PivotTrump's New Press Secretary Is a Total Disaster. We Can't Wait for More
EVERY SPOKEN WORD
65 min read · 13,233 words- 0:00 – 8:16
Intro
- SGScott Galloway
The silver lining here is that we all got to witness Katie Zacharias' first day on Earth yesterday.
- KSKara Swisher
[laughs]
- SGScott Galloway
And I'm excited to see day two.
- KSKara Swisher
[upbeat music] Hi, everyone. This is Pivot from New York Magazine and the Vox Media Podcast Network. I'm Kara Swisher.
- SGScott Galloway
And I'm Scott Galloway.
- KSKara Swisher
Scott, I have a new date. Did you notice?
- SGScott Galloway
I know. You're cheating on me.
- KSKara Swisher
[laughs]
- SGScott Galloway
Talk about the ultimate co-host upgrade.
- KSKara Swisher
I know. I know.
- SGScott Galloway
[laughs]
- KSKara Swisher
I know it's true. It was a little striking.
- SGScott Galloway
I mean, look, I didn't even mind. It's like, it's like I'm, I'm the worst kid on the Bad News Bears and A-Rod shows up. I'm like-
- KSKara Swisher
I know. It's true
- SGScott Galloway
... to play second base. I'm like, "Okay, I get it. I get it"
- KSKara Swisher
It's true.
- SGScott Galloway
I get it.
- KSKara Swisher
Because, like, one scene, one thing, it's like sometimes we talk about political or national issues and, like, we're talking about the execution thing, and then she's like, "Well, you know, we're in the room when we killed Osama bin Laden, and this is what we did when we had to deal with issues of whether to show his picture or not." And you're like, "Oh, she was in the room." And then somewhere else, she's like, "When we were dealing with that on this issue," and I was like [laughs] , "Scott does not have this background." She's like Zelig. She's-
- SGScott Galloway
I'm like, "When I was in the fraternity" [laughs]
- KSKara Swisher
[laughs] Drinking and saw it go by on television or whatever it is.
- SGScott Galloway
Oh, God.
- KSKara Swisher
Um, she was great. She's, she was, sh... It's racing up the charts, I gotta tell you. It's racing. I knew it would.
- SGScott Galloway
What's really unusual about it is, uh, about this is for you to talk about the success of something you're working on, so that's-
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah, yeah
- SGScott Galloway
... that's really unusual.
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah, yeah.
- SGScott Galloway
Um-
- KSKara Swisher
I'm just making money for the Vox Media Podcast Network. That is my goal.
- SGScott Galloway
There you are. Gotta pay the bills.
- KSKara Swisher
No, but I think it, like-
- 8:16 – 11:48
Elon, Starshield, and Ukraine
- KSKara Swisher
of Elon, he's denying responsibility for limiting Ukraine's access to Starshield, the military version of Starlink. He says the system is controlled by the US government, and the restrictions are decided by the military and ultimately President Trump. Ukraine lost critical access to Starshield this week, disrupting drone attacks and air defense operation service has reportedly been restored. This follows Trump calling on Ukraine to stop striking Russian oil refineries and saying President Zelensky should be replaced. But Zelensky is pushing back, telling the Financial Times he's done with Trump's energy ceasefire, and the Uk- Ukraine will resume, uh, refinery strikes. He's also hitting, um, data centers more, he said. Uh, he said the Starshield disruption was, quote, "Not a technical problem. It was the will." Uh, in this case, you know, the problem Elon had is he went at Zelensky, and then it suddenly shut down. And so I do, I, I think he's... It, it is unfair to put this on him. It is run by the government. The decision was made by Trump. That said, he was right in there, you know, slagging Zelensky. And so not a surprise that, and it, g- the way he sort of act, you know, peacocks around like he's the, the, the, is the shadow president, people are gonna assume it's him, and, and, uh, a lot of people reached out to him. I, I suspect he probably called Trump and said, "Turn it back on," would be my guess. Um, but I don't know. What do you think?
- SGScott Galloway
This is unusual. I, I'm usually the one defending Musk, and you're the one going after him.
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah.
- SGScott Galloway
I think this is another example of how, uh, Musk in concert with Trump are the Genghis and Khan, uh, being traitors to the West.
- KSKara Swisher
Well, that, shutting it off is insane. It should have never happened, but go ahead.
- SGScott Galloway
Well, but, but first off, Musk hides behind the notion of, "I don't control Starshield." So let, let-
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah.
- SGScott Galloway
Starlink is the commercial venture. Starshield is built on Starlink technology and is now the contract with the Defense Department. I think what's happened here, and I don't know this, this is my speculation, but Occam's razor, the obvious explanation, is usually the right one. You have the bad news bearers of geopolitical strategy, uh, Kushner and Witkoff, go over and say to Zelensky, "We'd like you to surrender." They're not asking for peace. They're asking for surrender.
