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These Are The Most Insane Political TikToks We've Ever Seen

22m 10s

These Are The Most Insane Political TikToks We've Ever Seen

Trump tries (and fails) to insert himself into the 9/11 memorial, then gets roasted by viral TikTok videos featuring AI cast members from The Office. Jon Favreau and Tommy Vietor break down the latest. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Tammy regularly hauls stuff to her kids at college. That's why she shops at BJ's Wholesale Club, saving up to 25% off grocery store prices. Beef jerky, microwave meals, laundry pods, even they can't screw up. Have you met my kids? And with BJ's gas, she gets there for less. They call me the road warrior. This is your home, road warrior mom. Home of the Save. Join for just $20 at bjs.com slash mesquite and save 10 cents per gallon for six months. Open soon. Limited time offer, new members only. BJ's. Home of the Save. All right, John, 20 minutes before we were supposed to record, Elijah sent me something that led me to totally rewrite and reorder the run of show for this episode. Let's watch. Trump hit Canada with 50% tariffs, so Canada matched them dollar for dollar. And he posted a map renaming Lake Ontario Lake America. Oh, my God. Renaming Lake Ontario is not stealing their culture. Canadians can still call it Lake Ontario. But whatever they call water in Canadian. Crossing out words has always been the final stage of Trump's diplomacy. It's like, you exist, but not in my world. You rename the water first, then the fish need passports. That is how they got Luxembourg. Trump says America needs nothing from Canada. Correct. Except oil, aluminum, electricity, and a northern shield against geese. It's okay. Holy shit. Yeah, man. We are fucked. That is from a TikTok account called Did I Stutter? It tells you about the news or reacts to the news using characters from The Office. The quality is scary good. Oh, my God. Genius idea? Illegal idea? I mean, both? Yeah. I think this is going to get. I mean, when I see shit like that, everyone's like, well, this is now, and this is some random person doing this. Like, this is only going to get, like, worse. Sam Altman just did a big interview with Time Magazine, the CEO of OpenAI. He said that by the end of this year, which is basically now, end of 2026, they will have something that you would consider AGI, or Artificial General Intelligence, internally, and that their head of research said they're 80% towards AGI now. So we're getting exponentially better. We also haven't had a chance on any of our shows to talk about, like, Bill Gates wrote this op-ed and did some interviews this week where he said it's time to, like, hit the panic button. Yeah. And he said this is going to be, like, economic catastrophe. And he's like, why isn't it? He's like, I feel like I'm a crazy person that I'm the only one who's, like, this worried about it. That's Bill Gates. And then there's other people you see that are like, this is all marketing. This is a fraud. This is technology being forced on us. And you're like, I don't know. I'm just stuck in the middle here. But you can, you know, in the meantime, you can hear Jim and Pam and Kevin and Stanley talk about the national debt. Well, that's what, like, use your common sense. Like, if that was pretty good. Yeah. And now imagine how different people would feel. Different people could use that in different ways. And suddenly you see an entertainment industry that's like, I mean, I do think all of those, at some point, like, all of these actors and the people who have the IP to these shows are going to have legal claim to, like, John Krasinski is going to be like, oh, you just make me say something in a video that I've never said? That's crazy. What about this clip about the death of Lindsey Graham? Oh, boy. Oh, boy. Trump announced Lindsey Graham is dead with an exclamation point. And even grief sounds like one of his casino openings. Netanyahu said America lost a patriot. Weird. Because Israel lost the employee. He returns from Kiev, suddenly dies, and Washington says brief illness? That is not a cause. That is a classified folder name. That man already sent my taxes to Israel. So he can go to hell. Stanley was good. I will say, Dwight there sounded like Claude or sounded like an LLM. That's not a this. It's a that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's a work in progress, but a pretty impressive work. Fuck. Yeah. Here we are. And by the way, John, if you want spicy political takes that don't look like characters from The Office but are still fun and interesting to listen to, please subscribe to Pod Save America here on YouTube. We're trying to build a progressive counterweight to all the right-wing crap on this network. So please, when you subscribe, it really helps. Also in the news today, John, President Trump is not going to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the September 11th attacks in Manhattan this year. I assume it's because of a serious threat to his safety from Iran or some like critical national security meeting. Is that your understanding? No, it's not, Tommy. Why? Why is he not going to go? Because he is a pathological narcissist and was told that he can't speak at the event because presidents don't speak at the New York 9-11 event. Right. Oh, you're right. The New York Times says Trump wanted to deliver remarks. But the event doesn't allow speakers to speak because it's supposed to be a memorial to the victims. And never has. Like Obama would speak on 9-11, but he would speak