Is Trump's Pay-to-Play Dinner His Biggest Grift Yet? | Pivot

The grift has been the most competent, elegant part of the Trump administration. He is strategic, he is thoughtful. His timing is excellent. The brightest people in the Trump administration-

Are the grifters?

... are the grifters. (instrumental music plays)

Hi, everyone. This is Pivot from New York Magazine and the Vox Media Podcast Network. I'm Kara Swisher.

And I'm Scott Galloway.

Scott, I went to the White House Correspondents' Dinner.

Oh, you went?

No, I didn't go to the dinner itself. There was parties.

I know you went to the parties.

I went to the parties. I didn't go to anything, and I actually slept through one of the better parties. I, I came home after Tammy Hadid's party and, uh, was so tired I slept the rest of the night, which was interesting.

So ta- uh, what have you heard? What's the scuttlebutt-

Well-

... from the insiders?

... I will tell you. Actually, you know, it was supposed to be like, "Oh, the Trump people weren't there," and, "Oh, how terrible." Actually, it was much more enjoyable. It was like kind of when the tech bros, uh, uh, left, uh, San Francisco (laughs) and, and everything was better. Like, they had, they sort of abandoned all the restaurants and everyone was like, "Oh, no." And it was much more pleasant, I have to say. I went to, uh, a dinner for the Substack threw with my agents, UTA. Uh, that was interesting. I sat, uh-

The Substack party, huh?

Yeah. We sat across-

A lot of hotties there?

N- uh, Nate Silver was there, Jim Acosta, uh, Mehdi Hasan was there. It was nice.

The White House Correspondents' Dinner, I feel some affection for it because it introduced me to who is my favorite comedian.

Oh, oh, um, ugh. What's her name? She was great. M- Michelle? Michelle?

Michelle Wolf. I think she's-

Wolf, yeah.

... a genius. I think she's-

Yeah.

... one of the great...

Yeah, they didn't have one this year supposedly. I wasn't there-

No, they didn't.

... because they don't do them.

She wrote... I love her, this quote, "You guys gotta stop putting Kellyanne on your shows. All she does is lie. If you don't give her a platform and she has nowhere to lie, it's like that old saying, 'If a trees, if a tree falls in the woods, how do we know Kellyanne Conway, uh, is under that tree?'" (laughs)

(laughs)

"I'm not suggesting she gets hurt, just stuck." (laughs)

(laughs) I did not see-

Just stuck.

... pe- the Republicans were told to stay away. I did not have one Kellyanne Conway sighting. Usually, she's at these things swanning around, but she wasn't there. Um, I'm trying to think what else was fun. I slept through the NBC party, so I slept all night. But the Tammy party was really fun and I rode... I, I sat in a Corvette, which was cool, w- that was a cool car, a beautiful new Corvette, and, uh, saw the new EV Escalade, which was gorgeous. Um, I'm trying to think what else. Oh, there was a CNN party too. Oh, I'll tell you one story. I'll tell you-