Donald J. Plump

Pod Save America

Pod Save America tackles a mix of political satire and serious policy discussion in its episode 'Donald J. Plump,' focusing on Donald Trump'

Key takeaways

• Trump's weight gain and public comments about 'fat' individuals have raised health concerns and sparked criticism.
• The White House response to Trump's weight issues included deflecting blame onto Joe Biden, highlighting political hypocrisy.

Main topics

• Trump's health and weight controversy
• Political rhetoric around body image and fat shaming

Notable quotes

He's eating well. I love the moments in those videos where he hesitates, where he goes, and this person. They're fat.

Conclusion

Pod Save America concludes by emphasizing the importance of authentic political

Transcript preview

Speaker 5 (0:00) Today's presenting sponsor is SimpliSafe Home Security. Speaker 7 (0:02) We all promised to digital detox on August vacation. I don't. But you can't actually unplug if you're anxiously checking your security camera feeds when you're poolside. I mean, that's a little different than digital detox. That's not Speaker 5 (0:13) Twitter. SimpliSafe lets you put the phone down because you know live agents are helping to watch the perimeter. Well, that's nice. Unlike traditional security systems that only alert you after a break-in is already underway, SimpliSafe is designed to help stop intruders before they get inside. Smart AI-powered outdoor cameras detect suspicious activity at the perimeter and alert live U.S.-based agents to step in. SimpliSafe's agents assess the threat, intervene through the outdoor camera to scare off trespassers, and call for 911 dispatch. Our CEO, Lucinda, recently had a... SimpliSafe installed in her home. She actually installed it herself. It was so easy. And now she's pretty happy with it. Installation was quick and easy and all the components have worked smoothly. The app's easy to use and gives her total peace of mind to see who's dropping by. Or if you want, you can easily chat with visitors through the camera even when you're... Speaker 5 (1:24) Every Speaker 3 (1:25) big story starts with a question. Why did this happen? Who's behind it? And what happens next? That's three questions. On Consider This from NPR, they answer those questions every weekday by going beyond the headlines with a reporting context and analysis that help you make sense of the biggest story of the day. The news doesn't stop at what happened. Get the full story. Listen to Consider This from NPR wherever you get your podcasts. Speaker 5 (2:09) Welcome to Pod Save America. I'm Jon Favreau. I'm Jon Lovett. I'm Tommy Vitor. On today's show, we'll talk about Trump declaring economic D-Day against Iran, but also maybe against Canada and the American people. We'll also cover J.D. Vance's return to the campaign trail, complete with mentions of his papa, Sharia law, and his friendship with Susan Collins. We got a quick midterm update that includes the weird meeting between Hakeem Jeffries and Jared Kushner. The long-awaited Duffy family reality Speaker 6 (2:37) show finally hits the airwaves. I've been desperate for this to pop up on YouTube. As have most Americans. Need someone to watch before Salt Lake comes back. And later you'll Speaker 5 (2:47) hear my interview with Congressman Seth Moulton, who faces off against Senator Ed Markey next week in the last big primary contest before the midterms. But first, we have some big news. The newest podcast joining the Crooked Media family is called Still Counting, hosted by Nate Silver, Claire Malone, and Galen Druk. You might remember this crew from the FiveThirtyEight pod, which we always thought was one of the smartest, most entertaining shows about politics out there before FiveThirtyEight was shut down by the corporate media last year. Some big corporate mouse. Who will remain nameless. Right. But now Nate, Claire, and Galen wanted to get back on the air ahead of the midterms, and we are thrilled that they've chosen Crooked as their new home. Damn right. So each week on the pod, they're going to dig into the latest in politics and polling to break down what's happening and why. But they're also going to cover everything from elections to betting markets to AI with their... Trademark rigorous analysis and plenty of hot takes. You can hear the trailer right now by subscribing to Still Counting wherever you get your podcasts and on YouTube at Still Counting Podcast. Great Speaker 4 (3:57) for the audience. Huge get for us. Speaker 3 (3:59) Huge get. Look, Dan's Polar Coaster is fantastic and I will continue to listen to it all the time. But I need a little more of a polling junkie fix. Wow. I Speaker 4 (4:09) need Speaker 3 (4:09) a Still Counting in my life. I just need more. I thought it was going to be a yes and, not Speaker 7 (4:13) a but there. Speaker 3 (4:14) It was a yes and. It was literally exactly a yes and. Speaker 4 (4:17) This pod is basically for Pod Save America hosts is like selling drugs outside of school. You know, the first hit's free kind of thing. Tommy, I like keeping Dan on his toes. Speaker 7 (4:29) I