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The Architecture of Ego: When Power Tries to Outlive the Powerful · The Briefing Room

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Donald Trump wants to build a 250 foot triumphal arc
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: in Washington. Now, when I first saw the story, my
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: reaction was pretty simple. Of course he does. I mean,
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: if you gave Donald Trump a choice between a tasteful
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: little plaque and a 250 foot monument that can be
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: seen from Virginia, I don't think we're waiting very long
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: on that decision. But then I started looking at everything
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: around it. The massive White House ballroom, the renaming of
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: federal institutions and programming, the Gulf of America, for goodness sakes,
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: the effort to put the Trump name onto more and
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: more pieces of public life. And now an enormous triumphal
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: arc near Arlington National Cemetery. That's when I stopped thinking
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: about the architecture. And strangely enough, as I was thinking,
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: I started thinking about pharaohs, not because Trump is some
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: sort of pharaoh or monarch, not because the United States
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: is ancient Egypt. And we're certainly not going to commit
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: the lazy historical sins of pretending every powerful ruler in
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: every century is the same because they aren't. But human
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: beings have been using buildings and monuments, public spaces and
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: names to communicate power for thousands of years. Sometimes they
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: were honoring gods. Sometimes they were celebrating military victories. Sometimes
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: they were reinforcing a monarchy or an empire. And sometimes
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: they were doing something much more personal than that. They
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: were trying to make the ruler feel bigger than an
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: ordinary human being more important than the monument itself, maybe
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: even permanent. Donald Trump didn't invent that impulse, but he
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: brings something uniquely Donald Trump to that impulse. He spent
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: decades turning his name into a commercial brand, and we
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: still have to sit through all of these damn commercials
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: of everything from Trump coins to Trump medicine.
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: The list goes on.
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: Now the man who once put Trump on hotels and
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: skyscrapers has access to the most symbolically important real estate
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: in all of America. And so today we're going from
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: ancient Egypt to Versailles to Mussolini's Rome and eventually right
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: back to Washington, D.C., because the real story behind Donald
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: Trump's proposed art may not be whether you think it's beautiful.
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: It may be the oldest question in politics.
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: What happens when power doesn't merely want to govern the country,
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: but wants the country to remember the person who held it?
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: Marcus Atkinson, this is The Briefing Room.
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: From Blackcess Media, 92.7 FM, WICU HD2, this is The
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: Briefing Room with Marcus Atkinson. One central question, the stories
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: moving politics, and when common sense requires a ruling, barbershop court.
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: Today's Briefing Room is presented by G & M Getaways. Now,
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: here's Marcus Atkinson.
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: Greetings, good people, and welcome back to yet another edition
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: of The Briefing Room.
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: I'm your host.
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: Marcus Atkinson, and in the background, you are listening to
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: the sweet sounds of one George Morgan III, a.k.a. Buddy Love,
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: kicking that theme song to The Briefing Room.
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: Sounds so good, don't you agree?
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: Today, we take on the topic of the architecture of
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: ego when power tries to outlive the powerful. Because I've
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: had a fascinating time studying this current president. Not because
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: I can't stand him, and I can't. but because he
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: brings a very unique personality to the White House. And
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: I'm still beside myself over the fact that so many
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: Americans overlook so many things in order to put this
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: type of personality into the most powerful position known to man.
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: Let me say it like that. And so I wanted
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: to break this thing down and really take a look
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: at who we're dealing with, because we see someone that
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: in theory just has an inflated ego. But is it
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: that simple? Let's unpack this and see where we end up.
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: Before we talk about Donald Trump today, I want to
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: go back a few thousand years because what's happening in
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: Washington right now is new in some ways. But in
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: another sense, this is ancient. I want you to think
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: about Egypt. Now, when we look at the pyramids today,
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: what do we see? We see history. We see engineering.
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: We see one of the great civilizations human beings have
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: ever created. But I want you to imagine what those
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: structures communicated to the people who actually lived underneath them.
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: I mean, you're the average, everyday, ordinary Egyptian just living
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: your life.
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  Speaker 2: You live in a modest dwelling. You work the land.
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: And somewhere in the distance rises this enormous stone complex
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: associated with the pharaoh. Now, the pharaoh isn't simply just
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: another man with a better house than yours. He occupies
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: a completely different scale of existence altogether. Ancient Egyptian ideas
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: about kingship, we'll call it, rather than pharaohs, were very complicated.
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: And I don't want to oversimplify this.
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  Speaker 1: Egyptologists point out that the divine quality was attached to
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: kingship itself. The king, if you will, embodied a sacred
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: office and maintained the cosmic and political order. But the
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: Egyptian art made the relationship between the ruler, the king,
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  Speaker 1: and divine authority unmistakable. The king appears with the gods.
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: Royal statutes are enormous. Temple reliefs show the king communicating
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: directly with the divine. The king's dead monuments help extend
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: his authority beyond his lifetime. In other words, architecture wasn't
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: just where power lived. Architecture explained power. And listen, sometimes
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: it explained it before anybody needed to say a word.
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: You just looked up and there was your message. Now
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: jump ahead several thousand years.
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: Louis XIV. builds Versailles.
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  Speaker 1: Again, completely different time, completely different political system, but look
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: at what the building does. Versailles isn't merely a large
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: house for a wealthy man. It becomes a stage in
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: which monarchy performs itself. Louis embraces the imagery of the sun.
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: Apollo appears throughout the palace. The king's daily routines themselves
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: become rituals. Members of the aristocracy are drawn into a
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: world physically organized around proximity to him. The architecture is
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: saying something. The king is at the center. Then we
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: get to the 20th century and the relationship between political
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: power and architecture becomes even darker. Benito Mussolini understood the
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: propaganda value of ancient Rome. He excavated it, he displayed it,
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: built around it, and connected his government to it. Fascist
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: public art associated Mussolini's Italy with the supposed glory of
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: the Roman Empire. The message wasn't subtle. This regime wasn't
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: supposed to feel temporary. It wanted to look like the
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: rebirth of something ancient, and inevitable. Now, I'm not putting
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: Donald Trump, Louis XIV, the pharaohs, and Benito Mussolini into
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: the same political category. That would be historically ridiculous. The
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: ideologies are different. The governments are different. The moral records
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: are different. That's not the comparison. I'm interested in the
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: instinct because rulers across wildly different societies have discovered something
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: about human beings. Power becomes more powerful when you can
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: see it. A law is abstract. A monument is standing
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: right there in front of your face. And once a
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: ruler begins placing his image, his preferred symbols, and his
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: understanding of history into the physical landscape, he's doing more
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: than governing the present. He's negotiating with the future.
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: He's trying to.
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  Speaker 1: Influence what people who haven't even been born yet will
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: see when they look backward. That's why monuments matter so much.
