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00:03Good evening once again. I am Stephanie Ruhle. Take a deep breath, sit back, pour yourself a
00:09drink because it is time for the nightcap. And after this week, it is now abundantly clear
00:15we are in year two of the second Trump administration. The president is upending
00:19decades of cooperation with our most important allies around the world. While here at home,
00:24he pushes for more deportations, files lawsuits and threatens to retaliate against his perceived
00:30enemies. Just this week, he threatened to seize Greenland and tariff Europe. He questioned the
00:35value of NATO, sued JP Morgan for five billion bucks, threatened the independence of the Federal
00:41Reserve and sent ICE to yet another state, Maine. He even called for Jack Smith to be prosecuted.
00:48A lot has changed in year one and even more has changed in this past week. So let's bring in
00:53our
00:53nightcap because it's a great one. Steve Leisman joins us. CNBC senior economics reporter,
00:58MSNOW political analyst, Molly John Fast. She's a contributing writer for the New York Times
01:02and host of the Fast Politics podcast, which I will be joining next week. Eddie Glaude,
01:06Princeton professor and MSNOW contributor, and Paul Rykoff, founder and CEO of Independent
01:11Veterans of America. And he's host of the Independent Americans podcast. Paul, I'm going to turn
01:17to you first. After the president's speech in Davos, what did that reveal to the world?
01:25Yeah, we are no longer the good guys. Wow.
01:29Trump is now terrorizing most of the world and he's pissing off just about every ally that shed
01:36blood with us, that's had wounded troops alongside us. And he's managed to tick off even our most trusted
01:41allies. I mean, we were the people that the world trusted. We were the ones that could come in and
01:47save people and stand on the side of freedom. Now we look like pirates. We look like renegades.
01:52We look like marauders. And every time he opens his mouth, he finds a new way to insult a new
01:57country.
01:58And I think it's especially egregious when it comes to NATO and our national security, because
02:01we know those of us who served in the military, that people from Denmark have fought and died alongside
02:06us in Afghanistan and Iraq. And in the last 12 hours, especially the pushback from veterans around the
02:11world, has been extraordinary. He's already insulted American veterans and the fallen here
02:15time and time again. But now he's done it to the rest of the world. And I think it really
02:18is a new
02:19despicable, dishonorable low from a guy who didn't serve himself, whose kids didn't serve after 9-11.
02:25And now he's taken off the entire world and making us less safe, making us more isolated, less safe and
02:30more hated. Obviously, it was a roller coaster week in the markets. Tariffs threatening Greenland.
02:36Then things are back up. But Trump supporters in the markets or investors would say,
02:40this is how Trump rolls. This is the art of the deal, right? He asks for so much and then
02:45he
02:45settles somewhere in the middle. What is the real impact economically? Because the bond market,
02:50bond investors don't get cute with this. They really pay attention to the deterioration of our
02:57credibility.
02:57I think what we learned is that the bond market is the only thing that can keep a hold of
03:00Donald Trump
03:02these days. And I want to pick up on what Paul was saying, because I think there's two revelations
03:07here. There's the Churchill comment that he made, which is America gets to do the right thing after
03:16going through all other possible solutions. I'm not sure that our allies believe that to be true
03:23anymore. And there's two things I think that are worth thinking about. The first is not necessarily
03:28that we elected Donald Trump with his America first agenda. I think what they saw is that the
03:34institutions do not exist in America right now to correct a president who goes off of script,
03:43off of that America first.
03:44Because his presidential power has gone so far?
03:45Because presidential power has gone so far. I spent two hours listening to the Supreme Court hearing on
03:50the removal of Lisa Cook. The only thing that seems to be keeping the Supreme Court from giving
03:57Donald Trump the power to fire into the independent Federal Reserve boards is their concern about
04:03the economy. But there wasn't much thing about reigning in presidential power. And they were sort of
04:10maintaining the ability of the Fed to keep doing policy or economic policy. But they were really concerned
04:18about the economy there. But I'm concerned that our allies look at us and say, we lack the self-correcting
04:25mechanism that we thought they had.
04:27But Trump would argue these allies have nowhere to go. Even if we were an A-plus before, if we're
04:33an A-minus now, you still have to stick with us. We're the biggest and the best.
04:36So I think that's what made the Mark Carney speech so important. When he stepped forward and said,
04:41we have to start thinking about other ways. If you notice, Carney went to China. You know what's
04:46with the China? I don't know if he went or just announced, was the Prime Minister of England going to
04:50China? Everybody now is going to make a separate deal with China. And you asked me about
04:54the economic part of it. I'll also give you a security part of it. If we're going to reign
04:57in China, it's going to be together with our allies. Not sure we have those allies because
05:02now they're saying, I got to do a deal with America and with China. I'm not going to let
05:06America take the lead on the deal of reigning in Chinese security.
05:10Yeah, it was a lot of walkbacks. But I do think the most embarrassing moment was pretty much
05:16obscured by all of the drama, which was the Board of Peace, where he said...
05:21This is important because people missed it.
05:23Because it came at the end, but it was really embarrassing. A billion dollars of membership,
05:27it was meant to be like Mar-a-Lago. We could not get anyone in there who was a sort
05:32of NATO
05:32good ally.
