Mike Johnson Can't Be This Stupid - David Cay Johnston

Added: 2026-06-01

[00:00:00]Let's just talk politics here. What does this mean for you and the midterms because I know this consumes your thoughts a lot.

[00:00:08]>> Yeah, it's it's a big thing. Obviously, we've done a lot of work. The big beautiful bill, the working families tax cut, all of our legislation has been geared towards the cost of living, affordability, bringing the cost of living down. We put in all those conditions in the economy to let it take off like a rocket. And we were doing that at the beginning of the first quarter and then the Iran skirmish began. So, when this settles out, gas prices come back down to earth. That means your grocery prices come down again because of transport costs and all the rest. It's going to be a big factor.

[00:00:32]The kitchen table issues are going to decide the midterms.

[00:00:34]>> Can those things come down in time to help you out in the midterm?

[00:00:37]>> Yes, we got plenty of runway. We have better candidates. We have a fundraising advantage. We're super excited about the midterms. I'm absolutely convinced that we're going to grow the majority and we'll get this done and make history.

[00:00:47]>> Talk about blowing sunshine.

[00:00:51]>> Go ahead, David. Well, um, you know, the one big beautiful bill is a bill to mine your and my pockets and everyone who's watching this show and redistribute money to the superw wealthy. I mean, we are literally borrowing money and paying interest so that people like Jeff Bezos can pay less in taxes.

[00:01:12]And that's that's crazy. I don't know how else to describe that. If if you were trying to come out of a recession, Keynesian economics would say the government should borrow money and spend it to revive the economy and keep it going. There's something in economics called accounting identities. They don't change and it would dictate Keynesian economics, which you know, as Richard Nixon said more than a half century ago, we're all Keynesians now. But that's not what they're doing. They are reordering the American economy to provide more for those who already have more than enough and put the rest of us in a position of struggling. Where's the job growth? It's not there. Where are the increased exports? They're not there. And by the way, the US dollar has lost more than 11% of its value in the last year.

[00:02:00]uh that means that American exports should be selling more because they're less expensive and we should be buying fewer imports. The exact opposite is happening. And who is a the single biggest beneficiary of these ridiculous ideologically based policies that are misdescribed in economic terms by Mike Johnson, Beijing? I mean, it's it's almost as if they the the the Beijing government was paying these people or educating these people to see things in ways that damage the United States.

[00:02:33]You know, you make a point just a few minutes ago about the uh hot war that China hasn't been in really. And it reminds me of something that I've always just felt so very strongly about, which is that soft power is real power, economic power is real power. And what you're saying essentially is, yeah, China's just been able to sit there and continue that machine of economic dominance and now they're going to surpass the US.

[00:02:57]>> Well, and they're, look at the smart things that they're doing. They're building ports and they're doing it in a way that is indebting poor countries to them to increase their power. Do not think about this as benign. This is very malign on China's part. They are buying up land and water rights in Africa.

[00:03:18]And that's because not only do you have a man with a doctoral degree at the head of the government in China, but he is surrounded by highly educated men. And by the way, I don't see any top women adviserss uh they're almost all men uh in China. But they they don't think in terms of the fall elections because it's a communist dictatorship. They don't think in terms of six months from now.

[00:03:42]They don't even think in terms of 2030 or 2050. They think like the Vatican.

[00:03:48]We're here forever.

[00:03:50]And it totally guides the where they're getting. And we don't we don't do that.

[00:03:54]And we do that as things as simple as the suburb I live in immediately outside of Rochester. I live five blocks outside of Rochester. We're about to undertake a multi-million dollar project to rebuild the road in the center of our little town called 12 Corners because of the way this roads crisscross.

[00:04:11]And they're going to do the same cheapkate job we always do. So the potholes will be gone, but they'll be back in five years when we could build a road where there would be no potholes 50 years from now. But god forbid we spend the money today for the long-term benefit. The Chinese are doing that.

[00:04:27]their highways, their water projects, their sewer projects, their electric grid, their movement to solar. All of these are being done longterm and they're just going to run right past us because people keep listening to this nonsense from people like Mike Johnson and Ted Cruz and Donald Trump and thinking, "Oh, yeah. Yeah, we're we're going to we're all going to prosper.

[00:04:50]It's going to be a golden age in America. You know, it's going to be a platinum age for people at the very top.

[00:04:55]for the rest of us uh more like lead.