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: Stone has one enormous advantage over politicians. Stone doesn't have
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: a term limit. I'm a former resident of Atlanta. The
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: Civil War has been long gone, but Stone Mountain still
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: lives on.
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  Speaker 2: You get the point. Stone is always present.
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: And now in 2026, Donald Trump wants to build a
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: 250 foot triumphal arc in Washington. The administration says the
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: project will honor Americans veterans. It will sit near Arlington
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: National Cemetery in one of the most symbolically loaded areas
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: of the capitol. The concept borrows heavily and openly from
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: the tradition of Europe's monumental arches. There would be an
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: observation deck. The design incorporates patriotic and religious symbolism at
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: 250 feet. It would dramatically change the landscape around it.
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: And the administration says excavation work could begin soon, even
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: as parts of the formal approval process and a legal
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: challenge remain unresolved. That's already a significant story. But the
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: more I look at it, the less interested I became
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: in whether I personally like the arch, because this isn't
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: really about the arch. The arch is just the latest
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: clue to understand what Donald Trump is doing in Washington.
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: You got to understand something that Donald Trump was doing
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: long before he ever got there. He built a career
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: around putting his name on things. And then he became
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: president of the United States.
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  Speaker 2: Don't miss that point.
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  Speaker 3: For thousands of years, rulers have understood the relationship between
• 9:02
  Speaker 3: power and permanence. Donald Trump entered politics having already spent
• 9:07
  Speaker 3: a lifetime mastering something slightly different, the power of the brand.
• 9:12
  Speaker 3: This is The Briefing Room with Marcus Atkinson.
• 9:16
  Speaker 4: Segment two, when the brand meets the government.
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: So the stage is set. Long before MAGA, there was
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: another Donald Trump brand. You could see it from blocks away.
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: Trump in big old gold letters usually. It was on
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: a building, it was on a casino, it was on
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: a hotel, on a golf course. The name wasn't merely identification.
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: It was marketing at the highest level. Credit where credit
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: is due. Donald Trump understood something about branding very early.
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: If the name itself becomes associated with wealth, success and spectacle,
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: you don't necessarily have to manufacture everything underneath it. And
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: when I say this, mind you, I say this from experience.
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: I'm a 56 year old man who grew up during
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: the golden age of hip hop. Well, Marcus, what does
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: that have to do with this? Let me unpack it
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: for you. If you go back to all of that
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: old school hip hop, whenever brothers talked about trying to
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: get paid, trying to level up and be the boss
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: to be a richer, wealthy man, the reference point was
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: constantly Donald Trump. Go back and listen to those songs,
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: which is why even when they talk about now black
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: folks and him being at odds with He's quick to
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: tell you, no, the blacks love me. They love he's
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: going back to the golden age of hip hop. And
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: he is not wrong in terms of how he was viewed.
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: Now that people know his personal and political views, a
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: lot of that has changed, except for Nicki Minaj. She's
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: the only one who didn't get the memo, you know,
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: maybe Kanye West. But he understood the value of marketing.
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: He knew that a name can carry value all on
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: its own. And that's why Trump licensed it. He understood
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: the commercial power of making Trump the words Trump.
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: The product.
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: Then he entered politics. You get the order of that, correct?
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: That's significant here because over time, something unusual started to happen.
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: And it's something that we've never seen with a president before.
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: The boundary between the personal brand and the political brand
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: became increasingly difficult to locate. Now, today, this man's name
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: is connected with federal programs and institutions in ways that
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: are extraordinary for a sitting American president. There's Trump Accounts,
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: the Children's Savings Program. And scan through your mind all
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: the different examples that you can think of that we're
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: not naming as we go through these. There's Trump Rx,
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: the Trump Gold Card Immigration Program. Plans have referenced Trump
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: class naval vessels. His name has been added to the
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: Kennedy Center, for goodness sake, and the U.S.
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: Institute of Peacebuilding.
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  Speaker 1: Now, I'm not going to spend the next three minutes
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: reading the entire catalog of things named after Trump. we'd
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: be here all day. The point is visible without having
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: to do that. A personal branding strategy developed in commercial
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: real estate has migrated into the White House. And it
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: isn't limited to the actual word Trump. Look at the
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: large aesthetic, the Gulf of America, Lake America, the White
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: House ballroom project, the Kennedy Center transformation, changes around prominent
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: federal spaces, plans to remake a public Washington golf course
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: into something much grander. And now This enormous, triumphal arc.
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  Speaker 1: Taken individually, you can argue about every one of those
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: things separately. Maybe you like one project and you hate
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: the other. Maybe you think some of the naming decisions
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: are just merely harmless, and that's fine.
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: What interests me, though, is.
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: The cumulative picture that this paints. This man doesn't seem
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: simply satisfied to leave fingerprints on Washington. You know, sometimes
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: it feels like he wants to leave a logo on Washington.
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: And that's deeply consistent with who this man has always been.
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: Trump's understanding of power has always involved scale, bigger, more visible,
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: more recognizable. His private businesses communicated that to all of us.
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: His rallies communicated that. His political language communicates that. He
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: regularly speaks in superlatives because ordinary adjectives don't adequately fit
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: the Trump universe.
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: Everything is the greatest. It's the worst.
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: It's the biggest, the hugest, the most beautiful or something
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: nobody has ever seen before. You ever notice that you
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: ever find that funny or interesting or odd? I should say,
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: because once you notice it, a 200 foot triumphal arc
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: makes psychological sense. Of course, Donald Trump likes an arc.
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: It's essentially a building shaped like a superlative. And there's
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: something underneath the humor that I think is worth taking seriously.
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: Trump's brand has always tried to collapse the distance between
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: the man and the thing. Trump Tower isn't simply a
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: tower developed by Trump. The name becomes a part of
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: the building's identity.
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: Trump Golf. Trump Hotel.
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: The individual and the property merge. Now, take that instinct
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: and put the person in charge of the federal government.
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: That's where this gets more complicating. Because presidents naturally leave
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: things behind.
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: All of them do that.
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: They appoint judges. They sign laws. They make foreign policy decisions.
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: They establish programs, influence political movements, all of these things.
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: But nobody would seriously argue that a president should govern
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: timidly because somebody else would eventually occupy the office. But
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: the presidency is supposed to contain a tension that private
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: ownership doesn't. Donald Trump owned or controlled private properties associated
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: with his businesses. He doesn't own Washington. No president does,
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: despite what he's trying to make you think. And yet
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: the physical transformation we're watching increasingly reflects one man's aesthetic,
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: one man's political mythology and appetite for permanence.
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: That's where the word hubris becomes relevant.
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: If it's even large enough, if it's big enough, if
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: it's huge enough to even describe what this is, because
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: having an ego is is not unusual for a president.
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: Let's be serious.
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: Nobody runs for president of the United States because they're
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: struggling with self-esteem.
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: Come on. You almost have to possess a.
