Seriously, What The HELL Is Donald Trump Doing?

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We're going to stop it. And you saw the Lake Ontario. You know, people thought I was kidding. Maybe I wasn't, because the last one you saw was the Gulf of Mexico, the Gulf of America. But now we have a gulf and we have a lake. OK, you know, it's very simple. For listeners, Trump was talking about Canada. Canada, not Iran, not North Korea. North Korea pumping. I'm out nukes and missiles that is the Russians are slaughtering people in Ukraine. But Canada is one of the worst countries to deal with. And he really got him with that Lake Ontario to Lake America. Dude, the chortling there, it's so embarrassing. Like the Gulf of America stuff, like I feel like it made news. People talked about it, like some of like the fratty mega types were like, oh, oh, oh, Gulf of America, Gulf of Ontario. It's not whatever Lake America. It's not working. Did you see that that New York Times story about how the trade talks fell apart? And then it turned out it was Howard Nutlick. Yeah, everyone hates Howard Nutlick. That did it. Yeah, he intervened last minute and the whole thing fell apart. Yeah, unfortunately, because the Commerce Department has jurisdiction over a lot of the tariffs on like steel and aluminum and autos and stuff. So we came in late and decided to upend everything. By the way, there's a poll out. Seventy six percent of Canadian voters support Prime Minister Carney's decision to walk away from the trade talks. So the politics for him are pretty clear. Politics for Trump are not great if it hurts the economy. Going into the. Yeah, I haven't seen a poll yet, but I think when you combine renaming a great lake. Remember, people didn't really like the Gulf of America thing that wasn't very popular. When you combine that with a trade war, which is also unpopular. Donald Trump's tariffs are the most unpopular economic policy has with war with our neighbor to the north. I would bet that's highly unpopular. We are quite lucky here in America to have two peaceful land borders. There's a lot of countries that don't. Have that you have to deal with, you know, people invading you or firing missiles at you and stuff. You know, Trump just went into these negotiations and wanted to kill off auto manufacturing in Canada. Howard Letnick was on the record saying he wanted to move the auto manufacturing business from Canada down to the US. So I can imagine they didn't see him as an even an honest broker here. They screwed around with some of these French language requirements in Canada. That really is like kind of a third rail political thing for them. The Trump administration wanted to Canada. To. Get rid of by Canadian programs that were put in place in response to US tariffs without getting rid of the tariffs. Imagine if we were negotiating with someone and they're like, here's the thing. You can't say buy American. No more buy American. We don't want that. You know why? Because it hurts Mr. Trump's feelings. Is that why? And essentially, the US wanted Canada to abide by certain US trade policies when they negotiated their own bilateral deals, especially with respect to steel. So there's just this like clear sovereignty question for Carnegie. That I think really made it easy for him to walk away. I also think what made it easy for him to walk away is like Trump is weak because Trump has now bluffed and then walked back and has tackled after his bluff in like, you know, ten different times, 100 different times with like five different countries, whether it's Iran, whether it's other trade deals, whether it's Greenland, whether it's whatever else. And so I'm sure Carney's thinking like, yeah, why not stand up to Trump? Because he's probably going to back down. He's probably going to back down anyway when the pain hits. Yeah. Long term, this could be very bad for Canada. It's going to hurt them no matter what, because a bunch of businesses will see these tariffs come into place and the uncertainty alone will lead to less investment, less growth, all the bad things you don't want when you're leading an economy. It will also hurt us. There will be, again, boycotts of US products in Canada that's hurt, you know, booze manufacturers and stuff. Kentucky bourbon, for example. There's a lot less travel from Canada to the US, a lot less tourism. That's hurting states like Maine. Another swing state. But, yeah, I think you're right. I mean, Carney knows that Trump has the midterms coming up. He's likely to lose. He's likely to be weakened. Maybe he'll just want this over with or he'll get bored and move on. You never know. People are just over it all over the world. They're like, this guy, you know, I know everyone capitulated at the beginning. The Times had a good piece on this, too, whether it's universities, media companies, other countries now, allies. They're all kind of looking at Trump lately and they're like, I'm not going to worry about this. Throw a punch, guys. By the way, John, Glenn Beck has one point eight million YouTube subscribers. We have fewer. If you want to help us beat Glenn Beck, please subscribe to Pod