- KSKara Swisher
That's right.
- SGScott Galloway
And the terms that Kushner and Witkoff want Zelensky to sign up for, where they basically say, "Give him what he wants," they think that's peace. That's not, that's not a peace. That's scheduling the next war such that Putin can rearm and then decide if-
- KSKara Swisher
Poland
- SGScott Galloway
... and when he's invading-
- KSKara Swisher
Poland
- SGScott Galloway
... Finland, Poland.
- KSKara Swisher
Po- Poland.
- SGScott Galloway
I mean, this is-
- KSKara Swisher
Poland's been particularly irritating to Russia, I think.
- SGScott Galloway
Well, uh, uh, uh, let's sideline that for a second. But basically, Zelensky said, "No, I'm not surrendering." And then I believe what's happened here is fairly obvious. Trump and Musk got on the phone and said, "Let's throttle back Starlink and send a message to Zelensky that if he doesn't come to the table, he's gonna lose the war." This is, this is a decision, in my view, between Trump and Musk that reflects something very dangerous, that a man who is addicted to ketamine is now deciding geopolitical strategy and who gets to invade Europe or not.
- KSKara Swisher
Uh, I am in violent agree with you on that. I have said that a long time, I mean, that he's really, what is this person doing in the middle of this? And he's not like the head of Lockheed, but he, he is consulting with the president. And the head of Lockheed, they sell the missiles and move along, right? Essentially, they're not on the phone on where and when it should deploy, and he's far too involved in everything we do, 100%. And speaking of which, um, related,
- 11:48 – 14:29
Elon’s Midterm Spending
- KSKara Swisher
um, Elon Musk said, uh, back in 2025 that, "In terms of political spending, I'm do- gonna do a lot less in the future." Well, so much for that. He's poured over $276 million in the Republican group and his own super PAC since July, making him the largest known donor of the midterms, and that's just the money that's been publicly disclosed. His donations include $158 million to the main super PAC backing Republican Senate candidates, one of the largest political donations in American history. It's also as much as r- the Democrats have raised from everybody, so one single person is responsible. Another big chunk has gone to Ken Paxton. You know, the question is, will he get his money's worth around this time? He's not only trying to influence the midterms with his money, he's spreading disinformation on X, like the story that James Talarico was in a mental hospital. I mean, this guy is, like, all, his, his dirty fingers are everywhere s- in some, in s- in some fashion. Um, another thing that he, that was i- in the news was, um, these drone strikes that Ukraine did on three data centers operated by Yandex, which is essentially Russia's Google. Ukraine's President Zelenskyy suggested these Yandex strikes led to a drop in bot activity with less hate online, particularly on X. But experts say there's no evidence of that, and that the drop in bots appears to be tied to Yandex's web crawlers, automated tools that index websites. It would be nice to get rid of Russian bots. It called attention to the problem with Russian bots, which I think is great, and they should continue to hit Russian data centers. But again, also linked with Musk because his platform is the one spewing out most of the, much, a lot of the information, um, out there.
- SGScott Galloway
With respect to Elon and political spending, are we comfortable with an individual who controls battlefield technology now and can spend a quarter of a billion dollars and potentially get people elected or keep certain seats in America? I mean, is that, is that what we want? I now believe that taxes, a progressive tax rate, protect us from corruption, and that is power corrupts, absolute power absolutely corrupts. We need protection from, from the uber wealthy nation states or a- individuals cosplaying nation states, and the way you do that is with taxation. We, we, we need a con-- Whether it's concentration of power amongst companies such that they raise the rents, such that your chicken and your pharmaceuticals go up faster, prices and inflation. Whether it's having a check on government, so no narcissist can overrun Congress or the judicial branch. Whether it's someone worth a trillion dollars who can, sweat off his brow, put a quarter of a billion dollars into races. When you combine money with distribution, what you have is the most dangerous combination in politics, and that's what we have here. Also, I do not buy any of this
- 14:29 – 25:04
Drone and Bot Warfare
- SGScott Galloway
misinformation pushback on what was obvious. When the Yandex server facilities were bombed by Ukraine, Tucker Carlson's engagement fell seventy-two percent.
- KSKara Swisher
Right. Yeah, it did.
- SGScott Galloway
Con- a lot of conservatives' engagement just fell off a cliff. Uh, do the math, folks. I mean, this is... Uh, I- I've noticed it. The number of times people use the word genocide in my comments has dropped in the last week.
- KSKara Swisher
Right. But a lot of people who are experts said it's not, it, it, it's not the same thing. You may think it, but the, the bots weren't-- bot traffic was not affected. Just, I mean, there's been a lot of very good reporting on this. But it does suggest that this is maybe a good place to push on. This, this is a good place to push on the wound, essentially.
