or all too often silence in the face of tragedy. convo empire of silence starts february 15th on dw, the even republicans are surprised at how radically us president trump on his trusted advisor mosque. also feeling very election promises by restructuring the government of the state operates as trump sees who's come back plans as a service to the american tax pads tended to help reduce what he sees as excessive doctor. see in washington, john claims ease ending the inefficiency and waste of taxpayers money. but critics, since the secret agenda by the administration name debt this credit thing in the weakening american institution today we are trump motzkin protected build it as is

a pro happening in the us, the hello and welcome to to the point that may introduce today's tap on a cup blog. schmidt, a writes a and us expert who best sell it. america's religious. lori is deals with a powerful political force of the religious vice brandon valona expert on us policy and foreign policy with the baptist months. there still less of the think tank here and balance. and eric, trish found a right to in general as to also reports for the los angeles times. very well and welcome to all of you and brandon, i'm going to stop with you. very simple question. what's happening as well, i mean trumps in a, in a relatively unique position for any president solely happened. one time and us

history, that a prisoner's had paused between 2 administrations and centrally. what he's doing is he took that time to reflect on what went wrong in his 1st administration. we wasn't able to get over the finish line. you can see within the last 3 not weeks, the speed at which some of these executive orders have come. it's just a, it's chaos. that's the word that i've, that i've heard use the most. but the, you know, if you talk to any american at the moment, reducing red tape, reducing bureaucracy, those are good things. but the way in which it's being done, there are political motivations that apparently, if you, if you look at some of the actions, the conflicts of interest that are there. and then through of law simply being ignored. that's the main concern is that most? yeah, that's placement dollars less that we see, we basically see an executive branch that sees itself above the other 2 branches that are supposedly that to ensure that there are checks and balances on the executive power. and we now see prominent members of the trump administration

opened the stating that they don't see themselves bound, for example, by the quotes. and um, you know, we have to see how this plays out. i don't think any of us know how it's going to go, because there's just so much happening at the moment. but the speed and the destructiveness, i think, has even passed. i would say the most pessimistic expectations checks and balances. famous famously controlling democracy and keeping a democracy in a live in, in the us. uh, are they being thrown out of the window right now? oh, definitely as challenging. i would call it disruption that destruction, destruction. i think trump feels like you want to mandate to change things. he feels like it's his is duty now is e as a promise to the voters as 1st 4 years or to successful because he wasn't as well prepared as maybe a surprise to the one. and i think it's brenda mentioned he's making up for that last time. now,

by trying to learn from all those mistakes and doing as much as you can, but i think the checks and balances are still there. they're still the constitution . there are, there's a supreme court up there that will stop anything on cars to show that the senate and the congress are supposed to be checking balance as well. right now, the republican dominated senate and con, um congress are not really challenging. trump, they seem to be in a bit afraid of him at the moment, afraid of primary challenges that could make them lose their job. but things change in washington uh, 2 years is mixed the midterm election. and it could be a completely different story. and from those window a small, he might only have 2 years get through as much as he wants now, but we just heard, you said, you know, all the checks and balances are, are still in place. but for example, we just heard from, i believe a j, the buttons who said that the quotes are not that to come from on the actions of the government. i mean, that's exactly what they're, they're full. and so i ask you again, is this a threat to the system of checks and balances?

i would say absolutely. i mean, i think if you look at your look at those comments and indeed events has also said, okay, the judges have decided let them try to enforce it. me telling andrea jackson, by the way. absolutely. that's why we're going back to it. absolutely. so, you know, i think the issue is what we've seen is there's, there's not a pathway to follow the law. it's challenging the law outright and seeing what sticks. because as we're seeing following the law, i'm takes time. it's much quicker if you don't. and by the time the court, the courts are reacting, you know that the damage is done. i think that that's one of the issues at the moment. also, if you don't follow the law of what we've seen is the consequences of not doing so are actually not that, not that serious. i mean you're, we're talking about fines in some way. political shame that you could, we could come with some of these actions, but the reality is that for certain individuals you and most in particular, if you don't follow the law in a financial burden, comes peas,

pretty well positioned in what i hear, that they are really a hold of, i mean the most important court is the court of public opinion and that's the court . the trump love. and if these things really look like a takeover, like some people in europe are worried of a hostile takeover. it's gonna, it's gonna, there's going to be a whiplash, and trump will, will feel that in the next elections is popular where to go down. so i'm optimistic, i believe the constitution is still working. i believe the checks and balances are working and i think the media is a very important check on things that trump are doing. and we're reading in detail about all these things that are going on. it's not like it's happening in in secret . i mean, um and, and mosque is admitted. he's made mistakes and he's going to correct them. so it's only been 3 weeks. i think we should give him given at least a 100 days. but at the same time, we saved the administration and hit up of course administration's relationship to media can be frosty at times. we've also seen that in the bind. however, this administration is openly threatening journalists, is removing journalists. they don't like from the offices that they've had making it harder to report. and as we have seen some accent reporting that's true or the i

