To stay up to date on all the news that you need to know, there's no better p...
right here on the DSR network.
“And there's no better way to enjoy the DSR network than by becoming a member.”
Members enjoying ad-free listening experience, access to our Discord community, exclusive content, early episode access, and more. Use code at DSR26 for a 25% off discount on sign up at the DSR network.com. That's code at DSR26 at the DSR network.com/bi. Thank you, and enjoy the show.
Hello and welcome to the DSR Daily. I'm David Rothkoff. It's Monday. It's a May. It's warming up.
Things are looking good. Right? Well, we have the right people to tell you whether they're looking good or not. Riley Fessler and Minestine are here as usual. And tell us.
Are things getting better? Nope. At least not with Iran. The US military has denied. No.
Oh, that's it for the way folks. Yeah, God. God.
“The US military has denied Iranian claims of a successful strike on a Navy vessel.”
While also launching a project freedom to escort merchant ships through the contested straight-of-war moves. Or maybe not. Yes. Or the president said we're doing this, and then other people said maybe we're not doing
anything. This high-stakes operation aims to block Iran's blockade and stabilize global oil markets which it has already failed at because the claims of the strike on the American ship immediately caused oil prices to surge. Yeah.
I mean, you know, Trump is flailing. Flailing. You could go fishing. Pull a big fish out of the ocean. Toss it on the beach.
Watch it flop around. And it would be flopping around and flailing less than Donald Trump is because he just doesn't know what to do here. And this idea that somehow it's a good idea for the US to use all of its naval forces to get ships through the straight-of-war moves which were open before Trump started this
is classic. It's, you know, it's like, ah, this is an operation for you. We're doing this thing and apparently according one story, he went to the Chinese and said,
this is going to cost $2 billion and they said, yeah, you started this.
Nobody had to do this before him. You want to pay the $2 billion, pay the $2 billion and that, which by the way, brings us back to, you know, nobody knows how much it's costing. Nobody is doing any kind of oversight billions and billions of price of oil went up a lot today, I noticed on the front page of the New York Times on their price of oil
goes up again, headlines. And so we are no closer to a solution to what's going on in a, and Trump, the weekend was all over the place and there's not only this operation freedom, but it's like, we're in we're out. I care.
I don't care. This forever, we, it's just, it is the most incoherent displayed from a U.S. president ever. And maybe the most incoherent displayed by an international leader in the history of incoherents, you know, German chancellor Friedrich Merz stated on Sunday that he remains committed to the transatlantic alliance, despite a public rift with Trump over the war in Iran.
Merz downplayed Trump's recent decision to withdraw 5,000 U.S. troops from Germany, and the cancellation of a plan of Tomahawk missile deployment, attributing the latter to depleted U.S. arsenals caused by the ongoing conflicts in Iran and Ukraine. Despite being labeled as doing a, quote, terrible job by Trump following his criticism of
U.S. diplomatic efforts, Merz emphasized that the U.S. remains Germany's most important
partner, and that both leaders still share the fundamental goal of a non-nuclear Iran. Yeah, well, you know, this is, you know, imagine your world leader, what do you do?
“You have to deal with Trump for another two and a half years.”
So, you know, you know, you've got a balance being critical of him as you need to be critical
Of him with recognizing that the relationship between your country and the Un...
is going to go on after Trump has gone, and indeed that you'll want to improve it after Trump has gone. And so they have to walk this fine line.
“And that's what each of these European leaders are doing. Now you have to say, "Starmer,”
Macron, Merz, Maloney, they have all stood up, and they've been pretty critical of Trump."
In fact, Trump is dispatching his top foreign policy guru, you know, there isn't that anybody in foreign policy. Marco Rubio, to Italy, to try to mend relations with the Vatican. It'd be very interesting to see what Marco says behind the scenes because, of course, Marco defends everything Trump says. And, or is he going to try, you know, like, JD-vanced it to intimidate the Pope and say, you know, you've got the president's a big guy, you've
got to sort of stop doing these provocative things. As the Pope did last week in naming somebody who was formerly in a person who came into this country with that proper papers,
“to be the bishop or the cardinal of West Virginia.”
