When Anthony Scaramucci steps up to the microphone, you know you're in for a mix of candid insight and seasoned wisdom. As the founder of Skybridge Capital and former White House Communications Director under Trump, 'The Mooch' walks us through his blue-collar roots to his rise in the financial world, and his thoughts on leadership that shapes nations. His tales of endurance, most notably his experience with the Special Forces World's Toughest Test, illustrate the ironclad work ethic that has catapulted him from the trading floor to the corridors of power, and now to our studio.
It's a precarious time in American politics, and Anthony doesn't shy away from addressing the elephant in the room: the threat of authoritarianism. We examine America's constitutional bulwarks designed by the Founding Fathers, intended as safeguards against tyranny. Reflecting on historic dictatorships, we discuss how legal stability underpins our nation's capacity for innovation and question what a return of Trump to the Oval Office could mean for this stability. This episode is a deep examination of leadership styles and their potential impacts, seen through the lens of a nation that has, so far, eluded the grasp of dictatorship.
We round out our conversation with an exploration of the interplay between political elections and the economy. Anthony imparts his insights on why financial independence is not just about saving but about engaging with work that fuels your passion. The dialogue veers into the political sphere, as we consider the challenges veterans face in the current political climate, and the divisive tactics employed in recent campaigns. This episode isn't just an interview; it's a masterclass in the mechanics of finance, the power of resilience, and the imperative of moral leadership. Join us for a journey into the heart of American politics and personal growth with Anthony Scaramucci.
When Anthony Scaramucci steps up to the microphone, you know you're in for a mix of candid insight and seasoned wisdom. As the founder of Skybridge Capital and former White House Communications Director under Trump, 'The Mooch' walks us through his blue-collar roots to his rise in the financial world, and his thoughts on leadership that shapes nations. His tales of endurance, most notably his experience with the Special Forces World's Toughest Test, illustrate the ironclad work ethic that has catapulted him from the trading floor to the corridors of power, and now to our studio.
It's a precarious time in American politics, and Anthony doesn't shy away from addressing the elephant in the room: the threat of authoritarianism. We examine America's constitutional bulwarks designed by the Founding Fathers, intended as safeguards against tyranny. Reflecting on historic dictatorships, we discuss how legal stability underpins our nation's capacity for innovation and question what a return of Trump to the Oval Office could mean for this stability. This episode is a deep examination of leadership styles and their potential impacts, seen through the lens of a nation that has, so far, eluded the grasp of dictatorship.
We round out our conversation with an exploration of the interplay between political elections and the economy. Anthony imparts his insights on why financial independence is not just about saving but about engaging with work that fuels your passion. The dialogue veers into the political sphere, as we consider the challenges veterans face in the current political climate, and the divisive tactics employed in recent campaigns. This episode isn't just an interview; it's a masterclass in the mechanics of finance, the power of resilience, and the imperative of moral leadership. Join us for a journey into the heart of American politics and personal growth with Anthony Scaramucci.
Welcome to the Jack Hopkins Show podcast, where stories about the power of focus and resilience are revealed by the people who live those stories and now the host of the Jack Hopkins Show podcast, jack Hopkins.
Speaker 2:All right, welcome to the Jack Hopkins Show podcast. I'm your host, jack Hopkins. Today's guest is Anthony Scaramucci, and one of the nice things about a guest like Anthony is that I don't have to spend a lot of time on the introduction. If you watch or listen to the Jack Hopkins Show podcast, I have a pretty good idea about what your interests are and you probably have a pretty good idea about the types of things that I talk about and the guests that I have on the Jack Hopkins Show podcast, and for that reason, I know there's a very high likelihood that Anthony Scaramucci is somebody that's been on your map for a good amount of time. You know who he is is. I'm just going to kind of hit the peaks leading up to the bulk of what we're going to talk about today.
Speaker 2:Anthony worked at Goldman Sachs Investment Banking, equities and Private Wealth Management Divisions between 1989 and 1996. After he left Goldman Sachs, he founded Oscar Capital Management and then, in 2005, he founded the investment firm Skybridge Capital. Now, on July 21st 2017, and again, so much of what we are going to talk about today is related and tied into this Anthony was appointed the White House Communications Director. Anthony was part of that Trump inner circle. Not only does Anthony know the players. Anthony knew many of the players before long before he was appointed the White House Communications Director. He knows Donald Trump and how he thinks about as dangerous a second Trump administration or second term of the Trump administration would be.
Speaker 2:Now Anthony's one of those guys that could have just quietly faded to the background and done his thing. He's a money guy right thing. He's a money guy, right. Anthony doesn't need to be out here beating the drum. But after having talked to Anthony, I know something about him, and that is had he not have done this, it would have bothered him a great deal. He truly realizes what's at stake and he also realizes just how important it is for him, knowing what he knows, to come out and share that with the world and do what he can to say look, this guy is a dangerous man. We need to get behind and support and vote for President Joe Biden. We have to, we must, and I've got to say he's doing a super job of that. He's doing a super job of that.
Speaker 2:Be sure, if you don't already follow Anthony on X, or formerly known as Twitter, it's at Scaramucci Give him a follow. So with that, let's get right into this fascinating conversation I have with Anthony Scaramucci. Okay, anthony, welcome. I have been looking forward to this. You've got a lot to bring to the table today, so I want to get right into this. First of all, I wanted to start off by congratulating you on such an impressive performance on the Special Forces World's Toughest Test. To watch somebody almost 60 going through that experience yeah, having had a taste of that experience myself, I was nothing short of impressed.
