Kara Swisher Explains Why Airport Chaos is "Trump's Chaos"| Pivot

1. 0:00 – 1:29

   Intro

   1. KSKara Swisher0:00

      He has lost his mind. He is as cognitively disabled, Mad King George as it's getting, and it's getting worse. [upbeat music] Hi, everyone, this is Pivot from New York Magazine and the Vox Media Podcast Network. I'm Kara Swisher.

   2. SGScott Galloway0:17

      And I'm Scott Galloway.

   3. KSKara Swisher0:18

      How you doing, Scott?

   4. SGScott Galloway0:20

      Uh, I'm tired. I-

   5. KSKara Swisher0:22

      Yeah

   6. SGScott Galloway0:22

      ... took the red-eye back from Mexico.

   7. KSKara Swisher0:24

      Mm-hmm.

   8. SGScott Galloway0:25

      But, uh, fortunately, the infrastructure is so superior at the airports in Mexico now.

   9. KSKara Swisher0:30

      [laughs]

   10. SGScott Galloway0:30

       It took me about three minutes to get... And I'm not exaggerating.

   11. KSKara Swisher0:33

       I agree.

   12. SGScott Galloway0:34

       I, I texted my assistant, I said, "Should I get to the airport early?" And she said, "Oh, no, not to worry, it's Mexico."

   13. KSKara Swisher0:39

       Right.

   14. SGScott Galloway0:39

       And I'm like, "Jesus Christ, how far have we fallen?"

   15. KSKara Swisher0:40

       We're gonna get into that. It's really weird, I have to tell you. I'm so glad I'm not traveling this week.

   16. SGScott Galloway0:46

       Oh, God.

   17. KSKara Swisher0:46

       We traveled a lot last week for South by Southwest, and it was quite fine. It, even though it was sort of building, the id- you know, it was building in these airports, um, we'll talk about it, but I am so happy I'm not traveling.

   18. SGScott Galloway0:58

       Yeah.

   19. KSKara Swisher0:58

       And it seems like airports, it's like lines, delays, crashes, and ice. Okay, let's get to the news. Two pilots are dead after an Air Canada plane and a firetruck collided at LaGuardia Airport on Sunday evening. There's, there's stoppages at Newark, everywhere. As we record this, LaGuardia is closed. The accident comes as airports, chaos across the country, not just TSA lines, uh, due to a DHS shutdown because they're not paying the TSA, um, security people. The Trump administration

2. 1:29 – 6:30

   ICE in Airports

   1. KSKara Swisher1:29

      is now sending ICE agents into airports. They're, they can't wear masks because there's no criminals apparently. Border control, uh, czar Tom Homan says ICE will be there to help move these lines along. I think he was told about it in a Truth Social, and then he had to do something about it. This poor feckless guy is like, "Oh, God." Trump just announced if ICE isn't enough to help the airports, he'll bring in the National Guard. TSA workers have been calling in sick in record numbers, and more than 400 officers have outright quit since the shutdown began in February. They're not being paid. Um, there, there was just a report that there was a- an agreement between John Thune and the Democrats, which Trump rejected. This is fully in Trump's... This chaos is Trump's chaos. Um, he's, uh, he's trying to send ICE to do this. Elon Musk, as usual, because he can't, you know, because he's a narcissistic prick, has inserted himself into this, offering to pay TSA salaries during the shutdown. This is not how we wanna fund government. President Trump says, um, that i- it's, it's the Democrats' fault. It's clearly chaos is follows him wherever he goes, and he won't do any deal because the, the Democrats wanna put strictures on some ICE activities, which seems appropriate. Um, any thoughts on this? And, and airports suck for people. You're seeing videos after video after video of the lines, the chaos, uh, the shutdowns, the, the lack of security, the possibility of accidents everywhere you go. Any thoughts?

   2. SGScott Galloway2:50

      [sighs] You, you want another attack on the middle class is that probably the most obvious investment in the middle class is investments in infrastructure. Because when people can get to work, when people have more opportunities, when people can spend more time with their families, when people have an absence of stress, when they can take their kids to Disneyland, you know, that's, that's accretive to the prosperity of their life. And a, a fairly decent metric for the progress of a civilization and how much it cares about its civil, how much it cares about its middle class is its investments in infrastructure. And when you see this type of political warfare breaking out, I mean, here's what's happened. It, it doesn't-- The 1% that, that controls our government now has their own infrastructure. Um, I mean, I... Their own, their own transportation, their own planes, their own security, their own police force. If you just give a little bit of money away, you can get, you know, your own pr- practically your own say in government. So I'm not exaggerating. I, I go to the Cancun Airport. Uh, you know, I, I buy a, you know, I, whatever I bought, some-

   3. KSKara Swisher4:06

      Cerveza

   4. SGScott Galloway4:07

      ... uh, yeah, I bought a Modelo Especial, and there was no security line.

