Rick Wilson & Michael Blanding

**Molly Jong-Fast** (0:00)
Hi, I'm Molly JongFast, and this is Fast Politics, where we discuss the top political headlines with some of today's best minds. And Mitt Romney says people 80 and above really shouldn't be running the world. We have such a great show for you today, back from vacation. The Lincoln Project's own Rick Wilson joins us to discuss Trump's bad math for getting the Save Act passed and Lindsey Graham's death. Then we'll talk to author Michael Blanding about his new book, The Gospel According to Hobby Lobby, Inside a Billionaire Family's Quest to Craft a Christian Nation. But first, the news.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:40)
So Molly, as we are people who've studied the fascist handbook, we could see that this was going to keep escalating, and Trump has subpoenaed people who report on foreign policy for The New York Times.

**Molly Jong-Fast** (0:55)
Yeah. So again, this is like typical AutoCrab 101 Donald Trump has subpoenaed three reporters from The New York Times. And again, the Justice Department has said it's just for the leaks, and it's not against the journalists, but we all know what this is. And he did it after Cash Patel went to the White House to work on this investigation. So not in the FBI, but instead in the White House. And these three journalists who were subpoenaed, actually there are four journalists who were subpoenaed, Julian Barnes, Eric Lipton, Tyler Pager, Eric Schmidt, all national security guys. And again, this is a hunt for leaks. And remember, this is the story of this Trump having to switch to the old Air Force One because the new Air Force One, which was a gift from the Qatari's, does not have the security features that the old one does. I would like to pause for a minute and just mention that you do not have to have wild national security information. You do not have to have invaded the SCEF to be able to understand that after a couple of weeks, the new Air Force One is not going to have the kind of security or a couple of months, the kind of security fittings that the old Air Force One had.
I mean, that's what's so insane about this story is like, that's hardly like a state secret, and so I do think that I see Trump World trying to crack down on journalism, trying to fight against the First Amendment. But I do think it's also worth pausing to realize this story is just a person with eyes would have this story. So as much as like, this is about leaks, this is about Trump being mad about leaks, this is also about Trump being mad that the writing about his new claim that he got from the Qataris, that he doesn't want people writing about.

**SPEAKER_2** (3:02)
So speaking of planes, one of the wonderfully stupid ways our tax dollars are being spent is Trump's DHS plans to launch its own 24-7 deportation airline.

**Molly Jong-Fast** (3:13)
What's funny about this story is that Donald Trump had a shuttle. Do you remember this? He had the Trump shuttle, which he couldn't keep in business, and it went from DC to New York. It's like Trump trying to do Trump's stakes. I mean, again, they can't make anything work, so they're going to spend more money doing it.

**SPEAKER_2** (3:36)
One of the top posts on Reddit this afternoon was how much state costs are publics now, and all these baggers getting really, really pissed about it today. So another thing of Trump's stakes coming back to life.

**Molly Jong-Fast** (3:48)
Yeah. I mean, next, he's going to do Trump branded water. I mean, it's just part of what happened here is that Trump World, they got the Supreme Court to basically say they could deport all of these people from Syria and from Somalia, who were here because they had been brought to their country because their lives were in danger in their home countries, and they were given this special status. Now, the Supreme Court has taken this status away, and in a decision that feels a lot like Dred Scott, the kind of decision that seems like it will someday be read in history books as a wrong decision. So Trump World now, and by Trump World, I mean Stephen Miller, is super psyched because he thinks he can get together, you know, he's going to be able to deport millions of people because, you know, the problem for Stephen Miller was he couldn't make the numbers because it was always the lie, right? They were always never as many illegals as they said they were. I mean, you have you have Trump people saying they're, you know, I mean, basically, it's a shorthand for anyone you don't like. So now they think they're going to be able to deport all these people. And so they want to start their own airline to do it just in incredibly yet another. And again, when you hear stories like this, it's important to remember, these people are very stupid. So as much as like it's corrupt, it's scary, it's autocracy, it's also just moronics.