05:35And you said Kazakhstan?
05:36Right.
05:38In Kazakhstan, we got Russia. He took Mark Carney's invitation back because he was mad about
05:45that speech where he wasn't named. I think that idea that the rest of the world is looking
05:50at us as the rogue state with the rogue president and the rogue Supreme Court, I think that's
05:56right.
05:56What we witnessed was the collapse of the post-World War II consensus.
06:00Wow.
06:00The very world that made possible American prosperity.
06:04Yeah.
06:05The foundations that led Henry Luce to declare the American century. All of that collapsed right
06:10in front of us. And I think it's really important for us to understand. Remember Carney said something,
06:15he said a lot of things really important. For the eggheads like me, he invoked Thucydides. He
06:20invoked Vaclav Havel. And he said, in invoking Havel, he said, we have been living within the lie.
06:27And we can no longer live within the lie. As a middle power, we need to understand that we are
06:32in a world where it's been defined by spheres of power. And we have some bad actors here. And we
06:38have
06:38to understand our role, what we must do, given the values that animate us. And so the world that
06:43created American prosperity is collapsing right in front of us. And the presumption on the part of
06:50Trump and others that the world will not move on. This is not a world that's in tatters because of
06:55the violence of World War II. India is not coming out of colonialism. China is not in darkness.
07:03The world is entirely different than the world that made the U.S. a hegemon. And so part of what
07:09I saw there, in fact, I woke up in this amazing, I mean, in this deep anxiety, in this deep
07:15panic,
07:16thinking that how is it that the country is so arrogant that these people believe that they
07:21can say what they can, what Trump believes that he can say what he said and not think that people
07:26will go, huh, and move on. And then the last point, Stephanie, please, it's not just Trump.
07:32The American people elected him twice. Yeah. And so it's not just that he's not trustworthy.
07:38Right. We're not trustworthy. Wow. Well, then think about all the people who elected Donald Trump
07:46and everything was about America first. Do any of those people watch this and say what he's doing
07:53does put American interests first? I mean, when earlier this week, when when he posted the picture
07:58with the American flag on Greenland, on Canada, on Venezuela, I can't imagine seeing that image
08:04at a Trump rally. The Greenland thing, I think, is really important because he really thought that
08:11he could do that. He was really, you know what that looked like. Who knows? But he was like,
08:15I want it. I want it. Because no grownups are in the White House to say, yo, dude, that's not
08:18a good
08:18idea. And today I was talking to a Democratic senator and I said, you know, what's happening
08:23with pushback? What does that look like? You talk to these Republicans, you know, you don't need that
08:27many. And he said, you know, they're pretty cowardly, but the Greenland thing was a no go.
08:35And I think that Greenland is important just because it was like a very clear, crazy thing that
08:43he was not able to do. And there are so few checks on this president and the Supreme Court is
08:49very
08:49hesitant to do anything to prevent him from, you know, being a king. This was so insane that it did,
08:58in fact, get Republicans to say no go. It's not over. I mean, he has a plan. 2025 was about
09:06dominating
09:06America. 2026 is about dominating the Western Hemisphere. And that's what he wants to do. So when
09:11he says he wants to take Greenland, he's going to find another way. Maybe he'll try later. He's also
09:15said he wants to get out of NATO. Right. So what this crazy peace group is about is trying to
09:19create
09:19an alternative for NATO. He is undermining NATO. He is blowing NATO apart. And the reality is that
09:26nothing is stopping him except himself. He is all gas, no brakes and no guardrails are slowing him
09:31down. He can still do anything he wants with the most powerful military the world has ever seen.
09:35And Congress didn't do crap about Greenland, just like they didn't do anything about Venezuela
09:39until after it happened. So the test is, is it the markets that maybe slowed him down? It seemed
09:44to be the tariffs and the reaction of the markets that actually slowed him down because it wasn't
09:48NATO that slowed him down. It wasn't Congress that slowed him down. Maybe it was Chairman of the Joint
09:52Chiefs of Staff, Cain, who might be the only one stopping him from invoking the Insurrection Act.
09:56But we are hitting circuit breaker moments time and time again. And so far, nothing has stopped him.
10:01And there's a theory of the case that Greenland was to try to get out of NATO,
10:04that doing Greenland would have messed up NATO so big that it would have been more than we did.
10:10Well, they would have had to invoke Article 5 against us, right? Like, it's really important
10:14for people to say Denmark deployed combat troops to Greenland, anticipating that we might attack.
10:19The only other time Article 5 has been enacted was on 9-11 to defend us. And that's why the
10:25world is
10:25so especially upset about this, because they have always stood with us. And now we're turning against
10:30our most valuable, trusted allies that have set the world order for a generation.
10:35I want to pick up on something the professor said, which was,
10:38I think America is going to find out that we had, in the post-war period,
10:43beautifully arranged the world to benefit ourselves.
10:46And probably...
10:47Okay, this is super important.
10:48And probably, in the history of civilization, come up with probably the most humane,
10:54and not only the most humane, but most efficient way of running our empire.
10:58We didn't have to station troops, and we didn't have to kill a whole lot of...
11:02I mean, I don't want... I don't mean to make this...
11:04No, I hear you.