think because you mentioned the court of public opinion. i think one of the reasons, and we've seen this, and i think that was a cnn report on some of the protest as well. now going on, you know, going out onto the street to process and they were off. why do you think that as few people protesting on it? and one of them said, i think people also uh scad. this is not a regular administration. this is an administration that has opened these that tend to use the american ministry against protest of. so i think there's also something read, conte, so you know, we can't forget when looking at the response from the public and that's why i think we, we should be careful to say i'll, we'll just leave it to public opinion. will change because the question is if it changes and when it changes, when it matters, this one name that has been mentioned twice already and that's the name of it on a mosque. and it don't have trumps new

u. s. government has radically realigned the political system all if you landed stay. so the impact is immediate. 1000000000 the mosque plays a central role in this of the loan musk, richest man in the world. the close confidence of us president trump, the now also head of a newly established government agency, called the department of governments efficiency search for shots mosque and his team from us to radically downsize the states out the process and make it more efficient. some of the things that we found were shocking billions and billions of dollars and waste, fraud, and abuse. and i think is very important. and that's one of the reasons i got less opponents suspect that trump is primarily concerned with the political restructuring of the states and perhaps as they criticized the fact that musk and

his team on maine, the acting against the authorities that don't unloading with trump another critique must ex employees have access to sensitive data used by financial authorities without just being clear of what they need access, full month's kind of way up, potential conflicts of interest with his own companies as he sees fit, well must do to become a risk to us national security and us democracy who is more dangerous musket phone. i think that question dangerous. i don't, i don't see either as dangers. i think trump was elected with his mandate and he's doing what he many things he promised to do and, and must, can sort of carrying out his wishes. and i think musk will be along along around as long as he's doing what trump wants and trumpet following. what he's doing must says he's reporting to trump regularly. it's got an office in the white house, and i fear sometimes i hear abroad that he's not elected and all this and that he's serving

a president and he's doing what the president wants. and he'll keep doing that as long as he does with trump. once they had a falling out 8 years ago and other a body advisory panel, so probably have a falling out at some point. but at the moment i think muskets doing what trump wants. and um, a lot of americans, i was in the us last 2 weeks. a lot of americans like the idea of, as he mentioned, cutting the red tape, cutting the size of the government. the government is bloated over the last century, and there's plenty of room for cuts. the, let's go through what must cause donald wants to do. let's start with us a id. and so that is creating a huge opportunity for example, of the china to step into that uh, gap if you will. is that dangerous? i think it's, i think it's counter productive to this reset and us strategic foreign policy. so there yesterday, pete headsets mentioned the asia pacific region is our focus. the primary mission

of us aid is to of course help people in need. right. a secondary goal is to provide is american influence is a great example of american soft power. and if the united states retreats, that creates a vacuum that then china can exploit. we know that china is already in touch with vietnam, the philippines, paul cambodia, about filling the gap, created by usa not being there. so it's actually counterproductive. i find another, a big part of his cutting down is actually uh, looking at the f b r. uh and uh, you know, kind of vindictive way of punishing everyone who has been part of investigations against him or his support. just the journey was 6, a crew that was in jail. and what will that, what effect will that have? i mean, i think we're already seeing the effects um uh, jacob translator, i think maybe most uh oh, better, better known as the so called acumen sherman,

the guy with holmes, from january 6th. he treated out right after he was pardoned. thank you, president trump, i'm not going to go buy some guns. and so what you have now is just with the pardons, and this is not even starting with the f b i. but just with pardoning filing, $500.00 people who are charged and convicted for their role in the showing of the capital is you have now rewarded political violence against the the, the, the hot chamber of american democracy. you're also going to use support as if you do political violence that aligns with my political project. i will not only protect you, i will reward you. i will make you into heroes. we will call you matos, and we will make sure that you don't have to worry about the consequences and the patch at the f b i, you know, as you just said, this is not just, not just that would be scandalous enough. this is like we have so beyond watergate,

