#588 - Vice President JD Vance

JD Vance is the Vice President of the United States. He served as a Senator from Ohio before winning the presidency with Donald Trump in 2024. Vice President JD Vance joins Theo to talk about the Elon Musk fallout, the debate over what’s actually in the “Big Beautiful Bill”, and the night he watched Gladiator 2 in the White House movie theater. Vice President JD Vance: https://x.com/VP ------------------------------------------------ Tour Dates! https://theovon.com/tour New Merch: https://www.theovonstore.com ------------------------------------------------- Sponsored By: Celsius: Go to the Celsius Amazon store to check out all of their flavors. #CELSIUSBrandPartner #CELSIUSLiveFit https://amzn.to/3HbAtPJ Acorns: Go to http://acorns.com/theo to get your $20 bonus investment today. Ground News: Go to http://groundnews.com/theo to get 40% off the Vantage plan and get access to the mobile app, website and exclusive newsletters. Masa Chips: Go to http://masachips.com/theo and use code THEO for 25%off your first order. BlueChew: Go to http://bluechew.com and use code THEO to try your first month of BlueChew for free - just pay $5 shipping. ------------------------------------------------- Music: “Shine” by Bishop Gunn Bishop Gunn - Shine ------------------------------------------------ Submit your funny videos, TikToks, questions and topics you'd like to hear on the podcast to: [email protected] Hit the Hotline: 985-664-9503 Video Hotline for Theo Upload here: https://www.theovon.com/fan-upload Send mail to: This Past Weekend 1906 Glen Echo Rd PO Box #159359 Nashville, TN 37215 ------------------------------------------------ Find Theo: Website: https://theovon.com Instagram: https://instagram.com/theovon Facebook: https://facebook.com/theovon Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/thispastweekend Twitter: https://twitter.com/theovon YouTube: https://youtube.com/theovon Clips Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheoVonClips Shorts Channel: https://bit.ly/3ClUj8z ------------------------------------------------ Producer: Zach https://www.instagram.com/zachdpowers Producer: Trevyn https://www.instagram.com/trevyn.s/ Producer: Nick https://www.instagram.com/realnickdavis/ Producer: Andrew https://www.instagram.com/bleachmediaofficial/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  Coca-Cola. For the big, for the small, the short, and the tall. Peacemakers, risk takers. For the optimists, pessimists. For long-distance love. For introverts and extroverts. The thinkers and the doers. For old friends and new. Coca-Cola, for everyone. Pick up some Coca-Cola at a store near you.

• 0:30Theo Von?

  I've got some tour dates to tell you about. I'll be in Cedar Rapids, St. Paul, Minnesota, Fargo, North Dakota, Rapid City, South Dakota, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Rochester, New York, and Detroit, Michigan. All in June and July. Tickets available now at theovon.com/TOUR. Thank you so much for your support. Today's guest is the Vice President of the United States of America. He was previously a Senator from the state of Ohio before winning the presidency with Donald Trump in 2024. We are coming to you from Nashville, Tennessee, from the Detroit Cowboy, a new restaurant

• 1:10Theo Von?

  here. I'm grateful for his return to our podcast. Today's guest is Vice President JD Vance.

• 1:35Theo Von?

  To be clear. No, I'm not. I don't care at all. Look.

• 1:37Speaker 02

  We believe in the First Amendment.

• 1:39Theo Von?

  If the Secret Service has to hit me, hit me hard, brother. You know what I'm saying? And hit two other people. I want a class-action suit.

• 1:47Speaker 02

  Oh, holy shit. Look, there's a, there's a literal lion right there. Like a lion skin. I hadn't seen, have you noticed that before?

• 1:56Theo Von?

  Nuh-uh. I think it's, is that a lion or it's a?

• 1:59Speaker 02

  Sorry, I know we're supposed to start this.

• 2:00Theo Von?

  No, it's okay. No, you're good. I'm just, there's hand signals and stuff going on on my group. I'm just trying to get everybody to chill out so I can, okay. Yeah, I just didn't know. My bad. Fuck, now I ruined everything, dude.

• 2:13Speaker 02

  We had a really good vibe going. Theo just totally.

• 2:17Theo Von?

  It's like my childhood, dude. I was just, something I said right out of the gate ruined it.

• 2:23Theo Von?

  That's what my mom said to me when I was like, something you said to me right when I met you really ruined our relationship. And I'm like, when I was what 11 months old?

• 2:31Speaker 02

  Your mom said that to you?

• 2:32Theo Von?

  Yeah, she's just kind of a, uh, she's a mid, you know, she's just a good grudge holder, you know? And she's midwestern, so she's got a good grip on it.

• 2:39Speaker 02

  Yeah, my mom's a good grudge holder too.

• 2:41Theo Von?

  Is she?

• 2:42Speaker 02

  Yeah, I don't think that she's ever held anything that I said at 11 months against her though. That's pretty, I mean, that's, that's tough, man. Your mom is the champion grudge holder.

• 2:53Theo Von?

  Oh, she wins, man. She definitely wins. Um, yeah, this is Kid Rock's place, dude.

• 2:59Speaker 02

  Yeah, it's cool. There's a line over there that I don't think people can see. There's two foxes over there. You know, who'd love this place is my kids.

• 3:07Theo Von?

  Oh dude, Kid Rock is one of the fricking, he is definitely a damn piss lizard. He is a beautiful guy.

• 3:13Speaker 02

  He's a good dude.

• 3:14Theo Von?

  He's definitely the kind of guy, I feel like he would sing it like, um, I'm trying to think, what would you have Kid Rock sing at? I know like a concert, but I'm trying to think of a different type of event or something.

• 3:24Speaker 02

  I mean, he could sing in the orchestra or not orchestra, no opera. Okay.

• 3:29Theo Von?

  Dude.

• 3:29Speaker 02

  My wife now, because of the vice president, she's on the board of the Kennedy Center.

• 3:33Theo Von?

  Ooh.

• 3:33Speaker 02

  We could bring Kid Rock to sing in the opera.

• 3:35Theo Von?

  Really?

• 3:36Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 3:37Theo Von?

  Oh, wow. That's gonna be interesting. Oh, you gotta fumigate, you gotta fumigate that place after. That's all I'm saying, dude. Just because, dude.

• 3:45Speaker 02

  So, so my, my cousin, uh, her one request from the campaign is that she wanted to party with Kid Rock. And I feel kind of bad. I didn't bring her. I brought her. You remember the first time we did your podcast, my cousin was with me.

• 3:57Theo Von?

  Oh yeah, I met her. She's blonde, right?

• 3:58Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah. She's good people. And she said, I really want to party with Kid Rock. She said she wanted to party with Kid Rock and Hunter Biden. And unfortunately I haven't made either one of those happen yet, but we'll see. There's a lot of time left.

• 4:09Theo Von?

  Wow, I don't know if there's that much time left for either one of those guys though. That's really what I would, what were we talking about before we started, dude? Oh yeah, you saw that hand thing. Remember by Huberman?

• 4:19Speaker 02

  I did see this. Yeah. Well, who, who was like, what's his name? Huberman?

• 4:22Theo Von?

  Andrew Huberman, yeah.

• 4:23Speaker 02

  Okay, yeah.

• 4:24Theo Von?

  He's, um, and the problem was though, another doctor told me we might've had our hand backwards. So there's like a millions of people in America. Oh, doing like a potentially like homoerotic test on themselves based on.

• 4:37Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 4:38Theo Von?

  So anyway.

• 4:39Speaker 02

  It's your index finger is supposed to be longer than your ring finger, right?

• 4:42Theo Von?

  I think, I'm not sure. Yes.

• 4:44Speaker 02

  That's how mine is.

• 4:46Theo Von?

  Okay.

• 4:46Speaker 02

  Is my, I mean, like my pointer finger is longer than my.

• 4:49Theo Von?

  Oh, look, I'm just saying, there's a lot of guys afraid to get out of their truck at work today, probably, you know? That's all I'm just saying.

• 4:55Speaker 02

  I mean, there, there are, cause I mean, millions of people watch your podcast. There are probably hundreds of thousands of dudes, maybe more. You stared at their hand and were like, oh no.

• 5:06Theo Von?

  Oh, I saw one guy pulled his finger out of socket just to lie to his wife again.

• 5:12Theo Von?

  I mean, these are the steps people are going to, especially with this healthcare.

• 5:14Speaker 02

  Yeah. I mean, you gotta do what you can.

• 5:17Theo Von?

  I'm like, dude, you're gonna have to put that back in yourself, you know? Yeah.

• 5:22Speaker 02

  I don't think it works like that though, right? The, the causality, I think if you like jerk your finger out of the socket, it doesn't really change anything other than you have a broken finger.

• 5:30Theo Von?

  I don't, look, man.

• 5:31Speaker 02

  Not that I'm judging, of course, all, every, you know, live and let live.

• 5:35Theo Von?

  Look dude, if you're a gay guy, I think if you can put, you've, you've put more than your finger back in socket. You know what I'm saying? You can handle that. That's all I'm saying. So that right there, I think is a good test. I think my great, great grandfather, I'm not sure if he was gay, but people thought he was gay or whatever, just from the pictures of him.

• 5:51Speaker 02

  Your, your great, great, great grandfather.

• 5:53Theo Von?

  Yeah.

• 5:54Speaker 02

  Man, I don't think I know anything about my great, great, great grandfather. Probably fought in the Civil War.

• 5:59Theo Von?

  He did?

• 6:00Speaker 02

  Probably.

• 6:00Theo Von?

  For both sides, I bet, huh? You know what I'm talking about?

• 6:04Speaker 02

  Okay. So there's a database. There's actually, there's a website. I think it's like an, an American history or Smithsonian. Somebody keeps up a database where you can go in and type your name and you can see how many people with your last name fought in the Civil War.

• 6:18Theo Von?

  Hell yeah.

• 6:18Speaker 02

  And I did that on both sides of my family, mom and dad's side. It was kind of crazy how many ants, or how many people with the same name at least fought in the Civil War.

• 6:26Theo Von?

  Oh, I'm sure.

• 6:27Speaker 02

  But on, but on, I mean, like on both sides.

• 6:29Theo Von?

  On both sides.

• 6:29Speaker 02

  Confederates or some union. Yeah.

• 6:31Theo Von?

  Who would you have fought for, you think? Sorry, I'm joking, JD. We're not gonna start there.

• 6:35Speaker 02

  I'm a big fan of Abraham Lincoln. I would have, I would have fought, I would have fought for the Union.

• 6:41Speaker 02

  It's, it's interesting, man. So the.

• 6:45Speaker 02

  You go back in time to like even so when I grew up, right? The story that we told, so I grew up in Southern Ohio and the story that sort of we learned in Ohio history and American history was basically the union was the union side was right. But you know, we're all part of the same team after the Civil War. We all came together, shook hands and you know, kumbaya. And you could even like, respect the other side, even if you didn't necessarily agree with what they were fighting for.

• 7:11Theo Von?

  Yeah.

• 7:11Speaker 02

  And I feel like something happened like 10 years ago where every it's like, you have to think that every single person who fought for the Confederate side was an evil person. I just think that's so stupid.

• 7:22Theo Von?

  Yeah, well, I think, you know, I know there was a time when they tore down all the statues and stuff and erased like a lot of the history. I think a lot of people would debate about the value of erasing history, you know? It's like, because it feels like it's there for a purpose and it feels like it deserves to be there, even though like later on in life, you might be or later on in time, people might be like ashamed of it or think of it differently.

• 7:42Speaker 02

  Yeah, that's right.

• 7:42Theo Von?

  It feels like it at least earned its place in existence.

• 7:45Speaker 02

  Yeah. So did you ever see this, there's this documentary on the Civil War by Ken Burns? It was on PBS.

• 7:51Theo Von?

  Oh, yeah.

• 7:52Speaker 02

  The really sad violin music and I actually met the couple that composed that song from the Ken Burns documentary. It's like, it's a beautiful song, honestly.

• 8:01Theo Von?

  Yeah, but it seems sad as hell to sit around with your wife all day listening to that song. Good God.

• 8:07Speaker 02

  Let's just, let's sit here and listen to all five minutes of it in total silence, me and you and all these producers. Look, I, I, so my wife who, you know, her family came from South India and then immigrated and then she was born in San Diego. Like I, I watched that documentary with my wife, actually, I think when we were still dating, we weren't even married yet. And it's like such a good summary of everything that happened in the Civil War.

• 8:33Theo Von?

  Yeah.