11:04But compared to, say, the Romans that put legions in and people on crosses,
11:09we didn't necessarily have to do that, per se.
11:13There's a very funny thing that... a very important thing that happened during the great financial crisis
11:18and the pandemic. It's a thing called swap lines.
11:22Oh, brother, you're going to know.
11:24I try to get myself uninvited every time.
11:26No, no, no, not this one. I'm going to keep you on this one.
11:31When the world melted down, because the world is dollarized,
11:34our central bank went and provided dollars to the world.
11:38We put dollars on their account, they put euros on our account,
11:42and we did the same with Canadian dollars.
11:44Try to imagine the world now in a financial crisis,
11:47with a majority of Trump appointees on the Federal Reserve Board.
11:54while the president is trying to take over Greenland.
11:57Where the president says, if you want a swap line, give me Greenland.
12:03Right.
12:04And now make yourself Mark Carney, who, by the way, was the central banker for Canada
12:09and very successfully steered Canada and the Canadian banks through the great financial crisis.
12:14saying, you know what, if I have a choice, I'm going to be less in the dollar.
12:20I'm going to be less.
12:22And I don't think they're running away because they can't.
12:26But in the choices that will be made at the margin, I believe, from this point,
12:30taking what the professor was saying, I think those choices will be less dollar, less U.S.,
12:35maybe more China, maybe South America.
12:37Do you think, when you just said it wasn't just Donald Trump this week,
12:40America elected him twice, right?
12:42And the average person, and I'm not saying the average person's a dope,
12:45but the average person isn't thinking about, or they're taking for granted
12:49that the dollar is the reserve currency.
12:55If it would not be, our whole lives would get a whole lot more expensive.
13:00Do you think people realize the extent of what they vote for?
13:03No, they don't realize it, just like farmers didn't realize.
13:05Yet they voted for him again.
13:08And so what I think, you know, what's so fascinating is that we've always known,
13:13at least some of us, that our hatreds would get the best of us at some point.
13:18That our greed would grab us by the throat at some point.
13:22The toxic brew of greed, selfishness, and hatred has soured the belly of the country,
13:28eaten a hole through its mining.
13:30And so we find ourselves right here.
13:32Carney was very clear when global integration lends itself to the reality that big powers
13:37can use that integration to extort, to bully in light of its own interest.
13:44When Stephen Miller, in that interview on that other network,
13:48said that all of this stuff in the post-World War era, all of this infrastructure and all,
13:53it was weak.
13:54And so they are actually appealing to 19th century imperialism, to the stuff,
14:00cosplaying Teddy Roosevelt, wanting to take over Guam, wanting to take over the Philippines,
14:05wanting to invade Haiti.
14:07That's the conception of power that animates these folk.
14:11And if Americans believe that the world is just going to stand by and let America run roughshod,
14:18oh, my God, we're about to F-A-F-O.
14:23We're just going to leave it at that.
14:25We had a deal.
14:26We had a deal, and that deal is gone now, right?
14:29We all had a deal.
14:30We would all say, all the coaches would say, OK, America is going to run the show,
14:34but here's what we're going to get.
14:35We're not going to get extorted.
14:36Because that's rooted in trust.
14:37We had trust, we had respect, and that's all going on.
14:40Just this week, right, it wasn't just hinting at maybe I'm not into NATO.
14:44We left the World Health Organization, right?
14:46And we know the president has said, you know, COVID was mishandled.
14:50And listen, it's really, really hard to manage a pandemic real time.
14:55But isn't this another example of our gargantuan thing that we now say we're going to take on alone,
15:01forgetting the fact that pandemics do have no borders?
15:04What about the vaccine recommendations this week?
15:09They've changed the vaccine recommendations.
15:11Polio.
15:12I mean, the insane...
15:14Measles outbreaks.
15:14Measles outbreaks.
15:15I mean, this is...
15:17We are in...
15:19RFK Jr. has gone wild on health in the worst possible way at the worst possible time.
15:25So, yes, this is all just totally terrifying.
15:29Also, Politico is reporting that the administration is now weighing a naval blockade
15:34to cut off Cuban oil imports and possibly force regime change there.
15:39Cuba's next.
15:40Cuba's on his vision board.
15:41I mean, so is Colombia.
15:43So is Greenland, right?
15:44He's telegraphed his punches over and over again.
15:46And he's generally on plan.
15:48I say it often.
15:48Imagine how far he'd be if Hegseth wasn't screwing up all the time, right?
15:52I mean, there's a really important factor here.
15:53The overwhelming majority of America does not support invading Greenland.
15:56The overwhelming majority of America does not support what he's done in Venezuela.
16:00He doesn't care, right?
16:01He's going forward despite the fact that the overwhelming majority of America doesn't support
16:05most of what he's doing and saying.
16:07And I think it's very important for all of us to speak to the world and say Donald Trump
16:11does not speak for most Americans, especially when it comes to his language and his dishonorable
16:17behavior toward our allies.
16:19He does not speak for us toward Denmark and toward Greenland and toward Norway and toward
16:23all the others.
16:23Most Americans respect our allies, value our allies, and trust our allies.
16:27And we have to communicate that message to the world and create an alternative narrative
16:31to show the world that Americans are not all crazy and they're not all extreme and they're
16:34not all along with what he's doing.
