Trump's Veepstakes Begin

And then he will have risen. Maybe that worked. I think it worked. All right. So on today's show, Trump's apprentice style veepstakes has begun.

Wall Street billionaires are coming to his rescue. His truth social stock is tanking. Lost a billion dollars today. And he continues to attack and threaten his political opponents and their families. Meanwhile, Joe Biden reaches out to Nikki Haley voters and move over Beyonce because RNC chair Lara Trump has dropped a banger.

Yeah, she is. But first, I hope all who celebrate had a happy Easter, because the most online partisan Republicans certainly did not. Everyone from Trump and Mike Johnson on down was outraged, outraged that Joe Biden issued a proclamation on Transgender Day of Visibility, as he has for the last four years, without controversy. But the reason Republicans had to fit this year is because Transgender Day of Visibility, which has been March 31st for the last 15 years, happened to fall on Easter Sunday. And the idea that a devout Catholic like Biden would dare to tell a group of Americans who've been targeted by hate and discrimination that they're loved and included on Easter of all days was too much for the anti trans community to celebrate.

the day of trans visibility in and of itself is an affront to Christianity. But it's also a random day created by a random person out of Michigan. in the same way that I could declare March 30th is the day of Lisa. Well, recognize it another day, not on Easter Sunday. It's an affront to the Bible.

Well, this is a clear effort and a coordinated effort to remove God from our society and to replace God with false gods. And in this instance, it's the trans community. Why do we replace God with the trans God? I didn't know he did that. Yeah.

So I wasn't too surprised that this became a thing on the right. No, I didn't expect the magnitude of the freak.

We're probably kind of numb to it, but it is exhausting and relentless. And it's just. Republicans are able to do this, in part because they have the media infrastructure to amplify it. And they kick it up. And then, you know, because Fox covers it, you get a bunch more Republicans who put out statements, and then it becomes a bigger thing.

And the utterly phony nature of this faux outrage was best embodied by Caitlyn Jenner, who, on March 31, 2017, tweeted, hashtag trans day of visibility. There's no better visibility than with sisters by my side as a photo of Caitlyn with some of her friends. And then this weekend tweeted, I am absolutely disgusted that Joe Biden has declared the most holy of holy days, a self proclaimed devout Catholic, as transgender day of visibility. The only thing you should be declaring on this day is he all caps is risen. So I don't know, I guess Caitlyn Jenner is fine with people saying she doesn't deserve to exist on certain days.

But you know, we've seen this a million times in the Obama years, the mainstreet media then covers the controversy that's get kicked up by Fox News. And here we are, it, it

The fact that we had the fucking speaker of the house, Donald Trump, not really surprised there. And, like Republican governors, Republican congressmen, like it, was everywhere. It's so, and it's so fucking phony. And you know, it's phony because now that they've all been corrected, because they were all wrong, because Joe Biden didn't pick the day and the day just happened to fall on Easter, because these people don't know how fucking calendar works, or they're all supposed to be devout Christians, but they don't get that. Easter Sunday means that it's a different date every year, that that's been around for 15 years.

that Biden has, you know, proclaimed it, has issued a proclamation for the last four years. Uh, they're still doing it. They were still doing it today. They're just like, they didn't, they didn't back down even a hint, because it's, it's just phony.

And so I think that they are targeting, they really want the Catholic vote. And so they thought they would go after Catholics, but specifically, even though it doesn't make any sense, but it's seen as a slight.

Right? Like, even if you think being trans isn't compatible with Christianity, which I would say is bullshit, like how does it affect you to have this?

It's always been the 31st, and that's been the case for 15 years. And of, with all lies, like it, that took a lot of time to catch up to people who are reading about the.

Uh, and then I asked if he wanted to go again next year and he was like, nah, we're good. It is very crowded. I think it was very crowded. A lot of screaming kids sweating on a lawn. So whatever.

But I guess, yeah, they don't allow religious egg designs. They haven't since 1976. was Gerald Ford doing, I guess. But I guess my reaction was who cares, but also, why not? If some little goober wants to make an egg with a crucifixion on it, like?

if you want to come to the Easter egg roll with a big picture of Jesus on your shirt, great. Just don't put it on the fucking egg. Um, so anyway, that's, what's going on with Joe Biden on Easter. Uh, here's a fun, uh, CNN Chiron, that was a blinger across the television screen yesterday. Trump spends Easter Sunday posting on social media about quote, people that I completely and totally despise.

