Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov

Trump Faces New Uncertainty as Iran Pulls Back from Talks

35 min
Apr 20, 20267 days ago
Listen to Episode
Summary

Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov discuss escalating US-Iran tensions following a failed ceasefire, the Supreme Court's striking down of Trump-era tariffs triggering $166B in refunds, and the erosion of US credibility with allies like Canada. They also explore AI's role in election interference and debate whether Democrats should employ aggressive social media tactics to counter misinformation.

Insights
  • Iran's internal divisions between hardliners and moderates make negotiations nearly impossible; the new Ayatollah's hardline stance represents a missed opportunity from earlier in the year when the regime was weaker
  • The US has lost diplomatic infrastructure and allied coordination, relying on performative gestures rather than substantive negotiation work that typically requires 95% preparation before any public summit
  • China is positioned as the long-term winner through renewable energy dominance (80% solar panels, 70% EVs, 60% windmills globally), gaining geopolitical leverage as nations seek energy independence from volatile Middle East dynamics
  • Allied nations are publicly breaking from the US rather than quietly distancing themselves, signaling irreparable damage to the post-WWII alliance structure and US soft power
  • AI-generated bot accounts at scale represent an unprecedented election interference threat that prediction markets suggest Democrats may need to counter with equally aggressive tactics
Trends
Shift from US-led unilateral military action to multipolar world where allies pursue independent strategic partnerships with China and EUWeaponization of AI-generated content for political influence at scale and minimal cost, outpacing regulatory and platform response capabilitiesAccelerating global investment in renewable energy infrastructure as geopolitical hedge against Middle East instability, benefiting China's advanced manufacturing dominanceErosion of US dollar reserve currency status as nations explore alternative payment systems and reduce dependence on US financial infrastructureRise of prediction markets as more accurate forecasting tools than traditional polling for political outcomesDemocratic Party internal debate over ethical boundaries in response to Republican social media aggression and misinformation tacticsDecoupling of US economic relationships with traditional allies (Canada, EU) as they pursue strategic autonomy and alternative partnershipsIRGC leveraging Strait of Hormuz closure as newly discovered geopolitical leverage tool previously assumed unavailable
Topics
Iran Nuclear Negotiations and JCPOA RenegotiationUS-Iran Military Escalation and Ceasefire DynamicsSupreme Court Tariff Rulings and Trade Policy ReversalUS-Canada Relations and Strategic DecouplingChina's Renewable Energy Manufacturing DominanceUS Dollar Reserve Currency Status ErosionAI-Generated Misinformation in 2026 Midterm ElectionsDemocratic Party Social Media Strategy Against Bot NetworksDiplomatic Infrastructure and Allied Coordination FailuresIRGC Internal Divisions and Hardline AscendancyStrait of Hormuz Blockade as Geopolitical LeveragePrediction Markets vs Traditional Political PollingTrump Administration Cabinet Stability and Impeachment OddsEU Strategic Partnership with China and CanadaEnergy Independence as Geopolitical Strategy
Companies
Dell Technologies
Sponsor advertising Dell PCs with Intel processors featuring long battery life and built-in intelligence
Intel
Featured in Dell advertising as processor technology in Dell PCs with 'Intel Inside' branding
MedExpress
Sponsor offering online weight management treatment consultations with UK registered clinicians
Vox
Producing 'America, Actually' podcast hosted by Estelle Herndon exploring post-Trump political landscape
TikTok
Platform hosting hundreds of AI-generated MAGA accounts; claims to remove them but faces criticism for foreign influence
People
Scott Galloway
Co-host analyzing Iran negotiations, US-China competition, and AI election interference threats
Jessica Tarlov
Co-host discussing Iran divisions, allied relationships, and Democratic response to AI misinformation
Mark Carney
Delivered televised address warning Canada's US economic ties are a weakness requiring strategic correction
JD Vance
Leading diplomatic mission to Pakistan for Iran ceasefire negotiations despite lack of diplomatic preparation
Donald Trump
Subject of discussion regarding Iran negotiations, tariff policy reversals, and approval ratings at 37%
John Kerry
Negotiated 2015 JCPOA with Iran; referenced as part of Iranian delegation diversity in current talks
Xi Jinping
Discussed as beneficiary of US-allied decoupling and China's renewable energy manufacturing dominance