- SGScott Galloway
They would be stupid not to be doing this. They can't afford to beat us economically. They can't afford to beat us kinetically. For a small amount of money, they can take advantage of the fact that we have porous platforms who will cash anybody's check.
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah.
- SGScott Galloway
Using AI, you can spin up bots.
- KSKara Swisher
Yep.
- SGScott Galloway
I mean, haven't you seen it? Look at, look at the most vile comments in your feed.
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah.
- SGScott Galloway
They're people with three followers.
- KSKara Swisher
Yes.
- SGScott Galloway
It's a bot.
- KSKara Swisher
A bot. Yes.
- SGScott Galloway
And then you think, who-
- KSKara Swisher
Uh, the bot problem, and it's f- largely right-wing. Um, th- that's 'cause this is Russia or Ru- you know
- SGScott Galloway
Also, I, I wanna go the other way. When I say something like, when I just put out a, a thread or so- something on social that says Twenty-fifth Amendment, that's me saying that the president is an incompetent and should be removed from audience, I get thousands of likes because the AI from an adversary says, "That's dividing them. Let's elevate that."
- KSKara Swisher
Oh, yeah. Yeah.
- SGScott Galloway
"Let's retweet it."
- KSKara Swisher
Yes, they don't care what side, the fight they're on
- SGScott Galloway
"Let's re-thread, thread it." So it works both ways, and then what happens to you as a person, your incentives are, "Oh, people like me when I say this divisive thing-
- KSKara Swisher
Right, and I'll say some more
- SGScott Galloway
... that the president should be removed."
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah.
- SGScott Galloway
"So I'm gonna do more of that."
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah, that's true.
- SGScott Galloway
"And the more angry and incendiary I get, the more people like me."
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah, no, it's, it's, it absolutely is creating... Uh, years ago, I, I think I told you this, when I was looking at some bot tr-- I, I interviewed a bot person, and they were showing me how when Roseanne Barr insulted Valerie Jarrett, suddenly it got to be a big online thing, and then a week later, um, uh, Sam B. called Ivanka, "See you next Tuesday" or so- that's what she-- Well, cunt. She said cunt. Um, and, and, and it was all the same bots that were doing the anger around it. Bots started, you know, "Oh my God, Roseanne's the best. Oh my God, Roseanne's the worst." They were on all sides of the game, and then people got attracted to it. It's like a traffic ac- it's like a digital traffic accident that they create in order to create people.
- SGScott Galloway
The TikTok algorithm, if you wanna gain... Okay, so you take the top ten best-selling, um, authors who are, quote-unquote, "thought leaders" any week. Go on TikTok and do a video saying, "Andrew Huberman or Mel Robbins or Jay Shetty is a fraud", hundreds of thousands of views. It, so anything that's incendiary and calls out people and-
- KSKara Swisher
Mm-hmm. Dunks on people
- 25:04 – 30:40
Trump's New Press Secretary
- KSKara Swisher
attention to you. Trump's new White House press secretary, Kayleigh Zacarias, held her first briefing on Tuesday, which lasted a total of 14 horrible, awkward, terrible minutes. She read nervously from the script, then answered just three questions from reporters, all of whom were in the tank for the Trump administration. When asked whether the US had stopped sharing intel with Ukraine, Zacarias said, "I'll have to get back to you on that." Let's listen to this particularly awkward moment from the briefing in a briefing that was particularly awkward.
- SPSpeaker
The idea of not spending evenings with my kid, uh, kids are, is completely, uh, unacceptable. So my president... Or excuse me, my husband, uh, [laughs] that's a, that's a good one.
- ASAnthony Scaramucci
[laughs]
- SPSpeaker
My husband is out here, is out here for the week.
- KSKara Swisher
Oh my. The Truth Social, the former Truth Social advisor, which is also, by the way, Truth Social's falling off a cliff, has faced questions about his legal credentials, with no record of being licensed to practice law in the US despite Trump describing him as an attorney. Zacarias reportedly failed the California Bar, and Wall... according to Wall Street Journal, when she asked where she did pass, told reporters, "When I moved to China," though she now says she misheard the question. She did not. It was very loud, and it was by Sean McCreesh. I heard it. Um, you may be thinking to yourself, "How many Scaramuccis is she gonna last?" So we asked the man we've all been waiting to hear from on this to send us his take, Anthony Scaramucci, The Mooch, who served as White House communications director for a record-breaking 11 days. Let's hear it.