Speaker 3:Well, first of all, it's very sweet of you to bring it up. I mean it was a brutal experience. I'm very glad that I did it, jack, but I will tell you this I don't want to do it ever again. I mean it was brutal. I mean they had me, they pushed me out of a helicopter, they set me on fire. I was running out of the house, my back on fire, they sunk me in a car and I Jesus, you know, I don't know, it was a lot. It was a lot of fun, though.
Speaker 3:I became very close friends with two of the TV hosts, a gentleman by the name of Jason Fox yes, british SAS, he's a wonderful human being. And you know, look, I mean, here's the thing. You know, those guys had me sized as a rich jerk off, white boy, dilettante, sure. And so they missed the part of my background where I grew up in a blue collar neighborhood and my father was a crane operator and was a US Army veteran alongside of my uncles. So I think what ends up happening in life? That you get these impressions of people that may or may not be true, right, if you have a superficial impression oh, I'm a Wall Street jerk off, you know, but the truth of the matter is I actually grew up in a blue collar neighborhood, blue collar parents. I live two miles from my mom and dad and I was hustling my ass off on that track like any other plebe, and so for those reasons I think it was fun for me to change the opinion of some of those people you know.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, absolutely Well, you mentioned and I want to kind of lead off with this, your beginnings, so to speak Alessandro Scaramucci. Alessandro scaramucci immigrated here, yep, and your mother, father marie, and alexander scaramucci, and you said your father worked in the construction business.
Speaker 3:He was yeah, he was the crane and well. So my you mentioned my grandfather, who unfortunately passed away before I was born, so I never met him. He died in 1960. I was born in 1964. But he came to America and ended up going to a coal mining town in northeastern Pennsylvania called Wilkes-Barre, pennsylvania, and there were a lot of Italian Americans there who had left the south of Italy and they went there to mine coal to make money. And so he started out as a coal miner, he worked as a butcher, he was a high school janitor, he had a number of different jobs and so, anyway, make a long story short, he was an inspiration to my dad Seven children my father was the youngest of the seven and my grandfather told him listen, you got to leave and you got to go to another town.
Speaker 3:You got to leave this area, it's just too poor, I don't want you going into the mines came back from the war, he was wounded in the Battle of Bulge and he met a nurse that took care of him in an army hospital and she was from the town of Port Washington. And so she said to my uncle come to Port Washington and my father has a small construction company. You can come work there. He was 12 years older than my dad and so he was 29. My dad was 17. And he told my father leave Wilkes-Barre, pennsylvania, come to Port Washington and work with me in this construction company. And he did it. And so my dad started as a laborer. He was shoveling stone, he learned how to operate a payloader, and then he learned how to operate a heavy crane and for 41 years he was more or less the crane operator in the town that I grew up in. And so it's a weird town, jack, because we had a middle class Italians, middle class Irish, and then there was a very wealthy perimeter of people because it was a suburb of New York City and up on the water it was a very, very beautiful homes and very wealthy people. In fact, the novel the Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald, the tip of the town I grew up in, which is known as Sands Point Fitzgerald called it East Egg in that, and it was about those old baronial mansions on the coast.
Speaker 3:And the reason why this is an important part of my life story is I grew up in a town that had a very well-funded budget for the public schools, and so we had a really, really good public school system. So we were middle class. I would never dishonor my dad by telling you or anybody that I grew up poor. I did not grow up poor and he worked too hard to make sure that that didn't happen. But we were in the middle class, but we were in a very affluent area where the school system was terrific and I benefited from that. Frankly, I ended up getting into Tufts University and then from Tufts University I went on to Harvard Law School and then I made my way to Goldman Sachs. But but you know, when you think about it, my grandfather, alessandro Scaramucci you're referencing no money, leaves Italy penniless and got to America. The streets were not paved with gold in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, and so it's still a pretty hard life there, but a better life here in America with a lot more opportunity for all of us.
Speaker 2:So, based on that, what is important for the younger generations to know about the work ethic that immigrants bring to the United States?
Speaker 3:immigrants bring to the United States. Well, I mean, listen, you know I love this country so much and I care for this country so much, and I always tell people love the country the way my grandparents did. You know, I didn't meet him, but I had met my other grandparents and they were also poor, got here with no money, but they absolutely loved the country. They sent their sons to war for the country. They believed in the country, they believed in the system, the democracy and also the aspirational opportunity that America provides for people of all incomes, all racial identities, all ethnic backgrounds. And so it's a work ethic, but it's also a love affair. It's a love affair not to take for granted the wonder of the United States.
Speaker 2:Yes, and you brought up such an important point, anthony, that I rarely hear people talk about. You said they sent their sons to war. Yeah, now, for most Americans that's such a hard concept to get their head around. Think about moving to Singapore and then Singapore becomes engaged in some conflict and so you run out and you enlist in their armed forces and fight for Singapore. That's something I don't think a lot of people think about. What a big deal that was to come to a new country and embrace it so fully that you say I'm willing to go die for this country.
Speaker 3:So interesting that you mentioned Singapore, because the leader, the founder of Singapore, lee Kuan Yew, passed away a few years ago. He was once asked about America and he was asked by a journalist should one be optimistic or pessimistic about America? And Lee Kuan Yew, his great wisdom, the father of the Singaporean city-state, he said you should never, ever be pessimistic about America because America draws on the rest of the world. When you think about America, it's an idea and it's an experiment. It's not a bloodline or a ancient heritage or genealogy.
Speaker 3:So you can come from all walks of life into the United States and in five short years you can be an Irish American, a Italian American, a Japanese American, a Chinese American. But in very, very few other places can that happen. You can't go to Japan and be an American Japanese. You can't go to China, even if they'd let you in or even potentially give you a citizenship there and be an American Chinese. But you can be a Chinese American. And so it's interesting you bring this up his wisdom, and he said this often in his speeches that America places of tyranny and departed places of dictatorship to come here. You know it's a big tell. It's a big telling statement.