Emmanuel Macron
Making speeches about strategic partnership with China as alternative to US alliance
Jon Ossoff
Identified as potential 2028 Democratic nominee with strong social media presence and corruption messaging
Bashir
Mentioned as potential 2028 Democratic nominee alongside Ossoff with sufficient name recognition
Cash Patel
Prediction markets give 67% odds he'll be out by June 1st; suing Atlantic for $250M defamation
Pete Hegseth
Prediction markets give 50% odds he'll leave his position in 2025
Estelle Herndon
Hosts 'America, Actually' podcast exploring post-Trump political landscape and future elections
Andrew Huberman
Scott Galloway appeared on his podcast discussing 2028 Democratic nominee predictions
Hassan Piker
Progressive commentator supporting Jon Ossoff's anti-corruption messaging despite moderate positioning
Mark Warner
Described as good friend of podcast; his daughter Madison passed away after decades-long diabetes battle
Winston Churchill
Quoted regarding importance of fighting with allies rather than without them in diplomatic contexts
Quotes
"Hope isn't a plan. And nostalgia is not a strategy."
Mark CarneyEarly in episode
"We have no diplomats on the ground. We know what's going to happen in Pakistan and that it's fucking nothing."
Scott GallowayMid-episode Iran discussion
"The only thing worse than fighting with your allies is fighting without your allies."
Scott Galloway (citing Winston Churchill)Diplomacy section
"They show up with a gun, let's show up with a bigger gun, they show up with a bigger gun, let's show up with a fucking nuclear weapon."
Scott GallowayAI misinformation discussion
"I am ready to go bare knuckle here. I want to weaponize hundreds of fake accounts, if not hundreds of thousands."
Scott GallowayDemocratic social media strategy debate
Full Transcript
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We can learn so much from Gen Z and what they are teaching us about modeling the boundaries that would have prevented all of us from burning out in the first place. How to win the battle against burnout. That's this week on Explain It To Me. Find new episodes Sundays wherever you get your podcasts. MUSIC Welcome to Raging Models. I'm Scott Galloway. And I'm Jessica Tarliff. If you aren't already, make sure to subscribe to our YouTube page to stay up to date on all the political news. All right, let's bust into it. Iran says it has no plans for another round of peace talks after the US seized an Iranian cargo ship in the Gulf of Oman over the weekend. Further clouding negotiations. US officials led by Vice President JD Vance are reportedly heading to Pakistan this week. But Iran hasn't agreed to participate in the 10 day ceasefire expires Wednesday. At the same time, the US is dealing with a major economic reversal. The Supreme Court of the United States has struck down Trump-era tariffs, triggering up to $166 billion in refunds for more than 330,000 importers, money that could eventually reach consumers. And the fallout isn't just domestic. Allies are starting to rethink their reliance on the US in a striking address. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney warned that Canada's deep economic ties to the US are now a weakness that must be corrected. Let's listen to a clip from the weekend. There are some who say there's no need for a comprehensive plan. They believe we should wait it out in the hope that the United States will return to normal, that the good old days will come back. But hope isn't a plan. And nostalgia is not a strategy. Psy. There you go. Yeah. So first off, it seems as if it's pretty difficult to keep up. I can't tell, ceasefire, not ceasefire. I'm not sure what JD Vance is gonna do in Pakistan other than- By himself? Yeah, try to look presidential and then leave and blame the Iranians and insult them. I don't, give us what you think the state of play is here. Well, the state of play that I'm sure of is that President Trump is abusing the bully pulpit to make us think that we are on the precipice of something major here. It was a complete concoction what happened on Friday with the St. of Hormuz being open and no mention of the fact that they still had the ability to toll ships that were going through. And I understand that some of the Iranians confirmed that, but not enough of them, which I think brings us to the central issue today and kind of the only thing that I've been focusing on as the linchpin for whether we may get our deal or not, which is that the Iranians are divided amongst themselves and that it seems impossible for us to get anything done in this current posture. I'm not sure why this wasn't more reported when the first round of talks was going on last Saturday with JD Vance, but over 80 people came from the Iranian delegation and arranged from the guy who negotiated the 2015 JCPOI with John Kerry