Identity and Persona in Politics

In this episode, we delve into Gavin Newsom's recent attempts at political trolling and discuss whether trolling is a necessary part of modern American politics. The conversation touches on Newsom's persona, his political strategies, and his attempts to mimic Donald Trump's trolling techniques. We also compare Newsom's affluent upbringing and political maneuvers with JD Vance's rise from poverty, highlighting how these contrasts shape public perception. The episode critiques Newsom's authenticity and examines his political record, including controversies and his handling of California's issues. Tune in to hear an in-depth analysis of one of America's most polarizing political figures.

Malcolm Collins: [00:00:00] Hello Simone. I am excited to be here with you today. Today we are gonna be talking about Gavin Newsom and he figured out trolling. And the last didn't exactly figure it out. You know, he, he's sort of the human personification of the left can't meme. But he has started trolling and the left is loving it.

So it's like in Jurassic

Simone Collins: Park when the Raptor has figured out how to use door handles.

Malcolm Collins: Yeah. Except not really. Oh,

Simone Collins: God. But he's getting traction. I just think it's, it's too soon. He's, I, I

Malcolm Collins: also, it's a wider theme of this episode. What I want to ask is, 'cause some people have been saying this, they go, you do not appear to be able to have a voice.

Was in modern American politics without trolling that trolling is a necessary part of playing the current political game. And I would argue yes, yes it is. And this isn't necessarily a bad thing as a lot of people say. I mean, we have grown our political platform through trolling. , And I love that the left is [00:01:00] attempting to troll now because it comes off.

So bad,

Sorry, I re remembered that we have a bunch of non-American viewers. , Gavin Newsom right now is the Democrat's top contender to be running against JD Vance in the next presidential election cycle. I.

Malcolm Collins: so this, this ends up coming so bad because people are, are sharing these photos of Gavin Newsom again. Oh, you showed me one. Yeah. And Gavin Newsom. Looks like a bully. Like if you look at these, not like a bully, but like your standard rich bully kid.

Like if physio fmy as anything, he looks like a bully. And if you look at he looks American psycho. Yeah, he looks like an he. He and he acts like it, like even today. So if you could, Gavin Newsom, acts like Patrick Bateman from America Cycle. Like his whole thing feels so constructed. He saw Trump doing well.

By trolling people. And so then he goes and tries to troll people. If you look at his political rear up this, [00:02:00] he's just been like a chameleon. Copying and copying and copying whatever he sees somebody else doing.

Speaker: There is an idea of a Patrick Bateman, some kind of abstraction, but there is no real me only an entity, something illusory.

And though I can hide my cold gaze and you can shake my hand and feel flesh gripping yours, and maybe you can even sense, our lifestyles are probably comparable. I simply am not there.

Malcolm Collins: I mean, I think Patrick Bateman is a much better name for him than no Scum, which is Trump's but Trump by the way. Got that. And I'll play a video of, of him admitting this, but he said that some kids called him this in seventh grade and it hurt his feelings.

Speaker 2: I have my kids' friends. Call him my kids' new scum that I get 'cause I was called that in seventh grade,

Malcolm Collins: oh. And so Trump picked upon it. Oh God. Remember having his feelings hurt for something so effing stupid from the seventh grade. Oh, good heavens.[00:03:00]

The progressives like, Trump can sniff out weakness like a hound dog or something. And I'm like, yeah, I guess.

Here's another fun early picture of the two where Gavin Newsom, uh, after high school, got money from the Gettys to buy a vineyard in Napa. And, uh, JD Vance went to join the military because, you know, of course, poor family, I.

Malcolm Collins: But this guy's going up against JD vs. And JD Vance, you look at him for the aga Me and I go, this guy looks like a guy who played Magic, the Gathering. And believe it or not, he was actually a very big fan and still a big fan of Magic, the Gathering.

So that's what he looks like. And I think that we saw this and we pointed this out in the last election cycle was the left because it is now the culture of the urban monoculture, the dominant culture in society and now is attempting to impose those urban monocultural values has become the party of the bully.

And they use this in their speech. I mean the right, because we are not the dominant culture. We intrinsically are weird. That's how weirdness is defined. It's by distance from what is seen as culturally normal.

Simone Collins (2): Absolutely.

Malcolm Collins: [00:04:00] And so you're weird if you're an Orthodox Jew, you're weird. If you're an Evangelical Christian, you're weird.

If you are JD Vance and a fat kid who plays magic the gathering and does. Nerdy socially awkward things. Like in one of the pictures, they have him like standing in a bathroom with like two women, you know, like they're, they're they're nerdy kids goofing off and that you're like, Ooh, how could you do that?

Like, what, what do you have no fun. Like, what were you, were you the Gavin Newsom of your high school? Right? Like, and I wanna point, point out here, so one. When the Progressive did this last time, the the scene from revenge of the Nerds. 'cause that's exactly what they are. They've, they've just, oh my gosh.

