The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: What’s Trump’s Endgame in Ukraine?
Tue, 18 Feb 2025
Jessica and Tim Miller break down the biggest political moves of the week. Trump is making waves on the world stage, claiming a breakthrough in Ukraine talks with Putin—so what’s his real endgame? Back at home, he’s throwing a legal lifeline to NYC Mayor Eric Adams, but is that “help” actually a political liability? Plus, where do Anti-Trump Republicans stand in a party still dominated by him? Follow Jessica Tarlov, @JessicaTarlov. Follow Tim Miller, @Timodc. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: What is the banter between Jessica and Tim about?
Welcome to Raging Moderates. I'm Jessica Tarlow.
I'm Tim Miller.
Tim, this is the banter section. How are you?
Hey, banter. I'm just happy to be in here for Scott. You know, I think that I'm going to be a downgrade in certain manners and upgrade in hair. You know, we'll see what the people think.
We will see what the people think. I think they'll be excited to see you. They were super excited when you joined us, but we were together, all three of us.
It was fun. It's good. I mean, I'd rather be raging with you guys than... Maybe you have a view on this. I think not raging with the Dems on the Hill. I'm not feeling a ton of raging. Yeah, snoozing.
Democratic snoozing.
Yeah, I'd rather be raging with the moderates than snoozing with the progs.
I mean, this is heavy for the banter section. Oh, sorry. No, no, no. I'm good with it.
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Chapter 2: What is Trump's endgame in Ukraine?
It's a pretty good upgrade.
I think so.
Did you watch any of the SNL 50 stuff?
I was in and out. I was watching White Lotus and I was, you know, podcast prepping. So I caught a little bit of it. I really liked a couple of the Eddie Murphy segments. Eddie Murphy being Tracy Morgan was hilarious. Eddie Murphy doing some... borderline inappropriate prison rape jokes with Will Ferrell in, like, one of the very last segments I also really liked. Those were my big takeaways.
Prison rape is always a highlight. I said multiple times to my husband that I can't believe this show is happening. Like, if it weren't the SNL 50, there's no way these jokes would have made it in, but I'm pretty sure everybody showed up and they were like, we are not playing by 2025 standards. We're playing by whatever year we were actually on the show. And...
A lot of it was hilarious, but I was overwhelmed by Cher. I don't know if you saw these shots of Kevin Costner losing his mind and Billy Crystal watching this 78-year-old woman look like a 30-year-old woman belting out If I Could Turn Back Time, which I think the gays still have possession of. We still have If I Could Turn Back Time.
I missed that clip, though. Oh, you've got to watch it. I will immediately be going to the internet after this to watch that.
To the internet. And now to the show. And I'm keeping us on time, which is not Scott's strong suit.
How'd I do in the banter section?
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Chapter 3: How does Trump's foreign policy differ from previous administrations?
What got missed was the person that got let out on our side was like one of the original crypto scammers who was running a massive crypto scam that allowed Russia to, you know, avert sanctions, you know, by paying for things, you know, using crypto rather than, you know, cash and going through the regular banking system.
I only say that just because everybody should just like make a mental note of that. Because I think that the crypto corruption that is coming over the next four years might end up being one of the biggest stories that happen.
Bigger than the Trump coin. It's interesting.
Well, no, it's related. The Trump coin, it's all related, right? Like, I mean, Trump launches this coin.
I think that that's how... People can manage it. Well, they just say, OK, we know he's a grifter who does things like this, but it's so much bigger than that. And the trade wasn't publicized at all. It took days for anyone to know if we got if we had to trade anything for Mark Fogel.
Yeah, for sure. And so obviously, they're bad people getting traded and all these things like Victor Boot got traded during the Biden administration. So I and I'm happy Mark Fogel is home.
So it's like less a commentary on like the particular trade than just like it's interesting where the priorities were like that the first Russian person out is this crypto scammer person doing the deal Steve Witkoff, his son is business partners with the Trump kids on their crypto scam, right? So That's not a coincidence. I'm not the always sunny guy putting yarn against the wall here.
It's a pretty direct connection directly to Trump's pocket. The broader deal, the sad part about this is that we appear to be on the side of the bad guys. I think that J.D. did some tough talk, but what is happening is we have this meeting in Saudi that you referenced. The Ukrainians aren't even invited. We're having a bilateral with the Russians.
who invaded Ukraine and who we are sanctioning currently to try to cut a deal that Ukraine isn't even at the table for. And Europe is having a separate, you know, the Europeans are having a separate meeting at the same time. As you mentioned, Keir Starmer, like the UK is out there saying, we're going to put boots on the ground, if necessary, peacekeeping troops to support Ukraine.
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Chapter 4: What is the impact of Europe's potential unification without the US?
And like you said, Waltz was a very traditional, you know, type of, you know, type of Republican in the House as far as foreign policy is concerned. And I interviewed Tom Malinowski, the Democrat from New Jersey last week, who's a pretty kind of hawkish Democrat.
And so he was like, when I got to Congress, I was looking to Republicans that I could work with, like where we might have some overlap on foreign policy. And And he was like, Waltz and Stefanik were the two people that I turned to. And he's like, Stefanik has totally gone native with the MAGA. And he's like, it appears like Waltz is doing the same. So we'll see. How things shake out this week.
But the signs are not positive. And it's really a sign of kind of submission to the Trump worldview from all these folks.
