Nvidia’s $47B AI Boom | CDC Director Ousted, Athletes on OnlyFans, Disney Prices Out Middle Class

Nvidia beats Wall street expectations. Sales are up 56%. But is the AI boom starting to look overheated? That's the question many are asking. From Olympic hopefuls to cricket stars, athletes are flocking to only fans. Some post tutorials, others post much more. What does it say about sports money and stigma? Disney once promised that everybody is a vip. Now families are finding that magic comes with a very high price tag. And some say the middle class is being left outside the gates. The CDC is in chaos. The center for Disease Control here in the United States, it's in chaos as its director refuses to step down after the White House declares her fired. Four senior officials resigned in protest warning of the weaponization of of public health. And President Trump says he has the right to, quote, do anything because he's the president and he's proving it by muscling into cities, corporations and the economy itself. All that and more. Welcome to Filtered with TJ Walker. Hi and welcome. I'm TJ Walker. Thanks for joining me today. I'm on location still out in California, Silicon Valley, Valley area, on assignment working with some high tech companies. Not this one, by the way. I would disclose conflict of interest, but heading back home to South Florida today. Looking forward to it. Will be broadcasting from the regular studio tomorrow and back home. Looking forward to that as always. You have any questions, feel free to post them here. If you're watching us live or On Demand special. Hello to our friends watching live on YouTube, on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitch. And congratulations to YouTube. As I mentioned yesterday, six straight months now, they're the number one streaming service for video content and entertainment content. So they continue to perhaps not be as glamorous as Netflix and some shows on Prime, Amazon prime or HBO Max. But people are watching right here and I appreciate you watching. Let's dive in to our first story. Nvidia's profits soar as AI demand explodes. Nvidia just delivered another blockbuster earnings report, proving once again that the artificial intelligence boom is nowhere near slowing down. Or at least it hasn't yet. According to the New York Times, the chip maker sales jumped 56% to nearly $47 billion in the last quarter, with profits soaring 59% to more than $26 billion. CEO Jensen Yang told analysts we're in the beginning of this build out. Predicting Global spending on AI infrastructure could reach as much as $4 trillion by the end of the decade. Nvidia expects revenue this quarter to climb another 54%, fueled by demand for its powerful Blackwell chips, which are selling for about $30,000 a piece. Yet even with these staggering numbers, shares fell slightly in after hours trading. A sign of just how high Wall street expectations are. Nvidia remains the most valuable company in the world, worth $4 trillion. That's just, that's an unfathomable number. It's so huge. But its growth is complicated by US China tensions. Sales to China are on hold, though the CEO says the potential market there is worth $50 billion this year alone. So what do we need to make of that? Jensen, the CEO is seen as a real superstar, is highly respected in the industry. But you gotta question everyone. He says, we're just in the beginning of this. Nobody really knows. I can tell you a whole lot of smart people thought in January 2000, this Internet thing is going to get bigger and bigger and bigger and all these Internet stocks are going to get bigger. And then poof. Come March, it went poof. I'm not predicting a bust when it comes to artificial intelligence and spending on tech companies like Nvidia. But I'm also not predicting that we're just in the beginning. No one really knows. That's the, that's the exciting thing about the world. That's the exciting thing about being a part of commerce, is no one really knows. And when someone tells you with absolute certainty, it's just the beginning. We're going to grow a thousand times more or the end is coming. Doom. Sell all your stock. You need to really scrutinize why they're saying that, what their conflicts of interest are. Everyone has a conflict of interest. I'm trying to give you what I feel is unbiased information because I don't work for that company. And I have. I own no stock in any tech company. I only own stock through, indirectly through mutual funds. So I'm not talking up my book the way many people do. Okay, so what's the real message here? The message is, yeah, Nvidia is doing better than ever, but no one knows how long it will last. I can't predict when it's going to crash or whether it's going to just continue booming for another 20 years. And neither can you. Let's dig a little deeper here. The world is enamored with artificial intelligence. It's hard for me to have any conversation with anyone in business who isn't giddy and excited about all the different ways they are using artificial intelligence. And I'm guilty of that too. I'm a part of that. I love using artificial. I'm using it to create these graphics. I'M using it to help me with scripts. I'm using my AI clone, TJ Walker AI is working. I want to just adjust my, my volume here. Getting some notes from my colleague. I hope, I hope my volume is better there. Great. We want to get the volume just right and make sure you can hear properly. So I'm by nature optimistic, but I'm telling you right now, you don't want to take stock advice from someone who's always optimistic because that's how you get into