16:36But, Paul, not just most Americans.
16:37What I don't get is Trump's base, right?
16:41When they dismantled USAID, the argument was, we're not going to spend money abroad.
16:45We're going to spend it here, right?
16:47When I would argue with my parents about immigration, they would say, you know what, Stephanie?
16:51We've got to take care of American children first.
16:53Those families that are saying America first, America first, they don't give a hoot about
16:58Greenland.
16:59So, so, so.
16:59But they also don't think we should be locking up five-year-old kids and macing people.
17:03Correct, correct, correct.
17:03And I think that's really important, too, though.
17:05Those people who voted for him, they don't want any of this.
17:08No, no.
17:09And that's very, very important.
17:10Most of the country, including his base, doesn't want many of these things.
17:13They don't want to see this type of Gestapo, goonish behavior, kicking in doors with no
17:18warrants.
17:19Most Republicans do not support warrantless entries by ICE into people's house.
17:23Say that out loud.
17:24But more importantly, he's got the power.
17:26This is what's important.
17:27He has seized the levers of power across his government.
17:29So public opinion doesn't matter to him.
17:31What matters most urgently to him is the midterms.
17:34And that's why the Insurrection Act is always on the board, because that is the next circuit
17:37breaker that he wants to stop.
17:39OK, well, he might have the power, but the other P isn't helping him, the polls.
17:43Nobody's going anywhere.
17:44Coming up later in the show, how the president plans to reshape the media you consume from TikTok
17:49to late night TV.
17:50But right after the break, his promise of an immigration crackdown is what helped him win
17:55the White House.
17:56We're going to talk about these ICE raids.
17:58Now it is an issue that is losing him a ton of support.
18:01Our nightclub is continuing right after this.
18:07While the president spent the week shaking up our standing internationally, back here
18:11at home, the latest polling shows large numbers of people are not happy with how the administration
18:17is leading the country and how the president's agenda is playing out in real life.
18:21The nightcap is still here.
18:22Molly, because you brought a reporter's notebook, you get to go first for this segment.
18:28So the administration is trying to thread this needle with sort of hardline deportation
18:34policies.
18:35There's a lot of apolitical people that are happy with the president's aggressive tactics
18:41closing the border.
18:42However, this administration has to be realizing these horrible videos of these ICE raids are
18:49making their way around the world.
18:51Jamie Dimon himself brought it up in Davos.
18:53OK, he didn't make no why am I looking at five agents arresting one one small woman?
19:00The fact that they now have J.D.
19:02Vance flying out to Minnesota to to lower the temperature is immigration, which was a winning
19:07issue for him.
19:09Is it becoming a losing one?
19:10First of all, sending J.D.
19:11Vance to lower the temperature.
19:13You're right.
19:14Yeah.
19:14Talk about an oxymoron.
19:16I mean, this guy and he did.
19:17He said, I'm out here to lower the temperature.
19:19But look, there were images this week that I think are like the cover of Time magazine
19:27kind of images.
19:27The little boy with the hat, with the ears, who's five years old that you see him, the
19:33man being pulled out of the house.
19:36It turns out the guy they were looking for was in jail already.
19:38He's wearing no shirt.
19:40And yes, a hat or a yeah, or a robe.
19:44He it's freezing.
19:45It's Minnesota in the winter.
19:47He's elderly.
19:47You can see marks on his legs because he has some kind of skin thing.
19:52I mean, that what those images are haunting and people have seen them.
19:57Renee Good.
19:58Right.
19:58She that video, something like 80 percent of people have seen that video.
20:03I mean, crazy numbers.
20:04We saw her autopsy came out this week.
20:08It showed that nothing that the administration said was true.
20:11Right.
20:11That she was shot once in the chest, once in the leg, what through the side.
20:16Right.
20:16And that she was she had a pulse when they got to her, when they wouldn't allow a doctor
20:22standing there, help her.
20:24We often hear at a you and I've talked about this before.
20:26We hear from people in America say, I don't hate immigrants.
20:29I just want them to come here legally.
20:32But the thing is, the administration seems to now be going after people who are doing it
20:38the right way.
20:39Right.
20:39So we need to understand what this is all about, in my view.
20:42And we talked about this before on another show.
20:44I think this whole immigration policy is driven by fears around the Great Replacement Theory.
20:50I think ICE is the largest funded federal enforcement agency.
20:54It sure is.
20:55Because it's charged to make America white again.
20:57And until we understand, until we admit that white nationalists have captured the executive
21:04branch of the U.S. government, we won't understand what they're doing.
21:07Or we won't really fundamentally give an account of what we're seeing.
21:12And I think fundamentally, they are drawing the lines between either you're with us on this
21:17issue or you're not.
21:19Renee Goode was an enemy.
21:21Right.
21:21That's the thing.
21:23If you side with an America that is multiracial, that is multiethnic, and if you don't believe
21:29in their ideology, because this is existential for Stephen Miller, this is existential for
21:35these folks.
21:36And so it doesn't move by way of, as John Hyman would say, it doesn't move by the physics
21:42of traditional politics.
21:44He can be upside down on this issue all day long.
21:47It doesn't matter, because it's existential, because these people believe that America
21:52fundamentally must be a white republic.
21:56And either you're with that, or you're against it.