• 8:33Speaker 02

  And you get this sense it's sad and it's heartbreaking, you know? They read letters from some guy home to his family and it's just, it's, it captures the tragedy of the Civil War. And my wife made this point actually a few years ago. She was like, if you showed that documentary, maybe not now, but like at the height of the woke thing, so call it 2021, you show that documentary in 2021, there are A lot of things they would try to cancel Ken Burns over because you know, like a Confederate soldier wrote a wrote a letter home and it's sad and it's tragic and you try to empathize with that person. And that was that's like, that wasn't okay in 2021. And I think that's actually one of the best things that's happened in the country. The last few years is people are just done

• 9:15Speaker 02

  filtering themselves. Right. And they're done like being canceled or being afraid to say what's on their mind. Yeah, that's a good thing.

• 9:22Theo Von?

  Yeah, that's a great point, man. Dude, I'll tell you this. I heard that Frederick Douglass,

• 9:28Theo Von?

  I heard Frederick Douglass was gay.

• 9:31Speaker 02

  And I'll tell you, I swear. Who told you that?

• 9:33Theo Von?

  I've heard it from probably almost 15, not 15 people. I've heard it from four people.

• 9:37Speaker 02

  Where do you go to find the people who tell you that Frederick Douglass is gay?

• 9:41Theo Von?

  Look, I'll tell you this.

• 9:42Speaker 02

  You must hang out more interesting places than I do.

• 9:43Theo Von?

  It wasn't white people that told me. Really? Okay. Out of the gate, I have given a little bit more credibility. And that's why he wanted to free all those men because he was having trouble meeting anybody.

• 9:53Speaker 02

  Is that right?

• 9:54Theo Von?

  Because everybody was at work.

• 9:55Speaker 02

  That's, you know, I'm gonna talk, I'm gonna talk.

• 9:59Theo Von?

  JD Vance, congratulations, dude.

• 10:02Speaker 02

  We're gonna talk to Smithsonian about putting up an exhibit on that. And Theo Von, you can be the narrator for this new, this new understanding of the history of Frederick Douglass.

• 10:12Theo Von?

  Dude, no, congratulations.

• 10:14Speaker 02

  Dude, you have such a dry sense of humor that sometimes you say something to me and I'm like, was he, was he screwing with me? Or was he actually being serious about that?

• 10:21Theo Von?

  But when you think about it, though, he seemed awfully particular about getting them fellas off, off work early.

• 10:28Speaker 02

  I, yeah, I think so. Probably, probably not for the reasons you're suggesting, but.

• 10:32Theo Von?

  I don't know. And if he was, then more power to him, dude. I think we need, uh, I don't know. I'm not getting this is it's just getting worse for me. You're still good. Um, congratulations, man, on being vice president.

• 10:44Speaker 02

  Thanks, man. It's awesome.

• 10:45Theo Von?

  That's so crazy, man. It's just like, um, it's, I just can't even like, I can believe it, but it's just like.

• 10:52Speaker 02

  I can't.

• 10:53Theo Von?

  You can't?

• 10:53Speaker 02

  No, man. It's crazy.

• 10:54Theo Von?

  What about that first, the first night you won, what did y'all do? Y'all get, y'all didn't get high on that.

• 11:01Speaker 02

  If I did, I wouldn't say it for public consumption. No, I did not get high. I did not get high. I mean, I did have a fair amount to drink that night.

• 11:07Theo Von?

  Hell, yeah, dude. First time I stayed at a Hampton Inn that had two beds, double beds in one room.

• 11:12Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 11:12Theo Von?

  We fucking.

• 11:13Speaker 02

  You gotta find an excuse to celebrate whenever, whenever one arises. But I, uh,

• 11:18Theo Von?

  Yeah, take us down that night.

• 11:19Speaker 02

  Okay. All right. Here's, here's, here's what happened. So we're in Mar-a-Lago. Okay. So first of all, we had a puppy about 18 months ago. Okay. And I didn't even think about it, but the puppy's birthday is November the 5th, which happens to be the day of the election. So our puppy's first birthday is November the 5th. So we're at Mar-a-Lago with Donald Trump, and Donald Trump has his chef send our dog a birthday cake. And I'm, you know, it's, I'm so nervous. You know, I'm thinking about the election results and I'm trying to get, you know, I'm calling my guys up and saying, oh, do we have any, any early returns? Like, what's going on? And this like rice dog birthday cake shows up at Mar-a-Lago and I'm like, what the hell is going on? You know, the, the president, it's interesting. He, he compartmentalizes things very well. So he just doesn't get like really stressed out. He's very stoic about

• 12:03Speaker 02

  everything, right? Whereas I was a little bit more nervous. So anyway, so polls close. I'm sitting there with like my wife and all my best friends from back home come down to Mar-a-Lago to watch, except for my one buddy Nate. I still give him crap because Nate, Nate couldn't make the trip.

• 12:18Theo Von?

  He didn't come? Why?

• 12:18Speaker 02

  He couldn't make the trip, man. He had, you know, he had to take care of his kid or something like that. He's a good dude. He's a good dude. Love Nate.

• 12:23Theo Von?

  Put his kid in a van, dude. You have to go to that.

• 12:26Speaker 02

  And do what with her?

• 12:28Theo Von?

  Huh? Pay the valet to help out? I don't know. Anyway, sorry Nate. So nevermind. I don't know him. Go on, sir.

• 12:34Speaker 02

  Nate's a good dude. Nate's a good dude. He's a fan of yours, actually.

• 12:37Theo Von?

  Oh, give him a hug for me.

• 12:38Speaker 02

  So we're watching, we're watching the election returns and I'm getting updates because there, it's crazy, dude. There's a whole data apparatus that is feeding information into the central campaign. So like whatever the media is reporting on, we're like 15 minutes ahead of time. And we're asking questions like, oh, there's this, I'll never forget this. There's this one little county in Indiana that produced election results early. And we were like, oh my God, we did so much better in that county than, than we did in 2020 or even 2016. And so that's a pretty good sign. And what happened is as these counties trickle in, you realize we're doing way better than we did even in 2016. Like, oh, my God, Donald Trump's going to be the president and I'm going to be the vice president of the United States.

• 13:22Speaker 02

  And that was nuts. And I was there is actually with, uh, with my wife. So we, so

• 13:29Theo Von?

  What did you do? You put your hands in your pockets or what'd you even do?

• 13:33Speaker 02

  I don't know what I do with my hands, man. I was, I was like, it was like, you know, uh, Talladega Nights, right? I'm just not sure what to do with my hands all night. So we go over to the hotel where they're doing like the victory celebration. And I'm there with like Don Jr. And Tucker Carlson, and a few other people who are sort of in the world of politics. And they called Pennsylvania and I didn't realize that, like the, the TV called Pennsylvania. And I didn't realize that I was just talking to my wife and the crowd goes wild. So you hear people cheering and I'm like, what the hell happened? And I look over the TV and like, oh my God, it's official. And that was one, that was one of the craziest moments. Yeah, yeah. The feeling at that moment, one, it was incredible, but then you, you have this overwhelming sense of like, oh my God. We're the dog that caught the car, right?

• 14:18Speaker 02

  And now you have to do a good job. And it's not, you know, it's not like some, some random job. It's like a really important job. And so I just had this kind of sense of, oh my God, this is real now.

• 14:29Theo Von?

  Well, you're moving to another class. I mean, shit, you're having, your dog's used to getting cakes for his birthday now. You know what I'm saying? Like, things are changing, man. Do you stay?

• 14:41Theo Von?

  Where do you stay at? Because if Trump stays, if the president stays in the White House, where do you stay at?

• 14:45Speaker 02

  Yeah. So you should come visit. You have an open invitation. The president actually gives me crap about this because he says, sometimes I think you have a nicer house than I do. We stayed at a place we call the VPR, the vice president's residence, but it's in the Naval Observatory. So we've got like probably 40 or so acres of completely private space.

• 15:03Theo Von?

  In an observatory?

• 15:04Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 15:07Speaker 02

  No, no.

• 15:09Theo Von?

  Bring me in, dude.

• 15:10Speaker 02

  Peeping Tom on stars and

• 15:12Theo Von?

  Dude, I got a small ladder. I'll set that whole neighborhood ablaze. Dude, nobody will buy a new bra in that neighborhood without me knowing it, dude. I swear to God, brother.

• 15:20Speaker 02

  The telescopes are pointed towards the stars.

• 15:25Speaker 02

  But anyway, so we, we live there. So we got three little kids and like I said, a dog.

• 15:29Theo Von?

  Wow.

• 15:29Speaker 02

  And it's very cool. So we did actually, so a couple of weeks ago, the president invited me and my wife, we had a, I think, I think it was my stepmom was in town. And the president invited me and my wife to stay in the Lincoln bedroom. And I was like, oh, that's like really cool. Of course I want to go stay at the Lincoln bedroom. So apparently though, a vice president had never stayed at the White House with the president before. And so the secret service wasn't totally sure what to do because they didn't have like the processes. But yeah, we went to the White House. We stayed at the Lincoln bedroom.

• 15:58Theo Von?

  He don't stay up late?

• 16:00Speaker 02

  Uh, we did actually, but because it was kind of scary, right? I mean, you're like laying in the room. There's a desk where, you know, the president's like, that's the desk where Lincoln wrote the emancipation proclamation. Like I thought it would be cooler and, and more fun, but you're kind of just laying in there and it's like, you know, there are ghosts, feels like there's ghosts everywhere.

• 16:17Theo Von?

  Yeah.

• 16:18Speaker 02

  It's just a kind of a creepy feeling to be in the literal bedroom of Abraham Lincoln. When you think about it, that dude went to the Ford's theater to go see a play, left that room, but never came back. Right? That's pretty, that's, that's creepy stuff.

• 16:31Theo Von?

  Yeah.

• 16:31Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 16:32Theo Von?

  Dang dude.

• 16:33Speaker 02

  Speaking Frederick Douglass.

• 16:34Theo Von?

  Yeah. And yeah.

• 16:35Speaker 02

  We've come full circle.

• 16:37Theo Von?

  Look, I'll just say this, there's photos when he was signing that, you saw Frederick in the distance, just biggest smile.

• 16:44Speaker 02

  Biggest smile.

• 16:44Theo Von?

  Biggest smile on the joint.

• 16:47Theo Von?

  So damn, you slept, so you might be the first vice president that ever slept in the White House?

• 16:51Speaker 02

  That's what they told us. I don't want, you know, that's, maybe it had happened like 30 years ago, but.

• 16:55Theo Von?

  Did y'all stay up late with the Trumps and watch a movie or anything? Like what did you got? Play a game or anything?

• 16:59Speaker 02

  So the White House is a movie theater. The president was busy, but my wife and I wouldn't watch Gladiator two in the White House movie theater. That's right.

• 17:07Theo Von?

  Hell yeah.

• 17:08Speaker 02

  Yeah. Um, it wasn't as good as Gladiator one. I thought that's just one man's opinion.

• 17:12Theo Von?

  Yeah, but it's way better when you're the vice president watching.

• 17:14Speaker 02

  Yeah, that's right. In the, in the White, in the White House movie theater.

• 17:17Theo Von?

  Oh dude, it's shitty, but if you're the vice president watching it, when you get to the end of the movie, you're still the vice president.

• 17:24Speaker 02

  You're still the vice president.

• 17:25Theo Von?

  So that's pretty dope dude.

• 17:26Speaker 02

  That's right. Uh, so yeah, we stayed up late, watched the movie. The food's really good. So there's like a fancy chef at the White, I mean, it's the White.

• 17:33Theo Von?

  And he stays up all night?

• 17:34Speaker 02

  Well, I don't know how ladies stays, but he like, if you order anything at any time of night, they will just bring it to you.

• 17:40Theo Von?

  Oh my God. I gotta get there.

• 17:44Theo Von?

  Thankfully, at least we're at Kid Rock's bar.

• 17:48Theo Von?

  I'm headed in a good direction. We are at Kid Rock's restaurant. I do want to say that. It's a new restaurant. Well, it's a, it's a refinement of Joe Muir Seafood, which is a famous restaurant in Nashville. And he graces by letting us have this room here to do this.

• 18:03Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 18:03Theo Von?

  So I want to thank you.

• 18:04Speaker 02

  Thank you, Bob Ritchie, also known as Kid Rock, for letting us have this beautiful space. He told me it'd only been open for two days.

• 18:10Theo Von?

  Really?

• 18:10Speaker 02

  I didn't realize that. Yeah.

• 18:12Theo Von?

  Yeah. Oh, I was here at a frigging welcoming party or something. I was here last night.

• 18:15Speaker 02

  Nice.

• 18:17Theo Von?

  What the, dude, I was fricking in here last night.

• 18:20Speaker 02

  You're the welcoming party, which was last night because it's only been open for two days. It's good.

• 18:24Theo Von?

  Um.

• 18:25Speaker 02

  So how was the food?

• 18:26Theo Von?

