Thread by @ilyamarritz

a great week for viral audio

soundcloud.com/the-daily-beas…

context: Trump appeared at this private donor dinner for a superPAC. SuperPACs are not supposed to coordinate with campaigns.

The setting: the Trump hotel in DC

we are listening to chiefs of industry talking industrial policy with POTUS, because they are donors to his superPAC

Trump tells his donors steel plants are opening in the US

this is debunked

no one is contradicting him

politifact.com/truth-o-meter/…

"I have three plants that are completely idled because of South Korea and Thailand" one donor tells the president

weird to hear Lev's (now-familiar) laughter puntuate these discussions of trade and foreign policy

16:10 - DJT - "the European Union is a group of countries that got together to screw the United States"

20:10 - DJT - "I wrote you a letter or recommendation, right?"...says he knows "they" got it because the president told him so....

what are they talking about??!

21:40 "you know that Kim Jong Un is a great golfer, you know that, right?"

23:46 someone does a briefing on border wall construction as the donors begin to cut into what sounds like maybe salad?

*punctuate
(also, SPELL)

26:51 now Trump is describing how very sharp the points on the border wall will be

29:00 now a donor is comparing controlling the flow of migrants to a water main

30:45 DJT: "this whole caravan is a positive thing because it's showing people how crazy it is"

I want to know the precise position of the phone relative to POTUS & his guests...this audio is very clear

33:00 DJT calls Maxine Waters "a very low IQ person" to raucous laughter..."since I've said that, I don't hear from her anymore"

33:30 a donor chimes in that Candace Owens and Kanye are good for outreach to young African Americans

36:48 now the President quizzes his guests about how much oil west Texas has v Saudi Arabia, knocks poor quality of Venezuela oil

38:36 WE HAVE ARRIVED...

Lev tells the president "well we're in the process of purchasing an energy company in Ukraine..."

DJT: "how's Ukraine doing?"

Lev: "they love you"

DJT: "they're great fighters"

39:10 - DJT2 chimes in on javelin missiles

39:25
DJT asks whether Russia will go in and take Ukraine

Lev says they want too but they are too scared of you [POTUS]

39:55 DJT, sounding as genuinely surprised as I have ever heard him: "Ukraine has oil?!?...Ukraine? How come they...don't have any money?"

40:11 first mention of BIDEN

Now some other guy is explaining Ukraine has similar geology to west Texas, Ukraine has huge potential as a producer

41:00 DJT - how long will they last in a fight with Russia?

42:13 Lev says "the biggest problem there I think where we need to start is we gotta to get rid of the ambassador. She's still left over from the Clinton administration" - says she is saying Trump will be impeached

Neither Lev nor Igor can recall her name

...and within seconds, DJT says "get rid of her, take her out"

44:40 A TOAST: "thank you very much for the sacrifice you and your family...put up with this shit!"

45:45 Lev asks POTUS would he think of allowing banking in states that have legalized cannabis...

DJT "do you think that all marijuana is a good thing?"

47:01 DJT2 "between that [pot] and alcohol, as far as I'm concerned, alcohol does much more damage"

48:17 Lev says he's leaving POTUS materials on legalization, the issue could help T with millennials in the midterms

49:05 Lev: "Pam's great, I just had lunch with Pam last week, Bondi"

50:02 Lev tells POTUS he and his partner are in energy biz in UA, Poland, Lithuania, Turkey, "Brian's dealing with Turkey"

54:22 IRONY

Lev on Romney 2012: "his big mistake was in Boca, opening up his mouth"

Recall: this is the donor dinner where Romney *was*secretly*recorded* saying "47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government"

feel whipsawed between this dinner's totally pedestrian moments, and the utterly extraordinary moments

1:00:01 someone on Elon Musk "he's a little off, socially"

1:03:15 DJT "but people still like gasoline cars..."

oh yes, everyone chimes in

1:04:51 there's a federal contractor here, it seems
DJT: what do you do?
Donor: we haul mail for the US postal service

lengthy convo here of CNG, compressed natural gas

1:06:10 now, under the fuels discussion, we hear whispers in Russian...can this be isolated and extracted?

really, these people can talk vehicles and fuels all night long

1:09:00 DJT: "how's Amazon doing?"
lotsa crosstalk as guests scramble for the conversational ball

prez says they're ripping off postal service, makes a CNG joke, Lev laughs heartily

1:10:30 a donor (who is it?) is proposing the gov't build special highway lanes for autonomous trucks

"all the technology is there right now" but "you can't put 'em with cars"

1:11:37 donor who sounds as if he is knowledgeable about this stuff says Amazon should not get to pay bulk rate

1:11:57
Lev tells DJT he has a present for him, from the head rabbi of Ukraine

whatever the object is, it seems to have the numbers 4-24

Igor: "you have same numbers as Messiah. It's like miracle"

Lev: "show it to Jared, he'll explain it to you"

FWIW Trump says little and does not seem impressed by the gift

1:14:00 now Trump is talking about the money spent building the Jerusalem embassy..."the best location"

you do sorta wonder what the GOP stalwarts make of these two interlopers

1:16:16 Trump thanks his donors for coming

1:16:58 - donor presents DJT a framed Teddy Roosevelt speech "the man in the arena" signed by everyone in attendance

1:21:28 donor expresses appreciation "to be able to make a couple points and hear how he feels"

*money*buys*access*

END//
Thank you for reading my tweets
everyone should listen for themselves
this is a *remarkable* piece of audio
soundcloud.com/the-daily-beas…

Er, *to