   5. KSKara Swisher4:12

      Mm-hmm.

   6. SGScott Galloway4:12

      And I thought, "Oh, I have to come to Mexico for an investment in the middle class."

   7. KSKara Swisher4:17

      Yeah.

   8. SGScott Galloway4:17

      Anyways, I find the whole thing incredibly discouraging. Typically, before, um, our podcast, I do 30 seconds of research.

   9. KSKara Swisher4:25

      Mm-hmm.

   10. SGScott Galloway4:25

       And this one, I just couldn't do it.

   11. KSKara Swisher4:26

       Mm-hmm.

   12. SGScott Galloway4:26

       I just couldn't do it. [laughs]

   13. KSKara Swisher4:28

       Yeah. Well, i- it's not a very good look. Who do you... Look, I hate to say who looks better here, but I think this is one of these visceral things, the way the attacks on Minneapolis were. This is a visceral th- thing that goes all the way to the surface.

   14. SGScott Galloway4:40

       Do they blame Trump, or do they blame government in general?

   15. KSKara Swisher4:42

       I think they blame Trump.

   16. SGScott Galloway4:43

       Hmm.

   17. KSKara Swisher4:43

       I think chaos follows this guy. And, and it looks like there's very clear reports the Republicans tried to settle it, and he refu- he's refusing. He refuses to give in.

   18. SGScott Galloway4:53

       Well, that's, but, see, that's the problem. If you wanna, if you wanna end the... If you wanna get air traffic controllers and TSA paid, it's pretty easy. Just cancel all, i-i- immediately pass legislation that grounds all tail numbers that are private planes. Private planes have-

   19. KSKara Swisher5:11

       Yeah

   20. SGScott Galloway5:11

       ... their own special type of tail number.

   21. KSKara Swisher5:12

       Yep, they do.

   22. SGScott Galloway5:13

       And all of a sudden, the trillions are gonna come through the constipation of the legislative process, and they're gonna figure out a way to fund TSA. But the people who control our government right now, unfortunately, aren't as affected by this.

   23. KSKara Swisher5:27

       No, they aren't.

   24. SGScott Galloway5:28

       So-

   25. KSKara Swisher5:28

       And Trump doesn't care. He doesn't care about the way-

   26. SGScott Galloway5:30

       He, he doesn't... Like, he gives a shit that lines are long at, at Hartsfield-Jackson Airport.

   27. KSKara Swisher5:36

       Yeah. What's interesting is the airports that are working had private pe- private security there, like San Francisco and some others, um, and the ones that had TSA, obviously. And if I was a TSA person, I would quit too. I mean, he was urging them to stay working without pay. No. No. Just settle your differences, and everyone knows that. And then to send ICE in, of all things, so ineffective, so inefficient.

   28. SGScott Galloway5:59

       What, what's with that? What was the rationale for that? Did-

   29. KSKara Swisher6:01

       I don't know what they're gonna do. I think, I, I literally, from what I, the reporting was, is he tweeted it or threaded it or whatever the, whatever he's on, truthed it, and Tom Homan was like, "Oh no, what do I do?" And they have to all act likeOkay. You know, we have to do some... Like, of course we're on it, but they're not on it. It's like crazy Mad King George. I think what we have to have a conversation about, and we'll g-talk about Iran, is he is lose-- he has lost his mind. He is cognitively disabled Mad King George as it's getting, and it's getting

3. 6:30 – 20:59

   Trump’s Iran Chaos

   1. KSKara Swisher6:30

      worse, as you saw from the tweets. Let's, as we record, he says he's postponing struck-strikes on Iranian power plants for five days, claiming productive talks with Iran, uh, to end the war. Iran is denying the talks with the US, just as US presidents denied talking with Trump about how-- what a good idea it was. I think he's having con-- He's like Nixon. He's talking to the portrait on the wall. Over the weekend, Trump was threatening to obliterate i-Iran's power plants if the Strait of Hormuz wasn't reopened. Then he said he wasn't, and then he said he was in talks, and then he said this. He says a lot of things. It changes from absolutely minute by minute. Iran said it would irreversibly destroy essential infrastructure across the Middle East if the US attacked its energy sites. They are not backing down. They're a lot stronger than... Well, Trump didn't do any homework at all. Oil prices fell and stocks rose after Trump postponed these, uh, strikes be-- but he threatened them, and he may threaten them again in the next fifteen minutes. He seems to be literally changing his e-everything by the second. Um, uh, he probably got spooked by oil and gas prices. High gas prices in the last few weeks are sparking, uh, more interest in electric vehicles. We'll get to that in a second. But where are we with this? 'Cause this, this shifting is, is literally minute by minute. Like it's not-- It's like there's four minutes that goes by, and then he says something different than the previous thing he just said when he gets in front of a, a microphone.

