A Deep Dive Look at Trump Cabinet Picks

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[00:01:25] Alright, welcome back to the Survival and Basic Badass Podcast. Kevin and Chuck.

[00:01:31] Today, well, we're going to talk about Trump's cabinet picks. A lot of that information's coming

[00:01:39] out. A lot of people, you know, we don't typically, it's always people I've never heard of, you know,

[00:01:47] when a president comes into office and they're kind of from nowhere. And I think we kind of got that

[00:01:54] with Trump's first, you know, initial offering. Right. I know he had made a big, he gave a big

[00:02:03] speech. I don't know if it was on Joe Rogan or somewhere that I caught it, but he was talking about

[00:02:09] he really didn't expect to win. And he kind of trusted a lot of his Republican friends, you know,

[00:02:16] government types were like, Hey, you know, you need to go with people who know how to get stuff done

[00:02:22] and know how Washington works and are insiders or you'll never get ahead. This was how he explained

[00:02:29] it. Right. And so we kind of went along with whoever told them. And of course, because these

[00:02:35] people were like Washington insiders, they really weren't actually fans of Trump. And like once

[00:02:42] everybody turned on Trump, like as a whole in the country, cause there were reasons, whatever,

[00:02:48] well, you know, we all have our own opinions, but there were reasons. And once people started to

[00:02:55] like get weird with them, they were all like, yeah, he's really bad. You know, there were all the secret

[00:03:00] insider cabinet whisperings, high value cabinet members say they don't trust them. They don't.

[00:03:07] And sure they're saying these things among their friends. Cause it obviously wasn't too

[00:03:11] popular in Washington, in Washington to say that you were a Trump fan, you know, early on. And so

[00:03:19] people were, Oh, you know, I don't know and whatever. And so it just kind of started falling apart.

[00:03:25] And I, and I feel like they were insiders and this time he really made a point to say, look,

[00:03:31] one, I'm going to hit the ground running and have my picks really early on. I've been thinking about

[00:03:36] this. I know who, you know, potential people are. I'm taking it a whole lot more seriously

[00:03:42] just cause it's one of those things. You don't believe that you can actually become president.

[00:03:47] I don't know, like beyond the shadow of a doubt. I mean, to me, that's a big dream

[00:03:51] that it's hard to like, is it really good? Nobody gets nominated to president and immediately is like,

[00:03:58] yeah, this is going to be a landslide. I got this. I got this, especially somebody who was

[00:04:03] such an outsider, you know, early on. Um, and honestly, I mean, I felt like it was more probable

[00:04:09] in my mind that he was going to win then than it would have been now. I didn't think he had a shot

[00:04:14] this time. I didn't think he was going to win. I think the, uh, you know, definitely the media had a,

[00:04:18] had a, you know, a spin on it and I don't know what, you know, what the deal was, but.

[00:04:24] Uh, and honestly, I mean, you know, I know I'm crazy conspiracy guy, but I didn't know if there

[00:04:28] was going to be, uh, you know, election meddling or whatever that was gonna, you know, affect things

[00:04:35] in the outcome. But I definitely didn't think the map would look like it did, you know, the electoral

[00:04:40] map. Um, I, I didn't think it would be a landslide. I thought there was a shot he would win,

[00:04:46] but I didn't think it was a big shot. I mean, you know, to me, if looking at the polls and what

[00:04:52] the hell does anybody know? Right. I mean, polls seemed, it was like a 50, 50 kind of thing.

[00:04:57] Yeah. You know? Yeah. And I thought with that and a little election, election meddling,

[00:05:04] it kind of go the other way. And that was, that was how I thought, but obviously I was wrong. I know

[00:05:10] Kevin's staying quiet on that one. So I like that. Um, no, I mean, cause he wants to be like, well,

[00:05:15] it's cause you're an idiot. Nobody meddles with elections. They're all perfect. They're perfect.

[00:05:20] No illegals. Well, nothing bad ever happens. It's all good. I know. Um, so anyway, yeah,

[00:05:28] I kind of wanted to dig into it. Uh, it did suck. Like I had slightly bigger dreams of how deep I'd be

[00:05:35] able to go into these people. Right. Cause I was like, yeah, we can really take this on and, and,

[00:05:42] and, you know, search out people. Every article I read was like the most ridiculous fluff story

[00:05:48] of either hate or positive stuff without any real meat. Yeah. There's a lot of, there's a lot of

[00:05:56] articles I read on every one of these that were, you know, hated them or loved them. Hated. Nobody

[00:06:01] was like, this is what this dude's deal is. Yeah. And nobody like laid out, Hey, these are their

[00:06:06] accomplishments. And as far as this job, this is what they're saying they're going to do.

[00:06:11] It was hard to come by that information. So Kevin and I, you know, we both come to things from a

[00:06:18] different perspective. So hopefully we give you something a little balanced. And the cool part is

[00:06:24] we both see totally different media in our lives, me and Kevin. So the stories that I missed or whatever,

[00:06:32] Kevin hopefully caught them on his end and you know, vice versa, you know, hopefully I have the

[00:06:37] things from the other side. I'll be Paul Harvey and have the rest of the story.

[00:06:43] All right. I'll be Steve Harvey.

[00:06:46] Kevin could be Steve Harvey and make it fun and entertaining.

[00:06:49] All right. So, um, most, uh, usually the most powerful cabinet member is the secretary of state.

[00:06:57] I think that's accurate because I mean, that's Hillary Clinton, right? So yeah. Hillary Clinton is one.

[00:07:02] Right. Anthony Blinken is the current one. And, and, uh, the nominee is, uh, Marco Rubio, right?

[00:07:10] Uh, for secretary of state, not kissing. Yeah. He's from, um, uh, Florida. He's a Senator from

[00:07:18] Florida, been a Senator since 2011. So he's got, you know, 13 years. That's that's three elections,

[00:07:24] uh, that at times he's been elected down there. He seems like a competent person.

[00:07:29] Um, I like that Kevin from you. That's surprising. I thought, I thought you would be a little anti

[00:07:35] Rubio. I was curious on that one. There's a, there's a weird thing about Rubio that he's,

[00:07:42] he doesn't have a whole, he's broke. He doesn't have a whole lot of money, which is a rare,

[00:07:47] rare thing for these trumpet. You'll see as we go through that most of these guys are billionaires

[00:07:52] or at least they run in circles, right? You know, Kevin, if you grabbed a bunch of your friends,

[00:07:58] would there be a lot of billionaires on your staff? No, I don't run. I don't, I run with

[00:08:03] hundred, hundredaires sometimes on the ball of nights, but I was able to pay my rent or my mortgage

[00:08:09] this month. There's right. Yeah. Okay. That's about where I roll, you know? Yeah. Maybe. Yeah.

[00:08:18] He ran against Trump, uh, for the nomination and, um, they've been pretty good friends since he was

[00:08:25] elected. Yeah, I think so. The first time. And they, they've treated each other. Rubio kind of,

[00:08:31] uh, like had his back and, and jumped in, you know, early on after, you know, after the election

[00:08:36] the last time. And, uh, I think that was pretty cool. Uh, I mean, it's pretty cool for people to

[00:08:41] support you and, and, you know, to have people who are on your side. That's what I think is pretty

[00:08:45] cool. Um, I, I do have, you know, his, he's considered, uh, a big foreign policy guy. Obviously

[00:08:54] you want from your secretary of state, uh, tough on China and Iran. I kind of like that. Um,

[00:09:02] and yeah, he just, he seems like a decent guy and a decent pick as much as we know on the surface.

