Trump is Putin 2.0: Where Does That Leave Putin?

Trump used and discarded the powerful Fred Trump daddy figures who helped him rise to power: infamous lawyer Roy Cohn, whom he abandoned as Cohn was dying of AIDS; Fox News kingmaker Roger Ailes, forced out over sexual harassment allegations; and, possibly, Vladimir Putin. The Russians invested decades of financial and other support into Trump and his family, as Russian mafia expert Olga Lautman explains on this week's Gaslit Nation. But now, with American oligarchs, unlimited money, immunity granted by the illegitimate Supreme Court, pardon power, and a mainstream media eager to please, Trump has everything Putin could only dream of.

What we saw during that grim inauguration weekend, followed by a flood of dangerous executive orders, shows that Trump, as promised, intends to be a dictator from day one. Tech giants, who had a front-row seat to his inauguration, give Trump a social media disinformation machine rivaling the Kremlin’s. We're in for dark times, but there's hope. Our traitorous enemies and oligarchs are, in the end, incredibly stupid, and they'll ultimately destroy each other.

This week's bonus show, available to supporters at the Truth-teller ($5/month) level and higher, continues the conversation. We’ll discuss Trump and Melania’s meme coin pump-and-dump scheme that fleeced their own supporters, how Trump is paving the way for Chinese dominance and Xi’s long-sought invasion of Taiwan, and ways to fight back, no matter how deliberately chaotic things get.

Remember to protect your sleep during this time and check out the helpful reminder on developing good sleep hygiene in the show notes. They want us overwhelmed and scared, but we must stay sharp and fit. Commit to mindful and healthy practices, including unplugging when needed. By staying strong, we can help carry each other through what lies ahead. No matter how dark things get, we’ll get through it together! Afterall, Trump is America, a nation built on the largest Native American mass grave and the genocide of slavery. Trump has always been here. We will fight our way through to another chapter of hard-won progress for future generations to look back on in horror. 

Olga Lautman will join the Gaslit Nation Salon on February 10 at 4pm ET! And don’t forget our Gaslit Nation Game Night on Friday February 7th at 8:30pm ET–we’re playing Codenames! For game night, be sure to make an account on BoardGameArena.com. Both events are for our Patreon community. Zoom links will be shared the morning of the events on Patreon.com/Gaslit so be sure to subscribe to help support the show! 


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Show Notes

Check out Olga Lautman’s Substack! https://substack.com/@olgalautman?utm_source=profile-page

ICYMI: Here are previous documents the Security Committee has shared:

Read all the details in the PDF here: https://web.tresorit.com/l/W6ots#IydZ2pnTmE1MLPJLkLZ73A

For the Gaslit Nation Book Club – First Meeting at the Gaslit Nation Salon on February 24 at 4pm ET

Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl https://bookshop.org/p/books/man-s-search-for-meaning-viktor-e-frankl/8996943?ean=9780807014271

The Stranger: Introduction by Keith Gore Albert Camus (Author)  Matthew Ward (Translator) https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-stranger-introduction-by-keith-gore-albert-camus/18890716?ean=9780679420262

Opening Clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e49VEpWg61M

Martin Luther King, Jr., "What Is Your Life's Blueprint?" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmtOGXreTOU

Elon Musk’s Anti-Semitic, Apartheid-Loving Grandfather The billionaire has described his grandfather as a risk-taking adventurer. A closer read of history reveals something much darker. https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2023/09/joshua-haldeman-elon-musk-grandfather-apartheid-antisemitism/675396/

Trump’s Crypto Meme Coin Is His Most Lucrative Get-Rich Scheme Yet https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/what-just-happened-with-usdtrump-and-usdmelania-meme-coins.html

German-Soviet Pact The German-Soviet Pact was signed in August 1939. It paved the way for Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union to invade and occupy Poland that September. The pact was an agreement of convenience between two bitter enemies. It permitted them to carve up spheres of influence in eastern Europe, while pledging not to attack each other for 10 years. Less than two years later, however, Hitler launched an invasion of the Soviet Union. https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/german-soviet-pact#:~:text=This%20agreement%20is%20commonly%20referred,or%20the%20Hitler%2DStalin%20Pact.&text=The%20arrangement%20included%20a%2010,economic%20cooperation%20and%20territorial%20expansion.

