Rich Staying in NYC, Mexico’s Rise & Trump’s New Corruption Storm

New York's new democratic Socialist mayor was supposed to scare rich people out of Manhattan. Instead, luxury rents are soaring and the data says the billionaires are staying put. Then Mexico just quietly became not only America's top supplier, but its top customer. We'll look at what that really means for America. First, economics. In a tiny German speaking corner of Belgium, ordinary citizens are being drafted by lottery to write real laws. Is this what rescuing democracy looks like? Back here at home, Trump's love affair with Silicon Valley's AI barons is tearing open a rift with his own MAGA base will break down. Why? His voters are suddenly saying no thanks to the AI gold rush. And finally, a nursing home tycoon who stole tens of millions of dollars from taxpayers, serves three months, pays nearly a million to scandal plagued lobbyists, and walks away with a full Trump pardon while the president cashes in on crypto and foreign perks. All that and more to today on Filtered. Welcome to Filtered with TJ Walker. Hi and welcome. Thanks for joining me today. Lots of fun to come. We've got an action packed Sunday morning for you right here on Filtered. If you're new to the show, thanks so much for spending time with us here. We do appreciate it. My name is TJ Walker. Every day, seven days a week, I look at the top five business, technology and culture stories of the day and then filter them through the lens of communication skills and personal development skills, all with the goal of not only informing you about what's going on in the world, but making you better, more successful because your communication skills and personal development skills will help you in your professional life as well as your personal life. Let's dive right in. The rich are not fleeing Mandani's New York. According to USA Today, the great rich exodus from New York City was never anything more than right wing fairy tale mixed with realtor gossip. Since Zoran Mandani won the Democratic primary back in June, Manhattan rents have not gone up. They have gone up, rather not down. Overall, the median rent is up 7% to $4,600. In the luxury market, median rent jumped 20% to almost $12,000 a month. Median sales prices are up too, and luxury inventory is actually down 16%. As appraiser Jonathan Miller put it, if people were fleeing the city, prices would be falling. He calls the whole panic a FL false narrative, adding that the plural of anecdotal is not data, it's just more anecdotes. Even Donald Trump, who mocked Mandani as a little communist, walked it back after their White House Meeting saying we agree on a lot more than I would have thought. The data says it. Clearly, the rich are staying put. Okay, what's the real message here? If you bought into this myth that the rich are fleeing Manhattan because a socialist was taking over, you were a rube, you were a dupe. You fell for it. You became the pawn of right wing political interest who make their living by scaring you and the rest of the world that the sky is falling because commies are taking over. The rich are still in Manhattan and they're going to stay there. Let's dig a little bit deeper here. Now this is an interesting issue to me, having lived in New York City, having known a lot of people who left New York City. I left New York City not because of the political leadership of the city about 10 years ago. I left just because I was starting a family and wanted a house and more space. But this idea that everyone was going to flee Manhattan and here I am down in Florida where people were spreading this myth that the Mondami was the Florida realtor guy of the year, it's all just bs. So part of the premise of this show is to help you fine tune your BS detector. And I don't mean to besmirch an entire profession, but I gotta tell you, I've never yet met a real estate agent who was honest about, hey, you know what, this is not a good time. We're all sort of hurting. It's not a good time to buy a house, not a good time to sell a house. It's just blah, blah. They'll never ever admit that it's always, it's the best ever. And Florida real estate executives and brokers had this incentive to push this idea that, oh, everyone's going to come here, it's going to be great for Florida real estate. No, it's really not. Rupert Murdoch, conservative political interest, Republican interest, had a vested interest in scaring you into thinking that because Mannami uses this S word, the socialist word, as a part of his label, that crime was going to be rampant and everyone would be fleeing the city. And you know what? It's not happening yet. Could it happen? Sure. But here's the thing that people don't like to admit. And you're not going to hear conservative Republicans saying this, but if you're really rich, there's no place better in the United States to be than New York City. Sure, you might want your big mansion on the water in Palm Beach. Sure, you might want a mansion in Beverly Hills, but if you're really, really rich. And you got money to burn. There's no place better than New York City because they have more fancy, expensive restaurants than any other city in America. They have more fancy, expensive stores. I mean, just on a couple of blocks on Fifth Avenue, from about 56th street to 50th street, you've got every great retailer, every fancy boutique, every fancy fashion designer in the world. They're all there. And their 10, 20, $30,000 dresses are all there. So if you've got money to burn, you're going to spend time in New York City. Is there the occasional eccentric multi billionaire who just wants to live on the ranch like a hermit in Montana? Sure. But even most of those have a little place, a pied a terre, in New York City. They might not brag about it, but they do. So keep in mind, in American politics, it behooves one political party to constantly say that the other political party is too far left. And by left they mean socialist, and by socialist they mean communist. And by communist they mean Fidel Castro's Cuba, where everyone's walking around because they can no longer fix their 1957 Chevys with chewing gum. It suits. A political interest has no bearing in reality. The reality is there is a lively, active, democratic socialistic. You can use different words for it, but a democratic socialistic party in all the major G7 countries, all the major economies in the world, not to mention some smaller ones, they're fantastic places to live. If you've never been to Copenhagen, for example, or for that matter, if you've never been to France and you want to demonize socialism, it's never worked anywhere. You're a fool. You're an absolute ignorant fool. I'm sorry, I don't usually use words that harsh, but Paris is a great city in part because it's not always in power. It's not in power at the moment, but there's an active democratic socialist, left of center political party that has an impact on policies and takes some of the rougher edges off of capitalism. And the scare tactics of you can never have anything socialistic without completely ruining the economy and everyone's starving to death is just that. It's a scare tactic. Again, here's the test. Have you ever supported a public school? Guess what, you're a socialist. The Communist Manifesto called for public school, public funding in public schools before that was a thing. In the United States or elsewhere, if you've ever called for a public road, a public street where you didn't personally have to go hire a cement company or a contractor to build a road. You're for socialism. That's what public roads are. So it's time a lot of people grew up and realized in America, it's a laboratory of democracy. You can have centrist running things. You can have people right of center. You could sometimes have a libertarian. You could sometimes have someone left of center, sometimes a little bit further left. And the whole system doesn't collapse. It could still be a great country to live in. Let's look at some more of the facts. So I mentioned to you, in Manhattan, the Median rent is up 7% in the last few months. That's up to $4,600 a month. It sounds like a lot to you where you live. It is a lot of money. Having lived in Manhattan for a huge percentage, arguably a majority of my adult life, it's a lot of money. There's no doubt about it. I've had to pay more than that. The luxury rental market is up 20%. That's $12,000 a month. Now, you can make a case of, hey, Mandani said he was going to fix affordability. Seems like he's making it worse. If you want to make that case, you can. But don't kid yourself, that's not an argument that he's turning everything into such a horrible hellhole or all rich people are fleeing the city. It's just not true at the moment. Again, the last few months since Mandani won the