[00:09:08] Mm-hmm. And what do you know about the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth? I don't know much. I

[00:09:16] have, I, I did some research. So, I mean, I have the research, but as from personal, like I've been

[00:09:22] following this guy forever that that's not me. Yeah. I didn't know. He was national guard officer.

[00:09:28] I Afghanistan, Iraq, bronze stars, which I got to say, they don't just fall in your lap.

[00:09:34] They don't hand those out. Um, there were some questions about, uh, his tattoos, right? Is that a

[00:09:41] thing? I, did you see that? I think I heard something about that, but I just kind of dismissed

[00:09:46] that stuff and move on. So I didn't give it. Yeah. So the, the question, the, the issue is there's

[00:09:51] a picture of him with his shirt off at like a, you know, swim or something. He's got a Jerusalem

[00:09:56] cross. Jerusalem cross is the one with, uh, he's got it on his chest. It's one cross and then,

[00:10:03] uh, four crosses around it, you know? So it's, uh, I, it's a very religious tattoo. Like maybe

[00:10:13] if you were very religious, you might get this tattoo. That's a possibility. Right. And

[00:10:18] the four extra crosses stand for the gospels of Jesus. All right. Called it. It's called the

[00:10:25] Jerusalem cross. I've seen it. Yeah. I mean, I know the cross. I just, yeah, that is, uh,

[00:10:32] it's weird, but I mean, we all have our thing, right? You know, that's. It is related to like

[00:10:37] Christian nationalism as well. Oh, I mean, I feel like, you know, if look at the swastika,

[00:10:45] there's people in India that have swastikas tattooed on them that have nothing to do with

[00:10:49] Nazism. I'm not saying one way or the other, but you know, it's weird throughout history.

[00:10:54] That symbol has, uh, really like, you know, it's been around for a long time. It didn't start out,

[00:11:03] you know, with, with Hitler, with the, right. Yeah. You know, the whole swastika thing, which is

[00:11:08] right. And the Jerusalem cross, you know, was worn by, and it's not a swastika to be not a swastika.

[00:11:14] It's a different thing to be clear. And it's, uh, it was born by crusaders who are freeing

[00:11:20] Jerusalem from, from Muslims and Jews. So, I mean, there's reason that it was adopted by certain

[00:11:28] right. Anti-Jewish groups. Oh, Kevin, you had to go there. No, that's not wrong. Um, and,

[00:11:36] and so one of the things he's kind of, people are talking about is, uh, he's been very, he's going

[00:11:43] to kind of get rid of the woke political correctness in the military would be one of the things.

[00:11:49] He was a, uh, Fox host, right? Yeah. Uh, contributor. One of those, I think was what it was.

[00:11:56] It said, uh, no, you are correct. A co-host for Fox and friends weekend. So, and also like,

[00:12:05] along with that, I'm seeing Trump pledge to fire generals involved with the Afghan withdrawal.

[00:12:10] Whoa. I feel like the generals didn't really make that decision, although it was a freaking

[00:12:16] disaster. So it was a disaster, but you know, I mean, I think you should go in and look at it and

[00:12:23] see if you're a captain of your ship and your ship, uh, sinks. Yeah. You know? So, all right. So we'll go

[00:12:31] with that. Uh, energy secretary is what I had next on my list. Is that also, I think it's one of the

[00:12:38] very, it's really underestimated, uh, how powerful the secretary of energy is.

[00:12:44] And they wrote the EMP stuff. Yeah. So that's all that stuff. And all, a lot of the fusion,

[00:12:51] uh, experimentation, all the, you know, they, they do a lot of that funding private companies to,

[00:12:59] uh, you know, come up with energy based systems. So the guy that they got for him,

[00:13:05] he's pretty good. He actually has pretty, uh, Chris, right. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Uh, he was the CEO

[00:13:13] or is the CEO of Liberty energy, a fracking and oil field service. Now that may scare people a lot

[00:13:20] like, Oh God, he's oil and I hate oil, whatever. But remember the department of energy oversees oil

[00:13:27] and gas production exports, um, as well as the whole nation's nuclear programs. Like I mentioned,

[00:13:33] they also do the EMP thing. Yeah. And he's also a board member of, uh, Oklahoma, which is a nuclear

[00:13:40] tech company. All right. So, I mean, definitely something you want to, he seems like a good pick.

[00:13:48] It's solid to me. Well, he's also a board member of, uh, EMX royalty, which is a company that pays out,

[00:13:53] uh, royalties for mineral rights. Okay. So ultimately he's very, been very involved in energy production

[00:14:01] and energy companies for a long time. So he kind of has a, you know, kind of has his fingers and all

[00:14:07] that stuff. Not a, not a bad way to be. Um, next on my list of importance, I have Homeland Security

[00:14:16] secretary. Does that sound right to you? Like as far as importance, I don't know. I'm just waiting for

[00:14:22] you to be like, wow. No, go ahead. That's Christine, who we know the governor of South Dakota. I think

[00:14:28] she's the one that shot her dog or something. Um, that that's your, I like, that's the news. That's

[00:14:35] like the claim to fame. Yeah. Chris, Christine home is, uh, Homeland security is she's a reasonable,

[00:14:41] a reasonable pick. Um, I don't know that she's really got what it takes to be the,

[00:14:47] the one that's doing the dirty work. Cause that's really who's doing the dirty work.

[00:14:51] It is. Um, the big thing like Homeland security. Yeah. I don't know. Sorry. My notes threw me there,

[00:14:56] but, uh, the big thing with Homeland security is these are the people who came up with the list

[00:15:03] that, you know, we should look at all veterans as terrorists. And obviously I would like somebody

[00:15:08] fresh and new in there. That's not that. And she's not that we're, we're not going to have that problem.

[00:15:16] I'm just going from memory. I thought Christie gnome. She was the one that wasn't she a fighter pilot.

[00:15:23] I think she was, I have no notes on her. I don't, uh, secretary of commerce. That's a Howard

[00:15:29] Lutnick. Um, we're kind of talking about him before the, the show. He's a, uh, CEO of Cantor

[00:15:37] Fitzgerald and, uh, BGC group. Uh, he's basically going to be the one that's running our tariff and

[00:15:44] trade agendas. So when it comes to tariffs, that's kind of a, you know, kind of a big thing.

