We Only Have So Many F\*cks To Give
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Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well-trained, well-equipped, and battle-hardened. There is not a liberal America, any conservative America, of America. Good night, and good luck. Hey folks, I think one of the things we've learned this week is that Donald Trump is going to ping-pong around, pinball around. He's like a human pachinko ball bouncing around in this machine of Washington. And a lot of Trump's magic has always been that he expects you

to follow that ball, no matter how chaotic and crazy and how erratic it seems. It's because in a lot of ways, Donald Trump is the master of the attention economy, but there is a way to fight back. And that is the elephant in the room. Look, the big event this week was the speech. The speech at the joint session of Congress was everything you thought it would be. As we've talked about already, shambolic, idiotic, bizarre, it's

ill-conceived. Everything that could have possibly been wrong was wrong. And none of it really had to make sense because all Trump wanted was a few days of explosions. All they wanted was a few days of attention on him. Why do they want that attention? First off, they want that attention because Donald Trump has had a really, really terrible 10-day period. Look, Donald Trump really needed to change the subject from two of the stupidest possible things that could have happened.

The first really, really dumb thing that the markets taught him a hard baseball bat in the face lesson was that tariffs are a bad idea. Now, the most hilarious thing in the world is every time Donald Trump says, oh, I've been producing tariffs on all these people, MAGA screams out, this is the most brilliant thing ever. We're going to be so rich. The tariffs are so great. And then when Trump himself says,

is forced to back away from the tariffs, what is their response? That's the art of the deal. You don't understand. He's playing 47-dimensional quantum chess. No, he's not. He's an idiot, as pointed out in many, many other videos. Evil, crafty, clever, but still a moron when it comes especially to economics. But the attention economy sometimes meets up with the real world. And the real world this week are the markets. And so when Trump issues these tariffs, oh, 25% on Mexico, 25% on Canada,

The two shocking things for MAGA voters and supporters of Trump, the first thing that shocks them is, holy crap, these other countries can raise tariffs on us? Wait, what? And they don't get it until it happens. Then the markets start to hear, oh, well, let's see, what would a 25% increase in the price of building a car in America due to auto sales? In the tank is what it's called. They will plunge. They will plummet.

So all you Michigan Republican guys, union guys in Michigan who happen to also be Republicans, we're going to vote for Mr. Trump to keep them trans kids from playing football. Well, guess what? Your auto job is about to go down the shitter. Even though Trump's now saying, oh, we'll put a month's delay on that. This is not the art of the deal. Okay? The art of the deal was a book written by a ghostwriter.

Tony Schwartz wrote The Art of the Deal, not Donald Trump. Donald Trump could not negotiate his way through a whorehouse in Bangkok with a $100 bill in either hand. This guy cannot negotiate with anything, for anything. He is terrible at this. He does not understand what he is doing. And so you're going to flip back and forth. And Howard Lutnick's out there now. Oh, well, these tariffs may cause a little short-term pain.

Guys like Harold Lutnick and Elon Musk don't care. They are immune to that pain. They're not going to be running down to Target this weekend, whose CEO said, oh, by the way, we're going to jack prices up. They're not going to the grocery store themselves this weekend saying, oh, well, shit, eggs are $12 a dozen now. People are literally in New York City bodegas selling loosies of eggs in plastic bags. Here are the three eggs, man. It's cash only.

But look, you got this guy to focus on the speech for 24 hours because the economy is taking a beating under Trump. Why are his numbers going down? Because the one thing that people believe about Donald Trump, among the many things that are not true about him, well, he's a great businessman. He understands the economy. Nobody's richer than Trump. He has bankrupted himself six times. He will bankrupt us if we let him.

But moving on to why that was important, because that news is unbelievably bad for the country and unbelievably bad for Trump and unbelievably bad for Republicans. And so Trump had to like blow things up at the speech. The second piece of bad news for Trump is that he has created something he does not want. That is that Europe is taking over the lead in Ukraine. Now, look, is American aid and weapons systems essential? Sure.

Those things are vital. Hang on a second. Oh, come here. Come here. I'm going to have to bring the cat into the picture. This is Elton, everybody. He's a kitten. Well, he's not quite a kitten. He's more of a cat now, but he's very badly behaved. And anytime you're on any kind of podcast recording, et cetera, he's going to walk around and scratch you or purr or make noise. So say hello, Elton. It's your TV debut. Well, maybe not debut, but here he is. Anyway, Elton,

So look, okay, look, I threw the cat into the picture now. The cat is an essential part of the attention economy because cat memes really are, I believe, 41.7% of all internet traffic and the rest is goat porn being looked at by Seb Gorka in the White House. But look, this attention economy question on the foreign policy side, Trump really loved last Friday. It was one of the greatest days of his life. Why? He got to show Vladimir Putin how much he loves him.

He got to betray America's interests and force Republicans whom he knows do not like this idea to say, well, yes, we do love being on the side of the post-communist Soviet, post-Soviet, post-communist dictatorship at Russia. That's what we've really worked for all these years. Thank God Ronald Reagan fought for. Wait, what? He knows that that was a great attention black hole.

