Digital Social Hour
Tim Miller: Pay-to-Play? Why a President Having His Own Coin Is Next-Level Corruption | DSH #1566
12 Oct 2025
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
The idea that we sent people to a foreign country to a gulag without due process, it just has been unbelievably, was just totally unconscionable.
Chapter 2: What are Tim Miller's views on Trump's performance and grade?
It feels like it's something that you'd expect from a third world country. His whole D-list, banana republic, authoritarian, wannabe dictator thing, I just don't like. The whole show, really, dude, I gotta rub your belly to get good stuff from the leader. That's just not America.
Okay, guys, out here in New York City at the Spotify studios, we got Tim, host of the Bulwark podcast.
Chapter 3: How does Tim Miller explain political corruption in America?
What's up, Sean? How you doing, man?
I'm good, man. Nice to finally meet.
Chapter 4: What role does money play in modern politics according to Tim Miller?
I know we've been chatting for a bit.
Yeah, I've been excited to do it, you know, hash it out a little bit. After the election, I got to get out of my never-Trump bubble and, like, you know, see what's going on.
Objectively, how do you feel about Trump so far, A through F?
I just think he's been a disaster.
Chapter 5: What insights does Tim Miller provide on the Epstein scandal?
I mean, I guess I would give him a D minus. And there have been a couple of things that have been a little bit better than I expected. But for the most part, I just think the immigration regime has been awful, like the idea that we sent people to a foreign country to a gulag without due process. just has been unbelievably, was just totally unconscionable.
I don't think the bill they put through Congress was very good. I don't know that we needed another huge tax cut for rich people. The tariffs have been a nightmare.
Chapter 6: How are social media and algorithms influencing political discourse?
I guess I give him a D minus because we were on track to an F with his initial tariff launch because he backed off that. I think that's allowed the economy to kind of stabilize, but it's not good. It's gotten worse for folks. And, you know, I just... His whole D-list, banana republic, authoritarian, wannabe dictator thing, I just don't like.
The whole show, it feels like it's something that you'd expect from a third world country. Give you this trophy. I want you to feel like you have a bigger dick than you really do. I've got to rub your belly to get good stuff from the leader. That's just not America. It feels like... You know, it's something that you'd expect from a third world country.
Chapter 7: What is the significance of generative AI in political communication?
And, you know, bullying the universities to pay them and stuff like on some of the policy stuff. I'm not a huge DEI guy. I agree with him. But like the notion that, you know, you got to pay the president a ransom to avoid the government coming after you. It's just it's not in the American system.
Chapter 8: How does Tim Miller view the current political climate and its implications?
So I'm I'm pretty I think it's been not really great. I don't know that regular folks. I felt like their lives have gotten any better unless, you know, if you're like an ICE agent or you're in the private prison industry, it's doing pretty good. I guess you're in AI. AI and crypto are doing well. There are a couple sectors. Crypto, yeah. There are a couple sectors that are doing good.
But if you're just a regular person that's working somewhere in the country, you got on board with them because you thought he was going to care about you, the forgotten man. Unless you got a lot of money in ETH, I don't think you've been doing that well.
And that's where being objective comes in handy, right? Because I can recognize that. My life's way better. I'm in crypto. ETH is my biggest bag.
Okay, there you go.
You're crushing. You can make the argument that Trump played a role in that, but crypto also cycles every four years, so it could have been just good timing. But the average person with these tariffs, with inflation, I can recognize they're dealing with something.
It's helped a little bit. Like, he's done some of the deregulation stuff. Like, look, I had a big kind of VC guy on my show this week. And, you know, he's like, look, he's helped some things with, you know, you had Lena Kahn that was in there, and you had Gary Gensler, and you had some of these regulators that were going after crypto and going after some of these tech companies.
And this government has sort of backed off that. So that's helped, like, narrowly in some of those industries. But, like, also simultaneously, you've got crypto scammers. the president himself, and, like, Justin Sun, and, like, these foreign crypto guys, like, paying off the president. Again, it's like banana republic shit.
It would be one thing if it was, okay, I'm going to deregulate it a little bit. We're going to go after the bad guys. We're going to make sure regular crypto investors, like, you know, can make money. Okay. Like, I'd be okay with that. Like, you know, I think that the Biden administration at some times was a little too hostile to crypto. I agree with that.
But, like, the president having his own coin? you know like not at all I wasn't a fan of that and I'm pro crypto yeah not at all going after people that you know are screwing people over that have fake coins you know like there's a lot of stuff that he's doing in that world that I don't dig
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