The Most Unhinged 24 Hours of the Trump Era (So Far)
00:00:
(Sam Stein)
Hey everyone, it's me, Sam Stein.
00:01:
(Sam Stein)
I am the managing editor here at The Bulwark, and I'm joining you on a Saturday morning because some crazy stuff is happening.
00:08:
(Sam Stein)
Like, obviously crazy stuff happens all the time, but last night in Trump world, it was particularly wild.
00:16:
(Sam Stein)
So I want to step back before we get to last night's insanity, because we had a really crazy day even before that.
00:22:
(Sam Stein)
There was a whole host of things that were happening, for instance, among other things.
00:27:
(Sam Stein)
There was a story that came out that said RFK Jr., our HHS secretary, still uses psychedelics.
00:33:
(Sam Stein)
I thought that was really wild and may have even smoked.
00:36:
(Sam Stein)
I don't even know how to pronounce this.
00:37:
(Sam Stein)
Demethyltryptamine?
00:40:
(Sam Stein)
Geez, I don't even know.
00:41:
(Sam Stein)
Whatever.
00:41:
(Sam Stein)
It's a drug that makes you feel like you're close to death.
00:43:
(Sam Stein)
Don't smoke it.
00:44:
(Sam Stein)
That was just one.
00:45:
(Sam Stein)
We had another report.
00:46:
(Sam Stein)
The deputy FBI director, Dan Bongino.
00:48:
(Sam Stein)
may have not taken a polygraph test prior to getting hired for the job.
00:53:
(Sam Stein)
That's pretty wild stuff.
00:54:
(Sam Stein)
There was also the president melting down over the Epstein files where he called on the attorney general to just investigate the Democrats that were pretty overt about it.
01:04:
(Sam Stein)
He's just investigate the Democrats that were named in these files.
01:07:
(Sam Stein)
And then she said, sure, I'm on it.
01:09:
(Sam Stein)
And she appointed someone to do it.
01:10:
(Sam Stein)
It was just sort of
01:11:
(Sam Stein)
brazen.
01:12:
(Sam Stein)
And then there's another story that the DHS secretary had sent millions of dollars of ad contracts to a firm that had ties close to her.
01:18:
(Sam Stein)
Listen, any one of these alone would have been a salacious scandal, but it all happened in the 24 hour period.
01:24:
(Sam Stein)
And yet that's not the thing I want to focus on.
01:27:
(Sam Stein)
So there was a tweet yesterday that really caught my attention.
01:31:
(Sam Stein)
And it was by a guy who normally doesn't catch my attention for things other than wild conspiracies.
01:37:
(Sam Stein)
And it's a guy named Mike Cernovich.
01:38:
(Sam Stein)
Now you might know Mike Cernovich because
01:40:
(Sam Stein)
He's a conservative MAGA-ish operative who was integral in the Pizzagate scandal.
01:47:
(Sam Stein)
Anyways, he's fairly loyal to Trump, and you don't expect stuff like this from him.
01:52:
(Sam Stein)
But he put up a tweet yesterday about a visit he had taken to D.C., and this is what caught my eye.
01:58:
(Sam Stein)
Quote, the talk of everyone was how overt the corruption was.
02:02:
(Sam Stein)
It's at levels you read about in history books, in nearly every department.
02:06:
(Sam Stein)
Lots of, do people just think Democrats will never win and they'll all get away with this?
02:11:
(Sam Stein)
That really stood out.
02:13:
(Sam Stein)
You don't normally hear people say stuff like that from that side of the ledger, even though it's true.
02:20:
(Sam Stein)
And some of the things I just read you, overtly corrupts.
02:24:
(Sam Stein)
steering contracts to a firm that's tied to is overtly corrupt, for instance.
02:29:
(Sam Stein)
Another story that I didn't even mention is that they're in talks to make a settlement with Michael Flynn, Trump's old national security advisor, who was caught up in all the
02:37:
(Sam Stein)
Russiagate stuff and lying to the feds.
02:40:
(Sam Stein)
They want to settle for $50 million.
02:42:
(Sam Stein)
It's basically a payment from the DOJ.
02:45:
(Sam Stein)
Another thing that didn't even read you senators, Republican senators tucked into the government funding provision provision that allows them to sue the department of justice for $500,000 each.
02:56:
(Sam Stein)
because they access the metadata on their phone records, it's just a payoff.
03:00:
(Sam Stein)
And it's happening out in the open.
03:03:
(Sam Stein)
This is nothing to say of Trump getting his own potential settlement of $230 million or getting the Qataris to send him a jet that he says is going to be for Air Force One, but all he gets to keep and put in his museum, like he'll never fly it.