- ASAnthony Scaramucci
I am totally biased. You know, I really want her to make it, because I would like this record to stand. It's been nine years, and I have milked this thing like a dairy farmer. Uh, and so I obviously want her to make it longer than me, longer than the lettuce from Liz Truss. But here's what I think is gonna happen. If he's keeping her, they're gonna put her in a lockbox and give her media training, and then bring somebody like Vance out or Rubio to do the press conference with her so she has a crutch. If he's not keeping her, I think he's gonna blow her out very quickly, which would put my tenure, my record tenure in jeopardy. So let's see what happens, but I'm betting, I'm betting he's gonna keep her.
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah, I would agree. I think I said that, too. She, she seems to be, uh, settling in as well, seen with Special Assistant to President Natalie Harp. Natalie gave her seal of approval, joining President Trump on Marine One, and now there's rumor he's trying to ace out someone who's actually competent, even if she's sort of a quisling, um, Susie Wiles. Um, I, I, this, I, this is the most important job in the admin- One of the most important jobs in an administration is the communications. And so talk a little bit about this. It's, uh, can you name a worse blunt rotation?
- SGScott Galloway
Well, something that's been helpful to me is I call [laughs] my son every night, uh, who's a freshman in college, and I know way too much [laughs] about his life right now, and I know he has a biology test today, and I texted him last night. I'm like, "Are you ready for your biology test?" And he sent me a picture of Kayleigh Zacarias. [laughs]
- KSKara Swisher
[laughs]
- SGScott Galloway
You know?
- KSKara Swisher
Like, doesn't matter.
- SGScott Galloway
Like, like does any of this matter?
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah, right.
- SGScott Galloway
And-
- KSKara Swisher
Like have a job is-
- SGScott Galloway
And my favorite, I think I saw somewhere on Threads, someone said, "Someone needs to tell George W. Bush, uh, that it would appear that Kayleigh Zacarias was left behind." [laughs]
- KSKara Swisher
Oh. [laughs]
- SGScott Galloway
I love that. No child left behind.
- KSKara Swisher
You've had a good time with this.
- SGScott Galloway
Um.
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah.
- SGScott Galloway
Oh, I gotta be honest.
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah, for some reason.
- SGScott Galloway
I absolutely-
- KSKara Swisher
You like it more than the Kelly Clarkson auto-
- SGScott Galloway
Oh
- KSKara Swisher
... animatronic bird in Brooklyn thing, I think
- SGScott Galloway
... I absolutely love her. I think, first off, I, I got... I, I like hot people.
- KSKara Swisher
Right.
- SGScott Galloway
She's hot. I, I, I think-
- 30:40 – 40:19
Execution Livestream Reversal
- KSKara Swisher
of killing 13 people at Fort Hood in, uh, 2009, will not be live-streamed. This is something I actually said on Hillary's show. I didn't think he was gonna do it. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced last week that the public would be able to watch Hasan's December 3rd firing squad execution. The plan was called medieval and barbaric, drawing backlash from both Republicans and Democrats, ev- uh, and the Pope, everybody. Hillary Clinton and I talked about it on this episode of this new podcast, High Stakes. The former secretary of state explained why broadcasting an execution like this would have dangerous consequences. She's not talking just about the morality of it. Let's listen. I think it could become a recruiting tool It could become, uh, in a funny way, um, a message to radical jihadist extremists, uh, that you can die a martyr's death. If you go kill Americans, you will be immortalized. When we did the bin Laden operation, um, one of the issues we had to deal with is what to do with bin Laden's body. If we had published pictures of his body and the wounds that he had suffered in the firefight that took place inside that compound, we would have martyred him in a very visually, uh, dramatic way, and we didn't do that, and we also didn't bury him somewhere that could become a pilgrimage, uh, place for extremists. Trump had the opposite take. Let me read what-- This is what he just posted on Truth Social. "I think streaming the execution for all to see might have been a strong deterrent for the world to witness how America deals with terrorists and scum like Hassan. But many very good and well-meaning people would rather not watch him die through streaming or through any other visual device." I think he's just trying to get out of this. I think she's 100% right. This is like... And especially this guy's in a wheelchair. The whole thing is... The barbarism aside, I think she's making the correct point, is this is an-- this is a great thing for countries who do these things, like in Afghanistan or Iran.
- SGScott Galloway
Look, this is a very serious topic, and my view is that literally within a minute, Katie Zacharia solved imposter syndrome or cured imposter syndrome from the entire human race. That's a joke. You didn't think that was funny?
- KSKara Swisher
[laughs] I got it.
- SGScott Galloway
She cured imposter syndrome.
- KSKara Swisher
I got it. I saw that one coming.
- SGScott Galloway
That's good comedy.
- KSKara Swisher
All right, do this one.
- SGScott Galloway
Okay. All right, sorry.
- KSKara Swisher
This is another visual, though.