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: Somewhat unreasonable belief in yourself to look at 330 million
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: Americans and think, you know who should be in charge
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: of all of these folks?
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: Me.
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: Presidential ego is not new. It's almost necessary. Let me
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: take the word almost out of it. It is necessary
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: if you envision yourself in that role to some degree.
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: Trump's version is different in degree and expression. The personal
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: name was already a global commercial brand before he became president.
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: And now we're watching the brand collide with national identity.
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: There's something almost galactic about the scale of this self-conception.
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: The man isn't merely trying to be remembered. At times,
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: he appears to want the country itself to carry evidence
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: that he was here. And that brings us right back
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: to the oldest political dream there is not simply power permanent.
• 15:51
  Speaker 3: Today's Briefing Room is presented by GNM Getaways. Sometimes you
• 15:56
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• 15:59
  Speaker 3: the news. When it's time to plan your next trip, getaway,
• 16:03
  Speaker 3: or vacation, connect with GNM Getaways and let them help
• 16:07
  Speaker 3: you turn the idea into the itinerary.
• 16:10
  Speaker 4: Segment 3, The Politics of Immortality.
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: This part is uniquely human, especially with people of power,
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: because every powerful person eventually encounters the same problem.
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: They die. And then you have.
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: Other presidents, which is almost all of them. They get
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: one additional problem. Before that, they leave office. The entire
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: American system is built around that inevitability.
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: Hence the two terms.
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: If you can get a second term, George Washington could
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: have made a very different choice. Instead, one of the
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: most important political traditions he established, was simply leaving. Power transfer.
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: Somebody else can occupy the White House. Sounds simple, but
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: it took a great deal of sacrifice and humility. You
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: got to give them that. The principle is so basic
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: to the American experiment that we sometimes forget how radical
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: it once was.
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: The leader is temporary. The republic continues.
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: Now, compare and contrast that with the monumental traditions that
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: we talked about earlier. Ancient Egyptian rulers built for eternity
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: because Eternity was woven into their understanding of kingship and
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: the afterlife. Louis XIV created an environment that visually reinforced
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: the absolutism of his monarchy. Mussolini manipulated ancient Rome because
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: he wanted fascism to appear as the heir to imperial greatness.
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: In each one of these cases, the physical landscape helped
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: make political authority feel larger than an individual human lifespan. Now,
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: don't get me wrong. Democracy has its monuments. It has
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: its propagandas. Washington himself has some of the greatest civic
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: architecture anywhere in the world. And if you stand in
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: front of the Lincoln Memorial at night, don't tell me
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: the architecture doesn't have emotional power. But there's an important
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: difference in how democratic societies usually approach commemoration. In this society,
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: history gets a vote. Time creates distance. Congress gets involved.
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: Commissions deliberate. The public argues. I mean, Lincoln didn't commission
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: the Lincoln Memorial to himself while actually sitting in the
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: White House. And Washington didn't approve the Washington Monument and
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: then ask the architect to make him look just a
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: little bit taller. Now, if it sounds like I'm being facetious,
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: I am. But I want you to think.
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: About how preposterous the whole idea of that would be.
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: These things usually emerge after society has had some opportunity
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: to decide what that person meant to society. You do
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: understand that Donald Trump's approach completely reverses that order. I mean,
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: it's an inversion of that process. He himself is deciding
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: how important he's been to that society. I'm laughing because
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: it's laughable. Do you know how arrogant that is for
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: you to decide what you've meant.
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: To that organization?
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: I mean, there's CEOs, there's mayors, there's presidents. There's all
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: kinds of people that have led significant things that have
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: botched it galactically. They don't get to decide whether or
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: not they should be lionized after they're gone.
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: It's up to the people that you led to make
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: that decision.
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: If it were that simple, half the people that donned
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: the presidency would have been hinting at, oh, you know what,
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: maybe we can name this building after me. And listen,
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: to Trump's defense, I guarantee he's not the first person
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: that thought about it. He's the first person that had
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: the arrogant enough cojones to actually say, I think it
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: should be named after me. Every time you give money
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: to something, if it's a significant amount, something in the
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: back of your mind says something ought.
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: To be named after me. Man, that's a lot of money.
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: You know, and people that give seven figures, maybe even six,
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: you know, get that honor sometimes. But it's on the
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: back of a lot of people's minds of power. I
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: want my name on that. It has just been socially
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: unacceptable because it's improper for you to try to suggest
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: that something be named for you. But this president does
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: not have the same sensibilities as you and I or
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: Lincoln or Washington for that matter. This guy seems perfectly comfortable.
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: participating in his own memorialization while still governing. Do you
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: know how unusual that is? I mean, it's so hard
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: not to finish this show without just cracking up on
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: the ground.
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: It's so ridiculous.
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: And it presents a question bigger than whether somebody thinks
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: the arc is attractive. How much should any sitting president
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: be able to shape the national landscape around his own
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: conception of his own greatness or hers? Hopefully we'll see
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: that day. There's a legitimate argument on Trump's side of
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: this as well. And I hate to say this, but
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: I think it's important to acknowledge it. America used to
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: build enormous public works with confidence. There's grandeur in Washington
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: precisely because earlier generations were willing to create things intended
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: to last. Maybe we have become timid. Maybe modern government
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: has created approval processes so complicated that ambitious civic architecture
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: gets trapped for decades between all the commissions and litigation
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: and bureaucracy. I mean, why shouldn't America build something beautiful
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: to honor its vets without jumping through a ton of hoops?
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: Why should Paris have the only statue commemorating its struggles
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: while the United States acts embarrassed by the monumental architecture?
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: I don't dismiss that argument. I know that's his argument.
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: In fact, part of me likes the idea that a
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: country should be capable of building something magnificent. The danger
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: is not grandeur. That's okay. It's confusing grandeur with the
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: glorification of the person temporarily, that is the key word
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: in this country, holding power. We don't have monarchs. That
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: no kings protest is aptly named. You don't have to
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: like it, but it is appropriately named. There are no
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: kings here.
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: There's no monarchs. There's no pharaohs.
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: That's the line worth protecting because propaganda doesn't always arrive
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: looking sinister. Some propaganda is very attractive. That's why it works.
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: The pyramids, absolutely magnificent. Versailles, breathtaking. The architecture of imperial
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: Rome still shapes what governments build today. People travel across
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: oceans to see physical expressions of political systems they would
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: never agree to live under.
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: I want you to think about that.
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: Time has a strange way of separating the beauty of
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: the object from the politics that produced it. Now, as
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: we say here on the briefing room, are you picking
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: up what we are putting down? Because we're putting down
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: some for you to think about now. I want you
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: to imagine Washington 100 years from now. The immediate political
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: arguments are gone. Nobody remembers this week's cable news panel.