[00:15:50] Everyone's been talking about, there's going to be a shift in our economy that's, uh, we're going

[00:15:54] to have to adjust to and prepare for. In the past, he has completely shown support for all

[00:16:00] Trump's tariff stuff. I mean, expect what you've been hearing for Trump from Trump about guys on

[00:16:05] board. Uh, yeah. Um, as a personal note and again, I mean, that's kind of why we wanted to do

[00:16:12] this episode was kind of our take on these guys and you know, what to expect and things that concern us

[00:16:19] don't concern us about these people. Um, personal thoughts. Me, I listened to a lot about investors

[00:16:28] and hedge fund types and they basically kind of, I mean, I think the tariffs are a positive

[00:16:36] in general for the country. I so wish after we went through the pain of the first Trump presidency,

[00:16:43] I wish that Biden had followed through. I felt like it was political spite that he just kind of

[00:16:49] undid everything after we already went through the hard part in my mind, where if we had held out a

[00:16:55] little bit, things would have been better. Now flip side of that. I think that blanket tariffs

[00:17:01] are kind of a mistake. I would just have tariffs on things that we don't want Americans to do

[00:17:07] or the other way that we do want Americans to do right. Things that, you know, to bring those jobs

[00:17:15] back and make it easier for American companies to thrive and then hold out like as a general policy,

[00:17:23] obviously being a libertarian, I don't think that there should be tariffs on anything, but to be

[00:17:29] honest, we're playing in the real world. And by that, I mean, other countries are doing it and

[00:17:37] hypothetically tariffs will reduce inflation according to economists. I don't understand that,

[00:17:42] but that's, yeah, that's one of the things that the nerds say. Yeah. The nerd stuff. So,

[00:17:48] I mean, that's something with that. All right. Next I have a education secretary.

[00:17:54] Yeah. This is an interesting one. This is a weird pick for, for Trump. I know he's got a

[00:17:58] connection with his old days, with his WWE wrestling buddies. So Linda McMahon, and you know,

[00:18:06] the name from Vince McMahon, you may have just seen the Netflix series. Obviously we know Vince McMahon

[00:18:14] for being the, the jacked WWE owner, producer, just about everything. Right. Right. So co-founder

[00:18:25] with Linda McMahon, Linda McMahon was a wrestler. Um, was she back in the day? She was doing the hair

[00:18:33] pulling and the eye gouging and stuff. Okay. She was, uh, one of the female, uh, female wrestlers.

[00:18:40] Um, she is, and where she was the CEO of WWE. Uh, she co-founded it with Vince. Um, she was the CEO in the late eighties. Definitely not early nineties. And that was, uh, that was a time period. There was a dude named, uh, Melvin Phillips jr. Who, um, he was an announcer and, uh, he, he hired these guys that he were called, uh, wrestling boys that he would hire.

[00:19:08] And they would help him like set down and take, you know, set up the stage and take everything down and, uh, you know, do the stuff after events. And they got to meet wrestlers and they got to like go to the shows and stuff, but they also got molested by this dude.

[00:19:23] Sure. Who hasn't seen that play out?

[00:19:25] So, uh, these, uh, kids that were molested 30 years ago are suing, uh, WWE for like knowing that this dude was molesting kids and getting reports that he was molesting kids, but they didn't do anything about it.

[00:19:42] So Linda McMahon says she did not molest any children.

[00:19:46] Okay. Good to know.

[00:19:47] And she also did not know that this dude was molesting all those kids.

[00:19:51] So, I mean, that's, that's it.

[00:19:52] There hasn't been a trial yet.

[00:19:54] There's no, okay.

[00:19:55] Just allegations.

[00:19:56] But Kevin, as a, as a fan of WWE growing up my whole life, WWF all the way through, I feel like I don't want that to be true.

[00:20:08] How about that?

[00:20:09] That can be my takeaway on that.

[00:20:10] But, you know, anytime I hear stories about kids getting molested, I'm like, you know, I hope somebody does something about it, but that's not really something I'm interested in knowing more about, you know, it just makes me feel shit.

[00:20:21] I don't want to dig into that story.

[00:20:23] That's just ugly.

[00:20:24] Yeah.

[00:20:24] No, no.

[00:20:25] She ran.

[00:20:25] Did she, she win for Senate or Congress when she ran?

[00:20:29] Ran for Senate, but she never.

[00:20:31] She, yeah.

[00:20:32] Cause I remember seeing the elections.

[00:20:33] I know she lost one time.

[00:20:35] I didn't know if she came back the next year.

[00:20:38] Yeah.

[00:20:38] Was she running against Bernie Sanders way back?

[00:20:42] I don't know where she was from.

[00:20:43] I'm not sure.

[00:20:44] I want to say they're like Vermont or somewhere in that area, but anyway.

[00:20:49] Yeah.

[00:20:50] No.

[00:20:50] So McMahon's are definitely smart business people though.

[00:20:54] I'll give it that.

[00:20:55] And the stuff I heard from her, she was pretty cool.

[00:20:58] And you know, this, her policy ideas back when she was running for Senate and we're talking at least four, four year elections.

[00:21:08] Cycles ago.

[00:21:09] So 16 years ago, somewhere around there.

[00:21:11] I think it was 2012 maybe.

[00:21:13] Yeah.

[00:21:14] It was a long time ago that, that, that was happening.

[00:21:18] Uh, what do you have?

[00:21:19] I'm fine with her as long as she doesn't have any interactions with, with children.

[00:21:24] As secretary of education, which might be difficult.

[00:21:29] Fair enough.

[00:21:30] Um, that's the thing.

[00:21:33] Like one of the things too, that, that comes to mind with me is the thing is like, everyone's like, Oh, there's this part of their past.

[00:21:41] And guess what?

[00:21:42] There's nobody that we're going to all agree on.

[00:21:45] You know, a hundred percent with their story.

[00:21:47] And there's very few that as an individual, I can agree and say 100% of that person's character is awesome.

[00:21:54] You know?

[00:21:55] And I agree with everything they do.

[00:21:57] You know, people are like, Oh, you like Trump.

[00:21:59] Well, that means you like whatever stupid thing he may have done along the way, or you could even go the other way.

[00:22:05] Oh, you like Obama, but you agree with every stupid thing he ever did or whatever.

[00:22:10] Well, no, but I liked the things that I got out of it or whatever, you know?

[00:22:14] I mean, obviously Obama wasn't a pick for me, but you know, you see where I'm going with that.

[00:22:20] But one of the things is you have to think of the job they're being picked for and how do they feel and represent that?

[00:22:30] And I think that's what matters so much is if this person is going to be the secretary of the state, how do I feel about their opinions and interactions with the worldview and how they interact with people, how they deal under pressure, that kind of stuff.

[00:22:47] These are the things that matter to me.

[00:22:48] If I have a guy in charge of the department of health and human services, I want to know how he feels about health and human services, not how he feels about foreign policy.

[00:23:00] It doesn't matter to me because that's not what I'm hiring him to do.

[00:23:04] You know what I'm saying?

[00:23:05] Right.

[00:23:05] And I think just take that into account and that's where we need to focus with all people.

[00:23:10] And I'm not saying dismiss other stuff.

[00:23:13] I'm just saying there's different ways that we weigh those parts of them.

[00:23:18] Obviously, your character does matter.

[00:23:20] How you make decisions under pressure matters.

[00:23:24] Those things make a big difference.

[00:23:27] But as far as their worldview, I want to focus on what they're in charge of when they're being picked and why they're being hired.

[00:23:35] You know, to me, that matters.

[00:23:37] Right.

[00:23:37] But that's all.

[00:23:38] To me, if you have, I don't know, if you have child molestation allegations, maybe.

[00:23:46] I mean, there's probably a bunch of people that don't have allegations.

[00:23:50] Is there, Kevin, in Washington?

[00:23:51] There's a lot of people that don't.