Speaker 2:I'm glad you shared that, that that is a big tell, so I'm going to dive right into this. If Donald Trump goes back to the Oval Office, what happens, and how quickly does it happen?
Speaker 3:Well, I think it's important to lay a framework, if you don't mind, Jack.
Speaker 1:I just want to lay a little bit of a framework.
Speaker 3:So to understand the American system, the Americans, the founders, understood tyranny, they understood autocracy, and so they made the system very flat and very decentralized. So if you read the Constitution, we have three separate branches of government. They're separate but equal, and they have checks and balances and say, say, over each other to protect the country from tyranny. And so the founders, they wrote in the Federalist Papers and other places during the original framing of those documents that tyranny is a really bad thing, because people that get that level of power, they end up being corrupted by the power right. Lord Acton said power corrupts absolute, power corrupts absolutely. And what we've learned from societies where there is tyranny or autocracy is there's a funnel to the top, a reverse funnel, and there's an oligarchic structure. The leader gets very rich, his buddies get very rich, lots of crony capitalism and everyone else gets destroyed. And then what also happens is you lose the rule of law in a situation like that where the ruler himself or herself, but mostly himself, they dictate the laws. And then, so you know, the capitalist system that America has thrived on is a direct beneficiary from the predictability of our legal system. So you know, the capitalist system that America has thrived on is a direct beneficiary from the predictability of our legal system. So if you get tyranny in the country and it disrupts the legal system, it'll halt the flow of capital into the United States and it'll halt the innovation. So you have to think about it very, very holistically, very, very holistically. You know, if you go to a holistic doctor, they say your feet are tied to your organs and your brain and your neck, and all of this stuff is tied together. And if you actually open up the body, you can see the way the body's configured, that it's one unit. Don't think of your body in separate parts, like we do with a car. And so you have to think about the organism of the United States the same way. It's set up a certain way and a result of which the policies and the ideas reverberate down through the system.
Speaker 3:Now there is a argument to be made for authoritarian leadership. Right, because the argument is it's cleaner, it's less messy than a democracy. Things can happen more quickly. We need somebody to clean this problem up, and authoritarian leaders are very fear mongering and they preach panaceas. You know they say these wickedly simple statements. I'm going to balance the budget. I'm going to fix the problem in Ukraine in a day, I'll resolve the border crisis in one minute, and this sort of stuff. And so it does gravitate people. People are like OK, we've got these problems, let's cede control to one person to help us with these problems.
Speaker 3:And then again, just to tie it back to history, in the 1930s we were going through a horrific depression. Franklin Roosevelt had the opportunity to take dictatorial powers, but he elected not to. He was for us, he was for the democracy, he was for the system. But Adolf Hitler, democratically elected by the way, he was democratically elected, you know, chancellor of Germany I'm pausing as I think of the sadness of all this On the 30th of January 1933, he was democratically elected, and then he took dictatorial power shortly thereafter.
Speaker 3:Mussolini, talk about the old country. Right, the trains ran on time in the beginning under Mussolini, but then these autocracies have a tendency to flex, like what Vladimir Putin is doing right now. They cause war, they cause destruction in the name of holding on to power. So when you lay out that framework, one of the issues for the United States, jack, is that we don't have the hereditary or institutional memory of the horror of dictatorship or the horror of autocracy. Why is that we don't have the hereditary or institutional memory of the horror of dictatorship or the horror of autocracy? Why is that? Well, we didn't feel it here.
Speaker 3:Franklin Roosevelt put down the first America first movement. He put down the likes of Charles Lindbergh and he put down the likes of Father Coughlin and he settled those arguments before they could rise. You know, there was a very famous Madison Square Garden here in New York City Nazi party, american Nazi party movement, and Roosevelt was a very canny, very wily politician. Look, he wasn't perfect, but he did save the democracy. And that didn't happen in Europe. And so the Europeans that are my age or my vintage, they know that their grandparents or their uncles fought in the war, were killed in the war. Their kids, or perhaps they themselves, went on school trips around Europe to show the destruction.
Speaker 3:So when I go over there, they say what the hell are you guys doing with Donald Trump? Don't you get how dangerous he is? And the answer to the question is well, some of us do that have historical context, but many of us here in the country don't. And, frankly, a lot of people in the country feel left out, jack. So you have a situation in our country where a guy like me. I grew up in an aspirational blue collar family. My parents thought one of their kids was going to do better than themselves. But those very same families today are economically desperational and those people feel left out, and so Donald Trump represents them in their minds. He's an avatar for their anger. He's an avatar for the culture war. He's an avatar for some of the wokeness that's going on in the country that they don't like Right Okay. And so he represents them. And you know, I tell people, you know that the right goes too far and things are way better than the right is willing to acknowledge in the country.
Speaker 3:But they're way worse than the left is willing to acknowledge, and so we're somewhere in the middle. But what these guys do is they pump out all this propaganda on both sides and they're trying to tear the country apart, and we don't need that. We need people that are more rational and calm. So all of that is a backdrop people that are more rational and calm so all of that as a backdrop if Donald Trump were to take power again.
Speaker 3:He has been very honest about this. He's told his lawyers on these different court cases he's running for revenge. He's told them that he's going to use the police. He's going to use the FBI. He's going to marshal the forces inside of his administration to go after his adversaries using the justice system. He has told people that he's going to persecute members of the media. So that would include people like you and me, jack. If we don't like him, he's going to come after us. He's going to shut down media organizations. He has said this. He's going to pull their FCC licenses, and so the concept of free speech in Donald Trump's mind shouldn't exist, and he will do everything he can from an authoritarian perspective to expand his powers.