Anyway, you know, they continued to try to walk this fine line, and, you know, Trump's team, you know, periodically will do things to try to mend fences. But there's no sign that things are going to get better. Trump, over the weekend, said he's going to pull more troops out of Europe. Trump, as Merz and Clyde, has a problem, which is he's using a lot of weapon systems in the Middle East. So he has to get them from someplace. Putin
must be looking at all this and going, okay, you know, where's the next opportunity for me? If I were living in the Baltics, I would be real uncomfortable with what's going to happen in the next two and a half years of Donald Trump. By the way, I saw a political headline today, and it must be true, because it was in political. That was sarcasm folks. But it seemed to suggest, let's say, it's May. So June, July, August, September, October,
November. Yes, it's six months to the election. It's only six months. Now, Trump was freaking out over the weekend, and he was like running these tweets like, you know, we've got to go and every governor has got to go and reach every man to their states, we could pick up 20 votes because if we don't pick up 20 votes, they're gonna impeach me. Now, you know, you gotta ask yourself, since he knows that the Democrats are unlikely to take the
Senate for at least get two thirds votes in the Senate, does he actually think he's going to be removed? Or what is it he afraid of? You know, I actually think he feels there are things that investigations will reveal. That would be devastating to him, whether they blow up his fortune or whether they blow up his family or whether they actually legal consequences, even though, you know, he has certain kinds of immunity. I don't know, but the guy's freaking out.
And so he got to ask, I mean, he could be above it all. I mean, there's also an Atlantic article
about a couple days ago that said Trump is talking to his friends and saying he's the most powerful
person in the history of the world. We sure not act in like it. He's sure not acting like he's confident in his power. He's acted like, you know, you know, a scared little baby. And, you know,
“because I think he's scared. I really do. He exudes fear. And it's not pretty to watch.”
He's probably exuding a lot of other stuff, too, given because, you know, rapid physical decline. By the way, did you notice his deep, you know, generous statements of support for Rudy Giuliani as he is sent to hospital? Yeah. Yeah. That's my third story, but I can get into it now. Yeah. Okay. Go ahead. Go ahead. Let's go ahead. Let's jump to Rudy. Ready.
Rudy Giuliani is reportedly in stable, but critical condition in the hospital with his spokesperson
calling for public prayers. How the fuck does he have a spokesperson? I don't know. Like, who's paying for his spokesperson? That is the most underpaid. I mean, Rudy's got nothing. But anyway, okay. So there's Rudy. It's not the hardest job in the world.
I just never really understood this.
done anything in 30 years. And it's like, and someone so spokesperson said the following. And it's like,
“I'm going to spokesperson. What do you guys do in my spokesperson when I do this spokesperson? Thank you.”
Thank you. Okay. So Rudy is like in the hospital in stable but critical condition. Yeah. We don't
really know why or what happened. But we do know that Donald Trump has responded to the news by praising Rudy as the greatest mayor in New York's history. And also reminding everyone that he still isn't over the 2020 election and praising Giuliani's efforts in trying to overturn that one. But but also we know because we saw the stories that Trump told people not to take Rudy's calls that he was leaving him out there today. He didn't help him out. Rudy has been down in
the dumps. He's he's using it. He used anything. I mean, anything, you know, and, you know,
so, you know, he thinks, well, you know, while Rudy's still around, I can squeeze a little more
juice out of all of that. I don't know. What do we say? Get well soon, Rudy, because you're a human being, and we feel that way about human beings or, I don't know, get well soon, but just leave us alone. Just fade away. I don't know, but Trump's treatment of this guy who is a Trump defender to the core has been pretty appalling. Speaking of appalling, everything that's been speaking of, speaking of, speaking of appalling, all our stories all the time. Yes, right? But if I
had to narrow it down a bit, acting attorney general Todd Blanche defended the recent indictment of former FBI director James Komi, asserting that the case relies on a quote, body of evidence collected over 11 months, rather than just a single Instagram post of C shells, spelling 86, 47, which is like a mad lib of a sentence. If I ever had to think of one, I don't even think of it. It could be that crazy, but well, you know, I mean, this guy is, you know, an architect of the further debasement of
the Department of Justice when I, when he was talking over the weekend, I thought, you know, John Gotti, who is really of all the people who ever lived. John Gotti is the closest thing to the, the, the model that Trump emulated of anybody who ever lived to, you know, the way he dressed, the way he talks, the way behaves, what he thinks is good, what he thinks is bad. John Gotti, of course, was the top mafia boss in New York City for a long time. But in any event,
speaking of spokespeople, they would always have a lawyer. And, and the lawyer, you know, would speak
at these trials for these mobsters, they were always called the mouthpiece. John Gotti's mouthpiece,
“whatever, Bruce Covener, whatever the guy's name was. And, and that's how I think of Todd Blent.”