Trump pauses US foreign development aid for 90 days, orders review https://kyivindependent.com/trump-pauses-all-us-foreign-aid-for-90-days-pending-review/

Elon Musk’s Father on Their Nazis History: https://x.com/DillyHussain88/status/1881670092993560772

Did Elon Musk steal the election for Trump? (Yes!): https://x.com/CalltoActivism/status/1881118080212115627

House GOP crafts bill to let Trump purchase Greenland https://www.axios.com/2025/01/13/trump-buy-greenland-house-republican-bill

In Rare Criticism, Trump Says Putin Is ‘Destroying Russia’: President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia praised President Trump’s second inauguration, but the American leader did not return the compliment. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/21/us/politics/trump-putin-russia-ukraine.html?unlocked_article_code=1.q04.QTOS.5McfXW68PNkf&smid=url-share

Welcome to the era of gangster tech regulation Our tech overlords all have problems, and they want to buy the solutions. https://www.theverge.com/2025/1/20/24346317/trump-gangster-tech-regulation-corruption-grift

We Need A New Deal To Save Local Journalism https://defector.com/a-new-deal-to-save-local-journalism-la-fires

News site focused on Elon Musk to launch https://www.npr.org/2025/01/20/nx-s1-5268286/elon-musk-news-site-popular-information

Three media stories to watch for the next 4 years https://www.semafor.com/article/01/19/2025/three-media-stories-to-watch-for-the-next-4-years

Trump signs executive order to pause TikTok ban, provide immunity to tech firms https://www.npr.org/2025/01/20/nx-s1-5268701/trump-executive-order-tiktok-ban

Bad Faith (Christian nationalism documentary) https://www.gaslitnationpod.com/episodes-transcripts-20/2024/4/16/bad-faith


Transcript

Martin Luther King, Jr. (00:00):

Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead, but it really doesn't matter with me now because I've been to the mountaintops. I don't mind like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place, but I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will and he's allowed me to go up to the mountain, and I've looked over and I've seen the promise land. I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promise land. So I'm happy tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not spirit in man. My eyes have seen the glory of the Lord.

Andrea Chalupa (01:19):

Our opening clip was Martin Luther King, Jr. In his final speech delivered to a packed congregation in Memphis, Tennessee on April 3rd, 1968. The next day he was shot and killed on his hotel balcony by a white supremacist like the ones Trump pardoned for January 6th in his final and prophetic speech, king called for economic action, including boycotts, unity, and nonviolent protests while calling on the United States to live up to its founding principles. We must continue that work today if we and the future of this planet are to stand a chance of survival. As promised Trump on day one unleashed a bunch of chaotic executive orders, including pulling the US out of the Paris Treaty, illegally binding international agreement for a coalition of nations to address the climate crisis and the World Health Organization of which the US is the largest funder, providing much needed care to struggling nations around the world, including across Africa. Climate change will make pandemics more frequent. Experts have warned, so expect another pandemic thanks to Trump joining me today to process this grief that the world is experiencing. And the sleepless night that many of us had last night is Olga Lautman, the world's foremost expert on the Russian Mafia. Welcome Olga. How are you feeling?

 Olga Lautman (02:57):

Huh. I'm here. That's all I could say. I'm here

Andrea Chalupa (03:02):

Dealing with the generational trauma that many of us have. Our ancestors, as recent as parents, grandparents have been through upheaval, have been through escaping war dictatorships, and we all came to the promised Land of America, those folks that came here as asylum seekers and now America has fallen after decades of corruption rotting us from within. And Trump was just the final bulldozer. What did you think of the inauguration?

 Olga Lautman (03:34):

I mean, it's everything that we expected it to happen. We knew that he was going to do the most outrageous, egregious, horrific acts the first few days in order to desensitize the people. And this is exactly what he did. I mean, frankly, I felt like I was in Russia watching this between the rallies. I mean, it was extremely bizarre. I don't remember any other inauguration like this, but I mean, look, America's elected a dictator and this is what they get. And this is only the beginning.

Andrea Chalupa (04:10):

It certainly is. What did you see in terms of Russian presence? Because the first inauguration was a Russian prom night. All the oligarchs were there this time around. It was loaded with American oligarchs on the Russian side. The only one that stuck out to me was Kosky, who is a Russian opposition figure who hasn't really done much relative to the crisis. But what did you see in terms of a Russian presence at the inauguration?

 Olga Lautman (04:42):

Interestingly, this time around, I didn't see much. And interestingly this time around, look, Russia wanted Trump in. They wanted Biden out. They made it very clear they were running operations throughout the election, including ai, fake videos against terrorists, disinformation operations, and the bomb threats that who were called into all the polling precincts on election day causing more disruption. But interestingly enough, after he won, the reception by Russia is mixed. And to me it feels like they cultivated and created a Frankenstein. And now this Frankenstein got more powerful than them. And I'll give you an example this time around. They greeted, Trump welcomed him back by showing practically nude photos of Melania Trump. I mean, these are old photos from two thousands. They obviously didn't do this in the 2016 election in January, 2017 or even after he won the 2016 election. This time around they started with this.

(06:04):

Then it was really like a coordinated effort talking about Trump's assassination. First you had Maddo, who's the former prime minister slash president slash security council who said that he has a feeling Trump is going to be the next JFK. Then you had Patricia come out and say, oh, Trump received help from unforeseen forces in the election, and if he's a man of his word, he'll pay back the debt and the next breath in the interview, he's like, oh, our Russian intelligence services are aware that they tried to assassinate Trump twice, but that didn't work out, and I don't think that his secret service can keep him safe. Then you had Putin himself coming out and saying, oh, I worry that they're going. The deep state is going to try to assassinate Trump three top figures of the country. Patricia arguably, I would say, holds as much power.