Speaker 3:Now he's got a lot of people on different courts, including the Supreme Court, that do favor him, and so that's another danger, because I'm not sure how great the checks and balances are going to be if he rises to power again. He told Mark Meadows that he had no use for the American Constitution in the aftermath of his election loss and, by the way, he knows he lost that election. It's not a dummy. He just knows that he could perpetrate this lie that he didn't lose to help him raise money, and this ruse would carry him forward. It's a great money-making operation for him and it's a great con. But he knows he lost the election, but he didn't care. He wanted to revoke the Constitution and he wanted to figure out a way to insurrect the government to stay in power.
Speaker 3:And, frankly, he's never acknowledged the loss he never conceded and he wanted to figure out a way to insurrect the government to stay in power. And, frankly, he's never acknowledged the loss he never conceded. He's the only American president in the last hundred or so years that didn't attend the inaugural of his successor. He's a very, very sore loser. And so now, if he comes back to power, he's got a very strong, very competent team around him that believe the nonsense of expanded executive power and believe the nonsense that we need a strongman leader come into the country and change the dynamic and the rubric of the country, and that's very, very dangerous. And so I'm a lifelong Republican. I'm a moderate Republican, I'm sort of a center-right Republican, but I'm not a Donald Trump Republican and, yes, I did support him. I'm happy to talk about why I supported him. I've already offered an apology and the mistake that I didn't see the full malevolence of his personality. I have to own that for the rest of my life. But thank God I have a platform where, you know, by him firing me as quickly as he did, he gave me a platform, he gave me more name recognition and more visibility in the country and he's given me this opportunity to speak out against him, right, and I've got friends of mine that say, oh, don't do that, he'll win the election. You'll have the FBI up here, you know what? Sure, but I don't care. You know, I'm a patriot first, I'm a partisan last. I put the cause of the country ahead of everything else.
Speaker 3:And I would say to your viewers and listeners and he respects the institutions of the American democracy, he's willing to work inside of the system and this system has made us incredibly prosperous. It's benefited all of our families. It's going to benefit our grandchildren and our great-grandchildren if we can keep it together. So for me, I'm going to speak out against it, I'm going to talk to as many people as I can about it, I'm going to lay the framework, as I've just described it to you, to others, so they can understand the historical context, and I'm going to say my prayers and hope that Donald Trump loses this election, and I believe he will, and I'm happy to take you through the reasons why.
Speaker 3:But day one he'll be moving through executive action and through court selection, judge selection, to harm the institutions of the democracy and, you know, could be the last election he could listen, you know. Oh, you shouldn't compare him to Adolf Hitler and blah blah blah. Hitler was democratically elected. You shouldn't compare him to Adolf Hitler and blah blah blah. Hitler was democratically elected. And then he took executive action and autocratic initiatives to block future elections.
Speaker 2:So let's do. Let's talk about the reasons why you think he'll lose the election. Yeah, he'll lose the election.
Speaker 3:Yep. Well, I mean, there's a number of reasons why he's going to lose the election. The first one is there's just not enough white, old, angry Americans that are buying catheters and walkers from Fox News commercial interruptions to vote him back into office.
Speaker 3:There's just not enough of them. That's number one. Number two the Biden camp has not put out their case yet for why they deserve a second term. And you know, if you read the case of why they deserve a second term and you look at their legislative accomplishments and you look at what they've done for the cause of middle and lower income people, I'm going to make the case this fall that they've actually done something for these people. Trump has only represented them from an angry position, but he put forth no policy initiatives over the four years that he was president to benefit them and I think once they do that, I think that's also going to help them. The last piece of this which I think is very, very important is that the swing states because ultimately, donald Trump is going to lose the popular vote. He never won the popular vote. He's never gotten over 50% in terms of his popularity in the United States. His approval ratings were always below that. But there are certain swing states where right now, it looks like he's either up in or tied in the polls, but I'm going to predict that this is a massive get out the vote movement.
Speaker 3:Nobody in this country doesn't have a informed or reasonably well-known opinion of these two candidates. Right, they've been on the world stage for 40, 50 years. Trump is a television celebrity and as a former president, president Biden as a 50-year public servant in the Senate, as vice president and now president. So these guys have a fully vetted. It's not like Barack Obama comes on the scene in 2008. People got to get to know him better. Everybody knows these two individuals, and so they've already formed an opinion. And so now the question is no-transcript. He has some billionaires behind him, but it's a very small group of billionaires. He's run the well dry on these like 50, 60 dollar donations he's been getting. People are exhausted there, but not Joe Biden. Joe Biden is raising money. He's raising tons of money. He did a $26 million one-day event here in New York last week, and that money can put field offices in those swing states. That will get out the vote for Joe Biden, and so Trump's just not going to have that kind of money coming into the fall. So it's policy, it's money, it's a field operation to get out the vote.
Speaker 3:And last piece, donald Trump is not going to get the crossover vote. Jack, and what is the crossover vote? That's the Nikki Haley voter that voted for her in the primary, but it's now going to switch over and vote for Trump. That voted for her in the primary, but it's now going to switch over and vote for Trump. 40% of those people, when the polls were completed during the primaries, and when they exited the polling booth, they said well, you voted for Nikki Haley. Yes, I did. Are you? If she doesn't get the nomination, are you going to vote for Donald Trump? 40% of those people said no, under no circumstances am I going to vote for Donald Trump? And if you look at the underlying polling data, that's strengthening and so Trump has split that party. Moreover, he's such a narcissist that he's tweeting on his social media platform that I don't want Nikki Haley voters. I don't want Nikki Haley donors. If you donated to Nikki Haley's campaign, you can't cross over and come to my campaign and that's great. I'm glad he's doing that because he's splitting and liquidating the party.