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: The lawsuits have become footnotes, but the buildings remain. A
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: child visits Washington on a school trip, stands beneath an
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: enormous ark and asks, why is this here?
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: That question, probably by.
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: Cindy Lou Who, is exactly why the process matters, because
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: public architecture teaches. It tells us who mattered, what mattered,
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: what the country admired and what it wanted future generations
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: to remember. And when one president has an extraordinary appetite
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: for attaching his personality to institutions, and buildings, and geography itself,
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: we should be willing to ask whether we're witnessing something
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: beyond ordinary legacy building, because we aren't.
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: Maybe the better word is myth-making.
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: Donald Trump has always been extraordinarily skilled at creating Donald
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: Trump as some sort of character, The businessman, the billionaire,
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: and his net worth has always been in question. The
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: dealmaker and all of his deals have fallen apart. It's
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: obvious he sucks at running a business, and yet he's
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: still known.
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: As the dealmaker.
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: The outsider, even though he's getting into the swamp, he
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: never drained it. Hell, he built himself a little dinghy,
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: and he's been floating around that swamp.
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: For the longest.
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: And people on the outside, you said you're going to
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: drain it.
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: You're going to try. I'm going to do it once
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: I finish another lap.
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: He's not draining it, but he's built this folklore of
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: himself being these things. the persecuted leader, the conquering political survivor.
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: Supporters see strength in all of that mythology, and it
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: is mythology. Critics, though, they see narcissism. But both sides
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: recognize the centrality of him to the story, and that
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: may be his greatest political talent. Trumpism is not merely
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: an agenda. It's a narrative in which Donald Trump is
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: almost always the main character. And now that narrative is
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: access to stone and steel and federal institutions and the
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: national landscape. That's what makes the arc so fascinating, because
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: these kind of structures usually or historically celebrate victory of
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: some sort. It converts an event into a permanent physical statement.
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: People continue passing underneath it long after the armies and
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: the leaders that commemorated it have disappeared. So I can
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: understand why the idea of that would appeal to Donald Trump.
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: It matches his style completely. What I'm less certain about
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: is whether a healthy democracy should ever become too comfortable
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: with a leader constructing his own mythology in real time.
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: I mean, in real time, folks, at the risk of
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: being redundant, I need you to see how ridiculous this is.
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: And again, I'm not saying that Trump is a pharaoh.
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: I'm not saying he's a monarch. That's kind of the
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: point here. I'm not saying the United States has become
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: an absolute monarchy or fascist state, although. We see that somebody,
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: not saying who that somebody is, would love it if
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: that were the case. Those would be lazy comparisons on
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: my point, and they actually weaken the argument. What I
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: am saying is that Donald Trump is expressing a very
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: old human impulse through the tools available to a modern
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: day American president. Power always wants to be remembered. Extraordinary ego,
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: that wants something more. The extraordinary ego wants to be deified, godlike,
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: above humanity.
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: And I got news for you.
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: It shouldn't feel like the country is slowly becoming part
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: of one person's brand because the pharaohs understood something about monuments.
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: The kings, the modern dictators, they all understood it. The
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: most powerful person in the world is still mortal. But
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: if you can't live forever, the next best thing is
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: to make the landscape remember your name. America's added an
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: important correction to that ancient idea. The president is supposed
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: to leave. And so the question now is how much
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: of Donald Trump will be standing in Washington.
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: Long after he's gone?
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: And that is a question that he's obviously wrestling with
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: day in and day out. And he's trying to answer
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: that question single handedly. Minus your say or mine. And that,
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: my friend, ain't America. It's something else. I'm Marcus Atkinson.
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: This is the briefing room.
• 26:57
  Speaker 3: Still ahead on the briefing room. Donald Trump apparently gives
• 27:01
  Speaker 3: one heck of a Christmas bonus. America's trade fight with
• 27:05
  Speaker 3: Canada moves beyond tariffs. And here in Pennsylvania, John Fetterman
• 27:10
  Speaker 3: increasingly finds himself in a strange political position. A Democrat
• 27:15
  Speaker 3: increasingly popular with Republicans and increasingly unpopular with Democrats. Then,
• 27:21
  Speaker 3: barbershop court. Because somehow, a map has managed to create
• 27:25
  Speaker 3: an international incident.
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: Stay with us.
• 27:28
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• 27:31
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• 28:01
  Speaker 3: just what happened, why it matters, and the question underneath it.
• 28:06
  Speaker 3: Political Quick Hits starts now.
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: Quick hit number one, the $ 45, 000 Christmas present. Let's start
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: with the Christmas gift. And apparently, I've been spending Christmas
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: with all the wrong folks. Nobody got up off of
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: this kind of guap. For me, that means money in
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: the hood, ladies and gentlemen.
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: New White House financial disclosures show that President Trump.
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: Gave three close aides cash holiday gifts of forty five
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: thousand dollars each last year. Executive Assistant Natalie Harp, Communications
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: Advisor Margo Martin and Chamberlain Harris, who is the deputy
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: director of Oval Office Operations. Another close aide, Walt Notta,
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: received twenty thousand dollars. Now, before anybody turns that into
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: something the reporting does not establish, let's be precise. These
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: were disclosed as personal holiday gifts.
• 28:57
  Speaker 2: They were disclosed.
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: The White House says they were completely permissible because they
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: had nothing to do with the employees' official government duties.
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: There's been no finding that Donald Trump bribed these folks,
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: paid them illegally, or bought some specific government action with
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: these $ 45, 000 gifts. But the amounts have raised an interesting
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: ethics question. Federal employees are generally restricted from receiving outside
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: compensation connected to their government jobs. And former White House
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: ethics attorney Richard Painter argues that payments this large from
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: the president himself deserve a little bit of scrutiny.
• 29:31
  Speaker 2: And I think the story.
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: Is interesting even before anybody decides the legal question, because
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: 45 racks, again, a hood term, is not about.
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: Of wine.
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: Harp, Martin, and Harris each earn about $ 150, 000 a year
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: in federal salary. So we're talking about a personal holiday
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: gift equal to roughly a third of their annual government pay.
• 29:53
  Speaker 2: A third! Now I've had jobs with a Christmas gift
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: with some hams.
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: And not even the spiral one, not even one from
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: from the ham place that I won't name because they're
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: not paying us any kind of sponsorship dollars. Not even
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: one of those. Maybe you got the ham. Somebody put
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: cookies in the break room. And if management was feeling
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: particularly festive, they let you leave at three thirty. Forty
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: five thousand dollars. I'm coming back January 2nd asking.
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: Anything else you need, Mr. President. I mean, anything whatsoever.
• 30:22
  Speaker 2: Those shoes look real dusty. Shall I be shining those, sir?
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: 45 racks? You're damn right I'm shuffling.
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: And I'll probably sing a whole bunch of spirituals while
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: I'm shining up the president's shoes.