under the Obama administration to the hardliners, one of whom said that we can't have a deal at all and that refers to the US as a quote, vicious yellow dog. So with the Iranians being so divided amongst themselves, this is within the IRGC and then also the regime, we don't really have a good handle on what the new Ayatollah thinks is going to be like in practice, he's wounded and weak at this moment, but it seems like there is a hardening going on within Iran and kind of hearkens back to maybe a better time to have done something, and I'm not talking about necessarily a military incursion, but to have supported the people of Iran was actually at the beginning of the year when there were natural uprisings in the streets and the regime was weak with a leader who was dying of cancer and in his late 80s versus someone in their mid 50s who is more of a hardliner and this level of division within the, how many are in the IRGC, 180,000, I think that it is. So that's what I've been trying to parse out because I think that's where the clues lie as to what kind of deal, if any, we're going to be able to get or if we're just going to be shifting back to either a series of airstrikes and trumps out there again with the, we're going to bomb everything, calling up every reporter saying, it's going to be bridge and power plant day again to a ground invasion because we're all sitting here talking about this on our podcasts and on our TV stations, but at the same time, thousands of American troops continue to come into the theater and we are behaving as if a ground invasion is possible and with someone like Donald Trump in charge, you could see a scenario where we do end up there. Yeah, it feels as if, so I'm more optimistic about the medium and long-term benefits of military action. I do think that neutering their ability to continue to fund proxies that terrorize the region, a diminishment or diminishing their launch capabilities or Navy, I think all of this has real long-term benefit. I think that the IRGC is obviously not mortally wounded, but significantly their capacity for terror has been significantly diminished. And I think that's good for the region and good for the world. Having said that, this is where incompetence bubbles up. We have no diplomats on the ground. We know what's going to happen in Pakistan and that it's fucking nothing. And one of the definitions of proxies I use to kind of discern masculinity is the same around diplomacy and good leadership. And that is, are you optimizing for attention or for service? And JD Vans heading to Pakistan while having no diplomats doing the hard work of diplomacy, while not enlisting any allies, while not having any consistent policy, while saying things like the war is over soon, but oh wait, but not before we bomb them to the point where we end their civilization, having what looks like a glass jaw and that is not accomplishing any of your objectives which keeps switching and then saying, we're done, we're pulling out. There are so many things we have taken for granted and that is the difficult work of diplomats, the difficult work of negotiation, how important it is as Winston Churchill said, the only thing worse than fighting with your allies is fighting without your allies. We are now fighting and negotiating without our allies and we don't have any diplomatic intelligence. The bottom line is when the successful negotiations and diplomatic meetings, summits, 95% of the work has been done before they set foot on the ground and then it's just, which is photo ops and arguing over or debating over a few points or a framework or what have you. And this is in my opinion, another example of, if you were to describe the operational excellence with strategic incompetence and we just have no idea where it's going. It feels like it's a giant distraction again from the Epstein files and the only thing I'm certain of is that we're gonna see massive volatility in the markets and a ton of money being made by somebody in this crime family or extended crime family based on announcements that will be abnormal, options trading in the oil markets before the next announcement that sends the markets way up or way down. But we continue to lose allies, we continue to lose credibility, we continue to put civilians and infrastructure and our own military personnel at unnecessary risk. The only thing I think the media or one thing I think the media is missing is that the IRGC has connected a cessation of hostilities in Lebanon to a ceasefire and people aren't talking about that. And that's kind of an interesting moment around whether, if the US decides they want the ceasefire, whether they can force the Israelis to stop their military action against Hezbollah and in Lebanon. I don't think there's enough reporting on that. The people, it'll be interesting to see what that says about