193. Trump’s on a Losing Streak - Have Republicans Had Enough?

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That's ft.com slash trip us, T-R-I-P-U-S. Subject to terms and conditions. Offer expires October 28th. Are you looking for support in your weight management journey? ZepBound Terzepatide may be able to help. ZepBound is a prescription medicine used with a reduced calorie diet and increased physical activity to help adults with obesity or some adults with overweight who also have weight-related medical problems. ZepBound is a prescription to lose excess body weight and keep the weight off. ZepBound is approved as a 2.5, 5, 7.5, 10, 12.5, or 15 milligram injection. ZepBound contains Terzepatide and should not be used with other Terzepatide-containing products or any GLP-1 receptor agonist medicines. It is not known if ZepBound is safe and effective for use in children. Don't share needles or pens or reuse needles. Don't take if allergic to it or if you or someone in your family had medullary thyroid cancer. ZepBound is a prescription medicine used with a reduced calorie diet and increased blood pressure or if you've had multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2. Tell your doctor if you get a lump or swelling in your neck. Stop ZepBound and call your doctor if you have severe stomach pain or a serious allergic reaction. Severe side effects may include inflamed pancreas or gallbladder problems. Tell your doctor if you experience vision changes before scheduled procedures with anesthesia, if you're nursing, pregnant, plan to be, or taking birth control pills. Taking ZepBound with a sulfonylurea or insulin may cause low blood sugar. Side effects include nausea, high blood pressure, and low blood pressure. Diarrhea and vomiting, which can cause dehydration and worsen kidney problems. Talk to your doctor. Call 1-800-545-5979 or visit zepbound.lily.com. Welcome to The Rest Is Politics U.S. with me, Katty Kay. And I'm Anthony Scaramucci. How are you, Katty? I'm well. What's your t-shirt? World domination, Katty. This is risk again, see? World domination. You mean mooch world domination or just like American world domination? It's more, I've decided that Trump probably played the game of risk sometime in the 1950s. And he didn't learn some very essential lessons. Couldn't pronounce the word Kamchatka. Kamchatka. That's the one you want to have, right? Yeah, you do, because that's how you can attack the United States through a lamp. You see what I mean? But I'm pretty sure his entire foreign policy and his worldview is based on the board game risk. So I'm wearing that today. That's what you're wearing, in honor of. Well, I wish he'd played a bit more risk because it's not going so well. Okay, we are going to talk today about the big announcement by acting Attorney General Todd Blanch up on Capitol Hill before members announcing that Trump's anti-weaponization fund has been killed. Exactly as we predicted on Monday, by the way. We're going to go beyond the fund really and look at whether this is a real pushback against Trumpism with Blanch making this admission. And there are a couple of other things that have happened this week that suggest a lot of pushback against the White House as well. So where is that going? In the second half, we're going to look at the scandals surrounding the Democratic candidate in the all-important state of Maine in the Senate race, Graham Plattner, who has been caught sexting a bunch of women in the early stages of his marriage just before he announced his candidacy for the Senate. And I think the question there is, are the Democrats just going to hold their nose and say character doesn't matter in politics anymore? All that matters is that we win the state of Maine. So a Democrat's going to go and try and play the Trump game. But before we get to that, let's talk a little bit about Donald Trump's flying around just this week about whether the president is okay, because he wasn't seen in the White House for a few days. He's now popped up again. But it does put the spotlight on his health. And we are talking about Donald Trump's health in our series, The Truth About Trump's Health. It's now out for our founding members. There's been a lot of scrutiny over the years. But in these episodes, we're really interested in the actual truth behind those theories. Well, I mean, listen, as we pointed out in the first episode, I think his health is definitely an issue. But it would be an issue for anybody that has arguably one of the most stressful, if not the most stressful job in the world at age 80. That is a retirement age for most people. But this is the most stressful job in the world. And so what does that mean? And where is it going? And I think we're going to talk a little bit about how they hide and how they cloak a lot of the issues that an elderly man