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Anthony Scaramucci: Trump Is Waging War With "A 12-Year-Old's Mentality" | Pivot

Kara is joined by guest host Anthony Scaramucci! They unpack Trump’s latest speech on Iran and a string of legal losses challenging the administration's policies. Then, SpaceX has officially filed for a massive IPO, TMZ moves into political coverage, and of course, Kristi Noem’s husband scandal. We’re nominated for a Webby Award! Vote for us here! #pivot #podcast #karaswisher #scottgalloway #anthonyscaramucci #iran #spacex #ipo #tmz #kristinoem 00:00 Intro 2:21 Trump’s Iran Speech 11:28 Trump’s Legal Losses 28:07 SpaceX Files For IPO 41:15 Kristi Noem Husband Scandal 48:31 TMZ Gets Political 50:25 Predictions Producers: Lara Naaman Zoë Marcus Taylor Griffin Video Producer: Manolo Moreno Vox Media's Executive Producer of Podcasts: Nishat Kurwa Subscribe to Pivot on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/pivot/id1073226719 Subscribe to Pivot on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4MU3RFGELZxPT9XHVwTNPR Follow us on Instagram and Threads at: https://www.instagram.com/pivotpodcastofficial/ Follow us on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@PIVOTPODCAST Send us your questions by calling us at 855-51-PIVOT, or email pivot@voxmedia.com

Anthony ScaramucciguestKara Swisherhost
Apr 3, 20261h 0mWatch on YouTube ↗

EVERY SPOKEN WORD

  1. 0:00 – 2:21

    Intro

    1. AS

      Look at me.

    2. KS

      Mm-hmm.

    3. AS

      Look at me.

    4. KS

      I'm looking at you. [laughs]

    5. AS

      I'm, I'm a normal fucking guy. I can't believe... I thought I was a Looney Tune. I'm in the bell curve of normal male nuttiness. [upbeat music]

    6. KS

      Hi, everyone. This is Pivot from New York Magazine and the Vox Media Podcast Network. I'm Kara Swisher. Scott is off today, and I'm joined by the man who may or may not be running for president.

    7. AS

      [laughs] Okay.

    8. KS

      It's Anthony Scaramucci, The Mooch, lawyer, podcaster, and founder of SkyBridge Capital. Hello, Anthony. How you doing?

    9. AS

      All right, I'll stipulate right here on this show, you're my running mate. We're gonna go for it-

    10. KS

      Ugh.

    11. AS

      Kara. You and me-

    12. KS

      Wait

    13. AS

      ... the day after April Fools'.

    14. KS

      I'm your running mate? Let's flip that. Strike that. Flip it.

    15. AS

      Oh, okay. You wanna be the president? Okay, great.

    16. KS

      That's correct.

    17. AS

      I'll be your running mate, okay?

    18. KS

      All right. Okay.

    19. AS

      I'll grow a beard like JD Vance, okay?

    20. KS

      Yeah. Oh, please don't do that.

    21. AS

      A emphasis on the word beard, okay?

    22. KS

      [laughs]

    23. AS

      What are we talking about today?

    24. KS

      All right, we're talking about... Anthony, there is so much going on. I just don't even know. Explain to people, you, you put up an, a, a, a fake, uh, April Fools' thing about running for president, correct? And what was the-

    25. AS

      Yeah

    26. KS

      ... what was it? What was the president?

    27. AS

      I thought it was gonna be... I thought it was fun. I mean, the reaction was sort of crazy, actually, but I, I-

    28. KS

      Was it?

    29. AS

      ... thought I was just-

    30. KS

      I know

  2. 2:21 – 11:28

    Trump’s Iran Speech

    1. KS

      uh, the war in Iran is nearing completion, but the US will hit Iran extremely hard over the next two to three weeks, bombing the country back to the Stone Ages, which is just a lovely term. Uh, a 19-minute address to the nation on Wednesday night, Trump tried to justify the war but didn't offer anything new. It was rambling. It was problematic. Uh, I think he didn't... He, he made... He lied a lot. He also downplayed concerns about economic fallout, calling the spike in the gas prices short-term increase and saying the Strait of Hormuz would open up naturally after the war. He said the same thing about COVID, it would end naturally, which it really didn't. He didn't say anything about putting, um, uh, troops there or following through on threats to leave NATO. He talks about it but then doesn't do it. Talk about the speech, 'cause I thought it really was a big, flat z- zero. Like a... It really was flat, and nobody was paying attention to it in a weird way, although the markets certainly were.

