230. What Happens When the Trump Loyalty Test Goes Wrong?

Kimberly Guilfoyle is in the wood chipper, Katty, after a week of accusations against her from begging for $100,000 to cover her credit card bill to suggesting that the U.S. could bring down governments in Europe. The former ambassador to Greece is out of the picture. And that's not the only movement in the revolving door of the Trump administration. The new press secretary, Katie Zachariah, just made her debut with what might be one of the most awkward press briefings ever. And we've got to talk to you about Trump's panicked trip to Alaska to try and claw back his disillusioned base. This episode is brought to you by eToro. A tariff, a spending plan, a regulatory change. It can all start just as the first line of a speech. But it sets in motion things that can reach far beyond Washington. And unfold for years to come. That's right, Katty. Markets move on expectations, not just events. 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And he's making the point that the socialists in America have compelling economic policies, but cultural policies that many people in the country hate. Is there a lane for somebody who is a more culturally moderate socialist? I love the FT Weekend. My very favorite thing to read on a Saturday morning. No, I love the FT. It's wonderful. So I'm just thrilled that they're a sponsor. For the why, Financial Times, listeners of The Rest Is Politics US can save over 40% on an annual digital subscription to the Financial Times by visiting FT.com/TripUS. That's FT.com/TripUS, T-R-I-P-U-S, subject to terms and conditions, offer expires October 28th. Hey, Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile. Now, I don't know if you've heard, but Mint's premium wireless is $15. You can buy it for $15 a month. But I'd like to offer one other perk. We have no stores. That means no small talk. Crazy weather we're having. No, it's not. It's just weather. It is an introvert's dream. Give it a try at mintmobile.com/switch. Upfront payment of $45 for three-month plan, $15 per month equivalent required. New customer offer first three months only. Then full price plan options available. Taxes and fees extra. See mintmobile.com. Mint Mobile.com/Switch. A premium wireless app for all. And I looked at the whole. And then I looked at his hands. Look at his hands. He's got these like claws. And I got it. You are a great athlete. I didn't know that because he doesn't talk about that. Congratulations. Now they finally know. That was very good. OK, I couldn't resist, Anthony. That was Donald Trump in Ohio on the stump for the Republican incumbent, John Husted, who is a former football player. Is talking about John Husted's ass helpful to the senator running for the election? You know, the Drudge report saying that Trump is coming out. Do you think Trump is gay, Katty? Is he coming out? Every single TV show that I have watched over the last couple of days has said this is the October surprise that the disinhibited Donald Trump is now expressing his true feelings. I don't know. Maybe he just likes talking about people's asses. And that was the one that happened to be in front of him. But he's. He's done a lot of commenting on male bodies recently. I will say that I will go that far, but not much further, Anthony. OK. All right. I'm going to leave it there because I don't guess, you know, I'm the emotional, dramatic one in this relationship when it comes to certain things. But I think he's disinhibiting for no question about that at age 80. And he talks in a way that is suggestive that there's a lot of by curiosity. Going on in his personality. And so could that be part of the anger that's going on that's related to the repression that drives him? I have no idea, Katty. But as President George W. Bush would say, that is some weird S.H.I.T. And it's going to get worse. That's the thing I predict. It will get worse. Well, he's certainly talking in a way that has people talking on this side of the Atlantic, probably Mr. Husted himself. Speaking of dramatic and emotional, let's go to Greece, where the ambassador to Greece, one Kimberly Guilfoyle, has been asked to step down and has resigned in the wake of reports of improper, corrupt conduct. She is a former lawyer. Fox News host, was once a major Trump fundraiser, sought after campaign surrogate. She was once married to Gavin Newsom, the Democratic California governor, and then engaged to Donald Trump Jr. Mr. Trump now says he barely knew her. And what happened was that a whole load of stories came out in The Wall Street Journal, which I had heard Antony had all of the information and has been drip, drip, dripping it out over the last few days. She's alleged to have asked a prominent donor, Eric Dieters, to pay her $100,000 Amex bill in exchange for access to administration officials. She's also reportedly boasted that two Greek tycoons covered luxury travel expenses. On private jets around Europe, where she was the ambassador, and it all got too much for the Trump administration. And, Antony, I think you were a little surprised by this. I think you thought that Kimberly Guilfoyle, because of her romantic relationship with Don Jr. and then getting dumped by Don Jr., had