bubbles. That's how you buy gold and you think it's going to go to 10,000 and it goes to 500. So you want realism when it comes to your own stock portfolio. And part of that realism is realizing in the long run, things do go up in the long run. Every single person who's predicted the end of the world has been wrong. Everyone who's predicted the complete evisceration of a stock market. Even with the Great Depression, things didn't go to zero. That typically only happens if you are living in a totalitarian regime. And that implodes, as did happen to the stock market in Germany in the 1940s. But beyond that, if you have invested in American stocks in the last hundred years, yes, there have been downs, yes, there have been recessions, yes, there have been serious declines, yes, there have been stagnant decades. But in general, things continue to grow, things continue to go up. That's why in general, I don't try to short the market. I'm not smart enough for that. And those who think they are are until they aren't. It's in some ways comforting to see Nvidia doing so well given the massive, massive turmoil we have in our economy today because of these crazy tariffs, these whimsical tyrannical dictates from a bizarre leader in one of the largest democracies. And I'll just say in North America, I don't even like mentioning his name till the last segment of the show. If you're new to this show, I'm T.J. walker. And what we're all about is looking at the top business, technology, economic and culture stories of the day, filtered through the lens of communication skills, all with the goal of making you more successful in your personal life and your professional life and trying to make you happier. And rather than getting depressed by doom scrolling looking at the news, we actually learn something together and we're a bit of a community. And joining us is Ambati saying hello Ambodi, thanks so much for joining us. Let us know where you are today. We'd love to hear from you and what is on your mind. So Nvidia, a fascinating story and a huge amazing success story. A company that a lot of people have not even thought about much until a few years ago and now they're worth $4 trillion. The first 4 trillion trillion dollar market cap company. Very exciting. What's going to happen to them in the long run? I don't know. They certainly seem to be well respected in a well managed company, but it's hard to maintain that level of growth. We've got a lot more coming up for you today on this special edition of Filtered with TJ Walker. I will be back in just a moment.

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Athletes are turning to only fans. Oh boy. A growing number of world class athletes are Turning to Only Fans. Yes, the same site long associated with adult content. According to the Daily Mail, the reasons range from financial pressures to creative control. Take 22 year old canoeist Kurtz Adams Rosenthals. Once a world silver medalist, he was suspended from Team GB after posting sexually explicit material. Yet he says he earned six figures in just eight months. Admitting, on my first day I made $3,250. Living on what I was. Living as a professional athlete was very hard. Not all athletes are selling provocative content. England cricketer Timo Mills uses his page for bowling tutorials. Charging less than $5 a session, he told the paper, it has to be family friendly. My wife. My wife knows what I'm up to. Former Olympic stars like diver Jack Lawer and speed skater Elise Christie have also joined. Christie, who battled debt and mental health struggles, said, with Only Fans, it has helped to pick me up out of a dark place. The site is now valued at $7.8 billion, is actively recruiting athletes and reports suggest footballers, meaning soccer players. For those of us in America, footballers will be next. Okay, so what's the real message here? Only Fans, most people think of, is a place where a lot of sleazy, nasty things going on. And it's really personalized pornography and prostitution. At some level, it's expanding. It's making itself available to really anyone who has a following, expertise or fans, and selling direct access to the fans. That's neither good nor bad. That is just a technology. That's the world we live in. And you may think that you like a particular cable outlet, that cable outlet or that hotel company might be making money from porn, too. It's everywhere. I don't know how to get rid of it, but it's a part of our current economic reality. Let's dig a little deeper. It's sort of a bizarre thing for a lot of athletes in that their friends and family think, oh, you're a star athlete, you must be rich. Because we think of star football players, soccer players, basketball players, baseball players, some of them making hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts, some of them more than a billion over a lifetime. Yet if you're an Olympic athlete, if you're a row or a canoe or archery, you don't make any money or very, very little money. And yet you spend all of your time being the best in the world. You have that brief moment, perhaps getting a gold medal, a silver medal, and then for many people, it's starting life over with no demonstrable skills. Quite often they don't have higher education, sometimes without A social life or strong mental health because they've been 100% focused on being the best in the world at one particular sport. And it does leave a lot of people very empty. I am quite empathetic to their plight. I know I've met gold medal Olympians before, working at hotels as a clerk, making very low wages that they're trying to