Trump's AI Executive Order

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And the best part, Odoo replaces multiple expensive platforms for a fraction of the cost. That's why over thousands of businesses have made the switch. So why not you? Try Odu for free at Odoo.com. That's Odo o.com Cheating on your partner is a huge breach of trust. All of the the pain and the guilt and the reality of what was happening hit me just like a title Why do people cheat? And why does it make us so mad even when we're not the ones it's happening to? That's this week on Explain It To Me. New episodes, Sundays where,ver you get your podcasts . You know, it's like someone coming to me and saying, I think you need to lead the New York Knicks to victory. It's like, no . Hi, everyone, this is Pivot from New York Magazine and the Vox Media Podcast Network. I'm Kara Swisher. And I'm Scott Galloway. Oh Scott, you so owe me. I do owe you. You kind of came through. Explain for the people. I came through. You delivered one of my heroes. Yeah. Yeah, I did. Right to you on a silver gold platter. So w we're fifth and last final city of our five city ProfG Markets Tour and in New York. Obviously important because you know, this is what I consider I don't know, I'm not the center of the universe. Sold out and and we start talking about Iran and the voice of God comes over and it's Kara Swisher going, You don't know what you're talking about? And then she comes out and everyone goes crazy. People like people like let's do like Kara and she goes, You don't know what you're talking about. I'm like, well, that's not helpful. Who should we have? And she goes, Well, I brought a friend and then Secretary Clinton comes walking in. Hillary Clinton. Yeah. And uh she got a stand she got like a two minute standing ovation. She did. People like her. Yeah, people like her. Trevor Burrus And she was you know what it's I'm curious to get your thoughts, but uh AI was very intimidated. But you didn't interject, I noticed, but go ahead. Yeah. But two I got really sad. I I just thought it i took me back t ten years. Yeah. How would the nation be different if we had elected uh someone this intelligent, so intelligent. Secretary Clinton. Like you don't know, right? Maybe America needed to just maybe America needed s uh weirdness to to to bounce back stronger, which is ha my silver lining here, hopefully. But it'd just be interesting to try and game theory out how the world would look different right now. Yeah, you just never know. She might have gotten it somewhere. Who knows? I mean, what was really interesting was how she thinks in paragraphs. Like her intelligence is so I was the reason I thought she'd be good for this is because we don't know what we're talking about when we're talking about around. And she does. She's been in the room with these people, whether it's Ukraine, she's been in that deal. She's been she understands and can really game it out too and and and really does understand. And one of the things that you know she, she doesn't get the credit for how prescient she was about Donald Trump, too. She called all of it. Like if you go back with things she was saying about him and it wasn't just campaign fripper y, she was like nearly perfect accuracy of what would happen because she's such a and one of the things that's amazing about her is that, you know, she's gone through shit and she's done some things, you know, look, she's not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, all manner of stuff. I don't think you can be in public office without stuff And um and and she shouldn't, you know, have to answer for her husband all the time, by the way, especially, you know, remember the Epstein stuff she's like, what um why am I even here? I didn't I didn't sleep with underage young women or whatever. Um but I thought she was what she did uh uh displays is an incredible she does her fucking homework. I guess that's what I'm trying to get at. Aaron Powell Yeah, there's definitely uh again, I think hardware character , and competence, I'm hoping it makes a comeback. She was known when she was uh senator from New York. She had a reputation among colleagues on both sides of the aisle, like of just working really hard. Aaron Powell She does. And I also said at the when she left the the stage when we're talking about her we talk a lot about role models for young men and an absence of great role models at a kind of a federal level. And you know, masculinity and femininity are social constructs, and we get to fill them with whatever associations we want. And we talk about we talk about her being a great role model for young women. I think she's a great role model for young men. Service, strength, intellect, working hard. Trevor Burrus She's amazing. She ha she just brings it and it's really and she's actually I hate to say softened up, but she's starting to get that at Cl Hillary Clinton backstage is starting to be on stage Trevor Burrus Well she's got zero fucks to give she gives zero fucking and also just something you brought up, and that is I do think a lot of times uh I I think some calls for sexism or calling out sexism is sometimes overdone in the in one instance where it's underdone or doesn't get enough reporting. If she had been on Epstein's Island, people wouldn't be harassing Bill, try asking him to explain why she was on the island. Uh it's a it's a i no one would you know, if Graham Plattner's wife had been sexting, no one would be giving him a hard time. Um there is a there is a i that that double standards is on full display. When she gave testimony and village idiot, Representative Bobert started asking about her husband in Epstein. It's like well, okay, ask him. Yeah, she was good. I love I love that Hillary. Um anyway, I'm glad to do that Oh you're on the view? Yeah. You were a guest host. How was that? You were in a chair. Good, I'm gonna do it again tomorrow. I was middle chair. It was so much fun.. I love that whoopee I like the whole team of them, Sonny and uh Alyssa and Adam did know Sarah. She was amazing. Um and it was great. I have um Joy Bihar's seat. Joy Bihar's seat. She's doing some show in Paris or some writers festival or something. And I love that team there, as I've said. They're so professional. It was you know what you know I always complain about going on the cable shows where they yell at each other, I don't like it. This these are good conversations, actually. They're really good conversations. And I really appreciate it. And people try to come and espe I think it's because of Whoopi Goldberg, they try to come to some sort of not agreement, but just like she doesn't tolerate sh itty conversations, and I really appreciate that. I I like it. And the whole the entire show is so well produced and I just enjoyed it quite a bit. And it's the it was funny because this guy who's in um I'm gonna pr Gal zatine. And the she's he's very, very handsome, and all the the the audience started screaming for