dirt on the Trump family and they wouldn't go so far as to fire her, right? But they did. Well, we don't know the behind the scenes stuff that's getting cut for her right now. My guess is they're talking. They're talking to her in a way that will get her off the ledge of whatever she has on them. So they'll give her some kind of sign. Yeah, of course. She'll get some kind of assignment or she'll have some kind of landing spot. They're very good. Special envoy for Greek olive oil. Or it would be in the private sector even. But I think the most critical thing here is that they're all doing this. I think everyone needs to know that it's been reported. It's been reported in the press. The Middle Eastern investors are complaining about them. There are people in Europe complaining about them. There's people complaining about them related to real estate deals and so-called heists, if you will. OK, in terms of what they're doing. And so, frankly, she was just doing what they're all doing. The big difference is, is what the president said, despite her being in the family photo in December of 2023. With the big ring. Yeah, what he says, what he always says, which is he barely knew her and that, you know, this was a long time ago and all that sort of stuff. You know, there's a tweet about me somewhere where he barely knew who I was. So somehow I got on the campaign. I was on the executive transition team for the transition and became the White House communications director. But he barely knew who I was. And so that's the move. This is a very big message to people in Trump land. It doesn't matter who you are. If your last name is not Trump, he will run you over with a bus. And if you watch The Sopranos, that's one scene where they back over the guy's head at the gas station and crush it like a cantaloupe. Donald Trump will do that to you. And so I think it's very important for people to know that she didn't do anything that these people are not doing. Now, of course, we. We owe her some fairness here. Yes, she has denied the allegations, by the way, which we should point out. She says it was an unpaid bill from a former client. She's actually disputing the authenticity of the text. The text seemed pretty damning. I think the optics of this was enough to dispatch her. But there's also been some complaints about her in Greece related to her behavior, which you and I both know. So so listen, I'm not here to pile on Kimberly Guilfoyle. I'm just here. To tell you that you can't use the ambassadorship like an ATM unless your last name is Trump. If your last name is Trump. You can more or less do whatever you want. You can fly privately. You can take deals. You can get a $170,000 gift for your Bahamian wedding. It's absolutely no problem. But what she made, her big mistake was she was operating the way they always operate, but she was not inside the circle of protection that the president offers his family members who share his DNA. So I think there are a couple of also bigger, interesting things that this story points out. And yes, it's a crazy story. And yes, you and I are hearing reports from Athens of her being pulled out of nightclubs by her security detail late at night, of having her picture plastered all over the Athens embassy, of acting in ways that it was embarrassing. One former CIA person who we both know said that, you know, she'd been on unsecure lines afterwards. After drinking, talking about China, just the kind of sensitivity around security details that actually becomes a liability if you're trying to do American foreign policy. I think there are a couple of things and I wanted to get your reaction to them. One is that this is a problem in terms of security because she, as the Wall Street Journal put it, she represented a new kind of American diplomacy that fuses celebrity, business and geopolitics. And I reached out to a senator on the Intelligence Committee this morning. His office got back to me saying that this makes America vulnerable, both to its allies and to its enemies. It's low-hanging fruit if you're one of America's adversaries because they now know what it takes to play in America. It takes a private jet for the ambassador. It takes some kind of a business deal that your country is offering direct to somebody associated with the Trump family. And that in and of itself is a security problem. Maybe that's the problem with this new kind of diplomacy writ large. But the other thing that I wanted to get your reaction to is that this is a problem that we're facing. And I think that's the problem. from comms come into the office and they wanted to brief me on korea north korea the iraq and afghanistan situation and they listed all the economy and i looked at these people i said okay get the hell out of the office because i'm not going to fill my head with that level of data and then go meet the press because you know it's not a fishbowl caddy you know it's an aquarium okay there's several thousand people that are observing you in that press aquarium not fishbowl and several sharks swimming around yeah so you know my press conference lasted 45 minutes and when i didn't know the answer i said i didn't know the answer and when i had an answer i gave the answer she was looking at