The Exchanges

Q And so do you, Antonio, go in there with a Doge engineer as your kind of sidekick, per se, or you just go there solo and you show up and, like, what, like, what happens day one when you walk in, into the place? Like, what do you do?

A So I brought with me, um, two great professionals, uh, you know, John and, and Peyton from, uh, from Valor. Um, one of them, an engineer, the other one, I'd say, a finance ninja. Both these guys are ninjas. And there was already a team there, actually, that was working with some great engineers. And one senior person, uh, Scott Coulter, who's from I actually worked at Lone Pie and started my own fund, and then I had come here as a volunteer as well. So they were already doing some work, actually, particularly on the enumeration part of the part of the system. So that is the system that you have numbers, the whole cleaning of the database, the numbers, they had already started that project when I got there.

AI assessment note: “So I brought with me, um, two great professionals, uh, you know, John and, and Peyton”

Q the Republicans have become the working party, but putting all that aside, you started looking at this, and we had a discussion privately about, hey, are these people signing up to vote? Because that would be an indicator that this You know, theory that people were streaming across the border in order to vote, um, you found some people who were illegal immigrants who registered to vote? This is confounding.

A It, yes, this is actually true. So, um, we have, we have sampled a handful of states, uh, and in those handful of states we found, um, people registered to vote, and we have found people who actually voted, and this is all being done by sampling, ok? So we are sampling, uh, DHS data, And then have to go to the voter rolls, check the voter rolls, and then check the, give that to HSI, Homeland Security Investigations, who goes and checks the voter record by subpoena and the, and the voter in the cards you sign when you vote. We had, uh, already three, um, arrests here in Florida, actually, and one, and one indictment, uh, in New York. Yes, it's, it's, we, we posted it, the DOJ posted it.

AI assessment note: “yes, this is actually true. So, um, we have, we have sampled a handful”

Q years before this. What would we see if we were to look backwards a little bit, and do you have some theories, and is the COVID overhang theory valid, or is this just Biden opened the border, as we saw, you know, especially, like, and maybe it was that third year of his term, the twenty-twenty-three year, and this is the overhang of the twenty-twenty-three surge? What are your theories?

A Well, the answer is no, a category no, because the program really started, it, it started in 2017, so they probably worked on it before that, right? A few things, a few years put these into place. They worked at it by guesses, you know, back to the administration. It actually became active in 17. You see a few numbers in 18, and it starts to get a little bigger in 19 and 20, right? So that, that's how we get this baseline number of 19 and 20. That's where we're using that data here. Um, so you, there isn't, I can't go back 20 years. It doesn't exist. And then when we dug into it, what we found was the vast majority of the growth, uh, was related to asylum programs and parolees and people that came in on, on NTAs, this is noticed to appear into the country, either at the border, at the airports, mostly at the border. And then we dug further into the, excuse me, dug further into it. We found that there were This is about 5.4 million people total. There were about 1.2 million people that the status is marked as unknown, and about 1.2 million people that were marked as general parole. And they should have markings of, you know, what the program is they're under. Because if you, if you claim asylum, you're supposed to claim like a real fear. I'm gonna be tortured by my country. You know, something bad's gonna happen. That's why I can't go home. What we find here is that a legitimate…

AI assessment note: “Well, the answer is no, a category no, because the program really started”

Q super young, and I was like, man, this is an opportunity to kind of rewrite how government operates in America today, but I was just struck by the age and the talent and how that came together, and kind of, where do they show up? Do they just apply out of the blue, and you guys, you guys have recruiters out there? I mean, where do these guys come from?

A So, uh, we do have, we do have a recruiting team actually. Um, they're great. Uh, Barish and Emily do the recruiting. And I'll tell you, I just want to stop for a second and say this. This is extraordinary. These people are extraordinary. All of them. The young people you saw at the table are extraordinary. Uh, They're amazing engineers, and they're like, any one of us would be, they're, they're 10 X engineers. We would all be thrilled to have our companies. Ilana obviously is an extraordinary leader, so they come, they come for, for, for him, but I think they're really motivated by the mission. They're motivated by the idea that this is a moment where they can actually make an extraordinary difference to the country, and that is a flywheel that brings more people, right? So they bring their friends, and it's, you know, you recruit other people in, um, and there's, there are extraordinary, extraordinary people there, man. So you saw the people at the table in that particular interview, I didn't say a word. I literally, it wasn't the company.