[00:23:52] In Washington?

[00:23:54] Well, I mean, that's true.

[00:23:55] What did Martin Taylor Greene say last week?

[00:23:59] She said some crazy shit about Matt Gaetz.

[00:24:02] She said if we're going to put his report out, then we're going to put everybody's report out, and then the Democrats will have a super majority.

[00:24:10] What the fuck does that mean?

[00:24:12] Yeah, I don't really know how that.

[00:24:14] Yeah, that's weird.

[00:24:15] What the fuck is she talking about?

[00:24:21] She's not known for saying the most level-headed.

[00:24:24] Intelligent shit.

[00:24:25] Yeah.

[00:24:25] No, I mean, but again, it's another person where sometimes you're like, well, that statement I can agree with.

[00:24:31] I mean, if somebody says a bunch of crazy things, then generally speaking, I'm going to agree with some of the crazy shit.

[00:24:38] I mean, that's just kind of, you know, some of it will stick to the wall.

[00:24:45] Some of it will stick.

[00:24:46] Exactly.

[00:24:47] All right.

[00:24:48] I have, again, my notes kind of got out of order.

[00:24:53] CIA director.

[00:24:54] How about that?

[00:24:55] Does that sound like next, or do you have somebody?

[00:24:57] Go ahead.

[00:24:58] Yeah, I don't have much.

[00:24:59] I don't have anything.

[00:24:59] I have John Radcliffe.

[00:25:01] He was the intelligence, director of national intelligence for eight months under Trump in his first term.

[00:25:09] Selected to lead the CIA for the second.

[00:25:12] He was a congressman from Texas, served as a member of Trump's impeachment team during the Democrats' first effort to boot the then president from office.

[00:25:23] So I guess that could be perceived as, well, you know, he had Trump's back.

[00:25:30] So, but honestly, I would want to pick people around me who have had my back.

[00:25:35] Yeah.

[00:25:36] To me, that's a reasonable statement, but I don't know enough either way on this guy to, you know.

[00:25:43] All right.

[00:25:43] Well, let me segue with that.

[00:25:44] Another one that, another guy that had Trump's back.

[00:25:47] And this is, it's not a very powerful position, but it is an important one.

[00:25:51] Secretary of Veteran Affairs.

[00:25:54] Oh, I didn't have that.

[00:25:55] Doug Collins.

[00:25:56] He's a Republican representative from Georgia.

[00:26:01] He's a Baptist minister.

[00:26:04] He's got a law degree, former Navy and Air Force Reserve colonel.

[00:26:09] Nice.

[00:26:10] He served in Iraq.

[00:26:12] I think he served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

[00:26:16] And he wrote the book, The Clock and the Calendar, which is a book basically defending Trump and his first impeachment.

[00:26:22] Really?

[00:26:23] Yeah.

[00:26:24] With the Ukrainian, you know, pay to play.

[00:26:28] If, if somebody, yeah.

[00:26:31] I mean, that, that's somebody that has your back.

[00:26:33] And I think that's kind of cool.

[00:26:34] But again, I don't know enough to dig deep in there.

[00:26:38] So I don't know.

[00:26:40] I'll kind of move right along.

[00:26:42] I, does anything come out bad that you've seen?

[00:26:45] Anything that can.

[00:26:46] No, he seems like a decent dude, but I think he might have issues with Vivek Ramaswamy.

[00:26:51] Oh, because they're talking about cutting some of the services from veteran affairs.

[00:26:56] Okay.

[00:26:58] Yeah.

[00:26:58] And I think that's a debate that has to be had.

[00:27:02] Obviously me, I don't, I like veterans benefits.

[00:27:06] I like different things there, but I don't know what, you know, I also am practical.

[00:27:11] It turns out our, our country is broke.

[00:27:14] You guys probably don't know this.

[00:27:16] Like, that's one of the big things that I keep seeing is, you know, is like with the prisons, we kind of can't even like California in these places.

[00:27:25] They're letting people out who are pretty sketchy.

[00:27:29] Cause they're like, Hey, we can't really afford to keep them.

[00:27:32] So you have to decide, do I like getting some cool veterans benefits or do we afford to keep the prisons open?

[00:27:40] Or, you know, I mean, you have to decide what really, really, if you're asking me, if we need more people in prison or more benefits for disabled veterans, I'm going to side with the veterans, but I mean, whatever, dude.

[00:27:52] Yeah.

[00:27:52] Yeah.

[00:27:52] You're not wrong.

[00:27:53] You're, you're, I don't, I don't, I don't support.

[00:27:55] We have more people in prison than any other country, except any other country technically, but China probably has more than us.

[00:28:04] Yeah, that's right.

[00:28:05] We don't know about.

[00:28:08] That I would say is true.

[00:28:10] So whatever.

[00:28:11] I mean, that's just disagreement.

[00:28:13] Yeah.

[00:28:13] No, you're, you're not wrong.

[00:28:15] I chose a bad example.

[00:28:16] I'll give you that.

[00:28:17] I just went, I'm like, Oh, well, rapists and pedophiles, you know, those are the ones that were obviously letting out, you know, it's, I don't know.

[00:28:24] I have no idea.

[00:28:28] Environmental Protection Agency, Lee Zeldin, selected to lead the EPA.

[00:28:35] He's a Republican, former New York Congressman.

[00:28:40] So, you know, maybe he'll be like, Hey, we need to go out after people with squirrels and things like that.

[00:28:46] Yeah.

[00:28:46] That did happen in New York.

[00:28:48] Oh, they put that squirrel down, dude.

[00:28:50] It was, it was not safe that that guy had that squirrel.

[00:28:53] He was mistreating it.

[00:28:53] So they took it and killed it.

[00:28:55] The thing is, like, they said, like a SWAT team, you know, like, no, it was a serious situation.

[00:29:05] We had to raid his house.

[00:29:06] You got, we don't have time to look into like all these serious crimes, but we're on this because, you know, I guess you have to make a stand somewhere.

[00:29:16] They sent the Department of Environmental Protection.

[00:29:21] And a lot of people don't know much about them, but they, they will shoot you.

[00:29:26] They have no problem.

[00:29:28] Yeah.

[00:29:29] Department of Energy too.

[00:29:31] You know, when 9-11 happened, the amount of firearms and military weapons that the, the Department of, the DEP got.

[00:29:39] Yeah.

[00:29:40] Huge.

[00:29:41] Like crazy stuff.

[00:29:42] Yeah.

[00:29:42] No, it's crazy world.

[00:29:44] Now, to be clear, even though that story was a little confusing, Lee Zeldin had nothing to do with the EPA in New York.

[00:29:52] Absolutely nothing.

[00:29:53] I just, it was a happy segue for me.

[00:29:56] So he, um, that out there.

[00:29:58] If you're concerned about, uh, that we're not doing enough to protect the environment, then he's not a great pick.

[00:30:06] If you think regulations are hindering business, then he is a good pick.

[00:30:10] And it turns out for me, that's what I want.

[00:30:13] As again, I mentioned my kind of libertarian views that it turns out less government in any area.

[00:30:21] I choose.

[00:30:22] Yes.

[00:30:22] Yeah.

[00:30:24] All right.

[00:30:25] So let's talk about borders are.