her notes and jessica tarloff said something yesterday which i think bears repeating she said she felt like she was at one of her friends weddings where the bridesmaid was trying to compliment the bride and it was the first time they actually read something out loud and it was the first time they ever had done a public speech god it was awkward and you know once the blood is in the water okay there is no mercy so does she get back to that podium caddy that's the question i think here is this woman who's been plucked from relative obscurity um for the white house job she is super magga she has been involved in promoting a whole load of kind of q anon pizzagate type conspiracy theories online and on television over the last few years that is why donald trump picked her she kind of looks the part she's got the makeup the long blonde hair he likes that look but it was as a reporter watching it i have never in my 30 years of being in washington dc seen such an embarrassing press briefing from the white house podium it was i started watching it anthony i could barely watch it was excruciating how embarrassingly bad she was i think luckily she's now gone off on this trip to alaska we're going to talk about that in the second half um and other states campaigning with the president i don't think she's back at that podium certainly not before the midterm election okay so so they said you know there's no record of you taking the bar you went to pepperdine law she says she's a lawyer okay now listen you can go to law school and graduate from law school and not take the bar exam okay you're not that doesn't make you a lawyer no it gives you the title of jurist doctor you have a a jurist doctor you have to be a member of the bar somewhere in the united states to actually do lawyering but what do you think she was trying to say when they said well where did you take the bar and she said china she said when i moved to alaska i was a lawyer and i was a lawyer moved to china well right you know non-chinese person can take the bar in china so that's not true okay journalists have done digging on this they find no record of her passing the bar anywhere in the united states so i think she is not a lawyer i don't think she has passed the bar there's no record of it if there was one i'm sure we would know of it and she certainly didn't pass it when she moved to china where she went to live with her husband who had business there okay so i'm a defender here for a second and i'm going to say that she was so nervous and she had blown the press conference so badly that when she was standing outside with the president and she was hoping he was going to bail her out by answering all the questions in front of the press when he turned to her he caught her off guard and what she was trying to say is i didn't take the bar i actually went to work in a restaurant and my husband was living in china and therefore i went to china with him that's what i think she was trying to say yeah possibly am i am i am i wrong in saying that i think this is a little bit of a storm in a teacup i agree i think the issue is that she was kind of picked because she was pure maga she was put in a position she should not have been put in she is not fit for doing that kind of a briefing and i suspect we won't hear from her again for a while because president trump likes one thing he likes his people too much and he's not fit for doing that kind of a briefing to perform well on television even he knows she did not perform well on television before you go talk about suzy wiles because like the press has reported that she was not in there uh making this decision the president went around her by the way when he when he hired me he went around ryan's pre-business chief of staff uh so it's consistent with what the president does but did they vet her properly and what do you think suzy wiles is saying about all this and then we'll go to the break i reckon the vetting was the president watching her on television that was the vetting that was the vetting um okay we're going to come back and talk about alaska another of our deep dives ahead of the midterms because there is surprisingly a competitive race up in there that could swing the u.s senate hey ryan reynolds here from mint mobile now i don't know if you've heard but mint's premium wireless is fifteen dollars a month but i'd like to offer one other perk we have no stores that means no small talk crazy weather we're having no it's not it's just weather it is an introvert's dream give it a try at mintmobile.com slash switch upfront payment of 45 for three month plan 15 per month equivalent required new customer offer first three months only then full price plan options available taxes and fees extra see mintmobile.com when you spend enough time around great companies you notice that the best ones treat trust as a growth strategy not a box to check vanta helps companies build and prove trust from data and data and data and data and data and it's a gentic trust platform connects compliance risk and trust at enterprise scale vanta delivers a 526 return on investment over three years and pays for itself in just three months learn why over 16 000 of the fastest growing companies use vanta at vanta.com