21:59See, where are our business leaders?
22:01After January 6th, so many business leaders spoke out and said they weren't even going
22:06to financially support any lawmaker that didn't vote to certify the election.
22:11And now they find themselves in a situation with a president who, if you speak out against
22:16him, he comes for you.
22:17Jamie Dimon learned that.
22:18But here's the thing.
22:20As Donald Trump drops and drops and drops in the polls, doesn't this put the business
22:25community in a situation that they need to find their voice at some point?
22:29Let me answer your first question by asking you, if you find the business leaders, give
22:34me a call.
22:35I hear you, sir.
22:36I don't know where they are.
22:38There was a moment there in the post-January 6th period where they stepped up, and I guess
22:43they went along with what was happening in the country at the time, which was this backlash
22:47against Donald Trump.
22:48But there's two things happening.
22:51One is the president has no holds barred against going after anybody in any way.
22:59He went after the universities.
23:01He succeeded.
23:02Went after CBS, and he succeeded.
23:05In every single place, he succeeded.
23:08Plus, the other thing he did, this is a corollary to the first thing, is opened up the spigots
23:13on M&A, which the Biden administration was much tighter about.
23:17So now you're saying, well, if there's value in my company M&A, and I got to go through the
23:22administration on this, I can't piss him off.
23:24M&A, Steve.
23:26Mergers and acquisitions.
23:27Okay, there you go.
23:27Mergers and acquisitions.
23:28I can do a big thing.
23:29I can buy another company.
23:30Except let me just argue this point.
23:32Let me break the second point real quickly, which is the other thing that's happening
23:36is they're all making money.
23:38Right.
23:39A lot of it.
23:39If they weren't making money, if you notice, and I'm going to make this point at the end
23:44of the show, so it's kind of like blown already, but what happened with Liberation Day?
23:49Right.
23:50Why did he back off the tariffs?
23:52I disagree with you, Molly.
23:54I don't think objection in Congress had anything to do with why I backed off Greenland.
23:59I agree.
23:59I'm going to take 10, 12 points on the 10-year yield and say that's why he backed off.
24:05Same thing on Liberation Day.
24:06The stock market, the bond market, they're the only constraints on Donald Trump right
24:11now, and I've talked to these guys, and behind the scenes, they're like, this is, you know,
24:17I got to, I have the responsibility of a company to run.
24:21I think what you're saying, Stephanie, is an interesting question as to whether or not
24:25there's a backlash in the future against those who don't step up.
24:30Plus, those really close to Trump are making so much money.
24:35The rest of them in the circle are in a, if you can't beat them, join them space.
24:38I mean, you realize, Cantor Fitzgerald, Howard Blutnick's firm, right, that his sons now run,
24:44are in every possible deal.
24:46They seem to be ahead of every single announcement.
24:49It's extraordinary.
24:51Here's what happened this week that I think is really important.
24:53Please.
24:54Much of America said, shit, this could happen to me.
24:58I think that happened this week, right?
25:00They understand that all of this could happen to them, right?
25:03They understand now that they could shoot you in the head, right, and call you a domestic
25:08terrorist.
25:08If you're a citizen, if you're a veteran, if you're a cop, if you're a kid, they can drag
25:13you out of your house, put you in handcuffs, and make you disappear.
25:16If they can do it to all those people, they can do it to you.
25:19But do you actually think that's it?
25:21I do.
25:22Because if you watch Fox News, they're not watching it.
25:24If you watch Fox News, when they show you Minnesota, they make you think it's professional
25:28But more and more people in this country are seeing it.
25:30It is overflowing.
25:31And law enforcement is a critical circuit breaker that is pushing back.
25:35Local law enforcement in Minneapolis is pushing back.
25:38The police in Portland, Maine are pushing back.
25:40Veterans are pushing back.
25:41They are the patriotic people that are holding the line right now and within the military.
25:45It's going to be absolutely critical that we watch the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of
25:49Staff, Cain, who is going to be the one person who will be critical in pushing back if he
25:52wants to send the federal troops that have been activated in Alaska to go down to Minneapolis.
25:57But people are pushing back.
25:58And this week, they thought to themselves, man, could this happen to me?
26:01And the reality is, it can.
26:02And it could be coming soon.
26:04Semantic point of order.
26:05Agitator is the word they used in the Soviet Union to describe people who oppose the system.
26:10Terrorist is the same word used by the Iranian government when they were describing their
26:15protesters.
26:16Our administration is using those same two words.
26:19What we're not talking about and what does impact the American people is affordability.
26:24Steve was just talking about the CEOs who are staying silent because they're making more
26:27and more money.
26:28Health care premiums are going up, right?
26:30The president could cap how many homes you could own, you know, targeting kind of private
26:35equity firms.
26:35But still, the average first-time homebuyer is 40 years old.
26:39Like, are more and more people turning their heads saying, this doesn't work for me.
26:44America's not working for me.
26:45They're not paying attention to these issues.
26:47They can't afford their lives.
26:48Absolutely.
26:48We saw it in New York City with the election of Omdani.
26:51The populist drift, right, is taking over and has metastasized in American politics.
26:58It's just, in American history, populism tends to come from the right as opposed to the left.
27:02Right?