And bullies.

Democrats and the Harris campaign now deploying a new adjective to blast the Republican ticket. Some of what he and his running mate are saying, well, it's just plain weird. Get those nerds! I mean, on the other side, they're just weird. Nerds! It's not just a, a, a, a [00:05:00] weird style that he brings. Nerds! Nerds!

Nerds! Nerds! Where are they? I think they're talking about us. No way. Oh no! Ah! Ah! Ah

Malcolm Collins: And I think that everybody, and this is great. I mean, I hope Gavin Newsom wins and does this in the next thing. He's gonna look like a bully.

Simone Collins: He already, you hope he wins the primary? You mean for the Oh yeah.

Malcolm Collins: He's gonna try to use Trump-like tactics against. The sweet and practical JD Vance, who, who doesn't do this in the same way, he only, well, again, when

Simone Collins: you look at pictures of them too, the, the other differentiator is clearly one's coming from money and clearly one's not.

Oh, one is representative of most Americans and one is not, and it's super easy to tell.

Malcolm Collins: This is what really gets me as well, is, is, is Gavin Newsom has gone with this whole, I wasn't a rich kid thing, so I'll get to what he says in regards to that. What, how if you know JD Vance, JD Vance grew up in actual poverty [00:06:00] there's like the scene where his grandma was gonna set their grandpa on fire for coming home late and the somebody had to hide the matches or something.

We,

Simone Collins: Memaw

Malcolm Collins: Memaw, Memaw the hardcore person. You know, he, he grew up in actual. You know, Appalachian region poverty. Yeah. And he was

Simone Collins: raised by his memaw because his mother was dealing with really intense drug addiction. Like, again, this is not the story

Malcolm Collins: of, and then in the meantime, when this guy was fat and being picked on and playing nerdy games.

Gavin Newsom. This is what he has to say about his childhood. Okay. Spoken out about feeling like an outsider at times due to his learning disability. He has dyslexia. Oh, his dys. I have dyslexia. Not an issue. It's not a real learning disability, it's a learning inconvenience. Mm-hmm. And the instability from the divorce.

Mm. But he also benefited from a network of wealthy San Francisco families, so, oh, let's. Let's, let's talk about this, this poor, struggling, divorced family. [00:07:00] By the way, my, my parents got divorced when I was a kid. It's it's non-issue. Yes, Newsom's family had deep ties to the Getty Oil fortune, but it wasn't directly personal wealth for young Gavin.

More like access to elite circles and opportunities through his father's role. William Newso was a close friend and financial advisor to the billionaire Gordon Getty, son of Oil Tycoon j Paul Getty, managing the Getty Family Trust, which was worth billions of dollars. His dad managed a billions of dollar trust just 'cause he was friends with a guy.

Simone Collins (2): Wow.

Malcolm Collins: Gavin attended high school, was one of the Getty's sons. Billy and the families were intertwined. Gordon even helped fund some of nuisances early business ventures later in life, like his. Clump Jack Wine Shop in 1992. However, Newsom pushed back on portrayals of his childhood as privilege, emphasizing that his mother struggled financially post divorce.

Yeah, but what about your father? What? No, no, no, no, no, no. Sorry. What about, what about your father buddy who was running the multi-billion dollar hedge fund? In the eighties, that's a lot more money back [00:08:00] then. Mm. You were ne you never financially struggled. And this sort of stolen valor, when you're contrasting it with somebody like JD Vance.

And you're contrasting it with this guy who looks like a bully and will show that he still acts like a bully. Like he still has this inclination. He bullied Trump before Trump ever did anything to bully him or his side which we'll get into as well. His net worth today is 20 to $25 million which almost entirely comes from businesses at the Getty Family funded for him.

Ah, must be nice. Yeah, must be nice. But no, no, I, I think that this is something that we need to come back to regularly when we're, we're framing this. Oh, and I'll note here that people started calling him because he is, he's added this to his trolling, and we'll go over some of his trolling. This idea that he's Christopher Columbus because he's, he redraws maps so much.

This, this has to do with his, oh, you

Simone Collins: mean like California redistricting kind of map withdrawing Yeah. He, to

Malcolm Collins: gerrymandered California, even though California's already pretty [00:09:00] gerrymandered. By the way, if you look at gerrymandering, Gerry, have you, have you created a federal law against gerrymandering?

The Democrats would fight against it like crazy because Democrat gerrymandering, on average. Helps Democrats and not Republicans. Mm-hmm.

So I decided to check to see if this was still true. And it looks like these days it's about 50 50 in terms of who benefits from gerrymandering. , Maybe leaning Republican, but that's probably because most newspaper publications that report on this are democrat leaning.

Malcolm Collins: I mean, yes, Republicans are attempting to gerrymandering Texas, but it wouldn't even, even out the existing gerrymandering. But he's like threatening gerrymandering in California, more gerrymandering against Texas.