    2. AS

      Yeah, well, I mean, the speech is about power, okay? So CBS News, still in Trump's mind, the Tiffany Network, said, "Hey, no problem. Our reality show that's been on the air for 25 years, 'Survivor,' we're gonna interrupt the programming to bring you this speech. So it's not just gonna be a cable news speech, it'll be a network speech." Trump was like, "Hey, definitely doing that." And so that shows you a little bit of the corruption of the media. Uh, I think he has decapitated... The reason why your show is doing so well is that he's decapitated corporate media. He's got them chilled. He's got their lawyers triple-checking everything they say. And so Trump's looking at it saying, "Hey, I'm gonna get attention and, uh, uh, people on me. I'm going with the speech, even if it's a speech about nothing." But to your point, the market said, "Oh, whoa, we're likely gonna have ground troops in there. We're likely gonna have a really tough time." And a result of which, it was full risk off after the speech. So... And, and, you know, and people saying to me, they always say, "Oh, Trump cares about the market. Trump cares about the mar-" Trump doesn't care about the market. Trump cares about manipulating the market. Trump cares about making money from the market for himself and the people around him. He doesn't care about your portfolio or your mor- He doesn't even care about the polls anymore because he's not running for re-election. So guys, get off of those notions of first-term Trump caring about the market and the poll numbers. He has worse poll numbers than Jimmy Carter did-

    3. KS

      [laughs] Yeah

    4. AS

      ... at the peak of the oil crisis in 1978, 1979. The poll numbers are terrible. He doesn't care.

    5. KS

      He doesn't care. So what... How did you... What, what was the reason for the speech? What, what is he doing? Why is he making such efforts if he doesn't care?

    6. AS

      The, the, the, the, the, the, the reason for the speech, and as an American c-

    7. KS

      And it was a weak speech, I think you would agree. It was-

    8. AS

      Yeah, but, but there was something he said in the speech that people should be listening to. And as an American citizen that's still exercising my First Amendment right, I denounce it as an American citizen. He said he's gonna bomb Iran into the Stone Age.

    9. KS

      Right.

    10. AS

      Okay? That was the reason for the speech. And let me explain why that was important.

    11. KS

      Tell me.

    12. AS

      That was important because I'm putting the ground troops in. I have a 12-year-old's mentality, uh, and when I'm moving stuff into the region, guess what, guys? I'm not using that as a leverage point. I'm using the stuff.

    13. KS

      Mm-hmm.

    14. AS

      So the 82nd Airborne is going in there. So are the Marines.

    15. KS

      Yeah, 50,000 troops, right? There or-

    16. AS

      A- and, and by the way, uh, you know, uh, General Keane told me that they've booby-trapped Kharg Island.

    17. KS

      Mm-hmm.

    18. AS

      And they've got all these little Vietnam-like guerrilla things they're gonna do-

    19. KS

      Yeah

    20. AS

      ... to our troops, and our troops are really set up for Cold War army-to-army battle. So I've got to spend the next three weeks blasting the living daylights out of Iran before I can get the troops in position. So I'm gonna give you this speech, and it's gonna be I'm gonna bomb them back to the Stone Age speech. So this is gonna be the speech when historians look at the wreckage of Donald Trump, they're gonna say, "What were you guys doing when you let somebody that inhumane into the White House?"

    21. KS

      Mm-hmm.

    22. AS

      And so in preparation for this, I prepared something for you. Can I just-

    23. KS

      Okay

    24. AS

      ... go over this very quickly?

    25. KS

      Sure, please. Go right ahead.

    26. AS

      It is not enough for MAGA the following.

    27. KS

      Hmm.