But the thing that happened because of that black hole was Europe said, well, shit, I guess we're getting divorced after all. And now this week they have been working diligently. Already the Americans have cut off intelligence to Ukraine. The Europeans are quickly replacing it. They have contracted for private satellite coverage now. They're contracting for communications for Ukraine now. They're providing Ukraine intelligence now outside of Five Eyes and outside of the U.S. system.

There used to be an old joke about NATO that the purpose was to keep the French quiet, the Germans down, and the Russians out. Well, now the French are getting very loud. And if you want to look at a fundamental restructuring of the power dynamic in the world, French President Macron this week has come out and said, we're going to start discussions about how France's nuclear deterrent can now shield all of Europe.

Now, look, Article 5 was always a badass thing for NATO because it was like, you crossed the line, Vlad, and the Americans are going to be here in about five minutes. France, which has a fairly sizable nuclear arsenal, not like Russia's or U.S.'s, but fairly sizable, is now offering a nuclear deterrent to Europe. That ought to get your attention in the attention economy. That ought to get your attention in the world because what you are hearing now is the reciprocal threat that Russia has been falsely attacking

claiming for years why do you always hear trouble it's world war three and tulsi gabbard it's world war three if you don't look at putin and with worshipful big blue eyes and blink at him and say oh you're the tallest handsomest russian dictator ever that he'll nuke you they threaten to nuke people all the time they're never going to nuke anybody when there's a deterrent and now france and by the way i know a lot of mogs go oh but she's thinking surrender monkeys they have really good

nuclear weapons that work. They have really good fighter pilots and fighter planes that can deliver them. They're not there to fuck with. But listen, if you guys want to rearm Germany, be my guest. Go for it. How do you think that's going to work out for you in the end? If you want France to take the lead in Europe, be my guest. At this point, I wish we had maintained our NATO alliance. I think it was a valuable and important and crucial thing in the world. But you know what they're doing? They're stepping up. They're not paying attention to Trump's bullshit.

They're paying attention to the needs of the security of the world. And if you want other nations to lead the world, if you want other nations to provide the consistency and stability and constancy that America wants to, you're going to get that. And that is not, by the way, making America great again. That's making America weaker and isolated and smaller in the world. Okay. And no matter how much Trump gets you to look at it,

No matter how much Trump gets you to turn your eye back to his shenanigans, his tomfoolery, his bullshit, his dinner theater theatrics, all of it still comes down to one thing. What's important should draw your attention more than what's dramatic. What's vital, international and global economic stability and national security stability, those are pretty important things for a president to work toward and to believe in and to work on. He doesn't want those things. He wants you

as American citizens, to be scared, poor, and under control. The world he wants to craft is full of spectacle, full of circuses, full of loud noises, full of alurums and excursions, as Tolkien said, and Shakespeare talked about alurums too. But he wants you to have a world where you're satisfied if you're a MAGA voter,

with the loud noises, with owning the lubes, with, with, you know, trying to force you into a frame where you're always outraged. You should be outraged, but about the big shit, not the little shit, you know, Gulf of America. I don't care. I don't care. It's, it's pathetic. It's trivial and it's jerky. I want you to remember, I talked about this yesterday on our Wednesday, excuse me, on another video. Um,

The speech actually was kind of desperate. It was kind of pathetic. It was playing to the base of the base of the base. We'll be right back.

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And now back to the show. So this attention economy that he said are so good at manipulating is designed to always provide you with a fresh outrage. And by you, I mean the magas who are not able to go through a day without a hit of that, that old time religion. They want to, they want to shoot up the fear porn every day. They want to shoot up the hate porn every day. And,

That 30%, you're not changing their minds. They are who they are. They are what they are. They will be what they're going to be until actuarial tables and easily prevented infectious diseases kill them all. But the important stuff, how do you believe you should behave as an American? How should America behave in the world? How should America treat its allies and friends? You know,

bigger than in some ways the ukraine show of last weekend in a strange way is this deliberate dismantlement of american sovereignty and security and position and yes the ukraine issue last week was absolutely cataclysmic and consequential in every way but there was a smaller story that was released on thursday and it has to do with marco rubio the secretary of state

and the future of what America looks like in the world. And you might miss this story because it's not as flashy and as big and as noisy and doesn't have as much spectacle and fireworks around it. But Marco Rubio and the International Republican Institute have now cut off all funding to political prisoners, to pro-democracy groups in Cuba and Nicaragua and Venezuela. What is the similarity of all those three countries? Oh, yes, they're all ruled by authoritarian communist dictatorships.