figure out the next stage of their life. Now we do have a situation where they can monetize. I was intrigued in this article from the Times profiling the speed skater who says she was suffering mental illness. Making money on only fans helped take her out of a dark place because it solves some financial troubles. And I could certainly understand it's better not to have financial troubles. It's easier to be depressed if you know how you're going to pay for your rent and you're worried about being homeless. But if so much of your interaction with humanity is people asking you to take your clothes off or to do things to your own body or to simulate things you'd rather only do with someone you love, I think that takes a toll on your psyche as well. And that just strikes me as highly corrosive. None of you ever asked me to take my shirt off. Nor would I. Nor would you want that. So it's something you could say I don't really have the ability to relate to very well and I'll just cough up to that. Guilty. Guilty as charged. But I am sympathetic to people who have worked hard to become well known in something and they see everyone else in our pop culture who's famous seems to be making money and they're asking, why am I not getting a piece of the pie? Where's mine? And so they are turning to only fans. The technology is making it available. There's, there's tremendous pressure, I think, on athletes and I, again, I haven't spent any time on OnlyFans. No offense to that site or if any of you do, but I can only imagine if you are an attractive, good looking young woman athlete and you go and you think people are coming to pay to learn my skills on marksmanship and they want to pay for private meetings and next thing you know they're begging or demanding or offering more money for you to take all your clothes off. That just seems corrosive to me. Am I suggesting it should be outlawed or illegal? No. But is this something I would want to encourage a family, family member to do? No. Is this something that I think really helps most people build a longer term career? No. I think It's a bit short sighted for people. If you are an athlete and you want to teach people and you want to monetize, make an online course. There are thousands of platforms out there where you can make a make money. I mean, I think Andrew Agassi has a course on Udemy, the platform where I spend where most of my students were and where some of you know me from. So make an online course. There's Cameo where you can be paid by your fans to say hello. So I'm just not sure why you want to be associated with a site that involves you taking off your clothes and overtly doing sexual things. Although I understand not everybody on OnlyFans does that. And perhaps they have a great way of marketing more people for you and getting you out there. I don't know. I spotlighted this because I do think it's important for all of us to realize how the modern world changes, the modern media world changes on all the different ways of making money. My caveat to you athletes thinking of making the quick buck by going on only fans, is this potentially damaging your long term brand and harming you from getting other sponsorship deals, advertising deals, partnerships, joint ventures? Because if you are an athlete in a sport that isn't one of the big TV sports, you're not a soccer player, football player, basketball, baseball, but you're in something that does interest people and you have some modicum of fame. Why not start a podcast? With a podcast, audio and video, there are just numerous ways you can monetize that for a long, long time. And even though he didn't build himself as a podcaster, Howard Stern is essentially was a podcaster before podcasting started. He's a guy who just talks in a microphone about all sorts of chit chat and interviews people. That's what podcasters do. And here's Howard Stern with a career of half a century and now that he's in his 70s, you know, no one's asking him to take his clothes off. He's still making a lot of money. He's made more than a billion dollars at this point. So I would ask you, if you are an athlete, think about the long term and all the ways you can potentially monetize your expertise and your fame and your knowledge over the long haul. And ideally that happens, you know, when you're young and attractive, but in your 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, you know, so many of the top football and soccer analysts are doing that when they are in their 60s and 70s and 80s. As long as you can talk, you can be compelling and interesting to someone. And there are ways of monetizing that. So my only career strategy for you is just really think seriously about diving into something involving a business that's primarily known as pornography. Now the line has changed. It changes all the time. There used to be a time when if you were in any sort of pornographic magazine, it was scandalous and your career was over. And then Hugh Hefner brilliantly got Marilyn Monroe in his first edition and that kind of de stigmatized posing nude. And a lot of wildly successful people who have huge contracts with, with major, major corporations have posed in Playboy. And it didn't hurt their career. It actually helped their career. So the line changes all the time. I just wanted to put a spotlight on this so that you're aware of it because it would not have occurred to me. I'm not encouraging all of you to necessarily go on that site, but who knows? I mean, according to this, there are people who just teach canoeing tips and are making money from it. So you may have to look into it.