him and it was fantastically fun. They have live audience, which I like too. Aaron Ross Powell Yeah, like I said, they give great TV. They're very good at what they do. That's a good that's a good seat for you. It is a good seat for me. Maybe I'll just stay there and never leave. There you go. We'll see. Taping a live interview, by the way, of On with Kara Swisher at the Tebecca Film Festival here in New York on Monday, June 8th. That's next week. I'll be talking to comedian, actor, and podcast pioneer Mark Marin, which I'm very excited about. He's the original gangster of podcasting. He's great. He's amazing. He's also an actor, comic, and everything else. Ticket servil now at Trebekafilm.com slash audio. Anyway, I like being in New York. I like it. Are you are you staying for a little bit? Are you Yeah, I'm gonna I think I'm gonna be here a week and then I gotta stock home It's beautiful. There's always predictions. You know, pandemics hit, a bunch of hedge funders leave, crime goes up, and everyone everyone talks about the death in New York. I walk around New York right now. No fucking way. There's a line to get in the Birkenstock store. There was a line at the soft ice cream store the other day. Crime, by the way, in New York, is at historic lows. I mean, if this is what The Knicks? The Knicks might win the fine. But if this is what a decline looks like, I'd love to see what prosperity looks like. And I've I've said for a long time that you don't recognize you're in a golden age till twenty or thirty years later. I think people are going to look back on New York in this era. Post COVID, new restaurants. Gulf stream. It's being 28 and having figuring out a way to live in New York and knowing that every time you leave your house, your life could change. You could find someone to fund your business, you could find a co-founder, you could find just some incredible inspiring piece of art or culture. You could find someone you end up marrying. It's greatest city on Earth. It really is. And I love a lot of cities, but it is the greatest city on Earth. And it's not people talk about ingenuity being a function of technology. It's not. It's a function of proximity. And people. And density. And the reality is in New York, there's eight million people getting in each other's way, and I say that as a feature, not a bug. Yeah. You can't help but not bump off of people constantly Constantly. Yeah. And it's the opposite of what ails, I think, America, especially young people, is a lack of bumping off of other people. Trevor Burrus I agree. Empty sidewalks. I get so annoyed by the fucking sidewalks here now, but I'm kind of liking them, right? Like I'm like, oh my god, can I get up the street without nine minutes? Everywhere. And on the year, there's two types of things. But anyway, there's there's two types of people in New York uh rich kids and people trying really hard that are really talented. Trevor Burrus And workers and anyway. Anyway, we're not gonna be hanging out, but we are appearing. I guess you don't want to come to my award tomorrow. I'm getting an award, a legal award, Lomda. They already tried to hit me up for money. Oh, okay. You didn't uh d can I tell you this story? Hi, good news. Kara's being honored by Lambda. We'd like you to donate $100,000 and we'll put a paddle up with a hundred thousand dollar number on it. I'm like I wrote back, I'm like, you're clearly not in fundraising. You know, don't just don't just shove your tongue down my throat. I mean, tell me I'm pretty first. Aaron Powell Also say I'll surround you with beautiful lesbians at a table who will fuck you. I wrote back and I'm like, thanks, but I'm gonna pass. Yeah, yeah, good. That's o.kay I'm sorry to do that. Anyway, it's a great award. Actually, Preet Barrara is going to be giving it to me. Had they known you were in New York, they might have asked you, but Preet is going to do it because he's that good. Yeah, that's that's a that's an upgrade. He's much more credible. Anyway, uh the big story in media this week is sixty minutes correspondent Scott Pelley is out at CBS. Pelley's firing came after he accused CBS News Chief Barry Weiss of murdering Sixty Minutes, according to a leaked audio from Staff Meeting, he also told the show's new EP Nick Bilton, a longtime tech journalist of film America, someone I know that his qualifications run sixty minutes, it run sixty minutes for slender. That is accurate. Saying he'd been terminated for cause effective immediately. It was a terribly written letter, Nick. It really was an embarrassment to you. Barry Weiss later sent an editorial called that Pelley was fired because the foundation of trust had been broken after his firing, though. Pelley wrote in a statement in competence and unprofessionalism in the new management have wreaked havoc. He also wrote a response to her letter and what she was saying to the staff and then recounted word for word. He looks like he must have taken notes during the whole thing, uh exactly what happened and said basically called them liars about that they didn't try to get together. I thought Pelle, they should not mess with this guy. He's a really good reporter, and they are. They're they're being disingenuous, I think mendacious, actually. Uh this is the guy, Tom, whatever his name is, uh all of them. They're just they're really they're they're lathering themselves in dishonor. Um sixty minutes has been on the air since 1968. I just you know you're not a media person. This is of course illuminating media people. One of my disappointments here is the journ alism is getting lost in all of this drama. This is not this is not nobody's talking about the stories, which is what Sixty Minutes has been astonishing about. And the fact that they could just that he was asking normal questions. Why did you fire all these really good people, including Tanya Simon, who ran the show and took it to New Heights? Why did you fire these other correspondents? Also Cecilia Vega and uh Sharon Alphonse, why did you fire them? And they wouldn't give an answer. And I think it's very appropriate that he asked. And they were trying to act like he was they that he was throwing a tantrum. He absolutely was not. Yeah, I don't so uh you know my view. I I think media different outlets and I have heard from producers that it has created a chill. But I I've said this before, I wish the Washington Post would just go away already. I'm sick of talking about it because I do think the most talented journalists, I think there's a huge ecosystem of interesting companies doing great work. And 60 minutes, uh I think the world would survive without it. Having said that, I just look at it through a business lens. When you're in an industry that's in structural decline and you have a product that's up nine percent year on year, you don't fuck with it. Right. And Billy and doing well digitally. That was just very disingenuous in their memos. It's doing very well digitally, actually. Trevor