"Billionaires Shouldn’t Exist" - Ben & Jerry’s Founder SLAMS The Rich, Capitalism & Corporate Greed | PBD Podcast | Ep. 560

Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s, joins Patrick Bet-David to discuss his journey from ice cream mogul to activist. Once a staunch Bernie Sanders supporter, Cohen now backs Elon Musk’s DOGE, challenging big government waste. In this fiery exchange, capitalism vs. socialism takes center stage as Cohen rethinks his stance on government. 📕 CELEBRATE NATIONAL READING MONTH:⁠⁠ https://bit.ly/43xPwPI⁠⁠ https://bit.ly/43xPwPI 👕 GET THE LATEST VT MERCH: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/3BZbD6l⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://bit.ly/3BZbD6l 📕 PBD'S BOOK "THE ACADEMY": ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/41rtEV4⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://bit.ly/41rtEV4 📰 VTNEWS. AI: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/3OExClZ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://bit.ly/3OExClZ 🎙️ FOLLOW THE PODCAST ON SPOTIFY: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/4g57zR2⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://bit.ly/4g57zR2 💬 TEXT US: Text “PODCAST” to 310-340-1132 to get the latest updates in real-time! ABOUT US: Patrick Bet-David is the founder and CEO of Valuetainment Media. He is the author of the #1 Wall Street Journal Bestseller “Your Next Five Moves” (Simon & Schuster) and a father of 2 boys and 2 girls. He currently resides in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.

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

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:29Speaker 01

  Ben and Jerry's ice cream. I get out my pint of Ben and Jerry's.

• 0:32Speaker 02

  Ben and Jerry's ice cream. Ben and Jerry's. Ben and Jerry's. Ben and Jerry's.

• 0:37Patrick Bet-David?

  One of the best business stories we've had in America, guys. How do you, who has made his money as a capitalist, support a socialist?

• 0:46Speaker 04

  Poor people are getting screwed. We shouldn't be in a country where you work 40 hours a week, full time, and you can't afford to have a decent life. That should be illegal.

• 0:56Patrick Bet-David?

  Do you really want to go there? It's not going to be good if you really want to go there.

• 1:00Speaker 04

  Hey, speaking of ice cream, you got a spoon? Good shit, isn't it? I've never had dirt. Yeah, pass it over.

• 1:08Patrick Bet-David?

  This is ridiculous. After this ice cream, I'm a socialist.

• 1:11Speaker 04

  If voting for Bernie was an option, he would have won. I don't need that much money, I can tell you that. I'm part of it, but I'm against it.

• 1:21Patrick Bet-David?

  Ben, what a capitalist you are, though.

• 1:25Speaker 04

  You know, you're a good consumer. We would classify you as a heavy user. We appreciate people like you. I don't think we could be the number one.

• 1:34Patrick Bet-David?

  But please tell me you're joking right now that you didn't know you're number one.

• 1:39Speaker 04

  You built the number one ice cream company in America. I think that there's a form of capitalism that works well.

• 1:47Patrick Bet-David?

  How can you one minute say the government wastes money and next minute say, let's pay more money because we think they can do a better job with it?

• 2:04Patrick Bet-David?

  They're so confused right now. They're about to have a drink right now. That's a confusion. You just confuse the shit out of them.

• 2:26Speaker 05

  My handshake is better than anything I ever signed, right here.

• 2:30Patrick Bet-David?

  You are a one of one?

• 2:31Speaker 04

  My sundries are good.

• 2:33Speaker 05

  I don't think I've ever said this before.

• 2:39Patrick Bet-David?

  Okay, so, gang, every once in a while I do a podcast where I have no clue where we're gonna go. I'm just being very upfront with that. I have no idea what we're doing today. What I do know is, I don't know if you recognize this brand, Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream. If you've ever had Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream. The founder Ben is here today. Ben Cohen, to kind of tell you an idea about where he's at while we're talking right now. They're from Vermont. I've been to Ben and Jerry's because the insurance company that we're one of the guys that writes the most insurance policies with them, National Life Group is down the street from you.

• 3:09Speaker 04

  Yeah, yeah.

• 3:10Patrick Bet-David?

  So I know them. So I've been to Vermont quite a few times. So we go to the headquarters. We have a good time. We're gonna try Ben and Jerry's. I brought a lot of other ice cream that he hasn't seen it yet. I brought Haagen Dazs. The reason why this is important is because I used to work at Haagen Dazs back in 94, 95. So there's a certain affinity. I was the number one banana split maker in the entire Glendale Galleria Mall. I was the best. I had a reputation, yes.

• 3:31Speaker 04

  You know how to split it down the side?

• 3:33Patrick Bet-David?

  Listen, I know how to split it. I know how to put the strawberry, the ice cream, the chocolate, the nuts on top of it with the Nutella. I was the best at it.

• 3:40Speaker 04

  You know, people have lost the art of making a good banana split. We ought to call you in and you can train our people.

• 3:46Patrick Bet-David?

  I may make a comeback. I'm telling you, I was very good at that part. But let me tell you what's kind of interesting about this conversation. Tony tells me Ben Cohen from Ben and Jerry's reached out, says he wants to be on the podcast. I said, really? I said, is he not a socialist Bernie Sanders guy? He said, I think he is. I said, why do I think that they're, you know, Vermont Bernie Sanders? Yeah. And I'm looking at him, I'm like, okay, why does he want to come talk to us? I'm curious. Well, he's got some things he wants to talk about. Great. To kind of start it off, so the audience knows your background, what you guys did. One of the best business stories we've had in America, guys. Let me tell you why. You guys started in 77. You were a potter. And Jerry was a, he got rejected from medical school.

• 4:30Patrick Bet-David?

  The two of you guys decided to start a bagel shop, but the bagel machine was too high. enrolled in a five dollar ice cream making course instead. You guys took that a year later, created Ben and Jerry's with twelve thousand dollars. And you turned that into a machine. You sold it in, I don't know what year it was, for three hundred and twenty six million dollars, like twenty five years ago or something.

• 4:52Speaker 04

  That's right.

• 4:53Patrick Bet-David?

  And then today, Ben and Jerry's, just so you guys know how much ice cream they, the founders started in ice cream. They do a billion dollars of sales a year right now. So the question then becomes, how do you, who has made his money as a capitalist, support a socialist? How does that work out? I'm really curious.

• 5:12Speaker 04

  You know, uh, I think there's, uh, social democracies. I mean, I, I don't, I don't think socialism is opposed to capitalism. I think, uh, there's a, there's a way of doing capitalism that kinda cares about people, that has a, a better safety net. Um, that is not so rapacious. I mean, what we have in the U S is unfettered capitalism. And, uh, what, what ends up happening when you have that is a tremendous spread between rich and poor. You know, when, when Jerry and I started Ben and Jerry's, the spread between CEO pay and line level workers pay was forty to one.

• 5:57Speaker 04

  And we thought, that's outrageous. So we had a, we had a lower one. We, we came up with the five to one ratio.

• 6:04Patrick Bet-David?

  That's interesting, by the way.

• 6:05Speaker 04

  And that's, that's changed over time, but

• 6:07Patrick Bet-David?

  So it's no longer five to one at Ben and Jerry's?

• 6:09Speaker 04

  But, but today, the, the salary ratio between CEOs and line level employees is four hundred to one. And what, we're in, we're in a situation where, I don't know, what is it? Point one percent of the wealthiest people in the country own ninety percent of the wealth.

• 6:28Patrick Bet-David?

  Which you're a part of it. You're part of the point one percent.

• 6:31Speaker 04

  I'm, I'm part of it, but I'm, I'm against it.

• 6:34Patrick Bet-David?

  What do you mean? You're a part of it, but you're against it?

• 6:37Speaker 04

  Well, I, I am one of the, you know, I'm, I'm a wealthy person.

• 6:41Patrick Bet-David?

  Yeah.

• 6:42Speaker 04

  But I'm against the system that had, that, that creates such a spread between rich and poor.

• 6:48Patrick Bet-David?

  Why though?

• 6:50Speaker 04

  Because poor people are getting screwed.

• 6:52Patrick Bet-David?

  But why, but why though?

• 6:53Speaker 04

  Because, why am I against it?

• 6:57Patrick Bet-David?

  No, why, so, so, okay, so, please help me understand this. So, at, at first, you start Ben and Jerry's. And I saw that where you guys were doing five to one ratio. Meaning, if the lowest level employee, full-time, was making thirty grand a year, the CEO couldn't make one fifty a year, right? That was at the time. What do you think the ratio is right now at Ben and Jerry's?

• 7:16Speaker 04

  I have, I really have no idea.

• 7:18Patrick Bet-David?

  Would you say it's one in forty?

• 7:21Patrick Bet-David?

  Do you, so, so you-

• 7:22Speaker 04

  It might be, I, I-

• 7:23Patrick Bet-David?

  But you work there, so you know what the CEO is made, you know what kind of money is making, you probably have the context in there. Let's just say the CEO of a company, like, if I go right now, Rob, can you find out who is the CEO of Ben and Jerry's? I don't even know it. Ben and Jerry's CEO salary. I don't know what it is, I've never Googled it.

• 7:40Speaker 04

  Yeah, yeah, I'm, I'm interested, I've never Googled it either.

• 7:43Patrick Bet-David?

  Okay, so, Ben and Jerry's salary, uh, CEO, back in two thousand, we're talking-

• 7:49Speaker 04

  That was, that was at the time that the company got sold.

• 7:53Patrick Bet-David?

  But at the time, the salary was five oh four. Twenty-five years ago, it was five oh four, okay? So, which became seventeen to one, alright? So, I want you to follow this. So, what you just said is, I'm, I'm just responding to what you said.

• 8:07Speaker 04

  Yeah, yeah.

• 8:08Patrick Bet-David?

  So, Ben and Jerry's got started, you're originally, you guys wanted to be very noble and, hey, we're not gonna pay anybody at the highest level five times more than the lowest level employee. Lowest level makes thirty, highest level makes one fifty. Okay, cool, nice guys, noble guys. By two thousand, you build a business that's doing three hundred and, that's doing two hundred million a year, you guys are selling it for three twenty-six, then the CEO pay was seventeen times the lowest amount the employee was making. So, that disparity went from five to one, to seventeen to one. Let's say today, uh, uh, who is today's CEO of Ben and Jerry's? Da-da-da-da-da.

• 8:43Speaker 04

  Dave Stever.

• 8:45Patrick Bet-David?

  Is it Dave, uh, Dave Stever? What is Dave Stever's salary at? Dave Stever salary, Ben and Jerry, right? If I go to it, I wish I could see it, I wish it was public, it's not showing it. But let's just say he's making a couple million a year. You guys are a billion-

• 9:01Speaker 04

  No, I, I don't, I don't think he is, I, I-

• 9:03Patrick Bet-David?

  Does he get stocks? Does he get shares? Does he get bonus? Does he get L-Tip? Does he get-

• 9:06Speaker 04

  I, I don't think so. I, I, I would think that, you know-

• 9:11Patrick Bet-David?

  But if it was five hundred thousand twenty-five years ago, Ben, it's not gonna be less than twenty-five years ago.

• 9:17Speaker 04

  I believe, I believe it probably is, but I don't know. I don't have data.

• 9:23Patrick Bet-David?

  Well, let's just say it's a million bucks. Let's say conservatively it's a million bucks. And let's say the ratio now, instead of seventeen to one, is thirty to one. So you guys started off five to one, it went seventeen to one, let's say it's thirty, forty to one now. And then at the time you were saying forty to one was what it was in the corporate world, now it's four hundred to one. You guys have ten X, they have ten Xed. So what's wrong with that? What's wrong with if you're creating value? Ben, you guys did something that's very difficult. Do you know how many people in America build a business from scratch that go from zero to a billion dollars in sales? Do you know how? Oh, Ben, what you've done is called doing the impossible. And I think the market should recognize you for it, your level of creativity. So

• 10:08Patrick Bet-David?

  that's the part. Do you think like when you guys originally started? And you're building a business and you and your partner, you guys are two nice guys, Potter and a guy that was rejected from medical school. You built something with a five dollar course that you take on making ice cream and at first maybe you guys coming from a place of socialistic ideologies and then now you're kind of like maybe capitalism's kind of cool and there's nothing wrong with capitalism. Have you gone through that evolutionary or not yet?

• 10:36Speaker 04

  I think that there's a form of capitalism that works well. Uh, you know, we've always been a capitalistic country. Uh, my understanding is that when Reagan took office, the marginal tax rate on the, on the highest level was like eighty percent.

• 10:58Patrick Bet-David?

  I mean, I'm Which nobody paid for, just so you know that. They had it, but no one ever paid it. No, really, no one ever paid it. It was, it was what they talked about, but everybody adjusted in ways and nobody, even like people would do certain jobs so they never paid the highest marginal tax rate.

• 11:13Speaker 04

  Well, whatever, but, but I mean, that, that's the idea. That's what kind of makes sense to me.

• 11:19Patrick Bet-David?

  It's to have it at eighty percent?

• 11:21Speaker 04

  Well, you know, what is it now? What's the top marginal bracket?

• 11:26Patrick Bet-David?

  If you live in California, you're paying nearly sixty percent, but let's just say forty-three percent.

• 11:30Speaker 04

  Right.

• 11:31Patrick Bet-David?

  You think that's too little?

• 11:34Speaker 04

  I think that the the system that has created

• 11:40Speaker 04

  such disparity between rich and poor, and that's part of it. So, no, I don't think that works. I think a lot of people in this country are being left behind. I think fifty percent of the country is getting screwed economically.

• 11:56Patrick Bet-David?

  Why though?

