1 00:00:01,399 --> 00:00:03,640 Speaker 1: This week's episode of the Trip Cast is supported by 2 00:00:03,720 --> 00:00:11,919 former US Ambassador to Mexico Antonio Garza. Hello and welcome 3 00:00:11,919 --> 00:00:15,759 to this week's edition of the Trip Cast. I'm James Bargan. 4 00:00:15,880 --> 00:00:19,199 I'm here with Women's health reporter Eleanor Klibanoff and our 5 00:00:19,239 --> 00:00:23,160 fearless leader Matthew Watkins. Hello James, and being beamed in 6 00:00:23,160 --> 00:00:29,359 from Washington, d c our DC reporter politics guru Matthew Troy. Matthew, 7 00:00:29,359 --> 00:00:29,719 how are you. 8 00:00:31,079 --> 00:00:32,439 Speaker 2: I'm doing great? Thanks for having me. 9 00:00:33,159 --> 00:00:34,880 Speaker 3: Matthew, Joy and I have spent a lot of time 10 00:00:34,920 --> 00:00:37,359 together in the last seventy two hours. 11 00:00:37,399 --> 00:00:39,759 Speaker 1: The Matthews. That's right. Well, we've got a lot to 12 00:00:39,840 --> 00:00:43,439 break down this week. This week's podcast is all about 13 00:00:43,479 --> 00:00:47,039 the second Trump administration, what that means for Texas, and 14 00:00:47,479 --> 00:00:50,520 trying to look ahead at what this new Trump administration 15 00:00:50,600 --> 00:00:53,159 is going to look like. But before we do that, guys, 16 00:00:53,520 --> 00:00:56,640 it's been a long week. A lot of DC stuff 17 00:00:56,640 --> 00:00:59,119 going on, a lot of speaker stuff going on here 18 00:00:59,520 --> 00:01:01,880 in the text Legislature. Let's just check in. How are 19 00:01:01,880 --> 00:01:03,600 we doing? How are we doing in twenty twenty five 20 00:01:03,799 --> 00:01:06,640 a third weekend? Are we keeping our resolutions? I mean, 21 00:01:06,799 --> 00:01:07,319 we are here. 22 00:01:08,000 --> 00:01:11,319 Speaker 4: Note in a snow storm, I mean Austin has been 23 00:01:11,680 --> 00:01:14,680 just I mean a blizzard is upon us. There was 24 00:01:15,239 --> 00:01:18,719 almost a third of an inch not quite of snow 25 00:01:18,719 --> 00:01:22,519 on the ground. So I think I'm pretty cold and 26 00:01:22,719 --> 00:01:25,359 pretty excited. I'd love a good weather weirdness. So I'm 27 00:01:25,400 --> 00:01:25,840 doing great. 28 00:01:26,439 --> 00:01:29,280 Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, as I think we mentioned in last 29 00:01:29,280 --> 00:01:32,680 week's podcast, I was up in DC for the inaugural 30 00:01:32,799 --> 00:01:36,480 ball and everything like that. My flight from Dallas to 31 00:01:36,519 --> 00:01:39,680 Austin got canceled yesterday, so I ended up having to 32 00:01:39,680 --> 00:01:42,239 rent a car and drive down I thirty five in 33 00:01:42,280 --> 00:01:45,760 the sleet and snow. So that was but I had 34 00:01:45,799 --> 00:01:47,719 to Yeah, it had nothing to do with my children. 35 00:01:48,239 --> 00:01:49,920 It was y'all that I wanted to see. 36 00:01:50,000 --> 00:01:52,920 Speaker 4: Our trip cast listeners are your children exactly, They are 37 00:01:52,959 --> 00:01:53,480 your family. 38 00:01:53,599 --> 00:01:57,319 Speaker 1: That is what matters. Matthew. How are things going in DC? 39 00:01:57,439 --> 00:01:57,680 Speaker 4: Are you? 40 00:01:57,840 --> 00:02:00,359 Speaker 1: Are you keeping your Niear's resolutions? 41 00:02:00,840 --> 00:02:00,959 Speaker 4: Uh? 42 00:02:01,079 --> 00:02:02,760 Speaker 2: You know, I'm trying my best and I'm going to 43 00:02:02,799 --> 00:02:06,599 the gym. I'm staying healthy. It's a little over twenty 44 00:02:06,640 --> 00:02:11,120 degrees here, so it's positively you know, tropical. But yeah, 45 00:02:11,280 --> 00:02:13,199 things are great. 46 00:02:13,360 --> 00:02:15,639 Speaker 1: Very very very different perspective from us here. 47 00:02:15,680 --> 00:02:16,479 Speaker 4: It's all relative. 48 00:02:17,840 --> 00:02:20,719 Speaker 1: Okay, so let's get started. First. For the Matthews, and 49 00:02:20,759 --> 00:02:22,039 I don't know how we're going to do this since 50 00:02:22,039 --> 00:02:23,240 there's two Matthews here. 51 00:02:23,199 --> 00:02:24,439 Speaker 3: Just calls Choli and Watkin. 52 00:02:24,759 --> 00:02:29,120 Speaker 1: Okay. For the Matthews, you guys were both there in 53 00:02:29,240 --> 00:02:32,800 DC for the inauguration. Give us a breakdown. What was 54 00:02:32,840 --> 00:02:35,360 it like to be there in the city just overall 55 00:02:35,960 --> 00:02:38,639 and then also watching the events. What was the vibe. 56 00:02:38,680 --> 00:02:40,599 I'm sure you guys ran into a lot of Texas 57 00:02:40,639 --> 00:02:43,400 politicians who were there for this event. 58 00:02:45,039 --> 00:02:47,680 Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, I will say one of the more 59 00:02:47,840 --> 00:02:51,159 surreal parts of the weekend was just being in a 60 00:02:51,360 --> 00:02:55,319 big city, a big city that's sort of traditionally viewed 61 00:02:55,360 --> 00:02:58,639 as one of those like liberal elite cities, and just 62 00:02:58,680 --> 00:03:03,120 to like look around and everyone is a Trump supporter. 63 00:03:03,360 --> 00:03:06,560 It was a little bit like backwards in that way, right. 64 00:03:06,639 --> 00:03:10,520 You normally don't associate, you know, inner Washington, d C. 65 00:03:10,759 --> 00:03:15,080 With With with like being Trump's base. But I think, 66 00:03:15,479 --> 00:03:17,719 you know, it was obviously a self selecting crowd, Like 67 00:03:17,759 --> 00:03:20,639 a lot of people who came specifically to see the inauguration, 68 00:03:20,759 --> 00:03:24,599 a lot of people I think disappointed to not actually 69 00:03:24,639 --> 00:03:28,240 get to witness the actual inauguration, and you know, there 70 00:03:29,120 --> 00:03:31,000 I think a lot of kind of chatter about people's 71 00:03:31,039 --> 00:03:34,520 you know, inauguration tickets turning into kind of fancy commemorative 72 00:03:34,560 --> 00:03:39,439 commemorative bookmarks and everything like that. But that being said, still, 73 00:03:39,520 --> 00:03:43,120 I think a lot of excitement, a lot of sort 74 00:03:43,120 --> 00:03:49,159 of you know, people feeling of a people people have 75 00:03:49,159 --> 00:03:52,360 a certain political persuasion, feeling a lot of sort of 76 00:03:53,639 --> 00:03:56,080 you know, relief to be kind of going back to 77 00:03:56,199 --> 00:03:59,280 a Republican administration, a Trump administration, and things like that. 78 00:04:00,400 --> 00:04:02,159 Matthew and I were a part of a sort of 79 00:04:02,439 --> 00:04:06,439 business leader's conference the day before the Texas inaugural ball. 80 00:04:07,360 --> 00:04:10,319 That was an interesting crowd too, because it's not necessarily 81 00:04:10,479 --> 00:04:17,800 your your typical you know, maga you know, red hat 82 00:04:17,839 --> 00:04:20,199 wearing group as much as you're the sort of more 83 00:04:20,240 --> 00:04:23,920 like business alignance support for him. And that was interesting 84 00:04:23,959 --> 00:04:25,519 because I think there was a lot of sort of 85 00:04:25,519 --> 00:04:28,240 cautious optimism. I think a lot of support for Trump, 86 00:04:28,319 --> 00:04:30,920 a lot of support for his policies, a lot of excitement, 87 00:04:31,199 --> 00:04:33,160 but also some questions And I think we could probably 88 00:04:33,199 --> 00:04:35,240 get into this a little bit later around things like 89 00:04:35,319 --> 00:04:38,120 tariff policy and what impact that's going to have on 90 00:04:38,160 --> 00:04:44,639 Texas businesses and things like that, so you know, Texas 91 00:04:44,680 --> 00:04:46,800 came out in full force. Though we all had our 92 00:04:47,040 --> 00:04:52,000 boots and bow ties on, and you know, both among 93 00:04:52,160 --> 00:04:55,000 just like regular people and politicians, a lot of sort 94 00:04:55,040 --> 00:04:57,199 of representation up there in DC this week. 95 00:04:57,800 --> 00:04:59,040 Speaker 1: We get it. Matthew, you're important. 96 00:04:59,079 --> 00:05:02,480 Speaker 4: You go to BOS the Business Leader's conference he was 97 00:05:02,519 --> 00:05:03,839 invited to as a business. 