   2. SGScott Galloway7:52

      Well, this is a continuation of just a total lack of objectives and no ability to communicate what the objectives are such that he could declare victory and win. It feels as if it's spinning out of control. A clear lack... I mean, at some point, incompetence comes to roost. I, I was always thinking it's just amazing that shit hasn't gotten worse or we haven't had a disaster when he keeps appointing podcasters and talk show hosts and conspiracy theory, uh, theorists to the most important positions in America, and now we're starting to see that come to fruition. O-Of course, they were going... O-One of the downsides of globalization, incredible prosperity, a lowering of prices, um, you know, you outsource comparative advantage. Globalization, I would argue, on the whole, has been just an unbelievable unlock, incentive cooperation. The problem with globalization is it creates a series of choke points that can bring the global economy down.

   3. KSKara Swisher8:44

      Yeah.

   4. SGScott Galloway8:44

      One of those choke points i-are the Straits of Hormuz, and a lot of people said it was a choke, choke point, but f-whoever was saying that, they weren't, they weren't listening to. And you have ef-effectively, the world is likely gonna go into some sort of fairly either modest or maybe even a deep recession. Um, and everyone talks about our energy independence. Yeah, we're strategically or, or d-- from a defense standpoint, not that vulnerable, but we're going to have to pay the same higher prices as everyone else. And even, even the numbers around... Well, oil prices were down today because he claims to be having talks. There's now fear that, uh, he's sending combat troops and amphibious vehicles into the region, and that he's-

   5. KSKara Swisher9:22

      Then he said he wasn't, then he said he was, then he said he wasn't.

   6. SGScott Galloway9:24

      And then he said he was, and that they g-they're gonna try and maybe take the island of Qarg, which is responsible for ninety-five percent of the throughput in exchange for them opening Hormuz. The president of Finland said that Europe should support the efforts to, uh, escort ships through the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for Trump committing to supporting Ukraine. And what's interesting about-

   7. KSKara Swisher9:45

      Hmm

   8. SGScott Galloway9:45

      ... what's interesting, I think, or the dynamic I see emerging here is the key word that's coming out of both this and this war and the war in Ukraine is one word, asymmetry, and that is-- Well, two words, asymmetry and distraction, and that is, generally speaking, the world's powers shaped by economics and military strength, and if you go to the latter, military strength was a function of really expensive, sophisticated platforms of which only a few nations could produce a small number of them, and they were devastating. Now, it's moving to the following dynamic. A, a, um, a Shahed drone costs twenty-five to forty thousand dollars, but the Patriot missile to shoot it down costs four million.

   9. KSKara Swisher10:30

      Yeah.

   10. SGScott Galloway10:30

       And so all of a sudden, you have the ability to create cheap and cheerful massive armaments-

   11. KSKara Swisher10:38

       Yep

   12. SGScott Galloway10:38

       ... using AI and GPS that can overwhelm the most sophisticated machinery.

   13. KSKara Swisher10:43

       And speedboats. You know, I had that interview with, with Tenner Warner recently-

   14. SGScott Galloway10:46

       Zodiacs

   15. KSKara Swisher10:46

       ... where he talks about this. He's like-

   16. SGScott Galloway10:48

       Aircraft carriers versus Zodiacs.

   17. KSKara Swisher10:49

       Weeks ago, he's like, "Look, we're gonna lose 'cause this drone that costs nothing is gonna, you know, to ta-we-- is gonna hurt our ships or these, these Zodiacs or whatever it happens to be." But they have the ability to do this, and I think they miscalculated just how many of them Iran had and just how strong the government was. I think they-- I think both Israel and the United States thought there'd be a popular uprising. There hasn't been. Um, it certainly could happen, but it doesn't seem to be happening because, as Warner noted quite correctly, 'cause he does his homework, this group of people have, has a grip on power. They're a terrible group of people, but they, they are in control of this compa-country in a way that Trump did not seem to understand, I guess, or-

   18. SGScott Galloway11:34

       He didn't anticipate them attacking their neighbors. I think long-term, that's a strategic blunder on their part.

   19. KSKara Swisher11:38

       Probably.