• 11:57Speaker 04

  Because of laws and regulations that favor wealth.

• 12:04Patrick Bet-David?

  Such as what?

• 12:06Speaker 04

  Uh.

• 12:07Patrick Bet-David?

  You're a rich man?

• 12:07Speaker 04

  What is there? Is there? There's lower taxes on capital gains, right?

• 12:12Patrick Bet-David?

  But, but why though?

• 12:14Speaker 04

  Those who don't work.

• 12:17Patrick Bet-David?

  Those who don't work?

• 12:18Speaker 04

  Pay less taxes.

• 12:18Patrick Bet-David?

  Let me ask you a question. When you sold, you paid capital gains, no?

• 12:22Speaker 04

  Sure.

• 12:23Patrick Bet-David?

  No, you did. When you sell a company, you didn't pay ordinary income. You paid capital gains taxes. So you guys sell for three twenty-six. Let's just say at the time you own eighty percent. I don't know what percent.

• 12:32Speaker 04

  I didn't.

• 12:33Patrick Bet-David?

  Okay, but let's just say whatever it is, you still are nine-figure guy. You made real money, each of you guys.

• 12:38Speaker 04

  How many figures?

• 12:39Patrick Bet-David?

  Nine figures, like a hundred million plus.

• 12:41Speaker 04

  Uh, no, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm at eight figures.

• 12:44Patrick Bet-David?

  Okay. But guess what you are? You're still very rich compared to the average person. But here's a question for you.

• 12:50Speaker 04

  I, I, I don't need that much money. I can tell you that.

• 12:54Patrick Bet-David?

  Give it away.

• 12:55Speaker 04

  I give a lot of it away.

• 12:57Patrick Bet-David?

  Give all of it away. Just keep a half a million of it.

• 12:59Speaker 04

  No, eventually.

• 13:00Patrick Bet-David?

  Well, why don't you do while you're alive?

• 13:03Speaker 04

  I'm, I'm working on it.

• 13:05Patrick Bet-David?

  But why don't you do it sooner?

• 13:08Speaker 04

  I don't know. Haven't found a good.

• 13:09Patrick Bet-David?

  Because you shouldn't do it. You've earned it. But then you worked your ass off. Well, there's a lot of people that are working their ass off. The whole bottom fifty percent of the country is working their asses off and getting paid shit. What's the difference between them and you?

• 13:26Speaker 04

  Uh, what's the difference between them and me?

• 13:31Speaker 04

  You know, there's, there's some luck involved. Uh, there was a, a good idea at the right time.

• 13:39Patrick Bet-David?

  What's the longest vacation you took in the first 10 years of building Ben & Jerry's?

• 13:43Speaker 04

  Not much.

• 13:44Patrick Bet-David?

  Oh, really? Why not? Other people who have jobs can take longer vacations. Why didn't you take it?

• 13:51Speaker 04

  I guess I chose to build the business.

• 13:53Patrick Bet-David?

  And therefore, you made the money that you made. Most people don't want to work as hard as you did. What you did was very difficult, Ben. You gotta give yourself credit for it. So, to me, you know, i- i- I, I understand the concept of, you know, well, the rich people are this and the richest getting richer, the poorest getting poor. And questioning that. But, the reason why you make a lot more money than some of the people that you're seeing are left behind, you solved a bigger problem.

• 14:25Patrick Bet-David?

  You kept trying to find creative ways of coming out with different, uh, you know, flavors of the ice cream. You guys kept trying to be creative. And you worked your ass off. And the market finally said, "Did these guys really build a business from zero to doing 200 million a year? Yes." "Holy shit, let's buy it from them." And then, now, after they bought it from you 25 years ago, was doing 200 million, now it's doing a billion a year. You know what that says? You guys built such a good business that somebody, after they bought it, they made five times the amount of money. That's a real business. That's not easy to do. What percentage of Americans do you think are willing to work that hard, as hard as you? Not that many?

• 15:02Speaker 04

  I come across loads of people that are working really, really hard for really low wages. Uh, you know, you know, so, so I, yeah, I had an idea and, yeah, maybe I'm good at making ice cream flavors, coming up with ice cream flavors. Somebody else is a really good roofer. And they work really hard roofing.

• 15:24Patrick Bet-David?

  Yeah.

• 15:26Speaker 04

  Why shouldn't they get paid?

• 15:27Patrick Bet-David?

  You want the roofer to get paid 300 million, 326 million dollars?

• 15:31Speaker 04

  I'm not saying that much. All I'm saying is that, you know, what is the minimum wage in the country?

• 15:39Patrick Bet-David?

  Let's say 15 million, give or take.

• 15:40Speaker 04

  No, the minimum wage-

• 15:42Patrick Bet-David?

  720, let's say it's 720.

• 15:43Speaker 04

  Seven dollars and 20 cents.

• 15:45Patrick Bet-David?

  Sure, but-

• 15:46Speaker 04

  That should be illegal. That's a poverty wage. You shouldn't be, we shouldn't be in a country whereby you work 40 hours a week full-time and you can't afford to have a decent life.

• 15:59Patrick Bet-David?

  I agree with you, but let me ask you a question. Let me ask you a question. For the people that get paid 7 dollars and 25 cents, for those who do, the few that do, why do you think they do?

• 16:10Speaker 04

  I, I, well, I don't know how many there are, but I think there's a lot.

• 16:14Patrick Bet-David?

  But why do you think they only get paid 7? They don't have to say yes to it.

• 16:18Speaker 04

  It's the only job they can find, I guess.

• 16:20Patrick Bet-David?

  Why can't they find any other jobs?

• 16:24Patrick Bet-David?

  Think about that. Actually, answer that question, right? Why can't they find another, why can't they find another job?

• 16:30Speaker 04

  Uh-

• 16:31Patrick Bet-David?

  Rob, what's the least amount you ever got paid?

• 16:35Speaker 06

  Uh, to calculate, it'd be annually, 22,000 a year.

• 16:40Patrick Bet-David?

  So 22,000, you're divided by, do it divide for, and how many hours a week were you working, Rob?

• 16:47Speaker 06

  50.

• 16:47Patrick Bet-David?

  Okay, do 50 times 50 is 2,500, do 22,000 divided by 2,500. 7 bucks, 8 bucks, and 8.8.

• 16:58Speaker 06

  Yep.

• 16:58Patrick Bet-David?

  So 8, would, do you make 8.8 right now?

• 17:00Speaker 06

  No.

• 17:01Patrick Bet-David?

  Did you ever think you're gonna make the kind of money you're making right now?

• 17:04Speaker 06

  Not when I was making 22,000 a year.

• 17:06Patrick Bet-David?

  Right, so, but when you came here and all of a sudden you're like, wow, we can really build something special here, right?

• 17:10Speaker 06

  Correct.

• 17:11Patrick Bet-David?

  But why do we pay you that? Why do we pay, whatever the number you know, why do we pay you what we pay you?

• 17:15Speaker 06

  Experience, hard work, what I can do in the future. A combination of all three, I think.

• 17:19Patrick Bet-David?

  Great, but have you earned it?

• 17:21Speaker 06

  Yes.

• 17:22Patrick Bet-David?

  If somebody right-

• 17:22Speaker 06

  Still earning it, though.

• 17:23Patrick Bet-David?

  I know you are, and you're working your ass off, but if somebody right now paid you 7 dollars and 25 cents, would you take it?

• 17:28Speaker 06

  No.

• 17:29Patrick Bet-David?

  Why, though?

• 17:30Speaker 06

  Cause I've, I've gotten to a place where my hard work is, deserved to be rewarded.

• 17:35Patrick Bet-David?

  That's right, and guess what? Do you, if, if right now this doesn't work yet, do you have options?

• 17:41Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 17:41Patrick Bet-David?

  But you like being here?

• 17:43Speaker 04

  Love it.

• 17:43Patrick Bet-David?

  Of course. So that's, that's the part where, so for me, I have to realize, I gotta take care of the guy. And then for him, guess what he's gotta realize? He's gotta bring value. And tha- that's the part when I hear that message sometimes, I'm like, okay, I get it, seven twenty-five, they don't have to say yes to it.

• 18:00Speaker 04

  You know, I think about my life.

• 18:02Patrick Bet-David?

  Okay.

• 18:03Speaker 04

  Uh, I'm white, uh, I grew up, uh, in a family, uh, where my father was a college graduate, uh, he went to school at night. Uh, he was able to buy a house, uh, based on a government program that provided money to buy a house for, for white people. But by federal regulation, it was not available to black people. Uh, they, they would not loan, this was about redlining, they wouldn't, the government would not loan

• 18:46Speaker 04

  into areas that were mostly black. And, and even if a black person wanted to buy a house in a white area, they said, oh no, you can't do that because then it'll be black. That's illegal, immoral, unfair. And, you know, so the, the-

• 19:09Patrick Bet-David?

  What year was that?

• 19:09Speaker 04

  I, I'm wanna, what year? Well, I was born in fifty-one, so-

• 19:14Patrick Bet-David?

  Let's say fifty-

• 19:14Speaker 04

  It was, it was around there, that's, that's when they did it.

• 19:17Patrick Bet-David?

  You're talking about like fifties is before, like this is M- pre-MLK era?

• 19:21Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 19:21Patrick Bet-David?

  Okay.

• 19:22Speaker 04

  And, uh-

• 19:23Patrick Bet-David?

  It's a different America today, though.

• 19:26Speaker 04

  Well, it's, no, we- well, the America today is, has a lot to do with the America of the nineteen fifties and, and before. So, my parents were able to buy that house. And that's what helped them build wealth. That's where they got their equity. That's what allowed them to send me to a decent college.

• 19:50Patrick Bet-David?

  Okay.

• 19:51Speaker 04

  That's what allowed them to be in that neighborhood that had good public schools. And, uh-

• 20:01Speaker 04

  There's a lot of other people, say, black people, that that housing program was not available to. They were not able to build that equity. They were not able to build that generational wealth. They were not able to go to decent public schools. And so, so they didn't get that education. And that's part of what leads to the current situation where, you know, if you look at the disparity in, in wealth between black people and white people, I mean, it's, it's kind of huge. And, you know, I mean, the whole country was, you know, kind, you know, it goes back generations.

• 20:47Patrick Bet-David?

  You're, you're, you're comparing today to the 50s? This is a very different America. I mean, I understand. So the part that I truly want to sympathize with you and empathize with you and understand is the life you've lived. I've not lived your life. So I can't sit there and put myself in your shoes and say, well, you know what? I understand why you have the certain feelings that you have. We all have our own set of stories. I got it. But let's face it, you didn't have enough money where your parents could finance it because you guys had to take a $5 ice cream course to learn how to do this. So it's not like your parents gave you $200,000 to start a business with. Now bring it to me. So now how about me? I wasn't born here, right? My parents got a divorce. My dad was a cashier at a 99 cent store. I go in the military.

• 21:33Patrick Bet-David?

  And I get out. I had a 1.0 GPA in high school. I'm planning on staying in the military for 20 years.

• 21:39Patrick Bet-David?

  Should I be felt sorry for because my parents got a divorce and I was a welfare kid and I had a 1.0 GPA and I went over there? No, I don't, my dad never felt sorry for me.

• 21:49Speaker 04

  Nobody's talking about feeling sorry for you.

• 21:51Patrick Bet-David?

  But, but, but wait a minute, you're saying generational wealth? You know how much money my parents gave to me? 99 cents.

• 21:59Patrick Bet-David?

  But you know what they gave me? I was born in, I was, I lived here at 12 years old. I came to America. It's the greatest gift. The greatest gift anybody can give you is being born in America. So you know what I did with that? I went to work. And I made some money. And I'm not white. And I'm Middle Eastern. And I'm from Iran. And people have called me a lot of weird names while I was in the military. They call me terrorist. They call me this. They call me that because I was in the military. Because I have a Middle Eastern look they had never seen when I was in Alabama. Do I really want you to feel sorry for me? I don't, I don't, I think the part about like looking at it from that standpoint. Your argument is the generational wealth argument. Your parents gave you generational wealth and maybe others didn't get it.

• 22:43Speaker 04

  I'm, I'm not, I'm not saying that they gave me, uh, money. I mean, uh, you know, they were able to pay for college for me.

• 22:53Patrick Bet-David?

  Do you think even without college, you would have eventually built Ben and Jerry's? What did you learn from college that helped you build Ben and Jerry's? I'm curious.

• 23:02Speaker 04

  Not much.

• 23:03Patrick Bet-David?

  Thank you. So let's just say they don't pay you for college. Would you have eventually stood, built Ben and Jerry's?

• 23:08Speaker 04

  The, what, what I'm getting to is, is the whole, uh, the whole way that I, the whole environment in which I was brought up. Being able to go to really good public schools. And, you know, I, I go to low income areas in places around our country. And the schools are shit.

• 23:31Patrick Bet-David?

  Why do you think though? Why do you think? Why do you think? Do you really want to go there? It's not gonna be good if you really want to go there.

• 23:39Speaker 04

  I, I, you know, I assume it's about money and funding.

• 23:42Patrick Bet-David?

  Do you know out of the top 25 crime cities in America, how many of them are ran by a Democratic mayor? Twenty-one of them. Sometime it's seventeen, sometime it's twenty-one.

• 23:55Speaker 04

  So, what are you saying? That they're high crime because they're run by a Democratic?

• 24:00Patrick Bet-David?

  Of course it is. Do you know since DC nineteen?

• 24:02Speaker 04

  I don't, I don't, that is the logical fallacy.

• 24:05Patrick Bet-David?

  No, no, but do you know DC?

• 24:06Speaker 04

  I want to talk about the logical fallacy.

• 24:08Patrick Bet-David?