  The food, I will say this, actually, there's steaks that they have these little bitty mushrooms and I feel like they were, I don't want to say this out loud, but they were too young to be picked or whatever. But, um, it was really good.

• 18:36Speaker 02

  It's good.

• 18:37Theo Von?

  Really, really good.

• 18:38Speaker 02

  I had high expectations. Okay.

• 18:40Theo Von?

  We have you here. Elon just hit the airwaves today. Bring it up, dude.

• 18:44Speaker 02

  Oh, man.

• 18:45Theo Von?

  The fucking shit missile is in the cannon.

• 18:49Speaker 02

  Okay. Wow.

• 18:52Theo Von?

  Elon Musk, time to drop the really big bomb, right? And I thought this was going to be on Iran.

• 18:57Speaker 02

  I haven't even seen.

• 18:59Theo Von?

  Right?

• 18:59Speaker 02

  I haven't even seen this one.

• 19:00Theo Von?

  But he goes, at real Donald Trump is in the Epstein files. This is the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day. Nice signature from a South African DJT.

• 19:09Speaker 02

  Man. Well, so just so your audience is aware, when was this, when is this going to air, like tomorrow or two days from now?

• 19:17Theo Von?

  Forty-five minutes airing now, dude. No, I'm joking.

• 19:20Speaker 02

  I'm just saying, like,

• 19:21Theo Von?

  No.

• 19:22Speaker 02

  presumably when this comes out, people are going to know more about this than I do because

• 19:26Theo Von?

  I just learned about this.

• 19:26Speaker 02

  This kind of happened on the plane when I was coming on down here.

• 19:29Theo Von?

  I agree. This is just, this is, this is new.

• 19:31Speaker 02

  Here, here's, here's my basic reaction to like all this stuff is, is look. First of all, do like, absolutely not. Donald Trump didn't do anything wrong with Jeffrey Epstein. Like, there's, the guy is, whatever the Democrats and the media says about him, that's totally BS. Here, here's my basic, my basic read on it. First of all, I'm the vice president to President Trump, my lawyer. Is are always going to be with the president. And I think that Elon, he's an incredible entrepreneur. He's actually done, I think Doge was really good. This sort of effort to root out waste, fraud and abuse in our country is really good. And, and, and look, man, I'm always going to be loyal to the president. And I hope that eventually Elon kind of comes back into the fold. Maybe that's not possible now because he's gone so nuclear.

• 20:16Theo Von?

  Well, it's feeling.

• 20:17Speaker 02

  I hope it is, man, because.

• 20:18Theo Von?

  It's feeling to hurt. Why though? Do you, do you know why?

• 20:20Speaker 02

  Yeah, I mean, so, look, I think number one, so Elon's new to politics, right? So his businesses are being attacked nonstop. They're literally like firebombing some of his cars. And by the way, we're looking into a lot of the stuff. I mean, some of that stuff we're looking into is an act of terrorism.

• 20:37Theo Von?

  Yeah.

• 20:38Speaker 02

  At the Department of Justice, because I think it is an act of terrorism. So I think part of it is this guy got into politics and it's suffered a lot for it. But I, I, I mean, and I, and I get the frustration there and I get the frustration. I mean, look, Congress, you got the spending bill. But the main purpose of the bill is not actually spending or cutting spending, though it does cut a lot of spending. The main purpose of the bill is to prevent the biggest tax increase. But I understand like it's a good bill. It's not a perfect bill, like the process in DC. If you're a business leader, you probably get frustrated with that process because it's more, you know, bureaucratic, it's more slow moving.

• 21:11Theo Von?

  Yeah.

• 21:12Speaker 02

  So I think there's just some frustrations there. But I, I, I really, man, I think it's a huge mistake for him to go after the president like that. And I, I think that if he and the president are in some blood feud, most importantly, it's going to be bad for the country. But I think it's going to be, I don't think it's going to be good for Elon either.

• 21:29Theo Von?

  But Elon, like did Doge, first of all, my first thought was that it's a ruse, right? Cause there's a lot of times there's where the media will put out a ruse or they'll use somebody like, I think the Diddy thing is a ruse. Like, it's like, hey, like diverse communities, stay busy with this shit. Wow. We like move all these chess pieces, right? Sometimes that's what I feel like it is. And maybe I'm like a pervert or whatever. Sorry, or weird guy. Sorry. But this has nothing to do with that.

• 21:54Speaker 02

  But I'm not a pervert. Maybe you're a weird guy. You're not a pervert. I think you're a good dude.

• 21:57Theo Von?

  I appreciate that, dude. Um, but anyway, what I was saying was, uh.

• 22:00Speaker 02

  That Diddy thing, man, is it true? They found like, sorry.

• 22:04Theo Von?

  No, go on.

• 22:05Speaker 02

  Not to play into this, but I read somewhere that they found like bottles and bottles and bottle. Maybe you told me this. I don't know. Somebody told me bottles and bottles of like baby oil, but that had like drugs.

• 22:16Theo Von?

  Drugs in it. Bring that up. Was they doping up?

• 22:19Speaker 02

  Is that real? Or is that just something I heard on the internets? Because sometimes you hear stuff on the internet. It's not true.

• 22:23Theo Von?

  Well, here's what.

• 22:24Speaker 02

  Most of it is. Most of the stuff you hear on the internet.

• 22:27Theo Von?

  What defense would you have? Like babies that are addicted to dirty oil?

• 22:30Speaker 02

  Yeah. I mean, you don't normally have GHB in baby oil.

• 22:33Theo Von?

  GHB oil.

• 22:34Speaker 02

  I'm not a doctor, but I don't think that's a normal ingredient in GHB. Anyway, sorry.

• 22:39Theo Von?

  I don't know, dude. There's some babies these days that fucking want to get to the club, homie. No. Um, but no, but so do you think it was? So obviously it was the bill. This is where it's happened. Something about the bill made him upset.

• 22:55Speaker 02

  Yeah. So, yeah, that's right. That's right. I mean, again, I, I, I think he looked at the bill. He didn't like it. And I think it's a good bill, but again, there are things you can criticize about it. Like the president would be very open and say, this is not a perfect bill.

• 23:09Theo Von?

  Yeah.

• 23:09Speaker 02

  But Donald Trump doesn't get to write the bills, right? Congress has to write the bills and you got to work with them to try to get something that is as good as possible.

• 23:15Theo Von?

  Okay.

• 23:16Speaker 02

  So here's what I'll say about the bill. Number one, prevents the biggest tax increase in American history.

• 23:20Theo Von?

  It prevents it?

• 23:21Speaker 02

  Prevents it because taxes are going to go up on everybody in a really big way at the end of 2025 because the old tax law expires at the end of 2025. So you're going to hit a big tax increase. We're trying to prevent that from happening. We're also trying to do stuff. Okay. So you've got a lot of people working long overtime hours in this economy. Um, you know, we inherited bad inflation from Joe Biden. So no tax on overtime. No tax on tips, right? We're in, we're in Bob Ritchie. We're in Kid Rock's great restaurant. His servers would not have to pay taxes on the hard earned tips that they get when they're, when they're busting their ass doing a good job. So when working for Kid Rock, man, that's hard. That's hard work. Right? So I think that it's, it's a good bill and it does a lot of good for the American people. But like, look, Elon's entitled to his opinion.

• 24:03Speaker 02

  I'm not saying he has to agree with the bill or agree with everything that I'm saying. I just think it's a huge mistake for the world's wealthiest man. I think one of the most transformational entrepreneurs ever, that's Elon, to be at, at, at this war with the world's most powerful man, who I think is doing more to save the country than anybody, I'm not 40 years old, anybody in my lifetime. You think about it. It's a guy who, not even a year ago, nearly took a bullet in the process of campaigning, went back on the horse the next day. And if you look, obviously, I'm biased, but you look at what we've done on the border, you look at what we've done with trade, fighting back against a generation of theft of the American dream, which is what the president's

• 24:45Speaker 02

  trade policies are starting to do. I just think you gotta have some respect for him and say, look, yeah, we don't have to agree on every issue. I'm talking about if you're Elon Musk, you don't have to agree with us on every issue, but is this war actually in the interest of the country? I don't think so. So hopefully Elon figured it out, comes back into the fold. I know the president, you know, for a couple of days, I'll tell you, just, you know, I don't want to reveal too many confidences, but, you know, was getting a little frustrated, feeling like some of the criticisms were unfair coming from Elon, but I think has been very restrained because the president doesn't think that he needs to be in a blood feud with Elon Musk. And I actually think if Elon chilled out a little bit, everything would be fine.

• 25:25Theo Von?

  It would help. Well, Elon also tweeted that he thought that in the second half of this year, that there would be a, the Trump terrorists will cause a recession in the second half of this year. Now, who knows what could cause a recession in the second half of this year? It could be a buildup of our entire just history of being alive. But he's saying this. So it seems like, and this is just me guessing, and I don't know Mr. Musk. I never met Mr. Musk. One time he fed my buddy spaghetti at a party, though, dude, that my buddy, they were, people were raging and shit and-

• 26:00Speaker 02

  Your buddy couldn't feed himself spaghetti?

• 26:01Theo Von?

  Well, my buddy said, he offered my buddy some spaghetti, and my buddy said, yeah, I'd like to have some. And then-

• 26:06Speaker 02

  But only if you feed it to me?

• 26:07Theo Von?

  But instead of getting him a plate of spaghetti, he made him something, put it in his mouth, dude.

• 26:13Speaker 02

  Does your buddy know Frederick Douglass?

• 26:15Theo Von?

  My buddy, I'll say this. My buddy actually is a friend of FDR. Oh, no, no, no. Sorry, of, uh, shit.

• 26:24Speaker 02

  Frederick?

• 26:24Theo Von?

  God, dude. Fucking ruin this shit, dude. Fuck, dude, civics, man. Chill out. Um, no, uh, but he said that he thinks, but do you think that he just thinks that there's too many, that it's not a fair bill for the people? Do you think Elon Musk is for the people?

• 26:41Speaker 02

  I mean, I think that he's making a mistake and going after the president. I think it's hard as in the good place, in the right place, man. I do. Like, I think he got into this for the right reasons. I think he's frustrated. I think he's an emotional guy. Honestly, I'm a very emotional guy.

• 26:53Theo Von?

  Yeah.

• 26:54Speaker 02

  Like, it's, it's, the president is, is, it's interesting. Cause if you read the media reports, you wouldn't necessarily see this. He's not like quick to temper. Like, he's not one of these guys who flies off the handle. That's a little bit more what I'm like, honestly.

• 27:09Theo Von?

  Oh, he's smooth.

• 27:10Speaker 02

  He's smooth, man. He's stoic.

• 27:11Theo Von?

  His blood pressure's fucking double oh seven, dude. That motherfucker is.

• 27:14Speaker 02

  I don't, I don't know if that's good, but yeah, I get what you're saying.

• 27:18Theo Von?

  But it's, it's, it is where it is.

• 27:20Speaker 02

  But I, but I, I think, I, so yeah, I think Elon means the best, but I think he's making a mistake.

• 27:26Theo Von?

  Yeah, got it.

• 27:26Speaker 02

  That's my view.

• 27:27Theo Von?

  Um, did any, was Doge helpful?

• 27:31Speaker 02

  It was. Yeah, it was. And I mean, look, Doge continues within the White House and within the executive of, of the country. I mean, look, you, you, there's a lot of ways in which we are wasting the American people's money.

• 27:43Theo Von?

  Yeah.

• 27:43Speaker 02

  Sometimes spending it on crazy stuff, sometimes spending it on like actually counterproductive stuff. I think Doge has saved already at least 170, maybe 200 billion dollars. Hopefully it's going to save more, but yeah, I think it was very, it's very worthwhile.

• 27:57Theo Von?

  Money. How could you? How do they not, how would you not even notice that? If that much money?

• 28:03Speaker 02

  Uh, there's so much I could tell you about this. Okay. So one of the crazy things we all figured out, like first week or so, we're in the White House. Okay. Is there was a payment that should be stopped? Cause the president signed an executive order to stop a payment. And this is like the day one of the White House, we're like, okay, how do we stop this payment? Because somebody's trying to make this payment and nobody knew where like the computer was that actually wired the money from the US taxpayer to this entity.

• 28:29Theo Von?

  God.

• 28:30Speaker 02

  Dude, the, the amount of waste and the amount of just grift in the federal government was off the charts. It's still, it's, it's getting better, but there's still a lot more I think we can find.

• 28:41Theo Von?

  Who was getting it? I don't know. I don't know one person that was getting something extra. I don't think unless everybody was slurping.

• 28:47Speaker 02

  Yeah, I mean, a lot of people were slurping, man. You look at, you look at what? So for example, there are all these humanitarian programs that we have where we send money for people, for medicine, for food.

• 28:58Theo Von?