either at the Pentagon or in other places or at the White House. That's what presidents do. And then they all go together to show some unity to New York. And it is a very quiet ceremony. That is always the case. No, no, no. It's supposed to be a good time. It's supposed to be a rally speech. It's supposed to be a place for the weave. Yeah. So this is from the Times. The president's interest. In speaking on September 11th was conveyed to memorial planners in recent weeks. Three people with knowledge said. But since 2012, politicians have been barred from speaking at the site. The National September 11th Memorial Museum, which oversees the site, has worked rigorously to keep the venue nonpartisan and focused on the solemnity of the day. Well, I mean, but here's the thing. If you make an exception for Trump, you know that he's going to give a speech that's very respectful and unifying and not go off script and not make anyone feel bad. Well, the reason we know that is because President Trump. Trump did give this emotional response to the 9/11 attacks back in 2001. This was an interview he did with a New Jersey TV station just after the Twin Towers had collapsed. Let's watch. Donald, you have one of the landmark buildings down in the financial district, 40 Wall Street. Did you have any damage or did you know what's happened down there? Well, it was an amazing phone call. I made 40 Wall Street actually was the second tallest building in downtown Manhattan. And it was actually before the World Trade Center was the tallest. And then when they built the World Trade Center, it became known as the second tallest and now it's the tallest. And I just spoke to my people and they said it's the most unbelievable sight. So I just when we talk about Donald Trump's losing it and why isn't the press cover his age like they did with Biden and he's declining? He's the same guy. Pathological narcissist. That was 2001. By the way, he's wrong. There was another dollar builder's the building still feel like like we you and I, I think this week just did his. When you talk to Glenn back about Dolly Parton and the first thing he could say is like, well, she loves me. Yeah, you see, he posted a truth social post that was an image of him and Dolly Parton like arm and arm together. I did not see that. Did you hear Vin Diesel covered a Dolly Parton song on his Instagram by any chance? I didn't know that I didn't know that Vin Diesel is a musician. I didn't know. Well, you should listen to the song. It was he covered. I will always love you. You might still think he's not a musician or an artist after you listen to it. So it sounds like J.D. Vance is going to go to New York for the Ground Zero ceremony. Trump is going to go to the Pentagon to let him speak at the Pentagon. I think so. I mean, Hegsat's not going to. Yeah, they're doing all kinds of stuff at the Pentagon that they probably shouldn't be doing. You know, we're going to get into all of that in a bit. Do you remember the time in 2019 when Trump wanted to invite the Taliban's leadership to Camp David, like right around the 9/11 anniversary? I do remember that. I do remember that. It's one of those things where it's like, how did that not end his career? How does no one remember that care? You know. He's Trump and he's a Republican. And if a Democratic president ever did that, it would be Fox News all day long. Yeah, all they cover is Hasan Piker. The other thing that's funny about him demanding to speak at this event is he will just have had the midterm convention events. Oh, right. Aren't you going to get enough FaceTime there, buddy? That's in the night before, late night. Well, we'll all be, he'll probably still be speaking on September 11th at the convention. He 100% will. Incredible down in Dallas. 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 can also go the extra step and tell 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. 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Trump and his family are going to get the legal immunity and the pardons. You are not, Mark Zuckerberg. I love it. I love this story. I hope they're fucking so nervous. Quaking in their boots. You know what? JUST STRING HIM ALONG AND KEEP HIM NERVOUS. send the subpoenas yet. Just continue to vaguely threaten them. Just keep them on their toes. Keep them not sleeping at night. That's what I'd like. This is from the story. Washington-based lawyers and lobbyists say that their clients are asking, what are our vulnerabilities? I don't know, the bribes? The bribes might be the vulnerability. The bribes, yeah. Anything that was out of the ordinary course of business that you did to curry favor with an administration that you thought was going to be an authoritarian threat, and so you decided to try to kiss the quasi-dictator's ass. Meta is apparently writing big checks at Democrats ahead of the midterms. Other companies, this is from the story, other companies including Paramount, Skydance, and Calche are hiring former Democratic aides to bolster their government relations efforts. You said the story, it was earlier this week, about how Donald Trump Jr. was speaking to a bunch of state AGs, and he told them to back off regulations on prediction markets like Polymarket or Calche, which, by the way, both of them pay him. Right. I'm sorry, Donald Trump Jr. gets to tell state AGs what laws to enforce? Yeah, he does. Okay. And because, you know, he knows that they're all scared of his dad, and so he's using his position as his, I mean, for all the fucking shit that they criticized Hunter Biden for, this is, you know, Don