  Do it, I want you to please break down my argument.

• 24:11Speaker 04

  It's the logical fallacy of post hoc, ergo, proptohoc.

• 24:15Patrick Bet-David?

  Right.

• 24:16Speaker 04

  After it, therefore because of it.

• 24:19Patrick Bet-David?

  Okay.

• 24:20Speaker 04

  Because something happens after something happened doesn't mean that it caused it.

• 24:25Patrick Bet-David?

  Ben, can you pull up what are the top five cities in America in crime? Pull up the, what are the top five cities in America in crime? In crime? Let's just, can you zoom in a little bit so, because my eyes, yeah. All right, Memphis, Tennessee, St. Louis, Detroit, Michigan, Baltimore, Maryland, Little Rock, Arkansas. Can you do me a favor? Keep that page and can you ask the same question? Who are the mayors of each city? I don't, by the way, I don't know this because we're just, we're just spitballing right now. I don't know the answer. I may, five of them may be Republican and I may look like a fool right now. So do me a favor, Rob.

• 25:09Patrick Bet-David?

  Take each one of them, copy paste Paul Young in Memphis, Tennessee. Uh, and just put mayor next to it. Yeah, is that him? Can you go and see where he's at politically? Democratic Party top right. Okay, let's go to the next one. Let's go to the next one. Tashara Jones, mayor, let's do the same thing. And again, I don't know, she's probably a Republican. Nope, she's a Democrat. Okay, let's go to the next one.

• 25:34Speaker 04

  I want to know what your point is. Let's assume they're all Democratic. I mean, we know that most cities-

• 25:39Patrick Bet-David?

  It's called horrible policies. What's this one? Is this one a Republican?

• 25:44Speaker 04

  Unaffiliated.

• 25:45Patrick Bet-David?

  Unaffiliated. Can you go, uh, click on the guy's profile? Let's go a little bit deeper. If you can go on his Wikipedia, zoom in. So Detroit, Michigan. Go a little bit lower, Rob. Can you, okay, there it is. Political party, Democrat. He just changed last year after Trump.

• 26:03Speaker 04

  But I want to know what your point is.

• 26:05Patrick Bet-David?

  Let's go to the next one. I'll make my point. Let's go to Brandon Scott, Baltimore. Baltimore, Maryland.

• 26:15Patrick Bet-David?

  Another Democrat, let's go to the fifth one. What an interesting exercise this was. I wasn't even expecting to do this.

• 26:23Patrick Bet-David?

  Boom.

• 26:25Patrick Bet-David?

  Five, four, five. Five, four, five. So why, why do you think that is though? By the way, DC. It, it, it, when you think about the biggest income disparity in America, you know what city is the biggest income disparity? With the most people making over 200,000 and the most people making less than 20,000? It's DC.

• 26:45Patrick Bet-David?

  Can you look up, when is the first time DC had a mayor? When is the first time DC had a mayor? Let's look at this.

• 26:52Speaker 04

  I'm, I'm happy to look at it, but I'm concerned that you're making the logical fallacy.

• 26:58Patrick Bet-David?

  But let me, let me, let me, let's look at this. When is the first time DC? First ever elected mayor of DC, Rob? Can you type in first ever elected mayor of DC? First ever elected mayor of DC. I think it's like 70s.

• 27:14Speaker 06

  Seventy-three, Walter Washington.

• 27:16Patrick Bet-David?

  Okay, can you go on, um, chat GPT and ask, since 1973, how many Republican mayors has DC had?

• 27:26Speaker 00

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• 28:02Patrick Bet-David?

  Zero. Zero. So here's my question for you. If all these people, look at that, Walter Washington, Democrat. Marion Barry, Democrat. Uh, Sharon Kelly, Democrat. Marion Barry again, Democrat. Anthony Williams, Democrat. Adrian Fenty, Democrat. Vincent Gray, Democrat. Muriel Bowser, Democrat. If they've had this city as a Democratic voter since 1975, and they are so noble and they have such great policies and they're black, how come they, they haven't been able to fix it? Why?

• 28:31Speaker 04

  I don't know.

• 28:33Patrick Bet-David?

  You don't know?

• 28:33Speaker 04

  No, I don't.

• 28:34Patrick Bet-David?

  You don't think maybe it's bad policies? You don't think it's that maybe we have to try something else?

• 28:41Speaker 04

  Well, like what?

• 28:43Patrick Bet-David?

  So, let me ask you, why do you think Trump got elected? Why do you think Trump won?

• 28:47Speaker 04

  I think he won because the bottom 50% of the population is getting screwed by both parties.

• 28:53Patrick Bet-David?

  Both parties?

• 28:53Speaker 04

  Both parties.

• 28:55Patrick Bet-David?

  Really?

• 28:56Speaker 04

  Yes, I do, because of the way that our economy is structured, which means that virtually all the money goes to the top and virtually none of the money goes to the people on the bottom.

• 29:09Patrick Bet-David?

  Why though?

• 29:11Speaker 04

  Because of the laws, because of the laws and the regulations.

• 29:15Patrick Bet-David?

  So, why, why do you think so many blacks? Why do you think so many Hispanics voted for Trump like we've never seen before? So, why do you think the poor, low, middle-income support for Trump skyrocketed? Where Kamala Harris, who is, according to her, African-American, Jamaican, Indian, we don't know what she is, or Biden? Why is it that even with her, she lost seven battleground states and she lost the majority? Why do you think that is? Why do you think black people and Hispanics trusted a white guy, Trump, Republican, more than they trusted an African-American lady to solve their problem?

• 29:56Speaker 04

  I think people were really unhappy with the status quo and I think they voted for not the status quo. I, I actually believe that, uh, that if voting for Bernie was an option, he would have won.

• 30:10Patrick Bet-David?

  Against Trump?

• 30:12Speaker 04

  Yeah, because they're both against the status quo. They're both against, well, I mean, they both say they're against corporations controlling the country. I mean, I, I personally believe that it's in words only in terms of Trump, but I think, I think in terms of Bernie, I, I think he genuinely would want, you know, would work on reducing corporate influence. I mean, you know, I mean, the whole, the whole, I mean, when, when we talk about capitalism, I mean... You know, capitalism ends up having a small number of people accumulate a huge amount of wealth and they and and then you have the Supreme Court saying that, well, money's

• 30:54Speaker 04

  the same as free speech and therefore we can't regulate spending in elections and what we have in our country is a system of legalized bribery and it used to be that the corporations and the rich and the wealthy were influencing legislation and they were influencing who gets elected and now they are who's getting elected and you know, I would I would rather see a representation of what the country actually is. I mean, the country is not just

• 31:33Speaker 04

  a hundred thousand really, a hundred thousand, yeah, I don't know, 10,000 really, really wealthy people. The country represents a very broad swath and a representative democracy, that's that's what there ought to be, running the country. But we, you know, we have elections that are financed by millionaires, billionaires, and we end up with a with a government that favors that class of people.

• 32:09Patrick Bet-David?

  Does that include Bernie?

• 32:12Speaker 04

  Does that include Bernie?

• 32:14Patrick Bet-David?

  Was Bernie funded by rich people?

• 32:17Speaker 04

  No.

• 32:17Patrick Bet-David?

  No, he wasn't. Do you remember that exchange when Haxette asked him a question, I don't know who it was, Rob, when he says, I don't know who it was, somebody asked him and said, I'm sorry, your campaign, 45% of your campaign was from Big Pharma. I don't know if you remember that one. Do you remember that one when he was?

• 32:34Speaker 04

  No, I don't remember. Forty-five percent of who's?

• 32:38Patrick Bet-David?

  I don't know what the percentage.

• 32:39Speaker 04

  Whose campaign was from Big Pharma?

• 32:40Patrick Bet-David?

  Bernie Sanders.

• 32:40Speaker 04

  No, that is absolutely, totally, 100, 1,000% incorrect.

• 32:46Patrick Bet-David?

  Well, I mean, he got very upset about it because, but even with him, even with him, here's a socialist that's worth 10 million dollars. He's a pretty rich guy. He used to say millionaires and billionaires. Now he no longer says millionaires and billionaires. Why did he drop millionaires?

• 33:05Speaker 04

  What?

• 33:05Patrick Bet-David?

  Ben.

• 33:06Speaker 04

  Because he wrote a book and he got a million dollars or whatever.

• 33:11Patrick Bet-David?

  You can, you can.

• 33:12Speaker 04

  I mean, but you know, I mean, I was, I was helping on Bernie's campaign and.

• 33:17Patrick Bet-David?

  I think he got screwed by the way, just by Hillary Clinton, if you ask me.

• 33:20Speaker 04

  He did, absolutely.

• 33:21Patrick Bet-David?

  And I like Bernie.

• 33:22Speaker 04

  I do too.

• 33:23Patrick Bet-David?

  Yeah.

• 33:24Speaker 04

  And.

• 33:24Patrick Bet-David?

  I just don't think he's good for the economy. I really like Bernie. I think he's a good guy. I just don't think he's good for the economy.

• 33:31Speaker 04

  I think he would be good for an economy that works for all Americans instead of just the upper crust like you and me.

• 33:38Patrick Bet-David?

  I think in 2000, when you were selling your company, you wouldn't have voted for Bernie.

• 33:42Speaker 04

  Absolutely, I would have voted for Bernie. I totally would have voted for Bernie. I voted for Bernie when he was mayor, when he first ran for mayor of Burlington.

• 33:51Patrick Bet-David?

  If capital gains went to 80% and you sold your company, you're okay with that?

• 33:54Speaker 04

  Yes, I am okay with that because I do not believe that we should have a country where, what, 0.1% of the population owns 90% of the wealth?

• 34:06Patrick Bet-David?

  You're part of it. You're part of the 0.1% and you don't want to give up your wealth. You're still keeping it. Here's your friend Bernie. Rob, can you play this clip? Watch this clip.

• 34:13Speaker 07

  I'm gonna make America healthier than other countries in the world right now. Will you guarantee do what every other major country does? It's a simple question. And by the way, Bernie, the, you know, the problem of corruption is not just in the federal agency, it's in Congress too. Almost all the members of this panel are accepting, including yourself, are accepting millions of dollars from the pharmaceutical industry. Oh, no, no, no, no. And protecting their interests. Oh, I thought that that would come, no, no, no, no. I ran for president like you. I got millions and millions of contributions. They did not come from the executives, not one nickel of PAC money from the pharmaceutical industry. They came from workers.

• 34:57Speaker 07

  In 2020, in 2020, you were the single largest. Because I had four contributions from workers all over this country. Workers, not a nickel from corporate PACs. You were the single largest accepter of pharmaceutical dollars. No, from workers in the industry. 1.5 million. Yeah, out of 200 million. All right, but.

• 35:22Patrick Bet-David?

  Bernie didn't like that too much.

• 35:23Speaker 07

  You have not answered, last question.

• 35:25Patrick Bet-David?

  So, again, the hypocrisy in politics is a little bit frustrating because I understand Bernie says, "Well, we gotta do the millionaires and billionaire class." The moment he becomes a millionaire, he drops the millionaire, he just wants to bash the billionaires now. "I don't want to take any money, one and a half million comes." The eventual challenge is the hypocrisy that shows up. And I think that's the part that Americans are tired of it. They're just sick of the games that politicians play. And they're eventually saying they're done with it.

• 35:52Speaker 04

  You know, I, when I was working with Bernie, you know, he was saying billionaires should not exist. And, you know, that, that struck me as kinda weird. I mean, I said, "Why, why shouldn't billionaires exist? Why shouldn't we have billionaires?" And then I realized that nobody needs that kinda money. There, and how can you accumulate that kinda, kinda wealth when you've got so many other people that are barely getting by? Why, why shouldn't we have a system? You know, it is kinda peculiarly American.

• 36:36Speaker 04

  I, I, I don't believe that, that kinda spread exists in, in a lot of other countries, in a lot of European countries.

• 36:44Patrick Bet-David?

  Yeah, because we actually believe in free enterprise and free market. And we allow you to build it as big as you want. And here's the crazy thing, Ben, very crazy thing.

• 36:53Speaker 04

  I mean, there's free enterprise in any of the Scandinavian countries.

• 36:56Patrick Bet-David?

  Not at the levels that we have, not at the levels that we have. We, we, we recognize guys like you, who even if you're socialist, we recognize guys like you who took a ice cream company.

• 37:09Speaker 04

  Hey, speaking of ice cream, you got a spoon?

• 37:12Patrick Bet-David?

  I'm good with it, I got you a spoon.

• 37:14Speaker 04

  Well, I don't see the spoon.

• 37:16Patrick Bet-David?

  Where'd you, Humberto probably took the spoon and inside of an ice cream in the back. So I got mine over here. Humberto, did you leave the spoon or what happened? Okay, which one you think I should try? Tell me which one I should try. We got the chocolate fudge, we got dirt cake. What's this one here? Strawberry cheesecake?

• 37:33Speaker 04

  Well, you know, chocolate fudge brownie is interesting because uh...

• 37:37Patrick Bet-David?

  By the way, is it true that you can't taste flavors? You just taste the mushiness?

• 37:41Speaker 04

  Texture, I'm very texture forward person.

• 37:43Patrick Bet-David?

  You can't taste any of it?

• 37:45Speaker 04

  Well, you know, I mean, I can kinda taste it, but not the way you can't. Not the way normal people can't, so...

• 37:51Patrick Bet-David?

  Let's see.

• 37:53Speaker 04

  Yeah, it's pretty good.

• 37:54Patrick Bet-David?

  Is it?

• 37:57Speaker 04

  You're not taking the chocolate fudge brownie?

• 37:58Patrick Bet-David?

