's what she's governor.”

- Yeah, I'm not taking that fucking call. Oh, the craze, I, we'll get rid of all the judge judges because the democracy, just to save democracy, I've gotten rid of all the judges. - You're worse than us, everybody get behind me or go,

(laughing) - Just come on. - Gavin Newsom's breathing down her neck. - Yeah. - Gavin Newsom, we get about it.

We get out of the car, but I'm not gonna rap, and send 'em off to fucking Hawaii. - That, that, that fucking institutional fucking fact, we could have had all democratic districts, all democratic districts.

What kind of cowards do you see? - Why is Gavin Newsom such a coward? - Yeah, put that out there. - No, but that, just kidding, just kidding. - But that governor.

- If you told me right now that we, there's no time, we don't know what the future holds. We can still win the house, we should fight the win the house. Yes, this made it harder, but the idea that, if we knew, with, with, with certainty that our only path

to, to, to having some check on Trump was doing this. - Was updating the machines. - We're updating the machines. - We're updating the machines. - We're updating the machines.

- We're updating the machines. - We're updating the fucking, updating the fucking, updating. - We're gonna give me now. - We're updating to see RF15.2, so we can upload the map so the new judges that are young and vital,

just the 32-year-old new democratic judges could have proven the map. I'd be like, okay, I get it. Maybe it's worth the rest of it. - It's worth. - Second year later, yes. - But everything can get worse.

And look, I believe Republicans are leading us down all these escalatory paths all along the way, every step of the way, but this would be a new one, and it would be on us. - Yeah, we'd be able to.

- Here's what we're expanding core.

- Yeah, we're expanding core. - We're gonna be talking about Democrats. - Any, it is clear that any state where Democrats have control

and ideally the state legislature. If we do not act to maximize the number of seats that we win between now and 28, because the cycle is clear to pass the final. - Which Virginia will have a chance to do?

- Right, which Virginia have to do. If you decide to take a pass on that, yeah, then you're fucked. But I expect New York, Virginia, and Colorado, but I get in the act, Minnesota can, I believe Wisconsin can Maryland can squeeze out another one at Illinois.

- But J.B. Prisker probably will be bulldozing the court as this, you know? Guessing that's not gonna be right.

- Yeah, the problem is the Virginia state constitution,

commonwealth, that gives, you know, the legislature, the authority to appoint the judges, and gives them certain terms so that you get a bunch of Republicans, it's actually probably a fair for democracy.

- No, I would like to read for the, I would like to read for the country. - They can't, they can expand from set up to 11 seats. You need actually like a big, a supermajority in the legislature.

I think to present, prevent exact, this exact same thing. - Sounds like a good model for America, actually. - Right, yeah, yeah, one with that. - But again, we have to do things as a country.

- Yeah, and not as individual states,

“which is why you need to eliminate jerrymandering”

as a country. - Now, how could this court of what? - You think about the state? - The U.S. Constitution does not require any specifics on expanding the number of justice on the Supreme Court

and that is just a custom and I'm,

now, are we, have we ever did the Bund administration

have we finished that report? (laughing) - We're reaching the government. - Where were we? - Good point.

- We're wearing that report. - Yeah, you know. - I think they did put it on. It's on Mayor Garland's to do this, yeah. - Oh, that's good.

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(upbeat music) All right, anyway, why worry about 2026 when we can speculate about 2028? Nice. AOC made some news over the weekend

when she sat down with our pal David Axe route at the University of Chicago Institute of Politics.

“Boy, was there an event that's just designed for us?”

- Yeah. - Axe at the IOP with the interviewing IOC. Good times. We reviewed the IOP tape and I tell you all about it. - No?

- Yeah, pretty good. - 2017, Joe. - Where she provided the terminally online among us plenty of content to engage with as people have been over the last couple days.

There was one response in particular, she gave to the age-old question of whether she's planning on running for president or senate in 2028. We should talk about and which she answered by pivoting to a Washington Post editorial last week

going after her for saying that it's impossible to become a billionaire without breaking rules and abusing workers or paying them not what they're worth. Take a listen. - It was very clear that this was a veiled threat, right?