Burrus It's literally like okay, Phil Jackson's job at the Chicago Bsowl wasn't to be the boss and disrupt the Bowls. It was to get along with Michael Jordan. Right. The job of CBS management right now is to get along with sixty minutes. I think it's a little more serious than that because I think you're leaving out the Trump thing. I each of these people have said that these these particular managers are trying to fuck with the stories to try to shade them. Pelley is making this allegation, Sharon made this allegation publicly, uh uh uh Cecilia Vega made this out. These are very professional people. These are the top of their game, right? It's not like whiny righteous they're not being whiny righteous. They're like, what are you doing? Like these are they're doing great work and then you fuck with them? Like cause and then excuses and by the way, I'm sorry, I don't know Barry Weiss. I do know Nick Bilton. None you are not qualified compared to these people. I wouldn't be qualified to run this, right ? Like the fact that they think they can give instructions to these people, I I I wouldn't have the arrogance to think I was better than them. And the excuse they're using is that um the excuse they're using is that, well, we're gonna we're gonna fix it before it goes downhill. That's their excuse. Well it's inevitably gonna go downhill and therefore we're gonna fix it. Let me tell you, I have more digital experience than both of you, and you are you have don't know what you're talking about. Because first of all, you're being disingenuous about their digital stuff, which is doing okay. And secondly, this is not the way to do it. By wrecking it. This th wreck it in order to save the village. We're gonna bomb the village to save the village. This is nonsense at on every level. And I am someone who knows more than both of them put together and I still have room for more. And I'm a I'm I'm an actual journalist. Uh Nick is a journalist. I'm still higher on the food chain than he is, I'm sorry. And one of the things is that they're not talking about the journalism. And these three people that they fired, and Tanya Sim on, are amazing journalists. And they should thank them for their existence. And instead, because they need to shade things with the Trump. And I do believe these reporters, they are trying to shade the news in in in service of Trump. And therefore they are minions to the powerful owners who own them, which are the Ellisons. And that's where the real problem is, is these people uh are these people are have a whole nother game going on. And it's it's ta to take a product like this that is not broken and break it is y at some point you have to wonder what it's all about. They've decided to perform open heart surgery on the healthiest person in the franchise. Trevor Burrus Excellent way to put it. And uh I I I don't know Nick well, but I've been on his podcast. I think he's a talented producer, a talented journalist. I don't but in my view, I'm not sure a journalist should be running it. I think it should be a Jeff Zucker-like character who has tremendous respect for journalism. But quite frankly, it's just a really strong manager. I think the person that shows up to sixty minutes says, How can I help? Well done. Call me when you when how how can I help? But the what the the the narrative they're putting out there is the following. You disrupt from a point of strength. Okay, uh as someone who teaches strategy , these people don't they're using the wrong words. Disruptors are small companies that go after fat incumbents and start eating up from a small niche. And typically to say that is To continue what we're doing, but we're also just we don't ever want to be fat and happy, we want to innovate. He's using the wrong words. The last thing you do at your the one place that's working is disrupt it. That's not that's not what you do, but I want to move on. I've got an idea , and I'm I'm literally going to text uh Ted Serandos. I think there's an enormous opportunity. If I were Ted Serrandos. I'd hire all these people, yeah. I would call Scott Pelley and Anderson Cooper and say I'm gonna pay each of you ten million dollars. You hire whoever the fuck you want, including executive producer, and Netflix is gonna put out something called the hour. And it's gonna be every week. Yeah, that's our online. Yeah. I think it's a great we are gonna move on to this is the only thing I have to say is this is not how you fix this is not what you do and by the way here's what I would the advice I would give is let's see what you can do. So far the results are bad at CBS everything's going down, down, down. Your shows are losing people. The other shows, by the way, ABC and NBC are gaining. So you're doing something, your changes are not working. Secondly, and again, I like Nick Bilton, I do, I do, I I know a lot of people, he's very controversial, he gets a lot of attacks. I like Nick Bilton. He needs to show results. If you're gonna do something, don't come in and tell everybody, like give them lectures about digital disruption. Make changes, make them with respect , and have just let's see the results. This feels so Chris Lichtian that I like he kept talking more than he was doing. And so I feel like results are all that matter. Get in there, do good journalism. Trevor Burrus, but to be fair, and you know these people better than I do. I think Nick I think they poured honey on Nick and sent him hunting for Correct. Right. And and I I would like to hear Nick's side of this story, quite frankly, and I'm think he's coming on the pod. Mm-hmm. But look , uh th the the only way this person is successful is to show up and say just a few things. I will quit the moment uh uh you come to me and say, protect me from outside political influences that are hurting my journalism. I will I will be your heat shield. I'm committing to that right now. Well I agree. But I think he needs to say that. And if he can't if he can't say that, he shouldn't he shouldn't take the job. And two, I recognize this this institution is more storied and more credible than my resume right now . I am a talented, thoughtful person. I'm going to do my best to provide you with the resources and the ideas, should you want them, to make this an even stronger institution. But you call me. I get it. I still don't I think qualific ations matter. And the you need to hire someone who has more qualifications in this area, who's done television, who's managed big teams. That's I'm sorry, you just you don't just give it j like you just don't. You just don't. And again, full of great, interesting ideas, I agree with you, but you don't give a job to someone who doesn't have the experience to run it. And I think Well, okay. I'm gonna I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that there have probably been people with lesser qualifications who've also been asked to run important media properties. This isn't as much about his qualifications. It's about