   20. SGScott Galloway11:38

       But we used to worry that our aircraft carriers might be vulnerable to a Chinese hypersonic missile. It's not. They're vulnerable to hundreds of Zodiacs going thirty miles an hour. And i-i-i-i-also, I mean, g- I mean, it's the th- the reason why Ukraine has, despite unbelievable odds, been able to push back against a far superior military power and economy in Russia-

   21. KSKara Swisher12:04

       Trump

   22. SGScott Galloway12:04

       ... is the same reason that Iran is a greater threat and is able to create more disruption now than we had anticipated, and it's all comes down to this one word, asymmetry. And then the second word is distraction, and that is... And Fareed Zakaria did a fantastic piece on this. At the end of the, at the end of theUh, 20th century, Britain was the world's dominant superpower, controlling about a quarter of the world's GDP, very similar to what we control, and they got bogged down in a series of conflicts overseas that took away their political, their economic, and their military focus, and weakened them at home such that Germany could industrialize.

   23. KSKara Swisher12:41

       Yeah.

   24. SGScott Galloway12:42

       And the, we might be falling into the same trap, and there's this-

   25. KSKara Swisher12:45

       A little group of Americans with just guns and some moxie. You know, that's the kind of thing. I mean, you have to sort of make these historical links because no one would've thought we would've beaten the British, right? But we had more at stake, right? Or we had more reasons, and good reasons. Um, but I think the, the, I think the problem is, again, Trump equals chaos. It's like it doesn't have a point. The, this, this airline thing doesn't have a point. It's gonna hurt airlines, it's gonna hurt customers, it's gonna hurt travel and tourism. Uh, it's gonna get people not to travel. It's gonna hurt the economy in all manner of ways, and the same thing with this. It's gonna hurt everybody. Now, interestingly, with this oil and gas price spikes, uh, high prices are sparking more interest again in electric vehicles, which had seen a falloff, and searches for EV models are up quite a bit, 20% here in the US since Iran conflict begin. It's not just in the US. BYD dealerships across Asia are also seeing a spike in demand. Um, it's a really interesting moment because, yeah, for people who don't understand, let me tell you, range anxiety is really going away. It's in a way that's really significant. And so-

   26. SGScott Galloway13:54

       Wait, I'm sorry, you said range anxiety?

   27. KSKara Swisher13:56

       Range, range anxiety. Pe- anxiety. People worry about not being able... Their cars will run out of electric-

   28. SGScott Galloway14:02

       Oh, I see

   29. KSKara Swisher14:02

       ... essentially.

   30. SGScott Galloway14:03

       Excuse me, yeah.
4. 20:59 – 32:02

   Musk’s Court Loss

   1. KSKara Swisher20:59

      back with more news. A jury found Elon Musk liable for misleading Twitter investors in the run-up to his purchase of the platform in twenty twenty-two. Damages could reach up to two point six billion dollars. Musk's legal team obviously plans on appealing the ruling. He also, he also didn't have the, the worst of the, of the things he didn't-- the jury didn't find around fraud and everything else. Um, by the way, he's been very busy this week besides offering to pay TSA. He's, uh, busy. He's gotta shut up. I felt like that this week. He's busy keeping his hands in politics. He's been fixated on advocating for the passage of the Save America Act, a strict voter ID bill, attacking Sen- Majority Leader John Thune in the process, even though there's very little, um, evidence. And by the way, The New York Times is just outright saying it, that there, there is any voter fraud in these areas or examples of it. He's still holding influence in Ukraine, by the way, in a positive way, having cut off Russian forces' Starlink internet access last month. That's `cause they were getting them through the black market, the Russian forces using Starlink, and he cut them off. Very good. Good job, Elon. Let's give you kudos for that. And over at his other business, Tesla semi trucks are finally here, actually winning over truck drivers. This looks like a pretty good product. And, uh, Tesla says, uh, Tesla and SpaceX will launch Terafab chip project in Austin because semiconductor manufacturers aren't making chips fast enough. Um, that's not a surprise. I think everyone's doing that. Everyone's gonna be doing that. But sort of it's a mixed bag, he-- Uh, th-this, this jury trial, we'll see. He'll probably, like, exhaust them with appeal after appeal. But the jury didn't like what they heard, how he behaved, and, uh, he still has never paid for his misbehavior when it comes to the SEC and others. He tends to win or get off. Um, any thoughts on that or any of these topics?

   2. SGScott Galloway22:36

      The definition of market manipulation is what he engaged in. If I were on a board and I went out and, and said falsely on Twitter that as a board member with insider information, we have funding secured to take this company private at a forty percent premium to market, and the stock ran up, and then it ended up not to be true, and all the people who bought those shares at an elevated price, I think I'd be in jail. I know I could never serve-

   3. KSKara Swisher23:00

      He, he got off

   4. SGScott Galloway23:00

      ... on a board of directors again.

   5. KSKara Swisher23:01

      He got off, yeah.

