Jon, Lovett, Tommy, and Dan talk about the administration's attempt to bar Harvard from enrolling international students and other new Trump threats, including possible sweeping tariffs on the EU and Apple products. The guys answer your questions on everything from the future of Democratic leadership and why some Senate Democrats keep voting with Trump, to whether a future Democratic president should roll back executive power. Plus: who's surprisingly not terrible in Trump 2.0? How would they handle a Trump interview? Finally, some thoughts on Bluesky, how use AI without losing your mind… and whether 100 Crooked staffers could take down a gorilla. For a closed-captioned version of this episode, click here. For a transcript of this episode, please email [email protected] and include the name of the podcast.
Chapter 1: What are the latest Trump threats?
Yeah, they had it coming.
Right, yeah, which is one of his favorite punching bags with a 50% tariff because apparently the trade negotiations aren't going well with Europe. So starting on June 1st, he wants to recommend a straight 50% tariff. So it's going to be tough to drink those French wines, Tommy. No. Zut alors.
I need a better one of those. Non.
And then right after that, he said, I've long ago informed Tim Cook of Apple that I expect their iPhones that will be sold in the United States of America will be manufactured and built in the United States, not India or anyplace else. If that's not the case, a tariff of at least 25 percent must be paid by Apple to the U.S.,
I mean, most of the weekend, I'm walking around with an Apple, an iPhone in one hand, and a glass of wine in the other hand. That's like both of my modern man. Wow, look at this. Yeah.
What did he do to me?
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Chapter 2: How are tariffs affecting U.S. consumers?
Just scrolling and sipping, scrolling and sipping. Yeah, he flawlessly wove those two notes.
Thinking about it, I'm like, wine and an iPhone.
No, I do think the tariffs are happening to you.
I think you're right. Also, all of our kids desperately want to work at Foxconn. That's where this is going.
Yeah. And then, of course, Dan and I talked a little bit on Friday's episode about the threat to Harvard and trying to revoke their ability to enroll any international students whatsoever. Harvard sued. There was a temporary injunction granted this morning, Friday morning. But it's still chaos.
I don't know if you guys have read some of the stories there about these students who students were already there, who don't know if they're going to be able to finish school. Students who are incoming students to Harvard, international students who have already turned down other colleges and were ready to go to Harvard and now don't know if they can. Anyway, Trump versus the world.
What do you guys all think?
Yeah.
It is like 6,800 kids.
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Chapter 3: What challenges do international students face at Harvard?
That's sort of what they're looking for. Not just illegal activity, protected speech, protest activity. They're demanding any footage of protests that might involve international students.
Yeah, it's just a, you know, Harvard responded, it's bracingly unconstitutional. They're not pretending at all that this has anything to do with their international student program or any kind of illicit or illegal conduct by Harvard that would justify shutting down the program. They are explicitly saying for this other reason,
that we care about, which is antisemitic protest on campus, we are going to use all the levers of power we have at our disposal to fuck with you. So the judge blocked it because Harvard basically is saying this will do a ton of harm even before we're able to litigate it, but it's also just bracingly unconstitutional. Yeah.
And then the markets are taking the tariff threats well.
Well, I think the markets, I think they're shrugging off the EU portion of it because, I mean, the problem with Trump making these threats now is Europe has already watched him cave. Like multiple times, he caved to them, he caved to China. This is like round, what, two or three of these tariff threats?
The new thing, waking up and threatening a foreign country, or a block of them, I think I'm kind of used to by now, waking up and threatening one of the crown jewels of the US tech community, or one of the biggest US companies, period, is insane. And the idea that Apple is going to shift manufacturing from China to the United States is nonsensical.
They're trying to shift from China to India in part because of like US government pressure that we want all these major companies to diversify supply chains and not be captive to the Chinese Communist Party. Now the Chinese are making it very difficult to shift those supply chains and manufacturing out of China. through a bunch of restrictions that are too boring to get into.
But the idea that Apple wouldn't just eat the 25% tariff and make our iPhones $100, $300 more expensive, as opposed to trying to completely redo the company in the United States is ludicrous.