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: All right. That's a bridge too far, Marcus. That's a
• 30:39
  Speaker 2: bridge too far.
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: Black folks do not write in and talk about, I've
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: sold out for the joke. I kind of did, but
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: it was funny. At least it was to me. But seriously,
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: the ethical questions It's harder when the gift giver is
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: not merely your friend, when he's also your boss and
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: not merely your boss. He's the president of the United States,
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: the leader of the free world. The White House's position
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: is straightforward. Trump has a longstanding habit of giving substantial
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: gifts to people around him, including employees. And these payments
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: weren't tied to government work.
• 31:12
  Speaker 2: Fair enough.
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: The public interest question is whether the rules governing presidential
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: staff should treat a huge personal payment, from the president
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: the same way they would treat a conventional gift between friends?
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: Maybe the answer ultimately is yes. But even still, that's
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: worth examining because ethics rules aren't only designed to prevent
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: an obvious quid pro quo. They're also supposed to protect
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: the independence of public servants and public confidence in government.
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: So I'm not prepared to convict anybody on a quick hit.
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: I do have one request. Can somebody please introduce Donald
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: Trump to the Blackcess Media staff before Christmas?
• 31:47
  Speaker 2: Because I'm trying to make an impression.
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: And if the Orange Crush can help me do it,
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: I might just compromise my principles for just a minute
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: to get the.
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: Staff these racks. And I'll get a little piece of them,
• 31:58
  Speaker 2: of course. Moving on. Quick hit number two. Canada, we
• 32:03
  Speaker 2: have moved beyond tariffs.
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: Yes, the trade fight between the United States and Canada
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: has entered a brand.
• 32:10
  Speaker 2: New stage, folks.
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: The Trump administration says that beginning September 29th, The United
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: States will ban imports of certain Canadian dairy products, alcoholic
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: beverages and motor vehicles. That's different from simply putting a
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: tariff on something. A tariff says you can sell it here,
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: but it's going to cost you more. A ban says
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: keep it over there. Whole different thing. We're talking about folks,
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: a lot more aggression. We're talking about a ban. And
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: this comes after months of escalating economic retaliation between two
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: countries that under normal circumstances are among the closest trading
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: partners and allies.
• 32:46
  Speaker 2: And just for the record, this is one of those
• 32:47
  Speaker 2: stories where I refuse to spend three minutes teaching the
• 32:51
  Speaker 2: Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act. You're welcome.
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: I'm just not going to do that. The question I
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: care about is much more basic than that. Where is
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: this going? We understand that trade pressure can be a
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: legitimate negotiating tool. Presidents have used it for generations. Trump
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: argues that aggressive trade policy can force other countries to
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: open markets, stop taking advantage of American producers, and bring
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: manufacturing back home. His supporters see toughness where previous administrations
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: were too willing to accept bad deals. But Canada can retaliate.
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: You do get that, don't you, Mr.
• 33:23
  Speaker 2: President?
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: Businesses adapt. Supply chains move. Consumers eventually discover that geopolitical
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: strategy has somehow arrived in the price of something that
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: they're trying to buy, and that becomes especially important in
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: an election year. I mean, you Republican candidates out there
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: in states tied closely to Canadian trade, you got to
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: explain why short-term economic pain is going to produce a
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: better deal later for your constituents. And on the other hand,
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: Democrats get to argue that your administration is creating unnecessary instability.
• 33:53
  Speaker 2: And Canadians... that the.
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: Canadians who once regarded disagreement with us, the United States,
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: as something generally handled between friends, they're talking about increasingly
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: talking about economic independence from the United States. That's not
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: a small change. So the question isn't whether America should
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: ever fight with Canada over trade.
• 34:11
  Speaker 2: That happens. Countries have disputes. It's whether this dispute is still.
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: Functioning as leverage toward an agreement or whether we're moving
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: towards an economic divorce in which both households spend way
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: more money on lawyers than than they argued about in
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: the first place. And there's something historically bizarre about the
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: whole idea, the notion of the United States versus Canada
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: in an adversarial sense.
• 34:34
  Speaker 2: It just, it's odd. It's got a real eerie type energy.
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: I mean, that was kind of a double entendre because
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: I'm in eerie, but it does, it has a strange
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: energy to it.
• 34:42
  Speaker 2: I mean, think about it.
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: These are two economies that have spent decades becoming extraordinarily interconnected.
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: Unwinding this relationship is not going to be like canceling Netflix.
• 34:52
  Speaker 2: It is not that easy, folks. So we got to
• 34:54
  Speaker 2: keep our.
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: Eye on September 29th because of those bans take effect
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: and retaliation expands again. This stops merely being another Trump
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: tariff story. We're starting to find out what economic separation
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: between the United States and Canada might actually look like.
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: And I'm not convinced either country really knows the answer
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: to that one. Quick hit three, John Fetterman, independent or
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: politically homeless. This guy is interesting. I got a front
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: row seat to this one being in Pennsylvania. This last
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: one is particularly interesting because of that. John Fetterman has
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: always enjoyed presenting himself as somebody who doesn't care what
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: the political room likes to think of him.
• 35:32
  Speaker 2: I've been in meetings before with this guy.
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: And he's come in with the work boots on and
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: the work pants and dickies. And I'm thinking, dude, aren't
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: you running for like public office?
• 35:41
  Speaker 2: And he never cared.
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: He prided himself on looking like the everyday guy. That
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: used to be part of his appeal to Democrats. Now, today,
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: it may be turning into a much more complicated political problem.
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: A new look at Fetterman's standing in Pennsylvania shows.
• 35:55
  Speaker 2: A remarkable reversal. And I'm hearing this firsthand.
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: Back in 2024, about three quarters of Pennsylvania Democrats viewed
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: him favorably.
• 36:05
  Speaker 2: But now about two and ten. Two.
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: Meanwhile, his favorability among Pennsylvania Republicans has climbed dramatically. Imagine
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: that he supported some of these Trump nominees. He's broken
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: with Democrats on major foreign policy issues. He has harshly
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: criticized portions of the progressive left. He's worked unusually closely
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: with Pennsylvania's Republican Senator Dave McCormick. And Democratic officials around
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: the state increasingly aren't asking him to campaign with them anymore.
• 36:35
  Speaker 2: We don't want to play with you, Fetterman. We're done.
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: This is an extraordinary place for a sitting Democratic senator
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: to be. Fetterman insists he's not becoming a Republican. And
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: if he is, that's his business. Just declare it and
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: be done with it instead of this purgatory that you're
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: putting yourself in. If you look at his politics, he
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: still holds positions that clearly fit inside the Democratic coalition.
• 36:59
  Speaker 2: He's pro-labor. He supports LGBTQ rights.
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: They're an There are economic and social issues where he's
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: not suddenly turning into a conventional Republican senator. So I
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: don't think the interesting question is, when is John Fetterman
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: switching parties? He says he isn't. And in theory, I
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: believe him. Take him at his word unless something changes.