    28. AS

      We're gonna release the Epstein files. Oh, wait a minute, Trump's in the Epstein files. We're not gonna release the Epstein files. We're gonna bomb people to distract from them. We're gonna bomb a school in Iran with young kids in it, mostly women.

    29. KS

      Hmm. Hmm.

    30. AS

      We're gonna create Alligator Alcatraz, which is this disgusting penitentiary-

  3. 11:28 – 28:07

    Trump’s Legal Losses

    1. KS

      having a rough week in courts, 'cause courts are pushing back on him everywhere you look. It was, like, 10 of them yesterday. Let's go through some of his losses. A federal judge temporarily halted construction on his beloved White House ballroom, saying it needs Congress's authorization, and Congress doesn't seem to be moving on it. Trump's executive order cutting funding to NPR and PBS was struck down, a judge ruling it violated the First Amendment. Another judge ruled that civil suit against Trump for his actions on January 6th can go forward, and that the presidential immunity does not apply to his speech that day, uh, talking to his supporters before they marched to the Capitol. And one more, a judge in Texas blocked a Trump-backed deal allowing churches to endorse political candidates. Trump also was at the Supreme Court on Wednesday, very briefly, listening to arguments about whether his executive order will limit, to limit birthright citizenship is constitutional. The justices seemed skeptical, and that's being kind. His latest order restricting mail-in voting ahead of the 2026 election is already facing legal challenges, and he's gonna lose. He's gonna lose badly on that one. So pick a case, any case, and do you... I mean, he, this is what he does. He transgresses with illegal actions, and then everyone's picking up the pieces and pushing back legally, and he m- he does damage in that wake. Um, w- what is... He's gonna lose on every one of these things, it seems like.And he, does it matter or would-

    2. AS

      Well, I-- see, I don't, I don't, I, I-

    3. KS

      The only thing he cares about is the ballroom from what I can tell.

    4. AS

      Well, see, I actually think there's a bigger thing going on here, because remember-

    5. KS

      Hmm

    6. AS

      ... Trump to a group of right-wing intellectuals is an empty vessel, okay? So they, they bought call options on him on January 7th, two thousand and twenty-one. Low point for Trump, right after the insurrection, everyone said he was politically dead. And so these right-wing lunatics that couldn't get the time of day of a Mitt Romney or a George W. Bush, they said, "Let's team up with Donald Trump. He's probably gonna come back. He still has lots of MAGA popularity, and if he comes back, we can take all of this intellectual nonsense that we believe, and we can run the card table with Trump." So let's talk about one of the cases, which is the argument against birthright citizenship. So remember, everybody's looking at the case like, "Oh, he's trying to repeal the 14th Amendment, da blah, blah, blah. He's gonna lose the case. Ho, ha, ha, ha." I don't see it that way. This is a maximalist position, okay? This is a group of people to Trump's right, these intellectual imbeciles that wanna expand Article 2 executive power, and they are pushing for a maximalist position, okay? So every fight, whether it's win or lose, expands the boundaries of what future presidents will try, Kara.

    7. KS

      Mm-hmm.

    8. AS

      And I think this is the point that people need to-

    9. KS

      Even if he loses, like, a dead lose

    10. AS

      ... even if he loses, you just-

    11. KS

      Mm

    12. AS

      ... put on the table that everything in this constitution is negotiable.

    13. KS

      Mm-hmm.

    14. AS

      You see what I just did? I, I, I-

    15. KS

      Yeah

    16. AS

      ... went to the court to intimidate them for my base.

    17. KS

      Didn't work.

    18. AS

      My base hates Black and brown people, and they hate anchor babies, and I'm sending my base a message that I'm fighting for them, okay? But imbecile, let me just point out something. If you, let's say they ruled with you, you would create a situation that is ridiculous, okay? And what is that situation? You would have children born in the country-

    19. KS

      Mm-hmm

    20. AS

      ... that are actually have no citizens' rights anywhere because a lot of the parents-

    21. KS

      Yes

    22. AS

      ... states-

    23. KS

      The, the justices pointed that out. The justices- [chuckles]

    24. AS

      Yeah. Okay, so that, that you would have that. They wouldn't be able to work legally in the country.

