The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: How Trump Remade America in Just One Year
17 Dec 2025
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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Welcome to Raging Moderates. I'm Scott Galloway.
And I'm Jessica Jarlow.
Okay, Jess, in today's episode of Raging Moderates, we're discussing how Trump changed America in 2025, how Democrats should address AI, and our favorite moments of 2025. All right, let's get into it. Time named the architects of AI as... Person of the Year. But in just one year back in office, Donald Trump has arguably done more than anyone to reshape how American power operates.
So Trump 2.0 has moved really quickly. Our relationship with Europe is basically in the shitter after decades of stability. New tariffs. Let's go back to the 19th century in terms of economic policy. and then promised rebate checks when it doesn't work to farmers. But the rebate checks supposedly come into American citizens. At least mine hasn't showed up.
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Chapter 2: How did Trump reshape America in 2025?
Yeah, to that point, I do think the idolatry of the dollar has gotten out of control. And even going back to the architects of AI, America's now a giant bet on AI because AI is how we're propping up the economy. The S&P would be flatter down. Our GDP growth would be flattered down if it wasn't for AI.
And I believe in 2026, we're going to see a bailout of AI in the form of some sort of government-backed debt that helps them continue this crazy out-of-control CapEx on data centers and chips and the like. And it'll be reframed as an investment. Be clear, it'll be a bailout.
And to a certain extent, these tariffs are a transfer of wealth from the companies affected by the tariffs, which is the majority of the S&P. leaking it to the companies that aren't impacted by it. The tariffs don't really impact AI or big tech because they're digital and they're fluid.
And so to a certain extent, the boom in AI is somewhat being supported or propped up and is really the arbiter of Trump's ability, in my opinion, to have not a successful term, but I just don't think he'd have the cloud cover to be sending a secret police into US cities if the S&P was down 2% and not up 14%. Yeah. So it has become, AI does seem to be the tail that's wagging the dog.
And just a personal anecdote, As you know, occasionally I talk about myself on this show, Jess. I know that's unusual. I know. It's shocking.
You are blowing my mind this holiday season.
It's shocking. Yeah. So we're going through the most manufactured, stressful process because me and my colleagues are total corrupt motherfuckers who've LVMH'd and embraced this rejectionist culture called higher education where we've decided we're no longer public servants but fucking Birkenbags. Anyways, so my son's going through this process. This is my karma process.
And my son sat me down, I don't know, one or two months ago and said, Dad, can you do something for me? My son never asked me for anything. I'm like, yeah, of course, buddy. And he said, what's up? And he goes, I need you to promise me you won't give. My son's so woke, it's frightening. He says, I need you to promise me you won't give money to any of the universities that I'm applying to.
And of all the things he was going to ask me, I didn't think he was going to ask me that. And I've been giving money to public universities for a long time. And I said, well, okay, then do better on the ACT, bitch, which I thought was exactly the right response.
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Chapter 3: What are the implications of Trump's economic policies?
I'd probably trigger some people.
He's not going to be in trouble.
Yeah. I don't need to play the scenario out where I was going with. I'm not exaggerating. I think I could get anyone out of prison right now for half a million to three million bucks. Literally anyone, unless it was like some mass murder of the person who shot Gabby Giffords or maybe Representative Scalise or something like that.
But other than that, if it was just like stealing money from seniors or some crypto scam.
Oh, yeah. I mean, if you look at the recent pardons, yes.
Yeah, one to three million bucks, I could get them out. So let's look at some data. So far this year, Trump's signed 218 executive orders. That's more than any president in history. Support for the Trump administration is cracking, mostly around affordability.
57% of voters in a poll agree that Trump was losing the battle against inflation, and over two-thirds, 68%, believe the economy is poor, very poor. It's actually really interesting there. I did a bit of a deep dive around economics, and while essentials have gone up in price, discretionary items are actually the same or lower, which is kind of interesting.
But when you have to pay more for the essentials, it hits you hard psychologically, whether it's education or health care or housing, which continue to rise. Many of Trump's policies are going to directly increase the debt or increase the cost of living for Americans, including widespread tariffs.
The average American consumer now faces an effective tariff rate of 18 percent, clean energy rollbacks that will prevent renewables from driving down the cost of energy. I think some Republicans would probably push back on that. Stripping 1.6 million American families from Medicaid and passing the O triple B, which will increase the deficit by $3.4 trillion over the next 10 years.
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Chapter 4: How is AI affecting the workforce and job security?
I mean, the S&P is up, but meanwhile, our kids are more anxious, obese, and depressed than ever. So great, we're rich, but we have cancer. I like the idea of, on an issue as important as this, having one sweeping federal legislation, but that's just a false flag to try and obviate the notion they're not going to fucking do anything. Right.
What they're saying is we want the national policy to be nothing because the administration has now gone all in on AI, specifically its ability to keep the markets up such that it provides cloud cover for what is non-democratic markets. you know, abnormal, non-constitutional behavior. So this notion that it should be one consistent policy, again, that's a good talking point, but it's a lie.
Also, states' rights. They're always saying, well, it's a states' rights issue.