Does Trump think that there's some magic factory in a box button that Tim Cook is not pushing? Even if he were to say tomorrow, yes, we're going to make more, it would be years upon years before you could start making the iPhones in the United States.
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Chapter 4: What strategies can Democrats use to elect younger leaders?
And that begins with getting someone to challenge these leaders. You actually need that to happen, particularly in the Senate.
You know who's really good at finding young leaders is Matt Gaetz. You know, this used to be worse. I think before the 70s, it was like just de facto. If you were the most senior member on the committee, you got the job. Then in the 70s, the party granted the caucus the power to vote on these things. In 2020, Dems put in place six-year term limits for chairs. So we could do more of that.
There could be ranked choice voting for committee chairs. You could reform the steering committee, which is a leadership setup committee that recommends voting. people for these spots. You could put more emphasis on policy expertise or whatever. There is an open question, though. Does this really fucking matter? People care what AOC thinks a lot more than name a random committee chair.
I can't, even though she was passed over. So it's a fair question.
I do agree that the committee chair issue is less of an issue than the fact that a number of House Democrats have died in office. That seems bad.
Over the last year or so. Three have died this year. The last eight members of Congress or senators to die while in office have all been Democrats.
But, you know, ultimately, like you said, Dan, we got to run younger candidates. And if you don't see younger candidates running, run yourself.
Right.
You know. All right. This is from Patrick W. As someone who worked in the Senate during the first Trump term, I don't remember the moderate Dems, aside from Manchin, voting so often with Republicans for Trump nominees or for bad bills like Lake and Riley, the Genius Act, etc.
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Chapter 5: Why are some Senate Democrats voting with Trump?
It is.
I think like immigration, the specific area where Democrats felt like they were offsides politically and a lot of them are these people are in border states. So they voted for terrible bills because they thought that's what their constituents want. The Genius Act is, in my view, an indefensible act. weird decision. I mean, it's about the regulation of stable coins. It got 69 votes in the Senate.
I think Democrats are scared of crypto money. And also, they want to be perceived as pro-crypto among crypto fans. But, you know, Trump is literally selling access to the highest bidder as we speak. That was last night. Sorry.
Yeah, I think the argument that they have made, because at first the Democrats or a lot of Democrats, I think most of them, even the pro-crypto Democrats in the Senate were against the Genius Act. And then they made some changes. And so the people who are for it are saying, well, it's some regulation of stablecoin is better than no regulation at all.
And there's all these consumer protections built in. And opponents like Elizabeth Warren are saying not enough protections built in. And also it's not doing anything about Trump and the Trump problem. I believe the – but the regulations now say that no member of Congress or senior administration official can start a stable coin while in office. But if you already got one going. Right, exactly.
Like, come on. So not a not a great bill, but I would take issue with the premise only in that at the beginning of Trump's term with some of the cabinet nominees and things like Lake and Riley Act, we were in a political environment where I think a lot of Democrats were like, OK, we got to work with Trump when we can and oppose him when we must.
And I think now, with the exception of the Genius Act, I don't think many nominees are getting through the Democratic Senate. Except for some reason, Cory Booker voted for Jared Kushner.
That's the one I want to bring up. Charles Kushner was a longtime donor of Cory Booker. Cory Booker put out a statement right before Charles Kushner's conviction. But it's an unbelievable vote. It's just absolutely an insane thing to do. Cory Booker put out some statement about how the reason he did it is because Charles Kushner helped pass the First Step Act.
when Cory Booker was doing that in the first term, which is an absurd premise. And I think it was – I understand that people thought at the time that we should work with Trump when we can and oppose him when we should. That was idiocy then and it's idiocy now. Ew. I don't know enough about the Genius Act and the stable coins. And I can buy an argument that some regulation is better than none.
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Chapter 6: How should a future Democratic president handle executive power?
We can't prove to people that government can work effectively and serve their interests if we're so hemmed in when we finally have power. But at the same time, I do think The presidency is now this sort of symbol of total government failure.