  Oh, yeah.

• 28:59Speaker 02

  Okay, but like you think, I think like what I thought before I got in the government, what most Americans think is, okay, so we send $100,000 to this group to buy food for like poor kids in Africa. Okay. And what actually happens is it's not $100,000 that go to the food for the poor kids in Africa. That the NGO, the non-government organization that gets that money contracts it out to somebody else.

• 29:25Theo Von?

  Right.

• 29:25Speaker 02

  And then they subcontract it out to somebody. There's like three or four middlemen. And what, you know, Marco Rubio, who's the Secretary of State, he's a very good friend. What he told me is that his best estimate, after he had his team look at it, is that 88 cents of every dollar was actually being collected by middlemen.

• 29:41Theo Von?

  No way.

• 29:42Speaker 02

  So every dollar we were spending humanitarian assistance, 12 cents was actually making it to people who needed it. That's crazy. So there's a lot of waste, man. A lot of crazy stuff.

• 29:49Theo Von?

  So Elon was putting in a lot. Was Elon doing it for free all that time?

• 29:54Speaker 02

  He was doing it for free. Yeah.

• 29:55Theo Von?

  Doing it for free.

• 29:56Speaker 02

  He was doing it for free. I mean, he doesn't need money, right? That's the one thing Elon does not, does not need.

• 30:01Theo Von?

  So was he, I wonder if he was expecting anything from Trump and they just couldn't figure it out? I don't know. I'm just curious about it. You know, I'm kind of like, you start to see how all this stuff kind of works, you know, and just like, it's like.

• 30:09Speaker 02

  Yeah, like I hear, I really do think he's disappointed about the bill. He's, you know, he disagrees with some of the things that were in there. He's an emotional guy. Look, it happens to everybody. I've, I've flown off the handle way worse than Elon Musk did in the last 24 hours.

• 30:24Theo Von?

  Oh, yeah.

• 30:25Speaker 02

  But, you know, my hope is comes back, says, look, made some mistakes. Didn't mean to say everything. Let's smooth it out and let's all be friends. Because again, like I care about the country and I think the country's better off if the, under the president's leadership, Elon's helping us out as opposed to fighting the administration. I don't want him to fight the administration. I know the president doesn't want that, but here we are.

• 30:48Theo Von?

  Yeah. He just tweeted a little bit ago that he felt like 80% of the, um, what was that? About a third party or something?

• 30:57Speaker 02

  Tweeted like 300 times.

• 30:58Theo Von?

  Oh, sorry. Never mind. Okay. That's all just, just a lot of tweets today. Just a regular day for Elon. So yeah, he's obviously, I mean, he's definitely, uh, he gets a bit rogue. Um, uh, why don't we have?

• 31:11Speaker 02

  Oh, wow. This is interesting.

• 31:12Theo Von?

  Pull it up. Let's see it.

• 31:13Speaker 02

  This post is from an account you muted. I'm curious. Who, who did you mute?

• 31:20Theo Von?

  Who is that guy?

• 31:21Speaker 02

  Is that yours? It's one of your producers.

• 31:24Theo Von?

  Ian Meo- Meo- Meo Lees Shong. Oh, it said Trump should be impeached and JD Vance should replace him. Dude. That's one vote.

• 31:33Speaker 02

  Oh my God. See, this is what I'm talking about. This stuff is just.

• 31:36Theo Von?

  What are you talking about campaigning?

• 31:38Speaker 02

  This stuff, this stuff is just not helpful. Again.

• 31:40Theo Von?

  Yeah. Oh, Twitter. Definitely.

• 31:42Speaker 02

  Here's, look, look. My first loyalty is to my family, obviously to the constitution. But politics is a place where people stab each other in the back.

• 31:52Theo Von?

  Yeah.

• 31:53Speaker 02

  And you can't get anything done unless you're all on the same team and you're actually committed to getting stuff done together. I just think like the idea that the president's, the president should be impeached is, I'm sorry, it's insane. It's totally insane. The president is doing a good job and you can, look, you're free to disagree with him, right? Everybody's a first amendment right.

• 32:15Theo Von?

  Are you free to disagree with Trump ever? Do you feel like you can?

• 32:18Speaker 02

  Of course, of course. I mean, the, the, the way that I put it is if I have a disagreement with the president, then it is my job, obviously, to provide the president honest counsel. Like, he doesn't need me to be a doormat. He needs me to actually say what I think about an issue. But when the president makes a decision, man, he's the general. And when the general makes a decision, everybody's go, gotta go and execute that order. And that's kind of how I think about my job, really, is to be a good ally and a good friend, provide honest counsel to the president. But also when a decision's made, you go out and get it done.

• 32:49Theo Von?

  Does he listen to many people or does he listen to just one or two?

• 32:52Speaker 02

  He listens to a ton of people. It's one of the more interesting things about his, his leadership style is if he's got a big decision to make, he talks to everybody.

• 33:00Theo Von?

  Got it.

• 33:00Speaker 02

  And I think it's why he's like in touch with normal people is because he doesn't just talk to like congressmen or people a lot of money. He tries to talk to everybody. Like I've seen him ask the gardener at Mar-a-Lago, what he thinks about a particular issue. I've seen him ask the people who work in the kitchen at the White House, what they think about an issue. He's constantly trying to understand what other people are thinking.

• 33:22Theo Von?

  Oh, I saw him ask a Scottish terrier, what kind of cakes they like, you know? So, yeah, I agree with you. He's definitely always absorbing kind of information.

• 33:30Speaker 02

  He is. Yeah.

• 33:31Theo Von?

  Um, nobody needs help spending money. Sometimes it feels like the whole world is trying to spend your money. Your whole social media feed is full of ads. Your mailbox is full of credit card offers and then there's all the hidden fees and extra costs and rising prices and blah, blah, blah. That's why there's Acorns. Acorns is a financial wellness app that makes it easy to start saving and investing for your future. You don't need to feel like financial wellness is impossible. Acorns gives you small, simple steps to get you and your money on track. You don't need to be an expert. Acorns will recommend a diversified portfolio that matches you and your money

• 34:13Theo Von?

  goals, and you just need to stick with it. And Acorns makes that easy, too. Acorns automatically invests your money, giving it a chance to grow with time. I recently got Acorns account set up for my nieces and nephews to help them learn about financial wellness. I think it's important. Sign up now and join the over 14 million all-time customers who have already saved and invested over $25 billion. Yikes. With Acorns. Plus, Acorns will boost your new account with a $20 bonus investment. Offer available at any time at acorns.com/thoe.

• 34:53Theo Von?

  That's A-C-O-R-N-S dot com slash T-H-E-O to get your $20 bonus investment today. Paid non-client endorsement. Compensation provides incentive to positively promote Acorns. Tier four compensation provided. Investing involves risks. Acorn Advisors LLC, an SEC registered investment advisor. View important disclosures at acorns.com/thoe. Man, you know, it's pretty obvious that the mainstream media is a big machine, right? They kind of contour, they team up, they have a strategy. So we're never really seeing the whole picture when it comes to news. That's why I love ground news. It lets you see how different news outlets cover the same story. Left, right, and center. Yeah, I was on ground news this morning and it shows on the, if you look at the left regarding

• 35:35Theo Von?

  the Musk Trump feud, it says Musk hits back with Epstein theories. Trump hits back with threats. Elon has gone crazy. And then we go to a more centrist news feed and it says Trump Musk feud explodes with threats of cutting contracts backing impeachment. And here we are with a right leaning from the Daily Wire. White House responds to Elon Musk Epstein claims. An unfortunate episode from Elon. And I think you should go check this out yourself because I don't think we've ever seen anything like it. I think it's actually the only of its kind. And I think it's what we've all been wanting. Just go to groundnews.com/ Theo.

• 36:16Theo Von?

  That's G R O U N D N E W S dot com slash T H E O to get 40% off the Vantage Plan and get access to the mobile app, website, and exclusive newsletters. Wow. One more time. Groundnews.com/ Theo. We, you talked about the bill, the big beautiful bill, you know, which is like kind of the most, it's the most Trumpian name you could ever have.

• 36:43Speaker 02

  It is.

• 36:44Theo Von?

  Uh, the big beautiful bill. Um, and, uh, why do, why, why are these bills, this whole mess of shit? Why is it a gumbo? Why isn't it just one fine soup each time and you vote on each certain thing? I know that's definitely gonna be a novice question, but.

• 37:00Speaker 02

  No, man, it's a fair question. Um, I think there are a couple. Excuse me. It depends on the kind of the Celsius is, uh, it's got a lot of caffeine in it, man.

• 37:08Theo Von?

  Oh dude, are you talking about?

• 37:10Speaker 02

  I'm getting amped over here.

• 37:11Theo Von?

  What are you talking about? Yeah. That's what FDR was on. That's why he left his wife. That thing will, that thing will definitely.

• 37:19Speaker 02

  Oh, man. FDR loves Celsius. As everybody knows, his favorite beverage was, was, uh, what is this here? Sparkling orange Celsius.

• 37:31Theo Von?

  And that is the most FDR flavor too, to be honest.

• 37:35Speaker 02

  Oh, man. Okay. Sorry. What did you ask me? Okay. The big, the big bill.

• 37:40Theo Von?

  I thought we were supposed to be reading the Bible.

• 37:42Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah.

• 37:45Speaker 02

  All right, the bills, okay.

• 37:47Theo Von?

  But the bill, why is it big?

• 37:48Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 37:48Theo Von?

  Because it's always, you always hear every congressman or senator, not everyone, but sometimes you hear them like, I just got it. I don't know what hap- I couldn't read a thousand pages last night, you know?

• 37:57Speaker 02

  So there are different kinds of bills.

• 37:59Theo Von?

  Okay.

• 37:59Speaker 02

  And I think, so there are things called omnibuses and omnibuses are like a million different things shoved into one bill. And oftentimes you don't have time to read them. The House, the House of Representatives actually adopted a rule to where they have to get, I think, at least four days to actually read it to, to change this because people weren't getting time to, to read the stuff before it got voted on. This particular bill, the way to think about it is basically, if you looked, look at a campaign speech I gave back in September of 2024, and I said, we're going to cut taxes on tips, we're going to have no taxes on overtime, we're going to cut taxes on social security, you know, we're going to secure the border, we're going to build more border wall, we're going to hire more border patrol agents, like all that stuff, all of those promises are in this bill.

• 38:42Speaker 02

  So like the way this particular piece of legislation was conceptualized is rather than, than take up floor time on a bunch of random different stuff, why don't we just do everything, or at least most of the things that we campaigned on that can be done through legislation and put it into this bill? Now, that's not saying that there aren't sometimes massive bills that are ridiculous and don't make a ton of sense. There are, but I think this bill, like, you know, there's a, there's a political answer to your question too. Okay. So let's just say, I'm not going to name names. I don't want to embarrass anybody. But let's say you've got some Republican congressmen who really love no taxes on tips, but they're a little squishy on the border stuff. They don't agree with what we're doing on the border. Okay. Or let's say you got somebody who really loves what we're doing

• 39:25Speaker 02

  on the border, but they don't necessarily like, you know, they don't want to cut taxes for one reason or another.

• 39:31Theo Von?

  Right.

• 39:31Speaker 02

  If, if, if you take enough of this stuff of our promises again, and put it together, you say, look, even if you disagree with parts of it, this is what we campaigned on writ large. And so we got to vote on this thing and make it happen. Sorry. There's a final answer to this question, which is, is stupid and parliamentary, but it matters. It's actually the most important answer is, okay, any bill that you do takes, you got to put it on the floor and you got to give people enough time to read it and you got to amend it. And then you got to do a committee process. And there's like a constant stream of things. There's a big process for it. And so if you went through that process for each individual item. As a put on a separate bill.

• 40:09Theo Von?

  Cost prohibitive.

• 40:10Speaker 02

  It would take over a year to do all these bills. But we gotta like, we gotta prevent taxes from going up. We don't have that much time to do it. We gotta secure the border. We don't have that much time to do it. We've got to do the, the no tax on social security. Like if, if, if we did that 18 months from now in a smaller bill, then we would not be keeping our promises to the American people.

• 40:30Theo Von?

  I see. Is there a way um, that they can just prioritize this? I wonder, it just feels like it would make, it would be so much easier to digest as a regular person.

• 40:40Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 40:40Theo Von?

  If you weren't thinking like, well, heck, my guy's got to stay up all night for 600 nights to get all this information in, you know, and to get it in accurately. And then to make fair choices on it.

• 40:50Speaker 02

  Yeah, I mean, I think the answer to your question is, is you could do that, but Congress would have to change its procedure.

• 40:55Theo Von?

  And could, could Congress do that if they voted to do it?

• 40:57Speaker 02

  They could.