(07:10):

If not, he was the head of FSB at one point. He's the one responsible for blowing up the apartment buildings in order to get put in into power. And you had these three main figures coming out and suddenly worried about his safety. And then it repeated, this was in November. Then it repeated again the past week. You had the same chorus of, oh, will Trump be safe for the inauguration? They were putting disinformation online. You had top leaders saying that potentially Trump will not be able allowed to be inaugurated because of, again, unquote the imaginary deep state that we see how deep it is that we have Trump. Again, you saw the same thing. And interestingly enough, finally the night before his inauguration, Russia and Ty, which is their main state media and not as conspiratorial, I mean state medias obviously all of it is propaganda, but this one is more a newswire slash propaganda.

(08:23):

They came out with an article by their analyst basically doing a very detailed dive into Trump's first term and how all the promises he made, he failed to complete, including coal, including the border, including the economy, and reducing the debt. So it was very interesting to see them doing a hit piece that everything he promised the first time around that it was a lie. He didn't do it and he was a failure. They even kind of put jabs that Obama did this better and Clinton did that better. So this is the state with Russia and this time around, we saw it in the inauguration because now Trump is surrounded by the American oligarchs versus the Russian oligarchs.

Andrea Chalupa (09:12):

We had investigative journalist, Gabe Sherman on the show last fall talking about his film that he wrote, the Apprentice about Trump's mentorship by Rory Cone, who he would go on to abandon Rory Cone made Trump who he is, and then Trump just left him when Cone was dying of aids. And then he had the same sort of mentorship with Roger Ailes of Fox News, who he would also go on to abandon when Roger Ailes got into his trouble for all of his sexual harassment at that network. And so obviously the Kremlin must be a tune to this fact that Trump uses people on his way to the top and then discards them when he no longer needs them, especially when they are exuding weakness as the Kremlin is. So today Trump said that there needs to be some deal with Ukraine and Russia. Zelensky wants a deal.

(10:04):

He's not sure Putin wants a deal, but Putin's invasion, which is costing a million Russian lives is hurting Russia. So that's weakness there. Trump looks down on that weakness. So Russia should be scared that there are decades of investment into the Trumps may not pay off with the world domination they were hoping for. It will certainly weaken the US from within and America standing in the world, which I guess is a consolation prize. What are your thoughts on where things are going to go with Trump, Russia, and the invasion of Ukraine and whether some sort of deal could be made this year because it's day one, it's day one. I want to say he promised us on day one, the war would end and day one's take it away.

 Olga Lautman (10:47):

As I said, this is them creating a Frankenstein since the 1980s, cultivated him, flooded his businesses with millions and tens of millions of dollars, all his properties around the globe, and now they have lost control of him because whereas in 2016 when he came in, he was not sure there were guardrails. He didn't know how the government works. He was kind of getting a feel for it and wasn't able to accomplish as dictator tactics that he wanted to. Now they watch as he went through the campaign and every single secret of his was exposed. He was criminally charged with insurrection or whatever the legal terms of inciting a mob to attack the capitol capital, the sexual assault and rape cases in New York. And his supporters basically waived it off as fake news. So Russia right now is at a point that even if they wanted to release all the coma they have say they opened up the file right now and said here, we helped him in 2016.

(12:02):

This is everything we did to get him into power. This is what we did in 2020. This is what we did in 2024. His supporters would wave it as fake. Good news, they wouldn't believe it. And at the same time, Trump is in control of all the agencies. So there's absolutely no one who would investigate or prosecute him. So this is why I say that they created a Frankenstein who got ahead of them. Now, as far as this, it was very interesting because Trump, on a very bizarre level, was playing psychological games with Russia yesterday because he is by no means on Ukraine's side. He frankly couldn't care less what happened in Ukraine, and no one should be confused what his statements of any peace negotiations or whatnot that he cares. But with Putin, he directly, he attacked the economy and he said he should have never started the war.

(12:59):

Look at the economy, it's in shambles and this and that. For Russia, the most sensitive thing is how many people have died. I mean, if you look at their official records, I think it's at 7,000. The unofficial records are wounded and dead around, I would say 750,000. Trump even went ahead and said, a million Russian soldiers are dead, not dead, and wounded, just dead. So he kind of really put Russia in its place by basically using all the talking points that usually drive them insane. So that was very interesting. As far as with Ukraine, like I said, he couldn't care less. And frankly, the fact that anyone, I mean Trump, I would expect this from, but anyone in the United States or Europe, poor pushing for negotiation. What are we handing to Russia? We're going to give them Ukrainian lives and land for what? Because they stole it.