03:18:
(Sam Stein)
Anyways, so this caught Mike Cernovich's attention.
03:22:
(Sam Stein)
And that's kind of notable that even people like him are like, whoa, this is pretty brazen.
03:27:
(Sam Stein)
And that leads me to the story that is just like,
03:31:
(Sam Stein)
It's insane.
03:32:
(Sam Stein)
So the Swiss delegation to the United States has been trying desperately to get out from under the 39% tariffs that Trump has put on the country, like a lot of other countries.
03:46:
(Sam Stein)
And like other countries, they've tried hiring lobbyists.
03:50:
(Sam Stein)
They've worked the hill.
03:50:
(Sam Stein)
They've worked their contacts.
03:53:
(Sam Stein)
And then, according to our old pal, Mark Caputo, they did something pretty brazen.
03:58:
(Sam Stein)
They gave Trump a ton of gifts.
04:01:
(Sam Stein)
And so this is what Mark writes.
04:04:
(Sam Stein)
To cut tariffs and President Trump imposed on the country, the Swiss sent a delegation of industry tycoons bearing gifts, a special Rolex desktop clock, a one kilogram personalized gold bar, and loads of flattery, okay?
04:21:
(Sam Stein)
The Swiss bar given to Trump during the delegation's visit on November 4th, so that's just like a week and a half ago,
04:26:
(Sam Stein)
was stamped with 45 and 47 in homage to his presidential terms.
04:31:
(Sam Stein)
It's worth a little more than $130,000.
04:33:
(Sam Stein)
Trump accepted the gifts on behalf of his presidential library, making them legal, White House officials say.
04:44:
(Sam Stein)
They gave him $130,000 gold bar.
04:48:
(Sam Stein)
I mean, yeah, it's going to his library.
04:51:
(Sam Stein)
What the hell?
04:53:
(Sam Stein)
This is madness, people.
04:54:
(Sam Stein)
Like, utter madness.
04:56:
(Sam Stein)
But it worked.
04:57:
(Sam Stein)
Swiss delegation got their tariffs down to 15%, as Axios reported this morning.
05:02:
(Sam Stein)
And this isn't the only type of thing we've seen.
05:04:
(Sam Stein)
You know, there's that infamous moment where Tim Cook gave Trump this kind of engraved glass disc with a gold case on it.
05:12:
(Sam Stein)
And that was just to commemorate the company's investment in the United States.
05:16:
(Sam Stein)
Everyone is lavishing this president with GIFs.
05:19:
(Sam Stein)
It is blatant corruption, the likes of which we've honestly never seen.
05:24:
(Sam Stein)
And people are talking about it, including Mike Cernovich, which leads me to Trump last night.
05:33:
(Sam Stein)
So Trump's had these kind of meltdowns before where.
05:38:
(Sam Stein)
Usually on Friday night, he just posts a lot.
05:41:
(Sam Stein)
He lets it all out.
05:42:
(Sam Stein)
The week's been kind of building up and he just got to let off steam.
05:45:
(Sam Stein)
And that's what Trump does.
05:47:
(Sam Stein)
But even by those sort of historic standards, I felt like last night was particularly crazy.
05:52:
(Sam Stein)
So
05:53:
(Sam Stein)
He gets pressed, for instance, on why he got an MRI recently.
05:58:
(Sam Stein)
And the guy just cannot be honest about it.
06:02:
(Sam Stein)
He's like hiding something or just unwilling to admit to something.
06:07:
(Sam Stein)
Or simply, I guess the most generous explanation is he can't remember.
06:11:
(Sam Stein)
why he got an mri but this type of attitude like i don't need to tell you anything about my own you know medical history or what's going on it's an arrogance that like you know kind of bidenish a little bit where they hate things but much worse because they're just being like screw you here's the middle finger
06:30:
(Sam Stein)
And here's the video so you can watch it for yourself.
06:32:
(Donald Trump)
Getting an MRI is the very standard way you think I shouldn't have and other people get it.
06:37:
(Donald Trump)
I had an MRI.
06:38:
(Donald Trump)
Here's what the story is.
06:40:
(Donald Trump)
I had an MRI.
06:42:
(Donald Trump)
The doctor said it was the best result he has ever seen as a doctor.
06:47:
(Donald Trump)
That's it.
06:48:
(Donald Trump)
I have no idea what they analyzed.
06:51:
(Donald Trump)
But whatever they analyzed, they analyzed it well.
06:54:
(Donald Trump)
And they said that I had as good a result as they've ever seen.
06:58:
(Donald Trump)
Now, the other thing I took is I took, as you know, a advanced, very advanced test on mental acuity, because I think a president should have to do that.
07:11:
(Donald Trump)
And as you probably heard, I aced it.