the context and how they've gone about this. If this had been a different situation at a different time and someone with that qu those qualifications had come in and said, Look, I promise to protect you from outside political influence that gets in the way of your journalism. I realize I'm in over my head. I hope you're patient with me. I'm gonna do my best to help you continue the I I think that person could be successful, distinct of their lack of a qualification. But that's not him. That's a bigger issue. Trevor Burrus, but he's worr he took the job with them. So anyway, it's not Nick's fault. You're absolutely right. But what you're saying is it's doom anyone's doomed. And that might be a fair point. That there's no way for anyone to be successful in that role right now. I think in this case it is. I think they have another there's another game afoot here that is nothing to do with they want to wreck this thing. It's being turned into and this is this is the most damning thing several people have said who've exited the organization, it's being perverted and queered from a great journalistic operation that is arguably one of the most successful the it perhaps is the most successful TV show of its kind in history. It's being used uh basically to become propaganda for the Trump administration. Trevor Burrus That's correct. That's correct. I and I I I fur I usually go away from those things, but it feels like Edward R. Murrow, remember when he got screwed? You know what I mean? Like this is it has that feel to it. Anyway, we'll see where it goes. But uh let me just tell you, Scott and I don't know Scott, uh I I don't know Cecilia, uh although I I'm looking forward to meet her. I think Sharon's like is terrific. They're all terrific journalists and I believe them. I'm sorry, I believe them over they're just really good. And all the people there. And I've talked to lots of people at at Steve. Yeah. I love it. The hour. The hour. How about fifty nine minutes? Thirty six hundred seconds. You know, this this is idea of lack of qualifications. I'm sorry, I'm I'm sort of obsessed with it. President Trump named Bill Poulte, who runs the Federal Housing Finance Agency as the new acting director of national intelligence, replacing Tulsi Gabbard , who's stepping down. Pulti is best known for accusing several of Trump's enemies of mortgage fraud, and none of which went anywhere, including New York A. G. Letitia James. He has no known experience in intelligence, I'm not sure he's intelligent, defense or national security He's called little Trump. That's his qualifications. It's unclear whether Trump will ask the Senate to confirm Poulte by law. Anyone nominated for this role must have extensive national security expertise. Republicans are attacking him. Uh you saw several Republicans saying he has no expertise. Democrats, especially like our friend Mark Warner, uh, is losing his mind over this. Um this th this uh uh th this not the same Nick is very competent, but this guy is incompetent. This guy is incompetent at this job and all he does is like, you know, he's he like steps on a rake every five minutes and hits his head. I mean th and the same thing with Todd Blanche who he Trump caved on his slush ph Trump's personal attorney says the DOJ is abandoning plans for that $1.8 billion fund to compensate people who claim they're unfairly investigated. It was a rare instance of Congressional Republicans pushing back and winning So g uh some context. The reason the position was created, the director of national intelligence, was after nine-eleven , policymakers concluded that there was a lack of coordination amongst our eighteen intelligence agencies. So there was there was really str there was really great int elligence pre-9-11 that something like this might happen. But the lack of coordination meant the right information didn't bubble up to the right people in time. And I don't think it's fair to call him an incompetent. He's just not qualified, which is kind of the same thing. But I it's task. Agreed. Agreed. So let's just review the past directors of national intelligence, their backgrounds. So let's start with Tulsi Gabbard to be fair. Combat veteran, military officer, member of Congress, House Armed Services Committee. Uh Avril Haynes, Deputy CIA director, deputy national security advisor, um John Ratcliffe, Congressman, House Intelligence Committee member, former federal prosecutor, Dan Coates. Now head of the CIA, by the way. Go ahead. Dan Coates, Senator, Ambassador to Germany, member of the Senate Intelligence Committee. James Clapper , former Under-Sretecary of Defense for Intelligence, decades of military intelligence. Dennis Blair, four-star admiral, former commander of U.S. Pacific Command overseeing Indo-Pacific Military Operations. Mike McConnell, former director of the NSA, Vice Admiral, career intelligence professional, John Negrop ont, 40-year diplomat, ambassador to Iraq, UN Ambassador, Director of National Intelligence created after 9-11 reforms, and Bill Po ulty, I I'm gonna say this, he's a rich kid, he'll build fucking homes in Fort Myers. Yeah, that's right. And he might be a nice man, he might be very competent, he might be a brilliant businessman. He's thirty-eight and he picks out sub z eros for homes and retirement communities and skills. Trevor Burrus That's a big thing. That's a big job, Scott. Trevor Burrus Well, okay. No, I'm teasing it. This is going to put our our our servicemen and service women in in harm's way danger unnecessarily and recklessly too. Do you think the Mosad or MI six are going to continue to share information with our intelligence agencies? Aaron Powell They must be cheering in Russia and China right now. This is again one of the most dangerous things. And also I I I think the American public is guilty of this. I don't think the American I think the American public has taken for granted the depth, experience, and commitment of what is the best performing organization in the world, and that is the U.S. government, and how deep the expertise is. Trevor Burrus, yes. Of people who decide to forego a lot of we alth and lifestyle to go to work for our in our intelligence community, our government, our diplomatic corps, our defense department. And we're putting in in one of the most dangerous things that is now starting to bubble up as we see They're unprepared for their meetings. They're settling in Jared Kushner and Steve Whitkop. Are you kidding? They are this is what Hillary was saying. They're running circles around us. The Iranians send in like very qualified people to these negotiations, and instead we send in people that didn't have any idea they were going to close the Strait of Hormuz. Like why would it occur to them since they're not uh this is this lack of expertise. And I'm t it is a real thing . It's like, you know, it's like someone coming to me and saying, I think you need to lead the New York Knicks to victory. It's like, no, like I have no