the dynamic between in the powerful crime between the US and Israel. But this is almost becoming sort of powerful and the way it all bubbles up is that I think it's in the IRGC's best interests to continue to not agree to a ceasefire. I will say that I thought it was a good move to take control of the straight-through-form moves and sequester any inbound or outbound traffic from Iranian ports. I do think that's the leverage and just to wrap up this word salad, the most powerful lever we've always had was not military action, it was economic action. And we are sort of doing that, but I think that would have probably, in retrospect, been more effective here than military action. Any other thoughts on this, Jess? Yeah, I'm gonna try to address all of the ingredients of the salad, because there was a lot in there that I was interested in. The blockading, the blockade, I just think we can't lose sight of the fact that we were trying to reopen something that we didn't realize that they could close to talk about the incompetence that underpinned all of this, that there, and there's been extensive reporting on this, that the assumption was that the Iranians would never close the straight-through-form moves, and now, no matter what happens in the next 10, 20, 30 days, they know that they have that kind of leverage over the entire world, not even over the region. And that's a pretty big tool to have in your toolbox that you were not using before, because it was free-flow, right? Anyone could come through there. So I think that's really important just to keep in mind. You talked about the operational excellence, and I think that's absolutely true for the first month of this, but during the ceasefire, we have essentially given them two weeks to do as they please, right? To rebuild, to rearm, and yes, we've taken out a lot of their missile sites, but they have the capacity to rebuild with time, and they haven't lost any friends, right? Vladimir Putin's not lessen to them. Xi Jinping is certainly not lessen to them, and if anything, China in particular has gained more friends out of this because of our alienating of our allies, and so they will be even stronger. When you have Mark Carney standing shoulder to shoulder with Xi Jinping, when you have Macron making speeches about how it makes more sense to have a strategic partnership with China, that's all bad news for us. So the operational excellence, I think it deteriorates as this goes on and that we don't get a deal. Then there's the question of what does this deal look like? Will it just be the JCPOA, the 2026 version, and then how does that get explained to anybody? Right, like why shouldn't we have just been in the second round of renegotiation where we are giving them money, there'll be a financial component and there'll be sunset clauses, which were the brass tacks of the original deal there. Will the right accept it? Because they railed against the JCPOA, and we're talking about more money being exchanged than we did back during the Obama administration. You're talking about $20 billion versus $1.7 billion. It's an enormous difference. And I think the pressure that Trump is now feeling domestically over the war can't be underestimated. NBC's poll this weekend, new second term low of just 37% approval, 67% disapprove of his handling of the war with Iran. But what was really interesting to me because we talk about whether these influencers are actually representative of the base at all, Tucker Carlson being out there, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Candace Owens, back in Kelly saying, this war is ludicrous. Now we have 13% of self-described supporters of the MAGA movement disapproving of Trump on Iran and 26% of Republicans overall. So that includes the Mitt Romney Republicans and also the MAGA Republicans. But that's still more of a fissure than we have seen before. And I think his panic, calling in to reporters this morning and saying, we're gonna have a deal today. When no one I think is even gonna be on the ground today in Islamabad to be able to even try and cut a deal, shows how desperate he's getting. Or that it's just, it's just purely performative in the- Or that he's just a TV guy that's saying whatever he wants. I wanna go there, act presidential, blame it on the Iranians and hit the tarmac, make some indignant speech and then left and nothing will be accomplished except to further inflame the relationship. I used to think that Russia was the biggest winner because it's, and given them tens of not hundreds of billions of dollars of incremental capital continue to fund an invasion of Europe. But now I'm beginning to believe of the medium and long-term, despite the short-term energy risks because of the majority of the oil coming out of the Strait of Hormuz was headed towards China. I do think they're a winner over the medium and the long-term here because in addition to the economic benefits of moving to a renewables energy infrastructure, it just creates incredible energy independence just strategically is so important regardless of the price of oil. And I can't imagine that you're just not going to see a dramatic uptick in investments. I mean, huge investments in renewable energy, which says, okay, who is the most sophisticated producer of renewables? And let's look at that. 80% of the world's solar panels are produced by one nation, China. 