Save America here on YouTube. We're trying to get people good factual information about politics from a progressive perspective while Glenn Beck is having conversations with AI founding fathers. I didn't even know Glenn Beck was still around. Yeah. I don't even know he was still around, let alone having one point eight million subscribers. What are we what are you all doing, people? Remember when Glenn Beck kind of like tried to break good and did a big piece about how. He regretted being a total lunatic and now he's back on his bullshit at a couple of seconds anyway. Subscribe to Pod Save America here on YouTube. It's it helps a lot, helps us get people good information. And also it is free. Trump also had this to say to back about the death of country singing legend Dolly Parton. We all knew her so well. I knew her a little bit. She wasn't a very political person. She really liked me. I will tell you. But she also wanted to stay very, you know, she she was of the opinion, you know, the 50 percent. Yeah. 50 percent. Who needs to lose? I don't think it's 50. I think it's probably 20 percent of the fans. OK, not 50. But she was a great person. She was just a nice person. You know, I like her a lot. And I thought it was a natural thing to lower the flags. So Trump says Dolly Parton liked him. Glenn Beck thought it was a joke. But then Trump proceeded like it wasn't a joke. Yeah. Like even Glenn Beck couldn't keep a straight face. Right. Realizing that no matter who you talk about, no matter who has died, no matter what happens in the world. The President of the United States, his brain tries to find the fastest route to make it about him. Yeah. Everything. No matter. It's just like a fun game. It's about me. Oh, yeah. Dolly Parton died. Well, let me let me try to see. Let me try to summon some empathy here or think about someone. No, it's just about me. Nah. Just about me. That's it. Like, God, no, I hit on her at 54 one time in 1986. Fuck. Nine to five was out. He is the opposite of Dolly Parton. Yeah, he really is the opposite of Dolly Parton. I don't know. A lot of people have very strong takes about Dolly Parton. I like we all grew. I grew up with her very much as part of the cultural zeitgeist. I can't say I listened to a ton of her music. I wouldn't pretend otherwise. I know she was loved that Christmas album. The Dolly Parton Christmas album. We listened to every Christmas. There you go. That was our Dolly Parton. I feel like for me, it was more seeing her on film and TV and thinking she was funny. I mean, she's a big cultural figure when we were growing up. When we were growing up, she was like a big deal. She's one of like, you know, a couple dozen people that were like really, really famous. I think part of it was like she had a tough upbringing. She grew up in a. One bedroom house with 12 kids. That's pretty remarkable. But she was also just I mean, she was something you don't hear a lot now, which is like funny and self-deprecating. A couple of famous lines. It costs a lot of money to look this cheap. That's great. I'm not offended by all the dumb blonde jokes because I know I'm not dumb. I also know I'm not a blonde. That's a great line. I think she she said she tried to emulate the woman from her hometown that was dismissed and described as cheap and then just owned it. And that was like kind of where her look came from. She was also like an unbelievably talented singer and songwriter and then later helped us create the COVID vaccine. So a lot of reasons like her. But did you see what Eminem posted? No, Marshall Mathers. Of course not. I know. I know. He posts this letter that Dolly Parton sent him that, you know, he had never revealed before when he was inducted into the Hall of Fame. And she was like, hey, I really wanted to see you at the show. Couldn't couldn't see you. But I just wanted you to know that, like, I. I love everything that you do and I feel some connection to you and you should be really proud of everything you've done and hopefully someday we'll meet. But it's just like what you do for people is really wonderful. And like, imagine just sitting down and just writing a letter to someone that you haven't even known in your Dolly Parton just to, like, reach out and say you like their stuff. That song where you talk about killing and dismembering Kim. Your partner spoke to me. I wanted to kill Jolene. Now, I mean, they both like had like hard scrabble lives. Yeah. Grew up poor. And I think I imagine they connect on that level. And again, just wild. She did help fund the covid vaccine, which is how Bill Gates got all those chips into us. And for that, we're all grateful. Pod Save America Breaking News is brought to you by ZipRecruiter. With everyday interactions becoming increasingly impersonal, someone going just one extra step can be huge. Like when my doctor takes the time to call me with test results instead of sending them electronically. They came back positive for gay. It makes me feel like a human being again. If you're hiring great candidates. Students can also go the extra step you why they're interested in your job on ZipRecruiter as a way to stand out