What do you think is the likelihood that Zelensky gets his way? So he was speaking at the Munich Security Council and he said, we need an armed forces of Europe. This is after J.D. Vance essentially took a flamethrower to our relationship with Europe in his speech. Clearly, Zelensky does not see us as the top partner opportunity for For him going forward.
Do you think Europe is really going to unify without us?
Yeah. I mean, I wouldn't see us as the top partner opportunity either if I was him. Yeah. No, I think Europe will. I think it could be a positive outcome.
growth of like the the trump worldview that europe ends up you know stepping up their game on defense and you know takes more responsibility and it's not like they i don't want to say they're not taking any responsibility for their own defense but but actually you know sort of take seriously the act that they might have to go it alone at some point and you've seen this from people from europeans at the munich security conference leader nato said something to this effect
which was pretty, uh, secretary general rather, uh, which is pretty alarming. So I think that that's possibly positive, but like, okay, that has potential massive negative ramifications for us. You know, I mean, I was, um, Let me pull this up. There was a woman who is a journalist in Ukraine whose quote just really kind of dropped me on my feet over the weekend. She said this.
Her name is Anna Merlikina. She was from Mariupol and had to flee to Kiev. She said, when you live in a world that is crumbling under your feet, the only thing that helps you survive is to believe in guidelines and civilized democratic countries that uphold values. When countries like the United States cease to be pillars, there is nothing to hope for.
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Chapter 5: How has Trump's leadership style influenced media relations?
It was a failure. And I don't... I mean, obviously, Biden's inability to deliver a message had ramifications. Like, what... In this case, was that the key difference? I don't know. But, I mean, I think it was a problem across multiple verticals. And it relates to the... Democratic stuff now. It's just he was not he was absent. Right.
And there was a moment in 2020 where I think people were so fucking sick of the news and Trump and COVID, like the idea that Biden wouldn't be in their lives every day was kind of people were like, that's a good thing. There were at least some people out there that that was an attractive.
But like over time, as crises unfolded, as inflation happened, as the invasion of Ukraine happened, as 10-7 happened. You know, people need somebody that can talk to them, right? And to deliver a compelling message and that can, you know, demonstrate leadership traits or demonstrate strength at least.
And I think that that was like kind of missing from the last couple of years of the last administration.
I would even say that the quality of the messaging wouldn't have mattered as much if it was happening as more frequently, that people actually just want to physically see you. And then their minds run wild. And obviously there are people who are feeding this that are like, oh, he's not here because he's dead, but he'll be awake at two o'clock and then he's going to die again.
I totally agree with that. I never compliment Trump. So it's just how you want. But like guy has been every, like there was this thing on the left and like resistance world, like during the campaign that was like, Trump is just as old as Biden and Trump's, you know, brain is putting too. And like the media, it's so unfair that the media is making the Biden age thing, like the only thing.
And it's like, I keep saying, I don't think that is true. Like Trump gives off crazy energy, not old energy. Like he just does. And since he's been in there, I didn't know. I thought it was an unknown.
Might Trump win and just be so happy that he's not in jail, that he's just going to golf and go on the NASCAR track, which he did, and do the fun stuff and the accoutrement of the presidency and not do everything else? And that's been the opposite. He's given more press conferences than anybody. I lose track of all the press conferences he's done. I missed one on Friday.
He's talking to the media all the time. And that is how to do it in the modern media age. And I think that that is something that those of us who oppose them could learn from.
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Chapter 6: What cultural shifts have occurred under the Trump administration?
It feels so lame to say there was a big explainer because it wasn't even like a real piece of journalism. But I got a nifty newsletter from Axios talking about the kind of history of this administration's objections to the AP. And basically, they're mad that the AP style book has used terms that they hate too liberally, like gender, DEI, inclusivity, etc.,
I'm old enough to remember when the other news stations stood with Fox News when the Obama administration wasn't going to let them in to do a pool briefing with a representative from the administration and basically ABC, NBC, CBS. They all said, if Fox can't do it, then we're not doing it. And then they let them in begrudgingly. But it doesn't feel like that moment is happening at all.
Like, everyone is bemoaning the fact that the AP is being excluded, but no one is doing anything about it. It's like a pretty obvious, we, A, don't know what the First Amendment means, and B, we don't care. And we're running this like the Wild West.
Yeah, I mean, the asymmetry is just so obvious, it's almost like, you know, it's like dog bites man to even mention it. But like, yeah, I mean, look, so in part, I actually would be defensive of the other mainstream outlets saying,
Like, because I think that if ABC and NBC and CBS said we're going to boycott in solidarity with AP, I feel like the Trump administration would be like, OK, peace, you know? Yeah. So it's kind of like the conservative outlets need to do it. And they're not going to. So I don't, you know, I mean, that's like the situation.
And I think everybody should just be aware of like what time it is and what's what's happening out there. As far as like the more interesting part of this, and obviously there's the First Amendment threat here. But to me is. How all in these guys are going on like, you know, what I call patriotic correctness. Like, you know, it's not just enough to stop doing, you know, pro-DEI activities.
They need to snuff out anybody that is using words or language that they don't like, right? And to a preposterous extent, the idea that everybody has to use the new name of the Gulf that they just changed one minute ago or else they're going to be banned is ridiculous.
And in some ways, it's ridiculous as some of the most extreme things that you see on the far left on PC, like demanding that people...
you know use um you know use latinx or whatever right and so i do wonder if it's going to backfire on them eventually um i i don't are people really for this like it feels it feels very mockable so obviously it's serious but i i do think they are like very much being responsive to something that only like a tiny group of far-right trolls who are super online actually care about
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