(14:01):

I mean, this is appeasing a genocidal state, and it's incredible that the word negotiations even comes out. I mean, if someone comes and breaks into your house, murders half of your family, and then Juan says, I want to stay here and I'm going to take one third of your house, are you going to negotiate with these people? Or if someone kidnaps your children, are you going to say, okay, keep those two children and just hand me the other three back? I mean, so the whole negotiation concept is insane because Russia illegally launched a war in 2014, set up concentration camps in Crimea, in Donbas. In 2022, they launched a full scale invasion of a sovereign neighbor, full scale attacking every city, bombing hospitals, bombing schools, bombing apartment buildings, and targeting civilians. Their targets are not military, nor have they been over the past three years.

(15:03):

So the fact that anyone needs to sit in a table and negotiate with Russia for what to thank them for carrying out genocide, and they themselves, if we are saying it's genocide, Russia themselves, blo, they say that this war cannot end until every single last. Ukrainian doesn't exist. I mean, this is all you ever see on Russian State news for well over a decade. That whole negotiation thing is insane, but we'll see where it goes. I mean, Trump obviously is giving Russia run for its money this time he didn't come back into power to basically say, here, I will carry out all your duties. And frankly this time he looks like the imperialist Putin on steroids because he has control of the American military and the American agencies that have the highest technology, the highest military equipment and whatnot. So at this point, it's scary because we have Putin 2.0 now heading America.

Andrea Chalupa (16:12):

Trump has pardon power and he has immunity thanks to that vile Supreme Court case of last year. And so that gives a cover not just for his own crimes, but the crimes of his family, his inner circle, his storm troopers that he's just released from prison. Obviously they're not immune to state crimes, but this is new terrain. This is a new frontier for us here in America. It's basically a legalized dictatorship that's taken form. Thank you Merrick Garland for that. And clinging to your norms when the Russian operation of Mago was just trampling all over them. I want to just ask you about one of the most chilling aspects of Trump's speech over this inauguration Hell fire weekend. He was going on and on about manifest destiny. America will expand its territory. They're seriously moving forward with Greenland. There's a Republican who is putting up legislation for Greenland manifest Destiny. That was this romantic term for American expansion across the west, which they use to justify the genocide of Native Americans. It also inflamed the national debate of slavery as these western states wanted to be free states, and that accelerated us into the Civil War. So all of this is very loaded for American history. Manifest destiny basically means mass murder and American imperialism. So Trump flaunting this and promising to expand American territory that can only mean war invasion. What are your thoughts?

 Olga Lautman (17:54):

Absolutely. This is why I said Trump is Putin 2.0 because Putin has his imperial lust. I mean, frankly, it's all the Russian people. If it were up to them, 99% of them would be absolutely ecstatic to take Ukraine, Moldova, the Baltics, Georgia, and reinstate the Soviet Union. And Trump, like I said, is Putin 2.0. He has the same exact imperialist mentality, and frankly, he wants to turn America into not only part of the axis of evil, but also into an imperial country where we are taking territory by force. I mean, he is taking America back to hundreds of years ago, and frankly in his mind, he wants to go back to the crusades, to the time where women didn't have power, where black people were enslaved, where you had constant wars. And I'm talking about even before World War I and two where you had constant wars over territory and the Roman Empire and the Ottoman Empire, and you had basically countries and empires seizing land.

(19:14):

This is what is in Trump's sick head. He wants this. And same thing with Hitler. Hitler had this manifest to expand and take over Europe on top of eliminating all Jews. So I mean, this is what's in Trump's head. This is why it's so dangerous because he is in charge of the most powerful military in the world. And now not only is it dangerous for the fact of the wars invasions and God knows what kind of mass murder and hell and confusion will come, but it's also dangerous for the fact that America used to stand for democracy. America used to stand for monitoring policing international norms and international laws. Now Trump, how can you have Xi not invade Taiwan? He'll say, why Trump is taking Panama Canal or he wants to take Greenland. How can you say Putin? You can't invade Ukraine. You can't move on and march onto Moldova or Estonia or Lavia or Poland when Putin is going to turn around and say why America is doing this. So he's taking us not only into what the potential actions that America can carry out, but the fact that this is giving every single dictator who has a lust for expanding territory by violent means the green light. Go ahead. You want territory, you have a more powerful army. Go for it. And this is where we are going back

Andrea Chalupa (20:55):

In January, 2017, I had a gut instinct to buy N95 masks when Trump was inaugurated. So when he was inaugurated in 2017, I bought a kit full of emergency supplies including N95 masks. And now this time around, I had a gut instinct that I should be careful with the glass frames I have hanging around my house, including in my bedroom in case there's some sort of explosion and the glass goes flying like a drone attack. And it's just so weird that those thoughts are coming to me, and it is just the anxiety that he creates when he talks about war invasion in so many words, yes, making it sound romantic with manifest destiny, but he's going to lead us to some sort of war. And even if you think, well, it's the us, what are they going to do? Invade Greenland, maybe invade Venezuela to steal their oil and overthrow Maduro.