70% of the world's EVs produced by one nation, China. And 60% of windmills are produced in one nation, China. So their advanced manufacturing, their long-term thinking, their long-term investments are about to afford decade-long massive ROI as nations all over the world from developing nations to G7 nations to massively increase their investments in renewables. And one nation is going to benefit from that and be able to leverage it not only economically but geopolitically to emerging nations and to say to Canada, hey, Canada, you don't need to depend upon the US and their sclerotic economic policies. We will not only provide you with the best renewables, we'll finance it. We are a trusting partner. You can rely on us. So I think this might be a quote unquote pivot point and people keep predicting pivot points for the US keeps coming back stronger and stronger. But the other thing that people aren't watching, it'll be very interesting to see over the next 12 months if the percentage of reserve currencies globally that are the US dollar begins to go down in favor of another currency, specifically the ren-n-b. That would be a destruction or an erosion in what has been the greatest aircraft carrier strike force in history. And that is the US dollar where our economic sanctions have real teeth. We can print money on a dime, not like when the UK decided it was gonna print more money in lower taxes, you know, the country would almost went into default and the Prime Minister was out on 11 weeks. We don't have the problem. We can basically, you know, at least in the short and medium term, print money like crazy. We have sanctions. We get to see the flow of capital anywhere in the world because it has to come through our systems. I think that's the metric that we should be tracking. But again, I see this, this is nothing, but the slow leak of credibility out of the US and into China. And it feels like at this point, the IRGC is winning. And it is just so difficult to predict anything over the next seven days, except somebody who is not us and somebody who has a direct information pipeline from the White House is gonna make a shit ton of money as they are gonna front run a bunch of trades. I wanted to ask you before we move on, on that theme. I mean, first of all, can you imagine, is Donald Trump just gonna start calling Xi Jinping woke and weak because of his interest in renewables and windmills and solar panels and all the things that the right tell us are just a colossal waste of money. And that we should just, you know. I'm not sure she really cares. I'm building a home and I'm about to, yeah. No, but I'm saying like, how do people back here explain dumping on the technologies of the future that someone like Xi Jinping, who's a complete authoritarian and cares about nothing, but making money, right? He has a million people in a concentration camp for God's sake. And he's like, actually, windmills are good. You know, solar panels are good. There you go. But the thing I wanted to ask you is from the Mark Carney clip, or the piece of his speech, was a 10 minute televised address. I think it is very meaningful that our allies like Carney want to sit down, direct to camera and tell us that we don't matter anymore. And that the relationship is irreparably broken because it's one thing to do things behind our back. Obviously we find out about it because it's being reported on. But it hits different, at least to me, to see him sit there and to tell his people and the rest of the world. And some of the European leaders, by the way, are talking about how Canada would be a great partner for the EU. Not part of Europe, right? But they're like, we're completely aligned with this guy and the way that Canada is going. So I thought that that was a meaningful shift, frankly, that he did it that way. I don't know what you thought. 