27:03And so there's this interesting kind of convergence, right?
27:05As people are trying to figure out how do they keep their noses above water, there's
27:11also this red meat that's constantly being thrown to them.
27:13Remember, I talked about a toxic brew of greed, selfishness, and hatred.
27:19Those three things go together.
27:20And so I think we're seeing a deepening class divide between those who have and those who
27:26do not have that jeopardize, that fundamentally endanger and imperil our democracy.
27:31But at the same time, it's overly by the ugliness that has always shadowed American democracy
27:39since it's found.
27:39High prices did sink President Biden, Kamala Harris.
27:44Could that be the case for President Trump?
27:46Well, and he doesn't like to, he might be going on an affordability tour, but he has
27:50nothing to say on it.
27:51Right, exactly.
27:52And if anything, every time I say this to me, Eddie, it's like you are being shallow and
27:56silly.
27:56I'm with him on that.
27:57This ain't the price of London, this isn't about the price of London broil.
28:00I know you pick him a nice little man.
28:02I think it's about security.
28:03And I think people feel less safe.
28:05I think that's really key.
28:06But you do see Donald Trump having the same problem that Joe Biden had, right, where he
28:12says, you know, it's the economy's good, the economy's good.
28:15I mean, you saw Brooke Rollins this week, the ag secretary, saying you can afford a potato
28:21and a piece of whatever, a tortilla, if you are defending, you're losing, right?
28:28And that's what we're seeing.
28:29I thought what was interesting about Zoran, which I think is new for Democrats, is that
28:34he is transmitting all the stuff the city does for you.
28:37And he's doing these ads.
28:38And I actually think it's quite smart.
28:40And one of the problems Biden world had was they were very hostile to the media.
28:44They didn't do interviews.
28:45They didn't let him out there.
28:46And so people didn't know what he was doing.
28:48And so there was sort of they were trying to catch up.
28:51They were behind their fault.
28:52But when you see Zoran is doing these ads where he's saying you need pre-K, I'll do pre-K
28:57for you.
28:58You'll do this.
28:58You'll do that.
28:59The city can do this for you.
29:00They can do jobs for you.
29:01And I actually think it's a very, you know, Democrats really lost that populist wave,
29:06even though they were doing a lot of populist legislation.
29:09And this is a way to catch that.
29:11Everybody is staying right here.
29:13When we return, let's talk about TikTok finalizing its deal to stay online in the
29:18U.S.
29:18I know you're going like, wait, weren't they supposed to leave?
29:22Didn't we make a law on that?
29:24Yeah, that went out the window.
29:25We're going to get into who is now running the platform and how it could tighten Trump's
29:29cultural grip.
29:35We're following two major media stories tonight.
29:38And if you aren't following them, turn the volume up.
29:40Let's start with TikTok.
29:42The mega popular video sharing platform has officially finalized a deal to create a new
29:47American entity averting a U.S. ban, a ban that was voted on, signed, approved.
29:53Now we're just pretending that never happened by handing a majority ownership, not the whole
29:58thing, to several big U.S. firms, many of which have very close ties to President Trump.
30:03Meanwhile, the FCC now claims daytime and late night talk shows must comply with equal time
30:09rules that gives air time to views of opposing candidates.
30:13The nightcap is still here.
30:14Eddie, let's start with TikTok because the whole reason for the ban originally was about
30:19national security concerns because the apps ties to China.
30:24But I said majority ownership is American.
30:28ByteDance still owns nearly 20 percent.
30:31So we know bottom line, it was about who's going to be making, who's going to be raking
30:34in all the cash that TikTok generates.
30:37Look, we're in a moment where we're facing five alarm crisis with regards to our democracy
30:43at every level.
30:45And the fourth estate is in crisis.
30:47The very ways in which Americans acquire their information in order to engage in informed
30:53deliberation about how they're going to self-govern.
30:56So how are we acquiring our information?
31:00Social media has made that complicated.
31:02It's even more complicated now with CBS, PBS, all the stuff that's happening in the media
31:08landscape.
31:09So here we see Greed doing his work and we see Greed ideologically capturing a space that's
31:17really important for Americans to acquire the information to do the work that democracy
31:22requires.
31:23So it's another pillar, right?
31:26Another, shall we say, load bearing thing that's cracked, if that makes sense.
31:33So he wants to take over the world, right?
31:35He's like Augustus Gloop in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
31:38He just keeps eating and eating and eating, right?
31:40And that's who he is.
31:41He's like Greed.
31:42He wants the moon.
31:42He wants to take over the world.
31:43And anything that gets in his way, he tries to destroy.
31:46And in addition to being focused on NATO and focused on our allies and focused on our
31:51institutions, he's constantly focused on the media.
31:54He wants to destroy the American institutions of media.
31:57And he started with way back when Twitter used to be a normal thing and has now been
32:00corrupted into X.
32:01He came after NPR and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and CBS and the Washington
32:07Post and CNN and plenty of folks here, right?
32:09And a big chip on the chessboard is TikTok, right?
32:12And there's still a national security concern because if the Chinese have 20% of every phone
32:16in America, we should all be concerned.
32:18But the real danger now is with 80% owned by his allies, they can twist TikTok into X.
32:24That's what it can become.