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: Here's what's more interesting. At what point does political independence
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: become political homelessness? Because he seems to be losing the
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: political roof over his head. Because independence is attractive when
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: voters believe you're willing to occasionally tell your own side no.
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: People like that. That's sexy politically. What voters don't necessarily
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: like is reaching a point where they can no longer
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: identify what relationship you have with the coalition that elected you.
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: That level of confusion doesn't play well. And right about now,
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: that seems to be Fetterman's problem. Pennsylvania Democrats don't merely
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: disagree with him on an issue or two. Many appear
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: to feel betrayed altogether by this man. Republicans, meanwhile, they're
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: increasingly approving of him. That doesn't mean that they're going
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: to vote for him in a Democratic primary. So where
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: exactly does this leave you, Mr.
• 38:10
  Speaker 2: Fetterman?
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: Fetterman's seat isn't up until 2028. That's a political lifetime
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: from now. His standing could change considerably between now and then.
• 38:19
  Speaker 2: But people are already.
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: Openly discussing possible Democratic primary challenges.
• 38:23
  Speaker 2: And there's another wrinkle.
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: The Senate is close enough that even speculation about Fetterman's
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: future party relationships matters on a national level. So I
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: wouldn't dismiss this as Pennsylvania political gossip. John Fetterman may
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: be running one of the most unusual political experiments in Washington.
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: He's testing whether a politician can lose much of his
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: own party's affection, and he is, and then gain respect
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: from the opposing party. And again, he is, and somehow
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: remain electorally stronger because of the combinations.
• 38:57
  Speaker 2: Maybe we're the dummies. Maybe this works.
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: Pennsylvania has a history of rewarding politicians with an independent streak.
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: Or maybe he discovers something every political maverick eventually learns.
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: You can be independent of the party. You still need
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: somebody to vote for you. We'll keep watching this one
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: because this soap opera is just getting good. Yeah, folks,
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: as Montel Jordan would say, this.
• 39:21
  Speaker 2: Is how we do it. Get in, get out. Quick
• 39:24
  Speaker 2: hits are over for today.
• 39:28
  Speaker 3: That's political quick hits.
• 39:30
  Speaker 2: Three stories.
• 39:31
  Speaker 3: Just enough time to make you dangerous at the barbershop. Which, conveniently,
• 39:36
  Speaker 3: is where we're headed next.
• 39:38
  Speaker 5: The honorable citizens of the barbershop are now in session.
• 39:42
  Speaker 5: No law degrees required. No appeals. No filibusters. and absolutely
• 39:48
  Speaker 5: no guarantee that the punishment bears any relationship whatsoever to
• 39:52
  Speaker 5: the alleged offence. Barbershop Court is now in session.
• 40:01
  Speaker 2: All rise.
• 40:02
  Speaker 4: Barbershop Court is now in session. The Honourable Judge Marcus presiding.
• 40:09
  Speaker 4: Case 1. The People vs. the United States of Everything.
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: And therein lies the problem, ladies and gentlemen, the United
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: States of everything. I mean, everything has got to be
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: everything all because of our first defendant, Mr. President Donald J.
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: Trump and our first alleged victim, which once again is
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: the map. Now, the first time he assaulted the map
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: with a Sharpie. Oh, not this time, ladies and gentlemen.
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: President Trump recently posted an image on Truth Social and
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: you'll never believe.
• 40:38
  Speaker 2: What it showed.
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: It showed the American flag covering an enormous portion of
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: of the Western Hemisphere. And it didn't just show it
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: covering the United States. It covered Canada, Greenland, Iceland, Mexico,
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: Central America, and parts of the Caribbean. And the entire
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: thing was labeled, get this now, United States of America.
• 40:59
  Speaker 2: Shame. No explanation.
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: Just a very ambitious map. Now, apparently Iceland did not
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: recognize the humor in all of this. And why should they?
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: Its foreign minister summoned the United States ambassador, and communicated
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: that the post was completely inappropriate, which means we have
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: reached a point in American foreign relations where diplomats are
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: being called into government offices because the president posted a
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: meme in which another country just disappeared. Now, I'm going
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: to need Donald Trump to stop discovering maps. Every time
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: this man zooms out, another sovereign nation needs to call
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: its lawyer.
• 41:34
  Speaker 2: And Iceland? What did Iceland do?
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: I mean, one minute you're way over there minding your
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: geothermal business, you're making sweaters, you're watching volcanoes, and then
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: all of a sudden you check Truth Social and you've
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: been acquired by somebody.
• 41:44
  Speaker 2: No treaty, no referendum, nobody even called to let you
• 41:47
  Speaker 2: know what was happening.
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: You just open up the app and found out that
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: your country has apparently joined the United States. Now, let
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: that set in for a minute. I mean, Canada's been
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: dealing with this for a while now, so maybe they
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: can start some sort of support group for these kind
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: of situations. Can you picture it?
• 42:02
  Speaker 2: Hi, I'm Iceland. Hi, Iceland.
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: The president put me under the American flag. Oh, we understand, Iceland.
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: We've been through that, too. We're here to support you.
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: And here's what makes this even funnier. Trump has repeatedly
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: argued the United States should acquire Greenland and Greenland keeps
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: saying it does not want to become American. Denmark keeps
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: explaining that Greenland isn't for sale. So naturally, the next
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: diplomatic step was apparently make a bigger map. Members of
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: the jury, the court recognizes the president has broad foreign
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: policy authority. The court does not recognize Microsoft Paint. as
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: a treaty-making instrument. And so the charge, felonious cartography with
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: attempted annexation of social media.
• 42:45
  Speaker 2: How do we find? We find him guilty, of course.
• 42:47
  Speaker 2: Don't we always?
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: For 30 days, Donald Trump's Google Maps account is restricted
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: to turn-by-turn driving directions. And I don't hear nobody on
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: the sideline just because of that $ 45, 000 gift.
• 42:58
  Speaker 2: Saying, well, we can alter it and help him out some.
• 43:01
  Speaker 2: Shout it out.
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: The court is playing no games on this verdict because
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: we've dealt with this before with this president. We're talking
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: about no satellite view, no editing, no zooming out further
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: than 50 miles. If Siri says you've arrived, this president
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: must accept that the border is where the border is.
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: Absolutely no exceptions.
• 43:19
  Speaker 2: Next case.
• 43:21
  Speaker 5: Case two, the people versus the haircut that just went
• 43:25
  Speaker 5: way too far.
• 43:26
  Speaker 2: It really did.
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: Ladies and gentlemen, we now move from international borders to hair. Now,
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: before we have any fun with this one, an important
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: legal note. A 21-year-old Georgia National Guard member named Zion
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: Mitchell has been arrested and charged with serious felonies. These
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: are allegations. He is presumed innocent unless and until proven
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: guilty in a real court of law. That needs to
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: be said. Barbershop court is not determining whether he committed
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: those crimes. What we are examining, though, is how a
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: disagreement allegedly got this far.
