July 3, 2025

Trump vs. Zohran, Elon vs. Reality, and the Dalai Lama vs. China

Show Notes
Transcript

President Trump is now threatening to arrest New York’s Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani—who is, let’s be clear, a U.S. citizen—for not helping ICE. Elon Musk, meanwhile, is threatening to start his own political party because Republicans aren't slashing spending fast enough. And the Dalai Lama is trying to reincarnate before China picks a clone. It’s just another day in American politics… and Buddhist succession drama.
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Kalaruga Shark media from New York City where someone has

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to be mayor. I guess this is ballot that's right.

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Imagine every choice being terrible. What is this the presidential election?

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Let's hit this, Hi. I'm Patrick Guttfield, and President Trump

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is threatening to arrest New York City's Democratic mayoral nominee,

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Zoran Mamdani if he refuses to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement.

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Speaking at a detention center, Trump said, well, then we'll

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have to arrest him. I'll be watching over him very

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carefully on behalf of the nation. Trump also claimed a

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lot of people are saying Mamdani is in the country illegally,

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which is completely false. Mamdani is a naturalized US citizen

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who came to the United States at age seven with

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his parents, filmmaker Mira Nayer and Columbia University professor Mahmoud Mamdani.

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So Trump is basically threatening to arrest a citizen for

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following local law. Three year old state assemblyman beat former

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Governor Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic primary, which apparently sent

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some Republicans into a tailspin. Trump also called Mamdanni a

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communist on Fox News, which is wrong. Mamdanni is a

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democratic socialist, which is different from communism in the same

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way that a cheeseburger is different from a car. Both

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involved things, but they're not the same thing. But nuance

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isn't exactly Trump's strong suit. The really interesting part is

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that Trump is backing current mayor Eric Adams, who's running

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as an independent after leaving the Democratic Party. Trump said

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he helped him out a little bit when Adams had

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a problem. That sounds like the plot of Godfather. For

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the November election is shaping up to be quite a contest.

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Mamdanni as the Democratic nominee, Adams as an independent, Curtis Sliwa,

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the Guardian Angels guy from the eighties as the Republican

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candidate who refuses to drop out, and possibly Cuomo mulling

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his own independent bid. It's like a political reality show,

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except with less love and less island unless you count Manhattan.

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Elon Musk is having what can only be described as

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a very public political tantrum. After spending two hundred eighty

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eight million dollars to help get Trump elected, Musk is

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now threatening to start his own political party because Republicans

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aren't cutting spending fast enough for his liking. This is

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the same guy who bought Twitter for forty four billion

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dollars and renamed it x, So clearly, rational decision making

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isn't his strong suit. Now he's mad that Congress passed

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a spending bill and is promising to primary every Republican

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who voted for it. He posted on his platform. Every

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member of Congress who campaigned on reducing government spending and

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then immediately voted for the biggest debt increase in history

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should hang their head in shame. The irony here is delicious.

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A man worth four hundred billion dollars is lecturing people

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about fiscal responsibility. That's like Jeff Bezos giving a seminar

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on living paycheck to paycheck. Musk has already picked his

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first target, Representative Thomas Massey from Kentucky, one of the

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few Republicans actually opposing Trump's agenda. So Musk is going

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after the guy who's doing exactly what Musk claims he

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wants cutting spending. You can't make this stuff up. Trump

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allies are already mocking Musk's third party threat. Trump polster

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Jim McLaughlin said, I think it's the ketamine talking in

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the middle of the night, which is the kind of

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burn that would get you blocked on social media if

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you weren't already famous. And let's be honest about third

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parties in America, there where political dreams go to die.

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Ross Perrot got nineteen percent of the vote in nineteen

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ninety two and zero electoral votes. The most successful third

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party candidates in American history are basically footnotes who accidentally

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changed elections. The Dalai Lama held what can only be

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described as the world's most spiritually significant planning meeting this

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week in Dharamshala, India. At eighty nine years old, he's

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trying to figure out how to reincarnate without giving China

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a chance to pick his replacement. And yes, this is

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a real political problem we're dealing with in twenty twenty five.

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Here's the situation. The Dalai Lama has been living in

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exile for over half a century after fleeing Tibet when

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China invaded. Now he's getting older and needs to make

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sure that when he dies and comes back, as Tibetan

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Buddhist believe he will, China doesn't just install their own

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guy and call it a day. So he gathered senior

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monks this week to announce that, yes, the institution of

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the Dalai Lama will continue after he's gone, and no,

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China gets absolutely no say in who that person will be.

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He was very clear about this. No one else has

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any such authority to interfere in this matter. China's response

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was basically pulled our tea. A Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said,

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the reincarnation has to be approved by the central government,

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the central government of an ae ly atheist country. They're

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literally saying, we don't believe in your religion, but we're

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definitely in charge of it. The whole thing gets even

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weirder when you realize the timeline involved. Traditionally, they don't

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start looking for the new Dalai Lama until after the

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current one dies. Then it can take years to find

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the right child and more than a decade to train them.

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The Dalai Lama has previously suggested some creative solutions, like

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finding his successor while he's still alive, or maybe having

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a female Dalai Lama for the first time, but this

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week he indicated he'll stick with tradition. The Dalai Lama

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is celebrating his ninetieth birthday this week, so he's clearly

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thinking about legacy planning. Most people his age are worried

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about their retirement accounts. He's worried about making sure his

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soul doesn't get hijacked by the Chinese government. Portions of

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today's program were made with the help of AI. We're

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taking a three day weekend for the fourth of July

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to make up for all the one day weekends we

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have because Trump likes to make news on Saturdays. See

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you Monday,