32:25It can become the most effective propaganda machine on the planet for Donald Trump.
32:29And that's why it is about our national security.
32:31But it is about slowing him down and stopping his ability to consume things that will perpetuate
32:36his power.
32:37He knows anything standing in his way must be knocked down.
32:40And that included stars and stripes this week.
32:42Another media target he swept up is the independent media agency that covers the Pentagon and the
32:48veterans world.
32:48He's going after stars and stripes, too.
32:50And he's going after anybody that can slow him down because his real war is against the
32:54truth.
32:55And anyone who can tell the truth must be eliminated.
32:57My God.
32:58And just this week, right?
32:59The president says it calls Greenland, Iceland.
33:02We all watched it several times.
33:03And then the White House said, no, he did not do that.
33:06The White House now has its own communications apparatus, including posting AI generated content
33:13that's simply not true.
33:15Yeah, that happens.
33:17And Twitter is done.
33:20I guess I wonder, I don't have kids who are on TikTok.
33:26I think maybe you do.
33:27Do you have kids on TikTok?
33:27My kids think it's a national security problem.
33:31And so they're not on TikTok.
33:32Hers is special.
33:33That's interesting.
33:33I'm wondering if they stand for it.
33:36I'm wondering to the extent that, look, I go so far back, it's a little bit scary.
33:40But you remember in Russia, the fax machine was going to maintain democracy.
33:50I mean, it wasn't true.
33:52Yes.
33:53It didn't work.
33:54But at the same time, technology keeps moving on to the extent that the administration,
34:01and this is maybe more helpful than it should be, takes a heavy hand to these social media
34:07things, and you turn it on, for me, every time I open Twitter, which is less and less,
34:12there's an Elon Musk tweet up there.
34:13Do you guys have the same thing?
34:14Totally, man.
34:15And there's no way I can figure out to get rid of it.
34:17No.
34:17And he is obviously and always sort of pushing some completely wrong lie or something like
34:22that.
34:23Big Brother style.
34:23What's that?
34:24Like Big Brother.
34:24Yes.
34:25By design, yeah.
34:26And so I don't do it.
34:27And I have a right not to do that.
34:29And I'm wondering the extent to which the TikTok generation is going to stand for being
34:34We're sitting here going, I'm sick of social media as we're scrolling, scrolling, scrolling.
34:38But can I just...
34:39No, you're not wrong except the fact that they're addicted to it and they can't talk.
34:42I can't be wrong.
34:43But I do think we are living in a culture that, like, both Democrat and Republican legislators
34:48made, right?
34:49Totally.
34:49They decided not to regulate technology.
34:53Exactly.
34:53They decided not to put five...
34:54They love going out to dinner with Facebook lobbyists in D.C.
34:57That's, I mean, it doesn't matter what party you're in.
34:58Right.
34:58And they also didn't incentivize local media and mainstream media, nonpartisan media,
35:05just reporting itself.
35:07They didn't incentivize that.
35:08Like, we are the...
35:09You know, we are what we support.
35:10And in the UK, they have numerous newspapers.
35:13I mean, we did this, right?
35:16This is government...
35:17Our government got us here.
35:19And it's certainly made much worse by Trump, but both parties got us to this moment.
35:24You are right.
35:24You're going to end the segment.
35:25Molly won this segment.
35:27Everyone is staying put.
35:28When we return, it is time for everyone to share their MVP of the week.
35:33It was obviously a huge one, so I can't wait to hear them.
35:39It is time for our MVPs of the week, Professor.
35:42My MVP are the people of Minneapolis and St. Paul.
35:47You know, in spite of all the stuff we've been talking about, in spite of all the things,
35:51the horror of Liam, the horror of the two-year-old, the horror of what we've been seeing,
35:55they are out there in sub-zero weather.
35:58They're fighting.
35:59And they understand that if we're going to be saved, we're going to have to do it.
36:03Can't wait on politicians.
36:05Can't wait on some profit from on high.
36:07That American democracy will be saved by us.
36:10And they're proving it day in and day out.
36:12That's beautiful.
36:13Mine is adjacent to yours.
36:16It's Tim Walsh.
36:18And he's, you know, he's been through.
36:20He has had a rough month.
36:20He has really been through a lot.
36:22And they've been really mean to him.
36:24And he has really, you know, and they were going to, the administration has been threatening
36:28that they're going to whatever, investigate him.
36:31Investigate him, the mayor of the city.
36:33But, you know, they've held strong.
36:35They've really been really, you know, they, this is, this has been an amazing state.
36:40They have done amazing stuff.
36:42And I, you know, my heart goes to Tim.
36:43And I think he really worries that he's being targeted because that he, because he was on
36:49that 24 presidential ticket.
36:52Oh, yeah.
36:52I think he thinks that.
36:53I mean, he's, you know, I think it's larger than that.
36:56But I also think he's convinced.
36:58And it's also one of the Midwestern states that Trump has lost three times.
37:00So he really is stuck on it.
37:03Steve, we're getting to yours.
37:03But quickly, the economic blackout that's taking place in Minneapolis today, what kind
37:08of impact does that have?
37:09I mean, it's a blip on the national economy.
37:12But if it spreads, it's more, it's more meaningful.
37:15And it gets to people where it matters.