(21:50):

Any sort of war that the US carries out creates a atmosphere of violence and potential terrorist attacks by opportunistic actors like Russia. Russia's really committed to carrying out terrorist attacks because they're increasingly desperate and losing their war and trying to intimidate the West submission. So what he's unleashing here is just this atmosphere of violent potential, which is going to be so difficult for us to live under day in and day out. I want to ask you about the big coming out of Elon Musk in doing an enthusiastic, proud Nazi salute. This obviously was no surprise. He blew a fortune overpaying on Twitter, then turned it into a massive Nazi disinformation platform aligned with Russian fascism, and I want to play a clip from Elon Musk's own father explaining the family's own Nazi history on his maternal side. We'll play that now.

Errol Musk (22:48):

Her parents came to South Africa from Canada because they sympathized with the Africana government. They used to support Hitler and all that sort of stuff, but they didn't know, obviously, I don't think they knew what the Germans Nazis were doing, but in Canada, they were the Nazi. They were in the German party in Canada, and they sympathized with the Germans. So when the Africons government came into power here in 1948, then Mae's father, he was quite an interesting guy. He was a very good pilot. He said he wants to be with the Africons because he agrees with apartheid. You see? You see what I mean? Yeah. And he came out here with his family.

Andrea Chalupa (23:33):

What's amazing is that Russian fascism and the Nazis are aligned once again, like they were with the Nazi Soviet Pac of 1939, which included a secret agreement to carve Europe together, including invading Poland with the Germans going first, followed by the Soviets two weeks later kicking off World War ii. You can't mention that fact in Russia today that the Russians started World War II aligned with the Nazis because they want you to remember Russian glory in getting to Berlin first. But the fact is Moscow and Berlin, the Nazis and the Soviets, they started World War II together, and now here they are aligned again. What are your thoughts on Russian fascism and the Nazis back at it today?

 Olga Lautman (24:18):

Well, I mean, Russia has been propping up Nazis for a long time. They use that premise of invading illegally and launching a full scale invasion of Ukraine, of Deifying Ukraine. Meanwhile, you have a lot of nationalists in Russia and a lot of units that have been operating in illegal territory in Ukraine who helped Russia sees Crimea and Donbas, who are Nazis, who actually have Nazi tattoos, who have made videos aligning themselves with Nazis. But the famous Wagner group that Russia uses as their mercenary group to overthrow leaders and to commit mass atrocities, mass murder, wipe out villages across Africa and what they've done in Ukraine and Syria, the founder was a lieutenant colonel. His name was Kin and the reason he named Wagner Wagner because of his love for Nazis and Hitler's favorite composer, and he had Nazi paraphernalia tattooed on his neck. So I mean, this is all absolutely, Russia has been propping up Nazis.

(25:36):

Putin, when he was serving in Dresden in the 1980s, was a handler to one of the Nazi leaders who he sent out into Western Germany to basically not only carry out destabilization attacks, but also recruit more Nazis. So Russia, I mean, this is nothing new. Russia since the beginning has been supporting Nazis, and they've also been propping up the Nazis in the United States. I mean, there was a forum that was run, I think it was set up in 2010 or 11, and it basically was a forum for all the Nazis worldwide. It was set up by a guy who was an FSB collaborator running this forum out of Moscow, and it collected all the Nazi groups and movements and leaders out across the world. The forum was shut down, I believe it was called Iron March. It was shut down in 2017. So I mean, this is absolutely nothing new.

(26:38):

And the fact that Elon is aligning with it is absolutely nothing new. Elon is propping up all the far right movements across Europe in order to help overthrow that democracy and install these fascist political parties, whether it be in UK, whether it be in Germany, this is what he's been spending his time post buying the White House and then buying himself a presidency. So I mean, this will only continue. These forces will continue getting stronger. They have been added already for a few decades, and that's it. And like I said, with Putin, this goes to the 1980s. So for all his Nazis hook, the man was a handler to a Nazi that he was sent in the eighties to West Germany to assemble Nazi group and recruit more Nazis. And Russia logistically has been propping up Nazis.

(27:36):

They also were bringing Nazis over the past decade from there was a German group, the base, they were bringing them to St. Petersburg to military training camps in order to train them how to carry out terrorist attacks and destabilization operations within Germany. And they've been doing this frankly, across the west. Now you have Elon who's adding to the component of the information space by handing them Twitter. And soon you're going to have TikTok potentially under the control of Trump. So that's going to indoctrinate more youth and brainwash them, which is what I had warned when Trump got interested in TikTok. I said, my goodness. I mean, in Russia, forget Putin. This is the Russian system. They start brainwashing you at two years old. I mean, you are fed that. You have to have loyalty to your motherland before you're even able to talk. And this is what you're indoctrinated with until the point that you as an adult don't even question dictatorship or oligarchy and just accept this is your circumstances in life. You have to work like a peasant. And then the king, whoever it is, whether it's Putin or Patricia, for whoever is in power of Russia, it'll be the same exact thing. And this has been going on for centuries inside of Russia.