qualifications to do so. And this kind of thing, the the reason he was hired, two reasons, I think, is one, he's called little Trump. Um, he's he uh listen, I don't think he's a nice person. I've seen him interviewed. He's he's seems like an idiot, but besides, he seems like a pompous ass. I think he was selected so Trump can control the whole thing. He has to put these mi unqualified minions into place. It's always the case with anyone who puts someone who's not qualified in place, which is they want to control the situation. And Trump himself is unqualified to run this situation, too, by the way. And now he's doing his gut work for him, essentially. Like giving him, you know, carte blanche in in taxes. Terrorist immunization fund? G that's correct. Yeah. The private militia fund is what I call it. Aaron Powell Yeah, I I I never miss an opportunity to try and sound important. I've been on a pod bunch of public boards and a general unwritten rule. So think about it. The CEO answers to a board that's supposed to be a fiduciary for all shareholders. The president, everyone needs a boss. Everyone should and does answer to somebody. The president no longer answers to co-equal branches of government. Republican Congress has been neutered. The Speaker of the House is basically just doing he's he's just doing the dirty work for the President. He's not he's not in any way giving his Republican colleagues a a seat at the table here. He's trying to run roughshod over them based on what the President wants. The Supreme Court, I would argue, has been politicized. I think a series of appointments have created certain decisions that I would argue don't have a hell of a lot of fidelity to the Constitution, but to conservative values or what the President wants. Not always. I do think they do hold a line on some things, but I would argue that it is no longer oversight for the President. The only people that provide any sort of checks and balance for Trump right now are voters. And the first thing you notice on a board, or one of the first things you notice with experienced board members in terms of how they evaluate a CEO, is a lot of CEOs have had to be in a closet in a knife fight for so long to get to where they are that a lot of CEOs have a tendency to shoot talented people on their team who might be the next CEO. And you end up with a talented CEO who has a really weak infrastructure of senior managers. And one of the first tests on a board to see if a CEO is a good CEO is how often is he bringing in, highlighting, and praising other senior managers , and if he were or she were to get hit by a bus, if you're running a public company and there aren't two or three people that could potentially be the CEO, you are not a CEO . And you see it all the time. You see these CEO s who all of a sudden start shooting talented people who are recruited away to go be the CEO of another company because it was clear they were not your job as a CEO is to immediately say to the most talented people I'm going to be here three, four, eight years, and if you stick around, there's a shot you're going to be CEO, and I'm going to help prepare you to be CEO of this company or somewhere else. They always sort of amass power. They don't want to be re placed, they shoot their minions in the in the head just so they can steal them. I've worked with some CEOs who who are very good at maturing maturing managers and recognize it's a responsibility to move I think I think Apple has five potential CEOs in a majority. More common is the CEO who cannot be replaced. Trevor Burrus But a good board. A good board makes that part of the compensation criteria. Trevor Burrus, Right. Are you putting in place really strong succession planning here? The president , I mean, it's just it's just insane. There is absolutely I just love the fact that everyone's talking about Rubio or Vance If you stick around him long enough, you die of political leukemia. The notion that he gives a shit . He doesn't he does not bring people along. He would rather see the Republican Party burned a I'm like waiting for him to like invade, I don't know, Newark or something. Trevor Burrus He he wants everyone to go, oh he, wants everyone to say, oh, this Republican Party is nothing without Trump. He would rather see them go down in flames. He'd rather see AOC president than J.D. Vance. Trevor Burrus He wants it to go down in flames, because he he wants it not to outlive him. Anyway, it really interesting time. But please people who aren't qualified don't do jobs. Don't don't don't don't. I'd say go for jobs you're not qualified for unless it's the DNI. Let me just tell you, guess what? You would do a better job as director You keep saying that as an example of how terrible Trump administration is . Is this after I run for mayor of Los Angeles? That's the last job you have to do. I think you'd be good at that. Anyway. Trevor Burrus Yeah. It's a terrible job. It's almost impossible to govern that city. Trevor Burrus. That's why we need to put you there, because you can swan around with the rich people and you love an Oscar party. I do like that. I do like swanning. Trevor Burrus, can I just say speaking of Oscar parties? So I was at this dinner for the Trebeka Film Festival and Bette Midler was sitting two doors down, like two seats down. And she listens to Pivot. And she's lovely, by the way. She's great. And she leans over Bloomberg to me and she goes, Let me just tell you something in her Bette Midler voice. And she goes, I don't want you to get a big head. You went to the Oscar party, Kara. And I'm like, oh, I didn't go to the Oscar party. I said that. I said Bette Midler, it was Scott that went to the Oscar party. And she goes, oh, you know, she does that voice of hers. She goes, Oh, I still don't want you to get a big head. And I'm like, I didn't go to the Oscar Park. I stayed home. I watched the Oscar with my kids. Like, what do you totally? I got accused of Scott things by Ben Midler. If it makes you feel any better at about eleven thirty, I got anxious and I went home and raided the mini bar and drank myself to sleep. Okay. All right. Anyway, let's go on a quick break. When we come back, California primary results Support for the show comes from anthropic. Not every question has an easy answer. And when you're working through something complicated, it helps to have a thought partner to kick ideas around with and uncover what's really going on beneath the surface. That's where Cloud comes in. Cloud is the AI for minds that don't stop at good enough. It's the collaborator that actually understands your entire workflow and thinks with you. Whether you're debugging code at midnight or strategizing your next business move, Cloud extends your thinking to tackle the problems that matter. Plus, Cloud's research capabilities can have comprehensive, reliable analysis, and citations turning hours of research into minutes. And co-work brings cloud's code agentic Power to your desktop, no terminal required. Just point it to a folder on your computer and add connectors including Google Drive and Gmail. Describe what you need and it handles the rest. 