DSR Daily October 6: Trump’s Unhinged Comments on L.A. and San Diego

The DSR Network

The episode features hosts David Rothkopf, Riley Fessler, and Minna Stein analyzing recent political and economic developments. They critique President Trump's controversial

Key takeaways

• President Trump shifted $20M in taxpayer-funded ad spending to his MAGA Inc. super PAC after bipartisan backlash over alleged anti-propaganda law violations.
• Trump called allowing Iran to destroy L.A. or San Diego a
• drawing sharp condemnation from Gov. Gavin Newsom and Mayor Karen Bass.
• The World Bank raised East Asia-Pacific growth forecasts to 4.5% due to AI semiconductor demand, warning of heavy tech-sector vulnerability and opaque private credit risks.
• Disney and ABC filed suit against the FCC, alleging Chair Brendan Carr's accelerated license reviews constitute unconstitutional retaliation for network commentary.
• Trump approved the firing squad execution of former Army psychiatrist Nidal Hassan, marking the first U.S. military execution in over 60 years.

Main topics

• Trump ad funding shift
• L.A./San Diego rally comments
• World Bank AI economic forecast

Notable quotes

"allowing a foreign enemy to, quote, take out cities like Los Angeles or San Diego was a, quote, small price to pay for keeping the country safe."

Conclusion

The episode underscores growing concerns over executive overreach, med

Transcript preview

Speaker 3 (0:10) Hello and welcome to the JSR Daily. I'm David Rothkopf. I'm joined by Riley Fessler, Minna Stein. We're going to take a look at what is going on. You know, by the way, guys, last night I was doing the Daily Beast, you know, the Daily Beast podcast I do once a week, and then it gets released on YouTube at 8 o'clock, and it becomes a kind of event, like 5,000, 6,000, sometimes 7,000 people show up and comment on it as it is being spooled out for the first time. And last night, I had several people go, oh, I love Ryla and Mina. Some say Minnie. Some say Mia. But I know who they're talking about. And they're like, yeah, I love DSR, too. So I just want you to feel good first thing in the morning. Speaker 2 (0:56) I do feel good. I'm glad that we have fans out there. Speaker 3 (1:00) Exactly. Thank you. Thank you, Raleigh. Thank you, Mia. All right. Are you starting us off today? Speaker 3 (1:09) Mia is going to start us off. Mia, take Speaker 1 (1:12) it away. Yes, I'm going to start us off today. Do you have Speaker 3 (1:17) any alternate personalities we should know about? Is there like a secret person that... Speaker 1 (1:23) And it has a Dr. Speaker 2 (1:24) Jekyll and Mr. Hyde thing going on with men and Mia. Speaker 1 (1:27) Well, I kind of do. And it's actually not Mia. It's Mary. When I was, excuse me, I did like phone banking for Biden. And I was calling in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina, which are like some rough states to make phone calls in. And so I would change my name and my voice to sound like. more palatable to people so that they would want to talk to me on the phone. Wait a second. Speaker 3 (1:55) Okay, let's be honest. Did you put on a Southern accent? Speaker 1 (1:59) No, I didn't. I spoke in a higher pitched voice and I changed my name to Mary. So actually my alternative personality is Mary, not Mia. Speaker 3 (2:12) Mary from the city. I once got stopped by a traffic cop driving through like South Carolina and I was with somebody and the cop comes up and says, you know, do you know how fast you're going or whatever? And are you from around here? And I was like. We all know we're not from around here, but, you know, we come here a lot or something. And in my excellent Southern accent and without even thinking. And the guy goes and he lets us off. And the person I was with was like, what the hell was that? Who did you just become? It's called acting. Ever heard of it? Yeah, exactly. Exactly. All right. All right. All right, Mary, let us have it. All Speaker 1 (2:59) right, now for the news. President Trump announced on Truth Social that he will shift funding for his administration's patriotic, air quotes, television ads from public funds to his MAGA Inc. super PAC following widespread bipartisan backlash. The decision comes after the Department of Homeland Security faced intense scrutiny for directing $20 million in taxpayer funds towards the campaign-style spots, which critics argued violated federal anti-propaganda laws ahead of the midterm election, which we've covered here on this show. While the White House maintained that the commercial were standard educational public service announcements, Trump opted to leverage his super PAC's $400 million war chest to quiet the controversy. Speaker 3 (3:46) Yeah, thanks, Mr. President. Essentially, what he's saying is, you know, I thought about it, and I've decided not to steal your money. And I just thought you should thank me for not stealing your money. As for Minna's assertion that critics say this violated the law, let's be perfectly clear. Anybody who could read say this