And so Marco Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, who has made that the centerpiece of his political identity for a decade more, has now cut off funding for pro-democracy groups, for political prisoners, for faith communities in those countries, and for other people who are fighting against communist dictatorships and oppression. So you now have America's Secretary of State, a Cuban-American whose parents fled communism, whose family fled communism.

and who has for his entire political life made that the centerpiece of his personality, is now saying, no, we're not going to fund these programs in these countries that can help people liberate themselves from communist authoritarianism. If you don't think that is coming directly from Elon and the White House, who like communist authoritarians, by the by, who worship them, by the by, you are mistaken. Speaking of Marco, I want you to watch this video

Watch the guy that sat on the couch the other day like an hors d'oeuvre on top of a J.D. Vance cracker and a guy who passively allowed Trump and Vance to ambush a key ally in order to side with Russia. Watch the comparison of Marco Rubio from just a few years ago on the Senate floor. When the Soviet Union fell.

in the early 1990s, Ukraine was left with the world's third largest stockpile of tactical nuclear weapons and strategic nuclear weapons on the planet. But they signed this agreement with the United States, the United Kingdom, and Russia that basically said, "If you give up your nuclear weapons, we, these three countries assigned to this, will provide for your defense and assure you of your defense." And so Ukraine did that. They gave up these weapons.

Well now, this was signed in 1994, 20 years later, one of the three countries that signed that agreement hasn't just not provided for their defense, they actually invaded them. And I want to make a point on this for a second. Think about if you're one of these other countries around the world right now that feels threatened by your neighbors, and the United States and the rest of the world are going to you and saying, "Listen, don't develop nuclear weapons. Don't develop nuclear weapons, South Korea.

Don't develop nuclear weapons, Japan. Don't develop nuclear weapons, Saudi Arabia. We will protect you. We will watch out for you. What kind of lesson do you think this instance sends to them? I think the message this is sending to many nations around the world is perhaps we can no longer count on the security promises made by the free world. Perhaps we need to start looking out for ourselves. And that's why the Ukrainian situation is so much more important than simply what's happening in Europe. This has implications around the world.

We'll be right back. Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines have come together, bringing you more destinations and even more rewards. Now your miles add up no matter which airline you fly. Head to Hawaii with Hawaiian or explore Mexico, the Bahamas, the East Coast and beyond with Alaska. Your loyalty just got a major upgrade. More flights from the West Coast, more perks and more ways to earn. Book now at alaskaair.com. And now back to the show.

Now look, worshiping communist authoritarians is kind of a flavor these days. It comes from the top. Donald Trump comes from the very top. So I want to show you a little video we put out on Thursday called Vladdy Daddy, which is getting huge traffic, huge uptake. People are sharing it all over the world. I actually heard from some folks in Ukraine today, in government, who were like, I can't believe you did this. I'm like, do you know us? One half dick and one half. All these are Vlad fans.

As I said on my direct-to-camera piece I did for you guys on Wednesday, the desperation under this is because he can't exist in the real economy. He has to exist in the spectacle economy, the attention economy. Yes, that's a real thing. We all fight for it every day to get a message out, to do narrative, to do construction of what the public conversation needs to look like.

And so I want to tell all of you, thinking about those important things about what America should be in the world, what it should be at home, what kind of political life we should have here, part of it is on you. Part of it is on you having the willingness to stay focused on what's real, stay focused on what's important. All of us are tempted to expend all of our energy and outrage on every little thing. But what's really important is that you stay focused on the bigger things.

Right now, folks, whether you know it or not, Donald Trump is on the run. Elon is on the run. Doge is failing. Last night, Elon went to Congress and whatever publicly they are saying about that meeting, I've heard two sources now who tell me these people are in a raging panic. When Elon says to them, well, just call me and I'll undo any cut that you like. It gives away the whole damn game.

Elon, who runs Doge, as the president confirmed, it gives away the whole damn game. This is an extraordinarily important confession by Elon. And it tells you what's happening here. It tells you these guys are under pressure. They're on the run. There's a reason they're not doing town hall meetings. It's not just because they're chicken shit pussies. It is because they are desperately afraid of accountability.

It's on you to keep them accountable. It's on you to go out to their town hall meetings. It's up to you to be on the phone with your red state congressman. It's up for you to be on the phone with your red state senator. Even if you're in a red state and you think they're going to ignore you, pound the message home. Be polite. Be constrained. Be deliberate.

Ask people like Rick Scott in Florida, why are you voting to cut 70,000 people out of the Veterans Administration who take care of our military veterans? Why are you voting to cut veterans suicide prevention hotlines? Why are you voting with Donald Trump to end the Department of Education? Why are you voting to kill off our universities in our state?

These guys are panicking behind the scenes. They know that there's a limit to which they can do this. They know there's a problem with Trump and Doge and Elon. They know it's coming. You have to keep their attention in the attention economy on your concerns. And that, folks, is the elephant in the room.

The Lincoln Project podcast is a Lincoln Project production. Executive produced by Whitney Hayes, Ben Howe, and Joey Wartner Cheney. Produced by Whitney Hayes. Edited by Riley Main. Hey folks, if you want to support the Lincoln Project's work against Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and this MAGA craziness,

Go to action.linkinproject.us slash help LP. If you'd like to get in touch or have suggestions for a guest or a show topic, or just want to say hi, our email is podcast at linkinproject.us. For our MAGA friends, please, no more nudes. Thanks so much, and we'll talk to you again next time. Good night, and good luck.