Oct. 9, 2025

Trump Takes His Talents to Miami—with Will Smith and Lionel Messi

Show Notes
Transcript

From Miami, where we’re getting jiggy with it, Patrick Gutfield covers Trump’s upcming tour stop—a star-studded business summit featuring Will Smith, Lionel Messi, and more billionaires than sense. Plus, Chicago Marathon runners prepare for a new kind of race-day stress—ICE raids—and Trump “reinterprets” the back-pay law he signed himself. Portions of today’s program were made with the help of A.I. We don’t pay them either.

WEBVTT

1
00:00:03.160 --> 00:00:09.960
Callaroga Shark Media from Miami, where we're getting jiggy with it.

2
00:00:10.039 --> 00:00:13.439
This is ballot, that's right, DK, and why all up

3
00:00:13.439 --> 00:00:18.839
in my eye? Let's hit this. President Trump is heading

4
00:00:18.879 --> 00:00:21.519
to Miami next month to speak at the America Business Forum,

5
00:00:21.760 --> 00:00:23.960
and the guest list reads like someone through a dart

6
00:00:23.960 --> 00:00:26.920
at Forbes magazine and then called whoever it landed on.

7
00:00:27.839 --> 00:00:30.480
The event is set for November fifth at the Cassea

8
00:00:30.600 --> 00:00:35.079
Center and speakers include Lionel Messi, Will Smith, Rafael Nadal,

9
00:00:35.119 --> 00:00:39.200
and a collection of billionaire CEOs who've apparently decided Miami

10
00:00:39.439 --> 00:00:43.359
is the only city that exists. Miami Mayor Francis Suarez

11
00:00:43.399 --> 00:00:46.840
called Trump one of the most consequential political and business

12
00:00:46.880 --> 00:00:49.880
leaders of our time, which is quite the introduction considering

13
00:00:49.920 --> 00:00:52.679
the event is happening across the street from Trump's potential

14
00:00:52.719 --> 00:00:58.159
future presidential library. This lineup really slaps Will Smith will

15
00:00:58.200 --> 00:01:00.359
be there. I guess they needed someone who knows how

16
00:01:00.359 --> 00:01:03.359
to make an entrance, though based on his recent track record,

17
00:01:03.759 --> 00:01:05.920
let's hope he keeps his hands to himself during the

18
00:01:05.959 --> 00:01:09.879
networking sessions. The last thing this conference needs is someone

19
00:01:09.959 --> 00:01:12.799
getting fresh with the Prince of bel Air jokes welcome

20
00:01:12.799 --> 00:01:17.040
to Miami. Indeed, the Chicago Marathon is happening this Sunday,

21
00:01:17.280 --> 00:01:19.480
and runners are dealing with a brand new pre race

22
00:01:19.519 --> 00:01:22.079
concern that has nothing to do with carbloating or breaking

23
00:01:22.079 --> 00:01:26.760
in new shoes. They're worried about immigration enforcement. More than

24
00:01:26.840 --> 00:01:29.640
fifty thousand runners are expected to participate in one of

25
00:01:29.680 --> 00:01:33.439
the world's largest marathons, weaving through twenty nine Chicago neighborhoods,

26
00:01:33.480 --> 00:01:37.359
while over one point seven million spectators watch. It should

27
00:01:37.359 --> 00:01:40.480
be straightforward. You train for months, you show up, you

28
00:01:40.599 --> 00:01:43.560
run twenty six point two miles, you question all your

29
00:01:43.640 --> 00:01:46.319
life choices around mile to eighteen, and then you collect

30
00:01:46.319 --> 00:01:51.400
your metal. Simple. Except this year. The Trump administration's push

31
00:01:51.439 --> 00:01:54.840
to increase immigration enforcement and send National Guard troops to

32
00:01:54.959 --> 00:01:58.280
Chicago has created what organizers are calling a new kind

33
00:01:58.280 --> 00:02:02.359
of race day anxiety. And when marathon runners start worrying

34
00:02:02.400 --> 00:02:05.079
about something other than their IT band, you know things

35
00:02:05.120 --> 00:02:09.680
have gotten complicated. Mayor Brandon Johnson addressed the situation on Tuesday,

36
00:02:10.080 --> 00:02:13.240
noting that roughly three thousand runners from Mexico have signed

37
00:02:13.280 --> 00:02:16.080
up for the marathon. I want all of them to come,