[00:04:59]>> It's America first delusion I think that somehow excludes what you're talking about like the belt and road initiatives in Africa etc and worldwide you know so so you're right it's the Chinese economy but as it's played out in all of these places as you say with a presence such a robust presence in a rich continent like Africa I mean rich in resources and manpower it's it's an extraordinary thing that America has turned its back on In some places, Mark, the Chinese, not all of them are stepping in in the humanitarian area where we were. And all of those people who lost their children or their parents or their siblings because we literally burned medications, we literally burned birth control devices like condoms and IUDs, and we literally burned food because of Donald Trump and and Elon Musk. Those people are going to hate us in the same way that people in the south of Lebanon, even if they hate Hezbollah, are going to hate the Israelis because of the way that Netanyahu is handling this.

[00:06:08]We we need I we we we need to get more be more mature. I mean, we have look, we have great relations with Japan.

[00:06:15]Think where we were in in 1940s.

[00:06:18]Um, we have great relations with Vietnam of all places. And even though we dropped more bombs in in the Vietnam and its neighboring countries, then were dropped in World War II.

[00:06:31]And we can repair relationships even with a country whose leaders scream that we're the Great Satan and need to be destroyed. But you don't achieve that through slap dash incompetent warfare and not listening to the generals and admirals.

[00:06:47]the military planners who have gamed this out seven ways to heaven and have always come back with the same conclusion. You can't take out the regime in Tran unless I I don't know they literally said this, but I'm pretty sure they would. You do you follow the POW doctrine. You get all the countries of the world together. You get a huge army of a half a million or so people and you strike. And that's not going to happen because Donald has turned off our enemies and all around the world. This is people should really think about this one. All around the world, the countries that were primarily trading with us are slowly drifting away and are primarily trading now with China. And the economic consequences of that are going to be profound and long lasting, including China wants very much to get the dollar out as the world's reserve currency.

[00:07:39]Even if it's the euro instead of the yuan, the remnibi, the China benefits by knocking the US out of that position.

[00:07:46]And we're already beginning to see trade in oil that is not in dollars, which has been the absolute standard now for the uh the whole post-war era.

[00:07:57]>> Well, the toll that they're talking about or the environmental fee that they're talking about through this trade, will not be paid in dollars.

[00:08:03]It'll be paid in crypto. It'll be paid in a number of other and Chinese currency is is one of those things. uh you know >> we don't need markets more real dollars buying fake dollars called crypto >> right but crypto as you know is a big part of this administration I mean you know I never thought it possible that the US government could weigh in in such a big way I mean he's actually devoted hundreds of millions of federal dollars into the into the crypto world as well by the way just a quick follow that Ebola that has broken out in Africa because you mentioned Africa and you and you talked about um the humanitarian effort that even tepid though it might be compared to what the American effort was by the Chinese, it does exist. You know, we turned our back on all of those Ebola experts. They were dismissed in mass firings with Doge first came in into this country and uh USAD shut down.

[00:08:52]I mean, this is now having a real world effect in Africa with this Ebola outbreak.

[00:08:57]>> Well, what you're seeing is a government of the stupid and by the stupid on behalf of the smart rich. And you know, Donald Trump doesn't understand anything. it it's a complete conj job and his own statements tell you that the the secondary problem though is that the congress is utterly failing to do its duty. You know the constitution's very clear the president is the errand boy who does what congress says and we have completely turned that around and that's not just a Trump problem. That's a problem that's been building for a long long time. The news business plays a role in this. Um, it is it is a profound and fundamental problem of governance. And we have far too many people who say, "I don't care. I don't want to be involved in government. I don't care about government." Well, then you don't want to live in a democracy because you're not going to live in a democracy unless you stand up for the democracy.

[00:09:52]>> Uh, over the weekend, David, there was a gunman at the White House. Uh, I say at the White House. Tony, put the map up because it wasn't really at the White House, but look >> at the executive office building.

[00:10:04]>> Yeah, you can see there. It's It's quite some distance. On the left of your picture, >> you can see the White House with the elliptical lawn at the very bottom.

[00:10:12]>> Yeah, we've got a circle around it now, the White House. And then the red dot >> is the old executive office building, sometimes called the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, where the Office of Management and Budget and a lot of other things are. That building is so solidly built that it would cost more to tear it down than it would be worth to replace it. It's going to be there a thousand years from now. But there's an outer perimeter around the White House now as a result of 9/11. And this young man started apparently walking back and forth on the sidewalk and there are facial recognition cameras everywhere. They no doubt picked him out very quickly. I'm frankly surprised he was able to reach into the bag he was carrying, pull out the pistol, and get off three shots before they uh shot him to death. Uh, and of course, there's a another party who was hurt, an innocent bystander. We I don't think it's still been released whether that shot was fired by him or was fired by the Secret Service. Um, but there was never any possibility this young man would get anywhere near the White House and endanger the president.