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It helps you stay in the loop. Okay, let's take a look at what is going on in the world of Disney. A fun place I've been to, but it's also a very stressful place for reasons I'm about to talk about right now. Disney's shift from middle class to millionaires. Disney once marketed itself as everybody is a vip. Today it looks more like everybody with a platinum card. According to the New York Times, families like Scarlett Kresels, someone who's earning around $80,000 a year, her combined family income close to the US median, they now struggle to afford the trip. Kressel and her daughter already spent more than $2,300 on tickets, plus another $160 for Skip the Line access to just three rides. Her week in Orlando for two adults and three kids cost about $8,000, roughly 15% of their annual take home pay. That's a hugely significant amount of money of your overall take home pay to spend on one vacation in one place. Meanwhile, Disney's luxury offerings have soared. A renovated suite at the Polynesian resort costs $3,900 a night. Champagne and small bites with fireworks. View Rod $230 per person. A wine pair dinner for two at Victoria and Albert starts at $1,500. Consultant Daniel Curl argues this reflects a bigger shift. Companies across industries now focus on the affluent. Oh, boy, do they. As analyst Len Testa put it, Disney positions itself as the all American vacation. The irony is that most Americans can't afford it. Okay, what's the real message here? Yeah, it's Disney World, but it's, it's every world. The world's increasingly saying, if you're not the top five, 10% in income, we don't want your business, don't come here. The average American family of an income of $80,000 going to Disney is committing an act of fiscal suicide. It's too expensive for most people, and that is a shame. So let's dig a little deeper here. I, as some of you may know, I started a family kind of late in life. I had my daughter when I was at age 50. So by the time I took her to Disney World and my family to Disney World At 55, I was in a lot better shape financially than if I had had kids. When most people had kids in their 20s and 30s, I wouldn't have been able to afford going to Disney with the income I had certainly at age 25 or 35 for that matter. So it does create a sense of uneasiness. And yes, I did buy various fast passes to get through some of the lines. But I realized there's so many different layers of insider ness at a place like Disney. I have friends now say, oh yeah, I just get the guide for $5,000 a day. They take you around, you never wait anywhere. So there's a part of me that says, wow, that's, that's great, that's wonderful. There's a part of me that says $5,000. I mean, that's, that's an incredible amount of money. I think for anyone who isn't. Maybe you don't have to get a billionaire to drop 5G, but that's a lot of money. A lot of money. Again, let's look at some of the facts here. $3,900 to stay at some of the Disney hotels. $1,500 for dinner at some of their restaurants. But just the actual getting into the park has gone up. And then the real problem, to me, the biggest problem, the thing that sort of sticks in the crawl, I think, of what a middle class person would be experiencing, or certainly a lower middle class person, is that all day long, if you haven't really shelled out the big bucks, you Spent all day long waiting. You're waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting. In this article profile in the New York Times, they talk about the profile. Two different families. One of them is waiting an hour and a half for lunch and the other is like five minute wait. They didn't mind spending the extra five, $7,000 for all the fast passes and all the VIP tickets. It's one thing for Disney to do this. What I've noticed that I find troubling is even going to a little county fair. And in my situation, the South Florida State Fair, there's still this, this goal of every organization. How can we get the most money? Fine, capitalism. I'm a capitalist. But even in a place like a county fair, they're now selling these fast pass bracelets so that you can cut in front of the line. And it just does feel a little awkward knowing, okay, in this case county fair, maybe it's only an extra 28 bucks to then walk right up in front of the other people, them looking at you enviously. It's a weird feeling and it's an odd feeling. And I'm not going to tell you, oh, I'm so noble. I'm going to wait with the people. I don't like waiting either. And fortunately I'm in a position where I can pay for these fast passes when I go to amusement parks. And so I do like to partake in that. But I do think there is, there is some social theorists who say this is kind of what's driving all of these revolts and elections. Whether it's Brexit, whether it's Americans embracing maga, they're just so angry and put upon for always feeling like second class citizens. Because if you're not in the top 10 or 20% of income in America, there are just a thousand and one ways. You're reminded daily that most businesses don't want you and you're not a priority and you're not important to them and you're lucky for them to even let you give them your money. And it comes