Trump Desperate for Strait Allies

[00:00] Pots of America is brought to you by SimpliSafe Home Security. Most smart cameras are like cable news pundits. They just sit there, watch the chaos happen, and then tell you about it later. [00:09] Looks like you're being robbed. Back to you, John. You don't need a pundit in your living room. You need Secret Service. That's good. Traditional security systems only act if someone has already broken in. That's too late. SimpliSafe's active guard outdoor protection can help you prevent break-ins before they happen. Although I might want to tweak that line from Secret Service can help you to some other agency that hasn't had so many misfires lately. Anyway, while other security companies lock you in, SimpliSafe comes with no long-term contract. They earn your trust every day by keeping you safe and satisfied. [00:39] They even back it with the anti-theft guarantee. SimpliSafe protects over 4 million people. They have 20 years experience in home security. They were just named best home security system of 2026 by U.S. News and World Report, and they've been named the best customer service in home security with industry-leading customer satisfaction scores to prove it. What do you love about your SimpliSafe? I set up a SimpliSafe that's incredibly... [01:00] Easy to do. It's easy to customize to your home. The customer support is great. The app is really easy to use. It's really reliable. It gives you peace of mind. [01:09] Right now, our listeners can get 50% off their new SimpliSafe system at simplisafe.com slash crooked. That's simplisafe.com slash crooked. There's no safe like SimpliSafe.

[01:39] Welcome to Pod Save America, I'm Jon Favreau. I'm Jon Lovett. I'm Tommy Vitor. On today's show, we're going to talk about all the latest developments in Trump's war, [01:50] opposition via anonymous leaks, the president accusing media outlets of treason and his FCC chair threatening to take away their broadcast licenses, [01:57] Trump fundraising off of the death of American soldiers, and finally... [02:01] What would you trade to get the president's personal cell phone number? Holding into the hottest new trend in D.C., [02:08] cold calling [02:09] Donald Trump. Also, please consider becoming a subscriber if you haven't already so that you don't miss out on any crooked content. Friend of the pod subscribers get our new extra episode of Pod Save America called Pod Save America Only Friends. [02:23] Many people are saying, [02:24] It's the greatest new show on the air right now. [02:28] Pod Save America only friends. Yeah, it's just for the subscribers. It's where we have our real opinions. There you go. That's where we save them for there. The most correct takes. By the paywall. You also get other subscriber-only shows like Polar Coaster with Dan Pfeiffer, access to all of our excellent sub-stack newsletters like Pod Save America open tabs, ad-free episodes of all your favorite crooked pods, and you get to feel good about supporting an independent pro-democracy media company that Brendan Carr can't shut down. [02:52] We are beyond his regulatory scope. So head to crooked.com slash friends and subscribe today. All right, let's get to the news. As the Iran war enters its third week with no end in sight, Trump said a few words about the conflict at the top of his remarks during a White House event.

[03:10] about the Kennedy Center renovations, where it was clear the president had one thing [03:16] On his mind. We are pounding that area, that coast. Pounding, pounding, pounding, pounding, pounding at heart. They took a pounding from Rick. You know, he knows what it is to pound people. He's a little rough with a couple of the people, but that's okay. They've survived. I didn't watch that beforehand on purpose. That was great work. Just a masterful super cut there. There was a lot of pounding. Yeah, pounding. [03:41] You know who else is getting pounded? New supreme leader of Iran, apparently. Oh, yeah. We're in the New York Post. Allegedly. Allegedly. I guess we're going to say that. Allegedly. We don't want to slander him. What do you get a lawsuit? That's right. Look, he could pound a new ayatollah. I guess we've got to be low down on that guy's priority list at this point. Yeah. That was the joke. Yeah. We want to wake up. We want to wake up first, I think. [04:02] Yeah. A lot of talk of pounding. Yeah. [04:06] Do you think he remembers that Rick Grinnell is gay when he's talking about this? Yeah, when he was saying Rick there, he was talking about Rick Grinnell, who was... [04:12] running the Kennedy Center and then just left. Rickardell is a human, a Twitter troll that became a human. [04:19] Worked in the intel world for a while was ambassador to Germany was the DNI for a while acting DNI in the last administration wanted to be secretary of state. [04:27] Didn't get it. Became the head of the Kennedy Center and then got fired from that. Because he was a pounding artist. Yes, he is an asshole. As Trump said. He was a asshole. Pounding too many artists at the Kennedy Center. It doesn't seem like he's a people person in that role. [04:39] So Trump did address the latest developments in Iran, which he claimed has been literally obliterated before browbeating other countries for not helping the U.S. reopen the Strait of Hormuz by sending warships. Even though he said, quote, we don't need anybody because we already won, even though he just sent 2,500 Marines to join the 50,000 U.S. troops deployed in the region. Here's more on all that from our very focused commander in chief.

[05:09] tell me they're on the way. [05:11] Some are very enthusiastic about it and some aren't. And we want to know, do you have any minesweepers? [05:19] Well, we'd rather not get involved, sir. You mean for 40 years we're protecting you and you don't want to get involved in something that... [05:29] is very minor. He attacked Cog Island and knocked it, knocked it literally [05:35] and destroyed everything on the island except for the area where [05:39] The oil is I caught the pipes. We left the pipes just one simple word and the pipes will be gone to see and [05:46] Trump Kennedy Center. It's been let go to hell. The bones are potentially [05:52] something that could be unbelievable there's never been a paint I said someday I'm going to discover a paint where you don't have to actually use gold leaf. [06:01] Goldleaf is a very, very big and expensive process, but it's a beautiful thing, but not when you use paint. Week three of the war, we are doing Monday morning events about the Kennedy Center renovations, and said a lot more about the renovations than he did about the... [06:19] the war itself his impression of our allies like so he later talked about like how there's we have 45 000 troops and he said uh in japan defending japan south korea defending south korea and germany so which of those leaders of those three countries do you think he was that he was doing the impression of it's uncle he definitely didn't want to do he stopped himself from doing any kind of an accent uh which i think is positive yeah it is i i thought i thought he was talking about

[06:49] sweepers, but it doesn't really matter. I think Chancellor Mertz came out today to say, like, NATO's not for this. It's a defensive alliance. Why would we send troops to help you with your war of choice? So maybe he was talking about the Germans, but it could have been Japan. It could have been South Korea. Yeah. So basically what's happened is, you know, the reportedly the Iranians have begun to lay mines in the Strait of Hormuz, although Trump today said, we don't know. They might have. We don't know. We can't tell. We don't, you know, we haven't seen anything yet. [07:19] And so not a lot of no ships are going through basically right now. And energy prices, I think oil closed. It's still around one hundred dollars a barrel today. And so that's the situation right now. And so the Trump wants to open the Strait of Hormuz. But apparently the U.S. military can't do it ourselves. And so he is begging all these countries to join, but then not begging them. No one has really said yes yet. I haven't seen. Have you seen any time? [07:49] And he's doing impressions of them that are not very nice. I think the Iranians are letting through oil that are in their tankers or maybe even Chinese owned tankers. So they're letting some oil through. Yeah, I'm sure most of these groups that he's making fun of, they're pissed that Trump [08:02] started this war, didn't consult them, and now he's saying, hey, can you help us out? And he's also being a dick about it. I mean, again, yelling at NATO, like, this is not what NATO is for, their defensive alliance. It's also incredibly dangerous. I mean, he says in that press conference that all you need is one Iranian missile or rocket or mine, and you have a catastrophe. And so why would anyone want to participate in that? I mean, we're not escorting ships to the straight-over moves yet. Why would the Japanese or the Germans want to help us out? Trying to build a coalition of straight allies. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. It's good.