AI assessment note: “we do have a recruiting team actually... they bring their friends”

Q Can you flip back again? So your number for 24 was how much? 2.1 million.

A Yep. Yep. And what they did is took, they took our data, so this was, you know, look, I don't want to impute negative motives, they just maybe were confused. They took our data, And they can pick, they added the total data, right? This is just subsection. This is EB and I'm just going to use acronyms. Okay, guys, this is EB only enumeration beyond entry, which is a program, as I said, started in 2017. And then it kind of ramped up into 19. They took our data and then they added the total data before that, right? That is apples to oranges. That's why it doesn't work. And I, I went through a whole analysis of this. On X and you know, the person, the first person that posted the chart actually deleted it and sent me a post saying, Hey, I, you know, I'm deleting it because I get it. You're right. And apologized and asked me some questions. I don't want to get into it. You guys know, I don't post a lot on X. I don't want to get into basic people. It's not worth it. The data speaks for itself.

AI assessment note: “Yep. Yep. And what they did is took, they took our data”

Q You believe in the work from home, Antonio? You have a strong feeling one way or the other?

A Um, I, I'm more on Chamas Camp than not, but I will say we have some great companies that are fully remote. Um, we have a coalition example in separate security. It's fully remote, run by wonderful CEOs under the age of 35, and he's found a way to make it work, and I've learned a lot from him, and so I'm trying to be very open algorithm about this, and I think there are people that make it work. People can't make it work. I can't make it work. I want my people in the office. We invest in pharma. Um, we invest in biotech, and we have some biotech companies that have made it work, Uh, remotely, and some that insist on bringing back, people back. If you're in a lab, obviously you have to be back, but it, I think there'll be a mixed environment, and I also think there's an interesting retooling going on in productivity. I think the productivity numbers in American, that we're seeing today are wrong, because they're not capturing what's happening underneath the technology, because these remote environments. So, I, I don't know yet. I think it's gonna depend on the CEO and how good people are, and the type of industry you're in.

AI assessment note: “I want my people in the office.”

Q I mean, you really doubled down, because you didn't just do Tesla, you also Were there in some really critical moments at SpaceX as well?

A We were, although I, I tell you, um, you know, we doubled down at the time in Tesla. We put more money in Tesla than we were in the financial crisis, and then helped lead a convert round there that was really tough for us to do, and then put money in SpaceX. But I tell you, operationally, like in terms of capital stack, I think there were other people around, and, and SpaceX is also running out of money, and so we put money to SpaceX. Operation we worked at SpaceX over the years, but it was never as existential in terms of the operations as it was at Tesla. I mean, Tesla was truly, I think, truly existential, and because we were operating guys, and I myself had been a factory manager, I worked in auto parts, in auto parts factory, I'd run industrial facilities myself, we could kind of uniquely add value there. In the rocket factory, you know, we were just less valuable. Um, but yeah, both these companies were going down at the same time, and, you know, the amount of stress we were all under was extraordinary, but, you know, looking back on it, it's one of the greatest moments of my career. I mean, this sense of fellowship, you know, one of the, I think the great thing about being in our business, the business we are all in, is that we get to back amazing people that are trying to change the world, and in these dark, dark, dark, deep moments, we get to go to war for them. And in…

AI assessment note: “We were, although I, I tell you, um, you know, we doubled down”

Q that way, but there are real kind of, kind of call it a small group of highly influential folks at the top of the Democratic Party that recognize that this is going to grow the voter base, and they're, they're kind of motivating this. What do you think is the construction of what sounds to some to be a conspiracy, and how much of this is really, like, widely understood?

A Look, man, I'll tell you what I have seen. I'll tell you the actual information. If you look at Social Security Administration, we set all the defaults to kind of max open, no ID requirements, right? You get a Social Security number before we got here by walking in office. Answering, you know, with, with, with a medical record and a school ID that had your name and your date, the date of birth on it. That's it. Okay. We opened up, we set the defaults to open on social security. We set the defaults to open on pay, paying people out. And we set the collections defaults basically to zero. So that's how the system looks. That's I'm just reporting, reporting the facts. Um, do I think that the, the average person is a Democrat in the, in, in Illinois or You know, the guys I knew I grew up in Chicago, they know this. They don't know this. They don't know this. So were there people at the top of the system that did this? Yeah. People created this policy. The former administrators of these, of these agencies created these policies. I've seen them. I've read them myself. I've gone to the data myself. They've seen them. Now, this isn't everybody. If you're the average person out there who's a Democrat, and you see what I've seen, you, I believe, you will, you will conclude what I concluded, which is, this isn't right. These policies are wrong. They're evil. They're wrong. We gave an incen…

AI assessment note: “were there people at the top of the system that did this? Yeah.”