    25. KS

      Mm-hmm.

    26. AS

      They wouldn't be entitled to schooling. Uh, this is, this is a constitutional-

    27. KS

      Wh- wh- why do-

    28. AS

      ... intimidation

    29. KS

      ... the maximalist thing when the minimalist thing is how you they get things? That's how they got to abortion. They slowly, slowly, slowly, slowly ate at it. This is, this is gonna never be-

    30. AS

      Got, I got three-

  4. 28:07 – 41:15

    SpaceX Files For IPO

    1. KS

      has confidentially fi... I don't know confidentially. Everyone knows about it. Filed for an IPO. The filing puts the company in track for a June listing ahead of other upcoming massive IPOs from OpenAI and Anthropic. There's a lot of them coming this year. Uh, SpaceX will reportedly seek a valuation of $1.75 trillion. The... It's not making that much money. The company will reportedly allocate as much as 30% of the offerings to small investors. That's nice. Um, uh, it's really... Let... I'm gonna go through a whole bunch of market things, but that's... It, th-they... I think it's $15 billion in revenue. The, the numbers are really crazy for this. It's highly overvalued. At the same time, people will probably run into it. Um, a couple things. Oracle stock has been fluctuating after laying off thousands of employees. Microsoft dropped almost a quarter of its value in the first three months of the year. Worst quarter. OpenAI is beginning to let individual investors access the stock months before its planned IPO. Um, uh, lots of companies gotten hit. Palantir's gotten hit. It's really kind of an up-and-down thing. Talk a little bit about the SpaceX IPO and, and w-where the markets are from your perspective and of, and of course, if you'd like, Bitcoin. Tell us where, what's happening there since you're Mr. Bitcoin.

    2. AS

      All right. Well, I mean, l- I mean, let's start with SpaceX. I mean, listen, the cult of personality around Elon Musk is such where he gets an excessive exogenous premium for his companies. They, they are off of the scale of what-

    3. KS

      Even if they're suffering like Tesla

    4. AS

      ... even if they're suffering like Tesla, they get enormous metrical valuation numbers.

    5. KS

      Okay.

    6. AS

      You're talking about a $1.65 trillion-

    7. KS

      675

    8. AS

      ... 675 trillion dollar valuation. He's gonna raise apparently $75 billion, so that would crush the-

    9. KS

      Crush

    10. AS

      ... Saudi Aramco IPO record.

    11. KS

      Mm-hmm.

    12. AS

      Okay? And it's two to three times larger than any IPO ever. Okay? And he does have a good product with Starlink.

    13. KS

      He does.

    14. AS

      We have to, we have to tell people that it-

    15. KS

      Same thing with the s- r-rockets

    16. AS

      ... it's, it's good, but we don't know the revenue splits yet between Starlink, the launching business, the defense business. We don't know the breakout of the profitability, okay? And we also don't know the CapEx burn because it, it would feel like the Starship stuff is a blast furnace, if you will, a blast furnace of, uh, CapEx. Okay? Now, having said that, I want to disclose this to people. I do own SpaceX. I have participated in one of the private rounds-

    17. KS

      Mm-hmm

    18. AS

      ... of SpaceX. And-

    19. KS

      Why did you do that? 'Cause you thought they're, they were far and away the biggest provider?

    20. AS

      I, I, I did that because I see this Starlink being worth a fortune for him, and I see this idea, and I'm not saying it'll happen, and this is why it's venture capital in my portfolio, but I see the notion that creating interstellar or orbital data centers, uh, where you're getting the energy from the sun and not from the electricity grid, and you're beaming it back down to Earth using satellite technology, I think that's near, near science fiction. I think that could become science fact, and I think he's well-positioned to do it. I also think that he's merged Grok into this.And I think Rock on its own, which I, again, full disclosure, I was an investor in xAI. I mean, I think you know this. Antonio Gracias and I worked together at, at Goldman. Uh, obviously, I would have been smarter to invest earlier, but he's been helpful in getting me access to these investments. And for me, in my venture portfolio, that side of my portfolio, I think this guy has done a very good job of executing. Uh, and the valuations may be high, but what I've learned in life, and you and I are for- I'm 40 years as an investor, uh, I missed out on a few things early, like Amazon, because I was reading Warren Buffett's annual reports, and the valuation for Amazon was too high. But ultimately, the guys that bought Amazon were right. I missed it, uh, and it was a big miss for me. You know, a ten thousand dollar investment in Amazon on the May 15th, 1997 IPO is worth almost twenty million dollars today.