Democratic nomination, it was obvious to all he was going to be the next mayor. Here's what we've seen. The luxury inventory is down 16%. That's right. The rich people are not selling their houses. They're not moving out. Rich New Yorkers move out at one quarter of the normal rate according to the most recent data from USA Today. So even Trump is saying that Mandani seems like he'll do a good job and he's pulling for him. Now, this guy, as we talked about yesterday on this program, he's got some kind of super mojo charm about him. He went into the White House earlier when last week on Friday. And everyone thought that Trump was going to treat him like Zelensky, treat him like the help and maybe spit on him or give him a broom and say, get out of here. He didn't do that. They acted. They were best bros. He certainly acted a lot more affectionate Jordan Bandani than he did J.D. vance. And that's not an observation for me. That's an observation from Brian Kilmeade of Fox News. So As I said, look, I'm not always right about politics. I didn't predict a year ago that Mandati would be the next mayor of New York City. But I did predict how this hysteria of all the rich people are going to flee New York City if this democratic socialist gets elected. That, that was just hype. That was just political clap trap designed to manipulate and fool you and get clicks and get views and get hysteria. And thus far I've been proven correct. Could I be wrong? Could we see the most massive spike in crime ever in New York City and everyone leave? It's possible. If so, I will report that to you and I will deliver a mea culpa if somehow it can be traced back to this guy. But again, let's not forget he's keeping the police commissioner that all the conservatives like a really, really rich white woman, an heiress that everyone seems to think has done a great job as the police commissioner in the previous administration where wild crime has gone down. He's keeping her. Is he firing thousands of police officers? No. Is he going to the Rikers Island? Is he going to the city jails with a key, opening it and saying hey everybody, I'm in, you're free now? No, he's not doing that. So I'm not here to tell you he's going to be a huge success or that his policies are the best ones. I personally don't embrace a socialistic label. I personally don't think that city owned grocery stores are really the best way to help. But I'm going to give it to you honestly and call it like I see it and not just follow partisan claptrack that we've seen so far regarding everything around this guy. People got to chill out sometimes. The second you hear the S word, the socialistic word, a lot of people just their brains shut off and they go absolutely crazy and insane. And yet those people, if you ask them, do you ever enjoy traveling and have you enjoyed going to Switzerland or France or Denmark? Oh yeah, great, wonderful places. And they're not connecting the dots. All of those places have huge socialistic politicians running things from time to time and influencing policies and it did not in fact ruin their economy. Okay, on to more economic matters in just a moment. Want a shortcut to powerful communication skills? Download the TJ Walker Success Library. Five of my best selling books for Omar, only 9.95. Go to tjwalker.com books instant access. Big impact. I've had entire YouTube channels wiped out overnight. So if you enjoy this show, don't Lose track of me. The Safest way is my newsletter substack.com jwalkersuccess Sign up for free and you'll get exclusive commentary, live session alerts, and first access to new tools. Again, that's substack.com just search for TJ Walker or go to substack.com J WalkerSuccess your direct line to everything I do. Okay, we are back. Thanks so much for joining me. Issue 2 Mexico is now America's most important customer. Believe it or not, according to the New York Times, Mexico isn't just the top supplier to the United States anymore. It has now become America's number one buyer as well. From January through August, US exports to Mexico slightly topped exports to Canada, about $226 billion versus 225 billion, an historic first. Economist Alfonso Munoz calls this an inflection point, saying there is very high complementarity between the economies of Mexico and the United States. Mexico's growing middle class is buying everything from US Meat and cereals to fuel, iron and steel. This is all happening even as Donald Trump's global tariffs slow overall trade. Canada has taken more tariff hits while Mexico keeps its special carve outs. Because the simple reality is this North American supply chains now run a straight line through Mexico as Mexico's economy, economy, excuse me, the economic head, their economy minister, Marcelo Abraham, put it. Mexico is the the United States main trading partner. So what's the real message here? So many Americans are still in this mindset of Mexico. Oh, that's where people are just swimming across the Rio Grande to come take our stuff. No, they are our number one trading partner. They are buying our stuff. They are our best customers. We need to start treating them with the respect that they truly deserve. Let's go a little bit deeper here and look at some of the facts because it's so. I encounter this all the time with people I know. They think of Mexico, they think of oh, Tijuana, I can go get drunk, I can go to Cozumel for vacation, I can go to a beach somewhere because everything is cheap. Or they think of people, oh, that's who's going to pick our grapes. There's a lot more to Mexico than that, folks. They are extraordinarily significant to the supply chains of America. And that's really the problem with this idea of we're going to be tough on everyone and put up all these barriers. We're only hurting ourselves. It's extraordinary, extremely rare to find any so called American made, US made automobile that doesn't have parts from Mexico or partial assembly in Mexico and vice versa. When you say let's be tough on Mexico, what you're really doing is saying let's be tough on American jobs because Americans are employed in large part because of Mexican consumers. It sounds strange to the ear, but if you look at the data, it's right there. Let me share with you a few more data points. So, so I mentioned the US exports to Mexico hit about $226 billion. Mexico is now more significant than Canada is our biggest export market. It's our top foreign customer for US Farm products. You think you're all American and you're all about helping the farmer. Well, guess what? Americans are not eating all the food grown in the United States. We're selling it to people of Mexico and they're buying it and they're eating it. So please, please keep that in mind. U.S. oil and gas firms sell huge volumes of their product to Mexico. U.S. drivers rely on Mexican made cars, parts and electronics. About half of America, half. That's a huge percentage of fresh fruits and vegetables come from Mexico. Now I live in a part of the world here in South Florida where a lot of fresh fruit and vegetables are grown, but we get so much more even from Mexico. They are the top source for autos and auto parts right now. Millions and millions of US jobs are dependent on a free flow back and forth from Mexico. So this idea that they're awful, they're just takers, let's spend billions of dollars building a wall to keep them out. Maybe it's time to reconsider some of these assumptions based on erroneous information. Remember, Mexico, not China, now anchors many U.S. supply chains. So Mexico, you're a valued trading partner. You're extraordinarily significant. I hope to spend more time. I've had a great time every time I've been there. I've been there for work, I've been there for vacation. I need to practice on mi espanol. Mi espanol esmalissimo. Perdone. But I'm trying to get better because it is in fact a great place. Let's take a few comments from those of you nice enough to stop by. Game writes in hello friend. I love your streams. It's so amazing. I'd love to join you and give great support as a loyal fan. Thank you so much. I really appreciate that. Gamemn09 if you do want to help, I would urge you please go to your favorite podcasting platform and number one, subscribe or follow. It's a little bit different wording whether you're on Spotify or Apple podcast or itunes or Amazon Music. But please follow or subscribe on any podcast platform and please leave a review if you are watching on YouTube or TikTok or any other video platform. Same thing. Please subscribe. Please like the video? Leave a comment Sign up for notifications it's extraordinarily helpful. I'd like to join your your stream. Can you add me on Discord now? We have started going on Discord as well I believe so. We're trying to do that. I don't know how to do it, but we'll certainly