Q And so you had two or three mulligans, I think, in the development of that, maybe two actually. So what can we expect here? When are they going to stack and rack and launch the next one? Antonio, let's see. What's the timeline here to getting to orbit? What would we expect versus some of the other projects that we've seen like the Russian rockets?

A So look, this is, um, a brand new vehicle. And whenever we develop a brand new vehicle, it takes a long time in development. You know, my understanding, all this is as, as again, a layman and sort of as a board member, not an executive here is that it'll take at least two or three months, two or three months to really get the pad rebuilt and get another vehicle back on for testing, uh, maybe longer. But it's really important to note here that we've gotten sort of used to the idea that SpaceX launches rockets and all these rockets come back and all those vehicles are stable because the Falcon nine nine heavy are so stable and they're so well engineered and they're amazing vehicles, the most reliable vehicles on earth in human history. This is a brand new vehicle. This was a huge win. I mean, it was an enormous room for the company, enormous room for the country, just getting it off the pad and collecting the data. And now we know it works. We just have to get it stable now and get up to orbit. So it's, it's really, it's, it's a hard problem, but it's a solid problem from here. And the, the, we learned here is that this vehicle does work.

AI assessment note: “it'll take at least two or three months, two or three months to really get the pad rebuilt”

Q Okay. If we were to, And I'm sure Shabath has some questions in Freeburg, but if we were to look at one dollar spent by our government, waste, fraud, abuse, how many pennies of the dollar is it? If you had to, just based on what you've seen so far, a range.

A Here's what's sad. So if you go into any company, any company you guys have ever seen, that is not like super well run, it probably is like easy cut, 15%. Easy, easy, easy. Um, This is where the 15, this is where the trillion dollar number came from. 15% of, of seven billion dollars. I think if we had the political will, you'd easily get that 15%, no problem. Um, not without any problem at all, and without cutting the core, uh, entitlement programs. So it's definitely there. The question is, do people want to do it or not? And remember, every dollar we take, we are taking from an NGO or a Beltway consultant You know, it's, it's actually, the people are screaming about this because we're taking money from them. Um, and it, it is, whatever you read in the news media, I gotta tell you, it isn't true. I mean, um, the cuts, I think it's 88% of the, of the people that have left the government have taken packages. The packages are very lucrative. Uh, there's, you know, nine months or so of severance, um, and they're, they're voluntary. So, yeah, I tell you, and I also say the people that work in government who are good, there's lots of good people in the government that I have met and have pointed at all this stuff. They deserve better. Ok, imagine trying to be a civil servant, you want to do the right thing, you're working there because you care about America, and you're in this, lik…

AI assessment note: “if you go into any company... easy cut, 15%. Easy, easy, easy.”

Q for example, if you, if you look at Singapore, the Singaporean approach from Lee Kuan Yew was let's create a government that is extremely, uh, empowered, but let's also make it quite small. Let's make them more compensated and let's try to find sort of an elite cadre of folks Is that approach possible in the United States? Or should we even think that we should try something like that?

A I mean, Singapore is a unique, a unique experiment in the world. It's also a place where you, uh, you know, you might not getting caned if you drop chewing gum on the ground. Okay. So, um, in America, we have a different, a different level of, um, I would say of, uh, freedom and rights. You know, we should strive for a civil service that is professional, Well compensated, and mission-oriented, and that mission orientation is serving the United States, and I think that gets back to, look, there are very good people, they want the right thing, serve their country, that's why they're there, and it's, ah, I wouldn't make it, I wouldn't make it about the money, I wouldn't make it about the mission, and we'll get the, we get, there are very good people that are on mission, I met them, they are the ones pointing all this stuff out to us.

AI assessment note: “we should strive for a civil service that is professional, Well compensated, and mission-oriented”

Q This is sacrifice, right? You're, you're, you're taking time out of your day job.

