Oct. 31, 2025

‘Knock-Off Versailles’: Gavin Newsom Torches Trump’s $300M White House Ballroom as Trump Rants About Magnets

Show Notes
Transcript

California Governor Gavin Newsom is unloading on President Donald Trump’s 90,000-square-foot, bulletproof, $300 million White House ballroom — calling it a “knock-off Versailles” and blasting Trump for building a private palace on the ruins of the East Wing while millions lose federal food assistance during his shutdown. We lay out what this ballroom actually is (think mega-gilded state hall, capacity 600+ and funded by big donors, after Trump bulldozed a historic part of the White House) and why Newsom says he’s now “seriously” looking at a 2028 run. Then: Trump went to an aircraft carrier in Japan and delivered a wild rant about how “water destroys magnets,” promised an executive order to force the Navy back to steam catapults because he doesn’t trust electromagnetic launch systems, and claimed tractors prove he’s right — even though those same “magnets” are literally used in MRI machines, including the MRI the White House won’t explain. The Commander-in-Chief is redesigning $13 billion carriers based on “a glass of water on the magnets,” and the governor of California is comparing his taste to pre-revolution French royalty. Welcome to Friday.

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Caalaroga shark media.

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From Washington, DC, where magnets run on fire. This is ballid,

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that's right, and it's too bad.

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There is no way to waterproof a magnet other than

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it just being, you know, a magnet. I'm Patrick Gutfield.

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Remember when the president was a really old guy who

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would get confused a lot and seemed older and older

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the longer he was president. Yeah, he defeated Joe Biden

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in the last election. Donald Trump gave a speech on

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an aircraft carrier in Japan where he explained his theory

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that water destroys magnets, and the entire Navy had to

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stand there and listen to this. The seventy nine year

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old president was aboard the USS George Washington talking to

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troops when he launched into a rambling tirade against modern technology. Specifically,

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he's very upset about magnetic catapults on aircraft carriers. These

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are the systems that launched planes off the deck at

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high speed, and they're used on the newest carriers because

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they're faster and more efficient than the old steam powered ones.

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But Trump has a problem with magnets, a big problem.

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He stood in front of the Navy and said, you know,

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the new thing is magnets. So instead of using hydraulic

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that can be hit by lightning, and it's fine. You

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take a little glass of water, you drop it on magnets.

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I don't know what's going to happen. Let me repeat that.

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The President of the United States said he doesn't know

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what happens when you put water on a magnet, which

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is concerning since magnets have been around for two thousand

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years and are used in Oh. I don't know every

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piece of modern technology, including the MRI.

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Machine he just had.

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Trump then stumbled over his words, failed to complete a

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coherent sentence, and asked the troops whether they preferred hydraulics

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or magnets, which is not a question anyone was asking.

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Then he called out to a top ranking general for

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his opinion before announcing I'm going to sign an executive order.

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When we build aircraft carriers, its steamed for the catapults

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and it's hydraulic for the elevators. We'll never have a problem.

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So the President wants to redesign thirteen billion dollar aircraft

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carriers based on his deep misunderstanding of how magnets work.

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This isn't new Trump's been waging war against magnets for

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at least eighteen months. In August, he suggested that the

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global reliance on magnets was a conspiracy orchestrated by China, saying,

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China intelligently went and they sort of took a monopoly

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of the world's magnets, and nobody needed magnets until they

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convinced everybody twenty years ago, let's all do magnets. There

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were many other ways that the world could have gone,

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except magnets were first used by the Chinese in two

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hundred BC. So China didn't convince anyone to use magnets

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twenty years ago. They've been using them for two thousand,

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two hundred years. Back in January twenty twenty four, Trump

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said during a campaign speech in Iowa, give me a

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glass of water, let me drop it on the magnets.

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That's the end of the magnets, which is just factually wrong.

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Magnets work underwater, they work in rain, they work fine.

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Here's a suggestion for the Navy. Start calling the magnets maganetes.

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That out of work unless you spill water on them.

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Here's the best part. Trump recently underwent an MRI scan

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that the White House tried to keep quiet. MRI stands

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for Magnetic resonance imaging. It's a giant magnet. The medical

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profession has used MRI scanner since the nineteen seventies. Trump

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had his brain scanned using a technology he apparently doesn't

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believe works, and then complained about magnets and elevators. During

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the speech on the carrier, Trump also said they spent

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nine hundred and ninety three million dollars on the catapults

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trying to get them to work, and they had steam,

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which worked so beautifully, and it has for fifty years.

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I'm going to do an executive order. I'm not going

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to let them continue to do this. So to be clear,

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the Navy developed new technology that launches planes faster. Trump

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thinks water breaks magnets, and now he wants to force

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the military to go back to steam power because he

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saw a tractor. Once the troops standing there had to

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listen to their commander in chief explain that every tractor

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and excavator uses hydraulics, So obviously that's what thirteen billion

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dollar aircraft carriers should use. Two that's like saying my

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lawnmower runs on gasoline. So let's make all rockets run

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on gasoline and the best detail. Trump's been on this

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rant for a year and a half and nobody has

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been able to explain to him how magnets work. Not

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one person in his administration has successfully communicated the scientific

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principle that water does not destroy magnets. Governor Gavin Newsom

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is going after Trump's ninety thousand square foot bulletproof ballroom.

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And he's not holding back. So here's what's happening.

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Trump is building what can only be described as a

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monument to himself on the White House grounds. This thing

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is ninety thousand square feet. That's bigger than most shopping malls,

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it's bulletproof, and it's now expected to cost three hundred

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million dollars three hundred million, and they don't even have

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a completion date yet. Newsome posted on x. While Donald

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Trump builds his knockoff for side on White House grounds,

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his government shut down is depriving millions of Californians of

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federal food assistants.

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Trump and his lapdog Congress just don't care. Period.

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Knockoff VERSI is pretty good. The real Versi dates back

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to sixteen twenty three and became the ultimate symbol of

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royal excess right before the French Revolution. You know that

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event where things didn't work out great for the people

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living in giant gold palaces while everyone else starved. Just

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a fun historical footnote, and Trump loves that style. Gold

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leaf everywhere, gold frames. The whole place looks like a

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Dubai hotel lobby had a baby with a casino.

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But wait, it gets better.

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While this shutdown is happening and people are losing food assistants.

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Trump flew to Malaysia over the weekend, where he was

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filmed doing his signature robotic dance moves. Picture a seventy

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nine year old man doing the sprinkler in Southeast Asia

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while Congress argues about whether Americans should eat. Newsom wrote,

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Donald Trump is literally dancing in Asia while forty million.

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People lose access to food. Disgusting.

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During a CBS interview Sunday, Newsom called Trump an invasive

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species for the country, for the world, which is a

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pretty creative insult and one I wish my AI writing

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team had come up with. He's a wrecking ball, not

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just the symbolism and substance of the East Wing. He's

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wrecking alliances, truth, trust, tradition, institutions, and now. Newsom says

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Trump's actions are the reason he's giving serious thought to.

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Running for president.

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In twenty twenty eight, he told CNN everything has changed

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in terms of my mindset and my focus, my energy,

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my perspective on the world we're living in Trump and

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trump Ism, what he represents, and how serious and precious

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this moment is. Portions of today's show were made with

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the help of AI, which couldn't even come up with

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the invasive species joke.