So the elite saying, if you want this job, you just stepped out of line. They assume that my ambition is positional. They assume that my ambition is a title or a seat. And my ambition is way bigger than that.

My ambition is to change this country. (crowd cheering) - Presidents, come and go. Senate House seats, elected officials, come and go. But single-payer health care is forever.

(crowd cheering) - A living wage is forever. Work is right, forever, women's right, call it back. - Which this president would come and go a little faster. - Which, I think.

- I thought it was in terms of non-answers

“to questions about are you going to run for president?”

- That's one of the questions. - Yeah, I went to the crowd to a guy named Chuck Schumer who was like, "Bang over the project." (crowd laughing)

- Yeah, we've all heard a million politicians

like that question. And usually it's some version of like, I'm not thinking about that right now. My priorities are on the state of Virginia and my calendar. It's like she made it bigger.

She made it about what she wanted to do with the people she wanted to help. That was nice, it was well done. Now, the nitpicking response that we kind of hinted at is legislative accomplishments are more durable,

It's way, but I think that's a little too literal. - Yeah, yeah. - We all know that. - I feel like we would have written a line forever and then like the policy nerds or the lawyers

would have been like, "More durable is more accurate." - Which is correct. - Yeah, would have been more accurate to say that. - Yeah, almost. - ACS still hanging on nearly for, yeah.

- Yeah, by the skin of its teeth, that's right. - Not completely wild. - I didn't think it was completely wild to have a Washington Post editorial, not a column, but an entire editorial from the Ed board owned by Jeff Bezos

being like, "Hey, stop picking on Billionaires." - It's so funny. - Well, he's like, "I'm gonna redo the editorial board so that it focuses on free markets and not attacking success." And it's like, you know, promises made promises,

caps, I guess, and without editorial board would do, yeah. - I watched the whole thing though.

I'd never heard her talk about the specific experience

of going from candidate to overnight celebrity. That was a really interesting story. - Yeah, that's it. - And how just like head spending and saying that was. And then the part about what,

did you hear the story about why she didn't go to med school, like her dad got sick, passed away, actually, and her mom started working on these jobs? I mean, it's not just like the bartending story that makes her feel like more of a human being

than any other politician. It's the very recent past in economic hardship shed. - Oh, no, it's the very compelling event.

“I was worth watching the full hour, I think.”

- Yeah. - I will say that the whole conversation about should billionaires exist to me is not the most productive use of time. On either side of the debate, because it's like,

here's the thing about billionaires. I just want to make sure that they are taxed appropriately. I want to make sure that they can't use their influence and power to change the laws and have a bigger megaphone than everyone else in the country, just because they're rich.

But like, it seems like an academic dorm room debate to be like, should they exist, should they not exist? If they exist, does that mean that they broke the law or not broke the law? Like, I don't know why we need to be debating that.

So it's a place. - I feel like it's, I was thinking, there was something about the online debate that was very frustrating to me, because there's a lot of people talking about.

- There's a few aspects of the online debate that we can get into. - Yeah. - Both of the speakers start with the billionaires one. - And I was trying to figure out what was bugging me about it.

“And it is, I think, because you end up in this conversation”

in which the terms are moral and fuzzy terms like earned legitimate, deserved, and those are moral language. And I actually think that debate over the kind of morality of who can amass fasts somes a wealth

and how they do it is not like, I don't think it's more than academic. I think the way we happen is academic, but what was interesting to me is the response. It is absurd that Jeff Bezos is paper

is writing a defenses of billionaires. And it was interesting about the defenses. It was land on celebrities like Taylor Swift and Seinfeld and people like people. - Like people people.

- Like old people and people that nobody had a P in a bottle for Taylor Swift to write the music, right? Like nobody had to sew sneakers with their little hands, right? So they-- - And they didn't see that documentary about the artist's tour.

- How many children were working those gears? - No, it seems like she had to P in a few bottles. - Maybe she did. - They were working on this themselves. Go on.

- That girl. - But then, so it's like, oh, 'cause they really earned it. And the underlying defense of it is like, well, Taylor Swift, by dint of talent,

without exploitation, created more than a billion dollars worth of value.