He went on a real tirade on, uh, on his, his, his fake Twitter. He also posted about, uh, quote, the crucifixion of Donald Trump. That's of course, that's appropriate for Easter. And he posted a two pieces that call Trump quote, a miracle sent and chosen by God himself. Sure.

So my opinion is that those Easter messages would weird out more normie voters than the current president saying nice things to trans people. But what do you think?

They do. Now, obviously Trump likes this response because this is essentially a format he uses. I Googled a random holiday just to see if there was a good example. John, this is, I Googled, um, Trump veterans day comments. This is from veterans day speech.

last year. We pledged to you that we will root out the communist, Marxist, fascist and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country, that lie and steal and cheat on election. So I think we actually covered. that. Was that Christmas?

No, those veterans. Oh, veterans day. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry.

So I don't know. I, I, there are probably a lot of voters. we know from polling. There are voters who hate this side of him. They hate the tweets and the cruelty, but I don't know.

I think the normies don't like this. Normies don't like it.

And when he compares himself to Jesus and then spends Easter just attacking random people and never mentions Jesus, uh, they probably think that's weird. They probably think that's fucking, if they, if they heard about it, they would think that's fucking weird. Yeah, it is weird. I think, though,

And the Joe Biden was kind of the answer there. I wonder if that was a lie. I wonder if we all got hooked on the like weird Trump fentanyl of the vicious shit talking, you know, it's just like jarringly different than what we're used to that people.

But I do think there is a, a very online or very like, attentive to politics type of person who sees all this and is just like, you know, this is like every day and we're all caught up in it. I think that most, most people, first of all, like you said, I think it's what you said. They're not paying attention. Most will never see. those people will never hear about this controversy.

Though, if I was the Biden people, I don't know. I, I do some targeted advertising about, uh, Trump, the fake religious asshole. Who's always talking about how he's persecuted, because it does fit into the overall message about him. They only fucking cares about himself. One of the posts said that Trump posted this from a, from a supporter said, it's ironic that Christ walked through his greatest persecution.

The very week they are trying to steal your property from you.

Jesus Christ dying for mankind's sins is much like Trump's inability to post half a billion dollars bond because he committed business fraud and was held liable for it. Do you remember when?

I saw this. Um, remember that McKay?

There you go.

In other Trump news, uh, his search for a running to replace the guy, his mob almost hung is reportedly getting serious. Lots of interest in this job. Don't know why. Politico says the campaign is currently busy vetting a list that includes the following candidates. Tim Scott, JD Vance, Katie Brett, Marco Rubio, South Dakota governor, Kristi Noem, North Dakota governor, Doug Burgum, all the Dakotas, Arkansas governor, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Florida representative.

Byron Donalds, and Tulsi Gabbard, former representative from Hawaii, former Democrat turned crazy person. And here's a dark horse from convicted felon Roger Stone. Uh, you know who I'd like, I just thought of this last night, Devin Nunez, a 20 year member of Congress, former chairman of the house intelligence committee, someone Donald Trump is very close to and trusts entirely Hispanic, a former farmer, before he went to Congress. I think he'd be an excellent choice. Not Hispanic.

I think he's Portuguese. He's not Hispanic, currently running truth, social, uh, a big, huge scam. So that's a great choice. All right. So we have been waiting patiently and responsibly for the Republican primary to end before engaging in silly and ultimately pointless VP speculation.

Now we get to let it rip. Let's go. All right. Here's a few questions. Who on that list do you think gives Trump the biggest political?

Great answer. If you don't know, it's the funniest thing. It's a great Bible passage. It means a lot to you. I don't want to.

I kind of think the most valuable pick could be Tulsi Gabbard. Yeah.

Okay. Cause, if you pick a Democrat, that is the most surprising, thing he could do. It is the biggest tent argument, right? It's like, she's still a Democrat. No, but she was one day.

we can talk about it. She's elected Democrat. And you know, so you could make that argument that, like, I'm, um, you can't call me too partisan. He picked the Democrat for his VP, right? So it's a big 10 thing.

And then also, uh, Trump knows that Republicans are struggling with women, uh, especially after the Dobbs decision. And you could see Tulsi as an asset there. Now, that's on paper. in practice, she's really weird. So there is, she's really weird and just gotten.