is going through, which to me are normal issues, by the way. And so, look, I think it's fascinating, Katty. I think people need to know about it. And I'm glad we're doing it. Yeah. And we're going to look at not just the physical symptoms, of course, but also his cognitive ability, the questionable doctor's letters, all of these cognitive tests that he claims that he's aced. And really, I think the question there is, is he fit at the age of 80, which is what he's going to be this month? Is any 80-year-old fit? And is Donald Trump fit to have one of the most powerful jobs in the world? If you would like to hear that episode, that series that we're doing, do sign up at TheRestIsPoliticsUS.com. You can hear the first episode now, and then we will get on to the other episodes next week. Okay, on with the news. There was this extraordinary moment on Capitol Hill, extraordinary in Donald Trump's world, because he had his acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, go up to Capitol Hill and in front of the committee up there, slush fund of $1.8 billion, $1.776 billion that he has created to go to his loyal allies and people who he says have been mistreated by the government in the past. They are axing that, that it's not going to happen. My takeaway from it, listening to it, Anthony, was that there were two things going on. He was talking about the slush fund, and I think he did lose on that. He got significant pushback. You've got all of these Republicans in races around the country who decided that this was very unpopular, and he lost on the slush fund. But if you listen to Todd Blanche yesterday, Donald Trump won on the tax deal, and his family is still going to get tax immunity from investigation from the IRS, which in a way, I think, is the biggest scandal that is hiding there in plain sight. So Democrats got the optics win, but I think Trump kept the actual prize, which is that him, his family, his organization will not be investigated for tax misdemeanors by the government. What did you make of it? Because you were texting me during Blanche's hearings, and I thought what you had to say was interesting. I believe in something called Washington incrementalism. And so just hear me out for a second. I'll talk about Bitcoin for a minute. We sued the SEC, won it, and then Gary put all these provisions in the ETF that, didn't make any sense. When Paul Atkins became the chairman of the SEC, he changed all those provisions. And so I believe in incrementalism. So the first increment here is ending the 1776 slush fund. So that's over. The second motion will be to wipe out this differential between Donald Trump and his family, which is a monarchical position, which I don't even think King Charles has at this point in the British government. I think he's treated like every other subject in the realm. You'll have to tell me differently if I don't know that. But I think that that is actually not constitutional. And I think that's a violation of due process in the Bill of Rights. And so what will end up happening is there'll be a cause of action. There'll be a lawsuit. Norm Eisen, a friend of yours, somebody that I know, won the take the name off the Kennedy Center Donald Trump lawsuit. His group will probably file a cause of action and say, this is unfair. Do you think Donald Trump's name will come off the Kennedy Center? Do you think actually there will be a result that comes out of that suit or will it get kicked down the road? No, I do. Because I think Trump being the baby that he is already put out on Truth Social that he's walking away from the Kennedy Center, right? His lawyers have told him you're going to continue to lose these cases. You're going to get embarrassed by it. And so now he's wah-wah. You're not going to get my beautiful gold inlaid Home Depot, you know, things. I put all over the wall in the Oval Office in the Kennedy Center. Okay, so you're going to be missing out on that, Caddy. So I think the name's coming off the Kennedy Center. And I think he's going to be subjected to IRS audits in the future, even though it looks like he's not going to be right now. And by the way, maybe they'll lay off of him. But I think the kids are in trouble. I think the egregiousness of the Witkoff family and the Trump family, in trouble. And I'm not their lawyers, but I'd be like, you know, you probably got to get some preemptive pardons going. We're talking about Trump's health. I don't wish anybody poor health, not even Donald Trump. But, you know, God forbid if something were to happen to Trump before he pardons his kids and the people that he quote unquote says to 200 feet that enter the Oval Office. Imagine a scenario. He stuffed J.D. Vance. He has given J.D. Vance an Italian baptism. You take the guy into the men's room. You trip his feet and you put his head in the toilet and you start flushing his head in the toilet. OK. And that's what they've done to J.D. Vance. 