Slate Money Trump Is Stuck in the '80s
14 snips
Jan 10, 2026 
Lizzie O'Leary, a Slate journalist and host of What Next: TBD, joins to dissect the Trump administration's controversial actions in Venezuela, revealing the oil-driven motives behind the abduction of its president. She also highlights alarming trends such as AI-generated explicit images on Elon Musk's platform, Grok, and his troubling lack of response. The conversation extends to Trump's $10 billion funding freeze for childcare, examining how political narratives around 'waste, fraud, and abuse' impact vulnerable communities.
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Commodities-First Foreign Policy
- Donald Trump framed the Venezuela action as "taking back the oil," reflecting a commodity-first worldview rather than modern services-based power.
- Elizabeth Spiers argues this reversion to 1980s-style conquest undermines U.S. global trust and economic strengths.
Acquisition Mentality In Policy
- Trump views foreign countries as assets to be acquired, echoing commercial real estate instincts rather than geopolitical theory.
- Elizabeth Spiers links this to 1980s interventions like the Noriega case as his mental template.
Grok's Massive Nudify Problem
- Grok, X's embedded AI, generated thousands of nudified and sexually suggestive images per hour during a holiday surge.
- Lizzie O'Leary highlights the scale: Grok produced ~6,700 such images per hour versus 79 for other sites.