• 40:57Theo Von?

  They could.

• 40:58Speaker 02

  But they, they would need to change their procedures. And you know, the president's attitude is like, we're not gonna, we're gonna tell you how to run Congress.

• 41:06Theo Von?

  Right.

• 41:06Speaker 02

  We're working within the constraints that we have.

• 41:08Theo Von?

  Understood.

• 41:08Speaker 02

  And we're just trying to get as much done. And look, I mean, people are frustrated with Congress. I get it. People are frustrated with certain things that Congress does. I agree with a lot of those criticisms. Um, I mean, we do spend way too much money in this country. Like it is a reality that we spend too much money. But I, I don't think those criticisms apply to this particular legislation. Like one thing I'd, I'd ask everybody to say is, okay, so, so big ugly spending bill. Some people are calling it. What is the spending that is done here? The biggest single budgetary item, Theo, in this bill is the money to secure the border. Like that's not ugly spending. That's like the best kind of spending.

• 41:44Theo Von?

  Well, that's a great kind of spending. I think, well, um, no, I agree with that. Look, we've had, uh, two border officials on over the past four years, and we've learned about, um, about all the, just the infrastructure issues that they face. Uh, we've learned about the fact that the executive branch doesn't process any of the, um, like they'll apprehend the guys, but then they're not processed. I think it's the executive branch.

• 42:07Speaker 02

  Yes, because we don't have the money to do it. Like that, that's okay.

• 42:09Theo Von?

  But they were saying for years, guys would come in and they'd have to catch them every other week because they would, and nobody would prosecute them. So it was just, then it made them feel like they didn't have. Many value. I know that we're signing like 5,000 new people to work at the border. So I know that we're giving a lot of new jobs over there.

• 42:22Speaker 02

  That's what we're trying to do, right, is create enough resources so that you can actually do all the border enforcement that we promised. Like, the, the, the, the part that the president got immediate action on, if you think about this, we came in, the president empowered Border Patrol to stop letting people come across the border illegally. That stopped pretty much immediately. You got like a 96% drop in border crossings immediately.

• 42:44Theo Von?

  Yeah.

• 42:44Speaker 02

  The thing is, though, is you've got 21 million people in here illegally. You gotta send them home. You gotta process them. You gotta actually, sometimes some of these people, you know, are entitled to some kind of trial for one reason or another. So you've gotta like do that. That stuff all costs money. And that's where we don't have money to do it right now. So that's why this bill's necessary.

• 43:05Theo Von?

  Did, uh, who was that? They just said that, um, did Congress have enough time to read this bill? Thomas, Rep. Thomas Massey said the House has a 72-hour rule which requires the bill to be posted 72 hours before passage. What does that even mean?

• 43:19Speaker 02

  Yeah, that's, that's, I'd never heard that before. And look, I mean, Thomas Massey and I get along. But my, my understanding is that the bill text was, people have had literally weeks to pass it or to read it. And, and the reason, okay, here's the criticism I'd give of what Thomas Massey's saying right here is, what's gonna happen is the Senate has to vote on this bill and then it has to go back to the House. And it may change like 1%, like the, the Senate may change a sentence or a paragraph here or there, but it's gonna fundamentally be the same bill. So the idea that people haven't had an opportunity to actually read it is ridiculous. They're in fact gonna have to vote on it again before it even becomes law.

• 44:00Theo Von?

  So they'll have more time.

• 44:01Speaker 02

  They'll have more time.

• 44:01Theo Von?

  Got it.

• 44:02Speaker 02

  Like by necessity, by law, they have to.

• 44:04Theo Von?

  Understood. Um, part of the bill, I know that people are, that's getting a lot of attention, right? Is, um, and I do wanna say like, I recognize that like, when you get into a place, you can't just get what you want, right? There's a lot of people in that place and everybody wants certain things.

• 44:18Speaker 02

  There's a give and take. That's why I'd say it's good, not perfect. There are criticisms to make of it.

• 44:22Theo Von?

  Yeah, there's a give and take, dude, you know?

• 44:24Speaker 02

  That's right.

• 44:24Theo Von?

  You can, yeah, it's like getting in-laws or whatever.

• 44:27Speaker 02

  That's right. Any good marriage has give or take. Any good relationship has give or take.

• 44:32Theo Von?

  Yeah.

• 44:33Speaker 02

  Right?

• 44:33Theo Von?

  Yeah. Oh, yeah, for sure.

• 44:34Speaker 02

  You gotta compromise a little bit. You gotta accept some things you might not love. Uh, that's just, that's the nature of the beast.

• 44:41Theo Von?

  Um, part of the bill that people are talking about is there's like the AI stuff, right? Like the government, like there's a ban is that we're going to spend a lot of money with AI, like in order to advance, like bring our government technologies up to code, really?

• 44:57Speaker 02

  I know what you're talking about.

• 44:58Theo Von?

  And then also it says in there that there's a ban that at state levels, they couldn't prosecute

• 45:05Theo Von?

  some of these AI companies, right?

• 45:06Speaker 02

  So, yeah.

• 45:07Theo Von?

  That sounds really sketchy, like.

• 45:09Speaker 02

  I know what you're talking about, yeah.

• 45:10Theo Von?

  And this is in USA Today, I'll just read it. The ban is tucked into a section of the bill that would allocate 500 million over the next 10 years to modernize government systems with the help of AI and automation technologies. The ban would not only prevent new state-led regulations of AI, but would also block dozens of states from enforcing pre-existing AI regulations and oversight structures. It feels scary.

• 45:32Speaker 02

  Yeah, so let me, let me say a couple of things about this. So I actually was talking to a couple of senators on the way down here about this because they really hate this provision. And they actually both, we brought them on because it's Bill Hagerty and Marsha Blackburn, great people, they represent the state of Tennessee. So they, they don't like this provision. And they, they brought up a really interesting point is because, so Tennessee obviously has a lot of musicians, right? And Tennessee wants to protect those musicians from having basically AI steal the, the production of their artists, right? Because one of the big problems with AI, right, is you're going to be able to take somebody's voice and then like, you know, Taylor Swift's voice or, you know, anybody else's voice and,

• 46:17Speaker 02

  and basically say, oh, okay, well, based on this one song that, you know, Robert Plant did 35 years ago, we're going to like make a whole new Led Zeppelin song using artificial intelligence, right? And they want to protect people from that kind of thing happening. So that's a totally reasonable point to me. The reason that provision is in there is because you think about like, think about how like woke the Google searches got. Remember when you'd like search, what does George Washington look like? And it'd show you like a picture of a black dude.

• 46:47Theo Von?

  Oh, yeah.

• 46:48Speaker 02

  And, and.

• 46:48Theo Von?

  Or like a little Japanese George Washington or something.

• 46:52Speaker 02

  So, so the idea is you use, you basically have a federal regulation that prevents.

• 47:00Speaker 02

  A federal regulation that prevents like California from having a super progressive set of regulations on artificial intelligence, right? That's the argument for it. The argument against it is that if the feds aren't protecting artists, then you're not going to be able to protect artists either.

• 47:19Theo Von?

  Okay.

• 47:20Speaker 02

  And so I honestly, I don't think the provision, to be honest with you, I don't think that's going to make it in the final bill, but I usually have a pretty strong view on most things. I could kind of go both ways on this because I don't want California's progressive regulations to control artificial intelligence.

• 47:34Theo Von?

  Yeah.

• 47:34Speaker 02

  I also agree with Martian Bill that you want to protect, you know, country artists in Nashville from having their crap stolen by AI. Like, I get that.

• 47:43Theo Von?

  Yeah. Yeah, it's interesting. I mean, that kind of stuff, it's like, because they made a bunch of little babies of all the, like, a lot of podcasters and now they're doing it with everybody. Like, they got dang, uh, you know, Aaron Rodgers baby, they got Left Eye from, uh, that Milli Vanilli woman or whatever. They have everybody in there. And so, um, but a lot of-

• 48:02Speaker 02

  Milli Vanilli, man, too soon.

• 48:03Theo Von?

  Oh, yeah.

• 48:03Speaker 02

  I'm still, I'm a Milli Vanilli truther, by the way.

• 48:06Theo Von?

  Really?

• 48:07Speaker 02

  Yeah, man.

• 48:07Theo Von?

  Oh.

• 48:08Speaker 02

  I think it was really them. I just think they were taken advantage of, but-

• 48:10Theo Von?

  Thank you.

• 48:13Theo Von?

  Thank you, dude. You know, there's like seven of us left, don't you?

• 48:18Speaker 02

  Oh, man. That was a catchy song. So I was born 1984. That's one of the first songs I remember, like, playing in a radio.

• 48:24Theo Von?

  Leave me alone. Dude, remember that song? I'm the one who wants to-

• 48:29Speaker 02

  I do remember that song.

• 48:30Theo Von?

  Be with you.

• 48:31Speaker 02

  That was like mid 90s, right?

• 48:32Theo Von?

  I don't know. It was good, though. Trying to think of what-

• 48:35Speaker 02

  I'm trying to think of the band. I think it was kind of a one-hit wonder.

• 48:38Theo Von?

  Mr. Big.

• 48:38Speaker 02

  That was Mr. Big, okay. That's kind of a one-hit wonder, right?

• 48:41Theo Von?

  Yeah, oh, yeah, we're-

• 48:42Speaker 02

  Yeah, that's too bad.

• 48:43Theo Von?

  God, they were good, dude.

• 48:44Speaker 02

  That was a good song.

• 48:45Theo Von?

  Remember the first song you ever heard?

• 48:47Speaker 02

  I'm pretty sure the first song I ever heard was Layla by Eric Clapton, the- The original one, not the acoustic one.

• 48:53Theo Von?

  Dude, my buddy, I used to live with my buddy's dad, right? Cause he was getting, I had like erectile dysfunction. So I was pretty young and then, uh, I was living with him cause he was getting like an early script on,

• 49:06Theo Von?

  on pill, ED pills or whatever, you know, weiner pills. And so I stayed over there and I, I cop a little bit off of his. But, um, anyway, he used to hook up with this lady and I was learning the guitar. He made me go play.

• 49:19Speaker 02

  Leila?

• 49:20Theo Von?

  Tears in Heaven. Oh, man. That's a sad, you know, it's about his son dying. And it was the only song I knew and they like play it again.

• 49:27Speaker 02

  Oh, my God. See, this is one of those things where I hope to God you're joking. Cause if you're living in Steve's house, how old were you at the time?

• 49:36Theo Von?

  Oh, probably 27.

• 49:38Speaker 02

  Okay. So you're 27 stealing ED pills, playing Tears in Heaven. That's a bad situation. You gotta get out of that situation, man. I'm going to assume that you're joking because I don't want to have nightmares about this, about this later on.

• 49:50Theo Von?

  What do you mean?

• 49:50Speaker 02

  Okay, okay.

• 49:51Theo Von?

  That's the healthcare system we have.

• 49:53Speaker 02

  The healthcare system. All right. So on the way over.

• 49:55Theo Von?

  No, I'm just joking. That is a true story though.

• 49:56Speaker 02

  I hear you. On the way down here.

• 49:59Speaker 02

  On the way down here, there's like an advertisement for some like med pack. It was, it was on, it was TV commercial. And I don't really watch like normal TV. So I don't see commercials that often anymore. But it's like med pack and it's like order this thing and it costs $45 and it has these different drugs in it. And I, I only saw it briefly, but I could have sworn that two of the medications in this med pack were, and it's, it's advertised as like an emergency medicine. Are ivermectin and Ozempic. And I'm like thinking to myself, what is the situation where you need emergency Ozempic?

• 50:35Speaker 02

  So like the, the, the second half of the flight down here, I'm thinking to myself, what is the emergency Ozempic situation? And then I thought like, you know, if you have a Dahmer party situation and it's like, all right, you know, we, we gotta, we gotta suppress our appetites.

• 50:51Speaker 02

  But I, I don't know, but may, maybe it was just ivermectin. Maybe it was an, it was an Ozempic. I, but that's, see stuff like that is kind of crazy to me.

• 50:58Theo Von?

  Well, now they're combining it. It's just, everything is combined now. You know, they even put, I think it's Pizza Hut and Baskin Robbins are together now. It's like everything I think is mixed now, but yeah.

• 51:07Speaker 02

  Kind of makes, that kind of makes sense though. Pizza and then some ice cream. Yeah.

• 51:12Theo Von?

  That's true. You're right.

• 51:13Speaker 02

  So what I never understood was like, what was it? Taco Bell and KFC.

• 51:18Theo Von?

  Yeah.

• 51:19Speaker 02

  What is that?

• 51:20Theo Von?

  It's one or the other.

• 51:21Speaker 02

  That's called indigestion, brother. That is the only way that combination.

• 51:26Theo Von?