[00:30:27] Yeah.

[00:30:28] Yeah.

[00:30:28] Well, one last touch on the veteran thing for, I got too far off.

[00:30:32] Um, somebody also pointed it out, but the whole thing is there's a million things to cut before we get to veteran benefits.

[00:30:40] But if we're like, well, we're just cutting everything across the board.

[00:30:44] I like it, but that's the thing.

[00:30:46] I want a guy who's going to fight for the veterans as much as we can.

[00:30:49] And then I want a guy who's going to fight for cutting extra spending as much as he can.

[00:30:54] And I want it to all mesh out and find the right places where money's being wasted.

[00:30:59] That's the bottom line.

[00:31:01] That's what I'm after.

[00:31:02] Let's stop government waste.

[00:31:03] And then I think we can be on board with that.

[00:31:06] All right.

[00:31:06] We're going to get on into that in a few minutes, but then I got a couple more cabinet.

[00:31:11] Sorry.

[00:31:11] Picks.

[00:31:11] I want to talk about, uh, borders are Tom, uh, Homan.

[00:31:16] Right.

[00:31:16] He sounds like really tough on it.

[00:31:20] He's right now.

[00:31:21] He is the director of immigration and customs enforcement.

[00:31:24] So he's not, you know, he is involved in that business.

[00:31:27] Okay.

[00:31:28] Um, he was the one that, uh, was pushing to separate kids, uh, from their parents at the

[00:31:34] board as like a, yeah, as the way to like deter people coming with their kids to the country.

[00:31:41] All right.

[00:31:42] So, I mean, if you were into that, that's, I mean, I didn't really give a shit.

[00:31:47] Some people were really concerned about it.

[00:31:49] To me, that sounds like a pretty big deterrent.

[00:31:52] Hey, if I do something bad, I might have severe consequences.

[00:31:57] I don't know if that is the right answer or not.

[00:32:01] You know what I'm saying?

[00:32:02] It's just one of those things like, you know what, when you're breaking the law, I have

[00:32:07] less sympathy for, you know, your consequences.

[00:32:11] It doesn't mean I think, Oh, take babies away.

[00:32:14] That's so sad.

[00:32:14] You know, like that.

[00:32:15] I agree.

[00:32:16] That is sad.

[00:32:17] That's not what I want.

[00:32:18] Now he, uh, also seems like he's behind, I have a hard time like nailing it down, but

[00:32:23] it seems like he is behind the, uh, the idea of denaturalization.

[00:32:27] So that would be people that are immigrants would be uncitizenized.

[00:32:34] You know what I mean?

[00:32:35] Like people that came here and became citizens.

[00:32:38] Okay.

[00:32:39] And that's kind of like a deterrent to like the anchor baby anchor family member, you know,

[00:32:45] like Melania came over and then her mom came over and her dad came over.

[00:32:48] I, I, I, I guess now correct me if I'm wrong.

[00:32:53] This is my understanding of what you're saying.

[00:32:55] I, cause I don't know the details on this, but to me, like, so we come over, we have the

[00:33:02] anchor baby, right?

[00:33:04] I'm, I'm illegal.

[00:33:05] I came across the boardy border in shader, shady ways.

[00:33:08] I have a baby and now he's a citizen.

[00:33:12] So I get to stay.

[00:33:14] Cause I'm the mom and dad of this.

[00:33:16] That was my understanding of how it was happening and playing out right now.

[00:33:20] My understanding.

[00:33:20] All right.

[00:33:21] Right.

[00:33:21] Um, again, I don't know all the, the hardcore details.

[00:33:25] However, I am totally cool with sending the entire family back, but giving this baby

[00:33:33] there, the baby's a citizen.

[00:33:34] You know what I'm saying?

[00:33:36] And when the baby's able to take care of himself or has a family member who can take

[00:33:40] care of them and they want to come back, but the family is still responsible for the baby.

[00:33:45] And to me, the family is not, you know, justified in being here based on my earlier premise

[00:33:52] of they came here illegally and weren't right.

[00:33:55] So the anchor baby thing, I don't support it in any way, but I don't have a problem with

[00:34:01] somebody being born here, being considered a citizen.

[00:34:03] Right.

[00:34:04] And letting them come back when they have a way.

[00:34:06] Person wants.

[00:34:08] Right.

[00:34:08] And D denaturalization.

[00:34:11] It doesn't like, there's no definition for that.

[00:34:14] What does that mean?

[00:34:15] You know what I mean?

[00:34:16] It could mean any crazy shit that you come up with.

[00:34:19] It could mean that because it doesn't have a meaning.

[00:34:21] Okay.

[00:34:22] So there you go.

[00:34:23] We'll see what happens.

[00:34:25] There you go.

[00:34:27] Who else you got?

[00:34:28] FCC chair, Brenda Carr.

[00:34:32] That's an interesting, interesting pick.

[00:34:35] The FCC is not, it is a powerful agency when it comes to freedom of speech.

[00:34:41] It has a lot of regulation.

[00:34:42] I mean, you know, that's why we can't say swear words on, on TV, only on podcasts.

[00:34:48] So we'll see how that happens.

[00:34:51] I don't know if there's going to be any real intervention in podcasting.

[00:34:56] All right.

[00:34:57] Well, here's, yeah.

[00:34:58] Right.

[00:34:58] Here's one of the things which actually might help podcasting, to be honest.

[00:35:04] Carr wrote on social media right after first statement since the announcement.

[00:35:10] Carr wrote, the FCC would get rid of its diversity, equity, and inclusion promotion.

[00:35:17] All right.

[00:35:17] You can take that however you want to take it.

[00:35:20] I don't even, that's your own whatever.

[00:35:24] I did hear somebody the other day and I've been meaning to drop this somewhere where I

[00:35:29] have to, and I'm just going to get in trouble for saying it.

[00:35:31] And there's probably women in the other room listening to me right now.

[00:35:35] But if men, if we could pay women less to do the same job, if I had a company, why

[00:35:43] wouldn't I just hire all women?

[00:35:45] Right.

[00:35:45] To me, that's how things would work.

[00:35:48] So I don't, I feel like there's something shady going on that I'm missing in the story.

[00:35:54] That's all I'm saying.

[00:35:55] And, and you could expand that to include whatever he's talking about there.

[00:36:00] But I'm just saying if they're the right people, I don't know.

[00:36:05] I feel like I may have just, I had to say it, you know, sometimes you get those things

[00:36:10] and even though, you know, they're wrong and there's going to be recourse.

[00:36:14] You just have to say it.

[00:36:15] That was one of those that I had to drop right there.

[00:36:18] I just put that out there.

[00:36:20] Now two interesting ambassador picks.

[00:36:23] Yes.

[00:36:24] Israel for one, maybe.

[00:36:25] Israel.

[00:36:26] And that's a, who is that?

[00:36:28] Huckabee?

[00:36:28] Huckabee.

[00:36:29] Yeah.

[00:36:30] Right.

[00:36:30] He's been a real pro-Israel guy for a long time.

[00:36:33] Yes.

[00:36:35] You know, there's a big positive push for Israel for, for him to be picked.

[00:36:39] And also the UN ambassador, Elise Stefanik.

[00:36:43] Um, she's a Republican from New York Congress and, uh, Congresswoman.