Speaker 3:As I remember, the Republicans have the lowest percentage of registrants. They're at 28% of the registered eligible voters. The Democrats are just north of 30. The majority now, plus 40%, are independent voters. So I love that.
Speaker 3:You don't want the Republicans, former Republicans, the Mitt Romney Republicans, the Nikki Haley Republicans. It's great. They either won't vote or they'll turn up for Joe Biden, and I'll just point this out to you. Hillary Clinton could not get the crossover vote from Bernie Sanders could not, and so she lost the election. Donald Trump got the crossover vote from the Ted Cruz's and the Jeb Bush's and he won the election. Barack Obama got Hillary Clinton's crossover vote in 2008, won the election. So Donald Trump has money, field operation, crossover vote, bad policy narrative on a relative basis, and he's got people like me that are going to work tirelessly in those swing states against him, and so I like our odds to beat Donald Trump. But the real question will be going forward, and hopefully you'll invite me back after we beat him what do we do in the aftermath of the catastrophe that Donald Trump has caused in the Republican Party.
Speaker 2:That was a beautiful breakdown, so let's go into this, because you are a money guy, okay. So who better to ask than you for this question? What do we do in terms of the economy to keep the economy going in a good direction with a second Biden term?
Speaker 3:So I want to say a few things again, if you don't mind me segueing, because again it lays out the framework. So the economy has gone through a massive crisis. Okay, we went into a COVID-19 environment where again, we can analyze these decisions and we can call balls and stripes on the decisions today, but at the time we're trying to do the best we can. We put people in their homes, we tell them they have to be fearful of this virus. We don't want them to catch it. It's a very serious virus. We shut down the stores, we shut down the restaurants, you know, and we paralyze our economy. At the same time that we do that, the United States prints, literally electronically, manufactures two and a half trillion dollars and it puts it into the economy. Okay, and so everyone's getting stimulus checks, everyone's getting some type of benefit from the government, and then we turn the economy back on. So the economy had $2.5 trillion put into it. We turn the economy back on, we try to reconnect the supply chain and, lo and behold, we have a tremendous amount of money in the economy, but we don't have the supply of goods figured out that we once did in 2019.
Speaker 3:It's 2021, 22, and prices start to rise. Used car prices go up, gasoline prices, eggs, milk so all of this stuff starts happening, right. And so what we do in our societies is we blame the politicians. You know, things are situational or they're cyclical, but then we personalize them on politicians. And so this is Joe Biden's inflation. But if Donald Trump had won reelection, these very same facts would have happened. And of course, you know the people that hate Donald Trump would be blaming it on him. They say this is Donald Trump's inflation. It's neither of their inflations. It's just the cause and consequence of what happened to the economy as a result of these economic policy decisions that we made.
Speaker 3:And so the Federal Reserve has raised rates to try to stem the tide of the inflation. Typically, that causes the economy to slow down. But the economy didn't slow down. It kept accelerating and it kept growing. And why is that? Well, we put so much money into the system that it didn't need to. You know there was no retracement, okay. And so now economy is growing, the rates and the supply chain are reconnecting, the inflation numbers are going lower.
Speaker 3:So, to answer your question, to keep the economy growing, we're going to need a few rate cuts from the Federal Reserve. We're going to need to lower the cost of capital. That would lower the cost of credit card debt. It would lower adjustable rate mortgage debt. It would lower commercial lending commercial real estate lending debt by reducing rates in the back half of this year, which will keep the economy expanding. If we do that Now, donald Trump will do that, or he'll recommend to the Federal Reserve that they do that. Joe Biden will do that, and so the Trump issue for me is not in the handling of the economy. It's in the handling of the rule of law and the process and the threat to the Constitution that I'm worried about, and so you know that's what we have to do. I predict we will do that. I'm quite bullish on the economy. I'm quite bullish on the stock market going into 2025.
Speaker 2:So on the other side of that coin then and I'm clearly asking you to speculate- yeah. What would a Donald Trump win? What would that mean for the economy?
Speaker 3:What would that mean for the economy? So a Donald Trump win would be perceived to be pro-growth for the economy, and so a Donald Trump win would be perceived to be less regulation in the economy. So, short term, that would be an economic bump, I believe. I think people would feel good about that from an economic perspective. You know, I'm more worried about the underbelly of that and what I know he's capable of as a human being, but I don't think the Wall Streeters you know they like Donald Trump's policies. I will point out to people, though, that Donald Trump created $7.8 trillion of deficit spending in four years, so Joe Biden's not doing any better, by the way. Okay, so this is a big problem for the US. If we stay on this pace, jack, we'll be at $150-plus trillion by 2054. So I mean, I probably won't be alive to see that, but if we're at $154 trillion of debt, the country's going to be in a lot of trouble. It's going to be very hard for us to service that debt, because, you know, when you're printing money to just service the debt, you're hurting middle and lower middle income living standards and you're crushing the value of the dollar, lower middle income living standards and you're crushing the value of the dollar, and so I just want to point this out to your viewers and listeners heavy deficit spending in the US over 50 years, the US dollar used to buy. 35 US dollars could buy one ounce of gold. Today, it costs $2,400 to buy one ounce of gold, and I got to tell you. That shows you what we did to our dollar we devalued it.
Speaker 3:If you own assets, if you own real estate, your real estate went up in price and that's fine. It was inflation ads. But suppose you don't own assets. Suppose you're like my dad, who you made your money off your labor and time and you don't own any assets and the money's coming in. And let's say, last year you made $1,000 of income. Well, there's been 8% inflation, so now that's purchasing power is $920. If you really want to be dramatic and these are accurate numbers the US dollar has lost 22% of its value in the last four years. So if you had $1,000 in 2020, it has $780 worth of purchasing power today. And you can feel it in prices everywhere Real estate prices, home prices, commercial residential car prices, egg prices, food prices. You can feel it everywhere, and so we have to be mindful of this stuff.