- SGScott Galloway
Look, I think Secretary Clinton gets this exactly right, and that is this is how fucking stupid our Secretary of Defense, and it will go back to being the Defense Department, not the Department of War. He wants to turn this guy into a hero, into a martyr, and they handled... We need-- Confidence needs to become the new Black again. Giving, uh, bin Laden, they, they washed his body as in accordance with, uh-
- KSKara Swisher
Islamic law
- SGScott Galloway
... Islamic law. They, uh, wrapped him, uh, and then they buried him at sea. What Hegseth wants to do, he thinks this is a warning. No, it's not. He's producing a recruitment video and, and he's handing jihadists the highest production value content they've ever had. This is... Look, Hassan deserves what the law hands him, but America doesn't deserve to become a country that streams it, and jihadist radicals don't deserve the greatest content they've, you know, ever. This is, this is a-
- KSKara Swisher
It's stupidity.
- SGScott Galloway
Well, it's not only... It, it's a unique combination of depravity and stupidity. It's like, okay, we're... I mean, even thinking, you wanna talk about ghoulish, what are the logistics here? He's in a fucking wheelchair. They were gonna lift him out of a wheelchair and hang him.
- KSKara Swisher
Hang him.
- SGScott Galloway
What, what, what were they gonna do?
- KSKara Swisher
Put Ali Khan like... Yeah, exactly. That, that-
- SGScott Galloway
And this would've, this would've been the most watched video in the world-
- KSKara Swisher
And kids
- SGScott Galloway
... and it would've further cemented the notion that I'd like to believe is a temporary bump in the road, but a lot of people think is the new road, that America is no longer the good guys.
- KSKara Swisher
Brutal. I, I was... I-- The whole time I thought about kids, 'cause kids would get into it.
- SGScott Galloway
Oh, God.
- KSKara Swisher
You know, online, 'cause it's not like justice on TV. They can't watch it. It's only on once. This would go everywhere, and kids would look at it, and, you know, kids already... Too much video content that's violent. There is, but this is like the real fucking deal, and that's what I kept thinking of, like, "Oh, my God." Like a certain kid, a fourteen, a boy, right, is just, just not, just so bad for them in so many ways, such a... And, you know, Trump pretending like it would a deterrent. It's not a deterrent to these people, Donald Trump, and again, Hillary's right on that regard, but I think focusing in on the heinousness is important and the amoral nature of it. But more important is it's not gonna do what you think it's gonna do, and as usual, it's just, uh, you know, the moronic Pete Hegseth without talking to experts. And in the case of bin Laden, what, what, uh, Clinton was saying is they consulted like all kinds of experts to figure out what to do, and some people wanted to show those pictures, but they had like a, a huge-- They had a, they had a big debate internally and then came to recommendations for Obama, President Obama, and that's how it should be, right? They had a full debate inside, and there were people on the side of... And one of the issues they had was if they didn't show the pictures of him dead, there'd be all these conspiracies that he was still alive, which is something to consider, right? Something to consider. But in the end, you know, uh, becoming a recruitment video is exactly what would've happened here, and a brutal and disgusting one too. Anyway, I knew Trump was gonna not do this. He had been calling around to people.
- SGScott Galloway
Yeah, that, that pushback here was pretty universal, but-
- KSKara Swisher
I know, but initially he was, 'cause his instinct is for his stupidity and exhibitionism, so.
- SGScott Galloway
The silver lining here is that we all got to witness Katie Zacharia's first day on Earth yesterday, and I'm excited to see day two.
- KSKara Swisher
[laughs]
- SGScott Galloway
I'm excited to see day two.
- KSKara Swisher
Oh, that poor woman. I, I shouldn't say that poor woman.
- SGScott Galloway
I am so here for Katie.
- 40:19 – 44:48
OpenAI's Espionage Scandal
- KSKara Swisher
an OpenAI engineer accused of secretly planting a listening device in an executive conference room at the company's San Francisco office. The device was discovered during a security sweep, and OpenAI says it used its own AI model to help identify the employee. They seem to have cameras everywhere. There was a picture from surveillance video showed the employee returning to check the device, and a search uncovered a second recording device in the employee's bag. The employee has been charged with illegally intercepting communications through OpenAI, so there's no evidence that sensitive information or code were stolen. I, I, I, I feel like he's from another country, too, and they, they're worried about s- you know, uh, they should, they should have had very locked down situation. I've been to that headquarters, and they're a little loose with their security, I would say. I wandered around for a while. That was, like, eight, maybe six, eight months ago. Um, you know, obviously, is there something bigger behind it or, or any thoughts on this?