And he's doing this whole Christopher Columbus thing, which is funny because he advocated for the taking down not, not Democrats. He himself advocated for the taking down of Christopher Columbus statues in, in 2020, so, mm-hmm. Okay. Like, just forgetting any, any form of continuity here. You know, he is a face stealer.

Just whatever he sees doing well, he's gonna, he's gonna copy and [00:10:00] imitate.

B. Before I go further in this one I found funny. Here are the two's family photos, , next to each other. One of these guys is considered a white nationalist and the other one isn't. Would you ever guess which one it is? From these family photos, I.

Malcolm Collins: Before I get into some of the failures and controversies associated with him, you grew up with this guy, right? Like,

Simone Collins: yeah. The really funny thing is, I, I was not politically involved as a kid, and yet I have this deep, entrenched understanding of Gavin Newsom on as a like.

Extremely savvy slash slimy, or at least like very tactical political player who was always thinking about himself and how to look the right way. And there were these political cartoons that ran in the San Francisco Chronicle that always depicted him a certain way and drew him this really certain way that was just, he was just always depicted as being so slick.

And it's [00:11:00] crazy to see just. That throughout my lifetime, nothing has changed. I mean, the, the, you've been

Malcolm Collins: haunted by this slick face stealing Patrick Bateman.

Simone Collins: Yes. Yeah. Like the it was, oh, the, the comic was called bad reporter. I'll try to find some images of it I can share with you. And it, the long game is, I respect the long game.

I mean, he's been going for it kind of how, like Pete Buttigieg had the same like sort of career long game approach. Of, you know, first I'm gonna serve in the military and then I'm gonna do this, and then I'm gonna do that. Gavin Newsom has been doing it, but just within the realm of politics for such a long time.

I feel though, like he's, he's making some kind of breakthrough right now, leveraging the fact that Trump won, using this podcast he launched. He's getting traction in a way he's never gotten traction before, outside the realm of just San Francisco and then just California.

Malcolm Collins: Yeah, no, I, I, I [00:12:00] agree that this is working for him in a way.

And I'll note here when I'm talking about him making fun of Trump, before Trump ever did him. You go back to Trump's first run when all the Democrats. He acted like he was a joke. And you have Gavin Newin tweet tweeting things like Donald Trump. This lu, let's get back to the issues. Like just joking proceeds to take time.

Giving his, his, his rating of an actor on a comedy show. So he sort of mocking Trump as a, as a distraction back here. And they were back in 2016 egged on if Donald Trump can't stand up to Billy Bush, how can he ever handle the pressure of the Oval Office? And I and I, and then in a picture of him next to Donald Trump, Jr.

He says. Tough choice. One now leads the world's fourth largest economy. The other sells phones. You know, trying to just from the very beginning, he can't be like, oh, I, I am only just now taking the low road. He took the low road from the beginning, and I'll note here. And we contrast Gavin Newsom with other times when people have decided to make fun of Trump., Trump is [00:13:00] motivated by this stuff. This is what keeps him going, right? You're, you, you are giving him fuel. You are not causing him to misstep.

Donald Trump is here tonight. Just recently, in an episode of Celebrity Apprentice, the men's cooking team, , Did not impress the judges and there was a lot of blame to go around, but you, Mr. Trump, recognized that the real problem was a lack of leadership. And so,

you fired Gary Busey.

Say what you will about it. Not funny. Bigly not funny. Oh, I'll get you a birth certificate, Obama. We'll see who's laughing then. I'm not a loser. It's okay, Trump. They probably already forgot about the jokes. Let's just see what's on the teletype. Donald Trump, humiliated by the leader of the free world tonight at [00:14:00] the White House correspondent's dinner. Yes, Wolf, it was very clear who was the President of the United States and who was the buffoon.

AHHHHHHHHHH! NGYAHHH! Welcome 7 coverage of the utter humiliation of Donald Trump. Say what you will about, uh, Mr. Trump, he certainly would bring some change to the White House. Let's see what we've got up there. We will again.

Malcolm Collins: But this is a guy who's, who's doing all this, like, who's like, oh, I run the fourth largest economy.

California is bleeding people right now. Just tons and tons of people are, are, are leaving the state. I think I was looking at over a million people since he took office have left the state which is [00:15:00] insane. People do not want to be in the area that you're running.

Simone Collins: They're flee.

Malcolm Collins: Yeah. And he also lit the state on fire, which was pretty crazy that somebody did that.

You remember, I mean,

Simone Collins: aside from the literal fires or just like you're referring to fires. I'm joking. The literal fires.

Malcolm Collins: So. In 2021, he claimed that 35 priority projects from a 2019 executive order treating 90,000 acres of land. The problem is only 11,000 or 13,000 were actually treated, so he lied by 690%.