should hear this and be a little like, hey, Speaker 4 (4:31) Dan, you know, prove us wrong. Speaker 4 (4:35) Prove us wrong, Dan. All right? It's not a no, but it's not a yes. We're not a full hard yes on Dan. Speaker 5 (4:44) Despite the YesWeDan merch that's everywhere. New episodes of Still Counting drop September 9th. And yeah, we're very excited to have Nate, Claire, and Galen. Subscribe right away. Joining the fam. All right. Let's start here with the news. Donald Trump continues to bankrupt America by waging war against two of our greatest adversaries, Iran and Canada. We'll get to that in a second. But first, we should talk about breaking news. But a third war Trump is losing against another longtime adversary he's been personally obsessed with for years. Let's listen. Speaker 8 (5:18) Let's go with the fat drug, the fat drug, F-A-T for fat people. Anybody use it at the table, don't ask. And a friend of mine who's very fat told me. And I will say, you know, he could be a famous guy. He's begging me not to release this thing. He's a very highly neurotic, very fat guy. Sort of a fat slob, I would call him. I bought the fat drug. I said, I didn't know you use it because it's not working. And the governor is a big fat slob. Jesus. You can't do that, sir. You can't call J.B. Pritzker a fat pig. Please. You know, some people say, never use the fat word. And I don't. I would never call anybody fat. I have my own problems. Speaker 5 (6:02) Well, he sure does. Because here's Sunday's headline from the Washington Post. Doctors say Trump's weight poses a significant health risk. The president has gained about 20 pounds since his campaign, according to his statements and those of aides. So back in June, the White House had to publicly refute speculation that Trump was on an experimental new weight loss drug. After Stat News reported that a 79-year-old man with government connections got early access to the drugs, I guess the White House. was telling the truth. Speaker 4 (6:34) Yes, it turns out that Trump is not like reckless gay guys in West Hollywood buying compound versions of this drug from China. Is that happening? Yeah, I think so. Speaker 3 (6:45) I just want to say for the record that Favreau and I wanted to lead with Canada and love it. Locked the door of our production meeting until we agreed to start with the GLPL. I just start with fat. I said dessert. Speaker 4 (6:55) Hey, it's August. Let's have dessert for dinner. All right. It's pancakes for the fucking table. Speaker 6 (7:01) Trump clearly has been. Yeah, he's eating well. Speaker 4 (7:02) He's eating well. I love the moments in those videos where he hesitates, where he goes, and this person. They're fat. Speaker 7 (7:10) I want you to know I put that super cut together myself. Speaker 5 (7:14) There was like 10 more clips of him just saying fat, fat slob. He tells the story about the friend like 50 times. Speaker 4 (7:21) One other thing to note too is this is the figures that they're telling us. I feel like they've been slowly trying to get the number back to a real number. So he may not have gained as much as they're saying. On the other hand, based on the weight and height they've released, his BMI is 29.7, which means if his weight was one pound more, he would be technically obese, which I'm sure he would not like. And so for all we know, they've kind of brought that number down. pound or two. Speaker 3 (7:50) Yeah, they may have been telling the truth about him not being on this experimental GLP-1 or he could just be eaten through it. It has happened before. You Speaker 4 (7:57) can power Speaker 3 (7:57) through Speaker 4 (7:57) it. My Speaker 3 (7:58) favorite part of these stories though is as they track his weight, they cite when he was arrested in Georgia, when he was booked, they released that he was 6'3", 215, which was John Elway's playing weight when he won two Super Bowls in NFL MVP. Speaker 7 (8:11) Isn't it amazing, by the way? Speaker 4 (8:13) Well, muscle is heavier. Speaker 7 (8:14) Isn't it amazing, by the way, that we're just kind of, you can just say something like, oh, you remember when he was arrested in Georgia? Because of his mugshot. Because the president is a convicted criminal. But also, gained 20 pounds since 2024, is an 80-year-old, almost obese man. I don't know even what to say. Oh, what's he going to do? He's going to turn over a new leaf right now? Yeah. Yeah. He's one to really Speaker 6 (8:37) he's he's one to really make a lot of resolutions and try to keep them. No well done burger today. Speaker 3 (8:42) Just the steamed Speaker 6 (8:43) fish. Speaker 3 (8:44) It was also their their response to this story was to attack Joe Biden, who is currently recovering from cancer. So that's a classy move, as always, from the White House. Did you see the video of Trump's workout that was on Twitter over the weekend? No. Oh, it's actually really good. Yes. Roll this thing. Speaker 6 (9:08) This is this Speaker 7 (9:10) is that is the clip I showed my children this morning when I was laughing and and I was like he's Charlie's like Why are you watching that and I was