The Exchanges

Q Um, yeah. What about for Ben and Nick? Okay, so Doge, what is the sentiment on the parade of tech billionaires who were currying Trump's favor at the moment? I mean, do you see that from your perspective and Do DC insiders have the same attitude as like, oh, how cute, we still run the show?

A I think the, I mean, the people I, I mean, I think, I mean, I mean, maybe this is sort of my view and the view of some people I talk to, that, that Satya looks really, really smart for staying out of that photo. And that, and that, but that there was, and that there's a sense when you talk to some of the people around some of these, um, You know, these, these tech billionaires that, like, they're like, oh, we finally solved politics. We finally figured it out. Like, we just go all in on Trump, then we never have to worry about politics, and it's going to be great. And then what is it, like, one of the, you know, if the Democrats take the House, we're talking in 20 months, there will be a corruption committee convened, which will have Mark Zuckerberg, Tim Cook, Sundar Pichai, and whoever talking in great detail, but every penny that was directed, and, you know, and I think they'll want to scalp. Like, I think the Democrats will really want to destroy one of those people. And I, like, and I think Elon is probably too big to fail for the US government. So, like, if I were Mark, I'd be really worried. I think he's, like, wildly overexposed, and did, did not manage to make friends with the Republicans. Like, they think this whole thing is funny, obviously. It is funny. It's impossible not to think it's funny. And then the Democrats really are out for blood now. And so I, I actually …

AI assessment note: “business leaders in the United States typically do not do stuff like that”

Q over the shit wasn't, why wasn't I added, and just sort of that giddiness of, like, how much fun he's having, which I also felt like, I'm like, this is, this is, like, this has got to be really fun. Um, what is your analysis on, like, the severity of this? Um, and, and what's sort of playing out now in Washington with the, the grilling of these, uh, officials?

A Yeah, I mean, I would say, like, it's, I mean, Britt has a real point. Like, good that they're using Signal. These are people who have to talk to each other, and it's actually a much better way to communicate than an open phone line or text. Um, and so, like, and in fact, they had been told by the Pentagon they should be using Signal. Except that, you know, if any of their, like, there's an enormous effort by the Russians and the Chinese who are really good at this stuff, and probably the Israelis and others, to compromise the, the, the devices of these specific guys. One of them was in Russia while this is going on, with Steven Witkoff. What are the odds that the Russians are reading these as they come in? I don't know, one in three, one in four, they're not zero. Not, you don't have to compromise signal to get to that, right? You just have to get to the screen of the phone.

AI assessment note: “What are the odds that the Russians are reading these as they come in?”

Q to the Atlantic and what do you do? Do you have like a war room and you're like, how should we go about like launching this? What's the marketing around this? What's the business model? How do we, how do we like make this about the people in the news, but kind of drive some traffic to the Atlantic and get people to pay us? Like what's that conversation like?

A You know, it's funny. Cause I, I, I don't think, I think that like you're thinking like an entrepreneur, which, you know, fortunately maybe Jessica is in my partner is like, I would just think what an amazing story, right? And like, this is crazy. And particularly the interplay where Vance is sort of saying, like, I don't think Trump really knows what we're doing here. He's a little lost. And like Vance is really exposing something there that's really complicated and is going to play out for the next four years. And I think Jeffrey was, I actually think there's like the, the, the moment when you start to, and this is actually like a common Silicon Valley misconception that we are like obsessed with clicks as opposed to interested in information. Um, and so I think actually my, Guess is that he was just, like, fascinated by this thing that played out. Of course, also, part of that is what an amazing story. I can't wait to, like, tell everyone this story, but the marketing, I mean, the stuff markets itself.

AI assessment note: “this is actually like a common Silicon Valley misconception that we are like obsessed with clicks”

Q Trust in these institutions. And so we have the media companies, we have the social media companies, we have government, like how are each of these impacted going forward?

A You know, I do think that the Trump folks communicate in modern ways, and like, that although this was really, I mean, incredibly dumb, and particularly just the part where Hegseth is sort of telling the Futhi's friends when they're gonna get attacked, basically, like, really dumb. But the fact that they communicate like normal people on, you know, in real time, as opposed to having could only talk to each other by huddling in basement skiffs once a month or whatever, Like is, and I think that's, you know, there is this, there's sort of been an acceleration into the present that's a rat in a lot of the Trump team's communications, whether it's public or among themselves, that I don't think people should necessarily like mock or object to, but it does make it hard to sort of respect government. This is actually an old Julian Assange theory that kind of like government can't function if it doesn't have secrets because secret, like, because once you see the sort of, you know, random people doing random stuff that is any institution, it can't function anymore and it loses its prestige. Um, but I, yeah, but I, I think that aside from, you know, aside from Hegseth's texts, there's a, there, it just reveals a kind of normalcy, actually, to the, uh.

AI assessment note: “it does make it hard to sort of respect government.”