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The strictly limited engagement is on Broadway at the booth theater through July 19th only. Tickets from $99 are available now at proofbroadway.com . Scott, we're back with more news. Let's get into the primary races of California. What a fucking mess this is. As we record on Wednesday, ballots for California's governor's race are still being counted with Republican Steve Hilton and Democratic Xavier Becerra in the lead. In Los Angeles, Mayor Karen Bass holds the lead in results, but it became the city's first sitting mayor since 2005 to fail to earn fifty percent of votes required to avoid a runoff. As we taped, the race for the second runoff spot is too close to call with Spencer Pratt currently in the lead. We got from co-founder of Run for Something, Amanda Littman, about the situation. Hi, Kara. Hi, Scott. So I will say it's still a little early to have some hot takes on the California election results. We'll know more at the end of the day today on Wednesday. However, a few things I no'mticing, how much money does does or not matter. You know, Tom Steyer spent upwards of 200 million of his own dollars on this campaign, maybe more . Seems like unless the results come back differently and the ballots are counting now, he's not going to make it to November. Meanwhile, down in LA, Spencer Pratt, even if he doesn't make it all the way to the runoff, we'll see how these ballots come in for Nithya, really modeled a new way of doing this. Mega viral user generated AI videos, breaking through with really authentic video, capitalizing on the honestly candidate agnostic media ecosystem the right has built. We have to be prepared for this. We cannot just spend our way into victory. We have to capture attention in order to win. That means interesting candidates. That means engaging messages. It means sometimes a little bit more risk tolerance. We've got to be willing to lean in and be a little bit more unscripted. And that is something that is very, very hard for Democrats to do. But Aaron Powell Interesting. That's very smart. I agree with her. I gotta say. Yeah, but I I actually people the story will be about Tom Styre couldn't a quarter of a billion dollars to get into a runoff. It reminds me a little bit of Meg Whitman's campaign for General. Oh yeah. Do you remember that? And that is on paper. They're very attractive candidates, but for whatever reason they just don't resonate with voters. And I actually think it's a good thing when the biggest I think that that's actually a a positive. But the biggest loser in this wasn't Tom Steyr, it's the California Democratic Establishment. California is the bluest large state in America , yet the dominant issues weren't about bodily autonomy, Trump, or democracy. It was affordability, housing, energy costs, insurance, homelessness. And when voters are talking about quality of life issues and cost of living . Ideology takes a backseat to competence and Democrats are not perceived as the party. That is true of competency can be. And national candidates need to take an al uh a page here and start like J.B. Pritzker is really focused on shit like upgrading the bond rating of Illinois bonds. That shit's important. It's boring, but it's really important . So Steyr, the the story will be Steyr just proved money is Aaron Powell If you're not a compelling candidate. Trevor Burrus And Hilton Hilton's success is a symptom, not the story. He's not winning because California became conservative overnight. He's benefiting he's benefiting again from something much more dangerous for Democrats who think the current model just isn't working. So what does California have right now? The highest housing costs in America, some of the highest energy prices, persistent homelessness, despite enormous spending , net uh out migration over much of the last decade, and you know, these are governance problems, not ideological problems. And Hilton and to a lesser extent I think that's a very canny way to put it. They aren't they aren't the they aren't something fresh. They're not g rushing towards them, they're reacting against something. This is why mothers voted for Trump who have traditionally voted Democratic. If your son's in the basement playing video games and vaping, you don't give a flag fuck about territorial sovereignty in Ukraine or transgender rights. And at some point, when there are homeless people everywhere, despite reports it's costing taxpayers $70,000 per homeless person, you don't care about how thoughtful, you don't want someone cosplaying Obama. You want someone who says, I'm gonna come in and I'm going to be a lifestyle mayor and focus on competence and getting shit done. And by the way, anyone who does an ounce of due diligence around which I've done a little, I've just started doing around what it means to govern in LA, all of the shitposting and criticism, a lot of it fair, the mayor baskets, a lot of it is unfair because some of it is about bureaucracy at the FEMA level. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And uh good whoever wins L the mayor of LA , a lot of the you know, it's actually the president of the LA County and the Board of Supervisors that have all the power. LA similar to you could argue about California has become ungovernable. But until Democrats at an executive level start showing they can improve the quality of people's life and offer them good value for the money. Every state is a product. You pay for it in taxes, you expect a product And right now there's just no getting around it. Democratically run products aren't gaining share, they're losing share. Some of these let me be f let me to be fair, homelessness is an intractable problem. It's one of these most difficult problems. And California gets it because of the weather and because people want to go there. You know, Los Angeles particularly, it's a it's a great place to be homeless compared to like, I don't know, Montana or somewhere else. It is really bad.. It is But it there's all these problems. Like where do you begin because it's such and it's also an interrelated problem. So they have the worst problem of the worst of a terrible problem that's already hard to fix in an easy eah ev even if you had minor homelessness. But it's again it's a complicated, multifaceted issue that you have to do piece by piece. And I don't think any I mean, i I don't think if Spencer Pratt is just gonna arrest them, that's not gonna work. That's not gonna cause that's gonna fix anything No, not at all. Not at all. But he is canny. She's right. She's good. He's good at the the stuff. Oh, he's uh by the way, he's run he's run an outstanding campaign. Outstanding here is Becerra, and that is he might be exactly what Democrats need. He isn't exciting. And quite frankly, that's