from others in the pool. And ZipRecruiter has a new feature showing you the most interested, qualified candidates first, so you can meet the right people faster. ZipRecruiter's powerful matching technology finds qualified candidates quickly. Candidates can tell you in their own words why they're interested in your job. So try ZipRecruiter and meet great candidates who will go the extra step for your job. Four out of five employers who post on ZipRecruiter get a quality candidate within the first day. Try it for free today at ZipRecruiter.com slash Crooked. That's ZipRecruiter.com slash Crooked. ZipRecruiter, meet your match on ZipRecruiter. Switching gears, our friend and Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed went on Fox News earlier this week and he sparred with host Jesse Waters. If you don't know who Jesse Waters is, imagine you find a rolled up $100 bill at a frat party and it becomes a human and gets a show, right? Here's what Jesse had to say about Abdul after the interview. That's good stuff. In this case, I thought the interview was fine. He was, I thought it was compelling. He's a confident guy, kind of a guy's guy, but I don't trust him. You know, I like him. I don't want to like him. I like him for some stupid reason. Get a room, you two, huh? Yeah, I want to fuck him. It's the tight shirts. It's the tight black shirts, the v-neck. Jesse's been kind of more honest about his political views lately in ways that probably don't make the Fox News, his brass, like, happy. And just like, I think right before that, he, referring to the interview with Abdul, Waters said, I guess everyone now knows I'm circumcised. Usually when you look at the headlines and if the headline is all about your penis, you've done something very wrong. I think that's like legitimately funny from Jesse Waters. I think Jesse's whole thing is he is, he's in on the game, right? Like he knows that what his, his act is an act. And so every once in a while he breaks, he breaks the fourth wall. And that doesn't make him like a great person because obviously he's, you know, kind of putting on a show for everyone, but it's like it, it brings you some humor. Yeah. Also, I think Abdul went on the show. I think Jesse probably appreciates that. He took a risk and came on as a candidate. They sparred for like 25 minutes. It was good TV, Fox News. We have Fox News on our office. They play clips from it all day long, the next couple of days. So, you know, it worked for Jesse too. Yeah. It's like, look, is a, an interview where two people are yelling at each other on cable for, you know, a remote interview. Is that like, it's good TV. Is it like the best possible delivery device for your message? No, no. But I think what Abdul did for at least some of Fox's viewers is probably what he did for Jesse, which is like, yeah, maybe I still don't like the guy. I don't know. I don't agree with him, but like, ah, it's kind of cool. It seems like a guy's guy seems good. Like the, the image that people probably have, a lot of people on the right have of Abdul right now is like scary Muslim terrorist who's going to instill Sharia law. And he just didn't come on. Off like that. No, it was just a, he's like kind of a, it's a pugilistic bro. Yeah. And if you ask the, if you asked Abdul's campaign, like, what'd you think of the interview? They're like, look, Democrats want a fighter. And what happens when you do an interview like this is it gets clipped and shared on social media and a bunch of Democrats who otherwise don't know who you are, see clips of you fighting and that's what they want in the Trump era. All right. Let's talk about Donald Trump in this upcoming midterm convention, because I think it's safe to assume that Donald Trump hates us, John, but we also know that he hates his own. Voters and supporters more far more, which is why Republicans are hosting a midterm convention, September 9th through 10th in Dallas, because so good. Who doesn't want to sweat through your Brooks Brothers suit just before commemorating nine 11. Here's RNC chairman Joe Gruters, who is a real person who I'd never heard of before in my life and had to Google couldn't name the RNC chair. If my life, remember what it was like Reince Priebus and people we'd heard it was Michael Watley, who's now losing to Roy Cooper. Yeah. So this is a Gruters and then a clip from Fox News is Peter Doocy talking about what to expect from this event. Listen, it's going to be a trouble Palooza. It's going to be spectacular star studded event, obviously headlined by the best showman that's ever lived in Donald J. Trump RNC official tells us a primetime showcase for President Trump's success, candidates and causes that have propelled the 2026 midterms to unprecedented focus. There is also going to be a commemoration of that. The 25th anniversary of nine 11 and a section about Charlie Kirk's legacy, mobilizing young voters for Republicans night 153 items or speakers night to 56 items or speakers 109 pieces to this puzzle in all as the courts sort out whether or not the Trump administration is going to, in fact, limit some mail in ballots, something they argue will cut