  It should be one or the other.

• 51:28Speaker 02

  The other, you do not need, if you're going to Taco Bell and KFC in the same stop, you got serious problems.

• 51:34Theo Von?

  Did you, um, let me think about something that's important, JD, or people are not even going to believe that we spent time together.

• 51:39Speaker 02

  Oh, my God. This is fun, though, man. This is good. It's good.

• 51:42Theo Von?

  It is good, man. Dude, I just can't, I just can't even believe that that's your life. Is it what you thought it would be? Is it different once you got in there? Are things that different?

• 51:51Speaker 02

  It's about what I thought it would be. I mean, at this point, right, I, I, I know the president pretty well. And, you know, I knew that he would, I knew he had a lot of trust in me. And again, the, the role of the vice president is very derivative of what the president is doing. So if the president has trust in you, if he gives you a task and just lets you go and do it, that's, that's kind of what your, that's kind of what your job is. And it's been a lot of fun. Like, I've traveled all over the world. I think we've done a lot of good work for the American people, which of course is the most important, most important part. And there, there are little things that I, you know, will take some time getting used to. So like, we got three little kids. Our son just turned eight yesterday, actually. Uh, and then we have a five-year-old son, the three-year-old baby girl. And our eight-year-old son is, he's a little bit of an introvert, I think.

• 52:36Speaker 02

  And so he doesn't love the attention. But then our, like, five-year-old son is, is a little bit more like me. So he'll, like, roll off the airplane, wave in, say hello to everybody. And, um, having Secret Service around is, is kind of a crazy experience. Like, they're all good dudes and I love them, but it's also kind of unusual to, like, just walk outside your house and there's always somebody, you know, walking with you. That's kind of weird.

• 52:57Theo Von?

  Oh, definitely. I think.

• 52:58Speaker 02

  I mean, we, we went back to go chat for, you know, like, five minutes just before this thing started and, you know, I was like, don't worry, guys, Theo doesn't have a gun. We said, I hope you don't.

• 53:07Theo Von?

  No, they checked me.

• 53:08Speaker 02

  So we're in deep shit, man.

• 53:09Theo Von?

  They checked me. Somebody kissed me on the way and I was like, that's part of it?

• 53:12Speaker 02

  One of the Secret Service agents?

• 53:13Theo Von?

  No, I'm joking. I was like, what's your secret, buddy, huh? You know? Oh, that's Millie Vanilli right there, his babies right there using it.

• 53:20Speaker 02

  Oh, my.

• 53:23Speaker 02

  Wait, they had, those are Grammys, right? I didn't know that. Oh, they took their Grammys away? Well, didn't one of them-

• 53:29Theo Von?

  They took their Grammys away?

• 53:31Speaker 02

  Didn't one of them commit suicide? It's a kind of a sad story, actually.

• 53:35Theo Von?

  Yeah, and one of them died a couple of years ago. I met one of them one night, I think. Ah, maybe I didn't. I was out late one night, I'll say that. Um, sorry, that's crazy. What are we talking about? Um, let's talk about-

• 53:46Speaker 02

  Could have been Milli Vanilli, could have been my uncle. Who knows? Who am I to say?

• 53:52Theo Von?

  I don't know. I did, I'll just say I met one of Freddie's buddies, one of Frederick's buddies out there. I'll say this, man, right now, sir, I will say it. Um, so people have to like, we all need like help whenever we're like, when you're politicianing, right? Like, you need help, you need support.

• 54:08Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 54:08Theo Von?

  You have sponsors and stuff, right?

• 54:09Speaker 02

  Correct.

• 54:10Theo Von?

  There's a lot of speculation and talk, like, one of your primary sponsors was, is a guy, Peter Thiel, right? And he's in the tech world.

• 54:17Speaker 02

  Yep.

• 54:18Theo Von?

  And I never met him, you know?

• 54:19Speaker 02

  Sure.

• 54:20Theo Von?

  But, you know, there's like, a lot of these tech kind of lords, like they, you know, technology's grown so much in the past 20 years that it, it controls a lot of our environment in our life, right?

• 54:31Speaker 02

  It does.

• 54:33Theo Von?

  What do you owe somebody if you do, like, if you get into office, if somebody like, donates a lot of money to your campaign? Like, how does that relationship work after that?

• 54:42Speaker 02

  I think the attitude is you don't owe him anything. And I think if you, if you take the attitude of you owe somebody something, then you're fundamentally not going to do the job that you, you were meant to do. I mean, this is always, this is tough, right? Because, so, so take my, my senate race, first time I ever ran for, for office was 22, 2022, I, I ran for the Ohio senate race. I won.

• 55:03Theo Von?

  You did?

• 55:03Speaker 02

  That race, yeah.

• 55:04Theo Von?

  Fuck, yeah.

• 55:05Speaker 02

  Thank you. That's good. Yeah. If I hadn't won, I wouldn't be sitting here.

• 55:09Theo Von?

  Oh, okay.

• 55:10Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 55:11Theo Von?

  Yeah.

• 55:11Speaker 02

  Cause then I became the vice president of the army and now I'm here. So I, so I basically won, I've run two campaigns in my life. The first one, the senate campaign, cost $45 million. The second one, presidential campaign, I think that we spent like $1.2 billion, okay? So it costs a lot of money. Well, the president, obviously, is the leader of the campaign.

• 55:29Theo Von?

  Oh, I want him on the total campaign.

• 55:30Speaker 02

  The total campaign. So it costs a lot of money to run for office and you gotta go and raise money.

• 55:36Theo Von?

  Yeah.

• 55:37Speaker 02

  But I think that if your attitude is I owe something, these people gave me money, then you're gonna end up being corrupted. And you've got to kind of take the attitude of they're supporting me because they agree with me. And obviously, like you have conversations with them, like you mentioned Peter Thiel. I see a lot of crazy stuff on the internet about Peter Thiel. Like, you know, he's always been a friend of mine. He's always been one of the smartest people I've ever met.

• 56:00Theo Von?

  Oh, really?

• 56:00Speaker 02

  Just a very thoughtful dude, but he's literally never asked me once for anything.

• 56:05Theo Von?

  So he just believed in you?

• 56:07Speaker 02

  He believed in me. He agreed with me on a lot of issues. I mean, he definitely has like said, hey, I don't agree with you on this, but he's never said, I don't agree with you on this. Therefore, you should vote differently or act differently. But it's like, to be honest with you, it's one of the risks of our system. Now, if you think about it, right? Cause if you are a super ambitious dude or girl and you really want to run for office, like you gotta be able to separate yourself from that donor pressure. And think about it, like if you're going to do a fundraiser, okay? Everybody's gonna go to fundraisers in politics. Well, that's like an hour and a half you're not spending talking to the people you represent. Right? So there is one of the problems in our system is that people spend so much time raising money.

• 56:50Speaker 02

  I think sometimes, not all cases, but sometimes it can have a corrupting influence on the process. Now, I was talking to a buddy of mine actually about this because his argument is, yeah, he's like a political consultant, he's a political hack, but a good dude. He said, he said, he said, our system is better though, because in some places they have publicly financed campaigns. And he's like, the problem with places where they have publicly financed campaigns is that all, all of the control in the political system is with the media. Because like if you, if you raise money, most of what you're spending your money on is TV, radio advertisements. It's reaching voters. So if you can't reach voters with TV advertisements and you gotta go on the, like the corporate media to get your message out there, that's even worse.

• 57:32Theo Von?

  Right.

• 57:33Speaker 02

  So I kind of see both sides of it. I just think as a practical matter, what I try to do is remember that, you know, it's, it's an honor to serve, but it's also a sacrifice to serve. And if people are gonna write me a check, great, but I don't owe them anything. That's, that's the attitude I try to have.

• 57:48Theo Von?

  Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's just, it's interesting because I mean, we all have people that help us do certain things or supportive. And then you get in spots where you're like, you know, I like, I used to live with a family when I was growing up and there's always been this thing of like, what do I owe them? You know, not that they've ever said I owed them anything.

• 58:02Speaker 02

  Of course.

• 58:02Theo Von?

  But it's like, you know, there's always this feeling inside of you, you know, of like, uh, and so I'm sure a lot of people can relate to things like that.

• 58:08Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 58:09Theo Von?

  This episode is brought to you by Masa Chips. It's time to get those processed seed oils out of our lives and Masa Chips is at the forefront. Did you know all chips and fries used to be cooked in tallow up until the 1990s when big corporations switched to cheap processed seed oils? Masa decided to do something about it. They created a tasty and delicious, delicios tortilla chip with just three ingredients and no seed oils. These chips don't only avoid all the bad stuff, they taste great, too. I've, I got about four or five flavors here at the house and I think, uh, Cabaniero is one of them and I'm digging them, baby. And they don't break.

• 58:53Theo Von?

  That's what I like. These chips are sturdy, baby. They don't crack off in your guac and get the job half done, baby. These things are, they're not just a worker, they're a dang contractor. These things will get that guac to your face. Masa Chips is beloved by tens of thousands of customers and has been endorsed by the industry-leading health and nutrition experts like Ben Greenfield and Gary Brekka. Ready to give Masa a try? Go to masachips.com/thoe and use code Theo for 25% off your first order. Bang, that's some chips. That's M A S A chips.com/thoe and code

• 59:34Theo Von?

  Theo for 25% off your first order. I really enjoy them. I'm curious to see what you think. It's time to have better sex.

• 59:42Speaker 02

  Yep.

• 59:43Theo Von?

  With BlueChew. BlueChew is the original brand offering chewable tablets, yum, for better sex. And starting now, BlueChew is offering a combo so strong it'll knock your socks off and your neighbor's socks off. You'll have to all buy new socks. BlueChew Max has arrived and it combines the active ingredients of Viagra and Cialis into one chewable. This combo acts fast and lasts. So guys, be ready when she needs it and get your first month of BlueChew free. Yep. Everyone could use an extra hand. With BlueChew, you've got an extra leg, more horsepower.

• 1:00:28Theo Von?

  Nuff said. Make life easier by getting harder and discover your options at BlueChew.com. And we've got a special deal for our listeners. Try your first month of BlueChew free when you use promo code T H E O. Just pay $5 shipping. That's promo code Theo. Visit BlueChew.com for more details and important safety information. And we thank BlueChew for sponsoring the podcast.

• 1:01:00Theo Von?

  Well, recently they have like, there's a lot of like, Trump picked out that there's the Palantir company, right?

• 1:01:11Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:01:12Theo Von?

  And that's about a surveillance thing. So this thing is fucked. This sounds crazy, dude. Like this sounds like we're only gonna be human for like two more years, right? So they, and this is the Palantir company where they're gonna build security databases that have all of our information in them, right? That's what they're saying.

• 1:01:28Speaker 02

  That's what they're saying, yeah.

• 1:01:29Theo Von?

  And it's gonna have like everything. It'll like look at you and know like if you're good at tennis or if you've ever, you know, if you have, like if you have $60 in your pocket, or if you're, you know, it can tell if your kids are, you know, if your kids are gonna have a limp or whatever, if he'll be in the Christmas play.

• 1:01:43Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:01:44Theo Von?

  You know what I'm saying? It can tell all of that. And then, and that feels real scary, man. Like

• 1:01:50Speaker 02

  I get it.

• 1:01:50Theo Von?

  To a regular down the street, that feels like we're gonna give our, our society like, like we're gonna become these- Like they're gonna have every know everything about us. It makes you feel like you won't be a person anymore.

• 1:02:04Speaker 02

  I hear you.

• 1:02:04Theo Von?

  Does that make sense to you?

• 1:02:05Speaker 02

  It definitely makes sense to me. I mean, let me try to explain. So to be clear, I'm not an expert on this particular deal. I actually just read about it earlier today or maybe yesterday. But the president did an executive order, I don't know, a couple of months ago. And the basic idea is you've got all this different information, but it's not accessible in one place. So like, let me give you an example where this might be useful.

• 1:02:29Theo Von?

  Okay.

• 1:02:30Speaker 02

  Let's say you catch an illegal immigrant. Okay. And that person's using a social security number, but the Department of Homeland Security that arrests the person can't actually figure out what social security number that illegal immigrant is, what name it's attached to. Okay. Or, you know, let's say you're like investigating some terrorist and the FBI arrests the person, but you know, there are information about like where the person lived a couple of years ago that you'd like to have. So you'd maybe like to go, you know, talk to their friends or associates or whatever.

• 1:03:00Theo Von?

  Yeah.

• 1:03:00Speaker 02

  But my understanding is that it does sound odd, but that what they're trying to do is take all the information that the Department of Homeland Security has, that the FBI has, and just make it so that it's actually not in some hyper inefficient system. It's all sort of accessible. And here's the thing. Modern technology is just crazy and weird, and it affects our privacy. And I think we don't have to think that's a good thing. It is like a reality of the world that we live in.