look into that. Currently we stream this show on all major social media platforms. We are live and on demand for YouTube, LinkedIn, X Twitter. We were on Instagram and somehow got booted last. We're trying to get on as of today. We are now streaming live on Substack. So hello to my Substack friends if you're joining us from there today. And on a special feed just for my friends on TikTok we're streaming there. So thanks so much for reaching out. I appreciate that and great for you to stop by. Okay, let's switch over. We're going to talk about an interesting an interesting new twist going on in democracy because let's face it, there's a lot of different styles of democracy in the world. We're going to head on over to Belgium and look at some of their innovations in a moment. Filtered is brought to you by the following Want to advertise here? You better be legit. No crypto, no junk food, no supplements. Go to tjwalker.com advertise want to become a better speaker, leader or communicator? Start with the TJ Walker Success Library. It's five of my most practical books covering everything from public speaking to media interviews and persuasive messaging, all for only $9.95. Since I've trained presidents and Fortune 500 CEOs and now you can get the same wisdom in a fast, affordable format. Go to tjwalker.com books and download your copies instantly. Thanks for listening. If you like today's episode, you'll love my online courses@mediatrainingworldwide.com check them out now and level up your your skills. Can a tiny Belgian region Rescue Democracy? In eastern Belgium, a small German speaking region called Ost Belgian is running a quiet experiment in fixing democracy by literally handing power back to ordinary people. According to the times, about 30 residents are chosen by lottery each year. Truck drivers, teachers, lab Assistants to sit in citizens assemblies that advise parliament on real policies like health, housing, education and retirement. They meet on Saturdays, get a modest stipend, hear from experts, and then draft concrete recommendations. Some of these ideas have already become law. A full cell phone ban in middle and high schools, looser rules for low income housing, more say for families in assisted living centers, and incentives for young people to go into nursing. Participants say the process transforms them. One woman said her political Life went from 0 to 100. Another was inspired to run for office. It's not perfect, but it's making people believe in government again. Okay, so what's the real message here of this experiment in Belgium? It's that there's more than one way to have a democracy. And we already have jury pools that are pulled randomly and people are given power to make decisions. We don't have to do that just for judicial issues. We can also do it without actual public policy. Get people together, let them hear all the experts and competing factions and then take a vote. It would probably end up with much better policy than what we have today. Let's dig a little deeper here. I've long been a proponent of the idea of essentially having juries decide major public policy issues. The reason for that is if you ask people, where do you have your most faith in American government? People, even when your guy is in power in the White House, very few people really trust the president or the executive branch to truly make decisions that are in the best interest of the long term of Americans. There's too many competing interests of, hey, I can line my pocket selling this, selling this pardon as we're seeing these days. Forget about the long term impact of letting a murderer or con artist down on the streets. If you are in the legislative branch, it's so easy to say, I could vote for this way to regulate this particular scam drug that isn't going to help people. But I need their campaign contribution. So I'm going to say yes, let's keep things the way they are. So if you're an elected official running for office, you've got to worry about a couple of things. You've got to worry about voting the way that rich, powerful interests want, so they give you money to run your campaigns and you've got to vote in a way that diffuses the anger of really, really organized special interest group like people who think that, you know, every five year old needs to have a gun and you can't have any regulations on guns. A jury pool wouldn't have to take any of those things into consideration. You could in fact create a community, a city, a state, arguably parts of a country where you have power reside in actual jury pools. You can have citizens sign petitions to propose a law, and then rather than having it just voted on by all the citizens, because the problem there is whoever has the most advertising is going to win. You can have that proposed law go in front of a nonpartisan body to rewrite it in some kind of a neutral way, and then allow individuals, people and experts to. To essentially give presentations to a jury pool. And maybe they're there for a week, maybe they're there for two weeks, and they never have to do it again. But I believe if you brought together 12Americans, average people, and said, okay, we're going to create a healthcare system from scratch, and you're going to listen to everybody player involved. You're going to listen to consumer advocates, you're going to listen to the insurance industry, you're going to listen to the largest HMOs, you're going to listen to surgeons, you're going to listen to average citizens, and you're then going to vote on a system that will save the United States the most amount of money and create the highest level of health care to make the most number of people happy and do things that respect our systems of government and our economy. I think that you could do that and you would end up with something radically different from what we have now. Now, an honest person could disagree over what the best policy is, but I can tell you right now, there's one policy that nobody who's really active in our political scene today considers. They talk about it a little bit, but no one really gives a lot of thought to. If you could start over, how would you create something that is similar to how we take care of public schools or roads in America, or police departments? In fact, how could we have a government system that is more conservative than what we have now, meaning fewer tax dollars are spent and that has better results? And I believe if you actually did that, what you would find is a jury of your peers would say, well, I'm looking at what's happening in Canada and United States and Great Britain and Switzerland, and we want to have a system where we're not spending an extra $2 trillion for no reason. Let's model our system after countries, wealthy countries, wealthy G7 nations that spend on average $6,500 per person, not 13,000 a person. And they would then put together the system that makes that happen. I'll leave it to you to figure out what that is. We don't have time to get into a big debate. But my point is simply that I think this small town in Belgium is on something that empowering citizens to make decisions outside of court cases, outside of juries would be a wise thing because it's the only way of making decisions. Truly interesting of the commonwealth of the public. Because right now in our current system, every politician is conflicted. They got to worry about how can they pander to the richest, wealthiest interest to get enough money to run the campaign for next time. Or they have to think about not what 90% of the country would benefit from. They got to think about who who are the 2% that are the angriest, most vocal, who will make my life miserable if I don't give them what they want. A jury pool would not have to take that into consideration. So would it be hard to implement? Is it going to be implemented overnight? No. But before we give up on this whole concept of democracy, as more and more have been doing lately, I think it's time all of us get a little more creative about how we actually draw the lines, the contours of democracy. Because a lot of what we have now is just kind of random. It doesn't necessarily have to be that way. We could do more things decided by juries. I'm TJ Walker. Lots more to come. Stay tuned for issue four. Back in a moment. Whoops, I didn't hit the right button. Want to communicate like a Pro? Go to mediatrainingworldwide.com Millions have already transformed their speaking skills. Why not you? This show doesn't run on a lot of corporate sponsorships or big media backing. It runs on caffeine and your support. If you like what you're hearing and what to say, thanks. You can buy me a coffee. Really? Just go to buymeacoffee.com tjwalker it's quick, it's easy. And yes, it helps cover editing, hosting and staying relatively ad free for as long