Charlie Sykes & Nilay Patel

**Molly Jong-Fast** (0:00)
Hi, I'm Molly Jong-Fast, and this is Fast Politics, where we discuss the top political headlines with some of today's best minds. And US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick made over $250 million last year. Charlie Sykes stops by to talk about Trump continuing to ruin our country's economy. Then we'll talk to The Verge's Nilay Patel about the implications of Meta's unprecedented settlement for their app's addictive behavior. But first, the news.

**Jesse Cannon** (0:31)
So Molly, we finally have an admission of something we knew, which is one of the most common tropes over the Trump administration. Trump has told us why he's launching new vanity projects like a great, triumphal arch.

**Molly Jong-Fast** (0:43)
This is like we're in the dumbest moment in American history. So basically, Trump did this amazing interview with Ben Terrace from New York Magazine. At so many points, John Ossoff has said these like off the cuff things which have gotten Trump so crazy. Because remember, he is responsible for the Natalie Harp news cycle of two weeks ago too.
So basically, he said this thing, which is Trump is obsessed with building monuments to himself, quote, because no one will honor him when he's gone. And Trump responded, that's true.

**Jesse Cannon** (1:16)
It's also a dream team of this because Ben Terrace also gets some of the greatest admissions of things.

**Molly Jong-Fast** (1:22)
Yeah, he's a really good reporter.

**Jesse Cannon** (1:24)
He's responsible for the thing I think about all the time, Rod DeSantis staring at a flight for like over 12 hours at the back of the chair doing nothing.

**Molly Jong-Fast** (1:32)
Yeah, and he comes from the Washington Post, another like Bezos fucking up and losing him. But yeah, he's a really good reporter. And it's just a very interesting story. It's worth reading. It's in New York Magazine now. And then almost like clockwork, Doug Burgum, you may remember Doug Burgum as being, he was at one time the governor of North Dakota. One of the most interesting things I think about Doug Burgum is that Donald Trump picked him for Interior Secretary because he saw video of him and his, this is in the book, Regime Change, he saw video of him and his wife on horseback. That was it. And he like really thought the wife was hot.

**Jesse Cannon** (2:14)
Admittedly though, that's better than there were no posts left for Sean Duffy. So that's how he got his.

**Molly Jong-Fast** (2:20)
I mean, I would say like admittedly, nobody knows what the Secretary of the Interior does. So and he doesn't care what the Secretary of the Interior is supposed to do. I mean, people know what it is, but he doesn't know. But anyway, so but what Doug Burgum has basically done, has he's just been trying to give Trump what he wants. So on Friday, he announced that the Great Triumphal Arch is going to happen and that earlier in the week, the Supreme Court said that made it so it was virtually impossible to challenge the illegal construction of the $600 million ballroom. So I guess the administration decided they got the ballroom. Let's go.
I want to point out this is so dumb.

**Jesse Cannon** (3:00)
So Molly, how did you feel yesterday when you found out your favorite TV host Fox News' Maria Bartiromo, aka the Money Honey will no longer be on your favorite station, Fox News?

**Molly Jong-Fast** (3:12)
First of all, she's not on Fox News. She's on Fox Business.

**Jesse Cannon** (3:15)
That's a good point.

**Molly Jong-Fast** (3:16)
Do you know what the numbers are on that morning show?

**Jesse Cannon** (3:19)
Tell me.

**Molly Jong-Fast** (3:20)
She gets under 100,000 viewers.

**Jesse Cannon** (3:22)
That's the most of our YouTube videos.

**Molly Jong-Fast** (3:25)
It was weird firing, right?
She did her Thursday show and then that was it. She just disappeared. So, it was almost immediately reported by Oliver Darcy at Status, and good for him, yet another amazing Oliver Darcy scoop, that she had been fired for leaking to the White House the Fox News guidance on the election. And basically, Trump did this speech. He said the election was stolen, the 2020 election. Fox News issued guidance immediately. A lot of times, news stations issue guidance with breaking news, and they'll say something to the effect of, you know, like, you need to fact check this, or you need to do this, or you need to do that. It's pretty common. But remember, Fox News had been sued for millions and millions of dollars by Dominion voting. So, this made sense that this might happen. And she, instead of heeding the guidance, she immediately sent the guidance over to the White House. I think it's possible that Maria ends up in the press shop at the White House. I think that's possible. I also think it's just a great example of the ways in which people try to suck up to Trump and ruin their own lives.