100 percent they've done that to him. So now if something were to happen to Trump and Vance becomes president, he's not going to pardon these people. He's going to be all lovey dovey with these people that have been enabling Trump to put his head in the toilet. Not going to happen. So so these kids, I think, are I've got to really start thinking about that. I don't see this as anything other than a weakening of Trumpism. So you and I were texting back and forwards yesterday about this, about whether this marks the end of Trumpism, that Trump has had a series of defeats recently, right? The slush fund is one. Iran is clearly another. That's weakened him as well. You're getting pushback on his war powers from Republicans as well. You've got a bunch of we talked about this on Monday. The YOLO caucus is the people who are leaving, who he has treated badly, who he has deprived of their Senate seats. They are pushing back against them. But both of the wins that the YOLO caucuses had actually came after the courts or public pressure had already done a lot of the heavy lifting. I mean, in a way, they are the wounded bears caucus and they're growling loudest now that the fight is already over. So how much spine they actually have. Because what's happening here is the American system is holding. I don't think that this is the Republican Party pushing back strong enough. And I also don't know that this is the end of Trumpism, except that the system is holding. The courts are managing to do what the courts should be doing. It's not necessarily that you've got suddenly the Republican Party growing a spine or moving in a different direction. We've had that. That's a premature obituary that we've had. We've had that so many times before. We had it around Access Hollywood. We had it after January the 6th. We had it after 2022 when they flopped in the red wave. It didn't work out in the midterm elections. We had it after the indictments. We thought that was going to be the end of Trump. Every time we mark the end of Trump, it doesn't work out to be the case. So I don't know that this is the end of Trumpism. I don't think that you're seeing the Republican Party say, right, we realize he went too far. He was weakened on Greenland. He was weakened on Iran. We hate the anti-weaponization fund. We're finally going to stand up to him. They let the courts do it. The American system is working. But is the Republican Party really actually now ready to move in a different direction, do you think? Okay. Before I answer that, tell our viewers and listeners who John Thune is. Who's John Thune? John Thune is the Senate majority leader, the Republican, who's actually, I've met Thune many times, very decent guy, basically a centrist. I mean, if you had to point to a kind of old school Republican, I think you would point to John Thune. He's no big fan of Donald Trump's, but he got the job, even though Donald Trump didn't want him to get the job. He wanted much more of a loyalist. He has the respect of the Republican Party. Basically, he's liked by other senators, and he has the job of straddling Donald Trump's whims and getting his party to keep the majority in the Senate. Not a job that I would particularly want to have. I don't think he's going to get the job. I have to say. And he's been meh on standing up to Donald Trump, I would say. To me, John Thune is the classic American North Midwestern gentleman. He's a 60 plus year old guy. I don't know if he was an Eagle Scout like Rex Tillerson or Paul Ryan, but he's that Eagle Scout sort of thing where he did everything right as a kid, and he's very well honored, and he's a decent guy, and he's a tall basketball playing athlete. And he's kowtowed to Donald Trump, which shocks me because he has a little bit of a Clint Eastwood vibe where, hey, man, knock it off. I'm just surprised as sort of this Midwesterner coming, strolling into that neighborhood, be like pushing out the bullies. But he's allowed Trump to more or less walk all over him and walk all over the Republicans in the Senate. However, on the slush fund, the anti-weaponization fund, he has spoken very loudly against him. He's also dropping bat guano on Bill Pulte. So let's talk about him. Who is Bill Pulte, Katty Kay? So Bill Pulte is the other story, I think, that is a suggestion that Trump is running into trouble in the Republican Party. Bill Pulte is a uber Trump loyalist who at the moment runs a housing agency in the US government that he has used to go after people who have opposed Donald Trump by looking into their mortgages. He's gone after Senator Adam Schiff, the Democratic senator from California, who led the investigations into Trump's impeachment. He has gone after Lisa Cook, who is on the board of governors of the Federal Reserve, again, looking