She's, he's not the attorney general. He's not the acting attorney general. He's, he's Trump's mouthpiece. You know, he does a story, or Trump, if you prefer Trump's sock puppet, he does whatever Trump wants. And this case against Kami is ridiculous. And as soon as it appears before any rational judge out there, this case has got to get thrown out. I mean, it's not just the seashells of death. I mean, Blanche blew that up over the weekend when somebody pointed out to him that you can buy
all sorts of 86, 47, you know, hats and t-shirts and memorabilia on mine are all those people going to be prosecuted in Blanche goes, well, of course not. Well, okay, so if they're not why him, if that's not a threat, why is his a threat? And, and of course, there is, there is no good answer
“to that. And I believe, I will make a prediction. How's our deal coming with Kalshi? Do we have a deal yet?”
Nope. Or working on it's working on it. Our people are talking to their people. Anyway, I predict that this case against Kami will be a boom for all those people that are selling 86, 47 hats and t-shirts and this term will be more used and it will become a rallying cry of the resistance. And it will have exactly the opposite effect that they want it to have and also it's going to make more of a hero out of Kami. Because it's ridiculous. And, you know, there will be more
Cases like this because Trump is saying, you know, that's why I fired Bondy.
go and, you know, come up with these cases and cash betels like, yeah, they're more cases coming.
“By the way, did you see the cash betel impression on SNL this weekend? What did you think of that?”
I thought that was awesome. I normally, I'm not like a huge SNL fan, but everyone's in a while, they have a cold open that really gets me. And when Aziz Ansariah's cash betel said
that like, you know, they were an amazing agency and they were ahead of the curve on all these
things and they were just six weeks away from finding Osama bin Laden that killed me. I was crying. I was laughing so hard. Yeah, it was, I was quite laughing that hard, but it was pretty funny. And Aziz Ansariah, obviously, was an excellent choice as cash betel. And I suspect he will be back, at least when cash betel gets cashiered. See what I did there with a K, cashiered with a K.
“Because he's going to get fired sooner or later because he's a lunatic and he's not helping”
Trump. Riley, I take it, you were in bed, curled up, sleeping away. Yeah, I didn't now watch that.
But I will watch it after this. Well, that's, you know, SNL is not watched on Saturday nights anymore.