She, she wouldn't do the very, like the RFK jr type, like, um, anti-war, anti-establishment, anti, like, populist, right? Like she would go there. So I could, yeah. It's, you know what? You sort of make a good case.

Call me Roger Stone. You make a better case than I expected for Tulsi Gabbard. Who's your number one? Tim Scott. Okay.

I think, I think for political benefit, I, he's the one I worry about, because I think he could create a permission structure for disengaged black voters, especially black men, young black men who, uh, don't like either candidate, and the permission structure will allow them to back Trump. because, and these, these are, by the way, these would be voters who do not pay close attention to politics, are not partisan Democrats, consider themselves moderate, who, by the way, are the, if we're, to the extent that Democrats, um, have an, an issue with black voters, it is those black voters that, that the party's worried about that have been drifting away from the party. And I think Tim Scott, again, if you haven't paid attention to the primary, he's young, he seemingly genial, like, and I, and I think that Trump, I could see the campaign wanting that. And I also Kellyanne Conway, made a pitch for him in a New York times op-ed. So that's the one that I kind of worry about counterpoint too weird.

That's why I think.

He does create that similar permission structure, but also a CNN had a recent report about how much Byron Donald's uses shit on Trump on Facebook, including comparing the birther attacks to being a nine 11 truther. So you do think that one might swing a bit.

Where can we?

Georgia. Yeah. Right. Any others? Any other favorites you like?

As terms of like helping him politically, I honestly don't think, I mean, there is the, like, he picks a woman. So that helps them politically. I don't know. It depends. I think it very much depends on who he picks.

Like, I don't know how well Kristi Noem wears after a while that she's like selling veneers. You know, that's weird. Why is she doing teeth ads? I don't know. Out of state dentists.

I don't think Sarah Huckabee Sanders gets you much. No. Right. What if Doug Burgum writes a big check? That, that, well, that's, I guess that could, would help him a big check.

Yeah. That's, that's a possibility. Katie Britt. I wonder, like right now she's super mockable because of the state of the union response. People who know her were sort of surprised how bad she was.

So I wonder if she could possibly fix that over time. And now her expectations are low, but I think honestly, I think most of these people are like a, just a net neutral. Like, I don't think they help or hurt politically, though. I do. Like I said, I do worry.

You probably remember this. Actually you might, you guys might've all been at the convention when McCain picked Palin. We were sitting around at Obama HQ, like literally Googling her name and learning about her for the first time. And also finding brutal opposition research hits on her in real time. And she's obviously like a singularly terrible pick, but there was a bit of this with Pence too, because people didn't really know him that well outside of DC.

And they were digging up his old columns, like attacking Mulan or whatever. And you know, there was, there was a lot of space.

Didn't hurt him. Was just there. Just around. Which is exactly, yeah. Until he almost wasn't.

Which is exactly what Donald Trump wants, right? Like? he doesn't want anyone to outshine him. He just wants someone to be loyal, sit next to him and then overturn the election if he needs them to do that. That's all he wants.

So do you think there's anyone who would be a political net negative, like a Sarah Palin? Like, I don't know if there's anyone in this crowd, like maybe Gabbard, if she goes sideways. She's got the sideways potential. Not.

Who do you think would be the worst slash, scariest president? Uh, if Trump gets the hamburger from heaven and this VP becomes.

You probably read the long political piece. I did. I didn't know you're a better reader than I am. Well, lucky you then, John, I get to tell you about it. Um, I, what it told me was that he is more sincerely committed to the America first, uh, white Christian nationalist project that we're seeing out of the heritage foundation and these other think tanks than I thought.

And maybe it's a different project than Trump. Um, and it made my hair stand on end and worry about him. The question with him has always been like, is he the JD Vance from, uh, his book? that seemed more reasonable? Yeah.

Elegy, which I read at the time I thought was pretty good. And I know you're not allowed to say that anymore. And no, no, I did in a Twitter circles, but, um, it was interesting and it seems like an effort to better understand people's problems and solve them. I think he was wrong about all his solutions, but, uh, the JD Vance that we've all gotten to know since is scary and isolationist in bad ways and just a bad person and a demagogue. And I actually don't think he is, uh,

I kind of think he's like what people thought to Santa's might be, but like the real, the real deal, smarter to Santa. So I do, I worry about him a lot. Yeah. All right. Now getting inside Trump's mind, which is always fun.

Who do you think he wants and who do you think the campaign wants? I've already, I think the campaign wants Scott, maybe Rubio. They want someone to help with certain demographics. That'd be my guess.