like it's a work thing. He's like what is it at work? And I was like well sometimes we watch clips of robots falling and then And then people laugh at them and then we laugh at it and then people watch us laugh at the videos and Charlie's like Oh, I want to do that job. It's Speaker 4 (9:30) a Speaker 7 (9:30) good job. Speaker 4 (9:31) Can I just have just a point of personal privilege about the robot Olympia that's going on in China? The Speaker 3 (9:37) world's Speaker 4 (9:37) humanoid Speaker 3 (9:37) robot games in Beijing. Speaker 4 (9:38) So they keep saying things like, oh, this is the fastest robot. This is the fastest robot. And it's like, okay, but like. We have lots of robots that can go very fast already. I guess they just don't have human legs They have to have a human leg to them. Is that what makes it different? Yeah, like Speaker 7 (9:53) you're saying like Speaker 6 (9:54) you're saying we're a way most program. Speaker 4 (9:56) Yeah, we got lots of fashion You know, you know, there's all yeah, I think it's a Speaker 3 (9:59) humanoid. It's a humanoid. Oh, Speaker 4 (10:01) it's got to be humanoid Speaker 3 (10:02) Yeah, it's gonna be coming to kill you. There's also like weird dogs and shit getting paraded around There's a guy riding a giant dog. Yeah, that was nightmare Speaker 4 (10:09) fuel. That's really bad No, I think it's great that we should give them thumbs and also that open I have every once in a while is like Like, yeah, we lost a couple. We think they're in the pacemakers now. It's like, what? Sorry, everybody. We've realized the error of our ways again. And now we got to, we put a, just a, here's the thing. We put a lock on the door, but one of our guys fell in love with the robot and unlocked it. And so we got to figure out how to make them less sexually charming. And we're not sure how to do that. Speaker 6 (10:36) But you know what? There's only so much we can do because China. Right, right. And the rest of the ones who cut the China, they're doing karate kicks. They're drop kicking like six-year-olds. So Speaker 7 (10:45) what do you want us to do? If we have a few escape the Speaker 6 (10:47) sandbox, what, I mean, that's. Sorry. You got to. Crack a couple eggs. Am Speaker 1 (10:51) I Speaker 6 (10:51) supposed to not IPO? Right. Make an omelet. Anyway, we Speaker 5 (10:57) do have some more consequential but no less absurd Trump stories. Soybean farmer Scott Besant announced Operation Economic Outcast on Monday, a series of new sanctions against Iran and the threat of much larger sanctions down the road that he likened. to the most significant military invasion of the 20th century. But there seemed to be a bit of a gap between Besson's framing and the reality. Let's listen. Speaker 8 (11:24) In the Speaker 5 (11:25) Second World War, Speaker 6 (11:26) D Speaker 8 (11:27) -Day marked the historic beginning of a campaign with our allies to target and drive the enemy from its positions, including those in third countries. Today, in that same spirit, we are launching an economic onslaught against Iran's financial connections around the globe. Around the globe. You described this as an economic D-Day, but Speaker 3 (11:52) D-Day wasn't a threat of an invasion, and the U.S. didn't give a timeline to Germany. So why not impose the sanctions today? Speaker 8 (12:01) Well, we are giving everyone the opportunity to remedy bad behavior. Why would I want to blow up the global financial system? Speaker 4 (12:12) Extraordinary sentence. Extraordinary sentence. Crazy. I saw that as like, what an absolute fucking doof. Because it's like, first of all, is that what you're threatening? Why are you the good? We're supposed to be the good guys. Speaker 8 (12:28) And Speaker 4 (12:28) then also, if you're suggesting that the thing you're going to impose is basically a global economic crisis, it does signal to the people you're threatening that you're deeply concerned about the risk you'd be taking, which you've consistently shown yourself willing to back off of when you get close to the line because they know that you can back off right before you go through your various threats. Speaker 6 (12:47) Those mules must be terrified, huh? 2 Speaker 3 (12:50) ,500 Americans died on D-Day, so, you know. Some downsides. Yeah, the pissy cadaver calling – that's what I call Scott Besson – calling this economic DDA is so funny because I cannot overstate how mundane this sanctions announcement actually was. This is just like stuff they roll out all the time. For example, they try to make it sound like they're sanctioning all these new sectors. They mentioned gold and the aviation sector. But if you look at U.S. sanctions over the years, we've been sanctioning gold, the sort of gold industry since 2011 and the aviation sector since 2008. announcement today is not going to make the Iranian regime, the IRGC, kind of give up. I think it's a lot of bluster. It's a lot of rhetoric. It's a lot of them trying to figure out what they do to get through the midterms. The scary thing is that I think the Axios report on the sanctions today mentioned that they're