98 00:05:03,959 --> 00:05:07,439 Speaker 3: My favorite moment, I want to say of the boost 99 00:05:07,439 --> 00:05:10,720 and bow Ties, as I spent pretty much the entire 100 00:05:10,759 --> 00:05:13,920 evening with Matthew and our events director matt Ewolt as well, 101 00:05:14,319 --> 00:05:16,759 was we were in a certain room and this will 102 00:05:16,759 --> 00:05:18,480 give you just a sense of like what that ball 103 00:05:18,600 --> 00:05:23,519 is like. And I look and I point, and I go, oh, 104 00:05:23,519 --> 00:05:26,199 there he is. And Matthew goes, oh, who are you 105 00:05:26,240 --> 00:05:30,600 putting to Brian Babin Us Congressman Brian Babon, And I 106 00:05:30,639 --> 00:05:33,079 was like, no, actually, right behind him, it's the rapper 107 00:05:33,160 --> 00:05:34,399 walka flocka flame. 108 00:05:34,600 --> 00:05:38,279 Speaker 1: You know it's Now I'm interested. I gotta be honest. 109 00:05:39,279 --> 00:05:41,920 Now I'm jealous. I think we're. 110 00:05:41,759 --> 00:05:45,160 Speaker 2: Both jamming out, so you know, you know, universal vibes 111 00:05:45,199 --> 00:05:46,360 all around. It's a great time. 112 00:05:46,600 --> 00:05:50,680 Speaker 1: Yeah, Matthew, Matthew Joy, how are things for you. What 113 00:05:50,759 --> 00:05:52,240 was the inauguration like. 114 00:05:53,120 --> 00:05:55,040 Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I think one of the most interesting 115 00:05:55,120 --> 00:05:58,480 kind of themes is that there's such such a different 116 00:05:58,519 --> 00:06:02,199 mood relative to twenty seven. Back then, you know, the 117 00:06:02,240 --> 00:06:05,279 Trump crowd was kind of thinking, did we seriously just 118 00:06:05,319 --> 00:06:07,519 win this thing? Oh my goodness, And you know, like 119 00:06:07,560 --> 00:06:11,360 a lot of them were traditional Republicans, were thinking, oh, 120 00:06:11,439 --> 00:06:13,040 I wonder what that's going to look like. This is 121 00:06:13,040 --> 00:06:15,000 not kind of the typical Republican playbook, and there's a 122 00:06:15,040 --> 00:06:18,920 bit of hesitancy this time, however, it was very much 123 00:06:19,040 --> 00:06:22,120 the idea of we are so back, baby. It was 124 00:06:22,680 --> 00:06:27,040 very jubulant. They were very confident in themselves, and people 125 00:06:27,079 --> 00:06:29,839 really kind of knew much more what to expect this time. 126 00:06:30,120 --> 00:06:33,079 I think the business community was a bit more enthusiastic 127 00:06:33,199 --> 00:06:37,319 now because they've seen what a Trump presidency is like, 128 00:06:37,360 --> 00:06:39,079 so it's no longer that kind of uncertainty that gave 129 00:06:39,120 --> 00:06:41,120 him pause us time, and they knew that a lot 130 00:06:41,120 --> 00:06:43,279 of his policies were very friendly to a lot of 131 00:06:43,279 --> 00:06:46,600 business interests, particularly businesses that are quite important for Texas, 132 00:06:46,600 --> 00:06:49,199 like the oil and gas sector, also agriculture as well. 133 00:06:49,560 --> 00:06:53,879 So you know, it was just like absolutely jubilance around 134 00:06:53,959 --> 00:06:57,439 the Republican you know, the big Republican ten Matthia, I. 135 00:06:57,439 --> 00:06:59,959 Speaker 1: Didn't want to ask about that because, as maybe one 136 00:07:00,000 --> 00:07:03,560 talkins pointed out, it is seen as the swamp. It's 137 00:07:03,600 --> 00:07:06,959 seen as the liberal elite. And I wonder what sort 138 00:07:07,000 --> 00:07:10,480 of Democrats were feeling if you saw them walking around, 139 00:07:10,560 --> 00:07:11,879 or if you got to talk to any of them, 140 00:07:12,079 --> 00:07:14,079 because the New York Times had a great story about 141 00:07:14,199 --> 00:07:17,040 how the twenty seventeen resistance has turned into the twenty 142 00:07:17,079 --> 00:07:20,079 twenty five resignation, and in talking to a lot of 143 00:07:20,079 --> 00:07:22,680 Democrats it does sort of feel that way, or people 144 00:07:23,000 --> 00:07:26,800 who are not even Democrats but just to pose Trump's 145 00:07:27,879 --> 00:07:29,600 way of doing things and his view of the world. 146 00:07:29,600 --> 00:07:31,240 But I wonder if you could give us any insight 147 00:07:31,240 --> 00:07:33,759 into that since you are in DC and live there. 148 00:07:34,879 --> 00:07:37,160 Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, A important thing to note about twenty 149 00:07:37,160 --> 00:07:39,639 sixteen was that there was a large sense of indignation 150 00:07:39,720 --> 00:07:41,519 on the part of Democrats because they did win the 151 00:07:41,560 --> 00:07:44,439 popular vote, remember so, and already for a party that 152 00:07:44,519 --> 00:07:47,759 really doesn't, you know, have much affection for the electoral college. 153 00:07:48,000 --> 00:07:50,240 There was definitely this kind of sense of this was 154 00:07:50,279 --> 00:07:53,399 a fluke. We represent the way that America should be, 155 00:07:53,519 --> 00:07:58,399 and we will continue fighting, exhausting every single legal avenue, 156 00:07:58,480 --> 00:07:59,959 and you know, like we have the people with us. 157 00:08:00,399 --> 00:08:02,199 That was very much not the case this time. You know, 158 00:08:02,600 --> 00:08:06,279 the Democrats just straight up lost. You lost the popular revote, 159 00:08:06,279 --> 00:08:09,240 They lost in many swing states, and they're really feeling that. 160 00:08:09,319 --> 00:08:11,040 And so there's to us. They're kind of going through 161 00:08:11,120 --> 00:08:13,800 this soul searching of you know, what was wrong with 162 00:08:13,839 --> 00:08:16,199 our message? Do we stand for the things that the 163 00:08:16,240 --> 00:08:19,759 American people stand for. It was a much more kind 164 00:08:19,839 --> 00:08:25,319 of resigned and introspective kind of mood as opposed to this. 165 00:08:25,480 --> 00:08:28,040 You know, let's rally our arms and you know, sharpen 166 00:08:28,120 --> 00:08:30,720 the pitchforks and resists to the Trump administration as much 167 00:08:30,720 --> 00:08:31,639 as humanly possible. 168 00:08:32,279 --> 00:08:34,720 Speaker 3: Yeah, there was there was a protest on the National 169 00:08:34,840 --> 00:08:39,600 Mall on Friday or Saturday that I didn't actually know 170 00:08:39,600 --> 00:08:42,000 about until I'd picked up a copy of the Washington Post. 171 00:08:42,039 --> 00:08:44,799 That it was I think, far far smaller than the 172 00:08:44,879 --> 00:08:48,639 kind of protests you saw eight years ago. The only 173 00:08:48,799 --> 00:08:53,279 Democrat I saw all weekend was Henry Quaar actually you 174 00:08:53,320 --> 00:08:56,120 know who is also you know, the probably the most 175 00:08:56,240 --> 00:09:00,240 moderate Democrat in the delegation. I think a lot of 176 00:09:00,279 --> 00:09:02,720 them sort of made the decision to get out of 177 00:09:02,720 --> 00:09:05,919 town for the weekend or at least keep a very 178 00:09:05,960 --> 00:09:10,840 low profile. But I completely agree. I think, you know, 179 00:09:11,480 --> 00:09:15,840 I think in some ways it feels a little bit more, 180 00:09:16,519 --> 00:09:18,759 it's less shocking, it feels a little bit normal for 181 00:09:18,840 --> 00:09:21,360 Democrats to have Trump as a president. I think there's 182 00:09:21,360 --> 00:09:24,840 also just a lot of soul searching about how they 183 00:09:24,879 --> 00:09:29,000 handled things last time, how the general more broad electorate 184 00:09:29,080 --> 00:09:32,840 reacted to it, and whether it's maybe smarter to not 185 00:09:33,120 --> 00:09:36,080 sort of freak out about every single thing that happens 186 00:09:36,120 --> 00:09:38,320 and sort of, you know, keep your powder dry for 187 00:09:38,399 --> 00:09:40,960 the fights that you really feel like are going to 188 00:09:40,960 --> 00:09:43,759 be meaningful for you and your constituents. 