   6. SGScott Galloway23:02

      But here's the problem. He's gonna be found... I think he's gonna be found guilty. I think he's gonna be fined two billion dollars, and it doesn't fucking matter. And the, the right answer here is, is just-

   7. KSKara Swisher23:11

      Well, he was found guilty. Let's... The damages in this, it's not guilty, it's liable.

   8. SGScott Galloway23:14

      But he'll appeal it, right?

   9. KSKara Swisher23:15

      He's appealing. But it's liable, not guilty, just so you know.

   10. SGScott Galloway23:18

       I, I think... Excuse me, because it's a civil case, it's liable. Thank you. But here's the, here's, here's the unfortunate thing. It doesn't fucking matter to him. And it's not a-- The point of a justice system is not only punishment, but it's to create incentives so people don't do things again, in, in not only criminally, but in civil litigation. And what we need to move to is what they're proposing with a wealth tax, and that is the whole point of a wealth tax is we're gonna take a percentage of your wealth. And now I'm against wealth tax, tasks, not theoretically or philosophically, but practically, they just don't work. But we need to move to some sort of proportionate civil liability fines, and that is the following. It's not a two billion dollar fine. It should be twenty percent of your net worth. And that is if you, if you commit this type of market manipulation that l- where people lose faith in the markets, you don't own two billion dollars. You owe twenty percent of your net worth. Uh, otherwise, what is the incentive not to do this again?

   11. KSKara Swisher24:19

       Yeah.

   12. SGScott Galloway24:20

       So-

   13. KSKara Swisher24:20

       Right

   14. SGScott Galloway24:21

       ... so a- and the same thing should be happened, uh, should happen with when Meta has, is, when Meta is found guilty of creating addictive products and so is Alphabet, it shouldn't be-

   15. KSKara Swisher24:31

       That's the other case

   16. SGScott Galloway24:32

       ... it shouldn't be a billion dollar fine.

   17. KSKara Swisher24:33

       Right.

   18. SGScott Galloway24:33

       It should be 10% of the market capitalization.

   19. KSKara Swisher24:35

       Yeah, but it won't be. So what's go- like here, the juries... Now, it's interesting, it wasn't a judge trial. They decided to do a jury trial, so jurors do not like this guy, obviously.

   20. SGScott Galloway24:43

       Yeah.

   21. KSKara Swisher24:43

       And he's, he very clearly-

   22. SGScott Galloway24:45

       He's not a sympathetic character

   23. KSKara Swisher24:46

       ... he's not a sympathetic character anymore, and he has gotten off on the pedo thing. He got off on the 420 thing. He got off on funding secure. He's gotten off over and over again. And what he, either, he either wears people down or continues to attack, right? When he lost in, in court to the Center for, um, Countering Digital Hate, he went back again, or he pushed the government into bothering the, the person who founded it. I mean, this is the thing, is he just keeps on coming. And like this fixation on the Save Act, which is evidence-free, um, that it, there's issues that they're trying to solve here. And at the same time, here he is doing this kind of cool technology in Ukraine or the truck or the, the... I don't know if he's gonna be successful in the chip project, but I wish he would just do that, right?

   24. SGScott Galloway25:32

       There could be-

   25. KSKara Swisher25:33

       You know what I mean?

   26. SGScott Galloway25:33

       I mean, um, I was gonna say it's called Pivot, but there could be a podcast just called Musk, he creates so much news. I mean, the guy is a big thinker and creates a lot of news. Look, I am, I am super excited about the prospect. I, I'm... Anything that helps the brave people of Ukraine and their army defend against Russia and push back on it, I, I applaud. I applaud Elon for doing this. I'm thrilled about it. At the same time, it represents something much scarier, and that is there shouldn't be one individual-

   27. KSKara Swisher26:09

       One person

   28. SGScott Galloway26:09

       ... that has the ability, who is unelected and not subject to any sort of, I, I mean-

   29. KSKara Swisher26:15

       What he feels like. I'm just kidding

   30. SGScott Galloway26:16

       ... the biggest criticism, I would argue the big, one of the-
5. 32:02 – 40:50

   National AI Framework

   1. KSKara Swisher32:02

      So the Trump administration has also unveiled a national, speaking of control of tech oligarchs over our government, unveiled a national AI framework to replace state-by-state rules with one federal standard. The framework proposes regulations like child safety rules and standards for energy use of data centers. It calls on Congress to address issues like intellectual property rights and preventing AI systems from being used to silence or censor lawful political expression or dissent. The administration says it wants to work with Congress to convert the framework into a bill in the coming months. I mean, I'm sorry. They are so... Everyone involved in the government right now is a tech industry shill. So it-- this is not-- The states have passed, I think, seventy-one laws in tw-twenty-seven states. It is chaotic. At the same time, the government has abrogated all power to these tech companies, so I don't, I, I don't think any good will come of this. Your thoughts?