considering restarting the war after the midterms are over. So you love when the wars are timed with the midterms. That's always – Yeah, Speaker 7 (13:39) I Speaker 3 (13:39) saw that too. Well, in the Speaker 7 (13:40) blowing up of the – so I had to like dig into this because – Basically, there were two things today. There were like sanctions against 60 Iran-linked people, entities, vessels that, like you said, are pretty mundane, very like a typical day at Treasury. And then there's the threat of major sanctions that would blow up the global economic system, which is sanctioning any country that does business with Iran. China, for example, which he would not take off the Speaker 3 (14:10) table but would also not mention. The only thing that would matter is secondary sanctions on China to a lesser extent, India, maybe Russia, maybe Turkey. But there's no way that they're going to do a bunch of secondary sanctions on Chinese banks, for example, in advance of the Xi Jinping visit. Nor do I think they would do them, period, because the Chinese will retaliate against us, then the Iranians will retaliate against us, and then it'll be a big Speaker 6 (14:29) dust-up again. Which leads you back to Lovett's original Speaker 7 (14:32) point, right? Which is, so, it's just bluster. Or else, if it's not bluster, it's blowing up the global economic financial system, which I guess they don't want to do until after the midterms. Or maybe they'll just bomb after the midterms. Speaker 4 (14:45) Well, the other part of just the threat in Axios about how we're going to maybe resume the military campaign after the election, which, by the way, as I think in part, like, I hope it's not true. I hope they're doing politics with their own neocons that they're trying to keep in line because this is sort of, they're not doing the retaliation that a lot of these people want. They're doing sort of mid, they're doing sort of these sort of threats of future economic sanctions. But if it is a real threat, and I assume Iran would have to take it as a real threat, then they are telling you in advance, hey. We should conflate economic activity with military activity. If Iran is going to potentially retaliate against economic sanctions with military force, one argument against it would be that it would be escalating the war. But the U.S. is promising to escalate the war potentially after the election anyway. The other part of it, too. So in the Besson op-ed where he announced all this, written like he asked a large language model to write. like a Victorian with a head injury. It's just like over the top, ridiculous thing. But in it, he said, refers to something called Pascal's Wager. And basically he says, people working Speaker 7 (15:51) - Speaker 4 (15:51) I knew that Speaker 7 (15:51) was gonna be triggering for you. People Speaker 4 (15:53) working with the Ron should be careful because of Pascal's Wager, which basically says- you can't know for sure if God is real, so act as if God is real, because if it is, boy, you'll wish you believed, which is, you know, philosophically confusing, but whatever. And so he seems to be suggesting that countries may want to do a deal with Iran because in the short term, it's quite beneficial to them, but they should be careful that even though partnering with the U.S., per Besson's argument, has no benefits whatsoever to the point where you can't even tell if the United States exists, we could exist, and if we do, boy, we'll be mad. That's sort of what he's – that's sort of the position he's trying to direct, I guess, not just to – by the way, also to Korea, to other countries that are desperate to try to figure out how to get out of this sort of – The UAE is the one Speaker 3 (16:37) who most recently cut a deal seemingly with the Iranians to avoid getting fired at all the time. Did you guys see that Barry McCaffrey tweeted, quote, in my judgment, U.S. armed forces have probably permanently lost access to 15 Persian Gulf bases. Iran now poised to control access to the Gulf states. U.S. will have to negotiate new access in Western Saudi Arabia, Israel. Southern Europe. It's like an entire recalibration of our security architecture in the Middle East because we have lost this Speaker 7 (17:02) war. Just sort of by accident. Yeah. And in case you're wondering how seriously the rest of the world and the markets took this today, oil went down 2.5%. Not a blip. It's crazy. I don't think anyone's too worried or takes Scott Besson seriously. And it seems like with good reason. Speaker 5 (17:25) Pod Save America is brought to you by Article. Article makes it effortless to build a home that lasts without the boutique markup. Their curated collections of mid-century coastal and Scandi furniture are designed to mix and match perfectly so you can create a cohesive designer look that will stand the test of time. We got some great Article furniture here in the office. We have for a while. They got a nice couch. They got some good chairs. Very sturdy, and it looks really good. 