  Which one you want me to try? I'll try this. No, I'll try this.

• 38:02Speaker 04

  I mean, the nice thing about the chocolate fudge brownie is that the brownies are made by the Grayston Bakery in Yonkers, New York.

• 38:11Patrick Bet-David?

  Okay.

• 38:11Speaker 04

  A low-income area. And the bakery is owned by a religious organization whose purpose...

• 38:22Patrick Bet-David?

  Oh my god.

• 38:22Speaker 04

  It's good shit, isn't it?

• 38:23Patrick Bet-David?

  Oh my god.

• 38:27Patrick Bet-David?

  Oh my god.

• 38:28Speaker 04

  So the purpose of the bakery is to provide jobs and job training for people who...

• 38:34Patrick Bet-David?

  You know what? After this ice cream, I'm a socialist.

• 38:36Speaker 04

  Were shut out of it. There you go.

• 38:38Patrick Bet-David?

  This ice cream converted me.

• 38:39Speaker 04

  Alright, alright.

• 38:41Patrick Bet-David?

  I watched, I was watching Manchurian Kennedy last night rob with the kids. And you know, is that the one about MKUltra or whatever? Listen, they put something in this ice cream that causes you to consider Bernie Sanders as a candidate. It's working on me. Watch, second. By this one, I may even... Look at this.

• 39:01Patrick Bet-David?

  AOC, oh my god.

• 39:05Patrick Bet-David?

  Holy moly.

• 39:08Patrick Bet-David?

  By the way, all jokes aside, this is absolutely delicious.

• 39:12Speaker 04

  Well, you know, it's at exactly the right temperature. It's perfectly tempered.

• 39:16Patrick Bet-David?

  Oh my god.

• 39:19Patrick Bet-David?

  This is ridiculous. Now, let me ask you. What do you think about Haagen Dazs?

• 39:23Speaker 04

  It's really good ice cream.

• 39:25Patrick Bet-David?

  Okay.

• 39:25Speaker 04

  Not, not the best, but it's really good. It's in there.

• 39:29Patrick Bet-David?

  Who are these guys, bud? I've never seen this one. Is it...

• 39:31Speaker 04

  I, I don't know about Tillamook.

• 39:33Patrick Bet-David?

  Tillamook. Okay, somebody brought Tillamook.

• 39:35Speaker 04

  Hey, do you know that chocolate chip cookie dough was invented by Ben and Jerry's?

• 39:41Patrick Bet-David?

  Seriously?

• 39:41Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 39:42Patrick Bet-David?

  Seriously?

• 39:42Speaker 04

  Yeah, yeah. I mean...

• 39:44Patrick Bet-David?

  Ben, what a capitalist you are, though.

• 39:47Patrick Bet-David?

  What a great...

• 39:48Speaker 04

  You know, I, there's, there's a social form of capitalism. There's a form of capitalism...

• 39:54Patrick Bet-David?

  And you did it. How many jobs did you guys create? How many jobs did you create?

• 39:57Speaker 04

  Who knows?

• 39:58Patrick Bet-David?

  Now, honestly, how many employees you got right now? Ben and Jerry's. How many total employees?

• 40:01Speaker 04

  Ah, I don't, I, you know, it's a division of Unilever. I mean, I, I don't know.

• 40:06Patrick Bet-David?

  How many employees does Ben and Jerry's have? It's like the best social program is the job you create. Let me eat this one. So this one is what? This the cheesecake?

• 40:23Patrick Bet-David?

  Oh my God. I'm not gonna lie, this is ridiculous. Oh my, 1,700 employees. That's great job. That's job. You changed people's lives, Ben.

• 40:36Speaker 04

  Amazing.

• 40:37Patrick Bet-David?

  And by the way, you know what's crazy? Do you know who recognized you guys in 1986? Which Republican president recognized you?

• 40:45Speaker 04

  Which one would recognize you? I was there, man.

• 40:47Patrick Bet-David?

  Ronald Reagan, sir!

• 40:49Speaker 04

  It was a Rose Garden ceremony.

• 40:50Patrick Bet-David?

  Dude, that's crazy!

• 40:51Speaker 04

  We were the US small business people of the year.

• 40:54Patrick Bet-David?

  Is that it? Is that the picture?

• 40:56Speaker 04

  Yeah, that's exactly it.

• 40:58Patrick Bet-David?

  Tell me about the experience. How cool was that?

• 41:00Speaker 04

  An Italian waiter's jacket that I had to buy really quick the morning before. And, um, you know, it's a Rose Garden ceremony. What, the current guy, he's talking about paving the Rose Garden. But anyhow, it's, it was a Rose Garden ceremony. We show up there.

• 41:16Patrick Bet-David?

  Yeah.

• 41:16Speaker 04

  You know, Reagan and, and Bush are, are standing there. And Reagan says the only words that he's ever said to me, which is, "Which one is Jerry?" That was it.

• 41:31Patrick Bet-David?

  Which one is Jerry? Now, why did he say which one is Jerry?

• 41:34Speaker 04

  Ask him. I have no idea.

• 41:37Patrick Bet-David?

  How cool was that experience for you guys? Did you think that was ever gonna happen?

• 41:40Speaker 04

  It was amazing.

• 41:41Patrick Bet-David?

  Were you, did you vote for him that year? Did you ever vote for Reagan?

• 41:44Speaker 04

  No, I did not. No, as a matter of fact, we were thinking that whoever was supposed to vet, who gets the award, made a mistake in terms of giving... That's right. That's exactly what it was. I remember it.

• 42:01Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 42:02Patrick Bet-David?

  What are you guys telling each other? What are you guys telling each other at the time when you're leaving? Are you saying like, "I cannot believe I shook a Republican's hand"? Are you saying like, what are you saying to each other?

• 42:11Speaker 04

  You know, actually, after that ceremony, you know, there was, you know, some kind of dinner and a talk and, you know, so I'm up there giving a talk. And I'm talking about,

• 42:24Speaker 04

  you know, my obsession, which is the, how much money the country spends on the Pentagon and preparing to kill huge numbers of people. And Alphonse de Mato gets up after I spoke and talked about what an ingrate I was.

• 42:45Speaker 04

  So...

• 42:46Patrick Bet-David?

  Who went up? Who?

• 42:47Speaker 04

  Alphonse de Mato was a Republican senator, I think.

• 42:51Patrick Bet-David?

  Him?

• 42:51Speaker 04

  Yeah, put him up there. I think he got... Alphonse de Mato, I think. Do you have the bit about him being corrupt? I don't know.

• 43:01Patrick Bet-David?

  I'm sure it's in here. Courier columnist, boom, keep going lower. Personal life. No, it doesn't say anything about... Maybe there is. But what did he do? What was the corruption?

• 43:11Speaker 04

  I don't remember what his corruption was.

• 43:13Patrick Bet-David?

  So he had some corruption behind it?

• 43:16Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 43:17Patrick Bet-David?

  Was he working? You're saying he worked for Ben and Jerry's?

• 43:21Speaker 04

  No, no, no, no. He was a senator. He was a US senator.

• 43:28Patrick Bet-David?

  I forgot we're doing a podcast. Now I just can't stop eating this, this ice cream. I'm not even gonna lie to you.

• 43:34Patrick Bet-David?

  So would you consider yourself somebody competitive?

• 43:37Speaker 04

  Competitive?

• 43:38Patrick Bet-David?

  Are you competitive?

• 43:39Speaker 04

  I'm not very competitive.

• 43:40Patrick Bet-David?

  Not at all?

• 43:41Speaker 04

  Not very, you know. I mean, I mean, if you wanna see who can eat a pint fastest, I'll do that with you.

• 43:50Speaker 04

  I don't get ice cream headaches.

• 43:51Patrick Bet-David?

  You don't?

• 43:52Speaker 04

  No.

• 43:53Patrick Bet-David?

  Is that genetics, DNA, or just like over exhaustion?

• 43:55Speaker 04

  Maybe, maybe, maybe people who can't smell don't get ice cream headaches. I don't know.

• 44:00Patrick Bet-David?

  Got it. So, so what did you wanna talk? You had something you want?

• 44:03Speaker 04

  What are you, what are you opening up there?

• 44:05Patrick Bet-David?

  You don't want me to open this?

• 44:08Patrick Bet-David?

  So, see, you are competitive. By the way, I was about to open up Haagen-Dazs to go take me back to back and he got upset. So would you actually have a Haagen-Dazs ice cream or no? You wouldn't do it?

• 44:20Speaker 04

  No.

• 44:20Patrick Bet-David?

  You won't do it?

• 44:21Speaker 04

  No. I, I'd watch you.

• 44:25Patrick Bet-David?

  What's, what's your thoughts like with these other ice cream companies? What do you think about them?

• 44:30Speaker 04

  I think Haagen-Dazs makes a very high quality ice cream. I think Ben & Jerry's makes a very high quality ice cream.

• 44:36Patrick Bet-David?

  You guys are number one, though.

• 44:38Speaker 04

  Of course.

• 44:39Patrick Bet-David?

  Rob, can you pull up the Statista? I think the audience has to know how competitive and how much of a capitalist he is. He's just acting like he's a socialist. Rob, can you pull up, uh, go to say the number one ice cream company in America? People have to realize this guy.

• 44:53Speaker 04

  What? You think?

• 44:54Patrick Bet-David?

  No, I've, I've looked at you guys.

• 44:56Speaker 04

  I don't, I don't think we could be the number one ice cream company.

• 44:58Patrick Bet-David?

  I think you actually are. Statista, according to Statista, you are. Private label is Wumbo. You're, you're number one.

• 45:03Speaker 04

  Ben & Jerry's.

• 45:04Patrick Bet-David?

  Yeah, you're number one.

• 45:05Speaker 04

  Look at that.

• 45:05Patrick Bet-David?

  You didn't know this?

• 45:08Patrick Bet-David?

  Seriously, you didn't know this?

• 45:09Speaker 04

  I, I mean, I know that.

• 45:10Patrick Bet-David?

  You, dude, you guys are number one.

• 45:13Speaker 04

  It's unbelievable.

• 45:14Patrick Bet-David?

  Uh, but, but please tell me you're joking right now that you didn't know you're number one.

• 45:18Speaker 04

  I, you know, people might have said that, but I didn't really believe it.

• 45:22Patrick Bet-David?

  You built the number one ice cream company in America.

• 45:26Speaker 04

  Well, that was in 2022. Maybe, maybe we're no longer number one.

• 45:30Patrick Bet-David?

  You're still, according to Statista, you still are. That's crazy, though.

• 45:34Speaker 04

  That's great. That's beautiful.

• 45:36Patrick Bet-David?

  You think you guys got lucky or you think you work your ass off?

• 45:38Speaker 04

  Both.

• 45:39Patrick Bet-David?

  Okay, there's nothing wrong with that. I've heard the harder you work, the luckier you get. You ever heard that quote before?

• 45:45Speaker 04

  I haven't heard that, but I think it makes a lot of sense.

• 45:47Patrick Bet-David?

  There you go.

• 45:48Speaker 04

  So I think there's a lot of people that are working really, really hard and they're not getting lucky.

• 45:54Patrick Bet-David?

  Well, they gotta find a way to create their own luck by adding additional values and principles and skill sets that they can pick up. And I think that nowadays, by the way, Ben, maybe not your time, maybe not your time, okay? But during our time, there's this thing called YouTube where you can literally learn anything. Back in the days, you had to take a course. Rob, can you go type in online how to make an ice cream? Can you, can you go type in on YouTube? Let's see what video comes up. Man, I love talking to capitalists that, you know, love bringing value and competing and being number one and building a billion dollar business. Look at that. Homemade ice cream without a machine in just five minutes. 28 million views. Did that exist when you were coming up?

• 46:38Speaker 04

  The, the person was stoned.

• 46:43Patrick Bet-David?

  But the question is, was that around when you came around?

• 46:46Speaker 04

  No.

• 46:46Patrick Bet-David?

  No, you have to learn how to do it. Nowadays, all of this is available. And by the way, you know how much it costs to watch that video on YouTube?

• 46:53Speaker 04

  You think just by watching YouTube videos, you could make stuff as good as what we're eating now?

• 46:58Patrick Bet-David?

  No, no, I didn't say that. I didn't say as good as you. I didn't say as good as you. So tell me, what's the story with this one? Do I break it or what do I do?

• 47:05Speaker 04

  You got, you got one of those topped ones that has.

• 47:07Patrick Bet-David?

  What do you want me to do with it?

• 47:09Speaker 04

  Uh, yeah, you're gonna have to break it.

• 47:10Patrick Bet-David?

  All right, let's try to break it.

• 47:12Speaker 04

  You know, a lot of times people eat it with a metal spoon. It's easier to break.

• 47:17Patrick Bet-David?

  I gotta tell you, this is my favorite one.

• 47:19Speaker 04

  You can dig underneath it.

• 47:20Patrick Bet-David?

  No, what I'm saying is this, even though it's my third one I'm having, this is number one so far. Dirt cake.

• 47:24Speaker 04

  You know, you're, you're a good consumer. We, we would classify you as a heavy user and we appreciate people like you.

• 47:37Patrick Bet-David?

  No, this is the best one. It's not even close.

• 47:40Speaker 04

  What is that, dirt?

• 47:41Patrick Bet-David?

  Dirt cake. It's not even close.

• 47:42Speaker 04

  You know, I've never had dirt. Yeah, pass it over.

• 47:48Patrick Bet-David?

  This is ridiculous. What's this one?

• 47:51Speaker 04

  Cherry Garcia.

• 47:52Patrick Bet-David?