down on voter fraud as blue states argue only states can do that. President Trump and vice president. So we are told we'll be there both nights. Everyone's got a hard question about AI, your job, your kids, where it's going. Ask yours at Claude dot AI slash Spotify and keep thinking. That's Claude dot AI. Slash Spotify. Turn off the goddamn leaf blower during the. I was going to say that a vacuum is a construction site. Yeah, probably. The White House is a construction. Do you see that? They said they're working on the ballroom 20 hours a day, seven days a week. Can you imagine how annoying that is? I know I'm overly focused on this part of it, but like if I was working in that building, I'd be fucking like it's stressful enough. Yeah. Maybe not for them. Who knows? Well, they're I mean, they're on. They got to, you know, get their bets in on Kelshi. That's true. Who will do Maduro? So ninth and 10th in Dallas, each of those nights, first night, Seahawks, Pats, NFL kickoff game. Come on. Yeah. Prime time. And then on the 10th, on the 10th, the Rams and the 49ers are going to play their game in Melbourne, Australia. Oh, that's right. That's right. Because the opening day for the Patriots is a Wednesday. Yeah. So they are. They are. They are counter-programming the NFL, not just one night, but two nights. Dude. Also, it's like the Trump appears both nights, but he's keynotes the second one. And then J.D. Vance keynotes the first night, which obviously we know will suck. And Trump is just going to like keynote mog him anyway by showing up. A hundred and nine total items or appearances. I don't know what an item is. I assume like a taped package. Just a lot of propaganda. But like there's this lengthy breakdown of all the like boring topics they want to hit. They're really just the Trump vanity project. This is a gift to the Democrats. This is a gift to the Democratic Party. If I like, it's it's an in-kind contribution. It really is. And so Puck did a story on this. And one Republican campaign strategist said that this whole thing has turned into a shit show that few lawmakers want to go. And apparently the the National Republican Campaign Committee is asking House members to cough up twenty five thousand dollars. That's it for themselves and a guest to attend the convention. And that's just the cheap rate. The height, the higher tier is one hundred thousand dollars from lawmakers. What do you think you get for a hundred grand? I'm like a nicer lanyard. You get like extra time with J.D. Vance access to Trump. The campaign strategist said nobody understands why we're doing a midterm convention. It's just another show that Trump's going to put on to remind the voters that he's sitting there and maybe they don't want to be reminded of that. That's so. Yeah. I mean, just so folks know, like the the yes, the normal conventions every once every four years are just like big four or five day propaganda PR events, but also party business gets on like you formally nominate the president. Like you do a bunch of things. I mean, there's a lot of things that matter. There's no party business at this zero. It is just a show also dovetails with this story in the Atlantic where we've all been wondering what Trump is going to do with the four hundred million dollars he has in his super PAC. Apparently, he told his team during a recent meeting to create a series of ads focused on him, Donald Trump, and his record. So that's the last thing you want to hear if you're in a swing district and a Republican. I just love that his advisers tell him in this Oval Office meeting that the Atlantic writes about. It's about that the poor polling that he's seeing, it reflects the fact that voters just don't know about his accomplishments. Where have I heard that before? And how did that go? We've lived that. We saw that with the Biden administration. And so all they need to do is just run a few ads talking about Donald Trump's accomplishments starring Donald Trump and things are just going to turn around. It's amazing. I can't. Another in-kind contribution. What voters want to hear is that. Yeah. Yeah. That their frustration and concerns about high gas prices and inflation are not real and really they feel great. That's what they want to hear. I just want some advertising to tell me how happy I am with the economy. Trump is also going a step further. Remember one of his many gaffes about the midterms? He was like, oh, people aren't mad at me. They're mad at Republicans. Yes, yes, yes. So Matt Van Swole, who's just some Twitter guy. Dude, that guy's yelled at me a few times. Me too. Just a weirdo. Yeah. He pretends he used to be like a Democrat listening to Pod Save America. I feel like he's in like Sweden or something too. That could be. Anyway, so he posted this. I don't think the GOP fully grasp how badly they are fucking up right now. Fact. No true accountability, no true mass deportations, no meaningful decrease in the deficit, lots of very long vacations and no work. I'm very worried the GOP is sleepwalking toward a midterm reckoning they don't see coming. People are pissed off that they voted Trump into office and then the