Jr. a thousand times worse. Yeah. Also, for all the appeals to, like, the manosphere and, you know, their work they did with young men, they sure do support policies that hurt them. Yes. Like, a lot of them. Yeah. Like, allowing casinos in your pocket. There was one law firm that brought Republican Congressman Jim Comer to an event to discuss how companies should respond to congressional subpoenas from Democrats. Really, really shows a, demonstrates a respect for the institution and the job there, huh? These fuckers. Unbelievable. The Journal got an amazing video of one of these big tech executives meeting with his lobbyists. Let's watch a little bit of that. That's the short summary of my post. That's the short summary of my view on the project. It just keeps going. Something about, like, the Doc Ock podcast arms in the middle really makes me laugh, too. Did you see the news that, a little tidbit, you know who officiated his wedding? No. Ross Douthat. No. Come on. Sorry. That's a hedge fund manager, Leopold Aschenbrenner. He was the guy who ran the AI-focused hedge fund that nearly collapsed because a bunch of stocks went down, had to get bailed out by, I forget, it was like Citadel or one of the big, or Paula, one of those big hedge funds. They also, I think, we didn't mention this when we talked about this a couple weeks back. Apparently, they had, like, AI breakout sessions at the wedding. What? What do you mean AI? I don't even know what an AI breakout session is. Who breaks out and where do they go? Do they break out and talk about policy? The guests, the guests, both the bride and the groom both work at, like, big, one was in this hedge fund to focus on AI. One, I think, worked at OpenAI. And the guests are human, right? It's just a bunch of agents. It's just Ross, the two of them, and a bunch of agents. It's a virtual wedding. Hey, we have to get to hugging face after this. Oh, man. I needed that laugh. For what it's worth, like, that story about the CEOs trying to bribe Democrats now, it is why I think people, myself included, like, freaked out and probably overreacted to Hakeem Jeffries meeting with Jared Kushner. Because you just, you know all this. This lobbying and this money is coming. And, like, Democrats are in a tough place because they all watch, you know, the crypto business industry, for example, dump $40, $60 million onto Sherrod Brown's head in Ohio. And, you know, they see the pain they can inflict on you politically. But I still think we've got to be tough here. We've got to stay strong. But also it's like, and I want Democrats to have the room to be strategic in who they are sending subpoenas to and what hearings they're holding. And if you don't seem, if you don't. Like, at least say that you're going to be tough on everyone. Then when you decide not to maybe hold some hearing or send a subpoena to some company based on, you know, the strategic decision that there's not much you can get out of them or that hearing's not important or we have more important things to do. Everyone's going to think that you're pussies for doing it because of shit like what we've seen with Hakeem and others. Yeah, we've just got to be tough, guys. And, like, there's just, Hakeem Jeffries put out a video statement in response saying, like, no one in the Trump family can tell. I couldn't see past that. But, you know, it's good. I actually think it's good for people to overreact to things and sort of keep the pressure on them to be tough. And, you know, especially when it comes to Trump family members, we need oversight. Before we go on to the CIA director's secret trip to Russia, I just want to get your take on a new political ad that caught my eye this morning. Let's watch a bit of this one. I'll do whatever it takes to get things done. I stood up to both sides to get salt back and make things more affordable. I had to take on the left and the right. This is the Mike Lawler camel toe ad. Why are his clothes so tight? It's, like, everywhere. Like, your eyes get no relief. It's the only thing you can think of. The bottom's tight. The middle's tight. The top's tight. I have no idea how many people are in that family, what they look like. All I could see is he said something about salt and then he's got tight pants. They're so tight. No one on the staff was like, sir, why are you wearing a wetsuit? Is he going body surfing? What is that? Unappealing. Unappealing. By the way, Mike Lawler's part of the Crooked Dozen. Yeah. He's a great Democratic, strong Democratic opponent, Kay Conley. Go to votesaveamerica.com to learn more about her. Learn about how to defeat Lawler and 11 other terrible Republicans. Again, votesaveamerica.com. Also, think about your wardrobe before you film those ads. Jesus Christ, man. Look, I know it's a tough job. You know, you're a congressman in a targeted district. You have a family. There's not always time. There's not always time to work out and eat right. But there's just, make a Brooks Brothers run before you record that thing. Yeah. And have staff. And more importantly, have staff and consultants that are going to say, hey, boss, camel toe. Yeah. Moose knuckle. We are slowly learning more about why CIA Director John Ratcliffe made a surprise trip to Moscow this week. The New York Times says there was a multi-part meeting. The goal was to share the U.S.'s bleak assessment of the war. Urge Russians to cut a deal before their military and economic situation gets worse. Some other reports suggest that he was asking them for help with Iran to get their state of Hormuz reopened. The theory is, like, Putin's