  Alright, let's see what Cherry Garcia's. Guys, we're sharing ice cream, okay, just so everybody knows. For me, I don't mind it because I was in the military, so we will eat off of anybody.

• 48:01Speaker 04

  Yeah, you're right. This is pretty good.

• 48:05Patrick Bet-David?

  This is okay. You want me to rank them?

• 48:07Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 48:08Patrick Bet-David?

  I'll rank them. Number one is dirt cake. Number two is strawberry cheesecake. Number three is this guy. What's this one? Chocolate, what does it say? Chocolate fudge brownie?

• 48:20Speaker 04

  You know what? I think that one is even non-dairy. I can't believe it.

• 48:24Patrick Bet-David?

  Cherry Garcia.

• 48:24Speaker 04

  That chocolate fudge brownie is not, doesn't have any dairy.

• 48:29Patrick Bet-David?

  This doesn't have it?

• 48:30Speaker 04

  You didn't know it when you ate it, did you?

• 48:32Patrick Bet-David?

  No, it was delicious. But let me tell you, that's the one.

• 48:35Speaker 04

  You want this back?

• 48:36Patrick Bet-David?

  No, I'm, listen, I probably shouldn't be eating ice cream right now. We just brought the stuff out here to see if we can get you to eat Haagen-Dazs. Because, you know, Haagen-Dazs, the CMO called us and they gave us a million dollar sponsorship saying, if you can get Ben to eat Haagen-Dazs, we'll give you a million dollars because they're gonna say even Benny eats Haagen-Dazs.

• 48:56Patrick Bet-David?

  Rob, what do you think about? By the way, that would be a great ad.

• 48:59Speaker 04

  I think that would be a really good ad.

• 49:00Patrick Bet-David?

  Would be a great ad. Can you think about that? No, but yeah, so, oh my God. Out of all the things you guys did, by the way, who was the marketing brain? Was it you? Are you the marketing guy? You're the marketing guy, right?

• 49:15Speaker 04

  I'm the marketing guy.

• 49:16Patrick Bet-David?

  So when I think about stories that you guys did, so you, you, you did flavors for Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon,

• 49:23Speaker 04

  Yep.

• 49:24Patrick Bet-David?

  Snoop Dogg. You did one for President Bush called I Do I Do because of the same-sex marriage stuff, which I thought was funny. Did you come up with that or did?

• 49:33Speaker 04

  Those were all after my time.

• 49:35Patrick Bet-David?

  Oh, okay, got it. There's a Bill Clinton one called Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough. Was that your time or no?

• 49:42Speaker 04

  Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough. I didn't realize there was an association with Bill Clinton.

• 49:46Patrick Bet-David?

  Monica Lewinsky was white though, no?

• 49:49Speaker 04

  Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough was kind of like the last flavor during my reign.

• 49:53Patrick Bet-David?

  Oh, I thought maybe.

• 49:55Speaker 04

  Well, also New York Super Fudge Chunk. Wait a minute, no, there was Fish Food. That was the very last flavor under my direction.

• 50:03Patrick Bet-David?

  By the way, you guys also did one by Colin Kaepernick called Change the World.

• 50:07Speaker 04

  Yeah, that's a good one.

• 50:08Patrick Bet-David?

  Change the World. And then you did one with not the defund the police. It was called Rustic Remixed in 2020 for Criminal Justice, for Black Lives Matter. So I got a question for you. When are you doing a Trump ice cream?

• 50:21Speaker 04

  No plans on the books that I've seen.

• 50:23Patrick Bet-David?

  Why not? You can do an orange sherbet. You can do... Right, Rob? I mean, you gave that idea.

• 50:29Speaker 04

  Boy, there are opportunities, perhaps Tillamook or Blue Bell or Haagen-Dazs.

• 50:34Patrick Bet-David?

  But let me ask you, if Ben and Jerry's were to do a Trump ice cream, would the customers be upset?

• 50:41Speaker 04

  Ah, I... Who knows what the customers would be, but I... I wouldn't see that. Well, actually, my understanding is that Ben and Jerry's is nonpartisan, so...

• 50:56Patrick Bet-David?

  Stop it. How many Republican ice creams have you guys made? You guys have made it for all the left president. You make one for a Republican president. Do one for Trump, like...

• 51:07Speaker 04

  You should do one for Trump. What... You... You ought to come up with Trump Insurance.

• 51:13Patrick Bet-David?

  Trump Insurance. You're so funny. You're so funny. No, I think he's doing fine business-wise. No, I don't run the insurance company. I'm still the CEO, but it's not what I used to do. By the way, this ice cream...

• 51:27Patrick Bet-David?

  Glad we went through this year. What's this one here?

• 51:30Speaker 04

  Oh, Talenti.

• 51:31Patrick Bet-David?

  What is that?

• 51:32Speaker 04

  That's another one.

• 51:33Patrick Bet-David?

  Is that good or you respect it or is it like a?

• 51:35Speaker 04

  You know, I haven't really eaten it much.

• 51:37Patrick Bet-David?

  What's Talenti?

• 51:38Speaker 04

  It's another, another ice cream.

• 51:40Patrick Bet-David?

  The way you reacted, you didn't react like the Tuahaganda. So you gave a little bit more love to Talenti. What was that all about? Like it was like you saw an ex of yours or a girl that, you know, back in the days like, oh my God, it's Mary.

• 51:50Speaker 04

  It, it is, it is another brand that is owned by my parent.

• 51:55Patrick Bet-David?

  Oh, really?

• 51:56Speaker 04

  It's owned by Unilever.

• 51:57Patrick Bet-David?

  Oh, so, but is, does that kind of, is that like a? I mean, they almost don't want you to have it.

• 52:03Speaker 04

  You know, I guess maybe I reacted that way because, you know.

• 52:07Patrick Bet-David?

  It's a cousin.

• 52:08Speaker 04

  It's a brand that's owned by my parents. So I'm vaguely related to it.

• 52:13Patrick Bet-David?

  Dude, if I open it up and it pops.

• 52:16Patrick Bet-David?

  Brandon, can you open this up?

• 52:17Speaker 04

  Apparently you're not supposed to eat it.

• 52:26Patrick Bet-David?

  Somebody come open this up. I actually want to try it. Bob, can you grab this to someone in the back? Give it to Tony. Tony's the.

• 52:33Speaker 04

  Why? It's nice to have staff, man.

• 52:36Patrick Bet-David?

  No, well, you have seventeen hundred of them.

• 52:39Speaker 04

  Yeah, right.

• 52:39Patrick Bet-David?

  Let's see if he's gonna get it. He's twenty-eight years old. Will he get it? Oh, he still doesn't have it on. Who's gonna do it?

• 52:49Speaker 04

  That's amazing.

• 52:49Patrick Bet-David?

  Bring Tony in. Tony will do it. Tony's good with the girls and he's gonna find a way to use his hands. Tony's, uh. Where's Tony at? Seriously.

• 53:00Speaker 04

  You know, you know.

• 53:01Patrick Bet-David?

  Like I told you, I have no idea what direction this podcast is gonna go.

• 53:04Speaker 04

  You've got, you've got.

• 53:04Patrick Bet-David?

  He lifts weights.

• 53:05Speaker 04

  You've got a video of this. We gotta send it to the.

• 53:09Patrick Bet-David?

  Tony, give it to Tony.

• 53:10Speaker 04

  Talenti manufacturer.

• 53:12Patrick Bet-David?

  You got, you did get it? All right, after a lot of trying.

• 53:15Speaker 04

  Send it to the, the guys who provided the packaging machine.

• 53:18Patrick Bet-David?

  Tell them, like, do you almost not want me to get in there? It's like a.

• 53:24Speaker 04

  And now you've got a delamination of your safety.

• 53:28Patrick Bet-David?

  No, like I need a code. What's the password, right? This is too much for me.

• 53:32Speaker 04

  Here, here, try to shove that in it.

• 53:38Patrick Bet-David?

  That's what I'm gonna do. Alright, let's see what we got. So what is this supposed to be? Is this like a gelato?

• 53:42Speaker 04

  I don't really know.

• 53:44Patrick Bet-David?

  Looks really good. Nowadays, more than ever, the brand you wear reflects and represents who you are. So for us, if you wear a Future Looks Bright hat, or a ValueTainment gear, you're telling the world, "I'm optimistic. I'm excited about what's gonna be happening," but you're a free thinker, you question things, you like debate. And by the way, last year, 120,000 people got a piece of Future Looks Bright gear with ValueTainment. We have so many new things. The cufflinks are here. New Future Looks Bright, this is my favorite, the green one. Just yesterday, somebody placed an order for 100 of these. If you watch the PBD Podcast, you got a bunch to choose from. White ones, black ones. If you, if you, if you smoke cigars and you come to our cigar lounge,

• 54:28Patrick Bet-David?

  we have this high-quality lighter cutter and a holder for the cigars. We got sweaters with the ValueTainment logo on it. We got mugs. We got a bunch of different things. But if you believe the future looks bright, if you follow our content and what we represent with ValueTainment, with PBD Podcast, go to VTmerch.com. And by the way, if you order right now, there's gonna be a special VT gift inside just for you. So again, go to VTmerch.com, place your order. Tell the world that you believe the future looks bright.

• 55:09Patrick Bet-David?

  Tastes like medicine.

• 55:18Patrick Bet-David?

  The hell is this? This is salted caramel truffle? This is a bad look. They're not gonna... They're gonna have to edit this video because...

• 55:32Patrick Bet-David?

  No, doesn't work for me. No, this is fifth place. Well, maybe the cherry is fifth place, cuz I'm not a...

• 55:39Speaker 04

  Oh, cuz you're into the dirt?

• 55:40Patrick Bet-David?

  Yeah, the dirt was delish. So...

• 55:44Speaker 04

  Alright, here.

• 55:46Patrick Bet-David?

  Yeah, this is for me. Thank you. So... Going back to it.

• 55:51Speaker 04

  Mm-hmm.

• 55:53Patrick Bet-David?

  Building a business. How many people have you fired in your career?

• 55:58Speaker 04

  Uh, a lot.

• 55:59Patrick Bet-David?

  Why you fire people? These poor guys. Why you do such a thing?

• 56:03Speaker 04

  Well, in the early days, they were... You know, we were... All we had was a homemade ice cream shop. And, uh, most of the people that we hired were scoopers.

• 56:13Patrick Bet-David?

  Mm-hmm.

• 56:14Speaker 04

  And, uh, some scoopers were like, really personable people who would have a lot of conversations with the customers, but, uh, that would kinda slow down the line and, uh... You know, we couldn't, you know, we couldn't satisfy our customers. We couldn't... Couldn't serve enough people. So, we had to fire, you know, people who engaged in too much conversation with the customer. I mean, you wanna be friendly with your customer, but, you know, you don't wanna take it too far.

• 56:48Patrick Bet-David?

  Did you ever have lazy employees?

• 56:50Speaker 04

  Lazy employees? Uh, we had, we had employees that worked at one speed. And it was slow. They were really nice people. They were really good people.

• 57:06Patrick Bet-David?

  Why'd you fire them though? Man, that's cold. It's like capitalists fire people. Socialists don't fire people. Ben, give me a break. Like, look, if you were a former employee that Ben fired you and broke your heart, call me. Let's have some Haagen-Dazs ice cream together, right?

• 57:21Speaker 04

  You know, you know, I would fire some of these, uh...

• 57:25Patrick Bet-David?

  By the way, just so you know, don't feel bad. I fired a lot of people as well. And, and trust me, it's never fun to do, but sometimes you gotta do it.

• 57:31Speaker 04

  Right. It's a, it's a horrible thing to do. Uh, you know, I mean, sometimes when, uh, you know, Jerry and I knew that, you know, somebody needed to get fired...

• 57:44Speaker 04

  We would, I would be the guy who did the firing.

• 57:47Patrick Bet-David?

  Seriously?

• 57:48Speaker 04

  Yeah. Uh, we would say, "The monster is hungry. The monster must eat." And, uh, and it was, you know, meant that that was a person that needed to be fired.

• 58:02Patrick Bet-David?

  You guys literally would go in front of the face of the guy you were firing, you would say, "The monster is hungry."

• 58:06Speaker 04

  No, we were referring to me. I'm the firer. The, and, but, but, but, but, but some, but sometimes, sometimes, uh, you know, it was college students and it would be a woman and...

• 58:23Patrick Bet-David?

  You fired women?

• 58:24Speaker 04

  And she, and she would start crying. And I would say, you know, "You're a college student. This is just, you know, a scooping ice cream. This is a bullshit little job that you're doing to get through college. This is not a big thing. This is not..."

• 58:39Patrick Bet-David?

  But they're emotional.

• 58:41Speaker 04

  Yeah, people, you know, I've been fired from a few jobs and I actually kinda like it.

• 58:48Patrick Bet-David?

  Where'd you get fired from?

• 58:48Speaker 04

  It's very freeing.

• 58:49Patrick Bet-David?

  Where'd you get fired from?

• 58:51Speaker 04

  I got fired from Ann's Coffee Park Diner.

• 58:55Patrick Bet-David?

  Who fired you? We gotta go find this person.

• 58:58Speaker 04

  Uh, Ann's husband.

• 59:00Patrick Bet-David?

  Ann's husband?

• 59:01Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 59:01Patrick Bet-David?

  Shame on him.

• 59:03Speaker 04

  Yeah, I was a short order cook, uh, working in the back there and, you know, you got your steam table and, you know, somebody orders, you know, a hot roast beef sandwich. So you open up the refrigerator, you get, you know, the, the, the pre-sliced slabs of roast beef out of the refrigerator. You, you dunk it in this lukewarm water to warm it up and, you know, you have your white bread on the platter and you kinda put it on it and put the gravy on top of it. And, you know, we were also doing prep work. And, uh, after the, after the lunch rush...