at her mortgage issues. And he has used his position as head of this mortgage agency to go after people who don't like Donald Trump. He has just been appointed by Donald Trump on Tuesday as the acting head of the Department of National Intelligence, which is the top position in American intelligence to take over from Tulsi Gabbard, who is leaving to look after her husband who has bone cancer. Bill Pulte is like, if you wanted a kind of rottweiler for Donald Trump in human form, it would be Bill Pulte. And he has zero, zero experience in intelligence issues, international affairs, national security, like none. Now, under law, the head of the DNI has to have a background in national security. He has none at all. So, John Thune, who is looking around and finds that actually, yes, he does have a spine in his back, so he may as well use it. And he's a very tall, thin guy, so it would help if he used his spine, has suddenly said that we don't need a weaponized DNI. John Cornyn's also stood up, said he's leaving. He's just been ousted by Donald Trump effectively. No evidence of any qualifications for that job. Bill Cassidy, another person who Donald Trump has axed from his job as senator in Louisiana, has said flatly that Bill Pulte is not qualified for the job. Every one of those senators knows that Trump is going to install Bill Pulte in an acting capacity. And maybe Trump likes having people in acting capacity because it keeps them on their toes. It's the kind of apprentice version of the cabinet. He controls them then. He can throw them out anytime. They haven't been Senate confirmed. But that's who Bill Pulte is. And Bill Pulte, I think, is the other sign this week, along with the slush fund. This is another loss, ostensibly, for Donald Trump. But I think it's an ostensible loss because he doesn't give a damn. He doesn't care that they push back against him. He just puts them in for 210 days anyway, which he's allowed to do as an acting head of an agency. And he can do his damage from there. He can certainly meddle in the midterms, right, Anthony? Which one of your kids would make a good DNI director? Which one? Have you thought of any? I think of James Scaramucci. James Scaramucci. You know, I want the Secret Service to pull him out of the third grade. Third grade. And say, James, how we doing? You know, we'd like you to be the DNI director. I mean, you know, this is the stupidest stuff that you can possibly do. possibly imagine. And this is like Dunning-Kruger syndrome. We have a very unintelligent guy running the White House. The president of the United States, smart in some ways, very dumb in others, is literally trying to upset the apple cart of decades of policy. So they go to Trump and they say, Kim Jong-un, never going to give up the nuclear weapons. We have a 65-year structured policy in handling North Korea. F you guys, I'm going to flip over the apple cart. I'm going to go visit him. And I'm Donald Trump. He's going to give them up. Does he give them up, Caddy K? No, he does not. Mr. President, we have our game theory people here from the Pentagon. They're going to close straight of our moves and they're going to induct the Mosaic Defense Doctrine to sustain their power in, Iran. That's your 60, 47-year observation of it? Yes, it is. Okay. Well, I'm Donald Trump. I don't care. They're not going to do that. Okay. Now we have a 38-year-old home builder with a broadcast journalist degree from Northwestern with absolutely no qualifications and no intelligence background, but he is a faithful attack dog for Donald Trump. He's also the imbecile that came up with the federal government. He's the imbecile that came up with the federal government. character or do we decide that actually what we really want to do is win the state of Maine Graham Plattner has got the primary votes of the electorate up in Maine the party has to go behind him and if we just keep saying Trump did worse then maybe that will be good enough but here that's not a character defense of Graham Plattner that is a flaw and constantly running to the floor whether it's on the Nazi tattoo which he says he didn't realize was a Nazi tattoo whether it's on past kind of lazy misogynist comments about women suggesting that if you want to avoid being raped you shouldn't get drunk in a bar if it's which I actually think is one of the more egregious things he's suggested or if it's now this the sexting is that a way to show that you are the party that has a grown-up who's an alternative to Donald Trump who can be competent and who you can rely on or you can be a part of the party that has a grown-up who's an alternative to Donald Trump or are you a part of the party that has a grown-up who's an alternative to Donald Trump are you at risk of getting somebody in who isn't vetted who could have a whole host of other scandals who