Thursday on the RealClearPolitics radio show — weeknights at 6:00 p.m. on SiriusXM’s POTUS Channel 124 and then on Apple, Spotify, and here on our website — Andrew Walworth, Carl Cannon, and “After Party” host Emily Jashinsky discuss President Trump reportedly leaning toward “amnesty” for some illegal immigrant workers, more dissent among the MAGA base regarding Jeffrey Epstein, the wild rampage of Elon Musk’s “Grok” AI when its political correctness features were turned off, and this week’s “You Can Not Be Serious?!” roundup of silly stories. After that, presidential historian Tevi Troy talks about how different presidents handled U.S. relations with Iran, and Maggie Miller talks to RealClearInvestigations writer Ben Weingarten about Trump trying to stop illegal aliens from being counted in the 2030 census. *** First, the gang discusses backlash from the MAGA right about President Trump appearing to be open to a work program for illegal alien agricultural workers. Would his base turn on Trump over this? “This is the old Bracero program, widely derided now by both sides, from California, where Mexican farm laborers were allowed to come up, work the fields-and then not be citizens,” Carl Cannon explained. “This was determined by conservatives to be a slippery way into citizenship and by liberals to be exploitive, and we kind of did away with it. What we replaced it with was, by the time Joe Biden was president, utter chaos.” “Trump seems pretty serious,” Emily Jashinsky said. “Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins says she’s been hearing from people in industries Trump cares about, the hospitality and agriculture industries in particular. If Trump wants to have these carveouts, it doesn’t matter what Stephen Miller wants; really, it’s Trump’s call.” *** After that, around minute 9, more fallout from the Jeffrey Epstein situation. Is this another issue where Trump’s base could be turning on him? “Pam Bondi has made this significantly worse,” Jashinsky said. “Clearly implying for the last couple of months that there were more shoes to drop-and then saying all of the shoes have dropped… no more shoes to see here.” “I think maybe it speaks to them starting to take for granted some people in MAGA world,” she added. “I think they’re assuming that they’ll be able to keep the base. And I think they probably will, if they keep looking like they’re taking on the deep state in other ways. Because it’s still better than nothing.” *** In the next segment, at minute 14, Elon Musk’s “Grok” AI grabbed the attention of the ADL this week, when some changes to its political correctness settings resulted in some truly wild antisemitic comments, including referring to itself as “MechaHitler.” How will artificial intelligence develop as a political issue? “This was a disaster,” Jashinsky said. “The CEO of X, the day after this, ended up stepping down. You can’t tell me these things are not connected at all. Linda Yaccarino was brought in to help bring ad revenue back to the platform… But they sure as heck don’t want their advertisements next to complete naked anti-Semitism, Nazi rhetoric.” “I’m on record as saying on this podcast last year that I think that artificial intelligence is the beginning of the end of the human race,” Carl Cannon said. “I think we need a real demagogue, someone who makes Trump look like a piker, who will run for office and say he’s going to kill AI… The new party can be called the Human Party.” Emily Jashinsky added: “This gets really meta, but whatever Elon may or may not be doing to tinker with in Grok algorithmically, he’s doing it based on Grok’s existing personality. Meaning the AI is already, in some ways, influencing the way Elon Musk wants to influence the AI. We can no longer extricate ourselves from the influence of artificial intelligence. And that is going to get very scary very quickly.” *** After that, at minute 21, the weekly “You Can Not Be Serious!?” roundup of the dumbest stories of the week. Andrew Walworth uncovers a 2020 post from Zohran Mamdani giving the finger to a statue of Christopher Columbus. How did Italian-American Andrew Cuomo miss this? *** In the next segment, starting at minute 25, Andrew Walworth and Carl Cannon talk with presidential historian Tevi Troy about the connection between U.S. presidents and Iran, and whether the two countries can ever restore normal relations. Troy wrote this week: “The Presidents and Iran, A History” “The history goes way back,” he said. “I go all the way back to the 1920s. It’s amazing-the first American diplomat murdered abroad was in Tehran… The Coolidge administration was so angry about this, they forced Persia — it was not yet called Iran — to pay for the warship that came to retrieve his body.” “Obviously, in a tyrannical dictatorship, it’s hard to tell what’s going on in the polls-but it does seem that consistently, people don’t like the mullahs, and they do like America,” he said. “Though they don’t like American or Israeli bombs falling on their cities, I think both America and Israel were careful to try and minimize civilian casualties in the recent struggle.” “I do think it’s possible to get back there. But I don’t think some kind of American invasion force is going to do it,” he said. “But I do think there are enough people there who want to live regular lives and not be under the torture of these fanatical mullahs, that I think there is a possibility in the future.” *** Finally, at minute 36, Maggie Miller talks with RealClearInvestigations writer Ben Weingarten about his article on the Trump administration trying to stop counting non-citizens in the U.S. census: “Who Counts? Trump Poised To Try To Remove Noncitizens From Census” Weingarten explains how counting illegal aliens has changed the balance of power in the House and the Electoral College. Supporters of the current practice argue that counting all residents reflects America’s historical commitment to representative government. Critics say it dilutes the political voice of citizens and encourages sanctuary policies. “Hundreds of billions, if not trillions, of dollars in federal funds are allocated down to the states based on the population counts generated by the decennial census. So, these numbers basically have massive sway over political power and influence in this country and overrepresentation,” he said. “And we see a scenario where, in some cases, American citizens have their political power essentially diluted-and you have other people who have disproportionate political power because they have a substantial number or percentage of non-citizens, including illegal aliens, within their districts.” *** Don’t miss a single episode of the RealClearPolitics weeknight radio show – subscribe at Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
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