as possible. Buymeacoffee.com TJ Walker your 395 makes a real difference. One live coaching from me. Bonus episodes, full course access. It's all waiting@tjwalker.com members join now. Welcome back to Filtered Trump's MAGA Civil War over artificial Intelligence. President Trump is discovering there's one thing even MAGA voters don't want him to deregulate. It's artificial intelligence. According to the Washington Post, Trump has torn up Biden's AI safeguards, lifted limits on chip exports, fast tracked data centers and even explored an executive order to stop states from writing their own AI rules. He boasts that AI money is making the US Economy the hottest in the world. But Republican governors and Senators Ron DeSantis, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Josh Hawley, Spencer Cox and others are warning that Trump is siding with tech billionaires over working families. They're pushing state laws to protect jobs, kids, mental health and household utility bills from an AI gold rush that serves investors first. Half of American adults now say they're more worried than excited about AI. Trump's problem is simple. His base hears AI Boom. And thinks not of stock prices, but of their kids, their jobs, and their power bills. Okay, so what's really going on and what's the real message? There is a growing divide between what Trip, let me start that over again. By the way, this part, I'm not reading a teleprompter. This is me talking. But I do like to have a nice clean start because my editing team often pulls these out for shorts on TikTok and YouTube. So for those, let's go behind the scenes a moment. For those of you new to the show, I read teleprompter script to set up the basic fading of each story. About 30, 40 seconds. Then I extemporize. But typically what I do, after I've laid out the facts, I try to drill down to what I think is the most important point in a concise way so that it can be used in short form video. Because that's the way people like to consume ideas. If they don't want to listen to me talk for an hour and a half in the daily podcast. So that's what I'm trying to do. And we don't edit this show, we don't do retakes. But I'll occasionally say, ah, I messed up. I'm going to do that again. So that is what we're going to do right now. Okay, what's the real message here? There is a growing divide between how Trump views artificial intelligence and not regulating it, and how the Republican base all over the country wants strong AI regulation. Republican senators and governors are saying we want the right to tell AI they can't come here and make our average citizen see their electricity bills triple. We want the right to not subject our teenage girls and boys to non stop pounding away of slime and porn and filth ruining their brains. Let's go a little bit deeper here. It's fun to say regulation is bad. The private sector is always superior. Government is always bad. That's a message that historically was the Republican message, the conservative message. And Donald Trump changed that. When he first entered the national scene, he radically changed the Republican Party position. He was no longer railing against Social Security, that was considered the welfare state among many conservatives. He kind of scrapped that. He no longer said, we got to get rid of all Medicare. He didn't bash that. He actually ran on the idea of having an extensive safety net in our country. He did legitimately change the ideological infrastructure of the Republican Party. And they like that. They like the fact that actual voters like that. The lobbyist at libertarian think tanks in Washington didn't like it, but average voters did like that. Turns out they like government intervention to help them with big problems. And now we see this administration saying basically, whatever Elon Musk wants. You know, we get in fights with them occasionally. But whatever he wants, he, he gets. Whatever Jeff Bezos wants, he gets. Whatever Mark Zuckerberg wants, he gets. Because they got the money. That's why they're sitting behind me at the inauguration and you aren't. That's why they are at all the black tie balls. And you are. They got the money. So that is seemingly what's been guiding Trump and his rollbacks of all AI regulation that happened under his predecessor. Let's look at some more of the facts. Half of US adults are more concerned than excited about artificial intelligence these days. The concern has gone up from 37% in 2021 to 50% today. DeSantis, the Republican governor of Florida, has said federal AI preemption is as bad as pandemic mask mandates. And boy, did he not like those. So there's a big divide over here with artificial intelligence. The other problem is many cases. So all these AI companies and building the chips and all of that, it uses massive, massive energy. When I use chat GPT, it's using lots and lots of energy. So the whole tech field is having to build these server farms and it's sucking up energy like crazy. Like any other supply demand situation, there's more demand for energy. The price is going up. So if you are a normal human being and let's say you work as a school teacher, let's say you're a Republican school teacher in a high school in Des Moines, Iowa, and you make $57,000 a year, and let's say your family income is $100,000 a year, if you're used to having electricity bills that are $190 a month, and now a server farm comes in from some big tech company, no real jobs. Once it's built, they come in, they're using so much electricity and your energy bill now goes to $300 a month. You're sitting there scratching your head saying, wait a minute, why am I essentially getting taxed by this big AI company that's run by billionaires? My income didn't go up, my cost went up. So the actual rank and file, not just Republicans, but independent, centrist, non aligned Democrats around the country are in favor of, of more regulation of artificial intelligence. And the Trump administration isn't. So it's causing a bit of a schism. Let's look at some more of the facts in the situation. State Republicans call unchecked AI a new wild west that they want to regulate. So there's a division between local, state legislators, governors and what's happening in Washington. Some conservative strategists say it's a quote, a small cabal of tech bros driving Trump's AI agenda. So that's not just AOC or liberals or MSNBC saying, it's conservatives saying that. And they are worried about it. Now a Yale study finds no clear labor disruption yet. But CEOs do worry, warn of job cuts. Data firms are getting special treatment. Data firms are getting fast track data centers and nuclear backed power deals. So if you want to just build a home, a new home in your community, quite often in the United States you have to go through months and months and months of filling out forms, appeals, showing up at hearings. Some cases you got to hire a lobbyist just to build a home. And three years later you build a home. Meanwhile, boom. Sam Altman wants to build a gigantic Data center that's 20 times bigger than a football field. And that's going to be up, you know, before the next season starts. That's going to be up in 90 days, or at least it seems like that. So a lot of people, rightfully so, are resentful at how, of how we are essentially moving into a two tiered society. There's what big tech bros want and there's what everyone else gets. And increasingly we are seeing a winner take all economy where it's not enough for Elon Musk to become a billionaire, something that was crazy a generation ago. It's not enough for him to get 50 or $100 million paydays, but now he's got to have a trillion dollars. Meanwhile, the average American is saying, I got $200 in my savings account. What happens if I get a flat tire and it costs $300? And this is happening in all political parties in the United States. So we're seeing this divide. The other issue revolves around things like pornography and these creepy, creepy chatbots that are trying to lure your 18 year olds into marrying them or your 16 year olds, these relationships. There's a lot of creepy stuff going on with AI and a lot of Republicans are saying, you know what, we simply don't want to hand over all the power to the executive branch who's just going to let big tech do whatever they want. So it's an interesting thing. The AI czar is the investor, David Sachs, who's a billionaire. He kind of calls the shots. I don't think David Sachs is worried and I don't know about his family. I don't think he's worried about his children losing jobs. He's already a billionaire. But to most other Americans, an interesting character is the Republican considers himself a conservative. Governor of Utah, Spencer Cox, he's warned, tech has already destroyed our children's mental health. There's absolutely nothing