The RTWJ Podcast
Join best friends John and Marcus (JAM) as they share their fresh perspectives on news, society, and culture, as well as personal stories and experiences. As a podcast hosted by members of the LGBTQ community, the RTWJ Podcast is proud to offer a platform that incorporates inclusivity and advocacy for civil rights as part of its values. New episodes are released on the 1st and 15th day of each month. Subscribe to The RTWJ Podcast on your favorite podcast app or listen online at thertwjpodcast.buzzsprout.com. Follow us on Instagram @thertwjpodcast.
The RTWJ Podcast
100 Days into Trump 2.0 and the Decline of America
Just over 100 days into Trump’s second term, the political and economic landscape is shifting rapidly, with aggressive tariff policies causing a projected 35% drop in imports at Southern California ports, raising fears of supply chain disruptions and shortages. In this episode, we unpack the immediate domestic effects, declining global perceptions, and economic instability marked by reduced tourism and capital flight. We draw connections between Trump’s actions and Project 2025, a conservative blueprint for reshaping government, despite his public denial of involvement. Finally, we reflect on the progressive policies that built modern American society and how they are now under threat, emphasizing that these developments carry real consequences for all Americans, regardless of political party affiliation.
Sunday, May 4, 2025
hey everybody, welcome back to the rtwj podcast we were here right now just getting ready to record the show. Just a little back and forth here as we're planning. I just, I love it. Is there a?
Speaker 1:need for every time you have to you have to what Tell me? Narrate what we just did Like just go on with the show man, Because it's always such a spectacle every time, but it's great.
Speaker 2:It's how we warm up, I guess.
Speaker 1:It's you's how we warm up. I guess it's you know we. We do a little back and forth, we argue a little bit and we're ready to go. We've got energy. So I'm glad. Yeah to everyone who continues to listen to us every week, and well sorry, not every week, but every episode twice a month. Yeah, we really appreciate everybody that connects with us and has been following our instagram. Remember rtwj podcast? Um, you know, search us, find us. And uh, we don't have a facebook, no more do we no, we are done facebook yes instagram is where it's at.
Speaker 1:Please stay connected with us. Um, we are continuing to just fight back on this. I'm not gonna call them republicans or I'm going to call them red hats. Now, I'm the red hats.
Speaker 2:Okay, Because we are.
Speaker 1:I'm completely upset and you know it's funny because people this is where I get really riled up, because people constantly keep coming back and try to get us to like, oh you know, we have Trump derangement syndrome and all these things, right, yes, but every time they do that they fail miserably, because I'm waiting to come back every episode with more things that goes against what they're talking about. Fact of the matter is and you guys probably know already is that we do not like him. We greatly despise him. He is the most incompetent, loser, idiot that we've ever had in a position of a presidency ever I. I'm looking at neighboring countries canada, you know who, who. Who elected someone with a phd, with a, with a, with a very high, prestigious educational past. Our neighbors down south in mexico elected a woman, someone who is highly educated same same thing PhD.
Speaker 1:you know math, mathematics, science experienced politician, someone that has studied and been educated, and then we have this guy, someone that just has no concept of his name. He wears you know so much tanning lotion on his face. He looks brown sometimes because it's just piled on him. He doesn't complete sentences when he speaks. Everything is someone else's fault. Whenever they critique him, it's always someone else's fault Every single time. He's never taken accountability for making mistakes when mistakes have been made, and that's what we have there have been a lot of mistakes lately.
Speaker 2:I mean, yes, it's, it's always biden's fault too.
Speaker 1:This is biden's stock market right now, like his name out of his mouth, can he?
Speaker 2:yeah, get over him day one we were supposed to have change. Well, now it's day 100 and whatever we just recently did the 100 days. So where are we at now? And this is a pivotal time, and we might not just focus on this, on today's episode, but one thing that comes to mind for me, actually two things. So, first of all, we're now really going to play this tariff gamble. So we've been playing for the past month now I can't believe it's been what since his first round of proposed tariffs were April, the beginning of April. Now we're here on May 3rd.