fox one has your front row seats a live nfl action the biggest rivalries the biggest hits america's game of the week from the opening kickoff to the end of the season vanta delivers a 526 return on investment over three years and pays for itself in just three months vanta delivers a 526 return on investment over three years and pays for itself in just three months to the final drive catch every game-changing play as it happens go beyond the box score with highlights interviews and expert analysis you won't find anywhere else at home or on the go live or on demand the nfl on fox is streaming live on fox one download the app today welcome back to the rest is politics us we're going to talk about alaska which has a emerged as a key senate race in the midterms but first we want to talk a little bit about artificial intelligence this segment is brought to you in partnership with e-toro we're back with market watch each month with e-toro we look at what's been happening in the markets and how individual investors have responded to that ai safety is high on the political agenda as well this month something that anthony and i talk about a lot and one of the questions is pretty fundamental should the government have the power to shut down the market or should the government have the power to shut down the market down dangerous ai systems you would think with all this uncertainty caddy that investors would actually be more cautious but e-toro is giving us another point of view because it can see in aggregate what millions of investors actually did so did all of the political uncertainty around safety change the behavior of investors anthony why don't we start with looking at where ai was before any of these safety and political concerns came up i think ai is to me where the internet was in the mid 90s we knew that the internet was going to work but as the internet developed here we are 30 years later we're live streaming we've got trillions of dollars of transactions happening on the internet and when you use these ai models the productivity curve is going to be enormous and what ends up happening is you get this like foam in the markets this sort of a lust fact if you will in the markets and i just want to point this out i love that idea lust fest in the markets well well that's making ai sexy again yeah well but ai started out sexy the question is is it going to stay sexy or is it going to be a bubble that's the real thing that people are worried about but i think it's very important to tell people that the single biggest investment for individuals is ai bar none and so the real question is are we in a bubble or are we not in a bubble just some interesting facts from e-toro in general i think it's very important to tell people that there's a big bubble because there's just a tsunami of capital flowing into the system it's not going to end anytime soon and it's not going to end because of a slow rise in interest rates that we're experiencing so what's interesting about that number you just gave is that in january it was one pound in every seven but by june anthony it was one in three more than double in five months investors were piling into ai as you say and it held there all through the summer right through july roughly one pound in every four was still going into ai but then we had over the last five months of the year where we had a lot of big changes in the economy and we had a lot of big changes in the economy and we had a lot of big changes in the economy and we had a lot of big And so on July the 26th, you actually had the bipartisan AI kill switch act, which was introduced into Congress. And that would have given the power to order a company to shut down any large language models that they felt were a concern for public safety. They didn't flinch though, investors. Yeah, but I mean, this is the greatest thing about eToro is the data caddy. So if everything you just said is true, but then if you go to August 10th, the one in four investment into AI became one in six. And that happened in a single week. And so they are responding to the political things that are going on. But what I love about eToro, I can actually see the data. And so if you're an individual investor, or you like to trade, this can help you make a short term analytical decision. Yeah. And then what's interesting, Anthony, of course, is the hugging face story breaks in mid September, the warnings about AI get a lot louder. And then chip shares, you do see a sell off 6% in one day. And eToro is showing us that data, the AI share of trading was already down at around one in six, and it stayed there. There was no big second drop off, no big sell off. But people, investors did hear the news, and they got a little bit more concerned. So as you say, what's interesting here is that eToro can show us the data as we see the highs and the lows. Yeah. Basically, it's a continuous high, but you do get the odd dip when people have a story that particularly alarms them. So Katty, look, they haven't given up on AI, they've stopped adding to it. And they made that call five weeks before Washington did. You know, you too can see what millions of investors are doing right now by going to eToro.com. eToro is a multi asset investment