The Atlantic Current, Ep. 37: The Two Universes Of Donald Trump
Two stories about Kash Patel — one badly undercovered — highlight the two disconnected worlds Americans live in
Tull and Vince open with coverage of Kash Patel’s alleged exploits and errors as director of the FBI — but focus more closely on an interview Patel gave days later on Fox News. As Trump voters are fed an increasingly coordinated and aggressive narrative promising retribution and arrests of Democratic officials and leaders, the midterm elections loom. While the broader media touts ‘exclusives’ with the president and press conferences focus on negotiations with Iran, a dangerous undercurrent is flowing toward November.
Episode Links:
The Atlantic on Kash Patel And J. Edgar Hoover
Here is the article from Sarah Fitzpatrick in The Atlantic on Kash Patel’s activities as director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. While Tull may have taken some liberties with his description of the article, the subheading does sum up the story. “Kash Patel has alarmed colleagues with episodes of excessive drinking and unexplained absences.”
To be fair, FBI directors have been known to enjoy a drink. J. Edgar Hoover, the legendary director whose tenure lasted an astonishing 48 years, was a habitual drinker who, when told by his doctors to cut back, simply started ordering a single, enormous, martini. The Stork Club in New York reputedly had a special cocktail for Hoover, named the FBI Fizz, because he spent so much time there. This despite the fact that FBI agents under Hoover were not allowed to drink at all. (Rumors have swirled for decades that Hoover was also a cross-dresser, but most historians believe these to be false.)
Of course, standards may be different — in both ways. (And the Stork Club does seem preferable to the Poodle Room.) Patel’s use of FBI jets for personal travel, for instance, is essentially tolerated by most of his supporters inside and outside the administration. Yet as many critics have noted, in 1993 President Bill Clinton fired the director of the FBI for using government aircraft for personal trips, among other failings.
Patel’s alleged offenses seem to rise to a similar level, and the point of Fitzpatrick’s article is that they may at some point be enough for the current president to take similar action.
Some Republicans See It Coming
The belief that the current Republican Party is pushing a dangerous narrative now is shared by at least one of the party’s senators. Thom Tillis, who represents North Carolina, earlier this month set a ‘red line’ on confirming a replacement for Attorney General Pam Bondi, who departed on April 2. Tillis told CNN that “the threshold for somebody following Pam Bondi ends the moment I hear they said one thing that excused the events of January the 6th.”
Whether Trump can find such a nominee remains unclear. (A nominee could also be confirmed without Tillis; Republicans have 53 seats and need only 50 votes.) But the broader narrative, and the administration’s insistence on arguing that the 2020 election was a hoax, remains an issue in Congress. And it remains a narrative that most on the right are unwilling to buck. (Tillis is retiring in January 2027, at the end of his term, which in part explains his newfound courage; he did vote to confirm Bondi.)
Kevin Warsh, Trump’s pick to head the Federal Reserve, was asked this week by Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) was asked whether Trump had indeed lost the 2020 election. He refused to answer.
The Secretary of Labor Goes To A Strip Club
We ask you, readers, should a Cabinet secretary ever set foot in a strip club that looks like this?
source: Google Maps via The Daily Beast
In the Secretary’s defense, the choice of location does seem to have cut down on costs. Across an entire five-day trip, according to reporting from The Daily Beast only $655 was spent on meals, along with $188.35 for “miscellaneous expenses”.
But this might be a case where most Americans would likely prefer some wasteful spending.
E-Voting In Ireland
Tull told the story of electronic voting in Ireland, which was tried in 2002 only to be junked. He was right in remembering that the entire plan was an expensive mistake. The machines were indeed sold for scrap: the government received, 70,000 Euro for machines that originally cost 51 million Euro. Storage was another 3.2 million Euro.
In 2006, then-Taoiseach Bertie Ahern complained that without electronic voting, “this country will move into the 21st century being a laughing stock with our stupid old pencils.” Tull’s case that the Irish people prefer a more dramatic process — with plenty of “bloodsport” — seems a far more preferable way to look at it.
Kash Patel, Children’s Author
As referenced in the pod, back in Episode 13 Vince highlighted the trilogy of children’s books written by Kash Patel, which tell the (right-wing) story of the 2020 and 2024 elections. Here’s the video clip of that discussion in all its bizarre glory:
Update: Ep. 31, Oh Sh—, Tull Was Right
In Episode 31, Tull talked at length about prediction markets in Ireland. (He also wrote about the vast amounts of volume on Irish elections last month.) And the podcast has on several occasions discussed those markets, particularly in regards to apparently suspicious trades around U.S. activities in Venezuela and Iran.
Those observers who believed the (accurate) calls were coming from inside the (White) House may be disappointed. A U.S. Army Special Forces master sergeant was arrested on Thursday in connection with trading on Polymarket around the U.S. invasion/police action in Venezuela. The soldier earned about $400,000 from the bets after allegedly receiving classified information that the invasion was set to happen.
This highlights one of the risks of prediction markets. (Vince has covered some of the others.) Ostensibly, the huge volume on, for instance, a market around a strike on Venezuela would itself potentially tip off adversaries as well as observers. The argument that prediction markets provide ‘truth’ may be correct in this case — but that’s precisely the problem.
This was not the only allegation made of insider trading in the U.S. this week. Prediction market Kalshi suspended and fined three candidates for betting on their own elections. This highlights an enormous risk: particularly in low-volume markets, candidates ostensibly can boost their own odds on prediction markets, in turn garnering media and voter attention that doesn’t match their actual chances of winning. Vince covered that concern here:
One of the candidates, Mark Moran of Virginia, bet on himself to run for the Democratic nomination to the U.S. Senate — and then did so. Moran, however, has positioned his bet as an attempt to shine a light on the platform rather than an attempt to profit. (He only put $100 on himself to win.) In a statement on X, Moran discussed Kalshi’s escalating attempts at fines and said his actions were meant to “highlight how this company is destroying young men”.
Episode 31 Links:
Tull’s Money Quotes
On the vote-counting process in Ireland:
It’s a ritual almost in Ireland. It’s a sacred thing, a holy thing. Even if you’re not interested in politics, you’re looking at that count over three or four days and you’re switching on the TV to see the dejected expressions, the broken hearts of the politicians that have lost their seats.
Vince’s Money Quotes
On why the Fox News interview by Kash Patel matters:
This is the head of the FBI saying, ‘Nope, no, he’s not lying about the 2020 election.’ This is Fox News reversing from saying that, ‘oh, he’s lying about the 2020 election.’ And if you think that if the Democrats are going to win in November and nothing’s gonna happen — you’re just, you’re out of your mind. And that’s why I think this is a big story.
On where the current right-wing narrative goes:
This is a pretty coordinated effort. Again, we have the quote Patel saying to Bartiromo, “we’ve been working together for a long time”. This is a coordinated effort by people in the Trump administration, by the media to push this narrative. And that narrative, if taken to its logical conclusion, ends with the arrest of Barack Obama.