- SGScott Galloway
People think that espionage is James Bond in an Austin Martin, you know, infiltrating a cliff-side lair and having a gunfight. It's not. It's the office assistant who is, you know, commutes to Gowanus and works at Google, or an AI engineer who's been put through undergrad and grad and gets on a, quote-unquote, "advisory board" back in China, and then is asked not to reveal that, and then before they know it, they're uploading thumb drives. The, the, the corporate espionage vastly, vastly, uh, outnumbers or dwarfs actual espionage 'cause there's so much money on the line, and the way China, the way China is beating us is they steal our IP, and then they sell it back to us for sixty cents on the dollar, and they do that. The, the greatest economic program in history is corporate or IP theft/corporate espionage.
- KSKara Swisher
Have you ever had that happen to you?
- SGScott Galloway
Has it ever happened to me? My companies aren't, aren't important enough.
- KSKara Swisher
Well, still.
- SGScott Galloway
So I don't think it's happened to me. What h-has happened to me is as a, a faculty member, I've, I've, I've worked with... I'm choosing my words carefully here. There's a, there's a recognition amongst our security apparatus that the most powerful tech companies have spies everywhere.
- KSKara Swisher
Oh.
- SGScott Galloway
And what's interesting about spies, Kara, is they don't realize they're spies, or a lot of them don't.
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah.
- SGScott Galloway
Now, imagine you're a kid from a small village in China, and you're just academically a superstar, and you keep getting elevated to better and better schools, and then they say, "How'd you like to go to Dartmouth and have everything paid for?" Great. They go. They're outstanding. And they say, "Hey, how, would you like a job at Google or Starlink, and we can help you?" And this kid ends up at Starlink, and then they're asked to go on a, quote-unquote, "domestic, uh, advisory board." And by the way, don't let your employer know about it And, but, but our security apparatus is hip to it. There are people... Google and these companies know they have dozens-
- KSKara Swisher
They do know
- SGScott Galloway
... if not hundreds of spies internally.
- KSKara Swisher
I've discussed that with them, yeah.
- SGScott Galloway
And then our security apparatus, you wanna talk about spy versus spy, also has agents pretending to be engineers trying to root them out, and then what they do is when that they find that they're actual spies uploading information or providing information back to the GRU or the Mossad. By the way, the, the West spies on each other.
- KSKara Swisher
Oh, yeah, no, the Israelis are-
- SGScott Galloway
There is so much spying
- KSKara Swisher
... or the Israelis spy.
- SGScott Galloway
We're back to the CCP. They then bring them in to ha- to, uh, they sit them down with a, a, a domestic agent, and they say, "Okay, door one is we unmask you, and you have to go home to China. That's the biggest threat. We're sending you home. Or door number two is you're gonna begin to work with us, and you can stay in your apartment in b- in Brooklyn and to continue to go to the Soho House, but you're now working with us."
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah.
- SGScott Galloway
There is so much-
- KSKara Swisher
That's spycraft
- SGScott Galloway
... back and forth, but what you have here is the most valuable IP on Earth sits in a, in conference rooms with WeWork-level security.
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah, it's true. It is really amazing. I used to wander around Face... I was always struck by that. Like, they have, they have locked it down much more in the many years since, but boy, were you able to wander around those halls, like, in a way that was very strange.
- SGScott Galloway
The best ad for, for OpenAI is that it used its own AI to catch the guy.
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah.
- SGScott Galloway
That's the best product demo they've done all year.
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah. Yeah, they definitely have a picture of him. Anyway, uh, interesting development, and we'll probably see more of it. Another interesting story, Apple has unveiled its new
- 44:48 – 54:13
Apple's New HomeView
- KSKara Swisher
HomeView, a $299 smart home tablet, marking another major product launch under new CEO John Ternus. The seven-inch device can sit on the counter or mount on the wall and uses facial recognition to identify up to six household members and personalize their messages, calendars, and apps. HomeView will feature app- Apple's revamped AI-powered Siri, we'll see, as the company tries to gain ground in a market where Amazon holds nearly 50% of the smart, uh, speaker sales, um, through its Amazon Echo and others. Um, uh, these devices, they keep put- tr- m- um... Facebook tried to put one in the house. They all do. I mean, what do you think? What do you... Will it catch? I don't want one of these, but maybe, I don't know.
- SGScott Galloway
Well, I'm generally critical of new tech products, uh, but I actually think this-
- KSKara Swisher
It's cheap, right? It's cheap.
- SGScott Galloway
Well, okay, so a $300 tablet entering a market where Amazon holds 50% of the market, you know, uh, the problem here isn't the, the hardware. The problem is Siri, right? And so this is why I think it ultimately wins. It's amazing to me that the most valuable asset any consumer owns, their home, has such a dearth of really aspirational brands in the home.
- KSKara Swisher
It does.
- SGScott Galloway
Name a ubiquitous furniture brand.
- KSKara Swisher
Right.