100%. It's unusual or strange, but I think the Canadian prime minister is effectively, the EU, as I always said, and people have always said, what the EU lacks is a leader to speak for them in a definitive voice. And it looks as if they found that person, it's the prime minister of Canada, that he's sort of representing the G7 outside of the US. And he's forceful, yet dignified, and it's a very basic premise. And that is whereas we used to control and have the votes of two thirds of the world's economy, now it's one third. And we're just in a minority position now. And the other third isn't looking to align with China and Russia, they're looking to create their own multipolar influence and speak for themselves, and not to be dependent on the US military umbrella or US trade relationships. That is just an enormous erosion in power and influence. And Carney, if you will, in a weird way, that reminds me of, Ivo has founded this fact interesting, 70% of divorce filings are filed by women. And so Ivo has said that there's more divorce energy coming from women than from men. But I had the divorce attorney on the podcast, really thoughtful guy, and he basically said that number is misleading because effectively a lot of men vacate or exit the relationship, and it's just the woman who decides to actually file for divorce. But that the male side of the relationship kind of gave up on the marriage has been absent for a long time. It's just the women are more organized and decides to have been actually filed a paperwork. Another thing we have to do, that we have to actually go file paperwork. Yet another thing. And yet another thing. And then this reminded me of this, and that is everyone or a lot of people in the administration are criticizing or people on the right, Carney's divorce from the US. It's like, no, be clear, he's filed the paperwork, but we're the ones that stuck up the middle finger and started banging our assistant and not showing up for the kids spring concert, right? We have divorced from these nations. They're just making it official and filing. But this is, I just on the game theory here is, they'll call it 40 chess, he's not, it's not even checkers, he's eating the pieces. None of this makes any sense. No idea what to expect, except we know that we have alienated our allies. We're now creating a world where it's a third, people who are adversaries, a third that used to be our allies, but now feel they can no longer trust us and no longer feel a need to coordinate with us. And then we're gonna be sitting here recognizing, wow, things like allies really, really mattered. Things like diplomacy really mattered. Things like when you commit to war, you don't start talking about saying that it's over as a means of negotiation before you achieve any sort of well articulated objectives. But this has been, it is hard to imagine the American brand eroding, I would say the two biggest brand erosions of the last 12 months have been AI. It was gonna save us, now everyone's convinced it's gone from Anakin Skywalker to Darth Vader and a destruction in the US brand abroad. We're seeing this just unpredictable, sclerotic, bullying, no real strategy, and our allies are just freaked out and thinking, okay, enough is enough. We have this drunk uncle at a barbecue practicing his karate moves, trying to intimidate everybody, and all the cousins and everyone has lined up and said, no, we're not inviting uncle Shithead to Thanksgiving next year. We've gotta have our own family and make our own decisions, be responsible for our own mortgage, be responsible for our own alarm system, make friends with the neighbors, start a different PTA and this person cannot be trusted to organize whatever it is, neighborhood alert or what have you. I'm making a terrible analogies here. Should we move on? It worked and it is reminding me, and then I wanna move on because you actually segued nicely into the next topics about AI, but how it feels right now and what my chats look like with all my friends from Europe, from living abroad, feels like it did back during the Bush years, where before we had hope and change come and kind of save the global consciousness that we hadn't totally lost our minds and that we weren't gonna drag everyone into needless wars. Okay, let's take a quick break, stay with us. Busy routines can make it hard to focus on your health goals, but MedExpress offers a simple way to explore weight management treatment online. Complete our short eligibility consultation with no need for face-to-face appointments or travel. If eligible, treatment is delivered discreetly with UK registered clinicians offering support along the way. Visit medexpress.co.uk slash podcast to get started today. I wanna tell you about a new podcast from Vox called America, actually. It's hosted by political journalist, Estette Herndon, who I love. The show asks the question, what will America look like after Donald Trump? Better happen. Trump's been running a one-man show for over a decade, but we're heading towards the first open presidential election since 2016, and it'll play out in a country that'll feel very different. America actually digs deep into the questions that you and your friends are asking about politics, culture, and the economy. It'll map out the people and ideas that'll shape the future beyond