Speaker 2:This is very, very dangerous to be mindful of this stuff. This is very, very dangerous. What do you say to a new college graduate who's secured a job, has a stable income and who is thinking about becoming a first-time home buyer? Do you say not right now, go ahead and rent? What's your take on that at this time, with current interest rates?
Speaker 3:So they're really good questions. I want to be super thoughtful. What I would say to somebody is the job before you is to find a good job that you like. Don't just take an income earning job. You got to find something that you really like to do, because if you don't find something you really like to do, you're going to be half-assed at it. You're not going to be great at it, right? And then the secondary issue is you're going to feel like you're working every day. I've been blessed in my life. I chose a job that I genuinely like, so I look forward to coming to work.
Speaker 3:So the task before you as a young man or woman find a job you like so you're never working a day in your life. Step one, step two when you get the job and you start earning money, whatever amount of money that you're earning, you've got to take five to 10% hopefully 10, of your net after-tax earnings and you have to put it away for yourself. So if you're making $100,000, in your mind you've got to say you're only making 90, and you've got to just deal with that. And the way you pay a cable bill, your rent, the way you pay a car lease payment, whatever it might be. You pay yourself once or twice a month that amount of money, you put it in a stock account, you buy Bitcoin, you put it in an interest-bearing savings account, something so that you have money set aside for yourself as you're growing your life. And if you do that for three to five years, you'll have a nest egg where you can buy yourself your own home. And if you don't want to buy your own home, that's fine. Keep putting that money away and growing that nest egg and, miraculously, you will start to feel the impact of that in your life. You'll start to have some level of financial independence or you'll have some level of financial security. And if you do it for five years and you put it in stocks, say, and stocks just do what they've done historically you'll have a full year's worth of savings, which gives you a cushion to think about buying a house or to think about transitioning into a different job. And this is really positive stuff for people and it's simple blocking and tackling ideas like this that can lead people to the road of financial independence and financial strength.
Speaker 3:And I'll tell you something I read a book when I was a kid called the Richest man in Babylon, and it was a parable. It was written by George Clayson in the 1920s and I was fortunate enough to have somebody give me the book and I took the book very seriously and everything I just said Jack was in that book, more or less, and I followed that book when I got out of school and I did exactly that. And I know that book when I got out of school and I did exactly that. And I know this sounds crazy. Even today I'm taking 10 percent of my earnings and I'm putting it into the savings stock account my own funds every day, every month, in order to create that you know largesse that nest egg.
Speaker 2:Sure, you and I are close in age. You were born in 64. I was born in 66. Again, come back to the fact that you've been a money guy has. One of the things that you've seen over and over and over again as a pattern in people that you deal with or talk to is that one of the biggest factors that kind of undermines everything else in their life is that they never made saving, investing, setting back that 10%, a priority.
Speaker 3:Yes, I mean. I mean, I think ultimately, you know you can have a modest background, modest earnings. You do what I just said. You're in a modest background, modest earnings. You do what I just said. You're in a way better place financially and but what ends up happening is people get on a flywheel where they've got to own something. They got to own the new car, they got to have a better piece of furniture, they got a better appliance and they don't do that.
Speaker 3:And it catches up with you because, remember, the laws of compounding are such in a society where, if I can grow my assets at 7 percent and let's say I start with $5,000. Well, at the end of 10 years the $5,000 is worth 10. Ok, at the end of 20 years it's worth 20. You see what I mean. But if I'm layering on money, yes, just imagine the magnitude of what I'm saying. That would be A big deal. But a lot of people don't do that. They're short term in their orientation. They don't put money in their retirement account. They don't think about it the way I'm saying it. And, by the way, you know you mentioned that we're contemporaries you can start today. Sure, you know, it's not like you have to start at age 30 or age 25. You could start at age 55 or 57. You could do it.
Speaker 2:No problem. What do you think of this? This was a piece of advice I was given when I was 19, 20 years old, and I can't tell you why it stuck, but it did. And a gentleman, a much older gentleman, told me if you won't save a dime, or if you won't save a dollar out of every 10, don't kid yourself into thinking that you will save a hundred out of every 10,. Don't kid yourself into thinking that you will save a hundred out of every thousand, a hundred percent.
Speaker 3:See, that that's really good common sense. And you have to remember, I think, my dad's top salary when he retired in the year 2000, at the age of 65, when he retired, I think his top salary was $35,000 a year. And then my first job at Goldman. I had a decent salary. I was a young kid, but Goldman was an investment bank. It was 1989 and I was making $85,000 a year. And so I had a college education, a law degree. They're paying me decent money.
Speaker 3:I could have gone crazy with that money in New York. I didn't. I went to a modest apartment in the suburbs and I took the extra money and I put it away for myself. And you know, I wasn't trying to impress people, I wasn't trying to impress my peers with a fancy pants car. They got a Nissan Sentra at the time and I was delaying the gratification to create enough of a nest egg where I would feel secure financially to start my own business. And then, once I did that, and then I started making some money. Even though I was making some money, I was putting that money away as well. And so even today I sit here before you. I could probably have fancier houses or fancier cars or something like that. But I'm less interested in that. I'm more interested in the financial security.
Speaker 2:Tell us one thing, Anthony We've seen so much about Donald Trump. It's almost 24-7.
Speaker 3:Donald.
Speaker 2:Trump coverage People from legal analysts to psychiatrists, psychologists. We've had a really good know about Donald Trump that only somebody who has worked directly for or with him would know.