[00:11:17]>> Yeah. I mean he was well known to the secret service. He thought he was Jesus Christ and uh made statements to that effect. Now immediately the conversation pivoted on the part of the president and those who support him uh who they're not small in number in in America and in Washington about the ballroom and we need a ballroom to protect the president. I don't understand first of all there's a rational disconnect there.

[00:11:45]Why is a is a president going to be living in the ballroom? Why do why why is the ballroom so critical here? I mean, are we going to tear down the rest of the White House and he's just going to be in the ballroom all the time so he'll be protected? It was insanity.

[00:11:58]>> Policy arguments for stupid people who don't think two seconds. I mean, if the president's never going to leave the White House compound, I might have a different view about this. And remember, Trump said in 15 and 16, I'm going to be so working so hard for the American people. I'm never going to leave. I'm never going to play golf. I'm gonna be there every single day, seven days a week, and never leave because I have this work to do. Uh, no. It's just it's a nonsense argument for a horrible, gaudy, disgusting project, which however much of it gets built, um, I'm perfectly willing to pay a sir tax, and I suspect you would be too, for our share of tearing that thing down and tearing down his 250 foot Arc de Trump at the uh, Arlington National Cemetery, which I don't know many people know this. My my father-in-law and my mother-in-law are there. Um, uh, Arlington was the, uh, was farmland owned by Jefferson Davis, the or Robert Lee, one of >> Roberty Lee. Yeah, >> Roberty Lee, the West Point graduate traitor who led the military for the Confederacy.

[00:13:04]And, you know, I'm glad that we took his land and we we, you know, turned it into >> he couldn't he couldn't make the payments. I think, as I recall, ultimately he was under underwater.

[00:13:14]That's why the government could just swing in and take it. Yeah.

[00:13:16]>> AB: Absolutely. And and we But putting up this arc at the entrance, which is means if you're at the if you're standing at it, you turn around, you'll see the backside of the Lincoln Memorial. All of this is Donald Trump basically, you know, doing what a dog does when it lifts its leg on a fire hydrant. It's marking his territory. He wants this to be Trumpville in Trump nation in Planet Trump.

[00:13:42]>> Yeah. We had a couple of cuts from people who feel similarly Kim, you have that uh arch cut. Uh there is what it's supposed to look like. That's an artist rendering. It's the biggest arch in the world, of course, because that's the only kind of stuff he does. Kim, do you Here is a again, this is from CNN.

[00:13:58]>> Yeah.

[00:13:58]>> This view, the Lincoln Memorial would be to your back. In front is the memorial bridge and the Arlington National Cemetery. There is a a a beautiful uh building that sits on the top of the hill that is essentially a monument to it. It is in honor of our nation's fallen veterans. And those hillsides uh are are dotted. You'll see white dots on those hillsides with the tombstones. My family was honored that my grandfather was laid to rest and my grandmother were laid to rest there just a few weeks ago.

[00:14:33]It is unmistakable how the cemetery and everything that it means is the imagery that you are left that you sit with. Um, and I have thought now that my my grandfather is there that instead of seeing the things that are there to honor him and everyone like him who's given so much for our country, it's going to look like this instead. That's what you're going to see in in in the line of of view. Now, you can argue about what our nation's priorities should be, can be. I want to play what the president said about who the arch is for.

[00:15:13]>> Thank you. Thank you guys.

[00:15:15]>> That was Ed O'Keefe of CBS and he asks, "Who is it for?" And the president says, "Me." In this view, >> okay, so uh that gives you a sense that I think sentiments run strong on this, David, but it does appear as though they're going to build this damn thing.

[00:15:31]Well, he's apparently broken ground.

[00:15:33]There's at least one TV report where a reporter went out with a camera crew and they've broken it looks like they've broken ground. It might be for something else, but that appears to be the case.