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The Working Forests Initiative is a coalition of Speaker 7 (18:39) forest products companies set out to establish and advance a common understanding of the broad range of environmental, economic, and societal benefits generated by Speaker 5 (18:47) working forests. At the heart of this coalition are working forest professionals whose mission is to keep America's working forests sustainable. Encompassing roles like GIS analysts, biologists, hiring managers, and accountants, these teams ensure that more trees are planted than harvested for future generations. Planting is what makes forests sustainable. And replanting generations of trees ensures a continued critical role. Working forests play in the fight against climate change. That's what the Working Forest Initiative is all about. As managers of working forests across the U.S., they're led by a single guiding principle. to plant more trees than they harvest. More than 1 billion trees are planted in working forests each year, and less than 2 % of the land is harvested. Through modern sustainable management methods, working forests have become an integral part of the effort to mitigate the most harmful impacts of wildfires and ultimately reduce wildfire risk more broadly. Learn more about what America's working forests are doing for all of us at workingforestinitiative.com. Speaker 5 (19:47) So the Trump administration did save the more serious action for the far more dangerous adversary, Canada. The president has announced 50 percent tariffs on all Canadian cars, trucks, auto parts and steel starting January 1st. Again, after the midterms, because he believes the country has been, quote, ripping off the United States for years. He also announced that. Canada will be treated like a state no longer and threatened, quote, someone should get these clowns to fall in line or the consequences for Canada will be far worse. This all comes after trade negotiations with our. Once closest ally fell apart Friday night, which led to Trump slapping 50 percent tariffs on 20 billion dollars of Canadian exports. Prime Minister Mark Carney's response was that the U.S. attacked his country and is now at war with Canada. He promised to retaliate dollar for dollar on September 8th. J.D. Vance was asked by a reporter in Maine on Monday what he'd say to Americans worried about the new tariffs. And here's what Vance said. Speaker 1 (20:46) We have to remember, Canada is a state. Sorry. Freudian slip. Speaker 1 (20:53) That was actually an accident. Canada is a country that has underinvested in its military that quite literally would get invaded by a foreign country were it not for the umbrella of protection provided by the United States of America. Speaker 6 (21:09) You think you got that joke from Rubio, the big, the jokester in the administration? That was so canned. Freudian slip. Canada is a country, not. It's really, Speaker 4 (21:20) it's, um, it's, it, the, like. Politics can be confusing and complicated. The president, someone who comes out of a presidential campaign usually doesn't make you uncomfortable every single second you see him on screen. Just every time he is speaking, you're just like a little bit, I'm just uncomfortable. I'm uncomfortable. Secret weapon Speaker 7 (21:39) unleashed. They finally unleashed J.D. Vance on the campaign trail again. Speaker 4 (21:42) Yeah, let J.D. be J.D. They wrote on a napkin. Speaker 5 (21:47) So for reference, Canada is our. Second biggest trading partner, which means a lot more products are about to become a lot more expensive for Americans and Canadians. Anyone care to explain why the president may have just blown up the relationship with our closest ally and made life more expensive for everyone? I Speaker 3 (22:04) can try. If Trump is mad that Canada has been ripping us off for years, he is mad at his own team's deal that they cut the USMCA. So that's what we're operating under. I've heard a couple of different theories for why the talks blew up. The first theory you hear is that the US tried to insert some 11th hour provisions to the deal. that were just a bridge too far for Mark Carney, the prime minister. Some of the, specifically, it's like they wanted to exclude medium and light trucks from the reduction in tariffs the U.S. did, which would have made it unprofitable to produce like the Ford F-150 in Canada. The deal could have weakened some French language protections that are very important in Quebec. This is Speaker 4 (22:38) the Speaker 3 (22:38) crazy thing. This is like a third rail, like you do not fuck with this stuff in Quebec. But Speaker 4 (22:43) also, Speaker 3 (22:43) why did we ask for that? It's Speaker 4 (22:44) none of our fucking business. By language, the Speaker 3 (22:47) bilingual. I'm sure like certain companies hate having to print stuff in French on the side of a pill bottle. Look, I know it's stupid. It's stupid. Speaker 4 (22:56) You Speaker 3 (22:56) want to sell in Quebec. You got to put in the French. You have to. And if Carney messes around with this, Quebec will secede from Canada. So it's a big deal. And then there were some provisions that would have impeded Canada's ability to cut