[00:36:48] And she's also very pro-Israel.

[00:36:52] All right.

[00:36:53] I like that.

[00:36:55] And then, and I like pro-Israel personally, my own opinions.

[00:37:00] Um, director of national intelligence.

[00:37:02] Did we hit that?

[00:37:03] Tulsi Gabbard?

[00:37:04] Yeah.

[00:37:04] All right.

[00:37:05] So left the democratic party in 2022.

[00:37:08] So definitely, you know, a little nonpartisan kind of thing here.

[00:37:13] Um, she was, uh, served four terms as a democratic congressman woman from Hawaii.

[00:37:22] And by the way, she was the one who was the, uh, the military vet that I was thinking of

[00:37:27] earlier.

[00:37:28] Um, and, uh, anyway, she, uh, was a Democrat in Hawaii, which I gotta say to me, I would think

[00:37:37] you'd have to be pretty left leaning to be a Democrat in Hawaii.

[00:37:41] And, but you know, Hey, um, I don't know.

[00:37:45] What do you think?

[00:37:46] Uh, any thoughts on her or is that a lot of accusations that she's like, uh, pro Russia

[00:37:52] and shit, but I haven't really seen anything that made any sense.

[00:37:55] Anybody tied in to Trump tends to get that like five articles.

[00:37:59] And then I read the article and I'm like, what are you talking about though?

[00:38:04] You know what?

[00:38:05] Yeah.

[00:38:05] You know what I could say about that?

[00:38:07] And I don't know her opinions on that.

[00:38:09] Um, what I could say about being pro Russia is I am pro Russia, not nuking the U S and

[00:38:16] pissing them off just to piss them off.

[00:38:19] Um, I I'm pro that, but you know, apparently the current administration, maybe not pro not

[00:38:27] pissing them off just to piss them off.

[00:38:29] Yeah.

[00:38:30] Well, I mean, they're always pissed off and they're always making threats.

[00:38:32] It's like fucking, they're getting to be like Kim Jong-un at this point where you're like,

[00:38:36] Oh, Oh, big, scary.

[00:38:37] Ooh, no, I would be honest.

[00:38:39] And you start buying their bullshit.

[00:38:42] I would be honest with you.

[00:38:43] I think you're right.

[00:38:44] I mean, they're Putin's just like, well, Russia has been propaganda machine since the beginning

[00:38:50] of time.

[00:38:51] Right.

[00:38:51] Right.

[00:38:52] And the saber rattling is not a wrong thing to see going out of there.

[00:38:58] I have no, no fear of Russia in any way as, as being, being in the United States.

[00:39:05] If I was in Poland, maybe I'd be a little fucking nervous about shit.

[00:39:08] Right.

[00:39:08] Right.

[00:39:09] Um, now there are two big ones that I really was excited about just cause we know these characters

[00:39:14] a little bit.

[00:39:16] Um, one would be health and human services, secretary RFK.

[00:39:22] Uh, you want to jump in with your stuff there first or, or should I take this one?

[00:39:27] You're concerned.

[00:39:28] You go ahead.

[00:39:29] All right.

[00:39:29] So RFK has a lot of big ideas and getting rid of food that is kind of poison on the shelves.

[00:39:38] Now let me preface.

[00:39:40] My mindset is always libertarian government should stay out of everything.

[00:39:45] However, do I sure as hell wish that we didn't have poison in our food all over the place?

[00:39:52] And I feel like America really does.

[00:39:54] That's my thought.

[00:39:55] I think America is very bad with that.

[00:39:57] I think high fructose corn syrup, huge, big problem.

[00:40:01] Not good.

[00:40:02] Um, the fact that you see these things in your Facebook feed of, if you go to Europe, your

[00:40:08] McDonald's French fries have four ingredients and you go here, you know, it's like 11 or

[00:40:14] 12 ingredients and you know, half of them are chemicals and nonsense.

[00:40:19] I, he is the guy who's going to get you closer to the four ingredients that that's the bottom

[00:40:24] line on RFK.

[00:40:25] Um, I don't think you're going to get any radical, no vaccines for kids or things like the scare

[00:40:33] tactics are trying to push you.

[00:40:35] Although he has definitely made statements over the past that where you're like, Ooh,

[00:40:41] is that going to, you know, sit well with everybody?

[00:40:43] Things like he has definitely made statements that at least hint to, there's a possibility

[00:40:51] that vaccines cause autism.

[00:40:54] He said things like that.

[00:40:56] Um, right.

[00:40:57] He doesn't say, don't give your kids vaccines because they're going to get autism.

[00:41:01] He doesn't say stupid things like that, but there's a balance.

[00:41:05] Um, he has been labeled as an anti-vaccine activist.

[00:41:10] I don't think that that's.

[00:41:13] I don't think that's an accurate moniker to give them.

[00:41:16] Right.

[00:41:16] It's not.

[00:41:16] And it's, it's, he's pointed out that there's chemicals that are bad in vaccines that we should

[00:41:22] maybe try to get rid of things like that.

[00:41:25] Um, and that's not a bad thing in my mind.

[00:41:30] Um, so you, you take that as, as you will, uh, Kevin thoughts, anything else you want

[00:41:38] to add on him?

[00:41:39] I think he's awesome.

[00:41:40] I think he's going to get rid of a lot of the problems.

[00:41:42] The thing is, I think you need to weigh how much power does this guy have?

[00:41:47] And I think he's going to, by wanting the extreme, he's going to push us in the right

[00:41:52] direction that it's going to get us a lot closer to a healthier goal and a healthier

[00:41:57] outcome.

[00:41:58] That's my theory, Kevin.

[00:42:01] Yeah.

[00:42:02] Yeah.

[00:42:02] I mean, he's definitely been tied to a lot of conspiracy theories that may or may not

[00:42:06] be true in the past, in the present.

[00:42:10] I don't, you know, I don't know.

[00:42:11] You know, there's a lot of talk about, he did a lot of talk about Florida's Florida

[00:42:16] fluoridation, which is adding fluoride to your drinking water.

[00:42:20] I personally am not excited about fluoride in my drinking water, but I don't have fluoride

[00:42:25] in my, my drinking water.

[00:42:26] I can tell you that.

[00:42:27] Okay.

[00:42:28] Not because.

[00:42:29] Not by choice.

[00:42:30] Not by choice.

[00:42:31] That's just what they do here.

[00:42:32] They actually started fluoridization here in this area in the 1970s.

[00:42:39] And they got all these complaints, uh, you know, that a set date when they're going to

[00:42:44] start and they got all these complaints.

[00:42:45] Dyes weren't mixing properly for shirts and bread wasn't rising properly and dough wasn't,

[00:42:50] you know, all sorts of complaints.

[00:42:52] But then, um, there had been a problem with, uh, the shipping of the fluoride.

[00:42:56] And so nobody had added fluoride to the water.

[00:42:59] It was just people being crazy and, you know, even shit was fucking weird.

[00:43:03] There's been a lot of misinformation about fluoride.

[00:43:06] Um, whatever.

[00:43:09] I don't really give a shit.

[00:43:10] All right.

[00:43:11] Good to know.