- SGScott Galloway
Name-
- KSKara Swisher
I mean, I have a Sonos, I guess, in, in digital
- SGScott Galloway
... Okay, so that's one brand.
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah.
- SGScott Galloway
Hardly any market cap.
- KSKara Swisher
Right.
- SGScott Galloway
But y- you'll sell... There will be a $3 million home for sale, and they'll list Sub-Zero, a $4,000 or a $6,000 refrigerator. There are so few... And just being very hon- I will buy one of these 'cause I like the idea of my, of an Apple appliance in my home. I think it's really strong signaling and self-expressive benefit. And there are so few, there are so few great brands within... You know, even in expensive cars now, they have Bang & Olufsen, and they have, I mean, they have different kind of sub-brands within, Recaro seats. And within the home, there are actually, it, there's shockingly few brands, and if you can advertise Sub-Zero as a listing or as a feature on a multimillion-dollar asset, Apple is the strongest consumer brand in the world right now.
- KSKara Swisher
Will you use it? I have tried all these things, and I never... I, the phone works just fine. Like, I don't, like, I just don't see... I have not, I have had all, every single one of these. I e- I even tried the stupid Meta one, and largely I didn't use it 'cause I don't want him in my house, essentially, any Facebook stuff in my house. But a- and I trust Apple a little more, but away from the trusting of it, which is another big issue, I use my Sonos, and I know it's not that big. I do not... I, I never use these things because the phone is right at my fingertips, essentially, a- and with me at all times. I don't know. Maybe people will.
- SGScott Galloway
I, I do think there's room. Uh, look, I have, for whatever reason, I have a bunch of interfaces in my house for temperature-
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah
- SGScott Galloway
... to turn things off and on, the lights.
- KSKara Swisher
They're very confusing, let me tell you.
- SGScott Galloway
I do think someone's gonna bring it. Apple has more license to bring it all together-
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah
- SGScott Galloway
... and have an Apple logo and say, "All right, you wanna turn your pool heater on. You wanna take the temperature down."
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah.
- SGScott Galloway
"You wanna have the lights go off in your-"
- KSKara Swisher
It's needed. Yeah.
- SGScott Galloway
It, it, someone needs to bring it all together 'cause every time I'm in a new place, I'm trying to figure out, like, w- how, how does this shit work?
- KSKara Swisher
Your apartment, I don't even know how those... Like, you have so many things on the wall, and I don't, and they're all very complicated in a way.
- SGScott Galloway
Yeah.
- KSKara Swisher
The heating.
- SGScott Galloway
The, the, the thermostat.
- 54:13 – 1:05:01
Predictions
- KSKara Swisher
we're gonna do a prediction. I'm gonna go a tiny bit first. Recording a few hours before Elon Musk is expected to reveal the Tesla Roadster, uh, event in Texas after years of delays. Elon posted on X that the Roadster is a candidate for the greatest product demo of all time. I mean, fine. I'm sure it's adorable. Uh, it's taken forever, uh, so many delays. Uh, okay, fine. Whatever. I don't think it's gonna be hit it out of the park and change the situation at Tesla. And by the way, analysts at Barclay are saying Tesla's SpaceX merger could be announced at Tesla's annual general meeting this year, which is something, of course, that I have said was gonna happen. It's inevitable given the downward slope of the sales of that company, and I don't think the Roadster's gonna save them by any means. They need a, a general purpose, inexpensive electric car, which they have st- You know, they have one, but they haven't innovated on it, so hardly matters, this R- Roadster. I'm sure it's very nice. I'm sure it's a very nice product.
- SGScott Galloway
I think this thing sends the stock up, you know, 5% or whatever. Um, and it's, it's an incredible product demo. Uh, it, it, it breaks the zero to 60 claim. The zero to 60 claim breaks the internet. The stock pops, and no one, not one paying customer has a Roadster in their driveway by the end of 2027. He doesn't sell cars. He kinda sells the future on layaway. There's never been an engineer that's able to manufacture so much-
- KSKara Swisher
He's a flimflammer. Flimflammer
- SGScott Galloway
... I mean, he's just, he's, he's-
- KSKara Swisher
P.T. Barnum
- SGScott Galloway
... he literally, yeah, he's the ultimate carnival barker.
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah
- SGScott Galloway
And it's resulted in a business strategy where he gets access to cheaper capital to pull the future forward, and results in an, an ability to launch, be responsible for 93% of the payload launches, which by the way, is incredible, and there's real engineering there. Anyways, that's not-
- KSKara Swisher
Can I say, nobody who wants a Roadster can afford a Roadster, and everybody else just wants a good electric car. They just want an electric car.