Speaker 2:We've been doing this tariff back and forth for the past few weeks, but now we're waiting to see if we're really going to get in the ass. Right, we now already. So we now have this next round of tariffs. Whatever we're doing now I don't even know it's so confusing each day where we're at round of tariffs or whatever we're doing now I don't even know it's so confusing each day where we're at but basically, the ports of LA and Long Beach, which are our local ports, some of the busiest ports in the US they're already forecasting in this coming week, as we really get hit with these tariffs, that shipments or imports that we get are going to go down by about 35%. So we're already dealing with that and we're going to have to see truly what the impact of these tariffs are. We've been kind of dancing around them the past few weeks.
Speaker 2:What's going to happen? What's going to happen Now? We're there. We're now at the point do store shelves, do we start to see empty store shelves? Do we see a major disruption in the supply chain? We've got that and I don't have the exact term in front of me, but it's basically when the White House throws out like a budget concept of what they recommend that Congress consider for the budget for the coming year. He threw that out. Defense spending is going up Meanwhile, basically from Social Security, any type of quote socialist program. As they see, anything that helps people is being targeted, being targeted right the irs is the party of not helping people.
Speaker 2:Yes, so all programs, so social security is on their entitlement programs. The irs is getting their big budget hit. Uh, climate change, environmental protection programs the list goes on. That was just thrown out in the last few days too, and that's what he's proposing now. Um, going forward, I don't see the big cuts. I just see that the spending's being transferred to what his interests are. So, in terms of doge and all we're gonna save.
Speaker 1:We're gonna cut expenses, we're increasing, we're just transferring, we're transferring, that's all we're doing. So, uh, people that remember we had someone that was talking to us about that who reached out to our show and said oh, we're saving, we're saving yeah we're saving and that we're super extreme liberals, or whatever they call us. I mean, please explain to me where we are saving this money, Because you someone that's listening to our show has been very adamant about that, saying that Doge is saving money, money, money, but we're not.
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 1:The money is being allocated to other spending habits. The national debt will increase. Where are these?
Speaker 2:savings going and Musk is already too under fire because people have looked and been like okay, you say you're going to save money for the government, yet your own business and your own interests. You have billions of dollars worth of contracts. Where are the slashes to your own contracts? Oh never mind Look at that.
Speaker 1:See, this is what frustrates me. You can't make this stuff up. These things literally write themselves. Things literally write themselves Every single time we are told something about this administration. And to change. Because, let me tell you, I am about learning, growth, experiencing, making my own decisions, critical thinking, emotional intelligence. So I welcome people offering different opinions. I've always been like that, but this isn't differing. Nothing of substance has come to me to say that this is someone that I should support. So Marcus has always focused on, like you know, policy. Right, he's focused on, for example, he's talked about the tariffs. He's talked about, you know, the economic situation, financials. But my focus, this episode is kind of going to be more about you know what? There is the stark difference between the left and the right.
Speaker 2:Let's do it.
Speaker 1:Sure, and it's just it frustrates me because I I try to just, you know, really give people the benefit of the doubt, and I've spoken to a lot of people lately about things right, and they tell me about all these crazy conspiracy theories and it's just, it cracks me up because everything they talk about and saying they want to cut or don't believe in supports them first of all and, second of all, was not created by the party they support. I will say this and say this countless times and I really want that person from that podcast that listens to us to really hear this statement because it's kind of like my, like my final, not my final, but like my, like my significant idea of what's going on.
Speaker 2:OK.
Speaker 1:You're not living in a conservative victory. You're living in liberal progress, progress. And when you talk about policies and government agencies and things that we utilize in our way of life, there's a constant fight. Right that conservatives say that they're being oppressed by the left. Right that the left is out here to take back and crazy left, radical, lunatic stuff like that. The only reason why this exists is because conservatives and red hats are not oppressed by liberalism.