Andrea Chalupa (29:05):

That's exactly what we're witnessing is the oligarch Asian of America Russian style. The Republicans just blueprinted it and are repeating it here, and it's been decades in the making. For Gaslit Nation listeners, we did a whole deep dive on Christian nationalism, and that was focused on the documentary Bad Faith, which everyone should watch about how the right wing Evangelicals see Trump as God's imperfect vessel, and he's part of prophecy and all that. And in that interview with the director, and I'll link to in the show notes that he talks about how back in the eighties, these Christian nationalist leaders that built this movement that gave rise to Trump were looking for a strong man in the Soviet Union. And they were really attracted to Russia and the strong men across the Soviet Union because they saw it as a model of what they could then build in the US.

(29:59):

So this all began even before Orban and Hungary when they all became fanboys of what he was doing there. And I want to say to all those folks who are going through the stages of grief and they're at the bargaining stage where they're trying to convince themselves, this isn't going to be so bad. How is this going to impact me as old? And I have both said in our work, look at Hungary, the quality of life there has collapsed under orin's corruption. So yes, this is going to impact everyone no matter how rich, privileged white you are, dictatorship, wannabe dictatorship comes for everyone just with the steady decline of quality of life, which has already been taking place in the US under the burden of Republican tax cuts and at the expense of social safety nets and so on with our average quality of life declining.

(30:46):

One of the reasons why Trump is here is because Republicans have been persistent in getting the Voting Rights Act on the Supreme Court in the States, making it harder to vote, passing voter ID laws. And just in 2024 alone, Brian Kemp, governor of Georgia carried out the Klan's playbook in depressing the vote in Georgia. The Russians helped with calling in bomb threats all across these battleground states. And on top of that, you had Elon Musk doing some questionable things, getting called in by a judge, trying to bribe voters and so on in Pennsylvania. And there are also questions that are still unanswered about the tabulation of votes. And there was a nonprofit that we've interviewed here on the show, and we mentioned their work in the lead up to November. So we were running stuff during the election before we knew the outcome warning that MAGA was trying to steal it out in the open, and the DOJ was letting them in this inauguration weekend. Trump, thanks Elon Musk for his help with Vote Tallies, and I'll play a clip of that.

Donald Trump (31:43):

And it's pretty amazing. But he did that. And then he journeyed to Pennsylvania where he spent like a month and a half campaigning for me in Pennsylvania, and he's a popular guy, and he was very effective, and he knows those computers better than anybody. All those computers, those vote counting computers. And we ended up winning Pennsylvania like in a landslide. So it was pretty good. He's pretty good. So thank you to Elon.

Andrea Chalupa (32:10):

So I'm playing this to remind everyone this was a questionable election. Just if you factor in the now normalized Republican voter suppression, the now normalized far right disinformation machine on cable news, Fox News, local news, Sinclair, Google's YouTube algorithm pumping out these Jordan Peterson, Joe Rogan videos and on and on, and Facebook, Zuckerberg, all those guys, those tech giants that had that front row seat at the, that's like the new Roger Ailes, right? But they don't like to think of themselves that way because they're above that, but that's who they are. Those oligarchs that had that front row seat at the inauguration, that is how Trump had his comeback. And that's Russian style disinformation that creates this zombie army of obedient slaves. And if people can be convinced to believe it absurdities, they could be convinced to carry out atrocities. That's fascism, and that's where we are. Now, to your point, Olga, with this younger generation getting brainwashed, you mentioned Russians getting brainwashed as young as two, which is true. The textbooks, what they're taught, the glory of Russia is imperialism and genocide and violence. I look at Baron Trump, the images of him sitting with these power brokers, Bezos at the inauguration, I think, oh my God, we're just at the beginning of this.

 Olga Lautman (33:25):

I'm a little bit more hopeful because I always am. And yes, look, what led to Trump's return was a combination. I mean, it was a decades long Russian disinformation operation combined with Republican disinformation operation, combined with voter suppression and a whole host of things. The problem is this time around whoever they would've run, they would've had a problem because all incumbent sitting leaders were getting slammed and basically thrown out across Europe. And we saw here because of the backlash from Covid, the conditions after covid or the instability, the job losses, the business losses, the inflation, look, you had what, a million and a half more people who voted for Trump. I guarantee you, this is not his base. These are people, the majority of them who woke up, they're not going to be loyal to Trump. They're not loyalists. They're not, I don't even think as much brainwashed.