189 00:09:44,000 --> 00:09:45,679 Speaker 1: And we've seen someone of that already with some of 190 00:09:45,720 --> 00:09:49,480 these immigration bills that are moving through Congress. I think 191 00:09:49,519 --> 00:09:52,720 we'll probably expect to see that a lot more and 192 00:09:52,919 --> 00:09:55,279 maybe picking their shots a little bit. But I do 193 00:09:55,360 --> 00:09:57,600 want to just get into it. Let's talk about what 194 00:09:57,639 --> 00:10:01,080 was said during the speech. Talked about immigration, remain in 195 00:10:01,120 --> 00:10:04,679 Mexico is back, although weirdly he's also ending asylum, so 196 00:10:04,919 --> 00:10:08,440 hard to reconcile how that works. Talked about energy, We're 197 00:10:08,440 --> 00:10:11,279 gonna drill baby, drill, and he also talked about the 198 00:10:11,279 --> 00:10:16,240 Gulf of Mexico, Mars and the Panama Canal eleanor from 199 00:10:16,279 --> 00:10:19,240 an outsider's perspective. Okay, what surprise you what stood out? 200 00:10:20,279 --> 00:10:22,960 Speaker 4: I mean, I think it maybe this isn't necessarily a surprise, 201 00:10:23,080 --> 00:10:25,799 but I think, you know, it certainly stood out. I 202 00:10:25,799 --> 00:10:29,279 assumed all of us listening to, you know, the name 203 00:10:29,360 --> 00:10:34,879 recognition that President Trump gave our governor Greg Abbott, right, 204 00:10:34,919 --> 00:10:37,440 I mean, certainly a big boost to Texas to what 205 00:10:37,480 --> 00:10:40,600 Texas has been doing on immigration. It really felt like, 206 00:10:41,879 --> 00:10:45,480 you know, a validation for this for a lot of 207 00:10:45,480 --> 00:10:48,559 what Texas has been doing, which again not a shocker, 208 00:10:48,679 --> 00:10:51,399 but I'm sure felt good to Abbit and some other 209 00:10:51,440 --> 00:10:56,559 folks in the you know, sort of Texas Republican elite. 210 00:10:57,399 --> 00:10:59,639 Speaker 3: Yeah, it was interesting. On the border stuff, it was 211 00:11:00,559 --> 00:11:02,919 big shout out to Abbot, as you mentioned, it was 212 00:11:03,919 --> 00:11:06,320 we're going to build wall fast, which is sort of 213 00:11:06,320 --> 00:11:09,279 what Abbot has already been doing. And we're going to 214 00:11:10,240 --> 00:11:12,559 or are we not? We're going to. We did declare 215 00:11:12,600 --> 00:11:14,840 in a national emergency on the border in order to 216 00:11:14,840 --> 00:11:19,120 send military which is sort of what Abbot did in 217 00:11:19,200 --> 00:11:21,879 Texas too. It was really sort of like an adoption 218 00:11:22,799 --> 00:11:25,399 from the national perspective of what Texas has been doing 219 00:11:25,399 --> 00:11:26,320 for the last four years. 220 00:11:26,600 --> 00:11:28,320 Speaker 4: And this has always sort of been the thing, right like, 221 00:11:28,360 --> 00:11:32,120 when Democrats are in d C, Texas in many ways 222 00:11:32,120 --> 00:11:34,759 becomes like the government in exile for Republicans, right Like 223 00:11:34,799 --> 00:11:37,600 Texas is like trying stuff. Texas is leading, I mean, 224 00:11:37,639 --> 00:11:40,440 just as the largest red state, like trying things, trying 225 00:11:40,440 --> 00:11:42,440 things in the court, certainly trying things on the borders 226 00:11:42,440 --> 00:11:46,840 since we have a significant stretch of border. And it's 227 00:11:46,879 --> 00:11:50,399 like now the political power has shifted and d C 228 00:11:50,759 --> 00:11:53,080 is in back in the hands of Republicans, and we're 229 00:11:53,120 --> 00:11:55,399 sort of seeing those ideas that have been tested here 230 00:11:55,480 --> 00:11:56,080 go national. 231 00:11:56,679 --> 00:11:58,840 Speaker 1: Matthew, what did you see? Did anything surprise you? I 232 00:11:58,879 --> 00:12:00,519 felt like most of it was stuff that he had 233 00:12:00,600 --> 00:12:03,039 already talked about on the campaign trip. 234 00:12:04,240 --> 00:12:07,240 Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, he was pretty he was remarkably he 235 00:12:07,279 --> 00:12:10,120 was also very on script during his speech, which you know, 236 00:12:10,519 --> 00:12:12,279 for folks who have watched a lot of his speeches 237 00:12:12,919 --> 00:12:16,240 realize that's a bit of a rarity sometimes. But what 238 00:12:16,279 --> 00:12:18,559 was kind of interesting I thought was, you know, the 239 00:12:18,600 --> 00:12:22,919 reactions afterwards. It was much more muted and much more 240 00:12:23,000 --> 00:12:24,600 kind of oh, this is just kind of just the 241 00:12:24,639 --> 00:12:28,279 norm now, even though some of his proposals are extremely 242 00:12:29,240 --> 00:12:33,240 divergent from the norms, everything from you know, renaming Denali 243 00:12:33,320 --> 00:12:37,639 to Matt McKinley to you know, right ending birthright citizenship, 244 00:12:37,679 --> 00:12:40,240 which is essentially just him challenging the Supreme Court to 245 00:12:40,240 --> 00:12:43,440 defy him. So and you know, we saw a lot 246 00:12:43,440 --> 00:12:45,039 of not only in the coverage, but also a lot 247 00:12:45,039 --> 00:12:48,240 of the response from some of the from the Democratic lawmakers. 248 00:12:48,639 --> 00:12:50,759 It was, it was it was a lot of exhaustion. 249 00:12:50,840 --> 00:12:53,639 You know, there's just not much more gas in the 250 00:12:53,639 --> 00:12:55,480 tank to kind of like, you know, repeat the same 251 00:12:55,480 --> 00:12:57,120 message they've been saying for the past eight years. 252 00:12:57,120 --> 00:12:57,320 Speaker 4: Now. 253 00:12:58,639 --> 00:13:00,519 Speaker 1: One of the things that I'm curious about the second 254 00:13:00,679 --> 00:13:04,720 Trump administration is sort of in the first one, there 255 00:13:04,759 --> 00:13:07,919 was these hopes from even some of his supporters that 256 00:13:08,000 --> 00:13:10,600 after he won the election he would become more quote 257 00:13:10,679 --> 00:13:14,279 unquote presidential. I don't think that anybody is holding their 258 00:13:14,279 --> 00:13:16,360 breath that that won't happen this time around, And in fact, 259 00:13:16,399 --> 00:13:18,159 we saw him hit the ground running. He's got an 260 00:13:18,200 --> 00:13:23,600 executive order on birthright citizenship, he's got he's pardoned a 261 00:13:23,600 --> 00:13:26,440 lot of the people who were either prosecuted or in 262 00:13:26,480 --> 00:13:29,159 the process of being prosecuted for the January sixth attacks 263 00:13:29,159 --> 00:13:32,759 on the Capitol. So I'm just sort of curious what 264 00:13:32,879 --> 00:13:36,279 kind of Trump do we think we'll see this time around? 265 00:13:36,279 --> 00:13:39,159 Because he talked a lot about these things like ending 266 00:13:39,159 --> 00:13:41,559 birthright citizenship, which are very important to his base, and 267 00:13:41,639 --> 00:13:43,879 sending the troops down to the southern border. But he's 268 00:13:43,879 --> 00:13:45,600 also talked about things like what we were just saying, 269 00:13:45,679 --> 00:13:50,240 renaming Mountain Olim McKinley the Gulf of Mexico. Stuff that 270 00:13:50,320 --> 00:13:52,879 just seems kind of so off the wall. What are 271 00:13:52,879 --> 00:13:54,919 we expecting to see in this Trump administration? Or should 272 00:13:54,960 --> 00:13:56,480 we expect to see everything? 273 00:13:58,039 --> 00:14:01,240 Speaker 3: I think, you know, it's a common thing among liberals 274 00:14:01,320 --> 00:14:03,720 to sort of mock the media for being like Trump 275 00:14:03,799 --> 00:14:05,960 has changed, or you know, like the what's the like 276 00:14:06,080 --> 00:14:09,679 running joke like on this day he actually became president 277 00:14:10,120 --> 00:14:12,120 or whatever like that, And you know, like, I think 278 00:14:12,120 --> 00:14:14,360 there's some truth to that mocking, right, Like, I think 279 00:14:14,600 --> 00:14:19,000 to expect him to behave particularly differently from his first 280 00:14:19,120 --> 00:14:23,559 term is probably a fairly unreasonable expectation. The one thing 281 00:14:23,600 --> 00:14:28,159 that I wonder about is what has really changed is 282 00:14:28,200 --> 00:14:32,879 how people are reacting to him. Right. And that goes 283 00:14:32,879 --> 00:14:35,519 from like the business community, which was very reluctant to 284 00:14:35,600 --> 00:14:39,879 engage with him, very very reluctant to compliment him, very 285 00:14:39,919 --> 00:14:42,679 reluctant to like see like to act like they were 286 00:14:42,720 --> 00:14:47,679 working with him in the first year. That sometimes meant 287 00:14:47,759 --> 00:14:50,840 that they incurred his wrath and upset him. 288 00:14:51,399 --> 00:14:54,080 Speaker 1: You've got people like Musk Suckerbird. 289 00:14:55,080 --> 00:14:57,440 Speaker 3: Yeah, and they're all, you know, showing up at the inauguration. 290 00:14:57,480 --> 00:15:02,399 They're they're donating money to the inaugurate there saying very 291 00:15:02,480 --> 00:15:06,519 nice things to him. I mean, I thought the TikTok message. 