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Semafor reporter Dave Weigel returns to the show to look at the political angles to Trump’s tariff regime and the global economic shocks. We discuss the various attempts to backfill justifications, responses from GOP and Democrats, and how this is all somehow about wokeness and masculinity or something. We also discuss last week’s special election in Wisconsin, and what it can tell us about Trump (and Elon)’s strength going forward.

Find Dave’s work on Semafor here: https://www.semafor.com/author/david-weigel

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Comments

Erik Kramer

The banks are out of money

That’s Crazy

Folks please run don’t walk to your nearest branch and demand every penny you had

JD Nonce

Having, or caring about having, money is woke and gay now. This is my strongest-held belief that I’ve had for about 2-4 weeks

Joe

The economy is gay

NYCM&AHole

Jes Staley took it to Epstein island

Reed

The banks, they’re eating the money, they’re eating the liquidity!!!

John Haythorn

Oh I see you libs love money now. VERY CONVENIENT.

Evan

BREAKING: There are reports that the banks are out of money.

Dick Must Bust

What are doin’ with my money, Fred?

Ana

To anyone worried watching their portfolios, their private pensions, their 401Ks dropping in value this week, I just want to offer these encouraging words from the bottom 50% of Americans who own no financial assets: JUMP BITCH, JUMP! (Also, Wall Street will just be bailed out by the Fed again anyway, so who really cares? This is all a huge joke.)

K H

From take him seriously but not literally to take him seriously and literally to I have such sights to show you.

K H

The increasingly frequent reminder money is fake, but not even a lil cool or gay.

K H

Someone posted they want to get rid of FDIC. So that was probably not far from happening.

K H

Where's MY adrenochrome?!

K H

It is fake.

Reed

They’re eating the babies, they’re eating the adrenochrome!!

Savannakhet

At 39 minutes Dave Wiegel exits the matrix.

Christopher

You’ve always said that and so did I!

THEKILLERWHALE

Okay. I am a day 7 subscriber and I am wracking my brain trying to figure out what the most referenced movie is. Tell me what I am missing. Casino No Country for Old Men Robocop/Starship Troopers/Verhoven Manhunter Evita Terminator Videodrome.

Joel.

This is what happens when a god damn cheeto gets in the whitehouse

Fernslinger

I think they already revealed that it was Casino.

Wang

TULSA SHOUTOUT!!!

Sonclaurey

OMG zillennial mention ‼️

Hilary is Pant-suited Syphilis

It’s funny that MAGA guys are now coming around to sounding like Jimmy Carter or the Klaus Schwab song.

pigeonb0y

the trading gap shuffle, we’re in a heap of trouble, doing the trading gap shuffle, yes sir!

Steve D

Curious about Shawn Fain’s angle in all of this. Is it as simple as he thinks supporting these tariffs will get this administration to support the UAW? Because that seems shortsighted.

Mountain Dew Or Crab Juice

Has anyone really been far even as decided to use even go want to do look more like?

Sam

did Felix call Bada Bing “the porn store”?

Zach H.

It still baffles me that anyone in finance misunderstands Trump’s economic policy. What policy did you think a guy who has never paid a supplier or contractor in his life would have?

Brent

Brother-in-law who voted Trump literally said, “ALL I care about is my stock going up. And Trump will make that happen.”

K H

Love to see an idiot prosper.

justdave

I shorted the market, made a killing and am now worth 100s of millions. Why are you people so jealous that I'll never be homeless or have a medical bill thats unpayable? It's like you hate me for my hard work and talent

Laura

On the one hand, my retirement plan is "die," on the other hand I'd like to minimize my suffering on the way there. On the one hand, we richly deserve this, on the other hand, the people who deserve it the most will be most insulated. What do I think? Who cares? I'm not an accelerationist, but acceleration seems to be happening anyway. From this vantage point, it looks like we're heading towards a brick wall though. I wish I could read a history book from the future; I'm interested in how this plays out in a weirdly detached way. Probably the depression talking!

poiuytrefvbj55

Screaming and pissing at the 3rd grade girls singing "Girls rule, boys drool!"

justdave

If you don't like monopoly you can't just throw a tantrum and nock the board over. I know you never wanted to play in the first place but, I win.

Anomalie

Boris Yeltsin speedrun wooo

Justin

I know it goes against my materialist inclinations as a leftist, but I’ve always suspected that a spiritually hollow culture like ours — where you can say something like that and not be treated like an anti-social psychopath — is both a cause and an effect of neo-liberal hell. I mean, what kind of a society tolerates people saying out loud: “I only care about my money.” Just throwing out thousands of years of moral and spiritual insights.

Man2quilla

You could argue that moving the embassy to Jerusalem partly caused October 7th.