   2. SGScott Galloway32:53

      [sighs] There needs to be federal legislation.

   3. KSKara Swisher32:56

      Absolutely.

   4. SGScott Galloway32:57

      Uh, because if California, in an attempt to maintain its economic growth, uh, all of a sudden puts in place technologies that might inhibit the growth, such as, okay, you can't use AI for surveillance of Americans. I mean, the CIA has a rule. Essentially, the, one of the most covert organizations in the world, which I, by the way, think is the only organization in history that can keep a secret, th-they, they have a rule. You can't... They don't kill American citizens. There needs to be, there needs to be regulation and legislation around AI, and it needs to be a thoughtful discussion, and then... But what I hate is just a, all of a sudden, a, a race to the bottom around AI where, okay, Texas says it's a free-for-all, and you can use it to surveil Americans or create, uh-

   5. KSKara Swisher33:46

      I, I get it. It's just our government has not, our federal government, they never made so-

   6. SGScott Galloway33:50

      Yeah

   7. KSKara Swisher33:50

      ... social media laws.

   8. SGScott Galloway33:51

      Fair point.

   9. KSKara Swisher33:51

      They've never made privacy laws.

   10. SGScott Galloway33:52

       Well, they're not making laws. What they're saying is have at it.

   11. KSKara Swisher33:53

       They're not doing this to create better laws. They're doing it to get everyone out of tech's way.

   12. SGScott Galloway33:59

       To delay and obfuscate-

   13. KSKara Swisher34:01

       That's right

   14. SGScott Galloway34:01

       ... any attempt to regulate.

   15. KSKara Swisher34:02

       That's right.

   16. SGScott Galloway34:02

       Yeah, I think that's right.

   17. KSKara Swisher34:02

       If they were doing it for-- They would get together with Congress and do actual laws that are in everybody's interests, uh, and, and that, and that tech would be a voice of many in this thing. They don't wanna... Let me say, this is yet another attempt to abrogate. States are the only groups that are doing something somewhat effective, and they shouldn't be doing it. But they have to because the government has lo- the federal government has lost all responsibility for regulating what is a very frightening situation, uh, that we should all be cooperating, not just in this country, but globally around AI safety, where it's going, who's, you know, on jobs, on child safety, on cancer research, on everything. There should be rules about surveilling citizens, uh, et cetera, et cetera. We are not-- This is not an administration I trust to do it because everyone in a position of power has someone else behind them who is in tech, and they are all grabbing for things. Thank you.

   18. SGScott Galloway34:59

       Oh, in twenty twenty-five, seven of the largest AI companies in America, Snap, X, OpenAI, ByteDance, Microsoft, Alphabet, and Meta, spent over fifty million dollars-

   19. KSKara Swisher35:07

       Yep

   20. SGScott Galloway35:07

       ... on federal lobbying. By the way, best ROI in history is not AI or CapEx, it's lobbying. And in twenty twenty-five, hired eighty-seven lobbyists, roughly one of every six members of Congress. OpenAI has ramped up its lobbying spend nearly seventy percent from last year. What's interesting is one of the greatest brand declines in history over this, over the shortest period of time, AI.

   21. KSKara Swisher35:34

       Mm-hmm.

   22. SGScott Galloway35:34

       Think about-

   23. KSKara Swisher35:35

       Yeah

   24. SGScott Galloway35:35

       ... how excited we were-

   25. KSKara Swisher35:36

       Now we have to worry about AI

   26. SGScott Galloway35:37

       ... about AI just twenty-four months ago. One, a Pew Research poll found that Americans are five times more concerned than excited about AI. There are roughly double the amount of Americans who think AI's effect on society will be negative than there are people who think it'll be positive.

   27. KSKara Swisher35:54

       Worst brand destruction. You're right.

   28. SGScott Galloway35:57

       It, it, the brand erosion in AI is historic.

   29. KSKara Swisher36:00

       Yeah.

   30. SGScott Galloway36:00

       Two-thirds of Americans think that AI will eliminate more jobs than it creates, and less than a third of Americans trust AI, and three-quarters of Americans think AI poses a threat to humanity.
6. 40:50 – 50:29