“And like, I think I largely agree with that,”

but what they are talking past the deeper argument, which is a system in which one person can accrue all that wealth, like even Taylor Swift, like she's protected by intellectual property law, she's been able to take her vehicles on the roads and all the rest. And it's not about like the righteousness or the morality to me.

Like, that's just not what I care about. I think it matters a lot in politics. It's like a system in which those benefits accrue so much is both wrong on the front and in the back end, the incentive structure and power structure of the economy.

And then the tax structure on the back end. And so whether a billionaire should or should not exist, if a lot of them do, it is because the something is fundamentally broken of the system and they have the ability to exploit that wealth that has also wrecked our politics.

And like that to me is what makes it worth having. - Yeah, and for me, that brings us to like, all right, so what are the policy considerations here? What are we going to, what rules and laws are we going to put into place to make sure that the system is more fair?

- How do we tax wealth? - That are we tax wealth. - And it goes into regulations in lobbying, not going to solve it in all the corruption issues. - Well, there's all that.

But, and I also think I think about Rubin Gallego

and what he would always say after the 2024 election

is that Democrats with Latino voters failed the big-ass truck test and that people in this country want to be rich, working class people want to be rich. And do they all want to be billionaires? Do they think they can be billionaires?

No, but they want to be wealthy. And what they just want is to like have a fair playing field. What do we want to call it? Whatever cliche you want to bring out, but like people want to make a lot of money.

And they also want to make sure that people who are absurdly rich, like pay their fair share in taxes and don't have

- Yeah, but I think Democrats end up focusing on the tax side of it and not as much on like the deeper kind of structures that mean individuals, like whether they have a union or not, whether they have other protections like let's say non-competes and things like that, all of which like kind of mean.

And as like more like all the productivity gains are sort of going up to the top, which means the individual has less negotiating and bargaining power than they used to and their dollar doesn't go as far because of all of our failures across the housing and all the rest.

“And to me like those are the questions that I think Democrats”

struggle the most to answer. We have the least compelling answer on like upriver from the taxes. - One last thing we have to talk about gas prices may be 450 a gallon, but transportation secretary and road rules all stars veteran, Sean Duffy really wants you to get out and take a road trip.

So much so that he and his wife and nine children have been apparently doing their own road trip over the last several months, which they've documented in a Gazi documentary series, premiering soon on YouTube, Duffy's wife, Fox News host, and fellow real-world and road rules star, Rachel Campos,

Duffy, that's where they met. Describe the project as really wholesome, good family stuff that's an antidote to the quote, "Pornhub World" we're living in. - The fuck kind of road trip to Chego?

(laughing) - Well, she wasn't real-world.

I can never say real-world road rules challenge.

- Yeah, it's a tough answer. - Yeah, anyway, here's a clip. - What a beautiful family. I just guess I had a Mr. President, guess I had a the President of Trump.

- We're inviting you along with our family on the Great American Road Trip. - The Duffy's, they've got tons of kids. I mean, they have like a 11 kids. - Nine, nine, eleven, some, there's, there's there a difference.

- Before a kid rock became kid rock, you're traveling all the country year earlier. - Yeah, basically an arrow star van. - Dad's real-world house. If I never lived in this house, none of you would be here.

- Was that stuff like so boring? Was that antidote to "Pornhub" or "No"? - I mean, you've got a lot of kids. (laughing) So, something's working.

- All right, that's so many.

First of all, you can't road trip with nine kids.

What are we driving at a school bus? 'Cause that looks like a little car. - So we just leave in the behinders a lot of kids. - Also bullshit that they're really driving around the country.

“They're flying places and then driving around and filming it, right?”

- We assume. - Yeah, I think I'm in that news, Hank. - You know? - You might be wondering who paid for this massive boondoggle. 501C4 called The Great American Road Trip, Inc.

Which says it fully funds its own efforts to celebrate and share America's story. And who sponsors happen to be industries with a business in front of the Department of Transportation. So that's how it is.

And the Department later confirmed that taxpayer dollars paid for the secretaries travel to a bunch of the stops, but not as families and the whole thing is official business anyway because he's the transportation secretary and he was doing some transportation there again.

- The thing is when your job is driving, right? - Dude, remember when the planes were all crashing and like Sean Duffy was the guy I was gonna fix it? Wow, I just watched the guy get hit on the runway and then rode the other day.