And there also seems to be a genuine friendship relationship with.

Look at this attractive woman that I have as my running man. And he feels like that about men too. You have to look good to be around Trump.

Uh, Trump's is being co-hosted by billionaire hedge fund manager, John Paulson, who famously got rich off the subprime mortgage crisis and is now a reportedly a candidate for treasury secretary rates. Uh, there's also a bunch of rich people, uh, going, who at one time or another said they were done with Trump. Uh, one donor told the wall street journal quote, there are a lot of wall street people who tried everything else and are in the process of coming back to the party and Trump. Oh, well, they didn't, they didn't like the attempted coup and insurrection, but, uh, you know, it's really bad.

Yeah. So let me channel my inner, um, Ben Labolte for a second white house communications director. If I were a reporter covering the Trump campaign, I would probably wait to see some receipts before I reported that it was going to raise $33 million at an event. It's possible, but the Biden fundraiser, with Obama, Bill Clinton, Stephen Colbert at radio city, a venue that seats like 5,000 people, raised 25 million. And that was like unheard of.

I couldn't believe it when I saw this number. So again, like this event with Trump could raise 33 million. The reason is because of a bunch of Supreme court rulings that did away with donation caps. Uh, and now, if you're a Democrat, you can be asked to write a check for $929,600, which is the joint fundraising committee that goes to the Biden campaign, the DNC, uh, democratic state parties. That's before you get the super PAC.

So basically, God help you. if you're a rich Democrat and a Jeffrey Katzenberg has your number, that call is coming. But so who knows, like maybe they can find 40 billionaires to write like an $800,000 somewhat check to the Trump victory fund. But I don't, I doubt it.

And it's all a scam. These people all think that Trump voters are fucking rubes. They have no respect for them. They just don't care. It's just like how Trump feels about the evangelical Christians, feels the same way about his other voters.

It's just, he just wants rich friends around. That's all he wants.

They were ready to move on from the Bush years. And then they got really sad because during the financial crisis, there was rhetoric coming out of the democratic party in the white house that was anti wall street. That's right. Listeners, you might be surprised to learn.

And then they're worried that someone's coming for their money.

. I'll just say Democrats in glass houses.

It's awful. It's awful. The story talked about how they've been trying to diversify away from only Trump messaging, because that was doing the best, but they were doing it too often, but they've been struggling. And it said, quote, one such message, a sweepstakes to meet Pence raised less than $500, according to people familiar with the 2022 sweepstakes. So again...

There's no price to equity. It's a meme stock. And so, I don't know, I think we're all just waiting to see if Trump gets permission to dump shares early from his board.

But yeah, the value of the Trump shares went from $6 billion last week to $3.

7 billion today. So, that's a tough week. That said, it could all go back up. It's not trading on fundamentals. It's momentum and FOMO, like a meme stock, like the crypto.

Like, there's, there are people who like to buy this stuff.

All right. So, after a two-week break from campaigning, Trump is in Wisconsin and Michigan this week, where his campaign says he'll give remarks on, quote, Biden's border bloodbath. Just owning the bloodbath.

So, certainly not the first time any of this has happened. Obviously worries people like us. Do you think it resonates or breaks through with most voters? The Biden campaign today actually held a press conference, and they had some ahead of this trip by Trump to Wisconsin and Michigan, and they had a couple police officers who served on January 6th, sort of talking about Trump's threats of violence, how he incites violence,

I don't know that people.

. The whole thing's weird. It's just odd, right? The attack on the family of a judge is wild. And I do think it's just worth pausing for a second that Trump, just to explain what's happening, Trump is attacking the adult daughter of a New York Supreme Court judge and saying her political affiliations mean her father can't be fair and impartial.

Meanwhile, the classified documents case in Florida is being overseen by Aileen Cannon, who Trump literally appointed to the job. And, by the way, if these things get appealed up to the Supreme Court, there'll be three more Trump appointees there just waiting to bail him out. So we're already in such a dumb place. The fact that we're debating this and calling it sort of rigged and unfair to him, as opposed to him literally being before a judge who he gave the job to, is absurd on its face. But I do think, on the violence point, one-off, people will probably just not see it or pay attention to it.