(34:36):

They are just not politically savvy. But they woke up every day for the past few years, and frankly, the world did feel unstable. You have a war in the Middle East, you have a war in Europe, you go to the grocery store a hundred dollars, you walk out with a little tiny bag of stuff, your bills are through the roof. And if you are not paying attention to politics or democracy or just frankly not involved in detached completely from it, and just on election day go and say, oh, let me take a look at these people and go and vote for it. This is what happens. And this is what happened across a lot of elections because the incumbent leaders were facing the backlash of the rising costs, the housing shortages, inflation and everything that we've been seeing on top of the fact of these wars.

(35:33):

And it just felt very unstable. And in America, particularly when things feel unstable, you generally go to the other side, whoever's not in power, this is where you go. And this is why Biden won, because in 2020, Trump made Covid so unstable that, I mean, we were frankly in depression. We never even knew if we'd ever be able to leave our house again. It was at a point that you couldn't go into a store. Then they started relaxing the rules and allowing in a supermarket like 10 people at a time. And it was absolutely insane. And he mishandled covid and murdered so many Americans unnecessarily because had he handled covid and made sure that everyone had proper guidelines and didn't feed disinformation about masks and vaccines and everything else, we would've had a lot more people alive with us today. This is why it's swung so far to the democratic side, because people were living here, everything was unstable, and people were like, no, whatever's in front of us now we need different.

(36:41):

So that is why I am more hopeful because you have the obviously very loyal Trump base, but then you have the people in between who voted, which is a good chunk of them, definitely more than a million and a half who voted for Obama then voted for hate, call it Clinton, voted for Biden and then voted for him for the first time. So these people, obviously, when they realized that he lied to them and their eggs are not getting cheaper, if anything they're disappearing and their energy costs are not going to improve, their life is going to be more chaotic. These people are definitely going to swing back the other way. And then you have to take into effect the 20 million people who didn't vote and just sat this election out. And the problem is that this is a twofold problem because you had Democrats who have the most awful messaging.

(37:40):

I am not blaming anyone for the results. I'm not blaming the Democratic party, but in this case, Biden has achieved so much. And I guarantee you that nine out of 10 people have no blessed idea about the infrastructure bill. No blessed idea about all the money he invested into climate change and all the programs, no idea, into the chips and bringing jobs home. And they just didn't know about this. And why didn't Democrats message it better? I've heard about even normal Americans who support Ukraine say, oh, we're putting so much money in there. Why didn't anyone come and hammer the message that this money is not going to Ukraine? There's a huge chunk of money when it is allocated to Ukraine that is going to Minnesota and to Pennsylvania and new and other states that have military production facilities and basically that we're handing our shit that we're not using in the warehouse to Ukraine to update our own military arsenal.

(38:49):

This should have been messaged and so strongly in push back that this is creating American jobs. This was money being invested into America's military infrastructure. And instead of having dusty tanks, 10, 12-year-old technology, they were now going to be upgraded to modern technology. This is where Democrats really need to focus on sharpening their message. I mean, they do a lot of good, you need people to know it, and you need to make sure to get this message out. But whoever it was, I mean, it was just so much instability that I follow this, you follow this. But I can tell you personally, my gas bill, I mean at a time where normally it's supposed to be $50 is $150. Am I going to go vote for a fascist for that extra a hundred? Absolutely not. I'd rather freeze out from hypothermia and my house to lower the heat.

(39:49):

But a lot of people don't understand the threat that he posed, and that's it. So I am more hopeful in that. And I am hopeful because Americans are resilient. Americans had their own revolutions. Americans had so many movements, and unfortunately, we are going to see absolute help. I mean, we're going to see things that America has never seen before, or at least not in this lifetime. But at the same time, I'm hopeful that with this, people will rise back up and then we'll again move forward and make progress as a country now that we're dealing with basically all the skeletons that just keep resurfacing every several decades.

Andrea Chalupa (40:36):

Yeah, no, we could do an entire episode of what the Democrats got wrong. And one thing I'm really furious about is with this disinformation echo chamber, all the trash talk that goes on, it becomes just noise. And so when you see Biden Stiffly walking around sort of stuttering, and he's been very transparent about his heartfelt struggle of overcoming a stutter and how inspiring that is to all those living with one, you sort of had a way during the election being like, okay, yeah, he's old, but at this point, a white male corpse, we need that corpse to stay in office. That will be Trump. They'll vote for this white man. There's even a voter in Pennsylvania said that I'll vote for Biden's dead body over Trump. So that's kind of what we were white knuckling there. But now the reporting is coming out that Biden's inner Circle was covering up the fact he was out. He didn't have what it took. It's just crazy. But that makes me furious

 Olga Lautman (41:38):

Because this, you know what this is, this is classic scapegoating. Instead of Democrats sitting down quietly, not publicly hashing it out, quietly figuring out how do we one, improve our messaging, and two, get to the basic voters not a month before election day, but to the working people across the country throughout the time. And it should be from grassroots level. I mean, you fricking build a Biden approved the infrastructure plan. Every single Republican town is getting bridges and new roads and fricking Republicans who voted against it are saying, oh, look what we did. No, you didn't do it. You voted against the bill. And you should have Democrats locally in that town saying, this is the work of the president who's sitting in the office right now and then show from the government website the signatures, the votes to show that Republicans who are representing those constituents said, no, we are not approving this.