Trump. You can watch America actually on the Vox YouTube channel and listen wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome back. So every election cycle usually adopts a new technology. With Obama, he mastered, if you will, Google and search, they say that Trump mastered was the social media election. It looks like the last election may have been deemed a podcast election, and people are saying that this is about to be, the midterms are about to be the coming out party for AI. A lot of these accounts are pretty obviously fake or scammy AI bots, but how much does that actually matter? With AI, the scale here does feel different. It only costs a few dollars to generate a post. You could flood the zone with content and potentially game the algorithm at every level we haven't really seen before. What are your thoughts on the Democrats fighting fire with fire to create these kinds of accounts to spread misinformation or at least the liberal agenda? What do you think of AI's impact and how dirty we should get, or the progressives should get, trying to respond to what feels like a plethora of an explosion in AI bots online, Jess? Well, first I would encourage everyone to read the Big New York Times piece on these accounts. There are hundreds of new MAGA accounts that are AI, and TikTok, of course, has told us we're doing everything that we can to get them off, and apparently there's no foreign influence there, though, I mean, TikTok itself is foreign influence, so I would say implicitly it is, but that they're just there for our mining engagement at this point. I really struggle with this one because I wanna win elections very, very badly, but at the same time, I'm really not supportive of us creating fake people to trick folks, you know, scrolling through their feeds into thinking things that aren't true, that they're connecting with people who don't actually exist, and possibly just telling straight up lies about what reality is, what the agenda looks like, and Donald Trump has actually reposted even one of these fake AI accounts that's in the Times piece, I believe it was an attractive blonde woman, so no surprise there that he stopped and double clicked on that one, but I'm very pro-getting in the dirt with the Republicans where we can, but this might feel like a bridge too far for me, and I think we desperately need some government regulation in this front, and as always, the law is always too slow to keep up with the technology, and I'm super freaked out for what happens in 2026, because it feels right now, you know, you look at a president with a 37% approval rating, odds of even the Dems taking the Senate over 50% now, and you think, well, what could screw that up? An army of fake influencers telling you that all we care about is paying for sex changes for people who are here illegally. Yeah, I say we go fucking gangster. I just, I see this as, and this may sound paranoid, but it doesn't mean I'm wrong. Whenever I talk about Ukraine, I have so many comments, and the really vile ones really trying to attack my academic credibility or whatever, or trying to undermine just any credibility that you might have online, I click on it, the really vile shit, and it's Dog Mom Wisconsin with three followers. It's a bot, it's AI driven, I recognize the language, I've been putting all these comments into AI, and say what percentage are AI, and the platforms have an economic incentive to just let chaos reign, and I'm sick of, I wanna move from the Democratic Party that has our virtue to stand on as we continue to lose elections and see bodily autonomy and income inequality be attacked and get worse respectively, I'm like let's go fucking gangster, let's fight. They show up with a gun, let's show up with a bigger gun, they show up with a bigger gun, let's show up with a fucking nuclear weapon, and I think people have no idea the extent to which their views have been shaped by the comments of bad actors, and my idea is to take Mom Donnie's team and put them in charge of social media for the Democrats, because every time I said anything about Mom Donnie, that wasn't like, oh, he's fucking amazing in the next generation hero, hundreds of comments about what a boomer and an idiot I was, and then again, I click on them, his campaign clearly had weaponized thousands of fake accounts. Was it unethical? Was it wrong? Yes, and it was the right thing to do, put him in charge of social media for the Democrats. They play fucking dirty, and I am here for it, because as long as they're playing dirty, I'm not going to disarm unilaterally. If the Republicans, I'm just so sick of virtuous Democrats who continually lose power, railing against billionaires and talking about how the wealthy need to pay their fair share, as they've been in Congress fucking 20 or 30 years, Senators Warren and Sanders, as taxes have gone