 You know, I find it funny because publicly, Donald Trump has been huffing and puffing, and he talks a big game about how he wants to make socialists and, you know, socialism, members of the squad, the Green New Deal, all the main representatives of the Democratic Party, because in 2020 it will be easier to run against socialism than it will be to run against capitalism. The Green New Deal, right? Green New Deal. I encourage it. I think it's really something that they should promote. That's just talk. And behind closed doors, he's saying something very differently. In fact, he's telling his closest confidants that socialism might not be too easy to beat, after all. So this story is fascinating. It's from The Daily Beast by Aswin Subhseng and Sam Stein, and it's titled, Trump privately tells confidants that socialism won't be so easy to beat in 2020. The president is not totally sold on the attack line that he and his team have made so central to their campaign. And let me just pause before we dive into the article. It's funny because you really see Fox News, the Republican Party, Donald Trump all zero in on socialism. They're trying to make AOC the face of the Democratic Party and individuals like Bernie Sanders who identify as democratic socialists, the faces of the Democratic Party. But you can already see that that's not working because you are building their name recognition. And even if you may not necessarily be making them more popular per se, you're still spreading their ideas. So when you go and you fish through AOC's Instagram in order to try to find something to criticize her for, you're just broadcasting her message to a bigger audience. So of course, this is going to backfire. It's not a good long term strategy, but I'm glad it's backfiring and I'm glad that we're learning that actually maybe they realize that socialism is a little bit more of a threat than they initially thought. So let's get to the article. As he campaigns for reelection, Donald Trump and his team have made trashing the socialists or communists in the 2020 Democratic presidential field a cornerstone of their messaging. In private, however, the president often strikes a different more nuanced tone, one driven by the concern that socialism, at least as defined by the Democrats, may actually sell politically. This year, Trump has repeatedly told friends and donors that running against socialism in a general election may not be so easy because of its populist draw, according to four Republicans and sources close to Trump who've heard him say this over the past several months. According to a person who was in the room, Trump told donors that a recent private event that though a lot of people think it'll be easy to beat in 2020, the truth is it might not be so easy. The president, according to the source, said that you can have someone who loves Trump, but many people love free stuff too. He added that if candidates tell Americans, especially young voters, that they're going to cancel their debt, that's a tough one to run against. I have discussed the popularity of the Democratic socialist message, i.e. Sanders and Elizabeth Warren with President Trump on more than one occasion and in person said Eric Bowling, a blaze TV host and a friend of the Trump family, specifically the idea of excusing debt and giving away, as Trump says, free stuff becoming more and more popular among younger voters. So I really find this fascinating because even if it's common sense to me and people who are politically savvy like you watching this, you know, anyone who's in Washington DC, anyone who's a strategist, they're stupid and Donald Trump is absolutely idiotic. But it's interesting that they're realizing that going up against the populist appeal of socialism is in fact something that's not going to be as easy to beat. Now look, nobody is a sure bet, but this is why I've maintained that Bernie Sanders has the strongest chance going up against Donald Trump. Because when you are a populist, when you are explicitly saying we're going to tax the rich and invest in a social safety net that directly benefits you, that is popular. It's part of the reason why Donald Trump was incredibly popular and he was this insurgent candidate even within the Republican Party's field in 2016 because he was saying we're going to protect social security, we're going to protect Medicare. Now of course it was a lie, but even though he may be dim-witted, even if he has a low IQ, just I think objectively speaking, he does have the political instinct to kind of see that you do have to appeal to just everyday Americans, right? You have to understand that the establishment is incredibly unpopular and the fact that he understands that, that's what I think ultimately facilitated his success in 2016 and he's smart out of his own self-interest to acknowledge that that anti-establishment appeal that has not faded away. And you know, the problem is that he is largely seen as the establishment's errand boy. So you know, it would behoove him to maybe rather than trying to smear people who are socialists in Bernie and AOC, they're not actually democratic socialists. If you look up the technical definition of that term, they are social Democrats who believe in a mixed economy. But if Donald Trump was smart, he would try to steal some of their platform. He just canceled the debt of disabled veterans when it comes to student loans. So why not broaden that out and say, I'm going to cancel the debt of all veterans or the debt of all people making X amount of dollars or go crazy, cancel all debt. Like you can actually undercut that message if you're smart. But the thing about Donald Trump is even though he knows being anti-establishment is a winning strategy, he doesn't have that authenticity anymore because he is the president and he has done the bidding of the establishment. The first thing he did, his first major legislative accomplishment was a tax cut for himself and the elites. So of course, even if he came with this really bold debt cancellation plan, which he knows is popular, nobody would believe him because one, he lies every two seconds and two, Bernie Sanders is more genuine. So this is why Bernie has got to be the nominee. I think that it's really difficult at this time in the race to say definitively that one person is definitely going to defeat Donald Trump because things can change. 2020 is a long ways off at least until the general. But if we're just looking at this and we have our finger on the pulse of America, we know America's anti-establishment. Americans are desperate. And we know that Bernie Sanders has that appeal. He can win back the Rust Belt. So, you know, it's interesting that Donald Trump is actually admitting actually, it might not be so easy to defeat socialism after all, even if I've been saying the complete opposite. Very, very interesting. So I mean, this kind of confirms the obvious. You know, I said this, I think back at the beginning of when Bernie Sanders launched his campaign that Donald Trump was lying when he said that he was the most afraid of Joe Biden because obviously Bernie Sanders is the biggest threat to Donald Trump. And now that he's admitting this publicly or not publicly, but privately, you know, it's obvious, but it's interesting that he would actually admit this, especially to donors who you are supposed to, you know, imbue with confidence that you're going to win. Otherwise, why would they donate and invest in you? So, fascinating all around, of course, Donald Trump is correct here. He absolutely should be afraid of Bernie Sanders because if Bernie Sanders is the Democratic Party nominee, Donald Trump's ass will most likely be kicked. And I would love to see that after watching this disaster unfold over the course of the last couple of years. We need to defeat Donald Trump. Bernie is our ticket, not just to a Democratic White House, but social democracy. Let's help him help us. Let's elect Bernie. Mike is a total loser. So don't hit the subscribe button, okay? And whatever you do, folks, do not hit the notification bell either. Mike treats me so unfairly.