And he did this through cutting $150 million from Cal Fire's mitigation budget that year, despite them having a surplus. And so you can be like, oh, well he was doing that to save taxpayer money. And it's like, oh no, let's see where he was sending that money. Okay. Instead, yeah, to task force to study reparations for black Californians, including historical research and recommendations for compensation that they spent $12 million on.

Research for [00:16:00] reparations that obviously aren't gonna happen. Just

Simone Collins: research for, oh, oh gosh.

Malcolm Collins: He gave $1.48 million to his wife's nonprofit selling gender equity curriculums to schools. Massive spending on homeless programs with 24 to $37 billion on his homeless programs. But, oh, what did those programs spend the money on?

Local COC boards, which coordinate federal and state homeless funds. EEG $683 million had dedicated racial equity committees to analyze disparities and prioritize services for underrepresented groups like black Californians. Who made up Sacramento, COC for instance, removed. Its committed, its committee and scrubbed terms like racial equity.

I don't understand this, it's federal. Oh, they had to remove all that due. The anti DEI rules no specifics are tied to it, but it's estimated that 24 to 37 billion in state homeless funding have gone to this sort of stuff. Yeah, the total net that left is 1,000,040 2000. [00:17:00] Although some sources show around 800,000 gosh. Yeah, but I can hear pull up. I thought that this was, was interesting because the progressives are sort of freaking out about this and I thought that this meme was good by Paul F. Thomas and he goes, quote, I'm sick of these purity tests.

'cause a lot of progressives, they're like, oh, he is not progressive enough. No candidate is perfect. Newsom may not care about homeless people or trans people, but he's the only one hiring social media posters to ask chat GPT to talk like Trump. This is the kind of social media posting we need right now.

Or don't you care about democracy? Oh boy. But that is like basically what he's doing, right? His social media interns to talk like, and that's the thing about this is with news system, it comes off as so inauthentic because we all know that. When Trump account tweets something, it's not a social media manager.

It is Trump on the, it's,

Simone Collins: it's Trump Kofi Fi. Yes.

Malcolm Collins: You know that Gavin Newsom isn't tweeting any of this. It's some, the social media [00:18:00] intern who's been given direction that, that our analytics show that this works. This is no different than like the Coca-Cola account when it gets on like a streak or something like that.

And then you accidentally, like Coca-Cola, i'd also note he is a, so let's go into some of the, the individuals trolling he's done. Yeah. And why you sort of need to troll in this information economy. So, Newsom's press office tweet, and it in all caps. And I will say funny, apparently Trump has stopped tweeting in all caps as much since Newsom started doing it.

Oh, no. Which is, I, I don't care one way or the other. Quote all caps, by the way. Not even just, sorry, not even JD quote, just dance in quote Vance. Wait. Is, is this his insult to JD Vance?

Simone Collins: Seriously,

Malcolm Collins: JD Just Dance Vance. That sounds like an a, a, an affectionate nickname.

Simone Collins: Yeah. Also, where's the relevance?

Malcolm Collins: [00:19:00] Why don't you ask AI where the relevance is?

Surely he thinks something about that is funny just to, fans can save Trump from the disastrous maps war. He has started. What you guys, as I pointed out, the Democrats do more gerrymandering than Republicans. But okay, not even his eyeliner looks as pretty as California map lines. Ooh, wow. Preston for gender norms there buddy.

I mean, I get it. So he's making fun of JD Vance for, I guess reportedly wearing eyeliner that doesn't that, that make him look heteronormative. What's

Simone Collins: even worse? Is that the nickname's not tied to anything from Vance's personal history, but rather is a satirical play on his initials and the popular video game series.

Just Dance. It has nothing to do with JD Vance's actions or history. And then Trump. Trump has, has the, the going back to seventh grade, the game grade. Yeah. To find a seventh grade bully name. And I, I, no, I love

Malcolm Collins: this. It's like [00:20:00] he, he comes at them with like a whiffle bat, you know, like it's smacking Janie Vance.

And Trump just walks by with like a shive and like stabs the guy and then walks on. Remember that traumatic

Simone Collins: experience in the seventh grade? Well, I got something special for you. Yeah.

Malcolm Collins: He's like, remember that? That experience you said still traumatizes you to this day.

Simone Collins: Yeah. Remember used to call, you remember what used to cry about at three in the morning?

Malcolm Collins: Yeah. That is. I just, sorry. I just love that, that difference in approach. Yeah. He doesn't get it. He doesn't get it. He is like coming out here like, he goes on, he will fail as he always does. Sad, exclamation. Mark and I, the peacetime governor. Our Amer our nation's favorite will save America once again.

Many are calling me Gavin, Christopher Columbus Newsom because of the maps. Thank you for your attention to this matter. GC N So he, he made up this nickname for himself, then wrote because of the maps exclamation mark, trying to write in a [00:21:00] Trump style. I love the adding sad with an exclamation mark to make it more Trump style.

He's literally just

Simone Collins: like he's appropriating. Not only Christopher Columbus after apparently he advocated for the removal of Christopher Columbus statues, but is appropriating Trump's language. That is so sad.