[08:32] Yeah, that's what the S is for. Yeah, it's hard to figure out where the minds are. Famously, you have to hover both of the mice button over it, and you'll literally only know if there's one, two, three around you. I just want to – this is beside the point, but it is the idea of Donald Trump, one of the people with the sort of worst tastes you'd ever could imagine, suggesting that the Kennedy Center has great bones when it's one of the most beautiful buildings built in like probably the last hundred years. [09:02] thing that he's planning to destroy. Again, not high on the list of reasons to be bothered by Donald Trump, but I do think it's worth mentioning, especially because it is inconceivable, even a couple years ago, maybe even in the first Trump term, that you would be, you know, about a week or so into a war and have unrelated press events, [09:19] related to interior design, you would not typically do that. It would be actually something that I think you'd be kind of a bipartisan uproar about that a president could possibly think it was worth his or her time to be focused on architecture of local landmarks during a time in which we've just lost now over 13 members of the armed forces. We bombed a school, killed over 175 people, but this is the world today. [09:45] We live in. Did you see that he's also considering getting rid of the ionic columns in front of the White House? Yes. He prefers Corinthian. He prefers Corinthian. It's a little more flair. Well, they're gaudier, right? And I think he doesn't really appreciate the kind of story that the different kinds of columns tell. But I don't think he took Art History 101 at Williams College in 2003. So I guess that's probably why. Well, look at us. Now we're distracted from the Iran war. Anyway, imagine being one of these countries that he wants to get involved in the war.

[10:15] Like today, he said they hit Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UAE, Kuwait. Nobody expected that. We were shocked. They fought back. Everyone expected that. What the Iranians are doing is what everyone expected them to do, which is to fire at U.S. military bases in these places to close the Strait of Hormuz. And I don't think most experts I talked to figured that Iran would view this as existential and they would punch back as hard as they possibly could, which probably meant creating an economic cost. [10:45] And he either dismissed or ignored warnings about how much more complicated an Iran operation would be. And now we're in this mess. And Axios described his staff as having, quote, buyer's remorse, but he refuses to back down. So every step is escalatory. And you're telling like NATO or the Philippines or Japan to jump into this situation? Send your troops? I got to say, too, from just a pure political perspective, can't reflect too well on Donald Trump with the American people. [11:15] We put out a call for our allies to help us, and no one wants to help us. Maybe because he has browbeat all of them, not just in the run-up to this war, but on tariffs, on NATO, on everything else. He has basically spent an entire year and many years before that just attacking all of our closest allies. And now he's somehow surprised when they don't come to our aid for his crazy fucking war plans. Yeah, you didn't tell us. [11:44] why he was doing this. He clearly didn't tell them either. Yeah, to Tommy's point, maybe the most predictable outcome, like I think you can go back and find papers that say, well, in the event that the supreme leader is killed, Iran would view it as an existential threat and therefore might resort to closing the Strait of Hormuzin, firing upon other neighboring countries. Like it's sort of just an exercise of what would happen. This is what people said would happen, but he completely unprepared for it and going around to talk to allies about how they

[12:14] And then, [12:15] before like do you guys know about you know leroy jenkins is when i say leroy jenkins does that mean anything to you of course that's what he's doing it's like it's actually a pretty leroy jenkins going to war with iran and he ran in there and everybody's like we what are what's he doing like no we're not and so yeah he's expecting everybody to come in behind him google youtube it i know he gave no context for you listener just youtube it for when you have a second yeah [12:37] He mentioned Karg Island. Karg Island is where something like 90% of Iranian oil exports go out of. And so he talked about bombing the island, all the military installations, not the oil refineries there. So it hasn't yet secured any of Iran's nuclear material. It's talked about potentially seizing Karg Island, deploying another 2,500 Marines to the region. [13:07] nuclear material, you would need [13:09] Ground forces, ground troops. Are we getting close to a war, do you think, Tommy, that involves ground troops? If we take Karg Island, they have to have a general... [13:18] who's from Boston and has a really big accent. We got CAG. We got CAG Islands. That's beside the point that you were asking about. I find it very hard to believe that the US and Israel, especially the Israelis, would not do something to get the uranium stockpile out of Iran. And I imagine that Trump would prefer the Israelis take the lead on that operation. But I think it would be a major operation that would probably involve both of us because

[13:48] I've seen experts estimate that you'd need about a thousand personnel to secure and conduct the operation at each. You'd need like a commando team that's trained in digging up and handling nuclear materials themselves to do the actual removal. You would need maybe like an excavator or other earth moving materials or machines to get at the stuff because it's under rubble because we bombed it. And then you'd need like a bunch of troops to secure a perimeter. You'd need to provide defense against missiles and drones. [14:18] create a runway to get the shit in and out. And then you probably have people in theater for a considerable amount of time. This wouldn't be Venezuela, like swoop in, swoop out. It would probably be boots on the ground for a while. So that is very, very dangerous. I think Carg Island is probably a little simpler in the short term just to seize the thing. But then you're just sitting there 15 miles away from the Iranian shore and can get fired at. Also, how long are you occupying Carg Island? Right. What's the goal? Is the goal just to cut off all oil and gas revenue [14:48] no. So I imagine, like, there's a, I think there's like a hundred, 99% chance that Netanyahu does something to get the HEU out. Now, letting the Israelis do it alone. The HEU is the highly Australian. The highly Australian, I'm sorry. But what happens if, you know, an Israeli commando is captured or taken down? Like, there's ways this gets more complicated. So. I do think this shouldn't be a problem if whether Israel or the U.S. leads, because according to Trump, we've killed all the

[15:18] they keep saying the administration and trump like insinuating that maybe the new ayatollah is injured that he might be dead uh they don't even trump's like i don't even know who we would negotiate with there's no leaders there anymore like it doesn't seem like that's uh exactly on the level but yeah it's weird like they're trying to kind of run him down um and suggest weakness but i don't know what to what end and they clearly leaked this [15:43] suggestion that the new supreme leader is gay to the new york post because they were then tweeting about it and like kind of taking the victory lap on the story but like again what what's what's the point of this so we wanted diplomacy and have an off-ramp [15:55] It's really hard to know who's... [15:57] telling the truth. You expect the Iranians to lie because it's a regime that might lie. But also, everything the Trump administration says. [16:06] There was also this Axios story that there's a diplomatic channel now between Whitcoff and the Iranians that has opened, and then the Iranians were like, no, that's a complete lie. What are you talking about? And the administration's like, no, they're lying. They're complete liars. And you're like, I don't know. It's funny to think that Kamala Harris and the Trump administration agree that [16:26] that neither country is ready for a gay leader? [16:31] Do you think that... But even though that's... I'm sorry. That's not what she was saying. It is what the words meant, but it's not what she was saying. Apparently, Iran may be ready. Right. Yeah.