But making it a broader story. that ties back to Jan 6th, I do think that's real. I do too. And I think it's important, for,

that could incite violence. So releasing a bunch of people from prison who were convicted by a jury of their peers for beating the shit out of police officers on January 6th. I think people would not like that. The fact that he and his advisors have talked about invoking the Insurrection Act so that he deploys the US military against fucking protesters, that seems scary. The fact that he said police officers should be able to shoot suspected shoplifters on the spot when they walk out of a store.

Those are the things that I think are.

. Those are more powerful arguments, just because, A, he said them and promised them, or whatever else. And people can say, oh God, if he becomes president, that kind of world could... We could be living in that kind.

And now he's got a policy to match that.

Deportation raids, they're going to go into cities and have, again, armed soldiers and agents of the state knocking on people's doors, raiding workplaces and checking for people's papers to see if they're actual citizens. All that stuff is more likely to cause violence than any kind of image. Yeah. And listen, I think,

He does have a big advantage on crime and.

Yeah. So Biden campaign is also stepping up its outreach to Republicans, especially Nikki Haley voters, who aren't yet sure if they'll support Trump in November. The campaign is out with a new digital ad that Biden tweeted with the message, Nikki Haley voters, Donald Trump doesn't want your vote. I want to be clear. There's a place for you in my campaign.

And here's the ad. Birdbrain, I call her Birdbrain. She's gone haywire. There aren't that many, never Trumpers anymore. How do you bring these Nikki Haley voters back into the tank?

I'm not sure we need too many. So it seems like a smart move to me. I'm interested to hear what you think. Our pal Jonathan Martin has a piece out in Politico where he argues that Biden himself hasn't done enough outreach to Republican politicians who've said they don't want to support Trump. People like Haley, Chris Christie, Mike Pence, Larry Hogan, et cetera.

What do you?

In terms of the Jonathan Martin piece, it was interesting. It surprised me. Me too. Larry Hogan is the one exception in there because he's running for Senate in Maryland and kind of winning at the moment.

You need to feel some sort of pull and love from the other side that you'll be welcomed. And we're not necessarily very good at that. in the Democratic Party. We love to just shit on people and never let them be forgiven for their past political sins.

I'm not sure I'd be having Joe Biden call Mike Pence, but I don't know.

But again, the campaign put out the ad reaching out for Haley voters, so they can't be too worried about that. And as Jay Mart says in the piece, Biden of all people, he's still telling fucking stories about Strom Thurmond. He loves reaching out to Republicans. So I'm confused.

Over the weekend, he said, there's no way I'll vote for Trump. But every day Trump does something crazy, the door to voting for Biden opens a little more. And that's the exact kind of person.

I'll be called Jesper. They made fun of him. They mocked him when he was defense secretary because he never should have had the job. He's a joke, right? He's a lobbyist.

But yeah, now he needs a little love from the top and maybe he'll do an ad for you. That's all we're looking for.

Here's a sample of the sure to be chart topping banger. Talking to that little girl. Riding on the Pegasus. Tell her everything's gonna be all right.

Don't think. Just jump. You can't give up. Know that anything is possible.

Her Don't Back Down cover.

He went to Berkeley, played at a bunch of really big bands. He runs studio sessions for huge artists. He mixes. He's a tremendous musician. He's a musical genius.

He does scores, TV and film. Now he was so offended by the production quality. Oh, interesting. It was like the auto tunes. It sounds like a nasal robot.

She does sound like an engineer. The engineering upset him. And I think he was just so mad because he knows, like, if you're rich, pay someone to make you sound good.

Oh, Lara, Lara, what have you done? The party's fallen down. It's no longer fun. Oh, Lara, Lara, can't you see? The leadership's sinking from your feet.

Okay. How many times have you listened to each song since Friday? Have you had that on repeat?

I don't know what she'll be doing. I mean, all the money, what's amazing about this, this really is like Banana Republic shit. Trump installs his daughter-in-law at the RNC. She greenlights this fundraising waterfall where all the checks that come in to the Trump fundraising committee first go to his pack. that does legal defense.

She purges the entire committee.

. That was tough. There's just, there's Mitt Romney singing Who Let the Dogs Out. I mean, there's a... Right?

i.

am.

Better times. Better times, but weird times.

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Well, if you want some actual facts behind it on the polling, Dan Pfeiffer's got you covered. In the latest episode of Polar Coaster, he talks to guest Alyssa Cass about the Haley voters that could absolutely swing the election. I just listened to the episode this morning. It's fantastic. Take a look.

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