• 1:03:30Theo Von?

  Right. Sometimes I get a little romantic about things.

• 1:03:32Speaker 02

  Well, I mean, look.

• 1:03:33Theo Von?

  And I think it's gonna go back in time.

• 1:03:34Speaker 02

  I mean, look, everybody, I kind of agree with you. I think people are sort of gonna rebel against technology a little bit. In some ways, they already are. But, hey, look, dude, if I, if I, this has happened to me so many times, where I'm talking to my wife, like, oh, what are we gonna make for dinner for the kids tonight? Oh, let's just like do DoorDash or Grubhub. And then you go on like X, or you go on, you know, Facebook or Instagram, and there's like an advertisement for a DoorDash coupon. And it's like, well, I was just talking about this 10 minutes ago. So we know that big technology spies on us and harvests our data. I honestly worry more about that than About like connecting the DHS system to the FBI system.

• 1:04:13Theo Von?

  So that's all that this Palantir deal is part like a lot of that it's just it's just connecting information.

• 1:04:19Speaker 02

  So I'm hardly an expert, but that is my understanding is that it's just taking, okay, DHS has information, FBI has information, Secretary of the Treasury has information and making it possible for that information to be searched.

• 1:04:31Theo Von?

  Yeah.

• 1:04:31Speaker 02

  By whoever is looking for it.

• 1:04:33Theo Von?

  Ah.

• 1:04:34Speaker 02

  That's my understanding.

• 1:04:35Theo Von?

  Yeah.

• 1:04:35Speaker 02

  And I, and I, but again, like, I hear that same, that story and my reaction is the same, which is, oh, I don't like the government having my information. The reality is the government already has my information and more importantly, some of these private technology companies have way more information on me than the government does.

• 1:04:52Theo Von?

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:04:52Speaker 02

  I mean, anywhere you shop has unbelievable information on you. I mean, let me tell you like.

• 1:04:56Theo Von?

  Yeah, dude, Blockbuster, two days ago, Blockbuster was like, happy birthday. They were wrong.

• 1:05:01Speaker 02

  I, I gotta, I gotta.

• 1:05:03Theo Von?

  It's like, you're out of business. There's a, there's a.

• 1:05:07Speaker 02

  Yeah. When was the last time you were at Blockbuster?

• 1:05:11Theo Von?

  But some guy somewhere, probably in another country, Nepal.

• 1:05:16Speaker 02

  You and FDR.

• 1:05:17Theo Von?

  Somewhere.

• 1:05:17Speaker 02

  You and FDR took your Celsius and went down to Blockbuster to get some, get some VHS rentals.

• 1:05:23Theo Von?

  A little bit of boogie, little boogie nights for the fellas.

• 1:05:30Speaker 02

  That's, that was FDR's favorite movies. That makes sense. Um, so, all right. What were we talking about?

• 1:05:36Theo Von?

  Technology.

• 1:05:37Speaker 02

  Okay, so I was, okay, I, I was getting a brief, so.

• 1:05:42Theo Von?

  Cause that's what people.

• 1:05:42Speaker 02

  When I first became, but no, no, they, they are, and I get it. And look, like, all, all I'll tell you is, we try to be as.

• 1:05:47Theo Von?

  Oh, yeah, I did go to the last Blockbuster. I forgot about that. Shut up, Ben Oregon.

• 1:05:51Speaker 02

  Is that 14 years ago?

• 1:05:52Theo Von?

  That? No, that's fricking two years ago, dude.

• 1:05:55Speaker 02

  Realized Blockbuster.

• 1:05:55Theo Von?

  My ex lived out there. Got stuck in the snow out there.

• 1:05:58Speaker 02

  Yeah, so, so, um, I got a brief from my national security guy. I gotta make sure I can, it's not classified information. Okay, no, it's not classified information. Okay, based, long story short. One of the guys who works the national security team of the Trump administration gave me this brief about how, okay, when you're using an iPad and let's say, you know, you're reading a story from some random newspaper and you hover on a particular paragraph, like your iPad is collecting that information on you. Like it's actually trying to track what you're doing. Like that is the stuff that really freaks me out.

• 1:06:39Theo Von?

  Well, how do we stop that? I think it freaks everybody out. I think it just makes people sick. It's like, you don't even feel like you exist for any purpose anymore, other than to be advertised to, or to be, um, I don't even know anything.

• 1:06:50Speaker 02

  Yeah. Well, you think about it like our, think about a hundred years ago, 50 years ago, the most brilliant scientists in the world, they're trying to figure out nuclear energy. They're trying to figure out how to cure cancer. Now, way too many of them are figuring out like, how do I get a person to linger on a digital advertisement for a little bit longer so that we can increase the price of the ad that we sell them by three pennies?

• 1:07:13Theo Von?

  Yeah.

• 1:07:13Speaker 02

  Like, there's something I think very, that warps our entire economy about the digital advertisement world, because too many smart people are focused on getting us addicted to these applications.

• 1:07:25Theo Von?

  Yeah.

• 1:07:25Speaker 02

  And I mean, what do we do about it? I mean, one thing is, is from a policy perspective, we've already looked into a lot of things we can do on data privacy and protection. So we're trying to make it harder for these firms to collect information on you.

• 1:07:39Theo Von?

  Well, it feels like with this, with Palantir, it's like they're going to collect all the information though. So that feels like.

• 1:07:44Speaker 02

  Yeah. Yeah. I mean, look, my understanding again, so this is full disclosure.

• 1:07:49Theo Von?

  Is there somebody else that would know more about it?

• 1:07:51Speaker 02

  I think it's important. I think it's important to be open. So Palantir, you asked about Peter Thiel. Palantir is actually one of the companies that he invested in, right? So, you know.

• 1:07:59Theo Von?

  Well, he doesn't run.

• 1:07:59Speaker 02

  I would be full. My understanding is he doesn't run it, but. I don't believe that Palantir is collecting any information. I believe it's purely building a database that's sort of combining the information. Is that, I might have some of my team that you guys, is that right? Is that accurate? Okay.

• 1:08:15Theo Von?

  Cool. No, I'm glad. Yeah. Cause yeah, we're just trying to figure it out. And I think, I mean, right now, I think Palantir has like, you know, there's a lot of conflict right now in Gaza. You know, everybody knows about that.

• 1:08:25Speaker 02

  Of course.

• 1:08:25Theo Von?

  And Palantir is like, um, been accused of being like complicit in a lot of the violence over there. Um, and so I think that's where it gets really scary for like regular person on the street. I'm like, well, if this is the company, um, you know, cause you see videos of like horrific stuff online.

• 1:08:41Speaker 02

  Sure. Very sad stuff.

• 1:08:43Theo Von?

  And, and you're like, well, if this is the company we're hiring, how do I know that I might not be walking down the street and just a sniper bullet could hit me from them, you know?

• 1:08:52Speaker 02

  So that, that is-

• 1:08:54Theo Von?

  To be really honest with you.

• 1:08:55Speaker 02

  Yeah, no, I hear what you're saying. And I, I think the answer to that question is the only real protection that we have against that is that we've got to, you know, elect the right people and we've got to make sure that our government doesn't do crazy stuff. Cause I mean, look, any of these information can be misused. Like your, our government has your social security number. Okay. Using that information, the government could spy on you. The government could give your information over to an illegal alien to start a fake account in your name. And that, by the way, happens. I had a friend of mine who had an illegal alien steal his social security number. And when he went to the IRS to complain about it, they, they wouldn't give him information on-

• 1:09:37Theo Von?

  The person-

• 1:09:38Speaker 02

  On the person who was stealing his stuff. And by the way, that, that's, that's what we're trying to do is make it so the IRS can talk to the Department of Homeland Security. But the only real protection against this stuff, I think is to have a government that actually protects the rights of its citizens. And, you know, if, I mean, we should all be worried about our privacy being invaded by the government by, I think we should be as just as worried about private corporations as we should be the government. I think, you know, everybody can invade our privacy, but I, I don't, put it this way, I don't think that the, the solution to that problem is to like pretend that the government doesn't already have this information. It just does.

• 1:10:16Theo Von?

  Right.

• 1:10:17Speaker 02

  You gotta make sure it doesn't misuse it.

• 1:10:18Theo Von?

  Got it.

• 1:10:18Speaker 02

  And that's, that's my view at least is we gotta live in reality and the government's already got this information. We just need to make sure, uh, they don't misuse it. And on like the Gaza thing, just sort of chat about that for a little bit. I mean, I'm like a human being, so I look at this stuff. I see these videos, I see the pictures and it's very heartbreaking. And just since you brought it up, like what we're trying to do here is try to solve two problems here. Okay, so on the one hand, you've got innocent people, innocent Palestinians and innocent Israeli hostages, by the way, who are like caught up in this terrible violence that's happening as we speak.

• 1:11:00Speaker 02

  Okay, and we're trying to get as much aid and as much support into people as humanly possible. That's like one thing that's going on. The other side is Israel's attacked by this terrible terrorist organization. I think people sometimes forget that, right? They forget like the thing that kicked this off is that we had this terrible terrorist attack and you had a lot of innocent Israeli civilians die in that terrorist attack. And so I think what we're trying to do in the Trump administration with that situation is to get to a peaceful resolution. And I think the peaceful resolution looks something like this. You've got to give Israel confidence that Hamas is never going to attack them and kill a bunch of civilians. And then you've got to get as much aid and support into these innocent Palestinians as possible. Cause in some ways they're caught in the middle of this thing too.

• 1:11:44Speaker 02

  One thing that I like, I don't love about the whole Israel Palestinian debate is I think it kind of degrades our humanity a little bit because I've seen people on the left, mostly on the left, who will say, well, you know, they'll completely ignore that Israel, like all these innocent Israelis were killed in this terrorist attack. And you have some people usually on the right who will completely ignore that there are like kids who are caught up in this violence. And I think it's why the president has been, you know, I call him the president of peace. It's why he cares about solving this problem because the longer this goes on, the more suffering, the more death. So we're trying to solve it as much as we can. It's not easy.

• 1:12:21Theo Von?

  Do you have a say in it?

• 1:12:22Speaker 02

  Yeah, I mean, well, the president's obviously the person who makes the final decision all the time. But yeah, I mean, we certainly, I think I'm one of the few people that he's talking to constantly. We're constantly, you know, we're talking to the Israeli government. We're talking to people in the Arab world. We're talking to people in Palestinian territories. Like we're constantly engaging in diplomacy. I mean, one of the crazy things, dude, is This guy is a very dear friend of the president's. He's our special envoy of the Middle East. Steve Witkoff, he's Jewish guy, very pro-Israel. He's done more to try to bring this conflict to a close than anybody. And you sometimes have people who say that they're pro-Israel who attack Steve for not being pro-Israel enough. And I think it's totally bogus. Like, I see this

• 1:13:07Speaker 02

  guy operate every single day. He actually is. Like, he is, he's a Jewish guy who believes in, in, in the purpose of the state of Israel. He also is a guy with a heart who's trying to prevent the killing.

• 1:13:19Theo Von?

  Yeah.

• 1:13:20Speaker 02

  And I, I, I think there's just, like, when I talk about we, this whole debate has caused us to lose our humanity. I think of the people who are constantly going after Steve, because this is a guy, he's a father, he lost one of his own children because of a, because of an overdose, and he just, he loves people. He believes in the value of human life, and he's doing a really good job. And he's one of the, the important people in the presidency or two.

• 1:13:43Theo Von?

  Yeah, it seems like, I, I, I've heard of Mr. Witkoff, but I never met him.

• 1:13:47Speaker 02

  Good dude. You should have him.

• 1:13:49Theo Von?

  Um, I think some, the, I think the tough thing just as a regular person, right? It's like, we're seeing all these videos of people like picking up pieces of their children and like, it's, it's, it's the sickest thing I think it's ever been televised, basically, if you consider watching something on your phone.

• 1:14:03Speaker 02

  It's very sad, man.

• 1:14:04Theo Von?

  It's a mass, it feels like a massacre. And it feels like, you know, I've called it a genocide, other people have different thoughts about it, and that's fine, right? And I don't need anybody to share the same thoughts, or you two. Um, but I think where it gets scary is that we give, you know, we're complicit in it because we help fund, like, military stuff, you know? And that's where it's like a regular guy, you're like, well, I'm paying these taxes, and they're going towards this, like, but you can't do anything, you know? Like, you can, you can, you can talk, you know? But it's like, you can't, I don't understand how it becomes, like, tough for people. Like, sometimes it feels like we look out for the interests of... Israel before we look out for the interests of America.