[16:48] That Iran... [16:49] Ayatollah Buttigieg. [16:52] So I'm realizing that I'm going to have to... [16:56] Moving the honeymoon from Strait of Hormuz to Karg Island was probably a mistake. [17:13] That is insane. They don't know. [17:16] Trump talks about this war like he can turn it off and on. The Iranians have a say. The Israelis have a say. There are 50,000 troops in the region, American troops in the region right now, all of whom are in some way exposed. Some of whom have been killed. Like, it's just – it's not up to him. They also – you know, they're like, well, maybe in a week or two we can get the Navy. You can start escorting ships through the Strait of Hormuz. Like, that doesn't seem like an easy mission either. No, that feels very expensive and time-consuming and maybe feasible. [17:46] the straight say they'll start after the end of hostilities so what's the point yeah when is the how are the hostilities ending so [18:02] Pod Save America is brought to you by HIMSS. HIMSS can't help you fold a fitted sheet, but it can help you with your performance in bed. Take control of ED with personalized treatments made with doctor-trusted ingredients, [18:15] prescribed by licensed providers 100% online. Hims offers access to ED treatment options ranging from personalized products to trusted generics that cost 95% less than brand names. If prescribed, you shouldn't have to go out of your way to feel like yourself. Hims brings expert care straight to you with 100% online access to personalized treatments that put your goals first. The goal,

[18:33] erections. This isn't a one-size-fits-all care. It couldn't be. Then forgets you're in the waiting room. It's your health and goals put first with real medical providers, making sure you get what you need to get results. Think of HIMSS as your digital front porch that gets you back to your old self. Put some oink in that hog with 100% online access to trusted treatments for ED and more all in one place. To get simple online access to personalized, affordable care for ED, weight loss, [19:01] And more. Visit HIMSS.com slash crooked. That's HIMSS.com slash crooked. For your free online visit, HIMSS.com slash crooked. Featured products include compounded drug products, which the FDA does not approve or verify for safety, effectiveness, or quality. Prescription required. See website for details, restrictions, and important safety information. Actual price will depend on product and subscription plan. [19:22] Pod Save America is brought to you by CookUnity. If you've got culinary taste, you know how expensive exploring your local food scene can get, or how hard it is to find the time and energy to try somewhere new, CookUnity is the first chef-to-use service delivering locally sourced meals from award-winning chefs right to your door every week, and it's cheaper than other delivery options. [19:52] I think they have a great breakfast burrito. There's so many good things from CookUnity. I get six meals a week, and that's just six times either for lunch or sometimes for dinner, where I just know that I have like, this is what I'm having. It has, I always get the kind, you can get all different kinds. You can get no carbs or whatever, but I always get one that has like, make sure I have a protein and a vegetable, and I just feel good about it.

[20:11] Your food arrives fresh, never frozen in packaging that keeps meals fresh in the fridge for up to seven days. Cook Unity's packaging is compostable, recyclable, or reusable. There are hundreds of dishes to choose from. It's really a huge amount of choices. And the menu is updated constantly. Options for vegan, paleo, pescatarian, gluten-free, and more. Filter for soy, nut, and dairy-free options. Menus are posted two weeks in advance, so you have plenty of time to choose. [20:32] Experience chef quality meals every week delivered right to your door. Go to cookunity.com slash crooked or enter code crooked before checkout for 50% off your first week. That's 50% off your first week by using code crooked or going to cookunity.com slash crooked. [20:47] So, the war isn't getting any more popular here in America, and one way you can tell without even looking at a poll is by this well-timed and very courageous leak to Politico sourced to two senior Trump officials, one of whom texted that in the lead-up to striking Iran, Vice President J.D. Vance made his opposition known, is, quote, skeptical. [21:09] "worried about success, [21:11] and, quote, just opposes the war. Vance was asked about this while standing next to Trump in the Oval on Monday. [21:19] Here's what he said. [21:20] Are you completely on board with the current war on Iran? I know what you're trying to do, Phil. You're trying to drive a wedge between members of the administration, between me and the president. What the president said consistently, going back to 2015, and I agreed with him, is that Iran should not have a nuclear weapon. So there's no hesitation, given your past statements, with the current operation? Well, I think one big difference, Phil, is that we have a smart president, whereas in the past we've had dumb presidents. And I trust President Trump to get the job done.

[21:49] . [21:50] So that should do it, huh? [21:54] It's a... [21:56] Too cute by half, I would say, from J.D. Vance. Too cute by half. And there's been a series of stories about people gunning for Rubio, the real kind of behind-the-scenes jockeying, people who want to draft Rubio. And I don't know how plausible that really is, but what I take all of it to mean is just... [22:14] discomfort with Vance and the way Vance is just such a kind of like sleazy and like sleazy operator. Trump is a sleazy operator, but not in a way that you like him at the end of it the way the others do. And so they look to Rubio as an alternative just because like Vance is just so full of shit. [22:30] First of all, Phil knows what he did. [22:32] There. You know, Phil was being pretty divisive. Like every time Vance gets this question, he has to whine and cry about the question itself and the questioner. I know you're I know you're trying to do here, Pablo. It's like, first of all. [22:46] That was not convincing. Like, I don't, like, you could watch Trump's face. I don't think it convinced Trump. [22:52] In that moment that that Vance wasn't trying to put some distance between himself and the policy. The idea that Vance thinks he can run away from a policy this consequential when he's the vice president is insane to me. Maybe he thinks he can position himself in 2028 as being less hawkish than Marco Rubio. But like. [23:11] I don't know how he does that. You're not getting any love from the isolationist wing of the party. Yeah, I don't know. Rubio has just as much stink on him, if not more, than J.D. Vance for this war, for any foreign policy adventure. Rubio is the national security advisor and the secretary of state. He's been one of the public faces, one of the few public faces. No, that's what I'm saying. I think maybe J.D. could argue that Rubio is more hawkish than he is. Oh, I thought you were saying – sorry, no, no. You were saying that maybe they turned to Rubio. I think only – not because of any kind of policy difference, but because just – they don't like J.D. Vance.

[23:41] likable guy is just like full of shit they want to like rubio is smart enough to your point to know that there's no way to run away from being tied to this he's embracing it fully because it's his job to embrace i think he's more prone to being like he has a sort of neocon instincts more than vance does but he knows he's got to own this so he's owning it 100 the idea that you know jd vance is gonna uh be reluctantly the face of the war in iran like it doesn't make him like to use an old joke it doesn't make him a better person it just makes him a worse prostitute you know [24:11] Thank you. [24:12] The broader setup here is there's all these stories that Trump is polling everyone about who they like better. Is it Marco or is it J.D.? And it's like he did it to a bunch of donors down to Mar-a-Lago. And I think all the donors in Mar-a-Lago preferred Rubio. And maybe that's because they're in Florida. Maybe it's because of rich guys. Maybe it's because J.D. Vance is a prick. Maybe it's because Rubio has been around longer. But, yeah, I think they're both – [24:32] covered in the stink of this war. And this opens up a real, like... [24:37] isolationist wing in the Republican primary next time that could be filled by someone like a Tucker Carlson or like, I don't know, Rand Paul suggesting he might run. The Tucker thing seems to me the most plausible result of this, right? Because you, so let's say the war ends next week or a couple weeks, right? And, you know, it is obviously destabilizing for quite a long time, but like there isn't any giant catastrophe with, you know, more, a ton of U.S. casualties and we're, you

[25:07] And J.D. Vance thinks, okay, well, when it comes time for the primary, it's not really going to get brought up that much anyway. And maybe if I get asked about it, I can say, well, I think everyone knows for sure. Back then I got some shit for it that I wasn't exactly for the war, and then that's fine. But in any scenario where this is still a problem, where there are real consequences for this war, I think that there is no way that J.D. Vance or Marco Rubio are ever going to be able to run away from this. [25:37] Even if some donors like Rubio and some of the party establishment decides to like Rubio, which you could see, whatever's left of the establishment, or Vance, all the energy in a Republican primary is going to be for the Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, anti-war, calling themselves America first, Marjorie Taylor Greene, whatever it is. That side of the party, that's going to have the energy in a primary, and J.D. Vance is going to get killed, and so is Rubio. [26:03] Even if, look, let's hope this is not something that is dominating the news a year from now, I still think this has such a big... [26:11] I don't know how J.D. Vance is going to go around saying he's not for wars in the Middle East after this because they did. They ran that. That was exactly what they said. And now we're in the middle of it. And I think it's a genuine conviction on the part of a lot of the not just like the Megyn Kelly's of the world, but the podcast, like the kind of big influencers, like a lot of voices on the right. And they're just not going to forget this. It's not going to be able to walk back. And by the way, political opportunity is just so great. And J.D. Vance is not going to be able to walk it. Like Donald Trump is going to be around.