And the only antidote to that is not reforms that make Congress more effective or make the agencies move more quickly, but just to accrue more power to the president. And it's a tough spot for Democrats to be in. But I think Tommy is right. We first and foremost need to prove to people that government can work within the bounds of the law.
within the structures provided by Congress, but that it can be dynamic and effective and fast moving. And I think for a long time, Democrats weren't willing to kind of ruffle feathers, break through walls in a way that proved that to people. And I think that's like the first order priority.
Yeah, I'm being a little bit glib, but I do think like, and obviously like I would love to, I would do like common sense ethics reforms, but I do think like Trump with like Doge, for example, it was ineffective and stupid, but it made him look like he was active in doing things and actually cutting spending. And I think we have to figure out
our version of something like that, that makes us look like we're not just going to get obstructed.
Like there needs to be like a little bit of that kind of like fast moving, like energy with like, you know, a moral and like ethical and ideological goal we support.
There's somewhere between the lawyers stopping everything from happening and having the judges stop everything you tried to do. And Trump, we Democrats have erred on the former and Trump has fallen into the latter.
Yeah, I would probably pass legislation or try to pass legislation to Trump proof the bureaucracy and independent agencies just give a little more protection just based on what the courts have ruled so far. You know, the courts have sort of stood up to Trump on some of the deportation stuff, but they are not standing up to Trump on like firing except for the Fed, I guess.
It's firing, you know, heads of independent agencies, knowing that some of these independent agencies are going to be, you know, like Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Right. We want to protect that beyond the next Democratic president next time there's a Republican. So I would put I would try to push for reforms there and then maybe clean up the Insurrection Act, the Alien Enemies Act.
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Chapter 7: What insights can we gain about Trump's potential interview?
I also want one just thing I think has been effective with him, too, is sometimes be like, I never said that or I didn't. That's not what I said. If you just have the printout of the, you know, just have the post. He fucking hates that. He hates being confronted by his words. And if you just have like it's right here, this is what you said. It's right here.
Dan, is the new media section of the press room actually damaging or is it just kind of a weird sideshow?
It's a weird sideshow. It's serving the purpose that Trump wants, which is to grant access to his biggest fans so that they will cover him even more positively. It's not changing the world. It's not upending what journalism is or anything like that. It's access for sycophants with large media platforms, and it's working the way it's intended.
Yeah.
It's smart. Democrats should do the same thing. Absolutely. You should. Yeah.
I look forward to the next Democratic president having a new media section with a whole bunch of people except us. Four more years. Probably the way that goes.
I was like DMing Midas Touch asking if we could borrow their badge. Fuck.
We do know Brian Tyler Cohen.
I'm all John Fast plus one. Please let me in.
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Chapter 8: What are the unexpected perspectives on conservative commentators?
I think Massey ran out.
Oh, I thought they got all. No. Who's now?
It was two of them, Massey and someone else. Anyway, sorry. I think Massey was trying to raise money off of. Oh, that's right. That's right. Trump went after him.
Dan, you said that you respect Scott Jennings. That's who you're.
No, no. Yeah, I think you misheard me. I agree with Lovett. There's none of them that I respect in any way, shape or form. It is interesting. But the people I respect less are the Fox News people, and Bret Baier in particular.
The fact that we're in a world where Laura Loomer has more journalistic integrity than Bret Baier is something that I would hope would keep Bret Baier up at night in his very, very large mansion in Palm Beach, but I suspect it doesn't.
Brett Baier, like he really has become like kind of the lead Pravda guy at Fox News. He is the house organ. And it's not just that he interviews Trump. He interviews a cabinet official every other night for some sort of gauzy one hour thing. And when Trump went to the UAE in Qatar, he interviewed the prime minister and gave them both kind of like softball hour long, whatever, like specials.
Do you think that the reason the Palm Beach houses of these Fox News anchors keep getting bigger is because they're like the Winchester widow and they need to sleep in a different bed each night to evade the ghosts that haunt them for what they've done and from which they've reaped their great rewards?
i was thinking that yeah so this was my first thought this morning yeah you're thinking that yeah what's the winchester widow uh the winchester widow she inherited the fortune from the winchester uh gun company from her husband and she built this elaborate mansion but never stopped constructing it because she would like to sleep in a different room because she felt she was haunted by the ghosts of the people killed by the weapons um and so it's this uh maze-like structure dark
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