[00:15:41]Yeah, we're going to have a draft dodgers monument in front of this hallowed ground. I it is it well to you and me it's beyond disgusting. Of course, to Donald this all makes perfect sense. People really need to understand that Donald does not have the sort of normal um controls on ourselves that other people have. Whatever he does is right because he's Donald and he's special. And and since I first met him back in 1988, that was one of the things that struck me was this this this narcissism at a level where before he was president, I used to say that Donald has delusions of grandeur. Given that he got to the White House twice, it's a little hard to make the argument that grandour but certainly in terms of his competence and capability, the delusions of grandeur and and this is this is disgusting. We've seen a number of retired military people make uh PSA type videos and and uh YouTube and other videos. And I think there needs to be a much louder protest to this to because this is one of the few issues on which I suspect the Republicans in Congress can be stirred to stop this.

[00:16:55]>> Well, there's push back on the ballroom and >> to that extent, you know, they apparently can find some push back on something that the president has repeatedly articulated that he wants there. Tony's got another kind of a aerial view of uh again this is an artist conception of what it would look like and uh and play play David cut eight. This is Bill Cassidy who's a Republican and of course you know not a well >> yeah lame doc now he can say a lot more.

[00:17:25]Uh this is Bill Cassidy on the ballroom push back. So there is push back there and there's also what you talk about which is you know no plan presented no real architecture for all this crap about it being the best architects the best planners. Go ahead, Tony.

[00:17:40]>> There's no architectural plans.

[00:17:43]There is no environmentals. There's no engineering.

[00:17:47]There's no uh sense of when we ask how did it happen to cost exactly a billion.

[00:17:54]In my mind, that is it could cost a lot less. It could cost a lot more. I I I just don't get it.

[00:18:03]>> So, that's a little bit of the push back and you're getting more of it now.

[00:18:08]David, it's funny that they they find their way to pushing back on this ballroom thing. How do you game this out?

[00:18:16]>> Well, as soon as the last primary is over, which I believe will be in June, we may see a few Republicans discover at least part of their spines because they're not at risk of being primared out. And in the states where they're already over, uh, as with Bill Cassidy, although he was really seriously voted out, um, you're seeing some people push back a little bit on Donald Trump, but there is absolutely no question that Donald Trump controls the Republican party. Uh, he doesn't he doesn't have 100% unity behind him. He doesn't need it.

[00:18:50]There's low voter turnout in primaries and he just needs to get his base to turn out. And uh the the historians will look back on this era as an example of how the framers of our constitution and there was Adam Liptac had an excellent front page story in the New York Times about this on Monday when a lot of people didn't see the paper because of the Memorial Day holiday which started out as decoration day and was invented by black soldiers from the Civil War. um about how the founders thought, well, we'll get honorable men in the White House, and if we don't, we have this impeachment provision, and it didn't work. U impeachments of presidents don't work because the two-thirds majority in the Senate to convict. And the the framers just didn't see the prospect of having a crazy criminal in the White House. And that's what Donald is. He's both crazy and he's a lifelong criminal.

[00:19:49]the third generation head of a four generation white collar crime family.

[00:19:53]And th this is really causing us massive global damage damage in our own country.

[00:20:02]Um and the failure of the Republicans in Congress to stand up hopefully will be punished by the voters as it should be in November.

[00:20:10]Um, and I think you may see a fair number of people running like George Conway, uh, the lawyer, the conservative lawyer in Washington who wants to get elected to Congress and says, "I'm going to serve two terms, uh, if I can get in.

[00:20:22]One, so that we can impeach Donald Trump and and remove him and put a stop to what he's doing if we can't succeed in getting him convicted. And the second to change the laws and fix them so that when we get another crazy person in the White House, we can corral what they're doing."

[00:20:39]>> Yeah. I mean, we definitely need to open the hood on this is before I lose you, I want to just quickly visit the J6 government checks that might be going out and the ridiculousness of this. I thought there was a pretty good NPR report on this. I'll play a little bit of it. Cut seven, Tony, just to set the stage and then I want to get your thoughts, please.

[00:20:59]>> On January 6th, riers caused around $3 million worth of damage to the US capital.

[00:21:04]>> THIS IS OUR HOUSE.

[00:21:08]THESE videos all came from exhibits presented by prosecutors in court. At NPR, we reviewed thousands of these videos and they show how people didn't just smash windows and doors to storm the building. They also used the riot to steal stuff.

[00:21:22]>> Yo, take laptops. Take the work. Take everything. HEY, HELP YOURSELVES, GUYS.

[00:21:26]The house of the house >> and party smoke in the capital, boys.

[00:21:32]>> One rier told me it was like a bunch of frat bros stormed the capital. People smoked and got drunk and high.

[00:21:39]>> Oh, smoking weed in the [ __ ] >> time to smoke weed in here.