[26:41] run away from Donald Trump. I find that hard to believe. I do wonder there, like the way that Trump was, Trump was like, seemed completely fine. There didn't seem perturbed. Like, I wonder if Trump was like, well, I made the decision if you need it for politics to just, I wonder if Trump is okay with that. [26:55] Is what I was wondering. Like, you know, it's hard to tell. I can't tell either. I was trying to watch his face and it was not clear to me whether he was annoyed or not. I mean, as this thing goes, continues and gets worse, I'm sure he'll get increasingly angry at everyone around him. But if I ran against him, I would say, J.D., you can tell us now that you were opposed to this war. But when the chips were down, you were feckless and then you were silent. Yeah. Were you were you were you did you agree with it or were you just weak and ineffective inside of the administration? And by the way, like Rand Paul is one thing. [27:25] Because he's not going to be able on a debate stage to get away with the kind of hemming and hawing that he's doing in this room over and over again. Were you for it or not? Were you against it or not? Now, the smart politics for Trump would be to let J.D. Vance like have that other position. You know, I mean, honestly, even what even what Trump did there was better to J.D. Vance than what fucking Joe Biden did to Kamala Harris on Gaza. [27:50] Right. And I don't know. According to all the reporting privately, yes, privately, privately telling her no daylight certainly wasn't. That's what I'm saying. Like she could have staked out a position where she voiced her honest criticisms about Gaza. And now we've seen from all the reporting that he didn't want her to do even that. Yeah. Which just to be clear, was both, you know, that Kamala had agency there, too. So Joe Biden didn't make Kamala. No, that is that is true. It was interesting to me that Trump is like, let this go and not had a big problem.

[28:20] Are we going to be in a situation where Donald Trump gives more space to his VP to operate than Joe Biden did? I think it's possible. So the political blowback over the war is clearly getting to Trump. On Sunday night, he falsely accused U.S. media outlets of working with Iran to amplify fake news about Iran and said that those outlets, quote, should be brought up on charges of treason. [28:51] Trump then spent his flight home to D.C. attacking reporters for asking even the most basic questions about Iran. Let's listen. [29:20] I'm pretty friendly because our media companies, who have no credit for any of us about putting out information that they know is false, that it's a very dangerous thing for the country. I think they can handle serious damage.

[29:50] I think it's maybe the most corrupt news organization. [30:13] Yeah, it seems bad. [30:14] Yeah, he does that, so it doesn't lead to... No, but Trump does that. He calls people he doesn't like treasonous and says he's going to bring them up on charges. I think the... [30:26] Car stuff is more important because... [30:30] The threat itself is enough to try to intimidate people into kind of hesitating. [30:35] Even if he never acts on it, people knowing that the FCC chair is watching this closely, maybe just worry about a headline a little bit more that seems to be antagonistic to the administration. I think it's really important. [30:47] dangerous. Even Brendan Carr said that the government shouldn't censor speech. It doesn't like that. The FCC does not have a roving mandate to police speech in the name of the public [30:57] interest and like the idea that he has now made himself the kind of assignment editor and national ombudsman of the media while kind of posting ai ai meme slop from the white house uh like that to me is really dangerous and more dangerous than trump being in a bad mood because his war is going poorly and he doesn't like the coverage because brenny carr is doing thinking about this all day every day [31:19] Yeah, I think it's worth remembering how bad the

[31:22] media coverage was in the run-up to the Iraq War and how all the anti-war voices were centered. Because thinking back to then, like the structural setup was... [31:32] For example, NBC is owned by GE, which is like one of the biggest contractors of the Pentagon. Then you have reporters embedded with the U.S. military and their networks booking like current and former military guests. So you're constantly getting the pro-military perspective from that little silo. Fox News is branding anyone who opposes the war as anti-American. But even MSNBC was canceling their number one show with Phil Donahue because they were worried he was too anti-war. Then you have Judy Miller at The New York Times laundering intelligence for the Bush administration. [32:02] and it's like a bad setup. It's very easy to be pro-war. It's very hard to be against these wars, and the natural instinct is to be patriotic, and there's limitations in coverage that come from logistics and the nature of the Pentagon and how these things work. So you don't need to have Brendan Carr running around for the media to be tilted in a pro-war way already, but adding that on top of it I think is a really big deal and a pretty dangerous development [32:32] knows things are going badly. Well, it's also worth pointing out how absurd the complaints are with the coverage here, which is like, first of all, what Trump was talking about is that there was like an image of, you know, Iranians celebrating the new supreme leader in the streets, and it turned out that it was AI and it wasn't that many people. Now, like, that was a, I don't even remember, like, there's not a lot of US media outlets that were making that a huge thing.

[33:02] about accurate crap counts. I was going to say, like, that was, so that's his complaint. The other, the real complaints are that the media is, what, reporting, as Pete Hegseth said the other week, that it's front page news that Americans died in a war. That's the complaint now. Yeah, like, they had something. We're talking about American deaths in a war, and we're asking things like, hey, how long is the war going to ask, and are you going to send men and women into Iran on the ground and risk their lives? Just, like, basic questions like that. [33:32] I believe Wall Street Journal story about a number of planes that were damaged by an Iranian bomb and how damaged they were. He's like sort of dancing on the head of a pin. Hegseth on the end of last week in sort of petulant, childish way was like, I can't wait for David Ellison to take over CNN. Like they're all just petulant. Like with Donald Trump, like in that moment, what he really is saying is you're also fucking negative. You're asking me about all. You're just being negative. You're just a negative. You're not talking about all the good stuff we're doing. [34:02] stuff that is both terrible, but also wounds my ego, the fact that Americans have died. That's an insult to me, because it makes me look bad, because I'm the one who caused those Americans to die, which he did, right? By launching this war, he invited what was going to be a response, and now Americans are dead because of it. He doesn't like to be confronted with that. That's what this is really about. Yeah. I think it's also worth pointing out that, like, Brendan Carr's threat is completely empty. I mean, he can try, but, like, from a legal standpoint.

[34:32] licenses for local television networks. And Brian Stelter and some others looked into this. You start to try to threaten to take away a local broadcaster's [34:43] broadcasting license because of what um in act you know just made up inaccurate coverage which he can't cite it's just not going to happen now he can still threaten them and as we saw with the kimmel thing like you threaten the local broadcasters and then maybe you get the parent companies like the abcs and nbcs to worry a little bit but like it's the whole thing is just like crazy fucking bluster but it's meant to intimidate you know and it's like and and i think that's the trump treason thing is too because like yeah trump's not going to bring them up on charges [35:13] you know, the DOJ has been charging people left and right or trying to charge people left and right. And he also has sued a bunch of people personally. Yeah, I was like it. I think it's more than bluster. Like Trump is threatening people. He's threatening people with DOJ prosecution. But then they kind of, you know, we just saw that the prosecution against the Fed chair got thrown out by a judge. Like they have running into that sort of the brute incompetence of his DOJ. Like Brendan Carr can. [35:40] can tie things up he can get all the affiliates to be worried get the affiliates starting to be worried that the parent company is going to cause a problem like this can be like we saw that with but like we can he has a lot of just the the threat i think is really dangerous and yes obviously you don't need to be like a constitutional scholar to know that the fcc can't decide what the news is on behalf of these organizations but that doesn't mean he can't do a lot of damage and get uh the the network lawyers to become a little bit less permissive and then all of a sudden they have had

[36:10] on what we're seeing without us ever even knowing it. - Yeah, my only argument is that, [36:14] It's not it's not that it's it's just bluster. It's that Brendan Carr's threats and Donald Trump's threats are the same level of dangerous because I think that legally Brendan Carr doesn't have as much power as he thinks he is. But the threat from Carr and the threat from Trump, the goal is intimidation and it probably can work. [36:31] Trump isn't just targeting mainstream outlets over their Iran coverage. He's pissed at Trump-friendly pundits, too. One of his deranged Sunday night posts was a lengthy defense of right-wing warmonger Mark Levin against the right-wing pundits who criticized him over Iran, like Megyn Kelly, Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens. Trump called Levin's critics, quote, jealous and angry human beings who, quote, are not MAGA and, quote, will quickly fall by the wayside. [37:01] calling her evil and diabolical. And so Kelly tweeted back at Levin, quote, I'm sorry you have a micropenis, but don't drag the rest of us into your drama. Very importantly, Marjorie Taylor Greene jumped in to say that, quote, MAGA has been destroyed by micropenis Mark Levin. Is she right? [37:26] So... [37:27] Where did micropenis come in? Like, it's just from. A loaded question, yeah. Right. Well, we know where, you know. [37:34] We know where it ends, we just don't know where it begins. I feel like the whole feud's been inching towards that for a while now. Right, right. Obviously, we're not going to dive too deep into it, but...