292 00:15:06,559 --> 00:15:08,799 Did you see this when when TikTok shut down and 293 00:15:08,840 --> 00:15:11,600 they put on their little notice like we're grateful to 294 00:15:11,679 --> 00:15:13,879 President Trump for like saying he's going to work back 295 00:15:13,919 --> 00:15:15,320 and they credit him after that. 296 00:15:16,559 --> 00:15:19,960 Speaker 1: But there are legitimate national security concerns around tiktoms. 297 00:15:19,639 --> 00:15:23,080 Speaker 3: Yeah, right, and even but even just the way the 298 00:15:23,080 --> 00:15:25,759 Democrats are reacting of like I think what they would 299 00:15:25,799 --> 00:15:28,080 describe as like trying not to take the bait. And 300 00:15:28,679 --> 00:15:32,320 I mean it's clear that one thing that sometimes motivated 301 00:15:32,360 --> 00:15:35,879 Trump in his first term was sort of reacting to 302 00:15:36,000 --> 00:15:39,679 how people react to him. They would anger him or 303 00:15:39,720 --> 00:15:42,440 they would you know, he seems to relish a fight, 304 00:15:42,879 --> 00:15:46,720 and like, if that's if this strategy sticks for Democrats, 305 00:15:46,720 --> 00:15:49,840 if they can sort of try to keep the temperature down, 306 00:15:50,080 --> 00:15:52,759 if the business community, you know, other folks do that, 307 00:15:53,080 --> 00:15:57,840 will that just create a different dynamic for the presidency 308 00:15:57,879 --> 00:15:59,960 this year. That's That's one thing I'm curious to see. 309 00:16:00,120 --> 00:16:02,639 Speaker 2: Another thing, another thing that I the really needs to 310 00:16:02,679 --> 00:16:05,360 be you know, mentioned, is just the difference in staffing 311 00:16:05,399 --> 00:16:07,799 that he has around him this time. I mean last time, 312 00:16:07,919 --> 00:16:11,200 he started with the very kind of die hard but 313 00:16:11,240 --> 00:16:16,000 not exactly experienced in government team, and so he filled 314 00:16:16,039 --> 00:16:18,039 in a lot of that experience, that you know, gap 315 00:16:18,080 --> 00:16:20,639 of experience by having people who weren't exactly you know, 316 00:16:21,159 --> 00:16:23,759 really really kind of committed to his cause, but had 317 00:16:23,759 --> 00:16:26,240 a lot of experience working in Republican politics, and that 318 00:16:26,679 --> 00:16:28,879 was a source of a lot of tension. This time, 319 00:16:28,919 --> 00:16:32,279 he has a much more professional team. Susie Wilds's chief 320 00:16:32,279 --> 00:16:34,919 of staff really kind of transformed his campaign into a 321 00:16:35,039 --> 00:16:39,320 very very you know, disciplined tight ship that was very effective, 322 00:16:39,679 --> 00:16:41,399 and you know, a lot of that kind of professionalism 323 00:16:41,440 --> 00:16:44,279 is going to be translated into the but filled or 324 00:16:44,440 --> 00:16:48,440 really really kind of ideologically committed to his to what 325 00:16:48,480 --> 00:16:49,240 he stands for. 326 00:16:51,039 --> 00:16:53,960 Speaker 1: Okay, let's take a brief break to thank our sponsors 327 00:16:54,759 --> 00:16:57,720 Mexico more than just a neighbor. For timely cross border 328 00:16:57,720 --> 00:17:01,320 Insight turned to former US ambassador on Tonio Garza learn 329 00:17:01,399 --> 00:17:06,960 more at Tony Garza dot com. And we're back, of course. 330 00:17:07,000 --> 00:17:09,880 So one of the big things that we saw people 331 00:17:09,960 --> 00:17:14,200 vote on this election was the economy. During the campaign, 332 00:17:14,480 --> 00:17:17,480 Trump promised to fix the economy and reverse a lot 333 00:17:17,480 --> 00:17:20,440 of Biden policies. Since the election, he sort of walked 334 00:17:20,480 --> 00:17:23,240 back and said, you know, it's kind of hard to 335 00:17:23,400 --> 00:17:26,960 change grocery prices, something that many people could have told 336 00:17:27,000 --> 00:17:28,839 him before, but that he you know, he's got that 337 00:17:28,920 --> 00:17:33,079 bombast about him. So, and he's also talked about tariffs 338 00:17:33,079 --> 00:17:35,880 with Canada and Mexico and with other nations. I think 339 00:17:36,640 --> 00:17:39,599 some of the executive orders that he's planning are around 340 00:17:39,640 --> 00:17:44,359 tariffs to Canada and Mexico. Already, what is that going 341 00:17:44,440 --> 00:17:48,079 to do for our economy here in Texas, particularly with 342 00:17:48,240 --> 00:17:51,680 our relationship with Mexico, which is one of our top 343 00:17:51,799 --> 00:17:52,920 training partners. 344 00:17:53,519 --> 00:17:58,559 Speaker 3: I think that this is an area where there's maybe 345 00:17:58,680 --> 00:18:02,480 not perfect alignment between our Republican leaders in the state 346 00:18:02,559 --> 00:18:05,319 and Republican leaders in the federal government. And I'll go 347 00:18:05,440 --> 00:18:08,039 back to this business conference that Matthew and I both 348 00:18:08,079 --> 00:18:10,839 attended and sat in on. There was a national security 349 00:18:10,880 --> 00:18:15,759 panel featuring multiple members current and former members of Congress 350 00:18:15,799 --> 00:18:21,720 who were Republicans sort of dancing around the issue, saying, 351 00:18:21,839 --> 00:18:25,039 you know, we're not sure that these Basically what Trump 352 00:18:25,079 --> 00:18:26,880 has said is that he's going to impose a twenty 353 00:18:26,920 --> 00:18:28,920 five percent across the board tariff on in the US 354 00:18:28,920 --> 00:18:31,880 and Mexico, I mean, sorry, on Canada and Mexico. And 355 00:18:32,559 --> 00:18:34,599 he said yesterday, I believe that he's going to put 356 00:18:34,640 --> 00:18:38,279 that into effect on February first, and you know this 357 00:18:38,599 --> 00:18:41,640 was before he said that on the inauguration. But folks saying, well, 358 00:18:41,839 --> 00:18:44,279 you know, he's a really strong negotiator, and like, what 359 00:18:44,319 --> 00:18:46,079 we really like to see here is that he's being 360 00:18:46,160 --> 00:18:49,000 tough with these countries and other international countries and the 361 00:18:49,000 --> 00:18:51,839 way that Biden wasn't. And that doesn't necessarily mean we're 362 00:18:51,839 --> 00:18:54,880 going to see twenty five percent tariffs. It's just, you know, 363 00:18:55,079 --> 00:18:58,359 this is the opening to a negotiating conversation. And I 364 00:18:58,400 --> 00:19:02,559 think that there was some you know, real concern or 365 00:19:02,599 --> 00:19:04,880 reluctance about like what the impact of that will be 366 00:19:05,039 --> 00:19:09,880 you know, Texas and Mexico are huge trading partners. You know, 367 00:19:10,359 --> 00:19:13,359 the biggest kind of international port in the country is 368 00:19:13,440 --> 00:19:16,640 Laredo now because of goods coming up through through Mexico, 369 00:19:16,720 --> 00:19:21,200 and it would be you know, it would be naive 370 00:19:21,240 --> 00:19:23,240 to say that that's not going to have an impact 371 00:19:23,279 --> 00:19:27,519 at all on jobs in Texas and also on prices 372 00:19:27,519 --> 00:19:30,759 for Texans and beyond if those things go into effect. 373 00:19:31,079 --> 00:19:36,039 I think it's interesting that he did not, you know, 374 00:19:36,480 --> 00:19:39,119 you went down that list of executive orders he signed, 375 00:19:39,160 --> 00:19:42,319 he did not sign an executive order on tariffs for 376 00:19:42,359 --> 00:19:46,160 Texas and Mexico. Yesterday he said he's going to in 377 00:19:46,200 --> 00:19:48,319 a month, which or I guess less than a month, 378 00:19:48,960 --> 00:19:51,519 which does seem to show that there might be a 379 00:19:51,559 --> 00:19:55,119 possibility of wiggle room. But I think you know, a 380 00:19:55,119 --> 00:19:57,920 lot of leaders in Texas, whether it's business leaders or 381 00:19:57,960 --> 00:20:02,440 even political leaders, are are maybe hoping that they can 382 00:20:02,559 --> 00:20:06,680 kind of bring these two countries to the negotiating table 383 00:20:06,799 --> 00:20:11,799 extracts some concessions, perhaps around border security. You know, they 384 00:20:12,279 --> 00:20:15,119 Trump has talked about this being related to the amount 385 00:20:15,119 --> 00:20:17,279 of fentanyl that's making its way across the border, the 386 00:20:17,279 --> 00:20:20,480 amount of undocumented immigrants who are making their way across 387 00:20:20,519 --> 00:20:23,559 these borders, and if they can come up with something 388 00:20:23,759 --> 00:20:25,559 that maybe those tariffs can be avoided. 