pop up which is what Democrats are really worried about but it's been the thing that's been remarkable Antony is to watch how Democrats have circled the wagon this week you've had serious senior Democrats Elizabeth Warren Bernie Sanders saying standing by him Chuck Schumer standing by him they're not going to jettison Graham Plattner because they want to win the state of Maine it's all about winning the state of Maine and they think they've got their candidate now they have to stand by him so can I have a very broad question for you and I want to just give a backdrop for a second when we were kids there was a man running for president he was asked if he smoked pot and he said and I quote I may have smoked it but I didn't inhale who was that person that was president Bill Clinton I want to talk about where the culture was and if you didn't one piccadillo or if you had a divorce or you couldn't run you were unelectable you had to be leave it to beaver the father or the mother on a family sitcom in the 1950s now let's fast forward 35 36 years later uh do Americans not talking about the American culture as I often refer to it as America do the Americans in this NASCAR culture up culture where does Plattner fit into that and what changed scatty if if anything changed so can I just throw this to two races let me relate this to what's going on at the moment and I think the answer to your question comes from looking at Graham Plattner in Maine and James Tallarico down in Texas and the contrast between those two candidates could be the most clarifying fact of the 2026 cycle I think it's going to tell us if character still matters to those American voters because if a squeaky clean candidate like James Tallarico loses in Texas and a morally compromised one like Graham Plattner wins in Maine it's going to suggest to us that actually American voters have decided and maybe it was Trump that brought him to the table broke this all down maybe it was Bill Clinton and the blue dress and Monica Lewinsky and the not inhaling that started this but somewhere along the way in the last 30 years character has ceased to matter in the way that it did and I think something else has happened Anthony in this quest for authenticity which seems to be the gold currency of populism and I still not quite clear what it means maybe people look at a character like Graham Plattner and they actually think to themselves you know what he's flawed like I am he has sinned like I have done he's not perfect like me it's the argument you hear from a lot of evangelicals who supported Donald Trump he is a flawed sinning candidate but I didn't elect a saint and I think that's what we're going to find out I'm going to be watching Tallarico and Graham Plattner to find out where the character still matters to American voters follow-up question follow-up question we were talking about tax audit immunity okay I want some of that by the can I get some tax order I mean you know who wouldn't want that who wouldn't want that of course and not just for me but I want it for my kids yes of course and your grandkids I mean god of course okay the whole family we are we in an age of again I'm not talking about the UK because we know the answer in the UK and the answer is no in the UK are we in an age of scandal of immunity in the United States or maybe it could be also personality centric meaning Trump is scandal immune uh is everybody scandal is Plattner scandal are we in an age of scandal immunity well or do you have to have some kind of connection with voters Graham Plattner wasn't famous when he ran for the senate but he has that kind of adulation factor I've seen it you know my son who lives in Maine has been to a Plattner rally he loved him he said that was full of young people now this could be a problem for Graham Plattner because I was speaking to us before the show I was speaking to a senior politician from Maine who was telling me that the average voting age is 52 so that actually in reality I don't know if Graham Plattner can beat Susan Collins we can talk about that but he's got this kind of aura about him of a fighter who is working class who is an oyster farmer who's kind of a vet and he somehow he's got a ton of charisma if you have that charisma and you develop a Bernie Sanders type or Donald Trump type slightly cultish following which Graham Plattner of all of the candidates that I'm seeing out there in the democratic party Graham Plattner comes the closest to that kind of cultish populist following where it's all about that person and he's making the campaign about Graham Plattner then maybe you can get away with scandals so so caddy I'm going to say something that people should really cogitate about because I do think there's been one major cultural shift and Trump helped to abet this shift a chunk of the electorate now reads scandal coverage