[37:43] Uh, [37:44] Megan Kelly just as Mark Levin as a micropenis. Not a grower or a shower. This is just the tip of a much smaller iceberg. Right, right. No, I know. And it's just creating a surprising amount of motion in the ocean. Very little friction. She tried to explain it in a lengthy video. You watched that whole video. I did, too. I did as well. I started and I got out. Oh, it's great. Did you want to? Well, the short version, the TLDR is Megan Kelly was mean to Mark Levin. [38:14] So Levin called Daddy Trump to send a tweet defending him against the mean woman who is not nice to him, who is Megyn Kelly. I think this fight dates back to the last buildup to the Iran war. [38:28] If we want to get into that, I mean, like Levin is very hawkish. He's in favor of bombing Iran. He's very favor of Israel and Netanyahu in particular. Mark Levin. Do you know that Mark Levin went and sat in the audience at Netanyahu's trial in Israel? Like that's how much of a buddy is. And then Tucker Carlson at the time, this is last June or the run up to the June war, was very against the war. Also not a big fan of Israel. Also not a fan of Netanyahu. He converged into anti-Semitism. And then so the two started going to war over this policy. And then Charlie Kirk gets dragged in. [38:58] And you sprinkle in like a tablespoon of Candace Owens. You got a dash of Ben Shapiro, you know, like a little bit of Nick Fuentes. And now this is just a full on MAGA media war. And there's some polling that shows that MAGA is for whatever Trump is for. And I think that is generally true.

[39:16] But Megyn Kelly and Tucker Carlson, they are attuned to their audiences and they know what is getting downloads and attention and they watch the data. So I don't think they go down this path that they didn't feel like there was an audience for it. And there's also polling that shows that US views towards Israel have changed dramatically since 2023. Dramatically. Including among Republicans, nine point shift in favorability among Republicans. I think there's things happening under the surface. So Trump might be MAGA and that might be the case for now. [39:46] And there are major shifts happening under the surface. Some of it is foreign policy, like we talked about with J.D. Vance. Some of it is support for Israel. But we get to enjoy the fruits of it in the form of a micropenis. Yeah, under the surface and... [39:59] you know, under, under Mark Levin's pants. It's really, it's really, it's, it's actually like really been popping off, but the, yeah. To your question, Lovett, though, basically she says, uh, so he like tweeted about her a hundred times and said all these vile shit about her. And she said like, you know, I, I sent a few brushback tweets, uh, as she has want to do. And, um, [40:18] Then she said, you know, and I just then I just decided to just reveal that he has a micropenis. Not that she's not that I've seen it myself, but clearly we've all been exposed to it because someone who acts that hawkish and tries to overcompensate clearly has a micropenis. Like, that's just something that, you know. Yeah. She said, thankfully, I've never had to look at it firsthand, but you can just tell. Then she goes, when they go low, we go micropenis. [40:39] And then she said, so obviously Trump's truth social post was drafted by Levin and Levin's post thanking the president is equally long. It was the only thing that is. Wow. That's good. When they go low, we go small. That's good. That would have been. And I know. And like Ben Shapiro has been basically challenging.

[40:57] Megyn Kelly and others to denounce Candace Owens, which I don't think she has done. Yeah. Or at least not to his satisfaction. And so there is this, it's a real, like, [41:06] Yeah. And it is, like, nothing is more upsetting than... [41:11] to a right-wing figure than to be treated like a Democrat. It's like the most horrible, like they can't understand what's like, what, why are you talking this way about me? I'm not one of those people. You're not supposed to talk this way. And like, it's a shocking experience. Speaking of Tucker, did you guys see that he said he thinks that the administration might charge him with, under a FARA violation, acting as an agent of a foreign power for talking to people in Iran before the war, which he claims they knew he was doing because the CIA read his texts? [41:40] Yeah, so I didn't watch the whole episode Tucker did on this. He did like a five-minute clip that I did watch. It is certainly possible, if not quite likely, that if Tucker was emailing with some Iranian officials, that gets picked up by the NSA or somebody, and maybe that can get reviewed. I find it very unlikely that the government would then tell him that or that he would have committed a crime in the process. I don't get how that's a FARA violation or any kind of violation. And there's been some other anonymous sources batting it down, saying, no, no, no one's going to charge Tucker, which is obviously, you know. [42:10] I don't want to see Tucker Carlson charged with a crime for simply talking to people and doing journalism. I don't want that to happen. [42:19] Candace Owens said that if it happens... [42:21] We ride it, Don. [42:22] But where? So I guess, are we joining that as well? Yeah. First Amendment Protect Crazy Town. Yeah, I think the Ben Shapiro feud with Megyn Kelly is that...

[42:32] Ben wants Megan to denounce Candace for saying that Erica Kirk... [42:39] got Charlie Kirk killed. Right. And she won't. Yeah, the Candace stuff on that is getting real bleak over there. She's a disturbed individual. [42:55] This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Spring is in the air and while you're checking off organizational tasks on your spring cleaning to-do list, it's important not to forget about yourself. Therapy offers a space to slow down and stretch out when your mind feels overwhelmed with clutter. BetterHelp therapists work according to a strict code of conduct and are fully licensed in the U.S. BetterHelp does the initial matching work for you so you can focus on your therapy goals. A short questionnaire helps identify your needs and preferences and their 12 plus years of experience and industry-leading match. Fulfillment rate means they typically get it right the first [43:25] If you aren't happy with your match, switch to a different therapist at any time from their tailored recs. With over 30,000 therapists, BetterHelp is the world's largest online therapy platform, having served 6 million people globally. And it works with an average rating of 4.9 out of 5 for a live session based on over 1.7 million client reviews. Your emotional well-being matters. Find support and feel lighter in therapy. Sign up and get 10% off at BetterHelp.com. [43:55] com slash PSA. [44:01] Believe it or not, since it involves Trump, there's also a corruption angle to the Iran story.