preventing Congress and the executive branch from imposing harsher restrictions on the kind of filth that Facebook and all the other social media platforms are showing kids. And yet the best thing to do if you're a politician is to say, well, I don't see anything giving more cash. I don't see anything giving another campaign contribution. And it's causing a real divide in our country. Let's see what you say. Legan writes in Don't Care for parties. Just be nice to other humans and the world will be better. Certainly we can all be nice to better humans. And that does relate to one of the issues we're going to see in the grab bag portion of the show today, which is an administration official in charge of air flights is telling us all to be nicer on planes and not show up in our pajamas. So I certainly think people being more human is. And being nicer is a great thing. However, you can't really organize a government around that. It does take coalitions. Whether you want to call it a party or something else, you have to. In a democracy, you have to persuade people. Here's an idea. I think it's going to be the best thing. Will you join me? And whether you call it a party or something else, there has to be a centralized way of getting things organized. That's why I frankly never find it particularly interesting to vote for an independent. Not because I don't like independents. I consider myself a sane, sensible centrist. But when you look at the few times independents get elected, one of two things happen. They end up being someone like a Jesse Ventura who ran as a big independent, former professional wrestler, a guy who came across really well on Larry King and talk shows, but then he got into office. What did he accomplish? Absolutely nothing. Now other times you see people run as independents like Angus King of Maine, but they caucus with one political party and they're very active and they're a part of coalitions and they do get a lot done. But they are working within the political system. They are independent of, really in name only. I'm TJ Walker. Thanks for joining me today. We'll be back in just a moment with sort of the definition of non independence, specifically about the growing corruption in our own United States government. We'll be right back after this break. Want more? Grab my five book success library for $9.95 at TJ Wall Street. It's the fastest way to level up your communication. Imagine being the most confident person in the room, whether you're on Zoom or on stage. That's what thousands of professionals are learning to do right now. Through my online communication courses at Media Training Worldwide, you can access my complete training library on demand. Affordable and actually effective. Whether you're preparing for media interviews, client presentations or TED style talks, I've got you covered. Check it out mediatrainingworldwide.com you'll never wing it again. Want to advertise here? You better be legit. No crypto, no junk food, no supplements. Go to tjwalker.com Advertisement welcome back to filtered pardons for sale in Trump's America. According to the Washington Post, this is how justice works in Trump's second term. In April, New Jersey U.S. attorney Elena Abba celebrated the three year sentence of nursing home magnet Joseph Schwartz for defrauding the government of $38 million in payroll taxes. Within weeks, Swartz paid nearly $960,000 to lobbyist Jack Berkman and Jacob Wall, specifically, quote, seeking a federal pardon. Schwartz's nursing home empire had already collapsed, disrupting care for thousands of residents and employees. He pleaded guilty, admitted wrongdoing in court, and still owed millions in restitution and fines. Justice Department guidelines say pardons are normally considered only five years after a sentence is completed. Yet after serving barely three months, Swartz received a full and unconditional pardon from Donald Trump, overhauling his own Justice Department's earlier recommendation and reinforcing the sense that in this White House, clemency is a luxury good for those who can afford it. Okay, what's the real message here? Once again, the Trump administration has put a for sale sign on the front of the White House. And it's blatantly the most corrupt White House administration in the history of this country. The sad thing is they're not even pretending it's not corrupt. It's basically walking around with dollar signs and your handout saying you want something, you want a favor, heck, you want to murder somebody. You pay us enough money, all your problems will go away. This is madness. Let's dig a little bit deeper here because this is permeating every aspect of this administration. Now you might expect that your Democrats would be upset, so called liberals, the do gooder watchdog groups, but this is wildly offensive to conservatives who believe in the rule of law, because this is showing the absolute decay, the, the ending of the rule of law in America. It's not a rule of law if you can break any law you want, write a check to the administration and get out of jail free. It's just not. And unfortunately, with so many other crazy things going on every single day, with so much corrupt, with tearing down the White House, with caving into Russia essentially being a Russian pawn, with so many atrocities, with calling reporters, hey, shut up piggy. With so many affronts to basic dignity, things like this just get lost. The media becomes numb to this entire situation and it's frankly bizarre. Let's check in on a few more facts here. This guy Schwartz, again, he defrauded the government of $38 million in payroll taxes and it looks like he paid about a million dollars to. So I'm really, really sleazy lobbyist. Don't even get me started about Jack Berkman. I've been on political debate shows with him before and I wanted to take a shower after being around this guy. And I wasn't even in the same city or the same room with him. And this is where the money's being funneled in. Who knows how much other cash had to go to various sources, whether it's Trump family members or. I don't have evidence for that. But one, one doesn't have to be that creative or cynical to imagine how another million dollar check went to some library or bought a certain Trump meme coin at a time when it was alerted to the owners of the Trump meme coins. What kind of a message is this? You can steal $38 million and if you give 2 million back, let's say a million to the lobbyist for one and a million and buying a meme coin, that's about the best rate of return I can imagine. Any business person who cares just about money would say, I'll do that all day long. I can take 38 million dollars. I only have to give 2 million back. Forget 38 million, how about 38 trillion? I love those odds. That is, that is just naked, naked corruption. That's pay to play. And you're not even playing that much. You're just getting a complete windfall. That's not pay to play, that's paying to steal. That's just a protection racket. Okay, I'll give you 2%, maybe 5% of my profits if I can just steal from you unlimited amounts of money. Or rather I should say stealing from the public. That's really what's happening. And again, you're probably not even going to hear about this story because if you give one questionable pardon one time, people can talk about it for years. People are still talking about the Mark Rich pardon that happened in the last days of the Clinton administration. But no one's going to be talking about this in the Trump administration. Why? Because it's now a daily occurrence when corruption happens every single day and people are like, sure, I took the money. It kind of loses the capacity to generate outrage. It doesn't stand out. It's not anything different. But it is something different. It is a complete destruction of democratic norms in our society. It's a destruction of the rule of law. And folks, this is not a, this is not a liberal, conservative thing. That's what gets me is the automatic position, well, if you dare criticize selling a pardons automatically, you're a part of the radical left. I mean, that has been the spin of this administration. No, I'm a sane, sensible centrist and this offends me. There are numerous conservatives, there are numerous people who serve this country with distinction in the Reagan administration, other Bush administrations who find this wildly, wildly offensive. And yet we see the White House just spinning this as, oh, these people are letting off. They were victims of an out of control Biden Department of Justice. Nobody really believes that. And the message is clear. If you want to be someone with dark skin and you steal a candy bar from a 7 11, wow, we're going to come down hard on you. We're going to deport you. Even if you are a citizen, we're going to throw you in the slammer