Speaker 2:They're empowered because, okay, let's dive into that thought.
Speaker 1:That's a great, because every liberal policy in many ways has a benefit of some capacity to the people that live in this country. Sure so they have to fight back. They have to find little things. That's what they go for okay every policy, right, you know, let's look at some stuff let's do it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, let's talk about?
Speaker 1:um, let's talk about the fact that women can vote. Okay, how did the right for women to vote happen? It happened through radical individuals quote that protested, and protested, and protested. Then, invoking the 19th Amendment, progressive policies. We talk about unions, right, unions had a major impact. And again, progressive policies. You like your 40-hour work week, right? Sure. You like your workers' compensation? Oh yeah. Workers' protections, yes. Vacation allocation, sick time allocation, workplace safety these are progressive policies. If you're a veteran and you cash your VA check based on a GI Bill and stuff like that, that is also a progressive policy that the right, historically, has tried to fight against.
Speaker 2:And they're currently doing it at this moment cutting VA spending. They are they're going after the va, that's absolutely.
Speaker 1:Please tell me. Tell me how they are. The party of the people I don't get it. Every single major policy is a progressive and liberal movement. No child labor that's a progressive movement. Weekends off that's a progressive movement. Public transit, public roads, public parks these are progressive movements. Education it's a progressive movement. Innovation technology are progressive movements Right, it's a progressive movement. Innovation technology are progressive movements Right. So this just goes to show that these things that people enjoy have been created by progressive, left, liberal movements. The things that make us have rights autonomy, you know, the ability to purchase a home, the ability to drive our car on public roadways these are all liberal policies. The right to go into an establishment and not feel discriminated these are progressive policies. The right to be yourself is a progressive policy. So I don't get how they say they are trying to save what, because they're not saving anything. It is blatant, blatant discrimination. Yeah, racism and bigotry.
Speaker 2:They're trying to save a traditional way of life that, again, as we've talked on the show, that we just flat out don't like. I mean, they want to create this little box that if you fit in their box, you're gonna be fine and if you don't, then you have a problem Again. If it was truly about freedom, right, then why are they going after, for example, transsexual individuals? Why are they doing? Why are they creating policy, creating restrictions, creating barriers for those types of things? It's not just about oh, we're the party of freedom and whatever. It's about establishing this way of life, right, this specific way of life that they think everybody should follow, no matter what our views are and how we think differently. Right, that's where it's at and this is controversial and people debate this all the time.
Speaker 2:Project 2025 is well underway the boxes based on what trump has been doing and many of his executive orders, a lot of what he's been saying, a lot of what his followers have been saying and doing. The whole attitude aligns with project 2025, which is basically it's it's it's a plan to completely reshape the country right to follow this traditional conservative way of life. They are pursuing it actively. They're accomplishing many of the steps within it. That's what their focus is is basically creating this new way of life where we all follow one standard, we all have one approach and if you don't fit within that box that they're creating, you're gonna have a problem, and that's what we're seeing right now check this out.
Speaker 1:Okay, an ethical man, right? Someone is supposed to take care of the corruption in washington. What corruption? He himself is the most corrupt person of all time. Remember that private dinner to his biggest meme coin buyers. So the value for his coin shot up 100 million dollars and he offered a private dinner to his highest buyers and investors. This calls for an ethics probe. Absolutely sure. Like, what are you doing? Like, how can you take money anonymously from anybody in the world? Okay, he is been told what's been told, that he's been kind of making business deals for his family businesses.
Speaker 1:Um, you know, using the presidency, we've seen surprise, right, yeah, surprise and it's just again talking about elon musk and his multi-billion dollar pentagon deal, considering the doge cuts. It's like like, like what? The firing of inspector generals, you know. All these, all these things. It's like like like what? The firing of inspector generals, you know all these, all these things.