[44:06] Last week, and we heard some of this in the clip, a PAC affiliated with Trump called Never Surrender, Inc. sent out a fundraising email featuring a photo of the president in front of a flag-draped coffin at the dignified transfer of six soldiers who were killed during the war's first week. [44:36] facing America. That news came after the New York Times reported that Jared Kushner, the president's second choice son-in-law and one of the United States lead negotiators in the Middle East, has been asking governments in the region to fund his private investment firm. Isn't that nice? Kushner's firm reportedly recently met with Saudi's Sovereign Wealth Fund, which already contributed $2 billion to the fund at the beginning of the Trump administration, and is planning to seek funding from the Sovereign Wealth Fund's [45:02] of the UAE and Qatar. [45:05] Where do you guys all want to start? Fundraising for your pack off of the death of American soldiers or fundraising for your investment fund off of your alleged role as the diplomat tasked with ending two wars? What's worse? What do you think? [45:19] I don't know. [45:21] Really one of the most disgusting images I think I've ever seen. Shocking. Actually shocking. He's there in that white hat. There's a literal coffin in the image. You're using the coffin of a dead service member to raise money. [45:35] unconscionable in any other era would be a massive ongoing scandal if the president were asked about it he would immediately say it was a terrible mistake that the person who was responsible would be fired it would still be a big scandal there would be apologies there'd be across the board condemnation from democrats and republicans but this is just a blip because it's donald

[45:58] Trump. [45:59] Thank you. [45:59] Yeah, I had the same reaction. I mean, it was genuinely shocking how tasteless it was, but also how politically stupid it was. I mean, I can't... [46:08] fire that person. That's criminally stupid. And by the way, as this is happening, there are GoFundMes going around for... [46:15] the families of these dead service members, um, that I don't think Donald Trump is supporting. So it's, um, [46:20] Yeah, chalking. [46:22] Anyone want to TF on Jared? [46:24] I'm going to take the over on it, all right, because Jared Kushner... [46:28] And Whitcoff and maybe the other bozos, real sons, potentially making money on this is the only way I can see to warn Iran. [46:37] ending with the... [46:39] The the most recent living Ayatollah in the Oval Office with Trump talking about how beautiful the Strait of Hormuz is and like what a beautiful property is going to be. And actually, I didn't know till Jared showed me how beautiful it is. It's a beautiful place. All I think about is, you know, remember we were talking about the mines, always all about the mines. The mines is going to be beautiful to be a fantastic place. And we're so grateful to the new Ayatollah for recognizing Israel. It's going to be a beautiful property. New head of the Palestinian Authority will be there, too, to talk about all the new high rises in Gaza. [47:09] So the younger. So, yeah, that to me, I'm going to take the over on that one. I think the corruption is good. Yeah. So Jared left the administration, started this investment fund, and he raised a bunch of money from the Saudis, billions from the Saudis, a bunch of money from the Qataris and Emiratis. And that to me felt like kickbacks for services already rendered. And there was always reporting at the time that, you know, the professionals at the sovereign wealth funds did not want to invest with Jared, but they were overruled by like MBS and other political actors.

[47:39] then went into the wilderness for a while. Now he's back. He's doing negotiations with the Russians, with Ukraine, he's doing stuff in Gaza. Now he's part of the Iran talks. And he said that he would not be making any money off the Board of Peace. He would not be raising money from the Gulf countries that he's working with. Of course, that was a lie. To avoid conflicts, he said that too. Use the words. And now he's trying to get more money for, I guess, for future favors. Also, [48:09] that the Russians are providing intelligence to the Iranians to help them kill U.S. service members. I saw that the guy who runs the Russian Sovereign Wealth Fund was back down to Miami for meetings with Jared and Witkoff, presumably at one of their homes. Also, we're removing sanctions on the oil, which is going to give them more money. So we're ostensibly funding now both sides of this conflict, and also strengthening Russia and Ukraine at the same time. Yep, and the Emiratis bought 50% or 49% of the crypto company that the Trump family started. [48:39] that I almost wasn't surprised by Jared raising this money. But it's just it's so frustrating because this man doesn't have a government job. He has no official role. There's no oversight. There's no nothing. [48:51] But he's like out there briefing reporters as a senior administration official. Yep. Yep. Even though he's supposed to not be having an actual role in the government, except his role is apparently to cosplay making peace and then raising a bunch of money for his fund. Good for Jared. Yeah. Like over the weekend, I just was hearing from.

[49:10] from different people and, uh, [49:12] I have friends with family in Iran, and they were talking about how they just are waiting. [49:19] for [49:20] uh regular updates when the member of their family can get wi-fi just to say that that he's safe right like that's what that's what they're living in between like thankfully some members of the family got out before but now they just just they're always really nervous they hope everything's okay and they just wait for when the internet's working to get a regular update and then at the same time i was hearing uh from uh family friends about an elderly relative in israel who is uh infirmed and so it is difficult for her to get in and out of shelters when there are bomb uh sirens [49:50] just really difficult it's hard on the health and it and you just like the real world consequences of this are [49:57] just nowhere for for these people like there's the actual day-to-day the sheer scale of what they've unleashed right the amount of people impacted by this the number of people who are getting killed and whose lives have been upended like the chaos they've unleashed it just feels so abstract to them even now two weeks into it for for kushner obviously for wickhoff but for trump which is why when he's asked about the dead service members or anything like that he's like almost angry to be confronted by the actual reality of what he's done because he wants to [50:27] that he's telling himself. But as Orwell had said, as famously quoted by Christy fucking Noem, war is the one thing that intercedes on an authoritarian, right? The reality of a war, you can't pretend it's not happening. And that's what's happening. And the Pentagon has been hiding the true casualty count. We don't really know. But I saw today, the Washington Post, I think, reported that 200 service members have been wounded as well. So there's a lot of people getting hurt. And also, add to your list of real human beings impacted

[50:57] 100,000 people who have been evacuated from their homes in lebanon because the israelis are basically telling everyone who lives within like 25 miles of the border that they have to leave Do you see the israelis announced today too that they're not allowed back? [51:11] I think what's happening here, I think this is going to go, I think what's happening in Lebanon is going to go on a lot longer than what's happening in Lebanon. [51:17] iran and that it's going to end with israel trying to permanently occupy a lot of lebanese territory sounds like they want to if they're not going to let fucking 800 000 people return to their homes and neither they're there now they're just learned it in gaza and so now they're evacuating like major swaths of beirut which is a huge city just using the opportunity of the conflict to uh pursue their larger purposes in the region which trump is totally fine with and huckabee is totally fine with there's no breaks [51:42] Yeah. Hezbollah, obviously terrible organization, kills indiscriminately, kills Israelis, kills Druze, kills Christians in Lebanon as well. But yeah, I mean, the idea that it's strategically smart to undertake this massive operation as you're in the midst of a war with Iran, it feels like a bad idea. And it's just more of a cynical way to use everyone being distracted to do things you always wanted to do. [52:05] So speaking of corruption, the Times also published a piece over the weekend about the stock trading habits of Senator Mark Wayne Mullen. Trump's pick to replace Christine Ohm at DHS. Mullen reportedly bought shares in Chevron, the only U.S. oil supplier with an active operation in Venezuela, five days before the United States attacked the country and later vowed to take over oil operations.

[52:35] It's just a coincidence. After selling his company, this is from the Times story too. After selling his company in 2021, Mullen reported fewer than 30 stock trades in 2022. In 2023, his first year as a senator, that jumped to 100. [52:48] So suddenly he just is trading a lot of stock these days. And his assets originally when he got to the Senate were between $2.8 and $9 million when he first got to the House. Now it's between $29 million and $97 million. Jesus. Guess he did some good trading, huh? Yeah, it's good work, Jude. What do you guys think about Mark Wayne Mullins? He's got a confirmation hearing this Thursday. It is very tempting, I imagine, for Democrats to focus on this story in the hearing. But what do you guys think? [53:19] Divide and conquer. I mean, this should be a part of it. Someone should dig in on this because Donald Trump in the State of the Union, one of his biggest applause lines was banning stock trading. And he wants to make it all about Pelosi and her preventing that from happening. And frankly, Pelosi has not been good on this issue. And it really sucks because it makes Democrats look bad. But members of Congress should not be allowed to buy and sell individual stocks. It is an absolute no-brainer that they should have their assets in a blind trust or something. They should not be buying and selling crypto. [53:48] market or calci the bet on events i mean like it is i i will never believe it's a coincidence this guy bought a bunch of chevron stock five days before we toppled the dictator in venezuela and installed a much more oil friendly dictator in venezuela yeah it was a third party it was a third party yeah sure i well which and if you read that statement there's definitely like even even if you take the statement as being accurate which i don't know that necessarily you can there's plenty of room inside of that statement for him to be doing whatever he wants yeah they should not be trading

[54:18] individual stocks because we're not stock traders. And the only reason it would make sense for members of Congress to be trading stock is because they have insider information. Even an example they were proud of in the story, there was a member of Congress who was on a board and was bragging about the company to everybody on the committee. So that's one of the reasons people were buying stock in that. What are we doing here? Chris Collins. And he went to jail. Well, he went to jail, was part of it. Well, not for that specific thing. I know. He goes to jail for insider trading, for not that, not the one he was most proud of. [54:48] And Trump pardoned him because he doesn't believe in insider trading. He thinks that's just good trading. And we also have all, by the way, God only knows what these people are doing on the betting markets, which we don't have any insight into, where they're trading with insider information. Because the only way it makes sense is because these trades on like Calci and Polymarket are because of insider information. So of course it should be banned. And by the way, the disclosure rules should be better. Why on earth do we have ridiculous ranges where we find out how much money they have between nine and 90 million? [55:18] Congress to make it kind of confusing how much money they have and how much money they've made. We should have more disclosure for them more frequently. There's a whole bunch of reforms that would make this less of an issue.