389 00:20:26,160 --> 00:20:28,240 Speaker 1: Yeah. I think one important point is you know that 390 00:20:28,920 --> 00:20:31,680 nod he made to Greg Abbott, and Greg Abbott is 391 00:20:31,720 --> 00:20:35,240 a big business guy. He is a super business friendly governor. 392 00:20:36,000 --> 00:20:38,880 And then I think some of our congressional Republicans would 393 00:20:38,920 --> 00:20:42,240 all you just think about people like Senator Cornyn. They 394 00:20:42,240 --> 00:20:46,799 don't want to damage that relationship between Texas and Mexico, 395 00:20:46,839 --> 00:20:48,960 which is very fruitful for both sides. So I want 396 00:20:49,000 --> 00:20:51,279 to kick it to Matthew, who I know covers the 397 00:20:51,359 --> 00:20:55,640 relationship between the congressional Republicans and the President and the 398 00:20:55,640 --> 00:20:58,799 White House. So what do you see there, Matthew. I mean, 399 00:20:58,880 --> 00:21:03,240 is there wiggle room for these Republicans to I don't know, 400 00:21:03,839 --> 00:21:07,000 get in President Trump's ear and say, hey, maybe let's 401 00:21:07,240 --> 00:21:09,799 rethink this or you know, it's a promise that he's 402 00:21:09,799 --> 00:21:12,319 made and he is not one to back down on promises. 403 00:21:14,279 --> 00:21:17,359 Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, I think you know, one thing to 404 00:21:17,519 --> 00:21:20,079 mention about the terrorists that independent of the of the 405 00:21:20,200 --> 00:21:23,039 diplomatic consequences of them, I mean, this would this would 406 00:21:23,079 --> 00:21:28,039 impact consumers pretty directly because producers offload the costs of 407 00:21:28,079 --> 00:21:31,880 tariffs onto their consumers, so right, basically raising prices to match, 408 00:21:32,759 --> 00:21:36,039 and so that would be have a direct consequence on Americans. 409 00:21:36,160 --> 00:21:39,240 And you know, like the members of our delegation contained 410 00:21:39,240 --> 00:21:41,839 some of the most ardent pro Trump people. I mean, 411 00:21:41,920 --> 00:21:43,960 you would be hard pressed to find somebody who adores 412 00:21:43,960 --> 00:21:46,839 Trump more than you know, someone like congressman you know, 413 00:21:46,880 --> 00:21:50,799 like Ronnie Jackson, who's his physician, or Troy Nell's who 414 00:21:50,880 --> 00:21:53,160 like wore a T shirt with his face with Trump's 415 00:21:53,160 --> 00:21:54,960 face printed on it into the House floor. 416 00:21:55,400 --> 00:21:56,480 Speaker 1: So so you. 417 00:21:56,519 --> 00:21:58,119 Speaker 2: Know, you definitely have your die hards kind of like 418 00:21:58,240 --> 00:22:00,960 get a ride or die focus in there. That said, 419 00:22:01,000 --> 00:22:03,599 I mean, you know, Texas business community is enormous, that 420 00:22:03,640 --> 00:22:06,200 has an incredible footprint on politics, the oil and gas 421 00:22:06,279 --> 00:22:09,640 industry in particular, and many of our members, including in 422 00:22:09,640 --> 00:22:14,160 the Republican delegation, are quite close with that. So there 423 00:22:14,200 --> 00:22:16,319 is a there is certainly, and they certainly have, you know, 424 00:22:16,359 --> 00:22:20,799 their their own channels to communicate their displeasure with certain proposals, 425 00:22:20,799 --> 00:22:24,119 and they have used these with the President. That doesn't mean, 426 00:22:24,160 --> 00:22:27,480 you know, going publicly against him. So I think Trump 427 00:22:27,480 --> 00:22:30,079 does have this kind of elegant exit if he wants 428 00:22:30,119 --> 00:22:32,799 to not impose these by so many people in his orbit, 429 00:22:32,839 --> 00:22:35,079 saying that this is a negotiating tactic. It means to 430 00:22:35,079 --> 00:22:37,319 be seen if he actually uses that. But even if 431 00:22:37,359 --> 00:22:40,640 he doesn't, even if he does use that exit, something 432 00:22:40,680 --> 00:22:42,839 that Congressman Quay Are brought up in the during this 433 00:22:42,880 --> 00:22:45,079 business conference I thought was really interesting with the idea 434 00:22:45,160 --> 00:22:48,720 of an uncertainty tax, that even if the tariffs are 435 00:22:48,720 --> 00:22:52,000 not implemented, businesses in his town of Laredo, which is 436 00:22:52,039 --> 00:22:54,799 the largest port of entry on the Texas Mexico border, 437 00:22:55,279 --> 00:22:59,359 have already started freezing their activity in anticipation of a 438 00:22:59,359 --> 00:23:02,519 potential TERRAF because they don't want to set up the infrastructure, 439 00:23:02,519 --> 00:23:06,200 set up the skeletal structure for a business deal might 440 00:23:06,240 --> 00:23:09,960 get impacted and take that gamble. So even if it's 441 00:23:10,000 --> 00:23:13,039 not implemented now, the consequences are something felled today. 442 00:23:14,559 --> 00:23:16,680 Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, I'll just add, like I think in 443 00:23:16,720 --> 00:23:19,160 the tech world, which obviously Trump is now like working 444 00:23:19,240 --> 00:23:21,319 much more closely with, there is this idea of like 445 00:23:21,640 --> 00:23:24,680 fail fast, like try things fail and like move on 446 00:23:24,720 --> 00:23:27,160 to the next thing. And I think we have seen 447 00:23:27,240 --> 00:23:30,599 in the first Trump administration sort of that mentality of 448 00:23:30,640 --> 00:23:33,319 like try stuff and like see what happens. The problem, 449 00:23:33,319 --> 00:23:36,200 as Matthew just pointed out, is like the stakes are 450 00:23:36,240 --> 00:23:39,240 so high when you're talking about something like the US economy, right, 451 00:23:39,319 --> 00:23:42,839 or teriffs, Like companies are responsive even to just what 452 00:23:43,119 --> 00:23:45,640 the president says, even if it never happens. And so 453 00:23:46,200 --> 00:23:49,279 I think it's looking back, like there was so much 454 00:23:49,279 --> 00:23:51,559 that happened in the first Trump administration just based on 455 00:23:51,599 --> 00:23:54,160 a tweet he sent or something that he said that 456 00:23:54,240 --> 00:23:57,039 had repercussions that are sort of hard to you know, 457 00:23:57,319 --> 00:23:59,640 we so rarely look back on like what actually went 458 00:23:59,640 --> 00:24:02,200 into a and what was the impact versus what was 459 00:24:02,279 --> 00:24:04,920 just like talked about and how did that have an impact. 460 00:24:04,960 --> 00:24:07,400 So even just this talk about tariffs. 461 00:24:07,079 --> 00:24:09,359 Speaker 1: Yeah, and the chaos that comes with yeah, right. 462 00:24:09,680 --> 00:24:11,640 Speaker 3: I also think it's just important to point out that 463 00:24:11,920 --> 00:24:15,680 this sort of conversation of round tariffs has really changed 464 00:24:16,720 --> 00:24:19,480 through the rise of Trump. Right like ten fifteen years ago, 465 00:24:19,559 --> 00:24:22,880 there was this sort of broad consensus really shared by 466 00:24:23,519 --> 00:24:27,519 leaders in both parties that tariffs were not something that 467 00:24:28,000 --> 00:24:31,119 they wanted to see happened, that free trade was really 468 00:24:31,200 --> 00:24:37,599 the best policy for economic policy going forward. And you know, 469 00:24:37,680 --> 00:24:39,960 I think Trump's election in twenty sixteen. One of the 470 00:24:40,000 --> 00:24:42,480 things that it revealed was that that kind of consensus 471 00:24:42,519 --> 00:24:45,599 was not shared necessarily by voters around the country in 472 00:24:45,640 --> 00:24:48,000 the way that it was in Washington. And so Trump 473 00:24:48,079 --> 00:24:51,720 comes in, he implements some tariffs. People when that happened 474 00:24:51,759 --> 00:24:54,279 are kind of like, WHOA, this is a big deal. 475 00:24:54,359 --> 00:24:58,720 This is crazy. But then you know, Trump leaves off 476 00:24:58,720 --> 00:25:01,480 as Biden comes in off and keeps a lot of 477 00:25:01,519 --> 00:25:06,160 those tariffs in place, right, And so you know, I 478 00:25:06,200 --> 00:25:10,319 think there is some hoping that this is a negotiating ploy. 479 00:25:10,799 --> 00:25:15,160 We'll see. I don't know, but I think maybe there 480 00:25:15,200 --> 00:25:19,279 are some people who are maybe wanting to go back 481 00:25:19,279 --> 00:25:23,759 to that free trade consensus in Washington and might be 482 00:25:23,799 --> 00:25:26,200 surprised that we might not go back that way. And 483 00:25:26,279 --> 00:25:30,839 if that's true, you know, Texas could be fairly uniquely 484 00:25:30,920 --> 00:25:34,079 impacted by that, just due to the proximity to the 485 00:25:34,079 --> 00:25:37,039 border and the impact that trade has on our economy. 