Speaker 1:It's just like like, what is it that we're doing? Like this? Corruption continues to be seen and to be shown. We see it countless times. We had a dealership in the front line of the white house, you know one point, selling cars. Oh yeah, you know. It's just like okay, I get it. You know, biden has done that with jeep. We've seen it, sure, but we're looking at the impacts of the man that was behind these vehicles, someone that's in government, right, you know, in a capacity to make changes in government. I'm just upset that.
Speaker 2:Can we stop on that real quick? I don't understand. Here we go, let's go down this rabbit hole. He's all about going against electric vehicles. Right, he's stopping, he is. I don't want to hear anybody say, no, he's not, he's doing this. He is going after federal programs, funding programs that support electric vehicle infrastructure. He is against. It did not recently too, and I don't have all the details in front of me. There's this whole issue now about california's ban on um gasoline powered cars. That who is? It is someone within the. Someone within the federal government is now blocking that ability for california to do that. Now. Do I completely agree with that policy? Separate issue.
Speaker 2:I'm just saying he's going after that right, it's a little messy here in California, we agree. He's going after that, and yet he's putting Tesla and an electric vehicle company on the lawn of the White House. Basically, how do those two things add up? They don't make any sense. How does he do one thing but then do that too? The hypocrisy alone in that is just outstanding, honestly.
Speaker 1:Here's another good one, right? They say he's so progressive, he's getting stuff done, right, wait, wait.
Speaker 1:He's progressive I'm sorry, that's why he's progressive and getting stuff done Like he's progressing and getting stuff done. That's the thing. Oh, donald Trump is. Oh, donald trump. Oh, he's making, like he's making changes. Yeah, he's making changes, right, let's see, okay, well, according to a time analysis of congressional records, it says that so far, congress has only passed six bills uh, five of which have been signed to law in the first 100 days, which is a fuse of any president in the first 100 days of administration. In the last seven decades we've talked about this.
Speaker 2:Where's the movement? The backlog of work right now is no. How can you even get work?
Speaker 1:he has signed 142 executive orders the most of any president. Yes, in the first hundred days, because you see there he's not good. He can't even get his congress to make these bills happen. He hasfully execute his power in the executive branch to do this.
Speaker 2:How is he successful? The judges come in, he gets blocked and he sometimes with his decisions, as we've seen he has to pull them back. He has to pull them back because he makes a mistake. Guess how many lawsuits the Trump administration faces in the first 100 days.
Speaker 1:Over 220.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's more than one per executive order.
Speaker 1:essentially he's ignored federal courts. Yep, okay, um he. They want to impeach the judges that actually have tried to fight back on his nonsense. His first hundred days have been chaos, yes, absolute chaos. This isn't this is a democracy. This is not an oligarchy. This is not a fascist government. This is a democracy, but it feels like it's heading in the wrong direction. It's embarrassing that the president of the united states thinks that it's appropriate to say that he wants to be the next pope. Oh, how does that make sense? Please, this isn't. I'm tired of it. I'm sick of it. I'm sick of trying to understand what the fuck is going on. You're aware, too, that he actually put a picture of himself on his own social media accounts.
Speaker 1:He's embracing this he's crashing out though, because his tweet, his tweets, are always like around 5 40 in the morning. You know, five in the morning. He's, just like you know, going crazy, he just starts writing. Oh, yeah, that's the president of the united states.
Speaker 2:Yes, he is putting a picture of himself that he should be the pope. He should lead the catholic church around the world. Now he has the audacity. I thought we left that behind.
Speaker 1:I thought we left a reigning king behind.
Speaker 2:I thought we left a fascist government behind, but he's so good and perfect in his mind he's the savior of the world that he truly is that is a king he's the king. Yes, because when the king of england the head of the church, haven't kings been the heads of churches? Shouldn't it be where?
Speaker 1:a collective group of individuals make decisions for the greater good of the majority of individuals.
Speaker 2:No because the liberals are destroying our country. So we need one man to come in and just wipe clean the slate, right. That's what he's doing. He's just wiping out everything.
