E105: Tech culture wars: Elon vs. SBF, Sabotaging Republicans with Trump

**Chamath Palihapitiya** (0:00)
Can I tell you a funny story? So I was in...
I was in... And then when I landed, there was an assistant message on the plane, and then the pilot text me like, hey, bad news, we're not going to be able to take you to... tomorrow.
There's an error message, and if we can't resolve it, we can't fly. I said, okay. So I text Sacks, I'm like, hey, dude, I'm in a really tough spot. Is there any way that I could catch a flight with you tomorrow? Absolute dead silence. Three hours later, pilot Paul texts me and says, good news, we're going tomorrow. I text Sacks right away, hey, no worries, it's all resolved. In eight seconds, he responds, awesome, with an exclamation mark.
Also, he had zero intention of bringing me and my family with him. Zero.

**David Sacks** (0:53)
I filibustered.

**Jason Calacanis** (0:54)
He filibustered.

**David Sacks** (0:57)
No, the truth is, the plane was with me, I was using it. I'd be happy to let you borrow the plane if I'm not using it.

**Jason Calacanis** (1:01)
Here's Sacks the last time we went to dinner. Ready? The check comes, Miller and Lux lands on the table. Here's Sacks.
What you're seeing, see that?
You know what that is? Sacks going for his wallet. You can just count it.

**David Sacks** (1:12)
It's ironic because I can't remember the last time you picked up a check, J Cal.

**Jason Calacanis** (1:17)
What do you every time I pick it up on the way in?

**David Sacks** (1:19)
Maybe for a slice of pizza.

**David Friedberg** (1:22)
Sacks is one of the most generous people I know.

**Chamath Palihapitiya** (1:24)
I remember we went to a bar once.
We barely had time to get a glass of still water, a diet coke, and some of the free nuts, and then J Cal was like, guys, it's on me. But we had to leave it.

**Jason Calacanis** (1:37)
That's true.

**David Sacks** (1:38)
My turn, my turn.

**Jason Calacanis** (1:39)
I got it, my turn.

**David Sacks** (1:44)
Chamath, you got the white truffles and the filet mignon last week. I think these bar nuts are on me.
It's only fair. Yeah, throw in some cashews too. Throw in the cashews and raisins, the trail mix. I'll get the trail mix because you got the truffles last time, Chamath.

**Jason Calacanis** (2:19)
Alright everybody, welcome to the All In Podcast. We're still here, episode 105 I don't know if you saw, boys, last week, the pod hit a new high-water mark, 16th overall in the world. So congratulations.

**Chamath Palihapitiya** (2:33)
That's incredible.

**David Sacks** (2:33)
I thought we peaked at 14, actually.

**Jason Calacanis** (2:35)
Was it 14?

**David Sacks** (2:36)
14, yeah.

**David Friedberg** (2:36)
People listen to this pod.

**Chamath Palihapitiya** (2:38)
When I was in DC this week, I had a bunch of meetings, and so many of the staffers listened to the pod. And they came up to me, they're like, hey, love you guys, listen every week. It's really crazy, actually, the reach of this thing.
It's really cool.

**Jason Calacanis** (2:52)
Now, when you were in DC, how gleeful were they about Sacks' absolute shellacking last week? That must have been high fives all over. The Dems, like, they won twice.
Trump announced and Sacks lost.

**Chamath Palihapitiya** (3:05)
Listen, we talked a lot about-

**David Sacks** (3:07)
How nervous are they about SBF and how much money he gave them in order to stop that red wave?

**Chamath Palihapitiya** (3:15)
I talked to a lot of folks, and what I would say is we talked a lot about energy policy, life science is obviously two areas that I invest a lot of money in, and foreign policy. Actually, David, you'd be surprised by how many fans you have there.

**David Sacks** (3:29)
Well, I mean, like General Milley, like we talked about last week, he's come around. Jake Sullivan just this week said that he told the Ukrainians it was reported that they can't have Crimea back, get realistic.
So Jake Sullivan and Milley are like the voices of reason now in the administration on this, and they're just saying the same thing I've been saying, for which I was excoriated by the foreign policy establishment. I got into a little Twitter spat with Ian Bremner this week, because all of a sudden he posted, oh, everybody has been privately saying that we need to negotiate.
No, you haven't. You were criticizing, you were denouncing Elon as a Kremlin agent when he posted that Twitter poll suggesting that the Ukrainians should negotiate. So you were publicly denouncing those of us who were calling for negotiations, and now all of a sudden you're saying, well, this has always been the position. But I think what's significant about that is the guy is just a weathervane for the blob and the foreign policy establishment. And so the weathervane is now pointing towards negotiations. So that's the good news here.