38
00:02:16.319 --> 00:02:19.360
Johnson said, I believe the best way in which we

39
00:02:19.400 --> 00:02:22.639
can demonstrate resistance is not bending the need to tyranny,

40
00:02:23.400 --> 00:02:26.840
which is lovely sentiment, but probably not the reassuring everything

41
00:02:26.919 --> 00:02:30.319
will be fine message runners we're hoping for. The marathon

42
00:02:30.400 --> 00:02:34.280
route passes through several neighborhoods with high immigrant populations, including

43
00:02:34.280 --> 00:02:36.840
Pilsen on the lower west Side and Little Village on

44
00:02:36.879 --> 00:02:40.680
the southwest Side, both home to sizable Mexican American communities.

45
00:02:41.479 --> 00:02:44.520
These areas have reportedly grown quieter in recent weeks as

46
00:02:44.560 --> 00:02:47.400
threats of immigration rates have created an atmosphere of fear

47
00:02:48.080 --> 00:02:51.680
about forty percent of the marathon field. Roughly twenty thousand

48
00:02:51.759 --> 00:02:55.479
people are traveling internationally to Chicago for the race, and

49
00:02:55.599 --> 00:02:58.240
many of them have taken to social media with questions

50
00:02:58.240 --> 00:03:02.159
that marathon training programs don't tip cover. Should they run

51
00:03:02.199 --> 00:03:06.360
with their passports, should they drop out entirely? What should

52
00:03:06.400 --> 00:03:09.479
runners do if they see someone being detained along the course.

53
00:03:10.479 --> 00:03:13.400
Some runners have expressed concern that the race day tracking

54
00:03:13.439 --> 00:03:16.319
app you know, the thing that lets your family see

55
00:03:16.360 --> 00:03:19.280
when you're approaching so they can stop scrolling Instagram and

56
00:03:19.360 --> 00:03:23.240
actually cheer for you, might be weaponized by federal agents.

57
00:03:24.120 --> 00:03:26.800
People are advising each other to make their status in

58
00:03:26.840 --> 00:03:29.360
the app private, which is quite the shift from the

59
00:03:29.479 --> 00:03:33.360
usual marathon worry of will my phone die before I

60
00:03:33.400 --> 00:03:37.400
can post my finished time. The anxiety ramped up when

61
00:03:37.400 --> 00:03:40.560
a social media post claiming there would be federal immigration

62
00:03:40.719 --> 00:03:45.280
enforcement activity along the marathon route went viral. The Chicago

63
00:03:45.360 --> 00:03:48.719
Parks District pushed back, saying they hadn't received any information

64
00:03:48.840 --> 00:03:52.960
or guidance about such plans, but that denial hasn't exactly

65
00:03:52.960 --> 00:03:57.199
calmed everyone's nerves. Marathon runners have dealt with heightened security

66
00:03:57.240 --> 00:04:00.520
at major races ever since the Boston Marathon bombing in

67
00:04:00.599 --> 00:04:05.319
twenty thirteen. Airport level security checks have become standard, but

68
00:04:05.479 --> 00:04:08.080
race day nerves are typically focused on whether you'll get

69
00:04:08.120 --> 00:04:10.759
a cramp at mile twenty or if that pre race

70
00:04:10.759 --> 00:04:13.520
banana was a mistake, not whether you might be pulled

71
00:04:13.560 --> 00:04:17.720
off the course by immigration agents. The response in online

72
00:04:17.759 --> 00:04:21.319
forums has been heartening, though. In Reddit threads, runners have

73
00:04:21.360 --> 00:04:24.399
been offering to stand in solidarity with those who feel vulnerable.

74
00:04:25.199 --> 00:04:28.040
One post said, tell your friend to run sub three

75
00:04:28.079 --> 00:04:30.600
with me. If anyone even looks at him crossing that

76
00:04:30.639 --> 00:04:33.480
finish line, I'll protect him and don't care what it takes.