• 59:45Speaker 04

  There wasn't as much money coming into the cash register and Ann would turn off half the lights in the kitchen because she wanted to keep her expenses in line with the income. And I was trying to explain to her that, you know, we're working with sharp knives back here. We'd like to be able to see what we're doing. And this went back and forth and she would shut off the lights and I'd turn them back on and eventually I had fired.

• 1:00:13Patrick Bet-David?

  Were you in your twenties? Like, were you?

• 1:00:15Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:00:15Patrick Bet-David?

  I got fired once.

• 1:00:17Speaker 04

  What were you doing?

• 1:00:18Patrick Bet-David?

  From Bob's Big Boy.

• 1:00:19Speaker 04

  Oh, Bob's Big Boy.

• 1:00:20Patrick Bet-David?

  Yeah, Bob's Big Boy in Burbank or Glendale off of Glen Oaks. You know why I got fired? They had a walk-in freezer and I used to hide in the walk-in freezer and eat coleslaw. And I got caught one too many times and the guy's like, "Look, man, you can't say the coleslaw is so good. It was the best coleslaw." And finally they're like, "Today's your last day." So I got fired from Bob's Big Boy eating coleslaw. Can't make that story up. That's, you know, the people that worked there, they would remember me when that happened because they wouldn't even make me a waiter. They said, "You talk too much." I was a bus boy. I was the bus boy the entire time. And I got along with the chefs and the chefs would make me shrimp. And shrimp when you're poor, it's rich man's food. You know, when you eat

• 1:01:03Patrick Bet-David?

  shrimp when you're broke making $4.75 an hour. My first job was $3.75 or $4.25. I don't know what Elaine paid me from Haagen-Dazs, but it was either $3.75 or $4.25. You know, I got a chance to, Bill Clinton came to Glendale Galleria and I got a chance to shake his hand at 14 years old. Met him later on, but as a 14-year-old. Met Clinton, shook his hand. So how do you feel about what's going on right now with Doge, what Elon is doing, Pentagon budget? How do you feel about all that stuff?

• 1:01:36Speaker 04

  You know, when Trump got elected and when Doge came into being, we were concerned that, you know, Doge might overlook the hugest source of waste in the federal budget, which happens to be in the Pentagon budget.

• 1:02:01Speaker 04

  You know, these, these other little slivers are pretty much small potatoes. I mean, you know, there was this big hubbub about, uh, USAID. But compared to the Pentagon, uh, you know, I think USAID is about 5% of the, of the Pentagon budget. The Pentagon represents about half of the, of the federal discretionary budget. So we wanted to make sure that Elon, um, didn't ignore that. And, and so we started the Doge versus Blob.org, uh, campaign,

• 1:02:45Speaker 04

  which is kinda on X, and it is to, uh, encourage.

• 1:02:51Patrick Bet-David?

  Is this it?

• 1:02:52Speaker 04

  There it is. It's the Doge. Yeah.

• 1:02:55Patrick Bet-David?

  And you did this? This is you guys?

• 1:02:57Speaker 04

  This is us guys.

• 1:02:58Patrick Bet-David?

  Really?

• 1:02:58Speaker 04

  Yeah, yeah. This is, this is me and Ed Erickson. Uh, and, uh, yeah, if you, if you, so, so it's Doge. You know who Doge is, and there's the Blob, which is another name for the whole military industrial complex. The, the Pentagon and the war profiteers. Uh, and as you can see, uh, the Blob has invaded, uh, the Capitol. And, uh, if you scroll down, uh, you can win Doge coins, uh, for coming up with these memes,

• 1:03:41Speaker 04

  uh, that refer to the various kinds of waste that are in the, the Pentagon budget.

• 1:03:52Speaker 04

  So there's the facts that slay. So here's the, here's the content and the idea for the contest is to come up with a, with a meme that talks about some of these ridiculous wasteful

• 1:04:04Patrick Bet-David?

  Pentagon spends fifty-seven hundred dollars for a soap dispenser. You can snag at Amazon for seven bucks. Air Force spent ten grand for a toilet seat to cover low cells for twenty-eight bucks. Pentagon paid forty-three hundred dollars for a single half-inch metal screw. The value is a buck thirty-eight.

• 1:04:21Speaker 04

  Yeah, now that's the, that's the, the small potatoes. You know, you get into nuclear weapons and, you know, we had, you know, we exploded one nuclear bomb on Hiroshima. It killed a hundred thousand people instantly, uh, and then another hundred thousand eventually died, uh, from radiation poisoning and sickness.

• 1:04:45Patrick Bet-David?

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:04:46Speaker 04

  Huge number of people with, with burns all over their body, amputations, blindness, deafness. That was one nuclear bomb. And today, the arsenal in the US is huge. As a matter of fact, I have a little demonstration.

• 1:05:07Patrick Bet-David?

  Please.

• 1:05:07Speaker 04

  Can I, can I do this?

• 1:05:09Patrick Bet-David?

  Go for it.

• 1:05:09Speaker 04

  I'm gonna, I'm gonna show you the size of our, of our nuclear arsenal.

• 1:05:15Patrick Bet-David?

  What is that you got there, BB?

• 1:05:17Speaker 04

  These are BBs, right. I'm gonna toss them in this bucket. So here's one BB that represents, let me just move this over here so I can, uh, here's one BB that represents the bomb that blew up over Hiroshima. And now here's fifteen BBs. That would be enough to blow up every major city in, say, Russia.

• 1:05:50Speaker 04

  And what I want to do now is show the amount of our total nuclear arsenal.

• 1:05:57Speaker 00

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• 1:06:26Speaker 07

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• 1:07:37Speaker 04

  So that's the equivalent of 50,000 Hiroshima bombs. That is the current explosive capacity of the US nuclear arsenal. Not only that, the country is now preparing to spend another $2 trillion on a whole new generation of nuclear weapons. Now that is sick. It's immoral, it's crazy, it's irrational. And it is a huge waste of money and lives. It's unbelievable.

• 1:08:19Speaker 04

  And it is, it is just a indicator. It's a window into the general Pentagon war profiteer mentality that more is better. If one nuclear bomb is good, Gobs more must be better. And what really slays me about it is the incredible waste of resources and the effect that it has on our spirits, our soul as a nation, that we're spending 50% of our discretionary

• 1:09:04Speaker 04

  budget on preparing to kill Gobs of people. I mean, you know, the Vatican came out with this statement that the arms race, even if the weapons are never used, kills the poor by causing them to starve. Our Pentagon budget is $900 billion a year. You know, I, one of the reasons I got into this is because I, you know, I mean, you talk about a billion, nobody has any conception of how much a billion is.

• 1:09:47Speaker 04

  And Ben & Jerry's got up to a level of around 300 million before it got sold. And I started to understand that, well, a billion is three times the business we were doing. And that amount of money is just unbelievable. And that's just 1 billion. You know how many, how many years you'd have to live before you lived a billion seconds?

• 1:10:21Speaker 04

  Plug that into your machine and try. It's about thirty. So, that's how much a billion is. Thirty, thirty years of seconds. And we take that much, and we take nine hundred billion, and we use that preparing to kill people like you and me, fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, sons, daughters, in other countries, who just had the bad luck of being born on some other side of some imaginary line. When, I mean, I think

• 1:10:59Speaker 04

  the US is the richest country in the history of the world. I, I think we need to start to measure our strength in terms of how many people we can care for, how many, how, how, how much, how much we can improve the quality of life for people, as opposed to killing people.

• 1:11:24Patrick Bet-David?

  So, okay, that was a very interesting visual to see what we did versus what it is now. Absolutely insane. How much more do we have? So, but, but if we were to ask the question, I mean, this has been going on over a long time. Why do you think we've been doing it? Why do you think we are increasing our nuclear capabilities the way that we are? What's the, what's the purpose of it?

• 1:11:47Speaker 04

  Profit.

• 1:11:49Patrick Bet-David?

  You think it's, you think it's purely the military industrial complex?

• 1:11:52Speaker 04

  I, I think a lot of it is driven by that. I think another part is driven by politicians who are deathly afraid of being called weak on defense. And, you know, a lot of this stuff is, is kind of complex. Uh, you know, it's international relations, you know, how do we know how many aircraft carriers we actually need, et cetera, et cetera. Uh, so what ends up happening is that...

• 1:12:24Speaker 04

  Military strength becomes measured in terms of the size of the Pentagon budget. And politicians try to outdo each other from both parties. This is like the one bipartisan area of agreement over the years. You know, the Democrat says, I'm going to spend X amount on the Pentagon. Well, the Republican says, well, I'll spend a little more. And then the Democrat says, well, I'll spend a little more. And therefore, they're the strongest on defense. You know, before this, I was doing a little prep work. I saw this quote by Eisenhower, Republican President Eisenhower, what was it?

• 1:13:07Speaker 04

  Four-star general, five-star general, who said that we can, a country can bankrupt itself in the vain effort to achieve absolute security. You can't achieve absolute security, but continuing to spend our money. I mean, when you think about how much the size of the deficit, so much of that is driven by Pentagon expenditures, war expenditures.

• 1:13:43Speaker 04

  I mean, you know, what one of the, I mean, the major thing that kind of brought me here is Trump's statement that he wants to denuclearize. He wants to work with the leaders of Russia and I think now Iran and China to reduce nuclear weapons and that he wants to reduce our Pentagon budget very significantly. I mean, he said 50%. I mean.

• 1:14:26Speaker 04

  That makes so much sense. I mean, all these countries, they want to help the people who live in their countries. And when you're spending so much of your money on just preparing to kill other people, and the weapons are so fucking expensive, you should excuse me, it just saps everything you've got. It saps your wealth.

• 1:14:53Patrick Bet-David?

  We're on the same page here. So you're not saying anything that we are fully on the same page. The fact that we are overspending, the level of Pentagon accountability. Rob, if you can play one of the clips of the guy saying $90,000 for washers, just to validate his point. Go for it.

• 1:15:09Speaker 07

  This, Mr. Secretary, is a bag of bushings.

• 1:15:14Speaker 07

  This bag of bushings, stamped out by machinists, don't need a high, don't need a, you know, any high school diploma. It's not anything high-tech about this. All of this bag is compliant with the FAA specifications. How much do you think the Air Force pays for this bag of bushings? I don't know, Congressman. $90,000. This is a $90,000 bag of bushings that you need for any jet turbine engine, just to operate. So the exorbitant cost due to DoD only buying commercial parts from

• 1:15:55Speaker 07

  the OEMs, which is essentially sole source, is literally driving us out of business. I mean, the interest on our debt alone is now exceeding for the first time in American history, the entire defense budget. We can't afford it anymore.

• 1:16:14Speaker 04

  Exactly right. And, you know, the example that he gave of those washers is really excellent because we all know what a washer costs. But then when you get into things like the F-35 program, a fighter bomber jet, that is hugely flawed.

• 1:16:39Speaker 04

  You know, it's a little more complex to understand it, but it's the same pricing. It's the same overly inflated prices.

• 1:16:52Speaker 04

  You know, that fighter program, that weapon system, costs 1.5 trillion.

• 1:17:00Speaker 04

  And it doesn't work. I mean, it's in the shop over 50% of the time. But what you have going on, the corruption in the Pentagon, is that the generals that are supervising these contracts with the weapons manufacturers, when they retire, they go to work for the weapons manufacturer. And, you know, they're incentivized to look the other way at all this price gouging.

• 1:17:42Patrick Bet-David?

  Okay, so then, what this tells me is, you're agreeing what the president is trying to do, Trump, to save from wasted expenditure. You like what Musk is doing. You like what he's doing to go to the table with Putin and Russia and hey, find ways to lower everybody's commitment with nuclear weapons, that's you're talking about. So you're liking what President Trump is doing.

• 1:18:10Speaker 04

  In terms of the Pentagon budget and in terms of nuclear weapons and in terms of the idea of solving our problems in ways other than killing huge numbers of people. I mean, Trump has said, I want to be clear, that there's a shitload of things that I disagree with Trump on. But there are some things that I do agree with him on. And he has said that if he were president, there never would have been a war in Ukraine and...

• 1:18:42Patrick Bet-David?

  Do you agree with him?

• 1:18:43Speaker 04

  I do. I think that the war in Ukraine was absurd. I think the US provoked it.

• 1:18:53Speaker 04

  And by expanding NATO and and I think Russia Russia was essentially saying, you know, the US has a sphere of influence. It happens to be the entire world. Russia wants a little sphere of influence. You know, don't put, you know, weapons aimed at us in this neighboring country.

• 1:19:16Patrick Bet-David?

  What do you disagree with him? What do you disagree with the president?

• 1:19:20Speaker 04

  Uh, you know, I there's a there's a very long list.

• 1:19:30Patrick Bet-David?

  Did you vote for him?

• 1:19:31Speaker 04

  No.

• 1:19:32Patrick Bet-David?

  You voted for Kamala?

• 1:19:34Speaker 04

  Uh, yeah.

• 1:19:36Patrick Bet-David?

  Did you vote for Biden?

• 1:19:39Speaker 04

  Uh, I think so.

• 1:19:42Patrick Bet-David?

  Okay, so you voted for Biden. You think Trump would have stopped the war if he was president, but then you still voted for Kamala. What prompted you want to vote for Kamala over Trump, even though you know he could stop the war?

• 1:19:55Speaker 04

  You know, in in general, I think a big part of what I believe is that I think there's a real lack of compassion. I think there's a lack of honesty.

• 1:20:14Patrick Bet-David?

  Can you be specific?

• 1:20:20Speaker 04

  Hmm.