A It, it, it's definitely a sacrifice, but it, it, it really, I feel very grateful that I have the capacity and 30 years of training and lean operations that I can be useful. You know, that feels very, feels, I feel with gratitude. Yeah. How bad is it? Uh, so if Twitter was like the, the JV league, this is like the NBA. Um, it's the most complex thing I've ever seen. I have in, ah, our office in DC, I have a, I've mapped now, as an example, the entire system of, like, basically from the border to the benefits programs. It's about a forty-foot board, and it looks like a Basquiat. It's, I mean, it's an incredible, ah, like, spaghetti gram of stuff. And, yeah, I've never seen anything so complex in my life. So, the answer to your question is, it's worse than I thought. Much, much worse than what we saw at Twitter NowX. And America, Americans, and all of you, we deserve better.

AI assessment note: “It, it, it's definitely a sacrifice, but... How bad is it?”

Q as a Clinton Democrat, fiscally conservative, socially liberal, correct me if I'm wrong there, what are your thoughts on reconciliation here, because you really do care about that, your parents, both immigrants, my besties here, three of the four people who host this program, immigrants, this is an immigrant country built by immigrants, for immigrants, has always been, So how do we reconcile this issue and put it behind us?

A And Jason, I have asked myself this question, and I, I think we got to follow the truth. And that's, that's the point, follow the truth. And the truth is in the data. And as, as Ben said, the numbers don't lie, right? And so people are productive. We got to find a way to allow them to be productive and stay. People that are, are taking the system should not be allowed to stay. And, you know, I think we, I don't want to get into the policy at all because it's above my pay grade. I mean, the reality is for me, my remit is, as Ben said, it's criminals, terrorists, and then people mooching out the system. And then, You know, a political question needs to be answered about what happens to the rest of those people. I, I don't, I don't know. I don't, it's not my remit. I will say this. I think that all my friends who are still Democrats that I have explained this data to, they all say the same thing you guys are saying. Man, this is a problem. We've got to figure this out, and let me tell you why. The bigger problem, the biggest problem here, I mean, it's, it's, it definitely is taking off the system, but you've got to realize we gave 13 to fifteen billion dollars a year to human traffickers. That's what the system did, and the money magnet that attracted these people here. It wasn't like it was some crisis, you know, environmental crisis. The money magnet attracted these people, and …

AI assessment note: “I don't want to get into the policy at all because it's above my pay grade.”

Q And it will be in a pill format soon, right? I mean, the pills are almost here.

A It would be very cool, actually, David, if you do this, um, to Jamal's point about, you know, people being confused. If you did the every, the every person's, um, kind of story around this journey. And you documented it. You know, like you did, you did like, this is my weight, I did weightlifting first, then I did the GOP one, and you actually did like a weekly thing where you checked in, and even it was 10 minutes up on X or something, where you just gave people the journey, uh, in a way that wasn't so complicated, because I think people are confused. Jamal's right, I mean, I have, you know, I have very good doctors, you guys are good doctors, but if you don't, you don't know what to do.

AI assessment note: “If you did the every, the every person's, um, kind of story around this journey.”

Q And it will be in a pill format soon, right? I mean, the pills are almost here.

A It would be very cool, actually, David, if you do this, um, to Chamaa's point about, you know, people being confused. If you did the every, the every person's, um, kind of story around this journey and you documented it, you know, like you did, you did like, this is my weight. I did weightlifting first and I did the GOP one and you actually did like a weekly thing where you checked in and even it was 10 minutes up on X or something where you just gave people the journey, uh, in a way that wasn't so complicated because I think people are confused. Jamal's right. I mean, I have, I have very good doctors. You guys are good doctors, but if you don't, you don't know what to do.

AI assessment note: “if you did the every, the every person's, um, kind of story around this journey”

Q But the DOJ, the DOJ sells these. So like, who do you think of the DOJs making the Bitcoin market decisions, and is that the right person to be monetizing these assets?

A I mean, David mentioned a point about security I just want to follow up on, which is, When, when you think about Social Security, it's six, uh, six trillion dollars of our 36 trillion debt, and it's actually a fake treasury bill. So just to, we, well, one of the things we figured out in early days before the inauguration, I know it's like, that six trillion dollars sits on the ledger. It's just a paper ledger over. So actually, if it gets paid out, it's also be very inflationary. It's just a fake treasury that ledgered over at, that pays a very low rate. And, uh, here at, uh, Valerie with my partners, John Shulkin has been reading To try to help the, the only, the only thing that we find is audit in the government. The Social Security Administration actually has an audit. It has an audit. And when you go through the audit, it's crazy. The material weaknesses going back to Doge that you find. Yeah, it'd be way better to have that invested in a way that was economic for people with real money.

AI assessment note: “David mentioned a point about security I just want to follow up on”