• 43:58
  Speaker 2: I mean, just damn.
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: Mitchell was deployed in Washington as part of President Trump's
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: federal crime fighting operation. According to police records, he and
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: another guard member were sitting in a van where they
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: began arguing about whether their hairstyles complied with army regulations.
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: I need to pause for just a minute so that
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: you can see that that is a serious statement. I
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: didn't sneak it in there. It's just some sort of
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: comedic hyperbole. They were sitting in a van and began
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: arguing about whether their hairstyles. You heard me correctly. comply
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: with army regulations. Now from there, an argument reportedly escalated.
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: The other guard member said she heard the sound of
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: a holster opening. Other soldiers later told her that a
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: firearm had allegedly been drawn and then pointed at her. Again,
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: very serious allegations. Real court, real due process. But can
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: barbershop court address the underlying fact that this allegedly began
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: over a haircut?
• 44:57
  Speaker 2: I mean, absolutely not.
• 44:59
  Speaker 5: A haircut?
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: You're deployed to Washington as part of the Crime Fighting
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: Task Force, and now you're accused of committing a crime
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: during an argument about hair. There had to be one
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: moment where somebody in this sequence, where somebody could have said,
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: you know what, let's talk about this after lunch. I mean,
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: we're talking about hair. What did Allen Iverson say? I mean,
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: we talk about practice. I'm supposed to be an NBA
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: star and a superstar, and we talk about practice.
• 45:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah. This is a grooming standard, for goodness sakes. Nobody's
• 45:32
  Speaker 2: diffusing a nuclear weapon. If the fade is wrong, the
• 45:35
  Speaker 2: fade can be corrected.
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: Now, certain barbers struggle with that than others. The barber
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: will open again tomorrow. And I know military regulations matter.
• 45:43
  Speaker 2: Uniformity, discipline, all these things matter.
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: I'm not suggesting everybody in the army should show up
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: Monday morning looking like Parliament Funkadelic. But when somebody's hand
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: is anywhere near a firearm, we're no longer having a
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: productive conversation about army grooming standards.
• 45:58
  Speaker 2: You get that, right?
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: So, again, we leave the criminal allegations entirely to the
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: actual judicial system. But this barbershop court rules solely on
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: the charge of extreme failure to de-escalate a conversation about hair.
• 46:11
  Speaker 2: We talking about hair. You are guilty.
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: The sentence, all future grooming disagreements have to take place
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: inside a licensed barbershop with a neutral barber serving as
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: said mediator.
• 46:23
  Speaker 2: No weapons, no holsters, no rank. Just brother. Let me
• 46:26
  Speaker 2: see the back. That's all we need to do.
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: Here's the mayor. It's really that simple. This case is closed.
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: Y'all got to do better.
• 46:33
  Speaker 5: Case three, the people versus the.
• 46:36
  Speaker 2: $ 25, 000 staff meeting.
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: Final case, $ 25, 000. Republicans are holding an unusual midterm convention
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: in Dallas this week.
• 46:48
  Speaker 2: Trump is the centerpiece. J.D.
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: Vance is there. Candidates are there. Donors are there. Everybody's
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: getting fired up for November. And according to Associated Press reporting,
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: Republican members of Congress were asked to contribute as much
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: as $ 25, 000 for convention tickets and lodging. Some vulnerable members
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: were given exemptions and cheaper packages were available through Republican organizations.
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: But I'm stuck on that number. Twenty five thousand dollars
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: to attend a gathering with people you work with for
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: twenty five thousand dollars. I don't want a convention badge.
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: I want equity at twenty five thousand dollars.
• 47:24
  Speaker 2: J.D.
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: Vance needs to pick me up from the airport personally.
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: I'm not taking Uber. The vice president needs to be
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: standing at baggage claim holding a sign. Marcus, you are
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: here at the convention. That's what I better see. And
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: Trump better help with one of those bags. Don't send
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: secret service. I paid 25 racks. The president can grab
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: the roller bag. Then when I get to the hotel,
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: I bet not here. Continental breakfast is available at nine.
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: Not for twenty five thousand dollars. I want an egg station.
• 47:50
  Speaker 2: I want omelets.
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: Somebody in a hat better be making waffles and it
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: better be a fluffy hat. I want fresh berries in November.
• 47:55
  Speaker 2: I want it all.
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: I don't care how they do it. Now, I completely
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: understand that this is a political fundraiser. Conventions cost money.
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: Parties raise enormous amounts of it. People buy access and
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: premium packages around major political events.
• 48:07
  Speaker 2: They do that all the time. That's hardly new.
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: But barbershop court isn't here to debate campaign finance theory,
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: ladies and gentlemen. We are asking one question and one
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: simple question only. How much money can you charge somebody
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: to spend a weekend with their coworkers before it starts
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: being a convention and becomes some destination wedding? We talk
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: about twenty five thousand dollars here. Some of these members
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: see one another Tuesday morning. I want you to imagine,
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: ladies and gentlemen, close your eyes. As a matter of fact,
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: let's have our time to kill moment. Close your eyes.
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: I want you to imagine somebody at your job saying, Marcus,
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: imagine your name is Marcus like mine. We're having a
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: retreat this weekend and you say, oh, that sounds intriguing.
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: And then they say registration is twenty five thousand dollars.
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: It is at that point that I am changing jobs.
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: The court is ready, ladies and gentlemen.
• 48:56
  Speaker 2: I got it. I got. Listen, I don't try to
• 48:58
  Speaker 2: stop me.
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: I got to go ahead and lower my gavel on
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: this before it gets to be too late because I'm
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: just too outraged at this point.
• 49:03
  Speaker 2: Aggravated. Here's the charge.
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: Aggravated conference registration with intent to deplete the per diem.
• 49:10
  Speaker 2: Guilty, I say. Sentence.
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: Anybody paying twenty five thousand dollars receives free parking, unlimited
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: hotel Wi-Fi, two drink tickets and the right to take
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: one flight. chair home when the convention ends if you
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: pay cash hell you get the whole podium court is satisfied.
• 49:31
  Speaker 5: All rise this concludes barbershop court you may now exit
• 49:36
  Speaker 5: the courtroom in an orderly fashion And please check the
• 49:39
  Speaker 5: president's latest map before you leave, because depending on when
• 49:44
  Speaker 5: he posted it, some of you may need a passport
• 49:46
  Speaker 5: to get home. Court is adjourned.
• 49:50
  Speaker 3: We've gone from ancient Egypt to modern Washington, from a $ 45, 000
• 49:55
  Speaker 3: Christmas gift to an international incident involving a map. But
• 50:00
  Speaker 3: underneath today's show is a much older question. What should
• 50:05
  Speaker 3: power be allowed to leave behind? And now, where it
• 50:09
  Speaker 3: all lands. Final commentary.