[55:38] BOTS of America is brought to you by HIA. Some children's vitamins on the market today contain up to 7 grams of sugar. [55:43] Per serving and are stuffed with artificial additives and petroleum-based dyes. Haya took the opposite approach. Zero sugar, zero gummy additives, just clean nutrition. Working alongside pediatricians and nutrition scientists, Haya created a superpower chewable vitamin. The packs a blend of 12 organic fruits and vegetables plus 15 essential vitamins and minerals into every dose. [56:01] The ingredient list is clean, non-GMO, vegan, dairy-free, allergy-free, gelatin-free, nut-free. [56:06] They thought of everything designed for kids to an up. Hi, I ship straight to your door. You get this awesome reusable bottle with your first order and then they send refills every month. [56:14] Tommy, you have children. You know, I was over at the Fabros house the other day, and Charlie had just solved Fermat's last theorem. Oh, he did. And it turns out the previous proof was wrong, so he really actually was the first one ever to solve it. Oh, that's great. I'm glad they finally cleared that up. What is – I can't even remember what Fermat's last – what is this about? A to the n plus B to the n equals C to the n. Oh, yes, because obviously we all know A squared plus B squared equals C squared, but it turns out there are no integers for which – [56:39] anything above two can be solved. But the question is, is that true? It wasn't an elegant proof until Charlie started taking Haya Vitamins, which he loves. [56:47] Uh, and I think the Favros are struggling to get him to eat those green vegetables. Uh, but Haya's kids daily greens plus superfood is a total game changer for that too. It's basically chocolate milk stuffed veggies. It's a greens powder that's packed with 55 whole food source ingredients. Just one scoop with milk or milk alternative and watch them actually enjoy something that's secretly fueling their growing bodies. I really would like Charlie Favro to turn his, his sights on the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics, because I think that thing's ready to go. I think that's, I'm excited for that. Let's challenge the Copenhagen interpretation.

[57:17] We've worked out a special deal for Haya for their best-selling children. Vitamin received 50% off your first order. To claim this deal, you must go to HayaHealth.com slash Crooked. This deal is not available on their regular website. Go to H-I-Y-A-H-E-A-L-T-H.com slash Crooked and get your kids the full body nourishment they need to grow into healthy adults. [57:39] So, one kind of fun, kind of pathetic story before we go. You may have noticed the recent trend of Trump just giving random interviews to any reporter who calls him. It turns out there's a reason everyone now has access to the president's personal cell phone number. The Atlantic reported over the weekend, and then Semaphore followed up as well, that Trump's number has become the biggest open secret in Washington, with journalists openly trading it among themselves. [58:07] have been using it to regularly call the president, the White House advisors have stopped keeping track of who's calling. And according to one White House official, as many as, quote, 10 reporters will call in a matter of two hours. Trump, unsurprisingly, loves the attention. He apparently has gotten into the habit of keeping his phone screen face up during meetings to just watch the notifications roll in. Roll in. Loves it. Trump aides have said that at the moment they have no intention of changing the number and have no plan to stop more people from getting a hold of it. You guys have it yet? [58:37] Yeah. Yes. Should we give him a call? I got it. You got it? Yeah. I got it from a reporter. [58:41] Let's call him. I'll call him now. Do we have a plan? What are we going to say? I was just going to call and say, Tom Vitor from Pod Save America calling on a recorded line. How are you? Great. Recorded line. Oh, that's important.

[58:53] A West Palm Beach number. [58:54] Thank you. [58:55] Thank you. [58:57] Beep. [58:59] It'd be so awkward when he calls me back after we're not recording. [59:02] You think he calls back? I don't think he... No. He just... [59:07] Receiver of calls. This could be the last call. [59:13] Didn't we prank Rudy Giuliani once? Sean Hannity. Boy, did he get the last laugh. [59:21] Sorry, guys. Didn't deliver on that one. You think he's checking his voicemails? Well, I'm sure what happened... [59:27] with me today was I sent two texts to people who I thought might have the number and one of them gave them me the number and right I mean there's been a bunch of news because of the story how easy it is to get it so maybe today was the last day but now he's finally got to change his number like whenever his emails were in that sony hack yes yes because it sounds like there was one someone wrote a piece on the the Atlantic piece on this made it sound like I think one reporter kind of figured this out early it was like Garrett Hawk or somebody and got Trump's reaction to something [59:57] dropping out by dropping out really early on and had a scoop and then every other reporter was like oh this dude is just taking calls from presno also i think maybe next time love it or i should try because we have 202 numbers and so he probably sees 202 and says oh it's dc and you you don't have a 202 no i'll let her rip well we'll try again we'll try again we'll try it once an episode okay great i like that i like that uh uh just to see remember when biden would do an interview

[1:00:27] Send in your ideas. Send in your questions. When to ask the president. [1:00:30] In case we get them on the horn. [1:00:33] Get him on the blower. You know? What gives you hope? I have to – there's a whole story about – the story is – This person, three books. Yeah, right. How do I convince my relative who loves Trump – [1:00:44] To not vote for him anymore. Where's the climate pod, you fucks? [1:00:50] So, apparently, like, CEOs and crypto bros are offering money for the number. This is in the story. Sure, yeah. There's a couple other funny parts. Here we go. One of them says, like, everyone's calling. You know, they're like, not just the big outlets, but, like, the smaller outlets. Us now, you know. But then it says, the administration officials say, Substack authors have started to call, forcing White House staff to look up names they don't recognize. That's so funny. Oh, no, the Substack authors. Well, we didn't talk about this, that today – [1:01:19] And twice, in his two different press events today, he made reference to a former president who he likes, who said he was right to go in to Iran. And then he's asked – And said, wish I had done that. Yeah, he said, wish I had done that. And then he's asked by Ducey later that day, who are you referring to? Was it George W. Bush? No. Was it Bill Clinton? I'm not saying. But you know it's from these endless – from him being on the fucking phone all the time.