Man2quilla

Holy shit, the robots got Dave!

Brent

Justin, if you were to try and express that to my in-law, he would give you a half lidded stare and call you gay. There’s no thought of ethics in this for him, it’s pure id

Kainien Morel

Like Felix, I'm one of those people who's always more than a little wary of such one-to-one historical comparisons, but the comparison with the Yeltsin government--before and after the constitutional crisis and his showdown with the Supreme Soviet of the R.F.--are interesting, especially if you compare it to the normalization (in other words, "where we've been for 25 years") of concentrated but specific powers in the presidency and the executive relative to the weakened State Duma and Senate--is interesting. After all, Yeltsin was his own prime minister (as president) both before and after the dissolution of the USSR. On the other hand, unlike the RSFSR, the US has basically always merged the two officers (callback to "Hell of Presidents" pointing out how Washington basically was made elective monarch, except by then many monarchs had separate heads of government). Yeltin's successors, including Putin, who came out of that power arrangement, have taken a lot greater care to dance around that, with formal appointments if only to avoid the whole stigma of "Yeah, I'm gonna' take all these tanks, and make my own legislature, with blackjack and hookers," of 1993, the original sin of the Russian Federation and a hyper-publicized embarrassment within human memory. Obviously, Trump comes from a completely different background from those vaguely-centrist conservative political insiders from hastily-formed Moscow and Leningrad political machines, and benefits from theatrics in a way that even Yeltsin didn't, or at least believes that he does. There also isn't an external power that's singing his praises enthusiastically with each decision (maybe Tel Aviv comes close), that he can reliably point to and say has his back and make flattering comparisons between him and Abraham Lincoln. We may be looking at a very similar dismantling of the federal bureaucracy and management bodies and selling off of valued assets, but Trump seems to sell it on his own force of personality rather than a sense of post-Soviet inevitability? Would that mean he has a weakness even beyond what forced Yeltsin's successors to walk back some (not all) of those decisions in era of United Russia's domination of the presidency and the legislature, in that the enterprise isn't sustainable without him and can't endure in a bunch of zero-charisma blood-and-soil conservative upstarts coming out of Florida and Texas who could never have their own New York-based reality TV shows? Maybe? By the way, to Will and particularly Felix: I'm sure you guys get a lot of video game recommendations and are sick of them, but I suggest checking out 'MULLET MADJACK', a Brazilian-developed indie speedrunning shooter that's on Xbox and PC currently. Aside from being a fun game (even for people bad at speedrun games like myself), it also feels like a game made for the Chapo boys, whether for its visual homage to late '80s, early '90s ultraviolent Japanese OVAs (BUBBLEGUM CRISIS, A.D. POLICE Kenichi Sonada-style in particular), its on-the-nose ethos delivered in comedic one-liners ("Winners never quit and quitters never win!" "Work only comes after success in the dictionary!" "Let's kill some [robot] billionaires!"), or its use of brightly-colored vending machine soda as the sole life-restoring item. You kill waves of robot billionaire goons while livestreaming through a synthwave-copy of Nakatomi Plaza; I can't think of a more Chapo Trap House videogame in years. Finally, here's to more Movie Mindset! t's what pushed me to subscribe to the Patreon after all, you boys are doing your homework here.

Paul F. Holzfäller

Some idiot probably didn’t fit the data probe into the guy’s headjack correctly.

C. Andrew

*Walking into the bank with a AA-12 and full clown makeup.* "You know it's a negotiating tactic to have people think you're crazy, I'm here for a buisness loan."

Philip Manzi

First Rule of Acquisition: “Once you have their money, you never give it back.”

Philip Manzi

First Rule of Acquisition: “Once you have their money, you never give it back.”

Lynn Waldon

I saw a really great video from the creator Jesse Gender hypothesizing that the tariffs are meant to sew chaos because that's an environment that Trump succeeds in, I found that super compelling. Like these will bring misery, and misery fuels the forces that elected Trump.

K H

We should aim to retire to Valhalla. Look what 1 single Luigi accomplished.

K H

Ask him how retarded his portfolio is doing. I'm told they like mean spirited bonding rituals. God is not just but he loves to laugh.

justdave

THE CHILDREN OF GAZA ARE LAUGHING AT US! THEYRE OVER THERE LAUGHING AT US!

Leguminous Goth

Movie mindset 🤩🤩🤩 Enjoy the standard eps but i am literally only on the patreon for mm

ploob

Ah yes, the obligatory Wagner montage.

Ant koz

I wonder what movie episode 1 of movie mindset will be about?

jdewd

About as believable as the TikTok that says he’s doing 9999D chess to refinance the national debt. There is a lot of rationalization going on, beware of getting too deep in it.