across as, frankly as condescending. There's, on the one hand, the United States is doing well economically. More people have jobs than ever before. Unemployment is extremely low. When you look at how our economy has grown since the, since the Great Recession in 2008 versus Europe, we've done much better. The issue is the people in the top 1% and certainly the top 20% have done so much better than the bottom 80%. Many businesses like Disney have made a rational, calculating decision. Let's Go all in on these top 20% and really if we can focus on the top 1%, that's the creamy stuff, that's where you make the most money. And data AI, the Internet makes it easier and easier to market just to those people. And if you're not one of those people, you're kind of left behind. And that rightfully is causing resentment. So what's my message to you as an individual, as someone who's trying to learn from the news and get better? One is you may be able to start some business that does market to the middle class. It's not gone, it's not extinct. As the stats show, the median income in America is about 80,000 per family. So that's not rich by any stretch. Certainly in expensive metropolitan areas like San Francisco, where I am today, or New York City, that's struggling. But in many parts of America that's a middle class income and they do spend their money and there are ways of making money. The other thing to realize though is the childhood you grew up in where you know, everyone went to Disney or everyone went to the local swim club and everyone did this, that is disappearing. Our whole sense of common culture is disappearing. And on the one hand it's great that not everyone watches Fathers Knows Best and we're trapped in a monoculture, but on the other hand, it can be very alienating to people and alienating to society. And that is why I think we're seeing these populous rise. Not just here in the United States, but populism is on the rise in South America, in European democracies and elsewhere, because people are upset, people are angry and there's no simple solution. Because when you look at what the populists actually do once they get into office, most of the times they, you know, if it's in the far right, they just say, okay, now that I'm in, forget all that populist stuff, I'm just going to cut taxes on the rich. Or if it is a South American or Central American socialist populace, they end up destroying the economy. Then everybody's poor, okay? Now we don't have inequality anymore. Everyone's the same, but everyone's really poor and our economies is in a shambles and we're starving and we're fleeing the border to go to Brazil or someplace else. That's not an answer either. So there's no easy answer. As far as just voting for a populist who voices your anger and your discontent. It unfortunately takes voting, in my view, for centrist, progressive liberal politicians in your country who actually are trying to make government work to help create a freer economy. Unfortunately, people who are to the center and the center left in democracies around the world are struggling. They're having a hard time. We do have a center party here in the United States. Arguably you can make the case the Democrats in the United States are a center right party if you looked at how they'd be judged in Europe. But they are derided, mocked, ridiculed as being a far left party and a socialist party because of great marketing by the opposition party in this country. So it's a tough, tough situation for people who are angry about being left out or feel like, well, you know, I went to Disney as a kid, now I can't afford to take my kid to Disney. I thought I was going to do better than my parents, some are saying, and now they feel like they can't even keep up. That causes resentment. I know I would be resenting it if I couldn't afford to take my daughter to, you know, I've been fortunate enough to take her to Disney World and Universal and Sea World and, and all of these amusement parks. But even though, you know, things are pretty comfortable and I'm doing well, I still feel a sticker shock. I'm like, I can't believe I just spent this many thousands of dollars to spend a lot of time in line and going on five rides in a whole day. So at some point do people say enough is enough? I don't know. But it is yet a reminder that we live in a media saturated world and we live in a world where we're all bombarded with ads and marketing. You got to go to Disney. You got to go to Disney. You got to go to Disney and Disney icons everywhere. Mickey Mouse T shirts and Disney channels. You're not a bad parent if you don't take your kid to Disney. You really aren't. It's nice, I'm glad I did. But you're not a bad parent. There's so many things you can do that cost nothing. Go for a hike, go for a walk, go biking, spend time outdoors, play, play a sport with your kid. Those are the memory. I have so many more pleasurable memories with my family and my daughter doing things than just going to an amusement park. Although I do have soft spot in my heart for amusement parks, I won't kid you, my very first job was working at a Disney esque amusement park. So I do like them. But there's certainly a lot more to life than that. Back in a moment.