[1:01:49] rate about being unfairly treated over Jeffrey Epstein. A hundred percent. I feel like that's 99%. I mean, it's not Barack Obama. I have a hard time believing it, because he also said he's like, someone I actually like, but it wouldn't be good for their career. Well, they don't have much of a career anywhere at this point. Well, I mean, it's for a former president. That's what I'm saying. So we think it's got to be... Or... [1:02:09] as he often does. He's just lying. He could be making it up. But I mean, Clinton, Biden, Obama. I do not think Barack Obama is talking to Trump on the phone saying he wished he had bombed Iran. It's not Obama. Don't think it's Obama. So I think it's Clinton, Biden or Bush. Doesn't make sense for it to be Bush the way he's talking about it. Probably not Biden. So you're really like the Clinton people. The Clinton people are saying it wasn't him. I mean, which I may not know. They may not know. I don't know if they're Jimmy Carter. [1:02:39] I wish I had gone into him. Not before this current operation. When did Jimmy Carter die? Was it before or after Midnight Hammer? It was before Midnight Hammer. Do you think peace advocate and Nobel Peace Prize winner Jimmy Carter in his hundredth year got on the phone with Donald Trump and said, God damn it, I wish I fucking bombed Iran? I mean, it did fuck up his administration. It did fuck his whole presidency up. Hey, listen, let's put him on the list. It's tough to be. I bet he had a conversation with Bill Clinton where he mentions Iran and in Trump's [1:03:09] if you ask Clinton about the conversation, Clinton didn't say that. Well, that's what I would. Two guys that are famously great at remembering what they said. That's what I'm getting at. That's what I'm getting at. I think we have just a serious thing about how accessible Donald Trump is, because this goes to what we were talking about earlier, which is like, oh, he's calling people treasonous. Like, he is incredibly accessible, and I do not think a Democrat needs to be as accessible as this, but, like, man, there is value to having Donald Trump, like, in there every day communicating non-stop.

[1:03:39] Somebody that that represent us to learn like, man, how much space he has to move because he's out there time after time after time, just sort of new layer of paint, you know, like just new layer of paint, new layer of paint. And yeah, sure. The windows don't open anymore because they're sealed shut from fucking paint. You can't access the outlets because there's so much paint. But man, do we think it is? Do we think it is? It's certainly better for freedom of the press, for sure. It's probably better for the public to have the president be more accessible. [1:04:09] much more accessible than Joe Biden was. Do we think it has been good for Trump to be this accessible in this administration with his sub 40, his 40% approval rating? [1:04:19] I think that he definitely gets a lot of flexibility and leeway for doing so many reps. I think he's figured out how to make scandals go away a little bit faster. Not all of them. Epstein didn't go away. It was alive for months and months. It's still alive. I think in this instance of Iran, he's taken like 30 phone calls from reporters and given 30 different messages. So that part has not helped him. Yeah. I also think that's part of his ability to control the narrative is not his choice to be accessible, [1:04:49] choice to kick out most reporters and not sit down for challenging questions or interviews from many people? Yes and no. We just watched him get the four hardest questions he could have gotten in any interview. His approval rating is 40%. He's the worst president in American history. I think it does inure him to what the coverage would look like if the space were filled by a voice other than his. And I think in ways that are subtle, him being so accessible kind of takes the teeth out of

[1:05:19] argument that he's a raging authoritarian looking to squash the free press and destroy American democracy. Being around him all the time, seeing him all the time, I think kind of blunts that a little bit, both for reporters and for Americans. I do. I think we don't know what it would look like for him to not be doing this much, but I don't think the fact that his approval rating is so low is because this doesn't work. [1:05:42] Yeah, I think that there's a difference between accessibility and – like, I think that because of Donald Trump, the expectation now among – [1:05:50] both journalists and probably a lot of Americans, is that their president will be constantly communicating about everything that happens all the time. And so I think that if you do not do that as a president, you will... [1:06:02] get yourself into trouble. Like, I think his constant style of communication is probably helpful. I think like, you know, being more accessible to reporters here and there is like, I think for him, it might be okay, because he's lying about everything anyway. And he's screaming at them all anyway. But like, I feel like the next Democratic president doing a million 30 interviews a day by phone is not going to redound to their benefit. No, I would say, well, we don't, we just don't have a counterfactual because it was, you know, Joe Biden was Joe Biden. And before [1:06:32] The press, I think the answer is somewhere between – it's not between Obama and Biden. It's between Trump and Obama as to how much access you'll want. And because I think the Obama style and someone who is as disciplined as Barack Obama being more accessible and being a little bit looser is probably the answer. Yeah, look, I think him freewheeling it is probably a net benefit. That said, just like in the Iran context again, like he –

[1:06:56] is a big shit right now because despite all this access, he did not prepare the country for what he was going to do. He didn't use the State of the Union to... [1:07:04] Lay out a plan. He hasn't really delivered a speech about what we're going to do in Iran. So I think it has harmed him in that he has come away as being unserious when he's doing like an event with the MLS soccer team about casualties in Iran and then telling like Lionel Messi that he looks hot. [1:07:21] that literally happened actually was the guy next to leon on se told him he was hot i forget his name but yeah and i just i've noticed that the the quality of the questions he gets is just lower because he doesn't face all the best reporters a couple good real reporters and then you'll have like lindell tv or whatever yeah like the way that sean mccreech asked that question i think last week about the school in iran yeah and just like the way that he not just the fact of the question but [1:07:51] I would just say, [1:07:52] I thought it was a great question. That is the hardest question I've ever seen a president asked. Like, I don't think you've ever seen a question phrased exactly like that, because we've never had a president that. Yeah, we've never. Well, that's the point, because that is the right. [1:08:05] That is the right way to ask a question of someone so despicable as Donald Trump. But it's hard to find that balance. But to your point, like, what was that, Friday, Thursday? Right. Like, so we're just saying that, like, oh, it's been a weekend since he was in a full press conference where half the questions were real and serious and tough questions. And half of them were foolish, dumb questions from like, if you just took the serious questions he's getting, he is taking probably far more serious questions. Forget Joe Biden than what Barack Obama took when Barack Obama was what we considered a very accessible president. I don't think that's true.

[1:08:35] Thank you. [1:08:35] serious questions. I can remember from Trump, you can remember the interviews where [1:08:42] Trump sitting down with Tapper, Trump sitting down with Savannah Guthrie, Trump sitting down with 60 Minutes. Like those are tough, real, difficult interviews. He like Peter Doocy is maybe one of the better ones when he's running. Caitlin and Caitlin Collins when she's allowed in there. But he does it with a light tush. Right. Like Caitlin's Caitlin's probably the best one in the press corps. There are some real reporters sprinkled in with some very stupid, ridiculous people. Look, I think Sean McCreish's question was great and good on him for asking. I think that used to be the norm. Yes. [1:09:12] And I think it was George H.W. Bush said that the United States should like be OK with assassinating foreign leaders. And he and his buddy ran around every event and asked him who he would kill first and why. And just ruin his whole like rollout event. And like that should be where we're at. Yeah. Well, yes. [1:09:31] And those were when when Barack Obama or George W. Bush or someone did a press conference, remember, it would be like you would set up the East Room, you'd set up a space. It was outside of the normal room. It was like you made a moment of it because it was like kind of less frequent. And then the questions were all very serious hitting on all the major news topics like Trump breaks that up. And like I don't need to do the actual math on the give and takes. But. [1:09:53] The fact that he is as accessible to the mainstream media as any president we've ever had. It's the truth. All right, well, including to us, hopefully. Yeah, call me back, sir. Okay. Should I text him? Oh, yeah. Just text him. Just a pick of me.

[1:10:08] I can text him. All right, guys, that's our show for today. Dan and I will be back with a new show on Friday. [1:10:16] If you want to listen to Pod Save America ad-free and get access to exclusive podcasts, [1:10:23] YouTube or Apple Podcasts. Also, please consider leaving us a review that helps boost this episode and everything we do here at Cricket. Pod Save America is a Cricket Media production. [1:10:33] Our producer is Saul Rubin. Our associate producer is Farrah Safari. Austin Fisher is our senior producer. Reid Cherlin is our executive editor. [1:10:40] Adrian Hill is our head of news and politics. The show is mixed and edited by Andrew Chadwick. Jordan Cantor is our sound engineer, with audio support from Kyle Seglin and Charlotte Landis. Matt DeGroat is our head of production. Naomi Sengel is our executive assistant. Thanks to our digital team, Elijah Cohn, Haley Jones, Ben Hefcoat, Mia Kelman, Carol Pellaviv, David Tolles, and Ryan Young. Our production staff is proudly unionized with the Writers Guild of America East. [1:11:09] . [1:11:14] you