as establishment sabotage and so therefore because they hate the establishment caddy it's no longer fully disqualifying information yeah so right yeah and you know what when you listen to voters in Maine in the last 24 hours since this story broke they are saying this is a Washington DC issue we don't care about it this is the chattering classes this is the democratic establishment who's worried but Maine voters we still love Graham Plattner because we're much more focused on cost of living issues the sort of populist mess economic message that he is talking about and we are prepared to overlook this and look I am just going to say this because just to be clear Graham Plattner is not Donald Trump when it comes to women this was consenting adults it's as far as we know consenting adults I don't know enough about the kick platform that he was using maybe we'll find other things but at the moment we as far as we know this was consenting and that is not the case that Donald Trump was convicted of okay question for you prediction time Anthony you did this to me on Monday I'm going to do it to you does Graham Plattner beat Susan Collins to become the next senator for Maine and so I'm going to ask you a question second prediction do democrats then take the senate because of Maine yeah so I am going to say no I'm going to predict no I'm going to predict the 30 year I mean heading for now the elderly home Susan Collins who shouldn't be running anymore she should be out to pasture we'll beat him let me tell you why because she understands the money game and he's a good man and he's a good man and he's a good man and he's a good man and he's a good man and he's a good man and even the big DJT man who hates Susan Collins because she doesn't vote with him all the time if you notice he's pretty smart guy you know he's not the demented guy that people think because he says I hate Susan Collins and I'd like to hit Susan Collins with a ray gun oh wait a that can primary her that's full mag up so I'm keeping my mouth shut about Susan Collins because I want her to kick Plattner's ass because I really don't want to go to jail or get impeached that have the senate remove me from office however down in Texas because I think that's a red state red eat meeting state I can futz around with the Paxons over the Corbins no problem okay so a little bit of hypocrisy there from Trump but no she she'll she'll win okay but there's something else going on caddy and that is the anti-woke story of Plattner in the Democratic Party now Fetterman is an anti-woke story in the Democratic Party as well and he hates Plattner well because they're kind of they're sort of competing for the same lane aha aha aha I'm just letting you know you can't wear the same gown at the Met Ball caddy K can't do it these two men are wearing the same gown you had that all the Democratic grandees coming about and saying we have to win Maine and we support Graham Plattner and blah blah blah we forget character it doesn't really matter You know, Donald Trump has destroyed that for us. Donald Trump is worse. And then you have Fetterman coming out saying, no, he's a creep. Yeah. And he's still a Nazi. Once you've got a Nazi tattoo, you're always a Nazi. He's a creep because he's creeping into my territory. He's creeping into my brand space, that MF. He is swerving right into my lane. And I don't like that. I agree with you. Susan Collins wins. She's been in the Senate since 1996. She always tends to outperform her poll numbers. Yeah. She's going to be very hard for them to beat. And those women in Maine are going to go out and vote for her. And they're turned off by some of the stuff that Plattner's doing. Because they're running the wrong candidate in the wrong state. I mean, you could run a Graham Plattner in somewhere like West Virginia, in Montana, where you're going after the red, red votes. Actually, what you need if you're the Democratic Party in Maine is you need to peel away the centrist Democrats who have always voted because you split. The ticket is one of the last places in the country where people split the ticket in Maine. And you've got centrist Democrats, more conservative Democrats who have voted for Susan Collins. You want to go for those voters. Those are the ones you need to win back to the Democratic ticket. I don't think Graham Plattner does that for them. So I agree with you. So do the Democrats hold the take back the Senate? If we're taking Maine off the table, do the Democrats take back the Senate? I think it's going to be hard. I agree with you. You tell me. I don't think Tallarico is going to win. You tell me. I think I think Trump's going to lose the House narrowly because of the gerrymandering. And I think he's going to either keep the Senate or it's going to be tied in the Senate and Vance will have the deciding vote. Sort of what