37:17My MVP, I'm going to take a minute, though.
37:21You've got about 45 seconds.
37:22Okay, take 15 seconds.
37:24A shout out to my good friend, the recently passed Bob Weir from The Grateful Dead.
37:28Not my MVP of the week.
37:29He's the MVP of one of the MVPs of my life.
37:31So I'm not going to make him.
37:32Beautiful.
37:33But really important person to me and a huge loss of a legend.
37:37But MVP of the week in the sense of most valuable player of the week is the bond market.
37:42It sure is.
37:43The bond market, I think, is what corrected the president on Greenland, corrected the
37:47president on Liberation Day, may have had an influence in the decision coming up on getting
37:52a decent person into being Fed chair.
37:54So, so far, when I look at institutions that have been able to attenuate some of the impulses
37:59of the president, and attenuate, I guess, is a euphemism, but it's the bond market.
38:04But the beauty is, it's the Wizard of Oz.
38:06It does not have a name or a face for Trump to go after.
38:10It just presses sell.
38:12Well, he actually excruciated them.
38:14He said some of all these people who are in the cell in America, he's going after them.
38:17But he doesn't know exactly who.
38:19He can't go after them.
38:19What's the beauty of it?
38:20Most of America is worried about an impending snowstorm.
38:24Not most of America.
38:26Half of America.
38:26Most of this region.
38:27Half of America, right?
38:28The Ukrainian people endure a storm of drones and missiles and attacks every single day.
38:34And snow.
38:35And snow.
38:35And freezing temperatures.
38:37And President Zelensky has been an honorable, respectful, noble leader for freedom.
38:42At a time when our president is dishonorable and disgusting and disgraceful, Zelensky has
38:47stepped up and stood up against Europe.
38:48He stood up against Trump.
38:50He stood up against Putin.
38:50And he continues to show what right looks like and what leadership looks like.
38:54And he's inspiring the world in the way America used to.
38:58And I think we could learn a lot from him right now.
39:00And we should be paying attention.
39:01All right.
39:01For you at home, do not go anywhere.
39:04My MVP is next.
39:06My gosh.
39:07His big night, I feel like, feels like seven months ago.
39:10It was four nights ago.
39:11All right.
39:11Stick around.
39:11It's a good one.
39:15So my MVP of the week, I'm going to say, is an extraordinary one.
39:2022-year-old quarterback Fernando Mendoza.
39:23If you do not know his name, learn it now.
39:26This young man led the Indiana Hoosiers through an undefeated season, a national championship,
39:31and he won the Heisman Trophy.
39:32All of this after being a barely recruited two-star prospect, third string at his previous college,
39:40Miami, who they beat on Monday, wouldn't even take him as a walk-on.
39:44As author Brad Stolberg wrote, in an era where people are afraid to be called cringe,
39:50Mendoza led the Indiana Hoosiers' historic turnaround with his heart on his sleeve and
39:55a captivating earnestness.
39:57I just want you to see how he reacted after winning the national championship on Monday
40:02night.
40:04There's no words.
40:05There's no words.
40:06This is the most special moment of my life, and I know my teammates here.
40:10There's no one else I'd rather do it with.
40:13Thank you, Fernando.
40:15Thank you, guys.
40:16God bless.
40:16God bless.
40:19Okay, did you love him right there?
40:21Because what might be the most remarkable thing about this young man is how his success is
40:26redefining what it means to achieve excellence.
40:29I want you to listen to what Brad Stolberg told me earlier this week.
40:35I think that what we miss about the mindset of excellence is that oftentimes we think it
40:41is for those with the most impeccable genetics or only the elite few.
40:45But Fernando Mendoza, as you mentioned in opening, he was hardly recruited.
40:49He was a third-string quarterback when he started.
40:51We don't know what we're capable of until we try.
40:54And all the fulfillment, all the joy, it's actually in the journey.
40:57So yes, I'm sure Fernando Mendoza is thrilled to have won this national championship.
41:01But what he created along the way from pouring his all into something,
41:04it's the ultimate way to reclaim our humanity in this world of slop and chaos.
41:09And that's available to us all.
41:12Congratulations again to Fernando Mendoza at a time when so many people think
41:17they want to be a bully and a bro.
41:19Fernando Mendoza is a truly good man.
41:24And you can catch the rest of my interview with Brad on YouTube.
41:26Just go to msnow slash Stephanie or scan the QR code on your screen.
41:30But for now, gang, I've loved having you all here.
41:34We're going to wrap it up.
41:36And for you at home, you can catch the Nightcap again tomorrow night at 11 p.m. Eastern.
41:40But for now, I wish you all a very good night from all of us here at the network.
41:44Thanks for staying up late.
41:45I'll see you at the end of the night.
41:47I'll see you at the end of the night.
41:49I'll see you at the end of the night.
41:49I'll see you at the end of the night.
41:50I'll see you at the end of the night.
41:50I'll see you at the end of the night.
41:51I'll see you at the end of the night.
41:51I'll see you at the end of the night.
41:52I'll see you at the end of the night.
41:52I'll see you at the end of the night.
41:54I'll see you at the end of the night.
41:54I'll see you at the end of the night.
41:54I'll see you at the end of the night.
41:54I'll see you at the end of the night.
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