forever. But if you have white skin and you commit white collar crime, more importantly, steal as much as you want, take what you want, be my guest. Maybe leave something in the tip jar for us. Steal what you want. It reminds me of the old Eddie Murphy skit. From one of his early years on Saturday Night Live, where he and his friends, who are all black, dress up as white people and they go through a typical day of what they think it's like to be a white person in Manhattan. And everywhere they go once there's only white people around, everyone's telling Eddie Murphy, hey, take what you want. Don't pay for that newspaper. You crazy. Just take it. He goes to a bank and the bank manager says, take as money as you want. You don't need any references, you don't need collateral. Just take what you want. Now, that's obviously a joke, at least it was at the time. But in, in this administration, maybe not. You know, first term pardons went to kind of a who's who of cronies and corrupt sleazebags. Joe Arpeo, Danish d', Souza, one of the most despicable demagogues in the history of this country. Michael Flynn, Paul Manafort, Roger Stone, Steve Bannon, Charles Kushner, Blackwater contractors, that's one thing. But now, the way basically anyone who steals money but gives him a piece back is getting pardons. It's absolutely overwhelming. And unfortunately, the biggest act of corruption is this. Starting businesses as president, this World Liberty financial tokens, these NFTs pushed by the White House. What that means is someone could say, hey, I want a pardon. And, and at 1201, I bought $10 million of your. Of your NFT or your wife's NFT. Nobody knows the name, but I'm telling you, it's me. And it's going to happen exactly 1201 in two seconds. And you can verify it, okay? It's obviously their money. They put money in my pocket and it's just every single thing is corrupt. Don't even get me started about the Qatar Royal Family giving him a 747. A 747 worth more than $400 million, which is not for him, and it'll go to his Trump library when he leaves. What was wrong with the way Ronald Reagan did things? For that matter, Richard Nixon. Richard Nixon once had to apologize for accepting a cloth coat for his wife. Boy, those were quaint days. But whether you consider yourself a conservative, a centrist, a liberal or a moderate, whether your favorite political figure in the past was Obama or Reagan or Nixon or Eisenhower, it never in a million years would have occurred to them to just say, oh, I'll take a half a billion dollar jet. Oh, someone wants to give me a million dollars for a pardon. Sure, what's the catch? It just wouldn't have occurred to them. This is just wholesale rank corruption that the country has never seen before. I hope it never sees again. The problem, of course, is will there be a country left after everything has been sold to the highest bidder? That's what's hard to really tell at this point. Okay, we got to move on to our grab bag section of the show today. I do want to thank all of you for joining me again. If you're new to the show, this is called Filtered with TJ Walker. I look at the top business, economic, technology and culture stories of the day filtered through the lens of communication skills and personal development skills, all with the goal of helping you become more successful in your own personal life. Let's take a look at the first grab bag issue today. According to the Washington Post, AOC Alexandria Ocasio Cortez has quietly turned herself from a one race social media phenomena into one of the most powerful players in Democratic politics. She's built her own fundraising machine, helped elect everyone from democratic socialists like Zoran Mandani to centrists like Abigail Spanberger. And now she's openly weighing whether her next move is a Senate challenge to Chuck Schumer or potentially even a 2028 presidential run. She still polarizes the country, but inside the party, donors, activists, and even old skeptics now treat her as as a future standard bearer, not a passing fad. Okay, sometimes someone will burst on the scene. They get a lot of attention. Boy, Sarah Palin really did that in 2008. But then they kind of flame out. You realize there's no there there. They were kind of a one trick pony. AOC is past that. She has interjected herself into every major political debate of our times in the last half a dozen years that she's really been on the scene. She has a strong fervent base. Is she considered too far to the left to really win a major race like the presidency in a country where the Electoral College really skews things towards small rural states and more conservative voters? That's still undecided at this point. But what I don't think is undecided is her political star power. We live in a new era, like it or not. Donald Trump proved that in 2015 when he entered the race, 2016 when he became when he won the presidential election in 2017 when he became president. He's shown there's a new calculus in American politics and it's about who can get attention most attention, number one. Number two, he also showed that the more haters you are, the more people who hate you, detest you, despise you. In some ways, that only makes you more powerful because that makes your own base love you more. Well, AOC has that. She has seen to many in the country, certainly those who watch Fox News regularly read the New York Post. She's seen as crazy, as insane, as beyond the pale. Just mentioning her name, endorsing something is considered enough to end the argument. You know who that reminds me of? How many people say, well, just because Donald Trump is for something, it's automatically bad, and that ends the case. Well, they both understand we're past the days of you try to be milquetoast and try to appeal to every faction and cobble together coalitions. No, sometimes you have to really paint a very strong, vivid narrative of what you think is right and what you think is wrong. I personally do not think she would be the strongest Democratic candidate to run for president if it were against someone like J.D. vance. But you know what? I didn't think Donald Trump would be the strongest candidate for the Republicans in 2016 or in 2024. We're going to forget about 2020 for the moment. I didn't think he would be the strongest candidate because his negatives were so high. Because at any given time, more than 40% of Americans back then and now despised Donald Trump. And yet he's gotten a major party's presidential nomination three times in a row. He has won the presidency twice, and he's won the popular vote once, all while being hated and despised by more than 40% of the country. So the fact that AOC has very high negatives can't, if we're being honest here, cannot be seen as a disqualifier for running for president and possibly winning. My question for her would be, does she want to be a senator? And does she want to beat. Does she want to go after Chuck Schumer? It's fun to knock Senator Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader from New York, and he's been around a long time. He's old, he's been in politics. He's been in elective office since the 70s. And there are some who feel like he's out of touch. But in my experience, anyone who's ever run against Chuck Schumer has lived to regret it. Anyone who has discounted his political acumen has realized I was wrong. The guy's pretty smart, he's pretty shrewd. So it's going to be tough to beat Chuck Schumer for anyone. Could she possibly do It. Yes. Are Democrats just ready for new faces? Yes. So, speaking of new faces, let me just be honest here. Again, I'm here as a sane, sensible centrist. I'm not running for political office. So I will be honest with you. Part of her appeal, AOC's appeal, is she's really good looking. Sorry if that offends anyone. Am I saying that she should be what decides political life? No, but I'm telling you, it's true. She is very attractive. She's good looking, she's young, and by 20, 28, she would be old enough to run for President. I mean, she was only in her late 20s when she got elected to Congress, but she's been there a while, time passes on, and she's proven herself to be a quick learner, to not just be a firebrand. She's shown she is here for the long run, cares about affecting policy, has formed effective coalitions. She actively endorsed the centrist Abigail Spanberger, one of the new, recently centrist Democratic governors. So she's not someone who says, I only want people who agree with me 100% of the time. She's shown that she's effective at working with coalitions. So I think she has a lot of options. She could run for the Senate, possibly win. She could run for president and possibly win. Now, to many Democratic strategists, it sounds crazy. They're saying, look, T.J. the Republican Party, you can be far right conservative, you