Gun control. Let's the states decide. Abortion. It's up to the states. But now on AI, we should have a federal policy which will be nothing. And there should be, I mean, there's just some immediate wins. We should age-gate synthetic relationships. There are probably certain safeguards that should be in around mental health queries for kids under the age of 18.
I think character AI should be absolutely regulated and limited. People are spending on average about 15 minutes on OpenAI or ChatGPT. They're spending about 75 minutes
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Chapter 5: What should be the Democratic response to AI-driven layoffs?
with character AI. I believe you're going to see fewer and fewer young men out in the wild because I think they're going to be at home in different types of relationships with synthetic partners. I think it's going to happen everywhere. And I don't think people have fully recognized just how bad this is for people.
It's like essentially saying, we're not going to teach you how to ride the bicycle of life because the bicycle of life is is learning how to balance and create forward motion and failure and fall and get up around this really difficult but rewarding thing called relationships.
And we're just going to have a series of totally fragile, asocial, asexual people who have no ability to endure rejection, navigate the corporate workplace, navigate
friendships navigate, romantic relationships, because they have spent all of their formative years as their brain is getting wired in relationships that are frictionless, that always tell them what they want to hear, that are always there, that always air to the upside.
Even if it's I'm thinking about suicide and saying, well, here, let me show you how to tie a noose, or I'm here waiting for you, my love. These are actual quotes from character AIs to young men who are contemplating suicide.
So this is, there absolutely needs to be, there's some low hanging fruit around AI, but as evidenced by the fact we took the ban off of our most sophisticated chips to China, which could be used for combat simulations, weapons guidance systems, trying to track our submarines. I mean, it's just now all about money.
America has really just become a platform, almost like a trading exchange for trying to make money. And then it's up to you to go find where you can buy rights. And you can, if you're in the top 1% here, and I've said this a lot, you are protected by the law, but not bound by it. And if you're in the bottom 99%, you're bound by the law, but not protected by it.
Because the 1%, it's really become a Hunger Games economy where if you win, It's an unbelievable life, but everyone else kind of dies a slow death. But America is now essentially a full trading system. And it's not about trying to protect the Commonwealth or make investments in the bottom 90 or much less the bottom, maybe even the bottom 99. It's just all about money now, full stop.
And Meta's hired 87 lobbyists, roughly one for every six members of Congress. OpenAI has ramped up its lobbying spend nearly 70% from last year. I've served on several public company boards, and whenever we have a conversation around ROI, I'm like, hands down, the greatest ROI in history has been spending money on lobbying. And I've seen this firsthand. I give money away to politicians.
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Chapter 6: What are the ethical concerns surrounding AI regulation?
They might benefit from it, but they wouldn't need it. And instead it's like, oh, you need to work on yourself and all problems will be solved at $200 an hour. Well, okay, good luck with that. And I'm not suggesting that there isn't a real need for therapy among people struggling with mental illness or people who have the money to do this.
But into this void of economic precarity have shifted supplements, rage, the cult of therapy, progressives talking about social virtue solving all these fucking problems. No one thought it's fucking housing. It's socializing medicine. But no one wants to talk about that shit because they can't sell it on fucking TikTok because it's boring. I know I'm headed with this, Jess.
No, I get it.
Help me here.
No, I'm here for you, Scott. No, I think on the therapy front, I would just add to that, that also therapy is not supposed to be a forever relationship, right? Like it's supposed to get you through something and then you're supposed to be better. Yeah, of course. Housing, having a good job, having a relationship that sustains you, those are all things that are going to make you feel better.
So, you know, we should be helping people with access to that therapy.
Can I just read you something I got from Esther Perel? Yeah. Esther Perel, who I'm friends with. I wrote a piece on the cult of therapy. I don't think I'm speaking out of school.
Anyways, well, a good friend of mine who's one of the most famous therapists in the world, the rise of therapy culture has turned a tool for meaningful change into a comfort industry that's making Americans sicker, weaker, and more divided. We live in an era where disagreement is treated like trauma and emotional reactions are weaponized for political gain.
But if supplements are a pipeline to getting red-pilled, therapy culture is a sinkhole of misinformation, manufactured fragility, and needless suffering.
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Chapter 7: How has public sentiment shifted regarding Trump and his policies?
I hope her and Justin are happy. Anyways, and somehow, I did not write this, and somehow I ended up on the White Lotus. Let's be honest, I saved this season of White Lotus. People consistently come up to me and say... People loved it.
I got a lot of texts like... Scott's on White Lotus.
I got a bunch of texts saying, the lawyer sounds like you. No one thought it was me. They're all like, yeah. Oh, really? Oh, that guy, the lawyer sounds like you. But yeah, I saved.
Are you going to be on season four? I saw that they might have Christine Baranski on, which was very exciting to me.
I'm going to hate this. Who is that?
The actress?
Yeah, who is she? I don't watch anything that doesn't have to do with World War II. The only actor I'm interested in is Hitler with a co-supporting role of Mussolini. Who is that?
Christine Baranski, I mean, if I sent you a picture, you would definitely cite her. She's been in, like, everything, but I was obsessed with The Good Wife and The Good Fight.
Absolutely fabulous.
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