[00:21:44]>> The damage was not just inside the building. Outside, riers destroyed cameras from the media.

[00:21:50]>> [ __ ] traitors.

[00:21:52]>> Get the [ __ ] out of here.

[00:21:55]>> Get the [ __ ] OUT OF HERE. Convicted riers were supposed to pay restitution to help with the cost of fixing the capital, but when President Trump issued mass pardons for the defendants, they no longer >> Yeah, they no longer have to. And of course, now they'll get uh this compensation. Many have already applied for it. In fact, David, this will totally make your head explode real quick. Cut seven. This is uh is it cut seven? No, I'm sorry. Cut six, excuse me. This is one of those riers. He's already computed his number. Go ahead.

[00:22:29]>> Everybody just hacked on that door, ripped it open and started raiding in.

[00:22:33]Purther was tear gas. He started hitting the batons.

[00:22:36]>> You did between prison and jail about 3 years.

[00:22:39]>> Correct. Yep. I was arrested 10 days after January 6th.

[00:22:42]>> So, how much do you think the US government owes you?

[00:22:46]>> So, the number I've put in is $30 million. I came out to a figure of 20,000 per day. Brandon Fellows was convicted of felony and misdemeanor charges for his actions at the capital on January 6. The charges were dismissed after he was pardoned by President Trump last year, even before the DOJ announced a so-called anti-weaponization fund, a $ 1.776 billion fund for people who claim they were unfairly targeted by the federal government. People like Brandon Fellows were already looking for a payout and now he's feeling confident.

[00:23:18]>> $30 million.

[00:23:20]>> Yes. Now, here's the thing, though. It's kind of a negotiation. That's what I want. But then I'm open to talk according to open to talk and also my knowledge of January 16.

[00:23:30]>> That's a little bit of the uh of of of a window into that crew. Many of whom, you know, have stars in their eyes when it comes to a settlement. You know, in some of the red states, not all of them, but some of them, if you're wrongfully convicted of a crime and you're eventually exonerated, unquestionably exonerated, you're entitled to exactly nothing.

[00:23:51]This is not about uh well, it's about it's about two things. It's about demonstrating that Donald Trump can do any damn thing he wants. And remember, he said in the first term, I have an article two of the Constitution. I have an article two that says I can do anything I want. And folks, it's 740 words. Go read it. It's says nothing like that. It's not in a million miles of that. And then secondly, this is about ensuring that he has his own private militia of criminals who will go out and commit crimes on his behalf.

[00:24:25]And there will be more violence by these people uh going forward. Uh this is what happens when your democracy is taken over by a dictator who thinks only about himself and and that's people really need to understand that's Donald thinks about he'll talk about some big big issue but as he said with the 250 foot tall arch right it's for me of course it's for him uh and and people just absolutely need to need to recognize that. Um, so it things are are are uh well, it's the title of my middle book in the Trump trilogy. It's even worse than you think.

[00:25:11]>> I love that title. I've always >> It seems so right at the time, and it may be more right than ever at this moment, David. Uh, yeah, there there is shock troops, and they're going to be paid or the promise of payment will keep them in the game. I think that's the way they could work as well, David, by not necessarily, you know, sending a few checks out, getting some paid, but I think the pot of gold he'll take with him. I don't know this, I base all of this on you. What you say about Trump is that, you know, he's not there to write checks to other people. He's right there to take the checks for himself. So, I think the promise will be there.

[00:25:46]>> Let me leave you if I can with one other thought here.

[00:25:51]>> Um, oh crumb, just went out of my head. I'm sorry. That's a trouble. Well, let me just then let me pitch that you do an updated version of it's E worse than you think. You know, updated for uh you know a part duh.

[00:26:06]>> Yeah. I don't think I can stomach writing a fourth four and a half Trump books because I wrote half of my very first book back in 1992 was about Donald and and the fraud of um casino regulation in New Jersey. that >> sure see all these things where he he just flouted the law and you know like having 12-y olds gambling in his casinos and giving him credit and liquor and limousines. They're 12 because they have money to gamble and he thinks nothing there's nothing wrong with that. Um anyway, we'll uh >> we'll we'll we'll we'll reconnect and huddle again next week.

[00:26:41]>> Of course, as soon as I get off the air what it was I was >> you can ping me and I'll I'll relate it to everybody. David K. Johnson, everyone. Hi, it's Mark and I thought that was great. Hit the notification bell, you'll know whenever there's a new video being dropped.