[00:43:11] Um, a little previous note, it was Tulsi Gabbard who killed her hunting dog that it was

[00:43:18] revealed in a book and Tulsi Gabbard.

[00:43:22] Right.

[00:43:23] And she was the one, so she was a Democrat then.

[00:43:26] So, you know, I don't think it was Tulsi Gabbard.

[00:43:30] Well, that's what I have in my notes here that I got from the slow burn who killed their

[00:43:37] shooting dog.

[00:43:38] Google that.

[00:43:39] Google that.

[00:43:40] I think it was, uh, she also, so she was opposed to the U S's immigration crackdown.

[00:43:49] In a second term, she was opposed to it.

[00:43:53] So I don't know.

[00:43:54] I'm kind of down for immigration crackdowns.

[00:43:56] So you kind of, you know, you do you.

[00:43:58] All right.

[00:43:59] So, uh, let's, you were talking about that.

[00:44:01] Uh, the other one that's, that's widely known, uh, is Dr. Oz.

[00:44:07] Oh, right.

[00:44:08] Dr. Mehmet Oz Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administration or administer.

[00:44:14] Okay.

[00:44:15] So, uh, Dr. Oz, there's been like a lot of fucking back and forth between what he said, what Trump

[00:44:22] said, what everybody has been talking about as far as Medicare, Medicaid.

[00:44:26] A lot of people are concerned about it.

[00:44:28] There's definitely going to be big changes in Medicare and Medicaid services.

[00:44:33] Okay.

[00:44:33] What they are.

[00:44:34] It's not clear though.

[00:44:35] Okay.

[00:44:36] It's going to be restructuring and.

[00:44:39] You know,

[00:44:39] It does suck that we've all paid into Medicare and now that I'm going to get old, you know,

[00:44:45] in 10 or 15 years here, it could be bad.

[00:44:48] So I don't like that.

[00:44:50] Um, but you know, Hey, I understand cuts have to be made, but it does suck that we've been

[00:44:57] paying for healthcare for our entire lives.

[00:44:59] And so as Medicare, that's the one where they take care of the older people and yeah, they've

[00:45:05] been paying in a long time, but damn, darn if, uh, you know, expenses haven't gone up

[00:45:11] with, uh, medical services.

[00:45:13] Um, another one that we want to get into and it's, it's, you know, I didn't want it to get

[00:45:20] overlooked.

[00:45:21] Uh, Dr. Oz, was there any more with him?

[00:45:24] I didn't have, I mean, again, he's one of these controversial, you know, you, you, you

[00:45:28] see these things, I feel like I see stuff on Facebook that, Oh, Dr. Oz promotes this.

[00:45:35] And I don't know that he does or has anything to do with it.

[00:45:40] And I'm like, that's crazy.

[00:45:41] You know, make your man parts grow five times or something.

[00:45:45] Dr. Oz says, yeah, you know, like who knows?

[00:45:48] You know, I, I don't know.

[00:45:50] I don't know what happens.

[00:45:50] I don't, not something I really follow in my daily life, to be honest.

[00:45:55] So that that's what I would say about that.

[00:45:59] Uh, next one, a new position that's been created.

[00:46:03] And this one I think is one of the ones that actually inspired me to do this episode

[00:46:08] was the Doge, the department of government efficiency.

[00:46:14] This is a big one.

[00:46:15] Now this is Elon billionaire and Vivek Ramaswamy.

[00:46:22] Vivek is actually somebody who I'd been seeing in a lot of the, the podcasts that I watch and

[00:46:30] the different like circles that I catch on YouTube.

[00:46:33] He's been a familiar figure.

[00:46:36] And I, I find that 90% of the time I agree with him.

[00:46:40] Um, he was, he did have some kind of stint around college of being a rapper, uh, called

[00:46:49] Davek.

[00:46:50] You might want to Google it.

[00:46:52] Uh, anything that I saw on YouTube had, um, uh, rapping more recently to some Eminem song,

[00:47:01] uh, lose yourself.

[00:47:02] I think.

[00:47:03] And, uh, and I know that Eminem is, is not happy with some kind of a conservative, uh,

[00:47:11] rich guy.

[00:47:12] He's like a hedge fund guy, you know, singing his songs.

[00:47:16] I'm sure that causes trouble.

[00:47:18] Um, but, uh, I bet good things having people look at the budget and see where we can make

[00:47:25] cuts only sounds like a good thing.

[00:47:29] Um, 20, only 26% of the budget is discretionary.

[00:47:34] Like the rest is paying off debt or mandatory obligations that we have as a nation.

[00:47:40] So, but 26 of huge leaves a lot of room for some cuts.

[00:47:47] And that's what I would say.

[00:47:48] And these guys are hopefully going to thin down some of that stuff.

[00:47:52] I'm kind of excited to see what they come up with.

[00:47:55] They also talked about, they were going to get rid of some burdensome regulation or make,

[00:48:02] make, uh, recommendations on that.

[00:48:04] They also said they were looking at like crowdfunding or sorry, crowdsourcing the ideas

[00:48:09] of what to do.

[00:48:11] And basically looking to, you know, Hey, submit your ideas kind of thing.

[00:48:16] And really, you know, Hey, let's dig deep.

[00:48:19] Cause you can't be everywhere at once.

[00:48:21] Uh, these guys, I mean, I know we know with Elon, this guy's running a million businesses,

[00:48:26] has a lot going on.

[00:48:29] And he, you're saying, how can he take on one more thing and do a good job?

[00:48:34] But my experience is these guys know how to organize people.

[00:48:38] They know how to get people excited, get people looking for the right things.

[00:48:44] And they know how to pick people.

[00:48:45] And that to be honest is what excited me about Trump in his first term, which didn't play

[00:48:51] out as much as I wanted it to.

[00:48:53] Um, I'm expecting good things with what I'm seeing on this second pick that it is about

[00:49:00] picking good people and people who can get the job done.

[00:49:04] And that's kind of exciting to me.

[00:49:06] And I think Elon and Vivek are both people who know how to pick people, put them in the

[00:49:11] right spot.

[00:49:12] It's just whether or not you agree with their agenda is I think where you'd maybe run into

[00:49:17] some conflict.

[00:49:19] Right.

[00:49:19] Just to back up real quick.

[00:49:21] It was, it was Christy Noem.

[00:49:24] Who had the dog?

[00:49:25] Yeah, it was.

[00:49:26] It was her.

[00:49:27] I knew I was right.

[00:49:29] See, you should listen to me.

[00:49:31] Mm-hmm.

[00:49:31] So Vivek Ramaswamy, the only issues I have is he, he had two statements talking about cutting,

[00:49:38] uh, cutting down, uh, Medicaid and Medicare and about cutting down, um, uh, veterans benefits.

[00:49:48] Okay.

[00:49:49] So we'll see if that's the case, but he, you know, he did talk about doing that.

[00:49:54] So we'll see what other things, what ends up happening.

[00:49:59] Being open to cut things.

[00:50:00] I'm not bad.

[00:50:01] I don't want to see cutting down veterans benefits.

[00:50:04] I agree with you a hundred percent.

[00:50:05] So there's a million other things that we're doing with money that have no business.

[00:50:10] Yeah.

