#454 – Saagar Enjeti: Trump, MAGA, DOGE, Obama, FDR, JFK, History & Politics

**Lex Fridman** (0:00)
The following is a conversation with Saagar Enjeti, his second time in the podcast. Saagar is a political commentator, journalist, co-host of Breaking Points with Krystal Ball, and of The Realignment Podcast with Marshall Koslov. Saagar is one of the most well-read people I've ever met. His love of history and the wisdom gained from reading thousands of history books radiates through every analysis he makes of the world. In this podcast, we trace out the history of the various ideological movements that led up to the current political moment. In doing so, we mention a large number of amazing books. We'll put a link to them in the description for those interested to learn more about each topic. And now, a quick few second mention of each sponsor. Check them out in the description. It's the best way to support this podcast. We got 8 Sleep for naps, AG1 for health, Element for hydration, BetterHelp for the mind, Shopify for the wallet and NetSuite for your business. Choose wisely, my friends. Also, if you want to get in touch with me, for a multitude of reasons, go to lexfridman.com/contact. And now, on to the full ad reads. I try to make them interesting, but if you skip them, please still check out our sponsors. I enjoy their stuff. Maybe you will too. This episode is brought to you by 8 Sleep, and it's Pod 4 Ultra. I'm going to try a new thing, where I hold on to a theme as I talk about these ads. I use 8 Sleep and the Pod 4 Ultra to cool the bed. And since Saagar knows pretty much more than anybody I've ever met about the various US presidents and presidential politics and the history of politics in the US., let me mention a little factoid. Did you know that the White House didn't get air conditioning until 1933 under Hoover, who funded it just before leaving office for FDR? So all that praise that Saagar gives to FDR, just remember, maybe it wouldn't be possible without the cool, fresh air that Hoover gave to the great FDR. And that in fact, and I'm not sure why I'm using this voice in talking, but that in fact is essential for sleep, controlling the temperature of the bed, controlling the temperature of the sleeping environment. There you go. The more you know. Go to asleep.com/lex and use code Lex to get up to $600 off your Pot 4 Ultra purchase when bundled. That's asleep.com/lex. This episode is brought to you by AG1. Basically a nice multivitamin that's also delicious. I drink that drink every day. It makes me feel like I have my life together, which I barely do. Now, speaking of drinks that you believe make you feel better, you know, placebo effect, that kind of thing. Here's a little presidential themed factoid. John Adams drank hard cider every morning, believing it promoted good health. I would love to get like a health advice podcast with Winston Churchill.
Another president, William Howard Taft, had the White House kitchen prepare special protein shakes made from eggs, milk and beef extract. I would love the dietary details of some of the presidents. I'm sure a bunch of them just smoked and drank and, you know, had their own like little habits that serve as a kind of escape from the madness of the world. Anyway, get AG1 and they will give you one month supply of fish oil when you sign up at www.drinkag1.com/lex.
This episode is also brought to you by Element, my daily zero sugar and delicious electrolyte mix. And here I have to return again to the presidents who consumed various kinds of liquids. Did you know that Thomas Jefferson spent $11,000 on wine during his presidency? And we're not talking about quality here. We are in fact talking about quantity. That's equivalent to about $300,000 in today's money. Whatever works, it's like that meme that there's a perfect optimal amount of alcohol that makes you productive in programming. I have never found that optimal. Actually, if I have a drink, my productivity and my clarity of thinking and my creativity all go down. Now, I start enjoying the social interactions more and more because I am fundamentally an introvert that have anxiety about social interaction. So that helps. But in terms of productivity or creative juices or whatever, nope. Anyway, you can get a sample pack for free with any purchase. Just try it at www.drinklmnt.com/lex. This episode is also brought to you by BetterHelp, spelled H-E-L-P, help. They figure out what you need and match it with a licensed therapist in under 48 hours. And there's actually quite a lot of presidents that really struggled with anxiety, with depression, with all kinds of complicated mental states. Coolidge, for example, fell into a deep depression after his son died from blood poisoning. And that changed him forever, actually. It's difficult to come back from that. John Quincy Adams somewhat famously kept extremely detailed diary for 68 years, often writing sort of a detailed analysis and almost like log of his mental states. That's an interesting thing to do, actually. I don't do that enough. I speak it. I don't write it down. Perhaps, there's some magic in writing it down. But there is, with BetterHelp, also magic in speaking it with a professional. Check them out at betterhelp.com/lex and save on your first month. That's betterhelp.com/lex. This episode is also brought to you by Shopify, a platform designed for anyone to sell anywhere with a great-looking online store. So, Abraham Lincoln actually owned a general store. And he has famously written that he wished he had Shopify. It would be much more convenient. Anyway, he had a general store that failed. So, you know, sometimes you need the right job for the right man that managed to be made and everything else is not going to work out. I sold shoes, women's shoes at Sears, kind of like Al Bundy for Married with Children, if you know the show, and, you know, I did okay. But I think it wasn't quite the right fit for me. You know, I was quite technically savvy and knew about computers and I said, I should probably be selling electronics and computers. And they said, yes, yes, yes, one day you will, but now we need helping shoes. So let's start you there. And if I stayed there for many more years, perhaps I would have upgraded to electronics. But then I also saw the beauty in selling women's shoes. There was a real joy in finding the right match for the right person. And that joy can be scaled significantly with Shopify. Sign up for a $1 per month trial period at shopify.com/lex. That's all lowercase. Go to shopify.com/lex to take your business to the next level today. This episode is brought to you by NetSuite, an all in one cloud business management system. Ulysses S. Grant, the famed general, kept extremely detailed expense accounts, recording every single penny he spent. Now, rigor, attention to detail, obsession with detail, financial detail is important. But, you know, if you have the right tool for the job, that's made easier. I would love to kind of throw some of these people, some of these leaders, some of these brilliant minds from history into the modern world that is digitized. I think a lot of them would actually be destroyed by it. Because the machine of distraction will pull them away from the focus you can more easily attain in a non-technological world. And some of them, I think, will become even more super productive. So it will be really interesting. And there's been a lot of presidents that kind of pushed the White House and government in general into the direction of great record keeping from George Washington, to Carter, to FDR, as Saagar talks a lot about. Anyway, all that is in the realm of politics, but the realm of business in many ways is the same, especially when the government is working well. So NetSuite is for business. In fact, over 37,000 companies have upgraded to NetSuite. Take advantage of their flexible financing plan at netsuite.com/lex. That's netsuite.com/lex.