{"href":"http://player.captivate.fm/services/oembed?url=http%3A%2F%2Fplayer.captivate.fm%2Fepisode%2Fd252ff88-3b39-4a7d-98f5-3bfbc45d892f","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Captivate.FM","provider_url":"https://www.captivate.fm","width":600,"height":200,"type":"rich","html":"","title":"Episode 183 \u2013 Vetoes, walls and fishing for whales","description":"
\nNo other podcast would be game enough to tackle in one episode an explanation or debate over the Trump wall, presidential veto powers, presidential transition arrangements, EU funding of the wall between Turkey and Syria, US foreign policy in Latin America, the history of capital gains tax and dodgy bank lending in Australia, the religious affiliation of politicians,\u00a0 your chances of inheriting DNA from ancient ancestors, whether the Rosetta stone should be returned to Egypt, a registry of shell companies in tax havens, Japanese whaling and French riots.
\n2:14 Trump wants his wall
\nThe presidential veto\u00a0power is interesting.
\nShutdowns of the type experienced by the United States are possible in other countries that have\u00a0presidential systems; however, they are nearly impossible in other forms of government. Under the\u00a0parliamentary system\u00a0used in most European nations, the executive and legislative branch are not separate, with the parliament designating all executive officials, typically called “ministers”, and typically an election is triggered if a budget fails to pass; see\u00a0Confidence and supply.
\n8:45 \u2018This guy doesn\u2019t know anything\u2019: the inside story of Trump\u2019s shambolic transition team
\nTrump was apoplectic, yelling:\u00a0You\u2019re stealing my money! You\u2019re stealing my fucking money! What the fuck is this?
\nHe went to see Trump about it. Trump said he didn\u2019t want a presidential transition team. Why did anyone need to plan anything before he actually became president? It\u2019s legally required, said Christie. Trump asked where the money was going to come from to pay for the transition team. Christie explained that Trump could either pay for it himself or take it out of campaign funds. Trump didn\u2019t want to pay for it himself. He didn\u2019t want to take it out of campaign funds, either, but he agreed, grudgingly, that Christie should go ahead and raise a separate fund to pay for his transition team. \u201cBut not too much!\u201d he said.
\nin July 2016, when Trump was formally named the Republican nominee. The transition team now moved into an office in downtown Washington DC, and went looking for people to occupy the top 500 jobs in the federal government. They needed to fill all the cabinet positions, of course, but also a whole bunch of others that no one in the Trump campaign even knew existed. It is not obvious how you find the next secretary of state, much less the next secretary of transportation \u2013 never mind who should sit on the board of trustees of the Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation.
\nThe first time Trump paid attention to any of this was when he read about it in the newspaper. The story revealed that Trump\u2019s very own transition team had raised several million dollars to pay the staff. The moment he saw it, Trump called Steve Bannon, the chief executive of his campaign, from his office on the 26th floor of Trump Tower, and told him to come immediately to his residence, many floors above. Bannon stepped off the elevator to find Christie seated on a sofa, being hollered at. Trump was apoplectic, yelling:\u00a0You\u2019re stealing my money! You\u2019re stealing my fucking money! What the fuck is this?
\nSeeing Bannon, Trump turned on him and screamed:\u00a0Why are you letting him steal my fucking money?\u00a0Bannon and Christie together set out to explain to Trump federal law. Months before the election, the law said, the nominees of the two major parties were expected to prepare to take control of the government. The government supplied them with office space in...","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300,"thumbnail_url":"https://artwork.captivate.fm/085762e2-797c-4ef4-9b10-434ecde61c07/logo2018v2.jpg"}