• 1:20:23Patrick Bet-David?

  You can't just say that and not give me specific. You got to be pretty specific. What do you mean by lack of compassion and dishonesty? Because Kamala Harris always tells the truth, and we know Joe does, always. They never lie. But what do you what do you think with Trump?

• 1:20:37Speaker 04

  Uh, I you know, I just think there's a long list of things that he's lied about that I don't have off the tip of my tongue. And and and I think, you know, I'm

• 1:20:54Speaker 04

  I believe strongly in racial justice and I don't think that Trump does.

• 1:21:02Patrick Bet-David?

  Racial justice?

• 1:21:03Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:21:04Patrick Bet-David?

  He was the first guy that did the prison reform that even Van Jones went and stood behind him crying saying, I cannot believe this just happened. He did that.

• 1:21:12Speaker 04

  What, this was the first?

• 1:21:14Patrick Bet-David?

  Oh, yeah. You don't remember that? Do you remember that or no?

• 1:21:17Speaker 04

  I, yeah, I do.

• 1:21:19Patrick Bet-David?

  Yeah, I mean, if there's, if there's anybody that's about, you know, the racial injustice side, it's Trump. It's not, you know. This is a guy that's done a very good job in that, but, but I want to know specific from your side. What, what is it? Because you're not a, you know, when you're, when you're as successful as you are? You can't wing answers. You cannot wing answers. Now, let me tell you why you can't wing answers because how many, like, if I was to check right now, Rob, can you go to chat GPT? How many businesses, how many businesses in America went from zero to a billion dollars in revenue? Okay?

• 1:22:05Patrick Bet-David?

  So if we go, how many businesses go from zero to a billion dollars in revenue?

• 1:22:10Patrick Bet-David?

  The exact number.

• 1:22:14Patrick Bet-David?

  I want to know how many total companies is what I want to know. Can you see that? How many total companies have gone from zero to a billion dollars in revenue?

• 1:22:30Patrick Bet-David?

  Okay?

• 1:22:32Patrick Bet-David?

  It's, it's gotta be a big number. I don't know if they have the number or not. It's gotta be a lot of them. Okay? You, you build a number one ice cream company in America. Yeah, you can say luck. You're very creative. Just right now, you did that, you know, your mind is a creative mind to come up with certain things. You can't just say lies and certain things and not be specific. I guess maybe the question is better to ask you the following, following way. Who inspired you politically when you were younger? Like, who was your hero when you were a kid?

• 1:23:02Speaker 04

  Martin Luther King.

• 1:23:03Patrick Bet-David?

  Martin Luther King? He was your hero?

• 1:23:06Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:23:07Patrick Bet-David?

  Why was he your hero?

• 1:23:09Speaker 04

  Because he was fighting for justice and, you know, fighting for people who had been oppressed and screwed and.

• 1:23:21Speaker 04

  And he was a very, you know, a really inspirational leader.

• 1:23:28Patrick Bet-David?

  He was an inspirational leader to you?

• 1:23:30Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:23:31Patrick Bet-David?

  Okay, who else? Was there a book that you read? Was there something that influenced your politics?

• 1:23:41Patrick Bet-David?

  Did you read Communist Manifesto?

• 1:23:44Speaker 04

  No.

• 1:23:45Patrick Bet-David?

  You've never read Communist Manifesto? I've read the book.

• 1:23:48Speaker 04

  How is it?

• 1:23:49Patrick Bet-David?

  You've never read it?

• 1:23:50Speaker 04

  No.

• 1:23:51Patrick Bet-David?

  Ben?

• 1:23:51Speaker 04

  What can I say?

• 1:23:52Patrick Bet-David?

  Okay, alright, well, listen, you're missing out, buddy.

• 1:23:54Speaker 04

  You read what you read, I was probably reading ice cream books.

• 1:23:56Patrick Bet-David?

  I think if you read Communist Manifesto, you may go to communism. I mean, you're one step away from socialism. But was there anything?

• 1:24:04Speaker 04

  I want to know why you're so... I mean socialism is a word that gets used to refer to a lot of different things.

• 1:24:14Patrick Bet-David?

  Yeah.

• 1:24:14Speaker 04

  And, you know, so I think the old or official definition of socialism is that the state owns all the means of production. I mean, I don't favor that, but I...

• 1:24:32Patrick Bet-David?

  But you favor 80% taxes?

• 1:24:35Speaker 04

  Marginal tax rate, yeah.

• 1:24:37Patrick Bet-David?

  So you think, let's process that. I'm actually curious to know what you'll say here. So when somebody like you says 80% taxes, you know what you're really saying? You think the US government can do better with our money than we can do with our money?

• 1:24:53Patrick Bet-David?

  That's what you're saying? You think Congress and Senate can do better with our taxpayer money than we can?

• 1:25:00Speaker 04

  Well, you know, if you had a marginal tax rate of 80% on the, you know, millionaires and above...

• 1:25:11Speaker 04

  You wouldn't have so many people with so much money that were influencing the our elections and our legislation in order to make it better for their own selves. So, yeah, I think that it would it would certainly decrease the the spread between rich and poor.

• 1:25:38Patrick Bet-David?

  You know how many?

• 1:25:40Speaker 04

  And I think, you know, I mean, you think about education, you think about childcare, you think about healthcare.

• 1:25:47Patrick Bet-David?

  Yeah.

• 1:25:48Speaker 04

  These are things that, you know, especially things like Medicare for All, it needs to be, some things need to be done by by the government.

• 1:26:02Patrick Bet-David?

  Okay, so let me get this straight. And so just 10 minutes ago, you are speaking to the audience who is loving watching you, and you showed how much the government wastes money. Then 10 minutes later, you say you trust our money going to the government that they'll do a better job than staying in our pocket. Do you know the average person watching this, they're so confused right now, they're about to have a drink right now, that's a that's a confuser, you just confuse the shit out of them. They're sitting there saying, so let me let me understand you, and I really want to understand you, I like you, I eat your ice cream, you seem like a really nice, and you sincerely

• 1:26:45Patrick Bet-David?

  seem like a nice guy, and I'm really enjoying this. How can you one minute say the government wastes money and next minute say let's pay more money because we think they can do a better job with it?

• 1:26:56Speaker 04

  Because I think that both things are true.

• 1:26:58Patrick Bet-David?

  It doesn't work that way.

• 1:27:00Speaker 04

  Well, I mean, I mean, you know, I mean, I think about my own business, you know, as Ben and Jerry's was getting larger and larger, I was saying.

• 1:27:11Speaker 04

  We're wasting all this money. You know, this thing is wrong, that thing is wrong, it's leaking over here, it's, you know, there's something that's not working right over there. I couldn't believe how much money was being wasted.

• 1:27:28Patrick Bet-David?

  Okay.

• 1:27:28Speaker 04

  And then I came to understand that, uh, yeah, there's some waste in most anything that human beings do.

• 1:27:40Patrick Bet-David?

  Oh, but there's one tricky thing here. Why do you think you were overly protective of the money that was being wasted?

• 1:27:49Speaker 04

  Because I needed to make a profit.

• 1:27:51Patrick Bet-David?

  Because it's your money.

• 1:27:54Speaker 04

  Well, it's...

• 1:27:55Patrick Bet-David?

  It's your money, that's why, because you busted your ass to make that money to create jobs. So now imagine, these guys are spending ninety thousand dollars on a bag of washers that at the lows I can buy for three twenty-nine, okay? You want me to trust them to raise taxes? Hell to the no. When I see Doge and I see the money stuff that comes back, you know what I tell myself? How soon are you guys lowering taxes? Because you guys have no clue what you're doing with our money. That's what it makes me think about. Why would I give you more money that you have shown over and over again that you like to waste it? Because, so you give them more money? You don't think there's going to be more military contractors? You don't think there's going to be more Big Pharma coming in wanting contracts for people

• 1:28:39Patrick Bet-David?

  to get unhealthy so they can sell a hundred billion dollars of vaccines? So Pfizer's revenue goes up a hundred billion dollars? You think COVID helped that Pfizer? You think COVID was a very good event for Pfizer's stock? What do you think? You think COVID, you know, Rob, isn't it true that even Pfizer CEO didn't even take the vaccine? But hey, the rest of us had to. You think that was a profitable event for them? You think they want another COVID? You think they want another pandemic? Of course, why? Because the money goes, you know, there was one of the guys from the big pharmaceutical companies that never took the vaccine. I just don't know which one it was. You don't think that funnels back through? No, I think the American people, the reason why they love Doge is because they're done

• 1:29:22Patrick Bet-David?

  with wasted expenditure and they don't trust the government. It's the lowest Ben it's ever been. You've been around, so you said you were born in nineteen fifty-one. I think you said fifty-one, right? Did you say fifty-one?

• 1:29:36Patrick Bet-David?

  A lot of wasted money from 51 till today. Look at the year you were born, look at the trust. It was 80% is where we hit. Look where it's at right now, okay? Lowest it's ever been. What happened? They don't trust it. They don't trust the media, they don't trust the government because they're full of shit. They keep wasting our money. And you want, you want to sit here? You know what I'd love to see you do? Go run on the campaign of raising taxes to 80% marginal, see what happens today. Let's have Bernie Sanders go campaign and see what happens today.

• 1:30:11Speaker 04

  Who's gonna be against raising taxes to 80% marginal on incomes over several million dollars?

• 1:30:19Patrick Bet-David?

  A lot of people. It's my money, why should I give it to you?

• 1:30:22Speaker 04

  How many?

• 1:30:23Patrick Bet-David?

  By the way, the people that are creating commerce who want to mind their own business like you used to, when you ran your business and you tried to create savings, those people are gonna mind. It's easy for you to say it, right now you're, you know, you're in your 70s and you've already made your money to say, "Hey, let's do it to the guys now." I didn't get it, now let me do it to the other guys. That's not fair.

• 1:30:41Speaker 04

  You know, pick a number. Pick a number that's a reasonable number.

• 1:30:46Patrick Bet-David?

  You have to earn the right to raise taxes. The government has to earn the moral authority to be able to say, "Let's raise taxes." How do you earn the moral authority? By showing what you do with the money. Seven years Pentagon hasn't been able to show our audits? They failed an audit seven years in a row? You want us to trust the US government?

• 1:31:02Speaker 04

  There are some functions that government needs to perform, you know.

• 1:31:10Patrick Bet-David?

  I don't disagree, but not as much money as you want us to give to you.

• 1:31:13Speaker 04

  Well, I mean, half the discretionary budget is going to the Pentagon. Let's, let's cut that. You know, I'm not suggesting we totally eliminate all weapons.

• 1:31:25Patrick Bet-David?

  I think the president is wanting to cut. This is why he won so many Democrat... Can you imagine? Were you a John F. Kennedy fan when you were younger?

• 1:31:35Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:31:36Patrick Bet-David?

  You know, his nephew went to the other side. You know, his nephew who loved his dad and loved his uncle, became an addict for 14 years because he lost his dad, and we almost lost Bobby.

• 1:31:50Patrick Bet-David?

  He eventually got so sick of what the left did and he went to the other side. So did Tulsi. So did Trump. Trump used to be a Democrat. So did Musk. Musk used to be a Democrat. So did Rogan. Yorgin used to be a Democrat. He may still be. I mean, this is the most devastating season ever for Democrats. Ever. Every state turned more Republican. Eighty-nine counties turned more Republican. Seven battleground states. Majority went to him. The last time that happened was twenty-some years ago. This is one of those moments where Americans sat there and watched. The Democrats had control during Covid. And they tried to abuse Americans. And they said, "Leave us the f*** alone."

• 1:32:33Patrick Bet-David?

  "Leave us alone." "I don't want you to force me to do anything." And for you, Ben, a successful man like you that built an incredible business that the rest of us get to smile. You make people smile. Every time somebody has your product, they are smiling. They're happy. You know what is the most happiest moment of my week? When I get to take my daughter to this ice cream shop in Fort Lauderdale. And she eats her ice cream and her reaction, I melt. You produce the product that put millions of people, smiled on millions of people's faces. That's what you produce. Because you worked your ass off. And you took advantage of the opportunities that they gave you. You saved every penny so you can pay your people better.

• 1:33:16Patrick Bet-David?

  To create a better company. You're a hero. You're a hero. And the other side likes you because you give them money. But if you didn't and you were Republican, you would be despised by the other side. You'd be considered a rich, greedy man. And all you ever did is start a company with your best friend. And turn it into what you turned it into. And that's not cool. It's not cool. It's not cool that just because somebody has a dream and they go work hard and I'm supposed to go out there and feel guilty about it. I'm sick of it. I'm sick of them making success feel guilty and, "Hey, you make too much money. You're a billionaire. You're a bad person. You're this, you're that." Let's recognize our heroes. Let's start like, stop like undermining anybody and everybody that they win.

• 1:33:59Patrick Bet-David?

  We just tarnish, tarnish, tarnish, tarnish, tarnish. "Oh, he's a horrible man. Tarnish, tarnish." Stop it.

• 1:34:04Speaker 04

  I'm not about tarnishing people.

• 1:34:06Patrick Bet-David?

  I'm not saying you, but it's a lot of people on the left. And it's enough. It's enough. It's too much. And people, honestly, the people are tired of it. That's what happened in 2024 on November 5th.

• 1:34:22Speaker 04

  You know, I, I think a lot of what happened is that people were voting for something different. So, you know, I mean, a lot of times you look at presidential elections and it, and it's choosing between the least worst. And, uh, you know, Trump, uh,

• 1:34:46Speaker 04

  I, I don't regard him really as a Republican.

• 1:34:49Patrick Bet-David?

  I don't either.