probably why he won. If you were to summarize , you know Democrats have spent a decade searching for charisma. Right now it appears voters are searching for competence. Daniel Lurie is that. He does videos every single day from a different restaurant in San Francisco He's not talking about Israel, he's not talking about gender rights, he's not talking about bodily autonomy, he's not talking about Trump. He's just like how do I get Munich to get people to work. Right. But then he's also doing happy ones too. Like I just went to this great Korean restaurant. He's very good. He's I would I would go I'd follow Daniel Lurie's lead in a lot of these things. You don't have to be a douche nozzle like Spencer Pratt. He's just basically a douchnozzle. Daniel's getting stuff done and us ing social media in a really s I'd pay attention to what he's doing. Because he's not a compelling, like wow personality. I mean, and he is. He's lovely, by the way, but he's he's not like like show up, you know, hand Aaron Powell Yeah and he's also very con he seems competent, he gets things done, he he's always on social media. I look at him. Anyway, maybe he'll be governor of California. The race became a choice between celebrity, Hilton, money, styre, and experience, Becer ra. And experience appears to be winning. And the national lesson that Democrats need to draw from this is the Democratic Party keeps assuming every election is a referendum on Trump. Increasingly, voters are treating elections as a referendum on whether they can afford groceries, insurance, electricity, and a mortgage. Trevor Burrus And what your governor can do about that. Not governors can't or mayor can do about it. Anyway, last story here, Apple smart glasses are now expected to launch in late 2027 after the company hit some delays. More glasses from Apple, Scott. Apple is reportedly following the playbook similar to Apple Watch, focusing on driving mainstream adoption of both glasses and sunglasses. These are things that look like glasses. First generation glasses are expected to emphasize features like cameras, but Apple believes glasses could eventually evolve into a health device and incorporate augmented reality. Now I know you've been critical of the Oculus and Apple Vision Pro. These are big heavy units. These were these would be more like what App would what Meta has with their Ray Bans or their other different things. So I I have a feeling Apple's going to come right up the back, up the middle and take it all. They're just like with the watch. I think they'll design the best glasses, they'll work the best. Um and this is a way it goes mainstream if if this thing is to go mainstream. Trevor Burrus You're exactly right. They weren't the first in the iPod. There's my colleague at NYU Stearn is now at the Tuck School, Peter Golder. He he has this he he taught me something that stuck with me that I thought was just a brilliant observation and it's the focus of his research, and that is the innovator doesn't win from a shareholder perspective. The innovator gets mud on their face and arrows in their back. It's the second mouse. It's the person that learns from the innovator who wastes a lot of capital and energy and comes in and it's the second mouse that gets the cheese. Apple has essentially built the most valuable company in the world, now number two, on a second mouse strategy. And that is essentially Meta built this market, but Apple's going to collect the rent. And this hasn't this is not a mixed reality headset. That shit was like a prophylactic, right? That was just stupid. Just stupid. Meta has done the hard work. Ray-Band reportedly sold about seven million units in twenty twenty five and owns eighty five percent of the category. And Apple is now entering after consumer behavior has already been validated. Right. Yeah. People Apple is the most is the most aspirational brand globally. It says I'm I'm one of the one billion people who are the most creative and wealthy people on the planet. And it is the ultimate luxury item is an iPhone in terms of ubiquity globally. It means it means you can afford a twelve or fourteen hundred dollar piece of equipment that does the exact same thing a three hundred dollar or a free phone does because you consider yourself part of the creative class and you have some, you know, ris, if you will, economically. So Palm built the smartphone market, BlackBerry validated it, Apple captured it. Fossil and Swatch built watches, Apple captured it. Remember Ankyo, the first wireless earbuds? No, you don't. I don't. Yeah. They were I had them. Oh yonky. There were a whole bunch of early I wireless earbuds. And then Apple came in and stole it, but it was called Onkyo. I had them. There were a bunch uh before um before Aaron Powell This is this is what I think is going to happen. Meta spent tens of billions uh proving people will wear computers on their face , Apple will show up late, charge 40% more, and take 80% of the profits here. And people the mistake people make is that people think the Valley's greatest business model is invention. It's not. It's letting someone else prove demand. Yep. Yep. Same thing with the AirPod. They did they weren't the first of those music devices. They just were the best. They'll come in with beautiful glasses. They're not going to need Ray-Ban. They'll design something gorgeo But it'll look beautiful and and if if it's distinctly Apple, I'm You'll wear them. I'll wear them. I'll buy it. And they'll w you will totally have like ninety sets of them in your house because you'll lose them. Well look what I have here. One of my eight sets of AirPods that I consistently lose. Trevor Burrus Yeah. And remember when AirPods were thought as ugly when they Anyway, this they're going to they're going to take this area. I think and if they're and if they shump it has to be more than cameras, it's got to give you information and talk to you and s record things and everything else. It's gotta have more. I I I have a pair of the Ray Bans. I don't find them useful at all. I I I don't I don't I just don't it doesn't like them. My kid my kids are. I do, but it doesn't work that well with my other with my Apple. Yes, that's where it is. And but I bet Apple could if they could give me enough stuff to do with it, I'd rather like because I use my AirPods now for everything. Like I don't ever look at my phone, you know. Anyway. Um all right, let's go on a quick break. When we come back, we'll talk about Trump quietly signing his AI executive order. Support for this show comes from Odoo . Running a business is hard enough, so why make it harder with a dozen different apps that don't talk to each other? Introducing Odoo. It's the only business software you'll ever need. It's an all-in-one, fully integrated platform that makes your work easier. CRM, accounting, inventory, e-commerce, and more. And the best part, Odoo replaces multiple expensive platforms for a fraction of the cost. That's why over