Saturday(!) Mailbag

Here we go (again).

No, you have not lost track of the days (like I did this week). It is Saturday. And you are getting a(nother) Mailbag post.

On Friday, I did my usual Mailbag, which you can read here. And I spent an hour answering more questions over at my YouTube channel. Which, if you haven’t subscribed yet, now is the time!

But, there were still a LOT of questions I didn’t get to! So, I decided to do an extra Mailbag this week. It’s below.

Q: Do you really believe that documenting what Trump says matters anymore? You write in the transcript articles about how you believe it's important and that words matter. But I believe if we've learned anything over the last few years and from this election it is that his words DON'T MATTER. He can rant about Hannibal Lector, a golfers genitals, immigrants eating pets. He can tell as many lies as he wants. None of it moved the needle at all. We are living in a post truth society and that is deeply depressing to me. I used to chuckle at the transcript articles but now they are just very sobering. He will ramble and lie about anything and everything, his speeches and press conferences are basically all the same. Why continue to do them?

A: I absolutely do believe documenting what he says still matters. Here’s why.

You are right that a majority of the voting public — it looks like Trump is going to stay over 50% in the popular vote — decided to cast a ballot for him despite all of the things he said. (Or maybe because of them!)

Which, for lots of people, is dispiriting. I am not one of those people.

The reason I decided to so closely follow — and document — what Trump said as a candidate is NOT because I believed it would change peoples’ minds about who to vote for. (I am not in the advocacy business, I am in the journalism business.)

The reason I followed what Trump said so closely is because I thought — and think — it is the best indicator of what he will actually do in office.

And now that he is going to be president again, I think his words — both in this transition period and once he is back in the White House — will matter even more as we try to suss out his plans for the next four years.

I am going to keep going through his speeches, interviews and the rest — making sure my readers know what he’s saying and what it might mean for the country.

Q: Chris--very happy paid subscriber! Wondering your thoughts on the "partnership" between Trump and Musk? I find this bromance very concerning. Two erratic people with high level security clearance working together, especially one that controls communication satellites and is an out sourced division of NASA. Lets not forget X and Musk's ability to silence users that might be critical to his causes or friends.

A: Thank you! Another satisfied customer 😂😂😂

The Trump-Elon alliance is SUCH a weird one. I mean, one of Trump’s pet lines in his 2024 stump speech was how electric cars don’t work when it’s too hot or too cold — and how they run out of battery very quickly. Like, Elon is the head of the biggest electric car company in the world????

I thought it was odd — but probably not surprising — that Elon was reportedly on Trump’s call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday.

That suggests to me that even if Elon isn’t in Trump’s Cabinet, which I doubt he will be, he’s going to have a very direct channel to the president. Trump likes rich people who are willing to give the middle finger to the establishment; Elon checks both boxes — bigly.

I think Elon’s control of X, which is still absolutely the public square for politicians and political journalists, and his demonstrated willingness to tweak the algorithms to surface his preferred content (and hide content he doesn’t like), is very, very concerning going forward.

Q: I'm very curious about how Trump didn't get more votes in the raw numbers. Everyone is talking about how the percentage changes between the two, but what happened to the 15 million plus people who apparently didn't show up? There was record registration shouldn't the raw number of voters be much higher than they are? How can the US get a more active, involved populous? Would a $100 tax break for everyone who actually voted get people to actually show up to the polls? Or would Australian model of fines for not voting be more effective?