Speaker 1:The countries with the highest quality of life throughout the world are progressive countries, yes, are liberal-leaning countries. The countries with the most supportive services human services, healthcare, life expectancy, access to food, shelter, life-sustaining services are all liberal, left-leaning countries. That's the point of government, the point of government. We've gone from all of these things in the past, leaving these, you know, we've learned, right Over thousands of years of humanity. We've learned that certain types of you know control do not work. Certain types of structure of society do not work. Government doesn't work. It's shown that the best type of government is the one that incorporates different. You know branches and ideologies and differences in opinions and respect for individual. You know individuality. But we're, we're going back. Oh yeah, isn't this what this country was founded on? Fleeing persecution of a tyrant, yes, of of one person making the choice for everybody. That's why he fled, right, that's what this country was founded on.
Speaker 2:But those that support him love what he's doing, so he's the savior of the world.
Speaker 1:There's got to be some research on why these people support him. I just it sounds like he's a prophet. It sounds deranged. It's almost like a prophet Deranged. There we go. Oh, don't say that. This is where the derangement is right. Here, oh, absolutely it's.
Speaker 2:It's almost like like he's a prophet, a long-sought prophet. The same almost like he is jesus christ himself, like it's it's this savior mentality that he has come to save the country from whatever evils that have flourished for years. And now he is here to just revolutionize the country into some project 2025 concept of perfection. I don't know wouldn't be great.
Speaker 1:Tourism fell, uh, about 12 percent in the last month. Tourism from countries in europe like germany, denmark, fell by 30%. About 25% for Spain, norway, ireland, australia, austria. Air travel from Canada is down. The founder of Kayak, the website that does that traveling stuff, oh yeah.
Speaker 1:Kayak. He quoted saying that in just two months, trump has destroyed the reputation of the US, shown one way by diminished travel from the EU to the US. This is not only one more terrible blow to the US economy, but it also represents reputation damage that could take generations to repair. Absolutely. You know what FIFA said. And the Olympics? They said time is on our side. If it was truly good, they would say, no, we're good. They just said time is on our side. If it was truly good, they would say no, we're good. They just said time is on our side, indicating something, hoping that something will change something but yeah, how's that going?
Speaker 1:and then, marcus loves this one capital flight. People are taking their money out of the us and they're putting it into other countries. Why? Because the US dollar is weakening, yes, and quick. The stock market is falling, bond yields are going up, so when the dollar goes, you know, value goes down. That's actually scary because that means that there's what A loss in confidence in the us dollar. Because we're focused on gold, right, the gold reserves. But you know, people are very confident in the us dollar, right. Why are they confident in the us dollar? Because you have a government. That's that's that's, you know, stable. We have a, you know, a democratic style of, you know, electing individuals, of running government programs, of the, you know, maintaining the dollar, our financial security. There's structure, but they notice that the structure is falling apart.
Speaker 2:Do you want to go back with me in time about like 15, 18 years ago? Let's go.
Speaker 2:I was at a training at work earlier this week and there was someone there that was attending and they made this comment, and this reminded me of 15, 20 years ago. What was happening then? Right, the Great Recession we were going through that Made this comment that their public sector we call it a 457. It's the same as a 401k the value of their 457 has changed to where now they're not sure they're going to retire. They might have to delay by a few years. Does that comment ring a bell from what people were saying back then when their 401ks were collapsing?
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:We're doing it again, but this time we just stabbed ourselves and the bleeding's happening because of our own doing. It's not because of global. What was happening back then? Right, it's just because of what Trump's been doing these past few months and the craziness and the volatility in the markets that now people are saying that I've lost money, I'm not gonna retire for a few years.
Speaker 1:I'm gonna have to work. That's concerning.
Speaker 2:That's what they were saying in 2007, 2008, as things were falling apart. And they saying in 2007, 2008, as things were falling apart and it and they did.