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: We've talked a lot today about monuments. Maybe the most
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: interesting thing about these structures is that eventually the person
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: who built them loses control over what they mean. Time
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: takes over. People interpret these things differently. History learns more.
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: Values change. A building that one generation sees as some
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: demonstration of national greatness can look very different to people
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: standing in front of that same structure a century later.
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: So I keep coming back to this idea of permanence.
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: Every president wants a legacy. I don't think there's anything
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: particularly sinister about that. If you take on a job
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: as consequential as the presidency and don't care whether anything
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: lasts after you leave, not sure I want you doing
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: the job. A president should want to accomplish something meaningful.
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: The question is what you're trying to make permanent. Lincoln,
• 50:59
  Speaker 1: for example, is remembered partly because he preserved the union
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: and because emancipation became inseparable from his presidency. Franklin Roosevelt,
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: he left institutions that altered the relationship between citizens and
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: the federal government. LBJ signed laws that transformed civil rights
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: and voting rights in America. Reagan, well, he reshaped conservatism.
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: And then there's my beloved foe, Barack Hussein Obama. His
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: presidency changed the country's understanding of who could occupy the
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: office before we even get into the policies attached to it.
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: Those legacies are debated and they should be debated. History
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: isn't supposed to be public relations. But Donald Trump presents
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: a particularly interesting case because his instinct for legacy is
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: so physical. The name, the building, the sign, the monument,
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: the visual statement.
• 51:48
  Speaker 2: That's partly because he's a real estate developer.
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: And some of that is because he's one of the
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: greatest self marketers American public life has ever produced. And yes,
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: I think it's partly because the size of Donald Trump's
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: ego is. is central to understanding Donald Trump himself. His
• 52:03
  Speaker 1: supporters may hear that and say, good, we elected somebody
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: who isn't afraid to think big. His critics, on the
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: other hand, they hear it and they see narcissism because
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: reactions tell us something. And both of those reactions matter.
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: But here's where I land. I don't object to grandeur.
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: I think it's part of the whole shtick of being
• 52:22
  Speaker 1: not just the president, but somebody of great prominence. I'm
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: actually sympathetic to the argument that America ought to be
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: capable of building beautiful public things again. Walk through Washington
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: and you'll encounter structures that were meant to inspire awe,
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: not just a few of them either. That's not inherently anti-democratic.
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: The Lincoln Memorial is grand. The Capitol, grand. The Washington
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: Monument isn't exactly modest. Point that I'm getting at is
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: grandeur can express national confidence. And what matters is what
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: we're asking people to look up at or look up to.
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: The best civic monuments eventually point beyond the individual. That's
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: what I'm talking about. You stand at the Martin Luther
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: King Jr. Memorial and the conversation becomes bigger than one
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: man's biography. It's about the story of America. You're confronted
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: with justice, citizenship and an American promise that remains unfinished.
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: You stand at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and the names
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: overwhelm the politics surrounding the war. You get emotional even
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: if you don't have a relative on that wall. The
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: structure directs attention towards sacrifice and loss. And that's what
• 53:26
  Speaker 1: I think a democratic monument should eventually do. Take the
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: visitor somewhere larger than the ego or whoever commissioned it.
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: So if America decides through its legitimate processes that a
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: triumphal arc honoring American veterans belongs near.
• 53:39
  Speaker 2: Arlington, then build it. Make it beautiful.
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: Make it magnificent, as a matter of fact. Give my
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: grandchildren something that they'll want to stand beneath someday. But
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: let's remember something as we do all of that. The
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: land does not belong to Donald J.
• 53:51
  Speaker 2: Trump.
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: It didn't belong to Joe Biden. It didn't belong to
• 53:55
  Speaker 1: my beloved 44 Barack Hussein Obama. And it didn't belong
• 53:59
  Speaker 1: to George Washington. Non the contrary, it belongs to the
• 54:03
  Speaker 1: republic that they temporarily served. And that's one of the
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: greatest differences between democratic power and the ancient rulers.
• 54:11
  Speaker 2: We discussed today.
• 54:12
  Speaker 1: The pharaoh was connected to a sacred kingship. The monarch
• 54:16
  Speaker 1: could imagine the country as an extension of the crown.
• 54:18
  Speaker 1: The dictator could attempt to fuse the state with himself.
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: An American president, though, that individual is supposed to understand
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: something much less glamorous. Eventually, somebody else gets the keys.
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: That's not humiliation. That's design. And that's one of the
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: things that has made America great, quote unquote. And I
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: throw the quotes in there not to dis America, but
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: to draw attention to the fact that this is the
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: phrase he's always using. Let's make America great again. And
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: then you look at the things that he is so
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: vehemently trying to push through or push for, and one
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: is always stuck asking themselves, well, how exactly does this
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: make America great again or greater for that matter? And
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: where the subject is concerned, maybe that's the standard that
• 55:02
  Speaker 1: we should apply whenever presidents build something that they hope
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: will outlive themselves. A hundred years from now, when some
• 55:08
  Speaker 1: child stands underneath whatever America decides to construct and asks,
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: what does this represent? I hope the answer is bigger than,
• 55:15
  Speaker 1: The man who was president wanted us to remember his
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: name because presidents should be remembered. But America has to
• 55:23
  Speaker 1: outlive every.
• 55:24
  Speaker 2: One of them.
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: Now, stone monuments and structures are one thing, but musical
• 55:28
  Speaker 1: monuments are quite the other. And with that being said,
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: let us call back upon George Morgan III, a.k.a. Buddy Love,
• 55:34
  Speaker 1: to kick that theme song to the briefing room. Sounds
• 55:37
  Speaker 1: so good, don't you agree? Marcus Atkinson, this has been
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: the briefing room.
• 55:40
  Speaker 2: Buddy Love, get us up out of here.
• 55:42
  Speaker 3: Peace.
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: Reporting live and direct, this the Briefing Room.
• 55:46
  Speaker 2: I got a nice firm grip on a sweeping broom.
• 55:49
  Speaker 2: Revealing dirt from under the mat. I'll entertain questions later.
• 55:53
  Speaker 2: Now on to the facts. Reporting live and direct, this
• 55:56
  Speaker 2: the Briefing Room.
• 55:57
  Speaker 3: Today's edition of The Briefing Room with Marcus Atkinson was
• 56:01
  Speaker 3: presented by GNM Getaways. When it's time for your next vacation,
• 56:05
  Speaker 3: weekend escape, or bucket list adventure, let GNM Getaways help
• 56:10
  Speaker 3: make the journey happen. The Briefing Room is a Blackcess
• 56:13
  Speaker 3: Media production. Blackcess Media, unlocking the culture.