   Nexstar + Tegna

   1. KSKara Swisher40:50

      with more news. Broadcast station owner Nexstar will merge with rival Tegna after the FCC signed off on the six point two billion dollar acquisition, creating the largest operator of TV stations in the country. This is unprecedented. The commission has waived a rule that bars a single company from owning TV stations that reach over thirty-nine percent of the US households. Guess what? The new entity, uh, is allowing Nexstar to own sixty percent, a near doubling. The combined company would own over two hundred and fifty stations, reaching over half of American households. Eight states have filed emergency motions to stop the merger. As usual, Brendan Carr, the bureaucratic toady, just waved it right through because it's, they're conservative, and they are, um, uh, and they are-- they were thanking President Trump. They're the people behind the Kimmel mask. They're one of the people. Uh, conservatives are actually split on the issue, um, some thinking it's a great thing because it helps the conservative side, their team. The other people feel, as correctly, you wouldn't like it if a bunch of liberals own these, like, sixty percent of the stations. That said, mainstream media has leaned, well, it's leaned middle-left, middle-left kind of things. Um, just what do you think about this? I mean, obviously, this is open. This is something-- this is Rupert Murdoch's wet dream from many years ago, the ability to own things across the country. Although, who's watching local news at the same time?

   2. SGScott Galloway42:06

      I'll tell you who's watching local news. Really old people.

   3. KSKara Swisher42:08

      Yeah, exactly.

   4. SGScott Galloway42:09

      And I could program local news. It's called What Stupid People Did Today.

   5. KSKara Swisher42:12

      Mm-hmm.

   6. SGScott Galloway42:12

      Two people were mugged in a-

   7. KSKara Swisher42:13

      Yeah

   8. SGScott Galloway42:13

      ... two people were mugged in a parking lot at four AM this morning.

   9. KSKara Swisher42:16

      Yeah. Yeah.

   10. SGScott Galloway42:17

       Um-

   11. KSKara Swisher42:18

       Or the it could happen to you story.

   12. SGScott Galloway42:20

       And the weather.

   13. KSKara Swisher42:20

       Killer bees.

   14. SGScott Galloway42:21

       And the weather. [laughs]

   15. KSKara Swisher42:23

       It could happen to you.

   16. SGScott Galloway42:24

       Yeah. And the weather.

   17. KSKara Swisher42:24

       Molds on your penis. It could happen to you.

   18. SGScott Galloway42:27

       Yeah.

   19. KSKara Swisher42:28

       Sorry.

   20. SGScott Galloway42:28

       Is, is, is your-- Are you losing hair because of your drinking water? Um-

   21. KSKara Swisher42:32

       Could happen to you.

   22. SGScott Galloway42:34

       I'm, I'm torn because the idea of any one entityControlling that much information flow to a populace that disproportionately votes, it, it feels, feels uncomfortable. At the same time, um, these companies are in structural decline, and the only way they survive is through consolidation and cost-cutting. I was on the board, uh, uh, it's now time for the latest episode of Scott's Weak Flexes. I was on the board of a company that was a Yellow Pages company.

   23. KSKara Swisher43:05

       Oh.

   24. SGScott Galloway43:06

       And-

   25. KSKara Swisher43:06

       I didn't know that one

   26. SGScott Galloway43:07

       ... it's one of my best investments because typically these companies, we know, we know local stations are fucked, but they're not, they're not gonna go out of business as quickly as people think. So for example, in 1999 you could buy a Blockbuster. Everyone knew Blockbuster was going away, but in 1999 you could buy a Blockbuster franchise for two times cash flow, and they did go away, but they went away 13 years later, meaning you, you four, sixed extra money.

   27. KSKara Swisher43:29

       There's a lot of money. Yeah, yeah.

   28. SGScott Galloway43:30

       So you can buy these things at pretty distressed prices, and then you need to consolidate the back end. Back to the Yellow Pages company. We knew that the Yellow Pages business was gonna go away. You could buy these things at two times cash flow. So we would go buy every regional Yellow Pages company, quite frankly consolidate the l- back end, which is Latin for lay off everyone but the salespeople, and then we went and bought the biggest Yellow Pages company in Canada, and then the biggest one in Australia. And it's a great business. Now, to a certain extent, is that bad? Is that too much concentration of power? So these companies are melting ice cubes. They need to consolidate-

   29. KSKara Swisher44:07

       Well, they were when the Yellow Pages mattered, but go ahead. Which they did, kids.

   30. SGScott Galloway44:12

       But it's the same thing here. The, these businesses are going out of business slowly. And, uh, so I'm, I'm of two minds. I don't trust this FTC to make these decisions. I'd wanna see an economist say-
7. 50:29 – 1:01:53

   Wins and Fails

   1. KSKara Swisher50:29

      hear some wins and fails. May I go first?

   2. SGScott Galloway50:31

      Of course.

   3. KSKara Swisher50:32

      I'm gonna do a win. Let me just tell you, Project Hail Mary just brought in eighty million dollars at the box office. That's a record opening for Amazon-

   4. SGScott Galloway50:39

      Did you see it?

   5. KSKara Swisher50:39

      ... MGM. I did. I went on Friday night.

   6. SGScott Galloway50:42

      I heard it's about friendship. I'm sorry to interrupt you.