77
00:04:34.240 --> 00:04:38.839
Another simply stated runners will support runners. So this Sunday,

78
00:04:38.959 --> 00:04:42.600
as fifty thousand people line up to run through Chicago's neighborhoods,

79
00:04:42.800 --> 00:04:46.759
they'll be carrying the usual gear, energy gels, water bottles,

80
00:04:46.959 --> 00:04:51.360
race bibs, but they'll also be carrying an entirely new

81
00:04:51.519 --> 00:04:54.720
kind of pre race tension, one that has nothing to

82
00:04:54.759 --> 00:04:57.199
do with their training plan and everything to do with

83
00:04:57.240 --> 00:04:59.680
the wondering whether the biggest challenge of the day will

84
00:04:59.680 --> 00:05:08.439
be the horse itself or what's happening around it. President

85
00:05:08.519 --> 00:05:12.079
Trump indicated on Tuesday that hundreds of thousands of furloughed

86
00:05:12.120 --> 00:05:15.680
federal workers may not automatically receive back pay once the

87
00:05:15.720 --> 00:05:19.839
government reopens, which would be a problem except there's a

88
00:05:19.920 --> 00:05:22.959
law guarantee they get that back pay, a law that

89
00:05:22.959 --> 00:05:26.639
Trump himself signed in twenty nineteen. Let me walk you

90
00:05:26.680 --> 00:05:30.040
through this one, because it's a journey. After the longest

91
00:05:30.079 --> 00:05:32.800
government shut down in history, of five week closure that

92
00:05:32.839 --> 00:05:35.720
started at the end of twenty eighteen, Congress passed the

93
00:05:35.759 --> 00:05:40.199
Government Employee Fair Treatment Act. This law guaranteed back pay

94
00:05:40.279 --> 00:05:43.519
for federal workers furloughed during shutdowns, not just for that

95
00:05:43.600 --> 00:05:47.600
specific closure, but for all future ones too. The whole

96
00:05:47.639 --> 00:05:50.920
point was to remove the uncertainty for federal employees who

97
00:05:51.000 --> 00:05:54.800
keep getting caught in the middle of political standoffs. Trump

98
00:05:54.839 --> 00:05:58.639
signed it into law in twenty nineteen. Fast forward to Tuesday,

99
00:05:58.800 --> 00:06:02.319
and a draft White House memo started circulating that interprets

100
00:06:02.399 --> 00:06:06.600
this law, let's say creatively. According to the memo, only

101
00:06:06.680 --> 00:06:11.519
workers deemed essential military members, air traffic controllers, people required

102
00:06:11.560 --> 00:06:14.480
to work during the shutdown would automatically get back pay.

103
00:06:15.399 --> 00:06:19.240
For everyone else who's been furloughed, Congress would still need

104
00:06:19.279 --> 00:06:23.360
to explicitly approve funding for those payments. When reporters asked

105
00:06:23.360 --> 00:06:26.399
Trump if furloughed workers would lose their back pay, he said,

106
00:06:26.399 --> 00:06:29.399
it depends on who you're talking about, adding that there

107
00:06:29.399 --> 00:06:31.879
were some people that really don't deserve to be taken

108
00:06:31.920 --> 00:06:34.120
care of, and will take care of them in a

109
00:06:34.160 --> 00:06:38.199
different way, which is definitely the kind of reassuring answer

110
00:06:38.240 --> 00:06:40.680
you want from the president about whether you'll get paid

111
00:06:40.680 --> 00:06:44.000
for the work you did. When pressed on the legality

112
00:06:44.000 --> 00:06:46.480
of this, you know, given that he signed a law

113
00:06:46.600 --> 00:06:50.680
saying the opposite, Trump insisted he would follow the law,

114
00:06:50.959 --> 00:06:54.240
and what the law says is correct, so he'll follow

115
00:06:54.279 --> 00:06:57.920
the law. He just has a very different interpretation of

116
00:06:57.959 --> 00:07:02.560
what the law he signed actually says. So let's recap.

117
00:07:03.240 --> 00:07:06.600
Trump signed a law guaranteeing furloughed federal workers would get

118
00:07:06.639 --> 00:07:10.600
back pay. Six years later, his administration is now arguing

119
00:07:10.600 --> 00:07:14.519
that law doesn't actually mean what it clearly says it means. Meanwhile,

120
00:07:14.560 --> 00:07:17.600
the government's own website says those workers will get back pay,

121
00:07:18.480 --> 00:07:20.920
and when asked about it, Trump says some people don't

122
00:07:20.920 --> 00:07:23.199
deserve to be taken care of, and he'll handle them

123
00:07:23.240 --> 00:07:26.439
in a different way. Portions of today's program were made

124
00:07:26.480 --> 00:07:28.879
with the help of AI. We don't pay them either.