Gabe P

I believe he was referring to the “Pork Store” aka Satriale’s.

Sam

AH thank you! My hearing aids are no match for Felix’s mic technique

Austin Williams

I read something once about some stuff being profaned and some other stuff melting.

Franklin Shepard Inc.

the idea that Trump has a plan at all is wishful thinking; the man works exclusively on bigotry and revenge.

A RQ

The road to the top was a rocky one for Josh Fenderman. And he had no idea it would lead to the bottom.

MEAT CLOWN

"There's a difference between being afraid of John Wick and being afraid of a guy in the supermarket with his dick out and shit stains on his sweatpants who has a gun" Perfectly put

Jackson

I'm sorry but I doubt it's deeper or more rationalized, even in an evil way, than he's fixated on the idea that tariffs are great because he idolizes McKinley for some reason and is too stupid and stubborn to listen to anyone.

manbob

Same I also really hope they have a Lynch episode this season.

tippy

great ep, def chose the wrong time to quit my corporate job but i enjoyed listening to this from my new retail gig

Demented Avenger

Dave Weigel is on, and for some reason you end with Devo. (Yes, I know you're a fan, Chris, but Dave Weigel wrote a book about the greatest musical movement of all time.) The proper pick is either "Money" or "Get 'Em Out by Friday," given the topic. You're welcome.

Lynn Waldon

God I hope you're right, I am definitely oscillating between the two viewpoints. I guess rationally the idea that him breaking stuff could make actual people like him more is pretty insane. You guys have a really good point there. I am just a bit wary of those "haha he's just crazy he has no plan" narratives around world leaders because people keep saying that about Vladimir Putin, and it's like no he wants land and ports and resources and for NATO to GTFO and to secure his long-term security intrests. And people are constantly being like wHy WoUlD hE dO tHiS, like because that's his political strategy. Will he get some of what he wants - idk. So I'm kind of tired of all the dismissiveness I hear around global leaders, you don't need to be a master of 5D chess to have some sort of fucked up strategy and put it into action. But I still think y'all are probably right on this one, whatever Trump's strategy is here it is really stupid.

T

Smart investors shorted the market. Me? I shorted my penis.

Tea for the Tillerman

Mere weeks away from Morgan Wallen doing ‘Swanee’ in full Jolson blackface on the south lawn

Laura

I was JUST mustering up the courage to try to move up from my wretched dead-end job, but now I'm in full "hunker down and cling to what you've got" mode. Looks like I'll just continue to be downwardly mobile from my parents!

justdave

Hrudi hurdi huhr

justdave

You have to do one to do the other

Justin

Brent, I wouldn't try to argue with him either. Wasn't trying to suggest you should have. I hear all that shit all the time too. And yeah, it is pure id and there's no way to reason with someone that far gone. But typically a society, writ large, will shame people for the shameful products of their id.

brendo

Not enough people are talking about the fact there is a snack food in our nation's highest office

Robert Karnick

MM3 episode one will be either Network or Casino, calling it now

Raquelle Jac

Hahaha as someone who is currently on Suboxone for using so much kratom for almost 8 years (after being dependent on opioids and trying kratom as a form of MAT) the last bit killed me lol! I'm so called out 😭

Nimbly Bimbly As FUCK

I swear Will said something about them covering Casino. So, you may be right

Charles Frum

Indeed “the sheer Brandon-ness of it all.” No country in the world has ever industrialized, de-industrialized and then re-industrialized again.

Michael

Hats off to Benny Johnson for the greatest quote on the tariff stock market crash. “Losing money costs you nothing.”

YSB

Yeah, those of us that don’t use Twitter need reference materials

T

It was done by a--I'm not going to say what race, what people--doctor. You know I can't say that. It was a jewish doctor.

Secret Audio

Love thinking about Trump saying “Dave WEIGEL.”

Nathan

What’s the best class to play as for Great Depression 2.0? I’m thinking about doing hobo with specialization in train riding but also interested in okie.

Thomas

Is it so preposterous to think that these might be short-lived? Trump is a famously fickle person. He already came up with absurd contrivances on two separate occasions to bail on tariffs on the States’ two largest trading partners. The tariffs only went into effect three days ago, and now the Trump admin is saying TODAY that they’re open to talks. Just not sure what the attitude is about Also, join Homo Thug HQ on Twitter

hamburglar

Damn dude how much kratom were you using every day? I’ll check the kratom subreddit sometimes and the amount some people are using is wild

Raquelle Jac

........ I used minimum 1 kilo a month consistently for 8 years but for about 3 of those years there were times I was using 2 kilos.... I drank it mixed with water so I had green shit all over my mouth all the time lol. It started screwing with my health and I was obvi very constipated for most of those years. I'm so so so thankful for Suboxone. I'm literally living my best life rn lol. It's wild. I run ~5k every morning, eat healthy, and I actually have a real social life now. I feel like kratom can be helpful for opioid dependency for people who don't have access to MAT like methadone/Suboxone, but fuck, you gotta have someone to hold you accountable bc it works on those opioid receptors, and anything that works on those receptors will get you sick if you don't have it. After 8 years, when I had to withdrawal before getting on subs, it was so bad. It was literally just traditional opioid withdrawal. I think if you don't use it heavily for years you can maybe avoid those bad withdrawals, but fuck, it can get bad!

