Hosts Gene Valaitis and Jon Liedtke discuss controversial plans for America’s 250th anniversary, including a proposed $250 bill featuring Donald Trump and a White House UFC cage match. Liedtke critiques these developments as an autocratic, corporate hostile takeover of American civic institutions, noting massive celebrity boycotts of the celebration.
Transcript (Gemini Generated):
Gene Valaitis: Right now, our pal Jon Liedtke is joining us. Good morning, Jon.
Jon Liedtke: Good morning, Gene.
Gene Valaitis: You know, when I was living and working legally in the United States, I was—who would take the—the week on Canada Day and the Fourth of July off. It was the neatest thing to do. I would fly home to Canada, enjoy Canada Day, fly back to California where I was living and enjoy the Fourth of July. It was just so cool. So, the Fourth of July, just around the corner. And, boy, what they’re doing in the United States is really weird. They’ve actually come up with an idea, a prototype, to put Donald Trump’s face on a $250 bill, ’cause it’s—the United States’ 250th birthday. And at the same time, at the White House, I’ve—I’ve seen this on CNN, they’re building a UFC cage to have a—a cage match at the White House. Now, I—I don’t know, is this a populist birthday party or is it just the corporate takeover of America?
Jon Liedtke: You know, Gene, I was watching CNN as well and I saw the cage fully erected, and it’s just—it’s just surreal. It’s like living in a fever dream right now. But I mean look, this is a corporate hostile takeover and it’s how Trump operates. We’re watching the complete descent of total narcissistic behavior fully enabled and subsidized by the executive branch, and it’s really concerning for, you know, their democracy, but the fact that we’re living so close to them. When a foundational nation’s anniversary stops being a shared civic milestone and becomes a private marketing engine for a single man’s ego, man, the public square has been liquidated.
Gene Valaitis: No kidding. Well, don’t they have a firewall against this sort of narcissism? Or are the guardrails effectively gone now?
Jon Liedtke: [Laughter] I—I—I think, you know, fortunately the judiciary still works over there right now, um, and it remains the last lonely line of defense trying to hold the line on the rule of law as a whole. But the legislative branch, whether it be, uh, Republicans in the House or the Senate, has been co-opted entirely. They’ve completely rolled over. Congress is supposed to be a co-equal branch, for gosh sake, um, but they’re not acting like that whatsoever. They are just operating out of the trunk of the MAGA campaign bus.
Gene Valaitis: [Laughter] Okay, so I’ve been watching this thing about the money. Now legally, a 160-year-old law bans living people from being on the currency. I don’t know why, but that’s the way it is. Uh, but are the Republicans on Capitol Hill going to bypass that and sneak in this $250 bill—
Jon Liedtke: [Laughter]
Gene Valaitis: —in some shape or form? Because guess—guess who wants this more than anybody else, of course? Donald Trump.
Jon Liedtke: Oh, I mean, he’ll say though that he doesn’t want it, it was someone else’s great idea, but of course, yeah, no, he wants it. And they’re going to absolutely try to jam it through. I think though, you know, the old institutional guard of the GOP will probably oppose it behind closed doors and wring their hands in the media, but I think at the end of the day, this thing will just be put into a massive, must-pass omnibus funding bill at some point, setting a toxic trap for the Democrats. Either shut down the federal government on the literal eve of the nation’s 250th anniversary birthday, or roll over and put Donald Trump’s face in everyone’s wallets.
Gene Valaitis: Hmm. Now the Treasury Department in the US takes care of the money. Are you telling me, like is this real, the head of the Treasury Department has been reassigned?
Jon Liedtke: This is, Gene, we’re watching an entire—the world’s largest government, the world’s largest military, the world’s greatest fighting force, completely succumb to the whims and the needs of one man’s narcissistic ego. Um, it’s a really big issue and this is an administrative purge. We’ve seen this happening regularly, um, when people oppose what Donald Trump wants. It sends chilling messages to every civil servant in Washington. It means if—there is no expertise anymore, compliance is mandatory, and the entire federal bureaucracy has been hollowed out.
Gene Valaitis: Hmm. You know, 40% of Americans can’t even handle a surprise $400 emergency health bill right now. So who is this $250 banknote for?
Jon Liedtke: This is the absolute joke of it all right now, the absolute joke. The average American is currently lying awake at night wondering how they’re going to pay for unexpected medical bills, or fix that flat tire, or an unexpected education expense, and the president is playing literal Monopoly with the Treasury to try to print a boutique collector’s edition of a $250 note. But who in that country can actually afford to just have $250 sitting around in their wallet right now? This is not currency for regular citizens to buy grocery, it’s just high-end campaign merch again.
Gene Valaitis: Okay, so there’s also been a celebrity mass exodus. Uh, Trump is planning this big party on the National Mall in Washington, which is really quite something to see. I hi—highly recommend people go visit Washington. Um, anyway, the—the celebration is there on the National Mall. It—it’s like every musician is—every day you hear two or three more saying, “No, I’m—I’m not doing it.”
Jon Liedtke: Yeah, and you know, some of the—the names are like really big ones, some of them are more obscure. And the ones that have agreed to perform are, you know, your MAGA die-hard loyalists. But this shouldn’t be surprising to anyone who understands basic brand preservation, Gene. These artists signed up to sing God Bless America at a non-partisan birthday party, not to act as the opening act for Donald Trump’s big day. So when the country stars and the classic rock icons and even some of the Motown groups look at the event and realize they’re being used as political props to legitimize what is a would-be autocrat’s birthday party, they’re going to pack up their gear and run for the hills.
Gene Valaitis: So with the musical acts gone, or almost all gone, so [laughter] what, is—has Trump officially announced that he’s headlining the marquee himself?
Jon Liedtke: That is what it looks like right now, Gene. I mean, I don’t know if he’s going to be like the—the complete headliner, but it’s supposed to be that he’s on stage and this is a guy who would regularly claim that he can draw a bigger crowd than Elvis Presley without a guitar. But this isn’t about America’s 250th birthday anymore. This is a multi-week, state-sponsored MAGA Trump rally paid for by every American taxpayer. When the talent is fleeing and the president is putting himself on the marquee or on the bills, the merger of MAGA and the state has been completed. The shared civic fabric of that country has been fully devoured by one single campaign brand, and that should terrify every listener tuning in right now.
Gene Valaitis: Right on. Well, I’ll still go down for the fireworks.
Jon Liedtke: [Laughter] Oh yeah, absolutely. I don’t want to miss out on anything fun. I mean, listen, a big UFC fight on the White House, that is a spectacle made for Donald Trump. And, you know, we can take it for what it is. I don’t think it says a very good thing about the state of their civic institutions or the state of their democracy, but hey, Gene, you and I talk about that regularly. He’s great for broadcast, he’s just not good for America.
Gene Valaitis: [Laughter] Okay, and on that bombshell, I’m going to say great job. We’ll, uh, talk—we’ll be talking to you on Tuesday, okay?
Jon Liedtke: Looking forward to it.
Gene Valaitis: Okay, there he goes, Jon Liedtke. And, uh, a text coming in: “Your guest has a touch of Trump Derangement Syndrome from Alex.” [Laughter] I think you have to read between the lines with, uh, Jon.
This aired on 610 CKTB
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