- SGScott Galloway
Well, the problem, you know, I have a Cybertruck, and the problem-
- KSKara Swisher
Mm
- SGScott Galloway
... is all the bitches that wanna get in when I stop at a stop sign, because, you know-
- KSKara Swisher
Such as Katie Zacharia. That's exactly who rides-
- SGScott Galloway
Because, you know-
- KSKara Swisher
... in a Cybertruck with you
- SGScott Galloway
... it's a Cybertruck
- KSKara Swisher
... Katie Zacharia. [laughs]
- SGScott Galloway
And so, you know, people want in.
- KSKara Swisher
She's the only woman you could lure into that.
- SGScott Galloway
There's like a comedian named Don- Dan DeSino or someone. If someone tells me, and I'll, I'll reference him correctly, it's hilarious. Uh, look, mine, mine is, um, I'm, I'm gonna cheat because we didn't, 'cause you were off with, um, uh, Secretary Clinton cheating on me. We didn't have w- wins and fails. I've been using all of this news, and my outlet for it is I try and turn it into, I don't wanna call it a lesson, but a talking point for me and my boys. And I've been thinking a lot about what's going on in some of the headlines, and it's like, okay, the media, universities, fraternities, uh, live executions. And I'm saying, okay, I'm, I'm, what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna try and distill all of it down to a lesson, which may be wrong, 'cause I have never done anything in my life that I'm more insecure about than parenting. And I talk to my sons about it as a means of a conversation, and hopefully some of it resonates, and some of it's right, and some of it helps me do what I'm supposed to do, and that is prepare my sons for others. And my fail is I think there, we have normalized being really critical of, of women's looks, and I'm a sexist here, and that is, regardless of how many subscriptions to The Atlantic or The New York Times you have, for thousands of years, we have evaluated women and men based on their fertility and their power, respectively. Our job as a species is to propagate, and so we look at women through the lens of cues for their fertility, high cheekbones, thick hair, porcelain skin, wide hips, you know, big breasts. We look for features of fertility that, quote-unquote, "make them," uh, from a very anthropological perspective, fertile. And then we look at men as protectors of young, their power, and as we, as a society evolves to a more capitalist society, basically how much money they make. So when you insult a woman's looks, you're really going at the core, you're really cutting to something very instinctively hurtful, more so than a man. And when you insult... Uh, let, let me flip it. You would never say about a man, or you, I never see it, "Dude, you are so lazy, incompetent, and stupid, you will never be able to develop the economic power to take care of a family. You will not allow to... You will not be able to procreate because you are such a weak, irresponsible, undisciplined man. You will never get to procreate because you are so ineffectual in the world." To say that to a man would be so puncturing and ugly that people don't say it. But when we have podcasters saying that her claims of assault have less veracity because she's unattractive-
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah. Oh, that's Megan Kelly
- SGScott Galloway
... speaking about Jane Doe.
- KSKara Swisher
You're talking about Megan Kelly.
- SGScott Galloway
When people are comfortable posting memes of a billionaire's wife-
- KSKara Swisher
This is Susan Dell
- SGScott Galloway
... uh, it just... Uh, so anyways, I'm gonna take this forward. I talked to my boys about it, and I said, "Look," and I think, I think I've been th- thinking a lot about... I, I think the most accretive thing we could do in the history of the world would be m- fathers who are much more engaged in their children's lives. And what I've said to my boys, and we talk about it, I said, "There's two doors with respect to women's looks. Door one is she looks great, in terms of any evaluation of another, of a woman's looks. Door one, she looks great. It's okay to say that someone looks great, even hot if you want. I'm down with that. That they dress well, they look great, they look great. Door two is nothing, and there is no door three."
- KSKara Swisher
Yeah, I would agree. I think, let me ask you, like, let me press on that though a little bit. Like, look, a lot of these MAGA women or women have done s- and men too, by the way, FYI, significant, uh, surgeries, and i- it's hard to ignore. What do, what do you do? Do you just ignore it? You just say ignore it. Because some of them are, l- it's like, it's jarring in, in many ways, um, whether it's a... I'm not even gonna name the names. There's a lot of them. And so, and the changes are significant. Um, is that totally off base, or, 'cause since people are doing it themselves and publicly appearing, so it's a g- it's, it's a really great debate. But I agree with you. It got really, both of the things got very ugly very fast in a way that's just puerile, right? Uh, just same way t- s- uh, Sean Gill- Shane Gillis was, same thing. It's just, it's just dumb, but there are moments where you're like, well, uh, uh, can you ignore it? Let me ask you that, I guess.
- SGScott Galloway
I think mocking a guy like Bezos, who I think looks good for his filler, I think there's a lot of sunlight between that and having thriller videos and showing-
- KSKara Swisher
Yes
- SGScott Galloway
... a billionaire's wife-
Episode duration: 1:05:01
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