down on corporations and the wealthy, bring fucking steel knuckles to this fight. Overwhelm, flood the zone such that no one believes anything on these shitty platforms, fine, but the notion that we should be more dignified and rise above it, yeah, fuck that, fuck that. I am ready to go bare knuckle here. I want to weaponize hundreds of fake accounts, if not hundreds of thousands, put them on Donnie campaign in charge, because they were absolutely doing it. Yeah, am I accusing you of unethical behavior online? Yes, and I'm here for it. Put them in charge of the DNC's social media strategy. Here's my TED talk. Any closing thoughts here, Jess? My closing thought is I don't think that Mayor Mount Donnie is going to be coming on Raging Mottor. It's not that he wanted to anyway, but there's merit to your argument. I am still afraid of the damage that all of it reaps, but I do want to win elections. So I'm open to the proposal, but yes, completely taking the social media teams from the candidates that are really resonating like John Ossoff's team, hello, I would love to have you work for more people. If he's... I'll elevate them. Yeah, 100%. Like, Mom Donnie, I mean, Mom Donnie and Obama doing the wheels on the bus injected into my veins, right? Like, and just put it everywhere. So I guess I could be a gangster too. Millions of fake accounts circulating that moment with Mom Donnie and Obama. I am just, oh, by the way you said Ossoff, I was on a Hueberman's podcast and he asked me, who do you think will be the nominee? And we should keep it running tally here. My two front runners are Bashir and Ossoff. I think that the two of them are well known enough to be liked, but not well known enough such that everyone's attacking them right now. But I think Ossoff is giving off serious presidential energy right now. Your quick thoughts before you wrap up. 100%. He is nailing the type of rhetoric that we were talking about with the election in Hungary last week as well, where it's all about us versus them, talking about the corruption. And to the point where we talk about the insider trading and the Trump family making all of this money, he's the only one standing up there and saying, has anyone checked Jared Kushner's bank account lately? Does anyone know what Steve Wittkopf and his kids seek to benefit from when they're out there making these kinds of deals? I think it's spot on. And he looks the part too. And the way that they're filming him and cutting these clips. He's young, yeah, all of it. Yeah. And Swain State. Swain State, 100%. I was saying this to a progressive friend. What's really interesting is, he's a moderate guy. He's one in Georgia, but nobody cares. Like Hassan Piker loves him too, right? Because he's hitting the right notes on this corruption argument and relentlessly going after the Trump administration doesn't play in the infighting. To the point about being ruthless, he's like, I don't need to waste my time talking about what some other Democrat is doing. Like we got bigger problems than this. So very pro. And just to check in, according to Kalsy, it says there's a two thirds chance that Cash Patel will be out as FBI director by June 1st. Any 50% chance that Pete Hacks says will leave his job this year. There's also currently, get this, 62% chance, almost two thirds, according to better, is that Trump will be impeached by January, 2028. The overall odds that Trump will be impeached again hit 72 over the weekend and all time high. And I would just remind everyone that Kalsy and these prediction markets seem to be much better at predicting political outcomes than any pollsters or any media polls. Those were striking numbers to me. Just as the- Calling Pete and Cash the liquor cabinet now. I love that. But Cash is suing the Atlantic for $250 million, by the way, for defamation. I'll be interested how that, well, they lose those lawsuits all the time. The impeachment seems high to me though. That seems like crazy high. I would probably take the other side of that. All right, let's leave it there, Jess. Before we go, a reminder, the Raging Moderates is now on Substack. Subscribers get ad-free episode, a place to connect with me, Jess, and the rest of the community and access to the new Raging Moderates newsletter, The Monday Rage, which is out now. Plus, we're going to be hosting some live streams and man-mays that will only be viewable to our Substack subscribers. So get joined up, find us all at RagingModernates.ProffGmedia.com. Just a quick note, a good friend of the podcast and a very decent man and an outstanding public servant, Senator Warner's daughter, Madison, lost a decades-long fight with diabetes. Our thoughts and sympathies go out to the Warner family. That's all for this episode. Thank you so much for joining us today. Have a good rest of the week, Jess. Cool, I'll see you tomorrow.