• 1:14:42Speaker 02

  So let me say a couple of things. So number one, like I think you're a great dude. So we don't always have to agree on everything. Do I think it's a genocide? No. And here's, here's the reason why I don't think it's a genocide because I don't think that the Israelis are purposely trying to go in and murder every Palestinian. I don't think that's what they're doing. I think they got hit hard and I think they're, they're, they're trying to like, you know, sort of destroy this terrorist organization and war is hell. And, and that is true. I also think it's true, man. I mean, I've seen people on my side of the political aisle. I'm a Republican. You know that, but your audience may not who like, will see these videos of these innocent Palestinian kids and say, oh, well, they had it coming to them.

• 1:15:22Speaker 02

  No, no, no, no, no. Like if, if you have a soul, your heart should break when you see a little kid who's, who's suffering. Which is why we have the policy that we have, which is we're trying to stop, eliminate the conflict, eliminate the source of the conflict. So that we can actually bring some peace and some, some humanitarian assistance into people. And that's, that's, that's my basic view. And the president's interesting. He's a very, he's a pro-Israel guy.

• 1:15:48Theo Von?

  Yeah.

• 1:15:49Speaker 02

  And he also recognizes that to bring any conflict to a close, you've got to talk to everybody. And so, I mean, we've been attacked. I've been attacked. The president's been attacked for being too interested in diplomacy. And you ask like, what can I do? I think that what people should demand is that if our tax dollars are going to something, we should be actively trying to fix it. Okay. That's, that's kind of the way that I think about it. And what happened with the Biden administration, man, it's crazy. They were spending so much money all over the world. They weren't engaged in diplomacy at all. So they'd sent, I mean, we sent $300 billion to Ukraine, for example, and you never had the president of the United States actually trying to force a diplomatic settlement.

• 1:16:31Speaker 02

  We talk about bodies all over the ground. Dude, the Russia, Ukraine thing is the most vicious. We see satellite images. We see classified images, man. It is, it is vicious. And again, it's, I, I, I will, I will hear people who will say, well, you know, you know, they're, again, mostly on our side will say, all these, you know, the Russians got killed. That's a good thing. Look, I'm not defending.

• 1:16:55Speaker 02

  The invasion, I'm not defending starting a war, but when human beings are getting blown to bits, your heart should feel sad about that and you should try to do something to fix it. And that's what we're trying to do. And we get crap for it. But again, that's like the part that makes me feel the best about my job is whether it's in Israel or Russia, Ukraine, like, we're actually trying to bring this stuff to some settlement and to some close. And if we do, we're going to save a lot of lives. And if we don't, it was worth the try.

• 1:17:22Theo Von?

  Yeah. Um, yeah, I just have one more question. Uh, and yeah, and I want to say, yeah, I recognize that it's like, you can't expect people to do stuff immediately. You can't expect things to happen overnight. Sure. And that you get into a place and there's a lot of people that are already there. And you have to figure out, how do I make my way in this? How do I figure out to get some of the things I want? And I have to give up some of the things that I also want. Right? And so, uh, I just want to let you know that I recognize that, you know, and I think I learned to recognize that more. I think the older that I get and learn a little bit more about politics. It's not just like, this guy got the job, everything's going to be done immediately. Yeah. Um, I do want to ask really quick, this is important because, um, there's a lot like President Trump talked about, uh, this, we, he signed this executive order to make price transparency for healthcare,

• 1:18:06Theo Von?

  right? And, and for, um, hospital bills and medical billing. And we talked about it last time you were on, you said your wife is getting birth and you didn't even know like, how much it was costing. Like, what does this cost? And what if we get to amnesia? Well, your wife's like, I don't want any amnesia, whatever. And you're like, you should take it. And you're like, how much is it? You know? But it's like, nobody knows, you know? And then they're putting $30,000 of amnesia in your wife. You're like, well, shit. And so it's like, but what I'm saying is, everybody at this point is, it's, you know, but it's a hundred trillion dollar, multi hundred trillion dollar industry. Yes. That's going to change. Will we actually see it take place? Like Biden administration tried to get price transparency. They couldn't, they were too caught up. They couldn't get it done. Trump signed the executive order. Do you think we will actually see this happen?

• 1:18:50Speaker 02

  So I do, I think it's going to take a little time, but we took the first big step when the president signed that executive order. And you asked this question about donors, right? So the pharmaceutical industry gives a ton of money to Republicans and Democrats. And I'll tell you, they were not happy when the president did that. And the president's attitude is, look, it's the right thing for the American people. So I think, again, it's an example of when you've got to tune out the financial pressures of politics to just do what's right.

• 1:19:17Theo Von?

  Well, people are afraid to get, people are getting afraid to get sick, not because they, sorry, am I being loud to you? I'm sorry.

• 1:19:22Speaker 02

  No, you're, you're fine. Here's something. Um, no, I mean, your normal volume, I would say.

• 1:19:27Theo Von?

  Okay, sorry, I felt a little. It's not towards you. I'm thankful that you're spending time with me.

• 1:19:32Speaker 02

  No, no, you're good, man. Um, so, so I'll tell you a crazy story. A buddy of mine was visiting recently, a friend from back home. And his wife told me this story that his kid, they, they thought he was special needs, maybe had sort of a neurological disorder. Just because he was sort of emotional or not emotionally, educationally behind his peers. Turns out he, he was just deaf. He needed a cochlear implant. And it took this, this, you know, my, my buddy's wife, just fighting with the insurance companies for forever. To get this kid, the medicine that he needed, the treatment that he needed. And now the kid, he's happy, he's healthy. It's a beautiful child, smart child. Like, that's amazing, right?

• 1:20:14Speaker 02

  That's what we want medical science to do is to take a serious problem and make it better. Well, why, why do we have a medical system in this country where too many people can't get the treatment that they need? And, and they're, it's a complicated answer to that question. But one of the big problems is, and I don't think most Americans realize this, we subsidize. When you go to the hospital or you go to the doctor and you pay out the rear end for a treatment. You are subsidizing all of the therapies.

• 1:20:43Theo Von?

  And what say, tell us what subsidizing means, some people won't know.

• 1:20:46Speaker 02

  So basically we pay more so that Europeans and other parts of the world pay less. So we fund all the innovation. We fund all the development of new drugs. And then Americans pay way more. That's why, you know, Americans, we spend 22% of our economy on healthcare. The Europeans average out about 10 or 11%. So we spend way more on healthcare and they spend way less. So the president uses the example all the time. You know, the Ozempic, the, the, as he calls it, the fat shot drug. He had a buddy who was on Ozempic and had to go to Canada to get it, even though it was invented in Europe.

• 1:21:24Theo Von?

  Yeah.

• 1:21:24Speaker 02

  And it was mass produced all over the world. It was like a tenth of the price in Canada that it was in the United States. And the way that it is, is the drug companies make money off Americans so they can offer. Discount drugs to everybody else. So what that executive order, the reason why I think that approach is going to work way better than anything the Biden administration is doing is it's going to say the Americans get to pay less and the Europeans are going to have to pay up a little bit. You'll know more about what you're spending on, but it also is more fair to Americans. And I think that's, I think that's a win-win scenario because you can't expect Americans to pay 10 times for prescription drugs, what other people pay. It's also, by the way, not that this is the main issue, but it's bankrupting people and it's bankrupting our country. Yeah. Cause we

• 1:22:06Speaker 02

  spend so much more on healthcare and that's a major driver of our budgetary problem.

• 1:22:11Theo Von?

  It's the number one cause of bankruptcy is medical debt. And it's like, people aren't afraid to get sick because they'll be sick. They're afraid to get sick because they can't afford to be sick.

• 1:22:18Speaker 02

  That's right.

• 1:22:18Theo Von?

  And the stress of it is going to kill them.

• 1:22:19Speaker 02

  That's right.

• 1:22:20Theo Von?

  But do you think like he made the executive order? Do you think we'll, and I know it's like so hard to be like you, do you know, you know, but it's like, do you really think we'll see this? I mean, it's like, God, give us, give the people something.

• 1:22:31Speaker 02

  I do. I do. And we got a great secretary of health and human services, Bobby Kennedy. Have you done, has Bobby been on the show before?

• 1:22:37Theo Von?

  Yeah.

• 1:22:38Speaker 02

  Okay. He's a good dude. He's a good friend of mine.

• 1:22:40Theo Von?

  Bobby when everybody thought he was insane, dude.

• 1:22:43Theo Von?

  Hell yeah, dude. He had to give him a ride home. His all vehicle been repossessed, dude.

• 1:22:49Speaker 02

  Yeah. Oh, man.

• 1:22:52Theo Von?

  I'm joking.

• 1:22:52Speaker 02

  So Bobby, Bobby's a good.

• 1:22:53Theo Von?

  Congratulations, Bobby.

• 1:22:54Speaker 02

  We should have known that for the Senate confirmation hearings, but yeah, I mean Bobby's a good dude and he really cares about this stuff. And this is what you need. You need the will, you need the good idea, but you also need the implementation. I think the president's got the good idea. He's got the executive order. Bobby's got the implementation. So like, look, am I going to tell you sitting here that all of our healthcare problems are going to be fixed in 12 months? No.

• 1:23:16Theo Von?

  Right.

• 1:23:16Speaker 02

  But do I think that this is going to make prescription drugs way more affordable over the long term? Absolutely.

• 1:23:22Theo Von?

  Okay. Um, yeah. And I know a lot of people might be critical of this interview and stuff. It's like, I'm doing my best, right? I'm trying my best and maybe I'm just too hard on myself sometimes. Um.

• 1:23:31Speaker 02

  Why would it be critical to interview? Cause I'm a politician and like partisan.

• 1:23:35Theo Von?

  Yeah, I think people expect, I don't know.

• 1:23:37Speaker 02

  You would have a Democrat on.

• 1:23:38Theo Von?

  Huh?

• 1:23:38Speaker 02

  You would have a Democrat on.

• 1:23:39Theo Von?

  We got Tim Walz coming on.

• 1:23:40Speaker 02

  Oh, nice. Okay. That'll be interesting.

• 1:23:43Theo Von?

  But no, I never met him. You know what I'm saying? We got him coming on. So it's like, yeah, I'm definitely trying to learn more about it.

• 1:23:48Speaker 02

  Honestly, he's a nice, he's a nice guy, but I, but I think that's

• 1:23:51Theo Von?

  Yeah, I'm not a, um, you know, I don't know the history of, of everything, right? So it's like, I feel like we're just trying to do our best and I'm trying to do my best with somebody who I consider a friend and, um, yeah, and to learn in as we go. Anyway, anything else in particular that you wanted to say that you needed to get out to people?

• 1:24:07Speaker 02

  I don't think so, man. I think we've covered a lot. Hopefully I didn't get myself in too much trouble here, but.

• 1:24:12Theo Von?

  What are you talking about, dude? I think you're good. I'm trying to think of anything else, dude. But, um, you think Trey Hendrickson will get signed?

• 1:24:20Speaker 02

  That's the million dollar question, or I guess the $50 million question.

• 1:24:23Theo Von?

  Are y'all gonna subsidize that?

• 1:24:26Speaker 02

  That's actually unknown. That's a big part of the big, beautiful bill. Is $30 million to the Bengals to help with salary cap space? I, I mean, look, so Hendrickson is

• 1:24:36Theo Von?

  Hendrick's worth it, dude.

• 1:24:37Speaker 02

  Dude, he's, he's a generational talent. It's very hard to get a guy like that. It's kind of crazy how like, I'm a big football fan, but edge rushers have become, it's almost like where left tackles were 10 or 15 years ago, where everybody just realized there's this really underpaid position that you gotta have. And so, yeah, I think we're gonna have to pay Hendrickson. Uh, I hope so. If he's, here's what I'll say to, to Trey, if you're watching this show, if you're a Republican, I will show up to a Bengals game and take a photo with you if you sign on with the Bengals. And if you're a Democrat, I'll stay the hell away. Just sign with the Bengals because we got a chance, man. I keep, I say this every year, but with Burrow, with Jamar Chase, if we get our defense and our offensive line, we could have a true championship run.

• 1:25:21Theo Von?

  It's exciting. Well, um, I just appreciate you coming and spending time with me, man. Thank you very much to Bob, Richie, Kid Rock for having us here today. And, uh, dude, congratulations, man. I know you've had a very interesting life and, um, just really cool. It's inspiring.

• 1:25:35Speaker 02

  It's good to see you. Thanks for having me, dude.

• 1:25:36Theo Von?

  You too, brother.

• 1:26:04Speaker 00

  Coca-Cola. For the big, for the small, the short and the tall. Peacemakers, risk-takers. For the optimists, pessimists. For long-distance love. For introverts and extroverts. The thinkers and the doers. For old friends and new. Coca-Cola, for everyone. Pick up some Coca-Cola at a store near you.