I don't know, maybe don't road trip around so much.

- Look, you know, this, first of all,

this would bug me less if they didn't have a bunch of sponsors who have business in front of the Department of Transportation. - And if they were Democrats, right John? - Well, no, I was gonna say, I was actually gonna say.

- Classic. - You know, you know who fucking wouldn't stop talking about Pete Buttigieg? - Yeah. - Criticizing Pete and Chaston.

- Rachel and Postuffy. - Rachel Kampo stuffy, when they spent two months when Pete took two months, particularly because the twins were in the NICU. - Yeah, they were, and she criticized them for that.

And so it's like, okay, and now you're gonna go do this. - It's crazy to film a seven month reality show. - Well, they said that he like popped in for a day here

“and a day sure, whatever if you want to do it on his days off.”

It's not, any of these people are fucking doing a good job anyway in the cabinet. - It's all a grift. - I would say he's one guy, not my Sean. - Yeah, he's one guy where it's like dude,

like you got like real legitimate ongoing, like management problems at your department. - Yeah, and if, and if Butt Rock at Duffy can't fix it, who can't, you know, that's what his nickname was in the real world.

But Rocket, why was it that? - Because he would run around the house, streaking and moaning people. - There's the rock, I remember he did a front move and I think too, not a window in one of the episodes.

- Uh-huh. - But this is on the tricky side right now. - Rachel, Rachel, Rachel was, Rachel Kamposos. - Lost in the pretty good series. - There's so many watching him, he's youth.

- I don't need that. - There's too much reality TV. - But Rocket's a great name. - But Rocket sure, Trump, Sean Duffy, Spencer Pratt, torturing us in the mayoral race here.

Like all these annoying reality people just popping back up and ruining the 2026. - Sean Duffy, I defended you as one of the lesser offenses in terms of actual cabinet performance so far. - And that remains the case.

- It's the bar, it's the precincts, but there's a roof. - It's this top. Also, as a rule, like if someone's producing their own reality show, it's just more boring. That's just how it goes.

Like, what would you think that's why people are gonna

bravo con?

“No, they wanna watch these bitches throw shit, you know,”

and get in. - He's also a lumberjack. - Yeah? - We're gonna chop some wood. That part of the button up thing.

- He was a lumberjack? - Yeah. - Wow, I didn't know that. - That was a part of the reward Boston thing. - Yeah.

- That's right, that was his, that was his stick.

That, that, and but rocket. - I don't remember but rocket. - I was gonna use episodes.

“- I thought, I thought that was an old joke”

that was gonna be like, I've said it to many times. - Also, flagging that he was briefly NASA administrator. You guys remember that? - Yeah. - One to keep jobs.

- Let's get some other rockets up there, you know. He's got the expertise, he has a history,

he's worked with, he's worked with all kinds of rockets.

(laughing) - Anyway, is that it? That's it. That's our show for today, everyone. - Yeah.

- It's a good one. - What's it? - It's a gosh, you're a bishow. Dan and I are gonna be back with a new show on Friday. So I want to check that out.

“- I think we started, this is a new ending.”

This is a new end segment, a positive America. I want to apologize for calling Gavin Newsom a woke (beep) I want to apologize for suggesting that removing the gas tax would cause Chuck Schumer to come, I think I regret saying that, we're applying it,

now I'm just saying it. - Oh, it was ass rocket, sorry. - Oh, well, that's the same thing. - Same thing, I was just being family friendly. - Family pick up.

- Took us wrong. - I'm like me. - Took us wrong. - Took us wrong. - Took us wrong.

- Took us wrong. (laughing) That's something different, speaking of Tim Cook on a China. - What? - Oh fuck.

- And the shows. We're out. (laughing) - Credits. (laughing)

- Positive America is a crooked media production. Our show is produced by Austin Fisher, Saul Rubin, McKenna Roberts and Ferris Safari, with Reacherlin, Elijah Cone and Adrian Hill. Our team includes Matt DeGroat, Ben Hethikot,

Jordan Cancer, Charlottelandis, Kerala V, David Tolz, Mia Kalman, Ryan Young, and Naomi Single. Our staff is probably unionized with the writer's guild of America East. (upbeat music)