(42:38):

Hey, call infrastructure bill. And this is where, so Democrats need to work on messaging because like I said, they do a lot of good. And the two things that I personally, I'm not a political person at all, frankly, I don't like politics. National security is my foray. But they need to, one, clean up their messaging and two, speak with people, speak with the voters, don't speak at them, speak with them, connect with people. And again, it has to be done grassroots, not someone sitting in some kind of pacs in dc. It has to be regular Democrats in whether it's school boards or whether it's in local small towns saying, this is the work of our thing. And at the same time pointing out that everything that is going to happen as of yesterday is the work of Trump, because now you have a trifecta. And I don't care what happens in this country, if a bridge collapses, this is on Trump and that's it.

(43:39):

And Democrats need to make it very clear that this is Republicans and that's it. Because too many people are under the impression that Democrats have done nothing or too busy battling woke issues. I mean, what is woke about making sure that Medicare, that insulin is $35, which by the way, got repealed yesterday. So right now, if I was a Democrat, elected or unelected in any town, I'd be knocking on every senior citizen's home and saying, guess what, your $35 insulin no longer. Guess who repealed it? Here's the executive order. You could check for yourself. Same thing yesterday. I mean, not even one hour into the White House and Trump removed the White house.gov in Spanish. Every single Spanish person across this country should be infuriated. That why This is the first thing. We have wars raging. Trump is the one who painted the border is a mess. You have inflation through the roof, which is a lie. You have exit $10 $30, which soon will be with the bird flu that he's going to mismanage, but he's the one who painted all these emergency things. We have terrorists coming and this and that. The first thing they do is remove the Spanish language from the White House website. I mean, come on.

Andrea Chalupa (45:09):

I just want to say Elon Musk's hard on Nazi salute. Moving into the White House makes me wonder if we even get a free and fair election again. Maybe we'll have the pageantry of it and dictator Trump will get like 99% of the vote like dictators do.

 Olga Lautman (45:27):

It's up to us. People ask me after November, will Trump leave after four years? Trump will stay as long as we let him stay. It's up to us. We are the people. There are a handful of people compared to the 330 million people. You have 5 million people in this country who are dedicated to saving democracy. They will be out of there. If someone like Trump in Ukraine, if he even did a third of that, they would've chased him out. He would be running across the Russian border into Russia, will fricking save me with his little shirt on his back in a little suitcase. I mean, it's how much we allow him to get away with, and it's how much we allow them to get away with. I am confident Americans will rise. They just need to do it quicker rather than later. But also with Americans, I have a feeling that they'll be affected and start being active when it hits their household.

(46:27):

And then from there, I think if we allow him now to Reagan election, then stupid us. That's it. What can we do? I mean, if you have Moldova, who Russia is literally has a whole FSB unit for decades mean, and then under the Soviet Union, same thing, decades, I'll imagine taking a branch of the CIA focused specifically on a country, and all they do is try to bring it back into its sphere of influence and overtake Moldova. If Moldova can not only vote in a pro-Western president again, reelect her after Russia ran operations to buy votes. I mean, I can't even begin to tell you. I wrote several articles on the extensive operation that they ran in order to try one to stop mold over from putting into their constitution the referendum to go towards the eu. And two, because there was twofold. The second was two, they were trying to install their puppet president if Moldovans can do it.

(47:36):

And I mean their infrastructure is more weak. Their people are definitely more susceptible to brainwashing. And you saw it even by a close vote. It was half and half. Half wanted to move towards Russia, half wanted to move towards the eu. Luckily it was by several points that they decided the path towards eu, and now it's enshrined like Ukraine did over a decade ago to put EU into the Constitution. So if they could do it, we can do it. I mean, honestly, it is up to us. So this is why I'm confident because one, we are smarter. I mean, these people are frankly the most stupid group of people running around. Unfortunately, they were able to indoctrinate enough, but I mean, they're not bright at covering their trail. They do everything out in the open. So we don't need to convince anyone that Elon was doing a Nazi salute. You can watch it for yourself. And yes, there's whitewashing on Twitter. No, this wasn't, he has whatever...

Andrea Chalupa (48:45):

Including by the Anti-Defamation League.

 Olga Lautman (48:47):

Exactly. I mean, really the people who are supposed to protect against Nazis are sitting in covering for a Nazi because they have interest in the White House. But any other normal person would see this, even if they're not politically in tune, you show it to out of a hundred people, 99 people, even blank his face just to show the gesture. They'll be like, Ooh, that's a Nazi. That's it. So I mean, you could gaslight all you want. They're like, we see it. We are lucky in the fact that they're doing all of this out in the open.

Andrea Chalupa (49:31):

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(50:39):

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Andrea Chalupa