Malcolm Collins: It is showing Trump invented something that appears to work for me too, so I guess I'll use it.

I mean obviously he's claiming this is all satirical, but nothing about it is actually satirical. It's all stuff. No, when you

Simone Collins: copy something, like maybe if it were only all caps stuff, I'm, I'm trying to think of like a way that he could have done this that wasn't extra cringey in a not good way.

Malcolm Collins: So, a fun part of this by the way, is, this political argument. Okay. Which Bridget what, what's her name? Bridget Fe, where I also got the Patrick Bateman idea from. I, I, she's got a great channel, very similar to ours.

Simone Collins: Oh, who we met at Heretic Con that Bridget who met British Fe. I guess we did. She's the [00:22:00] one who introduced our talk.

Yeah, she was the mc.

Malcolm Collins: She on YouTube channel where she comments on yours. I remember, I remember thinking she was so nice at Heretic Con, but I didn't watch her channel yet, and now she's just like, oh yeah, I'm like a low key influencer, but like not that big. She was huge and she still,

Simone Collins (2): so,

Malcolm Collins: yeah. You know, she's about twice as big as us.

Yeah, she's, no, we should reach right out. She was very delightful woman. I in person, by the way, this is me saying like, I met her. I didn't know she was famous at the time when I met her. Now that I'm putting the two people together, I'm like, oh, that was the same person. She was very nice, very delightful, very warm.

Not one of those like, oh, you meet, you know, so and so. Not even

Simone Collins: remotely pretentious. Just super cool.

Malcolm Collins: Yeah. Yeah. But

Simone Collins: also Malcolm is face blind for, for reference. This is why he can meet someone at a conference and have absolutely no idea. It's an influencer whose content he's been consuming.

Malcolm Collins: So she, I didn't watch your channel yet back then. On Politico she said that this article Deuced [00:23:00] Gavin Newsom and it was really gross. But I'll just do a quote from the article here so you can get a idea of how much, because all of the dims are, they love that he's doing this because they think that the Republicans are freaking out that he's doing this instead of just looking at them as like a.

Like, yeah, this is really sad. But they think that they're scoring wins. Newsom has entered the digital dojo and he's performing the sort of mimetic jiujitsu that's scaring Republican white belts, but. Unused to actual competition. Smith tells Politico for too long, Democrats have been poised up in the parking lot too, afraid of getting it wrong to throw a jab.

This should energize folks to get into the octagon. And, and then they send this to Trump to ask for comment. He sends back a meme. Of course, the, the, the first all meme, not even context that was just the meme of the, the one guy being like something, something, something. Then the mad men, like, I don't even know who you are.

Response. Maybe people have pointed out [00:24:00] that this may have been a, a bad meme to use in this instance because in the original context of the show, he was trying to hide that he did, knew who he was and he was hiding his insecurity. But I really don't think, I, I, I do not think there is. Any mainstream Republican who wouldn't love Gavin Newsom to be our competitor in the next election cycle he would be so easy for JD to beat

Simone Collins: well, especially when you look at his track record with California and where California is now.

He has to still answer for that, plus the fact that his background is so not relatable to the average person that he came from. So much privilege. He's not a man of the people. I mean, yes, George Bush, for example, came from an extremely privileged, you can even argue, aristocratic family. Mm-hmm. But he was folksy and not home and, and fun.

And Gavin Newsom is, is, he tries to be that, but you, you know, it's not genuine. And authenticity is like the top thing. That especially younger voters care about, so,

Malcolm Collins: [00:25:00] yeah.

Simone Collins: Yeah. No, just to remind

Malcolm Collins: you, I was talking to a political reporter recently and I, the democrats struggle so much with authenticity and I think Gavin Newsom uniquely struggles, and we were talking about who could run instead of JD Vance on the right.

And I threw out there. I was like, well, she said RFK, and I was like, yeah, RFK would be great. The bear story. Wonderful. You. You run into it, you see roadkill bear and you decide you're gonna eat it. And then you realize that you can't get it to your fridge in time. So you leave it in a bike lane to create a story about a bear being struck by a bike in a controversial bike lane that had been put up and that goes by, that's f-ing, hilarious.

I would never not vote for somebody who's that funny. And that down home that they see roadkill in their first thought is.

Simone Collins: Yeah. And, and get away with it for so many years. Like, never reveal it, keep your mouth shut until you know someone's gonna leak it. And then like, okay, that's the main

Malcolm Collins: character energy right there.

So I love that. Or Joe Rogan would be great. I said Joe Rogan would be great. Totally.

Simone Collins: Yeah.

Malcolm Collins: But, but then she was like, well what about Rubio? And I was like, Rubio would be [00:26:00] a great Democratic candidate. Yeah. Yeah.

Simone Collins: Well, no, he's that

Malcolm Collins: old

Simone Collins: type of candidate that like Yeah. Tries to be a politician who doesn't, you know, has a clean record.