07:13:
(Donald Trump)
I got a perfect score.
07:14:
(Sam Stein)
I got the highest score.
07:16:
(Sam Stein)
I got a perfect score.
07:17:
(Sam Stein)
I mean, the most innocent explanation is he doesn't know what he got an MRI of.
07:20:
(Sam Stein)
Does anyone actually believe that?
07:22:
(Sam Stein)
Do you ever go into a doctor, get an MRI, and then forget within a couple months what it was on?
07:27:
(Sam Stein)
I mean, it's absurd.
07:28:
(Sam Stein)
And if that were actually the case, it's kind of alarming.
07:31:
(Sam Stein)
But it's sort of an arrogance that he doesn't actually have to be transparent about very basic stuff.
07:35:
(Sam Stein)
But that wasn't even the most, you know, crazy thing.
07:38:
(Sam Stein)
Later, he starts getting onto Truth Social, and he has this to say about Congressman Tom Massey, who is one of the people who's pushing hardest for the release of the Epstein files.
07:49:
(Sam Stein)
Did Thomas Massey sometimes refer to as Rand Paul Jr. because of the fact that he always votes against the Republican Party, get married already?
07:57:
(Sam Stein)
Question mark, question mark, question mark.
07:59:
(Sam Stein)
Thomas Massey's wife died, okay?
08:01:
(Sam Stein)
His wife died.
08:02:
(Sam Stein)
Yeah, he remarried.
08:04:
(Sam Stein)
What a
08:04:
(Sam Stein)
Jerk.
08:05:
(Sam Stein)
Boy, that was quick.
08:06:
(Sam Stein)
No wonder the polls have him at less than 8% chance of winning the election.
08:10:
(Sam Stein)
Anyway, have a great life, Thomas N?
08:14:
(Sam Stein)
I'll give it to him.
08:14:
(Sam Stein)
That was kind of funny, I suppose.
08:16:
(Sam Stein)
His wife will soon find out that she stuck with a loser.
08:19:
(Sam Stein)
I mean, if someone talked like this in your normal life, you'd be like, this dude has got issues.
08:24:
(Sam Stein)
Like, I don't want to hang out with this guy.
08:26:
(Sam Stein)
He seems troubled.
08:28:
(Sam Stein)
And it's kind of, you know, again, the sort of arrogance behind that is...
08:33:
(Sam Stein)
It's telling.
08:34:
(Sam Stein)
This guy doesn't think that anyone should oppose him.
08:37:
(Sam Stein)
Everyone should kiss the ring and get in line.
08:40:
(Sam Stein)
And then, of course, and we're going to talk a lot about this, he unendorsed Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene because Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene also has had the temerity to say she wants the Epstein Files released.
08:51:
(Sam Stein)
She's gone on shows like The View to speak out against Trump.
08:54:
(Sam Stein)
And then most recently, she said she thought he was straying from the American First agenda.
08:59:
(Sam Stein)
Most normal people would say,
09:01:
(Sam Stein)
hey, Marjorie, let's talk it out.
09:03:
(Sam Stein)
Or I disagree with Marjorie Taylor, I think she's wrong, here's why.
09:06:
(Sam Stein)
Not Donald Trump.
09:07:
(Sam Stein)
Donald Trump has gone on an absolute heater going after her, repeated posts, trying out stupid stuff like Marjorie Taylor Brown, because I guess green grass goes brown when it's not watered.
09:19:
(Sam Stein)
That was weak stuff.
09:22:
(Sam Stein)
It gets back to the fundamental issue here, which is we have a president who believes that whether it comes to members of Congress, law firms,
09:31:
(Sam Stein)
Academia, countries, they need to pay homage to him.
09:37:
(Sam Stein)
They need to actually bribe him.
09:39:
(Sam Stein)
They need to show him love, affection, and lavish him with gifts.
09:43:
(Sam Stein)
And if they don't, he's going to smack them down, whether it's through tariffs or through a social media post.
09:50:
(Sam Stein)
And that's just the world we live in, where we have someone in the White House who feels like he doesn't have to play by the rules that are normally there, including being transparent about basic health stuff.
09:58:
(Sam Stein)
And he feels like everyone else has to bow down to him.
10:03:
(Sam Stein)
And it's starting to stand out to the point where people like Mike Cernovich no longer can ignore it.
10:09:
(Sam Stein)
So that's my rant for this Saturday morning.
10:12:
(Sam Stein)
Hope you'd enjoyed it.
10:14:
(Sam Stein)
We're going to have much more on Marjorie Taylor Greene later in the day.
10:16:
(Sam Stein)
So check back later.
10:18:
(Sam Stein)
Talk to you.