   7. KSKara Swisher50:43

      It is, it's about a friendship between a man and rocks. Um, it is an alien who looks like a pile of rocks. Um, it is a wonderful movie. It is about science, it is fun, it is... It made me f- it's infectiously delightful, and it deserves-- I can see why-

   8. SGScott Galloway50:59

      That's nice

   9. KSKara Swisher50:59

      ... it did eighty million dollars at the box office. I saw it on IMAX film. You don't need to, really. There's some beautiful things in it and some beautiful photography, but you hardly... You could watch it... It's a wonderful... It feels like a little like E.T. a little bit. It's got... It just is a wonderful movie. Uh, Ryan, um, what, what's his name? Sorry.

   10. SGScott Galloway51:19

       Gosling.

   11. KSKara Swisher51:19

       Gosling. Ryan Gosling is-

   12. SGScott Galloway51:21

       Super talented

   13. KSKara Swisher51:21

       ... delightful.

   14. SGScott Galloway51:22

       Yeah.

   15. KSKara Swisher51:22

       He's the ki- Scott, you need to see it 'cause he's the kinda man you wanna be.

   16. SGScott Galloway51:26

       You know, two people have said I'd, I'd love it. Yeah.

   17. KSKara Swisher51:28

       You would because he's the guy that you wanna be. He's sort of a reluctant hero, of course, and at the same time it's about ingeniousness, it's about... It's the same writer of The Mar- Martian, same book. And everyone-- What's interesting, someone told me people read Project Hail Mary, someone who I didn't think read much read both The Martian and Project Hai- Hail Mary. It's a lot of plot, not great writing, but the movie, the movies become marvelous. I think I love The Martian. It's about sort of fix-it things. It's, it's... Everyone in it is great. Uh, this, this anthr- this, this rock character that becomes his friend, they're trying to solve humanity's problems together, is... You start to really love this chara- It's a really great character, which is voiced by a puppeteer, I think, a very well-known puppeteer. Amazing. Like, I can't believe... At first I was like, "I'm gonna look at a rock character this entire time?" And it ended up being delightful. I gotta say, it deserves... I... It did much better than people thought. Amazon, this is their first big hit that is an original, and-

   18. SGScott Galloway52:28

       Oh, it's from Amazon

   19. KSKara Swisher52:28

       ... congratulations to Amazon for this.

   20. SGScott Galloway52:30

       Yeah, I heard it's great.

   21. KSKara Swisher52:30

       I have to say, wonderful movie. Again, Ryan Gosling can do anything. He can sing, he can dance.

   22. SGScott Galloway52:35

       Very talented.

   23. KSKara Swisher52:35

       He's funny. He was great on SNL. Wonderful... What a movie star. But also totally approachable as a dude. That's why you'd like it. My fail, you know, there's so many obvious ones. I mean, more than nine months after its announcements, Trump mobile phone still hasn't launched. It never is gonna launch, by the way. They're a bunch of grifters. Um, but I think, I think probably something that got a lot of press was President Trump's reaction to the death of Robert Mueller, a former FBI director, special counsel, and Bronze Star Marine veteran. He died this weekend at the age of eighty-one. I d- had no, I had no idea he was sick. While former, uh, presidents Bush and Obama shared their tributes to him, Trump went the other direction, posting, "I'm glad he's dead." Uh, you know, then Scott Bessent, th- that little quisling, weak, weak weakling w- was like, "Oh, he was the victim here of Robert Mueller, and so he should be able to say that." But it does open... It is really shocking when everyone sort of gave the left a hard time for not being unhappy that Charlie Kirk had died, and by the way, it was terrible and murder- in a terrible and murderous way, and nobody should be celebrating that. Um, this was just, like, very typical, and it sort of opens the door to when someday Trump, uh, sheds these mortal coils for anyone to say that. Um, so it just was like, it's another gross, chaotic, mentally deranged, madness of King George moment. That's-- I was like, "Are you... Can you just shut the fuck up and not give us your thoughts on every awful thing that crosses your, your increasingly aging brain? Thank you." There you go.

   24. SGScott Galloway54:08

       There you go. Uh, I love those.

   25. KSKara Swisher54:09

       Win and fail for you.

   26. SGScott Galloway54:10

       But we're increasingly... It's like when you hang out and people begin to look like their dogs.

   27. KSKara Swisher54:14

       Mm-hmm.

   28. SGScott Galloway54:14

       We're becoming the same person. My fail was the same thing, so I'll take the other side of it, but-

   29. KSKara Swisher54:18

       Okay

   30. SGScott Galloway54:19

       ... before we get to that, I wanna just talk a little bit more about blowjobs.

Episode duration: 1:01:53