    21. KS

      Right.

    22. AS

      And so I wanna have a few things in my port-

    23. KS

      Although it could have been touch and go. There was a point where Amazon-

    24. AS

      A hundred percent. A hundred.

    25. KS

      Was, uh-

    26. AS

      And, and we could be five years from now, if you're kind enough to invite me back on, we could be saying-

    27. KS

      Of course

    28. AS

      ... that was a big miss for SpaceX. That was a big miss. But again, what I would tell investors is you gotta have a little bit of your portfolio in the dream.

    29. KS

      Mm-hmm.

    30. AS

      Because it is America, and we have to believe in that dream. Now, I have most of my portfolio in stocks and bonds, and I have most of my portfolio in the garden variety S&P 500, some Berkshire Hathaway, et cetera. But I do, I do own this stuff. But, uh-

  5. 41:15 – 48:31

    Kristi Noem Husband Scandal

    1. KS

      one. Kristi Noem is, quote, "devastated and blindsided" by the allegations that her husband, is it Bryon's, activities in online fetish communities. Earlier this week, the Daily Mail published an investigation into Noem's husband, which included a photo of him wearing pink hot pants and fake breasts with nipples. Uh, the story also alleges he spent at least $25,000 communicating with wimo of... women in the bimbofication scene. I didn't know about this, but, uh, fascinating, which fetishes people with surgical enhancements. Republicans are a party of family values. These, this couple was particularly performative. I, I don't know what to say here. I, I just don't know what to say.

    2. AS

      Well, you know, I'm in hot water with my mother-in-law because last night when I came home-

    3. KS

      Yeah

    4. AS

      ... I said, "Ma, were you in one of those chat rooms?" She got pissed.

    5. KS

      Oh, no.

    6. AS

      Okay. That's bad, right?

    7. KS

      [laughs]

    8. AS

      But look at me, 'cause I know Scott Galloway isn't here.

    9. KS

      Oh, Jack picture.

    10. AS

      But I brought props. See?

    11. KS

      Oh.

    12. AS

      There's a little bit of props. See?

    13. KS

      What is that? Is that them?

    14. AS

      Those are boobies. Uh, they're actually dodge balls that my kids play with, but-

    15. KS

      Oh, my God

    16. AS

      ... you could put the boobies on. Do you want me to send you them?

    17. KS

      No, I don't. Do, please do not put them on.

    18. AS

      You wanna wear these later or no?

    19. KS

      No, I do not.

    20. AS

      You okay?

    21. KS

      Do not da- Don't you dare put them on.

    22. AS

      Okay. I'm not putting them on because I don't wanna make fun of somebody.

    23. KS

      All right. You want-

    24. AS

      But I'm just saying I did bring props.

    25. KS

      Let me say, let me say what I think.

    26. AS

      Okay.

    27. KS

      I feel sad for this guy because I think-

    28. AS

      No, me too

    29. KS

      ... he has, um-

    30. AS

      Yeah.

  6. 48:31 – 50:25

    TMZ Gets Political

    1. KS

      but he's been publishing photos after asking people to submit pictures of lawmakers on vacation during the sh- DHS shutdown, and I'll note it's a bipartisan shaming targeting Democrats and Republicans alike. It's part of a larger push by TMZ, which has amped up its political coverage, showing what it calls the intersection between politics and pop culture. I kind of like that they're doing this, so you can s- let us see you, what you're doing versus how you're talking, right?