486 00:25:37,400 --> 00:25:41,119 Speaker 1: I want to go to another point that go piggybacks 487 00:25:41,119 --> 00:25:42,839 off of what Eleanor was talking about in terms of 488 00:25:42,880 --> 00:25:46,200 like the chaos that his sort of edict by tweet 489 00:25:47,079 --> 00:25:51,119 can throw us into, which is immigration, and like how 490 00:25:51,119 --> 00:25:54,519 difficult it can be to pull off big things. We 491 00:25:54,559 --> 00:25:57,880 saw with you know, the you know, when there was 492 00:25:57,960 --> 00:26:01,440 kids in cages in El Paso. We saw that. And 493 00:26:01,480 --> 00:26:03,960 I want to go to Matthew Troy because there's been 494 00:26:04,000 --> 00:26:08,519 talk about the massive deportation that Trump plans, and you know, 495 00:26:08,720 --> 00:26:10,960 he's said things on a campaign trail, he's already moving 496 00:26:11,039 --> 00:26:13,000 on them. I don't think there's any reason to think 497 00:26:13,000 --> 00:26:15,720 that this won't go into effect. But I want to 498 00:26:15,720 --> 00:26:17,359 touch on a thing that happened, which was this sort 499 00:26:17,400 --> 00:26:21,200 of infighting between some congressional Republicans that you covered about 500 00:26:21,240 --> 00:26:23,480 how quickly we're going to move on that, who we're 501 00:26:23,480 --> 00:26:26,240 going to prioritize and sort of I think that speaks 502 00:26:26,279 --> 00:26:29,519 to how difficult this might be and how chaotic it 503 00:26:29,599 --> 00:26:31,720 might be. Do you want to weigh in on this, 504 00:26:31,799 --> 00:26:34,599 Matthew and sort of fill us in on which way 505 00:26:34,640 --> 00:26:35,400 you think it's going to go. 506 00:26:36,759 --> 00:26:39,680 Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it's something that you know needs to 507 00:26:39,720 --> 00:26:43,440 be kept in mind, is that the number of undocumented 508 00:26:43,440 --> 00:26:47,160 immigrants in this country is called glossful. It's over I 509 00:26:47,160 --> 00:26:51,720 believe eleven million. Now eleven million is more than the 510 00:26:51,759 --> 00:26:53,920 population of the entirety of New York City. Could you 511 00:26:54,000 --> 00:26:57,079 imagine just removing all of New York City it is 512 00:26:57,079 --> 00:26:59,680 an enormous enterprise, or acquire billions and billions of dollars 513 00:26:59,720 --> 00:27:02,839 reasons forces that federal law enforcement just don't have at 514 00:27:02,839 --> 00:27:05,359 their disposal. I mean, Trump did say that he wants 515 00:27:05,400 --> 00:27:09,319 to use the National Guard, but even with that, you know, 516 00:27:09,559 --> 00:27:15,519 just the just the the bureaucracy of verifying people's legal 517 00:27:15,559 --> 00:27:19,799 statuses will be an incredibly expensive and undertaking. So there 518 00:27:19,839 --> 00:27:22,359 is a lot of divisions among Republicans about should we 519 00:27:22,640 --> 00:27:25,240 prioritize violent criminals or should we just kind of go 520 00:27:25,279 --> 00:27:29,160 after everybody? And that was that was kind of the 521 00:27:29,200 --> 00:27:33,160 divide there. But but I think like the bigger kind 522 00:27:33,200 --> 00:27:35,119 of conflict really that's going to arise is how the 523 00:27:35,240 --> 00:27:40,759 squares with Trump's desire to cut federal spending so much 524 00:27:41,519 --> 00:27:44,279 with the implementation of this you know new Department of 525 00:27:44,319 --> 00:27:48,200 Government efficiency, which is you know, a kind of made 526 00:27:48,240 --> 00:27:51,640 by edict entity, you know, trying to find ways to 527 00:27:51,680 --> 00:27:54,880 cut where that doesn't touch the Republican you know kind 528 00:27:54,920 --> 00:27:59,920 of third rails of social Security, Medicaid, medicare, law enforcement, 529 00:28:00,039 --> 00:28:03,160 immigration enforcement. I mean that's like that's like a lion's 530 00:28:03,160 --> 00:28:09,119 share of federal spending, so, you know, trying to trying 531 00:28:09,119 --> 00:28:11,559 to trying to amp up this operation Walls were trying 532 00:28:11,559 --> 00:28:13,720 to cut spending is going to be a huge debate 533 00:28:13,799 --> 00:28:15,039 for the next couple of years. 534 00:28:15,119 --> 00:28:17,039 Speaker 1: Matthew. Do you have any sense of which way it's 535 00:28:17,079 --> 00:28:19,720 going to go, Whether President Trump is going to win 536 00:28:19,759 --> 00:28:20,880 out in the end and it's just going to be 537 00:28:21,039 --> 00:28:22,920 a free for all, like let's just deport everyone, or 538 00:28:22,960 --> 00:28:24,559 there's going to be a more targeted approach. 539 00:28:26,559 --> 00:28:28,960 Speaker 2: I mean, from the legislation that we've seen so far, 540 00:28:29,000 --> 00:28:31,759 it seems like they're targeting more more people who have 541 00:28:31,799 --> 00:28:34,599 been convicted of criminals. I mean, it's it's worth noting 542 00:28:34,640 --> 00:28:37,079 that people who are convicted of criminals are already you know, 543 00:28:38,079 --> 00:28:42,519 pers in line to be deported. So so yeah, a 544 00:28:42,519 --> 00:28:44,640 lot of this is kind of politics, but that seems 545 00:28:44,640 --> 00:28:46,440 to be kind of where the will has been among 546 00:28:46,640 --> 00:28:50,000 Republican lawmakers. It's kind of to be seen if if 547 00:28:50,000 --> 00:28:51,640 the if the White House is going to follow through 548 00:28:51,680 --> 00:28:51,880 on that. 549 00:28:51,920 --> 00:28:53,079 Speaker 1: I mean, Stephen. 550 00:28:52,759 --> 00:28:56,359 Speaker 2: Miller, who's one of Trump's top domestic policy people, he 551 00:28:56,559 --> 00:29:02,079 is pretty pretty ardent for all documents must be deported regardless, 552 00:29:02,200 --> 00:29:05,279 So it's to be seen which side of will whine out. 553 00:29:06,440 --> 00:29:12,240 Speaker 3: You remember, of course, many activists for immigrants' rights called 554 00:29:12,640 --> 00:29:15,559 President Obama the deporter in chief, right as he really 555 00:29:15,559 --> 00:29:19,960 increased the number of deportations during his administration as a 556 00:29:20,000 --> 00:29:22,039 part of an effort to try to bring Republicans to 557 00:29:22,079 --> 00:29:25,440 the table for immigration reform going forward. And the way 558 00:29:25,440 --> 00:29:28,720 that he really did that was through you know, not 559 00:29:29,119 --> 00:29:33,119 your like immigration raids on workplaces or things like that, 560 00:29:33,200 --> 00:29:38,880 but through the criminal justice system, working with local governments 561 00:29:38,880 --> 00:29:41,720 and states, you know, for people that are already sort 562 00:29:41,720 --> 00:29:44,279 of interacting with law enforcement, which I think is just 563 00:29:44,319 --> 00:29:48,319 a much you know, A it's it's a it's easier 564 00:29:48,319 --> 00:29:51,039 to sell to the public doing that, and B it's 565 00:29:51,119 --> 00:29:54,119 just much easier logistically, right, Like I know, there was 566 00:29:54,160 --> 00:29:58,799 some reporting about the Trump administration possibly doing some kind 567 00:29:58,839 --> 00:30:03,119 of raids in the Chicago area, and then they perhaps 568 00:30:03,119 --> 00:30:05,880 pulled back on that after word leaked. I would not 569 00:30:05,960 --> 00:30:08,519 be surprised at all if you see some of that. 570 00:30:09,279 --> 00:30:13,240 But in order to really increase the numbers of people 571 00:30:13,240 --> 00:30:15,880 you were removing from the country, the logistics of that 572 00:30:16,000 --> 00:30:18,920 is just really challenging. And if you're going the most 573 00:30:18,920 --> 00:30:22,519 efficient way to do that is not to send ice 574 00:30:22,599 --> 00:30:23,960 agents out in the streets. 575 00:30:24,279 --> 00:30:26,480 Speaker 1: I think that you guys possibly are being too optimistic 576 00:30:26,480 --> 00:30:29,160 about this. I think President Obama did it that way 577 00:30:29,200 --> 00:30:32,079 because he also was trying to advance immigration legislation. 