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Welcome back. The White House fires its CDC director, but she refuses to leave The Biden administration never had this kind of spectacle, but today, America's top public health agency is in open rebellion. According to the New York Times, the White House said it fired Dr. Susan Manera's the new CDC director after a standoff with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Over vaccines. Guess what? She's for him. He's against him. But Maneros, confirmed by the Senate just last month, is refusing to step down.

Good for her.

Her lawyers call the firing legally deficient, arguing only the president himself can remove her. Apparently, Kennedy tried to remove her. Four other top CDC officials resigned in protest, warning of the weaponization of Public Health. Dr. Dimitri Daskalis wrote, I am not able to serve in this role any longer because of the ongoing weaponization of public health. The showdowns follow a string of turmoil at the cdc, including layoffs, budget cuts and even a shooting at the Atlanta headquarters. Critics say Kennedy's anti vaccine agenda has gutted morale and endangered public trust. Former CDC leaders warned the mass resignations leave the nation less safe and more vulnerable. For now, Dr. Maneris is still in office and daring the White House to force her out. Okay, so what's the real message here? America needs to wake up. Bobby Kennedy is crazy. He's got a worm in his brain, and now he's firing doctors in charge of your health because they believe in vaccines. Now, in normal time, someone like this wouldn't get appointed, but in normal times, when a crazy person like this does slip through, that would be the only thing anyone talks about. But because we have so much other crazy stuff, with Trump trying to take over companies and extort companies and put tariffs on islands where nobody lives, this slips through the cracks. Let's dig a little deeper here. So this is really extraordinary, the officials here who quit their language, Dr. Dimitri. Saying, I'm not able to serve in Israel any longer because of the ongoing weaponization of public health. That takes real guts. Because this person is smart enough to know that if you stand up to this administration, if you stand up for science, if you dare seem like you're criticizing anyone in the Trump administration and you work for the government, you are going to be absolutely overwhelmed with nasty emails, calls, doxing vile messages on X and Twitter and social media. And yes, you're probably going to get a whole bunch of death threats. I hope not. I hope people who do that are punished. But these people know what they're getting to actually say. This is weaponizing public health, knowing they're putting their own families at risk. They're putting their own health at risk because there's so many nuts out there willing to do the bidding of Dear Leader and track down and punish and harass anyone who speaks out, including their children. So I want to commend these people at the CDC and I, I do want to commend this Dr. Manera. She says, I'm not leaving. Good for you. I hope you stay and I hope you fight it out. And I hope you continue to say, black is black, white is white. You don't just say, oh, the new boss says white is black and black is white. Okay. The new boss says vaccines don't work. Okay. I don't want you saying that, you know what next? Are we outlaw antibiotics? Is that what you want to do? Are we going to say germs don't exist? Do your own research. Come to your own conclusions. Maybe germs exist. Maybe it's just God's will you get sick and die. Is that where we're headed? I don't think we're that far off. So, again, four senior CDC officials resigned in protest. Former leaders of the organization say these people who are leaving are public health superstars. The agency's already been decimated. Layoffs, funding cuts, there's a morale crisis, not to mention shootings at their headquarters in Atlanta. Sadly, I think no one's going to pay real attention to this until we have some kind of massive outbreak. Yeah, maybe if a million kids get measles and half of them die in America, maybe someone will realize, oh, maybe Trump pandering to the people who like Kennedy and don't believe in science and don't believe in vaccines, maybe that wasn't a good idea. But until then, I guess it's just going to be another story in the news cycle that we all forget once Trump announces tomorrow he's going to revoke Barack Obama's citizenship. He hasn't said that yet, but let's face it, it's probably only a matter of time. Hi, I'm TJ Walker. This is filtered, where we look at the top street stories of the day, filtered through the lens of communication skills, all with the goal of helping you be a better communicator and more successful in your job and in your personal life. So I try not to talk about this topic because it's so distasteful. And this show is primarily about looking at business stories, technology stories through the lens of communication. It's not a political punditry show, and I try to give you objective analysis. But we do live in a time when, as is the nature of authoritarian dictatorships, the