can be more extreme because of the tilt of the Electoral College. Any Democrat, if they want to become president, has to essentially appeal to 53% of the population. Of the population. Which means you have to get every liberal vote, every far left vote, but you have to get basically every centrist vote, and you have to get 3% of American voters who consider themselves to the right of center because of the Electoral College, because of how electoral votes are apportioned by states, some of them very rural and small and conservative. Therefore, how do you have someone perceived as a part of the far left appealing to 3% of voters who are right of center? I think the only response to that is most voters in America do not really position themselves along an ideological spectrum. They're not looking at the world through an ideological lens the way pundits do and the way news analysts do. And if she picks the right issues, she's clearly a great communicator. She's great at social media, she's great on camera. If she were to get the nomination, anything could happen. Certainly if we have someone like J.D. vance running and who would have the baggage of perhaps a horrible economy, perhaps high inflation, perhaps high unemployment. In that case, you could make the case that any Democrat who wins the nomination could win. So I think anyone who's serious about American politics and who cares about future leadership is going to have to continue to pay attention to what this young woman AOC is doing, because she does attract attention. Okay, let's move on to the next issue. Pajama shaming instead of passenger rights. The New York Times reports that Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has launched a glossy golden age of travel civility campaign, scolding passengers about manners and even what they wear to the airport. In a retro style PSA with Frank Sinatra on the soundtrack, Duffy urges Americans to stop wearing pajamas on planes, to say please and thank you, and to help stow bags. What he doesn't highlight, he just scrapped a proposal that would have forced airlines to compensate travelers for major carrier caused disruptions. So passengers are still on their own when flights melt down, but at least they're being lectured to dressed up for the privilege. Okay, let me be fair here. I think Sean Duffy telling people, let's just be polite on the airline. It does bother me when I see almost anytime I travel someone yelling at the attendant at the ticket booth about the fact that their flight is canceled, as if the person making $40,000 a year selling the tickets is in control of the weather 2,000 miles away. That does offend me that so many people feel that they need to yell, scream, show anger to people who clearly are trying their best and have no impact on the weather, with the weather being the number one predictor other than government shutdowns of what slows down your flight. So I'm all in favor of him talking about let's be polite at the airport. And frankly, I do think it's kind of weird seeing people show up in their pajamas at flights. But you know what? They might not like what I wear. Some of you don't like what I'm wearing right now. That's okay. But people in their pajamas wearing their slippers seems weird. But young kids these days especially, they wear pajamas to school. So styles can change the broader issue of do we need more civility in the airways in an airport? Yes. The big problem, of course, is Sean Duffy is very happy to praise his boss, who is perhaps the most uncivilized person not just to ever hold the White House, but to live in America. Today you have this administration led by Donald Trump saying to reporters, shut up, piggy. Talking to a reporter, asking legitimate, honest Question. You've got this administration and I don't know why I'm being so polite. Donald Trump, anyone who disagrees with him, he calls him a liar, he calls them fat, he calls them ugly. And believe me, him calling other people fat pot, meat kettle and nasty, vile names, making fun of people with mental deficiencies, making fun of anyone who is maybe shorter than he is or hasn't had as many thousands, tens of thousands of scalp reduction surgeries. I mean, this guy's constantly being uncivilized and uncivil and just nasty in his dealings with everyone, not just people on the street, not just Rosie o', Donnell, who he says is a fat pig, but saying, okay, you Democrats who served the military, unlike Trump, who are reminding soldiers this week that they have a right and a duty and an obligation to say no to any order that is asking them to do something illegal, he's saying they should be put to death. That doesn't sound very civil to me. Oh, you disagree with me. You want a state law, but because I don't like it, I'm going to say you should get the death penalty. That's not civil. So it's a bit thick. It's a bit rich to have a high ranking administration official. As Sean Duffy is lecturing people about being civilized when he seems to be more than happy to work for a guy who has done more to lower discourse to make American culture uncivil than anyone in the history of this country. If he really wants to make things more civil, he should stand up to his boss and say, hey boss, stop calling people piggy. Stop with a name calling. Why don't you go back to a more civilized time and refer to people you work with or that you disagree with or political adversaries the way Nixon did or Reagan or Bush or Clinton or Obama did. For whatever their flaws were, it wasn't a problem with them treating people with basic civility when they disagree. That was not a problem. Now Sean Duffy wants to dress people. I will say I've never ever seen this guy on tv. And he's on TV a lot where he wasn't the most perfectly groomed person. He makes a TV network anchor look like a homeless guy. This guy, you'll never see the slightest wrinkle or crease in his shirt. His jacket, every hair is in perfect position. His skin is glowing. I mean, he really looks like he is doing part time work at the transportation office and full time work as a model for GQ magazine. So I guess he has a special interest in Having people dress up stylishly on flights. Something tells me he's not spending much time in the back row of coaches, though. Easier not to be wrinkled when you're not back there. Okay, our final grab bag issue of the day. Maga Media Civil War, Fuentes, Epstein in 2028. According to the wrap, right wing media using an outright knife fight over white nationalist Nick Fuentes, Jeffrey Epstein, and who gets to inherit MAGA once Trump is gone. Tucker Carlson's kid glove interview with Fuentes set off a wave of backlash from conservative figures like Ben Shapiro, Jonathan Goldberg, Levin, Mark Levin. I just find him so distasteful, I can't even pronounce his name correctly. But forgive me. And even the Wall Street Journal editorial board. At the same time, Marjorie Taylor Greene is trying to ride the Epstein file fight while Trump world scrambles to protect him from the fallout. All of this is really about 2028. JD Vance, Ted Cruz, Tucker Carlson, Shapiro and others carving out lanes in a post Trump right that looks more fractured and more extreme by the day. Now, all of this assumes, of course, that there is an election in 2028. I have been more on the doomer side of those things in the last six months. Those of you who are regular viewers, I've contended for a long time Trump will not leave this White House as long as he's alive. And I'm not wishing anyone ill health. The only admission he's ever made about a regret from his first term is leaving office. So politically, he's not looking nearly as strong as he used to be. And what we've seen in just the last week, where someone like a Marjorie Taylor Greene now feels fearless about standing up to him, I think is quite significant. And yet I still don't think he's going to willingly leave office. But I'll play along. More and more people are talking about 2028 possible presidential candidates on both major parties. I'll play along. Okay, so There is the J.D. vance, Ted Cruz, possibly Tucker Carlson, others looking at running for president. They're trying to figure out what's real, what isn't. Tucker Carlson has gotten a lot of heat for his bear hug, his snuggling up to Nick Fuentes, who, if you're not familiar with him, you know, look, a lot of people are too quick to call someone a Nazi or Nazi lover. This guy's literally a Nazi lover. He said so again and again and again. He loves Hitler. He thinks Hitler's been criticized unfairly. He denies the Holocaust. You know, sometimes there's A caricature of people just because you disagree, but sometimes it's based on a real thing. So Nick Fuentes is an anti Semite and essentially proud of it. And there are a number of people in the conservative movement