tyler dray, so that i think nixon's probably laughing and that's great. but what we're seeing is that everybody who had anything to do any of the agents we had anything to do with the roof. the 1000 cases. that's the biggest case, not in the history of the api i. that means roughly 3 fourths of the whole left the yard where involved in that on know under review. and this sends a clear message to law enforcement which is supposed to be independent. that you know, as of at the mercy of the president and another thing, oh, well, i would just well said, i mean if we have individuals on list people or if it's i agree completely. it is the sounds properly startling. this does it know? it does mean the think something else is, you know, we're focusing on on d o. j. it was, is there are other agencies that are also under review this, for example, the consumer of financial protection bureau. there are

a clear conflicts of interest also with, with a look to mean this is an, or we talk about transparency. this is a body that is there to provide oversight to digital payment systems. these are markets that both the trump and most car entering trump with is for the difference in moscow is, is he'd like to expand x into a digital payment service as well. so they're, they're the ones who are now overseeing the, this body that overseas, this, the sector that they want to get into. i mean, that's not the so not, not only that because now uh must employees apparently have access to the central financial data though a country and then an end to end the treasury. a conflict of interest would be a mild way to describe this, right? well, we're reading about this in the, in the newspapers and we're following. and so and for and musket said we've made mistakes. so obviously that was a mistake. and um, there's been a reaction uh the,

the, the treasury um officer who was fired for resisting that. i mean, that's been in every new stripping the state, so people are following this and they are making mistakes. and unfortunately we're finding out about it. and i think trump realizes that if he goes too far, it's going to be a boomerang, is going to be a reaction. i mean, there's a lot of americans voted for trump, not out of enthusiasm, but they thought the country needs this. and if trump goes too far and that he spends too much time re litigate in january 6th, it's going to hurt them. he found that out in 2222 mid term elections. nobody want to hear about anymore. and then he spends a lot of time trying to clean up the clean out of the fbi. i in the department of justice. it's going to hurt him and he's not gonna do well in the mid terms. republicans, they're going to probably pay the price for that. so trump realizes this court of public opinion and he's got it. you've got to do well and that. and if he's gonna spend a lot of time looking back, he's probably gonna have to pay a price. and let's have a look at it with the kind of resistance that you just mentioned that will come at

some stage where it could come from. let's stop with the republican party. how long is the republican party that is pretty much behind trump at the moment, but there are also lots of motor. it's the, how long is the republic every fucking party is going to play this game? well, i think at the moment you in is, as you mentioned rightly, eric, that republicans are, are in line with the agenda there, the relinquishing their powers in many ways to the executive. because they agree with the agenda. we'll see how long that lasts. so i agree with that that in particular, i think the actions of those on times is something a bit larger. you know, from my conversations those and the actions taking place in washington are sort of secondary to this large bill that's going to come later in the year. the tax cuts that are, that, that will surpass what we saw in 2017. we include tax cuts, the deficit goes up, this is an attempt to bring the does sit down. there are fiscal fiscally conservative republicans in congress, who will,

it will take issues that there are some checks of the fort from that corner you think they were, it system will originate inside the maybe not from them, but i think there are, there are segments that the republican party should do have their interest. you have their own interest and, and they'll make sure that they represent them. let's talk about the democrats then . where are they? it's a good question. i think they're looking their own still. i think i have a feeling in united states right now. democrats aren't really trusted whole joe biden thing. people kind of can feeling of health problems and then the whole way cala was sort of anointed without a real proper premier. i think that rubbed a lot of people who being to avoid any sort of abrupt democrats, the wrong way. and i think they're in the, in the wilderness right now. even though they're kind of debating really last by 2 points to be really get wiped out or was it a close call? it was. and so there there's, there's internal struggle going on. there's also the, the work side of the democratic party, the progressive side, are they gonna become lambs and be quiet and let the, with the, the,

the conservative wing of the democrats from the show again, where the democrats have a better chance winning. and for years, all these things are this debate is still has to happen to the democratic party. they haven't really got there yet. but what kind of responsibility to the democrats have to shoulder for the situation that the country is in right now? and this is robert cleared law stand today, or i think they have a responsibility not just to that own base, but also to every single, an american who belongs to marginalized group whose life and existence is now under direct attacks from this government. so i think that's why there's been a lot of discontent from their own base with the way that democrats hackman, reacting with this sort of a set closeness, almost that they displayed in the last it's gotten a bit better within the last couple of days,

but still considering what the faced with this is a very still very tepid reaction to something that you know the speed of what's happening. yes, that was a surprise, but not the fact that it is happening. if i may, yes, we add one more detail. i think, you know, i have numbers of my family that are ardent trump supporters. and i think the, as you rightly said, you know, the lead up to the election last year. the democrats focused print primarily on what was wrong with the trump. you know, i think if, if to, to counteract what we saw in the election just in november, the democrats just have to do better. the democrats have to have a clear agenda that speaks to a greater portion of the american public. that's the, that's the mission ahead of the mid terms and 2 years. i'd like to have another look at the external consequences that the world is actually facing. now one of the best known examples of most comebacks is usa id. we spoke about this earlier.