thousands of businesses have made the switch. So why not you? Try Odu for free at Odoo.com. That's Odo o.com Who is actually winning the war between Russia and Ukraine? Right now it's clear that Ukraine is much more confident. Time now looks increasing on Ukraine's side, and there's no obvious reasons for them to negotiate a ceasefire in the near term just because the United States or somebody else wants it. I'm John Finer. And I'm Jake Sullivan, and we're the hosts of The Long Game, a weekly national security podcast. This week, we discuss the war in Ukraine with Michael Kaufman, one of the leading analysts of the conflict who recently returned from the front lines. The episode's out now. Search for and follow the long game wherever you get your podcasts. Have we underestimated the damage Trump has done? It's easy perhaps to chuckle at a Donald Trump. There are times when he sort of campied. I think there are things that he does, you know, his his little dance and some of the other kinds of things to come across as a rasc I'm Preet Barrara and this week former U.S. Attorney Barb McQuaid join meed to discuss this administration's mob-style governance and corruption. The episode is out now. Search and follow stay tuned with PRET wherever you get your podcasts. Scott, we're back. President Trump has finally signed his AI executive order and it's a paler shade of white. After scrapping a previous version at last minute a few weeks ago, the new order is scaled back version of the original. It asks AI companies to voluntarily submit their most powerful models to the government for review 30 days rather than I think it's 90 day review window. It was in an earlier version. But Trump rejected that, saying it would get in the way of uh competition with China. The revised order comes after a White House meeting on Monday with Trump, Scott Bess and Pete Heggseth, and former AI Zar uh David Sachs, who gave his blessing to the new timeline. David's actually gotten in the way of the previous one. I'll note Sam Altman is in D.C. this week making the rounds. It's just dumb. It's just it does nothing. And that's that's my thoughts on it. Your thoughts? Well the elites in the Trump administration think the regulation is controversial, but you know who's ahead of them is the American public. Voters don't think it's controversial. This is this is one of the few issues where Republicans, Democrats, parents, um, unions and you know churchgoers uh all agree. I think this is the next great populist movement, for better or for worse. It won't be anti-immigration or anti-globalization. It'll be anti-AI CARA . And this is this is an enormous opportunity for a Democrat or a Republican that figures out that the first the the first person that really goes into a populist movement around regulating AI is gonna is gonna have the political equivalent of beachfront property here. This is the next big populist movement. Yep. I agree with you. I think that's absolutely true. I think you're 100 percent true. Anyway, uh it's a really interesting but this this one did nothing. This one did nothing. It's a big whole lot of nothing and David Sachs got his way. Congratulations, Dave. But there were others much more concerned in that administration and as well they should be. All right, Scott, one more quick break. We'll be back for predictions . Okay, Scott, let's hear a prediction. I shall go first. Just want to say Missouri is reducing state funding for Dolly Parton's Imagination Library and Early Child Reading Program that mails free books to children. My children get them. They're wonderful. And Dolly went on to complain about this online very in a very friendly way. But this is a great program and so reducing funding for kids getting books is the most idiotic thing I've ever seen. And I predict Dolly Parton will prevail here and the money will get to this group. Aaron Ross Powell Well, first just to comment on that. I was watching Bill Maher and they asked Neil deGrasse Tyson who, if aliens landed, who would you want to speak to that person or who would be best selected to speak to aliens? And he said a great mathematician would make a lot of sense, because he said any alien that gets to the earth would understand math, and that would be our common bridge in terms of uh vocabulary, which made a lot of sense to me. But I I immediately thought, no joke. Dolly Parton. Send Dolly Parton. Send Dolly Fucking Parton? She's super likable, on a lot of levels, kinda represents represents earth pretty well. She can sing. She's likable. She's smart. Smart, charitable. Tells a good story. Boobs. I don't know how uh uh I won't get into other attributes that kind of represent America. But she talks about 'em. You can say boobs with her. She talks about it. Well, give her her book money, you fuckers in Missouri. Anyway, go ahead. So my pr my prediction is is more boring. I think you're about to see the mother of all capital front-running. What do I mean by that? As everyone obsesses over the valuation of OpenAI, SpaceX, and Anthropic , you're about to see Alphabet's already announced it. The next will be Amazon. Then it might be NVIDIA, then it might be Apple. They're going to front-run all these guys. They're going to cut the line and say, you want to give cheap capital to companies in AI. Our company is lower risk, not as much upside, but much lower risk. Alphabet just announced an eighty billion dollar offering. They're like, if there's a if there's if there's a quarter of a trillion dollars out there of dumb money or cheap money looking to get into AI, they're cutting the line and they're gonna suck the oxygen or some of the oxygen out of the room of the IPR. Aaron Powell I I saw that from Alphabet yesterday. I'm like, oh my God, that's such fucking genius. Explain what they're doing. They're they're raising money by Well usually these companies will do a debt offering at this point because they used typically access such cheap debt. But I think Alphabet said, My God, these guys there's there's people out there willing to invest at twenty, thirty, a hundred times revenues to buy go buy NVIDIA chips and build out AI infrastructure, they're like, I think we'll take that. And so Alphabet, whose CEO or CFO is incredibly smart, said, no, we'll we'll go get 80 billion of that cheap capital. And it's so smart. It's so kind of, if you will. And and quite frankly, if I'm if I'm Apple, if I'm Alphabet, if I'm Alphabet and I have Gemini and I think, you know, OpenAI and Anthropic are competitors. I'm just gonna kick them in the nuts. Yeah. Yeah. And I'm gonna step on their oxygen line before we be hooked up. But the way they deserve it. They are as good, right? It's not like why should they get the money? There's less downside. These companies have robust business. And they have gr they have great management teams. They're front running the IPOs here. I th I wish I'd thought of this. I think it's such genius, but my prediction is Alphabet's starting