[00:50:10] I mean, I think it's, I think it's important when people talk about cutting, um, social

[00:50:15] security and Medicare and Medicaid, it's important to understand that the people that are getting

[00:50:21] those cuts are people that paid into it.

[00:50:23] Just like you paid into it.

[00:50:24] Just like I paid into it.

[00:50:25] And you will never get as much money as you paid in inflation adjusted back.

[00:50:31] Right.

[00:50:32] And that's kind of messed up.

[00:50:34] Yeah.

[00:50:34] And the bottom line is, you spent on you.

[00:50:37] And if they cut the services, then that's your money.

[00:50:40] And it was taken under the premise that this is going to be set aside for you and we are

[00:50:45] going to take care of you.

[00:50:47] Yeah.

[00:50:48] And it's not the case in reality.

[00:50:50] A hundred percent.

[00:50:51] And I couldn't agree more.

[00:50:53] Uh, but you know, what are you going to do?

[00:50:56] It's, it's, it's an ugly world here, but yeah.

[00:51:01] Uh, new recently.

[00:51:02] Now we were recording this, you know, before, well, before it's released, they just let out

[00:51:07] Scott Bessett as the, uh, secretary, uh, treasury department.

[00:51:12] Okay.

[00:51:13] Um, it looks like they're going to go, uh, I mean, he's, he seems like a, like a decent

[00:51:22] guy that understands money and finance, but I'm not really sure anything else about him.

[00:51:28] Right.

[00:51:29] Uh, I have interior secretary, Doug Burgum, uh, ties to oil and gas.

[00:51:35] I don't know much about him.

[00:51:38] Uh, and again, the interior secretary, that's, you know, a job where that's going to matter.

[00:51:43] You want somebody who's going to be pro.

[00:51:46] I mean, again, if you're pro, you want somebody to agree with you when it comes to oil and gas.

[00:51:51] So let's, uh, you got any, anyone else?

[00:51:55] I wanted to get into some tariff stuff.

[00:51:57] All right.

[00:51:57] We got to be quick.

[00:51:58] Cause my, my computer says I have 7% or 6% left.

[00:52:03] We're at 6%.

[00:52:04] So it may just all go away.

[00:52:07] So just knock it out.

[00:52:08] Yeah.

[00:52:09] Electronics, uh, smartphones, probably increase of 26%.

[00:52:14] Laptops and tablets will go up about 46% video game consoles, about 90% of video game

[00:52:20] consoles are imported.

[00:52:21] Okay.

[00:52:22] So those are all things that might affect us.

[00:52:24] Um, 80% of clothing in the United States is imported.

[00:52:28] So it's jeans, t-shirts, sweatshirts, probably 20% increase on cost of clothing.

[00:52:34] Start thrift store shopping, uh, buy your Christmas toys.

[00:52:38] Cause toys are going to go up.

[00:52:39] 90% of you toys in the United States are imported.

[00:52:42] It's going to be an increase of about 55% on, uh, toys.

[00:52:47] You know, it's the craziest thing.

[00:52:49] Malls are dying.

[00:52:50] And I went to our local mall to find something the other day, the wife took me shopping.

[00:52:55] We wanted to get some early Christmas gifts and there were zero toy stores in the mall,

[00:53:00] but I counted there were like 22 jewelry stores in my mall.

[00:53:05] Oh shit.

[00:53:06] And I'm like, that's weird.

[00:53:07] You have no money or no, nobody's buying things for their kids, but the new bling, I'm just

[00:53:13] saying.

[00:53:14] Oh, it's just, everybody's trying to get laid, dude.

[00:53:16] You know, if you're trying to get laid.

[00:53:18] It is the number one motivator, right?

[00:53:20] The sex drive.

[00:53:22] So, so we'll see how that goes.

[00:53:25] Um, they say the inflate, uh, the tariffs are going to add an additional $2,600 expenses

[00:53:33] to the average American, but it will also decrease inflation.

[00:53:38] And hopefully some of that will be negated by job growth in the United States.

[00:53:42] So we'll see how it all works out.

[00:53:44] Uh, well, I mean, I would expect, I would expect as far as tariffs and things like that,

[00:53:48] let that go.

[00:53:49] I would expect that cost of living for most people is going to go up.

[00:53:52] Uh, if you're super rich, that'll, you know, be the least impacted.

[00:53:57] Super poor will be the highest impacted.

[00:53:59] And that's how it goes.

[00:54:01] Get a job, start working, make some money.

[00:54:03] You're going to need it.

[00:54:04] All right.

[00:54:05] Uh, national security advisor, Mike Waltz.

[00:54:08] I didn't know much about them.

[00:54:10] Just wanted to drop these other names that I had, uh, border.

[00:54:15] Yeah.

[00:54:16] I think we got all of them.

[00:54:17] White house chief of staff, Susie Wiles, uh, ran the Trump campaign.

[00:54:23] Don't know too much.

[00:54:25] The beef said Doug Collins.

[00:54:26] We had that.

[00:54:27] Oh, attorney general, Pam Bondi.

[00:54:29] Uh, she was the first woman, uh, attorney general in Florida.

[00:54:36] And I don't know.

[00:54:38] We'll see.

[00:54:38] Uh, she, everything I read, there was just like nonsense stories of like, oh, she adopted

[00:54:45] a dog after Katrina and then got in a dispute over the handling of the dog, you know, with

[00:54:51] not her handling of the dog, but giving it back.

[00:54:54] And whether that previous owner was neglecting it, but I don't know.

[00:54:58] There were no facts to the story.

[00:55:00] And I was like, well, that's not helpful.

[00:55:02] And I hate to be the guy.

[00:55:04] I just am trying to express my point.

[00:55:06] We really tried to do some good research for you guys on this stuff.

[00:55:10] And it's hard to find information out there.

[00:55:13] That's actually based in facts and evidence.

[00:55:17] Right.

[00:55:17] Just putting that out there.

[00:55:19] You can find positive or shitty, uh, news news, wherever you want to be.

[00:55:22] One of these people.

[00:55:23] And I do have to say, I appreciate Kevin being pro whatever.

[00:55:30] He didn't, you know, Hey, Kevin sometimes goes off on a tirade and some of you more right

[00:55:37] wing, uh, people like cry after an episode with Kevin.

[00:55:41] I think he spared us some tears today so we can all appreciate it.

[00:55:45] Well, it was only because Matt Gates backed out.

[00:55:48] I was going to talk about Matt Gates for about 20 minutes.

[00:55:51] So do you want to get locked out that he's backed out?

[00:55:54] All right.

[00:55:55] Well, we'll leave it at that.

[00:55:56] I was tempted to let you have your say now, but you know, I just, no, that that's cool.

[00:56:02] And that's reasonable.

[00:56:03] I just, I wanted all to be facts, you know, and it is so hard to find real information

[00:56:09] to put out when the media and everything is just so all over the place.

[00:56:15] So anyway, you guys are awesome sticking around, make sure you like, and subscribe.

[00:56:19] That always helps, you know, helps grow the channel, uh, leave reviews, comments, that kind

[00:56:25] of stuff.

[00:56:25] You have show ideas.

[00:56:26] This was a show idea from a listener.

[00:56:29] Um, email us at prepping bad-ass at gmail.com.

[00:56:33] And I would say with that, stay safe and we will talk to you guys next week.