Speaker 3:So people probably know this, but when you see it, when you see the full ugliness of it, it's glaring. And so what I would say to somebody that likes him or somebody that has had a political affectation, to vote for him, or oh, joe Biden's too old, or I don't like Joe Biden's policies, and stuff like that? I want them to think about the 40 or 50 people that worked inside the White House or in the cabinet or the sub agencies of the United States government for Donald Trump, and think of those people who are patriotic Americans, whether it's General Kelly, jim Mattis, general Jim Mattis, hr McMaster, mark Esper, the former Secretary of Defense, bill Barr, the former Department of Justice Secretary. Think of the people that are sharing with you their firsthand knowledge of his meanness, his lack of intellectual curiosity, his poor decision making and his poor executive management skills, his lack of interest in actually serving the American people and, more interested, in propping himself up with self-aggrandizement and attention. And then I would say to these same people NATO this week celebrated its 75th anniversary and it's arguably been one of the best alliances in the history of the world in terms of peacekeeping and prosperity.
Speaker 3:Alliance Sweden and Finland. Nato is 75 years old, jack, Sweden and Finland had never been a part of NATO and, of course, finland has a huge border up against Russia. They have raised their hands and they've said please make me members of NATO. And they did that, and about two weeks ago they were both admitted to NATO. And so I would ask these people why are two very smart, prosperous countries now joining NATO after 75 years?
Speaker 3:See, they see a threat Right and they see a threat from an authoritarian government in Russia which has expansionary ideas about itself dangerous expansionary ideas about itself. And so I would submit to you that the danger of Donald Trump is he's malevolent, he's got an evil, vindictive personality, he doesn't like the American system and he wants to praise and be part of this autocracy, this access of autocracy, with these other dictators, and he will wreak havoc on the world and he will destabilize the world, and a destabilized world is bad for your net worth, it's bad for your families, it's bad for the future prosperity of America and whatever you're thinking about in short term, it's just not worth it. That's what.
Speaker 2:I would say I think it's fair to say that Vladimir Putin has used his position to become one of the arguably wealthiest men in the world. Do you see that?
Speaker 3:being an end game for Donald Trump. I do, I do. I think he loves money, I think he loves attention and, to the extent that those two drivers can help him in government, if you could use the government to help him do that and he'll be way better organized. Very dangerous.
Speaker 2:Very dangerous, sir, is Donald Trump. Based on your experiences with him and your knowledge of him, is Donald Trump scared and if so, is that part of what makes him as dangerous right now, potentially as he is?
Speaker 3:Yes, he's also a bit of a weakling too, believe it or not. With all of his bluster and all this hyper-masculinity, he folds pretty quickly in front of strong men. He's a little bit of a cowering fool, but yes, yes came to mind.
Speaker 2:So we started out with me congratulating you on your performance on Special Forces, world's Toughest Test, and let's wind the clock back a little bit. Let's wind Donald Trump back to 59, 60 years old and almost forget the physical part of it for a minute, because now, having been there, you know how much of that was mental. How long did Donald Trump last on that show?
Speaker 3:Well, I mean, let's say that he was not 78. Let's say he was 58, something like that. He would not last very long because and by the way, I know people got mad at me for saying this I watched him throw a football through a tire when I knew him 30 years ago. I said that during my press conference. People said I was lying sycophant. Thank God there was actually film of it. And so I put up the film of the YouTube and said look, I wasn't making that up.
Speaker 3:So he was a decent athlete as a kid, but on a show like that, and even from his experience going to military school and you'll recall he did go to a military school as a high schooler, but he never served in the Vietnam War and he made up some nonsense about having bone spurs and things like that, but he's not built for that. You know, anderson Cooper once said to me wow, you and Trump, you're like fighting, it's like a bar fight. And I'm like Anderson come on, look at this guy, he's never been in a bar fight, jack, you know that. Okay, he didn't even know how to handle himself in a bar fight, right? So he doesn't have the personality or the constitution to deal with that level of stress physically. He just doesn't Okay.
Speaker 3:Which is why this deceitful prick says such mean and nasty things about our veterans. This is why he's standing next to John Kelly in a French cemetery and, of course, general John Kelly is his White House chief of staff, 40-year Marine, four-star veteran, and he's also a Gold Star family member. He lost his 29-year-old son, who stepped on a landmine in Iraq and died. And so here's General Kelly standing next to Trump, and Trump is saying these people that served us in the military are suckers and they're losers. And so that tells you right there how he would do on special forces, because he knows those people in the military are braver, stronger, stronger constitutionally than him.
Speaker 2:Yes, is why he goes after them like that and I have to tell you, anthony, when I when that report came out, as a veteran myself, I was inc the case for so many veterans. I lost some good friends and that was just so mind-blowing, so unthinkable for me. And even more mind-blowing, I suppose, is when I encounter roughly my age or or younger veterans who still support Trump and their coping mechanism for if somebody brings that up, is he never said that? Because I think it's it just cuts across the grain of everything.
Speaker 3:But he not only did he say it, he 100% said it. It was heard by more than one person. A guy like John Kelly has no reason to lie about that.
Speaker 2:Donald, after the 2020 election, would we see a reversal of that? Do you think if Trump were to take the White House, Would they play a role?
Speaker 3:again, it's a really, really good question, jeff. I don't know the answer to that. My guess is no, because I think that they're on to successful civilian lives now and I think they've stayed out of it for a reason. Now I think if Trump became the president and asked them for help, I think it's hard to say no to the American president. That was one of the problems I had, you know. So back to Jared and Ivanka. What I would say to you is, if he asked them and this is what happened to me I was asked.