politics touches everything else in society because dictators want to control, well, everything. And that, of course, leads us to our final story of the day. I. I really hope I don't have to talk about this guy much more, but we got to do it. Trump claims unlimited power and wields it. President Trump has once again declared that, in his words, he can do anything I want to do because he is the president. The comment came during a marathon Cabinet meeting this week where members took turns praising him and reporters looked on. We talked about that yesterday here. The meeting stretched for more than three hours, longer than a flight from New York to Chicago, the very city where Trump now says he will deploy the National Guard. Despite objections from state and local leaders. Illinois Governor Pritzker warned this is exactly the type of overreach that our country's founders warned against. Trump dismissed him, saying he would have more respect for the governor if he'd simply asked for help. He added, if I think our country's in danger and it is in danger in these cities, I can do it, no problem. Trump also insisted that black women in Chicago are pleading for his intervention, claiming they appear on television in red MAGA hats asking him to restore order. But this assertion of boundless power doesn't stop at law enforcement. As the New York Times reports, Trump is applying the same I can do anything philosophy to America's economy. He's muscled the government into unprecedented roles in private industry, demanding that intel give Washington a nearly 10% ownership stake, forcing Nvidia to hand over 15% of revenue from certain chip exports and blocking Nippon Steel's acquisition of U.S. steel until the government was given a golden share that lets it veto decisions ranging from salaries to corporate names. Steve Ratner, a former Obama treasury official, wrote that these actions can fairly be called extortion. That's right, extortion. Strong words, but accurate words. And that they undermine the rule of law and the stability businesses rely on. The approach contrasts sharply with earlier government interventions, like the 2009 auto bailouts, when Washington deliberately avoided avoided permanent ownership and tried to exit quickly. Meanwhile, Trump's tariffs are already squeezing the auto industry. General Motors say they will cut profits by up to $5 billion this year, while Ford projects losses of $2 billion. Ratner warns the broader pattern government by personal decree risk destabilizing both markets and democracy itself. So when Trump says, I have the right to do anything I want to do, critics argue he's not just talking about Chicago or one city's crime problem. He's signaling a presidency that blurs the line between public office and unchecked personal authority. What's the real message here? Make no mistake about it. Trump is being crystal clear. He's saying I can do whatever, whatever I want to do. If I want to extort a company and say, you got to give me 10%, I will. If I want to extort another company and said give me 15% of all your revenues, I'll do that. If I want to tell you what to name your business, I'll do that. If I want to just march my henchmen into your city or your state and take over and throw people in prisons, I will do that, too. This is what authoritarian dictatorships are all about. Let's dig a little deeper here. So Trump is saying that all these people in Chicago want him to come because it's a violent place. Well, crime is actually down in Chicago. If you want to look at crime. Eight of the top 10 states with the most crime are headed up by Republicans. Funny, he never talks about wanting to go into a state that has a Republican governor and taking over things. So it's very much aligned with his goal to snuff out Democratic opposition. From Trump's perspective, if you are Republican governor and you wear the MAGA hat and you say nice things about Donald, he doesn't care if there are 10,000 murders a day in your state or your city, go ahead, kill anyone you want. I don't care. You're on my team. But if you are a leader of a state or a city where there's a Democrat in power, he doesn't care if crime is plummeting, if it's lower than half the mega counties in the in the country, you're now high crime. It's dangerous. I'm taking over. Everybody wants me there. And it's just a thinly disguised attempt to stifle political dissent and to get rid of opposition. Yes, that is what fascists do. That is what Nazis do. It is what communists do as well. And increasingly, more and more people are noting that Trump is a hundred percent of what anti communists and anti socialists, I. E. Conservatives and libertarians have been screaming about for the last 60 years in America could happen. And now it has happened and it's happened under their watch. I'm TJ Walker. I want to thank you for joining me today. This is filtered with TJ Walker. Mark your calendars. We are officially launching. This is still the software launch stage. We are officially launching Tuesday. Not far off. September 2nd. So you can then listen to this on any podcasting platform as well as watch it. Thanks so much. See you tomorrow.