    2. AS

      Hypocrisy. You're exposing the hypocrisy, you know? And-

    3. KS

      Yeah. Exactly

    4. AS

      ... a- a- a- a- and here's something I would tell you. You know, they s- they had Thune last week bypassing the entire TSA at the, uh, Reagan Airport, I think he was in, or maybe Dulles, and guy, you're a hypo- you know, you're a hypocrite. You know? Fix, fix the country, you know? There's a 14% approval rating for the Congress. It's just slightly above Kim Jong Il. Okay? But you know what? 95% of these guys get reelected because of gerrymandering.And Citizens United, they pick the voters. That's another thing they're able to do. Where are we in a real democracy, Kara, where the politicians pick the voters? I thought the voters were supposed to pick the politicians, and they get unlimited money from the corporates, and so they can stay in power. It'd be like you and I opening up a restaurant. Our food sucks, we got one-star Yelp ratings, but we can't ever get fired.

    5. KS

      Right.

    6. AS

      Okay? It's, it's, it's appalling.

    7. KS

      Yeah, it is. And they-- I think they're paying the price for it, though. I love that these pictures are there. I think people should do more of this exposure. Like, here's how they live, here's how they behave. I did like when Delta said, "We're not gonna let them jump the line if they're on Delta. You know, we're not gonna let them have special things." And now I think things are calming down at airports. Apparently TSA's sort of started to organize it a little better. But it's still the fact that they can't pass a basic funding bill, um, is really quite something, you know, without making everything partisan. All right, one more quick break. We'll be back

  7. 50:25 – 1:00:44

    Predictions

    1. KS

      for predictions. [swishing sound] Okay, Anthony, let's hear a prediction.

    2. AS

      All right, so listen, you know, listen, first of all, happy Easter and happy Passover-

    3. KS

      Happy Easter and happy-

    4. AS

      ... to you and your family.

    5. KS

      Thank you.

    6. AS

      And I mean, I'm gonna make three predictions. Uh-

    7. KS

      Okay

    8. AS

      ... uh, uh, uh, and so the first-

    9. KS

      Great

    10. AS

      ... prediction, Pam Bondi is long gone.

    11. KS

      Mm-hmm.

    12. AS

      Okay? Uh, Zeldin will replace her. Uh-

    13. KS

      Mm-hmm

    14. AS

      ... they have gutted the Department-

    15. KS

      This is Lee Zeldin

    16. AS

      ... of Justice, and it's become the Trump family law firm, and so that's actually good for these Supreme Court decisions, 'cause they got nobody there to argue these stupid cases. But it's just very bad for the country. Number two, and I think this is also, uh, one that I don't like, is that we're gonna have ground troops in Iran. And again, to bomb the people back to the Stone Age was to degrade them in such a way where you can put the ground troops in. And then my last prediction is that the Chinese are gonna be involved in a resolution of this. And so what Trump is gonna do, and this is the reason why he delayed the meeting with Xi, he's gonna get the people to Kharg Island, he's gonna get them in the Strait, and he's gonna shut off the oil. And he's gonna pick up the phone and call Xi and say, "Listen, you're getting 40, 50% of your oil out of here, and this is a satellite state of yours. You gotta secularize that state, and you gotta let me and the UN or whoever go in there and take the uranium out of there. And when we're doing that, uh, uh, wh-when we're done doing that, I'm gonna open the oil spigot again, and you can have the oil. I understand that you gotta run your economy."

    17. KS

      Mm.

    18. AS

      "And I wanna be a cooperative economic competitor of yours, and I do need-

    19. KS

      Mm

    20. AS

      ... those rare earth mine- minerals." But that third prediction-

    21. KS

      Hmm, Chinese

    22. AS

      ... is, is where we're going on the chessboard.

    23. KS

      Hmm.

    24. AS

      Because there are some smart people in the Pentagon, and now that they're-

    25. KS

      Mm

    26. AS

      ... in this thing, uh, they're, they're-

    27. KS

      Now that they're here, why not take advantage of it?

    28. AS

      That's what, that's where they're going. So those are my three predictions.

    29. KS

      Might as well. It's, but that could cause a lot of deaths, American deaths, which could be problematic.

    30. AS

      Well, there's the law of unintended consequences, but they don't care.

Episode duration: 1:00:48

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