578 00:30:32,400 --> 00:30:32,640 Speaker 2: Here. 579 00:30:32,799 --> 00:30:35,640 Speaker 1: President Trump doesn't want to advance any type of immigration 580 00:30:35,799 --> 00:30:39,279 legislation that would open up paths to citizenship. He wants 581 00:30:39,319 --> 00:30:41,240 to get people out of the country, and so I 582 00:30:41,279 --> 00:30:46,920 think we should be prepared for at least some chaos 583 00:30:47,160 --> 00:30:50,440 when it comes to these massive deportations that he's promised. 584 00:30:50,519 --> 00:30:54,920 Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I think he's probably like he and 585 00:30:55,000 --> 00:30:57,160 Steven Miller and others are going to want to be 586 00:30:57,200 --> 00:31:00,240 able to point to enforcement actions that will probably get 587 00:31:00,279 --> 00:31:02,039 a lot of news and get a lot of attention 588 00:31:02,119 --> 00:31:02,480 for sure. 589 00:31:03,079 --> 00:31:06,279 Speaker 1: Okay, we've talked a little bit about the relationship between 590 00:31:06,519 --> 00:31:09,960 Texas and the federal government in a second Trump administration. Eleanor, 591 00:31:10,039 --> 00:31:12,640 I want to come to you because when there are 592 00:31:12,720 --> 00:31:17,160 Democrats in the White House, Texas becomes sort of the resistance, 593 00:31:17,200 --> 00:31:21,079 I guess, the true conservative leader, and they're suing the 594 00:31:21,119 --> 00:31:26,160 Obama administration, particularly the attorney general's I'm sorry the Biden 595 00:31:28,519 --> 00:31:32,119 first Obama then Biden Attorney General Greg Abbott did it 596 00:31:32,319 --> 00:31:34,839 then Ken Paxton followed in that they were constantly talking 597 00:31:34,839 --> 00:31:39,039 about it. They're constantly sending news releases about their latest lawsuit. 598 00:31:39,079 --> 00:31:42,240 I think even up until the last day, Ken Paxton 599 00:31:42,279 --> 00:31:45,400 was sending emails about his last lawsuit against the Biden administration. 600 00:31:45,839 --> 00:31:49,519 What happens to the Attorney General's office here in Texas 601 00:31:50,000 --> 00:31:53,640 now that theoretically they are in line with the federal 602 00:31:53,640 --> 00:31:55,720 government and what does that open them up to do 603 00:31:55,799 --> 00:31:57,599 or how does that change that office? 604 00:31:57,759 --> 00:32:00,200 Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean Attorney General Ken Patton has been very 605 00:32:00,759 --> 00:32:02,079 you know, proud of the fact that he has sued 606 00:32:02,079 --> 00:32:04,160 the Biden administration over one hundred times and has really 607 00:32:04,200 --> 00:32:07,319 sort of set himself up in the media as like 608 00:32:07,440 --> 00:32:12,640 the litigator in chief against the Biden administration's priorities. When 609 00:32:12,640 --> 00:32:15,319 we saw the transition from Obama to the first Trump administration, 610 00:32:15,480 --> 00:32:19,880 Texas did still bring some lawsuits against certain policies, more 611 00:32:19,960 --> 00:32:23,079 like holdover policies from the Obama administration. But I think 612 00:32:23,160 --> 00:32:27,359 you know, that energy, the like political litigation energy that 613 00:32:27,440 --> 00:32:30,759 was being directed the Biden administration, we're now going to see. 614 00:32:30,920 --> 00:32:33,240 You know, certainly that doesn't go on ice now. I 615 00:32:33,279 --> 00:32:37,119 think it gets directed in new and perhaps like entirely 616 00:32:37,200 --> 00:32:39,920 unprecedented ways, right. I mean, we're already seeing lawsuits against 617 00:32:39,960 --> 00:32:43,680 nonprofits in Texas, like you know, some that help migrants 618 00:32:43,720 --> 00:32:47,440 at the border. We're seeing lawsuits against individual doctors, you know, 619 00:32:47,440 --> 00:32:51,079 for allegedly providing gender firming care, or a doctor in 620 00:32:51,119 --> 00:32:54,640 New York for providing allegedly providing abortion pills to people 621 00:32:54,680 --> 00:32:55,319 in Texas. 622 00:32:55,319 --> 00:32:57,160 Speaker 1: Like I think we're going to see that. 623 00:32:57,839 --> 00:33:00,000 Speaker 4: You know, a lot of lawyers get recruited here from 624 00:33:00,079 --> 00:33:04,200 sort of this conservative legal infrastructure because they want to 625 00:33:04,440 --> 00:33:09,440 take on, you know, aggressively political litigation. And if you're 626 00:33:09,440 --> 00:33:12,079 not going to direct that at what the presidential administration 627 00:33:12,200 --> 00:33:14,759 is doing, you're going to find somewhere to direct that energy. 628 00:33:14,799 --> 00:33:16,359 Speaker 1: So I think we're going to see in the. 629 00:33:16,400 --> 00:33:20,880 Speaker 4: Next four years a real explosion of litigation from that 630 00:33:21,000 --> 00:33:24,359 office that you know, again we're gonna, like the first 631 00:33:24,359 --> 00:33:26,680 Trump administration, like wear out the term unprecedented. 632 00:33:27,880 --> 00:33:31,519 Speaker 3: I'm really interested to see whether kin Paxton's efforts against 633 00:33:31,599 --> 00:33:35,519 technology companies continue. You know, I was just scrolling through 634 00:33:35,559 --> 00:33:42,359 my email. January ninth, kin Paxton sued tech TikTok. In December, 635 00:33:42,400 --> 00:33:45,519 he launched an investigation into TikTok and other companies. He 636 00:33:45,640 --> 00:33:48,519 sued TikTok in October as well. 637 00:33:48,640 --> 00:33:50,880 Speaker 1: There's an ongoing lawsuit against Meta as well, right, right, 638 00:33:50,920 --> 00:33:53,559 And some of these lawsuits are actually good lawsuits, like 639 00:33:53,640 --> 00:33:56,680 this is a this is a I think that TikTok 640 00:33:56,720 --> 00:34:01,319 lawsuit that you're referencing is for TikTok advertising that they 641 00:34:01,359 --> 00:34:04,599 are safe for kids, which obviously we know not to 642 00:34:04,720 --> 00:34:06,640 be true from like a lot of the social media 643 00:34:06,640 --> 00:34:09,199 studies that there have been. And the Metal lawsuits are 644 00:34:09,280 --> 00:34:12,480 also I think very thoughtful lawsuits. 645 00:34:12,559 --> 00:34:15,400 Speaker 3: Well, he won, you know, over a billion dollars in 646 00:34:15,440 --> 00:34:18,679 a settlement from Meta from a from a prior lawsuit 647 00:34:18,679 --> 00:34:21,960 as well. Yeah, and that has been a big part 648 00:34:22,000 --> 00:34:24,239 of the kimpax and playbook is to file these suits 649 00:34:24,280 --> 00:34:29,679 against technology companies. But that was during the time where 650 00:34:29,760 --> 00:34:32,599 Republicans have been very hostile to technology companies. You know, 651 00:34:32,639 --> 00:34:35,199 we've already seen that start to shift. It'll be interesting 652 00:34:35,199 --> 00:34:37,480 to see whether that shifts in Texas as well. 653 00:34:37,679 --> 00:34:39,840 Speaker 1: Yep. Sure, final thing that I want to talk about. 654 00:34:39,960 --> 00:34:43,920 We can't leave this week's podcast without talking about abortion. 655 00:34:45,119 --> 00:34:50,440 Yesterday on Monday, we reported on the passing of Cecil Richards, 656 00:34:51,119 --> 00:34:55,480 which is a big moment in Texas. I think also, 657 00:34:55,800 --> 00:34:59,239 I just want to talk about where does abortion go 658 00:35:00,519 --> 00:35:03,159 under a second Trump presidency, especially in the light of 659 00:35:03,440 --> 00:35:06,199 Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick this weekend telling Jason Whiteley at 660 00:35:06,320 --> 00:35:12,599 WFAA that he's perhaps open to changing the language on 661 00:35:12,960 --> 00:35:19,360 abortion or anti abortion laws in the state. And then 662 00:35:19,360 --> 00:35:22,440 so this becomes a state versus federal thing. Should we 663 00:35:22,519 --> 00:35:24,519 expect it to be continue to be a state versus 664 00:35:24,519 --> 00:35:26,519 federal thing? And I'll get Eleanor and Matthew on this. 665 00:35:27,320 --> 00:35:29,760 Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, I'll start just briefly by addressing Cecil Richards, 666 00:35:29,800 --> 00:35:32,079 like you said. You know, she was the longtime head 667 00:35:32,079 --> 00:35:36,639 of Planned Parenthood, also daughter of former Texas Governor Anne Richards. 668 00:35:37,000 --> 00:35:40,639 She passed away on Monday after a battle with brain cancer. 