who says, look, he speaks for a lot of voters. We have to be nice to him. It's a part of our coalition. There are other prominent conservatives who said, no, we don't want to get in bed with Nazis. Ben Shapiro, who is an orthodox Jew and a prominent and well respected conservative with a huge platform, is like, no, guys, that's not a part of our team. We don't want neo Nazis as a part of our team. So there's a tremendous, tremendous division there. J.D. vance is putting his cards on the table. He's clearly in the Tucker Carlson, Nick Fuentes groper section of the party. And he's just saying, oh, this is, you know, these kids being kids and don't clutch your pearls. And that's one faction. But there are others who were thinking, no, this, this can't go. National Review, which has been around since 1955, founded by William F. Buckley, is saying, now we got to look at what's going to happen after Trump, and we got to start policing ourselves a little better, get rid of some of these anti Semites. William F. Buckley famously refused to give space in the National Review to anyone who was an extremist, in his view, who espoused anti Semitic thoughts, people who are part of the John Birch Society. So he's given a lot of credit, I would argue, rightfully so, for putting together the modern conservative coalition and making it respectable and not seen as just a collection of cranks. But now William F. Buckley has been gone for more than a decade and others are trying to fill the void. Megyn Kelly has attacked Fuentes as the new blm, Black Lives Matter, sparking more invites. So she's attacking this guy, basically saying he's trying to put everything through the lens of race in the world, and that's a disaster. So the fighting has begun. To me, the more significant thing is a lot of Republicans who just a month ago were talking about, maybe tongue in cheek, that, okay, Trump 2028, he can run again. Even Steve Bannon's not talking about that as much anymore. I think more and more people are realizing this guy's really old. He's about to be 80. He's sounding less and less coherent all the time. He's becoming increasingly erratic. And maybe it's time we all admit we got to start planning for a post Trump political world. More in a moment with questions from you we'll end out our show as we always do, looking at top questions related to non news issues about communication skills and personal development. More in just a moment. Filtered is brought to you by the Want to advertise here? You better be legit. No crypto, no junk food, no supplements. Go to tjwalker.com advertise want to become a better speaker, leader or communicator? Start with the TJ Walker Success Library. It's five of my most practical books covering everything from public speaking to media interviews and persuasive messaging, all for only $9.95. I've trained presidents and Fortune 500 CEOs, and now you can get the same wisdom in a fast, affordable format. Go to tjwalker.com books and download your copies instantly. Thanks for listening. If you like today's episode, you'll love my online courses@media trainingworld.com check them out now and level up your skills. Welcome back to Filtered. It's time now to take questions from you. At the end of every show, I take one question that gets us away from the tedious details of the news of the day. We go a little bit deeper and I try to help you become more successful at what you do. So for those of you who don't know me, for the last 40 years I've circled the globe training presidents of countries, prime ministers, Nobel Peace Prize winners, billionaire fund managers, account executives, professional athletes on how to communicate effectively and how to have personal development habits to make them more successful. So I now share with you some of those tips and take your questions. I typically take questions from my actual students who've written into me. So this is a question from a student named King who is a student in my course, the Complete Storytelling Course for speaking and presenting. And the question is, what are some practical steps to ensure your presentation is ready ahead of time? This is key because you can be comfortable speaker, a confident speaker, someone who's a better than average speaker. If you wait until the last minute and then say, oh, I'm just better spontaneous, I'm going to wing it. You're going to fail. I've seen it happen a million times if you don't. And it can happen to anyone. I well remember the 1988 Democratic Convention in Atlanta, Georgia. I was at the convention and a young unknown governor named Bill Clinton stood up to give the keynote speech. He had not rehearsed enough. He had not rehearsed his timing and he bombed. People booed him they only applauded when he finally got off the stage. So you can have great gifts as a communicator, which Clinton did and does still have great gifts in that capacity. If you don't put enough time in preparing, you can still bomb. My recommendation is to follow the advice of another well known president, Ronald Reagan. He had a. He had a rule with his own speechwriters. When he was giving a major speech like the State of the Union, he had a rule where the speech had to be completely finished one week before the delivery date. That way he could read the speech out loud every night in the residency of the White House to get comfortable with the speech, to know it, to get familiar with it, to internalize it. He wasn't doing it to memorize it. He was still going to use a teleprompter. But he did it to build a comfort level with it and it helped him when he did give the speech, when he did read the teleprompter to sound just like he was having a conversation with you, it didn't sound canned and phony and stilted the way a lot of politicians do when they're reading a teleprompter. So King, that's my biggest piece of advice is give yourself a deadline. Whether it's a week in advance, two weeks in advance, or even 24 hours in advance, give yourself a specific deadline. But that's only a part of the, of the issue. The number one thing you've got to do is to practice on video. Use your cell phone, use one of these. You don't have an excuse of not rehearsing anymore. Here's what most people do when they think they're rehearsing. They finish the speech, maybe they print it out, maybe they keep it on an iPad and they're reading silently. Complete waste of time. Something can look good, reading can sound good in your mind. If you're reading it silently, but then you say it out loud, you realize, wow, that sounds kind of weird, sounds kind of cheesy, doesn't make sense. That's why you need to practice it out loud and you need to watch it on video. So I give a lot of different tips and principles in my more than 100 courses just on presenting skills and public speaking skills. But the most important, it relates to this issue. For your, for you, King, which is you've got to give yourself enough time to practice your presentation on video and review it and tweak it and do it again and again and again until you love what you see on video. Now, for some people, it only takes once and it's a three minute speech. You practice it once and you really, really love it. You're convinced you can't do it any better and you could, in theory really do that, you know, five minutes before your speech or six minutes before. You could practice it once, look at it once, love it, and you're ready to go. For most people, you're going to need more time than that. Now, let's talk about the real world. In the real world, people say, tj, great idea. I love it. Fantastic, Brilliant. You're a genius. I'd love to. I just gotta make some last little minute tweaks to my PowerPoint. And they're doing that at 2am the night before the speech. Oh, if I change the logo here and put it on the other side. If I change the purple to darker blue, that'll make it better. All this stuff is a complete waste of time and it's an excuse for you to delay the rehearsal. So that's the big challenge most people face in the real world, is they delay the rehearsal on video so you can start preparing your speech a year in advance. If you don't rehearse on video, you don't know how you sound or what you're putting out there. You could start your speech the day before, but if you're disciplined about it and you go from creating a PowerPoint slide or a script or a text and rewriting and editing to the actual rehearsal on video and review, you can do everything you need and wait till the day before. I wish you a lot of luck, King, in all of your presentations and I wish the best for everyone watching this show. I'm TJ Walker again. Please, if you like any part of this show, leave a review on any podcast platform or social media platform. Sign up for notifications and subscribe to the show. Thanks so much. See you tomorrow.