Isn't a character really. Yeah. Yeah. There's nothing there to play with. You have to be character now. I mean, the thing though is that Gavin Newsom, if he were to lean into his villain, energy, I think could be, you know, more interesting like dark Biden. If that became a concept, like if, if that was tacked onto someone with a little more youth and agency, it would be a lot of fun or dark Brandon and.

If, if Gavin Newsom instead was like, yeah, I am the American psycho, I am the, you know, the, the mercenary sociopath is gonna do what it takes to make our country win. Yeah. People would like that. That could be interesting. And I mean, and he's, that is him, that's also authentic. Well, I don't, not [00:27:00] America win for him, but make me win.

But still, I feel like people could get behind that. Yeah. What he is doing now isn't gonna sell laia authenticity.

Malcolm Collins: I, I mean, he's got hardcore American psycho energy, like,

Simone Collins: yeah. So own it, you know, like, make that your whole look.

Malcolm Collins: Here are some more tweets you can get an idea of, of what it looks like when he tries to do this. And I, it really is quite cringey compared to what Trump does, right? Wow. All caps. This is all, all caps. The maps, the best maps ever made will soon pass in the greatest legislature everywhere in the world, not just America. People are already screaming, mama, mama. And I say, no, I am your daddy.

Three exclamation marks. Thank you. USA silly exclamation marks. No, that's gross.

Simone Collins: No. No, no, no, no, no. What he should do is with his podcast, it should be a video podcast. If it's not, he should have like sponsorship with those, all those face mask companies and [00:28:00] just show his like morning routine. But like all shot, American psycho style, that would be great.

Just like really, I don't know, just over the top. Self owning Trump self owns all the time. Jay, Jan, you know, retweets South Park episode stuff and you know, they know how to laugh.

Malcolm Collins: Yeah. When I point out that he isn't afraid of, you know, revealing his own sort of like we, we recorded an episode during, when he goes live on Trump's religious beliefs.

And in that thing where everybody always is like, you know, Trump said. You know, he did. He's never asked God for forgiveness because he doesn't have you know, anything to ask forgiveness for. It's actually a bit more nuanced to that when you see his full take. He said that he thought it was more important that he tried to solve his mistakes himself.

Rather than externalize it is essentially the way he framed it. Yeah. And he said after that he goes, and I know that this [00:29:00] isn't the answer I'm supposed to give. He's like, I, I know that I can get in trouble for saying this and I should just be saying, but that's him being honest

Simone Collins: and isn't that great.

Malcolm Collins: Yeah. Or recently when he is like talking about getting into heaven, right. You know, he's like, well, if I could save 7,000 people a day, I think I get into heaven because, you know, people out there are saying, I'm not high on that list, and he's out there saying this about himself.

Simone Collins (2): Yeah.

Simone Collins: Yeah. I do just love the concept of making it right.

I mean, asking God for forgiveness is messed up for me twofold. One, it makes you think you can be absolved of your flaws without fixing the problem. But two, who has the gumption to believe that God is personally offended by you messing up God who made you? Yeah, that's like, no, he's not that immature man.

Like he's got bigger things to worry about than the fact that you slept with someone outside of the bonds of marriage or something. Right? So, [00:30:00]

Malcolm Collins: yeah. Yeah.

Simone Collins: I'm, I'm with Trump on that one. I like that better.

Malcolm Collins: Like, I gotta work on this myself. I, I, I, yeah. I gotta make it

Simone Collins: right. If you, if you, if you made the mess, clean up the mess.

You know, don't, don't say I'm sorry. That's so Well, I did,

Malcolm Collins: I did pray after I spilled the milk. Yeah. So, no, but I, I think that, that what we're seeing here, and the reason I mentioned that is Trump is very open about. Things that, that, that, that lead to a degree of vulnerability. Mm-hmm. Just not admitting mistakes.

And in our religion episode, we'll explain why. He will admit mistakes to himself, but he doesn't like to admit them in a public stage. Yeah. Because there is a religious reason for this, for Trump. But yeah the, if, if you, if you wanna get another one from him here, Trump is imitating me. Instead of I, he's imitating Trump.

And then in response to a post about MSNBC's ratings, implying Trump toed down his all cap after nuisance parody, he did this job. Again, all of this is all caps. Tiny Hands is out here copying me, but without the stamina. Sad, and [00:31:00] certainly without the looks. Total beta Expert

Simone Collins (2): York.

Simone Collins: Tiny Hands. So he calls him SCU and Tiny Hands.

Malcolm Collins: No, this was what what's his face said about Trump? Trump.

Simone Collins: No. Trump's hands have been stolen. Everyone's watching his hands like crazy.

Malcolm Collins: Gavin Newsom wrote this about Trump. IE Gavin Newsom typed this to make fun of Trump while making fun of Trump. Gavin Newsom is calling Trump Tiny Hands. Okay. Or targeting Fox News.