669 00:35:41,480 --> 00:35:44,599 You know, I for in writing her obituary, was going 670 00:35:44,599 --> 00:35:47,239 through some of her social media and she had this 671 00:35:47,280 --> 00:35:50,400 tweet the day of that Trump won his second election 672 00:35:50,760 --> 00:35:53,639 where she said, you know, people, to paraphrase her, you know, 673 00:35:53,679 --> 00:35:55,440 she's like people who do the sort of work that 674 00:35:55,480 --> 00:35:57,719 we do. Know, like you lose, you lose, you lose, 675 00:35:57,760 --> 00:36:00,559 and then you win, which is you know, sort of 676 00:36:01,000 --> 00:36:05,400 frankly the where the abortion access movement is in Texas, right, like, 677 00:36:05,440 --> 00:36:07,920 they're losing. They've lost a lot the last couple of years. 678 00:36:08,599 --> 00:36:11,320 That's also where Republicans were and you know, sort of 679 00:36:11,360 --> 00:36:14,400 anti abortion folks were for fifty years. Right, they were losing, 680 00:36:14,440 --> 00:36:17,000 they were losing, they were losing, and then under President Trump, 681 00:36:17,480 --> 00:36:20,639 they got this huge win. They got the thing they wanted, 682 00:36:20,760 --> 00:36:23,559 which was, you know, the Supreme Court justices that they 683 00:36:23,639 --> 00:36:24,960 needed to overturn Roe v. 684 00:36:25,079 --> 00:36:28,400 Speaker 1: Wade, which is something he's sort of avoided during the election. 685 00:36:28,760 --> 00:36:30,639 Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, I think where do you go with 686 00:36:30,719 --> 00:36:33,880 that now is like a much messier question, right, Like 687 00:36:33,920 --> 00:36:37,519 there's a if you give a you know, the one 688 00:36:37,559 --> 00:36:41,360 thing many people, everyone in the anti abortion movement agreed 689 00:36:41,400 --> 00:36:43,280 on was like Roe v. Wade needs to be overturned. 690 00:36:43,760 --> 00:36:46,559 President Trump made that happen. The next steps are a 691 00:36:46,599 --> 00:36:49,920 little bit I think less people are less cohesive on 692 00:36:49,960 --> 00:36:53,039 what those next steps should be. As you mentioned, even 693 00:36:53,039 --> 00:36:55,880 within Texas, like sort of you could argue like the 694 00:36:55,960 --> 00:37:02,559 leading state for anti abortion laws and litigation. This weekend, 695 00:37:02,880 --> 00:37:05,960 Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick said, you know, he would be 696 00:37:06,000 --> 00:37:10,280 open to clarifying the existing abortion laws to ensure that 697 00:37:10,320 --> 00:37:14,039 doctors feel safe treating women with complicated pregnancies that like 698 00:37:14,159 --> 00:37:17,280 is not if that happens. And we should note that 699 00:37:17,320 --> 00:37:19,840 Senator Brian Hughes, who authored the law, came out and 700 00:37:19,840 --> 00:37:22,000 said he'd be open to talking about that, and we 701 00:37:22,039 --> 00:37:25,800 heard some stuff from House members as well. If that happens, 702 00:37:26,280 --> 00:37:28,119 that is certainly not going to be a repeal of 703 00:37:28,159 --> 00:37:30,760 these laws, right, Like, the Texas will remain a state 704 00:37:30,800 --> 00:37:34,440 where abortion is banned. They clarify that language to sort 705 00:37:34,480 --> 00:37:40,320 of leave doctors feeling more empowered to treat complicated pregnancies. 706 00:37:40,440 --> 00:37:42,440 We're talking incremental changes. 707 00:37:42,760 --> 00:37:46,360 Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm noticing a big hesitation on or skepticism. You 708 00:37:46,440 --> 00:37:49,840 keep saying if, yeah, you don't seem convinced that it's 709 00:37:49,840 --> 00:37:50,559 going to move forward. 710 00:37:50,880 --> 00:37:53,320 Speaker 4: I mean, I think Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick saying anything 711 00:37:53,519 --> 00:37:56,400 is more than we've heard in a long time on this, and. 712 00:37:56,320 --> 00:37:58,239 Speaker 1: He lays out sort of what the agenda is in 713 00:37:58,239 --> 00:38:00,679 the sense, right, so what is possible to pass? 714 00:38:00,840 --> 00:38:01,000 Speaker 2: Right? 715 00:38:01,039 --> 00:38:05,719 Speaker 4: So, I mean, certainly, could we see this get talked 716 00:38:05,760 --> 00:38:08,920 about more than it did last session? Absolutely, could we 717 00:38:08,960 --> 00:38:10,679 maybe even see some clarify I mean, we saw a 718 00:38:10,679 --> 00:38:13,639 bill last session that went really under the radar where 719 00:38:13,639 --> 00:38:17,039 it sort of gave doctors affirmative defense if they treated, 720 00:38:18,239 --> 00:38:21,280 if they like, terminated a pregnancy to treat sort of 721 00:38:21,519 --> 00:38:25,239 specific conditions, which was heralded as sort of this like 722 00:38:25,800 --> 00:38:29,039 we we did something. We you know, clarified these laws 723 00:38:29,079 --> 00:38:31,639 a little bit. And doctors you know have said offering 724 00:38:31,679 --> 00:38:33,840 us an affirmative defense, which says, if we get to 725 00:38:34,039 --> 00:38:36,119 you know, if we get face criminal charges, then you 726 00:38:36,159 --> 00:38:39,119 can defend it yourself, is not enough to like free 727 00:38:39,159 --> 00:38:41,239 them up to practice medicine the way they want to. 728 00:38:42,079 --> 00:38:44,039 And I'll say, you know, before the last session, Attorney 729 00:38:44,840 --> 00:38:48,639 Governor Greg Abbott said, if we need to clarify these laws, 730 00:38:48,639 --> 00:38:53,320 we will, and nothing happened. So I'm I wouldn't say skeptical. 731 00:38:53,320 --> 00:38:55,519 I would say I'm standing by for more information. 732 00:38:56,239 --> 00:38:58,519 Speaker 1: Matthew. Let's close it out with you, like I said 733 00:38:58,760 --> 00:39:01,199 during the election present and Trump sort of site stepped 734 00:39:01,199 --> 00:39:04,960 a lot of these questions about abortion and potential national 735 00:39:05,000 --> 00:39:07,559 abortion bands. It becomes again, he said, we're going to 736 00:39:07,599 --> 00:39:09,400 leave it to the states, so it becomes again a 737 00:39:09,440 --> 00:39:12,519 state versus federal thing. Should we expect any movement on 738 00:39:12,599 --> 00:39:15,760 abortion from the federal government from a Trump administration. 739 00:39:17,280 --> 00:39:19,840 Speaker 2: Yeah, they haven't really indicated that so much. I mean, 740 00:39:19,920 --> 00:39:22,599 you know, the official kind of line from the Trump 741 00:39:22,639 --> 00:39:24,880 camp has always been like, this is the state's issue, 742 00:39:24,880 --> 00:39:28,519 so let's let the states decide, and you know, just 743 00:39:28,559 --> 00:39:31,480 in terms of the kind of political play of it, 744 00:39:32,079 --> 00:39:35,719 Republicans throughout the cycle has indicated that abortion, defending abortion, 745 00:39:36,119 --> 00:39:40,599 defending their bands on abortion is not a winning political 746 00:39:40,639 --> 00:39:43,360 issue in any of the polling or focus grips they've done. 747 00:39:43,480 --> 00:39:45,880 They'll also say, on the other side that Democrats had 748 00:39:45,920 --> 00:39:49,760 way too much confidence in campaigning off of abortion, and 749 00:39:49,800 --> 00:39:51,639 that's the reason why they did so poorly in several 750 00:39:52,159 --> 00:39:56,280 key elections, including in Texas. But I mean that without 751 00:39:56,280 --> 00:39:58,280 that kind of strong political will and also such a 752 00:39:58,400 --> 00:40:04,840 large agenda list you ahead with reconciliation this year, we 753 00:40:04,920 --> 00:40:07,519 haven't really seen that much momentum on the national front 754 00:40:07,559 --> 00:40:08,280 for a national band. 755 00:40:09,400 --> 00:40:12,599 Speaker 1: Okay, thanks Matthew. That's gonna do it for this edition 756 00:40:12,639 --> 00:40:15,480 of the Trip Cast. Thanks to Eleanor thanks to the Matthews. 757 00:40:15,519 --> 00:40:18,280 Please send us pictures of you in your boots and 758 00:40:18,320 --> 00:40:21,800 bow ties. Join us again next week and please follow, 759 00:40:22,119 --> 00:40:24,239 like us subscribe to our podcast so that we can 760 00:40:24,320 --> 00:40:27,559 keep doing this thing. Thank you to our sponsors. Former 761 00:40:27,760 --> 00:40:31,519 US Ambassador to Mexico Antonio Garza. Our producers are Rob 762 00:40:31,559 --> 00:40:35,639 Avula and Chrisphobda. Our theme music is composed by Rob. 763 00:40:35,760 --> 00:40:36,519 See you next week.