GOP continues to slow walk every reform people want. Guess who truthed this? - Guess who truthed this? - Donnie Trump? - Donnie Trump! - He did. He pasted this tweet into a post and truthed it. And that got swole. Can I tell you my favorite part of this post? Yes. When he says, why haven't we defunded the Taliban yet? What are you talking about, dude? What are you talking about? I have honestly no idea what he's talking about. I'm pretty sure we have sanctioned the hell out of the Taliban, cut off. I mean, USAID no longer exists, so I don't know how you defund the Taliban. But the Republican president of the United States is reposting the GOP is sleepwalking toward a midterm reckoning they don't see coming. Incredible. Absolutely. And then he's about to force them to pony up for a midterm convention, and he's going to run a bunch of ads about himself. Do you think Natalie Harp had him repost this one and they didn't read it again all the way to the end? Maybe after all the Natalie stuff, she's like not— Off her game? Yeah, maybe she's off her game. She's been jogging behind the golf cart for far too long. She has not slept in weeks. Yeah. I'm so sorry, sir, that I did not eat. All right. So this past week, in addition to talking about politics, we here at Crooked Media have been both terrified and delighted by all the clips coming out of the World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing. This is basically the Olympics for robots. These little fuckers have been running track. They're playing tennis. They're jumping. They're leaping around obstacles in training for the day when they will exterminate all of us. A lot of it is unbelievably impressive. Like this humanoid. This humanoid robot beat Usain Bolt's record in the 100-meter dash. Oh, yeah. The whole event is just a showcase for China's robotics dominance and showcase they have. But there have also been a lot of hilarious clips coming out of it. So John and I brought some of our favorites. I'm going to start, then I'll kick it to you. Great. This category is just basically robots trying to navigate objects. Let's watch. Oh, yeah. I'm going to kick it to you. This is what I like to do. There he goes. There he goes. Up, up, up, up, up. Very good. Oh, he's not. Oh, he stayed on. That's pretty good. That's pretty good. There comes the backflip. Oh, no. Watch. Ready? Oh, no. Watch. Oh. Face plant. That's a tough one. That's a tough one. Right. The part where the legs start going really fast to try not to fall, that's genuinely hilarious. Like, pratfall, prop, not prop comedy, like, physical comedy. It's amazing. It's amazing. Eat your heart out, Charlie Chaplin or, like, whoever. We're all laughing. It's like, China has humanoid robots that are, like, you know, racing around and we can't do shit. We're like, all of our weapons are gone because we used them in Iran. No, I'm just going to take edibles and watch stuff like this while they attack us. And then this category is just robots racing. Okay. There they go. They're off. There they go. They're going really fast. They're moving, they're moving, they're moving. Whoa. And that one dies. Oh. Oh, fire. Technology is awesome. It's so funny. I changed my mind. It's awesome. Before long, I'm going to be sitting here with a robot friend. We're going to be able to do double the content. It would probably be better than me, if we're being honest. Same. All right. Is it my turn? I'm going to do one. Please. All right. This is a fun one because it's sort of a keep your eye. On not just the race. Okay. But what's going on in the foreground. Okay. What's this guy doing? He wants to, he wants to see number five is not a lot. Oh, that's it. That's it. Oh, um, sad little guy. And then my last one isn't actually robots, but, uh, speaking of people wanting to fuck robots, uh, I have, uh, one more clip here. Oh no. Is this Elijah? What is this kid? Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Is he dancing? Is he, is it? Oh, that's a dance move. You must be single, sir. I love the idea of doing that in a Best Buy. Like, what the fuck? You know, it's so funny. I'm glad you picked that because I sent one to Elijah that we didn't end up using. You know how, like, so, you know, when they do like kind of animated movies. Mm-hmm. They put people in those suits and they cover you with like ping pong balls. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. There was a dude that's doing like humping motions to prepare for the robot sex future. I assume that was staged. Yeah. Probably. But, um, we all hope it wasn't. I hope it wasn't. I hope it wasn't. I would like to know what he was watching. And I hope that guy ran as fast as the robots to get away from the cops because they knew they were coming. All right. Well, that's all we got. That's all we got. Thank you for watching this episode of Pod Save America here on YouTube. Subscribe. Please subscribe. Please. Pod Save America is a Crooked Media production. Our show is produced by Austin Fisher, Saul Rubin, McKenna Roberts, and Faris Safaree, with Ree Chirlan, Elijah Cohn, and Adrian Hill. 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