Speaker 1:They had to wait until things recovered. We're in that setting again, but here's one key difference with what's happening now. Back then, during that recession, there was still confidence in the us dollar yes, that is true people were still putting it, because in times of crisis, in times of global economic crisis, countries still bet on putting their you know investments, their money, into the us dollar that was bad decisions in the credit market.
Speaker 1:That's what that so they knew, but this time around they're not. They're fleeing and they're putting their money somewhere else. Because the us dollar is not as strong and stable as it was then. Right, because of social insecurities, the things that we have happening in our country, travel warnings against the US because of disruptions in society, the fear that people's rights can be taken away when they're visiting this country. Yes, we used to be bigots and discriminate other countries, saying don't travel there because they're going to attack you for being from the US. Now we're the ones in the same boat. How embarrassing is that? Absolutely so. That's the crazy part is we're seeing time and time again that these things continue to be proven, that this presidency and this administration does not work. And it is not working. It's been 100 days.
Speaker 2:It is a complete disaster absolute disaster, complete disaster.
Speaker 1:No timeline, no guides, no plans, no structure no, strategy no strategy. We're just pick up the pen and sign this thing. Most of the time he just listens to the summary.
Speaker 2:He's like, okay, I'll sign it yeah, as long as it sounds like it's from project 2025, basically, which he claims he never read. But that's not true he is the puppet he is the grandmaster.
Speaker 1:They want project 2025 to be enacted. This guy is just gonna sit there and sign away, right? That's all he's doing.
Speaker 2:It was made for him. Don't forget they say it was made for him. Don't forget they say oh, it was made for a president. It was designed for him to execute and he's been doing it. Look at the. I mean, there were constant comparisons between Project 2025 and what he was doing within his first few weeks. He was already making a good dent in that list just with the first few weeks of his presidency. And here we are now. By the way, tariffs, tariffs big part of that plan too investors do not believe in the us anymore.
Speaker 1:Economists say that trump has broken the country and its finances. Noah smith said that the world is treating the us like a developing nation like a developing nation. Usually. Traditionally, countries buy us debt and the us then uses that to stimulate the economy that's how the great recession worked.
Speaker 2:Remember with president obama. He went, did a bunch of stimulus packages to get things rolling again, correct, but now we gotta go at these high rates now because interest rates are higher.
Speaker 1:It's gonna cost more because because people are not putting in their belief in the US dollar. I call it. I call it Within the next four years, somehow, someway, this crazy lunatic is going to say something along the lines of let's move our currency to just US currency and somehow change the dynamic of the dollar, and I'm afraid of that. Yeah, I'm very afraid of that. I'm somehow some, some way it's gonna happen.
Speaker 2:There's gonna be a word, wild idea?
Speaker 1:yes, whether it manifests or not, there's gonna be some wild idea yeah, oh, yeah, absolutely the world does not stop here in jam and um, we're gonna keep going until they drag us out of the studio. It's just every time I talk about these things I hearing myself talk about it I just I'm like I'm actually seeing these things as truth and it's not as a vision?
Speaker 2:It's not as a vision. What would the apocalypse look like? No, this is actually happening right now.
Speaker 1:And it's only been a little more than 100 days.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he hasn't even passed his first budget yet, the first budget under his presidency. We haven't even gotten that far on what they're going to end up doing.
Speaker 1:Oh, my God. Well, until next time For all of us here at the RTWJ podcast. I'm John.
Speaker 2:I'm Marcus. Make sure you're following us on Instagram for the latest updates on the show and we will catch you guys on the next episode. Hopefully, the store still have products on the shelves by that point. I think we're looking at June or July. That's the forecast right now, and things get really crazy with the stores.
Speaker 1:You know what We'll?
Speaker 2:be here to cover all that. We have our equipment already. We have stockpiled equipment.
Speaker 1:So that way, we won't have to worry about it, right.
Speaker 2:Because there won't be any podcast equipment anywhere.
Speaker 1:Right, okay, yeah, take care, thank you Bye.