No, it's best consumed and clip form for the one to two max good sketches per show. All right, exactly. In fact, what I used to do is I would go to like entertainment weekly or something. They would do a recap and they would say these are the two good sketches and then I'd watch them. As opposed to, you know, they all show up on Instagram. I've also, by the way, it's a started watching some of the clips that are pretty amusing from the news UK SNL. I don't
“know if you've seen that. But pretty amusing. Anyway, my dog says, finish up. Something must be”
done. So, okay, let's go. Well, to follow up on our big story from last week and the absolute death blow to the voting rights act, Republican governors in Alabama and Tennessee have convened a special legislative sessions to redraw congressional districts. This has been supported. Of course, by the president, as a means to expand the GOP's house majority and as you would expect, Democrats have condemned it as a power grab intended to suppress minority voting power, which,
it, of course, is. Yeah, also Democrats have said, we're going to do it. I mean, Mikey Cheryl said, we're going to, we're going to look for seats in New Jersey. Other people are going to look for seats. This is going to end up being a wash, but it's going to be a wash that makes America less democratic and takes some groups, notably people of color and gives them even less representation in our system and also attracts more sort of oligarch money into these
contested campaigns in these places. So, you know, we're taking a bad situation and make it worse, and as I said earlier, Trump's cheering it off because he desperate. He is desperate. He knows, tick, tick, tick, it's like the crocodile in Peter Pan that has the clock inside it that follows
Captain Hook around. And it's, so he can always hear it, tick, tick, tick. Well, that's happening.
You know, Trump, Trump has the crocodile falling around. It's going tick, tick, tick, and so he's terrified. They're going to do what they can, but not all of them, by the way, Brian Kemp in Georgia said he's not necessarily going to do it. But, you know, you'll see some movement in Florida, Louisiana, and some of these places, and then it'll get challenged in courts. Some of them will get through, some of them won't get through democratic states will do this. And we'll end up
a less democratic country at the end of all of this, but Trump will also end up losing his majority in the house and possibly in the Senate at the same time. And so maybe Democrats can then rejigger things and past laws outlawing political gerrymandering as they should. Well, we've got a week ahead of us and we are going to go and do our best to track what's going on out there. And of course, that means, you know, both men and Riley will be in the red carpet
for the Met Gallet tonight. Riley has a gown that especially made for him out of 8647 hats.
Is that true, Riley?
Yeah, I can't spoiler alert. Yeah, sorry. Sorry. I don't want to
don't spoil Riley's big entrance. I always consider the Met Gallet to be the kind of
sign of the apocalypse of our society. I mean, it's, you know, it's the worst display of excess and fake celebrity. And and I know some people love it. My wife loves it. For example, it's just disgusting. I love it. For example, you do. Well, you went to see the Delaware's produture on the weekend. Did you not? I did. I thought it was, I thought it was fabulous. It was
“everything I could have wanted. But I think you could think of the Macala as a disgusting display of”
wealth, which it is, or alternatively, you could think of it as an opportunity for artists to display
their art in a way that people actually want to engage with it because celebrities will be there. You get to show off artistic pieces of fashion and clothing. And it's fundraiser for the Met to get people to go see the exhibit associated with the outfits. I'd love the fact that the fashion in this experience has somehow persuaded everybody that the shmata that they sell to
industry expression meaning rags is art. I love that. Fantastic. Some of it is, some of it is.
Okay. Some of it's. You're being very handy right now. And I'm being very Miranda. Wow. Wow. Wow. Brilliant. This is Serulian. Yeah. What those are all references to the Delaware's proud of, which I'd like to say, by the way, did very well at the box office of the weekend because
“and I will tie things up neatly with a bow here. I think people need this kind of escape”
because all the news is so hideous. They need the art of disaster nots. They need the Delaware's product too. They need things. They're craving a change. And frankly, if I were political consultant, I would be communicating that to the people who are running. They were saying they want to change. They want to feel good about themselves. They want to feel good about candidates. They want to feel good about our country again. And, you know, though, you know, do well. I was
“listening to a speech of James Teleriko, the Texas Senate candidate over the weekend,”
and I was like, I get it. Feels better. Feels better to listen to this stuff. Not quite there yet. It was grand platinum. But with a lot of these people, it feels better to listen to them. And you think, okay, maybe we maybe we're getting close to the other side of this decade long nightmare. Anyway, with that, maybe we are right. I will leave you with that. We'll be back tomorrow. We've got all our usual podcasts coming this week. Join us for all of that.
Follow us on as subscribe and YouTube or subscribe at the DSR network.com. And we'll see you soon. Goodbye. [Music]