a KGB guy. Maybe he listens more to CIA officials. Did Ratcliffe meet with Putin? No, he met with the fucking SVR head, his, like, counterpart, which is what sort of undercuts that whole pitch. So I consider me skeptical on the front. I guess no bad ideas in a brainstorm. I guess my question is, does this mean that Trump now thinks the Ukrainians, are winning, too? Maybe. Because that would be good. Yeah. I'm sure that they just, well, I'm sure from Trump's perspective, he's like, I've got to win one of these wars. Because they keep saying that I'm going to win them all, and they're all over the place. I've got to set all these things. I do, I think, helping us with Iran, I do think, could be, that seems most believable to me. Because he's like, okay, you're going to fly over there, what's in it for me? Right. Right. You know, and it's like, we're into the war, sir? Yeah, I'd be surprised if it was just a, Me too. Just to help out the Ukrainians and end the war, because they're so, you know, they have such sympathy for the Ukrainians and what they've gone through. That doesn't really seem like them. No. Ukraine's also, I mean, Ukraine has some momentum. They're also about to go into winter. They have very limited missile defense. And the problem every winter is, like, how do we keep the heat and energy infrastructure up and running? And that's going to be tough without Patriot batteries. Also, there was a story this week that was so dystopian. I don't know if you saw this, about basically fully AI-powered drones that sort of, like, take the kids. Kill decision out of the hands of a human being and just, like, use AI training to finish the targeting decision at the very end and blow stuff up. Fucking terrifying. Yeah, it's not good. The other thing I heard is that Ratcliffe, he wanted to send the message, like, do not attack NATO states. Yes, I forgot to include that. I don't know why. Yeah, there's a bunch of intelligence and reports about intelligence that Ukraine sees how weak we are because we are bogged down in the Middle East again in the war with Iran. And they might do something to attack a country in NATO, either with a cyber operation or some sort of, like. I don't know. It would probably be below the line of rolling tanks into the Balkans. But it could be, like. What they usually do is their agents go on Telegram. They recruit a bunch of random people in all these NATO countries. And they say, we'll give you two grand if you take this package that we'll send to you and place it at this location and then film it. And then a train station blows up or something like that. So you do it to Germany or Moldova or all these places. So it's a fun one. A fun, light one. Yeah. I could see that being a big reason for going over there. Yeah, you might want to say. Yeah, don't do that. Also, maybe Trump could just call Putin and say, hey, don't do it. Maybe a little leader-to-leader contact would be good. I'm sure they'd get along. Yeah, they're buds. Finally, John. The question is, will summer over the bulwark flag this? Is a Pentagon employee building a database to track American citizens by political affiliation? This is a kind of like a MAGA favorite journalist who came up to my radar screen earlier this week. What's her name? It's a gob. Data Republican. Data Republican. We're putting the tweet up on the screen. She tweeted this out. This is not a secret. She was a secret Pentagon contractor. We learned that this week because she accused someone in the Trump State Department of trying to set her up and get her arrested by leaking her classified information to leak. And it was all just. That's a famously collegial workplace in the Trump administration. Data Republican just didn't know what she was talking about. But she tweeted that she created a, quote, interactive map of the Democratic Socialists of America and the wider anti-imperialist solidarity network. The map is based on over a year worth of research that's collected. Within my setup. Just one of those moments where it's nice to see that the Alex Jones fever dream is coming to life. life under the Trump administration that he supported. Also, so now there's someone working with the Pentagon that's tracking random Americans? And are they using Pentagon resources? Because that would be a real problem. Have you looked through the list? Are we on that list? I don't know. Actually, we should go through it later. I know we're not DSA, but I hope that we're part of the larger anti- or pro-imperialist or anti-imperialist? I can't tell. I'm personally anti. I am too, but I thought that the Trump administration was pro-imperialist. They definitely are. You're right. What with all the Greenland, Alaska, Greenland, Canada stuff. How are we defining solidarity here? Is it just like statements in support? Probably. Is it just like where Hassan Piker is at any given moment? Or Soros. We are Soros-backed, so we probably are anti-imperialist solidarities. Yeah, I made a note to myself to check out the database, see if there's any names I recognize. Yeah, note to self. It's a great way to find friends wherever. Wherever you happen to live. If you go to a new city, you're like, ooh, who's in the database? Wouldn't it be really funny if the DSA just used this to organize really well? It's meetup. It's just meetup for anti-imperialist solidarity network supporters. Anyway, thanks for watching this episode of Pod Save America here on YouTube. Don't forget to subscribe. Subscribe, please. It's free. We'll talk to you guys soon. Bye.

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