• 1:34:49Speaker 04

  I don't regard him as Democrat. He, you know, I, I think, I think he's kind of more of an independent.

• 1:34:55Patrick Bet-David?

  I agree.

• 1:34:56Speaker 04

  And, and I think that's what people want.

• 1:34:59Patrick Bet-David?

  I agree.

• 1:35:00Speaker 04

  They want someone who's not the status quo, not the, not the norm. And the only choice they had was Trump.

• 1:35:08Patrick Bet-David?

  I agree. I agree. And by the way, you know, what's the, what's the other thing that they were sick of? Sick and tired of? Did you watch the State of the Union?

• 1:35:19Speaker 04

  No.

• 1:35:20Patrick Bet-David?

  Okay.

• 1:35:22Patrick Bet-David?

  So, there was multiple moments that were embarrassing. One moment where the ladies on the left are wearing all these pink outfits.

• 1:35:31Patrick Bet-David?

  And President Trump says, we want to keep boys out of women's sports. None of them stood up or clapped for it. Do you agree that transgender should be competing against men, against women? Do you sincerely, you think Martin Luther King, your hero, would agree with that? You think Martin Luther King would have said, yeah, you, you're a man, you were born a man. Yeah. So you want to go compete with women? Yeah. Yeah, no problem with that. You think Martin Luther King, who said, uh, one day we're black boys and white, no, and you can't, you think that man would be okay with puberty blockers? Seriously? You think your hero would be okay with puberty? I don't think so. You know, I have a painting in my house. You know who's in my painting? John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, two of my heroes.

• 1:36:16Patrick Bet-David?

  Every time I've ever had an office, I've always had a picture of Martin Luther King there. He's a hero to so many of us. I just don't think he would have been with that. And then you want to teach my kids LGBTQ? If a person wants to be gay, go at it. I don't have any problem with that. But we don't need to sit there and indoctrinate. Leave it alone. That's the painting. Martin Luther King, all the way to the right. Have Tupac in the painting, have John F. Kennedy, have Einstein, have Lincoln, have Milton Friedman, the Shaw Center, and a couple of hidden messages in there. You know what's sitting on the table? They're debating a book. It's Communist Manifesto and Atlas Shrugged. Representation from both sides of the economy. Sit down and debate that. That's the painting in my clubroom in my house. Fifteen foot painting.

• 1:37:01Patrick Bet-David?

  But to me, I'd love to see someone who, for you to build a business the way you did, you have to know how to reason and use logic. If you don't, you will fail. You'll be bankrupt.

• 1:37:16Speaker 04

  Yeah, you know, I like that painting.

• 1:37:19Patrick Bet-David?

  I do too.

• 1:37:21Speaker 04

  You know, what strikes me is Einstein. I mean, when you talk about logic, I mean, he said that it is not possible to simultaneously prevent and prepare for war.

• 1:37:40Speaker 04

  I think that is really, really true.

• 1:37:43Patrick Bet-David?

  Did you what?

• 1:37:44Speaker 04

  I mean, the quote goes on to say that the very energy and resources that are necessary for the prevention of war are actually greater than preparing for war. So if you're going to prevent it, you need to use those resources to prevent it. And...

• 1:38:10Speaker 04

  What? You... How'd you do this?

• 1:38:13Patrick Bet-David?

  It's called Rob. He's the best. No, it's Rob. That's why Rob doesn't make 725 an hour.

• 1:38:19Patrick Bet-David?

  I can't. I can't give him only 725 an hour.

• 1:38:22Speaker 04

  From my mind to your screen, man, I love it.

• 1:38:29Patrick Bet-David?

  Last thing before we wrap up. What do you think about Hamas and Israel, the war? And do you have any opinions on that?

• 1:38:36Speaker 04

  I, I, I think it is a genocide. I, I think it's awful, horrible. I, to a guy who's, who's getting killed, I don't think it matters whether it's in a gas chamber or because it was a bomb dropped on his head. I, I don't, I, I, I'm, I'm just hugely opposed to, to, to taking weapons and slaughtering people. It's absurd. I mean, I, I'm, I'm, I'm also hugely opposed to what happened on October 7th with, uh,

• 1:39:20Speaker 04

  you know, with people coming in and slaughtering people in Israel. But I, I totally don't believe that it, that it justifies slaughtering an entire population.

• 1:39:35Patrick Bet-David?

  It's about to get very ugly after what the president put out there. I don't know if you saw this or not.

• 1:39:38Speaker 04

  Ugh.

• 1:39:40Patrick Bet-David?

  Did you see this? Shalom Hamas means hello and goodbye. You can choose, release all the hostages now or later, uh, not later, and immediately return all of the dead bodies of the people you murdered, or it's over for you. Only sick and twisted people keep bodies, and you are sick and twisted. I'm sending Israel everything it needs to finish the job. Not a single Hamas member will be safe. If you don't do as I say, I have just met with your former hostages whose lives you have destroyed. This is your last warning for the leadership. Now is the time to leave Gaza while you still have a chance. Also, to the people of Gaza, beautiful future awaits you, but not if you hold hostages. If you do, you are dead. Make a smart decision. Release the hostages now, or there will be hell to pay later. How do you feel about that?

• 1:40:23Speaker 00

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• 1:40:53Patrick Bet-David?

  Now, more than ever, we need someone on our side. But Rob Whitman? Whitman's votes drove up costs, cut Medicaid, and risked 350,000 Virginians' health care to pay for tax breaks for himself and his donors. He's not on our side. Shannon Taylor will fight corruption, cut taxes, and bring down costs. This November, vote for Shannon Taylor. She's for us. Paid for by HMP, the House Majority PAC dot com. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.

• 1:41:29Speaker 04

  I believe the hostages should be released.

• 1:41:35Speaker 04

  I do not believe that we should be slaughtering people.

• 1:41:40Patrick Bet-David?

  So what if they don't release the hostages? So Ben, maybe you have a better strategy. How do you get them to release the hostages? Share it with us.

• 1:41:49Speaker 04

  I don't know.

• 1:41:51Patrick Bet-David?

  Honestly, so what should he do? What should he do? Should he send a case of ice cream, guys? Release them. Here's Ben and Jerry's. Maybe he sends the dark chocolate. Dirt, dirt, what is it called? Dirt, dirt cake, my favorite. They may not like that because it's, you know, dirt cake. So, but what, what do they?

• 1:42:09Speaker 04

  I, you know, I, I don't, I don't have a solution.

• 1:42:13Patrick Bet-David?

  Could it be because as a leader, you have a position that sometimes you have to make a tough decision that the average person will not understand? And there's burden that comes with being a president?

• 1:42:23Speaker 04

  Well, I, I, I definitely, I, I agree that, that there are times when you need to make tough decisions as a leader.

• 1:42:32Patrick Bet-David?

  Do you have kids?

• 1:42:33Speaker 04

  I do.

• 1:42:34Patrick Bet-David?

  I do as well. If one of those hostages, God forbid, were our kids, how soon would you want him to make a move? So they return to you so you can hug them again?

• 1:42:46Speaker 04

  I'm not looking to, I, I, I wouldn't, I wouldn't say,

• 1:42:53Speaker 04

  return my kid, or I'll slaughter thousands of people.

• 1:43:00Patrick Bet-David?

  So you would sacrifice your daughter or your son if they stay there?

• 1:43:07Speaker 04

  I wouldn't sacrifice my, my daughter.

• 1:43:10Patrick Bet-David?

  Every day they're there, their, their, their days are numbered. Each day, they're there, your imagination, you're a great marketer. In your imagination as a father, you're imagining what they're doing to your daughter. You're okay with that?

• 1:43:27Speaker 04

  I'm not okay with it. Uh, you know, I, I don't know what the solution to the problem is.

• 1:43:34Patrick Bet-David?

  It's hard stuff. Yeah, it's tough. It's tough. And so no matter what he does, he's gonna have hate. But he's gotta make a decision. This is why being a leader is not for everybody. Especially being a president. It's a lot of burden that comes with it, especially a president like him that's actually making decisions that a lot of people are giving him a hard time with. And now he's got a big support, big people that are sitting there saying, let's go. Ben, I can tell you one thing. I had no idea where we were gonna go. Honestly, I had a blast with you.

• 1:44:05Speaker 04

  I had a good time.

• 1:44:06Patrick Bet-David?

  I so appreciate you for reaching out. I hope we stay in contact. And I have friends in Vermont that I go to and I stay at this house. My good friend, I'll give a shout out to them, Mehran Asadi, who's the CEO of National Life Group. And incredible man. I don't know if you've met him before or not. He's been to your place before. Phenomenal father. He's a great CEO. And I've been to Vermont just to visit him. Uh, Mehran Asadi. He has a Persian accent. He doesn't like it when I say that. But he is a, a, he's a very, very, very dear friend of mine. So anyways.

• 1:44:43Speaker 04

  Well, let me know when you're in town.

• 1:44:45Patrick Bet-David?

  I will.

• 1:44:46Speaker 04

  I didn't get to show you all of my toys.

• 1:44:49Patrick Bet-David?

  Oh, what is it? What do you, yeah, tell me what's, what do you got?

• 1:44:52Speaker 04

  One of my toys. This is a limited edition, uh, Ben and Jerry's Ramp Walker. Uh, there's no batteries. There's no, nothing to wind up. Uh, it, it waddles. Let me see if we can hear, let's set it up for you here.

• 1:45:18Speaker 04

  Oh, excuse me, I'm moving your...

• 1:45:20Patrick Bet-David?

  No, go for it, do it.

• 1:45:21Speaker 04

  Go on, go on, guys.

• 1:45:24Patrick Bet-David?

  Oh, wow.

• 1:45:26Speaker 04

  Isn't that cool?

• 1:45:27Patrick Bet-David?

  That is super cool.

• 1:45:28Speaker 04

  They don't go off, they always...

• 1:45:30Patrick Bet-David?

  Get out of here.

• 1:45:31Speaker 04

  They stop, they know, they've got a...

• 1:45:33Patrick Bet-David?

  Look at these guys.

• 1:45:34Speaker 04

  And it's low-tech, it's not like I've got a sensor running.

• 1:45:37Patrick Bet-David?

  This is crazy. So it's not battery-generated?

• 1:45:41Speaker 04

  No, no, no, this is, uh...

• 1:45:44Patrick Bet-David?

  Wow.

• 1:45:45Speaker 04

  You know, when these first came out twenty years ago, twenty-five years ago...

• 1:45:50Patrick Bet-David?

  That's cool.

• 1:45:51Speaker 04

  People weren't that crazy about it, but now that everything is all high-tech and everything...

• 1:45:55Patrick Bet-David?

  They like this.

• 1:45:56Speaker 04

  Yeah, it's retro.

• 1:45:57Patrick Bet-David?

  Can I have it?

• 1:45:58Speaker 04

  Can you have it, baby, this is yours, it's got your name on it. Not only that, I'm giving you one that's totally unopened.

• 1:46:06Patrick Bet-David?

  Oh, you're amazing.

• 1:46:06Speaker 04

  You know, eBay, you know, when your business goes down the tube, you sell that on eBay. You know, we'll get rid of the capital gains tax.

• 1:46:15Patrick Bet-David?

  Listen, you're amazing. You're amazing.

• 1:46:20Speaker 04

  All right, here's my other toy.

• 1:46:23Speaker 04

  What, your pens don't do this?

• 1:46:25Patrick Bet-David?

  Dude, that is pretty sick.

• 1:46:26Speaker 04

  I mean, you know, you go around selling insurance with this thing.

• 1:46:31Speaker 04

  But this one here talks about global military spending. You know, here's how much the US spends, here's how much China spends, here's how much Russia spends. What, they got close-up lenses on that fucking thing?

• 1:46:46Patrick Bet-David?

  Do you see it or no? Here, let me show you. Do you see it, Rob? It's pretty sick. That is cool. I love this.

• 1:46:53Speaker 04

  All right, don't say I never gave you nothing.

• 1:46:56Patrick Bet-David?

  No, no, I have, look, you're gonna leave and I'm gonna say great things about you, but I'm gonna say when you leave, I, I, I'm very glad that President Trump finally has your support. It's great to see that, you know, all it took was a podcast.

• 1:47:11Patrick Bet-David?

  Sir, truly an honor to meet you. Truly an honor to meet you. I appreciate you for coming out. Really enjoyed it, gang. I hope you enjoyed it as well. Just so you know, if you're gonna go buy ice cream, this is my favorite flavor out of all of them. God bless everybody. Take care. Bye bye, bye bye. Nowadays, more than ever, the brand you wear reflects and represents who you are. So for us, if you wear a Future Looks Bright hat or a ValueTainment gear, you're telling the world, "I'm optimistic. I'm excited about what's gonna be happening." But you're a free thinker. You question things. You like debate. And by the way, last year, 120,000 people got a piece of Future Looks Bright gear with ValueTainment.

• 1:47:54Patrick Bet-David?

  We have so many new things. The cufflinks are here. New Future Looks Bright. This is my favorite, the green one. Just yesterday, somebody placed an order for 100 of these. If you watch the PBD Podcast, you got a bunch to choose from. White ones, black ones. If you, if you, if you smoke cigars and you come to our cigar lounge, we have this high-quality lighter cutter and a holder for the cigars. We got sweaters with the ValueTainment logo on it. We got mugs. We got a bunch of different things. But if you believe the future looks bright, if you follow our content and what we represent with ValueTainment, with PBD Podcast, go to vtmerch.com. And by the way, if you order right now, there's gonna be a special VT gift inside just for you. So again, go to vtmerch.com,

• 1:48:39Patrick Bet-David?

  place your order, tell the world that you believe the future looks bright.