Speaker 3:I see myself as a patriot. I think I let my ego get ahead of me. If I'm being brutally honest, you know my wife hates Donald Trump probably as much as Melania hates him, which is like a pretty high hatred level. And I, you know, I made the mistake of going to work for him and of course it cost me reputationally and it hurt my business and so forth, but you get drawn to it, you know you're. You know you have a chance to serve the American people, serve the institution of the presidency and work in the White House, right? I think it's a hard thing to say no to, but my guess is that they're not going to be there this time, but I'm going to maintain my prediction that it's not going to matter anyway. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:Yes, I do, I do. Last question Don Hanke is? I guess I already know the answer to this question, I just want your take on it. But the question is is Don Hankey just so wealthy that even in the worst case scenario that he lost his 175 million, that it just really isn't that big of a deal? Mm-hmm, that pretty much. Well, I mean, you know he's never going to see any money from Donald. Trump really isn't that big of a deal, that pretty much.
Speaker 3:Well, I mean, you know he's never going to see any money from Donald Trump. I mean, donald Trump doesn't pay anybody back and I think Hankey has made the decision that he likes Trump's policies and so he's given him this money to front the bail bond. You know Trump's going to lose that case. You know the only thing he could win on is a procedural disagreement in the court. That didn't happen and so the appeal is going to be upheld. You know meaning the decision. And so could the cash payment be reduced. That is possible.
Speaker 3:I think they've already indicated that, because they had a $450 million settlement and the appellate court said well, we're good with 175. But you know it'll probably be between 175 and 450 is the ultimate case. Sure, and I don't know. You know, I don't know why you would do that, but I can say this to you there were people that got screwed by Donald Trump before I entered the fray, and so people would say to me well, why are you doing this? I got screwed by Donald Trump and then he screwed me right, and then another person gets in and they're in the fray, they get screwed and it's sort of this like rotisserie reel. So there always seems to be another rube that gets caught in the grinder of Donald Trump.
Speaker 2:And does part of that come down to the fact that in person, face to face, Donald Trump is so convincing or so charismatic that it's not necessarily that the person he pulls in isn't smart enough to fight through that, but just the impact that being in front of him can have?
Speaker 3:Well, I think it's a combination of things. I think some of that is true. I also think the policies. I think we're in a great culture war in the country and, even though Donald Trump has his flaws, there's many very smart, intelligent people that are like I'm going with Donald Trump over the other side, you know, and I think I think there's elements of those things. And also listen, I mean, you know, people get the various stages in their careers and their lives and they want to do different things, you know right, cause they leave their jobs to go serve the government. And, uh, you know he has a strong following, but he also has the wreckage of many people, including myself, who want to warn others of the systemic danger that he represents.
Speaker 2:And, on behalf of the United States, I thank you for that I appreciate that, sir.
Speaker 3:We're going to work on this very hard this year and we'll see what happens, but I predict he'll lose. But it will require a lot of work and it will require a lot of intensity and hopefully I've made the case and I appreciate you giving me the opportunity to make the case for why fascism is so dangerous and anybody that poses a existential risk to the country, like a Donald Trump, who you know Mark Meadows has him dead on that case. His former chief of staff is the chief witness for the prosecution. Remember, he's a white Christian southerner who ran the Freedom Caucus, the most conservative wing in the House. He is the chief witness to what Trump did during that insurrection, yes, and that that hopefully that information will get out there before the election. I agree.
Speaker 2:Anthony, I know you are a busy guy, You're on a tight schedule and I thank you. Well, I appreciate it.
Speaker 3:I appreciate the opportunity to be on brother, all right. All right, let's stay in touch with each other, please. All right.
Speaker 2:Yes, maybe down the road sometime in the future We'll do a round two. That'd be great brother. Hey you, you are one of the true patriots, sir. All right, brother, I'll see you soon, thank you.
Speaker 3:True patriots. Sir, all right, brother, I'll see you soon. Thank you, thank you, man.
Speaker 2:Wow, I hope you found that as compelling and as fascinating as I did, and I think you have a pretty good idea now what I was talking about when I said Anthony Scaramucci gave me thoughtful, insightful answers. He didn't just spit sound bites out. He thought deeply about what he was going to say on so many of the questions, and that's something that was really impressive to me me and that you just don't see a lot in this age of saying things you've said a million times before on different news networks or during interviews. It's refreshing to see somebody actually taking the time to stop and think about what they're going to say, to stop and think about what they're going to say. I just want to say this about people like Anthony Scaramucci they don't have to be out doing what they are doing, but they are, and that is something that we should all take note.
Speaker 2:We should all take a look at how many times in our lives we are faced with a situation where there's an easy way out. We know how important it is to do something or to speak up, but we also know the consequences of doing so, and so we kind of start looking for and finding an excuse to not do that and then quite often, we wind up not doing that. Take Anthony Scaramucci, a name that people recognize, a face that people know, face that people know, and the threat from Donald Trump and so many of his followers that pose such a risk to people that speak out, people like Anthony that speak out against Donald Trump. And yet he's out there, he's doing the interviews, he's doing the podcast, he's on social media, he's warning people of how dangerous Trump is and the critical importance of voting for President Biden. And I just want to say to Anthony again thank you.
Speaker 2:Anthony again, thank you, be sure to check out my newsletter at jackhopkinsnowcom. That's a place where I kind of focus on the singular topic of becoming more resilient, of managing your emotions in a way that you feel more competent and confident in the world and fear plays less and less of a role in your life in terms of determining what you do and what you don't do. And that's kind of what that newsletter is all about. If that's something that appeals to you, by all means check it out jackhopkinsnowcom. Again, be sure to follow Anthony on Twitter, on X, at Scaramucci and, by the way, he's the author of four books Hit up Barnes Noble or amazoncom books. Hit up Barnes, noble or Amazoncom, search Anthony Scaramucci, you'll find them. I want to thank you once again for tuning in to this episode of the Jack Hopkins Show podcast. I'll see you next time. This is Jack Hopkins signing off.