He says, fox edits the tapes news must cancel their weekend, stinkers immediately through exclamation marks. Cancel the Fox News stinkers. Now exclamation mark, and he put that in quotes, trying to, I guess, start Fox News, stinkers as like an insult phrase that he wants people to use. Stinkers. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Ex mark. The, he, he later says, no personality, no talent. Very low [00:32:00] energy. Trump of course, responds. I, I love this as well. Proper capitalization, easy to read. Gavin Newcomb is way down in the polls. I will save California three exclamation marks.

Simone Collins (2): Oh, and then

Malcolm Collins: White House spokesman. Abigail Jackson's called it inauthentic, and it's just getting weird, which it kind of is.

It's getting to a point where I'm like a little uncomfortable that he's still doing this.

Simone Collins: Yeah, it was a little weird.

Malcolm Collins: And, and, and I point out the type of person who Newsom is like at his core. Remember when he was imposing all of those COVID restrictions and he still goes to fancy dinners at places like the French Laundry where he and all his rich friends were holding parties which is a fancy restaurant.

So, so. He's allowed to host his parties. He's allowed to do what he wants. You have to obey the rules. Well, you know,

Simone Collins: yeah. He's one of the rich people. I, I just like, yeah. He probably grew up just thinking, well, of course. There's me and then there's [00:33:00] everyone else. I'm not, I'm naturally supposed to rule them,

Malcolm Collins: and then there's the peons that support me.

Yeah. Which is one of the really interesting things about Trump is he connects very well with average Americans without acting like he thinks he's better than them. Yeah. He

Simone Collins: never, and he never was one of them, and he never pretended to be one of them, but he very much is able to get on everyone's level.

I mean, it, it as is kind of evidenced by it. The constant rejection he has received from many of society's elite. So yeah, it was almost an endorsement, if anything, in

Malcolm Collins: terms of how good is this guy at managing things. So, during the Pandemic California's employment development department, under ance administration, distributed $11.4 billion

Simone Collins (2): in

Malcolm Collins: fraudulent unemployment claims, including, including UL income to inmates.

Oh, they were giving unemployment claims to inmates. And note here 19 billion a cylinder investigation. [00:34:00]

Simone Collins (2): That's a lot What legitimate.

Malcolm Collins: Claims ended up with month long delays. The state ended up owing 23 billion in federal debt over this mismanagement. Oh my gosh. In terms of like, the rich guys get whatever they want, the poor bros have to do whatever.

So Newsom signed a 2023 law, which I'm sure you guys have all heard about. Raising fast food minimum wages to $20 an hour, effective April, 2024. We might do an episode on the impact of that. But it included an exception for bakeries producing bread on site. This specifically was a big deal for the Panera Bread franchises owned by donor, Greg Flynn.

Oh, who tributed $163,000 to Newsom's campaign.

Simone Collins: How convenient. Wow.

Malcolm Collins: Do some accepted donations from pg and e. This company in California that keeps blowing stuff up like people's houses and neighborhoods and causing wildfires. Convicted in wildfires like campfire killing [00:35:00] 85, then supported legislation creating a $21 billion wildlife fund that shifted liability to rate payers avoiding billions in fees for the utility company.

Oh gosh.

Simone Collins: That is rough.

Malcolm Collins: And then of course there's the homeless situation in California right now.

Simone Collins: Well, and there's just the fact that it's, it's hostile to businesses. Bed Bath and Beyond is opening over, what, 200 new locations in the United States? Yeah. It's like a home good store. And they're not, conspicuously not opening anything in California because it is so hostile to, and.

Malcolm Collins: To like chastise them. Yeah. And be like, Hey, it's not worse here. And it's been like we can all see the videotapes of people being like pulled outta their car and like, mainstream on LA a or SF or, well, and

Simone Collins: the, the rampant shoplifting, all these other issues for, for businesses in California. '

Malcolm Collins: cause they refuse to elect I'm sorry.

Not elect. They refuse to arrest minorities. You know, they're like, oh, oh, we could get in trouble if we do that. I mean, if they're [00:36:00] stealing it, they must need it. You know, I, I, I am very interested in zero A. His name is trying to do

Simone Collins: Zhan Ani.

Malcolm Collins: Yeah. A state run b grocery store in d dc in DI wouldn't know where is it?

Manhattan. You know, such a bad idea, by the way. Well, everyone knows it's

Simone Collins: not gonna work. Grocery stores make such a little margin. They make like

Malcolm Collins: 0.6% margin. Like that's the most you could save is 0.60 cents per dollar. By doing it, what he wants to do. But of course it's gonna be less because either they need to actually do security or they're just gonna bleed money through a shrinkage.

Simone Collins: I don't even wanna think about it. It's, but in

Malcolm Collins: terms of the modern information economy, the reason you need to and, and people like him are needing to troll is news media doesn't matter anymore. When we get news articles, they're just sort of like icing on the cake for us right now. Right. What matters is social media.