platform, the value of your investments may go up or down, your capital is at risk. The content that has been discussed is intended for information. And educational purposes only, and should not be considered investment advice, or investment recommendations. Anthony, we spoke about Kansas earlier this week. And I thought it was worth looking at Alaska because Alaska is such an interesting state. It's got a Senate race, which is tighter than Republicans would like it to be between the incumbent Senator Dan Sullivan, and the Democratic challenger Mary Peltola, who is running on, I think, a very good position. the story we spoke about in the first half, Kimberley Guilfoyle is flying around on a private jet in Europe. That just doesn't, it's the disconnect between those stories that is causing the Republicans problems. Okay. So Donald Trump, as we've been on air, Anthony has put out a long truth social post, basically saying that he has managed to secure from South Korea and Taiwan, a big investment project for Alaskan liquid natural gas, not much more details than that, but multi-billion dollars. This is the greatest project in Alaska history. And this only happens with me in the White House. Thank you for your attention to this matter, President Donald J. Trump. So he's clearly kind of trying to think what kind of deals can I do? I need to leave Alaska with some good news. He's probably gone there, seen that things are not going great, come up with this deal. We have not. We have not actually heard from the Taiwanese and the South Koreans because Donald Trump announced something like this a couple of days ago and said the South Koreans had done it. But actually, the South Koreans said this is news to us. So we don't know the details of this. We don't know how much of this money will actually ever make it to Alaska. But it's interesting that he's putting out a long truth social post saying, Dan Sullivan, I have your back. I am helping you, even though my tariffs with Canada may have hurt a state that has a 1500 mile long border with Canada. I'm going to correct you, Daddy K. Good Dan Sullivan, as opposed to bad Dan Sullivan. Decoy Dan. I love that. Decoy Dan. Good Dan Sullivan. I'm with you. Decoy Dan. Beep. Right? Oh, my God. How could you? Who could make this up? I mean, this is why I love American politics. It's so good. Yeah. Two Dan Sullivans. The president's flying 3000 miles. He's murmuring under his breath. I can't believe I've blown this thing so badly. Meanwhile, you have a Dan Sullivan. You have a Dan Sullivan. Democrat that owns 176 rifles and shotguns. Yeah. I mean, wild, right? Yeah. You couldn't make it up. And he's campaigning for salmon. If you're talking to hardened Wall Street MAGA people, and you know I live around hardened Wall Street MAGA people, they're breaking, Cadigan. They're cracking. And they all think there's a blue tsunami coming. Not a wave, but a wave. Not a wave, but a full-on tsunami. And you're going to go to 52, 53 senators, 223 members of the House, and they're gearing up for it. And in a weird way, I'm going to tell you something about the stock market. Stock market is telling you that if that's going to happen, stock market's actually okay with it. Because as we know, as market participants, when you have a mixed government, the market does better because people are going to be better. And so, I'm going to tell you something about the stock market. Because people have to be reined in on both sides of the aisle. Yeah. Well, it's getting a bit out of control at the moment. Anyway, the slogan is fish, family, and freedom. Alaska. All the way from Alaska first. And you could be a Democrat and say the words Alaska first. It's good. People are nodding their heads saying it's okay. This is an example of the Democrats nominating a good candidate in the right moment in the right state. Okay, guys, we're going to leave it there. We will have our question and answer session for our founding members this week. We spend quite a lot of time looking at the issue of whether America is going to live stream a firing squad execution, which is pretty grim, but I think you'll find that interesting. And we will be back next Monday with more news. Thanks for listening. Thanks, guys. Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile. The message for everyone paying big wireless way too much. Please, for the love of everything good in this world, stop. With Mint, you can get premium wireless for just $15 a month. Of course, if you enjoy overpaying, no judgments, but that's weird. Okay, one judgment. Anyway, give it a try at mintmobile.com slash switch. Upfront payment of $45 for three-month plan equivalent to $15 per month required. Intro rate first three months only, then full price plan options available. See full terms at mintmobile.com. When you spend enough time around great companies, you notice that the best ones treat trust as a growth strategy, not a box to check. Vanta helps companies build and prove trust from day one. Its agentic trust platform connects compliance, risk, and trust at enterprise scale. Vanta delivers a 526% return on investment over three years and pays for itself in just three months. 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