that's the government agency for international development aid established by kennedy in 1961, its goal was to counter the growing influence of the soviet union to for an aid, a magical age in africa. reconstructing has gone to standard d mining income. those, yes, the global range of us say, all these 8 measures is false. now, all of this could be dismantled. the plan shrinking the agency from 10002300 employees and integration gets into the us state department. i'm the co rubio. the global consequences all ready serious many a programs with discontinued overnights in 2023, 6 of the 10 countries that received the most aid work from africa. a found an early warning system has now been shut down as a result. last year, around $50000000000.00 us dollars were invested in us say id development 8 projects

. most even point 5 percent of total government spending for advocates, us a only d was the us strongest soft power in the world. even on most, on the other hand has said usa id is a vice has missed a radical left marxist who hates america and a criminal organization. how dramatic of the global consequences of trumps comes to come to us. they are de let's have a look at how dramatic the consequences are globally, not just for baths, but the whole change does the west. so this needs to reform completely to adjust to that 3 p, texas, made it very clear. i think it was yesterday when i'm paraphrasing, but only my late when he said the security of europe is not the us as prime

concern, which, you know, it hasn't been for a while, but saying it out loud as the new defense minnesota carries. that's a statement, and that's what you said. yeah. and it also sets a tone for what we can expect within nato. and trump has repeatedly made comments in the, you know, in the run up to the election. that when i the direct attacks against nato allies, the whole greenland thing, denmark, you know, that's also, and i'm comfortable break of any diplomatic rules of any, anything that goes with the nato. and so i think we're already nonchalance and try a tundra here because it's important. remember, it's not just trump, it's a lot of americans think. why are we spending so much money abroad? why or why? if you guys fit nicely, spending 70 percent of the defense for ukraine, why aren't your opinions doing that? and usa idea similar, not about a lot of americans, probably knew what usa id was a month ago, and now they do. but it's another one of these things where americans are spending

billions of dollars abroad. and there's a lot of problems in united states with homelessness, with homeless veterans, with all kinds of problems in the us. and a lot of the republican voters for a long time now has been talking about, why are we doing this? and trump latched on to that. and trump, as, as has um, heated that up and, and so this is not really a surprise for people in the midwest and a lot of red states. they're happy with these, the steps that trump is doing. what do they? so i think there are certainly segments of the us population that agree with that sentiment. so that's, that's absolutely true. but we know that it's a very much divided country and there are certainly individuals who don't agree with it. and so, so and that's, that's the, that's how it is. so i would like to have a look in your collected collective crystal balls. trump is, is stepping on lots of people's toes right now. and he will, that group of people will increase over time. will that be resistance and who

it will be those that actually resist? yeah, there's going to be resistance. i mean, the democrats are going to be group at some point. i mean, one leading democrat, devin newsome in california has an awkward situation. he needs money from the federal government cuz the fire, so he can be the mouth piece against trump that he would probably like to do. but that will change and they'll be elections coming up. and the democrats will probably do better. there's a way to swing in the pendulum in the mid terms they go bad for trump, i think you'll see is popularity decline pretty fast and, and they'll be rebellions. i think the media is a very important guard. real united states are important and these things will happen. i mean it's a democracy and trump is a challenge to it. but this, the other american presidents, like uh, franklin roosevelt grabbed me to grab for power and the courts came back and i'm optimistic that that trump, well they'll be limits on trump, and we'll see those. and one other thing. inflation is a big issue in the states right now today, and trump promised to roll back,

inflation is already failing at that. and that's, it's not going to take long for americans that and that's, it's not going to take long for americans to be really annoyed by the price of eggs and gasoline. your show that up to me is to a certain extent, i think it largely depends on the policies that are taking place. what is the impact on the american public? you know, the tariff policy at the moment, almost all analyses that you see about this part about this policy is we're going to have increases to consumer prices in the united states. we can see that play out in the, in the 2026 net terms. i think, i think it depends on whether democrats and independent media can manage to communicate clearly how dia, the situation for the democracy is and what it means specifically for the lives of everyday americans. because that's the key that you need for like there would be someone to go to discuss money out of time. thank you very much to my panel. that's it for this edition of to the points. we hope you enjoyed our discussion and please join the conversation. if you're watching us on youtube,

the comment below for me and the whole team. let me, thanks for watching the

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