CMC

It felt like Will and Felix took the initial reference as ironic but then realized Weigel really thought the move had no repercussions and went along with it so as not to alienate Weigel.

Greg Stelmach

it’s dangerous to impute a logical reasoning to anything Trump does, but paired with his other goal of American Energy Dominance, he many be banking on countries importing more LNG/refined petroleum products to bring down their trade surplus (and thus reduce their tariff %). in other words, it’s a literal fire sale, in the sense that it will burn the world to the ground

Greg Stelmach

oh and like Felix said, turn us into 90’s Russia - a gangster petrostate with mass reduction in quality of life for >90% of the population

Connor Shepard

At 59:50 "if you really hated DEI programs, if you didn't want your office to have a tra-....." lol Dave caught himself

B.C.

Wow. They even put a tarrif on latency

Son of El Topo

That was amazing. “Losing money can teach you about yourself” ok that’s a great way to make economic policy I’m sure

Michael Ouderkirk

Anonymous account with random Russian actor as avatar... is this Travis View's Wario?

Agent Grange

"To become the new economy, you have to kill your old economy. Don't be afraid to let your market die. Long live the new tariffs."

Daniel Marans

Were the last 15 minutes a repeat?

mariol struga

lol yall 30+ with no retirement thats crazy wee NEED socialism immediately

Hank Horchatta

Itty Bitty Titties & A Bob has been compromised to a permanent end.

Andrew Cross

been a while, but Felix mentioned a fighter jet at 19:15 or so, Lockheed Martin F-35 ‘Lightning II’

Jon

Gotta mention avatar

Zach Pierce

BACK TO THE MINES, MY LORD! Thank you me lord for this factory job shaving off pigs’ ears!

Doug Cartel

It's very funny to claim "madman" is a legit negotiation strategy when it was proof that nixon was stupid as hell

Doug Cartel

Broke: taxes are theft Woke: prices are theft

Oliver Clozov

these people need to go visit a factory in america and see the kind of people who actually work there. when i did unskilled assembly work all my coworkers were pillheads, drinkers, prison regulars, and low-level weed dealers. that kind of work really doesn't inspire the pride you think it does. you end up needing to abuse substances or act out to cope with how soul-crushing it is. it's not as dignified and honorable as people imagine it is

Ethan Schulz

WI was about abortion first and Elon second

Travis

Felix begins speaking at 4 minutes and 37 seconds

enter_krzysz

Love Felix and Hesse crossovers... looking forward to it

George P

trump already pussied out on the tariffs, what a bitch

Don Diva Quixote

WI was an abortion election, way more than Elon, that was just cherry.

Don Diva Quixote

I voted for Susie Crawdad and then myself in every other category

Jessica Rios

I really hate to sound like an ungrateful broken record but I’m so bummed that we don’t have Matt’s wisdom right now. Imagine his Cushvlogs and how much light he could shed for us.

Matthew Dunn

Not to mention boring. Repetitive assembly lines can drive anyone crazy. The only thing dignified about it is when workers at those factories organize.

Matthew Dunn

The market is the true master. When the bond market got shaken he backed off. Trump, the classic debtor, wants lower interest rates. When there was the threat of bonds not getting sold, he needed to stop the tariffs.

Sonicthunder35

Put some more points in strength and become Carl Panzram.

Nathaniel Weiner

Dave please do not turn into a transformer 39 minutes into the ep please

MG

Temped at a paper plant many years ago and the guy who trained me on one of the industrial printers had *several* fingers missing

Nathan

Wow, I didn’t know paper cuts could be that bad.

Scot Forsythe

Update (Thursday) Zero hedge was just on Bloomberg live for getting let into the White House press pool as “new media”…wierd…also being a chapo sub will now get you put into an internment camp…fun times!

Eamon Short

With all this shit going on with the economy, I feel it's time for another Professor Richard Wolff episode

etienne

ep title the Wolff of Wall Street

Flynn

Love the Zizek-inspired Groucho Marx reference

etienne

working on my ragtime piano skills

Andrew Fedje, Conduit of Corn

We don't need elections, we just need to handle things like Czar Nicolas. In a basement. And keep the jewels.