happened in the early part of the Biden term, you know, with with Vice President Harris being the tie caster. OK, we'll see. We'll see what happens about I'm with you two for two. Are we are we leaving it there? I think we're going to leave it there. All right. Just just remember this. This is an anti-establishment crowd in this country now. So if you got a scandal, ha ha, that was perpetrated by the establishment. I think it's something that's really going to be out there in the midterms. And speaking of people becoming liabilities, by the way, in their own party, Ken Paxton and Graham Plattner, we may be talking to you. Don't forget to catch that first episode in our series on the truth about Donald Trump's health. It's out now for our fine. It's founding members. You can sign up at the rest is politics, us.com. And here's a clip. The problem with these doctors statements, Anthony, is that we're not reading the first hand information. Right. And there are noticeable gaps in this. Some people have pointed out that his blood pressure has dropped, even though he's gained weight, which for an 80 year old man seems contradictory unless he's taking medication. But we're not reading about the medication in the report. So these these summaries that. We're getting from the White House doctors, do you think we're getting the full picture from them? Well, you're definitely getting an exaggerated picture, but you and I know the situation of the stroke with Woodrow Wilson, you know, whether it was it was the palsy and paralysis of FDR that was hidden from the public. We know about the heart attacks from Dwight Eisenhower, also hidden from the public. Ronald Reagan had colon cancer. Kennedy had Addison's disease, severe back pain. Taking. Injections in his back. Cortisone treatments. Nobody said anything about those. So this is, you know, Lyndon Johnson had heart ailments as well. Presidents have a tendency to underplay their health issues and oversell their vitality. But with Donald Trump, I think for me, in my observation of him, and I tell people this, number one, he has no obligation to give you anything. Number two, past practices are mixed. OK. Obama didn't like. Telling people that he was dragging a cigarette in the what used to be the Rose Garden, which is now like the Rose parking lot. But he would step outside and he would smoke a cigarette to take the edge off. But he didn't want anybody to know about it. So so they're all fudging a little bit. So let's go back over some of the actual medical statements from the physicians, which will give you a sense of why it's a little difficult for us to trust exactly what's being given to us, because sometimes what the doctors. Are spinning, as you've just said, Anthony, is not actually always the truth. And we can go back and we see this pattern right from the 2016 campaign when you were with him in December of 2015. Donald Trump, when he was running for office before he'd actually got the presidency, his personal physician, Harold Bornstein, released, I think it was a letter. It wasn't even a memo, right? Praising Donald Trump for extraordinary physical strength and stamina. And the letter went on to assert that Trump would be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency. And he said a recent medical exam yielded only positive results. It's wonderfully kind of Trumpian language to make it the superlative. Everything about Trump always has to be the superlative. So he's not just a healthy individual running for the presidency. He'll be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency. And then a few years later, before he died, Dr. Bornstein actually admitted. To CNN that Donald Trump had dictated the whole letter and said, I didn't write that letter. I just made it up as I went along. Was that an issue in the campaign? I mean, it was pretty obvious this letter was written by Trump and not by a doctor, right? You know, it does, right? But it's so reminiscent of George Burns, a legendary comedian. He's 93 years old. He takes out a big fat Cuban cigar and he's smoking the Cuban cigar and he's blowing the smoke in Johnny Carson, the famous Cuban cigar. The famous American talk show host's face. And Carson looks at him and says, well, what do your doctors think of this? And George Burns looks over at him and says, all my doctors are dead. You know, he's outliving the doctors, Scotty. Okay. And this is what's happening here with Trump. All right, guys, there you have it. If you want to hear the full series, sign up at therestispoliticsus.com to become a founding member. We'll see you next week. Thanks, guys. See you next week. See you next week. Use them with Shopify on your side. Turn your big business idea into sign up for your $1 per month trial at shopify.com slash special offer. Shaq here. 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