Social media is where the truth is determined and where what people believe is determined. And it's where what AI thinks is determined often because news, news, media is [00:37:00] often paywall. So, when you, when you go out there and you say, just like normal facts in the news media is like, oh, this is really great.

Let's, let's talk about this. Nobody, nobody sees it. But when you go out there and you anger people or you appeal to people emotionally, they'll share it. And that's what trolling does, right? Like, they feel like they're getting one over on their enemy. I think that that's who's really sharing these or people making fun of him for doing this because he's being cringe and that gets him in front of more people.

Yeah, that's why you have to do it. You, you have to do it.

Simone Collins: Well. We'll see how the weather vane man does in the coming years. I would be delighted if, if he, if he ran, I would honestly be delighted if he developed the balls to have some authenticity and leaned into his villain aesthetic, because that would be even more fun.

Like I, I would love a formidable. Candidate, and I don't really see, I mean, a [00:38:00] OC perhaps but I, I, I don't see that really happening. You know, I mean, we're moving in a direction of greater socialism, so we're gonna see it regardless.

Malcolm Collins: I, I think a OC is the top candidate right now.

Simone Collins: Yeah. I'm, I'm ready. I, I want, I want something interesting.

At least you'd be

Malcolm Collins: interesting.

Simone Collins: Yeah. Yeah,

Malcolm Collins: I mean, I, I don't, I don't want to compete against her. I would much rather compete against Newsom than A-O-C-A-O-C is a much stronger candidate.

Simone Collins: Yeah. She has less dirt, like she's just, has had, had less of a career. And track record that shows repeated serious damage done to the areas under, you know, for which she's responsible

Malcolm Collins: are gonna try to run another woman of color for a while.

Who is? 'cause they actually believe that's why they lost.

Simone Collins: Oh, no, no. I hope not. Think they do. I don't think so. Even their

Malcolm Collins: commentary, they're like, oh, America's just not ready for a woman of color yet.

Simone Collins: Aw. No. I remember [00:39:00] them trying to do that with Hillary being like, well, they just didn't vote for her because she was a woman.

But that's I

Malcolm Collins: that historically who they should be running is John Stewart.

Simone Collins: Oh, John Stewart versus Joe Rogan. Let's go. Let's go. Who do you vote for, right? Yeah. JD Vance. Joe Rogan, vice President.

Malcolm Collins: I love that. Can we get that please? Can we please? Yeah. Okay. I mean, I, I, I've always said if I was running for president and I could choose anyone for VP right now mm-hmm.

I'd be choosing mess. Senator Trey Parker.

Simone Collins (2): Oh,

Malcolm Collins: I think they would be to die for.

Simone Collins: They would never want to though. They have, I think they have too much fun laughing at the world and, and they don't wanna be saddled, like they know better than to be saddled with the responsibility of running the United States.

You know, they're like, I'm not that dumb. So I'd

Malcolm Collins: be like, but you can fix things.

Simone Collins: Yeah. I mean, they would also look at the system and how broken it is and be like, yeah, [00:40:00] but really I think they'd be great, but I also think they're too savvy for that. You gotta be a certain, you have to be a certain flavor of dumb to enter politics.

And we say this as people who are very interested in being more politically involved. But that's, you know. Not a testament to our intelligence and self preservation. So yeah, there's that.

Simone Collins (2): Alright. All right.

Simone Collins: I'm gonna get toasty for a BA therapy. Let's what, what doing

Simone Collins (2): here tonight?

Simone Collins: I'm making rice, but I'm also making flatbread, so.

Malcolm Collins: Oh, you could just reha some reang, I guess.

Simone Collins: If I have it I think I have some mango curry. Would you like some of that

Malcolm Collins: mango curry works fine for me. Put in a few peppers. Okay. Are you sure? I

Simone Collins: think I made it spicy. Oh, well

Malcolm Collins: let's, no, if it's spicy, then don't. And I also was going to put in some almonds, but I'll do that after it's cooked.

Simone Collins: Oh, your sliced almonds smart. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I'll make sure that I have some out. I love you. Love you too.

Malcolm Collins: That's Simone. Thank you for not being Gavin Newsom.

Simone Collins: Back at you, but you still have amazing [00:41:00] hair, so thanks for that. Are you saying he

Malcolm Collins: has amazing hair? He does have good hair.

Simone Collins: His hair is, is like a thing in like any parody of him.

It's like a helmet of curated, you know? But you, you have unintentionally good hair. So

Malcolm Collins: you think, you think I'd beat him on authenticity? I don't come off like the old politicians. Yeah,

Simone Collins: you're, you're so authentic. It hurts and I love it.

Malcolm Collins: All right, love you, Simon.

Speaker 4: Shoot the barrel. Shoot the barrels. Yeah. Bye. Got it.

You stupid.

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